Kristina Knight's Playlist for Jase, #NevadaCowboys

It's no secret that music plays a big part in all of my books, whether they are stand-alone books or parts of a series. Music actually plays a big part in my life - from the time we wake up in the morning until we go to bed, music is usually playing somewhere in the house.

What kind of music is the best music? All of it, really, depending on what else is going on. When I'm cooking, I'll shuffle through all 1432 songs on my iPhone. I have a playlist for when I'm working out, another for when I'm waiting in the carpool pick-up line at bebe's school. When I'm drafting, I'll either have my white-noise app playing (a mix of nature and mellow guitar music) or turn on the light classical station on our TV.

As I'm drafting, though, I'm thinking about pop, country, oldies, rock, and even holiday songs that fit my characters or the plot or a specific scene. And, when the draft is turned in and I'm beginning to think about polishing and revising, those songs become a new playlist - one that gets a pretty heavy workout of its own.

I'm just finishing up my Nevada Cowboys trilogy - book three, Jase, released April 17 - and for that series I actually had a series-specific playlist, and each book had it's own playlist, too. Some of the artists that made the series playlist include Elvis (how could he not? the books were set in Las Vegas, after all!), Kenny Chesney, Smokey Robinson, Train, and Wilson Phillips. Here's a peek into the songs that spoke to me while I was writing What the Gambler Risks:

Brothers Osborne - 21 Summer

Zac Brown Band - Beautiful Drug

Ashes Remain - On My Own

A Thousand Horses - Smoke & This Ain't No Drunk Dial

Chase Rice - MMM Girl

Taylor Swift - I Knew You Were Trouble

Dierks Bentley - Riser

But the song that got the most play? Sugarland's Run - here's the video, which I absolutely love...it really evokes both Jase and Sabrina, for me:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RaqiW3rNT58" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Do you have a favorite song right now? 

Kristina Knight's latest release, Jase, Nevada Cowboys Book 3, is available now in paperback or e-format:

Hot Las Vegas nights get even steamier for these three powerful, wealthy businessmen with cowboy roots and the strong, independent women who fall for them. What happens in Vegas certainly won’t stay there as these successful tycoons win at love.

Jase Reeves lives his life by rules: never get emotional at the poker table and never get emotional with women. But when he meets self-help author Sabrina York all bets are off. Sabrina enjoys fame and fortune writing her female-empowerment books, but she could do without the reputation – that of the Oldest Living (Supposed) Virgin in Vegas. Blowing up her entire life because sexy gambler Jase Reeves has shown an interest in her? Sabrina has already written the book on that, but staying away from Jase isn’t as simple as closing the cover of her favorite book. And for Jase, melting the heart of the Vegas Virgin might be his greatest gamble yet…

Buy Jase: Amazon  B&amp;N  iBooks  Kobo

Kristina Knight is a contemporary romance author, part-time TKD-kid wrangler, and full-time ThinMints enthusiast. You can find out more the book and Kristina on her website, and feel free to stalk follow her on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

The Nevada Cowboys are Coming

Publishing is a weird thing. We write our books and send them off to our editors and a few rounds of edits later we send our little book babies out into the world. And they are out there. We don’t really have the opportunity to make changes or adjust little bits or bobs that maybe our readers caught but we didn’t.

That, I think, is as it should be. Because, I don’t know about you, but I could pick a book to death changing this comma or that incomplete sentence (used for emphasis, of course) or that spelling oops (seriously, how did we miss that oh-so-obvious misspelling?).

When I turn that final edit in, though, it’s like a release for me. That book is still mine, but it’s a signal to my writer brain (and heart) that it isn’t just mine now. It’s my editors and my readers and, yeah, even the haters.

But every now and then, authors get the chance to do something a little different. We get to re-release books. And that’s what I’ve been working on for the last month or so.

A couple of years ago I had a cowboy trilogy out: three brothers, their ranch outside Las Vegas, their stories. I loved that series but my publisher (Crimson Romance) was bought out by a bigger publisher (Simon & Schuster) and they allowed us (not just me, all the authors) to request rights back on our books at a certain time.

The time for my cowboys – it’s now! And I’m finding that digging back into their stories is so much fun. I’ve fallen in love with Gage and Connor and Jase all over again…and with Callie, Miranda and Sabrina, too. I’m so grateful to my editors Jess Verdi and Julie Sturgeon who helped me get these books ready for the world back in 2016 and I’m so glad I’ve had the chance to re-read their stories and clean up those last few typos (that I swear some word processing gremlins had to put in there because the three of us couldn’t have just missed them!) and develop new covers for them.
Today I’m sharing those new covers – and blurbs – with y’all! Book 1 of the trilogy releases this month, but you can order book one now and pre-order books two and three!

Here's a bit about the series: Hot Las Vegas nights get even steamier for these three powerful, wealthy businessmen with cowboy roots and the strong, independent women who fall for them. What happens in Vegas certainly won’t stay there as these successful tycoons win at love.


Gage, Nevada Cowboys Book 1: Hot shot property developer Gage Reeves is taking Vegas by storm – that is, until his brother makes him the face of desperate bachelors everywhere. Enter Callie Holliday, who is trying to get a new, upscale spa off the ground. Callie’s connections in Vegas run just as deep as Gage’s, but unlike Gage’s family past Callie’s is pristine. They make a deal: her business venture, his building but what starts off strictly professional turned decidedly personal. Will Gage and Callie risk their professional success for a shot at love?

Buy Gage today: Amazon  BN.com  iBooks  KOBO


Connor, Nevada Cowboys Book 2: Denver publishing heiress Miranda Clayton is tired of society parties and shopping, but her tycoon father refuses to take her seriously. Her solution? Beat him at his own game by going to work for his top competitor, Connor Reeves. Connor isn’t fooled by Miranda’s act for a second. He knows exactly who she is; the question is what does the lady want?

Pre-order Connor today: Amazon  BN.com  iBooks  KOBO

Jase, Nevada Cowboys Book 3: Twenty-something ice queen Sabrina York enjoys fame and fortune writing self-help books for a largely female audience—but she could do without her reputation as the Oldest Living (Supposed) Virgin in Vegas. Jase Reeves knows Sabrina’s not nearly as cold as she would like people to think. He didn’t intend to have a one-night stand with the Vegas Virgin, but now he can’t get her out of his head. Now Sabrina has one goal: stay away from the handsome gambler before he melts her career—and her heart.

Pre-order Jase today: Amazon  BN.com  iBooks  KOBO

Kristina Knight's latest release, Gage, Nevada Cowboys Book 1, is available now in paperback or e-format! 

Knight is a contemporary romance author, part-time TKD-kid wrangler, and full-time ThinMints enthusiast. You can find out more the book and Kristina on her website, and feel free to stalk follow her on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

A Change of Plans

I was going to make a quick video yesterday about my summer of love and laughter. The first two books, The Makeover and How to Catch a Groom are already out, and How to Hunt a Husband comes out in August. That was my plan, but after a trip to the doctor's office, I turned the video into a PSA...of course, I did mention the books, too! LOL


Holly

How Do You Tell Your Editor Your Dog Ate Your Book by Jenny Gardiner

Apologies for missing my entry last month---I was in Australia for my daughter's engagement party and completely dropped the ball on posting something.

In the lead-up to traveling to Australia, I had grand intentions of turning my latest book in to my editor several weeks early---which would be miraculous for me haha. Best laid plans...I got the flu a week before we left annnnd that book didn't get finished. Of course while in Oz, no time to write it. I returned still a bit under the weather---sinus infection and bronchitis, so got a teensy extension on the book.

That took me to Easter Sunday. I had kids in visiting that weekend. My husband had stayed on in Australia to do this cool hike in Tasmania for four days and wasn't scheduled back till the Tuesday after Easter, which I figured gave me plenty of time to wrap up the book from hell....But that wasn't meant to be.

Thankfully after he'd finished his hike, he was pretty beat and ready to get home, so was able to move up his flights to Sunday---scheduled to arrive Easter Sunday night. I was going to get him at the airport, all good. But... I'd been taking antibiotic for my sinus infection and it kind of hurt my stomach but for maybe an hour, then it would go away. But on that day it never went away. By Sunday night I was feeling pretty awful. Luckily one of my kids was able to pick him up at the airport for me and I went to bed. Acutely aware of his jet lag, I tossed and turned but did not wake him all night long as I kind of writhed in pain. So the good news is he got a long night's sleep that night. Which he was going to need...in the meantime I spent all Sunday afternoon trying to write and lord only knows how I got anything written in my state of misery, but suffice it to say I didn't finish that darned book.

Monday I went twice to the doctors, who couldn't figure out what was wrong, and finally we ended up in the ER, where fortunately my daughter was working that day. She couldn't get us moved up the list unfortunately, which meant 3-1/2 arduous hours in the ER waiting room---a really miserable place to be. Basically got there at 4:45 pm, and at 3 am they wheeled me in for surgery to remove my appendix, which by then was ready to burst. A lot of other trauma and drama ensued as we awaited that surgery (just prior to cutting into me they told me they thought they saw what they suspected to be a cancerous mass in my appendix and suddenly my surgery was emergency surgery and they might have to remove my entire right colon. Oy. Yeah we were stressed. And my poor husband was stuck at one point sleeping on the floor of the ER---not a place you ever want to lie on.

Good news is it ended up just being an inflamed appendix, nothing worse, they cut that out of me, we were home before 9 am, but not without a bit of stress!

After that the stress was getting that darned book written finally. My editor, the lovely Nikki Busch, was so patient with me through all of this and she turned in my edits just now with plenty of time for me for this May 15 release, so I'm truly grateful for everything that worked out well in this. And super glad that I hadn't extended my stay in Oz as I had contemplated, because this would have all unfolded while I was on a 15+ hour flight across the Pacific and another 6 hours home from there. And had my husband not been able to change his flights, he'd have been on an 8-hour layover in Beijing, unable to help me. So alls well that ends well!

Hope you can check out my appendectomy book haha---Falling for Mr. Sometimes, releases May 15!

Great news! Red Hot Romeo is free! A hot Italian, a gorgeous supermodel, and fabulous wines…what’s not to love?!

You can check out the first book in the Royal Romeo series for free here:

Kindle: bit.ly/RedHotRomeo
iBooks: http://bit.ly/RHRom
Nook: http://bit.ly/RHRNook
Kobo: http://bit.ly/KoboRHR
Google Play: http://bit.ly/RHRgoogle

Check out my Falling for Mr. Wrong series! Falling for Mr. Wrong,  Falling for Mr. Maybe, Falling for Mr. No Way in Hell  and Falling for Mr. Sometimes and Falling for Mr. Right are now available for pre-order.

Lastly, don't forget, book one of the It's Reigning Men series, Something in the Heir, is free here!

I hope you'll have a chance to check out my Royal Romeos series, which is a spin-off of my wildly popular It's Reigning Men series--please do check them out!

Happy reading!

    

  

  

         

On Writing: Series

It turns out that I've written a lot of series.  And most of them weren't intentional.

Yes, I'm an accidental series writer.

It all started with the first book I sold to Silhouette Romance.  Do You Hear What I Hear? was the story of a mother with a hearing impaired daughter.  I set it on Perry Square...a real area in Erie.  Only I added my own businesses to it (the real ones are lovely).  When I finished, I wondered what happened to everyone else on the Square and...well, I started thinking about a designer who needed legal help and a lawyer who needed a fiancé fast...and discovered A Day Late and a Bride Short.  Then...  Well, my Perry Square series ended up with eight books in it.  Erie even got their own royalty in that series. (I think my town has everything...except maybe royalty, so I gave us that! LOL)

That need to know what happens next...it's a writer's curse.  But it's a reader thing, too.  I can't tell you how many times a reader has asked for another book in a series.  More than that, specific character's stories.  It's one of the biggest compliments a writer can get.

I wrote Pip's story, Carry Her Heart, then I wrote another book, These Three Words, set in that same "world."  And then, in the middle of the book, I found Pip's daughter come into the chapel and cry and I realized that after I left Pip and Ned in their happily-ever-after, something happened.  I needed to know what...so I wrote Hold Her Heart.

I work to make every book can stand alone, but readers can frequently tell that there's another book in the series.  I love when someone discovers there are more books and feel glee. 

One of the biggest writing tools an author has is the question, What If?  Those two words have become every book I've written.  But in addition to that question, another questions that fuels my writing is What Next? That's the question that fuels my series.

Back to Pip...here's the thing, every book I write has held the promise of the happily-ever-after.  Even when something hard happens in their life.  I like to think in that way, my fiction represents real life.  Bad things happen...but we can find our way back to happy.

I think that's why I can move from Romantic Comedy to my more emotional Romance + stories, to Cozy Mysteries.  All of them answer that What If question and many answer What Next.  And every single one of them has a happily-ever-after.

Holly

PS I have a handy-dandy list of series in order on my website here Holly's Series.

PS It's a sales palooza week.  (Publishers just send me notices...I have no control most of the time and just like to pass them on.)

Hold Her Heart
Just One Thing
Everything But...series
Fairly Human

His Mistletoe Wager

His Mistletoe Wager is released worldwide on 1st October 2017

In the middle of the summer heatwave of 2016, and halfway through writing my Wild Warriners series, my editor at Harlequin Mills and Boon asked me if I would like to do a Christmas book for them. I happily jumped at the chance but because I was already a third into A Warriner to Tempt Her and there was no way I was going to be able to turn a smallpox epidemic into a festive tale, I decided to write a standalone story for my publisher instead.

Sort of.

I say sort of because it is also a bit of a sequel to my second book, Her Enemy at the Altar although like all my books, you don't have to have read one to enjoy the others.

Thanks to several lovely messages from readers and quite a few comments from reviewers, I knew that some people, including me, wanted to see the tormented Aaron Wincanton and shrew-like Constance Stuart again. Fortunately, I gave Connie a younger brother in that book and so it was his story I decided to write as the sun singed my lawn and I melted at my computer.

Hal (Henry) Stuart, the newly minted Earl of Redbridge and notorious rake is a little out of sorts. Something is not quite right in his life but he can’t put his finger on what. His scandalous life has suddenly become very boring now that he has a title, largely because hunting for women has got too easy.

On a quest to find his missing vigour, he accepts a bet from his brother-in-law Aaron that he cannot steal five kisses in five separate places before Twelfth Night. One kiss for each of the berries on the sprig pinned to his lapel. Hal assumes he has to kiss five separate women, but Aaron decrees that all the kisses must be stolen from just the one woman.

Sullen Lizzie.

A committed spinster with a hatred for rakes and, unbeknownst to both Hal and the whole of the Ton, a very dirty secret she has kept hidden for five long years.

At times, these two characters had me laughing out loud as I wrote them and despite forming a fast and unlikely friendship, I couldn’t get Lizzie to allow herself to fall for Hal. Throw in a couple of meddling relatives, a menacing butler and three adorable and tenacious children and the end result, His Mistletoe Wager, was huge fun to write.

But in the end, a wager is a wager and it’s Christmas. And at Christmas there is always mistletoe…

Virginia Heath writes raunchy Regency romantic comedies for Harlequin Mills & Boon but her dog Trevor mostly writes her Facebook posts.

It's Time for your Big O! By Jenny Gardiner

Ack!
I forgot I needed to post something and now I'm in a place with really lousy wifi so here's hoping this actually posts!

I just finished writing the last book in my Royal Romeo series and am awaiting edits from my editor. I laughed at myself with this book--The Royal Romeo series is a spin-off from my royal contemporary romance series, It's Reigning Men. Back when I started writing the It's Reigning Men series, I was sort of more a writer of women's fiction and chick lit, and with those genres you didn't need to write much in the way of sex scenes.

But when I started writing rom/com series, I knew I was going do need to step it up a notch (or two or three). But it was a very gradual process. Back when I started the IRM series, I kept thinking "ugh, what it my mother reads this?!" Which I know is stupid but still. My mom passed away a couple of years ago so that is no longer a concern. But then my mother-in-law kept telling me she wanted to read all of my books in my series and I kept assuring her she wouldn't enjoy them. I no longer worried about my mother reading my stuff and then my mother-in-law is going to make me anxious about it?

I know, I know, it's ridiculously juvenile of me to even worry about this but hey, what can I say?! I finally just had to let go of that and not sweat it. Which brings me to my last book in the Royal Romeo series, Big O Romeo. The title alone, well, sort of needed legit sex scenes in it based on the title alone. And I did not disappoint. Not only that, but I realized that finally I was actually comfortable writing sex scenes and frankly don't care who reads them (well, um, I'd be fine if my kids don't read them, but, whatever!).

I've really enjoyed writing these two series and now have to figure out what my next series is going to be. Whatever it is, I'm sure that there are going to be ample sex scenes at this point, now that I've hit my stride haha!

I hope you'll have a chance to check out my Royal Romeos series, which is a spin-off of my wildly popular It's Reigning Men series--please do check them out!

Happy reading!

    

  

 

Can't Find NoBODY

Happy New Years everyone...well, happy new year +11 days!!  I hope you had a lovely holiday, surrounded by family, friends, love and of course Glee!! I've got a new (old) release for a new year!!  Can't find NoBODY!!  It was originally published as Found and Lost. I am so happy that this ebook version is going back to my title.  I mean, a disappearing dead body romance...could there be any better title than Can't Find NObody???  Nope.  I wrote this book for Harlequin's Flipside line...but the line was on its way out by the time the book came out, so this might be an older book, but there's a good chance it'll be new to you!  Here's more about it... ~~~ Fans of Holly Jacobs' bestselling Maid in LA Mysteries are in for another zany who-dunnit. This time there's a disappearing (and reappearing) dead body. As she hurries out the door on Monday morning, Markie Walkowicz trips over a body. A very dead body. She calls 911 from her closet, because what sane woman would stay on the porch with a dead body and a potential murderer hanging around? To make a bad Monday worse, the cop who shows up is Detective Zac Marshall--her longtime (former) friend. He announces there's nobody...uh, no body on her porch. Over the next few days that body in its orange and green plaid suit keeps turning up—but never sticks around long enough for Zac to see it. Will he have to hang around full-time before he believes her? Markie eventually admits that having Zac hang around isn't that bad. Even if she can't find no body, maybe she has found her somebody. Read Can't Find NoBODY Reviews: "Holly Jacobs' latest . . . is a delight. A darkly comic whodunit, it's her best book yet."  ~RT BOOKclub "Ms. Jacobs delivers a sweet love storyfilled with humor to enchant her readers . . . prepare to be thoroughly entertained."  ~Love Romances "Holly Jacobs is the master of humorous writing."  ~Writers Unlimited Reviewer "Holly Jacobs hits the laugh track again with this fabulously funny tale of love and mystery."  ~Romance Junkies ". . . an exceptionally humorous and delightful tale."  ~CataRomance Reviews

Here's my new cover for my second release in 2017  Not Precisely Pregnant.  I pitched this romantic comedy to my editor as Shrek meets Pollyanna!  It features two reporters...one who covers hard hitting news stories and one who reports using the tagline Nice News Matters. To be honest, I do love nice news and think the world could use more of it!  It's out February 7th!  But you can preorder it now!!

My books World Travels: Carry Her Heart went going to Turkey. Dad Today, Groom Tomorrow went to Spain. Once Upon a King went to Portugal. A Valley Ridge Christmas went to France...for a second time. Ready, Willing and Abel? & Raising Cain are going to Spain. I love taking Erie, PA all over the world! I've got to confess, I love the idea that readers in other countries are reading about Erie!

As always, thank you everyone for all your support!  2016 has been an amazing year!  September's Hold Her Heart has been on the bestseller list and the first book in the Words of the Heart series, Carry Her Heart, is a bestseller in Turkey.  And Just One Thing passed 100,000 books sold!  And I know that every one of those successes is because of you! So again, thank you! I've signed on for blogging here for another year!  You can catch my posts on the 13th of every month! Holly PS.  The dead body in Can't Find NoBODY appears...then disappears. I set the book in Philadelphia not Erie. Why? Both get cold, but Philly doesn't get the snow we do. And everyone knows, if you're dragging a body, frozen earth is so much better at preventing drag marks than snow is! Can't Find NoBODY

G'Day Mayte! by Jenny Gardiner

Hi!

I'm on holiday visiting my daughter in Australia! So I'll just take a quick minute to post a few of my favorite pictures from Oz so far. It's AMAZING here!
Meanwhile it's working vacation, as I've got a book (from a new series) releasing right after I return home, and another book in that series due to my editor at the same time. So I'm off to get writing for a while so I can reward myself with a sea kayaking afternoon tomorrow!

For a limited time I've got an awesome free book for you if you sign up for my newsletter: Something in the Heir, book 1 of the It's Reigning Men series! Sign up here  and you'll be first to hear about deals and giveaways.

    

             

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