Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

After leaving San Francisco, we headed to Yosemite National Park. We’ve visited before, but it’s so pretty we decided to go again. We’d heard about the fires they’d had and were concerned about visibility. We passed loads of fire engines and a huge camp where hundreds of firemen were camped, but they were all returning home and visibility was excellent at the park. We saw some sort of deer and some tiny chipmunks. No bears today, although we had wasps when we tried to have a picnic lunch. We have a Mazda rental car and it’s a little feisty. The petrol flap wouldn’t open until Mr. Munro used some Kiwi ingenuity and then when we stopped to get out of the car inside the park, the alarm went off. Loudly. Insistently. That’s why we didn’t see any bears. They heard us coming!! After much cursing and swearing on Mr. Munro’s part, we finally managed to get the car alarm to stop shrieking. I think we have it sussed now, although only time will tell.

Here’s a photo of El Capitan. The huge mountain dominates the skyline. Isn’t it pretty?

Hi there! I’m so happy to be blogging here today for Shelley. Surprised, though. I mean, letting me hijack her blog while she’s away on vacation shows a lot of trust. I guess I shouldn’t haul out the paper airplanes and Silly String until I’m sure she won’t be stopping by *grin*.

So, it’s a special week for me. Yes, Book 2 in my Immortals series, Immortal Kiss is now available from Linden Bay Romance!…But that’s not all, because it also happens to be my birthday this week!

Everybody sing!

Okay, stop, stop. Ouch. No more singing.

I’m still trying to decide if I should rightly be excited when it comes to having another birthday. After all I’m not a middle schooler who has a pool party to look forward to, or a fresh-faced sweet sixteen hoping for a brand new car from mom and dad (um, I better call about that one, it could still happen, right?)

The truth is I do love the idea of having a birthday. Sure, a lot of it has to do with getting a really great gift, even if I’ve had to send not-so-subtle email hints to my husband complete with photos and helpful html links to La Perla’s webpage for a month in advance. But it’s more than presents and cake (mmm…cake). It’s also an excuse for my family to tear me out of the computer chair to socialize and have some fun, and it’s about that awesome feeling of accomplishment when I look back on the last year. This year has brought so much to me that I feel overwhelmed and awed by it all.

I guess if I were immortal, eventually the days and years would start to run together and a birthday would seem more like a curse than a reason for celebration…and since I just happen to know a few Immortals who like to whisper in my ear, I’m sure that’s the case.

How about everyone else? Do you have a love/hate relationship with that one day of the year? Are you exactly where you thought you’d be when you think about your age, or had you thought you would have accomplished more…done things differently?

Finally, before I go, of course I’m going to leave you with some info about me, and a little teaser of Immortal Kiss! Pick up a copy today, and find out just why these are Immortals to die for!

J.K. Coi

Please visit me at my website for more information about upcoming books, chats, interviews, reviews, and all things Immortal: http://www.jkcoi.com
I’m also on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/jkcoi
I blog at http://www.jkcoi.blogspot.com, as well as with three of my writer friends at http://www.vauxhallvixens.blogspot.com.

Wherever you happen to find me, I’m a bit of a party animal and love to meet new people, so feel free to join in the fun!

Evil lurks in the darkest of shadows, but a band of warriors stands ready to defend humanity against hell’s own monsters—Immortal men hand-picked by destiny and taken out of time hold the fate of the world in their hands.

Who was this man that held her in his arms and calmly offered to feed her with his own blood to quench her hunger? Why hadn’t he run from her in terror, or showed any surprise at her crazed, incoherent claims?

Just what exactly had he been doing with his life since he’d been gone from hers, that none of this seemed to faze him?

Baron leaned in close and brushed his lips against her mouth. Not even a real kiss, it was light and sweet, so completely not what she would have expected from him. Actually, she hadn’t thought to feel his mouth on hers ever again, and if asked, Max would have said that she didn’t want it.

“Do it Max,” he urged. Turning his face to the side, he bared his neck to her in blatant invitation.

How could she do this? How could she not?

She didn’t have the strength to withstand the insistent demand of the hunger. The cravings were impossible to resist any longer.

With a low moan her mouth descended to his neck.

At first she simply licked his skin, savoring the salty male taste of him and feeling the steady pounding of his pulse under her tongue. But then he groaned and tightened his arms around her, forcing a more intimate embrace, forcing Max to recognize just how much the old Baron had really changed.

His body was rock solid against hers, from the awesomely defined biceps twitching under her fingertips, the muscled thighs that acted as a cushion for her to sit upon, to the hard length that stretched his loose-fitting workout pants and pressed into her belly.

She moved closer, pressing her suddenly aching breasts closer against the hard wall of his chest. Her nipples tightened and a shock of pure pleasure shot through her to the wet core between her thighs.

Oh.

Oh no.

She didn’t want this, couldn’t want this. Not with him. It was too embarrassing. But her traitorous body didn’t seem to care. It wanted. It desired. It hungered.

A few months ago I purchased magnetic signs from VistaPrint for my car. They feature Midnight Treat and were so pretty when they arrived my husband suggested I take them on holiday. We’ve slapped them on the rental car. Here’s a photo of shelleymunro.com on tour.

Busy and full-on. That describes the last couple of days at conference. On Wednesday night I attended the Literacy signing. I went hunting for books for my sister and came face-to-face with so many authors I’ve only met online. Imagine the noise and confusion—five hundred authors plus a host of excited readers, all in the same room. Ye. It was bedlam!

On Thursday it was the Passionate Ink party plus the Romance Divas dinner. I won a raffle at the PI party. I have SO many books I’m not sure where I’m going to put them all. You have no idea how addictive the lure of free books is to a bookworm!

Today was the start of the editor/agent appointments and more free books. I did pitches during the morning and managed to stutter my way through. The lines for the Berkley signing were really long but well worth it. I bumped into Jennifer Y while waiting in line. Check out Jennifer’s blog. She hosts guest authors and does giveaways on a regular basis. It was great to meet her.

I attended the Pocket Book Spotlight and was delighted to see the Pocket editors had a copy of Midnight Treat. I won another raffle and went up to choose my book. I shrieked when I saw Midnight Treat. Quite possibly the sound is still ringing in the editor’s ears.

I went to dinner with hubby tonight at John’s Grill. We dined on delicious seafood. It was a welcome change for me since I seem to have lived on pasta all week.

This is a photo of Ellora’s Cave authors:

Wylie Kinson, Christine d’Abo, Karen Erickson, Amy Ruttan, Shelley Munro.

Bumpy – that just about sums up the entire plane trip from Auckland to San Francisco. We flew through quite a bit of the storm front bearing down on New Zealand. That teaches us for smugly saying we’d miss the incoming weather front. Oh, and long. Thirteen hours on a bumpy plane is a long time.

We finally managed to catch up with Amanda Ashby and Sara Hantz, along with Ellie Huse and Vanessa from Australia. I also ran into Nalini Singh at both the airport and the hotel. I think I’ve seen more Kiwi writers in the last day than I’ve seen for months. I really need to get to some of the chapter meetings at home. Mr. Munro arranged for a limo from the airport. Here’s the photo of us all waiting to pile inside.

From left to right: Me, Sara Hantz, Amanda Ashby, Ellie Huse and Vanessa.

Each time I visit America my first visit to the restroom is always traumatic. Toilets flush differently over here and when all that water gushes into the bowl I worry it mightn’t stop. Ours don’t do that in New Zealand.

Another difference is the dairy creamer. We don’t have this horrid white powder in New Zealand. We have these tiny milk pottles or the hotel/motel usually provide real milk. Ugh, I’d forgotten about creamer and the fact I’d have to use it for the next six weeks.

I attended the Kiss of Death AGM and had the pleasure of listening to guest speaker, Allison Brennan. She gave every attendee two of her recent releases. I enjoy Allison’s books and loved her inspirational talk on writing.

Well, that’s me for tonight. I’ll try to post this tomorrow, but meantime my eyes are really tired. I’m going to catch some sleep.