Seducing Fate From Siren Publishing

Now Out! Seducing Fate, my latest release from Siren Publishing for the Siren Classic line. Seducing Fate is an extended, revised version of my first release, Leap of Fate--a celebration of life, love, and an acknowledgment of the vagaries of fate. Every decision we make can have consequences we couldn't imagine, but we should never give up hope of our happy ending. It may be just around the corner:

Seducing Fate

By: Antonia Pearce | Other books by Antonia Pearce
Categories: Erotic Romance, Contemporary, Fantasy
Word Count: 18,215
Heat Level: SCORCHING
Published By: Siren-Bookstrand, Inc.

[Siren Classic: Erotic Fantasy Romance]

Luke Hanson burned for only one thing—Merryn Porter. Beautiful, smart, and totally off-limits. Determined to do the right thing, he rejects her love and ends up dead. Now Fate has cut him a deal, and he has one shot at making things right.

For Merryn, the pain of Luke’s rejection left her with an empty heart—until a freak accident on her best friends’ wedding day leaves her in a limbo she can’t escape. Confronted with the love of her life, she has to choose between redemption and temptation.

With the clock ticking, the past meets the present and never-forgotten desire threatens to consume them. Now Merryn must decide if she can trust Luke again before it’s too late.

Note: This book contains anal sex.

A Siren Erotic Romance

Hope you enjoy! xoxoxo

Antonia

New Sale!

Happy New Year!

I started off the year with some good news. I've sold another story to Siren Publishing! This one is called, Seducing Fate. It's an erotic paranormal/fantasy romance and is a much revised version of my first published story, Leap of Fate. Here's a blurb:

He's waited ten years to make things right but forbidden love always comes with a price...

Luke Hanson burned for only one thing. Merryn Porter. Beautiful, smart, and totally off limits. Determined to do the right thing, he rejects her love and ends up dead. Now fate has cut him a deal and he has one shot at making things right.

For Merryn, the pain of Luke’s rejection left her with an empty heart. Until a freak accident on her best friends’ wedding day leaves her in a limbo she can’t escape. Confronted with the love of her life she has to choose between redemption and temptation.

With the clock ticking, the past meets the present and never-forgotten desire threatens to consume them. Now Merryn must decide if she can trust again before it’s too late.

Wishing you all a joyous 2010!

Antonia

Five Things NOT to Say to a Friend in Crisis

We are all human. We all make mistakes, and to varying degrees, we are self-centered. We focus on our own troubles, but sometimes when a friend comes to us for a sympathetic ear and we've reached our quota of patience with that person, we'll say anything to shut them up.

The following are some of my favorite meaningless platitudes and I'm ashamed to say I've used one or two myself in the past...

1. "A year from now you'll look back and this will be just a bad memory."
Um. No. You don't know that. They could still be going through "it" and the situation could be much worse by then.

2. "God never gives us more than we can handle."
Of course he does. He never promised he wouldn't. People lose their minds, die, etc, all the time because they've been given more trouble than they could handle.

3. "You're stronger than you know."
What does that even mean? And how do you know how strong that person is?

4. "I got through it; you can get through it."
Be careful when you say this. You're saying the other person's situation is no worse than yours was. That they had all the mitigating factors, breaks, support, etc. that you did and you are passing judgement on them. You're probably wrong in your assessment and are attempting to compare apples to oranges.

5. "The situation couldn't possibly be as bad as you make it out to be."
LOL This friend is a moron.

A Thankful Day

I’m Thankful For…I’m thankful for those who’ve lied, for now I recognize truth

I’m thankful for those who treated me with cruelty, for now I recognize kindness

I’m thankful for those who’ve judged and falsely assumed, for now I understand acceptance

I’m thankful for enemies, for now I recognize friends

I’m thankful for hardship, for now I recognize plenty

I’m thankful for those who abandoned me, for now I recognize loyalty

I’m thankful for loss, for now I recognize the gift of loved ones

I’m thankful for failure, for I know I will recognize success if it arrives

I’m thankful I’ve looked upon the face of evil, for now I may recognize goodness

I’m thankful for pain, for now I recognize comfort

I’m thankful for hatred, for now I recognize love

But most of all, I’m thankful for the miracle that saved my child. Perhaps more than one miracle in a lifetime is too much to expect. I am grateful for the blessing of that one miracle, for it makes all the rest of it worthwhile.

As we celebrate this day of thankfulness, take a moment to appreciate your blessings and spare a thought, a prayer, for those in harm’s way and for those less fortunate.

No matter how deeply we believe our suffering to be; there is always another out there whose suffering is greater. And it may not always be whom we assume it to be…

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Antonia

Friendship

Writing is a solitary existence by necessity. We writers/editors spend hours alone in front of our computers, struggling to create. Usually at home. Were we to spend all day in front of a computer in some other venue, such as an office, we'd be congratulated. Because we do so at home, we are not considered to be "working" and are oftentimes villified for our "antisocial" lifestyle. Along the way, we depend on the support of our loved ones--should we be fortunate enough to have any--and our friends. Both "RL" or "real life," as we say, and writing friends--many of whom we know only via the internet. Some scoff at such friendships, but let me tell you the daily exchange of ideas, feelings, and experiences via email, Skype, and YIM can forge very strong bonds indeed. When I spend time with my RL friends, we watch a movie, we shop, we chat over lunch about little of any import. They often don't know, or don't care about my writing. They don't know me. Certainly not to the extent my writer friends do.

Yesterday, I had quite a scare. I feared I'd lost one of my closest writing friends. I'm still not sure all is well, but at least she's alive. Facing the hole the loss of such a friend would leave in my life, and the lives of the many who love and care about this wonderful person proved to me that perhaps such friendships are as real as any other. Sometimes moreso. Face to face RL friendships can be wonderful, but looking into another persons eyes, seeing their facial expressions, etc. does not make the relationship more "real." I can tell you from painful personal experience that those things can, and are faked for a variety of reasons.

So, go out and give virtual hugs to all your writer friends today. Give thanks for their fellowship, their support, their willingness to listen, and most of all, their understanding of this very weird goal you feel compelled to pursue.

Antonia
xoxoxo

Vote for The Topaz Embrace for Book of the Week at Long and Short Reviews!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

I'm thrilled my book, The Topaz Embrace, has been nominated for Book of the Week at The Long and the Short of It Whipped Cream Reviews!

If you haven't alread voted, vote for me today--voting ends tonight. http://www.longandshortreviews.com/WC/recentrev.htm

Editing all day today, but currently working on a Contemporary Romantic Suspense, and a leopard shifter, ranch-set Romantic Suspense. Hope to get back to those tomorrow. :-)

Porn By Any Other Name... Or Where Does Your Book Fall on the Sinmeter?

Okay, this is my blog so I shall opine on the lovely judgemental people who insist any book with explicit sex is no more than "porn." This is really a way of saying what we do has no merit. It's also a bit of a personal attack on our moral character, which is funny, considering the real lives most of us lead. Hardly wild and crazy. Um, with a few noteable exceptions and yes, the rest of us are jealous, sort of, but quite content to live vicariously through you. ;-)

Now, some writers do not mind this "porn" descriptive. Some even take great pride in describing their own work as "smut," {love to you all), which is the next best thing to porn, though arguably a step down on the sinmeter. I don't like these terms because I see no reason to hand bullets to folks ready to shoot me down and it really isn't accurate.

Perhaps my location and life situation have something to do with this opinion. It's true, I do maintain a secret identity and I am aware of the need to keep this pen persona separate from my other pen personas and my real life. That's a shame, but there you go.

Just to clear up confusion and to make my case for the difference between porn and erotic romance, I've come up with some informal definitions of the various heat levels of romantic fiction. Entirely my own opinion and not representative of anyone or anything else.

Here goes:

Mainstream Romantic Fiction--This is a broad umbrella and can range from Sweet to borderline Erotic Romance. Sweet is self-explanatory. A traditional, committed romance between two main characters developing through the book's plot. No explicit love scenes, or strong language. Hot is the next step. There may be sex scenes with mild descriptors and language. The frequency and length of any love scenes will be greater, though the story will still focus on the developing love story of the two main characters in the context of the story plot. Next, Steamy. Steamy romance involves more frequent and explicit love scenes and language, though still within the context of the plot and the developing romantic relationship. Terms used will not be strictly frank, some euphemisms will be used, and the detail will not be entirely graphic.

Erotic Romance--An erotic romance will involve two or more characters in a romantic relationship with a happily ever after, or at least a happily for now. Euphemisms will be avoided and frank terms and descriptions will be employed. The number and length of sexual encounters within the context of the plot will be greater. You will note I did say "plot" and "romance." There will be a story here, whether it is simply a love story, or a love story combined with a plot involving futuristic soldiers fighting to save the world or whatever. And there must be romance. Emotions, people. Erotic romance is not about people having sex just for the sake of sex.

Erotica--Erotica is even more explicit and edgy, though the primary difference here is that the sexual encounters and the growth of the sexual relationships ARE the story. Erotica may or may not involve romance. Definitely no euphemisms here, but there will be an identifiable story arc and the characters will grow and change as a result of the developing sexual relationship.

Porn--Here we go! Porn is sex, plain and simple. There may be no story line, no arc of character development, no emotion. Just sex for the purpose of titillation.

So if we must label, let's try to get it right.

Happy Reading and Writing!

Antonia