Join me at Greenbrier Mall Nov. 9th!

We’re having a multi-author signing on November 9th at Waldenbooks at Greenbrier Mall, Chesapeake, VA from 1 – 4p. You will be able to purchase books and get them autographed by your favorite authors. Take photos with the authors, chat, find out upcoming news, get freebies.  These are the authors participating:

• Andrea Jackson
• Alexis Ke
• Barbara Donlon Bradley
• June Bradley
• Denise Jeffries
• Judi McCoy
• nikki hale
•  (moi!) Shara Lanel

So get the bad taste of all those election digs and calls out of your system and come on out and see us!

Shara

http://www.sharalanel.com

Congrats to the Winners of the Trick or Treat!

Congrats go first to Dani K.–she’s the grand prize winner and will be receiving a prize from each of the authors in the circle. (Dani, I have your email so I’ll be contacting you,)

Next, congrats to Lindsey Ekland! You’ve won my giveaway of a copy of FINDING MR. RIGHT IS MURDER! Please email me at sharalanel@comcast.net and I’ll send you your prize.

P.S. Sorry I was a day late announcing this. Had to clean my house from top to bottom for a party we had last night. Yes, it took a VERY long time to clean!

Shara

http://www.sharalanel.com

Trick or Treat for some Eye Candy!

Trick or treat! How ’bout some treat? This 1st pic is one of the reasons I love Criminal Minds.

 Scroll down for more pics and a chance to win…

I’m particularly fond of this set of abs and he’s promoting green wind energy…

Keep scrolling…

Oh my my! I’m taking this one home…

 

To win a copy of

FINDING MR. RIGHT IS MURDER

just post a comment to my blog.

I’ll pick a winner on Nov. 1st!

  

Want some more? Visit fellow Liquid Silver author Stephanie Adkins’ blog: 

http://stephanieadkins.wordpress.com/blog/

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Shara

http://www.sharalanel.com

Trick or Treat with Liquid Silver authors!

Join us for our Halloween Escapade. Each of the Liquid Silver authors on this list (see below) will be posting some special eye candy and possibly other special treats (like drawings you can win) on each blog on HALLOWEEN, leading to the next blog. Check out the list and I’ll post more details as I get them!

1. Savanna Kougar http://www.kougarkisses.blogspot.com
2. Nina Pierce http://www.ninapierce.com/romanceblog
3. Jeanne Barrack http://jeanneworldsnewsletter.blogspot.com/
4. Erotic Muses http://eroticmuses.blogspot.com/
5. Paige Tyler http://paigetylertheauthor.blogspot.com/
6. Kate Willoughby http://katewilloughby.blogspot.com/
7. Shara Lanel http://sharalanel.wordpress.com/
8. Tina Holland http://tinaholland.wordpress.com/

Shara

http://www.sharalanel.com

Shara vs. the Big Bugs

Just in time for Halloween, a post to totally creep you out. At least, I’m creeped out! Here’s the story:

We’ve lived in this house in Richmond for–hmm–9 years, and we’ve never had this particular problem. Yes, we get those microscopic black ants every spring and hubby puts down some gooey stuff on cardboard and that usually eradicates them. We also had a carpenter ant situation (I’d never even heard of carpenter ants!) that we discovered after the Flood of 2001 (hot water heater explosion, 1 month in hotel while our carpet dried out). And, of course, the occasional mosquito or other outdoor escapee that I get hubby to squash promptly. Oh yeah, spiders–I try to give them a break because they eat other bugs, but if they cross the threshold into my bedroom–their life is mine!

But this year…

It started with one random bug so big and ugly that it had to be an aberation, something that crawled in when my son held the back door open, or something that hopped from a tree branch and shimmied its way inside. After much screaming, I slammed the yellow pages onto it, told my son and dog to keep far away from it, and left the smushed body there until hubby came home to get rid of it. The next one, a couple of weeks later, appeared upstairs coming out from under my decorative cabinet. I screamed at it and my husband, who was trying to dream (it was 1am after all), until 1 woke up and the other scurried back under the cabinet. Hubby pulled out the cabinet and said it must be gone. I said it was not gone and he could not go back to bed until he proved to me that it was well and truly dead.

Finally he tipped the cabinet over, found the bug on the bottom, which sent it promptly scurrying toward the bedroom. Eek! Hubby killed it finally–I think with the heel of a shoe that time.

This is why–no matter how much I care for the environment–I can’t defend all living things. At least not when they’re in my house. I’m fine with non-toxic bug traps, but only if they work!

Next bug sighting: before I’m awake (9 am–rediculously early) my son comes into the bedroom and says there’s a bug in the kitchen. It ran under the fridge. Okay, I could ignore this in favor of sleep, but I should be my son’s hero, right? Plus the dog might catch it and get some horrible disease. So I stumble downstairs, ascertain that it’s still under the fridge, then drag son off to the grocery store to buy 1 large bottle of bug spray. This sucker was going to die!

I sprayed under the fridge, so the bug trotted out and ran under the oven so I sprayed under there. A little while later we discover an upside down dead bug in the middle of the kitchen. Can you guess what I did? Yup–I left it until hubby got home to take it away. This is what hubbies are for, in case you’re wondering. My single girl friends don’t have this luxury, though I have occasionally offered hubby’s services to them.

The grocery store did not have LARGE bug traps for some reason, so I went on a hunt. Think I found them at Walmart. Came home and tucked them in all the places I’d seen the bugs so far. This resulted in another upside down dead bug body. But then, after I thought it was safe to sleep in again, son was up in my bedroom (before 9am) to tell me there was another bug, this time in the living room.

This one was to prove quicker and more evasive. It ran over the back of the chair, so I sprayed down the back, it ran under the bench (doggy spotted it) so I sprayed, then it ran under the couch. Not only did I spray but I used a long stick to push a trap under the couch. Eventually–you guess it–a dead upside down bug appeared just beyond the dust ruffle.

You would think, after all this, that the war would be won. Ugh! Today doggy starts staring at and messing with the bag of bags in my office. I see nothing, but he keeps returning to the bag, so I sit really still…and I can hear something moving in the bottom of the bag! Perry looks at me expectantly, since I never actually let him kill the bugs. I grab the bug spray and douse the entire rim of all the bags and I spray down between the bags. I never saw the bug, but I’m hoping it asphyxiated.

And I’m throwing out all the rubber spiders I have as Halloween decorations.

Shara

http://www.sharalanel.com

P.S. I did not pick up the thing, as shown in one of these pictures–I found the pic on the web and it immediately sent shivers up my spine!

Thinking about death…

Way to open with a cheery sentiment, right? Actually I’ve been quite enjoying my read of Bodies We’ve Buried: CSI Training School by Hallcox and Welch. It’s a fascinating book about the National Forensic Academy. One minute I think–oh, this is so cool, I’ve gotta go there! The next I think–oh man, I’d be puking up my lunch. One particularly memorable moment was when they were talking about getting fingerprints off a corpse and breaking rigor. I don’t know why, but that got to me. Then they were talking about the different types of death and what exactly happens to you after death. I’ve read about the Body Farm before, but somehow their description of floaters and overdose victims had me cringing. It certainly makes you rethink suicide. In fact they mention that spending some time in the morgue with them will cure most suicidal thinkers.

I gave up watching CSI a season or two ago. Something about the miniature killer who left tiny models at the scenes just bugged me. Maybe I’d just been a CSI junkie for too long. I still watch NCIS, but that’s less about the science and more about the characters. I don’t watch the real life forensic shows. Somehow knowing that they’re based on actual events, actual people, makes me queasy. How sad some of our lives are and what sadder ends they come to.

I recently added to my Howdunit collection with Police Procedure & Investigation by Lee Lofland and Forensics by DP Lyle. I have another one of his books and I found that fascinating. It included writers questions to him about forensics for their books. Being a writer myself, I love seeing where the imagination takes us. But somehow it’s knowing that it’s the imagination taking us there and not depraved killers makes all the difference. Odd, isn’t it, that I write about depraved killers?

Shara

http://www.sharalanel.com

 

Excerpt from FINDING MR. RIGHT IS MURDER!

BLURB: In Finding Mr. Right is Murder, Leanne Aimes can’t believe that a woman is found dead on the first night of her best friend’s new business venture, Pajama Dates. A nasty murder won’t be good for business, but it might be good for Leanne, if solving the murder of Ms. Dead leads her into the arms of Mr. Right.

EXCERPT–Enjoy!

“Ice weighs a lot.” Leanne joined her friend near the center island. “Might’ve messed up a few lines.”

“I should’ve had this in town, shouldn’t I?” She hung her head.

Leanne patted her shoulder. “Look at the bright side, if we’re stranded, then they’ll have more time to fall in love.”

“Or hate each other,” Gage said.

“You shut up. You are not helping!”

Jenny sighed and straightened. “Anyway, I thought it might be a good time to pull out the ice cream fixings.”

“Excellent idea. What do you need?”

“Why don’t you peel and cut some bananas? And, Gage, could you be a dear and pull down that big thing of hot fudge in the pantry?”

Once his back was turned, she winked at Leanne. Leanne threatened her with the knife she was using to cut the bananas, but her friend stuck out her tongue before trotting to the large freestanding freezer.

“Here’s the fudge,” Gage said, plopping the gargantuan container on the counter with a thud. “Wanted to make sure you didn’t run out, huh?” He paused. “What’s wrong with her?”

“Huh?” Leanne looked over her shoulder at Jenny to see that her friend had turned sheet white.

“Leanne, could you come here, please?” Her voice was a scratchy whisper.

“Okay.” She stepped to Jenny’s side and looked down at the freezer lid. “What’s up?”

“Inside.”

By now Gage was crowding both of them from behind. Leanne lifted the lid.

“Holy shit,” she said.

“Yeah, holy shit,” Gage echoed.

Damned if there wasn’t a body shoved in the freezer, with the head covered by a frying pan. Leanne decided then and there that she wasn’t having any of the ice cream. She’d eat the fudge straight.

“Is that blood?” Jenny asked in the same low voice, pointing at the clumpy stuff on the cast iron pan. The clumpy stuff was a brownish-red color and had string–no hair–sticking out of it. Leanne’s stomach rolled like a barrel going over the falls. Below the pan was a white terry cloth robe, also spattered in red, and peeking through the folds was the sheer material of a nightgown.

It just seemed so wrong amid the pints of Ben and Jerry’s and the bags of frozen peas and corn.

“Shouldn’t we see who it is?” Gage asked sensibly, not realizing the two women in front of him were frozen in shock. Dumb ass. Like they saw bodies everyday. Leanne slowly ratcheted her head, so she could look over her shoulder at the man. Her mouth was slightly open and she was trying to breathe as shallowly as possible while remaining upright. Perhaps he hadn’t noticed the nightgown.

“Was she trying to cook?” Jenny asked stupidly, glancing up at the pot rack suspended from the ceiling.

“Somehow I doubt it,” Gage said. This time Leanne found enough motor function to smack him in the arm.

He finally seemed to notice her expression. Then he noticed the knife she held in her right hand. “Um, why don’t you give me that?”

“She wasn’t murdered with a knife.”

“But I might be.”CHECK OUT ANOTHER EXCERPT AT WWW.SHARALANEL.COMShara

Who knew there were so many?

I tend to Google myself periodically looking for reviews or blog mentions that I didn’t know about. Lately I’ve been googling my name plus “Blame it on the Moon”–the title of my latest book. Apparently this is a tremendously popular song title. Who knew?

I pulled up iTunes to check this out and found 22 songs matching this title and several albums with the name. Cool. So then I had to listen to them, of course. Moondafaruka was one of the artists I listened to. Very nice. Instrumental. Reminds me a bit of Spanish flamenco, like a mellow Gypsy Kings. I really like Katie Melua’s “Blame It on the Moon.” Jazzy, sexy. Way cool. The tomo-aki version is interesting, because it’s in Japanese. No idea what the song’s about other than the moon.

Making me think about the Big Easy in a funky, grooving way is the Bonedaddy’s version. Ray Edge does a blues version. Note: these are all very different songs, not the same one redone. Dina Regine had a folk song by that name, which sounded a little familiar. Not sure why. Perhaps I’ve heard it before. Hypnogaja changes it up a bit by blaming it on the full moon, not just any old moon.

So what I’m trying to say is that my book has some good company, and that I’ve had a hell of a time googling it! One other way to BLAME IT ON THE MOON, is to enter my giveaway of the same name. Details are on the News Page at www.sharalanel.com.

Shara

Isn’t he a cutie?!

My ancient cocker spaniel Ana passed away in her sleep before New Year’s, but thankfully after Christmas. She was 15 years old and it was expected and peaceful. But looking around the house expecting to find her prompted the emotional decision to get a new puppy, so meet Perry (think of Perry Mason or Poodle+Terrier).

It’s been a LONG time since I’ve dealt with puppy antics, so that’s been a bit of a shock. The potty training (or outdoors training) is going fairly well. The biting has converted to nibbling, but he has a fascination with socks, particularly my son’s socks. Whenever he finds one tossed into the laundry pile in the hallway (or wherever my son chooses to leave it that day), Perry happily pounces on it and carries it proudly into the living room.

Then my hubby comes home and wonders why there’s a pile of laundry in the living room. Honestly, it’s not my fault. Nor is the shredded bits of paper towel tube or newspaper.

Perry was less than 5 pounds when we got him. He’s now 7.5 lbs. The person we got him from said 10 lbs. max, but the vet thinks more than that. More than that would be better, because then maybe we’d stop tripping over him. Right now he’s very cute to carry around though. My son is so happy that he likes to play fetch, because Ana had been too old to do that for a few years now. Perry’s energy almost matches my son’s…almost.

And now Perry’s glued to my thigh, waiting for me to stop typing and find a toy to tug on.

–Shara

An excerpt from BLAME IT ON THE MOON by Shara Lanel

Leaning his shoulder against the doorjamb, Haden tightened his grip on the sexy lush, almost dropping the keys in the process. Her lips tasted like wine and cream. With his tongue, he traced the seam of her mouth and gently prodded her lips open so he could delve inside the wet cave. Exploring lazily, he tasted teeth, tongue, and gums. She purred like a cat while her hands gripped his neck tighter and tighter.

She had to be awake now, but Haden’s eyes were closed and he didn’t want to end this probing kiss. It had been a long time since he’d tasted a woman like this, gently and thoroughly. His hands itched to touch the soft mounds pressed into his chest, but they were too busy holding his bundle aloft. She squirmed against him, and he adjusted his stance as her tongue joined the dance, diving into his mouth and titillating the nerve endings within.

One sensation came to the fore — hunger. He couldn’t get enough of her intoxicating taste, her smell, her feel. He growled deep in his throat, then opened his mouth wider and pushed his tongue deeper. He needed more.

It was actually only the frantic barking and scratching of a dog on the other side of the door that had Kit turning her face away. At first, Haden merely moved his kisses to her cheek, her jaw, her neck. Finally he realized he had to stop and lifted his head to look down into Kit’s open eyes.

She was frowning at the door. “Fergus! Poor boy! He’s probably peed all over the carpet by now.” A blush painted Kit’s cheeks and neck.

Haden laughed, handing her the cluster of keys and almost dropping her in the process. “If you could help me with this, I’d be happy to put the dog out of his misery.”

“You can put me down. I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“No, I’ve come this far, might as well take you the rest of the way in.” 

Kit’s insides melted like butter as she soaked in Haden’s grin and fumbled with the keys. His broad chest warmed her shoulder, but her butt felt huge, hanging as it did between his arms. He wasn’t even grunting with the effort.

Oh, my God! He had kissed her like they could’ve had sex right on the porch. Had she ever been kissed so deeply before, like her partner was exploring every part of her mouth? She hadn’t wanted him to stop, despite the slight dizziness she was starting to feel, but Fergie’s barking had broken her concentration.

She jiggled the keys, taking longer than necessary to find the right one. She really ought to purge her keychain, but that was never high on her priority list.

“Ah, this one.” She handed the correct key to Haden. He was about to carry her over the threshold into her house. Wow. If only she had a gold band on her finger to go along with this fantasy come true. She closed her eyes for just a moment to picture Haden in a tux, bow tie undone about his neck, white satin hanging over his arm as he carried her inside.

She opened her eyes, feeling the familiar knot in her stomach, a dream unfulfilled.

Read the rest–AVAILABLE AT LOOSE ID!