Lane Hart's Blog, page 3

Only 9 days to go until the release of Tainted Love, the first story in the Lovestruck series!
Here's an excerpt from the first chapter:

“Are you pouting?” I ask my best friend as the car roars to life with a twist of my wrist. A minute later I’m driving us out of the slushy, gravel parking lot.
“If you don’t think it will work, it won’t work,” she says, crossing her arms over her chest like a child having a tantrum.  “Oh my God. You can’t be serious, Reagan. Love potions don’t exist. If they did, there wouldn’t be any single ladies, would there? Beyoncé’s song about putting a ring on it would’ve been a big flop, not a worldwide sensation.”
“So you’re not even gonna try it?” she huffs.
“I can make you a big batch of Kool-Aid when we get back to my apartment for free,” I tease.
“Just promise me you’ll try it! What do you have to lose?” she asks, as I start looking for the signs for the highway. “I know how lonely you’ve been, but you refuse to date anyone because of that dipshit who cheated on you!”
“Don’t think so, Reagan,” I remark. “That dipshit was my soulmate and, yes, he cheated on me and I refused to forgive him. But feel free to try it yourself. I mean, you did pay a fortune for it.”
I exhale a breath of relief when we take the exit for Interstate 421 north, thankfully heading back to normal civilization after that freak show we just left.
 “Try it!” Reagan screeches, making me jump in surprise before she thrusts the bottle into my face.
“No!” I exclaim, batting her hand away. “And chill the fuck out. Do you want me to wreck?”
“Try it!”
OMG. She was exposed to the crazy people for far too long. Now she’s caught it, and I don’t have any antidotes to restore her sanity.
“Josie?” she says when I don’t respond to her psychotic request.
“What, Reagan?” I ask, keeping my eyes on the road.
The glass bottle appears in front of my line of sight yet again. “Try. It.”
“Oh, for the love of God!” I yell. Keeping one hand on the wheel, I jerk the bottle out of her hand, pull the glass stopper out with my teeth and chug half of it, just to get her to shut the hell up. “Happy?” I ask when I hand it back. “And yuck.” My entire body gives an involuntary shiver at the foul, bitter taste still lingering on my now numb tongue. Ugh, it’s like a spicy cough medicine. “That shit is…is…”
“Wow! Look! It turned blue, your favorite color,” I vaguely hear her say before I have to slap my palm over my mouth to contain the mouthful of regurgitated acid.
“Oh no.”
Veering off onto the right shoulder of the road, I barely fling my car door open in time before I start retching. Fuck, it’s awful. I projectile vomit across the entire four-lane highway.
“Josie?” Reagan asks softly. “Are…are you okay?”
“Do I look like I’m okay?” I snap at her caustically, sounding like the demonic girl from The Exorcist before another wave of heaves wrack through me.
“Here,” she says when I eventually stop yakking. A wad of fast-food napkins gratefully appear in front of my face.
“Thanks,” I mutter as I grab for the stack, wiping my eyes, face and nose. Ugh. It feels like I’m leaking from every orifice. “That was some seriously nasty shit,” I tell her after I clean myself up, even though it’s unnecessary. Just then, I feel a big gust of wind, followed by a loud BOOM.
Reagan and I both scream as the car rocks us back and forth from the force of impact.
“What the hell was that?” she asks, but I just hang my head because I already know without looking.
“My door,” I groan into my palms.
Reagan leans over me and then gasps, “Oh shit!” before the little tramp starts giggling.
“It’s not funny!” I exclaim with a shove to her shoulder. That only makes her laugh harder, her head thrown back, full out snorts now, which makes me join in, even though it feels like my own arm was ripped off from my body.
Fuck. I sober up at the thought of how much this is gonna cost to fix. Living on your own is not cheap, and I don’t have a lot of money in savings, hence the reason I didn’t want to spend two hundred dollars on a bottle of upchuck.
Waiting until traffic clears, I jump out of my car that’s now one door away from being a dune buggy, and weave through the maze of vomit to retrieve my unhinged door. Quickly grabbing it up, I give it a hug to my chest and utter an apology before laying it down gently in the back. That’s why El Caminos are the most awesome cars in the world, the comfort of a car with the bed of a truck. It’s ingenious.  
Sitting back down in the driver seat, I buckle up and prepare to get wet on the hour-and-a-half drive home. One where my best friend laughs at me the entire way. This is all her fault.
FML and fuck bogus ass love potions.

                                                          PRE-ORDER NOW AT AMAZON FOR ONLY 99 CENTS!
                                             The price will increase to $2.99 on release day.

My husband and I are getting ready to celebrate the day ten years ago that we were married on the beach. We're going back to the same oceanfront house we rented for the wedding, and for those of you who have read Mace's book, I based Linc's beach house on this place that's so special to us. Here are some photos of the beautiful property and a few pictures from our photo album.

On Saturday, May 7th All In: Paying His Way will be released! You may remember Jake Young first from Zack's book, Playing to Win, and from his own novella, Paying to Play. This new story is about Jake's oldest brother Jordan Young. It's short and sweet, so grab it now at the pre-order price of only 99 cents, before the price increases to $2.99 on release day. 

Here's a sneak peek of the first chapter:                                                                                            

                                                                                                    CHAPTER ONE
                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                     Jordan Young

I’m standing in the only open checkout lane at the supermarket, trying not to get annoyed and epically failing.
Tired of holding the case of beer, I sit it down by my feet to put my hands on my hips in the universal sign of you’ve got to be fucking kidding me. I volunteered to bring the booze to the small backyard barbecue, so by God I’ll stand here all damn day if I have to.
My buddy, Caleb, who I met in the Reserves when we joined up together four years ago, invited me down to his place in Greensboro to celebrate one of the holidays-that-must-not-be-named with his wife Lauren and a few of their friends. The M word probably won’t even come up since his passed away a few years ago from breast cancer, and his wife’s is a worthless piece of shit. And if it does, well, that’s what the case of beer is for. Shit. Maybe I should’ve grabbed two. Then I could’ve started on one while I stand here and wait for the woman holding up the line with her coupons or price matching bullshit.
I blow out a frustrated breath and then have to apologize to the blue-haired lady in front of me when it ruffles her poofy Sunday hairdo. Standing on the balls of my feet, I make my six-foot-two frame a little taller to get a better look at the woman we’re all silently cursing.
She's a small, nothing special brunette with her hair slicked back in a ponytail. Wearing a tattered and faded floral dress, the girl is digging frantically through a canvas tote, her head halfway inside of it looking for something that probably doesn’t exist based on the cashier’s outstretched palm and annoyed expression. More money.
When the infant in the woman's buggy starts screaming like someone's shoving splinters under its fingernails, my patience snaps.
To hell with this.
I shove my way forward, offering apologies to the other customers I nudge. Yanking my worn leather wallet from my back pocket, I eye the rectangular readout to determine the amount of money owed. Hell, I’m getting off cheap at just fourteen dollars and some change. I pull out a crisp twenty and place it in the goth-looking cashier’s hand. Surprised by my intervention, she doesn’t immediately do anything with the currency for several seconds, just stands there frozen.
“Will that work?” I ask, and she nods, turning back to enter it into her register.
“Oh my God! Thank you,” I hear the small brunette beside me say. Her soft voice is shaky like she’s on the verge of tears. Then I hear her sudden and deep intake of breath. “Jordan?”
Of course my head automatically turns at the sound of my name; but even standing inches away, I blink at the young girl with dark rimmed bags underneath her blue eyes, unable to place her. Suddenly, she reaches over to the spinning baggage area to grab the one containing my recent purchase, before pushing the buggy with the still wailing baby quickly out of the store like her ass is on fire.
“Sir? Here’s your change, sir,” the cashier says to get my attention when I don’t notice she’s offering my money back with the receipt. I’m too busy trying to figure out who that woman was and how she knows me. There was something familiar about those sad, indigo eyes…
Oh, yeah! She dated my little brother, Jason, and her name starts with an M. Megan? Melissa?
It hits me like a bolt of lightning.
Maggie Frasier. Jason’s high school girlfriend. And, damn, the poor girl looks like shit. No wonder I didn't recognize her.
For the past few years I've heard Jason mention in passing about how they're fuck buddies or friends with benefits right up until this past Thanksgiving when he joined the Army, the full-time kind of service, unlike my one weekend a month in the Reserves.  
Wait a fucking second.
He's been gone less than six months. The wailing baby couldn’t have been more than a few weeks old. No. No, no, no. She would’ve told him, right? Jason would’ve said something...
I take off running after her, my case of beer abandoned thanks to this crazy as shit notion that I might be an uncle.
Weaving my way around customers, I make it through the sliding glass doors and look around the crowded parking lot for Maggie. I finally spot her sliding into the driver seat of a rusty brown clunker. I can’t even decipher the make or model of it since it’s missing whatever emblems it once had when it was made in the factory several decades ago.
I run across the rows of vehicles to get to her before she can pull away, and I don't stop until I’m next to the car, knocking on her window. The sound startles her, making her narrow, hunched shoulders jump. Her head bows like she’s debating rolling the window down or just reversing her ass out of there.
“Maggie, talk to me,” I say, proud of myself for actually remembering her name. She finally reaches over to hand roll the window down a few inches, releasing the screaming cries of the baby in the backseat. I try to get a better look at the bundle of blue in the rear-facing car seat. It's hard to make out any features with his mouth wide open while he wails, his tiny clenched fists shaking in the air with his displeasure.
“Is he Jason’s?” I ask her pointblank.
After what feels like an eternity, she gives a small, almost unperceivable nod in affirmation.
Motherfucker. Although in this situation brotherfucker might be the more appropriate term, especially on this day in May when the M word must not be muttered.
My little brother’s a father. Josh, Jake and I are uncles to a baby we’ve never heard about. If Jason knew, he would’ve told us, right? I mean, the woman barely looks like she can legally drink, much less take care of a baby on her own.
Ah, shit. I remember her standing at the register, pitiful because she didn’t have enough money.
“Doesn’t he know? Is he paying child support?” I ask, but the questions are drowned out by the constant howling. “Why is he yelling so damn loud?”
“He-he’s just hungry. I need to go so I can get home and feed him,” she says while looking straight ahead, avoiding my eyes and my other questions.
He’s hungry.
She needs to feed him.
Because my little brother is a sack of shit that’s not helping her take care of his responsibility.
Before I can say another word, I have to jump back so that my toes don’t get run over when she floors the clunker in reverse; and then she’s gone.

                                                        PRE-ORDER NOW AT AMAZON FOR ONLY 99 CENTS!

Come join me today at Angela Snyder's Kindle Scout event for Remember Me Always! Here are some of the prizes you can win. I'm so excited about tonight's return of GOT that I've got a Jon Snow up for grabs!

The first book I ever released, Wild About You, is getting a makeover, starting with a new cover. This beautiful photo is by Lourdes Blazek and the cover design was finalized by the multi-talented Angela Snyder.

The pre-order is available now on Amazon, with a release date of July 16th, and here's the blurb:

This is the re-release of Wild About You © 2014. There’s a new cover, new scenes and a new mature content warning!

Imagine learning that the man you love has been keeping a life changing secret from you.

In this fun and fast-action paranormal romance, Emily Hunter thought life after getting her happily-ever-after was as normal and boring as it could possibly get. Little did she know that her world was about to be turned upside down.

After sharing her own surprising news, Emily has to figure out how to cope with her husband Ben’s family secret, and the consequences it may have on their future.

Headed for a wild adventure neither of them ever saw coming, Ben and Emily will have to grab on to each other and hold on tight to overcome the obstacles before them.

***This is a standalone novel, and it does not end in a cliffhanger***
Pre-order Now

Authors, did you know that you can set up your own email list for free with MailChimp? Facebook rarely ever shows page posts anymore because they want us to pay to "Boost" it. Therefore, I'm trying to build my email list to have a way to notify my readers about new releases, freebies, and discounts. This won't be an annoying newsletter that sends out daily or even weekly emails to subscribers, just important updates for those who enjoy my books.

So, to help grow my list, at the end of the month I'll be giving away the choice of a signed paperback OR a $15.00 Amazon gift card to one randomly selected person on my list. Signing up is easy. Just fill out the form below, or click on the pic! Thanks!  #mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; } /* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */Subscribe to our mailing list* indicates requiredEmail Address * First Name Last Name

Last year, fellow author Angela Snyder and I decided to start a joint street team. This is a Facebook group where our readers can get to know us a little better and be a part of the writing process. We've asked our team for suggestions on everything from character names to book titles. Several ladies in our group are responsible for naming Claire, Mace, Hailey, Kylie, Lynn and Cooper from Linc's book while I was writing it last year. Each of them received signed paperbacks for their great recommendations. 

These ladies also take on the extremely difficult task of helping us pick which half-naked men would look best on a book cover. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.

There are occasionally giveaways, sneak peeks of book excerpts, oh, and the ladies in our group get to beta read ARCs weeks before they go out to anyone else.

All we ask of our members is that they post honest reviews for the books they read, that they promote the books they enjoy wherever they can, on social media, with friend referrals, etc. and that they help us spread the word about new releases and events.

If this sounds like a group you would like to be a part of, Angela and I would love to have you. All you have to do is:

1. Join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/WickedReadersStreetTeam/ and
2. Fill out this Google form with your information, especially your Kindle email address if you want to receive ARCs: http://goo.gl/forms/yOKLjUL2tm

Have you heard about Kindle Scout? Whether you're a reader or an author, it's definitely something you should look into, and here's why:

Kindle Scout is a website where readers help decide which books should receive a publishing contract through Kindle Press.

Authors who are looking for an alternative to self-publishing can submit a new manuscript of at least 50K words, and, if approved by Kindle Scout, the first 5K or so words, along with the book cover and synopsis, will be posted on the site. The campaigns last for 30 days to gauge readers' responses. The trick is for authors to spread the word about their book, and get as many nominations as possible, so that they land on Kindle Scout's Hot & Trending list.

The benefit for readers is that they can browse never-before-published books, read a sample, and then nominate their favorites. The decision on whether or not an author receives a contract is not based solely on nominations, but it does appear to have serious sway with the editors who have the final say. The best part for readers is that if they nominate a book that is selected for a contract, they'll receive a free copy of the book before the release date.

Authors who are not selected for a contract can still self-publish through KDP, and everyone who nominated their book will also receive a notification once it's published. Therefore, there doesn't seem to be a downside to submitting your book for a Kindle Scout campaign.

The Kindle Press contract include a sweet $1,500 advance and 50% royalties. Sure, this is a less than the 70% for self-publishing a book for $2.99 or more on KDP. But with Kindle Press, you'll have someone else doing most of your advertising for you, and they may set your book price a little higher, around $3.99 or $3.49. So the 20% difference in royalty doesn't  seem so bad.

Kindle Scout seems like a great way to go if you're a new author still building your reader base.  My husband, D.B. West will be submitting his first book on Kindle Scout in a few weeks, and right now my friend Angela Snyder has her romance, "Remember Me Always" on Kindle Scout. So please go and nominate her book, one I had the privilege or reading an ARC of a few weeks ago. It's a really sweet second chance romance that's a roller coaster ride of suspense, until you get to the awesome ending. 

Also, join Angela's Kindle Scout Facebook event next week where you can meet several other great authors, and I'll be posting giveaways and sneak peeks of my books on Sunday, April 24th. https://www.facebook.com/events/1514708088837812/

***This All In novella has a HEA and can be read as a standalone.***

One girl.

Too young, too sweet, and too much of a past with my little brother. They share a son.

I shouldn’t think twice about Maggie Frasier. When she needs my help though, there’s no way I can ignore her and my nephew. They don’t have anyone else to turn to since my brother refuses to own up to his responsibility.

But somehow I went from helping her to holding her to loving her.

Now everything has changed, and I want to keep these two in my life, permanently. My brother certainly doesn’t give a shit about them, and therein lies the problem.

The truth can only be hidden for so long, and once it’s out there’s no going back.

No family, no future, and no life with the woman I love.

However, not everything is as it seems. And by the time I realize my mistake, it just might be too late to get her back.

Pre-order now for 99 cents on Amazon!

I'm working on a brand new series called Lovestruck that I can't wait to share with you, starting with the first book, Tainted Love! I plan to write several of these novellas, all for just 99 cents.




Here's the synopsis for Tainted Love:

Finding love just got a little easier…

What if I told you that there’s a magic potion that could lead you to the man of your dreams?
Would you drink it?
Josie Carter swore that there was no such thing as a “love potion” and that the crazy lady selling it at the hippie festival was a complete sham.
But a tiny little thread of hope is what made her try a sip.
A sip that caused a series of unfortunate events to unfold, wreaking havoc in her life but leading her to a man who just might be everything she’s been missing.
Before time runs out she’ll have to figure out if it’s true love, or if it’s all just too good to be true.

*******************



Look for the cover reveal on April 29, 2015! Bloggers can sign up through TRSoR Promotions: https://docs.google.com/…/1-u3KzO1WHDfUF3Qb3Vgp2cu…/viewform