Plot Monkeys

Well, I was feeling really left out as the only Plotmonkey without a new holiday book this year. Then I remembered something…we have a lot of visitors from other countries. And it just so happens that one of my very favorite books, DON’T OPEN TILL CHRISTMAS, is being released this month in a whole bunch of them! I know it’s for sale right now in the U.K., Spain, Italy and France. I am sure there are others out there, too.

So to say hi to our overseas readers, I thought I’d go ahead and post the prologue. And, for fun, below I am posting some of the covers of these foreign versions…(isn’t the U.K. one the HOTTEST thing ever??)

A note: This one is connected to my Santoris of Chicago books. If you read ASKING FOR TROUBLE, you might remember the heroine’s brother, hunky cop Mark Santori. This is his story.

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PROLOGUE

Trying on a skimpy, beaded cocktail dress on Black Friday–the day after Thanksgiving–was bad enough. Hearing a couple having sex in the next dressing room? Well…that wasn’t exactly what Noelle Bradenton would call priceless.

While slipping out of the sexy dress–which, to her consternation, highlighted some mashed potato-induced bulges on her thighs–she heard the conversation from next door. There were definitely two voices, one male and one female, coming from the other fitting room in the dress department of this upscale store. And there was no doubt what they were talking about.

“Would you please just do it?” the woman asked in a loud whisper, sounding almost desperate. “Quite worrying–nobody saw you come in here with me.”

This is crazy,” was the male response. The voice was deep, husky, holding both frustration and amusement. “Stop wiggling.”

Unbelievable. Noelle could hardly fathom her rotten luck. Wasn’t it bad enough that today was the official start of the season she detested more than anything except country music and underwire push-up bras? Did she really have to be reminded how utterly barren her sex life was by hearing a couple going at it in a secret frenzy of dressing room passion?

“It’s your fault, idiot,” she whispered, not knowing what demon had made her venture into a downtown Chicago department store on the worst shopping day of the year. She never shopped on Black Friday, preferring to avoid the whole Christmas insanity altogether by doing her requisite gift buying online.

She cursed the day she’d won the Social Services department lottery for a ticket to the mayor’s high-toned Christmas party, which was so out of her league. She’d probably spend the whole evening wondering how much money was being spent on champagne and mini quiches when it could have been used to help the women and kids in the shelter where she worked.

But she had to go, and there was no way she’d find a dress suitable for the party by shopping on the Internet. It was proving hard enough to do it in person. So here she was, stuck staring at a size eight dress taunting her about her size ten hips, frozen in a four-by-four space, about to hear a couple crying out in ecstasy as they did the deed on the other side of a paper-thin wall.

Oh, God, she hoped they didn’t do it up against the wall adjoining her dressing room. It didn’t look terribly sturdy, and might just come crashing down, leaving her to greet the bold lovers while wearing only a skimpy black bra and lacy panties.

She began to reach for her clothes, just in case, but froze again when she heard that sexy, oh-so-deep voice once more. “The sales counter is twenty feet away.” The man sounded more amused than worried. “One of the employees could be heading over here right now to find out why a man is in here with you.”

“There are eight hundred and ninety-four women in line, desperate to save an extra ten percent before the doorbuster sale ends,” the woman said impatiently. “Those clerks aren’t going to look up from their cash registers until December 26.”

Noelle grinned. The unknown woman sounded a lot like her, already disgruntled and cranky during the time of year when every other usually sane person turned into a carol-spouting, eggnog-drinking lunatic. She’d probably like to meet her under other circumstances–like, oh, say, when the woman wasn’t naked and getting done in the next room. And if she didn’t hate her for having such a daring sex life when Noelle’s only recent orgasmic experience had been when she’d eaten a sliver of rich pecan pie after last night’s turkey pig-out.

Pecan pie and mashed potatoes. No wonder the damn dress was laughing at her.

“Okay, there, yes. A little more…great, I think you’ve got it in,” the woman was saying, sounding breathless.

She thought he had it in? Hmm. If the woman next door wasn’t sure, maybe Mr. Sexy Voice wasn’t such a stud after all.

Suddenly not feeling so bad–since, in her opinion, no sex was better than bad sex, and I-think-you’ve-got=it-in was way worse than I-haven’t-been-laid-in-a=year–Noelle giggled. If she ever worked up the nerve to have hot nooky in a public place, it would definitely be with someone whose equipment was big enough to leave no doubt in her mind that she was getting it.

“Okay, I did it. I’m done. Can you finish on your own and let me get out of here?”

Noelle rolled her eyes. What a gentleman. He’d gotten off…quickly…and was leaving his wife or girlfriend to take care of herself.

Yikes. Hearing a woman pleasuring herself in the next cubicle had an even higher yuck factor than hearing a couple of strangers going at it. Shocked out of her titillated lethargy, Noelle grabbed her jeans, determined to make a quick exit before the solitary moaning started. She heard enough of that in her own bedroom these days, thank you very much.

Bent over with one foot in the pants, Noelle heard the click of the door in the next booth. The words barely registered…just a man’s voice saying, “Excuse me,” before it rose in volume, almost shouting, “Watch out!”

Then came a loud bang, and in flew the door to the dressing room. Her dressing room.

“Hey, what are you doing?” she cried, immediately straightening as someone stumbled into the tiny space toward her. A someone whose forward momentum landed him right against Noelle, and propelled them back to the wall.

Noelle’s heart flipped over about a dozen times as the stranger quickly braced both his hands on the mirror behind her head. That was the only thing that prevented them both from tumbling down onto the built-in bench seat.

It took a few seconds for her to grasp what had happened. During those seconds, with her pulse racing as she heaved in deep, surprised breaths, she took a look at the someone who was pressed against her from shoulder to knee.

“Oh, my God,” she managed to whisper.

Because it was a male someone. A gorgeous male someone. An absolutely heart-poundingly sexy, to-die-for, somebody-quick-get-me-a-condom male someone.

His dark green eyes were widened in shock and she could do nothing but stare into them for a long moment. With those eyes, she would have expected light hair, but his was jet black, cut short but still thick and lush. The kind of hair that made a woman want to tangle her fingers in it and tug him close to whatever body part he happened to be near.

She could think of a few. And a few more.

The stranger’s lean face was slightly stubbled…another guy who hadn’t shaved because of the holiday. The swarthy look only emphasized the squareness of his jaw, the hollows of his cheeks, and his incredible mouth. His sensually curved lips parted as he sucked in a deep breath of his own.

Noelle almost closed her eyes, in pure self-preservation, but curiosity demanded that she check out the rest of him. Pulling away a tiny bit, until the back of her head hit the mirror, she glanced down, noting the width of his shoulders clad in a black leather bomber jacket. The expanse of his chest beneath that jacket was impossibly broad and the tight shirt he wore emphasized a flat stomach and lean waist.

They were still pressed together from the hips down, but she didn’t need to see anymore. She was feeling enough to know the man was perfect all the way to the floor. One of his feet was wedged between hers, and his firm leg, clad in soft jeans, scraped ever-so-deliciously against her thin panties.

Panties. She was clothed in nothing but the sinfully sexy black bra and panties she’d worn today for trying on little black dresses! Heat rushed through her body and she knew he must be able to see her blush.

“Hi,” he said softly.

Noelle couldn’t make her voice work.

“I was barreled into by a woman on a shopping mission.”

And Noelle was barreled into by a man she wanted to lick like a six-foot tall ice cream cone. She instead settled for licking her lips.

The man watched, his eyelids lowering a bit and his eyes growing darker. As if he’d just noticed her attire–or definite lack thereof–he looked down at her body.

Suddenly, Noelle didn’t hate underwire, push-up bras so much. Because the stranger’s jaw went tight and his breathing deepened as he noticed the curves of her average-sized breasts pushed to dizzying heights by the painful lingerie. Judging by the way he swallowed hard and his whole body tensed in response, she’d say the bra was a very good thing indeed.

“Are you okay? I didn’t hurt you, did I?” he asked, that sultry, deep voice rolling over her like a hot, heady breeze.

That voice. Oh, goodness, that voice. She recognized it immediately as the truth finally sunk into her lust-hazy brain. There was no denying it–the man pressed against her like a longtime lover was the stranger from the fitting room next door. The one who’d just been with another woman. Ewww.

She intended to put her hands on his chest and shove, repulsed at the very idea. Only one thing stopped her.

The stranger’s physical reaction.

Oh, he was definitely reacting to their closeness, as she was. The air was thick and ripe, electric almost. Their faces were mere inches apart and they shared each breath. They also, without a doubt, shared a wild, uncontrollable excitement. For her part, Noelle knew it because of the sudden aching tightness in her panties and the rush of warm moisture between her legs.

As for him…well, his body’s age-old reaction was rapid and completely unmistakable. Feeling him grow hard and huge against her hip, her legs went weak.

She wanted. She hungered. She needed. She craved.

He dropped a hand to her bare waist to steady her, the touch more sinful than helpful. “Did I hurt you?”

Shaking her head, she whimpered, unable to control the response to his obvious sexual arousal. Not to mention her own.

Suddenly, Noelle began to suspect she’d misread the situation she’d overheard in the next room, and not just because she wanted to be wrong. Thinking about it, she realized there had been no endearments or moans. In fact, she’d heard no unusual sounds at all. And the most important thing: the woman’s suggestive words could not have meant what Noelle had assumed they’d meant. It was impossible. Because there was no mistaking the power and, er, size of the stranger pressed against her.

No way would any woman question his possession. Not with what Noelle now knew he had to offer. A lot. A whole lot.

She whimpered again.

“This is like something out of a movie,” he murmured, still making no effort to back off her.

She cleared her throat. “I guess it is.”

“If it were a movie, you know what would happen, don’t you?” His voice was low and thick with identifiable hunger.

She wasn’t sure of what he meant. But she had a feeling….

“Sorry, sweetheart, but I’ll regret it as long as I live if I don’t go for it,” he said, sounding apologetic.

Before she could even ask what he meant, he was dipping his head closer. Not giving her a chance to react, he caught her mouth in a kiss as hot and sensual as it was unexpected.

Noelle didn’t think, didn’t plan, didn’t hesitate. She simply took the pleasure of the moment and ran with it.

Immediately turning her head, she parted her lips for him. Responding with a soft groan, he followed her lead and licked into her mouth. Noelle lifted her arms to his shoulders and tangled her fingers in his hair–as she’d wanted to the second she set eyes on him.

Their tongues met lightly, then drew apart, only to meet again in an instinctive rhythm that matched the crazy, sensual erotic encounter they were sharing. She reveled in him, tasted him, let him taste her in return. The desire to sink down to the bench and pull him down on top of her was overwhelming.

But a noise outside intruded and reality began to sink back in. As if he’d realized the same thing–that he was in the arms of a nearly naked stranger–he ended the kiss and stepped back.

The sudden loss of his warmth and strength almost had her following him to demand more of the mind-numbing pleasure of his mouth. Before she could do it, though, a woman’s voice intruded. “Excuse me, sir, this is a public place!”

The stranger whirled around. Even while doing so, he maneuvered his body to protectively block Noelle from view. The response was so automatic, so instinctive, she suddenly learned a lot about this sexy man.

Not enough, though. Not nearly enough.

She needed to know more. His name. His address. His marital status. The size of his…bed. Mostly she needed to know if she was correct in thinking he had not just been in the arms of another woman right next door.

Fate, however, helped by a scandalized store clerk, decided she wasn’t going to learn any of those things. Because as the unseen woman continued to whisper loud admonitions, the black-haired man in the leather jacket stepped out of the dressing room. The last glimpse Noelle had of him was the amazingly sexy view of his backside, clad in soft faded jeans. And one flash of a smile–along with a quick wink–as he turned his head to look at her over his shoulder before closing the door behind him.

Three minutes later, once she was dressed and able to breathe normally again, Noelle stepped out of the dressing room. The fitting room beside hers where the mystery couple had been having their unusual conversation was completely empty.

And her dark-haired, green-eyed stranger was gone.

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If you’d like to order a copy, just click on the name of the country:

U.K.

France

Italy

Spain
I couldn’t get the Spanish cover to come up, but if you click below, you’ll see it in another window.
DOTC%20Spain.bmp

U.S. Original Cover

For you U.S. readers, this book sold out here faster than any other book I’ve ever done…it was completely gone by last March. However, it is available as an e-book. Click here if you’re interested.

My Friday winner is:

#63 ANITA Z

CONGRATULATIONS and Email me at carlyphillips@mac.com with your mailing address so I can get your prize out to you ASAP!

And now for my Sunday funnies - which I admit to saving for six months since they came in email, JUST for today!

:love2: HAPPY SUNDAY :love2:

What is your one favorite holiday show or TV special?

JD: That’s easy — Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer. God, I still love that show! Oh, and Frosty the Snowman, too! A movie that I really enjoy watching around Christmas time is The Santa Clause with Tim Allen. What a fun holiday movie! I love that it’s now a “trilogy”, and plan to buy all three of The Santa Clause movies so I can watch them with my grandchildren some day — way, way, WAY into the future, LOL!

CP: Also easy - Frosty the Snowman - because the girl’s name is Karen (my real name!) and because the magician has the rabbit who I just adore. For those of you who don’t know, I collect stuffed rabbits, LOL.

LK: Oh, that’s SOOOO hard. Probably my favorite “TV special” that I get so nostalgic about is the Peanuts Christmas. Just love that moment when Linus stands on the quiet stage and tells the real meaning of Christmas. As far as movies, though, it’s a real toss-up. Muppet Christmas Carol is one of my faves, as are Christmas Vacation, Scrooged, White Christmas, It’s A Wonderful Life, and The Christmas Story.

JEL: I love them all! I love, love, love Santa Claus is Coming to Town and the sequel, A Year Without Santa Claus, if for no other reason than the Heat and Snow Misers! (I hear NBC is airing a live-action remake of this next week…I’m VERY wary.) We have Rudolph, Frosty, Little Drummer Boy (not at all PC, which is why its never shown anymore) and one other on video. Two years ago, Walgreens pharmacies were selling the characters from Rudolph as plush toys and I drove all over town until I had a complete set. Love it! As for movies, I love how they always show Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone as a Christmas movie! But for pure Christmas, I’d go with Miracle on 34th Street and White Christmas–again, just for the song, Sisters. Especially when Bing and Danny sing it. Classic! I’m also a huge Peanuts fan…just reading Leslie’s answer gave me chills. I love my CD with the music!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! You’ve all been asking for the final book in the “Simply” series and SIMPLY SEXY is coming in January! But indulge your sexy side early by entering to win a Carly gift pack that includes a Victoria’s Secret’s So Sexy Shimmer and Shine Gift Set! VS set includes a sexy pouch, So Sexy Nourishing Shampoo (2 oz.), So Sexy Nourishing Conditioner (2 oz.) and So Sexy Smoothing Shine Serum (.34 oz) - (heartily endorsed by me!), along with an autographed, hard to find original version of SIMPLY SEXY and a signed cover flat of the NEW SIMPLY SEXY cover.

Visit my website for an excerpt or to preorder the new version today!

You all know the drill. Post a comment and check back on Sunday for the weekend funny and the name of the winner!

:love2: HAPPY FRIDAY! :love2:

The days are quickly dwindling down to “the day”. Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or any other holiday in December, there are only so many more shopping days left until those gifts need to bought.

Are you done with your holiday shopping? At the risk of people throwing tomatoes at me, I’ll admit that I’m done with my holiday shopping. In fact, I was pretty much done by mid-November. I’m the type of holiday shopper that shops all year round for Christmas presents. When I see something I know someone would like, I buy it and put it away until Christmas. Usually, by the end of November, I’m done with my holiday shopping. Yee-haa! Now all I have to do is get everything wrapped and ship out the gifts for those who live out of state.

I truly love the holidays, but I HATE dealing with crowded malls and stores. I hate standing in long lines to buy one item, pushy, impatient people trying to get to that sale item, and carrying a dozen bags back and forth to my car that I had to park two miles away from the store because the mall is so jammed packed with shoppers.

Some people love all this stuff and feel it’s part of the “holiday spirit”. In fact, I know that there are thousands of people who wait in anticipation for “Black Friday”, which is the day after Thanksgiving when all the stores are competing for sales and they offer items at ridiculously low prices to draw in the crowd. Usually, on that Black Friday, (and depending on the deals being offered) customers arrive at the store after eating their Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and camp out until the store opens at 5 am the next morning. Then they rush into the store in hopes of grabbing their coveted item before the hundreds of other customers rushing into the store at the same time.

UGH. I see this scenario on TV every Black Friday and I just shudder and shake my head. To me, those “deals” (and some are phenomenal!) just aren’t worth the trouble – not to mention the pushing, shoving, and the risk of being trampled! However, I know there are people out there who do this every single year and love the thrill of getting the item they wanted at an unbeatable price. But not me. I wouldn’t be caught dead shopping on the day after Thanksgiving – even if they were giving stuff away for free!

So now Black Friday has come and gone, and for most people they didn’t buy all their gifts on that one day. Some will purchase their gifts during the weeks leading up to the holiday, and then there are others (like my FATHER!), who waits until the day or two before Christmas to venture out and find my mother her present. And sometimes, because he waits until the last minute, he doesn’t find what he wants (because everything has been picked over) and comes home grouchy and swearing at the crowd of pushing and shoving customers he had to deal with. Well, this could have been avoided if he’d just started his shopping a few weeks earlier!

Again, there are some people who love shopping on those last few days before Christmas, and I just don’t get it. Never have, never will. But hey, all the power to those of you who are brave enough (i.e. crazy enough ) to venture out into those overwhelmingly crowded malls and store — and enjoy the crush of people!

I do have to admit, that even though I *believe* all my shopping is done, I inevitably forget to buy a gift for someone. In that case, there’s the internet (which is how I did most of my shopping this year!). I love buying what I need without ever leaving the house, and having it delivered a few days later. Ahhh, for me that’s pure luxury! And if it’s too late to order something over the internet, I’m a firm believer in gift cards – tuck one of those babies into a card and wha-laa, instant gift!

So, what kind of shopper are you? Are you like me and get all your shopping done before December, or do you wait until the last minute and fight the crowds?

Subtitled…why deadlines are bad for the electric system of your house.

Despite the title of this post, I did not lose my temper this week. Okay, I might have…once…but that’s not what I’m writing about. What I did was literally blow a fuse.

While I was partying with my TARA sisters (Tampa Area Romance Authors) at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club where they make awesome margaritas, amazing salad and to-die-for creme brulee, my husband and daughter spent the day on Saturday taking out our Christmas decorations. With the exception of the 12 foot inflatable train that I *had* to buy (and which my husband still doesn’t know where he’s goign to put it because it will kill the grass…remember, I’m in Florida, we still have grass this time of year)…all the lights and our animated reindeers went up. Luckily for me, my husband was too tired to go buy a tree (which means I get another week that I don’t have to decorate it…a chore I hate.)

But the lights were up, bright in white, green, red, blue and gold. And then…I was hit by deadline dementia.

You see, whoever wired our house (likely the contractor we hired/fired six years ago to redo our bathrooms) but the bathroom heater onto the same circuit as the outlet on our front porch. I know, I know…you’re asking WHY I need a bathroom heater in Florida. Well, I hate to be cold…let’s leave it at that. (I mean, I live in Florida for a reason!) Anyway, I knew…have known for years that if I turn on the bathroom heater in my daughter’s bathroom when the Christmas lights are on, we’re going to flip the breaker. Then I have to go unplug stuff and climb onto something to make me taller to flip the breaker back.

Or so I thought.

This year, I blew the whole fuse. It’s been four days and we have no electricity in the hallway or my daughter’s bathroom. We used an extension cord to get the TV and the Tivo working again, because, hey, Monday night was Heroes. The electrician comes tomorrow and I can only imagine what he’s going to charge. All because I did something I knew I wasn’t supposed to do.

I blame deadline dementia. This is a very real condition and causes random bouts of extreme forgetfullness. In the throes of DD, I’ve been known to back into people’s cars who I know are parked behind me, leave my daughter’s lunchbox on the table so I have to go home after dropping her off from school only to realize I’ve also forgotten my purse, left the dog outside (actually forgetting I have a dog) and other various and sundry examples that my brain is in the book and not in my life.

The book will be done by next week…I have about 50 pages to go. But in the meantime, I have advised everyone not to leave me in charge of their children or pets…or the electrical systems of their houses. It’s just a safety precaution.

This has been an eventful time for me and not all good … I need to use this space for a variety of things today … and in the end I had to break this into two weeks worth of posts …

I hope you all don’t mind, but I need to post this to the world and share …
I lost a good friend last week, someone who has been in my life for at least fifteen years if not more. Michael Larizza ran the kennel around the corner from my house. He passed away and Buddy and I will miss him terribly. So here is my tribute to a wonderful man:
December 1, 2006

Some people were put on this earth to impact other people’s lives. Mike was one of those people. He didn’t just love animals, he loved their owners. Mike wasn’t just a groomer or a boarder, he was my friend. Someone I called just to say hi; someone who gave me advice when I needed it. Someone who I counted on to always be there. I could go into detail about all the wonderful things Mike did for me, but the specific stories don’t matter. His wonderful, generous spirit did. One month ago, I said to him, “If something happens to me, I want you to take Buddy.” I knew I didn’t have to ask, I just knew he would. Just as I knew when I had to give up my beloved Maltese Spike, Mike would find him a loving home. Mike kept Spike and even turned away owners who lived too far away because he wouldn’t be able to check on him and know how he was doing.

He gave us one of his female dogs, Dylan, which was such an honor that he’d trust us that way. Then he took her back when asthma prevented my husband from keeping her. But he always made sure we visited with her and she remembered us.

Not a day will go by when I don’t think of Mike and miss him. Not a day will go by when I accept that he is gone. I just felt I wanted his friends and family and all those who loved him too to know how special he was to me. I loved him and I hope I added something to his life as well.

I know he is with Cowboy and Tyler and at peace.

This is my way of thanking him for being my friend.
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This next part is not a joke. This is also a tribute to … to Max, the Pot Bellied Pig.
George Clooney lost his beloved pet since the late 1980’s. I’m so sorry for him.
RIP Max.

**************
I’m sorry to be a downer today. It’s part of life I guess, and I need to let everyone know that someone special is gone.

Okay, I’d hoped to be done this new book by today’s blog, remember? Well…not quite.

I’m soooooo close, I promise, and I’ve been working my butt off (don’t I wish, considering its size!) I know I’ll be there in a day or two. But there are a lot of threads and strings in this story and I’ve been trying to make sure they all tie together and form something neat by the time all is said and done.

Anyway, I thought that since I’m so deep in this right now, you might like a glimpse at the “process.”

Reaching the final dramatic confrontation in this story has caused a ripple effect through the entire book, as it does with all of my books (the big ones, at least.) I get to the climax, everything has finally come together in my mind, and I realize I now have to go back and layer in all the things I missed when writing the story, simply because I was not sure about what was going to happen. (I’m a by-the-seat-of-the-pants writer, not a plotter. The Plotmonkeys help me create the bones of the story…I flesh them out as I go.)

No problem. Layering’s great (ask Julie!) So I’ve done that–I’ve added tidbits, red herrings, clues, and entire scenes. I’ve rearranged chapters to make those new scenes fit. I’ve deepened characters, I’ve broadened the scope of the story, I’ve fleshed out places where things were skeletal and trimmed up the fleshy bits.

Here’s something else I have to confess: I’ve also changed my margins. I always do this. I start my book with 1.25 margins all around, so it feels like I’m really getting somewhere in the early stages. Then around page 100 I change them to 1” all the way around, kind of a standard measure. Then as I hit the 2/3 point and realize I have a lot of story still left to tell, I push it to .9 on top and .8 on bottom, that way I’ll get 25 lines per page, which is a publishing standard.

Then I hit the last 50 pages or so. And I panic. How in the name of God am I going to be able to finish in 50 pages? So I bump the right margin to .9, then look at the chapter ending page of every chapter, hunting for short ones. When I find them, I go through that particular chapter removing words and sentences, pulling up paragraphs, until I suck that short last page into the preceding ones. I get myself another 10 or so pages that way.

Yes. I play this game with every book. Pathetic, isn’t it? What can I say…it’s my process. :-)

Here’s one more tiny snag I’ve hit with this book…maybe you readers can help me with it. These characters have a great, fun, sexy relationship, but for a number of legitimate reasons, they don’t completely have sex until quite a ways into the story. (Though they do just about everything else…lol!) When I originally wrote it, it was fine, about 250 pages in (out of around 400. Ish.) Now that I’ve layered, however, adding an entire plot thread, I realize the first fully consummated love scene has been pushed to about page 300! That’s ¾ of the way through the book. I’ve never had it come (ahem…) that late. Early, yes. I’ve had sex in chapter one in my category books, but not late. (Not I…I mean, my characters have had sex…oh, you know what I mean!)

Anyway, I’m wondering, what’s your take on it? Does it bother you to read a big, meaty book and have the characters having lots of sexy encounters, but not doing that until the last quarter of the book? Personally, I love it because the sexual tension between them is so thick it’s making me sweat! But are readers going to be cool with it?

Curious minds want to know…

Thanks all! Hope you have a great week.

Congratulations to TINA, message # 64, you’re the winner of this week’s Jungle Madness Friday! Woo hoo–hope the nice long bath & sexy books are just what you need to relax after all that decorating. Drop me a note at author@lesliekelly.com with your snail mail address and I’ll get your prizes out to you. Thanks for visiting!

Now, one of my favorite comics…Welcome December!

Do you and your family have special traditions for the holidays (primarily Christmas or any holiday in December)?

JD: For us, it’s just all about spending it with family. That’s our tradition, and it’s pretty simple. When I first met my husband, he and his family celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve, which we still do. This is nice because it leaves Christmas day open for my family, and we don’t feel like there is a “tug-of-war” issue of who to spend Christmas day with. We know that we’ll be at his family’s on Christmas Eve, and after we open our presents on Christmas morning, we spend the afternoon with my family. It’s a nice balance and has saved us from feeling “split in two”, so to speak! I think when my own girls are married we’ll do the same thing — celebrate with them on Christmas Eve, and let them have Christmas day to spend with their husband’s family.

CP: Hmmm … We always say the blessings and light the Menorah before the kids get their gifts. Of course this is supposed to ensure that they appreciate the holiday traditions and reasons behind the holiday but you know the truth. They’re kids and they want to rush through the candles and get to the presents! Still I know that when they get older, the fact that we kept this tradition will push them to keep it with their families too. I also put an electric Menorah in a window in the front of the house and we light it at night, one more bulb each night, just like the Menorah with the wax candles in the kitchen.

LK: I remember so strongly growing up with very special traditions unique to my family, so when my girls were born, I wanted to do the same thing for them. So to this day, as soon as Santa Claus marches by in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, my hubby puts on the same Christmas CD. We are NOT allowed to have ANY evidence of Christmas in the house before that moment–no movies, no music, no decorations. (Of course, I’ve been shopping & stashing gifts away for 11 1/2 months!) Thanksgiving night we typically watch a Christmas movie–quite often The Muppet Christmas Carol. We all watch our entire collection of Christmas movies over the next few weeks. The same ones–year after year. Then, on the day we decorate our Christmas tree, I make a big pot of my spaghetti sauce (this is a big deal, an all-day thing.) We all put everything on the tree, but there are certain “special” ornaments that have to be put on the tree by one person or another. And we all put our name ornaments on together.

After that day, I freeze the sauce, then thaw it out on Christmas Eve. I make a big tray of lasagna, so my Italian hubby gets a little taste of the food he grew up with during the holidays. That night, we all get in our jammies–quite often the girls’ would be new, and matching–and we sit around the tree for hubby to read The Night Before Christmas. Drinking hot cider (sometimes with the A.C. blasting in Florida, just so it would “feel” like Christmas…lol!) After that, we each get to open just one present. Then it’s cookies & milk & wine for Santa. (Hey, Santa likes coming to my house!) When they were little, the girls would go to bed and about five hours later they would finally fall asleep and we could bring in big haul from all the places in the house where I’d hidden it. Now that they’re older, the two teenagers love being “in on” the big bringing-out ceremony. They love finding out where I’ve had everything hidden throughout the holiday season and they inevitably sucker us into letting them open a Santa gift or two.

Boy, this is going on so long…sorry! To finish up–Christmas day is filled with presents and food and friends and family. Sometimes we go to relatives, or they come to our house. Some years it’s just been the five of us, which is every bit as special. Funny, we’ve got this new’ish tradition: for the past few years we’ve been watching Monty Python & the Holy Grail on Christmas night! The girls now expect it. Boy, I love the holidays!

JEL: I have so many Christmas traditions in my family, but my favorite is Christmas Eve. We celebrate Noche Buena (the Cuban Christmas Eve) with all the trimmings…roast pork, black beans and rice, platanos, the works. My aunt makes the most delicious deviled crabs in the universe and it’s a goal to see who can eat the most. Now keep in mind we have about 40 people for this event, so she makes hundreds of the suckers and they go fast. She can barely get them out of the deep fryer before people are picking them off, dousing them with hot sauce and inhaling what’s left. If someone is going to be late, others have been known to take a few and hide them for the late arriver…but sometimes, we forgot where we hid them. I remember the year my mother had a very funny smell coming from her cookbook cabinet…where she discovered moldy deviled crabs two months after Christmas Eve! (She rarely uses cookbooks!) We eat a lot, we laugh even more and at the end of the night, we sing happy birthday to my brother, who was a Christmas baby. And yes, we open presents. I’m the Christmas Elf, replete with hat…my father was always Santa, but after a surgery a few years ago, I took over and I’ve been doing it ever since. Good times, this! My favorite night of the year.