(aka Shit Prophet Says) – this one’s from BOUND FOR KEEPS which comes out February 19th!!!!!  WOOT!!!  

“You’re the one with the Army connections.”

Reed grabbed his cell phone. iPhone. Whatever the hell it was. He never needed fancy—he just needed it to ring.

And it did. Prophet was on the other end. A good and dangerous man to know.

“Proph, it’s Reed.”

“Boy, you only call when you need a favor.”

“Ditto, asshole. And who the hell are you calling boy?”

Prophet hooted. “Hit me.”

Reed gave him the intel, and Prophet promised he’d have something within twenty-four hours. Reed heard bombs going off in the background and declined to ask where and what Proph was doing now.

***

Prophet keeps showing up in books he’s not the hero in.  Because he can.  And I can no longer stop him…(click to make the gif work…)

Okay, so, you can now  buy Free Falling on ARe (All Romance Ebooks) in Mobi and epub versions.  The Sony and Kobo versions are being formatted as we speak and I will link them here as soon as they go live.

Of course, it’s still available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Thanks to all the wonderful readers who’ve already bought!  I’ve gotten such great emails about Blue and Mick 🙂

Dear Sinus infection I knew I’d get from my son, 

You suck.

Dear Doctor who’s known me and my family FOREVER and still refused to call in a prescription without seeing me even though I get sinus infections constantly,

You suck.

Dear leftover Augmentin RX I found in cabinet with enough pills for 7 days,

I love you!

Dear Postman,

I don’t understand why, when I fill out a carrier pick-up form, I have to say things like, please ring the doorbell and WAIT AT THE DOOR for me to bring you my package.  You are required to wait a full minute or two, and should not be ringing the doorbell and immediately turning and walking down the path.  It would also be appreciated if you know that you’re going to be ringing my doorbell, that you probably should hold onto the mail rather than throwing it through the door’s mail slot, requiring me to pick all the shit up before I open the door, requiring me to run you down the path so I can give you my package.

Grade: You suck.

Dear Tumblr,

Why you no let me save password so i don’t have to retype it every.  single. time.

Dear Yahoo,

You know I don’t like change. Why, Yahoo, why?

Dear Christmas Tree,

I wish you could walk yourself into my house.  Bonus points if you could decorate yourself.

Dear Amazon,

You don’t require me to leave my house.  There’s nothing more to say.

Well, actually Free Falling is here (Amazon...with no cover.  And I don’t know why)..and it’s now up on B&N (waiting on Apple and I’ll add that link when it goes up.  Go forth and purchase 🙂  

Sometimes falling in love is the most dangerous thing of all…  

Blue’s a thief who lives for adrenaline and danger. When he meets Mick, a mercenary and a hitter, he feels an immediate attraction. But Mick reneges on a bet they’ve made, leaving Blue pissed and confused.

When they meet again a year later, Blue’s in terrible danger after having walked into the middle of one of Mick’s jobs. Mick saves him, and although the two men have fallen for one another, they have no idea how to handle that kind of intimacy that’s been forced on them.

But when Mick goes missing on a job, Blue’s the one to go after him, determined to save the man he loves no matter the cost.

*** 

I had a lot of wonderful help on this book.  It’s my first self pubbed book, but not my first book, so I know how important editors are.  I cannot recommend Sarah Frantz highly enough.  She’s amazing! And Sharon Muha jumped in and did a fast proofread for me under the gun and I also highly recommend her as well!

Thanks so much for everyone who helped spread the word about the contest!!!  I was going to put everyone’s links (including your likes and such) into random.org but my son wanted to help.  So…I wrote down everyone’s names (so if you had 4 entries, your name got put in four times and yes, if you emailed me your links instead of posting them, they were included!) and then my son pulled the names 🙂  And it kept him busy so I thank you all.  It took a long time but it was worth it 🙂 

In the end, there were 67 entries.

So…the winner of the Kindle or Nook is…Bobbie Baynard!!!

And the winner of the $25 Amazon gift certificate is…Ursula!!!

Both of you, please email me at authorsejakes AT gmail DOT com to collect your winnings 🙂  And Bobbie, let me know if you’d prefer Kindle or Nook!

Free Falling will be up at some point soon on Amazon and B&N and iTunes…I’ll keep you updated but it’s being uploaded today!  I’m so excited for this release!

And I’ll be doing another contest for Bound For Keeps release in February, so check back 😉

So, in honor of FREE FALLING’s imminent release (and I’m really hoping it’s up everywhere by December 5th, but since it’s the first time I’m self-publishing a book, it can take up to a week for Amazon / B&N to upload.  Next time should be much easier)…I’m having a contest!!!

First, what you can win:

1st prize:  Kindle Paperwhite (wifi only) or Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight, along with either a copy or preorder of FREE FALLING and a pre-order of BOUND FOR KEEPS (available 2/19/13)

2nd Prize:  a $25 Amazon or B&N gift card

How to enter:

First, help me promote the contest by linking to this post.  And then let me know in the comments on this post where you talked about this contest (your Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads, your blog, etc) with the links to your posts and you’ll be automatically entered to win.  And everyplace you mention it gives you another chance at winning, so if you Tweet and Facebook about it, your name will be entered twice.  I’ll also give you an extra chance at winning if you Like my SE Jake’s Facebook page but that can’t be your only entry. *

How to find the URLs to your links:

For Facebook, if you hover over the timestamp of your post and click, you’ll get a separate page with a URL. And here’s a link to help you do it with Twitter as well:
https://support.twitter.com/articles/80586-how-to-link-directly-to-an-individual-tweet

Dates:

This contest will run from today through Sunday evening (12/2), midnight EST.  I’ll pick the winner at random and announce sometime during the day on Monday and post a blog with the winners so they can contact me to collect their prizes!

Thanks in advance for entering and spreading the word!

* I’ll keep checking spam to make sure your posts with the links don’t show up there – I’m hoping it doesn’t cause a problem and if it does, I’ll just ask you to email instead.  But let’s see how this goes first!

I’ve been doing some website updates – I still have work to do on the book pages and can’t get the Men of Honor series in the right order even though I’ve numbered them correctly within the wordpress pages.  But hey, you can’t have everything, right?  

Anyway, I’ve finally got Blue’s (aka Free Falling) cover!  I’m in love – thanks to the wonderful Frauke from CrocoDesigns!  I’ve also got an excerpt up for Free Falling here. Release date is November 27, 2012 and I’ll let you know when everything goes live, since I’m self pubbing it.

Sometimes falling in love is the most dangerous thing of all…

Blue’s a thief who lives for adrenaline and danger. When he meets Mick, a mercenary and a hitter, he feels an immediate attraction. But Mick reneges on a bet they’ve made, leaving Blue pissed and confused.

When they meet again a year later, Blue’s in terrible danger after having walked into the middle of one of Mick’s jobs. Mick saves him, and although the two men have fallen for one another, they have no idea how to handle that kind of intimacy that’s been forced on them. 

But when Mick goes missing on a job, Blue’s the one to go after him, determined to save the man he loves no matter the cost.

And the first two chapters of Bound for Keeps:  Men of Honor book 5 is up here.  That’s a February 19, 2013 release. Again, please feel free to contact me for ARCs of both books if you’re a reviewer or it you’ve got a blog you like to do reviews on.  Or even if you’re very active on posting Amazon and Goodreads reviews, I’ll for sure consider giving you an ARC.  Just contact me – email addy’s on this page.

In other news, preschool is killing me.  Snack is working out okay, as is the baggie clothing situation, but it’s killing my writing time.  It’s hard to explain, because it’s only a couple of days a week for a couple of hours, but I can’t get into real writing knowing that I’ve got to go back out into the world.  I can do some writing, but nothing settled.  But the moms are all nice.  One of the teachers I love (I actually know her from competitive swimming when we were both like six plus)…and the main teacher…she’s nice, I guess.  But she’s got this idea in her head that I told her that I let my son do whatever I want at home and I’m like, uh, I’d never say that because I don’t let him do whatever he wants.

But she doesn’t believe me.  And yes, I was also the first mom called in for a parent-teacher conference.  Because my son is what they call a kinesthetic learner.  Which basically means that I’ll be sitting in parent teacher conferences constantly for the rest of my life, because he likes to climb and move and experience everything.  He loves school – loves it.

So yes, he moves a lot.  But he can also focus for long periods of time and he’s improved a lot with his climbing on things since the start of the year.  (He’s also disassembled the fire alarm.  Several times.)

But when I asked the teacher how he was with the other kids, she said, “He’s so good to them – he’ll actually bring over toys to give to them.  He’s so kind.  And he’s the happiest kid – he’s always smiling.”

And I’m thinking, honestly, I’m not really listening too seriously to anything else you have to say.  Because he’s kind.  And he’s two.  And he loves school. And what more can I ask for?

I’m thinking of getting him a drum set for Christmas.  And yes, I realize you’re all looking at me in exactly the same way my husband did when I told him this.

Hey guys!  If you’re on Goodreads at all, please join my group 🙂  You can start topics, ask questions, etc.  Or just be my friend and we can dish books 🙂  I’m just starting out there, trying to navigate the waters.  Don’t leave me there all alone…

And, if you’re looking for a quick peek into the upcoming Free Falling (it’s Blue’s book – a novella coming out in November), look no further:

One year earlier

Blue had the hotel safe open and the necklace tucked into his palm when a big hand moved gently over the back of his neck. He stilled, barely breathing, until Mick murmured, “Caught you, fair and square.”

“Not the time,” he said through gritted teeth.

“I think it’s the perfect time.”

“If you fuck this up—”

“I don’t expect you to put it back. Come on, Blue—take your punishment like a big boy,” The bastard was smiling — Blue could feel it as the unease gnawed at his gut.

He never got caught. Never liked giving up control, but for this man…

It would still be hard. But shit, he’d never welched on a bet in his life and he wasn’t about to start now.

They’d been playing catch up for years now, circling each other for business and for the threat of pleasure. And Blue was finally caught.

Bound For Keeps – coming February 19, 2013  

Since losing their beloved third to cancer, Keith Masters and Johnny Lou Reed haven’t thought about filling the void in their lives with anyone else. Until a stormy Christmas Eve, when a half-frozen, newly discharged Army Ranger shows up on their doorstep—with no memory of who he is or how he got there. 

The former Marine in Keith is suspicious that he can’t turn up any information about Shane anywhere, not even an address. Direct questioning will have to wait until they’ve gotten the boy well.

Shane knows it’s only a matter of time before Keith and Reed figure out his past. And when they learn the depth and the darkness of the secrets he holds, he could get them all killed.

In the heat of the dark winter nights, the three men discover a passion that heals the gaping wounds in their hearts. And Shane wonders, despite the danger hot on his heels, how he will ever bear to leave…

I don’t know if I’m going to survive my child’s preschool experience. Everything about it seems hell bent on making me feel stupid. Now, I admit, sometimes I can be dense. You know, when I was first looking into adoption, I called an agency and was prepared to leave a message because no one ever answers their phone. So I was kind of unprepared when someone actually did – on the first ring. This was how the conversation went:

 Me: Hi, I’m interested in adopting a baby.

Random Adoption Woman: What kind of adoption?

Me: (after a long pause) You know, the kind where you get the baby at the end?

Woman: (obviously terrified at the possibility of me actually becoming a parent) I meant, Domestic or Foreign?

Me: Oh – domestic.

Woman: Race?

Me: (hesitantly) Me…or the baby?

(I almost hung up at this point and figured I’d just call back but you know I’d get the same person and you know they’d recognize the caller ID)

Woman: (completely exasperated by this point) Let’s start with you.

Me: White

 Woman: And the baby?

Me: (I almost said, well, what’ve you got but I stopped myself) Um, we’re pretty open.

Yeah, okay, so keep that in mind. So this preschool thing. I get this six page list of orientation stuff. And already my husband’s like, “we have to sit for more than an hour at parent orientation? Can you tell them that after like half an hour, I’m pretty much not going to remember anything they say?”

 Me: OMG – we have to bring snack!

 Husband: It’s like a bad episode of Everybody Loves Raymond – remember how their unapproved snack turned out?

Me: I don’t know if I want my child eating some random snack.

 Husband: We’re not going to have to make friends, are we?

 Me: I don’t think we’re cut out for this. We have to transition him for two weeks. I have to sit in an auditorium with other parents for three hours for the first three times.

(Granted, I guarantee I’d be doing this anyway, but in my car where no one would know. In the parking lot. And I live literally 4 blocks from the school, if that…)

Okay, so then the newsletter gives directions on what to bring for your child on the first day. It says: bring an entire fresh change of clothes for your child (got that part) in a ziplock.

In. A. Ziplock. Now look, I work from home in my pjs so it’s kind of like I’m out of touch with the outside world, love having things delivered and hate shopping with a passion. So I thought, maybe they now make special ziplock clothing baggies? Because how can I fit an outfit in a ziplock? Even a freezer one. I mean, they’re not big clothes, but I’m picturing myself folding them all up like a square and then not being able to close the bag and then…

I won’t even begin to go into directions for the drop-off line.