Our celebratory contest for the release of Lover’s Talisman in paperback is now over and the winners names have been drawn. Without further ado, the winners are:

Prize #1, a gorgeous handmade beaded Twilight’s Fancy necklace and a Talisman Bay tote bag.

The winner is…Nyla Thompson! Congratulations!

Prize #2, autographed copies of The Twelve Quickies of Christmas Volume 1, which includes our loosely connected Talisman Bay short story, “Angel in Moonlight” and Things that Go Bump in the Night IV, which includes another loosely connected Talisman Bay short story, “Twofold Desires”, plus a Talisman Bay tote bag.

The winner is…Jessica C! Woot! Woot!

Prize #3, the DVD box set of Season Five of Angel and a Talisman Bay tote bag.

The winner is…Carla Forehand! Yippee!!

Congratulations to all our winners. Please drop us an email with your street address so we can send out your prizes! You have one week to claim your prizes, or we’ll draw for another winner.

Make sure to head over to our contest page for the new contest we’re participating in this month. Have fun and good luck!

We’re participating in the big Holiday Hell contest taking place over on the blog of Samhain Editor Angela James. Head over to Angie’s blog from now through December 12 for your chance to win. Daily prizes are being awarded! There are 2 Kindles being given away, tons of books, and lots of other awesome prizes!

Originally released in 2003, Lover’s Talisman is back and better than ever. When Lisa and I had the chance to tackle this book again, we had several more years of writing knowledge under our belt, so we put on our rewriting and revising hats and polished the heck out of Lover’s Talisman. We loved getting a second chance to work on this book, to spend time with these characters who we love and adore. We are so damn proud of this story now–and we hope the readers enjoy spending time in Talisman Bay as much as we do.

And what makes this day even more special is that Jaci Burton, one of the coolest damn authors on the planet, gave us an incredibly awesome cover quote.

“Pulse-pounding suspense, riveting action, demons around every corner and smokin’ hot sex, Lover’s Talisman has it all. I loved this book!”

Could we get any luckier? Jaci rawks!

Lisa and I hope you’ll fall in love with the Shadow Walkers–like we have–and check out Lover’s Talisman.

Welcome to Talisman Bay, where all hell breaks loose on a daily basis, especially when you fall in love.

Book one in the Talisman Bay series.

For twelve years Stephan Rashleigh has lived in the shadows, patrolling the city streets as leader of the Talisman Bay Shadow Walkers. The danger of his world leaves no room for a woman in his life. Until now. It should have been easy–rescue Mariah, then let her go. Except once she’s in his arms, he can’t walk away. Vibrant, breathing life into him, she makes him feel again.

Mariah DeSilva isn’t interested in falling in love, even with the gorgeous hero who rescued her from a brutal attack. When her best friend is kidnapped, she turns to the only man she can trust to help. The more time she spends with Stephan, the less she can hide her growing feelings for him. There’s so much more between them than an explosive romp between the sheets, against the wall and everywhere in between.

As they search for Mariah’s missing friend, a sinister evil is revealed, someone who’s been watching, waiting for Stephan to reveal his greatest vulnerability–falling in love. This enemy will stop at nothing to wipe out the Shadow Walkers and claim Mariah for his own.

Warning, this title contains the following: Bondage and knife play (don’t worry, no one gets hurt). A fantasy ménage scene—two brothers loving one woman, yay! Magical orgasms. Pleasure sparks. Lots of demon killing, lots of cursing while killing demons, and even more sex (without the demons).

EXCERPT: Mariah Meets Stephan
EXCERPT: First Kiss

CLICK HERE TO BUY FROM AMAZON

CLICK HERE TO BUY FROM B&N

CLICK HERE TO BUY FROM BAMM

Oh, and after you run out and buy your copy of Lover’s Talisman, make sure you come back and enter our contest. There’s just a couple days left to enter, and you don’t want to miss out on all the fantastic prizes we’re giving away.

Today we’re blogging over on the Samhain blog about Lover’s Talisman, coming out this Tuesday in paperback. Come check it out and let us know if you’re the type who likes to live on the edge and throw caution to the wind.

Lisa and I have had our heads down writing like madwomen the last month. That’s why it’s been so quiet (okay, dead silent) on the blog here. We’ve made phenomenal progress on our book, and should be finished with our complete rewrite of Forsaken Talisman by the end of the month, which means, fingers crossed, it’ll be released in early Spring next year.

Tonight, we’re chatting over in the Romance Junkies chat room, celebrating the paperback release of Lover’s Talisman, which comes out in just 3 weeks and one day. The chat tonight is 9pm EST, 6pm PST. We hope to see you there!

I recently started thinking about having a guest blogger or two stop by, but I wanted to do something a little different–I just hadn’t figured out what. Around that same time a reader friend I met through MySpace emailed me talking about ebooks and how she’d become addicted to them after a couple of her friends and I had harassed her into trying them. And I thought, hey, this is just what I’ve been looking for.

So without further ado, I’d like to introduce my friend Katie to talk about ebooks:

I hate change! I have been fighting very hard not to look at eBooks. I like my books made out of paper. I like to turn the pages. I like to smell the paper and that is why I love going to a book store. Books just have that certain smell to them. Plus I am obsessed with bookmarks. You can’t use one of those with an Ebook.

I had friends telling me to stop whining and just try it. Ashleigh Raine was at the top of the list telling me to try it. After fighting it for what seems like years, I caved in and tried one. The rest, as they say, was history.

Now about 6 months later I belong to one of those eBooks sites. Okay, I belong to 7! I have bought a few books and also some free short novels. Yup you read that correctly. I am now addicted to not only paper books but also eBooks. Just shoot me now!

Some of the benefits of eBooks: you can buy your book on line and never have to leave for the bookstore. You press a button and you’ve got a book. Instant happiness and no makeup needed. They take up less space. The best part of eBooks is that you can hide them better from your husband. He will never know how bad my addiction is now! *evil laugh*

The only negatives of eBooks are pretty small. They don’t smell like the paper books. I can’t afford the e-readers so I use my laptop to read them. I have hinted about an e-reader for Christmas but I won’t hold my breath. That is it for the negatives. Pretty short, huh?

Also, there are so many new authors out there that only are published in ebook format. Think of all of the great stories you are missing.

~~Katie is a stay at home mom of two and has been married for 14 years. They all live in sunny Florida. Her biggest dream is to become a published author one day. She started reading books at a young age and never looked back. Katie sometimes even stayed home from school sick just so she could finish a book. Sorry, Mom! She loves to read mostly paranormals but will read anything that is put in front of her. She has a To Be Read pile that is bigger than she is. Katie has enjoyed reading eBooks so much that she has joined a review site, where she reviews under the name Megan to keep her multiple personalities separate. To read her latest reviews or others go to Bitten By Books at http://bittenbybooks.com/ She has her own blog http://katiebugdomesticdiva.blogspot.com/ where you can read about her family or anything else that might pop in her head.

Lover’s Talisman is being re-released in paperback in two months. Lisa and I couldn’t be more excited that the Shadow Walkers are back and better than ever.

We’re celebrating with a big, mondo contest with multiple prizes and multiple ways to enter. You can win a necklace, a DVD box set of one of our favorite TV shows and some autographed books.

So what are you waiting for? Head on over to our contest page to enter. And tell all your friends to enter too. And don’t forget, Lover’s Talisman, the revised, awesome paperback version with a gorgeous new cover, is available to pre-order now on Amazon.com.

I got lost. I can’t freakin’ believe I got lost, but I did. And not in the conventional, wrong turn kind of way, either. I followed the signs as usual, but at one point there were three production signs, the top two were for a different show and the bottom one was for the one I was on…but they were all pointing to the same driveway and I didn’t see that bottom one in time.

Oh well… I called casting and they helped me get where I was supposed to go. I was only ten minutes late and they weren’t pissed off about it at all.

In fact, I still love this show. The first time I was on was great and so was the second. This third time was no different–well, no different in general, but completely different in practice. Last two times, I was an upscale recovering drug addict. This time, I was a pedestrian with my 1968 Mustang Fastback and it was 1970-something.

I’d dragged a ton of clothes to this gig because, well, I have them, I might as well use them. And for a great change, the costumers loved me.

It was a simple scene, but since there was a flipped car and a bunch of water involved, the set-up was kind of involved. I ended up driving my car to the set before going through hair and make-up.

Since my eyebrows and the front of my hair had been burned off in a small kitchen explosion brought on by team effort stupidity between my husband and I, my hair is a little shorter than usual. When I stopped by the hair trailer, she just sighed and said there wasn’t enough for her to really do anything with it. I just kind of smashed it down and pretended I was Janet from Three’s Company. It’s too short, but I felt the need to try.

Then, in the make-up trailer, the lady started going nuts with me. She drew on eyebrows to hide my stubble and even put fake eyelashes on me to lengthen my burnt lashes. She really had a great time on my eyes and good golly, that’s the best I’ve felt since the explosion. It’s been a little over a week and it just seems to take forever for hair to grow back when you have none. At least the burns on my eyelids, lips and nose are done. They took about five days to heal. Now they’re just a little tender, but no big deal. I just want my facial hair back!

Anyhow, once I was out of there, we sat around in holding for awhile (which was air conditioned…it was getting freakin’ hot and humid outside and we were all thankful for the opportunity to stay cool) before heading to the set. I was saved as a driver and they’d planned on having me drive my Mustang, but it was too loud. Of course. Happens every time.

Instead, I drove one of the other picture cars…through a towering water effect on the first take before they toned it down for the following ones. It was another miserable black vinyl, no air-conditioning car just like my Mustang, so I kinda felt right at home. I just drank a ton of water so I didn’t dehydrate.

Basically, after those four or five takes, we were done, but they were still filming and a few of the other extras worked. I ended up reading a book and/or talking with others there. It wasn’t a bad gig at all. I just wish it wasn’t so hot. That was no fun at all.

Traffic was so bad getting there, that it took me a full two hours. I changed my route on the way home just to change the scenery a little and it took me an hour and a half despite the actual mileage was longer. I’ve certainly learned my lesson!

I got to keep the fake eyelashes as a souvenir and just before actually working, I snapped a picture with my phone. I’m really not supposed to do that, but I was careful not to get anything that’s supposed to be some big secret in the background, so hopefully I won’t get chewed out. I just really wanted to capture the brilliant make-up job I’d been given. It was kind of Twiggy-esque.

Congratulations to Stacie, who won our collection of Comic Con goodies, some items from Hollywood, and an Ashleigh Raine purse. Stacie, I’ll be sending your package out by the end of the week. I hope you enjoy your box of fun!

Lisa and I will be posting another new and fun contest within the next couple weeks, so keep coming back and checking the website for more details.

Today I’m blogging over on the It Takes Two blog, a big thank you letter to all the fans who’ve written us in the past. I hope you’ll stop by and share some love on the blog–feel free to post public fan letters to any of your favorite authors in the comments, and authors, feel free to share your thanks to readers too. Let’s add some love to the blogosphere today!

I was in The Changeling starring Angelina Jolie, directed by Clint Eastwood back in October and December of 2007, but was afraid to post about it as it was happening in case it jeopardized my chances of being called back if they needed me for reshoots. But now that principal photography has long since wrapped and I’ve heard it’s likely an Oscar contender, I have posted my amazing experiences on the show.

It was an absolute dream come true.

The exterior shot in October 2007.

December 2007 Day 1: Almost made it into frame.

December 2007 Day 2: Got a close-up!

December 2007 Day 3: Swallowed so many fake pills, I rattled!

December 2007 Day 4: A cockatoo named Larry

The movie is supposed to release in November. I’m definitely going to go see it as soon as it comes out. I have a really great chance at being in frame. I was even given a back story!!!!