Fun Friday: Recipe for the Best Drink Ever!!

I admit that I'm not much of a drinker, but I fell in love with this drink the first time I ever had it. So, in deference to Cole, my main character from Tie Me Down-- who is a huge Patron drinker and an Academy Award winning documentary maker-- here is The Red Carpet!

3 oz Patron Silver Tequila
1 oz Patron Citronge Orange Liquer
4 oz cranberry juice
dash of raspberry juice
squeeze of fresh line

Put ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well. Strain into a martini glass rimmed in gold sugar. Garnish with an orange wedge.

Yummy!

Anybody else have any fun, easy drink recipes???

Wolff Wednesday

Not much to report this week, I'm afraid. Still biting my fingernails to the quick as I wait to hear on my YA submission. Although, Tie Me Down debuted on the Barnes and Noble bestseller trade list, so I am very excited about that. Thanks to everyone who ran out and got a copy :)

So, since I don't have much to report, how about you? Any of you have good news to report? Let me have it!!!

Oh, and I'm blogging over at www.bethkery.com and giving away a copy of Naughty Bits. Come check it out.

Book Tuesday: Dark Slayer

I'm a big paranormal fan (read huge fan here) and it just occurred to me that I have yet to blog about a paranormal book. So I thought I'd change that today-- with Christine Feehan's Dark Slayer.

Now, I'm a Feehan fan-- have been for almost four years now. I love her Game series, am intrigued by her leopards, but absolutely adore her Dark series. What can I say? Even after all this time, I'm a sucker for a vampire-- no pun intended.

I admit for a while there were a couple books that I wasn't thrilled with, but I have to say with Dark Slayer she is at the top of her game and setting the bar high. I loved this book-- particularly the poor, tortured hero whose unbelievably terrible past gave him an empathy and acceptance not often seen in Carpathian males. Add to it the most powerful female Carpathian Feehan has ever written, and I was in love. Seriously.

Here's the back cover blurb:

A rumor has persisted in the vampire world of a dark slayer—a woman—who travels with a wolf pack and who destroys any vampire who crosses her path. Mysterious, elusive and seemingly impossible to kill, she is the one hunter who strikes terror into the hearts of the undead.She is Ivory Malinov. Her only brethren, the wolves.

Long ago betrayed by her people, abandoned by her family, and cast out by everyone she held dear, Ivory has lived a century without companionship or love. She has sustained her sanity by the habit of the hunt and the custom of the feeding. Until the night she picks up the scent of a man, her unexpected salvation. Her lifemate. The curse of all Carpathian women.

He is Razvan. Branded a criminal, detested and feared, he is a dragonseeker borne of one of the greatest Carpathian lineages, only to be raised as its most despised—and captive—enemy. Fleeing from his lifetime of imprisonment, Razvan now seeks the dawn to end his terrible existence. Instead he has found his deliverance in the Dark Slayer.In spirit, in flesh and blood, in love, and in war, Ivory and Razvan are made for each other. For as long as they dare to live.

If you're even half the paranormal fan I am, I sincerely recommend this book!

Movie Monday: Duplicity

So, I've never been a big Clive Own fan. I know I should be-- I mean, he's got everything I usually like in a guy. Tall, dark, handsome, accented-- what's not to love? Honestly, his appearance in closer did me in a few years ago and I just have not been able to get past that for the last however many years and movies he's done. At least, I couldn't get past it until I saw Duplicity.

I know the reviews on this movie weren't stellar, but I have to tell you that from a romance writer's perspective, I thought the movie was HOT. There's just something about witty, almost nasty dialogue between two people who are incredibly attracted to each other-- and not above messing with each other's minds-- that makes me happy. I know, I know. It's very twisted of me, but then, that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who reads my books.

So, if you haven't seen Duplicity yet, I recommend it. It was great fun and even my oldest son and husband enjoyed watching it, so it's not just a chick flick!

Have you seen Duplicity yet? Did you like it? If not, what good romantic comedies have you seen lately (if any)? I'm always on the lookout for a good love story.

Oh, and I'm blogging over at Naughty and Spice today, and giving away a copy of Tie Me Down. Stop by and comment on what makes a good erotic romance for a chance to win:

Blogging Today at Damned Scribbling Women

Hi there!

I'm blogging today at the very cool site, Damned Scribbling Women, about what I've learned from my characters. Stop by and say hi : http://tinyurl.com/nhdpnz

Have a great weekend!

Quick and Fun Fall Recipe

Thought I'd do something a little different today and post one of my favorite Fall dip recipes for your enjoyment. It's a dip for sliced apples and it is divine.

Yummy Apple Dip (note the original name ;)

1 package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup Heath Toffee Nuggets
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mix all ingredients together and chill for one hour. Serve with sliced apples and enjoy. And don't worry, no calories at all in this dip ... LOL!

Wolff Wednesday

Since I've ben inundating youw ith stuff about Tie Me Down, I thought I'd talk about something totally different today-- namely, the Young Adult Paranormal I'm writing that is currently out on submission (fingers and toes and assorted other body parts crossed that it sells, pleeeeease ;)

So anyway, here's the first few pages of the book I am currently calling Rip Tide. I'd love to hear what you think of it.

Chapter One


“Hey, Tempest, shake a leg!” Mark, my on-again, off-again, presently on-
again boyfriend dug into the waves, hard. “We’re going to miss it.”
“Chill out,” I yelled back, even as I paddled faster. “We’re almost there.”
My built-in wave radar was telling me we still had a couple of minutes before the wave crested—but, like Mark, I wanted to make sure I was in the best position to catch it. It was probably going to be the last one we had time for this morning. Already the sky had lightened, the pink and lavender streaks that had ushered in the dawn changing to the usual blues and ice-grays of a February morning over the Southern California Pacific.
The waves kicked up spray—ice cold and salty sweet-- as we crashed through them. A snapper hit in front of me but I ducked through it. I was angling for the bigger wave behind it, focusing on it like a shark on a blood trail. As I did, the resentment I usually felt toward the Pacific and its siren’s song drained away.
I was vaguely aware of Mark and some of my other friends laughing and joking as we worked our way around to catch the party wave, but then even that was gone and it was just me and my board and the vast and endless ocean.
The wave started to crest and I pushed up quickly, smiling as my board responded like it was just one more part of my body. But then, it had always been like that—from the first day my dad paddled me out to sea on his board when I was no more than five—the ocean, the board and I were one.
“Looking good,” Mark called to me and I threw my head back, laughing the way I never dared to on land. But out here it was hard to hold back, even harder to resist the pull of the water and the sheer joy of the roller coaster ride.
The wave we were jumping in on wasn’t particularly big or particularly complicated—but surfing it was enough to send exhilaration rushing through me. More than enough to make me feel powerful and capable and, for a few short minutes, in control of a life that was rapidly spinning beyond my command.
The water surged beneath my feet and I shifted a little, searching for the sweet spot I knew was just a knee bend away. Laughed, again, as I found it. Braced for the downside—
I never caught it.
Instead, my legs turned to jelly beneath me.
Throwing my arms wide, I struggled to regain my footing. Seconds passed—one heartbeat, two-- long, strung-out moments of utter astonishment. And then I was falling, tumbling into the waves with no more control than a rag doll.
Shocked—I couldn’t remember the last time I had actually wiped out—I kicked out, tried to scissor my way back to the surface.
I didn’t move—couldn’t move.
My legs had gone completely boneless, flopping helplessly in the water no matter how hard I struggled to move them.
Heart pumping like a piston at full-speed, I tried not to freak out. No big deal, I told myself, clawing at the water with curled fingers. I’d been swimming in the ocean since I was a toddler. I knew what to do.
Using my hands to spin myself around, I kept my face turned towards the surface and started the long trek back up towards air.
One foot, two—it was hard going but I was rising. Relief coursed through me. See, Tempest, I told myself. You can do this. Just another day in the—
The undertow grabbed me.
I froze for a few crucial moments, my brain and body simply shutting down despite the adrenaline slamming through me like the craziest party drug out there.
The rip tide swirled and danced around me.
Pulled at me with greedy fingers.
Tossed me around like I was nothing more than random driftwood.
And still I couldn’t move, couldn’t respond.
I was dragged deeper, into colder water, the ocean crushing in on me from every side while wave after wave plowed into me, over me.
Through me.
And that’s when it really hit me--I was trapped. One more victim caught in the brutal grasp of the Pacific at dawn.

And the Grand Prize goes to ...

Yay! Thanks to everyone who participated in my Tie Me Down Contest Extravaganza-- I had well over 200 entries, so I am thrilled!

With no further ado, here are the winners:

Monday's prize: Tabitha

And the Grand Prize Winner is: Armenia!!!!!!!!

So, ladies, contact me at tracy@tracywolff.com with your snail mail addys and I will get the prizes in the mail!!!!

Thanks again for playing along!

Sunday's Winner

Lady Lyonness is Sunday's winner. So shoot me an e-mail at tracy@tracywolff.com with your snail mail and I'll get a copy of Naughty Bits in the mail to you. Congratulations.

Day 2 Winner!

And the Saturday daily winner is cas2ajs@suite224.net ! Drop me your snail mail at tracy@tracywolff.com and I'll pop the prize in the mail. Thanks for playing.

Remember, 2 days to go in the contest!

1st Daily Winner!

Romantic Girl won the Friday drawing, but there are still three daily prizes and the Grand Prize up for grabs. So get busy on the scavenger hunt :) Three days left ...

The Tie Me Down Contest Extravaganza Begins Today!!!!

Yay! The Tie Me Down Contest is finally here! It runs from today through Monday, with daily prizes that include a belly dancing skirt straight from Egypt and a beautiful scarf (it's not called Tie Me Down for nothing ;) The grand prize-- the winner of which will be announced here Tuesday, September 8th-- is a $100 gift card to the winner's choice of Barnes and Noble, Borders or Amazon.

In true scavenger hunt form, I've arranged to have excerpts of Tie Me Down posted at all of the blogs listed below. So, to enter the contest, all you have to do is visit the list of blogs below-- everything will be posted by Friday, September 4th-- read the excerpts, and then e-mail me the answers to the questions below at tracy@tracywolff.com . Doing so will enter you in a daily contest as well as the Grand Prize contest.

Daily Prizes:

Friday: Bath set from Victoria's Secret

Saturday: Authentic belly dancing skirt direct from Egypt

Sunday: Autographed copy of The Spice Anthology, Naughty Bits

Monday: Scarf

Grand Prize:

$100 Gift Card to the winner's choice of Barnes and Noble, Borders or Amazon

Rules of the Contest

1. All entries must be complete (i.e. all questions answered) to be considered for the grand prize.

2. All entries must be e-mailed to tracy@tracywolff.com by 11 p.m. CST on Monday, 9/7/09.

3. From each day's entries, 1 winner will be chosed for the daily prize.

4. The grand prize will be chosen from all the entrants and announced on Tuesday, 9/8/09 at this blog.

5. Please do not post the contest to sweepstakes venues-- the author reserves the right to end the contest early if it is posted to said sweepstakes venues.

List of Questions and Websites:

1. Love Musings, http://www.tracywolff.blogspot.com/

How long has Genevieve been on the police force?

2. Sizzling Pens, http://www.sizzlingpens.blogspot.com/

What does Genevieve order?

3. My Friend Amy, http://www.myfriendamysblog.com/

What was the victim's name?

4. Tote Bags and Blogs, http://www.authorsoundrelations.blogspot.com/

What did Genevieve find that made her leave Cole's apartment?

5. Fresh Fiction, www.freshfiction.com/blog

What does Cole say about Genevieve's hands?

6. Lust in Time, http://www.lustintime.blogspot.com/

What are Cole and Genevieve drinking in this scene?

7. Romance Reviews Today, http://www.romrevtoday.blogspot.com/

At what hotel did the murder take place?

Thanks for playing and good luck. I hope you enjoy reading the excerpts as much as I enjoyed writing them. One warning, though: some of them are definitely meant for those over 18 only.

Excerpt #1

It was hot as only New Orleans could be.
Hotter than a cat on a tin roof.
Hotter than the Cajun cooking her mother used to make.
Hotter than hell.
And she was burning up, fury and sorrow eating her from the inside out.
More than ready for the day from hell to be over, Genevieve Delacroix slammed out of the precinct on the fly, then cursed as she plowed straight into the sticky heat the city was known for. It rose up to meet her like a wall—thick and heavy and all-consuming.

Pausing to catch her breath, she stared blindly at the planters full of cheerful posies that lined the front of the precinct. Her partner, Shawn, had picked a hell of a time to take a vacation—in the middle of the busiest week homicide had seen in years. After working four homicide scenes in as many days, it was a miracle she could still put one foot in front of the other.

Today, she’d awakened to a ringing phone, news of a brutal, sex-related homicide the first thing she’d heard as she surfaced from a sleep so deep it was almost like death itself. Yesterday it had been a murder-suicide. Two days before that, a domestic dispute turned deadly.

Not to mention the bizarre call she’d gotten earlier that afternoon promising her—with sexually graphic delight—that the caller would be seeing her very soon. As the only female on the homicide squad, she got her fair share of calls from weirdos, and this one was nothing unusual—but it still put her back up, as they all did.

Sighing, she rubbed a weary hand over her eyes. This week, the Big Easy was anything but.
Taking the precinct steps two at a time, Genevieve glanced around the French Quarter, where she’d worked and lived for most of her life.

Tonight she could see none of the beauty the Quarter was known for. The architecture, the colors, the history—it all faded beside the sickness she’d witnessed that morning. The most recent in a long line of fucked up and twisted crimes that ate away at the city’s population like a cancer.

Her argument with the lieutenant rang clearly in her head as her long legs ate up Royal Street’s narrow sidewalks.

Not enough similarities in the causes of death in the murders.
Not enough similarities in the three victims.
Not enough evidence, in her boss’s not-so-humble opinion.

But in the eleven years she’d been on the force, Genevieve’s gut had never been wrong, and right now her instincts were screaming that the case she’d caught this morning—the brutal rape and murder of a nineteen-year-old Tulane student—wasn’t a freak event. A serial killer was at large.

Tie Me Down Hits the Shelves Today!

Just wanted to let you know that I am so excited--my brand new book, Tie Me Down, hits the shelves today for your shopping-- and reading-- pleasure! And because I'm so excited, here's a little excerpt for you to whet your appetite!

Suddenly, she saw his lips move, saw the demand for information in his eyes, but a huge clap of thunder drowned out the words. Seconds later, the sky opened up and began to pour. She barely noticed the rain as Cole stalked toward her with feral eyes.
“Why’d you leave this morning?” he asked again. His voice was low, guttural.
Though Genevieve told herself not to move, she was backing up before her knees got the message from her brain. The show of fear, of submission, pissed her off, added to the anger that had been simmering since she’d seen his name on those logs hours before.
So instead of answering his question, she shot back one of her own. “What the hell are you doing researching murders that happen in my jurisdiction? What the hell are you doing researching me?”
He didn’t answer, just kept walking her back until his rock-hard body was flush against hers. Once again she told herself to hold her ground. Once again she found herself backing up. All the way this time, until her back was against the rough stone wall near the end of the alley.
“You don’t want to fuck with me on this, Genevieve. Why’d you sneak out like that, without even telling me where to find you?” Cole’s voice was lower now, more animal than human as he took advantage of her predicament, closing in until she was utterly surrounded. The wall at her back, his hard, unyielding body hovering only inches from her front. His powerful biceps caging her in from the sides.
His black-magic eyes demanding that she tell him what he wanted to know.
The wind picked up, made her shudder as it whipped around them, as wild and fierce as the attraction she couldn’t fight. It lashed the rain against her, against him, as it streamed down their bodies.
He pulled back, looked at her with wicked eyes that proclaimed just how much he wanted her—and just how far he would go to have her—and she became aware, for the first time, of how she must look to him. Her clothes were stuck to her and practically transparent, her nipples showing clearly through the thin lace of her bra, the even thinner cotton of her T-shirt.
Maybe she should have been frightened, with the storm raging around her and Cole burning beside her. But ten years on a male-dominated force had ensured she was not easily cowed.
Resolving to give as good as she got, Genevieve pressed her head back against the wall and glared at him with eyes she knew reflected her own fury, as the storm raged around them. “Answer my question and I’ll answer yours.”
“Fuck that.” He grabbed her wrists with one hand, his long fingers spanning both with ease. Yanked her arms above her head. Moved the last few inches until his body was pressed against hers from chest to thigh.
His breath was coming in short, hot pants against her ear, his heart racing crazily against her breasts. And his erection, his infinitely arousing, unbelievably sexy erection, rested hot and heavy against her stomach. The rain made the barrier of their clothes nearly nonexistent, and she felt his heat against the very heart of her.
Shock raced through her as her brain demanded that she refuse to yield. But her body was firmly in control, the pleasure it took from Cole’s unprecedented dominance more than she could fight.

And don't forget to stop by Thursday and get the rules for my Tie Me Down Mega-Contest. The Grand Prize is a $100 gift certificate to the bookseller of your choice.