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.

Book Tuesday-- Lauren Dane's Laid Bare

Having spent most of my time in Egypt doing things other than reading (although I did pick up some thirty year old Harlequin Presents written in Arabic-- too cool) I have been on something of a book binge since I got home two weeks ago. Despite the fact that I have a book due in 12 days (Dark Embers-- my first dragon shifter paranormal w/a Tessa Adams) I have been reading everything I can get my hands on. So for me to say that my favorite book from the last two weeks-- and probably last two, three, or four months-- is Lauren Dane's Laid Bare is saying something.

But I have to tell you, if you've never read Dane before, this is the book to start with. It's an erotic romance, heavy on the romance and the erotic journey of its main characters. The book follows Todd, a straight-laced, by-the-book kind of guy as he falls in love with Erin, a rocker chick completely at home with herself and her sexuality. Their love story isn't an easy one, however-- it includes a ten-year separation, a marriage for him, losing a child for her, and a bunch of other things to boot. But it is truly a beautiful story of love and redemption and finding happiness when you least expect it. I highly recommend it!!!!

Movie Monday

So today, I thought I would blog about a movie I caught on TV one night last week when I couldn's sleep. It was about two in the morning and I was flipping channels when a blast form the past hit me right between my sleep deprived eyes. Dirty Dancing was on and I ended up staying up until four to watch the whole movie.

Dirty Dancing came out when I was in junior high and future romance-writer that I was, I fell instantly in love with it. I mean, come on, what's not to like? Good girl falls for bad boy, bad boy breaks her heart, good girl gets bad boy in the end. Yum-my! It follows a very similar pattern to my all-time favorite movie, Grease (yes, I know, I'm a nerd) as well as my books-- Full Exposure and Tie Me Down especially-- and, of course, my life as well. Yep, I fell for a very hot, very sexy, very bad boy when I was 21-- and ended up marrying him a few months after we met. What can I say, I'm a sucker for a bad boy and a happy ending ;)

How about you? What kind of movies do you like? Or, barring that, one kind of men do you like? Bad boys or choir boys or somewhere in between? Don't forget to check back later this week for the rules for my Tie Me Down Contest Extravaganza that starts Thursday and runs through next Monday.

Happy Monday :)

Tie Me Down Contest

Next Thursday, I'll be announcing a four day contest to promote my newest book, Tie Me Down. The grand prize is a $100 gift certificate to the winner's choice of Barnes and Noble, Borders or Amazon. But there are a number of smaller prizes as well-- one for each day-- that include autographed copies of some great romances, a cool belly dancing skirt I picked up for the occasion in Egypt, a scarf (the book's not called Tie Me Down for nothing) and a yummy bath set from Victoria's Secret.

The contest will entail checking out excerpts from Tie Me Down that I have posted at six different websites (those websites will be listed here on Thursday, September 3) and answering a question from each excerpt. Everyone who participates will be entered into a daily drawing for the smaller prizes and the grand prize drawing for the $100 gift card.

More info to follow soon, so check back often :)

I'm a bad blogger

Yes, I've been a bad blogger, but I plead being out of the country with no internet access. But I'm back now and hope to pick up where I left off. So, I'm giving away two copies of my September 1st release, Tie Me Down. Just head over to http://tinyurl.com/lx9kts and leave a comment to be entered to win.