My sexy Latinx short story featured in Whoa!mance podcast

(Author’s note: The Twelve Naughty Days anthology is no longer available, so I’ve made this short story available on Patreon. For just $3/month, you can read a steamy short story from me every month! You can learn more here.)

It may be long past Christmas, but I just discovered this phenomenal 45-minute podcast about my "Twelve Drummers" short story in the Twelve Naughty Days holiday anthology.

“Twelve Drummers” is about what happens when a Latinx jewel thief, a Latinx museum guard, and an ancient Mexica drum magically collide on the longest night of the year.

Here's what Morgan and Isabeau of the romance podcast Whoa!mance had to say about it:

Morgan: Very very steamy. I realize it’s been a long time since I read a Sierra Simone-level steam.

Morgan: I’ve become desensitized to pretty run-of-the-mill sex scenes.
Isabeau: I don’t know that I feel that I’m desensitized, but this is certainly something that blows me out of the water. Like I haven’t read this level in a really long time. And I think that’s probably not necessarily unique to this author.

Morgan: I actually read a lot of supremely boring sex scenes. You know, where it’s pulling all the levers and pushing all the buttons. It’s putting the cream in the Twinkie, but this is someone making an eclair and slowly warming the shoe pastry and baking it. This is a whole other level.
Isabeau: It’s a feast.

Morgan: The majority of this story is a sex scene so it is taking up more real estate, but I also feel like it doesn't detract from the character building in this short story. It's rich for twenty pages let alone twenty pages of an erotic romance. The world building was perfect, you had just enough things. Our characters dream or goals, their reason for being in this space, their reasons for doing what they do, are completely fleshed out.

Isabeau: This books gives you something evocative.

Morgan: And I think it’s so fucking keen that you take this pretty Christian-centric content of the twelve days of Christmas and being part of an anthology with that theme and being able to cleverly but not shoehorn in a different cultural tradition that’s kind of a subtle critique. Once again this story occupies just 20 pages of this anthology.

Isabeau: I was mostly surprised by every sex scene. I just walked in to each one like, “What’re we gonna do next?”

You can listen to the whole podcast here.

And you can still get your hands on Twelve Naughty Days, which will only be available for a limited time. Each story is a never-before-seen short from NYT and USA Today bestselling authors: K.A. Linde, Skye Warren, Fiona Cole, Nana Malone, Claire Contreras, Nikki Sloane, Giana Darling, Sierra Simone, CD Reiss, Laurelin Paige, M. Malone, and me!

All of the proceeds go to the Trevor Project, which is a national, 24-hour, toll free confidential suicide prevention service for LGBTQ youth. Twelve Naughty Days is available in ebook, paperback, and audiobook. Just like the ebook, all the narrators on the audiobook are donating their work and time to the project!

Two sexy stories in upcoming anthologies just in time for Christmas!

(Author’s note: Twelve Naughty Days is now available and was named a #1 Amazon bestseller! Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Vol. 7 has been delayed until Dec. 21 because of supply chain issues.)

Right before Christmas, I will have sexy short stories coming out in two well-known anthologies. The Best Women’s Erotica of the Year collection puts together stories from some of the best steamy romance writers in the business — I was thrilled to be asked to submit for Volume 7, along with romance greats Adriana Herrera, Holley Trent, Lucy Eden and others! It will be available in ebook and paperback.

The other anthology pulls together incredible New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors to celebrate Twelve Naughty Days. It’s a sexy anthology based on the Twelve Days of Christmas song; I got Twelve Drummers Drumming 😅! I can’t wait to see what the other incredible authors — Sierra Simone, Skye Warren, M. Malone, Nana Malone, and others — come up with!!

One thing that makes Twelve Naughty Days collection very exciting is that all of the proceeds will go to the Trevor Project, which is a national, 24-hour, toll free confidential suicide prevention service for LGBTQ youth. Twelve Naughty Days will be available in ebook and audiobook for a limited time. Just like the ebook, all the narrators on the audiobook are donating their work and time to the project!

What are the stories about?

For the Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Vol. 7 anthology, I wrote HOT POCKETS, a story about a busy married couple with kids who have to squeeze in time for intimacy whenever they can find it. Editor Rachel Kramer Brussel asked us to write about surprise for already established couples. In romance, we usually write about people’s journey to their happily ever after; I loved this opportunity to write about people after they’ve reached it.

The story explores how two people who love and are devoted to each other keep the “happy” in the HEA when real life and all its demands — jobs, kids, packed weekends, errands, chores, tight budgets, aging parents — get in the mix.

A #1 Amazon besteller

For Twelve Naughty Days, I wrote TWELVE DRUMMERS. Discover what happens when a Latinx jewel thief, a Latinx museum guard, and an ancient Mexica drum magically collide on the longest night of the year. It’s verynaughty. I’ve already made my mom swear not to read it (or if she does, she has to swear to never EVER tell me!!!!).

Can I read an excerpt?

I've loaded up excerpts of the short stories on the super secret, newspaper-subscribers-only spot on my website where subscribers get all their goodies! Want a sneak peek? You can sign up to my newsletter here.

Join me online to celebrate the release of Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Vol 7

Why my next book is close to my heart…

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I just turned in After Hours on Milagro Street, my first book in a new series, to my editor. It’s about a Mexican-American middle sister and black sheep who returns to her small Kansas hometown to save the family bar and discovers an idealistic East Coast professor standing in her way. It’s a high-heat, small town contemporary with:

  • a huge Mexican-American family

  • two opposites who are irresistibly attracted to each other

  • a just-one-bed scenario

  • and lots of small-town legends and family lore.

A story close to my heart

 
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I was born in a small town in southeast Kansas; the Mexican-American side of my family has lived in the same town since the early 1900s. But so often, when I told people that I was from Kansas, they’d answer, “Where are you originally from?”

As if someone who looks like me, with the last name Lopez, can’t be from Kansas.

People think small towns can only look one way. In today’s day and age, that has unfortunately translated to a belief that the United States only looks one way, or was somehow an ideal when it looked less diverse. My family’s story – part of a community since 1908, tortillas at every meal, huge 50-person family gatherings for lunch every Sunday after mass, a Mexican food stand at our town’s annual celebration, piñatas at every birthday – shows that America has been an integration of a lot of people, a lot of cultures, and a lot of ideas for a long time.

The Milagro Street series is finally an opportunity for me to tell that story.

Why I wasn't -- at first -- excited to tell this story

After the ugliness of the 2020 election season, I wasn’t sure I wanted to tell this story. I was embittered about the backwards way we seemed to be heading as a country. Also, my story was about a Mexican-American male bartender coming home.

I realized the core story that I have to tell is about women finding their strength to determine their destinies, so I decided to make the story about three sisters coming home. And that’s when the idea really came alive for me. This series is about three Mexican-American sisters who return to their small Midwestern hometown to revive their family bar and, to their surprise, save the town they didn’t realize they loved. It's got all my standard tropes: bonkers story lines, strong women, supportive men, a focus on life's pleasures, lots of sexy times. But it’s also an opportunity to talk about the magic of brown women. The world is made magical by the strong, diverse women who make an impact on it.

I’ve seen the cover for After Hours on Milagro Street and it’s GORGEOUS!!! I can’t wait to show it to you. The release date is July 12, 2022, but you can preorder it now. Preordering is a great way to show your favorite authors love because it builds hype for the book. Thank you!

Newsletters subscribers will be first to know all the exciting After Hours on Milagro Street news.

Listen to the Filthy Rich series on audiobook

I’m thrilled to announce that today — with the release of Serving Sin in audiobook — you can now listen to the entire Filthy Rich series.

The whole series was produced by Dreamscape Media, who produced audiobook versions of Helen Hoang’s The Bride Test, Veronica Roth’s Divergent, and Candace Bushnell’s Is There Still Sex in the City?, and narrated by the astonishing Scarlette Hayes.

Over the years, many of you have reached out personally to let me know how much you enjoyed Scarlette’s re-creation of these books. I say “re-creation” because that’s exactly what Scarlette did with them — make them come alive in a new way, even for me, the author! I remember the first time I heard Scarlette read one of my love scenes. I was laughing, blushing and shocked — and I wrote it!

Here’s what Audiofile Magazine had to say about her work on Lush Money: While their relationship is initially quite contentious, Hayes lets listeners hear how it gradually develops into something far more complex and passionate as they get to know each other.

As fantastic as her work was on it, she took it even in further in Hate Crush. I don’t know if at that point she knew my tone and the characters better, but listening to her reading Hate Crush is like listening to an audio play of it. She completely sweeps you away. And her reading from my hero’s point of view is so hot that I forget that it’s not a hot guy in my ear!

Audiofile Magazine said Hayes perfectly captures Sofia's incandescent rage at not being taken seriously despite her demonstrated excellence in her chosen field simply because she has the misfortune and audacity to be a woman.

Scarlette has over six years of voiceover experience and specializes in stories that are sassy, sophisticated, and sexy. Passionate about bringing characters to life, she has narrated titles in both English and Spanish as well as some in Greek. Give her a follow on Instagram!

I can’t wait to see what she pulls out for Serving Sin!

Purchase the Filthy Rich audiobooks at your vendor of choice!

Follow me on Chirp to be notified when my audiobooks go on sale.

My interview with Supernatural's bodyguard, Clif Kosterman

On Saturday, June 12, a dream came true for me when I got to interview Clif Kosterman, the close protection specialist for Supernatural’s Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki for the last 15 years. Anyone who’s followed me on social media for long knows what a huge fan I am of the CW’s Supernatural, a fun horror-fantasy series that has the distinction of being the longest-running horror series in history.

I didn’t interview Clif for pure fan’s sake. I’d become fascinated about the job of close protection specialists — or bodyguards — when researching my bodyguard romance, Serving Sin.

Clif is a true good-guy hero in real life!

Some highlights from our interview include:

  • How he got involved with Supernatural way back in the first season

  • That time he had to go rescue Jensen, who’d been abandoned on the side of the road

  • The first time he knew Jared was head-over-heels for a woman on the show

  • How he and the guys feel about the enthusiastic Supernatural fandom

  • The incident when police handcuffed a man for trying to enter Jared’s house

  • Why this close relationship works for these “three musketeers”

Click below to watch full video!

Win a paperback copy of SERVING SIN signed by Clif Kosterman!

On Thursday, June 24, I’ll be releasing my monthly newsletter with an opportunity to win one of four paperback copies of Serving Sin with Clif’s signature! Sign up now and enter Thursday!

Join me as I chat with Supernatural's bodyguard Clif Kosterman

Join me as I chat with Supernatural's bodyguard Clif Kosterman

I am thrilled -- beyond thrilled, actually, more flabbergasted and still in shock -- to announce that, to celebrate the release of my bodyguard romance, Serving Sin, I will be chatting with bodyguard-to-the-stars Clif Kosterman, close protection specialist for Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, stars of the TV show, Supernatural.