So back in August of 2006, my husband and I went on our first vacation without kids since we actually had kids. We went to Las Vegas, one of my favorite places in the world and we ate in restaurants without paper tablecloths and crayons and had pretty drinks at three thirty in the afternoon by the pool.

We also went to a burlesque club called Forty Deuce. Now, I have a thing about pin up girls and the whole glamour age of feminine beauty. I love the pictures of women from the 40’s and 50’s and burlesque embodies that era so very well. Burlesque isn’t stripping, it’s not about showing as much skin as possible. Rather it’s about the art of the tease, of sensual smoke and mirrors where it’s about what you don’t see more than what you do.

There’s dancing on stage and a live jazz band. The women are truly amazing dancers, lithe, sexy, they clearly put a lot of time and energy into their routines as well.

Anyway, as we made our way back home after our vacation it was with an idea for a story in my head with the heroine as a burlesque dancer. Dahlia Baker was born in my head and by the time my agent contacted me a few days after I’d been back to ask if I’d be interested in participating in a pitch she was going to make for a Vegas themed anthology, I just knew it was meant to be. Stripped isn’t about stripping, it’s about being stripped of preconceptions - by the way.

Stripped and the anthology, What Happens in Vegas is now out on store shelves and available through all the usual places for online book shopping too.

Here’s a very small taste of Dahlia’s world:

STRIPPED by Lauren Dane from the Spice anthology - What Happens In Vegas…

The low, sensual beat brought her onto the stage like a siren. One gloved arm wove through the slit in the curtain and then the other, parting them as she stood, framed for a long moment. Her dark hair was piled up on her head artfully. Long, fake lashes framed big brown eyes. A deep blue satin dress hugged every curve lovingly, her breasts pushed up and out of the scooped neckline and as she walked, the slit on each side of the dress would show her legs to the upper thigh.

She let the music grab her senses and her rhythm as she slowly sauntered out onto the narrow stage. Dancer’s heels, still very high, led her through the beginning of her routine as she carefully maneuvered the long feather boa to keep from tripping.

Caught in the music, Dahlia’s muscles burned as she did a high kick leading into a round kick swiveling her body away from the audience all in a seamless set of movements.

A feather from the boa stuck to the sweat on her neck as she slowly rotated her hips in time with the horns in the jazz band. Her hands rose, slowly taking the boa to wind around her body. Down it went until she finally stepped out of it as it lay at her feet, kicking it to the side.

Giving her back to the audience, she raised one hand into the air as she turned her head, winking over her shoulder.

Knocking her hips from side to side to the smoky jazz beat, she brought the tips of her gloved fingers to her mouth to grab the material and pull it off slowly.

The first glove went over her shoulder, into the bar pit the stage encircled. The second glove came off as she stood in front of the trumpet player and pulled it off around his body.

A bump and grind circling the band and she lay down on the side of the stage near where the bottle service tables were. Throwing a foot into the air, she gave them all a lot of leg to look at as the dress slid back. Rolling up onto her knees, she unzipped the front of the dress and shimmied out of it. Then she turned, cleverly giving them her back and a pair of boyshort bottoms with a winking kitty on the ass.

The dress dropped as her forearms came up to cover her breasts and she bent, looking at them all upside down through the vee of her legs.

The cheers and applause bolstered her confidence. Up there she was beautiful and desired and that was okay. More than okay, it felt marvelous.

Still facing the band she reached out quickly, grabbing the hat off Timmy’s head. The trumpet player widened his eyes in a choreographed move and she spun, clutching the prop hat just so to cover herself.

Sensual smoke and mirrors. Dahlia didn’t show the audience any more than she’d show at the beach. They wouldn’t see her nipples and her panties would stay right on her booty with the fishnets below that.

Playing coy, she waved with one hand, pretending to almost drop the hat as she took the first step back up to the dressing room. And another step and two more. Once her body was in the doorway she turned and tossed the hat back to Timmy. With a hand over her mouth stifling a pretend giggle, she kicked up her leg and was gone behind the curtain.

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person.
Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us

Albert Schweitzer

This writing gig is long and lonely and none of us makes it without the support of those around us. It’s easy to feel alone when we’re down. When you’re trying to wring out twenty words and you’re so tired you want to fall over. You just got the fourth rejection in a row. Whatever.

But we’re each one of us standing on steps someone before us made and I think a key to getting through the rough times is celebrating the good ones by recognizing those in our lives who’ve helped us achieve.

I’m a very blessed person. I am. I have so much to be thankful for and while I get cranky over stupid stuff, it’s never far from my mind just who much I have in my life to celebrate.

An example:  Last Wednesday the UPS truck pulled up to my door and my totally handsome UPS delivery guy brought six boxes to my doorstep. Two of those boxes contained postcards I recently had made for the Vegas release and also for Undercover. Another one contained new business cards - all this designed for me by Frauke who is wonderful and fabulous.

Two more contained my author copies of What Happens in Vegas which I carefully opened and then stood there, just staring at the books within. They’re a good weight. I love the cover very much. I flipped through, loving the little scene break icons (nifty little vegas styled card icons) and then i read my acknowledgements and I started to cry.

This book sold at a time when I was really low. I was really beginning to wonder if I’d ever break into New York and it got me through in a way I can’t even think about right now without crying. I’m not used to not being confident about my work. I was raised to believe if you worked your hardest at something you’d succeed. The publishing industry doesn’t always work that way. It certainly takes hard work, but it’s not enough. Waiting is really hard and it can kill your confidence.

So when I picked it up and held it, I did so knowing that the sweet feeling belonged to more than just me. It belongs to my husband. Ray. He’s my best friend and my number one fan. He has supported my work without fail. It belongs to my agent and friend Laura Bradford who has been there for me, flogging the hell out of my books to editors for going on two years now. When she called me to tell me about my Berkley deal she didn’t miss a beat when I started to cry. She’s awesome and I love her. It belongs to my parents who raised me to know everything is possible (and my mom who harasses people in bookstores to buy my books!). It belongs to my readers who have supported me continuously across publishers - Renee and Tracy who’ve beta read for me countless times. It goes to a lot of people because none of us does this alone. Ann Leveille at Ellora’s Cave and Angie James at Samhain who’ve been such fabulous editors they’ve both helped me become a better writer with each book. Megan Hart and Anya Bast who’ve been my homegirls for a number of years now who have read my stuff and critted it and who have just been the kinds of people I can trust to never blow sunshine up my skirt.

Anyway, I’m being sort of schmoopy but I never, ever want to be that person. You know the one who tells everyone she’s the master of her genre or the best mother in the world or whatever. Because I’m not here solely on my own merits. I’m here because of the support and efforts of those people around me.

Our dreams are, in part, the dreams of those who love us too. Gratitude will always serve you well in this world and it’ll get you through the dark times as well as chocolate.

SO - the contest part!  I’ll be giving away a signed ARC of What Happens In Vegas to a winner (chosen Thursday April 3 at noon pacific). All you need to do is reply here with something you’re grateful for or even a favorite quote about gratitude or friendship. I’ll choose the winner at random from the resposes. Good luck!

THE WINNER IS: Comment #13 - Carol!  Carol please email me  your mailing address and I’l get the book out to you this week

This thing we do as authors is a gift. Truly I’m so wonderfully fortunate not only to live this dream but to be able to write about human beings and their relationships and connection to each other. I am, at heart, a sucker for love. Not that love doesn’t take hard work to sustain, it does, but it’s worth it. So I thought I’d share some of my favorite quotes about love - yannow, to share it with you. 

And now you’re mine. Rest with your dream in my dream.
Love and pain and work should all sleep, now.
The night turns on its invisible wheels,
and you are pure beside me as a sleeping amber.

Sonnet LXXXI by Pablo Neruda

I love Pablo Neruda’s poems. They’re beautiful, aching, vivid, tragic, lush - all the things a poem should be. I don’t read a lot of love poems or poetry in general but this is one I come back to time and again (and that’s just the opening stanza, there are more and I highly recommend you checking him out!)

Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect…

EM Forster

I love Forster so very much.

Another poet I love is Mary Oliver - if you haven’t read her poem Wild Geese,  you should, it’s one of the most moving poems I’ve ever read! 

To live in this world you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.

from Blackwater Woods 

Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real

Iris Murdoch

Love isn’t a decision. It’s a feeling. If we could decide who we loved, it would be much simpler, but much less magical.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone (yes, this is a South Park quote, I love it!)

Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.

James Baldwin

Ama me fideliter! Fidem meam noto: De corde totaliter Et ex mente tota, Sum presentialiter Absens in remota.”
Lat: “Love me faithfully!/See how I am faithful:/With all my heart/And all my soul/I am with you/Though I am far away.”
Carl Orff, Carmina Burana, “Omnia Sol Temperat”

So what about you all? Do you have any favorite quotes, poems or songs about love?

Tell you what, I’ve got a release coming out from Samhain on March 4, the last book in this particular Cascadia Wolves story arc - Standoff. Wanna win an ARC? I’ll choose a winner at random on Saturday, March 1 at noon my time (pacific) from the folks who reply. Winners have seven days to claim the prize before I re-draw. 

THE WINNER (A LA THE RANDOMIZER) IS COMMENT #7 - LITTLE LAMB LOST  - email me with your format choice (this is a digital release) and I’ll get the book to you today! Congrats!

Today, at last, I’ve finished with all the tweaks and polishing of Taking Care of Business - the erotic romance I c-wrote with Megan Hart. There was a kefuffle between our own documents, google document where we’d been working together and at last when I imported it back to Word. But it’s done and nicely ahead of schedule, too!

Each book is its own journey and I have to say, Kate (my heroine) was hard to learn at first. Part of it was that I’d been interrupted a dozen times so each time I had to put the story aside to finish up something else, I had to re-learn her all over again. But each story has a sweet spot, at least for me. And that sweet spot is like an epiphany. All the sudden it’s clear - whatever it is that’s been lacking. You see it. You know your hero, or your heroine. You finally get what her big problem is, or you know what happened to him in the past and why it’s making him a jerk now, or whatever.

It’s not necessarily writing blind - it’s like tasting the book and suddenly the full bouquet of it comes to you and it’s so vivid. I love that moment! Sometimes it doesn’t even come to me when I’m writing. I can be driving and see something out the window or hear a song on the radio or it comes to me while ironing. With Tri-Mates I had no real outline, I just had the idea of this tri mate bond thing and started writing (the concept came to me when I was writing Enforcer but I don’t do brother menages) and I’d planned on making Tracy good friends with Sarah, the Alpha female of her new Pack. but suddenly Tracy and Nick were fighting about Sarah and Sarah was not the character I’d imagined. She was such a fun villain to write because she was so totally unexpected. The whole money laundering storyline was something that just fell into my head as I was writing the first scene at the Pacific Pack House.

Other times, I plot very carefully and follow the synopsis I craft. But even then I still have the epiphany moment at some point or other. Because for me, the process is a surprise. I love that! I love that I find new things I hadn’t even imagined no matter how much planning I do. And sometimes I have to go back and re-craft something, other times it changes the ending a bit. It’s flying through my brain fast and furious or slow and sensual but it’s part of me and I couldn’t ask for a job I loved more.

Recently I’ve bumped into a lot of friends I haven’t seen in a few years. Many of them are my BR friends - “before romance” so when they see me and I fill them in on my life I get a wide variety of responses. Most of them, I’m happy to say, are joyful and interested.

There are those who have rolled their eyes. Invariably the same questions come up. Why would I waste my time writing romance?  When did I plan to write a “real” book?

This response used to bother me a lot more than it does now. In truth, I’m pretty secure in what I do and who I am. I like to write romance. What could be more worthy than writing romance? Romance is part of our lives. It’s the hallmark of our interactions with other people. I write romance because I think it’s important.

Is it splitting the atom? Well, no. Will my books win the Nobel Prize for literature? No. But there is power in telling a story that allows readers to escape for a while. It’s perfectly okay to address human nature through our interactions with our romantic partners. It doesn’t mean romances aren’t important. Because they are. But important doesn’t have to always mean weighty.

I read romance for many of the same reasons I read other genres. I like to read things that transport me to another reality. A spaceship, Italy during the Renaissance, small town modern day America - whatever.  Tell me a good story, make me connect with the characters and their journey and you’ve done your job as an author.

I’m not ashamed to tell the eye rollers I do write real books. And I’m not ashamed to say I write romance because I love to explore people’s inner lives and their connections to one another. For me as a writer, that medium is most often romance because I find it such a rich subject matter. Other authors have other subject areas they prefer.

What about you all? Why romance?

Contest! I’ll choose a winner at random from the responses here on January 24 and announce the name on the 25th here in this post.

WINNERS: Michelle and Wendy! I decided to choose two since I was late! You both win any copy of my available backlist in whatever format the book is available in - so head over to my website and then email me your choice!

Lauren Dane is a multi-published author who is currently more harried than usual as she gets close to deadline. You can find out more at her website - www.laurendane.com

So, a little story if I may…

I sold my first book three years ago last month. At the time I thought, maybe I should give writing a real chance. Which was easy enough because I was on bedrest anyway and had a lot of time to spend. I sold that book despite my unfamiliarity with the rules and a big stroke of luck. That book sort of broke me, helped me begin to make a name for myself.

Writing can be a long and lonely path filled with fabulous high points and really low points. So when I picked up that very first, second-hand laptop and wrote Triad, I had NO earthly idea what I was getting myself into. Certainly, I’ve been very fortunate and I’d never trade this path in, but it’s hard sometimes.

Early last week I said to my buddy and partner-in-mayhem, Megan via IM - “you know, I’m just so sick of being on the verge of breaking. When do I reach the point where I accept it isn’t going to happen and just be happy with what I have?” (and she said, “NEVERRRR, We’re Spartans!” which is why I adore her so).

I hit this spot where I wasn’t necessarily sad, but I just felt sort of bleh and uninspired. I usually feel so passionate about writing but I think I was just in a big old rut. I had multiple submissions out in NY and despite selling two multiple author anthologies and doing very well for myself with Samhain and Ellora’s Cave, I had yet to break through and get a single title deal. I kept having these, ‘oh so close!’ moments, which, sigh, look, it’s better than you suck we hate you, but oh almost but not quite is pretty bad after you hear it a few times.

Then as the days of last week began to pass, I hit my sweet spot in my current project and I felt like I really began to get my characters and understand them. I had that moment of book clarity and I truly fell in love with the book. To top that off, I got a most excellent cover for my January release and I thought, “well, you know, I have things pretty darned good”

And then…

I got a phone call about forty minutes after I posted to my blog on Thursday. It was my agent and she told me I’d just sold to Berkley Heat. I nearly fell over. After much squeeing on both ends and a lot of “OMIGOD!” on my end and “holy ****!” I hung up and realized I’d achieved something I’ve wanted so painfully it’s made me cry at times.  I’ve wanted to write for Berkley forever and I can honestly say they’re a dream for me.

I called my husband and sort of blurted out the news (lucky man was in a meeting, LOL) and had to get off the phone because the other line was ringing and my daughter was talking loudly, demanding to talk to daddy and I couldn’t hear anything and I got about three steps to go downstairs and I had to stop and sit as the tears really hit.

I’m so fortunate. I have this dream. I have a beautiful, wonderful family and a husband who has been nothing but unerringly supportive of me and my writing. I have the most wonderful agent in the whole world who has been so supportive and has believed in me when I wasn’t sure I believed in myself and I have fabulous friends who did the happy dance along with me. I’ve been moved and humbled by the amount of love and well wishes being sent my way.

So now I can announce it in public and I’m still bowled over. I was telling people it felt like my agent was going to call me and say, “just kidding!” But thank god it’s 70 Days of Sweat and I’ve been working my booty off becuase I’m nearly done with Standoff and when I finish that I’ve got to get working on Battlefront because it’s due at the end of January! But I can do it. I can. OMG, I can!

Essentially, I suppose the moral of the story is - keep writing. It will happen. I know I’ve told myself this a thousand times and there were days I thought they were empty words. But I kept writing and wow, I’m just a goofy tool, but a lucky, goofy tool.

 I’ll start freaking about selling through and whether anyone wants to read a super hot, futuristic, menage with BDSM flavor next week. For now? I’m savoring.

Anyway, I’ll do a contest to include you in my savoring. In two weeks (November 26) I’ll choose a winner at random - book of their choice in any format available from my backlist - and all you need to do is tell me what you’re reading right now.

 THE WINNER IS: Comment #6 - Eva S~!  Eva, email me with your title and format choice and if you choose a paper title be sure to send me your mailing address!

I’m distracted. We’re on a road trip with three young children who now have swords and light sabers. (Yes, someone’s daddy has trouble saying no) So right now I’m in a hotel room across the street from Disneyland and there’s utter chaos all around me and I know I wanted to have this done ahead of time but yeah, so here I am. Still, by the time this is posted I’ll be homeward bound and the swords will be tucked under a seat and I’ll be hoarse from saying some variation of, “Stop that or someone is going to get hurt.”

 Anyway, on top of this, I’ve done revisions, edits and some planning on a two author project with my buddy Megan Hart so I’m stretched in a few different directions but fortunately, despite all these different things, I’m finding inspiration everywhere I look. Until the day my kids are all in school, writing is a process of stolen moments for me. I’m pretty religious about my schedule, I write every night pretty much without fail but there are also snatched bits here and there where I scribble notes and leave voicemail messages for myself on my cellphone for those times I can put them to use.

I may be a mom 24/7 but fortunately, inspiration also strikes when I least expect it.

Of all the questions I get in interviews, where do you get your inspiration is the most common one. My answer is - everywhere. The story I’m working on for the dual author project with Megan came to me in line for some dinner or other at RT this last April. Just sort of riffing off each other and it turned into something real. I pelted my agent with the idea at the same dinner and luckily, she loved the idea. Likewise, we were listening to some sort of angst rock on the way down to Disneyland from our house and a lyric, “don’t worry son, we’re all the same under our skin,” came on and this launched into a full scene for a project I’ve been dying to finish for months and months now.  I won’t even talk about the ideas I got from my day at the beach but I think I need a lifeguard hero very soon.

What about you? What inspires you? I’ve had three books go to print in the last few months - I’ll choose a winner from the comments at random for any of my books in print.  Good luck!

THE WINNER OF MY CONTEST IS: Comment #17 - Ruth!  Ruth, just head on over to my website and let me know which title you want and send me your mailing address so I can get it your way.