Winner!

Congratulations to

Kirra!

Kirra won the June Secret Clue contest! She will be given the red Sage present e-book of her choice!

Anyone can enter the Secret Clue contest. We announced a new one each month in our newsletter, Red Sage Confidential. To read this month's newsletter or to subscribe, go here. The July issue is out, and it features a sneak peek at the new Secrets anthologies, plus an interview with Bethany Michaels! Bethany's hot historical, Educating Eva, is available now in Volume 23.

Celebrate Secrets!

It's Secrets Week over at the popular blog, Erotic Muses. All week long, this blog will feature the authors from Secrets Volume 23. Today, Bethany Michaels talks a little about sex researchers through history and how they inspired her steamy novella, Educating Eva.

Don't miss the fun!

Story Behind the Story: There Came a Killing Frost by Selah March

I take a lot of my story titles from songs – the more obscure the better. Generally speaking, I get the story idea first and then find the title. In this case, I heard a line from an old seventies pop tune called “Wildfire,” by a guy named Michael Martin Murphey.

Oh, they say she died one winter
When there came a killing frost
And the pony she named Wildfire
Busted down his stall...

I thought, “That would be a great title for a story about an assassin called Frost.” I filed the idea away and went about my business. Eventually, I had a break in my writing schedule and sat down to write the tale. At first, it wanted to be a story about a space-traveling killer who went by “Frost” as an alias, and how he fell in love with a secluded and oppressed widow trapped on a planet with a very traditional Latino-like culture. As I wrote it, the character of Frost kept sounding more and more like a cowboy to me. I didn’t write cowboys...I didn’t know how to write cowboys...I didn’t want to write a cowboy...so I put the story away in frustration.

Then I read an article about the legends surrounding a place called Angel Fire, New Mexico, and something clicked. Kit Frost, time-traveling cowboy-assassin was born, and Lourdes Carterro, whore-with-a-secret arrived right behind him. I’m convinced the characters were waiting in my subconscious all along, and I just needed the right piece of seemingly unrelated information to kick-start the plot.

And the best part? Now I write cowboys and love it...though Kit and his skill with a belt and a bucket of ice will always have a special place in my heart.

Selah March

New Secrets Are Here!

Want your summer nights to really sizzle? Try a different kind of July heat -- Secrets heat!

Two new anthologies are shipping to bookstores all over the country. They're already available through amazon and the Red Sage bookstore, and they're starting to appear on the shelves of your local bookstores now! Get your copies soon -- they're selling fast! And with good reason, too.

If you want a peek inside the new volumes, nothing could be easier. Just check the product pages at the Red Sage bookstore, and you will find --

• Plot Summaries
• Excerpts
• Reviews
• Author Bios
• And More!

Secrets: Secret Desires (Volume 23) features stories by Bonnie Dee, Calista Fox, Bethany Michaels, and Roxi Romano!

Secrets: Surrender to Seduction (Volume 24) features stories by Alexa Aames, Natasha Moore, Mia Varano, and Rae Monet!

You can't beat this kind of summer heat!

Join Us For Fun in San Francisco!

***Permission to Forward Granted***

You're Invited!

Announcing the Red Sage Publishing Coffee Social!

When: Thursday, July 31, 2008, from 4 until 5 p.m.
Where: Room Pacific F
Who: Red Sage Publisher, Editors, Authors, and You! RWA conference attendees, friends, and family are all welcome!
What: Coffee, Conversation, and Surprises!

Come join us for an open mixer featuring Red Sage staffers and authors. Recharge with a cup of coffee after the PRO and PAN retreats and gear up for the evening cocktail hours and dinners. Meet your favorite authors, get a "Red Sage Secrets Society Member" button, and maybe even win a free gift!

This will be a fun and casual way for you to meet editors face to face and network with published authors. We hope to see you there!

Getting to Yes: "There Came a Killing Frost" by Selah March

Selah March’s opening line in “There Came a Killing Frost” is one of the best opening lines I’ve ever read. I admit I was a little hesitant after reading the synopsis of a story about a cowboy from the 1890’s who was transported to the 22nd century. Cowboys aren’t usually my thing. The first line made me laugh, so I kept reading, and I am so glad I did!

Kit Frost is one of the most unique characters I’ve encountered in a long time. He’s smart, tough, funny, and very good with a rope.

Selah did a great job placing this cowboy 200 years in the future without making him trite or cliché or compromising the story in any way. In fact, it’s those contrasts that make this story so interesting and irresistible.

So maybe I’ll reconsider my opinion of cowboys. And as for that opening line, well, you’ll just have to read it for yourself.

Felecia Mills
Senior Editor

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Editor's Note: We loved the opening, too, but it's the belt scene that made us all swoon! For those of you who have read this decadent and inventive story, what was your favorite part?

Win an Autographed Novella!

Hi everyone,

Popping in to give a heads-up that I'm being featured all this week at http://candyready.com/redhots/

Candy is posting an interview with me Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday features an excerpt from Good Vibrations (Dec 2007) and Thursday will feature an excerpt from Exes & Ahhs (Dec 2008). Friday a name will be drawn from the comments to win a free, autographed copy of Secrets Vol. 21 PRIMAL HEAT, featuring my novella Good Vibrations as well as three other fantastic Secrets novellas.

The more you comment, the greater chance you'll win the free copy. Mark your calendars!

KateKate St. James http://www.katestjames.com/

Good Vibrations in Secrets Vol. 21 PRIMAL HEAT, Dec 07
Exes & Ahhhs in Secrets Vol. 26 BOUND BY PASSION, Dec 08
Kiss Me at Midnight, Secrets Vol. 28, July 09

The Truth About Writers

True or False: You Write What You Know

This is both true and false.

My heroines tend to be writers, like Gen in The Doctor Next Door, or women who love books, or archeologists, or women who grew up in a small town.

My heroes are usually modeled after my husband, or (other) hot guys from classic books, legends, or TV shows.

Either way my heroes and heroines are archetypes I am familiar with, layered with quirks and traits that give them life and personality.

They live in or travel to places I know about from study or my own travel and background. If the characters lead me to a place or a situation that I don’t know much about, I break out the research.

So, yes, I write what I know, and if I don’t know it when I start the story, I know it when I am done. Ta-dah! True! I write what I know.

Now, for the false part. The characters in my books fall madly in love, fight for or against that love, and end up having passionate sex in a variety of times and places. Really soon.

Characters in stories end up together much faster than in real life, because they are thrown in situations that promote that fast bonding. I can’t see myself, in real life, meeting a guy and sleeping with him within a week of learning his name. That’s just not me. I was a virgin until I was twenty, for goodness’s sake! But when the writer does his or her job well, I can believe it.

And while we married ladies do have a healthy sex life, and do love our husbands madly… don’t think for a minute that we’re having that sex life with a little notebook in bed beside us (“Oh wait, dear! Hold that pose! Let me just jot this down for future reference”). I don’t think that would go over too well.

So, there’s the false part. But it’s okay. We romance writers have healthy- usually overactive- imaginations, and that’s what gets the riveting plots and breathtaking characters into our heads and, eventually, into your hands.

Catherine Berlin

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Editor's Note: We love Catherine's deliciously naughty imagination! And so do the reviewers -- Enchanting Reviews called The Doctor Next Door a 5-Enchantment "keeper," Romance Junkies called it "a wonderful story," and Kwips and Kritiques said, "I loved every aspect of The Doctor Next Door by Catherine Berlin. It has all the elements of a neighbor romance and best of all it is written into a believable, romantic suspense story! This book gets 5 Klovers!"

For all these reviews and more, or to leave your own customer review, check out the product page for The Doctor Next Door.

July e-Stories Are Here!

Two Hot Warrior Heroes For Hot Summer Reads!

Frontal Assault by Chevon Gael

When Rick Steele's tour of duty in Iraq ends, he returns home to the loving arms and welcoming body of his wife, Angela.

And then, almost immediately afterwards, he disappears.

Angela can't take it any more. The worry, the stress, the loneliness. She's always supported Rick's goals, but now he won't even tell her what's he's thinking or feeling. How can they be partners if he isolates himself? They can't be. Is divorce the only option?

No. There is one other option. Rick knows that it's time for something big, bold, and daring. He's a soldier, a man on a mission. He will reclaim his wife, by force if necessary ...

... by Frontal Assault.










Maggie's Angel by K.C. Sehlhorst

Maggie has seen some pretty strange things in her time, but she's never seen a dead man rise up from a gurney and run out of the operating room. She's never seen a dead man fling himself through a window and plummet to the earth, only to get up and keep running. She's never seen a dead man ... who was really an angel.

Gideon isn't just any angel, though. He's a fallen one, charged with the duty of closing demon portals to hell before innocent human souls can be compromised. And he has exposed Maggie to a dangerous truth, to killer demons, even to Lucifer himself.

There's only one option for Gideon. He must protect Maggie at all costs. Too bad she doesn't want his protection....