Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Mysti Holiday - An Author You Gotta Read!



My dear friend, Mysti Holiday is here at the blog. Let's give her a warm welcome!

Her book, Shut Up and Kiss Me is brand spankin' new from The Wild Rose Press.



Thanks to Wendi for having me today! Her mission for me (and I chose to accept it) was this:

You say you wrote “Shut Up and Kiss Me” on a dare. Tell us about the dare and anything else you've been dared to do. Is there a certain dare out there that you'd never do? One you want to try and never got the chance?

Shut Up and Kiss Me was indeed written on a dare with my writing partner, Kealie Shay. We’re both insanely busy people with work and family taking up a huge chunk of time. Some days it was just impossible to engage our muses and put pen to paper. So – we challenged each other to write a complete story of at least 7500 words in two days. Sounded crazy, sounded impossible and I don’t think either of us thought we could do it.

But we did. Both of us. Kealie’s Appearances, which she’s currently editing, was her end result of that challenge, and my Shut Up and Kiss Me was mine. I polished it up nice and shiny and sent it in – it was my first official erotic romance so I wasn’t expecting a contract. Apparently, no one mentioned that to my editor, who liked my voice and had faith in my ability. The rest is history.

But you wanted to know about other dares – ones I wouldn’t do and ones I want to try...

Of course I have them. I mean, who hasn’t played a little Truth or Dare in their lives? I had some crazy times when I was in my twenties, times that I seldom discuss now that I’m all grown up and responsible.

For instance, take the time I was dating a man 15 years my senior. He was not only older than me, he was quite wealthy and loved the finer things in life. He also had some difficulty with the idea of black and white when it came to business, far preferring all those lovely shades of gray.

He once asked me to make a list of places I’d love to have sex, but was afraid to. I think his idea was to help me check them off, one by one. I had things like:

· In a hotel elevator

· Under a table at a wedding reception

· In the Louvre

· In a movie theater

· In Central Park

· In a moving car while one of us was driving

While none of these things came to pass, they have sparked my imagination for my stories and I’m willing to bet that at least a couple of these will show up in a story sooner or later.

He also decided he was going to start a very upscale escort service with men and women. He wanted me to partner with him, and offered as incentive the opportunity to “interview” the male escorts (did I mention he wasn’t the jealous type?). As tempting as that job was ... I declined the offer. And, I also broke things off with him, discovering that I wasn’t so fond of those gray shades after all.

Still, he made me realize that being a sexual person wasn’t a bad thing or something to be ashamed of. I admit to preferring monogamous relationships (much to the delight and relief of my husband), but that doesn’t mean sex has to be boring.

Maybe I’ll share that list with my hubby... I bet he’d be game for at least some of them. We live quite a distance from Central Park and the Louvre, but we have wilderness and museums here. *winks*

What about you? What are some things you were dared to do, but didn’t and wish you had? What are some things you were dared to do ... and DID? What was the outcome? I’d love to see what kinds of crazy other people have indulged in.

Hee hee, now you know I'm pals with you, Kealie, Megan, and Jenny Kat, over there at MA, so I'm game for more or less any dare, too.

Here's her blurb and excerpt for Shut Up and Kiss Me. You can click on the cover for the buy link and the banner for the link to follow her tour!

Blurb:

Kasey Davenport and Cole Roberts—adversaries since junior high when Cole did nothing but pull her hair, snap her bra strap and tease her mercilessly—find themselves unexpectedly thrown together when Kasey is in town on a layover. As always, sparks fly between them, but this time the attraction simmering close to the surface explodes into a passion neither of them expected or wanted.

After years of mutual avoidance and denying their attraction, can Kasey and Cole stop arguing long enough to discover if what they feel will last more than just one night?

Excerpt:

“Look,” he said. “You can stay. I’m on call this week anyway and working a million hours. I probably won’t be around much.”

“Still working for the nuthouse?” she taunted.

“The psychiatric hospital, yes. I’m nearly done with my residency.”

“Ooh...then you’ll officially be Dr. Jerk.” She got to her feet, and tipped her head back to see his face. She was normally at least eye level to a man, but Cole had more than his fair share of inches. She wondered if he had more than his fair share of inches somewhere else, too. Her tongue darted out to moisten her suddenly dry lips and her gaze slipped down to his zipper.

“You’re going to want to stop doing that, Kase.” Cole’s voice rumbled low in his throat.

“Doing what, Cole?” She was less than a foot from the man and her fingers itched to grab hold of him and yank that body against hers—a desire she’d had since she found out just how much fun a man’s cock could be. Maybe even before then.

“Looking like you’re ready to have me for dinner.”

His hands squeezed into tight fists at his side, and she was amazed to find quite a bulge in the front of his jeans. For her? He’d never shown the slightest bit of interest before, but there was no mistaking his interest now. Maybe it was time to dance with the devil.

“Mmm...now that you mention it, I am hungry.” A slow smile lifted the corners of her mouth and she raised her gaze from his crotch to his eyes—brown eyes so intense they nearly pierced a hole straight through to her heart. There was no denying her desire, or his. “Care to feed me?”

Want to know more about Mysti Holiday? Go to the Menagerie Authors Blog and the Menagerie Authors Site.

11 comments:

Mysti Holiday said...

Hey, Wendi -- thanks again for hosting me and sending me WAY back in time, lol.

Hopefully we'll get to see some interesting responses *G*

Wendi Zwaduk and Megan Slayer said...

Hee hee. I aim to please. :)

Kealie Shay said...

LOL, how come I didn't know about this list? Huh?

Let's see... dare... hmmm... other than the writing ones you dare me to do. I love the "Here's a writing prompt... bet you can do it!" I still haven't figured out the UPS one... but I might someday.

Someone once dared me to audition for a show here in Vegas. I never thought I'd get the job, but I did it anyway. Got the job too. OH, and someone once dared me to start writing erotic romance... wait, that was YOU! :-D

booklover0226 said...

Those are some interesting places, Mysti!

I'm too chicken and too OLD to try anything like that now... LOL

Thanks,
Tracey D
booklover0226 at gmail dot com

Mysti Holiday said...

LOL... I'd rather forgotten about my "list" actually, until I dredged it up for this post. It's been awhile.

And, re: writing dares -- I love them, too. Let's do it again!!

Mysti Holiday said...

Tracy, I'm not too old (you can't be, can you?) but am probably too chicken ... still, it's a fun fantasy.

*G*

Thanks for stopping by!

Mary Ricksen said...

I wish I had done some of the things I wanted to. I was so chicken. Now, I regret that. Do it all!!! That's my advise!

Mysti Holiday said...

Mary, you're so right! One of my favorite songs is "Live Like You Were Dying" by Tim McGraw -- because we don't any of us know if we'll even be here tomorrow. Who wants to look back and have regrets?

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Wendi Zwaduk and Megan Slayer said...

Thanks for stopping by. Sorry i was a tad MIS for a bit. I loved having you here, Mysti.

Hmm... so... my dare....Dh dared me to freak out the car behind us which happened to be his folks... so I did, by popping my head up on his side of the truck. FIL about drove off the road. But it was worth it to see the bug-eyed expression.

But don't ask me to tell you what Megan dared me to do.

Megan Slayer said...

Hi Mysti! (::Waving madly at Wendi:::Hi hon!)

Sorry I'm late. You know me, if i had a watch it wouldn't be worth it. Anyway, congrats on the release. It's a hotsy totsy. *Wink*

Dares.... dares.... hmmmm.....

Okay, this one is tame enough for the public... I am incredibly fashion conscience. But in the fit of a dare, I let one of my devilish friends CHOOSE an evening ensemble and then wore it out. Banana yellow sweatpants, tennis shoes, a zebra striped top, and a lace choker. Yes, it was hideous. But never let it be said i backed down.

Patricia K said...

Iwas dared to have sex at work and I to scared of losing my job to do it.The elevator would be so great