Tag: The Easy Part

The Easy Part Out of Print

Since I received an email from a reader about it, I’ll go ahead and address it in a post: The Easy Part series (aka Special Interests, Private Politics, and Party Lines) went out of print last week. I requested a rights reversion from my publisher, and they granted it. I’ve spent the last few weeks lightly editing the series, and I’ll be rereleasing it–with new titles and covers and a previously unpublished novella–soon. It’ll also be available in print for the first time. Because I have to deal with some behind the scenes stuff related to self publishing, I’m not quite ready to set a firm date. But…soonish (?).

If you want to be the first person to see the new covers (and you do), be sure you’re signed up for my newsletter.

Odds and Ends

It’s been an eon since I’ve done any blogging. I am SO sorry. I’ve actually been writing a lot (who am I?), and, y’all, I finished something.

That’s right, a few days after my 2020 year in review post, I completed a full-length contemporary romance (!!!). Then I spent January revising it before querying agents. ICYMI, I ended up signing with the incredible Sarah Younger at Nancy Yost Literary Agency.

Now, publishing moves with the same approximate speed of a cold turtle, so it may be months before I have news–if I ever even have good news. But when I was gathering manuscripts together for Sarah to take a look at it, it was a lot. I just have so many fragments of stories and made-up couples and ideas, and for the first time in a long time, I feel…hopeful about my writing. My fingers and toes are crossed that other people will feel the same way and I can share them with you at some point.

In more tangible news, all three of the Easy Part books are on sale for 99 cents! As a reminder, these are my Obama-era political romances and they feel very optimistic–maybe too optimistic–about government. But I love these fictional people and their fictional struggles toward love, and I’m delighted that you can get them at a deeply discounted price if you are so inclined.

I have no idea how long the sale will last, so if you want these books for cheap, act fast! They do not need to be read in order as the series is pretty loosely connected.

  1. Special Interests: Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, and Google Play.
  2. Private Politics: Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, and Google Play.
  3. Party Lines: Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, and Google Play.

Special Interests On Sale!

A price alert informed me that Special Interests is on sale for 99 cents. I have no idea how long this deal will last, so click now if you’re inclined. It’s available at Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, and Google Play.

She’s an idealist who wants to stay behind the scenes but has been thrust into a a high stakes negotiation. He’s a pragmatist playboy who wants to get the federal budget done. They’re absolutely mesmerized by each other even as they know it’s a terrible idea. A terribly sexy idea.

This was my contemporary debut, and the people who liked it seemed to really liked it. It has a kind of dreamy chemistry that holds up.

Content warnings for on-page night terrors/therapy and an extremely detailed look at how the federal budget gets done, plus on-page sex, alcohol, and swearing.

The Easy Part on Sale!

An old price alert told me that Private Politics and Party Lines are both on sale for 99 cents. Private Politics has never been this cheap, and Party Lines has never been on sale before. I have no idea how long this sale price will last. So if you’ve been waiting to grab them, do it now.

Private Politics is a friends to lovers romance featuring a socialite/non profit fundraiser who discovers shenanigans at her job and fears she’s being set up as the patsy. She enlists help investigating from a blogger who’s wildly infatuated with her, and of course they fall for each other. Liam is my most cuddly, vulnerable, REAL hero, and I love how he finds his confidence (and Alyse her ambition). You can get Private Politics at Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, and Google Play. Barnes and Noble isn’t currently matching the price, but I hope it will.

Party Lines is enemies to lovers featuring rival campaign staffers. She’s a Republican who wants to change her party; he’s a Democrat who’s lost all his idealism. I think this is the best romance I’ve ever written, and you can get it at Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, and Google Play. Again, B&N isn’t matching the price, but maybe soon.

While these are the second and third books in the series, you don’t need to read book one (Special Interests) to start here. But please note that I wrote these books in the Obama era, and they feel like it. While I wanted them to have verisimilitude, they’ve become pure fantasy. I wouldn’t write Party Lines today, at least not the way I did. While this isn’t a book about the protagonists moving to the middle or deciding partisanship doesn’t matter, plots do cultural work. And the work this book does might not be the work you need or want right now.

I still love both these books, and it would delight me if more readers found them. But I get that these are tough sells in 2020.

Happy Book Birthday to Special Interests

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According to Facebook’s anniversaries, Special Interests released three years ago today. It’s been a rough week for me writing-wise, but this anniversary feels significant. I’ve talked before about how the theme of the series is having your life not go according to plan and trying to remake yourself, to imagine your life differently, in the face of that. It’s optimistic about self-growth, an idea I find even more relevant and encouraging today.

Happy Holidays

plate of cookies, cocktail, and Christmas tree
butter crispies and cocktail

The fictional people in my head tend to stick around even when their books are published.

Like today, I suspect Millie and Parker would host a Chrismukkah event with Alyse and Liam and Lydia and Michael. They’d drink a lot and debate the election and laugh and cry and open presents and watch their children play. (And then Lydia and Michael would go home and toast their child-free state.)

I suspect Christmas would be a big deal for Joe and Frances given their pre-Christmas engagement. (Ditto for Greg and Betty with New Year’s Eve.) Joe would give Frances a new diary and they’d listen to Perry Como. Anne-Marie would cook something elaborate, and Margie Dunsford would throw an epic holiday party with lights on her tiki torches and green and red drinks and a Jello mold.

I’ll have a proper year end wrap-up post soon, but wherever you are and whatever you’re celebrating, I wish you joy in 2017.

Happy Fourth!

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Happy Fourth of July to my American friends and readers! (And happy treason day to everyone else?)

I imagine Millie, Parker, Alyse, Liam, Lydia, and Michael (from The Easy Part) would probably grill and watch their kids play and snark about the election. And all the astronauts, engineers, and other folks from Fly Me to the Moon would cook out at Margie’s and perhaps eat a Jello mold like this one.

If you want to replicate it on your own, I used this Sparking Summer Berry Jello recipe. I omitted the rum and scaled it up for this 10-cup mold which belonged to one of my grandmothers. It did not turn out perfectly, but it’s certainly festive and dramatic.

I’m in my writing cave at the moment, but I’ll be back soon with new words. Happy summer!

My Favorite Bits: The Easy Part

Two and a half weeks ago, Party Lines released. In the push to get the book out and recover from the holidays, I don’t think it hit me that I wrote a series–three loosely connected books. And edited it. And now it’s all out.

The Easy Part books can be read in any order but they explore the same theme: the characters have reached the outer edge of young adulthood and are realizing they are unsatisfied with their lives. They are smart, ambitious people who want to change the world, but they haven’t yet and, frankly, they’re unlikely to. But that knowledge is freeing. It permits them to redefine what success means and who they want to share it with while they work to pass a federal budget (Special Interests), expose a corruption scandal (Private Politics), and get someone elected president (Party Lines).

I’d definitely do some things differently if I could have the first books back, but I’m fiercely proud of all three novels.

So as a thank you to everyone who’s read the books and reviewed them and talked with me about them, I wanted to revisit some of my favorite moments.

Warning: minor spoilers ahead!

Continue reading “My Favorite Bits: The Easy Part” →

Party Lines: Opening Chapter

If you live in the United States, it’s Election Day, so you should vote. And when you’re done, I have a reward for you: the opening chapter of Party Lines, the final book in The Easy Part series. (Non-Americans can just read the chapter.) Party Lines is smart, sassy, and steamy–and it has the best opening chapter in the series.

I’m nervous about this book. It was hard for me to write and it’s different structurally than the first two. But I love it so much and I want you to love it too.

Warning: this chapter contains very minor spoilers for Special Interests and Private Politics, major banter, and a few adult words.

Continue reading “Party Lines: Opening Chapter” →

Private Politics Release Day

A year ago, I was finishing the first draft of a book. A book about a snuggly blogger hero and the socialite fundraiser he loves from afar. About a scandal and money and influence. About finding yourself and shattering others’ expectations. And about shoes–lots of shoes.

Private Politics Cover

That book, Private Politics, is now out! And you can buy it at cool places like Amazon, B&N, Carina, iBooks, Kobo, All Romance, and Google Play or add it to your Goodreads shelves.

I had to write Special Interests, the first book in the series. Millie and Parker wouldn’t leave me alone. Writing was an attempt to excise them from my head. That translated into the intense chemistry between the characters.

Alyse and Liam were different. Writing their book was scarier because my publisher had bought it on spec and I was worried about living up to their expectations. But it was also the first thing I’d written where I felt confident about myself as a writer–where I thought about myself as a writer at all. And for that reason, it’s a very special book to me.

To celebrate its release, I’m going to gift three (3) copies to lucky winners. In fact, the winners can decide if they’d prefer Special Interests or Private Politics, in case they haven’t yet dipped their toes into the world of my sexy, smart, overworked, and frequently hilarious political aides.

So enter today. As Rafflecopter and WordPress don’t get along, here’s the link.

And, to whet your whistle, a third and final entry in The Easy Part series will be released on January 12, 2015: Party Lines. Because if you thought DC was fun, you haven’t met the campaign trail.