Share & Win Giveaway Contest!

Time for another Share and Win Giveaway!! DANGER CLOSE, the next book in my Bagram Special Ops series is out now!

How the giveaway works: Each time you spread the word about DANGER CLOSE being on sale and let me know, it counts as an entry to the giveaway. 

Ways to share:

Facebook

Goodreads

Twitter

Blogs

Reviews

Contest open until Monday May 4, 2014 at 11:59:59 PM Central.

How to enter: Just post a note in the comments section stating what you’ve done to be entered. You can share on multiple days. For all you tweeters, please use the hashtag #BagramSpecialOps so I can log your entries from twitter. It's as simple as that to enter! (Please include your email address so I have a way to contact you if you are a winner) 

*NOTE: only TWO tweets each day are counted as entries. I certainly appreciate the others but to keep from flooding people’s tweet streams, I’m limiting it to two.

PRIZES!

One winner: $10 Amazon or BN eGift card

One winner: $15 Amazon or BN eGift card

One winner: $20 Amazon or BN eGift card

One winner: $25 Amazon or BN eGift card

One winner: $30 Amazon or BN eGift card

Once I’ve organized all the entries, the random winners will be drawn and announced here within a week of the contest closing. As always, if you have any questions please ask! Thanks for helping me spread the word about my newest release!

If you need sample tweets:

Love romantic suspense? Danger Close by @kayleacross only $2.99! #BagramSpecialOps #kindle http://tinyurl.com/lpobf8q

Love romantic suspense? Danger Close by @kayleacross only $2.99! #BagramSpecialOps #Nook http://tinyurl.com/lsvx8cu

Danger Close, new book in #BagramSpecialOps series by @kayleacross out now for only $2.99 #kindle http://tinyurl.com/lpobf8q

Danger Close, new book in #BagramSpecialOps series by @kayleacross is just $2.99 #Nook http://tinyurl.com/lsvx8cu

Sexy alpha hero! New book in #BagramSpecialOps series by @kayleacross only $2.99 #kindle http://tinyurl.com/lpobf8q

Sexy alpha hero! New book in #BagramSpecialOps series by @kayleacross only $2.99 #Nook  http://tinyurl.com/lsvx8cu

If you need retail links:

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/lpobf8q

Barnes & Noble: http://tinyurl.com/lsvx8cu

Kobo: http://tinyurl.com/k3k4c8v 

iTunes: http://tinyurl.com/myagpg8

The rules: Open to all readers, 18 years or older, who are legally allowed to participate in such a contest as allowed by their local laws. All federal, state, local, and municipal laws and regulations

apply

. Void where prohibited. No purchase necessary. By participating in the contest, participants agree to be bound by the decisions of the contest sponsor, Kaylea Cross. Odds of winning depend on number of entries received. Winners will be randomly chosen and notified via email after the conclusion of the contest. Winners will have 48 hours to respond to the email notification before they forfeit their winning. If winners do not leave an email address, contest sponsor is not responsible for winners’ failure to leave a suitable way to contact them and winner forfeits their winning if they don’t respond to announcement post within 48 hours. Open until May 5, 2014 at 11:59:59 PM Central.

Luke Won!!!

I'm so excited to announce that Absolution has won the EPIC Award for best romantic suspense of 2011!

I actually found out by accident while I was on holiday. I happened to be on Twitter, checking to see if I had any messages, and saw my name mentioned with the EPIC convention. No one sent me an email or anything, so I had to check on my own to see if I really had won, and indeed I had! I had a mojito to celebrate at dinner that night :)

You all know how much I adore Luke, so this win really tickled me. I think it's my best book (along with Relentless), although I heartily agree it's not a stand alone book. Without reading at least a few other books in the series, Absolution won't have nearly the same emotional impact for the reader. At least in my opinion.

I also just found out that Deadly Descent is a finalist in the New England Romance Writer's published contest, though it didn't final in the RITA Awards (aww...). Fingers crossed that Dev and Cam place in the top three.

That's my news for now; I'll post the cover for Darkest Caress next week. Have a great weekend!

Alpha Instinct

I'm so excited to announce that Katie Reus's first Moon Shifter book comes out tomorrow! Alpha Instinct is the first of three books in this hot paranormal romance series from Penguin/NAL, so if you're a paranormal romance fan who loves sexy shifters, this is the series for you.

Katie's running a huge contest through her website, so please be sure to check out the details for chances to win books and other prizes, including a Kindle.

Blurb:
Fear has a scent. So does desire...

Ana Cordona has been a strong leader for the lupine shifters who survived after all the males and most of the females in her pack were mysteriously poisoned. As tough as she is, with no Alpha male, the pack is vulnerable to the devious shifter Taggart, who wants to claim both their ranch and Ana as his own. When Connor Armstrong comes back into her life, promising protection, it's almost enough to make Ana forget how he walked out on her before--and reluctantly accept his offer to mate.

The minute Connor sees Ana again, it reawakens a raw hunger. He must have her for his bondmate--his wolf cries out for it. But his human side knows he must proceed with caution because of their complicated past. If he is to truly have her body and soul, he must go beyond his burning desire and win back her heart. Whatever it takes, he is determined not to leave her side again.

But Taggart and his rival pack are not their only enemies. A human element in town is targeting shifters. Their plan not only threatens Ana and Connor's future, but the lives of the entire pack...

Happy New Year! Almost...

Bring on 2012! Did you make any resolutions for the New Year? I have. I'm gonna bust out of this awful literary constipation I've got going on, or die trying. Hopefully I won't have to die to get through it.

The holidays were nuts around here. Little weasel was really sick the week leading up to Christmas, and the two nights prior (including Christmas Eve), he woke up screaming and writhing around in his bed, holding his head. Fever, vomiting, the whole nine yards. I wound up having to take him to Emergency on Christmas Day, and our whole day fell apart.

I'm beginning to think it's normal to spend Christmas Day at the hospital, since it was six years ago to the day when I hemorrhaged and wound up in the maternity ward while I was six months pregnant with him, then put on total bed rest thereafter. As it turns out, that's when I started getting serious with my writing and wound up publishing Out of Her League because of it. Had I not been bedridden, I don't know if I'd ever have taken it so seriously. Isn't life strange sometimes? Little weasel's okay now, but this was not a fun Christmas for any of us. Hope you all had a better holiday!

On a brighter, happier note, in celebration of the New Year, my amazing pal Katie Reus has a humongous contest starting January 1st and running through mid-February. She's got a romantic suspense release on January 2nd (His Secret Past), along with that naughty Callie Croix's newest erotic romance (Touch Me), and then the first of her major New York published books comes out from NAL on February 7th. Alpha Instinct is the first of at least five books in her Moon Shifter series, so if you love paranormal romance featuring kick-ass shifters, you're in for a real treat.

Katie's giving away all kinds of prizes, including books from authors like me and Cynthia Eden. The grand prize is the newest Kindle from Amazon. To see the details and find out how to enter, go here. I hope a lot of you will sign up for this awesome contest!

Callie Croix Release Day

That naughty Callie Croix has another release today. Dillon's Claim, the sequel to Deacon's Touch, is officially out and this eldest Dumen brother is quite the sexy alpha cowboy!

There are a couple of contests going on with giveaways for the book, so you can check out the info on Callie's personal blog.

Hope all of you are ready for the upcoming holiday madness! I've got all my shopping and wrapping done, so that's a huge relief. But if my Callie persona lands me on Santa's naughty list, I'm going to be ticked :) (You won't tell him, right?)

Voila! French Bathroom Transformation.

Well, it took almost 7 weeks, but the master bathroom face lift is finally complete! I'm thrilled with how it turned out. I've been wanting to make some changes since soon after we moved in, as things were starting to break/peel/chip and generally just feel dated.

To make a long story short, it was actually the shower I hated since day one because of a bulkhead drop wall that trapped all the steam inside and made the paint in and around the shower peel and get all moldy. Ick. I was so sick and tired of sanding and repainting in the shower all the time! Once I got the accounting department's permission, it was go time on this bathroom operation.

Here are the before shots I took:

If you look closely in the above shot, you can see some of the paint peeling along the edge of the bulkhead "drop" wall that goes across the shower. So annoying.

The old vanity and sink with peeling counters and trim. It looks much better in the picture than it did up close, believe me. You'll just have to take my word for it :)

And... *drum roll* Here are the after shots!

 Ta-da! Nice clean, modern shower, with no more bulkhead or peeling paint. Because the rest of the room is so girly, I went with plain white subway tiles and an accent of silver and black mosaic, colors reflected in the rest of the bathroom. I thought hubby would appreciate a hint of masculinity. The shower head is the neatest I've ever seen; a rain head with a center detachable spray head, so we can clean the walls easily. So very cool.

Beautiful new black granite vanity with silver flecks in it, a new undermount sink and brushed silver Victorian faucet with French writing on the knobs. I love putting together little details like that!

Pretty robin's egg blue paint on the walls, a fresh coat of white on all the trim, some French decor I had all kinds of fun picking out, and then I gave the clawfoot tub a coat of semi-gloss black Tremclad to make it match everything else. I added all kinds of neat little accessories that pulled the room together: French towels, toothbrush holder, fancy towel racks and candles, etc, etc. That was my favorite part of the whole project :)

And last but not least, a couple pretty silver French-style chandeliers, to make everything seem that much more luxurious.

Yeah it took awhile to get all the tradespeople lined up to do their thing, but the important part is that it all turned out well in the end. I love the room, and I had my first long soak in the tub last night. Very nice, if I do say so myself! Hubby likes it, though not as much as the kids and I do. But a happy wife means a happy home life, right? So I say it's all worth it, lol.

In writing news, I found out last week that Absolution took third place in the 2011 Laurel Wreath Awards. Another accolade for Luke and Emily! I miss them.

Now that the bathroom's done and I'm finally wrapping up edits on the last story I have contracted (gulp), I plan to get the rest of my Christmas shopping done in the next week or so, then write without any undue stress hanging over my head! How are your Christmas preparations going?

Ben's a Winner!

Yesterday I received word that No Turning Back won the romantic suspense category of the 2011 Aspen Gold Awards. Ben's psyched, of course, and now his ego is bigger than ever.

Right now I'm completing line edits on Darkest Caress, a paranormal romance coming out next April from Carina Press. Once those are done I'm going to hack away at this first draft of the second Bagram book, featuring Ryan and Ace. I've got everything plotted out now, so it's just a matter of getting the words down.

We're also in the middle of renovations on our master bathroom right now, and of course it's taking longer than expected. Trades not showing up when they're supposed to, which pushes the whole project back. What can you do, right? It's going to be purty when it's done, so I'm holding on to that thought.

Relentless Takes 3rd

Rhys and Neveah took 3rd place in the ACRWA Heart of Excellence Awards! I'm thrilled because I think Relentless and Absolution are the best books of the series, and yet they're the two books that haven't sold/placed as well as the others. Go figure.

At any rate, I'm happy to have an accolade to put next to Relentless :)

Fingers Crossed...

Yesterday was one of those rare days when everything went right. I sent off edits to my Carina Press editor in the morning, and got an e-mail just over an hour later saying that not only had she read and approved all my changes, but she was going to send it straight to copy editing. In the publishing world, that's light speed fast. I'm kind of proud that we didn't need to do a second round of edits.

Later on I came home after running errands to find two more e-mails from my editors, both asking for new stories from me. That tickled me immensely. I even received the preliminary cover for Deadly Descent yesterday. It's very hot, and I'll show it to you as soon as it's approved.

Last but certainly not least, I found a message on my answering machine from the coordinator of the Kiss of Death RWA chapter's Daphne du Maurier Award contest. This is pretty cool, because she was actually my cabin mate last year at the Wild Rose Press's retreat in Texas.

Anyway, she'd personally called me to say that Cover of Darkness was a finalist! The winner will be announced at RWA Nationals in NYC later this month, just like the National Readers Choice Award winner will be. Had I known I would final in these prestigious contests, I would for sure have attended Nationals! I'm so bummed. To think I could have sat with Roxanne St. Claire and Brenda Novak--twice--and schmoozed with NY Times bestselling authors.

I'm thrilled by this, and sales have been going very well for my little series this past month (truly, ever since Osama bin Laden was killed), especially Cover of Darkness. I assume it's because my hero is a SEAL, but maybe word of mouth has spread from readers who judged my entries for the Daphne? Not really sure, but I'm loving it!

Great News!

Just found out the other day that No Turning Back has finaled in the OKRWA National Readers' Choice Awards! I was ecstatic to hear the news, even before I found out the book had been nominated for best romantic suspense with this list:

Cold Sight by Leslie Parrish
No Turning Back by Kaylea Cross
Edge of Sight by Roxanne St.Claire
A Rancher’s Brand of Justice by Ann Voss Peterson
Killer Heat by Brenda Novak
Desperate Deeds by Dee Davis

The winner will be announced at RWA Nationals in July. There's no way I'll win the category against competition like that, but I'm just tickled the judges loved the story so much. Especially because I represent a little e-publisher :) And, obviously I'm thrilled to have finaled amongst this group of powerhouse authors.

Like I've said before, Ben was a difficult hero for me to write, and the book is so violent and graphic it's not everyone's cup of tea, so finaling in a contest like this means a lot! If you love to root for the underdog, please send out good thoughts for Ben and Sam's story.

Guest Blogging

I'm over at Autumn Jordon's blog today, giving away a copy of Absolution to one commenter. Hope to see you there :)

Happy Friday, and I hope all of you have a great weekend.

Kaylea :)

Absolution Release Day Giveaway

Absolution, the 5th and final book in my military romantic suspense series with The Wild Rose Press releases this Friday, and I'm giving you a chance to win a copy. This is Luke's story, and in my opinion, I've saved the best for last :)

It's an emotional ride and even a tear jerker, but I hope the book makes you fall in love with my favorite hero too. He's just so tortured and brave, despite all the sins he's committed in his life. He and Em have both been through hell, so if anyone deserves a shot at a happy ending, it's them.

Stop by Writers Gone Wild anytime between now and Friday night to enter the contest. Just leave me a comment and I'll choose a winner this Saturday, December 11th. Good luck!

Ben's Vindication

Over the weekend I got word that Ben has finally bested Dec in this little rivalry going on between them, and he's pretty damn smug about it. In the few contests I've entered both books, so far they've jockeyed for position in the top three, with Ben tying or coming in second to Dec. But this time, No Turning Back has won the 2010 Laurel Wreath Award for best romantic suspense, and Cover of Darkness came in third. So now they're even. Of course that's not okay with either of them, though. Hopefully a tie breaker will decide this at some point in the future, but for now the boys will just have to cope.

So Zosia, if you're reading this, Ben's preening with a huge grin on his face.He's so high maintenance. Even after I've finished writing about him he's still a handful. Some things never change I guess :)

EPIC Finalist. Twice!

This morning I was notified that two of my books, Cover of Darkness and No Turning Back, have both finaled in the EPIC (Electronically Published Internet Connection) eBook Awards Contest.

I'm very excited about this, since both of my entries finaled and that gives me a better chance of placing in the top three. Plus it's a big contest for our corner of the publishing industry.

Relentless and Absolution didn't qualify for this year's contest, but I hope to enter them next year. Winners aren't announced until March, and at this point I have no idea how many other finalists there were in the romance with mystery/suspense category. You can be sure I'll inform you of where I placed when the time comes.

I Won!

In terms of writing, I had a pretty great weekend. I submitted my first erotic romance novella, and on Friday I got word that Romantic Times gave Relentless a 4 star rating with a glowing review, so that was pretty great. But as of about twenty minutes ago, something even better happened.

I just found out that Cover of Darkness won first place in the romantic suspense category of the Heart of Excellence Readers' Choice Awards contest! I get an engraved trophy and everything. And, as if that wasn't reason enough for me to think about drinking a celebratory mojito (because I rarely touch alcohol), No Turning Back won second place. You know what? I'm totally okay with coming in second to myself :)

I had my suspicions when I wrote the books that COD was the best of the series. I love NTB too, but it's really graphic and I wasn't too sure how readers would feel about that. I'm so happy people are loving my books! Luke's is due out in a couple months, so I've got high hopes for that one too because it's the most emotionally wrenching of the five. Guess we'll have to wait and see what the consensus is.

I haven't gotten a trophy since my last years of competitive softball in my mid-twenties, but you can bet I'm putting this one right on the mantle in my bedroom so I can see it every day. It's going to come in very handy for those days when I doubt my ability as a writer. Fingers crossed that people will love Absolution as much as I do! Now let's hope this will help generate a few more sales for this series :)

I'm a Finalist!

Just got the word that both Cover of Darkness and No Turning Back are finalists in the romantic suspense category of the Heart of Excellence Readers Choice Awards (held by Ancient City Romance Writers). The contest moves into the final phase of judging now, where librarians and booksellers make the final decisions. Winners aren't announced until September, but I'll keep you posted!

Win one of my books during the Deadly Days of Summer

I'm over at Cynthia Eden's blog today, chatting about the heroes of my special ops series. Swing by if you'd like a chance to win one of my books, including this Friday's upcoming release, Relentless.

Dear Mom...

Mother's Day is only a few months away, and I just received this submission request from a dear (and insanely talented) friend. The rules are simple. She wants letters written to your mother, telling her about your special bond with the woman who gave you life. Maxiumum word count is 350 words, so for us writers, that's nothing! Final entries will be read by an actor during the show, and perhaps later might be included in an anthology. You can see the link here.

I'm planning to send in an entry to my mom, and I hope it will tug on more than a few heartstrings because both of us barely survived my birth, and I was so premature I spent the next three months in an incubator. Neither of my parents could touch me for weeks afterward. The best they could do was to reach through the incubator with latex gloves on and stroke my fragile little limbs with their fingertips. Makes me tear up just to think of it. I can't imagine not being able to hold your baby.

My mom said people would stop and stare at me in the nursery and cover their mouths in horror, or say "Oh, that poor little thing...". Yeah, it was pretty bad. I looked like a skinned rat, and weighed just over three pounds. Nowadays some premies weigh just over a pound and turn out just fine, but 35 years ago being over two months premature was a very dicey situation. Until about two months after my birth my parents both still expected to lose me, but I'm a lot more stubborn than that! And here I am. Take that, world!

Even if you don't enter the contest, please tell your mom how much she means to you. You wouldn't be here without her.