Welcome to the twenty-fifth day of my Almost Heaven West Virginia Blog Bash.
The following pictures are of Stonewall Jackson Lake named in honor of the Confederate General, yes he fought for the South even though West Virginia split from the state of Virgina to stay with the North and the Union. Now as you look at these pictures somewhere under the water lies my dh’s aunt Gracie’s house. Yes the state bought all the land for fair market value from the people living there and flooded the valley.
Welcome to all my followers and visitors, I am having a month-long celebration in my husbands honor. My husband Denny is retiring from the Navy after serving for 24 years. We are packing up one last time and moving back to his home state of Wild Wonderful West Virginia. Each post will start off with a picture to showcase West Virginia. Everyday their will be a prize up for grabs and at the end we’ll be giving away some chocolate. My brother and sister and I.
Please follow the rules posted at the end of each post to enter the daily contests and remember you don’t have to subscribe to win but I hope you decide to stick around. Also any post that contain super erotic material will carry the warning label so as not to shock or offend anyone upon opening.
So now I have the pleasure of introducing you to Crystal Jordan.
Crystal writes, paranormal, futuristic, contemporary and erotic, well let’s just read her HEA Bio: Crystal Jordan began writing romance after she finished graduate school and needed something to fill the hours that used to be eaten away by coursework. She spent far too many years in school and now has degrees in History and Library Science…but swears that both of them help enormously with her writing and research.
Her family sprawls from Texas to Illinois and from California to the United Kingdom. She has three brothers, several rather adorable nieces and nephews, a quirky grandmother who pushed her into writing in the first place, an indispensable best friend codenamed the Mad Madam M, and her very own hero, the Professor Moriarty (who codenamed himself after Sherlock Holmes’s arch-nemesis. Who wouldn’t love a man who loves a good villain?).
Never one to stay in one place very long, Crystal has lived and worked all over the United States. Currently, she serves as a librarian at a university in the California Bay Area.
In 2006, Crystal sold the first story she ever finished to the e-publisher, Cobblestone Press. Since then, she’s sold paranormal, futuristic, contemporary, and erotic romance to Samhain Publishing, Harlequin Spice Briefs, The Wild Rose Press, and Ellora’s Cave.
Then, the day before the 2007 RWA National Conference, she got The Call to be a part of Kensington Aphrodisia’s Sexy Beast anthology. After a whirlwind month, she had an agent and an additional two-book deal with Kensington.
And she lived happily ever after.
Crystal is also a Smutketeer and I love to chat with her over on their blog and yahoo group.
Crystal has a new book coming out with Samhain Demon’s Caress book 1 in her Demon Heat series.
Maron is being hunted. The thrill of the chase is unusual, exciting. Most of the time, she is the hunter—a demon sent to earth to imprison evil souls and hurl them down to the hot spot. It’s dirty work and it’s gotten her kind demonized by mankind, but someone has to take out the trash, and that’s her job.
But a demon can’t trap a soul alone. They need a partner, and the perfect synergy can be found in a Demon’s Triad. Three demons, triple the power, and the deeper the bond between them, the higher the power yield for trapping corrupt souls. Sexual bonds make the energy sizzle on every possible level. Maron’s partner was roped into a sexual Triad, and that leaves Maron at loose ends, tracking down an evil man alone and knowing there’s no way to capture him even if she can find him. She’ll have to tag him and then cool her heels until her boss, Samael, sends in reinforcements.
Only the demons he sends as backup are the last men she wants to see—Raum and Kobal—bonded partners who’ve been trying to seduce her into a Triad for months, since the night of debauchery when they found their combined power was nothing short of explosive. Now they hunt her as she hunts her human quarry. She’s stunned at how exhilarating it is to be chased. The last thing she wants is to give up her independence. She likes her work, she’s good at it, and Raum and Kobal would complicate her eternity.
But her two demons are as relentless as she is. They’ve found the woman to complete their Triad, and they’re determined to claim her heart and body…if they can cage the evil soul they’d been sent capture.
Here are Fifty Fascinating Facts about Crystal from her website:
1. She stole the idea to have fifty fascinating facts from her friend Lilli Feisty.
2. She graduated from college Summa Cum Laude, which means “with highest honors” in Latin, which means she had a 3.9 or higher GPA.
3. It was higher than 3.9.
4. Clearly, this means she’s a nerd. And she’s okay with that. Hey, if you can’t beat it, own it, baby!
5. In college, she took three years of French. But since she hasn’t used it, she’s forgotten about 90% of what she learned. Which means she remembers just enough to be dangerous.
6. She just started taking German classes for fun. Her boyfriend is originally from Germany.
7. She likes being a librarian and never intends to write full-time.
8. She recently learned to knit and has started knitting hats for cancer patients.
9. She was sixteen the first time she flew on a plane.
10. She was twenty-nine when she got her passport.
11. Traveling to every continent is on her bucket list.
12. It’s not unheard of for her to dance in the rain. She loves rain.
13. She hates snow with the fire of a thousand suns. In her vocabulary, “snow” is a four-letter word roughly equal to the f-bomb.
14. Part of her hatred for snow comes from the time she slipped down an icy set of stairs and hit every step on the way down. There were fifteen of them, and she had the bruises to prove it. She also still has a scar on her left shin to remember the incident by.
15. The word “math” is even dirtier than “snow” in her vocabulary.
16. For her thirtieth birthday, her best friend threw a cupcake party for her.
17. She met her best friend the first day of freshman year in college. They were in the same history class.
18. She’s lived in every timezone in the continental United States.
19. On average, she’s moved to a different house every two years for her entire life. Some places she stayed a little longer, some a little less, but that’s the average.
20. She likes going to plays, the symphony, the ballet, and the opera. Her first was The Nutcracker performed by the San Francisco Ballet.
21. She loves the painting “Grande Odalisque” by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres.
22. Her favorite color is green. Especially lime green. She’s owned four purses and two matching wallets in lime green.
23. She adores key lime pie.
24. Autumn is her favorite season. She loves watching the leaves turn.
25. Though she writes romance novels, she hates weddings. Her idea of the perfect wedding is eloping to an exotic location. Minus the crazy-making family or any need to go bridezilla on anyone. She’ll send pictures.
26. She also hates attending graduations, including her own. Her grandparents bribed her with an all-expense paid trip to Las Vegas to get her to show up to her own college graduation.
27. She likes flying, but hates dealing with airports.
28. Her favorite chocolate brand is called “Côte d’Or” from Belgium. One of her college French professors was from Belgium and brought some back for everyone in class.
29. Her boyfriend likes to ply her with different brands of German chocolate, trying to win her over from the Belgians.
30. Her grandmother is from England, and passed on her love of shepherd’s pie, pasties (it’s a type of meat and veggie filled pastry, not the sticky things for your nipples), and tea with cream and sugar.
31. She can’t believe she just wrote a sentence that included her grandmother and nipples. Lightning might strike at any moment.
32. She’s right handed.
33. She detests brussel sprouts.
34. She detests exercise even more.
35. She loves baking cookies. There’s nothing better than chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven.
36. Her favorite movie is The Sound of Music. Her Grandad used to wake her up when it was showing on TV at six in the morning and they’d watch it together. Those are some of her best memories ever.
37. Because of her Grandad, she loves classic films, especially musicals. Cary Grant is her favorite actor.
38. She likes to go to a theater near her house that only shows old movies. They also have the best popcorn. Seriously, the stuff must be sprinkled with crack, it’s so addictive.
39. The Fourth of July is her favorite holiday. Not because she’s extremely patriotic, but because her family always had the best BBQ parties when she was growing up on that day.
40. She’s from a military family. Her grandfather was in the Air Force, her other grandfather was in the Marines and then the Army. Her father served in the Navy, and her older brother served in the Marines during the Second Gulf War.
41. She sold the first book she ever finished writing. That fact still makes her proud.
42. If she sees a shooting star, she’ll make a wish. Even if it turns out to be a satellite.
43. She’s obsessed with Post-It notes. They’re her brain on sticky little pieces of paper.
44. Her boyfriend once left her a Post-It note on her bathroom mirror that said he loved her. She still has it.
45. As a child, she would sing the song “Tomorrow” from the movie Annie. Constantly. Non-stop. She can’t stand that song now.
46. Watching people chew with their mouths open makes her want to puke. It’s one of her biggest pet peeves.
47. She thinks her curly hair is her best feature.
48. She loves trying local restaurants wherever she goes. They’re so much more interesting than chain-food eateries. Even if they turn out to be bad restaurants.
49. Don’t ask her about the local Mexican place she tried in Wyoming with her cousin. You’ll find out about salsa served in ketchup bottles, among other things.
50. She doesn’t believe in love at first sight. But she does believe in love that lasts forever.
Now let’s look at more of her loverly cover art, shall we…..
Ok ladies slow your hearts down…don’t you just love that next to last title..It’s Raining Men?????
So now let’s get to know Crystal with our Question and Answer portion:
Oh but first thank you Crystal for your family’s service to our country.
C: Quirky, funny, sarcastic, bookish, curly-haired
If you’d like to go visit Crystal you can go here. http://www.crystaljordan.com/ or here http://www.crystaljordan.com/blog/ or here http://crystaljordan.tumblr.com/ or here http://www.smutketeers.com/
So today I will be giving away an ebook copy of Demon’s Caress to 3 commentors.
Rules:
1. You must leave a meaningful comment, something more than Hi, Hello, or Great Post. Ask a question, squee like a fan girl or whatever you want as long as it’s appropriate.
2. Every comment counts so chat away. Please include your email in your comment.
3. Winners will be drawn 3 days after each post and a master list will be posted on Feb 17th. You will have until Feb 29th to email me at SeawitchReviews @ yahoo (dot) com. I will also send an email to each winner but if I don’t hear from you by the 29th a new winner will be drawn.
Z Seawitch
Carol L.
Feb 06, 2012 @ 10:36:40
Hi Crystal,
Loved your interview. Too funny about grandma and nipples in the same sentence. lol
I agree about Once Upon A Time but I am also just watching and waiting at this point.
Don’t enter me for the giveaway as I can’t read e-books on this computer. But I just came from your site and you have some awesome looking books and covers, especially Treasure. 🙂 Putting a few on my TRL to start. Congrats on the new release.
Carol L
Lucky4750 (at) aol (dot) com
seawitchreviews
Feb 06, 2012 @ 12:26:00
Ok I have to ask what is TRL? I like once upon a time. Yep that’s why I put Treasured up.
Z
Tracey D
Feb 06, 2012 @ 12:35:24
Hi, Crystal.
I’m with Carol about the books covers. Do you work closely with the cover artists to create them? How long does it take?
Thanks,
booklover0226 at gmail dot com
seawitchreviews
Feb 06, 2012 @ 22:57:52
Hello Tracey,
Thanks for stopping by. Good question, I don’t think Crystal got my reminder email about today being her day.
Z
Victoria Zumbrum
Feb 06, 2012 @ 12:38:27
I love the pictures. They are beautiful and I have always wanted to ride a horse. The books sound really great. Please enter me in contest. Tore923@aol.com
seawitchreviews
Feb 06, 2012 @ 13:10:51
Ok,I let the baby play with my phone and now my Web guard is on and I can’t get to the blog except by replying.ZFrom my Android phone on T-Mobile. The first nationwide 4G network.
StacieD
Feb 06, 2012 @ 13:57:31
Hello Crystal! I had a similar experienc with Jaws. I saw it when I was very little and became terrified of water. My family went to the ocean a few months later and I freaked out. I still don’t like to swim. LOL
seawitchreviews
Feb 06, 2012 @ 22:59:04
Me either I don’t like my kids going in the water but I let them and sweat the whole time.
Z
Cathy P
Feb 06, 2012 @ 14:54:00
Hi Crystal! I really enjoyed your interview and had a few chuckles over it. I love the pictures on your books. I have never really been into paranormal or erotic books, but yours sound good. You mentioned taking a German class. Can you speak to your boyfriend in German now?
kscathy@yahoo.com
seawitchreviews
Feb 06, 2012 @ 23:00:45
Hello Cathy P
Another great question, that would make it easier to keep up the skills.
Z
Barbara
Feb 06, 2012 @ 17:19:21
Beautiful pics, Z! Thanks for introducing me to another new to me author…very nice to meet you Crystal! Your book covers are FAB…I would pick one of your books up based on any one of them alone! Demon’s Caress sounds like a GREAT read and I LOVED reading the book blurb. Here’s hoping for a LUCKY draw…my fingers are crossed 🙂
barbbattaglia@yahoo.com
seawitchreviews
Feb 06, 2012 @ 23:02:56
Hello Barbara
Thanks for stopping by, I love the cover for Treasured, Prowl series and Primal Heat.
Z
Cathy M
Feb 06, 2012 @ 17:24:06
Love your comfort reads, Crystal. Those Mackenzie men still have a place on my favorite’s shelf, even after all these years.
caity_mack at yahoo dot com
seawitchreviews
Feb 06, 2012 @ 23:03:34
Like I said I’m going to have to look into those books, so many love them.
Z
KittyKelly
Feb 06, 2012 @ 18:15:44
Don’t enter me cause I already read this one-I loved it! I just wanted to stop by and show some non-touching Crystal love. 😉 See my hands are up! 🙂 lol Crystal is awesome and y’all should check her out if you haven’t already!!!
KittyKelly
seawitchreviews
Feb 06, 2012 @ 23:05:03
LOL Kelly
I’m home now and back on my internet, yeah. Thanks for the helping hand earilier.
Z
June M.
Feb 06, 2012 @ 20:54:36
I would love to read this book! I love paranormals and erotic romance so you add them together and nothing can drag me from the kindle, and I definitely don’t want to have to stop to sleep!
*fingers crossed*
seawitchreviews
Feb 06, 2012 @ 23:05:44
You can sleep between the end of one book and the beginning of another.
Z
Lenna H
Feb 06, 2012 @ 21:16:54
Wow so much info to comment on, where do I start…Crystal I am so glad you reorganized your book section. I “found” you at Borders one day (In the Heat of the Night & On the Prowl) and decided I had to start collecting your books. I do it a series at a time and I couldn’t connect the series from your listing a few years ago. I kinda gave up. Now I can clearly figure out which book connects to the other. THANK YOU.
I read Nightshift thanks to Kate Douglas. Such a wonderful woman. I met her at a small book signing in Aloha (Beaverton) Oregon this summer. I have ALL her Wolf Tale and Demon books (autographed now). She sent me Nightshift when she found out about my Mother’s stroke, anyway I read your story and got intrigued all over again. Now I know why. We like the same shows on TV and share a Library Science thing. I did work study shifts at the Univ of Oregon’s Library School in college. Librarians are cool. Wow I’ve got to stop. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your wonderful imagination with us 🙂
seawitchreviews
Feb 06, 2012 @ 23:07:49
Hello Lenna
I love collecting series.
Z
vampedchik
Feb 06, 2012 @ 22:43:32
You do have some amazing covers!!! I love your books! Thanks so much for sharing with us today!
-Amber
goodblinknpark@yahoo.com
seawitchreviews
Feb 06, 2012 @ 23:08:26
Hey Amber
Thanks for stopping in tonight.
Z
Karen C
Feb 06, 2012 @ 22:49:10
I love your Fifty Fascinating Facts! I agree with you on snow & math, love brussels sprouts and also have saved a note from my husband telling me that he loved me. The MacKenzie men are definitely unforgettable!
Congratulations on the release of Demon’s Caress! How many books are planned for the Demon Heat series?
kacbooks(at)hotmail(dot)com
seawitchreviews
Feb 06, 2012 @ 23:08:57
Those are the best notes to save.
Z
DiDi
Feb 06, 2012 @ 23:39:19
Love the pictures. Congrats on your husband’s retirement and THANK YOU and him for his service.
Please don’t enter me in the contest, I have an ARC of Demon’s Caress. BTW I LOVE the cover
seawitchreviews
Feb 07, 2012 @ 14:28:01
Hello DiDi
Isn’t the cover sweet! Thanks for stopping in.
Z
Dawn
Feb 07, 2012 @ 00:31:38
That’s a great pic Crystal and green is my favorite color too as well as Key Lime Pie – but it has to make you pucker 🙂 mmmmm
seawitchreviews
Feb 07, 2012 @ 14:32:29
It makes you pucker but it’s so good. Now I want some.
Z
Fedora
Feb 07, 2012 @ 00:40:19
ROFL! OK, Crystal, great list and lovely interview! I had to laugh at your repeated singing of “Tomorrow”–it’s just such a sing-able song! 😉 But I’m glad my kids aren’t singing it repeatedly right now 😀 Can’t wait to read Demon’s Caress–love the premise!
seawitchreviews
Feb 07, 2012 @ 14:33:19
Hey Fedora,
Thanks for stopping in.
Z
Susan R
Feb 07, 2012 @ 06:31:23
Just stopping by to say Hi! Don’t enter me – I already read Demon’s Caress and loved it!!
seawitchreviews
Feb 07, 2012 @ 14:33:58
Hey Susan
Thanks for coming by and lucky you!
Z
Ivy
Feb 07, 2012 @ 20:00:36
DH shares #46 w/ Crystal…the only time he ever got in trouble @ school was for popping a boy doing that, to add insult to injury he smacked. Our boys do neither!
Cary Grant is my favorite and I adore old movies….Papa would sit me beside him in the recliner & we’d watch Mr.Ed the Talking Horse. Love Mr.Ed to this day…I too wish on falling stars & prefer Belgian chocolate. I can get it at Aldi. Some of your answers brought back lovely memories.
I’ve never read Crystal so she’s a new to me author. Love those covers.