(I've double posted this in news!!!)  I've been getting a lot of e-mail lately about sequels, and I'm thrilled.  So I thought I'd give you the rundown for sequels and my plans to write them, to save you all some e-mailing and me some replying (not that I don't love to hear from you:-)  So, here's the status (or non status) on sequels I'd like to (or wouldn't like to!) write:

The Locker Room-- No.  I'm sorry, I have no plans to write a sequel at this time.  For me, the end of The Locker Room was all about Xan and Chris having possibilities because Xan had grown into having a bigger life than the box he was locked into as a kid. Unless I'm bit by the major plot bunny of all time, the one that will solve world hunger and promote world peace, I think it's fair to say I want Xander and Chris's life to remain in the possible.  Honestly, from the letters you all have sent me, any sequel I would write would be a disappointment-- you all see them so happy.  

Keeping Promise Rock-- Yes.  In fact, although the writing of it was stalled by something else that is almost finished, I'm well in to writing the FINAL installment of The Promises series.  It's called Forever Promised, and it gives Crick and Deacon everything they've ever wanted.  No lie.  I swear.  Honest.

Gambling Men-- No.  Not unless the guys take up billiards, and at this point, it doesn't look likely. 

Chase in Shadow-- Yes!  Dex in Blue is already out, Ethan Gold is going to be next in line, followed by Black John and Tommy Bright.  So, uhm, yeah.  More to come there!

The Winter Courtship of Fur-Bearing Critters-- Yes.  How to Raise an Honest Rabbit and Knitter in His Natural Habitat have been greeted so warmly that I want to revisit Granby and Rance Crawford's little yarn shop one more time.  Besides, everybody wants to see how Jeremy is doing in his little house with Aiden, and to check on his recovery.  (Stop GLARING!  He had a karmic debt to settle!  Stanley was karmically clean--as innocent as a newborn lamb.  It wasn't HIS job to confront the bogey man, I SWEAR it wasn't!)  The next story has been tentatively titled (with the help of T.A. Chase, Goddess bless you, darling!) The Naked Alpaca Hats Band, and I'll be sneaking that one in sometime next year.

Scotty and Ryan-- It's a distinct possibility.  They're just too damned much fun not to!  

Clear Water-- I swear, I had a whole little mystery series planned when this one came out.  I still have plotbunnies for these guys, running up my legs.  The next time one of them crawls up my ass and calls out for my dragon to ride me like a porn star, I'm turning Patrick and Whiskey loose on the world again.  

Talker-- No.  They're happy.  Their lives sucked.  They've earned their little community by the seashore.  I want to think of them surfing and being happy forever.  

Country Mouse-- Yes.  Aleks and I have had the phone ringing (i.e. interruptions!) as of late, but we are well into City Mouse, and we want to keep writing it.  We love working together, but sometimes, real life just yanks on your chain!  But still-- we have plans for those boys!!!

The LIttle Goddess series--aka Quickening-- YES.  YES YES YES YES YES YES YES.  When I first "transitioned" from teaching to writing as my mainstay, (i.e., was yanked out of my classroom and threatened with all sorts of horrible things I shan't burden you with here!) I knew it was going to be a while before I got back to Quickening.  I wasn't writing for "fun" (it's never been that frivolous, trust me!) anymore, I was writing to feed my family, and to keep the promises to my older children of education and security.  I'm still doing that.  But in the last two years I've rediscovered that fantasy feeds my soul.  So I can't give a timeline-- and I'm sorry for that.  But I will not give up on the dream of writing this series, either. I'm still looking into publishers, and still pulling out the manuscript and adding to it when I've got a spare moment (not so much as of late) and I still have hope.  So yes.  There WILL be a sequel to Rampant.  I have faith.  

So that's pretty much it on the sequel front.  If there's a couple here I've missed, let me know, and I'll update this list again!

The Winter Courtship Rituals of
 Fur-Bearing Critters.

 Okay, back last December, I released a cute little novella about an alpaca rancher named Rance Crawford, and his sudden infatuation with his new neighbor, Ben.  I was rather proud of that sweet little story, and everyone was taken by not only Rance and Ben, but by the secondary characters as well.  And if I was a little surprised to get requests for the the story of Jeremy-- the ex-convict ex-conman-- and Aiden, his younger associate at the mill, I was stunned to get request for the story of Stanley.  Stanley was Craw's flirty little fuck-buddy in Boulder, the one who was always greased up and ready to go.  Stanley was a slutty little bottom to the marrow in his bones, with hair plugs, big blue eyes and an unexpected sweet spot (and not the one you're thinking about!) for the big, gruff rancher.


How to Raise an Honest Rabbit

Well, I wrote Jeremy and Aiden's story--and was stunned by how much I loved Jeremy.  My habit of rooting for underdogs prevails, and while some people are put off by Jeremy's country ways and small time patter, some people get that, at the heart of this guy who was used to swindling twenties off of young college students was a really sweet, really innocent guy.  One who needed gentling, and who needed Aiden to get all strong and secure on him, to make him be honest, and make him face the past, just like someone holding a rabbit is all strong and secure, at the same time they're being gentle.  Jeremy and Aiden did it for me-- they just did.  I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about Stanley, who was much slicker, much more urban, much more secure and much less vulnerable than my Jeremy bunny.

A Knitter in his Natural Habitat
Turns out, Stanley doesn't really give a shit if I like him or not.  He just needs to flash his best ass (the one above the back of his thighs and below his lower back) at the right guy (the handsome delivery guy  that we met at the end of How to Raise an Honest Rabbit) and get his little old lady on and knit.  Stanley is happy, he is secure, and once he stops looking for love in all the wrong Jethro's, he's going to be just fine.

Of course, Johnny, his Prince Charming, has deep dark secrets, and all of the people he's only sort of known at Craw's ranch and alpaca farm are about to become much closer friends, and Jeremy a guy Stanley always thought had it all together is about to seem a lot more vulnerable for a lot of reasons, but Stanley?  Stanley can handle pretty much whatever life throws his way, as long as he's got his knitting by his side.

Hell, Stanley can even handle love.

Anyway, A Knitter in His Natural Habitat is out today.  Please don't read it as a stand-alone-- you'll be really confused.  But if you've been along for this sweet little knitting ride from the get go, I think you'll enjoy the hell out of it.  By the way?  For those of you wondering about the knitting project at the end?  Well, A. The only thing dirty about it is the color name.  And B.  The prototype that you see being knit in the directions has already been claimed.  Oh yeah.  Mary Calmes jumped on that with all the ferocity of a knitter at a luxury fiber sale.  Seriously.  If I hadn't been able to hold the knitting as my hostage, I would have been very afraid!

Seriously, folks-- I hope you enjoy the story.  And I REALLY hope you enjoy the covers by Catt Ford, because so far, people can't get enough of them!

So, there's a contest over at Stumbling over Chaos for A Knitter in His Natural Habitat.  Make sure you enter--it'll be out on November 14th!  Knitter is the sequel to How to Raise an Honest Rabbit and it features Stanley, whom we met in the first story, The Winter  Courtship Rituals of Fur-Bearing Critters.  It also features a character we met in How to Raise an Honest Rabbit, and I hope people enjoy the convergence of the twain!


And as for swag-- I am running out of bags!  If I've responded to you thus far, you'll be getting a bag, but any other requests are going to have to be for bookmarks, stickers, pens, scrapbook pages, crayons, or activity books.  (Wow.  That's a lot, isn't it?)  


But I HAVE learned my lesson, and part of that is ordering enough swag to last me a while!  It was definitely worth it THIS time!


Part of it is also to know what I'm getting myself into!  But honestly, I'd do it again!  (Might wait until after Halloween, but I'd still do it again!)  It was a lot of fun!  I felt like Amy Claus!