Did you see Dick Francis died? I feel personally bereft. I don’t follow horse racing. let alone steeple-chasing. (In fact, I’m scared of horses, beautiful creatures though they are. They’re so damned big.) But Francis was an uber-champion jockey. He rode for the Queen. He was also a real gentleman and an extraordinarily gifted and interesting person. He didn’t have much of an education, but when he gave up riding and turned to writing, he was amazing. He wrote a book a year for years on end, all of them terrific reads.

If you want to learn what tension and narrative power is all about, read Dick Francis.  I used to swallow his books whole, in one big gulp, they were that good. I bet he was a dream to edit. His heroes are usually quiet, competent men, assured in their masculinity - rather like their creator, I imagine. Not chest-beating alphas, but real men! There’s generally a romance, though it’s low-key and understated.

One of the things I loved was how hard he worked and how much attention he paid to detail. His research was always meticulous. Not all of his heroes are horse or racing people. I remember one about a toy inventor, another about an actor. But whatever it was, he knew everything there was to know about it.  And he made the research an integral part of the story without beating you over the head with it.

Haven’t read them? I envy you. If you’re looking for a place to start, you couldn’t do better than the Sid Halley books. (The three covers pictured here.) Sid is brave without bravado and he makes brains sexy. Your local library will have them for sure. 

I’m here to tell you audiobooks rock! What? You already knew that? Well, duh! I’ve always been a late bloomer.

It started with Stephen Fry reading Harry Potter. Not only a gorgeous voice, but so many voices. How a man with a dark velvety baritone makes himself sound like a fourteen year old girl, let alone a squeaky house elf, is beyond me, but he does. I heard in an interview with him and J.K. Rowling that the recording engineers keep a special CD with snippets of all the different voices he does, as a reference. There must be hundreds.

I’m in awe of these vocal artists - because they are artists, in every sense of the word. Lord John and the Private MatterScots, Irish, slum London and, of course, Lord John’s mellifluous oh-so-English tones. He’s fabulous, but OMG, I was gobsmacked to discover he’s American! WTF? How did does he do it? by Diana Gabaldon is read by Jeff Woodman. He does a complete range of accents -

I’m pretty good at detecting accents. For example, I can still hear Sam Worthington’s Aussie accent in Avatar. Kinda cute coming from an eight foot tall blue guy.*snicker* But Woodman had me completely convinced. Brilliant. Just like High Laurie in House. DD wouldn’t believe me when I told her he was the quintessential Englishman. Had to find the evidence on YouTube!

Then there’s Nigel Planer reading Terry Pratchett. I lurve Terry Pratchett, and even though I’ve read them all before, there’s something so indugent and well, cuddly, about being read to. A throwback to childhood, I guess. As some of you have intuited, I suck at housework because I hate it. Actually, I dislike pretty much any kind of routine. So I’ve been listening to Men at Arms as I clean up the kitchen (DD is on a baking jag) or trudge through my exercise program or drive to work. It really helps. Though I laughed so hard at Janet Evanovich’s Visions of Sugar Plums, I nearly drove up a telegraph pole once.

Ellora’s Cave have just started a new line of audiobooks. You can check it out here. Look at the upper right hand corner of the Home Page for the direct link.  Wow. I can’t imagine anyone reading my books aloud, except I think I’d want it to be a man. Can’t decide whether to blush or go jump My Beloved’s bones.

Do you listen to audiobooks? Do you enjoy them? What about erotic romances though? I suspect I’d be too embarrassed to listen. Which is pretty dumb really, because visuals/movies don’t bother me - quite the reverse, actually! heh heh

Tell me, does this flip your switch? It passed the Rossetti giggle-out-loud test. Not many do.

But wait, there’s more. The rest of the joke goes like this -

I e-mailed it to my Chinese doctor friend. He e-mailed back: “If the light stays on for more than 4 hours, call your erectrician.”

Boom, boom!

 It’s newsletter time, which means…

Rackety Kate and the Pirates

Chapter 27

Punishment Is its Own Reward

The story so far:
To her astonishment, Kate discovers that she’s been retained as counsel by the Comte de Nothos — in an action against Cavanagh Enterprises. Legally, The Comte’s position is untenable, but he’s refusing to budge. If he won’t listen to Kate, who will he listen to?

You can read all of Kate here – http://www.deniserossetti.com/kate.html

Kate leaned back in her chair, putting on her poker face. “You know who,” she said. “The Hormone Harlots.”

The Comte glared. His face, already pale, went the colour of finest alabaster. “I have no idea who or what you’re talking about,” he said in a voice like ice. “I’m instructing you to pursue the action against Jack Cavanagh, Ms O’Reilly.”

Shit, it wasn’t working. Come on, Rossetti, thought Kate. You can write smut for the discerning anytime. I need you right now.

“You don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell,” she said. If she hadn’t been watching him so closely, she might have missed it, but the Comte’s lashes flickered. Kate leaned forward, intent. “I like to win, Comte,” she said. “Not piss off the judge and waste the court’s time.”

Very faintly, she heard a sound from somewhere deep in the building, or was it in her head? Tap, tap, tap.

Holding the Comte’s fathomless gaze, Kate licked her lips. Her heart hammered. “Did you hear that?”

The Comte shifted slightly in his high-backed chair. “This is an office, people work here.” he said.

In the distance, an elevator made a swooshing sound, then a bright ding! The low murmur of female voices drifted through the door, accompanied by the tap of heels, drawing closer.

A slow flush climbed out of the Comte’s collar, reaching his cheeks. Apart from that, however, he’d gone so still he could have sat for a portrait entitled Sex in a Suit.

“I’ll let them in, shall I?”

“No,” croaked the Comte. “I haven’t… They’ll…”

Ignoring him, Kate rose and flung the door open wide.

Arm in arm, Tess and Ess beamed at her. They looked just as she remembered them, except that Tess had purple and red streaks in her hair and a nose stud, while Ess was tricked out in a silk suit the colour of a dove’s breast, with a cream silk blouse and pearls.

“Heya, babe,” beamed Tess.

“Kate, dear,” smiled Ess.

***

Want more? You can read all of Kate and see more pirates on the Rackety Kate page. Want even more than that? Join my newsletter - see below.

The winner of the matched set - Unlaced AND Laced with Desire - is - 

Beth C. !!! 

Come on down, Beth! Actually, email me at deniserossetti @ gmail.com (no spaces) with your snail mail to claim your prize. I’ll hold it for seven days and then redraw.

I had the best time, talking with you all. *smile* What I thought was fascinating is how important beautiful lingerie is to a woman’s confidence. So many of you mentioned it. I have visions of women all over the world, striding into job interviews with their power undies on under their ‘business’ outfits and blowing the interviewers away. Doncha love it? Heh heh

While I have your attention, I should point out that I have giveaways and contests every month on my newsletter. In fact - you guessed it - I’m giving away another matched set of anthologies, but you have to be a subscriber… Here’s all the information~

Welcome to the Laced with Desire cross-blog. 

This is our second ‘corset’ anthology together and we had such a blast with the Unlaced cross-blog, we decided to do it again.

This time, Jaci Burton, Jasmine Haynes, Joey W. Hill and I are talking about clothes - what they do (and don’t do!) for us. Yes, fashion disasters, unwise addictions, sex-kitten outfits - all is revealed. There are even a couple of pictures. Woot! (Possibly.)

Four authors, four blogs - four chances for free books. And it’s easy, just leave a comment. (Photographic evidence not required. heh heh) What’s not to love? Winners announced 9am EST (USA) Wednesday 3rd February.

Visit each of the blogs in turn to check out the giveaways from each author.I’m giving away a set - Unlaced AND Laced with Desire. If you happen to own them both already, I’m sure we can find something else.

I’ve put an easy link for you under each of our responses to the questions about clothes.

Here are the four questions  - 

1. What’s your most appalling shopping weakness, especially when it comes to clothes? Go to Jaci Burton’s blog. Giveaway - an advance review copy of her March release, Bound, Branded and Brazen.

2. What’s your most comfortable outfit and what do you enjoy doing most to relax? Go

to Jasmine Haynes’ blog. Giveaway - autographed copy of Yours for the Night.

 3. What’s your most sexy/naughty-feeling outfit? Go to Joey W. Hill’s blog. Giveaway - a signed copy of Laced with Desire.

4. What’s the outfit that gives you the most confidence? Read on! Giveaway - the set, Unlaced AND Laced with Desire.

Jaci Burton:

I have this sleeveless black dress that I adore. I can dress it up or down, wear a shirt under it if it’s cold outside or put a sweater over it. It’s multifunctional, looks great on me, I can wear heels or boots or flats with it, punk it up or class it up and it still looks great. Everyone should have a basic black dress they can do so many things with. It’ll make you feel great about yourself.

Visit Jaci’s blog for the shopping disasters and Jaci’s giveaway!

Excerpt from Jaci’s story, No Strings Attached.

Jasmine Haynes:

For confidence, I like a suit, feminine lines with a short tailored, form-fitting jacket and a skirt, either calf-length or well above the knee, never knee-length.  Under the suit, of course, very feminine lacy bra and barely there thong panties.  Thigh high stockings top it off.  Professional, feminine, and naughty all rolled into one.

Visit Jasmine’s blog for comfy clothes and Jasmine’s giveaway!

Excerpt from Jasmine’s story, La Petit Mort.

 Joey W. Hill:

That would be this dress. I wore it at the 2009 Romantic Times for the Jungle Party. Typical of an OCD personality type with body image issues, I don’t often feel gorgeous in anything, but I loved this dress. It had sexy lines, and flowed when I walked like I was a romance heroine come out of her chrysalis. It flattered hip line, maximized my minimal cleavage (grin), and had a whimsical flirtiness to it I adored. I found some great Wal-mart White Stag jewelry to go with it for almost nothing, and my mom, who went with me to RT, took this lovely near sunset picture. She was probably trying to commemorate the one time her daughter didn’t look like a bag lady!Of course, on the flip side, sometimes when I’m wearing my most comfortable outfit (see the question on Jasmine’s blog), that’s also when I feel most confident. That’s because it’s the outfit that says “this is the real me”, and there’s always a reassurance to that…as long as I don’t end up in the wrong environment for it. I remember one conference, I brought too many “comfortable clothes”, and when I went to one of the more formal events, I felt far from confident! So matching the setting to the outfit helps. However, when I’m at home and around town, I always feel quite confident in my comfy clothes. Though I think the sexy zebra dress would work anywhere (I plan to wear it to Wal-mart one day for fun – laughter).

Visit Joey’s blog for naughty/sexy outfits and Joey’s giveaway!

Excerpt from Joey’s story, Honor Bound.

Denise Rossetti:

I don’t mind admitting it - clothes are really important to my self-confidence. Feeling over or under dressed, badly groomed or untidy disconcerts me dreadfully. I suspect it’s shallow, but there you go.If I think my day at the Evil Day Job is going to be challenging, I’ll make a point of dressing from the skin out to bolster my confidence.

Matching undies first. Beyond that, I absolutely have to feel ‘put together’. I’m not a frilly or froufrou dresser, I like well-cut classics and a close fit. So it might be belted tailored trousers and shirt, with a jacket and discreet jewelry. I combine rich bright colours with neutrals because they give my skin a lift. Anything beige, dusty or muted and I could get work as an extra on Night of the Living Dead. LOL

I always wear my charm bracelet – I have a charm for every book I’ve written – because it reminds me of who I am and what I can do if I put my mind to it. (If you were wondering why the two silver inkpot/quill charms, they’re my Passionate Plume Awards.)

Excerpt from my story, Rhio’s Dancer.

Tell us about the outfit that makes you feel a million dollars. What’s so special about it?