New Girl

Meet my new best friends:

Have you seen this ridiculously funny show yet? Because I'll tell you, I missed the boat on it for several seasons, only to recently discover it on Netflix. And then I binged on them and now I'm done and very lonely.

:(

I know, I know...you don't have time to watch another show. And you shouldn't. You should be reading. Might I suggest any of the books on the sidebar of this website? :D

But at 21 minutes a pop without commercials, this show is the perfect-sized bite of comedy and heart. And it occurred to me, as I was ingesting every episode I could get my eyeballs on, just why I love to watch.

1. Schmidt.
2. The lead character's name is Jess.
3. Nick.
4. Winston.
5. Every line Schmidt says.
6. Guest stars: Rob Reiner, Jamie Lee Curtis, Justin Long, Steve Amell, Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten) from True Blood, Dermot Mulroney, Taylor Swift (I mean really, who wasn't on it?)
7. Schmidt.
8. This show is the perfect blend of sexy and funny. 

Before I go on a Schmidt fandom quote-a-thon (he's my fave if you couldn't tell)...

...let's talk about reason #6.

There are two things I love in romance: sexy and funny. I love the steamy stuff, but a bit of levity is always nice. And when you can get across a big, heartfelt emotional moment after being ridiculously funny? Well, that's a win in a BIG way. New Girl does just that. You may think Nick the curmudgeonly man-child until 

(warning: *SPOILER* below)

he kisses Jess and you literally feel your internal organs rock around in your torso. Seriously. Have you seen this kiss? It's epic. Amazing. And the fact that it's one of the most romantic kisses I've seen on the silliest show I've ever watched makes it all the more special.

Watch it. Then watch it again.

Hey, watch it a third time. No judging here. What's another :35 seconds?

(*END SPOILER*)

Love funny & sexy? Might I humbly recommend New Girl for your television watching enjoyment. Might I also not-so humbly recommend my book, Hard to Handle, book 2 in my Love in the Balance series. It's available on e-book for $2.99, and the paperback will be in a store near you in March. 

Hot, motorcycle-riding, scruffy guy is still in love with the hot, petite blonde he loved and left a year ago. Think he'll get her back? (Yes.) But he'll have a helluva time doing it...

Happy watching (and reading)!

~Jess

PS, you got some Schmidt on your face.

Jessica Lemmon writes sassy, sexy contemporary romance with a squeeze of humor. She blogs on this site on rotation with the other Sassy Chicks. You can find out more at www.jessicalemmon.com, LIKE her at www.facebook.com/authorjessicalemmon, and tweet her in 140-character bursts on Twitter: @lemmony

Sassy New Year!

Happy 2014! Wow, it’s here. Can you believe it? Here's some of the fun stuff that happened to me in 2013:

January

·         My debut, Tempting the Billionaire was published in January by Grand Central Publishing.

·         I had a launch party (and reading) to celebrate the release of TtB with 50+ of my closest fam & friends.

May

with Kathy Love

·         I attended my first Romance Times Convention in Kansas City, MO. I hung out with my agency sisters and made a new bestie in Maisey Yates whom I’d hung out with on Twitter for 3 years but had never met. So we roomed together (natch) along with Teri Anne Stanley in our haunted hotel room (to be fair, the entire hotel was haunted). I also met my agent, my editor, author Kathy Love whom I’ve loved forEVAH. And E.L. James of Fifty fame.

with E.L. James at RT 2013

"Jess, Enjoy my manwhore <3 Maisey Yates"

June

·         I attended my second Lori Foster Reader-Author Get-together and even had a seat to give away bookmarks and buttons. Met so many fantastic authors, including Charley Davidson seires fave: Darynda Jones

·         I turned 29!

·         Again!

September-December

·       Can’t Let Go (novella prequel to Hard to Handle) released in September, and we got to get up close & personal with Aiden and Sadie rather than just seeing them in the background of Tempting the Billionaire. (Side note: my head may or may not have nearly exploded from how difficult that timeline was to construct.) O__O       
  

·         Hard to Handle (eBook) released in October. Aiden and Sadie + Sexytimes = happy readers. :-)

Hard to Handle

·         IF YOU DARE, also known as my haunted house romance released in November and the world meets smexy Marcus.

Smexy Marcus

·         A week later, Tempting the Billionaire went to paperback! Shane August, in the pulp!

·         My first REAL signing! The Romancing the Holidays happened in Ohio with fellow romance authors Jules Bennett, Macy Beckett, Toni Blake, Tonya Kappes, and more. (Not that I’m name-dropping.) Lori Foster. (I’m totes name-dropping.) Copious pics available by clicking HERE, if you're into that sort of thing.

·         Attended an author/reader Christmas party at Lori Foster’s house.

So…what’s ahead for 2014?

·         Another signing with Lori Foster & Co. in February.

·         Hard to Handle goes to paperback in March.

·         New Orleans Romance Times Convention in May.

·         The Millionaire Affair (book 3, Landon’s story) goes to eBook & paperback in June.

·     Also in June, I'll turn 29! Again! 

·         MORE books in the works…stay tuned for the continuation of the Love in the Balance series PLUS brand new, sexy heroes.

AND, I’m going to eat healthy and exercise. But who cares about that, right? Bring on the sexy heroes!

WHAT ABOUT YOU? What awesomeness happened to you in 2013? Or, if last year was a bust, what are you looking forward to experiencing in 2014? DO TELL!

Happy New Year!

Jess :-)

Jessica Lemmon writes sassy, sexy contemporary romance with a squeeze of humor. She blogs on this site on rotation with the other Sassy Chicks. You can find out more at www.jessicalemmon.com, LIKE her at www.facebook.com/authorjessicalemmon, and tweet her in 140-character bursts on Twitter: @lemmony

My Very First P&P Blog EVAH

For my very first post EVAH (*throws confetti*) on Pens and Peonies , I wanted to make sure I delivered what you came here to find. Since the P&P banner says we are here to discuss Writing, Sex, Men, Emotion, and Life, I thought I’d pick one of those to talk about.

As a contemporary romance writer who claims to write “sexy, sassy romance with a squeeze of humor” you may have already deduced which topic I’m about to tackle.

MEN. (You were thinking SEX, weren’t you?) ;)

I love men. There. I said it. What’s lovely is that my (long-suffering?) husband of a decade-and-a-half understands that I love my heroes and that my heroes and I have a very intimate relationship with one another. Of course, I’m talking about fictional men.

After loading up Shane (Tempting the Billionaire) with baggage, wading through sorrow with Aiden (Hard to Handle) and digging deep to find out how Landon (The Millionaire Affair) really feels about love, I’m certain I’ve ended up with the right man by my side. (I liked it. I put a ring on it.)

Which leads us to the topic of the men I didn’t marry: the ones in my books. 

I believe every heroine deserves a good man, and crafting one isn’t as clean and smooth as their last close shave (or not, in Aiden’s scruffy case). To make sure you get a hero to drool over, and sometimes want to hit over the head with a shovel (Shane, I’m looking at you), I am sure to give these rock-hard-bodied males a few traits that aren’t so perfect.

And I don’t mean a hook nose or a lazy eye, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Heroes of romance may be physical gods who know their way around a mattress, but make no mistake, they are flawed. Those flaws are deep-seated, ingrained in who they’ve had to become to deal with their crap. Either they fear ever getting close to someone (Shane), get way too close way too soon (Aiden), or believe that love can be broken down into an itemized, manageable list (Landon, you poor clueless millionaire, you).  At this point, any self-respecting, modern-day woman should be poised for two snaps of the “Oh No You Didn’t” variety.

The trick to finding these finely flawed heroes their happily ever afters is to set them up with a woman who is understanding, patient, and sometimes as stubborn and set in their ways as they are. And that’s where the fun comes in. Because why else read about an Adonis if we don’t get to watch them fail miserably? Why put a woman in his arms if she’s not going to eventually find herself wanting to get out of them?

The key to every great romance is the push and pull, the yin and yang, the unexpected discovery of watching these characters find the person they weren’t even looking for.

Each new book I start begins with casting the hero. (As you can see showcased on my hero-laden Pinterest board HERE.) I’ve heard a good man is hard to find, but I have no problem finding a nugget of goodness in each of my male characters. The hard part is dredging up the past that left them scarred in the first place, and then helping them get over it.

Once that barrier is broken down, he and the heroine will live happily ever after. And at that point, there’s not a damn thing either one of them can do about it. :)

Sm:)e,
Jess

Jessica Lemmon writes sassy, sexy contemporary romance with a squeeze of humor. She blogs at Pens & Peonies the first Wednesday of every month. You can also find out more at www.jessicalemmon.com, LIKE her at www.facebook.com/authorjessicalemmon, and tweet her in 140-character bursts on Twitter: @lemmony

Interview: Jessica Lemmon

Happy Friday! Today we're featuring contemporary romance writer Jessica Lemmon, and if you're not following her on Twitter, you're missing some pretty fantastic tweets! But first, the interview!

What do you think makes a good book?

The truth. I love honesty in writing. If it’s raw and real and makes me feel what the characters are feeling, I’m sold.

 

How did you come up with the idea for your book Hard to Handle?

Hard to Handle is my second book, so Aiden’s and Sadie’s characters were introduced in Tempting the Billionaire. In a way, this made Hard to Handle easier to write because I already knew their personalities. BUT. Aiden and Sadie dated and broke up in the background of that first book. The challenge was figuring out what, exactly, had gone down between those two. I knew Aiden rode a motorcycle, and thought it’d be fun to pair him with a girl who was terrified of riding. To make it fun, I made her very passionate about her job…selling motorcycle parts! Sadie was a blast to write. She’s honest and snarky and so very strong. She’s such an honest character.

 

What was the “hardest” part of writing Hard to Handle?

Ironically, the hardest part of writing Hard to Handle wasn’t writing Hard to Handle! It was writing the companion (prequel) novella Can’t Let Go. Can’t Let Go is the “before” the “Happily Ever After” for Aiden and Sadie and I have to admit, it absolutely tore me up to write. In the beginning, they had it so, so good. They were in love, and it was easy to see how much they needed each other; how deserving of love they both were. Then Aiden’s mom gets ill and BOOM, Aiden’s family tragedy shoves Sadie right out of the picture.

Writing a breakup is no joke, people! And when I wrote the scene where Aiden’s entire family is talking in the living room, I cried. Like, actually sobbed while writing it. I’d never done that before (or since). I’ve had readers claim to have shed tears at that scene, too, which is just about the highest compliment you can pay a writer. I’m all, “You cried! Yay! I’m so glad!” LOL

 

What else have you written? Which one is your favorite?

There are 3 books in the Love in the Balance series:

1.       Tempting the Billionaire

2.      Hard to Handle (and the prequel novella: book 1.5 Can’t Let Go)

3.      The Millionaire Affair (coming 2014)

My favorite? Okay, confession. I think I’m still in love with Aiden. Don’t tell Tempting’s Shane…or Millionaire’s Landon, though. I love them, too. ;-)

 

Do you have a nickname?

A lot of people call me by my Twitter handle (@lemmony). Usually followed by asking me, “Is it okay if I call you that?” The answer is absolutely YES! Totally okay. I signed up for Twitter a long, long time ago and wasn’t sure what to make my handle…so I named myself after my license plate (on my yellow car) which reads: LEMMONY. It stuck, and after I became “an author”, I decided to leave it. I thought the nickname was fun and memorable. :-)

 

Fast Facts:

Coffee or tea?  Coffee! Starbucks, if you have it.

White wine or red? Yes.

Champagne or liquor? Sure, I’ll have some of that, too.

Laptop or desktop? Desktop. I have a lot of notes/stuff to spread out!

Casual or couture? Casual, all the way.

Motorcycle or bicycle? I want to say motorcycle, even though, like Sadie, I don’t ride. Somehow, though, I think Aiden Downey could talk me into it. Especially if he wore down my defenses the way he did Sadie’s in Hard to Handle…  ;-)

 

 

About Jessica Lemmon:

Jessica Lemmon has always been a dreamer. At some point, she decided head-in-the-clouds thinking was childish, went out, and got herself a job . . . and then she got another one because that one was lousy. And when that one stopped being fulfilling, she went out and got another . . . and another. Soon it became apparent she'd only be truly happy doing what she loved. And since "eating potato chips" isn't a viable career, she opted to become a writer. With fire in her heart, she dusted off a book she'd started years prior, finished it, and submitted it. It may have been the worst book ever, but it didn't stop her from writing another one. Now she has several books finished, several more started, and even more marinating in her brain (which currently resides in the clouds, thankyouverymuch), and she couldn't be happier. She firmly believes God gifts us with talents for a purpose, and with His help, you can create the life you want. (While eating potato chips.)

 

 

About Hard To Handle:

ONCE BURNED

Sadie Howard never dates a guy more than once-but Fate has other plans for her when it comes to Aiden Downey, the one that got away. Aiden loved her, left her, and broke her heart. Yet suddenly she's bumping into him at every turn, driven to distraction by his wicked grin and rock-hard body. Now she can't resist finishing what they started-as long as she doesn't let herself fall in love . . .

TWICE AS TEMPTING

Aiden Downey threw away the best thing he ever had when he let Sadie go, and now he's determined to win back the woman he's always wanted. Sadie agrees to let him into her life-and her bed-as long as there are no strings attached. But Aiden's not about to make the same mistake again. Can he convince her to take a second chance on a once-in-a-lifetime love?

 

 

HARD TO HANDLE buy links:

Amazon

Barnes and Nobel

iBooks

Jessica Lemmon on:

Twitter: @lemmony

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJessicaLemmon

GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6551749.Jessica_Lemmon

Blog: http://www.jessicalemmon.com/

 

 

Spotlight: Jessica Lemmon

Today's spotlight is shining on Jessica Lemmon and her Love in the Balance novella, Can't Let Go.

Here's the blurb:

AN INSTANT SPARK

Sadie Howard would never admit there's such a thing as love at first sight, but she can't deny the connection between her and sexy Adonis Aiden Downey. She also can't deny she loves to kiss him-his mouth might be his most precious asset. Despite every promise to herself not to get involved any deeper than a first date, she can't keep from seeing more of Aiden . . . in more ways than one.

Aiden Downey had no idea the hot blonde from the club would trigger his protective, gentle nature, but the moment she drops her guard and he sees the real Sadie Howard, he's a goner. When a family crisis puts the brakes on their budding romance, can Aiden find a way to hold on to her? Or will he lose the best thing in his life just as quickly as he found her?

~~~

Jessica is the funny, witty, entertaining author whose tweets I'm always favorite-ing on Twiiter. If you're not following her, you're missing out on tons of FUN.

*** Click here to connect with Jessica on Twitter ***

This post is part of The Seymour Agency's Progressive Giveaway! Be sure to CLICK HERE and enter the giveaway. The more follows, adds, friends, and subscribes received by participating authors, the more prizes will be added to the giveaway!

~~~

Thanks again for stopping by!
xoxo ~Marisa