Charity's Auction

Today is release day for "Charity's Auction" an MFM story in the "Caught in the Middle" anthology at Total-E-Bound. I'm thrilled as always and have been driving myself crazy preparing for this day. I think this particular book is jinxed, however. Not only does Twitter have a scheduled outage today, May 11th, but I see that Blogger does, too. Of course Blogger's says it's at 2:00 AM PDT on Monday May 11th. Hopefully neither outage will be all day. With my luck lately, it's possible. Since this is my fortieth-something book my family's not going to take me out for dinner or give me balloons, however, either. They're no longer phased. I'll be lucky if the hubby nods that he heard my announcement. I don't hold my breath that he'll say "congratulations". He's much more likely to say nothing or ask how much money I spent promoting the book. He might complain about how much time I devote to my books instead of to him. My husband and I have been married almost thirty years. I don't feel guilty when he says things like this because he spends a lot of time umpiring and scheduling umpires which is his second job. He has no room to complain. He also likes the extra income. I just realized this doesn't sound very romantic for a romance writer. We have our moments so don't feel sorry for us. My last release was "Truth, Justice, and the Vampire Way" at Ellora's Cave on April 22nd. That was a really difficult release day as it was my husband's birthday. He would not have understood had I told him I couldn't celebrate his birthday because I had another book releasing that day. Since I also hold down a day job, I was chained to my customer service desk all day until after 6 p.m. and then I rushed to meet my husband at Red Lobster. We didn't arrive home until late. I felt a little guilty for not being able to chat up my books on the loops and post excerpts on release day. I had to settle for scheduling blogs and twitters ahead of time. Thank God for technology that allows me to do so. As for feeling guilty, I keep reminding myself I am only one person and even though I am a world-class multi-tasker, I am not a magical being. My younger daughter has offered to make some free book banners for me. She took a web design course this year and she's eager to try her recently acquired Photo Shop skills. This is by far the most support and excitement my family shows. I hope that all of my fans, readers, and friends will be excited for me. I'm excited. "Charity's Auction" is a play on words so it's my favorite kind of title. The heroine's name is "Charity" and the story is based on a charity auction. When Char bids on and wins both sexy doctors Hunky and Hottie in her hospital's charity auction, she knows exactly what to do with them and it's not tidily winks. Although head nurse Char Reynolds is desperately head over heels for bad boy Dr. Dexter Graham, he's moved on. Still she gets caught up in bidding for him at the hospital's auction for the new children's wing and wins. His smug expression drives her to also bid on and win the very hunky Dr. Ben Price, Dexter's nemesis and to plan a very naughty, very sexy night with both men.

Excerpt from: 'Charity's Auction' by Ashley Ladd

Charity “Char” Reynolds stared at Dr. Dexter Graham, her eyes narrowed, her heart doing the cha-cha while mathematical calculations flew around in her head. He was gorgeous with his dark, five o’clock shadow, the sexy glint in his eyes, and his broad, powerful shoulders. If it weren’t for that smirk on his lips, he’d be perfect. But he was far from it. He only looked perfect.

The good doctor was a bad boy through and through. It was a toss up whether he mended or broke more hearts. His record on the operating room table was stellar. Off, however, was horrendous. He’d broken so many hearts with that killer smile and huge dimples he should be thrown into solitary confinement for the rest of his miserable life.

Amy Koch, the hospital’s chief administrator, adjusted the microphone with her only hand. Then she tapped the instrument and blew into it. “Can you hear me?”

When the sound from the mic blasted through Char’s head, she clapped her hands over her ears in self-preservation. “Have mercy, woman.”

Once her brain stopped spinning and she was able to see again, she looked over a sea of other people holding their ears. Tentatively, she removed one hand, keeping it close just in case the mic went crazy again.

So far so good. Slowly, she lowered her other hand but kept it at the ready as she warily kept her eye on Amy.

Although, she felt sorry for Amy since the car wreck that had amputated the administrator’s left arm, that she couldn’t find anything to like about her caused her to war with feelings of guilt and distrust. Even before the accident, Amy had only been out for number one, stepping on anybody in her way, claiming it was for the greater good. Now people overlooked her mean tempered whining—until they came into her sights. Char had been dead centre in Amy’s far too often. As head surgical nurse, she and Amy butted heads daily.

Just released today at Total-E-Bound in the "Caught in the Middle" M/F/M anthology.

You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)