It's my party...

OMG! Has it really been two months since I posted. Good God. So much for that resolution I made to blog more... yup, so haven't kept it. But, I'm here today... just a quick note to thank everyone who has wished me well today. It's my birthday, and while it's awesome to get all the happy wishes, I think I'm ready to stop counting. Or maybe I can start going backwards? I'll only go back to the early 30's then go forward again. Surely that's allowed!

Okay, so other than being another year older, but wiser... that's right, I'm holding on to the hope that I'm getting smarter with age... life here is still hectic. I thought with the end of hockey season, I'd have more time. But other things always seem to get in the way. I'm training harder for my race, and that definitely takes up a lot of time. My father has also recently moved out with us... he's going to be getting a beautiful 5th wheel to put on my property, but for now, he's in the spare room. He's a pretty great guy, but I know being cooped up with 4 cats, 3 kids and a dog is getting to him. Hopefully he'll decide on a model soon so he can have his own space to go when the xbox is cranked to the max and my house sounds like a war zone.

In other news... I plan on starting a new post called Sh*t my kids say... It's occurred to me lately, that my kids and those I look after, say the damnedest things, so I'm going to start listing them off. I hope to have my first post this week, then it will continue when I have more material.. but hey, with my kids, that shouldn't be hard.

Okay, just a quick check in to let you all know I didn't fall off the end of the earth...just got stuck in the undertow for a bit.

He Got In...

Well, we got the news. Kyle got into the Highland Hockey Academy for next year! Yup, doing the snoopy dance. I even went in this week and put in his course preferences and did the whole registration thing. Now he just has to motivate himself to keep up this year, lol. What is it with boys.. and yeah, in my house it's the boys, and the not wanting to go to school, or wanting to do anything but a bit of homework? I swear, if he spent half the time doing it than he does fuming over it, it'd be done... but try to tell that to a teenager.

But, on the bright side, he knows that he has to keep up next year or they can ask him to leave the hockey part, and he's really looking forward to that.

In other news... my car is still in the shop. Who knew it would take so freaking long to fix it. And to top it off, the car I got to drive as a replacement... it's a freaking Toyota Yaris!!!!!! Now, I'm not dissing a free ride and hey, it's not a bad car, but... I drive a 7 passenger SUV and sometimes I barely have enough room. This thing... it could fit in the back of my gal pal's truck! I think the only cars smaller are those 'smart' cars... can you imagine, on the weekend I had 4 kids and me in the car... so yeah, it's packed full... 2 hockey bags and a ref bag! Man, I should work for a packing place because you can't believe how I stuff it all in. And it that's not enough, this weekend we all have to go to Vancouver for a ringette tournament. So... there's going to be 4 people, 2 hockey bags and goalie equipment, and... you'll love this... the dog. Yup, gotta take the dog. Well, at least we'll get good mileage, even if I can't see out the back window.

Some crazy bad juju...

First, I blogged today over at the Gems' blog. Would love for you to come and check it out.

Second... what the hell? I'm not sure what I did to the karma Gods, but damn, they are kicking my ass lately. And not in a way remotely arousing. I know my elders always said trouble comes in three—I'm sure this must be a biblical reference, but hey, three always seems to be the number. Things are funny in three, are grouped better in three... there's just something with that damn three. Anyway, I'm hoping this is true, as I've certainly had my three.

First, just over a week ago, my daughter and I were watching TV in my room. I had planned on watching Lie to Me (love that show) but Syd wanted to watch one of hers, so I relented. I was supposed to be working anyway. So she's watching her show and all of a sudden we hear a hissing sound. We glance at each other then notice the TV picture is going funny. We stare for a few seconds then I ask her... is that smoke coming out of the TV? Sure enough, the damn thing is on fire... yeah... right there in the bedroom. So I jump up, unplug it and open the window in case I have to toss the freaking thing out... and I would have... while telling Syd to get her brothers and the fire extinguishers. The boys come running, armed with white foam, but I manage to get the thing outside before we unleash one of the extinguishers on it...it's still sitting out there in my driveway like a voodoo doll or something, all covered in white just staring at the house.

Then, a few days later, my dad has to be rushed to the hospital. Now, he's okay, but it's the last straw that he can't live on his own any longer and be 3000 miles away. I'll be heading to Toronto shortly to deal with that... my brother is there now... but I'm not looking forward to convincing the man he needs to move... now.

Finally, this past weekend, I crashed my car... all I'm going to say is 5:30 a.m., dark, slippery roads and a herd of deer do not make for a good scenario...now the car is in the shop and I'm left wondering what I did to stir up all this bad juju...

So if you're wondering why I'm not on here much, well—I'm hiding. I don't need to set off another round of three.

A New Phase—Coyote Style

Well, it's the big day. My first ever shifter book is finally here. And what a sexy pair of shifters they are. But before I dive in with the blurb and excerpt, here's the background of how this book came to light.

So quite some time ago, I actually shudder to think it was probably about a year ago, my fab gal pal Bronwyn Green calls me up and asks me if I'd consider being part of a collection of books with five fellow authors. To be honest, I had 'count me in' out of my mouth before she even told me what the collection was about. Of course, it's not because I'm eager or desperate or anything—so not that. Okay, maybe a bit, but, once she told me what it was all about, I knew I'd made the right choice. And so, Phases was born.

Phases is a collection of stories in which each author writes two stories—about 20 to 25K—that correspond with different monthly full moons. I think most of us have heard of the Harvest Moon, or Wolf Moon, or even Blue Moon (which is the second full moon in a month - who knew) but I didn't realize that every full moon was named for the month it was in. Anyway, I was given the months of February and July, and thus the Hunger Moon and the Thunder Moon. Now for the stories, the only other requirements were that at least one character had to be a shifter (any real animal was up for grabs) and it had to involve some kind of ménage. And we had to tie our stories into the full moon.

After jumping at the chance, I have to admit that when it came time to choose my shifters, it wasn't so easy. I mean, there's the usual, like wolves, but I wanted something different... and animal that was more of the underdog, and thus, coyotes were it. Now coyotes tend to be shunned and at times hated by humans, mostly due to their ability to survive. Despite concentrated efforts to rid the earth of their infestation, they've learned to adapt and to smell trouble a mile off. Unfortunately for my shifters, trouble is in the form of their mate, and they have no choice but to jump headlong into it.

So, without further ado, here's the blurb and a quick excerpt of my new book, Coyote Savage: Hunger Moon...

February's full moon is rising, only this year, it's bringing a new brand of hunger...

For coyote shifters Caden and Talon Brady, the upcoming hunger moon has ignited a different kind of appetite. They've been waiting several years for a chance to court their intended mate, and now that she's finally in their sights, they'll stop at nothing to win her over. But when local livestock start disappearing, their coyote refuge is put in the hot seat, and more than just their way of life is suddenly in jeopardy.

Sheriff Rebecca Savage never planned on returning to Beckit Falls, or for falling for two handsome men. But fate seems to have different plans for her. Unfortunately not all of them are sexy and look fantastic in jeans. The local mayor is trying to run the Brady boys and their coyote refuge out of town. Nothing seems to make sense, but when she starts digging deeper, a new danger rises with the full moon—one that just might get them all killed.

Caden Brady skidded the truck backwards then headed down the driveway, slamming his hand on the steering wheel. He saw his brother wince out of the corner of his eye, but it didn’t matter. He knew Talon was just as pissed as he was, the only difference was that Talon was still thinking about getting into Rebecca’s pants, instead of worrying about how they were going to stop good, old Mayor Carson from stealing their ranch out from underneath them. The man had been hounding them for nearly two years, and if this latest stunt got enough public support, he might just succeed in getting their refuge permits revoked and their ranch closed down.

“You know, Caden, if you don’t stop frowning like that, your mouth might stay that way. And you’d look pretty stupid in your coyote form with that look stuck on your snout.”

Caden huffed and gave Talon a hardened stare. “Perhaps you should spend more time thinking about how we’re going to stop Mayor Carson from stealing our land and a bit less about how you’re going to convince Rebecca to join us in bed.”

Talon shrugged, glancing at her Jeep following close behind. “Go ahead and brush it off, but I know you feel the pull of the moon as much as I do. Hell, it was all I could do to scent the kill site over Rebecca’s pheromones, and even then I was too distracted to decipher anything remotely useful. It’s mid-February—the height of mating season—and it’s been forever since we even had sex, let alone thought about taking a mate.” He nodded at the slight tremble in Caden’s hands. “It’s time to face facts, bro. Either we find a way to get Rebecca to see us as more than just a couple of awkward teens she used to know and accept us as her mates, or what happens to the ranch won’t really matter…we’re dying inside without her.”

Caden sighed at the hurt expression on Talon’s face, looking back at the endless white road. They’d known years ago, when Rebecca had first moved to town with her father, that she was their intended mate. But being eighteen with their shifting abilities still new, they hadn’t been able to do more than watch her from afar before she’d headed off to university.

He grunted, choosing not to meet Talon’s gaze. “Well, if you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them. Otherwise, it’d serve us better to get our heads out of her pants and on the task at hand.”

Talon growled. “I swear, if Darrin puts one finger on her—”

“We’re not about to let anything happen to her. But if we want to keep her safe, we need to know why Carson and his son are so hell-bent on getting our ranch. I just can’t see his hatred toward coyotes being his only motivation. I think he’s using it as an excuse—one the town council will believe.” He gave Talon a sly smile. “You know how much folks here distrust coyotes.”

Talon nodded toward Rebecca’s Jeep. “From the way Darrin was talking, it doesn’t sound as if Rebecca shares those views.”

“Well, we’d better hope she fucking loves them, or there’s not a hope in hell she’ll agree to sleep with us.” He shook his head. “Damn, I don’t even know if she’d be into two normal guys at once, let alone a couple of misfits like us.”

“Only one way to find out.”

Caden chuckled. “You always did have more luck than sense. But perhaps instead of blindsiding her for a threesome, we can get an idea of her feelings while she’s looking around the compound. She can’t hide from us forever.”

Thanks for dropping by, and look for the next story in the series, a sizzling M/M by Mia Watts.

Pride...I has it...

If there's one thing I've learned about being a parent, it's that you'll have more than your fair share of moments...some are fabulous, some aren't. You'll be scared, happy, sad, angry, worried and—there will be times when you're just plain proud!

I'm so lucky to have had one of those moments this weekend. Now, let's set the picture just a bit...

For those of you who don't know, I have three kids. Two active, outrageous boys and an even more outrageous girl. Kyle's the oldest at 13 going on 25, Jared's stuck in the middle at 11 going on, well, not quite sure. Sometimes I think 11 again, but hey, 12 is fine. And then there's Sydney, who's 8 going on 30, lol.

Now my boys are typical boys. They play hard, get lots of injuries from said play and do just enough to get by in school. Jared is lucky in that for many subjects, he's a natural. Kyle, while he's got the brains, he just lacks the motivation. And with him being in grade 8, well, I'm trying to get him to see how he might actually have to try once he gets to high school. He does have one passion—wait for it because being Canadian this will surprise you—ready—hockey!

I know, totally out of the ordinary for a good old Canadian boy. But yes, he loves hockey. He's actually applied for a hockey academy next year, but that's another post once we find out. Anyway, in his pursuit of his love for hockey, Kyle decided to extend his passion to another on ice position—one that actually earns him money. He's a hockey official...or ref as I call it.

So, this is his second year ref-ing and he loves it. Now, realizing his options for a lifelong career are perhaps more narrow than I would like, I've been encouraging him to keep up with his ref-ing. He's taken it even farther and is taking every job he can get his hands on. He willingly gets up at 5 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday to ref games and just this past weekend, ref-ed two games then, with only 10 mins between, went and played his own hockey game. Yeah, he's dedicated. And as a result, he got recognition!

I was informed this weekend that Kyle is Comox Valley's Official of the Month! I know, it's such a small thing, but damn, I'm so proud of him. And he'll have his picture up on the Hockey website for the next few weeks! Sigh....

So take a look folks, that cute face is the future of officiating... and don't be surprised when you hear his name in the NHL one day... cause those older guys gotta retire someday!

Congrats, Kyle!!!!! You earned it!

Drum Roll Please...

GRAND PRIZE WINNER

Terra Pennington

2nd PRIZE

Miranda (Sweet Vernal Zephyr)

3rd PRIZE

Jason

Congratulations!!

We'd like to thank everyone who entered. We were thrilled with the response and are so excited by everyone's interest. I only wish there were 100 to give away. The above winners will be contacted via email and will need to response to Jessica (jessica@jessicajarman.com) within three (3) days to claim their prize, otherwise a new winner will be chosen.

As for my extra portion of the contest, I've decided to give away 4 sets of two books, since there were so many entries, as a show of appreciation for dropping by and leaving your comments. In case you're wondering how I chose the winners, I used an online program called random.org. You put in how many entries there were, and how many winners you'd like. Here are the four numbers as generated by the program...

90   17   4    12

And those winners are...

Jennifer M - who chose Hard Target and Worlds Apart

Nancy C - who picked Centrefold and Worlds Apart

Perpetua - who would like Twice Bitten and Centrefold

Leagh C - who asked for Deadly Vision and Deadly Obsession

While I do have everyone's information, I'd appreciate a quick email to confirm that these were the books you wanted, to let me know whether you want .pdf or epub formatting and to make sure your email information is, indeed, correct...so everyone's happy! You can contact me via contactme@krisnorris.ca.

Congratulations to the winners!

Jessica, Devon, Bronwyn, Gwendolyn, Kris, and Suzanne.

Women 101...

Okay, first off, if you're popping in here to enter the contest, please remember to leave you contact information and what 2 books you'd like from my backlist in the comments section of the previous post... all entries must be made on the post with the lovely animated banner (yeah, I made that... pretty cool, huh) so we can keep things straight. You can imagine how hard it'd be to have to scroll through multiple comment sections to see who put in the correct information. Oh, and please remember to leave you name at all 6 blogs, along with the books you'd like from that author. While I'm flattered you love Suzanne's books so much, you'd like a copy from me, too, I can't put your information into the all mighty spread sheet until I have all of it.

Now, onto today's post... and wow... look at me go. Another post and we're still in the first week of January... but hey, my life is crazy, or is it just me. Okay, so I'm sure many of you are finally back to some semblance of normal after a wild and crazy holiday season. I'm one of those folks that doesn't begrudge having the kids home, but all the hectic chaos associated with Christmas can really take a toll...on everything. Take men and women for example...the holidays gives us more time to spend with our partners and to rediscover, yet again, why nine hours apart each day is a godsend.

Now don't get me wrong. I love me some man time, but hey... there are some simple rules men need to follow in order to save the woman from spending endless hours chatting with her BFF to see if they know anyone... yes anyone... who might fall into the category of hired hit man. So... I thought I'd save some time and write a few things down, so others may learn from the tragedy of those who have come before....

1 - Directions. I love traveling and going to see friends is a fabulous way to spend some of your holidays, but here's the thing... women have a much better time when you actually get the instructions to said friend's house. And no... knowing that the house is brown with white trim is not enough... knowing that the house resides somewhere east of town, isn't quite enough either. And for the record gentlemen... spitting out the window to see which direction the wind is blowing doesn't give you omnipotent powers... so please... get the directions and have a map. Or get the iphone app for the built-in GPS... there are several for that.

2 - The use of the word fat. Okay, I don't care if you do mean it as phat and that it's all the rage... nothing good will ever come from this word, so strike it from your vocabulary. Now! And no, it doesn't matter if you're referring to the bulldog on the fido commercial... seriously... lose it.

3 - Movies. Hey, us ladies love action/adventure flicks as much as you guys do, but here's the thing. When the hero finally gets to kiss the girl, don't moan and slump in your seat as if someone just kicked you in your junk...or worse...turn to your lady and comment on how hot the woman is...or you might be slumping in your seat because she just kicked you in your junk.

Well, that's a start. The lessons are endless, but three is a good starting point.

I hope you all are having a great week, and don't forget to scroll down if you're here to enter the contest.