Cat Brown - Romance Junkies

Cat Brown - Romance Junkies

Wildfire would like to welcome Cat Brown, owner of Romance Junkies. Have an undeniable craving for romance? You'll feel right at home with Romance Junkies! Stop on by their site, grab a cappuccino, have a look around…and don't forget to check out the latest reviews.

Angela: Tell us little about Romance Junkies.

Cat: We opened our site on Feb 14th, 2003. The idea was to have a place where both established and new authors could come and promote their work.

Angela: What makes Romance Junkies unique?

Cat: Romance Junkies offers a huge variety of services, most of them for free. We are always trying to come up with unique new areas for both authors and readers. One of my favorite places is our Readers Group. We have over 1,400 members in there and we try to do our best to give away as many books as possible with contests and Delurk weekends.

Angela: Can you explain what a Delurk weekend it for folks that aren't familiar with it?

Cat: Delurk Weekend was created to bring authors and readers out of lurkdom to share their love of books together. We ask intriguing questions all weekend long, give out a ton of prizes; in other words, just have a rockin' good time together.

Angela: Approximately how many books would you say Romance Junkies post each month?

Cat: Each month we do approximately 200 reviews.

Angela: How do you choose what books to review?

Cat: eBooks and print books come into the site from both authors and publishers. We place them on a list and send the list out to our reviewers. The reviewers select the books they would like to review. If the reviewer likes the book, she does a review for it.

Angela: So, if a reviewer reads the book and doesn't like it, that review doesn't get published? You focus on those you recommend people do read?

Cat: Since day one the policy of RJ has been to only do reviews on books we like. If a reviewer doesn't feel they can give a book a three or higher rating they don't do the review. But since we all know that something one person doesn't like someone else might love, we always give the book a second chance. If the second reviewer doesn't like the book, then a review is not done for that book.

Angela: I know that most reviewers volunteer their time. Is this true on your site?

Cat: We have a volunteer staff of over 64 reviewers. The site is run by a group of volunteers—a mix of aspiring writers and avid readers, who put in hundred of hours every month to help run the site.

Angela: What is the best and worst part of running a romance review site?

Cat: I love being part of a community. I have made some really close friends over the years through Romance Junkies. I love hearing from readers and authors how much they enjoy the site. It makes all the hard work worthwhile.

One of the hardest parts is trying to find a spot for all the books that come in. I am a huge reader and have a massive library of my own books. Imagine on top of that trying to find spots for the couple hundred print books that come through every month. ;-)

Angela: When you aren't working at Romance Junkies...what are you doing?

Cat: I am a freelance Web Designer and Graphic Artist. When I started Romance Junkies I was an aspiring writer. Last year I sold my first story as Samantha Storm to New Concepts Publishing—a paranormal romance called Eye of the Storm currently available in electronic format; it will be available in print. I now have a second release out with New Concepts called Murder, Mayhem and Mistletoe.

Angela: Which do you enjoy more, writing or running a review site?

Cat: I like doing both. Running a review site is a challenge. Dealing with staff, answering hundreds of email correspondences each day, working on site updates, adding new software and trying to get it all in during the course of a week can be difficult. Caffeine is my best friend some weeks.

If I had to pick though I would say writing is my favorite. It's been a dream of mine since I was a kid to be a writer. I was the kid always daydreaming, writing myself into my favorite television shows.

Angela: What are your goals for Romance Junkies?

Cat: To keep growing, but also to keep the quality of the reviews and the site high. Every year we try to come up with a few new areas. We are just in the process of adding the new areas for this year.

Angela: What are your goals for your writing?

Cat: To keep working away at writing until one day I am a household name ;-)

Angela: Any last thoughts?

Cat: Romance Junkies has a terrific staff and the reason we have done so well over the years is because of the hard work they put into to the site.

Cat Brown, the Owner/Operator of the on-line review siteRomance Junkies, is also a self-taught freelance Web Designer and Graphic Artist. Cat stumbled into web design and graphics about nine years ago and before she knew it, she had a list of clients and a steady job teaching Photoshop and Advance Web Design at a local community collage.

Cat is married to a fireman and they live in rural Arizona with their two dogs and a six-toed black cat. Sadly, Cat has to make due with a dialup connection and mediocre coffee—not a Starbucks in site. But having an alter ego and a vivid imagination, she writes as Samantha Storm, and Romance Junkies keep her life interesting.

Cat's favorite color is red. She loves cold Chinese food in the morning for breakfast, is addicted to chocolate, and her drink of choice is Pepsi. She reads all genres of books, especially paranormals, mysteries, and…of course romance.

Romance Junkies Website

If you would like to request an interview, please send a query to

The Finest Island in the World by Jennifer Mueller
This story is rated 4 flames. It contains explicit love scenes described using graphic and direct language. Read at your own discretion.

Papeete, Rangiroa, Omoa, Atuona, Vaipaee, Hatiheu, Tiaohae, Bora Bora, Tahaa, Moorea. In a word, Tahiti. All around were turquoise blue waters, emerald green peaks, and golden beaches. Oh yeah, and the jerk that dumped me for a bitch once we had flown there. A few nights in one of those cottages on stilts in the water and then a cruise for two weeks. It had been a treat for myself, and being in a generous mood, I had paid for my boyfriend as well. He didn't seem to care that I had to pay full price for the room on the ship regardless if he was there or not.

Staring around the hotel lobby, there were dozens of couples on honeymoons most likely. Not a single person that was alone in sight.

Then I saw him. Don't ask me why, but the thought of eight thousand dollars to sleep alone was too much. That was the jerks' ticket price, my own was on top of that. It was a life long dream to see Tahiti and I wanted to go on a particular ship I had seen. It didn't come cheap.

This man though, my god. He was a local, 6'2", golden skin, dark hair and eyes, and the body of a swimmer. Did I mention the tattoos that covered most of his legs? I didn't care that he was a performer in the hotel, there was going to be someone in that suite with me, and he was going to be good looking. This guy was way over qualified.

"I'm going to ask you something really outrageous." He lifted those obsidian eyes to look at me. "You want to go on a cruise? It leaves in four hours and if I'm paying for the space I'm going to put a body in it."

"Is there a specific reason you're asking me?"

I couldn't help grinning. "Yeah."

The corner of his mouth turned up, he was killing me right there.

"I'll go get some clothes on."

I couldn't keep my eyes from taking all of him in slowly. Broad shoulders, narrow hips and waist, and all he wore was a native looking thing wrapped around those hips. "You don't need to on my account."

The sparkle in his eye was all I needed to see that sharing a sixteen thousand dollar room would be well worth the money. "They do require a bit more for guests. Private I'm sure we can come to an arrangement. Give me an hour."

~

I met him at the dock in Papeete. He carried the largest gardenia wreath I've ever seen and put it around my neck. He looked as good in clothes as he did out of them. He opened his mouth to say something but the man checking tickets interrupted.

"Welcome aboard. Name please."

"Cherie Black, I reserved 804."

The man suddenly looked very grave. "Oh yes, we've been trying to get a hold of you. A man was here earlier trying to come aboard using your name. He didn't have the tickets though and he wasn't the name on the contact sheet."

My heart fell, the jerk was trying to impress his bitch on my money. I could only stare and then I felt a thumb resting on my cheek, strong fingers slipping around my neck.

"What he did doesn't matter. Life is too short to hold a grudge," My Tahitian god whispered in my ear.

"You know about that?"

"The entire hotel knows. It happened in the lobby after all." His breath teased my ear.  Right there in front of the crewmember I watched his hand slip downward, a man I didn't even know the name of. A trail of heat followed as he traced the edge of the low-cut top I wore. With his other hand, he took the tickets from me and handed them over, the key replacing them without him even looking away from me. "Well take dinner in the room, don't bother seating us tonight."

"Yes sir. You're on deck eight, same level as the pool to the end on your left."

I don't remember doing it but had to stop biting my lip from the pain. No man—and I mean no man—had ever looked at me like that. Lust maybe, but how do you describe being looked at as if he was being granted a life-long wish and I was it? He wasn't looking at the boat, clothes or anything else, he was looking at me.

I had to laugh as he picked me up and left the man to assume nothing. There was no doubt what was going to happen. Half way up I spotted the jerk, the woman he had left me for still on his arm. My new friend was right there, and there wasn't time for holding a grudge. Not when I could feel all of my Tahitian god's glory rigid against my hip.

"Can I at least know your name before you feast on me?"

He opened the door to 804 with one hand, as if holding me was nothing for him. "James."

"I thought I heard the others calling you something else."

Barely inside the door, his hands slipped under the bikini top I was wearing. When my head fell back I just about came from the feel of his mouth on my neck. If a man is going to laugh at me, dear god let it be that laugh. The devil was ready to take my soul and it was the devil that held me.

"I figured James was easier for you to cry out than Teikipahatoua i Nuku Hiva. We have many names."

I couldn't help but giggle until I found myself resting on the rail of the balcony. With James looking at me as if he hadn't seen a woman in years there was nothing to laugh at.

"Now why was it you asked me again?"

Okay, that wasn't the question I expected. "What? Is this when you tell me you can't come with me but you'll give me a good fuck before I set sail?"

 I hardly had the words out of my mouth when he pulled me close and only thin layers of cloth separated me from the hard cock I had felt only briefly earlier. I must have sounded like a sex-starved virgin with the way my breath came short. I felt like I hadn't had any in months, when I reality the jerk had gotten me good right before he announced in the lobby that he was leaving me.

"When the most beautiful woman I've ever seen asks me to be with her, I won't turn her down, but you had better be sure. When the ship sets sail, you're stuck with me for two weeks. I haven't had a vacation in a long time. I intend to enjoy myself fully."

"Beautiful?"  I whispered.

"Most beautiful." He added as his fingers undid the knot on the cover-up at my hips.

Men didn't go around telling me such things. They told me I wasn't beautiful but I was attractive in my own way. No truthfully, the jerk said it that very morning as he dumped me. "James I'm sure you're wearing too much clothing. Where's that little thing you were wearing earlier? I kind of liked that."

He ran his fingers under the sides of my bikini bottoms. I throbbed painfully and then still clothed, sitting in full view of the entire dock, he slipped his finger inside me. A gasp was all I could manage as he found just the right spot. Then he started moving those long fingers faster and faster, I felt myself close to the edge. I must have been wild-eyed when he took a taut nipple in his mouth.

"I need you inside me now," I gasped.

Pulling his mouth to mine, I could feel the moment he switched from pleasuring me to needing me. James was all that was holding me up on the railing as I undid his pants, only letting go long enough to grab a condom.

Not bothering to take my bottoms off, James simply pulled them aside and pushed his way in. I had asked for it and I have never had a well-hung man before because damn…  He really was built like a god. His mouth was on mine, muffling the cry so the entire ship didn't know what was going on in view of the dock below.

Is this when I start making ship comments, the whole motion of the ocean thing not the size that matters?

Whoever said that, they lied. Half a dozen stroke of that big cock had me closer than anyone else had in half an hour. Strong hands held me firm as I arched back, coming close to falling off the ship.

I could see someone standing up above and I had to clap a hand over my mouth not to scream as I came. I don't know if he heard me but I definitely cried out "James". Yeah, the other name would have been a little difficult.

James was growing even larger as he shot into me, gritting his teeth to keep quiet. He didn't stop thrusting as I rode the waves he sent through me. When at last I finally stopped, he held me to him as I caught my breath. A man I didn't know a thing about treated me as if I was more special than any of the boyfriends I'd had in the past.

"Not going out to dinner are we?" I asked with a smile as he set me down on my feet.

"Might have to go out to get more condoms. Somehow I have a feeling I didn't bring enough." Instead of pulling his pants back up, he was stepping out of them and folded  them neatly.

"James you didn't have to go buy new clothes for this did you? I'm sure a dancer in a hotel doesn't make that much. I'm sorry I didn't think of that."

His grin was back. "My brother-in-law is the dancer in the hotel. I just fill in for him when he's sick or has an appointment."

"So what do you do then?"

"I'm an engineer."

My eyebrow rose. "An engineer can just take off for two weeks without warning and is tattooed like that?"

He closed he door to the veranda and pulled the curtains despite the fact that he'd already been walking around without a stitch, not to mention our little show. He pushed me toward the bed before slowly pulling my bottoms off. His fingers traced my own tattoo that lay hidden beneath. A small wolf, nothing compared to his. Reaching around, he untied the bikini top. "A lot of younger men have them, there's been a renewed push to take up the old traditions. It means I'm a man," he whispered in my ear.

"You're definitely that."

"I didn't have to see yours to know you're a woman though. You've made that one quite clear." That smile made me hot again as he kissed my neck while undoing the knot. "I happen to own the company and I did say I haven't had a vacation in a long time. I just told them I was taking one. Some traditions die hard, Tahitians have always loved to sing, dance, and love. I'm afraid when given the opportunity to keep you company came up, I just couldn't turn it down. Now get on the bed."

"Just like that?"

"Yeah."

I got on the bed of course. Watching a man that not so long ago in history would have been a warrior—and a damn good one by the looks of him—crawling up between my thighs made the want pool between my legs. James bent his head and slowly licked it away.

"You were the one that wanted to know my name before you were feasted on." He announced before he bent his head to his task. That tongue of his was as skillful as his cock. I was glad he closed the door; I made noise, a lot of it. Two weeks of this! I might just have to do like so many others have, vacation in Tahiti and never go home. I'm not sure I can give James up.

And oh…

You should have seen his grin when I called out Teikipahatoua i Nuku Hiva.

Our thanks to Jennifer Mueller, The Weekly Sizzle guest author for February 16, 2007!

As a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya a few years back I traveled quite a bit and now I just wish I was. A lot of the places I've written about I've been to, a lot of them I haven't. Rafting on the Nile in Uganda, living in a Montana ghost town, African safaris, European youth hostels, the Black Hills of South Dakota all fill my scrapbooks. Now a daughter takes up most of those pages, but I still travel in my head every time I write.

Websites:
Jennifer Mueller
MySpace

Backlist:
Crusader, Dark Castle Lords
The Dancer's Secret, Dark Castle Lords
How to Ruin a Season, Dark Castle Lords
An Arrangement among Gentlemen, Romance at Heart Publishing
All my Dreams, Romance at Heart Publishing
A Little Roman Scandal, Romance at Heart Publishing
Women of Their Time, Romance at Heart Publishing
Egyptian Nights, Linden Bay Romance
History Lessons, Linden Bay Romance
The Wolf Within, Digital Pulp Publishing
Her Father's Daughter in Summer Heat 2, Midnight Showcase
The Mountaintop, Midnight Showcase
Samburu Hills, Chippewa Publishing

Coming Soon:
The Dragon's Pearl, Dark Castle Lords
Lord Dronovic, Dark Castle Lords
A Speakeasy named Hell In Sweet Challenge, Midnight Showcase
Mine Death, Triskelion Publishing
A Wolf in Angel's Clothing, Awe Struck E-Books
Till Death do us Part, Digital Pulp Publishing
Egyptian Days, Linden Bay Romance
Rose among the Heather in Regency Romp, Aphrodite's Apples


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