A Hot Kiss for a Hot Friday

 So I recently discovered the Book Boyfriends Cafe's Hot For Fridays blog hop, which sets new challenges every weeks. Sounds like something fun to try, so jumping on this one where participants have to share a hot kiss from one of their stories:

I'm sharing the first hot kiss between my hero Rukh O' Shay,  an assassin who falls for his target, and journalist Sarah White from The Djinn's Dilemma:



The original plan had been to fade again. Unfortunately, he’d come up with the harebrained idea of introducing himself. Touch, he’d theorized, would strengthen his link to Sarah and enable him to peek into her mind.

The handshake hadn’t worked.

Instead, she’d kissed him.

And what a kiss. For a moment, all barriers between them had melted and her mind lay open like a book waiting to be read. One look at her raw desire for him and all his other thoughts had fled. She’d ceased to be Sarah and become Jasmine to him. He’d gawked, frozen like a virgin, and then almost lost himself in her. Damn, it had been too long, and it had felt good. Better than good.

He should never have let that kiss happen.



Want to know more about Rukh & Sarah? Check out my book page http://minakhan.blogspot.com/p/books.html

To check out all the other participants this week, please visit: http://www.bookboyfriendscafe.com/

2015 Writing Goals Let's Make Them SMART

Last week my real life writing peeps and I had our first meeting of 2015. We were all asked to bring a list of our writing goals for the year. Gulp. Setting goals down on paper and sharing them with others takes courage. Once a goal is acknowledged, it has power.

It has power to make you feel guilty. So a fear of commitment can keep you from writing down the goal. The only problem is...without commitment, dreams are harder to achieve.

It has the power to make you face reality. So a fear of imperfection keeps you from writing down your goals. Here's a fact: everyone's first draft is messy, maybe even full of holes.

It has the power to make you feel bad at the end of the year. So a fear of failure keeps you from writing down the goals. The way around that is to make sure you have SMART goals.


So let's explore what a SMART goal might mean...

"I'm going to get an agent this year" is a not-so-smart goal because you're not in control of the outcome. An agent has to say yes for you to achieve this goal.

Here's a S.M.A.R.T. version:

"I'm going to research agents in my genre and send out 5 queries by March."  This one is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound (aka with a deadline).


In terms of writing...

You can say "I'll spend an hour every day trying to write ." This one has too many holes. I don't know about you, but I have spent an hour (or more) with my word document open while I a) check my email, b) take a facebook break, c) read a book and so on. What's at work here is a distracted mind.

For me, a better goal is: "I will write 500 words a day."  I don't have to do it all at once. The main point is getting that specific measurable amount of words at the end of the day. A lot of times I surprise myself and do more.

There are so many ways of talking ourselves out of committing to our dreams and writing down goals. But there's only way to making our dream of being a writer come true and that's by writing. So I hope you'll take the pen/pencil/keyboard by the horns and start by setting out your goals.

My writing goals for 2015 (yes, I'm sharing them with you to further commit myself and maybe inspire you):

1. Write my weekly food column.
2. Revise my 24K WIP (Work in Progress)
3. Write a new djinn story
4. Write the sequel to my dragon story
5. Blog more often
6. Try new markets
Bonus goal -- if I truly have time between the above, family and other commitments (Ha!) -- write a werewolf story for fun.

So what do you think?

Hooked on Magic #MFRWHooks

Welcome to Book Hooks, a Wednesday blog hop offered by MFRW. 



This is my first time participating and I'm uber excited. Since I love stories with magic and paranormal fun (both as a reader and a writer), I decided to share a magical excerpt from my newest release, A Christmas Wish:




Rayez narrowed his eyes and threw all his power at her. Searing, roiling heat flashed through him to his fingertips and out. As it emerged the heat took shape and raced like entwined fiery snakes swimming through the air.

She paled even more but stood her ground. The flames whipped over Selene and around her, covering her head to toe. They licked every inch of her tiny frame. She stood there like a flaming human torch. One breath, two breaths, three and then the flames vanished, leaving her unharmed.

Rayez gawked. What the hell was she?

(Instead of having a cute meet, my hero Rayez and heroine Selene have a rather unhappy meet...)

Blurb: Rayez, a smoking hot chef and fire djinn in exile, lands himself in deep trouble when he tries to help a mysterious beautiful woman.


Selene is pursued and desperate. She’ll do anything to keep her brother safe—including capture a djinn.

While deception brings them together, dangerous enemies make them unlikely allies. Can one gigantic wrong lead to two rights and true love?

*Also included are some of the recipes Rayez made in the book.*

***All proceeds from the first two weeks of sales will be donated to the Concho Valley Regional Food Bank. ***

This is an enhanced and expanded version of a story previously published as Sealed With A Kiss in the Alphas Unleashed anthology. 

Sound interesting?  Here are the buy links:


To check more book hooks from other MFRW authors: