the journal of r. cooper

I confess, while the commercial nature of St Valentine's Day bugs the crap out of me, and I hate the feeling of obligation it creates, I loooove the cheesier aspects of it. For real, my old job involved decorating for Valentine's Day and helping people plan and decorate for it, and making everything look like a streamers-and-hearts pink-and-red middle school dance is so much fun. Also, I adore boxes of chocolates. The good kind though. (See's is my favorite). The kind that, sadly, rarely comes in cheesy heart-shaped boxes. I even like flowers and roses--although no so much the red roses unless the smell is good.

But, since no one expects me with my serious little face to enjoy those things, people don't think I enjoy the day. Consequently, I will be doing nothing this Valentine's Day but eating chocolates I bought myself, drinking champagne, and talking about silly romance stuff over on Tumblr. If anyone wants to watch that, or chat with me, they are welcome to. <3

(Okay, I will also be trying to do some of my actual writing that day. Until the champagne kicks in anyway.)

If that's not your cup of tea, but you still want to watch me talk nonsense about romance stuff, I will be making a blog post on the Dreamspinner Press blog on February 23. I'm thinking I will talk about fairy tales or something similiar and you all can talk or ask stuff or whatever. :) This, of course, will be to promote The Winter Prince.

(Guys, I am nervous about that one. It's one of those stories that I know won't be popular, but I do adore those characters and I get nervous for them like they're real. Sigh. They are my fav kind of stupid dorks with all the pining, but at least they get the excuse of being young when they made their dumbass decisions, and then we get all that glorious yearning and boys being stupidly noble.)

In other news, been looking for a narrator for Zeki and Theo for A Beginner's Guide to Wooing Your Mate audiobook, and Dreamspinner, which has been doing ebook bundle specials by theme or author, wants to do a Being(s) in Love set in October. Some Kind of Magic through The Firebird. !!!! Yaaaay! Hopefully if I finish my current project soon, it would be released around then. Meanwhile, Tulip's story will be out in June or July. :)

Um. Did I actually mention The Winter Prince's release date? Aah, I am terrible at this. It comes out on the 24th of February.




Feel free to come visit with me at either event. Or both. (Does tipsy blogging on Valentine's Day count as an event? Hmm)

A Beginner's Guide to Wooing Your Mate (Beings in Love #3) comes out Friday! Yay! Saturday evening/night I will be answering questions on Goodreads. I have been informed that you can use the Reader Q and A as a forum, so we are going to try that. Now, I am always available for questions on Goodreads, so if you miss this event (if it works out) you can still ask me stuff. You can even ask on Sunday since I will be around. (But, since I am getting ready to move, I am not going to be sitting in front of the computer.)

YAY! Talking to people about precious dorks in love! Yay! Release day!


In honor of A Beginner's Guide to Wooing Your Mate coming out this Friday, here, have a recipe.

For backstory, which won't make sense to anyone until the story is out, I imagine the Sheriff sitting with Zeki because he has no one else to talk to, and he ends up with some magical snickerdoodles. Trust me on this. Magical snickerdoodles. (Read the book, it will make sense.) With chocolate milk. Anyway. So Zeki asks Theo to write the recipe down.



Comforting the Sheriff About His Littlewolf Snickerdoodles

First steps: clear your counter space and set out your ingredients. Take a breath. Try not to think about anything. Then reach for what you need. (Zeki says this is when I center myself. I don't know about that. But when I found the Sheriff talking with Zeki, discussing his Littlewolf, it seemed only right to make him something to ease his pain. A lost mate is no small thing. And I did not wish to sense Zeki's guilt when I thought this, so I went to my kitchen. Snickerdoodles seemed the right thing to make, they are simple and quick and comforting when served warm. Mate is wonderful thing, for me now, for us. I want the Sheriff to feel comfort, even if he cannot have his mate. And now Zeki will read this and smile. He calls my recipes spells. He has notions I don't understand. But he insists I continue.)

You will need:

1 cup butter, unsalted
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3 TBS sugar
3 tsp cinnamon

Parchment paper

Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Mix butter, 1 1/2 cups sugar and eggs thoroughly in a large bowl, until it's creamy and fluffy. You will know when it's right, just as you knew then.

But it's not yet ready. Turn to your dry ingredients. Littlewolf is a strange one. An outsider but smart. He blushes hot when he speaks of the Sheriff, something I understand when I think of Zeki. He stays with you, like flour on your finger tips. He seems strong, but he requires delicacy, I think, so sift the flour, cream of tart, baking soda, and salt together. Your touch must be light until it's time to blend the flour mixture into the butter and sugar.

This part makes me warm, which delights Zeki. But I know the Sheriff would think the same. He longs to be with his mate, of course he does. There is nothing simpler, and simple things are the hardest to get right. When he takes a bite of these cookies, he should feel that, but without the sadness of knowing it might not happen.

Chill the dough while you check the oven temperature and lay out parchment paper on the cookie sheets. Mix the cinnamon sugar together in a small bowl. Cinnamon for spice and heat (again, I am blushing, and again, Zeki is smiling at me.) Sugar for the sweetness in how Littlewolf speaks of the Sheriff. The Sheriff might not know, but the town does. I think... I think there is hope to be found.

Take out the dough and use a spoon to scoop out small amounts. Regular cookies would be about an inch, but these are smaller, just a bit, for a little wolf. Shape them into balls and then gently roll them in the cinnamon and sugar before placing them on your cookie sheet.

Bake ten minutes, or until the edges are light brown and firm but the middles are soft. Imagine a little wolf snapping and uncertain and worried and afraid. Imagine him defensive. Then remember his eyes when he spoke of Sheriff Neri, and the care he tries to hide.

Wait a few minutes, then serve warm to a reserved, troubled wolf only Zeki is brave enough to speak to, with a glass of cold chocolate milk if you have one. Chocolate for passion, for taste, for a thirst that cannot be quenched--yet.

(Set aside a handful for your mate to enjoy later. Try to ignore him when he calls you sweet and kind with his mouth full of crumbs. Kiss cinnamon and your own magic from the edge of his lips and wonder how something as basic as a cookie brought that wondering look to your clever, clever mate's dark eyes.)

Hey! I said I would pass on the release date when I found it out, aaaaand then I forgot. I am such fail. I can't even tell you. Tsk.

JULY 7. IT'S JULY 7. THE RELEASE DATE IS JULY 7. (Oh right the poison. The poison for Kuzco. The poison chosen especially to kill Kuzco. Kuzco's poison.)

Sorry about that. However, I've been informed that pre-ordering is possible. Which is good, because Dreamspinner sent me about twenty sheets to sign to put in the paperback copies. Now I just have to actually sign them. IDK. If I were Rhoades, and I were signing a book, I would sign with something smart and classical and Greek. If I were Wicklow, I'd probably just slash an "X" and be done with it. (Yes, I make things too complicated. I should just sign my name. But where is the fun in that?) I signed A Boy and His Dragon as if I were Bertie autographing books. Why can't Rhoades sign some books?

Still with me? Sorry. Scattered thinking today. But um, yes, July 7 for the release date. July 12 for my Meet the Author thing on Goodreads (not nervous about that at all oh wait I am actually incredibly nervous and trying not to think about it.)

In other news, Dreamspinner has a new Author Arcade feature going up, in which you can access information about the author more easily, including links to social media and all that. I haven't filled out my profile yet (shocker) but I will. :)

I also submitted a novella-ish Being(s) in Love story a few weeks ago. So hopefully they will want that and soon you will get to read about the baking werewolf in love. Then I am finishing up getting Little Wolf ready for submission (which, okay I just want it done). This exciting!! Even if, somehow, it ended up at about 360 pages. (!!!) This is too many pages. I know this. It's a nightmare and yet they are so cute and precious to me. We will see.

To recap: July 7. July 12. Arcade thing. A Beginner's Guide to Wooing Your Mate. Little Wolf.


And um, sorry about my crazy. Here:

Tim watched Nathaniel take another steadying breath, then quickly glanced away when Nathaniel opened his eyes again. Tim wondered if he knew how Tim had been studying him, because his voice was as warm as his scent. “May I touch you?”

Tim had to be hearing things wrong. He tugged at his ears. “What? You’re asking to touch me?” He recognized that Nathaniel was trying to respect his feelings but that wasn’t a request Tim could be expected to answer calmly. He licked his mouth. “Yeah okay, sure, why not?” He could do breezy, really. Breathless-breezy, tense with anticipation-breezy. “Knock yourself out, you beautiful weirdo.”

Nathaniel crossed the rest of the space and stopped in front of him. Then he reached out and let his palm rest on Tim’s neck. “Beautiful weirdo?” he echoed, almost tenderly, and Tim pulled in a quiet breath. Nathaniel brushed his hand up over Tim’s throat, his fingertips trailing over Tim’s skin before he took his hand away.

Hey there, you people so patiently putting up with me while I go through things and don't write at all. Well, I did write a few short things, but the reaction to them among the people I showed them to was sort of underwhelming, so I assume they, uh, need work, to put it mildly. Sometimes things just don't happen (I blame my brain chemistry) and sometimes they do. In the meantime, I've been editing ye olde (embarrassing as hell) Ideas of Sin.

Editing in the sense of cleaning it up and resisting the urge to rewrite it, because it's kind of insane, but it's also clearly me at a certain point in my life and I can't change that now. Also a part of me thinks I should write crack like that more often. Glorious cheese!

ANYWAY. I'm going to put it up on Smashwords and take it down elsewhere. I will probably also make Under the Bridge free and slap a pricetag on My Man Godric. (Aren't I nice to warn you?) That's probably what I should have done in the first place, but I was playing around with Smashwords at the time and just figuring things out. I doubt the pricetag will be high.

In other news, on Wednesday, March 6, I will be doing a blog entry for the brand spankin' new Steampunk section at Coffee Time Romance. I will probably talk about corsets and dirigibles and Jules Verne, and maybe even about Karol and Hart. There will *probably* be a book giveaway, but I have to figure out how to do that. Especially since Let There Be Light is only available in ebook format. Please come check it out, if not for me than for the other authors. This putting yourself out there shit is *terrifying*.

And before I go... I got fanfiction. FANFIC, YOU GUYS. I am too nervous author to ever read it, but IT EXISTS and that is delightful. You can find it on Goodreads under the group minemineminemine.

Look, ma, I'm alive! Just feeling...meh.


But working, as ever, with boring synopsis things for submission purposes (ooh that sounds hot) and trying not to get too distracted over hot ancient Roman and Briton mens (though you know it will likely lead to original fic later too) and things of this nature.


Also, hey, I'll be in the Castro on Saturday night, for drinking purposes!!!