Category Archives: Guest Blogger
Maggie Tideswell and A Convenient Marriage
Please help me welcome author Maggie Tideswell to the blog today. She’s got some goodies to tell us about.
A Convenient Marriage, releasing October 13, 2016!
The idea of two complete strangers getting hitched has always intrigued me, for one simple reason—why would they do such a thing? Could such a relationship succeed? By successful relationship, I understand not only the longevity of the marriage…but is it possible for the participants to actually fall in love with each other in such a strange arrangement? Love is found in the most unexpected places.
A Convenient Marriage grew over a number of years. The basic story was simple—a divorcee with two children, an ex-husband being difficult over visitation, as well as a fiancée unable to commit. Holly’s friends suggested that she needed a new husband, placing an advert in the paper for one behind her back. Joshua was struck by a simple plan when he saw the ad and responded to it.
Why would Holly marry a man she’d never met, and why would Joshua respond to an ad for a husband, then actually propose to a woman he had never clapped eyes on? So, in came the dawdling fiancée, Nicole. Both Holly and Joshua were justified in not planning the marriage to be a real one, because they each had an agenda of their own, but Nicole was the injured party. For their plan to succeed, they had to marry—the real kind, down to that all-important piece of paper married—and they had to seem to be totally in love with each other. That it is all a scam, only they would know.
And here comes the ‘but’. Holly and Joshua’s plans go awry from the moment they meet on the steps of the chapel where their fake marriage is to take place, when both recognize the immediate attraction. Back at Joshua’s wine estate—yes, he is a rich landowner where Holly expected him to be a pauper—Holly meets Joshua’s mother, his brother and sister-in-law, and Nicole, the fiancée, who found out about Joshua’s duplicity in a room full of people. No one can blame Nicole for being a tad upset. Or can they? To add to Holly’s woes, she seems to have acquired a ‘ghost’ demanding she tell a story.
Amidst Nicole’s shenanigans, Joshua’s mother’s disapproval, Holly’s ex’s aggression, and the ghost following Holly around, will these two accomplish what they set out to do? Or will life get in the way?
Joshua’s and Holly’s journey through the uncharted seas of a blind marriage, where no rules apply, is a stormy one. Place your order here:
About the Author
Maggie Tideswell lives in Johannesburg—South Africa, with her husband, Gareth. She began writing when her kids were still very young,
squeezing a few paragraphs at a time between the hectic schedule of raising three children, and working full time in the catering industry. She wrote many books before considering having them published. Now that the children have all made lives for themselves, there is more time for writing.
After much experimentation, Maggie writes passionate paranormal romance, of varying levels of heat. The paranormal, things that happen for which there are no logical explanations and ghosts are of particular interest to Maggie. What events in a person’s life would prevent that person from ‘resting’ after death? The ‘Old Religion’ is another special interest. And love, of course. Why do people fall in love? What keeps them together for a lifetime when so many relationships fail?
Maggie’s advice to aspirant novelists is two-fold. Never give up, and write every day. Writing is a craft that has to be honed with practice. And the only way to practice writing is by doing it. And a bonus, never stop reading your favorite genre. Reading it and writing it is the only training for a writer.
“Maggie Tideswell’s latest novel, A Convenient Marriage, will have you turning pages as her characters cope with a marriage of convenience, well-meaning but nosy friends, a meddling ghost, jealous exes, and more. My advice: Make room on your Keepers shelf for this story!”(Loree Lough, best-selling author of 107 award-winning books, including Harlequin Heartwarming’s “Those Marshall Boys” series.)
Spread the Word
Nab Jami Gray’s SHADOW’S EDGE Free for a Limited Time! #freeread #uf #pnr
Nab Jami Gray’s SHADOW’S EDGE Free for a Limited Time! #freeread #uf #pnr
“This fantastic paranormal action novel is quite possibly the best book I’ve read this year. I could not put it down, and had to exercise serious self-control to keep from staying up all night to finish it.“ – The Romance Reviews, 5/5 stars
“This book has everything in it, you have your Fey, Demons, Witches/Wizards, and Shifters. What more could you ask for?! Plus you have a great story to follow. The story and characters flowed so well together, it was like watching a movie in my head! Book 2 here I come!!” – Paranormal Romance & Authors That Rock, 5/5 Fangs
SHADOW’S EDGE: BOOK 1 OF THE KYN KRONICLES
Everyone fears what hunts in the shadows—especially the monsters…
When the supernatural lurks in the shadows of the mundane, hunting monsters requires unique skills, like those of Raine McCord. A series of deaths threatens to reveal the Kyn community and forces her to partner with the sexy Gavin Durand.
As the trail leads to the foundation haunting Raine’s childhood, she and Gavin must unravel lies and betrayals to discover not only each other, but the emerging threat to them and the entire magical community.
Now available Free in eBook format at: AMAZON / BARNES AND NOBLE / BLACK OPAL BOOKS / ARe / SMASHWORDS / iBOOKS / KOBO / SCRIBD
READ AN EXCERPT
Ryder stepped in front of her, stopping her short. “Damn, Natasha is never wrong,” he teased, running an appraising look over her.
(Raine) didn’t have the patience to deal with cocky little demon frat boys and cursed herself for asking, “About what?”
He gave a low, evil laugh. “You, of course.” He stepped closer, deliberately invading her personal space. She froze, while her muscles vibrated slightly as if ready to strike. Unaware of how close danger stood, Ryder continued, “You like to live dangerously.”
She gave him a sardonic look. “I hate to be bored.”
“She didn’t mention you’re another prime example of why you don’t have to be male to have stone cold balls.” He pushed, testing her, like some naughty child. But she wasn’t anyone’s mother.
Raising her gaze, she met his smirk. From the up close and personal view she currently held, she saw the signs of latent handsomeness. His ability to grow into that promise was currently up for debate. Only a breath separated them and in her right hand, she held her wrist blade a hair’s breath away from his groin area. Her voice dropped a notch, “If you don’t want to lose yours, you’ll step back, little boy.”
His eyes flamed red for a second as he looked down to see her blade perilously close to his own set. He stepped back, but not before flashing a taunting grin and raising his hands to indicate his was unarmed. The tension between them broke when Xander called her over to see what she discovered.
Heading to the tracker, Raine shook her head. She hated dealing with demons. They were such a pain in the ass, always pushing the limits until someone bled. Frat boy from Hell better have some serious skills or when this was over, she and the demon queen were going to go a few rounds.
Now available Free in eBook format at: AMAZON / BARNES AND NOBLE / BLACK OPAL BOOKS / ARe / SMASHWORDS / iBOOKS / KOBO / SCRIBD
If you want to play in the shadows, continue the adventure with Jami Gray’s Kyn Kronicles:
Jami Gray is the award winning, multi-published author of the Urban Fantasy series, The Kyn Kronicles, and the Paranormal Romantic Suspense series, PSY-IV Teams. She can be soothed with coffee and chocolate. Surrounded by Star Wars obsessed males and two female labs moonlighting as the Fur Minxes, she escapes by playing with the voices in her head.
Come stalk Jami at any of these fine locations:
Website / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads / Google+ / Amazon
Spread the Word
Allison Merritt stops by with a hot demon sheriff and a Giveaway @allison_merritt
Please help me welcome the lovely Allison Merritt to the blog today. She was not only gracious enough to answer some questions, but she’s sharing her HOT! upcoming release, and giving away some goodies.
Peeps! We have a HOT DEMON SHERIFF 😀 Read on to find out more.
Allison, thanks so much for stopping in with us. And for letting us delve into your mind. First, tell me about this hot demon. If the book became a movie, which celebrities would play the characters?
If Wystan became a movie, I’d love to see Henry Cavill play him. Man, does he have the jawline and the muscles for being a badass demon-slaying hottie sheriff? Yes, yes, he does. And for Rhia, I’d like to pick Anne Hathaway. She’s so talented, and I think she’d really capture Rhia’s personality.
I’ll just say YUM! at Henry Cavill and we can move on 😉
What hobby do you enjoy when not writing?
I got a late start on watching Game of Thrones, seriously, I’m just now on season two, but I’m so into this. It makes me want to write fantasy romance. I love movies. It’s not unusual for me to bring home a different DVD ever couple of days to watch. When I’m not on my bum, I like to walk and take photographs of nature.
It has a great storyline, love the angst, LOL.
What’s your favorite comfort food?
Lemon meringue pie. I call it solid sunshine, because that’s what sunshine would taste like if you could get a mouthful—you know, if it was a thing you could taste and not get horribly burned when you ate it.
What’s your favorite color? Do you decorate your space and/or dress in this color often?
It’s blue. I have more blue shirts and a couple of dresses than normal. I told my husband not to let me buy any more blue clothes, but it just keeps happening somehow. It’s not my fault cute clothes come in blue. We should complain to the manufacturers.
Yay for blue! the best color ever.
If you could time-travel, where would you go and why?
I have an awful hankering to meet Nikola Tesla. You know the guy invented a way to get electricity without using all that crap Edison did? I curse Edison every time I get an electric bill. Tesla seems like he was a really interesting man. Little is really known about him, but I’d sure like to talk to him.
Why are manhole covers round?
They were inspired by stroopwafels. Have you ever had one of those? They’re an amazing thin wafer cookie filled with caramel syrup. They’re fantastic with ice cream.
Do you have any upcoming news you’d like to share?
Just a couple of months ago, I submitted Eban (The Heckmasters, Book #2) to my editor and I’m pleased to announce it’s coming out in April 2015. I just got the cover. I promise, between that and the story, everyone will be blown away.
Fast Five:
Coffee or Chocolate? Chocolate
Jewelry: Precious gems or gold? Gems
Beach or Mountains? Beach
Early Morning or Late Night? Late night
Fruit or Veggies? Fruit
About the Book:
Title: Wystan (The Heckmasters)
Length: 228 pages
Pubisher: Samhain Publishing
Publication date: October 21, 2014
Buy links:
Samhain Amazon B&N Google Books
Blurb:
Her search for safety lands her in a totally new kind of danger.
The Heckmasters, Book 1
Certain that an ad for a job in a small New Mexico Territory town is the answer to her prayers, Nebraska schoolteacher Rhia Duke packs her sister into a rickety wagon and heads west.
Except when they reach the near-deserted town, she learns the truth. There is no job, no future, and no welcome in the bleak blue eyes of the handsome sheriff.
The minute Rhia’s runaway team thunders into town, Wystan Heckmaster feels the change in the air. One of three sons of a demon who dared love a human, he keeps watch over a Pit guarded by seven seals, and slays any Hellbound demon that attempts to free the master imprisoned within.
With a gut full of regret and a forgotten town filled with reformed demons, Wystan is certain of one thing: he can’t be the man Rhia needs. But when the truth behind Rhia’s flight from Nebraska comes to light, Wystan must open his soul—and pray there’s enough love between them to overcome the darkness rising from the Pit.
Warning: Contains a take-no-prisoners sheriff, a woman who can’t outrun her supernatural secrets, and a dusty town where hope is as thin as dust in the wind. Author recommends keeping a glass of cool spring water at your elbow while reading.
Excerpt:
Something changed in the air the moment the wagon crossed the town’s border. Too early to be a supply train, and there was no way in hell it was visitors. Berner didn’t host town fairs, theatre troupes, peddlers, or bible thumpers.
Wystan Heckmaster slapped his battered Stetson on his head, collected the keys to the jail, then stepped out the door. The first thing he saw was a pretty woman with hair the color of maple sugar—a rich brownish-blonde. The frown on her face spoke volumes, and the air around her pronounced trouble. She made a straight path for him.
“Mr. Heckmaster. Or should I call you Sheriff? Or Mayor? I need to discuss the ad in the Lancaster County Republican with you. Someone placed an ad, but your brother tells me there is no school here. I’m sure there has to be a mistake. There’s only one Berner in New Mexico Territory. I’m very capable at reading maps. If I wasn’t, I would be ashamed to call myself a teacher.”
He doubted she had taken more than two or three breaths during the speech. If she made talking in rambling paragraphs a habit, no wonder she looked so peaked.
“Teacher?” He glanced along the street, but it was deserted as usual. “Lady, we don’t have a school here. Certainly no need of a teacher.”
Her hands balled into fists that settled on her hips. The dress she wore was patched—the egg yolk yellow faded into something even more disgusting. It had little flowers dotting the material, but they looked as worn as her scuffed black boots.
“Then what was the purpose of placing an ad in the Lancaster County Republican?”
She spoke with the fierceness of a mama bear warning predators away from her cubs.
Wystan reached into his shirt pocket and drew out a toothpick. “I didn’t place any ad in any Lancaster County anything.” He looked past her, expecting Eban to saunter up the street. Eban had to be the brother she’d referred to since Tell was still on the trail.
“Someone did,” she insisted. She fished a crumpled and much-folded piece of newsprint out of the pocket hidden by the folds of her skirt. “See? Right here it says, ‘School teacher wanted for spring term at Berner Schoolhouse. Wages paid based on experience. Room and board provided. Apply in person at City Hall, Berner, New Mexico Territory.’ I’m sure my eyes don’t deceive me.”
Wystan stared at the clipping, then back at the woman. A galaxy of freckles spattered across her nose and cheekbones, making her look younger than her eyes said she was. Full figured and sure as shittin’ a grown woman. The wariness and worry darkening her hazel eyes gave her away as one with a lot of trouble on her plate.
“I can read.”
She pulled the ad away from his face, folded it, and returned it to her pocket. “Where would you suggest I look for an explanation, Mr. Heckmaster?”
Fussy little thing. “I assure you that no one in this town did. There’s been a mistake. Sorry to inconvenience you, Miss Schoolteacher. Now turn around and head home.”
A flush colored her cheeks. “I can’t head home! I have no home to return to. My little sister and my friend are waiting at the doctor’s office for me to straighten this mess out. The ad says that room and board will be provided. I’d expected to move into a room, sir.”
“You left them with Eban?” That explained his absence.
“Beryl is ill, Sheriff. This is the first town we’ve seen in days and it was past time for her to get some attention.” Despair crept into her voice.
Wystan shifted his weight and transferred the toothpick to the other side of his mouth. “Eban’s not exactly trained in human medicine.”
The woman’s mouth opened into an O. She shook her head and seemed to regain her senses. “He’s a veterinarian? He seemed certain he could help Beryl.”
Wystan cleared his throat. “Sure, animal doctor. I’m sorry for your misfortune, lady, but as you can see, Berner’s about run into the ground. There’s nothing here for you or your friend. Might be best to move along.”
She seemed to deflate. “Move along.” Her lips moved, softly forming the words, but it was as though she didn’t comprehend them. “We’ll move along, right down the trail into the next town where there won’t be any teaching jobs either. Sylvie, Beryl, and I will starve to death on the side of the road with no one in the world to care.”
Buy links:
Samhain Amazon B&N Google Books
Click on the link for the Giveaway
About the Author:
A love of reading inspired Allison Merritt to pursue her dream of becoming an author who writes historical, paranormal and fantasy romances, often combining the sub-genres. She lives in a small town in the Ozark Mountains with her husband and dogs. When she’s not writing or reading, she hikes in national parks and conservation areas.
Allison graduated from College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri with a B.A. in mass communications that’s gathering dust after it was determined that she’s better at writing fluff than hard news.
Social media links:
Blog – http://havenovelwilledit.blogspot.com
Facebook – http://facebook.com/allisonmwrites
Twitter – http://twitter.com/allison_merritt
G+ – http://gplus.to/allisonmerritt
Goodreads – http://goodreads.com/AllisonMWrites
Pinterest – http://www.pinterest.com/allisonmwrites/
Spread the Word
Shadow’s Moon Cover Reveal by @jamigrayauthor
“Shadow’s Moon is an excellent addition to the Kyn Kronicles series. Gray is really coming into her own…I couldn’t put it down once I picked it up. It held my interest from beginning to end.” – Taylor Jones, Black Opal Reviewer
“Shadow’s Moon is riveting. I was caught up in it from the very first word, and I simply could not put it down. I read right through to the end, finishing at 4 in the morning. I can’t wait for the next one in the series. Gray has turned into a first class author of paranormal thrillers.” – Regan Murphy, Black Opal Reviewer
SHADOW’S MOON: BOOK 3 OF THE KYN KRONICLES, 2013 Golden Claddaugh Finalist
Even a wild heart can be broken…
A blonde, a brunette and a monster walk into a bar and all hell breaks loose.
It should have been the start of a bad joke, but days from a full moon Xander Cade, Tracker for the Northwest Motoki Pack, finds nothing funny about confronting an enraged Shifter in a crowded Portland nightclub filled with unsuspecting humans. The resulting carnage frays an already thin veil of secrecy shielding the supernatural Kyn community from public scrutiny, and ensures she can’t escape the one man she’s been determined to avoid, her Alpha and mate, Warrick Vidis. Dominating, protective and compelling, Warrick threatens her individuality like no other.
As the Northwest Alpha wolf, compromise isn’t in Warrick Vidis’s vocabulary, but when his reluctant mate, Xander Cade, refuses to leave off the hunt for a killer, he has no qualms using whoever or whatever necessary to protect her or his pack. A series of unusual deaths involving lone wolves, along with anonymous threats against him and his Pack, begin to jeopardize his normal steely control. Add in Xander’s continual reluctance to fully accept their Soul bond, and the line between intellect and instinct begins to blur, leaving him wondering if one woman’s love and acceptance will be enough to save both man and wolf.
As the danger escalates, threatening not just their Pack but those closest to them, Warrick and Xander must find a way to trust each other and accept their rare bond or risk losing everything-their pack, their friends and each other.
Now available in eBook and Print at: AMAZON / BARNES AND NOBLE / BLACK OPAL BOOKS / ARe / SMASHWORDS / iBOOKS
READ AN EXCERPT
Silence descended between her and Warrick, stretching until it played along her nerves. Slowly, like a door creaking open, he began to loosen his end of the bond. Her wolf began to settle as it sensed his. He studied her, and she could see both the wolf and man looking back. He reached out, but she stepped out of the way and caught a fleeting sense of hurt and confusion. But she couldn’t allow his touch to weaken her resolve.
“Why are you running scared?” His question was stiff.
“Let me ask you something,” she said. When he gave a short nod, she continued. “Why did you bond us?”
“You were dying.” His voice was gruff, almost angry. “I—we need you.”
Need, not love. His choice of words scraped over her heart. “Need?” she asked around the tightness of her chest.
“If we lost you, the pack would be devastated.”
“What about you, Warrick?” she whispered.
“An alpha can’t have a weakness, Xander,” he said, searing her with the brutal truth.
“So you consider a mate a weakness?” Oh, this was just getting better and better. Why had she thought she could make this relation- ship work?
“Did you forget what happened with Chavez?” he gritted out, rubbing the heel of his hand over his chest.
His movement had her realizing she was projecting her pain through their bond. Furious with herself, and with him, she reeled in her emotions. “Chavez’s mate was crazy.”
“He covered for her because he loved her, and now his pack is in upheaval.”
She wanted to punch him. The urge was so powerful, she had to curl her hands into the leather of her bike’s seat behind her. “So it’s not a mate that you consider a weakness, but the emotion behind it?” she pushed.
“No,” he growled. “You should never give an alpha wolf someone of his own.”
Confusion momentarily overrode her anger. “Why?”
His lips thinned and his jaw tightened. “An alpha is the ultimate protector. Protection of our packs is a natural directive. We will do whatever is needed to protect what is ours. Even if they don’t want to be protected.”
“Even a mate?” She kept her tone careful as she began to get an inkling as to why he was so damned determined to keep his heart out of her reach.
“To protect a mate some would burn the world,” Warrick answered. “Even at the expense of our pack. Chavez is proof of that.”
“Warrick—” she started.
He snarled and ran a hand through his hair in obvious frustration. “My wolf recognizes you as our mate.” Possessiveness stormed down their bond confirming his words.
Mate. A deep thrill hummed through her at his claim, but her heart ached because there was more to it. Dreading his answer, she asked, “And the man?”
“Is torn.” His face was grim. “Claiming you protects and strengthens the pack, but increases the danger to you.” His and me was left unsaid.
“You think you can claim me, but keep me at arm’s length? As if that will somehow keep me safe?”
He didn’t answer, but she could feel the belief in his screwed up logic. She and her wolf took exception to his assumption, and there was no stifling her growl. “I don’t need you to keep me safe, Warrick. I need you to accept me for who I am.”
Feminine fury rose and burned against his male arrogance. Her challenge was the last straw. She practically heard his control break. Swearing, he trapped her between his body and the bike before she could blink.
Being caged brought her wolf snarling to the forefront. Claws broke through and she swiped out, leaving thin bloody lines across one cheek before he captured her hands in his. He snarled back and took her lips with savage intensity. Ravaging her mouth, he took sharp bites of her lower lip before laving the stings with his tongue.
Available in eBook and Print now at: AMAZON / BARNES AND NOBLE / BLACK OPAL BOOKS / ARe / SMASHWORDS / iBOOKS
Jami Gray is the award winning, multi-published author of the Urban Fantasy series, The Kyn Kronicles, and the Paranormal Romantic Suspense series, PSY-IV Teams. Her latest release, SHADOW’S MOON was a Golden Claddaugh Finalist, and the first in her newest series, HUNTED BY THE PAST, hits shelves in July 2014. She is surrounded by Star Wars obsessed males and a male lab, who masquerades as a floor rug as she plays with the voices in her head.
Come stalk Jami at any of these fine locations:
Website / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads / Google+ / Amazon
Spread the Word
KC Klein on Inspiration and a Giveaway @kckleinbooks
Please help me welcome the lovely KC Klein to the blog today, talking about a writer’s inspiration. Also, make sure you leave a comment and your email to be entered in her giveaway : )
Finding Inspiration In Texas
First, I wanted to thank Amber for allowing me to come on her blog and do a guest post. What better place to talk about my latest book in the Texas Fever series, Hustlin’ Texas, than at a blog dedicated to romance? Amber has been so kind to work around my schedule and all my last minute postponements. Thank you so much Amber for working with me. Your patience has been amazing. J
A few years ago, before I even thought about writing a series, I started thinking about a sweet little love story that was centered on a headstrong young woman who had fallen for the cowboy next door. Add to it my heroine’s absolute passion for horses and a desperate rancher, and I had myself a story. So naturally when I started writing, I had to place my book in a small town in Texas. Well, the problem was I live in Arizona and had n
ever been to Texas.
I was grateful to learn that the southern part of Texas has similar landscaping as Arizona and after interviewing and following around some local horse ranchers I was able to pull off a realistic Texas setting. But…I still felt the need to visit Texas and get the feel of the local flavor.
My best friend, Pam Silva, took pity on me and invited me to stay with her family who lived in the small town of Whitesboro, Texas.
I learned a lot. I toured both small and large working horse ranches, saw long-horned cattle up close, found out in Texas that just about everything can be fried…catfish, hushpuppies, okra, sweet hushpuppies, and that no one I saw seemed as interested in pool like the woman on my cover. (What a shame.)
I also found that I wasn’t the first author, by far, to be inspired by Texas. In the Stockyard Museum in Fort Worth there is a wedding dress on display called the “Bad Luck Wedding Dress.” Due to technical difficulties I lost my pictures of the dress, but found a photo and the history of the gown on the museum website. Though you can’t tell from this photo all I have to say is that the women back then must have been very, very tiny.
Alongside the dress was a romance novel by Geralyn Dawson who was inspired to write an entire series around the legend of this dress. Here’s her book cover. 
How cool is that to find your book kept in the Stockyard Museum alongside the actual dress that inspired your book—if only. (Insert heartfelt sigh here)
Well, maybe my book won’t make it into a museum, but I hope it will make its way into readers’ homes and hearts.
Thank you for letting me share a tiny bit of what inspired me in Texas. Below is the blurb and teaser of my latest book, Hustlin’ Texas. I hope you enjoy it. If you do, leave a comment below with your email address and you’ll be entered into a drawing for an e-copy of Hustlin’ Texas.
Thanks again and happy reading.
Excerpt
Jett nodded, then glanced around the crowded bar. When he turned his gaze back on her, a person would be hard pressed to describe his eyes as anything sweet or candy like. “I was hoping you’d be up for a little game of nine-ball.”
Nikki took a sip from her beer and raised her brow in question. Nine-ball was the hustler’s game. It was short and quick, without all the rules of straight pool.
He nodded his head toward the tables in the back. “I heard you played.”
“Then you heard wrong.” She took another sip, eying him the whole time. “I’ve given it up for Lent.”
The corner of his mouth hinted at a smile. “Found God, have you?”
“Among other things.”
Jett glanced to the tables, then back to her. “One game. No money.”
Nikki shook her head. “I don’t play for fun. No thrill in it.”
He swallowed, and she could see his jaw work. “Then we’ll play for a favor. A debt. You up for a little more red in your ledger?”
She didn’t want to ask, not really, but gambling was too deep in her blood not to hear the stakes. “What’s the favor?”
He smiled, not the golden boy smile she’d come to know, but instead one that lacked any charm at all. “Well, Texas, that’s the thrill part. You don’t know until the end. Anything goes. No boundaries.”
Her heart did a funky jump-start in her chest at the possibilities, but her game face was ice-cold. “No limits?”
“None. Unless that’s too much heat for you? We could place some ground rules if you want to play it safe.”
Nikki knew what Jett was doing. It was so obvious, and yet, there was that achingly familiar thrill that zipped up her spine and buzzed in her blood. Some families were predisposed toward red hair or near-sightedness. The Logans were addicts. Throw a dart at the family tree and you’d hit a vice—drinking, smoking, shopping. You name it, and the Logans could turn anything into a compulsion. But really, under all the addictions, there was only one. One vice that was as indicative of a Logan as dark hair, brown skin, and blue eyes.
It was very basic, really. The Logans were gamblers.
There were stories as far back as her grandfather, if stories in the Logan family could be believed, who won his first car—a 1950 Cadillac—on the toss of a coin. Then there was her father, Dakota, who’d bet on every sports game invented, and even ones that hadn’t, like golf without clubs. Her father had once bet a hundred dollars on his ability to throw a golf ball through the eighteen holes. Legend had it, he’d won that hundred, but lost the money in the same night in an “I can piss into a can from the second story” contest.
So Jett knew what he was doing. And Nikki was smart enough to know this was more than a simple favor and way more than a simple game of pool. She also knew something else. Jett was no match for her in this game.
She hid her smile with a sip of her drink. The thrill of a “sure thing” was headier than any shot of tequila, more exciting than a leather-jacketed man on a motorcycle.
“Oh, I can take the heat,” she said.
“But can you handle this much heat?”
“Oh, I can handle it. Because we both know I can beat you with one hand tied behind my back and blindfolded.”
His eyebrows arched. “Then you’d best start figuring out what your favor will be.”
Nikki put down her bottle, no longer needing the buzz. “Already have.” Her car fixed…for starters. “You really think you can beat me at pool?”
God, he was so cocky. It was almost tragic.
His eyes narrowed and there was absolutely no humor in his voice when he spoke. “Oh, I’m betting on it.”
BIO: KC Klein has lived most of her life with her head in the clouds and her nose buried in a book. She did stop reading long enough to make a home with a real life hero, her husband, for over sixteen years. A mother of two children, she spends her time slaying dragons, saving princesses, and championing the belief in the happily-ever-after. Her debut novel, Dark Future, is a finalist in the 2012 Prism contest and has been honored with a reviewer’s choice award. Her other titles include a sci- fi, 2012 RONE award winning romance anthology, Hotter on the Edge, and the first two books in her Texas Fever contemporary romance series, Texas Wide Open, and Hustlin’ Texas. KC loves to hear from readers and can be found desperately pounding away on her laptop in yoga pants and leopard slippers or more conveniently at www.kckleinbooks.com. Sign for her quarterly newsletter for updates on her latest releases, sales, and free giveaways.
Blurb for Hustlin’ Texas:
“Sassy, sexy, fun, but sweet at heart, KC Klein knows how to spin a tall Texas yarn.”—Lori Wilde
“A sexy read. KC Klein’s hero is as hot as a Texan summer’s day. KC is an author to watch..” —Rachel Gibson
Only one person in Oak Groves is happy to see bad girl Nikki Logan back in town…
Oak Groves’ most beloved bachelor, Jett Avery, lives by a simple set of rules. Getting involved with a complicated woman isn’t one of them. He learned that the hard way two years ago when he spent one of the most incredible nights of his life with Nikki Logan. But then she hightailed it out of town, never to be seen again—until now. It might be time to break one of those rules…
Picking up the pieces of her life, Nikki is back in Oak Groves, face to face with the one man she’s done her best to forget. But she has her reasons for being here—and they don’t include winding up in bed with Jett. Especially since he’ll never forgive her once he finds out the truth about why she’s back…
Buy links for Hustlin’ Texas:
Amazon: http://kckleinbooks.com/HustlinTexas
Barns and Nobel: http://kckleinbooks.com/BNHustlinTexas
Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/hustlin-texas
Blurb for TEXAS WIDE OPEN:
“A tortured hero, a love that defies distance and time…this is a book you won’t soon forget.” –Cat Johnson
Katie Harris loved growing up on a ranch. She had her horse, the beautiful Texas prairie, and Cole Logan, the cowboy next door. But there are a lot of secrets hidden under a Texas sky…
Katie always knew she’d marry Cole one day—until he broke her dreams and her heart. But now that Katie’s father is sick, she’s back home, older, wiser and nowhere near the love-sick fool she once was.
Cole knows Katie doesn’t want anything to do with him. But after so many years, he can’t pretend she’s no more than a neighbor. Holding his ground was hard enough when she was seventeen. Now that she’s her own woman, Cole’s heart doesn’t stand a chance…
“Passionate, gritty and fast paced…with a hot blooded, honorable hero to make every woman’s knees go weak.”—Diane Whiteside
Buy Links for TEXAS WIDE OPEN:
Amazon: http://kckleinbooks.com/TexasWideOpenAmazon
Barns and Noble: http://kckleinbooks.com/TexasWideOpenBN
Blurb for DARK FUTURE:
A woman caught between two futures…
Awakened in the middle of the night by a future version of herself, Kris Davenport is given a mission: go travel in time to save the world–and his life. Of course, her future self doesn’t tell her who he is just sends her into the darkness and straight into an alien invasion.
…must choose between the man who has her heart…
He turns out to be ConRad Smith, the callous, untrusting military commander of Earth’s army and the world’s last defense. There’s only one way for Smith to know for sure if this strange woman is an alien spy–slice her throat. Except, he didn’t anticipate the desire he would feel as he interrogates the hot-tempered, warm-blooded woman.
…or the fate that saves the world.
As Kris and ConRad struggle to trust each other in a world on the brink of destruction, they each will have to face the ultimate choice of whether to fight or die… survive or forgive.
Buy Links for DARK FUTURE:
Amazon e-book: http://kckleinbooks.com/AmazonDarkFuture
Amazon print book: http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Future-Kc-Klein/dp/0062117041
Avon Impulse: http://www.avonromance.com/buy/dark-future-epb/
Barns and Noble: http://kckleinbooks.com/BNDarkFuture
Website: www.kckleinbooks.com
Blog: http://kckleinbooks.tumblr.com
WordPress: http://kckleinbooks.com/writing-from-the-edge-blog/
Links To Social Media:
Twitter: @kckleinbooks
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorKCKlein
Pintrest: http://pinterest.com/kckleinbooks
Amazon Author page: http://kckleinbooks.com/AmazonAuthorPage
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5163507.K_C_Klein
Spread the Word
Sharon Buchbinder and Obsessions @sbuchbinder
Please help me welcome the wonderful Sharon Buchbinder to the blog today, sharing her newest release!
Check it out and say hello 🙂
Obsession by Sharon Buchbinder
Now Available from the Wild Rose Press and at Amazon
A desperate mother…
A Mexican drug lord…
A dangerous match.
A year after a barbaric childbirth, complete with a near-death experience and an encounter with her guardian angel, Angie Edmonds is just happy she and her son, Jake, are alive. She’s finally in a good place: clean, sober, and employed as a defense attorney. But at the end of a long work day, she finds herself in a parent’s worst nightmare: Jake has been kidnapped and taken across the Mexican border by a cult leader who believes the child is the “Chosen One.”
Stymied by the US and Mexican legal systems, Angie is forced to ask the head of a Mexican crime syndicate for help. Much to her chagrin, she must work with Alejandro Torres, a dangerously attractive criminal and the drug lord’s right-hand man. Little does she know Alejandro is an undercover federal agent, equally terrified of blowing his cover—and falling in love with her.
Excerpt:
“Who are you? Who is that giant? What did you say to him?”
The pony-tailed man flashed a grin, the smile reaching his sky-blue colored eyes, giving him an appealing boyish look. “The big guy’s name is Tio. I told Tio to truss Raul up like the pig he is and to bring him to Isabel Ramirez. She’ll know exactly what to do with him.”
“Who are you?”
The movie-star-handsome man stopped, bent down until he was eye-to-eye with Angie.
“I found your passport tossed onto Raul’s desk, Angela Edmonds from the U.S. of A. I like that name. You look like an angel.”
She shook her head and the street twirled. “I’m no angel.” She steadied herself on his well muscled, naked arm. Rather than creeping her out, the skin on skin contact with her rescuer reassured her that he was a real human and not an angel conjured up in fevered religious delusion and desperation. “You sound like an American. You haven’t answered my question. What’s your name?”
“Torres.” Still holding her ID, he strode to the driver’s side of the car, hopped in and flashed a dazzling grin. “You could call me your hero because I’m taking you to see the woman who can help you find your son. My name is Alejandro Espinosa Santoyo Torres. But most people just call me Alejandro.”
Now Available from the Wild Rose Press and at Amazon
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
After working in health care delivery for years, Sharon Buchbinder became an association executive, a health care researcher, and an academic in higher education. She had it all–a terrific, supportive husband, an amazing son and a wonderful job. But that itch to write (some call it an obsession) kept beckoning her to “come on back” to writing fiction. When not attempting to make students, colleagues, and babies laugh, she can be found herding cats, waiting on a large gray dog, fishing, dining with good friends, or writing. You can find her at www.sharonbuchbinder.com
Paranormal Romance Guild Winner Best Mystery/Thriller, 2012
~~~~~~~~~~~
Where Sharon Buchbinder can be found on the Internet
Website/Blog http://sharonbuchbinder.com/blog/
Amazon http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001IODIE2
Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4417344.Sharon_Buchbinder
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sharon.buchbinder.romanceauthor
Twitter @sbuchbinder https://twitter.com/sbuchbinder
The Wild Rose Press http://www.wildrosepublishing.com/maincatalog_v151/
Spread the Word
Violet Dawn is here! Blog Blitz & Giveaway by @lynnrush
Check out the newest yumminess from the awesome Lynn Rush!
In the darkest place, the Light shines brightest.
Emma’s love saved Jake from life as a vampire. But their happily ever after is threatened by a savage Vamp seeking retribution for destroying the Avenos Trinity of Evil.
A mysterious stranger enters the mix, coinciding with the first Vamp attack in months. Emma’s new friendship, and the suspicion and deceit surrounding it, further drives a wedge between her and Jake.
To complicate things, Emma is bitten by a Vamp with abilities no one has ever seen before, and that bite has left its mark.
A mark that might tear Jake and Emma apart forever…
Title: Violet Dawn (Violet Night #2)
Author: Lynn Rush
Genre: New Adult Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Crescent Moon Press
Release Date: April 1st, 2013
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Violet-Dawn-Lynn-Rush/dp/1939173213
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17160459-violet-dawn
Website: http://www.lynnrush.com
What others are already saying about Violet Dawn:
“Violet Dawn is powerful, enthralling, and refreshingly complex.” ~Carrie Butler, author of Strength
“I’ve fallen head over boots for Emma and Jake as a couple—and as an elite vampire-hunting team…” ~Kristie Cook, author of the best-selling Soul Savers Series
“Fast-paced, action-packed, Violet Dawn is basically everything you’d want from a vampire hunter novel and then some. Emma has kick-ass written all over her.” ~Kate Evangelista, author of Taste
Rafflecopter Giveaway
(Kindle is the prize) Giveaway ends at Midnight (EST) April 23rd, 2013.
http://www.lynnrush.com/GiveawayZone
Violet Dawn Book trailer: http://youtu.be/MZE8Yyv2ZGM
Find Lynn on the interwebz
Author Amazon Page: http://www.amazon.com/Lynn-Rush/e/B005G3NVBQ
Facebook: www.facebook.com/LynnRushWrites
Twitter: www.twitter.com/LynnRush
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/lynnrushwrites/
Author Bio.
Driven to write, Lynn Rush often sees her characters by closing her eyes watching their story unfold in her mind. Lynn Rush is a pen name that is a combination of two sources – Lynn, the first name of her mother-in-law, who passed away and Rush – since the author is a former inline speed skater and mountain biker. All of Rush’s books are dedicated to Lynn, her namesake, and a portion of the proceeds benefits cancer research and awareness.
Spread the Word
Guest Author and Give@way~Cera duBois of the Hunter’s Dagger Series
The Rest of the Story…
Keeping the facts straight when writing a series.
Thank you, Amber, for having today as your guest!
*Always, thanks so much for stopping by 🙂 *
Whether you are a reader or a writer of fiction, we often fall in love with the secondary characters or the “world” of a story. So much so, that readers often request authors to “finish” the story. This is what happened with the Star Wars universe. If you ask George Lucas, his story ended at the last scene in Episode 6, Return of the Jedi. Sure, he wrote and produced the Prequel which fans either loved or hated, but we (I’m a Star Wars fan) all wanted the rest of the story.
Do Han and Leia marry? Does Luke rebuild the Jedi Order? Does Leia become a Jedi?
Fortunately for us, Mr. Lucas made a business decision that has raked in millions for him, has kept the franchise alive and well and has, for the most part, satisfied us fans. Yes, Han and Leia not only get married, they have a set of twins, Jacen and Jaina and a son, Anakin, all of whom become favorite characters in the series about Luke’s new Jedi Order. And yes, Leia becomes a Jedi, she actually becomes a Master eventually. A lot happens in the Galaxy Far, Far Away beyond that final scene with the Force ghosts of Anakin, Obi-Wan and Yoda watching the Death Star exploding over the forest moon of Endor with the Ewoks playing primitive instruments and Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca and the droids rejoicing the end of the Evil Empire.
Yeah, did I mention I’m a fan? But having read this series of books, written by various writers, I’ve seen some of the problems with writing a big series. One of the biggest for me is inconsistencies… But this I can understand in a series as huge and diverse as the Star Wars books. These books aren’t written by George Lucas or even endorsed by him … Oh, he makes money from them and sanctions their plots as part of the Expanded Universe, but these authors are only using his “world” and characters. If he chooses to continue with his personal vision of the story—it will be nothing like what has been written. Something this fan hopes never happens. I love the books!
However, I think if a series is written by one author, within one “world” and with the same set of characters, he or she better get the facts straight. I hate inconsistencies and nothing will throw me out of a story faster than changing the facts late in the game.
So, how does an author prevent this from happening? Because it’s the little things that may and do bug the observant reader. Like the heroine’s sister’s green eyes (in book one) now are blue in book five—with no mention of colored contacts. Or the long lost friend whose name was John and now it’s James—without the benefit of the character changing his name.
We all have seen them, but hopefully we can prevent these with some basic record keeping. For both of my series, The Hunter’s Daggers Series and The Colton Gamblers, I use the Microsoft Office program One Note as a virtual notebook. There’s a lot of writing programs out there, and most of them have features that allow you to save notes, or information within the program. I use One Note simply because I like it and it’s easy to use, if you’re a Microsoft user.
For my series The Hunter’s Daggers, I created a virtual notebook and each book has a section. Within these sections, there are pages. I have a page in each book section for research, character profiles, calendar of events, and general notes. On the research page, I’ll copy/paste entire web pages. This makes life easy when I need to make sure my facts are straight, I simply go to my Notebook and find the article. I don’t have to do another web search. In the character profile page, I note anything I might need to know later—such as physical appearances, and any facts about that character I might need to know later. The calendar should be self-explanatory. On the general notes page, I list anything else I might need to know–like brainstorming sessions; I copy/paste the book info, like the blurb and synopsis; all the links to the files; and important dates, like when I started the book and when I finally finished it.
For example, here’s what the profile for Brad Morris/Austin Calhoun from A Hunter’s Angel and A Hunter’s Blade looks like. This was copied from my One Note page. The things in parentheses and italics I added to clarify things.
Bradley Andrew Morris AKA Austin Calhoun
*Born: August 23, 1979, age 32 at the start of A Hunter’s Angel
*Turned into a Vampire by Shane Chamberlain in January 2011.
*Eyes: Hazel/ After his turn, they glow amber when he drops his glamour.
*Hair: Golden Brown, he wears it sort of like Rob Pattinson in Twilight (LOL… I know, this is just so I can picture it so that I can describe it in the books.)
*Height: 6’2”
*Known for his one-night stands and never committing to a woman.
*His father is sentenced to life in prison when Brad is 3 yrs old after he kills a cop during a robbery of a convenience store. He hasn’t seen his father since.
*Grows up on his grandparents’ ranch in East Texas with his mother and sister Diane, who is a year and half younger than him.
*He marries Samantha Anderson when he is 18 after she gets pregnant with his first son, Brandon. She files for divorce in 2001. She remarried a rancher and lives in Texas with Brandon.
*He joins the Army after high school graduation and becomes an MP and eventually works his way into the CID (Criminal Investigation Division). He deploys to Afghanistan in 2002 and to Iraq in 2003. He ETS’s (this is a military acronym which means he leaves the Army) and joins the FBI in 2005.
*He marries his second wife, Jamie Becker, in 2005 after she becomes pregnant after a short series of one-night stands. They are married for 2 years until he cheats on her and she divorces him. She now lives in New Jersey with their son Matthew…
This goes on for every fact that makes up Brad/Austin’s character.
So, hopefully I don’t mix up something that is vital to his character. And hopefully you fall as much in love with this ex-soldier-turned-FBI Special Agent-turned vampire vampire hunter as I did when I wrote him in A Hunter’s Angel, and I just had to tell the rest of his story.
A Hunter’s Angel, Book 1 The Hunter’s Dagger Series
The serial killer stalking Clayton, Pennsylvania, isn’t all that has Chief of Police Grace Wallace worried. For a year, she’s tried to forget Special Agent Ian McHenry and now he’s the expert the FBI sent to catch the killer. She can’t stay away from him, but something primal is telling her to run to save much more than just her heart. Despite the strict code of ethics Ian vowed to follow as a vampire hunter, he craves Grace’s blood above all others. If he chooses to stay, Ian risks losing his chance at divine forgiveness. But if he leaves Grace unprotected from the evil he’s hunted for over a century, he loses more than just his soul…
***Here’s a never before seen excerpt featuring Brad, Ian and Grace***
She looked at him as if she wanted to say something, but Brad interrupted by moving in beside her. Ian hadn’t missed the two of them talking earlier while he waited with Sheryl and the children.
“We’re finishing up. I was thinking of heading back to Clayton for something to eat. I’m starved enough to eat a horse, shoes and all,” Brad said, looking at Grace.
She laughed. “Me, too. But I’ll pass on the shoes, I think.”
The sound shot right though Ian. When was the last time she laughed with me?
His answer came back to him like a double edged sword—the night you almost killed her while making love to her.
Grace brushed a lock of coppery hair from her lightly freckled cheek. Brad watched the action, and Ian sensed his lust. Ian’s jealousy was potent and instant. He fought his darker side and managed to prevent his fangs from descending.
Brad glanced at him, and Ian didn’t need to read his mind to know his intentions. Focused once more on Grace, Brad stepped closer and tilted his head toward her.
Brad was a good two inches taller than Ian. His light brown hair styled in one of the latest disheveled trends and the sun highlighted it with gold. The Texan had that cowboy charm most women easily fell for.
Ian didn’t pay much attention to their conversation. He was too busy fighting the urge to slip into Brad’s mind and make him dance around like a monkey. Maybe have him even scratch his crotch. Wasn’t that what all the Sunday paper cartoons made fun of?
He shook off the crazy notion. Ian didn’t like using his powers on his friends and rarely read Brad’s mind. But Ian couldn’t stop thinking Brad Morris was the last thing Grace needed.
The only thing that prevented him from sending Brad away was his connection with Grace. She wasn’t interested in Brad—now. But given time, would she fall under Brad’s spell as easily as if he had some sort of supernatural power? He had seen his friend charm the pants off more than one woman.
Ian clamped down so hard on his teeth it was amazing he didn’t break them off. The accent, Ian silently accused. He remembered all too well her fascination with his brogue when they’d met a year and a half ago. She’d quizzed him on it until he told her a satisfying story of picking up his Irish parents’ accents.
Brad’s chuckle quickly brought him back to the present. They talked as if Ian wasn’t even there, as if they’d known each other for years. Had they carried on like this last year? Ian couldn’t remember.
She asked, “Hey, you still hungry enough to eat the shoes off a horse?”
Brad smiled broadly. “Yep. What do you say we get out of here?
Available Everywhere E-books are sold:
The Wild Rose Press | Amazon | Barnes and Noble
A Hunter’s Blade, Book 2 of The Hunter’s Dagger Series 
Brigit Wolfe, a born werewolf, hasn’t killed a human in over a hundred years, although now, she wonders if the animal attacking people in Silver Creek, Colorado, isn’t her. But she might have bigger problems when her cowboy neighbor, Austin Calhoun, ambles into her bar. Austin hasn’t been a vampire for long, but he is determined to prove to himself that he’s worthy of his hunter’s dagger. Brigit’s rare beauty and blade-sharp tongue enchants him. She ignites a passion he thought was dead, but is she the killer his master sent him to destroy? During Austin’s investigation regarding Brigit’s involvement in the deaths, an old crime surfaces connected to her human best friend. These two immortal enemies have to join forces to solve the mystery before someone else dies. But can they survive the heat of their own desire?
***Excerpt***
“Why don’t you enlighten me?”
She glowered at him for several moments. Then she closed her eyes and spoke in a language he didn’t understand. Before he knew it, a fire sparked to life in the old stone hearth across the room. A second later, he flew out of his chair and shoved hard against the edge of the bar behind him.
He struggled against the invisible restrains, but she’d taken him completely off guard. He was powerless to break free.
Standing, she kicked the chair to the side and stalked toward him. She could kill him right here and now, but…holy hell, she was damned sexy.
She stopped in front of him and growled, “Let’s get something established about werewolves. There are two kinds. The lesser wolves who are made. And the Lykan who are born. I’m not one of the degenerates. I was born a Lykan in 1647. The first child of Valeriu and Elena. I’m an alpha and you are nothing more than a fledgling just hatched.”
He broke free of her power by drawing on his own. When he moved toward her, Austin held his hands to his side, ready to grab the special knife he had sheathed inside his jacket. His fangs had long ago descended ready for a fight. “I don’t really give a flying fuck whether you were made, born, or hatched.”
When the energy of her power touched him again, he pulled the knife, and the silver blade caught the dim light of the fire in the hearth when he opened the long switchblade. “I want to know if you’re the one preying on these people.”
Her eyes widened and she backed up a step as he approached. “I told you I didn’t attack those humans. I haven’t killed a mortal in over a hundred years. How many innocents have you snacked on tonight? How many of them did you want to kill?”
“I don’t hurt my prey,” he said through clenched teeth and held her icy gaze. He’d never let her know battling the beast within every feeding was the hardest thing he’d ever done.
After forcing himself to take a deep breath, he lowered the knife and released some of the tension zinging through his body. “If you didn’t kill those people then you have nothing to worry about. Best way to figure out who did is by working together.” He put the silver blade away, and his fangs retracted.
“What do you have planned?”
He didn’t miss the slight quiver in her voice. He should finish all this right here and now so he could get back to Ireland and whatever life he’d scraped together, but something needled him into doing a thorough investigation.
“We begin with you telling me everything you remember from those nights you became the big, bad wolf.”
Available now at Amazon and everywhere January 2, 2013.
Bio:
Cera duBois has a strong belief in never giving up on your dreams…
Although Cera was unable to read due to dyslexia and a learning disability until she was in the fourth grade, she always had a story to tell. She wrote her first novel in eleventh grade when she had to keep a journal for her academic English class. Since her life was far from exciting growing up as a farm girl in West Central Pennsylvania, she decided to rely on her imagination to give her something to write about. Over the course of the school year, she wrote a tangled romance set in the Deep South during the Civil War. Becoming an author was her ultimate dream. Despite holding a BS in secondary social studies education from Penn State University, she currently works full-time as a medical secretary. A mother of a teenage son and pre-teen daughter, she lives near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with her husband of nearly 20 years. If she isn’t sitting in a quiet corner with her laptop, warm days will find her in the English garden surrounding her house. Cera loves to read and is interested in history, romance, science fiction and the paranormal. She also writes contemporary Westerns under her real name of Sara Walter Ellwood.
Website Links:
Website/Blog | Facebook | Twitter | To sign up for my newsletter
I’m also having a giveaway!
2 Lucky posters will be picked to receive a custom piece of jewelry designed by me. So make sure you LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS in your post!
Spread the Word
Guest Author – Liz Crowe and Conditional Offer: Stewart Realty Book 5
Please welcome the lovely Liz Crowe to the blog today. Not only is she a terrific author, but does she have some stories to tell : )
Sometimes I feel like that chick “Dharma” – you know, from Dharma and Greg? The free spirit girl married to the zipped up attorney? One of the long running jokes on that show was that Dharma had done pretty much everything. If you mentioned you liked a Led Zepplin song she’d played backup guitar for the band. She’d piloted a hot air balloon around the world and taught sign language to chimps. You name it, she’d done it.
I find myself saying things like “well, when I lived in Turkey,” or “when my passport was stolen in Southern Spain,” or “well the fourth time I saw Paris in the springtime” a lot. And many times people think I’m full of it. When my 8 year old daughter told her 2nd grade teacher that she was born in Hiroshima, Japan and had lived in 2 other countries, and ridden elephants in Thailand when she was three the teacher called me, “worried about Julia’s tendency to exaggerate and lie.” Yeah.
Well, I’ve been blessed/cursed with that sort of life. I’ve worked in Washington D.C. for one of the largest non profit fund raising entities known to the modern world (United Way), managed a daily newspaper’s graphics and special sections department, been marketing director for a giant corporation that owns nursing homes, lived in 3 countries, travelled to many, sold real estate and now I’m a fairly successful writer and own a fast growing craft brewery. Yeah.
It’s been an interesting life and I try to channel a lot of it into my books. As a result, I have a style and sort of genre bending formula I like to call “romance for real life.” It’s full of heat, and heart but the people do not always act the way traditional romance characters do. They F%$# up in other words and I let them. They screw up perfectly good relationships by being selfish, rude, or mistrustful. I have won a lot of readers who say “GOD I threw my kindle across the room when ‘heroine’ said that to ‘hero.’ But when is the next book coming out ???”
It does not work for everyone, but it does for me so I’m sticking with it!
And check out her new release!
Available at:
Conditional Offer: Stewart Realty Book 5
Craig Robinson and Suzanne Baxter had no reason to meet, no real excuse to be friends. But when heart calls to heart…blood to blood…should two people who seem destined to be together heed the spin of Fate’s wheel?
Craig spent years floating through life on cruise control, using directionless jobs, his rock band, swimming, and a string of older women in his bed to smother feelings of loneliness and loss. He finally thought he had found his true love in one Sara Thornton — A sexy, beautiful, fellow real estate agent and mentor. But his self-doubt and innate sense of failure is only reinforced when he realizes her heart belongs to another man.
When Sara introduces him to Suzanne, a woman fighting her own demons from an abusive marriage and subsequent feelings of inadequacy and deep unhappiness, that chance moment snaps Craig’s hazy existence into crystal clear focus. A bond born of instant physical attraction is nurtured by time and shared experience, and plenty of erotic energy.
As Suzanne’s past continues to haunt her, making her push Craig away just as he thinks he’s getting closer, each of them must come to terms with their true selves and face their ultimate realities.
“Pre order” on ARe, Releases on Aug. 25.
https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-conditionaloffer-907922-148.html
CONDITIONAL OFFER TRAILER (it’s awesome I love it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvlYO_zzx18
Liz Bio:
Microbrewery owner, best-selling author, beer blogger and journalist, mom of three teenagers, and soccer fan, Liz lives in the great middle west, in a Major College Town. Years of experience in sales and fund raising, plus an eight-year stint as an ex-pat trailing spouse plus making her way in a world of men (i.e. the beer industry) has prepped her for life as erotic romance author. When she isn’t sweating inventory and sales figures for the brewery, she can be found writing, editing or sweating promotional efforts for her latest publications. Her ground breaking romance sub genre: “Romance for Real Life” has gained thousands of fans and followers, interested less in the “HEA” and more in the “WHA” (“What Happens After?”)
Her beer blog a2beerwench.com is nationally recognized for its insider yet outsider views on the craft beer industry. Her books are set in the not-so-common worlds of breweries, on the soccer pitch and in high-powered real estate offices. Don’t ask her for anything “like” a Budweiser or risk painful injury.
Find her:
www.facebook.com/lizcroweauthor
www.facebook.com/romanceforreallife
www.facebook.com/jackgordonrealtor
Other Books in the Stewart Realty Series:
Floor Time
Sweat Equity
Closing Costs
Essence of Time
Conditional Offer
Escalation Clause (November 2012)
House Rules (March 2103)
Due Diligence (May 2013)
Good Faith (September 2013)
Spread the Word
Ashlynne Laynne shares a #Steamy excerpt of Blood Bonds
Please help me welcome Ashlynne Laynne as she shares a steamy excerpt of Blood Bonds.
Blood Bonds Blurb (The Progeny Series #2)
“Forever. For always. For eternity.”
The ties that bind two hearts are powerful. For Ascher Rousseau and Shauna McCutchin, it’s more than just a blood bond. Their union is that of vampire legend. Their love is a predestined prophecy foretold centuries ago.
It’s a week before Ascher and Shauna’s sealing and the couple is making final preparations for their eternity, but Ascher’s ex has other plans. Ursula is hell-bent on revenge—revenge fueled by lover’s scorn and her father’s death—and she begins breeding a fresh army of newborn darklings to do her bidding.
When Ursula finds a new weapon—an ally with the capability to dismantle the Rousseau clan— Ascher and Shauna’s bond is tested and they must stand together against Ursula or lose each other for eternity.
Available Here:
Amazon Kindle US Barnes and Noble Nook Smashwords All Romance E-books
Blood Bonds Steamy Excerpt
“I can remember a time when all I did was to fantasize about how making love to you would be. I dreamed about how your lips would feel on my body, how you’d feel inside of me.” She placed his hand between her legs. “If you need me to take control tonight, I will.” She directed his fingers to her pussy, guiding them inside her wet passage. “Do you feel that Ascher? This is what youdo to me.” She moaned as she wrapped her legs around his waist, threading her fingers into his hair. “Come on, Ascher. Don’t over think this. It’s still just you and me.”
Shaunamolded her impassioned lips to his as her hips moved in sensuous rhythmic circles, slidingher warm wetness along his fingers. Hard kisses on his mouth became softer, more deliberate tongue twirls as her mouth journeyed down his neck causinghis stiffness to poke her stomach. Reaching down, she took him in her hand, swirling her thumb around his swollen crown.
He drew an uneasy breath as a true blaze ignited, sweeping his body, burning him everywhere at once. “Shauna.”
She shook her head at him. “I don’t want to hear it.”
His body quivered, the warmth spreading and making its way to his vision. His fingers delved deep inside of her as she masturbated him into painfully stiff proportions.
Lifting herself off him, she pushed him back, motioning him to lie down. “We’re sealed now,” she whispered against his neck. “That means…” She kissed a slow, teasing trail down his stomach, tracing wet circles into his flushed skin with a stiff tongue. “That I can pleasure you anyway I please. Even this way.”
An involuntary gasp slipped from his lips as he instinctively grabbed a fistful of her hair, winding his hands into it to stop her. He’d had to use this protective measure several times—most of them with Ursula, once before with Shauna and with two overzealous volunteers.
Shauna’s lips pursed with determination. “No.” Her insistent hand found his rod, pulling and stroking it again.
Ascher’s eyes morphed red as the combustion took him over. He attempted to pull her head up to him, but she refused. His restraint and will weakening, he concentrated on keeping control of himself.“Shauna, I think that…”
“I don’t want to hear it. No thinking…”
“But…”
“Sealing was the prerequisite for me pleasuring you in this way—a way you’ve been unselfish in pleasuring me numerous times.”
Stunned by her aggression, he was unable to speak.
She flashed her ring finger at him. “I’m sealed and married to you. There are no more excuses. I want to do this. Think of it as a wedding gift.”
His grip in her hair loosened. He should have considered himself lucky because somemen bribed, begged and sometimes coerced their wives into this, yet she was eager, ready and willing to give him this pleasure. “I don’t know what my reaction is going to be. I’ve never—”
“Well, I’m not exactly sure of what I’m doing. I mean, it isn’t like I’ve ever done this before,” she assured him. “We’ll learn together. I’m sure you’ll let me know how it feels.” She bit her lip and gave him a sneaky grin. “If you’re worried about me, then don’t. I desire to share this experience with you.” Her hands came to his thighs, kneading and massaging them. “You won’t hurt me. Let me pleasure you, Ascher.”
Her head returned to his stomach, her wavy locks gliding along his chest, her warm mouth peppering his skin with more kisses. The heat crept down to his shaft, concentrating there.
He closed his eyes, anticipating what was coming and felt her warm breath against him, causing him to stiffen more. His cock registered her mouth’s close proximity as her tongue flicked the sensitive head with soft and careful laps, tracing wet kisses up and down its length.
Pearly beads bubbled up from the crown, causing the head of his cock to throb with each swipe of her tongue. She flashed him a heavy lidded gaze before sucking the milky offering into her mouth and licking her lips. It felt so good and he couldn’t stifle the rumbling in his throat, forcing its way out of his trembling mouth. His vision saturated with red heat as her mouth enveloped him, taking in as much as she could.
Having never been religious, but finding no other words to describe the intense sensations her mouth gave him, he surprised them both when he moaned, “Oh, my God.”
The familiar tingles coursed his body, only tonight it was an inferno burning the length of his spine. His entire bodyshuddered as her scorching mouth taunted him with heated and determined pulls, coaxing the release out of him. More beads oozed from the depths of his shaft. She rolled her velvety tongue around his crown, greedily sponging up his love offering.
His fangs pulsed in his mouth, aching to make an appearance, as it flooded with uncontrollable thirst. He’d never felt so open to another person, so vulnerable, cherished and scared out of his mind. His breaths quickened as the claws sprangfrom his nails. Horrified, he tucked his hands underneath him as they nearly shredded the slippery red sheets.
Climax approached as the bloodlust set in. His eyes rolled in his head.“Shauna, I can’t.” He growled as another wave of unimaginable pleasure vibrated along his nerves. “You shouldn’t.”
“Let go, Ascher. Don’t hold back.”
“Baby, you don’t understand.”
Her mouth latched onto him with ferocity, her lips milking him, her tongue torturing and feverishly seducing his release to the surface. “Oh, baby,” he moaned, his hand holding her head securely in place. It now felt too good for her to stop. The fire that once coursed his spine was now a deep burn blazing all over his body as warm waves of lust swallowed him up.“Oh God, baby.” His rod became a flesh covered block of solid steel. “You have to stop, Shauna. If you don’t—”
“No,” she groaned as her hand stroked him faster with her mouth keeping a constant pace.
His head fell back as pleasure moved up his shaft, filling him with warm electricity. “You shouldn’t…” He attempted to speak but his tongue was too heavy. “I mean, I don’t …” The words became harder to say. The satisfyingsensations leached the vocabulary right out of his brain, and left unnatural and beastly sounding growls, snarls and howls behind—sounds that no human woman should ever hear come from the man she loved.
She lifted her head, flipping the hair from her face, gazing into his eyes. “I want to see you when you come.”
His crimson gaze burned at her and a clamorous roar forced its way from his convulsive body as he succumbed to an intense climax. She never wavered from her task, taking him deeper into her mouth until not a drop remained. The feeling was like none he’d ever experienced. It was the urge to feed and kill mixed with the most unbelievable sensual shock speeding through every inch of his body.
Available Here:
Amazon Kindle US Barnes and Noble Nook Smashwords All Romance E-books
About The Progeny Series
At its core, The Progeny is simply a story about a man and woman who fall in love, andthe fact that he’s a half-blood (half-human, half vampire) and she’s a Wiccan human are secondary factors. When we meet Ascher, he’s grumpy. Frankly, who could blame him? He’s engaged to seal to Ursula—a cold and careless vampire who wants nothing more than to get her hands on a bloodstone— and he feels conflicted about his existence.
All of that changes when he meets Shawnette McCutchin. She’s beautiful, intriguing and possesses some of the most potent blood that he’s ever smelled. A war immediately begins inside Ascher. He craves Shauna’s blood just as much as he craves her body and the closer they get, the harder it is for him to control his urges. After Ascher calls off the sealing to Ursula, the trouble begins. His family’s peaceful period ends when Ursula’s army attacks the Rousseaus.
This series is about a family of which we’ve never seen before. They share a common mortal and immortal bloodline but loyalty is the thread that holds this clan together. Once you become a part of this family, the others will risk their lives to protect you. We see examples of this throughout the journey. There is no shortage of romance, steam and surprises in The Progeny Series but these books are for adults and contain adult sensuality, language and themes.
Book one of the Progeny Series—The Progeny—re-released on May 7, 2012. The “revamp” is a second edition full of extended scenes, new details and tighter editing. Book two—Blood Bonds—released July 14, 2012.
<<<<>>>>
<<<<>>>>
About Ashlynne Laynne
Ashlynne Laynne has always had a soft spot in her heart for vampires but grew tired of the garlic fearing, sun-loathing creatures of old. An avid horror movie fan, she tends to enjoy media and music that is of a younger, more eclectic nature. This was the catalyst for her writing The Progeny. The vampire/witch pairing is unique and different when most books pair vampires with werewolves.
Ashlynne loves writing on the edge and teetering between the erotica and romance genres, and thinks of Ascher and Shauna as the wicked, damned version of Romeo and Juliet. She is currently working on books three and four of her Progeny Series, book one of her upcoming Rocker Series, and an untitled novella WIP. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, reading and spending time with her family. She juggles the hats of wife, mother, full time employee and part-time writer, hoping to write full time one day soon.
Ashlynne lives in North Carolina with her husband and teenage son.
Find Ashlynne Online
Twitter The Progeny Series Facebook Page Ashlynne’s Facebook Page Romance Novel Center Manic Readers
Spread the Word
Guest Interview Emily Ryan-Davis
Hey all, please help me welcome Emily Ryan-Davis to the blog today.
BLURB:
There’s only one substance on earth that can create a new vampire–the blood of a Chalice, a rare individual with magic in her veins. Atlanta’s human-vampire Civility Laws demand that if a Chalice is found, she must be destroyed. Vampire Teijon Reyes allowed the mortal girl Dessa Collier to live despite the threat she posed to society. If he ever finds her again, he will kill her, personal desires be damned.
Heiress to a family tradition of ward-working, house painter Dessa Collier has spent the past twelve years pretending vampires don’t exist. When a friend-enemy walks back into Dessa’s life after a decade-long absence, everything Dessa has been hiding from comes crashing down on top of her.
Thrown together on a mission to protect a city under seige, Dessa and Teijon can no longer hide from the powerful attraction that binds them…or the monsters out to destroy them.
Available here: Amazon BN Smashwords All Romance Ebooks
And don’t forget to check out the excerpt after the interview 🙂
What is a typical day for you like writing-wise?
Oh, jeez. Typical isn’t a word I get to use anymore. I have an infant (8 months!) who sets all the schedules. On a day when I get lucky, he only wakes up twice during the night. From wake-up time until 11 am, he and I play in the living room and I check e-mail, try to get blog posts together, peek in on Twitter and Facebook and forums. If he takes a morning nap and I choose writing over breakfast, I manage to fit a few words into that half hour or so. At 11, my husband gets up and takes the baby so from about 11 am until 4 pm, I write as much as I can between feedings, diapers, and general “no more daddy, only mommy!” fits.
The evening nap is another one of those 45 minute spans where I have to choose between food and exercise and writing. When I’m on a deadline, writing wins. After the evening wake-up, I bide my time until my son goes to sleep, then I write as much as I can until my brain stops working.
It’s a rough schedule and some days I miss having hours upon hours to sit and procrastinate and mull and perfect every sentence the first time out, but most days I manage. I’ve even accomplished a couple of start-to-finish projects on this crazy schedule!
Congrats on the little one, Emily. I remember those crazy hectic days, but the good news is, they do eventually sleep on a semi-regular schedule 😉
What’s the first thing you did when you received word you’d sold a book?
I chose a pen name. And ever since, I’ve decided at least three times a year to change my pen name. I never do because I’m lazy, but I almost constantly want to. Aspiring authors reading this right now: be darn sure you want to live with your pen name forever! J
What hobby do you enjoy when not writing?
I love knitting wool socks. I haven’t made a new pair for myself in a few years, between deadlines and pregnancy and being a new mom, but I very much look forward to the day when I don’t have a winter deadline or two, and I have my hands free long enough to dig into a ball of soft Merino wool.
If you could be any supernatural creature, what would it be and why?
I haven’t named this creature yet, but I know it’s spooky secret power is the ability to think a book directly into MS Word without having to plot or type or revise or character sketch or run spell check.
Best answer I’ve ever heard!!
What’s your favorite comfort food?
Don’t gag, but pepperoni sandwiches do it for me. Two slices of cheap white bread piled high with pepperoni, a slice of mozzarella, nuked in the microwave until the pepperoni oil soaks into the bread and the crusts get a little crispy with melted cheese, and my diet is over for days. It’s a throw back from growing up in my mother’s house, where the gourmet meal of the week was potato soup (5 pounds of potatoes, a stick of margarine, a handful of salt in a pot of boiling water; boil to a salty paste).
The pepperoni sandwich horrifies my husband, who has a culinary degree.
I don’t think it sounds too bad, in fact, I’ll have to try that. Hopefully with that degree he does a lot of the cooking 😉
If you could time-travel, where would you go and why?
I’m not sure. I’m not much of a traveler. I prefer my clothes in my own drawers and the freedom to roam around in my underwear (or out of them) at will. Right now if I had to choose, I’d probably do a forward jump just to make sure that forty years from now, my little boy (only 8 months old now) is happy with life and love – and if he isn’t, forty years from now, I’d figure out what went wrong so I could work on preventing it. That would probably get me into some kind of weird Ashton Kutcher Butterfly Effect trouble, wouldn’t it?
LOL, one never knows 🙂
Why are manhole covers round?
Because men aren’t triangular?
Do you have any upcoming news you’d like to share?
All my current news is “just happened” news, but if I can share some “just happened” stuff, then I’m really excited about my August 3 Ellora’s Cave release NAKED & UNLEASHED, which isn’t paranormal but is definitely something different for me. I’m still totally in love with that hero.
And the Following Fast Five:
Coffee or Chocolate? Coffee.
Jewelry: Precious gems or gold? Gold.
Beach or Mountains? Mountains.
Early Morning or Late Night? Late night.
Fruit or Veggies? Veggies.
And last, but not least, where can we find you on the internet:
Web Site: http://www.emilyryandavis.com
Blog: http://emilyryandavis.blogspot.com
Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/emilyryandavis
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/emilyryandavis
Newsletter Sign-Up:
http://scorchedsheets.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f1bafe4b2387d167a0edb26d2&id=02995832f4
Paint for Blood
Available Here: Amazon BN Smashwords All Romance Ebooks
EXCERPT:
She turned slowly, only gathering sensory impressions of his alleged safe zone. They faced one another across a sitting room furnished with sofas, chairs, and a writing desk. To her right, the dark shape of an open doorway suggested a more intimate area.
Teijon lifted his shirt over his head, revealing smooth skin, dark and satiny over the pads of muscle beneath. She averted her eyes before they strayed to his waist. The tension was all wrong. She shouldn’t want him, not with his mood switch hanging in the air between them. She should have questions, should demand answers. And he should put his clothes back on.
“What now?” she asked after the silence began to take on a sound of its own. “Earlier tonight…” She licked her lips. “I created vampires, didn’t I?”
“You didn’t by choice.”
“No. I did because Donovan wanted me to.”
“Yeah. And that’s why I have to find Donovan. I need to meet with some people, so you’ll have most of the night to yourself.” He walked past her and went into the bedroom.
Sighing, she raked a hand through her hair. He’d somehow managed to bring his tension under control, but hers continued to run wild. How would she sleep, surrounded by his scent?
He returned to the living room moments later, tucking the hem of a fresh shirt into clean trousers. “I don’t have any women’s clothes around, but you can use anything of mine you’d like. Shower and get some sleep. I’ll be back… late.”
“Wait. I need to know how this is possible.”
“What do you mean, how? It just is.”
“How is it possible that I’m more than one thing? I know I’m not normal. I never have been. But my heritage is…” she hesitated, came up with nothing better than, “good. White-light stuff. Protective. Do you have any idea how long my ancestors have been protecting people from their fears? That’s what I do. Who I am. I can’t be this too. This Chalice.”
He frowned. “Why can’t you?”
“It’s too many roles to fill. I have to make decisions about what I can and can’t work into my life. I have clients already, and my painting doesn’t make me feel like all of me is being sucked away in a mass of yearning. I choose that. I don’t choose you.”
When a flash of something unreadable crossed his features, her chest tightened. Backpedaling, she said, “I mean your kind. Vampires. I can’t protect people from y—from vampires and other fears and serve as a support structure for the creatures I’m warding against. It doesn’t make sense.”
He closed the distance between them and grasped her shoulders, pulling her onto her toes. The rough texture of his beard abraded her jaw when he tucked his face into the curve of her throat and opened his mouth over her skin. His perfectly-normal teeth closed around a tendon in her neck. At the contact, her thighs weakened and her skin tightened over her limbs, heated until her ears and cheeks burned. Teijon’s groan vibrated against her throat. One of his big hands slid into her hair. The other shifted from her shoulder and curved around her breast. He moved, walking her backward, until her spine came up against a wall and she could feel him thick and hard at her stomach.
Memory zapped the strength she had left. She could smell the damp of the cave at Stone Mountain, the limo’s air freshener, the sliver of rose soap from her bathroom. Her body shivered with a backlash of the dread she’d experienced descending into the dark behind Teijon. She recalled every detail of that kiss. And every detail of what followed.
Available Here: Amazon BN Smashwords All Romance Ebooks
BIO:
Emily Ryan-Davis is a lifelong East Coaster whose passion for the written word saw her through jobs writing obituaries, press releases and grants before she decided “I’m going to do this” and sat down to write a book. She made that decision in 2005 and has since published several short stories and novellas with digital publishers including Ellora’s Cave. On May 24, 2012, Emily left supervisors and payrolls behind in order to focus her efforts on writing and raising her son.
Emily has been a member of the Writer’s Digest-recognized writing community Romance Divas, where she volunteers as a moderator and organizes the annual “Not Going to Conference” Virtual Conference, since 2006.
Spread the Word
Check out Inhale by Kendall Grey and help save the whales
INHALE Flash Mob
INHALE, an urban fantasy romance by Kendall Grey, is now available in paperback and e-book for Kindle (MOBI) and Nook (EPUB). INHALE is the first book in the JUST BREATHE trilogy. Kendall is donating all profits from the sale of the trilogy to programs that educate people about whales and the challenges they face. Watch the video to find out why. http://www.youtube.com/embed/YQfjxacis28
Kendall encourages interested readers to consider purchasing an e-book instead of a paperback. E-books save trees, cost considerably less, and bring in much more money for the whales.
Thank you for supporting INHALE, and most importantly, the whales that need our help.
INHALE blurb:
Strangers in reality, inseparable in dreams…
After years of suffocating under her boss’s scrutiny, whale biologist Zoe Morgan finally lands a job as director of a tagging project in Hervey Bay, Australia. Success Down Under all but guarantees her the promotion of a lifetime, and Zoe won’t let anything—or anyone—stand in her way. Not the whale voices she suddenly hears in her head, not the ex who won’t take no for an answer, and especially not the gorgeous figment of her imagination who keeps saving her from the fiery hell of her dreams.
Gavin Cassidy hasn’t been called to help a human Wyldling in over a year, which is fine by him. Still blaming himself for the death of his partner, he keeps the guilt at bay by indulging in every excess his rock star persona affords. That is, until he’s summoned to protect Zoe from hungry Fyre Elementals and learns his new charge is the key to restoring order in the dying Dreaming. He never expects to fall for the feisty Dr. Morgan…nor does he realize he may have to sacrifice the woman he loves to save an entire country.
***
*This book contains graphic language, sex, and some violence. Not suitable for readers under the age of 18.
**The author will donate all profits from the sale of the JUST BREATHE trilogy to programs that educate people about whales and the challenges they face.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kendall Grey
Blog: http://www.kendallgrey.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/KendallGreyAuthor
Despicable Tweets: http://www.twitter.com/kendallgrey1
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5108885.Kendall_Grey
Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hmcmg
Spread the Word
Guest and Give@way: Sapphire Phelan
Please welcome Sapphire to the blog today to celebrate The Witch and The Familiar. Read the yummies, and check out the giveaway at the end 🙂
The Witch And the Familiar Blog Tour Stop #7—Grace Sherwood
The witch, Tina Epson in my new release erotic urban fantasy, The Witch And the Familiar is fictional. But in real life, there have been people accused (both women and men) of witchcraft. In Europe, they were burned at the stake. In the New World, at least in Salem, Massachusetts, they were hung. In Virginia, except for one hung on ship in 1600s just before it landed colonists for Jamestown, most were not. That’s not to say they didn’t go on trial, were “ducked” to prove they were witches and jailed or made to pay, but not thanks to lawmakers, many did not go through a nightmare like Salem. One woman accused of witchcraft in Virginia was Grace Sherwood.
Born in 1660, Grace Sherwood was an only child. With no sons to help him, her father taught her how to work the land and how to irrigate it well. She knew how to make things grow, and from her mother, before she died when Grace was young, she learned how to be a midwife. She couldn’t read or write, but she could memorize well. Grace could swim well and in those days, the only people who could swim were sailors’ sons. A woman wasn’t supposed to be able to swim.
She married James Sherwood and they had three sons, James, John, and Richard. She grew cotton (for cottonseed oil, nothing more), rice, and tobacco. Unlike the other women of the day, who stayed indoors and did womanly things, she would go outside to work the land and even visited the Indians, learning about herbs from them, which she also grew on the plantation. This brought suspicion on her. It didn’t help that she was very attractive in a physical way, either. It had been said that the local magistrate had tried to seduce her and she had refused his attentions.
It also didn’t help that the neighbors accused her of blighting gardens, causing livestock to die, and influencing the weather. When a neighbor had blighted cotton and the Sherwoods did not, that was because of Grace’s knowledge of irrigation, but not witchcraft. It didn’t matter. Suddenly, people began to whisper things about her—that if someone saw a firefly at night, it was actually Grace dancing in the moonlight. After Grace was accused of bewitching a neighbor’s crop in 1698, allegations kept growing over time until the Princess Anne County government and her accusers decided she would be tested by ducking. When the sheriff searched Grace’s house (which no longer stands today), there was no evidence of a witch ball, which made her a possible witch all the more in her accusers’ eyes.
The reason witches were ducked was because water was considered pure and would not permit a witch to sink into its depths. Based on this theory, the accused was tied up and thrown into the water. If the person drowned, he was declared innocent of witchcraft; if he could stay afloat until he could free himself, he was declared a witch. In this case, innocent, damned, guilty, damned—you might die either way.
Grace was tried in the second Princess Anne County Courthouse, found guilty, and consented to the traditional trial by water.
One of the many tall tales that have been handed down from generation to generation has to do with the day of her ducking. On July 10th, 1706, at 10am, her accusers tied her thumbs to her big toes cross-bound and dropped her into the western branch of the Lynnhaven River near what is now known as Witchduck Point. When they led Grace Sherwood through the crowd that had turned out to see her put into the water, she told them, “All right, all of you po’ white trash, you’ve worn out your shoes traipsin’ here to see me ducked, but before you’ll get back home again you are goin’ to get the duckin’ of your life.” When they put Grace into the water the sky was as bright blue as a bird’s wing, but immediately afterward it grew pitch black, thunder rolled and the lightning flashed across the heavens. The terrified people bolted for home, only to be washed off the roads and into the ditches by a regular cloudburst. In reality, Grace couldn’t have walked, being tied as she was and when placed in the water, Grace did not drown but floated, which was considered a sign of guilt. Most likely the ties came undone so she could swim, which she could do well. She was imprisoned for seven years and ten months. Released in 1714, Grace paid the back taxes on her property and returned to her farm, where she worked the land until her death at eighty years of age in September, 1740.
Her story doesn’t end there, for on July 10, 2006, after Belinda Nash worked hard for seven years to get Grace pardoned, Governor Timothy M. Kaine fully cleared exonerated Grace. She is the only deceased person known to be cleared in Virginia. A statute was unveiled on Saturday, April 21, 2007, on the lawn of Bayside Hospital in Virginia Beach. It was placed near the corner of Independence Boulevard and North Witchduck Road, within two tenths of a mile of the old second Princess Anne Courthouse of 1706.
Sapphire Phelan
Dark heroes and heroines with bite…sink your teeth into a romance by Sapphire Phelan today.
Website Blog Newsletter Facebook
2010 Prism Winner
Buy The Witch And The Familiar
Blurb:
Mortal woman Tina discovers she is part of a prophesy that says she and Charun, her demon Familiar, must make love so she can become the witch she is fated to be. If she doesn’t do it and stop the demon army bringing Armageddon to the Mortal Realm on Halloween, she won’t stand a chance in Hell.
A year later, just when Tina and Charun thought it was all over and that their life would be normal—another prophesy pops up. If Lucifer snatches Tina and mates with her before the last chime before midnight of the new year and gets her pregnant with his son, that the real Armageddon would begin, spelling the end of life as they knew it. This time they get help from an archangel, Jacokb, but with demons, Lucifer, and a cute demon bunny with fangs out of a Monty Python nightmare, out to stop them and Heaven not lending a hand, will Tina this time lose the battle and become the mother of the Antichrist and the start of a new Hell on Earth?
Excerpt (must be 18 and older to read):
Buy The Witch And The Familiar
The time had come.
About time too.
Not looking back, Charun rose from the bowels of Hell to the Mortal Realm, ending up just down the street from Cup of Tea and a Book bookstore. He shifted into the form of a handsome, naked man. His staff waved before him like a proud, hissing snake, spitting even as precum beaded at the slit. He shook his head. No, it was too soon for him to assume the man form. He frowned, thinking.
A cat!
He would become a cat. That would do—for now. Just not a horny tom cat, as the pain of his arousal washed over him. He dodged into a nearby alley and worked his organ, biting his lips when he came.
Withdrawing his hand from his flaccid penis and using the other to prop himself against the building, he spoke in demon, “Denoch er nomonaty.”
A strange feeling slammed into him and he cried out as he dropped to his knees on the pavement. Thrusting out a hand against the ground so he wouldn’t topple over, he began to metamorphose, growing smaller and smaller as he did. Black fur sprouted all over his body and head. His ears sharpened into points and shot up over his head, while his hands and feet became paws edged with sharp claws. Whiskers pinged out of his cheeks and from his buttocks snaked a long tail. He hunched over and then fell over onto his ass. Within seconds, his metamorphose completed, he was a black cat. Resisting the peculiar urge to wash his face, Charun stretched and then rose onto all four paws. He padded over to a puddle of rain water to inspect the change.
He sat down and viewed his reflection. Not bad looking as far as cats went. Lifting a paw, he splashed his image. Then back on all four paws, he trotted to the street and paused to sniff the air. He sneezed as the full force of odors hit him. A multitude of different things, from the smell of blasted sunshine to the grime of city life. The sunshine revealed to him that it would not rain for days. He had arrived a day too late. The air revealed that it had thunder stormed yesterday.
He needed heavy rain to make his first appearance to his witch. Needed it as a reason for her to feel sorry for him and take him in. From what he remembered she would not leave any animal drowning in a torrential downpour. But from all the viewing he did of her growing up he knew she wasn’t an impulsive person either. He knew that she loved animals, but felt that she couldn’t afford one right now in her life. He might end up in an animal shelter or a place like that. This kind of operation needed the right things in place. Timing, too. Timing always mattered. He had learned that long ago as an Incubus. The wrong time could always mean the lover would wake up too soon. Find that their fantasy lover was real, and that the husband, wife, lover, concubine, whoever, wasn’t what really was taking them beyond the heights of lust. One Succubus found that out the hard way when her nobleman lover woke up not to find his wife mounted on his staff but a green-skinned fiend. He knocked her out before she could call her magic up and had a priest exorcised her. Exorcism was death for a demon. Instead of sending them back to Hell, it ended their existence.
So timing was important, even now. His witch’s survival was the true equation here. If she died before he made her a witch, he knew the fate for Earth if the demons took over. There was the matter of his lust for her too. Relieving it wouldn’t be bad, either.
He cocked his head and twitched his ears. He was a demon, with strong magic. Closing his eyes, he let his magic surround him with a shimmering golden light.
Lano’ste. Na la por lestano.
His fur stood on end, the ends crackling, and he widened his eyes as the magic burned within and outside with a violent heat close to atomic. He fell onto his side, dazed, and barely noted when it shot away from him, heading toward the blue skies. It dusted the few white clouds drifting along the blue sky and they became black ones, pregnant with rain.
Still unsteady, he rolled over onto his stomach and waited until the power quieted. Charun breathed in the rain odor and gave a Cheshire cat grin. He rose to his paws and padded off, as the sound of thunder vibrated in the air.
Fuck the weather forecasters and their predictions. With magic, he’d just turned their Doppler radar upside down.
About Sapphire Phelan:
Sapphire Phelan is an author of erotic and sweet paranormal, fantasy, and science fiction romance, along with a couple of erotic horror stories. She also writes as Pamela K. Kinney, for horror, fantasy, science fiction, and nonfiction ghost books.
She lives in Virginia with her husband and two cats, Ripley and Bast.
She admits she can always be found at her desk and on her computer, writing. And yes, the house and husband sometimes suffers for it!
For more information, check out her website: http://www.SapphirePhelan.com .
Buy The Witch And The Familiar
Website Blog Newsletter Facebook
Giveaway Goodies
I am doing a giveaway for the whole blog tour April 23rd through April 28th. Leave a comment here or at any of the blogs I make at. You can leave a comment (plus your email, so I can contact you) at each blog, to get more chances, but no more than one per blog, please. The giveaway is a signed copy of The Witch And The Familiar. This is only for USA commenters though (due to price of mailing outside of US). For those outside of US, I will give instead a gift cert for price of the book at Phaze Books, so that I can email you.
Amber Kallyn 