Gaylon Greer

A Warm Welcome to Gaylon
Working with traveling carnivals and itinerant farm labor gangs during his teen and early adult years took Gaylon Greer up, down, and across the U.S. and introduced him to a plethora of colorful individuals who serve as models for his fictional characters. After several years as an Air Force officer and then a university professor with a Ph.D. in economics, Greer developed an interest in writing fiction and attended workshops at the University of Iowa, the University of Nebraska, and Bryn-Mawr College. He also studied with the U.C. Davis Extension program and the Algonquian Writers Group. His most recent novel, THE DESCENT FROM TRUTH is available at www.Amazon.com and other e-book retailers. Please visit Greer at www.GaylonGreer.com

 

THE DESCENT FROM TRUTH By Gaylon Greer

BLURB:  

Alex Bryson is patrolling Rocky Mountain backcountry in his job as a security guard when he discovers a woman with a baby wandering alone in the snow far from the nearest road. He takes them to shelter in a weekender cabin and sees a newscast that suggests the woman, Pia Ulmer, kidnapped the baby from its rightful parents and that it is the sole heir of Peru’s wealthiest and most corrupt family. Pia claims that she is the baby’s mother, and Alex doesn't know what to believe. After turning her in, he continues to struggle with his budding feelings for her and remains unsure of the true story. He becomes more and more involved until finally there is no turning back—lives are on the line. He helps Pia get free from a brutal world that values money over life, and together they devise a plan to reclaim the baby. Just when it looks like they might succeed, they discover an international conspiracy that changes the game entirely.

A Taste of Gaylon:
“Please,” she said, her voice as rough as sandpaper and barely above a whisper. “Please, do not give my baby to those people.”
“Are we back to that? First you're his mother, then you're his nanny. Now you're his mother again?”



BUY

“They took him from me. Look at him, Alex. Both Mr. Koenig and his wife are blondes.”

“Koenig’s an old man. His hair's white.”

“Study Frederick's face. Do you not see me in his eyes? His chin and his mouth?”

The similarities were uncanny, he'd grant her that. Good enough to get away with claiming to be the kid's mother if Alex hadn't learned the truth. The way she had attacked him, trying to kill him with that skillet, she clearly didn’t want to go back to civilization and prove who she was. He turned away, tossed Frederick in a maneuver that brought a cry of delight, and stuffed the boy's blanket-clad feet through the leg holes in the backpack. With his parka snapped around both of them and the diaper bag tied to his waist, he gripped his rifle in one hand, his snowshoes in the other, and headed for the porch. At the door, he turned for a final glance at Pia.

She had set her mouth in a stubborn line. The eye that had been plastered shut was closed. She stared at him with the other. When she saw him looking at her, she spoke again. “Watch over him, Alex. Someone wants to harm him. Don’t let them.”

A new tack, another lie. He stepped onto the porch and strapped on his snowshoes. That should have been the last he saw of her, but the specter of her ravaged face and defiant expression stayed with him as he trudged across the sunlit expanse of glistening snow that sloped gradually toward the Warrior River Gorge.

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             Gaylon's links:
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Website: www.GaylonGreer.com
Pleasure to meet you, Gaylon!
Leave a comment for the chance to win an autographed hardcover version of the author's previous book, The Price of Sanctuary.

Caitlyn Nicholas

A Warm Welcome to Caitlyn

Bio: I began writing in 2005. Exhausted, pregnant (sure I was going to expire from morning-sickness) and coping with a demanding toddler, I decided the time was right to embark on a writing career. (In hindsight I may have been suffering from a scorching case of sleep-deprivation).

 

Still, it kinda worked out. My debut novel - and the first manuscript I'd ever written - Running Scared, was published in January 2007.  My next book, Secret Intentions followed.  Then I had a short story published in the Mammoth Book of Special Ops Romance (MBSOR) in 2010 - my story is called The Grey Man.

 

In 2012 my novel Drive Me To Distraction was published, and my novella The Danger Game came out just before Christmas.  My next book, The Bunker, will be published in July 2013.

The Danger Game   by Caitlyn Nicholas

BLURB:

Flick likes computers. She’s good with them, and they do what she tells them, mostly. People, however, are more of a challenge.

But when a terrifyingly dangerous program is stolen, and her mentor killed, Flick finds herself on the run. The police are convinced she’s committed murder, and a sinister weapons developer will stop at nothing to force her to work for him.

In Ben’s line of work being suspicious keeps you alive. So when Flick turns to him, he quickly realises that she’s up to her neck in trouble and hasn’t fully grasped the danger she is in. 

First he has to keep her safe, and then, together, they have to figure out how to save the world from an epic meltdown.

Before treating us to an excerpt, Caitlyn Reveals:
 

From where do you get inspiration and what inspired you to write The Danger Game?

I love research, and that is where I get all of my inspiration.  I’ll pick a subject that interests me and research it, putting together a story as I go.  The Danger Game was inspired when I was researching for my next release (The Bunker July 2013). I came across a Wired article on cyber-war and it gave me an idea for a story.  A few days later I had the story plotted out and the first draft was done three weeks later.  If only all of my stories were so easy to write!

In a couple of sentences, describe the hero’s character.  What do you like best/least about him?

I do love Ben, the hero.  He works for ASIO (the Australian equivalent of the CIA). He’s picked up his life from a horrible start and is doing a job he loves.  He’s clever and resourceful, focused on the task at hand, but deep in his heart he’d quite like to be down at Bondi beach catching a few waves.  He admires Flick from the moment he meets her, and is intrigued by her very special skills and abilities rather than being scared away.  He’s just lovely.

And the heroine? How do you relate to her?

I want to be Flick’s best friend.  She’s very smart, a real introvert with a big heart and a kind attitude.  She stands up for what’s right, and when she makes a mistake she’ll go to great lengths to fix it.  She’s brave and tenacious, and when things go wrong she’s not hiding in a corner waiting to be rescued, she’s figuring out how to rescue herself.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? What would be your tips to overcome it?

I get writer’s block all the time.  For me it basically means I’ve got to a point in my story and I’m not sure how to proceed.  My usual methods of getting over it are…

1. Talk it over with anyone who will sit still long enough.  Last time I got stuck I put my problem out on facebook, an hour later a friend had come up with the perfect solution
2. Put on the headphones, crank up the music (to drown out that darstardly internal editor) and just get the words down
3. Research – this can give new ideas and suggest new directions
4. Chocolate / cake / mani-pedi – I am all for self bribery

Do you have a writing routine?

My routine is to write in every spare second I have (life is busy with kids and so on, so I have to grab every chance I get)

What can we look forward to from you in the near future?

My next book, The Bunker, is out in July 2013.  It’s a romantic suspense set in a bunker deep under the idyllic green hills of England.  Geeky Dimity Pond is the only person who can save the world from an epic financial meltdown, but to do it she’s going to need help from the reclusive and terse Lord Richard Summerhayes.

What was your favourite book as a child/teen/adult? Are you currently reading anything?

As a child my favourite book was The Dark Is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper.  It was the late 70s, early 80s version of Harry Potter.  I went back and read it last year, and I still love it.

Right now I’m reading A Man Like Mike by Sami Lee.  It’s a lovely story and I’m really enjoying it.

What is your culinary speciality?

I love to cook, in fact I love it so much I trained to be a chef when I was younger.  I used to have all sorts of culinary specialities, spend hours in the kitchen, host fabulous dinner parties… but then I had kids!! Yeah, that slowed me down a bit! 

One of my favourite and most used recipes these days is my four ingredient sponge cake (Recipe on my blog http://caitlynnicholas.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/lovely-smells-bake-easy-cake-recipe.html).  Quick, easy and the kids plus any guests that may be floating around really enjoy it!

Any exciting plans for the near future?

The next few months hold nothing but work, and for me that’s really exciting!  I love to write J My next release, The Bunker, is out in July, and I’m in the midst of editing it at the moment. The manuscript for my Christmas release is due with my publisher in June so I’m busily finishing that as well.

Now A Taste of Caitlyn:

“It’s your last chance with the Vice Chancellor.”

“I said I’d be there.” Flick didn’t bother to hide her irritation. “I just won the man a million dollar grant, what more does he want?”

BUY

“Your bubbly and fun personality?” There was amusement beneath Andy’s sarcasm.

Flick snorted. “All right. Okay. I’m leaving now.” She growled the words, and hit the off-button on her phone.

They both knew she lied.

She dropped the phone onto the desk. Then, scowling, she clicked on the icon that’d run the Bellona program.  It crashed instantly, and took the computer with it.

“Awesome.”  She threw herself back into her chair and stared at the ceiling panels, running the changes she’d made to the code through her mind.  Realizing it’d be a waste of time to unpick what she’d done, Flick rebooted her computer and went in search of a clean copy of the program on the backup server. 

There were two versions. Usually they only kept one, but she thought nothing of it, and after saving a copy to her hard drive, she opened it up.

She scanned quickly through the code, looking for the section she’d been working on, so preoccupied with figuring out how to manipulate it into doing what she wanted, she nearly missed the strange command, her eye travelled straight past it. But then she hesitated, and went back to the unusual group of letters.  They hadn’t been there before.

A logic bomb? Some little joke Andy was playing?

She ran the command and it brought up a whole section of Bellona that she’d never seen before.

“Bloody hell -” For a moment she simply stared at the screen. 

It was no joke.

 

 Pleasure to meet you, Caitlyn!

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Caitlyn's links:

http://www.caitlynnicholas.com

Blog: http://www.caitlynnicholas.blogspot.com  Twitter: http://twitter.com/CaitlynNicholas  Fb: https://www.facebook.com/CaitlynNicholasAuthor  Google plus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/105412279044420141735/  Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/783424.Caitlyn_Nicholas

BUY click links Amazon.com  Amazon UK Kobo  Nook Ibookstore

Leave a comment for the chance to win one of three prizes: a $25 Amazon GC and Caitlyn Nicholas gift bag to one randomly drawn commenter, and a Caitlyn Nicholas gift bag to two randomly drawn commenters during the tour.(International)

S.D.Skye

A Warm Welcome to S.D.Skye

S.D. Skye is a former FBI Russian Counterintelligence Program Intelligence Analyst and supported several key cases during her 12-year tenure at the Bureau. She has personally witnessed the blowback the Intelligence Community suffered due to the most significant compromises in U.S. history, including the arrests of former CIA Case Officer Aldrich Ames and two of the Bureau's own--FBI Agents Earl Pitts and Robert Hanssen. She has spent 20 years supporting counterintelligence, intelligence, and military missions in the U.S. Intelligence Community.

An award-winning author of romantic comedies in her other life, Skye is a member of the Maryland Writer's Association, Romance Writers of America, and International Thriller Writers. She's addicted to writing and chocolate--not necessarily in that order--and currently lives in the Washington D.C. area with her son. Skye is hard at work on the next installment of the series.

Here's her latest release:

The Seven Year Itch

(A J.J. McCall Novel – the FBI Series)    by S. D. Skye BLURB:

Her Family Was Vexed With a Generational Curse. Now for Lie Detecting FBI Spy Catcher J.J. McCall, the Truth is in The Seven Year Itch.

FBI Special Agent J.J. McCall is a born lie detector who recruits foreign spies to catch American traitors. She and co-case agent Tony Donato have lost two of their most critical Russian sources in the past two years, and they may lose another in just a few short days if they don’t catch him, The ICE PHANTOM, a rumored insider spy more insidious and elusive than Ames and Hanssen combined. They suspect he might be burrowed deep inside FBI counterintelligence—and his body count is going up.

Drawn into an unsanctioned mole hunt, they have a week to catch him, save a key source’s life—and their own. While J.J.’s lie detecting ability helps them narrow down the list of suspects, the lie she tells to herself may help the ICE PHANTOM defect to Moscow and get away with the murder of the man she loves.

Skye's debut FBI Series, filled with mystery, espionage, romance, and suspense, will keep you burning through the pages until J.J. catches the very last spy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Before treating us to an excerpt, S.D. Reveals:

From where do you get inspiration and what inspired you to write The Seven Year Itch?

I spent 20 years in the U.S. Intelligence Community and I’ve had a very interesting career to say the least. I’ve worked in places and done things many people will only read in books.  So, I tapped into my vast experience for the foundations on which to build plots for this series. Each book will feature agencies and situations in which I’ve worked to some degree or another.

The largest chunk of my career was spent working in FBI counterintelligence, but I’ve had the opportunity to work with or for just about the entire alphabet soup of agencies (CIA, NSA, DIA, at the Pentagon on the Joint Staff, etc.). J.J. McCall is very loosely based on an African-American FBI Russian counterintelligence/counterespionage agent with whom I worked for several years. In a field that is largely dominated by white males, I was always impressed by how she persevered and propelled herself to the top of her field. I don’t know her struggles on a personal level but I worked at the FBI long enough to imagine certain issues she must’ve endured. So, after the writing bug bit me, I finally leveraged those experiences to create what I hope will be characters and stories readers will remember for some time to come.

In a couple of sentences, describe the hero’s character.  What do you like best/least about him?

Antonio “Tony” Donato, the hero in the series, is an FBI agent and J.J. McCall’s co-case agent. What I like best about him is that he’s his own man. He broke away from the “family business” (his father is a jailed mob boss), to become an FBI agent even though he knew he’d be estranged from his father because of it. But he followed his dreams and I think the strength it takes to follow his dreams will be the same strength he needs to follow his heart, especially loving a woman of another race.

What I like least about him is that he is as stubborn as an old billy goat. Once he gets set in his ways, there is little that can budge him—but J.J. somehow manages to do it when the chips are down. They are perfectly suited in that way.

And the heroine? How do you relate to her?

J.J. McCall is fiercely loyal and I love that about her. When she makes a promise, she will risk her life to keep it. But it’s this same quality that has proven to be her downfall as she struggles with the stress that keeping promises brings. We are very similar in that way, but we do share other characteristics. For example, in the Seven Year Itch, the first book in the series, J.J. McCall, an FBI Agent, followed the legacy of her mother, who was an agent during Hoover’s tenure. Well, I followed in my mother’s footsteps. My mother worked at the FBI during the J. Edgar Hoover years, and joined the FBI about twenty-something years later. My father and brother were DC police officers. In the book, J.J.’s brother is a DC police officer.  J.J. worked in counterintelligence/counterespionage. I worked in the same areas. Such similarities are sprinkled throughout the book. As for the plots and romantic entanglements, those are largely figments of my vivid, conspiratorial imagination.  

What do you think are the main ingredients for a successful book?

Attempting to answer this question could be enough to make a writer slit his/her wrists. I think if anyone knew the question to this question and shared it, we’d all be successful NY Times Bestsellers. At the end of the day, I think success truly begins with the author and his or her expectations. If you write an honest book, from your heart, and tell the best story you can, the best way you can tell it, then I think you’ve reached one level of success. Writing characters and stories that readers can connect with, who stick with them long after the book is closed is another level of success. When this happens to so many people across the world that your book becomes a best seller, then I think that’s the ultimate success for many writers. But there are degrees of success we can all reach and feel good about our work and about what we’re bringing to the world. I feel successful in that regard. 

What do you like best and least about writing?

What I love most about writing creating relatable characters that make people laugh and think. When readers reach out to me and tell me they laughed out loud at a character, that’s the ultimate compliment for me. If I write a page-turner people can’t put down, I’m over totally the moon.

What I like least about writing is that there are just not enough hours in the day for me to write all the books I want to write as quickly as I’d like to write them. I have four series going on right now. Three are in romantic comedy and one is of course the “Itch” series. I would love to have at least three books in each series done next year, but to do that, I would need to clone myself twice and be glued to my computer screen 24 hours a day for the next 10 months. Writing is my favorite thing in the world to do, but it sucks that you can only write books one word at a time. 

What is the best writing advice you have ever received?

I’m actually doing a series of short articles about this very topic on my blog, so this is a perfect question. I think, for me, one of the major hurdles I had to overcome is allowing imperfection. When I read the  Bird by Bird by Ann Lamott, she wrote a chapter called “Sh!tty First Drafts.” It was the most liberating thing I’d read to that point. She said don’t worry about making your work perfect on the first draft, just finish. That’s one piece of advice that has really stuck with me throughout my career. All my first drafts now suck. Sometimes the second and third do to. As long as I get the story right before it goes to print, then I’ll be fine.

What can we look forward to from you in the near future?

The second book in the series, Son of a Itch, follows J.J. McCall and company as they try to discover who placed a bug in the White House Situation Room walls. In addition, J.J.’s nemesis is plotting to kill her so she’ll face some real danger in this next novel. I think her biggest challenge will be juggling this love triangle between her, Six, and Tony. It heats up quite a bit from this point forward.

What would you most like to accomplish this year?

I would like to get three books written and published this year—Son of a Itch (Book #2), A No Good Itch (Book #3), and 12 Honeymoons (a romantic comedy). Getting those three written and published would be a major feat and a huge accomplishment.

What is your culinary speciality?

I love Italian cuisine. I swear I must’ve been an Italian grandmother in my former life. I love pastas, breads, and sauces. I make a mean lasagne and I do so from scratch, so it’s usually a two-hour dish. I also make a very good spinach and ricotta stuffed shell dish. And my son loves my spaghetti. 

BUY

And Now A Taste of 'The Seven Year Itch'

Monday Morning in Moscow…         

Mikhail Polyakov was murdered in a Solntsevskaya-owned cottage located in Lobnya, a small village just outside Moscow. It was a Russian organized crime death chamber. A hulking Mafioso known only as Maskov hovered over his mangled corpse. The ax in his massive hand dripped with the blood of a traitor. He would not live to betray his country another day. In the safe house basement, he lay on the concrete floor. A pool of crimson surrounded him, and his flesh had been gashed and hacked beyond visual recognition; death’s stench thickened the air. In order to serve its only noble purpose, his right hand, which bore a crescent-shaped birthmark, was left untouched.

A sliver of light shone through an undersized window revealing the wicked grin that parted the executioner’s cigarette blackened lips. Colonel Anatoliy Golikov. A Russian intelligence officer, he was a member of a cadre of Russian Foreign Intelligence Service—SVR officers—from the First Department. His professional mission had been recruiting people who sold U.S. secrets, but his personal mission was to kill anyone who betrayed the Motherland.

His skinny eyes, slight frame, and borderline gaunt face colored him weak, but his iron-fisted will and suffocating persona made him a man few crossed. Even fewer had lived to brag about it if they had. The son of a former hardline KGB General who executed Russians spying for the West, he’d filled his father’s sadistic shoes well. Left nothing in his wake except a trail of dead American sins against Russia.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Follow the rest of the tour here

Skye's links:

www.facebook.com/authorsdskye   www.twitter.com/sdskye1  www.authorsdskye.com

Blog: www.authorklbrady.com  BUY links: Amazon ebook  Amazon paperback

Many thanks for regaling us today. Pleasure to meet you!

 Now leave a comment for the chance to win a KINDLE FIRE (US/Canada only)

Kelly Whitley (Lynn Crain)

                 A Warm Welcome to Kelly

First, a brief bio:
Once upon a time, Kelly dreamed of becoming an entomologist, then a gymnast, and then an architect. Instead, a career in healthcare became the chosen path. After years of devouring other people's books, she decided to give writing a try. An arduous journey and many hot fudge sundaes later, her first paranormal romantic suspense debuted in July 2012.
Now she writes a variety of fiction, spanning genres from humor to paranormal and flash fiction to full-fledged novels. An ideal day consists of coffee, no phone, and writing quirky characters for her fans to fall in love with. Stop by www.kellywhitley.com, where the paranormal is an everyday occurrence and get your fix for vampires, werewolves, shifters and more. Kelly loves visitors, human and otherwise.
Kelly lives in the Rocky Mountain West. Contact her at kelly_book_maven@yahoo.com.

Here's the blurb for Kelly's latest release: INTO THE RED
Human blood is an illicit and highly addictive drug--if you're a vampire. Known as Red, its side effects are insanity, and eventual death. A group of Red-addicted vampires known as Poisoners are killing women as part of an extortion plot involving a lost ancient vampiric tome, and they’re leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. The discovery of each new victim risks exposure of the entire vampire race to humans. Then one victim survives…

Dr. Evan Nichols, oncologist and vampire, lives a monk-like existence, by his own choice, focusing on patient care and research to benefit his vampire brethren. It’s been twenty-five years since his world turned upside down—the night he lost his fiancée and discovered his hidden vampire heritage. Now his government has ordered him to take a mate—or they’ll choose one for him. It’s a horrible prospect, and one that might push him over the edge—until Fate throws him together with a human female.

Wary of relationships, Tara West has poured her energies into work and inventing cutting edge climbing equipment. She doesn’t like the gorgeous Dr. Nichols, yet finds herself unaccountably drawn to him.

When a crazed vampire attacks and poisons Tara, Evan rescues her. With time running out, he has to create an antidote to the poison before he loses his chance at love.

In order to make the vaccine which might cure her, he has to find the bastards who poisoned her and take their venom—before they die of their addiction. If he doesn’t reach them in time, saving her will be impossible.

Thus the journey begins—into the Red!

Before treating us to an excerpt, Kelly Reveals:

Who controls the story – you or your characters?  The characters. If they would just do the editing, I’d be set!

What do you hope your readers come away with after reading your books?   Satisfied they’d read a great book, and wanting more.

What do you think are the main ingredients for a successful book?   Memorable characters, and an engaging plot—in that order. Characters are what I remember years later—not so much the details of the plot.

What do you most enjoy about writing romance?   I like weaving the romance into the suspenseful plot—it’s tricky. Compared to mainstream fiction, I get more out of a romance—it’s like getting a twofer: mainstream fiction and a hot romantic plot thread.

What do you like best and least about writing?   Best: having one of those days where the words flow faster than I can type. Finding the perfect word to describe something. Inventing a great metaphor. Least: those days where every words is squeezed out with difficulty. Plot holes that loom like gaping defects in the fabric of the story.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?   Yes. I’d actually characterize it more as burnout. Too many arduous days with every free moment spent at the computer.

What would be your tips to overcome it?   For writer’s block—I hand write on paper. Play “what if…” and let myself get as outrageous as possible. Sometimes that shakes it loose. Burnout: avoidance is best. I ended up taking a few days off from the computer and work. Watched TV and did nothing.

Do you have a writing routine?   Yep. On non-day job days, I eat breakfast (which I highly recommend) while watching the morning news. Be at the computer by 8:30 or 9:00. Check email for things I’m expecting and personal emails. Social media if I need to get word out about a blog post/book, otherwise, I leave it alone. I’m not a big social media person, which I think is good.

On work days, generally I try to squeeze in a little writing before dinner, then write after dinner until 10 pm.

What can we look forward to from you in the near future?   Flash fiction and short stories! Next novel out within the year, I hope.

How do you like to spend your free time?   Reading. Otherwise, I occasionally watch DVD movies and football.

 What would you most like to accomplish this year?   I’m finishing third round edits on a MS now, and want to get it submitted. An acceptance would make an excellent Christmas present.

Now A Taste of Kelly:
The caged light above the emergency exit cast a pallid, purple glow over the alley and the pair coupling against the brick wall. Barely twenty feet away he watched, hunkered down in the murk of the shadows, thinking about the merits of killing them both, or waiting for the girl to be alone.

The bar catered to the darker element; men who came to drink, drug, and fornicate. Dangerous men. Men who committed violent crimes as easily as they breathed. Few women frequented this establishment. Most of the females present worked there as waitresses with benefits for purchase, for the men with sex on their minds.

Management took a cut of everything—the liquor, the drugs, and the sex. He also knew the management dictated who did what to whom and when, so it had been just a matter of time before a pair left the bar for the privacy of the alley.

The guy from inside the bar was clean, well-dressed in something other than biker gear and blue jeans, and wasn’t drunk or high.

Which was better than usual.

Hidden, he watched while the man finished and then disappeared back inside. The girl stayed in the alley. A match flared as she lit a cigarette and walked in tight circles by the back door. Based on his observations, he knew she wanted to attract a customer who didn’t come from the bar.

A quickie.

She didn’t realize she’d just sealed her own fate. It would be a quickie. A  hell of a quickie.

He separated from the shadows and approached her from the end of the alley. He wasn’t clean, well dressed, or sober.

Which was worse than usual.

But he did have fifty bucks. He bit back a laugh as he caught the expression on her face—half victory, half revulsion. She took his money, tucking it into her bra before turning to face the rough brick of the building. 

BUY

He leaned into her, pressing her chest against the alley wall and inhaling the smell of her neck as he yanked up her skirt and entered her from behind. He ran his hands over her body, relishing the feel of her soft skin as he plunged into her, ignoring her little yips of pain.

As he slammed into her and finished, the leech of his addiction demanded satisfaction, and he snaked an arm around her throat. For a moment she didn’t react, then the fragrance of her relief gave way to the smoky scent of panic. She lashed out, connecting with the unforgiving brick wall. Her struggles kicked his anticipation into overdrive, and he sank his teeth into the exploding pulse of her fear.

Within a few seconds, her legs gave out, leaving her limp against the wall; he supported her around the waist. Anyone encountering the scene would assume they’d not yet concluded their transaction. The ache of withdrawal eased its way into euphoria as the Red hit his bloodstream. With jerky movements, he laid the body out of sight behind the filthy packing boxes before grafting himself to the shadows.

Soon, another couple would exit the bar for an outdoor tryst.

And he’d be watching.

Review:  “Such a unique take on vampires, and Evan is a great hero. His love for the heroine is so intense it's palpable. Whitley's writing really throws you into each and every scene as she touches your heart with every word she writes. LOVED this!!”—Catch the Rush (on Amazon), Sept. 2012

LINKS: Website   Blog   Facebook   Twitter_ Amazon Author Page   BUY:    Muse It Up Publishing     Amazon 

Pleasure to meet you, Kelly!
Leave a comment for the chance to win an ebook copy of Into The Red (please remember to leave email address)

Mary Curtis

A Warm Welcome to Mary
Mary Raimes Curtis was an editor and freelance writer for many years before an early retirement when she had the time to indulge in writing for herself. Her first novel, Taming the Hawk, was published by MuseItUp Publishing in June 2012.
Mary, a one time Brit, now lives on the banks of a tidal river in Nova Scotia. This beautiful area is the genesis for her second novel, Luscious & Lethal—the first book in the Gilded River Chronicles.

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Here's the Blurb for
Luscious and Lethal:
All is not what it seems in peaceful Jancy’s Cove. Renowned New York model and designer, Dani Renaldo, believes her new home on the shores of the Atlantic will provide a peaceful haven after an abusive marriage and the loss of her unborn child. But peace is a rare commodity.

Someone stalks the dark shadows and a boat slides into the cove after midnight. Between unknown prowlers and an arrogant but sexy neighbour who is determined to claim her, Dani wonders if the mean streets of New York would be less hazardous to her well-being.

Before treating us to an excerpt, Mary Reveals:

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What inspires you to write?

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Thank you for inviting me to your blog, Megan. You asked what inspires me to write. Finding inspiration is the easy part, ideas seem to arrive with little prompting. The impetus for my latest ebook, Luscious & Lethal, arrived one morning as a visual. My desk sits in a window overlooking a small bay on a salt-water river. Early one evening, I watched a woman walk into the scene through the long grass as a large dog ran out from the bush. Then a small boat chugged into view. Suddenly the boat speeded up and disappeared around the headland. That was the moment Luscious & Lethal became real to me.

In a couple of sentences, describe the hero’s character.  What do you like best/least about him?   Like most of my heroes, Simon has a dark side, of course he hides his vulnerability after a troubled past. He’s tough, arrogant and determined to deny the growing attraction between him and Dani, his provocative neighbour. Dani maintains he acts like a low-land gorilla, albeit an extremely sexy one. I like that Simon can change and open up to the woman who zings all his strings.

And the heroine? How do you relate to her?   The woman seen from my window became Dani, a plus-size supermodel who must come to terms with the fact that you can run but can’t always escape the bad guys. She’s experienced a thousand knocks in her life and managed to make it in a tough profession. So there we have it: a woman running from her past, a dog who belongs to a faceless man, noises in the night and an arrogant but sexy neighbour. Dani is my hero as she overcomes the bad guys.

Who controls the story – you or your characters?   Maybe I’m a sadist, but I love turning the hero inside out as he meets a woman who gives as good as she gets. In Luscious & Lethal, Dani doesn’t yield easily. But then, it wouldn’t be a story if everything fell into place without a ripple that develops into a storm.

What do you hope your readers come away with after reading your books?   Megan asked me a tough question: What do I hope readers will come away with after reading my books? When I thought about it for a while, it wasn’t really such a tough question. I realized that all my heroines have some kind of a dark past and must fight to survive and move on. In real life, many, many women face what sometimes seem overwhelming odds. I hope readers can relate to that in my books and realize the past can be overcome.

What do you think are the main ingredients for a successful book?   I believe great characters make for a successful book. Well-developed characters, whether good or evil, can draw you into the story. Then of course you have to provide an interesting plot and setting. It’s very frustrating, my characters arrive unbidden and demand I give them space to create the story. So I have little to do with the mayhem or otherwise they create.

What do you like best and least about writing?   As I write these words, I realize that writing isn’t something I thought of doing. It’s something I just do, like breathing, and have done since I was young. As a child reading was an escape from situations I could do nothing about, writing came from wanting to tell stories to someone who wasn’t there. I know it sounds sort of enigmatic, but that’s the way it was.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? What would be your tips to overcome it?    I understand many writers experience writers’ block. I had no idea what that was like. Once upon a time, my day job involved writing for corporate clients. It would have been a serious mistake to call in and tell then I didn’t feel like writing that day as my muse was missing. Besides, characters were always knocking at my brain wanting me to listen and write their story. Until one day, my long-time companion died and I absolutely couldn’t write or paint for two years. I thought my creativity had gone walk-about forever. Then a friend asked me to write an article about one of my cats for the local animal shelter newsletter. Oh, wow, that was a daunting. I am a supporter of the shelter and my four cats were abandoned in one way or another, so what could I do? I agonised for two days and nights, literally couldn’t sleep. Then one morning I got, up made my mug of kick ass coffee and sat down at the keyboard. The article about Smokey Joe, who is a demolition expert, clicked into place. That’s what broke the dam. I still haven’t produced another painting yet, but I’m not complaining. One breakthrough at a time is about all I can handle.

Do you have a writing routine?   One of my regrettable quirks is that I hate routine. I seem to live life as it comes. Writing is no different, a character pops into my head and I sit down and type. Once, at a conference, a young woman asked me what my magic formula for writing was. There is no answer to such a question. At least I don’t have one. All I could offer was an old adage: If you want to write you have to sit down and do it instead of talking about it. I did learn, over time, that as you write, write, write, it’s a good idea to read other writers. Not to copy, to learn what works and what doesn’t. I once took painting lessons where we were supposed to copy well-known paintings. I discovered I can’t copy worth a damn. That ineptitude spills over into the written word. 

Anything special you require to keep the creative juices flowing?   Except for those two years of mourning, I find a myriad of things that help to keep the creative juices flowing. At the moment I’m working out an idea for the follow-up book in the Gilded River Chronicles. A friend is active in a program she helped develop that humanely reduces the overpopulation of feral cat colonies. It’s an amazing program. I call it the nip and tuck program, meaning spay/neuter. After listening to the stories from behind the scenes, I woke up one morning and sat at my laptop. 5,000 words spilled out about an ancient barn, glittering eyes watching from high rafters, the dark of night and someone hiding a long-ago crime. Really, I don’t have much to do with the process, it just happens, although my friends should definitely get credit for sparking the idea and answering a multitude of questions about their work.

Asking questions comes with the territory. When I decided that I really should try and write stories for a larger audience than one, I took on-line workshops, soaked up advice from a number of sources, listened to all the naysayers who said you can’t do this and you can’t do that and you must do the other. (It seemed to me that there were more rules and twisted regulations in the publishing business than comes out of a totalitarian regime.) One person who read an early WIP said that editors would reject the story because a character, who was a whore who married a lord, was unbelievable. Then an author whose books I enjoy told me that I should write my story and ignore the conformists. Now I have Lea Schizaz at MuseItUp Publishers to thank for taking one of the stories that starts out with a non-hero, hero and publishing it. That book was Taming the Hawk.

What was your favourite book as a child/teen/adult? Are you currently reading anything?   Books were hard to come by when I was a child so I’m not sure I had a favourite. I loved them all, the bad the good and the ones I shouldn’t have been reading. My brother tried to hide his stash of hard-bitten detective stories. I always found them. When asked by a teacher what I read at home, my answer: Dashiel Hammett and Edgar Allan Poe, that didn’t go down too well. A note went home to my mother…which was ignored. At the moment I’m lusting after a copy of Iced by Karen Marie Moning. Love her Fever paranormal series.

There really isn’t enough time, or funds for that matter, to read all the books on my wish list. Which is just as well, I’m determined to complete the second book in the Gilded River Chronicles, finish edits to a historical and submit it to my editor then do some more research on seaglunking for the third story in the Chronicles.

In a few words, how would you describe yourself? How do you think your husband/partner would describe you?   Megan asked how I would describe myself. I’d rather answer her final question regarding how a husband/partner would describe me. Back in the day, my partner declared that I was from outer space.

Before I step into another dimension, I have to tell you that talking about myself is my least favourite topic. Thankfully, Megan made it easy.

And Now A Taste of Mary:
Next morning Dani’s time was spent catching up on a slew of emails, trying to sort out the office into some semblance of order and doing three sketches for her next Luscious Rags collection. Plus some notes on a new design for a slinky gown, size two, for Meridee Crane. Meri, an old friend and rising movie star, had sent a frantic email plea in purple typeface.
HELP! Drop everything. Movie nominated for Academy Award. Need a Dani special. Double slinky with a dash of whore. Meri.
Oh, dear, Dani felt her own panic start with a twitch in her left eye, a sure sign her blood pressure was going to crank up. She sorted through her file folders and found Meri’s and hoped she hadn’t gained or lost weight. What if the actress wanted her to travel to New York to do the fittings? She couldn’t do that. Just the thought of being in the same city as Tom was enough to bring on a case of hives. After sending an email to congratulate her on the nomination and requesting more information on what kind of outfit Meri had in mind, Dani tried to settle down and figure out what to do. Meri stood by her during the divorce and she didn’t want to let her down. But, and it was a big but, how could she design something spectacular at long distance? And what about the trip with Simon? It would have to be put on hold.
Hours later, frazzled and nursing a doozy of a headache, she closed the studio door on chaos. A flitter of an idea for a slinky beautiful gown that had a definite touch of whore, had begun to take shape on her sketchpad, and, she had scattered enough discarded sketches around her desk to obliterate the honey-coloured sheen of the plank floor.
There was a note on the fridge door from Jay when she walked into the kitchen. She smiled. He’d gone into town and would be there for the evening. She bet she knew whereabouts in town—a house beside a barn by the river. Going up to her bedroom, she took a shower and pulled on a pair of caramel-coloured slacks and a crossover sweater in soft cream wool that tied at the waist. The evening was chilly but the clouds had sailed out over the Atlantic. Gathering the few sketches she saved from the discards, she picked up a bottle of Sangria and set off through the trees to Simon’s house.
The warm sweater was a good idea as the sun had set some time ago and it was dim and cold under the heavy canopy of branches. There was a rustling somewhere on the rock-strewn hill behind her. Her head turned sharply. Nothing. Or at least, nothing she could see. Who would know if someone was hiding up there in the shadows? She should have brought a torch and a bazooka. Trying to shake off her over-active imagination, she followed the faint trail that wound its way down to the cleared space behind Simon’s house. All the while she had a horrible suspicion someone was following.
Just as she was about to step out from the trees and into the muted lilac-grey light of evening, a sound close by, like the harsh inhalation of a breath, made her skin crawl and her heart thumped as she turned to stare back. Still there was nothing but shadow and the twittering of agitated birds.
Was that the slide of footsteps through old leaves? Suddenly she began to run, pushing aside branches, jumping fallen deadwood. Simon, she had to reach Simon before…she didn’t know what or who was following, only that it wasn’t benign. Long moments later, she burst from beneath the trees and headed for the welcoming light on Simon’s veranda. Dashing up the steps she realized the sketches were gone, although the bottle of Sangria was still clutched under her arm.
“Damn!” She turned again. Nothing moved back there in the darkness, the only sound the rasp of her breath in her throat and the soughing of wind through the treetops. Nevertheless she wasn’t about to venture into the woods again to find her sketches. What a terrible coward she was.
“Something wrong, Dani?”
She whirled around to find Simon standing still as a monolith. Nerves twanging she lashed out. “Why do you do that? At least sing, or bang a pot or something, to let me know you’re there.” She bit her lip and held out the bottle as if it was a burnt offering.
Simon took it and laid an arm around her shoulders. “Did something frighten you, sweetheart? You were running like a tornado was on your tail.”
Dani shook her head but couldn’t help looking over her shoulder. The shadows were deep beneath the hemlocks and hoary old pines but no dark figure stood there watching her. Damn! She had to get a grip. For a moment she thought of resisting, going back just to show that she wasn’t afraid. Stupid, what did she have to prove? She allowed Simon to draw her into the warmth of the house.

BUY LINKS: For those readers who would like to check out Taming the Hawk and Luscious & Lethal, both are available from
MuseItUp Publishing click link here , Amazon click link here and other on-line bookstores.

Now leave a comment for the chance to win a copy of Luscious & Lethal
  or Taming the Hawk. (two prizes on offer - please leave an email address)

If anyone would like to get in touch, Mary would love to hear from you, her website is: www.maryraimescurtis.com

 Pleasure to meet you, Mary, and I wish you huge success with Luscious and Lethal!

 

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