Save the World - Kill the Warrior!

Now available!

Former soldier Erik Harrison is a dead man walking. The sole survivor of an ambush, the guilt of losing his friends is crushing. He questions his own sanity, remembering the vision he saw as he was dying –– a battle angel come to collect his friends' souls. 

Valkyrie Brenna Lund doesn't know why she failed in her duty to reap Erik's soul on the battlefield. He deserves his place with the other mighty warriors in Valhalla, and if she wants to return home, she has to kill him. 

There are consequences for betraying the gods. But the closer Brenna and Erik become, the more they both want to risk everything for a future together. If only an immortal hunter weren’t sent to kill them both.

Excerpt:

Freyja spied into your heart and knew you wouldn't be able to do it. She knew even before you did.

It should have been easy to take a tired, weary warrior. Even one like Erik.

The question now was why? This was the second time failing in her duty and she was no closer to finding out why.

She rubbed her face with her palm.

Brenna got to her feet and walked toward the bathroom.

Maybe there was some sort of clue about him, something she could pick up. Her only memory of him before tonight had been almost a year ago and under very different circumstances.

The door was ajar, the water running. She edged close enough to look in.

The breath caught in her throat as she gazed at Erik Harrison, his bare torso gleaming with sweat in the dim light. The shredded remains of his shirt lay on the floor along with his jeans and shoes, kicked to the side in a jumbled heap. He wore only a pair of tight boxer briefs riding low on his hips.

It wasn't like she didn't know what a naked man looked like. Berserkers donned a scrap of bear fur as armor as they charged into battle, racing to a glorious death. Armored knights rode, encased in metal charging onto the battlefield. Soldiers from all times and places sat together in the Halls, fought every day and celebrated all night. She'd seen them all.

Including Erik, in the cage only a few hours ago, facing his opponent and going down to defeat wearing much the same as he had on now.

But this... this was different.

He wasn't perfect, far from it. Erik's chest was dotted with white puckered scars, some the size of nickels and others as short slashes. As he turned she saw his back and other, older marks showing previous battles. Yet it didn't seem to detract from the power coming off him in waves, the silent strength evident with every move, every shift of his body. The muscles were tight and well-defined, not an inch of fat on his frame.

He winced as he pressed a damp cloth to the mottled bruises over his left rib cage. Matty had focused in on that during the fight and it showed. The swollen cut over his eye had stopped bleeding and was already going down but it still warranted a cleaning and a fresh bandage.

She couldn't take her eyes off him. The toned muscles seemed to be calling to her urging her to soothe his distress with her touch, offer to take the pain away somehow. Images flashed through her mind of the couples she'd seen in the shadows of the Great Halls, lovers stealing away for some private time before the never-ending battles started at dawn.

Brenna clenched her fingers, digging her nails into the skin to stay still. A flash of heat between her legs shocked her and she pressed her knees together, cursing in silence.

What is this madness?

***

Now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and many other ebook stores! 

Love in the dark...

This month's theme is supposed to be about our favorite love scenes from stage, screen or page. Whatever the medium, I tend to prefer those scenes that are more about emotion, than direction. I prefer the fade to black; waking up the next morning after some scorching kisses; even panning out the window to watch fireworks in the night sky -- such a cliché, but Hitchcock made it work. ;)

In my own writing, I've said this before and I'll say it again: I prefer the sizzle over the sex. I prefer to write and read about the tension that leads up to the ultimate act. That tension, that falling-in-love is what the romance is all about. Sex scenes themselves are tricky because, for one thing, too much detail can leave the reader feeling like they're either reading a biology text or wondering: "Is that even physically possible?"

So I like those scenes that deal with the sizzle, the emotion, and gloss over the play-by-play. It's sort of a soft-focus effect, but for me, it works.

My latest story, One Little Slip, hopefully gives the reader just enough sense of heat and passion, without becoming a textbook what-goes-where scene. ;) I hope. You'll have to read it and let me know if I hit the mark.

 (c)2014 Bat Collective

A mysterious invitation. A secret flight. And a beautiful, magical tropical paradise. A place where wishes come true, but not in a way that one might expect…

Freyja’s Eye. Not found on any map, impossible to locate, the island is the realm of the Goddess Freyja. It is a destination for the lovelost—those who have given up hope of ever finding their one, true love…the other half of their soul. It is a place where the deepest desires of every heart are fulfilled…when they are finally acknowledged. The path to love isn’t easy, but boy, romance sure is a delightful fantasy on this island.


One Little Slip
(c)2014 Meg Allison

It’s a recipe for disaster…
Combine a haunted house in paradise, one injured warrior, and a woman hell-bent on standing on her own four-inch heels.
Fiona Reid expected to spend her free vacation at a five-star resort, not in a dilapidated plantation house straight out of the nineteenth century. She certainly didn’t expect the forced close company of one handsome and slightly infuriating security agent.
Julio Alvarez needs to let his wounds heal, and get back to his familiar life. The last thing he needs is a prickly brunette in killer shoes and ghosts that do his bidding.


Meg Allison
Indulge your senses...
http://megallisonauthor.com

Flaws

Flaws.  We all have them. 

David Beckham, oh god of Armani underwear,

 

has a thing for skinny blonds with boy haircuts.  Nora Roberts head hops like a Mexican Jumping Bean (although since I still adore her books, is this a flaw or just her style?)  I fuss at my kids if they bother me when I’m trying to work - and man, will seeing Coraline ever give you a complex about that.

But there are flaws, and then there are Flaws.  The heroine of my new book Flawed – coming this summer from Samhain Publishing  – has some pretty serious ones of the capital Flaw flavor.

She’s a princess and heir to the kingdom; life should be pretty good, wouldn’t you think?  But happenings in her world of Elfish magic and court treachery has her backed into a pretty tight corner.  Her magic?  Nonexistent.  Her birthright?  Seems to have deserted her.  And even David Beckham up there wouldn’t be doing anything for her – she’s got a serious problem when it comes to sex.

I think I’ll take my short temper over her set of problems.

Have you got any flaws you want to admit to?  Or maybe, as gamers are often sarcastically saying, they aren’t really flaws, they’re features! 

Ember Case ~ Come Twitter with me

13 Reasons I'm Excited about My Upcoming Book Release

My second novel, SURVIVAL OF THE FAIREST, comes out from Samhain on Tuesday, July 15, 2008. That's less than a week! Here are the reasons I'm thrilled about this, some obvious and some not so obvious:

1) Because I'll start getting checks. Woohoo, more gas for the mini-van to suck down like it has a leak in the tank. ( I don't *think* it has a leak in the tank. I've checked and so has my mechanic.)
2) Because everyone needs to be warned about the dangers of evil wild gnomes. Srsly. (Two links.)

3) Because I love Vegas-set paranormals and think there should be more of them...so here's one more. It's such a rich, exciting setting with so many possibilities beyond gambling, stripping and CSI.

4) Because maybe after the book is available for purchase, I can quit worrying about it and wrap up my next book.

5) Because it's a great excuse to buy more garden gnomes and place them strategically around my house, both inside and out. Yeah, the neighbors think I'm weird, so what?

6) Because the contests and giveaways are going to be FABULOUS! Anyone want to win a hand-crocheted gnome? Well, you can, as soon as I figure out how to attach their little butts.

7) Because the hubby and kids are tired of left-overs and quick-cook dinners. (Which is unfortunate, because that isn't likely to change...)

8) Because I loved writing about the hero (Jake Story) and I can't wait to see if readers love him, too. He's sexy but doesn't abuse it, he's devoted to his mama but isn't whipped by it, and he has a kind of mental flexibility that's very attractive in a human. He accepts people for who they are without expecting them to change. At the same time, there is this scene when he and the heroine are in a diner that might explain man-think for anyone who's been confused about the grunts uttered by the men in their lives.

9) Because I loved writing the heroine (Princess Talista) and I can't wait to see if readers love her, too. She's stubborn (but not TSTL), she's quick-thinking, and she's willing to roll with the punches life throws at her -- and has gotten pretty handy at punching back. She wants to experience everything the human world has to offer, which includes Jake Story. At the same time, she's a far cry from a Mary Sue and has a character arc that would mature a horse. I mean, if horses were immature in the same way people are immature.

10) Because I loved writing the many and varied secondary characters in this novel, including a priggish Elder Court hottie who might need his own romance, a magician's assistant who likes his bodices sparkly and his men in tight pants, a surly villain who ended up being more devious, and more relatable, than I ever expected, and Jake's grandfather Pap who... Well, I don't know how to explain Pap.

11) Because the book's incipient release meant I finally got my cover, and it is AWESOME.

12) Because now I have a "backlist"! I have the book that just came out...and another book, A SPELL FOR SUSANNAH, also available from Samhain for anyone who enjoys SURVIVAL OF THE FAIREST. (Of course, I also have several novellas with Red Sage, but I’m talking about stand-alone novels.)

13) Last but not least, because the book's release spurred me to redesign my antique website. I'd been cabbaging a site design from my cat for an embarrassing number of years. Now my website combines my two writing "halves", has neato pop-up windows and drop-down menus, features lots of interesting trivia, and represents everything I write in a single space. Man, that was hard work, just like writing the book, but it was so worth it.

Hope you'll check them both out! And you don't have to wait until Tuesday the 15th to see my site :).

Jody Wallace
http://www.jodywallace.com/
SURVIVAL OF THE FAIREST--Available 7/15 from Samhain Publishing

An Interview with a Princess

Today I'd like to introduce you to the heroine of my upcoming novel, SURVIVAL OF THE FAIREST, due July 15, 2008, from Samhain Publishing. It's a paranormal romance with comic overtones, often due to the antics of the heroine, Princess Talista of the Fairy Clan Serendipity, as she experiences all the delights the human world has to offer...including the delightful hero, Jake Story, a stage magician who has a high tolerance for unique people.

Luckily for Tali.

In Tali's Realm, fairies became dependent upon their magic to handle day to day tasks, and when magic disappeared from the Realm for a period of time, there was much hardship, chaos and starvation. Now, fairies are sent to remote areas of humanspace -- our current world -- to learn to get by without magic. They master the basics of building fires, cooking food, setting up camp, digging latrines, avoiding humans, and so on and so forth.

Tali has absolutely no desire to live in a tent and boil water for drinking, so as soon as her survival training teammates turn their backs, she uses some contraband magic to transport herself to Vegas, where the adventure of her lifetime commences.

Me: Tali, what motivated you break the long-standing rules of your people and hightail it off on your own?

Tali: I didn't make those rules, the Fairy Court did. They're over-protective, secretive, ancient geezers who ignore the fact that our salvation -- you know, if magic disappeared in the Realm again -- would be mingling with humans, not sleeping on the ground and eating nuts and berries in some spirit-forsaken wilderness. I'm so sure the Court wouldn't buy some mansion somewhere, to rest their old fey bones on fancy human beds and drive big cars and eat hamburgers.

Me: In other words, because you disagreed with the rules, that means you weren't under any obligation to obey them? What makes you so special?

Tali: I'm a twosies. Come on, human. You created my world. You know that. All fairies are multiple births but twins are the strongest magically, blah blah blah, my sister and I will be part of the Court some day, blah blah, so yeah, I'm special...whether I want to be or not. I was really looking forward to being normal for two weeks. A normal human tourist in Vegas, baby!

Me: But still. Your little side trip risked your safety and your sister's wellbeing, because if you got killed, considering the psychic connection twin fairies have, she might die, too. Not to mention you endangered the whole fairy Realm when it came right down to it. Some readers might say you were a bit TSTL.

Tali: What is this TSTL? That's not a human word I recognize.

Me: You must have skipped that class.

Tali: Human Studies was the one class I didn't skip. I learned a lot more eavesdropping on the Court than I did in History of Magic. You're making stuff up again, aren't you?

Me: It's kind of my job.

Tali: Seriously, what's TSTL?

Me: It's an acronym that stands for--

Tali: Right, acronym! T...S...T...L. The Sexiest Tali Alive!

Me: No, it stands for--

Tali: Terrific Story They'll Love.

Me: Uh, no. Although they will. It's Too S--

Tali: Too Sexy To... Laugh. No, I laugh all the time. Love. No, I'm quite loveable. Just ask Jake. He's too sexy. Spirit! Did I tell you about the time he--

Me: It's in the book, but it's too late in the plot to reveal. That's considered a spoiler.

Tali: You told them that? Can't a fairy have any privacy?

Me: You were about to tell me in a public interview.

Tali: This is public? Hi, you guys! I love humans! (blows kisses) We should do lunch. I'll be having the chocolate.

Me: Can we get back to the interview? Like I was saying, your behavior wasn't what one expects from a mature romance novel heroine. You might be eighty in fairy years, but in human years one might say you acted like a headstrong teenager.

Tali: I'm mature enough to know not everyone has to act, look, dress and think exactly the same as everyone else. I like excitement, intrigue and researching human technological advancements. My version of survival training was for the future as much as it was for myself. It's not like I had magic past that initial transport spell. I used my surroundings to get by as best as I could, and that's what my training was all about. Survival. Do you really think fairies would be better off in some forest if they lost their magic? Heck to the no!

Me: That sounds good on paper.

Tali: Which is a good thing, because eventually it'll be on paper.

Me: I know researching humans as a future Court member was a small part of your motivation, but--

Tali: Small? It was most of it. Some of it. Enough of it.

Me: Yeah, I'm not convinced. Readers still might label you TSTL because of the way you--

Tali: I've got it. Too Sexy To Languish!

Me: It stands for Too Stupid to Live.

Tali: I am not!

Me: It could have gone south.

Tali: To Mexico? I'd like to go to Mexico.

Me: No, that means it could have gone very badly indeed. It didn't work out quite the way you expected, did it?

Tali: Surprises are the spice of life. They taste like chocolate.

Me: Taking off on your own, in a foreign country--

Tali: I spoke the language, I studied the culture, I had an escape tooth, and I had a lot of money.

Me: Gold coins?

Tali: Like anyone would have thought that paper stuff would be more desirable than gold.

Me: I think you learned that lesson.

Tali: Oh, shut up. And anyway, it was worth it. I met Jake. Ah, Jake. Total hottie. And smart! When the Fairy Court tracked me down, he--

Me: That's a spoiler too. In fact, I think they've had enough for today. Shall we sign off?

Tali: Hey, next time, interview Jake. I'm busy. I've got a Chip and Dale ballet to watch, and he said no way was he going.

****

Thanks for stopping by! You can read an excerpt of Tali and Jake's first meet if you sign up for my newsletter and read the 3rd edition, which I recently released: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jodywallace/ It only comes out once every two months, so don't worry you'll be bombarded by promos and solicitations.

My website can be found at http://www.jodywallace.com and my books at http://samhainpublishing.com/authors/jody-wallace

SURVIVAL OF THE FAIREST--Coming 7/15 from Samhain Publishing
A SPELL FOR SUSANNAH--Available now from Samhain Publishing

Coming Soon

I love visiting Samhain's coming soon pages. So I thought I'd look at which paranormal/science fiction/fantasy books are going to be released in June. (And stand back in awe of the cover art while I'm at it.)

Lots of exciting stuff!

Coming June 6



Coming June 10




Coming June 17



Coming June 24

I fell hard for Sudden Fall by Kally Jo Surbeck

Hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season. Mine was made a little brighter by this book!


Sudden Fall
Book 1: Yadderawal Balance Series

Kally Jo Surbeck
Available Print/Ebook at Samhain Publishing
Rating: 5 of 5 Bells(in honor of the season)

Hafwyen is the Princess of Yadderwal. However, royal blood is as much a curse as it is a blessing because she has to meet and bond with the mate of her soul before the end of her father's reign or her entire world will perish.

No pressure, right? Don't fret, though, because she's found him, if only in her dreams.

Hafwyen's not the ordinary type of princess kept stuffed away in an ivory tower waiting for her prince to come for her. Well, she is, but she escapes by learning how to go into dreams, or the Myst using a herbal potion that's just shy of being herectical. However, when she finally wakes up and figures out the man of her dreams might be closer to reality than she ever thought possible, it's almost too late.

Yestin has been waiting for Hafwyen to figure out he's real. He can't help her because his hands are tied by the gods. Unfortunately just when she meets an intriguing stranger who can tell her all about him, a dangerous enemy strikes at the very heart of the kingdom. Will she believe in time to save herself and Yadderwall?

Sudden Fall is filled with love, lore magic, dangerously complex court intrigue, and a legend that has a life of its own. The author has created a world that contains characters so vivid I found myself captured from the first page. I couldn’t stop reading until I found out what happened to Wyen and Yestin. Now I'm hooked and ready to be reeled in by the next installment in the series. If books where legend, lore and love collide is something you love, then do yourself a favor and get a copy of Yadderwal today!


Jenna

The Selkie Legend

My latest release, HEART OF THE SEA, is based on an old myth about shape-shifting seals. The Orkney Isles in particular, lay claim to these stories. The word “seal” in the Orkney dialect is “selkie.”

The theme of the LOVE & LORE anthology is Celtic mythology, and there are Irish roots to my story, but the Heart of the Sea itself, the magical amulet on which the story hinges, goes all the way back to the ancient gods of the Northland.

It’s believed that the stories of the seal-people came from a source further north. In the north of Scandinavia, live a people called the Saami. They practiced the Old Norse ways longer than any of their Norwegian neighbors. The Orkney Isles were on a path the Saami used for trade and settlement and it was a legitimate part of Norway in the 13th century. Place names and dialect put Orkney closer to its Norse roots than its Scottish ones. Gray seals in the east Atlantic travel the same paths now, from the UK and Ireland up around the Orkney Islands, Iceland, Norway, and further.

Selkies are creatures of pure magic and the magic lies in their skin. They’re able to cast off their wondrous pelts and take form as humans. But if the skin is lost or stolen, then they’re stuck in human bodies until the skin is recovered. As soon as they find it again, they snatch up their fur covering and rush back to the sea.

Both selkie men and women are extremely attractive to humans. A common theme is when a human man sneaks off with a selkie woman’s sealskin. She’s trapped on land and has no choice but to marry the man who holds her pelt.

It often ends sadly, though. Many years pass and though she seems happy enough, she still longs for her watery home. It’s frequently her children who, by trying to cheer her up, tell her where the skin is hidden. She takes it back, bids farewell to her children, and returns to the sea, never to be seen again.

Happily, Heart of the Sea both begins and ends with the myth a bit backward. It’s the story of a human woman who turns into a selkie through a family curse and while she’s trapped in the body of a seal, longs for her home on dry land.

There are many retellings of this myth. I recommend Orkneyjar.com’s interesting pages about the heritage of the islands and the Selkie Folk. They have several different stories about Selkies. Another website is A Home for Selkies. They have quite a few poems and songs linked on their site. In addition, The Seal Prince, a children’s book by Sheila MacGill-Callahan is beautifully told and illustrated.

I also highly recommend the film, “The Secret of Roan Inish.” It’s a beautiful story within a story – framed by the Selkie myth.

A RAW Weekend

Checking in from the road, I just wanted to talk a little about the weekend I just spent signing books and meeting readers and authors at Lora Leigh's Reader Appreciation Weekend (RAW). It was absolutely fantastic and I was flattered to be included in such a great roster of writers.

I roomed with Sylvia Day, who was on deadline and had to try to write during the event, as did Shelley Bradley (aka Shayla Black). Now that's dedication! I had breakfast yesterday morning with Lorie O'Clare and Lora Leigh - two of my favorite authors! It was so cool to meet them and chat. I also got to talk with Christine Feehan, my pal Jacquelyn Frank, Lucy Monroe, Veronica Chadwick, Mary Wine, and a bunch of others.

The readers were absolutely terrific! I met so many people and had such a great time chatting with everyone. I love these kinds of events where I get to talk with all kinds of people and learn new things. I had a really great time!

In other news, Wings of Change is doing very well. (Thanks to everyone who's read it already!) And things are on track for my next paranormal release, Sweeter Than Wine. Lots of folks were asking me about it this weekend and I'm happy to say the manuscript has been turned into my editor and we'll be working through edits in the next few weeks.

Sweeter Than Wine will bring together my vampires and werecreatures in a very tangeble way. ;) They were always inhabiting the same contemporary paranormal world, but up 'til this book, I don't think it was completely clear. Though this book is not a direct sequel to Lords of the Were, some of those characters do make a cameo appearance in Sweeter Than Wine and the over-arching story about the Altor Custodis (a secret society of watchers) and the evil Venifucus is advanced. This story paves the way for the more direct sequel to Lords of the Were, which I've tentatively titled Inferno because it's Dante's story. ;)

I'll be recovering from RAW for the next few days as I extend my trip a bit. When I get back home, be sure to check my official blog for a contest where I'll be giving away a RAW T-shirt and some of the goodies I picked up over the weekend!

Fantasy Romance was My Fantasy

When I was a kid, I LOVED fantasy. I read C.S. Lewis, David Eddings, Terry Brooks, Robert Jordan (don't get me started...lol). The point is, I read any fantasy I could get my hands on. Couple that with the fantasy movies I would watch voraciously... Labyrinth, The Neverending Story, The Last Unicorn, Legend, The Princess Bride--a fantasy lover was born.

Heck, I don't even know if I was born more than I kind of exploded. LOL I loved it so much, I wanted to write about it. But even as a kid, I felt fantasy never had *enough* romance for me. I wanted to change that.

When I was 13 years old, I was walking my dogs. It's a sad fact, but at that time, my parents had just divorced, and my dogs were some of my closest friends. So I would talk to them. And on that walk, I told them a story. It was a story about two elves, Kaas and Wobble, who were friends with a giant bird known as The Protector. And he wanted them to rescue some princesses and a magical gem in order to save the kingdom.

Well, when I got home that day, I began writing. I eventually wrote three short stories, each about 15 pages hand-written, which I shared with my 8th grade classmates at school. They LOVED the stories so much, I even had one girl write her name in the corner, as if she were my co-author. :P

As I grew older, I realised how very bad these stories were. The writing was atrocious. I stashed them away. Then, I met my DH, who was a hard-core geek, into D&D and the like. (Dungeons & Dragons for those who don't know). Playing this game with him rekindled the storyteller in me, since they had some awesome dragons in this game. I thought back to those old stories and wondered if there was anything worth salvaging. The titles of these short stories were "Castle Templestone", "The Crystal of Mynos", and "In the Beginning".

After playing D&D and watching the movie Dragonheart (awesome, btw), I decided I wanted to write about a dragon. So I changed The Protector from a bird into a dragon, and named him Mynos. Originally, "Mynos" had been a place on the map. But when I invented the dragon, it seemed to fit him. And because I already had the name of the Crystal, I decided to have him be its creator as well.

In 1996, I began THE WOLVERINE AND THE ROSE, and finally finished it in 2004. It took me 8 long years to write, as it was more of a hobby than actually anything I was striving to attain. I even had a 2 year period of some serious writer's block. And at one point, I thought my DH had deleted years of work when he formatted our computer. ACK! Thankfully, we were able to restore the book from one of our friends' backups. If I'd lost that book, I seriously doubt I'd be an author today.

While writing this novel, I lifted many things from the original stories. Many of the names are the same. I even included all of the gems I'd originally written about; the sapphire, the ruby, and the lavendar jewel. Once I finished the first book, I immediately began writing the second, THE WOLVERINE AND THE JEWEL, even though I hadn't sold them yet. But I also decided these books needed a prequel story. They elude to a battle that happened before the books open, and I wanted readers to experience how everything was set in motion.

I wrote the prequel, THE CRYSTAL OF MYNOS, but was unable to sell it due to its short length. I didn't want to add another 5K to make the word count minimum, as that would change it too drastically. It's only a few thousand words to begin with. So, I decided to use this short story as a Free Read promotional tool. So far, it's worked out beautifully for me.

Once I sold this series to Samhain, I think I had tears in my eyes, knowing these books would be going to print nationwide. I recently finished the third book, THE WOLVERINE AND THE FLAME, which will be releasing to eBook on August 28th. I cannot wait. This series has been a long time in coming, and all from an idea that sparked inside of me when I was a 13 year old child.

Let this be a lesson to you all. Your dreams CAN come true. I'm living proof!

The dedication in THE WOLVERINE AND THE ROSE is to myself. :P But it's not because I'm a diva. It's not because I'm self-centered or narcissistic. No. I wrote that dedication to give the little girl I once was validation of some kind. SHE's the one who should get all the credit for my successful fantasy series. If I could go back in time, I would tell her what her success has meant to her adult self. I wish I could give her a hug. I know it would have meant so very much to her. :)

Thank you, writers of Beyond the Veil, for giving me this chance to be your guest blogger! And to all you readers, I leave you with THE CRYSTAL OF MYNOS. May you get lost in my world as I have been for the past twenty years.

http://www.rebeccagoings.com/thecrystalofmynos.pdf

~~Becka
Sexy, Sensual, Seductive
http://www.rebeccagoings.com/