Wishing everyone a healthy, happy, prosperous and successful 2014!
May all your dreams come true!
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Landra Graf's WHAT YOU NEED
What You Need Blurb
Royce is looking for a woman who won’t
cringe at the words “sexual submissive,” and a chance for all his fantasies to
come true. The 1Night Stand he signed up for was supposed to be simple with no
attachments, but when his match is his ex-best friend, simple goes out the
window. He can’t stop seeking the answers to why Victoria left or deny his
new-found attraction to her.
Victoria has loved Royce forever, but
his rejection of her affections eight years ago caused her to walk away from
everything. She’s not the same girl from college, and no longer naive and
willing to run too just anyone. A sexual dominant born from her mistakes, she
wants a chance to start a relationship based on her terms. She’ll settle for
one night, but she’s planning on forever.
Author Bio:
Landra Graf consumes at least one book a day, and
has always been a sucker for stories where true love conquers all. She believes
in the power of the written word, and the joy such words can bring. In between
spending time with her family and having book adventures, she writes romance
with the goal of giving everyone, fictional or not, their own happily ever
after.
Check
out Landra at:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiseoftheSlush
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/landra.graf\
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Looking back...and forward
Buh-bye, 2013.
All things considered, not a bad year for me, writing wise.
So let's reflect...
2013 saw the publication by Decadent Publishing of two of my 1Night Stand stories, FROST and HEAT WAVE, and of BLIZZARD, a story for Decadent's The Edge line. All of those, along with two 2012 1Night Stand stories, LIGHTNING and THUNDER, were collected in the SLEEPY HOLLOW anthology which came out in late August, as a digital edition and as a paperback!
Not too shabby.
What will 2014 bring? I've committed to writing three books for some new lines. One of those is in the can, written and submitted and I'm waiting to hear back from Decadent on whether it's been accepted. I've begun another, for a different publisher and a different secret new line, but the deadline's not until the summer so I'm playing around and procrastinating. The third project is barely a glimmer in my eye. Sadly, it doesn't seem that any of those will be published in 2014. So it may be a slow and depressing year for me, while waiting for those calendar pages to flip by.
And trying to curb my book envy when peeps I know announce new contracts and show off dazzling new covers.
But in May, I'll be visiting New Orleans (my bucket list city) for the Romantic Times con.
Which brings me to my game plan for 2014. (Notice how I didn't say "resolution" there? I'm funny that way. I also know myself.)
In 2014, I hope to plan better. And not make myself too crazy doing it! How about you?
Happy New Year!
Friday, December 27, 2013
Joya Fields' SIDELINED AFTERLIFE
Sidelined Afterlife by Joya Fields
A contemporary romance
with a ghostly twist.
Short Blurb:
Communicating with ghosts has only ever brought Veronica
Matthews pain and grief. Afraid to love and lose again, Hunter Anderson needs
her help, but she resists risking her heart. Can a ghost help them break
through a barrier of mistrust and guilt?
Blurb
Psychic and medium
Veronica Matthews hates being able to communicate with the dead and the nearly
departed. What good is it if she can’t
lead the police to the victims of violent crimes before they die? But when her
neighbor comes to her for help, she’s torn—until she understands that the ghost
haunting him is more dangerous than any she’s encountered….
After losing his
wife in a tragic accident, ER doctor Hunter Anderson’s only solace is his work
and a ghost is jeopardizing that. Turning to his neighbor seems like his only
choice, but spending time with the passionate woman, and her sassy attitude,
might do more than save his life…
She can’t risk her heart. He’s afraid to love and lose
again. Can a ghost help these two souls to live again?
Excerpt:
“I am an idiot. The
biggest idiot ever. If you want me to pierce something for you, to prove I’m an
idiot, I have some sterilized instruments upstairs in my apartment.”
Her tongue poked
against her cheek, signaling a laugh that wanted to erupt. Suddenly, he really
wanted to be the one who could make her laugh. “Maybe I could do your lower
lip?”
Her short laugh
erupted. A sweet, melodic sound that filled the small apartment.
His gaze stayed on
that full mouth and he lifted his fingers closer, compelled to touch her. She stared at him with wide eyes as he
traced the corner of her mouth lightly with his finger.
“I’m a liar. I
could never tarnish something as beautiful as this.”
Christ. What a line. Where had those words come from?
But he meant it.
Her breath was hot
against his finger as he traced the line of her lower lip. Her gaze held his.
His stomach growled again, breaking the spell, and she blinked and leaned
against the sofa.
“You know what? We
never had dessert,” she said.
He had room for
dessert. But not the food kind. He swallowed to quell his appetite for
her. “Uh…how about I make an ice cream run? Then we’ll get to work.” Enough of
this temptation. He needed to get away from her, from this pull she had on his
body and emotions.
Joya’s Bio:
Joya Fields has
had over 100 stories and articles published in local and national magazines.
Her debut novel, a romantic suspense, was a NJRW GOLDEN LEAF WINNER FOR BEST
FIRST BOOK OF 2012 and was nominated for RT Book Reviews 2012 Indie
Press/Self-Published Contemporary Romance award. Since then, she’s published
four more books with even more on the way.
Connect with Joya
Twitter: @joyafieldsFacebook Author Page
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Ring in the new! Calendar Giveaway
I've got some Affaire de Coeur 2014 calendars to give away to five lucky winners!
SLEEPY HOLLOW is featured for October.
Tell me why you need a calendar and which of my books you liked the best in the comments section below. And use the Rafflecopter to enter.
I'll keep the giveaway going until the end of December.
(Sorry, costs of postage will cause me to limit this to U.S. entrants only.)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Lia Davis' DIVIDED LOYALTIES
Divided Loyalties, Ashwood Falls, #4
By Lia Davis
Blurb:
Trained to hunt rogues and protect the human race from the threat
of shifters, Christa Baker is beginning to rethink her career choice.
Especially when her niece and nephew—who she’s raised on her own—end up in the
crossfire. Now she’s looking for a way out and disappear off Shield’s radar for
good. She never thought her out would be a gorgeous wolf who kidnaps her after
raiding Shield HQ.
Hayden Raines has always followed the rules. As the Ashwood Fall
wolf Marshal, he has to set the example for those working under him. When he
sets his sights on the beautiful human hunter things go downhill, fast. Fate
has a funny way of turning things inside out—because the woman he kidnaps, the
enemy he might need to protect his family from, just happens to be his mate.
Warning: Contains one woman on a path she’s not ready for, a
man who thought things would be different, and a heated exchange that turns out
to be the best thing ever.
Excerpt: Something didn’t ring right with Christa Baker as she sat
in the conference room listening to the new leader of Shield rattling on about
rogue shifters. He said they were growing in numbers, yet he hadn’t provided
any physical proof. Sure a few humans had gone missing, most of whom were
homeless, and according the police, their disappearances weren’t that unusual.
She failed to see his point
because shifters were born, not created. So why would they need to kidnap
humans?
Her new boss had gone on and on
for the last several weeks about an increase in shifter sightings. Again, no
proof. Christa had checked.
She could pull up anything from
the Internet. Social networks like Facebook and YouTube were the best places to
look for the weird and unusual.
There hadn’t been a human attack
by a shifter since she’d killed the beast in her home eight years ago. It had
been her first encounter with what she now knew was called a mutant, a
half-animal, half-human creature with no regard for life—its own or others’.
However, Vance Miller believed a
civil war was raging among the breeds that had spilled over into the human
world. There was something he’d left out, something bigger than he wanted her
and the others in Shield to believe. So what if the shifters were at war with
one another and killing themselves? Was it the mutants? If so, then they
deserved what they got. They’d created the damned creatures; they could all go
to hell as far as she cared.
It wasn’t Shield’s place to get
involved in the shifters’ civil war. Shield was a human-run group of rebels
that went above the law to protect mankind from the were-kind or shifters, as
they liked to be called. She didn’t care what they called themselves as long as
they left the humans alone. So far, in the eight years she’d been with Shield, the
shifters had. However, there was the occasional mishap—like the
mating-gone-wrong situation her sister had suffered.
Mary didn’t have the chance to
run when her mate turned on her in a fit of jealous rage. Or at least that’s
what Christa believed happened. Her niece and nephew, fraternal twins Brenna
and Bryce, had been only eight at the time and thankfully not at home to
witness how their mother died.
However, Christa had been the one
to ID the body.
From that day forward, Christa
had fought for Shield to protect humans from the shifter races.
Up until a few months ago, Shield
hadn’t attacked innocents or started wars between the shifters, but then Vance
had stepped in as the new leader of Shield. He’d changed the way the others
thought, more like manipulated them into believing his load of bullshit. She
wasn’t sure how he’d done it, but the others just bowed down to him and
believed every lie out of his mouth.
How could they be so blind to his
cause?
Then again, the other soldiers
couldn’t detect a shifter like she could. Sure, they all had training to know
what to look for. Eye color was the biggie. Most shifters had an unusual
coloring, and when they were challenged or provoked, their eyes seemed to glow.
Plus the pupils were reflective like the animal that lived within.
Christa had lived with two
shifters for the last seven years. She’d been there when Brenna and Bryce
shifted for the first time. She’d also helped them control their wolves, thanks
to the information her sister had shared with her when she was alive.
“My sources tell me that the rise
in shifter attacks points to a hybrid Pack of wolves and leopards called
Ashwood Falls,” Vance said then tapped on the table to get her attention.
She met his gaze and held it
until he looked away, but not before she caught the flashing shift of color in
his irises. Satisfied she wasn’t being paranoid about what he was, she asked,
“How trustworthy is this source? Why haven’t we heard about attacks from our
police contacts? It should be all over the Internet.”
Vance set his jaw and turned away
from them to study the map on the wall. “The shifters are very good at hiding
these things from humans. You, of all people, should know that, Christa.”
Fucking ass…
What she really wanted to say
was, “Like you, asshole,” but she refrained and squashed her temper down before
it got her in trouble. Again. “How sure are you?” she asked in a slightly
softer tone.
See? She could be calm and cool.
He peered at her over his
shoulder and smiled one of those smiles that held no humor or amusement. “If I
didn’t know better, I’d say you were protecting the shifters.”
She narrowed her eyes and wished
she had the gift of pyrokinesis so she could light his ass on fire. Okay so
maybe that was a little extreme, but she didn’t trust or like him. The darkness
he held around him put her on edge every time he was near. “I wouldn’t want to
go in and destroy the wrong den when there could be a bigger threat out there.
I just like to be sure.”
The truth was Vance had taken all
the control of research and strategy from her when he took over the unit. That
annoyed the hell out of her, and it also left her feeling as though she was
going into an OP blind.
She swore he let out a low growl
before he called the meeting to an end. Gathering her notebook and pen, she
moved toward the door, only to stop when Vance stepped in her path. She fisted
her free hand by her side and silently counted backward from ten. One corner of
Vance’s lips lifted. She wanted so badly to punch that smirk right off his
face.
Or just shoot him.
If there was a rogue, it was him
for sure.
“What’s the rush?”
She stared into his dark brown
eyes and squared her shoulders. “I skipped lunch.”
He moved to the side, and she
stepped forward. He gripped her biceps and leaned in to whisper in her ear,
“Tell the brats to stay safe.”
She jerked out of his grip and
stormed down the hall to the lobby of Shield HQ, away from the bastard
shifter-acting-human. Only then did she allow her heart to pound uncontrollably
and let fear consume her.
Pulling out her phone, she sent a
one-word text to an untraceable cell.
Marco.
A few seconds later she got a
reply.
Polo.
Relief flooded her system and
threatened to make her knees give out. She had to get a grip. The twins were
safe and very smart. But still she insisted on the text codes for her own piece
of mind.
Although Vance had just
threatened her niece and nephew. At least that was what she took it for, a
threat. Maybe he knew they were wolves. No. He’d never met—or even seen them.
She had to get out of Shield and
disappear. Fall off the radar for good.
But how?
When she reached the lobby door,
she jerked back as it flew open to reveal a large man with black hair and
bright green eyes that bored into her as he moved forward. She sidestepped him,
but he was too quick. He snaked one arm around her waist, drew her into the
hard length of his side, while he held a gun straight out, and fired at
everyone around them.
She screamed, but no one heard
her over the gunfire. Shield soldiers came from the back offices, weapons
drawn. Two more men stepped up beside her and her captor then rushed the wall
of Shield soldiers, killing them with ease like trained assassins.
Christa twisted and kicked with
no results. The man had a death grip around her waist. “Let me go. We don’t
have money in here.”
He didn’t reply, which was no
surprise to her. She didn’t expect him to. Think,
Christa. She scanned the large lobby, and her heart ached for the men and
women she’d worked with for the last eight years. They were giving it their
all, but it wasn’t good enough. One by one, they fell.
And she was helpless, trapped in
the arms of the murderer.
One of her captor’s allies, an
auburn-haired man, advanced down the hall. He came back a few minutes later and
said, “He’s not here.”
The man holding her firmly to his
body growled. “Let’s go.” He shot the last soldier before turning her around to
face him.
She gasped. No fucking way. He
was a shifter.
The way his eyes reflected off
the light told her that. Frantic, she shoved against his chest. He wouldn’t
budge. “Let me go!”
He lifted a brow and studied her
for a moment or two as though he was trying to read her mind or something. Oh,
no he wouldn’t. She yanked her knee up and connected with his balls, hard. He
cursed and let go of her as he doubled over.
She didn’t waste time. She ran
for the door, only to skid to a halt as the auburn-haired man appeared in front
of her. What the fuck? A teleporter? No, he hadn’t materialized in front of
her. She’d seen it done before. Fucking shifter speed was what he’d used to
reach her so fast.
Christa patted her hip. Damn.
She’d left her gun in her car because it was always too tempting to shoot Vance
if she took it into the meeting.
She tried to fake a left and then
moved right to move around him when the other man gripped her by the arm. A
sharp stick in the arm made her jerk. She peered at the man as he pulled a
needle out of her arm.
Son of a bitch.
Her vision blurred, and her legs
wobbled, no longer able to hold her up.
“Bastards,” she managed to say before everything went black.
About the Author:
Lia Davis is a mother to two young adults and two very
special kitties, a wife to her soul mate, a paranormal romance author, and
co-owner to Fated Desires Publishing, LLC. She and her family live in Northeast
Florida battling hurricanes and very humid summers. But it’s her home and she
loves it!
An accounting major, Lia has always been a dreamer with a
very activity imagination. The wheels in her head never stop. She ventured into
the world of writing and publishing in 2008 and loves it more than she
imagined. Writing is stress reliever that allows her to go off in her corner of
the house and enter into another world that she created, leaving real life
where it belongs.
Her favorite things are spending time with family,
traveling, reading, writing, chocolate, coffee, nature and hanging out with her
kitties.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
A hint of FROST
Just because I love and adore Max, my fire-sex demon and erotic artist...a little G-rated Sunday sumthin' from FROST:
Standing beneath the shower, as cold as
he could get it, he waited for the frigid water to slice over his skin, controlling
the burn. Making a trip into the mountains wouldn’t help. The new Queen of the
Succubi wanted him too badly, although she hid it better than had her deceased
predecessor, a fountain of pure evil. Still, he doubted he’d return from a run
to Demon Hall.
By the time he slid into his seat at the
head of the long, formal dining table, he’d managed to clamp a lid on the
furnace broiling within. Not that he considered himself human, even on the best
of days. But the shower had brought his temperature down. He glanced at his
reflection in the back of a soup spoon.
“Your eyes are lighter,” Blackburn
confirmed. “Almost normal.”
“Yeah, if normal is the color of dirty
snow. Or ash.”
“Opaline gray.”
“As a matter of fact, I could use a new
tube of Opaline gray, if you’re ordering. Also, Mars black. I’ll get you a
list.” Raines dipped his spoon into the bowl of chilled gazpacho Blackburn had
served, but looked up when the majordomo remained silent. “What?” His
razor-thin patience wouldn’t tolerate social diplomacy today.
Blackburn cleared his throat. “You could
use a woman, sir, is what you could use.”
“Yeah. Don’t go there. You know the
drill. Unless you want to sweep
Opaline gray ashes off the sheets?” His stomach grumbled and he turned to the
cold, delicately spiced mélange of tomatoes and peppers with gusto.
When the silver utensil clattered against
the delicate china, Blackburn sighed and whisked the empty bowl away. He
returned a few minutes later with a crystal goblet filled with ice and ringed
with an artistic array of shrimp and lemon wedges.
“I sense a theme.” Raines speared a jumbo
shrimp on a tiny cocktail fork and squirted it with lemon.
“I didn’t think hot
and sizzling would be your preference."
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