December 2014 bewitching book tours magazine

Bewitching Book Tours Magazine Issue 30 December 2014

Bewitching Book Tours Magazine is a publication of Bewitching Book Tours and Bewitching Books.

Editor: Roxanne Rhoads Design Editor and Layout: Lisa McGeen Contributors include Bewitching Book Tours Authors and Tour Hosts learn more at www.bewitchingbooktours.blogspot.com Ad space rates are: $40 full page ad $20 half page ad $10 quarter page ad You can subscribe to this magazine at http://issuu.com/bewitchingbooktours Š Copyright 2014 Stock images from www.123rf.com

Contents Silk Words Country Holiday, Louisiana Style Bear and Bear Alike Helen Treharne Interview Clarabelle’s Custom Creations Top Ten World Class Heroines Fallen Feature Letting Characters Hijack My Mind Penguin Crafts Twas the Night Before Christmas The Use of Freedom as a Motif and Theme in Science Fiction Otherworlds Feature Green Living Tips Rebecca Trogner Interview Christmas at Thornhill Cliffs Feature Romantic Flash Fiction Of Sentimental Value Feature Kay Phoenix Interview Computer Love Inc Holiday Books With Bite The Confessions of Sylva Slasher ML Guida Interview What’s a Serial and Why would I read it?

Christmas in Transylvania Miranda Lynn Interview Sweet Christmas Kisses Dreams of a Wild Heart Feature Behind the Scenes: The Music of Winter Wolf Naughty Nook Hot Holiday Erotica Santa Exposed Witch Hunter Feature Top 5 Reason Steampunk Setting Makes Great Erotica Erotic Flash Fiction Rebirth Nicely Naughty 2 Pinup Files Why the Pinup Files?

Pinups

4 8 11 14 20 22 26 28 32 34 36 39 46 48 52 60 62 76 78 82 85 90 96 107 112 115 119 120 124 125 126 128 131 135 141 144 149 150 151

SilkWords is the go-to source for interactive romance and erotic fiction.

With gorgeous custom covers and a clean, sophisticated design, the SilkWords site offers a secure, upscale reading environment. In addition to content on their web site, they offer stories for purchase in the standard ebook formats.

SilkWords is owned and operated by a full-time mom with a background in genetics and an RWA RITAnominated, multi-published sci-fi romance author.

Their technology guy and site designer was the founder of Microsoft Xbox Live.

SilkWords features two formats that allow readers to choose how the stories will proceed.

Pick Your Path: Will she or won't she? With which man (or woman) in which location? With Pick Your Path romance, you decide. Romance and branched fiction are made for each other, like picking your favorite flavor of ice cream...positions, partners, and paraphernalia, oh my!

Reader Vote: Readers vote at choice points and decide how the story will continue. These stories are a great way for readers and authors to connect. It’s exciting to be part of a developing story! https://www.silkwords.com/

A Soldier's Seduction Brandi Evans Genre: Contemporary Erotica When Gen learns her best guy friend is going back to Afghanistan, she arranges a sendoff he’ll never forget. Will it be an intimate dinner at her place or an adventure at an exclusive erotic club?

Storm at SEA Skyler White Genre: Contemporary Erotica w/paranormal hints (extended length) A journalist accepts an assignment to investigate the Society of Erotic Adventurers. She infiltrates its flagship hotel and, experiencing SEA’s legendary eroticism, discovers her own capacity for pleasure.

A Heart for Copper Sharon Lynn Fisher Genre: Steampunk (sweet) An automaton created by an inventor's son, Copper has finally been given a heart by her young master. Her choice of whether to keep the key or give it to him will decide her fate in this steampunk fairy tale.

The Harem Club Jane Nin Genre: Contemporary Erotica Married young, recently divorced, she thinks she's ready to get back in the game. But when she receives an invitation to an exclusive, adults-only club, she wonders is she ready for this?

Fetish Fair Erzabet Bishop Genre: BDSM Erotica Kari’s best friend tricks her into attending a fetish convention, then promptly abandons her. Exploring on her own, Kari finds herself with a closer-than-front-row vantage point for her first lessons in the art of domination.

Gingerbread Dreams Sheri Williams, Erzabet Bishop, Skye Montague Genre: Holiday Romance Monica has a bakery and is losing money. A new flashier bakery has opened just down the street and is taking all the business during the winter carnival. She heads over to figure out what is going on and encounters several adventures.

Holiday Cruise Erzabet Bishop Genre: Holiday Erotic romance Erin goes on her first cruise with friends on her first holiday away from home as a college student. She meets a female decorator and a man who will help steer her into some sexy holiday memories.

Illegal Lane Change Angel Leih McCoy

Genre: Romance Chicago lawyer, Adele London, has worked hard to get where she is, but when her misogynist boss makes it clear she won't be allowed to excel, she decides she needs a change. With the help of her best friend Karen, Adele considers her options, and only one solution keeps rising to the top: the radical one. It will require that Adele forego societal conventions and stretch into new territory. Once she commits,

there's no going back! The time has come for her to make an illegal lane change.

Online Mating Evelyn Jules Genre: Erotic Romance After joining a sexual compatibility site, Sydney finds herself at a coffee shop awaiting her first date.

When bachelor number one makes a bizarre and slightly alarming entrance, will she stick to Plan A or choose the sympathetic stranger?

Country Holidays, Louisiana Style

By Suzanne Johnson Somehow, it became a winter tradition. My friends from New Orleans and I would pile in a car the second weekend of November and make the trek west along the winding Mississippi Great River Road to St. Charles Parish, where we’d spend the day at the annual Destrehan Plantation’s annual fall festival.

A beautifully restored plantation house and its sprawling, oak-shaded grounds sits across from the river levee, and we’d spend the whole day visiting the house and antique barn, listening to local bands play, and eating— crawfish bread, pralines, roasted peanuts.

For a couple of years, when I was making art quilts, I had “Yat Cat Quilt” T-shirts printed up and had a booth along with my friend Debbie, who made quilted tea cozies. Most of the years, though, I was on the visitor end of things rather than the seller end.

And yeah, I’ll admit it now, I went for the crawfish bread. Think of a fresh French loaf, hollowed out and then stuffed with a mixture of crawfish tails and cheese and tomatoes and cheese and butter and garlic and cheese.

(Did I mention cheese?)

I drew on another favorite winter tradition for “Christmas in Dogtown,” a story about family and tradition and what “home” means: my semi-annual trek to LaPlace, Louisiana, in St. John the Baptist Parish, also west of New Orleans. Now, the locals will tell you they’re “Bailey’s People” or they’re “Jacob’s People,” meaning they prefer the smoked meats from either Jacob’s Smokehouse or Bailey’s (next door).

In “Dogtown,” Teresa Madere has fallen on some rough times so she agrees to leave New Orleans for the month of December and help her uncle run Madere’s Meats out in St. James Parish (just keep heading west and you’ll get there). In my crossroads community of Dogtown, people from the city drive out to buy their holiday meats from either the Maderes or the Caillous, the two main families in town.

It was fun to pull on some Cajun culture to not only tell about the mystery behind the Dogtown community, but also the culture of boudin and andouille and tasso and smoked alligator gar.

It’s not as exotic as it sounds, so in case you want to know more about what Resa’s having to do in “Dogtown,” here’s a quick “meat primer” of the Louisiana river parishes.

Andouille, pronounced “ahn-DOU-eee,” is a smoked pork sausage sort of like a spicier kielbasa. It’s used to make red beans and rice (red beans spiced and cooked down to a mush, with andouille and rice) and jambalaya (a rice dish that usually mixes spices and rice with andouille and either chicken or shrimp, or both). I’m sure others use it in all kinds of other things, but those are the main things I make with it.

Boudin, pronounced “boo-DAN,” is basically “dirty rice” in a sausage casing and unless otherwise noted is synonymous with “boudin blanc.” The rice is mixed with pork or shrimp or crawfish, and then seasoned well and stuffed in the sausage casing. One of my favorite memories was when my mom came to visit me in New Orleans for the first time and I served some crawfish boudin with my red beans. She didn’t say anything but I noticed she kept picking something out of her food. She finally said she didn’t eat grub worms. Needless to say, no more crawfish boudin for her (it was crawfish tails, not grub worms…really!).

There are also variations: boudin balls are balls of the rice mixture that’s battered and fried instead of stuffed into the sausage casings and boiled or grilled. “Boudin noir” has the blood and organ meats in it. Suzanne doesn’t care for boudin noir, thank you. In “Dogtown,” Resa weasels out of making it whenever she can.

And yep, I have had alligator boudin, as well as alligator sausage. It doesn’t taste like chicken!

Don’t like the sound of that stuff?

No worries— “Dogtown” also has a sexy guy with mossgreen eyes and the St. James Parish bonfires.

Each year, bonfires are built along the river levees and set ablaze on Christmas Eve to help Papa Noel find his way to all the Cajun boys and girls when he arrives in his pirogue (kind of a flat-bottomed canoe). It’s a beautiful sight, and for those of us making our winter pilgrimages out of New Orleans, a sure sign that the holidays are here!

Have you ever tried any of the Louisiana cuisine—if so, what’s your favorite thing?

Christmas in Dogtown Suzanne Johnson Genre: Sweet Paranormal Romance Publisher: Story Vault Date of Publication: December 2012 ASIN: B009RBKTSG

Number of pages: 30 Word Count: approx. 11,000 Amazon Barnes and Noble Book Description: A woman who spent years escaping her rural past learns that Dogtown, Louisiana, hides more family secrets than just the recipe for boudin blanc…..

Resa Madere’s on the verge of losing it all. The boyfriend’s gone. The job’s history. Her beloved house is on the brink of foreclosure. She’ll do anything to save it—even spend a long Christmas holiday working in St. James Parish, Louisiana, helping her uncle run the family meat business. But the community of Dogtown, which has been home for seven generations of the Madere and Caillou families, has deep roots and deeper secrets. For Resa, going home is one thing.

Getting out might not be so easy.

Short Excerpt: “You are stupid,” Resa told her reflection in the tiny, scratched mirror of the White Castle’s rose-pink bathroom. “Stupid, ridiculous, and absurd.”

She’d been wrestling with her curly black hair for a half hour, and the brown eyes that stared back at her from beneath freshly plucked brows and carefully applied eyeliner looked more jittery than sexy. “And idiotic.”

First, it had been almost a week since Chan had asked her to the Saturday night community dance, popping the question almost shyly as they hacked at the bodies of gigantic dead fish. They’d both been covered in blood and smelled like they’d been rolling in bait, which should have tipped her off that anything in Dogtown reeking of romance, well, reeked.

Second, her potential date had left immediately after asking her out so he could catch an alligator that had eaten somebody’s poodle in one of those backwater houses near the swamp. He burned rubber out of the Madere’s driveway after making sure he had enough duct tape to wrap around the gator’s jaws. Adequate duct tape was not an attribute she’d ever sought in a man.

About the Author: Suzanne Johnson writes urban fantasy and paranormal romance (under the name Susannah Sandlin) from Auburn, Alabama, on top of a career in educational publishing that has thus far spanned five states and six universities—including both Alabama and Auburn, which makes her bilingual. She grew up in Winfield, Alabama, halfway between the Bear Bryant Museum and Elvis' birthplace, but was also a longtime resident of New Orleans, so she has a highly refined sense of the absurd and an ingrained love of SEC football, cheap Mardi Gras trinkets, and fried gator on a stick. She’s the author of the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series and, as Susannah Sandlin, the Penton Legacy paranormal romance series.

Website and blog www.suzannejohnsonauthor.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Suzanne_Johnson FB: http://www.facebook.com/Suzanne.Johnson.author Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5046525.Suzanne_Johnson

Excerpt: They were mates, but mates who knew almost nothing about each other. Ryland knew better than to rush her, so he eased into the kiss, tilting her head and aligning their mouths. His bear huffed at each hitch and shudder of her breath as he deepened their connection. His senses were attuned to every subtle movement her body made in response to his touch and he gloried in the shiver that ran though her and the softening of her body as she gave into her needs and leaned into him.

He finally gave into the temptation and swept his tongue into her mouth to taste. He sipped at her mouth, letting the flavors of his mate collide on his tongue, ensuring that he would never forget her. He’d thought he’d known what to expect. Strength. She had that in spades. Caution. Sweetness. Innocence. Passion.

Orange blossoms and honey. Her taste exploded in his mouth.

The heat grew with each velvet slide of his tongue over hers. He smiled into the kiss when her hand rose and fisted in his hair. He obeyed the command behind the gesture to deepen the kiss, to drive them both a little crazy, and closer to the edge. The edge of no return where he took his mate, fucked her wet pussy and branded her as his.

She offered no resistance as he plundered her mouth. He thrust his tongue between her parted lips and took what he wanted. He licked at the roof of her mouth, skimming the along the row of her teeth before dipping down deep inside again. Finally, her tongue came out to tangle with his.

Emma knew she would soon be a goner. The feel of his mouth and tongue was doing wonderful things to her body. Her pussy moistened and her nipples pebbled and hardened. Goodness, how she wanted him. And she couldn’t have him. She tried to ease away, to break off the kiss but he growled and she sank back into his heat.

Why couldn’t she have this moment? This night?

Body shaking, she pulled back from the kiss. Kiss, huh. That was too tame of a description for what they had just shared. His lips were wet and moist, and redden. She knew if she looked in a mirror, hers would look the same. She licked her bottom lip, her tongue finding the slight cut where he had scraped it with his teeth.

“I, umm.” Not only did her legs feel like wet noodles, but her brain was fried from the heat of their passion. Ryker’s smile was smug. No doubt he could smell the arousal he’d created as well as see the effect of his touch. Her eyes were dilated and her body was shivering. She wanted him and he knew it. He continued to smile as he ushered her up the stairs. Two more flights and they were in front of the apartment.

Bear and Bear Alike Blackwood Brothers Book Three Marie Mason Genre: paranormal, romantic erotica, bbw romance, werewolves, shifters Date of Publication: November 17, 2014 Word Count: 70,000 Book Description: Ryland and Ryker Blackwood were twins. Identical, thigh clenching bear shifter twins who had no trouble getting women into their beds. Or bed. They’d shared just about everything in life, even women.

The scent of the cat shifter they found on their construction site was driving both Blackwood brothers crazy with lust. Or was it?

Every time they thought they were getting closer to finding the woman who would be their mate, one of their bears backed away.

The hot and cold feeling they were getting from their animals was confusing the shit out of them.

Was the cat shifter meant for one of them or both of them?

About the Author: Marie Mason has loved writing and reading her whole life. Everyone knows when you start to hear voices in your head, you’er destined to be admitted to the nearest mental ward—or become a writer. Marie decided to become writer instead of waiting for the men in white coats to come carry her away. She loves books about alpha males and especially alpha males who just happened to be a demon, wolf or a bear. https://www.facebook.com/marie.mason.395017 https://twitter.com/mariemasonwrite https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7128723.Marie_Mason

Can you tell readers a little bit about yourself and what inspired to write in this particular genre?

I’ve always been fascinated by the supernatural, strange and ghoulish. My mother read Rosemary’s Baby when she was pregnant with me and that probably explains a lot. I’ve always grown up around the genre, particularly through film. I was watching horror movies (albeit pretty tame ones like the Hammer films) as soon I was old enough to gasp, squeal and occasionally mock. They say you should write about what you know, I know horror and the occult.

What is it about the paranormal, in particular vampires, that fascinates you so much?

A bit like the hero of my series, Sophie Morgan, I’m quite practical and level headed, but like even the most skeptical of us, I’m not too proud to admit there’s more out there than we can see or comprehend. That’s why the paranormal is so fascinating. I’m also intrigued by the sociological and anthropological functions of supernatural belief systems on society. Throw in a need to be intrigued, entertained and occasional scares, it’s a winning combination. In my series, I’ve tried to create vampires that could very well exist – they’re not romanticized. I like to think of them as something of an offshoot of our linear evolution. That could happen, right?

What inspired you to write this book?

I’d gone through a spate of reading more contemporary vampire books, such as the Sookie Stackhouse Series and the Twilight books. I particularly enjoyed the former as the characters are down to earth people trying to get on with a supernatural world evolving around them. But I felt there was a gap in the market for something written set in the UK. Interestingly, just as I love reading fiction from the States, I’m getting a lot of good feedback from US reviewers and readers, so perhaps we all like to step into another world now and again.

Please tell us about your latest release.

Sure. On a literal level, it’s about a young woman called Sophie Morgan, who is doing pretty well in life, one failed relationship aside(but who doesn’t have some of those) She’s done everything that’s expected of her gone to college, got a job, been responsible with money. Then she goes on a mini break to Belgium with a friend and all that goes to hell in a handcart. She’s attacked by vampires, develops an attraction to Mickey, an Irishman working his way around the bars of Europe, and ends up the focus of 300 year old vampires affections when she finally gets home. It’s essentially what would really happen if someone discovered vampires exist – not a romanticised version. It’s about discovering who you are, what’s important and seeing the world through clear, not rose tinted glasses.

Is there a character that you enjoyed writing more than any of the others?

The majority of the story is told through Sophie’s eyes, intertwined with the thoughts, observations and perspectives of a handful of other key factors, most notably “head vampire” Charles Ferrers, a male neighbours and a terminally ill solicitor who becomes a vampire rather than face death. Surprisingly, I enjoy writing from the male character’s perspective. There comes a liberation with adopting a completely different persona and the history you build for a character of the opposite sex. As with most writers, I suspect, however, that there’s a little part of me in all the characters. It’s healthy to encourage that small, hidden away part to come out and play.

What is the most interesting thing you have physically done for book related research purposes?

I adore Nordic Noir, programmes like the original Danish production of The Killing for example. When developing Sophie’s backstory I knew that I wanted her to be raised by a single mother, and that she is the product of a holiday romance. I couldn’t resist making Copenhagen the location for that series of events. I combined my love of Nordic Noir and research for the series with a trip to Denmark last spring. It was amazing and has really helped me understand the location and culture – important to note as I explore this back story more in the second book, Death in the Family.

Do any of your characters have similar characteristics of yourself in them and what are they?

I would share Sophie’s dependency on a good cup of Earl Grey tea and head for money. I’m pretty practical and love getting a bargain. Not that I’m a cheapskate! There is, as I’ve said, probably a little bit of me in all of the characters – in different moods or in different times in my life.

Do you ever suffer from writer’s block? How do you deal with it?

Never. If anything I have too many ideas and that can stop me being productive if I’m not careful. I’m already scribbling down ideas for 2/3 books down the line, the chattering monkey voices never shut up, always poking their nose in, telling me about another great idea for a short story. I have to carry post it notes, pads and an iPad with me everywhere so I can scribe everything down to get it out. I think that if you are getting stuck on a piece of work, then it can be something different, a plot line which isn’t working for example. Then I just take a step back, map out all the options and cogitate on them for a bit. That seems to work.

What are your guilty pleasures in life?

I don’t feel guilty about pleasure.

Other than writing, what are some of your interests, hobbies or passions in life?

I’m a firm believer in equality, animal welfare and generally being excellent to each other (thanks Bill and Ted for a good maxim to live by). When I’m not writing fiction, I may rant about a topic on my blog, or on Twitter.

I also volunteer for Cats Protection, a UK based charity dedicated to the welfare and rehoming of unwanted and abandoned cats. I also read, a lot, and occasionally review. I think authors should support each other – it’s a tough job and going it alone can be a struggle.

What can readers expect next from you?

The second book in the series, Death in the Family, will be out in paperback and eBook early next year. It picks up immediately on the action of Relative Strangers. I won’t give too much away but it’s much darker than the first book. Sophie has started to rebuild her life. The vampire threat isn’t over but a greater one lurks and this time it’s much closer to home.

Where can readers find you on the web?

There’s few places on the internet where I haven’t wormed my way in. Here’s just a few of them.

My blog www.helentreharne.wordpress.com, Twitter https://twitter.com/Tea_Talks , Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1vOSmXq and GoodReads: http://bit.ly/Vg7voh . I’ve also pages on Amazon, US: http://www.amazon.com/Helen-Treharne/e/B00LFVTXME/ and UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/HelenTreharne/e/B00LFVTXME/ Would you like to leave readers with a little teaser or excerpt from the book?

I’d love to. As Sophie spends a lot of her time trying to fend off vampires, how about some of her thoughts on how to kill them. After all, you never know when you might need to.

“You don’t need to stake them in the heart to kill them, although it’s quite possible that would work too, I’ve not tried it. Daylight definitely doesn’t kill them, or at least not the ones I’ve met. You don’t have to decapitate them either, but my philosophy is that if you cut anything’s head off it will probably cease to function in its usual way, whether it’s living or undead. I’m not a trained fighter, I’m basically about survival, and I’ve found that whacking just about anything with force and frequency will stop it. Either that or blow its brains out. It seems to have worked for me so far.

When you kill a vampire they don’t just go "poof" and turn into cinders either. A well timed breeze doesn’t come along and blow their ashes far and wide. There’s no sudden mound of dust, which you can suck up in your vacuum cleaner, more convenient though it would be. Maybe they disintegrate given enough time, I don’t know for certain, but they definitely leave a carcass behind, which at least leaves you with a problem in the short term.

I can’t say that I’m an expert on slaying vampires, or that I knew exactly what to expect when I woke up the following morning, but at the top of my list of chores was scrubbing my kitchen and disposing of the remains.”

Relative Strangers: A Modern Vampire Story Sophie Morgan Vampire Series Book 1 Helen Treharne

Genre: Urban Fantasy

ISBN-10: 1502369435 ASIN: B00MRAZGK0

Number of pages: 301 Word Count: 96,500

Book Description:

Meet Sophie Morgan… practical, Welsh, prone to occasional profanity, and seemingly a vampire magnet.

Sophie Morgan is 23 and has always done the right thing. She’s caused no stress for her family, worked hard through university, has taken a successful leap onto the career ladder and nurtured a reasonably healthy bank balance. It’s no small surprise then when, on a post relationship break-up, mini-break to Antwerp, she pursues a pair of thieves who steal her friend’s handbag. But this is only the start of her world being turned upside down.

Ripped from the streets into a dark alley she is violently attacked, barely alive when quirky Irish bar worker, Michael Kelly, stumbles across the scene.

The pair, shocked by their experience and uncertain whether they have killed her attacker in the brawl which follows, go into the night for answers. They get more than they bargained for. Sophie quickly learns that vampires exist, her neighbours back home aren’t what they seem and new boyfriends can be found in the strangest of situations.

Relative Strangers is the first in a new vampire series with a distinctly British flavour, but which will appeal to everyone. Reviews call it " a vampire tale with bite", with "brilliant characters that draw you in" and a very fresh take on the genre. Read it now to find out reviewers are raving about.

Available at Amazon Smashwords iBooks BN Excerpt:

I wakened with a jolt, my heart beating, and my lids heavy. The glowing display of my alarm clock informed me it was four a.m. Had the noise been real, or had I been dreaming? My brain fired up and I took in my surroundings. I'd spent two months living with my mother in my childhood home following my sudden relocation back to South Wales. I'd only moved into my own place a few days earlier and was disorientated. Bed, furniture, dressing gown draped over the chair- all mine, definitely my bedroom, no one else in the room with me, all good. So what the hell was that noise?

My anxiety levels were sky high. It had been a terrible year, one brimming with violence and death. I couldn't take another emotional or physical beating; I hoped my imagination was playing tricks on me. Please

don't let this be anything more than a dream, I prayed.

I tentatively reached across the nightstand to flick on the lamp, but quickly retracted my hand. What if there is someone in the house? There could be someone downstairs. You don't want to let them know you're up here. Think Sophie, is that what woke you up, could that have caused the noise you heard - was it a bang, something smashing? It might be better to err on the side of caution. Take a breath, think before you do anything.

Slipping my legs from under the duvet I padded over to the window and quietly pulled the cord to lift the blind. It was dark outside. Dawn wouldn't surface for several hours, but the street lamp at the bottom of the garden afforded me a little light. The town council switched them on early during the winter months.

Everything outside looked peaceful. The gate at the bottom of the path knocked rhythmically against its post in the cold January wind. I must have failed to close it properly.

Another noise. Was it a noise? Did I really hear something? Yep, definitely coming from downstairs.

Blood whooshed through my ears as my heart began pumping adrenaline through my body. Someone else was in my house. Someone was moving downstairs. Oh my God, no, not here. How could he have found me?

Why now? I've been moving on. I didn't even tell.

My body froze in panic, but something deep in my gut forced my brain into action. There was no way I was going to give in after I’d battled for so long and so hard to stay alive, to survive. Nobody was going to rob me of that, or anything else for that matter. I quickly assessed my options, but they didn’t add up to much.

I could hide out in my room and hope that the intruder would go of their own accord. Perhaps they'd just be an ordinary burglar - they'd be in and out. They'd take my purse, mobile phone and keys which I'd left in the kitchen and escape but I could replace things. At least I'd be alive and unharmed.

But what if I just stayed put and they came upstairs, perhaps looking for things of higher value? Based on my experience, it was more likely that it was some sicko who would then have me penned in. I'd have no escape and be at their mercy. I wasn't ever going to let that happen to me again.

Thoughts machine gunned their way through my brain, but I decided to come down on the side of braving it, going downstairs and confronting my intruder. Maybe, I'd be lucky and it would just be a petty thief, more scared of me than I of him. But on the other hand, perhaps it was him. If so, I was probably dead already, may as well get it over with.

About the Author:

After a successful career in business and career coaching, Helen Treharne returned to South Wales in 2010 to focus on writing, among other things.

Relative Strangers, a modern vampire story featuring an increasingly feisty Sophie Morgan, hits digital bookshelves in 2014. In addition to being the creator of the developing “Sophie Morgan" series, she is an urban poet and social commentator who can frequently be found ranting in the Twitterverse. She knew the

degree in Sociology would come in handy some day!

Helen lives with her husband, three cats, an entrenched tea addiction and an increasing collection of stringed instruments. When she’s not writing she spends her time daytime hours working in communications and volunteers for a feline welfare charity. She can't be trusted near stationery and has had more come backs than Cher.

Blog www.helentreharne.wordpress.com Twitter @Tea_Talks https://twitter.com/Tea_Talks Facebook : http://on.fb.me/1vOSmXq GoodReads: http://bit.ly/Vg7voh Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/Helen-Treharne/e/B00LFVTXME/ Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Helen-Treharne/e/B00LFVTXME/

Bewitching Book Tours is now offering custom book swag creations that can be added on to tour packages or ordered separately.

We are offering high quality, hand crafted, one of a kind items made to match your book. Currently we are offering beaded bookmarks, beaded keychains, purse charms, belt loop charms, wine glass charms, and earrings.

These items can be created with colored beads to match the colors in your book cover.

We can also add small charms to coordinate with book content- we have a wide variety of charms to choose from and if we don't have something that matches your book we can get it.

Some of the silver charms available are: vampire fangs, wolves, witch hats, keys and locks, books, hearts, haunted houses, bats, foxes, hamsas, dragons, sugar skulls, rhinestone skull and crossbones, high heeled shoes, Fleur de lis, masquerade masks, owls and many more.

You can also opt to have the items completely customized by adding your book cover to a metal charm. The book covers are encased in small metal photo frame charms and sealed in resin for a high quality charm that looks fabulous and is very durable.

Our goal is to create custom book swag that represents your book.

Prices start at just $5.00 per keychain, purse charm, bookmark or pair of earrings.

Contact Roxanne at RoxanneRhoads@bewitchingbooktours.com for custom price quotes

Top Ten List of World Class Heroines In Literature and Entertainment

By Christian Brown Those of you who don’t know me—which is probably a rather large amount of folks at the moment—don’t know that I have an aversion to weak female leads. I like women who stand up to adversity, who are quick on their feet, and who are positive role models. I could go on forever about all the Mary Sues in our media, but I believe in putting positive energy out into the world, so here’s a list of some of my favorite female role models in popular culture. (Note: no offence to any actual persons named Mary, or Sue, we’re talking about the meme ) 10. Lady Gaga. Let’s just get all the pop stars out of the way in one lump sum. With the current trends in music, such as J Lo and Nicki’s travesty of a video that set women’s rights back about a decade, the pickings are slim. What was that horrid thing--that can never be unseen—even called? Jiggelz? Arse-pudding? I struggle to recall anything beyond undulating flesh. Anyhoo, I’ll put Lady Gaga on the list since she’s brave enough to wear suits of pastrami and challenges social issues—even if she’s bat-you-know-what bonkers. Honorable mentions for this position go to Tegan and Sara, and Brandi Carlile, for keeping it both soulful AND classy.

9. Sailor Uranus: Gender-bending, sporty and tough! In the Japanese version, she’s written as a lesbian.

Which is potentially misogynistic for the presumption that she must be a lesbian to like “manly” pursuits like driving and sports, as well as embracing of diversity for being an openly gay character.

8. Elsa, princess of Arendelle. She chooses family over love and learns how to harness a devastating power within herself. Not too shabby for a Disney Princess.

7. Regina, Evil Queen/ reformed villain. I have a soft spot for characters that evolve into their heroism. In Regina’s case, the love of her child—not even one of her own blood—transformed her into a person that does the right thing. Most of the time. She WAS an Evil Queen, after all. I doubt her edge will ever be dulled.

6. Daenerys Targaryen. She grows from a sold-off-woman into a powerful queen. Her ruthlessness, come certain points, isn’t admirable, so she only lands at #6.

5. Pam, vampire sass-queen of True Blood. I definitely admire the life that Kristen Bauer gave the character in the transition from book to screen. At times her acerbity can wear one’s patience a little thin, but in the last few seasons of the show (as the quality of the script nosedived, in my opinion) her characterization flourished.

We saw that Pam had a human heart under all that cynicism. And damn, did she ever have all the good lines!

4. Lady Mary. I think most of Lady Mary’s appeal can be attributed to the actress that plays her, Michelle Dockery. Otherwise an opinionated, scandalous aristocrat could come off as entirely alien and cold. But there’s a warmth to Lady Mary, and a great deal of growth, too, that she experiences after the birth of her child and the loss of her husband. I think that growth is essential to heroism. The capacity for change. Lady Mary demonstrates that in spades with her impressive character arc.

3. Hermione Granger. Smart, humble, pretty—but not vain. Also worth noting is that Emma began the #HeForShe campaign, which is brilliant. Men need to engage themselves in fighting sexism.

2. Xena Warrior Princess. She’s kicked every arse that needs kicking and then some. She’s plain awesome.

1. Morigan Lostarot. Omg—he didn’t! I did. I plugged my own novel. But hear me out as to why she’s so great. Like many heroines, she has a rather unsavory fate thrust upon her, and while she has moments of weakness, she never truly pines or whines. She keeps moving ahead; challenging fate, challenging a demented and dark King. She even finds epic love. Not that she needs a man’s devotion to fulfill herself, only to compliment her. She is independent, resourceful, and has a blend of courage and cautious wisdom. I’m interested to hear what you think about Morigan and the other heroines in Feast of Fates. There are several heroines, and some rather menacing women, too. I promise to surprise and delight you with each.

Feast of Fates Four Feasts Till Darkness Book One Christian A. Brown Genre: Fantasy Romance Date of Publication: September 9, 2014 ISBN: 978-1495907586 Number of pages: 540 Word Count: 212K Book Description: " ove is what binds us in brotherhood, blinds us from L hate, and makes us soar with desire.”

Morigan lives a quiet life as the handmaiden to a fatherly old sorcerer named Thackery. But when she crosses paths with Caenith, a not wholly mortal man, her world changes forever. Their meeting sparks long buried magical powers deep within Morigan. As she attempts to understand her newfound abilities, unbidden visions begin to plague her--visions that show a devastating madness descending on one of the Immortal Kings who rules the land.

With Morigan growing more powerful each day, the leaders of the realm soon realize that this young woman could hold the key to their destruction. Suddenly, Morigan finds herself beset by enemies, and she must master her mysterious gifts if she is to survive.

Available at Amazon and Createspace Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/8E_RVXgpqB8

Feast of Fates, Excerpt 2

Menos was darker than usual: its clouds as black as the shadow of fear that haunted Mouse. The city felt more menacing to her. She saw shadows in every corner, noticed the glint of every ruffian’s blade or slave’s chain as though they were all intended for her. The warning of Alastair played inside her skull on a loop of nightmare theater.

A hand over her mouth startles her awake, and she twists for the dagger in her pillowcase until she recognizes the shadowy apparition atop her, who hisses at her to calm.

“Alastair?” she gasps.

The hand unclenches and the willowy shadow retreats to more of its own; she can only see the scruff of his red beard in the dark.

“Get up, Mouse. Get dressed.”

Her mentor sounds annoyed or confused; she is each, but finds her garments quickly enough anyway.

“I don’t like good-byes, so let’s not call this that,” Alastair says with a sigh. “But it will be a parting, nonetheless. You need to go low. Lower than you’ve ever been before. A new name won’t be enough. You’ll need a new face. I don’t know how or who, but the sacred contract of our order has been broken. Your safety has been bought.”

Mouse knows the who and how, and as she glances up from her boot-lacing to explain to her mentor her predicament, she sees that he is gone. Just empty shadows, echoing words, and the sound of her heartbeat drowning out all the rest.

She expected the dead man and his icy master to emerge from the dim nooks and doorways of the buildings she passed at any instant. With a hand on her knives and a fury to her step, she swept down the sidewalk; no carriages for her today, as they were essentially cages on wheels—too easy to trap oneself in. With its sooty storefronts and their wrought-iron windows, its black streetlamps that rose about her like the bars of a prison, Menos was constricting itself around her, and she had to get out.

You’ve survived worse than the nekromancer, she coached herself, though she wasn’t certain that was true. She hurried through the grimness of Menos, dodging pale faces and quickening her step with every sand.

By the time she arrived at the fleshcrafter’s studio, she was sweating and stuck to her cloak. She looked down the desolate sidewalk and up the long sad face of the tall tower with its many broken or boarded-over windows.

When she was sure she wasn’t being pursued by the phantoms that her paranoia had conjured, she pulled back a rusted door that did not cry out as it should have, given its appearance, but slid along well-formed grooves through the dust. She raced through the door and hauled it closed.

It was dark and flickering with half-dead lights in the garbage-strewn hallway in which she stood.

Mouse picked through the trash with her feet, tensing as she passed every dark alcove in the abandoned complex. Hives, these places were called, and used to house enormous numbers of lowborn folk under a single roof. In Menos, even the shabbiest roof was a desirable commodity, so the building’s ghostly vacancy meant that it likely was condemned by disease at one point. Soon the stairwell she sought appeared, and she tiptoed down it, careful not to slip on the stairs, which were slick with organic grunge.

Couldn’t have picked a nicer studio, she cursed. I’ll be lucky if this fleshcrafter leaves me with half a lip to drink with. Lamentably, speed and discretion were her two goals in choosing where to have her face remodeled. Such stipulations cut the more promising fleshcrafters off the list and left her with the dregs. She hadn’t put much thought into what she would have done, or even if she would end up hideously disfigured. Monstrous disfigurement could even work in her favor, as she bore an uncanny resemblance to that crow-eviscerated woman whom she suspected was the object of the nekromancer’s dark desire. I’ll take ugly over dead. Over whatever he has in mind for me.

About the Author

Christian A. Brown has written creatively since the age of six. After spending most of his career in the health and fitness industry, Brown quit his job to care for his mother when she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2010.

Having dabbled with the novel that would eventually become Feast of Fates for over a decade, Brown was finally able to finish the project. His mother, who was able to read a beginning version of the novel before she passed away, has since imbued the story with deeper sentiments of loss, love, and meaning. He is proud to now share the finished product with the world.

http://christianadrianbrown.com

https://www.facebook.com/ChristianAdrianBrown

EXCERPT 2 “So you’re warning me away from you?” I was appalled. “Then why are you doing this…guarding me at all? Why the torment? Why watch over me when you know that…that we should be more?” I felt on the verge of tears, which amazed me. How could pain be so sharp in the afterlife? “Answer me, Eran. Why?” He sighed. “Because it is my job.”

I gasped, more offended than I’d ever been. “I’m a job to you?” I stared at him and waited for his head to rise but he refused to look at me.

“Yes,” he said weakly, defeated. His beautiful, rugged voice released as a whimper and the pain inside me grew. “You are just a job.”

I didn’t think it was possible but the emptiness I’d felt with Eran being gone those many weeks held no comparison to the magnitude of what I was experiencing right now.

I felt as if I had been gutted.

“No…” I shook my head. “I don’t believe you because you see, Eran, I can feel your emotions run through me. Whether you want to admit them or not, I know how you feel about me.”

Stunned, his head jerked up, his brilliant blue-green eyes drilling into mine. “You feel me too? How can that be?”

“I don’t know. But I do know that I feel in you the same emotions I have.”

He groaned and turned away. “That’s not possible…” he muttered, pausing. When he spoke again his voice was strained, determined. I drew in a breath as the intensity of these emotions ran through me. “It doesn’t matter. I won’t let this happen. This will not happen…I will not let us be together.”

“Because you are my guardian? Then let me make it easy on us…You’re fired.”

“It doesn’t work that way, Magdalene,” he said, quieter but still resolute.

“I didn’t want you to watch over me, Eran. I never asked for it.”

As if he’d become an entirely new person, his reply was flat and detached. “You’re a messenger. You require a guardian. It’s as simple as that.”

“Then we’ve just solved the issue, didn’t we?” I said causing him to finally look up. “This will be my last message. It’s from me to you…goodbye Eran.”

Turning swiftly, I walked away just before the tears came.

Fallen Guardian Trilogy Book 1 Laury Falter Genre: Young Adult Fantasy Romance

Publisher: Audeamus LLC Date of Publication: April 1, 2009 ISBN: 978-0-9855110-3-6 ASIN: B00280MFEY Number of pages: 274 pages Book Description: Fallen - the first book in the Guardian Trilogy...

Maggie is unaware of the terrifying fate that awaits her. It isn’t until she lands in New Orleans for a full year at a private high school and her unknown enemies find her does she realize that her life is in danger.

As a mystifying stranger repeatedly intervenes and blocks the attempts on her life, she begins to learn that there is more to him than his need to protect her and that he may be the key to understanding why her enemies have just now arrived.

Available at Amazon Audible Reviews "Fast-paced, the story starts off strong and retains a tight rein on the momentum throughout. This book mixes humor, mystery, and the supernatural into a satisfying blend that should appeal to both young and more mature readers." ~Coffee Time Romance Review "Great flow of interest and most unusual characters (that you will love as I have). I have laughed out loud at some of them. Good, simple, fast read that has a great hook, line and sinker." ~Great Minds Think Aloud Review "A very good read with interesting characters and a quick pace." ~Life Is Better With Books Review About the Author: Laury Falter is a bestselling author of young adult romantic suspense and urban fantasy. She has three series out: the Guardian Trilogy, the Residue Series, and the Apocalypse Chronicles.

Website: http://www.lauryfalter.com Twitter page: http://www.twitter.com/LauryFalter Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/LauryFalter/196033543803745 Goodreads page: http://www.goodreads.com/lauryfalter

Letting the Characters Hijack My Mind by Michelle C. Reilly I started writing many years ago, however I never got the chance to sit down and write an entire book until last year. I was always under the impression that other writers were like me. And some of them are. However, some of them aren’t. It took me almost a year after that to realize that not all writers have characters screaming at them inside their grey matter. Or, possibly even taking a hatchet to the inside of their skull.

You see, if I don’t let these characters have free reign (especially now that I have let them have a taste of freedom), I’m pretty sure I’d go crazy. I know I’m one of the lucky ones. I can sit down in front of a screen and the story flows. Next thing I know, I’ve written five thousand words and my eyes hurt. Yet, my mind is still buzzing and the characters don’t want to let go. In fact, I’m pretty sure they’ve held me hostage.

For instance, I’ll try to watch some TV. I’ll have to make deals with the impatient person who’s tapping their foot on my inner eardrum (it really hurts!) that I’ll let them have some time to themselves (i.e. me writing about them) during the commercial breaks.

Earlier today, I was talking to someone who’s read my books and described something about one of my characters. The person’s eyes popped wide open and they were amazed that I knew so much about the character. Well, of course I do. The characters overload me on a daily basis with details. I mean… DETAILS! Like, sometimes it’s just…too much! T – M – I!! Seriously, Nico, I really DON’T want to know what you did with that girl from the twenties in that bar in San Francisco. UGH! But, with the lighter side of a character’s particular fun, comes the darker. I know secrets about these characters that they don’t want others to know. Unfortunately for them I’m the author, and those secrets are going to one day see the light of day. They’re not going to like it. *gleefully rubs hands together as she puts the scenes together in her mind* You see, I’m just their middle-man. I’m their antenna that brings their signal into focus. They are the hijacker and I’m their vehicle that brings their fantatstical stories to you… The reader. It’s a dangerous job (especially when I know who’s killed who *looks over shoulder to see if anyone is staring through my window*), but someone’s gotta do it. May as well be me.

Witches The Anathergians Trilogy Book Two Michelle C. Reilly

Genre: Science Fiction/Paranormal Romance Word Count: 82k Cover Artist: Michelle C. Reilly Book Description: Auden, the immortal king of the Anathergians, is lost within a sea of emotions. Rocked to his very core from his battle against the Variants, he fears Travik—father to Auden’s Lifemate, Leah, and the Anathergian who turned humans into Variants—has committed the ultimate evil and killed Leah. Desperate, Auden struggles to discover the truth.

And what of Leah’s foster brother, Ceadan, who turned into a Variant to save his sister? Was he successful? Did he survive?

Auden and his fellow Anathergian warriors join with the council of witches to search for—and hopefully save— Leah and Ceadan.

Will they find them? Are they alive? And what is Travik’s evil plot for humankind?

Excerpt: Using Auden’s Bugatti, they made their way to the salon where Ceadan had been. Auden eyed the place.

Built sometime in the 1960s, the house was now a business establishment because of zone changes.

Patches of white stucco were missing from the walls and the faded black trim peeled away from the wood.

When all four of them entered, the thin teenage boy at the desk stood and backed against a wall. His wide brown eyes, outlined in dark liner, stared at each of them. His jaw worked as if he tried to speak, but no words came out.

Gunner stepped forward and the boy squeaked and plastered himself closer to the wall. The Anathergian pulled Ceadan’s receipt from his pocket. “We’re trying to track down a friend of ours and, the last day he was seen, he visited…” He scrutinized the room and rocked back on his heels. “This lovely establishment. Can you give us an idea of who he saw?”

The boy’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and he nodded as he tentatively read the receipt. “Uh…” his voice wavered, “let me see who was here that day.”

He reached for the mouse on the desk and surveyed the information displayed on his monitor. “It…uh…looks like Daisy took care of him.”

Gunner used the receipt like a guitar pic and strung it across the fingers of his other hand. “And, is Daisy here?”

The kid’s eyes widened, showing an extraordinary amount of sclera. “Oh! Yes. I’ll take you…uh… All of you to her.”

They followed the boy down a hallway and into a room on the left. A girl with her head shaved on one side and the rest of her fluorescent orange hair sticking out in spikes sat at a table drawing as she rocked out to whatever music played in her ear buds.

“Uh… Daisy?” The boy’s voice shook. When he got no response, he tried again. “Daisy, you have some… uh…men here to see you.” This time he knocked on the wall next to her.

The girl’s head lifted, her eyebrows drawn down. When she saw Gunner behind the kid, she smiled and pulled out her earbuds. When she stood and sashayed around the table, Auden scanned her black pants covered with multiple buckles. He wondered how long it took her to get them on and off.

Daisy’s gaze slowly analyzed Gunner from the top of his head to his white sneakers. The thick liner around her eyes emphasized their blue color. “Hey. What can I do for you?” She had a slight southern accent proving she wasn’t a Las Vegas native.

Gunner, never one to let a good thing pass him by, put on the charm. “Hey, darlin’. I’m looking for a friend of mine. He came here a few weeks back and then he decided to go and disappear on us. I’m hoping you can give us a clue what you did to him while he was here.” He reached into his front pocket and, when the girl’s gaze followed his hand, he slowed his movements so she could get a better look. Auden shook his head.

He pulled out his phone and displayed the photo of Ceadan they’d found in the complex’s database. The girl studied it while blowing a huge, pink bubble from the gum she chewed. “Yeah, I remember him. He’s the reason I’m orange now.”

“Orange?” Gunner asked.

“Yeah, you know?” She pointed to her head. “Orange. Except his is yellow, you know? Like the vests construction guys wear.”

Gunner glanced over his shoulder at Auden with a raised eyebrow and then turned back to the girl. “So, it’s like bright yellow?”

She nodded and blew another bubble. When the gum stuck to her lip, she swiped it with a finger and sucked on it with a sexy grin at him. Nico snickered behind him.

“So, what else did you do to his hair?” Gunner asked her.

She shrugged. “Mohawk.”

Gunner blinked a few times. “What kind of Mohawk?”

“Just your typical type. You know? Long in the middle, shaved on the sides. And very bright.”

Gunner fiddled with his phone for a minute and then showed the girl the display. “So, is this what he looked like after you finished with him?”

She blanched when she saw the photo. Auden leaned over to see Ceadan now with a high line of bright yellow hair running down the middle of his head and a smooth scalp on either side.

“Wow.” She reached for the phone. “That’s a cool app. What’s it called?”

“Ah, ah, ah,” Gunner said while shaking his head and pulling the phone away. “It’s my special app. So, would you say this is him?”

She shook her head. “Pretty much. But, you’re missing his ear studs. He had a few on each ear.”

Gunner let a breath out between his teeth and it came out almost like a whistle. “Alrighty, then, I think that’s all we need.”

The girl swiveled toward her counter, picked up a business card, and handed it to Gunner. “Let me know if you need anything else. I’m always happy help out.” The sly smile she sent Gunner gave Auden a pretty good idea of what kind of help she was willing to give the man.

Gunner nodded to the girl with a smile and a wink, and they all circled around to leave the premises.

When they were outside, Nico said, “Dude, every single time. We can’t take you anywhere.”

Gunner gave him a who me? look, with his arms spread wide. “Who’s talking, Mr. I’ll-Fuck-Whatever-I-CanGet-My-Dick-Into?”

Nico stopped and squinted his eyes. “Not whatever I can get my dick into. I am choosey,” he paused. “Well, a little choosey. They have to be breathing at least.”

Gunner let out a snort. “Whatever. Should I play you a recording of growling cats?”

When Nico glared at him, Gunner quirked an eyebrow. “Then get in the car and quit your whining.”

About the Author:

Michelle C. Reilly is a science fiction romance writer. She's a single mom of two wonderful boys. She spent ten years in the U.S. Navy as a Hospital Corpsman Preventive Medicine Technician, which meant she was actually attached to or stationed with the U.S. Marine Corps. She has a Masters in Science in Public Health, but she is generally an IT geek and a geek of many other things as well. She currently resides in Las Vegas, NV, with her two cats, Meowdy and Moose, and her dog, Katie aka "The Old Lady."

Make sure to visit her website www.michellecreilly.com for more information about her and her upcoming books.

Feel free to visit, ask her questions, and hang out with her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ michellecorareilly And if you're a tweet-a-holic (or even if you're not), follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ MichelleCReilly Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/michellecreilly

Penguin Crafts

By Wenona Napolitano Many recycling centers do not accept the type of plastic that yogurt cups are made from so many crafty greenies are always looking for something creative to do with the yogurt containers. How about turning some into penguins?

Small yogurt cups and smoothie bottles can easily become cute penguins. Just paint the bottles and cups with black spray paint for plastic, let that dry and then paint the white bodies with a brush and acrylic paint. Craft foam can be used to make the wings, feet and beaks, black for the wings, yellow for the beaks and feet then glue them on with a hot glue gun (tacky craft glue would also work).

They are absolutely adorable and basically pretty easy to make (younger children may need help, adults could spray paint the bottles and cups and let them do the rest). They also have the possibility of being customized to an individual’s taste and available supplies. They can even be customized for holdais and events. For Christmas you could add candycanes or Santa hats, for winter add stocking hats and scarves, for Valentine's Day you could add hearts.

Supplies Needed: Small yogurt cups and/or smoothie bottles (for this project Yoplait Fiber One cups and Dannon DanActive smoothie bottles were used) Black spray paint for plastic White acrylic paint Black acrylic paint or fine tipped black permanent marker

Paintbrushes Yellow (or orange) craft foam for feet and beaks Black craft foam for wings Hot glue gun and glue sticks (or fast drying craft glue) Scissors Pen White pencil Newspaper, or other table cover Directions: First find some yogurt cups and/or smoothie bottles, remove any labels (on the bottles) and clean them thoroughly and let dry Take the bottles and/or cups outside and turn upside down on newspaper, spray paint with black spray paint made for plastic. Let that dry. Repeat.

Once the yogurt containers are dry, draw on the body design with a pen or pencil, a white pencil works well.

Then you can easily paint over it with white paint.

Paint the white body onto the yogurt container. It may take a couple of coats of paint to get a good solid white body.

While you are waiting for your white paint to dry, cut your feet and beaks out from the yellow (or orange) craft foam. Trace feet and beak designs onto foam with a pen or marker then cut out.

Trace wing pattern onto black craft foam and cut out.

Once the paint is dry you can glue the feet, beak and wings on.

Now you can take a fine tip black marker or dip a fine tip paintbrush into a little bit of black paint and dab on two little dots for the penguins eyes.

Now you have cute penguins on parade.

You can easily use bottles of other sizes and shapes to make an assortment of penguins. The tall skinny penguin pictured here is made from a Purex laundy detergent bottle and the other a coffee creamer bottle.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

By Jesse Kimmel-Freeman Gather round all you children, you bats and you pups, come learn how monsters celebrate Christmas Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the den Not a creature was stirring, not even a lycan.

The spiders and wolfsbane were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St Vladimir soon would be there.

The monsters were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of moonlight danced in their heads.

And Drac in his coffin, and I in my cap, Had just settled our fangs for a long winter’s nap.

When out in the belfry there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the crypt to see what was the matter.

Away up to the graveyard I flew like a flash, Tore open the mausoleum and ran into the bash.

The moon shining down on the new-fallen snow Gave the luster of daytime to objects below.

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a count, and eight of his monster friends that he holds dear.

With following darkness, he was quite something to fear, I knew in a moment it must be St Vladimir.

More rapid than vultures his followers they came, And he hissed, and shouted, and called them by name!

"Now werewolves! now, witches! now, goblins and ghouls!

Come, vampires! Come, trolls! come zombies and demons! My fools!

To the top of the tomb! to the top of the vault!

Now mash away! Mash away! Mash away never to halt!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, When they danced away without fear or reason to why.

So whirled they did into the night, and witches crackling over their brew, With Christmas delight, St Vladimir did too.

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The Use of Freedom as a Motif and Theme in Science Fiction

By LK Below Books are powerful. They are often the only look into a world beyond your home. They can shape your minds, your outlook, when young. As you get older, they can make you think about things you’ve taken for granted. They can put things into perspective. They can be a call for action or merely an escape into a world with a more forgiving setup than the one you face.

Science fiction has the power to take these themes farther, to twist them into worlds and technologies and governments made from shadows and monsters. To show us we have the power in our everyday lives to stand against injustices we want changed. Science fiction can empower us to make a change, or apply certain principles to our own lives after the pages of the book have been closed.

Time and again, one of the most potent themes in science fiction is freedom. Freedom from the darker recesses of our psyche, as Robert Louis Stevenson shows in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The freedom to live a life unmolested, as the “monster” in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein so begs. The freedom to live as equals with an equal access to water, as with the Fremen in Frank Herbert’s Dune. The freedom, simply, to live, as Ender discovers of the bug-aliens at the end of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game.

I modelled my newest release, Hellish Haven, after George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. My book features the same themes of freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and freedom of action. Ultimately, freedom from a government trying to squelch these freedoms.

Any author hopes for their words and stories to last long past the time they set them down on the page. Hellish Haven is a worst-case scenario, a government gone too far, but it is also proof that we can overcome any obstacle. If we band together, we can change the world.

At the very least, we can act in a way befitting of the world we want to live in.

A book taught me that.

Hellish Haven L.K. Below Genre: Dystopian Romance Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp., Lyrical Press Imprint Date of Publication: November 17, 2014

ISBN: 9781616506254 ASIN: B00NJ0VL6A Number of pages: 72 Word Count: 33,718 Cover Artist: Renee Rocco Book Description: Two lives. Two realities. But only one truth.

The Senator reigns all-powerful in a manifested pictureperfect world. No worries. No wars. Only the unspoken threat of oblivion if you step a toe out of line. On the other side of the divide, the rebels face a debilitating war against an invulnerable robotic army. Every day is a struggle to earn back their freedoms. Freedom to feel. Freedom of speech. Freedom of thought.

Sergeant Grant Baker is pivotal to the war effort. But ever since his wife’s abduction, he’s been walking around in as much of a daze as the Senator’s brainwashed citizens. Then Eva reappears—without memories of him or their son. And he’s willing to do anything to keep her. Even if it means jeopardizing the war.

Eva doesn’t know which side to believe. Her predictable life as a single nurse, or the man claiming to be her husband. All she knows is she needs to discover how to end the war, quickly. If she doesn’t choose sides soon, she may lose the man—and the life—she never knew she wanted.

Available at Kensington Books BN Kobo Amazon iTunes Excerpt Acting as vanguard for the injured squad, Grant turned a corner and froze. A hulky man carried a limp woman over his shoulder.

Grant automatically reached for his gun. Even if they weren’t yet across the divide, he couldn’t stand idle as a man accosted a woman. Or worse. He aimed the rifle at the criminal. “Set her down nice and easy.”

The man froze. He glanced over one meaty shoulder, his unshaven mouth set in a scowl.

“Set her down, or I’ll shoot.”

A gold tooth flashed as the criminal grinned. He hurled the small woman at Grant and dashed for the slim space between two buildings.

Grant moved without thinking. His gun clattered to the ground as he lunged forward to catch the woman before she split her head open on the sidewalk. He grunted as he caught her with her weight against his bruised forearms. He shot a flickering glance her way. A riot of brown curls obscured her face. He set her gently on the

ground.

He dashed for the opening the shady figure had disappeared into, but saw no sight of the man. The delinquent was long gone.

Ashland panted as he jogged to Grant’s side. “What happened?”

If Grant never heard that question again, it would be too soon. He shook his head wearily. “Mugging, I guess.”

“They still have those here? I thought the Senator brought an end to violence.” Ashland drew sarcastic quotes in the air as he spoke.

Grant didn’t bother to answer. He turned to the woman and where his squad was now gathered. A horrified private glanced from the woman to Grant and back again. “What do you want us to do with her…sir?”

If they left her, the Senator’s people might find her and stick her back in the pen with the rest of their brainwashed sheep. Then again, that same goon might double back to continue what he started.

He crossed to the woman and crouched to lift her into his arms. Her tangled hair fell away from her face. He nearly dropped her. “Eva?” Frantically, he pressed his ear to her chest. Her breathing was shallow, but her heartbeat steady and strong. He clutched her tighter. He couldn’t believe it.

He’d found his wife.

About the Author: L.K. Below wrote Hellish Haven to bring her love of Orwell’s classic 1984 into the modern day…or near future, as it turns out.

She reads as obsessively as she writes and likes to Tweet about both at @LBelowtheauthor. www.lbelow.net http://twitter.com/LBelowtheauthor

There is a fun scene in Practical Uses for Princes with Pointed Ears where Lilian and Tallyn are sitting down for a meal. Prince Tallyn loads her plate with an Elven delicacy that was his favorite as a child. It incorporates some of my favorite Autumn & Winter flavors into a dish. Several of my readers have requested the recipe for the dish, called Elven Muddle.

Elven Muddle Elven Muddle is usually served with a meat dish, other root veggies, a soft cheese, a hearty bread and your favorite Stout or Wine.

Ingredients 4 Large Sweet Potatoes (Peeled and chopped into small chunks) 1 Can of Pumpkin (Not Pie Filling) ¼ Stick of Butter at room temp ¼ cup Heavy Cream ¼ cup Raisins ¼ cup Dried Cranberries ¼ cup Toasted Hazel Nuts (Chopped) ¼ cup Toasted Almonds (Chopped) 2 Tablespoons of chopped Candied Ginger 1 Tablespoon of Butter (Room Temp) 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon 1 Teaspoon of Ground Clove ½ Teaspoon Sea Salt Directions Place chopped sweet potatoes in a large pot, cover in water, and bring to a boil. Cook until the chunks break apart with a fork, then strain.

In a large skillet melt 1 tablespoon of butter. Combine nuts, fruits and ginger in skillet over medium heat along with cinnamon, clove and salt. Cook down until nuts are chewy and flavors have melded.

Combine sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and ¼ stick of butter in a large pan over med-low heat. With a hand mixer beat the ingredients together until smooth and well blended, then add in cream slowly until well mixed in.

Stir in fruit and nut mixture, folding it in by hand. Bring up to a steaming heat stirring regularly to prevent burning.

Transfer to a dish and serve. Enjoy!

Practical Uses for Princes with Pointed Ears Otherworld Realms Book 1 Isabelle Saint-Michael Genre: Paranormal Romance/ Fantasy Romance

Publisher: Otherworld Romance, LLC

Date of Publication: November 14, 2014

ISBN: 978-0-9908665-0-3 Paperback 978-0-9908665-1-0 ASIN: Number of pages: 380 Word Count: 95,000 Cover Artist: CL Smith Book Description: Lillian Chambers was just an ordinary high school teacher, until she fell through a Fairy Circle. When she came to on the other side, she was surprised to find herself in the company of an Elven prince she thought only existed in her dreams. Now she’s slaying monsters and rescuing Prince Tallyn, instead of playing the part of the damsel in distress.

Tallyn had been the protector of his kingdom for over one hundred years. He knows that the world is filled with danger around every corner, but these days he’s finding himself babysitting the annoyingly fearless Lady Lillian.

When their worlds collide sparks fly, humorous situations ensue and the only thing for sure is that neither will ever be the same. Practical Uses for Princes with Pointed Ears takes readers on an adventure into a modern fairytale where we explore what it really means to fall for Prince Not-so-Charming.

Available at Amazon

Excerpt Practical Uses for Princes with Pointed Ears My dreams were more vivid than usual. It was like I was standing there with my favorite imaginary hunk. He and several others were packing up horses. There was a great deal of laughter and teasing among the men. They poked at each other until finally he had to step in and tell them to calm down. Even as he reprimanded them his smile shone brightly. I had never seen him smile with such a youthful presence.

Moments later another man appeared, just as handsome as my dream guy. “Tallyn!” he called, and my heart skipped a beat as I watched the man of my dreams turn to wave.

“Tallyn,” I could feel myself whispering. He turned and looked in my direction, as if he had heard me.

His face fell a little when he couldn’t see me standing there.

“What’s wrong?” the taller man asked him.

I watched as Tallyn shrugged. “I was just thinking about how I was going to have to see your face every morning for the next few days and it quashed all the fun out of our camping trip.”

The taller man laughed, only to turn when someone called, "Maerryn!" which I guessed was his name.

I could feel the cool breeze on my skin, causing the hair on my arms to stand up. I watched with interest as the men finished packing up and began to ride away. I followed them through the forest I had seen a hundred times in my dreams. After a few hours they crossed the river in a shallow area then headed up a steep cliff, guiding their horses one at a time along the narrow ledge.

By midday the group reached the top of the cliff and stopped for lunch. The food smelled amazing cooked over the open fire. I felt my stomach rumble. When it did, Tallyn placed a hand on his stomach and looked around with confusion.

He was beautiful to look at, even with uncertainty creasing his brow. His green eyes deepened in color and his breath stilled. It was like he was looking right at me but couldn’t see me. With a shake of his head, he rejoined the conversation around him.

They packed up and left, heading across a path at the top of the cliff that led into another forest. The group seemed more hesitant when they entered the new area. They rode close together for hours, and when darkness finally threatened, they found flat ground and made camp. The horses were tied up, dinner was caught and prepared, and then the wine came out.

Boys will be boys, I thought to myself as they laughed, sang and passed around the bottles.

Behind me I heard the crack of twigs underfoot. Suddenly, I sensed someone else was there. I turned, looking in the direction of the sound, and I saw shadows moving through the woods towards the encampment. Panic filled me and I tried to scream, but I was just a watcher without a voice.

Holiday Spirit for Hire Otherworld Realms Book Two Isabelle Saint-Michael Genre: Holiday/ Paranormal Romance Publisher: Otherworld Romance, LLC Date of Publication: November 14th, 2014 ISBN: 978-0-9908665-2-7 Paperback 978-0-9908665-3-4 Number of pages:164 Word Count:41,000 Cover Artist: CL Smith Book Description: When life handed half-werewolf Grace MacGregor a pink slip four weeks before Christmas, she was determined to get back to work as soon as possible. She just didn’t expect it to be the very next day – or at the North Pole. She now has four weeks to make other people’s holiday wishes come true, but will she be able to grant her own while she is at it?

Justin Kringle is the nephew of Santa Claus and his job is to keep operations of the Pole on point. When Grace is dropped bed and all into his work shop, he can’t decide if it’s love or hate at first sight. First impression: she’s a total mess. Can he keep her on track and remember to not mix business and pleasure?

Available at Amazon Excerpt Holiday Spirit for Hire

I settled into bed with my favorite boyfriend, my laptop. Before long I had updated my resume, applied for a half dozen jobs, checked flights home, and Facebooked with all of my friends to see if anyone had any leads. I was about to shut down when the pop from my email caught my attention.

I closed the other tabs and stared at my inbox. It was from the OAC. The Otherworld Alignment Council was a group of magical beings, things that go bump in the night, and people that made sure that there were universal laws and regulations used across all the realms. They made sure there was a common language, rules about magic, and laws that kept peace between the different races. Why they were emailing me I didn’t know.

To: Grace MacGregor From: OAC Subject: The North Pole Needs You

Dear Ms. MacGregor,

It has been brought to the attention of the OAC that you are no longer employed during this busy time of the year. Every Holiday season we rely on the help we get from the Otherworld community to make the season bright. Your talents could be used now through the end of the year helping deliver joyful winter holidays across all the realms.

Please see the attached application. Applicants will be considered for a paid position. Please send a resume, two letters of recommendation and magical aptitude test scores to the email listed below. If chosen we will need you to report immediately for work.

Thank you and Happy Holidays, Otherworld Alignment Council

I looked at the email again and shrugged. “Why not?” I asked myself. I attached my resume, two

recommendation letters and a quick note explaining my father was a Scottish Werewolf Clansman and that I was half human. I figured my lack of magical abilities would keep me out of the fray. My father told me to always answer the OAC right when they contacted you because they made the IRS look patient.

With a giggle to myself I closed the windows on my laptop and shut it down. Snuggling deep into my pillows I closed my eyes, giggling about what use I could possibly be to the Great Holiday Front up North. Strangely enough I fell asleep with thoughts of sugar plums dancing in my head

I awoke the next morning to the sounds of clinking, clicking and power tools. I opened my eyes involuntarily when a particularly loud noise sounded right over my head. It was then I noticed my bedroom was swarming with Gnomes and they seemed too busy to care I was sleeping.

“Excuse me!” I yelled. “Why are you in my bedroom?”

A few of them stopped, exchanged looks with shrugs, and returned to work. I wasn’t answered until a man with a heavy red braid down his back appeared.

“You are in their workshop, and it’s about time you got up.” I climbed out of bed angrily, prepared to demand that they leave. “Nice pajamas,” he said with a grin as he looked me over. “If you follow me we will get you assigned duties, uniforms and the rest of your paperwork filled out.”

I looked around what should have been my room. I was on a toy factory floor. Only it looked like FAO Schwarz met Ikea. Bright colors with industrial-grade shelves mixed with the old world charm of handcarved wooden trim. All around me Gnomes were hustling to complete toys. I looked in the direction the redheaded man had gone and chased after him, abandoning my bed to the factory.

About the Author:

Isabelle Saint-Michael is a cupcake enthusiast, shoe addict, and globetrotter. She is known for her sense of adventure and geeky hobbies. She is frequently seen haunting coffee shops and pubs into the wee hours of the morning. No matter where she goes, shenanigans and mirth are never far behind.

The blog that started it all- www.Elvenlife.com

Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/IsabelleStMichael

Create Gift Boxes Out of Soap Boxes Holiday Craft by Wenona Napolitano

Soap boxes (from bath size bars of soap) can easily be transformed into fun little gift boxes. These soap boxes are small and cute and can easily be made by anyone, even the youngest children. They can be customized for any occasion.

Kids can easily decorate them with stickers, scraps of old wrapping paper, cutouts from old greeting cards, foam shapes or anything on hand in the craft box.

The boxes can be decorated in so many ways and are the perfect size for gift cards. Stuff the box full of tissue and slide the gift card in, that way the receiver still gets to open a gift not just a card. Plus the hand decorated box makes it so much more personal.

To create the elegant gold box in the photo follow the directions below: Supplies Needed: Empty soap box from a bath size bar of soap Gold acrylic paint Paint brush Sheer burgundy ½ to ž inch ribbon

Directions Paint the empty box gold, it may take a couple coats to completely conceal anything printed on the box.

Once the paint is dry cut a piece of ribbon long enough to wrap around the box and create a bow (length will vary since box sizes may vary), cut no shorter than 12 inches Place the ribbon flat across the front of the box- make ends equal on each side coming out from the middle of box Flip over the box and ribbon, cross the ribbon to go in opposite directions across the back then flip over the box with the ribbon. You should have made a criss cross design with the ribbon.

Now tie the ribbon in a bow.

Cut off excess ribbon.

Fluff bow.

I made a bunch of soap box gift boxes for Christmas last year but they can be decorated for any occasion.

Here’s a photo of a few of my Christmas ones.

This concept can be used for any size box. No need for wrapping paper, just create beautifully decorated boxes from what you have on hand. Even cereal boxes work great for this style project.

Is there a genre that you’d like to write that you haven’t tackled yet?

Erotic novel. Maybe I’ll pen one under a nom de guerre.

Of all the characters you’ve ever written, who is your favorite and why?

Krieger Barnes, because he’s walked through the history of the world. I love it when he tells Lily about his life.

If this book is part of a series…what is the next book? Any details you can share?

This is the second book in The Last Keeper’s Daughter series. I’m working on the third and last book now.

What book are you reading now?

The Lord John series by Diana Gabaldon . I’m looking for a good historical novel though, so if anyone has suggestions, please let me know.

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

I’m sure my editor would agree with me on this. Punctuation!

When you’re not writing what do you do? Do you have any hobbies or guilty pleasures?

Reading, gardening, walking the hound, and herding our two cats. My newest passion is wood working. I’m getting ready to build an entertainment center.

What is next for you? Do you have any scheduled upcoming releases or works in progress?

Kindle version of my books will be on sale for 99 cents from Black Friday until New Years.

The Last Guardian Rises The Last Keepers’ Daughter Series Book 2 Rebecca Trogner Genre: Paranormal, Romance, Mystery Publisher: Crescent Moon Press Date of Publication: November 15, 2014 ISBN: 978-0-9908827-6-3 E-ISBN: 978-0-9908827-7-0

Number of pages: 295 Word Count: 90,000 approx Book Description: Lily Ayres, Sanguis Ancilla to Krieger Barnes, has retreated into the shadows of the archives, hiding from the king and the intense emotions he arouses in her. How long can she deny him? Will she accept her role in the Other world and the abilities arising within her?

Krieger Barnes, Vampire King of North America, has shared his blood, his kingdom, and his heart with Lily. He summons her, needing her nearness, needing her to attend the council meeting with him.

Merlin, the king’s advisor, must fight the darkness that threatens to overtake him. Can he survive the dark magic?

Lucien Black, the wielder of the Dragon Sword, is once again charged with Lily’s protection. How will he explain his avoidance of her?

A being buried deep underground, inside a cage of iron and wrapped in chains, escapes. Is he the dark entity that the Others feel and fear?

Available at Amazon Excerpt: He came back cradling what looked like a journal in his large hands. It was bound in leather with a faded black ribbon tied around the covers.

“Fell, I guess.”

Lily knew it couldn’t have fallen on its own. And why didn’t the lights come on when it moved? She took the offered book from Liam and rubbed her hand over the old leather. Someone had taken great care to keep it oiled and the leather supple as sin. For now, its contents were silent. Not all texts spoke with her – perhaps this one would later, or never would.

“Ready?” Liam opened the door and waited for her to follow.

Her mind said no, definitely not ready to see Krieger, but her heart beat faster, and she remembered his cool, calm voice, and how she loved the ambiguous color of his hypnotic bluegrey eyes. The night before Lily’s mother was discovered and she’d fatally stabbed Henry, Lily had argued with Krieger. From this vantage, Lily could see how trivial her protestations were. She’d felt he’d betrayed her, though he hadn’t, and because of her, Krieger had staunched the flow of blood through the bond they shared. Now, just a hint of warmth was flowing through her body, that feeling of being connected to him again, that tiny bit of delicious balm soothing her worries.

About the Author: Rebecca Trogner lives in the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia, and frequently crosses the Blue Ridge Mountains that were the inspiration for Krieger’s home. She dreamed of being a writer, but got sidetracked by the day-to-day adventures of life. With the encouragement of her family, she has finished her second novel and is currently writing the next book in The Last Keeper’s Daughter series. To find out more about the author visit www.rebeccatrogner.com.

Website: www.rebeccatrogner.com Blog: http://rebeccatrognerblog.wordpress.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RTrogner

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/rebeccatrogner/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/ show/6893534.Rebecca_Trogner

GIFTS IDEAS FOR FANS OF THE PARANORMAL Ho-ho-horrors!! It’s that time of year and you have ONE person left on your holiday list. Of course, that person is—you guessed it—a freak about anything unearthly. But “weird” taste is better than “tacky” taste, right?

Never fear! I’ve come up with a Top Ten Gift List that will satisfy even the most enthusiastic paranormal fan.

NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS Sleeveless T-Shirt Available at http:// www.pyrettaslair.com/shop.php/ladies-gothic-clothing/vests-and-sleeveless-tops/ nightmare-b4-xmas-ladies-hands-sleeveless-top/p_1761.html Priced around $15.00

How about getting your paranormal fan a collection of scary DVD’s? Chances are, they’ll love revisiting flicks such as THE CONJURING, CARRIE, all the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY movies, and INSIDIOUS.

For the ghost hunter in all of us. How cute is this?! Available at http:// www.zazzle.com/paranormal+mugs for $15.95

Here’s an inexpensive stocking stuffer for that alien aficionado. http:// www.zazzle.com/for+paranormal+keychains Priced at $3.60

Creepy but cool! Walking Dead iPhone 5 case available at http://www.tribecagear.com/ index.php/hardshell-case-for-iphone-5-the-walking-dead-don-t-open-dead-inside.html

Priced at $21.99

Pick up Season Five of the Vampire Diaries at all major outlets! Priced around $40.00. Can you ever get enough Damon and Stefan??

I hate to repeat the t-shirt idea, but I just came across this one. LOVE Zak from the T.V. show “Ghost Adventurers”!! And yes, I wouldn’t mind getting locked down with him. http:// www.cafepress.com/ghostadventures.424155204 Runs $29.99

How about some nonfiction books on the paranormal? This one by Kathy Kelly covers many famous—and extremely spooky—hauntings. http://paranormalbooksnj.com/ books/ Priced at $10.95

Know any fans of the original paranormal author, Edgar Allan Poe? Then you’ll love this gothic-style pendant from http://paranormalbooksnj.com/products/ Runs $10.95.

Perhaps, for that special someone who lives for true reports of the strange and unknown, a one year (6 issues) subscription to FATE Magazine is in order. Priced at $27.95.

Best of luck shopping and happy holidays!

Christmas at Thorncliff Towers A Cursed Princes Novella Marina Myles

ISBN: 9781601832863 Release Date: November 24, 2014

Book Description:

The Werewolf’s Servant Thorncliff Towers is done up for Christmas, secure against wind and wolves. But Karina Petri is shut out, too, and the gypsy witch wants what’s inside. She envies the gifts, the feast, the pretty clothes, of course. But her true desire is for the love of Constantin Stoica. Her smolderingly handsome childhood friend agreed to serve Lord Draven after his brother was caught stealing last year. He suspects Karina was involved—and it would take more magic than she possesses to make him forgive…

Constantin has always been drawn to Karina’s dark curls, flashing eyes, and reckless ways. But trusting her has proven dangerous before, and this night holds more to fear than most. The wrong decisions could cost him his job, his safety—even his life. But letting Karina go could cost him his heart…

Excerpt

Scooping up a few pieces of bread, Karina slipped out the back door. With the aid of the cane, she made her way to the stable house where the windows glowed a bright orange.

Hearing the crackle of a fire, she entered uninvited. Constantin had his back to her. Shirtless from the waist up as he’d been when she spied on him earlier, he was busy brushing a pewter-colored mare. The chore set his tendons into a fluid stretch and his biceps into a rippling bulge.

Karina shut the door with a loud clatter. He whirled around—his foul expression softening as he perused her new appearance.

“Karina. You look…nice.” Then he seemed to remember that he was angry with her. Resuming his task, he spoke in an icy tone. “I came here to be alone.”

She ignored his comment. “I brought you some bread since you missed dinner.”

“Thank you,” he said curtly. “Leave it on the workbench, please.”

She did and strode toward him. Gathering her courage, she released the cane and touched his solid shoulder. “Do you like my dress?”

He snatched a look at her but then avoided her eyes. “It’s beautiful.”

“You hardly saw it. Come. Take a long look.”

Gulping, his stare swept over her tiny waist, rounded cleavage, and elegant hairstyle. “You look very—different.”

She smiled seductively. “Is that a compliment?”

“Yes.” His voice was a growl. “You’re stunning.”

Motivated by the jealousy she felt over his connection with Lydia Brentwood, Karina slid both hands up his chest and laced her fingers behind his neck. “You’ve always been my friend, Constantin.

But I missed you in another way when you left our Gypsy camp.” She paused. “Did you miss me?”

He untangled her fingers. “I’ve missed your companionship. That’s all.”

“Is that all I’ll ever be?” Frustration coated her voice. “A companion? A friend?’

He held her by the arm and she could swear she saw agony in his forest-green eyes. “We lost our parents at a young age,” he said. “That’s why we became friends, Karina. We had that in common.”

“You never thought I was pretty?”

“I’ve always thought you were beautiful, but you scared me. I had to grow up and be a father figure to Viktor. I couldn’t afford to let your rebellious ways distract me.”

“So that’s the reason…” her voice trailed off.

He released her arm and anchored his hands on his hips. “You were constantly defying authority and getting into mischief. I was too straight-laced—too responsible—to join in.”

“Sometimes opposites attract,” she suggested. “Besides, you’re a grown man. Are you still scared of me?”

His gaze dropped from her eyes to her mouth. Attraction replaced the agony in his stare. He moved closer. “I’m not afraid. But I am lonely.”

“I can see why,” she murmured. “The smug people at this mansion lack the Gypsy fire you’re accustomed to.”

Their lips hovered inches apart. A whisper of air slipped into Karina’s mouth as she parted her lips. Constantin nearly kissed her. But then he stepped back.

She wasn’t giving up that easily. “I liked the feel of your hand on my leg,” she purred. “If you let me touch you, I can erase some of that loneliness.”

As slow as a ribbon flutters in a quiet breeze, she feathered her fingertip up his arm. Under her touch, his skin burned as hot as lava. She knew in that moment that he was going to kiss her.

With eyes blazing with desire, he craned his neck forward and clamped his mouth to hers. Karina’s whole world changed in that moment. Responding to his warm lips, she pressed herself to his chest. And when he allowed his tongue to slip forward, her heart thrummed wildly.

“My God,” he said gruffly. “You smell like summer rain.”

Their bodies stayed molded together by pure lust. The feel of his muscles and his intoxicating scent reminded Karina that she’d never want any man but him. Would Constantin make her his tonight?

About the Author: Marina Myles’s love of books began as soon as she read her first fairy tale. During her college days, she received degrees in English Literature and Communications—and enjoyed the unique experience of being a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader.

Now that she lives under the sunny skies of Arizona, she hasn’t left her glamorous life behind completely. After all, she gets to divide her time between her loving family, her loyal Maltese, and worlds filled with fiery—but not easily attained—love affairs.

Visit her at www.marinamyles.com www.facebook.com/marinamylesauthor www.twitter.com/#!/marinaauthor www.amazon.com/author/marinamyles

A Sleigh Ride Home

By Roxanne Rhoads The moonlight glittered off the freshly fallen snow. It was like taking a sleigh ride through a forest of crystals. Everything sparkled, glimmered and shimmered. It was truly beautiful. Caleb was really trying so hard to give me the “good, old fashioned Christmas” experience that I had always dreamed of; complete with a one horse open sleigh, fresh falling snow, and a thermos full of hot cocoa.

The blanket started to slip off my lap so I tugged it up to make sure it didn’t fall to the floor of the sleigh.

Caleb glanced my way, “Are you cold Maggie?”

How could I be cold with Caleb, the man of my dreams and fantasies sitting beside me? I had wanted this man since high school, when he was the popular, hot guy that was so nice to everyone. Including a skinny, scrawny girl with braces and glasses. Me. “No, I’m actually quite warm. The night doesn’t feel that cold and between my thick leggings, sweater, wrap and the blanket I am toasty warm.”

“Good, I didn’t want you to get cold. After living in Texas for the past couple years I bet you aren’t used to the cold, Michigan winters anymore. I was afraid you’d be freezing by now.”

Caleb was always so wonderful. He was the kind of guy that was always concerned about people. We had been pretty good friends. He was so sweet he even took me to our senior prom seven years ago. I was sure he’d just done it to be nice because he felt sorry for me since no one else had asked me to be their date. Now I wasn’t so sure that he had taken me to the prom just to be nice. Maybe he had real feelings for me. The kind of feelings I have for him.

This was only the second time I had seen him since I left to go to college in Texas right after graduation but I had never stopped thinking about him.

It seemed that he never stopped thinking about me either. He sent me letters, cards and emails from time to time always asking when I was coming home. This was the first year I had replied telling him that I’d be home for Christmas. Usually my mom flew out to Texas to spend the holidays with me there. This year though my mother had finally met someone special and she wanted to spend the holidays with him…and me.

Honestly I was glad. I had really begun to miss Michigan lately, especially at Christmas. There was nothing like a snow covered Christmas.

“No matter how long I stay in Texas I’ll always be a cold blooded Michigan girl.”

His smile twinkled as bright as the snow, “Glad to hear that.”

“You know Caleb this was awfully nice of you to invite me on this sleigh ride. The drive through town seeing all the Christmas displays and lights was fun and then here, in the woods…it is so still, so quiet and so utterly beautiful. It is a dream come true.”

“Maggie, I remembered that last Christmas we spent together before graduation and how you would always talk about wanting an old fashioned Christmas with sleigh rides and hot cocoa and even ice skating. I have always wanted to give that to you. I’ve had old Drew here,” he motioned to the horse, “and this sleigh for five years now hoping you’d come home for the holidays so I could give you the Christmas sleigh ride you’ve always dreamed of.”

“Really? Caleb, I had no idea. But why?”

“Why? Maggie isn’t it obvious? I love you; I’ve been in love with you since middle school. I’ve tried to put you out of my head, I’ve tried dating other people but it’s you. You are the one that’s always had that special place in my heart.”

My eyes welled up with tears as his words rang true. My heart swelled telling me I felt the same way.

All this time I hadn’t let myself believe in my feelings because I feared rejection.

Caleb pulled the sleigh off the trail and into a small clearing.

“Maggie would you consider coming home?”

“Caleb, I am home,” I said as I threw my arms around his neck.

“Really? To stay? With me?” he mumbled into my neck.

“Yes, with you, for as long as you’ll have me,” I cried.

“I hope forever isn’t too long for you,” Caleb said with a smile as he pulled away from my tear soaked embrace to look into my eyes.

“Forever sounds just about right.”

Building African Kingdoms, One Community at a Time with The Adventures of Jewel Cardwell: Hydra’s Nest Author, Fumi Hancock, her American Friends and her colorful characters in Africa.

“As I share my humble and sincere heart with my readers, I continue to envision a world free of challenges, drama as we would often call them and desire a peaceful place where everyone can live in peace and harmony.” ~ Princess Fumi S. Hancock, RN. Ph.D. “I yearn for a place where children can move freely, live freely, eat freely and of course, never go hungry.” ~Princess Fumi S. Hancock, RN, Ph.D.

Come, let me take you to a Land; A Land of Deep Rich Forest; A Land where Knowledge is our Clothing and Unconditional Love Our Way of Life; There is a river which flows in the Heart of this Land; Come drink from the river of wisdom, Our destination is Africa….. (Fumi Hancock, 1996) Some of you readers may have read about my very first crack at Fiction Novel, The Adventures of Jewel Cardwell: Hydra’s Nest. I an so grateful for all of the support I have garnered through the years This week, as the holiday season kicks up in full gear all over the world and as I journey on with the virtual publicity tour for my newly released Romantic Suspense/Thriller Book, Of Sentimental Value; I can’t help but reminisce over my experiences celebrating holidays in Africa. These great adventures found in both my fiction books, The Adventures of Jewel Cardwell and Of Sentimental Value beautifully brought back to my memory the wonderful times I’d shared with friends and family members, growing up in Africa. Armed with the desire to share this piece of me with my readers, I garnered up the courage, the enthusiasm and the commitment needed to tell the world how Africa can also be a beautiful place, even in its throes of poverty and difficulties.

As I share my humble and sincere heart with my readers, I continue to envision a world free of challenges, drama as we would often call them and desire a peaceful place where everyone can live in peace and harmony. I yearn for a place where children can move freely, live freely, eat freely and of course, never go hungry. It is my hope and desire that as I share my experiences with you; you will be moved to be a difference maker… reach out and touch someone in the most unusual and / or unexpected way.

To this effect, let me quickly share with you where my passion for writing these fiction books emanated from… ~~~~~~~

My name is Fumi “Stephanie” Hancock. I was born in Africa but have lived in the United States of America for over 30 years. A little over eight years ago, my father, Prince T.A Ogunleye called me up and told me it was time to return home. I’d literally grown up in the US and this was now home to me. My father felt it was time to give back to Africa.

(source: wordlatlas.com) This was an important trip for me as I’d not been back to my community in over 23 years! The trip was equally important because one of my cousins, His Royal Majesty, King Emmanuel Adebayo, reigning King of Emure Ekiti Kingdom, a place tugged away in the Western region of Africa was being crowned and my father felt it was a great opportunity to reconnect with my roots.

(Picture of His Royal Majesty King Emmanuel Adebayo & Queen) The journey was exhilarating yet filled with anxiety as I did not know what I was going to encounter. I trusted my father, packed my bags and went back to West Africa with my family. It was the most incredible journey of my life… to witness a King’s coronation… no words could describe the feelings.

What was more important was the surprise which awaited me when I arrived in the community with my Tennessean friends! The community people rallied around me and reminded me of who I was… their princess who had been gone for long and was now back! I took the time to revisit my childhood boarding school and low and behold, all of my experiences at the school came rushing back.

(source: adassafoundation.org) With all of this jubilation came social responsibility‌ to come back to the United States, let the world know of this region in Africa and help to make a difference in whatever little way I could.

(pictures of a classroom/ school with no electricity and broke down furniture)

(Premature babies born in rural clinics with no incubators and no medical equipment)

(a child street hawking to raise money for food)

(an hungry child found on a street) The King and his cabinet had a huge task on their hands and they knew it would require reaching out to all for assistance. It is amazing how when we reach out to give someone something that we may be lacking ourselves, how it turns around and blesses us back a thousand fold. Because of my children in Africa, my life and that of my volunteers have forever changed.

We came back home, reached out to whoever would listen to our stories and began plugging away at the needs in Africa. We hosted the King and some of his 63 cabinet members to a gala in Tennessee:

(Former Mayor Mike Dinwiddle, Mayor of Spring Hill TN awarded an honorary chieftaincy title by his Royal Majesty, King Adebayo at a gala held in Franklin TN and Spring Hill declared sister city to Emure Kingdom) To date, we currently sponsor 40 children who would ordinarily not have been able to attend school. We opened the very first state of the art library in that region ever‌

With the help of some Song writers & artists in Tennessee, Friend to an Angel a song honoring our African children was debuted and used in raising funds for our programs in Africa. (Available at: http:// www.cdbaby.com/cd/theadassafoundationproje) Today, I celebrate all of my African angels with the characters my readers will encounter in the Adventures of Jewel Cardwell: Hydra’s Nest and Of Sentimental Value. These vibrant and most times feisty characters are a culmination of my childhood friends as well as “those conjured in my head.” These characters as well as my African babies have consistently plagued my dream and haunted my mind into bringing them alive.

Every other year I would return to Africa serving the children in these communities through my non-profit organization the Adassa Foundation, I am reminded of the colorful ambiance and the need to share this part of the world with book lovers.

There is more work that to be done. I am constantly in need of assistance to help move our programs forward.

Our next vision for this region is to build a Youth Center for Excellence where children can converge and learn rather than be in the streets roaming aimlessly. As we celebrate our holidays here in the US and all over the world, I urge you to consider joining me in putting a smile on yet another African angel’s face at www.adassafoundation.org or support by picking up the song: Friend to an Angel.

“Somewhere between romance, suspense, mystery and fantasy lies the cultural and nuanced Of Sentimental Value, which despite all this insight remains fun and entertaining. A bit whimsical, Hancock's style is not at all snobby but reveals her writing savvy through phrases like "tugging away at my gelatin heart".

Sam~Amazon “I enjoyed the story of Jewel, it was fresh and in a setting that was new to me. The descriptions made me feel as if I was there. I experienced the place right along with our Jewel. Every page was beautifully written and I was engrossed from start to finish.” Review by Sara Bree High, Goodreads.com (The Adventures of Jewel Cardwell).

Well, mission accomplished Sara. I wanted my readers to be transported to a place where they’d never been before. I wanted them to see how other people live in other parts of the world as well as live here in the US….

Their struggles to fit in and live their passion… I wanted them to also see how people like them, who have travelled to live in Africa… how they adjust to the culture and setting. The characters though reside in Africa come from various parts of the world especially Europe.

Of Sentimental Value Princess Fumi Hancock Genre: Mystery / Romantic Suspense Publisher: Princess in Suburbia Date of Publication: July 17, 2014 ISBN-10: 0990584801 ISBN-13: 978-0990584803 ASIN: B00LX2GK8K

Number of pages: 328 Word Count: 68, 183

Cover Artist: Phatpuppy Arts Studios

Book Description:

One event Elects Who You Are One event Molds Your Values and Beliefs; One event Charts the Course of Your Journey… Good, Bad or Indifferent; One event Determines Your Destiny… For Life One event Will Change Your Life… Forever

Bestselling Author, Indiefest and African Oscar Award Winning Filmmaker, Host of an African Oscar nominated TV Talk show, An African Heritage Leadership Award recipient and a globally sought after transformation interventionist, Princess Fumi Hancock delivers an inspirational and intriguing romantic suspense story, yet laced in mystery and comedy. Of Sentimental Value, a titillating and jaw dropping adventure set between the deep rich forest of Africa and the southern flat plains of Nashville, Tennessee.

A Twenty-one year old, Young African Immigrant, SIBERIA TONKA has all the ingredients of a successful writer: Commitment, dedication, and drive to become famous. Until her dream of becoming the next bestselling media sensation in America is threatened by an inexplicable cosmic force! Buried and spiraling in unsurmountable debt and a string of misfortune hovering over her, she is forced to pawn her most valuable possession. But when told her sister’s life in Africa hangs in the balance and that would die if artifact is not returned back to the rightful owners, Siberia in desperation sets out to retrieve the artifact at any means necessary. A Mystery enigma is released and the stakes are high! The harder Siberia tries… the closer she seems yet the farther she was from solving the turmoil.

Alas, in the midst of this chaos evolves an undeniably love triangle between Siberia, a wealthy rugged-looking African, but Nashville-based, art collector (Alan) and a simple American consignment store owner (Jake).

Will Siberia retrieve the artifact in time to save her dying sister, Naiya? Who / what wins her heart? Money or True Love?

Book Available at Amazon

Book Trailer Produced by Cambium Break Pictures http://youtu.be/6Nfpf3S_aGE

Of Sentimental Value Motion Picture Release 2015

Starring Malik Yoba, New York Undercover and Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married? and Tommy Tiny Lister, Deebo on Friday, 5th Element with Bruce Willis.

VIP Screenings and Private Book Launches in Los Angeles, California and Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville

Award Winning Filmmaker Princess Fumi Hancock shares clip of SOLD OUT " Live" Nashville TN Red Carpet Event: http://youtu.be/s0LlaKZyI7Y

Video Reviews

Miss Haiti International, Régine Pierre Shares Her Review of, Of Sentimental Value: http:// youtu.be/21hlsgE81lQ

Los Angeles Of Sentimental Value VIP Movie Screening and Book Launch Raving Reviews Bring Producer to Tears! http://youtu.be/4VwnYXNAoHI

LA welcomes Red Carpet Screening of Award Winner, Of Sentimental Value http://youtu.be/D4HlAjuwJEE

The Video Reviews

Award Winning Filmmaker, Princess Fumi Hancock Shares a “Kairos Moment” with Host, Lola Ogunleye Reviewing Of Sentimental Value http://youtu.be/417hPzsQ4C4

Gift Items Available at: http://www.ofsentimentalvalue.com/?deeplink_referrer=ess#!cambium-break-shop/c1seb

Excerpt: Murky Haze

Spiraling through the murky haze is a stream of white smoke; Africa’s humid and gloomy weather punctuated the striking of an African “bata” drum; a sign of impending doom in this Never-never land called Oyo, set majestically in the flat plain fields of West Africa.

Wrapped in ruffled white sheets and face painted with pungent white chalk, distinct tribal marks from Oyo; she chuckles and giggles out loud, sometimes overpowering the African “bata” beats rippling the air.

This enigma of a mystery woman’s deep tones carries with it an air of danger and magic. Her fiendish chuckles

are exaggerated by her threatening mannerisms. She adds to the mystery in the air by thrusting out her spectacularly painted arms, holding a uniquely designed African clay pot filled with bubbling steaming water. The steam spiraling out of the magical pot is hypnotic. She begins to laugh again as the rhythmic African beat gently fades, instantly replaced by an urgent tick-tock sound, intensifying the anxiety. Seeing my clandestine woman’s animated and daunting striking face, Yemoji becomes boisterous as she squints her overpowering eyes; eyeballs fiercely protruding, eliciting intense fear in those who behold the strange sight.

As the tick-tock sound gets louder, Yemoji abruptly clutches her magical pot to her bosom. Her arms stretch out with purpose, displaying her remarkably long claw-like nails. She beckons me closer. Yemoji welcomes hushes me into undeniably captivating presence, placing one finger to her sultry lips.

“Sshh! Sshh!”

Suddenly, the tick-tock sound intensifies yet again as Yemoji’s thunderous and wickedly cold laughter reverberates into the atmosphere.

“Did you hear me? I said.... Sshh! Sshh! Siberia! Si-be-ria!”

Wisdom Nugget from Siberia Tonka:

“A person who sows love reaps a harvest of good friends and family. It doesn’t really matter where we come from; we all have something of sentimental value. And this crazy chain of events has led me to my destiny….it has led me to fight for the people I love” ~Siberia

About the Author Princess Fumi Stephanie Hancock Ph.D.:

Bestselling Author, NAFCA African Oscar People’s Choice Winner, Indiefest Films Merit Award Filmmaker, TV Host, Transformation Interventionist and Philanthropist are just a few accolades to describe this dynamic woman.

Born in the heart of Nigeria, Lagos State; Princess Fumi Hancock was raised to appreciate her royal roots from the South Western region of Nigeria, Emure Kingdom, where her family, the Adumori Nigeria Royal Household have ruled since the 1800s’.

After acquiring her first degree in English from one of the most prestigious colleges in Nigeria, Obafemi Awolowo University; she stormed the United States of America with a pen, a script and the dream to change the world. Little did she know that it would take her over thirty years to finally fulfill her dream of becoming a prolific writer and most importantly, one who would have the ability to translate her literary works into movies.

As an author, she has written several inspirational books for women, Beyond Idol Worship: A Diary of an African Warrior Princess; Starting Right Now to name a few! After writing these inspirational books and her return back to African after over 25 years absentia; she reaches out to help her community through her US based nonprofit organization, Adassa Adumori Foundation, Inc. (www.adassafoundation.org); she also decided to venture into the world of young adult fantasy. To her surprise, her very first young adult fantasy, The Adventures of Jewel Cardwell: Hydra’s Nest became an amazon bestseller! There has been no stopping her since then.

Her new novel, Of Sentimental Value, a mystery and suspense drama is yet another landmark for her. The book was made into a feature film which is scheduled for release soon (www.ofsentimentalvaluemovie.com ).

In the advent of its release, it has garnered multiple award interest. It was nominated in the NAFCA African Oscar Peoples’ Choice category for Favorite Trailer and Original Score while the Princess took home the winning trophy as Favorite Screenwriter. Since then, the movie itself has been nominated in the following categories: Best Diaspora Drama and Best Make-up. One of our supporting actors, Malik Yoba was also nominated as Actor in Foreign Film category.

Princess Fumi is one who truly believes that dreams do come true if we keep plugging away at it and never give up! Her very first crack at writing, she will never forget her professor at a college in New York telling her, “you need to quit! You are a horrible writer!” “I was devastated,” she said. But did not allow that to keep her down. With time, even the professor finally announced to the post graduate class that she was the best student he’d ever had. That screenplay, “The Royal Bird” ended up winning Best Screenplay of the year in 1988 in a New York festival. It was later auctioned to one of the largest television stations in Africa, Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). The rest of her time today is spent presenting her new empowerment program, Your Vision Torch, an Innovator’s Prescription to Igniting Your Dreams and Harnessing Your Vision to leaders, business owners and women across Africa and the United States of America. More details on how to bring her to your event: www.worldoffumihancock.com

http://www.ofsentimentalvaluenovel.com

http://www.ofsentimentalvaluemovie.com http://www.princessinsuburbia.com http://fumihancock.blogspot.com http://www.facebook.com/worldoffumihancock http://www.facebook.com/fumihancockgrimmlyn http://www.facebook.com/ofsentimentalvalue http://www.facebook.com/ThePrincessinSuburbia http://www.twitter.com/fumihancock http://www.twitter.com/cambiumbreakpix http://www.twitter.com/Princessinsub http://www.goodreads.com/fumihancock http://www.pinterest.com/fumihancock https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=4422170 https://www.youtube.com/user/cambiumbreakpictures

What inspired you to become an author?

I wasn’t really inspired; I think I just always felt like I was. I love to write and I’ve always been a daydreamer, sometimes a bit too much. It feels good to write, just like an artist that needs to paint.

Do you have a specific writing style?

This story is written in first person, but I usually prefer second person since you can see what is happening in all of the character’s personal lives. I like to incorporate real-life situations and some of my characters are based on people that I know. Humor is a big part of my writing, although not so much in this story.

How did you come up with the title for your latest book?

I wanted the title to be different enough that it would be memorable. Part of the story takes place in Alaska so I incorporated the Aurora Borealis in the title. And, my publisher was ok with the title I suggested.

What book are you reading now?

“Fashionably Dead” by Robyn Peterman. I absolutely love her sense of humor.

What is your current “work in progress” or upcoming projects?

I’m currently working on a full length contemporary romance that I’m tentatively titling “The Zookeeper”. My critique partners have been amazing through this and I’m happy to say that I’m almost to “THE END”. Here is the blurb: Elizabeth Tanner was raised in a Zoo. Literally. But now that Zoo is in danger, not only from falling ticket sales, but also from a mysterious illness afflicting the animals.

Frank Adams, the newest Animal Care attendant, spent time behind bars himself.

But, in this Zoo, even the strongest bars can’t hold back the truth.

And the truth will be set free.

Can you share a little of your current work with us?

Suddenly, someone wrapped an arm around her from behind, covering her mouth and in one motion, lifted her off her feet. He pulled her backwards silently, into the storeroom that housed various costumes and props, then into the utility closet at the end of the room. Without removing the hand from her mouth, her captor turned her around and pushed her against the back wall of the closet, closing the door behind him so that they were packed in tightly.

She stomped on his foot and struggled.

“Elizabeth Tanner,” he whispered sternly, holding her tighter. “I need you to be very calm, right now. I need you to understand that you are in danger and I am going to protect you.”

She struggled again but he held her firmly. “Hold still.”

Elizabeth’s heart beat excitedly in her chest. She was thoroughly confused by the current situation but for some inexplicable reason felt safer in the closet than outside of it. She tried to distinguish her captor; there was something familiar about him. The low light from the hall shone through the air slits in the door behind him so she could only see an outline of him, his face was in shadows. There was something familiar in the way that his hair stood up. And, in the way he smelled.

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

I’d say my biggest hinderance is my need for perfection. I get in my own way all the time!

Do you have to travel much to do research for your books?

Gosh, that would be a dream! This particular story is set partially in a remote cabin in Alaska and I’ve always wanted to go there. I have other stories that take place in Africa, Hawaii, England and France. I’d love to jump on a plane and write those trips off as research.

Do you have any advice for other writers?

Write the story of your heart. No one else has been given your particular story to tell, and you never know who might want to read it and love it.

Borealis Ardor Seasons of Passion Winter Winds Kay Phoenix Genre: paranormal romance Publisher: MuseItUp Publishing ISBN: 978-1-77127-495-1 ASIN: B00IA1QKFK Number of pages: 58 Word Count: 14,709 Cover Artist: Suzannah Safi

Book Description: Lauren Madison’s life started unraveling at a speed too fast for her to keep up with. Every truth she had taken for granted was torn away, and the pieces that were left painted no clear pictures at all…only more confusion.

The only pillar of strength in her fragile life was David Wagner, her bodyguard who was placed in witness protection. But, what had he seen that day, and why couldn’t she remember?

She had no choice but to run. And if her life was threatened again, who would be there to protect her?

Available at Amazon Excerpt: “You shouldn’t be here, Lauren. Leave quickly.” The voice stopped me in my tracks. It was David’s voice, in my head. But, I shrugged it off and walked forward until I saw the new stone and the rectangle of earth in front of it that had noticeably less pine needles than the surrounding area.

I knelt beside it.

“David Alan Wagner. Beloved Son, Brother and Friend.” The lines of the letters were etched deep and black, contrasting heavily against the light grey stone. I gently lay the roses down and traced the letters with my finger. There was a cross carved below the words. I ran my hand along the entire edge of the top of the stone, feeling the rough edges in contrast to the freshly polished front and back. I wondered how long the stone had been there. Dad assured me he had taken care of the funeral expenses, and he must have made sure there was a rush order on the headstone. There was a fresh bouquet of white roses lying at the base of the stone and it made me feel deeply saddened for his family, as well as for him. As much as dad irritated the living hell out of me with his overprotective gestures, if I had to disappear forever and have him think I was dead, it would break my heart. After we lost mom, we were all the family we had.

I loved David with my whole heart. Even though we had only been together for two of the six months that he was assigned to me, I knew that he was the “one”. I just knew it. There was no explanation. And, I was the “one” for him as well. But, now he was gone, and it was unlikely that I would see him again, at least not any time soon.

I reached up to trace the “D” again and saw a strange light flash across the polished surface of the stone, which I realized with horror to be a set of headlights.

Who would be coming to a graveyard at this hour? Besides me of course? Teenagers with a Ouija board and bottle of Strawberry Hill wine in tow, perhaps?

I could take no chances. I could have been followed.

Website: www.KayPhoenix.com Blog: http://kayphoenix.blogspot.com/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/KayPhoenixAuthor Twitter: https://twitter.com/KayPhoenix_

Excerpt #3: The wave was perhaps the greatest in height they’d ever seen. Later, John was sure they’d recount it as being of tidal proportions, hyperbolic as they always were when it came to surfing expeditions. But in truth, he wasn’t even sure how to approach its vastness; he caught the edge of the big, rolling force in an awkward, unbalanced maneuver, yet he evened himself out at once, rising up into a standing position, and coming through the tube with precision.

Zak waited for John to reach their squatting spot once again, then greeted him with a seated bow from atop his board. “Nicely done. But that was great luck, catching a swell that size. Next one’s mine.”

They didn’t have to wait long. The pair ignored a series of smaller waves that rolled past (though, by a normal day’s standards, they would have been worth riding), until a massive upsurge formed within the surf, collecting all of the surrounding water to join its force. Zak was gone before John could give him any encouragement.

John held up his unit, readying its hologramera to capture Zak’s performance. He pressed “record,” but then, a loud beep emanated from underneath him, coming from his surfboard. The sonar screen at the top of his board lit up, depicting a large incoming vessel approaching Zak’s position. John looked up again, but noticed that Zak was alone - there were no other surfers or boats nearby.

Computer Love Inc. II: Gestation Computer Love Inc. Series Book II Kurt and Jessica Hansen Genre: Science Fiction ISBN: 978-0989068338 ASIN: B00O05VR6C Number of pages: 215 Word Count: 46,095 Cover Artist: Steven J. Catizone Book Description: After the sudden deaths of two previous Computer Love Inc. CEOs, Marius takes control of the company. Embracing the talents of his godson, John, and his best friend, Zak, he hires the boys to oversee the Companion Services Division.

Marius refines his breakthrough technology, the Brain Machine Download, and as a result, creates his double,

M2, as the prototype. Together, they ignite the future of Computer Love Inc. by acquiring an elite team of scientists to expand the company’s technological boundaries. Meanwhile, Marius struggles with the government’s demands for a clandestine initiative - the Secret Service Companion.

Between the looming government presence and the overwhelming force behind his new team of inventors, can Marius survive the outcome of his own creations?

Available at Amazon and BN About the Authors: Kurt and Jessica Hansen reside in northern New Jersey . Kurt has worked in the aerospace electronics industry for over three decades and enjoys the outdoors, writing, and composing music. Kurt is easily recognized with a guitar in his lap, a pencil in his mouth, and a piece of paper in front of him.

Jessica graduated from Montclair State University, summa cum laude, with a B.A. in English. Her favorite pastimes include reading, running and spending time with her family. She can usually be found with a book in one hand and a hazelnut coffee in the other. www.ComputerLoveInc.com https://www.facebook.com/pages/Computer-Love-Inc/396920320362031 twitter: @ComputerLoveInc http://www.goodreads.com/author/ show/7134845.Kurt_Jessica_Hansen

Holiday Books with Bite

By Roxanne Rhoads It’s no secret my favorite holiday is Halloween. In my house, it’s bigger than Christmas. We celebrate Halloween activities for the entire month of October.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas too, Halloween just has an extra special place in my heart.

So during the holidays I tend to crave something with a little more bite than your average feel good holiday tale.

I love to find books with something a little darker than twinkling lights and snow, like maybe a fang or two.

There are several paranormal and urban fantasy books available that have a little holiday bite to them.

Some of my favorites are: Wolfsbane and Mistletoe is an anthology featuring some of the best authors in urban fantasy and paranormal including Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs, and Rob Thurman. This one is full of bite- and a few twisted holiday tales ;-) New York Times bestselling authors Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs, Keri Arthur, Carrie Vaughn, and Karen Chance-along with ten other masters of the genre-offer stories on werewolves and the holidays, a fresh variation on the concept of birthdays and vampires found in Many Bloody Returns.

The holidays can bring out the beast in anyone- particularly lycanthropes.

Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner have harvested the scariest, funniest, saddest werewolf tales by an outstanding pack of authors, best read by the light of a full moon with a silver bullet close at hand.

Whether wolfing down a holiday feast (use your imagination) or craving some hair of the dog on New Year's morning, the werewolves in these frighteningly original stories will surprise, delight, amuse, and scare the pants off readers who love a little wolfsbane with their mistletoe.

Holidays are Hell a great UF anthology featuring paranormal holiday tales from Kim Harrison, Lynsay Sands, Vicki Pettersson, and Marjorie M. Liu. This holiday, spend quality time with family and loved ones—living and dead . . .

There's no place like home for the horrordays—unless you'd prefer a romantic midnight walk through a ghost-infested graveyard . . . or a haunted house candlelight dinner with the sexy vampire of your dreams.

The (black) magical season is here—and whether it's a solstice séance gone demonically wrong with the incomparable Kim Harrison, a grossly misshapen Christmas with the remarkable Lynsay Sands, a blood-chilling-and-spilling New Year's with the wonderful Marjorie M. Liu, or a super-powered Thanksgiving with the phenomenal Vicki Pettersson, one thing is for certain: in the able hands of these exceptional dark side explorers, the holidays are going to be deliciously

hellish!

The Bite Before Christmas by Jeaniene Frost and Lynsay Sands In Lynsay Sands' "The Gift,"Katricia Argeneau knows grey-eyed cop Teddy Brunswick is her life mate. She just needs to convince him they belong together, and being snowbound in a secluded cabin will make this a Christmas neither will forget.

It's "Home for the Holidays"in Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress series. Cat and Bones may long to wrap presents and set up a tree, but this Christmas, an evil vampire and long-buried family secrets will threaten to take a bite out of their holiday cheer.

Heidi Betts The Bite Before Christmas. This steamy read will make you wish Santa would leave a vampire under your tree.

I read this one and loved it. Heidi Betts really knows how to keep the romance in paranormal romances.

Her vampire stories are some of the sweetest, romantic books with bite you can sink your fangs into.

If you are a fan of sweet romances but would love to give paranormal romances a try- start here. Heidi's books won't scare you away with violence or bloodshed. Her characters are normal everyday people that fall in love- some of them just happen to have fangs. " ll I Vant for Christmas"introduces Connor, who loves trimming the ChristA mas tree, baking gingerbread cookies, and hanging the mistletoe. But his vampire siblings won't help. His friend Angelina sends party planner Jillian to the rescue. But when Jillian, who's mortal, discovers she's decking the halls for a family of vampires, she must decide between running for her life - or putting Connor's mistletoe to good use.

In A " Vampire in Her Stocking,"Vivian becomes heartbroken when she learns that her secret crush, Sean, is terminally ill. Confiding in Angelina, Vivian refuses to turn Sean into a vampire. Deciding to play Santa, Angelina changes Sean and leaves him wrapped in a red bow on Vivian's doorstep. Angelina, the heroine of I"t's a Wonderful Bite,"is happy with her boyfriend Ian, but she's ready for a commitment. After drinking eggnog and watching I"t's a Wonderful Life"on Christmas Eve, Angelina falls into a dream where she is mortal and Ian isn't interested in her. Talk about the nightmare before Christmas! But Santa must have checked his list twice because this Christmas Angelina's wishes are coming true...

All I Want for Christmas is a Vampire (Love at Stake Book 5) by Kerrelyn Sparks Kerrelyn Sparks is an author you must read if you love vampire paranormal romances with lots of romance and humor.

Try this series, you'll love it.

Toni Davis's Christmas wish list 1. Springing my best friend from the psych ward.

2. Living somewhere that doesn't have coffins in the basement. Occupied coffins.

3. Finding Mr. Right. Please make him tall, dark, handsome, and alive.

This Christmas isn't so merry for Toni. Her best friend's been locked up in a mental hospital ever since she told the police she was attacked by vampires, and the only way for Toni to get her out is to prove that bloodsuckers really do exist. So she's taken a job as a bodyguard for the Undead, but she gets more than she bargained for, especially when she meets Ian MacPhie, a Scottish rascal looking for Ms. Right.

Although Ian's nearly five centuries old, he looks and acts like a twenty-seven-year-old hunk.

How can a dead man be so damn sexy? Could Mr. Wrong be Mr. Right?

Here's a great one featuring vampire tales from Michelle Hauf, Laurie London, Caridad Pineiro and Alexis Morgan- A Vampire for Christmas.

Dark and delicious tales that'll put you in the holiday spirit and have you searching for more books by these authors- especially if this is your introduction into their dark worlds.

All they want for Christmas is you…

It's the time of year for twinkling lights on trees and kisses under the mistletoe. Yet the passing of another year means nothing to the stunning immortals who lurk in the shadows of the new-fallen snow.

And they don't care if you've been naughty or nice.

Let four fanged lovers open your eyes to a passion you never dared to imagine. After all, there's no place like home for the holidays—and these dazzling vampires can't wait for an invitation.

Here's another great collection of holiday tales filled with fangs.

Christmas with a Vampire Sink your teeth into these while sitting in front of your tree.

Prepare for an exhilarating journey across the boundary of death into a shadowy, daring new world. As darkness falls on another year, five fanged rebels are ready to celebrate like never before.

It's a time for bloodlust and stolen kisses, for clandestine bites and forming new bonds beneath the mistletoe. Succumb to the forbidden as these powerful vampires give you a Christmas you'll never forget….

Chapter 2 Several hours prior: I HATED THAT I COULDN’T TELL REALITY FROM MY NIGHTMARES. Maybe, just maybe I spent one too many nights raising the dead. My parents named me Sylva Fleischer, but most people knew me as Sylva Slasher (I’ll get to why later). I made a pretty cool living as a necromancer for The Silver Kisses Aerial Ash Scattering Company. We raised zombies for mourners to say their last goodbyes. A lot of times we did it for police investigations, occasionally for corporate disputes, and then we cremated the deadheads and scattered the remains over Hawaii’s beautiful waters. As a matter-of-fact, some guy from the military base in Honolulu kept leaving messages on my cell phone that he wanted me to raise some dead soldier for a case they were investigating. But I had other plans. Look, I just turned eighteen, so if I wanted to ditch some lame colonel for something way more hella-fun, I would. What? Can’t a girl have priorities?

Twilight peeked over my shoulders as I looked for my friends while aboard the Sea Queen a.k.a. The Ship of a Thousand Corpses—the best freaking zombie-themed cruise in America. Imagine being in one of those magnificent hotels in Las Vegas during spring break; the golden elevators, escalators, walkover bridges, restaurants, and stores, filled with tons of thrill-seeking college kids and adults. You could call the Sea Queen one of the world’s best luxury hotels but on water.

A woman hired me to do a raising on the ship. Emily, and her boyfriend, Beckham, or Flip as he liked to be called (Hawaiian-born and Japanese-descended like Em), were going to help me. After I finally got dressed, I saw Emily’s wacky picture that she posted on Facebook and her bitchy complaint that she and Flip were waiting on me (I’m always fashionably late) in the bar on the Nightwalker Deck. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a clue where to go. The captain was escorting me up, but some kind of urgent call came in and he dashed out of the elevator speaking radio codes into his walkie-talkie.

One of my all-time fave videos, Sweet Dreams, played on the inside of the elevator doors via a hi-tech projector system. I loved it that I could watch a music video (albeit, one I’ve seen a kazillion times) inside of the elevator. A volume control knob sat beneath the red emergency button. Marilyn Manson crawled out of the rundown fireplace wearing black boots, a dirty tutu, and a torn bodice that showed off his skeletal bare chest. Alright, that’s enough. I turned the sound down so I could briefly gather my thoughts for the raising.

The elevator doors eased open. I stepped out, immediately folding my arms and shivering. I wore a black mid-riff tee shirt, tight leather pants, and some five-and-a-half inch knee-high Gothic boots. I sighed, berating myself for not wearing a warmer top. The ship’s fake fog blanketed the air so I could barely see anything. Already late, I didn’t want to waste any more time so I stopped to ask a person dressed like a zombie nun for directions. She sat on the bench in front of the ship’s THEATRE UNDER THE STARS, rocking back

and forth. A broken dog leash dangled in her hand. The closer I got, the more I realized her hunched feeble posture.

“Lady, are you okay?” I asked.

She didn’t answer but kept rocking. Her abrupt movements made her wimple flap around her neck and chin. I glanced up at the speaker mounted on the wall above us, creeped out by the spooky organ music streaming out into the foggy air.

The lady made a gurgling sound.

“Miss, hey? Are you okay?”

Her head lifted slowly. The yellow rays from the moon crept into the shadows under her headdress. I stepped forward slowly, swallowing unease.

A name spilled out of my mouth, slow, whispered. “Malena?”

I remembered admiring the blind woman’s seeing eye dog when we embarked the ship. I couldn’t resist petting her wolfdog. Emily and Flip were so occupied looking for their tickets that they didn’t even see Malena and her dog.

She made another gurgling sound. I took a step back, peering into her cloudy-white eyes.

“Um, okay, I get it,” I said. “You were hired by the ship to scare people. Right?”

I swayed a little to the left as the ship went over choppy waters. The blind woman stared past me with a vacant stare, and then her head rolled over to her right shoulder.

“Hey—hey—hey. You’re not okay,” I said, extending my arm, ready to catch her if she fell off of the bench.

Was she having a seizure?

Malena muttered something. Saliva ran down her mouth and dripped down her chalky white face.

“Are you having a allergic reaction?” I glanced to my right, then left. “Maybe I should get the ship’s doctor.”

Her body started to convulse and she dropped the dog’s leash on the deck’s floor. She moaned, curling up into a ball on the bench.

“Okay—okay—okay, I’m going to get help,” I said, taking a quick step toward the stairs. “But, uh, shoot, I don’t want to leave you alone.”

A sign directly above her read nightwalker deck maze; another, near the elevator lifts, pointed to the bathrooms. Someone had to be coming by, any second. Another gurgling noise came from the blind woman.

She coughed and blood spurted out of her mouth. I shielded my eyes with the back of my hand and something wet splattered on my forearm.

“Oh, my God, Malena! You’re, you’re hemorrhaging.”

I wiped her blood off my arms, onto the side of my top and pulled out my iPhone to call 911. No reception.

“Somebody, help. Call 911!”

I heard someone giggling and saw shadows approaching me through the fog. Two Asian girls, maybe in their late teens, dressed in shredded jeans and pink tee shirts passed behind me.

I gestured to them. “Can I use either one of your phones to call 911? This lady is totally sick!”

“Nice try,” one of them said, revealing the braces on her teeth. “But you only try to scare us.”

“No, please, really. Are you getting reception out here? I’m not getting reception.”

They laughed and pointed at the bench. “Maybe she pull your leg,” the same girl said.

I turned around and glared at an empty bench.

Where did she go?

The girls giggled and walked toward the bathroom, shaking their heads.

“What a moron,” the other one said.

“Miss? Miss, where are you?” I called out, a little irritated by those stupid girls who didn’t believe me.

I looked toward the bridge then back at the girls. “Where did she go?” They ignored me and went into the bathroom. Seriously?

“Maybe I am a moron,” I said, under my breath. There were a few droplets of blood on the bench, but I couldn’t find a trail showing me which way she went. She could’ve only gone but so many places—the elevator lift, the stairs, across the bridge (which she didn’t because I would have seen her), overboard, or into the Nightwalker Deck Maze.

If that old, blind lady thought I was going to play her game and follow her into the maze, she had another thing coming. Whatever. Time to do this raising and then try to have some fun for a change.

I took one step and the thought of Malena sent a chill creeping down the nape of my neck. Where did she go? Aw, Who cares? I shook it off, folded my arms, again, and walked toward a bridge that led to the highest deck on the ship.

Someone screamed. I turned quickly, and blew out a long breath as a wolf man in tattered clothes chased a screaming girl across the bridge and through a door. Music blared from out of the place and I knew that Emily and Flip would be in there. That must be the bar, Lipstick Zombies.

I walked over the bridge, glancing back every few seconds for Malena. The instant I crossed halfway over, I heard the music thumping behind the bar’s door. When I saw the neon sign, I got a little excited. Maybe with a little partying, I thought, I’d feel better and forget about everything that sucked in my life—for a while.

CAN'T WAIT FOR THE SEQUEL? HERE'S A PREVIEW TO

SKATEBOARD XOMBIES, SEARCH FOR THE CRYSTAL COFFIN: On a normal school day in Lunyon Canyon, California, teenage necromancer, Sylva Fleischer, bickers with her teacher in class over an unfairly graded paper. But when the principal announces that all teachers should lock their door and not let any students leave class, the entire school is trapped in a world of terrifying zombies that not only bite with their teeth, they bite with their minds.

Since all life on Earth faces extinction at the hands of the perilous undead, a guardian of a secret society of vampire monks saves Sylva, her friend, Half-Pipe and her family, and lead them to an alternate world. And that's when the real terror begins ... on a planet full of every imaginable type of undead creature that ever lived ... Including those telekinetic zombies!

Confessions of Sylva Slasher A Zombie Novel Ace Antonio Hall Publisher: Montag Press, April 2013 Genre: YA Horror Book Description: THE LOVE OF HER LIFE BECOMES THE DEATH OF THEIR LOVE Sylva Fleischer is a teenager who works as a necromancer for a living. Wanting to get away from raising the dead for police investigations and demanding grieving families for a while, she goes on a cruise for spring break. Her vacation from the dead is short-lived when passengers on the ship turn into flesh-eating zombies. These are not the same simple-minded harmless zombies she raises and can control, so Sylva and her friends are trapped on the Pacific Ocean. Their only escape comes from a guy Sylva thought was dead: Brandon. It just so happens to also be the anniversary of his death, and she's still hurting from his loss!

Why didn't he call to say he's alive? All those tears ‌ for nothing.

Sylva doesn't normally hold grudges, but when someone plays with her heart they have to pay. However, with the fate of the human race on the line, Brandon convinces Sylva to join him in a secret mission, yet she can't shake the feeling that he's hiding something.

It didn't take long for her suspicions to hold true when it's revealed that Brandon has been romantically involved with the very enemy he now wants her to destroy. To top that brutal betrayal, the villainous female would rather kill Brandon than let Sylva have a chance to patch things up between them. Sylva is not the kind of girl to walk away from love without a fight, but with a strange virus threatening extinction of human life, she shoves her own feelings in her back pocket to face her greatest nightmare, and that nightmare starts with something that is eerily growing right inside of her own mind and body.

When The Heart Bleeds, Sometimes Your Friends Are All You've Got

Available at Amazon Praise for Ace Antonio Hall and Confessions of Sylva Slasher “A treat for Buffy fans—but 100% Ace Antonio Hall's own twisted vision. Breathes new life into the living dead; run, don't shamble to get a copy.”

—Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of the WWW trilogy “In a vast sea of zombie tales, Hall's tale is more than a cut above. He brings the entire genre to heel and treats us to one Hell of a ride.”

—Art Holcomb, writer of Professor Xavier & the X-Men vs. The Avengers, Marvel Comics About the Author: Ace Antonio Hall is an actor, former music producer, and ‘retired’ educator with accolades as a Director of Education for the Sylvan Learning Center and nearly fifteen years experience as an award-winning NYC English teacher. He has a BFA degree with a concentration in screenwriting and has published poetry, short stories and fiction in magazines, anthologies, newspapers and novels.

Inspired by his father, Chris Acemandese Hall, who penned the lyrics to the Miles Davis jazz classic, “So What”, sung by Eddie Jefferson, and his sister, Carol Lynn Brown, who guest starred in the 1970’s film, “Velvet Smooth”, Ace spawned his creativity into developing the beloved but flawed teen character, Sylva Slasher.

Ace was the Vice President of the Greater Los Angeles Writers Society (2009-2011), and continues to head the Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror (ScHoFan) Critique Group as Co-Director of critique groups within the society. He is also a member of LASFS and the International Thriller Writers.

On April 14, 2013, Montag Press published his YA zombie novel Confessions of Sylva Slasher. His next release, Skateboard Xombies, is coming out later this year, and he has already begun working on Skateboard Xamurai for the third installment in his Sylva Slasher series.

Amazon AuthorPage | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads | Website | Blog | Instagram Looking for some zombie gear? Check out Ace’s Zombie Pop Shop!

Do you write in different genres?

Yes, I also write young adult books under the name J.L. Bowen. I'm currently working on a contemporary young adult book. I have two books published under J.L. Bowen: The Healer and Ryker's Revenge.

Is the book, characters, or any scenes based on a true life experience, someone you know, or events in your own life?

There are all imaginary characters. However, it is based in Frisco, Colorado, and Rainbow Lake really exists. I have a family cabin in Frisco and hiking to Rainbow Lake is one of my favorite pastimes.

If this book is part of a series…what is the next book? Any details you can share?

There will be a third book in this series. It will be Michael's story, but it will not be released until next year.

What book are you reading now?

I'm going back and forth between Allison Brennan's If I Should Die… I love the Lucy Kincaid novels and Cassandra Clare's City of Glass. I watched the first Mortal Instrument's movie and fell in love with the characters.

What books/authors have influenced your life?

There are several authors who influenced my life: S.E. Hinton, Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, and Sherrilyn Kenyon. I love all their books, but what made me fall in love with them were their life stories. It was a long road for all of them, except for S.E. Hinton. She was published at seventeen, but the others had to have perseverance to get published.

If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?

This is a hard decision. I love all the writers I'd mention, but as a mentor, I would say Jessica Aspen has been very influential with me. She's my critique partner. But with the other authors mentioned, I'd have to say Stephen King, because his book—On Writing—has been influential with my writing.

Who designed the cover of your latest book?

I have two great cover artists: Kim Killion and Viola Estrella. Viola did all the Vampire and Holiday series while Kim Killion did the Legends of the Soaring Phoenix.

Do you have a song or playlist that you think represents this book?

I grew up in the 80's and still listen to the music. When I think of Jayden, Foreigner's "Feel's Like the First Time" comes to mind. Jayden is a typical rock and roll man, making no commitments to women, and now, trying to cope with his brother's death, but then his world does a 180 when he meets Eleanor. For the first time, he's falling in love and is willing to "climb every mountain to save her."

What is next for you? Do you have any scheduled upcoming releases or works in progress?

I'm currently working on a novella for the Legends of the Soaring Phoenix series—A Pirate's Agony. It will be released in Winter 2015.

A Vampire's Fallen Christmas Star Vampires on Holiday Book 2 M.L. Guida Genre: Paranormal Holiday Romance Publisher: Buffalo Mountain Press Publication Date: October 23, 2014 Cover Artist: Viola Estrella Cover Art ASIN: B00OV0LSV0 ISBN: 9780989280334 Number of Pages: 174 Word Count: 51071 Book Description: It's the week before Christmas but the last thing Jayden Kye wants to do is celebrate. He blames himself for his twin's brother's death. He hikes up to Rainbow Lake to make peace with him, but Jayden slips down a snowy embankment and impales himself on a tree. He is dying.

Eleanor Baines has been a vampire for over a hundred years but she's never been tempted to turn a human before. Now, facing the sexy rock star, she has a choice, let him die or let him live.

Now, she finds herself with a head-strong rock singer who breaks all the rules.

Jayden discovers everything he thought he knew is wrong. His best friend and lead guitarist are legendary vampire killers bent on killing him and Eleanor. He must learn to trust Eleanor, a total stranger, to survive.

When his manager kidnaps Jayden's mother and threatens to kill her, Jayden is forced to kill his best friend, or hand over the woman he loves.

Available at: Amazon

BN iTunes Kobo Scribd

Chapter One Summer, Present Day, Frisco, Colorado

Eleanor Baines ran down the deserted street. Pain throbbed in her arm, and blood dripped down her sleeve. She couldn’t believe the damn vampire killer had nicked her with a blade that was coated with hallowed mud. Usually the assholes sported a tattoo of a dagger stabbing an opened-mouthed skull with long incisors, but this kid didn’t have one. Luckily, she had built a resistance over the years to hallowed mud, but it wasn’t enough. Her muscles were weakening, and her vision was becoming blurry.

Donna pass out.

She glanced over her shoulder. The chubby killer hurried after her and would soon overtake her. He’d surprised her at the post office when she went to open her safe deposit box. Her fault. She hadn’t thought he’d be threat—he wasn’t even sixteen. How had he known she would be there at midnight? She had even used a pseudonym.

Her heart beat hard, and each time, terror thumped between her temples. Nausea gripped her stomach.

Damn! The poison was working swiftly, breaking down organs and closing up veins. Only human blood would stop the shutdown of her system. Her mountain home was a mile away, and she’d never make it in time to drink the harvested blood in her refrigerator.

She glanced over her shoulder to find the damn killer gaining on her. Her legs were so heavy it felt like she was trudging through mud. She turned, but slammed into a brick wall and stumbled. Strong arms gripped her, stopping her from her falling down.

“Hey, are you all right?”

Her rescuer lifted her to her feet. She stared into the darkest, midnight-blue eyes she’d ever seen.

A shirtless man held her arms. He had chiseled abs, and long brown hair that flared over his broad shoulders. God, he smelled good. Pine with a hint of lemon and sage. She panted. “Help…me.”

“Get away from her,” her pursuer said. “She’s a vampire.”

The man shoved her behind him. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I know it sounds crazy,” her enemy said. “But it’s the truth. She’s going to rip your throat out.”

Please. She hadn’t ripped anyone’s throat out except for Emmet Carver’s. This young killer had watched too many vampire horror flicks. Eleanor’s legs wobbled, but she drew on her strength. If she fainted, she’d fall into the death sleep with hallowed mud pumping through her system—then she’d never wake.

Her fangs lengthened as hunger consumed her. Blood. She could smell it rushing through the man protecting her. His back was slick with sweat. She wanted to lick him, then sink her teeth into his flesh.

The man faced her hunter. “Are you hallucinating?”

Eleanor swayed and fell onto her hands and knees.

“Let me finish her—” The smacking of flesh made Eleanor lift her head. The vampire killer lay sprawled out on the sidewalk. She couldn’t believe a single punch had flattened the man, but she was glad, damn glad.

Running feet came rushing outside. A mixture of worried and mixed male voices surrounded her.

“What’s going on?”

“Jayden, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, Desmond. Justin, have your bouncers call the cops.”

“Sure. Is she okay?”

Eleanor couldn’t make out who was saying what. All she saw were a pair of athletic shoes, a pair of black cowboy boots, and a pair of loafers. She was lifted into strong arms and carried into a bar. Beer and sweat clung to the air. She laid her head against the man’s naked chest, clamping her mouth shut to keep from biting him. “You’re safe now, sweetheart,” the man said.

But he wasn’t. He set her down in a bathroom, and she winced at the bright light.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Eleanor Baines.” Her voice was strained. Not nervous wreck strained. But hysterical eye-witness strained. Why the hell did she tell him her real name?

He examined her bleeding arm gently and frowned. “It doesn’t look deep, but you probably need to go to the hospital and have it stitched.” He grabbed some paper towels and wet them. “I’m Jayden Kye.” “I’ll be fine,” she said.

In the blaring light, Jayden was handsome with high cheek bones and firm chin. Dark eye-lashes emphasized those deep-set eyes.

“Yeah, sure you will.” He dabbed her wound with the paper towels. “This isn’t going to stop the bleeding.”

She stared at his lips, and self-preservation took over. Pulling on the last of her remaining strength, she drew on her vampire magnetism. Janus had taught her to put her victims into a trance, take what she needed, and then erase their memories. She didn’t like doing it, and she preferred the blood bags at home, but her life force was draining fast.

He dropped to his knees, and the paper towels slowly fell out of his hands. The familiar blank stare fell over his eyes. Guilt hit Eleanor. Jayden had protected her from the kid, and how did she repay him? By stealing his blood.

“Sorry, Jayden,” she gasped. She pushed his hair back from his neck with her shaking hand then bit into his flesh. His blood was hot, warm, and spicy. She sucked hard and grabbed his shoulders. It had been so long since she’d fed from a man. Men still scared her, even though she knew was stronger.

She licked his neck and healed his wound. He tasted like lemon and sage. She was tempted to lick his delicious body filled her, but she shook her head.

No.

She gazed into his handsome face. Voices came down the hall, and she had to get out of there fast before they discovered her attacker was telling the truth. Unable to resist, she kissed his lips, but he was frozen and didn’t respond. Why was she disappointed? He was a handsome man, and she’d met many of those, tasted them. None of them stirred her the way Jayden had. Was it because he’d saved her and she’d been alone for so long? She shook her head and sighed. This wasn’t meant to be.

Eleanor didn’t seduce men. Besides, kissing had led to clumsy coupling that she never enjoyed. No matter how she tried to forget it, the horrible night she’d been attacked and raped had ruined any pleasure she’d endured from any man, so she stayed away from them. She couldn’t recall the last time she’d been with a man, or even desired one. Until tonight.

But how could she resist this champion? He’d stood up for her and saved her life, even tended her wounds. She glanced at her arm. It had stopped bleeding and was slowly healing. Human blood was a fast a healer. But she needed more.

“Good-bye, hero,” she said. “Thank you for saving my life. I won’t take anymore from you. I’ll be able to make it back to my car and home.”

Jayden didn’t move or answer. He stared straight ahead, lost in a trance. She had no idea why she was thanking him and reassuring him that she would be safe—he couldn’t hear her nor would he remember her. But she’d remember him.

Well, maybe she’d take one more thing from him. She glanced at the closed door and Jayden. Wanting to treasure him, she indulged in her fantasy and licked his chest. It tasted even better than his neck.

The voices grew louder as men gathered outside the door. Their conversation froze her spine.

“Desmond, why did your nephew have that damn blade?”

“It’s an heirloom. Been in the family for years. You didn’t have to call the police.”

Eleanor shook. Grand. She’d been in the den of vampire killers. Time to get out of here. The doorknob started to turn.

“Yeah, I did. Keep your nephew on a leash.”

Jayden’s blood had replenished her enough to escape. The door opened, and she flashed out of the bathroom. She was faster than the human eye and sped past the surprised men. Lord, she recognized Desmond Carver. So, Emmet Carver’s family still possessed blades designed to kill vampires. Desmond sported the dreaded tattoo on his shaved head—a dagger stabbing an opened-mouthed skull with long incisors. The mark of

a vampire killer.

About the Author: M.L. Guida has been in love with the paranormal since she was a little girl.

Vampires, demons and witches oh my! She has always been fascinated by these supernatural beings and weaves these creatures into her novels. But the love story is the center of every novel. Strong heroes and heroines are what drive her stories and their ability to overcome conflict and live happily ever after.

She lives in beautiful Colorado and many of her stories are based in the mountains. Besides writing, she enjoys taking her dog for walks and cheering her nephews and nieces on at their games. When on vacation, she’s always up for a good ghost tour and has gone on tours in London, Edinburgh, Rome and Key West. Her favorite being London’s Jack the Ripper tour. http://www.mlguida.com http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5177984.M_L_Guida/blog http://www.mlguida.com/blog/ @ml_mlguida https://www.facebook.com/ml.guida1

What's a Serial and Why Would I Read One?

by Susan Kaye Quinn A serial is a series of episodes - or short stories - that are connected to tell a larger story.

Must Read TV Serials are actually a lot like a TV series, which themselves vary a lot in type. Series like Law and Order and House are more self-contained, with only a few character storylines carrying over from episode to episode. Series like Lost or Heroes would be difficult to watch out of order because the storylines carry more strongly, sometimes with cliffhangers, sometimes not.

Some readers like the week-by-week suspense of Must Watch TV; others would rather wait until the season is done and get it from netflix so they can watch it back-to-back. Likewise, some readers enjoy the suspense of reading a serial episode-by-episode as they're released. Others would rather wait until the entire serial is complete and read it all at once. Either is fine!

Is a Serial a New Idea?

Covers for Debt Collector Season One

Ebook serials are a new thing, because ebooks are a new thing - but serials have been around since Charles Dickens wrote and released Great Expectations (self-published through his own literary magazine!) in 6,000 word "installments" every week for nine months. Readers today aren't accustomed to reading in serial format because publishing serials was restricted to magazines, which didn't have wide circulation. Now with ebooks, the cost of transmission is low and the distribution is wide. Ebooks have revived the short story form! But for readers raised on novels, who crave longer works and more in-depth stories, serials are the next natural step.

Is a Serial a Novel Cut Into Pieces?

No. A serial is not a chopped up novel, just like a TV episode is not a chopped up movie. It's a different way of telling stories. In a way, it's more demanding to write than novels - you need to immediately draw the reader in, you have to reach some kind of reader-satisfaction-level by the end of the episode (even if you have a cliff-hanger), and you have to maintain that pace and storytelling arc over multiple episodes. But all that hard work on the part of the author makes it (potentially) more enjoyable for the reader.

Can You Name Some Successful Serials?

Yes! Hugh Howey's Wool RaShelle Workman's Blood and Snow Platt and Wright's Yesterday's Gone These are all recent bestselling science fiction and fantasy serials that have drawn audiences in and helped revitalize the serial form. Romance is another genre where serials have taken off like crazy in recent years.

Why Would I Read a Serial?

Readers tell me that they enjoy the short episodes - they can read them quickly over lunch or in an evening and get a full "story" worth of entertainment. The fast pacing means there's a lot of story packed into a short number of words. Readers also say they enjoy the anticipation of finding out "what will happen next" much

like a TV series where you get invested in the characters. Think about how a favorite TV series will sometimes focus one episode on one character or another, diving into their backstory. As a writer, I like that I can go indepth a little more in each "episode" than I could in a novel, giving a richness to the story and characters that might be more difficult to do in a novel format.

All serials eventually come to an end, just like a "season" of your favorite TV series. Whether you enjoy reading serials as they release, or want to wait until the complete season is out so you can read the episodes back-toback, serials are a fast-paced, exciting way to enjoy a story.

As a writer, I find serials are the hardest writing I've ever loved.

Delirium Debt Collector 1 Susan Kaye Quinn Genre: Urban Fantasy with a Cyberpunk Twist Date of Publication: Mar 2013 ASIN: B00BW7KXXY

Number of pages: 48 Word Count: 12,000 words Cover Artist: Steven Novak

Book Description: What's your life worth on the open market?

In this gritty urban fantasy, debt collectors take your life energy and give it to someone more "worthy"... all while paying the price with black marks on their souls.

Lirium plays the part of the grim reaper well, with his dark trenchcoat, jackboots, and the black marks on his soul that every debt collector carries. He's just in it for his cut, the ten percent of the life energy he collects before he transfers it on to the high potentials, the people who will make the world a better place with their brains, their work, and their lives.

That hit of life energy, a bottle of vodka, and a visit from one of Madam Anastazja's sex workers keep him alive, stable, and mostly sane... until he collects again. But when his recovery ritual is disrupted by a sex worker who isn't what she seems, he has to choose between doing an

illegal hit for a girl whose story has more holes than his soul or facing the bottle alone--a dark pit he's not sure he'll be able to climb out of again. ***first episode of the nine-part serial*** "Absolutely riveting!"

"Quinn has a way of writing heart-breaking characters."

"You'll be holding your breath, looking over your shoulder, and begging for more."

Contains mature content and themes.

Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/0-ngIMiEF1M Availale at Amazon

OPTIONED FOR VIRTUAL REALITY BY IMMERSIVE ENTERTAINMENT

2014 Semi-Finalist in Science Fiction in the Kindle Book Awards

It is recommended that you start with the first season, but each season is a complete story for that debt collector and can serve as an entry point to the series. There are five planned seasons in the Debt Collector series, the first four each from the perspective of a different debt collector with the fifth season bringing all four together.

Excerpt:

My jackboots are new, the latest ultra-light material out of Hong Kong’s synthetics district, and they make a strange squeaking sound against the hospital floor. It’s the kind of sound that might gather snickers or a raised eyebrow, but no one looks at me, at least not on purpose. I stroll past the ICU desk, taking my time, breathing in the antiseptic smell that masks the odor of death held back by machines and drugs and round-theclock care. The nurses duck their heads and study their charts, ignoring me. As if catching my eye might mean I’m coming to collect their debt, rather than Mr. Henry’s in Room 301.

The floor is so highly polished that I see the reflection of my trenchcoat running ahead of me, black as a midnight grave, a spook that lives on the surface of the oft-scrubbed tiles. It reaches the door to 301 before me and disappears in the dim, flickering light coming from the room. The spook has gone back where he be-

longs, into the dark recesses of my soul, assuming I still have one. If I was a betting man, I would say the odds of having a soul keep getting longer with every transfer I do. The older debt collectors, the ones who are still alive, don’t have anything shining out of their dull-glass eyes, even when they’re hyped up on a transfer.

There’s no telling what my eyes look like.

I stopped looking in the mirror a long time ago.

Mr. Henry’s hooked up in all the usual places—tubes in his arms and monitor patches hovering over his temples and the blue-veined skin of his chest. His knobbed knees and shriveled legs stick out the end of the blanket. I don’t know if he’s tossed the blanket aside or the nurses just forgot to cover him up again after his sponge bath or whatever they do to prepare patients for a debt transfer. Goosebumps raise the hair on what’s left of his legs into a small forest of gray fur. I tug the thin, white-weave blanket over his exposed legs, and Mr. Henry opens his eyes.

They’re pale green and watery—washed out and used up like the rest of him.

“You’ve come for me,” he says.

I pick up one of the hard-backed, plastic hospital chairs, the kind that makes you uncomfortable sticking around the ICU, just in case all the death-waiting-to-happen doesn’t do the trick. I carefully set it down, backward facing at the head of Mr. Henry’s bed, and settle in. I don’t answer him, just study him for a moment over my laced fingers.

“What’s your name, son?” he asks, which makes me lean back and mentally check over his file again.

No, he’s not an Alzheimer’s patient. He shouldn’t think I’m his son. And I’m only twenty, but no one’s mistaken me for a boy in a while, not since I started collecting.

“Lirium,” I say. It’s just my collector name, short for Delirium. Some punk collector thought it was funny when we went through training and it stuck. I don’t use my real name anymore, so it’s as good as any. Most people don’t ask.

“Is it going to hurt, Lirium?” His hand wanders out from the blanket, shaking a little and fluttering around his chest, like it’s searching for something. Then it lands on the rail of his bed and grips it.

“No, sir.” Relief gushes through me like water from a busted hose. When patients have been properly prepared, that’s the question they ask. It means they’re ready. I should thank the nurses on the way out, if I can get one of them to look at me. “It won’t hurt at all, Mr. Henry. In fact, it will be a relief.”

This isn’t really true, but I imagine it will be better than what he’s feeling now, all the aches and pains of the cancer slowly eating him from the inside out. This is where I usually tell them that transferring out is a good thing and how paying their debt will make the world a better place. I tell them it’s better for everyone— they get relief from having to live the last painful stages of their disease, they’re no longer a drain on the resources of the world, and someone else, someone in the height of their productivity, whose contributions to the world will be long lasting, will receive their debt and do even more with it than they can imagine. And I get my cut. Everyone wins!

I usually leave out that last part.

Debt Collector Season Two Episodes 10-18 Susan Kaye Quinn Genre: Urban Fantasy with a Cyberpunk Twist Date of Publication: Dec 15, 2014 ASIN: B00OF18W50 Number of pages: 500 Word Count: 125,000

Cover Artist: Steven Novak

Book Description:

What's your life worth on the open market?

In this gritty urban fantasy, debt collectors take your life energy and give it to someone more "worthy"... all while paying the price with black marks on their souls.

Wraith is a shadow in the night, haunting the bedrooms of the rich "high potentials" who have stolen life energy from the desperate and dying. The justice and the sweet mercy hit that follow keep her from falling into her own personal abyss.

Her secret nighttime work also keeps her on level for her real mission: carrying on her father's legacy of attempting to bring an end to debt collection as a whole. But when a mysterious debt

collector interrupts her in the act and discovers her secret, everything Wraith loves may be destroyed by the one thing she can never fix-- the original sin of being a debt collector herself.

Available at Amazon

Contains mature content and themes.

Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/0-ngIMiEF1M

"Wraith is amazing and just as compelling as Lirium--once again I'm hooked!!"

"I loved being back in this world! Wraith has captivated me."

READING ORDER

Season One - Lirium - COMPLETE Episodes 1-9: Delirium, Agony, Ecstasy, Broken, Driven, Fallen, Promise, Ruthless, Passion Season Two - Wraith 10 - Wraith (10.20) 11 - Specter (10.27) 12 - Menace (11.3) 13 - Temptation (11.10) 14- Shattered (11.17) 15 - Penance (11.24) 16 - Judgment (12.1) 17- Corruption (12.8) 18- Atonement (12.15) BOX SET (Vol 10-18) - (12.15)

Excerpt: My new collection suit weighs less than a shadow on my skin, and my soft-soled boots don’t even whisper as I creep across the thick, yielding carpet of my target’s apartment. With the best bullet-resistant synthetics money can buy, the black curve-hugging suit makes me look more like female-special-forces than someone’s hot date for the night. It raised the bellman’s eyebrows, but an untraceable debit card got me waved through the lobby, no problem. Money buys a lot of things. Access to one of the highest-security luxury buildings in LA. A ninety-fifth-floor apartment high above the smog-soaked city, complete with all the clean air you can breathe. And the no-doubt illegal collection of ivory-handled daggers I passed on the way in. It’s too bad for data-mining mogul Adrien Odel that money can’t buy your way out of a blackened soul.

I know.

I’ve tried.

And tonight I’ve come to collect a debt he doesn’t even think he owes.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows of Odel’s apartment, the city is lit up with a nighttime electric haze, the kind that makes it look seedy even in the high-rent district. It’s the perfect backdrop for a collection, and my suit is a black silhouette against it, a hole of death punched in the city’s twinkling lights. The high-tech fabric clings to me like the original sin I can never expiate, the one every debt collector is born with: the ability to deliver death with the slightest touch. We traffic in it, surround ourselves with it, and can never escape it.

Not that I haven’t tried that, too.

But even a short three-week dry spell away from collecting has me needy as all hell. The craving for a life energy hit claws at my back, and every step across the carpet amps up the desire. Even the possibility of Odel pulling a gun and shooting me dead hypes the thrill a little. My palm aches in anticipation—for the justice and the high that comes with it—but I take it slow, watching the placement of my feet and checking the windows. Along one edge, next to a mile-wide screen and some pretentious artwork, there’s a control panel. Only the rich want windows that open in the city, but it’s a bonus for me, especially given the windows face the broad expanse of the skyline and not the high-rise next door.

As I check out the control panel, the high-rise becomes a peep show. A woman’s naked body is pressed against the glass, exposed to the city’s onlookers as a man clutches her bare skin and makes love to her. I’m transfixed by the way they move, skin against skin, without care for the contact or the watchers. In a moment, they’re gone. Maybe reason broke through the passion. Maybe the glass was cold, in spite of the perpetual heat of LA. Regardless, the image holds me hostage.

Having a lover isn’t something that’s part of my future. Or my present, for that matter. But that doesn’t stop the base need from surging up, usually at the least convenient of times. Then a different image—a cold, pale specter from my past—crawls out of the dark corners of my mind and reminds me I’m not the kind of woman who gets to have a normal life. I’m the kind who takes life and then gives it away. And the ecstasy of that is the closest I’ll ever get to the normal kind again—so it had better be good enough.

I couldn’t stomach even that pleasure for a while, not after what the debt collectors did to my father. I managed a whole three weeks without a single collection. But in the end, it’s the only thing that keeps me stable. And I’ve had a severe lack of stable ever since my father’s death nearly tore down the teetering scaffold of lies that comprises my life. That’s when the abyss reared up and stared me full in the face. Will-power alone wasn’t enough to stop it—the darkness just opened its maw and threatened to swallow me whole. At least that would have put an end the torment… but I couldn’t let the sin of who I am destroy everything my father had worked for. That we had both worked for. So here I am, dressed like a phantom, stalking the rich to give to the poor. With a tremor in my hands that’s more than a little unsettling. For better and worse, it’s the one thing that keeps me out of that dark place and gives me hope that one day I might redeem everything I am and everything I’ve done.

About the Author:

Susan Kaye Quinn is the author of the bestselling Mindjack Trilogy and the Debt Collector serial, as well as other speculative fiction novels and short stories. Her work has appeared in the Synchronic anthology and has been optioned for Virtual Reality by Immersive Entertainment. Her business card says "Author and Rocket Scientist" but she mostly sits around in her PJs in awe that she gets to write full time.

Subscribe to the newsletter for a free short story: http://smarturl.it/SKQnewsletter

More about Sue: http://smarturl.it/SKQwebsite http://smarturl.it/SKQonFB http://smarturl.it/SKQontwitter

CHAPTER ONE

He and Karl were enjoying a mid-afternoon break from battle training down in the dungeons while Alex was off somewhere, probably dreaming up more of Santa with fangs?… her honey-do jobs for him. Not that I haven’t told her “’Twas the night before Christmas, and all more than once that they are more like honey-damnthrough the castle, not a creature was stirring, not don’t chores. even a bat--” This is how the conversations usually went: “Very funny!” Vikar Sigurdsson elbowed “Honey, we need another bathroom on the Karl Mortensen and almost knocked him off his kitch- fourth floor.” en stool. They sat side by side at the twenty-foot island counter in the huge castle kitchen. Karl’s What was it with this “we” business. Women halfbrained rewording of the famous yuletide story always used the “we” card when trying to convince had been in response to Vikar’s telling him that Alex, men of one thing or another.

Vikar’s wife, wanted them to have a traditional “We already have two bathrooms on the fourth Christmas celebration this year, complete with holly, floor.” and decorated trees, and caroling, and feasts, and Santa Claus, and jingle bells, and gifts. All that ho-ho-ho Vikar recalled a time when the only toilet fanonsense. cilities were wooden holes in an outdoor privy or a ‘Twas enough to give a thousand-plus-yearprivate spot in the woods. It had been cold enough old Viking vampire angel a headache! betimes to turn a cock into an icicle.

Yes, Vikar lived in a lackwit, rundown castle “I know. That’s why we need three. Whew! (more like falling down, if you ask me, which no one It is so hot today. I think I’ll go take a bubble bath. I ever does) in lackwit Transylvania, and, no, not Tran- don’t suppose…” sylvania, Romania. No, this was lackwit Transylvania, Pennsylvania (Don’t ask!). As for bats, three Alex knew sure as Eve tempted Adam that years ago when he’d begun the renovation of this hun- Vikar loved taking bubble baths with her. There was dred-year-old, seventy-five room monstrosity, they’d something about popping bubbles that appealed to the had to first remove ten tons of guano. (That’s bat shit, boy in him. Or the man. to you uninformed.) And they still hadn’t eliminated all of the irksome creatures. Try sleeping at night to Face it, she pays no attention to my comthe sound of flapping wings in the turrets. Not that plaints. All she has to do is smile in that certain way, vangels (Viking vampire angels, to you uniformed, or hint at some sexual play, and I am Norse putty in again. Jeesh!), like himself, weren’t accustomed to her hands. Like this most recent, brilliant idea of hers. the sound of flapping wings, but usually it was from Holy clouds! She will be turning us all into ridiculous St. Michael the Archangel, their heavenly mentor aka Santa Clauses. With fangs!

Pain In The Arse, whom they rudely referred to as He glanced over at Karl who was sipping with Mike. (When he was not around.) distaste from a bottle of Fake-O. Vikar could have Vikar sipped at his long-necked bottle of beer. told him it was better to just chug the crap down and

cleanse the palate with a bottle of beer. Fake-O was the synthetic blood vangels drank when they’d been too long from feeding during a mission.

Karl was a quiet kind of guy, the type that didn’t feel the need to talk just to fill gaps in a conversation. A man’s man, modern folks would say. He did the jobs that were handed to him with competency. No whining or complaints, like Vikar’s brother Trond was wont to do, especially if it involved anything strenuous. Trond was a sloth if there ever was one, although he was working to reform himself from his grave sin, as they all were.

The traitor! Vikar thought at Karl’s siding with his wife, but then he was probably right. Gunnar and Gunnora, Vikar and Alex’s “adopted” twins, were three years old. For the past four days, ever since Thanksgiving…another chaotic holiday Alex had talked him into!…Gun and Nora had been yipping and yapping about Santa this and Rudolph that and jingle belling ‘til Vikar’s head hurt. It had all started when they’d gone to something called “Black Friggsday” at the mall. Rather, “Black Friday.” Betimes, he still fell into the old Norse words, like Friggsday for Friday, because, after all, despite being a vampire angel, he There was a sadness about Karl, too, but not was a Viking at heart. Which should be good enough like Vikar’s brother Mordr who for centuries turned reason to not have to be reminded to ever fall for that his sadness into a berserk madness, killing practically trap again. “Honey, would you drive us to the mall? everything that got in his pathway. Mordr’s sin had of Gun and Nora need new shoes. It will be fun.” Hah! course been wrath.

If I never hear “Alvin and the Chipmunks” again, it Vikar liked Karl. will be too soon!

Breaking the companionable silence, Vikar “Did you celebrate Christmas when you were continued with his tirade, “It would be a sacrilege for growing up?” he asked Karl. us to celebrate such a commercial holiday, wouldn’t it?

We’re practically angels.”

The young man…even though Karl had forty“Practically?” Karl snorted. “You didn’t look two vangel years on top of his twenty-two human very angelic when I saw you coming out of your bed- ones, Vikar still thought of him as young…rarely room this morning.” spoke of his past. His situation had been unique amongst the vampire angels since he’d left behind a Vikar grinned in remembrance. Three years young wife who lived out her human years until she he’d been wed, with more than a thousand years of ex- died two years ago at age sixty-two. Imagine staying perience in the bed arts under his belt, literally, and the same age yourself but watching a loved one grow still his wife could surprise him. older and older and then perish of a wasting disease!

Karl smiled. A sad smile, Vikar noticed. “Yes. “Besides, Vikings back in your time celebrated I grew up on a small farm in Minnesota with a brother the holiday season, didn’t you?” and two sisters. We were poor as church mice, even In my time? Vikar mused. Makes me sound though my Dad worked from dawn ‘til dusk milking ancient. Which I am. Still, I like to think of myself as cows and growing corn and hay. Mom had a big vegemy thirty-three human years. table garden and put away hundreds of Mason jars Karl was a Viking, too…all vangels were, by filled with different things every fall. String beans, birth if not descent…but he was young for a vangel, carrots, peas, corn, limas, beets, pickles, chow chow, having died only about forty years ago during the Vi- peaches, pears, applesauce. If it grew, she preserved etnam War. it.

“Vikings celebrated the Yule season with great “We had a Christmas tree, of course, with vigor. ‘Tis true. Yule logs and gift giving. Feasts. strings of ancient lights that were probably a fire hazNot a religious holiday, more a commemoration of the ard. And old ornaments. Homemade ones, too. We Winter Solstice. It was nothing like the secular exbelieved in Santa Claus, early on, anyhow. We even tremes evident today. Even though we did, of course, believed the old tale that animals talk on Christmas have reindeer in the Norselands. None with a red Eve. Many a night, us kids snuck out of the house to nose, though, that I recall.” the barn to listen. I swore I heard old Bessie say, “It could be as secular or not, as you wish,” ‘Moo-rry Christmas’ one time.” He laughed.

Karl said. “Besides, Alex is right. Kids should experiAnd Vikar laughed with him. It was a revelaence the holiday season. And this will be the first tion hearing Karl talk about his background. He hardChristmas that yours are old enough to understand.” ly ever talked about himself.

“Mostly our gifts were practical ones. Maybe a handknitted sweater or mittens or socks. Nuts, hard candies, and some fruit that was out-of-season for us, like nectarines, would be in our stockings, which we hung without fail over the fireplace.”

There are thirty fireplaces in this friggin’ castle, Vikar mused, and had a sudden horrifying image of stockings hanging from every one of them. Some of the younger vangels were often like children themselves and would sure as sin be wishing for gifts from the fat man in the red suit. Images of Armod, the sixteen-year-old vangel from Iceland, immediately came to mind. Armod fancied himself Michael Jackson reincarnated. (You do not want to see a Viking vampire moonwalking! Trust me!)

“Each of us only got one present,” Karl continued.

Over the holiday there could be as many as a hundred vangels in residence at the castle, especially if his brothers came with their contingents. Knowing Alex, she’d probably already issued invitations. Surely, he wouldn’t be expected to go gift shopping for all of them. Would he? Vikar shuddered with mall tremors.

His headache felt as if it were growing. Maybe he was developing a brain tumor. Good idea. That might be sufficient excuse for Alex to get the Christmas bug out of her…um, head.

“One gift only, but, man, it was always something special. I remember the year I got a BB gun.”

“And your parents didn’t worry that you would shoot your eye out?” Vikar asked, referring to the famous line from “The Christmas Story,” a movie some of his vangels loved.

“Nah! Growing up on a farm, we were used to hunting and stuff. I got to be a pretty good shot, too.

That’s why I was recruited to be a sniper in the Army, and--” Karl’s words trailed off. He never spoke of his time in Vietnam, the time of his great sin.

“Anyhow, there’s nothing for a kid like those weeks leading up to Christmas. The smells of evergreens in the house and the baking. Ma made a dozen different kind of cookies, and pies, even homemade fruit cake.

And the Christmas dinner was a regular feast with turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, rutabaga and corn, string bean casserole, cranberry sauce, fresh fruit salad, and rolls warm from the oven dripping with butter.”

At the mention of all that baking and food preparation, their cook’s head shot up. Lizzie Borden

had had been sitting at the far end of the counter skimming through a recipe book. He hadn’t realized they’d been speaking so loud. And, yes, it was that Lizzie Borden, who wielded her axe these days chopping vegetables and beef carcasses. Lizzie was the most sour-dispositioned woman Vikar had ever met.

She exchanged a look with him that said loud and clear, “Don’t even think about it!”

Karl hadn’t noticed Lizzie’s expression. Instead, he was still lost in childhood memories. “The excitement, that’s what I remember most. The anticipation of Christmas was almost as special as Christmas itself.” He shrugged as if helpless to explain it all.

Actually, he’d done a pretty good job, not of convincing Vikar that he should go all out with Christmas madness as Alex’s plan would surely be, but showing a more simple view of the holiday. “Is the farm still there?”

Karl nodded. “I’ve not been permitted to make myself visible to any of my family, especially while Sally was still alive.” He bit his bottom lip for a long moment before going on. “Mom died a long time ago, but my Dad is still alive. Finally retired at eighty-nine. My little brother Erik works the land now. Quite a prosperous operation these days.” He laughed. “I say little, but Erik is fifty-eight now, and has not just grandchildren, but one greatgranddaughter.”

Just then, Vikar heard the loud bang, bang, bang of little feet stomping down the uncarpeted back stairs. Laughing (Was there anything sweeter than the sound of a child laughing?), excited chatter (Do children know how to talk below a shout?), shrieking “I’m first, I’m first.”

Gunnora rushed through the doorway of the servant’s staircase, shoving her brother aside with a swing of her tiny hip. Her blonde braids were half undone and she had a dirt smudge on her freckled nose. “Papa, look what I found in the attic.” She was carrying a wooden soldier nutcracker almost a tall as she was. “Gimme a nut, Lizzie,” she ordered.

“I’ll give you a nut, you little tyrant,” Lizzie muttered and went back to reading her recipe book.

Close behind Nora was her twin Gunnar who carefully held a wooden stable inside of which Vikar could see what appeared to be painted wood Nativity figures. Gun put it on the floor and began to arrange the little statues of the Holy Family and animals. “I need some straw,” he said to himself. “Betcha that Amish man at the farmers’ market has some.”

And then there was Alex, his wife, who could still make his heart leap (and other body parts), despite their being married three years now. “Honey, wait ‘til you see what I found for you,” she said, placing a dustcovered box on the counter in front of him.

Uh-oh. There is that “honey” again. Best I raise my shield and prepare for battle.

Gun and Nora were jumping up and down with excitement. Open it, Papa. Open it.” And the gleam in Alex’s eyes was much like that of a Norseman just home from a long trip a-Viking, offering some treasure or other to a loved one. Maybe she was not asking another favor of him, but granting one. He would be open minded.

“Thank you, love,” he said graciously.

But then he saw what was inside and thought, Screw open-minded.

He said, “Holy shit!” before he could catch himself. Alex did not like him to use foul language in front of the children. But this required a “Holy shit!” if anything ever did. Inside the box, was a moth-holed, old-fashioned Santa suit, with a black leather belt, big boots, and a ridiculous peaked cap.

Just then, Nora let out a little squeal and set aside the nutcracker. Running over to the window facing the back courtyard, she said, “It’s snowing! It’s snowing!”

And Gun said, “Maybe we can make a snowman, just like Frosty.”

And Alex, who was tone deaf or close to it,

burst out into song, “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.”

And Karl said, “I’m outta here.”

“Can I come with you?” Vikar asked.

“Hell, no, Mister Scrooge!”

Once Karl was gone and the children had gone off with a grumbling Lizzie to find some coal and carrots and a cap for Frosty, he and Alex were alone. He glanced pointedly at the open box and said, “Surely, you don’t expect me to…come on, Alex, sweetling…

Santa with fangs? Ha, ha, ha.”

She didn’t laugh. Instead, she gave him that little secret Mona Lisa smile…and, yes, he had met the model for the Mona Lisa painting one time and knew exactly why she had been smiling. “Honey,” Alex purred.

Beware of women who purr. “No, no, no!” he said. And he continued to insist, “No, no, no,” until Alex yawned and mentioned taking a little nap. He did so enjoy afternoon “naps” with his wife.

Still, he protested, “A Viking Santa?”

Somehow Alex managed to hop up onto his lap, straddling his hips. With arms looped around his neck, she said, “Please?”

“I will be the laughingstock of Vikings throughout this world and the other,” he said on a groan of surrender.

Oddly, he found that he no longer cared. *****

Christmas in Transylvania A Deadly Angels Novella

By Sandra Hill On-Sale 10/28/2014 ISBN: 9780062117557 Book Description: For the first time ever the leader of the Viking Vampire Angels, Vikar Sigurdsson, has been talked into celebrating a traditional Christmas! The tree has been decorated, the gifts have been wrapped and the stockings have been hung. And that’s mistletoe, not cobwebs hanging from the ceiling of the creepy castle full of vangels…really!

The icing on the vampire cookie comes when vangel Karl Mortensen rescues Faith Larson, a

battered young waitress, from her abusive boyfriend and hides her in the castle amidst the Christmas chaos. But what Karl thought was a frail young teenager is actually a very tempting woman. And she thinks his fangs are sexy!

But a strange “Christmas visitor” at the castle and demon vampires up to their old tricks could threaten the budding romance between Karl and Faith.

It’s an impossible match: a human and a vangel, but Christmas is a time for magic.

Karl and Faith don’t stand a chance…

Available at Amazon About the Author: Sandra Hill is a graduate of Penn State and worked for more than 10 years as a features writer and education editor for publications in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Writing about serious issues taught her the merits of seeking the lighter side of even the darkest stories.

She is the wife of a stockbroker and the mother of four sons. https://www.sandrahill.net/ https://www.facebook.com/SandraHillAuthor Join the author’s mailing list

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/177305.Sandra_Hill

Where are you from?

I currently live in Portland, Tn but grew up in Lomax, IL. Tell us your latest news?

I am diligently writing on Book 2 in the Destiny Series, but am excited to share I have started another paranormal series that book one of will be out by next Christmas. This one is based in New Orleans, involves cat shifters and descendants of a voodoo queen.

When and why did you begin writing?

I have written since high school, but I really started thinking about making it a career for the last three years. I began writing after a good author friend advised me, write the story you want to read.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

When I finished and won my first NaNoWriMo. When I proved to myself I could write 50,000 words in a month, I knew that I could officially call myself a writer. Though now I look back and realize that I was a writer way before then, I wrote all the time. Stories, journal entries, poems, etc. I just had to get over that personal hurdle, and I am so glad I did.

What inspired you to write your first book?

Getting to know so many indie authors and realizing that if they can do it, I can do it. So I did, I stopped ignoring the character voices in my head and started writing down what they were saying. It snowballed from there.

With the help of an amazing team of editors, graphic artist, and the best beta readers around I completed the novel and published it this last October.

Do you have a specific writing style?

Not really, I do some planning, but most of what I write happens when I sit down and write from the seat of my pants. The planning is simply character outlines, location, and family trees.

How did you come up with the title?

The title came to me after I had written the book. As I was revising I realized I referenced Jami’s destiny a lot, so of course the title evolved into Destiny Finds Her. Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

No message, I just want readers to be able to sit back and enjoy escaping into a world I created. I enjoy reading for that simple reason, I can escape my day to day life, troubles, issues, and dive into a world that has been created for me.

How much of the book is realistic?

None of it is real, Jami is based on myself a bit I guess, she gets paid to read and evaluate books which is something I would love to be able to do. Some characters came to me from books, movies, and shows that I have watched.

Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?

Not in this book.

What books have most influenced your life most?

Oh good question, the two that made an impact the most are Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.

If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?

Oh I have more than one! Deena Remiel, Amber Scott, and Terry Maggert. I consider them all to be mentors. I know that if I have a question, idea, or just want to chat I can contact them. They have all helped me in so many ways!

What book are you reading now?

Seventh Grave and No Body by Darynda Jones.

Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?

Hmm, I don’t know how new they are but I have just recently discovered Demelza Carlton and Staci Hart.

Love them both!

What are your current projects?

I am currently working on Book 2 in the Destiny series as well as a new Paranormal series based in New Orleans.

What would you like readers to know?

That I am so grateful that they took the time to stop by and check out this interview. I hope that they take the chance, grab the book and enjoy the world I have created for Jami and Devlin. There is a lot more in store for them in Book 2. Also I love hearing from readers so email me, tweet me, or stop by the facebook page. I love chatting with everyone.

Destiny Finds Her Destiny Series Book 1 Miranda Lynn Genre: Romance/Time Travel ISBN: 1502554267 ASIN: B00OZ8JZTU Number of pages:178 Cover Artist: Sister Sparrow Graphics Book Description: Jami – Content with her life working for a publishing house, enjoying her caffeine addiction and her daily banter with best friend Todd. Jami wasn’t one to believe in Destiny. When her world turns upside down just days before her 25th birthday, her beliefs are challenged and time is ripped away. Dozing off in the sun one moment and sitting in a field of heather with a talking hamster the next will rattle any normal girl. But hearing a sexy deep voice and turning to find the Highlander it belongs to will rock anyone’s world!

Devlin-. He loved the annual festival, all the hustle and bustle around the keep, what he couldn’t handle was his mother hounding him about finding that “one” to settle down with as the middle brother he still had plenty of time. He escaped daily to do his rounds along the land’s perimeter, but one day he found someone he wasn’t expecting. One look, one smell was all it took. He would find out who she was.

Faced with the obstacle of overcoming her fears and embracing her powers, Jami’s destiny is hers to take. Or is it?

Available at Amazon About the Author: Mother to two boys, 3 four legged babies, and wife to a loving husband who doesn't mind the extra voices in her head.

Miranda grew up on a dairy farm in Illinois, but calls Portland, TN home now. She is an avid reader, coffee addict, and loves her day job working at the local public library. Though her true passion is in creating her own worlds, characters, and stories for her readers.

Website: www.mirandalynn.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/MirandaLynn Twitter: @MirandaLynnBks Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MirandaLynnAuthor/posts

Please share a little about yourself, your genres, any other pen names you use.

The Sweet Christmas Kisses box set is a collection of holiday romances by 14 sweet romance authors. Collectively we are part of Sweet Romance Reads. We all write what we like to call “PG romance”.

Tell us a little about your latest or upcoming release.

My particular story is BY CHRISTMAS. It’s the fourth book in my Covington Falls Chronicles series, inspirational romances set in a fictional Southern town. In this tale, the heroine Noelle Robinson is a jilted bride who decides she’s going to escape all the tea and sympathy and start over in a new city. Then her father has a health crisis, which throws all her plans out the window. Suddenly, she’s in charge of running her parents’ Christmas shop and organizing the town’s holiday festivities. Michael Campbell is the brother of the man who broke Noelle’s heart. Since her non-wedding, she and Michael have become friends. Michael steps in to help her save Christmas. In the process they discover their own holiday happy ending.

Have you ever based your book or characters on actual events or people from your own life?

I don’t know if there is any one character based on a real person. Sometimes they have elements of people I’ve known. Most of my story ideas come from somewhere Is there a theme or message in your work that you would like readers to connect to?

Since my books are inspirational there are themes about faith. Many of my characters are actually pretty cynical about religious and general so it’s interesting to take them on a spiritual journey as well as a romantic one.

I also have reoccurring themes about forgiveness and healing. My characters also have pain in their past and that is keeping them from creating a fulfilling life. It’s only when they learn to deal with that anger and hurt that they are able to get the happy ending.

When you’re not writing what do you do? Do you have any hobbies or guilty pleasures?

I am a singer. I sing in my church choir and worship team. I also play flute in a community orchestra.

Is there a genre that you’d like to write that you haven’t tackled yet?

I have this persistent crazy idea that seems to want to be a paranormal. It’s about a spoiled heiress who dies.

Once she gets to heaven she gets recruited to what’s known as the “Soul Mate Council” where it is her job to help earthly couples find their soul mate before it’s too late. It’s very strange but hilariously funny. Someday I might have to write it.

If this book is part of a series…what is the next book? Any details you can share?

This is the fourth book in the Covington Falls Chronicles. The previous installments are MARRY ME, ACTING UP & IMAGINE THAT. There are quite a few returning characters from previous books in this book. In fact, Noelle made her first appearance in MARRY ME. My heroine in that book was Julia Richardson, a very reluctant wedding planner.

Noelle’s non-wedding was one of her many chaotic moments.

What book are you reading now?

I am eagerly anticipating the next Kristan Higgins book. I suppose by the time this posts I will already have devoured it. Kristan is one of my favorite authors. She is a master at writing humor, but also genuine, tear-jerking emotion. She can make you laugh and cry, sometimes on the same page.

Sweet Christmas Kisses Box Set 14 Authors: Donna Fasano, Helen Scott Taylor, Beate Boeker, Melinda Curtis, Denise Devine, Raine English, Aileen Fish, Patricia Forsythe, Grace Greene, Mona Risk, Roxanne Rustand, Magdalena Scott, Kristin Wallace Genre: Contemporary Romance Sweet Holiday Romance Book Description: This holiday season, warm your heart—and maybe a little more—with fourteen Sweet Christmas Kisses, a bundle of PG-rated romance novels and novellas from USA Today, national bestselling, and award-winning authors.

Sweet Christmas Kisses takes you from small-town USA to England, Scotland, and even Ecuador; from the beach to snow-capped mountains, and to the wild—sometimes magical—west.

The Sweet Christmas Kisses bundle will bring you laughter, tears, and always joy.

Almost Perfect Christmas by Donna Fasano Aaron wants to give his daughter a perfect Christmas and elicits Christy’s help to do it. When they’re talked into a make-believe wedding, can a real one be far behind?

Mistletoe in Maine (Holiday Brides Book #3) by Ginny Baird Award-winning and National bestselling author A single mom takes her kids on vacation in Maine and meets a handsome innkeeper, a young widower with a teenage son. A winter wonderland love story about faith and new beginnings.

The Army Doctor’s Christmas Baby Army Doctor’s Baby Series by Helen Scott Taylor Award-winning and National bestselling author An army surgeon with twins falls for the nanny, but will her secret destroy their happiness?

Stormy Times by Beate Boeker A rock star, vet, and puppy meet in a blizzard and sparks fly…

The Christmas Promise by Melinda Curtis USA Today Recommended Read, Award-winning and National bestselling author When a chocolate heiress trying to save her family’s cocoa plantation bumps into a wounded warrior on a trek for a fallen comrade during Christmas, chaos ensues thanks in part to three fairy godmothers…er, a trio of meddlesome nuns.

Merry Christmas, Darling by Denise Devine Award-winning author A desperate bachelor enlists his neighbor to pose as his wife to appease his mother, whose dying wish is to see her son married—and producing grandchildren. At first, his plan appears to be a success. That is, until he discovers Mother has a few deceptive plans of her own…

Some Christmas Magic by Raine English Award-winning and National bestselling author She’s been dumped… He wants to win her back… A last-ditch effort to save her Christmas might result in her most romantic holiday ever.

Christmas in White Oak by Aileen Fish National bestselling author Forced to face his past, a young widower tries to grant the Christmas wish of his first love.

Lucky Break Christmas: Homecoming by Patricia Forsythe Award-winning author Their marriage is in trouble…until a judge, two kids, a quirky hometown of old friends, and the Christmas spirit of forgiveness step in.

Beach Christmas by Grace Greene Award-winning and National bestselling author Jessie Dawson hopes to arrange the perfect beach Christmas for her family, but when it all falls apart a special delivery from the past may inspire a new Christmas wish.

Her Christmas Cruise by Mona Risk Award-winning and National bestselling author The perfect fiancé is a cheater and the Christmas wedding is off. What if the would-be honeymoon cruise offers Julia a dream companion?

A Scottish Christmas by Roxanne Rustand When Lucy Davis receives a mysterious letter inviting her to the Scottish Highlands to receive an inheritance, she expects to deal with it quickly—until she discovers it's a historic B&B with a handsome, mysterious resident who might just be the man of her dreams.

Small Town Christmas by Magdalena Scott National bestselling author Past loves, a family in mourning, a little boy with a big heart. Christmas in Serendipity, Indiana is full of surprises!

By Christmas by Kristin Wallace Award-winning and National bestselling author She was a jilted bride. He’s her ex-fiancé’s brother. She’s trying to save Christmas. He’s disrupting her peace on earth. Together they find a holiday happy ending.

Connect with the Authors at Sweet Romance Reads Website/Blog: http://SweetRomanceReads.com Facebook: http://facebook.com/SweetRomanceReads Twitter: http://twitter.com/SweetRomanceRds Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/donnafaz/sweet-romance-reads/ Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/123223-sweet-romance-reads

Dreams of a Wild Heart The Dreamwalkers Book Three Danube Adele Book Description: Dr. Cecilia—Ceci— Bradford at your service.

I dance, rock climb, and have mastered MMA, because just being a twentysix-year-old doctor isn’t enough. It doesn’t keep me from remembering the terrifying night my life changed, the night my true love died. I was nearly seventeen.

Life goes on, but the secret I keep is that I still talk to him in my dreams.

That was getting me by until Tabron showed up—or, more specifically, until the six-foot-two brute of a Viking whisked me off to another planet because his leader is dying. And the joy didn’t end there. I’m being forced to choose a mate. The Brausa are facing extinction.

Tabron has no need for a mate, himself, and he’s told me as much. Multiple times. What he does have are hands and wicked lips that stir feelings I thought lost forever. Choosing him (just to play along until I can find a way home) seems to irk him and I find this surprisingly fun. But surviving a hidden conspiracy and the dangers of this alien place might be more difficult than I could ever imagine…

Available at Amazon BN Kobo ebooks.com Fantastic Fiction Amazon UK About the Author: Danube Adele wrote her first romance at the age of seven when she penned the story of her dogs falling in love and having puppies. She’s been dreaming up romantic tales ever since. A lifetime resident of southern California, she spends time playing at the beach, camping in Joshua Tree National Park, and hiking Mammoth Mountain.

Always a lover of adventure, she and her husband took their sons on a cross country road trip to Florida and back in an old VW Westfalia, that had no A/C, in the month of July, and still, it continues to be the best trip they ever took.

Extensive travel and trying new things has kept the creative spark alive. Danube lives in Claremont with her biggest fans, her loving husband, amazing and wonderful identical twin sons, and a teddy bear of a Rottweiler.

Her debut novel, Quicksilver Dreams, Book 1 of the Dreamwalker series, was released January 6, 2014, and Dreams of a Dark Summer, Book 2 of the Dreamwalker series, is set for release June 9, 2014. The next book in the Dreamwalker series is set to come out in December, 2014. www.facebook.com/Writer.D.Adele www.twitter.com/DanubeAdele

www.danubeadele.wordpress.com www.google.com/+DanubeAdele

Behind the Scenes: The Music of Winter Wolf Some authors write to music while others do not. I fall somewhere in between. Sometimes music is very useful for setting a tone in a story, while other times it causes me to lose focus on what I’m working on. Winter Wolf is no exception to me, although there are a few songs and albums that made a rather notable impact on the creation (and editorial) of the novel.

Before I go into the specifics of the music, I want to pursue the subject of tone. Tone in a novel is so subjective. I could ask three different people what they thought the tone of a scene was… and each one of them would have a different answer for me. What I perceive as the tone of the scene may not be anything near the reality of it for others. It can be frustrating, but at the same time, it’s really interesting to see how differently people can look at the same thing.

As a general rule, I typically have a few different soundtracks when I’m writing. When I’m drafting something for the first time, I prefer instrumental music; lyrics often distract me from working, so I turn to music without words to ensure I’m focusing on what I’m writing instead of listening to the music. Music best serves me when it is background noise that enhances what I’m working on.

My favorite instrumental music group is currently The Piano Guys. I have most of their albums, so my playlist is a randomization of all of their tunes. It earned me a few odd looks from my husband when the Christmas songs were playing in August, to say the very least. I don’t listen to The Piano Guys exclusively, though. I have a selection of classical tunes as well, although my favorite is Pachebel’s Canon in D Minor.

My vocal music selection is not quite as narrow as my instrumental selection, although I typically listen to a song on repeat; when vocals are involved, there is nothing quite as distracting for me as the changing of tunes. So, I tend to pick one song and listen to it over and over and over. It becomes background noise I don’t notice all that much. I’ve been informed by my husband, however, that I will sing along to the music while typing frantically at what I’m working on. He calls me a freak of nature when this happens. I don’t blame him.

Winter Wolf was primarily written to Bryan Adams’s Everything I Do (I do it for you), the Jurassic Park theme (yes, this and the next one are instrumentals…), the Indiana Jones theme, Taylor Swift’s Blank Space, Lady Gaga’s Edge of Glory, Pitbull’s Feel This Moment with Christina Aguilera (I blame the Lego Movie trailer for this one), and Michael Bolton’s Go the Distance. It’s a very strange selection of songs, I know. There are a few one off songs, but most of them didn’t last more than two or

three repeats, so I didn’t think they were worth mentioning.

Now that I look at the list, I’m really not sure what such an odd assortment of music really means for Winter Wolf, save that my tastes and mood really flitter all over the place.

Winter Wolf Witch and Wolf Book 2 RJ Blain Publisher: Pen & Page Publishing Release Date: November 24, 2014 ASIN: B00N1BXDMW Book Description: The Hunted Wizard When Nicole dabbled in the occult, she lost it all: Her voice, her family, and her name. Now on the run from the Inquisition, she must prove to herself—and the world—that not all wizards are too dangerous to let live.

The savage murder of a bookstore employee throws Nicole into the middle of Inquisition business, like it or not. Driven by her inability to save the young man’s life, she decides to hunt the killer on her own. Using forbidden magic to investigate the past, she learns that the murderer is in fact a disease that could kill the entire werewolf race.

Forced to choose between saving lives and preserving her own, Nicole embraces the magic that sent her into exile. Without werewolves, the power of the Inquisition would dwindle, and she could live without being hunted.

Nicole’s only hope for success lies in the hands of the werewolves she hates and the Inquisition she fears, but finding someone to trust is only the beginning of her problems. There are those who want to ensure that the werewolves go extinct and that the Inquisition falls.

But, if she fails to find a cure, her family—including her twin sister—will perish…

Available at Amazon iTunes BN Kobo

Excerpt 1 Almost everyone in the store had a phone. Dormant devices, from reading lights to mobile chargers, littered the tables. One woman, browsing books nearby, had four battery-powered devices in her purse. One was a phone, and like mine, it hungered. Its need was strong; its battery waned to the point of failure.

If I wanted, I could charge it for her.

No one would notice if I did. Maybe the woman would wonder how her phone hadn’t died before she got home. It only had a few minutes left. It’d take me all of ten seconds to fix it for her. If I did, I wouldn’t be so aware of it. But to do so, I’d have to touch her—or her phone. Some things I could manipulate without having a direct conduit, but cell phone batteries were tricky, greedy things.

I cringed a little, setting the thriller book down. I picked up the next nearest title. I flipped it over, not reading the text on the back. Did I dare? Out of the corner of my eye, I watched the woman browsing through the books. All it would take was a few seconds. I could charge it without her noticing.

That was one thing I was actually good at.

I put the novel I held down and wandered to the same table, careful not to look at her. Book by book, I investigated the titles, circling to where she stood.

“You’re Nicole Thomas, aren’t you? The actress. You’re her.” My quarry appraised me with a pleased expression.

People normally recognized the mainliners, people with beautiful faces and voices to match, people who didn’t avoid crowds.

In short, people other than me.

I met her gaze, abandoning my perusal of novels. “I am,” I replied, wincing a little at the sandpaperrough quality of my voice. At least I hadn’t been reduced to a whisper—yet. My fatal flaw was my rough, grating voice. Chronic laryngitis did that to a person. It ruined careers, as it had mine, though I hadn’t quite given up on being an actress. I’d already lost the ability to sing.

I wasn’t going to let a stupid disease take everything away from me.

The woman smiled, not seeming to mind talking to someone who sounded more like a zombie than a human. “You’re taller than I expected. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

She thrust out her hand.

We shook.

I left her phone alone.

“They keep putting me next to giants,” I quipped. It was true. When I did manage to get on the silver screen, I worked alongside actors easily a foot-and-a-half taller than me. “It’s a pleasure to meet you too.” I matched her smile. She didn’t tell me her name, and I didn’t ask for it.

It took all of my will not to fiddle with her phone. All it would take was a murmured word and a thought, and it’d be done. It would have been easy to charge the battery when our hands had been clasped together, but I hadn’t dared.

If, sometime later, she noticed her phone had magically been charged—literally—she might remember me. She knew my name.

And in true cowardice, I couldn’t bring myself to help her. If she connected the strange behavior of her phone with me, she might tell someone. If she did, I’d be as good as dead—or worse. I had dabbled in the occult, and the occult had dabbled back, and there were those who didn’t like when that happened.

The last thing I needed was them finding me.

About the Author: RJ Blain suffers from a Moleskine journal obsession, a pen fixation, and a terrible tendency to pun without warning.

When she isn't playing pretend, she likes to think she's a cartographer and a sumi-e painter. In reality, she herds cats and a husband. She is currently on a quest for a new warrior fish.

In her spare time, she daydreams about being a spy. Should that fail, her contingency plan involves tying her best of enemies to spinning wheels and quoting James Bond villains until she is satisfied.

Blog: http://rjblain.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/rj_blain Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7190903.R_J_Blain Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/RJ-Blain/121746651191778

Hot Holiday Erotica

by Roxanne Rhoads Fangs for the Holidays A Vehicle City Vampires Short Story Roxanne Rhoads Publisher: Bewitching Books Release Date: November 18, 2014 ASIN: B00PE7QANU Book Description: After spending the day baking holiday goodies Anwyn drops by her vampire boyfriend Galen's home so they can spend some quality time together.

He is surprisingly enticed by the smell of baked goods on Anwyn's skin which leads them to a drama filled discussion about family holiday gatherings, the other man in her life...and eventually to very hot holiday sex.

The events in this story take place between book one, Hex and the Single Witch, and book two, Hex and the City.

Available at Amazon Candy Cane Thrills Roxanne Rhoads Publisher: Bewitching Books Release Date: October 14, 2014 ASIN: B00NYN7OUO Genre: short story Christmas erotica Book Description: Adrienne has a little Christmas seduction planned. She dresses up in naughty red velvet lingerie for her boyfriend Marcus.

But it turns out that she's not the only one with sexy shenanigans in mind.

Marcus has been thinking along the same lines, and he has a delicious Christmas treat in store for her.

Available at Amazon

.99 each at Amazon

Excerpt: Warning Adult Content “There you are.” Clark plopped onto the couch next to me. “You are definitely the chosen one for Ms. Randals.

She is down the hall, game to role-play with her Santa, but insists on the role of Dominatrix.”

“You’ve got to be shittin’ me.” I stood up, paced back and forth, while frustration tensed my spine. “She has no idea that she’s a submissive. There’s no way she’ll be able to pull it off. You know that, and I know that.”

“So maybe you should consider playing along until she gets stuck in it, and you can pull her out of it.”

Clark sat there with this dumb-ass grin. “Have you ever played the Sub role?”

“No. But, I could dress the part because it won’t take her long to realize she’s in way over her head.” I shuffled through some costumes hanging in a closet. “So, what does a male Submissive wear? I don’t think I have anything that would suffice for that role.”

Clark chuckled, got up, went to another closet and came back with something. “Here, you’ll still need to wear the Santa mask.” He picked the mask off a nearby table. “She’s ready in Dillon’s room. Be patient with her, you might actually learn something.” Again he gave me that stupid-ass grin.

Santa Exposed Ohhh…Santa Short Stories Kay Dee Royal Genre: Contemporary Erotic Romance Holiday, Christmas Publisher: Muse It Up Publishing MuseItHOT imprint Date of Publication: December 2, 2014 Number of pages: Approx. 39 Word Count: 10,600 Tagline: A wedding coordinator meets her match with a billionaire playboy posing as a Santa submissive.

Book Description: Jade Randals, wedding coordinator specializing in Bridal needs, is coerced into attending the Santa Exposed Masked Ball at the Erotic Play Palace.

Landis Parkwell, billionaire and known playboy, thinks he’s found the perfect submissive in Jade.

But things go array as Dom and Sub roles switch, and a true Santa is exposed.

About the Author: Kay Dee Royal writes paranormal, fantasy, and contemporary erotic romance—maybe because they’re also her favorite genres to read! She pens tales with wild, rugged heroes and strong, intelligent heroines. She'll give them both a few shadowy secrets, making her stories intriguing and fun. She resides in Southern Michigan with her family (her dog, her cats, her caged husband... you get the idea).

Long before El James exploded on the scene with her debut novel Fifty Shades of Grey, also known in some circles as mommy porn, many authors came before her and penned their own brand of erotic romance. As a teenager, I can still recall sneaking into my sister’s room to peek at her very worn and tattered copy of the Harrod Experiment. It didn't matter that some pages were ripped or missing, this was hardcore sex and erotica, like I’d never read it before.

There are so many wonderful, erotic authors on the market today who write in this expanding genre. These are stories ripe with passion, love and emotional turmoil, and hot steamy sex as an added bonus. When people ask me what my book is about, I give them my tagline, In a desperate attempt to catch a killer, a special agent hires a notorious felon to come work for the agency. In the midst of the investigation, they succumb to the dark edges if desire, placing both their lives in finger. The next t question that typically follows is always, “Wow, it sounds steamy like Fifty Shades,” to which I reply, “It’s not a BDSM, but yes, it’s erotic.”

What was once considered the bodice ripper novel is now a thing of the past. The romance genre has evolved over the years to include the exploration of relationships across boundaries and between same sex partners.

Now the book shelves and the e-readers are full of stories about M/F/ M/M F/F or even multiple partner relationships.

Let’s face it, erotic romance sells. Captivated By You, book 2 in Sylvia Day’s Crossfire Series was number one on the USA Today best sellers list last week and Fifty Shades is still holding steady at number 34 on the list, even after its debut in February of 2013.

Recently, I was interviewed for a local newspaper. After sending out my press release with the caption, Local Erotic Author Debuts her First Novel, to get a buzz going. I never expected the writer to include my comment, “Books like these have opened up discussions such as sex and sexual fantasies that women can now talk about with friends and with their partner. Now the reader can freely explore more explicit levels of sensuality that were once left only to the imagination.” I never expected her to publish those exact words. To my chagrin, now the entire town and all of my teenager’s friends know I write erotic romance. What do you think? Is erotic romance still taboo?

I don’t think anyone should be too quick to assume erotic romance is a story only about sex that features whips and chains, handcuffs and the random fetish to the exclusion of the story itself. These are tales about love and commitment, overcoming inner demons and self-acceptance. Characters must learn to grow and work toward their happily ever after, not to mention get tortured along the way. It’s one hell of a ride I encourage readers to take!

And who doesn’t want to fall in love? My dream was to make my readers experience that same heady sensation

of falling in love when they sit down to read one of my books. Many years back, I read an article about a research study conducted on the brain by a Harvard scientist.

Apparently the emotional center of the brain can only sustain that falling in love feeling for up to three years, max. After that, those intense feelings grow and change into something deeper, less flighty, and the brain stops releasing large amounts of dopamine in the process. In some cases, people end up engaging in flirting, internet relationships and extramarital affairs, simply because they’re addicted to the dopamine release.

Can you become addicted to the euphoria? Here's a cure, why not pick up an erotic romance and fall in love?

Maybe you can practice and experiment with what you read? There’s nothing that compares to that feeling of bliss even for a little while.

Two years ago, I attended the Popular Romance Authors Symposium at Princeton University. I was intrigued to hear so many perspectives on the origins of the romance genre from academics, to NY Times bestselling authors, and even a sociologist’s unique perspective. As a society we’ve come so far in overcoming negative perceptions about self-sufficiency and the equity between the sexes. So let’s continue to evolve and grow! So why not pass the word? Erotic romance is alive and well. Here’s’ to falling in love!

Witch Hunter The Ravens Hollow Series Book 1 Shari Nichols Genre: Erotic, Paranormal romance Date of Publication: November 19, 2014 ISBN: 9781419991882 Number of pages:194 Word Count: 90,000 Book Description: Determined MBI (Magickal Bureau of investigations) agent Alex Denopoulos will stop at nothing to catch a killer, including recruit notorious felon, Willow McCray to work for the agency. The lines between duty and passion become blurred the more time he spends with the sultry witch. In the midst of the investigation, they succumb to the dark edges of desire, placing both their lives in danger. Alex will risk more than his badge to keep her alive.

Kick-ass witch Willow must use her powers for good if she wants to stay out of Hellios, a mage prison for those who have broken the Wiccan Rede of ‘Harm ye None.’ Willow never expects to fall so hard for Alex, a mortal with a penchant for justice and a deep seated hatred

of witches. Though a future together seems impossible, she doesn’t want to let him go.

Can she vanquish the evil surrounding them and give Alex her mind and body before she loses her heart and maybe her soul?

Excerpt: Willow took a sip of her margarita and glanced down at Alex’s big hands, tanned and sprinkled with a smattering of dark hair. Funny, she never found a man’s hands sexy. Suddenly her mind filled with images of Alex trailing those big, masculine hands over her body. She wondered if he fit the stereotype. Big hands, big…

“You never did answer my question. Are you considering taking me up on my offer?”

The sound of his voice pulled her from a host of fantasies. Willow dug her nails into her palm to get her head back in the game. She shouldn’t be thinking about this man in such a raw, sexual way.

“Why not? My car’s parked in the back.”She probed through the nearby crowd to check if Alex came here with bodyguards. A virtual cacophony of conversations invaded her thoughts, but nothing about protection for Alex. Once she got him alone, she’d take her chances and pray she wouldn’t be outnumbered. “Then let’s get out of here. Unless of course I’ve got some competition.” He motioned over her shoulder to the incubus whose head now lolled forward over the bar.

“I think you’re flying solo here.” She’d set her trap and let the consequences be damned.

She rubbed her finger along the rim of the glass and licked off the salt.

She lifted the glass to her lips, savoring the tangy flavor of margarita mix along with the zing of tequila as it slid down her throat. Headrush. No surprise there, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept or eaten in the past forty-eight hours, existing on a combination of raw nerves and pure adrenaline.

“You missed a spot.” He ran his thumb along the seam of her lip. He put it to his mouth and licked. “Mmm, sweet.” Her plan didn’t involve foreplay…but damn he was hot. In another time and another place she would be seriously into this guy. Too bad I might have to kill him.

About the Author: Her first book, Witch Hunter has been contracted with Ellora’s Cave Publishing. Her next book, another steamy, romance, will venture into the world of ghosts and haunted inns. Shari is a member of Romance Writers of America, New Jersey Romance Writers, Liberty States Fiction Writers and Fantasy, Futuristic, and Paranormal Romance Writers. http://sharinichols.blogspot.com/

TOP 5 REASONS STEAMPUNK SETTINGS MAKE FOR GREAT EROTICA For several years I’ve wanted to write a steampunk story, and finally this spring I wrote a “choose your own adventure” style sweet romance — A HEART FOR COPPER — for www.SilkWords.com. After that I thought it would be fun to write a story with more heat, so next came RAVEN TAKES A PEARL, which is sort of a dark sister to COPPER. Both stories feature heroes who are inventors, and both heroines experience an awakening. In writing the second story I discovered steampunk is really an ideal setting for fantasy erotica. Here are the top 5 reasons: 5. Fashion Corsets, leather, and garter belts, oh my! Just like steampunk gadgets take Victorian era technology to a whole new and improbable level, so does the fashion. And the women have got it all over the men. Sure a guy can be hot in a well-fitting suit, but go ahead and Google “steampunk women.” Who doesn’t feel sexy in a snug corset, flouncy little skirt, and stiletto boots?

4. Nerdy heroes/heroines Steampunk is a subgenre of sci-fi, and as such often features heroes or heroines with geeky professions. Someone has to manufacture all those steampunk gadgets after all! Inventor, engineer, detective, explorer … they’re just a few of the geeky professions popular in steampunk stories. RAVEN TAKES A PEARL features an inventor/ tinkerer hero who is part sexy dom and part absent-minded professor.

3. Creative gadgetry Erotica plus fantastical gadgets … We probably don’t need to put too fine a point on this one! The hero in RAVEN TAKES A PEARL is determined to figure out how his lovely “puzzle box” works, even if he has to invent new devices to aid his research.

2. Heroines with agency Steampunk heroines are no shrinking violets, and they’re not about to take a backseat role in their own stories.

They’re tough, packing smarts as well as blades or side arms. Their undergarments are out there for all the

world to see, a kind of dare to other characters not to take them seriously. Nobody wearing 5-inch, metalaccented stilettos or strappy, riveted combat boots is going to wait around for a man to rescue her.

1. The perfect genre mash-up Steampunk blends fantasy and sci-fi, and that equals freedom from all kinds of fictional and historical constraints. The imagination can run wild with costumes and props, with no need to justify any of it as practical or realistic. Steampunk settings are often alternative or post-modern, so stories can be set in rich fantasy worlds free from modern advances that can make for chillier settings. Yet the characters aren’t constrained to behaviors considered appropriate for the Victorian era (which is pretty critical when writing about empowered heroines embarking on sexual adventure).

So what’s your favorite erotica genre (and why)?

Photo attribution: Kate Lambert CC-BY-SA-3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Raven Takes a Pearl Fantasies in Color Book Two Sharon Lynn Fisher Genre: Steampunk Erotica (BDSM) Publisher: West 26th Street Press Date of Publication: Oct. 29, 2014 ISBN: ASIN: B00P1INX9G Number of pages: 45 Word Count: 12,000

Cover Artist: Rafido

Book Description: Second novelette in the Fantasies in Color series by RWA RITA-nominated author Sharon Lynn Fisher ...

Pearl knows it was Raven who stole her mama's heart -- a beautiful quartz stone given to her by Pearl's father right before he died. She sets off alone to the crow-man's keep determined to bring back the stone, but she's caught by a servant and taken to the tower.

The dark-winged ruler of the keep isn't at all what she imagined, and he isn't about to let Pearl go before unlocking all her mysteries -- mysteries she never dreamed her body possessed.

Available for $2.99 at Amazon Available for $1.99 at AerBook

Excerpt:THE PUZZLE BOX We pass through a corridor lit by more of the strange lamps, most notably an octopus with an arm span of a dozen feet and a large green light bulb for a head. A clock is mounted just under the bulb, and as it strikes the hour, the arms begin to adjust their position along the wall, accompanied by the unmistakable sound of grinding gears.

Wilkes catches me eyeing it and says, “Master makes them all himself.”

“Who is ‘Master’?” I reply, fear sharpening the edges of my voice. “Where does he come from? Who made him like that?”

“Same as makes us all, Pearl. The Maker.”

“You mean to say he was born like that?”

“Are any of us as we were when we first separated from our mothers’ bodies?”

This sounds like something my pa would say, and is not at all the sort of chat I want to have right now.

“What makes him do it?” I demand. “Why does he steal things?”

“Master Raven acquires objects for his inventions. Cast-off things, or things the owner will not long miss.”

“Ha,” I grunt, “and what would a silly old crow-man who has no use for other living souls know about that?”

Wilkes follows me down the corridor, so he can’t see it’s not only anger that’s choking me up. But also I can’t see what he thinks of my answer.

At the end of the corridor we climb a dizzying number of steps that wind upward like a corkscrew. We rise up through a hole in the floor into the “workshop.”

Workbenches line the walls, and every surface is covered with what look like machines in various states of repair or assembly. There are heaps of “acquired” objects up here as well, and I steal a quick look around the room for Ma’s stone.

The tower has but one large window fitted with amber-tinted panes, so it’s only moderately brighter than the rooms below.

More lamps range around the perimeter, but these mostly use clear light bulbs so it feels less like being in a submersible — or at least what I’d imagine a submersible to feel like. Near the window is a tall easel holding a stack of parchment. Symbols and numbers and diagrams have been scratched over almost every inch of the first sheet. I notice now that many sheets, similarly scrawled upon, have been hung along the walls. Some of the diagrams seem to be carefully labeled drawings of Raven himself.

“Here, Wilkes,” he calls, and Wilkes takes me by the arm and leads me over to the easel. Next to it is a sort of stand, shaped like an X, with a system of straps and buckles.

I jump as the manservant pushes me toward the stand, and the moment my back touches it I begin to fight him in earnest.

“What are you doing?” I demand, shoving at his chest.

Wilkes doesn’t reply, but he uses his body to seal me against the stand. His eyes bore into mine, transmitting something hot and alive, as he raises my arms over my head.

Raven joins us, and I cry out as he fits leather cuffs over my wrists and ankles.

“Leave us,” orders Raven.

As Wilkes withdraws, Raven steps back, cradles his elbow in one hand, and props his head on the other, watching me.

“What do you want from me?” I shout, straining against the cuffs.

His brow furrows as his eyes move over me. I’m not sure he’s heard me.

“Master Raven!” I insist.

He drops his arms and moves to stand directly in front of me. We regard each other, my heart vibrating my chest, and I become aware that the fear that grips me is changing — in a way I don’t understand well enough to explain to anyone, including myself.

My heart still hammers. My breaths come faster. I am afraid. But something warm and velvet is awake and moving low in my belly.

Raven reaches for a lever and tugs it gently. The X-stand tilts backward, angling my body.

He draws nearer, reaching a gloved hand to the top fastening of my corset. I gasp as he runs a finger from the hook, along the ridge of the corset, tip grazing the soft, rounded flesh above. His finger passes back and forth, my breath increasing with his momentum, until finally his fingertip stops just above my nipple. He presses into the soft flesh and then suddenly tugs upward.

My nipple pops free of the corset. Heat builds between my legs and my mouth waters. He meets my gaze, and my lips part, short puffs of breath moving in and out. His fingertip slides down, and with the soft leather of his glove he begins to slowly rub.

“I … Master … ” He ducks his head closer, positioning the magnifying device over his eye and focusing it over my nipple. I feel the cold metal of its tip pressing against me, surrounding the small red flower.

“Hold very still,” he says, and I try to stop breathing. But it’s not possible.

About the Author: An RWA RITA Award finalist and a three-time RWA Golden Heart Award finalist, Sharon Lynn Fisher writes stories for the geeky at heart — meaty mash-ups of sci-fi, suspense, and romance, with no apology for the latter. She lives where it rains nine months of the year. And she has a strange obsession with gingers (down to her freaky orange cat). In addition to her erotica stories, she’s authored three science fiction romance novels for Tor Books: Ghost Planet (2012), The Ophelia Prophecy (2014), and Echo 8 (2015).

Visit her at www.sharonlynnfisher.com

The Christmas Party

By Roxanne Rhoads The twinkling lights winked at me like they knew a secret.

Just great, even the Christmas decorations mocked me. It was such a mistake coming to this party.

I was just so desperate to see Taylor, my crush du jour. But it was the cliché office party with everyone was getting drunk and hooking up. I bet most would regret it later. Perhaps it was not the best place to get together with the man of my dreams, not that he would show up. That meant I would probably be the only person here that didn’t hook up tonight, not unless Taylor happened to show. I was really beginning to think he wasn’t going to show. That would be just my luck, get all dressed up with him in mind and he doesn’t even see me.

I glanced around the room, everything was in pairs. The candy canes were spooning together on the tree, evergreen boughs were twisted together in garlands, stars twinkled merrily as pairs, and the people- yeah they were breaking off into twosomes too.

Even the office geek, Roger, was currently getting frisky in the corner with the usually shy Melanie who had let her hair down tonight. Literally. She always wore her hair pulled tight in a severe bun at the office, but tonight it cascaded in waves around her shoulders. She had even put on some makeup and a cute outfit. The girl was really pretty when she dolled herself up a bit. It was quite clear Roger thought so, too. Of course he’d been eyeing her for months even with the tight bun and frumpy office attire she always wore. Now they were in the corner and he had his hand under her tight fitting red velvet top. Naughty, naughty.

In the middle of the room was Christine under the mistletoe with massive amounts of cleavage spilling out and over the top of her dress. She was the hostess of the party and the office receptionist.

She was currently kissing our boss, George, who had his hands full of her round behind. The woman was anything but subtle. She had been trying to entice George into her panties for months now, but the gossip mill and Christine herself stated she hadn’t been successful… yet. Looked like that was going to change tonight.

This whole party was her idea; she even threw it at her house instead of the office to make it cozier.

And boy was it! Christine had a lavish place. I wondered how she afforded such a nice pad when she was just a receptionist. There were rumors about a pricy divorce. I guess her former husband was wealthy- perhaps formerly wealthy. Christine seemed to have made out very well.

I wandered around aimlessly looking for him but I didn’t really expect Taylor to show up. He believed in keeping business and pleasure separate. That’s why we weren’t together. At least I hoped that was the only reason. The way my luck goes he could be married or have a girlfriend and was just afraid to tell me. I really hoped not. I was like a crazy school girl when it came to him. That man could make

me feel things…he just couldn’t be married, that would be tragic.

I didn’t really think Taylor was married, I was just creating paranoid scenarios in my head, he sure didn’t seem married when we were falling into each other’s arms in the supply closet or getting really close during those late night brainstorming sessions. Too bad we hadn’t gotten even closer. He always pulled back before things went too far.

It was so clear there was something between us, a powerful attraction we couldn’t deny, at least I couldn’t deny it. He seemed to deny it just fine… to a point. He always said it was improper to mix work and pleasure, that his job was important to him and he wanted to keep his work and personal life separate as much as possible even though he did have feelings for me.

Feelings. He sure could cop a feel. Not that I minded. In fact I craved it. I couldn’t get that one night out of my mind…the night we had been so close to making love right there with the Chinese food spread out across the break room table.

It had been one of our late night brainstorming sessions when we were working on the Harrison account. Both of us had been assigned to that client because of our skill set, him with the art and me with the words. They wanted a beautiful campaign that emphasized both skillful wording and beautiful imagery. Taylor and I made the best team. I know we’d be great in bed, too… if I could just get him there.

I flushed just thinking about the heat that coursed between us, the way his hands had felt on my bare breasts…before he had pulled away and wouldn’t let it go any farther.

Just then I heard the most beautiful sound in the world…his voice, “Karen, you’re here,” Taylor sounded surprised.

I turned around and there he was splendidly handsome in his dark slacks and polo shirt. His normally unruly dark curls were tamed with some hair product and he looked gorgeous in the twinkle of the Christmas lights.

“I am so glad you’re here, I didn’t know if you were coming. I didn’t see you at the office today to ask.” Was my voice shaking? I was pathetic, truly pathetic. I hadn’t been this gaga over a guy since high school.

“Uhm, yeah. For a few minutes. I wasn’t there long, I took most of the day off, had some appointments…” His voice trailed off as he stared at me. “You look really beautiful tonight,” he said huskily as he looked me up and down.

Damn right I looked good! I was wearing the sexiest red dress ever which I had cleaned and restored just for this occasion. And I bought new shoes, not that a girl needs an excuse to buy shoes… I even had my hair done for this thing just hoping he’d notice me. But more than anything it would be the dress that had to grab his attention.

This perfect dress showed off my curves. Ample cleavage peaked out from the low cut top and the tight hugging waist emphasized the feminine swell of my hips and a slit up the side showed a little leg.

Not too much, but just enough to entice. The dress wasn’t over the top slutty, it was old Hollywood class. And it was authentic. A vintage 1940s gown that had been my grandma’s, I had found it in her attic while cleaning. Judging from the look of desire in Taylor’s eyes it was worth every penny I spent to have it cleaned and restored.

“Wow where did you get that vintage dress, it must have cost a fortune?” He asked as he kept ey-

ing my cleavage.

“You know vintage clothes?” I asked.

“Just a little, my mom and sister are really into vintage. They own a little shop, Vintage Vixens over on Main.”

“That’s where I had this restored. They do a lovely job. I must have met them.”

“Probably, they are really the only ones working there except during the holidays when they hire a few girls but all the part timers do is operate the cash register. If you had that restored then my mom handled it.”

“She did a fabulous job.” Was I really talking about clothes with Taylor? I’d rather be tearing his clothes off.

“Sooo…” He looked uncomfortable. “Can I grab you a drink?” Was that all he could come up with?

Not that I was doing any better. I was as nervous and tongue tied as him.

“Sure, I’d love one. Can you see if they have an Amaretto sour or a whiskey sour?”

“You got it,” he said with that sexy smile of his before he turned and walked away to grab some drinks.

I wanted to beat my head against something or hang myself from the strands of Christmas lights still twinkling and winking at me, mocking me with every blink. I wanted Taylor so bad it was driving me nuts and all I could think to talk to him about was vintage clothes. I would pay to see this designer gown on the floor of his bedroom…or mine for that matter as long as he was there with me.

“Here’s you drink.” I squeaked and about jumped out of my skin, I had not heard him sneak up behind me...again. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

I smiled at him, “Not your fault, I was lost in thought.”

“When I went to get the drinks I took a peak around the place, would you like to go somewhere more private…you know less noisy… so we can…talk” He looked nervous again but now he was talking.

Alone! With Taylor. My Christmas wish come true.

“I would love to.” I grabbed his outstretched hand and let him lead the way to a den/library area that was deserted.

I looked around the dark masculine room, “This room doesn’t fit Christine at all.”

“No, it was her ex husband’s office. I heard they had a bad breakup. She caught him cheating then took him for every dime. She doesn’t even come in here.”

“Really?” I wondered how he knew all that. A twinge of jealousy rippled through me.

“Christine and my sister, Tonya, are close,” he said answering my silent questions and cutting off the jealousy growing inside me.

He motioned to the sofa, “Karen, come sit down with me.”

“OK…” Was he finally making his move?

“I have something to tell you.”

Uh oh! Maybe not. Maybe he was going to let me down gently.

“Oh, what it is?” I asked as I gingerly eased my way onto the leather sofa trying to look sexy and composed when inside I was shaking terribly.

“I found a new job.”

“That’s great! Wait, what? A new job? Where?” My heart sank; I wasn’t going to see him everyday anymore.

“At Kalvins. I start on Monday.”

“Why did you leave?”

“Because of you.”

I looked up at him. Was I so hideous he had to get away from me? “Me?” I asked quietly looking down at the floor. I couldn’t let him see the tears welling up in my eyes.

He scooted closer to me and gently lifted my chin so he could look into my eyes. Then he leaned down and gently kissed my lips. His full velvety lips murmured against mine, “You know how I cannot mingle business and pleasure; I had to leave so I could be with you. I know it sounds weird and old fashioned, but I want to see you every single day, just not on the job.”

“Really?” I asked incredulously, Oh. My. God. He wanted to be with me!

“Yes, really. What did you think?”

I scooted back, “Taylor, I don’t know, there were all the mixed signals and I just didn’t…”

He grabbed me and silenced me with a kiss. This one harder and more demanding than the last.

He pushed me back onto the sofa and slid his body over mine easily.

“I couldn’t take it anymore, Karen. Seeing you every day…I wanted to be all over you…all the time. It was driving me crazy. But now… now I can have you.” His lips crushed mine in a searing, mind bending kiss. I melted into him. The heat between us was fast reaching the boiling point.

His hands slid to my back and carefully unzipped my dress. He pulled me up to a standing position, gently pulling the dress off me. Then he carefully laid the dress over the top of a nearby wingback chair. I would have never thought Taylor had such moves but I guess a man that knows his way around women’s clothes knows how to easily get a woman out of them.

I lounged across the sofa in my black velvet and lace bra, matching thong and thigh highs. I was still wearing the sexy “come fuck me” heels, too. I spent so much time hoping he would see me in this ensemble I was going to make sure I got my money’s worth.

“God, Karen you are more beautiful than I imagined.” He stared at me in awe, desire apparent in his eyes and in much lower places. The bulge in the front of his slacks was so humungous it looked like it was ready to rip through the fabric at any moment. As I appreciated the sight of Taylor’s aroused body he removed his clothing, making me even more appreciative.

Once he was naked he moved toward me and much to my delight his naked flesh met mine.

One of his hands trailed down my belly, teasing and taunting me as he swirled his fingertips over my heated flesh. I trembled with anticipation as his hands swirled around, circling lower and lower until his large hand was at my heated core caressing me through the velvet and lace of my thong.

His fingers kept up with their teasing movement as he crept around my panty line, then deftly breached the border and snuck a finger inside. One large finger probed through my short, silken curls then dipped lower into my bare shaven folds, pushing into my heated wetness as he slipped over my clit and delved inside me.

My thong was soon pushed aside as his whole hand found its way to the bare flesh between my thighs. Two fingers dipped and moved expertly inside me as his thumb circled my clit with slow deliberate motions driving me wild.

His other hand was busy undoing my bra and pushing it out of the way while his lips kissed every inch of flesh they came in contact with. When finally my bra was out of the way and my breasts were exposed, his glorious mouth found them. He eagerly sucked each nipple into his mouth one at a time until they puckered and stood at attention.

My back arched and my knees trembled. I was in overload from all the wonderful things he was doing to my body. Finally my wildest dreams were coming true. Taylor was going to make love to me.

He sucked my right nipple into his mouth, this time harder than before as he dipped yet another finger inside me. My body arced off the sofa as a wave of pleasure tore through me. I cried out his name as my fingernails raked down his back.

Taylor held on tight as the orgasm rocked my body and the emotion almost brought me to tears.

As I recovered he untangled himself from my grasp and soon I was pulled across the sofa and into a sitting position across his bare lap where I sat face to face with Taylor.

His eyes were heavy lidded, filled with lust. His lips were parted and so close to mine.

I looked down at the large erection that stood long and tall between us, “Oh my,” I purred, “he’s a big one.” Taylor grinned and had that look that confident men get during sexual situations.

I was primed and ready. I slid closer, rubbing my wet sex against the length of his shaft as I moved in and devoured his lips with my own. I ground my body into his, sliding and teasing us both as I kissed him passionately, dipping my tongue into his sweet cinnamon flavored mouth, caressing his tongue with my own.

His hands gripped my ass, lifting me and spreading me open. I reached between us and guided him to my opening then slowly slid down onto him.

I watched his eyes roll back and flutter as I sank onto his long cock, taking him into me inch by wonderful inch until I had him fully buried in my wet, achingly hot pussy. Then I began to rock and move up and down, slowly at first then I gained momentum as his moans matched my own. I bounced up and down fast and fierce, grinding my body into his, rubbing all the right places together for maximum pleasure.

I could feel it building inside me, a tsunami of massive pleasure was about to hit me with a force I had never experienced before. My body began to shake and bright lights flashed behind my eyelids, the waves were rippling through my body…then in the throes of passion…he said my name.

“Oh, my God, Karen, I’m going to come!”

His arms wrapped tightly around me, his cock stiffened and I exploded, we exploded… together.

The wave hit me so hard I would have fallen off him if he hadn’t been holding me so tight. Wave after wave crashed over and through my body, I shivered and shook on top of him as he pumped hot fire into me.

It was the most exquisite experience of my life.

After a few moments I finally recovered enough to move and speak, “So are we going to see each other after this?” I asked stupidly.

He looked at me with a big grin on his face, “Every single day, darling, much more than we ever saw each other while working together. I didn’t give up a great job for a one night stand, Karen. I have fallen for you. Fallen hard.”

I felt him twitch and stiffen inside me, “Speaking of hard…”

“Yeah, hope you’re ready for round two.” He laughed as he tossed me backwards on the sofa throwing my legs up over my head and thrusting into me with a force I hadn’t expected from him.

Damn, I loved this side of Taylor. Hell, I loved Taylor. I had loved him all along. I was looking forward to doing this over and over. I am so glad he found a new job.

Maybe this was the reason those damn Christmas lights had been winking at me.

Rebirth- a Collection of 5 Erotic Short Stories Emergence of Pearls Book One Princess Tia Genre: Contemporary Erotic Romance Publisher: Stories Out of the Clouds Date of Publication: January 2014 ISBN: 978-0-615-51203-7 ASIN: B00I467EM4 Number of pages: 416 Word Count: 170,979 Cover Artist: Ars Somnium Creative Book Description: A sensual seductive book for those who enjoy romantic, erotic stories. REBIRTH stirs your senses and arouses your passion, while telling a captivating story about the individuals whose lives and loves you’ll feel like you are part of.

Available at Amazon Excerpt: Nora woke up from the restless sleep that had afforded her no peace or calm. She was tired and there was no two ways about it. She had been feeling restless of late. She sat next to the window and gazed at the neighborhood children playing in the street. She envied them their gaiety. She knew why she was restless and feeling insipid but she refused to consciously acknowledge it; she’d rather remain in denial.

Well, it was time to get ready for work. She got up, took a shower and tried to motivate herself to smile.

Just as she had succeeded, she heard her phone ring and she braced herself subconsciously to answer it. Yes, she was right. It was Vin. “Hello, Nora – I’m so glad you answered! How are you doing? Missed you, I want to hang out tonight.”

“I work late on Tuesdays, Vin.” “My bad, how could I forget? Well, we can get together a little later then?”

“I’ll be too tired by then.”

“I’d really like to see you.” Nora grimaced. Why was it that the men who you looked to for short-term affairs were the ones that wanted you, and the ones you longed for something more from were the ones who weren’t interested after a few weeks?

She had met Vin at a grocery store and he had turned her on; the grace with which he moved and spoke aroused her. He also was very easygoing, while Nora was an impatient and agitated person by nature. She had

learned to conceal this fact from people who met her, but it is who she was. Vin’s calm had soothed her and she had thought it worth pursuing, so, she had asked Vin out indirectly. They had seen a movie together, cooked dinner for each other at her place and gone sight-seeing. One evening while it rained and she was unable to get back to her place for an hour, she thought to herself, “What the hell…” and put out feelers to see if Vin was open to seduction. He was. So, he caressed her back and slipped his fingers into her bra. She smiled and hoped that he was a great lover, how she needed this!

He was gentle and loved to kiss for long, burning minutes. Boy, did he taste good. So, they ended up on his carpet, and somehow she was on top, trailing her tongue down his midriff and enjoying the gasps she heard coming from him. They didn’t do the full deed that night but they sure came close to it. Nora chickened out because she wondered if she wasn’t making a mistake. Vin had wanted them to proceed but he went along with her decision and called her the next day to ask her if they could get together that evening.

She had avoided committing herself to an answer because she was worried about what she was getting herself into. Vin was supposed to be her bon-bon – her good-time lover - but she sensed that he wanted more, just like her last bon-bons did. Francis had started out casual for her. She had enjoyed the attention that he had lavished on her. She had just come out of a painful relationship, and Francis was so sweet and nice. She thought, “What the hell?” and went ahead, enjoying the wonderful things they did to each other. The problem was, Francis wanted her for keeps. She wasn’t ready, and just couldn’t see herself in a long-term relationship with him. For one thing, he was too controlling and he seemed to have several female friends, which he would explain away. She could tell that he really cared about her, though. He was always trying to reach for her hands in public places and was possessive of her when other men were around. She found it hilarious because she didn’t see the big deal, she wasn’t with those guys… but then again, she wasn’t with Francis either.

The sex with Francis had been like eating chocolate éclairs, hidden but ohhh-soooo creamy. Oh damn, she was getting horny just thinking about him. What to do about Vin? He was getting worse every day. Too needy, too clingy. It was time to move on to another bon-bon. Did she really need a bon-bon? Yes, yes, her body told her. Ok, she needed a bon-bon. As nice as Vin was, what could she do with him? What she wanted was a challenge, a zing to her body. Someone who, just by the mention of his name and his voice, would drive her insane… pure and simple lust that would be the cure to her passivity and emotional dryness.

Nora’s friend, Stella had a get together/party to celebrate her buying her first home on a Friday evening.

Stella was an accountant at a Fortune 500 firm and she was moving up - both in her professional field and her social circles. Nora admired Stella greatly; she was so classy and yet so down to earth. She was one person that Nora could have intelligent conversations with. Nora was looking forward to the event because Stella had an interesting mix of friends and acquaintances.

The evening arrived and she was perplexed about what to wear, and went through her wardrobe with a sense of trepidation. Nothing seemed appropriate. Finally, she decided on a pair of loose silk black trousers and a shiny blouse, which was a bit sheer. She wore a white lacey camisole underneath the blouse. Next she started to work on her face. She wanted to look natural and yet finished. The sheer look was in and it suited her better.

As she dressed up, she played her favorite 80’s mix CD. It always made her feel giddy and ready to party. She played it in her car on her way to Stella’s place. She accidentally got off at the wrong exit and drove around a bit, trying to find a familiar road. Finally, after driving in circles for about 15-20 minutes, she stopped at a gas station to ask for directions.

About the Author: Author Princess Tia is turning heads with her recently released "Re-birth - A Collection of 5 Erotic Romance Short Stories", fusing her own experiences, fantasies and creative writing ability into a winning combination that's leaving readers breathless.

This is the first published work of Princess Tia, a pseudonym of a voracious reader who loves historical ro-

mance. Her epiphany came when she read a collection that combined historical and contemporary romance in the form of short stories.

A fire was lit when she declared, "I can do that!" She blended her sensual side into every-day scenarios and crafted stories with characters that are at once extremely engaging and undeniably passionate. The stories are not all about the erotic; their plots leave the reader totally engrossed, until the final page.

Princess Tia has successfully woven real life into art. Each story's main character is fleshed out; she seems alive!

You will appreciate the little details woven into each story. This collection has aspects of the struggles of the writer's own life woven through it, as well as experiences of some people she trusts and confides in. That being said, this work is not auto-biographical, and each woman in this collection shines alone as an individual.

Princess Tia cites Eric Jerome Dickey, Ken Follett and numerous romance authors as influences, and is looking forward to producing more collections in order to explore the heights and depths of love and relationships in a way that will again leave you breathless and not able to put the book down until you reach the end and realize that you were holding your breath, anticipating the climax.

All signs are pointing toward this being the start of something special from Princess Tia. Fans of romantic and erotic fiction shouldn't miss it. http://storiesbytia.com/ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Princess-Tia/1396483090598258

www.amazon.com/author/princesstia

http://www.pinterest.com/princesstia2011/

Nicely Naughty 2 Rachell Nichole, Caitlyn Willows, & Nona Raines Genre: erotic romance Publisher: Loose Id, LLC Date of Publication: December 16, 2014 ISBN: 978-1-62300-823-9 ASIN: Number of pages: 200 Word Count: 60,000 Cover Artist: Ginny Glass Book Description:

Gingerbread Photography – By Rachell Nichole Walker Savidge is one of FDNY’s Finest. He’s also the only openly bisexual fireman in the city. But his boyfriend, Ben Cook, is still very much in the closet, and not comfortable with his own sexual needs and desires. Every time they get close in public, Ben pulls away. Frustrated with his partner, Walker devises a plan to help Ben break out of his shell. The owner of Gingerbread Photography has been photographing the FDNY Firefighters for their calendar for years. She’s professional and sweet, and Walker knows she’ll immediately put Ben at ease. Now all he has to do is convince his lover to do a private x-rated, Xmas photo shoot.

Ben knows Walker is fed up with his hang-ups, but he can’t seem to help it. Every time he thinks he might be okay with announcing to the world that he also likes guys, the horrors of his high school locker room stop him. Growing up in a small community that wasn’t always supportive of homosexuality has forced Ben to hide that half of himself. He’d always dated girls before moving to the Big Apple and finding Walker. Now he’s trying to reconcile the two halves of himself and give Walker what he deserves. So when Walker suggests a photo shoot, Ben agrees, though the idea makes him squirm. He knows the week

of Christmas break will be the best time for the shoot. He’s told his parents he won’t be home this year for Christmas, so he doesn’t have to answer awkward questions about his love life, or break Walker’s heart by not inviting him home for the holidays.

Lexie Ginger Rosamond is trying to survive as a NY photographer. But she’s dreading the upcoming holidays and her photo schedule. She’s reluctant to take on a last minute meeting with Walker and his boyfriend, but finally can’t deny the sultry voice of one of the sexiest firemen she’s ever met. But when Walker shows up at her studio with Ben, a young man she’s already met, and kissed, she doesn’t know what to do. As the photo shoot heats up, Walker jumps into the photos with Ben, and it’s almost more than she can bear. Until the two men ask her to join them in front of the camera instead of behind it. Tempted by their heat, and deciding maybe she can give herself a special treat this Christmas, Lexie agrees.

All The Trimmings – by Caitlyn Willows When Chrissy agreed to housesit for her grandparents and prep the place for Christmas, she never imagined the icing on her cookies would be the twins next door. But they were hard-loving men who didn’t play for keeps, and she never played at all…until now.

Joe and Jess crave their neighbors’ cute granddaughter more than they can stand. She’s definitely a game changer they never imagined, blowing into their lives like the approaching winter storm, stirring up their wildest fantasies and making them want with an intensity hot enough to melt the fake icicles draped around her Grandma’s house.

Christmas with all the trimmings. Those were Grandma’s instructions. And while Chrissy knows she wasn’t referring to Chrissy laid out for Joe and Jess’s pleasure¬or they hers¬Grandma’s got some explaining of her own to do. Like how she knew about those dimples on the twin’s perfect backsides.

Christmas Candie by Nona Raines Aidan Callahan loves Christmas. His family makes it a big celebration and he does his best to carry on the tradition. Every ornament on his huge Christmas tree has a story and holds a special memory.

He’s been hooking up for six months with Val Stenzler and would like to get closer to her, including sharing his love of Christmas. But aside from their hot sex sessions, she holds him at arm’s length. What’s the problem?

Val hates Christmas. The most devastating, humiliating event of her life happened at Christmastime two years ago, and she’s still trying to get past it. There’s no room for fruitcake or mistletoe in her life. As far as she’s concerned, the holiday season can’t pass quickly enough.

Christmas suddenly becomes a lot more interesting when Val and Aidan meet Candie Hurley.

She’s as sweet as her name, as sparkly as tinsel and as mysterious as the Northern Lights. Aidan and Val both fall under her spell, but will the night they spend with her bring them closer togeth-

er or tear their relationship apart?

Excerpt From Gingerbread Photography By Rachell Nichole: BEN SWALLOWED HARD, staring into her green eyes. She was beautiful. Breathtakingly beautiful.

Just like her photos. Bright red curls fell in waves around her face and shoulders, covering the tips of her jacket’s lapels. Her fair skin was pink; from the flush he could feel within him too, or from the cold, he couldn’t be sure. But she’d agreed to let him make it up to her. What the hell are you doing?

He blinked, trying to clear his head. He’d been crying a mere two seconds before they’d slammed into each other, the burn of tears hot against his cold cheeks distracting him from the impending collision. Then they’d slammed into each other and he’d been flattened onto the cold concrete. She was slender, but tall. She couldn’t possibly outweigh him, but they’d struck with such force that he’d surely be bruised. Yeah, that’d be fun to explain to Walker. Walker, who’d let him just run out of the firehouse after Eddie had torn into him.

“How about coffee?” he said, pushing thoughts of Walker from his mind. “Since I kind of kyboshed your other one.”

She looked at the brown snow rapidly melting from the heat of her coffee, and he smiled sheepishly.

“Um, sure,” she said.

After a beat, she said, “I know of this great place around the corner.”

His stomach lurched into his throat. Please, God, not the same place where he’d first met Walker. He couldn’t come up with a good reason to suggest somewhere else. So he silently nodded and then followed her as she led him down the street and around the corner. Sure enough it was the same place. He barely suppressed a groan as they crossed the threshold. They moved through the line quickly, though in the middle of winter the shop was swamped. A small table in the corner vacated, and she marched across the room and claimed two seats as soon as they were empty. Well, then.

He followed and sat across from her. “I’m Ben,” he said, trying to ignore the dark voice in the back of his head that told him being here with her was like cheating. He couldn’t shake the feeling, though he knew it wasn’t logical. Having coffee with a girl didn’t mean he was stepping out on Walker. He’d never do that.

“I’m Lexie,” she said with a smile.

He tensed. He hadn’t been this attracted to a female since Reese. Simply because he was attracted to Lexie didn’t mean he had to act on it.

“It’s nice to meet you.”

“You too,” she said, taking a sip of her coffee. Another warm smile crossed her lips as she swallowed.

He tried really hard to ignore the way her throat moved as she drank. What would that smooth skin feel like beneath his fingers? Damn it. He shut down that train of thought.

She helped a second later when she asked suddenly, with real concern, “Are you okay? You looked upset when we ran into each other.”

Instantly, guilt flooded him. Yeah, he’d been upset. Which was probably why he couldn’t keep his mind from wandering to naughty thoughts. His life would be so much easier if he could bring Lexie home next month for Christmas. He’d told his parents he couldn’t get out of work. So he wouldn’t have to go home and lie to their faces about his love life. God, he hated that he’d lied to them for so long. But he loved them too much to risk changing their opinions of him when he told them he was bisexual. He wouldn’t let history repeat itself, wouldn’t end up like Jesse had.

“Yeah. I uh, had a fight…with my, um, boyfriend.” Not the whole truth. He’d run away from a fight, actually. But he was too much of a coward to admit that to Lexie.

She shifted in her seat, sighing. Her shoulders relaxed beneath her dark purple sweater, and he could read the relief on her face. She was relieved he’d had a fight? After a second, he wanted to smack himself. No, she was relieved he was gay. Why had he just admitted to a perfect stranger that he had a boyfriend when he couldn’t tell his own sister?

“So you’re a photography student?” he asked, changing the subject.

“I teach it actually.”

He took a second to reassess. She was a professor. At the university where he was a student. Crap. Even

if he wasn’t with Walker, he wouldn’t be able to bring this girl home for Christmas. He couldn’t date her publicly any more than he could date Walker out in the open. “Very cool. Those photos were amazing. I’m so sorry I ruined them.”

She reached out and touched his arm. He warmed instantly. “Don’t worry about it. You have to stop apologizing. It wasn’t your fault anyway. I was so pissed; I would have walked straight into a pole without seeing it. It’s no wonder I bashed into you without preamble.”

She didn’t make any move to let go of his arm, and he didn’t encourage one. He’d never let Walker touch him like this in public. Never gaze into his lover’s eyes with such ease. Here, with Lexie, he could let himself show affection without fear of repercussions. Lexie raised her other hand to his chin, turning his head to the side.

“Hold still,” she said.

He froze, and her fingers left him. From the corner of his eye, he watched as she leaned back in her chair and smiled. “Well…” She said, drawing out the word. “There might be one more thing you could do to make it up to me.”

“Anything,” he whispered.

“Pose for me? With those chiseled cheekbones, and that fierce gaze…you’ll make quite the subject,” she said.

His throat dried. “Like naked?”

About the Authors Rachell Nichole Rachell Nichole is a contemporary erotic romance author, who loves writing sexy romances about memorable characters who have to fight to hold on to love.

Rachell holds two undergraduate degrees, one in Professional Writing and the other in French.

She also received a Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University. She is the author of The Marietta Hotels Series, Spicy with a Side of Cranberry Sauce, Break (Through) the Ice, To Sir, and Queen of Hearts.

Rachell lives in New York with a mountain of books, a loving family, and an invisible cat who loves to snuggle.

Website: www.RachellNichole.com Blog: www.DivasofDesire.blogspot.com Facebook: www.Facebook.com/RachellNichole Twitter: @RachellNichole Author Goodreads Profile page: http://bit.ly/1vZrGId Author Amazon Profile page: http://amzn.to/1Cy4qE1 Caitlyn Willows Erotic romance author Caitlyn Willows weaves deep emotions and sizzling sensuality into her

action-filled stories. Believing life is to be lived and felt, not merely watched, Willows delivers real-to-life characters in unforgettable tales of love, adventure, and always steamy passion. No one is more surprised than she at the direction life has taken her.

Website: www.caitlynwillows.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/caitlyn.willows

Nona Raines

Nona Raines is a former librarian who lives in upstate New York with her many pets. She’s currently working on her next novel between walking the dog and shooing the cats off the laptop.

Her erotic romances are published with The Wild Rose Press and Loose Id. Her transgender romance His Kind of Woman was nominated for the 2014 DABWAHA sponsored by the Dear Author and Smart Bitches, Trashy Books review blogs. Her most recent work is the romance novella Don’t Let Go from The Wild Rose Press.

Website: www.nonaraines.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NonaRaines.author Twitter: https://twitter.com/nonaraines Blog: http://divasofdesire.blogspot.com/

Why the Pin Up Files?

By Roxanne Rhoads

Several people have asked why I decided to include information about models and photographers in a magazine about books and authors.

For one I wanted to expand what the magazine offers, open it up to a new group of readers. I wanted to do something different, something the other book magazines don’t do.

Two, I have friends and acquaintances that are models and burlesque performers. They’ve introduced to me to the business, to the model world and to a lot of photographers. I wanted to offer them some appreciation, because I am a fan, and showcase them in a new promotional spotlight.

But the real reason I added the Pin Up Files section to the magazine is because the models and photographers are part of the book world as well- because they are the part of an often overlooked aspect of a book- the cover.

Which is funny because the cover is the first thing most of us see when it comes to a book, the cover can make or break a book’s success. The cover can be the final factor in whether or not someone decides to purchase a book.

But yet how many people think about everything it takes to create a cover.

I know some people will think about the designer, they are finally getting more credit for their designs which is fabulous (and I am not undermining them, I have much cover artist love) but do many people think about the model that posed for the image or the photographer that took the photo?

Probably not, with so many stock photo sites selling tons of photos the photographers and models are never really mentioned or credited.

This is my way of crediting them because they are the foundation of which book covers are built on. Without the models and photographers, the cover designers would have nothing to work with and the authors would have plain, boring covers.

So please take a moment and read through our Pin Up Files, you may see some of these models on a future book

cover- and those images may have been taken by one of the photographers we may feature or mention in this magazine.

And please check out a few of my own images- I had the chance to model as Mrs. Claus to my husband’s Santa at a holiday group photo shoot hosted by model Ginger Kewl. It was nice to meet some of the photographers and models I see and chat with on Facebook. I even got firsthand experience at being a model. Not really my thing but it was fun to give it a try.

Photos by Scott Gould https://www.facebook.com/ SGPHOTOGRAPHY Santa Robert https://www.facebook.com/santafortheholidays