Don't Miss Out On Exciting News!
Subscribe to my newsletter and get a free copy of Andromeda's Tear!
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Promo - Hunger Moon, by Merryn Dexter
We're busy little book bees over at Decadent lately! Today I'm shining the spotlight on fellow author Merryn Dexter, whose steamy new book, Hunger Moon, released yesterday. Enjoy the delicious cover, and check out the blurb and excerpt!
Blurb:
A Charming Mask
Troy Lansing, envoy to the Brighton Pack has one mission – to find out everything he can about the new wolf pack living near his father’s territory. He offers the hand of friendship to the Moonlight pack, there’s just one problem. His father isn’t in the business of making friends.
A Stranger with Secrets
Belinda Thomas, omega to the Moonlight Pack is tasked by her alpha to find out the truth behind Troy’s façade. Her omega abilities give her a unique insight into the hearts of other wolves. When she comes face to face with the enigmatic Troy, she doesn’t know what to make of him. Her wolf knows though.
A Forbidden Passion
Bound by secrets, duty and honor, Troy and Bel are drawn to each other, moths to the destructive flames of their passion. They will risk it all for the hunger driving them both.
A Desperate Fight
Can Troy and Bel find a way to save the Moonlight pack from the evil clutches of the Brighton alpha? The final fight for freedom might cost them more than their love; they might have to pay the ultimate price.
Excerpt:
Wood creaked to his left, and Troy stilled, lowering his feet down from the porch railing. The heavy shadow of the overhang would conceal his presence. Rand had made a point of telling him he shared the home to the right with his mate but hadn’t mentioned the occupant of the cottage on the opposite side. A pale reflection caught his eye, moonlight shining on light hair. The slender figure moving toward the woods paused and glanced in his direction. Bel.
He was out of his chair before realizing he’d moved; the thick railing around the porch was all that prevented him from striding across the open space toward her. Rain pattered against his skin, mixing with the sheen of sweat coating his chest. If she had turned away, kept moving without acknowledging him, he might not have acted. But he’d never know. Instead, she raised a hand to her throat, drawing his eye to the delicate line of her arm, the expanse of bare skin above the low neckline of her simple dress.
Bending his knees, Troy leaped onto the railing, balancing on his toes in a crouch. She turned her head, glanced toward the woods then back in his direction. The last vestiges of the mask of civility he wore slipped away, and he bared his teeth in a feral grin. Do it, he urged silently.
As though she heard his voiceless plea, Bel spun on her heel and made a break for the trees. Growling low in his throat, he sprang from the railing, hitting the ground at full speed. The clouds overhead burst open, turning the gentle patter of rain into a raging torrent, soaking him to the skin in moments. His feet slipped and slid in the long grass underfoot, but he didn’t slow his pace. Diving between a pair of thick trunks, he ducked beneath long curtains of Spanish moss and passed instantly into full darkness. The tangled canopy overhead masked the worst of the rain. Twigs snapped, warning her of his approach, marking her own desperate flight through the woods. Her scent hung thick in the humid air, a blanket of sunshine and sweetbriar.
A twisted root caught his ankle, sending him sprawling forward. Tucking his shoulder, he rolled with the motion, gaining his footing moments later at the base of a small incline. He stood in the bottom of a natural hollow, a clearing in the trees. Bel was less than twenty feet away, clutching the skirt of her dress high as she scrambled up the other side of the hollow.
“Stop,” he growled, forcing every ounce of command he possessed into the word.
She froze, one foot on the crest of the slope. He stalked across the clearing, watching her shoulders heave as she tried to catch her breath. He knew how she felt. Between the thick summer air and the lust coursing through his veins, he might never breathe normally again. The muscles in her calf twitched where her toes braced for purchase on the incline. He’d never spent much time considering the graceful shape of the back of a woman’s leg before. The curve of muscle narrowing to taper into the rigidity of an Achilles tendon, the pregnant swell of a smooth heel, the arch of her elegant instep.
Pausing at the base of the slight hill, he reached for her leg, traced the lean muscle of her calf. He slid his hand higher, watching it disappear beneath the damp hem of her dress. A soft gasp escaped her lips. Bending his head, he nibbled along the defined edge of her calf muscle, burying his lips into the dimple at the back of her knee.
“Troy!” His name on her lips sounded both a blessing and a curse.
Buy Links:
About the Author:
Merryn Dexter is a military spouse who, after a varied employment career (from selling sandals to old ladies with bunions to being a health and safety coordinator for a construction company), is thrilled to be pursuing her dream career as a romance writer. She likes The Winchesters, Spike, Hotch, Loki and watching complicated European Noir. Her hobbies include crying at books, crying at movies, crying at tv serials (there’s a theme!) and believes all stories should have a Happy Ending.
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Promo - Rocking the CEO, by Catherine Peace
I love the 1Night Stand series, both reading and writing for it! Catherine Peace's latest installment, Rocking the CEO, is out today - be sure to check out her amazing cover, blurb, and excerpt!
Blurb:
This last year of Joss Richards’ life has changed for the better—or so she thinks. A new band, a new city, a new life, and, now, a shot at a contract with the hottest rock label around, ICE Records. If she and her bandmates can impress the label, her life will be set. Too bad her best friend thinks something is missing. When Joss receives details of the 1Night Stand date set up for her, she bolts—straight into the arms of a sexy stranger.
When August Bragg glimpses a red-haired goddess in the hotel lobby he can’t get out of his thoughts—or his fantasies. Unable to resist her lure, he indulges in a steamy encounter. Then learns her name, and he realizes his fantasies has left his heart in an ethical dilemma.
Will they give everything up for their careers, or can the man who holds Joss’ future in his hands also convince her to give him her heart?
Excerpt:
She stopped at the entrance and leaned against the wall. With her spiked hair, tight black Tshirt, the swell of her ass in those black skinny jeans, and spike-heeled boots, she personified his fantasy. How could he focus on his date Sunday night when this woman stood in front of him, the picture of everything he’d wanted for months?
He stopped next to her and tried not to stare, but her beauty captivated him. Bright-green eyes, a narrow nose, and a gorgeous mouth he wanted to taste so badly he barely withstood being next to her. Keep your composure. She’s a woman. A beautiful woman…. “Hello there.”
When she glanced at him, her eyes widened just a bit. “Hi.” Then she curled her lips into a seductive smile.
“You look a little lost.”
She shrugged. “Hard to be lost when you don’t have a destination.”
Gods, her voice…. Pure, raw, Southern sex appeal. “Where are you from?”
“South Carolina. You?”
“Iceland.” He appreciated the interest in her eyes and the way she pursed her lips. “Your accent’s sexy.”
“So is yours.”
At the compliment, she actually blushed. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Shouting over the music started to get old. “Would you like to go somewhere?”
From the way her green eyes darkened, he knew her answer before she said a word.
No way they’d make it back to his room, not with the way he ached. Time for an alternative plan.
About the Author:
Catherine Peace has been telling stories for as
long as she could remember. She often blames two things for her forays into
speculative fiction—Syfy (when
it was SciFi)
channel Sundays with her dad and The
Island of Dr. Moreau by HG Wells. She graduated in 2008 from Northern
Kentucky University with a degree in English and is still chasing the dream of
being super rich and famous, mostly so she can sit around in her PJs all day
and write stories. When not being a slave to the people in her head, she’s a
slave to two adorable dogs.
Monday, July 4, 2016
Vacations and Links and Whatnot
Happy 4th of July! I'm on vacation this week and might actually be getting the chance to relax for a bit. (Turns out traveling and vacationing with two toddlers is more fun and less demanding than doing so with two infants, which is what we did last year.) I've been reading and knitting, and there's even a possibility of some writing on the horizon. YAY!
In the meantime, Out of Orbit is available for preorder, so go ogle that awesome cover again!
In the meantime, Out of Orbit is available for preorder, so go ogle that awesome cover again!
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Out of Orbit Update
Mark your calendars! As of now, Out of Orbit is set to release on July 15th, though it'll be available for pre-order on July 1st. (Meaning I need to get my butt in gear for scheduling promotions and stuff.) Also, one of my editors and I reworked the blurb to tighten it up and not give away so many plot details, so ignore the other one I posted and focus on this one!
Following an explosive space battle, Captain Jasmine Hale’s escape pod crash lands on an unknown planet. She communicates with some of the world’s natives, but grows frustrated when she learns signaling to her crew for help is impossible. Though she acknowledges she is stranded on Ryk indefinitely, she dreams of the day when she can return to piloting a ship through the stars.
Aras, leader of the Rykians, hasn’t had contact with a human in five hundred years. Due to his lengthy life span, little excites him in his day-to-day life, until he meets Jasmine. Captivated by the woman who was suddenly thrust into his world, he desires to ease her anguish while showing her the wonders of his kingdom.
Caught between two worlds, Jasmine struggles with a difficult dilemma--continue searching for a way home or accept her new life on Ryk. Choosing one means leaving the other behind forever. How will she decide?
Following an explosive space battle, Captain Jasmine Hale’s escape pod crash lands on an unknown planet. She communicates with some of the world’s natives, but grows frustrated when she learns signaling to her crew for help is impossible. Though she acknowledges she is stranded on Ryk indefinitely, she dreams of the day when she can return to piloting a ship through the stars.
Aras, leader of the Rykians, hasn’t had contact with a human in five hundred years. Due to his lengthy life span, little excites him in his day-to-day life, until he meets Jasmine. Captivated by the woman who was suddenly thrust into his world, he desires to ease her anguish while showing her the wonders of his kingdom.
Caught between two worlds, Jasmine struggles with a difficult dilemma--continue searching for a way home or accept her new life on Ryk. Choosing one means leaving the other behind forever. How will she decide?
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Cover Reveal - Out of Orbit
How awesome is this? Like, seriously?
I love this cover sooooo much. I didn't really have any sort of mental image of what the cover could look like going in, and this is so much better than anything I could have come up with. It's the perfect blend of "space adventure!" and "people are gonna do naughty sexy things in this book!". Right now, it's tied with Elysium for my all-time favorite cover. LOVE.
Ahem.
I might be a little too excited here, but I DON'T CARE.
No word on a release date yet, but stay tuned!
I love this cover sooooo much. I didn't really have any sort of mental image of what the cover could look like going in, and this is so much better than anything I could have come up with. It's the perfect blend of "space adventure!" and "people are gonna do naughty sexy things in this book!". Right now, it's tied with Elysium for my all-time favorite cover. LOVE.
Ahem.
I might be a little too excited here, but I DON'T CARE.
No word on a release date yet, but stay tuned!
Sunday, May 29, 2016
Outside the Comfort Zone (or, Revealing the Mystery)
So I've been hinting at my new project in the past couple posts, and it's time to come clean. I've been dodgy because this is something new for me, and I'm determined to make it work. I'm about 5K words in (and I have a great outline, for reasons I'll talk about below), and so far, so good. I think. I hope.
Throughout the years, I've been half-joking about writing an old-fashioned mystery, but with a steamy romance component, since romance is how I roll. Lest you think I'm completely off my rocker, there is some precedence for this. Most stage and screen adaptations of And Then There Were None (my favorite book) capitalize on the tension/attraction between Vera and Lombard and change the ending so the two of them can ride off into the sunset together. (I believe Agatha Christie herself even wrote some of these adaptations.) Truth be told, I do prefer the original ending, because the whole book is just plain brilliant, but hey, the romantic in me doesn't mind the changes *too* much.
Throughout the years, I've also half-joked about how I would never write a mystery because I'm not smart enough to write a good one. This is still probably correct, but I'm going for it. There's a bit of a twist at the end, a deus ex machina, if you will, but I'll admit the plot isn't anything earth-shattering. That said, it's *my* plot, and I'm going to make it the best I can.
As is often the case, after thinking about the idea here and there for a long time, most of the details came to me as I was lying in bed, trying to sleep. Usually I start writing if I just have a basic framework, but this time, due to the genre and plot, I wanted a really solid outline before I even wrote the first sentence. For those of you who often make great outlines, mine still probably looks like a mess in comparison. For me, though, it's the most comprehensive outline I've had. (Whether or not it makes the writing process go any faster remains to be seen.)
So there it is. It'll either be amazing or flop spectacularly, but I'm doing this. And to save us all a future post on title woes, I think I have one for this project. I wanted something that indicated both romance and mystery, so for right now, my folders and documents are titled Seductive Suspect. (As I always say, when in doubt, go for alliteration!) And now I can make the tag for the blog! :D
Throughout the years, I've been half-joking about writing an old-fashioned mystery, but with a steamy romance component, since romance is how I roll. Lest you think I'm completely off my rocker, there is some precedence for this. Most stage and screen adaptations of And Then There Were None (my favorite book) capitalize on the tension/attraction between Vera and Lombard and change the ending so the two of them can ride off into the sunset together. (I believe Agatha Christie herself even wrote some of these adaptations.) Truth be told, I do prefer the original ending, because the whole book is just plain brilliant, but hey, the romantic in me doesn't mind the changes *too* much.
Throughout the years, I've also half-joked about how I would never write a mystery because I'm not smart enough to write a good one. This is still probably correct, but I'm going for it. There's a bit of a twist at the end, a deus ex machina, if you will, but I'll admit the plot isn't anything earth-shattering. That said, it's *my* plot, and I'm going to make it the best I can.
As is often the case, after thinking about the idea here and there for a long time, most of the details came to me as I was lying in bed, trying to sleep. Usually I start writing if I just have a basic framework, but this time, due to the genre and plot, I wanted a really solid outline before I even wrote the first sentence. For those of you who often make great outlines, mine still probably looks like a mess in comparison. For me, though, it's the most comprehensive outline I've had. (Whether or not it makes the writing process go any faster remains to be seen.)
So there it is. It'll either be amazing or flop spectacularly, but I'm doing this. And to save us all a future post on title woes, I think I have one for this project. I wanted something that indicated both romance and mystery, so for right now, my folders and documents are titled Seductive Suspect. (As I always say, when in doubt, go for alliteration!) And now I can make the tag for the blog! :D
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
The Name Game, Part 4
Here we are at the final installment (for now!) of this name-related discussion. It was delayed slightly by a nasty eye infection I've been battling for two weeks (boo!) and the first round of edits for Out of Orbit (yay!), but I'm back and in blogging action. But I will blame any typos on my gradually-recovering eye.
One issue I sometimes encounter when writing: when do you name a character? The major and minor ones are obvious. Most of the time, main characters need names. (And yes, I know there are plenty of books with an unnamed narrator, which is why I said "most of the time".) On the flip side, not every single person the main characters meet needs to have a name, especially if their role isn't all that significant. It's the ones in the middle I sometimes struggle with.
Too much extraneous detail can confuse or distract a reader, and we certainly don't want that. That said, the vast majority of real-life people have names (duh) and it's nice to acknowledge that. But do we really need to know the name of every single person we come across? We can probably even argue that you can have a significant interaction with a person without ever knowing his/her name.
Over the years, I've come up with an incredibly basic rule of thumb for myself: for minor characters, only name them when it would be awkward not to. There have been times when either a character winds up playing a larger role than initially expected, or someone takes up enough room on a page that not seeing a name attached to them just looks weird. The biggest example of this in my books is Captain Sampson in Flight of the Dragon Queen. For the longest time, he had no name, and was just referred to as "the captain". But after a while, that wasn't working out for me, and I needed to do better.
There are plenty of people mentioned in Out of Orbit who never got a name. But there was one instance where Jasmine had a long enough conversation with someone that I had to name him. He only shows up in that one part, but the flow just seemed off when he didn't have a name.
Come to think of it, "avoid being awkward" is a great rule of thumb for a LOT of writing-related things.
Next up: I'll finally start talking about my latest WIP (the first chapter of which is complete)!
One issue I sometimes encounter when writing: when do you name a character? The major and minor ones are obvious. Most of the time, main characters need names. (And yes, I know there are plenty of books with an unnamed narrator, which is why I said "most of the time".) On the flip side, not every single person the main characters meet needs to have a name, especially if their role isn't all that significant. It's the ones in the middle I sometimes struggle with.
Too much extraneous detail can confuse or distract a reader, and we certainly don't want that. That said, the vast majority of real-life people have names (duh) and it's nice to acknowledge that. But do we really need to know the name of every single person we come across? We can probably even argue that you can have a significant interaction with a person without ever knowing his/her name.
Over the years, I've come up with an incredibly basic rule of thumb for myself: for minor characters, only name them when it would be awkward not to. There have been times when either a character winds up playing a larger role than initially expected, or someone takes up enough room on a page that not seeing a name attached to them just looks weird. The biggest example of this in my books is Captain Sampson in Flight of the Dragon Queen. For the longest time, he had no name, and was just referred to as "the captain". But after a while, that wasn't working out for me, and I needed to do better.
There are plenty of people mentioned in Out of Orbit who never got a name. But there was one instance where Jasmine had a long enough conversation with someone that I had to name him. He only shows up in that one part, but the flow just seemed off when he didn't have a name.
Come to think of it, "avoid being awkward" is a great rule of thumb for a LOT of writing-related things.
Next up: I'll finally start talking about my latest WIP (the first chapter of which is complete)!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)


