Filled with magic, thrilling adventure, and sweet romance, Elementals: The Blood of the Hydra is the second novel in Michelle Madow’s Elementals series that fans of Percy Jackson and The Secret Circle will love!
Title: Elementals: The Blood of the Hydra
Author: Michelle Madow
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Release Date: April 18, 2016
Publisher: Dreamscape Publishing
Series: Elementals #2
Format: eBook and paperback
ISBN: 9781311296788
Synopsis:
A DEMIGOD WHO CAN KILL WITH A TOUCH. IT’S AN ABILITY THAT MUST BE KEPT SECRET FROM EVERYONE, EVEN FROM THOSE TRUSTED MOST.
Finding out that her new school had her in a special homeroom for witches was strange enough, but now Nicole must face the realization that she has the rare power to kill with just a touch. It’s a secret she needs to keep not only from the Head Elders, but from the super-sexy witch Blake, who she’s had undeniable chemistry with even before he broke up with his long-term girlfriend, the vengeful witch Danielle.
Now Nicole and the four others gifted with powers over the elements, including Blake and Danielle, must stop a series of monsters that they previously believed to be dead from rising once again and destroying the mortal world. Three magical items are needed, including the blood of the slain hydra – ingredients that they must journey to the dangerous, mystical islands in Greece to retrieve.
The monsters they face on this journey will be more threatening than anything they’ve encountered yet. But with the fate of the world on their shoulders, it’s up to the Elementals to return home victorious. Will they find the ingredients they need? Can Nicole and her friends pull off this mission while the tension between her, Blake, and Danielle threatens to ruin everything? And how long will it be until Nicole is forced to use her ability to kill in front of everyone, revealing the true darkness of her powers?
Find out in The Blood of the Hydra, and join the Elementals on their next journey in their quest to save the world – or die trying.
Michelle Madow has always loved writing stories, but the possibility of being an author used to feel more like a dream than a reality. She didn’t share her stories with anyone until her junior year of college, when she signed up for an Intro to Creative Writing course. Her teacher and classmates read the first chapter of a book idea she had, and they loved it so much that they told her she had to finish the book so they could find out what happened next. By the end of the school year, Michelle finished that book, which would later be published as her first novel, Remembrance.
Michelle grew up in Baltimore, and now lives in Boca Raton, Florida, where she writes books for young adults. Some of her favorite things are: reading, pizza, traveling, shopping, time travel, Broadway musicals, and spending time with friends and family. Michelle has toured across America to promote her books and to encourage high school students to embrace reading and writing. Someday, she hopes to travel the world for a year on a cruise ship.
On a bright July morning in 1948, a B-29 Superfortress flying a top-secret research mission over Nevada crashes into the calm waters of Lake Mead and sinks, remaining lost for half a century.
It has been nearly a year since five friends – Jag, Kody, Mariah, Tegan and Aari – mysteriously reappeared in a small town in Yukon several weeks after their small plane went down in Northern Canada. All were found in good health but with no recollection of what happened to them after the crash.
A baffling contagion is spreading across the bread-basket of North America destroying vital crops. As this dark shadow marches across the globe, widespread famine and riots bring desperate nations to the brink of war.
These seemingly unrelated events set the stage for a battle between the forces of darkness and those destined to become the ‘bearers of light’. From ravaged fields in the Great Plains to clandestine installations around the world, the Aegis League must race against time to save humanity.
An avid reader since early childhood, S.S.Segran had written many short stories before embarking on ‘AEGIS RISING’, the first book in the Aegis League Series. In crafting the premise for the novel she drew from the captivating imagery of the Pacific Northwest, the intriguing wonders of nature and the amazing potential of the human mind. She enjoys drawing and horseback riding. S.S.Segran is a proud member of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets in British Columbia. She is an ardent fan of parkour and freerunning.
S.S.Segran is also the founder of Aegis League, a non-profit organization whose goal is to support youths living in places and conditions that deny them opportunities to grow. The mission of the organization is to provide resources that help these youths explore their potential. This includes life-skills training and micro-loan funding to help them launch small businesses in the communities where they reside. For more information please visitwww.aegisleague.org
Welcome to the weekly blog hop featuring paranormal stories. From witches to werewolves, vampires to berserkers, you name it, we have it. This blog hop is open to authors and writers whose work is published or unpublished. We also welcome works-in-progresses/WIP’s! Join us each week and check out all the cool stories!
This week, I’m featuring my novel Legally Undead. So check out my thoughts on Kick-Ass Heroines below, read the snippet from my novel, then be sure to HOP back to check out the rest of this week’s entries!
One of the things that I’ve always loved about the use of the term “kick-ass” to describe urban fantasy and paranormal romance heroines is that it indicates approval of heroines’ tendency to move from more traditionally feminine roles into behaviors more usually associated with the male heroes of action movies and literature; these women have power and carry weapons, and they aren’t afraid to use them.
But the shift of heroines’ roles in urban fantasy and paranormal romance from
passive recipient of romantic love to active participants in violence and killing
also carries a certain amount of anxiety in our culture. L. Jagi Lamplighter notes
that “today’s audiences have welcomed this golden age of butt-kicking heroines with great relish,” but also claims that these heroines face a “fundamental conflict between modern culture and drama”:
Culture demanded a heroine who is fierce, powerful, and spunky, who lives in a world without taboos where she can do exactly as she pleases. But the needs of drama, the laws that govern what makes a story romantic, require something else entirely: a superior male who lives in a world where taboos separate the heroine from the object of her desire.
Thus, according to Lamplighter, urban fantasy requires a supernatural male love
interest—one who is inherently superior to the heroine simply due to his
supernatural nature. This is significant, Lamplighter claims,
Because violence is masculine. The more violent the hero, and the more he is ravaged by desires he cannot control—the desire for blood, the uncontrollable compulsion to turn into a wolf under the full moon—the more excuse for the hero to allow his passions to run away with him, and the greater the heroine’s victory when she ultimately tames him!
But this reading doesn’t account for the fact that most of the heroines of urban
fantasy (and often of paranormal romance, too, though I’m focusing primarily on
UF here) are every bit as violent as the male love-interests. Indeed, the heroines
are often exponentially more violent than the males, a fact that is often of
great concern to the heroines. As she develops her skills in necromancy, for
example, Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake (arguably the first urban fantasy
heroine) frets about her humanity; she says that “Raising the dead makes a lot
of people class me with the monsters. There are even days when I agree with
them” (Circus of the Damned). She worries that she is becoming a monster, claiming that “It was getting harder to tell the humans from the monsters. I was even beginning to wonder about myself. There are more roads to monsterdom than most people realize” (The Lunatic Cafe). But almost as much as worrying about remaining human, Anita worries about maintaining her place in a masculine world. At one point, as she looks at a female civilian called out to
help take down a rogue zombie, she says,
The girl just stared. I could almost smell her fear. She was entitled to it. Why did it
bother me so much? Because she and I were the only women here, and we had to be better than the men. Braver, quicker, whatever. It was a rule for playing with
the big boys. (The Laughing Corpse).
As the literary progenitor of virtually all urban fantasy heroines, Anita is an
important model for what happens when urban fantasy heroines act out the kind
of violence that is traditionally considered masculine—and what happens to
Anita is that despite acting violently because “if she doesn’t, someone
innocent will get hurt” (as Alasdair Stuart notes) is that she herself turns
into a monster. By the later novels, Anita is no longer particularly worried
about going to church or whether or not she has become a monster or even if she
is making the right decision about which monsters to kill. She comes to terms
with her own increasingly violent actions as she tracks and kills rogue
vampires, evil voodoo priestesses, shapeshifters, and other monsters, even as
she increasingly identifies with them. In Cerulean Sins (the eleventh book of the series) for example, she says “One of my favorite things about hanging out with the monsters is the healing. Straight humans seemed to get killed on me a lot. Monsters survived. Let’s hear it for
the monsters.” Anita’s experience parallels that of any number of other urban
fantasy heroines: Faith Hunter’s Jane Yellowrock, Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty
Norville, Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels, Rachel Vincent’s Faythe Saunders—all of
them must embrace some degree of monstrosity in order to become the kind of kick-ass
heroines we love.
In “Invisible Monsters: Vision, Horror, and Contemporary Culture,” Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock argues that “to redefine monstrosity is to simultaneously to rethink humanity” (275). However,
urban fantasy novels’ definition of monstrosity as connected to feminine power
does not “rethink humanity”; rather, if these books have a message for
women, it is that in order to embody feminine power, a woman must become a
monster—but in doing so, she learns that to be monstrous is the natural order.
Asa Simon Mittman writes that
Monsters do a great deal of cultural work, but they do not do it nicely. They not only
challenge and question; they trouble, they worry, they haunt. They break and
tear and rend cultures, all the while constructing them and propping them up. (1)
In the case of urban fantasy, though, there is more propping than tearing, and
despite any apparent nods to feminism, urban fantasy contains its potentially
dangerous female characters within carefully constructed heteronormative
narrative bounds by ensuring that femininity and monstrosity are ultimately
equated. This tendency to create characters with the (ultimately frustrated)
potential to escape traditionally patriarchal cultural norms shows itself
nowhere so much as in urban fantasy’s kick-ass heroines—which ultimately raises
the question: is it possible for those of us who write urban fantasy to create
the kinds of kick-ass heroines we love without simultaneously creating
monsters?
So what do you think? Do all kick-ass urban fantasy heroines become the very kind
of monster they fight against? What about kick-ass paranormal romance heroines?
Are they different from urban fantasy heroines in this respect? How and why, or
why not?
_____________________________________________
My own urban fantasy heroine Elle, from Legally Undead, is working hard to avoid embracing the monsters as she works to eradicate them.
A reluctant vampire hunter, stalking New York City as only a scorned bride can.
Elle Dupree has her life all figured out: first a wedding, then her Ph.D., then swank faculty parties where she’ll serve wine and cheese and introduce people to her husband the lawyer.
But those plans disintegrate when she walks in on a vampire draining the blood from her fiancé Greg. Horrified, she screams and runs–not away from the vampire, but toward it, brandishing a wooden letter opener.
As she slams the improvised stake into the vampire’s heart, a team of black-clad men bursts into the apartment. Turning around to face them, Elle discovers that Greg’s body is gone—and her perfect life falls apart.
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Excerpt
The worst thing about vampires is that they’re dead. That whole wanting to suck your blood business runs a close second, but for sheer creepiness, it’s the dead bit that gets me every time. They’re up and walking around and talking and sucking blood, but they’re dead. And then there’s the whole terminology problem–how can you kill something that’s already dead? It’s just wrong.
I was twenty-four the first time I . . . destroyed? dispatched? . . . a vampire. That’s when I found out that all the books and movies are wrong. When you stick a wooden stake into their hearts, vampires don’t disintegrate into dust. They don’t explode. They don’t spew blood everywhere. They just look surprised, groan, and collapse into a pile of corpse. But at least they lie still then, like corpses are supposed to.
Since that first kill (I might as well use the word–there really isn’t a better one), I’ve discovered that only if you’re lucky do vampires look surprised before they groan and fall down. If you’re unlucky and miss the heart, they look angry. And then they fight.
There are the other usual ways to kill vampires, of course, but these other ways can get a bit complicated. Vampires are notoriously difficult to trick into sunlight. They have an uncanny ability to sense when there’s any sunlight within miles of them, and they’re awfully good at hiding from it. Holy water doesn’t kill them; it just distracts them for a while, and then they get that angry look again. And it takes a pretty big blade to cut off someone’s head–even an already dead someone–and carrying a great big knife around New York City, even the Bronx, is a sure way to get arrested. Nope, pointy sticks are the best way to go, all the way around.
My own pointy stick is actually more of a little knife with wood inlay on the blade–the metal makes it slide in easier. I had the knife specially made by an old Italian guy in just about the only ratty part of Westchester, north of the city. I tried to order one off the internet, but it turns out that while it’s easy to find wood-inlay handles, the blades themselves tend to be metal. Fat lot those people know.
But I wasn’t thinking any of this when I pulled the knife out of the body on the ground. I was thinking something more along the lines of “Oh, bloody hell. Not again.”
Margo Bond Collins is the author of a number of novels, including Sanguinary, Waking Up Dead, Taming the Country Star, Bound by Blood, Legally Undead, and Fairy, Texas. She lives in Texas with her husband, their daughter, and several spoiled pets. She teaches college-level English courses online, though writing fiction is her first love. She enjoys reading urban fantasy and paranormal fiction of any genre and spends most of her free time daydreaming about vampires, ghosts, zombies, werewolves, and other monsters.
Happy Teaser Tuesday! Today is the seventh installment of ten weeks of teasers to get you ready for the release of ASLEEP by Krystal Wade. This spine-chilling YA psychological thriller is the debut novel from Blaze Publishing, set to be released February 16, 2016, and answers the question of what happens when Sleeping Beauty meets Freddy Krueger. If you missed the first teaser, don’t worry! You can still find it and other great content on the Blaze Publishing blog. Pre-orders are available now from Amazon. Mark your calendars, and be sure to add the book to your Goodreads list!
“To cure fear, you must use fear.”
Rose Briar claims no responsibility for the act that led to her imprisonment in an asylum. She wants to escape, until terrifying nightmares make her question her sanity and reach out to her doctor. He’s understanding and caring in ways her parents never have been, but as her walls tumble down and Rose admits fault, a fellow patient warns her to stop the medications. Phillip believes the doctor is evil and they’ll never make it out of the facility alive. Trusting him might be just the thing to save her. Or it might prove the asylum is exactly where she needs to be.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
AUTHOR. CHICKEN (AND DOG) LOVER. MOTHER. WIFE. DREAMER. I’m happily married to the love of my life (don’t gag) and raising three beautiful children in the gorgeous state of Virginia. We live just outside Washington, D.C., and every day I wake up to find myself stuck in traffic trying to get there.
The horrid commute gives me plenty of time to zone out and think about my characters in full, brilliant details (I’m a safe driver; don’t worry). Stories give me a way to forget about the sometimes smelly strangers sitting next to me on the fifty mile trek into town (I pick up hitchhikers every day. True story. Check out http://www.slug-lines.com if you don’t believe me).
I’ve been a part of organized hitchhiking for nearly fifteen years, but that’s just one small aspect of my oh-so-large life. When I’m not working, commuting, or chasing after my three children (four if you count the man), you can usually find me outside talking to my chickens like they’re the cutest things in the world (they are), or training my amazing dogs how to herd said chickens (which they love), or curled up on the sofa with a good book (why can’t that be 100% of the time?).
I hope you love my stories (or just like them a little; that would be okay, too). And I hope that one day you find your passion, because there’s nothing in life better than doing what you love while surrounded by people you love.
ABOUT BLAZE PUBLISHING: Books with Heart for Teen and Young Adults
At Blaze, we’re committed to bringing you high-quality, hard-hitting books full of heart. Whether the story is a mystery, a thriller, horror, steampunk, or some goofy comedy, there will be a message woven into the pages for readers to find and fall in love with. We want you to walk away inspired, in awe, or just happy to be alive. Or maybe you’ll look at other people differently, in a less negative light. Whatever the case, you will find heart in our stories.
Our goal is to bring you four or five amazing works of fiction in 2016, and six in 2017 and each year after. We’ve already lined up a few and can’t wait to see what comes across our desks next!
Do you have a submission you’d like to send us? We’d love to see it! You can find our submissions guidelines on our website.
Want to stay up to date on everything from Blaze Publishing? Sign up for our newsletter so you don’t miss a thing! The first 100 subscribers get free Blaze bookmarks (UK, US, and Canada only) AND get added to our Loyal 100 group, which gives you access to exclusive news, teasers, prizes, and ARCs!
Lights of Aurora (The Stone Legacy #3) by Theresa DaLayne Release Date: February 2016 Limitless Publishing Summary from Goodreads: After living her entire life in an orphan asylum, Zanya fears she may actually be losing her mind.
Following the discovery of her ancient Maya bloodlines, eighteen-year-old Zanya Coreandero is faced with a daunting responsibility. She must protect the relic stone while Sarian, the underworld general, ceaselessly drives her to the brink of insanity.
With the approach of an ancient bonding ceremony, Zanya struggles to control her abilities—and her desires…
As the winter solstice approaches, it brings an onslaught of unexpected side effects. While Zanya struggles to seize control over her supercharged powers, she must also face an overwhelming suspicion that her boyfriend, Arwan, is hiding a secret so dark it could destroy them both. And with her powers finally taking root, the struggle to pace their relationship takes on a life of its own.
Just when she thought life couldn’t get more complicated…
With the arrival of a surprise houseguest, Zanya’s deepest fears about Arwan are confirmed. And when middleworld deities intercede, the group of gifted Maya descendants are confronted with hardships they never saw coming—including an enemy more deadly than they have ever faced.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. And when that woman has no soul and a taste for revenge, they will need the powers of every surviving ancestor simply to stay alive.
Previous Books in the Series (click on images for Goodreads links):
Theresa DaLayne is a north-south-east-western kind of girl with a quirky personality to match her nomad life. Born in California, she migrated to three different cities in Washington State, a tiny island in Alaska, North Carolina, and finally to the suburbs of Ohio where she currently lives with her husband, three kids, vegetarian cat, and her ungrateful fish.
Always on the lookout for a new story, Theresa is a shameless eavesdropper and will take anyone who provides inspiration and mold them into a character without a second thought. She enjoys writing both paranormal and contemporary stories, considering her mind wanders between worlds of fantasy while she’s forced to live in the real world, very much against her will.
Time to get excited for this upcomingYA Contemporary Romance!
My name is Tierra Owens, and I like to kiss. A lot. It numbs the hollow ache in my chest and—for a few minutes—makes me forget how truly alone I am. My mother is an alcoholic. She hates me and insists I’m the reason she’s not married to my father, whom I have never met. My best friend, Kaylee, is the only person who knows the real me. Everyone else sees what I want them to: a happy, confident, popular girl who has the world at her feet.
I am a fraud.
Relationships are forbidden. I avoid them at all costs. Sex? Emotions? Those things make a person vulnerable, and vulnerability always leads to heartbreak. When my childhood crush, Mattie shows up at school my world tumbles off its axis. The shell I surround myself with feels more like a pathetic crutch than a protective barrier, and I find myself wanting things. Daydreaming about what it would be like to have a boyfriend, a relationship—love.
The sad fact is: I’ll never have any of those things. I am unworthy—trash. Which is why my mom abandoned me.
Abandoned by Elisa Dane Publication Date: February 15, 2016 Publisher: Swoon Romance
Elisa Dane loves books, chocolate, reality television, her family, and All Star Cheerleading. Not necessarily in that order! She writes contemporary YA romance with cheerleaders. Yep. She writes what she knows, and it’s her hope that her stories will not only take you on a romantic journey that will warm your heart, but that you’ll find a new respect for the sport of All Star Cheerleading you may not have had before. She’s represented by Brittany Booker of the Booker/Albert Agency, and has published a NA paranormal series under her real name, Lisa Sanchez.
Welcome to the Dreaming of Books Giveaway Hop, hosted by BookHounds! For this hop, I’m giving away eBook copies of Fairy, Texas and a paperback ARC of Flightless. So check them out below, then enter to win! Before you go, be sure to check out the giveaway I’m co-hosting with I Love Vampire Novels, too!
Laney Harris thinks there might be monsters in Fairy, Texas.
She’s right.
When her mother remarried and moved them to a town where a date meant hanging out at the Sonic, Laney figured that “boring” would have a whole new meaning. A new stepsister who despised her and a high school where she was the only topic of gossip were bad enough. But when she met the school counselor (and his terminal bad breath), she grew suspicious. Especially since he had wings that only she could see. And then there were Josh and Mason, two gorgeous glimmering-eyed classmates whose interest in her might not be for the reasons she hoped. Not to mention that dead guy she nearly tripped over in gym class. Boring takes on an entirely new dimension in Fairy, Texas.
If she’s going to survive in this small town, she’ll have to learn to wing it.
Laney Harris never meant to hurt anyone—least of all Josh, the beautiful, glimmering-eyed boy with the silver wings she met when she moved to Fairy, Texas. But her good intentions didn’t help save Josh’s wings when he stepped in to help protect her, and now her guilt is almost as overwhelming as his pain.
Josh Bevington doesn’t know how to survive in Fairy, Texas without his wings. He’s no longer the golden—or in his case, silver—child, destined to become a leader among his People. Instead, he’s damaged, broken.
Flightless.
Worst of all, Josh doesn’t know how to stop blaming Laney for his misery, especially since she seems to have gained everything he’s lost. But when Laney’s biological father shows up in Fairy, determined to use his daughter’s newfound powers for his own ends, Josh and Laney will have to overcome their problems and work together—or risk losing everything they care about.
Coming Spring 2016 as part of Enchanted: The Fairy Revels Collection (a Blazing Indies Boxed Set)
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About the Author
Margo Bond Collins is the author of a number of novels, including Sanguinary, Taming the Country Star, Waking Up Dead, Fairy, Texas, and Legally Undead. She lives in Texas with her family and several spoiled pets. She teaches college-level English courses online, though writing fiction is her first love. She enjoys reading romance, urban fantasy, and paranormal fiction of any genre, and spends most of her free time daydreaming about heroes, monsters, cowboys, and villains, and the strong women who love them.
Stealing the Moon & Stars, A Jordan Welsh and Eddie Marino Novel by Sally J. Smith and Jean Steffens
Scottsdale, Arizona, where the Wild West meets Beverly Hills–home of the rich and famous as well as the calculating and criminal. PIs Jordan Welsh, maverick heiress, and Eddie Marino, a graduate from the school of hard knocks, are hired to find out who’s embezzling from the Moon & Stars Children’s Foundation and stop him. But the two have stumbled onto an agenda darker and more complicated than they ever suspected. The bodies are piling up, and there’s no one Jordan can trust, not even her mysterious partner, Eddie, who’s hotter than a chili pepper and may be a killer.
He hadn’t said a word since they got in the car. Jordan
hated the silence between them.
When she couldn’t take it anymore, she turned to him. “You
mad?”
“No.” It was very matter-of-fact. “Can’t be mad at you.”
“I’m sorry.” She laid her hand on his thigh. “I just—”
“Don’t be sorry, love.” He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “It
is what it is. In the end, it’s all good.”
She leaned her head against the headrest and relaxed, letting
the mellow haze of the evening’s liquor woo her. Chet Baker
crooned “Someone to Watch Over Me,” his voice low, sexy, and
as intimate as a Sunday morning snuggle in bed.
A thrilling sensation blossomed until it was all around
her, everywhere. Seduction. The romantic lure of the song,
Eddie’s virile presence so close beside her, the way his hands
slid smoothly over the wheel, his strong profile in the subdued
light, his tongue moistening his lower lip, and the rhythm of
his shallow, even breathing. Something stirred inside her and
uncoiled like a slithering serpent.
Stop the car, Eddie. Pull over. Make love to me. Right here.
Right now. She was suddenly so filled with desire, she caught
her breath.
I need you. I can hardly stand it. She couldn’t bring herself
to say it. Why not? What stopped her? It wasn’t as if she were
a virgin. Maybe she was expecting too much from sex with
Eddie. But what if he let her down? What if she let him down?
That’s dumb. It would just be another sexual encounter. Wrong.
With Eddie Marino, it would never be just another anything.
Maybe she was afraid of going full throttle. Maybe she was
afraid of him. Yes? No? Ah, hell.
* * * * *
Stealing the Golden Dream is second in the Jordan Welsh and Eddie Marino series, which began with Stealing the Moon & Stars.
Scottsdale PIs Jordan Welsh and Eddie Marino of Shea Investigations are hired to guard the multi-million dollar Dahlonega Golden Dream Coin Collection. The collection is stolen out from under them. A loved and trusted colleague is murdered. Eddie is being framed to take the fall for both crimes. His freedom’s at stake, their business is on the line, and the lives of their loved ones are in deadly peril.
How far to the dark side is Jordan Welsh, society girl, willing to go to save Eddie from his own criminal past? Will the scheme she concocts with family and colleagues find the golden coins? Restore the reputation of Shea Investigations? And will she be in time to stop the killer from murdering the man she loves?
The image of Eddie with Sofia Vercelli was imprinted on her brain. But she had it in mind to put it aside until Eddie was in better shape. Piling more stress on top of all he was already dealing with would not only be cruel and insensitive, it would also be stupid. He was much better at a good rousing argument than she. Better to wait until things had settled down to bring up the subject—but it was definitely a matter she intended to learn more about.
Jordan made her way through the house, opened the patio door, and followed Sadie outside. She stood by the pool staring at the half-moon mirrored in the inky water. Jordan shivered in the cool breeze that rippled the reflection. March days in Scottsdale were perfect—warm, in the upper seventies, low eighties. But the evenings cooled down to the low fifties. The desert air was clean, seasoned with the faint scent of mesquite, creosote, and the chlorine in the pool.
She rubbed her bare arms. Eddie moved up behind her, slipped off his jacket and draped it around her shoulders.
He put his arms around her. “You know I wasn’t with her that night.”
“Why would she say it if it wasn’t true?”
“I’m pretty sure she figures if she does this I might take her back.”
Jordan looked up, trying to see his face, but it was cloaked in darkness.
“It’s never going to happen. I told her I’m with you now. While I don’t want anything to do with her, if her story gets me off the hook, I’ll run with it. I can’t revenge Muggs if I’m sitting in a jail cell.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Jordan said. “She’s willing to lie for you? To the cops?
She must want you back real bad.”
Eddie moved his hands to her shoulders and turned her around. “It’s all one-sided. Don’t pretend you don’t know that.” He pulled her close and kissed her hard, long, and smoking hot as Louisiana pepper sauce. It burned all the way to her toes.
Eddie, the man she was born to love. She threw herself into the kiss, and before she really knew what was happening, they’d made their way into the house and were pulling at each other’s clothes.
He took hold of one of her legs behind the knee and lifted it. She wrapped it around him as he reached under the dress and caught the edge of her panties with the curl of a finger.
* * * * *
Sally J. Smith and Jean Steffens Author Info
Sally J. Smith and Jean Steffens, are partners in crime—crime writing, that is. They live in the Valley of the Sun in Arizona, awesome for eight months out of the year, an inferno the other four. They write bloody murder, flirty romance, and wicked humor all in one package.
Welcome to the weekly blog hop featuring paranormal stories. From witches to werewolves, vampires to berserkers, you name it, we have it. This blog hop is open to authors and writers whose work is published or unpublished. We also welcome works-in-progresses/WIP’s! Join us each week and check out all the cool stories!
This week, I’m featuring my novel Legally Undead, currently on sale for $.99. So check out the snippet below, then be sure to HOP back to check out the rest of this week’s entries!
A reluctant vampire hunter, stalking New York City as only a scorned bride can.
Elle Dupree has her life all figured out: first a wedding, then her Ph.D., then swank faculty parties where she’ll serve wine and cheese and introduce people to her husband the lawyer.
But those plans disintegrate when she walks in on a vampire draining the blood from her fiancé Greg. Horrified, she screams and runs–not away from the vampire, but toward it, brandishing a wooden letter opener.
As she slams the improvised stake into the vampire’s heart, a team of black-clad men bursts into the apartment. Turning around to face them, Elle discovers that Greg’s body is gone—and her perfect life falls apart.
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Excerpt
The worst thing about vampires is that they’re dead. That whole wanting to suck your blood business runs a close second, but for sheer creepiness, it’s the dead bit that gets me every time. They’re up and walking around and talking and sucking blood, but they’re dead. And then there’s the whole terminology problem–how can you kill something that’s already dead? It’s just wrong.
I was twenty-four the first time I . . . destroyed? dispatched? . . . a vampire. That’s when I found out that all the books and movies are wrong. When you stick a wooden stake into their hearts, vampires don’t disintegrate into dust. They don’t explode. They don’t spew blood everywhere. They just look surprised, groan, and collapse into a pile of corpse. But at least they lie still then, like corpses are supposed to.
Since that first kill (I might as well use the word–there really isn’t a better one), I’ve discovered that only if you’re lucky do vampires look surprised before they groan and fall down. If you’re unlucky and miss the heart, they look angry. And then they fight.
There are the other usual ways to kill vampires, of course, but these other ways can get a bit complicated. Vampires are notoriously difficult to trick into sunlight. They have an uncanny ability to sense when there’s any sunlight within miles of them, and they’re awfully good at hiding from it. Holy water doesn’t kill them; it just distracts them for a while, and then they get that angry look again. And it takes a pretty big blade to cut off someone’s head–even an already dead someone–and carrying a great big knife around New York City, even the Bronx, is a sure way to get arrested. Nope, pointy sticks are the best way to go, all the way around.
My own pointy stick is actually more of a little knife with wood inlay on the blade–the metal makes it slide in easier. I had the knife specially made by an old Italian guy in just about the only ratty part of Westchester, north of the city. I tried to order one off the internet, but it turns out that while it’s easy to find wood-inlay handles, the blades themselves tend to be metal. Fat lot those people know.
But I wasn’t thinking any of this when I pulled the knife out of the body on the ground. I was thinking something more along the lines of “Oh, bloody hell. Not again.”
Margo Bond Collins is the author of a number of novels, including Sanguinary, Waking Up Dead, Taming the Country Star, Bound by Blood, Legally Undead, and Fairy, Texas. She lives in Texas with her husband, their daughter, and several spoiled pets. She teaches college-level English courses online, though writing fiction is her first love. She enjoys reading urban fantasy and paranormal fiction of any genre and spends most of her free time daydreaming about vampires, ghosts, zombies, werewolves, and other monsters.
Happy Teaser Tuesday! Today is the sixth installment of ten weeks of teasers to get you ready for the release of ASLEEP by Krystal Wade. This spine-chilling YA psychological thriller is the debut novel from Blaze Publishing, set to be released February 16, 2016, and answers the question of what happens when Sleeping Beauty meets Freddy Krueger. If you missed the first teaser, don’t worry! You can still find it and other great content on the Blaze Publishing blog. Pre-orders are available now from Amazon. Mark your calendars, and be sure to add the book to your Goodreads list!
“To cure fear, you must use fear.”
Rose Briar claims no responsibility for the act that led to her imprisonment in an asylum. She wants to escape, until terrifying nightmares make her question her sanity and reach out to her doctor. He’s understanding and caring in ways her parents never have been, but as her walls tumble down and Rose admits fault, a fellow patient warns her to stop the medications. Phillip believes the doctor is evil and they’ll never make it out of the facility alive. Trusting him might be just the thing to save her. Or it might prove the asylum is exactly where she needs to be.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
AUTHOR. CHICKEN (AND DOG) LOVER. MOTHER. WIFE. DREAMER. I’m happily married to the love of my life (don’t gag) and raising three beautiful children in the gorgeous state of Virginia. We live just outside Washington, D.C., and every day I wake up to find myself stuck in traffic trying to get there.
The horrid commute gives me plenty of time to zone out and think about my characters in full, brilliant details (I’m a safe driver; don’t worry). Stories give me a way to forget about the sometimes smelly strangers sitting next to me on the fifty mile trek into town (I pick up hitchhikers every day. True story. Check out http://www.slug-lines.com if you don’t believe me).
I’ve been a part of organized hitchhiking for nearly fifteen years, but that’s just one small aspect of my oh-so-large life. When I’m not working, commuting, or chasing after my three children (four if you count the man), you can usually find me outside talking to my chickens like they’re the cutest things in the world (they are), or training my amazing dogs how to herd said chickens (which they love), or curled up on the sofa with a good book (why can’t that be 100% of the time?).
I hope you love my stories (or just like them a little; that would be okay, too). And I hope that one day you find your passion, because there’s nothing in life better than doing what you love while surrounded by people you love.
ABOUT BLAZE PUBLISHING: Books with Heart for Teen and Young Adults
At Blaze, we’re committed to bringing you high-quality, hard-hitting books full of heart. Whether the story is a mystery, a thriller, horror, steampunk, or some goofy comedy, there will be a message woven into the pages for readers to find and fall in love with. We want you to walk away inspired, in awe, or just happy to be alive. Or maybe you’ll look at other people differently, in a less negative light. Whatever the case, you will find heart in our stories.Our goal is to bring you four or five amazing works of fiction in 2016, and six in 2017 and each year after. We’ve already lined up a few and can’t wait to see what comes across our desks next!Do you have a submission you’d like to send us? We’d love to see it! You can find our submissions guidelines on our website.
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Words, Words, Words 