Guest Blog - Alexa Sinclaire takes us into the woods

We all love a walk in the woods, right? The fresh forest air, the beautiful birdsong, the hot sexy men...Yeah. It's all there. And Alexa Sinclaire knows it! This is a bit of a Flashback Friday, to the first in Alexa's Lust In The Woods series. Enjoy!

Title: The Woodsman

Series Title: Lust in the Woods #1

Author: Alexa Sinclaire

Publisher: Evernight Publishing

Release Date: September 16^th, 2016

Genre: M/F Erotic Romance

SAM
That long blonde hair, sexy hippy-style and a laugh that makes me want to fall to my knees and worship her body– Katy Williams is slowly driving me crazy. I moved out to the woods to get away from everything, including women with ulterior motives. But now she’s living next door to me, inviting me for dinner and giving me blueberry muffins. And she’s all I can think about. But can I trust that behind that smile there isn’t a woman just waiting to get her claws into me? After all, I’ve been fooled once….

KATY
I’m done with men. Well, at least done with men who happily take my money and my heart and suck me dry. Sam Hess, with his man-bun and wild woodsman look, is a whole other matter. I can’t stay away from him, no matter how much I try and when he needs me, there’s no way I won’t stand by his side. But what happens when he doesn’t need me anymore? I don’t think I can survive having my heart broken again. And they always stop needing you, don’t they?

Purchase Links

EvernightPublishing

Bookstrand

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.ca

 

Read on for an excerpt!

Socially Awkward Werewolves In Love

I am thrilled (and somewhat relieved) to announce that IN COLD BLOOD has been accepted for publication by Evernight. Huzzahs!

I say relieved, because regular readers will know I really had my doubts about this story, about how well it worked, about whether it was worth the time I was spending on it, and a ton of other things. My protagonists, Phoebe and Aisling, are a bundle of messes, with anxiety and anti-social behaviour driving them both, and I wasn't sure whether anyone would want to read about these ladies.

But I'm glad I pushed on and finished it, and I'm forever grateful to Ally at Word Vagabond for taking time out of her absolutely crazy schedule to beta-read for me and give me the feedback that finally gave me the courage to submit. I'm also grateful to the acquiring editor at Evernight for her feedback, which helped me re-shape the ending of IN COLD BLOOD and finally get Phoebe and Aisling's story told.

So huzzahs! My Socially Awkward Werewolves in Love are coming! We have a projected release date of February 2017, but as usual, I'll share more details once I have them. In the meantime, here's the unedited blurb to whet your appetites:

Phoebe Fairley wanted to be a librarian. Somehow, she’s become a vampire hunter. Women are dying across the country and the police are baffled. Phoebe’s just supposed to be gathering information on the deaths, but as the body count mounts, she can’t help but break the rules and get involved. She knows what the killer is – and catching and containing it is vital. If she can persuade the police to believe her, and keep her secretive bosses happy, she stands a chance of capturing a very real, very deadly vampire. Not bad for a werewolf who can’t shapeshift.

Aisling is happy living as a feral wolf. She’s got no time for human affairs, until a mysterious creature attacks her and leaves her in human hands. Now, if she wants her life back, she’ll have to join Phoebe’s hunt. There are just a couple of snags. One, she hates humans. And two, she’s falling hard for Phoebe. With a monster to catch and her own past to protect, will Aisling trust her head or her heart?

 

The Luporum novels are set in the same world as the Urban Wolf series, but centre on a different set of characters. You do not need to have read the Urban Wolf books to follow The Luporum, but it certainly can't hurt!

Guest Blog - ED Parr's granting wishes...

Happy Christmas Eve-Eve! I'm done with work for the year and ready to kick back and relax for a week of writing and reading. And what better way to start the holiday than with a holiday read? Please welcome ED Parr to the blog to share some Christmas romance...

Make a Wish, E.D.Parr Erotic, romantic, a Christmas MMromance to make you tingle

It’s the day before Christmas Eve and gorgeous, happy, Nick Kringle is making deliveries on the main street of the city when a car breaks down at the intersection.

Amid the seasonal crowds and inclement weather, Dylan West gets out of his car and tries to push it to the side of the road.

Nick rushes to help him and comes face to face with the most delicious man he’s ever seen.

Dylan’s down on his luck, but Nick believes in magic.

Can wishes come true? You bet—especially if Nick Kringle has anything to do with it.

Who is Nick Kringle?

With a name like that you might think he’s the jolly old elf in red, but Nick is a gorgeous guy who just happens to have a touch of the supernatural about him. He drives a red SUV, he delivers goods, and sometimes they’re straight from somewhere special—a place of magic and kindness.

Nick is gorgeous, kind, generous, loving just the kind of man that down on his luck Dylan West needs to run into. Could it be fate that makes his car break down unexpectedly almost next to Nick on the busy main street full of hectic Christmas shoppers and travelers? Maybe…

Read on for an excerpt:

Wednesday Snippet - The steps kept coming, echoing out in the hall

It feels like ages since I last posted a snippet, but I think it's actually just that it's ages since I last wrote. Real Life has been exhausting and I've really just been lazy with my evenings and weekends since we got back from holiday. That said, I have a lot of stuff I want to write next year and a very firm deadline in mind for finishing both Lich Queen and Through Fire, so there's no time for laziness!

And with that in mind, let's catch up with Dawn...

"Though each path is different, there is only one way."

Moroccan Proverb

So we arrived back from Marrakech last Monday and were immediately thrown head-first into crazy work schedules, broken boiler sagas, and the terrible realisation that it's almost Christmas and we hadn't done any present shopping yet. I also had THROWN TO THE WOLVES released, and running around (online, not physically) organising promo for that took up a big chunk of time. All of which meant, I haven't had time to talk about Marrakech yet.

And I really want to talk about it! We had an amazing time! We rode camels at sunset! I feed many, many cats. We saw beautiful palaces and ate street food on the Night Market, and Kyle was harassed non-stop because of his beard, but in a nice way. It was simply an incredible experience. I feel so lucky to have been on two such different holidays this year. Iceland was an unforgettable place to visit for it's raw, rugged landscape, and Morocco was unforgettable for it's opulent beauty. I took a zillion photos, but I'll spare you the whole zillion. I've tried to pick a few of my favourites instead, just to show you the variety we found in Marrakech and beyond.

The view from our riad - the Atlas Mountains

Mountain creek running through Imlil, where we stayed

Inside the Bahia Palace

Courtyard garden inside the Bahia Palace

Grafittied bamboo at the Majorelle Gardens

Aisha, my valiant desert steed

Some of the many, many street cats we found

Lamps on the Night Market

Inside Medersa Ben Youssef, a theological school

Another example of the stunning architecture in Medersa Ben Youssef

One of the many, many pots of mint tea we consumed

Inside the Museum of Marrakech

Sunset from camel-back

Saadian Tombs

Gardens of the Saadian Tombs

On the souks

Twilight on the souks

Sunset over the Night Market

Delicious lemon-chicken tagine. Not pictured: the cat I shared it with

I'm really just scratching the surface here of the beautiful places we visited. I'm working on uploading all my photos to Pinterest if you're interested in seeing more, but in between boilers/work/Christmas it might take a while!

And of course, there's writing to get back to. I haven't touched any of my WIPs since before we went away - there just hasn't been time yet. But this is my last week at work for the year, and I'm looking forward to a week off over Christmas to catch up and make some solid progress on Through Fire and Lich Queen (formerly known as Pale Queen). It's good to go away. It's also good to come home and share the memories. Hope you've enjoyed seeing some of them!

Guest Blog - The Power of Peppermint by L.D. Blakeley #MMRomance #HolidayRead

Time to get in the holiday spirit! I know Pumpkin Spice Everything is usually the refrain, but for me, Peppermint Everything is way more tempting. So it's only fitting that I welcome LD Blakeley here today with THE POWER OF PEPPERMINT. Believe!

Thank you for having me on today to tell you about The Power of Peppermint! This happy little holiday novella is a true labour of love for me. It's my first self-published title as well as my first Christmas release. So I hope you enjoy!

The Power of Peppermint by L.D. Blakeley
Available: December 14, 2016
Erotic Romance, MM, Romantic Comedy, Holiday Romance
Publisher: LDB Books
ASIN: B01MRX7F8F

The most wonderful time of the year?

When Jamison Pritchett is roped into replacing the mall photographer at Santa’s Village a week before Christmas, he’s certain he’ll be spending the holidays recovering from a nervous breakdown. A throng of sugar-frenzied kids might be enough to send this uptight photographer back into the darkroom permanently. Inappropriate thoughts about his far-too-attractive—and far-too-young—assistant aren’t helping fight that urge to hide, either.

For Noah Hawkins, adulting is a snap. Too bad relationships aren’t. With his business temporarily closed for repairs, he’s happy to help his sister out of a jam, even if the costume he’s given to wear borders on obscene. Constantly being mistaken for a teenager is no treat either, especially when he discovers his temporary new co-worker is sexy as hell and 15 years his senior.

Can Noah convince Jamison that age is just a number? Or will Jamison resist the gift Santa seems to be handing him on a platter?

WHERE TO BUY:
✽ Amazon
✽ ARe
✽ Smashwords

Read on for an excerpt!

THROWN TO THE WOLVES is in the wild!

Hello, friends! I'm safely back from beautiful Morocco, and just in time for THROWN TO THE WOLVES to be released. We had an amazing holiday, and I have probably several blogs' worth of stuff to talk about and photos to share, but today it's werewolf girl day.

Tomorrow (4pm EST/9pm GMT), I'll be hosting a slot at Evernight's Heat Up Your Holidays party, and I'll be talking a lot about Paige and Kata, so please come and join me if you can! I'm also more than likely to be giving away a few ebooks, if you like that sort of thing...

Before that, you can buy THROWN TO THE WOLVES at all the usual places - Amazon US, Amazon UK, Evernight, and All Romance Ebooks, for starters.

And if you want a glimpse of the story, you can read on for an excerpt!

Paige went to Romania looking for inspiration for a book. She found herself caught in a horror story. Attacked and left for dead by a vampire, Paige finds herself at the mercy of Kata, a beautiful, enigmatic werewolf. Their attraction is instant, but Paige's fate hangs in the balance. She may yet be turned into a vampire herself. Soon it's clear to Paige that the only way to save herself may be to return to the woman who attacked her...even if it means placing both herself and Kata in the greatest danger.

Clickety click!

Guest Interview - Azelea Moone

If you've got the right mindset, every day is Halloween, right? Right! So I'm pleased to say hello to Azelea Moone today, who's here to talk about her Halloween romance, A HELL-HOUND'S TALE. Let's get to it!

Tell us a little bit about your newest release.

My newest release "A Hell-hound's Tale" is actually a re-released short story once offered in an anthology. It follows a couple of devil dogs on their journey during Halloween night.

Devil dog Ryu has always been interested in humans. Now that he has this chance to be off his leash for the night, he'd rather play than work on his job: collecting souls to take back to Hell. On his way, he meets Grant, a sexy gay man who's got a bit of a secret. Ryu's intrigued by the man and can't help but want to get closer to him.

Oh, but you'll have to read the book to learn the secret.

Is there any part of this story you absolutely love, and why?

I really love how playful the story is. By the synopsis, or my description above, you might think it's scary but not at all! It's really just a good time, with a little bit of aww at the end.

Ryu was a very fun character to write. I did some research into hellhounds, and decided to make him a little more exciting and frisky than hellhounds are meant to be. I think it came out very well.

I love hellhound mythology - so much to explore! Do you have a favourite genre to write in?

I've dabbled in several different genres through my career, but my favorite has to be M/M fantasy romance. In the past few years, I've devoured (read) tons of fantasy books with gay romance elements and I'm always looking for more.

If you could have dinner with any three writers, living or dead, who would they be?

Hmm, this might be a difficult one.

I think if I could have dinner with any three writers, I would choose L.A. Witt, cause you know, she's absolutely wonderful! Then, I would choose Anne Rice, because I have always admired her for the work she's done. And for the third writer, I would choose... Ha! I think would choose any writer cool with just sitting and chatting with me.

If you could recommend any book (beside your own) to everyone reading this, what would it be?

You know, I recently read a very interesting autobiography by Tatamkhulu Afrika called "Bitter Eden". It's a telling of a man who gets captured in WWII and spends a few years in POW camps in Italy and Germany. During that time, he deals with the emotions of being close to a couple other men, and eventually develops a close relationship with one of the men.

It's a lovely tale, if not a difficult one to read, and is definitely not a romance. If books like these are interesting to anyone, I'd say have a look!

Awesome. I love a good historical autobiography. Apart from writing, what are your great passions in life?

I've always been a computer nerd. After high school, I graduated with a degree in PC Support and Repair and from there, I continue to take an interest in other types of computer stuff: software, hardware, website programming, etc.

Recently though, I was introduced to the world of sewing. Oh my God! It is so fun to play around with fabric and make things. I've made pajamas for my kids so far, a few things for myself, and a little catnip pillow for my kitty. It's such a good time.

What else are you working on right now? What's up next from you?

Coming up next is the 3^rd book in the Operation Wasteland series, "Redemption". It's the ending installment and a culmination of Randy, Leyton, and Preston's story as they make the final attempt to fight the military. And hope to escape back to their home in the wasteland.

Look for it sometime in October, available by Evernight Publishing!

Thanks, Azelea! You can find all Azalea's Evernight titles here. 

You can sign up for her mailing list here.

And you can find her Facebook page here. Go show her and her hellhounds some love!

Wednesday Snippet - He could bleed forever

All things being well (and there's no reason they shouldn't be), I am post this from the mountains of Morocco! That being the case, I'm going to get straight on with the snippet-sharing so I can get back to riding camels or eating tagine or whatever the hell I'm doing (I scheduled this to post before I left, you see, so I have no idea what I'm actually doing right now, because technically I'm in the past).

Anyway! Here's a teaser from Through Fire. Enjoy.

Thank you, lovely reader folks!

Well, the Evernight Readers' Choice awards are over, the votes are in, and if you saw my Facebook page or Twitter feed on Saturday, you already know, but I'm saying it again anyway!

I won!

Or rather, NIGHT AND CHAOS won Best Suspense! And DARK DAYS was the runner-up in Best Lesbian Romance <3 Thank you so much for voting for me. I like to pretend I'm all cool and laid back about these things, but it really means a hell of a lot to know people liked my books enough to vote for them. This is my third Readers' Choice award, and it's for a book that, at the start of this year, was tied up with an awful publisher. I wasn't supposed to get the rights back until some time in 2017, but through a convoluted series of events, I got them back early.

I feel like this book got rescued from purgatory this year, and winning an award for it is validation that it deserved better. So thank you, thank you, thank you! Look out for the rest of the trilogy (hopefully next year!).

And if you have't read the *ahem* ~award-winning~ first part of the Deva Chronicles trilogy, well, here's a teaser for you so you can see what it's all about!

Guest Blog - It's Irrefutably Ravenna Tate

Looking for some dark romance? Ravenna Tate always has you covered! I'm delighted to welcome her today with a very hot excerpt from her Tortured Love series - come and meet Carolyn and Jagger!

IRREFUTABLE Tortured Love 2

***Click HERE to purchase directly from

Evernight Publishing***

Ex-con Carolyn Lucchesi receives a shock nastier than another prison sentence when she discovers she inadvertently lied to the police. Uncle Tony had sworn to her the man in the photo taken from the video footage of a robbery at an art museum was none other than infamous ex-con and jewel thief Jagger Tyrell. But when Jagger confronts her in the park, he tells a different story. One that, if true, means her uncle lied to her and set her up for a parole violation. Jagger has spent nine years avoiding his former associates, and anything to do with prison or the police. When Carolyn’s lie thrusts him back into the spotlight, he uses everything at his disposal, including Carolyn’s body, to find out who is trying to frame him for a crime he did not commit, and why. But falling in love with Carolyn is not in the plans…

Read on for an excerpt!

“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.”

Robert Louis Stevenson

So another Friday is upon us! November, and thus Anti-Nano, is over and December is here, bringing me a broken boiler (bad) and a holiday to Morocco (good). Hopefully the boiler will be fixed before we go away next week. Otherwise, barring the odd crucial piece of office work that I actually can't do without either driving myself mad or killing someone else, we're all set to go. If I survive, next Wednesday, we'll be off enjoying these gorgeous views:

And hopefully I won't be attacked by a monkey! I can't wait. I know it's not been that long since I was on holiday in Iceland, but I think I've definitely earned this one (today I've certainly already earned a holiday and I've only been at work about an hour). And of course, it'll be Kyle's birthday while we're away and this just seems like a spectacular place to celebrate.

In the meantime, I've completed the first and second round edits for THROWN TO THE WOLVES and am hoping to hear about a release date and cover art soon (hopefully before we go away!). Pale Queen and Through Fire are coming along nicely, and I've scheduled a snippet from Through Fire for next week. I'm also debating changing the title, but that's by the by.

So now it's just a question of not killing anyone (metaphorically) and hanging in there until next week. The weekend promises to be a whirlwind of house work and teaching my younger brother how to look after Ket, and Monday and Tuesday will be mad, but then...but then...Escape!