The lucky commenter who won a free copy of Winter Kissed from author Michele Hauf is….
Stacie Mc, who said “I love cuddling up under a big fluffy blanket with a good book and a mug of cocoa. That’s my favorite part of winter.”
Congratulations Stacie! Please email Michele at toastfaery [at] gmail [dot] com with your snail mail address so she can send you your prize.
Thanks to everyone who entered and shared their favorite things about winter!
Michele Hauf has created an entirely unique shapeshifter hero for her novella “A Kiss of Frost” in the Winter Kissed anthology from Silhouette Nocturne. Read on to discover who this special hero is and how you can win a free copy of Winter Kissed!
by Michele Hauf, author of “A Kiss of Frost”, Winter Kissed
I’m familiar with werewolves and werecougars, werejaguars, smoke-men, selkies, and the like. But a hero who is made of frost and can shift to human flesh? That’s a little different.
The idea to write “A Kiss Of Frost” was sort of a no-brainer for me. I’ve lived in Minnesota all my life. I love snow. Seriously. Frost patterns on the windows? That rocks. Snowbanks sparkling in the sunshine? Sigh… So I had to write Jack Frost as a hero. Or Jal, as I call him. But what’s so alpha macho about a dude who creates frost patterns on your windows? Well, my guy is a god/faery who does have a job: he’s an assassin. Actually, Old Man Winter sends Jal after environmental offenders. One touch from my hero’s frost and bye-bye!
What if he touched a woman’s soft, warm skin? Jal can take on human form and flesh if he chooses, and oh man, does he choose to be in a form that will allow him to communicate with the sexy snowflakeologist, Kate Wilson.
But there are very obvious worries when one is dating a frost god. Firstly, if he gets too warm…could he melt? Well, you’ll just have to give it a read and find out. 🙂
I’ll give away an autographed copy to one commenter who tells about their favorite part of the winter season.
Michele
UPDATE: The last day to enter the contest with your comment is MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, so be sure to share your winter pleasures before then for a chance to win! ~Amy
Shifters and Draicon and Morphs, oh my! Silhouette Nocturne author Bonnie Vanak fills us in on her latest paranormal romance, Enemy Lover, featuring magic spells, warring shapeshifters, a superpowered heroine, and an “uber alpha” werewolf hero.
by Bonnie Vanak, author of Enemy Lover and Broken Souls
My November Nocturne, Enemy Lover, is true shifter book. It shifted so many times while writing it that some days I felt like a werewolf clawing at the keyboard. Or a floating fairy flying the story to a new stratosphere.
You see, I started out creating Jamie, the heroine, as a flying fairy. I wanted her to be pixy-like, a kind of Super Fairy. That didn’t work out. So instead I endowed her with superpowers she doesn’t know she has until halfway through the book. She can teleport, play “floater basketball,” and has the power of telekinesis. In one scene in the French Quarter, she physically hurls Damian, the hero, and a rival werewolf into the air to prevent them from killing each other.
Flying werewolves! It fit, and seemed cooler than flying monkeys.
Enemy Lover pairs an old-fashioned, powerful Alpha Draicon werewolf with a young, hip woman who is his very reluctant destined mate, Damian is a protective, aggressive Alpha who would give his life for his pack and especially for Jamie, his mate. He’s sexy and dynamic, but as overpowering as he is, she is equally strong.
Jamie tried killing Damian with a poison kiss because she believes he murdered her brother. She also happens to be a computer geek who is into World of Warcraft and she’s dying of a spell turning her into stone. Damian is faced with searching through New Orleans to find an ancient book of magick to save her life, figuring out what Jamie means when she calls him an “uber Alpha” and fighting the Morphs, the enemy that want them both dead.
Then he finds out she’s got a whole boatload full of psi powers he’s never before encountered. What’s an Alpha to do, let alone an “uber” Alpha?
When I created the Draicon werewolves for my first Nocturne, The Empath, I decided to have them search for their destined mates, who contained the missing half of their magick. They needed an enemy to fight, so I invented the Morphs, former Draicon who turned evil by killing a relative to gain power. Morphs can shapeshift into any animal or insect form. In Enemy Lover, they shift into a swarm of hornets to attack Jamie and Damian.
But for Enemy Lover, I wanted the Draicon to have a more powerful weapon in the Morph war. Jamie possesses the ability to become that weapon, which is ironic because she regards all Draicon as her enemy, especially Damian. Damian must convince her to trust him, and gently coax her into becoming his lover and his mate. It’s a challenge he never anticipated, especially when he discovers she can turn him into a flying werewolf. Jamie gradually turns to him, enlisting his help in harnessing the magick she’s longed for all her life. Yet the use of her new powers expedites the stone spell, changing Jamie’s internal organs into granite and turning her hair and nails gray. Damian and Jamie must race against time to find the magick book before Jamie is forever turned into stone.
Each of my Nocturne books can be read alone, even though they are connected. I hope you enjoy Damian and Jamie’s story of courage, strength and how two strong-willed individuals learn to set aside the past to forge new beginnings formed from love and understanding. You can read an excerpt of Enemy Lover on my website, http://www.bonnievanak.com. Happy reading!
P.S. An interesting bit of trivia — part of Enemy Lover was written on location in the French Quarter at the Hotel Provincial. The hotel, a former Confederate hospital, was recently named one of the top ten best haunted hotels by AOL Travel. Maids have reported seeing bloodstained sheets appear and vanish. I didn’t see any ghosts, bloodstained sheets, or even flying werewolves while staying there. However, I did have a great view of the Ursuline Convent from the bathroom window. The convent is rumored to be haunted as well. That particular ghost story inspired a funny scene in Enemy Lover.
Use the above widget to add an own excerpt of Enemy Lover to your own site. And Bonnie will return to paranormalromanceblog.com to tell us about her Nocturne Bite, Broken Souls — also featuring the Draicon and Morphs — later this month!
Near-death experiences can be life-altering…but in the Aftershock anthology from Silhouette Nocturne, they also give people special powers. New York Times bestselling author Sharon Sala tells us about “Penance”, her contribution to the collection…
by Sharon Sala, author of “Penance” in Aftershock
Doing an anthology with two of my dearest writer friends was a no-brainer. After all the years we’ve shared with the ups and downs of the business, getting to share a book cover was the best. And, writing for Silhouette Nocturne was another no-brainer for me, because I love the paranormal genre.
The title, AFTERSHOCK, refers to what happens to our characters after experiencing a near-death experience. They are left with a paranormal power they didn’t have before. The fear and confusion that comes with that premise made writing it even more intense.
In my story, my heroine survives a gunshot wound to the head. Beyond the obvious physical problems, the fact that she begins to “see” things happening, like a family in crisis, crimes being committed, etc., is horrifying to her. She wants to deny it, but after a time, comes to accept that what is happening to her isn’t going to go away.
The title for the story came about because, while she had been brought back to life in the hospital, she hadn’t been able to be thankful for still being alive, for focusing on what she’d lost – like memory, her ability to walk without staggering, many things that people with brain injuries often suffer. She comes to accept that her debt to a greater power is that the rest of her life will often revolve around helping others.
It was easy for me to write in this genre because I do believe there are people who gain these kinds of insights after near-death trauma and I have great admiration for people who are able to “see” what the rest of the world can not, although I do not envy them the burdens that come with it.
I have always enjoyed participating in anthologies, but this one will remain a favorite for many reason, not the least of which was sharing a book cover with two people for whom I hold great respect, admiration, and love. I hope you enjoy our stories as much as Debra Cowan, Janis Reams Hudson, and I enjoyed writing them for you.
Sharon Sala
Use the widget below to read a sample of “Penance!”
Ever wonder how authors find their great ideas? Author Vivi Anna answers that very question by revealing the unlikely inspiration behind her series the Valorian Chronicles, continued this month in Veiled Truth (Silhouette Nocturne) and Mahina’s Storm (Nocturne Bites)…
by Vivi Anna, author of Veiled Truth and Mahina’s Storm
As a writer I always get the question, “How do you come up with your ideas?” I get ideas from everything around me. Music, movies, something someone says, something I read in the newspaper, weird dreams. And sometimes, I get them while watching TV.
That’s how the idea for the Valorian Chronicles came to be.
I don’t watch TV often. There are a few shows that are must-see every week for me. Right now, its Battlestar Galactica, Supernatural, America’s Next Top Model (yeah, I don’t know how that happened, but I’m hooked and have watched the past 4 seasons) and the new one True Blood. But once upon a time, I used to be addicted to CSI. The Vegas one. Why, the Vegas one, you may ask? Well, it’s all because of Gil Grissom. I love me some Gil. Intelligent, quick-thinking, quirky, handsome Gil.
So, one night, while I’m watching Gil do something extraordinary in his strange little way, I had an epiphany. I asked myself, what if Gil was a vampire? And after that question popped into my mind, everything came at me in a rush. It was like I was watching it on TV. You know, like if Jerry Bruckheimer ever wanted to make a really cool CSI show with vampires, lycans and witches, and he could, you know, call it CSI: Necropolis, for lack of a better name. (Are you listening Jerry???)
Anyway, I wondered what kind of crimes Gil would solve if he were a vampire. Who would he work with? What would the lab be like? So, the chief investigator Caine Valorian was born from that. And with him came the rest of the team: Jace Jericho, lycan; Lyra Magice, witch; Captain Mahina Garner, lycan; Laal Bask, vampire; Kellen Falcon, vampire; Gwen McKinley, witch. From there, I thought about all the cool people I could pair them up with.
And of course, I had to set this fascinating world somewhere, so I chose to create my own Otherworldly city called Necropolis. It’s a secret city of Otherworlders located south of San Antonio, Texas, down I35. I’ve had emails from readers in the area, telling me they could actually feel like they could drive down I35 and see where Necropolis would be. That’s way cool!
Once I had the world and the characters created, I started on a plot. And the book Blood Secrets was born. This book was Caine’s story. Then came Dark Lies, which was Jace’s story. And now the third book in the series is out October 1, Veiled Truth. This is Lyra’s story. And I’m hoping it’s as thrilling and fun to read as it was to write.
And that’s my story. And I’m sticking to it.
You can check out my world at http://www.valorianchronicles.com
Debra Cowan has written romantic suspense and historical romance — and now she’s taken the plunge into paranormal! Read about her new novella “Seeing Red” in the Aftershock anthology from Silhouette Nocturne and her free online read at eHarlequin.com!
by author Debra Cowan
Hi, everyone! I’m Deb Cowan and I’m excited to be guest blogging on Harlequin’s Paranormal Romance Blog. My October release, “Seeing Red” in the anthology titled Aftershock, marks my debut in paranormal romance. Typically, I write contemporary romantic suspense and historical romance so I was excited to try a different romance sub-genre. I really enjoyed it!
“Seeing Red” was a blast to write. In part, because this project was one I worked on with two longtime friends, Sharon Sala and Janis Reams Hudson. The three stories stand alone with the connecting thread being that all the heroines have recently cheated death. As a result of their experiences, they now possess a paranormal gift and must learn not only how to use it, but accept it.
My heroine, Cass Hollister, is a firefighter who dies on the table after fighting a blaze and is resuscitated. Not only does she survive, but she suffers no ill effects after more than ten minutes without a pulse and with no oxygen to her brain. As mind-blowing as that is, it’s nothing compared to learning she came back to life with an eerie special talent: an ability to see fires before they happen.
Fires that could be the work of the vengeful ex-con brother she sent to prison for arson. Fires she must report to Ben Wyrick, the sexy fire investigator she walked away from eight months ago because she was too afraid to trust her feelings.
Now she has to convince Ben to trust her about something she has a hard time believing herself.
I enjoyed writing the paranormal novella so much that I’m doing another one. 🙂 Pop over to eHarlequin.com if you’d like to check out my weekly online read about Ben’s brother. The Ledoux Curse runs Sept 22 – Nov 16.
Happy Reading,
Deb Cowan
Read an excerpt of “Seeing Red” at Deb’s website: www.debracowan.net
Luna author Laura Anne Gilman enters the word of paranormal romance with not one but TWO new releases this month under the name Anna Leonard! Laura discusses the similarities and differences between her new reads: The Night Serpent from Nocturne Bites and the ebook exclusive short Dreamcatcher from Nocturne Bites…
by Anna Leonard, aka Laura Anne Gilman, author of The Night Serpent and Dreamcatcher
This month my alter-ego “Anna Leonard” gets a grand launch, with THE NIGHT SERPENT and the e-novella DREAMCATCHER both hitting the shelves (virtual and otherwise).
Although I wrote these at different times, their dual debut got me to thinking about how the stories are very different – and what they have in common. Both are paranormal romances, yes, but their heroines are quite distinct in personality and in the risks – physical and emotional – that they face. What the two heroines share is something I didn’t even realize until well after I’d handed the manuscripts in to my editor. They were both written with specific women in mind, women who have shown me the true meaning of courage. Not physical courage, although there’s that, but internal courage.
THE NIGHT SERPENT is in many ways the classic girl-kicks-ass, gets-hot-guy adventure we all love: In order to defeat a power-mad killer, Lily has to use her smarts and her skills to save herself (with a little help from a hot, smart FBI agent, naturally). The only problem is that she helped create the threat by her own foolish actions a lifetime ago. In order to stop him, she has to own that mistake; accept it, learn from it, and then let it go, and move on.
Anyone past the age of twenty has at least one serious regret. By the time you reach your 40’s, the road is littered with them and mostly you shrug and move on. But sometimes you can’t. Writing Lily, I realized that I was channeling two very specific—and very different – women: B., and P., whom I met while researching another project. What they had done in their past was less important than the fact that both of them had, independently, decided that they were not going to pretend it hadn’t happened. They faced their actions, took stock of who they had been and who they wanted to be, and made changes. The kind of strength it takes to face that kind of internal scrutiny, and come out stronger? Facing a killer is easy, by comparison!
And Emma, the heroine of “Dreamcatcher?” The original premise was the legend of the incubus, who gives sexual pleasure…at a high price. Emma isn’t a damsel in distress by nature, so when she’s suddenly thrown into a situation where her physical and mental strength are useless against an enemy who is taking over her dreams and leaving her exhausted and unable to function, she’s left floundering. She has to learn that sometimes the only way to win a battle… is to let the enemy in. It sounds easy – but it’s not.
Here, I knew from the start that I was writing it specifically FOR someone: my friends J. and S. and K., women who battle, daily, with the fact that their bodies aren’t capable of things we take for granted. They have Fibromyalgia, or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or severe Lyme disease – conditions that make daily life a daily challenge, 24/7. Yet, they take weakness, and find inside it an amazing strength.
And there’s the tie between my Nocturne heroines: not just courage but lion(ess)heartedness. The kind of courage that allows you to look and not flinch away from the truth, no matter how ugly or unpleasant or difficult it might be to accept, that gives you the strength to get done what must be done.
And by doing so, in my books, they win (and, in Emma’s case, save) the hot, smart, caring guy, too! That’s the kind of reward courage should always have….
What if there really were faeries in this world? We asked Pamela Palmer, author of The Dark Gate and Dark Deceiver (Silhouette Nocturne), to share her thoughts on finding the heart of a legend…
By Pamela Palmer, author of Dark Deceiver
I’ve heard it said that every legend has, at its heart, a kernel of truth. Now the ‘truth’ may be as simple as, yes, there was once a great Saxon warrior by the name of Arthur. Did he live in Camelot, have a magician as a friend, and sit at a round table? Hard to say since there were no video cameras or even literate witnesses around at the time to record the details. When it comes to oral history, it’s a near certainty that facts are going to get embellished, misinterpreted, or flat out changed to suit the storyteller. As my beloved grandmother used to say, “Why should I tell it the way it happened when I can make it so much more interesting?” (Guess where I got my talent for making up stories?)
The legends of the faeries and elves are a good illustration of how legends morph and change. In most of the original tales, faeries and elves were the size of humans, decidedly wingless, and generally dangerous. Over the generations, that perception’s changed to the point where modern culture portrays them as benevolent tiny winged creatures or pointy-eared dwarfs.
I’m a daydreamer, I’ve always been a day dreamer, but I’m also an intensely logical person. So, several years ago when I stumbled upon a book of ancient faerie beliefs, I got to thinking. What if there was actually a kernel of truth in these old legends? What if, long, long ago, there really were faeries in this world? My logical mind promptly took over and started firing off questions. What happened to them? Why were they here? Why aren’t they here any more? How, over the centuries, have the original facts been twisted and changed as original facts always are? And, best of all, what would I do if suddenly faced with irrefutable fact that the creatures at the heart of the legends had returned? Creatures that were not cute little Tinkerbells, but man-sized, malevolent, and bent on the enslavement of the human race?
And so the Esri were born. In Book 1 of the series, The Dark Gate, the first Esri in fifteen centuries finds his way back into the human realm and wreaks havoc on modern day Washington, D.C. The hero and heroine have to accept the impossible in order to stop him, and come to realize there’s truth in the old legends after all. In Book 2, I flip that realization a bit when one of the Esri, a dangerous, dark-haired, part-human known as the Punisher, infiltrates the human realm to destroy the only humans who can stop the Esri invasion, only to realize humans are a far cry from the mindless creatures his own legends have portrayed. One human, in fact, steals his heart and changes his understanding of everything he’s known, including himself.
So, here’s my question to you. What legend or story or fairy tale would you most love (or hate) to discover was real? What idea excites you or terrifies you the most? Anything from vampires to Atlantis to Star Trek’s Federation of Planets. Happy imagining!
~Pamela
For much more on Pamela’s Esri series, including excerpts, character bios, and laws of the world, visit www.pamelapalmer.net.
We asked Lori Devoti, author of Wild Hunt, the third in the Unbound series from Silhouette Nocturne, about what readers can expect from book three, and what inspires her as a paranormal romance writer…
By Lori Devoti, author of Wild Hunt (Silhouette Nocturne)
What can readers expect from this novel? Romeo and Juliet. It’s that simple and far more complicated.
Wild Hunt is the story of two individuals (Venge and Geysa) who are fated to be enemies because of what they are—hellhound and Valkyrie. Beyond their historic differences are their opposite goals. Geysa wants to stop the Wild Hunt because it killed her mother. Venge wants to control the Hunt so he can kill his father. Two more opposite goals and motivations couldn’t exist, but at their core Venge and Geysa are very similar. Neither feels they “fit” with their own kind. Neither loves or really accepts who they are, and both need someone who does accept them, who can appreciate them for themselves—see them, not as a Valkyrie or as a hellhound.
So, Wild Hunt is the story of Romeo and Juliet and self-acceptance. Maybe all of my books are about self-acceptance…I’d have to think about that!
Wild Hunt is also the continuing story of the Unbound world. Characters from books one and two reappear, and we learn a bit of what has happened in their lives. We learn more about hellhounds in general, how they live and get along (or not) as a group. We also meet two strong all-female beings, Valkyries and Norn, and get a bit of a glimpse into their world. And perhaps my favorite part of the book, we get to see the Wild Hunt in action and witness the Valkyries in all their original glory gather forces to stop it.
Wild Hunt is probably my favorite of the three books so far in this series. And I think that boils down to characters. They care intensely about protecting the things they love (or come to discover they love). It made me love them in return. I hope it does the same to you.
I have been reading fantasy novels my entire adulthood. However, I think my influences for the Unbound series started way before that–stuck in the backseat of a Ford Galaxie on a sticky hot Southern Missouri night while my parents watched Charles Bronson, John Wayne, and Clint Eastwood on the big drive-in screen. I can even think of a few episodes of Gunsmoke (on a much smaller screen) that stuck with me.
This may seem like a strange reply since I do not write Westerns (although Wild Hunt is set in an old west ghost town), but to me the Unbound world isn’t really about the “Nine Worlds,” and hellhounds and dark elves—it’s about the characters and the bigger than life sacrifices they are willing to make to do what they see as right. It’s about emotional intensity. It’s about caring for someone or something besides yourself. That to me is the Unbound world—and it wouldn’t exist if I hadn’t grown up knowing that sometimes you have to willing to challenge someone to “make your day” because some things are just that important.
~Lori
Our guest blogger Laura Anne Gilman explains how writing contemporary urban fantasy for Luna and paranormal romance for Silhouette Nocturne led her to understand that the two are not so very different after all…
By Laura Anne Gilman, author of Free Fall
This month, the fifth book of the Retrievers series, Free Fall, hit the stores.
When Luna first acquired the Retrievers series, I was very surprised, since I had envisioned the world of the Cosa Nostradamus, the magic-using community, as a contemporary fantasy, not a romantic one. Yes, the hero and the heroine had a relationship that would grow and develop, but did that make it romance? Did that make me a romance writer? After all, my previous novels were dark fantasy/horror, and despite my many jokes that dating = horror, there usually isn’t all that much crossover.
And then, when my proposals for Silhouette Nocturne were accepted (the first, THE NIGHT SERPENT, will be out under the name Anna Leonard this year) I had to address the question again. Was I a romance writer? Or were the collected masses going to discover that I was, in fact, a fantasy writer under semi-false pretenses, and toss me out on my ear?
The truth is probably somewhere between, as truth often is.
No, I am not a romance writer, in the classic sense of the term. I do, however, write about people who are in love, in all the stages of that love – beginning, ending, and all the bits in-between. Why? Not because I like a happy-ever-after ending (fans will know that my endings are bittersweet, as a rule). No, I write about love because I believe that’s the crucible where humans – and non-humans – show their true selves. The selves they want, the selves they are, and the selves they can become. And sometimes, those selves don’t get a traditional Happily-ever-after, no matter how much they might deserve one.
In Free Fall, Wren and Sergei have been through hell – self-doubts and doubts about each other, external violence and loss, and the immense burden of trying to do the right thing, no matter how badly it hurts. They’re not doing it because they’re heroes, or because they have a Destiny. They’re doing it to make a life they can share, in a world, however flawed, that can accept and support them and their friends. Love isn’t all you need, in the worlds I write. It’s not the answer, it’s not the cure. Love – romantic and fraternal, the love between partners and between friends, and even, yes, between species, since the Cosa Nostradamus is not just humans – is the reason, the purpose, and the weapon they carry, even if none of them would ever willingly admit it.
There’s no happily-ever-after guaranteed in the Cosa Nostradamus. But there is a reason to strive, to get up every morning – or night – and do it again. And that, to me, is the perfect ending.
~Laura Anne
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