Wednesday 31 October 2012

ten questions...ten answers tagged by Haven, answered by Raven


It's the ten question challenge on the latest creation

10 Questions:

What is the working title of your book? 
A Shimmer of Silk

Where did the idea come from for the book?  
My murky mind

What genre does your book fall under? 
Erotic romance, with a touch of BDSM in there.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie? 
Argh, I hate this, I don't really watch movies Um er um... you decide. She's tall and has got long curly blue-black hair and dark blue eyes. He had short dark hair and grey eyes and is er fit!

What is a one sentence synopsis of your book? 
Deborah may not know the full truth of her childhood, but she knows she needs to find her soul.

WIll your book be self published or represented by an agency? 
It has a home with Evernight Publishing

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
About a week 

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre.

Silver Silk Ties, book one in the same series. (also with Evernight Publishing and out on 8th November)  I wouldn't presume to compare it with any of the great stories out there.


Who or What inspired you to write this book?
The characters hit me and bombarded my mind until I gave in.
 
What else about your book might interest the reader. 
It's part of a Regency Series set in a House on Silk Street In London, Where people who want more than what is considered to be the norm in those times, can go to achieve their aim (or should that be satisfaction?).

I'm tagging 

Doris O'Connor,
 Cherie Nichols, 
Michaela Rhua, 
and 
Jorja Lovett

to do this next. Watch out for them


Happy Reading

R x

Tuesday 30 October 2012

AND THE WINNER IS...

Just in time for Halloween...




Sharon Bidwell.

Congratulations Sharon. Please let me know which format you'd like and an email address, and I'll get it to you as soon as possible.

A big thanks to all of you who read and commented

 Happy reading,

Raven

Friday 26 October 2012

Howloween... and a streetfull of...?




We'd talk about it for weeks. Who'd wear what and how to make it. None of this buying a costume lark. There would be a lot of begging and borrowing going on. Mums' sewing boxes and button tins raided.

Anyone who's dad wasn't on nightshift wheeled until their mum gave in and let us sort stuff out in their living room. During the summer most of the kids in our end of the street (it was 'L' shaped) would put on plays in the street. Mums and dads. grannies, granpas, aunties, and uncles would sit on the grass verge, bringing kitchen chairs out to park their bums on.Luckily there wasn't a lot of traffic, and we always waited until the postie has passed by on his bike.

However, at this time of the year was too cold for all that. So it was someone's house. There was no central heating, and the coal fire wouldn't be lit until the evening, so often you'd keep your coat on whilst you made witches hats and ghost masks.

By the time the big night came around, most of the adults were heartily sick with us kids practicing our 'guising piece; but they understood. it was our night, just like hogmanay was theirs.

There was none of this trick or treating. Guising was a serious business. We had to sing—or act—for our supper, or in this case, guising treat.

"The sky is blue, the grass is green, please may we have our halloween"

Each child would chap (knock) at the door, and when it was opened, say those magic words.

Inevitably the reply would be, "Not until you've you've shown us your guising piece." then whoever had been chosen to chap that door would launch into a poem or a chart hit. some clever children would tap dance or play the recorder. Anything we got went into the communal pot to be shared out later. Any apples would be set aside for the 'dookin fa apples' that happened later.

Although this was in England, most of the inhabitants of the town were Scottish, who moved down to England in the depression to work in the new steel works. so a lot of Scottish traits about.

We were only allowed out if we went en masse with the big kids keeping an eye on the wee ones. They knew that Mrs McSweet at number three didn't live up to her name, and we gave her a wide berth. Mr Stearn at number ten wasn't at all stern, and always handed out pennies and sweets. The dog at number thirty two was to be avoided at all costs.

After the allotted time, it was back to someones house for the party. The dookin for apples, the sticky string, the green or orange pop, and if we were lucky wee iced cakes with blood colored icing!

Someone got the prize for best costume. It was usually a bag of sweeties which we shared. Then the best bit of the night.

The lights were turned off, and by the flickering flames of the fire, we were told spooky stories. Ghosts, ghouls and things that go bump in the night.

Going out into the frosty, moonlit night, tires and slightly sick from sweets and cakes, there was more than one child who held tight to their mum's hand on the way home. And got her to check under the bed and in the wardrobe for 'visitors'.

Now I read my halloween books in a different way, with anticipation of a good hot read. Like  The Eclipse Of The Blood Moon. So I'm giving an ecopy away to one commenter on here...

Here's the blurb to whet your appetite.


When the blood moon coincides with Halloween, the forces of darkness unite to wreak their evil spells. Will this All Hallows Eve bring joy or sorrow? Curses abound and destiny calls, as a vampire watches over his human. Devils atone to the moon, and shifters hunt their mate on land protected by a powerful white witch. An angel takes human shape to protect the gypsy girl he loves, and a black widow hunts her prey in human form.
In these five chilling and sexy tales, is love enough to break the cycle? Or is all lost under the orange glow of the menacing sphere in the sky?




find us all here...


http://thebloghopspot.com/event-page/

Thursday 25 October 2012

Seriously Smudge, you are a cat... and other rants

I started today in such a good mood. I finished the current (as it was) WIP, and sent it off to the lovely (sometimes lol) Doris to do her red-iting on, and had a long bath. With I might add a heat retaining mug full of coffee and a good book.

A great start, such a pity it didn't stay that way.

I was going to post these on Facebook, but decided people (if anyone follows me) didn't want all my rants cluttering up their news feed/inbox.

Therefore in no particular order.

Raven's Rants of the day—maybe I'd better add so far...

***



Smudge, I love you but, you are a cat. I accept you and your sister hog the comfy chair, make me stand at the desk top, want let in and out ten times an hour or grab my seat if I get up. That you think the lap top is the evil infiltrator and needs killing/peeing on/coffee knocked all over it, and it has no business on my lap which is really yours. That therefore you are allowed to drool over the keyboard and snarl if I try to move you. That is what a cat does.

But really, truly, I have to draw the line somewhere. I do not share my chocolate...ever!  Okay?

***

No I do not want to answer your survey, and why have you rung me yet again for the third time today (and five times within two hours yesterday), I've said no very politely...so far.

***

I do not want to buy your magazine from you on my doorstep. (Or anywhere else) I do think you are very brave though, there are a lot of large dogs in the neighborhood

***

Big Airway Company, please sort it out so one hand knows what the other is doing...I mean why after I've been ringing one line for 3 months on a regular basis are you now telling me I can't? Among other things. Kind regards, confused passenger. ps while you're at it can you simplify the way a customer navigates your site? The labyrinth would be easier, and probably a lot less scary, even with the Minotaur in residence.

***

As a follow on to the above, but if the cap fits etc

Okay I may have left school when a computer was the size of a small house, and used punch cards. I may have dogged off (for you with dirty minds, in my day this was bunking off, skipping lessons) computer programming class, and not be totally au fait with all things techno...but  and it is a big but...I am not a moron, please do not treat me as such. You write a 50k+ erotic novel and get it published, and even then, you have no right to talk to me in that tone of voice. You are customer service... get it—service—to assist, benefit, be useful. It's not difficult; try it in front of a mirror. (Dear helpful lady who guided me patiently through the pitfalls of your customer web, this is no way directed at you. Without you this blog would have spontaneously combusted by now.)
Speak as you would like to be spoken to, and if that's the way you prefer... heaven help us all. Thank you

***

Whoever invented the rule that comma splices are not okay for most of us but some people get away with them... I'm sending the cat to kill/pee on/knock coffee all over your lap tops. They are my friends, they will be devastated if I can't play with them.

***

Dear Dust Bunnies, why do you keep having babies?

***

Now look here Hurricane Sandy, your brother played havoc with DH trying to get home last time he went out your way for work. Please don't think because he did you have to. I'd rather like to see him soon. (DH not your brother—or you.) Otherwise it will be the scenario, of 'a strange man got into bed with me, and I thought ooohhhh, and realized it was DH, forgotten what he looks like!

***

Argh and it's only lunch time

Have a good day.

Love Rx

Cats, do not eat the cho...damn too late!






Tuesday 23 October 2012

Who's that a knocking at my door? The talented REBECCA BROCHU has come a calling...

to tell us about ....

Wolf At The Door






Wolf at the Door
Blurb:

Darin Brightmore is a nurse who runs to escape the stress of his job.  He’s unprepared when a routine trip down a local hiking trail lands him in the arms of a sexy stranger.  Darin is instantly drawn to the charming Raylan and is disappointed when their encounter is cut short.  Shortly after the encounter his life takes a turn for the strange.

Raylan Loup is a werewolf who is beyond pleasantly surprised when he stumbles across the enticing Darin one late afternoon.  Determined to claim the quirky nurse as his own Raylan sets out to win Darin over.  Unfortunately the appearance of a Huntsman dead set on putting Raylan down turns what should have been a routine courtship into a battleground.

Can Darin accept all of the danger that comes with being Raylan’s mate or will he wish he never let the wolf at the door into his heart? 



Teaser Excerpt:
Raylan presses their joined hands to Darin’s stomach, and his other arm comes up to wrap around his chest so that his hand is hooked around the curve of Darin’s opposite shoulder.  They fit together like puzzle pieces, and Darin isn’t ashamed of the way his stomach clenches and his cock goes hard and long in his loose fitting pants.  Not when he can feel every inch of Raylan against him and he knows that the werewolf is just as affected.  Raylan dips his head and nudges Darin’s to the side so that he can run his nose along the length of his throat.
“You have no idea what it did to me to have you ask for something.  What it did to the wolf to have you participate, even unknowingly, in the gifting.  It took all the control I had left not to come for you then.  Not to push my way into your life and take and take until there was no part of you I hadn’t touched, no part I hadn’t tasted.  No part of you that wasn’t completely mixed with a part of me.”  Raylan’s teeth close over the tender flesh of Darin’s neck, and he whimpers, hips bucking up and fingers tightening around Raylan’s hand.
  Raylan doesn’t stop. He just tightens his hold on Darin’s shoulder, squeezes his hand in return, and grinds the long arch of his cock against Darin’s ass.  When he finally pulls away, Darin is breathless and knows that he’s going to have one hell of a mark.  It makes something inside of him sit up and whine, makes him want to beg Raylan to do it over and over again, to mark him from head to toe.
“It got worse when I had to leave, when the Huntsman was so hard on my trail I had to disappear for a while to try to make it seem like I’d moved on.  I was two states away and the wolf would take over, would drag me almost halfway here before I could take control back enough to turn around.”  Raylan whispers the words into Darin’s ear.
“I-I don’t understand.  Why would the wolf drag you back here when there’s danger?”  Darin does his best to keep his voice even, but he knows he’s failing, can feel the tremors that are wracking his body and the way his heart’s beating fast enough to burst.
“Because it wants you, too, just as bad as I do, and it didn’t like being away from you, being unable to protect you.  And then last night when you helped me, when you treated the wound, put me in your bed and then slipped in beside me like a true mate would, I couldn’t help but move things forward to the next step.”
Darin remembers the hot press and glide of bodies and hands, the thick heat of Raylan pressed against him and the tight ring of his fingers as he wrung Darin’s orgasm out of him.  He has a fairly good idea of what the third step is.  He can vaguely remember Raylan rubbing his back, the warm dampness of his hand and the way his skin had been sticky and itchy this morning.  His dawning awareness must show somehow because Raylan’s laughing again, a dark husky chuckle that sends puffs of warm air across the mark on Darin’s neck.
“Hmm, I enjoyed it, too, enjoyed rubbing my scent onto you and yours onto me, enjoyed the thought of you lying there asleep, so trusting and smelling of our sex.  It’s a sign that you’re mine, that you belong to me and that I’m going to mate you.  If another wolf got anywhere near you they’d know right away that you were taken.  It’s still a struggle not to bend you over this counter and take you, to hold back and not fuck you right here in this kitchen until you can’t move, can’t think, without feeling me inside of you.  The scenting helps, even though the fact that it’s faded a bit because of your shower is slowly driving me crazy.  I want to be so deep inside your skin that you’ll never wash me off.”
Raylan untangles their fingers, and his now free hand skims its way beneath Darin’s too large shirt, and he hooks a thumb in the waistband of his pants.  His fingers caress the arch of Darin’s cock, finding the little wet spot on the fabric that’s proof of just how affected Darin is and worrying it with a nail.
“As a matter of fact, I think I’ll fix that problem right now.”

Available from www.evernightpublishing.com

Sunday 21 October 2012

Six Sunday...let's Atone for the Moon

The Eclipse of the Blood Moon, is a five author anthology, which I'm privileged to be part of.  We're five friends, part of The Nuthouse Scribblers, and all the stories in the book are set around Halloween...and a Blood Moon.

My Story Atone For The Moon, is all about a devil, Nick, and his lady...






The shadows flickered to accept his apology, and Nick breathed a sigh of relief. He was wound up as tight as the proverbial spring, his pulse racing and his body taut with the effort of remaining calm.
Lucy's warmth heated his body, and he couldn't help sliding his free hand under her skirt to fondle her arse, moving his fingers gently over the bite he had given her with so much pleasure. That little taste of blood had been enough for his cock to seep and beg entrance. It had been a lesson in self-control to stop and do as the council demanded. Nick was not a natural submissive; he had learned his lesson in that the hard way.

The Eclipse of the Blood Moon, 
is available from 

www.evernightpublishing.com
www.allromanceebooks.com
www.amazon.com
www.amazon.co.ik
 and
www.bookstrand.com

all the six sentences this sunday, can be found at

www.sixsunday.com

happy reading,
R x


Friday 19 October 2012

Meet Michael the Angel... Michaela Rhua's hero in her story in The Eclipse of the Blood Moon


Pull up a chair, and get ready to wonder, as Michael the Angel from Michaela Rhua's story Gypsy Butterfly talks to us. It's one of five great stories in The Eclipse Of The Blood Moon





Hopes and Dream.

I don't know about you, but I have lots of hopes and dreams. The thing is being an angel as I am, people assume that I have all I need or want, right? The real answer is no, I do not. It is a job, just like any other. Only I have to be in the shadows watching those I am sent to walk alongside with. There are times when I can intervene but in limited ways.
Centuries have gone by, as I have observed and protected. The world has changed and changed again. But humans have a cycle to their life; birth and death signaling the opposite ends. That is the heart breaking part of what I have to do; watch someone die, his or her soul drifts away to meet the maker. The heartbreak comes when it is too soon; they have not lived life to the full, lived their dreams and hopes.
I have witnessed all aspects of life; the good and the bad. The worst is Azreal, the angel of Death who loves to claim her victims' blood. But there is also laughter, joy, love and passion. People hope for a life filled with laughter. They dream nights of love. People feels fulfilled.
Would it surprise you to know that I, Michael, the angel who protects also have had hopes and dreams? Only I could not act to make them come true. They had to be hidden in my heart.
Until Nali came along. Watching her become the woman she is, strong, beautiful and independent, made me want to share her life. My hope was that I would be able to walk besides her, to touch her and maybe feel what you humans call love.
That dream came true when I was sent to protect her in human form. Do you know how wonderful it is to do something that was your dream, talk to someone you care for, see her shy smile and laugh with her.
I began to hope for more; to touch her skin, smell her hair and kiss her full lips. Do you know how it feels to be able to watch her eyes widen when she orgasms, feels her fingers dig into my back as I make her cry out with pleasure? To you making love is an everyday act, for me it was a pure dream.
Only things did not go as smooth as they may sound. In fact events took a nasty turn. But you will have to read my story 'Gypsy Butterfly' that Michaela Rhua has written in a book called 'Eclipse of the Blood Moon.'
***

 When the blood moon coincides with Halloween, the forces of darkness unite to wreak their evil spells. Will this All Hallows Eve bring joy or sorrow? Curses abound and destiny calls, as a vampire watches over his human. Devils atone to the moon, and shifters hunt their mate on land protected by a powerful white witch. An angel takes human shape to protect the gypsy girl he loves, and a black widow hunts her prey in human form.
In these five chilling and sexy tales, is love enough to break the cycle? Or is all lost under the orange glow of the menacing sphere in the sky?
 


http://www.evernightpublishing.com/eclipse-of-the-blood-moon/

Monday 15 October 2012

Better late than never I hope, here's the winners of my first birthday post

Yes, okay, head hangs in shame, this post is late. However, there is a very good reason. Evernight's birthday bash. It was on all week, and I didn't want to push in...

So now I can say a big thank you to everyone who commented, who follow me, who read my books and who contributes to making my life so great.

I said I'd give away a print  copy of Rogue Scandals the regency trilogy, and an ecopy of a book of mine, winner's pick.

Therefore  *drumroll*

Rogue Scandals



 goes to Susie Medwell

If you can send me your address please? (pm on Fb will be fine)


And

 any eBook of mine...

goes to Samantha Veersamy

Please let me know what you'd like.


It's been a hectic few weeks, and it will continue to be. For some weird reason, I seem to have several books out in quick succession. Don't panic, groan or throw things, It won't last. Due to various things, some dates were changed and this is how it's turned out. Though, its a real mix, so hopefully there's something for everyone.


My latest book, To Catch A Fox, was released last Friday from www.breathlesspress.com



***


The next, The Eclipse of the blood Moon, is this Friday, from www.evernightpublishing.com  This is an anthology with four friends, and we're all very excited about it I can tell you. We're hoping you will be.





I'm going to have plenty to read, to say nothing of telling you all about the next few things that I've planned. Watch this space,

Happy reading,

R x



Sunday 14 October 2012

Six Sunday for To Catch A Fox

To Catch a Fox

my regency paranormal novella,released last Friday




“Well,” she demanded. “Must I lie alone and touch myself? Rub myself, pinch and caress 

and use my wetness to arouse? Make myself come, as I sob your names? Sadly, that is now

my entire experience. And ‘tis with sadness I realize ‘tis all I have of you both."

To Catch A fox is available from

www.breathlesspress.com
www.allromanceebooks.com
www.bookstrand.com
www.amazon.com
(and amazon uk)

Happy Reading

for all the oher sixsundays, go to www.sixsunday.com

Happy reading
Rx