The Indie Lights Book Parade continues on.  Today’s guest is Elise Abram

Elise Abram is a high school English and Computer Studies teacher, former archaeologist, avid reader and student of the human condition. Everything she does, watches, reads and hears is fodder for her writing. In her spare time she experiments with Paleo cookery, knits badly, and writes.

She’s all over the Interwebs:

Facebook – https://facebook.com/zulutherevenant and https://facebook.com/eliseabram

Twitter – https://twitter.com/eliseabram

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/eliseabram

Amazon Author Page – http://www.amazon.com/Elise-Abram/e/B009FF1JGA

Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/EliseAbram

And her book is “The Revenant”

Raised from the dead as a revenant more than a hundred years ago, Zulu possesses superior stealth, superhuman speed, and a keen intellect. His only companion is Morgan the Seer, an old man cursed with longevity and the ability to see the future in his dreams. Zulu has spent the last century working with Morgan in order to save the people in his nightmares from horrible fates. Branded a vigilante by the media, Zulu must live his life in the shadows, traveling by night or in the city’s underground unless his quest demands otherwise.

Morgan also has enemies. His twin brother Malchus, a powerful necromancer, is raising an army of undead minions to hunt Morgan down. Will they be able to stop Morgan from raising his army? How will they kill someone as powerful as Malchus?  Is there more at stake than just their own lives?

You can buy it at:

Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/Revenant-Elise-Abram-ebook/dp/B00M4V19D0

Barnes and Noble – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-revenant-elise-abram/1119936760

Kobo – http://store.kobobooks.com/en-CA/ebook/the-revenant-5

Black Rose Writing – http://www.blackrosewriting.com/childrens-booksya/the-revenant

And Elise has a guest post for us, so without further ado, here she is…

Abraham Maslow: Zombie Visionary?

“I ain’t scared of no zombies” by Patrick Emerson

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kansasphoto/11260540383

Zombies are hot right now. From The Walking Dead to Warm Bodies, rotting, mindless corpses are all the rage. Here’s an explanation as to why.

Zombies are mindless automatons with a single imperative: to eat. They represent a loss of self-control and self-determination. They represent creatures who have lost their sense of self, their inner humanity, the essence that makes them human. The fact that they still look human (sort of), only serves to remind us that they are what we can become if we prioritize survival over other basic human instincts like compassion and companionship.

Many of us fear a loss of control. We compose living wills to ensure we don’t become trapped in our bodies relying on machines to breathe for us. We strive to better ourselves and our education so we will have the means to do as we please, when we please. One analogy is confinement. Children are often punished with time-outs, forced to sit still and stare into a blank corner when all they want to do is play. Prison, another source of confinement, is a place where people are forced to bend to the will of the system, essentially having their autonomy stripped from them. This is why both work as deterrents, because we fear the consequence.

The fear in zombie stories comes from our understanding that “life” without self-determination is not life at all.  All it takes is one bite (in some cases, a single scratch) and you will eventually be stripped of your humanity, trapped in your own body, doomed to roam the earth in search of food until someone, in an act of mercy, ends it for you.

By contrast, the live people in zombie stories lead a heightened life where every waking moment is life-or-death. Their relationships, born both from hate and love, are intense. They struggle with newcomers because they can’t trust them, but to turn them out into the world represents a loss of their own base humanity.

In 1943, Abraham Maslow devised a Hierarchy of Needs, the parameters of which apply here. Maslow proposed 5 states of being which motivate people. The most basic of which is a physiological one, the need for food and water to survive.  Safety is the next rung on the ladder, the need to be physically healthy and financially secure. This is followed by the need to feel as if you belong, as if you are loved. Next is the need for self-esteem and self-respect. The highest level in the hierarchy is the need for self-actualization, the ability to be everything you want to be.

Zombies are stuck on the bottom step of the pyramid, forever leading a purely physiological existence, while the people struggle with safety, health, belonging and self-respect. The audience roots for them to move beyond this stage, to master the lower levels of the hierarchy so they can move on to the final step. But, in order to maintain ratings, the characters must never achieve self-actualization, or the adventure will be over.

For Malchus, the necromancer in my YA novel, The Revenant, zombies represent power. The more he can raise, the more leverage he will have when he seeks revenge against his brother, Morgan. Though he is partially successful, he cannot master the task. Unable to eliminate the newly animated corpse’s desire for self-actualization, and to control their physiological needs, he must put some of them down, which, needless to say, puts a crimp in his plans.

 

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I’ve got another stop on the Indie Lights Book Parade today – say hello to Charmain Brackett!

Charmain Zimmerman Brackett started her writing career while still in college joining the sports staff of the local paper as a correspondent taking high school sports stats. She’s continued working for that same newspaper for more than 27 years. She published her first novel, The Key of Elyon, in 2012, and it was awarded the 2014 Yerby Award for Fiction at the Augusta Literary Festival.

website/blog – www.charmainzbrackett.com

twitter – @CZBrackett

facebook – www.facebook.com/thekeyofelyon

Her book is “Little Pearl’s Circus World”

Before she was 5 years-old, Little Pearl Clark was performing in her father’s circus, the M.L. Clark and Son’s Combined Shows. Join Little Pearl behind the scenes of her circus world. Little Pearl’s Circus World is based on the true story Pearl Clark LaComa (1890-1927).

You can buy it right now, on Amazon!

And here’s a guest article from Charmaine…

It started as a way to preserve her family heritage, but it resulted in an illustrated children’s book based on her great-grandmother’s life in the circus.

About three years ago, Charmain Zimmerman Brackett had a chance meeting with some long-lost cousins.

“I grew up in Georgia, and most of my dad’s family lived in Las Vegas. I didn’t really get to know his side of the family,” she said. “One of my cousins moved to Georgia, and I went with my parents to meet her and her sister who was visiting from Las Vegas.”

Her cousin, Becky Bagshaw, was interested in genealogy and spent the next few hours telling Brackett about their family’s circus history. Their great-grandmother, Pearl Clark LaComa, had been part of a circus owned by LaComa’s father, Mack Loren “M.L.” Clark.  And their grandmother, Juanita LaComa Zimmerman, had wanted to be a writer. She wrote down snippets of her circus memories in spiral-bound notebooks.  Bagshaw promised to send photocopies of pictures and these journals when she returned to Las Vegas, and she did.

“The box she sent me was full of my grandmother’s writings and copies of photographs. It was fascinating to me, but it saddened me at the same time because I never knew any of this when my grandmother was alive,” said Brackett.

Over the next two years, Brackett went on a quest to pull as much circus information together as possible. She traveled to Baraboo, Wis. to research at the Robert L. Parkinson Library and Research Center and to Alexandria, La. where her family’s circus had its winter headquarters.

She spent countless hours on the Internet.

She gathered family photos from other relatives in Texas and Washington state.

“At first, I thought I’d do something just for my family. I wanted to put the photographs together in one place in a medium that could be passed down from generation to generation. After posting a few photographs of my grandmother on social media, I discovered other people were as interested in my family as I was,” she said.

With her journalistic background, she had hoped to write a non-fiction work about her great-grandparents’ lives, but despite her efforts, she couldn’t find enough information. So she went to Plan B – write a children’s book based on the notes her grandmother had written. There was enough information for that. She enlisted Erica Pastecki, an artist and art teacher, to create paintings which would be used as the basis for the illustrations. Brackett also hired Ashlee Henry to do the design of the book.

In November 2014, Little Pearl’s Circus World was published.

And on Jan. 3, readers at The Kindle Hub voted her book as the Best Children’s Book of 2014.

“It’s really exciting to see people get behind this project. I’m thrilled with the way the book turned out, and I can’t wait to see where it leads,” she said.

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I’m thrilled to be hosting fellow indie author Maria Elena Alonso-Sierra this morning for the launch of her new novel, “The Book of Hours”.  Be sure to read all the way to the end – there’s a giveaway!

Maria Elena Alonso-Sierra is a full-time novelist based in North Carolina. With Cuban roots, she has lived in many countries, including France, the setting for her first novel, The Coin. She speaks English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German, and reads Latin, Middle English, and old French. She holds a Masters in English literature, specializing in medieval romances, and is currently an active member of the Carolina Romance Writers. She loves to hear from her readers, and always hopes to open a dialogue with her fans.

You can follow Maria Elena all over the Interwebs:

• Website: www.MariaElenaWrites.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MariaElenaAlonsoSierraWrites
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mariaelenawrite
• Blog: http://www.mariaelenawrites.blogspot.com/
• Amazon Author Central: http://www.amazon.com/Maria-Alonso-Sierra/e/B00IPEXYLK
• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7093896.Maria_Elena_Alonso_Sierra
• Authorgraph: https://www.authorgraph.com/authors/MariaElenaWrite
• Tsu: http://www.tsu.co/MariaElenaWrites

And here’s her new book!

For artist Gabriela Martinez, psychopaths do strike twice. In The Coin, two star-crossed lovers were cruelly used by fate—and now, in The Book of Hours, destiny isn’t done.

Back then, Gabriela almost lost her life to a psychopath hoping to claim her artwork, her career, her body, and her love. If not for Richard, the operative sent to protect her, she would have fallen victim to his twisted vision.  The dramatic showdown pushed Gabriela and Richard together, even in the face of countless obstacles.

With someone new threatening Gabriela’s life, Richard will risk everything to protect the woman he loves.  But with a new villain on the horizon, bent on possessing Gabriela’s latest work no matter what it takes, she is forced to fall back on old friends, including the man who changed her life not so many years ago.

With an even more dramatic threat looming, and far more to lose, if they don’t stay one step ahead of the danger, their lives, their love, and their future may very well go up in flames.

You can buy the book here:

• Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00R0IAOME
• Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00R0IAOME
• iTunes: http://bit.ly/1wNfaFr
• Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1rPDrPy
• Kobo: http://bit.ly/1xFHlKs

• Smashwords (after Feb. 12): https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/501819
• CreateSpace: https://www.createspace.com/5122396
• Direct from Author: http://www.MariaElenaWrites.com

And here’s an excerpt:

The past, figuratively, had been stooping over Gabriela Martinez’s shoulder all morning long.  Now it rode copilot on the drive home, laughing like a psychotic macaw at her feeble attempts to staunch the memories.

Hell.  It was not as if this battle was new.  For four years, Gabriela had been sparring with her past and its mockery, its unexpected hounding, its inconvenient ambushes, and its vicious pouncing with a relentless force of will.  It was harassment, plain and simple, implacable, the transformative memories slithering unbidden into her consciousness:  a soft caress that made her tremble, gray eyes that bored into her soul, arms that held softly or protected, and, oh God, lips that made her feel things she had never felt in all her married life.

That’s because it wasn’t your husband who made you feel them, her past snickered.

Well, hell.  Score.

Past:  one.  Gabriela:  zero.

I’ve also got a fantastic interview with Maria Elena

Who is your favorite author?

Wow.  Do we have enough space and time?  I have so, so many, it is hard to give one the podium.  Dante, Shakespeare, Spenser, Austen, Dickens, Poe, Dumas, Orczy, Bradbury, Asimov, Stewart, Seton, Dumas, Tolkien, Dunnett, Roberts, Howard, Francis…and the list goes on.

How do you describe your writing style?

Descriptive.  I like for my readers to visualize things.

Use no more than two sentences. Why should we read your book?

It has thrills, two great characters, humor, and romance.

Have any of your characters been modeled after yourself?

No.  Although, every author will concur, something of you always seeps through.

If you could exchange lives with any of your characters for a day which character would you choose and why?

Gabriela.  I just want, for one day, to experience what she did with Richard.

What books have most influenced your life?

Katherine by Anya Seton.  Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.  A Stranger at the Gates by Anya Seton.  Madam, Will You Talk? By Mary Stewart.  The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.

If you could select one book that you could rewrite and add your own unique twist on, which book would that be and why?

Wow, another hard one.  I honestly can’t think of any I would rewrite.  As far as putting my own twist to it–maybe Dante’s Paradiso.  My vision of heaven would be quite different from his.

Beatles or Monkees? Why?

Hey, Hey, We’re the Monkees.  Lived my teenage years when they burst into the scene.  Always wanted to be Davy’s wife.  They were upbeat and fun.  The Beatles, at the time, had turned a bit morose and too hippie for me.

Who should play you in a film of your life?

Heck.  I really don’t know.  My best guess, Meryl Streep, because she has the acting range and bravura to nail, emotionally, all the stages of my life.

Finally, as promised – a giveaway!  To enter for a chance to win “The Book of Hours” and also the first book in the series, “The Coin”, just comment to this post.  And I’ll throw in an ebook (or audiobook) of any one of my Dream Series books (winner’s choice), too.

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It’s time for another stop on the Indie Lights Book Parade.  Today, meet Ruth O’Neil!

Ruth O’Neil has been a freelance writer for 20-plus years. She sees everything as a writing opportunity in disguise, whether it is an interesting character, setting, or situation. When she’s not writing or homeschooling her kids, Ruth spends her time quilting, reading, scrapbooking, camping and hiking with her family.

Follow her all over the Interwebs:

Website – http://ruthoneil.weebly.com/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/writerrutho

Blog – http://ruths-real-life.blogspot.com/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/RuthONeilAuthor

First chapter – http://www.wattpad.com/52132851-belonging

Book trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCTmjQXtVPw

And here’s her newest book, “Belonging”

After the death of her father, painfully shy and introverted Shelly finds her world turned upside down. She is forced to speak with people and she may even have to move from her comfortable apartment. Sorting through her father’s possessions at his house brings back many memories, including how they would research her mom’s genealogy so that in a way, she could get to know her mother’s family, who are all deceased. Shelly wonders why her dad never researched his own family and she never remembers any family events. Why? She begins a journey that takes her to places she never dreamed. Throughout the entire story, God nudges Shelly to get out of her comfort zone. That’s easy for some, but for Shelly it may almost be impossible.

You can buy it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LA8KK9M and also at Barnes and Noble – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/belonging-ruth-oneil/1120404512?ean=2940150460935

And I’ve also got a great interview with Ruth:

Is Shelly based on you or someone you know from real life?

I think my characters are always a combination of many people I know and then some imagination thrown in for good measure. I don’t want to have any one person think that I was writing specifically about them. I take bits and pieces of real life and made a whole new life.

In your book, your main character, Shelly, decides to do some genealogy. Have you ever researched your family history?

I have not, but my mother did. She did it the old-fashioned way, without using the Internet. She traced both sides of my family way back. It’s interesting to look through the pages and pages she collected and see who some of my ancestors are and what their lives were like.

How much of an inspiration to your literary career was your mother?

My mother was a great influence on my writing career. She always wanted to be a writer ever since she was a little girl and I was the same. I have stories she wrote with her cousin when they were young and she kept stories that I wrote when I was young. She was part of a writer’s group where we lived. When I was in high school and decided that was what I wanted to do as a career, she did everything in her power to help me. I attended conferences with her. I was introduced to “real” writers who gave me a lot of good advice as I was starting out. The information I gleaned then was extremely valuable.

Which author, living or dead, would you want to pen the story of your life?

Oooo, that’s a hard one. Do I have to pick just one? Maybe Julie Campbell, the author of the first Trixie Belden books. I would pretend I was Trixie and solve non-mysteries around my neighborhood. She would be a good author to write about my childhood. Laura Ingalls Wilder would be another good one. She wrote about how things were. She made ordinary life seem unordinary. I had a very ordinary life, maybe she could make it exciting.

Which 3 words best describe how you feel about your literary future?

Positive – because so much has happened thus far and sometimes I just have to smile, especially when I get personal responses from readers. Excited – because of what’s to come. I have a lot of new things on the horizon and I just seem to get busier and busier, which is a good thing for me. Hopeful – that I will reach new readers who will be touched by my writing. I love to make readers laugh or cry or maybe just see a little bit of themselves in my stories.

What kind of response have you received from your readers?

I have received some wonderful responses from my readers. I have received emails from people telling me how the book has touched their lives. I’ve received good reviews on Amazon.

I actually received a message with an order for print copies the other day. This woman had purchased an ecopy and then someone at work had begun reading it. For some reason the co-worker was not able to finish and was upset. The lady who had first purchased the ecopy bought her co-worker a print copy just so she could finish it. She also bought a print copy for herself just to have it.

It makes me feel good that people get excited about my books and that they can’t wait to continue reading.

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Today’s stop on the Indie Lights book Parade is Cheri Roman…

Cheri Roman is a writer, editor, teacher, wife, mother, grandmother and friend, in whatever order works best in the moment. Most days you can find her on her blog, The Brass Rag, or working on the next novel in her fantasy series, Rephaim. Cheri lives with her husband and Jack, the super Chihuahua.

You can follow her all over the Interwebs:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/C.L.RomanFantasynovels?ref=bookmarks

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cheri_roman

Web site: www.brassragpress.com

Blog: www.thebrassragcnr.wordpress.com

Amazon author page: http://tinyurl.com/otz5ejp

And now I’ll turn the blog over to her for a few minutes…

The Shoulda/Coulda/Woulda of Series Writing

The realization came to me, about half way through Descent, that the story I was writing couldn’t be contained inside one book. If I tried, the book was going to have to be opened with a forklift. So, I ended Descent with a sigh of satisfaction and started Quest.

By the time I finally finished Quest, all my other characters were giving me the silent treatment. I think it’s because I didn’t write their stories first. Characters can be touchy that way. Turns out they were right. I was writing the stories out of order. Now I’m finishing up Sacrifice, and I finally feel like I’m back on track. Not coincidentally, Quest will have to be completely rewritten, and another book, Illusions, has taken its place as third in the series.

So what could I have done differently from the outset that would have saved me from this dilemma?

I could have started out by deciding how many stories would be in the series and what issues would be addressed in each one. But the truth is I didn’t do that because I didn’t know that there would be more than one story.

I could have done single paragraph synopsis for each book. That way I would know what direction to take at the beginning of each tale.  However, aside from reason number one, my plots have a habit of changing as the characters shape the story. So, plot synopsis might have been helpful, but not completely effective.

I could have drawn out a story arc for each character and a series arc or plot thread that connects all the books. I did, in fact, draw out a story arc for the first book. In the end though, this wasn’t as beneficial as I had hoped. Descent’s final draft looks nothing like my original arc. I am actually working on a connecting plot thread and am pretty happy with the results so far.

I could have chosen a different theme for each book in the series. (Again. See reason one.) I may still do that, but at the moment there is the whole silent treatment thing going on.

These are all good ways to start out on a series. I definitely should have used more of them, but as you might have noticed, I didn’t and it’s a little late now. So what am I going to do? Well, first I’m going to invite all my characters to tea and apologize for not writing their story first. (I’m not really sorry. Despite the drawbacks I’ve learned a lot of lessons along the way and I’m a better writer for it. But, one makes certain sacrifices in the interests of diplomacy.) After apologizing, I’m going to ask them what happens next. And then I’m going to write it down.

Her book is “Sacrifice”

Fulfilling one’s destiny requires sacrifice…

Escaping a global catastrophe, angel-human hybrid, Shahara, lands safely in Babylon with her beloved Volot, an angel with a sacred mission. But the victory is a hollow one, for the world she knew has been obliterated. Battered by the loss of her family and the denial of her most cherished dreams, Shahara’s new life begins to disintegrate as she is lured by promises of power and fulfillment into the violent, blood-soaked ambitions of a ruthless enemy. With her marriage shattered and countless lives hanging in the balance, Shahara must make a devastating choice. Can she survive her decision, or will victory require the ultimate sacrifice? By turns romantic, suspenseful and terrifying, this epic fantasy treads the knife edge of human frailty and superhuman courage.

You can buy it at Amazon, right now!

And here’s an excerpt…

Volot leaned over and kissed her, his lips a promise against hers. He was still watching her as he backed into the front garden and leapt, his wings springing free of the pattern on his back, lifting him into the sky.

Shahara followed him out the door and watched his progress, up through wide-spreading tree branches, to open air. In the distance a thin, gray tracing smudged the horizon like smoke. Shahara shivered in the cold breeze that kicked along the foundation of the house. Hugging her shawl close about her, she went inside to begin the morning’s work. Preparations needed to be made, Danae said, if they were to have any chance of surviving the thing she called a flood. Shahara shook her head as she worked. Sabaoth may have given Danae the gift of prophecy, but her prediction made no sense. Water was to cover the entire Earth? For a year? Impossible. Still, it was better to be busy.

Immersing herself in the work helped to push the pain of loss once more into the distance. It also served to diminish her awareness of her surroundings. The morning was half gone before she realized how dark it had become. Wrapping a strap across the basket she had just filled, Shahara stood and stretched her tired back. Outside, the wind moaned like a living thing and she crossed to the doorway, looking out with dull eyes. The smudge she had noticed earlier had grown into a skein of dark, heavy gauze, covering the sky from horizon to horizon. She stared at it. The wind died and the world stopped in silence. For an instant her vision sharpened and she noted every leaf, every flower and stone within her sight, as if it had been magically painted across her mind’s eye by an iridescent brush; a scene she would be able to recall with instant, awful clarity for the rest of her life. Then, with an ear-splitting roar, the earth rocked beneath her. An ancient oak swayed like a sapling and crevasses ripped across the ground as water poured from the sky in torrents.

“Volot,” Shahara screamed, calling to him with voice and soul. In a blurred rush, Volot scooped her up and vaulted into the sky as the oak fell, crushing their house beneath its colossal branches.

Shahara clung to him as he fought to stay airborne against the furious wind. For an instant, the couple looked over the sudden ruin of their home.

“It’s too soon! We’re not ready.” Shahara shouted her protest over the storm.

Volot shook his head. “We were not promised time. We only hoped.”

“What about the others?”

Their eyes met and she saw the torment in his glance. “We will have to find them after. They will escape the same way we will. Shahara…” he hesitated and lightning streaked across the sky above him, thunder cracking in the same instant. “We have to go into the Shift.”

She stared at him with wide, terrified eyes. “No. We’ll die there.”

“We’ll die here. There is no choice.”

He didn’t wait for a reply but thrust hard with his wings. In a shower of sparks, the pair was gone, leaving chaos to reign behind.

Stepping into the dark in between, the pair shivered in the sudden, intense cold. The rain-wet fabric of Shahara’s dress stiffened and ice crystals formed in her hair. In the distance, she could see pin-pricks of silver light and she shuddered.

“We have a few moments before they get here,” Volot said.

“Before what get here?”

“The lights.” He glanced over his shoulder but she could see no difference yet.

“And then what?” she asked, her teeth tapping together in the jaw tightening cold.

“I don’t —” Volot’s reply was cut off by a brilliant spray of gold sparks as another angel entered the Shift.

“Well met, Volot. I see you have brought your wife along.” The voice echoed hollow and distant in the cold, but the speaker glowed in sharp relief against the dark. Shahara glanced from Volot to the newcomer. He could only be another angel. His topaz eyes gleamed clear and intelligent beneath black brows. His ebony skin shown reddish bronze in the dim light and it took a moment, but she could see from her husband’s expression that Volot recognized him.

“General Bellator.” Volot snapped to attention and pounded a fist to his heart in salute. He glanced at Shahara. “The situation on Earth is dangerous at the moment. I had to —”

Bellator waved his comments aside. “No need to explain. It is well. You will be taking up a new mission now.” The general glanced over Volot’s shoulder and frowned. “We haven’t much time, so listen carefully. You will travel through the light into a city called Babylon.”

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The Book Parade continues today, with author Rhyannon Yates

Rhyannon Yates began writing at the age of five with a charming story about a misunderstood girl and her pet hippo. She grew out of her pachyderm-peddling ways, and spends her time now trying to crank out the next great American fantasy novel while binge-watching Netflix.

Rhyannon lives in Florida with her husband, her cat, and her two offspring.

You can follow her at her website.

Her book is “Catalyst”

Two thousand years after the Schism, the borders are beginning to weaken. Wraiths are turning to dust in the streets, people are dropping dead, the chests torn open and inner organs burned away, and all Levi Keats wants to do is deliver a disciplinary summons and go home to the safety of his University office. A simple administrative duty turns perilous with the addition of a suspected murderer, a rogue border patrol agent, and the increasing possibility that prophesies of the Great Cataclysm are slightly less fictitious than previously assume

And here’s a character interview featuring one of her heroines…

ILBP: So let’s start easy. What’s your name? What do you do 

FL: Freya. Freya Leot. I work for the Greater Aridae Border Patrol, South Gynrad Division. I mostly act as a liaison between the border office and the magistrates that write travel papers for people to cross the borders.

ILBP: Forgive me for saying, but you don’t really resemble a Gynrad native. You look more–

FL: Nhari? I am, actually. Or, well…I AM from Gynrad, but as you get close to the Nhair border, there are more settlements of Nhari. Mostly descendants of refugees from the Schism. A few immigrants, but with border visas as difficult to get as they are…anyway, I grew up near the the western Gynrad border. Skin like mine, dark like this? Pretty common in that part of the world.

ILBP: I see. So what brought you to Border Patrol? Pretty dangerous job, making sure no one sneaks through.

FL: laughing. Sneak through the borders? Hardly. There’s only one way to cross, and that’s at a Gate. If you tried to cross anywhere else, nothing would happen, you’ld just find yourself right back where you started. That;s the problem with interdimensional borders. As to what brought me here, I just wanted away from the quiet.

ILBP: The Quiet?

FL: Yea. In towns like mine, it’s like people will do anything to preserve the peace. People want things calm, pleasant, happy. They’ll ignore anything, as long as everything stays quiet, peaceful.

ILBP: So where do you call home now?

FL: Wadel. It’s this town by the border, small. Quiet. laughs. I never thought of it before, but it’s ironic, isn’t it? Running from one quiet town, only to end up in another. It’s a good quiet in Wadel, though. Different than home.

ILBP: How so?

FL: In Wadel, the quiet is just because life goes on pretty smoothly. People are just living their lives, you know. Home…it’s like the quiet was thick. It was loud quiet, like it had to drown out all the secrets.

ILBP: Secrets? What kind of secrets?

FL: I mean, secrets like everyone has, I suppose. Listen, this has been great, but I have to be back at post in ten minutes. Agent Beckett will give me extra forest patrol if I’m late again, and the way the border’s been leaking Phantasms, I’d just as soon not.

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NAUGHTY BALLS AND NAUGHTY HEARTS—boxed set available now! And there’s swag!

(#boxedset @naughtyliterati #valentinesday #romance)

The second boxed set by the Naughty Literati features stories centered around that most romantic of holidays, Valentine’s Day.

And who are the Naughty Literati, you ask?

We’re a group of authors who’ve come together to showcase their epic talents in stories filled with powerful eroticism and satisfying romance. Our tales range from heartwarming and sweet to scorching hot erotic; medieval to futuristic; humans to aliens and shape-shifters; vanilla committed couples to kinky ménage fun.  FMI: http://www.naughtyliterati.com

Here’s a snippet from my story for NAUGHTY HEARTS. Naughty Balls is a New Adult romance featuring two college basketball players alone on Valentine’s Day night. (M/F)

“I tell you what.” He was already close, and shifted so he was even closer.

I stared at his chest to avoid getting trapped by his gaze again. Not the best idea to avoid distraction. His chest was ripped like the rest of him and shiny with sweat. Not gross sweat. Sexy sweat.

I wanted to lick it.

I blinked, startled by the thought.

I wanted to lick Orlando Havens’ chest.

Actually, I wanted to do a lot more than lick Orlando’s chest.

He put a finger under my chin and raised my head so I’d have to look him in the eyes. His gaze was curiously intense. He said, “If we’re gonna play, someone oughta pay.”

I scrunched my eyebrows together.

He went on, “Let’s make a bet. You win, you get my manager’s name and number. I win, I…get…you.”

“You…what?” I was so far out of my depth I was drowning.

He grinned at me.

I breathed, felt, thought, then breathed again. Heavily. “That’s not exactly Sophie’s choice,” I said slowly. “But it’s a tough one.”

“Yeah?” His smile was a little smug and a lot sexy.

OMG. I realized with more than a little surprise that he was really interested in me. Not only as an athlete, but as a person.

As a woman.

Who’da thunk it? Not me.

I found myself grinning. “This is great. I win either way.” I looked him in the eyes again and allowed my eyelashes to flutter. “Don’t I?”

“So do I. I reckon I already won.”

“How’s that?”

“I didn’t know you liked me.”

My mouth dropped open. “Of course I do. Who doesn’t?”

He humphed. “A lot of people. And a lot of folks just wanna use me. You better look out for that, too, girl.”

“If anyone’s using me, I haven’t noticed.”

“You just got here, l’il Ms. Freshman. Come March Madness, people ’round here are gonna notice you even if you don’t bother noticing them. You’re gonna get hit on like you’re a punching bag.”

“Hm.” Nerves twitched in my belly. Starting to sweat, I unzipped my hoodie. “What do I do about it?”

“I’ll watch your back if you watch mine. If you want.”

“Oh, I want.” I again looked him square in the eyes. “I definitely want.”

Score your copy here:

http://indi.uno/1BH3Uxu (Amazon—ebook)

http://tinyurl.com/NHPaper (Amazon–paperback)

Enter our raffle to maybe get a cool 3 carat garnet necklace. Entries accepted from February 1-7 only!

Win a Naughty Heart Necklace and a copy of Naughty
List!

About Suz deMello:

Best-selling, award-winning author Suz deMello, a.k.a Sue Swift, has written nineteen books in several genres, including nonfiction, romance, erotica, comedy, historical, paranormal, mystery and suspense, plus a number of short stories and non-fiction articles on writing. A freelance editor, she’s held the positions of managing editor and senior editor, working for such firms as Totally Bound and Ai Press. She also takes private clients.

Her books have been favorably reviewed in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus and Booklist, won a contest or two, attained the finals of the RITA and hit several bestseller lists.

A former trial attorney, her passion is world travel. She’s left the US over a dozen times, including lengthy stints working overseas. She’s now writing a vampire tale and planning her next trip.

–Find her books at http://www.suzdemello.com

–For editing services, email her at suzdemello@gmail.com

–Befriend her on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SuzDeMello

–She tweets @Suzdemello

–Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/suzdemello/

–Goodreads: http://bit.ly/SuzATGoodreads

–Her current blog is http://www.TheVelvetLair.com

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