Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

I’m thrilled to announce Cat and Mouse, Middlemarch Mates 5 is now out in print.

Here’s the blurb:

Middlemarch Mates, Book Five

Every woman has sexual needs. Lana Sinclair, feline shapeshifter and widow, is more than ready for a fun night with a likeminded male. Hot lovin’ is compulsory because she’s determined to scratch the itch that’s driving her crazy. This time, career-girl Lana is picking a malleable male who won’t try to corral her into the housewife role.

Fellow shifter Duncan Ross is the perfect candidate. The cowboy follows the rodeo circuit and is only in Middlemarch for the bull riding. One night of mutual seduction, slick, naked bodies and pleasure, then he’ll be on his way.

Duncan is astonished when Lana propositions him, but no one could ever call him stupid. He’s always desired Lana and now that she’s ready for sex, he’s all action. It’s time to lasso the woman of his dreams with some sweet lovin’ and charm, a sexy massage and ropes spliced together with addictive pleasure. He’ll seduce her to his way of thinking—a permanent arrangement. This is one go-round Duncan is determined to win.

Purchase from Ellora’s Cave | Amazon |

This interview with Amanda was scheduled for posting last week, but was delayed due to my website problems.

Today I’d like to welcome Amanda Arista. Amanda is the author of Diaries of an Urban Panther, which I loved, and I’m thrilled to have her visit and talk about the followup story Claws and Effect.

She spends her weekends writing at coffee shops, practicing for the day that caffeine intake becomes an Olympic sport, and plotting character demises with fellow writers Wolvarez, Killer Cupcake and Keith (names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent).

1. Give us an elevator pitch for your book Claws and Effect.

After taking down the Primo of the city, Violet thought life was going to get better. After four assassination attempts, she’s thinking not so much. The old Pride wants her dead. Her boyfriend wants a traditional relationship. A pack of lost mongrels want a leader. And a new panther comes prowling into town new to the shift needs a teacher. So how does a girl manage a real job, a relationship with a non-shifter and a Legacy that burns like hellfire within her?

2. Where did the idea for your book come from, and did you originally envisage more than one book in a series? Do you intend to write more Violet Jordan stories?

The original Idea for the first book came from a simple question: what would you do if you (a normal person) were trapped in the back alley with a monster? Violet’s initial reaction was what I would have done: thrown my shoe and run like hell. I knew that Violet’s story wasn’t over after the first book. She’d come into her power, but she’d done some damage in the process, to herself, to the city, to her new boyfriend. Hence the second book. What happen in the aftermath of her triumph? Even after this book, I don’t think all of Violet’s questions are answered, so yes, I can see even more Diaries in the future.

3. Describe the sights, sounds and scents we might experience if we were to visit Violet when she’s with other shifters during a normal day.

Violet practically lives at her coffee shop, so there is always the ambient smell of coffee around. She tends to sit in a front window, curled up in the sunlight with her magical borders at half mast, half way down to show off and halfway up just in case she needs to hide. When another shifter comes around, it’s like a brush of fur or feathers up her neck. Her awareness rises and she’s got them on her radar. If one of her pack members joins her, they greet her with a brush of energy which to Violet smells different, feels different for each person. Her best friend Jessa feels like cool raindrops and smells like roses. Her mentor Iris feels like cashmere and smells like dust. Her pack members smell like new born puppies and chewed rawhide.

4. How do you go about developing your characters? Do you normally start with a character or the plot?

I always start with character. For me, the character drives the plot. Without a well-formed character, how are you are the writer supposed to know what obstacles to put in their way? How are you going to know what they can survive or what would test them the most? The plot just can’t be hard to survive, it has to be hard for the character to survive.

Violet Jordan was pretty welled formed when I met her. I knew her family background, her schooling, what her vice was and what her soft spot was. She was damaged and hilarious, but it wasn’t until I really started to test her that her fierceness came out and I knew who she was. That’s when I knew what she could handle, how she would handle it, and what would be her ultimate betrayal.

5. Is there any part of the writing process that you find particularly challenging and why?

Editing is always challenging. I tend to write the novel really fast and then go back and word-smith it all. However, I change and change and change and get taken in all different directions and sometimes I get a little confused as to which version of the story I’m actually going with. I had to reread the first book before I went into the second book because I’d changed so much from the original story, but in the end, I’m always glad that I worked hard to get her in the best shape that I could.

6. Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?

Neil Gaiman is my favorite author. I love his world building. American Gods blew me away. He just takes one normal thing and then takes it a million steps in a direction and goes for it. His characters are empathetic even though sometimes its Lucifer himself. I LOVE HIM and if I ever get the chance to meet him I will be so tongue tied that I won’t be able to say it.

Now here’s a question for you from Amanda – What would you do in a dark alley if you were faced with a monster?

Thanks for having me at Adventure into Romance. Feel free to comment or leave a question.

Violet Jordan Rule #2 of being a superhero: Find reliable sidekicks

Dear Diary,

Once I took down Haverty, the Primo of the city, I thought life was going to get better. After four assassination attempts, I’m thinking not so much. Haverty’s pack needs a new leader and I’ve just about run out of reasons why I’m not right for the job. Besides, having loyal followers would definitely help me fight off whoever’s out for my blood. Especially since my boyfriend is always busy playing White Hat to every Wanderer except me.

So now I just need to figure out how to mentor new shifters, run a pack, keep my “real” job, and have some sort of personal life. I guess it’s all in a day’s work for this writer-by-day / panther-by-night.

Purchase Claws and Effect

Purchase Diaries of an Urban Panther

To learn more about Amanda and her books, visit her website at www.amandaarista.com. You can also follow Amanda on Twitter @pantherista

Do you have a new ereader? If you’re looking for something to read several of my friends have new releases this month. The genres are varied, so there is bound to be one to suit your tastes.

A Medieval Yule by Kaye Manro

A fortnight ago she left him.

Marcus of Windom stood alone in an empty castle without Lady Liana

by his side. The frigid winds of the Yule Season pressed upon him. He

pulled the parchment from whence he carried it and read her chilling

parting words once again. I can no longer live as your lady-wife… If ever

she returned would her sensual warmth be enough to melt the ice she

had caused to form around his broken heart?

Purchase A Medieval Yule

The Curse of Gremdon by Ciara Knight

In a world where marriage is forbidden, sex is only granted to male warriors, and the outer realm is full of murderous creatures, Arianna fights to protect the life of her only living relative, her brother.

Tardon, an elite warrior, is granted anything he desires by the Elders, but finds little joy in the voluptuous women presented to him. Born for the bloodlust found only in battle, complicated emotions emerge when he discovers his equal in the alluring warrior, Arianna.

Charged by the Elders with saving the castle from attack, Tardon and Arianna risk the curse when they traverse the vast outer realm to retrieve serum from the Tree of Life. If successful, the Elders have promised Tardon the right to marry, and Arianna the cure for her brother’s death fever. Will their love carry them through or will the discovery of a great deception be their ultimate demise?

Purchase The Curse of the Gremdon

Dragons at Midnight by Selena Illyria

One dragon is hot enough, but three can make this tiger shifter burn in the

most delightful ways.Tiger shifter Louisa thought she’d ring in the New

Year all alone. Little did she know that three younger dragon shifters plan

on making sure she celebrates things right. Add a little steam, a few

dragon shifters with dirty minds, and some creative use of furniture and

New Year’s Eve becomes the perfect scorching-hot party for four.
.

Purchase Dragons at Midnight

Marked for Surrender by Jennifer Leeland

When Zevon and Christophe are accused of being traitors to Nylar, they both believe the truth will come out and justice will prevail. But the Blueshift Brotherhood has targeted them and the two men end up with the Nyral Mistresses to be broken. Hope seems gone for the two lovers and they come face to face with their inner secrets when they face the most infamous Mistress of all: the Ball Breaker.

Mistress Andia Cyrus has broken thousands of criminals, turning dominant men into slaves. The two men she’s handed this time, however, are not the usual type she’s used to. They seem to be innocent, for one thing. For another, they’re in love. And for another, she’s starting to fall for them. She begins to dig deeper and soon finds a Blueshift Brotherhood assassin on her tail.

Fate seems to drag them together and Andia, Christophe and Zevon discover they can only survive if they are marked for surrender.

Purchase Marked for Surrender

Make Me Shiver by Aline Hunter

When Lacey loses control of her vehicle and finds herself trapped by ice and snow, she knows there’s only one person to call for help. Unfortunately, Michael may cause more turmoil than relief. She’s lusted for the gorgeous Dom ever since she first laid eyes on him. Trouble is, he doesn’t do vanilla and she’s not a submissive…or is she?

Michael’s hungered for Lacey for months, so when he notices her fleeting glimpses and blush-stained cheeks as he rescues her from an altercation with a guardrail, he decides it’s time to push the sultry beauty’s boundaries…only to discover Lacey’s not as reserved as she thinks.

Physical attraction blossoms into something neither anticipates, taking Michael and Lacey beyond kink, dominance and submission. Their newfound connection is strong. until a flame from Michael’s past returns, shatters the fragile trust he and Lacey have only just developed and threatens to destroy something neither wants to surrender.

Purchase Make Me Shiver

Melt by Natalie Anderson

When two frozen hearts collide…

Emma Reed closed her heart to love years ago after a lifetime spent getting kicked around foster homes and bad relationships. Now she’s on a mission to prove she deserves her recent award to paint a mural for a research base in Antarctica. Nothing and no one is going to get in her way.

After months working in recovery zones around the world, Hunter Wilson planned to escape everything this holiday season by rebuilding a lab at the Kiwi Research Base. Alone. No to family, no to fun. It’s isolation not intimacy he’s aching for. But when he sees the determined artist, that ache becomes an urge – after all, shouldn’t someone show her what two people can do with twenty-four hours of brilliant sunlight?

In the coldest place on earth, even the most frozen hearts can melt.

Purchase Melt

Don’t they sound great? I can’t wait to read the above books. All I have to do is find some reading time.

Do you intend to do some reading during the coming holidays? Do you think there will be ereaders, books or gift cards in your Christmas stocking?

Today I’d like to welcome debut author Julia Phillips Smith. I met Julia online several years ago and you couldn’t find a nicer person. She’s passionate about writing, music and the arts, and I love visiting her blog to see the world through her eyes.

Julia’s book, Saint Sanguinus, is due out next week. When you visit her website, definitely take the time to check out her book trailers, which she wrote and directed herself. Over to Julia…

For many artists, no matter what the medium, the sense of dancing to a different drummer began early in life and never eased off. If you were anything like me, when you were a kid, you didn’t do things the way the other kids did them.

It wasn’t out of a sense of being contrary, for contrary’s sake. I honestly wasn’t attracted to the white North Star sneakers with blue trim that everyone else just HAD to have. I did, in fact, have a pair of North Stars. But mine were blue with yellow trim. I just liked mine better.

When everyone else curled their hair back and blew it fluffy dry like Farrah Fawcett, I wore my hair straight and long with bangs, or in braids. I just liked my hairstyle better.

When everyone else was in love with Shaun Cassidy from The Hardy Boys, I was mad for Scottish lead singer Les McKeown of the Bay City Rollers. I just thought he was way cuter.

This has never stopped. When everyone couldn’t get enough of Rachel and Ross, I settled in to watch the expeditionary team of aliens posing as humans on 3rd Rock From the Sun.

So it’s been with my writing career. For awhile now, I made attempts at writing to the market so that I could sell my stories. My only problem? None of the books I was working on were like anything on store shelves.

I wasn’t writing purely for my own readership of one. I also wasn’t journaling. I wanted to tell stories that connected and resonated with readers.

Somehow, even though I kept trying to wrestle the giant python of my story into at least a cobra version, something told me to hold on, to wait. As I kept writing, a new technological breakthrough changed the publishing landscape for writers and readers.

The rise of e-publishers opened the door to time periods and settings that had been passed over by traditional print publishers. Suddenly, a story could be set in the West Indies in the 18th century, for example, if it was told well and featured compelling characters. Readers were no longer limited to London soirees and the Regency ton. The rise of the niche market made room for all sorts of authors to finally sell their un-sellable books.

In 2011, Amazon’s and Smashword’s self-publishing option has blown a hole so wide in the publishing world that there’s no longer any going back. I knew that it was finally time for my stories to step out and dance with the rest.

For all the other ‘me’s out there, who long for something a little different, the time is now. As a reader, as a writer—I don’t know about you, but I’m grabbing my plate and heading for the buffet.

Blurb: Saint Sanguinus

Do you want another life?

In Dark Age Wales, Peredur falls to a spear on the battlefield,but fights death to the last – until he is made an offer he can’t refuse, two fangs embedding themselves in his neck. Tanwen was his betrothed, and resists her father’s command to take another husband. When the wise woman’s son insists he can reunite her with Peredur, Tanwen must choose between a future that promises only misery, or set her on a dark path that whispers of her heart’s true desire.

Saint Sanguinus is out at Amazon next week. To learn more about Julia and her books visit her website at www.juliaphillipssmith.com

Win a print copy of Peeping Tom on Goodreads. Thirteen days left to enter!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

~ Grab your current read
~ Open to a random page
~ Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
~BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
~ Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser this week comes from Working Stiff by Rachel Caine. This is the first book in a new series and features a funeral director heroine.

Not only were they selling some hard-core drug; they were bilking people. How could Fairview possibly be telling people he was bringing back the dead?

page 38, Working Stiff

Blurb:

It’s a tough job but somebody’s got to do it – dead or alive.

Bryn Davis knows working at Fairview Mortuary isn’t the most glamorous career choice, but at least it offers stable employment – until she discovers her bosses using a drug that resurrects the clientele . . . as part of an extortion racket. Now Bryn faces being terminated (literally) with extreme prejudice.

With the assistance of corporate double agent Patrick McCallister, Bryn has a chance to take down the bigger problem – pharmaceutical company Pharmadene, which treats death as the ultimate corporate loyalty program. She’d better do it fast before she becomes a zombie slave – a real working stiff.

She’d be better off dead . . .

Purchase Working Stiff

What are you reading this week? Leave a teaser or a link to your teaser in the comments section. I love adding to my to-read list

Today I’d like to welcome author Iris Deorre. Iris started to write when she was seventeen. At the time it was a form of escapism. By the time she hit her twenties she was writing short stories and got one published in a women’s magazine. She went on to write short plays but after meeting a well-known author who taught a writers class her focus changed to Erotica. Her love for paranormal is what makes her combine the two.

She resides in the UK with her little girl.

The Most Infuential Person in My Life

That would have to be my older sister. She’s the most amazing woman I know. She’s carried our family for as long as I can remember. Encouraged us and believed in all of us. When things got tough she was always there to encourage me and to give me guidance. She’s been with me through my divorce and other big parts of my life. She’s celebrated my first published work and has been my constant ever since I told her about my writing.

Ever since I can remember my sister has always encouraged me to do what I believed in. To follow my heart and my dreams, to never be afraid of what other people may think. She taught me that what’s important is what I think.

I’d been writing secretly when I was about seventeen. No one in my family knew about it. It was a difficult time for me and so I’d pen my words and somehow this got me through my bad time. It was hard then because my sister had gone off to university and I had no one to talk to the way I did with her.

When I was twenty one I went to live with my sister for a while. It was then that I shared my love for writing and my desire to become a writer one day. She didn’t laugh, bat an eyelid nor did she say I needed to get a real job. Instead she gave me a book called The Choice by Og Mandino. I’d recommend it to any writer who hasn’t already read this book. It’s an amazing book that show’s we always have a choice and we have options.

It was a Saturday mid morning. I can remember spreading out on the couch, the sun shining through the French doors. I opened the book as if it concealed a secret message and never left the couch the whole day except to use the bathroom and grab a snack. I’ve never read a book the way I read The Choice. That evening when I finally got to the final page and closed the book I had a splitting headache but had also found a new found confidence and drive to take my writing seriously.

It changed my life, changed the way I viewed myself as a writer. When my sister handed me that book, her actions said to me, ‘I believe in you! You can do it!’ Her faith in me pushed me forward to do what I wanted to do, be who I wanted to be all because she believed in me.

And even today my sister is my biggest cheerleader. She has been so supportive and a big influence in my life. I’ll never forget the words she said one evening driving from a day outing. I was sat besides her and she said, ‘If you want to something go out and get it. You won’t know until you try. And if you fail, get up, wipe your bruises, dust yourself off then keep going! The only reason anyone fails is because they stopped trying.’

I will hold onto her words everyday, when days seem hard and heavy, when I feel like giving up. I remember the words, ‘Don’t stop trying.’ and continue to be grateful that she is a great part of my life!

The Whitby Ghost is the latest story from Iris Deorre.

Blurb:

Roy has a past he’d rather forget. To overcome it he takes his girlfriend Melisa to Whitby, the very place of his past that he is trying to forget. Roy believes it’s the only way to move on and to forget it by moving on with his future, Melisa.

But something is lurking in Whitby, something that Melisa becomes sensitive to the minute they arrive. What she discovers is hard to swallow. What follows is a journey to the other side. Something she’d rather forget.

Will Melisa marry her boyfriend who refuses to talk about his past? Or will his past bring them closer?

Excerpt from the Whitby Ghost:

The B&B was engulfed in darkness except for the single light that burned to the right side of the door.

‘Are you sure this is five star accommodation?’ She queried as he unloaded the bags from the boot. She wrapped her arms around her body to keep warm.

‘Yes, I paid a five star price; this will be fun, spooky just how you like it.’

It looked deserted, not the same as it had done three years ago. The name had changed from The Blue Inn to The Winter Inn. The ratings had gone up since it had been taken up under new ownership. Roy was certain that this was the right place; he’d always loved Whitby and never wanted the fear of the past to hold him back from sharing his favourite place with the woman he loved at the same time fulfilling her love for the paranormal.

He pressed his lips against hers again and she weakened. She could never get enough of her tanned hunk.

There was a bleating sound that came from behind them.

‘Is that a sheep?’ She giggled.

‘I think we have company.’ He looked to his right where the sound had originated from. It was too dark to make out anything.

‘Shall we go inside, I’m freezing,’ she said.

They walked across to the cottage, the sound of pebbles crunched under foot. It felt eerie, quiet and unusual. Melisa could hear the sound of her own heart in her ears. She felt a little uneasy a little concerned that the place they were checking into didn’t feel quite right.

Buy links
The Whitby Ghost Amazon UK
The Whitby Ghost Amazon US
The Whitby Ghost DE

Visit Iris Deorre

Surprise! Assassin is out in print from Ellora’s Cave today. I have a soft spot for this book, and I’m thrilled that Leo and Isabella are finally out in print.

Here’s the blurb:

Feline shifter Leo Mitchell is the pretty brother who attracts women with ease, but he’s turned picky. He suspects the mystery blonde hanging around Middlemarch is the one for him. If only he could grab the elusive female and seduce her. Oh yeah. He craves some hot, sinful lovin’ with the lady in black leather.

Assassin Isabella Black has harbored a huge crush on hunky Leo for ages. Because the timing sucked she’s watched him from afar, praying another woman won’t snatch the hottie away before she’s free to stake a claim.

Finally the pair meet. Isabella offers her naked body but Leo counteracts with a cup of tea. Seems Leo likes to call the shots when it comes to sex. A day later they’re finally dancing horizontally. It’s smokin’ hot, steamy, delicious—everything she’s ever wanted. Isabella is ecstatic until another assassin threatens to ruin her happiness. It’s life or death now. One wrong move and her secrets will destroy the Mitchells along with everything that has become dear to her…including Leo.

Purchase from:

Ellora’s Cave
Amazon
The Book Depository

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

~ Grab your current read
~ Open to a random page
~ Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
~BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
~ Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser today comes from Primal Law by JD Tyler, a new-to-me author. I’m about three-quarters of the way through and thoroughly enjoying this story of wolf shapeshifters and fated mates. This is the start of a series called Alpha Pack.

The soldier in him knew the smart move would be to go for the man with the gun; the beast demanded blood from the one with his hands on her. The one who’d hit her.

page 20, Primal Law

Founded by a group of former Navy SEALS, the Alpha Pack is a top-secret team of wolf shifters with Psy powers tasked with eliminating the most dangerous predators in the world. But the gift of their abilities comes at a price…

After a massacre decimates half his team and leaves him crippled, Jaxon Law must relearn how to fight—and battle the anger and guilt threatening to overwhelm him. But when he rescues a beautiful woman who reawakens his primal instincts, Jax is unprepared for the dangers that lie ahead.

On the run from her employer, brilliant lab assistant Kira Locke has evidence that leads the Alpha Pack on a hunt for someone targeting human civilians with Psy abilities. And as Jax and Kira circle both the killer and each other, Jax will have to decide if the deep connection he feels with Kira is worth breaking the ultimate shifter rule—because bonding with Kira means putting his abilities at risk, and they might be the only tools he has to keep his mate alive…

Purchase Primal Law

What are you reading this week? Leave a link to your teaser or give me a two-sentence teaser in the comments section. I love adding to my to-read list.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
~ Grab your current read
~ Open to a random page
~ Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
~BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
~ Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I’m currently reading Second Grave on the Left by Darynda Jones. I loved the first Charley Davidson book, First Grave on the Right and have been looking forward to reading the followup. So far, so good!

Here’s my teaser:

“Oh. So, did you buy this car used?” I asked, thinking back to the dead guy in her trunk and wondering how he got there. I still needed to figure out if Cookie had been a black widow before she met me.

page 20, Second Grave on the Left

Charley Davidson, Grim Reaper Extraordinaire, is back in this sexy, suspenseful novel of supernatural shenanigans

When Charley is rudely awakened in the middle of the night by her best friend who tells her to get dressed quickly and tosses clothes out of the closet at her, she can’t help but wonder what Cookie’s up to. Leather scrunch boots with a floral miniskirt? Together? Seriously? Cookie explains that a friend of hers named Mimi disappeared five days earlier and that she just got a text from her setting up a meet at a coffee shop downtown. They show up at the coffee shop, but no Mimi. But Charley finds a message on the bathroom wall. Mimi left a clue, a woman’s name. Mimi’s husband explains that his wife had been acting strange since she found out an old friend of hers from high school had been found murdered a couple weeks prior. The same woman Mimi had named in her message.

Meanwhile, Reyes Alexander Farrow (otherwise known as the Son of Satan. Yes. Literally) has left his corporeal body and is haunting Charley. He’s left his body because he’s being tortured by demons who want to lure Charley closer. But Reyes can’t let that happen. Because if the demons get to Charley, they’ll have a portal to heaven. And if they have a portal to heaven…well, let’s just say it wouldn’t be pretty. Can Charley handle hot nights with Reyes and even hotter days tracking down a missing woman? Will Cookie ever get a true fashion sense? And is there enough coffee and chocolate in the world to fuel them as they do?

Purchase Second Grave on the Left

What are you reading at present? Leave me a link to your Tuesday Teaser or a two-sentence teaser in the comments section. I love to add to my to-read pile!