Taste of Kiwi

My special guest today is fellow author, Taige Crenshaw. Today Taige is talking about series and serials. I love reading books in a series. I like entering a world I’m familiar with – it’s like meeting old friends. Over to Taige…

I’ve been reading a lot lately and I love series/serials so I have been rereading my favs. I’ve written on my own blog about my love of series and serials. What they are and how I feel about them. Almost monthly there are so many books coming that are part of a series/serial.

First here are my definitions of them both:

Series ~ Taige Crenshaw Definition:
Novels that has a related story theme but each one is complete in and of itself.

Serial ~ Taige Crenshaw Definition:
Novels that feature/follows the same main character/s yet are still a fresh story each time.

No matter which way you slice it I find whether it is a serial or series I enjoy writing stories like this. It gives me room to stretch my mind, push my characters to give me more and wallow in there adventure even more. Although I enjoy these stories I don’t usually start writing with the intention of it being a series/serial sometimes it just happens to evolve that way.

I write what I love to read and I’m one of those readers that wondered what is next for such and such main character. Or what happened to this sub – character that I liked in this or that novel. I go hunting to find more and when I find it I feel like I’ve struck READER’S GOLD. I jump up and down and shout in glee. LOL.

I’ve been known to search for years to get that book to complete a series/serial I was reading. Hey I’m a dedicated reader and I want the complete set of my series/serial.

For instance I remember many years ago I picked up an author that I hadn’t tried before. The novel was great and imagine my glee that I struck reader gold and it was a series. I went back and bought all of their novels except one which was sold out. I searched and searched for years for this one book and couldn’t find a copy. Not even a used one. I even contacted the author to find out if the story was going to be re-printed. To my dismay it wasn’t at that time. Amazon even had over 200 people waiting for a copy of this book when I checked. I stopped checking the numbers after I saw the amount of people. No one was selling. A few years after looking I finally struck reader gold in 2005 when the book was reprinted and I was able to finish my collection. I know me and over 199 other people very happy.

Can you imagine so many readers looking for an author. Searching for that Reader’s Gold. That is what I want my novels to be to my current and future readers ~ Reader’s Gold. No I don’t want you the reader to wait a long time for my books but I want you to be so drawn into the worlds that I create you can’t wait to see what happens next.

This is what Reader’s Gold is all about. As my thoughts of Reader’s Gold evolved I thought of all the author’s who have some wonderful series/serials that I feel are Reader’s Gold. They line my bookshelf’s (online and print) and I go looking for them when they are released.

I’m sure most of you have a little Reader’s Gold on your bookshelf so come on and share. Give me some new Reader’s Gold to find.

CONTEST: Share your Reader Gold with me and Shelley will pick a winner who can choose one pdf download of any book from my e-book backlist.

Taige Crenshaw is a multi-published author with books available at Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Liquid Silver Books, Loose Id, and Total-E-Bound. Taige has been enthralled with the written word from time she picked up her first book. It wasn’t long before she started to make up her own tales of romance. With novels set in today, in alternate dimensions, or in the future she writes with adventure, fun sassy heroine’s, and sexy hero’s. Always hard at work creating new and exciting places Taige can be found curled up with a hot novel with exciting characters when she is not creating her own. Join her in the fun, frolic, interesting people and far reaches of the world in her novels. You can find out more about Taige at her website: http://www.taigecrenshaw.com or blog: http://www.taigecrenshaw.com/blog.

Wilde Seduction – What happens when a woman who doesn’t know how to relax meets a man whose lust for life will change her and make all her deepest desires come to life?

Buy here at Total-E-Bound.

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This week’s theme for Snippet Saturday is parties. I’ve picked an excerpt from Cat and Mouse, book five in my Middlemarch Mates series. This book is a standalone erotic romance, although you will probably enjoy it even more if you’ve read the other stories. Oh, and there are a few adult words in this excerpt. I thought about chopping them out, but in the end I thought I’d leave the excerpt as is. Enjoy!

CAT AND MOUSE by Shelley Munro

Country and Western music poured from the huge marquee along with laughter, some of it with a tinge of alcohol-induced hilarity, filled the air by the time Duncan and a couple of the other cowboys wandered over from the campsite. Determination rode him because he knew he’d have a fight on his hands to get close to Lana. Even though tonight wasn’t the main event, there were still a lot of people gathered at the party to raise funds for the local fire service who also carried out search and rescue in the area. The local men, the visiting cowboys and the woman herself would all get in the way of his goal. Too bad. He’d waited a long time and wasn’t about to back off without a fight.

The local committee had gone all out with decorations including wanted posters and a display of Western memorabilia just inside the entrance. He paid his admission and sauntered into the marquee looking for Lana or either of the Mitchells. Difficult to scent anyone in this crowd. Men and women packed the dance floor attempting to do a line dance.

Damn. He couldn’t see Lana. Cursing softly, he pushed his way through the crowd, pausing here and there to say hello to friends and acquaintances. Along with his unease came a contrasting sense of contentment. It was damned fine being home, spending time with his fellow shifters.

“Are you looking for me?” The throaty voice dragged his attention from the dance floor.

Jesus, she looked beautiful. She wore a dark green dress with tiny straps to hold it up. It clung to her curves before falling to swish in loose folds around her knees. The color highlighted her eyes, deepening jade green to a darker, more mysterious hue. The shadow of her cleavage drew his attention He took half a step toward her before stopping abruptly. Not the time or place. The closest he would get to touching during the next few hours would be a slow dance, or if he could persuade her to take a walk with him outside where the air was cool and privacy easier to find.

“Yeah. I thought you might be dancing.” But glad he didn’t have to see another man touch her.

She stood on tiptoe and kissed him on the lips, a brief brush on the mouth that had his feline purring. “I have been dancing. I saw you come in and wanted to say hello.”

The line dance ended and the band rolled into a slow dance. Perfect.

“Wanna dance with me?”

“Sure.”

They walked over to the makeshift dance floor and she slipped into his arms where she belonged. Her arms stretched up to grip his shoulders and their bodies brushed.

“You look beautiful.” Nothing less than the truth. The full skirt of her dress flirted with the tops of her knees, stirring with each gliding step. He would have preferred that she wear a sack, just so none of the other men could ogle her sexy form. Unfortunately, he could hardly complain since the other women were dressed in a similar manner. He wondered how long it would take to talk her out of that dress, pondered again the advisability of taking a walk.

“Thanks. You look pretty good yourself.”

They danced in silence for a while, Duncan content to hold her in his arms. One dance flowed into another.

“This is nice. I never have a chance to dance.”

He grunted an affirmative reply. That would make him a bastard if he asked her to take a walk. Fuck. Maybe he could steer her into the far corner where some enterprising cowboys had dimmed the lights. Yeah. Sounded like a plan. He danced her slowly across the floor, navigating dancers, cuddling her close and reveling in the soft feel of her body brushing his, her enticing scent of vanilla and the crisp outdoors.

The song ended and regretfully he stepped away from her. “Would you like a drink?”

“Sure. Emily and Saber are over in the corner. Do you want to sit with them?”

“Do you want wine?” Damn, the woman ate him up with her eyes. She shouldn’t do that—not if she knew what was good for her.

Lana winked, her dark lashes sweeping over her cheeks in a sexy fan. “That would be great.” His gaze drifted to her soft, glistening lips. Appealing and sensual. He fought the urge to dip his head and claim a taste.

“Go and sit with Emily and I’ll bring the drinks over.” He started for the bar before stopping and turning back. “Lana, don’t dance with anyone else.”

“But that wouldn’t be polite.”

“Fuck polite. You offered me the weekend.” Duncan strode off to the bar, urgency simmering through his veins. The bloody woman made him crazy. He knew what it felt like to bury his cock deep in her hot pussy and now he wanted a repeat. Once with Lana wasn’t enough.

Purchase at Ellora’s Cave or for Kindle

To read other Snippet Saturday excerpts follow the links below:

Vivian Arend
Moira Rogers
Ashley Ladd
Kelly Maher
Leah Braemel
McKenna Jeffries
Sasha White
Taige Crenshaw
Shelli Stevens
Shelley Munro
Eliza Gayle
Jody Wallace
Elizabeth Naughton
TJ Michaels

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I’m doing two guest blogs today.

The first is at RomCon where I’m talking about big cats and feline shifters. I’m also giving away a download from my backlist to one commenter. Here’s the link to my RomCon post.

I’m also blogging at Access Romance where I’m talking about baking for Christmas. Here’s the link to my Access Romance post.

In writing news, I’ve learned my next Ellora’s Cave book Soldier of Fortune is due for release on 18 November. That’s next week!! I don’t have a cover to show you yet, but I do have a blurb and excerpt available to tempt you. Soldier of Fortune features Louie Lithgow who first appeared in one of my earlier books, Summer in the City of Sails.

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2. 1st in a Series.

I always enjoy reading series so this challenge fits well. Hosted by J. Kaye’s Book Blog (Jan 1st – Dec 31st). The idea is to read the 1st novel in 12 different series. I hope to start new series in this challenge and to catch up on series I’ve missed. I’m not organized enough to list all the books I hope to read but the first one I’d like to start on is:

1. Devils on Horseback: Nate by Beth Williamson.

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My special guest today is author Josh Lanyon. Josh writes for several publishers including Loose Id and MLR Press.

I’m now eagerly awaiting the August release of Death of a Pirate King, the fourth story in the Adrien English series. And all this brings me neatly to the topic of the day–writing a series.

Read the rest of this entry ?

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