Shelley Munro Blog

I’m guest blogging over at Access Romance today, doing a special Tell-tale about my Middlemarch Mates series. Come on over and say hi.

My next release, Cat and Mouse is due out on 1 October. I panicked a little when I realized it was just over a week away. Duncan Ross, the hero, is a feline shifter. He also participates in rodeos as a bull rider, hence the topic for my TT today.
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A few months ago I purchased magnetic signs from VistaPrint for my car. They feature Midnight Treat and were so pretty when they arrived my husband suggested I take them on holiday. We’ve slapped them on the rental car. Here’s a photo of shelleymunro.com on tour.

1. Middlemarch is a small country town, in Central Otago, New Zealand. It is about 80 km West of Dunedin. It’s located in the Strath Taieri Valley.

2. Several suggestions exist about how the township was named. One is that Mrs Alice Humphreys, whose husband Edward Wingfield Humphreys owned and had surveyed for sale of sections in this new township, was reading George Eliot’s novel Middlemarch. Another is that the name is from the obsolete English term “march” meaning a boundary - in this case a middle area between two rivers.

3. Middlemarch is the setting for my feline shapeshifter series, Middlemarch Mates.

4. Each year Middlemarch holds a singles dance and a special train (nicknamed the Love Train) carries women and men to the dance from Dunedin.

5. HOW IT ALL BEGAN - the dance.

In November last year our Community Board was presented with some statistics about rural health and other services in this area. As part of her presentation, Pauline Carruthers, the local Plunket Nurse, District Nurse and at that time only local practise nurse in the area, noted that we needed more nurses and made the flippant comment that we should marry some of our bachelors off to some nurses.

The Community Board took the idea one step further and suggested to the local A & P Society that it would arrange for the sponsor of the Dance for its Centenary Show. We contacted Country & City Contacts (NZ) Ltd. They are an Amberley-based dating service that has had huge success in the rural areas, especially of the South Island. Henk & Joy van Leir were enthusiastic and supportive of the idea of publicising the dance as a good place for their clients to meet each other and also some of our bachelors.

6. The area has some rare creatures - the mountain weta, the Otago and Grand skinks and the NZ falcon.

7. The area is also home to the Sutton Salt Lake. The water in the lake evaporates during the summer.

8. There are also special clouds in the area called the Tairei Pet. A cloud formation reportedly found only in one or two places in the world. It is formed by high north westerly winds being forced upward over the Rock & Pillar range - spectacular and unnerving by its sheer size and its association with the high winds.

9. It is the start of the 150km Otago Central Rail Trail, a path that stretches from Middlemarch to Clyde. People can walk, cycle or ride horses along this path, staying overnight at stops on the way.

10. As I mentioned earlier, there’s a train from Dunedin. It travels through the spectacular Tairei Gorge and is popular with tourists.

11. Scarlet Woman, Peeping Tom and Stray Cat Strut are all set in Middlemarch and feature various members of the Mitchell family.

12. Go here to learn about how the series was born, plus there are photos. There are also Middlemarch photos here.

13. Assassin, Middlemarch Mates book 4 is coming on August 6.

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.

Do you like small town settings or do you prefer sophisticated city settings for your romances?

Rubies are the birthstone for July, and the gemstone featured in my new release, Price of Love.

Rarer than diamonds, emeralds and sapphires, rubies come in various shades of red from orange-red, pink and purple red with the most valuable being a deep red color. The stones are located in parts of Asia such as Thailand and Myanmar and also Australia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and America. Myanmar is the most well-known source of rubies, and it’s this country where Price of Love is set.

Here are some other facts about rubies:

1. The name comes from ruber, which is Latin for red.

2. The common red color is caused mainly by the element chromium.

3. People have mined rubies for over 5000 years, many cultures believing they have the power to heal and protect.

4. They were thought to cure bleeding, and a stone which turned darker was thought to warn its owner of impending disaster, misfortune, illness and even death.

5. Some people say the ruby’s red glow comes from an internal flame that can’t be extinguished, making the stone a symbol of everlasting love.

6. Some ancient tribes used to use rubies as bullets for their blowguns.

7. Ground rubies placed on the tongue cures indigestion. (I don’t know about you, but who can afford to do this with a ruby?)

8. A synthetic ruby crystal was used to create the first laser.

9. The ruby is the most commonly named precious stone in the Bible.

10. Rubies were popular with royals and used in prediction and as protection against vulnerability.

In Price of Love, the rubies are used as a bride price. When a young shifter male wishes to mate, he must present his prospective mate’s family with rubies. Here’s the blurb:

Tiger Kersen Amat wants to marry leopard Jarita Namar. All he needs to do is find rubies for the bride price and woo the sexy shifter. Unknown to him Jarita is already interested. When they meet in the Burmese jungle sparks fly, along with love and laughter. Mutual pleasure explodes, sweet, erotic and compelling, until thieves intent on stealing rubies intrude. A disaster since without the rubies there’s no bride price and their courtship will be doomed. Obtaining Jarita, a jewel beyond price, as his mate might take more than rubies and seduction…

Price of Love is out from Ellora’s Cave on 2 July, which is today. Grab your copy here.

According to literary agent, Kristin Nelson, dogs are hot at the moment and editors are searching for both fiction and nonfiction projects relating to dogs after the recent success of Marley & Me. Kristin says The Art of Racing in the Rain is also another success story.

I’d like to say I beat the trend with my Talking Dog series at Ellora’s Cave. If you enjoy dog stories, humor and romance check out Talking Dogs, Aliens and Purple People Eaters, Never Send a Dog to do a Woman’s Job, or Romantic Interlude which all feature Killer, the talking dog. Romancing the Alien is a print combo of the first two Talking Dogs books.

It’s time for a cup of tea, so in the immortal words of Killer - “Do ya have any food?”

I’m running a contest and giving away copies of some of my Ellora’s Cave Quickies. For full details go to my contest page. Good luck!

This is the cover for my next release, Price of Love, which is due out on 2 July. I really like this gem cover. This is my favorite so far, although the pearl one is a close second. Price of Love is a feline shifter story and here’s a link to an excerpt.

Woohoo! Midnight Treat is officially out today. It’s a paranormal anthology featuring a gagoyle, a vampire and a werewolf. I’m looking at my own copy right now. In fact, I’ve stroked it a couple of times. It’s very pretty!

WANTED: Kissable bachelor with fangs seeks soft, sexy lady for a kinky good time. Meet me at midnight….

SALLY PAINTER
To Kiss a Gargoyle

Tempted by the half-man/half-lion statue perched outside her high-rise office window, Marcy puts her hot lips on his rock-hard body, bringing the towering, muscular stud to life — along with her wildest fantasies.

MARGARET L. CARTER
Tall, Dark and Deadly

After a business meeting with irresistible leading man Claude Darvell ends in carnal ecstasy, Eloise learns he’s no actor — he’s a vampire — and his seductive bite arouses her erotic appetite.

SHELLEY MUNRO
Curse of Brandon Lupinus

The gorgeous hunk who haunts Jess’s dreams shows up in the flesh, claiming to be a ghostly eighteenth-century werewolf — and together they indulge in some naughty bedroom play that leaves both of them panting for more.

About Gargoyles and To Kiss a Gargoyle by Sally Painter:

To Kiss a Gargoyle is pure fantasy. The idea came to me one day when I was thinking about gargoyles and how I’d like to write a story about them. That was in 2000 and I didn’t send the book out until nearly six years when I brushed it off to revamp for an erotic romance. I always enjoyed the gargoyle cartoons and the idea of being trapped inside a stone statue, specifically a gargoyle statue, intrigued me. Gargoyles are rather unknown creatures of the night and therefore very mysterious. They lend themselves to many stories and each can be very different. Some I’ve written were born as gargoyles, while others have been held spellbound. Also, the rules of their world can all be different. There’s a lot to work with when writing about a gargoyle.

So when I wrote To Kiss a Gargoyle, I thought what if a woman had an office overlooking a sexy half-man, half-lion gargoyle statue hanging off a ledge. For the past three years she’s talked to him as though he’s a real man and her fascination evolves into sexual fantasies about him coming to life and transforming into the man of her dreams. Marcy was the perfect heroine for such a scenario only her fantasies escalate until the statue she’s named Leonardo, becomes an obsession. She’s consumed by a compulsion to climb outside her high-rise onto the narrow ledge to kiss him. Just one kiss is all she craves. So, in that respect, the story is a kind of reverse-gender sleeping beauty - only with a gargoyle twist.

About Vampires and Tall, Dark and Deadly by Margaret L. Carter:

“Tall, Dark, and Deadly” belongs to my “Vanishing Breed” vampire universe, about a nonhuman, non-supernatural species of vampires living secretly among us. I’ve been an ardent vampire fan ever since reading DRACULA at the age of twelve, and even then, I wondered about the “monster’s” viewpoint on the story. Not only did the motif of sharing blood appeal to me as intimate and sensual, I was intrigued by the mental and emotional inner life of a creature who is almost human and yet, in some essential ways, alien. So I’ve always written fiction about sympathetic vampires. When my husband’s SF story “Vanishing Breed” appeared in my first published book, an anthology called CURSE OF THE UNDEAD (1970), I loved the idea of vampires as a natural species and was eventually inspired to convert my fictional vampires from the traditional undead into the SF type.

Claude in “Tall, Dark, and Deadly” is the half-brother of Roger Darvell, the vampire-human hybrid protagonist of my first vampire novel, DARK CHANGELING. Claude, however, was originally created independently in a short wish-fulfillment tale many years earlier, about a writer who meets an actor at a convention and finds out he’s a ravishing vampire. Claude began as a sort of Christopher Lee type of actor, and I still visualize his physical appearance as a cross between Lee in the early Hammer Dracula films and a young Lord Byron. The female writer in that story was a pure Mary Sue character. Eloise, as she eventually grew into the character who now appears in “Tall, Dark, and Deadly” as well as in CHILD OF TWILIGHT (sequel to DARK CHANGELING), remained an idealized version of myself—better looking, more confident, and more successful.

The complete chronology of the “Vanishing Breed” universe appears on my website.

About Werewolves, Ghosts and Curse of Brandon Lupinus by Shelley Munro:

I love ghost stories. I also love werewolf stories, and it came to me one day in a flash of brilliance. Why don’t I combine the two story elements? Once the original idea came to me, I embellished it in my head, as I do during the plotting stage. I thought about a man and a curse. I thought about the setting and decided an old estate in a British village would work nicely. I thought about my favorite historical time period, which is Georgian, by the way. I thought about an old ghost poem my mother used to read to her classes when she was a schoolteacher. Finally, I stirred all these ideas together and Curse of Brandon Lupinus was born.

Brandon Lupinus suffers from a curse and is forced to stay at his old estate, never seen, but sometimes his howls echo through the hills. The locals whisper of ghosts and wolves. None of this frightens Jess Whittlebury who falls in love with the estate and spends time lovingly restoring the old house. Jess fascinates Brandon and then he discovers she can sense him, feel his presence. If only he could break the curse…

Purchase your copy at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Fishpond or your favorite book store.

In honor of my Pearl themed release, LOVERS AT LAST here are a few snippets about pearls.

1. Pearl is the official birthstone for the month of June. (as adopted by the American National Association of Jewelers in 1912)

2. Pearls are formed inside mollusks such as oysters and mussels. They are formed when an irritant (a tiny stone or bit of sand) gets inside the mollusk’s shell. A lustrous substance called nacre is secreted around the foreign object to protect the interior of the mollusk. The layers of nacre make a pearl and can take up to seven or eight years to form.

3. The most valuable pearls are perfectly symmetrical and naturally produced. Most of the principal oyster beds are in the Persian Gulf, along the coasts of India and Sri Lanka and in the Red Sea.

4. Once pearls were thought to be the tears of the gods. Greeks believed that wearing pearls would promote marital bliss and prevent newlywed women from crying.

5. Pearls are thought to give wisdom through experience, to quicken the laws of karma and cement engagements and love relationships.

6. Pearls vary in color from white to those with a hint of color such as pink, brown or black.

7. Pearls are quite soft.

8. Ancient Chinese literature refer to pearls as originating in the brain of a dragon and being lustrous and visible from a thousand yards.

9. Queen Elizabeth 1 loved pearls and wore them around her neck in ropes and embroidered on her dresses.

10. In the 1800s freshwater pearls were found in US rivers. The most famous one was found in 1857 in Patterson, NJ. It was sold to Charles Tiffany for $1500 and later resold for $2500.

11. In the 15th to 17th century people thought pearls were actually the eggs of oysters.

12. Pearls were considered the ideal wedding gifts because they symbolize purity and innocence.

13. During the month of June Ellora’s Cave has several releases all featuring the pearl. Lovers at Last by Shelley Munro (that’s me!) is the first release.

Do you like pearls?