Halloween Hump Day Hook!

Halloween is one of those magical, special days, when imagination can run amuck for good or for bad.  It brings out the chills on our skin and makes our heart beat a little faster.  I love taking my son trick or treating on Halloween night and seeing all the decorations, screaming when the boogyman jumps out from the bushes, and seeing all the great costumes.

This is my favorite holiday.

For my paragraph this week, I decided to stick with the Halloween theme.  This is taken from my upcoming novel, titled Otherworldly, which is book one in a trilogy.  The heroine, Charlotte, is clairvoyant but this is the first time she actually hears a ghost.  For this particular moment I wanted to have a gothic feeling and the scene plays out well.  I hope you enjoy reading this paragraph!

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          As Charlotte followed after Mrs. Braddock-Masters and Jonas she felt the coolness of the house settle into her bones and she slowed her pace, falling behind as they walked to the dinning room.  The rambling mansion really was too large for one person, let alone an older woman.  The cathedral ceilings supported wide, ornate crown molding expertly fitted the acute angled design of the gable wall.  Over time the sharp, clean feeling of the white paint had faded to a dull grey, lending to the air of age and neglect.  The white marble floor had been a fashion statement at the height of its heyday but now gleamed like a polished tombstone.  But underneath the meticulously well preserved gothic home something wormed its way under Charlotte’s skin and she shivered. 

        “Help.”
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Happy Halloween!  

Hump Day Hook- 24 October

 

  http://kerriannecoombes.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/1088/

I almost forgot to post my paragraph this week for Hump Day Hook!  Since I just came off the Alpha Male Blog Hop where I featured my heroes from The Song Bird and The Scarlet Dove, I thought I’d give a look into one of my Alphas, Eli Masters.  He’s strong, driven and very good with cards, but more importantly, he’ll do just about anything for the people he loves.

So let’s see how Eli met Jason…

“As usual, Jason fell into step beside him as they left the auditorium. Eli had been sixteen, on the streets in Philadelphia, picking fights and doing what he had to do to survive. Life was difficult but manageable, until the day a few street kids had picked a fight over territory, and he’d been outnumbered. He was getting the shit beat out of him, and saw a knife flash, when all of a sudden, another boy had jumped into the fray. Dazed and half unconscious, all he saw was a swish of blond hair.”

-page 23 from The Song Bird

Blog Hop Update & Winners!

What a fantastic blog outcome!  Thank you all for visiting with me and writing such fabulous comments. 

I love Alpha Males and last night I went through my bookshelf picking out my favorites from between the pages.  I love the reformed rakes so one of my top picks is Sebastian, Lord St. Vincent from Lisa Kleypas’s Devil in Winter.

Ms. Kleypas writes many a tortured soul so I also have to give a shout out to Kev Merripen from Seduce me at Sunrise and Derrick Craven from Dreaming of You.  I also love Johnny Heaven from Jet Mykles’ Heaven Sent.  Of course, I know that I’m forgetting so many because there are so many great and wonderful Alpha Males!

From television I always like Horatio Caine from CSI Miami.  And Christian Bale in…well, just about anything.  Let’s not even get started on the men of True Blood!

Having so many responses to my blog, I decided that I would have two winners!  So early this morning, my son picked the names JeanMP and Misha!  Both women have been contacted. 

I’ll also be participating in the Autum Harvest Blog Hop Nov. 9-12^th, so if you didn’t get a chance to win this time stop by then!  Again, thanks so much!

Alpha Males- Yum! - Blog Hop

http://carrieannbloghops.blogspot.com/

We all love Alpha Men, the no-holds-barred take-no-prisoner type of man who makes our panties wet and turns our senses to mush.  An Alpha man knows how to manage time, focuses on living life as much as he can in twenty-four hours.  An Alpha man wants to make a good life for his mate.  He not only has muscles and is able to defend his mate, but he has good sense, not to mean that he’s always a genus but that he’s able to reason things out.  He takes risks, he’s goal oriented, and he never takes no for an answer.

Writing a ménage can be tricky because there has to be an Alpha and there has to be a Beta who is able to take command and yet also be able to stand toe to toe with the Alpha.  He has to be just as sexy and able to balance the Alpha out.  It’s a delicate dance of harmony creating two equally mouth-watering men and writing them in a way that makes it believable that the heroine could fall for both. 

I think I’ve managed it to do that in my latest two books.  In The Scarlet Dove, Apollo Beck is clearly the Alpha while his cousin Blue is the Beta.  But don’t underestimate Blue.  He’s half Indian and all warrior, and he’ll do anything to keep his cousin ad the love of his life, Liza, safe.

As for The Song Bird, Eli James is definitely driven, aggressive and powerful, and he’s found Jason Braddock, who tempers him evenly.  They are partners in every sense of the word, but his world comes crashing down when he realizes Jason wants a family.  So he hatches an idea and when he sees Avilon, he comes up with a plan.

Of course, there’s danger and adventure in both books!  Each book sets up a fictional city that is the basis for an upcoming contemporary trilogy coming in 2013.  It’s a sort of Ghost Whisperer meets Cold Case and I’m so excited about the three books, so keep an eye out for them!  In the meantime, here’s a chance to win one of the books that sets up this series.  To win the PDF copy of either The Scarlet Dove or The Song Bird, just leave a comment saying who has been your favorite Alpha Male in any series, book or tv/film role!  Thanks so much for visiting my blog and make sure to visit the other blogs in the hop! 

Hump Day Hook!

My friend author Kerrianne Coembes is having a Hump Day Hook, and I was fortunate enough to become involved!  The idea is to post one paragraph from a work in progress or from a completed story to get feedback and to meet other authors and readers!

What a fantastic idea!

This week I wanted to post a WIP.  I'm busy writing a contemporary trilogy and my heroine, Charlotte Perth, is a firecracker and she has a special talent.  She's clairvoyant and her specialty is communicating with people who have been murdered.  She takes a case that brings into contact with Homicide Detective Jonas Daire and needless to say, we have the story of a man who doesn't believe matched against a woman who now has to find his missing cousin:

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Jonas didn’t say anything.  They rode the rest of the way in silence until he turned into the driveway of a two story brick home.  Charlotte’s mouth dropped a bit because this hadn’t been what she expected when Jonas mentioned his house.  She didn’t know what she had imagined but it certainly hadn’t been such a modern family home.  White painted accents brought out the deep rich red of the brick.  The porch held a swing on one end and two wicker chairs on the other and Charlotte could imagine her and Jonas nestled together on the swing, staring at the sunset, relaxing at the end of the day.

What?

“What?” he asked.

“What?” she asked back, suddenly nervous he could read her mind.

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I hope you really enjoyed this paragraph from the upcoming series I'm called "Perth, McKnight & Daire".  Please be sure to visit the others in the Hump Day Hook Blog!

http://kerriannecoombes.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/hump-day-hook/

Release Day- The Song Bird! Win a free copy!

History is filled with exciting adventures and it's a genre I love to explore.  In the past I've written about the old west (The Scarlet Dove, Lawless Hearts) and Regency England (An Innocent Heart) because I've read so much on these time periods.  So when I decided to write about a point in between I was stretching out of my comfort zone.  But as a writer, not only is it my job to push boundaries, its breathing life into my creativity.  I had to research clothing, money, structure of the United States, history of California, as well as figuring out how someone would travel from Louisiana to San Francisco because the railroad wasn't in place.  All these little nuances bring a story to life and I was excited to feature a woman full of spirit and kindness in a world where those traits were almost lost.

Though The Song Bird starts in San Francisco, it ends in a place I created called Alecia Falls, Washington.  This city, along with the one in The Scarlet Dove, sets up two places that are the basis for an upcoming trilogy coming in 2013 tentatively titled the Perth, McKnight & Daire stories.  Book 1 is complete and I'm steady working on Book 2.  I'm very excited about these stories and hope that you'll love the characters as much as I do.

But for now, let me introduce The Song Bird:

Avilon Chambert travels to the wild city of San Francisco to find her missing sister.  All she has is a letter explaining she’s in terrible trouble and that she’s been working as an upstairs girl in a club owned by two handsome men, Eli Masters and Jason Braddock.

When she arrives at the club, the only way she can get to talk to them is by auditioning for the singing position, and she captivates them by her beautiful operatic voice.  But the answers to her questions are vague and filled with holes, rousing her suspicions.

Her arrival at the club seems to set off a chain of events filled with danger.  As she searches further for her sister, she unleashes the wrath of a madman bent of revenge, threatening to destroy everything and every one she’s come to love.

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To win a FREE PDF copy, all you have to do is leave a comment!  That's it!  The winner will be notified Thursday via email so please leave me a way to get in touch with you!  Thank you so much for visiting my blog and enjoy my book trailer posted below!

Blog Hop Update

I have so many birthdays to celebrate the beginning of October.  My boyfriend of 12 years, Brian, has his 40^th birthday on October 2^nd so I had a surprise party for him this past Saturday at the Laser Tag in Sherman Oaks.  He had a wonderful time! 

Among the birthdays I had to celebrate, I also participated in a blog hop that TRR was running.  Thanks to all who read my blog and left a message.  I really appreciate everyone who takes time to visit my site! 

I have a new book due out October 10^th from Siren titled The Song Bird.  I love setting romance inside the confines of historical places filled with danger and so for this book I chose the very dangerous world of San Francisco in 1855.  Set a few years after the discovery of gold, The Song Bird tells the story of one woman’s struggle to find her missing sister, whose last known address was working as an upstairs prostitute for two men named Eli Masters and Jason Braddock: 

Avilon Chambert travels to the wild city of San Francisco to find her missing sister.  All she has is a letter explaining she’s in terrible trouble and that she’s been working as an upstairs girl in a club owned by two handsome men, Eli Masters and Jason Braddock.

When she arrives at the club, the only way she can get to talk to them is by auditioning for the singing position, and she captivates them by her beautiful operatic voice.  But the answers to her questions are vague and filled with holes, rousing her suspicions.

Her arrival at the club seems to set off a chain of events filled with danger.  As she searches further for her sister, she unleashes the wrath of a madman bent of revenge, threatening to destroy everything and every one she’s come to love.

So please stop by October for a chance to win a free PDF copy!

As for the winners of this blog hop, I had my lovely assistant (AKA my six year old son) pick out a name!  Congrats to…Kerry Sullivan!  Again, thanks to all who left their comments and gave me book titles to add to my To Read List!