Felicity Heaton's Blog, page 81
June 10, 2012
Masquerade Book Tour stops at Grave Tells and Page Flipperz - Win signed paperbacks and enter into the KINDLE TOUCH giveaway!
The Masquerade Book Tour stopped yesterday at Grave Tells , where I talked about the difficulties of writing Masquerade and a hero and heroine at war with each other, and then today it stops at Page Flipperz , where I talk more about the hero, Vivek, and how troublesome he was!
At Grave Tells, you can enter a competition to win signed a personalised paperback copy of Seventh Circle (Vampires Realm romance series #7) as well as signed swag. At Page Flipperz you can enter to win a signed personalised paperback copy of Winter's Kiss (Vampires Realm romance series #8) and signed swag. Both are open internationally.
You can also enter the Grand Giveaway at the Masquerade Book Tour page on my website, where you could win an AMAZON KINDLE TOUCH together with ebooks 1-9 of the Vampires Realm series and other fantastic prizes.
Tomorrow, I will be stopping at Romance Book Junkies to interview my troublesome hero, Vivek. Join me there for another chance to win!
Here's a full breakdown, including links to the stops so far and a list of future stops.
MASQUERADE BOOK TOUR
June 1st@ The Romance Studio
Author Interview
June 4th@ Fang-tastic Books
Introducing the Vampires Realm series
June 5th@ The Jeep Diva
Enter the world of the seven pure bloodlines
June 8th@ Bookin It Reviews
Character Interview with Sophis
June 9th@ Grave Tells
Writing Masquerade
June 10th@ Page Flipperz
Writing Vivek, Masquerade's hero
June 11th@ Romance Book Junkies
Character Interview with Vivek
June 13th@ Under The Covers Book Blog
Writing Sophis, Masquerade's heroine
June 14th@ United By Books
Writing the Vampires Realm series
June 15th@ Fictional Candy
The Creator Day Masquerade - Gathering old and new characters
June 16th@ Romancing the Darkside
Character Interview with Tynan
June 18th@ Riverina Romantics
Books in the Vampires Realm series
June 19th@ Bitten by Paranormal Romance
What's next in the Vampires Realm series
Is your publishing house really helping you promote by emailing websites, or is it drive-by spamming? AKA why must marketing people spam Vampires Realm with review/publicity requests?
I'm normally quite a patient author, but over the past year I've been dealing with a plague that has become increasingly frustrating, and it has led me to wonder what damage publishing companies do to a book's sales or reputation with their drive-by copy-paste spamming of websites begging them for reviews and promotion.
I don't suffer this problem on my main website contact form, but I get at least 2-3 emails a month at my Vampires Realm official website slamming my eyeballs with a long boring email about some author's latest book and wouldn't I love to review it and promote it for them on my website. Um, no, and now I'll never buy a book by this author, either.
Now, if these drive-by spammers took a moment to actually look at my website rather than just searching for something like "vampire reviews" or "vampire book reviews" in Google and picking out my website because of its name, and then going straight to my contact form to spam me with a pointless request, they would see that it is rather obviously a website for a romance book series by a single author. NOT A REVIEW SITE.
Let's take a look at the glaring neon signs that make this obvious to most people who aren't racing through as many sites as possible sending out copy-paste totally lacking in personalisation emails in an effort to get their authors books and names turned to mud in the site owners' minds.
For a start, the title of the website in their browser mentions the website is a series by F E Heaton! Then there's the Contact menu that actually lists my "author site" and my author Facebook and Twitter links, but if that wasn't evidence enough that this is a site for just one author's vampire romance series, then the fact that every book on the left side bar, and the home page happens to be written by the same author, a mysterious "F E Heaton", should have switched on that light bulb in their head.
There's also a Bio that explains my love of writing vampires and my series... and all that information about a single world... and again... all those books with just my name on it, all labelled as Vampires Realm series book X...
The latest offender was someone from Orion Nova trying to goad me into interviewing a guy about some upcoming comic. I'm not going to mention it... because I would be advertising it, and I don't advertise for spammers who can't even do me the courtesy of running an eye over my website before hitting the contact form. Honestly, publishing houses, you would do better to take 20 seconds to check out a website before you spam them, because otherwise you're just incredibly rude. From today, I will never buy a book by Nancy Holder, Scott Nicholson, or any of the other authors this guy spammed me about.
Of course, my standard response to these emails is to point out that I too write a vampire series, and while I'm not interested in promoting the competition, I'd certainly be interested in them taking a look at my books for their publishing company. I just don't understand why they never reply back.
I don't suffer this problem on my main website contact form, but I get at least 2-3 emails a month at my Vampires Realm official website slamming my eyeballs with a long boring email about some author's latest book and wouldn't I love to review it and promote it for them on my website. Um, no, and now I'll never buy a book by this author, either.
Now, if these drive-by spammers took a moment to actually look at my website rather than just searching for something like "vampire reviews" or "vampire book reviews" in Google and picking out my website because of its name, and then going straight to my contact form to spam me with a pointless request, they would see that it is rather obviously a website for a romance book series by a single author. NOT A REVIEW SITE.
Let's take a look at the glaring neon signs that make this obvious to most people who aren't racing through as many sites as possible sending out copy-paste totally lacking in personalisation emails in an effort to get their authors books and names turned to mud in the site owners' minds.
For a start, the title of the website in their browser mentions the website is a series by F E Heaton! Then there's the Contact menu that actually lists my "author site" and my author Facebook and Twitter links, but if that wasn't evidence enough that this is a site for just one author's vampire romance series, then the fact that every book on the left side bar, and the home page happens to be written by the same author, a mysterious "F E Heaton", should have switched on that light bulb in their head.
There's also a Bio that explains my love of writing vampires and my series... and all that information about a single world... and again... all those books with just my name on it, all labelled as Vampires Realm series book X...
The latest offender was someone from Orion Nova trying to goad me into interviewing a guy about some upcoming comic. I'm not going to mention it... because I would be advertising it, and I don't advertise for spammers who can't even do me the courtesy of running an eye over my website before hitting the contact form. Honestly, publishing houses, you would do better to take 20 seconds to check out a website before you spam them, because otherwise you're just incredibly rude. From today, I will never buy a book by Nancy Holder, Scott Nicholson, or any of the other authors this guy spammed me about.
Of course, my standard response to these emails is to point out that I too write a vampire series, and while I'm not interested in promoting the competition, I'd certainly be interested in them taking a look at my books for their publishing company. I just don't understand why they never reply back.
June 8, 2012
Masquerade Book Tour stops at Bookin It Reviews to interview Sophis, the heroine!
The Masquerade Book Tour stops today at Bookin It Reviews for an interview with Sophis, the heroine from this latest book in the Vampires Realm romance series.
At Bookin It Reviews, you can enter a competition to win signed a personalised paperback copy of Hunter's Moon (Vampires Realm romance series book 9) , as well as signed swag.
You can also enter the Grand Giveaway at the Masquerade Book Tour page on my website, where you could win an AMAZON KINDLE TOUCH together with ebooks 1-9 of the Vampires Realm series and other fantastic prizes.
Tomorrow, I will be stopping at Grave Tells to talk about writing the book, and then on Sunday I will be visiting Page Flipperz to talk about the hero, Vivek, and all the trouble he caused me. Join me there for another chance to win!
Here's a full breakdown, including links to the stops so far and a list of future stops.
MASQUERADE BOOK TOUR
June 1st@ The Romance Studio
Author Interview
June 4th@ Fang-tastic Books
Introducing the Vampires Realm series
June 5th@ The Jeep Diva
Enter the world of the seven pure bloodlines
June 8th@ Bookin It Reviews
Character Interview with Sophis
June 9th@ Grave Tells
Writing Masquerade
June 10th@ Page Flipperz
Writing Vivek, Masquerade's hero
June 11th@ Romance Book Junkies
Character Interview with Vivek
June 13th@ Under The Covers Book Blog
Writing Sophis, Masquerade's heroine
June 14th@ United By Books
Writing the Vampires Realm series
June 15th@ Fictional Candy
The Creator Day Masquerade - Gathering old and new characters
June 16th@ Romancing the Darkside
Character Interview with Tynan
June 18th@ Riverina Romantics
Books in the Vampires Realm series
June 19th@ Bitten by Paranormal Romance
What's next in the Vampires Realm series
June 7, 2012
Shameless Summer Giveaway Hop - Win signed paperback copy of Covet and Crave!
Shameless Summer Giveaway Hop is hosted by Michelle's Book Blog , Red Hot Books and Romance around the Corner .
Shameless Summer Giveaway Hop runs from 12:01am June 8th through to 11:59pm June 15th 2012. My giveaway is open internationally so everyone can participate.
I'm doing things a little differently this time as I have some books by another fantastic author to give away as well as my own books.
THE PRIZESOne signed paperback of Covet & Crave by Felicity HeatonOne paperback of Fantasy Lover by Sherrilyn KenyonBoth prizes also included some of my fantastic signed book swag that includes cover postcards, bookmarks and trading cards for my books.
HOW TO ENTERSubscribe to this blog using the form below. You must subscribe via FeedBurner to participate. Many people HAVE NOT been doing so in these hops. Your entry doesn't count unless you do this and verify your subscription.Fill in the Rafflecopter form.Leave your name and email address in a comment.If you want to do the extra entries, feel free to do them!
SUBSCRIBE AND ENTEREnter your email address:
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VISIT THE OTHER BLOGS IN THE HOP
Planning a massive Vampire Erotic Theatre romance series summer book tour and Her Demonic Angel book tour
I was hard at work yesterday getting on with the second draft edit of Her Demonic Angel, the fifth book in my Her Angel romance series. Between bouts of editing, because my brain often needs a few minutes break now and then otherwise it just disengages completely, I decided to plan out a book tour for Seduce, the next book in my Vampire Erotic Theatre romance series, which is due out this month.
So, I was planning it and then pondered whether I actually gone on tour with Crave, the second book in the series. Turns out that I didn't tour with that book due to time constraints. I calculated the time between the release of Seduce in June and the release of Enslave in August, and then figured I could do one massive summer book tour for the entire series. I did tour with Covet back in January/February but I feel that book and the characters should be included in the tour. It is going to be a grand affair too. I've written down a list of potential posts I could write for the tour and it comes out at 31 posts. I think that works quite well for a tour that will run from July 1st to August 31st.
Because I fell into some sort of book tour planning fever, I decided to plan out the tour for Her Demonic Angel too. That one will be much smaller, more like my usual book tours, with only 10-15 stops. I will probably tour throughout October with Her Demonic Angel.
Earlier in the year I debated whether book tours were worth it in terms of the time it takes me to arrange dates with blogs, write the posts, and then promote the posts and the tour versus using that same amount of time to work on my books instead. I know that marketing is a key part of selling books, but it's very tempting to just leave the promotion side of things to adverts and reviews and use those book tour hours for writing or editing.
A small book tour of 10 or 15 stops can often take me around 20 hours in total. It doesn't sound like much, but I can write 40,000 words in that time. That's another novella, or half / a third of a novel (depending on length). Plus, if I tour with each book I release in a year, it can soon add up to 100 hours. That's 200,000 words written. Two decent length novels. Five novellas. You get the picture.
I'm going to try tours again this year though and see if they benefit me. If I don't see much benefit in terms of sales from the remaining tours this year, I might avoid them altogether next year and just use the time to write more books.
Hopefully the Vampire Erotic Theatre and Her Demonic Angel tours will provide some positive results and I'll find touring worthwhile and will do it all over again next year.
So, I was planning it and then pondered whether I actually gone on tour with Crave, the second book in the series. Turns out that I didn't tour with that book due to time constraints. I calculated the time between the release of Seduce in June and the release of Enslave in August, and then figured I could do one massive summer book tour for the entire series. I did tour with Covet back in January/February but I feel that book and the characters should be included in the tour. It is going to be a grand affair too. I've written down a list of potential posts I could write for the tour and it comes out at 31 posts. I think that works quite well for a tour that will run from July 1st to August 31st.
Because I fell into some sort of book tour planning fever, I decided to plan out the tour for Her Demonic Angel too. That one will be much smaller, more like my usual book tours, with only 10-15 stops. I will probably tour throughout October with Her Demonic Angel.
Earlier in the year I debated whether book tours were worth it in terms of the time it takes me to arrange dates with blogs, write the posts, and then promote the posts and the tour versus using that same amount of time to work on my books instead. I know that marketing is a key part of selling books, but it's very tempting to just leave the promotion side of things to adverts and reviews and use those book tour hours for writing or editing.
A small book tour of 10 or 15 stops can often take me around 20 hours in total. It doesn't sound like much, but I can write 40,000 words in that time. That's another novella, or half / a third of a novel (depending on length). Plus, if I tour with each book I release in a year, it can soon add up to 100 hours. That's 200,000 words written. Two decent length novels. Five novellas. You get the picture.
I'm going to try tours again this year though and see if they benefit me. If I don't see much benefit in terms of sales from the remaining tours this year, I might avoid them altogether next year and just use the time to write more books.
Hopefully the Vampire Erotic Theatre and Her Demonic Angel tours will provide some positive results and I'll find touring worthwhile and will do it all over again next year.
June 6, 2012
Social networking, otherwise known as the great time-suck
I love to socialise on Facebook and Twitter. Nothing pleases me more than interacting with readers, or posting updates about books and my work, or talking about my latest reviews or tour stops. The trouble is, social networking is a huge time-suck. Every author can tell you this... actually, every person in the world who uses these networks can tell you this. It's all too easy to procrastinate on Facebook and before you know it, two hours have passed and you haven't done much.
I've been thinking a lot lately about streamlining my social networking to maximise my writing time. I'm going to focus more on just updating with news about my books, links to book tour posts, competitions, etc. I know this takes away a large amount of my daily pleasure because I honestly do love chatting it up on Facebook or Twitter, but it gives to me too. I find that when I avoid spending much time at these two social networks in particular, that I feel more positive about my writing, my books, and being an author. I have a brighter outlook because I'm not looking at what other authors are doing, or how many people mention their new release, latest blog post, how fab they are. You get it. Facebook and Twitter are just another popularity contest, and if you're like me and don't garner much word of mouth (I have a theory it's because people think I don't need the help for some reason... either that or my books suck) but see others getting praised, you get a bit disheartened. I hate the questions that follow a daily trip to my Facebook home feed. Why don't people talk about my books? What makes that author so popular? What am I doing wrong? Personally, I can live without the drain on my positive energy and I'm willing to sacrifice the pleasure I gain from socialising in order to avoid the pain of the popularity contest.
It's wrong of authors to compare themselves to others, measure our success against someone else's, or just pose the questions I did above, but we're human. Just like you might wonder why person X in your office gets praise from your boss when you don't and you both seem to be making the same amount of effort, a lot of authors wonder why another author gets popular and we're left standing in the mud.
Streamlining my social networking isn't just about avoiding heartache though. It will give me more time to write and is a step towards looking more professional. Yes, I know this post may go against the "looking professional" part of what I just wrote, but I wanted to talk about my reasons with everyone rather than just disappear and leaving you all wondering where I had gone.
I will still be using Facebook and Twitter to tell everyone about book updates, tour news, giveaways, and other stuff. I will just be keeping the personal posting to a minimum.
I plan to use some of the time I used to spend procrastinating on the networks to blog more too, talking about my books, my writing process, characters, and future stories I have been working on. The bonus is, if you're reading this and don't really surf the networks, you'll probably be seeing more than me, not less.
Plus, you could just end up getting more books out of me!
So, there it is. My grand master plan to avoid the great time-suck / positivity-suck and get some serious work done in the process. I'll still be around, just not as much, and will still respond to all comments left for me at Facebook, Twitter and my blog. Don't panic! I just have too many books to write and too little time, and want to keep my spirits up and pretend the popularity contest doesn't exist.
I've been thinking a lot lately about streamlining my social networking to maximise my writing time. I'm going to focus more on just updating with news about my books, links to book tour posts, competitions, etc. I know this takes away a large amount of my daily pleasure because I honestly do love chatting it up on Facebook or Twitter, but it gives to me too. I find that when I avoid spending much time at these two social networks in particular, that I feel more positive about my writing, my books, and being an author. I have a brighter outlook because I'm not looking at what other authors are doing, or how many people mention their new release, latest blog post, how fab they are. You get it. Facebook and Twitter are just another popularity contest, and if you're like me and don't garner much word of mouth (I have a theory it's because people think I don't need the help for some reason... either that or my books suck) but see others getting praised, you get a bit disheartened. I hate the questions that follow a daily trip to my Facebook home feed. Why don't people talk about my books? What makes that author so popular? What am I doing wrong? Personally, I can live without the drain on my positive energy and I'm willing to sacrifice the pleasure I gain from socialising in order to avoid the pain of the popularity contest.
It's wrong of authors to compare themselves to others, measure our success against someone else's, or just pose the questions I did above, but we're human. Just like you might wonder why person X in your office gets praise from your boss when you don't and you both seem to be making the same amount of effort, a lot of authors wonder why another author gets popular and we're left standing in the mud.
Streamlining my social networking isn't just about avoiding heartache though. It will give me more time to write and is a step towards looking more professional. Yes, I know this post may go against the "looking professional" part of what I just wrote, but I wanted to talk about my reasons with everyone rather than just disappear and leaving you all wondering where I had gone.
I will still be using Facebook and Twitter to tell everyone about book updates, tour news, giveaways, and other stuff. I will just be keeping the personal posting to a minimum.
I plan to use some of the time I used to spend procrastinating on the networks to blog more too, talking about my books, my writing process, characters, and future stories I have been working on. The bonus is, if you're reading this and don't really surf the networks, you'll probably be seeing more than me, not less.
Plus, you could just end up getting more books out of me!
So, there it is. My grand master plan to avoid the great time-suck / positivity-suck and get some serious work done in the process. I'll still be around, just not as much, and will still respond to all comments left for me at Facebook, Twitter and my blog. Don't panic! I just have too many books to write and too little time, and want to keep my spirits up and pretend the popularity contest doesn't exist.
Masquerade (Vampires Realm romance series) is now available in paperback on Amazon
I'm excited to announce that
MASQUERADE
, the tenth book in my
Vampires Realm romance series
, is now available in paperback from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. The paperback is just $7.99 or £4.99.
The ebook is available for only $3.99 at Amazon Kindle Stores, my website, Smashwords and All Romance eBooks right now. I'm hoping that the ebook version will soon become available at Barnes and Noble Nook, Apple iBookstore, Kobo Books and Sony Reader Store.
Here's more information on the vampire romance book and where it's available:
Masquerade
F E Heaton
Ten years have passed since Sophis and Vivek, two vampires of the Venia bloodline, came close to death at the hands of twin hunters Aleksis and Izabella Romanov. The events of that night turned Sophis and Vivek against each other, shattering their close friendship and driving them apart.
Now, on the eve of a centenary Creator Day masquerade and at a time when things between them are dangerously close to separating them forever, they uncover a small army of vampire hunters in Saint Petersburg, led by their nemeses, Aleksis and Izabella.
With the safety of the rulers of the seven pure vampire bloodlines in their hands and their chance for vengeance hanging in the balance, can Sophis and Vivek face their past and overcome their differences? Will they realise their true feelings for each other before it’s too late or will the hunters finally claim their lives as their deadly plot to destroy the bloodlines unfolds?
Available in e-book from:
Author's website | Amazon Kindle | Amazon Kindle UK | Amazon Kindle Germany | Amazon Kindle France | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks
Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk
Happy Reading everyone!
The ebook is available for only $3.99 at Amazon Kindle Stores, my website, Smashwords and All Romance eBooks right now. I'm hoping that the ebook version will soon become available at Barnes and Noble Nook, Apple iBookstore, Kobo Books and Sony Reader Store.
Here's more information on the vampire romance book and where it's available:
Masquerade
F E Heaton
Ten years have passed since Sophis and Vivek, two vampires of the Venia bloodline, came close to death at the hands of twin hunters Aleksis and Izabella Romanov. The events of that night turned Sophis and Vivek against each other, shattering their close friendship and driving them apart.
Now, on the eve of a centenary Creator Day masquerade and at a time when things between them are dangerously close to separating them forever, they uncover a small army of vampire hunters in Saint Petersburg, led by their nemeses, Aleksis and Izabella.
With the safety of the rulers of the seven pure vampire bloodlines in their hands and their chance for vengeance hanging in the balance, can Sophis and Vivek face their past and overcome their differences? Will they realise their true feelings for each other before it’s too late or will the hunters finally claim their lives as their deadly plot to destroy the bloodlines unfolds?
Available in e-book from:
Author's website | Amazon Kindle | Amazon Kindle UK | Amazon Kindle Germany | Amazon Kindle France | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks
Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk
Happy Reading everyone!
June 5, 2012
Masquerade Book Tour travels to Fang-tastic Books and The Jeep Diva - Win signed paperbacks!
The Masquerade Book Tour has kicked off with a stop for an interview at The Romance Studio, a visit to Fang-tastic Books to introduce you all to the Vampires Realm series, and then a visit to The Jeep Diva to take a more in-depth look at the world of the seven pure bloodlines of Europe.
At Fang-tastic Books and The Jeep Diva, you can enter competitions to win signed personalised paperbacks from this vampire romance series, as well as signed swag.
You can also enter the Grand Giveaway at the Masquerade Book Tour page on my website, where you could win an AMAZON KINDLE TOUCH together with ebooks 1-9 of the Vampires Realm series and other fantastic prizes.
I'll be updating the blog with information about the tour as the dates happen, and will include links to both the tour page and the blog I'm stopping at so you can enter all the giveaways.
Here's a full breakdown, including links to the stops so far and a list of future stops.
MASQUERADE BOOK TOUR
June 1st@ The Romance Studio
Author Interview
June 4th@ Fang-tastic Books
Introducing the Vampires Realm series
June 5th@ The Jeep Diva
Enter the world of the seven pure bloodlines
June 8th@ Bookin It Reviews
Character Interview with Sophis
June 9th@ Grave Tells
Writing Masquerade
June 10th@ Page Flipperz
Writing Vivek, Masquerade's hero
June 11th@ Romance Book Junkies
Character Interview with Vivek
June 13th@ Under The Covers Book Blog
Writing Sophis, Masquerade's heroine
June 14th@ United By Books
Writing the Vampires Realm series
June 15th@ Fictional Candy
The Creator Day Masquerade - Gathering old and new characters
June 16th@ Romancing the Darkside
Character Interview with Tynan
June 18th@ Riverina Romantics
Books in the Vampires Realm series
June 19th@ Bitten by Paranormal Romance
What's next in the Vampires Realm series
Crave (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series #2) now available at Barnes and Noble Nook
It's finally here! CRAVE has at long last made it to Barnes and Noble for the Nook. I'm sorry it took so long but the delay was down to a problem with Smashwords and Barnes and Noble. I'm not very happy about it either.
But, CRAVE has finally made it to the Nook Store, and is also available at Amazon Kindle, Kobo Books, Sony Reader Store, and also available in paperback as an anthology with COVET.
Here's the blurb, links and even an excerpt from this vampire romance book.
CraveFelicity Heaton
His mind has been set on his work for the past one hundred years. Now a forbidden beauty has stolen his attention and is threatening to steal his heart too.
Callum has come to the city of romance on business, not pleasure, but when he sets eyes on a gorgeous werewolf in a nightclub, he can’t ignore the dark carnal craving she ignites in him. His work for Vampirerotique, the erotic theatre he runs with three other vampires, can wait. The only thing that matters now is satisfying his sinful hunger for a woman who most vampires would consider an enemy.
Kristina is on the run from her pack. Her alpha is intent on forcing her to bear his child and she’s not about to live through the same nightmare as her mother had. When a tall, dark and sexy vampire catches her eye, she can’t believe the ferocity of the desire he unleashes in her or the fact that she enjoys the feel of his eyes on her and his silent pursuit of her in the clubs each night.
When Kristina finally gets a taste of Callum in a forbidden kiss, will she be strong enough to resist the allure of the vampire and his offer to share his bed for a week of unbridled, wild sex, or will she surrender to her own craving for the safety and passion she finds in his embrace?
Available in e-book from:
Author's website | Amazon Kindle | Amazon Kindle UK | Amazon Kindle Germany | Amazon Kindle France | Apple iBookstore US | Apple iBookstore UK | Apple iBookstore Australia | Apple iBookstore Canada | Barnes and Noble | Kobo Books | Sony Reader Store | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks
Available in paperback as COVET and CRAVE in one book:
Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Barnes and Noble
EXCERPTThree weeks had passed since Callum had left London and headed to Paris to scout for performers for a new show at the theatre he ran with three other vampires, and it had been one week since he had last emailed Antoine, the aristocrat pureblood in charge of overseeing the performances at Vampirerotique.
He should have contacted him again by now. It wasn’t as though Callum hadn’t thought about it. He had booted up his laptop and started to type out the email every morning before retiring for the day. Yesterday, he had even reached the point of typing in his name at the end of the email before deleting the entire thing.
Callum leaned his back against the brass rail that edged the curved dark mahogany bar top, his green gaze scanning the occupants of the crowded room, picking out viable prey, potential performers, and identifying the species of each person his eyes fell on. Part of him was still working and it was that part that kept whispering that Antoine wouldn’t be angry with him for disappearing. If he just dropped a brief email or even a text message stating that he was still looking for performers but hadn’t spotted anyone worthy of joining the Vampirerotique family in the past week then Antoine would probably forgive him for disobeying his command to contact him daily.
It would be a lie though.
He had seen several vampires, both male and female, at the nightclubs he had been moving between for the past three weeks. All of them would work well in the theatre and draw the crowds. They were exhibitionists who had been more than comfortable performing private acts in front of the gathered dancers. There had been males who had groped and grinded with their human female prey, and female vampires who had engaged in acts just a whisper away from screwing in the open booths where anyone could see them. All of them had been worthy of him approaching them and giving them the hard sell. Not many of their type refused to audition when they gained an all expenses paid trip to London and the chance to try out for a place in a famous theatre.
There was one female who had stood out amongst the usual crowd last week. She was perfect for the new show that Antoine had in mind, could easily be the star performer, but Callum couldn’t bring himself to approach her and whenever he thought about mentioning her to Antoine, a knot formed deep in his gut.
Callum had ignored the feeling and just satisfied himself with watching her in the club. He had first seen her with another female, one that he had approached during a lull towards the end of the evening. She had eagerly accepted his offer of an audition, even though she knew the sort of place his theatre was and that it didn’t normally look for performers from her species.
Werewolf.
When Antoine had first told him that he would be departing for Paris in search of new talent, and that it wouldn’t just be the usual scouting mission this time but would include seeking werewolves for a special performance, Callum had almost choked on his glass of blood.
Vampirerotique had never hired werewolves before. In fact, he was certain that in the hundred years they had been running the theatre, there had never been a werewolf on stage. Their kind rarely interacted with each other, unless you counted the occasional war. Werewolves didn’t like vampires. The feeling was more than mutual.
Callum had sent three werewolves to audition so far, all female as requested.
This female would be perfect for the show too. She would steal it and make it hers, just as she stole the attention of the entire club as she moved through it with sensual grace that had the eyes of every male and some females on her, and made Callum think about some therianthropes he had met in the past. She had the moves of a feline shifter rather than a werewolf.
Callum could easily imagine her moving on the stage, how she would sidle over to the large vampire males and bring them to their knees with only a seductive sway of her hips and flash of a sultry smile.
Hell, she had Callum on his knees. He had been following her for a week now, shunning his duty in favour of tracking her down each night and watching her from a distance. His new private pleasure. The club she had chosen tonight catered to a mixed crowd, although the humans didn’t know that. One of the male bartenders was a shifter, one was human, and one was a vampire. That surprised Callum. He had never thought he would live to see a vampire working alongside a shifter, but the two young males seemed to get along. He couldn’t sense any bad feelings between them so it wasn’t an act put on for the sake of the patrons and the human bartender.
Callum’s gaze tracked the female through the club, studying how she slid between the dancers, occasionally stopping to work her body against a male. She smiled wickedly at a young human man as he caught her wrist and pulled her against him, twisting her so her back pressed against his front. She wriggled her hips and raised her hands above her head as she slid down the length of her partner and then back up again, almost as tall as he was in her heeled black boots. Her tight dark jeans emphasised lean long legs that Callum had rather disturbingly dreamed about since first seeing her, imagining their slender strong lengths wrapped around his backside as he fucked her. He had dreamed about pushing the loose flowing material of her empire-line top up to reveal the toned plane of her stomach and then kissing it, feeling her body shift beneath him, before continuing and peeling the high waist tucked under her breasts over their full firm globes. He had dipped his head and captured each sweet dusky bud in turn, swirling his tongue around and sucking them until she moaned low in appreciation.
The brunette female werewolf moved on, thanking her temporary partner with a brief brush of her rosy lips across his cheek and a saucy stroke of her palm over his crotch that had Callum ready to speed onto the dance floor and rip the human to shreds.
She was his.
He drew a long slow breath to calm himself, focusing on it and not her, waiting for the need to pass. If he looked at her now, he would be on the dance floor before he realised what he was doing and would be tugging her into his arms, using all of his strength to make it clear to her that she belonged to him now.
Callum shook his head to rid it of the desire to dance with her and feel her body pressing into his, hot and supple under his questing hands. He wouldn’t let her go as easily as the male human had.
He watched her move through the dancers again, twirling and smiling, her wavy soft brown hair dancing with her, tumbling over her shoulders and breasts. Each time she lifted her bare arms in the air, the hem of her top rose, revealing a tantalising flash of her stomach or back. Her jeans rode low on her hips, barely covering her backside and crotch.
She was a vixen, a real predator as she glanced over every man, even those with partners, looking for tonight’s fun. He had seen her leave with a new man every night. A strange urge to follow her and see what she did with them had built inside him until he had no longer been able to resist the need to know. It wasn’t what he had thought it would be and an even stranger feeling had swept through him on realising that she was luring males away to feed on them. Like his kind, werewolves enjoyed the taste of blood and needed it to survive, although they could supplement their need with nourishment from food.
Unlike his kind, werewolves couldn’t turn a human. Her bite wouldn’t change the human into a werewolf. Once she had finished with the man, she had wiped his memory and left him in the alley.
Callum had almost followed her home but had forced himself to return to his hotel instead. The sight of her feeding had given him some seriously erotic dreams and he had woken tonight with a raging erection that hadn’t gone down until he had tended to it.
It was coming back as he watched her, his thoughts diving down routes they shouldn’t be taking. A vampire had no place desiring a werewolf.
Desiring?
Hell, this hunger went beyond desire and ran deeper in his veins than lust.
He craved her.
Callum turned and flagged down the vampire bartender. The blond man smiled knowingly, nodded, and took down a martini glass. He filled it to the brim with dark liquid that was black in the flashing purple and blue lights of the club and stuck a cherry on a stick in it. Callum held out a twenty euro note at the same time as the vampire placed the glass down on an elegant white napkin and slid it across the bar to him.
“I’ll take one of those,” a female voice said right beside him, “and tall, dark and sexy here is paying.”
He was?
Callum frowned and turned to say that he damn well wasn’t paying for her drink and froze as his eyes fell on the female werewolf. He felt the vampire bartender’s gaze on him, sensed him waiting to see what Callum’s reply would be. Callum glanced at him and nodded. The vampire made up another glass of blood, stuck a cherry in it, and slid it over to her before moving away.
The werewolf raised her glass in a salute to Callum, sipped the blood, and set it back down on the napkin. Her bloodstained lips curved into a wicked sultry smile.
Callum was smitten.
She leaned closer, her bare left elbow resting on the bar, and ran her fingertips down his dark purple silk tie. Her smile widened when she curled her fingers around it, drew it away from his black tailored shirt, and tugged him towards her.
“You’ve been watching me like I’m a bitch in heat and you’re an alpha. What gives?” She wasn’t French as he had expected. Her accent was as British as his own.
Callum calmly removed her hand from his tie, straightened it out and smoothed it down. “I’m just here on business, and I’m definitely not an alpha. I’m a vampire.”
She smiled and tilted her head to one side, causing the long waves of her brown hair to shift across her breasts and cover the tempting display of cleavage the tight section of her black sleeveless top created.
“A vampire with a definite hard-on for a species most of his kind would see as disgusting and forbidden,” she said over the rapid beat of the music, lifted the cocktail stick and cherry from her drink, and popped it into her mouth.
Callum’s gaze narrowed on her mouth, transfixed by the sight of her sucking the cherry. She parted her lips and withdrew the glossy red fruit, dipped it back into her blood and swirled it around before raising it back to her mouth and teasing him by licking the crimson liquid off it again. His chest tightened and he struggled to breathe as the tip of her tongue flicked over the cherry, swirling around it. She slowly slid the fruit into her mouth, lips puckering as she sucked, her eyes closing in what looked like pleasure to him. The sight of her ratcheted his hunger up another notch, flooding him with a deep throbbing ache to feel her tongue brushing his in the way it had the cherry, to have her mouth on his flesh and to run his lips over every inch of her bare skin and drive her wild until she was sobbing his name and begging for more.
“I don’t have a hard-on for your species... just you.” Callum moved faster than she could evade, catching the wrist of the hand she held the cocktail stick in, pulling it away from her lips and claiming them for his own.
She responded instantly, her tongue thrusting past his lips and teeth to slide along his. He slanted his head, slipped his other arm around her slim waist and dragged the full length of her body against his as he seized control of the kiss. She melted against him, as supple and hot as he had dreamed she would be, her breasts pressing into his hard chest, the heat of her driving him to the edge. He tangled his tongue with hers, swallowing her breathy gasps as he dominated her, crushing each attempt she made to reclaim control. Her fight only made him burn hotter for her, made him use his strength on her and tighten his grip on her wrist and side. Her gasps became low rumbling moans. The firmer he was with her, the more of his strength he used, the lower they became and the more she struggled, as though she wanted to feel how much more powerful he was than her.
She liked it.
The female werewolf snapped out of his grasp and slapped him so hard across his cheek that he couldn’t fail to realise where he had gone wrong. His fangs cut into his lower lip. He hadn’t noticed them extending. Before he could explain to her that it was just the heat of the moment that had brought them out and that he hadn’t intended to bite her, she was striding away from him, heading back towards the busy dance floor.
Callum growled, swiftly drank his martini glass of blood to take the edge off his hunger and followed her, intent on explaining and tasting her again. The crowd kept closing behind her, blocking his way and frustrating him. He pushed through them, his senses tracking her so he didn’t lose her again. She wasn’t heading out of the club at least. The expansive dark club only had one exit and that was the other way, beyond the bar. She was either heading towards the booths that lined the edges of the room or the dance floor itself. Was she planning on losing him in the throng of people? It would be difficult to track her in amongst so many signatures. There were several other werewolves in the club tonight. Their presence would help mask hers even though he knew her scent now, had instinctively put it to memory when kissing her. Devil, she had tasted so wicked and delicious.
Callum licked the faint trace of blood off his lips and finally broke through the crowd around the bar, coming out near the edge of the dance floor. The heavy beat of the music pounded through his body, thrumming in his veins, pushing the tension mounting inside him, the need to find her and have her in his arms again.
The need to taste her lips.
He scoured the dancers and spotted her heading closer to the DJ. The lights flashed brightest there, hurting his eyes, and the volume of the music would be unbearable that close to the speakers. She knew vampires well. Her species could move around during the day so they weren’t as sensitive to light and her hearing wasn’t as acute when she was in her human form. She stopped there and danced with a male. He couldn’t tell whether her partner was human or werewolf, but he was immense, taller and broader than Callum was. She had intentionally chosen a place that would hurt him and had now selected a partner who could easily protect her. Her wiliness told Callum that the male would be a werewolf.
He only wondered why she no longer looked confident. Her gaze constantly darted about as she danced with the man, her body held at a distance from his, as though she was afraid to get any closer. Why would she fear her own kind?
That question and the challenge she had issued by choosing to dance with an immense werewolf in an area that was uncomfortable for Callum drove him onto the dance floor. He moved through the crowd, his gaze constantly on her, studying her face and the flicker of fear that was gradually surfacing in her eyes. The usual confident shine in them was gone by the time he was within a few metres of her.
The male werewolf caught her shoulders, turned her around and dragged her back against his bulky body, caging her there with a thick forearm across her stomach. His black t-shirt stretched over an obscene amount of muscle and Callum considered the insanity of approaching such a male. Although he was likely older than the werewolf, and vampires were inherently more powerful, his build was almost slender compared to him and he was a good few inches shorter too. That could be an advantage though. A lower centre of gravity gave him a more solid footing than his monolithic rival and his slimmer build gave him the advantage of speed. He could probably incapacitate the werewolf with only minimal injury to himself.
However.
There were two other male werewolves seated on the curved dark leather seat of the booth behind the male dancing with the woman, and both of them were watching the couple. Three glasses stood on the oval black table in the centre of the booth. The male was with them.
One werewolf he might be able to handle.
Three would crush him.
It should have stopped him from pursuing the woman, but his feet still propelled him forwards, towards what could only be a bloody and painful future.
He couldn’t turn back now that he had tasted her.
He hungered for another touch, another taste.
He craved her.
And he would have her.
Available in e-book from:
Author's website | Amazon Kindle | Amazon Kindle UK | Amazon Kindle Germany | Amazon Kindle France | Apple iBookstore US | Apple iBookstore UK | Apple iBookstore Australia | Apple iBookstore Canada | Barnes and Noble | Kobo Books | Sony Reader Store | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks
Available in paperback as COVET and CRAVE in one book:
Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Barnes and Noble
June 3, 2012
Manday Hotties Hop - Get your sexy Monday mancandy fix!
It's time for the Manday Hotties Hop again! Be sure to follow the links in the list below to get your full fix of hot sexy mancandy this Monday.
I've gone with some of my all time favourites this week, in a very summery theme to combat the grey weather...
Mmm. Nummy Mancandy Treat! Which picture is your favourite?
Visit the other blogs in the hop:
