A.J. Llewellyn's Blog, page 25

Nightwalker

Nightwalker

by A. J. Llewellyn

ISBN-13: 978-1-61124-335-2 (Electronic)

In Los Angeles, Lauro is a working psychic with a secret…he is a Nightwalker, a man with an ability that allows his spirit to roam the streets late at night in search of people who need help and healing. Descended from the ancient, persecuted Benedanti that worked in Northern Italy, and born with the caul covering his face, Lauro learned the legends of his birthright from his mother.

Now, when a hot young model, Alex, comes to him for a reading, Lauro is torn by grief at being unable to see nothing ahead for the man. Confiding his concerns to his lover, LAPD detective Madrigal, Lauro fears for Alex’s safety.

But Lauro soon learns his client gave him a false name. And he now knows his recurring dream is real. Alex has been kidnapped, and somewhere in his nightly “walks,” Lauro comes into contact with the man’s abductor, a frightening and evil man who will stop at nothing to kill his prey. As Lauro gets closer to the truth, he starts to experience long-dormant memories of his centuries-old life, terrified that what befell him during the Roman Inquisition is a horrific prophecy of the future…

 

Genres: Gay / Dark Fantasy / Witchcraft / Magic / Paranormal / Ghosts / Hauntings / Psychic Phenomena / Mystery / Detective

Heat Level: 3

Length: Novella (26k words)

Purchase link: http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure...

 

A note before purchasing: 

This title is part of the Making Magic AmberPax™ Collection. To purchase this title individually, use the shopping cart below. To purchase this title as part of the entire AmberPax™ and receive a 25% discount off our normal price, use the shopping cart on this page: http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure...

 

 

Is Myth More Potent Than History?

 

By A.J. Llewellyn

I am a strong believer in Robert Fulgrum’s The Storyteller’s Creed. It is my mantra. It is my Bible. It is what I write from, what I feel in my heart. It goes like this:

 

I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge.

That myth is more potent than history.

I believe that dreams are more powerful than facts.

That hope always triumphs over experience.

That laughter is the only cure for grief.

And I believe that love is stronger than death.

 

Recently though, something happened that seriously challenged line two – that myth is more potent than history. As a romance novelist, and one who delves frequently into the past, I was surprised that I found a fact that was more potent than any myth, however, I must admit it was borne of…

myth.

As I was working on my book, Tame 2: Savage, the sequel to my best-selling book Tame, I once again dipped into the realm of myth and research. Specifically, the Argentine legends of werewolves, which inspired my first book.

I was astonished to find a small, tossed-away face.

In old Argentina, people so feared werewolves that somehow, a legend began that the seventh son on a family–any family–became a werewolf so people began killing their seventh-borh sons as soon as they were born.

To put a stop to this rampant infanticide, the mayor of each town became the godfather to each seventh-born son to each family.

This tradition continues to this day, and, as I learned, many mayors attend the baptisms of their godsons especially around election time!

Isn’t that a fascinating fact?

Of course I used it in my story. I am sure that there are readers who will think I made this up. That it is myth. And that’s fine because in my heart of hearts I do believe that myth is more potent than history.

Just as I believe that love is stronger than death.

What about you? How do you feel about the Storyteller’s Creed and the myth of fact? I really want to know!

Aloha oe,

 

AJ

 

 

TALL WITH ROOM

It’s out early! My Halloween story “Tall With Room” is out now.

Purchase Link: http://www.total-e-bound.com/product....

Adriano is going home to Waldo, Florida, a town famous for having one of two official US speed traps and a flea market. Not much else is going on… Or is it?

A celebrated chef, Adriano has had to quit his job at a posh Beverly Hills restaurant because during his recovery from stage four cancer, chemo killed his taste buds. He can’t even taste his own cuisine. About the only thing that penetrates the dull sensation is coffee, so he’s bought a cafe in Waldo, hoping to find a new life in spite of his memory of it being a rigidly conservative town.

Looking forward to recuperating and spending time his mom, Adriano soon finds that Colin Mackenzie-the first man he ever loved, the only man he has ever wanted-never left Waldo. He apparently hasn’t forgotten Adriano either. But Colin, who once seduced then dumped him, seems to be playing games. He keeps coming into the cafe ordering his coffee-tall with room…for milk-but he doesn’t seem to have room for Adriano. Soon, the love they once shared is re-ignited in an explosive way, but what is going on in Waldo? Why do things seem so…haunted by the past?

Reader Advisory: This book contains seductive descriptions of southern cooking at its finest, including unusual uses for honey butter!

For a HOT excerpt and/or to buy it – please buy it! – please click this link: http://www.total-e-bound.com/product....

 

Tame 2: SAVAGE

 

Purchase Link: http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure...

Sequel to the Amber Allure best-seller Tame…

LAPD cop Cavan Carmichael is more in love than ever with Ludo, the man he rescued during a nightmare raid in a Brentwood, CA house. Ludo, who must fight his werewolf inclinations to kill, has eighteen months to go before he can swim across the lake in Argentina that cursed him in the first place.

But it ain’t easy.

One hot August night in the middle of a family barbecue, Cavan is disturbed not only by Ludo’s increasing moodiness, but also the stone statues of wolves that populate the exterior of the building next door. Also, somebody’s following Cavan, and he soon learns that a second man has been beaten and tortured at the same residence in Brentwood where he’d rescued Ludo. And to make matters worse, when Cavan and his workmates rush to the property, they discover that the victim is somebody from Cavan’s past.

Secrets are revealed, mysteries deepen, and a shocking, age-old legend puts Cavan’s life at risk. But Ludo tells him not to worry, that he would never let anyone hurt his man. “When I’m pushed to the wall,” Ludo says, “I’m savage…”

Gay / Dark Fantasy / Werewolf / Shapeshifter / Mystery / Detective / Series  Heat Level: 3 Novella (29k words)

For a HOT excerpt and/or purchase please click this link:  http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure...

ORGASMIC TEXAS DAWN Book 1

Out Today!!

Book 1 in a 12 book series with the amazing D.J. Manly

Purchase Link: https://spsilverpublishing.com/product_book_info/new-release-c-1/products_id/1208/?zenid=81573d62cd95e4cfcfbb0b1b68dce41d

A Canadian cop running from a romance gone bad. A US Marshal who needs help with solving a bizarre mystery around a cross-dressing Cher impersonator. Add one to the other and watch the sparks fly!

 

Canadian cop Kieran Fox has fallen from grace after a disastrous romance with the wrong guy–the head of a drug cartel. When Sheriff Dillon DePriest moseys on up north begging Kieran to come to his town of Lone Trail, Texas, to help him deal with a gang of murderous drug dealers, he says yes, if only to get away from the scene of his own crime. Kieran soon learns that the tough little Texas town is knees-deep in an escalating mystery.

There’s a cross-dressing Cher impersonator, a killer missing some gold teeth and his…er…dangly bits. Then there’s Kieran’s growing attraction for Lone Pine’s sexy US Marshal, Jubilee Mason, that he neither wants nor needs…

For Purchase and a HOT excerpt please click this link: https://spsilverpublishing.com/product_book_info/new-release-c-1/products_id/1208/?zenid=81573d62cd95e4cfcfbb0b1b68dce41d

The MUDPIE

Book three in the Elemental Superpowers Series – Purchase Link: http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=&P_ID=1786

Mitchell is proud of his new wrestling persona and trading card, but he hadn’t planned on actually facing his wrestling hero, Whip “Mudshark” Jackson, in the ring…

Geeky Mitchell Dykins loves his new job as marketing manager for a wrestling federation’s participants. After creating a huge online campaign for his company’s wrestlers, he befriends the most fearsome warrior of them all, Whip “Mudshark” Jackson. Whip is so thrilled with Mitchell’s work, he demands that the company create a wrestling persona for Mitchell and therefore he’ll get his own trading card. Mitchell is tickled. This is all good, right?

Unfortunately Mitchell soon finds himself transformed into his wrestling persona, “Mudpit Madman”. When he starts waking up covered in mud, Mudshark lying beside him, he begins to worry. The worst of it is when he defeats Mudshark who then puts a contract out on Mudpit.

Whip claims he knows nothing about what his alter ego is doing. He likes Mitchell. But his muddy wrestling character seems to have a mind of his own…can he be telling the truth?

Is Mitchell completely nuts to still like a guy who probably wants him dead?

Reader Advisory: After reading this book you may feel an urge to eat mud pie – and don’t be surprised if you find traces of mud on your floor…

For an excerpt and/or purchase please click this link: http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=&P_ID=1786

Going to the Hop! The Rainbow Book Reviews Hop!

By A.J. Llewellyn

I’m taking part in the Rainbow Book Reviews blog hop today! Here are the details – read all about it and make sure you leave a comment here to qualify to win some cool prizes: http://rainbowbookreviews.wordpress.com/2012/08/22/the-rainbow-book-reviews-blog-hop-is-here/

I am also offering up a free ebook to a reader – your choice – from my catalogue!

I’ve been pondering my contribution for a few days and have to say that I wanted to make this fun. I recently watched an interview where two matchmakers discussed the worst things somebody can do before a first date. Their number one thing was: don’t go to an event before the date then arrive with alcohol on your breath. That would be important, yes, but what else?

My friend Nick Capra, a retired gay porn star recently blogged about the pitfalls of gay romance. His detailed, insightful blog, Fear of the Fall http://pornstudblog.com/2012/08/21/the-fear-of-the-fall.aspx illustrates how love is love, fear is fear, starting over again, giving a new person a chance is the same whether we are gay, straight, bi, queer, questioning, transgendered…whatever.

One of my favorite scenes in a movie illustrating first-date-panic was There’s Something About Mary. Ben Stiller jerks off so he won’t be too overwrought before the date…with calamitous, hilarious results.

A dear friend of mine also recently did something catastrophic before a date, his first in several years after stepping back into the murky dating pond after a nasty break-up.

He emailed me suggesting it would make great fodder for a book and of course it’s already made its way into my latest WiP!

Seems he follows a gay porn star on Twitter who extolled the virtues of a product called Silver Sword. Said porn star is even selling it on his website. Guess this popular guy can’t keep his pecker up without popping these magic capsules that keep him hard all day. That’s swell if you are a porn performer, not so much if you are going on a first date with someone and you are stuck, yes, stuck with a raging and painful hard-on throughout a three-hour symphony!

I asked him what possessed him to do such a thing and he said, “I’ve been so bashed and trashed by my ex, I wasn’t even sure my dick worked anymore!” His date was a disaster but he said the massive event program hid most of his embarrassment…

So popping a sex aid capsule would be my big no-no. Don’t take dating advice from a porn star trying to get you laid – not trying to get you a second romantic date!

What about you? What’s your advice??? Best comment wins a free ebook from me!

Aloha oe,

A.J.

 

The Mudpie

I am blogging today over at Total-e-Bound’s Hitting the Hotspot blog about mudpies and just where did they originate?

My upcoming release, The Mudpie: Elemental Superpowers 3 with Serena Equality Yates doesn’t address this issue but I thought it was time to discuss the good, the bad and the chocolate!

Please stop by for the shenanigans!

http://totalebound.blogspot.com/

 

Aloha oe,

 

A.J.

The Sound of Music: An Interview with JUVAL PORAT

The Sound of Music: An Interview with Cantor Juval Porat:

by A.J. Llewellyn

Juval Porat is famous for being the first cantor to be ordained invested into the Jewish faith in Germany since the Holocaust. Temple Beth Chayim Chadashim of Los Angeles, the world’s first GLBT synagogue was lucky enough to snap up this talented, charismatic singer, who is now recording a special album of music. But he needs help. Via an indiegogo fund http://www.indiegogo.com/p/172952 he is asking for $3,500 in donations. He is almost there…but not quite.

I’d like to help and am donating money myself, but maybe I can share this amazing man’s life and work with a wider audience and who knows? Maybe get him more money than he dreamed possible.

Apart from his work for the clergy, Juval Porat has some hidden depths. He is a gifted architect, speaks several languages, is a fearless pop music performer and…drag queen.

At the demand of others, he’s finally recording music to be shared with the world, not just the congregation at BCC. Putting him in the hot seat for just a moment, I have some questions for Juval.

1. Juval, thank you for your time. Having experienced your wonderful voice firsthand, not to mention your astonishing harmonies and varied musical collaborations on stage my first question is, when did you first discover your love of music and what were your earliest influences?

Hi AJ – thanks for having me. That’s quite humbling of you to ask me to be put on the hot seat. My earliest memory is probably from when I was around 6 or 7. I would spend hours on my parents rock-chair with the headphones on, listening to my parents collection of classical music. I remember listening to Carnival of the Animals, dancing with my nanny to the Swan Lake. To take time to just listening to a piece is something I remember dearly and something I’m grateful to do nowadays, when I have a chance.

2. Did your parents encourage your love of music? Were you destined, do you think from a young age to be a cantor? And how did this come about?

Being a Cantor was never really on my to-do-list. It came about when a position for a service leader at a small Synagogue in the city of Moenchengladbach / Germany opened up and I was asked if I’d be interested to take that position. I was working as a counselor at a Jewish Youth Center at that time in Aachen, the city where I was studying Architecture. I don’t know if I was destined. It is pretty miraculous though the way things came to be. After graduating in Architecture something just gravitated me towards Berlin – that’s the only place to which I sent applications for an Architecture job. Once I got the job and moved to Berlin I realized that I loved the city, but couldn’t quite find gratification in Architecture. I was being a service leader for almost 7 years at that point, travelling to small towns all over Germany and I remember being very happy for the feedback I would receive from the congregants. They liked what they heard and shared personal stories on how the music and the liturgy would open something up in them. It’s when I decided to pursue the Cantorial stuff professionally.

And on my second to last year of studies I met the president of BCC by chance in Berlin, who encouraged me to send my resume to Los Angeles. Skype interviews and an invitation to LA followed and in 2010 I found myself living in West Hollywood.

As for my parents – I know they’re happy that I’m happy. It wasn’t an easy journey for me figuring out my strengths and passions, but I’m very glad I came thus far.

3. You are openly gay and you are a major musical force for the world’s first GLBT synagogue. Was your sexuality accepted in Germany? How are GLBT treated there?

It’s sweet that you see me as a musical force, but I for myself see myself as a constant student – there’s still a lot for me to learn. I was mostly out in Germany, and living in Berlin makes it a bit easier. As far as my experience goes, it’s easy for GLBT to live out and proud in Berlin.

4. You arrived here in 2009 and I know your English was limited according to what I’ve read but one would never know it.  You speak several languages but…in my own experience LA is a tough place to move to. Everyone warned me the first year is the hardest. Did you find this to be true?

Oh yes. I spent the first three months in LA crying every day and writing sad songs. My arrival to town was paired with a rather traumatic break-up, which didn’t really make things any better. I literally felt lost both in space, as well as in time – whenever I wanted to reach out to my friends and family on the other side of the ocean they would be asleep according to their time-zone. It was tough to settle in. When I most recently came back from Berlin, after touring some of the country with a bunch of American Cantors, I had a sense of acceptance and of coming home for the very first time – Acceptance for all the good and bad things that make LA different from any city that I’ve lived in before. I’ve been writing some happy songs since then!

5. Getting back to music…will some of your collaborators who’ve performed with you at BCC be part of the new album and what can we expect from it?

Yes, there will be some collaborators who’ve recently shared the Bimah with me, on the album as well. With the help of the sample technology (and hopefully the right license) I hope to duet with a singer, who recently passed away and whose influence on BCC and beyond is very strong.

What I hope to achieve is to present classic cantorial pieces in a slightly different  sound. I have all kinds of ideas in my head, vocoders and auto-tuners included. Right now Josh Friedman and I are experimenting on various things until we get it right. Since at BCC I sing so many different styles, I’m going to try and give an example for each of them on the album. The common thing to those sounds is that they’ve all been performed at BCC over the years.

6. If you could organize a dinner party with any six musicians and/or singers dead or alive, who would you invite and what would you make for the meal?

Hmm, that’s a toughie. In no particular order:

1. Debbie Friedman

2. Kylie Minogue

3. Pyotr Tchaikovsky

4. Moshe Ganchoff

5. Faith Steinsnyder

6. Gerald Cohen

I can do a really good salmon lasagna and Tiramisu! Ask my classmates from Architecture/Cantorial school!

7. What music do you enjoy listening to these days?

I most recently fell in love with Frank Ocean’s debut album. Getting ready for my own album, I listened to a lot of cantorial stuff from the early 20th century and late 19th century. Various styles and voices, but all pretty high on the goosebumps-factor. Some of these pieces are just so intense that I needed to take occasional breaks in-between the listening periods – I listened to Cantor Mordechai Hershman, Cantor Alberto Mizrahi, Cantor Zavel Kwartin and many many more…

And then there’s my playlist, that i like to call “jogging playlist” filled with all kinds of electronic music and remixes – saint etienne’s most recent album shows up there a lot!

8. Do you remember a few years ago it was revealed that the CIA was using music to torture prisoners at Guantanamo Bay? Do you think music hurts or heals?

Music brings out all kinds of emotions. And I think feeling is principally a healthy thing. So, yeah, music has definitely the capacity to heal.

9. I must ask you about your Purim concert and how comfortable, not to mention gorgeous you look dressed as a woman. Is this a facet of performance we can look forward to seeing again?

Well, thank you! Yes, Alatta Arbeit is planning her comeback.

10. And finally, if you could have studied at the feet of any musical master who would it have been and why?

There are so many amazing people out there, who are a vessel of tradition and knowledge to whom I have the most deepest respect. Especially in nowadays Cantorial field the challenge lies in combining so many styles and repertoires that I really find it difficult to name one person. I’m grateful for being surrounded by such knowledgeable colleagues in LA from whom I keep learning and being inspired.

Thanks AJ for having me!!

Please support Cantor Juval’s quest to make his music global by donating here: http://www.indiegogo.com/p/172952

You can find his videos on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/results?search...

and here: http://www.youtube.com/results?search...

Word Blindness

By A.J. Llewellyn

I’ve blogged before about my work as a volunteer at Braille Institute, work I am passionate about and committed to. Words and reading are my life. I can’t imagine a world without books but for millions of blind children this has been a sad state of affairs fast changing now that the small 5% who CAN read Braille is increasing every day.

Reading was my refuge as a child. It still is. Blindness is something I think about a lot. What if I couldn’t see? Could I still do the things I love? I’ve thought about this a lot since I started volunteering at Braille. I have watched newly blind people being taught how to walk with a cane, how to negotiate office floors where careless, sighted people leave chairs pushed away from desks…where their guide dogs eat things such as corn cobs that they can’t see…

And just when I was congratulating myself on being so good with the blind people around me I discovered I am not. Most of us aren’t. How many times do we use words that refer to vision in everyday conversation?

I’ll give you an example. At Braille last week, we celebrated our oldest volunteer’s birthday with an opera cake. “Look at that!” I said to the woman next to me who didn’t respond. What could she say? She couldn’t see it!

Duh! I apologized profusely but she wasn’t fazed. She is used to it. I became more and more aware of my word choices as the day went on. When the same woman told me about having to take her dog to the vet because she’d eaten a corn cob, she told me that the vet advised her to keep an eye on her!

Once again, she’s blind and lives alone with her dog. Which eye should she use, she joked.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot since watching an old video of the Australian movie, Hoodwink. Shoulda, coulda been a great movie about a true story  – an Aussie conman who got a reduced sentence by pretending a police beating blinded him. He was eventually found out but still…I thought the whole notion of depriving oneself of a basic sense we all mostly take for granted took some skill and real cunning.

I am more aware now than ever of words and how they can hurt or heal. I worry about using words without thinking. I’ll call it word blindness. I think those around me know when I say something like “Isn’t the sky extra blue today?” to somebody who can’t see it that I’ll follow up with an apology…

And, I will keep an eye on that.

Aloha oe,

A.J.