Reesa Herberth's Blog, page 9

Guest Blog – A Conversation with Droje by Jessica Freely

Today we’ve got a great guest post from author Jessica Freely, giving us a sneak peek behind the characters of her new book, Unlawful.  She’s running a contest, and there’s an excerpt below the jump.  Enjoy!  - Reesa

 

 Buy “Unlawful” on Amazon

In a world where being gay is unlawful and slavery is legal, two men fight for their lives, for their desires, and for justice. Larke is a corporate lackey with a secret. Droje is a freedom fighter on the run. Each spells trouble for the other, but the passion between them will not be denied, no matter what the risk.

Hi everyone and thank you for stopping by. I particularly want to thank Michelle and Reesa for having me over. Thanks guys!

Please be sure to leave a comment because I’ll be giving away a book from my backlist to one lucky reader! The contest will end on Sunday Feb. 3 and the winner will be chosen using random.org.

So yesterday at Tara’s blog, we had a conversation with Larke, in which he revealed some things that Droje doesn’t know. Now, it’s Droje’s turn.

A Conversation with Droje

A muscular man with short blond hair, dressed in sweat pants, a T-shirt, and a hoodie is staring at me. “So Larke tells me you’re our author.”

It’s a little intimidating. “Uh. Yeah.”

He nods. “So you’re the one responsible for Larke living under constant threat of discovery.”

“Well…”

“And for Zenesco’s monopoly on everything.”

“Yeah.”

He leans forward, brows furrowed. “And for uncontracted labor.”

“True. But I also created people like you, and Cam, and Sunshine to do something about it.”

He takes a sharp breath and pauses. “And Larke.”

“Him too, if you can convince him your cause is just.”

He lifts one corner of his mouth in a half smile. “Don’t you mean if you can make me convince him?”

“I like to give my characters their own heads. Anyway, this is getting a little too metaphysical. Let’s talk about Larke.”

“What about him?”

“What do you think of him?”

Droje looks around. “Can he hear me?”

“No.”

He nods and appears lost in thought for a moment. He smiles. “Well, the truth is, I’m nuts for him. He’s… well, you’ve seen him, he’s beautiful, but that ‘s not all. What he did for me was so brave, and what he did with me… a total stranger… that was risky. But I don’t think he ever thought of either of those things that way. I don’t think he was like, “I’m going to do this reckless thing now because it’s what I believe in.” He just did it because that’s his nature. He’s stronger than he knows, more courageous.”

“Wow, sounds like you’re head over heels, Droje.”

He laughs. “Yeah. I am, and that scares me because my life is not exactly built for settling down, even if we were allowed to–”

“Since when do you stop at what’s allowed?”

“True. But that’s my choice. Corp Sec’s after me. I don’t want to put Larke in danger.”

“Aren’t you the one who points out that he’s already in danger, every day, just because of who he is?”

His chest expands with a deep breath. “Yeah.”

“So.”

He shrugs. “We hardly know each other. Maybe he doesn’t want a steady guy. Maybe I’m just a good fuck to him.”

Now I’m smiling. “You’ll have to find out about that from him, because I’m not telling.”

Check out  an excerpt from Jessica Freely’s new novel, Unlawful below the jump.

Naked, cold, and hurting, Droje lay curled in a ball on the hard concrete pavement of the alley. He’d escaped. Nothing else really mattered.

A relentless drizzle pelted him with icy needles. He shivered and tried to find a more comfortable position behind the dumpster that hid him from view of the street. His efforts were useless; tortured muscles would not allow him to rest.

He needed shelter, food, and water, but he had nowhere to go for those things. His home would be watched and even if he had clothes and money, a public place would mean instant recapture. Going to the home of one of his friends would only bring Corp Sec down on them all—an even worse betrayal than the one Droje had already committed.

No. He’d run as far as his beleaguered body could carry him, and now he was done.

Another seizure flooded his nerves with hot agony. Fucking Whole Truth serum—not only did it make you spill your guts like you’d met the business end of a filament saber, but it had this lovely little after effect as well. His already cramped muscles contracted in bone-shaking spasms. He bit down on his moans and prayed for death.

 

Featured Authors at the Frederick Book Festival

We’re thrilled to announce that we’ll be Featured Authors at the first annual Frederick Book Festival, in Frederick, MD.  Please, join us on May 18, 2013 at the the E-ventplex at the Frederick Fairgrounds from 9 AM – 6 PM for a day filled with literary fun.  The festival is free, and promises to be a lot of fun.  Plus, if you get there in the morning, you can enjoy the Frederick Farmer’s Market.  We’ll be contributing a basket to the charity auction, which benefits The American Cancer Society and Heartly House, a crisis service serving victims of domestic violent, rape/sexual assault, and child abuse in Montgomery County.

We’ll post more information on our schedule, panels, and reading time as it becomes available.  Can’t wait to see you in Frederick!

Seeds

I’m a gardener, and this is the time of year where my seed porn starts pouring in through the mailbox.  You wouldn’t think there would be so many choices, given the lack of variety in store produce sections, but if you’re not a gardener, trust me- there are more kinds of carrot than you will likely ever want to ponder.  In my favourite catalogue, there’s a five page spread devoted entirely to different varieties of garlic.  It’s fantastic.

Things went downhill at the end of my season last year, and I couldn’t manage to save any seeds from my own garden.  If you’re a Damn Hippie (as I aspire to be), doing things like saving seeds from plants that have grown in your own garden, adapted to the soil and conditions there, is a great idea.  It saves you money the next year, and it’s great for the hardiness of your plants.  While it’s not quite the same thing, my best friend’s mom was kind enough to gift me with seeds from her garden, and I can’t wait to plant them.  You can’t get blood from a turnip, but let me tell you, you can get a damn fine soup from one.

When you save seeds from your garden, you’re reaping a secondary harvest, but you’re also ensuring that the garden lives on past that season.  You’re making the garden itself stronger, by adding a layer of familiarity and understanding for the ecosystem that exists within your beds.  Now that my tortured little metaphor has gotten to the point, we can talk about worldbuilding, and the seeds we plant in our own writing as we go.

Our next book, Peripheral People, mentions a certain profession somewhat unique to the Ylendrian universe.  It’s a toss-off line, something that adds flavour, but doesn’t get explored in any depth.  But during the edits, I caught on that scene, and found myself wondering how and why such a profession would exist, how they garnered the rarified social status they seemed to enjoy, and what would happen if it got one of them in trouble.  Presto- there was a story sprouting, from a seed nestled in the text of another book.

Did I mention the concept of volunteers?  In the garden, when a productive plant springs up somewhere you didn’t expect (say, a tomato in the eggplants, or, more likely, in the compost heap), it’s called a volunteer.  There to offer something of its own accord.  A lot of my writing volunteers itself, when I think I’m planting the seeds for something else entirely.  You might move a volunteer to a more convenient location, or you might let it do its thing where it feels like doing its thing.  The danger there, of course, is letting your volunteer overshadow what you actually planned to grow there.

Almost anyone who tells you that their garden is perfect – exactly to plan, hardy, no room for improvement- doesn’t understand that the garden they have this year contains the seeds of next year, and the chance for something even better.  If you don’t collect those seeds, prepare yourself for some volunteers.

Or, you know, find yourself writing about star-crossed lovers, space zombies, political intrigue, and a failing space station.  What the hell did I plant out there, anyway?

 

2013

I said that at the end of this year, I’m going to ask for a few days off before the next one starts.  I think a 3-5 day period that didn’t fall in either year could be really amazing, don’t you?  Enough time to finish up a few things, and plan the start of some new ones.  This year, I’m going to pretend the year ends the day after Christmas, and all those days between will be days of nothing- nothing due, nothing not tied to either year.  A few days to orient myself.

Of course, in 2012, we used a few of those days to get the last of our developmental edits done on Peripheral People and turn it in to Riptide.  That, and ponder the lumpish manatee.  But mostly editing.

I’m convinced that 2013 will be a creative, inspiring year.  My health is improving, the words are coming back to me, and I have all kinds of plans for improving things- my house, my studio, my garden, and me.

A friend told me about a concept I fell in love with.  Instead of (or in addition to) resolutions, you pick a single word as a theme for your year.  Some people carry that word around on a token to remind themselves.  I bought a bracelet from Honey&Ollie with my word on it, so I can look down and see it when I need a reminder to consciously create it in my life.  I’m struggling with a lifelong anxiety disorder that was relatively controlled before my illness, but seems to be doing its level best to grind me down lately.  I spend more energy remembering all the ways I’ve failed, and imagining all the ways I will, than I do actually LIVING, these days.  So my word for 2013 is “Present”.  I want to live in the Present, enjoy memories of the past, and be able to plan ahead without turning it into a way to run through a hundred scenarios that all get progressively worse.

So what’s your 2013 going to be?  What’s your word?

Samhain Publishing – Rainbow Award Winner Sale!

If you enter the code RAINBOWAWARDS at checkout until Fri. 12/14, you’ll get 30% off Samhain’s Rainbow Award winners, including The Slipstream Con! (The top winning book, btw.

http://www.samhainpublishing.com/2012/12/2012-rainbow-award-winners/

Crafting With Reesa

Crafting with Reesa-

“Let’s do this thing!”

“Okay, all my supplies for !Thing are arranged in order of use, at precise right angles. It’s ON!”

“I think I forgot something from step 2. Let me just look at the instructions again.”

*4 hours of Pinterest/Twitter/Facebook/AO3 later*

“Wasn’t I doing something? I think I need to feed the animals.”

*30 minutes before the time a reasonable person would be heading for bed*

“Shit, I never finished !Thing, and all the stuff is out. I don’t want to put it away, just so I can get it out again tomorrow. I’ll do it now.”

“How did I miss that I have to hold this above my head at a 45 degree angle for an hour so the colours mix properly?”

*3 hours after a reasonable person would have gone to bed, but still 5 from when I have to be awake again*

“This is so cool! I can’t tell if it’s the three diet Pepsi’s or the glue fumes talking, but this is the most awesome craft ever! Maybe I’ll make another one! Why isn’t anyone awake so I can show them how cool this is?”

*Sometime during second item, faceplant in craft. Wake up next morning with feathers superglued to ear, staring at tie-dyed macaroni art the cat is trying to eat, one piece at a time*

Random Interview – Nessa L. Warin

Today we’ve got the awesome Nessa L. Warin playing victim to the Random Interview.  She talks about shifting priorities, her ideal worlds, and her once-a-year problem with chocolate, salty balls. Plus, she’s given us a great excerpt!- Reesa

Tell us a little about yourself. What do you like to write? What’s your latest release about? What have you read recently that knocked your socks off? 

Wow. That’s a lot to put into one question. I’ll take them one at a time.

I am a fantasy-loving wine aficionado learning how to make reality as enjoyable as the fantasy worlds inside my head. Currently, I work in Corporate America, but I’m breaking out of that and changing my career so what I do better reflects who I am. Writing is part of that, obviously, and the rest of it is moving out of Corporate America into a job where I’m happy and appreciated. I collect faerie and dragon art (though I fail at putting it up on my walls), love dark chocolate, and would spend all year at Renaissance Festivals and fantasy conventions if I could.

It will thus come as no surprise to anyone that I love reading and writing fantasy stories. Most of my stories are fantasy or science fiction of some sort, and the novel that isn’t either is a contemporary romance set at Dragon*Con, a science fiction, fantasy, and pop culture convention. My passion is world building, and I’ve done that with all of my stories. In Sauntering Vaguely Downward the world was Dragon*Con, in The Stars are Brightly Shining, it was a spaceship and a Christmas Tree farm planet, and in Stamp of Fate it was the modern world as it would be with the existence of mythological gods.

That trend has continued with my latest release, To Dream, Perchance to Live. It is set in a world where there are people called as Dreamers who can enter and manipulate other people’s dreams. This is actually a mostly positive thing in this world as these people are known to exist and have jobs, etc. that use their abilities. There are also psychic bonds that form between people in a relationship and bonding is the equivalent of getting married, except without the divorce rate. One of these Dreamers, a guy named Wyatt, has been illegally owned by a corporation since he was 16, kept asleep and forced to participate in corporate espionage for them. Something goes wrong with one of his assignments, the person whose dream he’s in dies, and he’s left for dead. He’s found by Aidan, who takes him in, nurses him back to health with the help of some friends, and tries to figure out what happened to him. When he wakes up, they start to bond, and the story revolves around finding the people who had Wyatt and keeping him safe from them while Wyatt learns to function in the real world and Aidan and Wyatt fall in love.

I got to build two whole worlds writing To Dream, Perchance to Live—the real world and the dream world—and it was the most incredible experience to write. I spent months working on this, but the experience of world building was worth every bit of effort I put into it. The only other story I wrote that was as much fun (and as much work) as this one, was my story coming out in January/February, Storm Season. That’s another fantasy with an entirely new world built, and I’m so excited about it.

My favorite authors are people who excel at world building—Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Sharon Shinn, Dianna Wynne Jones, and David Eddings, to name a few. I really haven’t had much time to read lately between the Evil Day Job and the writing, but I can always pick up one of their books and know that I’ll be whisked away to someplace fantastic, and that’s what I look for in a story.

What would you tell yourself ten years in the FUTURE?

That’s a loaded question. I think I’d go with make sure you’re happy and don’t be afraid to take chances to get there if you’re not. As I mentioned above, I’m in the process of transitioning jobs, and a lot of that is because I realized I’m not happy with my current day job, and that stress has bled into the rest of my life. It’s taken time for me to understand I can’t live like that, and I would just remind my future self not to lose track of what’s important.

Do you cook or bake? What kind of food?

I make candy, actually. My specialty is buckeye balls, which are a regional candy treat. Most people who live outside of Ohio and the surrounding area have never heard of them, which is a complete loss for the rest of the world because they are phenomenal. Basically, they’re candied peanut butter rolled into a ball and dipped in dark chocolate to look like the nuts of a buckeye tree (http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/Ohio/state-tree-ohio.html). I only make them at Christmas time because it’s so time consuming, everyone wants them, and I want to be able to enjoy peanut butter and chocolate for at least part of the year. After a day making buckeye balls, I have no desire to put any of them in my mouth.

Yes, there are a lot of ball jokes inherent in rolling 400 balls of peanut butter and dipping them into chocolate. Only making them once a year means the jokes don’t get old either.

Have you ever eaten raw squid? Did you like it?

I don’t think I’ve eaten raw squid. I cooked squid is one of my favorite foods, when it’s prepared correctly, though, so I’d be willing to try it raw if I was confident it had been prepared right. Actually, there isn’t much food I won’t take at least two bites (just one doesn’t always give a fair assessment of the food) of so long as I’m confident it was prepared safely. Raw squid definitely falls into the category of willing to try. I love sushi and I love cooked squid, so I’d say chances are fairly high that I’d like raw squid.

Do you prefer tv or movies? What’s your favourite?

I don’t really know that I can pick between them. I watch more television simply because it’s more accessible, but I love going to the movies as well and appreciate both for what they are. Both movies and television are visual media, but the formats are different and they both offer different strengths. There are stories that work better when told in a serial fashion like television, and stories that work better when told all at once (or perhaps broken up into just a few pieces) like movies, and more than anything else, I’d like the story to fit the method in which it’s being told. What I can say is that I prefer the stories to be continuous stories rather than a procedural type show that has a new story every episode.

How do you come up with people or place names to use in your writing?

Name generators on the internet, mostly, and occasionally from friends on Twitter or Facebook. I am terrible at naming things, which sucks because I can’t write until I have character names and I have literally spent hours agonizing about it before. Places are easier, mostly because they don’t matter as much to me, and I can often use a placeholder until I pick a name and come back to it. People, though, I need to name before I write them unless it’s a truly minor character that doesn’t necessarily need a name, like a server at a restaurant the main characters won’t be going back to. I used to write a lot of fanfiction and I still occasionally dabble in it, and I often say the best thing about it is that everything is named already. I’m pretty sure I’d get a lot more written if I didn’t have to agonize over names, so if anyone has a way around that, please tell me.

–

Check out the blurb from Nessa’s latest book, and an excerpt under the jump!

–

Wyatt Mettler is a Dreamer. While asleep, he can insert himself into people’s dreams and manipulate them, watch their fantasies, steal their secrets, and change their minds—all without their knowledge. For eleven years he’s been Lumoinnovations’ secret weapon, illegally enslaved, all in the name of the bottom line. But when an assignment goes awry and results in the death of the subject, Wyatt’s handlers leave him for dead.

When Aidan Donecoff stumbles across Wyatt’s unconscious body in an alley, he is struggling to get over a failed relationship and has almost given up hope of forging a true Bond with anyone. He has known Dreamers in the past, but none like Wyatt. When Wyatt truly wakes up for the first time since he was a child, it is Aidan who helps him find his way in the world. They grow close as Wyatt gains confidence, and life is good… until Wyatt’s handlers discover he is still alive and decide they want him back.

To Dream, Perchance to Live by Nessa L. Warin (2012, Dreamspinner Press)

“Leave it alone,” Aidan said two days later as he took Wyatt’s left hand in his right, lacing their fingers together and squeezing gently. He told himself it was only to keep Wyatt from picking at the gauze wrapped around his right wrist, but when Wyatt squeezed back, he thought of all the things they’d done in dreams but had thus far avoided in reality.

Wyatt sighed dramatically and held his right arm up, examining the gauze with critical eyes. “It itches. And hurts. And I think it’s almost time to change the gauze anyway.”

“Kyler will be here in an hour or so.”

“We could go to him.”

“I don’t think—”

“Never mind.” Wyatt huffed and pulled his hand free of Aidan’s. “Don’t worry,” he said in response to Aidan’s surprised look, “I won’t pick at anything. I wouldn’t want to damage myself any more.”

“What?” Aidan sat up straighter and looked at Wyatt with wide, surprised eyes. That was not the response he’d been expecting. “What the hell do you mean by that?”

Wyatt held up his bandaged wrist again, this time looking at it in disgust. “I don’t know why you bothered to take this off me.”

“Because you don’t belong to them,” Aidan said in a dubious tone. He was beginning to feel as though he and Wyatt were having two completely different conversations. “You don’t belong to anybody.”

“I don’t? Are you sure?”

“Yes?” Aidan had no idea what Wyatt was getting at, but he didn’t like how agitated he was getting.

“Really?” Wyatt sprang to his feet and paced to the other side of the room. His steps were surer now, but he leaned against the wall for support when he got there, his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed as he glared back at Aidan. “It doesn’t seem that way.”

Now Aidan was completely lost. “It doesn’t?”

“I’m as much a prisoner here as I was—” He paused, waved his hand around. “There. At least they didn’t pretend.”

“Prisoner? What—?”

“I haven’t left this apartment since you brought me here, Aidan!” Wyatt waved his arms wildly, nearly hitting the television with one particularly wild swing. “I’ve spent more time than I care to think about in that damn bed, and now I can’t even go see the doctor you have treating me. I have to wait for him to come here! What else am I supposed to think but that I’m not allowed to go out?”

Aidan sprang to his feet, his teeth clenched and his hands balled into fists at his sides. “I’m trying to help you get healthy so you can go out, Wyatt!” he spat. “You were practically dead when I found you. You still can’t stand or walk for long. You wouldn’t make it to the end of the block without collapsing, and then what?”

“We could drive somewhere.” Wyatt crossed his arms again and leaned more heavily against the wall while trying to look like he was just affecting a casual pose. Aidan was right about his strength, but that didn’t mean Wyatt was going to admit it.

“Not today we can’t.” Aidan smiled ruefully and held up a hand when Wyatt opened his mouth to protest. “Kyler has my car. I let him borrow it ’cause his is in the shop and he needed to spend some time at the clinic before he came back here to check on you. I didn’t realize you’d want to go out yet.”

“Can we go somewhere when he gets here?”

“I don’t know.” When Wyatt’s mouth gaped open again, Aidan crossed the distance between them and rested his hands on Wyatt’s crossed arms. “We’ll talk to Kyler, okay? I don’t want to do something that will set back your recovery. And I don’t know how safe it is.”

Wyatt blinked, trying to wrap his brain around this new twist. Every time Aidan cleared up one thing, he said something else that made no sense, and Wyatt’s head was swimming. “What do you mean?”

“The people who had you could probably tell when Kyler removed your bracelet,” Aidan said softly. “They’re not designed to be removed, and the ones that the government issues have alarms built in to keep people from getting them cut off. There’s no reason to think that yours didn’t. If there is an alarm and it went off, they’ll know you’re alive.” He slid his hand along Wyatt’s arm until his fingers brushed the edge of the gauze. “There aren’t many things that leave a wound like this, and I can’t imagine that there are many people who recently had permanent slave bracelets removed walking around the city. They’re rare, and the courts don’t just release someone who was sentenced to wear one. If someone powerful is looking for one….”

He didn’t have to finish the sentence. Wyatt shivered and nodded. “Okay. Sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Aidan pressed his lips to Wyatt’s ear. “Once you’re healed enough, I promise, we’ll go out. I’ll show you around the city, we’ll get your favorite food, get your hair cut, buy you some clothes that fit… whatever you want.”

Wyatt grinned at Aidan. “Pants that actually come down to my ankles?”

“Yep.” Aidan returned the smile. “Long-sleeve shirts that come down to your wrists too. And real shoes and a jacket for the winter.”

“Sounds great.” Wyatt’s smile faded and he let his head fall forward again. “How am I supposed to pay for that, though?” Aidan’s shirt muffled his voice, but the worry in it came through just fine.

“I’ll pay for it.”

“And then what?” When Wyatt looked up, his eyes were brimming with tears. “I come back here and live in your apartment and eat your food and wear clothes you paid for and do what—keep the place for you while you work? I don’t have any money, and I don’t have any way to get any, either.”

“Yes, you do.”

Wyatt snorted and closed his eyes. “Aidan, I’ve been asleep since I was sixteen years old. I don’t have any marketable skills. The only thing I know how to do is dream.”

“So dream. I’m serious.” Aidan waited until Wyatt opened his eyes, curiosity sparking within them. “Look, my best friend from when I was a kid and her Bondmate, they’re both Dreamers, and they use their ability to support themselves. If they can, so can you. I can ask them to help you, if you want.”

“Maybe.”

“They’re out of town right now, but if you’re feeling up to it when they get back, I’ll introduce you. I’m sure they’ll have ideas to help you find a job. And until then”—Aidan stretched up onto his toes and leaned forward until his lips were only inches from Wyatt’s—“I am happy to help you out.”

Wyatt uncrossed his arms and slipped them around Aidan’s waist, pulling Aidan closer, which forced Aidan’s hands up to his shoulders. “Oh? And what’s in it for you?”

“I get to keep you around.”

“Really?” Wyatt lifted his eyebrows teasingly. “Why would you want that?”

“I’m hoping that this is as good while we’re awake as it is while we’re asleep,” Aidan whispered before sliding a hand up to tangle in Wyatt’s hair and moving the last few inches to push their lips together in a gentle kiss.

It was. Wyatt’s lips were soft and pliant under Aidan’s, parting easily when Aidan slid his tongue across them. When they were dreaming, Aidan never noticed how Wyatt tasted, but here, now, Wyatt tasted of chocolate and the hazelnut coffee he had drunk with breakfast.

Wyatt slipped his tongue into Aidan’s mouth, sliding over the roof and sending a shiver down Aidan’s spine. His arm tightened around Aidan’s waist and shifted his hips in a way that sent all of Aidan’s blood rushing straight to his groin. Aidan moaned, his breath puffing into Wyatt’s mouth as he shifted further, rubbing their hard lengths together through layers of cotton and denim. Aidan’s world narrowed to Wyatt’s mouth on his, Wyatt’s body pressed against him, Wyatt’s hands digging into his hips. He couldn’t move, couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t do anything but lose himself in the soft warmth of Wyatt’s embrace.

Too soon, Wyatt pulled back and looked at Aidan through hooded eyes. “Damn, Aidan. I was having trouble standing before you did that.”

“Does that mean you want me to stop?”

Wyatt’s eyes darkened and he leaned forward, catching Aidan’s bottom lip between his teeth. “Hell no.”

Their first kiss had been mind-blowing, but this one was all-consuming. Aidan moaned deeply and desperately delved into the depths of Wyatt’s mouth.

Wyatt brushed his hands over Aidan’s back, one hand coming up to cup the back of his head, the other slipping under his waistband, one teasing finger sliding under his underwear into the cleft of his ass. Aidan gasped into Wyatt’s mouth and rocked his hips, urging additional contact. He stroked down Wyatt’s arms then up under his shirt, his fingernails scraping down Wyatt’s sides, his thumbs gliding over Wyatt’s chest and brushing over sensitive nipples.

“How did you learn to kiss like that?” Aidan asked in a breathy voice as he pulled back to gasp for air, his lips brushing against Wyatt’s. There was no way someone who had been asleep since he was sixteen should be able to make Aidan feel like that.

Wyatt sucked Aidan’s bottom lip into his mouth. “Dreams can be very explicit.” He kissed his way down Aidan’s neck, across his collar, and back up to his mouth. “I learned all sorts of things dreaming with people.”

Aidan growled, rode the surge of jealousy that flooded him at the thought of anyone else dreaming about kissing Wyatt, and shoved his mouth against Wyatt’s. Their teeth clashed as Aidan thrust his tongue deep into Wyatt’s mouth, determined to touch every spot, to claim him.

Wyatt reciprocated, rolling his hips forward as they battled for control. His hand slid further under Aidan’s waistband, warm and soft against Aidan’s ass.

“God, Wyatt.” Aidan was going to come in his pants if they didn’t stop, and it didn’t look like Wyatt was much farther behind. He pushed his hips forward, rubbing hard and fast against Wyatt’s groin as Wyatt squeezed his ass and rocked his hips, increasing the friction between them. Aidan came hard, gasping and yelling into Wyatt’s mouth, and Wyatt followed, his whole body shaking as Aidan pressed him tight against the wall.

Wyatt sagged when he was done, his head once again resting on Aidan’s shoulder, his arms tight around Aidan’s waist. “Fuck.”

“Yeah.” Aidan carefully slid his hands between Wyatt and the wall. “You think you can make it back to your bedroom? We should, uh, change before Kyler gets here.”

“I don’t think I can move,” Wyatt groaned, but he managed to stand a little straighter.

“Come on,” Aidan said, slipping easily under Wyatt’s arm and looping his fingers into the belt loops of Wyatt’s borrowed pants. They wove down the hall, both a little weak in the knees, their steps unsteady as they maneuvered around the television and bookcases before stumbling down the hall and collapsing onto the unmade bed in Wyatt’s room, arms and legs tangled together.

“We should move,” Wyatt said after a minute, and Aidan nodded, though if they were going to be found tangled together with come inside their pants, the bed was a much better place than on the floor of the living room, where it would have looked like they were horny teenagers who had come hard from making out.

They weren’t teenagers, and thirty-one was far too old to lose control from rubbing and kissing against a wall.

Too bad Aidan desperately wanted to do it again.

 

Rainbow Award Winner – The Slipstream Con!

Imagine our surprise on Saturday evening, when we received an email out of the blue from one of our editors, telling us we’d just won a Rainbow Book Award.  Second place in the Best Bi/Trans Science Fiction and Fantasy category!

Hint: It involved us staring at each other for a few minutes in shock, then losing a large portion of the evening to jumping up and down, calling our respective Mom’s, and celebratory lattes. (Hi, Mom!)

So imagine getting home from the Starbucks run, caramel brulee latte’s held high to toast, and finding out we’d won a second category!  Queue more stunned silence, followed by noises that made our cats very, very worried.  (And another call to my Mom. Hi, Mom!)

Say hello to the 2012 Best Bi/Trans Debut Novel – The Slipstream Con!

 

After finally getting ourselves back to a pitch that could be heard by human beings, we decided to do what Good Authors should- namely, get back to work editing the next book in the series.  It was a grand plan.  A fine plan.  It would have worked, too, if it weren’t for those pesky kids- the same ones who awarded us a third Rainbow Award – the completely unexpected, and incredibly flattering Best Bi/Trans Novel of 2012!  We took second place in this category, and we couldn’t be more proud to be chosen.

Thank you to Elisa Rolle, the judges, all our fine and worthy competitors and compatriots, and of course, to our amazing readers.  Knowing what a talented pool of authors we were up against, we didn’t even expect to make the final cut.  We’re so honoured, and we look forward to getting the next book in the Ylendrian Empire series out there to be enjoyed.  (And probably pasting that lovely award banner all over our desks for a few weeks!)

Making a Difference

Reesa does better than me, and I’m trying to follow her exemplary example this year by making a difference when I do my Christmas shopping. It’s easy enough to fall into the general hysteria and hand-flapping of “Oh god, it’s all so commercialized and evil” but the simple truth of the matter is, I LIKE to buy presents for the people I love. What I don’t want to do, though, is just buy things to be buying things. So along those lines, I’ll share a couple of gifts I’ve done so far…

I love Best Friends.  I love the work they do, and anyone who knows me knows that animal charities are near and dear to my heart. So for gifts, I’ve sponsored a kitty and I’ve made a donation in memory of mom and dad’s two beloved kitties they lost.

For when I want to buy things, I highly recommend The Animal Rescue Site.  You might recognize their co-shop The Hunger Site. Awesome stuff. I can’t buy (or own!) enough of their purple paw print clothes, accessories, jewelry, etc.

My newest obsession is the jewelry on Overstock.com’s Worldstock Fair Trade section.  It’s really cool to read about the artist who designed and made each piece of jewelry and to know that they’re getting a fair return for it.

I’m looking for more suggestions, since the shopping season has really just begun. Send ‘em along if you’ve got them!

Making Waves, Good News, and Where We’ve Been

While I’ve never been the most prolific blogger in the world, I usually manage not to let a month or more go by between posts.  Medical mishaps will really screw with your blogging schedule though, let me tell you.  While I clear the tumbleweeds around here, I’ll just mention that at the end of October, two days before I was supposed to get on a plane to go to Iceland, I saw a pulmonologist for what I thought was a resurgence in my asthma symptoms.  Two hours later, I was sent across the street to the emergency room, then admitted to the hospital for two days after a CT scan revealed extensive pulmonary embolisms.  It’s been a very strange few weeks, and I haven’t been online much.  I’m doing okay, and I will eventually be absolutely fine, but there’s something pretty scary about hearing a doctor talk to you about your averted demise.

So that’s where and how I’ve been, and because I’m a needy thing, that’s what’s been taking up most of Michelle’s time and attention, too.

I can tell you though, that the very best news you can get while you’re in the hospital, is that an editor wants your novel.  Just as I was preparing to make a rope out of my bedsheets and make my escape from the luxurious (*snort*) 7th floor suite I’d been sequestered in, we got an email from Rachel Haimowitz at Riptide Publishing, telling us they wanted to contract our next Ylendrian Empire novel, the psychic-cop thriller (In SPACE!), Peripheral People.  (I think I’m required to say that’s a tentative title, but who knows?)

You have to love being welcomed like this:

We’re thrilled to welcome some great new authors! Writing duo S. Reesa Herberth and Michelle Moore are bringing us a suspenseful sci-fi story, tentatively titled Peripheral People, set in the same universe as their critically acclaimed Ylendrian Empire stories. Expect their release in August 2013!

We’re hard at work on edits right now, and you can expect to see the book in late summer 2013, barring further revolution in my lungs.  I’m so excited to get this book out into the world, and I can’t wait to share it with you all.

I’m still on twitter every now and then, and I still answer email promptly(ish), but right now I’m focused on recovery, editing, editing, editing, and maybe a little writing now and then.  I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving, and working on all sorts of crafty projects for Yuletide gifting.  I hope everyone has a peaceful week (whether you’re celebrating National Day Before Leftovers Day or not), and I’ll be back, good as new and snarky as ever, shortly.