Christine M. Butler's Blog, page 7

Let's Get Interactive

I have a couple things to tell you about including the site becoming interactive, audiobook news, and more preorders going live. Up first, you may have noticed the slightly different look to the blog. Some of you have also already noticed you can become a member of the website (different from signing up for the newsletter, but will still get you the newsletter too). The website has been made interactive, meaning you can now "like" things, post comments, ask questions, and basically interact with the authors here or with other fans of the books. I don't like to bog people down in rules so the only thing I will ask is that you all be respectful of one another if you choose to use those options. I really hope you do, because I love talking to people! Just remember, we also work a lot and have family obligations so responses may not come in immediately (from authors), but they will happen. Audiobook News: I have had people asking me for years if I was ever going to put my books in audiobook format. I've looked into it several times over, and frankly been scared away by the initial cost (it's thousands of dollars for the size books I write per audiobook). So, I have shelved it for a more prosperous time. That time is still not now! hahaha I'm sure some of you can relate with having to pay bills. There are ways around that huge up front fee though, and I am looking into that now, because I don't want to make y'all wait any longer. I have added The Other Princess to ACX (where some of your audible and ibooks go to be made), and am currently shopping around for a narrator (possibly two) who will take on that book. Shadows of the Ancients (The Ancients Series Book 1) is also being set up to shop around for a narrator. Again, I will let you all know each step of the way. Updates will come in when I get the narrator contracted and when you can expect the finished product to be available. For those of you who use the Romance Package on Audible, I am HOPING I will be able to get these books added there as well, but again, I have to actually have the audiobooks available before that gets determined. So, I will keep you updated. Preorders available from Amazon in January: Amazon Preorder-Redemption Weather Amazon Preorder - Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Amazon Preorder - The Infinite Beat I know the question everyone wants answered right now is about the S.H.E. Series. Two of the SHE books will be available BEFORE The Infinite Beat (T.I.E. Book 2) so why aren't they available for preorder? It's because I'm going to attempt to give you Angel Girl for free for the first month, and I can't do that through preorder status. I've repeatedly stated that the first book in a series (or world of books) will always be at least $0.99 or FREE no matter the size of the book, because I want you to be comfortable purchasing a new series/world of books without fear you'll hate it and have wasted your money. This way, there's little to no investment on your part to see if you'll enjoy it. Angel Girl is a LARGE book. I originally had it written as two separate books, a novel (90,000 words) and then a follow up novella (40,000 words). I ended up pulling my original release date in order to combine them, because I don't like to pay twice to finish a character's story any more than you guys do! Then book two (originally Keys) just wasn't working for me. I already had book three (JoJo) written so I ended up pulling my release dates once more, because I wanted to have at least two of the five books out all at once in the beginning. Then, I reordered the books, which took a little time going back and changing some things that flow across a time line between books. Yes, they can be read out of order, but they still follow a time line, if that makes sense. So, now that I've gone into a load of behind the scenes crap, the short answer is just that I am attempting to give you a free book to try out and I can't make a book free in preorder. Okay, one final thing, I am leaving you with the new book covers for The Awakening Trilogy (Series) reboot. Those books will be back online at the end of April/early May with freshly edited and NEW content! If you already own the e-books, after they go live I HIGHLY suggest you update them so that you are getting the new content! I know some of you had the books so long ago they're forever lost in your Nook (or whatever e-reader program or account you may have switched out over the years) that you no longer use... I am going to take care of that too! That's why you see the trilogy bundle image too. When the time comes I will set up a way for you to get the bundle at no cost to replace the books you already purchased. If you made it all the way to the bottom of this post (it's really long, I know!) then I shall reward you with this little carrot of information that no one seems to have discovered yet. I leave messages on Goodreads sometimes with information you may be looking for. Within the book page for The Other Princess is the (sort of) answer to the question everyone had at the end of the book! ;) You will also find an update there (that I didn't include here) on a future book release. Go forth, and search out the treasure! XOXO, Christine Michelle // Christine M. Butler

Pre-Order Available

Hi, everyone!I have been absent from updates, posts, and pretty much everything in the writing world for some time now due to the "day job" that helps pay the bills. That being said, I am finishing up three Aces High MC World Books, and they will all be available in January, 2019.The first in the batch is The Other Princess - which I actually wasn't planning to release until much later this year, but my muse kicked my butt and demanded it be written NOW! So, The Other Princess (ebook) is currently available for pre-order on Amazon, and will be released officially everywhere else on January 10, 2019. The paperback will be available on Jan. 30, 2019.About The Other Princess:Approximately 80k words.Book World: Aces High MCBook Series: Aces High MC - CharlestonNumber in Series: 1Availability: Pre-order on AmazonRelease Date: Jan. 10, 2019NOTE: Be aware that the Charleston Series deals almost fully with internal family drama instead of over-the-top explosions, killing, and maiming that a lot of MC Romances delve into. This is NOT a DARK ROMANCE. It is a family drama and contemporary romance! The family just happens to ride Harleys and belong to a club that can sometimes be hard to handle. It is also ROMANCE and not EROTICA, so while there is some steam, sex does not drive the plot! :DDescription:I was eight years old when I found out I had a father. It was the same day I held my dead mother in my arms while praying her life wasn't really over. I was dropped into the middle of a new family not long after that. My dad, his wife, and their two kids to be exact. My new brother was ten years old and my sister was five. It doesn't take a genius to figure out I wasn’t supposed to be there. My family ended up bigger than that though. My dad was a member of the Aces High Motorcycle Club. From the very beginning I was ostracized because of who my mother had been. The daughters of club members were generally known as MC Princesses. My little sister was one. My title was a bit different, and proved that my mom's sins would always be held against me. I was The Other Princess. My family, both by blood and MC ties, did wrong by me so I walked away from them. That was until he came home from the Army. He tried to fix everything. He tried to win an unattainable heart that had shut down years earlier. I would know since it was my heart he was after. He didn't realize it would take a miracle. Secretly, I hoped I could still believe in miracles.Next up this month will be Redemption Weather - another Aces High MC World Book! Redemption Weather should have preorders available by Jan. 15, and the links will be posted on the website as well as Christine's facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/authorchrist...About Redemption Weather:Approximately 100k words.Book World: Aces High MCBook Series: Aces High MC - Cedar FallsNumber in Series: 1Availability: Pre-order coming soon to AmazonDescription:When I married Walker Smithson it was the happiest day of my life. My family was there, we had a bright future ahead of us, and the world was ours for the taking.Then the storms started coming.First, there was the one that took my family.Then, there was the one that took my husband.Moving to a new town, new state, and a new life was never on my agenda until I couldn’t take the ghosts, both living and dead, that haunted my every waking moment in the town I’d been born to, grown up and always thought I’d die in after living out my happily ever after.I’d been wrong about my life before.Wrong took me to Cedar Falls, West Virginia and left me on the door step of the same motorcycle club that had failed me before.It took me to a place where my future was waiting for me.If only the past would let go of us so that we could be happy.If only tragedy and storms would stop following in my wake.If only the weather would turn, so my happy could commence. If, for once, wrong could prove to be absolutely right.The final MC Romance of the month will be Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot - Book 2 of the Aces High MC - Dakotas Series. It should have been out last year, but was one of the casualties of the day job standing in the way of getting writing done! :DAbout Whiskey, Tango, FoxtrotApproximately 90k words.Book World: Aces High MCBook Series: Aces High MC - DakotasNumber in Series: 2Available: Preorders for WTF should start Jan. 25, 2019. Yes, that means the book will most likely be released in early February, and I'm swinging in with "three in January" as a technicality, but I am seriously hoping to get everything wrapped up and polished for publication in time that I can drop this one a little earlier than I'm currently anticipating. Description:I was sent to South Dakota with a tattoo artist, biker named Tango in order to keep me safe from whatever mess my brother had gotten himself into this time.Tango was a stupid name for a tough biker who was supposed to be able to protect me. How was a man named after a dance supposed to do anything to keep me safe?Stupid name. Sexy biker though.Lucky for me, I had been dead wrong about pretty much everything.Wrong about his name.Wrong about his ability to take care of me.I wasn’t wrong about how sexy he was though. My perpetually soaked panties were all the evidence anyone needed that Tango could dance all over my body any time, anywhere if only I was all that he wanted.Unfortunately for me he seemed to be in a weird relationship with his buddies Whiskey, Fox, and their girl Amy. No way was I signing on to be the lettuce in that screwed up sexual sandwich.Nope. Nope. Nope.I might need protection from an entire MC, but I did not need to share my man. Ever. Then again...I’d been wrong about everything else so far.Maybe I was wrong about this too.*One final note on the AcesHigh MC Books - Proven (Part of the Cedar Falls Series) was started as an online serial earlier this year. Due to unfortunate circumstances with life, work, and a whole heap of overtime, I was unable to carry on with the online serials. That does not mean that they are done. I plan to continue them starting in May, and hopefully, I will have Proven polished up and ready to be read as a complete book before then. It will be offered for FREE in e-book format, as it was originally intended to be.Thank you for your continued patience, and for sharing your love of books with mexoxo,Christine Michelle (Christine M. Butler)Moonlit Dreams Publications

Proven (Week 3)

ProvenChristine MichelleCopyright © 2018 Christine M. Butler / Christine MichelleAll rights reserved.Scanning, downloading, uploading, copying, screen capturing and/or any re-distribution of this work, either electronically or otherwise, is prohibited.Any similarities to persons, organizations, or places written about within these pages is purely coincidental, as this is a work of fiction.Reader warning:This work is intended for an adult audience (18 and older) due to strong language, violence, and sexual situations.Book DescriptionI followed my heart from San Diego, California to Cedar Falls, West Virginia. Too bad that heart wasn’t worth the trip.Thankfully, I had my job, new friends - which consisted of an entire motorcycle club I’d fallen into - and my new found responsibility for a family that was torn apart by needless tragedy.As luck, fate, or whatever crazy force made such things occur would happen, I had followed my heart straight to Cedar Falls. I just didn’t realize I hadn’t met my heart yet.Once there, I found myself lost in a woman named Gillie-Bean, a boy named Kade, and what was left of the family I’d helped save from the aftermath of a drunk driver.As the former me - Daniel “Gray” Grayson - became “Surfer” in the Aces High MC, I realized my own heart had been worth the trip. I was brought here for a reason.For a new family.For her.If you haven't started from the beginning of Proven you should head to week one first!Proven Week One // Week Two // Week Four (available 5-06-18)_____________________________________________________________It was my first day off from rescue, and I didn’t have to be at the club until later in the evening which is why it was odd that my phone was ringing too close by to have been where I left it. I barely opened one of my eyes to peek out and noticed Kayla sitting beside me in bed staring at my phone with a look of panic like she’d just been caught red handed at something, and she had. “Why do you have my phone, and who is calling?” “Smoke’s calling,” she answered and tossed it on my chest. I picked up the phone and answered. “Hello?” “Hey man, sorry to wake you, but we’re going to need you a bit earlier today. We have a run, last minute thing, and need a body to drive the van.” “Sure when and where?” Smoke offered up details and then disconnected. I had two hours to get ready and haul my ass to the clubhouse, but that didn’t mean it had escaped my notice that Kayla hadn’t answered what she’d been doing with my phone. I immediately flipped to my texts and saw she had sent out a message to Beth. Gray: Don’t contact me anymore it’s causing problems with my woman. Beth: I’m so sorry, Gray. I knew it was an issue. Thank you for everything. Shit! I was going to kill her. “Kayla!” My voice boomed through the house and I knew she heard me, but she was hiding like the guilty little snake she was. Instead of texting back I called Beth who was sniffling on the other end when she picked up. “I’m so sorry, Gray. I didn’t mean to…” “Beth, stop. I didn’t send you that message this morning. Hell, I probably never would have known about it had my phone not started ringing while Kayla was fuckin’ with it.” “Wh-what?” “Yeah, seems Kayla and I are going to have a come to Jesus talk a lot sooner than I thought,” I sighed. “I tried hanging in here to make sure she had someone helping her out since she literally has no one. I can’t be that someone any longer though. There’s a reason she has no one, and you just saw a little bit of that.” “Oh my God, who does that kind of thing? I’m sorry you’re caught up with someone like that, Gray, but don’t let your hero complex keep you in a situation you don’t want to be in any longer. Life is too short.” She would know that better than anyone. Life was far too short to spend it not being happy every minute you could, because sometimes you needed those happy moments to fill the void when everything went wrong. “Yeah, I’m seeing that for what it is now, trust me. I just wanted to make sure you were okay, and that you knew the reality of that text. Do not ever hesitate to call me if you need anything, and if you can’t get a hold of me you use the numbers Ghost gave you. The guys will see to whatever you need too.” “I don’t know how to begin to thank you, Gray. My life changed that night in ways that I never would have understood before, but if you hadn’t been the one… if you hadn’t cared… I don’t know where Abby and I would be right now.” “Right place, right time, sweetheart. Kiss Abby for me. I have to go get ready for some club business, but I’ll give you a call and check in later.” “Thanks again, Gray, and stay safe when you’re out there riding.” “Sure thing,” I told her before hanging up, and getting my butt in gear. I didn’t bother hunting down Kayla, because that’s what she wanted when she hid away. I was done with her shit. I had just finished getting ready, and was snagging a go cup with coffee when Kayla finally reemerged from wherever she’d been hiding out. “Weren’t you going to come say goodbye?” She asked in her sugary sweet voice as if she hadn’t done something to piss me off. “Nope,” I answered as I stirred a little bit of cream into my coffee. “Where are you going? You aren’t supposed to go to the clubhouse until this evening.” “Shit changed, I’ve got a run to make.” “When will you be back?” The bitchy Kayla called out instead of the sweet one. “I don’t fuckin’ know, Kayla,” I spat out, exasperated with her personality flips. “When I do get back though, we’re sitting down and having a fuckin’ heart to heart kind of conversation though. That shit you pulled with my phone – not cool. I can’t fuckin’ believe you’d stoop to that level of deceit, but you crossed a major fuckin’ line with me.” Her face pinched up while her eyes narrowed on me. “It’s always about her! What about me?” “What about you? What the fuck about you, Kayla? That woman lost her husband and two of her children. I’m just trying to help her out, because that shit is rough on someone, and she doesn’t have any other family.” “I don’t have any other family either,” Kayla spat out. “You do. You just ruined those relationships with your antics. The difference between Beth and you is that her life was taken from her; all of it out of her control while you threw yours away on stupid, spoiled, rich girl decisions that got you into trouble. You did it to yourself.” “Why are you here then?” She shouted at me. “I ask myself that on a daily basis these days, because you are not the person I thought you were, and I’m seeing there’s really not a big hope in hell that you’ll ever be more than this.” I waved a hand in her direction indicating the whole miserable package that she was. “There’s nothing more than a chick who would start drama with a woman who lost most of her family, because you’re jealous all the attention isn’t on you. I don’t know who the fuck you are, but you are no one I want to give my time to these days.” “I’m sorry, Gray!” The sweet Kayla was back and whining. “I let it get the best of me, and I was jealous, because I thought you would end up leaving me for her.” I laughed then. “She just lost her husband and children, Kayla. There’s nothing romantic about that shit. If you had actually put forth more of an effort, you could have been helping her too and been right there beside me every time I went to check on them. I asked you to come along, remember? You did it at first when she was in the hospital, but then it was too much to ask of you.” “I didn’t think…” she started, but I cut her off. “You never do! That’s the problem. We’ll talk about all this later, because right now I have somewhere else to be.” With that, I took off and headed for the clubhouse to meet up with Smoke, and whoever else was heading out on the run today.~*~ Three hours later I found myself driving the box van that claimed to be hauling auto parts, but I was pretty sure was stuffed full of guns and ammo. I didn’t really give a rats ass about laws and breaking or abiding by them so it never occurred to me ask what the club was into aside from the legit businesses they had in Cedar Falls like the pawn shop and the bar down the street from the clubhouse. There was also a diner owned by one of the brothers and his old lady, though I was murky on whether it was a personal venture or part of the club’s legit businesses too.Since the Prospect, Mouth, hadn’t shown for duty and Hold’Em was busy on a separate run I was sitting in the van alone on this trip instead of having a partner with me as the guys had originally planned. Smoke, Heavy, Wren, and Ghost were on this run too, but the guys were riding in pairs with two leading the way and two trailing behind. We were just passing close to the state line when the blue lights and siren lit up the road. “Fuck!” “We’re gonna haul ass, catch his attention, and hope he follows us instead of you,” Smoke called over the open line we’d had for communication. “Do what you do, I have it handled here.” They did their thing. All four bikes took off like the hounds of hell were nipping at their heels. Taking off in such a manner made them look guilty, obviously, because the cop flew past me in hot pursuit. The problem with this scenario is that there had been two pickup trucks behind the police cruiser and two Harleys behind them. As soon as the cruiser and my boys were out of sight everything started going down. The blue Ford F-350 took off, appearing at first to be following the cop into the pursuit, but all too quickly he was swerving right in front of me, clipping my bumper, and causing me to swerve a bit before I got control again. “Son of a…” “What’s going on?” I heard Smoke call out since he hadn’t been able to disconnect with me yet. “Truck just clipped the front bumper nearly sent me off the… Holy fuck!” I was slamming on breaks as the truck in front of me had just done, and while I tried to pull around him at the same time I was unable to because the second truck had already pulled around to flank me in the oncoming traffic lane. “I’m getting boxed in by two pickup trucks and,” I glanced in my rearview to see the bikes more clearly. “Looks like two Harleys with riders wearing kuttes that do not belong to Aces High.” “Shit!” Smoke bellowed from his end. “They used the cops to separate us from the load.” Smoke started barking orders that were apparently for the other guys on the bikes. I was busy pulling the van over and throwing it in park as quickly and safely as I could, because they definitely had me pinned in but good. I wasn’t going down a corpse out here though. I grabbed the Glock I had stuffed in my waistband and took aim on the passenger in the truck that had flanked me. I popped a round off, hitting him, though not in the head so he might actually live through this one. Then shots were returned at the van. “Don’t hit the fuckin’ merchandise,” someone shouted. “The asshole is shooting at us. He already clipped ShortStack.” My seat belt was released, and I was crawling over toward the passenger side door when a voice called out from the driver’s side window that I had kept down for the fresh air. “Not so fast, asshole!” I didn’t think, just reacted, took aim, and shot the motherfucker before he could shoot me. I was pretty sure that one was going to be Dead on Arrival when the law and emergency crews finally got on scene, because he took a bullet right between the eyes. “Fuck, fuck, fuck! Marshall’s down!” Someone yelled, and if I was counting right that meant there were two down and three or four more to go depending on how many were in the truck taking point. The distant rumble of motorcycle engines spurred everyone into action. I wasn’t sure if they would be friendlies or backup for the assholes attacking so I took aim again, out the passenger side window, and managed to hit one of the guys creeping up the side of the van in the leg. He screamed and went down grabbing at his wound about the same time the back door to the van was wrenched open. I spun and fired, hitting the man who barreled into the van like an idiot. That was four of a possible six that had been hit now. As I went to lean back behind the passenger seat again I felt a searing heat in my left bicep and spun in time to take out the man who had just shot me. Luckily for me, his aim was shit, and I was just grazed, but unlucky for him, my aim was superb and his ass was dead. The truck in front of the van suddenly pulled out and spun around in the direction it had originally come from as the roaring engines of my future club brothers got progressively louder as they finally coming into view up ahead. There were only three, Heavy having been the odd man out to chase away the cop. As they drove up one of the wounded men began shooting, so I turned and shot him once more. Now he had a shoulder wound to tend to along with the bullet I’d already put in his thigh. “Well, Goddamn, Gray, you didn’t leave shit for us to do,” Wren called out before laughing. Smoke was up at the side of the van in no time assessing my state and seeing if I needed medical assistance. “I’m good,” I told him. “Just winged me, dude. There were definitely six total. One of them got away in a truck as you were all rolling up. They were after the shipment.” Ghost and Wren had been busy with rounding up the wounded men and tying them up on the side of the road while I updated Smoke. “Fuck man, the Army taught you right,” Wren commented as he took note of the wounded and the two that were definitely not coming back from what I’d done to them. “Call it in, and get someone out here to help clean this shit up,” Ghost bellowed out. We can use their truck to haul the bikes back soon as we get this shit settled, but we need to be quick about it, because no telling how long Heavy can hold off the cops before he ends up thrown in fuckin’ jail for his efforts.” Ghost leaned in the van and looked at me then, also assessing where I was with everything. “Good job, son. We’ll see to your wound in just a bit.” “No need,” I called back to him, already reaching for the first aid kit I had brought with me. I pulled out some gauze, dripped some peroxide down the cut that was definitely deep enough it would need stitching, and then I plopped the gauze over top and wrapped it tight. It would do for now. “Well shit,” Ghost muttered. “Never had one of our guys get shot and field dress that shit on his own before. That’s a new one.” He was shaking his head back and forth as he moved closer to the assholes tied up on the side of the road. “Let’s see which one of you pricks will be spending time in Aces High’s special room.” He then completely fucked with their head by pulling out “Eanie, meanie, miny, moe” at which point Wren burst out laughing again. “That’s some fucked up shit, Ghost.” The man just chuckled and kept going until he got to the part of “you are not it.” Except when he got there it was a corpse he’d landed on so he added in, “because you’re already dead, fucker!” “Jesus!” This was from Smoke as he shook his head at our club president’s antics. “Seriously, pick two, get them loaded up in the van for now. We need to get away from this shit show as quick as possible. Crusher and Court are waiting for us just over the line.” Smoke grabbed two of the assholes, tossed them in the back of the van, and left one of them there on the side of the road with his dead buddies. “This should give you something to think about, maybe consider a life change, Hound.” Smoke’s cool voice rolled through the air like a shot. “Let your brethren know we have their boys, they keep fuckin’ around with our runs and we’ll see that those boys do not enjoy their stay. Let Silver know we’ll be in touch.” With that, the better of the two bikes plus Smoke’s ride, were loaded up in the truck. We couldn’t fit the third, because Smoke’s bike was a monster taking up most of the room all by itself. Smoke got behind the wheel, Ghost and Wren hopped back on their bikes, and we all took off for the rendezvous point with Crusher and Court, both men were Aces High members from the Tallahassee Chapter. They would be taking over the shipment once we got to them, and heading south with it. Where the shipment would end up was anyone’s guess, and not my business to know as a prospect so I didn’t bother to ask any questions. We didn’t really have time for questions anyway since we were trying to avoid the police, and had to take an alternate route back to the clubhouse after dropping off the box van to the guys from Tallahassee. Their van had mechanical problems on the way so I ended up relinquishing ours and hopping in the truck we’d procured from the Hell Hounds MC members that had attacked us. Smoke continued to drive, and I started getting nervous when he kept glancing at me. “Dude? What’s up?” He shook his head in disbelief and then let me in on his thoughts. “You, surfer man. You’re chill as ice over there like you didn’t get shot today and didn’t kill a couple guys and leave a few more injured all by your lonesome until we could get back to you.” “Am I supposed to be freaking the fuck out?” I asked honestly, not knowing what he expected. “Nah, man. I just don’t think any of our other prospects would be so cool under pressure. I’d place money that had it been Mouth in your spot he would have been dead before he even popped one shot off, yet here you sit like nothing happened, not freaking the fuck out, and not asking questions about why you were shot at.” I laughed then. “Something about me you might not know since I talk surfer slow and all, but I totally have a brain, dude.” I said this with an affected surfer drawl before chuckling. “I’ll tell you what I know. The shipment we just dropped was guns and ammo. I know this because the smell of fuckin lubricating oil was a bit strong in the van when I got in, and it has a different smell to what you would get from car parts. Seeing as those dudes were wearing patches with a different logo and club name on them, and they were all about shooting first and taking names later, I was able to put together for myself that they were a rival club. This was later confirmed when you and Ghost spoke to the men. So, I’m pretty much up to speed on what’s going down and don’t need to ask unnecessary questions.” “It doesn’t bother you that we’re runnin’ guns?” I simply shrugged. “Would it bother me had the cop followed me, there weren’t any rivals to take him out, and I got popped for hauling ‘em? I’d probably be a bit miffed, because I just don’t look good in day-glow orange, man. Plus, jumpsuits tend to ride up on the balls, and that’s just not cool.” Smoke burst out laughing so hard I thought he’d have to pull the fuck over, but he got his shit together quick enough and just shook his head at me once more. “Fuckin’ Christ. It’s like someone put you in the perfect biker-man mold and spit you out.” “I do what I can,” I offered smugly and buffed my nails on the leather of my kutte as Smoke continued to chuckle. “Fuckin’ hell! Ghost needs to give me an award for recruiting your ass.” I glanced down at my arm as he said that and notice the blood had oozed through the gauze and bandaging in a major way. “I’m gonna need some stitches when we get back. You know how, or have someone there that can handle it without making me look like fuckin’ Frankenstein’s monster?” Smoke grinned. “The fact that you know the difference between Frankenstein and the monster means you’re too fuckin’ smart for this shit, but whatever. Yeah, I can pop a couple stitches in you. Won’t be my first time sewing a brother back together either, so you can keep looking sunshine and surf ready, dude.” The dude was said with a mock, slowness that I just laughed at. Then I huffed out a sigh as we pulled into the compound, because it was damn good to be back home. Home meant I could do something about the ache in my arm, finally.It became apparent, almost immediately, that I would not be doing something about the ache in my arm just yet, because once we moved through the doors of the clubhouse I had a clear view of the pool tables and the familiar head of hair that was there, bobbing back and forth on a club brother I’d never seen before. I didn’t even think before I was moving. The shit with Beth may have been the last straw, but I wasn’t about to be disrespected in a place I had just gotten shot up to be a part of. “You have got to be fucking kidding me,” came out of my mouth as I charged forward. “Shit!” I heard Smoke call out from somewhere behind me, as he had delayed coming in with me in order to get his bike off the truck so another brother could go ditch the truck since it was technically stolen property now. As soon as I was within swinging distance I clocked the motherfucker, who had been receiving a blowjob from my girlfriend, right in his downturned nose. He never saw it coming because he had been too busy watching her work him over. “Gray!” I heard my name hissed out in surprise from Kayla and the minute she caught my wild-eyed look she got off her knees and backed up. “He didn’t know, man!” Smoke was there getting between the asshole with his cock still hanging out and me. “The fuck?” The bleeding man roared out. “You letting a fuckin’ prospect hit a brother and not a fuckin’ one of you does shit?” “Fuck you, asshole!” I yelled at him and went in for another hit before I was lifted bodily off my feet and set back down further away from the man. Ghost appeared out of thin air then and got in my face. “Traveler is nomad, and didn’t know who she was,” he told me calmly while keeping both of his hands firmly planted my shoulders. “Get him the fuck out of here, he just fucked up his prospect period,” the guy Ghost called Traveller was yelling. “You’re just pissed he got the drop on you in the middle of getting your cock sucked,” one of the guys howled out in peels of laughter. Smoke stepped in when it looked like Traveller was ready to throw down with someone else now. “Stop. We’re not saying shit to him, because any one of us would have done the same fuckin’ thing we walked in the club house and saw our old lady suckin’ a brother’s cock. You feel me?” “What? Old lady?” Traveller turned toward the duplicitous bitch in question then. “You have an old man involved in this club?” Kayla simply shrugged, still managing to pull off her wide, doe-eyed look of surprise like she didn’t realize she’d been sucking cock in the clubhouse. “I can’t really be his old lady since he’s not a member. So, not really,” she attempted to cover for herself. “The fact we’ve been together for two and a half years means you shouldn’t have been suckin’ another man’s dick. The fact I’m prospecting for this club means it sure as fuck shouldn’t have happened here.” “You were going to leave me tonight anyway, I just know it. You left mad, because of what I did to Beth,” she started to say and heard several people suck in a breath. That was when she realized she was really in trouble with the club. “What the fuck did she do to Beth?” “That’s for later, I already handled it.” I told the guys before turning back to Kayla. “I don’t even know who the fuck you are anymore.” “I didn’t want to wait to be accepted as a real old lady,” she spat back, now moving back to her argument about me not being a real brother and just a prospect, a position I was bound to hold for at least a year according to tales I’d heard from the other guys about how long it took them to get patched in. “You sure as fuck will never be accepted as anything but club pussy, now,” Ghost informed her. “And after this, no member will touch you, so you won’t even be that.” Ghost turned to me then clapped his hand back on my shoulder and sighed. “It’s good to know this now, son. You patch in on Friday officially so that gives us time to get your kutte ready, and the party all set. You survived trial by fire for us tonight so you deserve it. Let that be a consolation, considering what you came home to after being shot.” “Wait, you’re a full member now?” Regret laced Kayla’s features, but what wasn’t there was concern for the fact that I had been shot in order to earn my place in the brotherhood this soon. “You got what you wanted just in time to suck it all away for yourself. Now, I have to go clear my shit from the house.” “No! Wait! I’m sorry, Gray. I wasn’t thinking.” “You weren’t thinking when you pulled that stunt with Beth this morning. You weren’t thinking when you figured it was okay to suck another brother’s cock at the clubhouse in plain sight. Did you think at all today?” I held a hand up to stave off her answer. “Don’t bother, because you know who has been thinking? Me. The things I’ve been thinking for a while now are that I’m done with your shit, I’m done with you being a toxic nothingness that wastes my resources, and I’m fuckin’ over dealing with the fallout of your dramas on the regular. So, good luck with your house, and your life after, but none of it will include me, because I’ve been thinkin’ I’m just plain fucking done.” I turned my back on her then and glanced over at Smoke. “I’ve got you covered, brother. You come stay at my place, and as soon as we get your arm tended we’ll grab one of the vans and head over to get your shit.” “You’re not welcome back in my house if you do this, so good luck getting your shit. I’ll call the cops and tell them I don’t know who you are. I’ll tell them it’s all mine, and you’re stealing from me. They’ll lock you up for doing it.” “Lock this bitch up,” Ghost called out. “Gladly,” Wren stated as he took hold of Kayla and started dragging her out of the main area. “Wh-what are you doing? Get your hands off of me! This is kidnapping! I’ll call my dad and have every fucking cop and federal agent in this place in minutes.” I laughed. “Your dad isn’t lifting a finger to help you anymore, because you screwed over one of his best friends, remember? Besides, I’ve kept him abreast of the fact that you haven’t changed a fuckin’ bit.” “You what?” She hissed out. “He called for a while to check on you at your mother’s behest. I told him how you were doing. I never lied. He told me if it ever got too bad to let him know and he’d come out to have you committed and put in a facility for treatment. He never did spill your secrets or why he wanted to know though, so at least you should be thankful he still respected your privacy enough not to let on about what went down so you could maybe have a fresh start.” This was all true and should have been a huge red flag, but I honestly thought it was just a play due to his anger over what his daughter had done. Obviously, he thought she had to be off her rocker a bit in order to fuck over his friend the way she had. After seeing the way she attempted to manipulate the situation with Beth and then tonight, I was leaning more towards agreeing with him. It wasn’t just that she had grown up spoiled. Something was seriously wrong with her. “We’ll hold her a couple hours while you get your shit together. Let us know when you get it all, and we’ll make sure she gets home in one piece.” “You can’t do this!” Kayla was screaming from down the hall again. Then I couldn’t hear her and I assumed Wren had taken her down to the basement where there were three special soundproof rooms. We had two occupied with the Hell Hounds who had attacked me earlier, but there was a third room downstairs sitting empty and waiting. Served her right.~*~ “You’re welcome to stay as long as you like, and don’t worry about being in my way. I’m spend most of my time over at Poppy’s these days. She has Bubba, and he needs the yard, which is something I don’t have here. I can’t have pets in this place anyway. So, you’ll mostly be on your own.” Smoke laid it out for me as he showed me around his three bedroom apartment. “Dude, why are you paying for a three bedroom place for just you?” “I had roommates before, but they were both fuckwads. When they left, I just decided to keep the place on my own since I’m on the top floor, and in a corner unit It cuts down on the noise from neighbors on the days when I was off shift and need sleep at odd hours.” “I hear you there. Our last place in San Diego we had this big guy above us, sounded like a herd of cattle running through the apartment when he moved around up there. This dude was like 6 feet, 7 inches of solid, thick muscle and didn’t know a thing about walking gently.” Smoke laughed. “Yeah, I’ve had all kinds. The chick that lived next door in my last place was a screamer, and our bedroom walls were adjoining. My ex-girlfriend, Julie and I used to either try to outdo her moans sometimes or find the best fuckin’ noise canceling earplugs and headphones money could buy. It was insane.” He grabbed two beers out of the fridge and handed one to me. “Come to think of it, I think she was a working girl or something, because it was all the fuckin’ time, and never the same dude walking out of her door in the morning.” “Damn, dude, that’s tough. Let me know what my share of the rent and bills will be here. You know I have no problem paying it, and I’m not looking for a handout.” “It’s all good man, we’ll talk about that shit tomorrow. Let’s tend to your bandage there and add a little more ointment to that shit before you turn in for the night.” “Sure thing, sweet cheeks,” I teased. “You take such good care of me snook’ems.” “Fuck! I knew I’d regret setting your ass up with a room.” I blew him a kiss as he retrieved the first aid kit. “I’ll see about snagging some antibiotics from the hospital tomorrow, just in case.” “Yeah, be sure you don’t pop any of my beautiful stitching on the job too while you’re at it. You know you shouldn’t be lifting anything heavy, but I’m sure that warning won’t stop you.” I just shrugged. “I’ll be cautious.” Smoke took a hard look at me then. “I know that things haven’t been good between you guys lately, but it had to suck walkin’ in on that shit tonight, especially after the day you had.” I just shook my head. “Nah dude, that’s the thing. I know I was months past being done with her shit, because it didn’t bother me outside of the fact that she made me look bad at the clubhouse. I had planned to talk to you tonight about seeing if I could rent a room for a bit until I could find a place anyway, because I was already finished with her. I hadn’t planned on another night in that house.” I told him what she had done about Beth when we were packing my things up earlier, and had to stop him from going back to the clubhouse to unleash on her. “Still can’t believe she didn’t think you’d find out about the stunt she was trying to pull with Beth.” “If you hadn’t called, I’m sure she would have covered her tracks and Beth would have been too polite to mention it. So, she was probably right in thinking that I wouldn’t have known.” “Well, fuck, sorry you got shot today then, but not sorry I called at the right time.” I laughed. “Yeah, thanks for that. Your call got my ass shot, dude!” “It also got you patched in as a full brother in just a few months rather than waiting the typical 12-18.” “True.” “Plus, they only winged you, so quit your bitchin’ already, pansy-ass.” Smoke’s phone pinged with an incoming message. He glanced down at it, and smiled. “Looks like your ex is going to manage to hold her tongue despite the fit she threw earlier.” “Yeah? How’d they manage that miracle?” “Did we ever tell you that we have cameras in the clubhouse? Everything gets wiped at the end of the night if there’s nothing useful on the feed, but we’ve determined after countless incidents that it’s best not to inform the prospects before they’re patched, you feel?” “I get that. So, you caught her on camera, huh?” Smoke nodded. “The guys let her know that no one would believe shit she had to say when we showed that she was there willingly to cheat on you with another brother, and that she was just acting out and making shit up since she was pissed she got caught and lost access to your bank account as a result.” I laughed then. “Good, It’s about time she found out the world doesn’t revolve around her shit.” “Yeah, and just so you are aware, she was giving the edict by Ghost that she is persona non grata at the clubhouse, near the brothers, or properties and businesses the club is involved with. The guys all got the message that she’s banished too.” I breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m fuckin’ stoked to hear that shit, dude! That’s really fuckin’ good, because it gives me a chance to actually start with a clean slate without her showing up and bringing her drama around,” I explained, probably needlessly, because I’m pretty sure he understood. Then Smoke took off not long after that to head to Poppy’s house while I got settled into my new living situation._______________________________________________________________Proven Week One // Week Two // Week Four (available 5-06-18)_______________________________________________________________That's it for this week's installment. Come back next Sunday for Week 4 of Proven by Christine Michelle.If you can't wait that long, you can check out Dancing With Danger (Aces High - Dakotas Book 1) by Christine Michelle. It takes place in the same MC World as Proven.The e-book is currently only $0.99, or you can use coupon code AD82Y at the Smashwords link below to nab a free copy as long as you do so before May 19, 2018.Buy HereiBooks // Kobo // Barnes & Noble // Amazon // Smashwords // Google Play // Scribd // GoodreadsThank you for reading!

New Release Books

The Infinite Something (T.I.E. Book1) is finally here, and it is clocking in at just over 100,000 words in length. That means it's a juicy read well worth the current $0.99 price tag! If you enjoy rock star romances, you will love to sit back and dig into this new novel from Christine Michelle! Book Description:I thought I could fall in love with an up and coming rock star until he betrayed me. The lying, cheating, scheming piece of crap bassist for my brother’s band destroyed my faith in men.Funny how another musician saved me from humiliation, became my best friend during my internship with his band’s tour, and ended up winning my heart despite the fact that I had sworn to never go there again.Too bad things couldn’t stay so simple. One jealous ex-girlfriend, one crazy infatuation later, and I became public enemy number one. Then I waited to see if he would remain my savior, or prove that I was right the first time around… you can’t trust a rocker. Why the hell had I done so twice?He was the reason for the second chance.My reason for everything that followed.Sale links:Moonlit Dreams Publications:https://www.moonlitdreams.org/product-page/the-infinite-something-1Smashwords:https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/819882Kobo:https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-infinite-somethingAmazon:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CMG2JBQUK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07CMG2JBQAU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07CMG2JBQCA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07CMG2JBQDE: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07CMG2JBQFR: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B07CMG2JBQES: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B07CMG2JBQIT: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B07CMG2JBQNL: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B07CMG2JBQJP: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B07CMG2JBQBR: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B07CMG2JBQMX: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B07CMG2JBQIN: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B07CMG2JBQSome retailers are slower to populate the books than others, so this post will be updating with the rest of the links at a later time. If you’re waiting to purchase from your favorite bookseller, please check back again soon, as links go up as soon as they become available.iBooks:B&N:Scribd:Google Play/ Google Books: *Paperbacks will be released in approximately two weeks, and will retail for $12.00!

Proven (Week 1)

ProvenChristine MichelleCopyright © 2018 Christine M. Butler / Christine MichelleAll rights reserved.Scanning, downloading, uploading, copying, screen capturing and/or any re-distribution of this work, either electronically or otherwise, is prohibited.Any similarities to persons, organizations, or places written about within these pages is purely coincidental, as this is a work of fiction.Reader warning:This work is intended for an adult audience (18 and older) due to strong language, violence, and sexual situations.Book DescriptionI followed my heart from San Diego, California to Cedar Falls, West Virginia. Too bad that heart wasn’t worth the trip.Thankfully, I had my job, new friends - which consisted of an entire motorcycle club I’d fallen into - and my new found responsibility for a family that was torn apart by needless tragedy.As luck, fate, or whatever crazy force made such things occur would happen, I had followed my heart straight to Cedar Falls. I just didn’t realize I hadn’t met my heart yet.Once there, I found myself lost in a woman named Gillie-Bean, a boy named Kade, and what was left of the family I’d helped save from the aftermath of a drunk driver.As the former me - Daniel “Gray” Grayson - became “Surfer” in the Aces High MC, I realized my own heart had been worth the trip. I was brought here for a reason.For a new family.For her._____________________________________________________________Something was off in a major way as I sat my bag down on the chair next to the front door and glanced around for my girlfriend, Kayla. There were things missing from the room. I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what, but I knew there were void spaces where things used to reside. A picture of us from our first date used to sit on the entertainment center. It was gone along with all the movies, music, and video games that used to sit in the open cabinets underneath. “What in the hell?” I muttered the question to myself since Kayla was still missing in action somewhere in the apartment we’d shared for the past eleven months. Just as I was about to explore I saw her head poke out from around the bedroom doorjamb. “Oh, good, you’re home!” She squealed, and something clenched tightly in my gut. With Kayla that squeal could mean she’s horny and about to jump my bones – which I wouldn’t be opposed to – or it could mean that she’d done something stupid like open another credit account in both of our names without my permission. Something she seemed more and more inclined to do the longer we were together. Something that warranted me putting a freeze on my credit accounts to keep it from happening again. If only I hadn’t lifted the freeze briefly to get the loan for my bike. “Kayla, there are things miss…” I didn’t even get the full question out before she slammed into me, expecting me to catch her. Sadly, she seemed to forget – again – that I was coming off a 48 hours shift with EMS. Instead of me catching her and those long legs of hers wrapping around my waist as she’d obviously intended, it turned out to be more a of a full body slam with her slipping down my front. The pout on her lip and furrow in her brow tipped me off to the fact that she wasn’t happy I couldn’t read minds. Before she could say a word I reached out, grabbed her shoulders, and slid her a full arms length back from me. “Just got off shift, Kay, my reaction time isn’t all there. It was a fuckin’ long shift.” Her pout didn’t dissipate. As was usual with Kayla, other people’s lack of energy didn’t factor into her plans. She had grown up a spoiled rotten princess in a huge house near Old Town in San Diego. Her parents had reason to cut her off financially just before she graduated college, though she’d never bothered filling me in on their reasoning. Not that she shouldn’t be fiscally responsible for herself now that she was an adult, but she still tried to live that life she’d grown up in, and that wasn’t easily done on an EMT’s salary and her phlebotomist job. I still almost chuckled every time I thought about her job. The princess sticking people with needles and pulling their blood from their body had to be a sight. I had yet to see her in action though. Actually, I felt bad for her patients without ever having seen her skill or lack thereof, because she could be a frosty bitch when doing something she disliked. “I had good news to share,” her pouty tone told me I should probably sit down for this. No telling what Kay thought of as good news these days. “Well?” I questioned as I scooted my bag off the chair then plopped into it as the bag came to rest at my feet. Kayla perked up as if my monotone, one-word question was the segue she needed to get into heaven, not to start a conversation. I had a feeling this wasn’t going to be something she should smack me with the moment I walked through the door after a very full 48 hours shift. “My grandma died, and she left me a house and a bunch of money!” She shrieked out excitedly while I frowned at the outburst considering she mentioned the death of a family member in there somewhere. “Kay, I’m sorry to hear about your grandma,” I started, but she waved off my concern with the swipe of her hand in the air like it meant nothing. “That’s not the important piece. Did you hear the part about where I inherited a house and tons of money?” She asked again as if I were daft for putting the death of a family member ahead of some inherited fortune. I sighed and scrubbed my hand down my face. “Okay, that’s… well, that’s news. I guess our lease is up in another month so that’s good timing if you wanted to move into your grandma’s house,” I started wearily. “I knew it!” She shrieked again, sending my head to throbbing as she bounced around the living room like a little bunny on crack. “I knew you’d be okay with moving, and all the crap that will go with it.” Uh-oh. Alarm bells started ringing then. “Where is this house, Kay?” “Um,” she hesitated biting her bottom lip for effect. It was a gesture I’d found sexy when we first started dating. Then, I began to notice how she used it as a tool to manipulate, and not because it was a natural thing for her to do. I sighed again. Whatever she was bound to say next probably was not going to make me happy. “Well, see, the thing is there’s a teeny, tiny stipulation in her will that states I have to live in the house for one year in order to collect the money.” She started pacing, and before I could ask what was wrong with the house that it would cause this reaction she continued on. “And um, I already found a job there, and have everything set. I even started packing.” “Kayla, you already found a job where? Where is this house?” “Cedar Falls, West Virginia.” It was said as a statement that brooked no argument. “West fucking where, again?” I asked, completely flummoxed that she was laying this on me like she’d had all the time in the world to prep and I should already be up to speed and onboard with what was going down. “There’s no need to curse at me, Gray!” She threw her hands up, her strawberry blond locks with their chunky curls bounced around her shoulders as she did so. This movement also caused her braless tits to jiggle just so. An outsider would think this all cute, sexy, and done without thought. That outsider looking in would be wrong. These were more of Kay’s go-to moves to distract from whatever shit was flying out of her mouth. The house is in Cedar Falls, West Virginia. I don’t know why the old bat moved there to begin with, but she did, and the only way to get the house is to move there and stay for a year. Then I can sell the house and collect the money too. It’s perfect. Then we can come back here or go wherever we want. I was thinking maybe Los Angeles or something more glamorous than San Diego when we come back.” All of this was said without her taking a breath. I just sat there, staring at her. “What about my job?” Again she waved me off with a flip of her neatly manicured fingers. I noted that they looked professionally done again, even after we discussed the fact that we couldn’t really afford frivolous expenses right now after her last run through of the credit cards that maxed them all out. Some of the cards she got were in my name even though I never applied for them, hence the credit freeze I’d had to obtain. I blew out a frustrated breath. I couldn’t afford to renew the lease on this apartment without someone to split the bills with. Kayla had driven off most of my friends with her antics. My partner at work was a female with a husband and three kids. The rest of the guys had cramped quarters for living arrangements, but ones they were all happy with.Damn it. She had just put me in one hell of a bind. “Kayla, if I go with you, I need to give my work notice. I also need to have employment set up ahead of time so I don’t have too big a lapse in paychecks, especially since I’m paying on my bike and paying off the damage you did to cards I never fuckin’ ordered.” It was her turn to blow out a frustrated breath now. “Jesus, Gray, you act like I’m putting you out. This is a huge opportunity that I simply can’t turn down. Once the year is up I will be rolling in the dough!” She was squealing excitedly again, forgetting the serious shit I was just bringing up. “Kayla, come back down to earth with the rest of us mortals, and listen. I need to know when we’re supposed to be moving. We have less than 45 days to re-up the lease here or get the hell out. You’re already packing shit, some of which belongs to me. I need to know what exactly is going on. Sit down, stop the drama, and be real for five fuckin’ minutes.” I swear talking to Kay was like talking to a five year old some days. Only, I would actually expect that five year olds behaved better. Kayla poked her bottom lip out again, which really did nothing but highlight her almost complete lack of an upper lip. Normally, she had it lined so heavily that you couldn’t tell as much. Right now, she didn’t. She was also pulling it tight while jutting out the bottom, so it disappeared completely. Damn it. Her distraction techniques were working, just not in the way she was hoping they did. “Okay, I have to be there in 10 days. I’m packing everything and taking it with me. If you need a couple extra days for work, then so be it. I have to be there on the 12th though or else I lose everything.” “How long have you known about this?” She looked away, guiltily for a moment, and then back to me again. “Two months,” she stated sweetly as she smiled in a way I used to enjoy seeing. “Two months?” I questioned on a growl. “You’ve known about this for two months, are scheduled to be there in ten days, and you are just now telling me about it?” She shrugged her bony shoulders. “I um, wasn’t sure you would want to come with me. I wanted to make sure I had everything set ahead of time just in case.” “You wanted to make sure you had everything set, FOR YOU!” I reiterated, emphasizing the last two words. “What about me? What if I wanted to go with you? You’ve left me no time. What if I don’t want to go? You’ve already started packing my shit. Is it packed separately or thrown in willy-nilly with your own shit?” “You don’t want to go?” She questioned looking truly taken aback. “I didn’t say that, Kay!” I almost yelled out completely losing my shit at this point. “I’m saying you dropped this on me all at the last minute when you’ve known for two fuckin’ months!” “I was just trying to plan everything so you wouldn’t have much, besides your job to worry about.” She got up and came to me, sitting her ass down on my lap and brushing the tip of her breast across my cheek as she did so. “Baby,” she whined out. “I want us to do this together. I’ll be able to pay off all those credit cards, and even your bike as a thank you and an apology for the whole credit thing.” Now, that part of her plan had some merit. I definitely would love to have my bike paid for free and clear. Something I would have been able to do if I hadn’t had to tap into my savings to bail her ass out of the credit card fiasco she caused last time. “Ten days, huh?” She nodded her head vigorously and started a little mini bounce session in my lap. “Fuck, dude!” I hissed out.“You know I hate when you call me dude or bro, Gray.” “Really, Kay?” I huffed out and gave her a look. She tossed her hands up in the air as if she was giving up or giving in, two things she never did. “Does this mean you’re coming?” “It’s not looking like I have much choice in the matter. You’ll be there.” Yes, she was annoying me a bit more lately, but I still loved her. She put up with my shit when I came home with fresh nightmares from my time in the Army. I’d wake up screaming, and she’d rub my head and coo sweet things to me until I drifted back off to sleep. There were things about her that redeemed the spoiled bitch routine she liked to hide behind. There were glimpses of the woman I hoped she’d move further toward, but only time would tell. For now, it looked like I was moving to West-By-God-Virginia and I had to get a handle on that situation in quick fashion.Ten days later I was staring up at the old white farmhouse with aging gray shutters that looked as thought they may have been blue at some point. The house needed a lot of work. It seemed that Kayla’s grandmother hadn’t enlisted anyone to help her with upkeep in her final years. The money pit that stood before me had me groaning out loud at the site. Kayla’s nose crinkled up in disgust too. “What the hell?” She shouted. “It did not look like this in the pictures I saw. What’s up with this grass? Why hasn’t it been mowed at all? My God, it’s like three feet tall in spots where there’s actually grass or weeds or whatever that stuff is,” she complained as if she’d be the one tackling the jungle lawn we were faced with. “Well, I’m guessing once your grandma died two months ago you never bothered to hire anyone to care for the lawn until you could get here to do it.” Again, her nose crinkled as her head slid back in a shocked movement. “Why on earth would I be responsible for hiring someone to care for the lawn? There are people for that.” “Kayla, when you’re a homeowner, you are the people that takes care of that shit,” I huffed out in frustration. “If you had told me about all this to begin with I would have pointed out all those finer details you seem to be clueless about.” “Not this again!” She huffed out as she pulled her small overnight bag out of the truck, leaving everything else behind. “You need to get over the short notice bullshit complaints you have and just start helping out around here. Obviously, this place is going to need a lot of work, and I have other things to take care of.” I just stared at her back as she moved to the front porch and gingerly stepped up, thinking maybe the weathered boards wouldn’t hold her. It was obvious they were solid, and just in need new stain and sealer. I ignored her and took inventory, making a mental list of all the things we were going to need. The detached one car garage would suffice for my bike, for now, but not for long since I didn’t want the thing collapsing on my baby. It definitely was not large enough to contain my truck, and Kayla had never owned a car since she lost her license in college – yet another thing she failed to mention until she told me I’d need to get her back and forth to work. She told me this on the trip out here when I asked her to take over driving for a while, because I was dog-ass tired and hoping to save on another hotel stay since I figured we’d have a few extra expenses when we got here that we hadn’t factored in. Expenses like the lawn mower we were going to need. Hell, at this point I was tempted to hire someone to take care of the first round of jungle taming, because this was going to take for-fucking-ever with just me doing the work.Kayla had disappeared inside the house and then come back out, hands on hips and scowl firmly set in her normally pretty face. “Are you just going to stand there all day, or are you going to start bringing things in?” I noted that she didn’t come out to help unload the truck. Nope. Princess Kayla turned her ass back around and marched right back into the house letting the screen door bang shut behind her which caused it to come off the top hinge and hang awkwardly, clapping back and forth with the momentum. “Oh my God! You need to fix that!” Kayla shouted. “Why did I come here?” I asked the air around me, as if something in nature would find a way to answer me. It didn’t. I turned back to the truck, grabbed my bag and the box in the back labeled “bathroom supplies” then toted them into the house. I set the box and my bag on the couch to the right of the door after I made my way inside. It was a good thing I didn’t attempt to bring a bigger load, because Kayla hadn’t been waiting to open the door for me. I sighed as I looked around. At least it looked cozy and well tended on the inside, minus all the dust that had collected. “Ew, all her old lady stuff is still siting around everywhere,” Kayla called out from somewhere deeper in the house. “There’s nasty spoiled food in the fridge,” she was saying when she came back into view. “You’re going to have to take care of that.” “And what are you taking care of, Kayla? So far, I have to tame the jungle without a fuckin’ weed eater, let alone a lawn mower or a bush hog or whatever it’s gonna take for that job. Then I have to fix the door you just broke, because you couldn’t be bothered to shut it gently, and I have to unpack the truck before I take care of either of those things. Then you want me to deal with the fridge too? What the fuck are you doing while I’m doing all of that?” She flinched back at my tone. “I’m, um, looking around to see if anything she had in this house is salvageable,” Kayla answered as if taking inventory of the shit her grandmother left behind was priority. “No!” My tone brooked no argument. “First, you’re going to get your ass out to the truck and help unload it, because you don’t have servants here and I’m not a fuckin’ slave. Then, you’re going to take care of disposing of the rotten food in the fridge while I deal with the door and the lawn. Then, we’re going through the house together and making a priority list of shit that’s going to need tending to so we know what we’re throwing money at first.” “Throwing money at?” “You see this house? You don’t get shit taken care of soon it’s going to fall to pieces.” She glanced around, wrinkled nose and furrowed brow dominating her features again. “We only have to stay here and make it work for a year. I’m not throwing a bunch of unnecessary money at this place. It’s nasty. I don’t plan on staying here.” “Do you plan on getting any money for it when you try to sell in a year?” “Of course, the internet said the house is valued at $260,000.” “Was,” I told her as I made another cursory glance around the place. “What?” “It was valued at $260,000, probably in its prime before it fell into disrepair. You’d be lucky to sell this place for $70,000 now. Her surprised, horrified gasp made me chuckle. “B-but, the lawyer said…” “The lawyer was reading off a sheet of paper with information probably plugged in from the same Internet browser search you did. He wasn’t looking at this place in person. Something else that should have been done in the two months you didn’t tell me about this shit going down was we could have made a trip out here to scope it out and see if it was worth the hassle. You still haven’t told me how much money you’re supposed to get once the year is up.” “Maybe because I want to know you’re with me because you love me, and not because of my money,” she commented back snidely. “You don’t have any money, Kay, and I’m already with you.” Sometimes I wondered what I ever saw in her. Honestly, there were more times I felt that way now than times I didn’t. I still wasn’t sure what possessed me to follow her here, except there was this feeling in my gut that I needed to. Today, I was wondering what was wrong with my gut instincts. “You don’t even have any savings set aside to do any of the repairs or buy any of the things we’re going to need here.” “That’s because when you paid the credit cards off you only paid the ones off that were in your name too,” she scoffed. “Yeah, because I never fuckin’ ordered them and didn’t want that hit on my credit. It also blew through my savings to do it. I didn’t bother to tell her that I had most of my savings locked up in investments that were actually pretty lucrative. I knew if I ever did she’d blow through that too, and I was banking on that money for sending my kids to college one day, and for retirement and whatnot. Those things Kayla definitely wasn’t ready to even think about, and honestly I was beginning to wonder if she ever would be ready. It was then that Kayla collapsed into the dusty chair, forcing a plume of dust to billow up around her which in turn caused her to sneeze. After the sneeze the tears started. These were not her usually drama tears she used to get her way. They were actually real. “This isn’t what my life was supposed to look like,” she lamented between sobs. “Why did my dad do this to me?”“Hate to tell you sweetheart, but most kids don’t start out with a trust fund in hand. Just about everyone I’ve ever known has had to work for whatever they have, not have it handed to them.” “I work!” She shouted. “Yes, you do, and there’s nothing wrong with your job, how much you make, or the rest of your life. The only thing wrong is in YOUR head where you think you should be living so far beyond your means that you can’t appreciate the things you have that you worked for. It’s never enough for you.” “I grew up having everything!” She shouted at me, face turning red with her anger. “I had every damn thing I could want with the snap of a finger. It’s not fair that it was all taken from me. Just because there was a scandal with me and my married professor,” she huffed out in between her sobs. I stilled. This was the first I was hearing about why she had been cut off. “I got rid of the kid, and daddy cleaned up the mess I made. He didn’t need to turn me out too. Who cares if he went to school with the professor’s wife? He basically acted like that woman meant more than I did. I was a victim too!” “You were involved with your married professor? Did you know he was married?”“Of course I did! I just told you she was a friend of my dad,” she snapped. “Jesus, Kayla!” I spat out disgusted with her. “If you can’t figure out where you went wrong with that situation there’s no helping you.” I wasn’t touching on the fact that she’d mentioned a kid with complete disregard, and I had a feeling she was talking about her own baby. I may have made a mistake coming here, but I’d already shipped my things, found a job, and I was going to have to stick this out for a little bit until I could find a place of my own. I also had some morals, and didn’t plan to leave Kayla high and dry after agreeing to come with her. Changing the subject, I started forming a plan. “Let’s forget about all that, and start thinking about how we’re going to get you a driver’s license, a car, and how we’re going to fix the main things in the house that need tended to so it’s livable.” Kayla glanced up at me between wet lashes and gave me a small smile. “You don’t hate me too?” “I don’t hate you, Kay,” I informed her. Though, if I were going to be completely honest she had finally killed any of the old feelings I had for her. Now, I only felt obligation. I’d get her set so she could function on her own, and then I would be out of this mess.Three weeks had gone by since I moved to Cedar Falls with Kayla. Three weeks and she had made zero progress in getting her shit together. Three weeks, and I was about to lose my damn mind with her bullshit, frivolous spending when we had so much shit to do to get her house straightened out, especially since it quickly became obvious that a hot water heater was needed since the other one wasn’t working at all. I was thankful I was able to shower at the station. Kayla bitched about that too, but I made her save for the water heater on her own since I had purchased the lawn mower, weed eater, taken care of the insanely overgrown yard, fixed the screen door, and ended up buying a new refrigerator too. The bright spot in my life was the fact that I loved my job with Cedar Falls Fire and Rescue. The guys I worked with were amazing, including one everyone referred to as Smoke. We didn’t interact that much since he was on the fire side and I was rescue, but I had admired his bike a few times when I pulled in next to it. He had a sparkling beauty of a Harley Dyna Wide Glide. I’d never seen the wide glides up close and personal before. It was a beast of a bike, and according to the guys and the patched vest Smoke put on at the end of every shift before he rolled out, he belonged to a local motorcycle club. I had a buddy from the Army who went home to his MC family on the Oregon coast, different outfit, but same basic rules far as I could tell. He had attempted to get me to come with, saying they liked welcoming in vets, but I had met Kayla at that point, and I had been infatuated at the time. I had asked around if there were any of the guys at the station looking for roommates or whatever, but so far there weren’t any bites coming in, so it made me less inclined to get free of Kayla’s shit. Not that I still wasn’t thinking of getting clear of her, because I was. I just wasn’t in a huge rush to do it just yet. That was where my thoughts were stuck when the alarms started going off and our unit was dispatched. I had yet another fail nap down at the station thanks to my roaming thoughts and now some sort of traffic muck-up. Our engine was dispatched with us, which put a little more hustle in my step. If it was something simple we would have gone in alone. My gut was flipping in the way it did whenever something important was about to happen in my life on the way there. There was a tingle; an inkling of something more, and then there was just the empty pit of anticipation settled deep in my gut waiting to be filled. I had to put the strange feeling out of mind as I gathered up the bags in the back when Steph, my paramedic partner, got us close to the scene. Steph may have been the paramedic on board, but only because I hadn’t been officially certified yet. I had more experience with actual emergency procedures in the field than she did so she treated me as an equal even when she didn’t have to. It also hadn’t taken long for her to assess my skill level and realize she could trust me to do what needed done without fucking it up. The minute I jumped off the bus – our term for the ambulance – a man who stunk to high heaven of bourbon yanked at my arm. “Shaank crist yoww hew. Arms cut.” He pointed down to where his arm was dripping blood as he slurred his words beyond recognition. “Were you involved in the accident?” I asked. He made an attempt to nod his head in confirmation, but overdid it, and ended up tipping forward, nearly taking us both down to the concrete as I took his weight. He didn’t even make an attempt to right himself outside of flailing arms that clocked me in the eye one good time before I finally got him straightened back up. I pointed to the heap of a truck that had careened into the other vehicle. “You driving that one?” He eyed me suspiciously. “Why yuz wannsta know?” “I need to know what kind of glass cut you so we know how to treat your arm,” I lied. He again tried to bob his head, but I held him steady. “That one yours?” I asked again. “Yup,” he said while popping the p along with a bubble of spit. “Peez-s-shit’s mine.” I flagged down a cop and passed the drunk off to him. This guy said he was driving that truck,” I pointed. “He smells like a distillery.” “Son of a bitch!” The cop hissed out. I didn’t stick around to see what happened after that. I had a job to do, and it sure as fuck wasn’t to put the drunk who caused the accident first on my triage list. From the looks of the car they were attempting to peel apart I was needed elsewhere. When I got to the other vehicle my partner Stephanie had a female toddler out on the ground, and she was working on her. “What’s up, Steph?” I called as I moved in closer. “I got the girl. The mom is still with us, though passed out. They’re trying to cut her free, but you might want to crawl in the back and be ready to stabilize her. Do it from the passenger side. Three DOAs in the car, and it ain’t pretty.” The last couple words were muttered. Considering the fact that she was working on a child I had a sneaking suspicion of what I’d find inside the car.I had been right, unfortunately. There were two adults up front. The male driver was one of the DOAs. The female passenger was who Steph had referred to as mom since she was a female, possibly late twenties or early thirties. Behind the driver was what appeared to be a kindergarten aged male child. He was also DOA. Judging from the awkward angle of his neck and his unseeing, open eyes, he had probably gone quickly from a spinal injury. In the third row of seats was a slightly older child, but still less than 10 years old. She was a mess. I got inside the rear of the car, and started work on making sure the woman was stable in case she woke and started freaking out. I had just placed a neck brace on her when it happened. I glanced up; saw her eyes, and where she was looking. She was seeing the dead kid beside me. That was when the screaming started and my heart lurched inside my chest.~*~ “Hey surfer-man, why don’t you follow me out, and I’ll buy you a beer. Think you more than earned it on that last call,” Smoke called out to me as he nodded to my Triumph. I rolled my eyes at the surfer-man reference. They’d all taken to calling me that here at the station since I was from So-Cal, had long, wavy, sun bleached blond hair, and took care of myself enough that I was ripped all over. The fact that I had never actually taken up surfing in all the time I’d lived in Cali was lost on them. I gave a chin tip style nod to Smoke as I threw a leg over my baby, and started her up, feeling the engine warm up to a rolling rumble beneath me. Damn, but I loved my bike. It was the one thing I’d done for myself since getting together with Kayla, and wouldn’t you know it, it was also the thing she bitched about most when she wanted to spend money we didn’t have. She’d talk about how I didn’t need the bike since I had a truck already, and how it was wasteful. She sure did like the few times I put her on the back and took her for a ride though. Damn woman had an orgasm just from the vibrations the first time she went out. Feeling her shutter as she straddled my hips on the bike, tits pressed into my back, was one of the reasons I forgave her bullshit bitching. Kayla may have been super high maintenance, but she put it to good use with her body too, and was up for most things I suggested. The sex was both the balance and her bargaining chip. The bargaining chip part was where it became difficult to deal with.I tried putting her, and our problems, out of my mind. Instead, I thought about how the woman from tonight’s accident was going to cope with losing her husband and two of her children. My gut was still doing that twisting pit of despair move it pulled whenever something big was coming to my life so I knew the accident wasn’t the sum total of what was happening. I also knew I was going to check on Beth and her daughter tomorrow, so I was going to have to keep the drinking light tonight. At least that was the plan before I saw an out and out street brawl taking place in the parking lot we were rolling into. As we parked, and both killed our bikes, Smoke grinned over at me. “Looks like the boys are in good form tonight. Should help take your mind off shit!” We dismounted our bikes and I followed Smoke as we passed the four guys who were rolling around on the asphalt patch in order to get inside a thick, old wooden door. Once inside it almost appeared as though we’d stepped into an old mountain town bar. Stone floor to ceiling pilings were interspersed down the center of the room on two sides making a central walkway that separated different areas of the large, open space. In the far back, stretching the length of the wall was a wooden bar with a mirrored wall behind it; helping to give the illusion that the place was far larger than it first appeared. To my immediate right were dartboards and tables on a raised level, about two feet higher than the rest of the place. To my left were a bunch of couches and chairs thrown together with disregard for matching or usage. It looked like they’d once formed an almost circular gathering spot to make conversation easier, but they were just haphazardly strewn about now. A man sitting in the chair furthest from the door was actually getting a blowjob from a faceless blond. I mean faceless in that way that all I could see was her hair as she was bobbing her head up and down in his lap. “Well, shit!” I commented as Smoke continued to grin and then he waved me deeper into the room, towards the bar I’d already clocked in back. Between the couch area and the bar were a few pool tables, and there were more than a few people hanging around playing, shooting the shit, and just taking up space. Smoke ordered us both a couple beers and turned to look at me. He tipped his head toward the blow job action in the back. “Some of the guys have no qualms about the exhibitionism. My best advice, if it bothers you, look the other way.” He snatched his freshly opened bottle off the bar and tipped it in my direction before taking a sip. I treated my beer likewise and then answered his unasked question. “Not my cup of tea, but doesn’t bother me either.” He just nodded his head and appeared to people watch for a bit. “Hell of a bike you got outside,” he finally commented. I nodded in agreement. “She’s my baby. Seems most of the guys here ride Harley, but I saw that Triumph, took her for a spin, and new she was destined to by mine.” I grinned at him. “Freedom’s freedom, man. Doesn’t matter what label she wears so long as she gets you there,” Smoke informed me. “So fuckin’ true, dude!” “There’s that surfer-man,” he laughed out. “Fuck me!” “Sure thing, darlin’” a sweet little slip of a woman told me. I hadn’t even noticed her approach, and I have got to say it has to be damn hard to be stealthy when you’re packing as much tits and ass as that woman was for such a tiny little package. Her bottle blond hair had some dark roots peeking out near her scalp, and her makeup was a bit overdone for my liking. Her clothing was definitely too revealing as well making her look cheap. No way in hell would I want my woman parading around in front of all these men looking like that. Hell, a few of them were already salivating in her direction. She lifted a hand and grabbed hold of the elastic band holding my hair back in a loose ponytail at the nape of neck. “Oh my! Look at all those curls!” The words were spoken in what was supposed to be a breathy-sexy whisper; only she had to do it louder to combat the music pumping through the speaker system. I caught her hand as she went to pull away, snatched the band from her fingers and shook my head no. “I have a woman, and she would not appreciate someone else touching what was hers.” Actually, I had no clue how Kayla would react. When we first got together she pulled the jealous card a few times when other women checked me out or were blatant enough to hit on me in front of her, but when she realized it only pissed me off for her to behave the way she had she stopped doing it. It also did not matter that I wasn’t planning to stay with Kayla. Until we were officially done, I would remain faithful. That was more for my peace of mind than hers, but my loyalty had always been non-negotiable. “She’s not here, is she?” The woman asked slyly with a wink as she glanced around for a strange woman who might be with me. “No, she isn’t. I don’t fuck around on my woman whether I’m capable of getting away with it or not, so back off. There’s plenty of men here watching you right now, so I’m sure you’ll find yourself another source of entertainment with no trouble.” Her lips poked out in a good imitation of a Kayla pout, that’s to say, fake as hell. Smoke laughed, clapped me on my back and then turned his back to the room. I noted he stayed vigilantly watchful using the mirrored wall in front of him though. I did not turn fully around, not liking the feeling of having my back to any doors. I did angle myself more toward Smoke though; in doing so I closed myself off to others who might attempt to approach me. Then, I took the elastic band in my hand and wound my hair up into a messy man-bun. Smoke grinned, shook his head, and then tipped it back in laughter. “Yup, surfer-man was a good call by the guys down at the station. You’re rockin’ a fuckin’ man bun, dude!” He teased. I just grinned back, all cocky swagger, because I knew something that made his torment meaningless. The ladies fuckin’ loved the man bun. I might not have been down for cheating, but seeing appreciative glanced thrown my way never hurt the ego. “You ever considered joining an MC?” Smoke asked as another man, older with piercing turquoise colored eyes, sat down on my other side. “Had an Army buddy try to convince me to head up the west coast to Oregon to be in his club when we got back state side the last time.” “You didn’t want that life?” Smoke questioned. While the other man hadn’t said anything I knew from his body language that he was paying close attention. “Nah, I had hooked with a woman who had me by the dick and was not so inclined to move to the “sticks” as she called it.” I laughed thinking about our recent change in scenery. “Now you live in the actual sticks, so I assume you’re no longer with her?” “Still with her,” I laughed. “She inherited a house here and I guess some money to go with it eventually. She has to live in it a year before the money gets freed up.” “You guys planning on leaving once that’s settled?” I shrugged my shoulders. “That had been the plan to start, but I’m liking it here. I fuckin’ love everyone at the station. This group is so much more cohesive than the mess I had to deal with back in San Diego. I’d stay for the job alone, no shit.” Smoke’s grin was back again. “Yeah, we do have a pretty tight unit there. You’re lucky old Randy Cooper retired when he did and opened up your spot.” “I have no doubts about that.” “If you’re gonna stick around, you should stop in and hang out a bit at the club. I’ll let you know when we have barbecues, parties, and the like where hang-arounds are welcome. Take advantage of it, and we’ll call it testing the waters to see if this is up your ally or not.” “Yeah, man, that’d be great. Always good to be around people with like interests.” “We have a lot of former military here too, so that helps, when shit gets all messed up in here,” he tapped the side of his head and gave me a knowing look. Shit like tonight too,” he added before taking another sip of his beer. “What went down tonight?” The man sitting on my other side finally spoke up to ask Smoke.“Accident out on the highway. Nasty business. Fuckin drunk took out a family. Woman and toddler survived, they lost the dad and two other kids that were both under 10.” “Shit!” The man beside me hissed out. “You there too?” He asked of me.I nodded as I sipped my beer. “Gray’s our new EMT. Shit-hot out there in a clinch. He didn’t hesitate, dove right in, got to work, dealt with the hysterical woman after she came to while trapped in their car with eyes on her dead husband and one of her dead kids. Never seen someone keep their shit together under pressure so well in my life.” “That so?” The man beside me asked, eyeing me a little more closely now. “You a vet?” “Army Combat Medical Specialist,” I informed him. He nodded. “You serve in the sandbox?” “Two tours before I cleared out for good,” I informed him. “Any particular reason you got out?” “Wasn’t in it for the career. I got my education, my experience, and was ready to live the good life as a civilian.” He laughed at that. “You’re tied down to a crazy schedule like Smoke here, I don’t exactly call that the good life, son.” “It’s all about perspective. I don’t have to pack a bag and be ready to go down range at a moment’s notice anymore. I’m not being sent half way around the world to take lives while trying to save them. Now, I just go do my 24 hours on then rest a few days before I start all over again. It works for me, especially when I have the time to hop on the bike and cruise for a bit.” “Now, you’re talkin’.” He held out a hand to me, and I turned so that I could address him without looking over my shoulder. “Name’s Ghost. Smoke invited you to come hang out and see if you like the atmosphere, and I’m gonna second that opinion. Bring your woman along too. Lord knows they end up making the fuckin’ decisions when you have an old lady.” I knew the term old lady from my buddy, and I just smirked. He was right. Kayla had been the reason I turned down the first club that tried to recruit me, after all. I finished my beer; hung out, shot the shit with Smoke, Ghost, and an old Vietnam Vet named Hopper after a while. I was definitely ready to take them up on the offer to come test the waters a bit more before I gave a solid yay or nay to the club life. I knew I had someone to go check in on in the morning though, so I made my excuses and took off after about an hour. Kayla was already asleep when I got home, and I didn’t bother waking her. I just grabbed a shower, and climbed into bed, dog-tired as one of the guys down at the station called it. A couple hours later I was reminded of how bad things had been when I first got out of the Army. The last thing I remember of the dream that had woken me was a woman’s bugged out eyes, blood dripping down from her temple, and the ungodly scream she let loose when she looked into the flat dead eyes of her five year old little boy. My heart was hammering, body covered in a cold sweat, and I was gasping for breath as Kayla rolled over and asked if I was okay. I was not all right. I also didn’t feel like sharing this time._________________________________________________That's it for this week's installment. Come back next Sunday for Week 2 of Proven by Christine Michelle.If you can't wait that long, you can check out Dancing With Danger (Aces High - Dakotas Book 1) by Christine Michelle. It takes place in the same MC World as Proven.The e-book is currently only $0.99.Buy HereiBooks // Kobo // Barnes & Noble // Amazon // Smashwords // Google Play // Scribd // GoodreadsThank you for reading!

New Serials Coming Soon to Moonlit Dreams Publications

I have far too many ideas floating around in my head, and at the rate the new ones pop up, it’ll take me 50 years to catch up on writing all the titles I want to put out.That being the case, I decided to expend some of that energy - and those ideas - writing online serial stories that are FREE to fans. Each serial will consist of one post per week for eight weeks total (roughly 8,000-10,000 words per post). During those eight weeks you will find the new segments live on https://www.moonlitdreams.org/blog exclusively. If you are a subscriber, you will be notified via e-mail every time an update is made.At the end of that eight week period the full manuscript will also be available on Wattpad, Smashwords, and various other venues (still for free) as an e-book.It will also be turned into a paperback edition (not free for obvious cost prohibitive reasons). ;)The first story up in the Moonlit Dreams Serials is going to be one from the MC World – Proven.Proven segments will be posted every Sunday beginning April 15, 2018 and ending June 03, 2018.The Groupie Journal (a rock star world story) will be posted every Sunday beginning June 10, 2018 and ending July 29, 2018.The Bitten & the Born (a werewolf serial) will begin Aug. 05, 2018 and end Sept. 23, 2018.New to Death (from the Death Viewers world) will begin on Sept. 30, 2018 and run through Nov. 18, 2018.The Lost Souls Club (A S.H.E / MC World story) will begin Nov. 25, 2018 and end Jan. 13, 2018.Depending on how well received these first five serials are, I may plan more for the rest of 2019.xoxoChristine M. Butleraka: Christine Michelle

New site, new look

We have moved moonlitdreams.org to a new host (WIX), and have been putting together a new, more engaging site for our readers. We hope you enjoy it, and look forward to any input you may have for us.While we have a tentative book release news section in our FAQ we will also be updating with posts here in the blog about new releases and where you can find them as well as information on giveaways, sales, and special events.