Lisa Fox's Blog, page 197
November 23, 2011
How Much is Too Much? by Victoria Blisse
I have the lovely Victoria Blisse here today talking about her latest release, Naughty Rendezvous
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Naughty Rendezvous is my latest release and in it I explore a submission and domination and Spanking. I am not known for being a BDSM author, my books are generally light hearted and fun and I am known for my rubenesque heroines.
Naughty Rendezvous is still all those things but my characters are just a little kinky. It's not the first time I've used spanking in a story but whenever I do I am always aware of the level of intensity I take the punishment too. I constantly think "How much is too much?"
I think really it is a question you cannot answer definitively, it will depend on the individual reader. However I always gauge it by what I have written before and what a reader might expect when he or she reads a Blisse book. I don't want to put them out of their comfort zone but I do enjoy pushing the boundaries a bit.
I had a great review in for Naughty Rendezvous in which the author , Lynn Reynolds said this:
If you like erotic romances, you will definitely want to read this one. If you don't like reading BDSM, this may change your mind. It's done very well and not "in your face" and it doesn't dominate (sorry about the pun) the story.
I am glad that this element of the story does not put people off, in fact it seems to attract people in. Joe and Leanna are very real characters, you can imagine bumping into them in the street. Their sex lives are the same. They have hot sex and sometimes it gets a bit kinky. Here's an excerpt to show you what I mean.
"My legs uncurl and I am propelled on to my back. His heavy body is on top of me, my hand is trapped between us, his crotch is in my crotch, his legs are between my own and I am trapped, deliciously trapped. Held down and held still, I savour the moment, the sensation of being controlled, knowing that I am not in charge right now, that I am not the responsible one here. I am the controlled, not the controller.
God, it feels good.
'What do you want?' The heavy breathing fades into the background and there are concrete words.
'I … I …' I stumble, my cheeks flare and I look up into his eyes.
'Tell me, Leanna, what do you want, right now, right at this moment. Tell me, tell me in detail.'
I can't look away from those eyes. Those darkening grey eyes. I wait for a flash of lightning to slash through them, as they look so much like gathering storm clouds. I know what he wants to hear, I know his every turn-on and kink. He wants to hear me say it. He wants me to plead for it.
'I … I …' The words are there but they stick in my constricted throat. My cheeks feel as if they are burning under his gaze. 'I want you … inside me.' It's weak, I know, but I am building up, gaining my footing.
'I want you to touch me, to kiss me, to ravish me.'
A low moaning growl escapes his throat as he ducks his head and kisses and bites at my oh-so-sensitive and bared throat. I gurgle and moan my surprised pleasure and continue. I know he wants to hear more.
'I want you, Joe, I desire you, I need you, Joe. I need you to fuck me.'
His lips graze my collarbone, down into the crevice of my cleavage. His hips press down, his cock hard and luscious through my panties. It is only now I realise that my skirt is up around my hips.
In response, I press my hips up against his bulge, curving my back and grinding my aching breasts against his chest. I move my hand to it and, as I do, I hear the "snap" of the button as it pops off. The movement from above me freezes. The lips still in their path and I let out a gasp.
'Oh, I am sorry.' My cheeks flush with a little guilt and a lot of frustration.
'Look.' He sits up as he pulls on the middle part of his shirt where his button once was.
'I'm so sorry. Let me find it and I'll sew it back on later.'
'Leanna, you have been very naughty.'
I look up from my half-hearted button search. 'Yes, I have, sorry.' My head droops; I'm feeling ashamed.
'Yes, what?'
I can see it burning in his eyes; he's not really angry, this is a game. A game I want to play, a game we have played regularly in the safety of the typed word. It's a whole new ball game in reality, though. My body is zinging and tingling with arousal but can I really let him …?
'Leanna. I am waiting.' The loud, angry voice snaps me out of my quandary and makes me start.
'Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.' The words come out of my mouth automatically.
'Good.' He nods his head and I see just the smallest slip of a wink before his face turns back to concrete lust.
'Stand up.'
I stand before him, back of my legs knocking the small coffee table, hands hanging at my sides, my eyes directed to the floor.
'Now take off that skirt.'
My heart is banging so hard, I could swear someone was playing techno in my chest. I slip down my skirt and step out of it. I am very aware of the brief nature of my, erm, briefs.
'Turn around slowly.'
I pivot, highly aware of his eyes upon my bared buttocks as I go round.
'My, what erotic panties.'
I blush yet more and bite my lip.
'Over my knee.' It is a simple command but one which makes me go all a-flutter.
Joe stands up and walks to the dining table in the corner. He pulls out one of my well-worn, straight-backed chairs and sits down upon it. The button missing in his shirt gives me a wonderfully teasing view of his hair-dappled chest.
I walk over to him, my breath ragged. I try to calm down, forcing myself to take small breaths. I walk close to the side of the chair before I bend over at the waist and lower myself until I am resting in his lap. He's so hard, so potent, so there, right in the centre of my stomach.
'OK, Leanna. Now this is your punishment for being so naughty.'
I know he is using that word to turn me on. He knows from our online chat I love the way his voice curls around the word and makes it sound so sexy. Actually, his accent makes virtually any word sound sexy. God help me if I ever go to America; I'd be on the brink of orgasm all the time. Although I don't know, there is a special purr in Joe's specific tone that vibrates within me. I don't think any other man's voice could do the same.
'Yes, sir.' Suddenly the hard palm of his hand impacts on my right buttock. I yelp out in shock more than pain. A brief whoosh of cold air and SMACK! His hard palm strikes my soft yielding buttock flesh with a "whap". I feel the heat of the imprint as his hand rises again.
So what do you think? How much is too much when it comes to including kink in erotic romance?
*****
Joe gives Leanna her perfect punishment.
Joe likes to tease and single mum Leanna loves it too. When they meet up for their first official date, the sparks fly but who's going to crack first? Will Joe's intimate questions and kiss and run tactics bring Leanna to her knees or will Leanna's curves, flashed in moments of exhibition drive Joe to rip off all her clothes and indulge his urges?
How will she react to Joe's domination and will she be turned on by his spankings? She's going to be a naughty girl, so she's bound to find out.
Buy links:
http://www.erotica-romance-ebooks.com/naughty-rendezvous.html
http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-naughtyrendezvous-614536-144.html
http://www.bookstrand.com/naughty-rendezvous
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Victoria Blisse is a Mother, Wife, Christian, Manchester United Fan and Award Winning Erotica Authoress.
She is equally at home behind a laptop or a cooker and she loves to create stories, poems, cakes and biscuits that make people happy. She was born near Manchester, England and her northern English quirkiness shows through in all of her stories. Passion, love and laughter fill her works, just as they fill her busy life.
If you want to keep up to date with what's going on in the world of Blisse check me out at My website: http://www.victoriablisse.co.uk
My facebook: http://www.facebook.com/victoriablisse
My Twitter: http://www.twitter.com./victoriablisse
*****
Comment on this post or any in the Naughty Rendezvous Blog Tour http://www.writermarketing.co.uk/prpromotion/blog-tours/currently-on-tour/victoria-blisse/ and you will be in with a chance to win one of these prizes:
A Print novel, Tempting Rendezvous.
All three eBooks in the Getting Together trilogy.
A copy of the eBook Restoration.
All you need to do is comment on this post and make sure your email address is included there somewhere (feel free to type as myname AT myemailprovider DOT com to avoid attracting spam!) and your comment will be counted in the draw.
One comment per blog will be counted but there are 10 blogs in the Naughty Rendezvous blog tour http://www.writermarketing.co.uk/prpromotion/blog-tours/currently-on-tour/victoria-blisse/ and if you comment on all of them that gives you 10 chances to win!
Victoria Blisse will choose the three winners on the 4th December and will announce them on http://www.victoriablisse.co.uk. Good Luck!
Filed under: Guest Blogger Tagged: BDSM, Erotica, Naughty Rendezvous, Spanking, Victoria Blisse
November 22, 2011
What Is He Sitting On Exactly?
At first I thought it was some kind of huge penis-thing, but I think it might be the Sphinx.
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Filed under: Hot Men Tagged: Mystery, Nearly Naked, Sexy Men
November 21, 2011
Brought To You By The Letter X
I'm blogging over at Flirty Author Bitches today. Check it out!
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BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE LETTER X
Filed under: Flirty Author Bitches Tagged: Flirty Author Bitches, Hugh Jackman, Letter X
November 20, 2011
Six Sentence Sunday
This week's six come from my currently untitled lust demon project. Trask and Rena meet…
He approached her from behind, sliding up alongside her with preternatural grace. She was tall, probably close to six feet in her heels, but he still had lean down to whisper close to her ear. "Hello," he practically purred, breathing in her clean scent of shampoo and roses and woman.
Her head turned slowly toward him, her eyes roaming over his face, his body, and he got the distinct impression that she was mentally undressing him. He certainly hoped she was. She obviously liked what she saw because a smile blossomed on her glossy, pink lips.
Be sure to stop by the OFFICIAL SITE for all of this week's sassy snippets!
Filed under: Six Sentence Sunday Tagged: Bulge, Erotic Romance, Lust Demon, Nearly Naked, Paranormal Romance, Sexy Men, Six Sentence Sunday
November 19, 2011
Saturday Video – Sally's Song – Fiona Apple
This is the most haunting, beautiful and sad song I've come across in a long time.
Filed under: Saturday Video Tagged: Fiona Apple, Sally's Song, Saturday Video
November 18, 2011
Sexiest Man Alive?
So, People Magazine has chosen Bradley Cooper for this year's Sexiest Man Alive award. He doesn't quite do it for me honestly. Does he do it for you?
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Filed under: Hot Men Tagged: Bradley Cooper, People Magazine, Sexiest Man Alive, Sexy Men
November 17, 2011
Beaujolais Nouveau Day
Beaujolais go on sale today. How very exciting!
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Filed under: Holiday, Hot Men Tagged: Beaujolais, Beaujolais Nouveau Day, Celebration, Nearly Naked, Sexy Men, Wine
November 16, 2011
A Sample of CONTAGION by Graylin Fox & GIVEAWAY!!
The fabulous Graylin Fox is here with me today, sharing the first chapter of her novella Contagion and a little sample of the next book in the series, Interwoven. She is also giving away a copy of Contagion to one lucky commenter!
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CONTAGION was released on April 15, 2011. This made my tax day wonderful! This month I finished the next in the series. Contagion is 38 pages in e-book format while the next one is quite a bit longer and much more detailed. To give you a peek into the world I created, here is the first chapter of the story.
CONTAGION
Chapter One
Tessa put on her robe on the way to the kitchen and helped herself to morning caffeine.
"The woods are peaceful this morning," she said to the empty cabin. No animals ran through the field this snowy winter day. There was a calm to the wilderness in winter. Like the world paused for a few months. Tessa embraced that feeling and felt protected and cocooned in the family's cabin. Here in the Appalachian Mountains neighbors were miles apart. The isolation calmed her. Well, she was stuck in the middle of the woods with an ornery fairy, his wife, and children. All she had since her family died the year before.
"A nice relaxing day," she continued as she started a fire in the fireplace. Memories of holidays with her parents flooded her thoughts as she sat in her favorite chair. The days of childhood innocence, parental frustration, and extended family snowball fights disappeared, replaced by thoughts too painful to replay in her mind. The virus had taken everyone she loved.
"Tessa! Are you there?" a deep raspy voiced asked from overhead.
"What Kyl?" she replied to the four-inch dark green fairy that landed on the arm of her chair.
"There is something in the woods," he replied.
"Oh, really? Something moving in the woods?"
She was not in the right frame of mind for visitors. Her grump would wear off as coffee and awareness merged to lighten her mood. But for now, she only wanted a slow start to a quiet day.
"Are you sure?" Tessa asked.
Exasperation turned Kyl's wings dark green. "I've explained that already. I'm not doing it again."
"I know, I know, magical creatures can sense each other." She paused for a moment. "Okay, how large?" The stories about dragons, ogres, fairies, Elves, and other creatures of legend in the human world were all true. The barrier between the Otherworld and the human realm was open now and all of the creatures of legend had waltzed through her woods for the past year. The initial shock wore off quickly but the early days had been difficult.
Kyl had been very patient with Tessa over the past year. He explained that the newly formed Dark Fae cabal had created a virus to put in the annual flu molecules with the intention to decimate the human population. They chose December 21, 2012, since humanity had seemingly already picked the date for their destruction, and released their virus in cattle and chicken feed.
The original panic and mayhem died down, and Tessa saw very little about it on the news. The bird flu and swine flu had recurred for a couple of years, so most experts figured it would also be over soon. When this current virus began to kill people, cattle, and chickens on farms in small rural areas, the assumption was that those victims hadn't gotten the vaccine from the previous year.
That assumption would prove deadly.
The virus outran all efforts to contain it. The CDC and World Health Organization later revealed they were aware it was a new strain from the beginning. Tessa tried not to think about that time. She was attending Georgia State University in Atlanta when the cabal released the virus.
She did not know there was a problem until her family called from their cruise. Her father tried to sound confident they would be okay, but Tessa could hear her mother weeping in the background. Tears ran down her face as she listened to his assurances and tried desperately to believe them. The cruise ship returned to port with fewer than ten survivors; her family had all perished. She tried to call her father's cell phone number for days afterwards in the hopes they weren't dead.
The coroner's office in Fort Lauderdale called and asked her to identify her family. She did so by webcam and immediately destroyed the video. The images still haunted her nightmares that were now blessedly only intermittent.
Three days after she identified her family, she'd managed to turn on the news. Tessa had stocked up her apartment with food from a huge box store two weeks earlier and was grateful she hadn't bought anything that was tainted, checking and rechecking the CDC website for the list of contaminated foods.
Paranoia had removed reason. Groups of survivors raided grocery stores and then burnt them down. She saw huge fires from her windows. Tessa bought more locks for her front door, although the danger didn't come close until a couple of weeks later. A group of thugs found her apartment complex on January 14th. She would never forget the date. She heard them raid one of her neighbors. They stole all of the food and beat the resident unconscious. She moved to the woods the next day. All of her supplies fit in the bed of her truck, and she was grateful her father made her get the truck bed cover, so it remained hidden during the drive.
Tessa arrived at the cabin exhausted and frightened, unpacking only after inspecting the place to make sure it was empty. She tried to push aside the memories of Thanksgiving just seven weeks ago. Tessa kept the lights off for the first two days, until Kyl yelled at her for keeping it too dark.
She smiled when she remembered chasing him with a flyswatter. Now he's my best friend.
"The creature is about the size of your car." The fairy glowed with concentration. "Lost and confused, it feels like a child."
"What has a car sized baby?" She showered, put on jeans and a sweatshirt, and headed outside to search for a large baby. This was not in today's original plan.
She noted the concerned look on Kyl's face. "I have never been attacked in these woods. I'll be just fine."
"A large confused child is out there. Be careful and don't sneak up on it. If you need me, just quietly come back and I'll get a couple of my sons to go with you."
"I promise," Tessa reluctantly agreed. In her irritated mood, a fight might be just the thing to start her morning.
The August after the plague began, the cabal sent ogres, gremlins, and goblins to kill the remaining humans. Hunting parties popped up in forests and at first, they succeeded in adding to the death toll. Fairies were amongst the first creatures to return to the forests. Tessa had seen some on the news in Atlanta before she'd moved back to the cabin. She didn't hear them speak or understand the sounds she heard, but their laughter didn't need any translation.
They were not the only creatures that had appeared that summer. Dragons, Elves, brownies, dwarves, and nymphs had appeared in shaky videos on the internet. If you named a mythical creature, it crossed through the portal and someone posted a video or photo of it.
The remaining humans and mythical creatures learned to live together. The survival of humanity depended on assistance from these new allies. Humans were still hunted, but the rate of death had stabilized, and in some places the population had grown again. Many of the humans in the hunted areas knew how to defend themselves and the number of deaths dwindled as humans began to hunt for the portals the cabal used to cross over.
Tessa's cabin was very close to an Otherworld doorway the cabal knew well. Or as Kyl put it, "You live on Invasion Highway."Within a year of finding Kyl and his family at the cabin, they had become friends.
It had started off shaky, though.
"Marry Matthew, have babies, get a college degree, live in a nice house, and retire early. I'm an idiot," she recited her teenaged life plan to quiet trees as she passed. Tessa listened for distant footfalls as she walked through the woods.
Matthew had gotten a cheerleader pregnant, married her by high school graduation, and was never seen again. Tessa was in college, twenty-two, and still figuring her life out when her world stopped.
Tessa gave up her hunt in the snowy woods, and as she turned towards home, she heard a strange sound followed by screams. The sudden smell of burnt something filled her nose. She followed the sound, careful to keep herself upwind and hidden, and saw a small elephant-sized dragon sitting alone in a clearing. Because adult dragons grew to rival the largest passenger airplanes, Tessa knew this was a child.
"Hey there little guy, what happened here?" The dragon looked sheepish and pointed with one little front arm at its nose.
Laughter erupted from Tessa. "You sneezed?"
The small brown dragon nodded and wiped his watery eyes.
"Allergies?" she asked.
The dragon nodded and she made out that his nose was clogged.
"Are you alone or with family?" Tessa inquired.
"Me!" the small dragon stood proud and replied.
"Okay, let's get you back to the cabin. We can clear out the barn so you have a place to sleep."
Kyl met them with a smirk at the edge of the cleared woods where the cabin sat. "You found a baby dragon?"
The dragon halted as he looked at Kyl. His translucent green hide had scales the size of saucers, currently covered in a light dusting of snow. His green eyes were full of curiosity and apprehension. When he stretched pale opalescent wings to their full size, Tessa guessed they were twenty feet from tip to tip. Impressive, but she doubted they would get his pudgy belly off the ground. His claws curved three inches off the end of each appendage and left indentations in the ground as he moved. Tessa walked around to the barn and began to move things out.
"What is your name?" Kyl asked.
"Jasper." The dragon grunted.
"What happened out there?"
"I snuck up on those ogres; they never heard me coming," Jasper replied sheepishly.
"You burnt them?"
"Only singed them." He paused for an uncomfortable moment. Tessa poked her head out of the barn to look. "I'm allergic." His hide blushed pink from embarrassment. His nervous smile exposed teeth that looked as if they could rip anything apart.
A sigh escaped from the amused fairy. "Not in my 150 years."
The dragon shrugged while he tried to keep Kyl's curious kids from flying too close to his nose. "If I sneeze, your family will get smaller."
Tessa laughed as Kyl ordered his children to stay away from the dragon's nose. Then Kyl and his wife Angel helped Tessa clear out the rest of the barn. The afternoon waned as they finished expanding the free space. They called Jasper in to see how much they needed to clear, but a few times, his small flaming breaths almost toasted them. Kyl and Angel's youngest four children turned it into a game, and Jasper appeared adept at faking sneezes to their joy.
"So, Jasper, you're here to do what exactly?" Tessa asked.
"I think he just got lost," Kyl stated.
"I'm fifty years old!" Jasper stamped his frustration. "I will learn this place and not get lost again."
"Fifty is very young for a dragon," Kyl explained to Tessa. "Still a toddler by human standards."
"Sure." Tessa grabbed a Diet Coke from the ancient vending machine on the back porch and curled up in a deck chair.
"Uh, yeah." The small fairy landed on the arm of the chair, exhausted. "There is something you should know, Tessa. I planned on telling you before but I kept putting it off."
Tessa glanced at Kyl, only slightly irritated. He pretended to ignore the look, but she heard the pace of his breathing change. This happened often as Kyl told Tessa more about the Otherworld.
Angel joined her husband on the arm of the chair. Tessa could hear the children still playing in the barn with Jasper. Tessa waited for a few minutes, but patience eluded her. "What is it?" Tessa asked. The earlier irritability started to resurface.
"You were exposed to the virus, Tessa. You had to be either at school, the store, your neighbors in your apartment complex. Most humans were exposed. It's the level of exposure that decided who lived and who died."
"So I only ate a little of the tainted food, or caught the sniffles? I don't remember the sniffles. But if you consider the amount of crying I was doing at the time. It's possible I might not have noticed." Tessa spoke the options out loud. "So does this mean I'm immune now?"
"No, Tessa, you are immune because you are not human," Kyl replied.
Tessa froze in her chair, grasping the arms tightly. She felt anger begin in her toes and work its way up to her mouth. Kyl and Angel flew just out of reach. She couldn't reach them, her hands locked into place.
"What!" The air from her shout caused the fairies to adjust their position.
"We meant to tell you when you arrived." Angel, a peacemaker, quickly tried to calm the situation. Her pink wings fluttered nervously, and she rang her hands.
"Jasper stumbled on an ogre camp just down the mountain. They are getting close, and you need to know why." Kyl almost stammered his reply.
"Why what?" Tessa's anger had her seeing colors and her breath caught in her throat.
"Why they might come to find you." Kyl's answer smacked her into action.
"You're lying, Kyl!" Stunned, she stormed inside. Memories of the family she lost a year earlier flickered through her mind. The feeling of betrayal crept up. Tessa never trusted easily, and Kyl had just shredded what it took months to build.
Kyl followed her. "It's true. You know I would not lie to you."
"If you tell me I just have to believe, or I can tap my heels together, I'm getting the fly swatter, fairy-man." Her chest nearly burned with the rapid breaths. The dizziness would have knocked her over, but the sharp pain of loss and betrayal somehow kept her spine straight. She leaned on the nearest counter to keep from passing out. "You were adopted," Kyl said from the other side of the room.
"How did you know? No one knew." She swayed and felt her knees start to give out. She turned so both arms could brace her on the counter, her breath ragged.
Kyl flew to her shoulder. Her stare stopped him for a moment. "Tessa, you smell like an Elf."
Well, that caught her attention. "Say that again? I smell like an Elf? What does that mean?"
Kyl flew out of reach as she eyed the cabinet with the fly swatter. "Each race has a different scent, and we fairies can smell it. You smell like Elf, although not like any other Elves I've run into. I just figured your time in the earth realm had changed you."
Tessa had always felt a little different from her friends, but not a different species different. She'd been teased about pointy ears her whole life. The Lord of the Rings was not her friend. When the movies came out, she was a teenager, so her teen years were dotted with questions about when she would return to Rivendell. She hated those movies with a passion.
Tessa attempted to let go of the counter while she absorbed the information. Kyl hadn't lied to her since they met, and there had been plenty of opportunities over the past year. He had been very informative about different races, magic, and the names of the species she marveled at on the nightly news.
She grilled him on the existence of every fairy tale creature she could remember. Do unicorns exist? Yes, but only males have horns. Are there other types of fairy? Yes, all shapes and sizes, and some elders believe fairy and Elf are the same.
Tessa ran these conversations through her mind to see if he'd slipped up anywhere. The tension bled from her shoulders as she realized Kyl had given her more information in the past year than she needed to survive. He taught her about fighting techniques in the backyard. He showed her how to fight an ogre in the woods, how to spot a Dark Fae even if they are disguised, even how to stay upwind and hunt for food. Until then, she was used to meat from the grocery store, with all of the nasty killing and butchering done for her. She thought of their first hunt. A full-grown buck trotted into the clearing, his triumphant huff caught short by a fairy arrow to his throat. Tessa caught his surprised look at his killer right before she threw up.
Killing became easier when her survival depended on it. She, Kyl, and his oldest four children hunted every Sunday just before dawn at the lake a hundred yards into the back woods. She wouldn't kill rabbits or the horses that were now wild. Kyl never understood it, and she never quite explained who Thumper was; only that she could kill Bambi to survive, but not Thumper. He simply shook his head and sent his sons to kill any rabbits they needed to make winter clothing.
Her breathing returned to normal and the dizziness started to fade. It appeared that although they never told her why, Kyl, Angel, and their children taught her to defend herself. It did not take away the feeling of betrayal, but it did ease some of the shock.
Resigned, she replied, "Wait, let me guess. You have a cousin who needs a date for the next full moon?"
Kyl's small frame shook with laughter. He knew she believed him and, well, he did have a cousin. "My cousin is a Warrior Elf and you are not allowed to speak to him," Kyl spat out at last.
Appreciating his effort, Tessa forced a smile. He and Angel had helped her through her grief, and she didn't want them to think it went unnoticed or unappreciated.
"I'm an Elf." Her mouth twitched as she spoke.
Kyl flew over to her. "Yeah, that sounded convincing."
"Well, I'm not convinced yet. A part of me wants to believe you. But right now, it's a very small part, and I'm trying to squash it," Tessa said.
"You know I'm not making this up," Kyl said very slowly and clearly.
"I know." Tessa sighed. "There's just been a little too much this year. And for you to tell me the family I grew up with wasn't even the same species. It's all a little tough to handle."
"Well, you let that information run around in your head for a while." Kyl flew outside to watch his children play with Jasper. He sent two of his ten children—the oldest two boys— to see if the ogres had followed Jasper back to the cabin.
And now a preview of the next book in the series, working title "Interwoven."
A small introduction, Rusty has mentioned his entire goblin family remains enslaved back in the Otherworld. Tessa thinks about the decision to stay at her cabin or go rescue her friends' family…
It seems things in the Otherworld are not that different. A never-ending supply of power hungry jerks waiting for a small hole to open up so they can step in and fill their nasty little dreams. Her father had warned her about this type of person. The old mining towns in the Appalachian Mountains had their share of old west type shootouts, the kind you only saw on television with a new bad guy always at the ready to step up.
Tessa's grandfather told her stories when she was a little girl about the wild mountain days. Her great-grandfather used to work in one of the old coal mines. He came up from the mine in order to meet his wife in town for lunch. Back then the town was still a collection of small wooden buildings scattered on less than a couple of acres, so as he walked from the mine entrance to town he could hear the commotion coming from up the street. He ran to the edge of town about a hundred yards ahead. He walked around behind the small cafe and saw his wife standing at the side of the building. Out in the street, the sheriff and a particularly obnoxious mine owner were facing off with their guns drawn. The town argued later over who drew first but the outcome was the same. Both men died that day. A town meeting was held that evening in the local café and they elected Tessa's great-grandfather Sheriff and Mayor. Her grandfather insisted she should not be impressed by the titles, he emphasized the town was sure he would not survive for long. However, he convinced the mining company to sell the mine to everyone in town. Now that everyone had a financial stake in the mine, it became very profitable. The violent characters scattered to the hills as the downtown area grew.
Tessa loved hearing this story as her grandfather always told it with a light of pride in his eyes that his father had ended the violence and created the small town. It was absorbed as part of the growing local area but remained a thriving area for the locals who still live in the mountain area. The cabin she was standing behind sat just up the mountain pass from the original town square. Nothing left there would be recognized by her great-grandfather, only a small wooden cross to commemorate her great-grandfather.
That family legacy sat heavily on Tessa's shoulders. She now knew there was no blood relation between herself, her father, her grandfather, and the great-grandfather whose photo still hung over the fireplace. But the pride she felt hadn't changed. She knew if her great-grandfather was still alive he would already be packing up the gear to go save the goblins.
"Hello?" Jasper looked at her expectantly.
"Yes?" Tessa smiled in return.
"Where were you? You looked 1000 miles away."
"Remembering my family legacy." And with that Tessa marched off to the barn to find anything that had been stored they could use or would need in the Otherworld. She heard Jasper follow behind her. Her father had stored hunting tents for her brothers, sister, and herself somewhere in the barn. She moved things around, opened up boxes, and propped up the ladder to climb up to another storage area when she heard someone behind her clear their throat.
Rusty had entered without her noticing and while she stood there holding the ladder he began to climb up.
"What are we looking for?" He asked as he reached the top.
"Tents, guns, and any camping gear and other supplies we will need when we go rescue your family."
The small goblin flashed her a quick smile and moved away to begin his search. He disappeared in a corner, they heard noises but Tessa could only see small puffs of dust float through the sunlight over head.
Rusty's small head peeked over the edge. "I found four sleeping bags, two small tents, and a large tent that could hold a couple of ogres. You have some old oil lamps up here but I don't know if we should take them. Once we get through the doorway your elf magic will be available to you." Before Tessa could ask about the magic he disappeared once again.
She turned her head to Jasper and saw his hide blush pink. He lowered his head slowly. "Something you need to tell me?" She asked. No one mentioned magic.
The answer didn't come right way, as the Dragon seemed unnaturally preoccupied with picking dirt out of his fingernails. "I thought Kyl would have told you about that."
It seems she was going to have to have a long talk with a little fairy.
****
Thank you so much for stopping by today. I love this cast of characters and they keep me smiling and rooting for them each time I sit down to write.
Up for grabs today is a signed copy of CONTAGION! It will be an electronically signed PDF file.
I wish you the best of luck!
Graylin
Filed under: Guest Blogger Tagged: Contagion, eBook Giveaway, Giveaway, Graylin Fox, Guest Post
November 15, 2011
It's the Little Things
November 14, 2011
Hot Men Hands on Stuff Edition
Quite a handful, don't you agree?
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Filed under: Hot Men Tagged: Eye Candy, Hot Men, Nearly Naked, Sexy Men, Well Placed Hands
