Jessica E. Subject's Blog, page 179

COVER REVEAL for Sudden Breakaway, coming soon to Decadent Publishing

I received my cover package for Sudden Breakaway last week, and I’m so excited to share. Sudden Breakaway is my fifth 1Night Stand story, and is a little different from the rest. I think the cover reflects that.

Sudden Breakaway is still science fiction romance, but not as much as some of my other stories. It is also a May to December (cougar) Romance, a Military Romance, and an Interracial Romance. Plus I added some kids, and a hockey game into the story.

Here’s the unofficial blurb:

Dressed in her black designer suit, Paige Brown recruits men and women for the Space Service. After the end of her marriage, and several failed recruiting missions, she yearns to find a way out of her lifelong contract to live a normal life. To find love again.

Jared Barnes’s life had been flipped upside down by two little kids. When his former Commander’s wife shows up to give him a reprieve, he jumps at the chance for a break, and to visit his former squad. But it is not his buddies he meets in the private suite at the Washington Capitals game, instead a woman who has been the star of all of his recent fantasies.

And here’s the cover designed by Designs by Angela Anderson:

What do you think?

Six Sentence Sunday – May 20: Xia’s thoughts explained in AN UNEXPECTED RETURN #sixsunday

Thank you to each and every one of you for reading and commenting

on my excerpts each week.  I truly appreciate your time.

Here’s another six from An Unexpected Return, which releases May 30

from Decadent Publishing’s new science fiction romance line, Elatia.

Many of you wondered why Xia didn’t get it on with her trainer. Here’s why:

If he hadn’t been like a father figure to her, she’d swoon over him like the rest of her classmates did. During their lessons, he wore only loose-fitting pants made of filmy veech, which exposed his golden, god-like body to his students. Sometimes, to illustrate his lessons of a male’s erogenous zones, he’d strip down to nothing. On those days, she tried to listen more than look. Creaming her panties over her instructor was not all right. What would Kalara say?

Visit http://www.sixsunday.com/ to find out who’s participating in Six Sentence Sunday this week or follow the #sixsunday hashtag on twitter.

Random Acts of Kindness GIVEAWAY!

All this week, The Bookshelf Muse is hosting a Random Acts of Kindness BLITZ to celebrate the writing community.

Each day, Industry Sponsors are offering their own Random Acts Of Kindness to show appreciation for writers. WIN Scrivener software packages, Premium Memberships to award winning websites like Query Tracker, The Critique Circle, Auto Crit Editing Wizard, a Blogging class with Media Consultant Kristen Lamb, a Writer’s Digest Agent Lecture and a Ultimate Writer’s Course throughScribe’s Forge (with Best-Selling Fantasy Author TRACY HICKMAN!) that will blow your MIND.

While you’re there, don’t forget to also grab your FREE PDF copy of Emotional Amplifiers (sidebar). This Writing Guide & Description Tool targets specific conditions like Pain, Hunger, Attraction, and Exhaustion, etc, which can stress characters and heighten their responses to emotion.

Have someone special you’d like to celebrate? Why not give them a shout out on your blog, Twitter or Facebook? Encourage people to connect with them, and improve their visibility online!

Interview with author, Jenna Jaxon & Read For A Cure

I’d like to welcome fellow Decadent Publishing author, Jenna Jaxon to my blog today. Her contemporary romance 1Night Stand story, Almost Perfect is the READ FOR A CURE selection this month at Decadent Publishing, where all publisher proceeds from the sale of Almost Perfect during May will be donated to the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life Program.

Jenna, How long have you been writing with the hopes of publication?

JJ: I have been writing with an eye to publication for just over three years now.  I’d written academic stuff for publication before, but for fiction, 3 years.

Can you tell us how you got started? 

JJ: I didn’t get one of the books on my list for Christmas.  Everlasting by Kathleen Woodiwiss, which I found out was her last novel before she died.  So I bought it in January, devoured it.  And started thinking.  It’s set in my favorite period, the Middle Ages, and not too long before I’d watched a History Channel special on the Black Plague in the 14th Century.  So I thought some more, took an historical incident (from the program) and said “I can write that story.”  Six months later I finished it.  All 187,000 words!  I’m revising this summer.

What genres do you write in, and what appeals to you about those genres?

JJ: I write historical romance, my first love, and erotic contemporary.  I love the historicals because it’s like my own little time machine.  I go back and try to think, try to experience what life was like in that period. That’s always appealed to me (I was a history major).  The erotics I find fun because there are so many ways to be inventive.  So many contemporary “accoutrements” to play around with.  So much freedom to do whatever you want.  Like sex on a motorcycle. Or a safe one night stand.

What titles do you have published?

JJ: I have out currently, Heart of Deception (short historical romance): The dashing Andrew Finley, Viscount Hurston–who is not what he seems–proposes a scandalous way to wed the naïve young Lady Celinda Graham.

Hog Wild (erotic contemporary novella): Lula Wolfendale seduces three Harley owners in an attempt to gain the sexual satisfaction she craves, and the Blue Phantom motorcycle she desires.

Almost Perfect (erotic contemporary):  Pamela Kimball’s birthday present, a 1Night Stand adventure, promises to jump-start her life, put a new man in her bed, and help her forget her past.  Unfortunately, movie-buff Pam’s Pirates of the Caribbean fantasy takes an alarming wrong turn when she’s abandoned on a not quite deserted island—with ex-husband Roger Ware.

Almost Perfect is Decadent Publishing’s Read For A Cure book for the month of May.  All publisher proceeds from sales of the book from any vendor during the month will go to benefit Relay for Life. And a portion of the author’s proceeds will be donated as well.  That means whoever purchases the book during the month of May is making a wonderful contribution to cancer research.   Please Read For A Cure and help us close the book on cancer.

Can you describe your daily writing routine?

JJ: My routine is cyclical.  During the school year when I’m at work, I pretty much don’t have a routine–I write when I can, sometimes late into the night.  And that works–until I have to get up the next morning!  Once school is out, I’ll write until maybe 1am, go to bed and read a bit, get up around 7 or 8 and start with email and social media.  Then I visit blogs or post my own.  And then around noon I settle down to start writing or revising.

Are you a plotter or a pantser?

JJ: Plotter.  Hands down.  And linear to boot.  I cannot write out of sequence!  Some writers can  hop around their ms, today write the middle chapters, then go back to the beginning or ahead to the end.  Just recently I wrote a scene in which a character thought something I’ve been dying to write since last August!  I knew what the line was, exactly when and where it came in the story, but I couldn’t commit it to paper until I was in the scene.  I was so excited I Tweeted it!

Where do your best ideas come from?

JJ: From music, although maybe not the best ideas, but the most ideas.  The best ideas come from the holes in the books I read.  That may sound strange, but a great friend of mind wrote her first book the same way.  You see what the book you’re reading left out and that’s your story.  The third of my House of Pleasure books started that way.  I had been reading Mary Balogh’s A Precious Jewel and the heroine was thinking about the difficult week when she became a prostitute, especially the first customer.  But that’s all that was mentioned.  So I started thinking how such an event might affect a young woman of that period, especially one of good breeding who was at her wits end.  And Only A Mistress Will Do was born.

What is your favorite book that you’ve read?

JJ: That’s an easy one now:  Outlander

Who is your favorite character from any of the books you’ve read?

JJ: Again easy:  Jamie Fraser

Is there anything else my readers should know about you?

JJ: I have sometimes written my romance novels while wearing my lingerie.  For inspiration.

Where can my readers find you?

JJ: Blog:  http://jennajaxon.wordpress.com/

FB:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jenna-Jaxon/146857578723570

Twitter:  @Jenna_Jaxon

Where can my readers find your books?

JJ: All my books can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and All Romance E-books.

Almost Perfect can also be found on the Decadent Publishing site: http://www.decadentpublishing.com/product_info.php?cPath=75_105&products_id=416&osCsid=68ti48u914jdkbaebhb4bh54j2

Thank you, Jenna! All the best!

Almost Perfect blurb:

Pamela Kimball’s birthday present, a 1Night Stand adventure, promises jump-start her life, put a new man in her bed, and help her forget her past.  Unfortunately, movie-buff Pam’s Pirates of the Caribbean fantasy takes an alarming wrong turn when she’s abandoned on a not quite deserted island—with ex-husband Roger Ware.

Forced by hunger to accept Roger’s offer of dinner,  Pam realizes the geek she married has transformed into one of the most charming, sexiest men she’s ever met. His newfound confidence—and hot body—re-kindles old fires.  A simple kiss leads Roger to challenges her to discover how much his lovemaking skills have improved, leaving Pam torn between self-preservation and burning desire.

With time running out before they’re rescued, Pam must decide if her heart can survive the consequences of becoming Roger’s “almost” perfect 1Night Stand.

Almost Perfect Excerpt:

She inched into the lapping surf, searching for movement. Reflection off the water made this task harder than expected. Wasn’t the Caribbean supposed to be teeming with fish?  Now that’s something she’d had a lot of instruction in. Almost every marooned-on-an-island movie had a scene where the heroine learned to catch fish. Six Days, Father Goose, Blue Lagoon. All you needed was your hands and patience. She could do this.

Pam waded out further then stopped just before the water hit her now dry shorts. “Not gonna to have a damp crotch all night.” The words reminded her of exactly what she had hoped for tonight. “But not from wet shorts!” She headed back to shore to remove and drape them next to her shirt. The bandeau was a different story. Still damp, even after several hours, and uncomfortable. Might dry better if not next to her skin anyway. “Screw it!  Live dangerously.”

Standing as good as naked on the deserted beach, Pam smiled as the warm breeze caressed her bare body. The sense of being slightly naughty added to her delight in the sensual feel of the air as it dried her breasts. Her nipples peaked as the wind cooled them. She strutted down to the water’s edge to sink her toes in the sand, the salty tang in the air adding to the perfect moment.

“If you’re skinny dipping, you forgot to remove one very important piece of clothing.”

Pam whirled around. Roger stood on the beach behind her, a green bottle of Perrier in one hand. His gaze played up and down her naked torso and his salacious grin widened. “Mind if I join you?”

Author Bio:

Jenna Jaxon is a multi-published author of historical  and contemporary romance who has been reading and writing historical romance since she was a teenager.  A romantic herself, Jenna has always loved a dark side to the genre, a twist, suspense, a surprise.  She tries to incorporate all of these elements into her own writing.

Jenna lives in Virginia with her family and a small menagerie of pets.  When not reading or writing, she indulges her passion for the theatre, working with local theatres as a director.  She often feels she is directing her characters on their own private stage.

She has equated her writing to an addiction to chocolate because once she starts she just can’t stop.

Website / Facebook

Buy Links:

Decadent Publishing / Amazon / Barnes & Nobles / All Romance Ebooks

Second Chance Book Tour: Interview with author Debbie Gould & Giveaway!!

I’m very excited to have fellow Decadent Publishing author, Debbie Gould on my blog today. Welcome, Debbie! To begin, can you tell us how long you’ve been writing with the hopes of publication?

DG: I started writing about ten years ago, but didn’t start submitting anywhere until about five years ago. I had a lot to learn about the business, and am STILL learning more everyday. It’s a lot harder than just writing the story.

I followed the same path, only much more recently. How did you get started on that first book?

DG: I got sick of all the total jerks (and that is the nicest word I could come up with) that my daughter had been dating. After one particularly rough break up, I starting writing a story about the hero she should have been with. I will say that she has FINALLY found the right one, lol. But she really did stop believing there were any good guys out there for a while.

I hope she did manage to find her hero. Can you tell us what genres you write in, and what appeals to you about those genres?

DG: Love romantic suspense. It’s where my heart lies. Nothing like a threat to your loved one to get the juices flowing. I like hints of paranormal as well.

What titles do you have published?

DG: Mountain’s Echo (my first ever pubbed)

Maggie and Jake had a past ten years ago that neither wanted to ever revisit. But when Maggie’s brother, Scott, is severely wounded, Jake has to call Maggie for help.

After a ten year absence, Maggie and Jake are thrown together again in an intense struggle to save not only her brother, but themselves, as the men after Jake and Scott are closing in.

The two must find a way to work through the betrayal of the past and work together to save their future.

Infidelity

Melanie’s marriage ended abruptly. And violently. In an act of self-defense she ended her abusive husband’s life and lost her unborn baby. Moving back to Vermont, with the help of her brother and an old high school sweetheart, Melanie begins to heal. Someone, though, doesn’t want Melanie to recover. They want her dead.

Will she be stronger than the person who wants to end her life?

November Rain

Jessica Kauffman says goodbye to her husband Tyler—again. He’s been deployed to Afghanistan , this time to fight in the war. Through a unique bond, she connects with Tyler in their dreams, seeing, touching, and being with him.

After finding out some precious news, Jessica’s world is soon turned upside down, plunging her into a nightmare. Tyler ’s plane has gone down, and the search is on to find him—dead or alive.

Frightened for her future, she keeps the faith that Tyler will come back, believing their love is the key to his return. But will the Search and Rescue team find Tyler and bring him back home, or will Jessica have to face the rest of her life raising his child alone?

Do you have any recent or upcoming releases?

DG: Second Chance was released Jan 24th from Decadent Publishing.

Lieutenant Colin Beckett, US Air Force special ops, lost his wife in childbirth while off on a mission. Two years later, he’s still trying to come to grips with the guilt that tortures him. And to complicate matters, he finds himself undeniably attracted to his wife’s sister, Emily. Struggling with his desire, he tells himself he doesn’t deserve a second chance with such an amazing woman.

Emily wants Colin in her life and her bed. Enlisting the help of Colin’s teammate’s and Madame Eve’s 1 Night Stand dating service, she plans to prove to Colin he can have everything he lost once again.

Will their one night lead to the happy ending she longs for or the loneliness he thinks he deserves?

Sins of the Mind – co-written with L.J. Garland will be coming out April 20th

What are you working on now?

DG: Another 1 Night Stand story involving one of Colin’s teammate from Second Chance.

Are you a plotter or a pantser?

DG: I used to be a panster until I started writing with L.J. Garland and she taught me the fine art of outlining, lol. But when she’s writing with me I think the outlines are a lot looser than she intended. We have a hard time reigning in our energy, lol.

What genres do you enjoy reading?

DG: Romantic Suspense with paranormal elements or military elements. LOVE cowboys too!

What author(s) have influenced your writing style?

DG: Cindy Gerard, Suzanne Brockman, Stephen King, Lori Foster.

Who is your favorite character from any of your books? (Can you include an excerpt involving this character?)

DG: I would have to say Jake from my first book. He is, after all, the hero I wanted for my daughter, lol

An hour later she pulled up to the cabin. No lights on so she assumed everyone was in bed. As she walked through the door, she turned on one of the small lamps and saw Jake sitting there.

Her heart skipped a couple beats. “You’re reduced to sitting in the dark now?” she asked him, slightly startled to find him waiting for her.

“Who needs the lights when I have my imagination to keep me company?” He stood up and walked over to her.

“I can only wonder where your imagination takes you,” she said.

He took another step closer to her. Her heart beat rapidly now and her hands shook. She was dangerously close to losing control of the situation.

“I could take you there, and show you if you like,” he said in a husky voice.

“Take me where?” Maggie asked in barely a whisper.

“Where my imagination goes.”

She took a step back. “I don’t think I really need to do that, Jake.”

He took another step toward her. “Baby, you’re already there.”

She took another step back and realized she was up against the door, right where he wanted her. “Damn it, Jake, can’t you ever be serious?”

“I’m as serious as a heart attack, Maggie. You worried me tonight. I don’t like the feeling.”

Jake grabbed her by the shoulders and lowered his mouth to hers. The kiss was hard, full of hunger and , strangely enough, anger.

He deepened it, searching her moist mouth. Giving her everything he had in that one kiss. She tried to fight it at first, but was overcome by a warm dizzying feeling. She felt unsteady on her feet and a million butterflies fought for room in her stomach. All she could think of was having his arms around her as she melted into him.

Sounds perfect! Where do your best ideas come from?

DG: Definitely  during brainstorming sessions with L.J., they get way out of hand. We will be trying to sort out a scene for one book and suddenly we have a series on our hands. It’s great fun!

Where can my readers find you?

DG: www.garland-and-gould.blogspot.com;

www.authordebbiegould.com

Where can my readers find your books?

DG: www.decadentpublishing.com;

www.redrosepublishing.com;

www.amazon.com;

Giveaway!!

Debbie Gould is offering an ebook copy of Second Chance. Leave a comment for your chance to WIN! Winner will be drawn May 18th, 2012.

Reference for Writers: The Emotion Thesaurus is now out!!

The Bookshelf Muse blog has been a constant resource for me when I write AND edit. When I learned that Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi were publishing a book based on their popular Emotion Thesaurus, I was ecstatic. I wouldn’t have to go online to reference their site, and thus avoiding the temptation of checking my email, Facebook, Twitter, and more. While I’ll still reference the site, I bought the book on Amazon as soon as I learned it was out.

One of the biggest problem areas for writers is conveying a character’s emotions to the reader in a unique, compelling way. This book comes to the rescue by highlighting 75 emotions and listing the possible body language cues, thoughts, and visceral responses for each. 

Written in an easy-to-navigate list format, readers can draw inspiration from character cues that range in intensity to match any emotional moment. The Emotion Thesaurus also tackles common emotion-related writing problems and provides methods to overcome them. 

This writing tool encourages writers to show, not tell emotion and is a creative brainstorming resource for any fiction project. 

Amazon Buy Link / Goodreads

Celebrating the release of Keir – An Interview with Pippa Jay

I’d like to welcome author Pippa Jay to my blog today. We’ve been online friends for awhile now, and I’m happy to have her here a week after the release of her first novel, Keir. Exciting! So Pippa, how long have you been writing with the hopes of publication?

PJ: Just two years. I’d never even considered publication as an option until after I’d finished writing Keir and thought “Okay, what shall I do with it now?”. I submitted a Doctor Who book way back in my late teens, but even then I never really considered that I might ever be published – I just needed to write.

I think it’s that need that defines us as authors. What genres do you write in, and what appeals to you about those genres?

PJ: I’ve always written in the realms of speculative fiction, although my preference is definitely for scifi. I like things that are at least a step outside the normal world. I love the contrast to what we consider normality. And part of the attraction of writing is the escapism – and the further the better!

So true! What titles do you have published?

PJ: I have a free scifi short that I self-published on Smashwords – The Bones of the Sea. The main character is contracted to demolish an obstruction on the seabed of Ulto Marinos, but her survey of the site leads her to a startling discover and a moral dilemma.

What can you tell us about your recent release?

PJ: My first full length novel – Keir – released on the 7th May from Lyrical Press Inc. It’s a science fiction romance with elements of time-travel and fantasy, a tortured hero, and a feisty heroine with a dark past.

And what are you working on now?

PJ: I have a sfr novella (Tethered) in progress, a straight scifi novella (Gethyon) that needs tweaking after some feedback, a straight scifi short story (Samaritan) that I plan to self-publish, and the sequel to Keir (Lost Serenity) in editing.

It’s great to be busy. What author(s) have influenced your writing style?

PJ: My earliest inspirations were authors like JRR Tolkien, Ursula Le Guin, David Eddings, Anne McCaffrey…I could go on and on! But more recently it’s Jaine Fenn, Neal Asher and Linnea Sinclair.

Do you belong to a critique group or have critique partners? If so, what have you learned from them? How has it affected your writing?

PJ: I used to just have a couple of critique partners, but that has expanded into a small group since I did a creative writing course – some of my fellow students now give me critiques too. I’ve also just joined CritiqueCircle.com, originally just to crit a fellow sfr author’s work, but I’ve since posted some of my own writing on there and read a few others. I’d say having someone come in and read over with a fresh eye is invaluable – they can spot plot holes and inconsistencies more easily and can give you great feedback on the flow, whether things are explained well enough, and whether characters are believable. It’s also made me more analytical about my writing and made me question what and how I write.

What is the best piece of advice you would give to aspiring authors?

PJ: As Commander Quincy Taggart from Galaxy Quest would say “Never give up – never surrender!” If you don’t at least try, you’ll never make it.

Great advice! Where can my readers find you?

PJ: Blogsite – http://pippajay.blogspot.com/

Twitter – http://twitter.com/pippajaygreen

Facebook:  Keir – Beyond Redemption (book page) https://www.facebook.com/pages/Keir-Beyond-Redemption/114058821953752

Pippa Jay (profile) https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001581482219

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5054558.Pippa_Jay

Where can my readers find your books?

PJ: Keir – http://www.lyricalpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=81&products_id=513

Blurb:

Outcast. Cursed. Dying. Is Keir beyond redemption?

For Keirlan de Corizi–the legendary ‘Blue Demon’ of Adalucien–death seems the only escape from a world where his discolored skin marks him as an oddity and condemns him to life as a pariah. But salvation comes in an unexpected guise: Tarquin Secker, a young woman who can travel the stars with a wave of her hand.

But Quin has secrets of her own. She’s spent eternity searching through space and time with a strange band of companions at her back. Defying her friends’ counsel, Quin risks her apparent immortality to save Keir. She offers him sanctuary and a new life on her home world, Lyagnius.

When Keir mistakenly unleashes his dormant alien powers and earns instant exile from Quin’s home world, will she risk everything to stand by him again?

The Bones of the Sea – http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/60031

Six Sentence Sunday: May 13 – Xia is preparing for her first appt. in AN UNEXPECTED RETURN #sixsunday

First of all, HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

[image error]

Thank you to each and every one of you for reading and commenting

on my excerpts each week.  I truly appreciate your time.

I’ve decided to give you another six from An Unexpected Return, which releases May 30 from Decadent Publishing’s new science fiction romance line, Elatia.

This is a conversation between the heroine, Xia, and her trainer in erotic massage.

She just asked Jacobus if she’d have to sleep with her first client.

“Both.” The class stared at her. Gods, she felt like such an idiot. Could she be the only one who hadn’t been with a man yet?

“It’s your decision for both questions. But let me tell you, Xia, in this profession, you won’t remain a virgin for long.”

Visit http://www.sixsunday.com/ to find out who’s participating in Six Sentence Sunday this week or follow the #sixsunday hashtag on twitter.

How the story of one Corpus Bride became a series – Guest Post by author, Zee Monodee & FREE ebook

Hello everyone, it’s an absolute pleasure to be here with ye all. Big huge thanks to Jessica for having me over today!

My second novel from the Corpus Brides series, Before The Morning, came out this week, and Jessica asked me this question during one of our email exchanges:

How did this idea become a series?

For, you see, I didn’t start this as one!

About 3 years ago, I started a stand-alone story where the heroine had amnesia. To recover what’s been erased from her memory, I made her travel to Marseille, where the accident that made her amnesiac happened. The buried pieces of the puzzle were there, in that old city, and a handsome and sinfully sexy police officer helped her in her quest there. I planned this to be a novella, 40,000 words tops.

But that story idea fizzled after only 2 chapters… and I found myself with a snippet of an idea and no clue what to do with it. There definitely needed to be ‘more’ to make this more gripping; if I couldn’t be excited about a story, how on Earth could I make an editor and a reader interested?

Shortly after, I got sick, with the worst flu bug I’ve ever encountered in my life! I spent my days in a haze of slumber and wakefulness, doped up on cold medication that kept me loopy.

*eureka!* What if this was how my amnesiac heroine felt… because the man in her life kept her plied with drugs? Now, why would he be drugging her? Maybe so she won’t recover her memory…? What’s there in that buried past of hers? What doesn’t he want her to know, and why?

I had the new start of a story – I took the old idea and worked if off this one. The sexy French cop turned into the woman’s former lover, whom she ‘sees’ in dreams when she is in her drugged-up state. She ditched the drugs, managed to ditch her ‘husband’ in London, and escape all the way to Marseille, to find ‘her’ cop!

And when she does find him, she also opens a can of worms, finds secrets beyond anything she could’ve imagined… as well as the existence of a clandestine espionage agency called the Corpus. Inside the ranks of this agency, a mutiny is brewing. Anyone could be a bad guy; no one you can be sure to trust…

I finished that story, and started shopping it around. The title was Walking The Edge. Around the same time Noble Romance Publishing requested the full manuscript, a few friends prompted me to write a story about best friends turned lovers. I had this idea of a comedy-type story, where a spy returns to civilian life, but she reckons she’s never faced any mission as dire as being in her nutty family’s fold once again. In another *eureka* moment, I saw an opportunity – all those backstory questions not answered in Walking The Edge, well what if they were answered in this story, which I could turn into the prequel to this mutiny plot inside the ranks of the Corpus?

I now had 2 books taking place inside the ranks of the Corpus – both heroine-centric, about strong, kick-arse women who worked for that agency. Dilemma, dilemma – what publisher will be interested in taking 2 books about the same theme? I started the outline of Book 2, and suddenly, I ‘met’ this secondary character – a medical doctor, with a past shrouded in secrets, and who has a turbulent relationship with the head of the Corpus agency. What was her story? And how is she involved in this whole mutiny backdrop? What if everyone believed she was the mastermind behind that mutiny?

And there I had my idea for the third, and last, book based on these Corpus agents. Corpus agency; strong women; spies; all of them finding love in the midst of the turmoil in their lives… the name of Corpus Brides came to me, and that’s how this series got named.

You learned a bit about Amelia Jamison up there, the heroine from Walking The Edge (Corpus Brides: Book1), which, coincidentally, is FREE right now, for a limited time, at the Noble Romance website. Grab your copy here https://www.nobleromance.com/Books/304/Walking-the-Edge

Come read the story of Rayne Cheltham, the spy who left the agency in the name of love, when she meets her childhood best friend, Ash Gilfoy, once again. Laugh at her foray back into the fold of her crazy Irish-Russian family… and see how she will deal with the danger that shrouds her life, the secrets she is forced to keep, and how she will have to stay alive when the rebellious group from inside the Corpus decide she shouldn’t bow out so easily. All this and more, in Before The Morning (Corpus Brides: Book 2), out this past week!

Here’s the blurb, to further put you into the picture:

Before The Morning

. . . is a time of great darkness. . .

A trained killer with borderline sociopathic tendencies:

Rayne Cheltham traced out her life’s path when she was twelve: she would marry her best friend and bear his children, and in the process, stifle the restless edge in her. When he vows never to marry, she gives in to the darkness and becomes a clandestine agent—until the day he walks into her world again, and her carefully fabricated façade crumbles.

A former cop burned by life and his personal demons:

When Ash Gilfoy meets a woman who reminds him of his childhood best friend, he starts upon a path that leads him down into an abyss once again. The day Rayne waltzes back into his life, he knows she is his second chance, and the one who will save him.

Each thinks the other is their redemption . . . until they discover how deep the other’s edge of darkness goes

No one knows Rayne used to be a spy and an assassin, and no one knows why Ash left the police force. The secrets between them make them sit on a keg of gunpowder with a lit fuse in their hands. Neither knows what ‘normal’ means now, especially Rayne, whose whole life is built on a lie. Truth is threatening to explode in their faces, and that is not the only menace they have to face. Someone is out to get Rayne, and she must disclose her past before it is too late.

Can Rayne and Ash survive all that’s thrown in their path? Can they hang on to the last thread of their relationship, and can they emerge, still together and still alive, in the morning after the deepest darkness?

Get your copy here!  https://www.nobleromance.com/Books/420/Before-the-Morning

Thanks Jessica for having me over today! Big huge thanks to all of you Mark of the Stars readers, for allowing me to share about my books with you today.

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Before the Morning Excerpt

From the front-facing window on the second floor of the Shepherd’s Close freehold, Corpus secret agent Rayne Cheltham watched the ambulance pull away from the curb.

Shivers crept up her arms, and she hugged herself tight to ward them off.

Get a grip!

She was a professional on an assignment, an elite, trained operative from a clandestine agency that handled operations for governments and international forces as a stealthy left hand. Her agency entrusted her with the most important missions—nothing should faze her.

Before today, she would’ve said that nothing could affect her when she had her eyes on a goal.

But she wasn’t sure anymore. She’d never had her past collide with her present like a few moments ago, in the form of her childhood best friend.

Ashford Gilfoy, better known as Ash. The boy who had been there to catch her when, at six, she had slipped while climbing the chestnut tree that sat right on the border between their two houses in Hastings, two days after her family moved there from Salisbury. The boy who had taught her how to ride a bicycle without the training wheels on the long and winding, gravel-covered lane leading to her parents’ mansion. The teenager who had smashed the nose of the first lad who had broken her heart, at thirteen, during recess in the schoolyard. The young man she had left seventeen years ago on a platform at London Waterloo, on the day she bid her old life goodbye.

For the first time since that day, she was back on British soil, and kismet decided Ash should cross her path.

Why then, of all times? She was a hair’s breadth away from closing the contract on this mission. Seven months of intensive infiltration work and she was ready to achieve her aim—neutralize Nikolai Grigorievskiy’s criminal operations before she took out the man. The Corpus always sent her for the kill, but the trick was that she had to make her target’s death appear self-inflicted, at the bare minimum, or an accident, in the direst of cases. Measles, as such operations were known in their clandestine world—a planned assassination that didn’t leave any indication of the cause of death. She would then have to sanitize everything—leave no evidence, no witness, nothing that could lead back to her. Unlike her other agency counterparts, she wasn’t an out-and-out black ops assassin, but a different level of highly implicated agent provocateur.

In other words, a consummate actress who got to her ends by manipulating people and circumstances. All those years of drama school, at her mother’s insistence when, obviously, she’d be too tall to become a ballerina, came in handy. In fact, her portrayal of Lady Macbeth in the drama school’s end of year play had caught the eye of the people who had recruited her into the Corpus. Seventeen years into the agency, fifteen of them as Kali, her operative name, a sociopath with no apparent conscience who followed her orders with diligence. Never had any one of her targets come close to figuring she was an undercover agent. Her track record was flawless—each assignment undertaken with one hundred percent success rate and a marginal body count.

Until today, when she’d almost gotten burned.

Ash had recognized her down there. For a second, she’d thought her cover was blown. Then, she’d taken a deep breath and forced herself to remain in character. Never panic, always stay in control, breathe and gather your wits—the first lesson drilled inside the mind of any secret agent. Pulling on a blank face was one of her fortes, and Ash had bought the act. He thought she was Irina, clueless twenty-year-old from the dirt-poor suburbs of Moscow who didn’t speak any other language but Russian.

She’d had a few close encounters in the past, but never like that. Rayne and Kali had two separate, compartmentalized lives that ran parallel. The two should never have touched, because that would end up making a mess of her. She could keep each persona separate, as long as she could push Rayne to some dark corner of her mind. Her job taxed her, and she walked the tight line of paranoia every single second while undercover.

But if Rayne came to the front during a mission . . . .

Damn it, she wasn’t a rookie agent on her first mission. Cherries, as the CIA called them. Hell, even during her first undercover operation, she’d had no qualms and no trouble achieving her aim.

Why today, when everything was smooth sailing toward a much-desired goal?

She closed her eyes and rested her forehead against the windowpane. The glass was warm against her clammy skin.

She was sweating?

That will not do. I have to take control again.

She had to forget about Ash, about Rayne, and focus on being Irina, the one who would bring down a notorious criminal. Her agency and the whole world counted on her to take out the piece of scum. She was their last hope, sent in as the trump card after good cops got killed when trying to bring Nikolai to justice.

Someone knocked on the door, and she pulled away from the window. Damn it, she still had a job to do.

Willing confidence to steel her spine on a deep breath, she turned around. She blinked a few times, called forth tears. She was supposed to be a young wife who’d just been hit by her husband, a man she’d left downstairs at the party with a leggy blonde draped all over his side.

The moisture trickled onto her cheek, and she swiped her eyes to smear the kohl and mascara.

There—she should present the desired picture of despair.

“Da?” she answered as she stepped toward the door.

The panel opened quietly. “Zdrastuyte, Gaspazha Grigorievskaya.”

Hello, Mrs. Grigorievskaya. Such formality. Only one man addressed her with such deference and respect—Boris Petrov, Nikolai’s right-hand man.

“Zdrastuyte, Boris Ivanovich.” She replied him with the same formal greeting, using his patronymic name to further show her respect, as was customary in the Russian culture.

Boris was the least disposable target in the whole operation—the keystone. She had to bring him down, or at least create a rift between the two men. Everything would crumble afterward. Nikolai wouldn’t have his main pillar of support, and would thus crash down through the pyramidal structure of his operations.

“Are you okay?” he asked as he stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.

She shrugged, forced a small, tremulous smile. Russian wives, she’d learned, tolerated a lot of their husbands’ outbursts. “It’s nothing.”

“You shouldn’t listen to what Mikhail said. He is just jealous that Kolya’s attention is not wholly directed onto him any longer.”

“It does not bother me,” she said in a small voice.

Make a move, she silently urged him. For her plan to work, Boris had to capitalize on the simmering embers of passion that flared between him and his boss’ wife, and that he denied all the time. She’d already lost too much time, and had to start the measles process.

I have to take matters in my hands. There’s no other way.

She trained her eyes on him. Boris was a big, burly man in his mid-forties. Anyone could imagine him knocking out a person with just a flick of his thick wrist. Toying with him was like playing with fire—she could get burnt. But she had no other choice. The time had come. Five months to gain Nikolai’s trust and compliance; two months to insidiously plant the seeds of discord within the criminal’s entourage. She didn’t have much leeway to work at influencing outcomes anymore. No—she had to provoke.

Rayne inhaled, felt the oxygen fill her lungs and clear her brain. She forced herself into her character. What would Irina do?

She gasped, and brought her hands to cover her mouth. With rapid steps, she rushed to Boris’ side. She reached out with one hand and trailed the tips of her fingers along one of his eyes, swollen nearly shut from a blow.

“You shouldn’t have,” she said in a soft whisper, letting tears streak down her cheeks. “Not for me.”

Boris’ swift intake of air was the only sound that hissed between them. He closed his eyes under her touch.

Do it, she urged.

“I am so”—she paused and sobbed—”so sorry.” Her voice was small and breathless, heavy with sadness.

Boris settled a heavy, meaty palm on her hand, to keep her fingers unfurled on his cheek. “Forgive me, Irina. I couldn’t let him say those ugly lies about you.”

He is caving.

“Boris, please.” She pleaded with him.

“I will do anything for you.”

“I am a married woman.”

“Why don’t you leave him?”

She gasped. “I cannot. I pledged myself to him.”

“But look how he treats you!”

“Borya,” she said, using the nickname for Boris, “back in Russia, for every one like me, there are ten other girls, more beautiful, waiting to take my place.”

“There isn’t any woman more beautiful than you in all of Russia.”

She smiled, making sure she displayed sadness and resolution on her features.

“You are such a sweet man.” When he wasn’t forcing underage girls into the cargo holds of boats docking out of most major European ports, plying them with drugs before supplying them like meat to brothels and sex perverts.

“Leave him,” Boris said, the words a subtle urge.

“I can’t. Where would I go?” She gently tugged her hand from under his and took a step closer to him. “I can’t go back to that life, Borya.”

“Irina, please—”

The sound of the door opening startled them. Nikolai stood on the threshold, his tall, dark form an intimidating silhouette in the dim doorway.

Kali threw one look at Boris, shook her head softly, and took a few steps away. The back of her knees hit the edge of the window seat. She stumbled backward into a sitting position on the upholstered ledge.

Nikolai’s narrowed gaze went from Boris to her, and back to his right-hand man.

“Leave us,” he said softly, the words obviously an order.

Boris nodded and exited the room.

Good—she’d sown the seeds of doubt. Her “husband” would wonder what went on between her and Boris, and Boris would try to get closer to her. She would play on this nearness between them, subtly make people wonder if something was happening behind Nikolai’s back.

At that point, she would move her final chess piece—Nikolai would die at the same time as Boris. For the world, things would look like an altercation gone wrong between a spurned husband and a forbidden lover, with her caught in the crossfire. That’s how she’d ensure her exit from the operation.

Yes, all the pieces of the game were falling into place. She just had to play along.

Nikolai closed the door behind Boris, the click of the latch falling into place sounding louder than it should have.

He turned toward her, pressed his shoulder against the doorframe, and pushed his hands into the pockets of his Gieves and Hawkes champagne-coloured, tailor-made linen trousers.

Her “husband” focused his steely grey eyes on her.

The stare burned into her skull. Still, she refused to look up. Not yet.

Zee Monodee Bio:

Stories about love, life, relationships… in a melting-pot of culture Zee is an author who grew up on a fence – on one side there was modernity and the global world, on the other there was culture and traditions. Putting up with the culture for half of her life, one day she decided she’d stand tall on her wall and dip toes every now and then into both sides of her non-conventional upbringing.

From this resolution spanned a world of adaptation and learning to live on said wall. The realization also came that many other young women of the world were on their own fence.

This particular position became her favorite when she decided to pursue her lifelong dream of writing – her heroines all sit ‘on a fence’, whether cultural or societal, in today’s world or in times past, and face dilemmas about life and love.

Hailing from the multicultural island of Mauritius, Zee is a degree holder in Communications Science. She is married,mum to a tween son, & stepmum to a teenage lad.

Blog / Facebook / Goodreads / Twitter

Buy Links:

Before The Morning: An action/adventure, romantic suspense tale on the backdrop of a clandestine espionage agency – come read the story of Rayne, a spy who leaves that life in the name of love, & Ash, the man who changes her world!

https://www.nobleromance.com/Books/420/Before-the-Morning

FREE for this week: WALKING THE EDGE (Corpus Brides: Book 1): A romantic suspense novel, wherein an amnesiac woman is on the quest for her forgotten memory… Escape from London all the way to Marseille, France, and discover the secrets, deceit, danger, & the powerful love, she uncovers during her search! https://www.nobleromance.com/Books/304/Walking-the-Edge

 

LAST STOP of The Zurian Child Virtual Book Tour, #Giveaway & FREE #ebooks

[image error]It’s Raining Books is the LAST STOP of the virtual book tour for The Zurian Child. In an interview there, I reveal why I write science fiction romance, and the challenges of the genre. Plus, I’m giving away a $10 Amazon.com gift certificate & book swag!!

http://its-raining-books.blogspot.ca/2012/05/virtual-book-tour-and-giveaway-zurian.html

To increase your chances to WIN, be sure to visit every stop listed here:

http://www.markofthestars.com/wp/?page_id=9840

I have to thank Goddess Fish Promotions, as they have been wonderful at organizing this blog tour for me. I HIGHLY recommend them.

No, for some FREE ebooks!!! (Click on the titles to get to the book’s page)

**Please note, these are all for a limited time only!

To celebrate the release of Before The Morning (Corpus Brides book 2) by Zee Monodee, Noble Romance is offering the first book in the series, Walking the Edge for FREE!!

Your Biggest Fan, a psychological thriller by Graylin Fox is FREE on Amazon!

Ghost of a Chance, a paranormal 1Night Stand story, by Deena Remiel is FREE on Amazon!

Designing Passion, a contemporary 1Night stand story, by Kali Willows is FREE on Amazon!