Shehanne Moore's Blog, page 33
July 21, 2014
Chicken, Callalloo and Goat…a scene set for seduction
Yes…Pity poor Lady Fury. If the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, she is never going to reach Captain Flint Blackmoore’s. Not on what she has in her larder……. 
And of course, Captain Flint Blackmoore decides to forget this two shit stuff and go for broke having all three. Yep it’s not just imagination she can’t afford.
What did pirates eat anyway? Well, there was…
HARD TACK
A sort of Jacob’s Cream cracker minus the maggots and weevils, made with flour, salt and water. Baked hard it would last for years. You might not like it …but hey, you’d have no choice.
BONE SOUP
No kidding. This was made from fish bones, animal bones
and even bird bones.
In fact they probably ate anything that came to hand and weren’t that fussy if the meat attached to these bones was rotten. And they didn’t much care what they ate it with either. Their fingers were absolutely fine which probably explains Flint’s lack of table manners although he can dine with the best and appear to be a gent when he wants.
Yes. The hero of The Unraveling of Lady Fury, is always going for broke.
Ideas for what that meal consisted of? Well, Fury and Flint have history in the Caribbean and it is amazing how many Caribbean recipes are aphrodisiacs. SO maybe it was Bull Cod Soup?
Maybe it says cod- we are looking at a certain bit of bull here –saying nothing—and scotch bonnet peppers in white rum. Of course a pirate would have to part with that rum, Flint is unlikely.
Or maybe it was Flint’s favourite dish.
One thing I do know is it wouldn’t be these bad boys. 
which if you can’t make yourself…..
You can cheat by using digestive biccies and roll out fondant icing.
Extract… Callaloo and goat. Or is it chicken?
“If I can trust you, and it is very much an if—” She took on that refined voice she’d somehow cultivated. “Then you may have the Blue Chamber.”
“I may? The Blue Chamber?”
“It’s a nice room, as you will have seen. You may use it freely.”
Rules thirteen and fourteen, no doubt. Amazing what the assumption of a little knowledge did for people. He swallowed the hunk of bread in his mouth. “That’s mighty nice of you.”
“Yes. Susan will serve you your meals.”
“I look forward to it. I’m ’specially fond of callaloo and goat.”
“Goat?”
“Plenty of them running about the hillsides. You just get Susan or some of your men up there to catch them.”
“Susan? Or—” She tightened her dropping jaw. “If you want a goat you must catch it and kill it yourself.”
Right.
“Any steak will do. I’m not fussy. Chicken too. Oh, and rum. Heaps of it. Tell you what, why don’t I give her a list?”
Why the hell had her jaw dropped like that? So far, a bread roll and a handful of grapes was a starvation diet for a man being asked to do what she expected of him. Twice a day was nothing. But to order? When she didn’t even want him? He’d thought Ma’s knowledge would guarantee more than the Blue Chamber.
“It’s up to you. Chicken and rum are good for a man, an awful lot better than bread and coffee when he’s got to get with his lady twice a day, to become a daddy.”
Her face turned green as though she were in the throes of morning sickness already.
*******
Genoa 1820
Rule One: There will be no kissing. Rule two: You will be fully clothed at all times…
Widowed Lady Fury Shelton hasn’t lost everything—yet. As long as she produces the heir to the Beaumont dukedom, she just might be able to keep her position. And her secrets. But when the callously irresistible Captain James “Flint” Blackmoore sails back into her life, Lady Fury panics. She must find a way to protect herself—and her future—from the man she’d rather see rotting in hell than sleeping in her bed. If she must bed him to keep her secrets, so be it. But she doesn’t have to like it. A set of firm rules for the bedroom will ensure that nothing goes awry. Because above all else, she must stop herself from wanting the one thing that Flint can never give her. His heart.
Ex-privateer Flint Blackmoore has never been good at following the rules. Now, once again embroiled in a situation with the aptly named Lady Fury, he has no idea why he doesn’t simply do the wise thing and walk away. He knows he’s playing with fire, and that getting involved with her again is more dangerous than anything on the high seas. But he can’t understand why she’s so determined to hate him. He isn’t sure if the secret she keeps will make things harder—or easier—for him, but as the battle in the bedroom heats up, he knows at least one thing. Those silly rules of hers will have to go…
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Filed under: heroes, heroines, writing Tagged: Bone soup, Bull Cod Soup, Etopia Press, hard Tack, It's Pirates Week, Pirate food, Pirates, Shehaanne Moore, The Unraveling of Lady Fury
July 19, 2014
All the nice girls love a sailor
Scuttle.
Firstly, before we start, Renea Mason, the fabulous author 
is hosting a Reader Appreciation event 
with a ton of prizes and more than 50 authors participating. I didn’t have the time to participate fully but she never left me out, she is such a doll. So, if you fancy joining the raffles and giveaways, not to mention the fun, here’s the link, https://www.facebook.com/events/654051591339883/ What are you waiting for?
I’m hoping she’s going to drop by soon to talk about her new book, Between The Waters.
So? Where were we? 
Oh yes. Pirates. Well okay, can we just quit the cutlass waving and the me hearties, oh arrr shit. We are not in a bad Hollywood movie.
Captain Flint, the…maybe I should say…anti hero of The Unraveling of Lady Fury doesn’t look like….
He doesn’t even like parrots. In fact Fury trying to bring one on board the Calypso in a fancy cage is the final straw for him the first time round. 
So he dumps her and the cage on a wharf in London.
He doesn’t wave a cutlass. He’s not even from the Golden Age of Piracy. He’s a remnant of the War of 1812 US privateers. and he certainly does NOT dress like Douglas Fairbanks,
(Can someone please explain to me why he’s dressed like that? Had Hollywood run out of peg legs or something? )
Flint doesn’t dress like smexy Captain Jack, either
In my ….
yes we know, feature, I always ask what sort of hero do I match my heroines up to, well in the main my heroines being none too sweet get matched up to ruthless anti-hero alphas.
Do you know the trouble I had getting Flint threatening to make Fury walk the plank…in their backstory for God’s sake….past a line editor? ‘Isn’t this a little much?’ she said. I had to say of course he was only joking.
Right.
You know, I really think Flint is misunderstood. He’s truly very nice. The poor guy has Fury to contend with, not just slapping him with rules but slapping him with anything.
So pirates. Let’s start with the fun. Who’s sumexier? Pirates? or Highlanders?
Take Our Poll
Seriously, whichever one it is, we do still love the idea of a pirate, despite the fact they were probably minus limbs, eyes, had scurvy, you name it. Maybe because the fact they were free spirits appeals to us all. Oh and the fact they swash and buckle. Favourites anyone? After all it’s not all just nice girls who love em.
Extract..The Unraveling of Lady Fury
The thing was he’d never quite understood what it was about Fury Fontanelli. In seven years he had not thought of her, at all. Except perhaps now and again—he wouldn’t say it was more than that—that little moment when he dumped her on Fishside Wharf. Oh, and just maybe occasionally, like once, twice a year—he wouldn’t say it was more than that either—the first time he’d glimpsed her, standing at the rail of the Calypso. In Celie’s frock. At least, he hadn’t known it was Celie’s frock. Only that Celie had one just like it he’d given her from some French frigate he’d plundered. Because his attention had been riveted straight off by the knowledge that it clung a hell of a lot tighter to this woman’s breasts and hips than it had to Celie’s. Then he had been riveted by the fact that his first mate, Black Hawk Dawkins, said she had put it around half the crew that she was Celie. Celie, who was dead—information he got from Fury eventually after he’d threatened to make her walk the plank in Celie’s pretty shoes, a mile out to sea.
*******
Genoa 1820
Rule One: There will be no kissing. Rule two: You will be fully clothed at all times…
Widowed Lady Fury Shelton hasn’t lost everything—yet. As long as she produces the heir to the Beaumont dukedom, she just might be able to keep her position. And her secrets. But when the callously irresistible Captain James “Flint” Blackmoore sails back into her life, Lady Fury panics. She must find a way to protect herself—and her future—from the man she’d rather see rotting in hell than sleeping in her bed. If she must bed him to keep her secrets, so be it. But she doesn’t have to like it. A set of firm rules for the bedroom will ensure that nothing goes awry. Because above all else, she must stop herself from wanting the one thing that Flint can never give her. His heart.
Ex-privateer Flint Blackmoore has never been good at following the rules. Now, once again embroiled in a situation with the aptly named Lady Fury, he has no idea why he doesn’t simply do the wise thing and walk away. He knows he’s playing with fire, and that getting involved with her again is more dangerous than anything on the high seas. But he can’t understand why she’s so determined to hate him. He isn’t sure if the secret she keeps will make things harder—or easier—for him, but as the battle in the bedroom heats up, he knows at least one thing. Those silly rules of hers will have to go…
BUY LINKS
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All Romance Ebooks
Filed under: heroes, heroines, writing Tagged: Avoiding pirate cliches, Captain James Flint Blackmoore, Etopia Press, It's Pirate Week, Lady Fury, Pirates, Shehanne Moore, The Unraveling of Lady Fury
July 17, 2014
Damnation seize my soul if I give you quarter….
Fine……
Have them…
Well, I m so glad that’s settled. Now then, firstly the lovely Kate L Mary who dropped by here a few weeks back was kind enough to interview me on her Monday Meet the Author and some of their fav things spot.
http://katelmary.com/2014/07/14/meet-the-author-with-shehanne-moore/
She sure asked some interesting questions, like what to do in the event of a Zombie apocalypse. I guess I can expect the Soc for Prevention to Cruelty to them at the door any day now. But fortunately it’s not
so I think I got away with it. What it is, is Pirates week. Why? Because I’m having a bookfest on my books. Last week it was Scottish week for His Judas Bride, this week it’s Pirates Week for The Unraveling of Lady Fury.
I do rather like that quote… It kind of sums up Lady Fury and Captain Flint. Not pictured two pictures above by the way, even if they are known for going ten rounds with one another and then trying to look as if it is all perfectly normal.
We had Kara from His Judas Bride, forged in granite in Scotland….
…..what kind of heroine is Fury, born in Jamaica?
Well, she’s what author Aimee Duffy calls a despicable heroine. That is one who starts the book down with her back against the wall, fighting to survive.
It went down really well with publishers I subbed her to—NOT– that her hubby was lying dead in a box in her cellar…sort of courtesy of her…and she was interviewing potential sperm donors, so she could get pregnant, thus keeping a roof over her head.
COUNT VELLAGIO…..
At the end of Chapter one, there’s a further revelation about her plus the fact people do seem to die around her. 
Of course what really troubles Fury is that Flint doesn’t seem to like her, although as the lovely, Jane Hunt, author of the Dragon Legacy pointed out, they are yin and yang, vital for the other to survive.
So, further tips on creating a despicable, hard sell, heroine.
Well, give her one or two goals, Fury’s isn’t just as simple as wanting the money for herself. No. She is quite the woman of secrets.
She’s not exactly relishing what she’s going to have to do to get that inheritance. Or who initially she’s going to have to do it with.
She’s also very misunderstood.
Really put her in a corner and make that corner tight. 
We can all get that can’t we?
Bring in the backstory. Fury’s mother died when she was young and her father ran a brothel in Jamaica she knew she was going to end up in one day, so she took the first proper chance she got and ran away….unfortunately right into Captain Flint Blackmoore.
So all her dreams of getting to that lovely new life in England where she had everything ended in a puff of smoke and an abusive marriage when he dumped her in London.
And oh dear me…this drop dead gorgeous, fabulous in bed guy has just turned up again….
We can really sympathize with that now can’t we?
Extract.
Drawing a breath to quell her hammering heart, she raised her quivering hand to tap on the door. A low, American Southern voice drawled. Not from the other side of the door where she expected to hear something, but close by in her ear.
“Hello, sweetheart. Imagine seeing you here.”
Fury jerked up her chin and swung around, the candle flame sputtering. “You.” Imagine, indeed.
Flint. Not just a voice in her ear. A voice from that place she had locked it, locked him, and thrown away the key. A voice from memory’s dark swamp. But as if it were yesterday, he stepped toward her and she fought the swell of panic. She couldn’t help it. She parted her lips in shock.
“No. Don’t scream.” He held up a warning hand.
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t.” She had had seven years of acknowledging this man did not exist. She did not want to see him now. Not when she stood on Malmesbury’s doorstep, on the very trembling edge of—this. Go away, she nearly hissed. She must be mistaken. He couldn’t be here. It wasn’t possible.
He loomed over her, and her whole body stiffened. He was here. “Because I doubt you want your guests out their chambers any more than I do right now, sweetheart, with what you got sitting down in your cellar.”
***
Genoa 1820
Rule One: There will be no kissing. Rule two: You will be fully clothed at all times…
Widowed Lady Fury Shelton hasn’t lost everything—yet. As long as she produces the heir to the Beaumont dukedom, she just might be able to keep her position. And her secrets. But when the callously irresistible Captain James “Flint” Blackmoore sails back into her life, Lady Fury panics. She must find a way to protect herself—and her future—from the man she’d rather see rotting in hell than sleeping in her bed. If she must bed him to keep her secrets, so be it. But she doesn’t have to like it. A set of firm rules for the bedroom will ensure that nothing goes awry. Because above all else, she must stop herself from wanting the one thing that Flint can never give her. His heart.
Ex-privateer Flint Blackmoore has never been good at following the rules. Now, once again embroiled in a situation with the aptly named Lady Fury, he has no idea why he doesn’t simply do the wise thing and walk away. He knows he’s playing with fire, and that getting involved with her again is more dangerous than anything on the high seas. But he can’t understand why she’s so determined to hate him. He isn’t sure if the secret she keeps will make things harder—or easier—for him, but as the battle in the bedroom heats up, he knows at least one thing. Those silly rules of hers will have to go…
BUY LINKS
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
All Romance Ebooks
Filed under: heroes, heroines, writing Tagged: Captain Flint Blackmoore, Creating a despicable heroine, It's Pirate Week, Jamaica, Lady Fury, Pirates, Romance Writing, The Unraveling of Lady Fury, Writing tips
July 15, 2014
Gonnae no do that…Common misrepresentations of Scotland.
Interesting huh? William Wallace is a Highlander. Well, he’s Scots isn’t he? SO obviously he is a Highlander. Kilt wearing clans even live in the Borders.
So…you wanna write a book set in Scotland? I think being a native, I’m allowed to round off my It’s Scottish week, by giving yah my pet peeves.
Sorry…I just felt like showing a kilt.
Donny is an Osmond. I’ve read Scottish books where I don’t recognize the lingo and I live here. If you’re meaning don’t…the word is dinnae. 
Well, I showed Gerard once, I might as well do it again….I did once consider him as a muse for the Black Wolf after all, even if he never made the final cut.
Highland clans did not live in the Borders. Highland Clans lived in the Highlands and were mainly regarded as savages by their Lowland Scottish neighbours on account of their pillaging, cattle-reiving activities.
Not only did vicars and parsons not exist in 13th Century Scotland, they don’t exist in Scotland. Period. They’re English terms for English churchmen. Until the Reformation Scotland had priests, afterwards it was priests and ministers etc etc, etc, etc… eight.
Oh…okay… I get the biz of the half dressed guy sells books but does he have to go through the book with no shirt. Sorry? His name is Gerard Butler so the answer is yes?
Well I did my best.
That’s it for Scottish week and Kara, the Wolf and His Judas Bride.
But I will be back…lucky you…. with Pirates.
As for who Turdygub was…well, it goes like this…..from His Judas Bride
Against the wishes of the Black Wolf of Lochalpin, Archibald Kelty, the late Lord Mhor McDunnagh’s most trusted bodyguard and friend, cordially invites you to the wedding…..
between Lady Kara McGurkie oldest daughter of the tinker chief, the Black Wolf’s sworn enemy
and Lord Ewen McDunnagh…chief of clan McDunnagh, the Black Wolf’s ‘Turdypused’ younger brother.
“Daddy’s got to go, sweetheart. Take the pretty lady to see Uncle…” He hesitated over the word Turdygub. That would be to bring further complaint from Meg down on his head in an already difficult situation. A situation where he was now going to have to take the chit to Turdygub. “…Ewen up at the castle. You be good. No more swearing. You promise me? Hmm?”
Fallon wrapped her arms around his neck. “Yes, Daddy.”
“Because, sweetheart, if you’re not—”
He ruffled her hair before setting her down. His boots seemed to echo for an eternity across the flagstones, past the stag heads watching dully from their mounts on the draped walls, the pewter shining on the dresser. The thing was, despite all he’d said he hadn’t expected her to march in here and call him out in front of his men. So now he had no choice but to saddle Satan, didn’t he? So then, tonight, if not before, she and Ewen… Turdypus, not gub…
Christ, what the hell was wrong with him?
T o love, honor, and betray…
To get back her son, she will stop at nothing…
For five years Kara McGurkie has preferred to forget she’s a woman. So it’s no problem for her to swear to love and honor, to help destroy a clan, when it means getting back the son she lost. But when dire circumstances force her to seduce her fiancé’s brother on the eve of the wedding, will the dark secrets she holds and her greatest desire be enough to save her from his powerful allure?
To save his people, neither will he…
Callm McDunnagh, the Black Wolf of Lochalpin, ruthlessly guards heart and glen from dangerous intruders. But from the moment he first sees Kara he knows he must possess her, even though surrendering to his passion may prove the most dangerous risk of all.
She has nothing left to fear except love itself…
Now only Kara can decide what passion can save or destroy, and who will finally learn the truth of the words… Till death do us part.
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Filed under: heroes, heroines, writing Tagged: His Judas Bride, Kara McGurkie, Scotland, The Black Wolf of Lochalpin
July 14, 2014
We Interrupt Scottish week to bring you… more kilts
A Scots author complained about the “dignity, morals and respect” of women on twitter – after she put up a post about kilts, featuring Gerard Butler.
‘I love his muscular calves,’ said Aubrey Wynne. “Gimme more.”
‘Why do we love them? that question is rhetorical, right??” asked Kishan Paul.
“I’ve never seen this kind of thing before,” the Scot’s author said from her desk in Scotland.
“I’ve been on twitter
goodness knows how many times, this blog too and I’ve never known behaviour like it. Maybe from now on I should stop all this blogging shit and show men in kilts. Gerard Butler in particular? After all, forget whisky, where the ladies are concerned he is one of Scotland’s finest exports.”
So there we have it.
SO there we have it. Tomorrow Scottish week will ‘daringly’ conclude with common Scottish misrepresentations.
Aubrey’s happy as you can see…. And she hasn’t even seen this blog yet!
fangedfantasy @ShehanneMoore @kishan_paul @kishan @MichaelaMiles Mooaaahaahhaaa. My plan worked. More kilts from Shey and the hamstahs.
SO I leave you with two things. My poll….
Take Our Poll
Men in kilts why do we love them? I guess we just do.
, if only Callm McDunmagh, the Black Wolf, the hero of His Judas Bride hadn’t insisted on wearing these leather breeches under his plaid……It would have made my heroine, Kara’s task so much easier……
To love, honor, and betray…
To get back her son, she will stop at nothing…
For five years Kara McGurkie has preferred to forget she’s a woman. So it’s no problem for her to swear to love and honor, to help destroy a clan, when it means getting back the son she lost. But when dire circumstances force her to seduce her fiancé’s brother on the eve of the wedding, will the dark secrets she holds and her greatest desire be enough to save her from his powerful allure?
To save his people, neither will he…
Callm McDunnagh, the Black Wolf of Lochalpin, ruthlessly guards heart and glen from dangerous intruders. But from the moment he first sees Kara he knows he must possess her, even though surrendering to his passion may prove the most dangerous risk of all.
She has nothing left to fear except love itself…
Now only Kara can decide what passion can save or destroy, and who will finally learn the truth of the words… Till death do us part.
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Filed under: heroes, heroines, writing Tagged: Aubrey Wynne, Gerard Butler, His Judas Bride, men in kilts, Scotland, Shehanne Moore, writing
July 12, 2014
Men in Kilts. Why do we love them?
A Scots visitor complained about the “dignity, morals and respect” of women in Stalybridge – after her husband was repeatedly groped because he was wearing a kilt.
“I’ve never seen this kind of thing before,” she said from their home in Scotland. “I’ve been to goodness knows how many functions where men have been wearing kilts and I’ve never known behaviour like it.”
Men in kilts. Why do we love them?
Even when they wear pink shirts?
Men in kilts are deemed sexy. Yes, just go ask Sharon Struth, author of The Hourglass and the soon to be released, Share The Moon. The woman can’t contain herself. Of course she knows that here in Scotland men don’t go around dressed like this…
In our weather? They’d get pneumonia for a start. I just don’t know how to break it to her it would be…. in your dreams, doll.
Settle. We all know you’re secretly planning to bite my throat or something. Where were we? Oh yes. Kilts. Well, here’s the thing,growing up in Scotland men in kilts were kind of infra dig. Sexy? Excuse me. Now just go put sexy kilts into Google and see what comes up.
Also google kilts… I did and found this.
“Thomas Rawlinson was an 18th-century English industrialist who is widely reputed, though not without controversy, to have been the inventor of the modern kilt.“
Which doesn’t make a lot of sense when Wikipedia also says,
‘The kilt is a knee-length garment with pleats at the rear, originating in the traditional dress of men and boys in the Scottish Highlands of the 16th century.’
I’m kind of thinking that there’s been a mix up with plaids and kilts. Plaids being what the Highland clans wore, the colours and patterns. associated with the local weavers. In the aftermath of Culloden…
the Dress Act of 1746 attempted to bring the warrior clans under government control by banning the tartan and other aspects of Gaelic culture.
While I never said exactly when His Judas Bride was set, I always saw it before then when the clans were very much laws unto themselves and thought nothing of knocking one another’s socks off. Their kilts too. It’s what the battle for Lochalpin is about really…. 
Anyway, enough of this history stuff. Kilts? I did a little asking around about why we find men in kilts sexy. A woeful 80 percent thought it was because of what was underneath. Yes. Shocking, eh? 4 percent liked the ‘wiggle waggle’ whatever that is… 7 percent liked the whole Scottish business: Tartan. Castles, Nessie. The lot. 9 percent liked the bare knees.
Of course that was in my survey. You might have a different answer but there is no denying that men in kilts have taken off. Do you find them sexy and if so…why?
So what does Callm, the hero of his Judas Bride wear or not…
Seriously..oh come …don’t you want the big reveal?
Or would that be what’s under it?
Oh toughen up and get with the kilt…
I leave you with an extract from His Judas Bride…a heading towards a hot bit extract….
Reaching out her hand she grasped the neck of the whiskey bottle. He stood on her path to heaven. What other choice did she have but to remove him?
She wiped her mouth. Then she cleared her throat. “Sir.” It was the most ludicrous formality, given what she planned, but she needed to start somewhere. Now he’d sat down on the edge of the bed, the opportunity was perfect, especially as he unfastened his tunic ties. “About… About…”
“What?”
Every single drop of moisture evaporated from Kara’s mouth. How awful was this, to be so little skilled in the art of seduction when he was the Black Wolf of Lochalpin and this was her last card?
She ran her tongue over her lips to moisten them. “Why I ran away.” Touch him? She was going to have to. At least put one hand on his shoulder, so she could wriggle closer. “About…about there being someone else.”
Having her hand in a honey pot in a cave full of starving bears would be easier, considering the freezing glare he shot at her. Of course, he was cold. They both were.
“What about it?”
Must he be so difficult? So obtuse? When it was perfectly obvious?
“What do you think?”
Grasping her skirts she wriggled deliberately onto his lap. Not as gracefully as she’d have liked. Her teeth were chattering too badly for that and she’d done something to her ankle. She clutched another shallow breath, not just at her daring. Sweeping the damp hair back from the sides of his face, she pressed her mouth to his.
T o love, honor, and betray…
To get back her son, she will stop at nothing…
For five years Kara McGurkie has preferred to forget she’s a woman. So it’s no problem for her to swear to love and honor, to help destroy a clan, when it means getting back the son she lost. But when dire circumstances force her to seduce her fiancé’s brother on the eve of the wedding, will the dark secrets she holds and her greatest desire be enough to save her from his powerful allure?
To save his people, neither will he…
Callm McDunnagh, the Black Wolf of Lochalpin, ruthlessly guards heart and glen from dangerous intruders. But from the moment he first sees Kara he knows he must possess her, even though surrendering to his passion may prove the most dangerous risk of all.
She has nothing left to fear except love itself…
Now only Kara can decide what passion can save or destroy, and who will finally learn the truth of the words… Till death do us part.
Amazon
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All Romance Ebooks
Filed under: heroes, heroines, writing Tagged: Culloden, His Judas Bride, kilts, Lochalpin, Scotland, tartan, The Black Wolf of Lochalpin
July 11, 2014
We interrupt Scottish week for It’s Girl Friday with Erin Moore
Ok…ok… It is but first we have a special guest. We can’t ignore our special guests, especially not the lovely Erin Moore.
Pardon?
Well, Erin was asked before Scottish week kicked off. It will be continuing tomorrow with a look at….hmmm.. Why do we find men in kilts sumexy?
But a few of you ended up being Snosh in my Which Wolf quiz
http://shehannemoore.wordpress.com/2014/07/10/sometimes-the-devils-agents-are-flesh-and-blood/
Here’s his letter he wrote to Noelle Clark when His Judas Bride first came out. 
Our weekly series with the spotlight on the galz, headed up this week by the fabulously talented Erin Moore, author of
AND very recently,
Are your heroines nice or, well, you know? Not so nice in other words?
They are generally pretty nice, but they always seem to be struggling with some sort of major messed-up head stuff. My latest heroine, Lara, believes that she is unlovable and a total f-up in life, despite her outward success.
In a word, or maybe ten, how would you describe them?
Feisty, troubled, searching, yearning for something larger than themselves. Seekers.
Why do you choose to write heroines who do that?
Oh, jeez.
I don’t know – I guess we all write a little bit of ourselves into our heroines, right? 
And then just sort of exaggerate certain traits so that no one recognizes us anymore.
What kind of hero do you match them up to? 
Brooders. Strong men with very deep attachments to their clan/tribe/land. Teo is my latest hero, and he feels such a strong attachment to his island (Crete) that he’s willing to do anything for it – including becoming a minotaur against his will.
A line from the book to describe one of your heroines.
The familiar drumbeat of her mind, the dark demon that hovered in her head, murmured over and over again unlovable, unlovable.
Her favourite line or motto?
I don’t need anyone else. (of course, we know how that turns out!!)
Tips on creating a believable good or bad–again it’s what you write–heroine?
You’ve got to dig deep and not let the ideas of anyone else influence you. For me, this means shutting off the voice that tries to tell me what readers want; I have to write for myself and hope it finds the readers that will love my stories and heroines as much as I do.
Blurb:
When man becomes minotaur, dark passion takes hold…
Lara Castille always plays it safe in both love and life. But when she arrives on vacation in Crete, she is determined to enjoy herself. Old habits die hard, though. Drawn to her tour guide, the enigmatic and sexy Teo Lambros, she cannot let down her guard—until she takes part in the ancient and sensual rites at the ruins of Knossos. She dreams of the minotaur who takes her upon the altar, and wonders if it could be Teo who brought her to ecstasy.
A gray haze clouds Teo’s memory of the rites; he knows only that the bull has chosen him for his own. He fears that the land will once again need a sacrifice, as it did when it claimed his fiancée the year before. Though he cannot deny his need for Lara, he knows that protecting her from his desire is the only way to keep her safe.
As the island’s magic demands everything they have, Lara and Teo must discover what’s real and what’s imagined if they’re to survive the passionate sexuality that draws them together…
Buy Links:
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/awakened-by-the-minotaur-erin-moore/1119688750?ean=2940149416295
Bio:
Erin has been writing her entire life, and only recently found her voice in the paranormal romance world. Lover of travel and all things mystical, she spends way too much time at Starbucks. She loves to hear what readers really want. Find her on Facebook or Twitter.
Twitter: www.twitter.com/authorErinMoore
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorErinMoore
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/goodreadscomAuthorErinMoore
Website: www.AuthorErinMoore.com
Filed under: Author Interviews, heroes, heroines, It's Girl Friday, writing Tagged: Awakened by the Minotaur, Erin Moore, Etopia Press, It's Girl Friday, Kissed By Moonlight, The Shaman's Temptation, Writing tips
July 10, 2014
Sometimes the devil’s agents are flesh and blood
Okay, okay, little hamstahs, before you say hoots man, I am sure you do. The devil’s instruments not exact quote–being very careful here– is by Scottish literary giant, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 
The blood will have blood one…well that’s Macbeth the famous ‘Scottish play.’ 
A third His Judas Bride out take could be the original ending of chapter one.
as opposed to the final cut one.
My editor–who I adore– didn’t want two books out back to back with a heroine masquerading as someone else, the joke on me being being I wrote this His Judas Bride first. So there you go. A sort of quick rewrite and the annihilating of a highland clan. Ah the joys of cobbled sentences….
So? Scotland’s rich folk history and devils being flesh and blood? Well in His Judas Bride the Black Wolf and Kara take one look at each other and their story goals which they’re mired in hell and blood about, sort of …er….get obscured. Lust is an awful thing.
I mean both separately vowed that blood will have blood, which brings us to superstition. I mean…let’s be clear, trees don’t move and stones don’t talk ..do they? Hamstahs might, but come on. Kara and Callm are Scots, just how supernatural do you think they are in a land of witches, warlocks, sea beasties and Loch Ness monsters?
Personally, I think the power of suggestion is a wonderful thing. Callm’s wife is murdered and, tired of raids on Lochalpin, he sets up the Brotherhood of Wolves… motto live together die as one. 
And when it came to working out how a small group of men could defend a clan from more brutal forces, I decided the trees would be doing a lot of moving in the land of kilts and haggis. .
Think Robin Hood Prince of Thieves—I did a lot after seeing the Russell Crow version–that scene where good old Kevin winds up in Sherwood Forest… Spooky, haunted Sherwood Forest.
The outlaws know they can’t fight the Sheriff, so what do they do? They hang up a few wind chimes and put it about that the place is haunted. That way anyone going in is doing it at their peril.
And that is what the Wolves do….really…sort of.
Today’s bit of fun?
Which Wolf from His Judas Bride are you? (There’s more than in the above picture.)
Take the quiz and find out.
1 There’s a stranger trying to get into Lochalpin Glen which you have sworn to defend with your life, do you
a Cut their throat and ask questions later
b Cut their throat and ask questions later
c Cut their throat and ask questions later
d Cut their throat and ask questions later
e Cut their throat and ask questions later
f Bite their throat and bark later.
e Cut their throat and ask questions later
2 A beautiful woman has just tried to get into your bed. Do you
a Warn her off big time about the kind of man you really are
b Go wooh wooh, this is good.
C Say, this is not my fault
D Cut her throat and ask questions afterwards
E Ask what is the right thing to do here
f You’re only interested in dogs.
g Ask if this is your mother
3 Now this beautiful woman has cleared right off. Do you
a Go on a mini rampage and take down the man she’s with
b Get someone else
c Say I told myself so. I told everyone so.
d Cut her throat.
e Agree it wasn’t for the best.
f Look for a canine pal.
g You never knew your mother so it’s ok
4 You’ve just seen this lovely deer and you’re damn nearly dying of starvation. So now it’s a dead deer. Do you
A Wager for it
B Wager for it
C Wager for it
D Wager for it
E Wager for it
f Eat it.
g Think that’s a bambi
5 You’ve been asked to give up everything you know and go live in a cave do you think
a It’s simple. If you have nothing you have nothing to lose
b so long as there is woopo woooo
c I’m only thirteen but yes
d. Why not?
e So long as I can have my say
f Fine if I can be with my master
g But I’m only a baby, come on.
Mostly
A’s The Black Wolf
B’s SHug
C’s Snosh.
D’s Big Murdie
E’s Wee Murdie
F’s Dug
g’s Fallon
But if you guess the Conan Doyle book the quote is from, add 5 points. I leave you with another extract fromHe wanted no reminders of how he’d had to face his men with the shameful knowledge burning in his breast that he’d bedded a damned traitor for the best part of four days. They’d not laughed. They were his men after all. But their pity… Never in his life had he wanted anyone to feel sorry for him.
“Callm, I’m just saying—”
“Well, don’t say. Let’s just get out of here. This ground’s not exactly going to cover itself.”
“Could I have a mouthful is what I was saying.”
Callm handed him the flask. He hitched himself up into the saddle. They were all of them, man, woman, and child, lucky to be alive. So would she be, when he found her.
“Have ye not considered the possibility that just maybe she might not have survived out here in the open? I mean, how likely is it? And if she froze or fell into a gully, it would explain the lack of—” Wee Murdie’s confidence wilted. He averted his gaze from Callm’s freezing stare.
“Do you think I’ve spent the last forty-eight hours straight turning this place upside down in the hope of finding a corpse? The time before that either?”
“Some of the men do. They think we’re wasting our time.”
While he felt like it, he refused to fist the reins. “That’s their prerogative. But it’s not mine. The damned bitch has questions to answer. So she better not be dead. She can save that for when we’ve done.”
Filed under: heroes, heroines, writing Tagged: Highlands, His Judas Bride, Kara McGurkie, Macbeth, Scotland, Superstition, The Black Wolf of Lochalpin, The Brotherhood of Wolves
July 8, 2014
The Scottish landscape is masterless…
Let me tell you, as someone who spends a bit of time in it, it sure is.
Huddled in the Boot Bar in Glencoe, last January, having had a bit of a run in with a mountain–a tree root broke my fall as I sort of contemplated the beauty of the gully a hundred feet below–the party of English climbers we got talking to, agreed re the landscape. Hadn’t they just shamefully spent the day at the Ice Climbing Centre instead, having been forced off an adjacent peak to the one we’d been on.
The landscape is also stunning. I mean it even makes my photos look ok. From the remote upland hills of the south, to the mountainous ranges in the north, the landscape is also as diverse as the rolling winds that sweep it. There’s the savage grandeur of wild, lonely places like Glencoe and the sunlit splendour of the low lying Lowlands. The Scottish character is forged in granite..and I’m not talking people here, I’m talking the landscape itself.
Setting out to write His Judas Bride, I wanted to capture that canvas because it’s not just the country, it’s the history, it’s the very particular breed of people who inhabit this land.
Glencoe must be one of my favourite places on earth. The Glencoe Massacre is quite a story. I liked the idea of an impregnable glen that all the other clans coveted… 
It let me set up a Trojan Horse scenario, an enemy chief sending his daughter as a bride, only she’s not there to actually marry anyone—another wee Scottish tradition.
Why was Lochalpin a place no stranger had set foot on for five years though? Well, that’s down to Callm McDunnagh, the Black Wolf.
And, of course his Brotherhood of Wolves
The fearless band who chuck everyone out on sight….if you chance to live that long…who Callm formed in the wake of that afternoon. having first sold his soul to the devil.
You see another good reason to set a book in Scotland…never mind the gorgeous scenery, the rolling mists, the history, is the superstition, the myths and legends. Selling their souls? Scottish lords were aye doing that
Then there’s the fact you can forge your characters from all these things. Lochalpin is as much part of the Black Wolf as he is part of it. It wasn’t just enough that he HAD to be drop dead gorgeous for to remind Kara of anything, so she’s troubled even from that very first glimpse of him….
She is a woman who can well take care of herself. As the story unfolds she needs a reason to want to be involved with a man again, beyond her initial ruthless motives. And this one offers the kind of safety she’s never known.
All right time to stop the Call-fest.
Scotland isn’t just a great location for books, it’s a great location for movies. It’s purely hypothetical, in long ago Scotland there were no cinemas, but here’s ten set in some way in Scotland Kara and the Wolf might have enjoyed and why.
I’ll be back on Thursday this week with my Wolf Brotherhood quiz.
1. Highlander.
What’s not to like about this film that has Christopher Lambert playing a Highlander with a French accent –there was the Auld Alliance mind you –and Scotland’s very own Shirr Sean playing a Spaniard with a Scots accent? All this fighting stuff and tearing out throats with your teeth would be right up the Wolf’s street.
2. Braveheart
Okay, so the Dulux face paint isn’t exactly fetching when it comes to fashion statements, that hard strength in leather would appeal to Kara. The Wolf might find Murren’s murder a bit hard to take.
3 Rob Roy 
Well, the scenery is certainly bonnie. And that’s a fine broadsword Liam sports.
4 Local Hero
Local hero? Now that would have to be the Wolf.
5 Gregory’s Girl 
Hmmm. She’s a girl and she’s certainly different from any he’s ever known so this might appeal to the Wolf given Kara is much the same. Also it’s a coming of age scenario which neither got the chance to do.
6 Trainspotting.
Tommy and the gang get off an Intercity train to “get some fresh air” on a hike at Corrour railway station, which is located on Rannoch Moor, not far from Glancoe. Imagine what happens next when the Brotherhood of Wolves spot them…..
7 Shallow Grave
Bodies in secret graves in the woods might sound a bit more up my other heroines’ street, but I’m pretty sure Kara and the Wolf might exchange a few glances here about her father.
8 Greyfriar’s Bobby
Oh come on….I don’t know about Callm and Kara, but I can tell you now Dug would just love Bobby. She’d bat her doggy eyelashes no trouble at all.
9 Skyfall
Are you kidding? The above scene was shot in Glen Etive which is just around the back of Glencoe. Although I’m pretty sure that knowing every nook and cranny as he does, the Wolf would soon suss that the bulk of these ‘Highland’ scenes were shot down south. He’d be happy though that James Bond’s father was from Glencoe. Why did Ian Fleming decide on that? Cos he liked Shirr Sean’s portrayal of Bond.
10 The Thirty Nine Steps
Richard Hannay goes into hiding in Scotland. Okay somewhere in Galloway might not be anywhere near Glencoe, the Wolf still might be giving Kara a few prickling glares here about her sister’s bodyguard hiding out in Lochalpin. Then, of course there’s the sort of ‘bundling’ scene. Two people forced to spend the night together…..
Oh…all right…cue for a Kara, Callm extract.
“Don’t like bundling?” The pile of furs sank beneath his foot as he reached for a dry tunic from the rope-line that dangled above her head. “Damned right I don’t. So don’t you start giving me any maidenly grief that you’re here and so am I. Or how I shouldn’t have brought you. Do you understand?” He snatched the tunic from the line. “Because so far as I’m concerned for tonight, you’re here…bed. I’m over there…chair.”
“A cave. You live in a cave.” She didn’t mean to sound so forlorn about it but he did, didn’t he? An underground cavern, to be precise. How could he? And how could she be so stupid, when what she needed was to be amenable, nice.
He whistled and Dug sprung up. “And she’s there. In the middle.”
“Dug? Dug? Dug’s a—” Kara swallowed a gulp. Oh, the night was full of surprises wasn’t it? Horrible ones. And now if that glower was anything to go by, she had offended him further.
“Don’t you go telling me you never saw the damn cur’s minus more than a front paw. No one’s that stupid. Not someone here to be married. Not someone who’s got—”
“But you call her Dug.”
He tossed the tunic down. “Perhaps that’s because she doesn’t like being called bitch.”
To love, honor, and betray…
To get back her son, she will stop at nothing…
For five years Kara McGurkie has preferred to forget she’s a woman. So it’s no problem for her to swear to love and honor, to help destroy a clan, when it means getting back the son she lost. But when dire circumstances force her to seduce her fiancé’s brother on the eve of the wedding, will the dark secrets she holds and her greatest desire be enough to save her from his powerful allure?
To save his people, neither will he…
Callm McDunnagh, the Black Wolf of Lochalpin, ruthlessly guards heart and glen from dangerous intruders. But from the moment he first sees Kara he knows he must possess her, even though surrendering to his passion may prove the most dangerous risk of all.
She has nothing left to fear except love itself…
Now only Kara can decide what passion can save or destroy, and who will finally learn the truth of the words… Till death do us part.
Amazon
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Filed under: Glencoe, heroes, heroines, writing Tagged: Braveheart, films, Glencoe, Gregory's Girl, Greyfriar's Bobby, Highland, Highlander, His Judas Bride, Kara McGurkie, Rob Roy, Romance, Scotland, Shallow Grave, Skyfall, The Black Wolf of Lochalpin, The Thirty Nine steps, Trainspotting
July 6, 2014
The Scots character is forged in granite
She is the heroine I’ve talked about least. She’s not England’s greatest jewel thief and she’s not Lady Fury. But I have had a few authors along talking about heroines on…..dare I mention–
so today I’m going to kick Incy Black for kicking me to do some shameless self promotion, the hamstahs back into the cages, tartan bows and all– 
Oh, all right then provided you behave. His Judas Bride was the first romance book I completed. I subbed it second because I thought it would be a hard sell. The stripped to the bone blurb looks like this.
What it doesn’t tell you is that the past haunting Kara McGurkie, the one she can’t escape from, that has forged her in granite, is five years in her father’s dungeon. That was the penalty for getting pregnant at the age of sixteen and ruining his plans to marry her to Callm McDunnagh, the then rightful heir to Lochalpin Glen. Plans which included murdering Callm’s wife.
Kara has not only been imprisoned and lost her son, she’s been used as a sex slave.
What kind of heroines do I therefore write? Well, I write difficult ones. Heroines who are the product of their pasts, who will connive their way out of any given situation and hold to their goals regardless of the cost. In fact I write bad girls.
Of course I try to give them that grain of vulnerability.
“So much of her life had revolved around fear and shock, little paths of darkness she had managed to find her way along, to places where she’d managed to survive.
It had not broken her. Because the thing she had to care about was always there for her to see. No matter how dark the night.
To tell herself it was all gone, lost at Maisie’s croft door, that would be an act of unparalleled folly. She wasn’t going to, was she?” (copywrite Shehanne Moore. Etopia press.)
I also try to add the odd human flaw. Kara’s is her happy knack of messing things up, making her the kind of handful that piques a man like Callm’s interest from the start.
What kind of hero did I match Kara up to?
What? Apart from being drop dead gorgeous and sex on legs? 
Ruthless as hell, the kind of man who won’t ‘let the rain into Lochalpin even on a wet day.’ A man who doesn’t hesitate to kill three people during the course of the story. A man who went to pieces when he lost the love of his life, who likes to think he won’t think twice about slitting Kara’s throat to save his clan. 
But the thing is he’s also a man who does think twice where she’s concerned.
Yes, underneath it all the Black Wolf is really a pussy cat. That’s his best kept secret.
To love, honor, and betray…
To get back her son, she will stop at nothing…
For five years Kara McGurkie has preferred to forget she’s a woman. So it’s no problem for her to swear to love and honor, to help destroy a clan, when it means getting back the son she lost. But when dire circumstances force her to seduce her fiancé’s brother on the eve of the wedding, will the dark secrets she holds and her greatest desire be enough to save her from his powerful allure?
To save his people, neither will he…
Callm McDunnagh, the Black Wolf of Lochalpin, ruthlessly guards heart and glen from dangerous intruders. But from the moment he first sees Kara he knows he must possess her, even though surrendering to his passion may prove the most dangerous risk of all.
She has nothing left to fear except love itself…
Now only Kara can decide what passion can save or destroy, and who will finally learn the truth of the words… Till death do us part.
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
All Romance Ebooks
Filed under: heroes, heroines, writing Tagged: Bad girl heroines, Etopia Press, His Judas Bride, Romance, The Black Wolf of Lochalpin
