Aurrora St. James's Blog, page 3
May 26, 2022
Join Me at Space Coast Book Lovers 6/23-26
https://www.spacecoastbooklovers.com/
Join me next month for 4 days of special events targeted specifically for readers! I LOVE this conference because I get to spend time getting to know readers like you. There are a bunch of fun things scheduled, such as the Booknique Adventures which is put on by different authors. Past adventures included high tea, learning how to roll your hair like gals in the 40s, crafting your own tinfoil hat, and playing a live action version of Clue. There's also a reader/author lunch, Tropes and Sips which will gives you time to hang out with authors that write in the tropes you love, and a Steampunk Alice in Wonderland party with a costume contest. This conference is all for you, dear reader. Come join the fun!
February 17, 2022
Lucius Sneak Peak
Can't wait for Lucius to come out? Tide yourself over with a sneak peak at his book. This is the next time that he sees Ava, after Stefan and Nikolai's books. (Trigger warning - Ava's brother is physically rough with her)
* * *
Lucius turned a corner and spotted the entrance to the great hall ahead. Before he’d taken more than a couple steps, the heavy wooden doors banged open against the thick stone walls and a woman stormed out. Laughter and revelry spilled into the hall behind her. She spun toward him, but a tall male followed her, grabbing her upper arm and yanking her to a stop.
Everything within Lucius stilled when he saw her.
Ava.
Long white hair flowed freely down her slim frame to brush her hips. Her plump pink lips opened on a gasp and her eyes glittered in the candlelight. He knew her eyes were the lightest blue he’d ever seen.
Lucius had only seen her once in passing as he reported to Raynard. She and the male that now gripped her arm had argued outside of Raynard’s chambers, and the male had been rough with her, until Lucius wondered if she bore bruises under the heavy cloak she’d worn. She’d seemed so ethereal, so untouched by the darkness that day. It unsettled him.
Tonight, her arms were bared in a light, white dress that clung to curves a man dreamed of touching. Lucius scrutinized her fair skin, searching out every shadow that might be a bruise from the harsh grip holding her in place.
“You do not leave until I say.” The male leaned close, scowling as he spoke to her, punctuating his words with the jerk of her arm.
Even at a distance, Lucius’s enhanced hearing picked up the angry words. He bared his teeth and scanned the male. He had the white hair of the Nemesi and a slim, but powerful frame. He wore an embroidered navy tunic and white breeches that clung to his form. One blade at his waist, one in his boot, and likely another up his sleeve. His face was a little more angular, his mouth a bit wider than Ava’s, but the resemblance to her was undeniable. Siblings, Lucius guessed.
Ava hissed and tried to pull her arm from the male’s but he held tight. “Let me go,” she whispered.
Lucius’s muscles tensed, his body automatically reacting to the threat. He took a step toward them before he stopped himself, forced himself to relax. He didn’t know this woman. She was Nemesi, as was the male with her. He hated their kind. She had no place in his thoughts. Not now, not ever. Her bruises meant nothing to him. It was only that he hated to see a woman hurt. Some useless sense of honor that no longer served him but seemed ingrained in him anyway.
He huffed out a frustrated breath.
The male’s head snapped up and searched the corridor.
Only then did Lucius realize that he’d automatically reached for the shadows and pulled them closer, wrapping him in darkness. A habit to avoid the harsh, hateful stares of the Nemesi.
Ava took advantage of the distraction and pulled out of the male’s grasp.
“I’m going to my room, Orin,” she whispered, then spun and hurried Lucius’s direction.
The male glowered after her, then stomped back into the great hall.
Lucius watched him go, then turned his focus back to Ava, only to realize two things. She was faster than he’d thought and she didn’t see him standing in the shadows. A moment later, she collided with him.
Lucius wrapped his arms around her, instinctively cradling her from the impact. She gasped and her inhale pushed her breasts against his chest. Heat flooded him, blasting through the emptiness in his chest and obliterating the calm he’d felt. The silk of her hair tickled his hands at the small of her back and he pulled her a fraction closer.
Wide blue eyes stared up at him and her lips parted in surprise.
He had the mad urge to taste her lips. To breathe deep at the junction where her neck met her shoulder to see if she smelled like lilacs as she had the last time he’d seen her. Goddess, what was wrong with him? He hated the Nemesi. They cursed him, feared him, and treated him like the slave he was.
He stared at her, dreading the moment that the surprise in her eyes changed to fear or revulsion.
She pushed lightly against his chest, putting a small bit of distance between them. When their gazes met, his heart stuttered and then began to pound.
She looked at him with open curiosity and a bit of a flush tinged her cheeks.
“Pardon,” she said and pushed out of his arms. Her gaze tracked over his face, then across his shoulders and down his arms. She studied his hands, then flicked a surprised look back at him.
A moment later, she was gone.
Lucius looked down at his hands, noting brown blood stains. Of course she’d run. She would know the rumors and seeing the blood upon him would only confirm them. The next time their paths crossed, she would either fear him or curse him, like the rest of her kind. With a sigh, he continued down the hall toward Raynard’s study, and wondered again why the hell he cared.
* * *
January 27, 2022
Join Me For An Evening With The Stars!
Saturday, March 26th, 2022 Lorelei's Lit Lair is hosting An Evening with the Stars. Come join the fun!
The night will feature a presentation by some of your favorite authors, free desserts, a cash bar, raffle baskets, and goody bags for the first 125 readers. Admission is FREE, but registration is required. (And if you want a goody bag, I suggest registering!)
Just want to come to the book signing and social hour? Then drop by when the signing opens to the public at 8 pm. No ticket or registration required!
Click here for more information and to register: An Evening with the Stars
June 3, 2021
In Tampa June 6th? Stop By!
Do you live in or near the Tampa area? Then come on out to visit me at a book signing at the Hilton Airport (Westshore)! I will be signing paperback books with a bunch of other authors and I'd love to see you. Even if you don't plan to buy, stop by and say hi!
February 18, 2021
Did you say...?
Why yes... yes I did. The first draft of the first book in my new series is done! Wooo happy snoopy dances! I'm so excited to share this new project with you all. But first... edits. And a title. Maybe a title first. Be on the lookout for some excerpts coming soon!
February 11, 2021
New Book Coming!
I've spent the last ten years writing paranormal romances which ranged from medieval fantasy to contemporary. But what you don't know is that the very first book I wrote was actually a sci-fi romance. That book is currently keeping the dust bunnies company. However, I've always enjoyed a good sci-fi romance tale, and it seems a lot of other romance readers do to.
My muse agreed and a new book is on the way. I hope you'll join me on a journey of expanding my book series. I'll still be writing paranormal, but I want to add in sci-fi romance too. This book is 85% complete and should be done in the next week. Edits will follow and I have to decide on a title and get a cover, but I'd like to share a bit of it with you now.
Chloe took over her grandparents' farm after they passed. It's really the only home she's ever known and she clings to it fiercely. So much that she's afraid to follow any dream that means leaving her home. But fate intervenes in the form of a UFO crashing into her barn. But there are no short gray beings here. No, these men are tall, muscled, and oh so hot. Chloe could probably ignore all of that if their leader, Ares, hadn't shown up at her house, crashing dinner with her brother, and claimed she was his mate. What's a girl to do when she's afraid to leave the only home she's ever known and the hottest male she's ever seen wants to take her across the galaxy?
Here's a snippet:
Seth was staring at the food behind her, nostrils twitching as he breathed deep.
In fact, they both seemed far more interested in eating dinner than harvesting her female eggs, or DNA, or whatever aliens were supposed to be doing. Chloe relaxed a little. Hungry men she could deal with. Psychotic little gray aliens who wanted to use her as a lab rat, not so much. Thankfully it looked like she avoid the latter.
“My brother, Damon, is coming over for dinner tonight. He should be here any second, so don’t try anything.”
“But I want to try all the food,” Seth said.
“Of course you do.” Chloe opened a kitchen cabinet and retrieved four plates. Could she get them back out to the barn with their food before Damon arrived? How would she explain the missing food portions? He was bound to notice eventually, even if he’d been distracted of late. And for that matter, how would she explain the smoking ruins of her barn without Jupe and Seth? It’s not like she did chemistry experiments in there while the cows were at pasture.
“Terran woman,” Jupe said, “you will need another.”
Chloe reached for another plate when his words broke through her circling thoughts. First, she realized that she hadn’t introduced herself and the only reason she knew their names was from their earlier bickering. Second, he thought she needed another plate.
“Another?”
“Ares will join us.”
“This will be his first taste of earth food,” Seth said.
Ares. Right. God of war. “He won’t kill me if he doesn’t like it, will he?” Chloe asked, only half kidding. “I’m no chef but no one has died from my cooking.” Yet.
Jupe drew a sharp breath. “Ares would never harm a woman.”
That was a small comfort at least. Chloe set the kitchen table for five places and resigned herself to the inevitable. Damon would meet her alien guests and they would sit down for a nice, awkward supper. She ushered them to seats, and then finished the potatoes while the roast rested.
“Are you thirsty?” she asked. “I might have a few beers from the last time Damon was here.” She pulled a couple brown bottles from the back of her refrigerator and opened them.
“We had beer in Germany,” Jupe said. “It was strange.”
She gave a half laugh. That summed up her feelings on beer as well. Maybe they weren’t so different after all.
Before she could think about that any further, her front door opened and her brother strode in.
“Hey sis, sorry I’m... you have company.” Damon stopped in the doorway of the kitchen and stared hard at the newcomers. “Chloe?”
Jupe and Seth rose, standing a couple inches taller and much broader in the shoulders than her brother. Damon drew himself to his full height and stared them down.
Although he was a year younger, Damon had graduated high school two years before Chloe. He wasn’t just smart, he was brilliant. He had three college degrees faster than most kids finished school and had soon gone to work for the government. Now he worked at nearby Whiteman Air Force Base on some super-secret stuff. Even if he could tell her, Chloe knew she probably wouldn’t understand it.
She stepped over to her brother and gave him a side hug. Damon was an inch under six feet and her head only came up to his cheek.
He gave her a quick squeeze and adjusted his glasses. With brown hair and green eyes, he was handsome in a geeky sort of way. Her friends had thought so all through school. But he’d filled out from the skinny younger brother and might even be hiding a few muscles under his button down.
Chloe shook her head and held back a sniff. When had her little bro grown up? He looked ready to fight to protect her.
“I’m Damon,” he said to her guests, not extending his hand. “You are?”
“Two of my team,” a deep, rich voice said from behind Chloe.
She spun just as a taller, hotter, god of war stepped into her kitchen. His black hair was a little long, but not enough to brush his shoulders, and his eyes were the brightest green she’d ever seen. He had a strong chin covered in a day’s growth of stubble and firm lips that weren’t smiling. His shoulders were so wide that they brushed the sides of the narrow doorway and he wore the same fitted black uniform as his men.
Heat flashed through Chloe and a tingling, almost humming feeling settled into her stomach. She felt like someone had just plugged her into an electrical socket.
When he stepped into the room, all her breath rushed out of her body and the kitchen, already crowded with men, shrank to just one man.
“Forget the tabloids. You can have my eggs.”
February 10, 2021
Is there a difference?
I actually think being a writer necessitates a certain amount of strangeness. How else do you account for people speaking to you that you can't hear, that far off stare when you're thinking about a scene or a character when you really should be listening to your mom telling you about your aunt's ailments, or that staying home during a pandemic is something you look forward to?
This is what I've been thinking about as I wrap up the first draft on a new book series. Being strange or different from others - even other writers - and what, if anything, that does to help or hinder me on this writing journey. Or better yet, why that makes me hinder myself. I can only hope that you, my dear readers, will follow me into the unknown with a new book series in a slightly different genre. I'm enjoying the journey and I hope you do too. After all, Willy Wonka said it best:
February 3, 2021
Journaling
I love journals. I don't actually journal per se unless it's a travel diary, but I do love them. I've used many over the years to record book ideas, characters, places, conversation ideas, travels, and dreams. Recently, I discovered junk journals and commonplace journals, which are really just journals decorated with special paper, tags, stamps, and all sorts of other things to make the journal as pretty as it is useful. And I love pretty! In fact, I had already used the junk journal method when creating my travel journals (See my blog on Scotland here) and just didn't know that it had a name.
I've since started making my own journals and I love it. It's turned into a fun hobby that still makes me feel connected to writing and yet gives me an entirely different creative outlet. Here's a few of my creations:
What do you think? Would you write in one? The dragon journal went to a dear friend who said it was too pretty to write in.
What kind of hobbies do you have? Did any of them come about unexpectedly but turn into something you love?
January 27, 2021
Where in the world have you been?
Wow, what happened to 2019 and 2020? I seem to have lost some time. Okay, technically it wasn't lost but it sure wasn't spent on things like writing new books. At the end of summer in 2019, I had a health issue crop up that severely impacted me on a day to day basis. Nothing horrible like cancer or Covid, thankfully, but still tough. It's called chronic fatigue and if any of you have it, I'm so sorry! It's taken quite a bit of time to figure out my new normal and be kind to myself when I don't get things done.
The good news is that I'm writing again. In fact, I started a new series which is a sci-fi romance. How does that fit in with Paranormal, you ask? Well, technically most booksellers consider them the same romance category. But even if they didn't, I fully believe that I can still bring my readers a story with heat and heart, no matter what time frame it takes place in. Plus, it gives me a chance to get back to writing a contemporary setting without having to write a "contemporary romance". I know, I know, many of you LOVE contemporary and I'll admit that there are a few I've enjoyed. There's nothing wrong with them. I just can't write a bad boy billionaire. Sorry folks, not gonna happen. For whatever reason, they don't interest me. Probably because I read to escape "every day life" and most don't give me enough of an escape.
My new sci-fi romance is about a woman named Cara who is clinging to her small farm as the last link to the loved ones she's lost. She's literally shaken up when a UFO crashes into her barn. But instead of little gray aliens planning to harvest her female eggs and do weird experiments, she finds tall, sexy, alien warriors who are looking for compatible mates... and their leader claims she is his. If that's not enough, the fate of the world hinges on whether she truly IS his mate. No pressure, right?
I'll post some excerpts soon. I hope you'll join me on a new adventure. And don't worry, I'm still writing on the Lords of Magic series. Lucius's book is in the works. I'd like to write the two books for Gregore's friends from Set in Stone, but they will depend on Thomas and Jeffrey talking to me again.
Woo, okay, that's a big update. Look for a newsletter for me in mid-February with a great sale and more updates to come! I'm going to try to update my blog once a week. And if no one reads it and I'm talking to myself, well, it won't be the first time. ;) Hugs!
