Margo Bond Collins's Blog, page 48
October 2, 2015
Spotlight On: Immortal Kiss by Laura Daleo
Paranormal Romance
Date Published: February 2015
Centuries ago ten powerful vampire gods first walked the earth; their blood thirst knew no boundaries. The destruction of mankind was inevitable. Recognizing their weakness, they selected twelve wise human beings to transform with their godly blood. These twelve, known as The Old Ones and The Council, govern The Ten. A blood lottery appeasing The Ten’s hunger was set forth into the human world and passed down every fifth generation, continuing into the present day. All of Beth Ryan’s life a mysterious mist watched over her, a mist she believed to be a vampire. On a cold winter night, she comes face to face with Philippe Delon, a 700 year old vampire with a human soul. Beth is certain Philippe is the vampire behind the mist. She is drawn to him, accepting his immortality without question or fear. Beth and Philippe cannot deny their love for each other, nor do they try to fight it. Within days of their encounter, Beth accepts Philippe’s invitation to move into his mansion. The mansion unlocks the door to the vampire world and exposes secrets from Beth’s past. Within its walls, she learns the true identity of the mist, her link to the blood lottery, and betrayal of her loved ones. Surrounded by lies, Beth stands before The Council begging for resolution.
EXCERPT
My bedroom door stood ajar. It reeked of dewy rosebuds. Inhaling an intoxicating breath, my head spun. I inched closer, running my hand along the wall and peering through the parted doorframe. The mist drifted past the opening. My heart jumped into my throat. Pushing the door wide open, I hurried inside and flicked on the light. Red rose petals drenched my bed, cascading like a waterfall onto the carpet. I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. My feet seemed rooted into the floor. He’d done this for me, for my birthday. Catching my breath, I shut the door, closing us off from the outside world. The mist shifted into the silhouette of man, gliding across my room toward my bed. His translucent hand pointed to a folded sheet of pink paper resting on my pillow. My palms tingled. Was it a love letter? I ran to my bed, pick it up, and fell backward onto the blanket of rose petals. They fluttered, crashed onto me, and caressed my skin. Stroking the coarse paper between my fingers, I bit my lip and opened it. My gaze flew across the page. If I had to choose whether to breathe or to love you, I would use my last breath to tell you that…I love you. The paper trembled in my hands, his words blurring behind my tears. He loved me, and I him. I rose to my feet and faced him. My mouth went dry. I forced out each word. “What…are…you?” He waved his hand over the rose petals, spinning them faster and faster. As they came to rest on my mattress, a letter unfolded…V. The others quickly followed. My small human life shrunk into the background. All that remained was a word…VAMPIRE.
About the Author
Laura Daleo was born and raised in San Diego, California where she majored in Fine Arts at Mesa College. Laura is best known for her love of animals. She is an animal advocate and shares her home with five humorous Basset Hounds, Edie, Lucy, Stuart, Morgan, and Dexter, her toughest critics. Laura has held positions in several industries, Restaurant, Telecom, Biotech, and Research. She enjoys anything paranormal or urban fantasy related, and writes in both genres for adults.
A creative writing class in junior high sparked her desire to tell stores. Throughout Laura’s professional career, she crafted her writing skills by taking courses and by joining a writer’s critique group and Writers Digest.
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October 1, 2015
My Publishing Journey ~ A Guest Post by Sasha Hibbs
Hi and thanks so much for having me today!
This is a topic that never gets old for me. I love to read about other author’s road to publication and I love to share my own experience.
Of course it all began with a vision and then that vision turned into a broader concept and then that turned into a dream.
Once I felt like the dream could potentially turn into reality I received a nice reality check.
Traditional publishing is HARD.
It’s funny when most people ask me this they expect the hardest part to be the actual writing process. However, for me writing the book was easy, getting it published was… tough. And I assure you, that is putting it mildly.
After completing my first novel, Black Amaranth, and having it ready for submission in early 2012, I researched the literary agent route and that’s when the rollercoaster ride began.
Like 99.9% of all authors, I received a slew of rejections. Too many to count. I learned how to deal with them. Initially it’s hard. Rejection of any form always is, right?
But the rejections that were tough to stomach were from the agents that requested partials, and then fulls, leading me to believe that finally, finally I was going to get my break only for them to ultimately reject me.
This went on for around a year. I felt pretty exhausted and jaded and ready to give up when I had a thought that sounded preposterous in my mind, but I secretly set out as a last ditch effort to research if there were actual publishers that would accept unsolicited manuscripts.
To my surprise there were actually several presses that in fact, would accept unsolicited manuscripts.
This seemed to rejuvenate my list of potential homes for my manuscript. After carefully composing a list of publishers, I sent off my baby and really had pretty low expectations. I mean the agent thing didn’t work and they are from my research, the gatekeepers. If I couldn’t make it past them, I had virtually no hope or real belief that I could actually obtain a publisher. But hope, no matter how small, seems to keep us going.
But then in the month of April 2013, things got crazy, I mean real and crazy.
I had tried for a year to obtain an agent and while I had several requests, they all led to the final rejection. But in that one month I had not only two agents request my full manuscript after reading the partial, but I had three publishers offer me a contract. As in they weren’t asking for more time to consider, as in they weren’t asking for the full manuscript, is in they weren’t passing it off for another colleague to have a gander… as in they wanted it!
I was astonished. Completely floored. When I think back to it all, I still am stunned. April 2013 was an incredible month for me. After a year of what eventually felt like desperation on my part, I found myself having to actually pick a publisher (I politely turned the agents down).
Since signing with Evernight Teen Publishing (who by the way, have to be the easiest, most author friendly pub on the planet) I have released a total of 5 titles and I have never looked back.
And to make things even more dramatic, I had a publisher offer me a contract an entire year later!
So the point to my journey is there was a girl who thought it was impossible to find a home for her book without an agent. After the agents of the cruel world of publishing rejected her, said girl felt certain her baby would forever be an orphan, that no publisher would ever want her baby. But like all happy endings that you really have to work and struggle for the reward, this girl did in fact find a home for her baby with a publisher… all by herself.
Black Apocalypse
The Vulcan Legacies, 4
Sasha Hibbs
51,000 words
YA Paranormal Romance
Evernight Teen Publishing
Resurrected from the dead, Michael Blackwell is enraged and heartbroken to find Ally—the girl he loved—in the arms of the very man that killed him as a human. In Michael’s eyes, Ally’s betrayal is absolute. But there is more than meets the eye when it comes to the man who killed Michael, and even more with the girl he thought he knew.
Black Apocalypse is a journey full of heartache and redemption where the past weaves an uncertain future. Can Michael forgive Ally for her betrayal? Can Ally finally embrace who she is destined to become to save them both?
Who is the elusive Seraph, Laurel? Who was the Devourer before his colossal fall from grace? What decisions did they make together that altered the course of history? Shocking revelations, prophecies fulfilled, a war where not everyone will make it out alive…the final installment in the Vulcan Legacies will leave you breathless.
14+ due to adult situations
Buy Links: Evernight Teen Amazon
Excerpt:
He glanced at her silhouette. She stood beside him quietly, a tear streaking her pale face, one silver line visible against the cold wintery night.
“Will you dance with me?” Abaddon said, turning her back to face him.
Ally spoke with her body. She shivered as she turned to him, reaching out and lacing her fingers through his.
Abaddon responded by pulling her close against him, removing his hands from hers so he could wrap them around her, holding her tight and praying for the courage to see his task through.
The Seraph told him, told him what he must do. In his broken mind, the pieces lay jagged and strewn, but he was putting them together, regaining the memories he’d lost through the blinding rage of his illusion.
But Ally was real. He was holding her in his arms, and she came to him with trust, with patience, while he tried to regain the memories from his human life, ones that would guide him on the path he was supposed to be on now.
But as he held her in his arms, she felt so fragile, so breakable. He could hear the soft thrumming of her heart. The beat was uneven, a rhythm that reminded him of the last remnants of life.
Ally was dying. She was his soulmate and the beat of her heart gave him all the courage he needed. He wasn’t going to kill her. He was going to save her.
Abaddon slowly broke away from her, keeping her at arm’s length. Her light was dimming, but there was the faintest glimmer in her eyes that held hope for him. She would be strong enough to endure what he was getting ready to do to her. She had to be.
Abaddon brought his wrist up to his mouth, extended his canines and pierced his flesh. As blood rushed up to the surface, he gazed into her eyes.
He parted his lips, ready to speak, to tell her it would be okay, but was silenced by Ally resting a single finger against his lips.
“Shh,” Ally whispered.
Her gaze told him that she knew what was happening. She wouldn’t fight him. He could see that she would trust him, blindly put all her faith in him, was truly ready to walk down an unknown path with him.
He watched in awe as she circled her cold fingers around his wrist and brought it up to her lips. She locked gazes with him and he could feel her taking his essence into him. She ended by gently kissing his wrist where the wound was. She swept her hair to one side, exposing her neck up at him.
Abaddon felt a warm tear run down his cheek.
“It’s okay, Michael,” Ally said, her voice so little. “I’m ready.”
He unfurled his wings, pulled her against him tightly, lowered his lips to hers, and in his mind he whispered the words from a song, a song from a long time ago that meant so much to him then and even more to him now.
“I’ve waited such a long time for you,” he said. He softly caressed her lips with his, savoring the feel of her against him, the kiss he’d waited a lifetime and beyond for.
He raised his gaze back to hers, brushing a wisp of hair away from her eyes, cupping her face. “A lifetime,” he said, as he brushed soft kisses along her temple, her cheek, her jawline, back to her trembling lips. Thinking back to that night long ago, he lived the words of that song, held nothing back for what he felt for her.
Abaddon could see the tears standing in her eyes. He kissed them away, their salt lingering on his lips. He drew her closer into him so that he could feel she was real, she was in his arms, her life in his hands.
And through her tears, he could see the relief, he could see the hope, he could see her love staring back at him. His heart hammered in his chest, that muscle giving way to a new life, a life that only love could give.
He brushed his lips against hers again and again, whispering those lyrics so appropriate for them, for their life, their death, their love against a world that, like her essence, was fading fast. “You’ll always be mine.”
With shaky hands, Abaddon pulled her down to the ground with him. Cradling her in his lap, he grazed his canines against her throat. “I need you,” Abaddon whispered, as Ally laced her fingers through his hair, pulling him down to her vein. She arched her back, pressed up against him, encouraged him to drink from her, to take her to where he’d been.
Abaddon exhaled against her skin. With one hand holding her head and the other pressed firmly into the small of her back, he pierced her, sunk his teeth into the soft flesh at her neck. He took her into him, her blood coursing through him, sating a hunger for far more than sustenance. In her blood was the story of their life, the answers he sought, the lyrics to their own song.
Abaddon could feel the life slowly fade from her, could hear her heartbeat slow. Removing his canines, he drew back from her. Her head lolled to the side, her pupils beginning to fix. He brought her lips back to his, kissed her gently.
As Ally’s last breath escaped her body, Abaddon clutched her tightly to his chest, a crimson tear falling against her, he whispered into her ear, “Hurry back to me.”
About the Author:
By age 5, Sasha Hibbs’ favorite movie was Gone With the Wind. By age 12, she completed her 7th grade book report on the sequel, Scarlett. By 18, she met and married her very own Mr. Rhett Butler and as it turns out, she never had to worry about going back to Tara to win the love of her life back. Fortunately, he stuck with her.
With a love of all things paranormal, the ambiance of the South with its gigantic antebellum mansions and canopies of Spanish moss, and a love for her husband’s rich storytelling of blacksmiths and the mythology surrounding their origins, it wasn’t long until the world of her debut novel, Black Amaranth, was born.
When not working her day job as a nurse, you can find Sasha dreaming of her next beach trip, reading the latest YA novel, and drinking more white chocolate mocha than she should.
Sasha lives in mountainous West Virginia with her husband, Tim, and their two daughters, Aeliza and Ava. She is currently hard at work on her next novel.
Bewitching Desires: A Savannah Coven Anthology ~ Featuring Rebekah R. Ganiere
Bewitching Desires: A Savannah Coven Anthology
By
Rebekah R. Ganiere, Tami Lund, Niki Daninger, Jennifer Ray, Danielle Donaldson, Sheri Williams, Michele Mohr, Maria Arell, A. E. Snow, Andra Shine, Sonja Fröjdendal, and Kay Blake
Blurb: Twelve Paranormal Stories of Love, Hate, and Desire. Bewitching Desires, The Savannah Coven Anthology, is packed full of Witches, Warlocks, Werewolves, Ghosts, and even a Reaper. All based around the great holiday of Samhain – or, as mere humans call it, Halloween. The witches of the Savannah coven are all preparing themselves for their favorite holiday, but on the night when humans and spirits collide, nothing ever goes as planned.
Journey with an angel across the country, with a reaper chasing a soul hiding in someone else’s body, to a haunted hotel, with a reluctant supreme witch who’d rather give her powers to someone else, not to mention eight other wild and intriguing encounters.
Twelve interwoven tales from bestselling and up and coming authors will have you wishing Samhain came more than once a year…
iBooks Buy Link Amazon Buy Link Barnes & Noble Buy Link
Kissed by the Reaper
Rebekah R. Ganiere
Some loves are worth a battle with both heaven and hell to keep.
Blurb: Rose committed an unpardonable sin right before she died. As penance, she has been reaping souls for Lucifer for over twenty years. On Halloween night she finds herself in Podunk nowhere ushering souls back to hell when she runs into the mysteriously handsome Gabriel who’s not at all what he seems. After chasing him into a cornfield and battling an angel to get Gabriel’s soul, she leaves with more questions than answers.
Gabriel is an angel hiding out as a jumper. A soul that jumps from body to body to stay hidden on Earth. But when he finds himself mortally wounded there is only one person he can turn to for protection. The feisty and beautiful reaper who tried to kill him the year before.
With Gabriel recuperating in her bed, Rose is summoned by her boss to hell where he makes her a proposal. Find the jumper Gabriel and deliver his soul, and she will be set free. Fail and become Lucifer’s bride forever. It should be an easy choice. Problem is, Gabriel is the first person Rose has been able to touch without scaring to death in the last twenty years. And just his presence has begun to bring back hidden memories from her human life. In the end Rose will have to make the ultimate decision. Choosing Gabriel or choosing herself.
Rebekah R. Ganiere Bio
Rebekah is an Award Winning Bestselling Author. Her debut novel Dead Awakenings, hit the bestseller list the first day, in January 2014. Her Fairelle Series released in May 2014 and has won several awards including the Golden Palm and is currently up for the Rone Award. Her trilogy The Society was released by Kensington in 2014 and her new series Shifter Rising is releasing in 2016 from Samhain Press.
Rebekah is currently working on six series in the Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy, Sci-fi genres. She has three more books slated to release this year and another five for next year.
Rebekah is the VP of Communications of the Romance Writers of America Los Angeles Chapter as well as the Newsletter Editor of the Fantasy, Futuristic, & Paranormal Chapter. In her spare time when she isn’t writing you can find her moderating and teaching on SavvyAuthors.com or at RWA. Rebekah also cosplays with her kids and is a guest speaker and panelist at San Diego Comic Con and several other Comic Cons on the west coast as well as LTUE, Romantic Times Convention, and Authors After Dark.
Rebekah R. Ganiere – Books with a Bite
Bestselling – Award Winning Author of:
Dead Awakenings
Fairelle Series – from Fallen Angel Press
The Society Series – from Kensington
The Shifter Rising Series – from Samhain
The Otherworlder Series – from Fallen Angel Press
Now Available on
Amazon, BN, Kobo & ARE & Itunes
Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Goodreads ~ Book Trailers
Kissed by the Reaper Excerpt:
“Did you know there’s a black guy slumped on the floor in the last aisle?” said one.
“What?” Alarm bells went off in her head. “Crap.” The guy from the back door. She’d completely forgotten about him.
Rose rushed to the side of the counter, threw the separator up and raced down the last aisle. The bell tinkled for the front door, but she kept moving.
She found him splayed on the floor, face down. “Dammit.” She knelt by his side and rolled him over. “Hey. Hey, wake up.” She patted his cheek.
His eyes fluttered open and went from hazel to golden and then back again. “Rose.”
Her heart pounded. A Jumper. “Elijah?”
He nodded. No wonder he knew her name.
She threw his arm over her shoulder and helped him into a seated position.
“How did you find me?” She glanced around while trying to get Elijah to his feet. A Jumper, especially a hurt one wasn’t the norm for her. As a Reaper it was her job to play bounty hunter and send Jumpers to hell. They didn’t usually come asking for help. Someone was on his tail.
“I’ve known all year.” Blood dribbled down his chin.
She laced her fingers between his, got him up, and leaned him on the shelf. She needed to move him out of sight and get everyone out of the store. No! She needed to get his butt out of her store. She still bore the scar from her last visit to Lucifer’s pad a year prior when she’d let him slip through her fingers.
“Did you take the angelbreath?” she asked.
He nodded. “The whole container.”
“You gotta leave. Now. At sundown I’ll have to reap you.”
He gaze connected with hers. “I’ve missed you.”
Her gut tightened and the feeling that she knew him from somewhere rushed through her again. All year she’d tried to forget him, but it was hard to forget an angel Jumper. Especially one who looked at her the way he did.
“Ah, damn. Come on.” She half dragged, half carried him toward the front of the store. It was slow and he stumbled several times but they finally made it to the curtain separating the store from the back rooms. She glanced toward the front counter. The goths were gone. So was the merchandise. Stupid girls. They’d pay for stealing from her.
She used her hip to nudge the curtain aside and helped him through the box maze over to a large red chaise lounge. She threw him down on it. He grunted and tried to pull himself into a sitting position.
“What the hell happened to you?” She looked around and located a box of tissues. Pulling out several, she dabbed his mouth, wiping away the blood.
“Reapers.”
She stopped dabbing. “Reapers plural?”
“Three.”
“Reapers don’t work together.”
He gave her a winning smile. “I’m a special case.”
Enter to Win a Vampire-Themed Prize Pack! #books #ebooks
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Detective Cami Davis and her sexy, cowboy-turned-vampire informant are all that’s standing between humanity and monsters who would rule the world—and all that’s standing between them having a torrid love affair is the fact that he’s an enemy of humanity.
THROUGH DARKEST TEMPTATION
When Dallas police detective Cami Davis joined the city’s vampire unit, she planned to use the job as a stepping-stone to a better position in the department. She didn’t know then what she knows now: A silent war rages between humans and their supposedly pacified predators, and the vampires are winning. With the clock running out on her kind, Cami will do whatever she must to defeat the “Sanguinary.”
Enter Reese Fulton, a disaffected ex-cop and a vampire. She can’t exactly trust him, but with his cowboy boots and good-ole-boy drawl he’s the perfect beard for Cami’s fledgling undercover operation. Yet playing Reese’s Claimed—a vampire’s personal bloodgiver—isn’t as straightforward as she was led to believe. His bite is as enthralling as his dimpled smile, and soon Cami is wondering which will pose more of a challenge: subduing the enemies of humanity…or her own desire.
_____________________________________________
Buy Links
_____________________________________________
Excerpt
“Are you looking, Garrett?” the small one asked.
“Maybe.” He smiled at her, his voice playful. My stomach curdled at the intimacy I heard there—and at the realization that my partner hadn’t fully briefed me on what to expect tonight.
“Your friend doesn’t like it when you flirt,” the taller one said.
I glared at her. Vampires should not know more about me than I do.
“I’ll have to see that she gets over it,” a voice drawled from behind me. I whipped my head around in time to see a man standing up from a barstool behind me. I hadn’t even noticed he was there.
God knows how I could have missed him.
He wore jeans and a dark blue button-down shirt. He had on dark brown cowboy boots, and as he turned away from the bar, he picked up a black felt cowboy hat from the seat next to him, placing it on his head. On anyone else, I might have assumed that the hats and boots were an affectation. On him, they looked perfect. He was utterly beautiful, with bright green eyes and dark hair that curled down to barely brush the back of his collar.
I am undercover, I reminded myself sternly. Here to do a job.
When Garrett caught my gaze in his, flicking his glance toward the cowboy vamp, it was all I could do to keep from sighing aloud.
Would it have killed my partner to be a little more descriptive when he briefed me?
Of course that was the vampire cowboy I had to get close to tonight.
No making eyes at the informants, Cami.
But damn, he was hot.
“Nice scars.” His gaze skimmed along my bared shoulder.
“Thanks,” I said, almost breathless.
And I am absolutely not attracted to vampires.
I could keep telling myself that.
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About the Author
Margo Bond Collins writes urban fantasy, contemporary romance, and paranormal mysteries. She lives in Texas with her daughter and several spoiled pets. Although writing fiction is her first love, she also teaches college-level English courses online. She enjoys reading romance and paranormal fiction of any genre and spends most of her free time daydreaming about heroes, monsters, cowboys, and villains, and the strong women who love them—and sometimes fight them.
_____________________________________________
Connect with Margo
Newsletter: https://confirmsubscription.com/h/d/03A21E5E161401F0
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/author/margobondcollins
Email: MargoBondCollins@gmail.com
Website: http://www.MargoBondCollins.net
Blog: http://www.MargoBondCollins.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MargoBondCollin @MargoBondCollin
Google+: https://plus.google.com/116484555448104519902
Goodreads Author Page: http://www.goodreads.com/vampirarchy
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/MargoBondCollins
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/mbondcollins/
Tsu: http://www.tsu.co/MargoBondCollins
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Enter to Win
Paranormal Thursdays Romance Tour Week 1 ~ Sanguinary by Margo Bond Collins #PNR #UrbanFantasy
Welcome to the Paranormal Romance Thursdays Tour! Over the next 12 weeks, we’ll be featuring some great paranormal romance authors and their books. Check out the preview below. I’m opening this week with my own novel Sanguinary, so check it out below, then scroll to the bottom of the post to visit all the other participating authors!
Detective Cami Davis and her sexy, cowboy-turned-vampire informant are all that’s standing between humanity and monsters who would rule the world—and all that’s standing between them having a torrid love affair is the fact that he’s an enemy of humanity.
THROUGH DARKEST TEMPTATION
When Dallas police detective Cami Davis joined the city’s vampire unit, she planned to use the job as a stepping-stone to a better position in the department. She didn’t know then what she knows now: A silent war rages between humans and their supposedly pacified predators, and the vampires are winning. With the clock running out on her kind, Cami will do whatever she must to defeat the “Sanguinary.”
Enter Reese Fulton, a disaffected ex-cop and a vampire. She can’t exactly trust him, but with his cowboy boots and good-ole-boy drawl he’s the perfect beard for Cami’s fledgling undercover operation. Yet playing Reese’s Claimed—a vampire’s personal bloodgiver—isn’t as straightforward as she was led to believe. His bite is as enthralling as his dimpled smile, and soon Cami is wondering which will pose more of a challenge: subduing the enemies of humanity…or her own desire.
_____________________________________________
Buy Links
_____________________________________________
Excerpt
“Are you looking, Garrett?” the small one asked.
“Maybe.” He smiled at her, his voice playful. My stomach curdled at the intimacy I heard there—and at the realization that my partner hadn’t fully briefed me on what to expect tonight.
“Your friend doesn’t like it when you flirt,” the taller one said.
I glared at her. Vampires should not know more about me than I do.
“I’ll have to see that she gets over it,” a voice drawled from behind me. I whipped my head around in time to see a man standing up from a barstool behind me. I hadn’t even noticed he was there.
God knows how I could have missed him.
He wore jeans and a dark blue button-down shirt. He had on dark brown cowboy boots, and as he turned away from the bar, he picked up a black felt cowboy hat from the seat next to him, placing it on his head. On anyone else, I might have assumed that the hats and boots were an affectation. On him, they looked perfect. He was utterly beautiful, with bright green eyes and dark hair that curled down to barely brush the back of his collar.
I am undercover, I reminded myself sternly. Here to do a job.
When Garrett caught my gaze in his, flicking his glance toward the cowboy vamp, it was all I could do to keep from sighing aloud.
Would it have killed my partner to be a little more descriptive when he briefed me?
Of course that was the vampire cowboy I had to get close to tonight.
No making eyes at the informants, Cami.
But damn, he was hot.
“Nice scars.” His gaze skimmed along my bared shoulder.
“Thanks,” I said, almost breathless.
And I am absolutely not attracted to vampires.
I could keep telling myself that.
_____________________________________________
About the Author
Margo Bond Collins writes urban fantasy, contemporary romance, and paranormal mysteries. She lives in Texas with her daughter and several spoiled pets. Although writing fiction is her first love, she also teaches college-level English courses online. She enjoys reading romance and paranormal fiction of any genre and spends most of her free time daydreaming about heroes, monsters, cowboys, and villains, and the strong women who love them—and sometimes fight them.
_____________________________________________
Connect with Margo
Newsletter: https://confirmsubscription.com/h/d/03A21E5E161401F0
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/author/margobondcollins
Email: MargoBondCollins@gmail.com
Website: http://www.MargoBondCollins.net
Blog: http://www.MargoBondCollins.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MargoBondCollin @MargoBondCollin
Google+: https://plus.google.com/116484555448104519902
Goodreads Author Page: http://www.goodreads.com/vampirarchy
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/MargoBondCollins
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/mbondcollins/
Tsu: http://www.tsu.co/MargoBondCollins
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Participating Authors
Be sure to stop by and check them all out!
Carmen Stefanescu
Daisy Banks
Flossie Benton Rogers
M. S. Kaye
Kim Kasch
Cassandra Ulrich
Julie Dárcy
Margo Bond Collins
Adrienne Woods
N. N. Light
Penny Estelle
Lyndi Lamont
September 30, 2015
Cover Reveal Blitz ~ Charming: A Seven World Novel (Seven Series #6.5) by Dannika Dark
Charming
(Seven Series, #6.5)
by Dannika Dark
Blurb:
After seven hundred years, Prince has acquired everything a Packmaster could desire. But when he meets the enchanting Nadia Kozlov, he realizes there’s one thing he doesn’t have: answers. Prince owes his life to a man he hasn’t seen in centuries, and Nadia holds the key to his whereabouts, because that man is her father.
Destinies collide when Nadia’s sister shows up unexpectedly. Katarina is a skilled bounty hunter, hot on the trail of a nefarious outlaw who turns out to be Prince’s old nemesis. Prince teams up with Nadia’s sister to track down the Mage, but the real game of cat and mouse is already underway as sparks fly between Prince and the cunning bounty hunter.
The only trouble? Nadia wants him too.
In the Seven series timeline, this full-length novel is 6.5.
However, Charming can also be enjoyed as a stand-alone.
Release Date:
December 8, 2015
Pre-order available at
The SEVEN SERIES
About the Author
This is the segment where you learn a little more about who I am, so here’s what I can tell you: I drink copious amounts of vitamin water placed precariously close to my laptop while writing. These are two healthy habits I have no intention of breaking. I’m a transplant living in the south, but I was born in the 70’s to a military dad who moved us around the world.When I’m not writing (which is all the time), I’m hunting down Indie music, watching movies, reading, eating Tex-Mex, discovering new ways to humiliate myself bowling, and burning up my laptop battery on the Internet. I have a relaxed, easy-going personality and don’t like drama. I live with a cat who thinks she is a dog, or a goat (she eats plastic, so I’m not sure which).
Throughout my life, I’ve had insomnia. Counting sheep never worked and eventually I would imagine those sheep were the sole source of food after an apocalyptic battle where only thousands survived. I made up stories in a futile attempt to bore myself to sleep. The problem was, I got so wrapped up in my “head stories” that I would continue them through the following nights, changing it up each time to make it more exciting. Eventually, I started writing my ideas down – creating short stories, and then I discovered my love for poetry.
It’s almost embarrassing how many spiral notebooks and stacks of paper I have of poetry and lyrics.
Another passion: digital art. I design all my book covers, marketing, and series art. I’m a very visual person and pursued photography as an avid hobby for many years.
I am not a YA author (I feel like I have to state this only because I’ve had a few people ask), but I think it’s wonderful there are so many books available to teens in Urban Fantasy and Paranormal.
I am finally doing what I have always wanted to do: giving my characters a pulse through writing full time. I focus on adult urban fantasy romance, but I don’t like labels and I enjoy blending genres to break out of the confines of predictability.
But it’s what I love to do.
Danni
You can find Dannika at
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Spotlight On: Becoming ~ The Balance Bringer by Debra Kristi
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Becoming: The Balance Bringer
by Debra Kristi
Release Date: March 9th 2015
Ghost Girl Publishing
Summary from Goodreads:
Ana’s world is falling apart. What she thought were dreams start entering her waking life. Eerie shadows hunt her. Her dream guy becomes reality. And strange new abilities begin developing. Ana is becoming something other.
She is determined to find answers, but where to turn? Her mom and best friend are keeping secrets. Her older sister is dead and exists only in her dreams. And her younger sister thinks they are goddesses.
Above all else, dark forces will stop at nothing to crush Ana – to keep her from restoring balance. To keep her from…becoming.
Is love and blood and sisterhood enough to stop the dark secrets and power from destroying her?
Buy Links:
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Excerpt
“Told you. Magic.” She bumps my hip, and we continue down the hall.
“What are you two up to?”
We pause. Ry is standing at the hallway’s edge.
“Didn’t you hear my magic chocolate? I’m going shopping.” Crystia playfully lights up. “You know you wanna come, Ry.” She winks at me. Ryland stands stoic and silent. “No? All right, I’m gone.”
“Wait!” I grab her wrist, and she stares at me. “Can we talk later?” She nods, slips from my grasp, and disappears into her room.
Alone in the hallway with Ry. Awkward.
He takes slow, deliberate steps toward me, and then stops. “What happened last night, Ana? I called your mom. She told me you made it home safe, that you were sleeping. But this morning…” His brows furrow. “Look at you. All these bruises.” He takes another step closer. “Don’t tell me you’re okay. This can’t be okay.”
I shrug it off, head for my room. “Honestly Ry, I’m fine. There’s nothing for you or my mom to worry about. Probably some weird reaction to a new chemical used in the pool.” I glance over my shoulder. Skepticism colors the lines of his face. Then it hits me. I whirl around and throw my hands on my hips. “You called my mom? I can’t believe you! You were checking up on me? It’s not your job to watch over me.”
He steps across the threshold into my room, locks me in a stare, and jabs his pointer finger at me. “I disagree. It is my job to look after you. To look after all of you.” He whirls his finger in the air, making a circle. “If I can’t look after the people I care about most in this world, what good am I?”
“Dammit, Ry!” I slam my fists into his chest. He catches them. Holds my hands hostage. I have no play, no wiggle room. “Why?”
“Do I need a reason to care? You guys are my family.”
About the AuthorLive in reality. Play on the other side.
Debra Kristi is a paranormal and fantasy writer. She lives in Southern California with her husband, two children and and three schizophrenic cats. She’s a full-time kid chaser, video game maker’s wife, and muse prompted writer. Unlike the characters she often writes, she is not immortal and her only super power is letting the dishes and laundry pile up. When not writing, Debra is hanging out creating priceless memories with her family, geeking out to science fiction and fantasy television, and tossing around movie quotes.
“She writes because the dead girl told her to.”
Author Links:
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#Books that Need More Attention #Giveaway Blog Hop: Zombies, Mermaids, and Romance ~ A Winning Combo!
Welcome to the Books that Need More Attention Giveaway Hop! For this hop, I’ve gathered up a whole pile of my favorite books from my favorite authors (and one of my own!). So check out all the cool books below, enter to win in the Rafflecopter, then HOP to the rest of the participating blogs!
Haven Janero is twenty-five years-old and has a bright future of becoming an FBI agent when a widespread infection sweeps the nation, reanimating victims into walking corpses with an insatiable hunger for human flesh. Her dreams crushed and her world forever changed, she struggles to keep her loved ones safe and come up with a plan of long-term survival.
Colin MacConnell, a kilt-wearing, bagpipes-playing, sword-wielding Scotsman in his early thirties, is visiting his father in the States, but quickly realizes that he may never see his homeland again when he is forced to go up against the undead. As society around them crumbles and lawlessness and chaos take over, they must fight hordes of ravenous zombies… and a dangerous enemy from the past who is hell-bent on seeking twisted vengeance.
Recommended for readers 18+.
Of Ocean…
Cast into the sea at birth, human-born Ia found her adoptive family among the merfolk. While her underwater upbringing was peaceful, Ia’s blood-heritage and the strict societal rules of the merpeople lead her to wonder of the world above the waves.
And Ash…
When a storm lands Ia ashore, she discovers her body has transformed into the human she would have been. Taken in as property by a callous plantation owner, Ia works alongside the slaves until she can make her way back to the water. There is nothing Ia wants more than to go home, that is, until she meets a handsome, troubled man named Matthias, who has a touch that can be as kind as his tongue is harsh.
Torn between two very different lives, Ia must choose – stay in his world and risk her life for a love untested, or return to the familiar arms of the underwater world that raised her and risk losing what may be the greatest love she will ever know.
Will Ia’s choice lead to her happiness or her destruction?
When a slave uprising threatens the life of Syreena, the daughter of an eighteenth century plantation owner, a servant uses voodoo to transform her into a mermaid. The spell will be only broken when she returns to the beach where it was cast. After three hundred years of swimming, she’s ready to trade fins for legs. The only problem is she can’t find her way home.
Dylan, a twenty-first century Coast Guard Officer, has sworn off love for the sea. When a wave throws him overboard, Syreena uses her amulet to ward off the sharks and save his life.
With Syreena and Dylan stranded on a remote cay in the Caribbean, Dylan has the know-how to build a raft and navigate but his near-drowning has made him terrified of the water. Syrenna will use every charm she has to convince Dylan to take her home.
Even if it means falling in love. . .
An Officer and a Mermaid is part of the Falling In Deep Collection. From mermaids to sirens, Miami to Athens, dark paranormal romance to contemporary stories with steam, the fifteen award-winning and best-selling authors of the “Falling in Deep Collection” are bringing you mermaid tales like you’ve never seen before.
Her kiss might save the world . . .
Unless his kiss kills her first.
It’s been almost two thousand years since the mer-shifter Skyla walked the streets of Athens—not since her heart was broken by a human man and she exchanged the land and sky for the ocean depths. Ever since, she has lived in the underwater ruins of Atlantis, studying with the priestesses of the goddess Amphitrite, refining her mermaid powers and ignoring her human half.
But her studies are interrupted when she is called upon by the god Poseidon himself to investigate rumors that the world above is being polluted by the magic of creatures from another realm—and worse, that the ocean kingdom of the mer-people might be next.
When her arrival in modern-day Greece lead her to an American detective, Skyla realizes that the magical problem she’s been sent to research is bigger than she anticipated—and that one human’s kisses might be more dangerous to her, and her world, than she ever could have imagined.
Calder Brumen grew up in San Francisco, and he’s always been drawn to the ocean. He’s spent his life capturing the beauty of the Pacific on canvas. Over time, he’s grown obsessed with painting the image of a dark haired mermaid named Gaire, and Calder struggles to explain his devotion to these portraits to his best friend. When Calder finds sandy footprints leading to the edge of his bed, he suspects that the haunting siren is real.
In pursuit of the truth, Calder is dragged into a murderous, underwater plot that could destroy them all. And he must choose – is the possibility of a lifetime with Gaire worth risking death for himself and everyone he loves?
When the land becomes a desert, the water will quench your soul
Orphan Lena McMillan used to think that what she shared with Truman Kent was real. Now she sees their relationship for what it really is- controlling and abusive.
She has to choose to die slowly from ‘love’ or say goodbye to the family she’s always desired. Leaving scares her though, so much so that dying seems like her only option.
But fate won’t let her quit life and Truman won’t let her quit his love. Not without a fight.
Under the layers of a lonely childhood and an adulthood romance gone wrong, a starfish holds the key to Lena’s parentage and the answer to the mesmeric ocean dreams that haunt her.
If she can find the strength to leave the only life she knows, Lena will discover the truth. And she will find a new world, one that will cleanse her of the memories of false love and abuse.
One that will finally lead her home.
Sean Flynn is a man with an appetite for fine women. This key element is his greatest downfall. Flynn has always been loved, even worshipped by women from all walks of life. He’s had his share of wealthy southern belles, princesses, a spoiled heiress, sensual intellectual types and, most recently, a powerful professional diva. Though having very little in common with these women that crave this blue collar, tattooed Irishman, Flynn’s been able to secure their affections. In many ways, he is living a life that most men would sell their souls for. But don’t be fooled. Being desired by the best of women comes at a price, especially when these women are meant to be untouchable. Of all the men in the world, only Sean Flynn has been capable of setting them straight, and laying the pipe just right.
After consistently finding himself in trouble with the law, even having served time for lack of control, Flynn looks to make a change. But since he’s already set the stage for the wrong types of relationships, how can he so easily walk away?
As Flynn continues down this self-destructive path, he finds solace in an unlikely savior: yet another woman. Judge Lauryn Lomax is thrust into his life. Though she’s attached, connected and indebted to career criminals, Lauryn refuses to give up on this man she barely knows.
Flynn has never relied on luck, in fact, it’s consistently played against his favor. But when the right woman comes along, one that is willing to brave hell for his sake even as her own life hangs in the balance, can he believe that all things are possible?
She’s a woman who values her privacy. He’s a man always in the spotlight. Can they make it work after he brings her painful past into the public eye? Kelly prefers to take the pictures, not to be in them. With her grandfather, she lives a solitary life in an isolated estate home. When her best friend wakes her up in the middle of the night asking for a favor, Kelly never dreamed it would land her face-to-face with her celebrity crush. Trevor lives his life in front of the cameras. He’s one of the top super stars of Hollywood—and he’s on the brink of a burn out. Before he takes on another film, he escapes to a secluded place to get his mind straight. He didn’t expect to have his entire way of thinking turned upside down by his lovely, yet blunt hostess. As the walls between them come down, Trevor allows Kelly to review his next project, a movie that hailed the negative side of BDSM. The subject hits far too close to home and her confession changes his perspective. Now that Trevor has seen things through Kelly’s eyes, it sets him on a new path, one he can’t reveal until the time is right. But she harbors a secret of her own. Can their love survive the truth? Or will their new roles tear them apart?
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Summer’s Ended Book Bash Giveaway! #prizes #books #ebooks
The party may be over, but there are still tons of prizes to be had!
Over 100 books and book-related prizes are up for grabs—just enter via Rafflecopter this week!
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Paranormal Love Wednesdays Blog Hop ~ Legally Undead
Welcome to the weekly blog hop featuring paranormal stories. From witches to werewolves, vampires to berserkers, you name it, we have it. This blog hop is open to authors and writers whose work is published or unpublished. We also welcome works-in-progresses/WIP’s! Join us each week and check out all the cool stories!
This week, I’m featuring my novel Legally Undead. So check out the snippet below, then be sure to HOP back to check out the rest of this week’s entries!
A reluctant vampire hunter, stalking New York City as only a scorned bride can.
Elle Dupree has her life all figured out: first a wedding, then her Ph.D., then swank faculty parties where she’ll serve wine and cheese and introduce people to her husband the lawyer.
But those plans disintegrate when she walks in on a vampire draining the blood from her fiancé Greg. Horrified, she screams and runs–not away from the vampire, but toward it, brandishing a wooden letter opener.
As she slams the improvised stake into the vampire’s heart, a team of black-clad men bursts into the apartment. Turning around to face them, Elle discovers that Greg’s body is gone—and her perfect life falls apart.
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Excerpt
The worst thing about vampires is that they’re dead. That whole wanting to suck your blood business runs a close second, but for sheer creepiness, it’s the dead bit that gets me every time. They’re up and walking around and talking and sucking blood, but they’re dead. And then there’s the whole terminology problem–how can you kill something that’s already dead? It’s just wrong.
I was twenty-four the first time I . . . destroyed? dispatched? . . . a vampire. That’s when I found out that all the books and movies are wrong. When you stick a wooden stake into their hearts, vampires don’t disintegrate into dust. They don’t explode. They don’t spew blood everywhere. They just look surprised, groan, and collapse into a pile of corpse. But at least they lie still then, like corpses are supposed to.
Since that first kill (I might as well use the word–there really isn’t a better one), I’ve discovered that only if you’re lucky do vampires look surprised before they groan and fall down. If you’re unlucky and miss the heart, they look angry. And then they fight.
There are the other usual ways to kill vampires, of course, but these other ways can get a bit complicated. Vampires are notoriously difficult to trick into sunlight. They have an uncanny ability to sense when there’s any sunlight within miles of them, and they’re awfully good at hiding from it. Holy water doesn’t kill them; it just distracts them for a while, and then they get that angry look again. And it takes a pretty big blade to cut off someone’s head–even an already dead someone–and carrying a great big knife around New York City, even the Bronx, is a sure way to get arrested. Nope, pointy sticks are the best way to go, all the way around.
My own pointy stick is actually more of a little knife with wood inlay on the blade–the metal makes it slide in easier. I had the knife specially made by an old Italian guy in just about the only ratty part of Westchester, north of the city. I tried to order one off the internet, but it turns out that while it’s easy to find wood-inlay handles, the blades themselves tend to be metal. Fat lot those people know.
But I wasn’t thinking any of this when I pulled the knife out of the body on the ground. I was thinking something more along the lines of “Oh, bloody hell. Not again.”
Buy Links
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About the Author
Margo Bond Collins is the author of a number of novels, including Sanguinary, Waking Up Dead, Taming the Country Star, Bound by Blood, Legally Undead, and Fairy, Texas. She lives in Texas with her husband, their daughter, and several spoiled pets. She teaches college-level English courses online, though writing fiction is her first love. She enjoys reading urban fantasy and paranormal fiction of any genre and spends most of her free time daydreaming about vampires, ghosts, zombies, werewolves, and other monsters.
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Connect with Margo
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Email: MargoBondCollins@gmail.com
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