Andy Peloquin's Blog, page 48

Why Depth Matters in Fiction

I’ve been reading and reviewing a lot of books lately. A lot of them have had fascinating stories, but it feels like there’s something missing. I’ve realized what it is: the books are lacking in depth.

When I wrote In the Days: A Tale of the Forgotten Continent, my entire focus was on making the story as awesome as I could. I wrote about the coolest characters doing the coolest things in the coolest places. But the book fell flat. It was a great read, but it wasn’t the sort of book that people would recommend to their friends. Why not? It had no depth.

Depth is what draws us to a book or story. It’s definitely a subconscious thing, but our minds are always searching for some sort of connection to the characters we are reading. When our mind finds that connection, we tend to identify more and more with the characters in the book.

Twilight is one of the most popular series in the last decade, but the writing is nowhere near up to par. So why is it so popular? If you look at its target audience (young girls), you’ll understand why. A young girl is “coming of age” and discovering herself, just like they are.  She goes through all the emotional turmoil that young girls experience, and so they subconsciously identify with the main character–even though they have no werewolves or vampires fighting over them.

Harry Potter, one of the best-selling books in history, is another coming of age novel, but why does it appeal to adults and children around the world? The emotions and turmoil in the Harry Potter novels appeals to a much broader audience. It’s not just a young man finding his identity, but it’s so much more.

Character depth is absolutely the most important thing in fiction. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing about a detective, an abused girl, or a fairy princess unicorn-riding goblin hunter–they all need to have depth.

It doesn’t matter how amazing your story is; if your character has nothing to them, nothing to make you identify with them and their struggles, your story is going to fall flat. I’ve read stories of epic battles and wizards and dragons that made me yawn, and I’ve read stories about boring people and their boring life but I couldn’t put the book down.

It’s all about giving your readers something to identify with. THAT is the only way that you are going to interest them in what you have to say!

Book Review: Fatal Greed by John W. Mefford

It’s Book Review Wednesday! Today’s review gets out of the world of fantasy and comes back to the real world for a great detective novel…

 

Fatal Greed

Greed knows no boundaries.

A corporate takeover bleeds its way into a private company in North Texas. Behind the scenes, deadly deals erupt from the greed-filled hearts of a select few powerful enough to make them happen.

What’s an employee to do?

For one unassuming man the thought of layoffs, of losing his own job to a bunch of arrogant assholes, feels like a kick to the jewels.

Until the day Michael Doyle’s life changes forever.

Perverse alliances. An affair of the heart. A gruesome murder. A spiraling string of events thrusts Michael into a life-or-death fight to save a tortured soul and hunt down a brutal killer…one who lurks closer than he ever imagined.

 

 

My Review: 4 Stars

Written/Reviewed by Samuel Denberg

Michael Doyle is mid level management in a small financial company. His life begins to fall apart when the top brass announces they have sold out to an international conglomerate. Michael is sure he, and many of his friends will lose their jobs. His depression is cut short when he discovers the dismembered body of a coworker. Shocked out of his depression, he finds purpose investigating this gruesome murder. His trail leads to corrupt cops, blackmail, a cowed city government and more.

I found this book to be an interesting read. Far from the normal detective novel. Michael has no training and isn’t interested in fighting crime, or solving mysteries. He’s an average guy who has been pushed too far and is asking “why”. The plot was well thought out and I didn’t find any plot holes, or unrealistic escapes, or incredible insights into “who done it”. All in all a well written book and worth reading.

 

About the Author:

A veteran of the corporate wars, former journalist, and true studier of human and social behavior, best-selling author John W. Mefford has been writing novels since he first entered the work force twenty-five years ago, although he never put words on paper until late 2009.

John writes novels full of intrigue, suspense, and thrills, but they also evoke an emotional connection with the characters.

When he’s not writing, he chases three kids around, slaves away in the yard, reads, takes in as many sports as time allows, watches all sorts of movies, and continues to make mental notes of people and societies across the land.

John lives in Frisco, Texas with his beautiful wife, three opinionated kids, and a feisty fat cat who rules the world.

Find the book on Amazon

Find him on his website: http://www.johnwmefford.com/

Connect with him via Facebook

Tweet at him: Twitter

 

Book Review: The Dream Walker by Michelle Murray

It’s Book Review Wednesday! Today, we’re going to look at a simplistic book of magic, portals, and heroes…

 

The Dream Walker

Once upon Mystica, there were six wizards, there light and three dark. One day, one o the dark wizards Midnight says a spell to trap the fellow wizards. His spell goes astray, and he is trapped also. Now, all of the wizards are trapped in stones. One curious boy finds one of these stones and releases Midnight on Mystica. Midnight now has his chance to have Mystica all to himself. He gathers an army and prepares for war.

Miranda dreams of Mystica. She travels there to find the one wizard that can stop Midnight. Lightning. Follow Miranda as she discovers her powers. Travel through Mystica, the Plains, the Ice Caves, The Forest of the Lost, and the Dragon’s Lair. Can Miranda find and release Lightning and save Mystica?

 

My Review: 3 Stars

I wanted to like this book, but I have to say that it was a bit too simplistic for my tastes.

The writing is average-quality at best, with a lot of typos, spelling and grammar mistakes, and no real flow. There is no tension, no suspense, and hardly any real depth to the book. It’s the kind of story that you’d expect to find in a VERY SMALL children’s book. It is written for children, but I’ve come to expect more from children’s books–look at the Redwall series, the Harry Potter novels, the Percy Jackson books, etc. Kids are smart enough to read writing of good quality, and this just didn’t meet the standard.

This story lacked any real depth. Kids need to be more than just entertained, but they need to be brought along on the journey of someone who is sharing the life they are leading. All of the best children’s books teach lessons subtly, but this book is little more than an interesting story.

 

Here’s a Taste:

Midnight wanted more power. He wanted to defeat the wizards of the white robes for once and all, and claim Mystica for himself.  He was deterred from outright killing the other wizards for if the wizards died, so did the land of Mystica. Mystic and the magic of the wizards were connected in an odd way Mortimer could not figure out.  It was no use ruling a dying land.  He had to find another way to defeat the other meddling wizards.

Midnight searched and searched the entire land of Mystica for a way to defeat the other wizards.  He searched far and wide.  At last, he search paid off.  In an abandoned city, in an abandoned temple he found what he was looking for. Ironically, the temple once worshipped the Goddess of the Sun.  Hidden in the darkest corner of this temple, he found a faded spell book.

The spell book was worn and tore out at places. It was musty and full of mildew. Yet, Midnight could make out one spell. This spell was all he needed.

The spell trapped people’s souls in stones. Midnight quickly went to work. He gathered all the ingredients. He studied the spell over and over again. Finally, he was ready. Mystica would be his!

Midnight traveled to the top of the highest mountain in Mystica to recite the spell. As he recited his carefully studied spell, something went wrong. Some say he angered the Goddess of the Sun by using a spell book from her temple. Some say, he had read the faded spell book wrong. Whatever the cause, the spell went array.

The whole sky went dark. All of Mystica shook. Tremors could be felt throughout the land. When the sky cleared, and the tremors stopped, six stones lay atop of a pile were Mortimer had been standing.  Instead of trapping the other wizard’s souls, the spell trapped them all, including Midnight, into stones.

 

About the Author:

Michelle is a married working mother of two fine young men (her children). She lives in Wisconsin. When not writing, she enjoys reading especially science fiction/fantasy and classics.

Her favorite authors include Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Margaret Weiss, and Colleen Houck.

She also enjoys doing painting and crafts, and spending time with her family. She enjoys going for walks, and swimming. She has been known to jump in Lake Michigan with no life jacket!

She has been writing since high school. Michelle took a break from writing to concentrate on raising her children.

She has an app on her IPad that gives her a word of the day and poem of the day.

Find the book on Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Dream-Walker-Land-Mystica-ebook/dp/B00MU828DW/

Connect with her via Facebook: www.facebook.com/dreamwalkerseries

Tweet at her: twitter @murray_mlmurray

 

Writing Has Taught Me Confidence

One of the hardest things about being a writer is having confidence in your skills and abilities!

There are times when I read the passages or chapters that I just wrote and I think, “Damn, that’s awesome!” I feel good about my writing, and I look forward to sharing what I have written with others.

And then there are times when I read what I just wrote and my heart sinks into my shorts. I compare myself negatively with all of my favorite authors and think, “Gods have mercy, no one is going to want to read that!”

But over my years of writing–both blogging/copywriting and being a fiction author–I’ve learned that confidence is the key to being a good writer.

Ray Bradbury said it best:

When you are writing, you HAVE to trust that it is good enough. You have to have the confidence that the words you are putting on the page are interesting enough that people will want to read it.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that those words aren’t going to go through a whole lot of editing, polishing, re-writing, and improving. On the contrary; everything you write should be checked and re-checked to be certain that it is the best version of what you want to say.

But ultimately you have to have confidence in your abilities as a writer, as a story-teller, and as an artist.

Thanks to the time I’ve spent writing, I’ve realized that I really do have a lot to offer to people. The stories that I dream up and the concepts that I create really do interest and intrigue readers. And if something I’ve created in the PAST has held their interest, what’s to stop the things I create in the FUTURE from doing the same? How could the creative or talent “faucet” be suddenly “shut off” from one day to the next?

As a writer, you need to have confidence in your abilities, but thankfully, you also develop a lot of confidence through your writing.

 

Book Launch: Stifled by Rainy Kaye

Today we’re celebrating the release of STIFLED, book two in the SUMMONED series by USA Today Bestselling author, Rainy Kaye. A dark twist on genie folklore, SUMMONED follows a reluctant criminal as he unravels the mystery of the paranormal bond controlling him. In STIFLED, Dimitri trails an elusive jinn and finds himself in the middle of a community keeping dark secrets. The SUMMONED series is represented by Rossano Trentin of TZLA.

Scroll down to pick up your copy of STIFLED, get SUMMONED for free for a limited time, and enter to win a $10 Amazon gift card.

Dimitri would like nothing more than to live a low-key life in Naples, Italy. His girlfriend, Syd, has other plans.

After three months of researching, she is positive she has found a jinn on a killing spree in San Diego, California. Since Syd gave Dimitri the one thing he thought was out of reach, he feels obligated to use his ill-gained talents for her cause.

A few hours back in the US proves that Dimitri and Syd didn’t quite make the clean escape they had thought. As they trail the elusive jinn, someone else trails them. What should have been a simple trip to confirm once and for all if the jinn are living among humans, instead reveals a community keeping dark secrets.

Unfortunately for Dim, the only way out is in.

Get your copy here!

Haven’t read book one yet? No problem! It’s currently FREE on Amazon.

 

Twenty-three year old Dimitri has to do what he is told—literally.

Controlled by a paranormal bond, he is forced to use his wits to fulfill unlimited deadly wishes made by multimillionaire Karl Walker.

Dimitri has no idea how his family line became trapped in the genie bond. He just knows resisting has never ended well.

When he meets Syd—assertive, sexy, intelligent Syd—he becomes determined to make her his own. Except Karl has ensured Dimitri can’t tell anyone about the bond, and Syd isn’t the type to tolerate secrets.

Then Karl starts sending him away on back-to-back wishes. Unable to balance love and lies, Dimitri sets out to uncover Karl’s ultimate plan and put it to an end. But doing so forces him to confront the one wish he never saw coming—the wish that will destroy him.



Rainy Kaye is an aspiring overlord. In the mean time, she blogs at RainyoftheDark and writes paranormal novels from her lair somewhere in Phoenix, Arizona.

She is represented by Rossano Trentin of TZLA. Someone told her she’s a USA Today Bestselling author. She thought there would be cake.

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15 Things You Probably Never Knew or Thought About….

Here’s something interesting I found while surfing the interweb. I don’t usually post this kind of thing, but it gave me the emotional “pick me up” I needed so I thought I’d share it:

 

1. At least five people in this world love you so much they would die for you.

2. At least fifteen people in this world love you in some way.

3. The only reason anyone would ever hate you is because they want to be just like you.

4. A smile from you can bring happiness to anyone, even if they don’t like you.

5. Every night, someone thinks about you before they go to sleep.

6. You mean the world to someone.

7. If not for you, someone may not be living.

8. You are special and unique.

9. Someone that you don’t even know exists loves you.

10. When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes from it.

11. When you think the world has turned its back on you, take a look: you most likely turned your back on the world.

12. When you think you have no chance of getting what you want, you probably won’t get it, but if you believe in yourself, probably, sooner or later, you will get it.

13. Always remember the compliments you received. Forget the rude remarks.

14. Always tell someone how you feel about them; you will feel much better when they know.

15. If you have a great friend, take the time to let them know that they are great.

 

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Book Review: Goddess by Callista Hunter

It’s Book Review Wednedsay! Today, we’re taking things back to a fantasy version of Ancient Greece, where the powers of the gods are manifested in very real ways…

Goddess

Olivia is a sixteen-year-old Vestal Virgin, a happy devotee of her beloved goddess Vesta in her home nation of Parcae. But when her faith in Vesta is shaken, Olivia illegally experiments with her own divine power, making a discovery that could save her country from war – if she’s brave enough to share it. After an accidental revelation proves Vesta is fake, Olivia and her fellow Virgins are tempted by a charismatic academy boy, Cassius, to invoke the real gods. Although they risk death if they are discovered, Olivia and her friends test their skills in secret experiments. But their games take an unexpected turn when flighty blonde Lucia reveals surprisingly deadly powers. Gaius, a brilliant military student, must protect the girls and plan for war against an enemy nation while ignoring his growing attachment to Olivia. As a Vestal Virgin she has taken a holy vow of chastity, and the consequences of breaking it are severe…

My Review: 4 Stars

I’m not going to lie: I enjoyed this book a lot more than I expected to! At the beginning, the book was a bit too heavy on the religion side of things. It was all about Olivia’s devotion to Vesta, the practices of the temples, and the close-minded beliefs of the Greeks. But once she finds out that Vesta is a fake (a beautiful reveal, I might add, though a bit clumsily done), the story gets interesting. I did not like how the technology relied on divine favor to work, but that’s just my preferences.

The explanations of how the divine favor worked wasn’t very clear. There were a few mistakes in the use of tenses, not to mention the occasional typo. One thing I didn’t like was how inconsistent the personalities of the characters were. They seem fairly bland, but particularly Cassius and Gaius have no real personalities to define them. They changed from chapter to chapter, until the author finally settles on one personality type near the end. Made the characters less interesting.

The author showed EXCELLENT understanding of the Greek Pantheon, which, as a mythology lover, I found awesome. There were a few anachronsisms (like “shopping bags” or “bombs”), but overall it was fine. The ending stuck in my craw a bit. It’s the clichéd “deux ex machina” ending.

There was no personal sacrifice required from the heroine to achieve the final ending, and there was no suffering or character growth. It was a bit “meh” overall. But, all in all, I enjoyed the book, and I’d recommend it to anyone who isn’t as particular or finicky as I am!

Here’s a Taste:

“Lucia, is there anything you did, anything you visualized, that helped you make the ball fly?” Cassius asks her.

“Um, well, I thought about her bow,” Lucia said. “That’s why I held my fist up, like this.” She demonstrates.“I pretended I was holding a bow. I guess we could even try pulling back an imaginary string.”

Encouraged, Marta and I try the bow technique. It helps tremendously. My ball flies more than forty yards, and Marta’s gains a good twenty. We both cheer and dance around each other, thrilled, but Gaius is unimpressed.

“That’s great. If we can get the enemy to come up close for a hug, we can definitely obliterate them.”

“Good job, girls,” Cassius breaks in supportively with a smile. “We’re still making progress. That’s what’s important.”

I’m so grateful to him for being here with us now. Gaius is a serious de-motivator.

“What if I asked Diana to help you?” says Lucia. “I think she would listen to me. I think we’re friends now.”

“Really? Will she let you do her hair?” gasps Marta in mock enthusiasm.

“Shut up,” says Lucia, “or I’ll ask her to turn you into a beaver or something.”

Then she closes her eyes and stands close behind me, her palms upturned. “Dear Diana, please listen closely to my friend Olivia and help her when she prays to you. She’s special.”

“Thank you,” I murmur to her.

Then she moves to Marta. “Dear Diana,” she prays, “Please help my friend Marta, who is a horrible shrew but whom I love, by listening to her prayers. She obviously needs all the help she can get.”

Marta snorts. I think she is simultaneously irritated and moved.

On our next attempt, our cannonballs fly in a high arc across the circus, covering more than a thousand yards and slamming into the far distant tree line, as Lucia’s did. We’re all stunned. No one speaks.

“We did it,” Marta whispers.

“Oh my gods,” Gaius says fervently. “Wait here.” He goes running to his other bag, still hidden in the ditch on the other side of the track. When he returns, he’s holding another iron ball, identical to the first.

“Lucia, this is extremely dangerous,” he says to her carefully. “This is the finished weapon. It is an iron ball packed with explosives. You need to make it fly into the trees, and then detonate it. Please be careful. If this goes wrong, we could all die.”

“Duh!” she snaps. “Why does everyone talk to me like I’m an idiot? Don’t answer that,” she says to Marta, cutting off what surely would have been a snotty comment.

Gaius makes everybody stand as far away from Lucia as possible, going so far as to make us hunker in the ditch with the whining mosquitoes buzzing around us. We can only watch by peering over the top.

“Oh my gods, please don’t let her blow herself up,” he whispers, frantic with worry, his face in his hands.

I think he needs to give her a little more credit. At this point, she’s proven she can handle herself.

“Get down, everyone,” Gaius nags us.

Ignoring him, we watch Lucia straighten herself up, square her shoulders, and take a deep breath. She holds her hand out. She counts to three. As before, she propels the ball through the air toward the tree line. I try to watch, but Gaius shoves me down with unnecessary force, sending me rolling into the bottom of the ditch. There is a massive explosion.

As the smoke clears, I scramble back up so I can see the results of the detonation. Where there was formerly a distant grove, there is now a smoking pile of shattered trees. The extent of the devastation fills me with awe.

“Oh,shit,” Gaius says in disbelief. “We are going to destroy them.”    

About the Author:

Callista Hunter is a librarian and first-time author who loves fantasy and YA fiction. She has studied Latin poetry and is fascinated by the mythology of ancient Rome. Find the book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Goddess-Callista-Hunter-ebook/dp/B00S6T3E50/ Tweet at Callista: https://twitter.com/AuthorCallista Connect with her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Author.Callista.Hunter Visit her website: http://www.callistahunter.com/

Writing Has Taught Me Self-Motivation

It’s easy to be motivated when you are getting paid to do something. It’s the motivation of, “If I do work, I will receive money that I can spend on the things I want/need.” It’s why most of us get up and go to work every day.

But when you’re not getting paid to do something (such as a hobby or a creative passion), it’s a whole lot harder to force yourself to continue working when your motivation wanes. This is something I have no doubt EVERY writer in the world has experienced.

No one is paying you to complete that novel or short story. You are writing it in the hopes of earning some money from it, but it’s not like you are being held to the same kind of deadline as you would if you were a doctor or an accountant. When you find yourself unmotivated, it’s all that much harder to push yourself to finish that story or work through your writer’s block.

Being a writer has taught me the importance of self-motivation. Even as I am writing this, there is a small part of my mind dreading the time that I will sit down and work on my The Last Bucelarii book this afternoon. With Book 1: Blade of the Destroyer still waiting to be published, there is very little motivation for me to continue working on the rough draft of Book 3 in that series. With no tangible rewards or results to push me to do more, it’s tough to motivate myself.

But that’s why it’s so important for writers (and everyone, really) to learn how to self-motivate. I have set myself a schedule of a certain word count to write this afternoon, and I have a weekly and monthly goal. In order to meet that goal, I have to push myself to work. Those goals were set at a time when I wasn’t discouraged or dreading the writing, and they keep me going when I am in that funk. It’s the self-motivation that makes it possible for me to do what I do.

To be a writer, an artist, or any sort of creative person, you need to learn to kick your own butt. When you are dreading that task you know you should do but really don’t want to, that’s when your self-motivation will come into play.

What do you do to ensure that you keep working when you’re not motivated? Leave a comment below and share your wisdom!

Book Review: Chance the Darkness by L.A. Wild

On Bonus Book Review Saturday, we’re going to take things a bit deeper and darker. This book is an odd combination of vampires, Celtic mythology, and a whole lot of other things that make it an intriguing book overall…

 

Chance the Darkness

In the depths of half-human, half-unknown, twenty-year-old, Summer Keese’s mind, the walls are beginning to crack…

I must be going mad. When my twin sister dies, my whole life begins to unravel in ways I never could have dreamed. A crazy lady ranting in my head, blood-drinking ghouls, a psychotic cult demanding I channel some powerful objects, dangerous men who want to control me…. Total insanity, right? Except, it’s all real.

Then I meet him. Black. Tall, handsome, godlike. The man harbors sinister secrets and lives by his own set of rules—rules I can’t begin to comprehend. One minute, he seems to want to save me. The next, I swear he’s going to bury me six-foot under. Why can’t he just tell me what’s really going on?

While searching for my sister’s killer in a seedy part of Glasgow, I discover nothing about my life is what it seems. Family secrets, betrayal. Emotions running hot, I make some seriously bad choices. And with the heart of Scotland becoming a paranormal battlefield, I have to wonder…. When did staying alive get so damn hard?

 

My Review: 3 Stars

That book blurb sort of sums up the entire thrust of the book: it’s all about this woman’s wicked attraction to some tall, dark and handsome guy.

Truth be told, the book came off as a bit odd to me. There were some strange expressions (like “smoke stained fingers”), and there were a lot of words overused. While it does a good job of pulling you into its dark world, once you’re there, you may end up as lost and confused as I.

The main character ends up bouncing around the world without any real explanation of how she gets from Point A (Amsterdam, for example) to Point B (Scotland or wherever the heck the guy Black hangs out). The prose is deep, but perhaps a bit too deep because it comes off as confusing and unclear. Instead of simple narration that’s easy to understand, it’s a book that forces you to read each sentence a few times to understand what is being said. IMO, that’s NOT a good thing for a book like this.

Worse still, the book hops from place to place and character to character without any real defined boundaries. With every teleportation (or whatever the heck it is), there’s nothing to really clarify what is happening. To me, that totally removed any sense of continuity the story may have had. It felt too disjointed and hard to follow.

The characters were also a bit two-dimensional. Black is as atypical as it gets, and even the main character doesn’t really break out of the clichéd molds of fantasy heroines. The book had A LOT of potential–thanks to its pretty solid storyline–but thanks to the confusing writing style, it only earns 3 stars from me.

 

Here’s a Taste:

Sensual throbbing thrums my body. The music in the club pulsates with my heart, making my head heavy and my tongue dense.

An unknown aroma assaults my senses. Hot, intense, and smoldering—like liquid gold, filling my lungs, leaving little room for oxygen. I struggle to inhale. This place is packed with so much sexual tension, I feel like I’m breathing underwater.

Desire creeps over my body until my skin tingles with want. My eyelids droop under the weight of the ambiance.

The nightclub is a vortex of slick, half-naked bodies lit under dark-red light. Skin slides against sweat, people grind against each other, lost in the erotic beat.

My fingers tighten around his unyielding palm as I break my promise to him.

I stare. At everything and everyone.

I gaze long and hard at what those people are doing. The communication signals my retinas are transmitting to my brain are being received—too loud and too clear.

Glistening skin.

Sharp teeth.

People are feeding from each other!

Not in the way you see in the movies, all aggressive with throats being ripped out, splattering gore and death all over the walls. No. These people are enjoying being fed on.

“I told you not to stare.” His gruff voice brings me all the way back to reality. I glance up. Bad choice. This place seems to have the same effect on him as it does me. His eyes flash silver before his irises consume what’s left. “Don’t stare. And don’t let go of my hand. Unless you want to become the next all-you-can-eat buffet.”

My eyes narrow. “You’re such an arse.”

He maneuvers us both through the intoxicated crowd. I try not to stare. But I can’t help myself. I can’t believe this stuff happens, in Glasgow, under my very nose?

I glimpse a perfect set of brilliant white, razor-sharp fangs slide down the side of a young women’s exposed jugular. She laughs, all husky, penetrating over the music. Her tormentor licks along her neck before his incisors embed themselves deep into her throat. She gasps, pleasure exploding across her face as she digs nails into his bare chest. A thin trickle of dark liquid pools in her collarbone. A topless female, with swollen breasts the size of melons, runs over. She dips her tongue into the pool of blood, lapping at the liquid like a dog, following the overspill running between the other woman’s breasts. Raw unadulterated pleasure passes through their faces. I turn my head, embarrassed to be watching what should be a private moment.

I attempt to focus, to redirect all my concentration on the dark jacket in front of me, as he continues to push his way through a wall of half-clothed people, who wear low-hung jeans and little else. Men pack hard abs with stomachs you could iron off, and arms that could bench press three of me and not strain. The women are tanned legs, tiny waists, and long crimson nails. And all of them have one thing in common—their eyes. They are all inhuman.

The music keeps pumping, the beats rock my hips, making them sway of their own accord. Innocently, I follow danger through the crowd. And danger never tasted so seductive.

I understand, deep inside me, this place somehow has an influence on all those who enter—which scares me to think that if I were to speak my deepest, darkest desires, there’s a possibility they will be fulfilled here in this dungeon, until they consumed me, leaving nothing but a shell of who I am. But the worst, whatever this place, I have no doubt they would make me enjoy their kind of brutality. In the simplest form, this place is rape in a can.

I breathe slowly and deeply, channeling my inner ice queen. But the heat in the club intensifies, stealing whatever restraint I have left. The need to rip off my jacket devours me. The material of my jumper itches up over my skin. Any pressure on my body is of the wrong type. I stop short of running to the nearest object and rubbing myself all over it.

Half-drugged and breathing in liquid tease, I tap the top of Black’s arm to stop. I need time to get my head together, but he’s looking forward and not at me. Hell, I don’t even know if he can feel me.

Focus!

I try, but I feel like my head’s swimming underwater. I stumble. The first bead of sweat forces a path between my breasts. The light touch is a caress off the wings of a butterfly. All of a sudden, I don’t know the difference between right and wrong anymore.

All I’m aware of is what my body needs—all six foot four of it.

My hand slips from his.

He spins around. His rough gaze centers on me. I get the impression he’s about to chastise me for breaking two of his rules, but not one word falls from his lips.

His body tenses tighter than a violin string. He grits his teeth.

I open my mouth and laugh, the sound is raw, unrefined. “What’s wrong? No sardonic smile. No scornful frown you’ve saved just for me.” Desire catches in my throat. I need something only he can give. My tongue darts out to lick the bottom of my lip. It’s a thousand mistakes.

He fists the front of my jacket, wrenching me forward by my coat, lifting me onto my toes.

I slam into his body.

Him touching me is a school-boy error. We both know it. This has been building since the first time we met. On the battlefield, on a planet which wasn’t Earth, at the police station, in the alleyway in Amsterdam, in his house. This is not just about sex or the tease—this is something altogether different. And it’s explosive. It’s dangerous.

 

About the Author:

L A Wild grew up in a quiet town forty minutes North West of London – think Harry Potter. Wild lived in many places including Greece, where the locals introduced her to the wonderful world of Greek Mythology, and Glasgow where she fell in love with the Scottish and their amazing accent. Wild studied and became an accountant and finally in 2006, after one too many bottles of wine, and a bad day in the best job ever, she booked a one way ticket to Australia.

Find the book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Chance-Darkness-Dark-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00PBOZONS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426459181&sr=8-1&keywords=CHANCE+THE+DARKNESS

Visit her website at :www.lawild.net

Tweet at her: @TheDarkSeries

Connect via Facebook: www.facebook.com/L.A.Wild.TheDarkSeries

 

 

How Reading Fiction Makes You a Better Person

Did you know that reading fiction doesn’t just make you smarter, but it actually makes you a better person?

Emory University conducted research in 2013 that involved the study of fiction readers’ brains. They compared those brains to the brains of people who DID NOT read, and they found that people who read fiction have more activity in certain parts of the brain.

The increased activity was discovered in the left temporal cortex, the part of the brain that handles language comprehension. However, activity in the central sulcus of the brain was also heightened.  The central sulcus is responsible for the visualization of movement (daydreaming, picturing yourself doing activities, etc.). Basically, reading helps you to picture yourself in that book, and you can take on the emotions that the characters within the book are feeling.

Another study–also conducted in 2013–found that people who read fiction tend to empathically connect with the characters in the books more. This then allowed them to connect empathically with the people they interacted with on a regular basis.

Yet another study found that reading literary fiction (not popular fiction) enabled people to understand facial emotions ONLY by looking at the eyes. Those who read literary fiction scored 10% more highly on tests than those who read pop fiction or nothing at all.

Basically, it means that people who read fiction–and literary fiction, in particular–tend to be more empathetic towards other people, can understand them better, and have enhanced brain function compared to people who don’t read.

As if we needed any more reason to read!