Shiloh Walker's Blog, page 116
April 4, 2012
April 3, 2012
We interrupt this moment to ask you… would you like to review GRIMM TIDINGS?
The review either needs to be posted at your active and established blog or to an active and established goodreads account.
FYI, I write the Grimm to stand on their own, so if you've never read one, don't worry. You should be able to follow along pretty well.
The blurb...
Never fear the pain. Fear what lies behind it…
Grimm's Circle, Book 6
In his mortal life, the only thing Jacob liked better than money as a good brawl—until he stuck his fist into the wrong fight, and a demon sent him spinning into a new life as a Grimm. The only thing he liked better than money as a good brawl—until he stuck his fist into the wrong fight, and a demon sent him spinning into a new life as a Grimm.
Now, a hundred years later, he's been called to protect someone too much like himself. A woman who could let the chains of her past drag her down unless she learns to let go. A woman who fights like there's no tomorrow, because she clearly doesn't want a tomorrow.
Celeste thought her second chance at life would be an opportunity to fix some of her worst mistakes, to set things straight. She couldn't have been more wrong. She's trapped by the past and her regrets, and nothing—not even her darkly sexy new trainer, Jacob—has a blade sharp enough to cut her loose.
Chains are Jacob's specialty, but his help comes with a price. To her, the cost is her heart. To Jacob…something much more.
Warning: Contains a heroine with enough fight in her to put the 300 to shame. And a hero who knows how to take a punch.
One thing I do ask is that you keep any references to who the Grimm (in this case, it's Jacob) is quiet...no spoiling what story he's from.
Other than that, just an honest review posted any time between the time you get the book (I'll send it once I select the reviewers) and 5/1, and it must be posted to your blog or your goodreads account.
Interested? Just leave your blog addy or your goodreads profile in the comments section.
Mini excerpt...
(FYI, the only format I'll have available to send out is a PDF...hope you understand)
"There is love, and there is in love. Have you forgotten the difference?"
She sneered at him. "What in the hell do you know about love, you damned iceberg?"
She never even saw him move. One moment, he was three feet away. And then he was only inches away, his long body, so lean and warm, caging hers in against something cool and metal—a car? Truck? She didn't know, didn't care. One hand rested by her shoulder. The other cupped her chin. "More than you would think, sweet. Far more than you would think." Then his mouth was on hers.
An iceberg.
She thought he was an iceberg.
Little fool.
Her mouth was still under his, for the briefest moment. He knew it wouldn't last long, and he intended to make the most of it. She wanted to wither away and die, did she?
Perhaps she needed to see just how much life she still had inside her.
Oh, but she was sweet…he'd known she would be. Her mouth was soft, even though she was still frozen with shock. Soft, and she tasted like soft, warm woman, cherries and Coke… She lived on Cherry Coke, it seemed. He could live on the taste of it on her, he supposed.
Stroking his tongue along the curve of her lower lip, he teased her lips apart, delving inside the second he had an opportunity. He didn't believe in wasting those.
Her fingers curled into the front of his coat and over the roaring of blood in his ears, he heard the soft, broken sound of her breath…and even sweeter, the erratic beat of her heart. Her body wilted against his—he felt the push of her breasts, the softness of her belly, the long lines of the body she treated so carelessly. There was wanting in her body, needing…she wanted, she needed. Him…she wanted him.
For that moment—he felt it.
And then he felt her fist.
He took that first punch, staggering back a little. Damn, she was strong. When she would have hit him again, he caught her hand, stopping the blow before it landed.
"Don't," he warned quietly.
When he saw the tears in her eyes, though, he wished he'd just let her hit him. Pound him bloody if it made her feel better.
"Why did you do that?" She jerked her hand.
Jacob let go, his heart aching.
Her voice was shaking. Fuck, what had he done?
"Why did you do that?"
"You're not dead, Celine. You need to quit wishing it on yourself."
But he didn't think she even heard him. Celine, with a hand that trembled, touched her mouth. "You kissed me. Damn it, why did you kiss me?"
And today… I'm here…
Hunter's Rise, the final Hunter book is out. (If you hadn't heard, the series is ending...you can read about that here).
I'd like to send it out with a bang, so if you're a fan of the series, or just plain curious, it would mean a lot to me if you'd pick it up. Please be aware that you might not find it in a lot of stores, so if you're wanting to get it at your favorite store, you might need to have them order it.
If you're more for online, here are links... (I iz helpful)
B & N | Amazon | Indiebound | Book Depository | BAMM
You can check out the excerpt here on my blog, and here is another short snippet.
"You can wash whatever you need to wash here if you want," he said.
As her gaze cut his way, he grinned at her. "And if you feel like it, you can do mine. I never did like messing with laundry."
"Are you trying to make me want to hit you?" she asked conversationally. "Trying to be an ass?"
"Nah." He shrugged. "That comes naturally." There wasn't as much misery in her eyes; he decided it had burned off under the irritation. Much better. "Although if you want to go a round or two, we could. I wouldn't mind."
"Yeah. I bet." She grabbed a bag from her bike and then headed toward the house.
"It could be cathartic." As she slid him a sidelong look, he smiled. "Get rid of some of that tension—hot and sweaty action has a way of doing that."
Sylvia snorted and this time, when she looked at him, there was a glint of heat and humor in her eyes. The misery, wherever it had come from, was gone. "Don't worry, wolf. If I feel like getting hot and sweaty with you, I'll let you know."
I live for the day, he thought. Both he and the wolf inside him watched her with want.
And I'm doing Q&A over at Manic Readers...you can find it here.
April 2, 2012
Hunter's Rise…Releasing tomorrow
Just a heads-up... this book may not be widely available in your local stores, so if you want it, you might want to have them order it in or you can always order online.
"I don't think I like you very much," she said, sighing and reaching up, gathering her hair in her hand.
Distracted, he watched as she twisted it around and around, piling it in a loose knot on the crown of her head. "Yeah, you do." She seemed to like him, though. A lot. Which was actually something of a surprise. A lot of people wouldn't mind at all if he disappeared from the face of the earth.
"Arrogant bastard," she muttered, a faint, reluctant smile curling her lips. She held the mass of hair with one hand and reached into a pocket with the other. A few seconds later, she had a couple of neat little sticks jammed into the ebony locks, holding the knot in place. Slanting a look at him, she said, "You ought to know that I'm tempted to tell you no, just for the hell of it, just to see what you'd do, just to give you grief."
Hearing the unsaid but, he cocked a brow and waited. And thought about going over there, pulling those sticks out of her hair, just to see it all come tumbling down around her shoulders. Damn, that hair. He loved it.
"But . . . I get the feeling you're serious about letting me have Pulaski. And I think we could do this better together. So, fine. We'll do it together." She sauntered toward him, her lush mouth an unsmiling line, her eyes glinting with an unholy line. "But I'm warning you, Hunter . . . screw me over and I will make you bleed."
Two seconds later, he felt a prick. And he realized she was better than he thought. She'd distracted him, all right, using that lovely body and that gorgeous hair. She'd palmed a knife again, and this time he hadn't noticed. Shit, she was dangerous.
And not just because she currently had that thin sliver of a blade pressed against his cock, either. Crooking a grin at her, he drawled, "Oh, come on, sweetheart. You really want to make me bleed there?"
"Right now, I want you to bleed in so many ways and in so many places, I can't even begin to list them." She stepped back and then he watched as she took the blade and sheathed it.
Narrowing his eyes, he studied the sheath—it was one of her fucking hair things. Sticking a knife in her hair was just plain stupid, but that little blade was sheathed. And nobody would think to look for it there, either. With a sly smile, she stuck it into her hair knot and grabbed her bag. "Come on, Hunter. Let's get this done."
"I've got a name," he said mildly.
"Yeah. A weird one."
B & N | Amazon | Indiebound | Book Depository | BAMM
April 1, 2012
IF YOU HEAR HER for the UK…
And if I time this right, it should be available on Kindle right about...now.
In the dead of night, Lena Riddle wakens to hear screaming in the woods behind her house. A woman is in trouble, she's certain of it. But there's no body and no sign of a crime. Local law enforcement feels their hands are tied.
One man isn't quite so quick to dismiss her claims, though.
Ezra King, on leave from the state police, is dealing with demons of his own, but he can't seem to ignore his instincts when it comes to Lena. Something strange is going on and he believes in listening to those instincts. They're telling him to stay close to the woman...very, very close...
So what's this?
After many emails, it would appear that I retained the UK rights to the Ash trilogy. It's UK only, I'm afraid.
I've got it up and loaded on the Kindle in the Amazon.co.uk store.
Right now, I've only got it on the Kindle, because I don't know of any other digital platforms that let me limit it territory-wise, which I have to do, or I'm in violation of my contract. Smashwords doesn't offer this, ARe doesn't. So it's Kindle.
If my UK readers know of any UK only ebookstores, please let me know and I'll look into them. That's all I can promise, though... I'll look into them. It may or may not be doable for a number of reasons.
Books 2 & 3 will be coming out in 4 week intervals. I need the time for the formatting, blurbs, etc, plus working it in around current workload. Thanks for understand...
Mail for a soldier…
Just mail right now...
PV2 Finley, Cody
CJTF D co. 1-12 INF
JCOP Redhill
APO - AE 09354
new soldier, only 19...would love to get mail out to him
FYI, if you haven't read my soldier posts before, please visit this page before you send anything.
Again, I'm still sort of out of contact but basically are they are looking for is just a quick card or note. The link above will answer just about any question you might have.
*posted with permission. Do not post to facebook.
March 31, 2012
Vacation…and things about life and writing
Three weeks ago, I ended up sick. Pretty bad sick and I had the pleasure of being lectured about my asthma and caring for it. Of course, I was doing everything I needed to do. I got sick, and sicker (about this time, I stopped doing what I needed to to do...keep reading), and I got sicker...and that's where I screwed up and didn't do what I needed to do and see the doctor, which meant by the time I did go see somebody, I was so weak, I could barely make it to the mailbox, a whopping thirty feet from from the front door.
Sick, bronchial infection, rest, take the steroids, rest, watch this and watch that, and please, please rest. Oh, and antibiotics, more steroids, and rest more.
Vacation was coming up anyway, so after I went on all those lovely drugs, I unplugged. From twitter, from facebook, the blog...several posts had already been written so that was easy to unplug from. And then I also unplugged from email and the net as much as I could.
We thought vacation would get screwed up, but after the upped dose of antibiotics and me taking it easy and actually resting, I did do better and we were able to take vacation.
It's a good thing, because we were out in the back of the beyond-the Shenandoah Valley, to be exact and I couldn't get online to tweet, to check facebook, or Amazon...I could catch email here and there and that was it.
In short, it was exactly what I needed. In lots of ways.
While I was sick, it dawned on me how much stuff I do have to do. And how much I do because I want to (twitter), and how much stuff I do because I need to or feel obligated. (Lots of this).
It's no wonder I'm worn out...I think a lot of us are worn out any more because we try to cram so much into a day, and on top of the work stuff, there is the other stuff. This other stuff, for me, is the most important.
It's the mom stuff, the wife stuff, stuff that I wouldn't trade for anything.
It's just the other stuff that I do...the stuff I don't have to do that's wearing me down. And I wonder why I collapse and all but hit the deck every time I get sick.
It's time to cut back on some of the stuff.
I'll still be blogging, but I may not be around as much as twitter or facebook.
But if you don't see me as much, it's because my body and brain finally caught up with me and made me realize I need to slow down and stop pushing so much on myself, plus cut back a little even on the stuff I like doing. It will free up the time I need for the the stuff I have to do and leave some time for relaxing, so hopefully I don't drop like this again.
Now... some pictures... (yay! I can use pinterest again...they changed their TOS and it's a lot more liveable now)
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Source: Uploaded by user via shiloh on Pinterest
Taken somewhere off Skyline Dr in Virginia. Modified with the 100 Cameras App by Trey Ratliffe.
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Source: Uploaded by user via shiloh on Pinterest
I took this one while the guy was driving. 
Mountains make me happy.
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Source: Uploaded by user via shiloh on Pinterest
Took this one when we went to DC for the day. Another one I modified with the 100 Cameras app.
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Source: Uploaded by user via shiloh on Pinterest
Taken on one of the Civil War trails.
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Source: Uploaded by user via shiloh on Pinterest
Taken in DC, at one of the museums.
And my favorite one is this... it had just finished raining a little and we had this beautiful rainbow at the USMC memorial.
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Source: Uploaded by user via shiloh on Pinterest
What's bizarre... I took all of these with my iPhone. I've got a digital Canon which I love, but I need to get an HDR camera. Really.
Saturday Snippets…Author's choice
Author's choice!
I'll get you out . . . even if it kills me . . .
Sylvia came awake with tears choking her and the bitter taste of regret heavy on her tongue.
Scrubbing her hands over her face, she groaned. "Why?" she muttered. But she already knew the answer to that. Seeing a picture of Toby was all it had taken—he reminded her so much of the boy who'd led her to the vampire. She'd spent those weeks hating him. But he hadn't known.
All those old memories, trying to choke her.
That poor, pathetic kid. He hadn't been a monster . . . and his determination to help her had killed him. Him, another boy, all because of her selfishness, her stubbornness, her anger.
"No." She slammed her head back against the wall and whispered, "You did that."
"Stop it. Shit, you have to stop this." Shoving away from the wall, she went to swipe her hands over her face.
That was when she realized it . . . she hadn't noticed it right away because the dream had been choking her, keeping her from thinking. But she should have noticed it.
There was a scent in the air—one that wasn't her own.
Warm. Male. Not new, but not old.
Hissing, she jumped to her feet. That scent was on her. On her hand. That scent—the werewolf.
He'd been in here. With her. Her gut churned and she stared at the floor. The strip of light coming under the door was nonexistent, even to her eyes. Night had fallen. Reaching for one of her blades, she caught the doorknob. Listening.
He was out there, and she was in here worrying about old dreams and old humiliations and nightmares. He was out there, damn it. She could hear his heart beating.
Lubdublubdub.
Lubdublubdub.
Lubdublubdub.
The heartbeat was about twice as fast as a human's. He was close, but not on the other side of the door. She flexed her fingers, wondered if he was there to try and kill her. No. That idea didn't seem quite right. Judging by the scent, he'd been in here—in the closet—hours ago. When the sun was up. If he really wanted her dead, he could have just opened the door and hauled her into the light of the room. Enough sunlight would have flooded the area that she'd be toast. Hell, for that matter, he could have just destroyed her heart or taken her head.
If he'd wanted her dead, why not do it that way?
Unless he was actually a fair player—Boy Scouts and do-gooders tended to do that, right? But she knew Hunters didn't have a problem taking out vamps while they slept. They were about exterminating problems, not a fair fight. If they'd decided she needed to go . . .
Okay, so he's not here to kill me.
Why was he here?
Only one way to find out. Sylvia drew one of her throwing knives—one of the smaller ones she could hide in the palm of her hand. He wouldn't be able to see it, although she still didn't know if it would do her a hell of a lot of good against him.
Wouldn't stop her from trying.
Squaring her shoulders, she pushed the door open, braced herself. The attic room was empty—she'd known it would be. Still, his scent was strong. Very strong. A silvery band of moonlight fell in through in an open window and she stared at it before following it along the floor to the open window. She'd slept until moonrise. Shit. Why had that happened? She never slept that late anymore. She couldn't take sunlight, but generally by twilight, she was up and moving.
Also, she hadn't left that window open.
Stroking the edge of her knife with her thumb, she eased her way into the darker shadows of the room.
Even before she saw the moonlight shining off his pale hair, she knew.
He was down there, in the backyard, waiting for her. And damn it. He'd hauled her bike out. Bastard. He was leaning against it, leather stretching over those long thighs, a black T-shirt clinging to his lean chest. He had that blond hair pulled back in a neat tail at the nape of his neck, and he looked good enough to eat. In many, many ways.
Preorder...due out 4/3. FYI, this may not be readily available at stores so if you want it, you might want to let your local bookseller know so they can order it in.
B & N | Amazon | Indiebound | Book Depository | BAMM
Megan Hart:Read in bed!
Rhian Cahill
Eliza Gayle
Lissa Matthews
Mandy M Roth
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Myla Jackson
Taige Crenshaw
HelenKay Dimon
Lauren Dane
Leah Braemel
Shelli Stevens
March 28, 2012
Kit…
I mentioned an urban fantasy I was playing with a while back. I've got some of it up on bookcountry if you want to read it. You can preview some of it without being a member, but after that limit, you have to be a member to read the rest. (it's not the entire book...).
Still, it's long enough to see if you like it. It's here if you want to read.
March 26, 2012
Random… a contest, and I'm in a cave
I ended up pretty damn sick, so I'm taking so much needed downtime. Every once in a while, my asthma feels the need to jump and bite me hard, just to let me know it's still there. It did it again, hard.
It's annoying as hell because I'm a nurse, I did asthma care & teaching for a long time and I know all the right things to do. Except I can't avoid stupid things like bronchial infections. I hit rock-bottom some time Friday. Almost was breathing though on Saturday. Hopefully by the time this goes up, I'll be above the sub-human level. We're on vacation so at least I have a reason to lay around and take it easy.
I'm also not creeping around on facebook and twitter much. I'm worn out. I'm going to have some random posts popping up but for the next week or so, I'm probably not going to be around a lot, not here, or my other spots either. I'm alive. Just tired and taking a break.
Don't forget there's a contest...it's for the release of Hunter's Rise and was going to be a big, smashing sort of contest that I did over a period of couple of weeks and posts..., but...well, the sick thing...eh. Life interruptus. So no big smashing contest over a period of weeks and posts. Just one over a period of weeks. Enter! There be prizes! There will be things like books and gift cards!
