Shiloh Walker's Blog, page 63
January 13, 2014
Are you keeping up?
Kindle 
I’m in a couple of places… with prizes for two releases?
For Broken Blade… I’ve been here…
Fab Fantasy Fiction
1/6/2014
Interview
Queen of All She Reads
1/7/2014
Spotlight
LITERAL ADDICTION
1/8/2014
Spotlight
Wicked Readings by Tawania
1/9/2014
Spotlight
Blogging by Liza
1/10/2014
Spotlight
Lia Davis
1/13/2014
Interview
And if you win, you get Damon. Well, sorta. I’m ‘adopted’ a clouded leopard and I give it to the winner, along with a stuffed leopard. And a bracelet that kinda represents Kit, in my mind.
And then I’m here… for Beautiful Scars…more stops coming, too!
Wicked Readings by Tawania
https://wickedreadingsbytawania.blogspot.com
1/7/2014
Fab Fantasy Fiction
http://www.fabfantasyfiction.com
1/8/2014
The Reading Addict
http://thereadingaddict-elf.blogspot.com/
1/9/2014
1/10/2014
Reviews by Crystal
reviewbycacb.blogspot.com
1/13/2014
And there’s a giveaway for that one, too. More stops coming!
January 9, 2014
Beautiful Scars…print release!
KindleIf you like my contemporary stuff, I’ve got a print release for ya… it’s already out in ebook, released last year, but it’s available in print this month. 
“Finally,” he muttered. From the corner of his eye, he saw Chaili slip him an amused glance, the lush curve of her mouth canting up. Damn it, that mouth. He’d noticed her mouth before…how could he not, but he was having a damned hard time keeping himself from staring at it nonstop tonight.
It was slicked with something that stained it with a sinful shade of red and all he wanted to do was cup her face in his hands and taste that mouth. Normally, he’d be inclined to do just that.
Except this was Chaili. He remembered the last time he’d tried that sort of thing with a friend. It had gotten all fucked up. Not that Chaili would ever do anything like that, but even aside from that, he didn’t think it was a good idea to screw up a friendship just because he’d suddenly realized she was a gorgeous woman.
Well, no. He’d always known that. And there’d been a time when he’d actually wanted to spend more time with this gorgeous woman. But it hadn’t been doable and when he’d been back in town, she’d already been involved with Tim… Shit.
“Are you okay?” Chaili asked softly.
“Stupid party,” he said, shrugging his shoulders and pretending his problems rested solely on a dislike he knew she was familiar with. He’d never been much for socializing, a fact she knew well.
Chaili laughed softly, tipping her head back to the sky. Moonlight shone down on her, gilding the hollows and curves of her face, her neck. Fuck, she was beautiful. She’d been pretty in high school, but now… She looked over at him, a faint smile still on her lips.
“You know, if you hate this so much, why go?”
“I’m supposed to.” He shrugged. Spying a bench just ahead, he kept walking, still holding her hand. He didn’t feel any desire to break that contact, either. As long as she didn’t seem to mind.
“Well, Mom sometimes told me I was supposed to clean my plate, eat my lima beans and all that nasty stuff. I did it, but that doesn’t mean it was good for me.”
Chuckling, he sat down on the bench, straddling it so that he’d be able to look at her without craning his neck around. “Well, sometimes this life is toxic, I think. My manager thinks it’s a good idea to do this shit, but I mostly came because I know the guy throwing it, because it’s a good cause and all. Caleb is…well…a friend. If it wasn’t him, I would have ignored it.” He shrugged it off, then focused on her. He was pretty damn certain he hadn’t talked to Chaili for more than five minutes without Shera being around in years. And even then, Chaili was usually working. There were emails and sometimes he’d get to thinking of her and call, but the calls were sporadic and email, well, it just wasn’t the same. “I don’t see you much anymore.”
“Well, it would be rather hard.” She crossed her legs.
Marc managed not to stare at the long, sleek length for more than a second. Yes, it’s rather hard, he thought absently. Getting harder by the seco—
He was ogling his sister’s best friend. His friend. Chaili was his friend too. She’d been his friend for a damn long time. And it didn’t matter, because his cock didn’t care that this was a friend. Didn’t care that he had this thing about fucking friends—that hadn’t gone over well, right?
“After all, you kind of trot all over the world for about five months out of the year and when you’re not trotting, you’re holed up in New York working on another album. Once in a blue moon, you dash down here, but well…” She ended with a shrug. “Kind of hard for us to talk much or see each other when you’re never in Chicago.”
He tore his gaze away from her, staring off toward the house, blindly focused on the little lights in the trees. “I’ve been busy,” he said gruffly. I’ve been hiding.
“Oh, I know. I’m proud of you.” She tugged her hand, a subtle request that he let go, but he wasn’t too inclined to listen to subtle. After a second, she stopped and he glanced over at her just in time to see her reaching up with her free hand. She stilled for the briefest moment and then continued, brushing his hair back from his face. “I always knew you’d make it, you know. You were so determined to do it, and you did.”
He let go of the hand he’d been holding to catch her wrist, turning his face into her palm. The scent of her, something light and soft, had taunted him all night and he wanted to find the source of it, see if she’d dabbed it on her neck or between her breasts…it was just the slightest bit stronger on her wrist and he wanted to open his mouth, rake his teeth along her skin…
read more…
And there is a giveaway/blog tour on this one, too.
Wicked Readings by Tawania
https://wickedreadingsbytawania.blogspot.com
1/7/2014
Fab Fantasy Fiction
http://www.fabfantasyfiction.com
1/8/2014
The Reading Addict
http://thereadingaddict-elf.blogspot.com/
1/9/2014
1/10/2014
Reviews by Crystal
reviewbycacb.blogspot.com
1/13/2014
That’s What I’m Talking About
http://twimom227.com
1/14/2014
Ripe For Reader
http://ripeforreader.blogspot.com
1/15/2014
Viviana, Enchantress of Books
http://www.vivianaenchantressofbooks.com
1/16/2014
Queen of the Night Reviews
http://queenofthenightreviews.blogspot.com/
1/16/2014
Book Loving Pixie
http://tracymeighan13.wordpress.com/
1/17/2014
Smile Somebody Loves You
http://SSLYblog.wordpress.com
1/20/2014
Salacious Reads
http://www.salaciousreads.com
1/20/2014
Harlie’s Books
http://www.harliesbooks.com
1/21/2014
There’s something about this book that stayed with me. The story~ Chaili~and other things. Namely, things like perceived beauty, physical flaws and how we accept those flaws in others. The cover artist and I had to do several go arounds to get this one right, and in the end, I was the one who selected the image. She fit, in my head, the image of the heroine. For reasons that I won’t go into (you’ll have to read the book to understand), we had to be very specific about the female model and how she was depicted on the cover. Complicate it more by the fact that the book is an erotic romance….yeah. It was hard. Anyway, I found this image and both of them worked. I mean, perfectly. Right around the time the book came out, somebody had made a comment about the heroine’s image…basically that she looked anorexic. (She’s not, but…) She was lean. She’d done running, both track and long-distance running in school and a number of people who are really into that level of fitness won’t have a lot of extra body mass on them.
In her twenties, though…something pretty hard smacked Chaili across the head, and it left behind physical marks–physical as in…a woman who had been lean but healthy had to fight just to eat. During the course of the book, she was getting back to her healthier state, but that time in her life, from a few years earlier had left it’s mark.
I guess that’s part of why the comments stuck…it wasn’t even that they were criticizing the cover. Most of the comments were that the cover was pretty, it’s just the woman..wasn’t. Nor was this just one or two comments. It came up on a couple of different blogs.
I had people email after reading that they’d seen comments and once they read Chaili’s story, they got it. The cover, the title, the model…they all made sense.
I think what bothers is me is how some just called the woman’s physical appearance ‘gross’ and ‘unsexy’ it is to be that skinny.
As I’ve mentioned, Chaili’s weight~and more importantly, her health and life~ had been an issue. It affected her body image and how she saw herself. Her own way of seeing herself was pretty much screwed up.
Comments slanted toward how unsexy a skinny woman is have always rubbed me wrong. I mean, I’m overweight and I get irritated when people say a plus-sized woman ~sized 16~ can’t be sexy. So is it really fair to say that a very slim woman isn’t sexy either?
Now I don’t think it’s cool the way Hollywood and society are constantly pushing the airbrushed, photoshopped, hollow-cheeked so-called image of ‘beauty’ at us. But if a woman seems/is healthy…and the model on the cover does look to be…the full version is here, then isn’t that more important than whether she’s a perfect size six, or hour-glassed or looking like Marilyn Monroe? The woman is slim, but she has muscle tone. She’s just lean-as the heroine of my story is. Life had left some harsh marks on her, but she’s learning to accept who is.
Sexy…goes deeper than just the skin. Beauty goes deeper than just the skin. Which is kinda what Beautiful Scars is about…I mean… that’s what the title refers to.
January 8, 2014
Book tour & Broken Blade Qs
KindleCross-posting with my J.C. blog…
Giving away a clouded leopard (and an ‘adopted’ one)…from WWF. Basically, the funds help to go protect animals like the big cats and their habitats. It’s a symbolic adoption, just keep in mind. 
There’ also a cuff bracelet that makes me think of Kit. If you want to enter for a chance to win, join in on the blog tour. Full list here…
So far, I’ve hit
Fab Fantasy Fiction
1/6/2014
Interview
Queen of All She Reads
1/7/2014
Spotlight
LITERAL ADDICTION
1/8/2014
Spotlight
Some Qs on Broken Blade, from email, FB, etc
When is the next one/is this the last one?
No, it’s the not the last one. Book 4 has been fighting me and I wasn’t able to figure out an excerpt to put in the back because I didn’t know if it would change or not. The title will either be Forged Blade or Edged Blade.
It will probably be out in 2015.
Why so long? You only write one book a year?
If I don’t want the quality to suffer, that’s the quickest I can put them out. I actually write several books a year ~ under my main name ~ and the majority of them are contracted works, meaning I’ve already signed contracts and they have deadlines. As the Colbana books are still a side project, they are done when I’m able to work on them. I don’t want to rush them and the stories suffer for it, nor am I going to neglect my family to try to put them out more often. There are only so many hours in a day that I can work. I hope you understand.
I’d love to have these in audio!
Trust me, so would I. But that isn’t up to me. Self-pubbed stuff doesn’t often get picked up.
Is it coming out in print?
Yes, and it’s totally my fault it hasn’t been released already. Sadly, my laptop starting acting up a few weeks ago and I was holding it together until the end of the year.
I did start working on getting the manuscript loaded on Createspace and left it just in a draft status of sorts. Using the platform on Createspace requires waiting until you’re ready to release the book. It looks like there’s another option that’s recently been made available for preorders of sorts, but it looks like a hoop-jumping experience to say the least plus I have to either connect a couple of accounts or open a new account somewhere. It’s not simple, I can tell that much.
Anyway, my tech issues (ie: laptop really messing up and my new one being a peice of crap that I had to return) all happened the same time I was trying to get it loaded so it would be ready to release this week. Needless to say, it didn’t happen.
The good news is I have everything loaded, the proof part is done (for the most part) so it shouldn’t be long before it’s ready to order.
I’m really sorry it’s taking this long. I know it’s frustrating, but it shouldn’t be too much longer.
Are you done tormenting Kit?
FYI…I don’t mention anything specific, but I do go into some vague detail here. Just be warned. I’m addressing this because the Q has come at me several times.
I didn’t set out to torment Kit. I write her the way she came to me in my head…and despite what people may think, the events in Night Blade threw me for a loop as well. I’m not somebody who sits out and plots books out by the chapter and I see a rough destination, and with these, I see a rough series arc.
I knew there would be a confrontation between Kit and the bastard in book 2. I didn’t see it happening like that. I spent the last few chapters in tears. I’m the narrator of these books and I’m just telling Kit’s story…as I see it playing out in my my head.
Kit is messed up, though, even aside from what happened in book 2. She sees all of her worth in her sword. That’s not who–or what–she is, but she wasn’t going to realize that until she was forced to. No, that doesn’t mean I wrote book 2 so I could kick her while she was down. Shitty things happen even in fiction. Kit’s probably my favorite of all my characters and what I’d like is to see her happy. She’s going to get that way, but she needs to figure out all the cracks she has inside, which she finally started to see in book 3. Until you see where the cracks are, you can’t fix them. That’s where she’s at now.
Plus, I don’t believe in insta-fix. That doesn’t happen in real life. She went through a nightmare in book 2 and if she went tra-la-la back into life? That would be BS.
Night Blade & Broken Blade were probably the roughest, as far as what happens to her. At least I hope.
~*~
I’ve only read your J.C. books…I can’t wait to try your Shiloh books.
Okay, so this isn’t a question I get so much as a comment I keep getting, and I do wanna warn people…well, first, thank you for the compliment, I appreciate it… But keep in mind, Shiloh and J.C. don’t write exactly the same sort of books. If you like romance, paranormal romance, erotic romance, then we’re all good…that’s what Shiloh writes. A lot of my earlier ones are very heavy on the erotic.
I think I covered most of the ones that I’ve gotten…I think. O.o
Thanks for all the lovely comments and the interest and the emails. You all rock.
January 6, 2014
Broken Blade…out now
Kindle
Here’s a snippet…
Staring into the mirror at the pale circle of my face, I tried to understand what they’d seen that kept them from looking at me. Was it that obvious? Or did they just know?
They just know…
This time, when the bile crowded up my throat, I couldn’t swallow it back down and I doubled over the sink, emptying my stomach. The sour, acrid stink of sickness wrapped around me as I convulsed, time and again.
Even when there was nothing left inside me, I retched. When the spasms finally passed, I rested my head against the marble and waited for the burning sting of shame to fade away.
It would take years, though.
The taste in my mouth, the stink of my own vomit pushed me to move. I straightened up and turned on the water, washing away the evidence of my weakness, while in the back of my mind I heard a familiar, mocking voice. Useless waste. Pathetic weakling—
“Shut up, you vile old bitch.” Cupping my hands under the stream of water, I splashed it on my burning face. With the water dripping from my hands, cheeks and nose, I straightened up and looked at my reflection. The woman staring back at me was red-eyed, tired.
And she looked weak.
Not entirely broken, but she didn’t look strong.
If I acted broken, I was going to be treated that way.
There’s a blog tour kicking off. I’ll be visiting the following blogs…
Harlie’s Books
Queen of All She Reads
Fab Fantasy Fiction
Lia’s Book Haven
Wicked Readings by Tawania
Smile Somebody Loves You
Book Loving Pixie
Salacious Reads
Literal Addiction
Viviana, Enchantress of Books
The Reading Addict
Blogging by Liza
I’ll be grabbing links as they go live. The tour lasts for the next week.
“You want to ask Damon?”
The knot in my throat was about the size of the EpcotCenter, lodged there. Choking me. Shooting to my feet, I crossed the room to the small bar area. There was a stock of packaged water and I needed something. “Sure. You can have him call me when he gets in—”
The prickle of heat that I’d felt from Doyle was nothing like the wave of it that rolled across of my skin in the next moment. Gripping my water in my hand, I stared at the bar. “Damon’s in the Lair, isn’t he?”
“Yeah.” Doyle stayed on the couch. I could see him from the corner of my eye and he was watching me.
I could see the concealed entrance where we’d entered. I hadn’t been aware of it until Doyle had brought me through just moments earlier. As the wave of heat grew stronger and hotter, I tried to decide. Did I run for it?
Doyle wouldn’t stop me. I knew that.
Not his fault.
Closing my eyes, I twisted the top of my water and lifted it to my lips.
Damon.
My heart raced. It had been three weeks since I’d seen him. It seemed like longer. But it wasn’t long enough. I couldn’t—
The door opened. My hand convulsed on the water and the plastic crumpled. Lowering my gaze, I stared at the water and sighed. Dumping it in the recycler, I dried my hands off. I was surprised to see they weren’t shaking. That was nice, I thought. At least I could face him without showing how much of a mess I was.
He’d know, of course.
Damon always knew.
January 3, 2014
Some excellent books lately
KindleI’ve done reading lately… I can’t seem to get enough books in. I think I’ve read like a dozen in the past month. These are a few of them and they’ve all been good. I’m reading in snatches at night, missing out on sleep – plus I gorged when I was sick the weekend before Christmas.
Loved this…loved her Black Jewels books so it’s not a surprise I liked this. It’s definitely different from the Black Jewels, but the writing is just as intense.
~*~
Larissa, I’m begging you… I need Rev’s story.
~*~
Loved Reseph’s story.
~*~
This is the first Jaye Wells book I’ve read and it’s not gonna be the last. I need to start her other books. This one rocked.
~*~
I love Victoria’s books. They’re hot and fun. I need to get more.
December 31, 2013
December 27, 2013
Talking Christmas
KindleThose who celebrate, I hope your Christmas was lovely.
The guy surprised me with these…
Corinthian Bells – windchimes I’ve wanted forever, but wouldn’t ever buy myself. They make the most beautiful music you can imagine. I love them.
The kids didn’t get as much this year. They are fine with that. They were warned. Because since summer, I’ve been taunting them.
You see, the guy and I have talked forever about a really big trip. Something for all of us but we never got around to it. We’re running out of time, too. Bratlet is a freshman in high school. In a few years, she’ll be off at college, and not long after, so will Monster.
We figured if we’re going to do it, we need to make it happen now.
They’ve gotten little hints.
The place has mountains.
We have never been there (we as a family, make of that what you will)
There are lots of lakes.
There is a famous cryptid the place is known for.
They’ve guessed a lot of places…there’s Bigfoot in the Pacific Northwest. They guessed the Jersey Devil, but the mountains kinda threw them off. They thought of Scotland, cuz…ya know, Nessie, but Bratlet wrote that idea off because that’s out of the country and way too expensive.
Well, she was kinda right and kinda wrong. It is way too expensive but we figured if we’re going to do it, we need to get it done.
In March, we’re going to Scotland. The cool news is…I can call it research… *G*
We’ll be in the Highlands and yes, we plan on going to Loch Ness.
I can’t wait.
Image from Wiki Commons
In other news… there’s a contest for an ARC of Broken Blade at the JC Blog
December 25, 2013
Merry Christmas
Kindle
for those who didn’t see the post on twitter/facebook, since I couldn’t figure out what to buy a bunch of people…I posted the second chapter to BROKEN BLADE over at the J.C. Daniels blog.
Also, if you’re on Smashwords and you haven’t read BLADE SONG, you can download it for free now, today only, using the coupon code CB98X.
Smashwords is the only alternative at this time. Since I use a distributor, I have to request promos or markdowns several weeks in advance but registration at Smashwords is free and you can request just about any ebook format you need.
December 24, 2013
December 23, 2013
News on Beg Me
Kindle
So, BEG ME is back for sale on Amazon. The cover has changed… the updated blurb hasn’t shown yet. I’m still scratching my head over exactly what the issue was. They wanted me to change stuff, and I changed stuff and half of the old stuff is still there. Okay then. If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, look here. Apparently a book about a woman who has rape fantasies is too risque for Amazon, although hey… they’ll do the daddy-daughter pseudo incest.
I modified the blurb some and changed the cover, which was really, really tame, but oh well. I had the file cleaned up in the fall and needed to send it in anyway, so I went ahead and did that while I was at it. So there’s that.
I’ve had a few people ask about the book. If you’re curious, the link is here, and hey, if you wanna buy it, knock yourself out.
Kindle Store | Smashwords | Nook Store | Kobo | ARe
