Guest Author, CD Hersh

Today I have CD Hersh on my blog with a unique look at some research they did for Son of the Moonless Night, due to be released tomorrow, May 27.

Some of what they uncovered was eye-opening to me! Read on!

Deadly Doses

Cathy,

Thanks so much for allowing us to share our research and book with your followers. 

One of the fun things about writing a book is the kind of research you get to do. For our book, Son of the Moonless Night, we delved into the world of poison, because our hero, Owen Jordan Riley, is a forensic scientist with a toxicology specialty. Ever since Owen read the story of Snow White and the poison apple, poisons have fascinated him. In one scene of the book, he nearly destroys the heroine’s appetite when he launches into a dissertation on poisonous foods and plants. Here are a few poisonous foods we didn’t know about. P.S. we left out the ones Owen used to spoil the heroine’s appetite. You’ll need to read the book to find those out. 

Amanita Mushrooms - These extremely toxic mushrooms have symptoms that develop six to forty-eight hours after ingesting them. By that time it’s too late to seek medical attention. Symptoms include sudden onset of extreme stomach pains, vomiting, thirst, and bloody diarrhea. Finally, you will lapse into a coma and die. 

Ackee - Jamaica’s national fruit will give you Jamaica Vomiting Sickness. If you eat it before fully ripe it can cause coma or death. Don’t eat the seeds they are always toxic. 

Elderberry - If the little old ladies in the play, Arsenic and Old Lace, had added roots and other parts of the tree to their elderberry wine, they might not have needed to put in the arsenic. While the berries can be eaten, the roots and other parts of the tree are highly poisonous. 

Almonds - are full of cyanide. Before consumption almonds should be processed to remove the poison. Don’t worry. It’s illegal in the U.S. to sell raw almonds. So your bag of raw almonds have been heat treated to remove the cyanide. 

Cherries - are in the same family as almonds. But only the cherry seed, which produces hydrogen cyanide when chewed, is poisonous. So don’t bite the cherry pip. You’ll not only break a tooth, you’ll poison yourself.

 

Potatoes - The stems and leaves are poisonous and so is the potato itself, if it is eaten green. Death normally comes after a period of weakness and confusion, followed by a coma.

 

Lima Beans - contain a high level of cyanide if you eat them raw. Be sure to cook them thoroughly, uncovered to allow the poison to escape as a gas. Don’t drink the water they are cooked in either.

 

So what is your favorite food that is hazardous to your health?

 

Title – Son of the Moonless Night, The Turning Stone Chronicles, book three

Author – C.D. Hersh

Genre – Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Suspense Romance

Heat Level - Sensual

Release Date: May 27th, 2015

 

HOOK

Thrust back into the world of paranormal huntress, Deputy Coroner Katrina Romanovski must unravel a string of murders she believes are vampire attacks. When she discovers the shape shifter she’s in love with is the murderer, she must reconcile her feelings for him, examine her life of violence against paranormals, and justify deceiving him in order to bring him to justice.

 

BLURB

Owen Todd Jordan Riley has a secret. He’s a shape shifter who has been hunting and killing his own kind. To him the only good shifter is a dead shifter. Revenge for the death of a friend motivates him, and nothing stands in his way . . . except Katrina Romanovski, the woman he is falling in love with.

 

Deputy coroner Katrina Romanovski has a secret, too. She hunts and kills paranormal beings like Owen. At least she did. When she rescues Owen from an attack by a werebear she is thrust back into the world she thought she’d left. Determined to find out what Owen knows about the bear, she begins a relationship meant to collect information. What she gets is something quite different-love with a man she suspects of murder. Can she reconcile his deception and murderous revenge spree and find a way to redeem him? Or will she condemn him for the same things she has done and walk away from love?

 

Excerpt:

A head of lettuce and a grapefruit escaped from the paper grocery sack as Katrina leaned sideways on tippy toes to get the topmost lock. The vegetables rolled across the small concrete patio at the bottom of the stairway well and stopped against a leg of the wrought iron café table. Whispering an expletive, she pushed the door open and placed her purse and grocery sack on the entryway table just inside the door. Then she swiveled to get the runaway vegetables.

A very pleasant and interesting sight greeted her. A pair of dark trousers caressed a toned posterior of the man bending over to retrieve her vegetables. She fought to rein in the path her mind started down. Been too long, Katrina, she said to herself as the vision straightened and turned around.

“Oh!” he exclaimed. “I thought you had gone inside.”

The way he held the vegetables out in front of him made her wonder what his hands would feel like if he held her breasts in that manner.

“Hello? Are you awake?”

“Ah, ah,” Katrina sputtered as she focused on his face to get her mind out of the gutter.

“Okay. Awake, but not here yet.” The corner of his lips started to rise.

“You,” she breathed when she recognized him. “Where’s my grandmother’s afghan and my Cleveland Brown’s hoodie?”

“Nice to see you, too, and thank you, I’m feeling fine.”

She crossed her arms tightly over her chest. “If you hadn’t run off I’d have known you were okay.”

The smile inched up the side of his cheek, lighting his electric blue eyes. “You worried about me. How sweet.”

“Sweet, my patootie. I just . . . You could have bled . . . Oh, crap. Where’s my stuff?”

He took another step closer to her. The deep blue ring around his amazing eyes seemed to darken.

She leaned back from him.

Without taking his eyes off her, he nodded to a brightly colored gift bag on the ground beside the door. “I got blood on the afghan so I had it cleaned. It wasn’t badly stained. The blood came out. The hoodie’s a different story. I couldn’t salvage it, so I bought a replacement.” Balancing the vegetables in one hand he lifted the gift bag to her. “Forgiven? Please?”

                                                    * * *

Amazon buy links:

The Promised One (The Turning Stone Chronicles Book 1):

eBook: http://amzn.com/B00DUMODKI

paperback: http://amzn.com/1619353504

 

Blood Brothers (The Turning Stone Chronicles Book 2):

eBook: http://amzn.com/B00OVNFC8W

paperback: http://amzn.com/1619358271

 

Son of the Moonless Night (The Turning Stone Chronicles Book 3):

            eBook: http://amzn.com/B00XK3E172


Bio:

Putting words and stories on paper is second nature to co-authors C.D. Hersh. They’ve written separately since they were teenagers and discovered their unique, collaborative abilities in the mid-90s. As high school sweethearts and husband and wife, Catherine and Donald believe in true love and happily ever after. 

Together they have co-authored a number of dramas, six which have been produced in Ohio, where they live. Their interactive Christmas production had five seasonal runs in their hometown and has been sold in Virginia, California, and Ohio. Their most recent collaborative writing efforts have been focused on romance. The first two books of their paranormal romance series entitled The Turning Stone Chronicles are available on Amazon. The third book in the series Son of the Moonless Night will be released May 27th by Soul Mate Publishing.

 

Where you can find CD:

Website : http://cdhersh.wordpress.com/

Blog : http://cdhersh.wordpress.com/blog-2/

Soul Mate Publishing : http://smpauthors.wordpress.com/

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/cdhershauthor

Amazon Author Page : http://www.amazon.com/C.-D.-Hersh/e/B00DV5L7ZI

Twitter : https://twitter.com/AuthorCDHersh

Goodreads : http://www.goodreads.com/CDHersh