Talking with Author Annie Nicholas

Ever have a high school crush, which you obsessed over but never did anything about? If yes, then you have something in common with my hero, Eric.

BLURB:

Someone is about to get some Spice in his life.

Spice has nothing but the clothes on her back when she returns to Chicago. She's looking for a better life, and that means reuniting with her estranged twin sister, Sugar. She isn't thrilled to find out Sugar's boyfriend is a vampire. But then she meets Eric, once the bottle-cap-glasses wearing nerd next door - now grown into the kind of man she'd love to snuggle with on this cold winter night...and he’s offered her his room in Sugar’s house.

Eric can’t believe Spice has returned. He’d given up hope of ever seeing her again, let alone having her stare at him as if he’s sex on a stick. But now that all of his fantasies for them are coming true, reality rears her ugly head and Eric must tell Spice his intimate secret; he’s actually an Alpha werewolf looking for his mate and he thinks he’s found her.

Link:  www.lyricalpress.com/the_alpha

Excerpt:

Excerpt :
Warm yellow light streamed from behind her. “Forget your keys, Sugar?” a male voice asked from the doorway.

She stopped and glanced over her shoulder but saw only his silhouette.

“Oh my God, you cut your hair. Daedalus is going to freak.” The laughter in his comforting voice disappeared and he moved closer. “Don’t cry.” He wiped a tear from her face. “It looks great.” With a grin, he ruffled her short blond curls.

She couldn’t help but smile back.

He thought she was Sugar, her twin sister. Something in his voice sounded familiar. The face didn’t ring a bell though, but shaggy brown hair fell around most of it. He had a nice, easy-going smile. It would be wonderful to come home to a smile like that every night, but it belonged to her sister.

Her grin faded.

He wrapped his strong, thick arm around her shoulders and pulled her inside. Laughter drifted from the living room where three men and an oriental woman were setting up a board game.

One of the men, who had short cropped red hair, looked up. “Where’s the food? You were supposed to grab some grub on the way home from work.”
“We’ll order pizza.” The guy next to her squeezed one more time before walking into the next room, a huge kitchen.

“You cut your hair.” The woman spoke with a thick accent and sprung across the room to run her fingers through her hair.

Spice retreated and bumped against the entrance wall. This game of pretending to be Sugar used to be fun as kids but not anymore. With her hands raised, she kept the strangers at bay as they surrounded her like a pack of wolves. None of them looked dangerous, but what were they doing in her sister’s house while she was at work?

The way they grinned at her and each other, she concluded they were all good friends.
Sugar had everything she wanted; a loving man, friends, and a home.

“Daedalus let you cut your hair?” A short man built like a bodybuilder approached her.
The awe in his voice snapped Spice out of her self-pity and the protector inside reared its head. This was the second reference to someone allowing her little sister to do something. “What do you mean ‘let me’?”

What kind of relationship did Sugar have? She needed permission to cut her hair? Maybe destiny brought her back to Chicago to save her little sister from some monster. Again. All those bad things happening to drive her here couldn’t be coincidental.

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Where is my sister, and what are you doing in her house?”
They glanced at each other, confusion apparent on their faces. “What?”

The man in the kitchen stuck his head out of the door, chocolate brown eyes wide as he stared at her. “Spice?” The smile he’d given to her when he thought she was Sugar returned but wider.

Her heart skipped a beat. In the light his face seemed familiar as well. “I know you.”

“You should, we were only neighbors forever as kids.”

“Eric!” He had grown. Stupid, of course he’s changed. But she never expected that the skinny, lanky bottle-cap-glasses-wearing nerd would develop into a charming, handsome I-wanna-snuggle-you-on-a-cold-night kind of man. “Hi.” The jobs as a hostess, a bartender, and the most recent, a stripper taught her how to talk to men the way they liked. But with him grinning at her like a happy puppy, her mind went blank.

He swept her into his arms in a bone-cracking hug.

“Wow, I’d forgotten Sugar had a twin.” The redhead scratched his chin. “You look exactly alike, except your hair is short.”

Eric set her back on her feet. “Let me take your coat.” He tugged on the belt and untied it. To her surprise, the small action sparked warmth between her thighs. Not like he took off her clothes but she began to wonder what it would feel like if he did.

Their eyes met. His pupils dilated, the chocolate brown faded to amber, and something feral peeked at her.

She gasped and stepped back.

The pretty oriental girl took her arm and dragged her into the living room. She chattered about making tea, but Spice’s attention riveted on Eric as he stood with the men surrounding him.

What the heck? She’d seen need in men’s eyes before but this was darker, deeper, and so much more alluring.

Book Trailer Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u7ZlO9f24I

Thanks for letting me share my new release with you! It’s available June 21 and I’ll be giving away a copy of my book at my blog www.paranormalromantics.blogspot.com that day so come enter.

Annie Nicholas  www.annienicholas.com

Meet author Teresa Roberts

Why don't you start with telling us a little about yourself? What genre do you write in and why?

In a word, I write sexy. I’ve written paranormals, fantasies, and (with a co-author under the name Sophie Mouette), contemporaries—but they all have the word “erotic” in the subgenre description. I’ve also written a boatload of short erotica.

I love paranormals and fantasies because I adore the possibilities for magic, mayhem and unexpected pleasures and perils that wouldn’t fit in a real-world setting. Besides, witches, shape-shifters, satyrs and other non-exactly everyday types make such great heroes and heroines, with large- than-life problems to match their extraordinary abilities.

And I love sexy because…come, on I’m getting paid to think about naughty things in great detail and then write about them. For most people, contemplating what a naked Daniel Craig-lookalike weretiger might get up to with a plus-sized witch and a vampire with a Jamaican accent would be a distraction from their job. For me, it is my job. How fun is that? (I just made that example up, by the way—but now I’m itching to figure out the story that goes with those three characters.)

What comes first for you when you sit down to write a book? Plot or Characters?

Most often, what I get is a quick image that tells me it needs to become something bigger. Plot and characters arrive shortly thereafter. With luck, they arrive on the same bus or I may end up doing a lot of flailing.

Do you "cast" your characters using pictures or actors to help inspire you when you're writing?

My Lions’ Pride heroes have actor inspirations. Rafe is based on actor Mark Descascos. Jude is actor Keith Hamilton Cobb. Interestingly, I’ve never seen Keith Hamilton Cobb in anything. I came across a picture of him while looking for something else and said, “Oh my gods, that’s Jude!”  One of the heroes in the forthcoming Foxes’ Den is the fiddle player from an Irish band I’m fond of.  

My heroines, though, just appear in my head. I’m not sure what that means!

How long does it take you to finish a book from start to finish?

About a year for a full-length novel, although I’m getting faster as I go along. That said, I’m usually working on several projects at once. ADD? What makes you say…oh look, a butterfly! (Or in my case, a hero!)

How much does reader reaction mean to you as an author? Do you read your own reviews? I love positive feedback! I read my own reviews, but try to take them with a grain of salt.

And some chocolate and single-malt Scotch, if they’re not good.

What are you working on now?

I’m finishing up the third Duals and Donovans book, tentatively entitled Shamans’ Sanctuary, and also the last novella in the Seasons of Sorania series. My co-author and I are also doing a final revision on one of our contemporaries, which is a sexy comedy. Kind of a brain wrench to jump from one to the other.

What books are currently on your nightstand?

 I’m reading Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera series, which are high fantasy. Next in the cue is Ill Winds, the first in the Weather Wardens series by Rachel Caine. After that, maybe a Bernard Cornwall historical. My TBR stack is ridiculously huge.

Where did you get the idea for your latest book?

The work in progress, Shamans’ Sanctuary was set up by events at the end of Lions’ Pride. Since Elissa, Rafe and Jude ended up in a remote part of Quebec, Canada, I researched French-Canadian folklore…which gave me the idea for the major external conflict the characters face.

Warner Brother cartoons were also a major inspiration, which will make sense once you read the book.

If someone hasn't read any of your work, what book would you recommend that they start with and why?

I’d start with Lions’ Pride, since it’s the first in the Duals and Donovans series (and the only one out right now, although Foxes’ Den will be out in August) and Lady Sun Has Risen¸ which is the first Seasons of Sorania story.

Where can we find you on the web?

http://teresanoelleroberts.blogspot.com and www.teresanoelleroberts.com. Be warned that the web site needs a major overhaul! You can also friend me on Facebook—I post regular updates about new releases there.

If we sat down with your muse, what do you think they would say about you?

“Teresa doesn’t need me for ideas. She has plenty of those on her own. My job is to get her to focus.”

Please tell us about your latest story. What inspired it? Where can we find it?

Lions’ Pride isn’t my latest, but as a new print release, it’s a big thrill. (I love e-books, but print books feel even more special.) Lions’ Pride started out as a short, tongue-in-cheek story about an animal control officer who answers a call about an exotic pet and discovers his neighbor is a shapeshifter.

Only once I started writing, the ACO turned into a bisexual cop who was a closeted feline shifter. The lion shifter he gets the call about acquired a hot, super-smart witch wife who specializes in sex magic. First they all got tangled with a shadowy and dangerous government agency and then they all started falling in love. Not the comic romp I envisioned, but a lot richer and much more erotic and romantic.

You can find the print edition at Amazon.com for preorder. Soon, it will be at your favorite neighborhood or online bookstore. The e-book’s available from all your favorite vendors, including My Bookstore and More.

Anything coming up in 2010 you want us to get excited about?

As I said, Lions’ Pride comes out in print in July. Foxes’ Den, Duals and Donovans 2, will be released by Samhain on August 6. This is another paranormal ménage. Elissa’s gorgeous, witchy cousin and his fox-Dual husband meet a beautiful cursed kitsune (Japanese fox-spirit) who needs sex magic to break the curse. Which might be less of a problem if it weren’t for those darned sorcerers butting in—and if kitsune couldn’t die from unrequited love.

And sometime this fall—I don’t have a firm date yet—Threshing the Grain, the autumn Seasons of Sorania title, will come out from Phaze. It’s romantic and erotic, but also dark and creepy. It features satyrs and a dangerous demon, as well as a magical healer and a very sexy warrior who has to go way past his comfort level to save the day.

What is your favorite candy bar and why?

A dark chocolate caramel bar made by a little place in Ogunquit, ME called Harbor Sweets. It’s incredibly rich and satisfying, but not overly sweet.

To save the one they love, they’re going in with spells blazing…

Lions’ Pride (print) (e-book)

 Duals and Donovan: The Different, Book 1

Blurb: Elissa Donovan is a real green witch—when she and her lion-shapeshifter husband have sex, the blazing heat is recycled to warm their house. Now her beloved Jude has been kidnapped by a shadowy government agency, and the last place she can turn for help is her high-powered family, who considers her magic mediocre.

When Rafe Benedict gets Elissa’s call for muscle to back up her magic, he risks his law enforcement career to answer. He’s spent a lifetime hiding his Dual ability, but something about Elissa and Jude’s magic awakens the cougar within him.
Tempting, bronzed Rafe is the perfect fuse for Elissa’s sex-fueled magic. Danger lies in breaking her vows; joining with anyone other than her true mate could not only send her marriage up in flames, it could burn out her powers in a last, all-or-nothing explosion. But Jude is worth the risk. And for Rafe, potential heartbreak is nothing next to the chance to help the two people he’s coming to love.

First, though, Rafe needs a crash course in Cougar…

Warning: This title contains evil fae, guys with guns, shadowy government conspiracies, a snarky ghost, and smoking-hot, three-way sex.

EXCERPT:

(For a little setting, Jude has been captured by the bad guys and shot up with a dangerous experimental drug that's affecting the bond between his human and lion sides. Elissa's managed to pull them all into the spirit world so she can heal his damaged spirit--via sex magic.)

Elissa's lips tasted of green and cinnamon, of life itself burgeoning, and his cock swelled in response. But there was an undertaste, one hauntingly familiar but not right.

Pine and forest smells, like the air around them, amber and male feline musk. For all it didn’t belong around his woman, let alone on his woman’s lips, it went straight to his cock and balls, adding to his desire. He ached sweetly for things he hadn’t known, had barely dared to imagine.

A hand gripped his shoulder, large and heated and firm. Not a threat, but a gift, he sensed. The scent of sage, already on the wind, already on Elissa, grew stronger.

Reluctantly, he turned from Elissa.

Into Rafe’s waiting arms.

Rafe stood, fully human, naked as Jude himself. He was shorter than Jude, but strong, muscled. Perfect copper abs tapered to narrow hips and a cock Jude felt hard against him, but didn’t dare to look at.

Instead, he met the other man’s eyes and saw the cougar, tawny and alert and curious, in the same spot where the human-seeming Rafe stood. The lion responded as he would to a beautiful lioness, or to the lioness the lion perceived Elissa to be despite her human body.

All kinds of questions rambled through his head, too many to ask.

“We’ve found you,” Elissa said. She pressed against him, her arms around his waist, her breasts soft against his back. “We’re going to get you out, my heart. No matter what.”

“Elissa…” He tried to turn, to look into her eyes, to tell her not to risk herself. That he’d be fine—even though he had no idea how he would be, poisoned and imprisoned and in the kind of pain that would eventually break his mind.

Rafe had left his hand resting on Jude’s shoulder as if it was the most natural thing on earth. He placed the other over Elissa’s on Jude’s hip, so his fingertips brushed Jude’s skin, the sensitive low belly, perilously near Jude’s swollen dick.

His cock felt huge, treelike. On fire with need. Wrong, yet so right. Elissa’s cunt was its natural home, but he felt an equal pull toward Rafe’s lush mouth and firm, elegant ass.

The air throbbed with the smell of herbs and pears and pine and fur, of male and female musk. Jude closed his eyes, trying to shut out some of the stimuli, but this was a dream and the sight of Rafe, of Elissa, of the two of them touching him and each other, burned through his eyelids.

“Rafe, what are you doing in my dream?” Jude finally stammered. He’d meant it to sound accusing, but it came out plaintive and eager, as if he’d been yearning for Rafe to be there for so long he’d given up hope.

“This,” Rafe said, and reached up to kiss him.

Talking Strange Neighbors by Ashlyn Chase

Strange Neighbors

Ashlyn Chase

Available NOW

When star pitcher and shapeshifter Jason Falco buys a small apartment building, he sees it not only as an investment but as a place to escape the demands of major league baseball.

That is, until he meets his tenants--a sarcastic unemployed vigilante vampire; a wereraven with a morbid sense of humor; a werewolf thief who sells security systems; and two witches with an owl who work as phone sex actresses. Not to mention a beautiful, all too human nurse. But with all the hooting, howling, and hollering going on, how's an all-American shapershifter supposed to sweep a girl off her feet?

Sneak Peek Excerpt:

Strolling away from her car with competing thoughts swirling through her brain, she fumbled in the dark for her back-door key. Suddenly, her feet went out from under her and she found herself hurled to the ground and pinned by some foul-smelling brute. A moment later she realized she had hit hard pavement with her head.

Unable to find her voice right away, or even process what had happened, she lay there, dumbstruck. The moon reflected a glint of metal nearing her face.

“Shhh… Don’t scream and I won’t hurt you—much.” Maniacal laughter followed. A hand fumbled with the buttons on her coat.

Oh my God. What is it they tell you to do in case of rape? Oh, yeah, scream!

Merry inhaled deeply and let out a blood curdling scream. She didn’t even recognize the voice as hers. Suddenly her throat tightened and she recognized another threat—her asthma.

She remembered being told to fight but not struggle. They liked it when a woman struggled. Gouge out his eyes! Punch his nose up into his brains. Fight like your life depends on it.

As she tried and failed to get near the bastard’s face, her assailant grabbed her wrists in one hand and pressed the sharp knife to her neck with the other.

He hissed, “Shut up! I told you to shut up!”

She pushed his arm away from her and freed one hand. Grabbing anything else she could get a hold of, she tried to yank him off of her.

His jeans must have hung low on his hips, because she grabbed onto the waistband of his underwear. Riiiiiip.

The perp yelped. His eyes flashed in horror and she realized she had just given him a world-class wedgie.

Dear God, I’m going to die. I’m going to be raped and killed in a back alley on my first night as an independent adult. I’m never going to fall in love, get married, hug my children, or live in a McMansion.

The knife pressed into her flesh, and the warm trickle down her neck meant he had pierced the skin. Should she scream again? Would he just kill her and leave her rather than rape her? Or would he, ewww, kill her first, then rape her? Oh, my freakin’ God!

As she contemplated what would be the lesser of all possible evils, the man flew off of her and landed a few feet away. At first, she didn’t see anyone else.

When she blinked, two shadowy figures stood over the gasping pervert. One of them clamped his boot on the would-be rapist’s neck and pointed a gun at his face. The other one hurried over to Merry and helped her up.

“Thank you. Both of you. You saved my life!” The man holding her elbow seemed preoccupied with her neck. Awareness rolled over her. She recognized the dark-haired man who had been leaning against the wrought iron fence, watching her move in. Again, he wore all black, but the concern on his face completely changed his ominous air. His dark chocolate eyes were warm and almond shaped, much like her own.

“He missed your carotid artery. You’ll be okay.”

Merry touched her neck. Thankfully, his diagnosis seemed true. Blood simply trickled from the wound, it didn’t gush.

“I saw you yesterday,” she said. “Do you live in this building?”

“Nearby,” he said, then he turned his attention to the other man, a tall blond with broad shoulders—also dressed in black. “Konrad, here, is one of your neighbors. Hey,” he called to the tall blond with the massive shoulders, “leave him to me and take her inside.”

“Good idea, Sly,” the striking Viking said. His white teeth glistened as a grin spread across his face. His canines seemed larger and more pronounced than in most men. Light facial hair and a short goatee softened his jawline. He had heavy brows of the same color. His ears were slightly pointed and poked though his almost waist-length hair.

The dark-haired man called Sly moved with lightning speed, holding down the assailant.

The guy protested, vehemently. “No, please! I’ll do anything you ask. Just let me go.”

The blond Konrad changed places with Sly and escorted Merry to the back door. She glided along beside him, numb, as if in a dream.

As soon as she had ascended the concrete steps, before she stepped through the door that Konrad held open for her, she turned and caught only a glimpse of the scene she had left behind. Sly knelt beside the stranger and leaned over by his head. Konrad placed his hand on her lower back and hurried her in, closing the door on a male scream that emanated from the dark alley.

Order your copy on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Strange-Neighbors-Ashlyn-Chase/dp/1402236611/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270205590&sr=1-1

Why I Bang My Head ON My Computer

It happens to all of us, sooner rather than later and much more often than any of us would like. The computer—our lifeline, our connection to the world, the instrument of our creation—bites the big one. It happened to me last Monday morning.
I’m sitting at my desk with my mug of tea, minding my own business, with three documents and a few others things open and minimized on my computer, I download my email, but then, before reading it, I decide to check something in my bank account. But the…darned…page…won’t…open. Aargh!!!
I then say to myself, Self, close everything, reboot and try again. So I dutifully try to close everything that’s open. Nothing…will…close. Nothing! Not one program. Aargh!!!
So, taking a deep breath, I punch the button to manually shut off the computer. That works out just fine. But when I punch the same button to turn it on again, it gets just so far. Then it gives me the message that haunts all of our nightmares: Windows cannot load because it is missing a file. Reboot from the CD.
Okay, okay, okay. I can do that. I slip the CD into the drive and up comes six different messages. One of them is Do you want to repair the problem?
Well, of course I do, you stupid computer. Why do you think I’m sitting here pulling my hair out? Sooo, I select that option and the computer cycles through the instructions, reboots…and asks me the same stupid question!!!!!!! So once again I go through the process. And again. And again. And again!!!
By now I can tell you tea is not strong enough but I can’t bring myself to pour Jack Daniel’s at seven thirty in the morning.
My last chance to win-reinstall Windows XP from the CD. Of course…ha ha ha…we all know THAT WILL WIPE OUT EVERYTHING ON THE HARD DRIVE!!!!! But, smart me, I have an external hard drive that backs everything up on my computer every single night. No problem.
Sooo, here we go, reinstalling software. Voila! We are now in business!
Not!
Because I can no longer access the PC Backup files TO RETRIEVE MY THREE WIPS!! Well, &*(*&*(*&
NOW I’m banging my head on my desk.
By an accident of luck (not brains, I can assure you) I had two of them saved to my flash drive. Actually, all three but, of course (bangs head) one of the files is corrupted and only gives me four pages out for almost forty.
Banging head again.
Next step: calling son-in-law sobbing madly and throwing self on mercy.
By Tuesday I really was back in business, sort of. Everything was up and running except…I still can’t access the backup files, so I am buying new software. And I am manually backing up to the external hard drive every document I work on, as well as to two flash drives. And I spent the week pounding away at my computer doing my best to recreate my lost manuscript. (Much, much, much banging of head.)
By Tuesday night I was ready to drink the Jack Daniel’s straight from the bottle, but by Sunday night when I finally sent off my finished manuscript to my editor I decided one drink should be my limit. Next time I’ll give the rest to my computer.
Sooo. What horror stories do y’all have? Tell me about them. I just know everyone’s computer has been bad at least once.

But now that my computer's working again, let me give you a taste of my latest shifter releases.
Animal Instinct
Book Four: The Sentinels
http://www.total-e-bound.com/

When Ann Marie Knight literally fell into Drew Noland’s solitary existence as an injured white wolf, little did he expect her to shift into a woman whose scent called to him-mate! Already gathering to track a vicious group of men who maimed and hunted animals illegally, they turned their attention to rescuing her brother. But could Drew calm Ann Marie’s fears and convince her they were meant to mate for life?

Driven By Hunger
Sequel to Hot Moon Rising and Line of Sight
http://www.jasminejade.com/
Hunger drives the wolf. Hunger for food, for domination, for sexual satisfaction, and for revenge when one of their own is harmed. Rand not only satisfies his hunger with Hannah, his new mate, he also teaches her there’s no limit to the carnal pleasures they can enjoy. He is both frightened and enraged when Hannah is kidnapped by Rogan Mueller, an insane geneticist who wants the female shifter for his bizarre experiments. Now Rand hungers for revenge.
Derek, alpha of their pack, has been seeking his mate for a long time. Fate delivers Riesa, a psychic who can give him clues to Hannah’s whereabouts. With Riesa, Derek feeds his sexual appetite, strengthening his ability to lead his pack on a rescue mission.

And come see me at www.desireeholt.com