Featured Author: Shae Shannon

shaeshannon3@yahoo.com

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BIO

Shae Shannon was born in California where she lived until the age of 13.  Her family decided to uproot and move to a small town in Oklahoma.  It was fate, Karma, or coincidence that had put both Shae and her future husband on the paths of destiny and love.  She spotted him in the back of a pickup truck while cruising town, his hot sexiness capturing her attention and her heart.  One introduction later and she knew that he was her soul mate. Dustin was also from California, and had grown up only 30 miles from her. 

After marriage, Dustin joined the Army.  They spent 9 years in northern New York and 4 years in Georgia.  He served 3 tours overseas, and numerous stateside training exercises. It was during the long, stressful, lonesome deployments that Shae found she could escape into imagination and majestically teleport into juicy books. Her most prized gift came in the form of a kindle, sent from her husband in Iraq.  She quickly filled her digital library, and adds to it every week.

They are blessed with three kids ages 16, 10, and 5. Two dogs, a hamster, and a fish make for a chaotic crazy daily routine that Shae handles like a pro, and with a lot of humor.

Needing to branch out more, Shae picked up her laptop and began to write, allowing her boisterous imagination to fly.  After what seemed like an eternity, she finally created her first novel that soon became published by Siren Publishing.  She was finally on the path of her dreams of becoming an author.

Shae currently lives Oklahoma, where the tea is sweet, the grass is green, and people still say ma’am and thank you.  Every summer, they load up the family and head for the lake for swimming and fishing.  There is not a water park or swimming pool in the world that could ever compare to a rope swing and a floaty.  The only thing that will change is that Shae will be scribbling and writing as she floats on the water and works on her tan.

THIS WEEKS FEATURED AUTHOR

Author Questions:

What inspires you to write? A lot of things inspire me.  From smells, to places and people, my imagination explodes with possibilities.  I am a major day dreamer, so while I am scrubbing the bathrooms or cooking, my mind is reeling different scenarios. J

Are you plot or character driven? Definitely plot.  Once the main idea has bloomed, the characters are born and lead me through their story.

Do you listen to music while writing? If so, what kind?  Not usually.  I am normally tuning out so many noises (kids, television, husband, dogs, hamster chewing like a lunatic on the bars of the cage….) that if I do get a quiet zone, I keep it that way.  Music does inspire events in my writing.  I love music, and no world is complete without it!

Tell us about the different types of characters you like to write about? Why are these types so appealing to you? I have a bad habit of always making the hero/heros the big, brawny, dominating and intimidating bad boys.  I have to think long and hard about the different characteristics that I find hot.  As for the heroine, I love spunk.  She has to have a sense of humor under whatever type of girl she is. 

Are any of your characters like you? And if so, in what ways are your characters like you?  There is a bit of me in all of the girls I have written about.  I think that my most recent, Her Knights in Black Stetsons, Smalltown USA, EmmaLee is almost my twin.  The story fit my upbringing, and she seemed to just float into my head!

Is there a particular genre you prefer to write? Nope.  So far I have only written Western and Paranormal, but I have a whole world of military brewing on the back burner waiting to be told.  

Do you have a favorite character from your books? My favorite character so far has been Giselle from my Decadent Delights series.  She is so strong and wise, but under it all she is a sucker for love.  Her take charge attitude cracks me up. 

Reader Questions:

What are your favorite genres to read from? I love everything from Shakespeare and poetry to novels, and romance of all kinds.  I read a historical romance a long time ago about a pirate… it lacked enough heat in the sex for my taste, and I have sworn to myself that someday I will write about hot sexy pirates that bend you over the bow if you are naughty!

What are your comfort reads when you are sick or feeling low?  Western Erotica.  There is nothing better than a sexy southern drawl sweet talking you out of your miserable state and into their bulging, muscular arms!  (yep, I said their, as in plural. The more the better! J)

Quickies:

Night or Day? Night.

Coffee or Tea? Coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. 

Leather or Lace? Leather all the way!

Chocolate or Sex? Humm… how about chocolate covered sex? 

Pajama movie night or Cocktails at the bar? As a mom and wife, every night is a pajama and movie night.  I would love one night out of drinking and dancing.  (Yep, at 32 I still like to get some booty work goin’ on!)

Formal or Casual? Casual.

Always and Forever

An alpha wolf, and an alpha panther—both of which are hot, sexy, brick walls of ooh-la-la wrapped up in "yes please, give me more"—decide to pursue Giselle Shalay, things explode in a supernova of desire and need. She is torn between what her body craves and what her mind protests. She is a free-spirited, independent witch who could never succumb to the role of an obedient, mindless, submissive wife. Aiden Grey refuses to share Giselle, whether Brandon Knight is meant to mate her or not. Brandon tries to show him reason, but any discussions end up in blows. When push comes to shove, he turns to his pack and declares war against the panthers in a fight to win her hand.
Can they come to terms with what fate has dealt and work together in convincing Giselle that her place is with them, or will egos and misconceived ideas keep destiny from joining their hearts forever?

Fantasy Friday: Jane Jamison

Tuesday's Teasers: Imogene Nix

Imogene@imogenenix.com

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Imogene Nix

 A mother of two, compulsive reader and bookstore owner. She lives in regional Queensland, Australia with her husband, 2 daughters, dog, cats, guinea pigs and chooks. She has a particular fondness for Vampires, Star Ship captains and things that go bump in the night.

The Blood Bride

Hope and Xavier must fight for their lives and those of the innocents in a battle for good and evil. But will it be enough?

Hope just wants to be an ordinary nestling. She went to college and escaped, but now she’s back and there’s a secret everyone is keeping from her.

Xavier is the new master of the nest, ready to welcome home the daughter of the house who he has never met. He’s unprepared for the woman who steals his breath and enchants him.

Now Hope and Xavier must fight for their lives and those of the innocents. After all, it is only by overcoming the rogues that they will have a chance of a timeless future together. But will it be in time?

Special Extended Snippet

Hope hauled the last heavy box up the stairs of the manor house, occasionally catching glimpses of the way her midnight black hair shone in the sunlight, when she passed the window in the living room of her apartment. "Thank heavens this is the last one," she muttered to herself, sliding the box down to rest on the floor, before straightening and rubbing the nagging ache in her back. She could have had help, all she needed to do was ask, but now that she was an adult she needed to stand on her own two feet, she reminded herself.
Straightening up, she looked around at the mass of boxes waiting for her to delve into. "Well, gone away and back again. Where do I start first?"
The phone trilled and she started for an instant, before extending her hand to the receiver on the shelf beside her. "Hope."
"Miss Hope, do you require any help? Lisi is wondering if you require her assistance." The muffled voice of one of her guardians flowed out of the earpiece. She had forgotten that living at the manor meant the goldfish bowl lifestyle she had tried her best to escape at college. Not that she’d had much opportunity to live a free lifestyle. She’d been lodged with a guardian family within the college grounds. Even then, her personal team of five guards had shadowed her every move—to classes, shopping and even to the hairdresser’s.
They hadn’t escaped her notice, the looks some of her classmates had thrown her way. Longing for the lifestyle they’d thought she enjoyed. Little did they know, Hope would happily have swapped, a lot of the time. Downtime had existed within a carefully vetted group of companions, each from houses of similar status. The cloying atmosphere she hated, but, nonetheless, she had submitted to her parents’ will. Only a few times had she sought to do activities that they would have deemed inappropriate, but her conscience had always kicked in, and she had derived no enjoyment from the guilty feelings that had overcome her.
"No thanks, Jeffrey. I have all the boxes up here and I am going to take my time going through everything." How could she explain that she needed a freedom that had been denied? That this small and almost insignificant rebellion was one she embraced? But she couldn’t. It wasn’t fair to Jeffrey to share that.
"Fine, Miss Hope. Oh, and I am supposed to remind you, the new Master has requested your presence in his library after sundown."
She nodded, knowing it was expected that she would take her oath of fealty. "Oh. Right. I’ll be down for sunset." She laid down the receiver. It’s one thing to owe your continued safety to a vampire nest Master, but quite another to be at his beck and call all the time, just as her parents had been. Her temper spiked momentarily. The emotion coiled through her then she shuddered, pushing away the negative thought, while absently reaching for the boxes she needed to stack, store or unpack. The rough exterior of some of them brushed against her hands. For now, she had time. Lots of time.
Ripping the tape off the first box, she then started to root through it, unwrapping reminders of her slightly more free college life, formulating arguments to put to her parents, knowing that the dice were stacked against her. Her life had been mapped out since her birth, but perhaps she could find a way around some of the roadblocks. At least she hoped so. With that thought, she set to work.
* * * *
He stretched in the bed, feeling the cool sheets around his body, savouring the experience of knowing he could rise when he wanted to. Luxuriating as he came to full awareness of his surroundings. His bed. His home. His nest. A feeling of exultation swept through him. One he had experienced several times in the last six months since he had become Master.
Xavier had only recently been transferred to this nest, after Cyrus had been called to ascend to a seat on the Council with his predecessor Cressida, the most senior of the vampires on the Council.
A new Master had been required for the nest, a situation arising from the ascension of Cressida who had saved the child Hope from the rogues. The death of another of the Council meant that Cyrus had answered a call to accept a seat. It was an almost unheard of event for a nest to have two new Masters in under a hundred years, but Xavier had accepted his unexpected promotion. Not that he would take it for granted—no, he worked beside his vampires as required, so they knew he would ensure their safety while they ensured his.
The household he had taken over was well run, and he had no fears for the financial status, even though they had lost the manor and many assets during the dark days of clearing the rogues who had attacked the house. Indeed, he had been with Cyrus the night he had ascended and had seen the great strides Cyrus had made during his Mastership.
He swiped a hand over his stubbled face and a voice to his left said quietly, "Master, refreshments for you." A crystal goblet appeared in a white hand at the edge of his vision. He accepted it with a grunt, the ruby red liquid inside calling to him on a primal level. Blood wine. Sustenance that would ease the clawing hunger he always felt on awakening.
His teeth extended and his mouth opened. The first drop touched his tongue and a frisson moved through him, the ecstasy of drinking flowing into his body. He took his time, savouring the flavours.
Young.
Full bodied.
Tart aftertaste. The wine, the only human sustenance he could now enjoy. Food was relegated to a memory of things long past.
He closed his eyes as the last drop flowed, and breathed deep. Yes, a Master could very quickly become accustomed to this lifestyle, but not now and not today. He needed to meet this Hope, the one who had turned their entire world upside down. James had told him little about his daughter, save that she would need to remain within the house, protected from the world. That someday she would assume the mantle of leading the house from within, while her brother oversaw the legal and financial affairs of the nest.
He pushed the bed covers away, unconcerned about nudity as he padded to the bathroom. He might be a vampire, but he still bathed and shaved, a thought that made him chuckle. Even after all these years, when vampires had made their entry into the human world, humans outside nests thought vampires had no need for those daily rituals.
He moved through his ablutions. She would be waiting for him, but he would present himself to her in his most urbane incarnation. She would take her oath of fealty, then he would meet with his advisers, James and David leading the human contingent. 

Featured Author: LJ LaBarthe

LJ LaBarthe

WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | DREAMSPINNER PRESS | AMAZON | BLOG | TWITTER 

BIO

L.J. LaBarthe is a French-Australian woman, who was born during the Witching Hour, just after midnight. From this auspicious beginning, she went on to write a prize-winning short story about Humpty Dumpty wearing an Aussie hat complete with corks dangling from it when she was six years old. From there, she wrote for her high school yearbook, her university newspaper, and, from her early teens to her twenties, produced a fanzine about the local punk rock music scene. She loves music of all kinds and was once a classical pianist; she loves languages and speaks French and English and a teeny-tiny smattering of Mandarin Chinese, which she hopes to relearn properly very soon. She enjoys TV, film, travel, cooking, eating out, abandoned places, urbex, history, and researching.

L.J. loves to read complicated plots and hopes to do complex plot lines justice in her own writing. She writes paranormal, historical, urban fantasy, and contemporary Australian stories, usually m/m romance and featuring m/m erotica.

L.J. lives in the city of Adelaide, and is owned by her cat.

This Weeks Featured Author

Author Questions:

What inspires you to write?

Everything. Music, books, TV shows, conversations, dreams—you name it.

Are you plot or character driven?

A bit of both, I think. Though it's usually a scene that pops into my head, and inspires a plot bunny before a character does.

Do you listen to music while writing? If so, what kind?

I do, and it depends on my mood and the scene I'm writing. I tend to listen to hard rock or punk, sometimes I listen to classical piano. Some of my favourite artists are The Damned, Therapy?, 30 Seconds to Mars, Avenged Sevenfold, Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys, Tool, Yoo Seung Jun, Nine Inch Nails, Muse, Nightwish, and local Adelaide bands.

Tell us about the different types of characters you like to write about? Why are these types so appealing to you?

I seem to be drawn to write characters that have a tendency towards playful banter and teasing. In life, people don't just talk about the serious things, or be stilted with each other, and the more intimate one's friends are, the more relaxed those conversations are going to be. And, because laughter is really the best medicine, being able to laugh with each other, at each other, to have those secret little in-jokes, is, I think really important. So I like to try to put that intimate camaraderie into my characters' lives and their relationships.

I'm also fond of sarcasm, so there's always at least one character who is the King/Queen of Sarcasm. And when I was young, I was painfully shy and found it difficult to talk to people, so I generally have at least one character who has that sort of difficulty and resorts to either silence or formality or one-word answers. Shyness is such a big thing, I think, and so many of us experience it, I think it's something that everyone can relate to on some level.

My characters are flawed but they try their best to do the right thing. Except for the truly evil characters, they're just plain evil. Mostly, however, my characters are all in the gray zone of morality.

Is there a particular genre you prefer to write?

I love writing paranormal—angels, demons, shifters, mythological creatures of any kind. I was raised on Greek and Roman myths and fairy tales, so they're sort of in my blood! I also love writing historicals, particularly medieval or set in the Byzantine Empire. I would love to write a spy novel, but I'm not confident enough to do that. One day, though! Fantasy or lite-Science Fiction, definitely.  Australian stories, as I am Australian and I do like writing about life here, even if it includes an angel or two, or it's a historical set in 1920!

Do you have a favourite character from your books?

I love them all, but I'd be lying if I said none of them were favourites. In "The Archangel Chronicles," I love the Archangels, Shateiel, Agrat, the Archdemons, Lucifer, Lilith and my shifter kids the most. I realize that sounds like a long list, but there's a LOT of characters in those books!

In my historical, "City of Jade," Gallienus of Constantinople and Misahuen of Gyeongju are my favourites. I really loved writing their story and I felt quite upset and bereft when it was over. I also really loved writing the Lady Tahirah and her sons and two of the caravan guards, Ahmad and Yusuf.

Reader Questions:

What are your favourite genres to read from?

Fantasy. I love fantasy novels. I probably read more fantasy than any other genre. I also read crime fiction, usually books my mum recommends me, as she's the crime novel afficiondo of the family! I tend to glaze over hard sci-fi, as the technobabble goes right over my head, I'm sad to say. Biographies are another favourite. Some of these are M/M, some aren't.

Who are some of your favorite authors and why?

Two of my ultimate favourites actually are script writers more than novel writers—J. Michael Straczynski and Steven DeKnight. I find their ability to plot long, intricate arcs of storytelling that transform a TV script into something like a serial visual novel to be incredible. DeKnight's use of language particularly just blows me away, and both writers have created some of the most interesting characters and story lines I've ever seen. Both of them also included GLBT characters as well as het, and have not treated those characters as anything 'unusual', rather with the same respect and compassion that het couples under extreme situations, often shared with the GBLT couples, experience.

I also find DeKnight's method of dealing with homophobes bluntly refreshing—one of his tweets on the subject actually made me a bit teary. He said, "Yeah, all somepeople see is gayness. All I see is love." Straczynski dealt with this in much the same fashion on Usenet, back in pre-social media days. A quote from him, states, "Let me put this assimply as I can...in the year 2258, nobody *cares* about your sexualorientation. It doesn't come up. No one makes an issue out of it. There are nodiscussions, no proclamations, no inquiries, no "how will theyreact?" It's like being left-handed or right-handed; no one really caresone way or another."  So these authors have had a tremendous impact for me and, I have no doubt, for others.

For those wondering what these two men wrote/write, J. Michael Straczynski has written for TV (including animation), theatre, and film and he has written novels, comics, short stories and non-fiction. Stephen DeKnight has written for TV and comics.

For novels, though, the list is as long as my arm, and we'd be here all week!

What are your comfort reads when you are sick or feeling low?

I default to the books by David Eddings. "The Belgariad" and "The Mallorean" got me through a lot of difficult times as a teenager, so they're my comfort food for the brain. Also "Creatures of Light and Dark" by Roger Zelazny or "Demian" by Herman Hesse or  the "Dragonriders of Pern" series by Anne McCaffrey. But mostly David Eddings.

Quickies:

Night or Day? Night.

Coffee or Tea? Tea.

Leather or Lace? Leather. I think I'll be a punk rock "princess" for life.

Pajama movie night or Cocktails at the bar? Pajama movie night!

Formal or Casual? Casual.

City Of Jade

1131, The Silk Road.

Gallienus of Constantinople, a scarred soldier who used to work the city gates, enters a new phase of his life when he meets and falls in love with Misahuen of Gyeongju. But prejudice of same-sex relationships dominates Byzantine society, and both the Emperor and the Church denounce such love. Should Misahuen and Gallienus be discovered, the punishment is castration or death. Fearing he’ll lose Misahuen, Gallienus decides to go with Misahuen when he leaves the city forever.

A former farmer, Misahuen fled war-torn Korea and journeyed to Constantinople with a merchant caravan. He didn’t expect to take such an interest in a wounded soldier at journey’s end. But he understands the danger, so he and Gallienus join another caravan as guardsmen and begin a two-thousand-mile trip along the Silk Road. Now all they have to do is persevere to their final destination without the truth of their relationship being discovered and killed because of it… or by the other dangers along the Road.

Fantasy Friday: Lexi DeHalo & Jana Downs