Throughout history, The Lady, Goddess of the Lycan world, has gifted werewolf packs with humans who carry her mark. Theodora Morrissey’s plans to return to college for her graduate degree are ended when she is awakened by an otherworldly voice on a rarely used airstrip in Nebraska. Injured and disoriented, she has no idea the discoloration on her back has marked her as a Seer, and that she is now a possession—and the prisoner—of the Novus Pack of Lycans.
To the Novus pack, the word of their leader, their Laird, is the law. With compelling gray eyes and long dark hair, Raider Black rules his pack with intelligence and ruthlessness. To cement the security of his pack, Black has committed to mate another Packleader’s daughter. But he’s finding it impossible to fight his attraction to the pack’s alluring new Seer, claiming her as his own.
Sweet, fearless, and unintentionally funny, Theo upends Black’s world and pushes the boundaries of his rules. How far is Raider willing to go, and what will he sacrifice, to save both his pack and the human Seer who’s found a way not only into his bed, but his heart?
I’m keeping my head down, writing, editing, trying to get to the end of several projects. So, today’s comments are short and to the point.
Take a look at what’s coming soon. Then tell me… Which are you planning to read?
S*x on The Beach
Coming September 11th! Related to Hot SEAL/SEALs in Paradise, Montana Bounty Hunters, and Elle James’s Brotherhood Protectors
Navy SEAL Carson Walsh is ready to live the good life. After surviving fifteen deployments in ten years, he bailed on the SEALs figuring this cat had run out of lives. Now living in Cabo San Lucas, the only danger he faces is choking on an oyster or drowning in beer–and then he meets her.
Gina Tripp is the Calamity Jane of bounty hunters. She’s the stand-in for an absent groom on her girlfriend’s honeymoon in Cabo when she meets a cute guy with a nothing but sex on the beach in mind. But she has her sights set on scoring a huge bounty–an ex-pat skip hiding out in Mexico. All she has to do is figure out how to perform her own extradition of her target. One drunken night later and a wild ride on a drug-runner’s plane, she’s pretty relieved she hijacked a Navy SEAL to help her with the job, even if he’s an unwilling participant who has to put his rusty skills to use to keep them both alive.
Coming September 18th! Montana Bounty Hunters, Book 5
Former Army Ranger, Dylan “Hook” Hoecker, has a new job along with a new prosthetic arm. Being a bounty hunter is the closest career field he could find as a civilian that gives him the adrenaline rush that is his addiction. So, when his first solo assignment is to keep an eye on a flight risk the boss bonded out of jail, he’s not thrilled. However, he soon discovers a fresh addiction–one mouthy, nerdy redhead, who resists his attempts to keep her out of trouble.
Felicity Gronkowski is grateful for the bone the head of Montana Bounty Hunter threw her. She didn’t have the money to pay for bail, but he has a soft spot for former military, and she bartered to install a new computer system in his satellite office in Bear Lodge. Being on the outside of jail was her first imperative because she has to figure out who framed her for a series of high-end robberies while she worked installing home security systems. However, her bounty-hunting babysitter isn’t giving her any slack. Every time she thinks she’s given him the slip, he’s one step ahead of her. Either she has to find the perfect method of distraction to escape him or she has to enlist his help to clear her name.
When police officer Sinead O’Rourke returns to duty months after being shot in an incident that claimed her partner, she knows it’s not going to be easy. Despite being cleared of any negligence, her fellow officers still wonder whether she’s responsible for his death. One more problem is that everyone knows she claims to have seen his ghost. After months of rehabilitation and lying like hell about the fact she’s not seeing spooks anymore, Sin’s determined to get back into the saddle.
Jake doesn’t want to partner with Sin. Been there, done that—couldn’t keep his hands off her the first time around. She’s too much of a distraction, and her penchant for rushing into trouble scares the heck out of him. Despite wishing she’d quit her job, he’s still deeply attracted. When an armed robbery goes down and something happens that rattles Sin to the core, he’s right there—ready to cover her back and her sweet body.
Coming November 20th!
Montana Bounty Hunters, Book 6
Former Marine “Wolf” Patterson is working with a team of MBH bounty hunters in the densely forested Kootenai Forest to bring in one Reese Tobin, a man wanted for arson, who escaped from jail just before his trial. When Wolf catches up to him, Tobin draws a gun, telling Wolf he can’t return to lock-up or he’s a dead man. Just as one of his teammates is about to lunge toward Tobin to take him down, a shot rings out, and Reese is dead.
Former Army Military Police Officer, now Deputy, Meg Henry, was the officer who arrested Tobin, and nothing about that night sat right since. After hearing he was killed, she heads to Kootenai, hoping to talk to the men who were with him last, hoping Tobin told them something that might help her figure out the mystery surrounding him. Because handsome bounty hunter, Wolf, was the last to talk to Tobin, Meg offers Wolf a ride back to the sheriff’s department. They barely begin their conversation when they find themselves running for their lives. Meg doesn’t know who to trust, but she instinctively trusts the tall, intensely attractive Wolf. Together, they work to unravel the mystery while staying one step ahead of someone who wants them both dead.
Quite a bit, actually. Whether we like it or not, people make assumptions about us based on what we wear.
I’m currently wearing a white short-sleeve T-shirt and a pair of black capri leggings with a hole just above the knee. What does that say about me? I like comfort. I’m relaxed at home. I’m not concerned about seeing people. Maybe I need to buy some new capri pants. 🙂 Or maybe, that I’m a writer on a deadline.
I have at-home clothes and clothes I wear when I go out into the world. It’s funny how my wardrobe changed after I quit my day job back in 2005 to write full-time. Over the years, the selection in my closet has dwindled. Now, it mostly consists of comfortable clothes. There are a lot of leggings and T-shirts—both short and long-sleeved in my closet. I tend to find something I like and buy it in multiples and different colors. Saves on shopping. These days, I even wear leggings when I go out, just not the grubby ones with the holes in them.
And we all know that everybody’s crazy about a sharp dressed man. Just ask ZZ Top.
Which brings me to Luther Henderson, the hero of Drakon Unchained, the latest book in my Blood of the Drakon series. He is the head of security for a member of the Knights of the Dragon, a secret society that traps and uses dragons for their own gain. Most of the men he works with wear your typical black combat-style clothes. Maybe they think it makes them look tough. Maybe it’s for ease of movement. Maybe it simply helps to hide the bloodstains.
But Luther wears custom tailored suits. Custom because he’s tall and extremely well-built. Nothing off the rack is going to fit him. Over the years, he’s discovered that him wearing a suit puts people at ease. They relax around him and tend to forget just how dangerous he really is. It’s a mistake they often regret as Luther doesn’t hesitate to use it to his advantage.
Drakon Unchained
Blood of the Drakon, Book 5
Victoria Marshall is living a lie. She works for a member of the Knights of the Dragon, a secret society that traps and uses dragons for their own gain. As a child, she made an unlikely friend—a drakon. He went missing, and she’s spent the past twenty years searching for him. The only thing distracting her from her mission is Luther Henderson, her boss’s new head of security.
Luther is also living a lie. One, if discovered, could lead to a fate worse than death. He’s attracted to Victoria, but can’t fully trust her, doesn’t know if she’s truly innocent or a true member of the Knights. It’s not only his life at stake, but those of the people he loves.
As they’re thrust deeper into the dangerous dealings of the Knights, they each have to share their secrets in order to survive.
N.J. Walters is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who has always been a voracious reader, and now she spends her days writing novels of her own. Vampires, werewolves, dragons, time-travelers, seductive handymen, and next-door neighbors with smoldering good looks—all vie for her attention. It’s a tough life, but someone’s got to live it.
When ideas are flowing fast, it’s all I can do to write fast enough to get it all down. I need a clone. LOL. I love when I’m deep into a story, and the story is going well. When I write, I connect with each moment in the story. Connect with the characters and walk with them as they go through whatever happens in the story. The book drives me to keep writing. I’m eager to see what happens next right along with my characters. The adventure of it all is such fun, and I love it.
Each book has its own personality and quirks that are unveiled as you write. It’s like getting to know someone you just met. Of course, you have impressions from what you view of them, and you are either proven right or wrong once you get to know them. Then as you get more familiar with that person, you get more in-depth with them and learn so much about them.
That is how I view a book—a new person I want to know so much more about. So when I write, that is my goal—to take a reader from that initial first impression they get when they read the blurb to making them become a part of the story. To make the reader become part of the fabric of the story. I love getting to do that when I write. Taking a journey of a story then bringing a reader along with me.
Seducing a God
When a God meets a woman who is a decadent distraction, he finds himself being seduced.
Taige Crenshaw has been enthralled with the written word from time she picked up her first book. It wasn’t long before she started to make up her own tales of romance.
With interracial and multicultural novels set in today, in alternate dimensions, or in the future, she writes with adventure, fun sassy heroines, and sexy heroes.
Always hard at work creating new and exciting places, Taige can be found curled up with a hot novel with exciting characters when she is not creating her own. Join her in the fun, frolic, interesting people and far reaches of the world in her novels.
NEWSLETTER! Want to get the latest information and from Taige’s writing projects, giveaways, contests, reveals and more. Click on http://bit.ly/taigenews and signup today.
On August 21st, Lion in the Shadows releases! It’s a very erotic story—so consider yourself warned! 🙂
This opening scene I’m sharing today includes details of rescue procedures I gleaned from reading articles and speaking to a fireman in the Texas Hill County, who specialized in cave rescues. That was one fun conversation!
In Lion, things get hot…and weird…really quick. So, if you love a hot paranormal with hints of ghosts/demon possession/shapeshifting, Lion might be what you need.
For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me whether you could see yourself crawling through caves for fun!
Lion in the Shadows
When a teen dies inside an unexplored cave, it’s Lani Kimmel’s job to bring him out. This is not a pleasant job, but one she’s handled many times as a member of the local fire department and an expert in cave rescues. The trek into the cave awakens a creature that will push this no-nonsense woman’s boundaries of belief and test her newly emerging love for one man.
Rafe Chavez, the new sheriff in this small Texas town, has already staked a claim on Lani. He’s a man with a goal in his sights, and he’s not letting anything get in his way—until he dreams about an Indian brave who died in that unexplored cave, savaged by a mountain lion. When his dreams cross into reality, Rafe realizes he may be possessed by the Indian’s spirit—but the spirit isn’t alone, and it wants Lani.
Just when Lani’s resistance to his erotic persuasion crumbles, Rafe must push her away to protect her from another creature that has also cast its gaze upon her…
Sounds other than the usual chirping of cave crickets and the incessant drip of water intruded on the sleeper’s dreams, echoing down the cavern. Voices, laughter, feet scraping over stone.
The sleeper opened his eyes and found that, for once, the exercise wasn’t futile. A sliver of grayish light penetrated the gloom.
He stretched, willing blood to quicken through his body, to heat and ease muscles that had remained dormant too long.
Then a new scent—musky, warm-blooded, human—entered his tomb. He rolled to his feet.
Then gathering his strength he roared up the cave wall.
* * *
Lani Kimmel drove over the cattle guard onto the gravel road that marked the beginning of rancher McKelvey’s property. She followed the ridgeline of the steep, oak and cedar-covered hill, bouncing in her seat despite her truck’s heavy-duty shocks. The tires churned in caliche, the fine sandstone gravel pinging on the wheel wells.
She tried to keep her mind focused on the task of keeping her pickup on the rough road and away from the reason she climbed to the remote spot. But her stomach already burbled, her palms grew moist, and that little voice in the back of her mind—the one that sounded like her father’s—taunted her, What do you think you’re playin’ at, little girl? You aren’t strong enough.
As she rounded a curve, a long line of parked vehicles forced her to pull onto the shoulder to continue forward. Further along, she passed an EMS unit, two county squad cars, and the trucks and SUVs belonging to other members of the volunteer fire department. Parking in a narrow space between two vehicles, she had her door open before the engine finished chugging to a halt. Heat blasted her, and she grabbed her volunteer’s baseball cap to shield her eyes from the bright afternoon sun. Then she slid her duffel from behind her seat, kicked a booted heel against the door of her truck, and headed toward the mouth of the unnamed cave.
She nodded to the EMS team crouched beside two boys huddled beneath blankets, shivering despite the late afternoon heat. Compassion could have swamped her, but she quickly tamped down the emotion. If she thought too much about it, she wouldn’t be able to get through the next few hours. Their buddy likely lay on the bottom of the cave floor, and it was her job to bring him up.
Lani approached the group standing in front of a narrow black hole. Stones and gravel were already piled to the side as the men worked at widening the opening. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves. “Anybody looked inside yet?”
Cale Witte, the captain of the volunteer fire department, turned and gave her a crooked smile that creased his suntanned face. “Glad you could make it, Lani. Did you bring your vertical pack?”
Lani lifted her duffel. “Got it here, boss. So, we have a drop-off? Anyone hear from the kid inside?”
He shook his head, his grave expression telling her he expected the worst. “Those skinny runts shimmied through that hole carrying ropes and Maglites,” he said, sounding disgusted. “Said they didn’t know there was another level until their friend dropped out of sight.”
Lani swore under her breath.
Cale spat a stream of chewing tobacco. “A couple of us crawled in. The entrance is blocked with loose-packed gravel and stone. It’s pretty unstable, but the cave opens wide once you’re through the mouth. About twenty feet inside, it bottoms out. We shined our lights around, but it was too deep to see much. We need to climb down.”
“Well, that’s what I’m here for, huh?” Lani said, willing confidence into her voice.
He nodded. “No one knows caves like you do—that’s a fact. You better have a look for yourself.”
Randy Brandt, another member of the department, leaned on his shovel. “Think we’ve got this hole wide enough for your butt now?” His grin stretched across his handsome face.
Not for the first time, Lani thought Randy’s lean, muscled frame, and sun-tinted brown hair belonged in a firemen’s calendar. “Better put your back into it.” Lani gave him a teasing glance. “Gotta make room for that big head of yours, too.”
The men chuckled.
Lani took no offense. She’d long ago figured out she was one of the team when the men included her in the insults they traded. Besides, the banter helped drown out the voice that ate at her composure. The sooner she was in the cave—her world—the sooner she’d be in control. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the most compelling and sought-after romance books are shapeshifter romances. Do you love shifter stories? I do! Shapeshifter books have been a hot topic in romance for quite some time. What makes creatures that can change from human to animal and back to human again, so appealing?
I have a few thoughts but would love to hear what you think. How many types of shifters have you read? What’s your favorite? Dragons, wolves, bears, lions, leopards, tigers, deer, eagle or more. I even read one about a shapeshifting seal.
So, what makes a shapeshifter story element so HOT!
Readers, including me, love Alpha male characters. Brooding and troubled heroes and courageous heroines who can tame them. The rugged kick butt kind of guy who can battle evil, protect love ones, love intensely and save the world. He’s a primal, fierce being when his animalistic side emerges. Imagine the power and strength of predatory animals, then consider what a human male/female would be like possessing some of these traits. That makes for a powerful character.
Many shifters possess super powers, like heightened senses, Superhuman strength or other mystical powers. Birds and other mythical creatures can fly. Who wouldn’t want the power to fly? Some may travel through dimensions, move objects or read minds. They demonstrate keen eyesight, hearing or the ability to run fast. These animal traits occasionally transfer to their human form.
Conflicts and drama in these books are cranked up on high. A character’s human side may not always agree with his animal side, adding more dynamic struggles. Fights between two shifters or shifter vs human kick up the tension a notch.
Paranormal and Fantasy world. The paranormal or mystical quality of these stories are interesting and compelling. Fans of paranormal and fantasy worlds are fascinated with strange, unusual or bizarre settings. Add in non-human creatures, an adventure and steamy love story—what’s not to love?
Mythology, folklore and ancient history all report various shifters. I love the mythology and folklore that authors create. Some of these stories are based on actual mythology, other make up new realms. I used the Norwegian folklore of the Eigi Einhamr in a shapeshifting series, yet to be re-released soon. In this folklore, humans can wear the skin of any animal and change into that animal. Many people believed in shifters or believed that they were one. (more on that below).
THE OTHERKIN
Put fiction aside and look inside our real world. Within some subcultures, there are people who seriously believe that they are not human. These ‘otherkin’ are considered non-human and come in all shapes and sizes.
Some people claim that they’re truly vampires, not cosplay, pretenders or wannabes. Others call themselves theriomorphs (shapeshifters), some say they come from another world or other dimensions. There are those who claim they’re animal but can change into human form. Not sure I see the difference. It’s a wonderful, strange world we live in.
What are your favorite shapeshifter creature and/or books?
Share below in comments. I have a few shifter books and a backlist series that I’ll be releasing soon. My current shifter titles:
Dragon Witch and The Shifter’s Spell are two of my current shapeshifter stories. I have more coming. Visit my website www.kathykulig.com to learn more.
Dragon Witch is book one in the Dark Realms series.
A sexy space pilot on a desperate mission. A headstrong biologist he loves. And a dragon shifter caught in the middle as their worlds collide. Passion, love, greed and betrayal threaten their survival. When worlds collide, can love survive?
Kathy is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of steamy paranormal, contemporary, and suspense romance. She’s a science geek by day and escapes into her writer’s world at night. Kathy’s books are passionate, emotionally-charged and always have a happy ending. Some of her fav things: walks on the beach, traveling, curling up with her eBooks, binge watching Netflix series and having dinners out with her darling husband. She lives in Pennsylvania in a 100-year-old Victorian house with a garage built out of reject tombstones.
I have the usual family duties stepping into high gear—kids getting ready for school, which means tons of babysitting while my dd buys school supplies and clothes and runs the boy to football practice.
My dd and I have made a new friend in the nearby subdivision who’s into arts and crafts like we are, so we’re gearing up to produce stuff! Yes, I’ll be making more jewelry! I’m prepping to reopen my Etsy store and get ready for a Fall chock full of art fairs. So, my first priority is to organize my art room, which fell into complete disarray this past year. Good God, it’s a huge task.
My editing biz is in high gear. I have more clients now than I really want, but I think that’s a good thing. I’m busy, busy.
I have a very tight schedule for new releases. Books on pre-order that aren’t yet written! Gah! And more with luscious covers I can’t wait to share! How about the titles, huh? Any strike your fancy? Short stories: Stepbrothers Stepping Out — With His Client, Taking Dicktation. Books: S*x on the Beach ( a SEAL story!), Montana Bounty Hunters: Hook, Montana Bounty Hunters: Wolf, Montana Bounty Hunters: Animal…
As for the writing? I still have a few books left from the closings of Kindle Worlds, Ellora’s Cave, and Samhain to revise and get out the door. Which leads me to this…
Lion in the Shadows
When a teen dies inside an unexplored cave, it’s Lani Kimmel’s job to bring him out. This is not a pleasant job, but one she’s handled many times as a member of the local fire department and an expert in cave rescues. The trek into the cave awakens a creature that will push this no-nonsense woman’s boundaries of belief and test her newly emerging love for one man.
Rafe Chavez, the new sheriff in this small Texas town, has already staked a claim on Lani. He’s a man with a goal in his sights, and he’s not letting anything get in his way—until he dreams about an Indian brave who died in that unexplored cave, savaged by a mountain lion. When his dreams cross into reality, Rafe realizes he may be possessed by the Indian’s spirit—but the spirit isn’t alone, and it wants Lani.
Just when Lani’s resistance to his erotic persuasion crumbles, Rafe must push her away to protect her from another creature that has also cast its gaze upon her…
