Welcome Kinsey Holley to BWB! {Guest Post}

When I decided I wanted to write a werewolf romance a few years ago, I only had one character and one idea to start with.

The character was a young woman I’d been carrying around in my head for a while. (What? No, believe me—this is totally normal for a writer.) She gave her life for a little boy she loved very much, by throwing herself in front of his drunk and violent werewolf stepfather.

The stepfather killed her, and it changed her whole life.

The idea was that, in my world, werewolves are out and living openly among humans. They’re fully assimilated into American society (the situation varies in other countries). There are no female werewolves, so werewolves marry human women, have kids—some werewolves, some not—and raise their families among humans.

And my werewolves would not be borderline psychopaths forever on the cusp of bloody rampages. I figured, if they’d managed to live and evolve alongside us in secret for millennia, legends and superstitions being the only hint of their existence, then they must have been good at passing for human, right? Which meant they could control themselves. Granted, alphas were more prone to violence than betas, but still—they couldn’t go around ripping chunks of flesh out of everyone who looked at them cross-eyed. People would have noticed a long time ago.

So once I had my heroine and my werewolves, I just had to write the story. It only took me two years and many nights on my sisters-in-law’s porches drinking wine or, when I got really stuck, margaritas, and asking them plaintively: But how did she die? What’s the big secret Cade’s mother was hiding? And what’s the deal with Declan?

They never told me—they always made me figure it out for myself. But they were good for feedback and constructive criticism, and the alcohol and food were always welcome.

Along the way I got frustrated and started looking for an excuse to stop. So when Samhain put out a call for a shapeshifting anthology, I thought why not, I’ve already got this cool world built, and Cade’s not doing what I want him to, so let’s put this aside and try a novella.

Kiss and Kin sort of fell out of my head. It came to me so much more easily than Rocky Mountain Howl, which is what Yours, Mine and Howls was called for two years before my editor decided it wasn’t romance-y enough.

And Kiss and Kin got published, and it sold very well for a first book and got good reviews. And that gave me the boost I needed to finish Yours, Mine and Howls.

It’s a little darker than Kiss and Kin. The characters are tangentially related to characters in Kiss and Kin, but the latter don’t make any appearances.

I don’t think it will take me two years to write the next book in the Werewolves in Love series. I’ve already got another novella, Ready to Run, scheduled for August release (Nick Wargman and his assistant TJ are in it).

I’ve just started writing Seth’s story—you’ll meet him in Yours, Mine and Howls. He’s a quiet one, but there’s a lot going on beneath the surface. Dec will get his own story, as will Michael.

And, yes, Nick and TJ too…

I really (really, really) hope you like Yours, Mine and Howls.

If you’d like to know the story of Cade’s nanny troubles, briefly alluded to in the book, you can go here and read Yours, Mine and Howls: The Nanny Years, for free.

Lastly, and most importantly, I’d like to thank Blog with Bite for highlighting Yours, Mine and Howls this month. I really appreciate it.

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Kinsey Holley lives in Houston Texas, where a lot of people know about her Secret Romance Writer Identity. Hopefully those people don’t include her mother or the folks she goes to church with. She’s married to the Hub, mommy to the Diva, and works part time as a law librarian.

Kinsey takes her mail at kinseywholley@live.com, lives at www.kinseyholley.com and http://ninenaughtynovelists.blogspot.com, and hangs out way too much at

Twitter (@kinseyholley).

Pop round and say hi sometime.

Featured Author LM Pruitt & Giveaway!

 Blog with Bite would like to present L.M. Pruitt as a featured author for Halloween Hysteria!

A little bit about Ms. Pruitt:

L.M. Pruitt has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember. A native of Florida, with a love of New Orleans, she has the uncanny ability to find humor in most things, and would probably kill a plastic plant. She is the author of Shades of Gray: A Jude Magdalyn Novel, the first in the Jude Magdalyn Series. She is currently at work on Shades of Desire, the second novel in the series, as well as New Moon Rising, a new series featuring Cari Gravier.

L.M. Pruitt's Blog.

When I sat down--or laid down, I can't really remember--to begin plotting Shades of Gray, I knew very few things for certain. What I did know was this:
                                -the main character, Jude Magdalyn
                                -there would be vampires
                                -it would be set in New Orleans

I'm going to focus on that last one, New Orleans. It would seen trite and cliched and terribly overdone to set a vampire story in New Orleans. Anne Rice did it. Sherilyn Kenyon did it. Probably who knows how many others (now there's a trivia question for you--but I digress) have done it. Why throw my hat into an overpopulated ring?

First, why not? I like a challenge. Second, New Orleans is quite possibly my favorite city in the world. Granted, I haven't been to all that many cities, but when the best way to describe a place is "second home", you don't need to visit a slew to make sure. Third, and most important (for world building purposes), New Orleans has an immense historical paranormal background.

Gather round the campfire. But you have to bring your own s'mores.

Most people know that the original colonists of New Orleans were less then reputable members of society--thieves, rapists, murderers, you get the drift. Despite their lack of social graces, they had the same desire that most men do. No, not a beer. A woman.

Seems like there'd be an easy fix--send over the less than reputable women. Except the women kept running away with the natives. So the French government as the brilliant idea to send over reputable middle class girls. Properly dowered by the Church, full parental blessing.

Again, seems like a great idea. But the ship made a stop before New Orleans. The local men there were all too happy to let those girls know what was in store for them--and it wasn't pretty. So when the ship reached New Orleans, there were no girls. But there was plenty of other stuff.

All the girls' belongings, conveniently transported in large, rectangular boxes bearing a strong resemblance to caskets, sat on the dock for weeks. Until the sisters of the Ursuline Convent took them and placed them on the third floor. Where they remained under lock and key and behind tightly closed shutters.

Three guesses what most people, even to this day, think are on the third floor. And it ain't linens.

Fascinating by itself. But what if those caskets weren't just boxes, but the vampire equivalent of Purgatory? I mean, what better place to keep the bogeyman than under Church protection. The shutters nailed shut with nails blessed by an archbishop. All bases covered.

But then what happens when one "prisoner" gets out, not once, but twice? And then he lets everyone else out?

To find the answer to those questions, you'll have to check out the sequel to Shades of Gray, Shades of Desire, available on Amazon November 2 and on Kindle by Halloween.

Thanks to Rachel and all the staff at blogwithbite. Don't forget to leave your name in the comment section for a chance to win a signed copy of Shades of Gray AND Shades of Desire. Happy Halloween--and happy reading!




Contest Deets:

• One winner for this particular contest {Signed copy of Shades of Gray AND Shades of Desire}
• Commenting on this post will earn entry into this contest, but please answer the FOR OUR READERS question to be eligible. Not following directions will result in your comment not counting
• Winners will be chosen using Random.org
• Following BlogwithBite.com is not required
• Extra entries will be offered, separate comment for each entry please, if you leave multiple entries in one comment it will only be counted as one entry
• Contest ends October 31st, 2010 11:59 CST

Extra Entries:

• Like Shades of Gray Facebook Page {here}  {Leave name last initial}
• Follow BlogwithBite.com {GFC, Email}
• Like BWB on Facebook {Leave name last initial}
• Add a HALLOWEEN HYSTERIA button to your sidebar {leave link}
• Spread the word in any way, twitter, facebook, post, sidebar, etc. {leave link}
• Reviewed Infinite Days or Masked by Moonlight for BWB 
• Comment on any HALLOWEEN HYSTERIA posts {between now and Oct 31st} 

Vampire Week - Guest Post J.K. Beck

I’m so psyched to be part of the Blog With Bite vampire event for a lot of reasons, but one is that the timing totally rocks, as I have a new series launching in just a few days and—you guessed it—the hero in Book 1 is a vampire!  (The series is the Shadow Keepers, and Book 1 is When Blood Calls). 

I’m writing this late at night in my dark office, with only the glow of the computer to illuminate the room.  It’s pretty cool, actually, and I don’t usually write that way (the dark makes me sleepy, and sleep tends to be counterproductive to the creation of words on paper).  But tonight, the atmosphere is inspiring as I try to think of what to write about—because I want to try to get across some of what I share with the book’s heroine, Sara, about the way we look at vampires.

I should probably point out that Sara didn’t come into the story knowing everything that I know (and when you get right down to it, I didn’t come into the story knowing everything that ultimately happened; that’s the fun of writing books.  The characters drag you along!)  You see, Sara is a prosecutor, and a damn good one.  And when she’s recruited into a special division, she’s astounded—and ultimately excited—to learn that her new job involves prosecuting paranormal creatures who break the Covenant.  What really blows her away, though, is the scope and breadth of this world she’s stepped into.  Because it’s ancient.   Really, really ancient.  Even though Division 6 (where she works) now exists as a secret part of Homeland Security, its roots go back before even the founding of Rome, when the dark creatures realized that they had to self-police if they were going to keep chaos at bay.  And that history fascinates her.

It fascinates me, too.  That was, in fact, the kernel of inspiration for this entire series—a self-policing paranormal world that’s essentially been around since the beginning of time.  And that fascination became more concrete when I started writing Lucius Dragos, the hero.  A man who is on trial for murder—who’s confessed to it, no less—and also happens to be the man with whom Sara had a passionate fling only a few nights before. 

How wild must that be, to have watched the world change over more than a thousand years.  It’s the kind of thing that us mere mortals can’t even really get our head around, but someone like Lucius, for him, a year is like a day.  An hour, even.   And what does that mean for dreams, regrets, loves, feuds?  Do they fade into the past?  Or is the past so much the present that even something that happened five hundred years ago is fresh and raw?  That idea fascinates me, and it’s one of the themes I play with in When Blood Calls, because Luke is definitely a man with some serious baggage—and Sara is a woman fascinated by the allure of history.

Building their world was a bit like an archeological dig, only backwards.  Or maybe forward and backward at the same time, crafting a piece of the past and seeing how that forms part of the puzzle in the present.  It was great fun writing it—and I hope you’ll have just as much fun reading it.

I hope you check out When Blood Calls, it’s definitely a dark, edgy, sexy romance, and you can read excerpts at my website, www.jkbeck.com (you can also see what contests I’ve got running, check out my blog, and sign up for swag and my newsletter!)

Obviously, I’m doing this blog tour to get the word out about the book and the series, but there are other ways to get the word out, too.  Check out my book trailer and you’ll see what I mean!



And, of course, there’s a contest!  I’m giving away bound galleys of books two and three (When Pleasure Rules & When Wicked Craves), along with a $15 Amazon gift card!  So leave a comment and be in the running to win! {Contest Post Click Here}

Don’t know what to say?  Say anything! But if you want a jumping off point, how do you feel about the whole immortality thing?  Thumbs up?  Down?  Do you think five hundred years ago would feel like yesterday?  Would you miss the way your room looked in candlelight and think harsh fluorescents are just plain evil?  Come on, you can tell!

And thanks for reading…and thanks to the folks at Blog With Bite for having me!

Contest Deets:
Comment and answers Ms. Beck's questions for extra entries into the contest. Don't forget to stop on by the contest post and let us know that you commented here! {Contest Post Click Here}

The Secret Sexual Appeal Of The Werewolf

Blog with Bite would like to welcome Vanessa Vaughn to the blog! Vanessa is here to tell us a little bit about werewolves...

Guest Blog – author Vanessa Vaughn
The Secret Sexual Appeal Of The Werewolf

Vampires have long been the bad boys of paranormal romance. But werewolves are trending right now. We love the vampires’ ethereal beauty, their refinement, their hypnotic stares. But what is it about werewolves that is making us swoon? 

Werewolves are beasts at heart. They’re animals. But that is their charm!

Sometimes we long for an Alpha male who is ruled by instinct, someone willing to use their muscles and teeth and claws to claim what they want. Sometimes we prefer a man who is a little feral and dangerous. . .a man who wants to play rough.

Don’t get me wrong. I love a good vampire tale as much as the next girl. Vampires are elegant and beautiful. Their haunting stares make us forget ourselves and give in completely to our darkest desires.

But sometimes I long to read about a man who is a little more raw. And that is where werewolves come in.

Werewolves are controlled by a powerful urge to mate, just as vampires are controlled by a powerful urge for blood. But while the vampire’s urge is symbolic of sex, the werewolf’s urge is sex itself. What the werewolves feel is primal and savage. It is unstoppable.

Where vampires are elegant and pale and sensual, werewolves are all hard muscle and brute force. Both are the ultimate bad boys. Both make us to do kinky twisted things we never thought we would. Both can bite us savagely and make us part of their world. Both can even go too far and kill us.

But only the werewolf is truly transformed by his hunger. Only the werewolf loses all control and utterly forgets himself. That complete loss of control is what sets werewolves apart. For the werewolf, absolutely everything is permitted and nothing is held back. What he wants, he takes.

If that isn’t a recipe for hot sex, I don’t know what is!!!

Check out my new erotic werewolf novel Pack Of Lies. (Available now in ebook. Print edition coming very soon to Amazon!)

Title: Pack Of Lies
Author: Vanessa Vaughn
Buy on Amazon

Synopsis:

When Jack is attacked by a powerful werewolf one moonlit night, his world is forever changed.

Marcus is that wolf, the strong leader of his pack, who never imagined a mere mortal could ever escape him, much less ever become one of his kind. And yet, as time passes, he can't deny the handsome human is slowly beginning to change.

No longer the civilized architect he used to be, Jack feels a new power coalescing inside of him. He barely even recognizes himself as he becomes more sexual, more impulsive, more wild in every way.

But as the bite transforms him, it also binds he and his attacker together forever. The two share a powerful unbreakable link, no matter how forcefully they may each try to deny it.

Marcus is already hiding secrets from the other wolves, and his position as Alpha is threatened. Could Jack be the new ally Marcus needs to set things right, or will their desire for one another draw them away from all they know and alter the course of their lives forever?

Exerpt:

The moon.

That soft sensual glow is always with me. Even when I can’t see the night sky, I feel its dark caress.

As the moon’s phases change, it breathes a coy suggestive whisper in my ear. It presses
close, and I feel its fingers brush my skin. That light sparks something inside of me. Something primal. It starts a fever somewhere deep and spreads like slow-burning fire through my limbs.

I can always sense the Change starting. The full moon’s strong hand curls around my throat. I feel its grip tighten like a man’s thick fingers on my neck. When that grip makes me suddenly lightheaded, my pulse quickens, and I sink quietly to my knees. I know I have to give myself over, and I know how impossible it is to resist.

Some humans dream about submission. They crave it, complete with soft tortures and the
smooth caress of expensive leather. They want to be bound and made to feel wonderfully,
blissfully helpless. They enjoy feeling compelled to give in.

Humans like to play with their toys.

But what do they know about pleasure and pain so naturally intertwined?

When the animal in me takes over, I feel sensations more intense than any whip could offer. My teeth descend to sharp lethal points against my tongue, and I feel the lovely, horrifying ache as bones lengthen and skin is stretched.
But that ache only makes me smile.

In that instant of agony, my instincts wash over me like a hard drug flooding my veins.
Desire takes over—the desire for sex and for the hunt—obscuring all logical thought, all worries, absolutely all guilt. I feel ecstasy as I flex my teeth and claws. I feel a need building urgently and unstoppably between my legs with an intensity that few experience.

So, you see, as the gut-wrenching agony of the Change grips me, so does the all-consuming pleasure.

Perhaps that is why we wolves prefer our hunts so vicious.

And our sex so rough.

Blog with Bite would like to introduce Tricia Rayburn, author of Siren.  She's stopped by to tell us a little bit about her book, and the finned females that grace it's pages.  Please give a warm welcome to Ms. Rayburn, and don't forget to enter the contest we have going on for her book.  Enter Here.

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Growing up, I wanted to be two things: a librarian, and Madison from the movie Splash.  I knew it would be tough—books and water don’t exactly make a perfect match—but I didn’t care.  Somehow, someway, I was going to explore the ocean’s depths, have beautiful, long blonde hair, meet a cute guy who’d love me despite my occasionally pesky tail, and be surrounded by stories.

Now, twenty-something years later, I’m closer to those goals than I ever really thought possible.  I have neither beautiful, long blonde hair nor pesky tail (whew!), but I’ve explored the ocean’s depths and I’m surrounded by stories.  More specifically, I’ve written Siren, a story featuring seductively stunning ladies who can breathe underwater as easily as they can on land.  Like me and unlike Madison, these ladies don’t have tails…but they don’t need them to reel in the many cute guys they set their silvery sights on.

A lack of fins isn’t the only difference between Madison and my ladies of the sea.  The bigger, more important one is motivation.  Madison’s worst crimes are cracking a few TV screens with her sea-girl screech, and not being entirely forthcoming about who she is with Allen, the cute guy she first meets underwater when they’re both kids and with whom she unexpectedly reunites years later.  In my story, the sirens use their physical prowess to entice unsuspecting boys with the intention of growing even more powerful and wreaking even more havoc on the small resort town of Winter Harbor, Maine.  This is something 17-year-old Vanessa Sands, Siren’s main character, will learn the hard way as she tries to solve the mystery of her older sister’s death.

I suppose I could’ve made my sirens sweeter.  After all, not a single life was lost in Splash, and that was a great story that stayed with me for years and years.  But would readers have been satisfied with a similar happy ending?  Two decades ago I would’ve thought yes, absolutely.  Today, I’m not so sure.  Either way, I hope they enjoy exploring the sea in Siren!