a look at Katherine Wyvern & ‘A Muse to Live For’ @KatherineWyvern @evernightpub #historical #transgender #romance

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Let’s all give a warm welcome to the wonderfully talented, Katherine Wyvern! Want to know what I mean? Be sure to visit her on Instagram via the link below. Thanks for joining us here today with your story, A Muse to Live For, Katherine!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* I have entered that age when looking at beautiful male models in their prime makes me a cougar, ahem.
* Almost all my heroines are short: that’s because I look at the world from hobbit level. Being so small I am three times more concentrated (read: obsessive) than anybody I know. I am exhaustingly creative in writing, arts, crafts… Sometimes my brain gets friction burns from hurtling at such speed from one universe to the next.
* I love animals, plants, and occasionally even people.
* Like the Highlander I come from a lot of different places. I was born in Italy but lived here and there and consider myself simply and deeply European. I love Europe passionately, its antiquity, its diversity, its quirkiness. All my books are set in Europe, or alternate versions of it.
* I have been writing since I can remember.

Find Katherine Wyvern here…
Blog | Facebook | Facebook Reader Group | Instagram | Twitter | Website

A look into…

~ Behind the Scene ~

* Hello, and thank you so much for hosting me and my new release, A Muse to Live For.
* A Muse to Live For is the third instalment in my loosely interconnected “transgender trilogy”, which includes also Woman as a Foreign Language and Spice & Vanilla. While WaaFL and S&V are very obviously connected (they have two characters in common), the threads connection Spice to Muse are much subtler, so much so that I consider it almost a game with my readers to find them.
* Unlike the other two books, which are Contemporary Romance, Muse takes a plunge back into the past and is set in the 1880s.
* This is part of why it took me so long to write it (almost a year, on and off). Much as I am familiar with Victorian England from having read so much Dickens, and Conan Doyle, and the Brontë sisters, and a number of other books written or set in that period, whenever one begins to write, one discovers how many details they are still missing. How much did a shave cost? How did you ride a cab? Where would a poor Irish immigrant likely live? How do you wear a bustle dress? How do you fix one if it’s worn?
* It became so fascinating to research all these things (and much more) that I spent more time in Victorian London than I had ever intended, and once more, a short story became a novel (story of my life).
* The main reason for choosing a period setting however was not the fancy costumes and moody atmosphere, but a desire to write a story about an artist of that amazing period, when the Pre Raphaelites, the Symbolists and the Impressionists were changing the face of art, and to write a transgender character before transgender became a thing, before there were any labels or any sense of belonging to a group.
* It is the deepest trip I ever took into the emotions of any two characters, through obsession, depression, love and wonderful fulfilment, and both characters have some autobiographic relevance to me. It’s my favorite story to date.

~ Blurb ~

* London, 1884
* An artist lives to create. When Nathaniel’s urge to paint died, so did his will to live.
* Until the night he meets Gabrielle.
* Gabrielle may be just a poor prostitute, but she has the beauty of a Pre-Raphaelite stunner and the otherworldly aura of a fallen angel. She also has a secret. Gabrielle is Gabriel, and when Gabriel’s dark past comes knocking and Gabrielle must abandon her new career as an artist’s model, Nathaniel’s whole world comes crashing down again.
* Better to die than living without her love, and the breathtaking creative drive she brought him. But it’s dead easy to die for a woman. Any fool can die for love. To live for it, that takes altogether more courage, doggedness, and imagination.
Be Warned: transgender romance, queer romance, cross-dressing, m/m sex, anal sex, rape

~ Excerpt ~

* I am not sure how to touch Nathaniel. I want him to kiss me again, I want him to hold me, I want him to look at me that way he does in his studio, when he watches every line of my body and sees a woman. And at the same time, I wish he would see me for what I am, all that I am, once and for all, so I don’t have to hide anymore.
* So I shed my jacket, and the blouse underneath. I shiver a little in the cold when my arms are bared, and he runs his warm palms on my goosebumps, soothing them.
* Then I stand to unbutton my skirts and petticoat, and untie my bustle, and I let it all swish down around my knees, and I stand here naked, in my small chemise, and stockings and corset, and my boots.
* I am still silk-skinned and woman shaped.
* Except for that one thing.
* I steal a glance at his face—I can hardly bear to look at his eyes, standing here so naked—thinking he will wince, or frown. Or scream, what do you know. You can never tell, with a sensitive artistic temperament.
* But he does none of these things.
* Instead he goes to his knees on the floor, like a man about to propose in some play, and with a sort of mute reverence he strokes my thighs and my buttocks, and the back of my knees, through the stockings. When he lays a kiss and then his forehead on the hard of my hip, where the bone pokes sharply under my skin, I put my hands on his crazy hair, and hold him there, and with the barest, lightest touch of his fingertips he caresses the front of my corset, on my belly, and then down, down.
* And to my acute embarrassment, the damn thing shivers to his touch, stiffening, rising.
* Well. He has certainly seen me, now. He really has.
* He is not screaming.
* I pull him to his feet and I step out of my puddled skirts, and gently I undress him. Jacket and shirt and trousers and drawers, socks, everything.
* He is as tall as I am, which I had never noticed, because he always stands with his head bent and his shoulders slumped. He’s not muscular, but there is no fat on him either. He has well-built bones under his lumpy clothes—he badly needs a good tailor—and he would be rather handsome if he held himself straight, with his chin up, and didn’t look so much at odds with himself. He’s pale, but not as pale as I am, and there is just the merest spray of hair on his chest.
* I caress his skin all over as I undress him, and he looks transfixed, as if it had never occurred to him that it takes two to dance this dance. Perhaps he thought I’d make him spend the night on his knees adoring me.
* The heat of his skin is like a deep current, and it draws me to him.
* We stand here mute, the only sounds the drumming of the rain and the swish of falling clothes, and gently kissing lips.
* When I push him to lie on the bed, I have a moment of dread that he might want to do that to me. I cannot have it. I will not be taken that way ever again.
* I’ll make my living giving blowjobs for the rest of my days, I guess.
* But I am not afraid of him. I do not believe he’d be capable of hurting a fly, let alone me.
* “So, do you fancy that blowjob, finally?” I whisper in his ear, smiling, but he holds me close, too close for me to slide down along his body.
* “I love you,” he whispers, his lips on my ear, so that words are made into a caress, “I love you, I love you.”
* “Hush,” I whisper back, bearing down on him, grinding my cock on his. “Don’t say such things. It cannot be. It can’t.”
* “This night, this once, please, let me say it. I love you, I love you, I love you.” His body rises to meet mine, and I feel those tears spilling now, with joy, and grief, and pity. Pity for him, for me, for both of us, lost in this narrow garret under the drumming rain, orphans in this storm, desperately naked in this terrible iron city.
* “Only this once, then,” I whisper. “Tomorrow, you must forget.”
* And before he can answer or kiss me again, I slip out of his arms, and down, along his chest and belly, so he cannot see me cry.
* I have pleasured so many men this way, but never one I loved, and maybe it’s the same thing, and yet it’s something altogether different. He’s all silk and warmth and heaving life and fire pulsing, and his flesh matters to mine, so that my whole body loves his.
* “You—don’t—have—to do this,” he whispers at first, but then he surrenders finally, and lets the pleasure take him.
* I told him, the first time we met, that I’d do him for free. Who would have guessed, then, that I would end up doing him for love?
* And I don’t know if he’s a virgin—but he is indeed quick. His cock grows even tauter on my tongue, and he breathes in short, hard gasps a few times. When his body arches and heaves and his hand fumbles at my cheek, I hold him, and hold him, and hold him… He comes with a broken moan, hotly. I swallow it all.
* On the street I never do. But here, now, with him, I could not bring myself to spit.

Buy A Muse to Live For here…
Amazon – US | Evernight Publishing

Thank you for joining us here today, Katherine Wyvern! It was a pleasure getting to know you and your story.

a look at the Crystal Creek #series by Laura Haley-McNeil #RomanticSuspense @laurarmcneil @SDSXXTours

On By Casey's CornerIn Authors & Books, Book Tours1 Comment
Imagine the Kiss
Crystal Creek Book 7
by Laura Haley-McNeil
Genre: Clean Romantic Suspense
Two people open themselves to the truth and open themselves to each other.
Her marriage in ruins, violinist Teagan Whitloch Munroe escapes into her music and the solace she finds at the Crystal Creek Ranch. Practicing in the woods helps her piece together her life, but she isn’t alone. When she hears someone hiking nearby, she demands he reveal himself, but the only revelation she gets is a soothing voice that heals the pain in her heart.
Maimed by a crushing accident, the once famous architect Phineas St. Cyr protects the world from his disfigurement by sequestering himself in the woods on the Crystal Creek Ranch. When he hears the intoxicating strains from Teagan’s violin, he can’t resist the beauty that quiets his aching soul, and he yearns to know the woman who creates such beauty.
Teagan finds sanctuary in her friendship with this connoisseur of music, but soon realizes Phin’s hiding more than his hideous scars. As they become entangled with each other, Teagan is stunned to learn they share more than a love of music. They are caught in a web of deceit by someone threatening to reveal Phin’s secrets. His exposed past endangers Teagan, and he can no longer walk away. This time he must face the enemy determined to defeat him. He’ll fight to the finish to protect the woman he can never love. No price is too high to keep buried the secret that will mark Teagan for destruction.
This is a clean romance.
Defending Her Heart
Crystal Creek Book 6
His head says no. His heart won’t let go.
JT Whitloch can’t close his eyes without seeing the body of the woman who drowned in his swimming pool two years ago. Though he doesn’t remember that night, he blames himself for her death and walks away from a life that gave him everything he ever wanted…almost everything. His move to Crystal Creek gives him the solitude he longs for, but still he can’t find peace.
Then Gretchen Moore moves to town, and she doesn’t just stir up his desire. She stirs up his past, a past with a secret so deadly it could destroy her.
Gretchen wants nothing to do with JT. Because of him, someone wants her dead. The terror from his past forces them into an alliance that soon ignites their passion. Fighting these feelings leads them to the secret of the woman floating in JT’s swimming pool, but the knowledge doesn’t ease JT’s inner turmoil. Instead, it reveals an answer that could destroy him and Gretchen. His own destruction he could accept, but he’ll defend Gretchen to his death.
Risking Her Heart
Crystal Creek Book 5
A novel of suspense, revenge and a love so deep that it can only be released through forgiveness.
Hollywood producer Trent Parker has one goal – to own the film option for the breakout novel Sunset in Maui. His problem? Actress turned producer Charisse Whitloch. She’ll do anything to produce the film. Trent can stop her, but not without getting close to her, a bond he can’t risk.
Charisse has found the film project that will prove she’s her own woman – not her father’s daughter. One person stands in her way – Trent Parker. She’s faced opposition before, but she isn’t prepared for Trent. Her charisma has softened Hollywood’s hardest hearts, but is she a match for Trent’s heart of stone?
Trent’s defenses against Charisse crumble – loving her will heal the darkness in his soul and open the door to a secret he buried long ago. When Charisse is threatened, she and Trent face her adversaries. They piece together a plot more sinister than any Hollywood movie, but the key to their survival lies in Trent’s past – the key that will lead to Trent’s destruction.
Steeling Her Heart
Crystal Creek Book 4
She agrees to enter a loveless marriage, but the man who stole her heart will do anything to stop her.
The holidays are over, and aristocrat Anna Whitloch must leave Crystal Creek and return to Eastern Europe. She made a promise, a promise that will save her mother’s estate. Someone else has other ideas. Ideas that will get Anna out of the way permanently.
Anna can take care of herself, so why was Deputy Rocco Ventali assigned to protect her? She can’t depend on him, as he proved that night ten years ago when they had planned to meet. He never showed.
The last thing Rocco needs is to be assigned to protect Anna, but it soon becomes clear no one else is qualified. So how does he protect the woman he never stopped loving from the secret that could endanger her?
And how does he remain this close to her, and not love her, when the love in his heart refuses to be reined in?
A Ring Around Her Heart
Crystal Creek Book 3
Giselle Whitloch has no time for love. As a college grad, she’s on track to land her dream Wall Street job. Her great grandmother’s ring gives her strength to pursue her goal. When she doesn’t get the job, she flees to the Crystal Creek Ranch to regain her courage to step back into her job hunting mode.
Niccolo di Saluzzo has been searching for the ring that will save his family–the ring that disappeared from his family’s possessions one hundred years ago. He will pursue the ring even if he has to follow the one woman he can never love to an isolated ranch in Crystal Creek, Colorado. Even if pursuing this woman costs him his life.
Niccolo and Giselle battle over ownership of the ring in a fight that takes them from New York City to Crystal Creek, Colorado, to the Balearic Island of Mallorca, to the pinnacle of love both must deny. But the final battle is waged when they meet the man who plans to destroy them both–all for the possession of a ring with a powerful secret.
Crystal Creek Christmas
Crystal Creek Book 2
Celebrate Christmas with the Whitlochs.
When a blinding snowstorm shuts down the Crystal Creek Ranch’s cattle operation, the Whitlochs have one mission – save the cattle. ER doc Jake Whitloch joins in the rescue, but the form he finds in a snowdrift is no cow. It’s a woman, a woman who consumes his thoughts despite that two carat diamond sitting on her ring finger.
Noelle Beaupré thanks the rugged doctor for rescuing her from freezing to death and the Whitlochs for taking her into their home, but now it’s time for her to leave the ranch. She longs to stay with the man who’s determined to protect her, but she doesn’t dare. Her deadly secret is in hot pursuit. Any delay and she’ll endanger the family who opened their home to her.
Noelle leaving Crystal Creek Ranch? Jake can’t let her go, but how can he convince her he’ll do anything to keep her safe?
This book includes your favorite Crystal Creek characters from Book One of the Crystal Creek Series and several new characters, including Max Whitloch’s children from his previous marriages who come to the ranch for Victoria and Garrett’s wedding. All Max’s children will have their own books as they pursue their quests for love.
Guarding Her Heart
Crystal Creek Book 1
Threatened by a stalker, she turns to the only man who can help her – the man who walked out of her life ten years ago.
Artist Victoria Whitloch escapes the clutches of a stalker only to stumble into the arms of the man she never wants to see again, bad boy prosecutor Garrett Reynolds. To protect Victoria, Garrett whisks her away to an isolated lodge. Major problem for Victoria—how does she help Garrett capture the stalker while guarding her heart against the man who broke it once before? Garrett thought his heart had healed when Victoria left him ten years ago. Garrett’s bigger problem—capture the stalker determined to imprison Victoria. Keeping Victoria safe is no easy task for Garrett, but getting her to trust him is an entirely different challenge. He puts his life on the line to guard the woman who is more deserving of love than any woman he’s known. But love takes a back seat to the Whitloch-Reynolds feud. At the center is the Crystal Creek Ranch. The Whitlochs own the ranch. The Reynolds are the rightful heirs.
This is a clean, romantic suspense novel.
**Get it FREE!**
Laura Haley-McNeil received degrees in Spanish and German from Metropolitan State University of Denver. She taught Spanish and then worked in the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library translating the correspondence of Bishop Joseph Machebeuf.
After moving to San Diego, she worked as the accountant for a Christian television station, then transferred to Hardin, Montana, and performed technical production for the television station there.
She returned to Denver and supervised accounting departments for a title company and a stock brokerage firm. During this time, she renovated homes, bought and managed several residential properties and obtained a real estate license. She has also worked as the property manager overseeing five business office complexes, high-rise office buildings and producing newsletter and marketing material.
She is an accomplished ballet dancer having studied and performed in that area for more than twenty years and has studied piano for over forty years. Musical studies also include violin and organ. She has been on the board of directors of two Colorado orchestras and is a past member of the American Liszt Society.
Several of her short stories have been published in national magazines, and she has written book reviews for Book Lover’s Magazine. She is the author of the Crystal Creek Series and the Beaumont Series.
Follow the tour HERE for exclusive excerpts, guest posts and a giveaway!

a look at ‘The Post’ by Kevin A. Munoz #Dystopian #Thriller @drmunoz @SDSXXTours

On By Casey's CornerIn Authors & Books, Book ToursLeave a comment
The Post
by Kevin A. Munoz
Genre: Dystopian Thriller
Ten years after the world’s oil went sour and a pandemic killed most of the population, Sam Edison is the chief of police of The Little Five, a walled-in community near Atlanta, Georgia. Those who survived share the world with what are known as hollow-heads: creatures who are no longer fully human.
A man and a pregnant teenager arrive at the gate and are welcomed into the town. They begin to settle in when suddenly both are murdered by an unknown assailant. In the course of investigation, Chief Edison discovers that the girl was fleeing a life of sexual slavery, and that some members of the Atlanta community were complicit in the human trafficking network that had ensnared her.
In retaliation for Edison’s discoveries, agents of the network abduct the stepdaughter of the town’s mayor. Chief Edison and three companions track the kidnappers to Athens, Georgia, where they discover that the entire city is engaged in human trafficking. By the time Edison has recovered the kidnapped girl, the other three rescuers have been killed, leaving Edison alone to bring the mayor’s stepdaughter home while evading both human and non-human monsters. Against such great odds, will Sam ever make it to Little Five alive?
Kevin Muñoz grew up just outside of Philadelphia. After wandering across the country for a few years, he received a PhD from Emory University in 2008. A little later, he decided to leave the academic life behind to pursue his first passion: writing. He has lived in seven U.S. states over the years, observing and adopting each new place as settings and inspiration for his fiction. He spent fifteen years in Georgia, where the seeds of THE POST were planted. He now lives near Seattle with his two beagle traveling companions.
Follow the tour HERE for exclusive excerpts, guest posts and a giveaway!