Category: Authors & Books

A look at ‘The Art of Three’ @racheline_m @erincmcrae @SDSXXTours #Contemporary #Romance

On By Casey's CornerIn Authors & Books, The Silver Dagger Scriptorium ToursLeave a comment
The Art of Three
by Erin McRae & Racheline Maltese
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Menage (non-erotic)
Jamie Conway has a charmed life. At 24, he’s relocated from Dublin to London to star in his first feature film. Unfortunately, he also has one very big problem: He has a huge crush on his happily married costar.
British heartthrob to middle-aged women everywhere, Callum Griffith-Davies should have more sense than to flirt with his new-to-the-business colleague, but good judgement isn’t one of the qualities for which he’s known.
Nerea Espinosa de Los Monteros Nessim has better things to do than fret about her husband’s newest conquest. She’s busy planning her daughter’s wedding at the family’s farmhouse in rural Spain. Besides, she and Callum have been married and polyamorous for almost 30 years; she’s content to let him make his own bad choices.
But when Nerea flies to London after her artwork is selected for a high-profile museum show, she falls for Jamie too. Soon Callum, Jamie, and Nerea have bigger problems, and surprises, than international logistics. From ex-lovers and nosy neighbors to adult children with dramas of their own, The Art of Three is a contemporary romance that celebrates families, and farce, in all shapes and sizes.
Erin McRae is a queer writer based in New York and Washington, DC. She is a researcher, statistician, and novelist.
She has a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of Toronto (Toronto, Canada) and a master’s degree in International Affairs from American University (Washington, DC).
Together with Racheline Maltese she founded Avian30, a literary collective dedicated to stories with magical and sexual realism. She is a hybrid author. She and Racheline Maltese have self-published titles (A Queen From the North, 2017; The Art of Three, 2017, and the Love in Los Angeles series, which was originally published by Torquere Press in 2014 and is being re-released in 2017). They have also published work with Cleis Press (Best Gay Romance, 2015), Dreamspinner (The Love’s Labours series, 2015), Supposed Crimes (Young Love Old Hearts, 2015).
She lives with her spouse and their two cats.
Racheline Maltese can fly a plane, sail a boat, and ride a horse, but has no idea how to drive a car. With Erin McRae she writes romance about fame and public life. She is also a producer and writer on Tremontaine, Serial Box Publishing’s adventure of manners, swordplay, and chocolate that’s a prequel to Ellen Kushner’s gay lit classic, Swordspoint.
Racheline’s training includes a journalism degree from The George Washington University, as well as acting and directing coursework at the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School (New York City) and the National Institute of Dramatic Art (Sydney, Australia).
Her fiction, non-fiction and poetry has appeared in numerous outlets, and she is a regular speaker on pop-culture topics at fan and academic conferences. Racheline also voiced Desire and Delirium in a benefit performance of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman for the CBLDF.

a look at Shari Elder & ‘Unnatural Allies’ @ShariElderBooks @evernightpub #ParanormalRomance

On By Casey's CornerIn Authors & Books1 Comment

Today we have author Shari Elder visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* Hello, I’m Shari. By day, I crawl out of bed, mainline coffee, walk the dog, get my kid off to school, hop on the metro, and save cities within the four walls of my office. Usually by email.
* At night, the other Shari emerges. I take off the suit, curl up on the couch and let my imagination play, with words and images until stories take shape (while periodically checking on my teen-ager, hiding out in the bedroom and plotting world domination with her furry minions). As my alter ego, I save cities in a cape and spangled tights, wander space and time on a surfboard, fly over the Himalayas on feathered wings, make six-toed footprints in indigo talc snow on the sixth planet in the Andromeda galaxy or eavesdrop on Olympian gods while pretending to whip up a bowl of ambrosia.
* In all these wondrous worlds, romance and passion blossom. I can’t resist a happy ending. And I am particularly prone to writing happy endings for those who have given up on ever getting one. That gives me immense satisfaction.
* Join me on my journey. The best ideas emerge from team work.
* Thank you so much for having me on your blog. I’m very excited to share Unnatural Allies, Book Two in the paranormal romance series, Shifting Alliances. Although part of a series, it can be read as a stand-alone novel.

Find Shari Elder here…
Facebook | Goodreads | Pinterest | Twitter | Website

A look into…

~ Blurb ~

A World in Transition
* Violent fae encroachment on shifter land is heating up. With death tolls rising, the impossible becomes necessary – an alliance among predator and prey shifters.
An Inconceivable Love
* Nicca Baron, lone wolf and wolf clan beta, finds herself under the command of Evan Grant, the rat alpha. In different circumstances, he’d be dinner. Or so her wolf keeps reminding her. Evan proves to be a perceptive leader, a skilled fighter and irresistible to her lonely heart.
* To rule the rats, you have to rule the pack. Evan is a whiz at managing people and groups. Until he finds himself leading a mission made up of every single large animal that thrives on rat flesh. And not the kind between his legs. The only bright light is Nicca. Her storm gray eyes miss nothing, her brilliant mind comprehends everything and her succulent curves offer the perfect place for a rat to nestle.
An Impossible Future
* In each other’s arms, Nicca and Evan discover love and a new perspective in an off-kilter world. But a wolf cannot mate with a rat, no matter the strength of the human attraction.

~ Excerpt ~

* Evan had never seen Nicca look frightened before. Those silver eyes expanded into saucers, and they were still beautiful. He wanted to wrap her in his arms, just hold her close as they both tried to process a world spinning out of control. Even his rat wanted to comfort her.
* She was getting under skin and fur.
* The last leaves hung limp on the branches, resisting winter’s pull. Away from the sidhe, the air had warmed, although the sky retained a grayish winter hue. Shifter bodies held heat, keeping them comfortable in the most brutal frost. Evan burned hot from continuous movement, the too frequent adrenaline spikes, and Nicca’s nearness. Everything about her fit, like she was made for him. That agile mind, open-mindedness, those lush curves. Hell, she even spouted poetry. He yearned to put a sign around her neck—no trespassing, this woman belongs to Evan Grant.
* Except for that whole wolf thing…
* “Why don’t we find a comfortable place to set up camp near Fairy Falls and call it a day?” he said to get his mind back to practical things, not wishing for something he couldn’t have. He told himself he selected the location as part of the mission. All species declared the pristine, wild falls a safe zone, so they wouldn’t need the wolves or eagles to stand guard. The fact that it was the number one rated site for shifter romances had nothing to do with the selection. Nothing at all.
* No one would ever accuse Nicca of talking too much, but she was withdrawn even for her on the hike to the Falls. “Any suggestions on places to sleep?” he asked when her silence got too loud for him.
* “I’ve, uh, never really been here,” she whispered, looking at the ground. “Just run by it on patrols sometimes.”
* “And that makes you sad?” He itched to run his hand down her cheek.
* “This mission makes me sad.” Her gaze stayed lowered as she walked.
* His rat senses perceived a deep despondency wrapped around her like a black aura.
* “This mission makes you angry, anxious, and confused. Not sad.”
* “Who are you to correct my assessment of my emotional state?” She gave him a half-hearted snarl. He figured he’d hit an open, raw nerve.
* “I lead this mission, and I will not have you fall apart on me. Right now, you are not okay.” He opened his arm, aping Rafe’s earlier action, inviting her to him to take comfort. “Let me help.” Let me touch you.
* She visibly shook herself, ignoring his outstretched limb. “You’re right. I need space. Let me run as wolf.”
* He dropped his hand, then nodded to cover the ripping sound his heart was making. “Stay close,” he said over the lump of disappointment lodged in his throat. “Give me your backpack, and I’ll find a place to sleep. Meet me at the falls when you’re done.”
* Relief brightened her eyes. Once shifted, she brushed against his leg, then licked at his hand dangling by his side. He ran his fingers through her thick, gray fur touched with black and silver as she trotted off. “Grab some happy, Nicca,” he said into the air, as she raced out of sight. Come back to me. Accept me.
* Alone, he hummed as he walked toward the falls. The low tune soothed his skittish rat, who hated being alone and wasn’t too fond of the woods. Rats felt secure in the pack. The human in him appreciated the red gold of the sunset streaking across the powder blue of the sky, weaving in and out of spiky, hunter green firs that ate up the landscape. Beauty truly did soothe an aching heart. The whirr of winter birds, a chorus to his ears, unnerved the rat. He picked up his pace, following the smell of ice and the roar of the falling water.
* When he arrived at the falls, he saw Nicca standing at the edge of the descending water, running her fingers through the stream. That sadness he’d sensed earlier scented the air and dulled those unique gray eyes. Following a powerful intuition, he approached quietly, staying upwind so she wouldn’t notice until he stood directly behind her. She may have rejected his offer of support earlier, but he was determined to try again. His way.
* She turned to face him, and tilted her head up to meet his gaze. He pushed behind one ear a lock of hair that was draped along her cheek. The tresses felt like silk, the skin velvet against his fingertips.
* “Evan?”
* He leaned over, touching lips to lips ever so gently. Giving comfort. Sneaking a taste. Exploring what might be. She pressed back, her mouth opening slightly beneath his. He sank into cherry and cinnamon, shyness and heat. She didn’t require a friend; she needed a lover. He desperately wanted to be that man.
* He pulled back, falling hard for the blush staining her cheeks a bright pink.
* “Follow me,” he said, taking her hand, and led her to the camping spot he noticed along the way.
* To love a wolf.

Buy Unnatural Allies here…
Amazon | BookStrand | Evernight Publishing

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

Welcome to Emily Mims w/ #RomanticSuspense ‘Smoke’ @EmilyMimsAuthor @GoddessFish

On By Casey's CornerIn Authors & Books5 Comments

Today we have author Emily Mims visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* Author of thirty romance novels, Emily Mims combined her writing career with a career in public education until leaving the classroom to write full time. The mother of two sons and grandmother of six, she and her husband Charles live in central Texas but frequently visit grandchildren in eastern Tennessee and Georgia. She plays the piano, organ, dulcimer, and ukulele and belongs to two performing bands. She says, “I love to write romances because I believe in them. Romance happened to me and it can happen to any woman-if she’ll just let it.”

Today Emily Mims will be talking about the first book she read that had an impact on her.
* When asked to do a blog on the first book I read that had an impact on me, I had to do some thinking. I can hardly remember a time when I could not read. I was one of those lucky kids who learned quickly easily, and was already reading for fun by the time I was in the second grade. I of course read a lot of ‘good stuff’-children’s classics like Johnny Gruelle’s Raggedy Ann series, the Bobbsey Twin mysteries, all the little blue biographies offered by my elementary teachers. I was also taught out of the Bible and other religious material. But the book that had the greatest impact on me as a future romance author was a Reader’s Digest condensed version of Victoria Holt’s ‘Mistress of Mellyn’. It was my first romantic suspense novel, and firmly cemented my love for the genre.
* I encountered this book on one of my summer vacations at my Granny Johnson’s house in the tiny town of Waelder, Texas. Granny’s house in Waelder was a magical spot for a city kid. Granny and Grandaddy were cattle ranchers. They no longer lived out on the ranch itself, but there was a five-acre lot behind their big Victorian house where they kept a mean old milk cow and their cow ponies that Daddy would saddle up for me to ride. There were cousins to play with, and I spent many a happy hour riding around in the back of my cousin’s three-wheeled scooter. I shelled peas and looked at old picture albums and sewed doll clothes and thoroughly enjoyed being spoiled to death by my loving grandparents.
* There was down time, too. It was during that down time one summer that I found Granny’s Reader’s Digest book and picked it up to read. I must have been eleven or twelve by then, old enough to have grown out of the comic books she bought me and ready for something a little more mature. I picked up the book and sat down and started reading…and I was hooked! I loved everything about the story-the innocent young governess, the handsome, broody hero, the lonely child, the wife who died under mysterious circumstances, and the haunted old mansion. I didn’t know it at the time, but in retrospect I can see that Victoria Holt successfully incorporated every element that made for a good gothic romance and wove them into magic. Or at least what was magic to me, a young, first time reader. It’s been over fifty years, but I can still remember the shocking ending to that book as though I read it yesterday.
* I didn’t stop reading with just that one. I became a steadfast fan of Victoria Holt and others who wrote like her. As the years went by, I sought out more books in both the mystery and the romance genres. I love a straight mystery a la Faye Kellerman and Linda Fairstein, where I’m pitting my brain against the author’s and trying to successfully predict the ending. But when it came time for me to try my hand at writing, it was romance that I wrote. I started with straight love stories, but started adding elements of suspense when I wanted to write a longer book. All the longer books in the Texas Hill Country series have suspense in them, as do the first two of the Smoky Blue series. And while my heroines are not virginal governesses and my heroes bear only a passing resemblance to Connan TreMellyn, I have Victoria Holt and her wonderful story to thank for introducing me to world of romance and romantic suspense between the pages of a book.

A look into…

~ Blurb ~

* A concert violinist and musical prodigy, Francesca Giordano is internationally acclaimed and always in the spotlight—right where she doesn’t want to be. Not after she’s witnessed a murder. Suddenly on the run, she finds her way to Bristol, Tennessee, and to the music club Acoustics. There, as “ Chessie Hope,” she can hide out in the open. But with this newest gig comes a different kind of danger. Older and impossibly sexy, bluegrass singer Cooper Barstow is everything she’s ever wanted in a man, and his daughters are just as easy to love. Yet Francesca cannot enjoy the luxury of such a relationship, not even if he could protect her from the men on her trail or if she could be honest with him about who she is. Cooper is as wounded as he is strong, and he needs someone who will stay by his side for the rest of his life. Just as Francesca does. And the smoke on the mountains and the haze of desire almost make her believe that could happen.

~ Excerpt ~

* Cooper hit his front door and took the quickest shower on record. Still, he was almost a half hour late by the time he pulled into Chessie’s driveway. Hopefully she would understand. He was about halfway across the yard when he heard music coming from somewhere inside the house. He slowed down and stopped, listening in astonishment to the outpouring of a violin, a violin in the hands of an incredibly gifted musician. Who was playing the violin? Was Chessie a closet classical music fan? Was that a recording, or was that Chessie herself making this incredible music?
* Cooper glanced in the window and his mouth fell open. It was Chessie. She was standing in front of the window in her pink cotton robe, her fingers flying over the strings so fast they were a blur and her bow moving nimbly over the strings as she made that violin sing. It was Chessie making that incredible music. Music that Jake never in a million years could have made. Music that he himself could never have made. Music that required more talent and technique that she would ever need as a bluegrass fiddler. Music that somehow seemed strangely familiar, even though he didn’t think he’d ever heard it before. Cooper suddenly thought back to his initial reaction to her, the first time he heard her play. He wondered then why a woman of her talent played bluegrass music.
* Now he knew. She didn’t play just bluegrass music. She played classical music too. And she played it wonderfully.
* Chessie Hope was not the simple bluegrass musician she presented herself to be.

Buy Smoke here…
Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Find Emily Mims here…
Amazon Author Page | Facebook | Twitter | Website

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

ANNOUNCEMENT! Emily Mims will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour! So be sure to leave a comment AND use this RAFFLECOPTER LINK to enter the drawing. Also, visit the other tour stops for a greater chance of winning!