a look at Siobhan Shannon & ‘Dressing Lily’ @siobhanswrites @decadentpub #Lesbian #Romance

On November 23, 2016November 20, 2016 By Casey's CornerIn Authors & BooksLeave a comment

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Today we have author Siobhan Shannon visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* Siobhan Shannon lives in Texas with her husband and a very well behaved dog. She writes, makes lace, dances, sings and plays fiddle every chance she gets. She loves everything about having grown-up children and hopes to live at the seashore one day. She frequently misses appointments because she is writing and fails to heed the time. She has written Dressing Lily and two speculative fiction novels. You can contact her at siobhan@siobhanshannon.com

A look into…

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~ How Dressing Lily Came to Be ~

* I write character-driven fiction, which is to say, I begin with a character or two and see where they go and what happens. Like Olivia, I worked as a census taker. I met hundreds of interesting people and saw parts of my local environs that I never knew existed. Most of the time, I met people and spoke with them only once. Some of those people inspired characters in the book. One of those places was the inspiration for the Bledsoe place, a grassy, country place that looked as though time had stopped, but was just one corner of a city that hadn’t been built up yet.

~ Blurb ~

* If life is a game, Olivia Lyons wishes someone would let her in on the rules. From picking the wrong sweetheart to telling the wrong secrets, she just can’t seem to win. But then she falls in love, and her world seems brighter. However, when her romance is discovered, her father sends Olivia to live with her mother in New Orleans.
* Broken hearted, Olivia starts her life over, working for Claude DeCloux, who owns a jazz club. There, she meets the infamous Lily LaRue, Queen of Burlesque and learns more about herself and the world she lives in than she believes possible. Lilly, however, is very possessive, tangling Olivia in a web of exhibition and money that seems impossible to escape. Can she break free and find her way back to the only woman who’s ever truly owned her heart?

~ Excerpt ~

* I didn’t set out to deliberately ruin my life. I don’t guess anyone does, and then when the walls come crashing down, it’s just so . . . surprising. One day you wake up and nothing looks the same anymore and the next, people are asking you why you’re destroying their lives. I don’t know. I woke up on one of those desperately close mornings in July when the air feels like a blanket and nothing was the same any more. I didn’t even like my coffee the same way anymore. It might have been meeting Daisy Bledsoe. Or it could have been a virus, God only knows. All I can tell you is that on that morning, everything changed.
* She wasn’t the prettiest girl I ever saw. She was tall and weathered and snaggle-toothed, but when she smiled her face lit up and you couldn’t resist smiling too. She certainly wasn’t the smartest girl I ever met, either. There were times I wanted to pull my hair out over the things she did. But on that July morning, she mesmerized me, and before I knew it I was making decisions that snowballed into a freight train that could have ruined my life. Strange but true, I think I’d do it all over again.
* I must have been about twenty when Pa sent me to Tom Harmon’s place to see if he had a fuel pump for our old tractor. I had never been out to Harmon’s before and missed my turn. I came down a road that just kept getting narrower until I had no choice but to go forward. I found myself on a grass track that petered out among dead machines and rusting farm implements in front of her house. I finally found a place where I could turn around, but that was when I met Daisy.
* It was hot and I had the windows down. I came round a bend and a big black dog decided I didn’t belong there. He jumped up at the window of Pa’s truck raising hell. All I could do is hit the brakes and lean away.
* “Max!” I heard a voice like a sack of gravel shout, “Come heah.” Max shut up and left the side of my truck, making me happy. One look at her, and I knew I was lost.
* “Can I help you?”
* “I believe you already have.”

Find Siobhan Shannon here…
Blog | Facebook | Google+ | Twitter

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

a look at Elyzabeth M. VaLey & ‘Reine’s Salvation’ @ElyzabethVaLey @evernightpub #Suspense #Erotica

On November 22, 2016November 17, 2016 By Casey's CornerIn Authors & BooksLeave a comment

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Today we have author Elyzabeth M. VaLey visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* Considered weird by normal standards – what is normal anyway?- Elyzabeth M. VaLey enjoys making up songs about mundane things, doodling stars and flowers on any blank sheet of paper, talking to her Lab whenever he feigns interest and coming up with love stories to make readers dream.
* From contemporary to historical or fantasy, she enjoys writing stories about good and evil, love and passion and all that comes in between happy ever after.

A look into…

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~ About ~

* Thank you for having me on your blog today with my latest release, Reine’s Salvation (Alpha Protectors I).
* The idea for this paranormal-suspense romance began back in 2014 with an anthology call. The anthology never went through and I left the story in the backburner for two years. When I finally picked it up again I realized that there was a lot more to tell.
* The characters from the story in 2014 stepped aside and Reine took center stage. He had a story to tell. His life hadn’t been easy. He was a tortured hero with a sleuth of problems. He didn’t think he deserved a happy ending.
* However, I just had to prove him wrong, right? *grin*

~ Blurb ~

* He’s the kind of man her mother warned her to steer clear from…
* Mystique is happy with her current life, but for years she’s struggled on a path of self-destruction. She knows she shouldn’t get involved with the brooding hunk at the bar, but how can she stay away when his sorrowful gaze is so compelling?
* Reine has lost everything: his wife, his friends, his ability to fight, and his identity as an Alpha Protector. There’s nothing left for him except a world of anger and bitterness. At least, that’s what he believes until he meets an intrepid waitress.
* The attraction between them is immediate, but while Reine can’t let go of his past, Mystique is not willing to return to hers. With darkness constantly closing in, will they find a way to be together? Or, will Reine’s behavior destroy their future?

~ Excerpt ~

* Reine sighed. “Can we talk about something else?”
* “Sure,” she agreed. She observed him for an instant. His eyes were closed. Her gaze traveled across his nose and over to his full lips. Damn it if she didn’t want to kiss him. She lay back down, trying to still her beating heart. “What would you like to talk about?” she asked.
* “How about this insane attraction we’re both feeling?”
* “What?” Mystique squeaked.
* “You heard me.”
* Mystique shut her eyes as she heard the rustle of his clothes. She didn’t dare open them.
* “I haven’t felt so attracted to any woman in over two years, and from what you’ve told me, it’s been a while for you too.”
* Eight years, she thought. She’d kept herself away from one-night stands and sex with others in general, afraid she’d become angry and bitter again if things didn’t work out. She played with her toys and enjoyed her body on her own. It had been enough, until Reine. He was driving her hormones crazy.
* “Well, yes.” She licked her lips.
* “Damn it, woman, do you know what that does to me?”
* Mystique gasped as Reine’s lips brushed against hers.
* “It makes me want to devour your mouth,” he whispered.
* “I’m sorry,” she said, sounding breathless to her own ears.
* “Don’t be. Look at me,” Reine said gruffly.
* She opened her eyes and found his face inches away. The intensity of his gaze was like looking into a pool of flaming desire that threatened to consume her.
* “I thought—”
* “Don’t think. It’ll make it easier.”
* She didn’t have time to issue a protest as he lowered his head and kissed her. They both groaned as their lips melded against each other. His teeth snagged on her bottom lip, pulling slightly and making her body react like a fire alarm at the first hint of smoke. His tongue licked a path across her bottom and upper bow, and she eagerly opened up for him, needing to taste more. Her nipples hardened beneath her top.
* Reine pulled her up into a sitting position and smashed his lips against hers. He possessed her mouth with his, not with strength, but with the ability of a man who knew what he was doing. His tongue delved deep, intertwining with hers. Mystique moaned. Her mind went blank, her senses taking priority over anything else. All she could do was feel the touch of his hand on her back, and the warmth of his mouth against hers.
* Breathless, they both pulled back after a few minutes. Her hands trembling, she pushed a few strands of his hair away from his face. Reine kissed her gently. She angled her head and he explored her mouth at a more leisurely pace.
* “You drive me insane,” he whispered. “This is not normal,” he insisted.
* Mystique giggled.
* “I want to fuck you,” he groaned into her ear. He brought her hand to his cock. Eagerly, she stroked him over his jeans. Liquid rushed to coat her panties and a dull ache began to throb between her legs.
* “And what are you waiting for?”
* “I can’t. Not here. Not after what you’ve told me.”
* “What?” She placed a hand on his chest and pushed back. “What do you mean?”

Buy Reine’s Salvation here…
All Romance eBooks | Amazon.com | Amazon.uk | BookStrand | Evernight Publishing

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

Welcome to Brooks Hansen w/ #RomanticHistoricalFiction #book ‘Asmodeus’ @GoddessFish

On November 17, 2016October 30, 2016 By Casey's CornerIn Authors & Books, Goddess Fish Promotions2 Comments

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Today we have author Brooks Hansen visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* BROOKS HANSEN is an author, screenwriter, essayist, and teacher. His novels – THE MONSTERS OF ST. HELENA, PERLMAN’S ORDEAL, THE CHESS GARDEN, and BOONE (co-authored with Nick Davis) were all New York Times Notable Books. THE CHESS GARDEN was also selected as a PW Best Book of the Year in 1995. He has written one book for Young Readers, CAESAR’S ANTLERS, which he also illustrated. In 2009 he released his first memoir, THE BROTHERHOOD OF JOSEPH, and in 2005 he received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for his most recent book, JOHN THE BAPTIZER, which was published in 2009 by W.W. Norton. More recently, his fiction appeared in CENTRAL PARK: AN ANTHOLOGY (Bloomsbury USA, 2012), and he has an essay slated to appear in another upcoming anthology THE GOOD BOOK (Simon & Schuster, 2015).
* Brooks Hansen is the critically acclaimed author of The Chess Garden and 7 other books, most recently Asmodeus: The Legend of Margret and the Dragon. He has recently launched his own imprint, Star Pine Books. He lives in Carpinteria, California with his wife and children.

A look into…

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~ Blurb ~

* …Here again, his natural figure crouched beside her in the dank darkness of the cave, watching her in silence as she slept, struggling with cravings which were new to him, both tender and violent, and which he could only really compare to hunger… (from ASMODEUS)
* On the cusp of the Great War, an even more pitched battle is waged in the furthest corner of the Nordic highlands, the final chapter of a centuries-old rivalry, pitting a troubled bloodline of thieves, journeyman, and politicians against the last and greatest dragon of the hemisphere, Asmodeus.
* Until now, the source of this antagonism has been a single gemstone, the fabled shamir, whose history traces to the coffers of King Solomon. The present clash, however, has been sparked by the emergence of an even more desirable, more defiant, and more powerful force than that.
* Inspired by the golden legend of St. Margaret, Brooks Hansen’s Asmodeus is a masterfully woven tapestry of history, myth, and fantasy, in the tradition of J.R.R.Tolkien, Bram Stoker, and C.S. Lewis. By turns a romance, an adventure, and the darkest imaginable Gothic, his tale is also, as seen through the eyes of the maiden Margrét, an unflinching exploration of our divided nature — what makes us beasts, what makes us human, and what makes us divine.

~ Excerpt ~

* So in she’d go and spend the whole day filling her bowl – that was how she thought of it, and of herself. Whatever there was to taste, she would; whatever there was to touch, she would. Or smell, or hear or understand. Again, she spent most of her time in the library, going from book to book, or jar to jar. She discovered that if she took the jars into the music room and simply put them to her ear, she could hear stories as clearly as if she were reading them to herself. She heard them all, and often if she was so inspired she’d go straight to the dressing room and find whatever she needed – the gown, the tunic, the turban or the suits of armor. She would take up the bows and swords and stand before the mirrors, and the mirrors would reply with villains and muses and nemeses, courtiers, paramours, challengers and fiends. And it wasn’t long before she realized the mirrors were not mirrors at all, but frames and thresholds leading into deeper tunnels, dungeons and catacombs. All she had to do was step through and she could slay knaves, dance Orientales, escape dark dungeons. She could be all things: a queen, a maiden, she could be king, scientist, alchemist. Each garment set off another world, another past and future, filled with her in its guise. She could conclude the war; dress the wound; finish out the sentence; remove the head or have her head removed; she could starve or gorge, fly (as she already knew how to do); but swim the deepest oceans too; command, obey, chisel, play, pray, betray; everything a human could, or any beast had ever done, she could do.
* Or almost everything.
* No wonder, then, that every day should end with sheer exhaustion. Finally she would be so tired she’d lose all track of where she was. How could she know, with all these doors and halls and little corridors she followed? She’d try retracing her steps back on through the picture frames or mirror frames and jars, but sometimes she would simply lie down where she was, right there on the rug or in the nearest chair, and that was fine. That worked too, because no matter where she fell asleep, she always woke up back in her bed again, and in her room, where there would be a new light coming in, a new blanket, and new flowers on the bureau, waiting to greet her.
* And he’d have done that too.

Buy Asmodeus: The Legend of Margrét and the Dragon here…
Amazon

Find Brooks Hansen here…
Amazon Author Page | Facebook | Website

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

ANNOUNCEMENT! Brooks Hansen will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B/N 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!