Monday, March 31, 2014

It's RELEASE DAY for DANGEROUS ANGEL!!! Oh, how to describe it...?




Woooooo!  DANGEROUS ANGEL is out today!!! Time to bust out a happy dance!



It’s hard to describe what it’s like to release a book. I mean, the whole process of creating a book starts off so innocuously. First, there's the sudden flash of inspiration.





But it’s just an idea. A germ. I suppose it’s like having imaginary friends who have a life that's waaaaay more interesting than yours will ever be. Sad, but true. :P








Once I've got an idea, I stitch together the basic outline. Then I do a chapter-by-chapter outline.





During my own personal creative process, every now and again I’ll run into trouble...




There have been times when I've been absolutely convinced I can't put two words together...





...and I’ll admit that I’ve slammed into my share of plot walls.





But like the professional I am, I persevere. I persevere thanks to my excellent coping skills.





Once the book is done and I’ve told the story I wanted to tell, I send it off in the hope that some editor somewhere will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.







If I’m lucky enough to have it accepted…






…it’s a mad dash through several rounds of edits.






Before I know it, RELEASE DAY looms on the horizon.






I’ve got tons to do, including contacting various bloggers to see if they might be interested in hosting a guest post, or maybe even reviewing the book.





It gets a little stressful, but again I'm a professional. I can handle it.





And then it happens. Release day finally dawns, and after weeks and months of gearing up for my book-baby’s debut… I'm totally unprepared.




Seriously, I have NEVER felt prepared. Not once.






But somehow, it always turns out all right.




And really, what is there to freak out about? I dreamed something up, sat my ass down in a chair and brought that sucker out into the freaking world.






That’s a pretty huge deal, and it’s something to be proud of.







I am so proud of DANGEROUS ANGEL, and it still feels like a dream that I've now published my first-ever series with the amazing Carina Press (231,000+ words later!!!). The happiness that I feel is almost indescribable. Well... actually, this gif comes close:

Penguins frolicking after a butterfly. OMG.



So I’m going to get through this release date with nothing but a grin on my face… and maybe a bottle in my hand. :D







Buy links for ordering DANGEROUS ANGEL:



Dangerous Angel Giveaway




Sunday, March 30, 2014

DANGEROUS ANGEL giveaway has begun!






Release day for DANGEROUS ANGEL is tomorrow!!!!






I’m doing a week-long blog tour to celebrate, and I’m kicking things off with a Sunday Snippet at That’s What I’m Talking About, a great blog for getting the scoop on all the latest and greatest books out there. While you’re there, why not check out the site? ;)

Since this is the last book in The Earth Angels miniseries, I thought I’d hit it BIG with the giveaway! :D The prizes are:

*$25 Amazon GC
*$10 Amazon GC
*A complete ebook set of The Earth Angels

The more you enter, the more chance you have of winning. Yay!

Tomorrow (RELEASE DAY!!!) is a big day in the blog tour.  Stop by each of these lovely book-blogging sites throughout the week, read some snippets from DANGEROUS ANGEL and enter to win a prize. Easy, right?

See you on the blogging trail! :)

Blog-hop schedule:
4-5 My blog

Don’t forget to pick up the exciting conclusion to The Earth Angels, available TOMORROW!


Buy links for pre-ordering DANGEROUS ANGEL:



Dangerous Angel Giveaway





Thursday, March 27, 2014

Throwback Thursday--WOUNDED ANGEL reveals the demonic villain



Wheee, next Monday is the release of DANGEROUS ANGEL, the final book in The Earth Angels miniseries! *happy dance* I have a week-long blog tour/giveaway planned, including a $25 Amazon GC, a $10 Amazon GC and a complete ebook set of The Earth Angels, so keep an eye out for wherever I’m stopping. The more you enter, the greater chance you’ll have of winning. :)

For now, though, let’s focus on a quick flashback to WOUNDED ANGEL, the 3rd book in The Earth Angels series. The scene I’m highlighting today is the first time the demonic villain comes out in the open to confront a member of the Nephilim, a descendant of an angel of vengeance, Nate da Luca…




Richard took a step forward, like a magnet drawn to steel. “Gabriella Littlefield? Is that you?”

“You’re either deaf or learning impaired.” Nate was reduced to growling. He was so uncomfortable with having a Rainier that close to Ella he couldn’t seem to get his jaw unclenched. “I’ve already told you I haven’t yet found Gabriella Littlefield. Now get your pampered little ass back in your car and get out of here before I decide you’re a threat to my continuing investigation.”

“No need to be so rude, Nate.” Ella’s smile made a razor seem dull by comparison. Just when he was on the verge of throttling her for stumbling out into the open where anything could happen, he saw in the heart of her smile she thought she knew what she was doing. “This man seems to be confusing me with someone else. Why don’t we invite him and his companion inside for coffee? I’m sure we can clear this up.”

Coffee? Dear God, was she frigging crazy? “I don’t know if you want to let this guy get too close. For some reason people have a tendency to drop dead around the Rainier family.”

He was almost positive Richard shot him a scathing glance behind his sunglasses before he peeled them off to look closely at Ella. “Are you wearing contacts? Colored contacts?”

Ella blinked her baby browns. “Are you usually this forward with complete strangers?”

“The thing is, my dear,” Richard said with the élan of countless generations of moneyed Rainiers behind him, “I don’t believe you and I are what you’d call complete strangers.”

“Like I said, I think you’re confused. I’ve never seen you before in my life, pal.”

“Yet you don’t seem to be too curious as to whom I might be, or why I’m here.”

Ella’s hesitation lasted less than a heartbeat, but Nate wanted to wince at the painfully obvious misstep. “Nate seems to know you, so that’s good enough for me. Why don’t you bring your friend out and we can all go inside and talk, instead of having my neighbors hear every single word we say?”

“There really isn’t much more to say.” Richard reared back as if the mere thought of entering a lavender house was simply beyond him. “I was so hoping I could steal an opportunity to extend my deepest regrets to Ms. Littlefield in person, but apparently you’re not her. And that being the case, I suppose it’s time for me to get out of your way.” Smooth as ever, he offered his hand to Nate. “Hope I didn’t intrude precipitously on your investigation, Mr. da Luca. It really was quite an education meeting you.”

“Yeah, I’m—” Whatever Nate had been about to say dissolved the moment he made straight-on eye contact with Richard.

Red.

Just a flash. Barely there, way down deep. But definitely red.

Shit.

The hand clasping Rainier’s tightened convulsively, making the other man’s eyes widen. That action showed off the flash of red all the more. It was something he’d never seen before, like camera-flash red-eye without the camera. Ella hadn’t reacted to any strangeness in Richard’s eyes when he’d looked at her, so it wasn’t something she could see. But even more than that, it was the sensation of piercing pain behind his eyes that made him realize, at long last, what the hell he was dealing with.

At some crooked point along the way, Richard Rainier had done the unimaginable and sold his soul.

Richard began to claw at Nate’s hand. “Mr. da Luca…let go!”

Ella stepped forward. “Nate

Nate barely heard them. Instinct shoved higher reasoning aside like the weak nancy it was and took control. In one move he spun the other man around and sprawled him on top of the hood of the Caddy. He then cranked the other man’s arm so far behind his back, Richard’s hand could have easily made nice with his shoulder blade. A high-pitched, almost girlish yelp escaped Richard before Nate shoved the side of his face onto the hood of the car with a resounding bang. If he wanted to see a demon, he’d be more than happy to show him one up close and personal.

“Nate!” Someone was pulling on his arm. A voice reached him through the raging need to avenge two innocent women who should still be alive—a sweetly compelling voice that now sounded almost terrified. The searing heat that thundered through his muscles eased to a sullen simmer, but oh, he wanted to obliterate the useless idiot in the worst way. “Nate, for God’s sake, stop!”

“I know what you’ve done, Rainier.” It would have been so easy, so ridiculously easy to keep twisting the arm until that satisfying pop signaled its dislocation from the rest of the body. The raw power sang in him, a siren’s lure to smash everything tainted by unspeakable evil, and only through sheer force of will was he able to hold it back. “I know you’ve made some kind of sick deal with a devil you don’t even know in order to get to me. I should probably care about that, but I don’t. You know why?”

The other man made a tortured mewling sound. “I’ll… I’ll call the police! You’ll pay for t-touching me, you thug.”

“I don’t care about the deal you’ve made, because I’m so happy you’ve damned your eternal ass. And the cherry on top of that happiness sundae is this—it’s not going to make one fucking bit of difference. Whatever you’ve traded your soul for isn’t going to happen. I’m going to make sure I stand in your way no matter what it costs. Now, you make sure you say hello to your piece of shit brother when you see him in hell, you hear? I’ll do my level best to send you there just as soon as I can.”

A car door slammed and the pain in Nate’s head nearly blinded him. He looked through a wince to see a lovely blonde woman come to a stop. She was startling in her perfection—her long blond hair a pale cascade down her back, her golden skin warm and sun-kissed, her little Kewpie doll mouth an innocent pink and wreathed with a smile that didn’t match the occasion. And her eyes…

The screaming neon red of pure demon.



***
Blurb for WOUNDED ANGEL:

Book three in The Earth Angels

A descendant of the Angel of Vengeance, Nate da Luca was gifted with an uncanny ability to find things. It made his job as a detective a breeze—until he learned the hard way that some things should remain hidden. After that, his powers vanished, along with his belief in himself. Which is going to make tracking down Gabriella Littlefield for his latest client a challenge.

Personal trainer Ella Little paid a hefty price for her life—now all she wants is to live it in peace. Then a sexy hulk of a man turns up in her gym, reigniting desires she thought she'd left behind along with her real name and hair color.

Desires she can't deny even after she discovers Nate's no stranger to her dark past.

Before he can convince her the attraction is mutual, Nate's going to have to earn Ella's trust. But a demon is playing for keeps in the world of humans, using Ella as bait, and the last thing they have is time…

Go back to the beginning with Nobody's Angel, available now!

63,000 words

Book 1: Nobody's Angel (novella)
Book 2: Savage Angel
Book 3: Wounded Angel
Book 4: Dangerous Angel


BUY LINKS:




Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Teaser Tuesday--DANGEROUS ANGEL's out next week, so here's a HUGE teaser!

DANGEROUS ANGEL is out next week!!!!!!!!!!!!! 


As you can tell, I’m a bit excited about the conclusion of The Earth Angels miniseries published by Carina Press, so bear with me, please. ;)  This four-part series has been building toward this action-packed finale, and I just can’t wait to share what happens with everyone.

In fact, why wait?  Here’s a glimpse of the edge-of-your-seat conclusion to the demonic apocalyptic story arc that is... The Earth Angels. :)




 “Oscar, you’re being a dick,” Nikita muttered to the storm. In response, it seemed to take personal offense and pelted rain down on Kyle’s car all the harder. It was the main sound in her world now that the muscle car’s powerful motor was silent, the engine ticking as it cooled while she sat in the empty parking lot of a dry cleaners across the street from the sprawling Cobalt Apartment complex. She tried to shut out the storm’s violence, but since it couldn’t be any wetter than if she’d parked under Niagara Falls, that was pretty much impossible. Logic told her that since she could barely see beyond the windshield, she should abandon the spot and look for cover, like a gas station with a convenient overhang.

Logic could go to hell. She wasn’t about to distance herself any further than necessary. The dry cleaners would have to do. As she maintained her position about a football field’s length away from where Kyle and the others lay in wait to pounce on Bambi and her keeper, Nikita had no doubt it would be a clash that neither heaven nor earth would soon forget. With something that bad going down, she had to be far enough away so that Dantalion couldn’t feed on her, while at the same time be close enough should Kyle need her.

Ha. Now there was a joke if she’d ever heard one. Like Kyle would ever need her help. With a derisive twist to her mouth, she glanced at her phone to reread his last text after she reported her position: “Make sure to stay out of the way. We’ve got it from here.”

Nice. Always the charmer, that Kyle.

With a short huff, Nikita shoved the phone into her pocket so she wouldn’t look at it again. Looking at it only made her feel sorry for herself, because it cut right to the heart of her new reality. For years she’d labored under the illusion that she and Kyle were on equal footing. But surprise, surprise—the man was playing with a genetically stacked deck. There could never be equal footing with a man who had no equal.

Just her luck, to fall for such an impossibly magnificent man.

The floor of her stomach dropped at the wayward thought, just as two shadows emerged from the blinding gray sheets of rain. Horrified by the notion she might have fallen in love with Kyle while the world was doing its damnedest to come to an end, she hastily pushed it to the back of her mind as the two people almost crashed into the hood of the car. A ragged gasp tore from her throat when she saw it was a half-drowned Kyle with none other than an equally soaked Bambi Dominguez in tow.

“I don’t believe it.” Frantic, Nikita hit the button that unlocked the car even as Kyle reached for the back passenger door and flung the elusive Bambi Dominguez inside. “I can’t believe it, that was so fast! Are you okay? Is everyone—”

“Drive. Just drive.” Kyle dived into the passenger seat, wiping the water out of his face as he slammed the door behind him. “The farther we get Dantalion’s meat puppet away from here, the easier it’ll be for the Nephilim to send him to hell.”

“I thought you said Dantalion could leach energy off of anyone—it doesn’t have to be just his proxy.”

“Do you really want to sit here and argue the matter?”

“Good point.” She wasted no more time in heading back down Biscayne Boulevard toward the closed causeway, with no real destination in mind. “So what happened out there? Is it finally over?”

“Over?” From her place in the backseat, Bambi let loose a high-pitched, eerie laugh that went right along with her oddly sing-song tone. “Over for me, over for you, it’s all over for you-know-who.”

“Good grief.” Risking a glance in the rearview mirror at the other woman, Nikita couldn’t see much of her except dark, lank hair covering half of her too-thin face, and an ear-to-ear grin that would have done The Joker proud. “I take it our little jump has gone around the bend and straight into la-la land?”

“Oh, yes. Dear little Bambi is long gone.”

Nikita couldn’t help but feel a twinge of pity. No matter what a user Bambi was, no one deserved to be twisted inside out by a demon. “Poor girl. I know it’s a small thing at this point, but I suspect Dibby Biers is going to take that news pretty hard.”

“Dibby is a twin.” As Nikita maneuvered the car around a lake-sized puddle, she chanced another look at their passenger only to find the disquieting vision of Bambi chewing on a wet hank of hair while rocking side to side in her seat. “A real twin. Not a fake twin. The fake twins are the tricksy ones.”

“You don’t say.” Not altogether comfortable with having a conversation with a lunatic while driving through a hurricane, Nikita decided to focus on Kyle. “I was surprised to see you show up so quickly. Somehow I thought it would take much longer for you to shut Dantalion down. But I guess with the five of you guys together, one little demon didn’t stand a chance, yeah?”

Little demon? After all you’ve come to learn, this is how you refer to a Great Duke of hell?”

“Easy.” Caught off-guard by the heat behind his words, it was all Nikita could do to keep from gaping at him. But after a moment’s consideration she supposed she could forgive him for being a tad edgy after busting all kinds of humps to avert a demonic apocalypse. “Just relax. No need to get your shorts in a twist.”

Bambi let out a piercing bray of laughter. “Twisty, twisted shorts. I think I have snakes in my brain.”

Wow. “Kyle, I’m not diminishing your victory here, believe me. I’m only beginning to grasp just how difficult this was for the five of you to pull off.”

“Things haven’t gone exactly according to plan, I’ll give you that,” came the absent reply. “My timing has been slightly off from the moment I started this endeavor. I had assumed that by the time the strongest of the Nephilim finally managed to fumble their individual ways to me, I would have attained the power to wipe them all out in one fell swoop. But, since I’ll have it in the next few minutes, it’ll all end up the same.”

“What are…” Her heart froze from the inside out as the words sank their poisonous teeth into her brain. With understanding dawning like some hideous cancer, Nikita turned to look at the thing wearing Kyle’s face. Before her disbelieving eyes, that face she knew so well melted like wax and reconfigured itself until she was looking at the image of her mother.

“Well done, Nikita.” The thing that wasn’t her mother smiled its rabid approval while the oily twisting in her brain began, until it was all she could do to keep from crying out. “Thanks so much for getting us away from there. Good thing I stumbled across you sitting here, thinking such loud thoughts about the Nephilim lying in wait for me at my meat puppet’s apartment. I would have walked right into that ambush if it hadn’t been for you, and all of my plans would have been for naught.”

“Fake twins are tricksy.” Bambi laughed again. This time, though, Nikita heard it for the scream it was.


***


Sound interesting?  Here’s the blurb for DANGEROUS ANGEL, up for pre-order now:

Book four of the Earth Angels series

Miami's best bounty hunter, Nikita Tesoro will do anything to collar a fugitive, including stepping into a stripper's stilettos for the night. Outsmarting her rival Kyle Beaudecker is just a bonus. Despite the sexual tension sparking between them, Nikita keeps a professional distance from "Hurricane" Kyle. After all, she can't get hurt if she doesn't care.

A descendant of the archangel Barakiel with the power to harness electricity, Kyle should be focusing his energy on tracking down a demon that may be hiding in the human realm. But he's a lover, not a fighter, and he'd much rather use his special talents for pleasure: specifically Nikita's. And teaming up to find a bail jumper means spending lots of time together…

But when their case takes a turn for the demonic, Kyle can no longer hide his true nature from Nikita. He'll do whatever it takes to win her heart—even stop the apocalypse. But he can't do it alone.

80,000 words



Buy links for pre-ordering DANGEROUS ANGEL:




Thursday, March 20, 2014

DABWAHA TIME!!! Let's get ready to rumbllllllle!



DABWAHA’s 1st round has officially opened and it’s time to vote for STARTING FROM SCRATCH!!! (Or, y’know, Sarah Morgan *omg fangirl squee*, but all the cool kids are voting for me, sooooo… yeah. ;) )




For the next twelve hours, tell your family, neighbors, friends, enemies, loved ones, countrymen, aliens from outer space and pets of all kinds to get online and VOTE for my lovely little holiday novella published by the amazeballs Carina Press. I love you, Carina Press, the same way Jess loves food.


   
My campaign promise is simple: Keep STARTING FROM SCRATCH running in DABWAHA, and I’ll keep posting things like…. this:




 …and this:



This too:



And the grand finale:

Gifs harvested from soulswallo/Kelly Apple's fab Tumblr.
FOLLOW HER AND BUY HER BOOKS!!!


BUT!... If I don’t make it into the second round, I’ll get a sad. And when I get a sad, I do something terrible. Like, a virtual crime-against-humanity kind of terrible. When I get a sad, I post Honey Boo Boo gifs. Friends don’t let friends post Honey Boo Boo gifs, so vote for STARTING FROM SCRATCH today! :D




Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Teaser Tuesday--Nikita's first glimpse of the paranormal

Guess what? There are only two weeks until DANGEROUS ANGEL releases!!!  *flails* I’ve got a giveaway planned (more on that later in the week), but in the meantime, it’s time for another snippet.
Nikita, the heroine of DANGEROUS ANGEL, is about as pragmatic as they come. Originally from Cuba, she was orphaned during a dangerous crossing from Cuba to Miami when the craft she and her mother were on sank. She was the only survivor of that doomed trip, and it was a time in her life that left more than a few scars. Flights of fancy and fairytales don’t fit into her no-nonsense way of looking at things, so when Kyle’s Nephilim world merges with hers without any warning, Nikita has no way of coping with the insanity that’s unleashed…



“Mama?” Nikita hadn’t meant to speak. To call out to a dead woman was insane. To see a dead woman standing no more than a few feet away, smiling in welcome and happy acceptance that had always glowed in her dark eyes, was lunacy.

This couldn’t be.

This shouldn’t be.

“Ah, Nikita. Look at you, all grown up.” That light in the chocolate-brown eyes she remembered reached out to twine around her consciousness until it was all she could see. “I knew you would be such a beauty. A beauty worthy of having the world at her feet. You make your mama so proud.”

Nikita shuddered while the words tore a jagged sound from some dark hole deep inside, that secret place she’d tried to hide even from herself. It was where she housed the hopeless yearning to hear her mother’s voice. To see her mother’s smile, a smile that meant everything was going to be all right.

To have the chance to say, one last time, I love you.

“Mama.” Nikita felt something spatter her cheeks, and at first she thought it was rain. Then she realized that after nearly two decades, the tears she’d never let fall were escaping at last. “Where… How can you be here? I saw you. I saw what happened to you. To everyone.” Again the screams rang in her ears, while that terrible feeling of something squeezing her consciousness twisted deeper. Her stomach somersaulted queasily as the dread and horror came back in a rush, as vivid as the day when her mother…had…had…

Died.

“You’re dead.” Shaking. Dear God, she was shaking so hard she didn’t know how much longer she could remain upright. “I saw you die. I screamed for you to come back. I screamed until I didn’t have any voice left. But you didn’t come back. You couldn’t.”

Her mother spread her arms wide, both a plea and a beckoning. “My bond with my only child isn’t so weak that it can just vanish. Don’t let the past confuse you, Nikita. Just believe that I’m here for you now.”

“But…” Memories of churning, endless water. Screams. Redness. It all jumbled together in one long ribbon of chaos. Feverishly she clamped her hands to her head before it could blow apart. “This can’t be real. This can’t be real.”

“Do you not love me anymore, mi hijita?

“Don’t say that.” This time she couldn’t stop the flinch as her hold on sanity eroded, until she couldn’t remember what she was trying to hold on to. “Please, please don’t say that. I’ll always love you. Siempre…”

“My last word to you. You have it tattooed on your back now so you would never forget.” Again she held out her arms. Her smile was better than coming home. “Come, Nikita. Aren’t you happy to see me? Didn’t you miss me?”

“You’ll never know how much, Mama. I’ve been so alone without you.” The grief welled up like a poison that had no antidote, swamping the last of her reason. This was her mother, an answer to an old prayer, the one person she’d longed for with a futility that had crippled her in her younger years. She’d dreamed of this impossible moment for so long it had become a wound that had never fully healed

With a sob of tortured joy, she stepped into the awaiting embrace.

Icy coldness emanated from the inside out as the arms locked around her. While the yearning within her cried at last, at last, a strange alarm sounded through the layers of wanting to believe. Her mother’s embrace had always been warm, loving. It had never failed to chase the bad things away.

But this was…different.

Something’s wrong.
***


Sound interesting?  Here’s the blurb for DANGEROUS ANGEL, up for pre-order now:

Book four of the Earth Angels series

Miami's best bounty hunter, Nikita Tesoro will do anything to collar a fugitive, including stepping into a stripper's stilettos for the night. Outsmarting her rival Kyle Beaudecker is just a bonus. Despite the sexual tension sparking between them, Nikita keeps a professional distance from "Hurricane" Kyle. After all, she can't get hurt if she doesn't care.

A descendant of the archangel Barakiel with the power to harness electricity, Kyle should be focusing his energy on tracking down a demon that may be hiding in the human realm. But he's a lover, not a fighter, and he'd much rather use his special talents for pleasure: specifically Nikita's. And teaming up to find a bail jumper means spending lots of time together…

But when their case takes a turn for the demonic, Kyle can no longer hide his true nature from Nikita. He'll do whatever it takes to win her heart—even stop the apocalypse. But he can't do it alone.

80,000 words




Buy links for pre-ordering DANGEROUS ANGEL: