Camp NaNoWriMo: the Final Update

Tags

Assetato, bear, big bad wolf, Broken World, Camp Nanowrimo, little red, Loving Red, must read, NaNoWriMo, shifters, Work in Progress

Camp NaNoWrioMo, how I miss the simplicity of life when I could complete you.

But life happens, especially when you own a business.

What I still love about July and trying to write a whole piece in a month is that I always—ALWAYS—gain out of it is more words than I would have written otherwise.

Did I win? Not officially. But having 5,000 words I didn’t have before is a different kind of winning, and I’m okay with that.

So, instead of lamenting about where I went wrong, I thought I’d share some of what went right.

Here are some of my favorite bits from the short so far:

 

I shook it off, compartmentalizing, and swung into the kitchen to show Maddy my face before I disappeared upstairs. She’d mount my head on the wall if I snuck off without saying hello.

“You’re back.” Maddy’s smile lit up the stark kitchen, my nephew banging around the metal bowls to coat the fried chicken. “Have they been feeding you? Theo, make your uncle a bowl of stew to take with him.”

“I can feed myself just fine.” Although, I struggled to find the time away from the crew to find safer options as I wormed into their cliques. The taste of human flesh wasn’t my favorite, but I’d scavenged it a few times as a cub when I was desperate.

A few of the younger bosex gravitated my way as I ate grilled animals and human snacks. The older crew called me a hipster or vegan or hippie, but the plan wasn’t to convert them all, just their young, and the boys saw in me a lot of what they wanted as a man. Mostly, I was good with the ladies, and their hormones controlled much of their thoughts, but that was why the Assetato sent me in to infiltrate the group.

My nephew handed me a box with stew and bread enough to last me the night, and I nodded him my approval.

“Don’t hide away all night. We have a surprise performance from some locals that you wouldn’t want to miss, and I could use you at the door.” Maddy pinned me with her practiced mothering look, one she practiced on me throughout our childhood before she ever became a mother. It didn’t matter how many times I told her that she was only a few minutes older than me; she claimed older sibling status and waved it in my face like a dude with a big dick.

I might have gone through a phase. Sue me.

 

###

 

I sent her a deadly wink and enjoyed the pink brushing her cheeks.

“You must be Maddy’s younger brother.”

I snorted. “Yeah, by two and a half minutes.”

“Twins. Makes sense. She worries about you.”

I draped an arm over the back of the empty hostess stand. “Does she? I didn’t realize she talked about me so much.”

A slender shoulder shrug, bouncing her hair as she drew a swig from her own beer. “Maybe it’s just me. We’re nearing friendship territory. Girls night and all.”

“It’s likely just you, little red. My sister isn’t a frilly type.”

The quirk of her mouth sweetened her scent. “Neither am I.”

“Must be why she confides in you then.”

“Oh, you don’t think she talks about you every chance she gets?”

“Not unless she wants me locked in a cell.”

“Are you telling me you’re as dangerous as you look?” She swiveled on the stool, crossing her legs and swinging her beer between her fingers. Her lips puckered around the tip of the bottle, her thumb running along the moisture on the neck.

A fire rumbled in my gut as I thought of a few things I’d like her to do with her mouth.

“Depends on how dangerous you think I look, little red.”

Her smile said she appreciated the name. “You make it sound like you’re the big bad wolf.”

“More of a surly bear.”

Her gaze danced along the front of me. “Big enough, but aren’t bears supposed to be hairy?”

I grinned for her. “Not when we live in the age of clippers and razors.”

“Are you trying to put images in my mind, bear?”

“None that aren’t already in there.” A new group of patrons pulled me from the naughty look in her eyes.

 

###

 

I had the door open, waiting for her without pause, and her finger found my arm on her way by. Close behind her, the door shut, and we were alone. The moon swaying with her hair as she bounced to her car and threw the bag in her trunk.

“Did you need me to check the backseat?”

“You mean that bear nose can’t smell it from here?” The slow blink of her eyes as her gaze tilted up at me teased me, but it didn’t persuade me that she might know more than she let on.

 

###

 

The steady flow of people kept me busy, but I checked on Kaia often enough to question myself. Other males seemed to take note of her as well, both human and not, and a pang of protective instincts hit me below the belt.

Worse off when Maddy stomped out from the kitchen with a tray in her hand and settled up to their table. I cringed at their laughter and smiles and the way Kaia touched the man’s arm.

And I lost myself in the bouncing beauties a young blonde in a blue wig laid out for me on the bar. I grinned at her attractive smile and made her a drink to match her costume.

The distraction didn’t last long, but before I knew it, Maddy jabbed her knuckles into my back. “Did you want a dinner break? I saw you eyeing that stew pretty hard.”

I rolled my eyes at her mom-tone.

“Or was something else distracting you? Not often so many women give you the sex-me eyes and you don’t take your dinner in the broom closet.”

“I have always wanted to know what a Smurf tastes like.”

 

 

Okay, I’m going to have to stop myself before I share the whole damn thing. Obviously, I’m excited about what I’ve got down.

Have you been pushing yourself to write more? Read more? Get more done? Let me know in the comments below.

The Shoemaker’s Apprentice Excerpt & Pre-Order

Tags

Assetato, Boden, faerie mound, faeries, fairy weapon, iceland, leprechaun, ley lines, magick, niagara falls, pixies, spells, swords

If you are a Boden fan, that seven-foot-tall leprechaun who tells bad puns and loves Ria, check out an excerpt from his new story, “The Shoemaker’s Apprentice.”

He turned out to be everything I thought he was.

We wound our way through hills, trees, and mist until we came up behind one of the waterfalls on the American border. The water wet my hair and shoulders as Hailey dragged an old chalk stone across half-dry rock beneath the cascade.

Irv pat me on the back, smiling wide. “Can’t say I’d mind seeing you again, buddy, and I hope to all things holy that I can get in on the action next time. But I wouldn’t mind you calling a fella for a thank-you whiskey when peace is upon you, either.”

I agreed. My tongue stuck to the back of my throat, not ready to step through a gate that led home.

A shimmer covered the jagged pieces of earth, and breath sucked into my lungs as Hailey motioned me forward. Each member of their squad laid a hand on me, and we stepped through together.

Drenched in chills, the world whooshed around us, upturning my stomach with its topsy swirling. 

In a blink, my feet hit the springy grass beyond the wooded entrance of the faerie mound.

My bags thunked softly against the ground, and the team made quick work of their goodbyes, nodding to the two armed guards that stepped from beyond the cloak of magick.

My thank you didn’t suffice, but it was all I had.

Unless I included the bag on my back and four around my feet.

The coward in me—the one that’d run away all those centuries ago—wished they’d stayed behind. When what I needed was to face the guards and my punishment myself.

I dropped my last bag on the rest as the two approached. We’d never had guards when I lived here. Few of us left our mound for the human world. With the way humans were, the change surely became necessary.

That was, after all, what sent into action the events that ruined my young life. What killed my little sister.

The sentries accessed my baggage—one tall and lean, the other small and slender, an elf and a pixie. The elf poked around the canvas, but the pixie took more interest in me.

“Name?”

My mother tongue hit my ear like a painful echo.

“Boden Einarsson, son of Unnur and Halldor.”

They shared a brief look before the elf nodded.

“You’ll have to come with us.”

I bowed my shoulders in consent.

“You’ll need to relinquish that weapon before we take you inside.”

They could have it.

Past the glittering trinkets on tree trunks and branches, we walked into a holding cell. They were different than the ones I remember from picking Fannar up after one of his benders—less iron and more light. 

I sat at the oak table, hands in my lap to keep its natural truth properties from igniting a spell. Odd, I’d never felt one as strong as I did now, but my powers had morphed, evolved. So much had changed in such a short time.

Ria’s blood whispered magick across the left side of my face, sharp and tingling where the iron sliced into it but tendrils crept deeper.

Even before she touched me with her blood, our magick mixed together, and part of her lingered with me, easing the emptiness. The effect doubled when her skin met mine. I’d never experienced such attachment before.

The longer I waited, the more I itched to rub her stone between my fingers.

A portal opened to the room via the far door, and cold air pushed against my damp jeans. The faerie that entered was a council guard, someone working towards becoming an agent from the leaf insignia pinned on his collar. Down-turned features showed that he lacked the sense of humor custom to most of their enlisted.

“We need a record of where you obtained the weapon before I take you to meet the official who will review your statement.” The drone tossed down a pad of paper and pen and frowned when I didn’t snap to it.

“A friend found it.” I twirled the red stone between my left thumb and forefinger.

“Write it down.”

My smile irritated the crinkle in his brows, but I leaned forward and wrote it down.

A friend found it.

I couldn’t help myself, twisting Ria’s charm with more intent. My outward calm was her doing. A bluff is only as good as the audience, and the rest of the fae never did get my sense of humor.

The drone sneered. “Leprechaun.”

Baited.

Probably not such a good idea to antagonize the organization I’d run from, the one ready and willing to punish me for what happened in the woods east of the mound.

I shut my eyes to recall Alvilda’s small, sweet face. She’d been more present for me these last few weeks, as heavy as they were when she’d died.

“Hey. We want the real story. The whole thing. On paper. Now.” The drone’s fingers thumped against the table to accentuate his authority.

“Wrote it on oak. The spell shows I am telling the truth. A friend found it.”

Silver eyes narrowed at me. “How can you see the spell?”

I shrugged my left.

He examined the mark on my face, matching it with the sword I handed in. “A friend found it?”

“Yep. Don’t know where from. Don’t know who from. Don’t know why.”

“Who is your friend?”

“A friend. You know, the type of person you’d protect with your life?”

Features touched in distain, nostrils flaring. “If the big wigs didn’t want ahold of you, I’d have you under a truth extraction to watch you squirm.”

“If you wanted some squirming, you only had to ask.” I winked and sent him back a step.

“Get up. Let’s go.” He jostled me upright, ushering me through the door with the dramatic flair only a faerie would take time for.

This time, we stepped through to a plain, corporate-looking hallway. Clove smoke swirled in the air as the drone opened the wide Alder door. The sweeping room imposed the occupant’s importance, and the tree emblems signaled his high rank.

Beyond the shelves and displays spread a dark desk, lit with magickal enchantments, but the show-stopper was the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking their mound, the curve of the wooden barrier around the clusters of homes, the small farms, the city center, and the edge of the palace with its ceremonial gates. Beyond them spread the half-frozen mountains, a river, and the shine of clear water replacing smaller peaks of the Hekla volcano.

Cold flashed through my bones, dropping me into the shallow but frozen depths of the lake, the weak ice around me crumbled each time I tried to climb out. Fannar saved me, but not before falling in himself. The warmth he siphoned into me kept me alive and handicapped my brother. 

It fractured our already strained relationship, and not long after, I got our favorite sister killed.

The drone nudged me into a seat with his foot, and I sighed at the silhouette of shoulders and whirls of smoke, itching for one of the cigars in my bag and a glass of whiskey.

“Thank you, Neisti. You can go.” Familiarity swam in that dour voice as the council member turned. Light highlighted his short blonde hair, slender nose, and strong chin—one we shared.

“Fannar.” 

 

 

Long ago, the death of his little sister broke his family apart.

After a close call left him blind in one eye, Boden must return to the home he fled as a young leprechaun.

For hundreds of years, he has feared facing his family and punishment for his sister’s death.

Boden needs to make up for his mistakes before he can fight a war for the woman he loves.

Find out what secrets are unleashed in THE SHOEMAKER’S APPRENTICE.

Pre-order now on Kindle, on Nook, or on Kobo.

Did You Know…About the Paranormal War?

Tags

Assetato, atlantean pantheon, atlantis, Boot Camp, Celampresians, must read, mythology, paranormal, Romulus, shifters, vampires

I have two distinct groups in my Broken World series, the Celampresians and the Assetato, who fight for rule over the paranormal world.

First, the Celampresians are named after the queen of the vampires, the first one in existence: Phea Celampresian. She’s vain, so she named her army after herself.

I chose that name after some research about Altantis and what type of surnames may have come from their culture. “Celam-” means the noble, and Phea was part of Atlantean nobility as her stepfather held a high-ranking government position. This also plays into her heritage: she was born of an Atlantean human woman impregnated by the primordial god, Chronos; therefore, making Phea the granddaughter of the Earth Goddess, Gaia. I infuse this mythology in her story, “Maiden of the Underworld.” In any case, I’m going off on a tangent, as I do. The second part of the name, “presian,” came from my tweaking two other names: Ampheresian, which means unsophisticated, hardy, and enduring, and Diaprepesian, which means ambitious, untrustworthy, and sly, all of which describe Phea’s personality not long after she becomes a vampire.

Essentially, the Celampresians are the bad guys, an evil coalition that aims to kill off most of the shifter races because Phea wants a dictatorship with all paranormal creatures under her control. This stems from her birth as the first paranormal creature, the mother of all vampires and the grandmother of all shifters.

Second, the Assetato have a bit simpler of a back-story. I knew that Rosalie, the head of the Assetato, was Italian royalty before she was stolen and changed by one of the Celampresians. Once she freed herself from their reign, she banded with important allies and founded the organization in order to undermine Phea’s hold on the paranormal world so that vampires, shifters, and humans can live together. Simply put, I named them the Italian translation for “The Thirsty,” as they work not to kill humans in order to survive.

The Assetato are supposed to be the good guys, but their means of fighting don’t always seem so pure. They combat Phea’s control over them and want to live more peacefully, although they also battle their natural impulses to consume human blood and flesh. They are mostly good-doers in the U.S. but are more aggressive in Europe, as I will explore in an upcoming spin-off novel THE SISTER WITH THE STOLEN POCKET WATCH about a mermaid-unicorn, but that’s a whole new tangent.

This is why they create safe houses, like seen in LOVING RED and “The Mark of the Phoenix.” To house their brethren away from the Celampresians, to protect humans, to let their soldiers heal, and to safeguard humans against their base natures.

The last note I want to make about the Assetato as an organization and all of the links between the two groups is this—Anthemos Romulus Celampresian. You may or may not recognize that name from book one and the short story “The Mark of the Phoenix,” where I give hints of his role in this world. Anthemos, or Mumu as his mother likes to call him, is the Atlantean god of beasts, the only god remaining from that pantheon, and the father of shifters.

To put it bluntly, he’s both Phea’s son and the real driving force behind the organization that combats her. Besides all of the Atlantean threads at play in Ria’s tale—my current perspective, Anthemos’s function is far more strictly tied than I’ve let on. He is, after all, his mother’s son, and their relationship affects a lot more than a few camps of creatures.

Looking forward to revealing more about this magickal place!

 

Want to know more about Altantis? About Phea? Check out Did You Know…About Phea and James, my interviewwith Phea, the vampire queen, and my free download of her creation story, “Maiden of the Underworld.”

 

Anniversary Sale, Broken World Edition!

Tags

anniversary, bargain books, Broken World, free books, free stories, good read, must read, paranormal romance, Sale, shifters, urban fantasy, vampires

Hello, lovelies!

It’s been a year since I published BLOOD PHOENIX: IMPRINTED, the third book in Ria’s saga. As I jump into plotting out BLOOD PHOENIX: INFERNO and drafting THE SHOEMAKER’S APPRENTICE, I thought I’d slash some prices to celebrate my Broken World series.

BLOOD PHOENIX: REBIRTH, book one, is now free (MOBI on Automated download since Amazon isn’t a fan of free), Barnes & Noble, and Kobo!

BLOOD PHOENIX: CLAIMED & BLOOD PHOENIX: IMPRINTED are both just 99cents on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo!

Coffee addicted vampire, Ria, has more than her hands full with wonky powers, lovers, and enemies.

Made without her permission by a man that says she is his long, dead wife, she must pass the trials of their queen to remain one of the living dead.

But her physical makeup makes her and her allies question what they already knew about vampires, shifters, and the rules for mating with humans.

Now, this free-thinking and sassy hybrid must pave her own way under the thumb of a demented and power-hungry woman.

Can she survive? And what will become of their world if she doesn’t?

 

My vampire creation story, MAIDEN OF THE UNDERWORLD, is always free (EPUB,MOBI,PDF).

Atlantis sinks, gods fall, and the first vampire is born.

Forced to sacrifice those she loves, Phea swears revenge on the gods responsible for their deaths.

Escaping from the Underworld, she must find a way back to its center and usurp the Death God’s and his wrath. The struggle for power feeds her new-found hunger, and she fears more pain and destruction.

Will she save her people or doom them all?

 

And THE SHOEMAKER’S APPRENTICE is coming this summer, sign up for your free ARC copy now.

Long ago, the death of his little sister broke his family apart.

After a close call left him blind in one eye, Boden must return to the home he fled as a young leprechaun.

For hundreds of years, he has feared facing his family and punishment for his sister’s death.

Boden needs to make up for his mistakes before he can fight a war for the woman he loves.

 

I can’t wait to see how this Broken World expands as I finish Ria’s last two books, bring her world crashing into the LOVING RED saga, and pick up a few side stories along the way.

Did You Know…About Hybrids & Chaos?

Tags

atlantean, god of beasts, hyrbids, phoenix powers, Romulous, Supernatural, the vampire diaries, underworld, vampire-werewolf

In most stories or myths, hybrid creatures are rare. And no, I’m not talking about shifters or were creatures who can change form, as they have become a species in their own right.

Instead, I’m talking about those anomalies—the chimera, the centaur, the satyr, the harpy, the lamia, the sphinx, the Anubis, the gorgon, the Pegasus, and man, could I go on. In fact, here’s a link to a nice wiki list of them, if you’re interested.

More recently, fiction and cinema have mashed together more types of creatures in interesting ways to test the boundaries of fantasy and science fiction and horror, like the vampire-werewolf hybrid from Underworld, Supernatural,andThe Vampire Diaries.

For me, these are the most fascinating because most lore indicates how vampire and werewolves, who both transform others via a bite, are poisonous to one another. This is true in my Broken World as well, although for a reason that I haven’t found for other mythologies.

I’ll take this opportunity to explain. Phea, the first vampire and their ruling queen, is also the mother of all shifters—or bosex as I like to call them. Her son, Anthemos Romulous Celampresian, is the Atlantean god of beast and the father of all bosex. My variety of species sprung from Anthemos mating with various human women, and their offspring took on animal forms until puberty. The problem arose when Anthemos fell in love with one of these human women. His mother, Phea, grew jealous, made threats, and made attempts to kill his family. Because of this, he made their blood poisonous to her, and therefore, all other vampires as a means to hinder her ability to bring them harm.

This is why Ria’s ability to drink from Mark in book two throws everyone for a loop. She can do this because she’s the first natural hybrid in hundreds of years and only the second in existence, and her phoenix powers allows her to perform some strange feats.

However, her abilities are not the main reason for concern over her hybrid status, except maybe for her personal desire not to be dissected by her queen, Phea. No, she indicates a larger-world phenomenon. It means chaos, an undoing of the usual rules, and a time of transition, although what that means, nobody is really clear about yet.

Except for me, but I don’t count.

I have snuck in a few clues, like how Julia in book three is able to walk around in the sunlight when in book one, James made a pretty big deal about Ria being up before darkness. She explained this away as a part of her hybrid status, but was that it?

Well, I can’t tell you it all, now, can I? But the answer is both yes, and no…

 

Want to learn more about the intricacies of hybrids in my Broken World? Take a dive into the series.

Here’s a free download of the creation story.

Here’s the first three books in her series.

And here’s her parent’s story.

Tatiana’s Diary: Her first letter.

Tags

coming of age, fantasy characters, fire, free, good reads, hormones, Mark of the Pheonix, must read, paranormal, phoenix

Dear Little One,

I know that this is all a bit much. After all, I’m not even a memory to you, and although these entries will be filled with sappy reflection and gushy love, we do have some serious things to talk about.

Like your father.

There’s a lot that should be said about him, and probably more that shouldn’t, but the basic facts are…he’s the reason you’re different. Special.

You’re going to go through some changes…you’re going to learn to harness the raw energy of the universe in its purist form—fire. You’ll have the power to create and destroy. Never do either without purpose.

Here’s hoping your hormones aren’t anything like mine. The destruction I’ve caused…more on that later.

So, the balance of the universe relies on the phoenix—you. She has to save as much as she has to kill. And rebirth means chaos, close to two decades that tips toward evil, selfishness, and violence. Putting it right will be up to you. And it won’t be easy, especially since you’ll be half me, too.

Again, the hormones. Sweetie, I cannot stress this enough, keep your wits about you.

But if everything goes to plan, Mom and Dad should keep you under the radar and raise you well. I did hell all, but that wasn’t their fault. I’ve always seen the world as something to taste while you have the chance.

You’ll meet a realm of magical creatures and oddities that you’ve only dreamed of. And they will tempt you with wickedness. The worst things are guised in beauty and familiarity, and not everyone who says they’re good, or bad, are.

I wish I could offer you a list, but your father warned me against knowing them more than necessary. I only hope that a friendly face is there to help you, like he promised.

Your father and I want you to stay strong and remember that it is not enough to live safely. You have a duty to purify the world without consuming it.

Neither of us know how you will be able to do this. Just that you must.

I wish I had happier things to say. For now, know that I love you.

Your Proud Momma,

Tatiana

Interview with Fannar Einarsson: the IMP

Tags

character development, character interview, element manipulation, faerie council, frost, IMP, internal affairs, legacy, magick, snowflakes

Welcome, Fannar. Thank you for coming in to answer some questions.

A pleasure. I live to serve.

Not used to that one, but I’m still glad to have you here. I hear you have an interesting power that takes a hefty toll.

Indeed. The manipulation of elements can be quite draining. I freeze water. It, in turn, freezes me. It wasn’t always that way, bit it is now.

A birdie told me that you and your brother have a bit of a feud. Can you tell me about that?

He’s the reason my powers hurt me as much as they do. Because he skirted his responsibilities and needed someone to save him.

What role do you play in the council?

I run the Northern Division of the Internal Magick Protection units. Checks and balances. Ensuring protocol is not only followed but fair.

Did you always want to be a part of the council?

<He laughs.> No. I messed up pretty badly when I was younger…had a lot of making up to do.

I hear you have an interesting collection, what’s it of?

You hear a lot of things.

I do. It’s like a magickal power.

I have a couple thousand preserved snowflakes. It’s a bit of a niche, took a lot of practice to perfect, but it helps to channel our most basic natures.

Can you tell me about Alvilda?

She was special, but she had a self-destruct button. Too much energy to contain. <Emotions warred through his face.> She changed the way our mound runs now, about what we prioritize, about how we teach our children.

I’m glad to hear she has a legacy.

Me, too.

What was the first bit of magick you learned?

Keeping my food from burning my mouth. Took a long time before I got to eat warm food again.

Samurai or Ninja?

Ninja. It’s better to be fast than strong, and every fairy will tell you the same.

If you could change something about yourself, what would it be and why?

I’d be able to feel warmth again.

I hope you do, someday. Well, that’s it. Thanks for placating me, and I hope you come back to visit soon.

 

Want to know more about Fannar? Check out his official character page or watch him work in “The Mark of the Phoenix.”

Did You Know…About Phea and James?

Tags

Altantean, Broken World, Chronos, murder, Primordial God, reincarnation, shifters, tragic, underworld, vampires

I know, this isn’t my normal DYK post, but I’ve been in a sharing mood.

I’m a fan of context and connections and deeper meanings, so this is from the author’s mouth…urm, fingers? You know what I mean.

Two of the oldest characters featured in my Broken World series, Phea and James have pasts locked together with violence, manipulation, and the struggle for power.

If you’ve read “Maiden of the Underworld,” you know about Phea’s beginning. But if you haven’t, let me give you a recap: Phea is the daughter of Chronos, the Primordial god of time and an Atlantean woman. She’s set against the twin gods of the Atlantean pantheon: Markandeya, the god of the underworld; and Jydios, the god of war. Without too many spoilers, she dies, becomes the first vampire, finds some romance, and makes some heart-breaking sacrifices. Hers is a tragic story.

There’s much more I haven’t written about her past yet, like how she started the war between vampires and shifters because she was jealous of her son’s wife and family. Or how she’s the grandmother of all shifters. Unfortunately for the lot, blood ties don’t seem to curb her cruelty. She’s merciless.

How does James fit into this? Well, mini-spoiler: James is the reincarnated Jydios—the war god that tricked and murdered Phea to steal her power by using her love for him against her. Does that give her some more sympathy? Kinda, yeah. Does it undo the six-thousand-year-old torture she lays down on James? No, not really. It’s complicated.

Jydios tortured and killed any demi-god who had the balls to visit his real godly temple. That’s more than two dozen sacrificed to feed his well of power. James knows this, the knowledge beaten into him by Phea, and he understands that he suffers for the dharma branded on his soul.

The two of them have been allies and adversaries at once. She was given a child that abandoned her, so Phea made James abandon his wife and child, taking their second from them before his birth. She claimed and refuses to release him, although she invites others to her bed to test his faith and force him to fight for her. He fights to survive and does her bidding because he has no other choice.

He really doesn’t. Because Phea’s powers were bestowed on her from the higher pantheons, she can control him just enough to disable his uprising, but he doesn’t make it easy on her.

Especially now, he’s played his trump card, and they both have limited time to put their warring plans in motion to see who really controls their kingdom.

So there it is, some Broken World history. Want to read their story? Got some unanswered questions? Let me know!

In the meantime, I’ve got four full novels and three short stories in the world. Take a look and catch up in time for the upcoming stories featuring Ria’s father, Aderyn Tanguy, and Boden’s trip home to see his family for the first time in better part of a millennia.

Polyamorous Relationships & Urban Fantasy

Tags

blood phoenix, Laurell K. Hamilton, LGBT, love-triangle, polyamory, satire, stereotypes, third wheel, tropes, vampires

Ria has three men in her life, and I know a lot of readers are over the love triangle—or square in this case. I know people are going to react to this. In fact, a reviewer already has: How can Ria love more than one man at the same time? Here’s a disclaimer, the Blood Phoenix mini-series is not a romance. It’s more of a sexy horror/urban fantasy.

Well, let me try to explain this fictional set up and why it reflects a bit of my life and beliefs.

One of my major influences, Laurell K. Hamilton, talks about polyamory in several blog posts and interviews. In fact, here’s a quote from her in a 2015 interview:

“Even in the LGBT community, polyamory and bisexuality are not totally accepted. They are both seen as a way of not committing to one sexuality, or one person, even among those who you would think would be the most accepting. Most people, regardless of their sexual orientation, are very invested in the ideal of finding the love of their life and living happily ever after. It works for some people, but happily ever after is from fairy tales, which are bedtime stories for kids. Why does everyone try to fit real world love into a model from children’s stories? Shouldn’t true love be able to grow up, at last?”

Over the last year, I’ve written, read, edited, and presented over fairy tales and gender roles and societal influences, etc. Her quote fits for my recent state of mind. I highly believe we can love more than one person at a time, and most of us do. We love our significant others, our parents, our siblings, our children, and our friends. Each love is different, even if they’re the same “type” of love.

I feel as though I try to get into the intricacies that comes with polyamorous relationships—as with every relationship, the variables apply to the people involved—that I’ll just say that having multiple partners—sexual or not—can be done in a healthy and respectable way. So long as honesty and open communication exists, more love can only lead to positive outcomes. The same is true with couples.

I’m in favor of combating pre-designated ideas about human behavior. Love who you love and fuck everyone else. It’s none of their business, anyways.

Okay, with that in mind, let me elaborate on Ria’s men and her need for all three. I’ve been told that they could be combined into one or two at most.

They can’t. Maybe this is an author pout, the characters are real to me, and I cannot eliminate one out of the selfish attachment to them. Maybe.

Or they represent the three versions of my husband. Without spilling too much personal information about him, Jason, I will say that the combination of his high intellect, his enormous vault of experiences, and the effects of twenty-six months of extremely active combat in Afghanistan, I don’t always know which version of him I will get on any given day: the surly sergeant determined to fix the corruption of his government—aka James; the needy, silly, goofball that spends a lot of time entertaining himself and causing mischief—aka Boden; or the lonely, sullen man in need of affection and fighting a mouthy, combative female he’s meant to take care of—aka Gene.

The three have a bit of overlap, but they’re distinct enough to make them different people. Besides, Ria needs all the help she can get, and each supports her in different ways as she adapts for each of them.

In any case, my novels are meant to be satirical, poking fun at the tropes of my genre(s), like the ever-popular and overly-used love triangle.

Got a trope you wish more authors used, eliminated, or adapted? Let me know in the comments below!

 

Interview with Tahe Love: The Battle Buddy.

Tags

biker bar, blood phoenix, Broken World, Cadillac Roadster, card tricks, magician, Nikola Tesla, vampires

Welcome, Tahe Love, full of sass, crass, and class.

That’s me, chica.

 

I hear you once met Nikola Tesla, can you tell us about that?

It was brief. He shook my hand and looked me in the eyes. The intellect and general good in him astonished me. I’d probably have bent over for him there if he’d asked me to, even though I wasn’t into the mustache.
Oh my.

Sorry, sista. I tell it how it is.

 

I heard you dabbled in magic. Can you tell me about your time as a magician’s assistant?

I loved magic and sleight of hand. There was this young bloke, charming as shit, good at misdirection, and good with his hands. I saw him perform on the street one night and took him to an alley for a little nibble. Impressed him when I stole the cash he’d made from the show right out of his pocket. So we did a lot of disappearing assistant acts. Didn’t get anywhere, and his obsession got dark, confinement and danger, and I ain’t gonna watch a good man descend like that. Watch him kill himself. No thanks.

 

Which trick was your favorite?

He taught me how to fling cards, which he’d cut with his double-sided dagger. We got some speed on that trick. Got noticed for it, too. That’s when shit went wrong.

 

I also heard that you’re a bit of a car nut.

I love what industry has done to them, well before all of the electronic controls. The ignition system though in the early 1900s, those were brilliant because the hand cranks were monsters. But people don’t know their cars now, all those automatic regulators get in the way. I enjoyed getting to know my car, its quirks, its parts, its language.

 

What was the first car you stole?

A Cadillac Roadster Type 61 in 1922.

 

Can you tell me about how you and Julia met?

I was hanging out at a biker bar, cheating a few big guys at pool and hitting on their ladies. I felt her watching me, and when she challenged me to a game, I let her take the first shot, and she swept the game. Cost me five hundred dollars and a round of beers. Worth every penny.

 

What can you tell us about Julia?

She was a rare kind of human. Ain’t a lot of them out there that have such open minds, that don’t judge or react out of fear. That made her a hell of a lot of fun to pull shit with. Besides, she had an imagination, especially in bed. I’m a dog without a bone, if you catch me.

 

I do.

Figured you would.

 

What was it like to have a man as a mentor?

I think that’s a story for another time, sweet cakes.

 

Thanks for spending some time with me, Tahe.

You got it. Anytime.

 

Interested in learning more about her story? Click here!