Tag Archives: #shifterromance

The Stranded Sky Castle

Paranormal romance lovers will devour these seven novellas featuring alpha male shifters and the men they’re determined to claim. Our handpicked stories are full of heat, passion, and romances to remember. Seven authors, including some of your favorite Evernight bestsellers, are proud to present Alpha Male: Manlove Edition.

Releases Nov. 8th.

Get it here from Evernight, Amazon, Apple, kobo, Barnes and Noble, Scribd

My story in Alpha Male is “The Stranded Sky Castle”

The Stranded Sky Castle is a Romeo and Juliet story, if Romeo was a magic-wielding wolf and Juliet was a very militant eagle. Rokor, an eagle-shifter and child-soldier, grew up in a war with witches that ended when his father died to defeat the coven. He takes his role as a leader very seriously and is skeptical, flattered, and somewhat annoyed when he finds himself relentlessly pursued by the cheerful and cunning alpha wolf of the valley, Tchen the Trickster. The wolf lives up to his name laying traps to get closer and closer to his lover, until he finally manages to take the young eagle hostage. It’s only then that Rokor realizes how much the witches’ stole from the wolves and how very alive the witch threat still is.

Selection from “The Stranded Sky Castle”

He stood there by the window, howling at the moon in his human form, ignoring me and my entourage. Today, he was wearing soft fabric trousers and a thick hemp belt. Otherwise, he was only covered with one of our cheap feather blankets. The sight of his broad shoulders, his long unkempt hair, the angles of his jaw, and the shape of his mouth made me weak. I’d made love to that man. I’d kissed that skin, had those lips around my cock, felt the body move over and inside of me.

I had to stay cold. “All right, you hell-raiser, what are you doing in my prison?”

The howling silenced at once, and he beamed at me like a child. “Well, you look very nice out of your armor, your majesty. Like a red peacock. Very soft, very elegant.”

I turned to the other second and both of our entourages. “Would it be possible for me to speak to this person alone? I commend you all on your service in capturing and subduing this man, but it takes a while before he says anything other than lewd jokes and meaningless drivel when he’s alone with me. I can only imagine how much worse he will be with an audience.”

“You know this man, sir?” The other second was curious.

“From patrols. He frequently comes too near the border.”

She was not at all sorry to miss the show. “I wouldn’t leave him to anyone but you, sir. Call if you need help. Flock dismissed!”

Tchen leaned on the bars, devilishly handsome and innocently pathetic. Still, he at least had the sense to wait until the rustle of their feathers retreated. “I had to see you again.”

“You’re insane.”

“Am I?”

“You must be. To abandon your people and give up your freedom just to see—”

“I hope to more than see—”

“That’s not likely—”

“I hope to touch, kiss—”

“God’s balls, wolf. You are a prisoner of war!”

Tchen stepped back as if he’d been punched. Shocked deeply by my shout. I hoped I’d made progress, just the slightest dent in his madness.

“Tchen, you have to give this up. There’s no world where you and I—”

I saw his trick too late. The man didn’t have a shred of contrition, and by the time he’d grabbed my wrists, I wasn’t strong enough to hold my ground. He yanked me against the cold metal and kissed me.

My cock leaped at even this slightest contact, and I knew I’d been anticipating this. As much as I promised myself I would remain in control, Tchen’s hands groped at my ass. I should never have left the library. Never have sent my entourage away. Never put myself near this beast.

“Rokor.” My name in his mouth cracked my control, and the rest of his growl melted me to the core. “I want you so much. Please.”

Nominated for Evernight’s Best Paranomal Romance 2019

Freeing the Witch is nominated for an award (it was already an Editor’ Pick!)!

I’m so ridiculously thrilled about this. If you liked the book, please vote for it here:

Evernight’s Best Paranormal Romance 2019

Freeing the Witch is the hardest romance novel I’ve ever written since it’s about two people who are very different than me. They are shy and self-effacing and the kind of folks you want to get a happily-ever-after. Even though one a wolf and the other is a witch. So really its an Enemies to Lovers story, but with genuinely sweet people.

 

Emaula Whispel thought she’d be happy if she could live outside her mother’s magical stone tower, but when Emaula starts working as a chef at her friend’s trading post, she becomes smitten with Porter, her co-cook. Now Emuala’s magic is obsessed with possessing this quiet, charming wolf, and the budding witch has to fight to control her powers and her lust, to prevent her new friend from becoming her accidental victim.

If you’ve not read the book, click here to get it from Evernight or contact me. I still have a few author copies to give away!

 

Freeing the Witch

Happy Friday the Thirteenth, Everyone. I know I’m having a good day because I get to announce the official release of Heart of the Mountain 2: Freeing the Witch just in time for Halloween!

*Update: Freeing the Witch won runner-up for Readers’ Choice Best Paranormal Romance. Save 25% off 2019 Readers’ Choice Winners with coupon code WINNERS2019.

Easily the hardest to write and probably the best of the romance novels I’ve written, Freeing the Witch is about Emaula a sweet, shy witch who is trapped by her psychopathic mother who is slowly eating her soul and has cursed her to be poisonous to the touch. She is saved by her friend Jasprite (heroine of Hiring the Tiger) and whisked to the jungle mountains of the south where she meets the effortlessly charming Porter, a wolf she immediately falls in love with but can never touch.
The wolf-pack is deeply suspicious of witches, and Emaula’s curse makes her particularly distrustful, so Porter finds himself for the first time ever disagreeing with his pack. He loves Emaula and he knows she wants him, what he can’t understand is why she’s so hesitant about it. And even if he could get her to admit her feelings, and smooth over the tensions with the wolf pack, there’s still that evil mother to contend with.

Starting today, you can find it online at Evernight Publishing: here.

Or on Smashwords: here.

Emaula and Porter’s love story has been particularly weird for me to write because it’s so sweet (my roommates have been listening to me complain for months about how hard it is for two shy people to fall in love). Generally my characters are as much in competition with each other as they are with the outside world; this is the first time I’ve really tackled a romance between not just one shy person, but two.

Porter and Emaula both have a lot of growing to do before they can acknowledge their own worth and fight for their mutual love.
But that’s also the reason this is one of my favorite stories. Their happy ending, because of course there’s a happy ending, is sooo earned.
So pleased to finally share this with the world.
I hope you guys enjoy Freeing the Witch.

Cover Reveal!

Once again, I got so interested in Steampunk that I forgot to announce my new release!  It’s another anthology story called “Tortured Heart” and it will appear in Denying the Alpha.

Which looks something like this:

 

 

denying the alpha antho-MM-complete

I love these anthologies because they always get me to write something new and interesting. I keep returning to the same world of shifters so this is similar to “The Scarf” and Hiring the Tiger. “Tortured Heart” tells the story about a crow shifter who has fought hard to rise to steward of his witch’s household only to fall in love with a rival witch’s wolf.

The release date and teasers soon!

 

Shari Elder: On Rats and Alphas. Plus and Excerpt from “Unnatural Allies (Book #2 Shifting Alliances)”

So we’ve met Shari Elder before and we learned to both fear and respect her high-heels. Now Shari is coming back to talk about her latest book, “Unnatural Allies (Book #2 Shifting Alliances)” which features, a rat shifter.

Here’s Shari:

As a writer, the real thrill in writing a rat alpha as a hero, is the freedom it gave to explore the parameters of an alpha.  How far could I stretch that definition?  How many beta-like characteristics could I sneak in and still maintain him as a leader who commanded respect of bigger, stronger predatorial shifters?

Let’s start with what he looks like. Evan Grant is lean, with smaller muscles and shorter stature and a facial twitch (think rat with whiskers) we don’t tend to associate with heroes. While he is physically significant among other rat shifters, he pales in size to predators. He can be a deadly fighter, but prefers to use strategy and diplomacy over weapons and fists to solve conflict.  He’s humble, letting people assume he’s a local shopkeeper, when he is CEO of an international franchise.  He also reads and writes poetry and craves intimacy. His commitment to his pack, however, makes it hard for him to have a steady lover, a spiritual pain he carries everywhere like one would a phone.


Unnatural-Allies-evernightpublishing-2017

Excerpt

At home, Evan Grant listened to Jillian’s angry voice mail again, disappointment an angry pulse in his stomach. The females in his clan drove away another potential girlfriend.  Again. He’d thought dating a doe from another mischief might circumvent the competition, but the females ganged together more coherently this time. Usually they took sides—for or against his intended lady.  Either way, he had yet to meet a woman willing to handle the fireworks.

An image of the wolf beta popped into his thoughts. Shy on the outside, she radiated with hidden depths and lips a man could lose himself in. Predator. Big teeth. Claws. His rat was right, that was an odd thought. He was grasping at straws. The pack would have to embrace any partner he chose, and they were possessive of him. Too much so. A wolf would be out of the question. Probably fatigue conjuring up crazy ideas. Or his ever-present need to be deeply connected, and being wrapped around and inside a woman, her scent intermingled with his own, the closest he got to satisfying that need. Having Jillian here tonight with that tinkling laugh, lemony scent, and long, mewling moan instead of her shrewish accusations would have helped him unwind after a tough evening.

For a rat alpha, pack integrity had to be his top priority—it was the source of their strength—how they survived and thrived in a world full of hunters. Since he earned rather than inherited leadership, as happened in some clans, he didn’t need to marry or start a family. He wanted to. Evan craved intimacy, which was what made him the longest lasting rat alpha on record. He understood how to create relationships, thrived on them. He loved his clan, but he also wanted to come home, take off all the masks he wore to govern the rats, and lose himself in his woman.

He sighed. Being solo again had its benefits. With the fae on the march, and this strange new alliance in place, being there for his pack would be paramount. Managing the clan jealousies that always came with his relationships would divide his mischief and weaken them.  Without strength, they’d be battling the predators in the alliance at the same time as they battled the fae.

He erased Jillian’s message, then got himself a beer.  The bite of a strong, cold brew kept him centered. Plopping down on his favorite recliner, he sank into the buttery faux leather, worn from age and use. He reached for the book of poetry, pen, and the journal he kept hidden under the chair cushion. His packmates would not understand. To him, the lyric and motion of a poem, how its stark language captured complex emotion, caressed his rough edges, tempered the well of loneliness he carried even amidst his pack. Reading and writing poetry released his inner torment and created a bridge to the empathy he needed to manage the rats and negotiate among the predators.

Get Unnatural Allies (Book #2 Shifting Alliances) here!


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.

Unnatural-Allies-evernightpublishing-2017-series-evernightbanner


You can find Shari in real life on:

Facebook

Twitter

Blog

Pinterest

 

Nicola M. Cameron

Nicola M. Cameron on the location of her latest novella Shifter Woods: Howl

The world of Shifter Woods comes from my road trip last year to RT in Las Vegas. I decided to drive from Dallas to LV, and it turned into an absolutely wonderful road trip through some gorgeous countryside. One of my favorite spots along the way was Albuquerque, where I stayed overnight. I hadn’t realized that I-40 skirted the Sandia Mountains until the next morning when I walked out of my hotel, looked up and realized, “Oh. THAT’S what I was driving over last night. Good to know.”

Driving back was even nicer because I had the chance to appreciate the mountains in daylight, and something about the beauty and power of the range really stayed with me. When it came time to write SW:H, I wanted to set the action in a cabin somewhere out west with stunning scenery, so placing my imaginary Esposito County and Macomber in the Sandia foothills was a no-brainer. There will be at least three more novellas set in this location dealing with other shifters in Esposito and I may well do a full-length novel with Caleb and Laurie after that, so stay tuned!


Laurie wants a news story. Caleb just wants to be left alone. But when the coyote shifters’ paths cross in New Mexico’s Sandia Mountains, Fate steps in and gives them something they never expected—each other.

Reporter Laurie Rivera is on the trail of a white slavery ring when she’s forced to run for her life in the foothills near Sandia Crest. Widowed sheriff and Alpha coyote shifter Caleb Lynch comes across the exhausted reporter and discovers to his shock that Laurie’s also a coyote shifter—and his new heart’s mate.

But Caleb never expected to have another chance at love, and Laurie has a good reason to fear being claimed, especially by an Alpha. As a snowstorm traps them in the sheriff’s cabin, Caleb must find a way around the barriers surrounding Laurie’s heart, and Laurie has to confront her past—and the humans who want her dead—if she wants a chance at her very own “happily ever after.”


Excerpt

Upstairs, Caleb stretched out in the big, comfortable bed, remembering how Paul Sleeping Turtle, Mike Ivanov and he had used some stout ropes and a lot of good-natured cursing to haul the mattress and box spring and over the loft railing. Anna had stood well out of the way downstairs, laughing at their language as they’d sweated and lugged the damn things upward. That night, however, she’d rewarded him in the newly installed bed, and Mike cheerfully baited him the next day about hearing the noise from a good mile away.

He’d never brought another woman to the cabin after Anna’s death, never even wanted to. But Laurie was different. He could smell her even up here, her essence rising with the heat from the fireplace and perfuming the loft with the smell of warm, sweet female in heat and in need of a good fucking.

He had no idea why Laurie had suddenly gone into heat while he was doing the dishes, but the change in her scent was unmistakable. Granted, sometimes an unmated Alpha could send a young, untried female into heat from simple proximity. But Laurie Rivera had to be in her early thirties, and if she was a virgin he’d eat his badge. The view he’d caught of her in the reflection of the kitchen window was of a female openly eyeing him and liking what she saw.

He grinned at the hand-hewn beams overhead. You know damn well what it means. She’s my mate, whether she likes it or not.

Which, ironically, was the problem. From what she’d told him, she was skittish as hell about the idea of being claimed. He couldn’t blame her, considering her experiences with her first Alpha. But it certainly messed up any chance he had with her, as well. And he didn’t have the luxury of taking his time and courting her, letting her get to know him over time. The moment the plows came through in the morning, Mike and this Gavin guy would be at the cabin to pick her up. After that, Laurie would be back in the city with her career and her life, never to return.

Albuquerque isn’t that far, though.

Oh, yeah? When was the last time you were there? The last time you had time to go there?

His subconscious—or his coyote, he wasn’t sure—had a point. He had to act tonight before he lost her. So, time to be sneaky.

He kicked off the blanket, bracing as the cool air hit his bare skin. He usually didn’t sleep naked during winter, but he wanted as much of his own aroma circulating as possible. He’d made a vow, yes, and he would keep it … unless Laurie gave him permission to break it. And the best way to make happen would be to tempt her upstairs with the scent of his desire and the promise of fulfilling her own.

Running a hand over his chest, he brushed the firm nub of a nipple and the crisp hair that led in a trail down to his groin. He followed it now, wrapping a hand around his soft cock and squeezing. It twitched at the stimulation; when he squeezed again, running his thumb over the upper ridge of the head, it began to thicken lazily.

He started a light, teasing stroke, not enough to get himself off but more than enough to get fully hard. Closing his eyes, he imagined Laurie climbing the stairs to the loft and his bed. The mattress would dip a bit as she climbed on it, moving on all fours to him. He knew she was the kind of female who, when her mind was made up, would stake her claim. There would be no fear, no anger, nothing but need and the deep knowledge that they belonged together.

He pictured her straddling his thighs, bending over to give him a deep, luscious kiss. Her breasts would swing forward and he could cup them, relishing the firm weight of them in each hand before he leaned up to take a nipple in his mouth. He already knew how the salt of her sweat and the sweet spice of her skin would taste, and how to rub the velvet flat of his tongue across the nub to make her gasp. He wanted to learn all the sounds she made in bed, the feminine moans and sighs that were music to a male’s ears.

His sweet female would be eager that first time, taking him in hand and guiding his straining cock between her legs. He groaned as he imagined the hot, wet squeeze of her sliding down around him, a perfect fit that would drive him out of his mind. She’d start riding him, her breasts jiggling with each rise and fall, and that perfect friction building between cock and cunt, all hot juices and slippery softness and his dick going deeper and deeper into her until he could feel the electricity rising, building at that sweet spot between balls and spine…

He pulled his hand away, half-enjoying the sparking, stuttering feeling of having his orgasm denied. Now he just had to wait.

Please, Laurie, I need you. Come to me.

Where to Buy

Amazon



About Nicola Cameron

Nicola Cameron is a married woman of a certain age who really likes writing about science fiction, fantasy, and sex. When not writing about those things, she likes to make Stuff™. And she may be rather fond of absinthe.

While possessing a healthy interest in sex since puberty, it wasn’t until 2012 that she decided to write about it. The skills picked up during her SF writing career transferred quite nicely to speculative romance. Her To Be Written work queue currently stands at around nineteen books, and her mojito-sodden Muse swans in from Bali every so often to add to the list, cackling to herself all the while.

Nicola plans to continue writing until she drops dead over her keyboard or makes enough money to buy a private island and hire Rory McCann as her personal trainer/masseur, whichever comes first.

Website | Blog | Facebook | Facebook Reader Group | Twitter | Goodreads

Excerpt from Hiring the Tiger

Personal opinion that might get me in trouble: One of the reasons I like to read/watch m/m is because there seems to be a more equal play field. I don’t know if it the power-dynamic, or that I watch less amateur gay videos, but the men always seem to enjoy sex more.

Given my proclivities towards writing about violent sex, I’ve always hesitated to write an F/M couple. Though logically I know there is no difference between tying up a guy or a gal, in my heart, it feels wrong… exploitative, when women are subjected to forced consent in my fantasies. They’ve got to deal with enough shit in real life; they don’t need my gutter mind.

However, I think with Jasprite, I found my compromise.  


Except from Hiring the Tiger

Nav worried the lady wouldn’t like the look of the bands, too dirty, too bold. Then he scoffed because he didn’t give a damn if she liked the look of them. Then he worried she’d decide he was a frivolous expense.

Fuck the bet, he’d take for her free. Now, he wanted her.

Now she was here.

He smelled her in the hallway, potent and sexual. She walked with quick long strides and opened the door before he could decide if he ought to be found in the balcony or on the bed.

Jasprite locked the door after she entered, then dropped the key into her front vest pocket. She grinned at him, the kind of leer men give the village girls washing their clothing at the river. It made him feel curiously misplaced.

“So, the captain was wrong. The chest was delivered safe and whole. You didn’t even open it.”

“I didn’t have the key.” He’d resisted the desire to pick it. “Ramsay also said you ought to hire a soldier to do this work.”

“A miscreant will do the job more thoroughly.” She pulled off her suit jacket and hung it on a wall hook, never taking her eyes from him. “Though, I’ll be honest, I don’t like animals. Especially, large ones. They don’t take direction well. Your witch said you’re a tiger.”

Nav grinned. “She’s not wrong.”

The lady’s eyebrow raised with annoyance. He wasn’t playing properly. He tried to be timid again. “Did you want proof, Lady Doughton?”

“Never had a tiger for hire.” She grinned at her name then pulled the string of jewels out of her bun, plucked something from the string, and tossed something over to him. He caught a key. “Open the chest.”

He knelt and opened the red chest with a gamely smile.

The smile left quickly. “Holy Hades…”

Under the layers of cotton were shackles, collars, whips. Long thick phallic statues of carved and polished wood, glass, and shining metal molded for a very specific purpose. Gags, hoods, dozens of other toys he’d never seen even in the most wicked books.

She chuckled, not a pleasant sound. “I knew you wouldn’t be ready.”

“Uh…” He looked from the box to her. He wanted her strong thighs, those tempting breasts, her cruel smile. But the box … men were supposed to use toys like that, not women.

“You like my collection?”

“I don’t know, actually.”

She hummed, unimpressed with his answer. She sauntered over and peered with him into her box of deviance. Her thighs were level with his face, and he inhaled the rich fresh wetness between her legs. He wanted her so much.

Nav swallowed, uncomfortable on his knees. He should have been the one staring down at her. She should have been the one to feel small and desired. Instead, she’d made him nothing more than his throbbing cock and his wordless mouth.

“Yes, this is exactly my problem with large animals. Especially ones that belong to other women.” She gripped his chin.

“I don’t belong to Yenna.”

She grinned. “I know who you belong to.”

Nav shivered a little at the ownership in her confidence.

Jasprite let him go. “I do like a pretty face though. So, I’ll make an exception for you, tiger.”

She could still tell him no? He wasn’t sure he had the option himself.

The woman unbuttoned her vest. “Pick out what you’ll let me use on you and I’ll tell you what you’re worth.”


That’s me!

Hope you enjoyed. Get the full story on May 3rd here.

Tell Us What You’re Writing Now- Seven Days of Questions for the authors of “Owned by the Alpha: Manlove Edition”

Owned-by-the-Alpha-Antho2-EvernightPublishing2017-MM-Banner1Pre-order on Amazon


Because I like to talk about my writing I assume others like to talk about their writing to. In this spirit, I forced my lovely co-authors in Owned by the Alpha to answer a bunch of questions about how they got from the blank page to this book.

Question 7: What Are You Writing Now?

 

Maia Dylan

So many stories, so little time.  I have Grey River 9 almost finished and the characters in book 10 are screaming for their HEA.   I have three or four stories on the go at any one time, so there is always something write if my characters go quiet on one of my stories.

Jules Dixon

Right now, I’m finishing a revise and resubmit on a male/female side of Mooncrest, developing the story into a novella or novel. It’s Saber’s sister, Honor Creed, and a wolf with a sketchy past, Foster Jefferson. Honor comes to the relationship fresh out of an abusive relationship where she was claimed without her permission, marked with her own version of a scarlet letter. She’s scared and when her ex-husband escapes from jail, she has to be taken into hiding by her fated mate and he has to prove to her they are meant to be. I’m in love with this story and these characters and can’t wait to send it back to Evernight Publishing.

Elena Kincaid

I am working on two books right now. Beta Wars, which is the next book in my Pack Warrior series. It picks up right after the Pack Wars. The Gray-Moons had lost their Beta, pitting brother against brother to fill the role. I am also working on the next book in the Beyond the Veil series which I co-write with the lovelies Maia Dylan and Sarah Marsh. Fighting Faete features Kat’s story and the Dark Fae twins introduced in Bound To Their Faete. You can find links to all those goodies here.

L.J. Longo

I’m actually really excited that my first F/M series (Heart of the Mountain) was just accepted by Evernight. The first book is called Hiring the Tiger and it’s about shifter. Go figure. I also have a story in a Fantasy Romance collection called Crazy Little Spring Called Love that is released next week. My story in that antho is about a bad-ass mermaid.

Pelaam

I always have several WIPs on the go at any one time. I have a couple of steampunk inspired stories, another couple with a Halloween theme, plus a few more which are fantasy/paranormal. If I don’t have at least half a dozen to work on, then I feel my imagination is drying up and my Muse isn’t doing his job.

L.D. Blakeley

I’ve got two more stories in my Laissez Faire series that are slowly but surely being put on paper. I hope to have book #2 (the title has changed about a dozen times, so I’ll leave it at Book #2 for now) finished up in the next month.

James Cox

I’m working on the very last Outlaw MC story. My sexy bikers are finally leaving Mars and returning to earth but not without a lot of trouble following.


Well, that’s it for the seven day interviews, folks. Hope you enjoyed it. Owned by the Alpha will be available tomorrow and I personally cannot wait to spend all night reading these sexy stories! Get it here.

Tell Us Your Best Writing Advice- Seven Days of Questions for the authors of “Owned by the Alpha: Manlove Edition”

Owned-by-the-Alpha-Antho2-EvernightPublishing2017-MM-Banner1Pre-order on Amazon


Because I like to talk about my writing I assume others like to talk about their writing to. In this spirit, I forced my lovely co-authors in Owned by the Alpha to answer a bunch of questions about how they got from the blank page to this book.

Question 6: Tell Us Your Writing Advice?

What’s your writing ritual?

Maia Dylan

The best advice I ever got was to just keep writing.  I am a total pantser, and go off the cuff a lot. Probably too much! An author friend of mine who took me under her wing when I started two years ago told me to just let my characters tell the story.

Jules Dixon

Keep writing and always striving to expand your writing comfort zone. Period. Enough said. My ritual is to have something to drink and ass in chair, with my two favorite guys in front of me, cheering me on—Sam and Dean Winchester—in Funko Pop form. I’ve always had a thing for the paranormal, verified by my love of the series Supernatural verifies, and my ability as a clairsentient and clairalience when it comes to seeing, sensing, and smelling ghosts.

Elena Kincaid

Sit down and write, even if it’s just for practice at first. If writing is your passion and you have stories to tell, then go ahead and tell them. As far as rituals go, sometimes I like to listen to music before I sit down and write. Music inspires me. I get lost in the visuals of a scene I am working on and then the words just flow.

L.J. Longo

Get yourself a good workshop or writing community, because I don’t think a person can’t improve in the vacuum of their own mind. Every time I move (8 apartments in as many years) I seek out the local writers’ groups or start a new one. Especially in November, April, and July when Nanowrimo comes around. I can credit so many good habits and good friends to National Novel Writing Month.

Personally, I’m a plotter. I write all my notes out first, then fill in the blanks (first draft), then re-type the entire manuscript (second draft) until it makes good sense (third draft), cut all the stupid words (fourth draft), then read it out loud (fifth draft). Then hate myself and go back to re-typing the damned thing and do it all again until the day before the submission deadline.

Pelaam

No rituals as such. But, you could count the fact that I always have tea when I first start writing, and that I like to play old DVDs as background noise. Unlike many other writers, music distracts me. The advantage of old and familiar DVDs is that I can take a break from writing and know exactly where I am in the film or program that’s playing.

L.D. Blakeley

Coffee.

Honestly? Be a reader. You can’t be a writer without first being a reader. And I love Stephen King’s advice in his book, On Writing: “Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open.” (Meaning, the first draft is for you but once you’ve polished it to the best of your ability, it’s for everyone else.)

Also, coffee.

James Cox

*Just keeps writing*

Tell Us Your Best Love Advice- Seven Days of Questions for the authors of “Owned by the Alpha: Manlove Edition”

Owned-by-the-Alpha-Antho2-EvernightPublishing2017-MM-Banner1Pre-order on Amazon


Because I like to talk about my writing I assume others like to talk about their writing to. In this spirit, I forced my lovely co-authors in Owned by the Alpha to answer a bunch of questions about how they got from the blank page to this book.

Question 5: Tell Us Your Love Advice?

Dear Alpha, I’m looking for love, but I can’t figure out how to swipe right with my big hairy paws. Am I doomed in this modern age because of animalistic tendencies? What should I do? – Looking for Love in Wrong Places.

 

Maia Dylan

When love is on the line, hold nothing back.  I never thought I would marry.  It was always career and travel for me.  But when I did meet hubby, he convinced me to give everything I had to the relationship. Now, we’ve been married eleven years and have two wonderful children together who make me laugh every single day.

Jules Dixon

Married to the same man for 25 years, so I say three things. Let the small things go completely. Always apologize genuinely. And surprise your partner frequently. Also as an advocate for sex education at every age, if you’re not enjoying what you’re doing when it comes to sex, change it! Explore the possibilities. Meet your own needs. Mix it up. You’re worth good sex—hell, you’re worth great sex!

Elena Kincaid

Elena Kincaid Find time to spend quality time together no matter how busy life can get. It can be as simple as going out to dinner or staying in and snuggling on the couch.

L.J. Longo

I’m only just now coming around to the idea of love as a good thing. My best advice is don’t be like the dudes in my stories. They are usually assholes and marginally abusive. You should be nice and have things in common with your lover. And probably not kidnap and/or pay them.

Pelaam

*looks like a startled deer, then dashes off* I’m… gonna go… write my awesome sexy stories, too.

L.D. Blakeley

Erm, do you mean personally? Never settle.

James Cox

*returns to writing, probably without pants.*