Iyana Jenna's Guest Post, Excerpt and Giveaway

I'm so excited that Iyana Jenna is here today to talk a little bit about her new book, A Single Black Rose. Please welcome her and make sure you enter the giveaway at the end of the post!

My new novella was released on November 17, 2013, from JMS Books. My story, A Single Black Rose, is the longest release from me so far and I’m very excited about it!

Please don’t forget that your readers can win some prizes. Just enter the Rafflecopter below.

Like I said before, this story is the longest being published so far. There will be a slightly longer story to be released in February 2014 but it’s also a novella. Sometimes I wonder why I don’t write longer pieces like other writers that I admire that seem to have no problem whatsoever producing one full novel after another. I think I know the answers. Let me see.

1.      Developing plots

I tend to write snippets of stories. Even if it’s a longer story, it’s just still a more elaborate fragment of the lives of the characters I write. I blame it on my ability to develop a plot and things I want to write. Perhaps I have to loosen my mind and let it wander freely anywhere it wants to go. I shouldn’t have restricted it. Plots have sub-plots, and sub-plots have sub-sub-plots.

2.      Patience

One of the things that keep me from having longer pieces is my patience. I seem to always want to finish my stories as fast as I can. I paid the price by having publishers and reviewers tell me that my stories could have been fleshed out more. This has something to do with my endurance to write longer stories, too. Writing a 30K story, although I managed to do it in the past, is hard work for me. I really had to be very determined about it.

3.      Slow writing

It’s going to sound as if I were looking for excuses but I promise it’s true. My RL work, teaching, and my language barrier keep me from writing faster. This is probably the hardest problem I have. I need to focus more and make use of every spare minute I have to write. The Internet is certainly not helping! LOL.

I know it’s not easy to follow my own advice as elaborated above. Let’s say those are my resolutions for next year. I will promise I will try my best.

A Single Black Rose

Blurb:

When actor Sean O’Reilly receives a flower bouquet containing a single black rose on set, he assumes they’re from his boyfriend Nate. But they aren’t. Flowers keep arriving for him after that, each with a black rose in the arrangement. Soon other things arrive as well, such as photos and a recording of Sean’s voice. As the number of flowers dwindle with each bouquet, Sean begins to worry they’re supposed to be some kind of a countdown ... but to what?

Fan Gene Scott worships Sean. He maintains a blog dedicated to the actor and writes out all his fantasies there. He wants Sean to belong to him, and only him, and he’ll do anything to make the actor his own. He can’t accept the fact that Sean has a boyfriend. To Gene, Nate might as well not exist.

Despite increased security and all efforts to keep him safe, Sean vanishes, and Nate feels as if his world has come tumbling down. When the police response is too slow for him, Nate enlists the help of his producer and bodyguard to find Sean. Will he manage to find his lover before Sean disappears forever? Or will Gene finally get what he’s always dreamed of, and make Sean the love of his life, instead?

Excerpt:

Note: may contain sexually explicit scenes of a homoerotic nature.

Gritting his teeth, Nate hisses under his breath. He is standing in front of a cop, giving his statement on what has just happened. Not that there's much to say. His mind keeps replaying that scene when Sean turned to him, his face ashen, and Nate wishes with all his heart that he was the one who had opened the door, the one who found the flowers instead of Sean, sparing him the shock of seeing the seemingly innocuous pink bouquet with its single black rose.

Nate is angry with himself, feeling like a failure even though he knows what happened wasn't his fault. There was no way he could have predicted that the pervert was going to put the flowers inside their SUV. He runs his fingers through his hair, ends his statement, and turns to go to Sean who is sitting slumped on the pavement with Osborn by his side. Sean is staring ahead of him, his face expressionless, his hands clenched tightly into fists. Osborn is talking to him but Sean seems to not be aware of him, or of anyone else around him for that matter.

“Excuse me, Mr. Matthews.”

A man stops in front of Nate, a reporter, judging by the tape recorder he holds in his hand, and Nate feels his temper rising. This is so not the time for an interview and how in the world did the media get to hear of this so quickly anyway? Fucking reporters.

“Yeah?” Nate asks impatiently.

“Scott, Eugene Scott from The Vancouver Daily." The man is tall, almost as tall as him, and Nate rarely meets someone who is the same height as him here in Vancouver. "Are these the first flowers Sean got from the stalker?"

“We don’t know if he’s stalking Sean or not.”

“But it’s obvious that he is, right?”

Nate frowns, looking at the reporter more closely, "No, it is not obvious that he, or she, is stalking Sean."

“Oh, it’s just -- but back to my question --”

“No, they’re not,” Nate cuts him short. He really wants to get this over with without being downright rude.

“Huh?”

“These are not the first flowers.”

Scott nods. “Any weird thing?” he asks.

“What do you mean?”

“You know, if there's something strange with the flowers or --”

“They’re just flowers, okay? Look. I’m tired and I really don’t have anything more to say. If you'll excuse me." Nate walks past Scott, going toward Sean who is still sitting at the same spot, alone. Nate glances over at Osborn who is now with the police, presumably giving his statements to them.

"Sean," he says softly as he sits beside Sean on the pavement. He puts his hand on Sean's knee, stilling it.

“Nate --” There's a tremor in Sean's voice.

Nate turns his head toward Sean who is looking even more agitated than before.

"Hey, man.” He puts his arm around Sean's shoulders, pulling him close, kissing him on the temple. He can feel Sean shaking. "I've got you."

“They found a picture,” Sean says abruptly. "Inside the flowers. The police showed it to me."

“What picture?” The police didn't say anything to him about that. Nate's stomach sinks. Sending flowers is one thing but pictures? Of Sean?

"It's one of me. Sleeping. Inside the house." Sean's voice is bordering on the hysterical now. "Whoever it is must have used a long-lens camera or something. How could they get through the gate, Nate?"

"Ssh, baby.” Nate tries to put as much reassurance as he can in his voice. Someone has to remain calm even though Nate is feeling anything but. He puts both his arms around Sean, can feel him trembling, and holds him even tighter. "Breathe with me, c'mon."

Sean stills and takes a deep breath. “Can we go home now? Have the police finished with us?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I think we can go home now." Nate stands up and holds out a hand to pull Sean up. They hold each other tight for a moment longer, both of them unaware of a pair of eyes watching them from a distance.

Buy Link

About the Author:

Iyana lives in Jakarta, a city famous for its traffic jams, a lot of cars and motorcycles, and people selling stuff on the roads. You can spend two hours on the road going to a place you can reach in half an hour in a normal situation. Thanks to the traffic jams, though, Iyana can come up with a lot of stories, mostly shorties, as she prefers to spend the time during her trips writing into her cell phone rather than sleeping.

Another thing Iyana loves is kitties. Right now she has five of them. Their names are Larva, Nyil, Cil, Mermood, and Horus. When she doesn’t write, she plays with them, or they would play with her when she writes.

Author’s Links:

Blog

Website

Amazon

Goodreads

Facebook

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Tinnean's Rap Sheet Interview

Please help me welcome Tinnean to my blog today to give us a little glimpse into the mind of Mark Vincent as well as an excerpt!

It’s 1996, and Mark Vincent, senior special agent of the Washington Bureau of Intelligence and Security, has been assigned the task of assassinating the head of a terrorist organization in Europe. When the mission goes south and he’s ordered to take a vacation, he goes to Paris, and in a little bar called Le Petit Homme, he sees a man who intrigues him. However, like ships passing in the night, they go their separate ways, only to meet again the following morning, where, over breakfast, the man introduces himself as Louis.
 Is it too much of a coincidence? Perhaps, perhaps not, but Mark is intrigued and, unable to resist, he gives his name as Rick. A comment of Louis’s leads Mark to assume Louis hustles for a living, so Mark decides to “rent” him for the week. Unbeknownst to Mark, Louis has his own reasons for going along with the charade, which leads to… the start of a beautiful friendship.








Excerpt:

On January 7, 1996, it started snowing in New York, and it snowed like a son of a bitch for the next two days. Trust me on this… I was there at the time.
Since I was in a hospital room at Good Sam in West Islip, I had my cell phone in etiquette mode, and when it vibrated in my pocket, I knew it was a message from work. No one else called this number. I took it out and checked the text message.
Yep, it was from the WBIS, the Washington Bureau of Intelligence and Security.
I grinned at the man lying in the bed, determined not to let him see how concerned I was about his condition. He was hooked up to more machines than a body should have to be.
My old lady was a Grade A lush who had a tendency to hit the bars and bring home whoever caught her fancy. The guy would stay with us for a day, a week, a month, maybe, and then she’d boot him out. For some reason those men always treated me well and stayed in touch. One was a scoutmaster who taught me French, as well as how to fence. Another was a Portuguese fisherman who showed me the best way to scale a fish, how to handle myself in a knife fight, and how to crochet. According to Tio Ze, a man didn’t have to be defined by labels.
The man in the bed, an expat Brit, not only introduced me to various methods of self-defense, but he’d seen to it that I had a decent education, even after he left. He got me out of the shithole that had been home from the time I was six and sent me to a military academy on Long Island. His name was Bert Greenley, but I’d always called him Uncle Bert, or UB for short. When I’d learned he had cancer and shit insurance, I’d made sure he had the best doctors and the most up-to-date treatment, even though I knew eventually it would just be palliative.
“I have to take this call, UB.”
“Go ahead, son,” he rasped. Lately, his British accent had become more noticeable, possibly due to his illness. I wondered if his accent had anything to do with my old lady’s attraction to him. Now that I thought of it, most of her men weren’t from the States to begin with.
I rested my hand on his arm gently. My own father had disappeared from my life when I was about five. Four? Time had a tendency to blur.
 “I’ll be right back.” I strode out of the room, took the stairs down to the lobby, and went out to the parking lot, which was how I discovered all the snow. “Fuck.”
This hadn’t been in the forecast when I’d flown up to Long Island a couple of days earlier, so I hadn’t brought along gloves or boots, and the bomber jacket I wore was more suitable for higher temps.
The snow was already halfway to my knees, but this wasn’t a phone call I could make in a public area. I worked for an agency no one outside the intelligence community knew existed, and those inside the intelligence community wished didn’t exist.
I trudged to my rental, got in, and turned on the ignition so I could get the heater going and thaw my toes. Goddamn, it was cold! I rubbed my hands together, blew on my fingers, and hit one on speed dial.
“Mr. Wallace’s office.” I wasn’t surprised both he and his secretary were in on a Sunday. If I hadn’t had to see UB, I’d have been in as well.
“It’s Vincent.”
“One moment. He’s been expecting your call.”
In less than a moment, The Boss—and yeah, that was with caps—came on the line.
“I have a job for you, Vincent.”
“Yes, sir.” This wasn’t an ideal time, but nothing, not even the man in the hospital bed, who I cared about, came before the job. 

You can buy The Start of a Beautiful Friendship from Dreamspinner Press: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/index.php?cPath=55_386

Parker Williams (and KC Wells) Rap Sheet Interview

Please welcome Parker Williams (and by extension, KC Wells) to my blog today. Parker has filled out the interview for their character Jeff, from the to-be-released Someone to Keep Me and Damian's Discipline in the Collars and Cuffs Series.

An Unlocked Heart and Trusting Thomas are available now from Dreamspinner Press:
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/index.php?cPath=54_907

Since the death of his submissive lover two years ago, Leo hasn’t been living—merely existing. He focuses on making Collars & Cuffs, a BDSM club in Manchester’s gay village, successful. That changes the night he and his business partner have their weekly meeting at Severinos. Leo can’t keep his eyes off the new server. The shy man seems determined to avoid Leo’s gaze, but that’s like a red rag to a bull. Leo loves a challenge.

Alex Daniels works at Severinos to scrape together the money to move out on his own. He struggles with coming out, but he’s drawn to Leo, the gorgeous guy with the icy-blue eyes who’s been eating in his area nearly every night.

Leo won’t let Alex’s hesitance get in the way. He even keeps him away from the club so as not to scare him. And as for telling Alex that Leo is a Dom? Not a good idea. One date becomes two, but date two leads to Leo’s bedroom… and Alex discovers things about himself he never realized—and never wanted anyone to see.

Christmas is a time for goodwill to all, but Collars and Cuffs co-owner Thomas Williams receives an unexpected gift that chills him to the bone. A Dom from another Manchester club asks Thomas for his help rescuing an abused submissive, Peter Nicholson. Thomas takes in the young man as a favor to a friend, offering space and time to heal, but he makes it clear he’s never had a sub and doesn’t want one.

Peter finds Thomas’s home calm and peaceful, but his past has left him unwilling to trust another Dom. When Thomas doesn’t behave as Peter expects, Peter’s nightmares begin to fade, and he decides he’d like to learn more about D/s life. A well-known trainer of submissives, Thomas begins to teach Peter, but as the new submissive opens up to him, Thomas finds he cares more for Peter than he should. Just as he decides it’s time to find a permanent Dom for Peter, they discover Peter’s tormentor is still very much a threat. With their lives in danger, Thomas can’t deny his feelings for Peter any longer. The question now becomes, can Peter make it out of the lions’ den alive, so that Thomas can tell his boy that he loves him?

Lex Chase's Rap Sheet Interview

Lex Chase is here today to give us the inside look into Rook, one of her heroes from her Checkmate Series.

The first time Hogarth Dawson sees superhero Memphis Rook, he comes to Hogarth’s rescue by cracking the heads of two thugs like eggs into a skillet. Hogarth is utterly smitten, but he soon discovers the superhero Power Alliance has ejected Rook for failing to protect a civilian.

Hogarth devises a plan that will reinstate Rook and might even earn Hogarth a place in Power Alliance roster. But what he expects to be a simple few missions rescuing kittens and helping little old ladies cross the street turns into a shocking reality of citywide chases, foiling robberies, and facing his ex. Then Hogarth discovers the beating Rook saved him from wasn’t a chance attack. It’s possible Hogarth is just a pawn in Rook’s game….

Even after eleven months of keeping the mean streets of Axis City safe, superduo Checkmate—Hogarth Dawson—and his boyfriend, Memphis Rook, still receive the cold shoulder from the Power Alliance. Undeterred, Hogarth brings his intense focus to bear on Rook, and after Hogarth makes an accidental marriage proposal, it becomes all too clear Rook isn’t quite at the same place. But before life gets awkward, duty calls.

Booted-off female contestants of the romantic reality show Single and Super are being found in comas, and Checkmate needs to get to the bottom of it. As part of Rook’s plan, he cleans up his bad boy image and goes undercover as a bachelor looking for love among twenty-five frenzied women. Against Rook’s wishes, Hogarth sneaks onto the set as a cameraman to investigate the case on his own. With questions unanswered between them, emotions run high, distracting them and feeding a trap of their own making.

Three years ago, superhero Memphis Rook saved Hogarth Dawson’s life, and now the two can’t imagine being apart. Sort of.

By day, they’re a loving couple. By night, they’re the superhero duo Checkmate.  Since that’s too much time in each other’s personal space, Rook and Garth decide they need friends outside of each other. Garth finds friendship with a D&D group comprised of the social misfits Chad—who has crammed himself so far in the closet he might never find the door again, Jackson—who’s so mysophobic he’s afraid of his own germs, and El Jefe—who has all the social grace of a brick.

With an epic dose of peer pressure, the group urges Garth to go to Tolkicon, the biggest comic convention in Axis City.  When the supervillain league the Coalition of Calamity appears and takes the convention hostage, as the only real superheroes around, it’s up to Garth and Rook to save the day. With Rook as one of the hostages, Garth knows it’s time to nut up or shut up about being a hero.




http://lexchase.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Lex_Chase
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LXChase

Buy link:
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/index.php?cPath=913

Andrea Speed's Rap Sheet Interview

Andrea Speed is here today to give us a look at one of her most popular characters, Roan, from her Infected Series!


In a world where a werecat virus has changed society, Roan McKichan, a born infected and ex-cop, works as a private detective trying to solve crimes involving other infecteds.

The murder of a former cop draws Roan into an odd case where an unidentifiable species of cat appears to be showing an unusual level of intelligence. He juggles that with trying to find a missing teenage boy, who, unbeknownst to his parents, was “cat” obsessed. And when someone is brutally murdering infecteds, Eli Winters, leader of the Church of the Divine Transformation, hires Roan to find the killer before he closes in on Eli.

Working the crimes will lead Roan through a maze of hate, personal grudges, and mortal danger. With help from his tiger-strain infected partner, Paris Lehane, he does his best to survive in a world that hates and fears their kind… and occasionally worships them.

You can get the whole series through Dreamspinner Press: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/index.php?cPath=54_367

Kim Fielding's Rap Sheet Interview

Kim joins us today to give us a little peek into her character Colby Thomas Anderson from The Tin Box.

William Lyon's past forced him to become someone he isn't. Conflicted and unable to maintain the charade, he separates from his wife and takes a job as caretaker at a former mental hospital. Jelley’s Valley State Insane Asylum was the largest mental hospital in California for well over a century, but it now stands empty. William thinks the decrepit institution is the perfect place to finish his dissertation and wait for his divorce to become final. In town, William meets Colby Anderson, who minds the local store and post office. Unlike William, Colby is cute, upbeat, and flamboyantly out. Although initially put off by Colby’s mannerisms, William comes to value their new friendship, and even accepts Colby's offer to ease him into the world of gay sex.

William’s self-image begins to change when he discovers a tin box, hidden in an asylum wall since the 1940s. It contains letters secretly written by Bill, a patient who was sent to the asylum for being homosexual. The letters hit close to home, and William comes to care about Bill and his fate. With Colby’s help, he hopes the words written seventy years ago will give him courage to be his true self.


Available from Dreamspinner Press: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4196&cPath=55_603

LJ LaBarthe's Rap Sheet Interview

LJ LaBarthe has joined me today to fill us in on the criminal past of her character Liam from her Archangels Series. I must admit, Liam is one of my favourites, so I was very excited to see that she had chosen him. 

You can find the whole series here: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/index.php?cPath=598

With the next three books, The Wind-Up Forest, The Crystal Lake, and The Bone Cup, out this year.

Archangel Chronicles: Book One

You would never know it from his flamboyant lifestyle, but Gabriel’s not just the cheerful, fun-loving adoptive father of a pair of indulged young adult humans. He’s an Archangel, commander of Heaven’s legions of Seraphim, and despite his apparently easy virtue, he’s harboring a serious crush on his superior officer, Michael.

For years Michael has devoted himself to developing a team of humans, the Venatores, to aid in the fight against Hell. He’s been pining after Gabriel for centuries without hope, believing himself to be too serious to attract the other Archangel’s interest. He’s happy to discover that he’s wrong, but their burgeoning relationship is stymied by a major problem: an egomaniacal human is recruiting demons and fallen angels in a bid to take over the world. It’s up to Michael and Gabriel, and the rest of the Brotherhood of Archangels, to beat back the forces of Hell before the Earth is overrun.

 Archangel Chronicles: Book 2

Seventy years after it began, the war between angels and demons is over. Archangels Gabriel and Michael reunite at last, but a dangerous new challenge stands in the way of their happiness: someone is kidnapping angels and selling them as trophies on the black market. When Raphael, Archangel of Healing, goes missing, his tearful lover joins with the Brotherhood of Archangels and their lieutenants to rescue him.

Without Raphael’s healing touch, disease spreads quickly through the world’s human population. The situation only worsens when the angel Agrat is kidnapped: the number of sex crimes begins to rise and her husband, Gabriel’s lieutenant, loses himself to his grief. As they mount a rescue mission, Gabriel and Michael’s relationship will be put to the test. With the threat of the world dying around them and tragedy looming overhead, can Gabriel and Michael keep love and hope alive?




Archangel Chronicles: Book Three

Newly bonded Archangels Michael and Gabriel are torn from their idyllic island retreat by the singing of hymns heralding stunning news: Gabriel’s ancient foe, Semjaza, has escaped from his prison in the stars and now seeks revenge and utter conquest.

With the wisdom of Archangel Raziel to guide them and help coming from the most unlikely of quarters, Gabriel and Michael join with the Brotherhood of Archangels to hunt Semjaza down and finish him once and for all. Because Semjaza's return to Earth doesn't threaten just Gabriel and his loved ones—it threatens the whole of humanity.

But even more danger lurks in the shadows, threatening the Brotherhood from within. If Gabriel and Semjaza finally face each other in single combat, will Gabriel survive the contest, or will Michael lose his one true love?

Raine O’Tierney's Rap Sheet Interview

Raine is braver than a lot of people would be, and has opted to fill out her rap sheet interview as herself rather than one of her characters.

To learn even more about this up and coming author you can visit her here:
http://raineotierney.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/RaineOTierneyAuthor
https://twitter.com/RaineOTierney

Please let it be known that my lawyer, Chiaki Yasuo, has advised me not to comment on any ongoing investigations. In fact, she feels strongly that I shouldn’t even be giving out information concerning planned crimes of passion and past errors in judgement . When I told her how EXCITED I am about Cate Ashwood’s new Hope Cove Series and my desire to be part of her rap sheet promotion, the look in my lawyer’s steely eyes momentarily softened and she said, “Well, in that case… NO.” But I’m stubborn and Chiaki Yasuo isn’t real, so I’m doing the rap sheet!