Guest blog with Nancy Straight

What was the catalyst for the Destiny Series?

The Destiny Series is a trilogy:  Meeting Destiny, Destiny’s Revenge and Destiny’s Wrath.  The idea came to me when some friends and I were talking about how some people are just meant to be together.  Maybe they kept running into the same person at different times in their lives, each time it wasn’t the right time for them to be together.  

Fate continued to bring them together until it was the right time.  Another couple I knew seemed to be a matched set, their personalities were opposite but when they were together you couldn’t help but have a twinge of jealousy that –wow, they really were made for each other.

The Destiny Series takes that idea a little bit further.  Not only are two people meant to be together in this lifetime; they’ve shared multiple lifetimes, each time coming a step or two closer to perfecting their souls.  The Destiny Series’ journey comes off as a contemporary romance initially, where you almost have to turn your head and squint to see the paranormal aspects in Meeting Destiny.  One of the supernatural characters makes a mistake and a demon with an obsession is unleashed. 

Why did I write it this way?  I read Paranormal Romance, Paranormal Thrillers, Urban Fantasy all the time.  Watching characters thrown into impossible situations and accepting them can be hard on the reader.  When I began the series, I wanted characters that everyone could relate to; going about their lives with all the insecurities and challenges we’re all faced with in our daily lives.  It isn’t until midway through Meeting Destiny that the paranormal aspects reveal themselves, and even then it isn’t  a shocking reveal – more like a: “Geeze, I could totally see that happening.”

The Destiny Series has so many things woven in that it’s hard to put it in a single genre.  There is murder, mystery, heartbreak, love, and a new take on an old idea of past lives and soul mates.  I’d love for you to give the series a try.  As a means to test drive the series and see if it’s something you’d enjoy, the first book in the series is free from all major book stores as an e-book.  I hope you love it!     

Meeting Destiny
By  Nancy Straight

Other books in series: Book 2 Destiny’s Revenge and Book 3 Destiny’s Wrath have been released

Genre: Paranormal Romance

ISBN: 978-1-4507-2109-7 (E-book) / 978-1468121377 (Paperback)

ASIN: B003U2RUP8

Number of pages: 295

Word Count: 98,000

Book Description:

Lauren is visited in her dreams for years by a stranger claiming to be her destiny. Destiny becomes reality when paths cross during a failed robbery attempt. Lauren and the stranger experience chemistry like no other and now her doubt over her long time relationship with her high school sweetheart is not her only secret…someone else knows about her keen intuition and sixth sense.  A mysterious clairvoyant seeks Lauren out and tells her not only of her life now but what the future may hold. Soon Lauren is in the middle of a murder investigation and a questionable friendship with the key suspect. Law enforcement, friends and family are concerned for Lauren but unfortunately they are unaware of the true danger…Sinister forces are at work and will stop at nothing to destroy Lauren’s abilities.

Download it for free at Amazon, BN, and Smashwords

Author Bio:

Nancy was born in Sioux City Iowa, left the cold of the Midwest in 1991 and only returns to see family in the summer time. She spent ten years traveling the world as a US Marine and settled in rural SC with her husband and two children.  She has three rotten dogs, enjoys RVing with her family, reading and writing all types of Paranormal literature.

Blog: www.authnancystraight.blogspot.com 

Twitter: @NancyStraight

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Nancy-Straight/243616005687882

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4114202.Nancy_Straight

Conflict in Fantasy: It's Not Always About Swords! : Guest blog by S. A. Bolich

Conflict in Fantasy: It's Not Always About Swords!

One thing I've noticed about reviews of my fantasy novel, Firedancer, is the surprise and pleasure of the readers when they discover that they've stumbled upon a high-fantasy world where the action doesn't depend upon the usual clash of swordsmen. I love swords and sorcery as much as the next person, but I set out in Firedancer to write something completely different. I'm happy to see I succeeded in satisfying readers anyway.

I read a lot of beginner fantasy stories and novels through the writers' workshop I moderate on Yahoo Groups, Other Worlds Writers Workshop (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OWWW). I see a lot of intrepid swordsmen and all of the usual battles and wars over various objects of desire. But conflict comes in a million forms, and since we all know that conflict of some sort drives the plot of any book of any genre, I just took a different route with mine.

In Firedancer, the conflict comes in two forms. The "magical" conflict that makes it fantasy is between the Firedancers themselves and the living fire that spends its existence plotting how to get out of its prison underground and destroy the world. The "mundane" conflict is between the characters, and all of it is driven by normal human behavior. There are no Evil Overlords here scheming to rule the world. Every single person in Firedancer wants to save the world. They just can't agree upon how to go about it, and so they deepen and prolong the danger because their various fears and self-interests won't let them work together.

And, just to add another level of conflict and richness, there is tension caused by a much nicer emotion: love. My heroine, Jetta, has lost her lifemate and is still grieving. Yet her new partner has long been secretly in love with her, and to make matters worse, a man from a different clan, with magic completely incompatible with hers, is showing interest as well. Talk about an embarrassment of riches! On the one hand, she must stand and fight the fire that threatens them all; on the other, she wants only to flee and stop feeling disloyal to her dead love.

They are us, and we are them (except that oh, how I wish I could dance like Jetta!). And, truth be told, I wish I were as fearless as she is about getting in the face of people who annoy me and tell them to just stand down and get on with the job. She has to get on with hers, or everyone is going to die, including the people who disagree with her. Have we not all faced conflicts where the stakes are less but equally frustrating?

What sort of conflict do you prefer in your fantasy? Sweeping, epic clashes of armies and clanging of swords? Lovers' spats and subsequent makeup sessions (or consequences of both)? Backstabbing, intrigue, dysfunctional families? End-of-the-world survival stuff? All of the above? None of the above? Share your thoughts! I'd love to hear them.

S. A. (Sue) Bolich

Firedancer

S. A. Bolich

Masters of the Elements, Book 1

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Sky Warrior Books

ISBN: 978-0615592916

ASIN: B005JMXIMG

Number of pages: 394

Word Count: 133,000

Book Description:

What do you suppose that fire thinks about as it cooks your dinner behind its cage of containment stone? Jetta ak'Kal knows—but no one listens to a Firedancer who has failed to protect her assigned village from an assault by living flame.

The Ancient, the strange, elemental fire imprisoned at the heart of the world, took her lifemate, her reputation as the most talented Dancer of her generation, and nearly her life. Now her clan demands she redeem herself, yet seem strangely indifferent to her insistence that the Dance itself that has always bound the Ancient seems to be failing. Assigned to Annam, a village with no previous experience of fire, Jetta and her new partner, Settak, find themselves battling the naive ignorance of the villagers, the hostility of arrogant Windriders whose mastery of air could kill them both with the flick of a finger, and occasionally each other as they struggle to find new and more powerful forms of the Dance.

Pursued by fire crawling up through every crack, by a new love she does not want, and a nagging suspicion that there is more to her assignment than her clan bothered to tell her, Jetta must forge unprecedented alliances in this high and beautiful place before the Ancient breaks free—for if it does, there will no longer be anything left to fight for.

Amazon print      Amazon Kindle      Nook       Barnes and Noble print

Smashwords

Author Bio:

S. A. Bolich is a full-time freelancer who writes on a wide range of topics ranging from travel to horses to web design—and of course, fantasy and science fiction.  A native of Washington state, she resides there again after serving six years in Germany as an army military intelligence officer. She graduated summa cum laude from college with a degree in history, which she confesses was greatly aided by devouring historical fiction of every era and kind through her formative years.  She is also a lifelong horsewoman and shares her knowledge in the popular "Horses in Fiction" blog series at blog.sabolichbooks.com, in which she helps writers keep their equines from falling into the trap of Hollywood clichés.

Her first novel, Firedancer, Book 1 of the Masters of the Elements series, was released in September 2011 by Sky Warrior Books, with Book 2, Windrider, appearing in May 2012.  Her short fiction has appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, On Spec, Damnation Books, and many other print magazines and ezines, as well as the steampunk anthology Gears and Levers 1, the military SF anthology Defending the Future IV: No Man’s Land, and the wolf-themed fantasy collection, Wolfsongs 2.  Currently she is working on Seaborn, Book 3 of Masters of the Elements.

Website: www.sabolichbooks.com

Blog: http://blog.sabolichbooks.com

Twitter: sabolichwrites

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5162506.S_A_Bolich

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/s.a.bolich

The Merging Worlds of Mom and Writer Guest Blog and Giveaway By Louisa Bacio

The Merging Worlds of Mom & Writer

By Louisa Bacio

“Mom, can you tell my tennis coach what books you write?”

Ah … no. Instead, I simply smile at said coach, taking in his tight white shorts, and oh-so-muscled legs. How often have I fantasized about taking up lessons myself? And the extracurricular activities that we might experience after getting sweaty on the court.

Wait? That never happens.

Isn’t that one of the fears of telling people that you write erotic romance? Suddenly everyone thinks that you spend days having depraved thoughts? In truth, most of the time I’m probably thinking about what I’m going to make for dinner, or if my latest cover came through.

The worlds of imagination and reality rarely mix. This coming week, though, romance authors get the chance to escape from the same-old of everyday life and delve into the wild of others who relate – it’s conference time. This year, the Romance Writers of America Nationals Conference will be held in Anaheim, Calif. (Right across the street from that Happiest Place on Earth.) Ah, the irony.

While the daytime’s filled with workshops on creativity and hot panels, at night many special interest chapters host parties. On Thursday evening, I’ll be going to the FF&P Gathering. (That’s Future, Fantasy and Paranormal.) The theme of this year’s party? Disney. Partygoers dress as their favorite Disney character – princess or villain. Hmm, I thought that was my daughter’s 5^th birthday theme?  

If you’re local to SoCal, on Wednesday, July 25, there’s a free event where 400+ romance authors will gather at the “Readers for Life” Literacy Signing (http://www.rwa.org/cs/literacy_autographing). If things slow down, I may try to make my way over to the tables of Robyn Carr and many of the authors I read, and my family just may be coming by to see what Momma does, when she’s not in pajamas and writing.

Sometimes, those worlds of the “closet” romance writer and mom do merge. Not necessarily in the way others may think.

But you really should see my younger daughter’s swim coach … Mmmm, a younger Mario Lopez in red trunks.

The Vampire, The Witch & The Werewolf: A Threesome Wedding Adventure

Book 3


genre: paranormal erotica, menage m/m/f

By Louisa Bacio

Planning a wedding can be stressful and crazy-making.  Planning three weddings at the same time? That’s insanity. While The Vampire, The Witch & The Werewolf embark on a nuptial excursion, Silver & Nick hold down the home fortress in New Orleans.

And as if everyone doesn’t have enough to deal with, the Voodoo King comes calling with a magic elixir that diminishes sexual inhibitions and an eerie quiet spreads across the French Quarter. Life as they know it may never be the same.

The threesome is forced to put off honeymoon bliss in order to banish the demons of their past, and embrace the uncertainty of the future.

Available via http://www.ravenousromance.com/ and other Online retailers.


The Vampire, The Witch & The Werewolf: Chains of Silver
Book 2
By Louisa Bacio
Genre: Paranormal erotica




Adopted at birth, Silver Ashe discovers her blood-brother Trevor Pack is a werewolf, with a vampire and witch for lovers. All her teachings about the evils of the paranormal Others come into question. She runs to a family friend, Nick, for help.


Nick Stake takes his hobby as a vampire hunter personally. He strives to rid the world of evil bloodsuckers. When his best friend’s “kid” sister comes to him for advice, Nick discovers Silver’s more than grown up. He battles his growing desire for Silver and blindly holds true to his convictions.


Once Silver reaches her sexual maturity, she’ll inherit her full genetic heritage and turn into a werewolf. When death comes calling, Silver and Nick must face their darkest fears in order to break free from the chains that bind.

The Vampire, The Witch & The Werewolf: A New Orleans Threesome
Book 1
By Louisa Bacio
Genre: Paranormal erotica


Blurb
Haunted by paranormal abilities that she can’t control, and plagued by nightmares about a demon that seeks her soul, Lily Anima travels to New Orleans in search of salvation.


In the French Quarter, Lily dives into the paranormal world and enlists the help of an unlikely couple: a vampire, Lawrence Justice, and a werewolf, Trevor Pack.


As the trio encounters ghosts, voodoo and unspeakable evil, will Trevor and Lawrence be able to help Lily turn her powers into a gift rather than a curse? And when Lily discovers that she needs to lose her virginity in order to embrace her powers and get the demon off her back, will the twosome be able to survive as a threesome?

About Louisa Bacio


Louisa Bacio enjoys soaking up the sun in Southern California, and spending time with her family.


Bacio’s work includes the Sex University series, with her debut novel Physical Education and the follow-up All-Girls Academy. Her story “Two’s Company” can be found in I Kissed a Girl: A Virgin Lesbian Anthology. Other short stories can be found in the Seducing the Myth anthology, and Rekindled: An Anthology of Reunited Lovers.


In addition to writing and editing, Bacio teaches college courses in English, journalism, film studies and popular culture.


Drop in for a visit


http://www.louisabacio.com
http://louisabacio.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/louisabacio
http://www.twitter.com/louisabacio

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