My Sexy Saturday ~ Hexed

June 27, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to My Sexy Saturday. It’s steamy hot here in the pacific northwest, but who can’t use a little more heat? Today’s theme is Our Sexy Man, which I’m happy to say fits rather well with my new release, Bewixt and Between, a contemporary m/m fantasy featuring two terribly sexy men. Actually this theme works for all of my books, but hey, what’s not to like about that?

Here are seven paragraphs where Sexy Man Ian checks out photos he took of Sexy Man Zeke, who happens to be an elf. Dijeree is Ian’s roommate and Alistair is the shifty shaman who’s going to help unhex Ian. Maybe.

***

“Holy hottie, Batman,” Dijeree said. “Why is it you haven’t fucked him yet?”

“I was wondering if the camera would catch the same thing I saw.”

It did. Ian had taken his film to an associate at the paper who developed film quickly for a steep fee. Ian and Dijeree sat in the corner café and passed the photos back and forth between them over a table littered with coffee cups, half-eaten scones, the weekly copy of The Cosmic Eye, and Ian’s notes.

Most of the photos were too dark and blurry, but not all. In one of the shots, he’d caught the svarta as he looked up, a shaft of sunlight reflecting off his violin. He was every bit as handsome as Ian remembered, with an aquiline nose, high cheekbones, incredibly thick lashes, and those eyes. The photo couldn’t do them justice. As it was, they looked like mirrors reflecting a wind-tossed sea. When the sea started to swirl, Ian looked away.

“Are you okay?” Dijeree asked, placing a hand on his wrist.

“No. I’m hexed.” He struggled to breathe regularly.

“Let’s hope Alistair gets back soon.”

***

Release date is June 30th. Be the cool kid on the block and get your copy first (at 10% off!). Betwixt and Between is available for pre-order now at Loose Id.

Blurb:

Reporter Ian Evers, obsessed with magical creatures since childhood, never experiences satisfying proof that the magical realm actually exists until he falls into an entrapment spell set by a handsome but dangerous elf. Barely escaping with his soul intact, Ian is able to undo the hex, but he can’t escape the very real infatuation he’s developed for the fierce, alluring elf.

Ezekiel Stormshadow is a svarta, a dark elf who serves the Queen of the dark realm. The realm of darkness needs the power of light to survive, and while hunting the last few magical beings on earth, Ezekiel discovers Ian, a light elf who’s unaware of his true nature and ripe for the plucking. Their brief encounter awakens a great hunger in Ezekiel, and he’s determined to feast on the light elf’s power and body before the queen intervenes and claims Ian for herself.

Ian knows only he can save Ezekiel from the grasp of the dark queen. Driven apart by the ancient imbalance between the dark and light realms, an evil queen starved for power, and their fear of each other, Ian and Ezekiel are relentlessly drawn together even though their union might destroy them both.

***

Don’t forget to continue the hop to check out more sexy snippets from the other participants. Seven words, seven lines or seven paragraphs of steamy fun await at My Sexy Saturday main page.

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Magic Afoot

June 21, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Happy Summer! Thanks for taking time out of your hopefully glorious Sunday to stop by Weekend Writing Warriors. This week I’m continuing with snippets from the opening chapter of my soon to be released (June 30th!) m/m contemporary fantasy, Betwixt and Between. Hey, it finally dawned on me I haven’t posted a blurb yet, so today you’ll find that after my 1o lines.

I’ve skipped ahead a bit from last week to Ian’s point of view. Unbeknownst to him, he’s about to stroll into a trap set by a svarta, a dark elf.

***

Ian sensed magic afoot and couldn’t pass it up. That was his job, after all—finding and cataloging the magical creatures lurking in Seattle’s shadows. Readers of the tabloid he worked for, The Cosmic Eye, gobbled up his stories, and with every contact, however dubious, he inched a bit closer to unlocking the vast magical mystery that shrouded his life.

A flash there, a ripple here. A haunted rowboat, a flying spoon, a burning book, a talking cat. All these things added up to something. He just didn’t know what yet.

His first impression of the musician in the stairwell was that, yes indeed, he’d stumbled across a magical creature. Shadowed lines resolved into a dark-haired figure in a long, heavy coat and high leather boots. The outfit looked like something a down-and-out musketeer might wear, the coat being old-fashioned, fastened with two rows of brass buttons, and well-worn.

***

The Blurb:

Obsessed with magical creatures since childhood, tabloid reporter Ian Evers never experiences satisfying proof that the magical realm actually exists until he falls into an entrapment spell set by a handsome but dangerous elf. Barely escaping with his soul intact, Ian is able to undo the hex, but he can’t escape the very real infatuation he’s developed for the fierce elf.

Ezekiel Stormshadow is a svarta, a dark elf who serves the queen of the dark realm. The realm of darkness needs the power of light to survive, and while hunting the last few magical beings on earth, Ezekiel discovers Ian, a light elf who’s unaware of his true nature and ripe for the plucking. Their brief encounter awakens a great hunger in Ezekiel, and he’s determined to feast on the light elf’s power and body before the queen intervenes and claims Ian for herself.

Driven apart by an ancient imbalance between the dark and light realms, an evil queen starved for power, and their fear of each other, Ian and Ezekiel are relentlessly drawn together even though their union might destroy them both.

***

This post is part of an ongoing blog hop hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors. Every Sunday, participating authors post eight to ten sentences from a published work or perhaps their current work in progress. Then we hop to our fellow warriors’ blogs and check out all the fabulous fiction that’s happening! I heartily invite you to participate as a reader, writer, or both. It’s a great way to discover your next favorite book. Click here or use the address: http://www.wewriwa.com

My Sexy Saturday~ Face the Fire

June 20, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to My Sexy Saturday, the hop where writers share in seven words, lines or paragraphs, a snippet of their smokin’ hot fiction. This week’s theme is Our Sexy Best, inspired by the Tina Turner song, The Best. Personally, when I heard the theme I thought of Carly Simon’s Nobody Does it Better, especially the refrain, Baby, You’re the Best. And because it’s a song from the James Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me, I think danger and excitement, and how when you meet the one who really is the best, no amount of risk or common sense will stand in the way.

My seven paragraphs are from the soon-to be-released (June 30th!) contemporary fantasy, Betwixt and Between. I thought I’d share a moment when Ian begins to admit to himself that Zeke is definitely the best.

***

Ian sensed heat radiating next to him as if he slept beside a campfire. His heart started to pound. Which was real, the bed or the fire? Was he still trapped in the dark realm? No use putting it off. He opened his eyes and turned his head to face the fire.

Zeke lay beside him, eyes wide open, staring at him.

“That’s kind of creepy, you know, watching someone sleep,” Ian said.

Zeke didn’t respond but reached out and brushed sweaty hair out of Ian’s face. Ian’s skin instantly electrified. He stopped himself from grabbing Zeke’s hand and kissing it. Having the amazingly fierce and powerful svarta in his bed scared Ian more than the dark realm had. If he didn’t set some boundaries right away, Zeke would overwhelm him, dominate him, enslave him. And the pathetic thing was, it sounded so good Ian would have a hard time standing up for himself.

“Listen, Zeke, we need to talk.”

Zeke grabbed his shoulder and pulled him close. He pressed his lips against Ian’s, and all thoughts of talk vanished in a surge of lust. Zeke nibbled on Ian’s lower lip, then thrust his long tongue deep into Ian’s mouth. The flow of dark energy was like a nectar Ian couldn’t get enough of. Just when he thought he never wanted to stop kissing, Zeke broke away. He slid on top of Ian and began to kiss and bite his neck. The weight of Zeke’s body pressing him into the mattress and immobilizing him reminded Ian of his fears.

“I know you’re used to being in charge and all, but we need to set some ground rules—”

***

Don’t forget to continue the hop to check out more sexy snippets from the other participants. Seven words, seven lines or seven paragraphs of steamy fun await at My Sexy Saturday main page.

Hop Against Homophobia

May 17, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Hello and welcome to my little corner of the Hop Against Homophobia, Bi-and Transphobia. Today (May 17th) is International Day Against Homophobia, Bi-Phobia and Transphobia. Check out the website and read about the movement here.

WordPress is quirky about linky lists, but you can click here to go to the main hop page and view the links of all the other participants (117 at last look. Woohoo!) And everyone one of them is giving away prizes- double woohoo! My prize info and instructions are at the end of this post.

Can’t believe it’s been one year since I last participated in the Hop against Homophobia, which happened to coincide pretty closely with the release of my first m/m erotic fantasy, Touch of Salar. What an eye-opening, awareness-raising year it has been. I didn’t charge into the realm of gay romance with idea of being a crusader- I just wanted to write about the stories of love between men that came unbidden (and sometimes unwanted) into my head. I realized pretty quickly that my right to write whatever I wanted was intimately tied to the gay rights movement and that if I wanted to create literary worlds where everyone was free to love whomever they wanted, I’d best get on board with the fight to make this world safe for the exact same thing. No more waving from the sidelines but jumping in and adding my voice to the growing symphony of writers, readers and everyone else demanding fairness and equality.

Easier said than done, as many of you have probably experienced in different ways and on many different levels of difficulty. My personal road to being “out” pales in comparison to the gay men and women who’ve struggled against rejection for the most of their lives. I’m straight, but I’ve got this dirty little secret. I get turned on by two men having sex. Gasp! For a good chunk of my life I really believed I was the only straight woman on the planet with this “problem”. I thought something was wrong with me and went through periods of trying to repress or deny the stories, but they just kept coming. I even felt guilty about wanting to write male protagonists. I’m a liberated woman, right? I should want to write about strong heroines and champion womens’ causes, so I stuffed the erotic images away and focused on writing women in a series of bland, SEXLESS novels.

No surprise my stories lacked passion, right? No surprise my life lacked passion. No surprise my stories didn’t sell.

Then one fine day I discovered that women writing gay romance was a thing. Like, a really big thing. I was not alone! And very quickly, I was envious! Realization to publication took about six months. I’ve got twenty years of stories back-uped and ready to see the light of day, people. This has been the most productive and satisfying year of my writing my life.

But, and here’s the catch, I’m now writing not only erotica, but gay erotica. At first I explained it to my friends as a sort of experiment, a way to shrug off the yoke of traditional white old men in suits New York publishing and get something out there. Kind of a joke, you know? Bu the joke was on me. I was so excited about finally getting to write what I wanted I didn’t see the irony of going from deep-dark-secret to Published Novel That Anyone Can Read, Including My Mother, in such a short space of time.

And so here’s my confession; I didn’t tell my family what I was doing until recently. I fear rejection, you see, and still do. I know there are people in my extended family who will shun me as word trickles out. And the pain, and the fear, in a small but intense way, becomes real. When I look at the courage of all the homosexual, bisexual, transexual, gender fluid people standing up and being counted, and being oh-so-vulnerable, I am amazed, awestruck and more than a little befuddled by my own reticence.

Freedom turns out to be intoxicating. It is worth fighting for and taking risks, and I commend everyone who has ever faced their fear, large or small, and let their true voice be heard.

***

Prize time! I’ll be giving away a copy of my first novel, Touch of Salar, an erotic m/m fantasy, to celebrate it’s one year anniversary and this hop! To enter, just leave a comment with your email. I’ll draw a random winner on the day after the hop (May 25th) and notify them via email. And as an added incentive, I’ll donate a dollar for every comment I get to Old Growth Northwest, a Seattle-based group supporting a diverse literary ecosystem.

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ His Prey Drew Closer

May 17, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors. Well, we decided on a title so I finally get to announce my upcoming release! Betwixt and Between, an m/m urban fantasy, will be available on June 30. I’ve shared a few snippets from this story over on My Sexy Saturday, but I think this is the first time I’ve posted an excerpt here, so I might as well start at the beginning.

***

Even as the first haunting chords drifted up the cement stairwell, Ezekiel detected a nibble on his bait. He pressed his bow more firmly to the strings on his violin and drew his elbow back. His prey drew closer.

He’d had his doubts about setting up in midday and in such a busy, public spot, but a tug at his instincts had guided him here. Over the centuries, he’d learned to never ignore that tug. The music echoed nicely, penetrating the dull roar of the Pike Street Market above and the viaduct below. From the open staircase, he had a partial view of the waterfront and Puget Sound beyond.

He’d set up on a landing below street level on the stairs that led from the waterfront to the market. On a rainy Tuesday in February, the market wasn’t the teeming morass of humans it usually was, and Ezekiel easily sensed the motions of the liosa as it descended the stairs.

He threw a little more passion into Smetana’s symphonic poem, Vltava, and the lines cast out by the music shimmered darkly in the dull light.

***

This post is part of an ongoing blog hop hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors. Every Sunday, participating authors post ten sentences from a published work or perhaps their current work in progress. Then we hop to our fellow warriors’ blogs and check out all the fabulous fiction that’s happening! I heartily invite you to participate as a reader, writer, or both. It’s a great way to discover your next favorite book. Click here or use the address: http://www.wewriwa.com

My Sexy Saturday ~ Betwixt and Between

May 16, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to My Sexy Saturday. This week’s theme is My Sexy Forever, which just happens to coincide nicely with my upcoming release, an m/m urban fantasy called Betwixt and Between, coming out June 30th. I’ve shared a few snippets before back when the working title was Dark Heart. You might remember it from the post Evil Elf Visits Starbucks. Ian and Zeke, the dark elf, might be destined to be together forever, but they’re hitting some major roadblocks along the way, the main one being Zeke’s evil nature.

Ian speaks first:

“Uh, Zeke, there was a time when… I thought we might be… But now, I have to say I kind of hate you.”

“That’s not true. You are free of the hatred that has plagued our kind.”

“I’m working on it.”

“Ian, my love. You were right. We are two parts of a whole. We must be joined.” Zeke’s hand traveled up Ian’s side, brushed his nipple and returned to the waist of his jeans. Zeke leaned over him. Melted snow dripped from his hair onto Ian’s face and neck. Ian shuddered. Not from the cold on his skin but from tremors deep inside.

“No,” he whispered.

Zeke bent down and kissed his lips. Warm and firm. Zeke tasted of wood smoke and wine. Ian let Zeke delve deep into his mouth with his tongue, but didn’t respond. Not with his lips, anyway. Blood rushed to his cock, and he was instantly so hard it hurt. He turned his head away. Zeke kissed his neck, sucking lightly on the delicate spot beneath his ear.

“It’s not going to work, so you might as well… Stop,” Ian said, barely able to breathe.

***

Don’t forget to continue the hop to check out more sexy snippets from the other participants. Seven words, seven lines or seven paragraphs of steamy fun await at My Sexy Saturday main page.