Weekend Writing Warriors #39

December 7, 2014 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to another round of Weekend Writing Warriors. Today I get to announce the release of the next book in the Masters and Mages series! Blood of Salar is set to release on March 3rd, 2015. To celebrate I’m going to share a snippet from the first chapter. Things are getting dangerous in the land of Rakkan and M’lan the monk and Jamil the assassin are challenged to maintain their relationship while a rebellion swirls around them. After months apart, they find themselves at odds regarding Jamil’s work.

M’lan is the first to speak:

***

“Kings and lords always claim to have the ear of at least one god.”

“Much like monks.”

M’lan’s cheeks burned. He sensed Jamil slipping away from him, back into his previous enslavement to the court and its devious methods.

“The king’s sorcerers still have a dark hook in your heart,” he pronounced. He regretted it when he saw the affect of his words.

Jamil’s eyes narrowed and his face achieved a hardness M’lan hadn’t seen since before the monk healed him.

“If anyone has hooks in me, it’s you, Headmaster M’lan.”

***

This post is part of an ongoing blog hop hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors. Every Sunday, participating authors post eight 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

Weekend Writing Warriors #36

November 16, 2014 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to another edition of Weekend Writing Warriors! At the risk of appearing commitment-phobic, this month I’m sampling from various story starts, trying to decide which to get serious about next. Having completed and submitted my last WIP after much suffering and hair-pulling, I’m indulging in the writerly impulse to go play with whatever story is new and shiny. As far as getting things done, not a good plan. But it’s fun and I hope you have fun playing along.

This week I’m sampling from the opening of a contemporary fantasy/mystery set in Phoenix.

***

The apartment building should’ve been torn down about twenty years ago. A fire hazard, an eyesore and a den of iniquity all rolled into one architectural disaster, it teetered on the brink of collapse near the gritty western edge of downtown Phoenix. Detective Sergeant Lucas Fortier accepted a paper cup of coffee from his partner, Sandra Teasdale, with heartfelt gratitude. It had been one hell of a night and answering a homicide call at 4 AM had not been on his to-do list for Sunday morning.

“Barney Baker,” she said in response to his unasked question. “Ran a dubious real estate business, occasional bookie at the dog track, legendary alcoholic.”

“And we know it’s a homicide because . . . ?”

“Because of the bowie knife in his back.”

***

From The Nightstand ~ The Devil Lancer by Astrid Amara

November 14, 2014 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to my nightstand. This week I’m very excited to tell you about my favorite page-turner of the week~

The Devil Lancer by Astrid Amara

I’ll admit I was surprised by the depth and breadth of details regarding the Crimean War in Ms. Amara’s historical romantic fantasy (despite the subtitle: A Novel of the Crimean War- duh!) I was all set for a juicy demon-rich fantasy with sprinkles of a historical backdrop for interest. Whoa, did I get a heck of a lot more than that. And I’m happy to say, it’s all fantastic.

At first I was a bit taken aback by the grim reality of the British troops’ dire situation in Turkey in 1854, but Amara sucked me in and had me hooked before I had a chance to get persnickety about the violence and muck. Be warned, this is war in all it’s ugliness, but thankfully, it revolves around the developing love of two extremely well-developed characters, Captain Elliott Parrish, a totally lovable, upstanding young officer and Cornet Ilyvas Kovakin, a morally challenged half-Russian with a terrible secret.

The developing relationship between the two opposites is presented skillfully and with just the right amount of tension/anticipation. I both marveled at and cursed the author as I tore through the pages, anxious for the men to achieve intimacy against incredible odds. And when they do – oh, man. It was worth the wait.

The fantasy side of the story is also wonderful. It’s unique and seemingly grounded in folklore. Maybe the demons and their coffins are entirely fabricated, but Amara does it so well you feel like you’re getting a glimpse into an ancient, forgotten culture. Another admission for me here, it is the fantasy in the novel and the hope it provides that got me over my fear of reading about the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade, a military disaster of epic proportions which Amara handles deftly and believably. She presents a breathless, harrowing scene that could be studied in how-to-write-a-battle workshops.

I’m delighted to have discovered this author. Color me impressed. I find myself wishing once again that truly gifted authors like Amara might find a larger audience in historical fantasy and not be limited by the fact that her protagonists happen to be two gay men.

***

Series: Crimean War Novels
Paperback: 475 pages
Publisher: Blind Eye Books (October 7, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1935560301
ISBN-13: 978-1935560302

Official Blurb:

Captain Elliott Parrish of Her Majesty’s 17th Lancers cavalry division finds most details about his assignment in the Crimean peninsula insufferable. Rampant cholera, missing supplies, and inept planning start the British war effort against the Russian Czar’s expansion into Turkish territory on poor footing.

What should have been a swift and decisive summer victory soon drags into a harrowing winter campaign, and Elliott must rally disheartened men through sickness, battle, and starvation. But when he is assigned the additional task of spying on a fellow officer, the inscrutable Cornet Ilyas Kovakin, he finds himself disconcerted and fascinated by both the work and the man.

Rumors surround Ilyas Kovakin, the half-Russian officer who reports to none in his division. People say they’ve seen snakes slithering into his tent at night, that he has another face visible only in certain light, and a penchant for violent acts carried out in darkness, alone. But the truth that Elliot soon discovers is much more dangerous then mere superstition.

For Ilyas, his return to Crimea is colored with the horrors of his past.

Once a mercenary, he has made a terrible mistake and inherited horrifying powers that he can barely control. He feels his hold over his humanity slipping away daily, and fears that salvation may already lay beyond him when the cheerful Captain Parrish catches his attention. Among men who hate him and superiors who covet his brutal power, Ilyas finds the young captain’s charming company almost irresistible.

But Ilyas knows that the closer he is drawn to Elliot the more he will endanger them both.

Blind Eye Books

Amazon buy link

Weekend Writing Warriors #35

November 9, 2014 by Alexis Duran

Bon jour and welcome to another installment of Weekend Writing Warriors. It’s NaNoWriMo time and I’m happily jumping from project to project, testing the fictional waters to see what holds my interest. I’m currently working on a contemporary fantasy set in Seattle. My hero, Terrance Grant, is a fifth generation jeweler. His life is pretty routine, all work and no play, until a mysterious man blows into his shop and commissions him to build a most unusual piece. My eight today is from their initial meeting.

***

No social skills, smelly, uncommunicative, just my type. Terrance was already mocking himself over his initial reaction. When not locked in the man’s penetrating gaze, he could see the whole picture and it wasn’t pretty. Roark wore heavy, lace up army boots encrusted with mud. The mass of hair was tied back with frayed string. The dingy coat was coming loose at the seams beneath his arms.

Relieved to be over his momentary attack of misplaced lust, he slid into the chair between the desk and the wall. Roark’s bulk blocked out most of his view of the store, but Terrance could see his uncle Gunther fussily wiping the water droplets off the display cases and reaching for the mop to wipe up Roark’s trail. This comforted him – the ordinary world went on, even if a most unordinary man had taken over the center of it.

***

Official Blurb for my newest release, To Catch a Threeve ~

Now available!

Axel Blackwood catches a thief and is astounded to see that he closely resembles Liam Alloway, the love he lost seven years ago in an attack by the evil woodland folk known as threeves. Axel suspects he’s fallen prey to dark magic, but can’t help becoming infatuated with his prisoner. He’s overwhelmed with the hope that he can at last bring his lost lover home, despite everything that warns him it’s all a diabolical trick.

Bryn Darrow, the half-threeve, half human orphan sent to trick Axel and rob him of much more than a simple gem finds himself equally as fascinated with his handsome human captor and the lure of someplace to call home, but he knows deep down that the constable is in love with a dangerous illusion. When he’s commanded by the threeves to murder Axel and steal a witch’s powerful grimoire, he’s forced to decide between the only family he’s ever known and the one person who might rescue him from a life of isolation and pain.

Will Axel and Bryn be forced into a deadly confrontation before they can discover the truth?

Howloween Hop

October 30, 2014 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to the Howloween Paranormal Romance blog hop, hosted by Hops With Heart (www.hopswithheart.blogspot.com). Don’t forget to keep on hopping to discover amazing writers, enter to win prizes, and sign-up for the grand prize drawing of a $50 Amazon gift card! Enter my own give-away by leaving a comment with your email below my post. I’ll randomly draw a winner after the hop is over.

Release date October 28th!

True love or wicked trickster? In my new novel, To Catch a Threeve, two men play a game of dark desire, neither knowing if the other offers danger or deliverance, love or death. My Howloween post considers the allure of falling in love with the enemy~

Dark Desire by Alexis Duran

“Love is giving someone the power to destroy you but trusting them not to.” Unknown.

Sex and violence. Love and hate. Trust and fear. Protagonist and antagonist. Hero and villain. When opposites collide, sparks fly. All we have to do is look at two of the most popular TV shows of all time, Game of Thrones and The Sopranos, to see how popular those conflict-generated sparks are. There’s no arguing that these elements are intricately entwined within the human soul and so naturally, they make their way into our stories. As a writer of erotica drawn to explore the dark side of desire, I’ve occasionally questioned the value of such stories.

As early as my pre-teens, I remember flinging my sister’s Harlequin romances and “bodice-rippers” against the wall in disgust when the so-called “heroes” forced themselves on simpering heroines who then promptly fell madly in love with their abusers. Rubbish! Crap! Horror!

Imagine my embarrassment when the editor of my new novella Touch of Salar informed me that one of my sex scenes was actually a rape, and that Loose Id prefers their romantic heroes not to be rapists. Apparently no does mean no. A few subtle shifts of language and voila, acceptability is attained. But how in the world did this come about? Why did I write my characters into such a situation? Why would a writer who should know better feel compelled to send her characters into the murky realms of sexual violence?

I decided it was time to take a look at the role of villainous lovers, submissive heroes and what happens when combatants fall in lust.

Dark Fiction takes us into the breach and over the cliff on our own writer’s journey through hell and damnation. Others on ShadowSpinners* have explored the function of horror, mayhem and death in fiction. They found value in the impulse to endanger lives, threaten comforts, kill off gods, upend reality and kick over rocks, and so too have I found rewards in the risky behavior so often present in dark erotica.

In fiction we can safely press beyond the confines of reason, rationality, common sense, political correctness. We can send our characters back into the haunted house or into the arms of Mr. Oh-So-Wrong. What if the protagonist falls in love with the antagonist? Now there is some delicious conflict.

When I first allowed myself to write about terribly flawed characters with a penchant for dangerous partners, I discovered that the challenges of loving a villain, of forcing my characters to the edge of reason, is every bit as compelling as threatening them with death, loss, and destruction in other areas of their lives. There’s no scene quite so intimate, so revealing, as a sexual encounter that challenges everything a character believes about themselves and the other person. They know it’s “wrong” and they do it anyway. Through this self-sacrifice and self-abandonment, perhaps the hero will learn the truth and come out stronger.

And what about the villain/lover? Is she a flawed hero? A wounded aspect of the protagonist? A dangerous other who threatens to bring out the worst in everyone they encounter? The Dark Man or Dark Woman does not have to be a malevolent outside force but a catalyst, a key to unlock passions buried within, a mirror of repressed longing. The dark lover might be the one person who can help the hero experience a sexual freedom they cannot achieve themselves.

And so we conscript our characters to wrestle with deeply buried desires that can’t be acknowledged by the rational mind. There are a hundred reasons not to give in to the dark lover, but reason has little to do with the decision to risk everything. Our characters can be stupid. Our characters can be scandalous. Our characters can embrace vulnerability and overcome fear. Usually it is society that must be defied, along with constraints of fear, shame and propriety, but often it is one’s very own demons blocking the road to liberation and any author worth her salt knows the benefits of confronting those bastards.

***

So do you love it or hate it when the hero falls for the bad guy? Leave a comment and you’ll be automatically entered into a highly scientific Names in the Hat drawing for a $10 gift certificate to Loose Id!

Don’t forget to enter the grand prize drawing : here’s the link to the Grand Prize Drawing Rafflecopter Dingus!

Continue the hop with more chances to win neat stuff at Hops With Heart!

***

*This post was first published on ShadowSpinners.Wordpress.com

***

Official Blurb for To Catch a Threeve ~ Release date October 28th ~

Will Axel and Bryn be forced into a deadly confrontation before they can discover the truth?