Tag Archives: paranormal romance

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Dangerous

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Hello and welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the blog hop where writers share excerpts from their work in ten sentences or less. Don’t forget to click the link to discover a wide variety of really awesome fiction!

I’ve been sharing from my soon-to-released gay shifter romance/mystery titled Prowl.  In this scene, Jacqui shifted into his cat form in order to spy on the sexy new neighbor, Wyatt. A nasty little pair of Pomeranians snuck up behind him and startled into him taking refuge–on Wyatt’s shoulders. Wyatt is not happy.  In the last snippet, the neighbor who owns the dogs just said “I see you’ve met Mr. Whiskers”.

***

Lie! That is not my name! Although I must admit I do have impressive whiskers.

“Is this your cat?” Wyatt asked, his voice now low and dangerous.

“I think he belongs to the old lady in the Victorian on the corner.”

“So not someone I can go rant and curse at?”

“Not unless you want to give her a heart attack. Beyonce, Celine, be quiet!” The woman, a three-doors-down neighbor named Claire, made a halfhearted attempt to corral her dogs. They dodged her hand, intent on barking Jacqui off his perch and chasing him over the fence—Jacqui didn’t budge.

***

Jacqui the Cat Mysteries, the cozy gay shifter romance mystery series the world has  been waiting for~

Jacqui Corleone is a fashion designer, a yoga-instructor and a concerned citizen who selflessly helps the police solve crimes. Oh, and he occasionally turns into a small wild cat. Probably due to a wizard’s curse or an evil government plot to create super warriors.

Or, he’s a cat cursed to turn into a human and only the bite of a sexy alpha lion will allow him to remain in his superior form of Cat.

Jacqui does not have a split personality, but sometimes his cat personality can get rather loud.

Loud? You’re loud.

Jacqui Corleone is a cat shifter who doesn’t know why or how he turns into a cat. He lives a solitary life in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. He’s not afraid of intimacy (yes, he is) but sensibly refrains from potentially awkward entanglements. Unfortunately, the sexy new deputy sheriff just moved in across the street and Jacqui’s vow not to get mixed up with island dudes is sorely challenged.

When the mysterious disappearance of three blue pots draws Jacqui to investigate, he’s drawn ever deeper into danger–and into the muscular but not too bulgy or veiny arms of deputy Wyatt West (you wish).

Join Jacqui (and Cat) in this new exciting and sexy gay shifter romance mystery series from bestselling author (she wishes) Alexis Duran. Coming as soon as Alexis gets her s**t together.

***

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

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Big-Eared Death

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Greetings and welcome to another round of Weekend Writing Warriors. If you’re new to this blog hop, you’re in for a treat. Click the link to discover some really great writers sharing excepts from a wide variety of genres.

I’ve been sharing from my current WIP, Prowl, the first in a series of cozy gay shifter mysteries.  My protagonist is Jacqui and he’s currently found himself in a bit of a situation. In his cat form, he was startled by a pair of sneaky Pomeranians and ended up taking refuge on the shoulders of his unsuspecting new neighbor, Wyatt. This is in Jacqui’s POV. You can read last week’s snippet here.

***

A blonde woman in a lavender workout suit scuttled in through the gate with a tiny little leash thingy dangling from her hand.

“Sorry, Wyatt! They saw a squirrel and broke loose again.”

For like the hundred millionth time. Buy muzzle halters you stupid dog loving bitch-twit.

“Make them stop!” Wyatt gasped, as if he was in pain. Oh, right, the claws. Jacqui tried to soften his grip, but he just couldn’t. Not with big-eared death so close, so hyper and so noisy.

“Oh, I see you’ve met Mr. Whiskers.”

***

They’re vicious, I tell you, vicious!

Jacqui the Cat Mysteries, the cozy gay shifter romance mystery series the world has  been waiting for~

Jacqui Corleone is a fashion designer, a yoga-instructor and a concerned citizen who selflessly helps the police solve crimes. Oh, and he occasionally turns into a small wild cat. Probably due to a wizard’s curse or an evil government plot to create super warriors.

Or, he’s a cat cursed to turn into a human and only the bite of a sexy alpha lion will allow him to remain in his superior form of Cat.

Jacqui does not have a split personality, but sometimes his cat personality can get rather loud.

Loud? You’re loud.

Jacqui Corleone is a cat shifter who doesn’t know why or how he turns into a cat. He lives a solitary life in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. He’s not afraid of intimacy (yes, he is) but sensibly refrains from potentially awkward entanglements. Unfortunately, the sexy new deputy sheriff just moved in across the street and Jacqui’s vow not to get mixed up with island dudes is sorely challenged.

When the mysterious disappearance of three blue pots draws Jacqui to investigate, he’s drawn ever deeper into danger–and into the muscular but not too bulgy or veiny arms of deputy Wyatt West (you wish).

Join Jacqui (and Cat) in this new exciting and sexy gay shifter romance mystery series from bestselling author (she wishes) Alexis Duran. Coming as soon as Alexis gets her s**t together.

***

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

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Survival Instinct

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12

Happy New Year! My wish for everyone is peace, prosperity and a bit of playfulness.  Here on Weekend Writing Warriors we get to play by sharing and reading some really great fiction.  Another P word is promotion, and WWW is one of the least painful and most rewarding ways I’ve found to get my work out there, so it will definitely stay on my “to do” list for 2018.  Glad you’re here with me.

I’m continuing to share from my work-in-progress, a new series of gay shifter cozy romances featuring Jacqui, a cat shifter with a knack for finding trouble on little San Juan Island.  When last we saw him, Jacqui was in his cat form and spying on the new neighbor. To avoid confusion, I should remind you that the couch mentioned in this  snippet is outside in Wyatt’s back yard, as he’s just now moving in.

***

Wyatt walked up next to the couch and Jacqui knew he should make a run for it. Or, he could play sweet and maybe get a scratch on the head or even a belly rub.

Oh, there goes another sweat bead. Will it make it around the belly button, or dive into those mysterious depths?

A shrill, piercing bark caused all the fur on Jacqui’s body to puff out like a bristle brush.

Demon spawn right behind us!

Survival instinct took over. He leaped onto the back of the couch but that wasn’t high enough. He needed to climb and the tallest thing in leaping range was…Wyatt.

Jacqui sprang.

***

The little ones are the most vicious of all

Jacqui the Cat Mysteries, the cozy gay shifter romance mystery series the world has  been waiting for~

Jacqui Corleone is a fashion designer, a yoga-instructor and a concerned citizen who selflessly helps the police solve crimes. Oh, and he occasionally turns into a small wild cat. Probably due to a wizard’s curse or an evil government plot to create super warriors.

Or, he’s a cat cursed to turn into a human and only the bite of a sexy alpha lion will allow him to remain in his superior form of Cat.

Jacqui does not have a split personality, but sometimes his cat personality can get rather loud.

Loud? You’re loud.

Jacqui Corleone is a cat shifter who doesn’t know why or how he turns into a cat. He lives a solitary life in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. He’s not afraid of intimacy (yes, he is) but sensibly refrains from potentially awkward entanglements. Unfortunately, the sexy new deputy sheriff just moved in across the street and Jacqui’s vow not to get mixed up with island dudes is sorely challenged.

When the mysterious disappearance of three blue pots draws Jacqui to investigate, he’s drawn ever deeper into danger–and into the muscular but not too bulgy or veiny arms of deputy Wyatt West (you wish).

Join Jacqui (and Cat) in this new exciting and sexy gay shifter romance mystery series from bestselling author (she wishes) Alexis Duran. Coming as soon as Alexis gets her s**t together.

***

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

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Jacqui vs. Christmas

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Greetings and Happy Holidays! And if you don’t observe this particular holiday, Happy Ordinary Day! In my eastern European family, today is the big day when all the celebrating happens, but I hope to visit everyone on the hop before things get too crazy around here.  I had big plans to post a Christmas short story today, but life sort of intruded, so I have the opening excerpt instead, and hopefully will post the rest of the story next week.  The story features Jacqui, my cat shifter hero, and how he and his inner cat deal with the temptations of the holiday. Hint- not very well.

Jacqui vs. Christmas

***

Jacqui curled up in the corner of Wyatt’s couch, feet tucked in beside him, hands wrapped around a mug of hot chocolate. A fire danced in the fireplace, Bing crooned carols from a scratchy vinyl album and a dusting of snow was visible through the big bow window.

Every nerve in Jacqui’s body tingled and his hair stood on end.

Christmas had pounced on Wyatt’s apartment like a giant, multi-colored, flashing neon Rottweiler of doom, shedding tinsel and drooling eggnog.

Jacqui wasn’t fond of the holiday.

The twinkling lights—no touchee.

The curly ribbons—no touchee.

The glittering ornaments—no touchee.

THE TREE.

So whose idea was it to bring a tree inside, hang a bunch of shiny dangling bits from it and then yell at the cat when natural instinct takes over?

***

The calm before the storm

Jacqui the Cat Mysteries, the cozy gay shifter romance mystery series the world has  been waiting for~

Jacqui Corleone is a fashion designer, a yoga-instructor and a concerned citizen who selflessly helps the police solve crimes. Oh, and he occasionally turns into a small wild cat. Probably due to a wizard’s curse or an evil government plot to create super warriors.

Or, he’s a cat cursed to turn into a human and only the bite of a sexy alpha lion will allow him to remain in his superior form of Cat.

Jacqui does not have a split personality, but sometimes his cat personality can get rather loud.

Loud? You’re loud.

Jacqui Corleone is a cat shifter who doesn’t know why or how he turns into a cat. He lives a solitary life in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. He’s not afraid of intimacy (yes, he is) but sensibly refrains from potentially awkward entanglements. Unfortunately, the sexy new deputy sheriff just moved in across the street and Jacqui’s vow not to get mixed up with island dudes is sorely challenged.

When the mysterious disappearance of three blue pots draws Jacqui to investigate, he’s drawn ever deeper into danger–and into the muscular but not too bulgy or veiny arms of deputy Wyatt West (you wish).

Join Jacqui (and Cat) in this new exciting and sexy gay shifter romance mystery series from bestselling author (she wishes) Alexis Duran. Coming as soon as Alexis gets her s**t together.

***

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

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ A Bad Idea

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Hello everyone, and welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the blog hop where a bunch of us crazy writer-types share excerpts from our published work or work-in-progress. If my fellow writers take exception to being called crazy, I apologize, but I’m feeling a little off my rocker lately because of all the time I’m spending in the head of my main character–Jacqui the cat shifter. Jacqui has a bit of a split personality and spends a lot of  time arguing with his inner cat, who just isn’t as concerned with things like privacy, politeness and other inconvenient human social restraints.  In this week’s snippet, Jacqui in his cat form is spying on his new neighbor. Even though he has a rule about not becoming romantically entangled, his interests have been–shall we say–aroused.  You can read last week’s snippet here.

***

Jacqui stared, mesmerized, as Wyatt leaned to one side and then the other.

I give him a nine and a half. He loses half a point because he has no sense of style. His hair looks like he used that weed whacker on it. And the five o’clock shadow? That’s so spot-on trendy—he needs our help badly.

Don’t distract me from the sweat trickles. I want to lick them. I want to bite the back of his neck and make him mine.

This was such a bad idea.

***

Looks like a pretty good cat perch to me

Jacqui the Cat Mysteries, the cozy gay shifter romance mystery series the world has  been waiting for~

Jacqui Corleone is a fashion designer, a yoga-instructor and a concerned citizen who selflessly helps the police solve crimes. Oh, and he occasionally turns into a small wild cat. Probably due to a wizard’s curse or an evil government plot to create super warriors.

Or, he’s a cat cursed to turn into a human and only the bite of a sexy alpha lion will allow him to remain in his superior form of Cat.

Jacqui does not have a split personality, but sometimes his cat personality can get rather loud.

Loud? You’re loud.

Jacqui Corleone is a cat shifter who doesn’t know why or how he turns into a cat. He lives a solitary life in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. He’s not afraid of intimacy (yes, he is) but sensibly refrains from potentially awkward entanglements. Unfortunately, the sexy new deputy sheriff just moved in across the street and Jacqui’s vow not to get mixed up with island dudes is sorely challenged.

When the mysterious disappearance of three blue pots draws Jacqui to investigate, he’s drawn ever deeper into danger–and into the muscular but not too bulgy or veiny arms of deputy Wyatt West (you wish).

Join Jacqui (and Cat) in this new exciting and sexy gay shifter romance mystery series from bestselling author (she wishes) Alexis Duran. Coming as soon as Alexis gets her s**t together.

***

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

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Peeping

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Hello and welcome to my corner of Weekend Writing Warriors, the blog hop where a bunch of awesome writers share short excerpts from their work. There’s a wide diversity of  genres and styles here, so you’re sure to find something you enjoy.

I’m sharing from my current work-in-progress, a cozy gay shifter romance mystery tentatively titled Prowl.  In this scene, Jacqui is in his cat form and is taking a little stroll through the neighborhood and quite innocently (not) ends up in the backyard of his sexy new neighbor, Deputy Sheriff Wyatt West.  I’ve skipped ahead a bit from last week.

***

At last Wyatt appeared. He was still shirtless, but held one in his left hand, a bottle of beer in the other. He placed the beer on top of the stack of boxes and wiped his forehead with the T-shirt. And he would no doubt put it back on, sweat-sodden and everything. Jacqui crouched down, peeping around the edge of the couch.

Wyatt shook out the shirt, appeared to think better of it, and tossed it on the box next to the beer. Then he stretched.

Oh, yes, he did stretch. He placed both hands behind his neck and leaned back, the smooth lines of his muscular chest clearly defined and gleaming with a sheen of sweat. A tiny bead made its way around the belly button and trickled toward the barely visible trail of dark hair poking out of the low-slung jeans.

***

Jacqui the Cat Mysteries, the cozy gay shifter romance mystery series the world has  been waiting for~

Jacqui Corleone is a fashion designer, a yoga-instructor and a concerned citizen who selflessly helps the police solve crimes. Oh, and he occasionally turns into a small wild cat. Probably due to a wizard’s curse or an evil government plot to create super warriors.

Or, he’s a cat cursed to turn into a human and only the bite of a sexy alpha lion will allow him to remain in his superior form of Cat.

Jacqui does not have a split personality, but sometimes his cat personality can get rather loud.

Loud? You’re loud.

Jacqui Corleone is a cat shifter who doesn’t know why or how he turns into a cat. He lives a solitary life in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. He’s not afraid of intimacy (yes, he is) but sensibly refrains from potentially awkward entanglements. Unfortunately, the sexy new deputy sheriff just moved in across the street and Jacqui’s vow not to get mixed up with island dudes is sorely challenged.

When the mysterious disappearance of three blue pots draws Jacqui to investigate, he’s drawn ever deeper into danger–and into the muscular but not too bulgy or veiny arms of deputy Wyatt West (you wish).

Join Jacqui (and Cat) in this new exciting and sexy gay shifter romance mystery series from bestselling author (she wishes) Alexis Duran. Coming as soon as Alexis gets her s**t together.

***

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