#MFRWorg Book Spotlight: BONDED @JaymiHanako

MFRW Author Jaymi Hanako released BONDED, an Erotic Sci-Fi/Futuristic Romance, with Loose Id.

BLURB
Jaren Caradoc nearly lost his ship and his life when he fell under the spell of a black widow sorceress, but for the timely intervention of her personal slave. To repay the young woman, he plans to purchase her freedom—only to find she's being auctioned off as a virgin sex slave. Required to consummate the relationship by the auction house, he's soon caught in a web of attraction, guilt, and feelings he thought long-dead.

When Jaren buys Taimi’s contract, she thinks it’s a dream come true. But after their one night together, instead of becoming his lover, she is asked to be an employee – a medic on his spaceship. Nothing more. Can she really pretend her feelings don't exist?

Then Jaren's ex-wife, Lady Ethlinda breaks out of prison, Lorus officials impound Jaren's ship, leaving them stranded during the notorious Festival of Fertility – and vulnerable to Ethlinda's plans for revenge.

AMAZON BUY LINK

EXCERPT

“Do you not desire me, Captain?”
“Of course I do.”
Heat flushed her face and pleasure spiked through her veins, despite the rather reluctant admission. “Then I do not see how this is a difficulty.”
“I feel like I’m taking advantage of you.”
“Please don’t worry about that, Captain. I have long made peace with my fate and what is expected of me. Although”--she managed a smile but needed to swallow hard to moisten her suddenly dry throat before continuing--“my fate seems better than I deserve, now I know it is you who controls it.”
“What do you mean?”
“I desire you, Captain.” She resisted the urge to cross her arms over her chest. To shield her hard nipples, the most obvious sign of her desire for him. Acknowledging her attraction made her feel even more exposed than her lack of clothing did.
He hesitated, then crossed to her side with quick, decisive strides. Jaren reached out and traced the track of tears flowing from her drugged eyes, his touch surprisingly gentle for all the size of his hand. “You’re still crying.”
Taimi shook her head. “Belladonna eyedrops. It’s an old trick of the sex-slave trade, or so I was told. It dilates the pupils to mimic desire but also blurs my vision, and light is painful.” He slipped his fingers under her chin, tilting her head back. She partly closed her eyes to block out the increased brilliance. If only she could look at him... “That’s why I--”
“I see.” He dropped his hand and walked away. She heard the door open, and he called for a servant.
“They can’t hear you.”
“Why not?”
“They would have vacated the area, to give you some privacy to claim your purchase. Unless, of course, you requested otherwise.” The stone floor made it easy to track his movements by the changing sound of his footsteps. She opened her eyes and could just make out Jaren’s blurry form as he stood directly under the light cauldron.
“Maybe I could--”
“Please do not trouble yourself, Captain.”
“But you’re hurting.”
The worry in his deep voice made her wince. Taimi wished she had never mentioned such a minor discomfort, but she had not anticipated he would respond like this. No one had ever shown concern for her before. “It is of no consequence and will wear off soon.” She held out her hand. “Please.”
He returned to her side. “So you can’t see what I look like?”
“I still remember.”
He chuckled. “I could have changed since we last saw each other. Turned old and hideous.”
“I doubt that.” She reached up and touched his cheek. Felt the roughness of his whiskers against her palm, easily over a day’s growth. Surprising. The Captain Caradoc she remembered had always been carefully clean-shaven.
He covered her hand with his. “This still doesn’t feel right.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’ve never owned anyone before, for one thing. I don’t like it.”
Strange. Lorus marital laws granted him rights over Lady Ethlinda’s estate--including her slaves. “But you have.”
Perhaps he could read what she was thinking. “Not directly. Not like this.”
“This is the way the law works on Lorus, Captain,” she said gently. “You have the right to take your pleasure with my body. I accept that.”
“You should have more of a choice. Especially since it’s your first time.”
“It doesn’t matter. I would have chosen you if I could.” Desire strummed through her veins, giving her the strength she needed to be bold. “I have been taught how to please a man.”

ABOUT Jaymi Hanako
Jaymi spends so much time with the characters in her head, her husband’s co-workers believe she’s the imaginary one. She writes about spaceships, magic, and paranormal creatures. There may be sword fights. But whether set in outer space or in alternate realities, there will always be a happily ever after.

website  |  twitter

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: The Noblest Vengeance @NeilPlakcy #MFRWauthor

MFRW Author Neil S. Plakcy released The Noblest Vengeance (Have Body Will Guard #6),

a GLBT Romance, with Loose Id on May 13, 2014.

The Noblest Vengeance weaves together the heritage of Sephardic Jews and the tensions in modern-day Turkey with a sexy, fast-paced romance that tests the relationship of bodyguards Aidan Greene and Liam McCullough.

Does the threat they face come from a hidden secret tied to the Nazi invasion of the Greek town of Ioannina, a center of Sephardic culture? Or has it arisen because of plans to develop one of the last open spaces in Istanbul, Gezi Park?

The real danger to their relationship, however, may come from their very different ideas about family connections. Can their love withstand assassins with a deadly secret to keep hidden, a trip back home to New Jersey – and Liam’s foul-mouthed mother?

BUY LINK

Excerpt

Aidan Greene was so engrossed in the pictures on the laptop screen that he didn’t even notice his partner come up behind him. “What are you looking at?” Liam asked, looking over his shoulder. Their small mixed-breed dog, Hayam, hopped up from her place beside Aidan’s foot and snuffled hello to her other daddy.
“Pictures of my cousin’s son’s bar mitzvah.” Aidan pointed at the screen. “That’s my Aunt Sophia, my cousin Ellen, and her husband Gary.”
“Facebook,” Liam said, noting the heading on the screen. “For people with too much time on their hands.”
It was an argument they had been having for a while. Since they had moved to Nice, where they had regular, fast Internet service, Aidan had begun connecting with old friends and family online, mostly through Facebook. After nearly two years away from the United States he was feeling a bit nostalgic for his old life.
“It’s not a waste of time,” Aidan protested. With his parents both dead, all he had left were a mix of aunts, uncles, and cousins. When he lived in Philadelphia for a dozen years after college, he saw family often. Reading their online profiles and seeing their pictures made him realize that it had been a long time since he’d seen any of them in the flesh.
It made him sad to keep missing family events—an uncle’s funeral, the birth and bris of a cousin’s son, and so many other small rituals.
“All that social media stuff is for losers,” Liam said.
“So your sister Jeanne is a loser?” Aidan asked. “She’s on Facebook. Did you know that her dog died last week? And your other sister, Franny? She’s been posting videos of your nephew’s softball games on YouTube. Not to mention Joey Sheridan—he’s got a Pinterest page with photos of his workouts.”
“Why are you looking at my family and friends?” Liam demanded. “What they do is none of your business.”
“Excuse me?” Aidan said. “Joey’s not my friend too? You ever asked him that?” Joey was an old friend of Liam’s, still a SEAL. He had visited them when they lived in Tunis and contrary to Liam’s expectations been fine to discover that his old buddy was romantically involved with another man. “And your family has nothing to do with me?”
“My family doesn’t even know you exist. And I’d like to keep it that way.”
Aidan stood up from the computer and confronted him. “Why? Do I embarrass you? Am I too gay?”
Hayam scurried toward the bedroom, her toenails clicking on the tile floor. “You are when you act like a drama queen,” Liam said. “My personal life is my own.”
Aidan shook his head. “You really are clueless, you know that? I am your personal life. I cook your meals and do your laundry and suck your dick. It doesn’t get more personal than that, pal.” Aidan pushed his palm against his partner’s chest. Liam was wearing a cotton T-shirt, and through the fabric Aidan could feel the warmth of his partner’s skin, the sinewy muscle beneath it.
Liam grabbed his wrist and turned it—enough to immobilize Aidan, not to hurt him. But Aidan knew that grip and how to rotate his arm so that his elbow bounced against Liam’s six-pack, startling him enough to release it.
Then they were wrestling in the middle of the living room, knocking aside chairs and the coffee table, each of them struggling to master the other. Aidan knew he was doomed to lose; Liam was so much bigger than he was, more muscular, with years of SEAL training. But for the past two years he had been exercising and learning the moves Liam used.
Anger was always a good workout tool for them. The adrenaline coursing through Aidan’s veins made him stronger and more agile. And he wasn’t above playing dirty, either. He reached up under Liam’s T-shirt, caught one of his partner’s nipple rings in his fingers, and twisted.
Liam yelped and pressed his stiff dick against Aidan’s thigh. Liam knew Aidan’s weakness—he was a horn dog, ready for sex after a single touch. And Liam was quite willing to exploit that. As Aidan wiggled to escape, Liam leaned down and kissed him hard, and Aidan gave up, melting into his touch.
With one meaty hand, Liam reached around and slapped Aidan’s butt, hard. “That’ll teach you,” he growled when he broke the kiss. “Don’t fuck around with me.”
“Seems like that’s exactly what we’re doing,” Aidan said, panting slightly. “Fucking around.” He reached down and stroked Liam’s dick through his silky gym shorts.
Liam released his grip on Aidan and stepped back. “No, just teaching you a lesson,” he said. “Now come on, we’ve got to get ready. We have a client today, remember?”
“Liam,” Aidan said, dragging the name out. “You’re not going to leave me here like this, are you?” He pointed down to where his dick pressed against his own shorts. He could feel a wet spot growing on his boxers.
“I’m going to take a shower,” Liam said. He pulled his T-shirt up over his head, exposing his bulging chest and improbably narrow waist. Then he dropped his shorts to the floor, leaving him clad only in his white jockstrap. His dick, stiff as well, pushed the pouch forward. “You can stay here. Or you can join me.”
He pushed the jockstrap down, and his dick pronged out. He stepped nimbly out of the waistband and raised it to twirl on one finger.
“I’m right behind you,” Aidan said.

About Neil S. Plakcy
Neil Plakcy is the author of the Have Body, Will Guard adventure romance series:  Three Wrong Turns in the Desert, Dancing with the Tide, Teach Me Tonight, Olives for the Stranger, Under the Waterfall and The Noblest Vengeance, published by Loose Id.

WEBSITE:    www.mahubooks.com
BLOG:          http://mahubooks.blogspot.com
AMAZON:   http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JP4EL6
FACEBOOK:     https://www.facebook.com/neil.plakcy
GOODREADS:   http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/126217.Neil_Plakcy
PINTEREST:       http://pinterest.com/neilplakcy/boards/
TWITTER:           https://twitter.com/NeilPlakcy

Book Spotlight ~ Stage Fright ~ @pendermackie #mfrworg

Author: Pender Mackie

Book: Stage Fright

Release Date: Jan 22, 2013

Publisher: Loose Id

ISBN: 978-1-62300-057-8

Publisher Buy Link: http://www.loose-id.com/stage-fright.html

Amazon Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/Stage-Fright-ebook/dp/B00B4KBMAW/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1359039255&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=stage+right+pender+mackie

Genre: Contemporary, Alt Life

Length:  169 Pages

Price:  $6.99

Warnings: GLBT Content

Heat Level: R+

Format: E-Book in Multiple Formats

Author Website & Blog: http://www.pendermackie.com

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/pender.mackie

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pendermackie

Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4716055.Pender_Mackie

Las Vegas stripper, Jesse Snowe, is used to being groped by enthusiastic females, but he’s more interested in Val, the sexy new bartender.

Jesse’s tired of the closet, but the thought of telling his fellow dancers he’s gay makes his palms sweat and his heart race. Dating Val under the watchful eyes of the dance captain is a gamble. One that could reveal Jesse’s secret.

For Val Tremain the glamor of Vegas is wearing thin. He’s unenthusiastic about his new job, but seeing Jesse’s beautiful body every night makes it easier to go to work.

When Jesse hints he’s interested Val can’t believe his luck. But Jesse’s latest dance routine encourages too much audience participation and Val struggles with jealousy.

Jesse knows his job’s hard on their relationship and being closeted doesn’t help. If he wants this relationship to work Jesse may have to reveal more than just his body.

13 Tips for Characterization and Conflict

In writing, as in life, it's often the similarities of things that bring about the most conflict. Familiarity breeds contempt. Here are some ideas to use those similarities as well as differences to enhance characterization and conflict.

1. Is there a particular type of feud that underlies part of your character's background? For example, is her brother in the Army, and her hero's brother is in the Navy, and she meets her hero at halftime during the Army-Navy game? Imagine they are both wearing sweatshirts with Army or Navy on them, and end up stepping forward at the same time in the concession stand. Turns out they have the same order (beer and hot dogs), and even both want only mustard on their dogs. How might the similarities as well as the differences fuel the conflicts, yet bring them closer together?

2. Write a backstory for each major character, so he has a reason for being the way he/she is. Did your hero become an outlaw because he broke the law while saving someone's life, but he hides this? Why? Does he have a dark secret about his past? Who else knows about it? Could this come out at a worse time than now? What will he do to prevent it?

3. Create a barrier between your main characters that keeps them from communicating at a critical moment. Suppose one is telepathic, and the other can't shield thoughts. If something suddenly hampered that flow of thought, what would happen to their usual smooth dynamic? Would the one with telepathy think the other was hiding something? Would this cause a misunderstanding that might fuel conflict?

4. Give your hero/ine an idiosyncrasy. For example, does your heroine tap her chin when she's deep in thought? Perhaps this is how the hero realizes she's hiding something later in the story, and clues him in to make a critical decision. Make the odd habit enough of a part of the character for readers to recognize it too.

5. Create a list of things that your main character wants. Write down three conflicts for each one, and then figure out an unexpected solution. For example: WANT #1: to be a mom more than anything in the world. CONFLICT #1: She can't conceive because _____. CONFLICT #2: Because _____ happened in her past she doesn't trust men. CONFLICT #3: Because she works as a ________ she travels all over the world, so how can she even think about adopting? She's pretty much given up her dream, but it's still there, taunting her. UNEXPECTED SOLUTION: Her work puts her in a war torn area where an orphaned street kid's savvy enables him to save her life. How might saving this child lead to the loss of other things in her life? Career opportunities? Travel? Freedom of movement? How can she reconcile her desires against the child's very real needs, and the fact that she owes him her life? Now, throw in a hero who risks his life to help them both. How might this change her conflicts?

6. What event from your hero and/or heroine's lives changed them the most? How did it come about? What would they do if they could change it? How can you adapt that concept to the current story?

7. Don't be too kind. Let your favorite character suffer. Conflict is the lifeblood of a story. Readers want to see a happy ending that is well earned, so don't go easy on your character. Help them overcome it.

8. Don't be afraid to make your villain truly evil. No one fears a wimp. It's okay to be bad (at least in this case).

9. Consider what your main characters don't want. Is there something they would never do even under penalty of death? What is it, and why?

10. A character was forced into a compromising situation in which a lie seemed the best way out. Over the years, that lie became second nature, and almost seems like the truth. Now, the lie has been exposed. What will happen if the truth comes out? How does your character react? Will he/she try to cover it up? To what extent is he/she willing to go? What emotions go through the character's heart?

11. Create doubt for your character. Yes, we know that the good guy will win, and the bad guy will be defeated, at least for now. But at what point does your hero/ine look at a situation and think "How can I keep doing this? How can I go on?" No action movie is complete without a final showdown in which the hero/ine is so beat up and so close to defeat that you start to hold your breath and wonder "will he make it?"

Surrender Love
2010 EPIC Award Winner
Erotic SciFi Romance

12. Foreshadow conflict for your characters. In the book Surrender Love, the two heroes are generations apart. When a cousin points out the large age difference, the younger hero says, "The age of someone isn't something I think about." Later, it's discovered the younger hero isn't as old as he lets others think he is, and the older one isn't just older -- he's immortal. Each has a reason to hide his age, and part of that reason is a character flaw as well as a strength.

13. Make a list of ways your characters handle conflict, and stick to them -- until there's a reason to change. Does your heroine head for the bar, or chocolate? Does your hero stalk off in a huff, or go practice yoga? Does they both go to the shooting range and blow stuff up? At what point does your character talk to a friend and hash out the details? Is he too much of a loner to talk about emotional things? How might he handle conflict if there is no one to talk to but he is a talker? Does he pace? Does she keep a journal? What if that journal is found by the villain, who uses it against the hero? At what point does your character's usual handling of conflict backfire or fail to work? That can be the crux of a conflict all on its own.

Conflict and characterization go hand-in-hand. How your characters react to conflict is what makes them who they are. Write them with depth by knowing how they deal with life. Ask them questions, be willing to listen, and then use those reactions to beef up the story.

An Interview with Catherine Gardiene

Cat's first published novel, Mission Statement, was recently released by Loose Id. This is her first author interview, for her first novel…as a virgin, we assured her it would only hurt the first time.

Do you plot or do you write by the seat of your pants?

I try to plot. I honestly do. But I've said it before and I'll say it again: most of the time, I don't actually write. I take dictation. Something creates a spark for me, which evolves into spending an inordinate amount of time developing characters in my head, a plot outline, and an arc. Then I sit down to write and my characters take over. If I try to make them follow a plotline that doesn't work for them, they stop talking to me. I once cut over 100 pages because I tried to make my characters go where they didn't want to go. The story got flat, the dialogue got monotonous, and the whole experience was unpleasant for everyone involved. Now I listen better.

What drew you to the story line of Mission Statement?

I love writing about people making positive change in their lives, especially when they take unconventional routes to get there. Vicki finds herself completely off-track and uses some rather unconventional means to get back to where she belongs. One of the many things I love about her is that she overcomes decades of preconceived notions to get "unstuck" in her life.

What’s your favorite quote?

When I was sixteen, I was a stage manager for a local production of Nuts, the play by Tom Topor. The lead character is an unconventional woman (at best) who finds her power and control in a highly unconventional way: she becomes an extremely high-priced call girl. When she's asked how she can defend her choices, she says "You don't understand the things I do, but I do have my reasons. They're not your reasons, so they're not real to you, but they're real to me, and that's enough." I've navigated by that ever since.

What three things would you want with you on a desert island?

My Kindle. A way to charge my Kindle. And lots and lots of paper and pens. Oh, crap. That's four things, isn't it? Well, can I pretend that my desert island has a tree that grows pencils? Of course, if all those things were there, it wouldn't have to be a desert island. It could be half a mile from civilization and I'd never go looking.

Who is your favorite character in your book?

I hadn't really thought about that, but I think I'd have to say Michael. That's actually a surprise to me because I usually fall in love with a secondary character, but Mission Statement is really a study of Vicki and Michael. His illusion that he's got it all together is fascinating to me; watching it unravel makes him real. Of course, a very minor character has since inhabited my brain, so Jonas is quickly becoming a favorite of mine, but that is -- quite literally -- a story for another day.

Where do you write?

I write at my dining room table. There are sticky notes and scraps everywhere. It's free of household clutter and relatively quiet, so it works for me. I only trip over the power cord every three or four days now, which has impressed pretty much everyone in my family.

What was the hardest scene to write?

The opening scene was the hardest. That's always the hardest one for me. I just want everyone to know everything I know from the first word. The first draft becomes something of a brain dump, and it isn't pretty. If not for the supreme patience and candid feedback of my pre-readers, I'd never make it through the submission process. If not for the talent and patience of my fabulous editor, Maryam Salim, the first three chapters would be…well, probably chapters four, five, and six.

What was your favorite scene to write?

I travel a lot for my day job. I saw a woman, seated alone at a bar reading emails on her phone. There was a man in the corner watching her. That picture evolved in my brain. At the same time, I noticed my thirty-something and forty-something friends and I were spending a lot of time wondering "how did we get here?" - the female version of a mid-life crisis, I guess. That poor woman in the bar suddenly had a mid-life crisis of her own and Mission Statement was born. Since that's how the story came to me, that's how I wanted it to give it to the readers. See the answer to "hardest scene" above to see how that ended.

Who is your greatest cheerleader?

It's hard to narrow it down to one person. I have three friends who really helped me summon the courage to try publishing. My dear friend Meri was my first "beta" reader and editor in all things, and she pushed me to improve in a million ways. The story itself started as a snippet in an email with the subject line "does this suck?"; MJ, if you had said yes, I wouldn't be here. Terri is my prototypical reader and compatriot in day job world, constantly telling me that she'd hang it up and hand me Sharpies at my first book signing if only I'd just go for it. These women changed my life.

What other time period besides your own would you like to experience?

I have an obscene fascination with nineteenth century England. To be truthful, I have an obsession with England in general, but the Regency era is a time period I'd travel to in a heartbeat. Of course, in my fantasy, I'd be arriving as Lady Pennyforth-Smythe, Marchioness of Danbury, Society maven and premier member of the haute ton. With my luck, I'd come back as a serving wench at a dockside pub. Not that that's a bad thing; I do have a strong affinity for ale. I just think the experience would be very different. Perhaps I'll write about it instead, so I can have some control over who I am when I get there. Unless the plot/dictation thing messes me up again, that is.

About Cat:

Cat Gardiene spends her days behind a desk and her nights in front of a laptop, but struggles to understand why she doesn’t have a better tan or a firmer ass. A lover of theatre, books, music, and alpha males, not necessarily in that order, she is a proud resident of New York City, where all four are available within a ten-block radius of any corner she finds herself…well, perhaps not the alpha males. But she can always score an excellent cappuccino.

Her writing career began in elementary school, when she and her friends would write fan-fiction for a series she refuses to disclose, but says rhymes with Blarsky and Dutch. Since then, her male characters have become more handsome and her dialogue more suggestive, but her obsession with cops and Hollywood continues. As she did then, she credits her friends with giving her the courage and the stamina to write, and her readers with providing the greatest gift of all – feedback. Visit her at www.catherinegardiene.com. Write to her at cat@catherinegardiene.com and share your thoughts. She’s practically OCD about responding.

About Mission Statement:

Victoria Simpson’s life is crumbling around her, so why not escape to Aruba for a little soul searching? Armed with a mission statement she hopes will turn her life in a new direction, she never expects to fall for a man like Michael, a man who pushes her buttons as much as he pushes her limits.

Michael Collins had everything under control, especially the women he chose to dominate at Club Marquis. But relationships started and ended at the club door, which was precisely how he wanted it. Drawn by Vicki’s vulnerability, he can’t stay away. Her body responds passionately, but she keeps her heart and mind closed to him. Can she embrace the submissive he senses inside her, or will his need to control her drive them apart?

Mission Statement is available from Loose Id at http://is.gd/MissionStatement