Guest Post & Giveaway: Isabo Kelly - BRIGHTARROW BURNING

Hi Everyone. Please help me welcome Isabo Kelly to the blog today! This is the first stop on her Goddess Fish book tour. She is here to promote her novel, Brightarrow Burning. Today she s going to talk about bad guys.

Loving Those Bad Guys

In my latest fantasy romance, BRIGHTARROW BURNING, I managed to include two types of bad guys. The kind we hate with a passion and can’t wait to see them get their own. And the kind we love to hate because we want to see them redeemed in their own book.

The Big Bad Guys (capitals intended!) are the Sorcerers who have invaded my heroine, Layla Brightarrow’s, city. These guys are wicked, in a bad way. They are scary, powerful humans who have used blood, torture and slavery of other humans to augment and strengthen their powers. If they can manage to conquer and subjugate an entire human city, they’ll amass a limitless degree of magic.

As they’ve conquered half of Sinnale when this story starts, they’ve turned a bunch of their slaves into minions, soldiers who are wasting away, rotting form the inside, even as they serve the Sorcerers in trying to overthrow the people they formerly called their friends. Those who aren’t turned into minions are used for blood sacrifice and torture. These guys are not nice and I hope readers will want to see them overthrown as much as I do.

The second antagonist is my hero Ulric’s brother, Althir. He’s one of a number of elves who have sided with the Sorcerers in the war. Up to the point that these elves turned traitor, the elves of the neighboring city, Glengowyn, remained neutral in the conflict, claiming it was a human war. Once some of their own defected, the elves were brought into the war.

Althir is one of the traitors. He went with the other elves to side with the Sorcerers because of the promised power. Not magical power, though there was some element of that promised to them. Primarily, Althir wants influence over others (or so we think in this book—shhh, no spoilers for future books). He’s felt under-estimated and under appreciated for years, despite his many talents, because the elf Court prefers his brother Ulric, the war hero. They ignore that Althir also fought in the same wars, ensures the trading with Sinnale benefits his people, and they dismiss his not inconsiderable charm. His brother, stoic and serious, is a shadow out of which he wants to step, and the Sorcerers provided him with the opportunity he needed.

Ah, Althir. He has a lot to learn. There’s also a lot more to him than meets the eyes. He is an ass. But he’s the kind of ass I will want to write more about. Kind of like Dr. House, you just can’t resist him even at his most rotten. I’m hoping we’ll get to see more of Althir in the future. Without giving anything away, he’s got no idea what he’s in for.

So tell me about some of your other favorite bad guys. Oh, I’ve got another (besides my own *g*), Jayne from Firefly. I adore Jayne. He’s also an ass, and you can’t trust him for a minute, but he’s so much fun. So what about you? Favorite bad guys? What do you like to hate in a bad guy? What makes them irredeemable in your eyes? What makes them interesting enough that you want more of them?

Brightarrow Burning
by Isabo Kelly
Publisher: Samhain Publishing

War tore them apart. Betrayal could bring them together…

Layla Brightarrow’s world fell apart the day the Sorcerers invaded her city, intent on using her fellow humans’ pain to augment their spells. Worse, the neighboring elven kingdom declared neutrality, effectively abandoning her people to struggle for survival. 

Then some of the elves break neutrality to trade with the Sorcerers, and Layla is ordered to assassinate Althir, brother of the elf lord she has secretly loved all her life. 

When Ulric of Glengowyn uncovers his brother’s plot—and that Layla is one of the assassins sent to stop him—his first instinct is to protect her from all possible harm. He’ll even use seduction, if necessary, to get her into a position to talk some sense into her. 

Years of pent-up desire is too much for Layla to resist…and one touch unleashes an unquenchable fire that changes everything. Leaving Layla caught between duty and a love that could be her destruction. Or her salvation. 

Warning: This book contains evil sorcerers, a scarred heroine, a sexy elf hero, naughty language, and an intoxicating and addicting pheromone that leads to wildly hot sex. Plus traitors, deadly magic, bespelled baddies, and a really, really rotten brother.

Excerpt (from Chapter One):

“I knew I’d find you here.”

Layla Brightarrow flicked a glance over her shoulder, then returned her stare to the labyrinth of cobbled streets below. “What do you want, Ulric?”

“I’d like to know when you’re going to stop trying to kill my brother.”

“When he stops luring, capturing and selling my people.” She felt Ulric move up close behind her but refused to flinch. Her every sense, however, focused on his presence, his movements, his breathing. Her muscles instinctively tensed, preparing for action, but she forced her body to relax.

“You know I don’t condone what he’s doing…” Ulric murmured.

“So you’ve said.”

“But this is dangerous. For you.”

She snorted, still refusing to face him. Ulric of Glengowyn was beautiful, sexy, and the man she’d been in love with since she was old enough to understand what those strange feelings in her gut meant whenever she looked at him. He was also an elf, and while he wasn’t exactly an enemy now, he wasn’t an ally either. “Go away, Ulric.”

“No.”

“If you’re so concerned about your brother—”

“I could care less about that traitor, and you know it.”

She turned her head just enough to glance at him from the corner of her eye. “Do I?”

“Don’t play games, Layla. You know I don’t support the traitors.”

She made a vague noise in the back of her throat to keep from giving him a direct reply and looked out over the cityscape again. 

http://store.samhainpublishing.com/brightarrow-burning-p-6480.html

Author Bio -

Isabo Kelly is the award-winning, best-selling author of multiple fantasy, science-fiction and paranormal romances and erotic romances. She regularly publishes articles on the craft of writing and the writer’s life and has taught various workshops on world-building (which she claims is a lot more fun than teaching classes on dissecting insect mouth parts).

Reviewers have called Isabo’s books “Hot, hot, hot…”, “sexy, fun…”, “fast-paced, page turning…” and “Beautifully romantic…Isabo Kelly is one author you should add to your auto buy list.”

Her gypsy soul has taken her around the world, including Hawaii where she got her B.A. and worked with dolphins and Ireland where she got her Ph.D. in animal behavior watching deer. Now she’s a stay-at-home mom and a full time writer living in New York City with her brilliant Irish husband, her son and their mad dog.

For more about Isabo and her books, visit her at www.isabokelly.com. You can also find her on Twitter (http://www.Twitter.com/IsaboKelly) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/IsaboKelly). Or just email her at isabo@isabokelly.com.  She loves to hear from readers.

Links for Isabo Kelly

Website:  http://www.isabokelly.com
Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/IsaboKelly
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/IsaboKelly
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/isabokelly

Giveaway:

Isabo will be awarding a $25.00 gift card to Amazon or Barnes and Noble to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour. The more comments you leave the better your chances of winning.

To Enter:

Leave a comment answering Isabo's question about bad guys and include your email address.

Be sure to visit the other blogs on this tour. Click on the tour button below for a list of participating blogs. Good luck and thanks for stopping by.

 

 

Guest Post & Giveaway: Skye Warren - TRUST IN ME

Behind the Scenes of a Book Trailer

by Skye Warren

EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD CIRCA TEN YEARS AGO – SUNSET

The backyard of a dilapidated house. Sparse and cheerless.

MIA, as a young girl, loiters on an old tire, wary. TYLER approaches, friendly.

[Cut to Director’s Script]

Hi there! I’m here to talk about my dark erotica release, Trust in Me, and give you a behind the scenes look at how I created the book trailer for Trust in Me. But first, you should know a little bit about what we’re creating a trailer for, so here’s the blurb:

Can love be found between a whore and a knight in tarnished armor?

Mia longs for the daily torture to end, but one last task keeps her holding on. In a betrayal of the crime lord who pulled her from the gutter, she’ll free the shipment of human cargo, and if she’s lucky, die in the process. The alternative is unfathomable, even to a woman well-versed in erotic torture. But luck abandons her yet again when she meets the security expert in charge of the shipment and finds herself face to face with her childhood crush. The man she once begged for help. The man who failed her.

Tyler Martinez is an undercover FBI agent with one chance to right the wrongs of his past. Thrust deep into the seedy world of human trafficking, he must put aside his guilt over abandoning Mia all those years ago in order to save her now.

Someone’s pulling the strings in this sadistic play on trust, but Tyler and Mia may not live long enough to see the curtain fall. Trust in Me is a story of erotic pain and incipient romance, spiraling ever faster toward betrayal or redemption.

WARNING:
This book contains explicit scenes of dubious consent, graphic violence and sex. It also depicts abuse and captivity situations. Not appropriate for anyone uncomfortable with these situations or anyone under the age of eighteen. This is a work of fiction.

So, the first thing I did was write the script for my trailer. The book opens when our heroine, Mia, is a grown woman living under the control of a crime lord. Then she meets her old childhood crush. But for the trailer, I decided to actually start with her as a child, because I thought that would be visually striking, so here’s the script:

A little girl begs for help

He can't protect her from her own father

TEN YEARS LATER

Mia survived...a whore

Tortured daily by a madman

She longs for the sweet release of death

First she must free the human cargo about to be sold into bondage

Her last chance for redemption

She never expected to see him again

He's working undercover

He wants her

He can't trust her

But to get them out alive, he'll have to do the unthinkable

The next thing I did was search for images that would match my characters and the script. I found some real gems, like this one of a little girl and a young man that I thought perfectly matched the image of a world-weary girl and a somewhat helpless young man.

Then there was this one, which I was perfect for the line about being tortured daily at the hands of a madman:

Then it came time to find our hero, Tyler Martinez. He comes in as a security specialist working on behalf of the crime lord. Basically, a shady guy. Although Mia soon learns that he’s undercover on behalf of the FBI and it’s all an act. So I’m looking for a good, sexy guy, except what is the opposite of “cleans up nice”? Messes up good? ;-)

 

I ended up selecting eight pictures to use, and then I went in search of music. This part was a little tricky for me, as I wasn’t really sure how that worked. With pictures I could use search terms and very quickly scan through hundreds of pictures. Sound isn’t like that. There don’t seem to be as many places to find it, either free or paid, and there’s not much in the way of search.

Thankfully, I was able to find Kevin MacLoad’s website because his music is used in Inez Kelley’s Sweet as Sin book trailer, which I loved. I picked out a few of my favorites and listened to them over and over and over again until I found the one with the right amount of suspense, danger and eroticism.

So, take a look at my trailer and see how it all came together:

TRUST IN ME 
by Skye Warren

EXCERPT

Carlos looked down at me from his seat with a half-smile. The guy next to him was speaking in low, urgent tones, but I had his attention.

Other whores might try coy smiles or a flash of cleavage, but if you really knew El Jefe—and, unfortunately, I did—then you knew all you had to do was drop to his feet. I knew what he wanted and how he liked it, knowledge born of years of training. As long as I behaved, he wouldn’t kill me. I craved the release of death, but I was too well trained to earn it.

I reached his leather shoes and waited. The same Italian leather shoes that had kicked me only recently, but they weren’t a danger to me now. Carlos didn’t like to get too messy when he had guests. Even though I didn’t like performing, I could be glad this new guy was around today. Then again, I’d probably have to service him next.

Carlos unzipped his pants.

The guy sucked in a quiet breath, as if we’d shocked him.

That wouldn’t stop Carlos. He wasn’t an exhibitionist. He was a sadist, and the only thing better than causing someone physical pain was causing him emotional discomfort. Every pinch was designed to humiliate, every blow to subjugate. You’re not worthy, they said, and I lapped up every blow to my shrunken ego like the masochist I’d learned to be.

Buy it now: http://skyewarren.com/books/trust-in-me/

GIVEAWAY

Skye Warren is giving away a copy of Trust in Me to a commenter from each stop in the blog tour. In addition, every comment along the way enters you in the drawing for a $20 Amazon gift certificate. What do you think – does the video match what you expected from the blurb? Were there any surprises or does the medium of video provide a different perspective?

To Enter:

Answer Skye's question(s) from her guest post and leave your email address.

Guest Post & Giveaway: Dana Littlejohn - THE SEVEN YEAR SWITCH

Hi Everyone. Please help me welcome Dana Littlejohn to AsianCocoa's Secret Garden today! Dana's new novel The Seven Year Switch was released in November of 2011. Dana is going to talk about how to make a D/s marriage work.

Hello everyone!

I am Dana Littlejohn, multi-published author of sensual erotic romance. For this blog I am going to focus on making D/s work in your marriage.

The first question you may ask is: What kind of man would let his wife run him and everything else about their relationship? He must be a weak, a punk, a pussy or just plain crazy. Well, you would be wrong on all accounts. Just because you prefer your woman to be in control doesn’t make you any of that. Instead of those terms, how about, best person for the job. It is a major misconception to mistake meekness for weakness. Surely if women who like to be controlled by their man exist consequently there has to be men who enjoy that as well. You know, balance in the universe and all that. 

The real question is, how do you even start the conversation to incorporate these things into what you already have going on? I mean really, your man didn’t just wake up one morning and say decided he was just over it and wanted you to handle everything. You have to know that he has always wanted it. He married you because he knew deep down that you could handle it if he ever got the gumption to say something.

He has worn his dominant mask for you and society’s sake, but he yearns to bow at your feet and rest his head in your lap at the end of the day. His soul cries out for it and yet he cannot voice it to the person closest to him for fear of rejection. The unfortunate side is his fear his aptly based. A lot of women leave their husbands when they find out he wants her to dominate him. Most women find out by accident that their husbands want to be dominated, usually during role playing games. He will continuously throw hints out to her saying things like ‘I wish we could do this more or when can we do this again? I love when we play these games’ in hopes she will hear his heart’s desire. Another common sign that your man wishes a more subservient position to you is that even outside of that time period he continues to play the role. He wants to delay the time when your roles are reverted back to him being in control. 

In order for the marriage to work once his secret is out the wife must be totally committed to the new relationship. Once you realize this is what he really wants and you’ve said you will stay and give it to him there is no going back. D/s in your marriage is a life style, not a game. Things will absolutely be different then it was before, but different doesn’t mean bad. You and your husband will go through a transition period in which lots of conversations will take place and you will play with a lot of trial and error to see what works for the two of you. You will have to call upon the skills you have learned throughout your marriage to get through it.

Positive reinforcements are an excellent way to keep your man on track.  Penalties must be real in order to deter him from breaking the rules that you have put into place for him. That may sound a bit harsh, but correction helps us all to grow, know where our boundary lines are and is necessary in the beginning. If not, you will find that he will look for ways to break rules just to test you to see if you’re serious about you’re new commitment. That will only cause frustration and friction in your relationship. Spanking is not the only corrective action used, but it is a popular reprimand in D/s couplings especially in association with other deterrents. 

That is precisely why the long in-depth conversations must take place at the start. He has to be completely forthwith with his desires so that you know what is required of you. It cuts back on any misunderstandings the two of you may have later when one of you says something and it means one thing to you and another to him.

Introducing new elements into an already established relationship like spanking and domination isn’t rocket science, but it does take a great degree of patience, open mindedness, trust and complete honesty. Remember, making each other happy is the goal in any successful relationship. Ask him what is needed to make that happen and then ask yourself. Ultimate pleasure is the reward. 

Thanks for having me AsianCocoa! I enjoyed my time with you. If you are interested, I have two books about married couples who have incorporated BDSM elements into their relationships: 

The Seven Year Switch http://museituppublishing.com/erotica 

Home with The Jones- http://store.secretcravingspublishing.com 

The Seven Year Switch
by Dana Littlejohn
Release Date: November 27, 2011

Could you make the switch from dutiful, submissive wife to paddle wielding queen bee to save your marriage? 

Sonja Winters was enjoying the good life with a great job and being married to the man of her dreams. As she prepared to celebrate their seven year anniversary she came across a secret that her husband had been keeping from her that would alter the course of their marriage forever.

Excerpt

“Submissive men will always seek strong women because they are in need of her guidance,” Bianca said continuing her explanation.

Bianca’s voice was in an audible octave, not at all a whisper for Sonja’s benefit or to spare the feelings of the men. Sonja sipped her drink and sent a quick glance toward them. To her surprise, they stood at perfect attention, staring straight ahead showing no signs of emotion at all to what Bianca just said. 

“Yes, well, I wouldn’t know that, Bianca. My husband is not a submissive man.”

“No disrespect to what you think you know, Sonja, but I beg to differ. Kyle is, in fact, a submissive man. He is what I call an alpha submissive. At work he can be very dominate and extremely aggressive when it comes to other men, but with a woman he has the desire to be humble and subservient.”

Sonja crossed her legs and turned her body toward her adversary. “Look, you must have my husband confused with another one of your men,” she sent a pertinent wave in the men’s direction, “because I know my husband. Kyle and I have been together for—“

“You have been together for the last ten years. You met while you were still in college. Kyle’s company was doing a project on your campus. He bumped into you, and you guys have been together ever since. Since then, you have graduated and have become a successful lawyer. You and Kyle were married October fourteenth, and yesterday made your seventh year anniversary. You have no children, but you want at least two, and a dog. You are leaning toward the Jack Russell breed because you want a smart dog that will not out-grow the child physically.” 

Sonja’s eyes widened as she raised the cup to her mouth.

“Have I left anything out?”

Get yours at Muse it Hot

www.museithopublishing.com

Author Bio -

Dana Littlejohn was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, but has called Indianapolis, In. her home for over ten years. She has always wanted to write since early childhood, but put that wish on hold to raise her growing family and have a career. With the encouragement of her husband, Dana picked up her pen again in 2003 and has no intention on putting it down. With 3 novels, 8 novellas, 4 stories in anthologies, 42 short stories published to date and a long list of wips (works in progress) she is literally living her dream. Join her on the wild journey through her imagination. It’s a ride you’ll never forget!

Website: www.danalittlejohn.net

Blog: www.authordanalittlejohn.blogspot.com

Facebook: search authordanalittlejohn

Twitter: follow authordanalittlejohn 

Giveaway:

Dana will be giving away a promotional pen to one randomly drawn commenter and a promotional T-shirt to another during the tour. The more comments you leave the better your chances of winning.

To Enter:

Leave a comment or question and include your email address.

Be sure to visit the other blogs on this wonderful tour. Click on the tour button below for a list of participating blogs.