When World's Collide, Passions Ignite
For the next couple of days, today and tomorrow, I’m running a few contests over at The Romance Studio’s Thanksgiving Party. Drop by and meet new authors, read some smexy posts, and win prizes. Here’s the link: http://trsparties.com/ or click on the banner below:
Here’s the big prize!
Enter for a chance to win a $125 Amazon eGift Card! Deadline is midnight EST 11/26/13! Click here to find out how to enter!
Have a heckva Monday!
Cheers,
Jianne
Getting both excited and apprehensive. So I thought I’d share excerpts every day this week. Here goes:
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law: Time travel is impossible—until it happens.
I am certifiable.
Time travel is impossible.
For the kazillionth time in the last seventy-two hours, I squeeze my eyes shut, beg God to make things right, and lift one lid.
Nada. Zippo. Nil.
I am still in the same room in some freaking castle in Wales.
I am still in fricking 1763.
Hugging my knees, I rock back and forth and bite my lips, hoping the stinging pain will stop another mother-lode sob session.
My glance falls on the rusty-colored iron trunk, and I reach out and touch it.
Solid. Cold. Real.
In the gloom and shadows, the three gold coins lying on the lumpy cot twinkle at me. Unable to resist, I pick one up, study the engravings, and trace a finger over the year, 1763.
A guttural shout comes from beyond the lone open window in the room, and my heart races. One thing I’ve learned in the last two days—privacy is nonexistent in 1763.
How much time do I have before they come for me?
“Get a grip, Emma Maria Perez. It’s use it or lose it time.” The sound of my voice is somehow comforting and normal—not crazy. I hop up onto the spartan cot. The mattress sinks under my weight, and a cloud of dust tickles my nose. Ignoring the mini sneezing fit that follows, I loosen the leather straps on the trunk from the brass buckles and lift the domed lid open.
The trunk’s about three feet by five feet and about two feet deep. It’s metal and wood and heavier than the speedboat anchor I’m used to hauling up by hand in Lake Boca Raton. It’d taken me ages to lug it to the coach stop, but it had been more than worth the effort. I dig around to find my backpack, flick the combo lock, and retrieve the ballpoint pen and paper appropriated from The Ratfyn Inn two days ago.
I am the kind of person who needs lists. Ordinarily, I compose my lists on my iPhone. A strangled sound more like a sob than a snort erupts from my throat. Tears brim and I grit my teeth.
No more crying.
Time travel doesn’t work the way it’s portrayed in movies and books.
Useless tools follow you in time, mocking you because you can’t use them. I have an iPhone that doesn’t work, a Kindle that won’t power on, and a set of remote keys for a rental car that no longer exists.
“Make a doggone list.” My death grip on the pen makes my fingertips burn. After flexing my hand a few times, I start to write.
Facts:
1. I am in Wye Court, Wales.
2. It’s November 2, 1763.
3. I left Boca Raton, Florida, on October 30, 2013.
A stomach cramp hits me, and I double over and wait the convulsions out. For two days, all I’ve had to eat were the three packs of freebie peanuts from the transatlantic plane ride. Temptation surges, my mouth waters, and I stare at the backpack. Shaking my head and clenching my jaw, I set aside the idea of eating one of the four Mars bars purchased while waiting for Heathrow’s airport train to take us to the car rental station. I’m a hoarder by nature, and I’m afraid to eat all my precious food until I know for certain I’ll be fed regularly.
I read what I’ve written and want to howl my frustration, my anger, my sheer terror. But I can’t because they can come for me at any moment, and I have to be prepared.
Hope you enjoyed and there’s more to come.
Happy Monday!
Cheers,
Jianne
I’m so excited about the release of That Pearly Drop, my first time-travel paranormal.
Here’s the tagline :
What do the hounds of hell, time travel, a murdered girl, a coach ticket to Wye Castle, and a governess letter of employment have to do with waking up in 1763, the mate of wolf-shifter, Ian, the Earl of Wye? Emma’s about to find out.
Blurb: Emma knows time travel’s impossible. So, the only other explanation for her going to sleep on Halloween night in 2013 and waking up in Wales in the year 1763 is that she’s insane. There’s a murdered girl, a coach ticket to Wye Castle, and a letter of employment to be governess to the Earl of Wye’s daughter. What’s a gal to do but go with the flow?
Wolf-shifter Ian, Earl of Wye, recognizes Emma as his mate instantly and senses she’s in danger. He knows Emma’s harboring a deep, dark secret. But, no matter what he does, she won’t confide in him. Then he finds Emma wounded and rambling about nine white gorgons who attacked her. The hounds of hell are Ian’s nemeses, and the fact they’ve reappeared in the mortal world after centuries of banishment can only mean one thing…
And here are Murphy’s first 36 Laws of Time Travel:
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #1: Time travel is impossible—until it happens.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #2: It doesn’t matter if it’s in the past, present, or future—the first person to fall into a pond is always the one who can’t swim.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #3: It doesn’t matter what century you’re in—sometimes you simply have to close your eyes and jump into the frying pan, or in this case, the murky pond.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #4: Colloquialisms will trip you up in every time (pun intended).
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #5: High society women eat like humming birds in every fricking century.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #6: Honesty is the best policy except if you’re in the wrong century.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #7: Playing a character in the past is harder than it looks in the present on TV, or is that the future if you’re stuck in 1763?
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #8: In 1763, thinking on your feet isn’t as important as thinking in your bed.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law 9: Lust clouds your thinking in any century.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #10: Unreality is preferable to believing time travel is possible if you’re trapped in the wrong century.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #11: There are no returns in time travel, so it’s best to avoid buyer’s remorse.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #12: Silence is your friend, but time travel gives you verbal diarrhea.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #13: An orgasm in the past is lost in the present and never achieved in the future, but the here and now orgasms rock!
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #14: A lie in the past can get you into just as much hot water as a lie in the present, which in this case happens to be in the past.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #15: In any century, if there’s an old biddy in the room, she’ll sharpen her claws on you and find some flaw to improve.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #16: Even in the past, eavesdroppers never hear any good about themselves.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #17: You don’t want to play truth or dare when you’re pretending to be someone else in any century.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #18: In any century, you have to cover your tracks when you assume someone else’s identity.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #19: Total amnesia is better than memories that aren’t true.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #20: While living in the past, if you used to live in the future, you really don’t want your future told.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #21: In any century, nursery rhymes are no solace when you’re confronted by blood-spewing monster-gorgons.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #22: Boob-pinchers are the scum of the planet in the past, present, and the future.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #23: The word boob fascinates all men in all times.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #24: Trying to find a win-win solution in the past should be easy if you’re a time traveller because you know the future, but if you’re in the past, are you in the present? Corollary: Will the past/present affect the future that’s already happened?
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #25: The other woman is a bitch in any century.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #26: Tea for two, and two for tea, sweetened with lies of the past, present, and future can only result in utter disaster.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #27: It’s impossible to predict who’ll shoot whom in any time.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #28: Rakes have preyed on women in the past and the present. Corollary: It’s Powerball odds they’ll continue to do so in the future.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #29: EpiPens are a gal’s best friend in any century.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #30: In any century, when you’re battling zombies, hobgoblins can be your best allies.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #31: Betrayal hurts in any century.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #32: When three coincidences collide, evil’s afoot in any century.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #33: Pinky swears are valid in the past, the present, and the future.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #34: Maggots, it turns out, are your friend in any century. Go figure.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #35: In the past, a gift duchess is worth more than a gift horse when you’re accused of witchcraft.
Murphy’s Time-Travel Law #36: Can a beginning that takes place in one century be felt or known in another?
Hope you got a chuckle out of at least one of them!
Cheers,
Jianne
F
or the next 10 days, I will be featuring a free Halloween read from the ten authors of the Love, Lust, & Laptop blog group. These stores will be published as a free anthology right in time for Halloween. So sit back, grab your pumpkin martini and enjoy!!!
Dear Readers,
Thank you for following us here at Love, Lust, and Laptops this year. With Halloween drawing near, we thought it would be fun to celebrate everything sexy about the odd, the paranormal, and the fated-to-be. We put together a collection of ten stories which will run over the course of the next two weeks here on the blog.
To read the first of our Love Card Tales.
The Jack of Hearts
by
Jianne Carlo
Click here:
http://lovelustandlaptops.wordpress.com/
Have a freaking fructose happy Monday & don’t forget to drop in every day until October 26th to enjoy a new free read!
Cheers,
Jianne
I’m thrilled to welcome author Allie Ritch to my blog today. Allie has one of the quirkiest senses of humor on the planet and she’s not only talented, but also super charming – and that’s hard to do via the internet. Though Allie and I live in the same state and only about 40 minutes travel time away from each other, after four years we still haven’t managed to meet face-to-face!!! By the gollies, I’m making it happen before the end of 2013. Without further ado, here’s Allie.
Thank you for having me here, Jianne, and for letting me share my new shifter/sci-fi romance, Tribal Shift. Tribal Shift is a full-length novel that’s packed with so many of the elements I enjoy, especially my love of fantasy and fascination with animals.
I think the latter is something all of us shifter writers must have. I, for one, watch a ton of Animal Planet and am always amazed by the wondrous creatures that share this world with us. Fact really can be stranger than fiction, and some of the species discovered in exotic locations are even more fantastical than anything we authors come up with.
Kalya, the heroine of Tribal Shift, offered me the chance to—pardon the pun—go wild with my imagination and include dozens of different animals. She’s an omnimorph—a shifter who can morph into almost anything. Throughout the novel, she transforms into everything from a Secretary Bird to a jaguar, and she can travel by air, land, or water. And Rasik, the caracal shifter who loves her, is no less amazing.
Because I incorporated so many animals into Tribal Shift, I had to do a lot of research for this book. While I certainly didn’t bog down the story with too many facts (there were scorching sex scenes demanding attention, after all), I did want to be certain I was accurate in my descriptions and what I had the hero and heroine do in each form. I learned more than I expected and had a blast in the process.
I thought it would be fun to share some of the more interesting tidbits I discovered, so here are some nifty facts:
(1) Secretary Birds can grow to be four feet tall. That’s as tall as some of my younger relatives and wouldn’t be a big adjustment for a shifter since the bird spends most of its time on the ground walking on two legs.
(2) Tigers are the largest cat species and can reach up to eleven feet in length. They have canine teeth about three inches long! Kalya definitely uses this form to her advantage when some power-hungry leopard shifters try to hurt Rasik.
(3) Unlike the noisy spotted hyena, the striped hyena is less vocal and usually silent. As Rasik and Kalya witness, this quiet menace can be far more frightening.
(4) A crocodile can’t move its tongue (it’s attached to the bottom of its mouth). That feels very strange to Kalya, especially since she can’t change her facial expression while in crocodile form.
(5) The maned wolf has a roar-bark that can be quite startling. Kalya shocks her runaway cousin when she yells at the girl while in the body of this wolf.
Tribal Shift is filled with hot romance, lethal danger, and a safari-like adventure that will carry you across the wilderness. I hope you’ll come along for the journey.
Read on for a blurb and excerpt and leave your e-mail address in the body of your comment for a chance to win an e-book copy of Tribal Shift. Good luck!
Blurb: Kalya has loved Rasik since they were children, and that love has followed them into adulthood. The only problem is he’s a caracal shifter, while she’s an omnimorph—a shifter capable of morphing into any animal on the planet of A’ata. Coveted and resented for centuries, her people stick to themselves and keep their abilities a secret. But when Kalya’s young cousin and Rasik’s brother run away together, she and Rasik are thrown together as they chase after them. Across the wilds of A’ata, they confront hostile shifters, perilous terrain, and a passion that could reveal all their secrets. Can shifters from two different tribes become mates? Or will nature and their families keep them apart?
Excerpt:
Rasik met Kalya’s eye before he headed for the tree line. The news about the leopard attacks disturbed her, and she scanned the brush and sniffed the air for danger.
She cursed herself even as she trotted after him. “Rasik.”
He stopped to wait for her.
“Be careful. I’d hate to see you torn apart by leopards.”
“Would it break your heart to lose me, catling? I’d feel the same way if anything happened to you.”
His words warmed her and rubbed her the wrong way at the same time. “Oh please. I just don’t want to lose an ally.”
Rasik didn’t look like he believed her. He stroked her hair. “Don’t worry. I’m faster than any leopard.”
“And weaker,” she said, slipping free of his reach when she really wanted to let him pet her. “Leopards are far more powerful than caracals. Your speed won’t do you any good if you’re ambushed.”
His grin was back in place. “You’re worried about me. Don’t fret. Your male knows how to take care of himself.”
“You are not my male.” Kalya would have whipped her tail if she’d been in another form. Even as a woman, she felt the hair on her neck stand up in agitation.
She was faster than he was, so she could have leaped free. She wasn’t sure why she let him slide his palm around her nape.
He crowded her until only a sliver of air separated their bodies. “Aren’t I? Don’t leave with Dhiraj. You don’t need to search all of A’ata for a mate. I’m right here.”
He pressed his lips against hers so softly they felt like the brush of a feather. Her eyelids drifted down, and she swayed onto the balls of her feet before she came to her senses. With a nasty growl, she shoved him hard enough to knock him back a step.
“Insolent male.” She resisted the urge to touch her tingling mouth. “Go home.”
His smirk was gone, but she didn’t like the calculating look in his eye.
Fighting a sensual shiver, Kalya held her head high as she spun on her heel to return to the veranda. She refused to look at him again, though she kept her ears tuned to the sound of his footsteps when he retreated a moment later. Despite her annoyance, she also listened to the wider environment for the slightest sound of danger.
There were still leopard shifters to worry about, and Rasik was walking home alone. Once she was sure he was out of sight, she’d morph and follow the foolish male to make certain he was safe.
Her father must have gone back inside, but her mother was waiting for her when she stepped back into the shade of the veranda. Nadira’s eyes were more almond-shaped than her mate’s—a trait she’d subtly passed on to her children. Her hair had turned the color of slate with age, and her irises were silver with striations of blue and green.
She waited for Kalya to draw close. “You should be careful, Daughter. Males like Rasik find a challenge irresistible.”
“You’d prefer I encourage him?”
Nadira gave her the look. It was a stare only mothers could pull off and conveyed a clear warning not to sass her.
Kalya scuffed her foot against the wooden floorboards. “I can handle him.”
“Can you?” Her mother sounded skeptical. “Your mind may say one thing, but I’m not sure your heart wants to push him away…”
Buy Link: http://www.loose-id.com/authors/a-f/allie-ritch.html
Website/Blog: http://allieritch.wordpress.com
Don’t forget to leave a comment with your email address to be entered into a contest for a free copy of Tribal Shift!
Cheers,
Jianne
