Blog tour prize announcement

Per Alanna Coca on the Liquid Silver forums (and with an additional THANK YOU! from both Emily and I):

Congratulations to each winner on our Trick Or Treat Tour! It was a bunch of fun, and I hope you all enjoyed each stop. We randomly chose books for each prize, then randomly chose winners based on the comments on the blogs. We had a great time, so you can be sure there will be another tour soon.

First prize: Jewelstir
Banged Up – Jeanne St. James
Hearts Afire – 3E’s
Afterthought – Cat Kane
Love at First Stake – J. Morgan
No Recourse – Mari Carr

Second prize: Patsy Hagen
Bound by Deception – Christa Paige
Once Bitten – Trina M. Lee
The Challenge – Serena Shay

Third prize: Fallon Hadley
Cin – Ella Drake
Halo in her Pocket – Morgan Q. O’Reilly
Felicia’s Fling – Jolie Cain

Runner Up: Sherry
The Wicked Flame – Stephanie Adkins
Winners choice from Tielle St. Claire

Runner Up: Noelle
Intimate Strangers – Gem Sivad
For a Price – Olivia Brynn

Runner Up: s7anna
Iron – P.G. Forte
The Extremist – Juniper Bell

Runner Up: SusiSunshine
Battered not Broken – Ceilia Kyle
Wyoming Solace – Alanna Coca

Authors will be emailing your prizes within the next day or two. If you don’t receive an email from your author, feel free to email me at alanna@alannacoca.com

Thank you all for joining us, and Happy Halloween!!

Halloween Blog Tour

UPDATE: prize announcements are on in the News section!

Tomorrow is All Hallows Eve, Halloween, and do we have treats for you!

Several authors at Liquid Silver Books are doing a blog tour – if you hit all the blogs on the tour and leave comments, you are entered into a drawing to win a whole PILE of schwag. There’s a post here in our News section.

To make it even more fun, we’ll be giving away extra treats to one commenter on our blog. In our upcoming release This Fire (Available Dec 7 from Liquid Silver Books), our couple is Seth and Eden. Seth is a complete hottie fire fighter and Eden is a trauma surgeon. So, here’s the way to get extra treats (a threesome of excellent books: Bound to Please by Lilli Feisty; Simply Sexual by Kate Pearce; and The Duchess, Her Maid, The Groom & Their Lover by Victoria Janssen). All you need to do is peruse the eye candy below and tell us in the comments which one Eden should choose. There’s really no “right” answer, since you haven’t read the story and don’t know Seth – but it’s a fun game in any case.

If you are new here, feel free to poke around on the site – we have lots of free reads and the Serial to keep you entertained.

So. On to the eye candy!

Continue reading Halloween Blog Tour…

Thursday Thirteen – Halloween Ewwww Edition

A few weeks ago I did weird foods I’ve eaten, and there were several comments on how adventurous an eater I am. Well, because it’s Halloween and the time for icky and creepy, here are thirteen foods that, short of threat of death, I’m not eating. No way, no how.

1. Ox penis. Okay, truly, I’m not eating penis. Well, not in the culinary sense. The whole idea just freaks me out.

2. Caterpillar fungus. This is a fungus that germinates in a living caterpillar and grows, killing its host and mummifying it.  Then the thing grows out of the mummified body and aims to repeat it’s body-snatcher cycle. And people eat these – for medicinal purposes. Uh. I’m not eating these – it’s like Alien for caterpillars. Ew.

3. Monkey brains. Or, really, brains of any sort. I have a horrible fear of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and avoid brain/spine/etc issues, as they are main transmission culprit.

4. Balut (duck fetus). This is a duck egg where the little duckling is allowed to mature almost to hatching, then is preserved. The egg is eaten entirely, little ducky bones and feathers and all. I’m skeeved just typing about it.

5. Basashi Ice. Uh. Ice cream with chunks of raw horse meat. I’m going with a big, steaming no on this one.

6. Canned chrysalis. Nothing says yummy like canned, mummified wanna-be butterflies.

7. Kopi Luwak coffee. In this lovely concoction, a civet eats the coffee beans. Then, after it’s passed through its digestive tract and been…excreted out the other end, people use the beans to make coffee. for like $50/cup. Uh. No.

8. Duck blood soup. The only individual who should be eating this is a vampire duck. *shudder*

9. Rooster testicles. Okay, so I’ve eaten bovine, porcine and sheep (what’s the -ine for sheep?!) testicles, but the rooster ones… well they look all slimy and creepy and, frankly, I didn’t like my testicular dining experience enough to repeat it.

10. Hakarl. I love Iceland as much as the next person (what with Magnus Scheving and all), but this is just gross. Shark buried and left to ferment (rot) in the sand, then dug up and dried for nearly half a year. Who thought of this?

11. Baby mice wine. In this Korean offering, baby mice are shoved into a bottle of rice wine and allowed to ferment.

12. Casu Frazigu (maggot cheese). This is one thing Italian I don’t think even Ms. Menozzi can redeem.

13. Snake blood/bile. Uh. Again with the blood. I really am not into eating blood – aside from the ick factor (which is pretty high) and the fact that my Old Testament screams when I even talk about this, there’s the issue of toxins. Raw blood is going to carry every toxin the critter has. I’m not going there. Ugh.

And I’m also going on record as saying while I have eaten lutefisk before, it’s on this list, too. I’m not eating that again. So now you are properly horrified and can use these things to scare the snot out of other people.

Halloween Blog Tour – With Prizes!

This Friday, Scorched Sheets will be taking part in Liquid Silver’s Halloween Blog tour. There are prizes galore (for up to 7 winners!). In order to be eligible to win, simply visit every site on the tour and comment on the tour post. Winners will be chosen randomly from all eligible commenters. Hooray!

Review: THE FORBIDDEN CHAMBER

Ella Drake’s THE FORBIDDEN CHAMBER is available today from Samhain Publishing. If you, like me, have been obsessively haunting the few excerpts of this story that are available at Ella’s site, Samhain and Books on Board, today is a happy day.

THE FORBIDDEN CHAMBER, a re-imagining of the fairy tale and (according to my feminist lit professor) feminine teaching tale “Bluebeard,” is gothic goodness at its most dark-chocolate, rich-cream delicious. Ella took pity on me after I started fantasizing about the hero, Lord Hayle, during my morning shower last week, and bestowed upon me an ARC. Now I’m passing my good fortune and her generosity on to you with a release-day review.

Lord Rukh Hayle, patriarch of a cursed line of raven shapeshifters, must take a wife. He has no shortage of candidates, as even the rumor of two previous wife-murders fails to discourage debutantes and social-climbing mothers from parading through his ballroom. Despite the array of prospects available to him, he quickly finds he craves only one: young, innocent Isabel, third and unwanted daughter of a widowed mother’s flock.

Inexplicably drawn to the maybe-murderer, Isabel resists Hayle’s enigmatic charm only so long as she manages to evade him. In his presence, she finds herself overcome by inappropriate, sensual urges and imaginings no proper young woman should harbor. She is at once intrigued and frightened by Hayle and the whispers of violence that follow in his wake.

Even though Hayle suspects Isabel’s amorous response to him is a result of the salacious shadow hanging over his house, he cannot bring himself to resist her. When a moment of unchecked lust and ill-timing leaves Isabel compromised, Hayle struggles with his obligation to take her as his bride–not for lack of wanting, but for fear for her safety.

He is, after all, a two-time widower.

And maybe-murderer.

A hasty marriage sees Hayle and Isabel alone with their desires and their secrets, which Isabel is quickly bound to share. Hayle has but one rule for a wife of his name: do not open the red door. If Isabel promises to obey only that one rule, she will know a marriage filled with passion and wanting for nothing.

Committed to ignoring the red door, Isabel struggles to overcome her misgivings of Hayle’s dark secret. The door has a life of its own, however, and a will stronger than innocent Isabel’s. The longer she resists, the louder it calls.

Soon, she demands the entirety of her husband’s story and determines she must leave him–her soul, as well as her mortal person, will not be safe so long as she perpetuates the Hayle curse.

As forces gather to bind Isabel to the gloomy manor and the wicked red door, she and Hayle face wicked, lustful horrors and love too strong to release for the mere safety of their souls.

THE FORBIDDEN CHAMBER combines the lovely, lush and dark aspects of traditional gothic romances with a breathless pace, a unique dash of supernatural and a delicious demonic twist–a perfect accompaniment to your Halloween chocolate stash. Dark only. Milk is not nearly sexy enough.

~*~

For behind-the-scenes information about Ella’s inspiration for THE FORBIDDEN CHAMBER, click here to visit her blog on the topic.

~*~

Dear FTC and anyone else who cares: I received this book for free.

Excerpt Monday – Halloween Free Read Edition

Welcome to the special Halloween Full Reads for Excerpt Monday. This month, in addition to our typical excerpt week, we’re having a week of full stories written by several fabulous EM writers.
Excerpt Monday site! or click on the banner above.

In some universe, somewhere, someone was having a good time. Sadly, it wasn’t Daria. No, instead of a nice weekend in one of the many pleasure houses on Vegas X, she was docking with the deserted pile of space debris that constituted Space Depot Tyl 3, having hopefully shaken the tail she’d picked up off near the Gianfar system.

Shaking her head, she finished setting the maglock. Flipping the core over to secure stand-by and ensuring the Veil was up and running, Daria unbuckled her harness and headed for the hatch.

Her exosuit hung outside the hatch, and she stepped into it.  Theoretically Tyl 3 was neutral-habitable, but she wasn’t about to take a chance on this decrepit piece of crap.  Adjusting her air feeds, she settled the helmet in place.  Immediately, her rebreather kicked in and the scratchy hiss echoed in her ears. She stepped through into the transition point and closed the interior hatch.  She flipped on her scanners as the ship ran diagnostics on the depot.  Her complink beeped and the results flashed onto the heads up display. Evidently Tyl 3’s life support was, indeed, in working order. That was something.

Still, Daria didn’t trust it. Life support could kick the bucket any moment, so she’d just keep the exosuit on.  Unhooking the helmet, she fastened it to the hang strap and flipped it over her head to hang down her back.  Something about this depot gave her the creeps. Maybe it was the blocky chunks of the modules, stuck together at odd angles as if by some crazed interstellar toddler, or maybe it was the sheer lack of habitation in this star system.  Tyl wasn’t on the regular trade routes, so it’s very existence always baffled her.  Then again, maybe it was the idea that the depot sat out here on its own, running on its artificial intelligence and without any human interference for decades at a time. Yeah, that was probably it. The lack of the human element made her paranoid. One too many nights watching old Earth vids on long cargo runs.

Continue reading Excerpt Monday – Halloween Free Read Edition…

Thursday Thirteen – Bookmark This!

Today I’m going to tell you about 13 sites I have bookmarked. Aside from, naturally, this one.

1. Twitter. I use tweetdeck for my daily tweetfests, but for managing the account – particularly getting rid of offensive B.R.I.T.N.E.Y porn bots – the website is more tractable. I love twitter’s instant feedback and ability to virtually hang out with people.

2. Peertrainer. This is a great site. There’s a daily food log, and you can join groups large or small for support. You can use the site for weight loss, healthy eating, specific allergies, fitness goals, whatever. Very handy.

3. Romance Divas. Great site for writers, interesting site for readers to get to know writers. It really is geared more for writers, though.

4. Free Rice. For each correct answer, the site donates 10 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. The site opens with a vocabulary quiz, but there are other topics – art, grammar, geography, math, chemistry. Play this instead of solitaire. Not only will you build your brain, you’ll feed the hungry while you’re at it. WIN!

5. Smart Bitches,  Trashy Books. Great, helpful reviews, fantastic cover snark, and insightful posts about publishing and reading.

6. Dear Author. Great reviews, and occasional legal insight into the vagaries of publishing. Jane’s a wonderful resource, and the reiews, like SBTB, are helpful.

7. LOL cats. Funny as hell. I adore this site. Always good for a laugh.

8. Dylan Ricci. This photographer does male nudes that are amazing. They are very sculptural, very much focused on form and light. NSFW.

9. Chat Noir. This is an addictive little game. Beware the time sink!

10. Gateway for free video lectures at makeuseof.com. Great resource for finding interesting and in-depth information on thins.

11. The Hubble Site. The most gorgeous cosmological pictures.

12. Book sites. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books on Board. I think this is self explanatory. lol.

13. E Pubs. I’m putting these all together, in alphabetical order. Freya’s Bower, Liquid Silver Books, Samhain Publishing. Again, I think this is self-explanatory.

How about you? What do you have bookmarked?

Look at the PRETTY!

The cover for Hearts Afire December is here! (You can’t see me, which is probably a good thing, because I’m doing the Snoopy Happy Dance.) As soon as I figure out how to resize this sucker, I’ll put it all over the site.

This will release December 7 from Liquid Silver Books and features our story This Fire as well as Firestorm on E’Terra by Ella Drake. Enjoy!

Fangirl Gush: AJ Chase (plus words from AJ)

We don’t have author spotlights or guest blogs here at SS.com as a regular course of events, but I batted my eyelashes until Elise agreed I could invite one of my favorite people over to visit. AJ Chase has written never-to-be-seen-by-the-public love scenes featuring winged heroes (ok, one winged hero) just for me…er, in order to prevent me from doing it in a fanfic manner, depending upon whose version of the story you hear. She also reads my banana lube and butt-licking WIPs, lets me make her laugh out loud even though the kids are sleeping, and doesn’t laugh too hard when I suggest she name her soon-to-be-born daughter after me. Today she’ll be blogging about her new release, sexy romantic comedy CAT AND MOUSE, now available at Freya’s Bower.

From AJ:

My new book Cat and Mouse, released from Freya’s Bower October 20, the heroine, Kitty Stapleton, has the chance to hook up with her secret high school crush.  This is a fantasy that I think most of us have entertained at one point or another but at a certain time this fantasy starts to be replaced by the somewhat disturbing reality of the way people age. 

      With high school nearly twenty years behind me, everyone, certainly including myself, is a little bit less (Or in my case a great deal more in the pounds department) than they used to be.  In my case I retained a crush on the same person for all four years and oddly he looks perfectly the same.  Hardly changed at all.  Like he’s made out of plastic.  Or Dick Clark. 

      But that doesn’t mean I’d want to make that leap back into the past.  And not just because I’m happily married.  What about you guys?  Assuming that you weren’t in a committed relationship would you snatch up the chance to live out that high school dream for just a moment? 

      At this point I can’t even figure out why I liked this particular guy so intently and for so long.  I mean, there’s nothing wrong with him that I can tell, looks the same, extremely good job, very smart guy.  But I don’t even remember why I was so all fired hot for him.  Maybe I would remember if I saw him in person. 

      Kitty picked a guy that only got better with age, and maybe our crushes would have too but the question is what’s so enduring about those high school emotions?

      I think it’s just a matter of those emotions being so powerful at the time.  We hadn’t learned that ability to dull the edges of our feelings that we seem to learn as adults.  And those experiences shape us.  Our high school are often still our best friends, our high school times are often still our fondest memories.  Kitty finds that being back home with her family around her old friends makes her feel fifteen again.  And even more inadequate as a were-cat. 

      Touching base with those old high school feelings can do the same for us.  Take us back to highs and lows that would now get us a prescription for lithium.  But back in the day, that sort of thing was normal.  It could happen ten times in a day.  It could happen between our shower and getting dressed. 

      Anyway, the point is, high school was the best of times and worst of times.  Just like a Dickens novel.  Except with less soot and less cockney accents.  So what about you?  Given the opportunity would you take that chance?

Cat and Mouse is here.

AJ Chase can be found at her web site, AJ Chase Books and at her group blog, Tales From the Crit.

The Next Best Thing Part 2 (Explicit)

Xu held Kevin’s gaze a little longer. “Good. Tell her to play with her breasts. Be sure she is watching those watching her.”

Kevin nodded, his lips brushing Xu’s with the movement and sending little pinpricks of heat along Xu’s skin, before turning back to face Valerie.

“Are your eyes open, Valerie?” Kevin’s voice was stern, at odds with his still trembling body. The contrast stoked Xu’s arousal even further.

“Y-yes.” Her voice quivered with arousal and uncertainty. Never before in a public scene had Xu allowed another player to give her orders. Xu found that tiny note of fear insanely erotic. It was that tendency his kind had to fight. The adrenaline spike that came with fear was an aphrodisiac to Crystal Graei. The fine line between apprehension and true terror was a delicate balancing act, and it was only one reason Graei control was imperative.

Kevin’s tremors eased. “Play with your tits. Watch them all look at you while you get your pretty little nipples all hard for me.”

Xu felt an unwilling surge of pride. Kevin either had experience dominating someone like Valerie or he had exceptional instincts. Since Xu didn’t think a trained dominant would have misread Valerie and entered this little charade, he’d bet credits it was instinctive.

Watching over Kevin’s shoulder, Xu’s gaze followed Valerie’s hands as they lifted from the table to her breasts. Though she was a small woman, her breasts were generous, with large nipples only a few shades darker than her creamy skin.

Xu put his mouth against Kevin’s ear.  His own sensitive ears brushed against Kevin’s skull, forcing him to control a shudder of pleasure.  “I want her to get herself off.  You need to tell her what to do.  She needs to hear the words from you.”

Kevin nodded his head slightly, the movement rubbing his short hair along the sensitive ridge of Xu’s ear.  Xu closed his eyes briefly, moving his hands further up Kevin’s legs so his fingers framed Kevin’s arousal without actually touching him.

Kevin’s breath caught, and he swallowed hard.

“Keep watching the crowd, Valerie,” Kevin instructed. “Slide your hands down between your legs.”

Continue reading The Next Best Thing Part 2 (Explicit)…