Destiny Redeemed Book Tour Begins

While I write vampires and love them, I also write other paranormal series, including my Destined Ones series.  In fact, that series has the first character I ever truly fell in love with. Amon Kalins was the villain in the first book, Stolen Destiny, but in Destiny Redeemed, he comes back as the hero, albeit a bad boy hero. 

This week I'm showing my love for Destiny Redeemed with a book tour.  Each day I'll be at a different blog talking about the book, the characters, and the concept of my paranormal creations in the Destined Ones series, the Aeveren. 

The Aeveren are beings I created after having a dream one night (it's always dreams, isn't it?).  They live fifty lives through reincarnation, meaning that my characters can span centuries.  They are descended from humans, given the gift of reincarnation by the Archangel Raziel long ago.  He also gave them the gift of special powers, such as telepathy, the ability to manipulate time (a power Amon possesses), healing, and even mind control. Some Aeveren have impressive powers, while others only have simpler powers, such as heightened intuition. Finally, Raziel gave his people the gift of destined ones. But having a soul mate is complicated by reincarnation and one can go lifetimes without finding the one meant for them, knowing he or she exists but unable to finally connect until both are in the same lifetime. 

In Destiny Redeemed, two of the most powerful Aeveren are the hero and heroine. Amon is in his 47th lifetime and possesses the power to change time. He can move it up, stop it, reverse it...you get the idea. He's not a man to play with.  He's been a bad man for many lifetimes, but fate has given him something that may change him. Thea.  A healer for the Aeveren people, Thea is in her 45th lifetime.  As a healer, her power is a good one, unlike her destined one's.  Here's the blurb:

Sentenced to spend the rest of his three remaining lifetimes in Nil, Amon Kalins is freed with the help of his Sidhe servant, Gethen, but now he must accept his life is never to be his again as the Council won't rest until he's safely back imprisoned within Nil's cold walls. Broken and nearly dead from his time in prison, Amon is saved by an Aeveren healer named Althea Forester. As a healer, Thea has served her people for forty-five lifetimes, never having a destined one and always knowing each lifetime would ultimately end with her alone. But destiny hasn't forgotten her.

Drawn to the seductive Amon, Thea quickly becomes a pawn the Council uses to trap him. Taken prisoner by the sadistic leader of the rebel group, the Soren, Thea must survive the vicious world of the people hellbent on taking her destined one away forever, and Amon must risk everything dear to him to free her from those who would sacrifice her to claim the bigger prize and return him to Nil.

To find out more about Destiny Redeemed, visit its page on my blog and join me on the tour this week. Hope to see you there!

Destiny Redeemed Tour

March 26: Butterfly-O-Meter Books
March 27: Words In Sync
March 28: All Things Books
March 29:  Road To Hell Series
March 30: Salacious Reads

Tuesday News-Lovin' The Villain

I've grown to quickly love Tuesdays and Thursdays this semester since I have no classes or work on those days. After school with my son, I have the entire afternoon and evening each day to write and revise. I can't think of a better way to spend an afternoon. :)

Progress continues on Blood Betrayed, but I have to admit Saint is difficult to write sometimes.  I think I was spoiled with Vasilije because his story came so easily.  Hedonism is far easier than tortured soul.  The thing is, though, that Saint's story has a lot of themes to explore, which makes it even more difficult to write him. In many ways, he reminds me of Amon because of his past continuing to haunt him, but whereas Amon was almost flippant about what he'd done, Saint is far more troubled and cognizant of his actions and the man they've made him into. 

Amon is on my mind today because Laurie from Bitten By Paranormal Romance listed him as the best villain in her Top Picks from 2011. More than anything else, I appreciate this because I know from talking to her that he had an effect on her.  As an author, there's no award or sale or review that can beat a simple line in an email saying that a character you created was so memorable that he or she stuck with a reader.  Thanks, Laurie!

Regarding Vasilije and vampires in general, I'm over at Paranormal Freebies today talking about why I think we love the paranormal.  Stop over and leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of Blood Avenged. 

I'm off to do some schooling and then a whole lot of writing of my tortured bad boy.  Have a great Tuesday!

Amon and Thea At Paranormal Romance Characterfest

Happy Thursday to everyone!  It's a beautiful day, and I'm happy to finally say all edits are complete on Destiny Redeemed.  Now it's just a matter of uploading to the various sites early next week.  *big sigh* 

Today, Amon and Thea are the stars of the Paranormal Romance Characterfest over at Bitten By Paranormal Romance.  Check it out for a little taste of them and a chance to win a copy of Destiny Redeemed when it's released on Thursday.

Today's my day off, so I'm off to enjoy the wonderful October weather northeastern Pennsylvania offers in the autumn.  Have a great one, and check back this weekend for the Celebrating Romance Giveaway Hop!  There are many blogs participating and some great prizes up for grabs.

Friday Fun

It's Friday again!  Yay! Between the fires in Texas and the flooding in the Northeast, I think everyone is looking forward to better times ahead, and what better way to get that started than with the weekend.

I'm over at Whipped Cream's blog today with a post titled, "In Defense of The Villain."  I freely admit it:  I love the bad boy.  In fact, I find writing heroes far more challenging than I do villains.  Today's post is about one of my favorite villains from my stories, Amon Kalins.  Gorgeous, powerful, and sexy as all hell, he's so good at being bad.  Not that being bad is his only draw, but he's definitely a man who can be the bad boy when he wants to.  Mmmmm....

The challenge in Destiny Redeemed was to make the bad boy the hero, which isn't always a transition they make well.  I believe I met that challenge with Amon's story.  No character is all bad, or all good, for that matter, so this new book shows his other side a bit more.  But a being so powerful and so used to getting what he wants isn't going to be your typical hero. 

Click on over and check out my take on villains and what makes them so much fun.

And have a great weekend! 

Tempting Tuesday

I'm in the final countdown to my vacation that begins on Saturday.  Let me tell you I'm so ready for some away time.  However, until then, the business of the day continues.  I'm over at Mind Reader participating in Adults Ahoy today talking a little BDSM and offering an excerpt about food as a sex toy, so check it out!  There's also a giveaway going on too, so look for that on the site too. 

I'm also getting ready for the start of the semester that begins the day I get back from vacation (now that's some bad planning, I know!).  I only have one new prep this semester, and that's for a film class I'm teaching, so it's all good.  I'm just about finished with my prep, so vacation, here I come!

Elaina has been hard at work completing the cover for Destiny Redeemed.  It should be ready before I leave for the House of Mouse, but until then, here's a little taste of the yummy image that is Amon. (Disregard the lines though the pic.  Lines?  What lines, you say?  LOL)  Now you know why I named this post Tempting Tuesday.  I do love a man with a body that tempts me to do bad things.  ;) 

Mmmmm.....Monday

Happy Monday, blogworld!  It's already August (oh God, please say it isn't so!), and the dog days of summer are about to come upon us.  Bring it on!  In what's becoming my Monday morning quarterbacking of True Blood, this week I'm not so much hating on the show as I was last week.  Sexy, naked Eric is good.  Sad Bill is not.  Clothed Alcide is definitely not, but I don't think I've ever seen a man wear a shirt like that man does. He's the stuff dreams are made of...(Yes, I know that's Eric in a shirt, but that blue shirt Alcide wore last night looked incredible on him.) The rest of the show is crazy witches, crazy shifters, and crazy Tara.  I'm not sure I'm all about the crazy.

What else is new?  Well, I'm closing in on a big milestone in my writing soon.  I'll definitely be posting about that when it happens. 

I'm on Chapter 4 of Vasilije's book (got over two chapters written this weekend), so that WIP is rolling along.  I do need a title for it, however. Masquerade is almost ready...typing is such a drag!  And once Masquerade is sent off to be edited, it's time to begin edits on Destiny Redeemed, Amon's story.

Destiny Redeemed has been complete since late March, but because of my choice to go indie instead of continue with an epub, it's had to patiently wait while the novellas took center stage.  Come October, however, Destiny Redeemed gets to show itself to the world.  As it's Amon's book, he's obviously a repeat character from the first book.  However, there are others who make a second appearance, such as Gethen, Markku, and even Aunt Jean.  And readers get to learn more about the Council in this book too. 

As I told someone the other day, I gave Amon a female who can handle him.  Thea is as ancient as Amon (in her 45th lifetime), but with a very big difference: she's an Aeveren healer.  But they share a major thing in common: they were both born with their powers, so they feel a kindred spirit between one another.

And the bad guy in this is one bad son of a bitch.  I don't know if I've written a nastier bad guy.  The murderer in Stolen Destiny isn't nasty so much as crazy.  Kiril from Destiny Redeemed, on the other hand, is a real bastard.

I hope to have the cover sometime very soon, so when I get it, I'll be putting it up all over the place.  Let's just say that the image of the male for Amon is smokin hot.  :)  (fans herself)

Ok, back to Monday.  I'm over at Shannon Leigh's blog talking Love's Master there, so check it out.  That story is a nice little light BDSM romp, so if you have $.99 and like a little blindfold and spanking action, snap it up. It's not hardcore, but it's sexy. :D 

Cover Me

Now that I'm in air conditioned splendor, thanks to my two new air conditioners, I've been able to get back to searching for an image to represent Amon from Destiny Redeemed.  I've spent days and days, most of them seriously sweaty, looking for an image for my cover for that book with no luck.  The problem seems to be that unlike in real life, there are very few appealing blond men to purchase from these image sites, and the ones that are attractive are all doing something goofy. 

Amon is 6'6", has pale blond hair, blue eyes, and is built like a brick shithouse.  (For those of you who don't get my local lingo, he's very well-built.) And for those of you who've read Stolen Destiny, he's spent time in Nil. It changes a man. :)

A good way to describe him in Destiny Redeemed is he's a cross between the body type of the new James Bond and the size of the actor who plays Eric Northman on True Blood.  Or in some ways, think of the image of the lead singer from Stone Temple Pilots in the video for Sex Type Thing. (I fell in love with the band because of how much I liked the way Scott Weiland looked in that video. Talk about mad, bad, and dangerous to know...and built, back before the drugs took over...so sad when hot men fall apart)




Amon's smooth, icy, and often deadly.  This has proven to be an impossible thing to find in the images out there. 

I found an image of his love interest, Thea, in no time.  But finding Amon has been a chore, to say the least.  The problem is that I'm very particular (just ask Elaina, God bless her!) and as he's my favorite character I've ever written, the image has to be right.  I accept that I won't be able to find exactly him, but I need to feel I've come close enough. 

So the search goes on...

In other cover news, one of the people who follows me on Twitter has a fantastic new cover that I just have to share.  It's delish!  Michelle McCleod's new book, Love Potions, has a cover I just adore.  I'm not usually a hot pink girl, but this cover jumped right off the page for me.  Michelle tells me she got hers done at www.crocodesigns.com.  Congrats, Michelle!  It's beautiful! 

More Cover Love Today

Despite the difficulties the publisher and I have had, it looks like Stolen Destiny will still have a June release.  I've been given the date of June 29, so let's all think good thoughts.  I sent back the edits yesterday, and they sent me the cover art today.  The original cover I posted a few weeks ago indicated that the book was the first in a series, but since I'm going to be publishing the rest of the series elsewhere, they had to adjust things slightly.  The result is this cover. 

Whatever problems I've had with the publisher, I can't say enough wonderful things about the designer, Jinger Heaston. She took what I sent in the cover questionnaire and knocked it out of the park.  Thanks Jinger!  I couldn't have asked for a better cover for Varek, Callia, and Amon (Varek's the stunning, shirtless one.).

Finished

I finished writing Destiny Renewed earlier today and have to admit it was with mixed emotions that I ended the story.  When I introduced the character of Amon into Stolen Destiny, he was the bad guy.  But I loved his character so much, I wanted to take him further than I had in the first book, so despite planning to wait to write his as the third or fourth book, his story came out in the early ideas for Destiny Renewed and I ran with it.  Months later, the bad guy has gotten his story and since it's a romance, he's gotten his happily ever after.

The heroine I gave Amon is Thea, who is the closest I've ever gotten to writing a female virgin.  She wasn't a sexual virgin, but she hadn't anywhere as much experience, sexually or otherwise, as her hero.  However, they fit together well, allowed him to be more Alpha than he might have been with a more experienced partner, and I enjoyed writing her as much as him.

Also back in this second book is Amon's servant, Gethen, a dark Sidhe who gets a much fuller role in Destiny Renewed.  Writing Gethen's part in this book was far more emotionally draining than any other character I've ever written before as he doesn't make it through the book. 

I've enjoyed my time with these characters, just as I enjoyed my time with the hero and heroine from the first book, Varek and Callia.  I'll be spending more time with Destiny Renewed's  characters as I type the story, editing and adding along the way, but until then, it's time to take a little break and relax for a few days.

Gabrielle

Destiny Renewed Update

Another Saturday of writing, but this time I had to do a little research since I decided to provide a flashback to one of my hero's earlier lifetimes.  I have a lot to choose from since Amon's in his 47th lifetime, but I didn't want to go with anything common.  I've already showcased him either in the first book, Stolen Destiny, or his story, Destiny Renewed, in the late Roman Empire and late 18th century England, and made references to his lifetimes as a Viking warrior, Aztec leader, and Greek in the first century B.C.  But this time I chose to give him a lifetime in 16th century Ottoman Empire Turkey. 

The flashback is just a love scene actually, but I decided to put him in the town of Edirne in western Turkey right around the time of the reign of Suleiman the Great (mid 1500s).  So that meant some research into the time period, the area, and the basic goings on around Turkey in those years. 

I knew the time I chose meant the area was still part of the Ottoman Empire, but I had to make sure I had my ideas in order before I went ahead and wrote anything.  I find this type of research for stories to be a bunch of fun.  I've had an interest in this part of the world for a while, and as much as I'd like to write an entire story based on that area, particularly during Ottoman times, for now I'll settle for a flashback with some steamy sex. 

Hope your Saturday was as much fun as mine!

Gabrielle

Is That An Historical, Or Are You Just Happy To See Me?

A few days back I mentioned to someone that I had written a romance, and their first response was, "Oh, is it something in history?"  I guess that's a natural response since I do have a master's in history, and I've been asked this question quite often.  My answer has always been that I have been pulled to paranormal romance instead of historical romance.  Well, I think an historical romance just began knocking on my brain's door.

Last Saturday, I spent the better part of the afternoon researching my hero's history in late 18th century England.  This was nothing new since I'd already written a little of his history in this time in the first book, but I had a great time doing the research and the chapter flowed beautifully onto the paper. (Yes, I am one of those people who write things about and then type them.  It's something about the feel of the pen and paper.)

Since then, ideas have been percolating in my mind about a single title historical.  I'm not sure it would be a Regency, although the romance readers of the world love that type of romance novel.  But ideas are there, so I won't be surprised if one day things begin to flow.  Now it's just a matter of when.

And on another front, the story I mentioned a few posts ago that I'd been mapping out has begun to take shape.  It involves Greek mythology in the form of Ares and Aphrodite, but it will be set in modern times.  I'm leaning toward it not being romance, but I'm still in the first chapter, so who knows where this one will lead.

Good Vibrations

I've been querying for a little over a month now while my critique partners have finished reading Stolen Destiny, and I've been getting really good feedback.  I think what I'm happiest about is that the readers who have spent time with my book are really liking it. 

I always knew that the idea of a race of people called Aeveren could appeal to readers, particularly paranormal romance readers, because while they're different in that they live 50 lives through reincarnation, often have powers above what humans possess, and have destined ones-mates they're drawn to across time and distance-they're characters that readers can relate to.  Paranormal romance fans love the idea of different, and Aeveren are definitely different than humans, but at the same time, they feel all the emotions and go through all the experiences human beings do. 

Stolen Destiny is mainly a romance about Varek and Callia, but as one of my readers keeps reminding me, it's also very much about the villain, Amon.  Varek is tall, dark, and strong and was easy to write because he's so wonderful a character.  He's a bad boy who has a sexy, soft spot to him.  I think some would say it doesn't matter if any of my characters convey appeal for the story to work because the love interests in my books are Aeveren, who have destined ones they're drawn to.  I never felt that as I was writing Varek's character because even though he and Callia are destined for one another, I always wanted the attraction to be far more than biological.  That may be what draws them to one another, but the heat comes from real attraction between two people.

Callia originally began quite sweetly, but very quickly I decided that she needed to be strong and have some romantic experience.  I'm not a fan of writing virgins, so while she's never had a destined one, unlike the men in the story, she certainly has had lifetimes of experience.  Beautiful and sexy, she's a great match for Varek.

Amon is simply the easiest character I've ever written.  As tall and masculine as Varek, he's fair with blond hair and leaner.  But it isn't in his physical being that Amon is appealing but in the way he exudes power.  The challenge was to make sure scenes with Varek and Amon didn't become testosterone contests, so I had to be very conscious of how I structured their scenes together.  More than once I'd write an entire scene and then go back and decide that this one had to be silent or that one had to facially show more than he was to allow each male to come through without overwhelming one another.  While Amon is certainly more powerful because he's been given extraordinary abilities neither Varek nor Callia possess (and 99% of their fellow Aeveren don't either), I didn't want him to be the focus of the book.  However, he gets his own story in one of the sequels, Destiny Renewed. 

So far, 2011 has been a wonderful year for my writing.  Readers are interested in my characters and the story of Stolen Destiny, and the sequels are coming along really well.  I hope to have Destiny Renewed finished before summer and the next book finished later this year.  In addition, I decided that the series will end with four books, so that will leave one more that I'm still firming up plans for in my head.  Finally, I've been mapping out some plans for a new book that may end up as straight fiction instead of romance.  That one is still in the earliest stage, but I'm eager to begin jotting down some real ideas to get that one going.

Researching The Hero's Past

I write paranormal romance, so usually that means I'm limited only by my imagination, but my characters all have pasts that span many years, so for those parts of my stories, usually found in flashbacks, I have to do research.  Sometimes I choose to either place my characters in time periods I know quite well (I am a history instructor, so my areas of specialty are easy choices for me) or I choose to place them in eras that are less historically important but geographically important.  I try to stay away from major events, such as wars, because I find they can become time drains and make the story go off the rails quite quickly.

Today I spent some good time researching late 18th century England for my lead male character in the book I'm currently writing. I had to decide where in England to place him and what to make him (duke, earl, etc. or landed gentry).  I chose landed gentry because I didn't want to get too heavily involved in the titles and everything else that comes along with peerage.  My knowledge of English history is fair, but I have to admit I'm a bit lacking in the details of the late 1700s in England.  In addition, I can usually say that my knowledge of any time period's culture is only fair, other than in my specialties, because I'm overall a political/military historian. 

So off to the books and internet I went, and I had a great time doing it!  The chapter flowed beautifully with the knowledge I gained, and I'm so pleased with my progress today.  I'll finish the chapter tomorrow, and then it's back to the present for my hero and me. 

Gabrielle