Hi all!  I put up a surprise excerpt of Consumed – enjoy:  CONSUMED EXCERPT

 

My name is Izzy and I interview book characters.  Many people say I’m a character, myself.  *Snort*.  That’s nice of them.  I’m hoping Rebecca lets me interview a bunch of her characters–I can’t wait to be in the same room with all of the Kayrs brothers.  MEOW.

So, I tried interviewing the king once before, and his brothers showed up to cause havoc.  Talen is particularly tiresome when it comes to interviews…who knows why.  But Dage agreed to meet me again and this time we met at a very quaint coffee shop that’s off the grid.  The coffee is spectacular and there’s free WiFi, so even if our meeting got cut short, I was happy.  For those of you who haven’t met Dage yet, he’s about six and a half feet tall, packed hard, with black hair and incredible silver eyes.  Frankly, it shows he trusts us that he’s not hiding the odd color.  Here’s the transcript of the interview, with a couple of my thoughts thrown in:

ME:  So.  Thank you for trying this again.  I’m sorry about last time.

DAGE:  That certainly wasn’t your fault.  Sometimes my brothers are a handful.

If that wasn’t the understatement of the millennium, I don’t know what was.  But I nodded and gave him my most professional smile.  He smiled back…not fooled a bit.

ME:  So, I wanted to talk to you about Max’s mission – I believe he left the other day.

DAGE:  Interesting.  Why do you believe that?

Okay.  Vampires can be kind of scary and this one scarier than most.  Even though his tone stayed calm and no expression crossed his face, an odd tension made the air around us kind of heavy.  The king probably didn’t like his information getting out.

ME:  My sources are pretty good.  And this interview won’t run until Max has finished his mission (but about a month before TEMPTED, Max’s story, comes out—don’t tell the king), so there’s no reason not to talk about it.

DAGE:  Hmmm.  Okay.  We’ll discuss Max and then we’ll discuss your sources in my organization.  Basically, there’s a woman named Sarah Pringle who has created a blog and website about the Kurjans.  They’re after her, and we need to get to her before they do. 

(The Kurjans are the bad guys–pasty faced bad vampires afraid of the sun.  Unlike the good vampires).

ME:  You’re going to let her keep the website up?

DAGE:  No.  Jase already took it down and posted information about her writing a good book.  The website has been taken care of.  Now we just need to get her records from the insane asylum because I’m sure she told them all about the Kurjans.  We can’t have that information out there.

A bit of concern had me sitting back in my chair.  What exactly were the vampires going to do to poor possibly-crazy Sarah Pringle?

ME:  I find it odd you sent Max.  I mean, he’s Janie’s bodyguard now.  What did he used to be?

DAGE:  Max has always been part of the family…serving as my bodyguard as well as one of my best hunters.  The guy is a Russian bloodhound when it comes to hunting.

ME:  Ah…okay.

To be honest, I’ve met Max.  The guy isn’t just a hunter. 

ME:  But why Max?  Many of your people are scouts, including Conn.  Why send Max?

DAGE:  Let’s just say I think Max is the right guy for the job.

A really cute twinkle entered the king’s eye at this point and for a second, I could just stare.  Then I shook it off and got back to business, reminding myself that I was a professional and the guy had a mate.  I mean, really.

ME:  Are you matchmaking, king?

DAGE:  I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.

At this point, a barista sauntered up to give the king a free muffin.  I mean, seriously.  It’s a coffee shop.  You order at the counter and take your own food to your table.  Okay, I’m not just irritated that she didn’t bring me a muffin.  I’m irritated on Emma’s behalf.  Dage politely thanked the woman, keeping his attention on me.  She returned to the counter, her butt swaying the whole time.

ME:  I bet that happens a lot to you.

DAGE:  What happens to me?

Man, guys are clueless.  Even immortal deadly ones.

ME:  Forget it.  So, I have to know, does Max get a happy ending?

The peace was too good to last.  I should’ve started with the main question.  Guess who showed up?  NOPE!  It wasn’t Talen.  Jase, the youngest brother, hustled inside, his brown hair ruffled and eyes flashing.

DAGE:  What’s happened?

JASE:  Something’s going on with the witches…Conn is leaving now.  We have to go.

Darn it.  My source in the Realm hadn’t reported anything about the witches.  I mean, we all knew Conn was heading to Ireland to collect his witch soon (and I fully expect she’s not going to allow any sort of collection), but I hadn’t known it would be this quickly.

DAGE:  Izzy, I appreciate your time, but I need to get going.

The darn barista, who had somehow lost a couple buttons on her shirt, hustled over, her gaze on Jase.  So, yeah.  The guy is seriously hot.  But I mean, come on.

ME:  I’d like to talk about Conn and his mission to Ireland.

Dage flashed a smile as he stood to join Jase. 

DAGE:  I’ll arrange for an interview with Conn when he gets back.  You’ll enjoy meeting him.  And we’ll discuss your sources in the Realm next time.

Okay, it was kind of a threat.  Then, well…the coffee chick made a move.  Not a kill ya type of move.  But an almost genuine trip to basically land in Jase’s arms.  They got all tangled up, and he ended up just picking her up.  The woman beamed.  Then she pouted really pretty when he put her down with a smile and whispered something in her ear.  The Kayrs men left.  I took a look at the flushed waitress.

ME:  What did he say?

NEARLY TOPLESS WAITRESS:  He said he’d be back next week. 

Excellent.  So will I.  🙂

UPDATE:  Congrats to Megan and Shelley for winning ARCs of Hunted  (Yes, I drew two names).  I’ve emailed you both and will send the books out as soon as you send your addresses.

Hi all!  First, let me say congratulations to Lacy McMurphy for winning the first ARC of Hunted by sending a picture of her with a copy of Claimed.  I’ll mail it right out!

Second…here’s another chance to win an ARC of Hunted.  All you have to do is leave a comment on the blog…and you’re in the contest!  It’s open world-wide. 

I know some people like a good prompt when leaving a comment, so here are a couple:–feel free to answer one, answer several, or just say ‘hi.’  All you have to do is leave a comment, and ‘hi’ works.  🙂  Why do you want to read Hunted?  Why do you think people like vampire stories?  What’s your favorite tv show right now?  (mine is Justified).  We’re snowed in…how about you?

The Pacific NW is engulfed in a snow storm.  A very fluffy, persistent, kind of cool…snow storm.  When I arrived at work, I remembered to lift my windshield wipers.  Okay, I saw a bunch of other windshield wipers lifted…and then I remembered.  The thought occurred to me that those of you living in tropical places…you might not know to lift your wipers so they don’t freeze.  Now you know.

I worked all day and then came back out to see my car under tons of snow.  And you know what?  While I remembered to lift the wipers…I forgot to bring a snow scraper.  So today I used a file folder and a big ruler.  Hey, it worked.

Got home…and Big Tone had already let the puppies out.  They wanted back in…NOW.  The smaller one can be quite persistent when she wants.  (Also…tune in early next week because I’ll be giving away ARC’s of HUNTED.  Shhhh.  Don’t tell anyone.)

Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing.  ~~Phillis Diller

So…I’ve been working hard on Book 4 of the Dark Protector series and sent it to my agent.  I ordered a new camera from Best Buy and it came yesterday…so I took a couple pictures of my house.  When the smoke cleared and I took a good look around, here’s what I saw:

Yes, the August Calendar is on my fridge right now. 

                              And my Christmas Tree is still up. 

And the laundry room looks like a herd of goats just passed through it. 

But hey…my book is done.  🙂

And…for the record…my house is usually pretty organized and clean.  But the last couple of weeks have been crazy meeting the deadline.  I have no explanation for the August calendar.  None.