Update:  Meagan’s winner is…CatsMeow! Congratulations!!

Hi! * waving at everyone* My name is Meagan Hatfield, and I will be the next victim…err, blogger chatting here with Cynthia!  *grin*  I want to thank her so much for having me and thank everyone who stops by!

Now, a quickie about me…I currently write dark paranormal romances for HQN & Silhouette Nocturne.  My debut novel, SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE just came out this week!  *eek*  I’m so excited!  DRAGON WARRIOR, a novella set in the same world, will be releasing July 1^st from Harlequin Nocturne Bites.  When I’m not hovered over my laptop (writing, not Tweeting or Facebooking of course *grins*) you can find me shakin’ it in my Zumba classes where I teach seven classes a week.   Actually, I have to head to one in about 30 minutes, so we’d better get this party started!

Okay, so I have been getting asked the same question a lot lately…with all the yummy paranormal heroes out there – vampires, werewolves, demons, etc…why did I chose to write about dragons?  What is my fascination with this species and why did I think they would make good romance heroes?   I figured what better way to answer this than the good ol’ top ten list.

So, without further ado, here are my top ten reasons dragons make perfect romance heroes:

1. Dragons are cool.  Or actually they’re quite hot (pun intended.)  No really, in my stories, they are tall, muscular men with rippling biceps and thick corded thighs who put even the hottest of movie-star hotties to shame.

2. Number 2 sort of ties in with Number 1, but they are gorgeous.  Okay there, I said it.  I’m being shallow.  But both the man and the beast are beautiful in their own way.  Dragons are sleek and sexy, strong and yet lithe and elegant, all power yet vulnerable too.  They have great wisdom that comes with age and immortality.  Yet they possess the fiery hot ardor and *ahem* stamina of a young buck in his prime.  😉

3. Dragons are dangerous and let’s face it, we all love a little danger, don’t we ladies?  *wink*  Well, the kind of danger you can experience from the other side of the page at least.  A dragon hero could char you to a crisp at one glance, or ignite a burning desire with one look into their jewel colored eyes.  They make the woman in us want to tame the beast, have the mighty dragon purring in our palm and using ever reserve of his powerful strength to claim us.

4.  I don’t know about you, but I love action and breath-catching fight scenes.  Dragons are one of the best ass-kickers and name takers around.   I mean, when a dragon show up at your party, you pretty much know sparks are going to fly and most likely in the most literal of senses.   So, the moment our dragon hero shifts into the beast and steps on stage, you are guaranteed intense, high-stakes, life or death action.  And let’s face it, if you’re the bad guy, a flippin’ dragon is last thing you want to see running at you on the battlefield, for it will most likely be the last thing you see.

5. Dragons are already equipped with every weapon they might require in a battle.  So need for guns, swords, daggers, shields or the like.  Their scales are hard as armor, talons sharp as daggers, their tails not only help balance in flight, but can be a skilled weapon (or a delectable extra hand for those other battle scenarios…but we’ll get to that later.)  And let’s not forget the dragon’s most formidable weapon…dragonfire.   White-hot and able to melt flesh from bone in 0-60, dragonfire will turn up the heat in any fight.

6. My dragon lord heroes are fiercely loyal, noble, altruistic and aren’t afraid to stand by their beliefs, even on pain of death.  Whether you are the heroine or newfound friend, you have a friend for life when you make one with a dragon hero. He will stand beside you in battle, protect you if you fall, or rescue you if you get captured – and not for money or fame, but because it’s “the right thing to do.”  Awww.  🙂

7. Next reason, dragon lords are irresistible heroes…they are not sexist. {{gasp, shock}} Crazy, I know. But they believe a woman is just as capable of charging into a battle, as she is a bedroom, which makes them a rare gem when it comes to any man.  Even more remarkable, they manage to retain this equality trait while remaining strong and confident Alpha males.

8. Now, this could be a personal preference, but the purebred dragon lord heroes in my books have long strands of silken hair down to their hips.  I don’t know if it’s because I’m a product of the 80’s or what, but there is just something about running your hands through long, soft hair on a big, rock hard man that does it for me.

9. The tail.   Nuff said.  *wicked grin*

10. Drumroll please…and the last reason that Dragons make the best heroes…while I may not have just described the dragon-shifting hero you wrote about, read about, saw in a movie or fantasize about, Declan Black, the hero of my dark paranormal debut, “SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE” has all of the characteristics listed above…and boy is he hot. *wriggling brows*

CONTEST TIME!  I am running a contest for a signed copy of my July release, SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE!  All you have to do is leave a comment telling me your favorite romance hero and why, to be entered to win!

Good luck!

Hi, everyone! Just a quick note to let you know that I’m over at Amberkatze’s Book Blog. She’s interviewed me (thanks!!) and I’m giving away an autographed copy of I’LL BE SLAYING YOU to a commenter. Come on by if you have a chance!

Update: Shelli’s winner is…Tracey D. Congrats, Tracey!

I’m so happy to be here! The on time I had the chance to meet Cynthia in person was last year at the RWA conference in D.C. We were tourist geeks together. And let me tell you, she is FABULOUS. About as fabulous as her books. And I remember riding in a taxi with her back to the hotel and she told me all about Deadly Fear–I am SO excited to read it!

And I have a release of my own coming up! (Tuesday actually! June 29th!) It’s from Kensington Aphrodisia (that means it’s really HOT, people!) and called Need Me. This is set in the same world as my book Take Me, which is a finalist in the Greater Detroit Booksellers’ Best contest.

Nika has trained her body into a deadly weapon—the better to take what she wants from any world, especially the well-protected planet Belton. But the moment she sees Lt. Brendon Marshall, her weapon is turned against her. A man like him could incinerate a woman’s priorities with one look. And since he’s guarding the very object of her desire, it could be so simple to use him and never look back. As long as she can ignore a more intense pleasure than she’s ever known—and a wilder need than she’s ever imagined…

I had a lot of fun writing Need Me. It’s a futuristic, but I’ve been told my futuristics have a more modern feel (which I write a lot of contemporary, so I can see that).

Nika was my first real ‘kick ass’ heroine. Literally. She’s a trained fighter and thief. Just like Talia, in Take Me, Nika is a former and now liberated Rosabelle. A woman who was a cross between a courtesan/whore. She’s taken sanctuary in all all women planet and now finds herself on a mission to aid them. But it means stealing from the planet that liberated them, and the man she’s falling for.

My hero, Brendon, is a bit of a womanizer and trouble maker. He was amusing to write. And he most definitely gets into trouble (as you’ll see from the very first page!). He’s a smart guy, but he’s flawed. But I love a flawed hero. I love a good guy who likes to be a little bad.

I’d love to give away a signed copy to one commenter! Just leave me a comment with what summer plans you’re most excited about, and I’ll draw a name (or have Cynthia!) and send out a copy of Need Me.

Update: The winner of a copy of MARKED is Gabrielle! Congrats, Gabrielle!

Big thanks to Cynthia for inviting me back during her Deadly Days of Summer. I can’t wait to get my hands on both of her new books!

If there’s one thing I love about Cynthia, it’s that she makes writing look easy. Her voice, her style, her stories and characters…even her contests….they all come off effortless, don’t they? I strive for that. I hope my work comes off that way. The truth, though, is that every book I write is harder than the last, and from talking to other writers, I’m pretty sure it’s the same for them as well. (Even, I’m guessing, for Cynthia!)

My upcoming release – ENTWINED – book 2 in my Eternal Guardians Series, was my hardest book to date to write. The Eternal Guardians are a group of warriors descended from the seven greatest heroes in Ancient Greek mythology who protect the human realm from the dangers of the Underworld. I love this series because it’s based on elements from Greek mythology, a personal love of mine, but ENTWINED was a challenge right from the start. You see, Zander, the hero in ENTWINED, is a descendant of Achilles. I’m sure most of you know the story of Achilles: he was the greatest hero of Homer’s Iliad, the fiercest warrior in the Trojan War, and (by some estimates) the most handsome of all the heroes ever assembled. Of course, Achilles had a vulnerability – his heel. He could fight like a demon, heal from any wound, but he wasn’t immortal. In his case, one small wound to his heel was all it took to do him in. And in my world, all of Achilles’s descendants have the same “vulnerability”, though they don’t know where that vulnerability lies until they experience it. By then (as I’m sure you’ve already figured out), it’s too late.

Zander, however, has been injured just about everywhere a man can be injured and is still alive. In fact, he’s not just alive, he’s 829 yrs old. He’s seen kings come and go, watched his brothers in battle both arrive in the world and leave it. He has no family left, no one he cares about, because everyone he’s allowed himself to be close to has died. I used to think immortality would be a gift, until I viewed it through Zander’s eyes. Now I know it’s not a gift, it’s a curse. One never ending day that just keeps stretching out in front of you without a finishing line.

This, of course, lead to my second struggle with Zander. He wasn’t simply immortal, he was an immortal with a death wish. A serious death wish. He’s spent years trying to kill himself only to know now that isn’t ever going to happen. And when he realizes he’s lost his soul mate – the one person who could make him want to live – that death wish grows exponentially. So how do you make a character who simply wants to die come across as heroic?

I didn’t have an easy answer, which is why ENTWINED was my hardest book to date to write. But the end result? Well, I’m probably biased but I happen to think it’s the best book I’ve written as well. I’m anxious to see if readers agree.

Here’s a sneak peek at ENTWINED:

ZANDER — The most feared of all the Eternal Guardians. It’s rumored he can’t be killed, and he always fights like he has nothing to lose. But as a descendant of the famed hero Achilles, he’s got to have a vulnerability… somewhere.

Forces of daemons are gathering and have broken through the barriers of the Underworld. Now more than ever the Eternal Guardians are needed to protect both their own realm and the humans’. Zander can’t afford to think about what might have been with the bewitching physician he once regarded as his soul mate. But with eternity stretching before him, he also can’t fathom spending his life without the one woman who makes him feel most alive. Perhaps he’s found his weakness, after all…

To celebrate my upcoming release of ENTWINED, I’m giving away a copy of MARKED, book one in the Eternal Guardians series and the book where readers get their first glimpse of Zander.  To be entered in the drawing, simply tell me what you think: Would you want to be immortal? Why or why not?

Update:  The winner of The Demon Next Door: Morteza is Kris M. and the winner of any one of my Cobblestone books is Ilona. Email Kate atkate@kateaustin.ca to claim your prize.

A demon and two humans may be unusual lovers, but they’ll do anything for forever.

What happens when a single night changes everything? Morteza can’t see Ellie and Eli no matter how badly he wants to. It’s too dangerous – the Lord of the Demons could find him at any time. So Morteza lives on his memories of that one exquisite night, he dreams of a future with the people he loves, and tries to figure out how to avoid detection. Permanently. Eli pretends his life wasn’t changed by the experience. Except for one minor glitch – he hasn’t had an orgasm since. Ellie, like Morteza, knows they belong together but there are a lot of reasons – one of them being that Morteza could find her if he wanted to. And he hasn’t. Her other concern is Eli, her best friend forever. Will he ever admit that the three of them belong together?

I didn’t start out as a fan of demons, in fact, I’m not sure I ever really thought about them until…

You know those sunny summer weekends when you’re sitting at a pub watching the ocean? A couple of beers later and you’re deep into philosophical discussions about things you never thought you’d talk about.

Well, this is the view at the pub on the Sunshine Coast – just north of Vancouver – when I first started thinking about demons.

I asked my partner whether he believed in them, mostly because I wasn’t sure I did. But he did and does. I asked a single question – you know that old writing question, what if? I asked, What could turn a demon into a good guy? Do a single good deed and my demons can become good guys – for Ali, the first demon next door, his transition was a complete accident. He loved being the meanest and nastiest lord of the demons but, now mostly human, he loves Maryalice more.

And then I couldn’t resist the idea. I, like Maryalice, loved Ali and wanted to write more about these demons – strangers in a strange land.

Morteza started out as a short story for Cobblestone’s series The Pleasure Club. Morteza’s trying hard to be human and he’s doing a pretty good job. Except for one thing – he can’t figure out (despite all his research) the whole sex thing. The Pleasure Club sets him up with Ellie and Eli and he doesn’t just have great sex, he falls in love.

That’s the thing about being a writer. You never know where your ideas are going to come from. Mine only ever show up when I’m not thinking about them. I’m not the kind of writer who plans anything, not a story, not an idea, not a character. They just happen. A piece of graffiti can set me off. A phrase I hear on the radio. A heron fishing on the beach. A single paragraph in The New Yorker. I’ve written books based on all of those things. And started with only the smallest of clues.

Writing a book is sort of like an organic detective story for me, I’ve just realized. Do you read Douglas Adams? Do you remember Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency? Well, I feel a little bit like Dirk Gently. I have absolutely no idea where I’m going or where I’m going to end up or even why I’m going there. Instead, I just do whatever feels right at the time.

So I’ve written three stories about demons and before that sunny afternoon on the patio, I’d never once thought about writing about them. Dirk Gently and I are definitely on the same wavelength.

I want to say thanks to Cynthia and thanks to all of you who read her blog – without you, I wouldn’t have figured out just how to describe the way I write. So whenever anyone asks me how I writer, I’ll just tell them:  Go read Douglas Adams’ book about Dirk Gently’s detective agency.

So in thank you, one person who posts a response to this blog will win a download (on Friday) of The Demon Next Door: Morteza and one other person will win a download of any of my books with Cobblestone Press – check them out at either of my websites below.

Kate Austin w/a Josée Renard

www.kateaustin.ca

www.joseerenard.com