Hey everyone! Lauren Dane here, thanks for having me, Cynthia! I thought I’d talk about my latest release from Samhain, Cascadia Wolves: Trinity – featuring one cat shifter, one werewolf and a very sexy (and lucky) witch who gets them both!

Since Jack Meyers appeared on the page when I wrote Tri Mates, I knew I wanted to give him his own HEA. I didn’t know how, I didn’t know who but once he played such a big part in Standoff, I knew it would have to be soon.

Fortunately for me, my editor thought the same, as did many readers who wrote to ask me to give Jack his own story. Given the end of Standoff, the story would need to take place Boston, where the National Pack is located and Jack serves as Enforcer.

Of course, once I started tinkering around with ideas, he didn’t want to be with another wolf, he wanted a witch named Renee. But again, as I started to work on the synopsis, Renee already had a man. Her man was Galen de La Vega, a very sexy lawyer who also happens to be a jaguar shifter.

These three had a lot of great chemistry as I began to write. At first I wasn’t sure how they’d end up as a ménage. I’d already done a tri-mate bond in Tri Mates and it’s very rare anyway, obviously too rare to have one twice in the same series, LOL.

So I started to build the world Galen inhabits, the world of his shifters and their bond with a partner is different, though no less intense and special, than wolves. Add to that the fact that Renee is a powerful witch and the possibilities for how they come to be bound to each other were endless (and I hope the way I went works for readers as much as it did for me as I wrote)

I love this world and I’m thrilled that I was able to continue it with some new characters in a new city! Trinity is part one of a two book story arc – Renee and her men get their HEA by the end of Trinity, but there’s something else, a larger story about Renee and Kendra’s past and the threat to their future – this was too big to tie up neatly in just one book (much like the Pellini story was too big to end in a book or two). This something is a problem her sister Kendra will help solve in the next book – I’m tentatively calling it Hunted just now, but I’m working on the proposal so the title may change as I get through the story a bit.

I love this part of the process – because the more I write, the more I want to know more about the world of the de La Vega cats (Galen’s seven siblings and his parents who lead the jamboree). The great thing is that they’re living in the same city as the National Pack that Grace and Cade now lead so there’s some back and forth between my wolves and the cats too. Lots of new ground to break while still keeping in contact with those characters I’ve grown to love so much.

Writing is the best job I could ever imagine. Yes, there’s stress and heartbreak, but there’s far more joy and limitless opportunity to create new stories, new worlds, new characters and to fall in love with them.

I hope you do as well!

Wanna win something? What’s your favorite kind of paranormal character? A vamp? A shifter? A witch or demon? Any fave characters or books? I’ll give away a copy of Cascadia Wolves:Standoff, the book where readers really get to know Jack Meyers – to one of the commenters at the end of today. Good luck!

That’s the question I’m asking today over at Enchanted By Books. If you get a chance, come by and comment–I’m giving away two copies of BELONG TO THE NIGHT.

Also, don’t forget the 10 Days of Dangerous fun kicks off tomorrow!

Hey all, thanks so much to Cynthia for having me here today during her super cool month of monsters! I have to admit, I’m a scardy cat. Horror movies send me running the other way, and Halloween? Well, monsters of any kind give me the heebie-jeebies and make me want to hide under my bed for a year.

So what the heck am I doing writing paranormals? Good question. I don’t really know. It’s one of those things you never plan, it just…happened. Sometimes when I’m writing I scare myself, which probably isn’t a good thing. Especially since I write late at night with most of the lights off. And this time of year, when the wind is howling through the trees and limbs are smacking the side of the house, making me jump and yelp like a heroine in a B-rated horror movie flick, you can only imagine where my imagination wanders.

I’m increasingly surprised at how dark paranormal romances can be. Sure, we know there’s the promise of a happily-ever-after at the end, but scary monsters abound these days, even in my own books. I keep asking myself, Where’s your limit, Elisabeth? But so far I haven’t found it. I have nasty-ass, seething demons running amuck in my books, doing some pretty awful things, but for some reason it works.

How about you. Do you have a dark limit? At what point would you put a paranormal romance down because it was just too scary?

My first paranormal romance, MARKED, releases May 2010. Here’s the info about my new Eternal Guardians Series:

THERON – Dark haired, duty bound and deceptively deadly. He’s the leader of the Argonauts, an elite group of guardians that defends the immortal realm from threats of the Underworld.

From the moment he walked into the club, Casey knew this guy was different. Men like that just didn’t exist in real life—silky shoulder-length hair, chest impossibly broad, and a predatory manner that just screamed dark and dangerous. He was looking for something.  Her.

She was the one. She had the mark. Casey had to die so his kind could live, and it was Theron’s duty to bring her in. But even as a 200-year-old descendent of Hercules, he wasn’t strong enough to resist the pull in her fathomless eyes, to tear himself away from the heat of her body.

As war with the Underworld nears, someone will have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Since I don’t have copies of MARKED to distribute yet, how about some adventure? I also write romantic adventure and am giving away a copy of STOLEN HEAT to one commenter today. Simply answer the question above to be entered into the drawing.

Elisabeth Naughton

www.elisabethnaughton.com

Hi everyone!  Thanks so much to Cynthia for having me on her awesome Month of Monsters.   Fall and Halloween are so much fun.  I love decorating for Halloween and buying my kiddos costumes.  However, there’s something about the month of October that brings out the monsters.  Or maybe we just see more of them? 🙂

There’s always some type of villain in books.  In my upcoming Dark Sword series from St. Martin’s Press this December, my villain is not just a bad person.  She is the epitome of evil.  She is a Druid who wants power.  Lots of it actually.  So, she willingly gives herself over to black magic by doing a forbidden ceremony where Satan takes part of her soul in exchange for that power.

There are a lot of bad people out in the world, but how many of them would have the guts to willingly make that kind of deal with the devil?  I’m not sure I’d want to meet up with that person. 🙂  However, my Highland heroes in this series have no choice but to battle against my villainess or watch her evil spread over the land.

Want a chance to win Mutual Desire?  All you have to do is answer this: What would you do to battle evil?

Here’s hoping you don’t meet any real monsters this October!

hugs,
D
www.donnagrant.com
DANGEROUS HIGHLANDER – December 2009
FORBIDDEN HIGHLANDER – June 2010
WICKED HIGHLANDER – Fall 2010

People are always curious as to why I write about vampires.  I’m an ordinary, average Jo with two teenage boys, a cat, two dogs and a loving husband.  I am not gothic (although in high school I was a borderline punker), and I dress pretty conservative.   I blame Buffy the Vampire Slayer and her Angel.  Well, actually, I first have to blame Bram Stoker’s Dracula.  My high school senior paper focused on the sexual aspects of the Stoker’s fictional vamp.  As far as writing about them, I have to back up even further to when I was five and wrote about a witch.  That story gave me nightmares.  Go figure … I suppose I have always been drawn to the supernatural.

So I inevitably penned my first vampire novel, Forever Yours.  It took me five years to write it, and about five more to find a publisher.  I submitted many times and re-wrote many times, but finally, Wings ePress took a chance on it.  I am (pardon the pun) forever grateful.  My vampires can now see the light of day without bursting into flames!  Hooray!

For those of you interested in Forever Yours, here’s the blurb …

Two lovers torn apart through eternity …

Katherine’s world is forever changed when her husband’s friend turns her into a vampire.  Blinded by her new found blood thirst, she accidentally kills her soul mate.  Thus begin the cataclysmic events that keep her and her hunky hubby, Vincent, forever apart.

As their souls are reunited century after century, will they ever be able to vanquish the jealous tormentor who always manages to tear them apart?  Katherine is determined to make it so.

Get your copy of Forever Yours at www.WingsePress.com and visit my website at http://josephinetempleton.tripod.com.

Happy Halloween, and keep it spooky!
Josephine Templeton

P.S.
While I realize it’s not writing related, I also have some really cool kid news to share.  My oldest son, Mike Templeton, scored the winning touchdown.  His team, Live Oak High School, played Baton Rouge’s Scotlandville High School on Thursday, October 15th, and with 2.3 seconds left on the clock, the quarterback threw it to the end zone where two of the opposing players tipped the ball.  Mike slid underneath them and caught the ball to make the game-winning touchdown.  They walked away 19-14, and now he can say he beat his mom’s old alma mater.  Although when I graduated from Scotlandville, it was a magnet school, and there wasn’t a football team.  Geaux, Mike!  I’m proud of you!