Update:  And the winner is…Commenter #21, Carol L! Congrats, Carol! Thanks for all the wonderful comments!

Today’s special demon guest (I do, of course, mean demon guest writer) is Maree Anderson. Maree is the author of a hot new demon story–and she’s going to give that story away to a lucky commenter. Maree, welcome!

Demons: The perfect heroes for really bad girls!

I’m all about challenging myself with my writing, so when I spotted an email about the Red Sage Alpha Male Novella Contest on one of my writing loops, I figured I’d give it a go. I’d never written a novella before, and I’d never written for the erotic romance market before, either. Nothing like jumping in the deep end, huh?

I wanted to write a dark, tormented heroine—a woman who’s not the norm. Leisa, the heroine of Even Demons Get The Blues, might look angelic but she’s been tagged by a Destroyer Demon and she’s got a little corner of Hell with her name on it waiting for her. She’s committed a terrible crime and she’s drowning her guilt in alcohol and casual sex. Believe me, the results aren’t pretty. She needed someone strong and determined, someone with a dark soul of his own, someone who wouldn’t be put off by the things she’s done.

And what better hero to cope with a bad girl’s past, than a badass demon?

Introducing Rez, the sole surviving Drakon Demon and the most badass Demon in my version of Hell. After 4000 wonderfully gory years of kicking demon butt for his king, Rez just can’t be bothered any more. Much to King Asmodeus’s disgust, Rez has taken up Beguiling. Still, when Rez can be bothered fulfilling his quotas, he’s a poster-boy for the Beguiler Unit. Unlike other male Beguilers, who limit themselves to attractive human females, Rez finds hidden beauty in even the most unprepossessing female package. He likes to corrupt the little “office mouse” type, transform her into a steamy temptress then unleash her upon her unwary male colleagues.

Rez cops one glimpse of Leisa and he’s a goner—he’s got that whole borderline stalker thing going on. And when Leisa picks up one loser too many, Rez is provoked into whisking her off to his lair to show her some hot demonic lovin’… after he deals to the unfortunate guy she picked up in the bar. It’s against “the rules” to kill the human, though, so Rez devises a truly unique retribution. Who said demons couldn’t have a sense of humor?

And just to make life in Hell even more interesting, Rez’s current lover, a Felinoid Demon with a jealous streak, is not at all happy about Rez’s little obsession with a slutty human female. She rats Rez out to Asmodeus, who is pissed as all Hell because now he has to “officially” deal with Rez’s transgression. He doesn’t want to have to kick Rez’s scaly lizard ass into oblivion—especially because he’s not absolutely sure he wouldn’t get his own handsome ass whupped!— but those mealy-mouthed council dickheads are gonna insist Rez is punished. Lucifer’s hairy balls, sometimes it just sucks to be king!

When good and evil are in balance, everything all peachy keen for my denizens of Heaven, Hell and Earth. But when the scales tip some truly bad shit goes down. So when Leisa accidently breaks through Rez’s defenses and bonds with him, there’s Hell to pay. Not to mention Heaven. And an even higher power that has the potential to redeem both Leisa and Rez… if it doesn’t obliterate them from existence first.

I loved writing Leisa and Rez’s story and I was thrilled to freaking bits and beyond when Even Demons Get The Blues finaled in the Alpha Male Novella Contest. I was even more delighted when Red Sage offered to publish my manuscript—it’s a June 2009 Red Sage Presents release.

And to celebrate the release of Even Demons Get The Blues, I’m offering a pdf to one commenter. I’ll put all your names into a hat and have my daughter draw the winner for Cynthia to post on her blog tomorrow.

Hope you enjoy reading about how Leisa and Rez achieve their happily ever after, against some pretty dire odds. (By the way, if you’re wondering what happened to Rez’s Felinoid ex, she tangles with a Leonine Lycan prince in Let Sleeping Demons Lie. And as for the manipulative, smart-mouthed demon king, Asmodeus? Well, he’s soooo gonna get his comeuppance very soon… mwah hah hah!)

Cheers
Maree Anderson
www.eRedSage.com
www.mareeanderson.com
www.writersgonewild.blogspot.com

Update: The winner of Anya’s bag of goodies is…commenter #70, Stacey Smith!  Congratulations, Stacey ! I’ll email you with prize details.  Thanks for all the comments!

To kickoff my 30 Days of Demons, it’s my pleasure to have national best-selling author Anya Bast here.  Anya’s got some great demon info to share  from her books and one lucky commenter will win a bag of goodies. (Anya, you rock!)

The Demons of the Elemental Witches Series

Demons seem to be a whole new trend in urban fantasy and paranormal romance these days. Sometimes they turn up as the good guys, the bad guys, or sometimes a shade in between. The demons of the Elemental Witches Series are shade in between. Well, except for the Atrika. They’re pretty much all bad.

There are four demon breeds in my worldbuilding for this series:

The Ytrayi (E-TRAY-EE) – The leader caste. Loyal and operating on a strict Code of Conduct, they rule things in their world. The leader of the leaders is called the Cae. His name is Rue.

The Syari (S-YAR-EE) – The scholar caste. They are the archivists, holders of knowledge and do all magickal research.

The Mandari (MAN-DAR-EE) – The builder caste. Responsible for creating and maintaining the structures in the capital city of Ai and in all of Eudae. The buildings are made of lavender and rose marble, sometimes black or gray, and are built in columns, gentle slopes and arches. The palace, called Yrysvront, is majestic in its architecture.

The Atrika (A-TREE-KAH) – The warrior caste. Genetically engineered by an unknown hand, they are brutal and unforgiving. They are also like passionate children, following their whims no matter the destruction they might cause. Their favorite food is rotting meat and they have a nasty habit of cannibalizing their enemies on the spot in battle.

In my series the elemental witches are a hybrid of human and demon. Long ago, during the early days of human civilization, the daaeman, (who reside in an alternate reality called Eudae), opened a portal to Earth and came through it to interact with human beings.

In the beginning, it was a free-for-all on humans. Some of the demons hunted them for sport, others respected humanity and helped them improve their societies, and still others fell in love with them. For the ones who fell in love and wanted to marry and have children, there was a problem since the basic difference in the genetic makeup between humans and daaeman didn’t allow for mating. Human women couldn’t carry daaeman babies.

Out of this need, the daaeman constructed a magickal solution, using the four elements as a base. The children born of these unions were demon/human halflings and their magickical abilities were tied to one of the four elements used in the spell—earth, air, water or fire. They became the elemental witches.

It was decided that the daaeman were interfering too much in the evolution of humanity and so they withdrew from Earth, closing all the portals. When they did this, it shrouded the origins of the elemental witches in secrecy. The elemental witches learn about how they came about only midway through my series, when the witches begin interacting with the daaeman once again.

There’s a little interesting side-effect of the hybrid demon/human condition. The elemental witches with an overabundance of Ytrayi genes tend to be the good guys—the coven witches. Those with the Atrika genes tend to be the baddies—the Duskoff warlocks, who have turned their back on the tenet of harm ye none and betrayed the coven.

But there are the quirky ones, like Micah, who definitely has a bunch of Syari in him. And there’s Jack McAllister whose father was the head of the Duskoff, yet Jack never inherited his father’s baddie leanings.

So there are no blacks and whites in this world, just shades of gray, which is the way I like it best. Makes it far more interesting, and, I think, more realistic.

In Witch Fury the threads I’ve pulled between the Duskoff, the coven witches, and the daaeman throughout the series will finally weave together in an explosive mix. The Atrika and the warlocks have things planned for the coven witches and it just might end them.

Thanks so much for Cindy to inviting me over to talk about the demons of the Elemental Witches series! I’ll give away prize of a grab bag of goodies (sounds fun, huh?) to one commenter just ’cause that would be fun. You can talk to me about anything. Just go ahead and shoot. I’ll be here to answer any questions you might want to ask.

(Taken from the Red Sage blog)

Kidnap This Logo!

And You Could Win!

“To celebrate its Fifteenth Anniversary in June, Red Sage is throwing a party! Every party needs presents, and here’s a gift that could win you the July Secrets anthology and Calista Fox’s new novel, Object of Desire!

Here’s how to play the party game.

Anyone can play! All you have to do is “kidnap” this logo and post it on your blog or website. Copy and paste the jpg image of the anniversary gift to your own blog or website to kidnap it. Be sure to include these instructions so people know how to play!

Invite your readers and friends to send an email with the subject line “Ransom Note” to eRedSage@gmail.com. Inside this email, they must include a link back to your kidnapped logo.

Then you and your friend will both be entered into a drawing to win free trade paperbacks! Every time one of your readers sends a ransom note with a link, you will be entered again! Each Ransom Note is worth two entries in the drawing — one for the person who sends the Ransom Note, and one for the linked blog or website. And you both can win!

Want more chances to win? Invite your readers and friends to kidnap this logo, and then you can enter again by sending a Ransom Note linking to your friend’s blog or website!

The more times you enter, the more chances you have to win! But get your entries in by June 30. We’ll be drawing the winners on July 1!

Group blog or website? No problem! Just be sure to sign your post so we know who the winner should be!

Good luck, and have fun!”

Today’s Saturday Snippet focuses on that most important of moments in a book…the first kiss. Some first kisses can be incredibly romantic. Some can be incredibly sexy. And some can be, um, dangerous.

For my kiss excerpt, I decided to use a scene from MIDNIGHT SINS, the second book in my Midnight trilogy. A kiss should be easy for a succubus to handle, right? Well, not when the succubus finds herself falling for a human cop.

***

“You feel it, don’t you?”  A whisper that seemed like a caress against her skin.

She shook her head.  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”  She could lie, too.

His lips quirked, just a bit.  With a flick of his fingers, Todd unhooked his seat belt and leaned toward her.  “There’s something here.”

The promise of hot, wild sex.  Of power and magic rushing into her body and making her scream with pleasure. But she’d given that up because after the burn of fiery release, she hated the ashes of cold reality. The reality that a man wouldn’t love a demon, no matter how enticing her physical appearance.

His hand lifted, reached for her.

Her fingers flew out and locked around his wrist in a fierce grip.

Silence.  Then he said, “I just wanted to touch you.”

He sounded sincere, but…“I thought you just wanted to send me to jail.”

He didn’t deny her words.  Didn’t fight her hold.  Good thing, too, because the way she was feeling, Cara would have shown him just how strong a succubus could be.

Instead, his eyes dropped to her lips.  “I wonder…” he spoke with words little more than a growl.  “Do you taste as good as you smell?”

The damn pheromones.  “It’s not me that you want.” The admission was hard.

“Ah, baby, but I’m going to have to disagree.”  He was close, so close that she could feel the light brush of his breath against her face.

“You don’t understand—”

He kissed her.  A soft, fast press of his lips against hers.

Cara’s fingers tightened around him as desire began to heat her blood.

“Not enough.” His lips were just above hers.  “I need another taste…”

And she wanted more. When his lips met hers again, her mouth was open. Ready.  The kiss wasn’t as soft this time, and she was glad.  She could taste the hunger on his lips, his tongue.  A hunger that matched her own. There was no questing search as his tongue slipped past her lips.  Just need.  Demand.

A moan trembled in the back of her throat even as her mouth widened for him.  Her tongue met his, licking, stroking.  Her nipples began to ache and swell as the fire blazing inside of her grew.

She knew she shouldn’t be doing this, but Cara couldn’t stop. The cop was the wrong man for her. The situation was wrong.

But the need felt so right.

Power began to fill the air as his lust grew.  Such sweet, tempting power.  She could feel it, surrounding her. She could have that power.  All of it.

She just had to take it.

Take him.

No.  She’d sworn to fight that part of her life.  Cara pulled away from him, twisting her head to the side.  “I—we have to stop.”

His breath was ragged. So was hers.  Cara realized she still held his hand.  Instead of a punishing grip, her fingers caressed his flesh.  She snatched her hand away from him.

“Easy.”  He didn’t retreat and he kept his stare on her.  “It was just a kiss.”

That was how the sweetest temptation always started.  With a soft kiss.

***

Want to read more first kiss excerpts? Then check out all of these great authors who are participating in the Saturday Snippet fun:

Lauren Dane
Cynthia Eden
Vivi Anna
Sylvia Day
Moira Rogers
Mandy Roth
Anya Bast
Viv Arend
Beth Williamson
Elisabeth Naughton
Michelle Pillow
Jaci Burton
Taige Crenshaw
McKenna Jeffries
Victoria Janssen
Shelli Stevens
Maggie Robinson
Juliana Stone
Sasha White
Maura Anderson
Shelley Munro
Jody Wallace
Eliza Gayle
Kelly Maher

I wanted to go ahead and let everyone know that I’ll be launching a big contest here on the old blog–come back on Sunday for the full contest details!

MIDNIGHT’S MASTER releases on June 30, and I just had to do a contest for Niol’s book. 🙂 So, I’ll be doing a two-level contest for that release. Level One–well, that will be like my contests in the past. I’ll make a handy-dandy widget about MIDNIGHT’S MASTER and my contest, and if you post the widget on your blog or myspace (etc), then you will be entered to win–and you could end up with some great gift cards!

Level two of the contest–this part is new for me. Let me give you some back story on this…A while back, I participated in the very talented Lori Devoti‘s Full Moon of Werewolves. Every day for a month, her blog featured posts about werewolves. I loved, loved that format–and not just because of my werewolf addiction. Therefore, for level two of my contest, I’ll be running “30 Days of Demons” on my blog. I’m inviting other demon authors (um, I mean authors who write about demons) to come by and visit. You can read excerpts, you can take quizzes, you can read about demon lore–basically, June will be demon month here at my blog.

But wait–there’s more! For that level two contest…I’ll also have giveaways. Lots and lots of giveaways. Demon books. Arcs. Gift cards. I will randomly have these prizes up during June, and commenters will win!

Sound fun? Oh, man, I hope so!!

And, hey, speaking of demons…I’ve gotten a review of MIDNIGHT’S MASTER from Amelia at Sensual. Here’s a snippet from Amelia’s review: “I love when an author can catch me unawares, as this is a sign of exceptional writing, and Ms. Eden excels at this ability.”

And here’s one more quote: “The Midnight Trilogy has reached its third book, and the action only gets more perilous while heightened passions between the hero and heroine continue to rise with each new scene.”

Amelia gave the book 5 Stars! Yay! Thank you, Amelia!! And if anyone would like to see the full review, it’s posted at Sensual.