Interview with a Mate #BHW @Decadentpub

Hi, all. I’m Summer McCoy. I’m part skinwalker and half  feline shifter. I was born into the Goldspark big cat clan, rivals of the Black Hills Wolves. I most often take the form of a raven, though, due to a little mishap in my youth, which is how I met Brick Northridge, the great love of my life.

I’m so excited to be here today to tell you about WOLF’S SONG, Brick’s and my love story. It was a little weird at first, you know, seeing some of our intimate smexy interludes in actual black and white. But as long as we’re together, the two of us can withstand anything: evil alphas, rival clan wars, embarrassment, you name it. Actually, we’re not together today – the first time we’re not, really, since we met.
 Brick’s over at the Daily Dose of Decadence blog, even as we speak. And don’t think I’m not a little worried about that.

BHWB: Why would you be worried about that, Summer?

Summer: Well, sometimes Brick needs me to keep him together.

BHWB: Why?

Summer: When he’s around other wolves, he can hear their voices in his head and sometimes see visions of their deaths. But I sing to him and it seems to block out all the other noise. Keeps him calm and mellow.  And hot and hunky.  So we can concentrate on the sexy!

BHWB: Is there anything you wouldn’t do for him?

Summer: Nothing! My Uncle Cal tried to tear us apart once. I won’t tell you the horrible sacrifice I almost made…Instead, I accidentally shifted shot him full of animal tranquilizer!

BHWB: Hmmm. I don’t suppose you’d care to elaborate?

Summer: Not without giving too much away!

BHWB: Would you talk about the “mishap” you had that caused you to take the raven form?

Summer: Suffice it to say that I was up a tree as a kit, fell out of it, shifted, and landed naked in front of half the cats. When I met Brick I was living in a tree.

BHWB: That’s somewhat ironic, don’t you think?

Summer shrugs and grins: When my big handsome hunk goes all wolfy and wants to race under the moon…I want to soar with him. And the heights are magical!

BHWB: Can you tell us a little more of your story?

Summer: Well, I’d rather you read it! But sure:

Wolf's Song 

Black Hills Wolves - Book 4

Taryn Kincaid 

BLURB:

....Ten years ago, visions of death and the babble of lupine voices in his head, drove lone wolf Brick Northridge to challenge his cruel and greedy pack alpha. Beaten by the alpha’s thugs and banished from the pack, Brick lives a life of seclusion in a mountain cabin in the Black Hills.

....Born into a rival clan of feline shifters, skinwalker Summer McCoy, in her guise as a raven, watches Brick from afar, giving him back a reason to live through her sweet songs and special gifts.

....But when her clan attempts to tear them apart and threatens the pack that banished Brick so many years before, will their love be strong enough to withstand the forces bent on their destruction?

EXCERPT:

      Summer McCoy perched in the uppermost branches of her special Ponderosa pine, in raven guise, engaging in her favorite pastime, spying on the lone wolf chopping wood below. Two days’ worth of whiskers shadowed his rigid jaw. She loved when he forgot—or didn’t bother—to shave. Scruffy stubble suited him.

       The sun beat down on the back of his bronzed neck and shone on his hair, the color of roasted coffee, a shade lighter than the dark shadow that charcoaled his face.

... She fluffed her feathers in anticipation. Take your shirt off, Brick. She’d heard the giant werebear, Gee, call him that name a decade ago. He’d made some joke about a wall and the hardness of the male’s head. But Brick hadn’t laughed back then. Not ever.

....He’d fascinated her from the moment he’d arrived in the glade, bruised and battered. Once she’d learned his name, she’d treasured it, taking pleasure from repeating it often. Secretly, of course. Unwrapping the syllable frequently to admire its radiance in the privacy of her tree house, the way a woman wearing pearls against her warm skin enhanced their luminosity and iridescence.

....Now, as if he’d heard her silent urging, he complied with her plea, shrugging out of the plaid flannel and flinging it onto a tree stump. Her beak opened as she sucked in breath. Sweat glistened on his torso, glazing rippling pecs and abs, shoulders broad enough to span the Badlands. A huge, incredible specimen of masculinity. Thick biceps flexed as he wielded the ax. Her heart beat faster than a hummingbird’s wings. Heat licked her.

Buy:  Amazon: US | Canada|  UK | Australia  | Kobo | iBooks | Decadent

AUTHOR BIO: Taryn Kincaid is the author of the Sleepy Hollow series--LIGHTNING, THUNDER, FROST, HEAT WAVE and IN FROM THE COLD -- sexy paranormal romances for Decadent Publishing's popular 1Night Stand series; BLIZZARD, a short erotic romance for Decadent's The Edge line; among other works.Visit her at:  
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Amazon | Blog | Pinterest | tsu

Bad Girls of the Wild West

In celebration of my upcoming release, Black Hills Desperado, where my heroine is a bank robber,  I’m going to talk about infamous and famous females of the Old West.

1. The Rose of Cimarron: Rose Dunn, a Wild West Bonnie Parker had a thing for bad boys and adrenaline rushes. Not only did she date an outlaw, she was one, joining a gang, robbing coaches and banks. She died in the 1950s, in her 80’s, long lived for a woman who worked on the wrong side of a gun.

2. Cattle Kate: In battles over open range with the Wyoming Cattlemen’s society, Ellen Liddy Watson and her lover, James Averell, met their fates together at the ends of a lynch mob’s ropes. Accused of cattle-rustling, Kate became the first woman to be hung in Wyoming’s history. She was never violent or charged with a crime, but inevitably made her place in history books as an outlaw.

3. Lillian Smith: Annie Oakley’s rival would do anything to steal the show. Cold, ruthless, Lillian pulled no punches and shot better than most men could walk. A Wild West diva of epic proportions, Lillian dressed in a non-conservative manner, cursed with the best of them and began her career as a sideshow trick-shooter at the age of fifteen. She never did replace Annie, but she sure gave her a run for her money.

4. Pearl de Vere: The Soiled Dove of Cripple Creek was a business woman foremost, driving hard bargains and running one of the most infamous brothels in the Wild West. A red-headed knockout, Pearl was most famous for being the first madam to have high-dollar call girls. No pictures exist of her, but legend has it she was one of the most beautiful women in the West.

5. Pearl Hart: Canadian born, Pearl migrated to the United States with her new gambler husband at the tender age of 17. However there was nothing tender about her. When her husband ran off and joined the Spanish-American war, Pearl met Joe Boot and began her life of crime, robbing stage coaches. She is best known for her quote, when awaiting trial for her crimes, "I shall not consent to be tried under a law in which my sex had no voice in making." She eventually was released and vanished. What became of her remains a mystery to this day.

6.Etta Place: School teacher turned bad girl, Etta is best known as Butch Cassidy’s girlfriend. Not only did she ride along with his gang, she helped him to rob banks. She was not with the Cassidy gang when they were killed in South America, and not much is known about what happened to her after that. She simply disappeared.

7. Josephine Sarah Marcus: The other woman. Josephine stole Wyatt Earp’s heart and ultimately destroyed his and her own marriage to Sheriff John Behan. It was rumored this beauty triggered the infamous OK Corral gun fight. Josephine claimed to her dying breath, Wyatt was her one and only true love.

8. Calamity Jane: Martha Jane Canary, better known as the heroine Calamity Jane, saved six passengers on a stagecoach and a captain in South Dakota, where she received her nick-name. This whiskey drinking darling had no problem holding her own with the men in Wild Bill’s Wild West Show. She died in 1903 and asked to be buried next to Wild Bill. It was rumored, even though she was married to another man, Bill Cody was the only man she’d ever loved.

9. Charley Parkhurst: Famous lesbian? Nobody really knows. This young lady lived her entire adult life as a man, driving a stage coach in the Wild West. In fact, her true sex wasn’t known until her death, much to the surprise of all her friends. It is rumored, she is the first American woman to cast a ballot as a registered voter in an election. This woman defied social standards of the day and lived her life as she wanted.

10. Belle Starr: Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed, hid by Frank and Jessie James as a child, this true blue female outlaw ran with a gang, robbed banks and counterfeited currency. She ultimately met her end on the wrong side of a gun. It isn’t clear to this day, if her death was an accident or murder.

11. Annie Oakley: Perhaps the most memorable woman of The Wild West, Phoebe Ann Oakley Moses wasn’t an outlaw or a bad girl by any standard, but boy could she shoot. Annie’s name is synonymous with the Wild West. Annie Oakley could shoot better than almost any man who picked up a rifle. Not only an American legend, Annie was modest in dress and faithful to a fault. This crack shot lived her life by her rules and a place in Wild West history. She died penniless in 1926. It was discovered shortly thereafter, her entire fortune had been given to charities to support women’s rights and help needy children.

So, if you’d like to read about a modern day bad girl, pick up your copy of the Black Hills Wolves story, Black Hills Desperado. It’s available for preorder now and releases on January 23rd.

Preorder Black Hills Desperado here.

D. L. Jackson is an award-winning author of urban fantasy, science fiction, military romance and erotic romance. She loves to incorporate crazy plot twists, comedy and the unexpected into her worlds. As a U.S. Army veteran, she naturally adores men in uniform and feels the world could always use more. She does her part by incorporating as many sexy soldiers in her novels as she can. When she isn't writing or running the roads, you can often find her online chatting with her peers and readers. Grab a cup of iced coffee, pull up your virtual chair and say hi. She loves emails and blog visits from her readers. www.authordljackson.com

Heather Long Talks About The Zen of Writing the Enforcer @DecadentPub #BHW

At the Menger Hotel, in February of 2013, Rebecca Royce and I talked wolves for hours. Key to our discussion was the potential of the Black Hills pack. Her idea was to create a shared world other authors could play in—a pack with hundreds of wolves, hundreds of stories, and hundreds of ways to interact. My job was to play devil’s advocate. I broached all the ways it could go wrong and asked what did we need to know? What should we lay the groundwork? How did we anticipate what could go wrong?

Funnily enough, Becca knew the direction she wanted to go. With her character, Drew, as Alpha she could be the driving force, but how did we stay on course? We needed an Enforcer, someone who took care of the little things and didn’t allow for deviations. Thus, Ryker was born.

Writing an Enforcer proved to be a challenge, because this is a man who does not get close to people. He cares, sometimes too deeply, but he avoids those personal relationships. Ryker is older than Drew—an adult when Drew was born and already his father’s Enforcer. Magnum was not always crazy, but he was always brutal. His blood oath to Magnum leashed Ryker’s ability to destroy the alpha when his descent into madness tortured the pack.

Protecting his pack is primary in Ryker’s heart. He found ways to circumvent his alpha’s commands—obeying the specific letter of the orders rather than doing what Magnum wanted. The madder Magnum became, the more Ryker withdrew. Bringing Drew home did more than end Magnum’s reign, it also freed Ryker.

The wolf still wants to protect the pack, but remains isolated from them. What a wolf wants, however, is connection, so when he discovers the woman who can be his mate—his world changes.

There’s something calming about writing a wolf so clear in who he is—discover what Ryker wants today.

 

What a Wolf Wants

Black Hills Wolves Book 2

Heather Long

He runs alone...

....Ryker Grey is used to being on the outside looking in. For more than fifty years, he has worked as Pack Enforcer for the Black Hills Wolves, rising to his rank swiftly. Compelled by duty and devotion to his people, he fought to keep them protected from within and without—earning a few enemies and fewer friends. Drew’s return has sparked healing in the fraying pack, but Ryker remains vigilant.

She needs a place to call her own...
....Saja Lyons has spent her life studying cultures, but never really being a part of them. Completing a double specialty in psychology and sociology, she decides to take the three months after her graduation to find herself on a cross-country drive. She embraces the nomadic road trip until her car breaks down on a deserted stretch of road in the middle of nowhere South Dakota.

Two lonely lives collide in the cold...
....Ryker catches Saja’s scent from a mile away, loneliness edged in fear, frustration, and utter femininity. He approaches her in order to lend her a hand and get her out of the pack’s way...the sooner she’s gone from Los Lobos, the safer the pack will be. When their gazes meet, her playful hostility arouses the hunter in him, and for the first time in fifty years, the enforcer tastes what it’s like to not be alone...
....But what if the best thing that ever happened to him is a danger to the Black Hills Wolves?
 

BUY: Here 

 

EXCERPT

....As his senses had promised, snow fell steadily, sticking to the frozen ground without struggle. Picking up his pace, Ryker jogged toward the road, following the direction he’d last heard the engine. Covering the distance at a brisk pace, he barely noticed the strain. While he’d rather be on four feet than two, this was at least a run through the snow.
....Metal slammed against metal ahead of him.
....“Now. You’ll work….” Low and husky, the feminine voice added a lilt of conjuring to her statement. Keys rattled. Clicking snapped in the intervening silence. “Son of a futher mucker.” Flesh slapped a surface. A door slammed. “Cold. Cold. Cold. Cold. Cold.”
....More metal banging off metal.
....“Work you piece of crap. I just spent my last five hundred dollars on you. Work.” Bang. Slam. Bang.
....Slowing as the woods gave way to a long stretch of field ending at the blacktopped old highway, he studied the vehicle parked askew on the side of the road. Askew was a generous description. The four-door sedan sat at a nearly ninety-degree angle to the road with the back tires parked in grass.
....“Okay. So, count to ten,” the feminine voice continued. The sound of her shoes slapping the pavement came in time to the numbers. When she reached ten, metal crashed against metal, the clang loud and sharp enough to hurt his ears. “Work!”
....A slender figure popped out from behind the raised hood to dart to the driver’s side door. He paused mid-step as she squinted her eyes closed then whispered, “You will work. You will work. You will work.”
....With a twist of the key, the only thing he heard working was some rapid-fire clicks of the ignition switch trying to fire. Then, even that ceased when what remained of her power leached away.
....“Fuck. Fuck. Fuckity fuck.” The woman flung back against the seat, bashing her closed fists on the steering wheel. “‘Woman dies in freak snowstorm perfectly preserving her remains’ should make a sharable story on Huffington Post sometime next spring.” Even with the defeatist words, the fight in her tone continued to boil.
....Fascinated, despite himself, he watched as she tapped her head against the back of the seat then bounced out of the car in a surge of energy. She raced around the vehicle, jerked the trunk open, and began to rummage through….
....A wild assortment of scents raced across his nose—older scents, sweat, metal, books, chalk, dust, burned paper, sulfur—underscoring it all was a distinctly feminine musk, exotic and heady, but not too sweet. It carried more of a bite, one not altogether unpleasant. His distracted quarry whirled to face his direction, a small black gun braced in both of her hands.
....Good. She wasn’t utterly defenseless. He approved.
....“You shouldn’t sneak up on people on the side of the road,” she called out in lieu of a greeting. Nothing in her stance betrayed the chill overtaking her fragile form, but a blue tinge touched the edges of her lips, while her face was a shade too pale. She clenched her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering. “Who are you?”
....If she were a Wolf, she would have snapped at him.

Black Hills Wolves: Rebecca Royce Shares How It All Began

I was sitting at a conference called The Naughty Sleepover.  It’s in San Antonio. If you’d ever like to go, it’s now called The Wild Wicked Weekend and I have the best time there every year.  But, this was my first conference after a very bad time spent at one in New York City the year before. 

I wouldn’t have shown up at the Naughty Sleepover but the then owner of Decadent Publishing, Heather Bennett, had told me there was no way I could miss it, considering I now lived in Austin.  So, despite the fact that I was still feeling pretty rough about the move and not at all confident about wanting to go to another conference, I drove the 1.5 hours to San Antonio and checked into the hotel.

I won’t bore you with stories of that whole weekend.  But, it went very well.  And during that time, fellow author Heather Long and I sat down and created the Black Hills Wolves.  It was fortuitous that Decadent Publishing was actually there that night. They were exactly who we wanted to do the project with and they said yes to the idea.

Now here we are. The Black Hills Wolves have arrived….or will be next week. And I just can’t believe it. 

I couldn’t have done this without Laura Garland who edits the series with such love and Lisa Omstead who believed in and has championed it every step of the way.  Also, to the incredible group of authors who said yes.  Thank you ladies.  You kept this secret and now you’re shouting to the wind right next to me.

Truly, amazing.  Drew and I both say Thank You.

Wolf's Return

Black Hills Wolves Book 1
Rebecca Royce

....A hidden wolf pack. Lies. Intrigue. And reluctant heroes. Get to know the Black Hills…
....Drew Tao left the Black Hills in disgrace, banished by his father. He has spent the last ten years a lone wolf, living on his own. Called back home, he finally gets the chance to set things right. If such a thing is possible….
....Betty Holden has hated her mate every day for the last ten years for abandoning her and their pack. She's been running things in Los Lobos, and she has no intention of letting Drew Tao slip back into her life like nothing has changed-even if she has never been able to resist him. 
....Can there be forgiveness? And can he protect her when another enemy arrives?

Genre: Contemporary, paranormal romance, action/adventure, shapeshifters, urban fantasy
Heat level: 4
Word count: 19k
Cover art: by Fiona Jayde

Release Date: January 9, 2015
Order


EXCERPT:....The rain pounded on the roof of the white center hall colonial, a strong, loud rhythm Drew Tao had come to associate with New Jersey in the early winter. Cold, windy, and gray without any snow to bring beauty to frigid air. But none of that mattered. Not when he could be indoors working. It could be one hundred degrees and sunny. When he was working, he hardly noticed. Finishing his task mattered more than anything else.
....Drew stepped back to survey the entertainment unit he’d spent the last two days building for his client—a couple in their early twenties had commissioned his custom work for their sixty-inch flat-screen television. They would be happy with what he had created. He’d left ample space for every accessory they wanted and some places for the wife to display decorative touches. All oak, as they’d requested.
....He smiled; finishing the piece was a good day’s work, and he took satisfaction in knowing the few useful skills he had in this human world could make others happy. His hands tingled. It was almost time for him to move on. Staying in one place for too long made his wolf-side twitchy. When things started to feel too much like home, he suddenly craved his pack.
....And the spirits knew he’d never have that again.
....The phone in his pocket vibrated, and he ignored it. Several clients were waiting to hear from him about whether or not he’d be able to work for them in the next couple of weeks. Since he needed to move on, the answer would have to be a resounding no. He could wait a few more hours to send his regrets.
....It vibrated again, and he groaned. “Pushy client.” Maybe he’d dodged a proverbial bullet by deciding it was time to go.
....He pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at the message. It wasn’t a number he recognized, but he never stored any names. What was the point? Anyone calling or texting constituted a temporary client who became a temporary acquaintance during his time with them. No one worth remembering—no possibility of friends or family. He’s dying.
....Drew forgot to breathe for a second.


About the Author:....As a teenager, I would hide in my room to read my favorite romance novels when I was supposed to be doing my homework. I hope, these days, that my parents think it was worth it.
....I am the mother of three adorable boys and I am fortunate to be married to my best friend. We’ve just moved from New Jersey to Texas where I am learning to love Barbecue!
....I am in love with science fiction, fantasy and the paranormal and try to use all these elements in my writing. I've been told I'm a little bloodthirsty so I hope that when you read my work you'll enjoy the action-packed ride that always ends in romance. I love to write series because I love to see characters develop over time and it always makes me happy to see my favorite characters make guest appearances in other books. In my world anything is possible, anything can happen, and you should suspect that it will.