Posts By Lindsey Loucks

Let’s All Pet the Demons of the Sun Cover!

On July 6, 2012 by Lindsey Loucks With 0 Comments - Cindi Madsen, Crescent Moon Press, Demons of the Sun, Pet the Cover

Cindi Madsen’s Demons of the Sun cover has recently been revealed for all to pet and admire. Isn’t it pretty?! It was designed by Taria Reed. The book comes out in August!

Soul Reborn Anniversary Celebration

On July 5, 2012 by Lindsey Loucks With 0 Comments - Crescent Moon Press, Jean Murray, Soul Reborn

Join author Jean Murray in celebrating her 1-Year Anniversary of Soul Reborn, her debut paranormal romance novel.

Soul Reborn

To celebrate, Soul Reborn  from Crescent Moon Press is on sale for $0.99 (original price $6.99) at All Romance eBooks for a limited time only (July 1-15, 2012).

Blurb:

THE HUMAN REALM, HIS BATTLEFIELD.

Asar, the Egyptian God of the Underworld, has been tortured and left soulless by a malevolent goddess, relegating him to consume the very thing he was commissioned to protect. Human souls.

DEADLY SECRETS BETTER LEFT UNEARTHED.

Lilly, fearless commander of the Nehebkau huntresses, is the only things standing in the way of the goddess’ undead army unleashing hell on earth.

Now an empty shell of hatred, Asar vows to kill the goddess and anyone involved in her release, but fate crosses his path with a beautiful blonde huntress who has a soul too sweet to ignore. But Lilly has a secret—one she is willing to sell her soul to keep. If the Underworld god discovers her role in the dig that released the goddess, she will lose everything, including his heart.

Grab your copy today!

Happy (Late) Book Birthday to A Shadow of Time!

On July 3, 2012 by Lindsey Loucks With 0 Comments - A Shadow of Time, Book Birthday, Crescent Moon Press, Louann Carroll
A Shadow of Time

A Shadow of Time, written by my Crescent Moon Press sister Louann Carroll, has been born! Here’s the blurb:

Kellyn O’Brien strives to create the perfect family. Then, disaster strikes. Her husband is dead. Three weeks later, she discovers her son is heir to Shadow Ley, a nineteenth century estate nestled in the Sierra Nevada foothills.
Reeling from Michael’s death, Kellyn moves to Shadow Ley. Soon, the ordinary becomes the extraordinary: broken drinking glasses repair themselves, stair rails that were once old are now new, and suddenly the estate of Shadow Ley is not what it seems.
She turns to the local historian and learns of Sha’ na ho bet, the angry fire god, bound forever to Earth. Native Americans tell her about Coyote, the Trickster who creates chaos out of order. Then the dreams begin with windows into past lives, hints of multidimensionality, and the promise of life beyond death.
Legends abound and so Shadow Ley, the home Kellyn had hoped would bring peace to herself and her children, becomes mired first in doubt, then in terror, and finally in love eternal.
Go forth and read this book!

Happy Book Birthday to Denied!

On July 2, 2012 by Lindsey Loucks With 2 Comments - Book Birthday, Crescent Moon Press, Denied, Kinley Baker
Denied

Kinley Baker’s Denied comes out today! First of all, check out that cover. I give you permission to pet it. Yum.
Here’s the blurb:

When invaders brutally massacred the women and children of the Varner, Caleb witnessed loss and destruction on a scale few can comprehend. As the leader of a race on the brink of extinction, his only hope for survival is gaining acceptance into the Shadow Shifter Kingdom. Struggling with new customs, he meets Tabitha, a woman who challenges his limits.

Refused the right to join the king’s guard because of her gender, Tabitha must be stronger than the men to prove she deserves to be the first accepted female Warrior in the kingdom. She believes Caleb will help improve her abilities, until she learns her goals conflict with the foundation of his culture.

When the realm is attacked, Tabitha and Caleb must come together not only to fight, but to find the strength to win against an evil with the potential to destroy everything they revere most–including each other.

Add DENIED as To-Read on GoodReads! http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13646204-denied

Denied at Amazon

Denied at Barnes & Noble

About Kinley:

Kinley Baker is the author of the fantasy romance novel, Ruined. She read her first romance at the age of thirteen and immediately fell in love with the hero and the genre. She lives with her husband and her dog, Joker, in the Pacific Northwest. As a firm supporter of all supernatural lifestyles, she writes fantasy romance, paranormal romance, and urban fantasy. You can find Kinley at www.kinleybaker.com.

www.kinleybaker.com

Books I’m Itching to Read

On June 26, 2012 by Lindsey Loucks With 6 Comments - Books, Fifty Shades of Grey, Reading, The Emotion Thesaurus, This Is Not a Test

Books! There are too many of them! Two that I’m absolutely itching to read and will have to be bumped up my TBR list are:

Check out the blood splatter on This Is Not a Test! Wow! I’ve loved the cover since I first saw it. It’s about the zombie apocalypse, so hopefully it will help me prepare my zombie apocalypse survival plan. I’m sorry, what? You don’t think the zombie apocalypse will ever come? Are you sure? Have you heard about this???

The second book, The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression, is a must-have if you’re tired of having your characters smile and grit their teeth and smile through gritted teeth. I rely on the authors’ blog A LOT!

This Is Not a Test is on my kitchen table. The Emotion Thesaurus is waiting for me on Amazon. I just have to keep plowing through Fifty Shades of Grey (umm, pun intended), then I’ll get started on both of these!

What books are you dying to read? Do you have a zombie apocalypse survival plan?

A Midsummer Night’s Blog Hop Character Interview

On June 21, 2012 by Lindsey Loucks With 8 Comments - A Midsummer Night's Blog Hop, Crescent Moon Press, Diane Haynes, Leigh, The Grave Winner, Wendy Russo

My lovely and talented Crescent Moon Press sister Wendy Russo put together a super fun blog hop. I joined (duh!), and Wendy paired me with the lovely and talented Diane Haynes, also a fellow Crescent Moon Press sister. Our main characters were to interview each other. Leigh is my main character from The Grave Winner. Micah is Diane’s main character in her book Rift Healer (more info about it below). When these two characters got their mouths flapping, sparks flew, and not the romantic kind either.

This is how it went down:

Leigh: Hey. How’s life?

Micah: Good, thanks. Hey, what’s with the hair? And the piercings?

Leigh: What about my hair? You have a problem with my hair? Of all the things to pick at, like my combat boots or my decapitated doll shirt, you have a problem with my hair. It’s a normal shade of blond, genius. Just like my mom’s. Now back off.

Micah: Is that a knife in your boots? Real classy. I carry a wand.

Leigh: A wand? Huh. My sister would love you then. She’s all into wizards and stuff. She’s read the entire Before Merlin’s Beard series three times. So do you do magic?

Micah: Yeah. But it’s nothing I can tell a ‘muggle’ about. And, umm…sorry, but I’m not really interested in speaking with your sister–I’m in love with a genuine angel. Her name’s Haley and she’s the most beautiful girl in the world. You wanna talk about magic? She’s IT.

Leigh: Oh, ouch. I just got burned. My sister’s nine, by the way. You’re probably a little too old for her, lover boy.

You can’t, you know, raise the dead or anything with your magic, can you? If so, stay away from Heartland Cemetery or else your face will soon get a nasty visit from my fist.

You’re in love with a genuine angel? Cool. I’m not in love with anyone. I thought I was in “like” with my best friend’s brother, but he turned out to be such a liar. But there is that one boy who always lurks around the cemetery… I can’t believe I just told you that.

So, this Haley girl-what’s she like?

Micah: I see the dead and sometimes I talk to them, but I avoid cemeteries–they’re a bit too crowded. Haley’s wonderful. She can heal the earth. There’s no one like her and I can’t believe I finally found her.

Oh, and lay off the tough-girl thing. You don’t fool me, or anyone else.

Leigh: Tough girl thing? Whatever. You must think you’re soooo smart. Don’t think for one second that you know me. You don’t know how it feels to have your mom die. You don’t know how it feels to have the prom queen come back from the dead the same day as your mom’s funeral. So take that big brain of yours and–did you just say “heal the earth”?

Micah: I’m sorry about your mom, but the prom queen? I see that sort of thing everyday. No biggie. And yeah, Haley just points her wand and the gashes in the earth close. She’s amazing. I have the ability to see people who’ll be important to me in the future and Haley is all over my future. I knew about her months before I even met her. The things I can do made her nervous at first, but now–we’re good.

Leigh: Yeah, right. No biggie. I suppose the inky darkness that seeps from her feet and kills everything is no biggie either, huh?

But gashes in the earth? What kind of gashes? Ones caused by earthquakes or something? We don’t have earthquakes in Krapper, Kansas, so  I wouldn’t know about those.

So you can see people who are important to your future? Can you see into my future?

Micah: I think you’re imagining the inky crap–that stuff just doesn’t happen. The gashes in the earth were caused by a rare earthquake in MA. and monsters were leaking out. It was up to us to heal the earth and close the rifts.

And, no. I don’t see anyone else’s future. Nice try.

So, who’s taking care of you and your sister?

Leigh: It’s so easy for you to dismiss everything I say, huh? It’s “no biggie” about the dead prom queen, or I’m just “imagining the inky crap.” Are you always so dismissive of people who aren’t “important to you in the future”? If Haley wasn’t important to your future, would you dismiss her too? You sound like you’re really full of yourself.

And my dad is taking care of me and Darby. Not that it’s any of your business.

Micah: Hey, let’s calm it down a bit.

Okay, so what did the prom queen say? Did you know her? Why do you think she appeared to you?

I don’t dismiss those who aren’t important to my future, I just…hmmm. Maybe I do. It just seems like there’s never enough time. You wouldn’t bother with someone just walking down the street–unless maybe they were in trouble, right? That’s how I feel about most people. Other than this conversation, you and I will never see each other again, but here I am, trying to understand you. And see how much fun I’m having?

Let’s leave Haley out of it.

Leigh: I’ll calm down when I feel like it. Yeah, I knew the prom queen, but her social circle is my social nightmare. I don’t know why she appeared to me. Probably because she was in the graveyard, and I ran off after my mom’s funeral. I almost stepped in the black inky stuff dripping off her. I thought my grief was making me see things. But I wasn’t.

I only dismiss people who are wrapped up tight in their own lives to even glance at other people. Like the prom queen’s social circle. Are you the prom king type?

Micah: Why are you so angry? Are you always so rude to people who try to help you?

It’s no wonder you’re not part of the prom queen’s circle–if I were as socially awkward, angry and jealous as you, no one would want to be around me either.

And yeah, I was the Prom King–what of it? What does that prove to you? That I’m good-looking? Not my fault. That I have a good personality & people like me?ALL my fault. You see, I make an effort to be nice to people and get along with them. Something you probably can’t even imagine.

You’re not bad looking. You might have been Prom Queen or even had a DATE, if you smiled occasionally.

You need an attitude adjustment.

Leigh: I’m angry because my mom’s dead, the prom queen came back to life on the day of my mom’s funeral, and I’m afraid my mom’s going to come back next, okay? My mom can’t come back from the dead looking like the prom queen with her mouth hanging wide open, looking terrified, and dripping darkness everywhere. She just can’t!

And I don’t see you trying to help me. All you’re doing is dismissing me and telling me I need an attitude adjustment. That helps me how? Why don’t you take your Prom King self and go make out with Haley or go heal a gash in the earth or something.

Micah: I’m sorry your mom’s dead. Really.

And I can help you. I talk to the dead, find out what they want and send them back. The drippy prom queen’s just looking for attention. They do weird stuff like that when they have something important to say. She will follow you around until you figure it out. I don’t think your mom would do that to you.

Since it all started at the cemetery, let’s go there.

Honestly, I’ve done this before.

Leigh: Okay. I’ll go to the cemetery with you. The prom queen just speaks in unintelligible whispers though, but maybe you can understand her.

Once we’re there, what will you do? Just talk to her?

Micah: You know, you’re kinda pretty when you’re not growling like a mad dog.

Leigh: You’re not so bad yourself for a prom king.

*They both head to the cemetery.*
They didn’t kill each other! *throws confetti* Yay! This was great fun. Special thanks to Diane and Micah for putting up with Leigh and me. If you would like more information about Rift Healer, here’s the cover and blurb:



After a minor earthquake, the enchanted forest in Bidwell, MA, is infested with monster-spewing rifts.
Gisele’s great nephew, the gifted Micah, and his distant cousin, Selena, arrive to assist. Together with Gisele’s summer students, twins Haley and Lacey, they will try to help the magical forest.
Much to the consternation of the beautiful Selena, Micah identifies Haley as The One whom he’ll share his future. But after witnessing a terrifying display of Micah’s Gift, Haley cools to his advances and unexpectedly discovers her own Gift– she can heal the earth.
Monsters, mayhem, and teenage angst follow the small group as they confront evil in the forest and a dangerous prediction that ‘one will fall’. Will they heal the rifts in time? Can they save the unicorns? And is Haley really destined to be with Micah?
It sounds awesome!!!
If you would like more info about my book, The Grave Winner, here’s the blurb and a link to add it to your Goodreads page (I don’t have a cover yet):
Leigh Baxton is terrified her mom will come back from the dead — just like the prom queen did.
While the town goes beehive over the news, Leigh bikes to the local cemetery and buries some of her mom’s things in her grave to keep her there. When the hot and mysterious caretaker warns her not to give gifts to the dead, Leigh cranks up her punk music and keeps digging.
She should have listened.
Two dead sorceresses evicted the prom queen from her grave to bury someone who offered certain gifts. Bury them alive, that is, then resurrect them to create a trio of undead powerful enough to free the darkest sorceress ever from her prison inside the earth.
With help from the caretaker and the dead prom queen, Leigh must find out what’s so special about the gifts she gave, and why the sorceresses are stalking her and her little sister. If she doesn’t, she’ll either lose another loved one or have to give the ultimate gift to the dead – herself.

If you wold like to follow the rest of the blog hop, see below:
The Interviews!
Gregor Caine + Circe (Christine Ashworth & Claire Gillian)
Sydney + Poseidon (Cindy Young-Turner & Sasha Summers)
Caleb + Arland and Kate (Kinley Baker & Krystal Wade)
Leigh Baxton + Micah Fuller (Lindsay Loucks & Diane M. Haynes)
Shayla Dormyr + Kara Magari (Raven Bower & S.M. Boyce)
Kellyn O’Brien + Julianna (Louann Carroll & Siobhan Muir)
Ivory + Sara Wiley (Rebecca Hamilton & Sandra Bunino)
Xylia and Landon + Avant (Avery Olive & Kary Rader)
Asar + Matty Ducayn (Jean Murray & Wendy Russo)

Happy Book Birthday to Wild Point Island!

On June 15, 2012 by Lindsey Loucks With 4 Comments - Book Birthday, Crescent Moon Press, Kate Lutter, Wild Point Island

My fellow Crescent Moon Press sister, Kate Lutter, is celebrating her book’s birthday today! Wild Point Island is available for sale in both mass market paperback and ebook formats and can be purchased online at Amazon and BarnesandNoble. 

Here’s the blurb:

Banished from Wild Point Island as a child, Ella Pattenson, a half human-half revenant, has managed to hide her true identity as a descendent of the Lost Colony of Roanoke.  Thought to have perished, the settlers survived but were transformed into revenants–immortal beings who live forever as long as they remain on the island.

Now, Ella must return to the place of her birth to rescue her father from imprisonment and a soon to be unspeakable death.  Her only hope is to trust a seductive revenant who seems to have ties to the corrupt High Council.  Simon Viccars is sexy and like no man she’s ever met. But he’s been trapped on the island for 400 years and is willing to do almost anything for his freedom.


With the forces of the island conspiring against her, Ella  must risk her father, her heart, and her life on love.  

About the author:

Kate Lutter believes she was born to write. She wrote her first novel when she was in eighth grade, but then almost burned her house down when she tried to incinerate her story in the garbage can because she couldn’t get the plot to turn out right. Now, many years later, she lives in NJ with her husband and five cats (no matches in sight) and spends her days writing contemporary paranormal romances, traveling the world, and hanging out with her four wild sisters. She is happy to report that her debut novel, Wild Point Island, the first in a series, has just been published by Crescent Moon Press. She is busy writing the sequel and her weekly travel blog entitled Hot Blogging with Chuck, which features her very snarky and rascally almost famous cat.

Website: www.katelutter.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/katelutter

Excerpt from Wild Point Island:

Despite what he believed, I never had a relationship where I felt so bound to someone and yet so constrained in behavior. Sitting so close to him on the beach, hidden from view, wanting to hold him, I hesitated. So I’m not sure how what happened, happened next. What kept us apart—the suspicions, the fact that time had elapsed and we felt a bit like strangers meeting again—all of it abruptly dissipated like so much fog when the sun shines through.

         His strong yet gentle grasp pulled me toward him, and he held me close, wrapping his arms around my shoulders. I felt in the urgency of his grip how much he’d missed me, and remembered again the dream he’d arranged for me, how cautious he’d been only days before. But dreams could not satisfy me now, no matter how real they seemed. 

         We pulled apart, but our eyes met. I leaned in and pressed my lips against his, chaste at first, to taste him, to spur his reaction. But that tentative reaching out soon exploded into the confirmation I’d been waiting for. Our desires cascaded in upon each other. I wanted more of him, and soon lost awareness of the cold surf, which melted against our heat. The roughness of the sea also faded into the distance. The spray of salt water was forgotten.

         I couldn’t catch my breath. I didn’t want to think of the future or eternity. Only feel sweet sensations as he kissed me harder and harder.

         Helpless to resist this love-making, I was the sand being thrown about by the waves around me. Soaked with a longing for him.

         His kisses grew stronger, and I wanted all of them.

         “Ella,” he groaned, sweeping the stray strands of hair out of my eyes.

         I reached up to touch his face, to trace the outline of his strong jaw. Desire flickered in his eyes, a wildness mirroring my own needs, and I wanted to lose myself in that need, in that desire. I wanted him as I had wanted no other, knew for the first time in my life I had the potential for loving someone who knew me for who I really was.

         It was intoxicating.

         “Can you take me now?” I asked. “Here. Show me what I have to do.”

         Indecision flickered across his face. I saw it. A look of a man who walked a tight rope and risked falling to the depths below.

         “Ella.” His voice floundered in his own deep emotion.

         But I reached over to pull him closer, and he tumbled on top of me. The weight of his body anchored me to the ground. Within seconds, my back was pressed against the sandy floor. His eyes grew hooded as his lips played against my mouth. Teasing. Caressing.

         Suddenly, the kisses changed. Slow and carefully placed, I felt a heaviness to them that made me ache where I had felt warm and riled up before.

         Aching to be with him in that way that I knew was forbidden to us.

         But what did I care.

         He was kissing me, and I began kissing him back, as if I had been doing this all my life, as if I were some kind of expert, allowing the pooling warmth in my stomach to find release. His hands burrowed under my sweater, nudging, rubbing against my breasts, which swelled to his touch.

         The feel of his skin against my skin pushed me to a boldness I had not known until now, and I reached my hand below the belt of his pants, dared now to touch where I knew he wanted me to touch. 

         “Simon.” I whispered his name into the air, so sure that he was the one. Knowing as we wrestled together on the sand, in this sweetest of lovemaking, that I had a fire in me that he had set. He was the man I had been waiting for. This was the moment–

         I felt resistance. Simon seemed to be struggling for control.

         Over me. Over himself.

         “Enough.” His voice, raw and edgy, strained against the sea that roared in the background.

         Still breathing heavily, he released his hold on me, and pushed himself to a seated position.

         My heart pounded. 

         “Have I done something wrong? Tell me,” I demanded.

         “No.”

         “Then why are you stopping?”

         “We cannot be together, not now. I was wrong to even start.”

         “Wrong? But I thought… ” I struggled to sit up, to face him, to put my own thoughts in order. When two people wanted to be together, how could there be something wrong? “Don’t you want to be with me?”

         His gaze traveled down my body. I felt his stare, the desire in it. “Yes. I want to be with you.”

          “Then–” I touched his arm. I needed to understand what could possibly be strong enough to hold him back. 

          “What I want has already been decided. You must decide what it is you want…” His voice softened. “… to do with your life.”

         A chill coursed down my spine. And even though my flesh was still warm from his touch, I pulled my sweater down to cover myself, not because I was ashamed, but without his closeness, the early evening breeze now felt cold and damp. I guessed what he was saying, but I didn’t want to think about the future. Not here, not now.

         “I want you to make love to me, Simon.”

         “The Council forbids it,” he said.

         “I don’t care about the Council. They have no say in what’s between us.”

         He faced me then, and his finger touched my lips. “I could take you, Ella. Now. But it would not be the honorable thing to do.”

         My fists clenched. I didn’t understand.

         “I made a choice when I saved you from your uncle’s dangerous game. It was not difficult because I wanted you, Ella. But it was my choice. The moment our spirits fused, everything changed. Until you are sure I am what you want, I cannot take you. Until you are sure this island can be your home, I cannot give into my passions. My world is not like your world. There is no formal ceremony of commitment. There is the fusion and then there is consummation. When that occurs, you will be bound to me forever. There can be no turning back.”

“In the Long Hallway”, a Horror Short Story Is Published!

On June 14, 2012 by Lindsey Loucks With 2 Comments - Horror, Short Stories

Yellow Mama published my short story, “In the Long Hallway.” Read it if you dare!

Research, baby. Research.

On June 12, 2012 by Lindsey Loucks With 2 Comments - Research, The Grave Winner, What Gifts She Carried

There might be another post with this same title, but whatever. It’s summer, and I’m lazy. Anyway, I’ve been doing research lately on superstitions for What Gifts She Carried (book two in The Grave Winner series), specifically on the rhyme “Step on a crack, break your mother’s back” and lilacs.

For example, did you know this rhyme dates back to the late 19th century? According to The Committe for Skeptical Inquiry, it originated when racism was rampant and warned against marrying an African American. The original rhyme went “Step on a crack and your mother will turn black.” Yikes, this is offensive. The rhyme evolved into “break your mother’s back” in the 20th century, and the number of cracks stepped on equaled how many bones your mother broke. Ouch.

Credit

Also, lilac is used for protection against evil. That actually worked out well for me since lilacs are a big part of the story. I wish I could say I’d planned it that way all along, but nope. So if evil is crouching right behind you, sighing its icy breath against your neck, break out the lilacs!

Credit

Has anyone else run across anything especially interesting in your research?

How To Write the First Draft of a Sequel in 6 Easy Steps

On June 5, 2012 by Lindsey Loucks With 8 Comments - First Drafts, Sequels, The Grave Winner, What Gifts She Carried, Writing

What Gifts She Carried, book two of The Grave Winner series, is coming along. Not nicely, but it’s coming along. I’m already on page 36, so yay for that! It turns out that writing a sequel, much like writing any book, is hard. If you’re going through this too, here are some tips to keep from stabbing yourself in the eye with a french fry:

From www.bestuff.com

1. Open book one on your computer for reference. You don’t want your MC’s little sister to have a potty mouth or have a sudden fascination with vampire unicorns when she didn’t in book one. Well, I guess you could as long as there’s a reason for it.

2. Sneak in bits of back story throughout the beginning chapters. Readers may have forgotten what’s happened since reading book one and could use brief reminders here and there.

3. Look back at book one and remind yourself that it was crap too at one time. Don’t let the first draft blues suck your writing confidence through a straw.

4. Keep your novel outline close, but don’t be afraid to push it away every once in awhile. If a good idea comes to you that’s not on the outline, use it. If it surprises you, it will surprise your readers.

5. Resist the urge to go back and edit. Resist, I tell you! Puke up the story first, clean it up later. Ugh, sorry about that metaphor. I hope you weren’t eating.

6. Keep writing. Yes, that’s a given, but even if you’re not feeling it some days, keep writing. Have a daily word count goal or a daily that-would-be-really-cool-if-I-got-this-many-words-written-but-whatever-goal. I do the latter ‘cuz that’s how I roll.

Anyone else have some tips?