High Octane by Kathleen Scott

February 27, 2010 at 12:06 pm | Category: Guest Blogger, blog

Thanks for having me here today, Sandra to promote my latest Samhain Release, High Octane.

I absolutely love action and space battles and epic love stories. Combine all those ingrediants together and you get a story after my own heart. It’s odd how some story lines will come to you. This one began with a single opening line.

Bombs screeched from the sky, falling from above like lethal rain.

With a title like High Octane, I felt I couldn’t disappoint on the action angle. See, I like to start my books out with a bang. Literally. When I typed that I knew where I was going with this story. It was going to be a futuristic and involve a crack team of military specialists who jump between this dimension and the next – and it was probably going to involve writing a series. I’m working on book two now and I have to say, the deeper I get into the world of this military team, the more stories I find I need to tell. The men are hawt and the women daring and strong.

Here’s the blurb for High Octane.

 Two hearts are never more than one dimension apart.

A routine fuel run through one of the planet’s dimensional portals explodes in violence when Major Geneieve Lockhart’s Jumper team is hammered with an unprovoked attack. With her ship disabled and contact to mission control limited, Genie faces her worst nightmare—losing her crew on the blood-soaked floor of a foreign desert.

Help comes from an unlicensed freelance mercenary ship, piloted by a man she never thought she’d see again. Her AWOL ex-lover, Lt. Col. Dante Bowen.

Bowen knows answering Genie’s distress call puts his undercover mission to expose a governmental conspiracy at risk. But after faking his death six years ago, he owes her something. Ending up chained in her cargo hold for transport to his own court martial wasn’t the thanks-for-the-rescue he expected.

The bridges between them may be in ashes, but their desire burns as hot as ever. Even as Genie wonders what happened to Bowen’s code of honor, her body betrays her heart at every turn. The hostile race that attacked her ship, though, is coming back to finish them off. The only way to ensure freedom—on both sides of the dimensional divide—is to put her trust in the one man who betrayed it…

Warning: Contains action-packed dimensional travel, hot military wartime sex, betrayed lovers and evil, power-hungry bastards.

And what would a blurb be without an excerpt.

“Lt. Colonel Dante Bowen, you are under arrest as a defector and traitor.” Genie raised her laser pistol and pointed it at his heart. Her hand was covered in dirt and blood, but she held the gun as steadily as if it were mounted.

The years apart had hardened her, both in muscle and the look in her clear gray eyes. Hate and distrust came at him like a blast of heat. She meant business.

Bowen leaned against the back of the pilot’s seat, resting his arm on the side. “Is that any way to talk to the man who risked his life to come to a battle zone and save your sorry excuse for a team?”

“Don’t you dare speak about my team as if you have the right.” She touched the com unit attached to her belt. “I need security to the merc ship bridge.”

“Yes, Major.”

Bowen raised his brow at Genie, trying to look more casual than he felt at the moment. “Major, huh? I didn’t know you’d been promoted.” He let his gaze rake over her, taking care to make note of the thin synthetic undershirt she wore instead of her uniform embossed with rank insignia.

“A lot of things have changed since you went MIA and were presumed dead.” There was a distinct bite to her words. He expected nothing less from a loyal soldier like Genie. But there were more pressing matters at the moment.

“Instead of wasting your time arresting me, why don’t you make sure the ships are secure so I can get your rigid ass back to the jump port and your team across the divide before the Muloons return with more firepower?”

She shook her head slightly. Strands of shiny, wheat-colored hair fell from its ties under her flak helmet and brushed her shoulders. “They probably work for you and this is just another one of your brilliant double-crosses.”

“It’s not. They

will be back. Mark my words.”"From where I’m standing, your word isn’t worth much.”

No, it wouldn’t be. But he’d made his own bed where Genie was concerned.

The synchronized stomp of booted feet vibrated the floor under Bowen’s backside.

He’d told his men not to let anyone on the bridge and here they’d gone and let the one person in the beta dimension he was trying to avoid right into the cockpit. A shit storm was about to rain on his parade.

Someone was going to get hurt. Real bad.

He knew when he’d picked up her voice on the distress call it would be a bad idea to get involved. But he couldn’t stand by and not attempt to rescue the disabled vehicle. Even so, he had to tread carefully here or his entire operation would disintegrate like a house of ash. Or they’d all get killed by the Muloons.

“Cap’n!” Cozan yelled at him from the door for instructions.

Since he had no doubt that Genie would shoot him if he didn’t let her security team onto the bridge, and as long as he was alive, he could help them fight off the Muloons, he used his only option left. “Bring ’em on.”

Genie narrowed her eyes and indicated Bowen with a wave of her gun. “Cuff him and lock him to the bulkhead in the empty storage hold.”

Bowen didn’t miss the looks exchanged between the officers, but they didn’t question her orders.

The largest of the guards started to reach for his arm. Bowen pushed to his feet and turned his back, presenting them with his wrists. The electronic cuffs clicked into place with a finality that raised a lump in his throat.

If he had to die now, so be it. He just didn’t like thinking of his impending demise with objectives left unmet.

The guard patted him down, relieving Bowen of his more obvious weapons—two laser pistols, an antique 9mm, and a ceramic-bladed hunting knife. The guard spun him back around to face the Major.

“Who is your second-in-command?” Genie hadn’t relaxed her guard, even after his hands were secured behind his back.

“There is no second.”

“Then you better name one.”

Bowen watched her finger move a fraction, putting more pressure on the trigger. He shrugged with indifference. “What does it matter, you’re going to seize the ship, right?”

“That’s the greatest irony of all. Blackbeard’s vessel seized by the authorities. I can transfer my cargo and have mission control bring us in manually.” She shivered as if the very idea made her tingle all over.

Bowen didn’t bother to suppress the crack of a smile as it filled the side of his mouth. He used to love it when she’d shiver like that. Most of the time it was while they were going at it like a couple of horny teenagers. The memory alone made his dick hard. It was definitely not the right time or place for a walk down memory lane with her. But he couldn’t resist. He hadn’t been able to shake her with threats of the Muloons, maybe bringing up their illicit past would get the job done.

As the guards started to move him past her, he leaned over and lowered his voice so only she could hear him. “You used to love it when we played pirate games.”

*********

High Octane by Kathleen Scott available now from Samhain Publishing

Thanks Sandra, I hope you and your readers enjoy!

-Kathleen Scott

High Octane cover - Look at the size of that gun! Wowzers!

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Life and HEAs

December 26, 2009 at 5:00 am | Category: Guest Blogger, blog

Back this past summer when Sandra invited me to do a guest blog (thank you Sandra!), I thought, Cool! I’ve got about five months to write a post. Not too hard to do. Guess what? It’s now the day before Christmas Eve, and I’m trying to figure out what to write about here. So after some thought, actually it was a three paragraph ramble, I came to the conclusion that the topic would be about my love for stories, atmosphere and my newest release.

I like to tell a story that carry readers away from their daily life and put them in a world where just about anything is possible and the HEA is guaranteed. I think that “carried away” thing is why I like exotic settings or stories where the characters have ties to exotic places. It allows me to explore places I want to visit one day or those places I know I’ll never see. That’s the thing I love about books. They’re inexpensive transportation vehicles. Your mind does the walking to paraphrase an old commercial. The more exotic the setting, the more research you need (unless you’ve lived in the location) to get the ambiance correct.

With my upcoming Berkley Sensation release, Kismet, I worked hard to create the right atmosphere so that I could whisk my readers away to a world they might never visit. (Read an excerpt) I also wanted to create characters a reader would fall in love with. In the process, I wrote a book that has some roots in personal experience, and it became a cathartic experience that opened up old wounds and served to heal some of the pain that came with it.

As a courtesan, Allegra is extremely independent and always in control of her life. When that control is ripped from her, she’s not just angry; she’s experiences feeling lost and frightened. I think those emotions have happened to a great many of us at one time or another. Allegra is also extremely independent and determined not to take any flack. She’s her own person and refuses to be brow beaten.

Shaheen’s issues are rooted in a need for approval and a guilt his father threw onto the shoulders of the boy he once was. Worse, he allowed a courtesan to come between him and his brother at a very high price. When he meets Allegra, he has no desire to be impressed, but he is. Like most alpha males, this doesn’t make him happy. He figures it’s his body talking, but deep inside he knows it’s something else, but he’s damn well not going to admit it.

Against the background of the Moroccan plain, these two characters come to realize that the love they thought would always be denied them might actually be a realistic possibility. What I love the most about this story is that it’s about survival. It’s about experiencing a terrible event and having the inner strength to rise above it all. I understand that need, desire, to survive based on personal experience. There are things in life that can make one wish for it all to end, and yet with a little bit of faith, the offering of an outstretched hand, and a lot of love, that HEA is never too far away. It’s Kismet actually. It’s about believing in one’s destiny, and having the hope that despite life’s trials and tribulations we can all have a HEA of some kind.

So tell me about a HEA you’ve had in your life. Did you have to walk on fire to get there?

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Of Apple Cider and Foot Massages

November 7, 2009 at 8:57 pm | Category: Guest Blogger, blog

Today was a strange, strange day. Or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was just A Day.

I had writing goals for today, as I always do. I try to write every single day, a minimum of a thousand words, and slightly more now because I’m under deadline on one book and madly working to put together a proposal on a book I want to write so badly I’m giddy with love for it.

First, I went grocery shopping and picked up a bunch of stuff I was desperately out of, including allergy meds, which no one wants to see me without, especially me. And wow, that was a long sentence. But I digress. I also happened to wander by the drink aisle and found a brand of hot apple cider that I fell in love with way back in grad school. Oh, yeah, that went home with me.

But I got to the front of the store and there were no check stands open. None. I had to do self-check out, which I like when I have a few items, but not when I have an enormous basket of melting frozen items and wilting lettuce smushed under my canned goods. The manager actually looked at me like I was an idiot for trying to self-check with so many items. He got the Hairy Eyeball look in return. Cuz, seriously! I didn’t want to be there either! I hate shopping. A lot.

As we can see, it hates me back.

Then I came home to try to sit down and write and make those daily goals so I could forget the pain of the little automatic voice telling me to put my items back on the weigher thingy (technical term). And then my downstairs neighbor starting playing music so loud it shook my floor and gave me a foot massage. No writing got done. At all. I couldn’t concentrate with the floor vibrating.

I also had car issues today, which meant I had to cancel dinner with a good writer friend I haven’t seen in a while. That was the crowning blow for the day. Seriously, it took the cake. It didn’t help we were going to an amazing restaurant together that we both love and have fond memories of.

So, I suppose, while I’m sitting here sipping my apple cider–not eating my awesome food with my awesome friend–and getting my slightly nauseating foot rub, that what I want to say is stuff happens and that means there are days you get a free pass on the writing. Don’t feel guilty. Just don’t let it become a habit that gets you out of the habit of writing.

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Jess Granger, I Get By…

August 29, 2009 at 5:00 am | Category: Guest Blogger, blog

Hi everyone!

First of all, I want to thank Sandra for inviting me here today.  I met her, (over and over (okay I must have been subconsciously stalking her.  I couldn’t help seeing her everywhere.) at the RWA National Convention this year.

She’s a naturally open, friendly, smart, fun and beautiful lady.  I had a great time at the convention and really enjoyed our conversations.

I did a lot of people watching during the convention.  You can tell who’s comfortable talking with and meeting new people.  I love meeting new people.  I love making new friends.  I’m so excited to get random emails from people I don’t know, if they want to talk about the book.  That is awesome.

Maybe this thirst for getting to know people is part of what drives me to create new characters.  I love my hero and heroine, but for me, sometimes it is the supporting cast of secondary characters that makes or breaks a book.

Beyond the Rain is a dark and sexy Space Opera about two unlikely compatriots struggling to survive and escape an intergalactic war.

Here’s the blurb.

In a universe torn apart by civil war, a warrior and a slave must fight for their freedom, for their lives, and for a love that may destroy them both…

After five years behind enemy lines, Captain Cyani is ready to retire to her homeworld of Azra as one of the Elite — the celibate warrior sisterhood that rules the planet. But first she must complete one final mission to rescue her fellow Union soldiers. The last thing she expects to find is a prisoner, chained and beaten — but radiating feral power and an unbroken spirit…

Soren is a Byralen, an enigmatic people who possess a unique hormone that they use to bond with their mates — and that is sold as a sexual narcotic in the shadow trade. For years, he has endured torture at the hands of his captors as they leeched his very essence. The last thing he expects is to be freed from slavery by a beautiful warrior woman with radiant blue eyes.

Driven by her rigid sense of honor, Cyani frees Soren even though her life hinges upon the success of her mission. But after so many years in bondage, his hormones are so unbalanced that he will die if he does not bond with a woman. Can the lovely but distant warrior be the woman he needs to survive, or will the forbidden bond destroy them?

While Beyond the Rain is at it’s heart and core a Romance, and the focus is clearly on Soren and Cyani, I had a great time filling out the book with some interesting secondary characters.  Some of them will continue on into their own stories.

From Cyani’s loyal soldiers Hatch and Tola, to the exotic and slightly cocky Makkolen prince, Kaln, or the rugged smuggler-captain Xan, I find myself drawn to the secondary cast of men as inspiration for future books.  How could I not?  They’re all so darn sexy.  Especially Xan.  He’s trouble, I can tell.  However, at least two women, perhaps more, might have a story of their own in there somewhere.

I just don’t know what relationships with my characters will turn into long and interesting friendships that inspire full novels, and which ones will be a pleasant conversation or two, then nothing more.  Sometimes that’s the way life is.

I certainly hope some of the people I met, *ahem Sandra* turn into enduring friends, but I’m glad for the ones that come in and out of my life as well.  Like characters, we all have our place in the story.

I just hope to make the story as exciting and romantic as I can.

It’s been a pleasure!

Jess

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No Regrets by John Callahan

October 25, 2008 at 5:00 am | Category: Guest Blogger, blog

So Sharon came to me a few weeks ago and said she and her friend, Sandy, came up with this great idea for me to be the guest blogger on Sandy’s blog.

Huh.

Needless to say, I wasn’t as on board as Sharon would have liked. What the hell am I going to write about on a romance writer’s blog? But she was pretty damn insistent and so was Sandy. So here I am.

I guess you’d like to know about me before I go spouting off. My name is John Callahan and my story is Redemption (by Sharon Cullen). You can buy it through Samhain Publishing.

Sharon says that’s not enough information, that people want to know more.

Hell.

Okay.

Here’s how it started. I live in a cabin I built with my own hands high in the Smokey Mountains. I’m a Sheriff for a small department that doesn’t have a lot to do in the winter but gets our ass kicked in the summer because we have a lake that people like to visit. Catawba Lake. It’s quiet, it’s peaceful and it’s just about as damn perfect as God could make it.

Some people would say it’s boring, and ten years ago I would have probably said the same thing. But a lot of shit can happen in ten years. And that got me to thinking about how life changes.

What, you didn’t think an outdoor guy like me could think deep thoughts? Just kidding. But I do and I can and there was a time in my life when all I had to my name were deep thoughts.

I grew up in a loud household. At eighteen I knew I needed more and I knew if I stayed in the small town I grew up in that I would slowly fade away and become that dude who ran the local garage on the street corner. You know, the one who plays poker every Tuesday night and spends his weekends warming the barstool at the pub across the street. I didn’t want that. I wanted excitement and adventure. I wanted to see the world.

You can see where this is headed, can’t you?

I was a wet dream for an army recruiter and the second I stepped into the recruiting office, they were all over my ass like white on rice. I signed up, full of dreams of traveling and dodging bullets. Yeah, dodging bullets excited me just as much as the traveling.

I’ll spare you the details and just jump to my point (yes, I have a point). I dodged the bullets, I saw Iraq, Afghanistan, Japan and just about every continent there is to see. I made buddies that ended up being closer to me than my own family (if you want to read about one, read Luke’s story. Next time, Luke, it’s your ass writing this!). And I was recruited into the IATT which in laymen’s terms is a secret anti-terrorist organization. On the government books we didn’t exist. *I* didn’t exist and neither did the men and women I worked with. It was cool. It was exciting. And I was doing things I’d never imagined.

So how did I end up in a cabin in the mountains?

It all went to hell.

When I was 18, my signature still wet on the recruitment papers, there were a few things I’d never imagined I would do:

1. Be taken prisoner for three months in a third world country
2.Have my government turn against me
3.Fall in love with the most beautiful, courageous woman I’ve ever met

I learned that sometimes what you wish for and what you get can be totally different and at the same time exactly what you need.

I went through some deep shit and when Hope met me, I was just minutes away from ending everything. Yet, looking back, I can’t make myself regret my choices or my actions because every step I’ve taken has led me to where I am today–living in the most beautiful part of the country God created, with the most beautiful woman God could have given me.

It’s been one hell of a rough ride but I’d weather every bump again to have what I have now.

That’s it. That’s me in a nutshell.

I’m actually pretty stoked to tell you that Redemption is now sitting in the #3 spot of bestsellers over at MBaM. That’s pretty, cool.If you want to buy my story, you can do it here.

If you like my story and would like to read Luke’s, you can find it here. And if you want to bug Sharon, you can do it here and here.

Actually, this wasn’t so bad. Thanks, Sandy, for having me and if you find yourself in the Smokies, hop by Catawba Lake and poke your head in.

Here’s the blurb if you’re still interested:

Running for her life…to a man who’d given up on it.

“Go to Callahan.”

Pregnant, alone—and with no memory of who she is—these words are the only thing Hope can hang onto as she drives through a blizzard, searching for the reclusive Callahan. And when she finds him, she’s not sure which of them is more in need of help and healing.

Haunted by the brutal murder of the woman he loved, the last thing John Callahan needs on his hands is an injured pregnant woman. But with the storm bearing down, he has no choice. Opening his home to her, though, turns out to be far from simple. Her unconditional acceptance of him, scars and all, opens windows to his soul he thought were forever sealed.

Then he discovers Hope’s true identity, and realizes his past—and a powerful enemy—has come back to haunt them both. Even as he races against time to save her, John has to wonder…

Is Hope his redemption? Or his downfall?

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