Melisse Aires

Found a new yahoo group for Sci fi romances writers!

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:16:00 +0000

I don't really know many so was happy to find this!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eroticsciencefictionwriters/

Latest Reads

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:27:00 +0000

I've been home sick a lot since I had the swine flu so I've been reading. Sometimes all the energy I have is to set the scroll function on the pda and let the words fly by! I am getting better, and still have some good books to read!

Here's some I've enjoyed this month.

CHRISTMAS MAGIC

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:40:00 +0000

Two short sweet and sexy stories to put a little Christmas Magic in your day!

Brought together by the magic of Christmas…

Wishing Rights

In the normal course of life, they would never have met. An accident while foraging herbs throws Pascal, an elf from the North Pole and Mallow, a dwarf from the country, together. They share a passion for herbs—and for each other. But elves and dwarves are forbidden to marry.

Excerpt:

Pascal sighed as he pulled his hood back on and turned his back to the biting wind. Mid-November was a bad time to hike into the rocky heights of the mountains to search for coughwort. But it was also a bad time for an outbreak of the cough. Santa was nearly worn thin trying to fill in for so many absent elves.

Now the apothecaries were out of coughwort and he, being the youngest and strongest of the Guild, was the one elected to hike into the mountains to harvest more herbs.

Snow covered the heights and shadowed places but the meadows were dry. He found numerous plants and rejoiced that he would only need to spend one more night in the wilderness. The journey downhill to the North Pole could be accomplished in a day.

He went around a rocky protrusion and came upon a dry meadow full of coughwort.

He heard a gasp that made him jump a foot. It can’t be a bear, this time of year.

It was a dwarf woman, with a basket on her hip, digging coughwort with a tool similar to his.

They stared at each other, neither one moving or speaking. There was no contact between the elves at the North Pole and the dwarves who lived in the rock hills and forests to the south.

“I’m-I’m just harvesting coughwort. I mean you no harm,” he said.

The woman was small and very colorful. Her skin was a warm brown and her hair flamed like a fire. Even from the space of the few feet between them, Pascal could see that her eyes were not the ice blue of elven folk, but bright grass green.

And her lips—they were nearly round, and coral pink. Nothing like the thin pale lips so prized in elven women. Her ears were pointed, like his own, but they were a little larger and peeked out through her wild hair.

“Me, too.” Her voice sounded breathy, as if she was frightened. “Coughwort. The cough is in the villages down river.”

He nodded. “I see. We have it also, at the North Pole. I am almost done with my harvest, my bag is nearly full.”

“Yes, my basket is almost full. I will return home now.” She backed away, eyes never leaving him.

There was an ominous grinding sound.

She gave a breathy scream and he followed her line of vision to see a rock slide coming right at him. He lurched out of the way, but not far enough to miss the hits. He went down in pain.

* * * *

Christmas Wizardry

Merri didn’t know the magical world of wizards existed until Daniel, High Wizard of Earth, offers her refuge from gross demons. Alone together at Christmas, Merri finds his magical world fascinating, but she finds the man even more enchanting.

Excerpt:

Daniel, High Wizard of Earth, was not an insensitive employer. All his servants had mid-winter festivities on their home worlds or dimensions. As would happen every few centuries, this year all the different festivities occurred at the same time. This meant Daniel would be on his own for the first time since ascending to his lofty position.

Yardley, his First Assistant, tried to refuse to leave. “Really Daniel, someone should stay here with you. You can’t send us all away. What if there is an emergency?” Yardley’s jowls wobbled as he shook his head, but Daniel insisted.

“You don’t want to miss your nieces and nephews, Yardley. Think how disappointed they would be if you weren’t there. I’ll be fine. The dimensions will all be busy with holiday festivities; it will be a quiet time.”

“He can always get a hold of you if there is trouble and whisk you back.” Mrs. Garvey, his house keeper, was all for a holiday. “I’ve left many frozen meals, and there is a label with instructions on each one.”

She stuck something on the fridge with a magnet. “These are takeout restaurants. They will bring the food right to the door. Don’t forget to tip. Twenty percent. And don’t give them gold coins or jewels. Just the paper money.”

* * * *

Mrs. Garvey did leave many meals to be put in the microwaver, with small written instructions on each plastic container. It was lonely, though, eating partially frozen foods by himself. Daniel decided to go out to a restaurant.

There were piles of money in the treasury vault—he took plenty—and a few jewels, in case he needed them.

He found the car keys and was well aware the kitchen door led to the garage.

Years ago, as boy, he had learned to drive and he was pleased when the car engine purred to life.

The garage door was a problem, nothing seemed to open it. Finally he conjured it away. Once outside he had to conjure it back. Quite a time waster. He would learn how to open the door when Yardley returned.

The street was just as he remembered it, lovely older homes, with tall trees in every yard. His Dark Tower fit right into the neighborhood. No humans were able to see the magickal heights to which it rose, of course.

The houses were bright with colored lights and he paused to enjoy the displays. A memory of his father tacking lights up on their little house came to him and he felt warm.

Christmas, that was the holiday he celebrated as a child. He remembered the excitement of presents under the tree.

A tree. He could buy one and get decorations. It would be fun, and fill the lonely hours until his staff returned.

He thought briefly about inviting Maog, the Serpent Queen, to a Christmas dinner, but he suspected she wanted him to fertilize her eggs. He wanted no part in a serpent god infestation throughout his dimensions, so he dismissed the idea. She was quite lovely though, pity she always had an agenda

After much driving he found a tree lot, and the attendant roped a tall tree onto the top of his car. Daniel also got directions to a store that sold Christmas decorations.

The store was crowded and garishly decorated, but he was able to pick out a whole shopping cart of decorations. He also bought cookies and a book, written for adults, about cowboys. Christmas always reminded him of cowboys because of the toys he received as a boy—cap guns, a stick horse, felt cowboy hats and plastic chaps…

Feeling quite jolly, Daniel headed to the parking lot, only to find a horrock demon chasing a young woman. She wore a most revealing green dress, very short, with her pretty legs covered with green stockings and ending in odd shoes with the pointed tips curved up, ending in dangling bells. The horrock demon got closer and she smacked it with what looked like a book bag.

Well, that was only going to anger the demon.

Daniel stepped up. “If I may be of assistance?” He conjured some melt powder and blew it on the horrock, reducing it to a pile of goo in a moment.

The girl looked at him, squealed, and tore off.

Daniel was smitten. She had hair the color of cinnamon and eyes the color of milk chocolate. Her figure was trim but curvy and as she ran off he got a glimpse of a firm, round bottom when her short dress blew up in the December wind.

He wanted to taste her. How long since he’d had a lover…well, there was that swamp witch three years ago…clammy, though quite lovely…

While he was thinking, she moved several cars away.

“You’re not safe,” he called to her.

Her face went white and she squeaked. He moved toward her and her eyes got huge in her heart shaped face.

“Oh! You are safe from me. But the horrock demons...hive mind.” He tapped his head. “Now they all know what you smell like and will be after you. Though why they would be chasing you is a mystery.”

“What?”

Her voice had a husky quality that sent a little thrill down Daniel’s spine.

“You should come with me to my tower. I can find the breech they are squeezing through and close it off. They rarely make it to earth.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you! You’re a guy in a bath robe!”

Daniel looked down at his robe, a basic black velvet one he wore for normal work hours. “Hmm. I guess I should have changed into regular earth attire.”

The girl squeaked again. Three horrock demons surrounded her, swinging their long arms in agitation, their greasy hair bristling as they reached for her.

Daniel efficiently melted them, then hustled the girl into his car while she was in a convenient state of shock. “I hate the smell of those demons. Think I’m allergic,” he said as he roared out of the parking lot. “I’m Daniel, High Wizard of the Earth.”

“Alrighty then. If you’ll just turn left here, I’ll be able to get to my place in just a few minutes.”

He turned and looked at her in disbelief. “You can’t go home! Weren’t you listening? Hive mind. Until the breach is closed, they’ll keep pouring in, looking for you. Though, like I said, I can’t conceive of why they’d be after you. Those greasy, hairy things? Those are noses. They can track you through the whole city.”

“Well, what if I leave town? Take a bus or something?”

He waggled his head. “They’d still find you. You must come to my place”

“Oh. What about your place? Won’t they bust in there, too?”

“No. I live in the Dark Tower of Power.”

**Buy**

My Works in Progress and Upcoming Releases

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:49:00 +0000

A post on my regional NaNo forum got me thinking about this. I have the schedule in my head but it never hurts to write it down! These are all sensual level(erotic m/f) romances novellas.

1 Del Fantasma: Demonade This story is contracted and I'm currently working hard to get it finished and to AMP after the holidays! Love the characters--A half Demon life force/psyvampire, Trudy, and a staid ex priest college professor, Gabriel. Scroll back through blog for blurb and excerpt.

2 Galactic Game: A popular galactic viewcast survival game on a wilderness planet with two prisoners as the contestants. Kellac is actually one of the Sons of the Protectorate of New Prague(book two in that series, follows Cybot Awakened), a handsome exotic Puregen, while Gema has despised alien blood and has real concerns about surviving the Survival Game. After their sector is invaded by the aggressive forces of Emperor Sirn, the Game is over--but they still need to survive! Finished in rough, needs major editing. To Red Rose Publishing after the holidays.

3 Nightflyer: In a post apocalyptic world, rapidly changed by a comet with alien seeds that destroyed most of civilization by aggressively growing through cities and buildings, leaving thick forest. The red pollen from the alien plants changed humans into other forms, some predators, and left others human. In Wichita KS, Amber, a former teacher, cares for a small group of children who changed, while she stayed human. The children are unwelcome at the human enclave. When they need help, she must travel to what used to be downtown Wichita, where most buildings survived the New Forest, now the domain of Nightflyers, powerful, winged nocturnal humanoids rumored to drink human blood. There she finds the leader of Night City is her old college friend, Jesse. Finished in rough, needs major editing. Thinking to WCP Torrid. February submission.

4 The Mystral Voyager: Steampunk. Raised in the Construct Charity Orphanage, Mandilyn has a mechanical arm and leg. She is indentured to the kindly, elderly owner of an alien artifact shoppe, which is about the best life a construct charity girl can expect on planet Victolia. She is thankful for her respectable job, as many construct girls end up in dockside brothels. But her ability to get some alien artifacts to power on gives her a valuable skill. Cherup, her empoyer has exciting news! They have both been hired as consultants on an expedition space ship. And Mandilyn will receive a coveted language button implant so she can read, speak and understand many alien and New Worlds languages! She awakes in the medunit on the Mystral Voyager. There was a problem with her implant, she could only accept one of a diplomatic grade, an implant worth more than her life. Her old school mate Adare is now out of his forced service in the Victolia military and on the Mystral Voyager as a crewman. But life on the ship is confusing. Are they attacked by pirates--or are they the pirate ship? Planning/synop stage, for Samhain Antho in April.

4 My contemp romance novel, eventually for Silhouette. Planning/synop stage. Submission date unknown!

And Up Coming Releases!

Christmas Magic, Dec 1, WCP Torrid

Cybot Awakened, Red Rose Publishing, early 2010

Her Accidental Angel, Aspen Mountain Press, early 2010

Del Fantasma: Demonade, Aspen Mountain Press early spring 2010

RIP little buddy

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 16:40:00 +0000

It was time. We had some great years and many flights of fancy together. We shared the best stories. But all motherboards must end. The little table in the living room looks bare without you, and I already miss that terrific keyboard we shared.

Writing life must go on. I have a story due in January so I couldn't wait. Lucky for me, I write on my Alphie so am accustomed to a small keyboard.

NANO Failure!

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:31:00 +0000

November has not been my month.

WHINE WARNING

I started the month with swine flu, which turned into bronchitis, which aggravated my naasty asthma, which required steroids, which lowered the immune system so I caught a virus(better than the last time I was on steroids and got shingles), which aggravated my asthma....so while I have had time off work it wasn't a great writing time due to fatigue. I read alot.

On the writer side I did edits on two stories( Christmas Magic Duet) and signed a contract for Del Fantasma: Demonade, which I am finishing up, but it is not NANO worthy since it was already half done.

I could hop back on the contemporary and probably will, but today as I sucked on my nebulizer I had a Great Idea! Maybe duoneb boosts creativity, or maybe my muse is feeling generous--my birthday was this week.

Anyhow, this idea is a steampunk romance. My heroine is an indentured servant who works in an alien antiquities shop, adores clothes(which she squanders her pitiful wages upon), and has an amazing talent some alien artifact hunters are really interested in. Our hero is a alien artifact hunter, of course.

Yikes. Nano!

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:17:00 +0000

I had the flu, followed by bronchitis, so not too much writing going on. Today I did edits, will send them tonight, and I also signed a contract for Del Fantasma: Demonade! So I will be getting Demonade finished and sent this month.

I hate giving up my Nano story, so I won't give it up. I am going to add a slight paranormal/magical element to it that was in the original plan that I took out to gear it toward HAR.

Harlequin is starting an epublishing venture!!! No category lines to fit. Very exciting.

NANO 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:28:00 +0000

Well, I wasn't going to Nano. Then I was going to Nano as a rebel. But I've had this idea at the back of my brain for some time and decided--Why Not??? It's a novel idea, straight contemporary.

I'm not a novel writer, but we'll see. It's a short novel.

Blurb: INTERNET WIFE

Zeke moved to the mountains with his young son after he lost his wife and athletic career in a car accident. While his athletic career made him financially stable, he now runs an organic farm and plans to stay in his mountain retreat.

But his son is ready to start school, and the nearest school is an hour away on treacherous mountain roads. Most people around White Elk, WY, home school until the kids start high school. Zeke does not feel up to that.

While surfing his favorite website, Homesteading the Rockies, he sees the personal adds. It seems to be the perfect solution. He will advertise for a wife who can home school.

Molly is a young widow with a one year old. Due to her husband's long illness and her own difficult pregnancy, she is living in a women's home and working at the only cooking job she could find with hours suitable for daycare. She is discouraged with her housing situation and lack of freedom. The people who run the house are generous and she'd grateful, but she can't express her personal nontraditional beliefs in anyway, nor does she have time with her daughter or any real privacy. It will take her forever to get back one her feet.

While at the library she surfs for recipes and finds Zeke's add. It seems the perfect solution.

Will new age Molly and a jock like Zeke make a match?

Book Happenings

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:09:00 +0000

I have three publishers and quite a few ebooks on the way:

Aspen Mountain Press:
Available now: Del Fantasma Tiger Juice
Future: Her Accidental Angel(formerly Fallen to Earth) and
Del Fantasma: Demonade

Red Rose Publishing
Available Oct 29: Shadow Rescue
Early 2010: Cybot Awakened

WCP Torrid
Available Dec 1: Christmas Magic (Expanded re edit of my old Torrid Teaser)

Free Serial read : Fauntasy

* Fauntasy has been edited for Textnovel so is not a sexy read. I am re-editing it for submission with an editor who is interested in it, that sub will be a higher heat level than what is up on Textnovel.

The three things I plan to get subbed by Christmas are Demonade and Galactic Games, the story that follows Cybot and Fauntasy. One for each epub!

Halloween Hijinks!

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:25:00 +0000

HALLOWEEN HIJINKS!

Authors Melisse Aires, Maura Anderson

And Laura Tolomei celebrate

October releases!

Fun! Prizes!

Join us OCT 24^th at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BrendaWilliamsonRomanceParty/

Excerpt Monday!

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:22:00 +0000

Once a month, a bunch of authors get together and post excerpts from published books, contracted work or works in progress, and link to each other. You=2 0don’t have to be published to participate–just an writer with an excerpt you’d like to share. For more info on how to participate, head over to the Excerpt Monday site! or click on the banner above.

My Excerpt this month is from my current wip:

DEL FANTASMA: DEMONADE

The Del Fantasma series revolves around a Paranormal bar, the Del Fantasma, owned by a matchmaking vampire named Cody.

While my story is hot, this excerpt is pg!

DEL FANTASMA: DEMONADE
by
Melisse AIres

One night Trudy slid onto a bar stool at the Del Fantasma after a goth club hunt. She wore a black vinyl bodice trimmed with magenta brocade, a magenta and lace full mini skirt and high, shiny black boots. Most of the bar’s patrons were in casual wear, but she didn’t feel like taking the time to go change. She sat, feeling the tenseness of the hunt leave her in the familiar, friendly setting.

“Well, now isn’t this interesting,” Cody said as he placed the Demonade in front of her with a big grin. “Trudy, I’d like you to meet the learned man sitting next to you. Father De Russi.”

Father—a priest in the Del Fantasma?

She turned shocked eyes to the man sitting next to her. He was huge and broad shouldered, with long rusty red hair pulled back and tied with a leather thong. He wasn’t young, there was a touch of silver at his temples and fine lines in the corners of his eyes, but he was very attractive with a strong square jaw line, high cheekbones and intelligent grey eyes behind gold wire rimmed glasses. He wasn’t dressed like a priest, but wore a brown plaid flannel shirt over a tan t-shirt and khaki pants. With his broad shoulders and long legs he looked more like a woodcutter than a priest.

“Please, Cody. I left the priesthood well over a decade ago. Now I’m just an ordinary history teacher.”

He spoke with a British accent. She loved British accents. Two of her husbands had been Englishmen.

“Gabriel De Russi.” The man’s huge hand engulfed her own in a silky hot glide of flesh.

Gabriel was older than the young men she worked to attract for a feed. Too young to be a husband. Too attractive. Too full of life force, all together too much of everything. She snatched her hand away.

“Now, don’t be so modest Gabriel. Guess what he studied for the Church? Just guess!” Cody’s eye just twinkled with merriment. He wagged his head back and forth. “Man, I could not make this stuff happen if I tried.”

“Professor Gabriel De Russi is one of the world’s foremost scholars on demonology,” he continued. “ Meet Trudy, a part human daughter of Asmodeus.” He introduced her with a flourish.

The professor pushed up his glasses. “Asmodeus. Really. Then I gather you are older than you look. There hasn’t been a Asmodeus manifestation for more than two hundred years.”

“Um, yes. I am older than I look.” He’d heard of her father!

***

“Links to other Excerpt Monday writers

Note: I have not personally screened these excerpts. Please heed the ratings and be aware that the links may contain material that is not typical of my site.

Publishing News!

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 01:56:00 +0000

I have some fun news! I have a Halloween Release, SHADOW RESCUE, coming out Oct 28 with Red Rose Publishing. Some friends and I will be having a release party, Halloween Hijinks, On October 24, with prizes and downloads at Brenda Williams Romance Party Loop! If you scroll through my blog you'll find an excerpt somewhere

My Hot! Angel! romance will be coming out with a new publisher under a new title! I decided to retitle it Her Accidental Angel because the new title reflects the fun and sexy aspects of the story. It will be coming out with Aspen Mountain Press.

Also am revising and expanding two short sexy Christmas romances. Their contract was nearly up, and this is a good way to give these fun little stories some more exposure and provide a little holiday cheer. They will come out in December, expanded and revised, as Christmas Magic, with a Christmas cover, with WCP Torrid.

I'm also working on Del Fantasma: Demonade, which will be my excerpt for the fun Excerpt Monday Bash. I hope to have it to my editor at AMP in November.

No shortage of things to do around here!

A free read

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:53:00 +0000

Fauntasy

http://textnovel.com/stories_list_detail.php?story_id=1210

As a child I was obsessed with Narnia--I wanted to live there, but never could.

As an adult writer I can't confiscate the land of Narnia for my own stories, plus I prefer romance.

Fauntasy is my way to bring both those beloved elements together--a fantasy world I love and a couple who struggle to be together.

The Three Realms consist of three separate peoples or races, The Fauns, The Centaurs, and the Buntaurs. While they live and work together as one nation, the Purification Laws, now three generations old,keep each race separate, and there are no mixed families.

Tip, a Buntaur and Sylina, a Faun, have broken the Purification Law and Sylina is pregnant. She is in grave danger--few survive the Purification Camps.

Tip learns of a ship, sailing to an old deserted port. Can they escape?

Updated every weekend.

Del Fantasma Tiger Juice~Reviewer Top Choice!

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:28:00 +0000

Hearts: 4.50 / 5 - Reviewer Top Pick!

...As anyone who has read any of the Del Fantasma series knows, good and
interesting things happen when Cody Warren, owner and libation designer
extraordinaire, starts his matchmaking magic. There's no being
disappointed in this delightful visit to our favorite bar and
restaurant. Engaging characters along with vivid scene imagery and
passion enough to make you gasp make this tale an endearing episode in
the Del Fantasma chronicles.

~
SamanthaAnn of Night Owl Romance

Review

*Website*

*~*Buy Link *~*

Also available at *Fictionwise*!

A Bad Blogger Updates!

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 21:05:00 +0000

Cybot Awakened is making its way through edits and Shadow Rescue is ready for release!

This month I've been working on Galactic Game, which follows Cybot Awakened. I plan to sub it in Sept.

I've also been working on a fun and sexy short, Moonfest on Urloon about two weary refuges from a galactic war who have found shelter on a water world along with their ship's young crew. Their hosts, the kindly, cultured, water adapted humans, the Urloon, invite them to their annual spring festival.

Book on my pda that I'm reading right now! Harmony and Arcane Society collide!

A Bad Blogger Updates!

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 21:05:00 +0000

Excerpt Monday! (Plus Links to other Excerpts!!)

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:22:00 +0000

I have been working on a second story in my futuristic series. The first book comes out in January from Red Rose Publishing, Cybot Awakened.

My excerpt this week is from number 2, Galactic Game. This story has been a challenge because it was originally a 10k short in an anthology . The publisher and the anthology were very short lived, it never made one dime and I think 5 people (the antho authors and my editor) read it. I always loved the characters and the Protectorate Universe it was set in, and always planned to do something with it. I wrote and contracted Cybot Awakened, about the couple Sabralia and Kastril, which comes out in January with Red Rose Publishing.

Galactic Game now it is reaching the healthy novella length of 30k and I plan to sub it this fall. This story is about Kellac, one of Kaistril's brothers, and Gema who has a secret.

Some of my visual files for this novella:

Gema

Kellac

The Unknown Wilderness

Gema nearly groaned aloud when she saw her partner for The Survivor Game. He was a Puregen exotic, the rarest of the rare. Tall, bronzed, beautifully proportioned and muscled, he had silky black hair waving past his ears, high cheek bones, black lashes and eyebrows showcasing his rare, DNA modified, lilac eyes.

Regular humans didn’t have eyes that color.

Even among the Puregen population he was rare. An exotic creation usually came from a very wealthy family who could afford the highest quality lab. He was probably super intelligent with teeth that would never turn dingy or decay and owned an immune system that would keep him healthy and strong for the next hundred years or so.

So how did he get here, a contestant from a prison?

The audience was going to love him—which put her survival as the ugly, non-Puregen player even more at risk. Lucky for her she had friends in low places. Friends involved in gambling, who wanted to win some big money, and weren’t afraid to cheat a little. Or a lot.
She glanced over at her partner. He totally ignored her and checked their supplies against a list. The transport took off in a flash, back to the mothership that produced the viewcast somewhere in orbit.

Golden Boy glided over to her like every woman’s dream.

Even mine, she admitted to herself.

You could earn points by doing him, her wayward brain reminded her.

Gema felt her cheeks turn pink. She was not getting naked with Golden Boy for the galactic audience’s titillation. It was just a reaction to being with a male after years in the women’s prison.

“I have checked all the supplies. Everything is here.”

“Good.”

“My name is Kellac. I think we should talk about our strategy while we are free of the cameras.”

They had one day without the swarm of cameras.

“I’m Gema.” She reached under her shirt and found the sticky edge of her false stomach. With a grimace at the sting, she pulled it off.

Kellac stared at her, mouth open. He almost didn’t look great.

“What is that?”

“Oh, I was given a little gift.” She dug in the foam and pulled out a small com. “One of my cell mates had a contact who has an interest in me amassing some points.”

“That’s cheating! Gambling on the game is against the rules.”

“Ah yes, the rules.” She worked on the com. “By the rules of this game, I’m the underdog. Not Puregen, not beautiful or athletic, and I’m lame in one leg. Surviving is already going to be a challenge for me. And what’s the point of surviving but not having points? I’ll just end up back in prison.”

She looked up into his lilac eyes. “I don’t want to die. Three non-Puregens died playing the game. They had no support from the audience, and sometimes even had the audience out to get them. And giving points to the partner for betraying them.”

He frowned. “I have every intention of working as a team to keep us both alive. Those players that betrayed each other had no honor.”

“I feel the same. I won’t betray you, either.” She held up her com. “This is a solar powered, memory enhanced military issue com. It has a casing to look just like the ordinary com we are allowed to have. I want enough points to get to a world that welcomes non-Puregen humans. This will help me get there.”

He squatted down next to her, eyes on the com.

“What military issue? 9900?”

He was military, then.

“Better, 9904. Plus it has flora and fauna data for all the worlds and regions used by The Game.”

His eyes widened. “That information must have been difficult to come by. But with this we can find edibles.”

“Yes, and it has a lot of wilderness survival data, also. Predators, weather patterns, housing, emergency medicine…”

He stared at her. “Do you know how to use it? I’ve been trained on the 9900.”

“I’ve been tutored. Plus, it’s keyed to my DNA, but I’m willing to share it with you. If I die, it’s useless to you.”

She went back to the foam belly and pulled out an old fashioned paper writing pad and stylus.

“We can communicate on this and burn it in the fire. As long as we shield the writing from the swarm, we’ll be able to communicate undetected.”

“Good idea.”

There was one more thing she had to tell him. Her face got hot. “I’m not having sex with you for points.”

The audience loved sexual activity and gave generous points for the same.

He shrugged. “It is an easy way to amass points.”

“I don’t want to.”

The list:

AJ O'Donovan, Poetry (PG13)
Stephanie Draven, Paranormal Romance (PG 13)
Heather S.Ingemar, Dark Fantasy/Poetry (PG13)
Babette James, Fantasy Romance (PG 13)
Cynthia Justlin, Romantic Suspense (PG 13)
Kaige , Historical Romance (PG 13)
Julia Knight, Fantasy Romance (PG13)
Ansha Kotyk, Middle Grade Adventure (PG13)
Adelle Laudan, Contemporary Romance (PG 13)
Jeannie Lin, Historical Romance (PG 13)
RF Long, YA Paranormal (PG13)
Caitlynn Lowe, Epic Fantasy (PG13)
Shawntelle Madison, Paranormal Romance (PG 13)
Crista McHugh, Contemporary Erotic Romance (PG 13)
Bria Quinlan, Rom Com (PG)
Leigh Royals, Historical Romance (PG 13)
Megan S., Paranormal (PG13)
Dara Sorensen, Historical Paranormal (PG 13)
Bethanne Strasser, Historical Romance (PG13)

Melissa Blue, Contemporary Romance (R)
Jax Cassidy, Contemporary (R)
Christina DeLorenzo, Furturistic Sci-Fi (R)
Maya Doyle, Parnormal Romance (R)
Ginny Glass, Paranormal (R)
Amber Green, Romantic Suspense (R)
Cate Hart, Paranormal YA (R)
Kinsey W. Holley, Erotic Romance (R)
Ali Katz, Erotic Paranormal Romance (R)
Aislinn Kerry, Fantasy (R)
Inez Kelly, Fantasy Romance (R)
Cherrie Lynn, Contemporary Erotic Romance (R)
Mel/Alexia Reed, Urban Fantasy (R)
Rebecca Savage, Romantic Suspense (R)
Fae Sutherland, Contemporary Erotic Romance (R)

Stephanie Adkins, Paranormal Erotic Romance (NC 17)
Evie Byrne, Erotic Historical Romance (NC17)
Ella Drake, Erotic Contemporary (NC17)
Dawn Montgomery, Erotic Paranormal Romance (NC17)
Lauren Murphy, Erotic Romance (NC 17)
Kim Knox, Erotic Paranormal Romance (NC17)
Emily Ryan-Davis, Historical Western Romance (NC17)
Kirsten Saell, Erotic Fantasy Romance (NC 17)
Jeanne St. James, Contemporary Romance (NC 17)

What I'm Up To This Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 19:48:00 +0000

I'm getting edits for Cybot Awakened. Wow, seems like I just subbed it! I will be concentrating my writing time on that futuristic series since I realized I will have too many interruptions to get the Intrigue done by November. If I could just crank out 2k a day! But there's promo to do, blogs, publisher loops, and of course, reading.

I loved Lindsay McKenna's Time Raiders: The Seeker. It was a scifi Nocturne and I couldn't put it down.

Shadow Rescue has a cover!

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:39:00 +0000

This is my vampire romance, coming soon from Red Rose Publishing.

What I'm reading

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:20:00 +0000

I pick up books wherever I can--library, yard sales, UBS, internet. Due to budgeting I'm not buying as many new books and when I do they are usually ebooks. I'm reading a lot of Intrigues because I'm writing an Intrigue, but I have some Star Wars books here and a few steampunk. I have some old Poul Anderson Scifi, also, but don't know if I can find cover images online for such old paperbacks!

My Writing Summer

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 19:02:00 +0000

I'm working on a Harlequin Intrigue for the November Intrigue contest. I'm a long time reader(decades, I think) of Intrigues and have been playing with an idea for awhile, so this seemed like a great time to work on it. I've been wanting to write something longer than 30k-40k so this is a challenge since Intrigues are a minimum of 55k.

My Intrigue is set in North Central Montana. The hero was in a traumatic plane crash and has some memory loss. He also has new baby twins. The heroine is an artist, a little New Agey, vulnerable because--twins! He feels he is too old and jaded for the heroine, even though he can't remember tons of his life. And there's a sooper seekrit evil organization involved. All very fun to write.

I'm editing Galactic Game, too, the second book in the futuristic series I have coming out in Jan 2010 with Red Rose Publishing.

I'm also putting a fantasy romance novel, Fauntasy, on the TextNovel site. It is entered in the Dorchester contest, too. Here's the link--you can comment and vote for it, too, if you want!

A Free Read!

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 03:08:00 +0000

I have a story entered in the Dorchester/TextNovel contest. This is a story I've always liked but never knew what to do with because it has not -quite-human characters. It is a high fantasy romance, rated R for the site, and is titled Fauntasy by Melisse Aires.

Link to home page: www.textnovel.com/home.php I think you have to search with the title. Grr.

Basically, I need to have 6k uploaded at 500 words at a time by the contest deadline. Since the story is around 30k, no problemo.

It sounded like fun and I like to have something free out there for the folks that are having to count the pennies right now.

A Long Weekend!

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:28:00 +0000

On the Home Front:

We had a big storm last night that knocked out the electricity for hours so I went to be by nine! My daughters stayed up reading by candlelight.

We don't have elaborate plans for the weekend, just a nice BBQ and some kind of fruity red, white and blue cake. I would like to try and get a family portrait taken via our camera and tripod, always a fun time.

On the Reading Front:

I have a new book to read! I got it as an ebook so if the electricity goes out I can read it on my backlit PDA!

I also got :
Lisa Kleypas is a new author for me. I picked up her Wallflower series last week and just devoured it. Her hero's have a HUGE FLAW.

On the writing front:

I joined Holly Lisle's Write a Book with Me (http://hollylisle.com/writingdiary2/index.php/write-a-book-with-me/)
for motivation and because I have found of her writing books helpful. I'm on a quest to move from novella length to novel length, though neither of the project I'm working on right now are planned as novels. I'm planning ahead.

One thing I've noticed in much of my writing--unlike Lisa Kleypas-- it is my heroines who have a HUGE FLAW.

In Galactic Game, Gema is part Krzsch, a non-Terran lizard humanoid race, much despised by the lab created, genetically enhanced PureGen humans that inhabit the space system she is living in. Her lover is an exotic Puregen. Even worse, he is royalty on his homeworld.

In Del Fantasma:Demonade, Trudy is a psyvamp. She doesn't deliberately kill, not now that she is more mature and experienced in her feeding, but her past is full of death.

In my current release: Del Fantasma: Tiger Juice, Letha has psychic abilities and lived under the suspicion of being demon possessed in
the religious community where she was raised.

Works In Progress

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 17:16:00 +0000

I am juggling a few projects right now, all are follow ups for books I have contracted. Two are in early edits, one is in rough draft.

Del Fantasma: Demonade

(to be subbed to AMP this summer)

Trudy is a survivor. She is part demon, a psyvamp, who uses her ever-young beauty to steal bits of sustaining life force from young men she meets at clubs and parties.

Gabriel is a former priest who was once part of a secretive society that studied "demons"--defined as any being not human or animal. While he is now a staid college professor of ancient history, he maintains his interest in all things paranormal. And Trudy, introduced to him by Cody at the Del Fantasma, is very interesting.

Vampire of Solace Creek

Book two in the Shadow Clans series, Autumn Rose Line
( subbing to RRP late summer)

Rancher Bleach Dalton became a vampire as part of a military enhancement program but he's been able to survive on his family ranch with the support of Clan O' Kiernan.

His neighbor and childhood sweetheart, Belinda, arrived back in Montana after years away, pregnant.

A Chinook blows in, thawing the roads to impassable mud, and Bleach smells blood on the wind. Belinda is having the baby, and the baby is a damphyre --a day-walker. Belinda is going to need his support--and answers.

Galactic Game

A book in the Sons of the Protectorate series
(to be subbed this fall to RRP)

The Survival Show is wildly popular throughout the Puregen system of planets. Two prisoners are thrown together on a wilderness continent and watched avidly as they try to survive and compete to gain points for their freedom.

Gema, is not a genetically enhanced Puregen, and she is lame in one leg.She knows her chances of survival are slim. Plus the audience will adore her exotic, stunning lilac eyed Puregen partner, Kellac. To make matters almost worse, Kellac is an honorable man, and her lonely heart could easily adore him, too. But Gema has a terrible secret.

Then the Game is interrupted an invasion.

A new excerpt of Del Fantasma: Tiger Juice--w/inspirational pics!

noreply@blogger.com (Melisse Aires) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 04:09:00 +0000

The Del Fantasma stories are centered around a bar and restaurant on the Southern California beach, the Del Fantasma. Cody the owner, chief bartender and matchmaker, is a vampire. Most of his patrons are more than human. Cody's special drinks have magical power...

Del Fantasma: Tiger Juice

By Melisse Aires

Widow Letha flees a repressive religious community on the northern prairies, where she lived under the suspicion of having demon blood.

Her journey ends in Vista Loma, CA, at the Del Fantasma. Perhaps working for vampire Cody in a paranormal friendly bar will give her some answers about her psychic abilities.

Jagger comes from a tight knit clan of white tiger shifters, but he left the family entertainment business to run a contracting business. He hangs out at his friend Cody's bar.

When the Storm of the Century approaches Vista Loma, Cody works his magic.

Excerpt (rated R)

BACK GROUND: Letha sleeps in her truck because she has no money for an apartment. Cody finds out and has her stay in his office at the Del Fantasma.
(unedited excerpt)

A loud banging woke Letha from a deep sleep. She looked around, disoriented and saw the clock on the wall. Six am. It was dark for six am.

Another bang. She leaped off the couch and ran into the bar.
Thunder and lightening crashed and the door of the Del Fantasma burst open.

A man, nude, stood in the doorway as lightening blazed, outlining a tall lithe form and pale silvery hair. Then, in the man’s place stood a tiger, white with dark strips, enormous.

Letha screamed and whirled around, and tore off for the office.
There as a soft thud behind her, then a paw, white, with long claws, fell heavy on her shoulder, and she fell to the floor. The paw gently rolled her over as if she weighed nothing.

The white tiger with sky blue eyes stood over her, one paw still on her shoulder. Then the shape blurred, and a man crouched over her.

Jagger Kirillov.

“Don’t. Ever. Run. From. A. Tiger.” His voice was harsh.

She tried to catch her breath. “A-all right.” She couldn’t look away from his sky blue eyes. The heat of his naked flesh, held just inches from her thin knit, burned. In fact, as she took a deep breath, the tips of her breasts grazed his chest.

He gave a sound something between a growl and a purr that resonated all the way through her, even between her legs. Then his lips pressed against hers, hard and demanding.

She gasped in a mix of shock and delight, and his tongue plunged in, while at the same time he lowered his hard hot body on top of her own. She could feel the hard length of his erection pressing against her. Wildness flared inside her and she threw her arms around his neck giving back the kiss with passion she didn’t even know she had, sucking his tongue, while his arms pulled her tighter.

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