B. Jane Lawson's Blog

Below is the second short excerpt from Ralph Stone’s point of view.  The Ralph Stone POV Series will be a continuous one until the third and final Morganna Cork novel is released.

The minute Callupo scents something with his hyper-olfactory glands he becomes ruthless in its pursuit.  How the heck he scented her on me, when I’d never been closer than thirty feet to her, is beyond me.  He’s always been like that.  Eerie predator senses, even better than mine.  They say when you lose a sense the others compensate for it by improving.  Callupo’s other senses – like emotional awareness – may be lacking because of his more primordial capabilities.

I lied through my teeth, treated him like he was nuts.  Dude – I said – you’ve really got it bad if you’re imagining that I smell like her. If you’d like I can take this T-shirt off and let you sleep with it.

I got punched right in the gut for that one.  Wasn’t surprised. I suppose I had it coming.

What did surprise me was that Ilana kept her mouth shut.  Pretended to not even notice my absence.  Even had Niko running circles to keep her happy when I returned.  For just a fraction of a second, I caught her eye.  The blush that tinged her pale neck and throat didn’t hurt the ego.

I digress.  That’s why I waited a week to come back down to the City.  Every random check-in Callupo sprung on me was a wasted effort.  I know him much better than he thinks.

I’ve been following her for a half mile now.  I have no idea what she’s doing.  We’ve been up Grant, through Union Square and she kept on with that brisk little trot of hers.  Like someone might stop her.  She’s wearing a navy pea coat and her hair looks like flames licking across the wool.

I smack my forehead.  Chinatown. Of all the places to try and keep tabs on her.  The smattering of shops, boutiques, carts and tourists ambling around make it a very difficult not to get too close in order to stay with her.  The aromas wafting in the area makes me salivate and lose focus. I home in on the shock of color that is her hair.

I watch her pop in and out of shops, haggle with some women over a pair of jade bracelets and then slide into a restaurant.  I’m so engrossed in what she’s doing I lose track of where I’m at, my surroundings.  That’s why I nearly shift on the spot when a mason-like fist grabs me by the throat and begins to crush my windpipe.

No idea where she’s at – Callupo says to me – I must be paranoid, you said.  The irises of his eyes have changed to wolf, but his body remains human.

Crap.

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Because I get a TREMENDOUS amount of fan mail regarding Ralph, my St. Patty's day gift to you is the re-post of the scene following the close of book two, from his POV.  Tune in tomorrow for part two!

Morganna’s been gone for three weeks now. My brother’s been totally batshit about it. That unique kind of batshit that only comes from being dead wrong. What did he expect? That she would run straight for him, arms spread, and thank him for what he did? If he thought that, he knows even less about women than I thought he did. And trust me, the bar was only a millimeter off the floor.

That’s the thing about most dudes, they are shockingly, nearly criminally, stupid when it comes to their personal lives. He hasn’t been the same since she pulled in our driveway a couple of months ago. He came back into the house and slammed the door so hard the living room clock fell from its perch over the fireplace and shattered into a thousand pieces. He picked up every shard of glass with his bare hands. I stood by and waited it out. There’s no talking to him when he’s like that. I’m glad for it. When mom and dad died he closed the spigot to his emotions, gone alongside the grief was his dark humor and my fun older brother. Morganna comes to town and he’s got emotions spilling like hot steam from a crockpot. No stopping it. I rather enjoyed watching him make a mess of things.

I suppose I could have kicked him in the nuts and let him know the reason he was being a freak show. But where was the fun in that? Besides, not my style. I don’t give out unsolicited advice, just as a general rule. Even when they do ask, they aren’t ready to hear their own truth. Then, they redirect their anger right at me and then what do I have to show for it?

He was going to rip my throat out when I told him that I knew where she was. That I’ve known for a good week now. If he stopped and thought for just one second he’d figure it out. Where else was I disappearing to for the entire day? To be fair, I didn’t find her on my own. That Ilana Smith is a real piece of work. She broke into Morganna’s credit card account and looked up the charges. I didn’t ask how she figured out the password. I leaned against the brick wall across from where Morganna was drinking a chai latte and smirked. Ilana was definitely something, underneath all that heinous bitch, she was highly entertaining and smart. Too smart. I chuckled thinking about her reaction to my hug. I’d cupped her by both of the ears and laid one right on her lips. That had shut her up.

A tall, fair-haired man joined Morganna at the table and I perked up. He dipped down and laid a kiss on her cheek. Callupo wouldn’t like that at all. Goldilocks took out a laptop and began clacking away at the keys. They didn’t talk, Morganna read the same book she’d been reading for three days now and he plugged away tirelessly away at his task. After a quarter hour, I checked my watch. I needed to report for duty soon. Reluctantly, I left her with this man and headed back to the Cliffside.

 

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I will be kicking off a book tour in November with the help of Bewitching book Tours.  Below are the dates:

November 1 Tour Intro (short guest spot, hello and welcome to my tour..)

Fang-tastic Books
www.fang-tasticbooks.blogspot.com

November 2 Interview
Roxanne’s Realm
www.roxannesrealm.blogspot.com

November 5 Guest blog
Lisa’s World of Books
www.lisasworldofbooks.blogspot.com

November 7 Promo
Faerotic Prose
http://faeroticprose.blogspot.com/

November 9 Guest blog
Melissa Stevens 
http://melissastevens.us

November 11 Promo
Publishing the Paranormal 
http://jbridgerwriting.blogspot.com

November 13 Interview
Michelle @ Mom With A Kindle
https://momwithakindle.blogspot.com

November 15 Guest blog
Carly Fall - Where Fantasy Meets Romance
www.carlyfall.com

November 15 Holiday related post/article
Bewitching Book Tours Magazine

November 16 Promo
Nomi’s Paranormal Palace
http://nomisparanormalpalace.blogspot.com.au

November 18 Interview
Books & Other Spells. 
www.nightskydarkstar.blogspot.com

November 19 Guest blog
Fangs, Wands & Fairydust 
http://fangswandsandfairydust.com/

November 20 Promo
SMARTMOUTHTEXAN
www.smartmouthtexan.wordpress.com

November 27 Interview and Review
Crazy Four Books
http://www.crazyfourbooks.blogspot.com

November 30 Guest Blog
The Creatively Green Write at Home Mom
www.creativelygreen.blogspot.com

 

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In honor of halloween, I've got a spooky short up on Fictitious Musings, read the full excerpt here.  

The hairs on the back of my neck rose.  That’s one of those hackneyed phrases you’ve read a thousand times, but you never actually think about what it means.  What is it about the atmosphere, the air around you that causes your skin to itch, your nerve endings to pulse and a shiver; an invisible finger tickles from your nape to the hollow of your back.

I felt the danger.  Like its own living breathing organism and I chose to ignore it.  I can’t take all the blame, though.  We are so disconnected from our primordial selves that we no longer respond to the impulses that signify alarm, brushing it off as superstition and paranoia.

I wish I had listened to those little hairs.  Then it all would have never happened...

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Evie at Paromantasy writes:

Callupo Stone may be my favorite non-hero hero of all. Kind of a weird statement, but it is true. He is such a complex character and his exchanges with Morganna are always a treat to read. They are both so passoniate in two totally different ways. He is strong, silent, brooding, kind of rude, and expects everyone to follow his orders. Morganna is spirited, funny, kind and free. She is happy doing the opposite of whatever Callupo orders and you just gotta love that. Together, they cause fireworks. The sexual tension between these two is through the roof and all I can say is...More Please!!

Read more of the review on Paromantasy and follow Evie of Paromantasy on twitter @paromantasy.

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If you're interested in getting into the series, Goodreads is doing a giveaway of four print copies. Click here to enter.

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This book picks up where To The Cliffside left off. We follow Morganna and her friends as they seek out answers as to why Aunt Aiofe is after her and Maeve. You would think that being family Aiofe would be seeking to help them not hurt them. Obviously she has become power hungry. Seems that dear old Grandmother Siobhan Cork had a big serect that she was keeping. Turns out this is what Aiofe wants to get her hands on because she beleives it can give her more power. Just what the crazy Aunt needs, more power, right? Morganna struggles through it all to find the secret before Aiofe does, even as her world starts to crumble around her. 

Morganna becomes stronger emotionally in this book. Whether it is from all the hardships that she encounters in this book or what Callupo said to her, the change she makes is good. Callupo told her to try and be nice for a change. Stop being the victim and stop waiting for someone to save her. She needs to save herself and stop being a doormat. Which is true because she did tend put herself in situations where she had to be rescued. 

Callupo on the other hand seems to be moodier in this book. He tries to avoid Morganna and his ever growing feeling for her. He's a leader. He believes that everyones well being rest on his shoulders and his alone. By being involved with Morganna that means that he is putting her above all else and he can't risk the it. What he doesn't realize is that as a leader he doesn't have to handle it all. He can get help and support from Morganna. I do have to say though I was happy that....

 

Read more at Amy's Book World.

Over the Cliff's Edge is available on Amazon.com

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All,

We're a month out from submission for publishing!  In honor, I've got cover art here for you!

Best,

B. Jane
[image error]

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Earlier that evening, an abrasive pounding on my bedroom door jarred me from my slumber. I was so tired my eyeballs burned. Since being flayed like a fish, I’d been avoiding sleep; I was afraid I’d wake back up in that cave. I  was nearly delirious with exhaustion.

Not wanting to leave the comfort of my sleep-warmed bed, I called out, "Come in already," because, really, who else would knock on my door like that?

All six-feet and four inches of Callupo Stone bounded into my bedroom. He was clad in a black leather jacket, jeans and boots. What could be said about Callupo that couldn’t be summed up with a meaningful gulp?

Shadows concealed his face and expression. "Get dressed. We've got some work to do." The words were ground out purposefully, every syllable calculated to deliver a moderated tone. I still knew he was pissed.

Since arriving in Puesta del Sol to work for my cousin Maeve at The Cliffside Inn, he’d been this grumpy, sexy, pain in my behind. Then, after an attack on the Inn by Aiofe Cork and her cronies (Aiofe being Maeve’s estranged mother) he’d been appointed my around-the-clock bodyguard. I’d made the mistake of going down to the beach alone, albeit to look for Callupo who I thought was injured, and been kidnapped by Aiofe. How were Anya and I to know that she had cursed some of the magical objects Uncle Brendan had left behind? Phantasmagoria was another one of her brands of trickery. After being held hostage for nearly a week, Callupo and his pack rescued me. Suffice it to say that I was devoid of independent decision making privileges when he was on bodyguard duty.

Also, Callupo was a werewolf. This meant he was stronger, hotter (I mean literally, his temperature was always feverish) and more ferocious than your average man. He was also strangely territorial, but I’m wasn’t going to consider the ramifications of that at this moment in time.

"What? Why? Where are we going?"

"This is not question and answer time. This is do as I say and let's get the hell out of here time." Yep, super pissed.

Since he'd demanded that I leave him be just this morning, I could be assured that this little excursion was not of his own volition. Instead of waiting for my reply, he started to pull drawers out and rifle through them.

“Do you have anything black in here?”

"Hey!” I shouted as he started tossing items onto the floor. “Do you mind?”

“Not at all.”

I slammed the drawer he palmed shut and threw my body across the dresser. Arms flung wide, I demanded with more courage than I felt, “You are not going through my clothes.”

Callupo took a step closer, crowding me as per usual, “Two minutes. Then I’m picking you up and hauling you out of here in whatever level of dress you reach.” He was much too controlled to let the door slam behind him, though.

I ran a hand through the lustrous, red hair that now fell in a thick tumble down my back. The spell Maeve had cast to make my hair grow back had caused it to return thicker and longer than before it was burned off. I tied it back in a braid before throwing on black leggings and a sweater. I chanced dashing to the bathroom to run a toothbrush along my teeth. When Callupo came back in, I was zipping up my leather motorcycle jacket.

He jerked his head and then I followed him silently as we glided through the quiet halls of the Inn. Down in the sitting room, the crackle of fire blazing in the hearth was the only sound. Two heads swiveled in our direction simultaneously. Ralph Stone, Callupo’s adorable younger brother, and my best friend Anya Demidov.

Including their dark hair, Ralph and Anya were all in black, as well. I gave her a questioning stare, but she shrugged her shoulders, apparently no more informed than me.

“Let’s go.” Ralph stood up and lumbered through the front door. We all followed suit.

It was early December and not quite forty degrees out. A thick fog coated the atmosphere from the ground up, and if the moon was still high in the sky, I wouldn’t know it. I shivered, partially from the cold and partially from the eerie cast to the landscape. How were we going to drive if the fog was so dense it obscured Ralph standing next to me?

Callupo slid effortlessly into the driver seat and started the engine. Ralph first helped Anya in then hopped in next to her in the back of a never before seen black Range Rover. I debated climbing in the back, as well, but Ralph’s cocksure grin stopped me, a silent dare. I glared back and slammed the door behind me once I was settled in the front seat.

At the click of my seatbelt Callupo squealed out of the drive, the force of the acceleration throwing me against the seat. The way we cut through the fog gave the impression that the clouds were rolling past us at a hundred miles per hour instead of the other way around. I envisioned what we must look like, a motorcade of one, headed to our destination on a top-secret mission.

I tried for bravery, but my white knuckles clutching the armrests gave me away. How could he see anything? We were like an airplane flying through a cloud. What if an animal decided to cross the highway? Or a person for that matter?

We were at the interchange of Seacliff and Main in less than five minutes, I cringed as we turned the corner, surprised that we hadn’t ended up on two wheels. We passed where Bar None, Maude’s and Gael’s would have been in a blink of an eye.

“You, uh, want to slow down?” I managed to squeak out.

Ralph responded instead, “Relax Morganna, our night vision is impeccable. We can probably see better in this than you can during the day.”

“Oh,” I replied dumbly. I wasn’t able to make my hands unclench so I closed my eyes instead.

This was likely a good opportunity to get some information from Callupo about our destination, but he didn’t seem in the chatty mood. Frankly, I wasn’t going to do anything to distract him from driving. Once we settled onto the highway the consistent rhythm of the car lulled me back to sleep. It was the most comfortably I’d napped so far. I was hoping it was the car and not the proximity.

Given my preference, I could have slept slumped against the window, my seat heater cranked all the way up, for hours. This mission’s director was Callupo, though. He shook my shoulder gently, as we switched lanes to exit the highway. When I opened my eyes, the first signs of dawn were showing.

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As promised, I've got information regarding the release date for Over the Cliff's Edge.  Exactly, three months from now, September 11, 2012, is my intended release date for the latest installment. It's also the one year anniversary of the first book's release.

I'll submit Book 2 of the Morganna Cork Series to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, etc., the Sunday prior, which should make the book available at the latest by the Tuesday 11th.  As Indie's know, pre-setting the date is currently not an option.   

Leading up to the release, I'll be posting teasers on June 11 (today), July 11 and August 11 so stay tuned.  I'll have the today's post up under a seperate header. 

For those of you interested in receiving Advanced Review Copies for review/blogging purposes, you can email me at bjanelawson@gmail.com to request one.  I'll be delivering those by the 1st of September.  

Thanks everyone for their suggestions on the Pinterest board, it has been fun to see your suggestions for characters.  I'll keep posting to the board in the meanwhile.

Thanks!

B. Jane

 

 

 

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