Rinda Elliott's Blog, page 7

The new M/M romantic suspense series I’m writing with author, Jocelynn Drake, is getting very close to launch time!!

Today we revealed the cover. The ebook is coming out October 27th and we’re planning to have print versions available as well. We’re self-publishing this project together and one of the coolest things is how our families are jumping in to help. My brother’s band supplied the music for a book trailer video coming out very soon and Jocelynn’s talented graphic artist brother designed this fantastic book cover! Thanks to Stephen Drake! This is a big, sexy, suspenseful book with characters we fell for very, very fast. It’s a completely new adventure for Jocelynn and myself and we’d like to invite you all to come along for the ride!

SHIVER

Lucas Vallois is always in control. He’s building an empire in the glittering city of Cincinnati and created his own family from his three close friends. The self-made millionaire has everything he wants within his tight grasp. But his world starts to crumble after he’s jumped by a trio of thugs late one night after leaving a club. The warning is clear—give up his new property venture or end up dead.

Caving to the demands of his friends, Lucas accepts the help of bodyguard, Andrei Hadeon, as as he hunts for the source of this new threat. But as Lucas gets closer to uncovering the danger, he realizes the sexy Romanian bodyguard poses an even bigger risk to his carefully constructed world. Trapped by a need he never expected, Lucas must find a way to deny the shiver of longing he cannot control.

His brother. His warrior. His heart. Four friends. Unbreakable bonds.

Coming October 27, 2015!!!!

You can keep up with us at our website or our Tumblr  where we share the sexy inspirations for our books! We’re also on Facebook and Twitter.

Jocelynn Drake and I are announcing the title and publication date of the first book in our new M/M romantic suspense series. Here’s all the fun info!   http://drakeandelliott.com/2015/09/shiver/

If you like big suspenseful m/m romance novels, I’m doing a new project with a new co-writer.

Jocelynn Drake is a wonderfully talented, NYT Bestselling author of urban fantasy and we met briefly years ago at a Romance Writers of America conference. But we didn’t click until later. She read my Dani Worth Kithran stories and loved them as much as I do. I don’t have a huge audience for those and to hear that someone enjoyed them so much meant a lot to me. They are what you’d call a part of a niche genre…or genres. LGBT, erotic, menage, and space opera. LOL. So we became friends. I later introduced her to my favorite contemporary m/m romance series (Abigail Roux’s Cut and Run) then some of my other favorites in that genre and she was hooked, too. We decided to do a fun project together and then met in person again this year at the Romantic Times Convention. We ended up spending most of the trip working.

We’re both so excited about our new series and will have news soon. In the meantime, you can keep up with us in several places.

Our Website– Still under construction

Our Tumblr-   This is going to be a pretty sexy Tumblr. We’re posting images of characters and places that inspire our series.

Our Twitter-

Short and sweet this time. Excerpt of FORETOLD for the Summer YA Book Party!

The sheriff, a long, lanky guy with a shock of orange-ish hair sticking out from under a

black wool cap, hooked his thumbs in the front pockets of his jeans. “You say you’re eighteen.” His skeptical expression didn’t escape me. I got this a lot from my looks, but I had shown him my license. “And you drove all the way here, in a snowstorm, from where?”

“Florida.” I carefully did not look at Vanir’s aunt, Sarah. Her last name, Eir, had freaked

me out. Eir, in Norse mythology, had been the goddess of medical skill. The magic radiating

from this woman like heat from a bonfire confused me. It hung thick and sweet in the air,

smelling faintly of citrus. It was a good smell. Clean, healthy. She was a full practitioner of

seidr magic. Too many things were falling into place. Fear coiled behind the wooziness that had finally settled in with a vengeance. This was too much.

Way. Too. Much.

Seidr, a Norse magic practiced mostly by women, could gift someone with abilities

ranging from trance prophecy—like mine—to healing. It was believed by some to even be

behind the berserkers who raged like insane people into battles. Reminded of Kat’s last

prophecy, I frowned. Mom’s magic was definitely not seidr.

The cop, who must have noticed my attention had wandered, squatted in front of me. I

cut my gaze to him too fast and swayed in the chair. Hands came down on my shoulders. That weird comfort seeped through my clothes and under my skin. Vanir.

He was still pissed. I felt it in the tension pouring off him. And he had to be curious about

the rune tempus—yet he comforted me. I wasn’t imagining the narcoticlike sensation coming from his hands, either. Made me think of the stories of Odin and his use of seidr. Men had practiced it but were often considered feminine for doing so. Vanir was anything but feminine.

Boggled the mind to know I was being touched by a future warrior, one who carried part

of the Allfather’s soul. And that I was surrounded by the very kinds of people my mother had spent my lifetime keeping away from me.

Another goodie for the readers at the Summer YA Book Party!

The confusion he made me feel did what confusion always did to me. Made me mad. I hated not knowing what was going on at all times, hated the blurred edges that showed up too often in life. “Don’t be flattered. I came because I thought my mother might try to hurt you, but I found out this morning that she went to Oklahoma, so I don’t have to stay.”

It was his turn to look confused. “So you think your mother left Florida to come all the way here to hurt me, but now she’s in Oklahoma. That’s kind of crazy.” He grinned. “It’s also kind of cool to have a girl riding to my rescue. Who’s your mom?”

“That’s not important now that I don’t have to stay.”

“But you do have a god or goddess’s soul, don’t you?”

I squeezed my eyes shut, took a long deep breath, then looked at him again. “I can’t believe you’re asking me that question. You don’t think that’s a strange thing to ask someone?”

Right then, I flashed back to my conversation with Raven that morning.

“Vanir has brothers, all with Norse names, and they look like their Choctaw-Irish father. And everyone here knows what’s going on. I just know it. This whole situation is too surreal, Kat. We’ve spent all our lives hiding our magic, knowing others don’t even know about it, and I walk into a family who knows things. Even the sheriff, I think. It’s like I marched right into a book.”

“Sounds like it’s all coming together. Ragnarok. Just like the stories.”

Arun moved away from the table, surprising me once he was standing next to me. I had to look up more than I’d expected. I’d been wrong at the truck stop—he as probably a couple of inches over six feet. “It is a strange thing to ask someone, but I sort of have this sixth sense where people like us are concerned. It’s like a kind of electricity that makes my skin prickle. See?” He slid the sleeve of his blue sweater up, and I could actually see the blond hair on his arms standing at attention.

“Does it stay like that?”

“Nah. It’s only for a little while. It’s like my body has to get used to being around someone like us. It won’t happen again after a few days. Should have seen the hair on my head the day Tyrone showed up here from Kansas. Couldn’t tame the spiky Mohawk no matter how much gel I used.” He nodded toward the door. “Tyrone is that big guy you saw outside.”

“He’s one of us?” And like that, I jumped on his crazy train. Years of keeping quiet, of never talking about the magical part of my life just flew out of the window. “There are more here?”

He nodded as the sound of snow on the plastic roof and walls grew louder. Wincing, he looked up. “It’s getting worse. And so many have been coming lately. We worry that some will get lost in the woods.”

“Who’s we?”

“My family. My mother, her brother and his wife. They started these greenhouses when I was a baby—when my mother first realized what was going on. She was raised on the stories of Ragnarok. When she realized I carried Freyr’s soul, she and my uncle Axel got the first greenhouse going.”

He just threw out the name Freyr. The word Ragnarok. So matter-of-fact. Like they were normal words—words that were a part of anyone’s usual daily conversations. I’d known who he carried the second I’d seen the tabloid article, and my suspicion had been confirmed when I had seen how absurdly good-looking he was. But suddenly I wanted to know so, so much. “I’ve never met anyone other than my sisters who carries someone’s soul. Does he squirm around in your chest? Make you feel crazy emotions? Cause pain?” I stopped, chewed on my lip. “Does he make your life a living hell?”

He frowned. “You can feel yours moving? Nobody has said they can feel theirs.” He shuddered, horror darkening his expression. “No wonder you’re so prickly.”

Prickly? Prickly? I glared. “I have two sisters, and they both feel theirs, too. If you can’t feel yours, how do you know he’s there? How did your mother know?” I pulled the tabloid article from my pocket and smoothed it out because I’d stuffed it in there when the cashier at the truck stop had made me angry. “So this stuff is true? You make crops magically appear?”

He took the paper, stared at it, then shook his head. “This is what brought you here? Imagine that. Finally something cool from this stupid article. And no, it’s not true. This thing caused us so much trouble. For a year after it came out, we were dealing with the craziest people showing up here at all hours. We got hundreds of Bibles in the mail. Hundreds.” He held up the paper. “I can’t believe this is why you came here.”

“So if it’s not true, how did your mother know?” Of course, I didn’t know how my mother knew about the one prophecy she’d drummed into my sisters’ and my heads our entire lives. The one about the future warrior with dark eyes and light hair who would kill us.

Arun stared at me for a few moments, then pointed to a leaf next to my head. It was partially brown and shriveled. He slowly reached out and stroked his finger over the leaf, caressing it like one would a small pet.

And as I watched, the brown part of the leaf fell off while the rest perked up. The attached vine lifted, thickened, as a healthier green color spread rapidly to the center of the plant.

Dark, dark eyes stared hard at me as my mouth fell open.

“Wow,” I breathed. “I tracked down Swamp Thing.”

A new excerpt of FORECAST (Bk #2 in the Sisters of Fate trilogy.) for the readers at the Summer YA Book Party!

Taran called and asked me to meet him for a late lunch at a fast-food seafood restaurant on Miracle Strip Parkway the next morning. Guess he’d decided to ignore the grounding. I picked out a pair of skinny jeans with a huge red-and-blue sweater—again the colors of protection—then put matching feathers on clips into my hair. The ensemble would all clash with the orange snow boots, but I didn’t really care. Color cheered me.

I was five minutes into the drive when I realized there wouldn’t be a lot more driving—not in my little Neon. The snow had let up the night before but now it fell in sheets. I hoped it didn’t stay like this because I couldn’t imagine how everyone would keep doing the things they needed to do. Get to jobs, schools. I had to drive slowly, and the entire time my hands shook because I was terrified of other vehicles running into me. Cars crammed the parking lots of hotels and grocery stores. I drove past stores with closed signs on the doors. Normally people would be on the sidewalks and streets…on the beaches.

When I finally got to the restaurant, I felt as if I’d been driving for days. I had to park a ways from the entrance because the parking lot was packed.

I opened my car door and swung my legs around to get out, and the wind nearly knocked me back into the car. Snow stabbed at the exposed skin of my face and hands as I pushed my way out of the car and slammed the door. I promptly slipped and grabbed the side mirror, dangling there. The healing wound on my palm stung as I held on to keep from hitting the ground.

A group of kids hurried past me, then stopped. I thought they were going to offer to help me, but the sudden raucous squawks of ravens drowned out even the sound of the wind. Hundreds landed in the parking lot, noisy, stabbing at each other with sharp beaks. The wind grabbed black feathers and drops of red blood, spreading them on the mounds of white in morbid contrasting colors.

A hand grabbed my elbow, lifted me, and I looked up to find Taran had come out. But like everyone else, he watched the birds. It was as if they’d been possessed as they fought each other. I wondered why they hadn’t frozen and died like the flock I’d seen before.

And again I wondered what the ravens were doing in Florida.

The rate their number was growing sent ripples of alarm up my back.

Taran pulled me close to him as some of the birds swarmed around us. One dived toward his face and he batted it away, then wrapped his arm protectively around my head as he walked me across the parking lot.

The scent of fried fish, shrimp and French fries made my mouth water when Taran opened the door. We turned and watched as other people ran toward the restaurant. Then the birds suddenly swarmed into the air in a tornado like formation and flew off.

“That was wild,” Taran muttered. He scowled as someone jostled into us, making me hit the window. Taran pulled me closer. “Hey, dude, watch it.”

The man who’d run into me grimaced. “Sorry. Never saw crows like that before. They freaked me out a bit.” He moved away.

“That’s because they weren’t crows,” I murmured to Taran under my breath.

He looked down at me, lifted an eyebrow.

The noise of the packed restaurant swirled around us. I stood on my toes to get closer to his ear. “Those were ravens, and it isn’t the first time I’ve seen them. They shouldn’t be here.”

“Maybe they’re just flying south, thinking it’s a regular winter—that sort of thing.”

“Maybe,” I said, though in my heart, I knew it was something a little scarier than that. All I could think about were the stories of Ragnarok. The ravens and the wolves.

It’s out!!! Here are some places you can order

My publisher Samhain-any format and currently 30% off so it’s only $3.85.

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

And how about a real glimpse of Pryor Bernaux????  

It’s out tomorrow!!! Here are some places you can order

My publisher Samhain-any format and currently 30% off so it’s only $3.85.

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

And how about a real glimpse of Pryor Bernaux????  

I’m certainly no professional, but I made a fun graphic that has story hints. I understand it doesn’t work as a wallpaper–not enough clean space–but I make collages for all the books I do and wanted to make one I could share. Mine are usually sexier and have images I don’t always own because they’re just for me. But I purchased the photos for this one so I could share one with you all. Enjoy!

There’s been a very nice price drop on two of my Sisters of Fate books. FORETOLD is now just $.99 at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. FORECAST is $1.99. So you can try the first book for a dollar or get the whole story–all three books for 6 bucks. Cool, eh? Here are the links!

Amazon

Barnes and Noble