Guest Post - 29 April: Erzabet Bishop

Today I am very pleased to be hosting a talented writer on her blog tour. She has brought with her information and tempting excerpts from her latest work. So, without further ado I ask you to welcome

Erzabet Bishop

Erzabet Bishop has been crafting stories since she could first pound keys on her parent’s old typewriter. She is a contributing author to Milk & Cookies & Handcuffs, Smut by the Sea Volume 2, Hell Whore Volume 2 and Coming Together: Hungry for Love. She is the author of the Erotic Pagans Series: Beltane Fires.

 Beltane Fires

Series: The Erotic Pagan series

Author: Erzabet Bishop

Genre: Pagan/Wiccan, Erotic Romance, Pagan Celebrations

Publisher: Naughty Nights Press

Ebook: pdf, mobi/kindle, epub

Print: N/A

Pages: 21

Release Date: April 15th 2013

Purchase at: NNP eStore | All Romance eBooks | Kobo | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon Ca | Barnes & Noble | Diesel Books | Apple Books

Book Description

The first book in the new line “The Erotic World Of Paganism” by Naughty Nights Press

A recent breakup has left Ceri alone on her birthday. Her friends, Alex and Fiona, spirit her away to a Beltane festival guaranteed to light up her night. When everyone at the event seems to be a couple, Ceri ventures out for a walk along a wooded path.

In the darkness, the Forest Lord has come to find his May Queen. He is everything she ever dreamed of in a lover, but is she willing to take the leap?

Based on real Pagan traditions and celebrations, “The Erotic Pagans Series” brings erotica and romance to reality, and shares the passion of erotic romance in the lives of Pagans with everyone

Excerpt 1

"Good eve, little witch." The man moved toward her, his shoulders wide and solid as molded bronze. He carried himself with a commanding air of self-importance and her inner core began to liquefy. Already molten from the ministrations of the nymphs, she was aching to feel his touch. Tall, handsome, with a beautifully proportioned body, he was completely naked. His hair was a mass of brown curls and a crown of antlers graced his brow. A forest lord coming to claim her on a wild Beltane night. Desire shivered through her, and Ceri felt her nipples pebble with lust.

"Good evening." Ceri struggled to look him in the face when her eyes kept traveling down toward his now erect cock. His dark eyes were framed by a handsomely square face and his lips turned up with amusement as if he could read the inner turmoil of her mind.

"This a wild night to walk these woods alone, fair one." He moved purposefully closer and his rigid member bobbled as he walked. Ceri felt her mouth go dry. Her eyes met his in startled surprise as his warm hand brushed her cheek and trailed down the edge of her left breast, cupping it in his palm. How had he gotten here so fast?

"You are mine." Reflected light glimmered over his face with molten radiance as he stepped in and his lips claimed hers.

Excerpt 2

"How much further is it?" Ceri craned her head between the front seats and looked at the endless stretch of highway in front of them. The afternoon sun was already low and being cooped up in the back seat of a car for five hours was starting to wear on her nerves a little. She clutched her e-reader in her hand, the latest hot bondage novel giving her goosebumps and making her squirm a little with anticipation. Would she meet someone tonight? Goddess, she hoped so.

" Anxious are we? Not much farther, girl, just keep your pants on." Alex grinned and smiled at his girlfriend Fi in the front seat.

Ceri gave an internal snort. Keeping her pants on was not exactly what she wanted to do tonight, but it was looking more and more likely. Still, it was Beltane. Images of naked men running through fields chasing flower crowned maidens made her giggle a little. She was up for anything if it meant having a good time and letting the confines of daily life relax for a little while. Well, except for streaking. That was a little much.

"I told you we were going to be late Alex." Fiona swatted him in the arm from the front passenger seat.

"Ow!" Alex kept his eyes on the road and rubbed his abused arm. "Keep that up, little witch and no flowers at the festival for you!"

Ceri tucked her head down and had to stifle a snort at her two friends antics. Riding in the backseat, she marveled at their easy banter and found herself mourning the unexpected breakup that had left her alone on her birthday.

"Ceri. I see the storm brewing behind those eyes of yours. Don't even think about that two timing asshole." Her friend Fiona's twinkling amber eyes met hers in the rear view mirror. "Besides, it's your birthday, chicklet. What could be better than partying with us?"

Excerpt 3

"I've never danced a Maypole dance before." Ceri watched as some young men emerged from the surrounding woods carrying a long slender tree trunk. They wound ribbons around the top and carefully slid the trunk into the hole, letting the ribbons fly free in the afternoon breeze.

Looking at the fields beyond the festival site, Ceri noticed it was full of different varieties of flowers. The heady scent of their bouquet wafted toward her on the breeze and as the wind brushed her face, she felt a tingle run down her back. All of her teachings came back to her and she felt the pull of the earth reach up and tether her to this place. She had never felt anything like it.

"It's beautiful isn't it?" Marilyn smiled and pointed in the direction of the flower fields. "My family has farmed this land for generations. Here, surrounded by the woods, we have been able to hold on to the old customs and keep our traditions strong. Beltane is one of my favorite Sabbats. Celebrating life and all it has to offer is what it's all about, after all."

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Ceri let her gaze travel across the young men and women gathering in front of the pole that was now firmly lodged in the ground. She sent up a silent prayer to the Goddess that there would be someone for her when twilight took over and the fires wove their seductive magic.

"Come, we must get seated. It's almost time for the festivities to begin."

A gathering of young men with fiddles began to play a smoldering tune and the crowd began to rally around the Maypole. Ceri smiled and let the rhythm of the stirring music settle into her bones.

Marilyn handed her a cup of spiced wine from the table nearby and they made their way to the action. 

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I  expect you are thrilled about the Beltane Fires Erzabet. I wish you all the very best of luck with it. After reading those excerpts I hope people will be queueing to buy it!

Tantalizing Tuesday First birthday hop -9 April: The Mission

Happy Birthday Teasers. Tantalizing Tuesday is one year old so this week is a special week. The teasers have a birthday theme and there are prizes to be won. Our teasers are awesome, so show them some love. You may win a birthday prize.
Birthday Teasers

My teaser is called The Mission If you comment and join my blog you could be in with a chance of winning a NNP gift voucher to the value of $20. The giveaway is open till Friday 12 April and the winner will be chosen by random.org

Image:FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Captain Miles sat in his chair and looked over at his second in command. This was the first time Officer Willow had gone on a mission with him and he was pleased with their work.  He requested an up to date report. Willow immediately responded by pressing a few buttons and reporting the results.

“This area seems friendly, Captain. The air is good to breathe on the planet. Our estimated touchdown is in five minutes.”

“That’s pleasing to hear, Willow. Let us hope that is a true reading. We had better make sure of protection when exploring.

“Yes Captain.”

The landing however was a rocky one. “Hold on to your instruments,” shouted the captain. “Turn the main screen and speakers on, I want to see what this place is like.”

Officer Willow obeyed the order. Then twisting an earpiece said, “There is life there, and voices. Let me try to work out what is being said.”

Captain Miles spoke through a microphone. “We come in peace.”

A voice replied, “You are welcome. Come and join the celebrations."

  Miles hugged Willow. “Happy Birthday Sis.” He helped her out of the tree house. “Hurry up, we have a party to go to.”

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This competition is now closed
Congratulations go to Jake Malden

Guest Post - 4 April: Sherri Hayes

Today I feel privileged that someone I have admired for a while, Sherri Hayes has popped round. I asked her to tell me about herself and her writing. This was her response.

 First, I want to thank Naomi for having me on her blog today. When I asked her what she wanted me to talk about, she asked me to just tell a little about myself, so here goes. J

I’m 36 years old, and I started writing fiction about six years ago. If you would have told me in high school that I would be a published author one day, I would have probably laughed at you. English was not my best subject in school, but that was mainly because although I loved to read, I wasn’t very good at spelling and grammar rules. They made no sense to me, and in a lot of respects, they still make no sense to me today.

So how exactly am I now a full-time author? Some of it came down to luck and timing. Six years ago, I was following a television show called Prison Break. My husband and I both watched the show, and of course, being the romantic that I am, fell for the couple in the show, Michael and Sarah. At the end of the second season, though, the actress that played Sarah became pregnant. The writers of the show, not knowing how to work that into the series given how action packed it was,  and add to that the two characters has yet to have sex, it made for quite the dilemma. Their solution? Kill the character off.

Needless to say, this decision didn’t go over well, and not just with me. The fans went into an uproar and petitioned for the actresses return.

Why am I telling you all this? What does this have to do with me and writing? Everything. This is the reason I wrote my first story. I was so upset by the way the show’s producers were taking Michael and Sarah’s storyline that I, along with several others, decided to write our own happy ending for the couple.

This first story took me a little over a year to write, but when it was finished, it was the eighth most read story on the fan site. I had several readers encouraging me to write something and try to get it published. I still thought it was a long shot, but I began working on a novel anyway.

Fast-forward two years. The novel I’d been working on was written, and I’d also posted two more fan fiction stories online. One day, I received a message from the CEO of a small, newly started publishing house. They were looking for authors, and they’d read some of the stories I’d posted online. I sent them the novel I’d began writing two years before, and they loved it. That story was my debut novel, Hidden Threat.

To date, I have published five full-length novels:

Hidden Threat, Slave (Finding Anna, Book 1),

Behind Closed Doors (Daniels Brothers #1),

 Need (Finding Anna, 

Book 2)

                                  

                                         Red Zone (Daniels Brothers #2)

I have a blog dedicated to the Anna series where information and buy links can be found

Finding Anna Series

I also have a short story, “A Christmas Proposal”, 

which details Cali and Matthew from Hidden Threat’s first Christmas together.

Currently, I’m gearing up for the release of my sixth novel, Truth (Finding Anna, Book 3), which will be out July 25, 2013, and I’m in the middle of writing the final installment in that series, Finding Anna, Book 4 (currently untitled). I’m hoping to have the last Finding Anna Book out to readers beginning of 2014. 
You can regularly find me on my main Sherri Hayes blog


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I knew there was a reason to admire you. I'll be following you as I'm sure many others are and will do. I've already started buying the Anna books. Thank you so much for dropping by. You are welcome anytime.

New Release - 3 April: Cree Walker

Today I am really happy to welcome a friend and extremely talented paranormal romance author to my blog. You can check out her books at Naughty Nights Press.

Today however, Cree has something very special to talk about. It's her latest book which is hot off the press. A Winter's Grave is a must read and Cree has very kindly let us have an excerpt. Take it away, honey.

The initial idea for A Winter’s Grave came to me one night while I was out walking my dogs…yes I walk at night, you tend to be a little braver with a Doberman Pincher on the end of the leash. It was one of those weird summer nights when everything is foggy and quiet, with heat lightening flashing in the purple clouds overhead…as a paranormal writer how was I not to be inspired right? But I digress, I was out walking and my dog was really on edge and started to growl. When I looked up there was this guy walking towards me on the opposite side of the road wearing a black hoodie, then the street lights went out. I swear this really happened. I couldn’t have written it better. I kept thinking to myself, “I swear to God if he’s my Reaper I’m going to be pissed.” We both kept walking without incident and in the same moment the lights flickered back to life overhead the idea popped into my mind about a Reaper story and by the end of my walk I’d pretty much worked out the details.

Sometimes inspiration is as subtle as the scent of wild flowers swaying in a spring breeze and sometimes it’s like being hit in the face with a folding chair.

I was a little resistant to write a book about death but I had been wanting to integrate more humor into my writing and this seemed like a good book to try it on and though at times it was somewhat challenging, I think I pulled it off.

An excerpt from A Winter’s Grave,

Ceres, our main character is having a hard time adjusting to her new afterlife and an even harder time finding a day job. This is her first day working at a bottle redemption center.

The building stank of stale beer and mold from the bottles and cans. Even though everything was stacked neatly along the walls, it was an overwhelming amount of stuff for the tiny building to hold. She handed me a list of companies and brands that went into certain bags and sent me down to the basement. I was only halfway down the stairs when I had to step into the thigh-deep ocean of bottles and cans waiting for me there. I held the fistful of plastic bags and the list above my head as I waded into the center of it.

“You new?” someone screeched from the far corner of the room.

I jumped and looked over at the strange-looking, short, round bald man with pale blue eyes pointing in opposite directions.

“You new?” he yelled again. I was assuming this was his normal tone of speaking and I nodded numbly.

“Get to work!” He waded towards me, angrily kicking bottles and cans around like he was mad at them. “Gimme that!” He grabbed the list and pointed. “That’s Coca Cola!” He was looking at something, but due to the not so slight problem with his eyes I had no idea what… I actually thought he was still looking at me.

“That’s Coca Cola!” he screamed again.

I grabbed at something – anything to get him to stop screaming at me.

“No, stupid, that one!” He pointed with a big stick I hadn’t noticed before because it was mostly buried in the bottles.

I grabbed the bottle and stuffed it into the bag. Then I grabbed all the ones that looked like it until my bag was full. Then we started again. My nerves were rattled by his incessant screaming and I had to believe he was the son of the owner, or why else would she keep him? All he did was watch me work – like an evil little troll that lived in the basement, pointing his stick around and calling me names. Pair this with the jarring clatter of glass bottles directly overhead and I was starting to see why the basement troll was half deaf.

Titan, my tiny twelve pound hellhound, was okay with staying on the stairs until I wandered out of his sight; I watched the ocean of bottles move around as he made his way beneath them to find me. Unfortunately, I didn’t introduce the little man to Titan, and I wasn’t sure he’d even seen him since I had no idea where his eyes were looking at any given time. He screamed and lifted his big stick to spear it into the bottles. “Rat!”

I grabbed the stick from him and tossed it away. “That is my dog, stupid!” I threw the name back at him nastily. I reached into the mass of bottles and picked up Titan’s warm, furry body… I only realized my mistake when the creature squealed. “Ahh! It’s a fucking rat!” I threw the animal and immediately regretted discarding the large stick. I certainly wasn’t going to bludgeon the massive angry rat to death with a plastic soda bottle, but as it turns out I was certainly willing to give it a try.

The ugly little man had managed to waddle his way back to the stairs, gasping and heaving from the excursion. I stood stranded and motionless until I saw the bottles moving over the creature beneath them as he headed back in my direction. I swear I could hear the Jaws theme playing in my head. The rat was definitely headed my way, and from the sounds it was making, it was bent on revenge. I snatched a Pepsi bottle and started screaming as I swung it like an ax towards the moving bottles; panic danced into place in my stomach.

Another mound of bottles moved towards me and it looked bigger. I should have known a rat that big probably had combat training and back-up military reinforcements. They don’t get that big without help and good planning. I burst into tears. This was no way to go… again. I swung my useless bottle blindly when I heard a loud squeak. Then the bigger mound quickly retreated back towards the stairs and Titan emerged holding the dead rat between his teeth. Then he proceeded to eat it. Though I was grateful for his heroic rescue, I was rethinking our sleeping arrangements and wondering if there were doctors for Barghest in case he brought home the Bubonic Plague.

“Dog got it. Good dog.” The loud man patted Titan’s head and jumped back into the ocean of bottles. “Rat’s dead, Ma!” he called up into the chute where the endless mountain of bottles seemed to be coming from.

“Clear the chute! I’ve been yelling for ten minutes, but that damned girly girl was screaming like someone was chopping her goddamned head off!”

I kept the fact that one doesn’t scream very well without a head to myself but rolled my eyes in irritation.

“Yeah, Ma!” He waded towards the stick and tossed it to me with amazing accuracy despite his vision impairment. “Clear the chute!”

I was standing beneath the chute, so I quickly stuck the end of the long stick into it and poked around. Nothing happened.

“Clear the chute!” the man and his mother yelled together, as if I was trying to do something else.

I stabbed the stick into the chute again. Suddenly a shower of bottles rained down on me, along with the morning’s worth of their gathered miscellaneous juices. I stood dripping sticky brown liquid that stank of liquor, soda, and moist cigarette ashes. It mostly ended up in my hair and part of my face and shirt. I gagged.

“Don’t throw up! We’ll have to clean it up, stupid!” the bottle troll screamed.

I looked at the stick, then I looked at him.

***

I walked into the house an hour before sunset. No one was able to pick me up from work since Ezra didn’t drive and Gavin, Ash and Stacy were all at work. Ezra met me at the door. “Don’t move!”

“Don’t fucking scream at me!” I sobbed. My nerves where frazzled and I was still twitching from the spent adrenaline of the rat attack.

“I’ll get you a garbage bag to put your clothes in… Then we’ll burn them.” He ran into the kitchen and returned a moment later carrying two big plastic bags. He carefully laid one down for me to stand on and held the other out to me. “I’ll give you some privacy. Um, you’re not going back there, are you?”

“I don’t think so.” I sobbed and laughed hysterically. “Titan ate a rat the size of a toy poodle, I’m pretty sure I was working with Frodo’s reject brother who always seemed to have one eye on my ass and one on Texas, and I found out what plug is… Why do people spit used tobacco in bottles? Don’t they know that’s disgusting? Anyway, I sort of quit… Well, actually, I think I was technically fired, but if you hit the boss’ son with a big fucking stick it’s kind of like quitting. I mean, I knew what was going to happen, right?”

Ezra nodded and backed away slowly. “I’ll be in the kitchen. Maybe you could take a couple of showers before supper. I’ll have Stacy bring you some clothes when she gets in.”

“Do we have any bleach?” I asked, shivering.

“I don’t think it’ll save your clothes,” he said sadly.

“It’s not for the clothes… It’s for me.”

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Well it's definitely on my must buy list. But I'll need the buy links.

Sure thing

Naughty Nights Press

All Romance

I wish you the greatest success with it and it's been a pleasure having you here.