Fill Your Shopping List with Romance

Holidays are a great time to share authors you've enjoyed throughout the year. Some venues allow gifting of ebooks, but there still those who love the feel of paperbacks in their hands as they read.

If you've readers on your Christmas list who you've not figured out that special gift for, consider buying books. Here at Happily Ever After, we have authors for just about everyone's taste. We're starting off Holiday Week with our offerings for you.

Check them out:

Bekki Lynn - erotic contemporary/paranormal/historical; poetry
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Bookstrand
Diesel
eXcessica
Kobo
Lulu
Mobipocket
Smashwords - to get 50% off use code words: Annie [MK54K] Jackie's [ZA77P]LOVE [EE85K]
Sony

Celia Yeary - Historical Western, Contemporary Cowboy, Women's Lit
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Bookstrand
Diesel
Smashwords
Sony

Cheryl Pierson - Western/Cowboy; Contemporary Suspense/Mystery
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Bookstrand
Diesel
Sony
Smashwords

Courtney Breazile - Romance; Erotica (contemporary, paranormal, historical)
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Bookstrand
Diesel
Kobo
Mobipocket
Smashwords

Jane Beckenham - Contemporary Romance; Erotic Romance
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Bookstrand
Diesel
Mobipocket
Sony

Jane Richardson - Contemporary Romance
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Bookstrand
Deisel
Sony

Judah Raine - Contemporary Suspense/Mystery; Contemporary Romantic Literature; Mainstream
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Bookstrand
Mobipocket

Linda Banche - Regency romance with comedy, fantasy and/or paranormal. Note: not all books are available at all venues. All are available at Wild Rose Press.
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Bookstrand
Digibooks Café (20% off, use code e3d9d10a3c)
The Wild Rose Press

Lindsay Townsend - Historical romance, erotic historical romance, romantic suspense
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Bookstrand
Diesel
Infibeam
Mobipocket
Sony

Rebecca Vickery - Contemporary Romantic Adventure, Psychic Romantic Mystery and Suspense, Contemporary Sweet Western, and Speculative Fiction
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Books-a-Million
Diesel
Flipkart
Infibeam
Kobo
Lulu
Smashwords
Sony

Sara Humphreys - Paranormal Shapeshifter
Amazon

Savanna Kougar - Futuristic, Fantasy & Paranormal Erotic Romance, Shapeshifter Erotic Romance
Amazon
Aspen Mountain Press
Barnes & Noble
Bookstrand
Liquid Silver Books
Mobipocket

Serena Shay - Paranormal Erotic Romance, Shapeshifter Erotic Romance
Amazon
Liquid Silver Books

Stephanie Burkhart - Paranormal Historical Vampires/Werewolves; Children's; Sci-fi/Fantasy
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Sony

Most of us are available at All Romance Ebooks and Fictionwise. They aren't set up to allow us links to our complete book listings.




Happy Holidays!


Happily Ever After Authors

Happy Ever After - From A Different Angle

Writing is an odd occupation in my family of salt-of-the-earth Southerners. My people work hard for an honest wage, watch Southeastern Conference football on Saturdays in the fall (Roll Tide―or is that War Eagle?), and take casseroles to church fellowships. My people don’t do weird.

Then there’s me. I spend my days writing and editing at a university―a vague concept among my family members but respectable enough―and my nights writing novels. About wizards. And mermen. And vampires.

Bless their hearts, my family members want to understand. Case in point: my octogenarian mom moved in with me a couple of years ago, and I recently overheard a conversation between her and another 70-something relative. My mom’s end of the conversation went something like this:
―”Well, Suzanne has a book coming out.”
―”Well, it’s about vampires, I think.”
―”No, it isn’t a self-help book.”

Actually, a self-help book about vampires sounded like a really cool idea to me as I sat chortling in my study, eavesdropping. I wrote it down on a pink Post-it note. It’s still stuck on the side of a bookshelf.

So, what is this crazy thing called Paranormal Romance and why would anyone want to read or write it? Why is it so crazily popular right now?

Here are my highly unscientific theories:

―It lets us look at the human condition from a different angle. What if our jaw-droppingly sexy hunk of manhood hero never aged? What if he needed our heroine (literally) to live? What if he struggled at the loss of his humanity as he fought to contain the beast within him―a real beast? Every decision in our paranormal romantic relationship becomes amplified, has huge implications that could extend far beyond the scope of our couple and their families. Any dilemma or challenge or emotion our human couples might feel in a romance, our paranormal couples feel more intensely, on a larger stage.

―It lets us increase our taste for danger. There’s a good argument to be made that the most dangerous creature to walk the earth is man. But setting that aside, we all love a bad boy, right? Well, give that bad boy fangs, or make him a tortured soul who changes form every full moon and struggles to keep from putting your heroine on his dinner menu. We all think if we’re the right woman, we can change a man, right? Well, up the stakes and the danger for paranormal romance. Or what if he’s a nice, solid guy―real hero material―but our heroine has a paranormal flaw that could kill him if she doesn’t give him up? Big stakes, big emotion.

―It lets us test the mettle of the human spirit. Okay, that sounds really lofty. But most paranormal romance takes a human hero or heroine and thrusts him or her into a situation where only a noble spirit (and maybe a bottle of Jack Daniels) will see things through to the end. There are worlds to save, evil beings to conquer, the ultimate face-off of good and evil. In other words, the conflict is serious, and the stakes are big. (No vampire pun intended.) Yet at the heart of all the drama is the love between two people who, despite their vast differences, complete each other not only physically and emotionally, but on some metaphysical level. And since there’s often immortality at stake, it can literally mean love eternal.

Those are a few of the reasons I like to read paranormal romance. The reasons I like to write it are similar except I’ll add this:

―In addition to building deep, heroic characters, paranormal fiction gives me the opportunity to let my imagination soar. To create worlds, and whole systems of behavior that don’t have to conform to the laws of physics or reason. It lets me be weird and romantic, all at the same time, and find new ways of putting the idea out there that, at the end of the day, love is worth the struggle and the happily-ever-after even sweeter because of it.

A longtime New Orleans resident, Suzanne Johnson is an urban fantasy/paranormal romance author currently writing from Auburn, Alabama. Her new series with Tor Books begins with the release of ROYAL STREET in April 2012, followed by RIVER ROAD. She invites you to visit her daily blog at http://suzanne-johnson.blogspot.com/ and follow her on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Suzanne_Johnson .

In the meantime, here's an inside peek to Royal Street.

ROYAL STREET

By Suzanne Johnson

As the junior wizard sentinel for New Orleans, Drusilla Jaco’s job involves a lot more potion-mixing and pixie-retrieval than sniffing out supernatural bad guys like rogue vampires and lethal were-creatures. Her boss and mentor, Gerald St. Simon, is the wizard tasked with protecting the city from anyone or anything that might slip over from the preternatural beyond. Then Hurricane Katrina hammers New Orleans’ fragile levees, unleashing more than just dangerous flood waters. While winds howled and Lake Pontchartrain surged, the borders between the modern city and the other world crumbled. Now, the Undead and the Restless are roaming the Big Easy, and a serial killer with ties to voodoo is murdering soldiers sent to help the city recover. Gerald St. Simon has gone missing, the wizards’ Elders have assigned a grenade-toting assassin as DJ’s new partner, and an undead pirate Jean Lafitte wants to make her walk his plank. The search for Gerry and the killer turns personal when DJ learns the hard way that loyalty requires sacrifice, allies come from the unlikeliest places, and duty mixed with love serves up one bitter gumbo. Coming April 2012 from Tor Books.

EXCERPT:

Friday, August 26, 2005
“Early forecasts project Tropical Storm Katrina to turn north
and land on the Florida Panhandle by Monday afternoon.”
―The Washington Post

A secluded Louisiana bayou. A sexy pirate. Seduction and deceit. My Friday afternoon had the makings of a great romantic adventure, at least in theory.


In practice, angry mosquitoes were using me for target practice, humidity had ruined any prayer of a good hair day, and the pirate in question―the infamous Jean Lafitte―was two-hundred years old, armed, and carrying a six-pack of Paradise condoms in assorted fruit flavors.


I wasn’t sure what unnerved me more—the fact that the historical undead had discovered erotic accessories, or that Lafitte felt the need to practice safe sex.


Nothing about the pirate looked safe. Tall and broad-shouldered, he had dark blue eyes and a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth as he watched me set two glasses and a bottle of dark rum on a rickety wooden table. A tanned, muscular chest peeked from his open-collared shirt, and shaggy dark hair framed a clean-shaven face. A jagged scar across his jaw reminded me the so-called gentleman pirate also had his ruthless side.


He’d arrived by way of a stolen boat at this isolated cabin near Delacroix, a half-hour outside New Orleans, to pursue two of the world’s most timeless pleasures: sex and money. I’d met him here to play the role of a gullible young wizard falling under the spell of the legendary pirate, at least for a while. Then I’d do my duty as deputy sentinel and send his swashbuckling hide back to the Beyond, where he could rub shoulders with other undead legends and preternatural creatures unfit for polite human company.


My hand shook as I poured the rum, sloshing a few drops of amber liquid over the side of the glass. I’d finally been given a serious assignment, and I needed it to go without a hitch.


Lafitte’s fingers brushed mine as he took the drink, sending an unexpected rush of energy up my arm. “Merci, Mademoiselle Jaco—or may I call you Drusilla?”


Actually, I’d prefer he didn’t call me anything. Despite his obvious hopes for the evening, this wasn’t a date. “Most people call me DJ.”


“Bah,” he said, taking a sip of rum. “Those are alphabet letters, not a name.”


From beneath the red sash that accented his waist, Lafitte pulled a modern semiautomatic handgun and set it on the table next to the rum bottle. I knew how he’d gotten it—he’d rolled the Tulane student that summoned him, lifted the kid’s wallet and iPod, rode the streetcar to Canal Street, and made a trade for the gun. Enterprising guy, Lafitte.


I pondered the odd spike of energy I’d gotten from his hand. Touching increases the emotional crap I absorb from people as an empath, but Lafitte was technically a dead guy. Still, I’d like to say if he touched me again, I’d demand double pay from the wizards’ Congress of Elders. Triple if it involved lips.


But who was I kidding? My bargaining position was nonexistent. My boss Gerry only sent me on this run because he had something else to do and knew Lafitte might respond to my questionable seduction skills.


I’d pulled my unruly blonde hair out of its usual ponytail for the occasion, loaded on some makeup to play up my teal eyes, and poured myself into a little black skirt, short enough to show off my legs while not offending Lafitte’s nineteenth-century sensibilities.


It must have worked, because the pirate was giving me that head-to-toe appraisal guys do on instinct, like they’re assessing a juicy slab of beef and deciding whether they want it rare, medium, or well-done.


“You really are lovely, Drusilla.” The timbre of Lafitte’s voice shivered down my spine, and I fought the urge to check out the biceps underneath that linen shirt.


Holy crap. This was just wrong. I should not be absorbing his lust.


The End

Thanks for stopping by and checking out Suzanne Johnson.

Growing Up Paranormal

Now that I think about it I was probably a weird kid. From a very young age I was fascinated with the paranormal, especially horror movies and books. I remember staying up to watch the late night scary movies hosted by various strange hosts like Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. My favorite movies were the classic horror movies, the black and white Dracula and Wolfman, and the 1970’s Dracula movies starring Frank Langella.

My décor in my bedroom included glow-in-the-dark models of Dracula and Wolfman. Not really normal for a girl, right? My collection of books included Stephen King, Robert McCammon, Dean Koontz, collections of short ghost/horror stories and Ann Rice’s vamps and witches. I was into vampires long before they became trendy and sparkly. I still have a fascination with skulls and keep my macabre collection out all year. It’s Halloween all the time for me.

Growing up a horror fan, it would seem natural for me to write horror. Not exactly. I did write some short horror stories way back when I became serious about writing, but they were never published, and for good reason. Somehow I ended up writing romance, which is strange because I didn’t read much romance growing up. I think what changed my mind was Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander. It was a romance, but it wasn’t the usual formulaic romance. I decided to try writing romance and adding the elements I like—Celtic mythology, fantasy, paranormal, magic and otherworldly creatures like faeries (not the tiny, sparkly good kind), gods and goddesses, shifters and ancient vampires. All that time spent watching horror movies and reading horror stories was well worth it.

With my love of the paranormal, horror and Halloween, it was natural for me to be drawn to the ancient Celts, the founders of Samhain/Halloween and a people linked with the mystical realm. This is how I came to write Celtic historical romances with paranormal/fantasy elements.

In the following excerpt from Cat’s Curse, Samhain is a night of terror for my heroine because that night belonged to Cailleach. Cailleach, or Cat Anna, was known as a dark goddess; possibly she was a pre-Celtic earth goddess, for her aspects are similar to that of the Hindu goddess Kali (a goddess of creation and destruction). To the ancient Celts, Cailleach was a winter goddess, and a goddess of sovereignty. In my Dark Goddess trilogy, Cailleach is a winter goddess that awakens at Samhain. To gain her strength and shed her ugly ‘winter face,’ she has to make a sacrifice. In this excerpt she has chosen my heroine for her sacrifice and my hero has to save his love.

Cat's Curse, Book One: Dark Goddess Trilogy, Celtic historical romance/fantasy
Blurb: Cardea is cursed to live an eternity as a blood drinker. Aedan mac Gabrain, prince of Dal Riata, trusts no one after suffering a curse that keeps him from touching any females. Can two tortured souls find love while battling a dark goddess determined to destroy them? Available from Awe-Struck.

Excerpt from Cat’s Curse:
A harsh wind tore through the grove like a brief tempest scattering leaves and pine needles. The mighty oaks, with their thick branches, swayed in the unnatural wind, creaking eerily.

Cat Anna appeared before them. “Well, it seems you have been busy.” She noted the swell of Cardea’s stomach. “That child will never live to see the bright light of day,” she hissed.

Aedan pulled Cardea into his arms, holding her tight and giving Cat Anna a fierce look. He stared into Death's one eye, the other eye an ugly, gaping hole that could only be an entrance to the Underworld. He shivered at the frightening thought, avoiding that luring tunnel into darkness. Her hideous, blue-black skin resembled that of a long-dead corpse, making his stomach lurch.

“We shall see if you are still holding her that tightly at the end of this night,” she sneered, her one eye blazing. Uttering words of enchantment, Cat Anna waved her arms in the air.

Cardea's body shifted in Aedan's arms into something spongy. Looking down, he saw a grotesque blob of oozing flesh. He held her tight, remembering Cardea's words. The blob transformed into a huge serpent with gleaming, dripping fangs. Holding down his fear, he held on tight, knowing the serpent could not harm him. The serpent changed into a one-eyed demon covered in sharp thorns, which stabbed into his skin. He held on tight, knowing it to be an illusion and nothing more.

He gasped in shock when he looked down and saw his dead wife in his arms, staring up at him with sorrowful eyes. Badly decomposed, the smell of rotting flesh emanated from her, choking him with nausea. In desperation, he embraced his God for the first time since his wife’s death and uttered a quick prayer for inner strength, holding on tight.

Cardea transformed into terrifying demon after demon and still he held on tight, hanging on to his faith. As dawn neared, she changed into a searing piece of metal, burning his skin. She slipped from his grasp, but at the last second, he grabbed on, ignoring his burning flesh and flung her into the wellspring.

Fear hammered at his heart. What if she drowned? He paced before the well, clenching his fists, impatience and dread striking at his gut. It seemed to him too much time passed with her still in the well, his instincts warning him she would drown. He stared at the well, uneasiness choking him, wanting to go to her, but knowing he must wait.

Kelley Heckart
'Timeless tales of romance, conflict & magic'
http://www.kelleyheckart.com/
http://kelleysrealm.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/CelticChick
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kelley-Heckart/111838455604
My book page at Awe-Struck
http://www.king-cart.com/Awe-Struck/category=Kelley+Heckart/exact_match=exact
My author page on amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Kelley-Heckart/e/B002BMOQ3C/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0