Sunday, February 23, 2014

New Release: The Dragon's Bride

I've been working on this one forever, mostly because last month I was writing tons of stories, and this month my SAD got to me.  After writing "Battle of the Dragon Slayer" I still felt like I hadn't properly written my dragon porn...so I decided to try again.  (Also, dragon!sex seems to sell really well.)

I tried to write porn, I really did, but the characters got the better of me again. It also turned a bit Beauty and the Beast-esque, which isn't a surprise. I write that on accident all the time. This one is a Shifter story, which I don't write a lot of. It will appeal to a more mainstream reader than "Battle."

Buy at Smashwords
Buy at Amazon
Buy at Amazon UK

Plot: In the town of Paradise everything is perfect, thanks to the magic of a dragon.  Every year the town must pay tribute in the form of gold, jewels, and a daughter of the town.  Fiona's perfect life is a bore--void of adventure and love. At first being taken captive by the dragon is terrifying, but once he establishes that he has no intention of eating her, she begins to warm to the idea of being his bride.

18+ fantasy erotica. m/f, shifter. 6,000 words.

Excerpt:
Massive gold chandeliers lit the room. Cold blue fire burned giving off light but no heat emitted from the fireplace spanning an entire wall. Dinner was laid out on a long table. This was it. He was going to eat her now.
Instead he pulled out a chair and motioned for her to sit. “Please. Eat.”
On shaking legs Fiona sat down.  Looking up, the dragon was even more enormous than before.  “What will you have?” he asked, and she stared as he started serving her himself, ham, pheasant, fresh vegetables and fruit, flaky fish perfectly prepared.
“Where does it all come from?” she asked.
“Why, the taxes of course. You didn't think I just sat up here on a pile of gold and virgins, did you?”
That was exactly what she thought, but she found herself too ravenous to think for much longer.  She ate every food he put in front of her and had two glasses of very fine wine. The dragon watched her eat, but did not partake himself. “You are going to eat me!” she accused when she noticed this.
“You seem quite set on this notion. I cannot eat food in this form,” he informed her. “In fact, it has been quite difficult to remain in it for this long.”
She blinked. For a moment she had forgotten he was a beast and not a man at all. “What do you really look like?” she asked, knowing she would regret it.
The dragon stood up and stepped away from the table. He spread his great wings out wide and his shape began to grow.  Human skin disappeared beneath shiny black scales in iridescent purple and gold.  The dragon fell to his knees with a great groan that became a roar.  His wings wrapped around his body and he began to writhe.
Gone was the beautiful human face, hands, legs. When he rose from the floor he was all beast, twice as large as before.  “My true form,” he said, his voice unchanged. “My name is Ithel.”
Fiona scrambled from her chair in a panic. He was too large, too frightening. A man was a man, but this...creature...was more than she could have been prepared for. She backed up before turning and rushing for the exit. But the dragon--Ithel--was fast, so fast. He moved to block the exit, stretching his full height.  His scales glittered in the firelight, his claws shined like black glass.  “You cannot run from me,” he said. “Those who do, die.”
Her legs were weak from fear; only sheer will forced her to remain standing. “You kill them?”
“Mostly they fall. There is no easy path down the mountain.”
“What are you going to do to me?”
“I have lived in this palace for a thousand years almost always alone, save for my own magic.  Every year I bring back a girl from Paradise. You call her a sacrifice, and I let you because it is important for the balance of power to remain intact.
“You think you are a sacrifice. In my eyes, you are my bride.”

Friday, February 14, 2014

V-Day Freebie

Special days call for special gifts, and I have one for you.  I'm offering "The Beauty and the Beast" up for free today.  It's more romantic than some of my other stories, and thus fitting.  The cover is also properly red with roses and all that.

It's available for free at Smashwords
While you're there you can download a bunch of other free stories too: Drain Me Dry, Boy, Saturday Night, and In the Dark are all free downloads from smashwords.

Now, as for your valentines gift to me, I like the expensive chocolates. Kay? :)

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

The February Ramble

This post isn't really about books or writing.

February is my worst month.  It's the last month of winter (well, March technically is, but as this is Ohio, you never know what you're going to get in March) and usually the snowiest. We had a bad storm yesterday.  At ten o' clock at night it was bright enough outside to read a book, thanks to all of the white snow reflecting city lights. (Light pollution: sometimes helpful, sometimes obnoxious, and sometimes just weird.)

This time of the year last year I was probably staring blankly at the TV at best, or at worst breaking down into tears of misery over the hell that was my life.  I was working full-time at a low-paying job I hated.  This time last year "Addicted to the Bite" was just out, and I had only a handful of short stories up on Amazon, and they weren't exactly selling.

What a difference a year makes.  I've had a 100% sales increase on my books. I have a semi-successful series. One person paid outrageous shipping costs just to have my autograph in my book. I was a guest star on a freaking podcast. (I don't have a voice for radio, btw.) Between this past November to January I've clocked in a lot of words. (Most of them not for the Leigh Wilder brand though. Leigh Wilder is having a really hard time getting her next book finished.)

After 12 years of near-crippling depression I realized I was too introverted to keep working full-time with the public.  I now work between 10 and 20 hours a week.  I still dislike my job and I'm still under-paid, but the anxiety and misery that enveloped and exhausted me is mostly gone.  I still consider myself suffering from depression. Happy isn't much of a thing for me. But neutral, neutral is something that gives me more relief than I can possibly say.

I have no money.  My monthly income is between $500 and $600. That's with my day job and my writing.  I don't mind too much, but there are a few things I'd like to change. Ideally, I'd like to live someplace cheaper so I can put more money back for things that I want or need. (Mostly need.)

Right now I'm suffering from February.  Writing is hard. It's hard to stay focused. It's hard to be excited about what I'm producing. Everything around me seems boring, dull, pointless. I want to go somewhere and do something. I'm not talking about simply leaving the house (that's the last thing I want to do).  I want to LEAVE. I want to take my computer and some clothes in a backpack and go somewhere for a few months.  If I was young and unattached I could do that.  But I am old.  I have responsibilities. Not my job. Screw my job. I have two cats, a fiance, and two sick grandmothers already living 100 miles away.  Buggering off to San Francisco until Ohio decides to be warm again isn't much of an option, but I really, really wish it was.

I'm doing my best to get through. At least I'm not curled up in a ball crying, but god do I hate February.