Greetings Loved Ones!
Today we welcome my good friend J.R. Loveless to the center stage. Give her all your attention and you never know what sweets and treats she has for you!
The response for this book blog tour has been phenomenal!
Thank you to everyone who has participated thus far and to all of the wonderful
hosts who have offered me a space on their blog! Spread the word to your
friends, family, and even co-workers because the ride is far from over! So far
we've had three winners - Deb Hansen (His Salvation paperback), Tali Spencer
(His Salvation Tote Bag), and Christopher Hammel ($25 Dreamspinner Press Gift
Certificate). There's a prize every week and each week you make a comment,
you're entered into the Grand Prize contest to win a huge bundle including a
Nook or Kindle, so be sure to follow along on my tour for more great chances to
win! And of course, this week is no exception!
Today the contest is for one of each of my four handmade
charms from each of my books - Touch Me Gently, White Rain, Fragments of a
Unicorn's Soul, and Chasing Seth. Your choice of colors. The picture does not
encompass all colors, these are just a sample. The charms are made with glass
and acrylic beads, have a convenient lobster clasp to hang from your purse,
cell phone, jacket, zipper, anywhere you can think! They feature a charm on the
end to signify a key point in the story, (e.g. snowflake, cowboy hat, etc.) All
you have to do to win is suggest a title for my currently unnamed Chasing Seth
sequel featuring Nick and Thayne. Keep reading below for more information on
the plot line for the book. I will pick the one I like the best which quite
possibly could be the name of my upcoming novel!
It's hard to believe how fast these last three weeks have
gone by! There's been an amazing response and I hope everyone will continue to
help make this book blog tour a success. His Salvation is only book one in the
world of Deviants. I have two more already planned out in my head and I am
certain as I write, more will come forward. I thoroughly enjoyed writing the
story of Alex and Gabriel and devising the world they live in with amazing
Deviants, concentration camps, war, and hope for peace. My only hope is that
you enjoy their world and stories as well. :)
I hope to attend the upcoming GayRomLit con in Atlanta in
October this year. Keep your fingers crossed that I can register in time! I
would love to attend and meet some of my readers as well as some of my favorite
authors! I also have a ton of brilliant swag ideas that I have already begun
working on, things I am pretty sure will fly off the swag table in the first
night. ;) I hope you'll come visit me in Atlanta at GRL 2013 and stop by to say
hi!
My current works in progress include the sequel to Chasing
Seth with Nick and Thayne's story. I've had quite a response to Chasing Seth
and many emails requesting a sequel so I hope to deliver that to you before the
end of the year! In this one Nick is having a hard time dealing with his true
mate's rejection and is called to Senaka when Seth claims there's a Created One
in the area that is believed to be Taggart, the Created One who'd tortured and
raped Seth a few years back. Thayne, running from the biggest mistake of his
life, is forced to go home and beg for help only to end up between a rock and a
hard place. Either continue running for the rest of his life or submit to the
one thing he'd never wanted -- a mate. The sequel is currently at a little over
16k words and I'm aiming for around 75 to 80k. You can follow my progress at my
blog with my word count meter; http://jrloveless.blogspot.com . The sequel is
yet untitled, so here is where I reach out to my readers and the fans of
Chasing Seth for a title. :) Suggest one for this week's contest and the one I
like the best will win and most likely will be used on the upcoming novel!
I also have a next installment for Touch Me Gently planned
out and started which will feature Kaden and Logan ten years in the future and
will focus primarily on their adopted son, Benjamin (Ben). This one I already
have a title for... 'Capture Me Softly'. More to come on that later. :)
I look forward to seeing your suggestions for titles and to
seeing your comments in the coming weeks! Next week I will be over at Hayley B.James's blog and the contest will be quite... interesting. LOL. Thanks for
stopping by and remember comment each week to receive one entry into the Grand
Prize drawing at the end of March!
Websites to follow
updates on my current works in progress, blog tour posts, events, contests, and
upcoming releases:
http://jrloveless.blogspot.com
https://www.facebook.com/authorjrloveless
Excerpt:
GABRIEL stormed into the mansion, his chest
aching at the reminder of what he tried so hard to forget. Alex’s innocent gaze
and the curious question forced him to think back to the day he wanted nothing
more than to change, to rewind time and make it disappear. Only not even a
Deviant had that ability. “Gabe?”
Bryan’s voice snagged him
midstride, and he halted at the bottom of the steps leading upstairs. Turning,
he looked at his boss, unaware of the anguish burning in his eyes. Bryan
frowned and beckoned him into his office. Gabriel’s lips tightened into a flat
line as he strode in. “Is
everything okay, Gabe?”
“Assign someone else to the kid,
Bryan,” Gabriel ground out, pacing the office like a caged animal.
His boss and friend didn’t answer
for a long stretch of silence before replying, “No.”
“Why?” Gabriel demanded in agony,
swinging a beseeching gaze toward Bryan. “Why are you doing this to me?”
A sad smile drifted over Bryan’s
face for a split second. “Because he’s good for you, Gabriel. I haven’t seen
you look at anyone like that in the years I’ve known you. Since your brother
died, you’ve been cut off, and even during our time together you never let
yourself go enough to feel
things.”
“I felt things with you!” Gabriel protested.
Shaking his head, Bryan pinned
him in place with his stare. “Fucking isn’t the same thing as feeling something
real. Never once did it go beyond sex for you, Gabe. You always held back your
heart.”
“That’s not true,” he murmured,
sinking into the chair in front of Bryan’s desk. “I may not have shown it, but
I did care about you, Bryan. I still do.”
“Not enough,” Bryan replied
gently.
Bitterness swamped Gabriel, and
the realization that he’d hurt Bryan came over him. He looked up at his
ex-lover, grief stricken. “I’m sorry, Bry. So sorry.”
Bryan stood up and moved around
his desk to sit in the chair beside Gabriel. He cupped Gabriel’s cheek in one
hand. “Don’t apologize for not being able to love me, Gabe. I just wasn’t the
person to help you find your way back to who you were meant to be. Don’t let
the past control your life.”
“I can’t,” he whispered.
“Yes, you can,” Bryan insisted,
stroking his thumb over Gabriel’s cheekbone. “I see that spark in your eyes
when you look at him. Give it a chance, and stop fighting so hard to keep
everyone away.”
Gabriel touched the back of
Bryan’s hand, leaning his face further into his palm. “I miss you.”
“I miss you too,” Bryan murmured,
carefully extricating himself from Gabriel’s grasp. “More than you’ll ever
know.”
Bryan stood up and moved back to
his desk. “I have an assignment for you. It’ll give you a chance to get away
and think. Take Tank, but I doubt you’ll need him.”
Coughing to hide his emotions,
Gabriel nodded and stood, taking the folder extended to him. “We received a
call from one of our contacts a short while ago. Said the boy’s been living in
an
abandoned building for a few
weeks on his own. There’s not much to go on. Basic details are the
kid looks about fifteen or so.
Blond, blue-eyed, skinny, roughly six feet. Extremely skittish. Our contact is
pretty sure the kid is at least a level four.”
Gabriel looked over the brief
description and a snapshot of the blond boy looking over his shoulder as he entered
what appeared to be an empty warehouse. “How do we know he’ll go with us?”
“You don’t.” Bryan tipped the
corner of his lip upward. “But I know you. You can be pretty persuasive when
you want to be, Gabe.”
He tucked the folder under one
arm and turned to head upstairs to begin preparing to leave. “Gabe?”
He stopped in the doorway,
turning his head slightly. “Be safe.”
“I always am,” Gabriel replied
softly and walked out of the office.
The sounds of dishes clattering
in the kitchen and voices rumbling in the living room followed him upstairs. He
kicked at the bedroom door to shut it behind him, failing to notice it didn’t
close all the way. Picking up his cell, he punched in a quick text to Tank and
pulled on his weapons vest, sliding his knives in their sleeves. The sound of
the 9mm magazine sliding into place covered the footsteps on the hallway floor.
Soft breathing and the sweet smell of sandalwood alerted him to the presence at
his door. “You shouldn’t spy on people, kid,” he said flatly, shoving the gun
into his vest.
“I wasn’t spying! I heard the
sound of a gun cocking,” Alex replied as he edged further into the room.
Gabriel turned around to look at
the younger Deviant, his eyebrow raised. “And you came to check it out on your
own?”
Alex flushed and dropped his gaze
to the floor. “I didn’t think about it to be honest.”
“Next time, don’t go toward the
sound. Run away from it.” He went back to making sure he had everything,
stuffing an extra change of clothing and the file on the runaway into a small
black bag.
“Sorry. Are you going somewhere?”
“Had a report of a Deviant living
alone in an abandoned warehouse. I’m going to get the boy and bring him back
here,” he replied stoically, checking his phone to see if Tank was ready.
Alex moved closer to his side.
“What do you need all the weapons for if he’s just a boy?”
Snorting, Gabriel peered at the
younger man. “Haven’t you learned anything here yet? Why do you think we’re
teaching you how to protect yourself? To control your abilities? We’re
Deviants, and in this world that makes us freaks. If we’re caught out on the
streets without some kind of
protection, active ability or no,
it’s dangerous. You need to understand that and start doing what you can to
protect yourself.”
He roughly unsheathed a knife and
shoved it into Alex’s hand. Alex tried to jerk back from him, but he held on
tightly, wrapping Alex’s fingers around the handle. “Until you learn to use
your psychic ability as a weapon, which will only get you so far, you need to
learn how to use this.”
Alex protested, “I don’t want to
hurt anyone!”
“Even if they want to hurt you?”
Gabriel challenged. “Or your brother? What then? Are you going to let them
injure you or possibly kill you and your brother?”
Fear showed clearly in the younger
man’s bright green eyes, but Gabriel forced down the guilt, knowing if he
didn’t make the other Deviant understand, he could end up dead. “This may be
the only thing that saves your life or the life of someone you love.”
Alex stared at the knife in their
hands, the blade shining in the dim lamplight. Gabriel realized he still held
Alex’s hand and slowly let go, carefully removing his fingers from around
Alex’s. Neither of them moved for several heavy breaths. Gabriel’s eyes locked
on Alex’s face as emotions flitted over his pale features. He broke the
silence. “Sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to, kid. It’s a part of
life. No one knows why we changed, why we have these abilities now, but we do.
We have to accept it and do what we can to survive.”
Gabriel reached out and gently
took the knife from Alex, slipping it into its sheath. His cell vibrated in his
pocket, notifying him that Tank sat waiting for him in one of the black SUVs.
“Work on it with Jackal while I’m gone, Alex. You can show me what you’ve
learned when I return.” He picked up his bag, sliding it over his shoulder, and
brushed past the
teenager.
“Gabe,” Alex called quietly.
Stopping in the doorway, Gabriel looked back at the younger Deviant. “Be
careful.”
“Thanks, Alex,” Gabriel murmured
before turning and heading out of the agency.
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****
I hope you've enjoyed our guest blogger today. Remember to comment as we will be watching for those brilliant ideas for her next title and don't those charms look cool! JR you have to make me one!! Thank you for stopping by!
Wishing you Love and Butterflies!
Sui Lynn~~
