Vivian Arend

Tuesday Tidbit

By Vivian Arend

From Future Shock. 2008 Viv Arend

Susan leaned over and touched her lips gently to his, feathering over them. His breath brushed her cheek and she took in his scent, his flavour. Roast chicken, coffee and all male. She pulled back just far enough to gaze at his face, admiring his long lashes, his strong features. He was far more beautiful than she’d thought at first glance back in the cafeteria. There he was fairly ordinary. Nice, but not All-American gorgeous like he appeared now.

A soft touch on her arm startled her for a second as his fingers slipped up to push her hair behind her ear.

“Hey. Have a nice rest?” he said, his disarming smile warming up.

She couldn’t seem to bring herself to feel embarrassed. “Fully charged and ready to roll.” Her eyes slipped back to his mouth as she spoke.

“Humm. Well, that sounds like an idea, but first…” Kyle wrapped his arms around her, cradled her head to his mouth and kissed her. Softness. Tenderness. Susan breathed in the sensations as her body began to respond.

Kyle rolled them partially over as he slipped his hand to her waist, drawing small circles against the bare skin of her back while his mouth continued to explore, tracing kisses over the corner of her mouth, down the side of her neck. Susan let her neck fall to the side giving him better access as she traced over the muscles in his back.

Kyle gave her one last kiss before pulling them both to sitting positions. “And that’s it for now. Gotta keep things family rated here. Public place and all.” He adjusted her collar and pulled a couple of pieces of grass from her hair. “Although I do know a few un-public places that we could get to pretty quickly.” He winked at her.

Susan dropped her gaze to the ground.

“What?” Kyle lifted her chin and stared into her eyes. “I have to warn you that right now I can pretty much tell what you’re feeling. Sexually turned on and guilty. Since we didn’t have sex you must be thinking about it and feeling guilty for thinking about it.”

“How do you know—”

“—what you’re feeling? Empathic. Along with the telekinesis. Basically I can throw things at you and know how you feel about it.” He grimaced. “Sorry, family joke. Seriously, we need to get some good talking in with Jay and it’ll really help. The sexual pitch you’re feeling is very normal as a part of developing new talents. Just think of it as another kind of heat.”

“Great, so wanting to jump your bones is just a side effect of joining ‘Wacko’s ‘R Us’?

Kyle put on a haunty expression as he cleaned up their trays and lead Susan by the hand back toward the car. “Of course not. Wanting to jump my bones is something completely normal. Actually doing it right now would be the trouble, much to my dismay.”

He tugged her back into his arms after opening the passenger door. “Look, Susan. You’re going to have a lot of new things thrown at you over the next days and weeks. Don’t try to make total sense of everything right off the bat. When you’re dealing with the paranormal you often have to just go with your feelings. There’s no real rulebook that we can follow here. Ask lots of questions, trust the people that you feel you can trust and stop often and ask your gut what to do. It’ll get easier over time.”

On My Bookshelf…

By Vivian Arend

Into the Mist By Maya Banks

Samhain Publishing Feb 2008

One woman’s mission to bring down a sexy elemental shifter turns into a battle of wills…and hearts.

Falcon Mercenary Group, Book 1

Hostage recovery specialist Eli Chance has a secret. He was born a shifter. A freak of nature.

While on a mission, Eli’s men and their mercenary guide are exposed to a powerful chemical agent, and suddenly his secret has become easier to hide. Now he’s not the only one with the gift. But for his men, this “gift” is becoming more and more of a curse.

Tyana Berezovsky’s brother Damiano was the guide for Eli’s team and was the worst affected by the chemical. As he grows increasingly unstable, Tyana fears she’s going to lose him to the beast he is becoming.

Tyana will do whatever it takes to help him, even if it means using her body to go after the one man she thinks holds all the blame—and possibly the cure. Eli Chance.

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I will admit it. I’m a geek. I love stories that make me think and I love romance. There is something about Maya’s writing that sucks me in every time and makes not only my body heat but my mind race.

Into the Mist has it all. Suspense. Shifters. Sweaty bodies… in all the right ways. I read through this story growing more and more intrigued by the characters and the whole of the world that Maya has built. While the story stands alone I was so fascinated that when it was done I still wanted more.

I think that’s the sign of a really good book!

Eli and Tyana have a wonderful chemistry, going from flirty conversation, rough and tumble fighting to hot sex to in a believable and enjoyable manner. Tyana is no wilting flower that needs rescuing and Eli has secrets within secrets that drive you to the very end needing to know more.

I’m so pleased to see that tomorrow marks the arrival of the second book in this series, Into the Lair. I will be there, first in line, to get more of this fascinating world and sexy read.

Available from My Bookstore and More:
www.mybookstoreandmore.com/shop/product.da/into-the-mist

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Each Monday I write about a book I own and enjoy, e-book or otherwise. Just one way to share the wonderful worlds friends have created!

Thursday Things

By Vivian Arend

I’m still planning for Nano that starts in a few weeks. It’s interesting that I’m in the middle of first edits on ‘Wolf Signs’ and while I’m learning a ton there’s not a lot that I’ll do different when I write my next story.

Three Things:

1. They say to -kill the inner editor- when you write for Nano. I never really got the whole ‘whoa is me, this is so hard’ that people were complaining about. Just write the damn thing. I would go back and change a few lines here and there without a single worry.

Trust me, do NOT try to edit while you write. It’s not worth it. If you are talking about things like avoiding word repeats. Or using garbage words like ‘so’ and ‘really’ and ‘just’. If I was spending time thinking ‘I can’t use that word’ it would slow me down enormously.

Word changes can happen in edits very quickly. That’s what the ‘find’ button is for.

2. POV Some people get really hung up on the point of view issue. I’ve heard you should write an entire scene only from one POV. Then I go read a multi selling author and get to watch them head hop twenty times on a page.

Ahhhh… but it’s Good head hopping!

Get over it. Write. When you edit you may have to throw out a few lines when you mistakingly tell me that the POV characters face turned white. Of course, she can’t see it. Delete and deal with it later. Agonzing over it while you’re writing can make you freeze.

3. As you’re writing so joyfully and quickly, you suddenly notice the extremely high number of crazily descriptive adverbs that have unknowingly snuck in.

For me, trying to deal with the ‘ly’ words while I write is like pulling teeth. If I’m into a writing groove and it means the ‘ly’s are flying hard and fast, so be it.

I’ll do some carefully considered extractions later.

Off to check some more POV errors, and remove a few more lightly tossed adverbs. I’ve already finished filling the trash with my garbage words.

Tuesday Tidbid

By Vivian Arend

Tidbit from Future Shock

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A gentle tap on the door interrupted her clearing of the final file for the day.

“Hey, got a minute?”

Susan looked up to see Kyle’s smiling face.

“I guess. I take it you’re one of Jay’s buddies? I didn’t know any of you worked here.” She sat back and rubbed her temples, trying to ease the ache that remained. The fire alarms had shut down quickly but she could still hear ringing in her ears.

“I’m in the packaging sector, loading final inventory into trucks and shipping it out. It’s not glamorous, but it’s a steady pay cheque.” Kyle moved the spare chair in front of her desk so that he was facing the open door. He spoke quietly. “How are you doing?”

Susan stared for a minute before replying. “You’re not asking like a normal person would ask ‘How are you doing?’ This is like a ‘How are you dealing with the weird shit that is going down in your life?’ kind of question. Right?”

Kyle broke into a big smile. “I can see you’re talented with words as well as other areas. Yup, I was asking how weird your day has been. Inquiring minds want to know. And if you’re worried that it’s too strange to share I should let you know that when I first started to develop my skills I ended up unintentionally locking myself in the school bathroom for three hours. The girl’s bathroom.” Susan lifted her eyebrows. “Yeah, it was tough to explain. Damn levitation was so erratic I was floating on the ceiling for a while and every time they got a key to unlock the door it melted.”

“Melted?”

“The key. I didn’t realize it at the time but one of the side effects of learning new skills is heat generation. Whatever science there is behind how our brains are wired, every time we use our talents we produce energy. When we’re learning we tend to expend the heat randomly, into keyholes, into fishing ponds…” Kyle met Susan’s gaze. “Into kitchens of the cafeteria where we work.”

Susan pushed back her chair. “Hang on, are you accusing me of starting the fire today?”

“There was no external cause, Susan. The cook had just placed the clean and empty pot on the stove to start some soup and ‘poof’ it was filled with flames. Besides, I felt the heat leave you and head elsewhere. You didn’t hurt anyone, be thankful for that.”

“Kyle, this is insane.”

“Welcome to our world, baby.”

On My Bookshelf…

By Vivian Arend

Male Call by Denise Agnew
Published by Samhain Publishing May 2007

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Her sexy letters are his only lifeline in his dangerous world…

Successful computer software engineer Eve Carmichael melts under yet another hotter than hot letter written by Reserve army soldier Sean O’Callahan. Yet Eve can’t take the thought of his life in danger overseas, and she resolves to get a sex life—and a life period. That means forgetting Sean before anything bad can happen to him. To celebrate her thirty-fifth birthday, Eve plans a trip to Male Call, a male review club. Still, she worries about Sean. She hasn’t received a letter from him in too many weeks. And oh, how she longs for those flirtatious, hot letters.

Sean finds Eve’s letters to be the only lifeline in his increasingly chaotic world. As their feelings grow hot and heavy, he can’t wait to return home and kindle that pure firepower.

When Eve receives a letter from Sean saying he’s been wounded, her fears are realized. But fate and a little mischievous planning by her friends will serve up the greatest surprise of all.

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Denise has written four different books about military men and I love them all. There was something very special out this story because it reminded me of the 6 month period that my husband and I worked apart from each other. Miles apart as I went to coach in Holland and he stayed in Canada. We had no email and wrote to each often.

Eve and Sean’s letters are a tad hotter than what we wrote, but it was so interesting to see their relationship growing over the months as they talked on paper. It’s not a literary device, it’s a real possibility and Denise did a very nice job of making the fantasy of the passion meld into the reality of life.

One of the few contemporary novels I own and I’d recommend all four of the titles.
Male Call
Unconditional surrender
Private Maneuvers
Close Quarters

Available from My Bookstore and More
http://www.mybookstoreandmore.com/shop/product.da/male-call

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Each Monday I write about a book I own and enjoy, e-book or otherwise. Just one way to share the wonderful worlds friends have created!