December 2018

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Sunday, December 30, 2018

WeWriWa: Strange Bedfellows – BOUND BY MOONLIGHT


When New Orleans detectives are forced to work with a shapeshifting reformed mobster – who is as unnatural as he is enigmatic – to save the daughter of one of their own before she becomes the latest victim of the killer haunting the Quarter, things are understandably tense. BOUND BY MOONIGHT, the fourth book in my “By Moonlight” series featuring tough as nails detective Charlotte Caissie, who now shares drawer space and headlines with her preternatural lover, Max Savoie, pushes both parties to the limit of trust and acceptance when she asks him to return to his criminal roots to help her solve a complex case before it’s too late. With his secret spreading, Max is forced to risk his family and his clan to join with a hated enemy as the loyalties that define them threaten to divide them forever. 

He heard something . . . something bigger than the usual rat or stray dog . . . probably just a couple of bums. Squinting blearily toward the heavy shadows, Detective Junior Hammond saw no movement, but something was creeping around just out of sight. 

Practically dancing with urgency, he ducked behind the dumpster to relieve himself, fumbling with his belt when he heard the low growls that vibrated with menace . . . dozens of them. He whirled around to see faint shapes slinking through the mist, their movements unnaturally fluid and quick, eyes glowing, way too high to belong to a dog as they drew nearer, huddling pack-like, sinister in their caution, predatory in their patience. 

He lurched forward, stumbling into the center of the alley, trying to tear through the effects of liquor and fear to think of how to save himself from these terrifying figures casting shadows that were half man . . . half something else. 

“Come on,” he shouted at the beasts that encircled him but came no closer, “what are you waiting for?” 

The ring of feral creatures parted, not to give him an escape, but to provide a purposefully dramatic entry. 

The swirl of his long black raincoat swept away the ribbons of fog as he approached with an unhurried stride, the rhythmic swagger filled with arrogance and lethal control. Hammond knew who it was even before he could see the hard angles of his face, even before the dim light glinted ruby red off his unblinking eyes. 

Savoie.


In January, I’ll be moving into the “Shadows” portion of the series, giving my favorite secondary characters their own stories, beginning with Silas MacCreedy, Charlotte’s new partner who brings unusual talents to the table along with his own agenda in HUNTER OF SHADOWS.

I’m enjoying a week with my grandguy to celebrate the New Year, and making resolutions for 2019 – beginning with finishing RISE BY MOONLIGHT and exploring other projects I’ve had on the backburner for far too long, some new, some old becoming new again. What are your plans for this brand new year?


Celebrate, fellow Warriors, by remembering why we do that voodoo that we do so well!

Happy New Year!!


Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly hop for everyone who loves to write! Share an 8 to 10 sentence snippet of your writing on Sunday. Visit other participants on the list and read, critique, and comment on their 8sunday posts.

Spread the word, share the love, warriors - Hashtag #8sunday.

Sunday, December 23, 2018

WeWriWa: Trust Issues - CAPTURED BY MOONLIGHT


Some say putting your faith in love is blindly foolish. But isn’t love blind? And without trust, how can a relationship grow, even one so . . . unusual as that between reforming mob enforcer/shapeshifter Max Savoie and NOPD police detective Charlotte Caissie. In this excerpt from CAPTURED BY MOONLIGHT, the third book in my “By Moonlight” series.

“I’ve done terrible things, Charlotte, things I will never, ever share with you. Then you touched my face, my other face, the face of the beast, and you looked at me as if you saw something beautiful.” 

He turned to her, eyes glittering in the darkness, confessing, “I put that look of helplessness and terror into the eyes of others because I was like them—those men who kidnapped you and Mary Kate. Jimmy never told me I could be more than that, that there was more to me than the monster who’d forgotten what it was like to feel . . . until you, Charlotte.” 

“You were never like them, Max,” she told him softly. 

If he heard her, he didn’t believe what she was saying as he continued, “You were my chance, Charlotte, my chance to do something good, something right, my chance to remember where I’d hidden away my soul when I was just a child, and I swore that day I would never do anything to put that look back in your eyes, that you would never, ever have reason to fear me.” 

“I’m not afraid of you, Max, because I’ve always known I was safe with you.” 

He gripped her wrists so suddenly, she gasped as he leaned close to warn, “You’re not safe now, Charlotte, I’m not safe. I’ve always been able to control the other part of me, but now there’s something loose inside me, something without a heart, without a soul, and without a care for what happens to you . . . I’m afraid of what I might do.” 

“I trust you.”

CAPTURED BY MOONLIGHT focuses on those seemingly insurmountable differences, particularly one they’re about to explore – the need for a shapeshifter male to bond with his mate, which will push our heroine’s trust to its breaking point in one of my favorite books of the series.


I’m already neck deep in holiday merriment with my oldest sister and b-i-l dropping in yesterday for the start of a 4-day weekend of gifts and nibbles. The festivities conclude next weekend when my younger son and his family arrive (leaving gifts AND my grandguy to visit for a week. HoHoHo!). I’ll be sharing from BOUND BY MOONIGHT before beginning with the “Shadows” portion of the series in the New Year.


Wishing everyone warm and wonderful celebrations!


Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly hop for everyone who loves to write! Share an 8 to 10 sentence snippet of your writing on Sunday. Visit other participants on the list and read, critique, and comment on their 8sunday posts.

Spread the word, share the love, warriors - Hashtag #8sunday.

Sunday, December 16, 2018

WeWriWa: Max and Charlotte – Opposites Attract


Continuing with stops along my read-thru of my “By Moonlight” dark shapeshifter series, I’m pausing at book two, CHASED BY MOONLIGHT as the heat index rises as high as the stakes when Max’s implication in a high-profile murder case forces Cee Cee to step back from their relationship in order to prove him innocent . . . which would be easier if he wasn’t hiding something . . . or someone from her. As promised, here’s a glimpse at the NOLA detective through Max’s jaded yet inexperienced eyes.

He’d been in love with her for almost half of his life, though he’d barely spoken a handful of words to her for eight of those twelve years. Since the first fateful time they’d crossed paths, she’d become one of only three people he’d ever trusted.

She’d hit him like a locomotive while he stood frozen on the tracks, unable to move out of the way even as the whistle shrieked in warning. His emotions had been a train wreck ever since. Not prepared for her, he’d been startled, then amused when she got in his face, that sassy, sexy mouth ripping into him as if he was some small-time pick-pocket rather than the power behind the most powerful criminal in New Orleans, and he could think of nothing else but how those lips would taste.

She was a cop, the antithesis of everything he’d been since Jimmy Legere took him out of the swamps, grooming him from the time he was led away from the decomposing body of his mother to be the perfect weapon to wield against Jimmy’s enemies. Fierce and emotionless, Max had been feared since he was a teen. He’d heard them say he killed without conscience, but that wasn’t true. He hadn’t measured the right or wrong of what he did against the tremendous need to repay the man who’d rescued him, doing whatever was asked of him, without question, without pause.

Until Charlotte Caissie.

As absence makes hearts grow fonder, the unlikely couple is forced to see their budding relationship for what it is – an impossible yet irresistible challenge to overcome, if they can as the past as well as the present endangers their future together.


As next week leads into a loooong holiday weekend, I plan to get busier on RISE BY MOONLIGHT, following up on the progress made at last weekend’s day long Write In with a posse of Mid-Michigan Romance Writers of America pals in a Holiday Inn Express conference room. Here we are hard at work . . .



Whoops! Or rather enjoying a reward at the end of a prosperous day.

Lifting a glass (or a coffee cup) to all my fellow Warriors this weekend. May the Words be with you!



Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly hop for everyone who loves to write! Share an 8 to 10 sentence snippet of your writing on Sunday. Visit other participants on the list and read, critique, and comment on their 8sunday posts.


Spread the word, share the love, warriors - Hashtag #8sunday.

Sunday, December 09, 2018

WeWriWa: Meet Max Savoie, the Big Dog from my “By Moonlight” Series


That feeling you get when you know you’re onto something good. When one book isn’t enough to capture the drama, action and powerful relationship that tangles around your every thought. MASKED BY MOONLIGHT . . . yeah, it was like that. I’d never written without a detailed outline, but this story unfolded so fast I was into book four before I could catch my breath. And now I’m lost in these stories all over again as I reread the series (all 14 of them!) to get up to speed for RISE BY MOONLIGHT, to end cap the series. It’s all about Max Savoie, the mysterious shapeshifting mob enforcer and his infatuation with a wrong for every reason female (number one being she’s a New Orleans detective determine to bring down his father-figure boss with him as collateral damage!) Meet Max through the jaded eyes of Det. Charlotte Caissie as she goes to question his employer about a grisly murder in the Quarter.


Cee didn’t spend a lot of time admiring men for their looks, but something about Max Savoie’s face arrested her each time she saw him.

He wasn’t handsome, not even attractive in the traditional sense. He was rugged strength cut into sharp planes and rough angles, confident without being cocky, powerful without aggression, exuding complete control over what he allowed the world to see, which was usually damned little.

The fact that he could seem so forceful behind such a calm, immobile front impressed her and not much did. Max was a man who wasted no unnecessary words or movements, his unblinking stare taking in everything without revealing anything through eyes the color of wet verdigris, beneath lids heavy with guarded distain . . . or amusement. She often got the feeling that he was laughing at her on some private level, which irritated her. 

But the odd way he sensed things not apparent to others made her nervous—sounds, smells, movements, he was alert to them like a mastiff on a short chain. And he missed nothing when it came to her—not the slightest nuance, every tiny alteration, in a way that she’d find alarmingly obsessive if he ever acted on it with more than slightly flirtatious words. Who the hell noticed a new perfume applied modestly to pulse points almost a full day ago? Wondering made those pulse points flutter.



Welcome to my “By Moonlight” world! (Sorry for the outrageous price on these books even the e-versions! The paperbacks are technically out of print and I plan to petition for my rights back soon.) View it from Max’s eyes next week. Until then, here’s another tease . . .


I’m recovering from the office Christmas party and an all day Write In but plan to stop in to chat with everyone after missing last weekend. Happy Weekend fellow Warriors.



Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly hop for everyone who loves to write! Share an 8 to 10 sentence snippet of your writing on Sunday. Visit other participants on the list and read, critique, and comment on their 8sunday posts.

Spread the word, share the love, warriors - Hashtag #8sunday.