A new Viking Romantic adventure ~ VIKING MAGIC

Blurb:

When Gisla hurls herself aboard Flane’s longship, she is desperate to avoid marriage to Karli Olafsson. Oli, Flane’s 16-year-old foster-son, thinks she’s the most wonderful girl he’s ever seen. But a Viking warship follows them home to Scotland. Can Flane and Oli protect Gisla without endangering themselves and their families? What is so fearful about Karli Olafsson? Why do the men of Dyflin, as well as the girl, fear him?
Adventures, romance and magic meld in VIKING MAGIC to provide a fascinating tale of love, sacrifice and undeniable passion.

Excerpt:

Oli grabbed Flane’s arm. ‘You won’t make her go back?’

Flane looked down. It was not a boy’s hand clamped so fiercely around his arm, but the large, muscular hand of a man. Though Oli’s voice had broken early, he’d still acted like a boy. Now the boy was disappearing in front of his eyes, and the man was an unknown entity.

‘Some men will not take kindly to a bride escaping. They’ll come after her.’

Oli’s jaw clenched.

‘What if a sixty-strong warband arrives tomorrow?’ Flane went on. ‘We have only half that strength. You would put the lives of all at the Steading at risk?’

‘They’d protect her,’ Oli declared. ‘I’m sure they would!’ He appealed to Hakon. ‘You’d protect her, wouldn’t you?’

‘We might have to. Or at least protect ourselves.’ Grim-faced, Hakon nodded to the seaward end of the loch. ‘Look out there.’

Flane and Oli swung round. A ship stood at the mid-point of the loch, neatly framed by the mountains on either side of the water. The red and white striped sail, clear in the half light of the northern summer evening, shuddered as the breeze disappeared with the last of the sun’s rays.

Beside him, the girl moaned on an indrawn breath. Her hand covered her mouth, and her eyes stared unblinking at the ship. Flane looked at Hakon.

The big man shrugged. ‘She told us her father is Harold Ice-Walker. He’s the least of our problems. Her prospective father-in-law is Erik Bloodaxe.’

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K5S3BX0

Ella M. Kaye and Pier Lights

She listened to silence. Except the birds. The waves. A few voices in the distance. She would not turn to him. He had to come to her. He had to come to her.

The electricity sparked in her body. Her skin tingled. Her heart rate accelerated as she felt his legs close to her back, as she felt him crouch behind her. His fingers sent a shock through her soul as they reached up to smooth her hair from the side of her face.

Hello!

I’m Ella M. Kaye and I’m new to the spicy hot romance genre, but not new to romance fiction. Under a different name, I’ve been writing romantic stories for more than a decade, and like any creative type, I love to stretch my wings.

So here it is: my first hot and spicy romance, featuring a dancer, a swordsman, and a lighthouse location. Set in Folly Beach, South Carolina, Pier Lights is expected in mid-February. More of the lighthouse series will follow.

I’d like to thank Lindsay for welcoming me into the Romantics group with my new fiction line and the debut of that line’s first cover.

As my tag line suggests, my work merges into the darker side of life and love, and it is adult fiction. There is nothing sweet and innocent about these stories or their characters.

If I’ve piqued your interest, please like my Facebook page to keep up with my news and other stories related to Pier Lights.

I welcome questions and may even answer. ;-)

Ella M. Kaye
Sexy, Smart, and Slightly Dark Romance

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Technorati Tags: romance,spicy,books,authors,fiction,Folly Beach,South Carolina,ballet,swords,dancer,sword play,lighthouse,Morris Island Lighthouse

Then and Now...

I recently put an excerpt from my first published novel up a post on Belles and Beaus. It was interesting to look back and see how I was writing then and compare it to how I’m writing now. I have to admit I made all the common errors everyone talks about – repetition and overuse of words, etc etc, but in spite of it all I can see a directness I like in that early story (which was the longest of my four published titles).

Perhaps I’m now trying to hard. It’s a question that concerns me sometimes. In absorbing all these rules of how a writer needs to write to please editors and gain a contract, I may have lost that vital spark, that freshness that makes things leap off the page. Or maybe I’m deluding myself, and I never had it at all. That’s possible, too.

I read a post yesterday and planned to keep and comment on it. When I went back to read it again I found I’d deleted it along with all the other stuff that comes in everyday, so I cannot refresh my memory, or give credit to the author, which is a shame. The gist of the post was that a writer gives away a lot of his or her own personality in writing. I’ve heard this before, and I’m not sure I agree with the premise.

Surely a writer makes things up, uses her imagination, builds a story around characters which are usually (but not always) a mish-mash of people we know and characters we’ve read or seen on the screen with a dash of our originality thrown in? What makes a successful story-teller but the ability to blend traits we recognise with out-of-the-ordinary, heroic style deeds? To take and everyday situation and think What if, and take it from there, into realms the ordinary person in the street would never contemplate?If that is what fiction writing is about, where is the danger of revealing one’s own personality? More on that tomorrow.

And just in case you wondered, the starter was salmon...and it was delicious. But it has absolutely nothing at all to do with this post!

New Release! Protect the Heart

Protect The Heart
LK Hunsaker

Elucidate Publishing
May 31, 2010
198 pg trade paperback
& ebook 

A Home Front Story
sweet romance, any age

Blurb:

Entrenched on his father's farm in southern Idaho's Snake River Valley, Abraham Luchner pulls up roots to join the war effort. Joined by his friend Cameron Terry, an impulsive adventure seeker, Abe determines to sever ties at home in order to minimize distractions. His greatest connection with his beloved canyon and farm is in the form of charcoal sketches he works on each night to escape his present conditions, as well as the letters Cameron reads aloud from his beloved.

Maura Laerty has been claimed as Cameron's betrothed in the eyes of the community. Determined not to become a war widow or caregiver of one more soul who needs her ongoing assistance, she refuses his proposal, at least until he returns. Despite her efforts, Maura soon finds herself saddled with responsibilities that tax her resolve and turn the townspeople away. Her greatest ally comes from a twist of fate as winding and unpredictable as the great Snake River itself.


Excerpt:

“Good afternoon, Miss Laerty.”

She jumped at Cameron’s voice, amazed she hadn’t noticed his car pull in front of her house as she stood admiring her flowers. Maura shoved the indecent thoughts out of her mind while she faced him. “Oh, good afternoon, Mr. Terry. You aren’t off already, are you?” She couldn’t help but stare at Cameron in his olive green uniform. It made her heart hurt. She didn’t want him to come back like those men at the other end of the home. With his risk-taking and high spirits, she was awfully afraid he would.

“I have nearly two full days yet. Abe and I are in town to get ready is all. Thought I would start getting used to it.” He stepped out and offered his arm. “I hoped to take you for a walk around town.”

“I’m afraid I have plans.”

“You have plans?” He looked alarmed.

“Yes. I was on my way to the home. They’re expecting me today.”

“Oh.” His face relaxed. “Well, I don’t suppose I could change your mind, seeing as I have only two days left and all?”

“For now. Two days left for now, you mean, Mr. Terry. And I expect you to come home walking, by the way. You do know I expect that.”

He bowed. “I will do my best to accommodate you.”

His grin was too charming. She had to pull her eyes away. “I do need to go in to the home for a bit, but I suppose I could leave early. Would you like to come for dinner? Father would enjoy the extra company.”

“I would be honored. Please, allow me to drive you and I’ll pick you up after if you’ll give me a time.”

Maura couldn’t refuse. After all, Cameron was leaving. She might as well enjoy the company, also, while she could. “You are welcome to bring your friend along, if you would like. You say he’s in town with you?”

“Abe? Yes, he’s in town. But he has ‘errands’ to take care of, so he says. Trying to make sure everything is set for his father while he’s away, I believe. I told him I’d have my younger brothers stop by now and then to offer help. He seems to appreciate it, but he still worries.”

“His father is in good health, though, I hear.”

“Oh yes. For a man nearly sixty, he is in good health. They are close, however, and Abe worries he will work too hard there alone. Not like you and your father or me and my own, where we put up with each other only as we are related by circumstance. If anything happens to Abe, the old man will be devastated. His world centers on him.”

“Lord willing he won’t be away long, then. Or you.”

Cameron lifted her hand to kiss her fingers.

She blushed. “We’re in public. What will people think?”

“They’ll think you’re inclined to become my wife. As I’m inclined to think you might, also.”

“Mr. Terry…”

“Please, Maura. Cameron. At least do me the favor of using my first name and allowing me use of yours.”

“I believe you have already taken that liberty.”

He grinned. “And I believe you are starting to bend to my request. But we’ll talk more of it later, after dinner tonight when we take a stroll.”

Download the first 10% (appr. 20 pgs) to peruse HERE

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PROTECT THE HEART benefits military families:

$1.00 of every $7.95 PRINT sale directly from http://www.ElucidatePublishing.net
and $2.00 of every $4.95 EBOOK sale directly from  http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/15621
goes to BooksforBoots.org to help families of injured service members visit them as they recover. [print books will be personally signed and come with bookmarks]

Other fundraisers for the military in the works. Watch my blog or sign up for my newsletter for details.

LK Hunsaker
~Literary Romance with an Artsy Twist~
http://www.lkhunsaker.com
http://lkhunsaker.blogspot.com

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