Music Mondays: "Came Back Haunted" by Nine Inch Nails

"I came back haunted." -- Nine Inch Nails



Trent Reznor really doesn't have to do much to be sexy. Really, just standing there is good, even if he insists on covering himself with mist and shadow every time he plays a show. That angry whisper of his has done it for me pretty much since the moment I hit puberty. I'm really glad he decided to revive Nine Inch Nails.

Not the Leader of the Pack Goes on Tour

This week, I'm on blog tour for Not the Leader of the Pack, my recent release from Breathless Press. You can see all the stops here.

Today, Adriana Kraft is kind enough to kick off the tour with my post on five ways to have werewolf sex (I figured that if Cosmo can give sex tips, I'm at least as qualified). While we're talking about this, here's a link to Nerve magazine's excellently hilarious send-up of Cosmo sex tips. I literally hurt myself laughing at that one.

In the next several days, I'll be sharing a lot of background on how Not the Leader of the Pack got written. I've also still got my buy one, get one free offer going (see the bottom of my post on Adriana Kraft's blog for more details), so feel free to get in touch!

Icarus Bleeds Cover Reveal

Blurb:
Icarus, a man on the run, dreams of wings, and of taking flight like the surgicaly modified rich and famous of Central City. The hacker who harbors him will do anything to keep him, including paying for the dangerous operation in a back alley chop shop. Neither can imagine how much the wings will truly cost. (M/M)

Every now and then, a writer gets a "bonus story," something that just flows as if it's coming straight out of the collective unconscious. I don't think it's a great idea to wait around for those--I try to show up at the page and do my work whether I feel inspired or not. However, it's nice to be inspired, nice to have the sensation of words burning and flowing and somehow sanctified. It's a rare occurrence for me, and happens maybe once a year.

Icarus Bleeds was that story for me last year. When I read it over now, I'm not even sure how I wrote it. It's a little scary to have a story like this, because I want everyone to read it and like it but it's also a fair bit different from what I normally write (it's only my second m/m piece ever).

In any case, it will be coming out soon. Watch for more information on its story page, here.

The Passenger

And, I'm not done rhapsodizing about Sweetmeats Press yet. I have another piece of news, because "Safekeeping" isn't the only story I wrote for them.

Here are some flashes from "The Passenger," which will be in a future Sweetmeats anthology, Wanderlust:

A night that smells of sex, and a woman caught in a daze of lust. Heat and sawdust and a truck box full of a strange collection. Modified plants. Sexual artifacts from a lost past. Revenge...

Once I can show you cover, links, excerpt, and the like, I won't wait a second. Trust me.

Bounty Hunters, Bail, and Other Odd Facts

Welcome to my little corner in the On the Hunt blog hop! On the Hunt is a series of books published by Ellora's Cave on the theme of bounty hunters. Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the post to see links to what my fellow authors have done, and information about what I'm giving away!

For my entry, I thought I'd share some of the research I did on bounty hunting as a profession.

I'd always associated bounty hunting with Boba Fett from Star Wars, so the first thing I did when I decided to write for the series was find out what the job is in the modern (not science fictional) world. I discovered that bounty hunting is illegal in many places, and it's an odd, Wild West sort of thing in the U.S.

When people in the United States get arrested and sent to jail, they often have the option to put up some money as bail. When a person does this, he or she earns the right to go free until the trial, at which point the money gets returned. However, a bail bondsman can put up bail instead, essentially giving the person a loan for that amount. Then, if the person doesn't show up, the bail bondsman forfeits the money they loaned.

Enter bounty hunters. An 1872 Supreme Court decision called Taylor v. Taintor is widely credited with giving bounty hunters the freedom they currently have in the U.S. To paraphrase roughly, that decision determined that the bail bondsman functions like a jailer, and so can do the sorts of things a jailer might, such as seize or imprison a fugitive. By extension, the bail bondsman is able to farm that out to bounty hunters, who have some pretty extraordinary rights in a lot of states. For example, in many places, they're allowed to break into a fugitive's home to retrieve him or her.

Some states don't require any sort of licensing—-all you have to do to be a bounty hunter is say that you are one. My state, Rhode Island, is one of the lenient ones. This post explains:

Bounty hunting in Rhode Island is not governed by any specific legislation... Because of this laxity in legislation concerning fugitive recovery, Rhode Island can be 1 of the easiest states to find employment as a bounty hunter under a properly registered surety agent.

Bounty hunters are freelance workers who typically get paid a percentage of the original bail. According to this post, the average bounty hunter salary is between $25,000 and $50,000 a year. So, while it's a glamorous job, it's not likely to make a person rich and famous. On top of that, because the work is a bit uncertain, it lacks stability. The same post says bounty hunters usually get 5-10% of the original bail. In larger cities, it says average bail is $20,000-$50,000, which would work out to $2,000-$5,000 a job for the bounty hunter. It's not chump change, but it seemed clear to me that it could be a tough life.

I'm going so much into financials because these numbers actually turned out to be the main inspiration for my book for On the Hunt, which is called The Fugitive's Sexy Brother. I envisioned a woman (named Emily Boysen in the book) who is determined to be a bounty hunter. However, because she's not entirely confident about competing for the most lucrative jobs, she scrapes by on low-level work, getting paid $500 here and $250 there. When the story begins, Emily is tired of struggling and ready to try something bigger.

Next, I imagined the villain, her ex-boyfriend Matthew Lodi. Matthew made a name for himself years ago with a really big score. He got paid so well for that job that he thought he'd hit the big-time and bought a super-expensive sports car, a Lotus Elise, California Edition. Unfortunately, Matthew soon learned that those kinds of jobs don't come along every day. At the point we meet him in the story, work has dried up to the point that Matthew is resorting to some pretty dirty tactics to keep his car.

Odd as that path is, this is usually how I come up with story ideas. I start learning about the subject I want to write about until something grabs my attention and characters and a story begin to form around it.

Read on for a blurb about the book that resulted from this research, information about the other authors in the series, and a giveaway!

Blurb:

Emily Boysen is sick of low-level bounty hunting jobs that don’t pay her rent, and sick to death of her ex-boyfriend taking credit for her work. Ready to claim her due, she takes on the quarry of a lifetime, the notorious Fernando Bonavita. But instead of the fugitive, she captures his sexy younger brother, Javier.

Javier Bonavita never wanted to know the truth about his older brother’s activities, instead protecting him out of loyalty. When he uses his hacking skills to pose as Fernando, he never expects to uncover crimes he can’t stomach. Beautiful Emily has no idea how glad he is to be in her custody—as long as he’s her prisoner, he doesn’t have to face his brother.

Passion flares between Emily and Javier, and soon he’s putting the handcuffs on her. Suspicion grows along with their feelings, though. A sinister plot centers around Fernando, and untangling it will test their loyalties to the limit.

Buy Links:

All Romance

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Ellora’s Cave



Giveaway:

I'll give away a $5 gift card to Ellora's Cave to one lucky commenter. Please include your e-mail address in the comment so I can get in touch with you, and tell me if you'd rather be the hunter or the hunted. I'll select the winner randomly on June 24, after the blog hop is over. Good luck!

Safekeeping

So, after much hilarity regarding international mail, I can finally announce something I've been dying to tell you for months now. I'm on board for a new anthology published by Sweetmeats Press, Made for Hire. This book, which promises "five stories of domestic service," promises to be a smoking hot one.

Here's the blurb for my story, "Safekeeping":

While house-sitting, a young woman finds herself falling in love with the homeowner. So she sets out on a campaign to make herself an indispensable part of his home…and his life.

I love Sweetmeats Press because publisher Kojo Black embraces the wild, dark, and sensual with the taste and gusto of the best sort of epicure. (And he's the kind of guy who both uses and inspires sentences like that).

I've had the idea for "Safekeeping" brewing in the back of my mind for a long, long time, but sometimes it takes a special kind of permission to really let loose. This isn't erotic romance, it's a tale of obsession and taboo. While I was writing "Safekeeping," I kept thinking to myself, "Is that too much?" Then I would remember other things I've read in books by Sweetmeats and the whole tone of my communication with them, and think, "No way is this too much." I don't know if I can explain how exhilarating it is to write this way. I find that sometimes there's a certain magic that comes about in the combination of subject matter, editor, and author that produces conditions conducive to this sort of writing.

I'm also thrilled to be sharing space with the amazing Kyoko Church again—-her story "Sweet. Sweeter." is also in the book. If you haven't read her stuff, you're really missing out.

I think I've made it clear how excited I am. I'll end with an excerpt, and will post more details once the book goes on sale (which, in ebook form, will be just a few days from now).

This is a little piece from "Safekeeping." Enjoy!

Underneath the money he’d left for me, a slightly curled piece of paper bore his handwriting. Michael always pressed hard when he wrote, and this paper still hadn’t recovered. I skimmed mundane phrases. The only unusual detail was that he’d bought a new collar for the dog, and he told me where to find the old one in case she suffered any chafing.

Frustrated, I picked up the note and peered at it more closely. “Is this all you’re giving me, Michael?” I whispered. Hadn’t he understood? I wanted more. That’s what I’d been trying to tell him.

I ran my fingers over the imprints his pen had made, then stiffened, feeling lines where he hadn’t made marks. This page bore the grooves of a previous effort. Burning with curiosity, I looked closer, tracing the shapes of the letters. If it had said anything else, surely I would have struggled to follow its meaning. Instead, it leapt off the page and straight into my heart.

Michael had written my name, over and over. At the bottom of the paper, I found a large question mark.

I reread the note carefully, forwards and backwards, word by word. Then it clicked. He mentioned he’d bought a new collar for the dog, but was she really likely to need the old one as a backup? Clearly, that was a gift for me.

You can learn more about the book here.

Music Mondays: "Reptilia" by The Strokes

"I said, 'Please don't slow me down if I'm going too fast.'" -- Julian Casablancas



God, this song makes me want to go too fast. With Julian Casablancas? Maybe... He's got a weird sort of appeal. In this video, he has a really pure rock star feeling, like he came from some rock planet that exists outside of time.