Please help me welcome Tori Scott to my blog today.  Tori will be giving away a prize to one lucky commenter so be sure and leave a question or comment for her.

Tell us about your current series.

I’m currently working on the sequel to Blame it on Texas, tentatively titled Blue Moon over Texas. It should be ready for release sometime in mid-to-late May. Blame it on Texas starts off the series, set in Morris Springs, Texas–West Texas cotton and ranching country. Life in West Texas isn’t easy. There are lots of challenges to deal with, especially weather. The weather plays a big role in both stories, but small communities in isolated areas pull together and help each other during hard times. The community becomes an extension of the family. That’s what I’ve tried to bring to life in both books.

What is your favorite part of writing?

I love getting to know my characters. They become real people to me. They are people I’d like to have as friends or family. I barely know anything about them when I first get started, but they pretty much drive the story, revealing more about themselves as they go along. People often ask which is my favorite book or character, but I can’t choose. I love them all and enjoy going back to visit them on occasion. That’s one reason I like sequels.

What is your least favorite part of writing?

Having to get off of Facebook and Twitter and concentrate. I’m a social media junkie. I end up writing late at night after my online friends have gone to bed, and often write until 4 AM. I suspect I also have a bit of ADD, so I have to shut off everything–internet, television, phone–so I can get those words down. I’ll allow myself a 15 minute break every hour to do a quick check on Facebook and Twitter before I settle back down for the next round.

How has your experience with self-publishing been?

It’s been a roller coaster ride. There was the steady uphill climb from July to February, a freefall from March through April, and now we’re back on the uphill climb. But it’s allowed my husband and I to quit a thankless, dead-end job and let me pay off my credit card bills, so I’m way ahead of where I was this time last year. From this point, all I can do is wait and see. But I love, love, love the control self-publishing gives me, the fans I’ve gained, and the friends I’ve made. I wouldn’t trade it.

What advice do you have for other authors wanting to self-publish?

Like Nike says…Just Do It! The biggest mistake I made was not doing it sooner. The optimum time would have been the fall of 2010, but I was working 70 hours a week and just didn’t take the time to check it out. It wasn’t until the spring of 2011 that I really started listening to my friends talking about sales numbers. They got my attention then, and I finally jumped in and learned to format my manuscripts, and to get them up on the various sites. I wish I hadn’t waited so long, but I’m glad to be here now.

What do you have planned for the future?

Once I finish the Blame it on Texas sequel, I’ll release another sexy novella and then I’ll be working hard on the next book in the Superstition series. After that I want to write another romantic suspense along the lines of Lone Star Justice. And maybe a Christmas novellas for the holiday season. That’s for this year. Next year? I have no idea yet. My fans usually tell me what they want to see–or demand to see–next. LOL.

EXCERPT

Midwives have long been associated with the use of herbs and potions, as well as with witchcraft. Most of my colleagues are not witches, but before the advent of modern medicine, women were called upon not only to assist with childbirth, but also to use their knowledge to heal any number of ills, both physical and psychological, in men, women, and children. When the outcome was not good, or the one expected, the midwife was often accused of witchcraft or sorcery.

Modern midwifery practice embraces all belief systems and incorporates the use of herbs and alternative medical practices and, as such, Wiccans and those with less mainstream religious and spiritual practices often seek our services.

Though divination and connection with ghosts and spiritual beings lies outside the grasp of my mind and abilities, watching those who have the gift do their work has convinced me that all humans have the capacity to use parts of their brain in the same way, but few have developed it.

The first step is opening one’s mind to the possibility, then embracing it with a peaceful, accepting attitude. But in order to transfer that into credible fantasy and paranormal fiction, writers must, at the very least suspend disbelief and, at best, understand and accept it themselves.

In addition to mining my experience and harvesting story ideas from dreams, I’ve applied my research and journalistic skills to writing paranormal romance and urban fantasy. I begin with the facts. Huh? We’re talking paranormal, right?

Herbology, alchemy, astrology, tarot, and divination are as old as history. Prayers and offerings to deities in exchange for favors, intercessions, and miracles are part of most religions, as well as the belief in an all-powerful being or beings that manipulate events.

I value among my friends and clients many witches, energy healers, and spiritualists who have taught me much about their beliefs, and allowed me to experience how rituals (including births conducted in settings where the space is conducive to spiritual and metaphysical connections) generate energy, and how it is channeled to produce the desired effect or outcome.

I’ve carefully followed the instructions of a santera on the use of teas, banishing and cleansing, potions, offerings of fruit and burning scented candles to heal both physical and emotional distress (much the same way people use aromatherapy and many Catholics light votives and pray to saints).

Natural phenomena, like observing a woodland full of blinking fireflies, gave me pause to consider the possibility that fairies really do exist. I’ve talked with ghost hunters about their research and practice and learned how to monitor for electromagnetic activity.

I approach research for my paranormal fiction as a traveler who wants to enter the culture to best experience it. Showing up with a camera, pad, and pencil will not allow you to obtain the information you need, nor the context required to translate it into a compelling plot with believable characters. If you’re going to ask readers for leaps of faith, you’ll need to take a few yourself.

One result is my recent publication in Bites: Ten Tales of Vampires. http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/133489

“The Dhampir’s Kiss” introduces the characters in my current writing project. A gritty urban fantasy, Boulevard of Bad Spells and Broken Dreams is set in The Bronx, notorious for its gang violence, arson, drugs, and prostitution. A beta reader compared to Sin City, and I describe it as and mix-up of the film Fort Apache, The Bronx and Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities with an updated paranormal twist.

Blurb:

Can any vow survive immortal life?
Excerpt:

No ordinary Bronx girl, though naïve and unaware of the vast power she possessed, Taina Aponte wasn’t desperate enough to offer her loyalty, her neck, or any other part of her body, to Raul in exchange for a hit of heroin, cocaine, or crystal meth.

Down boy. The desire to leap from his perch and take her, too compelling for even the most lovely of his harem to satisfy, must be restrained. His aura threatened to flare like a candle flame too close to gasoline. Raul suppressed his demon’s halo lest she become suspicious of his intent. Claiming The White Witch required more effort than he was accustomed to. Much more.

Taina bound a circle in the witches’ area. Sun glimmered through the trees, speckling the grass with flecks of gold. Brighter than he liked, but private. The multitude of castings over the years kept mundanes away. Poor bastards weren’t even aware of bumping into the transparent curtain of energy that snaked off in the other direction like a magickal path to the noisy playground.

No sign of her defacto bodyguard Arnaldo. Good. This evening he could get Taina dhamp drunk and willing, scratch a fang across her throat, penetrate her. It only took one encounter to inoculate with the virus and begin the change, to absorb the elixir of life, to transfer the soul, the body, and the mind to his service. To advance the evolution of his kind.

Author Bio:

Carole Ann Moleti lives and works as a nurse-midwife in New York City, thus explaining her fascination with all things paranormal, urban fantasy, and space opera. Her nonfiction focuses on health care, politics, and women’s issues. But her first love is writing science fiction and fantasy because walking through walls is less painful than running into them.

Carole’s work has appeared in a variety of speculative fiction venues including Lightspeed, The Internet Review of Science Fiction, Tangent Online, The Portal, and The Fix. Her short stories set in the worlds of her novels are featured in Haunted: Ten Tales of Ghosts and Bites: Ten Tales of Vampires.

http://caroleannmoleti.com

I’m doing a little promotion for my own book today.  I’ve put all three of my Centauri books – Centauri Dawn, Centauri Twilight and Centauri Midnight – together in one volume.  This does a couple of things for both of us.  It assures me that you, my reader, have all three books and it saves, you, my reader, money over buying all three books.

Below are excerpts from each of the books.  I hope you enjoy them and to thank you for stopping by, I’m giving one paperback copy of Centauri Series: The Complete Collection to two lucky commenters in the US.  If you are outside the US you’ll receive a Smashswords coupon.  So be sure and leave a comment to be entered into the drawing.

EXCERPT FROM CENTAURI DAWN BY CYNTHIA WOOLF

Always the same dream. He called to her. “Princess Dayanara.” His voice was like rich, silky caramel, floating down her mound of ice cream. It did strange things to her insides. She yearned to hear him say her name again and again.

It was so hot and he was so sexy. Hot. God, she was hot. She kicked the blanket off her leg. But he was just a dream. A fantasy.

Something…someone…touched her leg. This wasn’t a dream! The hand she felt hot against her skin was real. She jolted awake. The warmth she felt in her dream turned to a cold sweat.

A man stood beside her bed. Not just any man, but the man from her dreams. Tall, dark, with chiseled features. Handsome with broad shoulders and abs to die for. His face came into focus and his gaze captured hers. Color of the deepest ocean, so blue as to seem almost black in the faint light that surrounded him, she struggled to look away.

Sitting bolt upright, she screamed, then scrambled backward over and off the bed, landing with a thump. She hit her back and shoulder.

The man leaned over the bed, his large size looming down over her, blocking the light from the window.

She scrambled backward, struggling to get to her feet.

“Are you injured?” His voice washed over her. He sounded familiar, like she should know him, but she didn’t.

He came around the bed and she bounded over it to the other side. As he closed on her she glanced quickly around and looked for a weapon, any weapon. Her hand landed on a small pink lamp. It had sat next to her bed since she was five, keeping her safe from the boogeyman. She grabbed it, pulling the cord from the wall and held it in front of her like a sword. “Who the hell are you? Get out of here before I call the police.” Her voice was rough from sleep, edgy from fear.

He moved closer to her, reaching out a hand. Not with malice, but with something else. Concern? “Princess you’re going to hurt someone. May I assist you?” he asked, chivalrous.

Princess. He must be a nutcase.

She yanked at the straps of her gown, resettling them on her shoulders and pulling the bottom down as far as it would go but it was too short to cover much.
“Stop.” Her voice shook, though she tried to steady it. “Don’t come any closer.”

“You must listen. You must come with me.”

She screamed at the top of her lungs. “Help! Help! Help!” What was wrong with the people in this building? Were they all deaf?

“Princess.” His voice washed over her like warm chocolate, comforting her. That wasn’t right. Why wasn’t he attacking her? The soothing voice didn’t stop her. He was a stranger. In her bedroom. “Help! Help!” she screamed, keeping the pink lamp aimed at him.

She lunged across the bed, reaching for the telephone.

“Now, Princess, please calm down.” He reached for the phone, and ripped it from the wall. “I mean you no harm, but we must talk and there is little time.” He fell to one knee, bowing in front of her.

Her eyes wide, she swung the pink lamp at him at him. He deflected the blow with his forearm as he stood, denting the lampshade in the process.

“Princess. Someone is going to get hurt if you do not allow me to speak.” He wrestled the mangled lamp from her. “Hear what I have to say. Please,” he implored. “You must return home. Immediately.”

“Help! Somebody help me!” Screaming, she kicked out at him with her foot, tried to take his head off but her skills were no match for his. He blocked her kick with one arm, grabbed her leg with both his hands, flipped her completely around and back on to the bed.

“No one can hear you. Stop screaming.” His voice never rose. He sounded…exasperated.

Somewhat reassured that he didn’t attack, Audra stopped to catch her breath. Breathing hard, she rolled to her back, the sheet cool beneath her and eyed him from top to bottom. “You look like you just came from a Star Trek convention.” And just like the man in my dream.

Could it be?

EXCERPT FROM CENTAURI TWILIGHT BY CYNTHIA WOOLF

Anton needed an escape. All this happiness made him nauseous. In the last two weeks since the announcement of his brother Darius’ wedding to Audra, Queen of Centauri, he’d witnessed more kissing, smiling and cheerful familial festivities than he could stand. Now the ceremony was finally over. All he had to do was manage to not look so grim as he survived these last few hours of dancing and merriment.

Taking advantage of a lull in the festivities, Anton pulled Darius and Audra aside. “I’m leaving tonight.”

Audra took his hands in hers, the soft fabric of her wedding dress brushed against his legs. He forced his feet to remain planted. No need to offend his new sister by moving out of arms reach. “Are you well enough to leave?” she asked with a frown. “This isn’t going to be an easy mission for you.”

Anton used the one argument he knew Audra would not stand against. “Sweet sister, I’m well enough. The sooner I leave, the sooner I’ll find Jondalara and bring her home.”

Audra leaned up and kissed his scarred cheek. “Anton, how will I ever be able to thank you?”

Regardless of his own internal agony, it had nothing to do with Audra and Darius. He couldn’t stop a genuine grin escaping. “Name this baby after me.”

Audra slumped against Darius. “Baby?”

Darius held his new wife close to his side. “What baby?”

Anton smiled then chuckled. Should he be upset that his brother had made love to his lifemate, even though she was to have been Anton’s bride? Maybe, but he could not. It was too difficult to find your lifemate and impossible for a Coridian man to resist her once he found her. “It appears you two already had your wedding night.”

Audra’s hand automatically went to her stomach. Nothing was showing, there was no bump, not that it would have shown under her wedding dress anyway. “But, but…how could you know? I don’t even know yet. I mean I haven’t…” Audra sputtered, unable to voice the words.

Darius laughed, rich and loud, uncaring that he was drawing attention to the three of them. “It is one of his gifts, Sweetheart. Ask my mother sometime what happened when he was five and told my mother to expect me.”

Oblivious to everyone else, Anton knew they were in love. Audra leaned again into Darius and he wrapped his arms around her. “A baby,” she sighed and rubbed her stomach. Then she turned back to Anton, the happy bride gone and only the Queen remaining. “I don’t care what it takes, bring my sister home.”

Audra had found Anton half dead in Zelton Slavarien’s dungeon after escaping Slavarien herself. She was resourceful, his sister-in-law. He’d been beaten to within an inch of life and tortured in many other ways by Slavarien who wanted to know where Audra was.

He heard the doctors, while he was in the med tech unit, say how lucky he was. That a few more hours and the damage would totally have been irreversible and he would have died. He wished he had, along with the rest of his company of soldiers. They’d been sent to bring back Zelton Slavarien for trial, but just outside his citadel a trap had been laid. One designed to capture Anton and solicit information from him in any way possible. Torture was the preferred method employed by Slavarien.

She’d saved what was left of his miserable life. He’d do this one thing for her before he let the darkness and guilt over losing his men in the ambush, claim him. He and Darius both knew the odds of survival were low, of finding the princess even lower. But he’d demanded the mission anyway. The planet Delaz was a long way off, a lifetime from the world he knew. And a return to the dominion of the evil Slavarien family.

None of it mattered.

He’d find Jondalara or die trying. This was the one thing that Audra wanted above all else, the one thing he could do for her to repay his debt.

“I will, Your Majesty. I will bring her home to you.”

EXCERPT

CENTAURI MIDNIGHT by CYNTHIA WOOLF

“Audra, please. You’re my queen, but you’re also my friend. You must grant me this last request. Let me go after him. Please you know how much this means to me.” Tensign Kiti Dolana paced the Her Royal Highness’s beautiful sitting room. Bile rose in her throat and threatened to strangle her. Finally, she collapsed into a chair its soft cushions swallowing her as she sat across the small, highly polished and gleaming, coffee table from the Queen of Centauri.

The Queen, pregnant with triplets, her beautifully distended abdomen disallowing much frivolous movement, reclined on the couch. She sat up to pour the tea but had trouble reaching the tea pot in the middle of the coffee table. “Kiti, would you pour our aeta? I’m a bit like a beached whale right now.” Audra was anything but a beached whale. Kiti knew the colloquial term from her study of Earth.

Her queen was radiant. Her long, chestnut hair fell in waves to her waist, gathered on one side of her head. Her clear silver gray eyes shone bright in her pale face. She wore a beautiful royal purple empire-waisted dress that highlighted her pale features. She was beautiful. Kiti remembered a time, on their trip back to Centauri from Earth, when she’d not thought so, because she was jealous.

That was before Audra’s marriage to Darius, when she’d still been betrothed to Anton. Kiti had thought herself in love with Anton. They’d been seeing each other for years, and Kiti was jealous of Audra. Some of the things she’d said had been unkind, but Audra had seen her jealousy for what it was and forgiven her the words. They were now best friends.

Kiti poured the tea and continued to beseech her queen. “Audra, you have to let me go after him. Tybold killed my brother, Joridan. His actions directly led to Anton being captured and tortured. I need to see they both get justice. They deserve it.”

“And you are sure it’s only justice you seek?” Audra softly asked.

“Damn it, Audra.” Kiti got up and paced the room again. Her long black hair, tied in a high tankipa tail, swung back and forth, slapping against her back with each step. The thick, plush carpet kept her boots from clicking on the floor. “I’m begging you to let me go with Garrick Marcus. It’s not just revenge I need. I need closure. I’m the one who should deliver Tybold to the authorities.
Garrick Marcus is the best captain in the fleet and I know Darius is sending him after Tybold. Joridan needs us both to avenge his death. To bring his murderer back to Centauri for justice to be served.”

“Kiti, are you combat trained? We don’t know what to expect from the Gregarians. By this time, Tybold could have convinced them we are conquerors and he’s their only salvation. We don’t know. It could be a suicide mission. I don’t want to lose my best friend.” She went on. “I know you’re grieving. Joridan’s loss and Lara’s return has been very hard on you.”

“Stop.” Kiti held up her hand. “I know what my life has been like. I mourn the loss of Joridan and I’m still angry about Anton’s capture and torture. Joridan was my little brother.” she smiled at that. “Even though he was a head taller than me, he will always be my little brother. I still smell Joridan’s scent in his room. Sometimes it’s so fresh it’s like he just passed by.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I miss the closeness that Anton and I once shared, but I do not bemoan him finding Lara. I’m very happy he found his lifemate. It was something he never thought to do. After the torture both Anton and Lara suffered at the hands of the Slavariens, it’s amazing they found each other. I wish I had a lifemate out there somewhere.

“Audra, I’m a historian and anthropologist, but first I’m Dragonera. Of course, I am combat trained. All Dragonera are. We are the Royal Guard. The best soldiers Centauri has. For that matter, the best anywhere.”

“You’re right, but I worry anyway. Must be my maternal instinct.” Audra patted her abdomen.

Kitty smiled at the thought of Audra as a mother. She would be a good one, even if she was a might over protective. At least she was of Kiti. Kiti could only imagine how she would be with her own babies.

“You know the people of Gregar are centuries behind us technologically. I’m the only person who can go on this mission that knows anything about their culture.”

“I don’t know,” Audra hesitated.

“Admit it. Garrick needs me.”

“We don’t interfere in the development of other planets’ civilizations. You know that.”

“Tybold has already interfered. I say we’ll be evening the odds for the tribes involved. And it’s not as though Gregar doesn’t know we exist. They already trade with other planets. Just because they’re not our technological equals doesn’t mean they aren’t advanced.”

Kiti saw Audra hesitate again before she answered. “I’ll have to confer with Darius before I can give you my answer.”

At that moment Darius came in accompanied by Garrick, Anton and Lara. The three men were in their Dragonera uniforms as was Kiti, the only differences being the color blocking. All wore the royal colors of amethyst and cream. Darius and Garrick wore amethyst uniforms with cream colored sleeves, denoting their status as starship captains. Darius’ uniform also had a cream colored stripe from the left shoulder to the waist, denoting that he was Captain of the Royal Guard. As a general in the Royal Army, Anton’s uniform was solid amethyst. Lara, Audra’s twin sister, still had the tanned skin from someone who’d spent too much time in the sun. She wore the House of Danexx royal colors like everyone else did. Hers were an amethyst jumpsuit and long cream colored duster. Kiti’s uniform was solid cream. Her rank as Tensign was denoted by a patch on her left arm.

“What do you need to discuss with me?” Darius asked as he took his wife’s arm and helped her to rise from the couch. She gave him a quick kiss. Darius rubbed her stomach then bent and said, “Hello, my children. Are you being nice to your mommy today?”

Kiti swore he expected an answer.

“If you don’t quit that people are going to think you’re crazy,” said Audra.
Darius laughed and kissed her abdomen.

“I am. Crazy in love with my wife.”

Lara made gagging sounds. ‘Will you two remember that you have an audience?”

“All right. But you and Anton are just as bad as we are,” Darius said to his soon to be twice over sister-in-law.”

“Never,” retorted Lara. “No one is as over the moons as you two.”

“I don’t know, I’m pretty much over the moons about you,” said Anton waggling his eyebrows at her.

The banter was not aimed at Kiti. She didn’t think the two couples even remembered they were not alone. Kiti glanced at Garrick, who rolled his brandy colored eyes at her. “Audra, the mission.” She reminded her queen to hurry by tapping the comulator at her own wrist.

“Oh, yes. Darius, Kiti has requested to be assigned to go with Garrick to Gregar, to apprehend Lord Tybold. I told her I would discuss it with you.”
“I don’t know if she will be needed,” Darius responded.

Garrick spoke for the first time since entering the room. “I think an anthropologist would be very useful on this particular mission. Tensign Dolana would be a definite asset to me in bringing in Tybold.”

“Thank you, Garrick.” Kiti was warmed by his words and agreed with him one hundred percent.

“Very well,” said Darius. “You will receive your orders tomorrow. In the meantime, can we eat dinner? I’m a starving man.”