Showing posts with label Samhain Publishing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Samhain Publishing. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Promo Blitz: Mother of Demons





Supernatural Crime Thriller
Date Published: August 2015
Samhain Publishing

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The hunt is on!

Alice Logan has gone missing, and Harry Bailey and Department 18 have been called to help find her. The main suspect is Anton Markos, a satanic cult leader who has a predilection for young women like Alice. Members of Markos’s cult start turning up dead—shredded by what seems to be a wild animal. Is there a madman within the cult? Or is it something far more horrible?

Can Department 18 discover the impossible truth and end the spree of murder, insanity and carnage? Or will they become the prey?


Excerpt

Chapter One

 High above street level in Clerkenwell she climbed up to the balcony’s railing and rested her naked foot on the ice cold metal. A brisk wind was coming in from the east, gusting across the balcony and raising goose bumps on the girl’s pasty white skin. From inside the penthouse the four boys watched her climb.

            “Go, girl,” one of the boys – Finbar Clusky – called out. The other three laughed.

            “Where’s Erik?’ another of them – Terry Butler – said. “Shouldn’t he be here? This is for his benefit, isn’t it? Hey, Alice. Don’t jump…not yet. Your main audience isn’t here yet.”

            The girl glanced back into the room. “I’m not going to jump, silly. I’m going to fly. I’m going to soar, above the clouds, to the heavens. There I will take my rightful place with the other goddesses.”

            “Is that what you are, Alice, a goddess?” Davy Coltrane said.

            “I am Artemis; goddess of the moon, goddess of the hunt. And once I’ve taken my rightful place in the heavens, I will hunt you all down and make you kneel before me.”

            “Not Artemis, my love, but Hecate, the goddess of sorcery and magic.”

            All eyes turned to stare at the speaker: a man, older than all of them: handsome, with a chiseled Mediterranean face and piercing coal-black eyes. They all shrank back in their seats and cast their gaze to the floor. All except the girl who, from her perch on the balcony, looked at the man, her eyes clouded with confusion. “But, Erik, you’re here. I thought you had gone away.”

            “I’m here, my love. I would never leave you.”

            “Erik, I can fly. I want to show you.”

            He smiled at her indulgently. “I know,” he said. “I know you can fly. You can soar, as high as a bird, more graceful than an eagle. You don’t have to prove it to me. One day we will fly together.”

            She looked uncertain. “Do you promise?”

            “On my life.” Erik Strasser bent low and whispered in Finbar Clusky’s ear. “How much did you give her?”

            “The usual amount. Nothing excessive.”

            “But now she believes she’s a bird,” Strasser said.

            “No, a goddess,” Mikey Gibson said, trying to lighten an atmosphere that had suddenly turn to stone.

            Strasser silenced him with a look and turned again to the girl. “Come in now, my darling. Come in and get warm. Your skin is turning blue.”

            Alice looked at him questioningly for a moment, then down at her naked body. She shrugged, stepped down from the balcony, and took a step inside the penthouse. Strasser reached forward and wrapped his arms around her shivering body. Gently he led her through to the bedroom and laid her down on the bed, covering her with a quilt, waited until her shivering had stopped, and then watched a tear trickle down her cheek.

“Erik, I want to go home,” she said, in a voice so small that he had to lean forward to hear what she was saying.

            “And so you will. Tomorrow you can go back and see your mother, just as we discussed.”

            “Promise?”

“Of course. I give you my word.” He reached out and stroked her forehead, smoothing her long blonde hair away from her brow.

“Thank you, Erik. You’re so kind to me.”

Her eyes fluttered shut and within a moment her breathing had deepened and she was asleep.

 He stared down at her, a frown creasing his forehead, and then he stepped away from the bed and went back into the lounge.

            “Who was responsible for that?” he demanded, his accent thickening as his anger increased.

            “Just a bit of fun,” Terry said.

            “No harm in it.” That from Davy Coltrane.

            “And that’s what you would have told the police once they’d scooped her body up off the pavement?”

            “They didn’t mean anything by it, Erik,” Finbar said. “You’re over-reacting.”

            Erik Strasser spun around to face him, his brow furrowed, his eyes blacker than ever.

          Finbar grabbed his midriff and bent double as an icy hand gripped his intestines and started to twist. “Please,” he gasped. “Don’t.”

            “Don’t blame Fin. It wasn’t his fault,” Davy said.

            “Then whose fault was it? I left Finbar in charge”

            “I was only having a laugh,” Davy continued. “I didn’t think the silly bitch would react so badly. I only gave her another shard. How was I to know she would go all goddess on us?”

          Strasser turned on him. The skin of his brow had smoothed out, but the eyes burned just as deeply. “Get out,” he said in little more than a whisper. “Get out of here and don’t come back.”

            The boy stood up to his full height and thrust out his chin to show he wasn’t going to be intimidated by Strasser. “Suit yourself. I’m going. This was a lousy gig anyway.” He turned to Finbar, who was slowly straightening up, the color gradually returning to his face. “I don’t go much on your choice of friends, Fin. Especially this wanker.’

            Finbar gave a small, almost imperceptible shake of his head, but Davy, nostrils flaring in anger, ignored it. “I’m outa here,” he said, stalked to the door and yanked it open, slamming it shut behind him.

            “Indeed you are,” Strasser said softly.

           

Minutes later Davy Coltrane was on the platform of Farringdon underground station, listening to the steady rumble of the approaching train.

            The train’s headlamps pierced the gloom as it appeared from around a bend in the track. As the train pulled into the station Davy took a step forward…and then another.

The train hit him before he could fall from the edge of the platform. It carried his body along for a few yards until it slipped down the cold metal and disappeared under the grinding wheels.


About the Author


Maynard Sims is pen name for authors L.H. Maynard and M.P.N. Sims when they right together. They are the authors of supernatural thrillers, thrillers, and erotic romance.

Their first screenplay, Department 18, won British Horror Film festival Best New Screenplay Award 2013. They have several other screenplays in various stages of development, including funding.

All their short stories and novellas were published as a uniform eight volume collection in 2014 as The Maynard Sims Library.

They worked as editors on the nine volumes of Darkness Rising anthologies. They co-edited and published F20 with The British Fantasy Society. As editors/publishers they ran Enigmatic Press in the UK, which produced Enigmatic Tales, and its sister titles. They have written essays. They still do commissioned editing projects, most recently Dead Water, and they are working on an anthology as editors for the ITW. They also do ghost writing commissions.

Contact Links


Purchase Link


Giveaway
$5 Amazon Gift Card


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Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Spotlight: Idol of Blood

Idol of Blood
Looking Glass Gods 
Book 2
Jane Kindred

Genre: Dark fantasy 
with erotic and romantic elements/
LGBTQ

Publisher: Samhain Publishing

Date of Publication: June 23, 2015

ISBN: 978-161922-372-1
ASIN: B00U3M5ZNM

Number of pages: 232
Word Count: 80K

Cover Artist: Kanaxa

Book Description:

The price of revenge may be her sanity…and the lives of those she loves.

No longer haunted by memories of her life—and death—as the Meer of Rhyman, Ra looks forward to a quiet existence with her lover Jak in the Haethfalt highlands. 

Having made peace with Ahr, her consort from her former life, Ra can finally explore her new relationship, free of the ghosts of the past—until she unwittingly unearths Jak’s own.

Out of instinct, she uses her Meeric power to heal the pain of Jak’s childhood trauma.

But all magic has a price, and Ra’s bill has come due.

Succumbing to the affliction inherent in her race, Ra flees to the mountain ruins where her mother’s temple once stood. As the madness takes hold, she resurrects the ancient city of AhlZel in a tremendous act of magic that seals her fate—and threatens to destroy those who would give up everything to save her from herself.

Product Warnings: Contains dark themes, violence, gender-bending sex, and recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse.

Available at Amazon   BN   iTunes   Kobo   Samhain

Book One Available on Amazon  iTunes  BN  Kobo Samhain

Excerpt:

Since the light was beginning to lower, they set up camp, only a dozen leagues from the green riverbanks of Rhyman. Jak and Geffn lay on either side of Ra, a peculiar triad of necessity, and Geffn, fatigued, was asleep almost instantly.

Ra curled away from him toward Jak beneath her blanket, eyes seeming to glint like a cat’s, though nothing else was visible in the darkness. “We haven’t really had a moment alone since…” The soft murmur trailed off. Jak knew precisely what moment Ra meant. Before they’d left Rhyman; before Ra had disappeared in the night to rescue little Pearl—a Meerchild bred in captivity and kept in a cage by the prelate of In’La; before Ra had set fire to the temple there, and the prelate with it, Jak had thrown caution to the wind and climbed into bed with a goddess. The commitment to celibacy Jak had tried to maintain since before Ra’s arrival in Haethfalt had been tossed aside like a cheap shirt.

After returning to Rhyman with Pearl, Ra had made no further overtures toward Jak, and Jak hadn’t presumed to make any toward Ra.

“It’s all right. We don’t need to—” The weak protest died on Jak’s lips as Ra’s descended on them. Her kisses had a tendency to take one’s breath away, as if she gathered it all into herself, holding it, holding time, before giving it back.

When she finally let them both breathe, Ra slid beneath the blanket and rested her head on Jak’s breast. “I could deepen Geffn’s sleep.”

Jak considered it for a rash moment before squelching the thought. “No. That wouldn’t be fair to him.” That was an understatement. Screwing one’s new lover while asleep next to the jilted lover whose heart one had recently broken would be in bad form, to say the least. And it would add more to that invisible price Ra must be paying if she were to expend magical energy when she had so little physical energy to spare. “We’ll have time enough when we get home.”

“Home.” Ra snuggled closer. “That sounds very nice. I’ve never had a home before. Just a temple.” She said the word as if it meant “jail”. While she spoke, however, her hand moved down Jak’s arm with feathery strokes, dipped over Jak’s hip and across Jak’s belly, and played at the loose drawstring waistband, fingers just inside it.

Jak placed a hand over Ra’s, meaning to stop her, but Ra entwined their fingers and slid them lower. As if it were an act of self-pleasuring, Ra used Jak’s fingers to delve deeper and press against the supple flesh, tentative, leisurely motions encouraging Jak to show her how to proceed.

“When we return to Mound RemPetaJakGeffnMelKeirenRa—” She murmured the absurdly long name of their Haethfalt household as if they were only having a quiet conversation—“I’d like to make a quilt by hand.” She drew Jak’s fingers in a complex pattern, up and down, over and across, doubling back in infinity symbols that ended in sharp, insistent points, like the edges of rings bisecting each other. “Do you like this pattern?”

Jak shivered and breathed ascent as Ra pressed Jak’s fingers into the center point of the bisection. Her motions became smaller, tighter and more definitive.

“Some little rosettes where the squares join,” Ra whispered. “One. Two. Three. Four…” She demonstrated. “With a diamond in the center. Right…there.”

Jak had to grab the blanket and bite down on it to keep the sweet little crooning howl Ra had inspired from escaping audibly.

“And another, there.”

Jak struggled not to thrash, rationing sharp rhythmic breaths into the fabric of the blanket.

“And there.”

Oh gods.

“And then just there.”

In the grip of a wave of pleasure so intense it was almost unbearable, Jak clutched Ra’s hand so she could no longer effect her blissful torment, the other hand digging into the bedroll as pantomimed moans were buried in the crook of an elbow.

“Perhaps in peacock blue with threads of gold,” Ra continued as if she hadn’t just destroyed Jak utterly, her other hand casually stroking once more up Jak’s arm. “The colors of Ludtaht Ra. Though it may be time for new colors. I’ve always liked indigo.” She nestled against the hollow of Jak’s neck, putting a little kiss there before relaxing with a sigh to match Jak’s heaving breath. “Does that work for you?”

It took a moment to remember how to swallow and speak. “Work for me?” Jak let out a nervous, whispered laugh. “Just about killed me. I’m crazy about it.”


About the Author: 

Jane Kindred is the author of epic fantasy series The House of Arkhangel’sk, Demons of Elysium, and Looking Glass Gods. She spent her formative years ruining her eyes reading romance novels in the Tucson sun and watching Star Trek marathons in the dark. She now writes to the sound of San Francisco foghorns while two cats slowly but surely edge her off the side of the bed.












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Sunday, March 23, 2014

Brightarrow Burning Review

Brightarrow Burning by Isabo Kelly (ARC Review)
Fire and Tears Book 1
Published October 11, 2011 by Samhain Publishing
4 Mystical Stars


"Not an easy feat to sum up an entire novel in less than a hundred pages, yet Isabo Kelly has done just that"




Synopsis - 

War tore them apart. Betrayal could bring them together…

Layla Brightarrow’s world fell apart the day the Sorcerers invaded her city, intent on using her fellow humans’ pain to augment their spells. Worse, the neighboring elven kingdom declared neutrality, effectively abandoning her people to struggle for survival.

Then some of the elves break neutrality to trade with the Sorcerers, and Layla is ordered to assassinate Althir, brother of the elf lord she has secretly loved all her life.

When Ulric of Glengowyn uncovers his brother’s plot—and that Layla is one of the assassins sent to stop him—his first instinct is to protect her from all possible harm. He’ll even use seduction, if necessary, to get her into a position to talk some sense into her.

Years of pent-up desire is too much for Layla to resist…and one touch unleashes an unquenchable fire that changes everything. Leaving Layla caught between duty and a love that could be her destruction. Or her salvation.

Warning: This book contains evil sorcerers, a scarred heroine, a sexy elf hero, naughty language, and an intoxicating and addicting pheromone that leads to wildly hot sex. Plus traitors, deadly magic, bespelled baddies, and a really, really rotten brother.  (Goodreads)


Review

Looking for a steamy-melt-your-panties/boxers-off hot read to fill up a lonely night, this is the read for you.  This Paranormal Erotica is filled with thrills, chills and enough heat to make your knees go weak.  A love between a human and an elf that has blossomed for years, even neither was the wiser of how the other felt.  Though being on the brink of war would do that.  But when all that heat finally builds up to its boiling point, they may go past the point of no return, and oh how sweet it is.

Layla is an Assassin, determined to do her part in a war that is enslaving her people.  So it is easy to understand her trust issues with the man, well Elf, that she is in love with, Ulrich.  Since her present target is none other than his only brother.  After-all, blood is thicker than lust.  So when Ulrich reenters her life, she has to determine whether he is indeed trying to protect her, or simply use her.

Brightarrow Burning is the perfect set up for the series to come. Fire and Tears Book 2, The Darkness of Glengowyn  is expected out April 29, 2014.  Readers who are looking for a good, quick read to spice up their night, that also includes a plot, are sure to enjoy this read.


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