Issue No. 14

January 2014

           
         
  Message from Afton  
         
 

One year ago, I made a New Year's resolution to write more. Although I'd partied the night before, I sat down at the computer on January 1st and wrote the first chapter of Stripper With Spice, my latest release about an older woman/younger man.

I paid for that resolution because by December I was overextended. Everything extra I wrote during the year was being released, including Under Holly's Stockings, a holiday quickie. At the same time, I had a writing deadline, plus promotion, for an exciting new indie project. So instead of having one writing activity going on in addition to my day job, I had 4 or 5! As a result, I was a little grumpy while cooking Thanksgiving dinner and I didn't bother to put up a Christmas tree or send cards. But I did celebrate the holidays with my family and learned to multitask.

This year's resolution is to get even better at promotion. Read on about my 3 recent releases, Tall, Dark & Alpha, my upcoming boxed set with 9 other fabulous authors, and RomantiCon. Also, Katalina Leon will give us the inside scoop on her paranormal release, Loup-Garou For You.

 
         
           
       
       
  New Release!    
     
 

contemporary erotic romance (older woman/younger man)
Buy: Ellora's Cave
eBook ISBN #: 978-14199-49050

Watch the video

There's still time to enter the Stripper With Spice blog tour for a grand prize. It ends on midnight Jan. 17th.

   Getting back on her feet after unemployment, Janice treats herself to an erotic-romance convention. After winning a two-hour fantasy date with Carlos Aguilar, a young stripper, she decides to have a one-time fantasy fling.
   When Carlos entices her back to the bedroom—and a few public places—for more sizzling sex, he unleashes her passions, including a secret desire to be a chef. Janice learns there’s more to this heartthrob than a hot body, but job security comes first.
   To convince her he’s more than a fantasy, Carlos teaches her trust with his body. But when that trust is finally tested to the limit, she’ll be torn between clinging to safety and taking a chance on a whole new life.

 
 
warning: Rated R
An Excerpt From: STRIPPER WITH SPICE
Copyright © AFTON LOCKE, 2014
All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.

The humor dies on his face. Chop. Chop. Chop. “Is that what we are now? Just friends?”

I drop my knife on the cutting board. “You tell me. You’ve been here for twenty minutes and you haven’t even kissed me.”

He drops his knife too. “Well, we can take care of that right now.”

“You’re crazy,” I mutter, shaking my head when Carlos pops a small slice of jalapeño into his mouth then chews and swallows it.

“Taste me, Janice.”

I hold up my hand. “I’d rather not now.”

But he doesn’t listen. Instead, he clasps both sides of my head and presses his mouth to mine—opening my lips with his scorching tongue and sharing his heat with me. Within seconds, my entire mouth is aflame with the essence of fiery pepper juice and need. The onslaught of sensations catches me so off guard my arms dangle, forgotten, at my sides.

It’s the best kiss we’ve ever had—tentative and sweet, then desperate and demanding. Every confusing feeling and unanswered question passes between our lips in unintelligible moans and sighs. I ignore the little voice that tells me he’s wrong for me and that we argue too much. The peppery heat of our breaths ignites the air around us, making our eventual joining a foregone conclusion.

“Carlos, I-I’m sorry…about the gala…about a lot of things.” But he merely swallows my words with another kiss.

His restless hands travel down my face, through my hair and over my clothes. I cling to his shoulders with both hands as a need so strong it forces tears to my eyes rips through me.

My feet leave the ground as Carlos carries me to my faux-antique couch. Despite our urgency, he lays me on it with surprising gentleness and kneels beside it, pressing a series of small kisses to the base of my throat.

“Wh-what about dinner?” I ask, arching my back when his fevered tongue swipes the side of my neck.

“It can wait,” he mutters as he pulls off my jeans and lifts my sweater and bra high enough to expose my bare breasts.

 
           
           
           
         
  Katalina Leon - Loup-Garou For You  
         
  Author Katalina Leon is here to give us the inside scoop about her recent release, Loup-Garou For You from Ellora's Cave. This book has 3 things I love: wolves, history, and Lousiana. It's also refreshingly different. For instance, there's a hot bondage scene that breaks the usual rules. I've been oversleeping in the morning because I'm up late reading this book!

Afton: First of all, how did you come up with that cool title? I love how it rhymes in 3 places.

Kat: Loup-Garou (Pronounced Loo-Garooo) is part of an archaic French legend. “Loup” means wolf in French and “Garou” is believed to be a Frankish word for wolf man. This stuff goes back a long way.

Afton: Tell us about the setting.

Kat: “Loup-Garou For You” features Cajun wolf-shifters past lives, fated love and medieval magic. The adventure is set in 1834 Louisiana Plantation country and the French Pyrenees of the 9th century. You might be asking what the possible connection could be between these two far-flung settings? I promise it all makes sense and provides a wild ride with a happy ending.

It all starts in the 9th century France with a forbidden love between two people who should not have married. Every good thing has its dark side and even the wish to spare a beloved husband from falling victim to a deadly ambush can go wrong.

Afton: Sounds like some interesting world building going on there.

Kat: Loup-Garou For You is the tale of two lovers, a Christian knight and a Saracen Sorceress who become blood-bonded souls for all eternity. A forbidden spell was cast and what began, as an act of love to protect a French knight on crusade becomes Sir Marston d' Roland’s family curse of Lycanism—he becomes a wolf-shifter or Loup-Garou. Becoming Loup-Garou saves Marston d' Roland’s life in battle but as you might guess a Saracen sorceress and a wolf man are not welcome in King Charlemagne's Christian court and must keep their lives separate and secret. For reasons you’ll have to read for yourself, they must part and wait a thousand years to lay eyes on each other once again.

The secret of an uncanny blood-bond between a near-eastern wolf-sorceress, and French nobleman remains secret for a millennium. So secret in fact young men in the Marston bloodline are often not told of their impending fate until the eve of their twenty-seventh birthday when at midnight, the transformation from man to Loup-Garou takes place.

Afton: What does this have to do with the hero? Isn't he planning a big party?

Kat: That’s where the trouble and the fun begins. In 1834, poor Aubert Marston is a wealthy plantation owner and the last male heir in the Marston bloodline. For days he’s been plagued by vivid dreams that he’s an anguished man returning from the crusades, when something very strange happens. He’s also been warned by a family trustee to take a wife before his twenty-seventh birthday, but he has willfully ignored that bit of useful advice. Now it’s going to cost him.

One hundred party guests are on their way to celebrate Aubert’s birthday at the annual Marston Planation Harvest Ball. Not only does Aubert face the prospect of becoming a raving wolf man in front of his guests, it could get even worse. He might be bodily hauled away from his beloved plantation in chains and transported to the wilds of the French Pyrenees. There’s also a strong possibility that during his first raging blood lust, for the sake of the many innocent people in his path, a sacred sword will be used to behead him and bring an end to the violence.

Wow maybe it would have been easier to just get married after all…

Afton: I agree! Being a commitment-phobe has its price, even in history. What heroine did you pair with this lucky guy?

Kat: Now you know why they don’t tell every young man in the Marston bloodline everything upfront. Becoming Loup-Garou is a traumatic event and not every young man survives it. Having the love and support of a mated wife makes the transition easier. Lucky for Aubert a mysterious young woman named Corrine shows up in his household to tempt, tease and downright sexually torment him into believing she can control him. Even better, Aubert senses Corrine is Loup-Garou too. Aubert falls for Corrine big time. Even before he actually sees her, he knows he loves her. You’ll just have to read the book to find out how Corrine manages that tricky feat. Once she’s mastered him, Corrine lures Aubert into the bayou where his true fate awaits.

Now you know a little about the Marston family legend and the origins of how the Loup-Garou came to the new world but there’s a lot more to know. I jammed a lot into these pages and I’m very proud of the results. I will guarantee that Loup-Garou For You is a lot of paranormal fun and it’s hotter than Louisiana red-pepper sauce.

Afton: Louisiana red-pepper sauce is pretty hot. Please tell me you're doing a series!

Kat: Loup-Garou For You is book two in the Voodoo Bayou series. “Sugar Roux Voodoo” is book one. Each book can be read and enjoyed as a stand alone but they are better together. If you read Sugar Roux Voodoo, you’ll remember poor confused Miss Marietta and her heated sexual obsession with the wicked Mister Payne? Of course you remember that nasty-hot little sexual encounter in a shadowy New Orleans alleyway… Well guess what? The Marston Plantation Harvest Ball is where Miss Marietta meets Mister Payne for the first time and their affair begins. The meek, long-suffering Julian Vandersmith is here as well watching the love of his life snatched away from him by an evil man.

The Voodoo Bayou series is unfolding. I’m writing the next two books now so expect more lust, true love and a hellacious battle between good and evil in steamy New Orleans of 1834. There’s more Voodoo Bayou coming soon but you can have this one today.

Loup-Garou For You is available now:
Amazon
Ellora’s Cave

web site
Seven Sexy Scribes blog

 
       
           
       
       
  Afton's News  
       
  Under Holly's Stockings heated up the holidays and can still warm your spirit this winter!

After being stood up at the altar last Christmas, Michael dreads the holiday. When a woman wearing sexy red stockings on the subway propositions him with a day of sex, seems there’s no time like the present to get back into the spirit of the season!

Having just lost her mother, Holly will do anything to avoid being alone on Christmas. But when Michael arrives, nothing goes as planned. Despite the joy of exploring each other’s bodies with all the holiday trimmings, her emotions get in the way.

When Michael realizes the way to get under Holly’s stockings is through her heart, he’ll have to put the ghosts of his Christmas past to rest.

Buy: Ellora's Cave
eBook ISBN #: 978-14199-49340

The blog tour is over, but read the posts I wrote about gifts given and received here.

Jeep Diva Reviews - 4 stars:
From burning cookies to flaming desire their story rages on through the kitchen and to the living room where decorating the tree is taken to a whole new level...A quicky read, a quicky romance and a quicky bit of fun.
Read the full review


Entrance to Ecstasy, my paranormal print anthology, has 2 hot stories in one book!

2 women

2 vacations

2 paranormal alphas

+ a little light bondage

= 1 hot cover-to-cover fantasy!

Buy: Ellora's Cave
print ISBN #: 978-14199-69492

         
           
         
           
  Afton's Travels      
           
  As always, I had a great time at RomantiCon, hosted by Ellora's Cave, in Canton, Ohio, last October. The theme was Bollywood/Hollywood. Are you ready for 2014? The theme is Hoedown/Throwdown.

~ ~ ~

Formal photo opp with the Cavemen. I made the Bollywood costume, which is hard to see with so many hands all over it.

A James Bond moment, complete with martinis. In the middle is David Nieves, the cover model for Stripper With Spice.

Doing Zumba in street clothes because I only meant to take pictures but couldn't stay in my chair.

I even had backup dancers at karaoke. Stay tuned for my new music video (just kidding)!

         
           
         
           
  Coming Soon      
           
 

Workaholic CEO Rhonda Simms embarks on a Caribbean cruise to create an ad campaign for a big maritime freight client. She finds it impossible to concentrate, however, when Simon Mann, a blue marlin shifter, sets his sights on her. From a private, hands-on safety briefing to a wild ride in the ocean, he rocks her ordered world.

Simon drowned years ago in a shipwreck caused by Rhonda’s client, and he’ll do anything to be a normal man again. As his mate, Rhonda is the only person who can help him.

Tired of being so responsible, Rhonda is ready to let loose with a shipboard fling. Mating with Simon could cost a lot more than her virginity, however. Will she stick to her present course or will she let this sexy alpha rock her boat?

~ ~ ~
This story is part of the Tall, Dark & Alpha boxed set releasing on 10 March 2014.

He makes your heart pound and melts your resistance away. He promises you a world of passion and you find it impossible to resist his dark charm. When he catches your eye across the room, you know he means business. He could be an executive, cop, shape shifter, or a bad boy looking for a little fun. Once he has you in his sights, you can't get away—and after one sizzling night in his arms, you won't want to. He’s Tall, Dark & Alpha. The alpha male is the ultimate indulgence…the richest dark chocolate…and we’re offering him to you in abundance.

Delve into the sensual worlds of award-winning authors: Randi Alexander, Koko Brown, Sam Cheever, Delaney Diamond, Eve Langlais, Afton Locke, Dawn Montgomery, Farrah Rochon, Paige Tyler, and Eve Vaughn. Immerse yourself in the alpha male experience.

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By the way, we're giving away tons of books at Give Me Books on January 18th.

         
           
         
           
  Afton's Covers      
           
 

 

Covers link to the publisher's web site. Most are also available at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Sony, All Romance eBooks, and more. Plucking the Pearl, Sexual Energy, and Entrance to Ecstasy are also available in print!

 
           
           
           
  Links:  
 

Web | Facebook | Facebook Author Page | Twitter | Goodreads | Blog | The Love Chronicle

 
           
  Thank you for reading! Email comments or suggestions.
Until next time...

Afton Locke
Unlock your fantasies...
http://www.aftonlocke.com

     
         
           
 

© 2014 All Rights Reserved by Afton Locke. No part of this newsletter may be reproduced without permission.