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Excerpt, House of the Rising Son.

His band jammed in the background, each member a talented musician, but the fans watched only him. They screamed and begged him for a sign of favor—a glance, a smile. He bit his lower lip, concealing a satisfied grin. He could ask them for all their worldly possessions and they wouldn’t hesitate to oblige. But he wanted nothing except their lust, which fed him, and that was already his.

“I know what you want.” He moved his hands across his body, pushing up his black T-shirt to reveal a glimpse of stomach—and the promise of more.

Sex. Rebellion. Rock and roll.

Living After Midnight, Book 1

Cheyenne is a half-human incubus whose star is on the rise in the Unakite City rock scene. His father, the leader of the supernatural races, would prefer he keep a “low profile”, but screw that. Cheyenne has as much music in his veins as royal incubi blood.

Alexander's future is all set—finish law school, join the family firm, and marry someone who'd be good for business. Not that he has a say in any of it. He's barely met the woman his father expects him to marry.

As Cheyenne's musical career takes off, his carefully constructed life begins to unravel, exacerbated by an ex-lover who can't let go, a crotchety barkeeper with a dirty mind and a pure heart, a drag queen who moonlights as a nanny, and Alexander—who's not sure if he's falling for the incubus or the rocker.

Cheyenne denies who he is, while Alexander hides what he wants. Together, they learn that getting what they truly want means being who they truly are.

Warning: Contains hot were-tiger sex, a Thanksgiving celebration that makes the Inquisition look like a tea party, and an incubus who'll rock your world.

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Along for the Ride

**Minor Spoilers**My friend calls me a serial obsessionist. That isn’t completely true. I really have several obsessions at any given time.

At the moment, I’m hooked on Sons of Anarchy. I’ve seen ads for the show for years and said to myself, “I’m going to watch it as soon as I have time to catch up on the older seasons.” But the time never came—until I signed up for Netflix. Suddenly SoA and tons of other shows that looked tempting became available.

The plan was to watch the pilot episodes of a number of shows: Community, The Blacklist, or Red Road (Jason Momoa…mmmm) for example. But I started with Sons of Anarchy. Once I saw the first episode, I never looked back. I eat, sleep and breathe SoA. This week I’ve finished Seasons 1 & 2, and started Season 3. I’ve lost sleep, I’ve laughed, I’ve cried—how could they kill off Half Sac? I’ve become obsessed.

As a writer, I can’t keep from analyzing it. First, how did the writer turn a motorcycle gang of gun runners and killers into the good guys? What the hell did he do to make the upstanding, kind and honorable police officer the bad guy? Talk about lessons in character development.

It’s also fascinating to watch beloved characters make bad decisions. When the decision is in line with the character’s personality, life or circumstance—like when Jaxx (Charlie Hunnam) fights despite a desire to leave that life, or when his doctor girlfriend slugs the hospital administrator—you get it. You even support the bad decision. But when the decision makes no sense in light of the character as they’ve been written so far, or is irrational considering the current circumstance—Whoa. It’s hard to watch.

For instance, when the Sons have Zobelle (Adam Arkin) cornered in the convenience store with plans to kill him (Yay!), but leave because Jaxx wants to chase a different bad guy. It wouldn’t have taken that long to shank the guy, right? If they’d only taken a hot second they could have “finished it”, as Clay, leader of the SoA would say. Sure, keeping Zobelle alive leaves the door open for future conflict but it was a stupid, illogical decision.

Fortunately, the men of Sons of Anarchy are largely consistent and make decisions that are “true to form”, which is one of the reasons we can’t seem to get enough of them. Action packed episodes, and gut-wrenching emotion are additional critical reasons.

Incredibly hot, powerful men don’t hurt either.  Heading back to my binge watching. Saddle up and ride, boys.

Sometimes Bad is Bad

Writing a villain is fun. Thinking up dastardly deeds, mapping out their ramifications...cue evil, witchy laugh. But it isn't very easy. If they are too dreadful with no redeeming qualities, they can become caricatures rather than characters in the story. The villains we love to hate have some characteristic or history or issue that compels us to connect with them on some level.

In my Urban Fantasy novel, House of the Rising Son, Samuel is an antagonist for Cheyenne , someone who stands in opposition to Cheyenne's goals. As the story unfolds, however, we learn that as despicable as Samuel can be, the problematic actions he takes are for the greater good of the incubi and all supernatural races. At least they are to him

On the other hand, sometimes bad is just bad. There may be no redeeming feature for a truly vile character. For example, there is nothing compassionate or noble about Logan. He is a villain's villain. He wants what he wants for his purposes only, and is not hesitant to manipulate the people in his life to achieve his selfish goals.  I'll be the first to say there isn't much about him that fosters empathy--he's a rotten guy. Yet he isn't cartoon-ish. His humanity is in his desires. He wants Cheyenne. He wants a better life than he has. He aspires for power and respect. While we may not approve of his choices, we understand them.

Join me over at Kate Hill's Compelling Beast blog to hear from the man himself and learn more about this complicated, contemptible incubus.

Quirky and Proud of It: First Stop on our blog tour with GoddessFish:LongandShortReviews

As for as authors go, we're pretty quirky. Check out the first stop on our blog tour with Goddess Fish at Long and Short Reviews, and check out how salt figures into our writing process! Long and Short Reviews: Trevann Rogers

Dress up, Dress Down!

My Pinterest boards have been very popular and the selection of clothes for our characters seems to be popular.  So we've decided to start a new feature on the blog every third Friday, and explore fashion in books. In Cheyenne’s world, Friday night is a work night and he's barely making ends meet.  He doesn’t have money for fancy stage outfits.  Fans find him fronting the band in jeans and t-shirts.  Those range from plain colors to colorful images such as his red dragon.

Red Dragon T-Shirt

Whatever Cheyenne wears, he looks sexy and enticing. I'll explore more outfits in coming posts.  Do you have any ideas for Cheyenne’s costumes?   Please share in comments below.