I know I’m not alone. In fact, my fellow Carina Press author, Maria Zannini loves her villains as much as I do. In honor of Friday 13th and our shared love of villains we are offering excerpts from our recent releases and the chance to win a digital copy of one of them. All you have to do is meet our villains for the very first time and answer one easy question. Ready?
First up is Maria. The following is an excerpt from her recent release, APOCALYPSE RISING, a fantasy/time travel romance.
APOCALYPSE RISING: The only place to hide was in the past. Leda and Grey have one chance to escape a madman and that’s through a portal to a time before the apocalypse. But nothing has prepared them for 21st century culture, and every misstep draws them closer to the End Times. The world is teetering on extinction, and they may very well be the cause of it.In this scene Leda meets the demon who will forever change her life. Things get far worse from here on out.
***
He caressed her skin with long cool fingers and she jerked back. Again he touched her, a forceful presence on trembling flesh.
Leda tried to get up, but her legs refused to obey. She looked down and found the femurs of
both legs neatly sheared off above the knees. “My legs—”
“Broken. Yes. Wouldn’t want you to run away, now would I?”
Her mouth dropped open, but a scream never emerged. How could she fight this sadist who had
broken her bones with a mere thought? This was magic she’d never known. No wonder her wards were useless here. “What do you want from me?”
“Everything,” he whispered. He bruised her lips with his, a scorching kiss that fed her Element
and buoyed it. She had to get away. “I know what you’re thinking, Leda. But don’t try it. Don’t throw your life away, not if you value the life of your mate.”
Her legs were made whole again. And that terrified her most of all.
***
For a chance to win a free copy of Apocalypse Rising, tell Maria what most scared you when you were a child. She’’ll choose a winner at midnight (cst) May 20, 2011. (Please be sure to leave your email address if you’d like to be in the drawing for this book.)
Bio: Maria Zannini used to save the world from bad advertising, but now she spends her time
wrangling chickens, and fighting for a piece of the bed against dogs of epic proportions.
Occasionally, she writes novels.
Apocalypse Rising is the sequel to Touch Of Fire. Try them both!
***
Next up is moi. The following is an excerpt from my recent release, BLUE GALAXY, a science fiction romance. BLUE GALAXY: Captain Javan Rhodes took a mission to transport Sola, a beautiful young aristocrat, to an unknown destination on the outer rim of the colonies. The job is lucrative, but also highly illegal. As tough as it is to evade both the law and the lawless, the hardest part of the job is not falling in love with his irresistible cargo.
In this scene Javan and Sola are paying a flying visit to the space station, Valhalla, where they encounter the very last person in the galaxy that Javan wants to run into. He has his reasons.
***
The door disintegrated as four armed men rushed in and trained their weapons on them. As the dust settled, they were followed by a tall, familiar figure made even taller by her platform-heeled boots. Javan sighed and looked from the boots, all the way up the rangy legs and sleek torso, over the magnificent bosom to the ice-blue eyes and long blond mane of Olympia Philou— the reason he should never, ever have come back to Valhalla.
***
For a chance to win a copy of Blue Galaxy, tell me who your all-time favorite sci-fi villain is. I’ll choose a winner at midnight (est) May 20, 2011. (Please be sure to leave your email address if you’d like to be in the drawing for this book.)
Bio: Diane Dooley currently lives in a money pit of an old farmhouse in upstate New York, where she tends her husband, sons and a collection of reptiles. When she is not at her day job, she is either reading, writing, gardening, avoiding housework or driving her children to various sporting events. She is also a geek of intergalactic proportions with a severe YouTube habit.
I’m currently working on the follow up to Blue Galaxy. If you want to know more about Olympia Philou, I interview her here.