Tuesday, December 02, 2014

White Knight: Snippet

A snippet from Chapter One.

48 Days!

*#*



Knight sent a quick “where are you?” text to Bishop.


Instead of texting an answer, Bishop took his overprotective nature in hand and called. “Hey, what’s going on?”


“Are you busy?” Knight asked.


“Inspecting the new apartments with Jeremiah and the electrician. They should be move-in ready by the end of the week.”


“That’s good news.” With more than a hundred new loup joining their town in the last two months, they’d built apartments and homes with enough space to permanently house the newcomers. Newcomers who’d spent the last few weeks sleeping in spare rooms and on sofas all over town.


The human electrician had been a compromise, since no one in Cornerstone was qualified to wire up entire buildings with multiple apartments, and Bishop had spent the better part of the week overseeing the project.


“Yeah,” Bishop said. “It’ll be good to give everyone some stability.”


“You’re right, it will. And I’m sure your wife will be glad to have some of your attention back.”


Bishop’s sharp laughter bellowed over the phone. “Trust me, when Jillian wants my attention, she gets it.”


Knight heard the affection in his brother’s voice for the woman who’d stolen his heart. Maybe not in the ass-over-teakettle way that Rook had fallen for Brynn, but Bishop and Jillian had a fierce bond. They were both stronger together than apart, and as they eased into their roles, they would easily put any other Alpha couple to shame.


Both of Knight’s brothers were married and in love with their mates. He envied them their joy.


“Knight?”


“Huh?” Had Bishop been speaking?


“I asked you what was wrong. You sound off.”


“I’m fine. Rook just got some big news, though.”


“Big good?”


“Very good, I hope.”


“What’s going on?”


“Forget it. Call him, it’s not my place to tell.”


“Okay, I will. Are you sure—?”


“I’m fine.” Knight ended the call before he had to defend his tone of voice anymore. He couldn’t always control how he came across lately, and it bothered him, but there was nothing to be done. In truth, he’d been lucky to come out of his forced shift at all. The fact that his mind was mostly intact was a small miracle. He could deal with the occasional outburst.


His family might feel differently, but whatever. He was the one the hybrids had targeted. He was the grand prize for them. He welcomed another attempt at acquiring him.

Come and get me.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Release Day: Gray Bishop (Cornerstone Run #2)

Some people need something to fight for…

With the attacks on their homes escalating and human half-breeds seeking sanctuary among them, the loup garou are reaching their breaking point. Two, in particular.

After failing to stop his little brother’s kidnapping years ago, Bishop McQueen angrily broods on his shame, though no one else blames him.

Jillian Reynolds is still dealing with a tragic accident that took everything she ever wanted from life. And her attraction to Bishop is only making things more difficult.

When word reaches them that Jillian's hometown is under attack, the Alpha takes Bishop, Jillian, and a group of enforcers to assist in the battle. And it is in this chaos that both Bishop and Jillian will have to face their pasts—and the true feelings they have for each other—if they are going to survive…


Goodreads
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

Friday, October 10, 2014

What the Heck is up with Dreg City 6?

I've written variations of this post in my head many times over the last few weeks. The words haven't changed a whole lot. Mostly it never felt like the right time, because I hadn't accepted the decision. And before anyone panics, no, I'm not going to tell you that I won't be writing Dreg City 6. I will. Just not anytime soon.

Back in June, there was some pretty big upheaval in my personal life. I'm not going into the details, suffice to say I lost my home office, my privacy, and I gained some roommates. This summer was a huge adjustment period for everyone currently living under this roof. But the loss of a separate writing space for me was difficult to adjust to, and I was under deadline for White Knight so I pushed through it. An I got the book finished just in time for Kitteh to get deathly ill, so the summer pretty much sucked.

Kitteh is fine now, though, so yay!

And then things changed again in August/September, and I had to adjust to another new element in my daily life. Plus I work in retail, and we're beginning to swing into the Holiday Selling Season, so my day job is becoming even more stressful. I'm still frustrated on a daily basis by certain things, and before anyone thinks "you have the power to change your life, Kelly!" No, not with this. This is up to someone else to fix, so that my life can go back to normal. And this post is not meant to embarrass anyone. It's the vaguest way I can try to explain why I've made the decision I've made.

What's the decision, already?!

I'm taking a break from writing. I have given myself permission to take a break. To not stress about my next book, or about getting my next contract. To stop checking sales ranks on Amazon. For at least rest of October, I'm going to watch DVD's, read books, and try to unwind while squirreled away in my cave. Because this, at least, is one thing that I can control right now.

I'm definitely not disappearing from social media. I still have a book coming out this month and another in January. I'll be doing some promo for them, of course, and I'm too addicted to Twitter to leave it. I'll still be blogging when necessary.

The other thing I'll be doing is taking some time to reassess my career. It's a painful thing for a writer to have two series cancelled. I took a risk with the Cornerstone Run trilogy by changing genres and names, and it hasn't paid off like I'd hoped. So I need to think. I need to decide what I want to write, and where I want my career to go from here.

I WILL be writing the final two Dreg City books at some point, because I promised you guys I would. It's been almost five years since Three Days to Dead was published and we began Evy's journey. Everyone who has hung in with me from the start, THANK YOU. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. For the new fans who are still discovering Dreg City, thank you. For everyone who has ever left a review of my work on Amazon, GoodReads, or any other site, thank you.

I'll see you around the internet.

-K

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Sex & Violence by Carrie Mesrobian



It's been a long time since I started and finished a novel in the same day that included an 8-hour shift at work.

THE BOOK IS THAT GOOD.

And it's different from so much of the other YA out there in two major ways: it's first-person male POV, and it's not a love story. It is so much more than that, because it takes two things, sex and violence, and it shows how they are both completely separate, and yet inexplicably intertwined.

I absolutely loved the narrator's voice. So very matter-of-factual, and yet sharp, observant, and funny. He doesn't get bogged down in self-pity and misery. He doesn't lament endlessly about the situations in which he finds himself. He just kind of (forgive the cliche) rolls with the punches and adapts as best he can.

READ THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW.

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Snippet: GRAY BISHOP (Cornerstone Run #2)



Taken from Chapter 2. Read the rest October 21st!

 

He and Rook went inside and straight down the long hallway to the kitchen. Mrs. Troost, their housekeeper since before Bishop was born, had laid out a platter of sandwiches and a note that cold broccoli salad was in the fridge. Bishop and Rook helped themselves to food, then took their plates outside to the back patio.

Brynn and Shay were seated on opposite sides of the long picnic table, beneath the shade of an umbrella. They looked up at their arrival, Brynn’s face breaking into a wide grin. Shay simply watched them approach, her face blank, her eyes empty. Always empty. The girl’s spirit had been broken, and Bishop’s beast snarled with the unfairness of it all.

“Mind if we join you?” Rook asked.

Brynn deferred to Shay, who nodded slowly. Rook sat next to Brynn, such an odd contrast, the pair of them. Rook was a head taller than Brynn, his muscled arms decked out with tattoos and scars, with a ragged ear that made him look downright dangerous. Or like the alternative rock band star he’d tried to be. Brynn was small and pale-skinned with stick-straight black hair and big blue eyes. A true odd-couple in terms of physical appearance. Very much matched in every other way.

Bishop sat on the same side as Shay, keeping a solid arm’s reach of distance from the spooked girl. The only people she seemed to allow close proximity to her were Knight and Dr. Mike, the town’s physician. She was underweight, average height, with long, strawberry-blond  hair and pale, gray eyes that had no life in them. She was also quite pretty. He imagined the girl had a heart-stopping smile, and he hoped one day to see it.

“Your ears must have been burning,” Brynn said to Rook. “Shay and I were just talking about you.”

“Oh?” Rook said. “Good things, I hope.”

“She asked about your ear. I was telling her about that night.”

Bishop paused before taking a big bite of his roast beef sandwich and studied Shay’s profile. She was staring at her half-eaten sandwich, hands clasped in her lap. Shay had been informed about the events that followed the attack on her town in bits and pieces over the last two weeks, mostly by Brynn and Knight. She’d been badly wounded and catatonic for a while, until Knight coaxed her back into the world. No one wanted to overwhelm her or frighten her with the reality that Cornerstone was still under attack by an unknown, unstable enemy. That she was showing curiosity about the people she lived with had to mean she was making progress in her recovery.

“I’m surprised Knight hasn’t told you about that yet,” Bishop said softly.

Her gaze flickered toward him. “I don’t ask.” Her voice was soft, melodic, and almost impossible to hear. “It hurts him to talk about it.”

It hurt all of them to talk about it. Bishop didn’t test her statement, though. He could be blunt to a fault, but he knew when to hold his tongue around grieving women—except when it came to Jillian.

He’d have deserved it if she had hit him for throwing her late husband in her face last month.

“Did Brynn tell you how she faced off against a Black Wolf with only a shovel?” Rook asked, levity in his voice.

Brynn had been down and on the ground when Bishop, Jillian , and Father arrived at the barn, but the mental image the description conjured up made Bishop smile. Brynn was small, but she was fierce when it came to Rook.

Shay glanced up at Rook. “She mentioned defending you until help arrived.”

“I was scared out of my wits,” Brynn said. She leaned against Rook’s arm and rested her chin on his shoulder. The picture was obnoxiously cute. Bishop attacked his sandwich so he didn’t have to see it.

“Where’s Knight, anyway?” Rook asked.

“I don’t know. He said he had to do something at the auction house, but that was over an hour ago.”

Bishop frowned at his food. Father had temporarily shut down the auction house until the triplets had been dealt with. Their weekly auctions were what kept outside cash flowing into Cornerstone without tempting humans to stay too long, or get any ideas about moving to town. They hadn’t had an auction these last two weeks, and they weren’t likely to have another one for the foreseeable future. They couldn’t risk the triplets attacking with so many clueless humans in the way, and the fewer outsiders around the better.

Father’s office was at the auction house, and he used it for both auction and run business, so it was possible Knight went to see him. Bishop sent a text to Knight’s phone anyway, asking for a location. Knight was the triplets’ primary target, and even though he was relatively safe within the confines of town, Father insisted he not wander around alone. No one wanted to risk losing him again.

“Paranoid much?” Knight said, his voice a welcome sound from the patio doors.

Four heads turned. He stepped outside with a glass of iced tea in hand, sunglasses on even though he’d just been inside.

“Who’s paranoid?” Rook asked.

“Bishop.”

Rook snickered, then shoved broccoli salad into his mouth without asking for clarification.

“I don’t like you walking around alone,” Bishop said. He didn’t give a damn if that made him paranoid. He preferred to think of it as smothering and overprotective.

“I went to the auction house and back,” Knight said. “I didn’t even stub my toe.” A month ago, his tone might have been light and teasing. Today it was bordering on hostile. Knight didn’t like being handled, but damn it, he’d been kidnapped twice in his life already. Bishop wasn’t going to allow that to happen a third time.

Instead of joining them at the table, Knight flopped into one of the patio’s lounge chairs, angled away. He seemed intent on ignoring them—something else he wouldn’t have done a month ago. Rook had twisted around to stare, and as he turned again to finish his meal, Bishop caught a stray emotion on his face that stirred up his gut.

Fear.

Fear of what, he didn’t know and couldn’t ask, but fear all the same.

His phone buzzed. Rook jumped at the same moment. They retrieved their phones, to an identical message from Father: 911 Office.

Bishop got up without a word, barely listening to Rook explain their abrupt departure to the women. Knight wasn’t following them, which surprised him briefly until he realized Knight’s exclusion could mean they had a lead on the triplets.

The auction house was a five-minute walk, and a ninety-second run. Despite the late summer heat, Bishop jogged down their road to Main Street, made a sharp right, and pounded pavement to the end of the official town limits where McQueen Auction House had been built three generations ago. Rook stayed on his heels. Devlin and his cousin Winston met up with them at the front door, and they all followed Bishop inside.

Father was behind his desk, standing with his arms folded, agitation all over his face. “We’re waiting on two more,” he said in lieu of a greeting.

They fell into line around the room, waiting for their Alpha to begin the meeting. Bishop studied his father’s face, but found no hint as to their agenda in his set jaw or narrowed eyes. Moments later, two pairs of footsteps pounded up the stairs to the office. Jillian Reynolds came in first, Jonas right behind her. Bishop’s beast stirred at her appearance.

“This information stays in this room for now,” Father said. He picked up a folded sheet of paper with four sets of numbers printed in black marker. “I received this in today’s mail. No return address, no distinguishing scents attached. Postmarked from Welton, our nearest neighboring town.”

Bishop accepted the paper when handed to him. The numbers seemed familiar in some way. “Coordinates?”

“Correct. The coordinates are for a location just off Route 12, about six miles from here.”

“No indication of what we’re expected to find there?”

“None. That was the only thing in the envelope.”

“Feels like an ambush invitation.”

“My thought as well. I want you six to go there and see what we’re meant to find, if anything. Go in as pairs, one beast and one skin, from different directions so you can see from all sides. Keep in constant contact with each other.”

“With respect, Alpha, is six of us enough?” Jillian asked.

Father’s eyes flashed with annoyance. “Six is all I will risk sending. This could be an ambush, or it could be a tactic to draw my enforcers out of town and make us more vulnerable to an outside attack. Once you’ve left, I’ll inform the other patrols of what’s going on so everyone is on their toes.”

The plan was a good one. They didn’t know what they were going to find out there in the woods, and putting all of their strongest fighters in one place was a bad move.

“Understood,” Bishop said. “We’ll leave right away.”

“Good. Be careful, all of you.”

Verbal affirmatives rose up, and then the group filed out of the office and downstairs.

Bishop hung back. “Was Knight over here within the last hour?”

“No, I’ve been alone all morning,” Father said, concern furrowing his brow. “Why?”

“He told Brynn this was where he was heading.”

“Knight probably needed a few minutes to himself. I don’t like it, either, son, but he does need personal space in order to control his empathy. If your mother was around others for too long, too consistently, she became agitated. Especially when something was already bothering her.”

“Right.” Their mother had been a White Wolf, too, so Father had a unique perspective on the responsibilities and side effects of the burden. Balancing the emotional control of seven hundred-plus loup garou was a monumental task. “I’ll let you know when we’re close to our location.”

“Be careful, son.”

“I will.”

Tuesday, August 05, 2014

Authors After Dark: Charlotte

Tonight I'm hitting the road, beginning the first leg of my drive down to Charlotte, NC, for Authors After Dark. I didn't make it last year because I was in a wedding, but I'm super excited to head back this year. My schedule is really light, so I'll have plenty of time to just hang out with folks, and to see Charlotte.

If you're looking for me (Kelly Meding/Kelly Meade) at the conference, here are a few places you can find me:

WEDNESDAY (8/6)
6pm - 8pm : Wecome Event
8pm - 9pm : Blind Date Book Party

THURSDAY (8/7)
10am - 11am : Urban Fantasy Panel

SATURDAY (8/9)
1pm - 4pm : Book Signing

The book signing is open to the public, so if you live in or around Charlotte, please come out! Lots and lots of authors will be signing and selling books!

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Release Day: Black Rook


It's here! BLACK ROOK is finally available for download from most major e-retailers, so get your copy today! Remember, this new series is ebook only, so you can't find it in your local book store.

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
Books-A-Million

Monday, June 30, 2014

Black Rook Blog Tour


 
With BLACK ROOK's release right around the corner, tomorrow kicks off my first-ever Month Long Blog Tour to promote my new series. You can follow along with the tour and drop comments for chances to win a fun grand prize gift basket! The tour list is below, and the first few stops are coming up tomorrow!
 
July 01 - Pure Textuality
July 02 - Wild Wordy Women 
July 03 - Booked and Loaded 
July 04 - MM Jaye Writes 
July 04 - Toot's Book Reviews 
July 07 - Geeks in High School 
July 08 - Rhi Reading 
July 09 - The Book Nympho 
July 11 - Mad Hatter Reads 
July 15 - I Smell Sheep 
July 17 - Bitten by Books
July 18 - BookSkater 
July 18 - Addicted 2 Heroines 
July 21 - Paranormal Haven 
July 22 - Gizmo's Reviews 
July 23 - Deal Sharing Aunt 
July 24 - Book Lovin' Mamas 
July 28 - Platypire Reviews 
July 29 - Indie Author How-To 
July 30 - WTF Are You Reading? 
July 30 - Jami Gray's Blog 
July 31 - Tez Says 

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Black Rook: Chapter One

I've gotten my butt in gear and updated my website, which includes a page for the Cornerstone Run Trilogy, and the entire first chapter of BLACK ROOK!



Monday, May 26, 2014

Random Update

It's been a while since I've posted anything here, and a reader question kind of reminded me of that. I'm so happy that winter is finally over and we're moving into the hazy, lazy days of summer.

Ha! I almost believed myself with "lazy" days.

Anyway, summer is here and I'd rather have sunshine and heat than cold and clouds. So what have I been up to, besides the day job?

I'm one-quarter of the way finished writing WHITE KNIGHT, which is Book Three in my upcoming Cornerstone Run trilogy with Berkley Intermix. If you're somehow only just now hearing about this, it's a new digital-only paranormal romance trilogy from me (under the pen name Kelly Meade) about wolf shifters, Magi, and vampires. Berkley bought the whole trilogy, so you don't have to worry about it being cancelled in the middle.

Coincidentally, all three books can be pre-ordered now! Pre-orders help publishers determine reader interest in a new book, so if you want to give it a try, don't be afraid to click the links below and give it a whirl.

BLACK ROOK (July 15th)
GRAY BISHOP (October 21)
WHITE KNIGHT (January 1, 2015)

In other series news, if you missed my previous blog post, there will be no more MetaWars books for the foreseeable future.

As for Dreg City 6, yes. There will be a 6 and a 7, because seven is how many books I always envisioned it taking to finish Evy's story. I know how it ends. I've had the final scene in my head for ages now. The problem is time. Right now I have to finish writing my contracted novel (White Knight). Once that is turned in, I'll be able to think about Dreg City again. I hope to have another Dreg City book out this year, but I can't promise anything at this point.

What I can promise is a fun new series, starting with Black Rook, with my own unique take on wolf shifters and their secret societies, plus hot brothers, the women who love them, and sexy-times. What's not to love?

Monday, May 12, 2014

The (Meta) War is Over

It's happened again, folks.

This time I can't say it's as much of a surprise, but Pocket has decided not to pick up the next title in the MetaWars superhero series. So for the handful of you who've been clambering for Gage's book....um....maybe some day?

The trouble with promising to one day self-publish more MetaWars is time. I still have a book due to Berkley for my werewolf trilogy. I still want to finish up the Dreg City books. I have more ideas than I can shake a stick at, as well as other projects that are keeping me quite busy. I don't know when I'll be able to fit Gage's book into my schedule--and that's just writing it. Never mind the production aspect of self-publishing a book.

So for now, the MetaWars series is, if not over, certainly on an extended hiatus.

I'm sorry I didn't do better by these characters and by my loyal fans.


Sunday, March 16, 2014

Cover Art: Black Rook









She never saw this coming…

Brynn Atwood is a low-level Magus whose unpredictable precognitive powers have made her an outcast among her people—and an embarrassment to her highly-regarded father.  After a frightening vision in which her father is murdered by a loup garou man, Brynn decides to prove herself by finding the killer, and stopping them at any cost.

Her target is Rook McQueen, the son of a small-town loup garou Alpha. Despite being the youngest of three, Rook is first in line to inherit the role of Alpha, a duty he isn't sure he's capable of fulfilling. When Brynn finally meets Rook, she doesn't expect the attraction that draws her to him—and him to her. 

No longer believing him a murderer, Brynn and Rook strike an alliance to find her father's real killer. But when his older brother is targeted by an unknown enemy, Rook will have to choose between his growing feelings for Brynn and his duty as the future Alpha of his community.

Coming July 15 from Berkley Intermix.