Love to Stake Another Day

Halloween is over! That doesn't mean you get to miss out on all those things that go bump in the night and the fun they make. Thanks to a special dispensation from the Vampire Council and St. Vlad's—no not that one—League of Slayers the fun is only beginning.

Love Bites Book 2: Love to Stake Another Day is here to get you over that Post-Halloween Slump. Desert Breeze Publishing and J. Morgan are proud to present the second installment of the series that's so Fangalicious, Vampires everywhere are suffering from bad dental hygiene and a severe case of stomach cramps from all the laughter.

Don't find yourself wondering what all the blah blahing is about. Go out and get your copy today. I wonder say you'll regret it, but a stake to the heart may be in your future if you don't. Just in case you're wondering a stake to the heart isn't a good thing. Just as Vlad—yeah that one.

Love to Stake Another Day

Love Bites Book 2

From

J. Morgan

And

Desert Breeze publishing

Available Now!


Blurb:

Lyssette Ravell finds herself smack dab in the middle of a mess her brother started. When a new threat surfaces to threaten the Vampire/Human alliance recently set in place, she finds herself teamed with Kristain Marshall, who just so happens to be her almost brother-in-law.

Sent to rescue her brother Eli from the clutches of Rudolpho's daughter Valerious, Lyssette finds more than she bargained for. There's a traitor on the Vampire Council. Now, Lyssette must save her brother, root out this traitor and at the same time avoid at all cost falling in love with Kristain, the one man who could make her forget all the vows she's ever taken as an agent of the VCI.


EXCERPT


"Let go of me!" It would have came out more assertive if the towel hadn't slipped and I had to scramble to make good on my promise not to show him the money again today.

Kristain pulled me into his rock hard chest, trapping me. "Not until I have my say."

I gave up trying to fight him. Not sure, but I thought my nipples were liking it entirely too much. "You've said enough."

"Maybe I have, but I've been saying it the wrong way. I'm attracted to you. More than attracted to you. Don't ask me what I mean by that, because hell if I know. I just know I can't get you out of my head and that makes me a little stupid around you when all I want is to be James Bond." He let me go and just walked away, leaving me semi-naked and confused. "So, if you want to leave, leave. I can understand why you would want to. I've been nothing more than a horse's ass since the first time we met."

I knew that touching moment would pop up sooner or later. "You're not always a horse's ass. Sometimes you're a cute buffoon."

"At least that's a step up from where I thought I was. Lyssette, I shouldn't even be thinking about you this way."

"Why, because I'm a Vampire?" Not that I didn't agree with him, but I wanted a damn reason.

"Hell, no. After seeing Donnie and Savannah together, what we are ¿ or aren't ¿ isn't an issue."

"What then?" Now I really wanted to know.

"For one thing, we're partners and for another we're family. Well, sort of. The thing is, if we started something and if it ended badly it wouldn't just affect you and me, it could tear Savannah's marriage apart. As much as I want this—" He waved his hands between the two of us. "I won't do anything to hurt her. She deserves every bit of happiness that comes her way."

He'd actually thought this through. I'd taken him for one of those insipid-macho-girl-in-every-city types. He certainly had the swagger down. Let's not forget how well he could fling a line of bullshit at fifty yards without missing a beat. Granted, he was probably a toad and this could be just another one of his tricks. As good as that sounded in my head, I didn't get that feeling. Hard as it was to believe, Mr. Marshall appeared to be baring his soul to me. I didn't see that one coming.

"You're right. It would definitely complicate things so it's a good thing we're not taking this any further." We weren't. Right? My mind said no, but my body seemed to think it might be a damn fine idea. Stupid men showing their sensitive side.

Blog Hop Winners!

Thanks to everyone who passed our way!!
My sweet slave appreciated all the very nice comments and says he was most happy to have provided pleasure to so many!

And so many requested a copy of The Morgan Diaries, Vol 1, I hope you get a chance to read it today as it reaches its climax on Halloween night.

The Winner of Jmo's Advance Copy of Love to Stake Another Day, Book 2 of the Love Bites Series is...

Gloria Bryant! 
Come on down and claim your prize geewiz387!!  Or email Jmo at jennmorgan69 (AT) yahoo (Dot) com
Now on to the winners of the Blog Tour

AND THE WINNERS ARE...
First prize: Jewel
Banged Up – Jeanne St. James
Hearts Afire – 3E’s
Afterthought – Cat Kane
Love at First Stake – J. Morgan
No Recourse – Mari Carr

Second prize: Patsy Hagen
Bound by Deception – Christa Paige
Once Bitten – Trina M. Lee
The Challenge – Serena Shay

Third prize: Fallon Hadley
Cin – Ella Drake
Halo in her Pocket – Morgan Q. O’Reilly
Felicia’s Fling – Jolie Cain

Runner Up: Sherry
The Wicked Flame – Stephanie Adkins
Winners choice from Tielle St. Claire

Runner Up: Noelle
Intimate Strangers – Gem Sivad
For a Price – Olivia Brynn

Runner Up: s7anna
Iron – P.G. Forte
The Extremist – Juniper Bell

Runner Up: SusiSunshine
Battered not Broken – Ceilia Kyle
Wyoming Solace – Alanna Coca

Runner Up: SusiSunshine
Battered not Broken – Ceilia Kyle
Wyoming Solace – Alanna Coca

Congrats to the winners and thanks to all the players. You made the day fun and wild. I can't remember a day in the recent past when I've smiled so much. You make blogging fun!

Halloween Hottie Hop - Stop 5

Get your ghoulie shoes on and prepare yourself to trip the Hottie Fantastic. With prizes sure to stop any of your internet TPs out there, we're certain to Treat your Trickery. To those of you coming to us from Juniper Bell's page, Welcome!

First of all, our Hottie. Okay, really he's Morgan's and she's letting him out only for today. Jmo had nothing to do with the capture of this lucky soul. Morgan treats him sooo nice!

Sigh. Ain't he pretty? And so very, very pleasing too...

Now the fun part. MorganO is holding a copy of Halo in Her Pocket behind the jack o'lantern for one lucky person.

We're not stopping there. Everyone who comments gets a copy of The Morgan Diaries Vol. 1, a compilation of the serial event we wrote in the weeks leading up to Halloween last year. Like pirates and vampires? Great! So do we and we put them together in a fun story for Halloween. Just be sure to comment and send us an email with - I Want TMD - in the subject line. Send emails to: morgan @ morganqoreilly. com (take out the spaces!)

Does that sound like enough treats to you? Nope, not to us either. Jmo is offering up for your spooky consumption a copy of Love at First Bite AND, drum roll please... This is sooo exciting!! An advance copy of Love to Stake Another Day, Book 2 in the Love Bites series!!!

Prizes galore! Everyone gets a treat!! So comment, get a free read, and be automatically entered to win one of the three books being given away. What could be simpler? Nothing, which is why you need to comment right now, before you get excited and forget.

When you're through haunting our blog, hop on over to Christa Paige's Blog for more Ghostly Goodness in the Halloween Hottie Blog Hop.

PS If you get lost on the tour, check out the map located at Site: 1 Gem Sivad

It's a Halloween party!

The bloggers below are gathering the tastiest treats for your trick-or-treating pleasure. Join us on Friday October 30th for a plethora of eye candy. All you have to do is start at the beginning, you’ll find a link to the next blog on the trail. Comment on each along the way for a chance to win the following prizes! More information to follow

I have my hottie all picked out, just don't tell Jmo! He might get embarassed.

Also, tell me if you can spot the other two Alaska authors on the tour!

Thanks to Alanna Coca for including us!


Gem Sivad – http://gemsivad.wordpress.com/blog/
Trina M Lee- http://www.trinamlee.com/
Emily/Elise – http://www.scorchedsheets.com/blog
Juniper Bell – http://www.authorjuniperbell.blogspot.com
Morgan Q. O’Reilly/Shea McMaster and J. Morgan – http://themorgandiaries.blogspot.com
Christa Paige – http://www.christapaige.com/blog/
Celia Kyle – http://www.celiakyle.com/blog/
Olivia Brynn – http://oliviabrynn.com/blog-2/
Stephanie Adkins – http://stephanieadkins.wordpress.com/blog/
Paige Tyler – http://paigetylertheauthor.blogspot.com/
Sara Brookes – http://www.sarabrookes.net/
Jolie Cain – http://joliecainauthor.blogspot.com/
Jessica – http://culinarycarnivale.blogspot.com/
Jeanne St James- http://www.jeannestjames.blogspot.com/
Alanna Coca- http://alannacoca.wordpress.com/blog/
Serena Shay – http://serenashay.blogspot.com/
Mari Carr – http://www.maricarr.com
P.G. Forte- http://www.rhymeswithforeplay.blogspot.com
Cat Kane – http://catkane.blogspot.com/
Ella Drake – http://elladrake.blogspot.com
Tielle St. Clare – http://tiellestclare.blogspot.com/
Tina Holland – http://tinaholland.wordpress.com/

Friday October 30th is also the last day to enter the Cupcake Give Away at Naughty in the Backseat (see previous blog post). Be sure to enter and win some sweet cupcake prizes!

Morgan Q. O'Reilly
Get Some Tonight

Look for my books at Barnes & Noble, Amazon/Kindle, Books-a-Million and other fine online retailers.

Nine Days of Prizes

It's a Cupcake Give Away from Romance in the Backseat and you could win a download of on of my books... or a whole bunch of books!

You can't win if you don't enter! Save the Ta-Tas!

Morgan O'Reilly

Get Some Tonight

What does it take to be an author?

This isn't the Blog I planned for today but sometimes things happen to change the warp your mind wants to take. This Blog ties in, so bear with me.

I've spent the last few weeks talking about the hazards of writing, and the inspiration a writer needs but I haven't hit on the most important thing. What does it take to be a writer? Let me adjust that. What does it take to be a published author?

Let me start off by saying anyone can write. Writing is nothing more than getting an idea from Point A—your brain—to point B—a piece of paper or a computer screen. Writing can be a diary entry, a poem, or a note to your loved ones. The thing is it takes more than transporting ideas to be a writer, well a published writer. It takes a talent that doesn't come from anywhere but inside you. Writing makes you a writer. Talent makes you an author.

That said it takes more than talent to be a published author. It takes contradictions. Huh? What you taking bout, Jmo? I'm talking divine honest to God truth. Talent gets your foot in the door, but it doesn't put you on the fast track to anywhere. That's the first contradiction in being an author.

Being an author is all about Ego. It takes a mountain of guts to put yourself out there and say this is my work to first off a perfect stranger—an acquisition editor—then to a whole slew of strangers if it gets accepted and published. Those who slew of strangers? They're the reading public who will either love your book or toss in a box to trade in at the used book store. Lets get back to the editor thing because that leads to our second contradiction.

I said you need an Ego to get into this business. But, and this is a big but. You need to be humble and willing to say to yourself, I'm not as good as I think. That's where an editor comes in. Before you start saying, you don't need anyone telling you how to write, YES YOU DO. It may be something as simple as mechanics of the craft but an author should always be willing to open themselves to new ideas. On the flip side, you should never bend when your gut tells you you're right. Just make sure it's your brain talking and not that Ego.

Contradiction number three. You are your biggest fan and your worst enemy. Say what? Hey, that's not me talking. It is a stone cold fact. This happens to me, so I know I'm not the only one. I'm trucking along with a book and I hit a stone wall. Instead of admitting to myself I've lost control of a situation and rethink what I'm doing, I keep hitting that wall, knowing if I keep banging away at it something'll give. It rarely does. Authors are stubborn that way. This comes from two simple sentences. Thinking you're good is one thing. Thinking you're great will get you in trouble. That trouble being—thinking everything you write is golden.

Well, it ain't. You've got to be willing to take advice and listen to it. Really listen to it. You may hear a lot about crit groups and partners. There's a reason they exist. We as authors need someone to say 'that needs work', or 'hey that's good'. Believe me when I say this. It's easier coming from a comrade in arms than an editor. Not sure why, but it does.

So what does it take to be a published author? Ego, a humble acceptance of criticism and the most important thing of all—a finished book. Not to offend anyone, but I hear all the time—sometimes from myself—I almost have this story done. Well finish it. That's the big difference between a writer and an author. We can push that Ego to its limit and in spite of our own doubts and the doubting of our friends and family, we know in our hearts of hearts we're authors. It's that confidence that tells us to put aside our fears and sub that book. In the end all those contradictions will pay off. The first book may not sell but sooner or later, your greatness will shine and publishers will notice it.

Then, you go from Writer to Author.

Jmo

Jmo gets Inspired

The word Inspiration is bantered about quite a bit by us creative types. We speak of it in hallowed tones. We attribute it to obscure things like muses, and very rarely do we say the truth. Inspiration is a tool that very few people can use their advantage. Artists, musicians, authors and crazy people are numbered among those people. Notice how close I put authors to crazy people. There's a reason for that. Namely, we're crazy.

As both an artist and a writer, I can say this with all honesty. Writers are the craziest of the bunch. Why, you may be asking yourself? Because out of all those creative types, writers are the only ones able to get away with living inside their own minds and allowing the delusions in their heads leak out to infect those around them. Sure musicians can make you whip your head around and artists can invoke emotions at a single glance, but authors make their dreams become your dreams—the worlds you actively want to stay within. If that ain't crazy, I don't know what is.

But, this isn't a blog about crazy people or writers. This is a Tion blog. The Tion of the week is Inspiration. Though crazy has a lot to do with it, as I know I'll get across as this thing gets wired up. Before I go off on more tangents than you can shake a mouse at, let me put up a professional definition of inspiration thanks to the Encarta Dictionary that came with this Microsoft Word program…

Inspiration: 1. Stimulation for the human mind to creative thought or to the making of art.
3. The quality of being stimulated to creative thought or activity.

That's only a couple of the many meanings of the word, but the two that apply the most to what I'm trying to get across.

Now that we've heard from the professionals, here's my take on it.

Inspiration is the fuel that drives the creative mind. Inspiration is the ability of the creative mind to take the natural world and reform it into entertainment. Inspiration is the ability to form sanity from the craziness that is the human condition. Finally, inspiration is a gift that we all too often take for granted.

Let me start with the first one and explain what I mean. Inspiration is fuel? Hell yeah it is. To an author it is an important as a balanced diet. Writing a book is hard work. Just because you get inspired to write a book doesn't mean that book is going to get finished. No, inspiration is an ongoing thing throughout the writing of a book. A good idea will only get you so far. Constant inspiration acts as the fuel that drives the book. An author's imagination needs continuous stimuli. Heroes need obstacles to overcome as do heroines. Those obstacles come in the form of you guessed it. Inspiration. It doesn't matter where it comes from but it has to come. When it doesn't you've got another unfinished manuscript to add to the growing pile lingering around like a trash heap on your hard drive. Believe me I have a stack of them and it is growing as we speak.

On to the number two in my list. Inspiration is the ability to reform the natural world into entertainment. At its heart, that is the true definition of writing. We, meaning authors, take everything that surrounds us, from our pasts to the ride home from work and use those experiences to create our worlds. Humans are the sum of their experiences pure and simple. Perhaps more so for an author, because we have the ability to take all that and represent it to readers in such a way they can relate to both us as author and the world they sometimes can't see around themselves. That is the true art of being a writer. We see more than even we realize. Amid all that deep thinking, we also entertain through laughter or by forcing you to drift away from your harried life for the span of a hundred pages or more.

Sanity from craziness? Yes, Inspiration is that too. Everyday each of us is bombarded with more sensory input than even a computer could make sense out of. Yet, Inspiration allows a writer to manage those sounds, images, or emotional whatevers into a neat package. Sure sometimes it gets sloppy getting there but if we do our job right, you’ve got a book, or ebook file as the case may be, that makes a little more sense than your hectic life. We can even promise a happily ever after ninety percent of the time. You tell me how often real life can promise you that?

And finally. Yes authors take Inspiration for granted. We think it's always going to be there and truthfully it is. The problem is us. At times we can't process that data coming at us, because we let our heads get in the way. Whether through dealing with life or too much data, we simply block it out and blame our mythical other halves for doing it to us. Funny, how us humans can always find someone else to blame for our shortcomings.

Now you have my take on the whole Inspiration thing. I know you're used to me being a bit off the wall with these things. I hope this tamed down Jmo hasn't disillusioned you. I promised to be back to my abnormally normal self, next time. Til then go dig up some Inspiration on your own and stop trying to steal mine.

The nerve of some people. Where're my Oreos? I need them to go hide in the closet from the muses trying to tell me to do naughty, naughty things.

Jmo.