Promo Blitz: Moonlight: The Big Bad Wolf by Victoria Danann

Moonlight: The Big Bad Wolf

Victoria Danann

Paranormal Romance / Fantasy

Date to be Published:

5/25/13

ISBN ebook 978-1-933320-69-4

ISBN Print   978-1-933320-64-9

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Synopsis:

The fourth installment in The Order of the Black Swan serial saga. The story of B Team continues while the romance centers on Stalkson Grey, head of the Elk Mountain Reservation Tribe of werewolves. He embarks on an adventure he would never have dreamedpossible, willing to take any risk to save his pack from extinction. Along the way he learns thattrue love can find you in the strangest places, even when you're far, far from home.

Victoria Danann Links

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Book Excerpt :

CHAPTER 1

"What do you know about my sister and that prancin' prick of a fairy prince?"

Elora blinked, but in the space of that flutter he learned all he needed to know. He had found out the first night Storm brought her to poker, back at Jefferson Unit, that her very expressive face telegraphed even the tiniest nuance or feeling or thought. By now he knew her so well that she was as transparent as air. She was caught off guard because she hadn't expected that question while Ram was cooking a leisurely Sunday breakfast.

"Say that three times fast?"

"No' goin' to work this time. Stay on topic."

"You just don't like him because he can stand toe to toe with you and not be cowed by the H.O.H. elfster."

"ELFSTER!? What in Paddy's Name, Elora? And what is H.O.H.?"

"Hall of Heroes."

Ram turned away from frying bacon and gave her a look. It probably didn't have the effect he intended. He was wearing jeans, a long sleeve black tee that stretched across his chest enticingly, and a black Jack Daniels apron tied around his waist. She thought perhaps nothing was sexier than watching Ram's muscles ripple while cooking her breakfast.

"Do no' try to deflect. 'Tis I. And Paddy knows I can tell when you're hidin' somethin'."

Ram looked determined.

"Speaking of hiding. You're going to have to do something about all these guys overrunning our property. Our home - the one that was intended to be our very own, very private property. Please, Ram. Make them go away."

His expression softened a little as he decided to allow himself to be temporarily derailed.

"Sol, Simon, and every one of your friends agree that we can no' leave you and Helm vulnerable after the threat those alien buggers left hangin' in the air. That goes especially for your friend, Sir Storm."

"My friend, Sir Storm?"

"Aye. Your friend. The bloody wanker suggested that I'm no' responsible enough to be entrusted with lookin' out for you. Said, 'You're no' takin' good care of my namesake's mother. I'll be forced to give the job to someone else if you do no' shape up and begin takin' it seriously'."

Elora laughed. "He said that?"

"Aye. As if 'twas all my doin' that you ended up givin' birth alone in a freezin' wolf cave. With. No. Phone."

"Well..."

Ram narrowed his eyes at her. "Think very carefully about what you are about to say before you say it."

Elora smiled brightly. "I was going to say that no one in his right mind could fault you."

Ram nodded and resumed turning the bacon. "Exactly. I should have reminded him what happened when he was in charge of the Baka interview at Unit Drac. He pouted for hours after learnin' first hand that the Lady Laiken does as she fuck-well pleases."

Elora concurred by nodding vigorously. "It's a burden, but you bear it well, my love."

"All kiddin' aside. I do. I really do." He began setting strips of cooked bacon out to drain the grease.

"Well, Sir Storm is going to be plenty busy with his own burdens."

"What's your meanin?"

"They're expecting."

"Expectin' a baby?"

"No. They're expecting Publishers Clearing House to pay for their villa renovation."

Ram gave her a look. "You know, I'm thinkin' there's only enough of this lovely bacon for one and, since I cooked, I really should be keepin' it for myself."

"Yes! They're expecting a baby. Litha thinks it's a girl."

"A girl!" Ram practically whooped. "Paddy's Great Balls Afire. I can no' wait to see Storm try to be da to a girl." He laughed enjoying that idea and then grew serious. "As for the buggers who violated my grandda's forest, I'll no' be givin' 'em a second chance at my family."

"Rammel. I hear you and I understand you."

"I do no' suppose the next sentence will be 'and I obey you'."

Elora smirked while she snagged a piece of bacon. "Have I ever mentioned you make great bacon?" She nuzzled his ear on the way back to her stool. "Almost as good as chocolate."

Ram pointed a spatula at her. "I swear to Paddy you have that thin'... that ADDD."

"ADHD?"

"Aye."

Elora started laughing. "Pot."

When his brows drew together she smiled because Helm looked at her with that same expression several times a day. They made him accidentally in a snow covered cottage, but he was made with love and now he was a little bit her and a little bit him. A miracle indeed.

"You can no' concentrate 'cause you've been smokin' dope?"

"No! 'Pot' as in 'you're the pot calling the kettle black'."

Ram stared at her for a few beats, finally shook his head and said, "No idea."

"You don't have an expression here about the pot calling the kettle black?"

"We do no' that I know of, but I think I begin to follow your point. You're tryin' to say that I should no' be accusin' you of short attention because mine is even shorter?"

Of their own accord, his eyes drifted down to the cleavage showing between the Henley buttons she'd left undone.

She chuckled. "See?"

"See what?"

She did a little shimmy and he grinned sheepishly. "Guilty." He put an orange juice in front of her. "And be careful of the sexy dancin'. You'll be gettin' Helm's milk all over your clothes again."

Elora rolled her eyes. "He gets enough. Have you seen how chubby his little face is getting?"

"Well, blood will tell."

Elora narrowed her eyes to slits. "Rammel. Paddy help you if you're saying what I think you're saying."

"All I'm sayin' is that chubby cheeks do no' run on my side of the family." When she took a mock threatening step toward him, he laughed. "Just teasin' darlin' girl. Just teasin'. You know I would no' change a hair on your head. Or his."

"Okay. All I'm sayin' is that insanity doesn't run on my side of the family." 

A look of horror slowly covered her face as she realized what she'd just said. She hadn't yet personally confronted what the assassin in the woods had said about the Laiwynn clan, but if it was true, it meant that cruelty and despotic behavior might run in her family.

Ram put his utensils down, wiped his hand on his apron, and offered himself for a hug.

She stepped into the comfort of his arms.

"What I was trying to tell you earlier is that I've never made any secret of the fact that I won't give up my freedom to live a restricted life, no matter how luxurious or comfortable. Not for anything."

"No' even for Helm? And me?"

"That's not fighting fair and you know it."

"When it comes to your safety - and our son's - you think I care about fightin' fair? 'Tis the very last of my concerns."

"Let me put it this way. You need to come up with a more agreeable Plan B and you need to do it while I'm still in a listening mood."

"Any ideas?"

She looked down at her pretty Holland china plate, part of the set they got as a wedding present from Kay and Katrina. She had a picture of how good life was going to be there in their new home. Had the Raleng clan assassins spoiled her vision of the future to the point of ruin?

Was it time to confront that possibility?

"No." When she looked back up, Ram thought he might have seen her look just a little worn. Like her aura hadn't been buffed in a while. Sometimes he caught her looking off into space and he suspected that she was thinking about what she'd been told by the Raleng clan assassin, wondering if the massacre of her family was really a coup d'etat." Armed people guarding the house. Hardly what I pictured."

"I know." Ram sat down next to her and took her hand in his. "We'll figure it out. Monq's workin' on it." He pulled up like he had an idea. The change was so subtle that no one besides Elora would have even noticed it.

"What?"

"He's workin' on detectin' interdimensional activity - identifyin' the source and location. He says 'tis a logical first step toward the defense system we're goin' to be needin'."

"Yeah. I heard."

"Well..." She knew she was in trouble when he turned on that look that he had given her the first night they had met, the puppy dog plea that was so irresistible she could be manipulated out of her socks with full knowledge and complicity. She hated that. It was... manipulation by consent.

"Stop that right now!"

"'Twas just thinkin' that, for the time bein', just while we're sortin' this out, maybe we should move back into Jefferson Unit. You and Helm would be safe there. I know 'tis no' ideal,but there is the court park, food, and babysittin' on demand. 'Tis no' this." He looked around the room and gave a little sigh. He had put a lot of himself into renovating the property and somewhere along the way had come to understand why she loved it and pictured their little family living happily ever after there. "But we were happy at Jefferson too. We could even help Monq. Maybe speedin' thin's along a bit?"

"I'm expecting puppies."

"I truly hope no one is recordin' this conversation." Ram's mouth softened at the corners making him look so beautifully kissable that she had to lean in and remind herself if those kisses were as good as she remembered. He didn't seem to mind complying with her wish. When she pulled back, he said, "We could get Glen to keep an eye on that. The wolf pups I mean."

"This is not just some ruse that's going to get us sucked back into active duty?"

Ram cocked his head like he was having trouble with that question.

"Why would I go to so much trouble to keep you safe only so I could risk gettin' you killed?"

Elora stared at Ram for a few seconds. "I'm not the only knight in the room and we both know how persuasive Sol can be when he wants something. Before I even consider this proposal, I need some reassurance that none of us, not you, not me, not the baby - none of us - are going to end up on any field assignment. Not in any capacity."

Ram nodded. "Deal."

"Okay."

"Okay you approve of my answer or okay we're packin' for Fort Dixon?"

"Fort Dixon, but that's all of us. Blackie too. And we need an apartment big enough for the four of us."

"Thank Paddy. I'm goin' to get a good night's sleep for a change."

She hadn't realized just how much stress the fear of assassination had caused Ram until she saw his facial muscles relax. Yeah. It was a good plan. A good choice, everything considered.

"And, let's outline what would have to happen to make it possible for us to come back here and proceed to live life the way it should be lived. By ourselves. Speaking of which, I'm also not giving up the pleasure of a weekend at the cottage - just us - forever."

"Certainly. I'm no' unreasonable."

She smiled at him lovingly and indulgently. "Of course not. You're my hero."

Tour: The Summoner's Tale by Victoria Danann (Excerpt+Giveaway)

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The Summoner's Tale 
The Order of the Black Swan #3 
Victoria Danann 

Paranormal Romance
7th House Publishing
Ebook, 300 pages
Release Date: February 14th, 2013

Purchase: Amazon | 

A secret society, a witch, a psychic, vampires, modern day knights, heroes, elves, fae, assassins from another dimension, and fairytales come together where emotions intersect. Two souls, joined by a mystical bond, separated by distance, must simultaneously struggle through pain and darkness in an ultimate confrontation with character and an ultimate struggle for life proving that true love waits patiently through lifetimes and finds courage to survive. Even in the strangest places. Even when you're least expecting it. Even when you're far, far from home.

EXCERPT:

CHAPTER ONE:

BLACK SWAN FIELD TRAINING MANUAL Section I: Chapter 1, #1

The plural of vampire is vampire.

When the rush of activity subsided, he found himself alone with his own thoughts; a condition that was more than familiar since he had spent hundreds of years that way. Without the distraction of his friends' banter, since his proposed staff had left Edinburgh, he had begun to see his task not just as a job, but as a mission, one immersed in the duality of joy and gravity.

He had never considered himself to be impatient. Quite the contrary, everything he had ever pursued in earnest, from painting to music to writing, had depended upon patience. But, his cognizance of the enormity of the burden he had accepted had grown over the past months and he had turned to brooding about the time that was passing.

Every day that nothing was accomplished was a day when more people had their humanity taken from them, another day when vampire remained imprisoned in bodies infected with the foulest disease imaginable, and, also, another day when people died.

The project was moving painfully slowly. Everyone who had originally been assigned to work with Baka was gone: married, retired, whatever. Everyone except Heaven - who had turned out to be anything but.

The large work space, intended for several people, seemed deserted with him alone most of the time. He worked from early in the morning till late at night, challenging both the hours in the day and the fact that he was one excruciatingly short-handed task force leader.

When Heaven was present, her moods ran the range of a shallow bell curve from disagreeable to surly to sullen. He admitted that he had provoked her on their first meeting, for reasons that were a mystery to him. Something about her instantly put him on edge and made him feel anxious.

Even though that feeling persisted, he had attempted to make amends so that they could work together amicably. To no avail. She was prickly to the core, spurning every effort on his part to develop a rudimentary standard of civility. She behaved as if simple courtesy was more than she could manage which meant that "nice" was a goal way too distant.

He not only had to work with a person who detested his very presence, but, adding insult to injury, it seemed he couldn't shake an inexplicably strong attraction to her. He found himself staring at the curve of her cheek with her head bowed over work. Or the shine of her chestnut hair when she walked through a ray of light. Or the way her lips pursed whenever he gave her something to do. It was damned aggravating.

To make matters worse, he seemed to have lost interest in pursuing other women.

At exactly fifteen after five she double checked her wristwatch, closed an open folder, rose, pushed her arms into her sweater jacket, put her purse on her shoulder and, like every other day, walked out of the office without saying goodnight.

He perpetually struggled to concentrate because the space seemed to vibrate with a low level, but annoying irritation when she was there. It was stand to reason that he would be glad to see her gather her things and go, but, in fact, he hated it even more when she left. He heaved a big sigh. Fuck me.

Baka had been a person with a well-developed sense of morality, and a well-functioning conscience before he became a vampire. During the last hundred years of life as a vampire, having survived long enough to blessedly recover his understanding of right and wrong, he had voluntarily turned himself into The Order and served as "consultant" voluntarily consuming only artificial sustenance.

No. He had never been short on conscience. And that conscience was rubbing a hole in his brain telling him that it would be wrong to simply sit at a desk and plan a strategy on paper while, at the same time, doing nothing. So, keeping his own counsel, for better or worse, he determined that he would continue to work as a bureaucrat during the day, but would spend his nights - at least part of them - looking for others he might help back to the light.

He had worked with Monq at Jefferson Unit labs to develop a delivery solution. Taking a page from the methodology of the late Gautier Nibelung, they had decided that the safest and most effective approach would be dart gun. Each dart was outfitted with a tiny canister that would puncture on impact releasing a formula that was part stun and part cure. The proper dose of stun solution had been determined by tests on Baka himself. So he knew it worked. First hand. Obviously vampire must be incapacitated while the viral antidote works. As medicinal remedies go, it is fast working, but not instant. There is a delay of two to four hours between introduction to the system and complete reversal of the disease, depending upon the age and constitution of the individual.

His plan wasn't perfect. It depended on encountering one vampire at a time and extracting him, while paralyzed, without engaging other vampire. Tricky, but the alternative was waiting for a task force to be vetted, assembled, and trained. And waiting was the one thing he couldn't manage. Maybe it wasn't the smartest thing he'd ever done, but, hell, he'd had a long life.

           To his advantage, he still had certain attributes that were extra human. Not like comic book heroes. More like human plus. No one knew if these benefits would fade away over time, but, for now, he was a little stronger, a little faster, and could see in the dark a little better than most people. All traits very useful for vampire hunting.

It just so happened that he found his assigned base of operations in prime territory that qualified as a vampire magnet on all counts. In Edinburgh's Old Town there was a large pedestrian population that came out at night and it was built on top of an underground system that was not utilized to any extent that would interfere with the needs of vampire. All this was literally in sight of his office - five minutes' walk away.

In a darkly poetic way, it was fitting that vampire would thrive in Edinburgh's underground city which consisted of a system of tunnels, caverns, and cells cut into the much softer sandstone under the rock that the above-ground Old Town is built upon. It's a place with grisly history where thousands of hapless poor lived in darkness, packed together without sanitation and with the vilest of criminals. Plague victims were not removed and buried or burned, but just sealed in their cells.

Modern day Ghost Tours offer a shallow excursion - shallow because individuals don't want to stay in the underground very long. Words like "creepy" are frequently used even by hard-core insensitives. That leaves miles of maze for a vampire haven.

Baka had been a vampire long enough to know all about how they think. He knew that the days of the Beltane festival would be a gorge fest for vampire. The Royal Mile, just over the heads of vampire living in the Underground, would be crowded with visitors to the city, visitors intent on celebration and revelry, danger being the last thing on their minds. It would be a blessing to vampire in the original sense of the word which was bloodletting; when, as a rite of passage, young pagans would stand in a pit under a grate where a bull was sacrificed and bathe in the blood that fell.

So Baka finished his day, went to dinner alone, and slowly savored every bite of his of actual food. Afterward, driven by a heartfelt desire to do some good in the world, he pulled on a pair of cargo pants and equipped the dozen pockets with two dart guns and as many canisters as he could carry without being slowed down. He descended the stairs to the main foyer wondering if, even partial redemption for a long life of misdeeds, is possible. The fact that he was not accountable for that infamous history should have given him some peace of absolution. But didn't. He said good evening to the doorman and headed out into the night.

About this Author:

Though works of fiction are a departure for me, I have had this series simmering on the back burner of my mind for years, but time is at a premium. In addition to authoring and illustrating Seasons of the Witch and writing course work for Seasons in Avalon, I play Classic Rock music and manage Houston’s premier variety and R&B band.

This series will include some of my education in the paranormal and fictionalized anecdotes from my journals during the years when I was a practicing “metaphysician”, but most of the material is fantasy – of course.

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter |

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Book Promotion: The Summoner's Tale by Victoria Danann (Guest Post)

Promotion Hosted by Bewitching Book Tours

The Summoner's Tale
Victoria Danann
The Order of the Black Swan Book Three

ISBN: 978-1-933320-67-0
E-Book
ISBN: 978-1-933320-80-9 Paperback

A secret society, a witch, a psychic, vampires, modern day knights, heroes, elves, fae, assassins from another dimension, and fairytales come together where emotions intersect. Two souls, joined by a mystical bond, separated by distance, must simultaneously struggle through pain and darkness in an ultimate confrontation with character and an ultimate struggle for life proving that true love waits patiently through lifetimes and finds courage to survive. Even in the strangest places. Even when you're least expecting it. Even when you're far, far from home.

Erotic quotient: Some steamy scenes. No menage. No BDSM.

READING THE SERIES IN ORDER HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

CHECK OUT THE FIRST TWO BOOKS IN THE ORDER OF THE BLACK SWAN SERIES!

About this Author:

For the past fourteen years, Victoria has illustrated and authored Seasons of the Witch calendars and planners for 7th-House.com.

Though works of fiction are a departure for me, I have had this series simmering on the back burner of her mind for years. In addition to authoring and illustrating Seasons of the Witch, I play rock music and manage one of Houston's premier R&B/Variety/Pop bands.

This series will include some of my actual experience in the paranormal with fictionalized anecdotes from my journals during the years when I was a practicing "metaphysician", but most of the material is fantasy.

Author Links:

http://www.victoriadanann.com

http://www.victoriadanann.me

http://www.facebook.com/Victoria.Danann.9

http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/8920457-victoria-danann

Guest Post by Victoria Danann:

The Art of the Review by Victoria Danann

There was a time when the purview of book reviewing was limited to a very small and exclusive club of literary critics who wrote for newspapers or magazines.Those highly prized jobs were few and far between and were bestowed upon only the most qualified journalists who had passed a series of tests. The first rung of the ladder required a degree in journalism and, often, a double major in English as well. The second step was years of dues-paying tasks that were much less glamorous and desirable. If a candidate survived the business until a spot opened up, they might be offered a probation period with permanent assignment dependent upon satisfactory performance.

The book review revolution coat tailed so closely with the rise of Amazon.com as to virtually coincide. The first wave came in the form of Amazon customer reviews. For the first time, any individual was able to publish their personal opinion anonymously without vetting of any kind.

Although Amazon publishes "General Review Creation Guidelines", I doubt that many have read them. The bulk of the remarks dedicated to guidelines deals with "what's not allowed". What I would like to quote here is the section on tips. Keep in mind that this section is not exclusive to book reviews, but includes products as well.

Amazon. Com's Tips on writing a great review:
 
Include the "why": The best reviews include not only whether you liked or disliked a product, but also why. Feel free to talk about related products and how this item compares to them. 
Be specific: Your review should focus on specific features of the product and your experience with it. For video reviews, we recommend that you write a brief introduction. 
Not too short, not too long: Written reviews must be at least 20 words and are limited to 5,000 words. The ideal length is 75 to 500 words. Video reviews have a 10-minute limit, but we recommend 2 to 5 minutes to keep your audience engaged. 
Be sincere: We welcome your honest opinion about the product--positive or negative. We do not remove reviews because they are critical. We believe all helpful information can inform our customers’ buying decisions. 
Full disclosure: If you received a free product in exchange for your review, please clearly and conspicuously disclose that that you received the product free of charge.

The Rise of the Blog
"Like cream, the best critics rise to the top in terms of readership/followers/subscribers."

The second wave of upheaval can also be attributed to the innovation of Amazon.com. The explosion of self-publishing created a coexisting demand for self-marketing which created a demand for more book reviewers.

Should blog reviews carry more weight than customer reviews? The answer to that question is definitely yes. Sometimes. Anyone can put up a blog within minutes and call themselves a book reviewer. Some of the larger sites attract reviewers with the lure of free books and require absolutely nothing from them other than a name, email, and, perhaps, what genre they would like to review. In the case of a blog, there is no newspaper or magazine editor vetting the reviewer for you, you are left to your own devices to discriminate. The good news is that seems to be working in many cases. Like cream, the best critics rise to the top in terms of readership/followers/subscribers.

The good thing about Amazon.com customer reviews is that, again, while individual reviews may not be worthwhile, numbers usually prove true. I can look at the number of total reviews (regardless of rating) then look at the publication date and predict whether or not it's a good book. If a book has been out for six years and has two reviews, it's probably not going to be memorable in a good way. On the other hand, if a book has been out for a year and has a lot of reviews relative to other books within the genre, it means that many people were moved by that book to take the extra step of returning to the purchase page to register their opinion. Again, cream rising to the top.

An Author's Review of the Reviews System 

Speaking as myself, for myself. Many would say I'm going where angels fear to tread, but, hey, I'm no angel.

1.) My biggest complaint hinges around the question of summarizing which often includes SPOILING!! There's a reason they call these plot giveaways "spoilers". I may spend months perfecting a turn in the story that could potentially give a reader a surprise jolt of pleasure. You, as a reviewer, can ruin that in two sentences and thirty seconds. Please believe me, if given the choice, I would much rather you trench my lawn or egg my house. You may think you're providing a service to other readers by revealing the plot twists or outcomes, but you're not. To other readers, it's simply selfish, thoughtless, and inconsiderate. To the author, it's disregard and disrespect.
 
A review isn't a middle school book report. A good review isn't a summary to prove you "really" read the book. If the book should be publicly summarized, I assure you the author of that book could do a better job than you. There's a really good reason why they didn't.

2.) ANONYMITY IS THE ENEMY OF CIVILITY.

People do say things in reviews that they would not dream of saying to someone in person. They also say things they wouldn't say if they knew their name was going to be on it - their real name. What's wrong with that? Well, hiding behind anonymity brings out mean spiritedness in some people.
 
In the days when the only published critics were legitimate literary critics, their names (real names) were proudly displayed on their columns. They took responsibility for what they wrote and knew that they might be out to dinner one night in New York and run into the person whose work they reviewed. That didn't mean that all reviews were good. It just meant that there was a measure of accountability.

Authors are all too aware of the fact that our worst reviews are often written by other authors who establish "sock puppet" accounts for the solitary purpose of bringing down a book's rating.

One last thing regarding my host. Night Owl Reviews, as a collective, has mastered the art of the review in the sense that the reviews are well thought out, informative, and entertaining without crossing the line of giving away the point of reading the book. NOR is part of the new elite of literary critics - bloggers who can be relied upon to review for the benefit of readers.
 
On my own blog I have listed some of these and Night Owl Reviews is among them.

My first book of the serial The Order of the Black Swan, My Familiar Stranger, has just topped the milestone of 100 FIVE STAR reviews. It is available for FREE download from Amazon, B&N, iTunes, Smashwords, KOBO, and Diesel. The second book, The Witch's Dream, is available exclusively at Amazon. The third book, The Summoner's Tale, will release Valentine's Day on Amazon along with a three book collection edition that will release everywhere in electronic form.