Saturday, July 6, 2013

Beyond Romance? No Way!

By S.C. Dane (Guest Blogger)

Beyond romance? Nah. I’m smack dab in the middle of it, quite by accident. Blithely, several years ago I began writing the story taking shape in my convoluted brain and finished up with a paranormal love story.

Did I know I was writing one? Not a clue. I’d never even read paranormal romance, why would I think I was writing a story for a genre I didn’t know existed? But, write one I did, which meant plunging my eyes into every paranormal romance book I could get my, ahem, paws on.

I started hunting my prey, intent on sizing it up, learning its habits. What I found was a colony so vast all my appetites were slaked, my curiosities calmed. Here was a place where my weird eccentricities weren’t even a blip on the radar.

In fact, there were loads of writers far more imaginative than I. What fun!

What a learning process. By the time I wrote the second and third installments to Luna: Book One of The Luna Chronicle, I’d learned a thing or two about my quarry. By the time my fourth novel No Little Thing hit the virtual shelves, I’d memorized my hunting grounds. Words became my weapons, punctuation my fangs.

Marketing? The bane of this writer’s existence. A necessary evil. Why can’t I simply hunt and hone my craft, the better to provide my fans with more from our beloved characters. I love being at the epicenter of romance. Where else can a girl snuggle up with a living fur coat? Use her tongue for something other than wagging?

Er, hoo-kay. Beyond Romance. Obviously, I’m not and I’m loving it. My life before was so practical, so predictable! I’m glad I shed the ordinary to prowl the unknown. Come with me. No way will you regret it.

Blurb

Beth was raised as a responsible member of human society. Then she meets Alec, a mysterious stranger, who knows by her scent that she is a rare Luna, the only being who can ensure the future of his wolf-pack. When human beings injure Alec, Beth retreats from the stagnant safety of her human world and surrenders her fate to the wolf-man.

Beth's and Alec's love for one another ignites the power of the Luna that courses through her veins, and she must learn the laws of being wild wolf if she is to live with Alec and his pack. But they are not the only wolf-people who covet the blood of Luna, and she must learn to harness the consuming power of her Luna and use it to safeguard her new family, even if it means giving up the very thing she was born to protect. Set in the countryside of Maine, this novel unfolds as Beth surrenders her body to its absolute essence while she is protected by the loyal wolves she is destined to love. But their world is not only precious, it is also perilous, and her freshened passion for life just may be the catalyst for her death.

Excerpt from Luna, Book One of The Luna Chronicle

That same evening, we found a cozy place to bed down for the night at the edge of a field, and lay on our backs to watch the stars blink on. Lightning bugs bobbed around us, and a soft breeze rustled the tips of the tall grass. I reached for Alec’s hand and clasped it. He returned my grip.

Encouraged, I crossed my foot over his bare leg and he slid himself under me, then gently rolled us so that I was on my stomach while he braced himself over my back.

He glided his tongue down my spine and trailed his fingers down my thighs. He retraced his path to my buttocks, circled his tongue round my nape and pressed his sharpening teeth into the muscles at the base of my skull.

I gasped, spread my thighs for him.

He peeled himself away from me and his departure from my body was staggering. “Stay.”

He returned without a word, and draped himself upon my back, pinching his teeth to the soft skin at the juncture of my neck and collarbone. Droplets of his sweat curled down my ribcage and dripped onto the crushed grass. His pelvic bones lifted briefly, then pushed upon my buttocks as he penetrated like a key through its slot, uniting us.

His hips rolled methodically, deliberately, teasing until I whined and swiveled my hips to quicken him. I felt him stiffen as he pumped harder, faster, and fought to keep his body from shifting.

His growling was as suppressed and urgent as his thrusting, filling me until I writhed for release; the waves built and broke, slicking me so he slipped back and drove deeper, over and over until he trembled rigidly, then surged inside of me.

He collapsed across my back, his heart thumping madly against my spine. He clasped my hands in his, and tucked his face into the hair behind my ear. We remained together on our bellies while we quieted, his weight and the wooded scent of him constricting my heart, tightening my throat. For me, as he'd done the last time we'd made love, he'd struggled to remain human.

He softened and slid out of me, and we coiled together to fall asleep beneath the twinkling of the stars.

~S.C. Dane

Author of Paranormal Romance, who travels around the country on an American version of a walkabout.


Buy Luna from Melange Books!


2 comments:

Lisabet Sarai said...

Hello, S.C.,

Welcome to Beyond Romance! I resonate with your post - sometimes we really have no idea what we're doing when we write. We're just following the muse, trusting and blind.

Good luck with the book and the series.

S.C. Dane said...

Indeed. And thanks for the opportunity to share my story.

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