The Steam Room

Greetings, Michele and lovers of steam and thrill. I’m happy to be here at the Steam Room today. Thank you for having me again. If my name is new to you, I write gritty, high-action Paranormal/Sci-Fi Romance for BookStrand Publishing, and I’m very excited to give you a sneak peek of my upcoming release, Gangbusters. This is the third book in my angels & demons/futuristic romance series, I-Marshal Stories. I invite you to explore the series on my web site. Where do the mortals fit in the war between Light and Darkness?

Blurb:

            Daniel Tierney and his fellow I-Marshals take down the organizations producing the most dangerous substance in the Alliance. But reporter Faith Vedder turns up at the worst times, including Danny’s near-assassination. He’s had enough of her interference and requires her source of information.

            Faith won’t tell him anything that compromises her Pulitzer-worthy story, not even under the magic of hot attraction. She doesn’t know she’s surrounded by fallen angels at war. Danny’s not finished making demands. She doesn’t understand until a giant, snorting, winged monster slobbers down her back, threatening to flay her.

            The gangbusters can’t delay in their mission to shut down gangs until Danny learns the new criminal kingpin of their world is a man who once held Faith’s heart. In the guise of a gangland executioner named Heretic, Danny will destroy him. Even if it destroys Faith.

            Angels are watching. Demons are plotting. Faith is the key.

Here’s the first bite of Gangbusters:

“Stand over here, in the candlelight.”

Faith went to the spot where Danny pointed, and she stood in her Pulitzer gown for his inspection. He gained his feet, produced a thornless red vine rose from the side table, and he twisted it around the dress strap, then he returned to the bed and took in the sight of her. A rose was a gift of love, not a gift of acquaintance or friendship. The flowery fragrance enhanced her longing for him. The candlelight silvered his gray sight in a tactile way, but she always did feel his eyes when they were fixed on her.

“Do you like the gown?” she couldn’t help asking. His concentrated attention through overlong salt-and-pepper bangs caused her nipples to rise and brush against the soft cloth, quickening her for his capture.

“Very much. You look stunning in the dress, Faith,” his baritone voice murmured. His lips pressed together, revealing the tension it gave him. “The threads of the lace shimmer in the flame glow.”

Oh… Soft, flickering light seemed to cling to him instead of illuminating much else in the room. His breathing livened. His study of her lasted so long, she began to shy from his devoted gaze. “Have you had enough yet?”

“No. You aren’t enforcing a time limit, are you?”

She broke into an embarrassed smile, and his sly gaze said he enjoyed his torture of her.

“I’m divided. I want you to eat, but I want to take that dress off you.”

“Some people think they have problems.”

Rising from the bed again, he collected the covered plate and eating utensil, and set them in her hands held out before her. Then he removed the cover to present a dish in the meatball family, brown sauce variety, and unrecognized vegetable-looking things. His smile bordering on the diabolical, he loaded the utensil and put it to her mouth. Her sharp eye on him, she accepted a flavor she’d never encountered before, savory, mysterious, delectable. So was Danny.

Stalking, he roved around until he was behind her, and he leaned and pressed his nose to her exposed neck, inhaling her freshly bathed scent as she chewed and swallowed. His draw of air sent a cool slide of breeze over her low-cut bodice, propelling a deeper tingle through her body. The act carried such an animal-feel to it. The alpha-male predator had brought his chosen a meal...and he savored his upcoming reward for that.

Having already been beneath him, arrested and detained by him, she chewed quicker. Was she sweating yet? She soon would be. Oh, gawd, she already throbbed, her body programmed now and eager for his possession. Did he know he owned her? She bet he knew.

His hair danced over her bare shoulder.  “You smell like delicious dinner.”

Every word he uttered with that deep voice was verbal chocolate, making her ache all the more for him. “You always have an invitation to feast upon me, Danny.”

She felt his lips thin into another secret smile against the sensitive flesh as he pressed sizzling kisses up her neck to her ear.  “Every night I’ll figure out a way to put you in my bed.”

Should she tell him how easy that will be?

Weakened, she scooped up a forkful of dinner and fed him over her shoulder. He groaned his approval, and he sent his big hands to span and stroke her figure in the silky gown, a sensuous experience that blotted out everything for the moment but his contact and body heat. She would memorize a list of the things that made him groan. Hearing it launched cascades of thrill through her. His exploration slipped downward from behind her and onto her belly, pressing her against his long, hard physique and sliding downward to the heat between her thighs. She almost dropped the plate.

Mm…Danny and good food together. That was total pleasure.

“Dinner’s very good.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

Again, he commandeered the fork, scooped up a bite,and sent it to her mouth. As she chewed, he placed a sucking kiss below her ear. Then she forgot to chew, taken by the fantastic shower of ecstasy he inflicted, and she had to remind herself again to chew. His breath on her body enticed her to a new level of want.

Another bite administered, he drew the zipper of the dress all the way down her back. His radiating warmth traveled over her newly exposed flesh, banishing any chill from the room. Another bite of meatball delivered to her mouth, and he lightly drew his fingertips down her bare back, as though he savored the sexy moment. She swayed under the spell he cast. Another bite, and he slipped his hands into the dress, around her, and cupped her breasts.

“Oh…” she muttered, and the rough surfaces of his palms and fingers abrading her tender flesh played with her nipples, stoking the fire.

“Take another bite..” His whispers rushed lightning through her body..

Hands slid from her dress, and she turned to watch him pull his T-shirt from his torso, all iron-worked muscle, pale flesh, a thin scatter of body hair she wished to feel scrubbed against her.  Again. His thick, salt-and-pepper hair skimmed broad shoulders as his silvery sight never left her.  Before they’d made love in shadows and in silhouette, and she hadn’t seen him wholly nude.  Just shirtless, he was beautiful, blessed with a holy kind of glamor that activated her soul.

Oh…

He fed her another bite of dinner, then he released the clip holding back her freshly dried hair, and his long, tapered fingers caught her tumbling tresses. Stirred to a corrupt snicker, he took in the scent of her hair as though it told him everything about her, as if it fed every hungry part of him.

“How can your T-shirt say you’re faster than light when you’re so torturously slow with me?”

“I know, the longer I take with you, the more you’ll moan in my ear.  And I like that a lot. It’s a triumph to feel you under my power, Faith.”

That just made her moan.

He took the empty plate from her hand and set it aside on the table, then he put her in his arms. Her hands went to his broad back ending in a V at his waist, sinew rolling like ocean waves over his big frame with his every action. Her fingertips tingled touching him. He’d said he wouldn’t let her go to Max’s without making love to her. The intent in Danny’s eye revealed his plot to ruin her freshly bathed scent.

Another shift of air made her conscious of the perspiration rising to her flesh just from being near his oven of a body, made worse by teasing caresses. “Are you enjoying the moment of marking me for the demons to detect?”

“Enormously. I’ll kick them in their heads if they touch you.” His demon-slaying grin gave away his entertainment. She knew he meant for Max to get that message, as well, though Danny didn’t need to send it. Max wasn’t a demon in disguise.

“This is like unwrapping the most fun present.”

She loved being explored by him, adored it, and she noticed each lithe movement of his heavenly warrior-body, marveled at how well he’d been put together for hunting criminals and hellish merchants of misery.  She’d never discourage him from doing that  duty. Those monsters better run and hide.

Danny wasn’t a monster. Was he? The only way to find out was to get as close to him as possible. She wanted to be in his mind, under his skin. She didn’t want secrets between them.

She reached for his jeans and unbuttoned them, feeling him hard beneath the metal teeth of the zipper. He pushed the jeans to the floor for the unwelcome interference they were. Her mouth went dry at the unveiled sight of him, worthy of an artist’s sketch, all muscle, brains, instinct, skill, action. And an abundance of heat.

Danny was better than perfect. He was physically superior.

But what was he on the inside? She’d need to get inside him to find out. She wanted to know who he really was. The progeny of an angel, the breed of a demon. She recalled her brief study of the heavenly races. If Danny turned out to be more angel, what would that mean? Angels did many benevolent things, but they also struck down populations with disease, disaster, and genocide. A single angel wielded the power to destroy cities, cause famine, flood a planet. Angels were heaven’s hit men.

***

Look out for Gangbusters, coming in November, just when you thought the monsters were gone for another year.

Buy Link: http://wwwBookStrand.com/gangbusters

Consider pre-ordering so you won’t forget. I mean, what if they run out? :-)

Website Link: Discover hot, peril-packed excerpts, watch a mysterious book trailer: http://www.michelehart.com/b28-book.htm   Write the first review!

TSR: Tell us about Gangbusters..

Michele H.: Investigative journalist Faith Vedder is chasing black-market cartels to earn her Pulitzer. Zeroing in on a pharmaceutical corporation distributing a new product designed to make crime undetectable, she’s captured by a dangerous gangland hit man who appears—at first—to be a cop in deep cover.  But Danny Tierney is not like any law enforcement officer she’s ever encountered. He has peril-appeal, a dark and disturbed past, and a body count that keeps rising. He compels her to react to his predator-lure. Just when she falls into his steamy embrace, she figures out Danny’s idea of a good day at the office involves making demons scream. And his friends are just as strange. Faith knows what’s coming when the man who’d once broken her heart rises to a criminal throne…and contacts her. A massive racketeering case becomes a battle between the Fallen and Nephilim demon hunters. Whoever walks away with Faith wins this war. Turns out, Danny’s the jealous type. Who knew?

TSR: You’ve written several myth romances. Did you read a lot of myth as a child?

 Michele H.: One of the first things I remember reading was all the Greek myth in my elementary school library, and I never got my fill. I’ve spent decades studying world myth, first biblical myth, then more ancient Mesopotamian and more modern European mythology.

I came into writing myth romance by serendipity. Originally, I was a sci-fi/fantasy writer when I wrote an angel romance for a friend who loved angels. Then I was invited into an anthology to write a story for Thalia, the muse of comedy. A couple of years later, I have an angels &demons/sci-fi romance trilogy. Just like that, sort of.  :-) I’ve a few more planned along with other ideas unrelated. It hasn’t been a planned strategy to write myth romance, but more of a tide that’s swept me there. I’m having the best time writing them. I hadn’t realized fifteen years ago when I was reading Babylonian demi-god myth that I could craft a romance from it.

TSR: Something for the angel fans. Tell us about the angels you chose for the I-Marshal Stories.

Michele H.: I didn’t want to use the Big Three: Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. They are mentioned because they do play big roles in many of the angel myths. There are hundreds of named angels. I wanted to use angels most people weren’t familiar with. I chose Dokiel, an angel of judgment, for Vigilant. Most people aren’t familiar with him, but if you’ve seen the movie Excalibur, you’ve heard Morgana call upon Dokiel in her spell-cast. In Gangbusters, Metatron makes a couple of appearances. Mostly unknown these days, Metatron was such an important angel, he had over a hundred names. To us, he sounds like a new Transformer. :-) The next few stories will have lesser known angels, as well. I hope it entices readers to look into the angel myths. They’re as fun as the more famous Greco-Roman mythologies. They are a kind of super-hero…with the Maker’s agenda.

TSR: What are some of your guilty pleasures?

Michele H.: I have some serious chocolate and peanut butter issues, both separately and together.  I’m dealing with it.  I’m onthe wagon now. It’s horrible, really really horrible..  :-) In fact, I might fall off the wagon before I’m done with this interview.  All I can think about is the Halloween candy on sale at the grocery store only a tiny, little, eensy-weensy, mere block up the road. I wouldn’t be too surprised if the manager stopped me at the door and told me my family forbids my entrance.

TSR: What kinds of stories do you like to read? Any favorite authors or novels?

Michele H.: I love all speculative fiction. I love the fantastic, the bizarre, the extreme.  Not to live it myself, but to watch. Favorite authors. Angela Knight,  Jennifer Estep, Katie MacAlister.

TSR: What are some of the things you want to do before you die?

Michele H.: My bucket list. I haven’t stopped to think about it until now. I’ve done so many strange things, I don’t really think of the next thing to do. I know it’s going to come to me.

I want to contribute to world peace. I want to maintain my weight for the next forty years, tested by the contents of my grocer’s candy aisle. I want to learn how to survive in a snowy environment. I want to sell one more book. (What could it hurt?)

TSR: When you’re not writing, what’s your favorite thing to do?

Michele H.: If I’m not writing, I’m studying. Born with World Book Encyclopedia in my blood. My grandmother had been a WB salesperson. No doubt programming at an early age was involved. I’m so grateful for the Internet. My notebook comp weighs less on my lap than the entire set of World Book. I move from one project to another, learning something new. It’s difficult to take me away from it. It’s my favorite thing to do.

TSR: Do you have any advice for new writers?

Michele H.: Yes, but not about writing, more about career and skills. As you dream and prepare for publication, do yourself a huge favor and learn art programs, book trailer software, HTML. Along the way, learn to build your own web site. Why? On the other side of the contract, you’ll learn much of the cost and work of promoting your book is on your shoulders. What you cannot produce yourself will cost you money. There is a lot to pay for. Another great reason to do it all yourself is the total control. You decide what the bookmarks look like and you make them in your own timing. You can also make changes without annoying another human being and without breaking the bank. I learned art and HTML programs along the way, and am glad I did. I would have made a second person scream with corrections. Building your own promotions is another artistic outlet that feels wonderful.  There’s no better feeling than a reader or author seeing and admiring your creations and asking you who did them, and you being able to say, I did that. It’s like hearing your children are beautiful.

TSR: What’s next for you?

Michele H.: I’m break-neck busy during scary season. I invite you to follow my monsters and me! No torches, please. My hair will explode.

-On October 22nd, I’ll be at the St. Pete Times Festival of Reading. I’m very excited about that.

-On Oct 23rd, I’ll be throwing down excerpts at  the Creatures of the Night celebration at LoveRomances Cafe. That’s going to be a great show.

-Oct 29th, Halloween weekend, I’ll be at the Halloween Bash at The Long and The Short of It, LASR to you die-hard Romance fans. Another great monster show.

-Gangbusters comes out in November. Hours of tense adventure with big and handsome heavenly warriors for you.

 -On November 10th, it’s The 2011 Fall For Romance One-Day Event. Come chat with me and fine authors writing the stories you want to read. We’re giving away  e-books and other great stuff. Let’s talk about paranormal/sci-fi/fantasy, your favorite monster, the next great invention. Bring a cool subject with you or you can borrow one of mine.

-Then, I’m off to a secret adventure with an old friend. This is the only place a Torch is allowed. A little inside joke there. December should be filled with writing the next I-Marshal story, and rest, I hope. It’s been an action-packed year, ending in a sprint.

Thanks, everyone at The Steam Room, for spending a few minutes with me. I wish you a safe and exciting Halloween season. Investigate me. www.ILoveShape-Shifters.com.

Check out my book trailers: http://www.MicheleHart.com/booktrailers.htm.

Wishing romance and thrills,

Michele Hart

Gangbusters– Coming November 2011.

In the end, it’s either you or the demon that comes for you.

Michele: I’m in the Steam Room today!  Thank you, Michele Zurlo, for lending me youraudience. How appropriate since I have a very steamy book to tell you about. My hot and exciting new Sci-Fi Romantic Adventure, Luminous Nights, came out a few weeks ago..

TSR: Tell us about the process of writing Luminous Nights.

Michele: It was wild and free! I wrote Luminous Nights fifteen years ago, andit was the first book in which I “got it right”. I’ve saved it for this long. I fly by the seat of my pants writing stories, so I don’t plan much I started with a vivid opening scene and kept writing. I wanted to know what happened to an escaped convict wearing a famous dead cop’s face.

TSR: What novels, authors, or movies influence the kinds of things you choose to write?

Michele: I’m a huge Sci-Fi movie fan. I loved TheTerminator, the unstoppable killing machine versus young and desperate love.That’s the best stuff on Earth. James Cameron, my hero. That was probably my number-one influence to get me into Sci-Fi Romance, besides a childhood of Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica.

TSR: Jack,the bad boy of Luminous Nights, is aTerminator character. The man sets off on a killing spree, dragging the heroine Rachel along with him. She’s terrified, kicking and screaming most of the way. Can she stop him?

Michele: No, she can’t stop him. Fresh from a violent prison-break and posing as a famous dead cop, Jack is a living, breathing killing machine on a mission, armed with deadly technology to blast his way though a few star systems. He’s wearing a holographic mask, concealing his true face, and Rachel, the heroine, knows he’s an imposter. She doesn’t know how she’ll slow his topping of his death score until she learns innocent people are in the path of his vengeance. Rachel has to make him stop--for at least a while. For a long time, she doesn’t know if Jack’s a good guy or a bad guy. Good guys don’t stack up that kind of body count. But he’s got motivation she doesn’t know about. And she has more power over the situation than she first realizes.

TSR: So, Luminous Nights has a lot of action andadventure!

Michele: Prison breaks, alien chocolate seduction, super weapons, doomsday devices, explosions,abduction, narrow escapes, murder-defying deceit, and threats of genocide, all while riding a harrowing roller coaster with a dangerous man wearing a holographic mask. If that sounds like a good time to you, check out Luminous Nights.

TSR: If youcould gift wrap one of your heroes or heroines and give them to somebody, who would you give (and to whom) and why?

Michele: Oh! I’d gift-wrap Jack to lend—I say, lend—to my very best friend, Alisha Paige, an awesome Paranormal Romance author in her own right.  Why? The man has mad skills in interesting areas. I’ll just keep it at that. But Alisha wouldn’t give him back. She’d make me drive to Texas and take him back by force. I’d hide him, if I were her.

TSR: Pets? 

Michele: I have a six-pound poodle puppy named Twinkle. She’s a biting machine. I will take her with me to repossess Jack. A savage killing machine to take back another. I don’t know that Alisha will survive the ear-chewing Twinkle will unleash.

TSR: What draws you to mainstream romance?

Michele: I’ve got a lot to write, and that bustst he seams of Erotic Romance. I can write longer stories in Mainstream. I’ve written Erotic Romance, but I have more fun with Mainstream. I still write fully realized love scenes, but sex isn’t the main goal in most of my adventures, though the heroes might think (or wish) it is. I also tend to write love scenes later in the story, not immediately, though I put just as many into the story. Erotic Romance wants a little more hustle in that area. My heroes are too busy blowing up things and fighting bad guys and holding their girls’ hands for a while. By the time love scenes start coming, I’ve made my heroes really earn their rewards.

TSR: When you’re not writing, what’s your favorite thing to do?

Michele: When I’m not writing, I’m studying, reading,watching documentaries. I’m a big science and myth nerd, so my head is in a science book or reading old myths.. I’d rather write than do anything else.

TSR: What’snext for you?

Michele: I’m writing the sequel to Luminous Nights! A high-spirited woman hunter, Jack is an avenging angel loaded with awesome technology. Rand, the hero of Vigilant, will be a dark angel, moody and very unpredictable. Jack can keep his high-tech weaponry and his limitless tricks up his sleeves. Rand is a brooding brawler with a hair trigger and a badge who’ll not allow his heroine Yadira to slip justice. Rand has a “feel” for the guilty, a supernatural talent for knowing who has committed high crimes. They cannot escape him. Yadira is a girl from the bad part of the Alliance, caught up in her brother's criminal career. Rand will execute her brother before her eyes during a hijacking and drag her back to her home planet. He plans to infiltrate her brother's crime gang to flush out the scum responsible for an interstellar human-trafficking ring. The problem is,she doesn't know who's responsible, and that damned cop won't leave her alone long enough to take a bath in peace.

Michele: Thank you so much for another visit toThe Steam Room! Thank you, Michele!

Links!

Buy Link:  http://www.BookStrand.com/luminous-nights

Website Link): http://www.ILoveShapeShifters.com/

Read peril-packed excerpts, watch a kick-ass booktrailer: http://www.michelehart.com/b15-book.htm

Michele Hart talks about her writing

TSR: You've written suspense and science fiction. Are you planning to explore any other genres?

Michele: I’m really at home with Sci-Fi Romantic Suspense. I’ve written the genre for years, and I feel I haven’t written enough of it. My Contemporary Erotic Romantic Suspense, Looks Are Deceiving, and my Greek Myth Comedy, No Funny Stuff!, were surprises to me, brought on by publisher challenges. I may write something else way down the line, but I’m lining up my next project, and it’s definitely Sci-Fi Romance. Plus, I have a few SFR tales I haven’t yet put up for sale. It’s hard to imagine me writing anything else. But I surprise myself now and then.

TSR: How do you develop your characters?

Michele: I usually don’t know who the characters are in the beginning. I let them evolve, let them tell me who they are, along with the story evolution. I don’t plan them. I’m definitely a pantser.

TSR: What are some traits that your hero must have?

Michele: Unique eyes. I love eyes. Eyes talk when mouths are closed. He also must be curious, driven, and willing to take chances. I love daredevils.

As you can tell from the excerpt, Jon, the hero of Mind-Blown, is not afraid to take outrageous chances to see his plan to brain-wash his assistant Holly work, even at the threat of arrest and prison.

TSR: Give us your links!

Michele:

Mind-Blown by Michele Hart

Buy Link: Click HERE

Read reviews and more excerpts, watch the book trailer HERE