Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Take You to a New World Day #3: Jessa Slade


Today's guest is Jessa Slade, a new and wonderful paranormal author. I first met Jessa at RWA nationals last year-- she was sitting across the tabl from me at a dinner and the two of us hit it off. It wasn't until later that we found out we had more in common than we thought-- not only do we both write for NAL, we're also both with the same agency. Please join me in welcoming Jessa to Love Musings. Today, she'll be giving away a copy of Seduced by Shadows, her first paranormal romance.
Blurb for Forged if Shadows:
The war between good and evil has raged for millennia, with the Marked Souls caught in the middle. But the new girl doesn’t play by the old rules...

Blacksmith Liam Niall never wanted to be a leader. Barely surviving the Irish Potato Famine, he escaped to Chicago...where he lost half his soul and gained a wayward band of demon-possessed warriors. Now, as the talyan face a morphing evil, Liam grows weary and plagued by doubt…until a new weapon falls into his hands. Her name is Jilly Chan. To save her demon-ridden soul, Liam must win her for his battle—and his bed.
Waging a one-woman war against threats to the street kids she mentors, Jilly won’t be any man’s woman...or weapon. But Liam—with his hard eyes, soft brogue and compelling hands—is a danger to her rebellious independence...and her heart. Even as the proudly independent Jilly tries to remain true to her own soul, Liam's fiercely passionate touch leaves a mark on her flesh as searing as her new demon tattoo - and Liam's own iron will is about to be tested to the limits...

Two halved souls sharing one fierce passion will sear a fresh scar across the city. Who’s in danger now?
Excerpt:
In this scene, our heroine, Jilly Chan, for the first time faces the malevolent demons stalking Chicago…and the man who will fight for her heart. To read the first three chapters, visit http://tinyurl.com/forgedofshadows.
* * *
In her calmest, pre-saloon-brawl voice, she said, “I don’t want any trouble.”
Didn’t want, yet always seemed to find. The three monsters took a step in unison toward her.
Yeah, that line never worked in the movies either.

She should be terrified, considering what had happened the last time she faced a monster like these. Well, not quite like these. Rico had been a plain old human monster with one gold tooth, not mandibles. Somehow, these actually seemed less scary. Her heartbeat ramped up, not with fear—or not only with fear—but with a savage glee so that the catch in her compromised breathing sounded like eagerness. How sick was that?

She couldn’t hear the kids at all now. She was alone. Her pulse went semiautomatic fire in her ears, and her muscles burned like a dozen police flares had been struck in her joints.
“Okay, then. Red rover, red rover, let Jilly come over.” She took three steps forward. Her bootheels rang hard on the pavement.
Then a fourth figure appeared, not so hulking broad as the first three, but every bit as tall.
The newcomer’s wings flared low—no, not wings, a duster. The monster Jilly’s eyes had conjured became just a man.
He paused there, bareheaded against the gusting wind that ran eager fingers through his shoulder-length dark hair. Some glint of neon caught in his eye, flaring violet as he turned toward them.
The newcomer twitched open his duster and withdrew a—a what-the-hell hammer. The haft extended almost too long to be hidden under his coat, even as tall as he was. The blunt business end was as big as her head.
“Now, that’s the murder weapon I was looking for,” she muttered. Too bad it was going to be used to murder her.
The man whirled the hammer in a broad arc. Above the hollow whistle, he shouted, “Jilly, get out of here.”

As the monster trio whirled to face him, he lowered his head and charged.
For a heartbeat, she froze. How had he known her name? Did she know him? She almost recognized the feral grace of him, as if the old comic books she’d once devoured had come to life. Thanks to the crappy alley light, he was cast in black and white and shades of gray—but he was every bit as strong and fearless and take-charge as the heroes of her fantasies.
Right, like she was going to rely on anyone else to fight her battles ever again.

She dodged to one side of the alley. She’d seen a glint beside the neatly stacked boxes—right there. Yes! Someone had forgotten a box cutter.
She scrabbled at the cardboard, fingers closing around the narrow metal, sliding the tiny razor tooth out in the same motion. She spun back to the fight.
despite her speedy weapons procurement, Thor already stood, legs braced, over one carcass. With another swing of his hammer, he dispatched the second creature. He knocked its mandibled head right off its shoulders like a meaty croquet ball. Jilly’s stomach heaved at the wet thud of the head thwacking into the brick wall.
The last monster—obviously smarter than Jilly herself—ran.

The man whirled, every line of his body poised to pursue. Jilly’s breath caught hard, this time in pure pleasure at the taut, precise flow of his moves. He seemed so familiar, like something she’d dreamed. Maybe as she’d fallen asleep in the middle of one of those gawd-awful CGed action movies.
The monster-head stump oozed a black scum, and she swallowed hard at the blunt reminder; this hammer-wielding superhero was no faker.

Question of the Day: Since Jessa's excerpt is about a monster ... As a child, were you ever afraid of a monster in your closet or some other inappropriate place? For me, I was terrified of ... wait for it ... a shark in my swimming pool. I know, I know-- crazy, right? But I wouldn't go in the water alone until I was seventeen. I guess I figured if there were two of us, the crazed, bloodthirsty shark that lived in my backyard pool would eat the other person first ... I must have seen Jaws at far too early an age ... Leave a comment for a chance to win Seduced by Shadows.

45 comments:

  1. After watching Stephen King's Cujo, my girlfriend slept over and teased me by opening my closet door with her foot and in a sing-song voice call out "Cuuuujjjooo". From that day on I ALWAYS closed my closet door! Even though I knew it was my friend making the joke. That dog and his eyes!!!

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  2. I always had this thing about not having a hand or a foot hang over the side of the bed because there could be someone under there that would grab me! Actually I still think about it all these years later, no hand or foot sticking out where it could get grabbed! :)

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  3. When I was little.. I was plagued by the Jason's and Freddie movies. My brother live to torment me. So, yeah... I was deathly afraid that some person would just come get me in the middle of the night.

    Doesn't help that the hubs loves those kind of movies and giggles at me for watching them through a blanket (that I cannot see out of, lol).
    Thanks for the giveaways!!

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  4. Next to my house is a big lake so at night when I had to pass it coming home from my best friends house I would run as fast as I could. It was so pretty during the day but at night it was scary as hell.

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  5. Gremlins! need i say more!

    of course the Centimites (yes this one is made up) were always out there, waiting to get my bor, sis and me.

    funny how horror movies are my fav...

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  6. I was always afraid of a clown reaching out of the drain in the tub to pull me down! And I hadn't even read "IT"... just heard about it. LOL

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  7. I must say I am pathedic, I am afraid of swimming over the drain in the bottom of the pool. When I was little my sister would swim down the bottom and remove it, they tell me I was going to be sucked in and eaten by trolls. I am 35 and I still won't swim above one. It is sad I know.

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  8. I was always afraid of the bogey man and when I went to bed I had to have about 7 blankets covering me, even in summer. I also would completely cover myself with only my nose sticking out so I could breathe, because everyone knows that a monster can't touch your nose.
    Zina

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  9. Zephyr and I have the same fear! I red IT by Stephen King and from there on out I had to cross the street to avoid those big drains. It took me years to get past that! Guess I shouldn't have read it in 8th grade. Oops!

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  10. Ever since the movie Poltergeist I have a fear of scary clowns under my bed. Actually, scary clowns anywhere freak me out...after all they could be in my closet too.

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  11. When I was little I always had to check under my bed. And I've never liked my closet door half open. It either needs to be closed or all the way open. I solved the bed problem as I got older by getting a bed that the Thin Man himself couldn't get under.

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  12. Tracy, that's so funny that you were afraid the blood thirsty shark in the pool cause I feared the exact same thing. Well that in addition to the drain sucking me down. I have no idea where those fears arised but I was and still am a scardy cat, especially of the dark. Its tragic really. My husband jokes that he's bound to find me and our future children hiding under the bed together waiting for him to come home. ;)

    Hugs, VFG

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  13. Argh - monsters. I wasn't scared of things like that until a friend convinced me to be >.< scared of the dark - Bloody Mary, etc.
    Oh and then at the same friends' house, their mom was watching this foreign horror, where there were blue? vampires? and they were breaking though barricades to get to people, who to repel them were bathing in this milky liquid and using snakes as washcloths? Anyway I was in first grade, and it was super traumatizing. I always slept with my closet doors closed. :X

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  14. I saw the movie Candy Man when I was a teenager and it completely traumatized me for years. I had to have my hair cut short because I could no longer spend hours in front of the mirror, working on styling it, lol. To this day, I get creeped out if I stare into the mirror too long and I would never, ever tempt fate by trying to say Candy Man's name three times in front of one!!!!

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  15. This might sound weird but when i was a child i was scared to death of this statue my mother had called "The Banana Man". She kept it right by the stairs and if i had to use the restroom at night i would always have to go by it. Trust me in the dark it was freaky! I used to run by it as fast as i could because i was afraid it was going to grab me with its crook.

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  16. I had a great uncle who was an amateur taxidermist. He and my great aunt lived in a log home in the rural area outside my hometown. I had a cousin with whom I was close, and she and I would spend part of each Summer visiting the folks at the log house. The problem was, every room, and I mean every room, of the house was filled with dead animals that my great uncle had stuffed and preserved. They all had sharp, beady glass eyes that followed you as you moved around in the house. It didn't bother my cousin, and she laughed at me! To this day, I am still creeped out by those eyes!

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  17. I was afraid of monsters coming out of the shadows in my bedroom. That is the very reason that I was adamant to have a nightlight.

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  18. I saw a stage version of Dracula as a kid, and for eons after was having trouble sleeping at night thinking that a vampire bat was going to get me ;)

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  19. I'm thirty years old and I still can't sleep if my closet is open a crack. It must be fully closed or I'll stare at it all night, waiting for it to open. I guess monsters can't open doors? :D

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  20. oh I always hated our dark basement... until today -.-
    greetings, Chris

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  21. i was most terrified of going to the post office... :)

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  22. I was scared there was a monster under the bed so I would always have a nightlight on.

    I also shared other childhood fears with others like I needed to have the closet door shut all the way and after watching the movie "IT" I was always scared of clowns.

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  23. I was always scared that there were large dogs waiting in the dark to bite me.

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  24. I would be afraid that the boogeyman was hiding under my bed to snatch me away which is why I always made one of my parents check under the bed before I went to sleep.

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  25. inappropriate place? as a child everything outside the bedroom was an inappropriate place at night *gg*

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  26. I remeber watching Independence Day on TV when I was little. After watching that movie I was scared aliens were going to come and kill us/experiment on us. I spend many sleepless nights.

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  27. I have always been afraid of movies of real things like Silence of the Limbs or people kidnapping you

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  28. I was afraid a monster was living under the bed or hiding in a closet. My older brother used to rent a lot horror movies and that's where my fears came from.

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  29. I've always been apprehensive about the dark and things that go bump in the night, so I've never chosen to read or watch any horror. I also avoid being alone in places with bad lighting like basements, attics etc.

    I was thirteen when I saw Silence of the Lambs for the first time. (My friends chose what we were watching, I didn't know what I was getting into!) Afterwards, I stayed awake for a long, long time…and slept with the lights on.

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  30. Monsters? I had to check the closet each night before we went to bed to assure my sister that Dracula wasn't in the closet! That was my fault because I let her watch Dracula with me! I am terrified of mice and rats! I blame it on the movie Ben which I saw when I was a kid!

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  31. I was always afraid of vampires. But I knew I would be safe if placed the covers over my ear and neck....I still sleep that way, too! LOL

    Thanks,
    Tracey D

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  32. Omigosh! I thought I was the only one with that particular fear...I used to petrified about sharks in the swimming pool...after that fear came the fear of some Bermuda Triangle affect in a pool - I thought something would suck me down in the deep end of the pool and I would drown. What can I say...I was a wuss. *sigh*

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  33. I never really had any fears like monsters when I was a kid. My biggest fear was bees, but only if I actually saw them. Then I'd worry about that wee single bee calling all his friends and swarming me.

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  34. As a child, were you ever afraid of a monster in your closet?
    I wasn't afraid of a monster simply afraid of the basement in my parent's house; it always seemed so dark and strange noises ( furnace, water heater etc.) could be heard. Hated that basement.

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  35. I definitely thought something was under my bed and in my closet. The remedy? Closet door must stay closed and feet must always be under the blanket.

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  36. For some reason I always thought a snake was going to try to climb up onto my bed. Which is really odd because I would play with them when I was awake. Go figure.

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  37. I was afraid there was monsters in the dark outside. I wouldn't go out by myself after dark until I was a teenager.

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  38. Body snatchers!! Zombies!! Those were the terrifying monsters during my time. I can only go to sleep when all closet doors were securely shut. Yeah, I know, false sense of security, but somehow I knew these monsters could not turn a knob as hard as they might try. DUh.

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  39. Whenever we drove by a lake or an open field at night I'd get kind of nervous, don't ask me why maybe I've seen way too many sci-fi movies.

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  40. Shadows on the windows ! i just afraid that i saw something that see thru from the windows, so i always make sure the i had closed the windows, and down the curtains !

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  41. As a kid I was afraid of monsters under the bed. I thought shadows were gonna come to life.

    miztik_rose@yahoo.com

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  42. Vampires. I was afraid they would come out into my room once the lights were off, and I thought that they would try to bite my neck and kill me.

    Then I had dreams where I got chased after vampires all the time.

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  43. I wasn't afraid of any particular monster, but I was always afraid to sleep alone in the room. I still sometimes have those moments of panic in the middle of the night, but I blame all those paranormal books I've read before going to bed :)

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  44. I was afraid of something under my bed and in the closet or in the shower but in my mind it was alway a man not a montest maybe thats why i read paranormal.I'm less afraid of the paranormal then i am of very evil man.
    sasluvbooks(at)yahoo.com

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  45. I was always afraid ants would crawl on me so any tingle of the skin would be suspect. Lying in bed and realizing the creepy sensation on the skin was a real crawling ant still makes me shudder.

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