A Taste of The Company of Shadows
Edits are going well for The Company of Shadows, and I hope to have it ready for publication in the next week or so. Here’s a little excerpt between Cady, her neighbor (whose name she doesn’t know yet, but she thinks is a cop) and a seductive demon (currently inhabiting the body of a gallery owner named Claudio), who has just forced her into a darkened parking lot.
It was exactly what they warned you about. You leave a club alone or with a good looking guy and they find your body raped and mutilated in a dumpster the next morning. Wide eyed, she whimpered as he dragged her away, her feet flailing, unable to gain any purchase on the ground until he pressed her against the side of a car in a cramped parking lot. Cady squinched her eyes shut, concentrating on evening out her breathing to stop the burning in her lungs from lack of air.
“Shhh, it doesn’t have to be this way,” he crooned at her ear. “Open your eyes and look at me.” That only doubled her resolve to keep her eyes tightly shut. Somehow she knew it would be worse if she gave him that satisfaction. “You’re being childish.” Claudio lost some of his amusement, frustration creeping in.
Tough titty, her mind screamed at him with juvenile glee as she dug her fingernails into the side of his wrist as hard as she could.
“You will obey me!” Something sharp jabbed her in the stomach and her eyes popped open of their own volition. Instantly his face swam before her, blocking out all else. “There now, relax. I don’t want to hurt you.”
The tension drained away, even as a secret corner of her mind wailed in protest, preferring to hold onto the terror to this easy capitulation. “You don’t?” she breathed as his hand let up on her mouth.
“No.” His fingers stroked the side of her cheek tenderly. “I only want to know you.”
That didn’t sound so bad. It actually sounded pretty good, and Cady’s head dipped in a slow nod. Something nagged at her sub-conscious though. “Why?”
“Why?” he repeated, his head tilting to one side.
“Yes, why do you want to know me?”
A low chuckle rumbled through him and she felt it everywhere his body pressed against hers. “Can’t you guess?” His fingers brushed down the side of her neck, tracing the line of her collar bone and continued down over the swell of her breast.
Naked desire shot through her like a bolt of electricity, but Cady fought it, clinging to the mistrust of her response. “I don’t want to.”
Cover Art for The Company of Shadows
Here is the cover for my newest release, The Company of Shadows. I think it came out pretty sweet, thanks to my husband James for working on it for me! Here is the book’s blurb:
Cady Garrett can’t help but be shaken when next door neighbor Ethan shows up in the nick of time to save her from a would be killer with a rusty knife, spouting mumbo jumbo. Even more disturbed when the killer slits his own throat to escape Ethan after a vicious struggle. Curiously, Ethan insists on leaving before the dead killer returns, even though he can barely stand on his feet. Nursing him back to health, Cady is drawn into a world of half truths and mysteries, where shadows hide more than the seedy underbelly of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. She has become the obsession of a darker power, and no one, not even Ethan can keep her safe from his twisted desires.
Hope to have this one out in the next couple of weeks once the edits are complete.
Find Me When the Sun Goes Down is out in Print!
Just have time for a quick update. It took a while to work through the last phase of the proof reading process, but Find Me When the Sun Goes Down is finally out in print, and it’s so pretty! It’s available here
The Company of Shadows is in the editing stages now, so it won’t be long until that one’s ready to go. 
I’ll have some cover art up in the next few days and hopefully a proper blurb.
Next up… Book 4 of the Forged Bloodlines series, Miss Me When the Sun Goes Down.
She’s Alive!
Hey guys, sorry I’ve been radio silent for a while. I’m hip deep into writing The Company of Shadows — have just passed the 52K mark — and it’s been a challenge to hit my writing quota every day with everything going on. We’re in the final stages of getting our house ready to go on the market, and there always seems to be one more chore to add to the list. Robot brain or no, it’s hard to find the time to get those words in when your arms are sore from painting all day!
But hopefully by the time we actually get the sucker listed I’ll be done or almost done with the first draft, and I won’t feel as much pressure to crank the words out when I’ve got to keep the house in pristine shape or be ready to bail out at the drop of a hat to show it. It’s a scary prospect to move, not knowing if we’ll be able to find a new house as awesome as this one, but at the same time, we’ve lived here for about 8 years now, and I’m looking forward to moving back to Washington.
I’ve had a lot of opportunities to give interviews lately, which is an odd experience for me. I always find it awkward to talk about my books, I always feel like I can never do them justice and my brief synopsis comes out disjointed and doesn’t make much sense. The idea of being interviewed for a radio podcast scared the bejeezus out of me, but Tidal was so kind and courteous, that I loosened right up once we got going. Here’s a link to the interview where you can hear me ramble on about my books and my writing process.
If the player doesn’t appear, here is a link to the interview: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/tidalmiller/2013/03/21/pagan-propensities-guest-lisa-olsen-1
BTW, thanks to everyone who picked up a copy of Find Me When the Sun Goes Down this month. It sat in the top twenty of Hot New Releases in Horror on Amazon for the entire debut month, peaking at #6! That’s my strongest launch so far, and I can’t wait to get back to the series for Miss Me in a couple of months.
Spring Has Sprung!
Okay, so maybe I’m a little premature in welcoming the Spring, but we had a sunny day last Saturday and I’m definitely ready for warmer temperatures! In looking at the last time I posted about the Spring, it’s fun to see where my headspace was at last year and what books I was working on. Last Spring saw my first month of real book sales and it’s awesome to find myself a full time writer now a year later!
I’ve been thrilled with the response to the release of my latest book, Find Me When the Sun Goes Down! Right now it’s sitting at #16 on the list of Hot New Releases for Horror this month, but it has fluctuated as low as #6 (definitely my strongest release ever). I can’t tell you how gratifying it is to see people reading this series, as Anja and company have a special place in my heart. I hope to have the print edition ready to go in the next couple of weeks.
I just started on my next book today, The Company of Shadows, and so far it’s going really well. I’m trying something new, adding the perspective of the bad guy this time, which will hopefully give a better insight into his motivations and vulnerabilities. It’s about a girl (Cady — rhymes with lady) who gets sucked into the fight between a demon hunter and the demon he’s pursuing in their crappy part of town. The demon hunter is very closed off, removed from a lot of human contact, but he *wants* normal things, and Cady provides the perfect distraction when they’re thrown together. The demons in this world are the type to possess human bodies, so think less of the grotesque scaly type demons and more the sexy predator hiding among the human population type demons. Cady’s a smart girl trapped in a dead end life until she gets caught up in her next door neighbor’s supernatural drama. I haven’t decided how steamy this one will get, with sensual demons and the sexy guy next door it has a lot of potential, including the potential for an entire series. We’ll see what the characters get up to.
If all goes as planned, I hope to have this one written in about a month, then another month to edit. After that, it’s back to Anja in Miss Me When the Sun Goes Down.
Find Me When the Sun Goes Down is available as an eBook!
I promised it by Spring, and here it is! The next book in my vampire series, Forged Bloodlines, is now available for sale on Amazon and Barnes and Noble! It’s out as an e-book for $3.99 but you don’t have to have a Kindle or Nook to read it, they have free downloadable apps so you can read it on your PC, or even your phone. It’ll be available in print as well in a couple of weeks through Amazon.
Stay tuned for some dream casting, and a fun vampire quiz to help promote the book. And, as always, don’t forget to sign up for my mailing list so you don’t miss out on exciting news about new releases and developments.
“You know, we’ve never really talked about what it means that you’ve claimed me.”
Newbie vamp Anja Evans is eager to find out what it means to be claimed by sexy, vampire cop, Bishop. Unfortunately, he’s been transferred by the Order and she’s left to fend for herself. Eager to make up for his betrayal, bodyguard Rob offers a surprise trip to England, but will Anja find her happy ever after taking her place in vampire society? Or will the cutthroat political climate reveal what drove Bishop out of Europe in the first place? To complicate matters, there’s a vampire hunter on the loose wreaking havoc on the streets of London. Is Bishop being overprotective, as usual, or is Anja in real peril of losing her head? Mortal danger aside, the real threat to Bishop and Anja may just come from within.
