Lucky Blog Hop~end

My brother loved St Patrick's Day. He was so full of life, so full of cheer. And the least judgmental person of his generation, and any generation really, that I've ever met. He died in 2009 at 25 years old. No one should die at that age. But I was lucky to have known him.

I was adopted. It's not the greatest love story, or luck story, but I was able to get out of a really bad situation. My brother was the first baby born after the adoption. He was my tie, my link. I adored the little baby born in a blizzard in February. His laughter made a lot of people smile. He made me welcome. I would likely never have even met him if I hadn't been adopted.


I feel privileged to have loved him, met him, to call him brother. To you, my brother. This one is for you. Cheers!

Thank you for believing in me and leaving behind such an incredible legacy of love, laughter, and life.

HK Sterling ~ A Taste for Killing

***Quick note: Three days of Lucky In Love Blog Hop. The first day falls on my Succulent Saturday Stories, so my guest is lucky again :D Glad you stopped by!***

As many of you know, I freelance edit and edit for Breathless Press, Just Ink, and now Three World productions. During the course of my freelance work, I had the good fortune to edit for HK Sterling, under another writing name. I am pleased as punch to be showcasing her now with this tantalizing suspense novella. It's fun and quirky and I think you'll love the characters. And guess what? I've already had the great fortune to read the sequel :D *yes, that is a brag*

Here she is and count yourself luck to have read her!

Twelve Things You Probably Don't Know About H.K. Sterling

1. She's female!

2. She bungee jumped to celebrate one of her birthdays. The second time she dove off backwards.

3. She holds a Bachelor and Master's Degree.

4. She once interviewed a former Major General in the KGB.

5. She's been to South America.

6. She's also been to Mexico, Canada, and Kauai.

7.The day after getting her Master's Degree, she loaded up her furniture and drove across the country to move to California. She did this with no job waiting and $2000 to her name.

8. She once lived in a commune.

9. She now lives on the East Coast with her husband.

10. She's been keeping a dream diary since 1982.

11. Holy Crap, she's OLD.........ISH

12. Her current favorite songs are below:

 

Counting Stars- One Republic http://youtu.be/hT_nvWreIhg

Say Something- A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera http://youtu.be/-2U0Ivkn2Ds

Love Don't Die- The Fray http://youtu.be/WptxUWvrINQ

Sail- AWOL Nation http://youtu.be/gH2efAcmBQM

Same Love- Mary Lambert http://youtu.be/NhqH-r7Xj0E

Impossible- Shontelle http://youtu.be/NWdrO4BoCu8

Holy Grail- Jay Z Feat. Justin Timberlake http://youtu.be/6AIdXisPqHc

Desolation of Smaug- Ed Sheeran http://youtu.be/mllXxyHTzfg

 

 

 



A Taste For Killing

By H.K. Sterling

Excerpt

He had six-pack abs, and I wanted to feel the carbonation. This one dressed like the stereotype of a construction worker, down to the handkerchief he used to wipe sweat off his forehead. I don't know if he or the hot day brought it out, but sweat poured off of me too. He had no interest in me as a person, though. I was invading his territory. Still, I enjoyed the view. For my part, I knew my clothes looked crappy. I didn’t have to wear uniforms anymore, but my street clothes, well they were very—street. So there I stood, a turd in the sun in front of this Adonis. Oh well.

He pointed to a small trailer up a muddy hill. The supervisor I asked to see apparently stayed in there. Stayed, as in never left. Great. Mud. Now I'd be a dried turd in the sun. Adonis went back to digging and I started the trek up the hill. At least I came with boots. Steel toed.

Once I made it to the trailer, I heard an argument going on inside.

"Look, I don't care who you are. The plans are publically filed. Go get them yourself!" yelled someone.

Then I heard a voice I knew. Calm, cool, subversive. "Is there any reason you're being so difficult? A man did die on your watch."

An encounter I hadn’t planned on. Well, at least not until later tonight. I knocked loudly on the door and with my sweetest voice said, "Hello, boys. Am I interrupting something?"

"Great," groused the supervisor. "A party." He appeared to me like another stereotype, puffing on a cigar over a fat jowl line and rotund stomach that threatened to overturn the small desk he was behind. I guess there's a reason for stereotypes. He looked about four hamburgers away from a heart attack.

On a wooden chair in front of the supervisor sat Jack. A fellow independent detective, an ally at times, a competitor...and my on and off lover.

"Well, well, well," he said smiling, but I could tell he wasn’t happy to see me. Not here. It meant we were both working the same case. "Hello, Carolyn. Who hired you?"

"Parents."

"Girlfriend," he answered back.

We stared at each other. Complications.

The supervisor didn’t give a damn and said to me, "Well, missy, I'll tell you the same thing I told this guy." He jerked his thumb around to Jack. "The plans are publically filed and that’s all I have to say about it."

I tried a different tactic. "That’s fine with me. I have no problem going downtown for a copy." I wore my practiced, saccharine smile. "But I wonder, could you tell me the name of the architect? Please?" I smiled again. God, this job sucks at times.

The supervisor sighed. "Jones, Evan Jones."

"Thank you so much," I said, smiling my best smile again. "I'll get out of the way and leave you two boys to...whatever you were doing."

I opened the door to go and started to shut it only to find Jack following me out.

"Sure, flash your tits and get what you want." Boy was he in a bad mood.

"There was no tit flashing in there. Face it, testosterone was not a good choice in that situation."

Jack's response: a grunt.

"Besides," I tried to placate him, "I didn’t get the plans either."

"No, you did one better."

"That's assuming the architect will have anything to do with me and cooperate." A thought occurred to me. "So are you going there too?"

"No, I might as well wait and see what you turn up. Besides, I have my own leads."

"Are you planning to share?" Just call me hopeful. As in full of shit, because that’s where hope always seemed to lead.

"No," he said, still grumpy.

"I see. So it's gonna be like that."

"I guess so."

 I felt like such a female. Damn. But I had to ask.

"Are we still on for tonight?"

"Yeah."

I wasn’t convinced but didn’t push it. God, sometimes I hated myself. But we were good together—when it was good—when his competitive edge didn’t get the better of him. Though I was one to talk. I did the same thing at times. Hence our on and off status. But currently we were supposed to be on. So, I kept it light in the spirit of things to come.

"Okay, master detective, I'll leave you to your leads. See ya."

"See ya," he replied, already preoccupied, pondering a piece of paper he'd taken from his pocket.

I made my way down the hill in my muddy boots.

H.K. Sterling

BIOGRAPHY

 

H.K. Sterling is an author with Breathless Press known for stories with imagination, intelligence, a kick, and twist endings. H.K. likes to focus her writing on suspense, science-fiction, shorts, and anything that is spicy and unexpected. Sometimes her writing may even go dark. H.K. lives in Virginia with her husband who graciously puts up with her passion for writing. H.K. currently has a Mystery/Thriller out: A Taste For Killing; and two short stories in the Breathless Press Anthology: My Bloody Valentine. Her new book, A Taste For Danger has just been accepted for publication and H.K will also soon publish a short-short titled Eyes Only. H.K.'s books are suitable for 18+. You can contact H.K. on the following social media:

Catch up with H.K. Sterling on the following media:

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/hksterling

Twitter: @HKSterling

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/HK-Sterling/426989014069244?ref=hl

Email: HK.Sterling@aol.com

HK Sterling "Undercover Blog": http://hksterling1.blogspot.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/HKSterling

 

Faberge Nostromo, As Dreams Are Made On

Hi everyone :)

Today we have Faberge visiting us in his first ever f/f romance. And it's a doozy. He tells you a little about how the story came about, so I'll leave that to him. :)

*sniffs and grabs the hanky* Also a proud author moment for me. And he doesn't know it, but I'm currently writing another sci-fi, trying so hard to finish it by end of this weekend... *wails in happy author moment* Thank you Faberge!!

 Now for the star of this Succulent Saturday Stories. :D

It's so lovely to be here with Leona today. She's been enormously supportive of my writing and I am hugging her to bits over t'interweb.

So, I want to talk about As Dreams Are Made On, my sci-fi F/F update of Shakespeare's The Tempest (I like to think it's where the Bard might have taken it had he seen Star Trek) and the authors who've helped it on its way.

It was kicked off by a Facebook group floating the idea of a Shakespeare inspired anthology of short stories. The Tempest has long been a favourite of mine from when I saw the 50s SF movie 'Forbidden Planet' and someone explained that it was Shakespeare in space. I've seen the Royal Shakespeare Company do it with Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean Luc Picard of the starship Enterprise) as Prospero.

I was also inspired by Leona's "The Captain's Christmas" but I've not told her that... yet. I wondered how romance in space might play so I read it to get a steer. My Captain Jane Ferdinand's not like Leona's Captain Faraway Hastings though, but I think they might get on.

As Dreams Are Made On also features a very adaptable android, R.E.L., and writing his interaction with both Captain Ferdinand and Miranda, my marooned alien girl, took me a few light years out of my comfort zone. Who better to check that with than Doris O'Connor, author of many, many books but especially "Man-Droid The Orgasmatron"? She didn't actually laugh out loud or suggest I bin it so I carried on.

I dived into Shakespeare on my kindle and hit Wikipedia and Google for dates, events and themes in Shakespeare and for images to inspire me. I also revisited Forbidden Planet and a lot of Star Trek. That wasn’t hard though as I am a total Trekkie and frankly, once I typed the word "bo'sun" it practically wrote itself.

Last, but soooo not least, port of call—or space port of call, I suppose—was Raven McAllan who, despite usually going nowhere near space, androids or starships in her work has written enough romance novels to stretch from here to the Andromeda nebula (and that's a long way). She really is the go-to girl on style, structure and steaminess. She snipped at a few –ing words here and there and also didn't laugh out loud.

Thank you all, ladies. As Dreams Are Made On wouldn’t have happened without you. I hope you like it.

 

BLURB -

A stricken starship, a captain lost in space; a beautiful alien girl, marooned and adrift in time; the perfect robotic servant. Can he help them come together and find the space and time for love?

Faberge Nostromo takes Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' far into the future and onto a world where two women find that love, with the aid of a very capable android, can be such a thing as dreams are made on.

EXCERPT -

 

"I am a woman, Miranda. Flesh and blood. The same as you."

Miranda breathed in slowly, her gaze flitting from Ferdinand's eyes to her lips.

"Yes. Yes. You are. Captain, kiss me again."

Ferdinand sought Miranda's mouth now, more eagerly, and darted her tongue inside. The kiss was full and deep, both girls probing and tussling with their tongues as Ferdinand ran her fingers through Miranda's long purple tresses. Miranda put a hand on the small of Ferdinand's back, pushing harder, and with her other hand stroked Ferdinand's neck. She used her hands to explore every inch of Ferdinand's back and shoulders, gently sliding over the silver of her uniform, tracing her spine and muscles through the tight material, kneading and caressing in turn.

Their mouths parted, tongues teasing until Ferdinand leaned to one side and danced a series of butterfly kisses on the smooth blue skin of Miranda's neck and throat. Miranda gasped and slid her hand around from Ferdinand's back and inched toward the curve of her breast.

"Captain..." Miranda whispered.

"Jane. It's Jane," Ferdinand replied in between the pattern of kisses she was placing on Miranda's neck. Miranda inched her fingers toward Ferdinand's breast until they gently brushed the smooth lower curve. She stopped.

"Jane, should I..."

"Yes, Miranda," Ferdinand replied. She placed a hand on Miranda's and gently moved it up until Miranda's slim blue fingers covered her breast. "Let your emotions and desires tell you what to do."

Ferdinand's nipple hardened as Miranda gently explored the curve and outline of her breast through the tight silver of her uniform. Ferdinand released her hand and placed her own on Miranda's pert, firm breast, feeling her nipple already hard through the silk. She circled the tight button with her thumb and felt Miranda mirror her movements.

They kissed again, deeply, as each felt the other's soft curves and hard nipples, Miranda's fingers exploring, Ferdinand's confident and insistent. Ferdinand was wet now and wanted those smooth blue fingers to explore inside her. She knew she had to gently lead Miranda there, to teach her, guide her.

 

Buy Link -

http://www.breathlesspress.com/index.php?main_page=product_free_shipping_info&cPath=2&products_id=542&zenid=ad967b50531768ef0bc7d4da85c72363

 

Faberge Nostromo grew up in the East End of London before escaping to East Anglia. He has been a civil servant, a tea boy, sound engineer, a librarian and an IT consultant but always knew that he was a writer. He now lives deep in the heart of Suffolk with his wife, son and too many guitars.

http://fabergenostromo.blogspot.co.uk

https://twitter.com/FabergeNostromo

https://www.facebook.com/FabergeNostromo

http://www.pinterest.com/fabergenostromo/

Other great book by Faberge Nostromo and Breathless Press:

 

Title: The Spiral Revealed Series: The Spiral Defenders #2 Author: Erin Danzer Formats Available In: Digital Publication Date: 7th March 2014 Blurb: What secrets will the Spiral reveal? After Ronnie follows Gavin into the Spiral, she finds out getting the answers she is looking for isn’t as easy as she thought. Some secrets are kept. A secret love affair comes to light. New abilities are revealed. Ronnie finds she has enemies before she makes new friends. She falls harder for Gavin, but is betrothed to another, a betrothal that will not be broken even after she and Gavin form a sacred bond. As turmoil rises within the Spiral, Ronnie learns the truth about her enemy. She must fight to become a Spiral Defender and queen of her new home—or risk that home spiraling into nothing. Excerpt: Ronnie screamed. The monster had to be at least seven feet tall and was made up entirely of swirling shadows. Its form was vaguely human and where its eyes should have been, bright white lights shone out into the darkness. A long, scaly tail swished behind it as it came right for them. Gavin pushed Ronnie behind him as he readied his sword and Ronnie knew they were going to have to fight this thing together. She pushed down the panic that tried to overcome her and raised her sword as well. She wasn’t about to let Gavin face this thing alone. “Stay back,” Gavin yelled when he saw her sword raised. Ronnie glared at him. “You can’t fight that thing on your own,” she argued. “No, you can’t fight that thing, period. Let me take care of it.” “No.” She raised the sword over her head and ran towards the monster, calling out the sword’s name like a battle cry as she ran. She vaguely realized Gavin was next to her again as her sword, the blade now glowing with a bright whiteness, carved through the shadow demon’s chest. Smoke sizzled where the cut had formed and the demon screamed as it reached out for her, only to have its arm taken off by Gavin’s sword. Ronnie blinked in the brightness of her sword’s blade and felt a little guilty at the reprimanding glare Gavin spared her before he faced the demon again. He swung his sword around at its neck and shouted “Vitae Luminae!” as he dispatched its head from its shoulders. The thing reached out blindly, still trying to fight even as it dissolved in front of them. Gavin held out his arm to keep Ronnie back until it was completely gone. He rounded on her the minute it disappeared, his dark eyes blazing as he reached out and grabbed Ronnie’s sword out of her hand. “Hey,” she protested indignantly. “It’s not like I didn’t do any damage with that. I took care of a shadow hound all on my own.” He continued to glare at her, apparently too upset for words. Finally, he ground out, “No more swords until you learn to listen.” Purchase Links: Amazon | Amazon UK | Barnes and Noble | Smashwords Contest Details: a Rafflecopter giveaway Direct link About Erin Danzer: Erin Danzer wrote her first book at 10-years-old for a Young Authors competition, where she was awarded an Honorable Mention and discovered a passion for the written word. She’s written several novels and short stories since that spark ignited. Into the Spiral is the first of a four book series. In addition to her novels, Erin writes a monthly short story serial, The Cassandra Serafin Chronicles, posting alternately on her blog and in Literary Lunes bi-monthly online magazine. Erin resides in Racine, Wisconsin, with her husband, two children, and their cat. Contact links: Facebook Fan Page | Goodreads | Twitter | Website