Monday, February 25, 2013

I'll Be Damned, Stella Berkley


Today I'd like to welcome Stella Berkley, a fellow Evernight Publishing author. She's here to talk about her erotic, paranormal romance, I'll Be Damned, which is a collection of five short stories where, for one night, love is enough to bridge the distance between heaven and hell. There’s a law that keeps angels and demons apart, and the collection follows five couples sneaking trysts over the course of the same evening when God and Lucifer’s attentions are diverted.


Very cool. As every knows I'm a huge fan of anything paranormal so your novel sounds A-MAZ-ING!
So Stella, tell me a little bit about yourself.

Aside from being a wife, mother to a cute wee girl, and a working grunt, I’m an author of many faces. I write mainstream dark romantic fiction under another pen name, with one novel trilogy completed and the opener of a five novel series signed and due to release in May of this year. My YA self is also working on two novels and a short story I hope to shop around by the end of the year.
If you could have dinner with one person, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Definitely Stephen King. I’d like to crawl into his head and see the world through his eyes. He can write a character like nobody else, and since I wholly believe characters are what make or break a story, I’d like to learn about character building from the pro.
How personal is your writing?

My writing is me. It’s how I try to make sense of the world around me, why people might do the things they do. I can put characters in a scenario and see both sides of the coin. Human nature is fascinating.
Do you work with an outline, or just write?

I’m a total pantser. I often hit Chapter 1 with an idea only and a few names jotted down to use for my main characters. Sometimes I only start with a character. Their appearance and characterization usually comes as I write.
Can you tell us about your upcoming book?

I have several coming up, but I’ll stick to the first of a seven-book series I’ve just signed called Stone Chameleon, an Ironhill Jinn Novel. It’s an urban fantasy/PNR following Lou Hudson, a preternatural pest control expert who is jinn, a species of elemental shapeshifers that are condemned and thought extinct. She lives in secret in Ironhill. When someone frames her for murder, her heritage is in jeopardy of coming out. Add a hot vampire in a kilt and a drool-worthy Persian love interest, and you have Stone Chameleon
Ahh yummm... Vampires in kilts? Sign me up!

Okay (after fantasizing about kilt-wearing vampires) let's move on to some fun questions. Are you a person who makes their bed in the morning, or do you not see much point?
Oh, hell no. I have a duvet that only requires one fluff to make the bed, and I don’t even do that. I don’t see the point when I’m just going to crawl under it again the next night. An extra few seconds to write. :)
Do you get road rage? What pisses you off the most about other drivers?
Hmm…I certainly used to when I lived in the city, but now that I live in the boonies, traffic consists of one car in front of me at the traffic light, so not so much anymore.
Do you go out of your way to kill bugs? Are there any that make you screech and hide?
Ick to all bugs. Spiders especially, or any with long legs. I can’t even deal with those little crab things in the aquarium stores with long spindly legs. I’m shivering as I type this. Afraid of bugs, who me?
Which of your characters would you like to meet in person and why?
Oh boy, this is a hard one. It’s a toss-up between Lucifer from I’ll Be Damned and Parthalan from my Lila Gray trilogy. They’re both a little arrogant and vain, and way too delicious not to want a taste.
Hahaha, I love it. 

Blurb:
For one night, love is enough to bridge the distance between heaven and hell.

In Devil Be Mine, Lucifer’s soul whore, Delilah, is tempted by her favorite submissive, Micah, an angel as pure as she is naughty.

In Fire and Ice, heaven’s black sheep, Qenna, meets her match in Pyro, chaos incarnate and devilish charm in a designer suit.

In Raven, a reaper forces the Guardian, Mara, to accept what’s in her heart or say goodbye to her Raven forever.

In Hunting Pleasure, Lucifer’s Lieutenant, Selene, indulges in heaven’s highest ranking sentinels, Michael and Arael, who turn the hunter into the hunted.

And finally, in No Mercy, God’s right hand, Gabriella, must convince Lucifer to abolish the law standing between her brethren and their lovers. To right a wrong she played a part in, Gabriella agrees to a private meeting with the object of her darkest fantasies—the devil himself.

Excerpt from No Mercy:
     “How badly do you want this for them?” Running fingers down the tight line of his belly, Lucifer edged closer. “Decide, because my patience is thin tonight.”
     I flinched at the sharpness of his tone while his aggression stirred thoughts of him spreading me upon one of the—stop it! “What is it you want, Lucifer?” What would I be willing to give? “I’m not sleeping with you, so don’t even think about it.”
     A flick of his fingers undid his jacket, and he slipped it off. “No, what I want is much simpler than that, Rielle. Just a kiss, one like I gave you that night on the steps, only this time there will be no running away. If you run, then the deal’s off.”
     A sensory memory filled me with flame that ate me up. Hot breath on my lips, the urgency of his mouth on mine, the demand of his fingers fisted in my hair. The sounds, more animal than man, all for me. A tiny moan slipped out before I swallowed and shook my head. “No. Not that.” I’d be finished. He’d almost had me then until I remembered my place, where my loyalties lay.
     Each button of his shirt came undone under his skilled hands, revealing more and more of his muscled chest, his rock hard stomach.
     “Why are you taking your clothes off?” I’d never seen him nude. Did he have wings? Could they trap me? Caress me?
     “You forget so easily that I know what you want before you do. I’ve never shown them to anyone who I wasn’t personally reaping or wanted to scare the life out of. This is my final offer. If you want to free those sneaking around in the dark, then you will agree.”
     
He shrugged out of his shirt, baring his defined shoulders and rounded biceps that appeared strong enough to confine me however he pleased. “There are different shades of darkness, all the way from evil up to the kind in my strong, bold angel. It’s already inside of you, begging for you to accept it. Accepting it won’t change who you are, Rielle, not with me.” Groaning, he extended wings of black that spread out like a beautiful nightmare, made of fire and feathers and mist. “All I’m asking for is a kiss, and after that, you’re free to walk away from me.”
     
“It isn’t just a kiss. Nothing between us has ever been, or ever will be, as simple as that.” I reigned in my quivering voice. “And how can I ever be free? Since the night of my reaping when you stood on the riverbank where I drowned, fucking me with your eyes, you decided I would never be free of you.”
     
“Or you decided. You were so tempted to follow me that night. Your indecision was written on your face, and your arousal scented the air like cherries. Even your body flies my colors, your wild streak of red visible in your otherwise pure white hair and wings.”
     
Was that why I ended up with crimson markings instead of gold or silver or blue like the rest? No, it couldn’t be true. “I will never follow you.”
     
“Yet here you are, wrapped up like sex in a pretty package, begging me with your every movement to tug on that ribbon.” He bore down on me, those wings folding around to blot out the world. “Decide. Your stubborn pride? Or their freedom?”


Buy Links:

Amazon | All Romance Ebooks | Evernight Publishing

A little more about Stella:
Stella Berkley grew up in small town Ontario as a farmer’s daughter, usually up to her ears in some kind of trouble. A career daydreamer, Stella has a vivid imagination and a love for fantasy, especially the dark and steamy kind. Two of her novellas have been published with Cobblestone Press, and two novels by her tamer self were published last year. When she isn’t writing, she hangs out with her husband and young daughter at their little house in the woods.

Thanks so much for joining me today, Stella. It was a pleasure to get to know you better!



Erotica By Stella

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