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Welcome to
my Reading
Comfortable?
Wonderful. Now let’s get started.
Tell us about
your favorite character from your books.
Magnus McLeod
was definitely one of my faves from my Offspring series. He'd made appearances
in a couple of the books as a good guy who drove like a maniac and had a little
Scottish accent. At the end of the sixth book, DARKNESS BECOMES HER, he's
infected with something called Darkness, which would fundamentally change who
he was. I was really curious as to how he would handle it.
Tell us about
your current/upcoming release. What inspired this story?
I liked the
idea of a good guy being infected with something bad. Then pair him with a
woman who has deadly abilities of her own, and let the sparks fly. Especially
when she thinks he's a serial killer! Erica has some big wounds to heal, and I
love when characters overcome their baggage to find love.
THE END OF
DARKNESS is only available as an e-book and is a half novel. It's original
fiction.
When in the day/night do you write? How long per day?
My creative
engine doesn't kick in until midday. I usually take care of administrative
things in the morning and then start writing/editing at about 10 am. I write
until five-ish when I stop to get dinner ready and have family time. Then it's
often back to the computer until ten or so.
What is the hardest part of writing your books?
The last
round of edits. By then I've written the book and edited it twice. The
fine-tuning edits are rough.
What does
your family think of your writing career?
My husband
and parents are proud and supportive, and were even before I got published. My
hubby bought me my first computer for writing, and we were only dating then!
What do you
think makes a good story?
Characters
you care about. Then throw them into a mess and watch them claw their way out.
[evil laugh]
Plotter or Pantser? Why?
A little of
both, but I'm mostly a plotter.
How do you
develop your plots and your characters? Do you use any set formula?
I usually get
snippets of scenes and characters and then I try to fit them into a cohesive
plot. It's like watching previews of a movie, where you see the tantalizing
bits. I do a lot of character development and cast my roles using actors or
models. I don't have any kind of set formula. I let the book flow as it will.
What book are you reading now? Any favorite authors/books you want to do a shout out for?
Right now I'm
reading contest books so I can't say. I love Ilona Andrews and Patricia Briggs,
and Cecy Robson's got an exciting new author on the scene. And my writing bud,
Jamie Ayers, has a new YA out called 18 THINGS.
What do you
do to unwind and relax?
Read
spiritual books. And I love reading fiction, but it's hard to disengage the
editor in my brain!
Morning
Person or Night Person?
A midday
person.
Coffee, tea
or other drink to get you moving in the morning?
I enjoy my daily
cappuccino, but I don't get or need a jolt from caffeine.
What is
coming up from you in 2013? Anything you want to tease us with?
I'm so excited about my new paranormal romantic suspense series, The Hidden! It comes out from Grand Central Publishing, starting with two novellas in July and September, and the first book in December. It's a series about Crescents, humans with the essence of gods who walk the knife's edge between the glamour of Miami and a place filled with dark magick and dangerous beauty. Think dragons, angels, and wizards!
Anything else
you want to add?
Author Website: www.jaimerush.com.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JaimeRushBooks
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jaimerush
Thanks so
much for having me, Dawn!
The End of Darkness by Jaime Rush
The dark energy that infects Magnus McLeod's soul draws him
to an Arizona town in crisis—and
a woman with a dangerous ability of her own. Erica Evrard isn't afraid of much,
but suddenly she has much to fear. Like Magnus, whose noble heart brings her to
life even as his Darkness could kill her. And the group of supernatural humans
whose evil plans threaten an entire town.
Teaser Excerpt:
Magnus
McLeod came to with a violent start, sitting up so fast, the room spun. Even
so, he instantly knew this wasn’t his bedroom. Or a hospital. Lachlan stood
next to his bed with an odd expression, both relieved and like he was about to tell
Magnus his legs were missing.
Lachlan
leaned forward and held him tight for a few moments. “Thank God.”
Magnus
hardly enjoyed the hug, preoccupied with wanting to make sure his body parts
were intact. The second Lachlan stepped back, Magnus did a visual check. Legs,
aye, and they moved at his command. Arms, fingers, all accounted for.
Lachlan
peered into Magnus's face. “You alright, Maggie?” The childhood nickname
Lachlan had given him when Magnus started calling him Locky, a bit of teasing
between two brothers.
“Seem
to be, other than feeling muzzy, like I was on a bender and slept for
twenty-four hours.” He rubbed his hand over his face, feeling several days'
worth of beard. “How long have I been
sleeping? Where am I? What happened?” He took in the room with its light brown
walls and framed pictures of the Wizard of Oz.
Lachlan
said, “You’re in Cheveyo and Petra’s guest room in downtown Annapolis. They’ve
been taking care of you while Jessie and I dealt with her uncle. Which felt
like it lasted for weeks but was only a few days.”
“Jessie.”
Magnus pictured the lass he was keen on, a pixie of a thing with brown hair. “I’ve
been stuck in this dream about being at the carnival and some man trying to
hurt her. I tried to protect her, and he turned into a black beast.” His hand went to
his neck, but the words cut as deeply as the memory of claws slicing his
throat.
Bloody
hell. Memory, not a dream.
“You
were killed,” Lachlan said softly.
“Jessie?”
He looked beyond Lachlan, finding no one else in the room. Cold fear washed
over him. “Is she alright?”
“Aye,
she's fine now.” Lachlan shook his head. “That's the kind of guy you are. I
tell you that you died, and you're worried about her.”
“You
say it like it's a bad thing.”
Lachlan's
laugh had no humor. “No, it just shows what a damned good guy you are.”
Again,
sounded like a bad thing.
Lachlan
leaned against the side of the bed. “She healed you.”
“Healed
psychically?” He felt a thrumming energy in his body, an odd heaviness as
though his soul had gained a hundred pounds. Which made no sense.
Lachlan’s
expression darkened. “You were dying, just like I saw in the vision I warned
you about.”
Aye,
the vision where Lachlan had seen Magnus dead at the carnival, Jessie standing
over him. “You did see the future. I guess you’ll toss me an ‘I told you so’
and deservedly so. Who was the guy that tried to kill me?”
Lachlan
leaned against the footboard. “Her uncle. Bastard was hunting her for years.
He's dead now,” he added when Magnus stiffened at the thought of the guy
hurting her. “What happened in the days after your attack, why Jessie was on
the run, that’s a story for later.”
“He
turned into a bloody beast. That wasn't my imagination, right? Because over and
over I've been living it, seeing him morph into a black creature.”
“It
wasn't your imagination.” Lachlan released a long breath. “You need to
understand that you were dying, and we had to make a choice. Jessie and I.”
The
mention of her name had Magnus glancing at the door. “Where is she? I need to
see her.”
“You
were right when you told me there was something special about her. She’s got
enhanced abilities like us, but she's not an Offspring.”
Magnus
digested that for a moment. “So that means what, that she didn't have a parent
in the same secret government program Dad was in?” The program for psychically
gifted people who were given the DNA of a bloke from a parallel dimension to
enhance their abilities—DNA their offspring inherited.
“Her
father is from the other dimension.
And she was even more special. She held Darkness. So did the man who turned to
beast. In the parallel dimension, they aren’t allowed to express their
emotions, so they repress them. All those emotions accumulated into this mass
of energy called Darkness. Jessie's father and uncle tapped into it and drew it
into their bodies. They could channel it to change into an animal of sorts. As
you saw.”
“I
saw, all right. But why are you still looking at me like I've lost a limb?”
Lachlan's
jaw tensed. “The price of Jessie's healing was that she had to infuse Darkness
into you. I told her to do it. I made the choice.”
Something
inside Magnus went numb as Lachlan's words sank in. “So that…beast is in me?”
That had to be the heaviness he felt.
“You
can choose what form it takes by focusing on a particular animal. Jessie's dad
will work with you. You have to learn to control Darkness, or it’ll take you
over.”
“Bloody
great.”
Magnus
pulled himself to the side of the bed and tested his weight. His legs were
shaky. Lachlan moved closer, hands out to steady him. Magnus used the headboard
to stand. “Where is Jessie?” At Lachlan’s ever-darkening expression, his chest
tightened. “I need to see her.” That need raged through him, making him want to
start tearing furniture apart until someone brought her to him.
Lachlan
drove his fingers back through hair much shorter and neater than Magnus had
ever seen it. “You can't. Darkness has other side effects. It can make you
volatile when you experience high emotions. And it makes you possessive and
madly jealous to the point of being deadly to anyone you see as a rival to the
woman you feel is yours.”
“I
don’t feel she’s mine.” They hadn't even kissed, but he did feel…oddly
possessive, aye. “It's just that I've spent days of unconsciousness caught in a
loop of those last several minutes with her.”
Lachlan
shifted from one foot to the other. “She's at Sanctuary.” Their family compound
in the woods.
Magnus
knew that nervous shift. He’d seen it whenever Lachlan was about to admit he’d
broken something, like the time he'd put a ding on Magnus’s sword when they
were lads. “Out with it, Locky. What aren't you telling me?”
Lachlan
bowed his head, pain wracking his features. No, this was worse than anything
like that. “I’m the lowest of the low. She and I went through hell together. We
fought the pull between us, I swear it. I tried to be an arse—as you know I can
be—but she saw something inside me even I didn't see.” He met Magnus's gaze. “I
love her. I didn’t mean to, but I love her, and all I can do is ask your
forgiveness.”
He
knew his brother would never do anything to hurt him, and his regret was clear.
So was his love for Jessie. So why did the words, “You stole my girl while I was recuperating?” come roaring out of
his mouth?
Lachlan
hung his head. “She wasn’t your girl yet, but aye, that’s the bottom line. I am
pond scum. The scum that lives beneath the pond scum.”
Anger
unfurled inside him. Even weak, Magnus was big enough to pound Lachlan but
good. He took a deep breath, pulling back all that fury, and made his way to
the window to stare out into an alley between the townhouses. “I forgive you.”
He meant it, but the words still felt gritty as they left his mouth. “You’re
right, she wasn’t my girl.” He turned to Lachlan from a safer distance. “So
this Darkness is why I want to smash in your head over it?”
Lachlan’s
mouth tightened. “Aye. I deserve it, too, but I’d rather you not. I don’t want
to lose you over it, but I could no sooner break it off with her than cut off
my hand. Once you’ve met someone else, you’ll move on. Remember what you told
me not long ago: the feelings you have for a woman always fizzle out like a
soda left out too long.”
Aye,
he had said that, and he’d experienced it many a time. But Jessie felt
different. Now he knew why.
Lachlan
waved his hand dismissively. “You’ll find other women. Hell, you draw them like
flies.”
Magnus
crossed his arms over his chest. “Thanks for that lovely analogy. Makes me
sound like a pile of shite.”
“I
was thinking a candy bar or maybe a glob of jelly on the sidewalk.”
It
felt like one of many exchanges, but everything was different now. Lachlan was
happy and in love, both new for him. Magnus held something otherworldly and
dangerous.
He
didn't want another woman. He breathed Jessie, the need for her. The need to
posses her. He felt her in his cells, something he'd never experienced before.
Nor had he ever felt jealousy. If a woman he was dating wanted to move on, Magnus
wished her well with nary a hard feeling. He flexed his fingers. “And if I feel
proprietary about a woman, I'll hurt anyone who flirts with her? Or hurt the
woman?” An unfathomable thought.
“Potentially.
I’m sorry for what comes with Darkness, but not for making the decision. I
wasn't going to let you die.”
No,
he wouldn't, not after everything they'd already lost. “I would have done the
same, brother.” The sight of his sword, leaning against the wall with the tip
buried in the carpet, brought comfort. He picked it up, running his fingers
down the flat part of the blade. “You took a chance bringing this here.”
“It's
like an old friend. Thought you might like it nearby.”
Magnus
swung it around, holding the blade a foot away from Lachlan. “Were you not afraid
I'd cleave off your head when I found out about Jessie?”
Lachlan
remained still, no fear on his face. “You've got a much deadlier weapon inside
you now. If you're of a mind to kill me, I'm going to go one way or another.”
Magnus
held the sword up, studying the ornate hilt. He wouldn't need his sword
anymore? How much more would he lose?
A
knock sounded on the door, and Cheveyo opened it and peered inside. “Everything
all right?” His Hopi heritage was clear in his coloring and dark hair. That
he'd once spent his days hunting down supernatural vermin showed in his warrior
bearing. Especially when he saw the sword in Magnus’s hand and stepped inside,
ready to contain him.
Magnus
let him know that wouldn't be necessary by setting the sword down. He reached over
and shook Cheveyo’s hand. “Thanks for everything.”
He’d
only met Cheveyo once, Petra a few more times, so it was damned nice of them to
take care of him. Made him feel odd though, being passed out at their house.
“You’ll
be okay,” Cheveyo said. “I don't know how similar Darkness is to my ability,
but when I get worked up, I feel my cat want to take over. You need to
practice, get comfortable with Darkness, because control is everything. I’ve
got a place out near Flagstaff, Arizona. Why don’t you spend some time in new
surroundings?” Away from Jessie, he didn't say. “Take as long as you want.
We’re staying here, waiting for Amy to have her baby. I couldn't pry Petra away
now. Stay for the shower and then head out.”
Magnus
had planned on attending the baby shower, since the guys in their group of
Offspring were invited too. That was before he’d been infected. The heavy
feeling was like the blackest part of the night inside him. “I’m not in the
mood for the party, but I've got gifts for the baby.” He pinned Lachlan with a
look. “You'll take them, right?” Make him go to a baby shower, small
retribution for stealing his lass.
“Anything
for you,” Lachlan said, clearly meaning it. But Magnus saw his upper lip twitch
at the thought.
Anything
but give up Jessie.
He
turned to Cheveyo. “Your place sounds like exactly what I need.” Especially if
Lachlan and Jessie were staying at Sanctuary.
Lachlan
walked closer. “Spend some time with Jessie's dad. He’ll tell you what you need
to know.” He put his hand on Magnus’s arm. “Take a week or so, work through it.
But keep in touch. My brother once told me that we had to stick together
because we were all we have.”
But
that was before one of them became a beast…and the other fell in love.
1 comment:
Thanks so much for hosting me here today, Dawn!
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