I had the pleasure of chatting with author Dianne Hartsock about her new book, Nicolas. Don't forget to enter the giveaway at the end of the post. You could win a $25 gift card. Contest closes on January 8th. The tour is sponsored by Pride Promotions.
Now let's chat with Dianne...
Thank
you Dawn for hosting me today! As we head into the New Year, I’d like to take a
second to look back at this past Christmas. I’ve always thought of Santa Claus
as the spirit of Christmas, spreading the word of peace and goodwill throughout
the world. When I started researching St. Nicolas and the Krampus for my story,
I quickly learned that St. Nicolas was indeed a kind and caring man. I wanted
to bring this good man into the modern world, show his struggle against the
evil that is Krampus, who delights in causing chaos and nightmare in an already
violent world.
Nico
uses his family’s wealth to travel the world, quietly helping the needy,
spreading the word of tolerance and love to whoever will listen. But the
Krampus follows him, undoing the good he tries to do, his revenge for a crime
Nico committed against him many centuries in the past. Only through forgiveness
and compassion can Nico win out over his nemesis, proving that love truly is
the answer.
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover
Artist: AngstyG
Release
Date: December 18, 2015
Goodreads
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27880680-nicolas
Blurb:
Betrayed by a lover, Jamie rents an isolated cabin on Lake
Huron, wanting only to be left alone. Instead, he is pulled from his solitary
existence as an artist and tumbles headlong into the legend of Saint Nicolas.
As a young man, Nicolas accidentally killed a man intent on
murdering three children, only to have the man's malicious spirit rise up
against him. Fleeing through the centuries from the Krampus, the evil
troll-like creature that dogs his steps, Nico finds refuge with the young
artist who takes him into his home and bed. But Jamie has questions. Who is
Nicolas, and why does the Krampus want to destroy him?
When the Krampus begins to torment and torture anyone Nico
comes in contact with to punish him, Jamie’s life is put in danger. And Jamie
isn’t sure whether he can help Nico defeat his nemesis or if he’s merely a pawn
in the Krampus’s game.
Pages or Words: 200 pages
Categories: Contemporary, Fantasy, Gay Fiction,
Mythology, Novel, M/M Romance
Excerpt:
Jamie startled awake. “What?”
He had trouble breathing, the crushing weight on his chest
seeming to have followed him up from his dreams. But that couldn’t be right.
He’d rented the cabin for its isolation. No one should be there. Did he still
dream?
A warm breath brushed against his cheek, sending a shiver of
dread and strange anticipation through him. “Easy, baby,” a silky voice
whispered in the darkness. Sharp teeth nipped his earlobe and pleasure and pain
sparked along his nerves. His eyes adjusted to the moonlight filtering through
the sheer curtains, and he stared in amazement at the man gazing at him with
wild green eyes, long pale hair, high cheekbones and a slender neck he craved
to run his tongue along.
The stranger laid his weight on him, driving the air from
his lungs and making Jamie struggle for every breath. Shifting position, the
man sealed his full lips over Jamie’s, drawing a long groan from Jamie when an
impossibly large cock slid against his. In sudden panic he reached to shove his
unknown visitor away and touched hot skin and lean muscles. Of their own
volition his hands roamed lower, following the curve of the stranger’s back to
the rounded swell of his ass. He drew a quick breath and the man laughed into
his mouth, pushed his tongue deep, thrusting inside to match the movement of his
hips as he ground against Jamie’s aching dick.
Heat pooled in Jamie’s stomach. God, what was happening? The
thing in his bed looked like a man, but his every instinct shouted otherwise.
His skin was warm when it should have been cold from being outside. And how had
he gotten in? All the windows and doors were locked tight against the winter
storm. It was as if he’d just materialized in Jamie’s bed. “Who—”
He cried out when a hand pushed between them and grabbed
their cocks, stroking them together until he lost the ability to think. So
close! He grabbed onto the man’s firm ass and yanked him tighter against him,
rising up to shove into his strong grip.
The triumphant hiss in his ear shot ice through his veins.
“So naughty.”
“No!” Jamie struggled to sit up, scrambling back against the
headboard. He blinked, finding himself alone in the room, only his ragged
breaths disturbing the silence of the cabin. A forgotten anxiety knotted his
stomach. Naughty. He hated that word, tossed about by the boys he once knew in
school. The ones he’d suck off behind the gym, desperate for a gentle hand in
his hair, balm against his loneliness. He’d been terrified his parents would
find out he was different, that he liked girl things and found boys much more
exciting than he should. They would know he was gay and there would be hell to
pay for their freak of a son.
He scrubbed a hand over his face. God, that had been ages
ago. The last shreds of the dream dissipated, and he reached for the bedside
light, fumbling in the darkness for the switch. Low light stung his eyes and he
blinked at the empty bedroom, unable to believe the attack hadn’t been real.
He flung off the heavy quilts and slid to his feet, clinging
to the post at the foot of the bed as a wave of dizziness struck him. Laughter
from the other room jolted him. Heart pounding, he bolted for the door and it
crashed into the wall as he flung it open. The reddish glow from the banked
fire on the hearth lit the main room of the cabin, though the kitchen area
remained in shadows.
Jamie’s gaze swept the rooms, focusing on the dark
corners. No one jumped out at him.
Nobody sat on the couch. His coffee cup remained undisturbed where he’d left it
on the hearth. Of course. The cabin was isolated, miles from the nearest
neighbor. Who would bother to come way out there, especially with the threat of
another snowstorm on the way?
He ran a trembling hand through his hair, pushing the sweat-drenched
bangs from his forehead. Christ, the dream had seemed so real. The cold of the
great room finally registered, creeping up from the hardwood flooring. Shaking,
he crossed to the fireplace and stirred up the coals, adding another log.
With a sigh, he sank into the cushions of the worn couch and
pulled the woolen afghan around his bare shoulders. The log caught and the fire
crackled, sparks dancing up the flue. Recalling his dream and the hard body
against his, he shrugged when his cock perked up.
“It’s been a while,” he acknowledged, watching the flames
lick at the oak log. He’d signed a year’s lease on the cabin, right after
catching his boyfriend in the stairwell of their apartment building, making out
with their neighbor. It hadn’t been the first time, either, though again
Patrick had his apologies ready. That had been over six months ago, and since
the cabin stood miles over rough terrain from the nearest town, he’d rarely
seen another human being in all that time.
“Just the way I like it,” he told the indifferent fire
burning its way through the wood. But the stranger’s lips in his dream had been
soft, his thrusting tongue sweet in Jamie’s mouth. He hadn’t liked the violent
aspect of the dream, but if that had been a lover in his bed? His dick pressed
against his thigh, and Jamie reached under the heavy blanket, moaning when he
took its heavy weight in his hand. Drawing lazy circles on his balls, he let
the pleasure build slowly, lifting his cock while in his mind the stranger
licked the glistening head, his pale gold hair a curtain of silk against
Jamie’s sensitive skin. He moaned as the man slid his tongue down the thick
vein on the underside of his cock.
His mind flitted over the question of whether the guy would
fuck him or want it the other way around. Didn’t matter to him. He liked it
both ways. Rolling to his back, Jamie continued to stroke himself while he
tugged his tight balls, then pressed a finger against his hole. He remembered
the lube in the nightstand drawer by the bed, but he wasn’t about to stop, and
hissed when he pushed the finger inside. The man’s cock had been huge in his
dream. What would it feel like as it stretched him open? Would it be enough to
fill all the empty spaces inside him?
It was a moment before the tolling of a bell outside the
cabin registered. What the fuck? Jamie sat up, trying to hear past the pounding
of his pulse in his ears. His cock throbbed and he groaned in frustration,
knowing he couldn’t chase his pleasure until he found out what was going on at
the dock. The only one to boat in was the man who dropped off his monthly
supplies, and he’d been and gone two days ago. Who else would be using the
dock? Jamie had been isolated for months without anything disturbing his peace.
But this night he’d had a wildly erotic dream and now this. What made tonight
so special?
Buy the book:
Dreamspinner
Press:
ARe
Books:
Tour
Dates & Stops:
22-Dec:
Unquietly
Me,
Book
Reviews, Rants, and Raves, Divine Magazine, The Hat
Party, Inked Rainbow Reads
24-Dec:
BFD
Book Blog, Velvet Panic
29-Dec:
QUEERcentric
Books, A.M.
Leibowitz, Books A to Z
31-Dec:
Molly Lolly, Bayou
Book Junkie
1-Jan: The
Novel Approach, Havan
Fellows, Dawn’s Reading Nook, The
Fuzzy, Fluffy World of Chris T. Kat
Tour
Dates & Stops:
22-Dec:
Unquietly
Me,
Book
Reviews, Rants, and Raves, Divine Magazine, The Hat
Party, Inked Rainbow Reads
24-Dec:
BFD
Book Blog, Velvet Panic
29-Dec:
QUEERcentric
Books, A.M.
Leibowitz, Books A to Z
31-Dec:
Molly Lolly, Bayou
Book Junkie
1-Jan: The
Novel Approach, Havan
Fellows, Dawn’s Reading Nook, The
Fuzzy, Fluffy World of Chris T. Kat
Meet the author:
Dianne grew up in one of the older homes in the middle of
Los Angeles, a place of hardwood floors and secret closets and back staircases.
A house where ghosts lurk in the basement and the faces in the paintings watch
you walk up the front stairs. Rooms where you keep the closet doors closed
tight at night. It’s where her love of the mysterious and wonderful came from.
Dianne now lives in the beautiful Willamette Valley of
Oregon with her incredibly patient husband, who puts up with the endless hours
she spends hunched over the keyboard letting her characters play. She says
Oregon’s raindrops are the perfect setting in which to write. There’s something
about being cooped up in the house with a fire crackling on the hearth and a
cup of hot coffee warming her hands, which kindles her imagination.
Currently, Dianne works as a floral designer in a
locally-owned gift shop. Which is the perfect job for her. When not writing,
she can express herself through the rich colors and textures of flowers and
foliage.
Where to find the author:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/diannehartsock
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/Dianne-Hartsock-Author-107985445959828/timeline/?ref=hl
Twitter: https://twitter.com/diannehartsock
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/diannehartsock/
2 comments:
Happy New Years Dawn! Thanks again for hosting me. :)
Happy New Years! Thank you for the chance at the giveaway! :)
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