"In the third book of the Werescape series, Skhye Moncrief delves into the hidden agenda of the aliens...and draws a vivid picture of a love that grows in spite of everything that tries to destroy it. This book is filled with lots of action and sex hot enough to melt its pages. What does the future hold for the Werescape?" 4.5 stars ~Candy, SensualReads.com

Blurb:
In a world where ride or die becomes your only hope for a future, sometimes you find you never really lived until you're running for your life.

Post-apocalyptic Earth, after alien invasion, AEI, 2065 A.D., The Conquered

Fight or die is the way of the world AEI.

Shoot first and ask questions later becomes Lady Lorelei's reality when overhearing her adopted warlord father's plan of placating the aliens in saving his little slice of The Conquered. A plan where she is given to the aliens. Betrayed by the unthinkable sentence, she bolts for her life. Without any weapons, food, or survival skills suited for life outside the warlord's mansion, her journey only proves post-apocalyptic Earth desperately needs one thing--women. Breeders. Whores. The hottest commodity on the planet.

Wandering Shifter Brutus, a powerful loner renowned for his hatred of Normals, is the only thing capable of securing her idea of freedom. But he has no patience for females and their wiles. Only a handful of Shifter females are known to exist. The rest are Gods-be-damned Normals--a pack of animals that would feed upon their young to profit. But when Lorelei achieves the impossible and escapes the warlord's city, Brutus can't refuse the one thing forcing him to pull her up behind him on the saddle and head deep into The Wild. His inner Wolf intends to mate her. But mating a Normal isn't on his priority list.

More than Brutus' Wolf is chasing Beauty's tail. Neither expects the dark cloud lurking on the horizon. In a world where ride or die becomes your only hope for a future, sometimes you find you never really lived until you're running for your life. Life changes in a heartbeat AEI because nature has a funny way of righting her status quo. Even if that feat requires digging into the chasm, to the animal buried inside Lorelei and Brutus, to trigger the Mating Fever between BEAUTY AND THE BRUTE.

Length: Mid-Novel, 64K words, 275 pages (print length)
Genre: Paranormal Erotica
Rating: Erotica
***Warning: Heroine has sex with hero in his Wolfskin.

Read Chapter 1
Additional excerpt 

Purchase for... 
KINDLE
In paperback
Other available e-formats

Steampunk Erotica

A few months ago, I got an idea. Well I get lots of ideas, but this one in particular had to do with writing a steampunk-themed short story. I wasn't sure I knew much about steampunk. I did know it was a popular genre.

Upon some initial research, I realized I'd been a steampunk fan for years without even realizing it. I loved The Golden Compass and Jules Verne. As a child, I was an avid watcher of "The Wild, Wild West" television show (in re-runs of course). I just thought these were cool, I didn't really consider where they fell in terms of genre. If I had, I might have pointed to science fiction meets historical fiction.

I think there is probably room for disagreement about what is and is not steampunk, but I can give you my opinion. I think of it as similar to our world had it perhaps evolved in a different way. Usually there are historical settings like Victorian England or the American West. But the level of technology is different than it was in our actual timeline. Though steampunk is often characterized by zeppelins and gadgets, I think it is more the world building of an alternate universe with some common elements.

So, what does this mean for my work in progress? I've set it in Victorian England. I've always been a big fan of historical fiction set anywhere from the Regency through Victorian periods so this seemed most natural for me. I'll admit I did use stereotypical steampunk motifs and such because I want people to be able to recognize it as steampunk oriented. I entitled it Clockwork Caning and yes…there is a gear on the cover. This is my first cover with original artwork and I think it turned out terrific. I'd like to hear your feedback.

Clockwork Caning is the story of a newly married couple, Nigel and Eloise. Nigel is a sort of gentleman inventor. Unbeknownst to Eloise, his inventions are rather sexual in nature. The title comes from one of his inventions, which he plans to use on Eloise! Imagine her shock to find out her Victorian married life might not be as she imagined it. Will she come around to Nigel's way of thinking? Perhaps she discovers things about herself she never knew.

Thanks for dropping by! Clockwork Caning will be available this month at major ebook retailers.

***

Malia Mallory is the author of The ABCs of Erotica series, which includes so far A is for Anal, B is for Beach, C is for C*ck Ring and D is for Domination. The ABCs of Erotica covers the erotic spectrum from BDSM to ménage and everything in between. More releases in the series are on the way. She has also released Mia's Cop Craving and Santa's Backdoor Baby. She has hit the bestselling erotica lists at both Amazon and iTunes. Her books are available in electronic format at major retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes and AllRomance Books.


***Malia, you aren't the only author toying with steampunk ideas for a story or two. I do feel a bit intimidated at the thought of all the research involved with the gadgets and gizmos. I'm not a gadget/gizmo kind of girl. Getting a Blackberry three years ago was a big move for me. (Yes. Skhye is sad!) Um, I have never set up my voice mail. EVER. This has become one of those little private jokes between my friends and I...

So, what kind of research did you do for your steampunk baby? Were you busy looking up machines, trying to understand how electrical currents or motors worked, and brushing up on your period language to write your story? Steampunk fiction always comes off Western to me. And I loved THE WILD WILD WEST TV series--new when I was a kid. (I'm old. *sniffle*)

But what am I groaning about? I guess I do the world building all the time anyway but make it all up instead of add a few new layers to the standard historical research for setting. Maybe the reason I get off track with the steampunk story ideas I have is just that what I have to research never did much for me--machines. Whoopie! I'm bad about skirting the whole issue like with the spacecraft in my Feral series. Book 1: uh-oh, the aliens shanghai my hero into space. Well, how in the heck do those ships work? It took me three seconds to go from how to waving a dismissive palm and thinking Heck, they're psychics. They don't need spacecraft fuel or people who've been trained to work various stations in the ship. Oh no! They use psychokinetics and fly the ship. Done. Feed the crew and forget about holes in ionospheres or other nasty side effects of mining fuel, etc. Then I created a completely different spacecraft that runs of the pilots biorhythms! Move on to space opera...My bad. I doubt I could fudge that much again in a time period, even an alternate history of one we know, by using such a lazy crowbar to make things perfect for me. *snort*

So, did you do any techno-fudging in your world or were you the patient author who found plenty of what you needed in research? If so, can you tell us where you chanced upon the information you needed (books, documentaries, or websites) to manage said techno fudging?

Thanks for sharing! As you can see, you really got me thinking! *wink* LOVE THE COVER TOO! Are you hiring yourself out for covers now? There's money in covers. Geesh. I'm so in the wrong business and should throw in the techno-fudging crowbar for the patience to sit through a digital art class! LOL ~Skhye

    

I WANT SOME OF THOSE COOL CARDS!

I'm pretty picky.
So when I first saw romance trading cards and had that NEED to have my own, I realized I couldn't afford them. Authors don't make a lot of money. What we do earn, we tend to recycle into avenues to promote our work. Or we get really crafty and make our own promo items.

Well, I was moaning and groaning about wanting my own trading cards. Geesh. You'd have thought I was some spoiled brat whining about needing another $50 Barbie. Designer, mind you. I have the Celtic Dancer. the Celtic Queen, and the Bagpiper Barbies. Why not spend a ridiculous amount of money on the Klimt Barbie? Yeah. Yeah...

So, all the moaning and groaning wound up instigating a discussion on an author loop. Somebody had a deck of photo playing cards made featuring personal photos--for only about $15. And this included free shipping because the website had a free shipping coupon on the home page. That's ALWAYS. Oh, free is always good! Well, I looked into designing some and immediately made a deck of cards to give all my daughter's grandparents--each card featuring pictures of my 5-year-old at Disney World. Awesome, I tell you. These cards rock!

Why not romance trading cards? That's when I started digging through all those free photos they give away weekly at www.istockphoto.com. Then you can hit stock photography websites to search through their free photo database. But the best thing that happened for my cards was a Dreamstime's subscription package. Yes. Now, I know questions about buying photos are whirling through your mind. Let me chase them away.

Skhye's advice about photos or images...

1. Collect free photos or buy them before you design your cards.
2. The best deals are subscription deals where you can use 10 credits/day to download photos ranging from 1-3 credits in price. But first...
3. Go to a place like www.dreamstime.com and scour the database using various buzz words describing your characters to find photos. Put them in a lightbox.
4. When you've found enough photos and know how many credits you'll need to obtain the images, purchase a subscription for a week or month and snatch those photos. I can spend $128.99 and download 10 credits worth of photos/images daily for 30 days. You can't buy 4-5 XL images for that much.
5. When you download the images, get the largest size you can. The larger the better. You can always reduce their size for whatever reasons. There's no enlarging. Or your lovely image becomes grainy, losing resolution.
6. The photos will inspire you while you search. So, think about the number of designs you'd like to have on the faces of the cards. You will also need something to put on the back. But you only get to create one back for the deck.
7. Finally, if you're handy with Adobe Photoshop, splice and dice images.Layer until your little heart's content. Me, I'm too lazy.

Designing your cards...

1. Go to www.photoplayingcard.com.
2. Create an account.
3. Choose to design cards. You want to choose the deck that allows you to create different designs on the front of each card. That's 52 cards/deck. You will also have two joker cards to design. That means you'll have 54 cards requiring a picture for a character or story card and another picture for the back of your cards (I like the back to represent my brand). Since, I have a lot of stories, I need a lot of pictures...meaning I have multiple designs per deck. So, I create the cards 5 at a time which equals 5 cards per design.
4. Select the option (I think at the bottom right of page) to remove all numbers and symbols from the playing card deck. This will give you a blank slate to work with.
5. Upload your photos or modified images.
6. Drag/drop the image to the cards wherever you want to work on them. Because you purchased extremely large images, you can zoom in/out of each image on the card. You can move them around to select the part of each image you'd prefer to focus on as well.
7. The difficult and excruciating part is the process of adding text. Some of my cards have 7 text boxes. Refer to the KING card below. Each letter in KING is in a different text box. And finding the briefest way to express want you want about something like a character card can be hair-pulling. So, think about character mottos, attributes, etc. These key words are what make your character real. That's the meaty story stuff that goes on each card. Unless, of course, you're working on a cover card. Then you'll want to say something about the entire story like the story's theme. Another way text can torture you is simply deciding the color or style of font. When you look at my cards, you'll see I tend to prefer certain fonts. I bet you will too! Font style reflects personality--of something. LOL I don't want to go into psychology here. Font color makes or breaks a card. You want high contrast. And you want the colors to stand out in a way that is visually appealing and makes a statement about the character or story. You be the judge. These are your cards. Just like I say in writing, you're God or the Goddess. You get to do whatever the heck you want. So, jump off that cliff!
8. Finally, you'll need some text on the back of the cards. Preferrably, a website addy. Another good thing to add is a brand. If you opt to use a book cover for the back, still add a website addy. And keep the front pictures representative of that particular book.
9. Now, SAVE all your work before you close the web page. ALWAYS SAVE IT with the save option on the website.
10. Before ordering your deck, check each proof. You choose the deck you want to edit/order each time you return to the site. This shows you the proofs of each card, even if they aren't finished. Click on EACH proof. Make certain the image you uploaded is tucked beneath the bleed lines (faint shaded gray border around edge of each card). This is where the cards are cut. Especially check cards with pale background colors. Cards with white backgrounds won't matter unless you have text extremely close to the bleed lines. Check that text over really well. When you're happy with EACH card, save the best proof (each card will vary because you set them up individually) and save the whole thing, little pic and sample part--it's all part of the proof like my deck's back image below. Then, you can cut the larger image of card out of the proof set and post it online at your website or wherever you have a blog feature, etc.
11. Ready? All you'll have left to do is place an order!

CHARACTER CARDS
~character name
~character attributes
~character title
~book title

Note about light-colored backgrounds other than white:
I made Crazy Darla's card and checked ALL THE PROOFS (5). As you see here, the blue water stretches to all edges of this proof copy I cut from the proof image. Card corners are rounded, so you might see white tips on my proof images posted online because I cut rectangles from the proof copy. Why kill myself trying to elimate the squared corners, eh? But the print version of the cards I received of CRAZY DARLA all had white stripes on the sides. As if I hadn't positioned the woman-in-bikini image correctly! 

I think, the printing company did this on purpose to have me place another order. Yes, I'm a conspiracy theorist. Just read my books for evidence! LOL But there could be something to my opinion. The printer is in Hong Kong. And I had some interesting prodding e-mails from a Chinese lawyer after ordering my trading cards (that had my website addy on them). Very very interesting e-mails... I kid you not! Do not reply to any Chinese lawyers that contact you. I wound up blocking the jerk!







A BOOK CARD (for a novella)
~a couple reflecting their intimacy
~the book's theme & title





A BOOK-COVER CARD
~cover art
~something catchy about the story





THE BACK OF MY CARDS...
~website addy, brand/theme
~Each card has a proof like the one below. I cut the proof out to post online.

Post-apocalyptic Earth, after alien invasion, AEI, 2065 A.D., The Conquered

Fight or die is the way of the world AEI.

Shoot first and ask questions later becomes Lady Lorelei’s reality when overhearing her adopted warlord father’s plan of placating the aliens in saving his little slice of The Conquered. A plan where she is given to the aliens. Betrayed by the unthinkable sentence, she bolts for her life. Without any weapons, food, or survival skills suited for life outside the warlord’s mansion, her journey only proves post-apocalyptic Earth desperately needs one thing—women. Breeders. Whores. The hottest commodity on the planet.

Wandering Shifter Brutus, a powerful loner renowned for his hatred of Normals, is the only thing capable of securing her idea of freedom. But he has no patience for females and their wiles. Only a handful of Shifter females are known to exist. The rest are Gods-be-damned Normals—a pack of animals that would feed upon their young to profit. But when Lorelei achieves the impossible and escapes the warlord’s city, Brutus can’t refuse the one thing forcing him to pull her up behind him on the saddle and head deep into The Wild. His inner Wolf intends to mate her. But mating a Normal isn’t on his priority list.

More than Brutus’ Wolf is chasing Beauty’s tail. Neither expects the dark cloud lurking on the horizon. In a world where ride or die becomes your only hope for a future, sometimes you find you never really lived until you’re running for your life. Life changes in a heartbeat AEI because nature has a funny way of righting her status quo. Even if that feat requires digging into the chasm, to the animal buried inside Lorelei and Brutus, to trigger the Mating Fever between BEAUTY AND THE BRUTE.

Also available in e-format at NCP

&

READ CHAPTER 1