Alisa Sheckley/Alisa Kwitney | Borders

Borders can be pretty dangerous places. People slip over them in the dead of night, bringing desperate travelers, contraband goods and stolen identities. I knew I was inviting in all kinds of delicious plot complications when I set my novel, The Better to Hold You, on an invisible boundary line between realities.

I tried not to think about the complications I was inviting by setting my sequel, Moonburn, on the borderline between paranormal romance and urban fantasy. At first, when I thought about writing a sequel, I thought I would concentrate on another couple, and leave my main characters to get on with the business of living happily ever after.

But the truth is, I've always had a bit of a problem believing that couples will transition straight from a passionately conflicted courtship to a stress-free marriage. In my novels, I've always ended things optimistically, but assumed that there was another book, never to be written, about what happened next.

And all of a sudden, I wanted to write the forbidden book.

In The Better to Hold You, my heroine, Abra, becomes infected with the lycanthropy virus and discovers how to listen to her instincts. But what if her condition continues to change, and her instincts, and her impulses, become harder to control?

Click to read the rest of Alisa's blog and to leave a comment.

Eve Kenin | Kick Butt

We all do it every day of our lives. We handle the cooking, the cleaning, the job, the boss, the mustard spilled down the front of the white blouse just as we’re ready to leave the house, the sick parent, sick child, sick hubby or self. A shattered glass. A shattered dream. A mountain of laundry that seems to be growing exponentially. Carpool, car accident, kid throwing up in the car. We handle things that are bigger, or smaller. Things that get under our skin and stay to irritate, like sand in your bathing suit. Things that are so huge they would dwarf a whale. We handle them because we must. Is it always easy? No. But we do it nonetheless, sometimes with gritted teeth or a heavy heart, and sometimes with hard won grace.

Which means there’s a little kick butt heroine inside us all.

So what exactly is the kick butt heroine? She’s a woman who copes with anything that is thrown at her. It isn’t always easy for her, but she faces down the challenge before her and finds a way to surmount it. Physical strength is one weapon in her arsenal, but she’s also smart and wily and she finds her backbone even when she’s shaking so hard she can barely breathe. She has failings and weaknesses, and she’s smart enough to both recognize them and turn them to her advantage.

My July release, HIDDEN, has such a heroine. She’s a genetically enhanced super-soldier who’s been kept prisoner and used as a lab rat all her life. At one point in the story, Tatiana is described as a combination of “waif and warrior”, and that description is apt. She’s survived horrors in her life and she’s on a mission to complete her three-step plan to kill the monster that held her prisoner and save the Northern Waste from the plague he developed. She’s both incredibly brave, and incredibly afraid. She can withstand the subzero temperatures of the Waste, hack through bone with her bare hands, and take out a small army without breaking a sweat. But more than that, she faces down her frailties and weaknesses and fears and meets each day, each challenge, with all the strength she can muster. And that puts her solidly in the kick butt category.

Just don’t make her cook a meal.

Please visit www.evekenin.com/ or www.evesilver.net/ for more information on HIDDEN and other Eve Kenin / Eve Silver books.

Happy reading!

Eve Kenin / Eve Silver