Book Release Day: Prince of Tricks

Today is release day for the first book in my Demons of Elysium series with Samhain Publishing, and I couldn't be more thrilled. Demons is a prequel companion series to The House of Arkhangel'sk. Same world, same naughty demons, but more of them. As in naked, romping demons. ;)

Join me on Facebook for my book launch party, featuring lots of fun and prizes, from 7:30pm to 10:30pm Eastern this evening:

When desire rises, angels will fall. One, by one, by one…

Over the past century, Belphagor has made a name for himself in Heaven’s Demon District as a cardsharp, thief, and charming rogue.

Though the airspirit is content with his own company, he enjoys applying the sweet sting of discipline to a willing backside. Angel, demon, even the occasional human. He’s not particular. Until a hotheaded young firespirit steals his purse—and his heart. Now he’s not sure who owns whom.

A former rent boy and cutpurse from the streets of Raqia, Vasily has never felt safer than in the arms—and at the feet—of the Prince of Tricks. He’s just not sure if Belphagor returns those feelings. There’s only one way to find out, but using a handsome, angelic duke to stir Belphagor’s jealousy backfires on them both.

When the duke frames Vasily for an attempted assassination as part of a revolutionary conspiracy, Belphagor will do whatever it takes to clear his boy’s name and expose the real traitor. Because for the first time in his life, the Prince of Tricks has something to lose.

Warning: Contains erotic sex: m/m, m/m/m, m/m/m/m…oh hell. Let’s just say “mmmmmm!” and be done with it. Also one m/f scene. Smart discipline meted out with a great deal of love and charm. Erotic sex acts requiring copious amounts of elbow grease.

Prince of Tricks is available now from the following retailers:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo
and from the Samhain Publishing website.

One year ago today...

Hello peeps! I'm loving the new look of the blog. A very special thank you to Veronica Scott!

Today, I'm celebrating the 1-year publishing anniversary of Crash Landing. This story started with a conversation with one of my editors. For those who don't know my stories, I write alien romances, and many of my aliens tend to have blue skin. In our conversation, my editor and I were discussing the proper shade of blue for my aliens. And here are ten fun facts about Crash Landing (originally shared on Kacey Hammell's blog):

1. I had no intentions of writing this story as I was working on two others at the time. 
2. It was one of my editors, Kate Richards, who suggested I write it. Well, she demanded it in her inbox that night. LOL It took me a little longer than that to write it. The story idea started with this line, “…indigo is for space aliens. Turquoise is for underwater hunks.” 
3. I submitted the story 20 days after I started writing it. 
4. All of the characters’ names are Latin based. Cael = space, Mare = water, and Tara = Earth. 
5. Cael’s home planet, Narien, came from me staring at my bookshelf, trying to think of a name. The books that caught my attention were The Chronicles of Narnia, and Gini Koch’s Alien series. Narnia + Alien = Narien 
6. Originally I thought of making this just an M/M story to take place in the water, but Tara fought her way in there and brought the story to dry land. 
7. While editing this story, I found out one of my overused words was “pain”. Well, Cael did crash land after all. I’m sure there’s going to be some pain. LOL 
8. I had to use the washroom really bad while writing one scene. I’m sure you’ll figure out which one, though I didn’t hear any thumping on my bathroom walls. 
9. There is plenty of hot alien sex in this story without needing tentacles or alien abductions.

Crash Landing

A story from The Edge

By Jessica E. Subject

Sci-Fi MMF Ménage Erotica 

ISBN: 978-1613333884

As his ship plummets toward Earth, Cael believes his life to be over. His last ditch effort to save himself ends in a fiery crash. When he wakes up, he believes he’s entered the afterlife, but his surroundings indicate otherwise. He made it to Earth. But who saved him, and what do they want with him?

Available from: 

Amazon (US/UK) | Decadent Publishing | All Romance | B&N | more

Bio:

Jessica Subject is the author of contemporary and science fiction romance, ranging from sweet to sexy. In her stories, you could meet clones, or a sexy alien or two. You may even be transported to another planet for a romantic rendezvous.

When Jessica isn't reading, writing, or doing dreaded housework, she likes to get out and walk. Fast. But she just may slow down if there is a waterfall nearby.

Jessica lives in Ontario, Canada with her husband and two energetic children. And she loves to hear from her readers. You can find her at jessicasubject.com and on twitter @jsubject.

Website/Blog | Newsletter | Twitter | Facebook

Pinterest | Goodreads | Amazon | Authorgraph

I'm in for a busy December

I don't know about you, but my Decembers keep getting busier and busier. And I'm not talking about the usual buying gifts for the holidays and baking. I'm talking about everything. In my writing, I have so many projects I want to finish up. On the promotion side, I have a bunch of blog tours and blog hops coming up. Plus, I have two stories set to release early next year that need various stages of edits. I'm not complaining. It just seems everything seems to happen in December, whereas some months I have little to nothing going on except writing the next story.

One of the big things to happen to me recently is the print release of Intergalactic Heat, which is a collection of my 1Night Stand stories from Decadent Publishing. Here's a sneak peek:





Plus, my sci-fi erotica short story, Alien Lover, releases December 7, 2012.

So, what do you have planned for December? Are you taking it easy, or going to be just as crazy as me?

Jessica Subject started writing to encourage her daughter to read. Now she writes to keep herself grounded. Although she reads many genres, she enjoys writing Science Fiction Romance the most and believes everyone in the universe deserves a happily ever after. She lives Southwestern Ontario, Canada with her husband and two kids and loves to hear from anyone who has enjoyed her stories.

Website/Blog / Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads / Amazon

Repeat That Please!

You’ve got your story name, you know who the characters are, and you’ve even done a plot outline. You’re set. A blank document is open and you’re off to the races. Fingers glide over the keys as the story unfolds right before your eyes. Went so well, you finished a chapter in record time. Now the real fun begins. You submit it to your critique group, or a partner, a beta reader – whatever. You’ve done this a few hundred times or more. You know all the pitfalls so you’ve already self-edited the problems out. You’ve eliminated every single one of them right?

Spell checked. Check.
Grammar. Check.
Not too many ly words. Check.
You need a few of those ing words. Check
To instead of too, there for their. Check

Here’s where it gets tricky. There are a few words we all should check - was, that, right, thought, really, started. There’s had, would, just, then and when. Did I cover most of them? No! Okay lets check for as, could, all, so and and – make sure you haven’t used it too many times. Check for of, the, he or she when you could have used the character’s name or maybe you didn’t need either. I’ve seen lists of these words somewhere. I’ve checked them all.

Wait, I want to take you back a few months. I had a chapter in for a critique and I got a note via the group email that it had been critted by someone. I’m grinning – really. I’m happy someone read it and I’m going to get some great pointers or ideas on how to make it better. I open the file and immediately I see quite a few red comment boxes down the side, nothing too major. I’m not scared yet. I get to one comment that said “I know you write paranormal, but can they possibly know so much?” In 2,700+/- words, and only seven pages, I’d used ‘knew’ 28 times!

Now I’m scared because, no, they can’t know that much. Hell, even I know that much.

Moving forward to now, I’ve made all my checks and luckily my characters have learned that they don’t know too much anymore. I place my chapter in for critiquing and I happily move on to the next. Soon I see an email, and great, someone’s read my chapter. I click on the link and I open it, excited to see what someone thought about my new story and I’ll possibly get some suggestions or comments that will help me to tighten it up, make it crisper. Let me say here how lucky I am because in the past they (my critters) helped me open a door I’d left closed, yet my character walked through it. I have body parts that move on their own. Hey! I write paranormal – it’s possible. My hero walks behind the woman he’s going to fall in love with and tells us her eyes are blue. Okay, so he can’t see through her skull. Maybe he read it in her mind. Remember, I write paranormal romances. Anyway, my critters catch this kind of stuff.

Today I got a crit back and guess what? Take, took and taking all took over my damn story. I don’t know where they came from. Swear! Just then, really, I knew, as all this was happening that, and no matter when this started to happen, I thought I had checked it, I know I was going to, I even knew I did, but there it was so blatantly in my face. Who would have thought, how could it be? I checked, it shouldn’t be there! Anyway, all-in-all it wasn’t too bad. Did I get to use all my words? *ROFLMAO*

Something good came from this experience though - I have a new word to put on my list. Check.

Does this problem plague you? Do you have a list of overused or repeat words? Are you heavy on the ly or ing words? Share a few with us.

Remember: Growl and roar – it’s okay to let the beast out. J. Hali Steele.