Steal Away

Steal Away is set in the overlap of Prohibition and the early years of the Depression. Young widow Twilight Amery sees her house stolen from under her, but instead of fighting to keep it she seizes this chance to pursue her secret dream of singing in the jazz clubs--or even in the squalid but freewheeling speakeasies--of Harlem's Tin Pan Alley. She doesn't set out to find love, any more than Hector and Stone set out to find such a daring and practical female to share their lives. But hey--this is a romance.

I wrote this book to a soundtrack of spirituals, blues, and jazz standards: Steal Away, of course, but also Hard Hearted Hannah, Stardust, Someone To Watch Over Me, Deep River, Wade In The Water, Sweet Georgia Brown, Tin Roof Blues, 'Deed I Do, If I Could Be With You, and too many others to list. I wrote it while remembering the songs and stories I heard as a child in Alabama during the desegregation years, and remembering the voices those stories were told in. I hope I've done them justice.

Amber

Visit www.shapeshiftersinlust.com tonight!

Blue Ruin 2 and raspberry rocket pops

Blue Ruin 2: Close to Me, the second installment of my BDSM yaoi romance series, is available today from Loose Id! I explored some hard-hitting relationship issues between my characters of Derek and Blue, and it made for quite the roller coaster ride throughout the writing process. Yet for all the yaoi angst I channeled into this book, I still had some good campy fun, too. As with the first Blue Ruin book, Some Kind of Stranger, book two includes shout-outs to various evil influences. Last time I wove in references to everything from Star Wars to My Chemical Romance, as well as those oft-speculated missing three days from Yamane Ayano's Finder series. This time around, readers should keep their eyes open for shout-outs to Gravitation, Death Note, The X-Files, Harajuku GothLolis, and every steamy Haruka Minami shower scene ever illustrated. (Yes, Haruka-sensei gives good shower!) I've even included the tasty yaoi fandom staple of sea salt ice cream, though I'm representin' Westside with blue raspberry rocket pops.

Which leads both my character Blue and I to ask -- if raspberries are red, why are raspberry-flavored foods blue? Ah well, the world may never know. On with the blurb...

Blue finds pleasure in playing pet to Derek, but is eager to pursue goals outside of their relationship. When Blue starts GED classes and expands his social circle, Derek affords him room to grow, trusting their love is enough to keep his restless pet in line.

That love is put to the test when Cameron Carter reappears in Blue's life. A hurtful crush from Blue's school days, Cameron is a reformed adult now and seeks absolution for old wrongs. While Blue must find it in his heart to forgive Cameron, the greater challenge lies in keeping his unrequited desire for the former bully at bay.

Derek's torn between enforcing boundaries and allowing Blue closure to heal old wounds. Meanwhile, Cameron struggles to forgive himself for the pain he once caused the boy he secretly loved. As Cameron and Blue begin the road to recovery, the sizzling chemistry between them can no longer be ignored.

Caught between two strong-willed men, can Blue prove his loyalty to one while denying his attraction for the other. Or, is it possible that Blue can have them both?

Read an excerpt: http://www.loose-id.com/KSBR2CTMex.aspx

Buy the book: http://www.loose-id.com/detail.aspx?ID=707

Leashed 3 is now available

My newest release is now available! It's the third--well, actually fourth but it's the third about this set of characters--book in a series. It's made me think about the series.

In the summer of 2005, I was asked if I'd like to be in an anthology at Loose Id. Werewolves for Halloween. Could I do it? I gave it some thought. At the time, I had two books out, both in the Dark Elves series. I kind of wanted to do something else, branch out if you will before I got too far into one flavor of erotic romance. So I said sure. Why not? Anthology had to be good exposure, right?

'Course, then I had to think up something to write. Well, I had an inkling of an idea about a witch and a werewolf and this idea of "leashing" that was forming in my brain. Sounded kind of sexy. She leashes him, he's her protection, of course they'd find another kind of connection and hot sex would ensure. What could be wrong with that? So... what's the story. Gotta tell a story. The concept was cool and I started to have an idea of who Meg and Rudy were, but they just weren't meshing completely. Something was missing. Then Michael sprang to life. Problem
was, he was a black panther. He was so obviously a black panther. I mean look at him! So, ok, we'd save Rudy for another story and talk about Meg and Michael. So I'd have to turn him into a werewolf to fit the anthology theme. That was ok, wasn't it? Not! Michael would not turn and Rudy would not go away. What the hell? I had a menage a trois on my hand. As soon as I gave in to that, the story fell into place.

Now, three years later, the third book about the threesome has just been released. Meg, Michael and Rudy have been through some trials and this one presents them with more, one of them being another shifter, this one a werelion, by the name of Logan Lockhart. Hmm, yes, well *cough* Jet has a weakness for sexy men. If you've got one, you need more, right? Like potato chips *ignores the growls from her various heros*

I'm rather fond of the Leashed books, even if Meg did give me some hassle writing this last one. Just so you know, this isn't the last. Oh no. I've got more plans for these characters. The Sister Leashed story about Noelle, Meg's sister (EPPIE award winning even!!) is just one of a few sideline stories I've got in mind and I'm not nearly done with the main threesome. Meg's got some life ahead of her and Michael and Rudy don't look to be going anywhere but right along with her.

Read more about Leashed 3: The Lion's Share on my website or at Loose Id.
More information about the whole Leashed series at my website

Samurai Captive

...many women went into the trade as indentured-sold by family, agents, kidnappers...

~Donald Richie from his foreword to The Nightless City-History of the Yoshiwara Yukwaku by J.E. deBecker, IGC Muse, Inc. 2000

In its time the Yoshiwara Pleasure Quarter was a fortified city-within-a-city in what is present day Tokyo. Though built and regulated by the shogunate it was the only place in Japanese society where all social classes could freely intermingle and enjoy what the district had to offer in adult entertainment.

While most of the women living and working there came to prostitution via force or coercion their lifestyle would become the inspiration for polite society's hot trends, much like today's celebrities and fashion icons. The woodblock artists of the time were like modern day paparazzi selling prints of the most popular prostitutes and actors of the day.

The first class houses employed the top tier Oiran who commanded high fees, wore the finest silks and paraded through the streets with grand entourages as seen in the film Sakuran, to the lower priced girls displayed in street level windows of their brothels as portrayed in one of my favorite films The Sea is Watching.

Hannah Connolly, the heroine of Samurai Captive, (my first solo work from Loose ID) finds herself not only an the unwilling resident of one such low end brothel but also the Yoshiwara's star attraction-the mysterious and exotic western woman who survived the fatal attack on British businessman C.L. Richardson and his traveling companions near Yokohama in the autumn of 1862.

Far from being a shrinking violet type Hannah has certainly become one of my favorite characters with her no-.nonsense way of looking that things. I'd probably have been scared spitless to find myself in her predicament, but Hannah's reaction to being gawked at from beyond the red slatted window was that if the men of Edo who came to peep wanted a "show" she'd give them one.

While the majority of Hannah's "audience" was too timid to do more than stare, samurai Sanada Katsuhiro was a man accustomed to taking what he wanted, when he wanted it.

What he wanted was the white woman with the spirit of a tigress.

And that didn't set too well with his lifelong friend and sometime lover Masato who wasn't about to let some foreigner-some woman, take his place in Katsu's life.

Please stop by my website to read an excerpt.

I'd love to hear what you think of Hannah's story.

~Barbara Sheridan

If you'd like to see some photos of the Yoshiwara Pleasure Quarters check out this page