Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Wednesday is Vaping Crimson


Every Wednesday night will be Vaping Crimson and you can join us live on YouTube at 9 PM CST (10 EST 7 PST and 8 Mst) here to watch the show: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNrIVJc-cKwfFTRBHu9lCMA  We'll have giveaways from our incredible sponsors, talk about advocacy, and just enjoy each other's company.  I hope you'll come out and join us.  We'll have live chat as well, so any questions you have, stop in and ask.  

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Gun Shy Chapter Reveal
















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A stand alone psychological thriller.



HAVE YOU SEEN THIS GIRL?

In the middle of a fierce snowstorm in Gun Creek, Nevada, seventeen-year-old Jennifer Thomas disappears without a trace.

The second girl in nine years.

Identical cases. Identical conditions. Only last time, the girl was found. Dead, stuffed in a well beside the creek that feeds the town's water supply.

The killer was never found.

As the small town mobilizes and searches for newly vanished Jennifer Thomas, one suspect comes to the fore. But did he do it? Or is there something else at play? Something nobody could have anticipated?

For Jennifer's friend Cassie Carlino, the worst is yet to come. As she pins MISSING posters to store windows and joins the search, she begins to suspect that Jennifer's disappearance might be much closer to her than she could have ever imagined.











CASSIE

The center of town is teeming with reporters when we arrive. The mood is somber, self-conscious, even. Can an entire town be collectively self-conscious? They’re shy, that’s for sure. We don’t get a whole lot of visitors in Gun Creek. Certainly not ones who stick microphones in your face and blast you with questions while you’re still half-asleep.
Damon parks the patrol car right across the front doors of the police station, his face drawn and tense. It must be a fucking nightmare, being in charge of an entire town like this. Especially when something like this happens.
I can only imagine how bad things are going to get at home if they don’t find this girl soon.
“These people are fucking vultures,” he mutters, and I make a noise signaling my agreement. He gets out, opening my door for me.
I muster up a plastic smile as Damon holds out my purse, the strap dangling on his outstretched finger.
“Thanks,” I say, taking the bag and slinging it over my shoulder. I put my oversized dollar-store sunglasses on my face, the day already too bright for me to bear.
“You okay?” Damon asks.
“Always,” I reply, walking away from him before he can say anything else. I should ask him if he’s okay, but that would mean pretending that I care.
I have something important that I need, something immediate.
I’m an asshole because I know I should care about the fact that a girl I’ve grown up with is missing, but I have more pressing personal matters.
I need to take care of myself, first. I head for the diner, fifty feet away, already late for my shift. I push past reporters, hanging eagerly at the doors they’re forbidden to cross. They have to hover outside in the snow for their pound of flesh, their soundbites, their newsworthy quotes from Jennifer’s distraught friends and family. I see Casey Mulligan, a girl I went to school with, twirling a strand of long blonde hair around her finger as she musters up a couple of fat tears for a news camera, and it strikes me, just like last time, that the people who get the most attention in this world are the ones who least deserve it.
Still, I’m glad it’s not me. Last thing I want is a camera in my face. I slip by, unassisted, unseen, an invisible girl with a hollow spot inside me. I notice the crates of milk that get delivered to Dana’s every morning are still stacked out front and I grab one as I approach, throwing my purse on top and bracing my stomach muscles to carry the thirty-odd pounds worth of liquid weight. One of our regulars holds the door open for me and I smile in thanks, lugging the milk crate through the diner and toward the cold storage out back.
I’m making my way down the main entrance, past rows of tables and customers talking feverishly about Jennifer, my arms full of milk bottles when it happens.
I see him. Him.
I stop.
My arms stop functioning. I drop everything; the milk crate, my purse, my practiced neutral expression. The purse wafts to the floor, the milk bottles hurtle down with an unceremonious crash, and blue plastic lids burst off and go skittering in every direction.
I sink to my knees, in shock. People are looking at me, but I don’t pay attention to them. I’m too busy fixated on the green-eyed ghost standing in front of me. The splinters in my knees sting like fire-ant bites, and I curl my legs to the side, coming to a sitting position.
“Shit!” Leo says, dropping his backpack to the ground and crouching in front of me. “Cass. Cassie. Are you okay?”
My entire body is alight, little pinpricks along my skin that make me dizzy. The feeling spreads like wildfire, across my chest and through my limbs until I’m overwhelmed and frozen on the spot, sitting on my ass in the middle of the diner, voices and whispers all around.
I watch in fascination as milk spreads in a puddle in front of me, like spilled blood. It rushes at me like a miniature tsunami as a painful buzz begins in my head.
“You’re gonna pass out,” Leo says, his words sounding far away as he reaches out a hand to help me up. “Jesus, Cassie, you’re white as a sheet.”
I hold my hand out, the conviction in my reach laughable, and it’s like that moment of electricity that people talk about. I can feel it build in my fingertips, that arc of some invisible thing that wants to join with his invisible thing, but then a hand wraps around my wrist and yanks my arm away before I can make contact with the boy — no, with the man — I thought was still in prison.
“Did he hurt you?” Damon’s voice in my ear breaks my dream-like state. I open my mouth to say something and decide against it, swallowing air instead. I shake my head.
“How’d you get on the ground?” Damon asks, shaking me a little.
“She fell down,” Leo says, his arm no longer outstretched. He takes a step away from me, and Jesus, it hurts. He looks anguished. “She dropped the milk and she fell down.” I can’t stop looking at him. I can’t bear to look at him.
The milk has reached me. It seeps across my right knee, curled underneath me; the backs of my thighs, my palms. It’s ice cold, and I can feel myself shaking.
Damon is crouched next to me, his hand on my cheek, diverting my attention to him. “Are you all right, Cassie?” he asks, helping me to my feet, his tone gathering more urgency with each question I don’t answer. Amanda is picking up the milk bottles beside us, piling them high in her arms as I continue to stare at Leo. He’s… different. He has tattoos now. He looks exactly the same but entirely reconstructed. He’s eight years older, I realize. A third of his life, gone. A third of mine. It feels like it’s been forever. It feels like it’s been no time at all.
Deputy Chris appears, looking between me and Leo with uncertainty. Why didn’t anyone tell me? How the hell did Leo just materialize from thin air in the Grill?
“Cassie,” Damon snaps, and I know he means business.
I nod. “I’m fine. I’m okay.” I think of where I was going before I saw fucking Leo. Pills. Purge. “I need a minute.”
“I’ll take you home,” Damon says, his hand on the small of my back as he starts to guide me toward the front doors. I panic, pushing him away.
“You have a missing girl to find,” I say quickly. “I’m fine, really. I just need some aspirin.” And a fucking gun, so I can put myself out of my misery.
“I’ll walk you there,” Damon says, ever the hero. If they only knew, I think to myself, as Amanda opens the staff room door and ushers us inside.
“Give us a minute,” Damon says, giving Amanda a concerned look. She nods, closing the door and waiting out in the hallway as Damon closes the blinds and twists the lock on the door.
“Didn’t think he’d have the balls to show his face in public,” Damon says, and that’s when I understand.
I feel the blood drain from my cheeks as I realize. He knew. He knew Leo would be here today. I ask him with my eyes, searching, imploring. His expression tells me everything.
“You could have warned me,” I whisper.
His eyes narrow. “I considered it. Figured it was better you didn’t know in advance.” He pauses. “Didn’t expect you to fall to your knees in front of him.”
“Fuck you,” I seethe.
Damon’s jaw twitches. “I’m sorry,” he offers, almost as if he’s suggesting an apology rather than delivering one.
I reach for the lock, twisting it and cracking the door open. The temporary quiet we’ve had is pierced by the excited noise of a diner who’s just witnessed the tragic reunion of two star-crossed lovers, or maybe they’re all just gossiping about the missing girl.
“Jennifer,” I hiss at Damon. One word. It works. He shakes his head, his blue eyes fucking burning with anger, but he leaves.
Holy shit. As soon as he’s gone, I close the door again. I don’t bother locking it — who’s going to find me in here? Leo’s long gone if he’s got any sense, and as much as I don’t care about anything, the thought of Amanda having to mop up the milk I spilled makes me so fucking guilty I can barely breathe.
Pills. Purge. Yes.
I go into the staff bathroom, a small tiled square off the main staff room, and start to throw up as soon as the door is closed. I don’t even need to stick my finger down my throat — I’m so full of adrenaline from seeing Leo, I just open my mouth and everything comes out. It’s the kind of vomit that gets in your nose and burns behind your eyes and makes you cry with the way it chokes you.
When I’ve emptied my stomach and I stop gagging, I clean myself up, my head feeling like it might split in two. I’m so hot I think I might burst into flames. I take off my cardigan, my fingers clumsy and damp, and use it to wipe my face.
Pills. Yes. I go back out to the staff room, seeking whatever pharmaceutical bliss I can rummage up from my staff locker. I didn’t switch the overhead lights on when I first came in, and the windowless cave is dim, the only illumination coming from the slightly ajar bathroom door and the fluorescent strips that line its ceiling.
The staff room is empty. Except… it’s not.
Leo. He’s here. Somehow, the only person here with me is the one person I shouldn’t be anywhere near.
He looks at me with eyes that have seen violence since I last gazed into them. I know because I recognize the hardness inside his soul; it matches mine.
My face is a blank canvas, but inside I’m screaming.
Not with fear. With longing. And shame. I want the boy who destroyed everything to pick me up and take me into the bathroom and put his hands all over me. I want him to erase every trace of the last decade. Under my shirt, my nipples stiffen, and shame pools in my belly.
I shouldn’t want to be anywhere near this boy after what he did, but I do.
“I’m sorry,” Leo says. His voice. Oh, God. I don’t remember his voice being that fucking beautiful. It’s deep and full and if it were a food, it’d be honey. He’s not a boy anymore. He’s a man now. A stranger.
His face falls as he gestures to my stomach, concerned. “You have blood on your shirt,” he says, pointing from a safe distance. “Did you cut yourself when you fell?” He looks remorseful. Like he thinks the blood on my shirt is his fault.
My heart sinks. I shake my head tightly, tears springing to my eyes.
“Not my blood,” I say, my voice coming out like a squeak. Leo looks confused.
“The dog,” I stammer. “Rox. She — she—”
“I saw her yesterday,” Leo says, his eyes wide as he looks from my eyes to the blood on my shirt. I didn’t even realize it was there. I’d been wearing my sweater until I took it off just now.
“She’s dead,” I say. “I’m sorry.”
Leo takes a step back. Something passes over his face, a darkness, a fleeting suspicion. “How?” he asks.
I don’t know how to answer that. So I don’t. I push past him and start walking to the kitchen, as fast as I can, because I don’t have an answer for him. My shoulder burns from where I grazed his arm on the way out of the staff room. He might have ruined my life, destroyed my family, taken my future in one careless night — but Leo Bentley still makes me burn like hellfire.

















Lili writes dark, delicious romance full of love, lust and revenge. Her USA Today Bestselling Gypsy Brothers series focuses on a morally bankrupt biker gang and the young woman who seeks her vengeance upon them. The Cartel series is a trilogy that explores the beginnings of the club, published through HarperCollins.

Lili quit corporate life to focus on writing and so far is loving every minute of it. Her other loves in life include her gorgeous husband and beautiful daughter, excellent coffee, Tarantino movies and spending hours on Instagram.

She loves to read almost as much as she loves to write.


Author Links



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Monday, September 25, 2017

Sponsor our Live Vape Show on YouTube



The Vaping Crimson Girls is brought to you by international bestselling romance author, Michelle Hughes and Tears of Crimson.  As a strong vaping advocate, Michelle was very pleased to know that her twin daughters wanted to support her endeavor to get the word out about vaping to a large audience.  Kaitlin and Kayla are talented young women who know first-hand how vaping saves lives because they’ve seen it happen for not only their mother, but their grandmother as well.  It is there goal to give information to the public and to help current smokers find the help they need to quit by vaping. The twins are legal vaping age in their home state of Alabama and will turn 21 on October 30, 2017.

Sponsoring the Vaping Crimson Girls allows your company to reach into the social media fans and friends that Tears of Crimson has developed over the last eight years.  Our current reach includes 13,000 twitter followers @MichelleHughes_, 4,000 Facebook followers (www.facebook.com/authormichellehughes), and another 150,000 followers that come from her blogs, Pinterest, Linked In, and Tumblr fandom.  All of these social media links will be connected to promote your company until the Vaping Crimson Girls build their own following. 

The show will broadcast on YouTube each Wednesday night at 9 PM CST.  Other show dates and times maybe added in the future.  The first show begins September 20th here:  http://youtube.com/channel/UCNrIVJc-cKwfFTRBHu9lCMA?view_as=subscriber  

How can a romance author backing help a vaping show?  Our goal is to educate everyone, not just vaping enthusiasts.  It is our belief that having people from every walk of life supporting the vaping industry helps keep it alive.  We can reach an audience that most vaping advocates haven’t tapped into.  Michelle is even working on a new book that focuses on vaping in a romance setting, which ties into the Vaping Crimson Girls theme.

We brought Tears of Crimson Publishing from an unknown entity in 2009 to a name that is now synonymous with romance readers everywhere.  We believe we can do the same thing for the Vaping Crimson world.  With your sponsorship, we have the opportunity to reach more people than ever before.  Our shows will always be classy and geared toward the education of new vaping individuals as well as the person who wants to quit smoking but hasn’t taken that step yet.  In the process, we hope to reach people that have an unfavorable view of vaping and changed their minds.   This is more than just a vaping show for Tears of Crimson.  We understand the harm big tobacco has caused over the years and how many people will die this year alone if they can’t kick the habit of smoking.  We want to reach the masses! 


Other Links:

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/CrimsonVaping

Tumblr:   http://vapingcrimsongirls.tumblr.com/


Friday, September 22, 2017

Beauty Release Day - Mary Catherine Gebhard




























Once upon a time, I thought love was a fairytale.

My prince was a Beast with blood on his hands and ice in his veins. My family offered to save me. The only price: leaving the tattered pieces of my heart behind.

Our love was irrational. Cruel. Unforgiving. Nothing like the storybooks said it should be—but it was perfect.

The longer we were apart, the more I lost myself. He was vicious and domineering, but I craved the submission. Together we were destructive, but I was addicted to the devastation. Still, I thought titles mattered. To my family I was princess, and to the Beast I was slave. I was too naïve to understand that even though he’d been my captor, he’d broken the shackles on my soul.

Once upon a time, I thought love meant happily ever after.

Now I know better.











I was going insane, absolutely aching, and it was just instinct to touch myself. He grabbed my hand, lifting it so my fingers were just below his chin.

“Greedy girl,” he said. “Don’t you know your orgasm is mine? I own this.” He sucked my fingers until they were clean and I moaned, rubbing my thighs together. I was so overstimulated, I was sure I was going to come just from the friction. I rubbed my thighs harder and he laughed darkly, pushing me off him. I fell to the ground.

Eyes still locked, Anteros reached behind and flipped over the coffee table. The glass crashed and shattered. Some shards hit my thigh, but I didn’t think about that or the mess or the possible danger because moments later Anteros was on the ground with me.

He crawled between my legs and spread them wide in the new space. I got to my elbows, watching him rapt.

“If you come without permission,” he said, licking a long, razor sharp trail from behind my knee to inside my thigh, “you will be punished.”










Want to win a signed copy of Beast & Beauty plus a $25 Amazon Gift Card

Click HERE to enter.





Mary Catherine Gebhard bites off more than she can chew. She's lived in Salt Lake City, Utah her entire life but occasionally goes on vacation from reality. Don't worry, she sends postcards.









Monday, September 18, 2017

Romancing the Vape





Romancing the Vape?  Michelle, have you lost your mind?  That's debatable, but if you're a smoker I want to encourage you to join in the new network for Tears of Crimson, Vaping Crimson.  As you may or may not know, two years ago I was diagnosed with COPD after smoking for over 30 years.  Three months ago my pulmonary function test (a test for your lungs) came back normal.  How did that happen?  Vaping.  There is so much misinformation floating around about vaping, that I felt it was my duty to set the record straight and hence Vaping Crimson was formed.

What does that have to do with romance?  I'm so glad you asked!  I'm currently working on a new romance book, titled Up in Smoke, and what better time to educate the public about vaping and the positive effect it's  had on my life.  With the help of my beautiful twins, The Vaping Crimson Girls, we're putting together a weekly live show on YouTube to answer questions, do a few vaping giveaways, and have a great time together every Wednesday night.  It is our goal to help every smoker kick the habit for good by switching to an alternative that is 95% safer.

That's all good, Michelle, but I don't smoke or vape.  You don't have to.  Come hang out for the fun, and ask me about my books or anything else you're interested in talking about.  Yes, this is a vaping show, but it's also about getting to know each other and having a little fun.  Speaking of that, this show wouldn't be possible without our sponsors, and we are currently looking for more of them.  If you're interested in sponsoring the show (vape giveaways or donating so we can giveaway vape products) please join us by visiting this page: http://www.crimsongirls.stream/p/sponsor-us.html


Our current sponsors are HiggyCigs Nocturne Vapors and the incredible Joey Giggles you'll be learning about them on our show, if you're not already familiar I encourage you to visit their links and find out more.  Our first show airs this Wednesday night at 9 PM CST (10 EST, 7 PT, 8 MT) on our new YouTube Channel: Crimson Girls on Youtube  please subscribe to the channel when you arrive.  We'd love to have you join us on Facebook as well.  Vaping Crimson Girls on Facebook and Vaping Crimson on Facebook

We look forward to hanging out with you this Wednesday night on Youtube.  If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below, or get in touch with me through either of the Facebook pages listed above.  Have a great week, folks!


Please make sure you check out our Sponsors!


https://www.e-cigoutlet.net/  DaddyVapor Sponsor





Friday, September 15, 2017

Pitch Dark - A.M. Wilson & Alex Grayson



IT'S LIVE!!!




One girl disappeared. After fifteen years, her cold lifeless body was found on the damp forest floor. Not an inch of her was unmarked by the horrors she endured. Alone, malnourished, abused in horrific ways; this was how she died.

One girl was found walking the streets, covered in dirt and scars. She had no memory of who she was, where she came from, or what happened to her. Even though the marks on her body attested to years of heinous abuse, her strength shone through at every turn.

Revenge and justice were sworn.

Years of searching brought up nothing but dead ends. Detective Niko James was too late to save his childhood friend, but he vows not to let down another. 

The clock is ticking and the trail is pitch dark.

*TRIGGER WARNING*  Some scenes depict abusive situations.








(PLEASE DELETE IF YOU ARE NOT REVIEWING)


A.M. WILSON


A. M. Wilson loves infusing her stories with real life—the good, the bad, and the steamy parts. She thinks there’s something special about romance; that pivotal moment when two characters realize their love for each other, but she likes wading through a little angst to get there. When she isn’t furiously typing on her computer, she can be found searching for her next all-consuming read. A. M. lives in Minnesota with her husband, two children, and black lab. Connect with her at amwilson.net orwww.facebook.com/A.M.WilsonAuthor





ALEX GRAYSON


Alex Grayson is the bestselling author of heart pounding, emotionally gripping contemporary romance including the Jaded Series, the Consumed Series, and two standalone novels. Her passion for books was reignited by a gift from her sister-in-law. After spending several years as a devoted reader and blogger, Alex decided to write and independently publish her first novel in 2014 (an endeavor that took a little longer than expected). The rest, as they say, is history.

Originally a southern girl, Alex now lives in Ohio with her husband, two children, two cats and dog. She loves the color blue, homemade lasagna, casually browsing real estate, and interacting with her readers. Visit her website, www.alexgraysonbooks.com, or find her on social media!







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