Highlighted Author

Monday, September 17th, 2012

Welcome L.K. Below

Join me in welcoming L.K. Below to Highlighted Author.

From an early age, L.K. Below devoured books. Books offered new worlds, new possibilities for her young mind to comprehend. Some of her fondest memories include reading back and forth with her father at night or sitting beneath a tree at recess with a Tamora Pierce book. As she grew up, her love of the written word didn’t diminish. Rather, it grew to span an even greater range of genre and subject.

Both those loves combined to ensure that L.K. would go on to weave little-known facts into worlds of her own making. She follows where the characters lead, no matter how bizarre. The best books provide an escape. If she can create a story a fraction as engrossing as that of her favorite authors, she considers her weeks well spent.

Welcome, L.K..

Every author has a set of characters more dear to their hearts than any others. In most cases, this stems from these characters being among the first ever created. I won’t claim Lori and Terrence were my very first, but they did come close. Their first book, Stalking Shade, which released in 2011, was originally written in 2007. And rewritten. And rewritten.

And now it feels like a dear friend is moving away. With the release of This Blackened Night, the trilogy has come to an end. Lori might be a prickly character, not easy for anyone but Terrence to love, but I had a lot of fun with her. When I wrote this third book late last year, I dragged my feet to see it finished for the same reason. I didn’t want to let the pair of them go. A not-so-secret part of me is hoping for an overwhelming response from readers asking me to continue so I have an excuse to revisit my favorite characters.

Maybe you’ll fall in love with Lori and Terrence every bit as fiercely as I have. Lori might be stubborn in pushing people away, but Terrence is the most persistent character I’ve ever written. Good thing, too.

Every author has a set of characters more dear to their hearts than any others. In most cases, this stems from these characters being among the first ever created. I won’t claim Lori and Terrence were my very first, but they did come close. Their first book, Stalking Shade, which released in 2011, was originally written in 2007. And rewritten. And rewritten.

And now it feels like a dear friend is moving away. With the release of This Blackened Night, the trilogy has come to an end. Lori might be a prickly character, not easy for anyone but Terrence to love, but I had a lot of fun with her. When I wrote this third book late last year, I dragged my feet to see it finished for the same reason. I didn’t want to let the pair of them go. A not-so-secret part of me is hoping for an overwhelming response from readers asking me to continue so I have an excuse to revisit my favorite characters.

Maybe you’ll fall in love with Lori and Terrence every bit as fiercely as I have. Lori might be stubborn in pushing people away, but Terrence is the most persistent character I’ve ever written. Good thing, too.

This Blackened Night

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With murders cropping up all around, who should she trust?

After months of searching, Lori finally scrounges up a clue as to the whereabouts of the missing leader of her secret organization. But her vision isn’t encouraging–it points to her vampire companion Terrence as the culprit.

Terrence is adamant that he isn’t at fault. Even though she knows she might be walking into a trap, she follows his lead to a shabby island port. When her informants start turning up dead with puncture wounds in their necks, Lori wonders just how well she knows Terrence. And why does he act different during the search than in their hotel room?

Lori doesn’t know who to trust anymore. She only hopes that she won’t be the next victim.

Excerpt:

Terrence reached out, but Lori recoiled. “What’s wrong?” he asked. His fangs winked in and out of sight.

Lori tried to answer. Her voice lodged in the growing knot in her throat.

A cocky smile spread over his face. “Don’t tell me it’s my kissing. We’ve kissed before. Many times.”

Stolen kisses, but that wasn’t the point.

Lori eased onto the bed. Closer to the stake and knife in her boot. She’d staked him once before. After battling heartache, she’d been careful not to do it again. But if he wasn’t the man she’d thought–if he’d done the unthinkable…

Terrence reached out to touch her cheek. Recoiling, she yanked the stake from her boot. The snick of silver-coated steel punctuated the silence. “Don’t touch me.”

His eyes dimmed. Dropping his hand, he frowned. “Lori my love, I would never hurt you.”

“I’m not anything to you!” Lori felt like she was replaying the past. The same words, the same action to follow, only this time if she staked Terrence, he might stay dead.

He’d kidnapped the Spenta Michos. He’d known all along, and she’d trusted him.

“I had a vision,” she spat.

His face hardened. She saw the same bloodthirsty man she’d glimpsed only twice before, each time when he’d saved her life. Was he about to kill her like he had the lunatics who had threatened her back then?

“When?”

“When do you think?”

Her fingers curled around the stake. The cold metal started to heat from her skin. Her palm was slick with sweat. Could she really go through with this?

“What did you see?”

Four words, spoken in a deep, cold voice. Did he know? Did he already suspect what she would say? She levered her weapon between them, moving into a fighting stance before she delivered her words. “I saw the Spenta Michos being kidnapped. By you.”

Panic crossed his face.

Learn more about the series as a whole on the Lyrical Press, Inc. website: http://bit.ly/TheOrderSeries.

Read a longer excerpt from This Blackened Night at http://bit.ly/ThisBlackenedNight.

If L.K. Below gets far too attached to her characters, well, that’s because they’re interesting people. Read two of her favorites in her urban fantasy series, The Order. Join her online at http://lbelow.net to learn more. 

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