Hello everyone! Today at Behind Closed Doors I have two very special author friends sharing the first thirteen lines or sentences of one of their new releases. Fellow Siren author Lynn Tyler will be sharing a snippet from her book Their Rebel Mate which is available for pre-order now. Author Kendall McKenna is here to share from her soon to be released Nights in Canaan. Both books promise some smokin’ hot love scenes between the characters. You won’t want to miss either one of them! Now let’s get the party started, shall we? Oh, and make sure you read all the way to the end. Kendall is offering a way for you to win a free ebook.
First up is the Lynn with the second book in her Helan Universe series. In this one, human females are being asked to mate with males from another world. Let me just share the blurb with you so you can get an idea of what obstacles the Helan males face convincing the human females to have sex with their hunky selves. Sorry…just had a brief hot flash with my day dreaming!
Chief of Communications Kerek and his mate, Ambassador Thantos are tasked with educating humans on Helan culture. It’s not an easy job considering there is a movement dedicated to making sure that no female mates with Helan males.
Kim McManus is determined to keep as many human women from being forced to mate the Helan males as possible. So what if the Helans have made mating with them voluntary? The Helans history of telling half truths makes them suspicious in her books. Suspicious enough that she hijacks a television signal to plead her case.
When she’s given a chance to stay on the Helan star ship for a month to learn about their culture, she grabs it with both hands. But what happens when she ends up bonded with Thantos and Kerek, two of the very males she’s been campaigning so hard against?
Now here’s her Thirteen Sentences
Gods, the humidity on this planet sucked the energy right out of him. Thantos breathed in another lungful of the sticky, heavy air and lifted his long hair off the nape of his neck. He really disliked the sweat that was rolling down his spine.
Disliked. That was ambassador speak for hated. At least that’s what Kerek, his mate, said.
But really, this humidity was disgusting. Every inch of him was damp and drooping, including the inches currently hanging left and limp between his legs.
Of course, he wasn’t the only thing that was limp. Even the trees were flagging. The grass had withered away to brown, straggly strands that would probably turn to dust at the slightest touch.
The scent of exhaust was stifling and burned his nostrils.
The house the United States Government had offered to put them up in loomed in the distance. It was a beautiful old building, the white paint seeming to shimmer in the heat.
More about Lynn and her books
Adult Excerpt for Their Rebel Mate featured at Sassy Vixen Publishing Blog
Saturday Spotlight at The House of Taboo March 2nd
And now for our second guest, Kendall McKenna who writes M/M erotic romances. Do you see why I paired these fabulous authors today for my very last Thursday Thirteen feature? What better to pair up with a MMF menage than a M/M? I knew you’d all see it my way, plus these ladies do NOT disappoint! So let me share the blurb from Nights in Canaan so you can get a little bit of a teaser before the opening lines.
Love and hate. Good and evil. Life and death. The universe requires balance, whatever the cost. An ancient vampire rises, time after time, threatening the survival of the human race. An ancient warrior is reborn, again and again, with the singular purpose of halting the vampire’s bloody rampage. With each encounter throughout time, their passions burn and their emotions deepen. The vampire shares his body and the warrior shares his blood. When they are no longer able to cause one another harm, the lovers hesitate to fulfill their destinies. Will the ancient warrior sacrifice the whole of the human race, in exchange for eternity in the arms of the vampire he loves?
Oooooo…she had you at vampire didn’t she? Then toss in an ancient male warrior who comes back lifetime after lifetime in order keep humanity safe from the blood drinker and you have me hooked. Top that off with the two of them falling for each other…OMG!
Here’s the opening lines from this amazing tale.
The night was moonless and warm. Jesse folded the edges of his bisht more snugly about himself. A short, bronze sword hung from his waist. A sword of considerable length was strapped to his back, his wings folded tightly over it. The sword was forged from a metal humans would not smelt for thousands of years.
Jesse pulled the end of his keffiyeh over his face as he strode between the dwellings constructed of mud brick and wood. His footsteps kicked up the dust and dirt that covered most of the pathways. Gina was a city in its infancy, still more village than metropolis, and had few paths paved with cobbles.
To the east, shouts of anger and aggression rose up and were carried to Jesse on the wind. That same wind held the scents of unwashed humans, penned livestock, and the waste products of both. Jesse hated when the mission for which he had been reborn pulled him from the desert and into a city. In the desert, the humans did not live so tightly clustered, wallowing in their own filth.
Now a word from Kendall about Knights of Canaan…
And that’s my first thirteen! I hope it gets your attention and makes you want to check out the entire story. It’s hard to get the full picture from just thirteen lines. Especially with this story, because it’s about two immortal beings who keep finding each other throughout all eternity. The story shows the Ancient Warrior and the Ancient Vampire at three different, distinct times in history, and the decisions they have to make in the face of their destinies and their love.
This isn’t your typical vampire love story. Like with my werewolves, I tried to write something different, out of the ordinary, not like all the other stories out there. I think I succeeded. So far, I’ve made two editors cry. If a writer’s job is to evoke emotion in their readers, I’m on the right track.
More about Kendall and where to find her book
Kendall McKenna’s first work of fiction was written at the worldly age of nine, and was a transformative work that expanded on the story told in a popular song of the time.
She tried her hand at vampire and cowboy fiction, winning high school poetry and short story contests along the way. It wasn’t until she discovered the world of m/m erotic fiction and found her stride with cops, Marines and muscle cars, that she felt inspired to share her stories with readers who enjoy the same things.
Putting herself through college by working in a newly-created HIV testing clinic in her local Department of Health, introduced Kendall to the gay and lesbian community. Understanding and empathy has made her a lifetime advocate of GLBT issues.
A brief bout of unemployment gave Kendall the time and focus she needed to finally produce a novel worth submitting for publication. Her first novel, Brothers In Arms, introduced the world to her authentic military stories and characters.
Kendall was born and raised in Southern California, where she still lives and works. A non-conventional relationship has kept her happy for the last decade. Her four dogs enjoy it when she writes, as she sits still long enough for them to curl up around her.
Email: kendall.mckenna3@gmail.com
Make sure you click on the Rafflecopter link above to take you to Kendall’s giveaway!
Thank you all for celebrating my last Thursday Thirteen on this blog. Special thanks to both Lynn Tyler and Kendall McKenna for sharing their new releases with me today and every time they visit.
Behind Closed Doors 
Thank you both for sharing with me today and for giving Thursday Thirteen a send off I won’t every forget! Make sure both of you keep visiting me here or on the other blogs for your releases. There may not be a Thursday Thirteen any longer, but we’re still having guests!
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Great excerpts! You can get a lot from thirteen sentences, a good sense of the story. Thank you for these tempting samples !
brendurbanist at gmail dot com
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Thanks so much for sharing, love both of you guys!
tiger-chick-1(at)hotmail(dot)com
P.S. Umm, I went to enter the giveaway and it says it’s already closed. Sooo…yeah, that’s not going to work so well, lol.
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Sorry about that! Looks like the Rafflecopter was set up to run through all of February 28th.
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I’ll contact Kendall and let her know what happened and make sure that both of you are entered in the contest. Thank you for stopping by!
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At first I just thought the Rafflecopter thing happened because the default clock is east coast. When I went to add the two entries, it acted up on me, too. Sorry about that, I’ve never had trouble before. Now worries, though. I got everyone entered and I’ll email the winner in a couple of minutes.
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