A Hero’s Blog Hop– J.C. Nikolaiev

Starting today and ending on July 31st, over 100 Authors and Bloggers are sharing their favourite things about romance heroes–whether it’s a a character post or what we love about romance and men in general.

 Each of the stops will be doing a giveaway. So don’t forget to stop on by the blog hop home page to jump to the other participants’ blogs. So what about the prizes mentioned?

We also have THREE grand prizes. By going to each blog and commenting (with your email address), you can be entered to win one of these prizes as well. That means you can be entered over 100 times to win, if you wanted to. How’s that for winning chances?

Prizes

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet
2nd Grand Prize: A $50 Amazon or B&N Gift Card
3rd Grand Prize: The following Swag Pack!

So don’t forget to enter and comment because each entry will let you have a chance to win one of these great prizes. (When you comment, please remember to put in your email address. We need to know how to contact you if you win!)

For my entry, I decided to write a new scene involving my hero from book 1 (Hunting the Shadows). This takes place after the book however, and there are clues within about future books (I count at least 5 clues).

I will personally be giving away a DNA pendant, so don’t forget to enter down below for your chance to win.

*************

Death was never pretty. Despite the glamorization Hollywood liked to paint through shows such as CSI and Bones, murder was messy and it was rarely simple. Neither was it easily solved in a few days.

The woman had been found in an alley, dumped behind a garbage bin as though she was nothing but trash. Local police had already been on the scene when J.C. and Amy pulled up. The call about an unknown woman shouldn’t have flagged the Centre at all, but what had, was the tattoo at her wrist—a double helix that indicated she was part of the Shadow Ops projects.

She was one of them.

And that necessitated the investigation and removal of the corpse. The Council wasn’t going to take the chance of anyone finding out about the program for creating and training psychics.

“Nikolaiev, over here.” Anyone who heard the voice of the woman who’d spoken would have assumed she was soft. Her melodic voice fooled most people, until they had to face her no nonsense, cool shield. She was one contradiction after the other.

She was also in the pockets of the Centre.

J.C. stepped around Amy, dragging his hand lightly along the small of her back before he nodded at Detective Danielle Cochrane. Digging out his badge, he showed it to two officers who let them through. Special Agent J.C. Nikolaiev, Special Cases Unit. The cover allowed him to move around in modern society without anyone questioning who he was or what he was doing. It meant he had access to whatever resources he needed.

“What can you tell us?” Pressing his lips into a thin line, J.C. looked past the yellow ‘Do Not Cross’ tape and the dozen uniformed officers. The alley the victim was found in was off a busy street, beside the Devil’s Playground, a nightclub known for illegal drug trafficking.

“She’s one of yours.”

“You wouldn’t have called otherwise, Danielle.”

“Female. Caucasian. Maybe twenty-two.” She shrugged and brushed blonde and black hair away from her face with her arm. Her gloves, J.C. noted, were stained with blood. “Cause of death is from sharp force trauma to the neck, approximately eight hours ago. I take it you’re bringing the body back with you?”

He nodded. “Thanks. Keep me informed if you hear anything more about this.”

When Danielle turned to talk to the medical examiner, J.C. moved to get a better look at the crime scene. there wasn’t anything special about the locations. Bodies turned up in alleys all the time. The victim probably had been out partying when she’d been killed. To anyone, it probably looked like a random murder.

J.C. wasn’t so sure. This wasn’t the first death he’d been called to in the last few weeks. One was random. Two coincidental. Three…now that was a pattern. And one he didn’t like.

“I’m not picking up any impressions under the violent energy left behind. Whoever did this wiped the area clean.” Amy said telepathically. As always, he felt the heat it left behind, the warmth of her love, even as her presence filled his head.

Stopping a few feet from the body, J.C. turned to face her. “You don’t need to go farther. You can stay here if you want.”

Her pupils dilated as her senses spiraled outward in an attempt to read the area. She’d taken off the leather band from her wrist, the one he’d given her to block the thoughts and feelings of others.  “I’m coming with. There might be something closer to the body.  Right now, the strongest vibes I’m getting is coming from the witnesses who found the body. They’re not telling the complete truth, by the way. They weren’t just passing by. The detective should check the woman’s pockets. She’s trying to hide the drugs in there.”

As far as J.C. was concerned, the murder took precedence. Drugs were too much of a nightly occurrence here and he knew exactly what they could do to a person. They were the least of his worries right now.

“All right. Let’s go check it out, but if you start to get overwhelmed at any moment, I want you to step back.” He stroked his thumb over her naked wrist, a reminder that there were limitations to what they could do.  This wasn’t the first time she’d dealt with murder, but that didn’t matter, death was never easy to be around.

He’d been around it all his life and still he wasn’t used to it.

“I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me, J.C.”

His lips tugged up in a grin. “Let’s get this over with then. Sooner we get her checked out, the sooner we can get back.” J.C. pressed a quick kiss to her lips because at the moment, that was all he was capable of doing. He wanted to reassure her, wanted to shelter her from this, but he knew he couldn’t. He needed her help. So he lingered for a few seconds longer, his heart flipping when she leaned into him and caught his waist.

Reaching into his pocket, he drew out a set of gloves and pulled them on, then went to kneel beside the victim.

J.C. frowned at the twisted, broken body of the woman lying in her own blood. She’d been shoved behind a garbage bin, her body half propped against the brick wall of the club. Bruises marred her arms and darkened her jaw.

He brushed back tangled, bloodied hair from a face that was narrow and pale. Sightless brown eyes stared at nothing in particular. Whoever she was, she wasn’t familiar to him. J.C. glanced down at the tattoo that inked her wrist. Lifting it up to the dim light from the street lamps, he studied the marks—her identification number and the small symbol that indicated she’d been part of the Finders division—specialists involved in tracking children with the potential for psychic ability.

“Her psychic energy has been drained. Like the others. There’s nothing left.” Amy whispered. “I can’t feel anything.”

“How can someone do that?”

“I don’t know.”

Touching his fingers to the blood, J.C. focused his mind to see into the molecular structure of the woman’s genetic code. Tried see who she was but there was nothing. The blood had lost its memory of the host.

“What’re you doing?”

He blinked his mind free and shot a look over at Amy as she pressed a hand against his shoulder lightly. Although pale, she was holding her own.  “I was trying to read her molecular structure but it’s denatured. I can’t get a reading.” Pulling a knife from his pocket, he eased the blade out and pressed it against the woman’s wrist at the tattoo. “I’ll have to remove the chip. If we’re lucky, it won’t be erased.”

All the specialized agents had a chip embedded under their skin. It hosted their personal information, just in case identification was otherwise made impossible. Only the Centre had the encryption code to read it. Pressing his blade against her skin, he made an incision.

“This is the third victim. It’s starting again, isn’t it?”

He caught the flash of the chip and removed it. “Yeah,” he murmured. “It is. Someone’s after the psychic agents again.”

*************

Amy has spent her entire life in isolation. Locked away in the Centre, a secret government facility where children with extraordinary abilities are raised as highly skilled fighters, she longs for a normal life. A life where being around people doesn’t overload her sensitive telepathic mind. A life where she can’t see through the eyes of a murderer as he hunts his next victim…

J.C. Nikolaiev was a top researcher, but when his conscience got the better of him, he tried to destroy his work and free his subjects–and was imprisoned as a traitor. To save himself and prevent more people from dying, J.C. must catch the  serial killer stalking the halls of the facility. But his only leads come from a woman whose thoughts have invaded his mind…

Finally out of the psych ward, Amy joins forces with J.C. to find the killer before he closes in on them. Can their growing attraction withstand the truths they uncover?

You can get book 1 in the Shadow Ops project here: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo,  Carina Press, Audible.com

Stop by the blog hop home page read about the romance heroes  and the love of romance heroes of other authors and/or bloggers.

UPDATED: THE WINNERS ARE SUSAN W AND SHANNA ROBERSON

How I Write–My Favourite Resource/Research Sites

For those new to coming to my site, every week, my accountability group poses a question to each other about writing. This week, we’re shouting out to those who have great resource/research sites.

I chose this topic because there are tons of great sites out there for authors and aside from the usual craft kind, there are some that I keep on my iGoogle homepage.

Writing craft wise, there’s one I constantly visit because of the depth of her articles. This would be Roni Loren. I especially like her friday round up of what’s been going on around the internet. This is a must visit for me every friday.

I’m sure everyone knows the Bookshelf Muse but if you don’t, they feature an emotion or event or whatever and offer a variety of descriptive words you can use instead. They’re similar to the Flip Dictionary, but a bit more specific.

Jody Hedlund’s blog is another awesome resource for authors. I find something to relate with most if not all of her posts. They are insightful for aspiring writers and pubbed authors.

Now, research wise, I found these sites by accident but I must say that I love them. For instance, if you’re looking for medical research, Jordyn Redwood has a great site. She offers great posts to help fiction writers write plausible medical scenarios. If you write forensics, then you should check out the Writer’s Forensic Blog where they answer questions and discuss certain topics like “How Could My Time-traveling Physician Save the Life of My 15th Century Heroine With a Blood Transfusion?”. The last one is Arma Virumque Cano, a blog I was turned on to by a post based on this question, “What kind of handgun would you use to slay a dragon?“.

Don’t forget to check out my accountability partners in crime: Danie Ford, Emma G. Delaney, Kimberly Farris, Kristen Koster

Lucky 7 Challenge- Snippet of Unleashing the Shadows

I was tagged by Suzanne Medeiros to participate in the Lucky 7 challenge and was excited to share some lines from Unleashing the Shadows. Rules of the game is to post 7 lines from either page 7 or 77 of either a completed WIP or a current one. I decided to share the snippet of Unleashing the Shadows because well, I love Stefan.

Stefan threw his hand up, filling his palm with the current of energy then spilled it free. Sparks flew off him, circling and creating a barrier. It was flimsy and wouldn’t hold for long, but it gave him a chance to harness some of the energy to cauterize the wound. Bullets tore holes until the shield shattered around him like broken glass.

Something hit him in the back of his leg and he had a second to acknowledge the crushing, bone-snapping pain. He went sliding in the dirt, gun flying from his hand as he reached out to stop his fall. His arm folded under the weight of his body, rocks and ice tearing his skin raw.

Scroll down, past the rules, to find out who I’ve tagged to also complete this challenge!

THE RULES

Post seven lines from a current work by doing these few things…

TAGGED WRITERS:

Danie Ford
Emma G. Delaney
Kimberly Farris
Kristen Koster
Caitie Quinn
Susan Saxx
Theresa Breaux

How I Write– Are You Locked in a Comfort Zone?

For those new to coming to my site, every week, my accountability group poses a question to each other about writing. This week, the topic was about comfort zones and whether we’ve stepped out of our zones or are stuck there? And if we’re stuck, how do we plan to get out of it?

I think comfort zones are easy to fall into. They are those areas that you know you do well in. It may be writing your characters a certain way (i.e. mine: alphas) or sticking to certain themes. The thing about comfort zones is that once you’re in it, it can be hard to get out of. Trying something new and unusual can seem difficult and even turn a perfectly good idea into a brain block.

I’ve been facing this with my new wip, Not Quite Dead. In this manuscript, I’m not only dealing with having to do a whole new world (post apocalyptic), but I also am writing ordinary heroes and heroines. I’ve written characters with abilities all my life. So writing one who isn’t enhanced is interesting because there are circumstances they have to hide or can’t fight back because they are outnumbered and don’t have abilities to draw upon. Also, in this wip, there are no modern conveniences. No phones. No computers or internet. No electricity. Nothing. The world is extinct and the humans who’ve survived have to go on with life with what they have. They have to go back to a life that includes farming for their own food and doing everything themselves.

But it’s not just the plot that I’m pushing with this story. It’s the characters. Instead of dark heroes, my hero in this book, Jason, is very light and chatty. The heroine, is antisocial. I also have a character, Trip, who is just a little bit crazy. He does things…says things that sometimes, I don’t know how to write. I wish I knew. lol. It’d be easier to make him into someone I’m comfortable writing, but I’m not.

The thing with comfort zones is that your writing will never grow if you don’t step out of that circle you’ve drawn around what you know. Not only that, but if your writing is always the same, readers will get bored.

What I’ve learned is that when you step out of that perfectly warm, comfortable zone, doubts are in full force. I faced the last few weeks. Why? It’s something new. What if I’m not doing it right? What if I’m not writing it the way it should? Or the biggest: What if it’s boring?

I was so blocked I asked someone to read what I had. I was at the point where it was either going to be drop the story altogether or push through. It can be a bit trying when you’re writing something new. At times, the writing just doesn’t come. It’s slow and it takes a lot to drag the words out. Other times, it speeds along. It’s a roller coaster that can quickly get out of control. However, all that negative stuff aside, I think it’ll be worth it when I finally write THE END.

What about you? Do you have a comfort zone? Are you stuck there? If you haven’t stepped out, why haven’t you?

Take a chance!

Don’t forget to check out my accountability partners in crime: Danie Ford, Emma G. Delaney, Kimberly Farris, Kristen Koster