Twas the Night Before Release Day (Excerpt!)

by Jayne Rylon | Oct 1, 2012 | Uncategorized

Okay, no twas about it.  It IS the night before release day.  Well, I guess really there are about five more hours before Where There’s Smoke hits ebook readers everywhere (I hope)  🙂  So I wanted to give you a taste of Logan and Kyana’s story.  Here’s a sneak peek excerpt from my novella in the Two to Tango collection, which also includes stories by Jess Dee and Lorelei James.

Enjoy!

Available now from Amazon
Available now from Samhain
Available soon from B&N and other retailers

From Where There’s Smoke, copyright 2012 Jayne Rylon:

Logan crashed onto the beat-up leather recliner in his shitty apartment. Sure, it was barely after dawn, but it wasn’t early by his standards. Usually he raced the first rays of sunrise to a construction site. This morning was really the end of a long, long night and a terrible day.

His buzz had faded hours ago, somewhere around the time he’d realized he couldn’t get it up with the slightly skanky blonde who’d promised to suck all his woes right out of him in some even sketchier alley. Probably the one behind the bar he’d attempted to drown his sorrows in. What the hell was wrong with him?

It wasn’t every day a guy got canned, he supposed.

Not that he hadn’t seen that train barreling down on him from a mile away. Still, he’d tried his damnedest to save his spot on the renovation crew by working his ass off. Demonstrating superior skills and reliability hadn’t been the Hail Mary he’d hoped. Hell, he’d even skipped out on Rose’s funeral so he wouldn’t have to call off. What a waste. He’d left a pathetic message on Kyana’s voicemail, offering condolences he should have given in person. No wonder she hadn’t called his lame ass back.

Not now, nor ten years ago when he’d walked out on her and Ben like the chickenshit eighteen-year-old he’d been.

It was about time he got his priorities in order. As soon as he could believe this had really happened. Grief, fury and shock sweated from his skin along with the vile stench left behind by a 40 of King Cobra—the most buzz he could buy for his last twenty, drinking like a hobo. Might as well have duct-taped the bottle to his palm. At least then he wouldn’t have knocked it over, spilling some. He really could have used those last six or seven shots. Maybe they would have granted him oblivion.

Logan tipped his head onto the comfortable cushion, which had dented to perfectly contour his form years ago. He tried not to think of the shit he’d lost in his life, like the gorgeous young lady he’d admired and wanted so desperately. Her delicate Asian features, refined manners, unwavering loyalty to her mongrel best friend, and her all-American sass had practically brought him to his knees. Just another thing he’d never really had a chance at holding on to.

What a loser.

Doubly so because the simple thought of her—and the sultry all-woman voice that had transfixed him on her voicemail—had blood rushing to his dick. If it had been her smooshed up against him in that cesspool tonight, there’d have been no performance issues to stand in the way of a mind-numbing good time. Yeah, right. Kyana would never stoop so low as to join him in a dive like that. He didn’t blame her either.

“Son of a bitch!” He thumped his fist on the tattered arm of his chair, refusing to give in to the temptation to take matters into his own hands while visions of the polished, perfect girl next door danced through his mind. He’d grown out of that phase back in high school. Okay, he had occasional relapses, but it hadn’t been until Ben told Logan she’d moved home—during one of their twice-weekly calls—that he’d regressed to his former obsession.

Ben would be awake in an hour or so. Maybe Logan would call and see what was going on in the old neighborhood. He’d crash-landed there when his mom hooked up with a new guy and didn’t have room or patience to take a rebellious teen along to her new picket-fence life. He didn’t really blame her.

Better yet, maybe he should pay his great-uncle a visit. It was about time Logan did something useful. Something decent for someone who deserved his loyalty.

He still couldn’t believe he’d been played so bad. A total sucker. How hadn’t he realized what was up?

To distract himself for a while, he snatched the remote off the side table, which he’d rescued on junk day and restored, before flipping on the TV. Channel surfing his basic cable didn’t yield much of interest.

Infomercial, infomercial, infomercial…

News.

It might do him some good to remember there were entire nations of people out there who had it a hell of a lot worse than he did. Fucked up? Yes. But it did make him feel better about the state of his existence. If he could find an old Jerry Springer rerun he’d really be looking fine.

Flames transfixed him as they wrapped around the edges of a window to grasp at the shutter outside. Wow, it would seriously blow to have your pad burn down. Especially if you had a home instead of merely a place you stayed, which is how he felt lately. The fire hypnotized him as it licked at the walls of an older Victorian that looked not that different than the one he’d spent his adolescent summers in. Ben’s house had been home. The real kind. For a while.

Maybe Logan could try for that again.

He leaned forward in his chair as a fireman flew off the deck at the rear of the building with a woman cradled in his arms. Raven hair and pale skin wrapped in something that might once have been pretty blue silk were revealed with each cycle of the flashing emergency lights.

Logan’s head tilted as he examined the injured woman. He must have been more fucked up than he realized to imagine the damsel in distress looked a hell of a lot like Kyana. Not that he’d studied her photographs in Ben and Rose’s houses on his infrequent visits or anything.

Sure, sure. Keep telling yourself those lies. One day you might believe them, buddy.

Shit, he’d even snapped his own copies with his cell phone. The woman he’d spied posing in designer suits or in endless graduation cap and gowns in photos on Rose’s vintage mantel didn’t seem like the sort who’d doll herself up in gorgeous yet frivolous finery. He scrubbed his eyes with the bruised and cut knuckles of one hand after he realized he hadn’t blinked for a solid thirty seconds.

When he refocused, he saw it—the ugly-ass birdbath he and Kyana had built Ben one sweltering August afternoon as kids when her family had been on a round-the-world tour and his mom had been on the prowl for a step up. The broken flower pots they’d recycled made unlevel, garish yard art better suited to Logan’s mom’s trailer park than Ben’s neat and trim community. Despite that, his great-uncle had refused to get rid of the junk.

No! It can’t be. He stabbed the volume button on his remote, disengaging the mute feature.

“The cause of the fire is still unknown but the resident was the only occupant at the time of the blaze. His neighbor spotted the fire, called emergency crews, then rushed inside to haul the elderly man from the flames.” In the background, a burly fireman toted Kyana’s rag doll form as though she weighed nothing at all. Tall and willowy, she probably didn’t. The graininess of the image made it hard to tell much, but the tattered nightgown and soot stains covering her sent ice through Logan’s veins.

“Neighbors tell us this isn’t the first tragedy to strike Oak Avenue this year. The death of a longtime resident next door just a few months ago has some wondering if bad luck really does come in threes. And, if so, who will suffer it next?” The reporter paused while footage cut away from Kyana being loaded onto a gurney outside an ambulance.

“Go back! Go back!” he shouted at the TV. He had to make sure she was okay. And where was Ben? They’d said Ky had pulled him from the burning house, but was he all right?

Batty as ever, Myrtle Jansen entertained the reporter with old wives’ tales and superstitions that portended more dire times to come. Logan shook his head and instead studied the rest of the crowd. He didn’t recognize the man and woman huddled together in the background. They must be new to the area. Daryl Thick loomed still and watchful on the fringes of the frame. His assessing stare on Myrtle and the newscaster put Logan on instant alert.

“More on this story as it becomes available. Back to you, Tom…”

“What? That’s it?” Logan didn’t know when he’d launched to his feet. He paced the kitchen as he dug his cell from the back pocket of his jeans. Snagging his keys out of the bowl by the door, he jogged from his apartment.

Ring after ring grated on his nerves until he realized, of course, there’d be no answer at Ben’s place. He used his thumb to search the contact list of his basic, un-smart phone for the number he’d only found the balls to dial once. After Rose’s funeral. Kyana.

Instead of infuriating chimes, a beeping busy signal greeted him. “Damn it!”

He punched the steering wheel then jammed a key in the ignition of his pickup truck. At least there wouldn’t be traffic at this time of day, and he’d gotten gas just a day or two ago. If he pushed it, he could make the drive in an hour.

It was the longest fifty-three minutes of his life.

Available now from Amazon
Available now from Samhain

Happy Reading,

Jayne
www.jaynerylon.com

Where There’s Smoke – Out Tuesday

by Jayne Rylon | Sep 29, 2012 | Uncategorized

I’m thrilled to say Where There’s Smoke will be out on Tuesday.  It’s a standalone book that will be available individually in ebook Tuesday and together in a Two To Tango print anthology next year along with books by Jess Dee and Lorelei James.  I really love the way this one came out, and I hope you enjoy it too.

Available now from Amazon
Available now from Samhain
Available soon from B&N and other retailers

A little more about the book:

Welcome Guest Blogger – Lila Dubois

by Jayne Rylon | Sep 25, 2012 | Uncategorized

Thank you, Jayne, for having me on your blog. I promise to stop blackmailing you after this. I’m just kidding…I won’t stop blackmailing you. What are friends for?

I’m delighted that finally, many years after Gone with the Monster came out, Have Monster, Will Travel, the fourth book in the series, is being released October 9th.

Available from: Samhain Publishing – Amazon – B&N

What would you do if you learned something that world change the world forever? It sounds dramatic, but that’s what’s happening in the Monsters in Hollywood series. Monsters are real, and in this day and age they did what any reasonable mythical race would do to reveal their existence—they went to Hollywood to make a movie about themselves.

The first three books in the series: Lights, Camera…Monsters, My Fair Monster and Gone with the Monster, all featured characters who learned about the existence of monsters at the same time—the start of the first book. In Have Monster, Will Travel production is gearing up for the movie, and we’ve hit the point that other people need to be told the secret. That’s where we meet Joanna—a rise star in the world of production design. But it’s not just human crew they need. As a race of warriors fighting isn’t a problem for the monsters, but real fighting and choreographed fighting for the silver screen are very different. Since no human stunt coordinator could design the fights for the massive, winged monsters, they bring in the most revered fighter and trainer among the monsters—Tokaki—to act as stunt coordinator.

Joanna and Tokaki are attracted to each other from the start, but they’re from very different worlds. Joanna finds out first hand just how dangerous Tokaki’s world can be, and Tokaki learns what it means to move heaven and earth to be with the one your love.

If you’ve read the other Monsters, then I hope you enjoy Have Monster, Will Travel. If you haven’t read them this is a great place to jump in. You can discover, along with Joanna, just what it means to find out that monsters are real.

She’d always heard Hollywood was full of monsters. She didn’t know they meant actual monsters.

All of Hollywood is talking about Calypso Production’s new top-secret action movie, and Joanna is tapped to be the Production Designer. There’s just one big issue: the lead actors are monsters. Literally.

Bound by tradition and discipline, Tokaki’s clan of shapeshifers has maintained the old ways even as they’ve retreated from the human race. When members of another clan come up with a plan to expose and explain their hidden existence, he agrees to help. As the warrior who trains all others, he knows how to inflict both the maximum, and minimum, amount of damage. Because of this experience he’s asked to become something they call a “stunt coordinator”.

When Joanna and Tokaki meet it’s electric, and not just because Joanna watches him shift from a massive white tiger into a handsome, naked man. Tokaki is fascinated by the outside world, especially Joanna, who’s colorful in more ways than one. When he takes Joanna to a hidden temple deep in the Chinese mountains, neither expects she’ll be risking her very life. In order to save the woman he loves, Tokaki must turn to his family for help, risking the secrets his clan has kept for a millennium.

—

Here’s the Prologue from Have Monster, Will Travel

© Lila Dubois

They wouldn’t be able to keep the secret much longer.

“What are our options?” Lena sat at the head of Calypso Production’s conference table, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art visible through the floor to ceiling windows at her back.

Jane sat at her right, a copy of the script in front of her. “Without the rest of the pre-pro crew, we can’t go forward. We need more people.”

“If we bring them on, we have to tell them the truth.” Luke, Lena’s boyfriend, tapped his fingers restlessly on the table.

“No. No more people. We have to keep this quiet for as long as we can.” Margo’s voice was grim. The usually sassy Latina was dressed causally in a T-shirt and jeans, hair back in a loose ponytail. Her fiancé was seated next to her. The over six-foot tall Runako leaned forward, planting his elbow on the table hard enough to rattle the cups.

“I’ll protect you.” Before Runako had, er, kidnapped Margo, the real magnitude of what they were doing hadn’t hit the five friends who owned Calypso Productions. They’d known they were taking on something big when they agreed to make a movie about Runako, Luke, Henry and Michael’s people.

When Runako and Margo fell into the hands of those who wanted to dissect and kill Runako barely escaping, the project had gone from exciting challenge to grim life-or-death battle. If they screwed this up, they would lose more than production costs.

“Once it’s out that we’re releasing a monster movie in the summer, everyone will start asking who’s working on it,” Lena said. The reality of Hollywood was that if they were going to produce a summer blockbuster, they needed to attach blockbuster names to the project, above the line.

“It’ll come out at some point anyway, and wasn’t that all part of our publicity campaign?” Cali, the movie’s director, held up a copy of a Hollywood tabloid, folded back to a picture of Akta with Runako, Henry and Luke on the red carpet at a charity gala. They’d purchased the tickets and sent Akta, who was a recognizable star, with the guys as a way of introducing them to Hollywood.

The caption under the picture read, “The stars of Calypso Production’s top-secret new project. Akta Patel and her unknown escorts.”

Akta tipped back in her chair, bracing her knees on the conference table. She sat between Henry and Luke, who would star in the movie with her. Calypso Productions had only recently learned that Henry and Runako were both actors—Henry considered the best actor of their people. They’d started script read-throughs, and it fell on Akta to give them, along with Luke, a crash course in acting for the screen. Jane, the resident screenwriter, had written the script for them, so they’d basically be playing themselves, but still, if they didn’t translate to the camera the whole thing would fall apart.

“Our publicity campaign is to make sure everyone falls in love with them,” Lena said, gesturing around the table at the guys, “so that when the movie comes out, and then they come out, they’ll already have people on their side.”

“We know that, we helped come up with that plan.” Cali wasn’t known for her patience. “But I’m telling you, we’ve gone as far as we can with just us. Two producers, half the lead actors, a screenwriter and a director don’t make a movie. If we’re serious about starting production—” Cali motioned to Margo, who, in her role of line producer, had been working up start-date-less timelines. “—we need a production schedule, we need the rest of the above-the-line people. We need to know how we’re making this movie.”

“What does above the line mean?” Runako looked to Margo.

“It basically means anyone who could have any real influence in how the movie is made, or the storyline.”

“But we are all here.”

Margo grimaced slightly. “Yes and no. We know what we want to do, we have a lot of it figured out, but usually a casting director is above the line, and in our case special effects may have better ideas as to how to shoot this. Special effects—which usually means actual real effects like blowing up cars and fake blood—means we need the special effects coordinator.”

“But it will be easier to make, we won’t need all those special effects…” Akta interjected.

“Fucking actors.” Cali threw her hands back. “So when Runako’s character dies do you want me to actually kill him? What should I do on the second take?”

“Fine, sorry. What do you need?”

“At least a director of photograph, production designer, VFX supervisor and special effects supervisor. Location scout. Casting. SpecFX make-up since we have no idea what it will take to make-up these three.” Cali jabbed her finger at the men. “Akta, don’t talk to me about how you were art director on some crappy indie film or I swear to God I’ll come across this table. We need big guns.”

“Who are you thinking?” Lena’s voice was calm as she tried to keep the tension down.

“If we’re serious about keeping this tight, I know who we could get to serve as PD. She’d be able to pull up-and-comers in visual and special effects.”

There was a beat of silence as everyone put together who Cali was talking about. The four men seated at the table looked blankly at each other.

“Uh, Cali, she hates you.” Jane bit her lower lip.

“Yea, I don’t know why.” Cali slumped back in her seat, tugging on the frayed cuff of her USC sweatshirt.

“You told her she was getting fat senior year.”

“She was getting fat, and I said it in a nice way. I thought she’d appreciate the heads up. Sixty hours a week in front of her computer or sketching crazy stuff while eating those weird fish crackers was not doing her any good.”

“There’s no nice way to tell someone they’re getting fat, and telling her she was fat was the least of what you did,” Akta said.

“Well, now she’s one of the best creative minds in the industry.” Lena was twirling her pen as she considered. “She’s never handled a summer action film, but she’s an amazing designer, has contacts at Industrial Light and Magic, and she knows everyone.”

“Exactly. We need her.”

—

Want more? Click here to read the full first chapter.

ISBN 978-1-61921-091-2

Buy from Samhain Publishing

Buy from Amazon

Buy for Nook from B&N

Lila

Two to Tango Blog

by Jayne Rylon | Sep 18, 2012 | Uncategorized

Want to read a random email I sent my friends and find out more about my next project? Come check out this funny blog by Jess Dee and Lorelei James http://limecello.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/guests-jess-dee-and-jayne-rylon-lorelei-james/

Jayne
www.jaynerylon.com

New Cover – Where There’s Smoke

by Jayne Rylon | Sep 17, 2012 | Uncategorized

I feel like I haven’t posted on here in forever.  I have good excuses like the day job and the fact that I was on vacation and finishing up several projects, which means new books soon!  The next up is Where There’s Smoke.  It’s a standalone story that will be available individual in ebook on 10/2 and then in print along with a story by Lorelei James and another by Jess Dee in a follow up to Three’s Company called Two to Tango.

Here’s a little more about the book:

When old flames unite, the heat is on!

A Two to Tango story.

Kyana Brady never intended to return to small-town life in upstate New York, but reality doesn’t give a damn about plans. She dropped everything to care for her dying aunt. Now that Rose is gone, Kyana realizes something else has changed—her priorities. Her high-paid, higher-stress law career no longer holds any appeal.

While debating her future, an insomnia-driven stroll turns into a desperate dash to save Rose’s elderly friend, Benjamin, from his burning house. And he’s always believed one good turn deserves another. So the old man rewards Kyana’s bravery with a little meddling in her love life.

After Ben’s great-nephew Logan witnesses his childhood friend’s bravery on the news, he rushes home to help his uncle rebuild. But before his hammer hits the first nail, sparks are flying. The heat between him and Kyana melts old affection into a completely new—and combustible—relationship.

Before they have a chance to discover how hot their love will burn, another disaster threatens to separate them forever. After all, they say bad luck comes in threes…

I hope you enjoy my light romantic suspense.  Other books coming up quick include Healing Touch in December (the sequel to Dream Machine where Luke Malone gets his story!) and the start of the next generation of Compass, which debuts with Winter’s Thaw in February. Plus there’s lots of print action too.  Love’s Compass just released last week (print compilation of Northern Exposure and Southern Comfort), Eastern Ambitions author copies just arrived today.  They release the same day as Where There’s Smoke technically.  Plus Powertools books 1-4 will be available in print in November and my very first published book, Picture Perfect, will be in an anthology with JK Coi called Watching it All.  That will be available at Romanticon in October first then sometime after all the usual places sometime afterward.

Hammer it Home (Powertools 6) Out Today!

by Jayne Rylon | Aug 14, 2012 | Uncategorized

Today’s the day!  The (sort of, maybe) last book of the Powertools series is finally here!  I’m happy and sad having come to enjoy writing these characters so much.  Don’t worry, we’ll be seeing more of the Crew in a future series.  If the hot construction workers were Powertools, their mechanic friends are Hot Rods!

I’m thrilled to say Eli and Alanso, who you’ll meet in this book, are kicking off a new series.  It will start with three books out next year and (hopefully) three the following year.  Each is titled with the restored car the character drives.  First up, King Cobra, then Mustang Sally and third will be Super Nova.  More to come on that soon, or you can check out the post below for a little more.

Available at Amazon
Available at B&N
Available at Samhain

Okay, but for today’s installment, here’s a little more info:

When times get tough, the tough stage one scorching hot intervention.

Morgan is happy that her best friend Kate is expecting the crew’s littlest member, but helping renovate a room for a nursery is more than she can bear. Baby furniture and pastel paint are a painful reminder that she and Joe can’t—and will never—conceive. There’s no hiding it from the rest of the close-knit crew, either.

True to their unique brand of love, the gang rallies to find a non-traditional solution to alleviate their friends’ suffering. Not with a cold, clinical visit to a sperm donation clinic, but delivering it the old fashioned way. With a healthy dose of searing passion.

But soon after Morgan’s scorching hot night with her husband’s four best friends, an accident threatens the life of one of those men. The challenges that lie ahead will test crew’s powerful bond to the limit—and their long-standing promise to take care of each other through good, bad, and sexy times. Whatever it takes…

Plus the book has already had an awesome review released.  It’s from Alyn at Guilt Pleasure reviews and you can read the whole thing here.  My favorite part is:  “While the stories are short, they always blow me away and leave me wishing I could be part of that little circle even if for one night. Another great chapter in the Powertools saga that left this book addict very satisfied!”

I hope you agree!  Thank you so much for sticking with me through this series and making Powertools a career changing project for me.  I appreciate every single reader who has contributed to their success.

Thank you and happy reading,

Jayne
www.jaynerylon.com