Now that my latest book is out, Guardian, I am finding it increasingly difficult to work on the sequel. It should be easier, now that I have that one under my belt, right? Wrong.
Marketing is really what is shutting me down. All of my writing time is spent not on writing and editing, but on marketing the book that I have for sale. A worthy endevour, to be sure, but I really need to get my writing groove back on.
With that I mind, I re-tackled a smaller story and just had it accepted by Ellora's Cave, the publisher of Guardian. At about 15,000 words, Kansas Moon should be either a Quickie or part of an anthology. I am not sure yet what is going to be decided, but, as it is so small, I am okay with either as long as it can get off the ground quickly.
Perhaps with a little more meat to my writing resume I can concentrate not so much on getting my name out there as getting my words out. Next book, coming up!

Guardian Excerpt

Finally, I have the excerpt from Ellora's Cave, the fantastic publisher who has let me share my characters, Jax and Rohan, with the world. Or the small part of it who likes romantic fiction. This is from the first third of the book and is the first meeting of my hero and heroine. Enjoy!

An Excerpt From: GUARDIAN

Copyright © A.L. WILEY, 2015

All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.

   Jax was tired. It had been a hell of a long day. She felt completely, utterly drained and just wanted to drop onto her bed and get some sleep before it all started again tomorrow. She probably wouldn’t even bother to take off her pantsuit.

   After the river, she and Zander had met the parents of Annie Tate at the morgue. They identified the body as that of their daughter and Jax didn’t think she had ever had a more heartbreaking day at work. The mother had cried, lying in her husband’s arms, and he had just stoically answered questions as tears streamed down his face.

   The autopsy had revealed very little that they didn’t already know. Her time of death was roughly midnight the previous evening. There were no foreign substances in the girl’s body, and no signs of any sort of struggle except for the bloodied arm. There were no bruises, no rope marks…nothing. It was as if she had just calmly lain down and let her arm be mangled and her blood drained. The bite marks looked to be from a human, possibly male given the large size of the bite radius, and something else, maybe a large cat or the person had modified their teeth in some way. Jason hadn’t been sure yet and was checking databases for a match. He had been annoyed, pushing his glasses up onto his nose in a nervous gesture. It didn’t help that they had found nothing that wasn’t from Annie Tate anywhere on the body. No foreign hair, no dirt that wasn’t from the river, nothing. Whoever did this was good at it. Jax didn’t think that this could be the first one. No, this guy had practiced. Nothing was left to chance.

    They started to look through various databases for a similar victim and had come up empty, at least for today. Their best and only lead other than the bite marks were those flowers, those little white flowers that had graced the hands, ankles and head of Annie Tate.

    Jax opened her apartment door and dropped her blazer behind her. She groaned as she stepped forward, laying her keys on the little stand next to the door and heading into the living room. She was in mid-stretch, her long arms above her head when she felt it. She wasn’t alone.

     She whipped her gun out of the holster strapped to her torso as she scanned the apartment. Her eyes lit upon a shadowy figure in her living room near her fireplace.

“What the hell are you doing in my apartment?”

     Rohan looked at the woman before him. He tapped his chin with one long, tanned finger and wondered how to proceed. He had never met a human so hard to read, well, not in many years anyway. He had certainly been trying since she entered the apartment. She had the stance of a warrior and he found himself wondering if she had the physique of one as well under the shapeless clothing. Interesting. Jaqueline Tournay was definitely going to be one of his better assignments. Or they would kill each other. Either way, he wouldn’t be bored.

     Jax held her gun on the giant of a man leaning casually against her little fireplace. At least it seemed little in comparison, though she had never thought it so before. He had to be well over six feet, maybe even six-five. She flicked on the lights to get a better look at the intruder, and blinked in the sudden brightness. He was huge, clean-shaven and muscular in a rangy sort of way, not a ‘roid-driven bodybuilder, but well-toned, and it showed in the tight black T-shirt he wore over faded jeans that left little to the imagination. His blond hair just hit the collar of his shirt and the whole was a relaxed look, sexy but casual. Rather than seeming alarmed by the gun she was holding and pointing straight at him, he seemed amused and she noted that he, unlike her, did not seem affected by the light. And he still hadn’t answered her question. Fuck this. She had already had a hard enough day of alarmingly weird shit.

     “On the ground. Now. Hands behind your head.” She was pleased that her voice was as steady as her gun, though on the inside there was a whole lot of cursing as Jax lamented the fact that her cell phone was still in her blazer pocket, which she had thrown behind her next to the door.

     The man didn’t shift, just continued to tap his chin. Jax didn’t want to shoot this guy, but he was in her space, dammit, and didn’t seem inclined to move. He was too big for her to take down without the gun, unless he was completely inept, which she somehow doubted, so it was close to do-or-die time. Jax didn’t intend on dying today, or doing whatever else the giant had in mind.

    “On the ground—” she started to say again and was interrupted by the man’s deep, but oddly musical voice.

     “I’m sorry for startling you. I’m not here to hurt you in any way.” Jax snorted but was somewhat distracted by the sound of his voice. No one that large should be allowed to have a voice that was soothing and musical.

     Rohan tried to project as much of his calming magic as possible into his words. A normal human would have dropped the gun and would be all but drooling and giggling on the floor with that much empathetic energy directed at him or her, but not this one. There was a slight tightening around the eyes, a little tremor in the hands, very slight, but otherwise her gun did not waver. And the sound she had made, the one of disbelief. Rohan found it…cute, if a little perplexing.

     “We have a common purpose, Jaqueline Tournay.” He ramped up the empathy, almost singing but not quite. Unfortunately, it worked both ways. He was now picking up wave after wave from her with his other senses, his channels hyperactive and open. She smelled, oh, she smelled amazing. Fantastic. Like chocolate and honey and fairy magic, and great sex. Rohan checked himself before he transmitted that to her. He had to focus on what the Elders had sent him here to do.

      “Our Goddess is in need and the ancient pacts are breaking with the earth. We require your help, Jaqueline Tournay.” He paused and smiled at her without showing his fangs, trying not to look alarming. “Okay, that is, roughly, the official message. I come with that, by the way, to assist with all and sundry.” He grinned, trying to send nonthreatening waves of energy toward her, but again hiding his fangs. They could get to that in a bit.