Summer of Love Blog Hop

Glitterary Girl Media is hosting the Summer of Love giveaway blog hop, and yours truly is a participant. There’s a lot of summer fun going on, not just on my blog, but on the other participant’s sites, so be sure to check them out! (this will take you to a linky list of other blogs).

So what are we doing here on the Amaranthine blog? First I thought I’d share an excerpt of my Work in Progress; Book 6 of the Amaranthine series, which I have tentatively titled Children of Shadows (due early 2014). Second, is the giveaway, detailed towards the bottom of this blog.

Now for the excerpt!

Katelina leaned back in the beach chair. She could hear the waves lapping the sandy beach, and the cry of some far off bird. A gull maybe? She didn’t know enough about birds to say for sure, but it made sense.

Above her the moon hung in a thin crescent, like a fingernail clipping. Uncountable stars twinkled, and farther down the beach a bonfire glowed with a throbbing orange. She could make out the silhouettes of revelers – or more accurately the idiots – who gathered around it.

“Enjoying yourself?”

Katelina looked to her left where Jorick reclined in his own chair. His long black hair was uncharacteristically pulled up in a sloppy bun, but, as if to prove he wasn’t really going to enter the spirit of the adventure, he wore his usual black pullover and slacks.

She forced a smile. “Of course.”

His reply was the fanged grin of a vampire. “I’m glad. You’ve been arguing to come to the beach for months.”

She murmured a noncommittal sound and turned back to the beach scene. Though she knew that her boyfriend and their friends were vampires, somehow her imagined beach vacation had still involved sunlight. Three a.m. on a nearly deserted island wasn’t exactly what she’d had in mind. Where were the tropical drinks? Where were the cabana boys? Where was the summer fun?

Jorick chuckled. “You chose the wrong traveling companions for all of that.”

She sighed. Mind reading; one of his super vampire abilities. “I don’t see why we couldn’t drink something in a tall glass with an umbrella stuck in it.”

A lone figure had abandoned the fire and drew towards them. Katelina scowled at the ridiculous red hair and expanse of pale, naked flesh. The speedo style trunks that he wore left very little to the imagination – not that she wanted to imagine it.

“Of course you do!” Verchiel chirped as he drew to a stop next to her chair. “Are you gloomy gusses going to sit up here by yourselves, or come join the fun?”

Katelina snorted. “It’s just you, Micah and Loren hanging around the bonfire acting macho. I’ve seen enough of that.”

“You forgot Torina,” Jorick commented with amusement.

“Of course, the reason they’re acting like macho idiots.” Her eyes strayed towards the fire and the silhouette of a curvaceous vampiress who happened to be wearing a revealing emerald green bikini. It was enough to make a supermodel feel inadequate. How could she, an average human with an average figure begin to compare?

Jorick caught her hand and squeezed it. “It isn’t a competition.”

“We could have one,” Verchiel suggested with a broad grin. “We could start with the two of you in bikinis, add some pudding, see who comes out on top.”

Katelina gave a squeal of outrage and swung to smack him, but the redhead seemed to evaporate and reappear a few feet away. “Aw, come on. It could be fun! No? All right, but don’t say we didn’t offer!” And then he disappeared only to reappear near the fire a moment later; moving too fast for Katelina to see.

She turned to Jorick, expecting a customary burst of outrage, but he only grinned. “He might be on to something. I imagine you’d look quite fetching wearing nothing but pudding.”

I’ll let you imagine what comes next. 😉

And now for that giveaway I mentioned!

Just because Katelina can’t have tropical drinks doesn’t mean you can’t! I am giving away a pair of over sized glasses and a tin of lime flavored margarita salt.

ugly Hawaiian shirt not included 😉

To enter leave your email address or your facebook link in the comments below (make sure that you can accept messages from me, even if i am not your friend). The winner will be chosen on August 20th by random.org and I will notify them no later than the 22nd . The winner will need to provide me with a mailing address. If they don’t reply in a week or so I will choose another winner.

Thanks for stopping by and good luck! Please be sure to check out the other entries in the blog hop!

Posted by Joleene Naylor on August 11, 2013

https://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/2013/08/11/summer-of-love-blog-hop/