Lovely fellow author Elyzabeth VaLey tapped me on theshoulder for this blog tour. Most of my characters fled at my approach, all but
one….
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Welcome, Vorgell.
Thank you for stopping by to answer a few questions.
V: It’s the least I can do in exchange for all the wine I
can drink and a tray of cookies! These are very good.
Please, eat them all.
I can’t eat cookies anyway.
V: Has a wizard cursed you? I know someone who can remedy
that.
No, no. It’s
punishment for a lifelong love affair with sweets. Besides, we want to know
more about you. After your adventure with a unicorn horn—
V: You promised not to talk about that.
I’m not. But the…
encounter left you with an unusual appetite for sex. How’s that going for you?
V: Very well, other than walking around with intense
erections and, as a result, a great deal of frustration. My partner, Madd,
understands my affliction and accommodates me often enough to keep me reasonably
happy. That he forbids me from pleasuring him in certain ways I think would be
greatly satisfying is something I must live with.
V: His ass is enchanting. See? I’m hard just thinking about
it.
Let’s get off that
topic. When we left you and Madd in Thick
as Thieves, you were working for Tagard, the thief king, and owed a favor
to the witch Ibeena. Is that still the situation in the next book, Thick as Ice?
V: Yes, but not for long. For one thing, Ibeena calls in her
favor and that’s all it takes to turn our lives inside out. Next thing you
know, it’s up to us to stop a war. And a wedding.
What is Ibeena’s
favor?
V: We’re to fetch her mother. Laugh if you dare. I laughed
too, at first. But if you think Ibeena was bad, that is only because you have not yet met her mother. Thanks to Ibeena, we cross paths with many interesting people, including a hermit wizard whose fiend thinks
it is a dog, and an evil duke who is romancing our friend Reannry’s sister,
Gillja. We can’t put a finger on it, but neither Madd nor I trust him—nor does
Petal, who hisses whenever we say his name.
Then Petal is still
with you? She didn’t run off and join the other basilisks wherever basilisks
live?
V: Why, Petal is the most loyal of friends! Other than Madd,
of course, a man I trust with my back and my purse. Petal appears determined to
stay with me. Madd claims she thinks I am her mother. Or possibly a lover,
given how jealous she can be. It’s difficult to know what basilisks believe. She has been growing lately and shedding her
skin more often. Also there are these odd bumps on her shoulders that she
insists on having me scratch.
Do you run into any
other magical creatures?
V: None as lovely as Petal. But our world has a great variety of creatures, and most are dangerous. In the next book I nearly get frozen by an
ice harpy, drowned by winter goblins, do battle with a kraken, and encounter
a unicorn.
A unicorn? Surely you
didn’t—
V: Wolves’ breath, no! I know enough now to tell the
difference between a unicorn and a deer. No, I do not harm it, even though…
well, the creature behaved strangely. I believe it… it thinks it knows me.
Oh.
V: Do I have cause to be afraid?
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by J. Lubrano |
Who’s afraid of unicorns? Moving on. Do you and Madd have any relationship moments for readers to look forward to?
V: A few. We’re still figuring things out. Madd thinks I’m
overprotective and perhaps I am. I know how when I first met him I assumed because
he is small and finely made, and pretty, he must of course be used sexually.
Isn’t that what small, pretty men are for? So I… know too well what other men
are thinking.
I am learning to respect Madd’s restrictions. He needs them.
But he has begun to lower his defenses on occasion. From time to time he shows
me a part of him that other men damaged, and that is when I have the chance to
show him I can be there with him, that he has someone who will not leave him.
For that, I think, we are even stronger together than ever.
Can I share a little
of that together time?
V: May I have more cookies?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt from Thick as Ice:
Although warm and sour, the mead slid like golden honey down
Madd’s throat. He didn’t really like the swill, but drink made certain things come
easier. Like giving Vorgell those smiles.
After several months as partners, he’d been doing a lot of
nonsense like that, though most of the time he tried to hide it. It was more than
just that he found his oversized partner useful, and Vorgell’s semen a ready
source of magic. Saying he only wanted Vorgell around for the magic felt more
like a lie every day. He actually enjoyed the man’s company, and not just when
they were working together. He even liked the sex. Something was going on with
him, something scary, and the best defense Madd had found against fear was to
drown it in magic and mead.
It didn’t help that having Vorgell at hand allowed him to
behave in ways he might not otherwise have dared.
Hell, he could dress like a lord, show himself off in the
worst quarter of the city, flirt with strangers he had no intention in the
world of bedding, and offer himself as brazenly as any whore. And he could do
this because giant, sword brandishing Vorgell was sitting just feet away with
his pals, looking like a battle god come to earth while keeping eye on him with
the territorial gaze of a wolf. It was uncanny how the drunker Madd got, the
more sober Vorgell seemed to become. Like now, for instance. Vorgell appeared
to be damn near clear-headed.
Madd put his mug down for the last time. Another round with
his cup might cost him the ability to walk. Being slung over Vorgell’s shoulder
for the trip back to their accommodations would be humiliating.
“Let’s go home,” he said.
Vorgell’s companions looked annoyed, but they didn’t try to
stop the big man from rising to join Madd.
“You good to walk?”
“Of course.” Madd proceeded to prove the point. Even with
mead in his blood he was more coordinated than most people. Vorgell reaching an
arm around his shoulder to steady him really wasn’t necessary.
They reached street level and were immediately wrapped in
darkness and summer’s oppressive swelter. Gurgh’s rivers made sure of the latter.
The thick air was enough to clog a man’s lungs. And the stench… Madd forced his
stomach back down his throat. The fetid stink of the river didn’t mix well with
the mead sitting in his gut.
“Aw, Madd, you’re not going to puke again, are you?”
He was glad for Vorgell’s arm now, guiding him along the
street and making it easy for him to walk with his eyes closed. He trusted
Vorgell to spy any threats. “I don’t puke. I never puke unless I ate something
foul. I told you, my Gran taught me a spell against excess drink and, thanks to
you, I have all the magic in the world.”
“Yes, well, you’re letting me lead you.”
“Only because drink makes me fuzzy a little. But I won’t
puke.” They walked more or less in a straight line down a street half paved
with rough stones. In one of the doorways two figures grappled and moaned and
bumped loudly enough to have awakened the inhabitants, who shouted for them to
cease.
“Whenever you drink, I end up fighting someone.”
“Yes, me. Because you always step in before I finish anyone
off.” Madd knew why Vorgell did it, but knowing didn’t make him like it better.
“Tagard put us on notice. I’ve been trying to restrain myself
but when I see men beset you, I feel only an urge to crush their skulls. It
doesn’t help that when you drink, you flirt like a man in search of a bounce in
bed.”
“I don’t flirt with just anyone, only with you. I can’t help
it other men mistake my target.”
“Me? Since when?”
“Since… I don’t know. Do you really expect me to be able to
answer questions coherently right now? Besides”—Madd swam against the swirl
inside his head—“I want you to trust me to fend for myself. I can handle a
blade. I always could use a knife and now you taught me to use a sword and that
damn axe you’re so fond of—”
“At which you are terrifying. The only thing you ever killed
with it was a head of lettuce.”
True. He’d been aiming for a practice dummy Vorgell had set
up in the garden of their most recent abode. Which reminded him…
“I think we can afford a better neighborhood. Tomorrow I’ll fence
another ruby and we can buy one of those fancy houses in the Nightingale
quarter. We can get servants and be respectable.”
“That won’t arouse anyone’s suspicions.”
Next Monday the following lovely authors will be sharing their characters:
Rob Colton (hmmm... could it be from his hot new Degan universe WIP?)
Kazy Reed (be sure to check out Kazy’s photolog while visiting)
Nephylim (such gorgeous artwork on her site, in addition to her stories)
Jim Dunaway (a new writer with lots of free stories to offer)
Ravon Silvius (science fiction and fantasy)
Rob Colton (hmmm... could it be from his hot new Degan universe WIP?)
Kazy Reed (be sure to check out Kazy’s photolog while visiting)
Nephylim (such gorgeous artwork on her site, in addition to her stories)
Jim Dunaway (a new writer with lots of free stories to offer)
Ravon Silvius (science fiction and fantasy)
Any questions for Vorgell? He’ll answer anything as long as I keep bringing the cookies. :D