I'm pleased to bring my readers a visit with guest author Genevieve Jack. She's sharing about her recent New Adult Paranormal Romance release, Mother May I. Be sure to check out her book and also her great contest at the bottom of this post.
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Hi everyone! I’m Genevieve Jack. *waves* Happy to be visiting Marsha today as part of the Mother May I book tour, Knight Games book 4. For my guest post, I’m going there… I’m talkin’ about sex, baby. Yes, I am!
Sex and the Single Witch
“Your books are HOT!”
“Damn, I love your books but they are RACY.”
“Why does there have to be so much SEX?”
“Never, EVER take out the sex. It’s great!”
I get asked about the sexual content in the Knight Games
series on a regular basis. Readers tend to either love or hate the explicit
nature of the books, and I get plenty of email expressing peoples’ opinions
both ways. The Knight Games books have an element of humor and are sometimes
purposely campy, but that doesn’t mean serious thought didn’t go into their
creation. So I’d like to pull back the curtain just a tad and explain what
drove me to include the sexual scenes in the novels and why the story needs all
the boom-boom.
First, a primer for those who haven’t read the books. In The
Ghost and the Graveyard, a young woman discovers she is a reincarnated witch.
In order to take back her complete witchy power, she must make love to her caretaker,
a man who holds an immortal piece of her soul between lifetimes. Readers come
to learn that a previous incarnation of the witch sacrificed her own
immortality to make the caretaker what he is, in order to bind the two together
for eternity.
Paranormal literature is filled with themes about sex and
death. Milton’s Paradise Lostportrays sex as the death of innocent love, an act
of separation from God that tosses Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Sex
brings death.Victorian society even called sex the “little death. InBram
Stoker’s Dracula, Dracula is imbued with sexual power. Don’t look him in the
eye; he’ll draw you in! Those who give into Dracula’s allureare cursed with
vampirism—poor Lucy.In this context, the woman is the preyed upon victim of sex
and giving into her desires was a travesty. But then, in the past, sex was
often linked with reproduction and death was often portrayed as the price of procreation.
One cannot both be immortal and reproduce.
When I set out to write the Knight Games, I wanted to
explore the other side of sex in a paranormal romance. Unlike the Victorians,
modern society recognizes an element of magic with regard tosex. It isn’t
always a bad thing and is as much about life as it is about death. In fact, the
right coupling can enhance vitality, healing, and intimacy among the parties. Women
can even initiate and enjoy sex. In my
fictional world, Grateful sacrifices her immortality in order for her human
caretaker to live forever.Love spans lifetimes, heals wounds, and brings power
to the participants through sex. It’s a twist on the sex/death theme. She dies
to make him immortal. He’s immortal so that she can live again.
Grateful’s previous sexual experiences have ended in
disaster, and when we meet Grateful in book 1, she’s down on herself over the
failure of her past relationships. All sex isn’t good or healing in this
fictional world, and Grateful has a lot to learn about herself before she can
be a full-fledged, sword wielding. ass-kicker. She’s a flawed character, who
has made poor choices in the past (and makes a few more as the story
progresses). Luckily, Grateful’s relationship with Rick
is different. From the very beginning, their meeting kicks off a period of
growth and self-acceptance that comes to a climax (ßsee what I did there) in Mother
May I, the final installment. The story
isn’t about sex per se, but sex , as a representation of intimacy and
connection, plays an inextricable role in their relationship and her personal
growth. Sex brings life. Sex brings connection. Sex heals.
In this paranormal romance, Grateful’s experiences are
exaggerated and she doesn’t take herself too seriously. But I think mostadult women
can relate to this fictional world in the same way they might relate to Sex in
the City or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. For others, it’s simply a fast and fun
beach read. Either way, I hope this post gives the slightest bit of insight
into the reason for those steamy, blush-inducing pages.
That’s all for now! Happy Reading!
Mother
May I
Knight
Games
Book
4
Genevieve
Jack
Genre: New Adult Paranormal
Romance, Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Carpe Luna Publishing
Date of Publication: March 16,
2015
ISBN: 978-1-940675-17-6
ASIN: B00SNAFPF4
Number of pages: 300
Word Count: 65,000
Cover Artist: Steven Novak
Book Description:
Love will launch the mother of
all battles.
Grateful Knight is one stressed
out witch. Not only has she failed to restore her caretaker, Rick, from an evil
witch’s mind-control spell, but the loss he endured extends well beyond his
memory. To make matters worse, compensating for his absence could cost her the
job she loves and the strength she needs.
When a new supernatural threat
leaves Grateful for dead, a vampire ally saves her life but at a price. Her assailant's
calling card makes it clear she’s marked for death, possibly by her goddess
mother. With the help of her half-sister Polina, can Grateful gain the power
she needs to win Rick back and beat the goddess at her own game?
Available at Amazon
iBooks Kobo Smashwords
Excerpt:
Power
is a pain in the ass. People think they want it, they’ll kill themselves to get
it, but in the end, it’s nothing but trouble. Take Tabetha’s power; I was
ringing with it. As I patrolled the street in Salem I’d seen in the mirror, the
geraniums in the window boxes overhead stretched their necks in my direction.
Don’t get me started on the roses in my living room. I’d become the freaking
Jolly Green Giant of witchdom. The summer night veritably buzzed around me as
the elements of wind and wood tuned in to my presence.
So much power and so much responsibility. I hadn’t asked for
it, and I sure as hell didn’t want it. But here I was.
“Not sure. I couldn’t tell from the mirror.”
“What do you mean you couldn’t tell? And, more importantly,
why on earth are we here if you don’t know what we are looking for?”
“There’s an evil presence here. We saw a woman die. She fell
twitching to the street. I couldn’t see the perpetrator for some reason. Maybe
she was poisoned, or it’s some sort of poltergeist or invisible demon. All I
know for sure is a supernatural being means to do a human harm, and it’s our
job to stop them.” Again I wondered if the deficiency of vision was due to
Rick’s presence. I shook my head, not wanting it to be true. For all I knew,
the enchanted mirror might be on the fritz.
“Mmm. It’s not the
mirror, and I doubt it’s Rick,” Poe said, doing that intuitive thing he did
that made me feel like he was in my head. “If you ask me, without Rick’s blood
and, er, affections, your magic is weakening.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m more powerful than ever. I can
feel every blade of grass from here to Vermont.”
“Yes, you have more power, but a more sizable engine
requires a more sizable battery. You, Witcherella, are running on empty. The
mirror knows and is answering in kind.”
“Hmph.” I hadn’t considered this possibility, but Poe was
probably right. It wasn’t Rick’s presence making the mirror go wonky; it was
his absence. Three weeks had passed since I last enjoyed Rick’s blood and as
far as physical contact, that enjoyment ended at handholding. Every time I
tried to get close to him, it was the fishing pole all over again. A
distraction. An evasion. “I want Rick to come around on his terms. This is all
new to him. He doesn’t remember anything, especially not me. I was there, not
so long ago, when I first met Rick and I didn’t remember who I was. I need to be gentle with him.”
“Sex can be gentle. Have I mentioned you’re weakening?”
I groaned at his lack of subtlety. “It’s not just about
blood and sex,” I murmured. “He either can’t or won’t shift or do magic of any
kind. The answer is to jog his memory. I bought him a laptop today and showed
him some cat videos.”
“Cat videos?” Poe forced a gag.
I spread my hands. “I want him to learn about the modern
world. LOL cats are the gateway drug. Oh, and that panda that sneezes. I love
that one.”
“Is he still hunting?”
“And fishing. Sometimes he stares blankly out the window,” I
said honestly. “Have you ever seen squirrel stew, Poe? It ain’t pretty.”
“Sounds delicious.” Poe smacked his beak.
“I try to be charming, but it feels forced.” I pressed a
finger into my chin. “It is forced. We are two strangers, and I’m trying to
force him to fall in love with me like a creeper. He probably wishes the entire
thing was a bad dream. Plus, I think he might be depressed.”
“Ya think? He falls asleep in 1698 and wakes up in 2015,
having witnessed his fiancé burned at the stake and his entire community,
including his parents, struck down by the cursed spellbook used to bind her. Of
all the things Rick could be, depressed is the most logical.”
“I don’t know how to help him remember. I need him, Poe. If
you’re right about the mirror and my magic is waning, things are going to go
downhill fast.”
“Perhaps if you dressed a bit more comely?”
I looked down at my black T-shirt, jeans, and boots. My
outfit was enchanted to remain comfortable in any weather and to bend and
stretch to the demands of my job. I loved it. “What’s wrong with this?”
“You have a skull and crossbones on your chest.”
“It’s fun. It says dangerous,
yet fashionably casual.”
“It says weird goth
girlwith emotional problems.”
“You’d have emotional problems too if your fiancé left you
at the altar and then forgot who you were. This is who I am.” I stretched my
arms to the sides. “Grateful Knight. Love me or leave me.”
Poe cleared his throat. “Only problem is, if Rick doesn’t
love you and leaves you, it could mean your death. This is serious. If you
can’t bring back Rick’s memories, at least try to make him want you. Tell him
you need blood and sex, pronto. Love can happen at its own pace.”
Love. I hoped it could happen at all. Sometimes Rick treated
me like his captor, like he didn’t quite trust me. I still loved him, even
after he left me at the altar and ended up drugged in Tabetha’s bed. Those are
hard things to forgive, but I’d let them go. I loved Rick from a deep, forever
place in my soul. A place that couldn’t be reached by all the nastiness Tabetha
had doled out before I tore her apart.
I rolled my eyes. Poe’s concern for my well-being had as
much to do with his existence being tied to mine as for my safety. I got it. I
did. I couldn’t go on much longer without Rick. But I also couldn’t lose him.
If I pushed him too hard, I might drive him away.
“What was that?” I said, perking my ears.
“What?”
“You didn’t hear that? It was a twanging sound. Very faint.
Like a guitar string being strung.”
“Crap, Grateful. Move!”
About
the Author:
Genevieve Jack is a former
registered nurse turned author of weird, witty, and wicked-hot paranormal
romance. She grew up in a suburb of Chicago and attended a high school rumored
to be haunted. There she developed a love for old cemeteries and ghost tours. Today,
she specializes in original, cross-genre stories with surprising twists. She
lives in Illinois with her husband, two children, and a Brittany spaniel named
Riptide, who holds down her feet while she writes.
Tour giveaway:
1prize pack consisting of:
Genevieve Jack Book Bag
Signed set of paperbacks, Books 1-3 only
Bookmarks
It’s Good to be the Queen T-shirt (choice of medium or large only)
$25 iTunes or Amazon gift card (Winner’s Choice)
Open to US Shipping
Open to US Shipping
4 comments:
Thank you for hosting me today on your gorgeous blog!
You're very welcome! Glad you could visit for a day.
Never change a thing!!! I love the series!!
- Jolene
Valley Girl Gone Country
Hi Genevieve, I started (and completed) your Knight Games series in the past couple of weeks. Kick-ass end to Grateful and Rick's romance by the way. You executed the conclusion better than most love stories in a series. Very impressive. Any chance you are going to RWA in New York this July? I'm booked and would to meet you in person and get a few copies signed. Best of luck to you!
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