tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16358497412118500812024-02-20T00:20:02.694-05:00Karen Marie MoningKaren Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515186952007146780noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1635849741211850081.post-9366642147669730852015-10-08T12:09:00.000-04:002015-10-08T12:09:16.409-04:00IT IS YOUR BOOK. WRITE IT.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">In 2004, I moved down south where I lived for the next ten years. I married, divorced, travelled, made and lost friends. As I approached 50, I developed an increasingly strong desire to move back home, be with my family and friends, aware my parents and grandmother were getting older, as was I.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">I write stories for a living. I know a truth—we all do. Our life is our book: we are each author, hero and critic. We script the plot, gather the secondary characters, develop theme and motif.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">When you approach 50, you realize that book is nearing page 300 or so, and there aren’t as many pages left to write as you’ve already written. Priorities shift, desires get analyzed and refined. I suspect the mid-life crisis comes from being able to look back and see your more-than-half-completed story, recognize your themes and motifs, chosen and accidental. You spot your heroes, anti-heroes and villains and, if you’ve gained wisdom along the way, understand how they came to be what they were. You identify the chapters you wish fiercely you could cut, but can’t because that part of the book is published. You make peace with those chapters. Or don’t. You see the paths you didn’t take, as well as the ones you did. <u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">50 either turns you into a butterfly or cripples the caterpillar within. That, too, is up to the author.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">My Dad’s birthday is coming up <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1429554315" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">October 15th</span></span>. He would have been 80. Last year I wanted to throw an enormous party for his 79<sup>th</sup> birthday and he cocked his chemo-bald head, flashed me a smile and told me to do it on his 80<sup>th</sup>. I guess my face said, <i>but you won’t be here</i> and he said, “I’ll be here,” in that tone of voice that brooked no argument and nearly convinced me. He was superb at that tone of voice. He died on Father’s Day, June 21, 2015. He was never one to miss a great stage entrance or exit.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Dad was vibrant, strong, smart and perfectionistic. He had a fully developed system of internal ethics and taught me, at a young age, the importance of forming a self-sustaining philosophical structure by which to live. Like me, he was strong-willed and solidly centered in his opinions, and we butted heads often but even when we were on opposite sides of whatever fence we were discussing, I respected the man enormously. <u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">One of ten children in a low-income family, he got his first job when he was five years old, and quit school in tenth grade to help support his siblings. He finished his schooling in the military. Family and work were everything to him.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">I’m afraid I gave him more than a few of his white hairs. I was the wild one, too much energy, and not enough to keep my brain busy. I was expelled from high school at 16 and, although I had enough credits to graduate and go to college, my parents wouldn’t let me because they thought I was too young to be on my own so I had to kill time for a year before I could go to college.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">During that year, I read nearly every book in the local library. I lived thousands of lives through those books and refined the way I lived from the lessons I learned in them. At seventeen, I caught my first glimpse of the awareness that we are each our own book, telling our story with every choice we make.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">When I went to Purdue, my guidance counselor asked me what I wanted to do when I graduated and I told him I wanted to be a writer. It appealed to me in a sort of infinite-regression way: telling stories inside my story. He suggested I choose a major I could actually make money at so I settled on Society & Law, thinking I’d become an attorney and, when I’d acquired enough life experience to have something interesting to say, I’d write. But after an internship with criminal attorneys, I changed my mind and ended up working in insurance litigation for the next eight years.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">At 30, I realized my life was flashing by and I wasn’t chasing any of my dreams. It was either run headlong after them or convince myself to forget them. Even then, I knew one day my story would be more than half written, I’d be looking back, and I could do it with pride or regret. <u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">I called my dad and told him I wanted to write. I talked to him about the vision I’d always had and, while he voiced every concern a parent might have about their child chasing a highly improbable dream, at the end of the conversation he said simply: <i>what do want from me</i>?<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">I asked him if he could pay my rent for one year, and when I was successful I’d pay him back, so I could work part time and put 100% of myself into chasing my dream. I told him (in that wonderfully authoritative brook-no-resistance-voice I’d learned from him) during that year I <i>would</i> write the book that would get me published. He said fine, and took over my rent for the next twelve months. I also told him he was never allowed to tell anyone that I’d asked for help. He said fine. And never did.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">While he paid my rent, I wrote <i>Beyond the Highland Mist</i>, which sold to Random House. When I signed with my publisher, I’d never seen him prouder. He flew out to Anaheim with me for my first RWA conference in 1999, and seeing my dad at a romance novel convention was priceless. He wandered around in the middle of a thousand excited, happy, pretty women with an utterly bemused and content look on his face for five days.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">He was there with me when <i>Beyond the Highland Mist</i> was nominated for two RITAs in Washington DC. He was the first person I called when <i>Kiss of the Highlander</i> hit the New York Times bestseller list. When <i>Faefever</i> hit #3 on the NYT, he demanded: <i>who’s above you</i>? When <i>Shadowfever</i> hit #1, his question was: <i>when are you going to write a real book</i>? I said, <i>what’s a real book</i>? He said: <i>like a Clive Cussler</i>. I said, <i>uh, Dad, I’m above him this week,</i> and we both laughed (me mostly with astonishment).<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Before he died, he was still pressuring me to write a ‘real book’ and when we argued about how my books <i>are</i> real books, he tried to explain by saying he knew I had other stories to write inside me, that he could feel them, and I needed to listen to that other muse, too and not be afraid to follow it. (I’m listening, Dad.)<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">A voracious reader, my father devoured everything he could get his hands on. In his final months, we shared our mutual love of books, reading them together, stepping away from the vicious ugliness of the disease that was eating him alive. Our favorite authors swept us off into adventure, danger and espionage—and a world with no cancer. My sister, brother and I took turns caring for him in our homes and when he’d move from house to house, his suitcase of books was the largest part of the luggage he carried with him.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Moving back home was both wonderful and terrible. I returned on my dad’s birthday—October 15, 2013—he said it was the only present he wanted from me. Three weeks after I moved back, my grandmother died at 97, in her sleep after holding court with her vast family and eating everything she could get her hands on. Before she died, I brought her double chocolate fudge cupcakes from her favorite bakery, which the tiny dynamo devoured, and took her for a walk. She told me she didn’t know why, but her many aches and pains had vanished and she felt young again. I think I knew right then she wasn’t long for this world. When it’s time, I’d like to go the way she did. <u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Shortly after that, my dad got sick with what he told us was a really bad sinus infection. It worsened through the winter and one day in February he called me to ask if he could come lay down at my house. He sounded so frail and weak, I told him to tell me where he was so I could come get him. In typical Dad-fashion, he hung up on me and drove to my house. I have this frozen memory of watching him walk up to my door, bend down to pick something up, swaying as if he was about to collapse. He was bringing me baseboard samples for the renovation we were doing, he’d dropped them and was determined not to come inside without them. He was never a man to fall down on the job.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">When he came in the door, I heard the death rattle. I had to carry him up the stairs because he insisted on lying down in his favorite bedroom but was too weak to get there. My mom, who has a wicked bit of ESP, called me and told me my father was dying and to give him an aspirin because we always thought it would be his heart. I never question those moments she has. She’s always right. He’d had two open-heart surgeries in the past few years. I took him an aspirin and told him we were going to the ER and he gave me a smirk and told me it wasn’t his heart and he really needed new glasses so he wanted to go the eye doctor because he had an appointment. At that point, I called my sister and told her I needed help getting him to the ER because he was never going to cooperate.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Flashback to me: I’m fifteen on a <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1429554316" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Saturday</span></span> night at <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1429554317" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">5 PM</span></span>. My siblings and I grew up on a farm, with a large tobacco base, 60 head of cattle, hay, corn, pigs, you name it. My dad commuted three hours a day for his job, then came home to four kids, a wife and a working farm. We’d cut and staked tobacco that day and had to hang it on a structure of tiers in a huge barn, so it could cure and we could strip it. <u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">My sister, brother and I were all up at the top, on various tiers, passing the heavy stakes up. My brother was on the highest rung (I learned to avoid having him on the rung above me because he chewed and spit. Thanks to him, I have no fear of heights nor any desire to use tobacco.) My brother kept telling Dad to stop sending it up because the roof wouldn’t carry the load. Brian was 17. Dad didn’t listen. He passed up stake after stake while my brother continued repeating his assessment of the integrity of the structure we were all standing on—right up until that moment a few thousand pounds of tobacco collapsed on us, along with all the tiers.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">At fifteen, I was irritated that dad didn’t listen. At fifty, I understood. I’m a lot like him. It was his fundamental nature to constantly test his limits, to test the limits around him, to refine and re-define what he could and couldn’t do. When death came, he tested his limits again. And for a time—he won.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">We took him to the ER for what we thought was pneumonia. It was. It was also Stage 4 small cell lung cancer that had spread to his liver and lymph, which none of us knew he had. The pneumonia had formed mucus plugs and the doctor said if we hadn’t brought him in, he would have died in his sleep that night. The death rattle I was hearing was real.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">They checked him in, hooked him up to 5 different IVs and, for the next 27 days, we sat in his hospital room being told day after day that he was dying and had days, at best, 2 weeks. They said there was no point in chemo because he was too sick, the cancer had spread too far, too aggressively.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">I sat on the cold gray vinyl couch and watched his blue feet, writing on my laptop, keeping vigil with my siblings, which includes the amazing Leiha, my Dad’s unofficially adopted daughter and late night TV companion. The days passed until someone finally decided, considering he hadn’t died yet and should have, with his fighting spirit, chemo was worth a try. <u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Thanks to Dr. Leming, my dad battled his way out of the cancer ward, much to everyone's astonishment. Dr. Leming told us on many occasions he had no explanation for how our dad was still alive. But we knew: That roof could surely take a few hundred pounds more weight. Never give up. Never quit. <i>Do not go gentle into that good night...</i><u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Over the next few months, dad rallied so wonderfully that when he told us the doctors were all nuts, he’d “just had a bad case of the flu” we nearly believed him. That authoritative tone again.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">His cancer spread from liver and lymph to skin, bone and finally brain over the next sixteen months. Those months were filled with horror and beauty, heartbreak and wonder, love and joy. I’d spent ten years down south away from him, but I lived a lifetime with him in the sixteen months we had at the end.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Some people get more beautiful as they’re dying. I don’t know how they do it. Maybe it's the thorn bird singing its finest song, impaled on the thorn. But his eyes got bluer, more alive not less, more intense and aware instead of fading. He began to radiate some kind of inner peace and understanding that humbled me. All my life, he’d been the strongest man I’d ever known and at the end—he got even stronger.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">I would have given anything to ease his pain and we both knew there was nothing I could do but be there at <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1429554318" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">3 AM</span></span> to help him off the kitchen floor because the man was so stubborn and worried about interrupting my writing schedule that he wouldn’t wake me to tell me he wanted pie and ice-cream in the middle of the night (despite the walkie talkies I’d bought for us so he could wake me anytime.) Instead, that night he woke me by kicking his walker over and triggering the house alarm (smart man!) so I could come running to find him bleeding from the head in four places as he proudly showed me his completely blood-soaked handkerchief and told me he’d stopped the bleeding and he was fine, just fine, so get him up and go back to bed because I had a book to finish.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">God, I love the man.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">From the moment Dad was diagnosed, he never said a depressed or angry word. On the contrary, he got sunnier, funnier, and more alive. His sense of humor about the darkest things was outrageous and by the end we were calling him the ‘black knight’ from Monty Python because he simply adapted to whatever indignity or offense cancer dealt, and kept going as if nothing was wrong. When one thing after another broke in his body, he simply kept pushing, smiling, living, trying to not be a burden to the people who wanted him to be a burden as long as we could keep him with us.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Near the end, he asked me to take him outside in his wheel chair. We sat on the front porch and watched a storm roll in over the lake. There was no sorrow in him, merely a quiet acceptance, and serene joy in the moment. As the rain mixed with soil he closed his eyes, inhaled deeply, said, “Oh, that smells delicious,” and told me I needed to remember to practice mindfulness, always breathe deep and savor what was in front of me at the moment. Then he told me every single thing I needed to fix on my house so he wouldn’t have to worry about it when he was gone.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">He never said he was dying. That was an admission of defeat the black knight didn’t know how to make. But when the time came, and they tried to put him on a ventilator, he said quietly, “No.” And when they tried to give him IV food at the end, he smiled and shook his head. He lived on his terms and he died on them, carrying the burden of his death on his once-so-broad shoulders, ensuring none of his children would have to make that final terrible decision for him.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Dad lived enthusiastically, fearlessly. He worked hard, played hard, and traveled extensively, both in the world and in his mind. He lived his life—and a million others through the books he read. When he died, he was in the middle of three different novels. I have them, on my bookshelf, next to a picture of him, with the playing cards he used for bookmarks, exactly where he left them.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">And I think damn it—he died in the middle of the story.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">But I know a truth: we all do. The only thing that matters is that it’s the best story you could tell, and that you tell it with passion, commitment and abandon. <u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Our life is our book: we are each author, hero and critic.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Happy Birthday, Dad. <u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><u></u> <u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Your story was a #1 bestseller.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1635849741211850081.post-50169563053869939972015-06-18T03:09:00.003-04:002015-06-18T03:09:45.711-04:00Cover Art for FEVERBORN and BURNED in paperback<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">I love the direction these covers are going.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">FEVERBORN on sale January 19, 2016. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Available for pre-order (click on store for link):</span><br />
<a href="http://amzn.to/1LjNeT3" target="_blank">Amazon</a><br />
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/feverborn-karen-marie-moning/1121090776?ean=9780385344425" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a><br />
<a href="https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/feverborn" target="_blank">Kobo</a><br />
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/feverborn/id959371239?mt=11" target="_blank">iBooks</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6S5kv6n5ihexfJSNAGtfJvTCHKFnz0GMkpUR90OgcRK8sXf-XKHQ4xDPVrRRWUBPrBSqPAWettxLoJ6HT2LvSgeUk74rF9PyriWLnAhNPuV8S48YLbpXwqiXXEf-UH90qBhz4K2lb260/s1600/11425820_10152965828798034_1622165485302447260_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6S5kv6n5ihexfJSNAGtfJvTCHKFnz0GMkpUR90OgcRK8sXf-XKHQ4xDPVrRRWUBPrBSqPAWettxLoJ6HT2LvSgeUk74rF9PyriWLnAhNPuV8S48YLbpXwqiXXEf-UH90qBhz4K2lb260/s640/11425820_10152965828798034_1622165485302447260_o.jpg" width="418" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">BURNED on sale in paperback Nov. 24, 2015.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgzClHjhx-n1hfFu6Dz-FzcmM6WGamoDc2TpqNvmuMlotSqw8P2aDiHeOpEF0G8eJl1oIBqs9V0RWCVMk4V-SGl1my1HiGhD6ppSSs5ImucmSTk6d0PqHl5lEZtao4djYOHUCEqmtZFQ4/s1600/1926178_10152978039848034_5340514215421185496_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgzClHjhx-n1hfFu6Dz-FzcmM6WGamoDc2TpqNvmuMlotSqw8P2aDiHeOpEF0G8eJl1oIBqs9V0RWCVMk4V-SGl1my1HiGhD6ppSSs5ImucmSTk6d0PqHl5lEZtao4djYOHUCEqmtZFQ4/s640/1926178_10152978039848034_5340514215421185496_o.jpg" width="388" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1635849741211850081.post-28257699851784631202015-05-04T13:55:00.002-04:002015-05-06T13:49:16.321-04:00FEVERBORN LAUNCH PARTY!!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWOfSpj6fwCvKoOQ-etSZd0pZk0-_83swwlbWaCGPTiaVT6ctwXe7TLksSBEfhoRrZBNMhQEn7cPmSvqWsJP9EhkeYKD8Zb-G2RVDWumKwrjuYv-oKA0Pxvykjru6p_YPzK80WF8t4HJA/s1600/DSC_0263.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWOfSpj6fwCvKoOQ-etSZd0pZk0-_83swwlbWaCGPTiaVT6ctwXe7TLksSBEfhoRrZBNMhQEn7cPmSvqWsJP9EhkeYKD8Zb-G2RVDWumKwrjuYv-oKA0Pxvykjru6p_YPzK80WF8t4HJA/s320/DSC_0263.jpg" height="320" width="194" /></a></div>
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The majority of my year is spent in my writing cave so when it's time for a book launch, it's a reason to celebrate and I want to party with nyou! For BURNED I stayed close to home but now I'm ready to return to one of my favorite cities in the world, New Orleans! There is something magical about NOLA and I have so many wonderful memories of time spent there with the Moning Maniacs.</div>
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I'm in the process of finalizing the details but I wanted to give you as much time as possible to plan and save.</div>
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WHEN? The FEVERBORN signing is on Monday, January 18th, but we'll be in town partying from the 15th - 19th. We've got a fabulous costume party with awesome prizes, a scavenger hunt and tons of other fun stuff planned for you.</div>
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WHERE? NEW ORLEANS! I can’t think of any other place I’d rather be.</div>
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HOST HOTEL WHERE WE'LL BE HANGING OUT? Again, where else? The spectacular Le Pavillon. They did such a wonderful job with the SHADOWFEVER and ICED launch that I’m in no mood to mess with success. We’ve negotiated special room rates for you again but the block is LIMITED.</div>
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Thursday $120</div>
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Friday $250</div>
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Saturday $250</div>
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Sunday $120</div>
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Monday $120</div>
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Tuesday $120</div>
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There's a lot of excitement and energy when we are all together at Le Pavillon that is certainly a memorable part of the experience. We're often found in the lobby, the bar and having informal get togethers in the rooms. For me, the best part of doing a book event like this is getting to hang out with all of you in a central location!</div>
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PLEASE NOTE: The block is for the dates of Thur. Jan 14 - Tues. Jan 19 (checking out the 20th). The first room block is sold out and when the second block is booked there won't be anymore rooms available, so if you plan to stay in the hotel where the majority of the events will be, book it now.</div>
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Here is the number to reserve by phone. You must use the code <b>FEVERBORN2</b> to get the discounted rates: 1(800) 535-9095. If you can't get thru initially, please be patient.</div>
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For the most up to date information, join our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/902347563166537/">FEVERBORN BOOK LAUNCH PARTY</a> event page on Facebook. This page will be updated when we have more details. To help us better prepare, please mark that you are going ONLY if you are definitely attending. If your plans aren't set, mark the event as maybe and you will still receive updates. If you don't have Facebook my <a href="http://www.karenmoning.com/feverborn-book-launch-party.html">website</a> will also be updated as details become finalized. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/kmmfeverborn?source=feed_text&story_id=10152876683528034">#KMMFEVERBORN</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1635849741211850081.post-71256107540627569352015-01-29T11:12:00.000-05:002015-10-14T11:46:55.288-04:00FEVER Series: Where it began and where it's going...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvQiH1AfrPZmWX0Gv8dmsIrNfxQocxO80PHg5UH5viWTg2T8jPpk1g37fXdIHX1B0g6rbVaMfanDES2WVWd6hiinTfoRBHlLVo4wmNiG9kFGFzm2NB-A0Tiizmz7ReKjSXrLJi8mSglYQ/s1600/macdanifinal.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvQiH1AfrPZmWX0Gv8dmsIrNfxQocxO80PHg5UH5viWTg2T8jPpk1g37fXdIHX1B0g6rbVaMfanDES2WVWd6hiinTfoRBHlLVo4wmNiG9kFGFzm2NB-A0Tiizmz7ReKjSXrLJi8mSglYQ/s320/macdanifinal.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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My fave cover of all time is still the hardcover of SHADOWFEVER, the paperback of SF and the hardcover of ICED but I have to say these re-issues are pretty hot. It's fun to see these covers because it reminds me of how I felt at the beginning of the first story arc in the Fever Series...wondering if readers would trust me to watch the story unfold over multiple books, taking grief for writing in installments with years in between, and ending in cliffhangers. Promising myself I'd never do it again, that I'd go back to the simple, easy life of writing stand-alone novels once the first story arc of the Fever Series ended. </div>
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But in life little of worth is ever simple or easy, and there was that damn second story arc that I couldn't walk away from. It stalked me as relentlessly as the first story arc had. However, it didn't come quite so easily. Perhaps because my marriage ended while I was fishing my subconscious for it and my vision was temporarily clouded, perhaps it just wasn't ready to come yet. </div>
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When the first story arc came to me fully fleshed in a dream, and I wrote the titles on the wall of my study (then firmly refused to write the series for many months) I also wrote a quote next to the titles that puzzled me for the next 8 years. I trusted the dream implicitly, and over the subsequent years every detail I'd recorded ended up being worked in somewhere.</div>
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I remember how I felt at the beginning of the first story arc in the Fever Series…wondering if readers would trust me to watch the story unfold over multiple books, taking grief for writing in installments with years in between, and ending in cliffhangers. Promising myself I’d never do it again, that I’d go back to the simple, easy life of writing stand-alone novels once the first story arc of the Fever Series ended.</div>
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But in life little of worth is ever simple or easy, and there was that damn second story arc that I couldn’t walk away from. It stalked me as relentlessly as the first story arc had. However, it didn’t come quite so easily. Perhaps because my marriage ended while I was fishing my subconscious for it and my vision was temporarily clouded, perhaps it just wasn’t ready to come yet.</div>
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When the first story arc came to me fully fleshed in a dream, and I wrote the titles on the wall of my study (then firmly refused to write the series for many months) I also wrote a quote next to the titles that puzzled me for the next 8 years. I trusted the dream implicitly, and over the subsequent years every detail I’d recorded ended up being worked in somewhere.</div>
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Except for that single quote that I not only never found the place for in the first five books–but was never even able to grasp the theme and motif of. I ran it across my tongue for years, evaluating, trying to define just what/who the hell it pertained to.</div>
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I know now. I get it. While writing BURNED it became crystal clear. Although much has changed in how I originally thought I would write the second story arc of the Fever Series, it went exactly where it was supposed to, albeit by a more circuitous route than I’d have preferred. I finally understand that fucking quote that’s tortured me.</div>
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So, here I am again….ICED was my DARKFEVER, setting the stage and engaging emotion where I wanted it, BURNED is my BLOODFEVER, building the scenery and developing the nuances necessary, FEVERBORN is FAEFEVER & DREAMFEVER where the stakes become increasingly clear and everything goes code red. FEVERSONG is my SHADOWFEVER, where the shit I’ve been stirring into a mystery and a puzzle and a pattern hits the fan and flies off the blades to take its true form.</div>
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I love this series and every character in it. And although I’m committed to innate emotional justice in my fiction, that doesn’t mean good things will happen to everyone. Still, like life, there is structure and form and beauty and joy in it, and your joy can fill you only as deeply as your sorrow has carved you (and I do love to carve:) and hopefully one helluva a good story and I thank you all from the very bottom of my heart for coming along for the ride again.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1635849741211850081.post-50074601140517133882015-01-20T08:04:00.000-05:002015-01-29T08:04:28.639-05:00BURNED on Sale NOW<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3jS6clfLpc-hzc6QrtJxKNL-4udh84rW6I0qohswkvT6i_3vcn2NYXaODNMYwy2aL5IkfTOdYktD2r3yx_j9WoEOQ_JobnsxVEu3aom4GJHmnvYQqlltqchiJQbHlAAhyphenhyphenpqUxJo6BWbM/s1600/Burned+Final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3jS6clfLpc-hzc6QrtJxKNL-4udh84rW6I0qohswkvT6i_3vcn2NYXaODNMYwy2aL5IkfTOdYktD2r3yx_j9WoEOQ_JobnsxVEu3aom4GJHmnvYQqlltqchiJQbHlAAhyphenhyphenpqUxJo6BWbM/s1600/Burned+Final.jpg" height="400" width="263" /></a></div>
"BURNED is Moning’s best writing to date, bar none." ~<i>Popwrapped</i><br /><br />"BURNED scorches with fierce intensity, suspense and sexiness..."<br /><i>~USA Today</i><div>
<br />“Mac is back and badder than ever!”<br />~#1 <i>New York Times </i>bestselling author J. R. Ward<br /><br />“Dark, delicious suspense! Karen Marie Moning is my author of choice and Fever is my series of choice for action-packed suspense with a spine-tingling paranormal twist.”<br />~#1 <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author Lisa Gardner<br /><br />“A masterwork by an incomparable writer. BURNED is brilliant, sexy, and dangerous. I adore Moning! No one does it better.”<br />~#1 <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author Sylvia Day<br /><br />“Prepare for a heart-stopping trip into the epic Fever world, filled with gasp-out-loud surprises and sweltering sensuality.”<br />~#1 <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author Kresley Cole<br /><br />“BURNED gets the highest rating from me. I wanted to run through town shouting ‘Mac is back! Mac is back!’ Grab some snacks, something to drink, and settle down for a cover-to-cover read that will likely keep you up all night.”<br />~<i>New York Times</i> bestselling author Linda Howard</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1635849741211850081.post-51326883684838743422015-01-19T12:53:00.000-05:002015-01-29T08:05:22.514-05:00BURNED BOOK TRAILER<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='480' height='270' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/moRdA43d4Nc?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">“Mac is back and badder than ever!” -- #1 New York Times bestselling author J. R. Ward</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">MacKayla Lane and Jericho Barrons return in BURNED, the latest novel in the blockbuster FEVER series from Karen Marie Moning.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: red; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><i>It’s <span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">easy to walk away from lies. Power is another thing. </span></i></span><br />
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<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; display: inline;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">MacKayla Lane would do anything to save the home she loves. A gifted <i>sidhe</i>-seer, she’s already fought and defeated the deadly <i>Sinsar Dubh</i>—an ancient book of terrible evil—yet its hold on her has never been stronger.</span></span><br />
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<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; display: inline;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">When the wall that protected humans from the seductive, insatiable Fae was destroyed on Halloween, long-imprisoned immortals ravaged the planet. Now Dublin is a war zone with factions battling for control. As the city heats up and the ice left by the Hoar Frost King melts, tempers flare, passions run red-hot, and dangerous lines get crossed. Seelie and Unseelie vie for power against nine ancient immortals who have governed Dublin for millennia; a rival band of sidhe-seers invades the city, determined to claim it for their own; Mac’s former protégé and best friend, Dani “Mega” O’Malley, is now her fierce enemy; and even more urgent, Highland druid Christian MacKeltar has been captured by the Crimson Hag and is being driven deeper into Unseelie madness with each passing day. The only one Mac can depend on is the powerful, dangerous immortal Jericho Barrons, but even their fiery bond is tested by betrayal.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">PRE-ORDER BURNED, on sale January 20th, 2015</span></div>
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">FEVER Series Book 7 by Karen Marie Moning </span><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Amazon Hardcover $17.08 </span><a href="http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Ftinyurl.com%2Flpazt9a&h=QAQECqYf6&s=1" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/lpazt9a</a><br />
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Barnes & Noble Signed Hardcover $17.45 </span><a href="http://tinyurl.com/ocsbr9b" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/ocsbr9b</a><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Nook $13.99 </span><a href="http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Ftinyurl.com%2Fpygm4nv&h=1AQHZYVnz&s=1" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/pygm4nv</a><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">iBooks $11.99 </span><a href="http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Ftinyurl.com%2Fpcqjy7w&h=2AQEyxMIL&s=1" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/pcqjy7w</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1635849741211850081.post-36953050093379761562015-01-06T13:23:00.005-05:002015-01-06T13:23:52.425-05:00Which FEVER character are you?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://thefeverseries.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg5R5TN25hGmfBygDZtUxK3vY4111tLtiODWaSv5ssF42dI1mlthI8dQzhC2bYd2h4N15ARexA3MKKkztz29lBw78Hg8pF6rvuwNqRPwFANY57-OKRFH7NxsLbIN27KYnivVZj37dlD9I/s1600/10845832_10152624014323034_3675637866884598610_o.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Take the quiz and get automatically entered to win one of 75 fabulous prizes (including the last fifty Fever Tarot decks in existence!) You also get to read a long excerpt from BURNED! Share your results--I want to know who I'm dealing with:)</span></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1635849741211850081.post-77453514364457246752015-01-02T20:00:00.000-05:002015-01-03T01:47:16.789-05:00BURNED Book Signing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_71csFPfgr26YwmJWCorF_JylR7mKAggq9lZAithL4SUSl3YJj_EtXVeL2DVC_FaictcAHwZqJTYglFa9pm_iIXTQcyLiGUaoAmiNX6X4n3G-cVoJRGMyN2hvDNvtQ5hlxizmkG1ui2g/s1600/10404386_10152554706368034_8803942665303184578_n.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_71csFPfgr26YwmJWCorF_JylR7mKAggq9lZAithL4SUSl3YJj_EtXVeL2DVC_FaictcAHwZqJTYglFa9pm_iIXTQcyLiGUaoAmiNX6X4n3G-cVoJRGMyN2hvDNvtQ5hlxizmkG1ui2g/s1600/10404386_10152554706368034_8803942665303184578_n.png" height="298" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">Saturday, January 24th at 1:00 PM EST</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">Barnes & Noble</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">1 Levee Way</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">Newport, KY 41071</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;"><br />(859) 581-2000<br /><br />With very special guests #1 New York Times Bestselling author <a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=29402628230" href="https://www.facebook.com/JRWardBooks" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">J.R. Ward</a> and audiobook narrator <a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=689271392" href="https://www.facebook.com/philgigante" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Phil Gigante</a>!!!<br /><br />For those who aren't familiar with Newport on the Levee in KY, it's right across the river from Cincinnati and offers an assortment of shops, restaurants, bars, a comedy club, a movie theatre, a nearby aquarium and, of course, Barnes & Noble bookstore!<br /><br />We're doing this signing a little differently than when I popped in to visit J.R.. Although you'll still go into Barnes & Noble to obtain your wristband, the actual signing will be held in the attached Gallery. For those of you familiar with Newport on the Levee, that means in the small mall (right next to Claddagh Irish Pub which seems pretty much perfect to me.) I grabbed a quick picture of the space when I was down there. Obviously it will be set up differently than it is in the picture and there will be ample seating. The Gallery is open 24 hours so if you arrive early, no need to stand outside in the cold. There are public restrooms inside the Gallery. There's an enormous parking garage beneath the complex for easy access and CVG airport is about ten minutes away.<br /><br />Barnes & Noble is opening an hour early the day of the signing, at 9:00 AM.<br /><br />You MUST purchase BURNED from Barnes & Noble in order to get in the signing line--either the day of the signing or bring your receipt from your prior B&N purchase. That receipt gets you your numbered wristband. The number on your wristband determines your place in the signing line, and your seating. The earlier you get there, the better your number.<br /><br />Phil and I will be selecting random people from the crowd to participate in a few interactive skits, I'll be doing a Q & A and the amazing J. R. WARD is GONNA BE THERE!!!<br /><br />We're doing talks first, signing after. First time through the line, I'll sign two books per person. Once everyone has been through, I'll sign additional books.<br /><br />No flash photography or videotaping of the event is permitted.<br /><br />BURNED in audiobook and backlist titles will also be available for purchase at the store.<br /><br />This is the only signing I'll be doing for BURNED as I'm under a tight deadline for FEVERBORN.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1635849741211850081.post-4014092971009446422014-11-10T11:46:00.004-05:002014-11-10T11:46:46.632-05:00Burned Teaser<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNunq3bBkcmtg_fAHIoXPb84lcl-M1T1uN89fRL-KcB7RjBC_fx6QHJIjuQmR7JZoD-_saV0UYBX6sO11p0AOKgZcq7ci9obigqZ5DT6Ii_vtxN2iJJu54y2ofkrpdtsCPVtRN_tQ1fi4/s1600/lor1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNunq3bBkcmtg_fAHIoXPb84lcl-M1T1uN89fRL-KcB7RjBC_fx6QHJIjuQmR7JZoD-_saV0UYBX6sO11p0AOKgZcq7ci9obigqZ5DT6Ii_vtxN2iJJu54y2ofkrpdtsCPVtRN_tQ1fi4/s1600/lor1.png" height="368" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">I do something I never let myself do, and tie her feet down, too, thinking, Man, she should not be letting me do this, followed by, Man, I know better than to do this.</span></div>
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I got her spread-eagled naked, legs<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;"> wide, totally at my mercy, and I’m not gonna have one fucking ounce of it. She’s not getting out of this bed until she’s had the most explosive orgasm of her life, followed by a few hundred more. I’m keeping her for weeks.</span></div>
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I’m keeping her until she’s telling me I’m the hottest fuck she’s ever had and means it. Until she’s Lor-Pri-ya. Until she sees there’s a little more going on here than Mr. Fucking-Second-Rate-Nice-Guy who’s fun, for fuck’s sake, and wasn’t one of the most vicious killers the old world knew. I can keep it under control. I’ve been soaked in sex for the past week and a half. The lethal edge is off my appetite. </div>
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Mostly.</div>
</span><span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">_________________</span><br /><span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">BURNED</span><br /><span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">©Karen Marie Moning</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1635849741211850081.post-19147910868657389162014-11-04T00:11:00.001-05:002014-11-04T00:11:25.618-05:00DARKFEVER Giveaway!!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ3ur76bPdVqdDUFZIffW8GRPmj-KtCFbTorvhIlvbSLilOkQqYLZ8uFY1c7JC_PtDLxKN390KVUeI22SfScHn7ouKqrMmtNtKw7sgZnzNwzb5aYa-cZMbwtWLsOYonmbqnaBbO_TgS6Q/s1600/darkfever.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ3ur76bPdVqdDUFZIffW8GRPmj-KtCFbTorvhIlvbSLilOkQqYLZ8uFY1c7JC_PtDLxKN390KVUeI22SfScHn7ouKqrMmtNtKw7sgZnzNwzb5aYa-cZMbwtWLsOYonmbqnaBbO_TgS6Q/s1600/darkfever.jpg" height="400" width="242" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Head over to </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/113661-darkfever" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;" target="_blank">Goodreads</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"> for a chance to win one of 100 copies of DARKFEVER, the first book in Karen Marie Moning's bestselling FEVER Series!</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/113661-darkfever" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/113661-darkfever</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1635849741211850081.post-23433330979902195892014-10-20T15:28:00.000-04:002014-10-21T13:48:06.751-04:00Fever News<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDJXX64SQ_3lmz1ICRojYxa0f6vdj9ZNQ0zU5vCViQTyi8Sf1GnJorFrYHgCNLkMLqjmOwaXUGoWhcdPip-ywr-30CU7Z7D5vX7_h9rS7Tk2yLKFMPq2sZllNK4O7YYJofgwQvSnqYSTw/s1600/Fever+World+updated.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDJXX64SQ_3lmz1ICRojYxa0f6vdj9ZNQ0zU5vCViQTyi8Sf1GnJorFrYHgCNLkMLqjmOwaXUGoWhcdPip-ywr-30CU7Z7D5vX7_h9rS7Tk2yLKFMPq2sZllNK4O7YYJofgwQvSnqYSTw/s1600/Fever+World+updated.png" height="400" width="342" /></a></div>
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Finally have the titles for the next two books (Books 8 and 9) in the Fever Series! (Not Flayed, that title just never worked for me.) FEVERBORN and FEVERSONG. As I said in a prior Q&A, although I’d originally decided to condense 5 intended books into 3, it just doesn’t want to work out that way and I always obey the muse. So for those of you who didn’t like 3 books instead of 5, I’ve settled in the middle at 4. :) For now, LOL. If the Nine have their way and they usually do, it may be more. (I'm writing FEVERBORN right now, goal is still to have it out next year, in addition to BURNED:)</div>
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For those of you emailing, these are a continuation of the Fever Series, in chronological order, to be read from Book 1 to Book 9:</div>
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Darkfever</div>
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Bloodfever</div>
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Faefever</div>
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Dreamfever</div>
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Shadowfever</div>
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Iced</div>
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Burned</div>
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Feverborn</div>
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Feversong</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1635849741211850081.post-9738299396180593122014-10-19T14:05:00.000-04:002014-10-20T14:10:19.859-04:00Signed Copies of BURNED<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMYlUd3eI2zjL9zWb2RPdITrtYYLGW8igjHtakSt0pJSdF9uzdrk_7dEQnMlbPoeQpPjrGrjosuT8cjQ5vDRQ_XxT0s9tY0-Mpm_rMIpzF1pNKh4d704Y13GbcocK1xCPUgrSun-3077c/s1600/10291074_10152447805733034_2380999572104093086_n.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMYlUd3eI2zjL9zWb2RPdITrtYYLGW8igjHtakSt0pJSdF9uzdrk_7dEQnMlbPoeQpPjrGrjosuT8cjQ5vDRQ_XxT0s9tY0-Mpm_rMIpzF1pNKh4d704Y13GbcocK1xCPUgrSun-3077c/s1600/10291074_10152447805733034_2380999572104093086_n.png" height="285" width="400" /></a></div>
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Signing 3,000 bookplates for BURNED! Beginning to wish I had a shorter name. I never could color within the lines well, LOL. Don't forget you can order a Signed copy of BURNED from Barnes & Noble at their <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/burned-karen-marie-moning/1118082011?ean=9780553390377">online website</a>. There are two different hardcover editions listed. You have to choose the signed one. </div>
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This has nothing to do with my January 24th signing at B&N at Newport on the Levee. It's for folks who can't come in person to get one signed.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1635849741211850081.post-26037879256831247562014-10-18T14:01:00.000-04:002014-10-20T14:18:14.981-04:00How I made my first book sale...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9_8MfZ-TnZpfPFGrrM8ge41Qb9-o0zzpWjdmnwf-i7k4Rw2cSdab7gzzS6_3Czpth4Df3msYLIB1gzv5YG4Y-vLHlc-j6zhiRHVTpCnnE3mpRbqAXntEra7X-WebTyxOGqE0K4bRf6OY/s1600/highland-mist-hawk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9_8MfZ-TnZpfPFGrrM8ge41Qb9-o0zzpWjdmnwf-i7k4Rw2cSdab7gzzS6_3Czpth4Df3msYLIB1gzv5YG4Y-vLHlc-j6zhiRHVTpCnnE3mpRbqAXntEra7X-WebTyxOGqE0K4bRf6OY/s1600/highland-mist-hawk.jpg" height="400" width="241" /></a></div>
<br />
A few days ago a friend asked me what my secret was: how did I make that almost impossible first book sale to one of the largest, finest publishers in the industry?<br />
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<div>
I used to tell my mom I had a theory: Being in the right place at the right time was simply a byproduct of being in a lot of places at a lot of times. The more places you were in, the greater your odds of something perfectly, wonderfully serendipitous happening. (My mother wisely pointed out that being in the wrong place at the wrong time was a byproduct of precisely the same thing, but hey—no balls no blue chips.)<br />
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Operating on my half-assed theory, when I began pursuing my dream of becoming one of those people lucky enough to get to do what I love every day for a living, I sent out to multiple agents and publishers, non-exclusives, submitting tirelessly, accumulating one rejection letter after another. To this day, that fat binder of all the reasons I was doomed to fail sits on a shelf in my office, reminding me to never give up.<br />
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Eventually, based on a sheer numbers game, I think, I landed an agent and one would think the story wraps up nicely there: said agent submits manuscript utilizing her excellent resources and connections, publisher offers—presto, success.<br />
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<div>
It wasn’t that simple. The fact is, I never would have made that first sale if someone hadn’t run out of paperclips.<br />
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Years after the incomparable Maggie Crawford made an offer for my first two books, my wonderful first editor, Lisa Stone (whose name I used for the heroine in The Highlander’s Touch) told me the story about how I ‘really’ got discovered.<br />
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Late one night as Lisa was getting ready to go home, she picked up the first fifty pages of five manuscripts she had on her desk to take home and read over the weekend.<br />
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Mine was NOT one of them. Mine was sitting, abandoned and forgotten, in an empty office down the hall on the desk of an editor who’d recently left Bantam Dell. Editors are deluged by submissions from unknowns and once an editor leaves a publishing house, the teetering pile of submissions on his or her desk usually goes straight to the dreaded slush pile, where it collects dust in a dark closet before being relocated to the trash bin.<br />
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<div>
As Lisa was packing up to go, she realized she needed paper clips and didn’t have any in her desk. Rather than walk all the way to the supply room, she did what everyone else was doing—went to raid an ex-editor’s empty office, since it was much closer.<br />
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<div>
When she walked into that office, she sat her five manuscripts on top of a pile of submissions, got some paperclips, picked up her work and went home. Later that night, she read through the five manuscripts but found nothing exciting. She was about to call it a night when she realized at the bottom of her pile was a sixth manuscript addressed to the ex-editor. She’d grabbed it by mistake when she picked hers up. Out of sheer boredom, she began flipping through it.<br />
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And loved it. And took it to Maggie Crawford the next day. And Bantam Dell made me an offer.</div>
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That was my manuscript—destined for the slush-pile, the dark closet, the trash bin, never to be seen, picked up and read by accident, only because another editor ran out of paperclips and didn’t feel like walking to the supply closet. Freaking paperclips. That’s how I got discovered.<br />
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Being in the right place at the right time. Being in a lot of places at a lot of times. Never give up. When you chase a dream the Universe conspires to help you get it. :)</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1635849741211850081.post-69255881583540408672014-08-08T11:04:00.000-04:002014-09-08T16:44:19.803-04:00BURNED TEASER and new cover!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5oTjPg66z_FwtK-Ja-6EyzXinEhiM56-sUvps1H0SaeUSxC8C9kLxBszTfNnRAlZfip95aqInCBQnLSVnlKYwOIUHrvjKBBLMt8f7Jlygschv_Z8bs9Xfm_Ddl25M20YriqeCKbKm8ik/s1600/Burned+Final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5oTjPg66z_FwtK-Ja-6EyzXinEhiM56-sUvps1H0SaeUSxC8C9kLxBszTfNnRAlZfip95aqInCBQnLSVnlKYwOIUHrvjKBBLMt8f7Jlygschv_Z8bs9Xfm_Ddl25M20YriqeCKbKm8ik/s1600/Burned+Final.jpg" height="640" width="420" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I frown when another thought occurs to me. Did she set me up for quid pro quo down to the dirty details?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dark alley nearby--check. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me--check.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Hungry Unseelie--check. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I get a mental snapshot of me dying just like Alina. It's practically glowing on Mac's pupils.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I want to tell her revenge is a devil you don't want to worship. In destroying your enemy you become it.</span></div>
</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">________________</span></div>
</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">BURNED - On Sale in Hardcover January 20, 2015</span></div>
</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">© 2014 Karen Marie Moning</span></div>
</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1635849741211850081.post-74796704977568799242014-04-18T09:29:00.000-04:002014-09-08T16:43:58.443-04:00A little BURNED teaser...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">...just one sentence </span><i class="_4-k1 img sp_4qqpiy sx_92783a" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(https://fbstatic-a.akamaihd.net/rsrc.php/v2/yP/r/9DitOgwD63Y.png); background-position: -153px -101px; background-size: auto; display: inline-block; height: 16px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; vertical-align: -3px; width: 16px;"></i><span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;"> (and a page from FEVER MOON because I like this shot of Mac and Dani fighting together)</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBBRv_5LKNKoB9aakddkwmGueS8Vzm1x3l8aQhhyD5vlNkTVfYpqpJck6v5AQFpdn8tnsh_4xObpy9FIw6bShzyMU9TNih0ySDFJZ_3izRLNOvzEJn4QCVSXsNxTnMYB8PirB0J7kyK3M/s1600/10007271_10152073764513034_6419293954716730574_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBBRv_5LKNKoB9aakddkwmGueS8Vzm1x3l8aQhhyD5vlNkTVfYpqpJck6v5AQFpdn8tnsh_4xObpy9FIw6bShzyMU9TNih0ySDFJZ_3izRLNOvzEJn4QCVSXsNxTnMYB8PirB0J7kyK3M/s1600/10007271_10152073764513034_6419293954716730574_o.jpg" height="400" width="261" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Mac draws up short to keep from slamming into Barrons and her blonde hair swings back over her shoulder, brushing his face as it goes and my hearing is so good I catch the rasp of it chafing the shadow stubble on his jaw, then one of his hands grazes her breast and hi<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">s eyes narrow when he looks at what he touched in a hungry way I want a man to look at me like one day and, as they continue to recover from the near-collision, their bodies move in a graceful dance of impeccable awareness of precisely where the other is at all times that is unity, symbiosis, partnership I only dream of, wolves that chose to pack up and hunt together, soldiers who will always have each other’s back no matter what, no sin, no transgression too great, ‘cause don’t we all transgress sometimes and it fecking slays me, because once I got a little taste of what that was like and it was heaven and they’re so beautiful standing there, the best of the best, the strongest of the strong that they practically glow to me, on fire with all I ever wanted in my life—a place to belong and someone to belong there with.</span></span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: transparent; display: inline; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">___________</span></div>
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</span>
</span><br />
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<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: transparent; display: inline; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">BURNED</span></div>
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</span>
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: transparent; display: inline; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">©2014 Karen Marie Moning</span></div>
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</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1635849741211850081.post-3260759242404528282014-01-17T15:14:00.000-05:002014-09-08T16:43:04.250-04:00BURNED!!! Your first Dani teaser!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL23uZ12OUCzJV-BSuZvMs5VbnpF8vVOtE3pVnfZNtujzVT67RAuDYvbTKueQ8E1E07JVI43CXCg8nt0ONCIlOFpnu3m6TZgFYtL5g81ekPzKcDPoTA0LQGu-sVymH8WMG9-SgrQaKi_U/s1600/burned5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL23uZ12OUCzJV-BSuZvMs5VbnpF8vVOtE3pVnfZNtujzVT67RAuDYvbTKueQ8E1E07JVI43CXCg8nt0ONCIlOFpnu3m6TZgFYtL5g81ekPzKcDPoTA0LQGu-sVymH8WMG9-SgrQaKi_U/s1600/burned5.png" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">A man steps out.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Strong. Brilliant. Controlled.</span></div>
</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></div>
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;"><div style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Predator.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Unbreakable.</span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">He's everything I admire plus things I can't even put into words.</span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I crush on Jericho Barrons violently.</span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">My brain almost shuts down every time I see him and that's a lot of gray matter to stupefy.</span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Used to be, if I couldn't fall asleep I'd fantasize all kinds of ways I'd impress Barrons by killing monsters or saying something really smart or saving the world, and he'd see me as a grown up woman and I'd glow just from the look on his face.</span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But then Ryodan began popping into my fantasies like he had some kind of business being there, and he'd look all, well...like...Ryodan and he'd laugh and do that husky groan thing he did on level four, so I terminated that happy little exercise in somnolence.</span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now I count sheep.</span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Lately even those buggers look like Ryodan with clear, cold eyes and some weird kind of hypnotic hold on me.</span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Fecker.</span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm beginning to think I'm going to have to figure out a way to kill him, permanent-like just to get him out of my head.</span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">____</span></div>
</span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">BURNED</span></div>
</span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">© 2014 Karen Marie Moning</span></div>
</span></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com16