(Day 17) Guest Post: Carolyn Crane

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You know what I keep hearing about on Twitter and blogs?  Team Cucumber and Team Kabob.  Do I know what this means?  NO!  Know why?  Because I suck and still haven't read a series that has intrigued me since I first heard about it.  But enough about me, it's time to introduce you to another wonderful author!


"Carolyn Crane has long been fascinated by hidden worlds—the wiry insides of old gadgets, the strange workings of secret societies, the mysteries of people’s minds and hearts.


She’s into that as a reader and a writer, too. Plotty puzzles. Psychological intrigue. Concealed realms.
The trilogy that begins with Mind Games takes place in a shadowy and fantastical Milwaukee/Chicago, a place of many secrets. (She grew up in suburbs of both cities, leaving a trail of dismantled princess phones behind her.)
 
Today she lives in Minneapolis with her husband and two daring cats. She spent years as a waitress and shop clerk before moving to ad agencies and the freelance writing life. 
She graduated from the University of Minnesota, and when she’s not writing novels or working her day job, she can be found reading in bed, running, helping animals, or eating Mexican food."

Bio from Carolyn Crane's website.

Connect with Carolyn:

Website | Blog | Twitter | Goodreads

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Some of my most favorite screwed-up, messed-up alpha male moments

Hey, Thanks Tori, for inviting me to post on your alpha heroes and heroines blowout here! One of the things I enjoy about alpha heroes, is that they do BIG things. Their emotions are extreme. The pain is profound. When they love and commit, they really commit. And when they are bad, they are really awesomely bad. Anyway, I thought I’d trot out a few of my favorite messed-up alpha hero moments.

This, from one of my favorite books ever, Dark Desires After Dusk. Cadeon, the Rage Demon, is in this awful position where he has to sacrifice either the woman he loves, or the chance to regain his family’s kingdom…so this alpha male tries to have his cake and eat it too.

Here he is, handing his lady love, Holly, over an evil fellow who aims to rape and impregnate her. Temporarily. Holly:

“I was part of a . . . business transaction?”

“Yeah, that’s about right.”

Groot chimed in. “Your guardian sold you over. For a weapon.” He snapped his gnarled fingers, and those foul, rotting soldiers seized her arms. “Put her in my room.”

“Cadeon?” As they began forcing her out, she cried over her shoulder. “You don’t mean this!”

Cade gritted his teeth, battling not to go to her with every ounce of will he possessed. When he felt Groot studying him, he forced himself to shrug. “Never trust a demon, love…”

Before, he’d wondered if she’d suspected him At the look on her face, he knew. She’d really believed in me. She’d trusted him utterly.

This from Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James. J.D. is desperate for an edge in the battle against his legal nemesis, Payton. So…

His motive was simple: if she wanted to get down and dirty in this race for the partnership spot, so be it. She made him look like an ass in court so now…well, payback was a bitch.

J.D. grabbed one of her shoes, a three-inch, skiny heel black sling-back number a la one Mr. James Choo. And she had the nerve to call him a clothing snob.

[then]

The paper cutter did an amazing job.

Really, that blade just sliced right through, mid-heel, without leaving a mark.

A little invisible glue—just a light coat—and presto.

Revenge was sweet indeed.

Here is a treasured messed-up moment of the tormented variety from Silent in the Grave. Lady Grey makes a surprise visit to the mysterious Brisbane, only she doesn’t realize that on this day, he is tormented by migraines, and in a total dark stupor from absinthe. This is an amazing scene. Part of it here:

His hair, usually orderly in spite of its length, was wildly disarrayed, as though he had been tearing at it. His face was half lit by the feeble fire and he sat watching me, Janus-like, as I hesitated just inside the door.

His eyes were in shadow and I did not know if he knew me. I caught a glint from them as he turned his head, restless in the gloom, He lifted his head as a hound will do when it catches a scent, and I thought I saw a flash of sharp white teeth between parted lips.

[then]

Why have you come?”

The sound of his voice startled me. I had not expected him to speak, at least not lucidly.

“I was worried for you. I thought you might like some fruit, “ I said stupidly, indicating my basket.

[After this little bit, he knocks her fruit basket to the ground, sort of mauls her hand in a strange way, possibly tries to kiss her, and she steps on his foot. Eep!]

Okay, my last messed up alpha-hero memory comes courtesy of Jamie Frasier. Here, a collection of my favorite messed up Jamie lines that he ACTUALLY says in the book, Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, which of course, is one of my fave ever books.

Jamie, on his feelings about Clare: “Aye, I mean to ride ye hard. Aye, beg me for mercy, Sassenach. Ye shallna have it though, not yet.”

Jamie, a sex expert: “While I dinna pretend to know all there is to know, I’ve lived a good bit of my life on a farm, and unless people are verra different from other animals, it isna going to take that long to do what we have to. I’ve seen horses and cows, of course, pigs, chickens, doves, dogs, cats, red deer, squirrels, rabbits, wild boar, oh, and once even a pair of snakes. Did ye know snakes have two cocks? Male snakes, I mean.”

Jamie, tender moment: “I’m tired of having to watch ye very minute, for fear of what foolishness you’ll try next. And I’m verra tired of people trying to make me watch while they rape you! I dinna enjoy it a bit!”

Another tender Jamie moment: “I dinna know what’s a sadist. I said I would have to punish you. I did not say I wasna going to enjoy it.”

There we are! A few fave messed-up alpha hero moment. Oh alpha heroes, you have given me SO much pleasure!!

xxoo
Carolyn Crane

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Carolyn is offering one lucky winner a signed copy of Mind Games.

But wait!  What happens if you already own it?  Well, if you're willing to wait, you can receive the second book in Carolyn's trilogy, Double Cross!

Mind Games heroine Justine Jones isn't your typical kick-ass type - she’s a hopeless hypochondriac whose life is run by fear.

She's lured into a restaurant, Mongolian Delites, by tortured mastermind Sterling Packard, who promises he can teach her to channel her fears. In exchange, she must join his team of disillusionists - vigilantes hired by crime victims to zing their anxieties into criminals, resulting in collapse and transformation.
 

Justine isn't interested in Packard's troupe until she gets a taste of the peace he can promise. Soon she enters the thrilling world of neurotic crime fighters who battle Midcity’s depraved and paranormal criminals.
 

Eventually, though, she starts wondering why Packard hasn’t set foot outside the Mongolian Delites restaurant for eight years. And about the true nature of the disillusionists.

Justine Jones has lived her life as a fearful hypochondriac until she's lured into the web of a mysterious mastermind named Packard. He gifts her with extraordinary mental powers-dooming her to fight Midcity's shadowy war on paranormal crime in order to find the peace she so desperately craves.
 
But now, serial killers with unheard-of skills are terrorizing the most powerful beings in Midcity, including mastermind Packard - and his oldest friend and worst enemy, Midcity's new mayor, who has the ability to bend matter itself to his will.
 
As the body count grows, Justine faces a crisis of conscience as she tests the limits of her new powers and faces an impossible choice between two flawed but brilliant men . . . one on a journey of redemption, and the other descending into a pit of moral depravity.

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