New blog!

The blog has moved here! Hope I see you there!
¶ 8:39 AM Loribelle Hunt |

Anyone else having a boring Sunday?

I saw this over on Jaci's blog and decided to steal it while I sit here avoiding work. ;) You answer the questions with only one word. Anyone else want to give it go?

1. WHERE IS YOUR CELL PHONE?: kitchen
2. RELATIONSHIP?: incredible
3. YOUR HAIR?: long
4. WORK?: ummm
5. YOUR SISTER?: none
6. YOUR FAVORITE THING?: books! (duh)
7. YOUR DREAM LAST NIGHT?: none
8. YOUR FAVORITE DRINK?: coke
9. YOUR DREAM CAR?: Thunderbird
10. THE ROOM YOU’RE IN?: office
11. YOUR SHOES?: None
12. YOUR FEARS?: crowds
13. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE IN 10 YEARS?: me
14. WHO DID YOU HANG OUT WITH THIS WEEKEND?: family
15. WHAT ARE YOU NOT GOOD AT?: patience
16. MUFFIN?: yuck
17. ONE OF YOUR WISH LIST ITEMS?: sailboat
18. WHERE YOU GREW UP? Atlanta
19.LAST THING YOU DID?: talk
20. WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?: t-shirt
21. WHAT AREN’T YOU WEARING?: noneya
22. YOUR PET?: cats
23. YOUR COMPUTER?: awesome
24. YOUR LIFE?: crazy
25. YOUR MOOD?: avoidance :)
26. MISSING?: marbles
27. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW?: writing
28. YOUR CAR?: Elantra
29. YOUR KITCHEN?: new
30. YOUR SUMMER?: hot
31. YOUR FAVORITE COLOR?: purple
32. LAST TIME YOU LAUGHED?: today
33. LAST TIME YOU CRIED?: ummm
34. SCHOOL?: over!
35. LOVE?: family
¶ 9:17 AM Loribelle Hunt |

Hurricane Season--it's about that time

And my biggest fear this year is there will be a storm coming in the Gulf the week I'm going to Dallas. Since I'm driving out I-10 that could be a major problem. The official dates for Hurricane Season are June 1-Nov 30, btw. You might find that info useful in a few days. *wink, wink*

It's also about time for the other Hurricane Season, my next release. It comes out on June 1. When else lol?? If you haven't seen a sneak peak yet, here ya go. Warning! This is an adult excerpt!

*****

There were jackhammers in her head. Even moaning hurt. Funny, she didn't remember partying last night. She frowned, and it made the pain worse. Actually she didn't remember last night at all. Rolling over, she pressed her forehead into the pillow and was immediately swamped by Quinn's smell. Oh, God. Where was she?

She couldn't think past the pounding behind her eyes, but when the room shook with a crack of thunder she jerked her head up, wincing for her trouble. She hated storms. There was one window, and outside it a palm tree whipped back and forth.

Definitely not in Kansas anymore. Or Atlanta. Whatever.

Rolling back over, she took stock. Her head hurt like hell, but everything else seemed fine. Only one way to know for sure. Gingerly, she pushed up on her elbows, cursing the pounding headache that spread over her face with the strain. She sat up, gasping, and looked around the room. To call it bare was generous. It contained the bed and a dresser. The walls were empty. There was nothing to identify its owner, but the scent of the sheets on which she lay.

But that didn't make sense. She looked out the window again as another gust of wind buffeted the house. Rain tapped the roof, and she cocked her head, pressing her hand to the side that throbbed the most. The sound echoed loudly in the room, and her headache seemed to pick up the rhythm, pulsing in time to the rain. It was familiar. Tin would be her guess, and that at least helped her narrow down her location to probably somewhere in the South where in recent years tin roofs had become all the rage. She wasn't sure if she was relieved or disappointed. Not the west coast, so not Quinn’s home. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and set her feet firmly on the floor.

And why the hell was she wearing a bikini?

Only one way to find out, Celeste.

She had to venture out of the room, find out where she was and who else was here, if anyone. Her mind refused to accept it might be Quinn, even if her body thrummed at the thought. She didn't dare wish it was so. She squeezed her eyes shut. Quinn was over. Quinn was the past.

She stood and took a step toward the door, but froze when a black leopard appeared and blocked the space. Her eyes filled with tears.

The first time she'd seen Quinn in leopard form, she'd been very confused. His brothers and sister looked like typical leopards in their were forms, tawny and gold with black spots. Quinn was dark, his coat black, his spots brown to cream colored. He'd explained that sometimes nature threw a genetic anomaly out there, in the leopard and wereleopard worlds. Melanistic leopards were often born in litters with regularly colored siblings, probably an evolutionary advantage for jungle ranging leopards. All of the big cat species had melanistic or black versions. The same held true for werecats. Black was not a common color to see, but not rare either.

Looking at him now, she remembered the pain of that conversation. His pain. She'd felt his loneliness and had wanted to sooth it. He'd identified himself as the outsider in his family, but she'd seen how much they loved him, how much they needed and respected him. Although, none of that had really mattered to her. She'd thought he was beautiful. She'd loved him beyond reason.

He padded closer, stalking, and she clenched her fists. She would not reach out and bury her hands in that fur, would not give in to the tears threatening to fall. The big body pushed against her, his head butting and rubbing against her thigh in a show of affection, and she couldn't help the sigh that escaped. He pushed her until the backs of her knees hit the bed and she sat, giving in to the temptation and sinking her hands in his pelt.

Soft. Silky. So, so dark and lit with light at the same time, like the mysteries of the midnight sky. And definitely Quinn.

She was afraid to speak, afraid to shatter the spell. It was the best damned dream she'd had in years.

He moved closer, sat on his haunches, and rested his front legs along her thighs. Then he licked her, a long swipe of his tongue up the side of her face, over her old scars. The raspy stroke woke memories. This tongue, this man. Months alone and lonely and heartbroken in a hospital bed. Yet she shuddered as her body responded to him, recalled the out of control feeling of being in his arms.

The dream was shattered.

Except it wasn't a dream was it? She pushed against the cat and scrambled back on the bed. Shifting, the man followed, crawling up her body and pinning her under his weight. A growl rumbled deep in his chest.

"No," he ordered, refusing to allow her to retreat.

She tried to push him away, but he grabbed her wrists and held them next to her head, while forcing her thighs apart with his knees and settling between them. His erection pushed hard and throbbing against the juncture between her thighs. She grew slick, felt the swelling in her clit and saw by the way his nostrils flared he knew it, too.

"So long," he muttered, before his lips descended on hers.

God help her, she couldn't resist. She opened her mouth to him, accepted the stroke of his tongue against hers. His pelvis ground against hers in a matching rhythm, and she was positive the only thing keeping him from plunging into her was the thin fabric of the bikini. It wasn't much of a barrier, and she wished he'd throw it away. She'd toss it herself if he let her wrists go.

The kiss was all too short as he broke the contact and trailed his lips along her jaw, down her neck, and finally closed over the old mark on her shoulder. He nipped it lightly and her back arched, her pussy flooding with cream as an intense orgasm froze her. God, she couldn't respond to him like this, so quickly, after so many years absence. It was mortifying, and she strained against him. She needed a minute to collect herself, to attempt to build some kind of barrier around her heart. She feared she was too late. Maybe she’d never managed to do it in the first place.

*****

That's all you get for now. Hope y'all enjoyed it. ;)
¶ 3:22 PM Loribelle Hunt |

Nerf Warfare

I'm posting the Hunt Rules of Nerf Warfare over on Passionate Prose Monday morning, but I thought it needed visual aids. Since I'm not sure how to post them over there, they're going here lol. :) Enjoy.

Fire at will!


Ambush time


Ok, this one is just cute lol. *g*


Posing for the camera


Shotgun action. Yes, that is a clothesline in the background. Yes, we're a little bit redneck.


It's FUN to shoot Bubba!


And even more fun to shoot Daddy!


Gotta camo up.

¶ 9:43 PM Loribelle Hunt |

Thursday Thirteen

My 13 is over at The Novelty Girls this week! Stop on by!
¶ 8:50 AM Loribelle Hunt |

Short and Sweet. Or Not.

Probably more like long and rambling lol. *g* I hope everyone had a good Mother's Day. We're selling our house so I spent mine painting. Oh, the glamorous life of a romance writer! It's not getting any more exciting any time soon unfortunately. But at least the painting is finally freaking done.

After the last couple of weeks of house stuff, I'm seriously starting to wonder why we put ourselves through this and I told Army Guy, never again! My next house is my last house. Sounds so ominous huh? Nuh uh. There's just no way I'm painting an entire house again and once these books get moved, that's it. If I ever feel inclined to move after this, the house will come with a fully stocked libraray!

Other than that, there's nothing going on in my world. My son's (also my youngest) birthday is today. I'll be cleaning up the mess from the last couple of weeks and doing edits before we go out for his birthday dinner. (I let the kids pick a place on their birthdays.) I'm off to work on those edits now, but I'll leave y'all with a sneak peak of my upcoming paranormal suspense, Hurricane Season. It will be released June 1 from Cobblestone Press. Hope everyone has a great day!

***

Celeste drove as fast as she safely could in the pelting rain. Hurricane Iris may have been sweeping up the Gulf, but this, the remnants of Hurricane Helga held fast in the Tennessee mountains, unwilling or unable to release the fury of the warm Gulf waters. Irritable and leery of the harsh weather, she rubbed a wadded up T-shirt against the fogging window. What was so important her stepfather insisted she drive from Atlanta to Chattanooga in what looked like Noah's Flood revisited? She sighed. It didn't matter. Her fear of storms was irrelevant in the face of family obligation and need. When the pack alpha called, everyone ran. Including their human sister, Celeste.

Thank God, she was close. She shuddered as small hail began to hit her window and wind rocked the car. How bad must it be down on the Gulf when these storms rolled onto shore? How did anyone stand to hang around and ride that out? She knew a lot of people did—they didn't call them hurricane parties for nothing. If a person could watch from a safe place she could see the appeal in it, had even had a taste of it herself. After all there were few forces on earth more massive, more awe inspiring than a hurricane.

The streetlight illuminating the turn off to her parent's appeared in the gloom, and she sighed in relief. Almost there. Almost safe back in the arms of her family. If she felt some small twinge for something else, some wistful longing of things past, it was only normal with this storm raging around her, right? Once, years ago, a coastal storm like this had brought her small Cessna down, and she'd barely survived the trip to ground. Life hadn't been the same since.

Right. Get over it already, Celeste. If wishes were fishes her mother would say, and she'd be right. All the wishes in the world hadn't done her any good then; it certainly wouldn't change her reality now. She turned down her street and watched for the house lights in the distance. When they appeared she released a pent up sigh of tension, but it was quickly followed by anxiety. What was so important she had to come out now? Had to drive two hours in this nightmare?

Her gaze swept the driveway when she pulled in, mentally noting which car belonged to whom. Her half-brothers, her stepbrothers. The trucks, the SUV's, the odd little compact hybrid that would always stand out. No clan members. Whatever the big ass hurry was, it really was family business.

She grumbled as she parked. They could have at least left her a spot near the door.
¶ 5:19 AM Loribelle Hunt |

My 13 is

over at www.thenoveltygirls.com today. Note the new address! We're moving up in the world lol! :)
¶ 8:21 AM Loribelle Hunt |

Thirteen First Lines

Thirteen First Lines I'm not sure who I'm stealing this from, but I saw someone do it a couple weeks ago. I'm doing first few lines/first paragraph. All of these are published but the last two. *sigh* I don't know what the heck happened to my comments last week. Hopefully, they're working now. 1. "I'm here to see Rick," she told the bouncer. "He's expecting me." A long line of hopefuls stretched out behind her, and she heard a grumble or two when she'd waltzed to the front. She could have told them you practically had to have an engraved invitation to get in. She did, in fact, but she tried not to dwell on it. --Bound By Love 2. She was his. And it was not something he was entirely comfortable with. He hadn't thought he was in the market for a mate. The last month had been hell. Biology's a bitch. --Under Cover of the Moon 3. Sometime after noon, Boyd Graham stepped out of the gate and into the parking lot, a free man. He figured he could spare a moment for the excitement surging through him. Grinning, he spread his arms wide and lifted his face to the weak December sun. --Defending Serenity 4. Lying hidden in a dark back corner of the deck, a sleek black wolf lifted his head as the conversation drifted out. Two women chatted peacefully inside, one small and curvy with rich brown hair. Meg O'Reilly was the pack leader’s mate, and in his absence, the pack watched over her. The wolf had come to like her. She was fiery and strong and gave Darius a run for his money. --Bad Moon Rising 5. Summer found one of the small empty tables and slipped her shoes off. She hated wearing heels, but it was kind of hard to avoid at her cousins' weddings. She wasn't thrilled to be here anyway, so the shoes just served to piss her off. --Chasing the Moon 6. The bells over the door jingled. Jessalyn Banks didn't look up, didn't acknowledge his presence. Even though she had called him over, she needed a minute to steal herself against his appeal. Her best friend and assistant Nancy came up behind her, her spicy perfume heralding her advance, and leaned over the desk, one hand braced on its edge. Her voice was light and teasing when she whispered in Jessalyn's ear. --Fireworks 7. Scarlet resisted the urge to rub her hands together in glee as she paused at the entry to the casino with her friends, Ari and Sam. She needed a night of R and R, and a Halloween party was made to order. --Gone With the Wolf 8.Sergeant Major, Laney Bradford stood on a ledge cut into the cliff side watching over the battlefield through binoculars. The valley spread out before her, dust swirling around troops and sending columns into the air. Hazy heat obstructed her field of vision. At least from this lofty position the smells of battle did not assault her: the too old latrines and lingering blood from the night before. The cordite from discharged weapons drifting on the breezy updraft provided a harsh reminder of the carnage. --Invasion Earth 9. Jana tugged on the short hem of the red dress. This was such a stupid idea. She didn't have any idea how Marilyn and Becca talked her into it. Valentine charity auction, my ass. More like an excuse to get the regulars half naked on stage. Okay, so it wasn't that bad. All her important parts were covered. Sort of. --Be Mine 10. Chloe stepped into the clearing and took a deep breath, trying to slow the hammering of her heart. She gulped past a lump of fear. It wouldn't do to let her emotions get away from her in this crowd. --Call of the Moon 11. Celeste drove as fast as she safely could in the pelting rain. Hurricane Iris may have been sweeping up the Gulf, but this, the remnants of Hurricane Helga held fast in the Tennessee mountains, unwilling or unable to release the fury of the warm Gulf waters. Irritable and leery of the harsh weather, she rubbed a wadded up T-shirt against the fogging window. --Hurricane Season 12. Kane Dupree bounded up the back stairs of the Southern Star Hotel, taking them two and three at a time. The boss hadn't even given him time to clean the off the dust from the road before calling him here and irritation ate at him. He wanted to find Calista, not drink and catch up with the team. --The Initiation 13. The hunter became the hunted, and it really pissed her off. At first she'd thought it was just paranoia—investigating the particularly brutal murder of a drug dealer could do that to a girl, even if the event was almost ten years old. But she'd learned to go with her gut in the Army, and that itchy feeling on the back of her neck was not going away. --Saving Grace Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I'll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants


¶ 7:54 AM Loribelle Hunt |

Thursday Thirteen--Playlist

Thirteen Songs on My Playlist 1. In the Midnight Hour 2. Bring It On Home to Me 3. Moondance 4. Tupelo Honey 5. Ain't Too Proud to Beg 6. Here Comes the Night 7. Hold On 8. Sweet Georgia Brown 9. I Can't Stop Loving You 10. Georgia On My Mind 11. Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone 12. Under the Board Walk 13. Some Kind of Wonderful Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I'll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants


¶ 9:41 PM Loribelle Hunt

More good news!!

I am so surprised, shocked and at a loss for words even, and if you know me you know that never happens lol!! So I found out Friday that I finaled in the Stroke of Midnight contes in the historical category. I found out tonight I finaled in Passionate Plume in the novella category for Defending Serenity! I'm so psyched. And so shocked. What a weekend!!
¶ 9:16 PM Loribelle Hunt |

I thought it was April?

It should be hot here. Beach weather. But noooo, instead it's actually cool outside and it's making me crazy. I wanted to spend the weekend on the beach. That entertains the kids enough so I can have some peace. But not to be apparently. The kids are cooped up inside at home and LOUD, and I really really need to write!

*sigh* Some weeks you just don't get a break.

In good news, as many of you already know the Stroke of Midnight finalists have been posted and I finaled in historical! I know what you're thinking...Lori Belle you don't write historicals! And you'd be absolutely right. I having a crash course in it now. I don't recommend my method, kids. It's just a little bit stressful lol!

So that's about it in my corner of the world. I'm off to write.
¶ 11:00 AM Loribelle Hunt |