Your local public health wants you to know the dangers of Red Lung!

What is Red Lung you ask? In Julie Kagawa‘s Blood of Eden series (The Immortal Rules and The Eternity Cure), the Red Lung virus has killed most of the earth’s population, and the survivors now live in a walled city — and under the control of vampires.

MTV’s Hollywood Crush blog got an exclusive look at the New Covington Public Heath Dept.’s posters about Red Lung and other dangers of the post-apocalyptic world of Blood of Eden (hint: the virus is just one thing that could kill you–or worse!). Here’s a peak at one of them!

See all four posters here. Which one is YOUR favorite?

To learn more about the Blood of Eden series and get free downloads, visit www.bloodofeden.com.

Of course there are a TON of paranormal and fantasy books that have been acquired by studios and production companies for movies. Which of these potential book-to-film adaptations looking forward to seeing on the big screen? Feel free to add your own picks and share other options in the comments, too!

Oath Bound, the final book in Rachel Vincent‘s Unbound series, is finally here! The Unbound trilogy features three women with special powers, known as Skilled: Liv in Blood Bound is a tracker who follows the scent of blood; Kori in Shadow Bound can travel from shadow to shadow; and Sera in Oath Bound…well, you’ll have to read the book to find out

If you’d like to find out what Sera’s secret Skill is, we have three copies of Oath Bound available to be won! To enter the giveaway, leave a comment telling us if you had a special Skill, what would it be?

Contest will close 11:59pm EST on May 23. One winner will be selected by random number draw and announced on May 24. Open to residents of the United States and Canada only. For full official rules, click here.

Good luck!

About Oath Bound:

The Tower Syndicate will fall…

The secret daughter of the head of an infamous Skilled crime family, Sera Brandt has hidden her past, her potential and especially her powers. But when a tragedy strikes her other family, Sera needs justice. And the only way to get it is to reveal her heritage- including a rare Skill-and take the reins of the TowerSyndicate from her cunning and malicious aunt.

If he can figure out how…

Kristopher Daniels might have the answer. He’s fought the syndicate to protect his sisters, but he’d never realized just how close to the new heir he needed to get.…

And if they can survive

Neither is used to trusting. But there’s something between them that can’t be ignored. And so Sera is on the run with a man she can’t figure out, a target on her back and the new knowledge of just how powerful she really is….

Lost your way?

Your dreams?

Yourself?

Welcome to Lost.

It was supposed to be a small escape. A few hours driving before turning around and heading home. But once you arrive in Lost… well, it’s a place you really can’t leave. Not until you’re Found. Only the Missing Man can send you home. And he took one look at Lauren Chase and disappeared.

So Lauren is now trapped in the town where all lost things go — luggage, keys, dreams, lives — where nothing is permanent, where the locals go feral and where the only people who don’t want to kill her are a handsome wild man called the Finder and a knife-wielding six-year-old girl. The only road out of town is engulfed by an impassable dust storm, and escape is impossible….

Until Lauren decides nothing — and no one — is going to keep her here anymore.

What do you think of The Lost?

Keep reading for a tantalizing excerpt from Her Wicked Wolf, and look for it on sale now at your favorite ebook store!

About Her Wicked Wolf:

Writer Brienne Fox can’t stop thinking about her sexy new downstairs neighbor. But the chances of living out her X-rated fantasies with the man are slim when they’ve barely exchanged two words.

Alistair Locke has good reasons for staying a solitary wolf. With his enemy on the hunt, anyone close to him is in mortal danger. Yet no woman has ever stirred the beast within the way Brie does, and they can’t resist the erotic pull drawing them together when they get snowed in together.

But giving in to one night with the woman he desires may provide the perfect opening for his mortal enemy to destroy the exiled alpha wolf for good….

Excerpt:

She needed to quit daydreaming about the guy downstairs.

Brienne Fox dropped her pen onto the table, barely hearing it roll off the edge and clatter onto the linoleum.  The half-finished grocery list in front of her vanished from her thoughts like so much smoke.  All she could hear was the key in the door, the footsteps…and the murmur of that dark, silken voice as he greeted what she assumed must be his cat.  Not that she’d spent too much time thinking about what might or might not be in his apartment.  Or what he did while he was in there.

Or anything.

Brie closed her eyes and dug her hands into her hair, resting her elbows on the table and slumping a little as she castigated herself.  Every day was the same.  She was a perfectly normal, well-functioning human being until that car pulled into the driveway they shared.  But as soon as she heard the steady hum of his sleek little sedan’s engine, all of her functioning brain cells dropped whatever they were doing to focus on one thing, and one thing only.

Him.  Or more specifically, him naked and in one of a wide variety of compromising positions, all of which involved her.

It wasn’t exactly productive, since Alistair Locke had barely given her the time of day the few times she’d managed to bump into him.  When speaking was almost out of the question, a torrid affair didn’t seem all that likely.

Brie pushed back her chair, got up and wandered over to the window to look out at the fresh tire tracks in the snow-dusted driveway.  Alistair’s car would be parked by her sand-and- salt spattered SUV, as it always was, in the old carriage house that had been converted into a garage.  Just as she had boxes of stuff next to his in the upper level of the garage.  Unfortunately, her possessions got more time with him than she did.  There was plenty of space for two people here—almost too much.

She hadn’t been sure about renting an apartment in such an old house, no matter how beautiful it was.  She’d had visions of lousy heat, electrical and plumbing issues, and of course, a resident ghost that would doubtless terrorize her into leaving anyway.  But the place had sucked her in, from the high ceilings and gleaming wood floors to the big window that looked out on the wide street lined with old trees and stately old Victorians much like this one.

The upstairs was hers, apparently ghost-free, and she loved it.  It was the perfect hiding place for somebody like her, a working writer who thrived on a certain amount of quiet and personal space.  Of course, having Alistair downstairs had provided a little too much fodder for what was already an overactive imagination.

If she hadn’t been so boringly normal in every other way, she might have been really concerned about herself instead of just uneasy.  She’d liked guys before.  She’d lusted after plenty of them.  But this didn’t feel quite…normal.

Brie’s eyes rose to the sky, and she found herself momentarily diverted.  The snow clouds that had hung heavily on the horizon all day had darkened to an ominous slate-gray, and they seemed to be moving in swiftly.  They were predicting that the massive nor’easter would start hitting by early evening.  She’d promised herself she’d get to the grocery store before the snow started falling, just in case.  With luck, the power would stay on.  Without luck…well, she’d cross that bridge when she came to it.

And of course, Alistair had the only working fireplace in the house in his apartment.…

Brie squared her shoulders and headed back to the table to grab the grocery list.  Food first.  She’d just figure the rest of it out as she went.  And along the way, it would be nice if her mind could focus its energy on something actually productive, instead of creating scenarios with her neighbor that involved firelight and a soundtrack loaded with songs by Enigma.

Minutes later she was headed out the door and down the stairs, cozy in bulky boots and a heavy coat.  She purposely avoided looking at the door to Alistair’s apartment.  He never came out when she was around, and he wasn’t going to—

Oh God, there he is.

The door opened, and well over six feet of dark, shaggy, antisocial male walked out.  Brie stopped short three steps from the bottom, so startled she could do nothing but stare.  She rarely got this close to him…which was a shame, because up close, he was even more delicious than he was from a distance.

Then again, considering the sudden pounding heart and lightheadedness, a little distance might be the healthier thing.  She just wanted to climb him like a tree, wrap her legs around him, and bite.

Brie’s eyes widened in horror at the images that flickered, unbidden, though her mind.  Biting?  What the hell?

Alistair froze for a moment when he realized he wasn’t alone, and they stared at each other in the silence.  Brie drank him in, unable to help herself.  He was wearing all blacks and grays, which seemed to be a habit of his—black peacoat, gray-and-black scarf, black pants, all covering a long, lithe form that moved with sensual, effortless grace.  His hair was black as a raven’s wing, and seemed less to be cut in an actual style than simply overlong.  It waved slightly, falling around a face that was a study in hawkish beauty.  His cheekbones were high and sharp, a perfect match for his blade of a nose.  Handsome was probably the wrong word for him, Brie thought.  Compelling was probably a better one.

Alistair’s lips pressed into a thin, hard line as he watched her.  His eyes—big, thickly lashed, and the blue of the deepest ocean—seemed to exert a gravitational pull that she had to struggle to resist.  And she would keep struggling, Brie thought as she collected herself as best she could.  Because she was reasonably certain that Alistair was not thinking “Please, hurl yourself at me right this instant,” no matter what his eyes looked like..

“Miss Fox,” he said, his deep, cultured voice making a formal address sound more like a lover’s endearment.

“Mr. Locke,” she replied, her lips curving up into a small smile despite herself.  He couldn’t be much older than she was, early thirties maybe, but he’d never addressed her by her first name.  The combination of his British accent and his old-fashioned manners fascinated her.  It was like meeting a character from a Jane Austen novel right outside her door.

She’d certainly pictured him in breeches enough times.

Alistair inclined his head and hesitated.  Brie imagined he was trying to decide whether to continue outside and risk actual conversation with her, or simply slink back into his apartment and wait for her to leave.  Her smile faded in the face of the usual hurt and confusion.  She wasn’t some troll, and as far as she knew her conversational skills were just fine.  So what was his problem?  For about the millionth time, Brie wished she could take this ridiculous attraction, light it on fire, kick the ashes away and move on with her Alistair-free existence.  He was probably like this with everyone, she told herself.  The man never had company that she’d seen.  And some people simply didn’t like other people.  But it got harder all the time not to take his repeated snubs personally.  They were neighbors.  She was low-key, neat, didn’t throw wild parties, never blocked the driveway, and had never reacted to his presence by turning into a slobbering idiot.  Despite all that, all she generally had to do was say hello to get him to bolt.

So she found herself shocked when Alistair shut the door behind him, locked it and continued speaking to her of his own volition.

“And where are you off to before the storm, Miss Fox?  Somewhere safer, I hope.”

“What is it like working with Heather and Harley?” was the question for this post. What can I say to that except—“You call this WORK???”

I often think that whatever I did last lifetime must have been pretty good, when in this lifetime I can get paid to hang out with two of my best friends in this magical Keeper world. I often forget that the three of us never really lived in an old Hollywood magician’s mansion; it feels like something that actually happened.

Writing The Keepers: L.A. series is a lot like having our own theatrical troupe. Heather and Harley and I first bonded when we sang in the all-author Killer Thriller Band at the inaugural ThrillerFest, and since then we’ve performed together in quite a few of Heather’s Vampire Balls at the Romantic Times convention and her fantastic Writers for New Orleans conference. Harley’s the real actress—an actual movie star!—but we all started off as actors. Heather made her bones in dinner theater before she became the bestselling author we now know and love, and I did musical theater and improv before I was a screenwriter and then snapped and started writing novels.

In The Keepers: L.A. we’re using all of that Hollywood and theatrical experience to create the world of the story: a Hollywood not so very far removed from the real thing, where it’s hard to tell the actors from the paranormals, and people and entities are willing to kill for fame. I love being able to make fun of my city and show off the truly dazzling aspects of it at the same time—like the backstage of the movie machine and, of course, the heart-stopping men.

We are incredibly lucky that Harlequin Nocturne has a vision that allows collaborations like The Keepers series in all its incarnations. Our Nocturne team—Tara Gavin, Ann Leslie Tuttle and Leslie Wainger—has encouraged our cross-genre blend of paranormal romance and traditional mystery and suspense, with a touch of classic big-screen romantic comedy. We’ve had the most incredible fun writing it, and we hope you have the same fun reading.

Alex Sokoloff

http://alexandrasokoloff.com

About the Book:

Human-paranormal peacekeeping had never been easy…but in Hollywood it can truly be murder!

In their new Keeper roles, these extraordinary women must balance the fate of the world with their desires….

As a crime beat reporter, Barrie Gryffald’s work is risky enough when she’s investigating mortal homicides. But when a teenage shifter and an infamous Hollywood mogul are both found dead on the same night, her Keeper intuition screams, Otherworldly.

Reluctantly, she enlists her secret crush, Mick Townsend, a journalist with movie-star appeal. Together, they dig up eerie parallels to a forgotten cult-film tragedy. But it may be too late. With a cast of suspects ranging from vampire junkies to the ghosts of Hollywood past, no one can be trusted. Least of all Mick, who may well prove to be as unpredictable as the Others Barrie is sworn to protect….

About the Book

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New York Times bestselling author Diana Palmer is best known for her classic Western romances, but did you know she also wrote science fiction? It’s true! Back in 1980, she published a military sci fi story, The Morcai Battalion, through a small publisher that later went out of business, but fate brought the series to Harlequin Luna where it found a new home in 2006.

The Morcai Battalion and the other two books in the trilogy (The Morcai Battalion: The Recruit and The Morcai Battalion: Invictus) are available in ebook under the name Susan Kyle, but they’re coming soon to paperback for the first time!

Book one, The Morcai Battalion, will be available in paperback this July from Harlequin Luna with a brand-new cover and a revised, expanded story. Take a look at the cover below and we’d love to hear what you think in the comments!

About The Morcai Battalion:

In the very dream of peace lurked a monstrous treachery.

The galaxy is on the brink of disaster, a long-awaited truce torn apart by an unprovoked attack. The colony whose residents represented more than a hundred planets has been destroyed, and the new vision for unity in the universe is at risk. Faced with a war that would mean destruction and chaos, one man has stepped forward to lead those fighting for their lives. Undeterred by insurmountable odds, his courage inspires a team—the Morcai Battalion—to battle for the cause of peace…and love

We hope you are ready for a steampunktacular blog tour featuring book #3 in Kady Cross’ Steampunk Chronicles, The Girl With The Iron Touch. We’ll be featuring the characters from Kady’s latest novel, so check out the tour schedule below to find out when your favorite character will be featured.

To learn more about Kady Cross’ Steampunk Chronicles and for more chances to win books and the grand prize, visit these stops on The Girl With The Iron Touch blog tour (and keep reading for your chance to win a book right here on Harlequin’s Paranormal Romance Blog!):

• Monday, May 6th –   Reading Teen - Griffin
• Wednesday, May 8th - Candace Book Blog - Emily 
• Friday, May 10th –  Rainy Day Ramblings - Sam 
• Monday, May 13th - Two Chicks on Books - Jasper 
• Wednesday, May 15th - YA Bibliophile - Finley 
• Friday, May 17th - Fiktsun - Jack 

About The Girl With The Iron Touch – on sale Tuesday, May 28

In 1897  London, something not quite human is about to awaken. Finley Jayne, Griffin and their crew fear the worst when one of their own, Emily, is kidnapped. Emily has a way with mechanical devices—she can literally talk to them. But the automatons who abducted her aren’t like ordinary machines. They’re almost human—and they want Emily to do something horrifying and seemingly impossible—resurrect the Machinist.

To save Emily, Finley must contact the highly unsettling Jack Dandy and face her feelings for two vastly different men, even as Griffin’s nightmares threaten to turn into a reality that might just end them all.

Giveaway: 1 lucky reader can win a copy of The Girl With The Iron Touch book! To enter, leave a comment here on the blog. We’ll draw 1 winner from eligible comments and announce who won on June 6, 2013.

Contest is open to residents of the United States and Canada only. For full official rules, click here. Good luck!

Taming the Demon wasn’t actually supposed to be set in various fictional parts of Albuquerque, New Mexico, at all.  At the time I wrote the proposal, I lived in Flagstaff (which I loved), and I set the book down in the valley–hot, hot Phoenix, Arizona.  Okay, I set it during winter in Phoenix, because summer in Phoenix is so hot I don’t even want to live it vicariously while writing it.

That’s the thing about the writing.  If my characters are dealing with something in the book, in some distant way, I’m dealing with it, too.  Not in the details, but in the essence.  So if they’re in Phoenix in the summer, then I’m annoyed by the heat.  If Devin James is in a battle of wills with a demon blade, then I’m stirring up my own feelings to siphon them into the book.  I won’t say it doesn’t get intense!

But that means it goes both ways–that when things happen in real life, they can (if appropriate) have an impact on the book.  And between the time I conceived and sold this book and the time I wrote it, I moved.  Not so far as distance is measured in the Southwest, and a just couple thousand feet lower (and hotter) than I’d been in Flagstaff, which…as I said…I loved.  (Then we moved again, out through the canyon and climbing up into the Sandia foothills, but that’s another story…).

Even from one high desert home to another, only five hours away…central New Mexico had an entirely different culture, entirely different geology and anthropological and historical origins.  Still, the rich potential of exploring the area in fiction merely percolated in my hindbrain for the first months of settling in.  For one thing, never mind the chaos of the unpacking–I was in the middle of writing a different book!  But then came the day when preparing to write Taming the Demon and exploring my new home overlapped.  I rode my horse out along the local acequia (the generations-old canal system running through the Rio Grande valley) and discovered, tucked away in the middle of nowhere, a rather grand old southwestern home.

This, I realized, is where Devin and Natalie will come to know each other.

And so I suddenly had new purpose to my wanderings, and to studying the area.  I found a way to honor my new home while exploring Devin and Natalie’s story, and an excuse to look at each new facet of it with an inquisitive eye.  I learned about history, the uniquely flavored city quadrants, and the wide variety of microclimates and habitats–things I might not have discovered, while in my mourning for the move away from the San Francisco Peaks that seemed so magical to me.  But talk about magical–there in the Albuquerque valley, there were sandhill cranes!  Oh my golly, they migrated right over the house!  And flock of nighthawks–the first I’ve ever seen!  The bosque area along the Rio Grande is such a unique blend of fragile desert and water habitat, I quickly grew to love it–even if it was all a little too surrounded by urbanity for my hermit’s taste.

But this area is a place that Natalie and Devin each love, in their own unique experiences of it–in their survival in it–and it turned out to be a perfect place for them to fall in love, too.  Seeing it through their eyes gave me a chance not only to understand them better, but it allowed me to appreciate the new things in my life.  What could be better than that?

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Since this blog is about paranormal romance, I guess I can safely assume that everyone here is as hooked on magic as I am. I simply can’t get away from it. Even when I’m writing a story with no magic in it, magic hovers at the edge of my consciousness, trying to slip its way in. Lately it has succeeded, and that’s why I’m here.

I love the special days of the year that are associated with ancient magic. I’ve always been a fan of Halloween, but recently my attention turned to May Day, also known as Beltane. There are maypoles and bonfires, decorations of hawthorn and rowan, and fertility rites…but what captured my attention most was the magical properties of dew. Who knew?

Plenty of people, apparently. Back in the day, women would collect dew in the spring months to use for their complexions for the rest of the year. Some people still do it today. But there is something particularly magical about the morning dew on May Day—special enough that it was customary for women to go out at dawn and splash the dew on their faces…

Ah, but there’s an even better use of the May morning dew. Roll naked in it, and you will magically call your true love to your side!

All right, I admit that I have no personal experience of this particular method, but it’s what the heroine of The Magic of His Touch, the first in my May Day Mischief novella duet, decided to do. It’s also what the heroine of Bewitched by His Kiss, the second in the duet, didn’t do—at least not on purpose. But magic is magic, and true love cannot be denied.

Do you celebrate any ancient rites? Do you know any tried and true ways of calling your true love to your side? I’d love to hear about them—and I’m giving away downloads of The Magic of His Touch and Bewitched by His Kiss as prizes.

About The Magic of His Touch:

England, 1804

Tired of being paraded before every eligible bachelor, Peony Whistleby decides it’s time to find her true love–through the ancient custom of rolling naked in the dew on May Day morning. But the magic goes awry when she is caught in the act–and by an entirely unsuitable man. And yet, the way his eyes linger upon her flesh ignites a sensual craving that can only be satisfied by his touch…

About Bewitched by His Kiss:

England, 1804

Lucasta Barnes knows the folly believing in magic can lead to–and she won’t accept that her illicit tryst with a notorious rake was the result of anything more than pure lust. Or that it has bonded them together forever. Yet, she can’t deny that she yearns for just one more night in his arms…

David, Earl of Elderwood, is used to women being enchanted by him, but ever since a passionate encounter with Lucasta three years ago, he desires only her. How can he convince his thoroughly practical paramour that love is the greatest magic of all?

Note: Giveaway closes May 8!

Update: giveaway is now closed, please check to comments to see who won!