How I fell in love with PNR by Dina M. Given
When I was a kid, I don’t remember whether there were all of the sub-categories of Fantasy that we have today – Paranormal, Urban, Dark, Epic, etc. I just remember there being Fantasy, and I discovered it when I was about 10 years old. My mother went to the library and brought home for me A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony. I was immediately hooked and never looked back.
I voraciously devoured everything by authors such as Piers Anthony, Terry Brooks and Raymond E. Feist. I would draw massive maps of these fantastical worlds and hang them on my bedroom walls, alongside my sketches of mythical creatures. When I was in college, I even wrote my honors thesis on Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
Then I entered corporate America, got married and had two kids, and my reading fell off significantly. A few years ago my sisters discovered the world of self-publishing and started a blog supporting independent romance authors. Romance wasn’t really my thing, but I wanted to be involved in the blog, so I gravitated toward PNR. I fell in love with Amy Bartol, Denise Grover Swank, Amelia Hutchins, Rebecca Ethington, Karina Halle, and others, and it re-sparked my love for the genre.
It also renewed my life-long desire to try writing a novel myself. Thinking about the old adage of “write what you would want to read,” I developed an idea for a high-action urban fantasy novel influenced by Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files and Larry Correia’s Monster Hunters International. I wanted to write a book that played like a fast-paced movie with supernatural battles, car chases, monsters and magic, not to mention a dollop of steamy romance.
I hope I succeeded in my goal of creating a high energy, page turner that you can’t put down. You be the judge…
Dina M. Given
Release Date: December 29, 2014
Book Genre: Adult Urban Fantasy / Paranormal Romance
Book Description:
It’s not always easy to differentiate between
the good guys and the bad guys, especially when a trained killer may be falling
in love with her evil hunter…
Emma Hayes, a former military Special Forces
Operative turned mercenary-for-hire, finds her tightly controlled world turned
upside down when she becomes the target of attacks by powerful supernatural
creatures.
Emma must use every skill in her arsenal to stay
alive as she tries to solve the mystery of why she has been targeted. Her list
of enemies keeps growing - from Zane Shayde, an evil Mage, to a secret branch
of the US government - and she doesn't know if there is anyone left she can
trust.
To complicate matters further, Emma is
inexplicably drawn to Zane in a way she does not quite understand, even knowing
her life is forfeit if captured. Who is he and why does he have this affect on
her? How can she fight someone who calls to her, body and soul?
Emma is left haunted by questions, doubts and
fears as to why she has been targeted, when they will come for her next, and
how she will possibly survive against an enemy she doesn't understand.
Goodreads:
AMAZON UK: http://amzn.to/1tdS76w
SMASHWORDS: http://bit.ly/1tdSjmd
ITUNES: http://bit.ly/1tdSxtt
KOBO: http://bit.ly/1ytAWCk
Excerpt
Claws, teeth, and a slavering black tongue rose over me as I lay
prone on the floor. It could have easily ripped my throat out or killed me in a
dozen hideous ways. It seemed to realize this, too. Its jaw cracked and popped,
unhinging so wide it could make a meal of my head in one bite. Hot, putrid
saliva dripped onto my face, leaking into my open wound and searing it like
acid. I hissed at the sensation and turned away; however, I couldn’t escape its
fetid breath.
It leaned in, eager and hungry, while I was frozen. I would meet
death in the jaws of an inhuman beast. It would drink my blood, feast on my
organs, and gnaw on my bones for dessert.
Darko’s hoarse voice called from down the hall. “Don’t kill her!
We need her.”
The thing paused and let out a high-pitched wail of anger at
being deprived of its dinner. The sound shattered my fear.
I threw up a knee, violently slamming it in the creature’s
crotch. Thankfully, it was humanoid enough, that it had the same effect as any
other male. He howled and rolled off me into the fetal position. I immediately
scrambled backward, sliding along the marble floor. My left arm, screaming in
pain, remained limp at my side.
With my right arm, I reached over my head to grab the gun. As my
fingers wrapped around the grip, the familiar feeling was like coming home
again.
I pointed the Glock down the length of my body, and without a
moment’s hesitation, I pulled the trigger in three quick, precise squeezes. The
head of the creature I had nut-cracked exploded in a spray of blood and gore.
Shifting the gun’s sight, I found the second creature barreling
down the hall toward me. The first three shots hit him square in the chest, yet
he hardly slowed. I lifted the gun slightly, took a deep breath and held it,
then squeezed the trigger, putting a round straight through its eye and into
its brain. That time, it stumbled yet still kept coming. I put four more rounds
into its head, not missing a shot, before it finally crashed to the floor only
inches shy of my feet.
Darko merely stood there, a sly, half-smile tugging at the
corner of his mouth while I unsteadily got to my feet, pushing myself up with
my gun hand. Despite the fact that Darko carried no weapon I could see, for a
moment, I considered shooting him. He had set me up, kidnapped an innocent girl,
and commanded those creatures. Even though he had stopped them from killing me,
I was sure he wouldn’t hesitate if he got what he wanted from me.
With him only a few yards away, I had a clear shot. I pointed my
weapon at him, and for the first time today, he reacted. The blood drained from
his face, his eyes darting around, seeking escape. He quickly came to the same
conclusion I had—there was no escape for him.
My finger tightened on the trigger, but before I could get off
the shot, a monstrous animal bounded from the shadows behind him. It leapt past
Darko, springing at me on all fours. It was the size of a bear with dry, scaly
skin, and a mouth full of sharp teeth. Two tusks extended from the roof of its
mouth, past its jaw. It bellowed like a foghorn as it charged me.
About the Author
Dina Given lives in rural New Jersey – home of farms, horses and
the largest hot air balloon festival in North America – with her husband, two
crazy kids, and one rescue dog. She is an exercise enthusiast and avid lover of
food and wine (hence the need to exercise). Dina also works full time for one
of the largest healthcare companies in the world. She attributes her ability to
juggle family, work and writing to her obsessive, hyper-focused, Type A
personality.
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2 comments:
nice excerpt
Great post!
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