Today, I'd like to welcome Evelyn Shepherd to my blog. Her new release,
Event Horizon, is the second book in her LGBT Paranormal
Theo Bourne series.
The author will be giving away a $20 Amazon
GC to one randomly drawn commenter during her tour. And remember, the more you comment, the better the chances of winning!
Follow the blog tour...here.
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Thanks Francesca for having me. I’m excited to discuss about the world in my Theo Bourne series. I’ve always created new worlds. I love creating new life, new rules, and new versions of history. When I sat down to write Theo’s story I had to think about how I wanted the world to be. Did I want the preternatural world to be something of mystery or did I want it to be part of society? There are a lot of questions you have to ask when you create a world, even when it only has a slight deviation from the world we live in now. You want it to believable and to flow naturally with a story.
I couldn’t, let’s say, say that Greek gods existed in Theo’s world when he turns around and worships God. Everything has a purpose and you need to find that purpose.
The big thing that was important was the fact that Theo was a detective that followed paranormal investigations. So I wanted to create it so supernatural creatures were part of society, as normal as regular mortals. Beyond that, Theo’s world is just like our own. It was more about creating the creatures within it.
Theo is a Phantom, a human with the ability of bilocation and telekinesis. When I created Theo’s race, I had to think about how their hierarchy would go. Lycanthropes run like a wolf pack. Vampires have master vampires, ancients, and fledglings. Phantoms I based off the idea of monarchy. Since I designed it so Phantoms were a rare breed, I decided that they wouldn’t be based on small packs like Lycans or by sires. Instead Phantoms from all around the world are ranked. The top rank is a Godking and the lowest are Knights. Theo refuses to take part in any of it. You could consider him a lone wolf.
It’s definitely fun creating a new world. The idea of you can do anything you imagine is implied. There are no limits. Everything you want is possible. It’s just a matter of making it work.
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Evelyn - thanks so much for sharing your ideas on world building. Now I'd like to share a bit about your new release with the readers!
BLURB:
Valentine’s Day turns into a nightmare when an ancient vampire burns her way through the greater Columbus, ushering in the Aztec God of Death. Theo and Carlos will have to set aside their personal problems in order to put an end to a deranged killer. But as the body count rises, they find out they’re going up against more than a vampire -– they’re going up against each other.
In the midst of the chaos, Theo faces his own personal turmoil. When Lloyd confronts Theo about his feelings, Theo isn’t sure whether his heart still belongs to Carlos or if he truly cares for Lloyd. If he wants to save the world, Theo will have to overcome his troubled heart and harness the power within.
An Excerpt from Evelyn Shepherd's Event Horizon (A Theo
Bourne Novel)
I thought I was drowning. There was a brief moment—when my
vision turned black and my mind went blank—when I was sure I was standing in
front of the devil.
How many people can honestly walk away from the devil after
shaking his hand? No one. Because once you shake his hand, you never truly
leave him. He has a piece of my soul. It was the price I paid to come back to
life. Eventually he was going to collect the rest of his debt.
I wasn’t drowning, though, and he wasn’t here for his final
pound of flesh. I cut through the water, and reality cleared in the rise of air
bubbles. I started on my first lap, focusing my attention on strengthening my
knee and not on the thousands of thoughts swirling in my mind. I had screwed my
knee up four months ago, and even though I had been out of rehabilitation for
almost two months, I still had to work on getting it back to normal.
My back was an intricate network of knots. After a long day,
I just wanted to let it all drift away. The Olympic-size pool wasn’t an ocean
that could carry me away on the current, though, so I kept on swimming, pushing
myself as hard as I could.
There were nights when I woke up screaming. I used to think
the nightmares that stalked me were bad, but now the ones that followed me,
even during waking hours, were far worse. I was just a step away from becoming
a monster, and the nightmares reminded me of how close I was to falling over
that edge.
I hit the other side of the pool, flipped in the water,
returned to the opposite end. I was able to work out the stiffness in my limbs
after the first lap. I continued to do ten more, each one helping take away the
heavy burden of the day.
I broke the surface and grabbed on to the concrete ledge of
the pool, holding on tight as I dragged in a slow breath of air.
“Mi corazón, are you done?” Carlos’s voice drifted
down to me. I could make out his scruffy black sneakers just a few feet away
from my hands.
I looked up at him, taking in the low-slung red basketball
shorts, the tight black tank, and the inches of glistening caramel skin slicked
by sweat. My cock twitched with life.
My name is Theo Bourne, and I’m a detective for the Columbus
Police Department’s Preternatural Task Force. It’s my job to control the arcane
underbelly of the city. Originally I had been a member of the NYC division, but
after losing my partner, I moved back to Columbus.
That was when I met Carlos.
He was supposed to have been a one-night stand four months
ago. But that theory went out the window as soon as I found out he was my
partner on the task force. Somehow, without me even knowing it, Carlos had
broken through the iron walls around my heart as if they were made of mud. Now
he was my lover, and it scared me how much I found myself needing him.
“Yeah,” I said and hoisted myself up out of the pool. “What
were you doing?”
“Basketball with Scott and Hennessey,” he said and reached
up to brush some damp burgundy bangs from my eyes. He dusted his fingers over
the cross-shaped scar on my forehead. He always seemed partial to stroking it,
his sadness radiating with the gingerly brush of his fingertips.
When I was a teenager, my parents had our local priest
perform an exorcism on me. They couldn’t handle the fact that their baby was a
Phantom. Instead, they branded me as a demon and tried to save my soul. The
cross on my forehead was the mark I carried for their mistake.
I don’t know why the cross the priest held reacted to me.
Maybe I am a demon—a monster.
Carlos couldn’t seem to let it go like I had. He still held
on to the delusion that he could save me from all my pain. Maybe he could, but
then again, maybe he couldn’t.
It didn’t really matter. I can’t change who I am, a vagabond
who roams the world, a soldier without an army, the hero who lost his blade.
I’m a Phantom, a will-o’-the-wisp.
A Phantom is a rare human with the combined powers of
psychokinesis and the ability to create doppelgängers. There aren’t many
Phantoms out there; I’ve only met one—an asshole by the name of Rhett Bishop.
There is a hierarchy of Phantoms that make up the Council, and if I really
wanted, I probably could meet others. But the truth was I didn’t give a damn.
“Hey,” Carlos said, breaking through my thoughts. The timbre
of his voice, enriched by a Spanish accent, stroked me like fur against my
naked flesh. I could always hear the coyote growl that hibernated deep in him.
I constantly itched to unleash that beast.
“Hmm?”
“What are you thinking about so seriously?” he asked as he
cupped both sides of my face. I’m not short, six foot to be exact, but Carlos
dominated me by an extra four inches.
“Nothing important,” I said and tangled my hand in his
ponytail. His thick black mane generally fell down past his shoulders, but
today he had pulled it back. I pulled out the band holding it up and grabbed a
fistful of lush locks, tugging hard.
“Sure didn’t look like nothing,” Carlos murmured as his
brown eyes brightened to a golden topaz.
I gave his hair another tug and ordered, “Shut up, mutt, and
kiss me.”
Carlos chuckled and closed the space between us. His hand
found my left nipple, his long fingers hooking around the silver hoop. He
pulled it hard, just how I liked it, and tugged me even closer.
I could feel his power sleeping, held in place only by his
sheer will. Carlos is the alpha leader to the local werecoyote pack. Sleeping
with him was a dangerous game, but I was addicted to it like an adrenaline
junkie.
His mouth was hot, his tongue stealing the breath I had just
gotten back. I could feel his cock bumping against mine, and every part of me
wanted to rip his shorts down and drop to my knees to worship him.
He let go of my nipple ring—I really should get a second
one—and ran his hands over the hard contours of my body. He slid his hands
along my broad shoulders, down the tight sinew of muscles cording my arms, and
gripped my hips with such strength, I was sure there’d be finger marks left
behind.
Carlos pulled away and attacked my neck, sucking on my sweet
spot on the left side. His teeth grazed my skin, and a shot of electricity
jolted down my spine. I grabbed on to his shoulder with my free hand to anchor
myself.
My body hummed with the heat radiating from him. The tight
pain in my right knee dulled against the feel of our hard bodies rubbing
against one another. It didn’t even occur to me that someone could walk into
the pool area at any moment—even if the pool area had been empty since I came
to the rec center.
Slowly he trailed his lips over my throat, working his way
to my neck. All the tingling sensations abruptly died. The entire right side of
my neck down to the collarbone was a mass of pearly scar tissue. During our
first case, I’d had my throat ripped out by a werewolf. Luckily I hadn’t
started turning furry the following full moon. But now the only thing I felt
was the faintest sensation of pressure. The doctor said eventually I’d get
feeling back, but so far, nothing.
Carlos kept forgetting that fact.
I shoved him off. “I can’t feel anything, you damn mutt.”
He had the grace to look sheepish. “Sorry…forgot.”
It pissed me off more that I was denied the feel of him on
that one part of my body. I didn’t want any sensation to be canceled. When it
came to him, I wanted to feel it all, have it all. It was selfish, hell, maybe
even weak, but he seemed to hold that kind of power over me.
He nudged closer again and dotted kisses along my right
cheek, whispering, “You’ll get the feeling back soon, corazón. Te
prometo.”
“Whatever,” I grumbled, not sure if I believed that or not.
I didn’t fight him when he leaned in for a chaste kiss. As he pulled back, I
looked up at the clock above the door to the pool. It was a quarter till seven.
“Shit, I’ve got to go. I have to get ready to meet Lloyd.”
The air in the room instantly thickened. Carlos’s aura
spilled out like a breaking dam and nearly choked me. His hand seized my bicep
tightly and held me in place.
“Just come back to the house with me, mi corazón. We can
take a hot shower, open a bottle of wine…”
I pulled my arm from his grip. “I told you already I had
plans with Lloyd.”
His jaw tightened, and a glare creased his brows, darkening
his gaze. His eyes flashed a brighter topaz, the coyote in him clawing its way
up to the surface.
Carlos and Lloyd were like two dogs fighting over a scrap of
meat, and I was the meat.
“Damn it, stop,” I warned. I didn’t break eye contact as he
glared at me.
Anger and frustration warred behind his eyes, and his power
grew thicker, became a pair of hands that grabbed my throat and throttled me. I
gave him a firm mental shove, sending him stumbling back a few feet, and
snapped, “Carlos!”
He let out a growl and ran his hands up his face, slid them
through his hair. “Fuck, okay! Fine!”
The air in the room instantly became lighter, his aura
whooshing out like someone had opened a window. I continued to glare in his
direction, gauging his mood.
He dropped his hands at his side and asked, a pout coming to
his full lips, “What time will you be home?”
I shook my head in resignation and said with a small smile,
“Once the concert is over, you dolt. I won’t be late.”
My apartment had been trashed during a case, to the point
that it had to be completely renovated. While it was being worked on, I was
staying with Carlos. I didn’t mind living with him temporarily, but I wasn’t
sure if I was ready for a permanent stay.
Chocolate spiraled through his eyes, the golden hue spinning
down a drain like it had never been. He nodded and leaned in for one more kiss.
His hand snaked out around my waist and pulled me close so
our bodies molded together. I could smell the sweat on his skin, and it sent
tingles down my spine.
“Carlos,” I mumbled without pulling away. I wasn’t doing a
good job of leaving.
“Mmm?” He nipped at my lower lip and then dragged his tongue
down my jaw, lapping up a bead of water.
My entire body zinged to life. My brain rerouted its thought
process, turning its focus on the man in front of me. His hand dipped lower
down my waist, inching past the band of my swim trunks so he could sneak a
finger down my crack. I arched up and let out a throaty moan, giving him a
chance to attack my throat with his skilled tongue.
Lloyd. Concert. Got to get to… Oh God that feels good.
I felt Carlos’s finger hedge closer to my entrance, and I
wanted nothing more than to rut backward into his hand. The door to the pool
opened a crack, and someone shouted from the other side, “What did you say?”
Carlos and I ripped apart just as the person walked into the
pool area. I struggled to switch off the sudden animalistic desire to mount
Carlos and said somewhat shakily, “Right…so I’m going.”
“Have fun.”
“I’ll see you tonight,” I said, more than eager to go home
and sink into bed with him. Instead I snatched my towel up and headed to the
locker room to get ready to go out for the evening, towel drying my hair along
the way.
* * *
AUTHOR INFORMATION:
Evelyn Shepherd lives in Columbus with a fox terrier named Sunny and a ferocious appetite for sexy urban fantasies and horrors. She spends her time writing, but when she isn't working on her next novel she's either reading or spoiling her nieces and nephew. She is currently working hard at her next novel.
LINKS:
When Lars uses his Elfin power to rescue Sophie from a slave
market in Constantinople he knows instantly she is meant to be his mate. But
the murderer of Sophie’s father still pursues her, and Lars must all his
strength to try to save her. And convince Sophie he is what she wants.
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