Friday, February 7, 2014

#FridayFantasy: @SassyVixenPub Presents Author Ruby Fielding's #Paranormal #Fantasy


Welcome to Friday Fantasy here at Sassy Vixen Publishing. I'm The Vixen and excited to welcome our guest today. Author Ruby Fielding starts off her mini tour of our sister blogs. Today's post we get an introduction to her characters from her novella Hunters: A Shifters' World. Sit back and relax and get to know Selene, Skinner and Marshall. Tomorrow Ruby will stop in to visit with the Four Seduced Muses! 


Ruby Fielding’s new shifter novella, Hunted, was recently published by James Grieve Press:

Should she struggle to survive alone or give in to desire and risk the - perhaps deadly - company of others?

In a world where plague has swept civilization away like leaves in a storm, where viruses that cause people to shift and change have altered what it is, for most, to be human, a few survivors hold out in a desperate attempt to save the human race. Selene lives alone in the forest, protecting herself from human and shifter alike until one day a stranger turns up: a young man called Skinner, out on a quest to hunt down and destroy any shifter he can find. Torn between desire and fear, Selene must confront her true nature and make some impossible choices if she is to survive this harsh, post-apocalyptic future.

Hunted: a Shifters' World novella - a shapeshifter erotic romance of survival and desire in a deadly future from the co-author of Seduced by Moonlight and The Touch.

“I'm a huge shifter fan. I get a kick out of reading even the predictable stuff over and over again, but Rudy Fielding's novella is an all original treat.” - from a five-star Amazon reader review.


Want to learn a bit more about Selene, Skinner and the other characters in Hunted? Read on!

Selene
Well... that’s what they call me. That’s the name Tabitha gave me when I ended up in that strange enclave, the Sanctum. Until then I’d lived a quiet life. I had shelter, and supplies of food and water. I kept myself safe, and I shut myself away at night... away from the shifters, the ones who had no control and became wild, dangerous beasts at night. That kind of existence, hiding away from the dangers of the world... well, it could never last. And sure enough, when Skinner blundered in with his smoldering eyes and his smooth turn of phrase, I knew that life was over. I wasn’t prepared for the intensity for the, for want of a better phrase, sheer animal attraction that might easily overpower me...

Skinner
I grew up in the camps, one of many refugees, protected from a world changed by viruses that turn humans into something else entirely. I grew up in the camps, determined to break out and see something of this scary new world. And so I took the first opportunity to go out hunting the beasts. They didn’t call me ‘Skinner’ for nothing.

Marshall
I am one of the last true humans, untainted by the shifting viruses, and I have taken it up on myself to preserve my kind. I am the founder of an enclave of true humans, a place we call the Sanctum. We protect ourselves from the plagues, and from the beasts, and our long-term strategy is to breed our kind. Yes, I am a man surrounded by women and some might see me as lucky to be in such a position. But me? I am simply serving my kind.

Tabitha
I serve Marshall, but he barely sees me. In a community where a woman’s role is to breed, a barren woman is a non-person, little more than a slave. But a person in the shadows who nobody sees can be full of surprises, and I think that in Selene I have found not only a true friend, but a person who is key to this dangerous, changed world of ours.

Excerpt

What he’s like.

He was a good half a head taller than Selene, broad across the shoulders, narrow at the hips. He had blue eyes that cut right through you and fleshy, sensuous lips. Dark hair, a fuzz of stubble along his jaw and a scar that ran down one side of his neck.

He looked at her as if he were sizing up a horse. His gaze worked up and down her body as if he could see through her gown, before fixing on her eyes again. “So,” he said, in a deep voice, “you’re the new one. You think you might like it here?”

She met his look. She wasn’t going to be intimidated. She had survived this far on her own, after all.

So why did her voice fail her at that moment? Why did she open her mouth but only a faint croak escape? “I...” That and a shrug were all she could manage.

He stepped closer then, and raised a hand.

For an instant she thought he was going to strike her, but then he simply reached out, and pressed his knuckles to her cheek, a surprisingly gentle touch. “I hope you do,” he went on. “I’d really like you to stay. Come. Let’s walk.”

He took her by the arm and led her outside into the harsh morning sunlight.

“What is this place?” she asked, as they walked across a yard where women tended neat vegetable plots.

“The Sanctum,” he said. “A sanctuary from the wild lands. A refuge for pure humankind. We protect ourselves. We are the future of our species.”

Passing through a gap between buildings, they emerged in an open space, children running around, tended by more of the Sanctum’s women.

“These women,” said Selene, clarity striking her mind like a beam of sunlight breaking through the clouds. “These children...”

Marshall nodded. “It is our duty to preserve humankind,” he said.
He moved round to stand in front of her, so close. “We all must play our part.”

“And if I don’t want to?”

“I would be duty-bound to persuade you.”

With that, he took the back of her head in one strong hand and pressed his mouth to hers. A brief kiss, and then it was over, he was stepping back and turning away. She was left standing there, her heart racing again and her responses so mixed up and contradictory she didn’t know whether to run or throw herself at him.

“I...” Her voice was gone again. Why was she reacting like this? She was a strong, independent woman, a survivor.

It was a thing to fear, she knew. Such strong, immediate reactions. Animal responses. It scared her.

He paused and turned back, smiling, an expression that was totally disarming. “And I tell you,” he said, “persuasion is one of the best parts.”

Hunted: a Shifters' World novella is available from:

Ruby Fielding is a British author, currently living in the heart of a New England forest. She travels widely, and has lived in England, Scotland, the US, France, India and Australia. Wherever she happens to be living, you're likely to find her at the nearest wifi hot spot with her laptop and a large mug of coffee.

She writes mainly paranormal erotica and romance, sometimes in collaboration with her old friend Polly J Adams; their joint stories are published separately and collected together into the single volume, Seduced by Moonlight.

All the latest news on Ruby's writing and publishing can be found on her website and on her Amazon author page; also, why not join her mailing list, or hook up with her on Facebook?




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