Christina Ashcroft and the Archangel

Posted by Anna Campbell Dec 7 2012, 12:03 am in 12 Bandita Days of Christmas, Ancient Rome, Anna Campbell, Archangel's Mercy, Australian Author, Bandita Booty, Betrayed, Bloodlust Denied, Captive, Christina Ashcroft, Christina Phillips, Ellora's Cave, erotic romance, Forbidden, historical romance, paranormal romance, Roman Romance, Tainted

I always love hosting a personal friend in the lair. Today’s guest Christina Ashcroft and I met way back in 2004, well before either of us was a published author, at the Romantic Novelists Association conference at Leicester in the U.K.

Christina, originally from England, now lives in beautiful Western Australia and we’ve been lucky enough to meet up since at various Romance Writers of Australia conferences (although not as often as I’d like! Perth is a long way from the east coast where most of the conferences are held).

I’ve long been a fan of Christina’s hot, dramatic, passionate books set in Roman Britain written under the Christina Phillips name. I’m delighted now to introduce her as Christina Ashcroft, a new star of paranormal romance, with her debut Archangel Of Mercy. Here’s the blurb:

When Aurora Robinson attempts to open a rift between dimensions to embrace her true heritage, an arrogant Archangel is the only one who can save her from the jaws of hell. And while she owes Gabriel her life, she’s determined not to fall at his feet-despite the desire she feels whenever they’re together.

After his wings were brutally destroyed millennia ago, Gabriel has no compassion for humans like those who ruined him and betrayed the ones he loved. But when he inexplicably finds himself defying ancient protocols to rescue a woman from a fate worse than death, he is shocked by the searing attraction he feels for a mortal.

As the ancient forces that seek to punish Aurora for her actions close in, Gabriel offers the tempting woman protection at his private sanctuary. But as they both succumb to their desires, they discover an even deeper connection-one that threatens to consume them.

You can find out more about Christina’s dual writing personalities at her websites:

http://christinaashcroft.com/

http://christinaphillips.com/

Christina, absolutely lovely to have you in the lair! Congratulations on the release of the first book in the Archangel series, Archangel Of Mercy, which is out from Berkley Heat this month. Can you tell us about this story?

Hi Anna, thank you so much for having me back in the lair! It’s always so much fun in here!

I’d love to tell you about my gorgeous Archangel, Gabriel. He’s one of the Fallen, but not in quite the way you might expect. He and his fellow Archangels used Earth as their playground millennia ago, and of course some of them fell in love with mortals. But the consequences of what happened in the past haunt Gabe today and he protects his shattered heart and guilt riddled soul behind a tough façade.

Aurora is a typical girl-next-door—except she has a unique heritage, and by trying to discover her roots and help her mother she unleashes an ancient force who are determined to punish her for her actions. As a consequence of this she is the catalyst that causes an Archangel to fall from the heavens… and into her arms.

What were the inspirations behind this book?

Ever since I was a child I’ve been fascinated by the Mayan prophecies that December 2012 marks the End of the World. The mathematical precision of their calendars are mind boggling and their ancient knowledge of the heavens phenomenal. As I got older I discovered the Mayans hadn’t discovered this knowledge themselves. It was handed down to them from a far more ancient civilization. And suppose this knowledge had been handed down previously from an even more ancient race of people?

I’ve also always loved the myths and legends that surround Atlantis. But what if that wasn’t merely a legend? What if a lost continent had once existed and been home to a technologically advanced civilization that rivals our own today?

It was only when I began to uncover the distant, mist shrouded past of the Archangel Gabriel that I began to understand the immortal he was today, and that was when he finally opened up enough to let me share his story.

Can you tell us about the Archangel series as a whole?

Each book is a stand alone romance between the Archangel and his heroine, so although it doesn’t matter if the books aren’t read as a series it would give a richer understanding of the world and background if the books are read in order. There is a thread that runs through the books that involve the ancient (and rather nasty) alien species, the Guardians.

What can we expect from the second book?

The second book, Archangel Of Death, is Azrael’s story. At the end of Archangel Of Mercy Azrael is horrified that Gabe has fallen again. He can’t understand why any Archangel would want to put themselves through that kind of torture because all too soon mortals die. And when they do, a part of the Archangel’s heart dies too.

Well, who could resist that kind of attitude? I knew straight away that Azrael was going to be my next unwilling hero! And who better for his heroine than someone from a race he has always despised and done everything within his power to eliminate?

Rowan is a dhampir and Azrael truly doesn’t stand a chance from the moment they meet. Because Rowan is nothing like the dhampirs Azrael fought nine hundred years ago when he saved the life of a legendary phoenix. In fact Rowan is nothing like any woman he has ever met. I loved writing this book and can’t wait until it hits the shelves!

As you know, I’m a huge fan of your sexy Christina Phillips historicals set in ancient Britain which involve forbidden love between the locals and the Roman invaders. You can imagine how thrilled I am to hear that books 3 and 4 in this series will soon be out. Can you tell us what’s going on with your Romans and Druids?

Thanks Anna, I was absolutely delighted when Ellora’s Cave picked up the next books in the series, Betrayed and Tainted.

Betrayed is Tacitus and Nimue’s story. Nimue, an acolyte of the moon goddess, appeared right at the very end of the second book, Captive, and she immediately fascinated me. While trying to protect the Briton queen she is captured by her bitterest enemy, but soon discovers the Roman tribune who’s enslaved her is far from the brutal barbarian she imagined. As for Tacitus, he’s never met a woman like Nimue before and has trouble accepting that this beautiful, ethereal woman could possibly be a warrior—let alone one of Rome’s deadliest enemies. I had a lot of fun tying these two up in knots!

In Tainted I mixed things up a bit, and have a Roman noblewoman, Antonia, who falls for tough Celt warrior, Gawain. Antonia’s had a hell of a life with her brutal former husband, and arrives in Britannia determined to make a new start without the complication of a man telling her what to do. Then she meets Gawain, and makes the decision to embark on a brief liaison. Gawain, of course, is more than happy to accommodate her since he doesn’t do commitment and is trying to stir rebellion against the Roman Legions. But as I’m an evil author and love torturing my hero and heroine, nothing goes according to their plans and they fall in love. Rome is not amused!

I also notice that we’ve got a novella called Bloodlust Denied coming up from you soon. Wow, I’ll be wallowing in delicious Christina Phillips/Ashcroft lusciousness. Can you tell us about this novella?

I’ve always wanted to write a lush Regency Romance and a few years ago an idea came to me of a tortured Regency duke who had lost the only woman he had ever loved many years before. Well, once I started thinking more about the story I realised this was no ordinary duke and he hadn’t lost his beloved a handful of years ago. No, my twisted imagination turned my sexy duke into a very bad ass vampire indeed, and any sense of morality he had once possessed had died along with his wife over two thousand years before. In Bloodlust Denied Alexius meets Morana and despite himself is fascinated by the way she shows no fear of him. Unfortunately for Alexius, Morana is no ordinary human either – she’s a Maiden of Death, pledged to rid the world of vampires.

Thanks, Christina! Wow, lots happening with you.

I have a copy of ARCHANGEL OF MERCY and some gorgeous swag to give away to one lucky commenter. The contest is open internationally to wherever The Book Depository delivers. Just leave a comment on the post or, since it’s nearly Christmas (or The End of Days if we’re going with the Mayans!) let me know who you would love to find stuffed in your stocking on 25th December (or, alternatively, who would you love to find brandishing awesome weapons in order to fight the Apocalypse!)

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Be sure to come back to the Lair on December 13 when we kick off the annual 12 BANDITA DAYS OF CHRISTMAS! Prizes and recipes every day!! Roosters. Starbucks goodies. Books. Dragons. Books. Cookies. Godiva. Books!! (By Banditas and friends like Dianna Love, Miranda Neville, Annie West, Sabrina Jeffries, Liz Carlyle, JD Tyler, Deb Marlowe, Marquita Valentine, Addison Fox, Lydia Dare and many more!) You know you want the cookies, for sure, so come home to the Lair for the Holidays! Who knows, you might win something, and you’ll be guaranteed to have fun!!

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A Tainted Avenger?

Posted by Nancy Northcott Nov 6 2009, 6:13 am in Demon ex Machina, Julie Kenner, T-shirts, Tainted

Bestselling author Julie Kenner returns to the Lair to chat about her new series, the Blood Lily Chronicles, and just to generally catch up with us. Welcome back, Julie! Tell us about the Blood Lily Chronicles.

The series is about a young woman, Lily, who goes out to murder the man who’s raped and torment her little sister. But things don’t go as Lily planned, and she’s the one who ends up dead. Or not so dead. Because she’s given the chance to come back to the world with a purpose: to fight the demons that are trying to open the gates to hell. The series opens after she’s made the decision to come back, but she doesn’t remember that decision right away, and so she’s thrust immediately into the action—not to mention an unfamiliar body—and has to figure out what the heck has happened to her. Now she’s faced with learning to be an assassin while also learning to fit into the life of Alice, a pub waitress…and all the while she has to figure out who her allies are, who her enemies (and Alice’s) are, and how she’s going to survive in this strange new life.

What inspired this new series?

I actually can’t answer that without spoilers, because something key in the first book (Tainted) was the kernel of my original idea. (Don’t give it away folks! I’ve been thrilled so far that reviews are keeping tight-lipped!). But what I can say is that even before Lily or her circumstances were conceived, I wanted to write a story about an assassin. Not even necessarily a paranormal story, but that idea buzzed around in my brain. It was a very amorphous, fluid, long-term process, but eventually, it all jelled and Lily was born.

I had heard you were writing these under a different name, but I see your “regular” one is on the cover. Can you share the factors in that decision with us?

Yes, the Blood Lily series is with Penguin Putnam, which publishes Kate, and I’m “Julie Kenner” over there. I have a new series with Random House (I believe it will be published under the Dell imprint) called The Shadow Keepers (the first 3 books are WHEN BLOOD CALLS, WHEN WICKED CRAVES, WHEN PLEASURE RULES, and they’ll be published back to back). For that series, I’m J.K. Beck (combo of my maiden name and Julie Kenner, or my critique partners’ nickname for me, which is “JK”). As for the decision, partly it’s the tone of the books in that I’m going back to romance, but it’s a much darker romance than my earlier Julie Kenner single title romances (which were last published several years ago and are very light). These are dark paranormal romantic suspense books and because of the tone, we wanted a new name. They are similar to the Tainted voice, but the books for Penguin are urban fantasy, not romance, and so the new name made a lot of sense.

How cool! Will you give us a look inside Tainted?

Sure! I’ve edited this slightly to stay PG-13.

He looked me up and down. “Are you okay?”

There was such concern in his voice that I had to remind myself that only hours before, this man had tossed another person across a room as if he were nothing more than a sack of laundry.

“I’ll be fine.” Possibly not the truth, but it was the best I could do. His eyes raked over me, his assessment like a physical touch.

I forced myself to remain steady, my legs suddenly not working properly. “Okay, then.” I nodded toward the pub’s back door. “I should get back inside.”

He moved closer, his hands closing around my upper arms, one hand warm and the other strangely cold. I took a step backward in a futile attempt to keep some distance between us, but he mirrored my movement. He was too close, and I was finding it harder and harder to think. As if he were radio interference keeping me from tuning in to my very own head.

“You haven’t told me why you were here,” I said, as much for something to say as because I was genuinely curious. His presence was a lucky break for me, but most men didn’t hang out in dark alleys waiting for damsels in distress.

“You’re the reason. I don’t handle being stood up well. I wanted to get to the bottom of it.”

“Oh.” I figured that was my cue to skedaddle. I took a sideways step toward the door. “Now’s not the time. I need to get back in before Egan—”

He stepped into my path, effectively blocking me.

“Hold up a second.”

“No, I really—” I looked him firmly in the eyes, then pressed my hand against his chest to push him away.

And that’s when it happened.

The world around me melted away, starting with his eyes. They shifted, turning from brown to black to a boiling red.

I tried to gasp—to scream—but it was like I wasn’t there anymore. I was watching, but I wasn’t controlling.

And what I saw scared the shit out of me.

A kaleidoscope of images. Dark. Dangerous. Heat and lust and power and fear.

I heard myself gasp, but the sound was muffled by the distance between my body and my reality. Instead, the beat of my pulse filled my ears, the dull, rhythmic rush of blood through vessels, of life humming along with each beat of my heart.

Blood.

Hot and demanding, pulsing and throbbing.

Red silk, crushed velvet. A sensual feast full of terrifying pleasures.

Blood.

I tried to pull out of this vision, this dream, this whatever-it-was that had grabbed hold of me, but it wasn’t letting go. He wasn’t letting go. He was holding tight, pulling me close, his pulse matching mine, the beat hypnotic and deep, drawing me in, threatening to drown me, to pull me under.

Hot fingers. Bare flesh.

And desire as sharp as a blade.

Somehow, I’d gotten lost inside his mind. A vision I didn’t want but couldn’t stop. We were wrapped up in horrific images and sensual pleasures, and my instinct to run was countered by a desperate desire to stay.

Behind this strange curtain, my nipples peaked and the inside of my thighs ached. I moved closer, squirming against him, desperate to find satisfaction. But whether this was real or only in my mind, I didn’t know. Right then, I didn’t care. Right then, I knew nothing more than the touch of his hand and the desperate thrum of desire.

His fingers roamed my back, his body pressed so close to mine I could feel his heartbeat along with the steady tickle of his breath against my hair. Caution abandoned me as quickly as modesty had, and all I wanted was his touch, the feel of his skin against mine.

As if answering my prayers, his lips danced across my skin, finding my mouth, then claiming me in a wild, violent taking that left my body shuddering and my mouth begging for more.

He moved to break the kiss, but I pulled him back, frustrated when he resisted, as if he knew that some change was coming.

And then it was there—a flash—and suddenly my mind’s eye turned gray, painting us in black and white, all lights and darks, highlights and shadows. The shadows sucked us in, and with another flash, my mind was seeped in gold.

I could see only his eyes. Warm and soft, without any hint of the rage I knew lurked beneath the surface. Only desire and need and longing so intense it pulled me—compelled me—until I wanted nothing more but to melt into him, to merge into one.

It didn’t last.

Those eyes, they changed in a flash. Snapping to a dangerous black, like a shark’s eyes. The change so fast, so sharp, I flinched, as if I’d been chastised for trusting too easily despite the man I’d seen earlier in the bar—the man inside Deacon who terrified me.

I tried to pull back, but I was too far gone. The lens of my mind turned red, but those eyes stayed black. A deep, yawing black that sucked me in, consumed me.

I recoiled from the abyss I saw before me. There was evil here.

I wanted to look away—I didn’t want to see. But I couldn’t help it.

And what I saw broke my heart.

Pain and loss and fear. It pummeled through me.

His pain. His loss. His fear.

All held out in front, like a talisman to hold at bay a flood of dark rage, bloodred anger, and a vile malevolence the depth of which could burn a hole in a man’s soul.

I struggled then, trying to pull away. Trying to get my head out of this dark place.

But I couldn’t break free. His hold on me was too strong.

You’re mine, his voice seemed to whisper in my head, the words so intense I would almost swear they were real. I looked down, my eyes finding a dozen white flowers, rivulets of blood running down the petals like rivers.

Lilies.

I gasped, dread shooting through me as the not-so-subtle symbolism broke the spell.

The images evaporated like so much mist, and I jerked suddenly, as if awakening from a trance.

Mortified, I jumped back, my blood still pounding with desire and fear.

And when I looked up, I saw none of my confusion on his face. Instead, all I saw was anger.

“Goddammit, Alice,” he growled, snatching my upper arm with a motion too quick to dodge. “You swore if I helped you that you’d stay the fuck out of my head.”

What’s going on with your demon-hunting soccer mom, Kate Connor, these days?

Kate’s latest adventure came out last month, DEMON EX MACHINA, and there will be a Kate and Allie short story in an upcoming anthology (check my website in a few months for details!). I’m plotting out some short content for Kate to go up in 2010, too. And there are a few Kate irons in the Hollywood fires at the moment, but I’m knocking wood and keeping tight-lipped with crossed-fingers!

You attended your first DragonCon this year. What were your impressions of that event?

I loved it! I thought the energy and the excitement were amazing, and I’m really hoping to go back in 2010!

I hope you can. Trish and I love it and are trying to get some of the other banditas there, too. What’s next for you?

Writing, writing, writing! In addition to the Blood Lily books in November, December and January, I have a Christmas and a New Year’s Blaze (STARSTRUCK and MOONSTRUCK respectively) and an April Fools Blaze Encounter written with Kathleen O’Reilly. I’m currently finishing up the books in The Shadow Keepers series, along with the Kate Connor short story. After that, lots of potential, but nothing firmed up, so check my website to see what’s coming down the road!

Thanks so much for having me!

Julie’s giving away a copy of Tainted to one commenter today. Do you have a question about Julie’s books? What do you like in to see authors do when they build paranormal worlds? Who’s your favorite fictional battler against the forces of darkness?

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