Anniversary Shenanigans: Author Visit + Giveaway - J.A. Rock

J.A. Rock took time out from circusing to help us celebrate and she's brought a bit of a dark & dangerous fic too!

The Creation

     It’s the color of welling blood. The lipstick. It’s a slash of deep, slick crimson, like the first seconds after you slice yourself on something metal.

     I’m doing perfectly; my hand is steady. Then I smear some right at the corner of her mouth. Suddenly she looks clownish. I see that she’s blinked some flakes of mascara down onto her cheeks. She’s a mess, and I tell her so.

     She doesn’t blink. Doesn’t speak. Stares up at me with those unnaturally pale cheeks. The painted lips curve upward, just slightly. I taught her to do that. She does it now when she looks out the window at night and sees stars. She does it each day when she kneels before me, just as she’s doing now. She looks up, and I look down. I paint her perfect. The wave in her blond hair ripples as she breathes.

     She says I’m made for this. Says it as though she’s helped make me. This. But I think I’ve made her. Made her happy. Made her feel useful. She needed this. And she couldn’t ask any of her kind for it. So I was built and brought into her home. Her tidy, sterile home. Brought here to stand before her. To dress and paint her. To whisper that she’s flawless.

     But she’ll never look as sleek as I do, no matter how carefully I apply the paint. Her skin wrinkles. Her nose twitches. I can tell what she is—can see the warmth flushing her cheeks beneath the pale foundation. And she likes to be told that. Likes to hear that I can tell. Likes to feel both perfect and less than. Likes to cry away the paint as I list all the ways she’ll never match me. Until she’s a mess, a warm, soft mess with a mind in tatters, shoulders shaking under the cold of my touch.

     I wonder sometimes—I’m not prone to wondering, but I indulge now and then—if she truly wishes she were like me. Or craves the proof—the constant proof—that she isn’t.

Is anyone else blinking? No? Just me? #sad 
Be sure to let J.A. know what you thought of her fic in the comments below.

Bio

J.A. Rock is the author of over twenty LGBTQ romance and suspense novels, as well as an occasional contributor to HuffPo Queer Voices. J.A.’s books have received Lambda Literary, INDIEFAB, and EPIC Award nominations, and 24/7 was named one of the best books of 2016 by Kirkus Reviews. J.A. lives in Chicago with an extremely judgmental dog, Professor Anne Studebaker.

Website: http://www.jarockauthor.com

Blog: http://jarockauthor.blogspot.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jarockauthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ja.rock.39

Enter for your chance to win ANY backlist title from J.A. Rock. Giveaway ends 11/14 @ Midnight EST. Good luck!

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We Unicorns thank J.A. for helping us to celebrate our 4th anniversary.

Don't miss entering in our month long unicorn giveaway HERE! It ends 12/1/17!