E.J. Russell is here today to promote the recent release of her new Dreamspun Beyond release, Devouring Flame! She's talking secondary characters and even brought an excerpt from the paranormal romance. Be sure to leave a comment to be entered in the giveaway of a backlist ebook as well as a $25 DSP gift card! Good luck!
Thank you so much for
helping me celebrate the release of Devouring Flame! At the end of the
tour, I’ll be giving away a prize—a $25 Dreamspinner gift card plus one of my
backlist titles—to one commenter (chosen at random across all the tour posts),
so please be sure to join the conversation!
Devouring Flame is the second book in my series
centered around the employees of Enchanted Occasions Event Planning, where the
word “enchanted” is quite literally, er, literal. The EO staff are all outcast
from their supernatural home realms, most of them because they’re aitchers
(short for half-and-half), part human and part other, and discriminated against
by Pures of all races. But they’ve found a community with their EO co-workers,
and job satisfaction staging magical events for their clients.
Of
course, sometimes those events get… complicated. :-)
I love writing
secondary characters, especially when I’m writing paranormal. One of the
reasons for this is because it’s such fun to discover them—and their appearance
and abilities—as I write.
One of my favorite
characters to write is Chef, the goblin berserker who heads up Enchanted
Occasions catering arm. When I introduced him in Nudging Fate, I knew he
was a goblin berserker, but I didn’t know exactly what that meant until I
started writing his first scene:
When Andy pushed open
the swinging doors into the kitchen, the noise tripled. Chef loomed over the
stove, one hand flipping vegetables in a sauté pan, his second hand steadying a
metal bowl while his third hand wielded a whisk. His fourth hand groped the
shelf overhead.
So just in writing that
paragraph, I discovered that Chef (and presumably goblin berserkers in general)
had four arms. He also has six-inch tusks and tufted ears, and regularly
terrorizes Tessmacher, his long-suffering assistant, with food-related
tantrums.
(By the way, Chef’s
personality is inspired partially by my Curmudgeonly Husband, who is a
wonderful cook, and normally quite even tempered—except when it comes to food.)
Chef is back in Devouring
Flame, and gets more page time because I have such fun writing him. In
fact, I invented the vampires’ Centennial Feast just so I could give Chef a
bigger part. In this scene, Hashim has volunteered to assist Chef with the
massive menu for the Feast, despite Smith’s initial trepidation:
“Tessmacher! Where the
fuck is the saffron?” The bellow shook the floor and rattled the pans. An
instant later, Chef—all eight feet of him, not counting his white chef’s
toque—came bursting out of the walk-in refrigerator, two of his hands full of
some kind of herb, the third brandishing a sauté pan, and the fourth closing
the refrigerator as gently as if he were rocking a baby’s cradle.
Chef definitely had his
priorities.
He froze when he saw
the two of them by the door. “You are not Tessmacher.”
“Nope. Sorry. He’s
hiding in the conference room.”
Chef’s brow clouded,
and he bared his teeth. “Why would he be hiding?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
Smith rested his hand in the small of Hashim’s back. “This is Hashim.”
Chef sniffed. “Ifrit. I
remember you. You didn’t like my maqaniq. I prepared those sausages expressly
for you.”
Hashim bowed, his palms
pressed together. “I never had a chance to sample them, Chef. The poison
prevented my having the pleasure. I’m certain they were delightful.”
“Hmmmph.” Chef squinted
one eye. “Another smooth talker.”
Smith advanced into the
kitchen. He set the new menu list—all fifty-seven pages of it—on the center
prep table. “There’s a change in plans, Chef. The clients have requested an
expanded menu, and we’re going to honor it.”
Chef took an enormous
breath—and considering that his lungs were the size of Smith’s torso, it took
him a while and made him appear even larger. “The Feast is in two days
and you’re changing the menu now?”
“’Fraid so.” Smith
patted the stack of paper. “Here are the details. I’ll have the required
ingredients here by tomorrow evening.”
“You—Tomorrow—Ingredients—Argh!”
Chef drew back his arm and hurled the pan across the room—straight at Hashim.
Who caught it before
Smith could shout a warning or tackle him to the ground.
Hashim smiled blandly
and set the pan on the table as a brownie sidled past with a platter of raw
meat. “I am here to assist you, Chef.”
“You? What can you
do, pretty boy?”
Hashim took the platter
from the brownie and set it on the table. Flexing his fingers to extend his
claws fully, he snagged a steak. Holding the meat in midair, he pursed his lips
and expelled a perfectly controlled burst of fire.
Lucifer’s balls, he’s
so fricking hot—and not just because he can breathe fire.
Hashim laid the
sizzling steak in the pan he’d fielded. “I believe you’ll find the internal
temperature precisely 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Medium rare. Care to sample it?”
He pulled a knife out of a nearby knife block and threw it, end over end, at
Chef, who snatched it out of the air.
“Urrrgh.” Chef stalked
across the kitchen and speared the steak with the knife, tossing it whole into
his maw. He closed his eyes as he chewed, and Smith held his breath. This still
had so much potential to go sideways.
Chef swallowed, then
his eyes popped open, red and glowing. “You—” He pointed the knife at Hashim
and Smith got ready to leap. “—will be my sous chef.”
Hashim cocked his head.
“Don’t you wish to discover whether I can cook anything else first?”
“What does that matter?
You’re fireproof and you can catch.” He glared at Smith. “Get out. We have work
to do.”
Smith gripped Hashim’s
arm. “Will you be okay?”
“Of course he will be
okay. Why wouldn’t he? Now go. You’re in the way.”
Like
Smith, our family knows better than to invade the kitchen when my Curmudgeonly
Husband is deep in the throes of cooking frenzy, particularly when the adult
language starts painting the air blue and the pots start clanging. However, the
results—like Chef’s inspired creations—are always worth it.
Devouring Flame
An Enchanted Occasions story
Reunited and reignited.
While
cutting through the Interstices—the post-creation gap between realms—Smith,
half-demon tech specialist for Enchanted Occasions Event Planning, spies the
person he yearns for daily but dreads seeing again: the ifrit, Hashim of the
Windrider clan.
On their
one literally smoldering night together, Smith, stupidly besotted, revealed his
true name—a demon’s greatest vulnerability. When Hashim didn’t return the
favor, then split the next morning with no word? Message received, loud and
clear: Thanks but no, thanks.
Although
Hashim had burned to return Smith’s trust, it was impossible. The wizard who
conjured him holds his true name in secret, and unless Hashim discovers it,
he’ll never be free.
When
their attraction sparks once more, the two unite to search for Hashim’s hidden
name—which would be a hell of a lot easier if they didn’t have to contend with
a convention full of food-crazed vampires on the one day out of the century
they can consume something other than blood.
But if
they fail, Hashim will be doomed to eternal slavery, and their reignited love
will collapse in the ashes.
Luckily Smith is the guy who gets shit
done. And Hashim is never afraid to heat things up.
Buy links:
Author bio:
E.J. Russell–grace, mother of three,
recovering actor–writes romance in a rainbow of flavors. Count on high snark,
low angst and happy endings.
Reality? Eh, not so much.
E.J.’s paranormal romantic comedy, The Druid Next Door, was a 2018 RITA®
finalist. She’s married to Curmudgeonly Husband, a man who cares even less
about sports than she does. Luckily, C.H. also loves to cook, or all three of
their children (Lovely Daughter and Darling Sons A and B) would have survived
on nothing but Cheerios, beef jerky, and Satsuma mandarins (the extent of
E.J.’s culinary skill set).
E.J. lives in rural Oregon, enjoys visits from
her wonderful adult children, and indulges in good books, red wine, and the
occasional hyperbole.
Contact info:
Email: ejr@ejrussell.com
Great cover to go with a great book. thanks
ReplyDeletedebby236 at gmail dot com
Oh, that cover model... Perfect for Smith!
DeleteSecondary characters can be fun and I think they help to spice up the book with some humor.
ReplyDeletehumhumbum AT yahoo DOT com
I love creating the community around the main characters!
DeleteSo exciting! I love this world, such an original universe!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Nica! I really appreciate that!
DeleteSomething new for my TBR list.
ReplyDeletespecksus.js@gmail.com
Yay! Thank you!
DeleteThis sounds great! Can't wait to read it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kathy!
Deletecongrats on the new release
ReplyDeleteNow I so want to read this “Chef” character!! Congrats on your newest book release, EJ. Can’t wait to start reading this book!
ReplyDeleteI love writing Chef! Hmmm... Maybe he should have his own cooking show!
DeleteLove the premise and the universe!! I'll be sure to check them out :) and CONGRATS on the release EJ ^^
ReplyDeleteThank you, Christi!
Delete:-D
ReplyDeleteThanks so much to BMBR for hosting me, and thanks to everyone who stopped by!
ReplyDeleteChef sounds like my kind of guy!
ReplyDelete--Trix, vitajex(at)Aol(Dot)com
I have all your books. I'm excited to read this one, thanks for the chance!
ReplyDelete