Join author Este Holland and A Novel Take PR celebrating the release of The Marshal's Teacher (Yours to Protect #3)! Discover more today!
The Marshal’s Teacher
(Yours to Protect, Book 3)
By Este Holland
Publisher: Self-Pub
Release Date (Print & Ebook): December 12, 2019
Length (Print & Ebook): Approx. 40,000 words
Subgenre: lgbt/action
Warnings: talk about deaths of parents
Book synopsis:
Protecting him is no hardship.
Chaze Pullman has a sixth sense for trouble. He never thought it would come in handy when a man threatens him over a hot US Marshal.
Kean York may be recovering from a gunshot wound, but he’ll go to any length to protect a certain stubborn man. After all, Chaze’s life was put in danger because of York…
Or was it?
When emotions run high, information can be overlooked, and Chaze’s instincts are telling him something else is going on.
Something that may not involve him at all.
This is the third book in the Yours to Protect series. It’s novella length with a cliffhanger for the overall plot of the series, but it is HEA for the main characters.
Excerpt
Chaze called the next day, and they arranged to meet at York’s house later that night. It wasn’t the weekend yet, but he’d sounded…not desperate, more like in a hurry.
York smiled as he made the bed with clean sheets. He stocked the fridge with plenty of cold beer, then showered. He had to be careful how he moved and to not to get his stitches wet, but he managed. He was feeling better already.
Date. He’d promised a date, not sex, but it didn’t hurt to be prepared. And he liked Chaze. He didn’t want to screw up. There was something about him that made York feel good, like he wanted to be near him more and more every time he saw him.
They’d agreed to stay in, since it was still difficult for York to move around much, so he ordered dinner ten minutes before Chaze arrived. And arrive he did, in tight jeans, a black, short-sleeved button-up, and a loose, skinny blue tie.
Damn. It was going to be difficult to keep his head on straight when all he wanted to do was peel off those jeans, blindfold Chaze with that tie, and suck his cock.
“Hey,” York said, stepping aside and to let him in.
“Hi.”
“You look great.”
“Oh, thank you.” He pulled on the tie. “I had a meeting this morning.”
He blushed, eyes darting around the room. York chalked it up to first-date jitters.
“How are you feeling?” Chaze asked.
“I’m good. I can move more today.” York demonstrated by rolling his shoulders carefully.
“That’s good.”
“Have a seat. Want a drink?”
“Yeah, beer, if you have it. Thanks.”
York took his time getting the frozen mugs out of the freezer and pouring two Coronas and squeezing in limes. He figured Chaze could use the time to settle.
“Here you go.” He brought the drinks in and set them on the table just as the doorbell rang. Chaze jumped and York chuckled. “It’s dinner. I hope Thai is okay.”
He blew out a breath. “It’s fine.”
Chaze lifted his mug and gulped half of it in seconds. York’s brows rose. He opened the door, gave the driver a tip, and brought the food into the kitchen.
Was Chaze that nervous to be there? Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Disappointment made York’s shoulders sag, and he winced at the tug of pain. He’d foregone a pain pill since that morning so he could drink.
He made two plates of food with a little bit of everything and carried them to the living room. Chaze stood studying the bookshelves. York didn’t have a lot of books, but enough were interspersed between the various photos and knickknacks he’d accumulated over the years to make him seem less plebeian.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” York asked, setting the plates on the coffee table. “You’re a little jumpy.”
Up close, York could see dark circles under Chaze’s eyes.
“I…” He ran those slender fingers through his hair, pushing back the front. “I don’t know what to do.”
Chaze’s voice held a certain note York associated with witnesses or victims, and his training kicked in. “Hey, it’s okay. Whatever it is, we’ll get it sorted out.” He gripped Chaze’s arm and guided him to the couch to sit. “Just start at the beginning.”
Interview with Este Holland:
How long have you been writing?
I wrote my first novel in 2012, so 7 years. Though, I’ve written other things since I was in elementary school.
Have you always wanted to be a writer?
Yes! I’ve always loved books. I’m an avid reader, but writing
was always something I craved. I used to have a binder with a story that was going to be my first novel. I was about nine or ten years old, I think. Can’t
remember what it was about.
Writing is the one thing I do consistently, and the one thing that holds my interest. Jobs I’ve had always get boring after a few years…but not writing.
What advice would you give a new writer, someone just starting out?
Watch your filters. One way to spot a new writer is when their sentences are filtered with pronouns and verbs. You hear people say, “show don’t tell”. Basically, this means
don’t use: to see, to hear, to touch, to sound, to taste, to realize, to look, to notice etc
… For example: “She realized he was it for her.” You don’t need “She realized”, it’s implied by the context of your paragraph. I’m still guilty of it and have to cut them when I’m editing. You don’t always have to cut all of them, but 99% of the time you can. So, if you see them in my books, you can point and laugh and say, “Ha ha
, she missed one!”
How do you handle writer’s block?
I don’t really get writer’s block (knock on wood). It’s more of a laziness thing with me, lol! Some days, I have to force myself to write. And it’s not that I don’t love to write, I do. But if the characters aren’t jumping out at me, I have to make myself write a few sentences, then a few more, until I have enough words that I feel productive for the day. Luckily, that doesn’t happen all the time.
What, in your opinion, are the most important elements of good writing?
Good characters. You have to have compelling, fascinating characters. I think importance is place
on relatability, and while that is a good trait for characters, the characters who really stand out are the ones that fascinate us. Take Snape in Harry Potter. I won’t go into details, but you know what I mean. He wasn’t likeable
, or particularly relatable. We hated him, but in the end, he was the most compelling character in the series, in my opinion. I can only hope I write a character like that one day. I haven’t yet.
What comes first, the plot or characters?
For me, it’s the characters. Usually. My last release, First Priority, came about because I wondered what Emperor Kuzco from the Emperor’s New Groove would be like as a character in a mm
novel. Weird, yes. But there you go. It’s a writer’s brain. (It was Truman, btw, if you’ve read it. Obviously, I changed him along the way!)
In the Yours to Protect Series, Rio was the first character I thought of. (He’s one MC from The Artist’s Boxer.)
How do you develop your plot and characters?
They tell me who they are. I start with a name and general idea of what they look like in my head. Maybe what they do for a living. My plots are simple to start. I don’t outline, I’m a pantser
, and the plot evolves as I go. It’s not a good thing to do for a series, but I wasn’t entirely sure I was going to write a series from Yours to Protect until Kai popped into Rio and Rake’s story. I knew I wanted to give him a story, so I decided who I wanted to pair him with, and he was already working for the mob, so the plot for The Marshal’s PI evolved out of that.
Are you working on anything at the present you would like to share with your readers about?
Right now, I’m writing the fourth book in this series, The Marshal’s Mobster. Actually, I’m kind of alternating between that one and the second Priorities book.
Do you have any new series planned?
I have The Marshal’s Mobster, which is the last one, and then a character from those books (Luke Kairo) will get his own sort of standalone book, which I’m hoping to transition into a spin off
series in LA. It’s about a secret intelligence agency. That’s on the back burner for now though.
I will have two more books in the Priorities series first. Daniel and Riley, and Brian and Jay. And I have another book to write for my paranormal series, The Metis Inquiries, but that’s a way’s off.
More from Este
Yours to Protect Series
The Artist's Boxer (Yours to Protect Book 1)
He won the championship. Now he must run for his life.
Winning the welterweight championship was everything Rake had worked for. Now it’s all come crashing down, and he has no choice but to flee his hometown of Las Vegas.
When he stops in a small town in Utah, Rake meets a man who makes him forget all about the danger he’s in.
Rio has a good life. He loves his family and career, but when Rake blows into town, something stirs in his blood...something like desire.
Rio doesn’t do relationships, not since the last disaster, but Rake makes it impossible for him to say no.
When Rake comes clean about what he’s running from, Rio just might have a way to help.
Now the two of them must fight to free Rake from the man who took everything...and stay alive until the end.
The Artist’s Boxer is the first book in the Yours to Protect series. It contains mature sexual content of hot adult men, intended for readers 18 and older, a one-night stand turning into several days, and a crafty old man who loves to butt into his grandson’s life.
The Marshal's PI (Yours to Protect Book 2)
Dodging bullets shouldn’t be fun…should it?
It is when the man protecting you is hot as sin.
Kai is a happy-go-lucky guy. At least, he was before the mob came knocking on his door.
He’ll go to any length to protect a secret, even work with US Marshal Gannin West.
The only man who can help.
The only man who drives him crazy.
To figure out how to stop the one who wants Kai erased, he’ll have to cooperate… But will it be too late?
The Marshal’s PI is the second book in the Yours to Protect Series. It features a goofy PI who wishes he lived in the 1930s, and a Federal Marshal who hates breaking the rules. Male/male romance, action, adventure, enemies to lovers, 18+ only.
About the Author:
Este Holland is a writer and reader of all things Romance. She's also a treasure hunter, a word wizard, a lover, and a fighter. She was born and raised in WV, and now lives in Virginia. She works in marketing during the day. She began writing novels in 2012.
