Only TWO more days of authors, fun and prizes. Be sure to check back on release day – Tuesday, July 27th. I’ve got some special treats in store for my readers!! Now on to day 14…

(I’m going to be reposting the contest rules at the beginning of each post. If you’ve already read them, scroll down for today’s post and questions.)

To celebrate the release of ENTWINED, I’m giving away a BUNCH of prizes. There are two parts to this contest:

PART ONE :
Post the ENTWINED widget (below) on your FB page, blog sidebar, tweet about the contest and/or book, email your friends and spread the word…basically, any way you talk up the book or contest will enter you for one of three $25 gift cards to the online bookstore of your choice. Winners will be selected after I return from RWA Nationals, the first week in August. Once you’ve done that, email me at elisabeth@elisabethnaughton.com and tell me blabbed about ENTWINED. Be sure to put ENTWINED Release Contest in the subject line. (If you already posted the widget from the blog post I did last week, you’re already entered.) Enter as many times as you like. Every time you spread the word about book 2 in the Eternal Guardians series, send me an email.

PART TWO: Each day for the next two weeks I’ll be giving away AWESOME prizes and spotlighting some fabulous authors. Comment on the daily post to be entered into that day’s drawing. Winners will be chosen randomly from comments and will get to pick their prize. Once a prize is chosen, it’s crossed off the list. Here are the prizes you can win:

Got Demon? Mug from author Saranna DeWylde
Beneath the Surface by MJ Fredrick
Primordial by Denise Agnew – won by Melanie (day 9 winner)
His Darkest Embrace e-arc by Juliana Stone – won by Diana (day 5 winner)
Unbridled by Beth Williamson – won by Jeanette J. (day 10 winner)
Huddle With Me Tonight by Farrah Rochon
Relentless by Lauren Dane – won by Minnchica (day 7 winner)
Revelation (ecopy) by Lauren Dane – won by Pam K (day 8 winner)
Sunrise in A Garden of Love & Evil by Barbara Monajem – won by Barbara E (day 3 winner)
All He Desires by Anthea Lawson
The Phoenix Charm by Helen Scott Taylor – won by Lindsey E. (day 11 winner)
Animal Instinct (ecopy) by Michelle Pillow – won by Cathy (day 10 winner)
$10 Starbucks Card from Phyllis Bourne
Montana Dawn by Caroline Fyffe
Dangerous As Sin & $10 Borders Gift Card from Alix Rickloff – won by Robin L (day 2 winner)
Ancient Whispers by Marie-Claude Bourque
Forged of Shadows by Jessa Slade – won by Cyberclipper (day 5 winner)
Shadow Bound by Erin Kellison – won by Giada (day 3 winner)
Lord of Pleasure & $10 Starbucks Gift Card from Delilah Marvelle – won by Jody F (day 7 winner)
$20 Borders Gift Card from Joan Swan – won by Limecello (day 1 winner)
Deadly Fear by Cynthia Eden won by Nikki (day 6 winner)
Forbidden Highlander by Donna Grant – won by Julie (day 4 winner)

Today’s Guest is JESSA SLADE!!!

First off, congrats to Elisabeth on her newest Eternal Guardians release!  I’m going to dance like Kermit for just a moment because she’ll be presiding over an ENTWINED release party in our adjacent rooms at the Romance Writers of America conference in a few days.  I’m thinking this may be our only chance to trash a motel room, rock star style.

If you live near Orlando, you can find Elisabeth, me and a couple hundred other romance authors at the 2010 “Readers for Life” Literacy Autographing.  The book fair—free and open to the public—takes place Wednesday, July 28, 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort, Pacific Exhibit Hall, in Orlando, Florida.

Literacy holds a special place in the hearts of writers.  Like Tinkerbell couldn’t survive if her audience didn’t believe, books don’t come alive without readers, so authors love readers!  More than that, writers are readers first.  Most of us could be found with books in our hands from a very young age.

My mom read me Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings when I was a kid.  Obviously I was doomed to be a writer of fantastical good and evil!  Although I write more kissing than Tolkien did 😉 

Here’s the first kiss from FORGED OF SHADOWS, the second book in my Marked Souls urban fantasy romance series.  Our heroine, Jilly Chan, has just recently learned that Chicago is infested with malevolent demons—their darkness opposed only by repentant demons possessing some seriously alpha male warriors.  And she finds out from Liam Niall, leader of those demon-possessed warriors, that now she’s possessed too.

*          *          *

Her skin prickled like static electricity, and she wondered if her hair was standing on end. “Are you trying to start a fight?”

“Part of me is, apparently. Damn it.”

“Yes, yes, damn you,” she parroted snidely.

Abruptly, he smiled. The flash of white teeth startled her. “If I do or if I don’t. So I might as well.”

Hands clasped behind his back, he leaned over and kissed her.

Jilly sensed the incoming kiss, felt the pressure wave of the electric current spike the moment before he moved, so her skin flushed with warning heat. And she didn’t step back.

She’d wondered, of course, how his kiss would be. No woman with breath wouldn’t wonder. She hadn’t thought she’d indulge her curiosity, though, since she was a woman who knew stupid as well as sexy, and while Liam Niall was definitely sexy, kissing him was definitely stupid—especially since he was far too calculating for his own good, or for her own bad, as the case might be.

And then he slanted his mouth over hers and the wild circle of her thoughts flew apart.

Warm. Soft. And as fleeting as his smile.

The sigh of his breath was gone before she caught more than a whiff of that elusive scent, heather and woodsmoke. Her own breath hitched in her chest, as if he’d taken something from her, more frightening than the knife that had pierced and slid from her body with such ease.

He lifted his head and gazed down at her. She realized her hands were fisted in the front of his coat, not flattened to push him away, but tangled tight to draw him closer. In the dark blue of his eyes, she caught a glimpse of bewilderment as profound as her own. Where had the steady, reserved leader gone?

She drew in a deep lungful of bracing chill. “What was that?”

“A kiss, last I checked.” He paused. “Although I admit it has been a while.” With one finger, he touched his lower lip, just a glancing caress, as if he was double- and triple-checking.

That hinted uncertainty sent another wave of heat coursing through her. “Why?”

“Leading a gang of immortal demon slayers doesn’t leave a lot of time for deep, meaningful relationships.”

She glared at him for his purposeful obtuseness. “Why did you kiss me?”

*          *          *

Silly Jilly, alpha males don’t need a reason for kissing, although Tolkien would probably make up a secret language in a separate appendix to explain why.  To read more of FORGED OF SHADOWS visit http://tinyurl.com/forgedofshadows.  Need a soundtrack to go along with the reading?  You can download the free MP3 of the Marked Souls theme song at http://tinyurl.com/seducedsingle.

How about you; did you have a special book you read as a child that launched your love of reading?  Share your recommendations in comments and maybe someday we can tempt a non-reader to follow us to the dark side.

(BONUS NOTE: Jessa has gratiously donated another copy of FORGED OF SHADOWS for today’s contest. So we’ll have two winners today – one will get to pick from the remaining prizes on the prize list, one will get FORGED OF SHADOWS!!! Andwer Jessa’s question above to be entered for both prizes!)