A warm welcome to author Alexis Duran visiting Love Bytes today,
Alexis kindly answered some questions for us , shares an excerpt and there is a giveaway to participate in
Welcome Alexis 🙂
Book Name: Blood of Salar
Series: Masters and Mages #2
Release Date: March 3, 2015
Author Name: Alexis Duran
Alexis Duran was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. At the University of Oregon, her fascination with people and relationships led her to major in Sociology, but her main love has always been creative writing. She’s worked in museums, fashion, finance and film production. Her favorite job so far was cataloguing the collection in a haunted Victorian Mansion. She’s had several short stories published in the mystery, horror and literary genres and is the author of the Masters and Mages erotic fantasy series. Her fiction has won several awards including the Rupert Hughes Award from the Maui Writers Conference. She lives with one dog and four and half cats. She is currently working on the next Masters and Mages novel and several other erotic novellas.
Where to find the author:
Facebook Author Page: http://www.facebook.com/alexis.duran.18294
Twitter: http://twitter.com/AlexisSDuran
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/alexisduran1177/
Other: My blog at http://alexisduranblog.com
Other: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8332457.Alexis_Duran
Publisher: Loose ID
Categories: Erotica, Fantasy, Fiction, Gay Fiction, M/M Romance
BLURB:
M’lan, headmaster of the order of Ka’alar and Jamil Jarka, king’s assassin, find their impossible love challenged to the utmost as a rebellion sweeps them apart, sending Jamil on a dangerous mission to assassinate the rebel leader, General Charvat. Unknown to anyone, Charvat is on his way to the temple to exploit the headmaster’s magical abilities.
When the rebel army arrives, M’lan is thrust into a struggle against political and sexual dominance as Charvat attempts to break his resistance. Violence and death mount, awakening within M’lan both the powers of destruction and the desire for revenge.
On the trail of his prey, Jamil begins to question his devotion to M’lan as his once innocent lover transforms into a mage and invades the assassin’s thoughts and dreams. The closer Jamil draws to M’lan, the more he puts his life and his very soul at risk. Jamil soon realizes that his lover might prove to be more deadly than the man he was sent to kill.
A final confrontation between assassin and monk might destroy them both, but Jamil is relentless in his determination to rescue M’lan, for he knows that only his love can master the mage.
Buy Links:
Tell us about Blood of Salar. Where did you come up with this world?
The idea of Salar, the sun god of life and healing, arose from a fantasy I often have when getting a massage. What if the masseuse could actually channel magical energies that could seek out your deepest wounds and heal them? And not only physical wounds, but the psychological ones as well? As soon as I had this thought, M’lan, the monk with the healing touch, walked on to the stage of my imagination. He’s a monk because I liked the juxtaposition of the very sensual practice of massage with the austere, self-denying life of a traditional religious order. And because you can never have enough conflict, his love interest turned out to be the very practical assassin, Jamil Jarka. With these types of characters and the very real presence of gods and magic, a high fantasy world seemed like the best setting, so I created a world of temples, serpent-worshipping monks and corrupt mages from the ground up, which is challenging but so much fun.
Would you like to live in the world you created for these characters?
Not so much. While I adore the idea of hot young men with magical energy pouring out of their fingertips, there is a high price to pay for this magic. Rakkan, the land in which Blood of Salar takes place, is a patriarchal society with kings and lords, a violent rebellion in progress, dangerous magical forces emerging that no one knows how to control and a whole lot of scheming villains lurking about. Also, no Starbucks.
What is your favorite genre to read? Why?
I love to read and write both contemporary and high fantasy, and stories with a romantic core are my favorite. A one-word explanation is possibility. Another is fun. In fantasy, the sky isn’t the limit, only the breadth of the writer’s imagination. Writers of fantasy get to make up their own rules, create their own worlds, steal shamelessly from every other genre, delve into history, myth and folklore, channel fairies, bring their wildest dreams to life. Of course as a writer I love this, but as a reader it’s almost more exciting to be taken along for a ride that could lead me anywhere and reveal to me the most amazing things I never would have conceived of one my own. And dragons. Who doesn’t love dragons?
What is your favorite place to read?
On my couch with the requisite two cats, cup of tea, preferably on a rainy day, which luckily for me occurs quite often in Portland, my home base.
What are you working on next?
Right now, I’m putting the finishing touches on a stand-alone contemporary fantasy set in Seattle, featuring evil elves and a down-and-out shaman. After that, I plan to finish the next and last in the Masters and Mages series, Curse of Salar.
M’lan knelt beside the assassin’s bronzed body. He placed his palm on Jamil’s chest and silently beseeched Salar to remove the deadly impulses instilled in Jamil ever since he began his training as an assassin. Jamil closed his eyes and seemed to relax, but as the warm energy of the god seeped through M’lan’s fingers, Jamil jerked suddenly to full alertness. Like a cobra striking he seized M’lan’s wrist and gave it a painful twist, eyes flashing. M’lan sat back, startled.
Jamil did not let him go. He let out a slow breath and lifted M’lan’s fingers to his mouth. He kissed the knuckles of a clenched fist. “The last thing I need is more spells to confuse this simple warrior’s mind.”
“A prayer is not a spell!” M’lan tried to pull free but couldn’t. He gritted his teeth, fighting back a rising anger. Jamil’s strength both entranced and infuriated him.
“Stop trying to weaken me.” Jamil said in a wretchedly calm voice. “You must stay here and do your duty, I must go away and do mine. Nothing has changed.”
M’lan inhaled slowly, breath catching. “Let me go.”
Tour Dates & Stops: March 16 – 20, 2015
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Rafflecopter Prize: A copy of Touch of Salar, Book 1 in the Masters and Mages series and a $10 Loose Id GC
Hi!
Hi congratulations on your recent release.
Hm.. best mage voice.. I don’t read a lot of fantasy, except for urban fantasy.. I will go with a nice, drawn out “Greeeetings ” whether I win this or not I’m definitely putting this on my TBR list 🙂
Salagadoola mechicka boola bibbidi-bobbidi-boo…put ’em together and what have you got, a beautiful hello to you 🙂 Congrats on the new release in your series, thanks for the chance!
Uhhh, abracadabra?? The blurb, and the cover, are intense. Thanks for the offer. 🙂