Love Bytes welcomes back to their blog,  author Ari of the wonderful Ari McKay duo ,joining us today to talk about their new release “out of the Ashes”, which is part of the new Dreamspinner Dreamspun Beyond series.
Ari talks about their new release and brought a wonderful giveaway for our readers!

Welcome Ari 🙂

Hi there, Ari here again of Ari McKay! Thanks to Love Bytes for hosting us on their blog today, and to you for taking a few minutes out of your day to check out our post. It’s an exciting time for us, because we’re celebrating the release of our latest novel, Out of the Ashes from Dreamspinner Press. Not only is this the debut novel in our Asheville Arcana series and a return for us to the paranormal genre we love, it’s the first book in the new Dreamspun Beyond line! How cool is that?

McKay and I actually met and began writing together because of Harry Potter, so the realms of magic and fantasy are near and dear to our hearts. When Dreamspinner put out a call for the new Dreamspun Beyond line, well… how could we resist? We’d already done some world building for a supernatural community in Asheville, so we jumped right in and started on a brand new story that puts our own spin on how the paranormal world should work.

World building is incredibly exciting, and also somewhat terrifying when you’re looking at putting together something that needs to be consistent without painting yourself into a corner in regards to future works. Fortunately McKay and I were both AD&D players back in the day, so we latched on to the most important thing that any role player knows is necessary for good fantasy — balance!!! Whether it’s good vs. evil, magic vs. non-magic, free will vs. destiny, or one magical species vs. another, you need for the opposing forces to be of similar strength, or you don’t have a prayer of sustaining your world.

In Out of the Ashes, the central conflict is between Eli Hammond, an alpha werewolf, and his fated mate, half-elf Arden Gilmarin, and shows (we hope!) that balance. Werewolves are creatures of strength and energy, and they bear their power openly, with muscle and attitude. Which is why Eli is shocked and, at first, horrified to discover that the mate fate has destined for him is a small, slender half-elf who looks delicate enough that Eli is afraid of breaking him. But Eli obviously doesn’t know elves, who are much tougher than they appear – they would have to be, or how would they survive thousands of years? And Eli comes to learn something else, as well – that the forces of fate bringing Arden to him do so because the two of them have a destiny to fulfill.

And, of course, that destiny is the larger plot in this story, which will lead into the rest of the Asheville Arcana series, encompassing the larger good vs. evil plot. But the story is, at its heart, a romance between people who couldn’t appear more different, but whose strengths complement one another in a way that makes their connection very special. Their road to understand and acceptance is a rocky one, but that makes it all the more special when they finally accept their connection and see how powerful it can be. We hope you’ll check it out, and live the fantasy with them! 🙂

As a special thank you for our readers here at Love Bytes, we’d like to give away an ebook of our Dreamspun Desires story Breaking Bonds! Please comment to this post for your chance to win!

BLURB:

In their differences, they’ll find strength—and love.

Alpha werewolf Eli Hammond returns from a fishing trip to discover a nasty surprise—five members of his pack murdered and the rest missing. He needs help locating and rescuing his pack mates, but the supernatural council in Asheville, North Carolina, turns him away.

Except for one man.

As they work together, Eli is stunned—and not especially thrilled—to discover half-elf Arden Gilmarin is his destined mate. But as Arden and his friends struggle to help Eli in his quest, Eli surrenders to the demands of his body—and his heart. They’ll need to bond together, because the forces opposing them are stronger and more sinister than anyone predicted. The evil has its sights set on Arden, and if Eli wants to save his mate and the people he is entrusted with protecting, he’s in for the fight of his life.

Buy Links:

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Ari McKay is the professional pseudonym for Arionrhod and McKay, who have been writing together for over a decade. Their collaborations encompass a wide variety of romance genres, including contemporary, fantasy, science fiction, gothic, and action/adventure. Their work includes the Blood Bathory series of paranormal novels, the Herc’s Mercs series, as well as two historical Westerns: Heart of Stone and Finding Forgiveness. When not writing, they can often be found scheming over costume designs or binge watching TV shows together.

Arionrhod is a systems engineer by day who is eagerly looking forward to (hopefully) becoming a full time writer in the not-too-distant future. Now that she is an empty-nester, she has turned her attentions to finding the perfect piece of land to build a fortress in preparation for the zombie apocalypse, and baking (and eating) far too many cakes.

McKay is an English teacher who has been writing for one reason or another most of her life. She also enjoys knitting, reading, cooking, and playing video games. She has been known to knit in public. Given she has the survival skills of a gnat, she’s relying on Arionrhod to help her survive the zombie apocalypse.

Website: http://arimckay.wordpress.com

Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ari-Mckay/266185570179748

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ari.mckay.7

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AriMcKay1

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6153630.Ari_McKay