Good morning readers! My next adventure is the beginning of a new series I’ll be doing with Rawiya and BL! What? I know you;re shocked. Yes we’ll be doing a series together. Actually three total for 2013 but we’ll discuss that at a later date. 

Yeah we work Shar to death don’t we? Well she said she’s our slave!

*snicker* 

Ahem, right, back to the series. I’m not quite ready to reveal the name yet but it ties in the original idea Rawiya had for a book called Masquerade. A full collection of books set in New Orleans with all the characters meeting in one way or another throughout the set of books. 

I don’t think one writer has ever placed her 3 muses in one series together. At least I’ve never seen it. *raises eyebrow* Hard as it may seem to write under three different voices, Shar appears to get it… finally. We’re all distinct in our style and it’ll be shown in these books.

My book starts off the series with a bang. An M/M Noir with murder, romance, tension, and some ahem, hot sex towards the end. First draft looks as if it will be done today and we hope to release the book by the end of January. 

Have a look at a blurb and unedited excerpt! In this scene, Frankie and Kajika take a trip

Blurb: New Orleans is supposed to be the big easy. One night changes everything for Frankie Choteau.

New Orleans. A city rich in tradition, diversity, and on the comeback trail from hurricane Katrina. Francois “Frankie” Choteau, a resident of this town, a cop with a hot temper and low tolerance for bs. Kajika Fortier, a transplant from Oklahoma came here looking for a dream and unfortunately it’s turned into a nightmare. On a hot summer night, they meet and cross paths during a very difficult situation. Despite this, the attraction between them is evident and loneliness for both men is a fate worse than death. They’d both like a chance at happiness but the cost might be too high of a price to pay.

After enjoying the rest of the night in bed, Kajika and Frankie woke up early to take in a few sights before returning back to their room for more unadulterated loving. Frankie promised him they’d get to see the Natchez Bluffs as well as the Nathez Trace ebfore they left since those were landmarks for Kajika’s heritage.

For today’s sight seeing trip, they opted to go to the Natchez Trace to follow in the footsteps of settlers who’d traveled on those roads almost two centuries before. While there, they could also visit the famous Emerald Mound which Kajika really looked forward to. In the end, it would be a very fulfilling trip, allowing Kajika to do something he’d been dreaming about since he was a young child.

The drive in wasn’t that long but many people had the same exact idea, making the lag time to move on the trail to linger a little longer than what they wanted. Once they finally did get to a desired spot where they could park and walk, they opted to go find the Emerald Mound first.

“Wow, beautiful!” Kajika pulled out his camera, taking pictures of the lush trees and wooded area along the sides of the roads. In the room and in the car on the way up, he’d pulled up some information on the trace and the mound so he’d be aware of the tourist attractions as they went along. “It says here the early travelers stayed at an inn called Mount Locust. It’s at the fifteen point five mile marker. It’s been fully restored and ready to view by spectators. Frankie I wanna go there too!” Kajika reacted like a kid on his school field trip. He couldn’t believe he was actually here. “They have some kind of program there too, Frankie.”

“Good deal, chere. I’m glad we did come here. It really is quite a sight.” Frankie aimed his binoculars in the other direction.

“Isn’t it? And to think members of my family might’ve stayed here. I’ve always wanted to trace back my family tree further than my grandma did. Like she joked all the time, I’m sure we mighta fell in line as commoners.”

“How do you know,” Frankie chided and bumped him with his hip. “You coulda been the descendent of um…” he snapped his fingers. “What did ya’ call that again?”

“Suns. They were the highest part of the nobility class. Suns, nobles, and honored people. Ain’t that a bitch? God, I’m glad I didn’t live back then. How unfair is that to break the so called highest class further down just to say, oh yeah I’m better than you,” he frowned.

“Yep. Kinda like the race thing here in America, babe. The same went on in the Creole community. Black creoles who mated with white Frenchmen were still discriminated against. Even more interestin’, they had some kinda system where a white man could be married and have a common law relationship with an African, Indian, or Creole woman on the side. In other words, they could legally have mistresses and not be cheatin’. Shitty right? So you’re not good enough to be married to me but I can still be your gal on the other end.”

“Yeah I heard ‘bout that.” They continued to walk along the trail, passing through large patch of land, admiring the different types of birds. “Back in the day, they really did have some rules that’ll make ya’ raise an eyebrow. My gram seemed to think even though we are of Natchez decent, we might have a Frenchmen in our line but she never found enough information.”

“Fortier is a French name,” Frankie inquired.

“Yeah but it’s not my born name from my father. His was Jones. My grandma named me after a French man who she thinks could’ve been her grandfather. Dejesus Fortier. He was part African and he was a free man back in his day. Her grandma always told her the man she married wasn’t her birth dad but they never really talked about it since it wasn’t proper for a woman to talk about any extra marital affairs she might’ve had.”

“Wow, seriously?” Frankie seemed surprised. “And you wanna find out more about Dejesus Fortier someday, right? I’d be interested to know that myself.”

“Yep. I need to do more than a little diggin’. Now that were on our way out west, maybe I’ll get a chance to spend more time on Ancestry.com. I’ve really wanted to try tracking down the family and seeing if I had any cousins or great great aunts still livin’ ya’ know? I gotta know more ‘bout my background. And what made me… me.”

“That’s wonderful, love. It really is something worthwhile that you could do. I love goin’ back in my family’s history. You learn so much ‘bout your heritage when ya’ do.”

“True dat, love. I wanna make our own history by the way,” Kajika winked and took Frankie’s hand gripping it tightly.

“And I want that too.” Frankie leaned in and kissed Kajika lightly on the lips. The subtle touch between the instantly caused Kajika’s pants to get uncomfortably tight.

“Mhmm, damn, babe. Let’s get goin’ so we can go back to the room.” Kajika rubbed his shoulder blade and gripped it.

“Alright, sugah. Let’s do that.”

The two of them marched on with Kajika taking his bicep and wrapping his arm around it. Yeah it might cause people to stare at the two of them but he could really care less. He was with the love of his life right now. Nothing could stand in his way.