19 Sep 2014
“Countdown to Italy” Sale
My dark romantic fantasy Blood and Lotuses is on sale at Amazon right now. I’m calling it a “countdown to Italy” sale, although it’s more like a count-up. It’s 99 cents for two more days, then goes up to a big $1.99–still a bargain–until September 24. That’s the day the Cat-Herder and I, and our beloved Usual Traveling Companions S&P, will fly off to Venice to begin our long-anticipated tour of Italy. So this sale’s counting down just like we are.
Venice was a city known for its decadence in earlier times, and so is Dakura, the imaginary Asian-inspired city where my book takes place. A tide of “religious” fanatics have taken over and are violently wiping out all signs of what they consider decadence, from the truly evil (child prostitution) to the harmless (love!) But they don’t know their fanaticism is inspired by a demon who’s using their violence as a way to infiltrate the physical world–and remake it in its hateful image.
Who better to fight this menace than a priestess trained as a courtesan?
?
A demon in the guise of a goddess is “purifying” the great city of Dakura by killing off its stores of love, desire, and beauty. Once the city is void of color and passion, the demon can claim the city for its base to conquer the whole mortal world.
Anchali, a priestess of the goddess of love and desire, infiltrates the temple of the false goddess, along with her reluctant guardian Thanom, a soldier whose wife was murdered in a demon-inspired purge. They’re hoping to get information to pass on to a rebel general who hopes to roust the cult from Dakura. What they find, though, tells them this isn’t a job for warriors.
It’s a job for lovers, using the power of passion to enact an ancient ritual.
Anchali can perform the ritual. But first she has to convince a broken-hearted man to love again.
Compared to that, defeating a demon is child’s play.
Warning: Contains more explicit violence and less explicit sex than usual in a Teresa Noelle Roberts novel, along with all the magic and romance you’ve come to expect.
Excerpt:
“You don’t have to do this, Anchali,” Thanom said, not for the first time. “Dakura’s no place for the Chosen of Pichitra now.” It was raining hard, one of the relatively short but soaking downpours to be expected in the western parts of Kalynga province at this time of year, and they’d found shelter inside the hollow of a huge, fallen tree—a decent enough shelter, if rather cramped, forcing them to be a little closer together than was truly good for Thanom’s peace of mind.
It was as good a time as any, he figured, to have this argument again, not that he thought it was any more likely to change her mind than it had been before.
“And if the Chosen of Pichitra do not fight those would destroy all Pichitra stands for, who will?”
“Lord Commander Rak’s army, maybe?” Thanom tried to smile as he said it, but he could tell the smile wasn’t reaching his eyes. “Fighting’s more our line than yours. And why should you risk your life for Lord Rak and Baragarm anyway? I was born in Baragarm, and I served under Lord Rak for years. It made sense for me to go back there after…after there was nothing to keep me in Dakura. But why should you help your own city fall to Lord Rak?”
“Dakura has already fallen. The Negus has betrayed Dakura and all Benire, joining Iana’s cult. Iana’s cult has claimed half the city, and fear has paralyzed the other half.” Anchali gestured with her hands as she spoke. Her breasts bobbed.
The movement distracted Thanom more than it should have. Anyone would think he was a tribal lad come down out of the mountains on the northern border with Pandak, where women bundled up in colorful layered ikat jackets to keep the chill at bay, instead of a city man, a man of the world.
But there was being worldly and sophisticated, and then there were the graceful lines of Anchali’s body, and the nipples still ornamented with henna as a mark of being Chosen by Pichitra. The beauty of her body wasn’t something you’d see every day, even in a great city like Baragarm or Dakura. Fortunately, he managed to look away before he lost the thread of the conversation altogether.
“Lord Rak is a decent man,” Anchali continued, “a man who honors Pichitra and Jananya and the Red God as well. He’s been a good Lord Commander of the armies and he’s done a good job as governor of Baragarm. He can only do a better job with the country than a mad Negus, and if he can free Dakura from this madness, I’d far rather see my city, and the whole of Benire, in his hands.”
Well, at least they agreed on that point. Unfortunately, that wasn’t a good thing for his argument. If she had the slightest doubt about Lord Rak’s integrity, he might have been able to persuade her to give up this spy mission.
Buy the book (for less!) at Amazon.