Coming SOON to a Changeling Press near you...
The Firm 2: Vixen
by Tuesday Morrigan
Genre(s): Paranormal
Theme(s): Shapeshifters, Men and Women in Uniform
Killian Lionheart is tired. One too many late nights at his family's law firm have exhausted him. What little energy he might have at the end of the workweek is depleted by the constant family gatherings. After one too many evenings spent with the family, he decides enough is enough. One evening away from family is all that he wants. That evening at a bar downtown he spots a sultry, golden beauty at the bar and knows he has to have her. Even if she is a working girl.
Someone has been preying on call girls, and Tahlia Roberts, an undercover cop, is determined to catch San Francisco's most dangerous killer. While on the hunt, she meets a handsome, charming man, one she is not sure she can trust. With her heart or body. But there is something about him that calls to her, asks her to trust in love.
Read more...
His Black Pearl
by Colette Howard
Genre(s): Paranormal, Dark Fantasy
Theme(s): Interracial, BBW, Dark Desire
There are two cardinal rules to any contract. Artist Hallie Brandt just broke both of them. First, she didn't pay attention to what she was signing. Sure, she knows she just agreed to paint a portrait of certain dimensions. But she's too focused on the fact that, after more than a decade of paint, sweat and tears, she's about to become a name artist. So what does a little detail like the model's identity really matter? Second? She hasn't a clue in hell who her new patron is. Yes, she's met Aaron Ioannides and knows his reputation as a world-class art collector. But just who is this man with the body of a Greek god and hands as skilled as her own?
Read more...
Cosmic Cops: Dark Obsession
by B.J. McCall
Genre(s): Futuristic, Action/Adventure
Series: Cosmic Cops
Paradise Resort on Solis 6 is neutral terrain for Cosmic Cop Riva Vix and professional thief Landis Eden. For Riva, Landis is a dark obsession and she has one hard and fast rule, Landis can't operate in her territory, Ryel.
Landis loves Riva and he wants more than a few stolen hours in Paradise. When the Galactic Intelligence Agency offers Landis a full pardon if he will steal a formula, Landis jumps at the chance to end his life of crime. But freedom comes with a perilous price. The operation is covert and the target is in Ryel.
Read more...
Women of Steel (Collection)
by Camille Anthony
Genre(s): Futuristic, Sci-Fi, Collections
The world is at war, facing an unrelenting enemy called the Scarth. Now is the time for all peoples of the Earth to unite against a common foe. Now is the time for warriors with backbones of steel.
The Harmon women are such soldiers, Amazons bio-engineered for such a time as this. Three women: Martini, Daiquiri and Thalassic Harmon have made war their life's work. They are warriors, unsurpassed, Women of Steel undefeated on the battlefield.
But there's another battlefield called Love. It is here they'll face their greatest challenge...
Read more...
|
Use promo code INSIDERJULY09 for a 5% discount on your next Changeling Press purchase! Only for subscribers of The Changeling Insider
 Author Disappears While Researching Next BookFrom the notes of Special Correspondent Mason Savoie
Friends and family of Changeling Press author Colette Howard are worried. No one has heard from the author since Saturday evening.
The first signs of trouble manifested late Sunday afternoon when a family member arrived at the Lafayette Regional Airport to pick Colette up and transport her to her sister's baby shower. Only Colette wasn't among the passengers exiting Continental Flight 1213.
"This is the first baby born to our generation." Her sister Raquel presses the point. "There's no way in hell she'd miss this without calling us first."
Tish, five months pregnant and showing every week of it, sits next to big sister Raquel. "And she'd have a damned good reason, too," she adds.
While it is too soon for police to classify the author as a missing person, there is something in the family's story that makes me tingle as a reporter - a gut instinct I can't ignore. I make a few calls and find out that her car service dropped her off at Detroit Metro Airport at 7am, Sunday morning. Another call nets me a conversation with Todd Mackelson, a very curious Detroit field agent from the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.
Agent Todd makes an offer I can't refuse and a few hours later I am in Detroit, where my press credentials and winning smile (not to mention a full cavity search) pry loose a number of disturbing facts. I learn that Colette cleared security at Detroit Metro Airport Sunday morning, booked on a flight for Lafayette Regional. She waited at her flight gate for over an hour, using her wireless card to work on her laptop. Trace logs from her wireless provider show her signing onto her Facebook and Wordpress accounts to announce her upcoming release with Changeling Press, His Black Pearl. She then visited a number of web pages, apparently researching Thrace and a list of what further research shows to be some very prominent men of industry.
If video evidence can be trusted, it was while she was researching those names - sitting in the airport ten feet from a security camera - that she disappeared. I watch the playback yet again, looking for the unavoidable flaw in the recording that will tell me the feed was interrupted or spliced. I don't see it. I see Colette, typing, staring intently at her laptop screen. There is an instant when her mouth seems to open in surprise and then a group of five soldiers walk by, blocking the camera's view of her as they jostle one another good naturedly. When they finish passing, Colette is gone.
"The other cameras--"
Todd, he of the latex gloves and shiny TSA badge, interrupts me with a shake of his head. "She doesn't show up in any feed after that."
"Blind spots?"
Another shake -- this one incredulous. "All the way out of the airport, Miss Savoie?"
I would like to say that was the end of our conversation, but Todd has questions for me - two hours worth. When I am finally able to leave the airport, I take a cab into Detroit while I talk on the phone to Colette's family, asking if they can think of any reason someone powerful enough to make a person disappear in an environment as secure as a major American airport would be after Colette.
"It's that book," her mother tells me.
"His Black Pearl?" I look at my notes and immediately discount the idea that fluff erotica could be behind the author's disappearance.
"No, that was just for fun. She was researching something else - said she was going to expose a bunch of powerful people."
Her mother knows nothing else about the book and the woman's attempts to conceal her crying threaten my objectivity. I politely withdraw from the call, offering promises to keep investigating. I call Raquel next.
"That book?" Raquel offers a distressed laugh. "No. I don't think so. She said it was 'A Girl's Guide to Dating the Gods.' Who gets kidnapped over something like that?"
Tish, who is still with Raquel, confirms the book's title. "I remember the last chapter she was researching, something silly like 'Ares - the Ultimate Player?'"
Silly, yes, but I can't help but remember the last minute on the security video - the soldiers walking in front of Colette. In my memory, I flick through the five men, remembering what few details weren't lost in my focus on Colette. One soldier stands out - taller, broader, neither playful nor played with as they pass Colette. Of the five heads, only his turned to look in her direction. And then they moved on and she was gone.
Wanting another look at that video, I search for Todd's card. Not there. I flip my phone open and look at my call log. No Michigan or federal area codes appear. I call airport security and get transferred to the TSA supervisor now on duty.
I find that everything I learned today never was - that or it has been undone. Because, despite what my still protesting ass is telling me, there is no Agent Todd Mackelson. Nor did Colette Howard clear security Sunday morning. In fact, she never bought a ticket if I'm to believe the voice on the other side of the call.
"That's not possible-" I start.
"Where are you calling from, Miss?"
My pulse speeds up at the question. It is the same one Todd asked before arranging my flight to Detroit. This agent I don't answer. Instead, I substitute my own question. "Why?"
"You either talked to someone impersonating federal law enforcement or you are lying to federal law enforcement - either way-"
Not letting him finish, I snapp my phone shut, pry the back open and take out the battery. Paranoid maybe, but I carry two phones. Switching the backup phone on, I stare at my notes, looking for Colette's address in Detroit. I find it on page two.
I pull out the map I bought at the airport and check the distance between the restaurant I am sitting in and her apartment. Eight blocks. Since they (whoever "they" are) will know to look for me at her apartment anyway, I risk a cab. I don't know what I'll find there - how secure her building will be, what kind of locks will be on her door.
Hopefully there won't be anything too challenging to get past because I have a feeling that I don't have a lot of time to get in and out. My gut tells me, with an unwelcome tingling, that whatever has taken Colette and Mackelson will soon take me.
|
