Skhye Moncrief ~ Big Bad Beast ~ a PN Sexy Wild Tale

Hello everyone – you’re going to love the interview with Skhye…you’ll hear all about her newest release, Big Bad Beast (Werescape #6), a paranormal erotic romance…and something I need on my kindle *grins* Skhye’s also offering a giveaway – details below.

Before we get started with our interview, Skhye please share a little about yourself…

Aside from muscled men in fur, leather, denim, or kilts, I love cultural ecology, cultural evolution, cultural relativism, and natural processes…Big ideas…Simple concepts that manifest in world building to crazy people like me who studied anthropology and geology before turning to writing romantic fiction. My rule of thumb is to love the good, the bad, and the ugly of every culture in my tales so every aspect of my stories resonates as real as possible.

BIG BAD BEAST (Werescape #6)--alpha male, strong heroine, paranormal, post-apocalyptic, werewolves, shifter  

Skhye, thanks so much for spending time here this week…I’m excited about hearing more of your stories and story-stars…let's get started…

Please tell us how the idea came to you for BIG BAD BEAST (Werescape #6). Please include all the fun details.

The kick-booty heroine, Josie, appears at the end of LOVING LUCIUS with quite a bit of pain and grief. So, I had to give her a story to please readers who MUST know about secondary characters. The story also allowed me to end LOVING LUCIUS when the romance ended then carry out with Shifter investigation of the “fever” that arises in LL—a fever that is killing Shifters.

But the fun part of the details (*wink*) is that I pitted Josie against the man she loves but hates. It’s the same with the hero Hostillian. Both are very confused about the other. But you can’t prevent the wheels of fate from bringing them together when something more earthly decides what will be. Hostillian’s inner Wolf has chosen his mate. In BIG BAD BEAST, Hostillian loses the battle with his inner Wolf. That’s inevitable. Mother Nature has a way of righting the status quo in the Werescape…

The Werescape is set 50 years in the future on Earth after alien conquest—as far as the scientists who survive can tell. The series is about the discovery of what the aliens are doing to humans and why. Aliens appeared. Ninety percent of the human population vanished. A few humans were released back on Earth after their genomes had a bit of tampering. And voila, Shifters are born.

Males shift into werewolves. A few females shift into Cougars. And the race is on for the Shifters to discover why the aliens altered their DNA in order to regain control of the planet…This series is post-apocalyptic and reads somewhat like westerns as a byproduct of how life changes because Normals and Shifters don’t always see eye to eye nor get along. The good thing is that Shifters are big, sexy, cuddly territorial men who want to mark women as their mates.

Oh, Skhye…your story and story-stars sound brilliant. I’m already hooked ;)

What drives, motivates, and/or inspires Hostillian?

Hostillian is all about controlling his inner Wolf and doing his duty. The one thing that has always held him back with Josie is that she’s unpredictable and argumentative. He can’t control her. She scares the bejeezus out of him because he’s all about protecting those in his care, i.e. his duty.

What’s Hostillian’s job? What does Hostillian do for a living?

Hostillian is currently the alpha werewolf at a remote instructional farm in the middle of the Central US where he is in charge of training teenage werewolves how to grow wheat. This sounds mundane but is crucial to the survival of humans. Essentially, he keeps a bunch of teenage males focused—not difficult for an enormous male Shifter who intimidates people by merely being in the same room with them.

Give us some insight into Josie. What’s a bit of her back story?

Josie is one of the rare daughters of Shifters. Something the alien tweaking did to those human lab rats made it where Shifters almost always have sons. However, a daughter pops into the equation from time to time. And daughters are treasured for their rarity.

This leads to unusual females like Josie. She refused to sit back and learn to be coddled like other girls. She was educated at a secret Shifter compound where many girls and Shifter boys train to perpetuate the wealth of human knowledge in order to attempt to regain control of the planet. So, Josie learned how to fight and protect herself with the teenage Shifter werewolves. That’s where she met and fell in love with Hostillian. Unfortunately, their personalities clashed.

Love when that happens…personality clashes make for excellent tension in romance ;)

Tell us about Hostillian’s world? Does he live by a hierarchy or some other code/laws of their kind? If so, can you give us a few of their rules?

Shifters live by a fairly young code, but one that is established to save humans from extinction. They train to be protectors and often to carry on with the scientific processes required to keep agriculture, medicine, weapons, computers, and the oil industry alive. Although the Normals left on the planet often see Shifters as aliens with their ability to shape shift, Shifters rise above that prejudice and fear to hire on and defend villages and cities because…Alien spacecraft hover overhead and strange alien creatures feed on human flesh after sunset. Shifters can easily kill the alien creatures in the more traditional big creepy werewolf I’ve used in my series.

The most obvious rule is that of mating. Shifters mate for life. It’s a reproductive advantage they acquired when the aliens altered their DNA. They bite like werewolves but bite to mark their mates. That bite seals the deal. No mated couple ever desires another mate until one of the two dies. Then the cycle can begin again.

Since werewolves live longer lives and are reproductive much longer than the Normal males, they strive to reproduce, to create more Shifters, in order to help the human population expand if only in the way of providing protectors for what’s left of humanity. And women, well, women just like big hunky territorial males who bend over backward for their mates, even the older werewolves who really don’t age like Normal humans. That’s nice for both members of a mated couple. ;P

The other obvious rule is in the Shifter dichotomy. There are alphas and betas. An alpha runs his family unit, reigning over his sons, male relations, any male marrying into the family, and any male wanting to opt into the clan for whatever reason. A clan is both social and biological like Scottish clans. Alphas choose their successors. However, any Shifter is capable of making choices to protect what needs protection. And that often causes conflict for the male. I don’t like writing betas like the true beta for this series because any beta Shifter in the Werescape can save the world in that he is physically capable of superhero behavior. That’s where you have to delve into the Shifter’s inner thoughts to make sense out of his actions…I do try to do that.

Which scene was your favorite to write? Can you share a little of it?

The sniffing scene. *angels sing* Well, it’s a werewolf story! Wolves do live and die by their noses! Since this is an erotica blog, I will share…

Excerpt:

The door creaked.

My heart burst into a gallop.

Rather an all-out frantic run. Nude. I was so Gods-be-damned naked in his bed. And there was no snowball's chance in hell he'd have fallen asleep allowing one of those youths to take pity upon me and open the door for my escape. I clutched two handfuls of woolen blanket at my chest and tried to feign sleep, facing the wall.

The floor creaked an alarm.

He's closer. Coming even closer. Shit. What do I do? I don't have any freaking weapons.

The bed shifted.

No. He didn't sit on my bed! I'm not going to just lie here and take whatever he planned with a grain of salt. I twisted upright to sit.

Facing the enormous man's luminous golden Shifter eyes. Maybe it was the fact they glowed or the firelight had no power at this time of night, but all I could see were those glowing embers in the dark square where his face should be. Beneath the dark face, his musculature bulged in all its magnificence because he had the forethought to remove his shirt and parade those glorious dips and swells before me. I'm not about to look more than a fraction of an inch away from his unyielding gaze to see if he wore pants though. Something told me I'd find out soon enough.

He gurgled a throaty growl.

Wolf. Crap. "What are you doing sitting on my bed, Hostillian?"

His shoulders leaned toward me, planting his palms on the bed on both sides of my hips. He pressed his dark strong angular face so closely that my subconscious countered by moving away from his invading hulk.

From his gurgling Wolf. Had he gone rabid? Gnawed on loco weed?

He shoved that pointed nose of his until it touched mine and I couldn't lean any further, backward into the soft mattress.

What just happened?

I was sitting. Now, I'm cowering beneath him.

Beneath the man I'd always wanted. I think. Maybe this was Wolf? The Gods know I don't want to piss off a Wolf. I'd just cooperate. Enough to appease them. Keep them happy.

The tip of his nose slid across my face with the barest of tingling touches.

Puffing warm sharp bursts of air. Like Wolf wanted to sniff at every cell in my body.

Over to my ear. My hair. Lingering an extremely long time. Inhaling. Still puffing, warmth into my ear. Following the line of my jaw to my chin with the faintest whisper of a tickle, and across to my other ear. Meticulously. Agonizingly. Taking his time. While I sucked in deep desperate breaths. Hot air he'd just exhaled. Then his mind-numbing presence headed down to my throbbing jugular.

Would he just bite me and let me bleed out. I gulped.

To no effect, since he kept going, ignoring my sign of distress like some phantom ghost out to terrify me.

Would Wolf bite at the pulsing promise of blood he sensed with that nose? My sire and brothers spoke of the need. Of the twisted irony in a Wolf marking that could kill. If Hostillian even considered marking a female—little old moi. Most likely, he'd bite for blood. Nothing more. Since he despised me. Gods, even now, he didn't speak, his Wolf consuming his psyche. I'd just lie still. Do as I was warned.

His nose pressed into the depression at the base of my neck, making the scrape of his shortly-trimmed beard finally scratch a chill from my flesh. And he just sniffed and puffed warm air.

Over and over. Tickling up a wave of amazing shivers that shook me. Made me want to grab his shoulders and hang on. Just to keep him here with me. For once. One night. I'd have what I always dreamed of. Won't I?

Suddenly, the blanket popped loose of my grasp.

Cool air kissed my breasts.

Shit. Why? I'm nude down to my belly. His hulking mass blocking my view of my body.

His nose trailed down my midline, between the swells of my breasts. Warming me with thick hot breaths. As if he hoped to do something more with the heat.

So, they curse a lot. They torment each other. But the romance rolls along nicely!

Well, ya certainly got my heater goin’ with that scene…sniff, sniff ;)

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Big Bad Beast - Book Description:

Each wants the other, but neither can stand to be in the same room. 

One day in the Big Woods, Normal Josie wakes up and helplessly watches a Shifter virus kill her immediate family in their remote wilderness homestead. Josie has no choice but to carry on. She's forced to brave the forested Wild alone, leading a string of pack horses with all the supplies she can manage to her uncle's Shifter outpost--back to where she became known as a little Normal female who could kick butt with the best Shifters, back to where she fell in love with the only Shifter she could ever mate. Thank goodness he isn't there. But when living among a pack of Shifters, a girl has to obey the alpha. And her alpha has secret plans for her, plans that involve the only Shifter she loves--the Shifter who now irritates the hell out of her.

Stationed at an isolated agricultural outpost with nothing but teenage hormones for company, Shifter Hostillian doesn't mind monotonous day-to-day schedules where he rules the roost. And then his inner Wolf's favorite wild cat screeches at his door. He has no desire to mate the only person who challenges everything he utters. But his Wolf makes demands the minute it catches Josie's scent.

Stand back and watch the fireworks light up the Minnesota sky because the BIG BAD BEAST can't help but to huff and puff and blow Josie's house in...

What are you working on now?

I’m just about to release Cyber Ops 1: SLIPSTREAM, a futuristic story about wormholes and mindreading. It became a ménage simply out of an unforeseen issue while writing the first draft.

Here’s the blurb: (Please excuse my French!)

Congratulations, Dr. Charlotte Barley! You won a one-way ticket to Diablo's Shithole!

Yes, Dr. Barley, you saved earth from humanity's extinction brought on by overpopulation, discovered wormholes, and gave humanity a new lease on life. But, you're being hunted by someone using a wormhole device you can't fathom, plagued by a type of sleepwalking that involves reliving your alien sexual experiences gleaned from wormhole journeys, and, yes, we see that you can't deal with your murdered bodyguards—mercenary Space Marines forced to anchor your body to a bed at night by acting out the sex memories haunting your REM cycle. Get over it already because there's nowhere left to hide except Diablo's Shithole...And the shit is about to hit Diablo's fan more than you could ever imagine...Because, deep down inside, you know you're into all that kinky sex.

So, who will the next victim be? Is tall, long, and corded astrophysicist Major Fitzroy capable of dancing with death to save your ass, or are you willing to sacrifice hotter-than-sin muscle-bound explosives fanatic Corporal Laurel? Just don't let their nuts rub together. And you know your alien-infested sexual dreams are a huge turn on for you. Just face the music, honey. Can your bodyguards fulfill the sexual fantasy of the king of all alien kings and his troop of humping brothers until the truth is exposed to save your ass?

So, Dr. Barley, you slut, ready for another slide down a slippery wormhole to Diablo's Shithole? It looks like a lot of fun. And more than those feet are going to get wet in the SLIPSTREAM.

Warning: Reader should be prepared for a heroine who curses like a sailor and knows she's a slut, Space Marines with sex on the brain, a Corporal with a clit fetish, aliens who bite and harvest things best left hush hush, as well as a little human m/f/m, even more alien m/f/m/m/m/m, and a plenty m/f in a plot heavily laden with reproduction and sexual gratification. Finally, this story proves one universal constant: it never hurts to drop the soap. 

Length: 79,000-word novel (312 pages if released in paperback)

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That said, I’m currently writing another futuristic about humans with alien grafts, DEADLY CARGO.

It sounds like an amazing series, Skhye.

Where can we find you? List all of your links.

All my links (Facebook, Twitter, blog, yahoo-group newsletter) are at my website: http://skhyemoncrief.com

Quickie Quiz

       Getting to know Skhye Moncrief…

2 Things you do to relax:

Eating unhealthy food, riding the elliptical to burn off the unhealthy food

Favorite sport to watch:

Um, n/a (I’m so boring!)

Cat or Dog:

I’m into animals that don’t lick me to death. I’m just not into saliva! So, that answer is meow! Seriously, cats don’t jump up and down a mile a minute either.

Favorite places to write:

Staring out the window at the sailboats bobbing by in the Indian Ocean. I’m in Perth, Western Australia this year! Love it!

Place you’ve always wanted to go, but haven’t:

I have a thing for islands and places with “land” in their name…Scotland, Ireland, Iceland, Easter Island, New Zealand (see the pattern?)

Breakfast drink:

With Coffee (girlified fancy schmancy creamer)

Favorite season ~ why:

In Texas (back home) fall when it’s not hot as heck. I do love falling leaves and cold spells! Then there’s all the fun stuff my daughter and I do associated with holidays. Even Christmas decorating happens during the fall!

What are your hobbies /past times (besides writing):

Shopping, baking, gardening, adult crafts (jewelry making with sterling wire, making altered books), reading when I have the time

Skhye’s Giveaway CONTEST:  I’m giving one lucky commenter a Kindle or Nook version of BIG BAD BEAST. Just leave a comment or question for entry to win, drawing on Friday 2/22. Leave a way we can contact the winnerJ GOOD LUCK!

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