Tail of the Sea now available at Loveyoudivine Alterotica!

Captain Andrew finds paradise beneath the waves of a utopian island.

My latest story, Tail of the Sea is now available at loveyoudivine.com!

Excerpt:

The water splashed against the ship outside below the window, but the wine and the book dominated his attention and Andrew tuned out the susurrus.

Something in the sound of the splashes changed and Andrew, alert, looked to the windows, listening. The soft noises came at regular intervals, almost like a cadence, but this sound wasn’t like waves hitting the ship or breaking on the shore. Putting his book on the arm of the chair, Andrew rose and crept to the window.

What was making that strange noise, he wondered. He peeked around the window sill to avoid frightening away whatever was out there.

The full moon loomed enormous in the sky and its light reflecting off the water dazzled him. As his eyes adjusted to the dark, he saw white foam on the surface below his windows, where something had just submerged.

A tail appeared for a second above the water then dove out of sight.

A porpoise! Or maybe a dolphin, Andrew thought with a thrill. Being captain of a cruise ship in the Caribbean, he saw many wonderful and amazing creatures. It wasn’t at all unusual to see porpoises, dolphins and even whales but the excitement never wore off. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the tail as it broke the surface again, but there was something strange about it.

That movement was calculated, deliberate, Andrew thought in surprise. It wasn’t the randomness of a dolphin at play. He focused on the spot where it disappeared. For several long seconds, nothing happened. Andrew began to chastise himself for imagining things, but a flash below the surface captured his attention.

A head rose out of the water, long blond hair flowed over the broad muscular shoulders that followed, wet skin gleamed in the moonlight. A fire stirred in Andrew’s loins. He sucked in his breath as the figure looked upward to him, revealing the most handsome face he had ever seen.
With a smile and a wink, the merman leapt up and arched backward into a graceful back dive, exposing a perfectly chiseled V-shaped torso. The tail sliced through the wake left by the merman with only a whisper of sound

The Law Is My Shepherd by Don Kilcoyne

Imagine my pleasant surprise when I discovered my friend and fellow pirate Don Kilcoyne had written two novels, the first of which is The Law is My Shepherd, a novel of The Overnight. I love his sense of humor so when I read about Detective Angus Wellstone and his partner Knobs working over a local ne’er-do-well for transforming into a vampire “without the requisite paperwork” I was hooked. Then I found out that Cheeky really did need to apply to be turned to keep the number of vampires at the established quota. I loved it.

Welcome to Hawthorne, New Jersey, a Mecca for vampires, werewolves and other shape-shifters. Ten years ago, Wellstone and Knobs subdued a werewolf. Instead of turning him over to the “proper authorities” to sweep under the rug, they paraded their conquest in front of the world, demolishing centuries upon centuries of cover-ups, keeping the existence of such creatures from the public.

Then, after years of war, the creatures of the nights and humans came to an historical agreement, which included a clause that set the number of vampires that could be turned. Violation of this rule had serious consequences, as Cheeky was to find out.

Everyone exists peacefully alongside each other. The desk sergeant is a were-bear. A doctor at the hospital is a vampire (she works the night shift only). The teen wolf/skateboarder has a conscious and scruples. Everyone knows it but nobody cares.

Until now.

A new evil has come to Hawthorne. A reverend is stirring up the humans to Take Back The Night. Wellstone, his wife and several others are attacked. It becomes apparent that someone, something beyond your run-of-the-mill shape-shifter is tryint to rekindle the wars between humans and nocturnals.

In a market already saturated with vampire lore, it’s refreshing to see a different approach to human/nocturnal relations (Thank you, Don!). What makes it even more enjoyable is the fact the author stays within the established rules of vampirism, something other authors tend to snub. (Thank you again, Don!)

I love his quirky and sometimes snarky sense of humor, and it runs throughout the novel, giving it plenty of comic relief. It’s another aspect that sets The Law is My Shepherd apart and above the rest.

Spartan Gold by Clive Cussler and Grant Blackwood

I’ve seen so many Clive Cussler novels on the shelves, I finally had to pick one up. I decided on Spartan Gold based on the exciting blurb on the back cover and I wasn’t disappointed.

Cussler’s first novel featuring Sam and Remi Fargo is wild ride across Europe in search of Napoleon’s legendary Lost Cellar. According to legend, Napoleon had a special grape that he and his vintners had developed. After his exile on Elba, he ordered the seeds destroyed but kept twelve bottles. On the labels of these bottles, he put cryptic clues to a treasure he had hidden in the mountains where Hannibal made his famous crossing with elephants.

In present day Maryland, the Fargos discover a Nazi mini-submarine up river from the Chesapeake Bay while on a search for artifacts from another era. Inside they find the body the sub’s pilot and a bottle of wine which sets them on the trail of Napoleon’s treasure.

Hot on their heels are the hired henchmen of a Ukrainian mobster Bondaruk, who has convinced himself he is a descendant of Xerxes I. It’s Xerxes’ gold that Napoleon absconded.

The Fargos cris-cross Europe in a ‘money is no object’ race, deciphering clues to obscure historical references and trying to stay ahead of Bondaruk’s men. At one point they even crash a party of his to retrieve a bottle of wine his men snatched from under their noses.

The historical aspects of the novel are fascinating. I probably know more about Napoleon than I learned in school. Wait a minute. I didn’t learn about Napoleon in school. Apparently, my independent school system didn’t deem him to be important to my learning curriculum.

As entertaining as the book is, there are times it pushes the limits of believability. The Fargos are obscenely wealthy, expert marksmen, expert airline pilots, expert boatmen and between them it appears they know at least two dozen languages. Despite being perfect at everything, the party crashing scene does lend a sort of comic relief to the story.

The clues the Fargos follow are complex and ingenious. The logic they use to decipher the clues sometimes borders on fuzzy, but it shows that you can find just about anything and everything on the Internet.

As the first novel I’ve read by Cussler, Spartan Gold, I certainly would read another one. His stories read like Dan Brown’s, with emphases on cryptology and secret codes, but much better written.

The Apostle by Brad Thor

In hospitals, patients in anaphylactic shock are given injections of adrenaline. They could be handed a Brad Thor novel to get the same affect. The Apostle is one adrenaline-packed rush of excitement.

In the first few pages, American doctor Julia Gallo is kidnapped by al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and the terms of her ransom are to hand over the recently captured Mustafa Khan, an al-Qaeda kingpin. The initial excitement of the book quickly evaporates into some of Thor’s jadedness. I understand that he was a member of Department of Homeland Security so he apparently knows what he’s talking about when he mentions the decline of intelligence at the CIA. But he pigeon-holes the entire American public, saying they “slept soundly in their beds at night believing their country had countless James Bonds around the world infiltrating terrorist networks and rogue regimes in order to keep them safe”. In the next paragraph, he states “As long as Americans could have their McDonald’s drive-throughs, listen to their iPods, and watch American Idol, they didn’t seem to care how negligently the nation’s national security apparatus was being run”.

I think most Americans believe in GI-Joe, the countless men and women in uniform fighting for our rights, rather than James Bond. If Americans were in the know as Thor is, I think they would definitely care about their national security apparatus. This is the stuff we don’t know about. If we did, yes, we probably would “be marching on D.C., with torches and pitchforks”.

Despite this quick and gloomy detour, the action picks back up as Scot Harvath is sent to Afghanistan, with no help from the U.S., to break into the prison and free Khan to trade for Gallo. Thor inserts a lot of information about the Afghan culture and the various high-tech gadgetry and weaponry used by international special forces to the point that at times The Apostle read like a cross between a travel guide and an operations manual.

Again, this only temporarily bogged down the story and it picks up steam. While Harvath is trying to extract Khan and rescue Gallo, there is a secondary story occurring back in the states. A Secret Service agent has overheard a private conversation between the newly elected president Robert Alden and Stephanie Gallo, mother of the kidnappee, media mogul and the money behind the president’s successful campaign bid. Gallo threatens to expose Alden’s involvement in a fatality accident that cost the life of a White House staffer and a family of four.

With only this information to go on, Elise Campbell decides to find out what happened that night. If the president was involved in the accident, Elise wants to know. She steps on a lot of toes in her search for the truth. It’s an interesting side story, but it pales in comparison to Harvath’s mission.

Faced with al-Qaeda at almost every turn and dealing with new developments in his mission, Harvath and his team manage to dog al-Qaeda’s footsteps, nearly costing their lives to complete their operation. Can they rescue Gallo without setting Khan free to continue his reign of terror? The Apostle is a nail-biter to the end.

Stranded Bi the Storm by David Sullivan

David Sullivan's story, Stranded Bi the Storm, free from loveyoudivine Alterotica's Bi-line is short, sweet and hot! This is the first erotica story I've read from him since "Stopped For Speeding" and he turns up the heat from that initial work.

Dylan is traveling south on Highway 101 through Oregon during a deluge when he nearly collides with a northbound vehicle, driven by a sexy Hawaiian named Kimo. A beautiful policewoman works the accident and tells Dylan he cannot go any further south because a landslide has closed the highway. She suggests a hotel in the small town of Florence, where he just passed through.

Kimo follows Dylan to the quaint hotel only to discover there is one room left. After a few minutes of debate, they decide to share the room. While the storm rages outside, a lot of passion is ignited inside.

A word of advice: Do not read this story at the gym if you are wearing thin shorts. Don't ask me why I mention this. Just take my word.

The only misfire in the story is the imaginary joint Dylan and Kimo share. I'm not certain if this was meant as some comic relief but it was a little odd.

But, the story ends too abruptly, which could mean that Sullivan is planning to add more chapters and adventures for Dylan, Kimo and the sexy policewoman Washburn.

"Tail of the Sea" - New Story coming soon!!

My latest short story will be released soon from loveyoudivine Alterotica!

Blurb:

Captain Andrew secures his cruise ship in the safe waters of a tropical island to escape a hurricane. While he and his crew prepare to leave, Andrew gets a visit from mysterious, handsome denizen that convinces him that the island may contain a paradise beyond his wildest dreams.


Excerpt:

The water splashed against the ship outside below the window, but the wine and the book dominated his attention and Andrew tuned out the susurrus.

Something in the sound of the splashes changed and Andrew, alert, looked to the windows, listening. The soft noises came at regular intervals, almost like a cadence, but this sound wasn’t like waves hitting the ship or breaking on the shore. Putting his book on the arm of the chair, Andrew rose and crept to the window.

What was making that strange noise, he wondered. He peeked around the window sill to avoid frightening away whatever was out there.

The full moon loomed enormous in the sky and its light reflecting off the water dazzled him. As his eyes adjusted to the dark, he saw white foam on the surface below his windows, where something had just submerged.

A tail appeared for a second above the water then dove out of sight.

A porpoise! Or maybe a dolphin, Andrew thought with a thrill. Being captain of a cruise ship in the Caribbean, he saw many wonderful and amazing creatures. It wasn’t at all unusual to see porpoises, dolphins and even whales but the excitement never wore off. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the tail as it broke the surface again, but there was something strange about it.

That movement was calculated, deliberate, Andrew thought in surprise. It wasn’t the randomness of a dolphin at play. He focused on the spot where it disappeared. For several long seconds, nothing happened. Andrew began to chastise himself for imagining things, but a flash below the surface captured his attention.

A head rose out of the water, long blond hair flowed over the broad muscular shoulders that followed, wet skin gleamed in the moonlight. A fire stirred in Andrew’s loins. He sucked in his breath as the figure looked upward to him, revealing the most handsome face he had ever seen.

With a smile and a wink, the merman leapt up and arched backward into a graceful back dive, exposing a perfectly chiseled V-shaped torso. The tail sliced through the wake left by the merman with only a whisper of sound.