Sons of Gulielmus
Book 2
Holley Trent
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Crimson Romance
Date of Publication: 5/5/14
ISBN: 978-1-4405-8150-2
ASIN:
Number of pages: 163 (PDF)
Word Count: 79,000
Book Description:
Charles Edison has spent most of his 123 years courting women for Hell. As a faithful son of the demon Gulielmus, he’s never known true affection for women. Which is funny, seeing as how he’s descended from a love god on his mother’s side. Now that he sees his brother falling head over heels, Charles wants the same for himself. He wants to belong to someone.
The Fates conspire to right old wrongs, and Charles learns the woman destined for him is one he shouldn’t want. Marion Wilder’s family has been on the supernatural Most Wanted List for twenty-five years because they were responsible for the demise of a demon. Gulielmus would kill her if he had the chance.
But Marion’s the only human woman Charles can touch without harming. She’s his one chance at having a normal life and a real family, and he would give up anything to keep her. Even his father’s favor.
She bent to pick up the receipt she’d dropped, and then yelped at the sight of the stranger six feet from her. She blew her fright away on an exhale and put her hand to her heart.
Why did they always frighten her? By now, she should have been used to strange men approaching her. Sometimes they heckled her—the “little girl” truck driver. Occasionally, they tried to sell her things. Dick and weed, mostly. One she didn’t partake in. The other she sure as shit wasn’t going to pay for, even if she were that kind of desperate.
She rolled her eyes and shook her head, hoping he’d catch the drift. Not that they ever did. Bozos.
“Cold night, isn’t it?” he asked. His voice was deep and cultured in the way Shakespearean actors’ voices were. Trained. Odd, seeing as how the only culture this guy had likely rubbed off from the newspapers he slept on. She cocked her head to the side and really studied him. Maybe he was experiencing some sort of delusion and believed he was on the set of a BBC miniseries or something. Maybe a modern retelling of The Taming of the Shrew. She knew which character she’d be cast as, and was already gearing up to play the role if he said something sufficiently stupid. And he would. There was always something wrong with these truck stop guys. Pity, because this one was hot. He had to be around six and a half feet tall, and a nicely proportionate breadth to go with that height. Not bulky, but there were definitely some muscles beneath that jacket. He had to outweigh her by a good hundred pounds.
He fixed a stare on her she couldn’t tell was from blue or gray eyes beneath the pole light, but either way, it was oddly mesmerizing. She couldn’t bring herself to break free of it, although it somehow made her feel exposed.
Naked.
Why was he looking at her like that—like he knew her? She’d never seen the man before. She certainly would have remembered those startling eyes and all that dark hair. Jesus, she liked a bit of mane on her men. Someone could slap him on the cover of a romance novel. Just wrap him in tartan, hand him a sword, and set up an unobtainable fantasy for a few thousand women.
She pursed her lips, considering him. Nah, she’d read probably a hundred thrift store romance novels in the past year, and this guy was too tan to be a Scotsman and not dark enough to be a sheikh. Greek tycoon, maybe? Oh yeah. Put him on the deck of a yacht wearing some of those little European swim trunks and—
“Isn’t it?” he repeated, and raised one dark eyebrow.
“Huh?” She blinked. Did he want something?
He shifted his weight and shoved his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket, grinning at her. Shit, he could have lit up the entire parking lot with that smile. He was so pretty—now, what did he want with her? Whatever it was, she wasn’t paying for it.
She closed her eyes and drew in a bolstering breath. “It’s cold,” she said blandly and hauled her toolbox up into her truck cab.
“Montana’s a pretty inhospitable place, huh? There’s still a month until winter, but I don’t think the snow cares about timeliness.”
“Mm-hmm.” She patted her pockets in search of her keys. The next thing he’d probably say was that he could make it a lot more hospitable for her, if she had enough cash.
Prostitutes were pretty predictable, and she certainly got propositioned enough, though usually the truck stop hos were a little less—upright.
But, shit, did she really look like the kind of woman who’d pay a man for sex? She wrapped her fingers around the handle, prepared to slam the door.
He moved closer and grabbed the door’s edge before she could pull it. “Hey, why don’t you let me buy you a cup of coffee? You look like you could use a cup.”
“I don’t think so, dude.”
She could afford her own coffee, obviously, but no prostitute had ever offered to buy her anything. Must have been a new sales strategy—the hook ’em, then hump ’em.
She just wanted to get back on the road, but he was right. She did need to refill her thermos, fiend that she was. Coffee was her one vice, and she’d forgotten to take the canister into the restaurant with her during dinner. She didn’t want to give the guy the satisfaction, though, no matter how good he looked.
She let her gaze fall on him once again. He looked harmless enough, with his easy stance and hands jammed into the pockets of his coat. His boots were actually quite good quality. Brown leather with some scuffs. Broken in, and wet from snow, but they looked damned expensive. Didn’t seem like hand-me-downs, either. The heels were too good.
There must have been good money in truck stop whoring.
“No, thank you,” she finally managed, and gripped the door handle again after two failed attempts. “I-I need to get back on the road and get this load delivered.”
“Must be lonely,” he said. His grin waned slowly, and this time it was he who looked away, toward a truck entering the lot. He waited until it had circled around to the gas pumps.
“It’s a job,” she said when he looked up again. Damn, those eyes. They were so sad, and for some reason, that made her a little sad, too.
Did you always wanted to be a writer? If not what did you want to be?
When I was in high school, I thought I’d become an obstetrician. I wanted to bring babies into the world and it seemed like such a fulfilling job.
I later had a tough-love conversation with myself about the sorts of constraints that would put on my home and family life, and I decided to study English literature instead. It seemed to be a good gateway into numerous fields, should I develop an interest in them in the future.
When did you first consider yourself a “writer”?
Probably not until a couple of years out of college. I’d always been practicing writing fiction, but I didn’t get serious about getting published until my mid-twenties.
How long did it take to get your first book published?
The first book I wrote never got published! (Trust me when I say that’s a good thing.) It’s hard to put a finite length of time on how long it took for me to get published because there were a few breaks along the way when I stopped writing for whatever reason (jobs, kids, moving, etc.). My first novel-length work, though, was published in 2012.
Do you do another job except for writing and can you tell us more about it?
When I’m not writing, I’m playing chauffer for my two kids. Some days of the week, I have to drive to and from their school three times!
What is the name of your latest book, and if you had to summarize it in less than 20 words what would you say?
A Demon in Love: A recovering alcoholic sex demon finds true love with a foul-mouthed long haul trucker.
Who is your publisher? Or do you self-publish?
Well, I write for a few in addition to self-publishing some series. I’ve got some steamy works with Lyrical Press, some sensual and cheeky romances with Musa Publishing, and some contemporary and paranormal stories with Crimson Romance. A Demon in Love and the rest of the Sons of Gulielmus series are with Crimson Romance.
How long does it usually take you to write a book, from the original idea to finishing writing it?
Really depends on the project. It could take me two months to write an erotic novella because the transitions or character motivations feel off, and only a month to write a huge 90,000-word paranormal novel if the creative juices are flowing. Rarely does it take me more than three months from start to the final draft I submit to my editor, though.
What can we expect from you in the future? ie More books of the same genre? Books of a different genre?
More of the same, at least for a while! Although the market has softened on them, I really like writing paranormal romances. Every other book I write is a contemporary or erotic contemporary, and those are sort of like palate cleansers – a little break away from all the intricate world-building.
What genre would you place your books into?
My Sons of Gulielmus stories are paranormal romances. My Shrew & Company series is sort of a paranormal/urban fantasy combo. The rest of my books are contemporaries, mostly sensual and hotter.
What made you decide to write that genre of book?
I like having a little variety. Switching between realistic and fantastic staves off creative burnout for me.
Do you read all the reviews of your book/books?
I avoid reading reviews as much as I can. I think reviews are meant to inform other readers, and sometimes it’s hard for authors to remember not to take the negative bits personally. I do appreciate every review I get, though, and for folks taking the time to write them because they help other readers find my books.
Do you choose a title first, or write the book then choose the title?
I’ve done it both ways. A Demon in Love was titled before it was written because it was part of a series and all the stories in the Sons of Gulielmus series have a similar structure for titles: A Demon in Waiting, A Demoness Matched, A Demon in Love, and A Demon Bewitched (coming this fall).
Other times, I use working titles and lock something in later after something in the story connects with me.
How do you come up with characters names and place names in your books?
Most of my books are set in North Carolina where I grew up. I do use real city and town names, though sometimes just to give a general vicinity. I give characters surnames that are typical of the place they live, but first names are a bit tougher. Sometimes I have to use baby name websites or go digging through old yearbooks for inspiration.
Do you decide on character traits (ie shy, quiet, tomboy girl) before writing the whole book or as you go along?
A bit of both. I have a general idea of what my characters are like, but I’m not a heavy outliner. I let characters develop their personalities as the story unfolds. They rarely surprise me, but sometimes they have a few quirks I couldn’t have predicted. For instance, Calvin in A Demoness Matched is a bit of a hillbilly and is prone to colorful insults. He calls the heroine “Liar Ingalls Wilder” which is a joke I don’t want to give away. Let’s just say she dresses very eccentrically.
Are there any hidden messages or morals contained in your books? (Morals as in like Aesops Fables type of "The moral of this story is..")
In the Sons of Gulielmus series, the overarching theme is that everyone is redeemable, and that with making the choice to be good (or at least try to be) comes love.
Which format of book do you prefer, eBook, hardback, or paperback?
I do most of my reading in bed nowadays, so hands-down, I prefer reading e-books on Kindle or iPad.
What is your favorite book and Why? Have you read it more than once?
I always hate answering this question because I have so many author friends who write phenomenal stuff, but I seem to refer Deborah Harkness’s A Discovery of Witches more than any other book. Love the characters and the world-building is just breathtaking.
She’s hard at work writing other stories set in the Sons of Gulielmus world, including one for the mysterious Creole cambion Claude.
See Holley’s complete backlist of paranormal and contemporary romances at her website, http://www.holleytrent.com. When she’s not on deadline, she boldly tweets under the handle @holleytrent.
Website: http://www.holleytrent.com
Blog: http://www.holleytrent.com/blog
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/holleytrent
great excerpt
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