My friend Diana Munoz-Stewart just won second prize in the RoseCity Romance Writer's contest for her paranormal YA romance LIGHTBRINGER.
The great thing about this is that I've watched this book go through various iterations and its a real pleasure to see it start winning contests! It's an intriguing story about a girl with supernatural powers who spends her adolescence trying to come to terms with them. As in, what are they, where did they come from, and what is she supposed to do with them?
Fortunately Lane, the heroine of the story, has a Watcher, an angel named Eddie - a very hot angel - to watch over her. Better yet this angel has been in love with her since the first moment he laid eyes on her. Together, they save the world from the incursion of an Uberdemon and his minions, and their neighborhood from a zombie-creating witch and her wannabee demon son.
I asked Diana where she got the idea for the novel:
I wrote Light Bringer because the idea of a teenage girl who could summon supernatural beings at will, or accidentally if upset, intrigued me, as did the notion that angels aren't exactly the innocents we've been taught to believe.
Summoning supernatural beings at will -- or accidentally if upset -- that sounds like my adolescence! Let's see a sample:
Lane’s breath quickened to sharp gasps. Her skin tingled as warmth sped across her body. Eddie slid his hands along her back, moved closer. He pressed his lips deeper against hers. She loved that, kissing him, but what she really wanted as he slipped sure hands up and under the light fabric of her t-shirt would have to wait. She was determined not to become another Philadelphia sob story, like her sister Olivia, struggling to feed kids and pay rent, doing anything, legal or illegal, to find money.
Oh God that felt good. Eddie leaned her back and she stretched out against the gold velvet couch. She moved under him and he made a sound that was as deep and eager as the throbbing of her heart. He began unzipping her jeans. She came to her senses.
“Stop,” she said. He let out a groan that was part protest and part disbelief. He stopped. Eddie was good that way.
“Seriously,” he said, sitting up, looking a bit sheepish with his dirty blond hair cascading over eyes like fallen autumn leaves—a burnished amber interior outlined by bold earthy brown. Eddie didn’t look at you with those eyes he focused. His mood was like autumn too, mischievous, ready to blow things all to hell for a change of scenery. This attitude was mirrored in a shameless grin that hinted at shocking memories while inviting you to be an accomplice in his next plot.
“It’s just that I’ve been thinking…”
“About ways to torture me?”
That's right from the opening. Things get even hotter later in the book:
There was a whoosh sound and then light. Lane looked up and gasped. Wings enshrined Eddie, vibrant gold feathers tipped in black. A muscle along the side of his face twitched. This was hard for him—dropping his glamour.
She stood up. She couldn’t help herself. Didn’t really want to. The soft exhales through Eddie’s lips seemed to fill the room as she moved to him. He was amazing, sculpted of light and muscle, like a statue, too perfect for words. His skin glistened with subtle gold light that seemed at once part of him and something more, an aura. She ran shaking fingers down his arm. Her fingers picked up the energy there, tingled. She smiled dreamily.
“You feel really good,” she said. He gave a very masculine chuckle. She ignored him and his hopeful smirk. She reached over his shoulders and brushed the gold feathers. Heat and yearning shot into her. His breath caught.
What's torture is that that's all the readers of this blog will have to wait get until the books gets published to read the rest! Follow Diana's blog here.
Diana Muñoz Stewart is an award winning writer, editor, and author. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Rowan University and a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine. In addition to her writing and editorial work, she participates in writing workshops, founded a national group for promoting writers, and is a consistent contributor to multiple blogs on health, writing, and family. She is a member of both RWA and SCBWI.