XOXO Publishing's: Aaron Speca & Patricia Laffoon

Today it is my pleasure to introduce you to a couple of wonderful new authors who have made the leap from Role-play on Facebook to published authors. They're debut effort is included in the best-selling collection called Evernight, available from XOXO Publishing and Amazon, as well as other online outlets. So, without further ado, meet Aaron Speca and Patricia Laffoon...

How long have you been writing?

We've been writing for a little over a year, since we joined a little Dark Hunter role playing (RP) group that now has nearly a thousand fans. We joined separately and met there, and after a while our group did an alternate future storyline, and we decided to surprise everyone in the group by making our characters husband and wife in that future. We wrote so well together that we decided to develop the beginning of their relationship in the present day, and then brought them into an alternate pirate world that one of our players created and rediscovered their relationship all over again. That was the basis for our first published short story "Tears of the Mermaid".

How long have you been a published author?

*Checks the calendar* About ... seven weeks. *grins*

What titles do you have available?

Our story is "Tears of the Mermaid" in the anthology "Evernight: Romance in a World of Darkness" from Allison Cassatta.

What made you choose mermaids as the subject of this story?

Well, Patricia's character Trish has been a mermaid in every incarnation. She's always had a fascination with mermaids and mermaid lore. When the pirate page was created in our role playing group, it was a perfect fit!

Do you have any new titles coming soon?

We are working on a follow up short for Volume 2 of "Evernight", then we would very much like to expand Rudy and Trish's story into a full-blown novel.

Will you be venturing into other areas of fiction or nonfiction anytime soon?

This is all so new to us, we are just going with the flow. We've been tinkering with bringing some sci fi elements into our latest paranormal story in our RP group.

What is your favourite genre and why?

Sci fi, paranormal, and fantasy, because there is just so much you can do with your imagination. It truly is stepping into another world.

What, to you, is the most exciting part of the writing process?

We write almost exclusively with partners, and it's that "eureka" moment when a story just comes together, because you and your partner have a common vision and the characters and the story just take on their own life.

If you could co-author a book with anyone, who would you choose and why?

Our RP group has done some great stories in the Dark Hunter world, and we would be humbled and thrilled to be able to co-write some of them into a Dark Hunter book with Ms Sherrilyn Kenyon. There are at least three or four really good books in there, I just know it.

Where can readers find you on the web?

On Facebook:

Aaron: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aaron-Speca-AuthorEditor/216515161730857

Patricia: http://www.facebook.com/laffoon.pat

On Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5200710.Aaron_Speca/blog

EXCERPT FROM "TEARS OF THE MERMAID" BY AARON SPECA & PATRICIA LAFFOON, IN THE ANTHOLOGY "EVERNIGHT: ROMANCE IN A WORLD OF DARKNESS" FROM ALLISON CASSATTA

Trish did not have long to wait. He didn't arrive the way she thought he would. No, he stole onto the beach like a thief in the night. His steps faltered at first as he rose up from the waves that crashed upon the shore. He quickly found his footing and made his silent way towards the single, solitary figure sitting by the bonfire. Tossing down a bundle of clothes, standing naked he towered over her.

A small gasp escaped her lips and it was not one of pleasure by any means. "What?" he demanded. "Do you not find my form to your pleasing? I seem to remember a time when you thought so."

She turned her face away from him, and in that moment he leaned over, inhaling her scent. His eyes flared in the rapidly darkening dusk, then narrowed as he pulled on his britches, tucking his feet into a stout pair of black leather boots.

"You lied to me; you said there was no human here." The look on his face turned into a snarl. "I can smell the same male on you that I smelled before!"

She scrambled back from her place on the sand in fear. "No! No you are mistaken!"

"Am I?" Aaron bent his knees slightly, grabbing Trish by her slender arms, dragging her up his well-defined chest. He could feel her resistance in the way she went rigid against him. His groin tightened as he drew in her scent again, dragging his nose and lips from the curve of her graceful shoulder, up her slender neck nuzzling just under her ear, whispering, "He was here, but he's not now is he?"

She tensed at his touch turning her face away from him. There was only one man's touch that she relished and his was not it. She had sent Rudy away from the island, and yes, she had summoned Aaron but it was to tell him that his attentions were no longer desired; actually that they never were. Now that he was here, the fear and trepidation she always felt in his presence came flooding back, as did the memory of his last visit when he first suspected that not only was there another man here, but a human at that. She had refused to tell Rudy where the scars had come from.

"I…," she trembled, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Trish you lied to me once and paid a heavy debt for it; don't let us have a repeat of that tonight. You called to me; there must have been a reason, what other could it be than you wanted me."

(For the rest of this story and eleven other great tales, go pick up Evernight: Romance in a World of Darkness, available directly from XOXO Publishing, or from Amazon for the Kindle. Twelve stories for $5.99.)