Thursday, May 28, 2015

Coloring Outside the Body by CD Hersh



Thanks so much for having us on your blog today. We are going to talk about a special skill our shape shifters possess.

When people think about the classic shape shifter, i.e. werewolf, they normally associate a higher sense of smell or strength with the creature. Because we were building our shape shifting world outside the normal vein of shape shifting that most readers are familiar with, we gave our shifters a different skill. Some of our higher level shifters possess the ability to read auras.

For those who don’t know what an aura is, it is an energy field that appears around the body which reflects the life energies of the person. Proponents of auras believe you can teach yourself to see the auras of other people. Different colors seen in the aura indicate basic health, emotions, and mental activity. Believers in auras feel you have a basic color that reflects your dominant personality. Others believe the aura is constantly changing, reflecting a person’s emotional state.

Our shifters can’t be taught to read auras. It’s something that happens to them and delineates them as high-level shifters. The magic bloodstone ring, that provides the ability to shape shift, also has an aura. Shifters who can read auras can see this green and red ring aura as well as the person’s basic aura life-energy colors. This allows them to read a shape shifters emotions and determine if they are good or bad shifters. Bad shifters have a red and black aura. Good shifters have a green ring aura.

Alexi, our heroine in The Promised One, can spot the bad guys, shifter and non-shifter, with a simple scan of their auras. This is a handy skill for a homicide detective to possess. Auric reading makes it easy to hunt the villain and keep the good guys and bad guys sorted. Delaney, our heroine in Blood Brothers, also has this skill. When we got to Son of the Moonless Night we decided to change things up a bit. Owen, our hero, does not have this skill, which puts him at a definite disadvantage. To up the danger for Alexi, who appears in all of the books, we caused her to lose the ability part way through book three. One of the reasons we decided to adjust this skill in some of our characters is because we realized auric reading could present a problem. How can you lie to a high-level shifter who can read your aura and tell whether or not you are being truthful? Secrets, which are important to the story, would be impossible to hide and maintain.

Auric reading started to be a problem for us until our characters came up with a way to mask their auras. Just like an accomplished liar can beat a polygraph machine, our skilled shifters can conceal their feelings by shutting down their emotions and hide their lies by telling enough truth to cover the deception. However, they have to be quick about it, because every time a high-level rogue shifter faces off with a good shifter there is a lot of auric scanning going on. As for humans, they don’t have a chance against a high-level shifter.

Here is an example from Son of the Moonless Night when the heroine, Katrina, faces off with Alexi:

Red flooded the colored rings of Katrina’s aura. She was anxious. “Someone said they saw you at the scene of the crime. Were you there?”
“Who? The man in your office earlier? He lied. I was at home last night eating pizza.” She angled her body toward the door as if ready to run and stuffed her hands in her pockets.
A partial truth. Alexi could see that. “I know about you. Since Delaney is retiring she told me I should have your back.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Paranormal hunter,” Alexi said softly. “Is that what you were doing last night in the alley? I’m not saying you killed the man, just if you know anything about what happened you should share it with me. I can’t protect you if you don’t let me.”
The stiffness went out of Katrina’s posture. “I didn’t have anything to do with what happened. I stumbled on it. That man in the drawer was a werebear. A really big one. He attacked a man. By the time I got into the alley, the bear was dead.”
“The man you helped out of the alley. Who was he?”
“I don’t know. I took him back to my place, and when I went out to get medical supplies he left.”
“Why didn’t you take him to the hospital?”
Kat gave her an are-you-crazy look. “Hello. Paranormal hunter here. I couldn’t tell the medics he’d been mauled by a non-existent bear. Besides, he begged me not to. I thought it in my best interest, and the city’s, to figure out what he knew. He left before I could find anything out.”
“Do you think he knows what he shot?”
“No. He called it, it, like you would if you’d shot an animal.” She locked her gaze on Alexi. “So, now you know, what are you going to do?”
“About what?”
“Me. The investigation into the werebear.”
           “Keep your secret and watch your back.


Title – Son of the Moonless Night, The Turning Stone Chronicles, book three
Author – C.D. Hersh
Genre – Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Suspense Romance
Heat Level - Sensual
Release Date: May 27th, 2015

HOOK
Thrust back into the world of paranormal huntress, Deputy Coroner Katrina Romanovski must unravel a string of murders she believes are vampire attacks. When she discovers the shape shifter she’s in love with is the murderer, she must reconcile her feelings for him, examine her life of violence against paranormals, and justify deceiving him in order to bring him to justice.

BLURB
Owen Todd Jordan Riley has a secret. He’s a shape shifter who has been hunting and killing his own kind. To him the only good shifter is a dead shifter. Revenge for the death of a friend motivates him, and nothing stands in his way . . . except Katrina Romanovski, the woman he is falling in love with.

Deputy coroner Katrina Romanovski has a secret, too. She hunts and kills paranormal beings like Owen. At least she did. When she rescues Owen from an attack by a werebear she is thrust back into the world she thought she’d left. Determined to find out what Owen knows about the bear, she begins a relationship meant to collect information. What she gets is something quite different-love with a man she suspects of murder. Can she reconcile his deception and murderous revenge spree and find a way to redeem him? Or will she condemn him for the same things she has done and walk away from love?

Amazon buy links:
The Promised One (The Turning Stone Chronicles Book 1):

Blood Brothers (The Turning Stone Chronicles Book 2):

Son of the Moonless Night (The Turning Stone Chronicles Book 3):
            eBook: http://amzn.com/B00XK3E172


About the Authors: Putting words and stories on paper is second nature to co-authors C.D. Hersh. They’ve written separately since they were teenagers and discovered their unique, collaborative abilities in the mid-90s. As high school sweethearts and husband and wife, Catherine and Donald believe in true love and happily ever after.

Together they have co-authored a number of dramas, six which have been produced in Ohio, where they live. Their interactive Christmas production had five seasonal runs in their hometown and has been sold in Virginia, California, and Ohio. Their most recent collaborative writing efforts have been focused on romance. The first two books of their paranormal romance series entitled The Turning Stone Chronicles are available on Amazon. The third book in the series Son of the Moonless Night will be released May 27th by Soul Mate Publishing.

Where you can find CD:

1 comment:

  1. Sharon - Thanks for sharing our book with your followers.

    ReplyDelete