Welcome back to the Weird, the Wild, and the Wicked. Today I have the honor of hosting paranormal and contemporary erotic romance author Lydia Michaels with a new release through Siren Publishing. She shares my love of 'pushing her characters through an evolution of emotion by creating real life challenges any hero or heroine worth their salt could overcome'. I couldn’t agree more.
Welcome, Lydia. Thank you for being with me today.So glad to be here. :)
What started you on the path to becoming an erotic romance author?
I make it no secret that I am dyslexic. As such, I have always struggled with reading. It wasn’t until I picked up a romance novel in 2006 that I realized how much fun reading can be when you love the subject. Within one book my entire perspective of literature changed. I went from reading 4 books in twenty five years to reading 200 books in one year. Then I discovered erotica and oh my… I realized I definitely preferred romance novels with open door policies, but it was a requirement that my erotica not be short on plot. There is nothing better to me than finding a meaty, full length erotic novel that is so hot it could stand alone without the sex…but includes the sex all the same. As much as I love the heat of erotica, I believe it is the love-laced-plot that makes our favorite stories memorable. This combination of lengthy, descriptive, intricate plots and erotic love scenes is not always easy to find. I longed for those books with haunting characters, psychological depth, and heart palpitating intimacy. It occurred to me that I may not be the only reader out there searching for erotica with some extra length. So I decided to write stories centered on love, rich with plot, maintaining a standard of beauty within descriptions, and sensuality levels through the roof.
Congratulations on your recent release on Calling For a Miracle with Siren Publishing. Introduce us to the main characters and premise of your story.
Calling for a Miracle is the second book in the series The Order of Vampyres. The Order is made up of nine immortal families all living together on a farm in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Their privacy, as vampyres, is paramount. That is why they have lived the last three and a half centuries as Amish. Called to Order, the first book of The Order of Vampyres, introduces readers to the laws of The Order when Adam Hartzler is called to his true mate and his mate is unexpectedly called to another. There can only be one true mate for every immortal, a lesson the Hartzler family is learning quite well.
In Calling for a Miracle {Book 2}, Larissa Hartzler, Adam’s sister, has fled the farm to escape her oppressive marriage to Silus Hostetler. Larissa is not Silus’s true mate, yet he treats her as his property. However, when Silus approaches the bishop about his wife’s insolence, the bishop declares that he will find Silus’s missing wife. The last thing Larissa expexts, while hiding amongst the modern English, is a visit from Bishop Eleazar King, the most powerful immortal of The Order, especially once she learns that he has no intentions of returning her to her husband.
Did anything in particular inspire this story?
For years I played with various foundations for a vampire series. I wanted something believable. My inspiration came to me one February evening while sitting outside a cottage in Lancaster. It was cold and dark, quiet except for the sound of four wheelers downshifting in the distance. There had been an eerie mist that night, drawing a distinct contrast between the boisterous merriment taking place inside the charming little cottage and what lay just past the front door where I was keeping a friend company on the porch. Our conversation lulled when suddenly a phantom click-clack echoed in the near distance. We silently stared into the fog, blind as to what lay two feet beyond the porch steps.
We soon recognized the slow cadence as an approaching Amish buggy. As the horse broke through the thick murkiness his breath billowed before him in twin puffs of hot vapor. The heavy carriage trailed slowly behind the sweaty mount, its spindled wheels creaking with each turn. It was difficult to make out the vehicle on such a dark night, but as it passed we somehow managed to see the face staring back at us from within. Sometimes our mouth moves before our mind can even process our subconscious thoughts. That’s what happened in that moment. I looked at those unblinking eyes, watching us through the fog just as we watched them pass by, and heard myself whisper, “What if the Amish were really vampires?” It was then that my stories were born.
What made you choose the Amish culture as the backdrop for your vampyres?
It amazes me, that with all of the technologies of today, that a culture can still exist without the use of electricity and automobiles. I find their primitive ways simplistic and beautiful, possessing a charm our rushed day to day lives seem to lack. It is a wonder to me, how a place so different can exist right in the middle of everything so ordinary. It is as if the Amish move amongst us so quietly they are hardly seen…much like vampyres would hope to be.
What other projects are on the horizon for you that we’re likely to see?
Currently I am writing Destiny Calls {Book 3} The Order of Vampyres. I have also just finished a book titled Sacred Waters which is one of the most romantic stories I have ever penned. It is the first in a Irish series called McCullough Mountain. I am also working on an erotic novel called Breaking Perfect, which is pushing me further than I have ever dared to go with my erotic writing. Breaking Perfect will definitely include some serious warning labels on the cover. I have a few other projects as well, but they are still under wraps. For the most up to date information and sneak peeks at my works in progress, find me on Facebook or visit my webpage at www.lydiamichaels.org
Thank you for joining me today, Lydia, and we look forward to all your upcoming releases!
Thank you so much for having me!
BLURB
Isolated in the quiet hills of Pennsylvania is an Amish order unlike any other - they are vampyre.
After fleeing her oppressive marriage, Larissa Hartzler will give herself to no man, but Bishop Eleazar King has other plans. Eleazar is appalled when he discovers the always dutiful Larissa working in an English house of sin.
As the most respected immortal of The Order, Eleazar has always maintained unwavering control, but everything changes once he is called. His long standing position of authority is threatened when his need for his mate takes hold. There is nothing that will keep him from possessing the virginal Larissa as his mate. Not even her husband. Larissa's fear of being found by Bishop King transforms into confusion when she learns he is her mate. Five times his minor and broken on so many emotional levels, Larissa knows she will be an inadequate mate for Eleazar. With gentle patience he begins to teach her what her husband never did, and slowly awakens Larissa's desires.
EXCERPT
“No.” He heard himself say under his breath. She turned and his greatest fears were realized. There, dancing like a common harlot upon this stage of ill repute, was his charge.
He stood so fast the chair he had been occupying crashed backward to the ground. His jaw clenched and his nostrils flared. Barely containing his rage, he turned to the men in the bar and sent out a mental command. At once, every patron lowered their eyes and tilted their heads away from the stage. Apparently undeterred by her audience’s sudden lack of interest, Larissa danced on. It was as if she could not see the crowd that watched her so avidly with eyes full of lust and minds full of ignominious thoughts.
She danced on, her hips swaying and undulating, mimicking the intimate motions that should be shared only by man and wife. He was ashamed of her.
Her fingers began to work at the knot of the tie. Her left hand worked up and down the narrow fabric. Her actions had somehow stimulated an image of his very own anatomy, her hands working his flesh until he swelled to a point of pain that would be eased only by plunging into her warmth. Dear God, she had to be stopped. Looking back one last time at the practically sleeping crowd, satisfied no eyes were on the stage, he heard the tug of fabric and ping of little buttons across the stage under the blare of music. He turned, lightning fast, and leapt onto the stage.
Larissa stumbled back in her chair and gasped. She grew pie eyed with fear and he smiled, knowing she understood they would be returning to their home that night.
“Bishop King,” she breathed and he sensed her frantically considering ways to escape him.
“Go ahead, Larissa, run.”
She stood and bolted to the door at the back of the stage with immortal speed. He had reached the door first. His chest swelled at the rush of adrenaline from toying with her. Some deep-seeded instinct wanted to play and chase her. His heart pounded at some long-forgotten emotion he was suddenly experiencing. Arousal.
She stood before him, dark hair tousled around her oval face, eyes wide, and lips parted as she caught her breath. Her shirt, no longer in possession of buttons, gaped open, exposing the valley between her full breasts, the length of her long, trim torso, and her narrow hips covered in black silk that formed a V above her thighs. He looked into her eyes and suffered a jolt of déjà vu as if he had stared into those eyes a thousand times before.
“Your husband has been worried about you, Larissa,” he said and twitched at the shock of irritation he felt at mentioning her husband. “It’s time to return to your home and duties.”
“I’m not going with you,” she dared, but he could sense the uncertainty of her words.
He reached forward in an almost fatherly manner and pulled the edges of her shirt together. “You have had your fun with the English and now it is time to come home.”
“I’ll only leave again. I will not live out my eternity as only Silus Hostetler’s quiet, forgotten wife.”
Good! He heard his inner voice proclaim. He didn’t understand the satisfaction he felt over her reluctance to return peacefully to her husband. He kept his confused musings to himself and said, “Be that as it may, I have a duty to return you to your family.” She was trembling. Her fear of returning to their home did not make sense to him. Larissa had been a happy child on the farm, always pleasant, never complaining. What was she so afraid of?
“Come with me now, child.”
“And if I say no?” she asked.
“We both know your objections will only take you so far. You are no match for me. You do not belong here in the English world. You certainly do not belong here on this stage. If you fight me, it will only make me more determined to have my way. Come with me easily and I shall discuss with your husband the severity of you atonement for running from him.”
“I told you, I would only run again. I will not go back to the life I had there.”
“And what of your family? Do you plan on living out your immortal existence with never seeing your parents or brothers or little Grace again?”
“I see my brother now.”
He pressed his lips together. “Yes, Cain would be the one to find you and turn his back on his order by not informing them of your whereabouts.”
“Cain is loyal to his family before all else.”
“How noble. Now, if you will come with me. We can gather your belongings and be on our way.”
“No.”
His eyebrows slowly rose. “No?”
“No.”
He clucked his tongue and shook his head. “How disappointing. Very well.” Eleazar pressed into her thoughts, intending to force her mind into an unconscious state, but the action seemed to hit a wall. He grunted at the force of the energy pressing between them like two mutual sides of a magnet. His brow creased. Did she know she was somehow blocking him? A female, four centuries, almost five his minor, should not have the power to block him. He tried again.
This time he watched as Larissa gritted her teeth and growled, “I said no!”
The compulsion to sleep was suddenly catapulted back at him. He felt a sudden fog of peace settle over him, cloaking all sound. He vaguely registered the look of shock on Larissa’s face. He reached for her but his movements were slow and sluggish. She stepped out of his grip. Her image swirled and dipped. He was all of the sudden looking up at her rather than down. She had lovely thighs, sweet and flush with soft muscles. His vision blurred. Larissa looked at him one last time, confused and panicked, then ran out of his peripheral. Next thing Eleazar knew everything went dark.
If you’d like a copy of Calling For a Miracle, you can find it at:
And be sure to check out Called to Order, the first book in Ms. Michaels’ The Order of Vampyres series.
You can find Lydia at
Thanks for stopping by and happy reading! :)
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