Guest Blog: Mary Hughes on "Biting Oz," Biting Love series #5

Amazon - B&N

Biting Oz rating:  4 out of 5 stars

Release Date:  August 14, 2012

Biting Love series rating:  N/A (haven't read them all)

"Biting Oz" can be read as a stand alone novel

Author Mary Hughes

guest blogs on

Ravishing Romances

Mary will answer reader questions 
in the comment section

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See below for Giveaway

Thank you, Sallie, for having me here today!

Writing a series in first person, is it difficult to switch characters each book?

Sherlock Holmes, Amelia Peabody, Kinsey Millhone—some of my favorite stories are in first person. There’s an immediacy that you get from being right in the hero’s head which works especially well with dry humor. But most of my first-person favorites are mysteries, and all of them feature one unchanging narrator. First person romance? Sequential narrators? Never saw it—until I read Lori Handeland’s Nightcreature series. I fell in love. Each heroine has a smart, kick-butt style that really shines.

I’d written some women’s fiction in first person and had great feedback. But I love romances, so I decided to try combining first person with romance myself. Bite My Fire and Biting Nixie were the result—along with my first sale J.

Making each Biting Love heroine unique is both a challenge and a joy. The challenge is creating a character different enough from the previous heroines—while still keeping her smart and strong. The joy is when, after much preliminary fumbling, the character’s unique voice finally sings through. Nixie, a punk rock musician, slings her slang. Elena, a cop, has a saltier vocabulary than shy geek Liese. To me, these are now truly different people, so in a way it’s easy to write them differently.

But there are a few helpful techniques that all writers can use. I pick a couple specific concepts for every character (not just the heroines), and use those concepts each time I reintroduce the character. Nixie wears kids clothes but swears like a Marine. Liese is wholesome as a dairy maid. Logan is insouciant and graceful. (See Jim Butcher’s Live Journal for TAGS and TRAITS). I also pick emphasis words/phrases (swearing) that fit the heroine’s lifestyle. For example, when Biting Oz heroine Gunter Marie “Junior” Stieg misses her solo entrance, she snaps, “Stuff me in a tuba and blast me into space.” Each heroine also has a different career path—my varied job history is now a good thing, LOL. Even when two women have overlapping careers (Junior and Nixie are both musicians), they approach life differently (one is all about responsibility, the other is all about individuality).

Finally, even when the characters’ voices are totally different, I tag dialog when there are more than two people in the scene (Junior said; Glynn crossed powerful arms; Nixie danced, or, being pregnant, she wobbled). In a real-life roomful of people it’s a challenge to keep track of all the conversations, so in a story, I try to make it crystal clear who’s talking, not relying on voice alone.

Biting Oz features the first ever meeting of the vampire spouses of Meiers Corners—seven smart, strong women around one table. You can judge for yourself how well I’ve done keeping them unique J .

GIVEAWAY

Mary will give away one of her previously published books (winner's choice) to a reader from the comment section below

Follow her on her Blog Tour, 'cause she's 

giving away a book at 

each tour stop

Blog Tour Schedule

8/14 - Readheads Review It Better 

8/15 - Ravishing Romances 

8/16 - Brunette Librarian 

8/17 - Harlie's Books

8/20 - Black Raven's Erotic Cafe 

8/21 - Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews 

8/22 - My Odd Little World

REVIEW

Amazon - B&N

Biting Oz rating:  4 out of 5 stars

Release Date:  August 14, 2012

Biting Love series rating:  N/A (haven't read them all)

Biting Oz by Mary Hughes is the fifth book in her Love Bites series and can be read as a stand-alone novel  

How are the sex scenes?

As erotic as they can get without sex toys.  Be prepared for hair tricks, strategic biting, peculiar positions and hard orgasims. 

How are the story lines?

Biting Oz reads like an Adult Swim cartoon with sex.  The story lines are great, if not a bit bizarre with a flare for the overdramatic and unreasonable.  Many character actions do not work logistically, but suspend your requirement for realism and you will not be disappointed.

Would you read it again?

Yes.  The first person inner monologue and spicy intimate scenes make it worth-while.

You've read the blurb, now read the review!

Warning:  Contains biting, multiple climaxes, embarrassing innuendos...
- blurb by Mary Hughes

Biting Oz is a modern-day romance novel based in small-town Meiers Corners, Illinois with a heroine who continuously makes uncomfortable "come" comments:

"Um, why have you come?" Come.  "Here, I mean.  Why have you come here...to the store.  Yes, that's what I meant." 

Glynn called again that night but didn't come.  Um, come over...visit.

What really makes Biting Oz an exceptional read is the hero and heroine's hotness for each other.  Their chemistry burns.  Hellooo lust at first sight.  Minutes after their first meeting, heroine Junior begins thinking unclean thoughts about Glynn's finely muscled chest and broader than linebacker shoulders.  His bite-your-lip accent makes her go *squish* and despite her "no entanglements" policy, she already wants to drop to her knees and give him 20 minutes.  

And that's just Junior.

Readers don't see Glynn's thoughts in the beginning, but he makes his feelings clear when he has her shoved against a bar table, molded between his thighs and is tonguing her tonsils.  What??  Their friends were in the bathroom - they had some extra time.

If you like this - you'll crave Biting Oz.  There is dry humping, first, second and third base action, orgasms against doors, orgasms in beds, multiple orgasms, blow jobs, hand jobs, fangs piercing erotic places, XXL...um, parts and much, much more.  

Written in first person, the reader is privy to Junior's hilarious and lustful thoughts like, "We managed to make it downstairs without me jumping his big, hot...damn or his lovely, strong...fuck" and "My belly heated and my panties felt a little too tight."

And Glynn smolders with temptation when he whispers, "I'm going to screw you, Junior.  Screw you in absolute silence."  Glynn is enamored with Junior and has this innate need to protect her - not just bed her, and this really sets their relationship aflame.

Why only four stars?  This reads a bit like an Adult Swim cartoon.  The bad guys try to capture their targets in actual bags and Junior is daftly slow on the uptake of *gasp* the existence of vampires.  (Glynn mists into her room at one point and she doesn't take issue, though she did have her hand down her pants at the time...)  There's also the fact that they perform their musical in bad guy central, assuming it would take two hours for bad guy reinforcements to show up.  And Glynn happens to know all the words to Good Witch Glinda's part....see?  Adult Swim.  But Adult Swim rocks, and so does Biting Oz.

There's so much more to this book - yes, in addition to burning chemistry, insane love-making and witty commentary there is more...but what more do you need?

Save a human, ride a vampire.  Purchase.  I mean, read.  Read.  As in read Biting Oz...yes, that's what I meant.

Want more Biting Oz?

Check out Mary's webpage and blog

Download Oz Bites* for free

The series story order is:

Bite My Fire 

Biting Nixie 

The Bite of Silence (novella) 

Biting Me Softly 

Oz Bites* (short story) 

Biting Oz

Published by Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Disclaimer:  No compensation was received for this review.  eARC received from Mary Hughes and Author's Angels.

Tour Grand Prize Winner 

Prize:  All 5 books in the Biting Love Series

Winner will be selected from all of the commenters from all stops

Tour Grand Prize Winner will be selected on August 23