Did you see the latest AAD Author visiting Larissa’s Bookish Life yesterday with her own After Dark on Bourbon Street story? You should totally go read it…like now.
After Dark on Bourbon Street
A werewolf’s best and worst list about New Orleans
Hey, y’all! I write a lot of werewolves, and most of the time they tend toward the wilderness, or at least cities in Colorado, where the mountains are a hop, skip and jump away.
I do have a few city wolves, though, and one of my favorites is Jared, from my Bloodrose series. He’s an Aussie werewolf living in a major northern American city, and his lover is what I think of as a psychic pusher. He can make people feel his emotions, and he can read theirs.
Jared likes to travel, so I had to wonder what it would be like for him to go to NOLA!
***
The worst thing about New Orleans was the smell.
Jared knew that most people noticed it. It was hard to miss the sour scent of leftover alcohol mixed with the press of humanity and rotting vegetation, topped off with the rot of a city that was always underwater somehow.
Venice had smelled very much like New Orleans when he’d been there during Carnevale.
That was mostly all the two places had in common. Well, that and good food and lots of water.
Grinning, Jared watched his lover, Adrian, wander around Jackson Square, looking at the art and trinkets. The man was fascinated, his psychic talent in overdrive. It was almost like Adrian was high.
It was adorable.
“Card reading, sir? Read your palm? Tell your future?”
Every time Adrian went by one of those tables people reached out, offering, pushing, and Jared growled a little, not wanting them to touch his mate. Adrian was no pushover, but he could get…lost.
A wide little lady in lots of jingly jewelry finally got Adrian to stop, her smile with its crooked front tooth too much to resist. Jared moved in close, listening to the hundreds of feet that slid across cobblestone and brick around them. Adrian slid into a wooden folding chair, holding out his hand, and Jared felt the jolt of fear from the lady as it passed through Adrian.
She was sensitive; she could tell Adrian was some sort of psychic beacon.
Interesting.
A giggling girl with too many beads around her neck almost slammed into him, her pursuer a college-aged kid with a three-foot daiquiri in his hand. He bounced off Jared without a second glance, intent on his prey.
The urge to hunt sizzled through Jared’s veins, and he glanced up automatically, checking the moon.
Adrian glanced over, eyes shadowed by long lashes, but Jared saw the glint of concern. He shook his head, smiling, and Adrian went back to his palm reading.
The woman started murmuring, thinking she was speaking too low for Jared to hear. She had no idea she sounded like she was plugged into an amplifier. Humans always thought whispering was quieter than just talking. They were wrong.
“You’ll live longer than most of your peers,” she was saying. “Your love will sustain you.”
Adrian’s laugh was like the fountain at their hotel, a tiny burble of sound. Jared smiled again, about to Push into Adrian’s mind to say he was willing to sustain anything his lover wanted when another drunk staggered too close, whacking the back of Adrian’s chair.
“Oi! Fuck off, mate.” Jared moved fast, grabbing the man and sending him spinning off into the shadows of the alley beside St. Louis cathedral.
The palm reader’s mouth fell open, and she let go of Adrian’s hand. “You don’t need me to tell your future,” she said, curling in on herself.
Adrian just grinned and handed her a twenty. “Nope. I’m protected under the sign of the wolf. You want to go get a muffaleta, babe?”
Jared took Adrian’s hand, nodding. “All that meat and cheese? Hell, yes. You can have my olive salad.”
“Deal.”
Adrian seemed to be having a ball. To keep his lover happy, Jared would put up with damned near anything. Even that smell.
______________________
Meet Julia Talbot!
Julia Talbot has been assimilated by Texas, where there is hot and cold running rodeo, cowboys, and smoked brisket. A full time author, Julia has been published by Torquere Press, Suspect Thoughts, Pretty Things Press, and Changeling Press. She can most often be found in coffee shops and restaurants, scribbling in her notebook and entertaining other diners with her mutterings.
Contact Info
Website: http://www.juliatalbot.com
Blog: juliatalbot.blogspot.com
Social Media: Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads
Want to purchase Julia’s novels?
Just a Cowboy at Amazon
Lean on Me at Amazon
Belling the Cat at Amazon
Pictures of You at Amazon
An Itch to Scratch at Amazon
A Gentleman of Substance at Amazon
Werewolf Code at Amazon
The Amethyst Eye at Amazon
Mountain Trails at Amazon
Mystic U: Wolf 101 at Amazon
Perfect at Amazon
The High-Class Highwayman at Amazon
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Contest Time!
Thank you Julia for taking the time to stop by Literary Escapism!
Julia is giving away a $10.00 Amazon Gift Card. To enter, all you have to do is answer this one question: What else do you think should be on a shapeshifters best/worst list for New Orleans? Remember, you must answer the question in order to be entered.
In addition to the fabulous prize above, Larissa and I are giving away two $25 ARe gift certificates, so be sure to answer the question.
Even though I’m not giving the additional entries any more, you can still help support the author by sharing their article, and this contest, on your blog, Twitter, Facebook, or anywhere you can. After all, the more people who are aware of this fabulous author ensures we get more fabulous stories.
The winner must post a review of the novel someplace. Whether it is on their own blog, Amazon, GoodReads, LibraryThing or wherever, it doesn’t matter. Just help get the word out.
The contest will stay open until February 28th at which time I’ll determine the winner with help from the snazzy new plug-in I have.
I have not been contacting winners, so you will need to check back to see if you’ve won.
I think the crowds and noise would go onthe worst list.
I love the Pick Giveaway Winner plugin!! :)
I’m not sure anything can really top the smell and crowds for being on a shapeshifter’s worst list. Best – late at night, people are so drunk that shapeshifters could probably wander around half transformed and no one would notice or care.
I think the worst list should include the noise level from the crowds since werewolves usually have sensitive hearing and the best list should include all the bars. One could get away with more things when all the people around are drunk and therefore more likely to forget.
I would think the amount of tourists that could conveniently disappear without too much notice would be a great thing. :)
But then the almost 24 hour activity and partying would make it hard to find people alone.
Well I would probably have to agree with Jason on the tourist thing at least if the shapeshifter is living in a big city. Drunk drivers, because if you are a shifter and then are run over by a car, that sucs! And most of them don’t pay attention to people never mind animal.
Third would be the noise!
Anzu
I have to say the worst would be the fact people are up at all hours. How is a shifter supposed to do their thing in the dark of night when everyone is sleeping if everyone is up all night partying? Terrible!
Juliana
I wouldn’t advise taking the vampire tour! Thanks for the giveaway. Have fun in NOLA!
Well since all mentioned what’s worse, I’ll go for the best thing for a shapeshifter: lots of woods, without noisy humans, good for hunting and running!
Worst thing pollution.
Hmm… I think the Best should be that he could blend in to the many different people that roam New Orleans. So that if there is a slight change of the eyes or hands if angered ppl won’t really notice. They’d be too distracted with their own business. And of course, the different cuisine! lol… good food is always a plus.
but yeah, at the same time the worst, well… the crowds and loud noise. the smell of nasty sweaty ppl and all other smells that usually accompany such tourist crowded places. Rotting food in the streets or trashcan that ppl randomly throw and all that… and noise, It has got to be headache inducing to their keen ears.
Judi
arella3173_loveless(at)yahoo(.)com
Loud music and parfum! Imagine having hightened senses and smelling every parfum in a room full of people, when it’s hot…
Same goes for music, that has to hurt the ears if you are in your shifter form.
Emilia
I guess its cuisine and music ( jazz ) because for any supernatural or paranormal creatures with sensitive ears and nose would find these two main attraction of New Orleans the most inflicting pain to bear since with sensitive ears that may not like jazz since New Orleans is the birth place of jazz and their sensitive nose that could not bear the perfumes that women wear to cuisine places and those aromatic cuisine that the supernatural creature would find it offending.
Jessica
I guess devils/demons would love New Orleans since it’s filled with people thus easier for them to blend in and of course savour the delicious souls they can get… it’s like an all-you-can-eat buffet style… since New Orleans is a famous tourist spot so the devils/demons can even savoured different type of soul from different corner of the world as well. If the devils/demons love jazz would also be a plus since I myself do like jazz alot! =D
Loh
lohahmooi@hotmail.com
I bet the good food in NOLA is a nice treat even for shifter sensitive taste buds. Yum.
On the best things would be living in a city were you can hide in the mass of people. Worst thing would be noise and the same mass of people. :)
Great post! I imagine it’s insanely noisy in NO and that just wouldn’t be good with a werewolf’s sensitive hearing! Thanks for the giveaway :-)
smaccall AT comcast.net
Great contest! I don’t know much about New Orleans but from reading the post, I would say that the crowds could be both on the worst and best list. Worse because of the noise level and a wolfs sensitive hearing, but best because their is such a diversity of people that they could easily blend in and not be looked at strangely.
Hello Julia,
thank you for the giveaway! My favorite book of your is Perfect, it’s also one of my comfort reads. :)
It was really well done how Louise and Avery slowly worked out their diferences and got back together.
Worst thing will definetly be the smell, just imagine how bad it would be in summer in a crowd!
Best thing can be the anonymity of a city, so your neighbors wont notice that you always go out in the night of a fullmoon as a werewolf. ;)
Since everyone else already said the stuff I was going to say, I’d have to say the humidity. Can’t be good for human hair or all that fur on a wolf. They’d probably look like the Beast from Beauty and the Beast in that scene where he dried off after being wet.
I’d have to go with the noise as a problem. But i’d think that NOLA would be one of the places where people would be least likely to notice anything weird.
I think the worst thing would be the constant noise when people are partying all night long. It would make it very difficult for a shapeshifter will all of their advanced senses to sleep. Also, the humidity would probably cause problems for them as well.
Maybe the crowds
Worst thing Mardi Gras, just think about the noise and the drunken people wandering around were they’re not supposed to ;)
I think that the worst thing wouldn’t just be sound or scent. It would be every sense working over time to try to process everything happening around you. Everything coming at you at once; scent, touch, taste, sound, and sight, would just be too overwhelming.
snakes, they either are wild or pets or voodoo ppl snakes, but no matter wouldnt want to run into any
Cameras, just imagine being caught in the middle of a shift!
Noise and canalisations, both have to be hell to hightened senses.