Guest Author: Ellie Heller (+Contest)

I am excited to welcome author Ellie Heller, who is celebrating the release of her first full length novel,  A Matter of Fate.

Someone is setting death-spells targeting mortals and elf blood alike. With her mentor out of commission, it’s up to half-trained Warder Mona Lisa Kubrek to stop the magic. Despite being told repeatedly her job is to nullify spells and not go after the source, too many people are at risk for her to not track the spell-caster down. Even meeting a sexy half-elf shifter won’t distract her from her goal.

Except Cart Dupree is fully trained and has the team to search for the evildoer, so she’d be stupid to not use his expertise. Stupid is something she can’t afford to be, not with her enemy’s henchmen after her. Later she’ll deal with Cart and his questions about her special abilities and the non-standard training her mentor has given her. Right now, they need to unravel where the magician is, and who he is, before he builds enough power to decimate them all.

First, though, they need to stay alive.

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The Puck is HERE!

Last year I also visited around the time of RT Booklovers convention. Despite the fact I really enjoy all the giveaways and excerpts, I’m very bummed that this year I didn’t make it to the get together. Some day I hope to be visiting Literary Escapism because I’m going to RT, fingers crossed it’s soon!

When I was here last, I wrote about my favorite reoccurring characters and mentioned mine, the Puck, who inhabits my paranormal romance series. At that time I commented I was still shopping around the first book.

Now the Puck is here! A Matter of Fate, published by Crimson Romance, is available as an ebook at most popular ebook sites. If you missed it last time, here’s why I love the Puck, my Puck:

Not because he’s cool.

Although he is.

And not because he’s powerful.

Which he definitely is.

And not because he’s perverse (and trust me, perverse doesn’t begin to cover it).

But because the Puck, my Puck, has an inordinate love of period and regional costumes. He always dresses for the occasion. Here’s his first appearance in A Matter of Fate, hoping to interrupt a tender moment between Mona and Cart:

Cart laid his finger across her lips. “I’ll send a female down. Tiff’s out finding a new place for the protector group since D’Alessandro has asked us to move. It was only temporary anyway—too small and too far away from Averill and her Pack.”

He removed his finger and tweaked her nose. “And yes, privacy would be a good thing. Not sure when we’ll get that. Life can be perverse sometimes.”

“I thought that was imps. Like the imp of the perverse?”

“You called?” a voice said from behind Cart.

Cart whipped around… as he shoved her behind him. The voice, though, was one she knew, one she’d come to expect pulling a prank like this.

“Hey, Puck, you should know better than to sneak up on Folk like that.”

“Yeah, but it’s so much fun!” His chortle rang through the room.

She stood and stepped out from behind Cart, who was gaping at the barely two and a half foot tall barrel-chested man. The Puck had chosen to dress in his disco finery today, complete with bare to navel maroon satin shirt and a thick, gold chain necklace nestled in the hair he called his “manly rug.” The guy had more clothes than a hotel heiress.

I should mention that I envision the Puck as having the body of Danny Devito instilled with a large part of the personality of Tony Randall as Felix Unger. Here’s another example of his unique attire, I’ve had to edit a little here to avoid spoilers!

As Mona turned back there was a loud pop and lights began to blaze from every wall.
But they weren’t lights—more imps than she’d ever seen lined the rotunda.

The Puck stood on the desk in a furious rage. The thirties gangster outfit completed the impression of lethalness. Mona heard several gasps.

“You’ve just earned yourself a one way ticket to visit me. And if you think I’m mad, just wait until you meet the goddess. You don’t mess with her.”

He turned to the imps, who had coalesced behind him like a large sparkling cloak. “Take him.”

They swirled around [the shifter], completely blocking him from sight. Then they were gone… .

The Puck turned and looked over the crowd, his body relaxing and face easing into a smile when he saw Mona. “Hi, Warder.”

“Hello, Puck.” It was times like this, when he went from an overwhelming rage to charmingly calm that she remembered he was even less human than she was.

He flashed a large grin before somberly addressing the crowd.

“Protectors, investigators.” He stabbed his finger at the groups within the crowd. “Do your job. Now. The goddess is watching.”

I hope you as much fun reading about the Puck as I had writing him. And don’t forget Mona and Cart, who have their own issues, mostly just trying to stay ahead of magician out to stop them.

From suits to disco finery to mechanic coveralls, the Puck’s worn a lot of things. What would you have him wear and in what situation?

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Meet Ellie Heller!

After living in several cities east of the Mississippi, but never quite out of the snow belt, I’ve settled down in SW Ohio with my three kids, two dogs (one of whom thinks he’s a cat) and one cat (who thinks he’s a dog).

I write paranormal romance and contemporary fantasy, all with a suspenseful edge. A Matter of Fate, a ‘traditional’ paranormal romance, will be available this spring from Crimson Romance. My first published short (GLBT sensual), Ginny’s Capture, is available now.

Contact Info
Website: website
Blog: Blog
Social Media: Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads | Pinterest

Want to purchase Ellie’s novels?
A Matter of Fate
Ginny’s Capture
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Contest Time!

Thank you Ellie for taking the time to stop by Literary Escapism!

Ellie is giving away a copy of A Matter of Fate. To enter, all you have to do is answer this one question: question Remember, you must answer the question in order to be entered.

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 April 30th at which time I’ll determine the winner with help from this snazzy plug-in that I have.