Sunday, November 6, 2011

Good Morning I'm Mahalia Levey


Hello Goddess Fish Party Pavilion. I've never been here before and am excited to meet everyone. If you haven't read my work, it ranges from inter racial romance, demonic dark romance, parnaormal and contemporary novellas. I'm Here celebrating my new release 'The Price of Defiance,' a contemporary bdsm novella. You'll find more about me right after the excerpt, including all my social links! Please do follow me on twitter and Facebook and don't forget to surf my website. Along with a ten dollar GC f rom Goddess fish I'll be giving away a pdf copy of my new book. Make sure you follow the instructions down below!

What's a man supposed to do when the one woman he's loved for years he can't have? He leaves town to pursue his career only to come home to bail her out of trouble. The fire still rages between them, but a bigger threat looms to destroy any chance of happiness he may have. Addiction, not his but hers. He must find a way to save her from self-destructing.


The Price of Defiance began as little more than a short story involving the illegal hobby of street racing. I thought I'd find the reason behind her obession in the beginning of the story but in actuality didn't find out the 'why's' until later on in the book. It did make the process a bit difficult because I don't plot I'm a panster, I had to go back and layer key aspects of this story.

In a way, I love how my heriones and heroes pull a whopper on me. At times, I find it a bit unnerving.

Through this story I was able to research a hobby that many communites struggle to prevent senseless deaths and injury to a wide selection of youth. In movies racing is glamorized. I remember the first movie I saw with drag racing was Grease. Street Racing is by no means new. The gamble has been going on for decades.


One of the key factors in this story is addiction and how it enslaves the person and alters their perspective on reality. With addiction there is no bigger picture, there's now and now affecting everyone in the junkies life.




America Patterson loves living on the edge. Car model by day, illegal street racer by night, she’s known as the best. Except underneath her flawless façade lies a young woman filled with turmoil. When her hobby lands her in hot water, she finds herself handcuffed and bailed out by the one person who’d abandoned her….

MMA Fighter Alejandro Escovedo is summoned home after a tournament that had left him sore and questioning his career. Expecting a nice welcome home, he instead finds himself rescuing his best friend’s sister out of jail. This time he’s had enough.

Their explosive past gives him all the rights where America is concerned, and he is more than ready to take her on. By ending her daredevil ways and finding the trigger to her self-destructive behavior, will he convince her he’s back to stay or drive her further away?

Excerpt
“America, where are you?”



“Saint, I’m in big trouble.” Amy gripped the cell tightly to her ear. “I’m at Truman Memorial Hospital, about to be taken to jail.” She started to sob when reality dawned on her.



“Thank God, you’re alive. I’ve been going out of my mind since the link to the wreck was sent to my cell phone. Sit tight. We’ve been fielding police and the media, trying to protect your professional name. Sis, Alejandro demanded to be the one to handle the situation.”



“I’m sorry for scaring you.” Her brother and his team of misfits were all she had while growing up. Being named after their country of conception and proved just how zany her family was. Saint Vincent got his name chopped in half to Saint. “Is this going to hurt your business?”



“No. Alejandro will make sure you have a smooth transaction. I’m forwarding him your info now. Sit still and relax. Can’t have the baby of the family locked up and forgotten.”



She winced at the thought of seeing Alejandro again after so long. Her voice dropped an octave. “Can’t you come? I haven’t seen him since—”



“Miss, we’re ready to transport you to the police department,” Officer Blake interrupted.



“I gotta go.” Amy snapped the phone shut and handed it back to the officer. He was kind enough to leave, allowing her to change into the scrubs they’d sent for. She rapped and opened the door after toeing into the slip-on canvas shoes. “I’m ready.” Head dropped low, she allowed them to escort her to the jailhouse that was a ten-minute ride away.



Being booked took longer than she’d expected, and it mortified her. A nifty machine imprinted her fingerprints electronically after they took her mug shot. The issue with her identification became clear once she had a chance to speak and separate her professional identity from her personal one. When they finished processing her fingerprints and mug shot, she followed them through general population and looked at all the criminals on the way to her holding cell. The door buzzed and opened, and she was ushered in. She cast a glance at the officer, who shook his head, locked the door, and turned his back.



I’m not a criminal.




I hope you enjoyed the only PG13 execrpt I could find in the entire story! To be entered to win a copy of The Price of Defiance please leave your email address in a comment and your take on street racing. I'd love to hear if you've had issues in your community. I'll pick a winner within 24 hours of this post. Thanks.


Being smart and sassy with a great sense of humor comes easily for Mahalia Levey. An avid reader of books, she found herself enchanted with disappearing completely into the worlds authors created. One day she vowed to herself she'd be one of them. Then family life came, and college right after. Swayed from her childhood course of action, it took many years for her to get back to that place she held dear as a child. Now she is running full steam ahead to keep up with the many ideas flowing freely. She plans on taking her work to higher levels and expanding her genres. Her main focus is giving her readers variety. Her works in progress include paranormal, fantasy and mainstream romance. Taking characters and watching them grow past what she’s imagined is her true passion.

www.mahalialevey.com
www.mahalia2010.wordpress.com
www.twitter.com/hales3000
www.irmcbooks.com
FaceBook Mahalia Levey







35 comments:

JoAnne Kenrick said...

Firstly...what a fantastic picture of yourself that is!
Secondly...the blurb and excerpt has me hooked.
Thirdly...really? The only PG/13 you could find? Okay. I'm sold!
The Price of Defiance is going straight into my to-read list and onto my next book binge list!

Congrats on the release, wishing you great sales and awesome reviews xxx

mnjcarter said...

Wow, must be an incredibly hot book to have only found one PG13 excerpt!

This book sounds delicious!!

May brain must be on hiatus because I had to google MMA Fighter to figure out what it was, relearned something new today! Very alpha profession!

mnjcarter@charter.net

Fedora said...

Wow, congrats on this, Hales! I love the sounds of the story! As for street racing, I only know the glamorized version I've seen on TV! I know there's a darker side, but I grew up a bit too goody-two-shoes to know anything about that. I'm looking forward to learning more... adding The Price of Defiance to the TBB!

I assume it's a stand-alone? Do you have any plans to do more stories in this universe?

f dot chen at comcast dot net

Hales said...

Thanks Joanne and yeah. Meredith and I were looking for pg13 you know some places you can only do pg13 excerpts this was the only one we could think of that included mention of the hero lol.

There's other action pieces but... not as good as the spicy :P

I wondered if I should've spelled out MMA :P Glad you liked it Mnjcarter

Hey Fedora, It's a stand alone but I'll most likely end up doing Saint Vincent's story :P

Toni Anderson said...

It looks like a great read, Hales. Congrats on your release! Waves to Fedora :)

Kathleen Ann Gallagher's Place to Reflect said...

Congrats, Hales!

The premise of The Price of Defiance is compelling! I enjoyed the excerpt! Topics that deal with real issues are exciting and emotional.

I am not aware of street racing. Reality TV has got me hooked. Love to learn more!

Patti P said...

This was a great interview. Thanks for the excerpt. I am now hooked and will have to read the book!

musicalfrog@ comcast.net

Sarah J. McNeal said...

Congratulations on the release of The Price of Defiance, Hales. I wanted to drop in and wish you all the best. BTW, I love that sexy little dress you're wearing in the photograph. Very nice.

Unknown said...

Nice post. Book sounds interesting. We don't have a problem with street racing I think mainly because we have a race track in our area that the local drivers compete at. Never really gave streat racing much thought since it's not a problem in our area other than to enjoy the movies (Grease, Fast & Furious etc). shadow31071(at) suddenlink (dot) net

Paris said...

Congratulations on your new release! The Price of Defiance sounds like a hot read if this is the only PG13 excerpt you could find:)

BTW, must have a pair of those sexy shoes!

Jessica E. Subject said...

I look forward to reading this book. :)

I live in a smaller city, so we don't have a big street racing problem, but we do have a problem with people driving too fast in school zones.

All the best!
~Jessica
jessicasubject.writer[at]gmail[dot]com

Liz said...

congrats on the new release Mahalia
Liz

Debby said...

I read about your books in another spot. Love it.
debby236 at gmail dot com

Anonymous said...

great excerpt and interview !!!

reginamayross@gmail.com

Brandy B aka Brandlwyne said...

Hi Hales, Congrats on another great book!!!

~Brandy

Natasha Blackthorne said...

Congratulations on your new release. :)

Teresa K. said...

Hales,

Congratulations on another fine sounding book. I love how you branch out in different genre's.

As far as street racing I think it would be fine if they had a place that people could go and legally do it. I believe I read someone that California had opened a place out there to help reduce the illegal racing.

Everyone should have a place to show off there muscle cars and cars that they put a lot of time into.

As far as a problem where I live no I haven't had one nor do I ever read of any. I live in Nascar country and there are alot of race tracks here that allow amateur racing on certain days.

I do so love your picture. You look beautiful with the little black dress and rocking shoes. You Go Girl!


Teresa K.
tcwgrlup41 at yahoo dot com

Maria D. said...

Great photo Mahalia! Thanks for the excerpt, The Price of Defiance sounds good. My take on street racing- I'm okay with it if the street is blocked off and separate so that nothing bad happens to the non-racers.

junegirl63(at)gmail.com

Unknown said...

Must be one hot read, if that's the only PG excerpt in the book.

If street racing is a problem around here, I don't know about it. My family has been involved in off-road racing my whole life, so any bug we had to test our limits behind the wheel got handled without endangering other drivers.

drainbamaged.gyzmo at gmail.com

Jacki C. said...

Looks like a great book and I LOVE the cover!

Hales said...

Toni- Thanks so much :P

Kathleen- Thanks I love finding situations in our communities and creating a story around them.

Paris- Thanks so much! I enjoyed writing it!

Jessica- I don't like in a small community and we do have some here but not a lot.


Liz- Thanks for supporting me. You're a gem!

Debbie- THanks for coming here though you read elsewhere!

Brandy- Thanks so much

Regina- Whoot thank you for coming glad you liked. CHeck out the adult excerpt posted.

Natasha- Thanks so much for coming by :P

Teresa- That's really cool and people should be able to show off their babies. I hadn't heard Cali had opened up a track interesting I'll have to check that out! Thanks I have on my Sinlicious Shirt on I'll have them in stock by beginning of NY to sell :P
These shoes were so rockin at the Erotic Authors Conf in Vegas people remember my by the shoes lol! Thanks

Maria- Thanks so much :P I'm all for safety!

Kathryn- Yes it's a fast paced ride. A lot of action lol and language that makes it not PG13 and some white hot sex! Thanks for coming by

Jacki C- I love this story and hope the readers do as well! Thanks!

Janice Seagraves said...

Sounds like a good read.

Good luck with your release. I wish you many sales.

Janice~

Cindy Spencer Pape said...

Congrats on the new release, Hales. Love the excerpt and that picture of you is adorable!

Hales said...

Thanks Janice!

Tara Lain said...

Congratulations! Sounds like a wonderful and exciting book! I love what you said about the characters revealing important things as you go along and having to layer the new details into the beginning of the book. So true! Even for us plotsers. Thank you for the great post. : )

Calisa Rhose said...

Happy Release Day, Hales! Love the blurb and excerpt! She sounds like a feisty heroine, not unlike her creator. This sounds like another hit for you. I'm adding it to my trb pile for sure.

cmselfridge@gmail.com

Hales said...

Thanks Tara!

I hadn't thought plotsters had to do that :P

Hi Calisa thanks so much. She is so fiesty maybe that's why we clashed so much :P

Ashley Applebee said...

What an awesome excerpt!! Totally got me hooked!! As for street racing, when our little town used to have a bar we used to have drag racers CONSTANTLY! It was horrible! We actually had someone have an axle bust off and the car crashed into our yard and the tire and axle smashed into our deck! Thank God no one was hurt! Now we don't have a bar, so we don't really have to worry about it anymore.
Ashley A
ash_app@hotmail.com

Hales said...

Thanks for the comments!

Hales said...

Thanks Ashley!

June M. said...

Luckily street racing is not a problem around where I live. I think it is very dangerous, both for the participants and for others.
June M.
manning_j2004 at yahoo dot com

Hales said...

Thank you June it is very dangerous!

desitheblonde said...

who ever tok your pic they did a good job you need to use it for your back cover on the books i like the cover of h book and i sound great book wow

Nancy G said...

Great excerpt-love the photo too. Street racing is definitely a problem in two areas of the city/county where I live. I can't say much though, because in my younger days, I was right there with them

nancyg5997@gmail.com

Hales said...

Thank you everyone for all of the wonderful comments. I hit up the random pick and got the winner!

ash_app@hotmail.com