Caged Book Tour: excerpt, guest post and giveaway

Welcome to our stop on the Caged book tour. Already a Holloway Pack fan? Great! Here's the latest title in this great paranormal series. Not a fan? Why not? Then here's your chance to find out about the new book and series, the author and even enter the giveaway. The author is offering a lot of cool things! As always, we thank you for stopping by.

Caged (Holloway Pack #3) by J.A. Belfield

Paranormal*Paperback/eBook, 355 pages

Publisher: J. Taylor Publishing (published July 30, 2013)

If the meek can become deadly, the strongest can be weak.

For Ethan Holloway, his mission to find a missing werewolf should be simple. Crack a few heads, bust a few chops and the solution always reveals itself. Always.

Not this time.

Ethan’s reputation precedes him, and because it does, someone is ready. Waiting. Unbeknownst to Ethan, he’s about to go down. Hard. Against a foe he never suspected and in a world he never imagined could be real.

What awaits Ethan is a fight not only for his reputation, but also his pack, his female, and his life. If he survives, damage control will become priority number one.

If he survives.

Because even Ethan’s not sure he’s strong enough to take on an entire race all by himself.

Especially one hell bent on exposing who and what he is in the name of sport.

Excerpt

“… from the Shropshire area. Following Carly McDowd’s disappearance on the fourth, and Andrew Doherty’s on the seventh, this is the third incident this month …”

I turned from the square-jawed newswoman on TV to Dad, where he sat in his corner armchair.

His attention remained on the screen, a frown across his brow.

“… the duo of friends were first reported missing late last night by their parents, after they discovered neither of the teenagers …” The newscaster’s voice infiltrated once more.

Images of a couple of lads flashed side by side on the screen. The one on the left had the appearance of any late teen, with shaggy overgrown hair and the twinkle of mischief in his expression.

From the other image, brilliant blue eyes stared out at me from beneath a shock of pale blond curls.

“Oh, shit!” I pushed to my feet, took a step forward. “That’s …”

“Nineteen year old Gabriel Lewis was believed by his mother to be staying at Colum Delaney’s since Friday evening, whilst Colum’s parents …”

Dad stood, his fingers retracting his mobile from his jeans pocket as I worked my own out. He paused, nodded to me. “Go on. You make the call, Ethan.”

Shelley Lewis’s number had been saved in my phone book since the beginning of the year, right after we met for the first time. I hit dial and paced to the window. September sunshine, of the early morning variety, blinded me as my phone rang.

It took only a few trills for her to answer. “Ethan?” Her voice held hope, as well as a heavy weariness and the thickness of tears.

“Is it true?” I’d promised to support her—a lone parent, a female no less, raising a werewolf son with no guidance. So far, I’d delivered on that promise.

The sob hitting my ear gave confirmation enough. “Oh, Ethan.”

“Hold tight, Shelley. I’m on my way.”

“I’ll come with you,” Dad said, as I hung up and spun to him. “Shout Sean, too—in case we need to do any scouting. I think I heard him stir upstairs.”

“What about Connor’s lot?” The Larsen’s made up the other half of our eight-wolf pack, but lived separately to us on the south side of the forest.

Dad shook his head. “I’ll update Connor whilst you deal with Sean—”

“And Jem?” I asked with a lifted eyebrow.

Dad’s lips twitched, but he continued as though he hadn’t noticed my reference to his buck-passing. “Just the three of us will go. Connor and his boys can spend the morning here and stay close to Jem and your mother unless we need them.”

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Author Info

One day, a character and scene popped into J. A. Belfield’s head, and she started controlling the little people inside her imagination, as though she were the puppet master and they her toys. Questions arose: What would happen if …? How would they react if …? Who would they meet if …?

Before she knew it, a singular scene had become an entire movie. The characters she controlled began to hold conversations. Their actions reflected the personalities she bestowed upon them. Within no time, they had a life, a lover, a foe, family … they had Become.

One day, she wrote down her thoughts. She’s yet to stop.

J. A. Belfield lives in Solihull, England, with her husband, two children, four cats and a dog. She writes paranormal romance, with a second love for urban fantasy.

She also book blogs over at Bookaroo-Ju.

Links: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Introducing the Pack

T o be honest, and I've said this a few times across the 'Net, when I first wrote Darkness & Light, I never anticipated that it would be anything more than a stand-alone. Yet, after hitting those final words, I couldn't quite bring myself to let go of these characters, which led to the birth of Blue Moon.

Though, to be honest—again—I never anticipated that any of these books would 'belong' to anyone other than Jem, either.

However, Ethan had other ideas.

You see, when I was writing Blue Moon, I already knew in my heart that there would be a third book. I also already had a pretty strong notion of what the third book would be about. Yet, for some reason, even once I'd finished Blue Moon I couldn't get the full details of that notion to finalise within my mind. Because—and the reasons will be clear to anyone who reads Resonance and Caged—the plot I had planned would pose a lot of problems for Jem.

So, I walked away from it.

Not completely, though, because the storyline of it never once left my mind.

In the meantime, I joined critiquing sites, worked on honing my craft, wrote Instinct … and still, the idea for this story would not leave me alone.

Until almost exactly a year later, it hit me. That I'd got it all wrong. That the reason those pieces wouldn't fall into place for Jem was because it wasn't Jem's story to tell.

As soon as I figured that out, I understood whose story it was. And suddenly everything that had been eluding me became clear. Which led to Caged being born—as well as the realisation that, if I could give Ethan a story? Heck, I could give 'em all one. Right?

It's odd how easily details began to fall in line once I'd quit being terrified by the potential of this series and embraced what it could become instead. Because partway through Caged, I recognised the possibilities I was setting up within that story for the next one, and again, as soon as that clicked, I understood where I needed to go next.

And so began Unnatural. Now, folk won't get to find out who Unnatural's main character is until mid-September (sorry), but I can tell you that, from the second the ideas for this one began forming in my head, I realised the story was too big, too deep, with a lot more world building than I'd done so far, for just one character to tell it. And so, Unnatural is the first Holloway Pack title in the series to be told from dual POV's.

Again, just as Unnatural unfolded for me whilst writing Caged, the fourth Holloway Pack title, as well as whose story it will be, fast became clear—to the point I had a Word document dedicated to it in no time, with the opening written, and a couple of later scenes composed, as well as a bunch of ideas for what needs to happen where and when and with whom.

In fact, the relief of offloading these tidbits as soon as they revealed themselves was so enlightening that I went on to do the same for Holloway Pack 6.

So, do I know where this series is going? Yes. Do I know who's coming when and what they need to do? Yes. Do I know how this series is going to end? Actually, yes, I even have the final scene of the final book already written, to give me a focus for where to work toward. And that's very important. Because you've got to have your end goal at least in mind, before you can fully understand what the characters' journeys must entail in order for them to get there.

Planning on writing a series? Great. Then let your inhibitions go and start planning ahead and don't be afraid to play with different characters—because you never know where they might take you that others' can't.

Anyone else got any advice?

Group Giveaway

1st Prize: Signed copy of Caged, Caged swag pack (see image), $10 Amazon Gift Card

2nd Prize: Caged swag pack (see left image)

3rd Prize: 5 runner’s-up will each receive a digi-signed Caged cover

a Rafflecopter giveaway