Blog Tour: Inside Out -- Character Interview & Excerpt

Today I am participating in Buy the Book Tours'

blog tour for Inside Out by Amy Lee Burgess!

About the book:

Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2012

There's no place like home...or is there?

When Stanzie is asked to investigate her birth pack -- Mayflower -- she isn't prepared for what she finds.

No one respects the Alphas and the newest adult member of the pack is being encouraged to leave. Why? To make matters worse, the men are dangerously intent on mating and shifting with her.

How far will the pack she thought she knew go to get what they want? Without her bond-mate, Liam, Stanzie must face this alone and, barely ahead of threat of violence, must solve the mysteries, and fast.

WARNING: Vulgar language, sexual situations, group sex, violence.

A Lyrical Press Paranormal Romance.

Character Interview:

Jason Allerton is one of the most influential members of the Great Council which governs the Great Pack worldwide.  Alpha at twenty-six, Regional Councilor at thirty-seven, when he was appointed to the Great Council at age forty-six, he was among the youngest Councilors ever named. 

Dark haired and blue eyed, he possesses the appealing good looks of a chairman of the board or a president. A commanding presence everywhere he goes, he has the reputation of championing the underdog and choosing Advisors from among the most unlikely candidates. 

Tragically, his bond mate, Erin, was driven insane by the stillbirth of their son and for years he has led a mostly solitary life, brightened now and again by mistresses he chooses as carefully as his Advisors.  These women are his social equals, holding ranks on Regional Councils and as Alphas of large packs. He is the consummate Councilor and very few people are ever privileged enough to see the man behind the office.

***

Interviewer: Welcome, Councilor Allerton. I have to tell you that’s a very nice suit you’re wearing, sir.  Is it Armani?”

Allerton: Why, yes, it is.  What a keen eye you have to notice. Are we really here to discuss fashion?  If so, you’d be better off speaking with my tailor, I suspect.

Interviewer: I didn’t have an agenda to cover today. I thought we’d just talk about things as they came up.  For instance, your current Advisors.  Liam Murphy is an understandable choice. He was a great Alpha of Mac Tire before his bond mate had that unfortunate accident and died.  But Constance Newcastle?  I’m from the New England area and I happen to know that her wolf is hopeless. She can’t control her.  And she was never an Alpha, probably because of her wolf.  So why did you choose her?  Because she’s bonded to Liam Murphy maybe?

Allerton: You know you’re being rather insulting, don’t you? Are you truly implying that my choice of Advisor was ill-advised?  Flawed?

Interviewer: No. No, I just don’t understand.  Nobody does.

Allerton: I think that’s a false statement. Have you asked members of the Maplefair pack what they think of Advisor Newcastle?  I hardly think they would tell you they don’t understand my choice.

Interviewer: Stanzie’s wolf went a little wild in Maplefair, didn’t she?

Allerton:  I’ll take your answer as a no then. You haven’t spoken with anyone from Maplefair.  I must say you don’t seem well prepared for this interview if you wanted to discuss Constance.

Interviewer: I wanted your thoughts and impressions.  Your explanations.

Allerton: I wasn’t aware I owed anyone any explanations about my choice of Advisor.  I’m beginning to believe I would like to cut this interview short. I’ve got a plane to catch and a Council meeting to attend.

Interviewer: Yes, of course, I know. That’s why we’re having this interview in the airport lounge. To make it convenient.

Allerton:  It is never convenient for me when my Advisors are maligned.

Interviewer: I wasn’t maligning her. I really don’t understand how she, of all people, became an Advisor.  I thought you had to be an outstanding member of the Great Pack to achieve a position like that.

Allerton: And so you do.  That’s the first thing out of your mouth so far that hasn’t been utter nonsense.

Interviewer: But Stanzie Newcastle?  Outstanding?

Allerton: She is outstanding even ranked against my previous Advisors and some of them have gone on to Regional Councils.  I fully expect Constance to achieve even greater success than that.

Interviewer: The Great Council? Stanzie?

Allerton: Was that my plane being called for boarding?

Interviewer: Sir, I’m sorry. You’re plane doesn’t leave for an hour.

Allerton: Pity.  Have you any other questions for me or can we wrap this up?

Interviewer: Liam Murphy.  I heard he went back to Dublin and ditched..er..left Stanzie.  Is the rumor true?

Allerton: I’m very uncomfortable speaking about the private lives of my Advisors. I was under the impression you were writing an interview to present at the next Regional Gathering.  Is this really the sort of thing that would interest everyone there? 

Interviewer: Well, sure. Stanzie’s a local.  It’s always encouraging to hear about someone from around here making the big time.  You’re practically the most powerful Councilor in the Great Pack and she’s your Advisor.  She can hardly have done better than she has.

Allerton: Young man, I would have been more than willing to sit here and share some of Stanzie’s successes with you.  Told you a few anecdotes about her and the cases she’s worked for me.  What happened in Maplefair, for example. What she’s currently doing in Mayflower.  I’m expecting a call from her and a report at any moment.  But at this point in the interview I’m disinclined to be cooperative.  I suggest that next time you interview a Councilor; you come prepared with decent, positive questions. Now, if you don’t mind I’d like to continue on to my gate.  I’ll take that tape from your recorder as well and your notepad.

Interviewer: But I…how am I going to write the interview without my notes?

Allerton: That, I’m afraid, is your problem.  Good afternoon.

Interviewer:  Wow. I think I just got my ass handed to me. My dad is going to kill me when I tell him about this. Crap.

Excerpt:

Alan looked at me and panic flooded his silver blue eyes. “Stanzie.” My name was a horrified plea.

I could see the ghost of a wolf’s muzzle beneath his mouth. He held out a hand and recoiled when he saw the dark fur on his palm. 

“Take off your clothes, Alan,” I urged, but he stood there, transfixed. I hastily unbuttoned his plaid shirt and pushed it off his shoulders. “Help me,” I cried as I tugged at his sleeve. 

“I don’t know what’s happening to me,” he whispered. His body gave a bone crunching shudder and he stared at Faith and Scott’s wolves, terror etched across his face. The wolves waited together, shoulder to shoulder. It was a damn good thing I hadn’t shifted myself. Poor Alan was clueless. 

I fumbled with the button on his fly and then the zipper. His throat rippled and he threw back his head and howled. The noise nearly scared the shit out of me, but I somehow managed to get his zipper down and then I pushed him onto his ass so I could pull his jeans off. He was no help at all, caught in the throes of the first emergence of his wolf. His body morphed in and out of focus. It was like trying to undress someone by strobe light and I had to shut my eyes so I wouldn’t lose my concentration. Alan whimpered and whined. Shifting was painful sometimes--especially when we fought it and he was. He didn’t know how to relax into the chaos and let it flow. He still struggled for control, for a way to reason out the process, and that was impossible. Shifting did not make sense. It just happened. 

“Let go. Alan, just go with it,” I coached in a quiet voice as I sat as near as I could to him. He writhed on the pine needles and screamed as his bones shifted beneath his skin. “It hurts less if you just let go.” 

“Stanzie!” My name turned into an anguished howl and just when I had begun to get scared, it happened. Alan blinked out of this plane and when he blinked back in, he was shifted. 

His wolf was gorgeous. Dusky black with ice-blue eyes. A touch of gray at the tips of each paw. Big too. Bigger than Scott’s gray wolf. He rolled to his feet and sprawled onto his face when he tried to walk. Two legs to four was a bitch for some people. It had never fazed me, but Grey told me it had taken him half an hour to figure out how the hell to walk the first time he’d shifted. I grinned to remember the story and reached out to pat Alan’s wolf on the head. He whined at me. 

“Get up and walk. Four legs are fun,” I told him. I was on my hands and knees now, so we could look eye to eye. If he got up, that is. Faith’s wolf pranced over and nudged him with her dainty muzzle. He whined again and she gave a coughing bark. In wolf speak she told him to get off his ass. 

Scott’s wolf approached me and stared at me so hard I knew he tried to tell me something, but I couldn’t figure out what. Then it hit me. Duh. I was still in human form. 

I stood up so I could strip off my jeans and t-shirt. Scott’s wolf waited impatiently. Alan’s wolf had gained his wobbly feet but seemed stuck in one position. When Faith’s wolf nudged his back end with her nose, he promptly fell over again and I snickered. Alan’s wolf gave me a reproachful look and I patted his head in apology. Scott’s wolf moved behind me and bumped the back of my knees so hard I fell over. Alan’s wolf wheezed with lupine laughter. “At least I can walk on all fours,” I muttered. Naked, I crawled away a few feet to give myself space for shifting. Only nothing happened. 

About the author:

Amy Lee Burgess wrote her first ghost story at age ten.  Born in New England, she has also lived in New Orleans and Houston, survived fires, floods, hurricanes, divorce, and the premature cancellation of several of her favourite television shows.  Turning her back on such shocking betrayals, she is now writing about ghosts, vampires, and other paranormal things and is much happier for it.

Her Links: Website | Twitter | Goodreads

An Amazon gift card of $15 will be awarded to one lucky commenter from this Media Page at the end of the 8 week book tour!