I don’t want anyone thinking that I’ve forgotten about my other series.
Yeah, I know, its’ not a short story or anything, but haven’t you always wanted to see what Molly and Onyx look like?
This one was done on commission by scarypet on DeviantArt, whose stuff is gorgeous.
At some point, I think these two really need their own book.
A comment that is slightly off topic, as it has to do with Rich Man’s War. You have listed the revised book with a different ASIN and so Amazon is going to make all of us who purchased version 1 pony up again to buy the book with the fixes. Is this intentional?
Keith, unfortunately yes, Amazon has told me that readers who want the new version will have to purchase it rather than there being any electronic updates, refunds, etc.
I will say that if you’re following the story, the ONLY truly significant difference is that the new versions change Allison’s name to Madelyn. That was done because there were simply too many “A”-named women, and it was a choice I made at the copyeditor’s suggestion. The Skyscape version went through a professional copyedit, so it reads nicer, but the story is in no way altered. (Also, the paperback version has a different size & paper texture to it than the previous paperbacks.) I’m sorry if this is a disappointment, but if nothing else, you won’t be missing out on much more than some cleaned-up typos & grammatical fixes if you pass on the new version.
Hello Elliott Kay,
I got here via Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men. (You left a comment there regarding Logan that I replied to.)
Your books sound interesting, and I’ll be sure to add them to my (ever growing) to read list. I can’t say I have the military experience that the books are about, but the part about being in a tough financial spot and having to take the job that’s available at the time (such as is mentioned in the description of Poor Man’s Fight) is something that I bet a lot of people can relate to. I’ve enjoyed some of John Scalzi’s books as well, so I hope to enjoy yours as well, based on the comparison on this website.
I love the artwork in this post. Is that a Non-Compliant symbol (from Bitch Planet) on the front character’s shirt? If so, that is just so awesome.
All the best.
Ani,
Thanks for swinging by, and for your interest! Sorry I didn’t post this & respond sooner. It’s a new website (transferred over from a blogspot, which is why I have so few comments), and I’m still getting myself in the habit of checking for comments frequently. I’m getting enough spam at the moment that moderating seems like a good idea.
Molly’s t-shirt is indeed meant to show a Non-Compliant symbol. I’m kind of a fan, and I think Molly would be, too. 🙂
Sir,
Rereading Natural Consequences (third time, I think) and it occurred to me to ask if there will be more of Jason and his community coming. Many writers can do good sex scenes. Not nearly as many can do sexually intense love scenes, and follow them up with compelling action and believable plot progression. This is excellent adventure writing, and I hope for more. Any chance?
Thank you so much!
I plan to keep writing for Alex & Co. as long as I have a readership for them or until I run out of ideas.
Jason, specifically, may not be around for the next book, or may only appear briefly given the events of NatCon. But I am not done with this crew at all, and I greatly look forward to writing the next adventure.
Thank you again for all the kind words. It’s appreciated.
All I can say is ‘HOLY (AND UN-HOLY!) CRAP ON A CRACKER!’
How did I MISS these books?
Urban fantasy (or contemporary fantasy as some call it. -blegh-) has been done quite a bit these days. Maybe overdone. But THIS?
I haven’t seen ANYTHING like this. Bought ‘Good Intentions’ and ‘Natural Consequences’ yesterday, read them both in one day and night. Couldn’t put them down till just past midnight this morning.
I SINCERELY hope for a sequel. Or at the VERY least a ‘Molly/Onyx’ story with guest stars. Will we see other supernaturals? A dragon or two? Might be… dare I say it? Interesting?
And yes. I fully agree that the vampires deserve EVERY piece of pain they get. 🙂
Glad you like ’em! Sorry it took me a while to publish this comment. Turns out this account gets a LOT of spam, so I can’t leave stuff on auto-publish, and I went a little while without checking the comments.
At any rate: Yeah, wish I could tell you when there will be more, but I firmly intend to do more.
Just finished the Alex & Co. books. The only thing I hate about reading a series that captures and holds my attention
is waiting for the next book. Absolutely, loved the two books and I am not much of a supernatural fan. The combat scenes left my imagination racing. I have now purchased the rest of your books. Haven’t started them yet but I do have them ready to start. Hopefully, you will not keep us in suspense about the next installement.
I have read Good Intentions and Natural Consequences several times; these are excellent books! It is a really good story. I am interested to find out what happened to Donald and also the significance and background story of the Gypsy (Onyx?). I am, not very patiently, waiting for the next book in the series.
I have also read the Rich Man, Poor Man series and have thoroughly enjoyed them; am looking for the next book in that series as well.
Keep up the great books.
Ron
Just bought the audio books over the weekend and I just love these books.
I think my favorite part of the series is that even if Alex never got with Rachel and Lorelei he would have likely ended up with Molly and Onyx. I wonder how his mom would react to meeting these two lovely ladies.
Since Alex is now dating four(two committedly and two at least semi serious) how will meeting his mother for Thanksgiving turnout? Also PLEASE included Taylor in the next book. She was one of my favorite parts of the first book and I really missed her in the second.
Alex and the witches would definitely have wound up being super tight regardless of Rachel & Lorelei, yes. But truth be told: if there’s one thing I would change if I could rewrite these books, it’s Molly & Onyx striking up the relationship they have with Alex. In hindsight, I wish I’d written them as being more or less strictly lesbian rather than bi. Representation is important to me, and I already had serious bi representation going on in the books. If Molly & Onyx were a monogamous lesbian couple and they were strong friends of Alex rather than the playful semi-dating thing they’ve got going on, I could still have covered all the same ground.
Thanksgiving with Mom is still a thing in my head. I don’t know when we’ll see it on paper, but yeah, it’s there. As for Taylor, I haven’t forgotten about her, but the sequel was super crowded and somebody had to go on vacation to make room. 🙂
Just finished listening to the Audio books for Good Intentions and Natural Consequences and can’t wait to hear more. Personally, I’m glad you took the direction you did with Molly and Onyx. Their parts in the stories were some of my favorite parts of the novels.
A quick question about Wade: Have you decided where he obtained his “southern ” accent? The reason I ask is that, being a Texan, the way he uses the word y’all is a bit strange to me. At least the way the word is used where I live, it is always used as a replacement for the plural “you all”. If directed at a single listener, it is only used when they are being addressed as being representative of a group.
I have heard that it can be used the way Wade speaks in some parts of the south; but it does sound a bit jarring for someone who grew up about 2 hours west of Dallas.
Also, when mentioning firearms, most weapons do not use “clips”. A clip is basically a strip of metal that holds bullets together by the base of the shell casing. An example would be the M1 rifle used in WW2.
What most modern weapons use to hold ammo is referred to as a magazine. Unlike a clip, a magazine is fully enclosed, not generally exposing the ammunition. A detachable magazine is what holds the bullets in most modern rifles like the M-16 and M-4 as well as any pistol that is not a revolver.
Of course, most people who are unfamiliar with firearms would likely still us the term clip. Anyone who has military training would use the word magazine.
All of this should be taken as constructive criticism and not as an attack. I’ve very much enjoyed your novels so far and hope the information I’ve given you proves useful.
Hi Randle,
I take no offense at your criticism! All is well.
Regarding magazine vs clip: I have some small degree of military training, and I know magazine is the proper term. I’m also used to it being disregarded pretty often. I won’t say it was deliberate, but in hindsight I’m not too worried about it. Maybe seeing this pointed out to me will influence me away from using the term, though. 🙂
My mil sci-fi books have a few other moments of lax terminology & military etiquette, because my experience has been that such things aren’t really universal. Cultures always emphasize different things.
As for Wade’s accent: Wade is one of a handful of characters based on people I actually know. Sadly, there is no real-life Lorelei or Alex, but Rachel’s “voice” is pretty strongly inspired by a friend. The “real” Wade is from Arkansas and calls me y’all all the time. I’ve known Texans and other Southerners who do it, too. Honestly, more than a few readers have said I use “y’all” incorrectly, which came as a surprise to me. I think if there’s an actual rule it needs to be publicized more, ’cause I seem to find an awful lot of people breaking it. 🙂
Thank you for reading! I hope to have something out *very* soon. I have cover art in hand already!
I stumbled across “Good Intentions” less than two weeks ago on Audible. Something about the glib and sarcastic “WARNING” caught my attention, and made me move “Good Intentions” to the top of my Wishlist. I was instantly hooked. The next day I paid for extra credits so I could add “Natural Consequences” knowing I was going to devour the first story before next month’s credit arrived. I’m now about halfway through the sequel (I would have inhaled it with as much gusto as the first, but law school is an attention-seeking bitch), and am just as enthralled.
In one of your replies above, you mentioned continuing the story so long as their is a readership. Even though I’m not finished with the second novel yet, I sincerely hope you continue. Aside from how interesting the characters are, I am also inspired by how you’ve been able to tie together the adult themes with a compelling character-driven story. To be honest, I didn’t take the “WARNING” seriously. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the story’s balancing act between a Kim Harrison “The Hollows ” series style of urban fantasy and licentious erotic fantasy, and yet still be completely unique.
In some ways it has helped me confront some issues in a some of my own stories. I’ve been writing short stories for years, mostly just local and university writing competitions. But this past year I made my first attempts in writing fantasy, and came up with two different novels, magic systems, and reading levels. One is more of a young adult epic fantasy story, but the other is an adult themed urban fantasy story inspired after reading Lev Grossman’s “The Magicians,” Brent Weeks’ “Night Angel” trilogy, and the first couple of novels in Kim Harrison’s “The Hollows” series.
When I write the latter story I find myself holding back and second guessing what I want to put down on paper thinking, “That’s too far…you’ll alienate the the reader…how would you feel if your parents read this?” But after “Good Intentions” I feel like I shouldn’t have to censor the behavior of my characters. This series is a good example of how you can blend the decadent with emotional depth that will still resonate with the reader and not eclipse the story.
All that to say, I really hope you do decide to continue with the series (and rehire scarypet for more visuals). I think it’s awesome and I think it is going to have an impact in my own writing. And for the love of Heaven, Hell, and everything in between, please keep Tess Irondale as the narrator. She is amazing!
I just finished “Natural Consequences” on Audbile not 20 min ago after rolling right into it after is finishing “Good Intentions.” These two books are some of the best Urban Fantasy books I have read in a very long time.
I found “Good Intentions” on Amazon randomly one day and after reading the “back cover” I bought the ebook/audible combo right away because I just knew it would be a fun read just from reading the blurb about a random avarge joe finding himself bound to an angel and a succubus. And I have to say I was not disaponted. The two books have helped me get through a long work week and even when i was not at work I found that I could not push the pasue button on my phone (which happens to almost every other aoudiobook I read.) I cant not wait for the next book.
Any progress on book three, perchance? I’m missing me some foul-mouthed angel and succubus-on-the-road-to-redemption dialogue!
We’ll see Rachel, Lorelei & Alex in something soon. I’m working on some short story collection stuff that I’ll have out before the end of the year…hopefully much sooner than that. Cover art is in the works. You’ll have to wait a bit for a full novel, but there’s a good chance that’ll be my next project. 🙂
I bought both audio books because of the WARNING. And I was not disappointed with the fulfillment of every item on the dirty little list. Tess Irondale’s voice was also a good experience. Some voices just sound mechanical or detached. She sounded engaged and happy to voice each character and each scene.
I found the most hidden thing in the book to be Lydia cleaning a man’s hand at the well. That kept me scratching my head for a bit. I thought, “Guess that’s a good source of income.” Then later in the story the hand belonged to a man that was stabbed in the back. And I was thinking, “I know who’s hand that is!” Then in the second book, the hand and such didn’t come up. But knowing how things worked better, she shouldn’t have been able to stab that man in the back – he wasn’t going to the pit. Further, he had a guardian angel. So, it seems you had a little voice whisper in her ear to make someone’s charge another hero that would die young.
I don’t know if I read more into that or not, but it sure was slick sir. 🙂 Thanks.
I stumbled upon these books on audible, they sounded interesting so I got them, WOW!!! Just fantastic I’ve listened to them both (Good Intentions and Natural Consiquences ) at least 5 times now and just ordered the paperbacks for my collection. I love how to blend humor, erotica and action, not to mention a great storyline. Eagerly awaiting more!!!!
I listened to the audio books read by Tess Irondale of Good Intentions and Natural Consequences and loved them. I am waiting for a sequel or at least a short story with Molly, Onyx and Taylor included . Please have Tess read the next book. She does wonders for the story.
You’re in luck! I’ve just put out a collection of stories today called “Life in Shadows,” and I have signed a contract for it with Audible. I can’t speak for Tess, but I can tell you she’s absolutely who I want to narrate it. I’m moving on to a blog post about it right now.