Archive for Voice for the Silent

Voice for the Silent coming this Sunday


Here’s the blurb:

Investigating and busting dog fighting rings is what Julio Herendez lives to do. Defending the innocent and vulnerable from monsters makes his day, but when he meets Paine, Julio finds himself wanting to save the young man from the cruel world he’d been forced to survive.

Paine Addison exists in a world where the weak and innocent are exploited for entertainment. The men who use him and fight the dogs don’t care about the damage they inflict. He lives from day to day, doing what he can to heal the wounds suffered by others, but unable to help himself.

Julio and Paine meet, triggering a chain of events that rocks both their worlds to the foundations and brings justice for the silent victims.

Excerpt:

No way was he staying there any longer. Not when he had his uncle’s permission to leave. He headed to his beat-up truck and unlocked the door. Before he could climb in, he was grabbed from behind and dragged into the shadows by the side of the hotel. He kicked and fought, but screaming was useless because of the hand covering his mouth.

“BB, settle down. It’s me, Juke.”

BB froze, sure he heard that wrong, but the slightly accented voice whispering in his ear was familiar. He’d heard it several times before talking to the dealer earlier that night. He struggled to turn around, and Juke let him.

He stared up into the man’s dark eyes and swallowed. “What are you doing here?”

“I followed you after the fight.”

Oh, God! Embarrassment swamped BB and he ducked his head, letting his hair block Juke’s view of his face. The dealer knew what was going on. There wasn’t any way he didn’t know Caesar sold BB to that guy.

What did it matter what Juke thought of BB? The dude sold drugs for a living and got his jollies watching dogs tear each other apart for sport. What kind of man would do that? No, Juke was just another monster like his uncle. Yet BB didn’t remember ever seeing Juke stay all night at one of the fights, except tonight. He shook his head. Didn’t mean anything. No one cared about BB or the dogs. He had to deal with all of it on his own.

“What’d ya want? Uncle called. I gotta get back to his place.” He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Juke.

Juke checked around the corner before he faced BB again. He scrubbed his hand over his dark hair. BB tried not to stare at the tattoo that danced on Juke’s cheek just below his eye. He knew what that small black teardrop meant and it didn’t fill BB with confidence.

“Don’t go back to his place, BB. It’s not going to be safe for you there.”

BB snorted. “What makes tonight”—he looked up at the lightening night sky— “or I should say today any different? That place ain’t been safe for me in years.”

Juke huffed out a low breath. “Trust me, kid. You don’t want to be there when the shit hits the fan.”

“I ain’t a kid.” He didn’t know why he said that. It wasn’t any of Juke’s business how old he was.

“Fine. I don’t give a shit how old you are. Just don’t go home right now. Some shit’s going down in the next couple of hours, and you don’t want to get caught up in it.” Juke stuffed his hands in his front pockets like he was trying to keep from touching BB.

“Why should I trust you? Where would I go? I got no place else. No other family than my uncle. You think if I did, I’d be living with him, letting him do this shit to me?”

The way Juke eyed him made him nervous. It was like the guy peered into BB’s soul and saw all the dreams he’d buried deeper each year.

“Actually, I think you stay because of the dogs, kid. You could’ve run away a long time ago.” Juke pulled something from his pocket and handed it to BB. “If you need a place, call this number and tell the person who answers Julio told you to call. They’ll give you a place to crash. No questions asked. Nothing owed.”

“Julio?”

Juke’s laugh was harsh and low. “Do you seriously think my mama called me Juke?”

Okay. The man had a point.

“Fine. I’ll call and go there, but what’s gonna happen to Uncle Caesar? How do you know?” BB fidgeted as his nerves started zinging. “It’s got something to do with the dogs, don’t it? Damn, man, I can’t let anything happen to those dogs. It’s not their fault my uncle’s a bastard.”

“True, kid. Don’t worry about the dogs. They’ll be safe soon enough.” A beep came from Juke’s phone and he pulled it out to look at the screen. “I’ve got to go, BB. Please, just call that number. Oh, and Queenie’s going to be okay.”

Relief rippled through him at that knowledge. “Can I see her?”

“Once this all blows through, I’ll get a hold of you and take you to her. How’s that?”

“Dude, you’re not a drug dealer, are you?”

He didn’t dodge as Juke reached out and stroked a finger down his nose. Chuckling, Juke shook his head. “No, BB. I’m not.”

BB nodded, not sure he could speak with as dry as his mouth had suddenly gone. In all his twenty-one years, no one had ever touched him so gently. Not even his mother. Not that his mother had been around much during his life. She’d given birth to him and dumped him on his aunt and uncle before running off with her very own drug dealer.

Before BB’s mind adjusted to what happened, Juke slipped off into the shadows, moving like the predator BB had always assumed he was. He fingered the business card Juke had handed him. He wanted to go back to the kennels, to be there when whatever went down happened, yet he doubted he’d be any help to the dogs.

All his life, he did what he had to do to keep the dogs safe, and none of it mattered. Uncle Caesar continued to fight them. The dogs continued to die, and BB’s heart continued to break. Maybe it was time to step back and try to straighten out his own fucked-up life before he did any more for the dogs.

Juke had said Queenie was all right, and BB trusted the man not to lie to him about that for some reason. Whoever Juke really was, he seemed to be honorable about that. Some spark of hope burned in BB and he found himself thinking maybe God had finally answered one of his prayers. Maybe the abuse would stop and the dogs would be free to be dogs, though BB knew the odds against the canines were huge.

Being raised in an environment like his wasn’t conducive to hopes and dreams. A man survived as best he could and hoped he didn’t meet a bloody end at the hands of another human. He’d done what he had and lived to see twenty-one. At one time, he never believed he’d grow that old.

Snowy Thursday



Of course, it’s snowing on the one day I plan to leave the house…lol. Having lunch with my mom and then going to have dinner with one of the ladies I used to work with. Yay!

Shades of Dreams was the #1 best seller at Amber Allure for December. Thank all of you who bought it.

I sent in a partial to my YA publisher this morning, so I’ll be waiting to hear on that. Deepest Cut is a very emotional book, but I think everyone will fall in love with Charlie. 🙂

Voice for the Silent is set to come out on Sunday. I’ll try to remember to post the blurb and an excerpt tomorrow for everyone.

Well, I have to go get ready to start my day. I hope you all have a great Thursday.

New cover…


This is the cover for my Jan. 9th release at Amber Allure. It’s perfect for Julio. 🙂

Here’s the blurb:

Investigating and busting dog fighting rings is what Julio Herendez lives to do. Defending the innocent and vulnerable from monsters makes his day, but when he meets Paine, Julio finds himself wanting to save the young man from the cruel world he’d been forced to survive.


Paine Addison exists in a world where the weak and innocent are exploited for entertainment. The men who use him and fight the dogs don’t care about the damage they inflict. He lives from day to day, doing what he can to heal the wounds suffered by others, but unable to help himself.


Julio and Paine meet, triggering a chain of events that rocks both their worlds to the foundations and brings justice for the silent victims.


I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Have a wonderful Friday and a marvelous weekend. 🙂

Ugh!!!


It’s Monday. That’s about all I have to say about today…lol.

But it was a good weekend. I got Voice for the Silent almost finished. I’ve got another 3k or so to do. I have to finish up one sex scene and write another. After that, I have to do the synopsis before sending it off to the publisher. Woo-hoo! Then I’ll start working on Falling in Love…Again and Destroying Belief. Both stories got put on the back burning when Julio and Paine burst on the scene and wanted to tell me their story right now.

Of course, I got another idea over the weekend and did a little thinking on it. I haven’t written much down, but it’ll get put on the list to be written. 🙂

Let’s see…nothing else amazing happened to me, so I’ll just say have a great Monday, everyone.

Friday off….


Woot! I took today off. 🙂 But today, I don’t have anything to do, so I’m hoping I’ll get a lot of writing done. It would be nice. I got 2k done on Voice yesterday and it’s moving along pretty nicely. No sex yet and I’m over half way through the story, but sex wouldn’t fit in any earlier than I’m going to be put it in. Hopefully, the publisher I’m going to send it to will accept it like that.

Oh, someone asked if the covers on the sidebar were still in publishing order….and the answer is yes. They’re still in the order they were published, just two by two this time. 🙂

I hope you all have a great day and a wonderful weekend.

Wicked Wednesday….


You know…there was something I wanted to tell you all…or a question I wanted to respond to, but for the life of me…I can’t remember it. Oh, I’m sure it’ll come back to me at some point. lol.

Writing went well yesterday. As well as I could hope since I was busy most of the day and only got about 1k added to Voices, but hey, it’s 1k more than I had yesterday. And one of my friends got to read the updated version. She loved what I have so far. I think this is one of my most emotional stories. In a way on par with Angel’s Evolution, though not as violent, imo. 🙂

That’s all I have…at least until I figure out what the heck I wanted to actually say…lol. I hope you all have a great day. Oh, I’m on Facebook now. If you look for me, look for T.a. Chase since they won’t let you have two capital letters for your first name.

It’s Friday….


Woo-hoo! Yep, I took today off. Have to run my dads to the airport, then C and I are taking off for a concert tonight. I decided I needed a mental health day. 🙂

I plan on doing some writing and editing. Not sure how much will get done today, but I do think I’ll be able to get some more written this weekend. Voice for the Silent is moving right along.

Oh, as you can see, I switched things around a little bit on my blog. The covers of my books now all link to their sales page at their respective publishers. I needed to find a way to show all of them without making you have to scroll all the way down the blog. Also, I put up a little word count thingie, so you can keep track of my progress on the various stories I working on. Hope you like that.

I forgot to mention that Wolf’s Survival hit the #1 spot on Amber Allure’s best seller list for September. All in only four days. I want to thank you all so much for supporting me and my stories. 🙂

I hope you all have an exciting Friday, and a safe and fun weekend.

New Cover….


Here’s the cover for Shades of Dreams which will be out Dec. 12th. I got the release date wrong…lol. And like I said, Shades and Be The Air For You will be out in print (together) in mid-January, I believe. 🙂 Woo-hoo!

Someone asked me the other day about The Vanguard and one line there about the Prince’s blood having something strange in it, and then it was never addressed in the rest of the book. That’s my fault. It’s one of the plot ideas that either got away from me or I changed my mind about having in there and forgot to take it out. Sorry about that.

There was another question I wanted to answer, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what it was. Sorry, and as soon as I do, I’ll make sure to give my answer. I’ve been fighting a cold/sinus infection for the past week or so. I keep hoping it’ll go away soon, but it seems to want to stick around. At times, my brain is barely functioning…lol. And this morning is one of them.

I plan on doing a lot of writing this weekend, in between other obligations. So maybe I can get Voice for the Silent halfway or even all the way done by Sunday night. Wish me luck.

Have a great Friday and a marvelous weekend, everyone.

Wicked Wednesday….


Sorry about being a little late posting today. I got started working on the next installment of Geeks, and forgot the time. 🙂 I’m sure you don’t mind hearing that, huh?

I’m buzzing away on Voice for the Silent. It’s going really well and I’m happy with how the story is turning out. I fall in love with every one of my characters, but there’s something about Paine, one of the main characters in Voice that just grabs my heart strings. I’m really hoping you all will love him too when you get a chance to read his story.

Well, I’m going to get back to writing Chuck and Herb’s story. Have a great Hump day, everyone.

Not Seeing is Believing available now….


My second blind vampire story, Not Seeing is Believing, will be available tonight around 7pm. at Liquid Silver Books. I’ll put up a link to it as soon as I get one. 🙂 I hope you all enjoy Barry and Anthony. Their story doesn’t have a lot of angst in it. Both men have had time to deal with their baggage for the most part. It’s mostly just about them falling in love.

This happens to be one of my all-time favorite covers. April Martinez did a great job.

And don’t forget that Wolf’s Survival came out yesterday (actually Saturday) as well.

I’m working away on some stories. I mentioned last week that I started two new stories, or at least wrote down some scenes for two new stories. One of those stories is titled Voice for the Silent, and I worked like crazy on it over the weekend. I’m at around 11k right now. Woot! I’m not sure how long it’ll end up being, but the characters in this story are really talking to me. Julio is an investigation agent for the Humane Society. He tends to go undercover to bust dog fighting rings. Paine is a young guy whose uncle runs a dog fighting kennel. He does his best to take care of the dogs, but he can only do so much. It’s a story about learning to forgive oneself and move on past tragic beginnings.

I hope you all have a great Monday.