Release Day Blitz for Jacci DeVera and her debut story Heavy Handed

I'm pleased to welcome special guest and a dear friend of mine--Jacci DeVera. Jacci stopped by to tell us about Heavy Handed, her debut M/F paranormal short-story romance. 

Blurb:

Eighty acres in the middle of nowhere should give Jake Merritt exactly what he wants after his ugly break-up: Solitude.  But Alicia is bound to his land in ways she’s not even sure about, and can’t pick up and leave just because Jake’s the new owner. Once he decides to believe her story, things take an ominous turn, and by then Jake’s beginning to rethink sending Alicia away forever. Can he break the curse that holds her, and free himself to risk loving again?

Available via Amazon, Amazon UK, Decadent Publishing, ARe, Barnes & Noble and other eRetailers.

Excerpt:

"If this land is cursed," Jake's frowned deepened, "it's to make all its owners stark raving mad." He crossed his arms, the billy-club resting against his chest. "So, what? I'm supposed to believe the sheriff killed you? Buried you here?"

She looked down, her long black hair falling forward.

“That's what you said wasn't it?"

“I don’t know!” She looked at him, obviously frustrated and frightened. “I don't know what to believe either. The longer I'm here, the more I forget. I don’t know anymore! And maybe I did at one time!" Tears shone in her eyes. "I don't know, but I want – I just want –"

"What?" Jake's frown deepened. "Revenge?"

"No." She said it without reservation, her countenance reinforced. "I do know that much. It was hate and cruelty. That's what I found here when I came awake. That's what brought me to this. Malice and spite. So much despair and sadness and grief. I can't stand it. I can't stand thinking this is what I'll know for eternity. What I might become."

"You said ... you were what Josie might become."

"Did I?" She paced around him in a half circle. "Do you hate her enough that your bitterness corrupts everything you touch? Everything you think? Every memory you have? The poison, it's real. Just like evil is real. Where poison slowly takes the life, evil relishes in watching the pain it causes; watching the joy and life leeched out; watching a heart harden. The curse here is going to take more than sage."

He glanced at Dennis.

Her eyes remained on Jake. "It's going to take a cure."

About Jacci DeVera

Jacci DeVera lives in the southern Appalachians. She enjoys writing as much as she enjoys napping, cats, cookies, myths, and wolves. The only hard and fast rule she has when she writes is that the story must have a happy ending. Romance was the natural choice to settle in. She is thrilled with the direction writing, and particularly romance, has taken in recent years with genre lines blurring, so her love of fantasy, paranormal, and historicals can intermingle without fear of intolerance.

She cites Destiny Blaine as her mentor. 

She has two delightful, independent daughters who help keep the house from falling apart while she's working. And an encouraging husband who likes traveling to romance conventions. She believes in the importance of the journey as much as the destination itself. Stories are found everywhere if we pause long enough to listen.

Heavy Handed, via an online contest sponsored by 3 Rusted Spoons and Dark Hollows Press, is Jacci's debut as an author in the publishing realm.