One of the hardest things it seems to do as authors is to engage readers during an author’s chat, particularly if you’re not sure what to say, and or you have a lot of lurkers. I’ve been at any number of author’s chats over the years, and only when I began employing some of these tips, was I able to engage comfortably with readers. Also when I started using the right excerpts, like the ones from the ReScue Series and the Virtus Saga, but that’s one tip I’ll talk about later on, at the end of the blog.
Here are 5 tips for engaging your readers during an author’s chat:
1. Come prepared to talk. The worst thing you can do is not show up to your chat prepared. You should have any graphics, excerpts, blurbs, printable and covers in a folder on your desktop before your chat. Looking for materials during a chat, you not only seem unprofessional but also like you don’t really care how your readers perceive you.
2. Ask questions. Readers can be shy, and most of the time there are lurkers who are reading posts but not participating. One way to get readers to participate is to ask them questions. They can be questions about what genres or storylines they like to read, or even which book they want you to write next!
3. Create a contest for a prize that you know readers will covet. For example, a very short story you wrote just for this chat. Make it clear that you will only be giving this story away at this chat to one or two winners! Ask a couple of questions from one or two of your books and then choose a winner from the correct answers.
4. Don’t give away your latest releases at author chats. Occasionally giving away a book from your back list is okay, but when authors do it often, then readers expect it, and they’re less likely to buy when they know you give away your books. Instead, give away short stories as mentioned above. Perhaps consider giving everyone who openly engages during the chat, those who don’t get a chance to read it. This can be a second short story for example, or even author or book swag!
5. Give away digital/printable promo materials. Digital bookmarks, desktop wallpapers, teasers and such are awesome! Ask your readers to share them on their social media and give them away to anyone they think might enjoy them. Another idea is to give away a chapter book that has the first chapter of every book you’ve published. Again, encourage your readers to read and then share!
These are all wonderful ways to help engage readers during your chat! If you employ even two of the five you should have readers engaging in a way that seems effortless on your part! This makes the chat more enjoyable for you and your readers!
But the best tip of all, in my modest opinion, is to post great excerpts that will draw more and more readers to your chat. How do I define a great excerpt?
It’s the one that conveys all the passion, the eros, the strength of the characters. In short, it’s one that gives the readers the measure of your book.
So for this blog, I’ve chosen two that do just that from my Virtus Saga and one from the ReScue Series.
EROTIC MM

You’re an impossible case, sweetie!

“I never promised anyone everlasting love or a long¬-term relationship for that matter. If they had expectations, it was entirely their problem, not mine. To me, it meant noth¬ing besides fun in bed and some extra excitement during the business hours, nothing more.” His eyes flashed. “I certainly wouldn’t get all emotional and weak over something so trivial.”

“Cold and insensitive beast,” Sean teased, but his heart felt as heavy as stone. That’s because you don’t value your emotions, lover, while to me, they’re my most precious assets, however much you’d disagree. “You’re still wrong, and since you strive so hard to be a good manager, which you are by the way, you should consider their feelings more. That’s what should come first, especially if they work for you, and you want them to be their most efficient. Take me for instance.”
“You’re an impossible case, sweetie.” Despite the light tone, Sean was not convinced he was teasing. “No good, not even as an example.”
“Oh, come on.” Piqued in spite of himself, Sean snapped. “I’m sure you’ve met worse.” The hunter’s skepti¬cal glance told him maybe he had not. “Anyway, I can’t give my best to people who don’t mean anything to me. It would be like wasting my time if I didn’t get an emotional feed¬back, so why should I?”
“For your sake alone. Isn’t work a big part of your life? And if so, shouldn’t it repay you for the time you put into it?”
“Unlike you, lover, working is not a choice.” Be¬cause I don’t have a rich family covering my ass, even if you have a problem with it. “And unlike you, it doesn’t define me or who I am.” Sean’s lips curved in an ironic snarl. “Like your guru said the secret of life is to be, not to do, which is my philosophy, too. I am, and I know who I am.” And that’s a hell of a lot more than you can say for yourself, Indian teachings notwithstanding. “Therefore I don’t need to do anything to prove it.”
“This attitude isn’t going to get you anywhere.”
“And I’m not planning on going anywhere…” Except under your skin. “At least not as far as work is concerned.”
“Then what’s your real ambition?” And the look of suspicion in the dazzling green eyes made Sean wonder whether Leon had read his mind. So just in case, he averted his gaze.
“For now I’m okay with what I have,” he lied. “Though it would be nice if you could stay over this week¬end.” It was not a habit, of course, but at times, the best ones to date, Leon stayed from Fridays to late Sundays, giving Sean the rare opportunity to watch him asleep, powerful naked frame stretched out next to him, lean muscles at peace, long dark hair scattered on the pillow, chest softly rising and falling in steady breathing.
“Sorry, sweetie, I can’t.” Leon rolled off. “Have to be with Peg’s parents tomorrow.” Glancing at his watch, he sat up. “In fact, it’s late enough, so I better go.”
Right, he’s fucking married! Sometimes Sean forgot the insistent rumors at work claiming Leon had affairs with his secretaries, each one in turn it seemed, while his wife looked more unhappy each passing day. Then it would come back to him with Suzy’s sad disclaimers and angry requests to know who spread the malicious allegations—wishing they were true, of course—or in alternative, who was the lucky woman. Needless to say, Sean felt a thrill of excitement thinking it was him in fact, Leon’s secret lover, and pursued the game with more energy, making its predictable result during the nightly overtime bloodier and sexier than imaginable. “Oh, no, you don’t.” Grabbing the broad shoulders from behind, Sean wrestled Leon down, then squatted smugly on his crotch. “At least not until I’ve used your wonderful dick one more time.” And swaying his ass seductively on the limp organ, he felt it becoming alert.
“Damn!” Leon pushed up his hips, attempting to unsaddle Sean, obtaining only the exact reaction his prey wanted, the forward thrusts hardening the cock. “Sweetie…”
As the tone turned deeper and huskier—the shaft’s fault, no doubt—Sean’s arousal grew to a sizable erection, too. The endearment, whatever the language or the voice, was the hunter’s own call, and its possessive undertone always made Sean lose control with the awareness he belonged to Leon…in or out of bed, in or out of time and space.
“Come on. Stop…”
Well, he sounded anything but convinced, not with a cock as thick as his had become. “Is that what you really want?” With a smug grin, the prey continued the sensual rub between his ass and the bulging head now pushing up to enter, not throw him off anymore. Since it was his same aim, Sean spread his buttocks apart to make it easier for the shaft to get what it wanted. His narrow hole was large enough anyway after Leon’s repeated poundings, so the dick slipped inside without any effort. Soon filling the available space to its fullest, it strained for more, only the balls could not follow, however deep Leon shoved to get them inside, helped also by Sean having to clasp his hands to keep from falling off. And the drilling burned his butt with a fiery heat that crunched his balls from the sheer pressure of the semen throbbing to come out. To help him resist, the not-so-comfortable position worked great, forced to rely on the hunter’s firm hold to allow his legs to press the ass down every time the hunter thrust upward. “Just say the word, and I’ll end it right now.”
“And miss all this?” Swinging his hips, the hunter penetrated so far inside Sean thought the tip of the erection would come out from his throat. “How the hell do you manage to convince me every time?”
“Because you can’t get enough of me.” Squeezing the hard screw in his butt, his own thick dick twitched in agreement, and the prey was afraid he would lose it right there and then.
“Oh, no, you don’t!” With an elegant rollover, Leon flipped Sean beneath him, gaining the upper hand and impal¬ing his lover deeper since the new position, with the prey lying on his back, allowed for greater pumping.
But Sean was close to the edge, the dangerous one of spilling his feelings, a mistake the hunter would inevitably catch and the prey would regret for the rest of his life. It was the same reason he had chosen a strenuous position that required much physical effort and distracted his mind. Lying down, instead, with Leon’s hair brushing now his face, now his shoulders or chest, he could have kicked himself for falling once again under the hunter’s spell like in every past life. The sole difference this time he accepted it, even en¬couraged his falling deeper in love since any other alterna¬tive was a useless battle, a total waste of time according to his age-old experience.
No, he did not want to repeat the experience. It was high time for a change. To alter the endless pattern, even against Leon’s adamant resistance, to devise a new strategy, a different way to play the game in order to turn the tables and bring the hunter at the prey’s mercy. How exactly to beat his lover’s stupid rules, Sean still had no idea, but looking at him, the prey fantasized of a long-term relationship, con¬vinced that allowing feelings inside the game would only enhance it, a seemingly impossible dream considering the past’s high failure rate. Then again, Leon was well worth another attempt…always had been, though his prey had so far lacked the skill to accomplish it. Well, maybe not now that he was a man with the experience of the women’s wasted lives and the opportunity to redeem them.
In Leon’s arms, ass ravaged by the frenzied hammer¬ing, he wanted to prove his point—however remote the possibility the hunter had not yet guessed it, in view of his trained eyes and ears that in other lives had sniffed it out even before the prey had. Wrapping his neck, Sean pulled Leon down, blindly seeking the full lips, then opening his mouth wide the moment he felt the tongue’s nudge, sucking it inside to mix with his flavor, melting and surrendering everything he had to the only one who ever meant anything to him.
As if sensing Sean’s mood, Leon increased the sensu¬al sweeps, almost reaching the throat both with his tongue and shaft, the tempo of one matching that of the other, until the prey knew he had him right where he wanted him. At the verge of an explosive come, the uncontrollable spasms in his butt were not surprising given the amount of emotions spic¬ing the plain sex into a more elaborate plate than the hunter was prepared to handle. Then before Leon had the chance to recover, Sean rolled him over and jerked off while straddling him, the feeling of the cock cramping his ass still strong in spite of its going limper by the second, the sensations tearing his soul apart more than enough to push his desire to the tip of his erection and flood the hunter’s chest with powerful jets of hot, seedy fluid.
EROTIC MMF

Just following orders, Lady Templeton!
Hardly recovered from their deep sharing, of fluids and feelings, the three were moving off, and already another woman was petitioning for her and her lover’s chance to be in the spotlight. “Leader, Romy and I—”
“Sorry, ladies,” Chris cut them off. “My lovely mate needs a definite break.” Getting up, he reached the table where Ylianor was standing. Don’t you, sleeping beauty?
I never thought the great Lord Templeton would stoop so low as to embarrass himself in front of everyone, she mocked.
Then again, maybe she did not deserve it.
Orders from above, dearie. So he played it rough. Nothing I’d be doing of my own volition, he lied shamelessly. Not with a no-good slave, anyway. But the second he clasped her arm to pull her close, all pretenses fell from him.
No, he did not fight the tide of love overwhelming him as he brought his lips down on hers. To be honest, he could not. She tasted so sweet, exciting and yielding in his arms he simply wanted to drown in her and melt his fire in her slippery liquid that enveloped him like a nurturing balm. And his reaction was opening her up in ways he had seen happen only with Duncan. It was like there had been one last barrier between them that was crumbling under his complete acceptance of this love.
Every part of it.
None excluded.
By the gods! What a selfish bastard he had been to deny her for so long!
Let’s not dwell on the past, Demon, her soft voice boomed in his mind, Only on the future and on your powerful love. Bending against him, she parted her lips wide, swallowing his tongue whole.
He became lost in her. It was not just a physical sensation. It was more of an immaterial one, with her holding him inside her, like the son she was carrying, except it was the man she had within her.
Yes, she had always owned him.
Only he had been too foolish to admit it. And it did not feel strange anymore to have two people own him. It was not like he was split-up among them, either. No halves, the whole of him belonged to both. Body, mind and spirit completely devoted to two, angel and demon, both sides of him at their complete disposal, one shiny being for two.
With the love came the irresistible attraction, the one he felt for no one else but these two astounding individuals, the same that justified his vicious side and the bloody game.
For he had his answer now.
He did not play it because he wanted to hurt her. He played it because he could be truly himself with her alone. If with everyone else he had to erase the memory after acting out his deepest fantasies, with her he had no need to, for she accepted him exactly as he was. Now he could keep doing it without remorse or guilt. Not just because the prince had become a part of it.
And that alone had made it possible for his two opposites, the angel and the demon, to reunite.
Because she was the key to it all, and this awareness had just brought that game to a whole new level. A sophisticated and seductive level he would have never thought possible. A level he could access only with her as his victim, his prey, his woman. And that turned him on more than if he had his knife at hand right now, or almost as much as having her body crushed to his despite the pronounced belly of her now visible pregnancy.
Never in his life would he have thought to crave a woman the way he craved Ylianor. He who had scorned women, pregnant ones in particular, could not keep his hands off her. His cock had become so thick with a mere kiss that it ached. Whether because his tongue had reached her stomach, or whether because her cunt rubbed against his groin with that characteristic sway of hers and took care of his erection. Whatever the reason, his arousal was maddening, requiring an immediate satisfaction he had no intention of granting at the moment.
Pushing her gently toward the table, he made her lie down as his mouth broke the tantalizing kiss to move down to her cunt. He did not hurry to reach it. He wanted to take his time to nibble and savor her most delicious parts, like her breasts. Tonguing her taut buds was a way to hold his excitement in check, or so he hoped. Truth was that the more he stroked her pointy tips, the stiffer his meat piece became. Which was nothing comparable to when he went close enough he could smell her craving.
Talk about wet!
She was dripping like a fountain, her honeydew trickling down her thighs. Her flavor was even worse. Strong and pungent, it clung to the tip of his tongue before it slid right down to his balls. Her clit was a throbbing knot begging for someone, anyone, to burst it. Her inner lips were so puffed up he could just imagine how fiercely they would cling to a shaft, any shaft and swallow it whole in one avid gulp.
He went further down…oh, boy!
Her ass was always a temptation he could never resist. He lifted her legs, so he could also see the wrinkled entrance he longed to possess right here, right now. Even if it was with his erection, he forced himself to bide his time and let the tongue have fun with it first. Rimming the narrow edges was a way of increasing his anticipation, anyway. He just hoped he would not explode instead of her, not yet anyway.
Plunging inside confirmed how close he was to the edge. But she was closer. The trembling of her flesh as he penetrated it again could not hide it. And raising his gaze, he understood the reason why.
Straddling her, knees pressed around her face, Duncan was feeding her his gigantic equipment. That was certainly bound to tip her over the edge, so Chris did his best to help her. Returning to the swollen clit dancing on its own, his tongue crushed it under a savage attack. At the same time, he let go of one of her legs. With calculated ferocity, he shoved into her pussy and ass, stuffing both with two fingers each.
It was the end of her.
Arching her back, Ylianor shattered under his very eyes. Lucky for everyone, Duncan occupying her mouth prevented her scream from leaving their heads. Or perhaps luck had nothing to do with it. If he knew anything of how the three of them worked, his lover’s choice of sexual service had nothing casual about it. He and Duncan both knew how loud sleeping beauty could get when she lost control, and this was undoubtedly one such occasion.
Despite his cock’s furious jerks and protests, Chris continued ignoring it. Concentrating instead on her drenched cunt, he lapped it generously, teasing the swollen edges of her pussy and thrusting into their welcoming entrance. Her ass was equally welcoming, opening up to his solicitation as though it wanted nothing else, while she kept coming over and over, unstoppable.
“Fuck, Angel.” The leader’s throaty whisper did not go lost on Chris. “I think I’m about to come.”
“No, wait for me, lover.” He lifted both her legs again. “Aren’t we supposed to give them the best show ever?”
“That’s why you should hurry up.” The prince’s full lips curved in a snarl. “‘Cause she’s too hot for me to slow down any.”
“I understand perfectly.” No, Duncan did not have to spell it out.
Adjusting her rear hole in front of his erection, he swung his hips forward and centered it at the first hit. Unsurprisingly, she came again. No, actually she had never stopped coming, and her frenzied convulsions hampered his thrusts to her guts with all that clenching and relaxing of her muscles in fast waves. But the moment he was half inside, the swells took over and sucked his rigid beast to the hilt, also beyond had there not been a natural limit. Incredulous to say the least, Chris could practically remain still while her contractions did all the work, accelerating it to the point he lost it mere seconds after he had penetrated.
With Duncan’s climax filling her mouth and overflowing down her cheeks, Chris unloaded a split second apart. And the prince catching his lips in a deep kiss intensified everything.
Too bad it had to finish. Were it up to him, he would have let it go on and on like their orgasms, which seemed endless because time had slowed down to freeze their moment. But eventually, everything sped up again.
“I want more of her.”
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