Author Spotlight: Abigail Barnette

Hi everyone! So today we have the awesome and hilarious fun Abigail Barnette visiting with us! (Seriously – just reading over her post I was giggling.) 😀 Let’s hope she’s willing to come back and visit with us again! I especially have a very fond spot for Ms. Barnette in my heart because she saved me from all the ideas swirling around in my head/nothing to post. Yay!

Oh – and a bit more detail. So I’m potentially one of the “official bloggers” of Authors After Dark. Who knows if it’ll happen – but better to cover all my bases, right? We’ll be hearing from a number of other AAD authors as well. Those handy dandy tags will be a good indication. 😉

But for now, Ms. Barnette is the very first so here we go!

Since this is an AAD-related guest blog, I thought I should share my tips for having a super awesome AAD experience.

  1. Pick up other people’s drinks. Last year, there were several opportunities to get well and truly soused for free, but the lines were crazy long. Make yourself useful by picking up drinks other people have set aside and abandoned. Drink the hell out of them. Hey. Stop looking at me like that. AAD is about family, damnit, and family doesn’t have germs.
  2. Introduce yourself. To everyone. Just walk up to strangers and start asking them intensely personal questions. Even if they’re not a part of AAD. Last year, I learned a lot about the MBA program that was conferencing at the hotel at the same time. Also, a drunk student
    showed up to grind on people at the karaoke party, and he wasn’t terrible looking. See? Make new friends, keep the old, all that.
  3. Ask questions at panels. Last year, someone gave out chocolate to everyone who asked a question. Seeing this, my friend Jill raised her hand and asked if she could have some chocolate. It was a question, it counted, and now who has two thumbs and a Hershey’s bar? Jill does.
  4. Tell the pool guy about threesomes. I can’t stress how much enjoyment I got out of swimming laps while the pool guy talked to me about everyone he knew who ever was in a threesome. That’s not facetious. I really did enjoy it, and I made a new, creepy, custodial friend.
  5. Bring an empty suitcase, because you’ll have stuff to take home. You won’t even know how you got it. In Philadelphia last year, I vowed that I wouldn’t take any books home, but when I pulled into my driveway and opened the back of the car, it looked like a freaking library. And bath salts. Not the drug, the useful kind of bath salts, for soaking in a tub. I got so many packets of bath salts. And pens and post-it notes, hell, I don’t even office supply shop anymore if I know I’m going to AAD. The swag is ridiculous, and the volume of it is ponderous.
  6. Always bring a towel. No particular reason, other than this seemed like sage advice to close on.

Now, I’m really excited and pleased to introduce you to my latest novella, BEAST. Set in the fictional kingdom of Chevudon, the latest installment in my Naughtily Ever After series is a re-imagining of what else, Beauty and The Beast. It’s all about love and redemption, and since so many people asked when they’d get to see his story, it’s also all about Prince Philipe. So please, enjoy this blurb and excerpt, and one lucky reader will walk away with a free copy!

Accused of treason by his own father, Prince Philipe of Chevudon finds his flight to safety cut short by an arrow to the shoulder. There is only one person to whom he can turn for help, the only woman he ever loved, the only person he ever truly betrayed…

Following the destruction of her home and family in a fire that left her horribly disfigured, Johanna has lived a life of hardship and pain. When her lost love comes to her, wounded and on the run from his father’s guard, she cannot turn him away. But she cannot forgive him either.

Can a prince who was once a beast earn back the love he cast aside?

A hot bath, a good meal, and a vigorous whore were all Philipe longed for, in that order, as his horse pounded down the frozen road. Knowing that such luxuries were unlikely didn’t stop him from wanting them. He’d been riding hard for three days, his father’s men at his heels like dogs on a fox.

“We’re but a mile from Clatterbuck,” Jessop, Philipe’s companion, once captain of his palace guard, called to him over the thunder of hooves. He was breathless from the ride, and red-faced, and Philipe knew that he might as well have been staring into a mirror. An exhausted, unshaven mirror.

“If Lord Fueil has not forsaken us, I may make it out of the kingdom alive.” He gripped the reins tighter in his swollen fingers, the cold leather of his gloves creaking.

It was a strange position he found himself in, that of the fugitive crown prince. His father, once Albart the Wise, King of Chevudon, had become Albart the suspicious, Albart the confused. Albart the paranoid and vindictive, who’d driven his own son from the palace with allegations of treason.

Philipe plotted the route in his mind. Shelter for the night behind the walls of Fueil’s fortress, then to the border and beyond, where his father’s men could not seek him. But as they rode on, his own suspicions deepened. The hovels on the outskirts of Fueil’s land showed no signs of life. Further into the village, not a chimney smoked nor a babe cried.

“It’s deserted,” Philipe said, scanning the low rooftops. His exhausted horse nickered and stepped restlessly.

“I don’t like this, Your Highness.” Jessop looked over his shoulder. “I think we may already be trapped.”

He’d barely finished his sentence before a thump widened his eyes and he fell from the saddle, an arrow protruding from his chest. Philipe ducked and tugged the reins, bringing his horse around to shield the fallen man. For but a moment, he considered trying to save Jessop. Another arrow sliced through the air, striking his horse in the neck. The animal reared back, spilling Philipe to the ground. He caught the reins of Jessop’s horse. The man lay on the ground, unmoving, as the hooves of Philipe’s wounded, maddened horse struck the mud around him. Jessop was dead, that much was clear, and Philipe did not intend to waste such a noble man’s death. He put his heels to Jessop’s horse, freeing the animal to carry him wherever it may, so long as it was out of this place.

Fueil, you bastard! When this was finished, when Philipe returned to his kingdom to inherit his throne, he would have the traitorous lord’s head on a pike.

Something struck him in the shoulder. A stone? He was nearly unhorsed, but righted himself in the saddle, arm aching. Only when he tried to lift it did he feel the sharp, shattering pain of splintered muscle and bone. The shaft of an arrow protruded from his shoulder, and hot blood wet his arm inside his sleeve. He cursed and reached for his sword, but the pain of the motion made him scream as the world blackened, only for an instant. He fought to clear his head. If he were to fall now, it would be over. He would wake in father’s dungeons, awaiting execution, or perhaps he would not wake at all.

Snow drifted through the treetops as riders pursued him, back the way he’d come, farther from the border that would be his safety. In his mind, he conjured a map of his father’s kingdom. It was thirty leagues to the border, and his horse was good for a few miles, at most. If he could have burned Fueil’s lands with the fire of his rage, he would have.

Fire. The word branded the map in his head with another, wholly unpleasant option. To the northeast lay Hazelhurn. The one place in the entire kingdom he might trade for the underworld. But it wasn’t death that frightened him so. He had to live, so that his father’s throne would be inherited by someone with reason and sanity, not some power-mad courtier who would be worse than the feeble-minded old man.

He would go to Hazelhurn, and the gods help him. But first, he had to lose the men following him. Plunging his horse headlong into the trees, he kept low and prayed that the lord of Hazelhurn would be far kinder to him than he deserved.

What’d you think? Have you ever read anything by Abigail Barnette before? Or… her “writing alter ego” Jennifer Armintrout? Any thoughts on the excerpt? Do you enjoy fairy tales? Twisted ones? Sexy ones? Let us know! (Oh also – there’s no “buy” link for Beast because it’s not available or up on amazon yet. When that happens i̶f̶ ̶I̶ ̶r̶e̶m̶e̶m̶b̶e̶r̶ I’ll update it.)

0 thoughts on “Author Spotlight: Abigail Barnette

  1. Liz

    What an exciting sounding books with a damaged heroine! Love it. Can’t wait to get it. I’ve never read anything by Abigail/Jennifer, but that’s what I love about this blog so much – all the new-to-me authors! I really like fairy tales with different twists, from scary to sexy and all parts in between. Great post, really hilarious. Please come back and post for us again!

    Reply
  2. Sharon

    Your advice made me laugh. I’ll be sure to remember the towel. And I LOVE stories of redemption and a second chance at love. Beast sounds wonderful!

    Reply
  3. Renee Brown

    I loved the excerpt. I really like your writing. It smacks of skill and engages readily. I’m ready to read!

    Reply
  4. vanillaorchids69

    Nice excerpt. I feel kind of bad for Jessop at the moment though.
    Anyway, I do like fairy tales and I have read some sexy ones. 🙂 I’m afraid that I have not read any of Abigail’s/Jennifer’s books yet but would certainly like to.

    Pam

    Reply
  5. Cathy Phillips

    Abigail/Jennifer, thanks for such a fun post. I have never read anything from you before under either name.

    I do enjoy fairy tales.

    Reply
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  7. Limecello Post author

    Abigail – Thank you so so much for visiting with us!!! I definitely hope you’ll be willing to come back. 😀 Your list is something I’ll take to heart. 😉 I laughed so many times while I was reading it.

    In fact, I hope EVERYONE who goes to conferences takes your advice. It would definitely make for many exciting stories, don’t you think? 😀

    Reply
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  9. Carolline Greene

    I loved the tips at the beginning, I almost snorted my coffee while I was reading it. You have been added to my list of people I must converse with while in New Orleans! Just fair warning if you try and take my drink you may get kicked in the shins, not because of germs but because you tried to take my booze. Very sage advice for AAD Virgins like myself to take, thank you!

    Abigail/Jennifer is a new-to-me author. That being said I adore fair tales. Every Sunday is Once Upon a Time in my household, I look forward to checking out Abigail/Jennifer’s books.

    Reply
  10. aliquis

    I know this is way too late, but this might be the best post I’ve read. Loved this conference advice. I hope everyone takes it because that would make for excellent stories. I also hope anyone who does follow these tips takes pictures of the surrounding people’s reactions.

    Reply
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