{"id":1438,"date":"2012-04-17T00:01:31","date_gmt":"2012-04-17T07:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/?p=1438"},"modified":"2012-04-18T07:09:33","modified_gmt":"2012-04-18T14:09:33","slug":"songs-in-the-key-of-forbidden-love-by-ellis-carrington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/songs-in-the-key-of-forbidden-love-by-ellis-carrington\/","title":{"rendered":"Songs in the Key of Forbidden Love by Ellis Carrington"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"\"<\/a>Today Ellis Carrington tells the story behind this wonderful story!<\/em><\/p>\n

Authors get asked often about the inspiration for their stories. For me, as I would guess for a lot of writers, it\u2019s a combination of real-life inspiration and a very rampant imagination. And then, there\u2019s the music: Music has always been my first love. As I think it does for a lot of people, it evokes powerful emotions, and really gets my creativity churning. I can easily get completely lost in a song, or on a dance floor.<\/p>\n

I was inspired to write my novella, Amor Prohibido, when Amber Allure posted an open call for novellas with a theme of \u201cPostcards from Paradise.\u201d I thought immediately of Puerto Morelos, Mexico, and right away, I envisioned Pakal. This gorgeous, sun-bronzed man, strolling casually across the town street. A man with the look of a handsome beach bum, with a job that seemed kind of mundane, who would turn out to be somewhat special and powerful\u2014an immortal spirit guide. I thought about the local Mayan ruins, and sort of knew his story right off the bat. But I didn\u2019t have a clear picture of Pakal\u2019s love interest, at first.<\/p>\n

And then one day I heard The Bravery\u2019s \u201cBelieve\u201d on the radio. That, combined with a recent conversation about the way folks seem to misperceive abuse in same-sex relationships (a subject I\u2019ve got some personal experience with) came together to give me a very clear picture of Jacob, a man who had surfaced from a low and painful place in his life, only to find that he wasn\u2019t quite sure where to proceed\u2026or whether he really wanted to proceed at all. And just like that, thanks to that song, I knew not just Jacob\u2019s story, but how the two would fall in love, and how they would make each other stronger.<\/p>\n

And the journey that Jacob and Pakal wound up making together wasn\u2019t an easy one to write, but in the end it was pretty thrilling, and the soundtrack was a lot of fun to listen to as I wrote their story. I\u2019ve shared an excerpt, as well as my playlist, to help put everyone in the mood. I hope you enjoy:<\/p>\n

Songs in the key of Jacob (and Amor Prohibido): The Bravery\u2014\u201cBelieve,\u201d Better than Ezra\u2014\u201cAt the Stars,\u201d Red Hot Chili Peppers\u2014\u201cOtherside,\u201d The Airborne Toxic Event\u2014\u201cHalf of Something Else,\u201d Mother Love Bone\u2014\u201cGentle Groove,\u201d Matt Nathanson\u2014\u201cFaster\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Amor Prohibido:<\/em><\/strong>
\nJacob Freehan has no job, no man, and no motivation. In pain both from ending a long-term abusive relationship and a severe back injury, he escapes to the sunny seaside town of Puerto Morelos for a little yoga, a little R&R, and possibly a place to quietly end his own life.
\nPakal is a centuries-old immortal Mayan spirit guide who has been charged with getting Jacob on the path toward healing. Romantic involvement with a spirit charge is strictly forbidden, and it has never been a problem…until now. Pakal sees something special in Jacob, but failure to keep a rapidly growing attraction at bay could result in Jacob losing his life and Pakal being condemned to the Underworld forever…<\/p>\n

Buy it here:\u00a0http:\/\/www.amberquill.com\/AmberAllure\/AmorProhibido.html<\/a>
\nExcerpt:<\/p>\n


\n\u201cUh, yeah. Hi. Pakal, right?\u201d As if he didn\u2019t remember. Just like he remembered the hills and valleys of the large man\u2019s muscular arms, the golden glow of the sun as it shimmered on his chest. The strong grip with which the man had shaken Jacob\u2019s hand. He had, in fact, remembered it the night before in his dreams, and again that morning in the shower.
\nPakal nodded and grasped Jacob\u2019s injured leg without any pause to request permission. \u201cLet me look at this,\u201d he murmured.
\nAh, damn.\u00a0Pakal\u2019s hands were warm, firm, and alarmingly reassuring as they massaged the muscles around Jacob\u2019s aching knee. And then\u2026there was that strange pulse again, strongest at the points where Pakal\u2019s hand touched Jacob\u2019s skin.
\nThough it had been a little startling at first, the sensation wasn\u2019t at all unpleasant. It reminded Jacob of walking into a large dance club and feeling his body throb along with the bass line of his favorite music. He had an inexplicable urge to place a hand over Pakal\u2019s bare chest, to see if it was the larger man\u2019s heartbeat that Jacob\u2019s body was vibing with.
\nBuy it here: http:\/\/www.amberquill.com\/AmberAllure\/AmorProhibido.html<\/a>
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\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Today Ellis Carrington tells the story behind this wonderful story! Authors get asked often about the inspiration for their stories. For me, as I would guess for a lot of writers, it\u2019s a combination of real-life inspiration and a very rampant imagination. And then, there\u2019s the music: Music has always been my first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52,63],"tags":[261,254,255],"class_list":["post-1438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-event","category-guest-posting","tag-amber-quill","tag-backlist-strikes-back","tag-ellis-carrington"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pzLgx-nc","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/63"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}