Blue Moon
(A Smoke and Mirrors Novella)
by Skye Warren
From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Skye Warren comes a new story in her Smoke and Mirrors series.
Charismatic. Devious. Secretive. Emerson Durand is the ringmaster for the illustrious Cirque des Miroirs. In each city he finds a new woman to command for the night. Until he finds the one woman who doesn’t bow to his demands.
Luna Rider soars through the air as an aerial acrobat. She’s determined to provide for herself and her sister, but she doesn’t count on being gambled away. Or the secrets that hover under the striped tent.
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An Exclusive Interview with Skye Warren
Can you tell us why or how you chose to write about this couple for your novella?
When I started writing Ringmaster Emerson Durand in RED FLAGS, I knew he would get his own story. Insouciant. Charming. And he’s actually the villain of that book. So can he be redeemed? It’s the question I’m always working to answer. Emerson harms the heroine of RED FLAGS and risks the entire circus in his attempt to keep his brotherhood with the owner, Logan Whitmere, intact. If he’s going to deserve his own happily ever after, it’s going to be a journey. A scorching hot journey 😉
Do you do anything to treat yourself when you finish writing a book?
Because I write books like I’m sprinting to the mouth of a cave where a bomb has gone off behind me, the fire blooms licking at my heels, the second I finish a book I basically collapse. And sleep for thirty six hours straight. Sleep is celebration.
If someone were to narrate your life, who would you want the narrator to be and why?
Joe Arden. Using a variety of accents.
What one piece of advice would you give an aspiring writer?
Write the book you want to read. Someone else is dying to read it.
Can you give us a few lines from your work in progress?
Here are a few lines from RED FLAGS, the novel where we first meet Emerson. This is Logan Whitmere, owner of the circus, and Samantha who lives in a small town where the circus has just arrived.
“Specifically,” he says, his voice lower now, “the dark peach of your lips makes me want to kiss you. Even though that should be the last thing on my mind after seeing those fuckers hurt you.”
Shock holds my feet to the earth. If some guy at the coffee shop threatened to kiss me I’d probably slap him. But I have no idea how to react when this man speaks to me this way. My mouth suddenly feels awake, as if it wants his lips.
I asked for something real. Something specific. He’s giving it to me.
“Specifically,” he says, touching a hand to my sternum–above my breasts, below my neck, a place both innocuous and impossibly intimate. “The bruises on your neck make me want to track down those assholes, beat them to shit, and drown them in a fucking swamp. I’m sure you have swamps around here somewhere, right? Most small towns do.”
Now my hand goes to my throat, not to feel the pain or the filth, but to shield myself. How the hell am I going to hide this at the coffee shop? I’m fucked.
“I don’t get involved with townies, so why the fuck am I even talking to you?”
He sounds pissed off, which ironically I like best of all. It’s the realest of real, because I don’t want to be talking to him either. He’s going to be gone… When? Tomorrow? In a few days? Next week? Maisie didn’t tell me how long the circus would stay, but it won’t be forever.
And then I’ll know what it felt like, to talk to someone interesting. I wouldn’t be able to do it again. Not ever. Not fucking ever.
“I don’t get involved with anyone,” I say. “So why the fuck am I talking to you?”
He leans down and kisses me. It’s a soft kiss, questioning, exploring. I answer without meaning to, stretching onto my toes to meet him. He groans, a soft rumble that makes electric arousal arc through me. The swipe of his tongue across my lips makes me gasp.
If you could dream cast (actors, models, singers… anyone really!) the hero and heroine, who would you choose?
Jacob Elordi and Emma Stone
What’s your cure for hiccups?
Distracting myself with a great book – it works!
What mythical creature do you wish actually existed?
Dragons, though sometimes I think my snarly, hoarding dogs qualify.
What scene in this book was the toughest to write and why?
Definitely the scene where the heroine admits her dark past to the hero.
If you could watch one scene from this book be played out like a movie, which one would it be and why?
The opening scene, where the hero approaches the heroine backstage before her act. There’s a breathless anticipation, a sense that he doesn’t belong here, and that starting now, neither does she. And then we see her fly onto the stage. I would love to see that whoosh of her trapeze act in a movie!
What’s the worst thing you’ve eaten out of politeness?
Not much. I have a strict no-eating-things-I-don’t-like policy. The good news is that I like a lot of food!
What’s the most awkward thing that happens to you on a regular basis?
Falling down. Me. The ground. #itscomplicated
Biography:
Skye Warren is the New York Times bestselling author of dangerous romance. Her books have sold over one million copies. She makes her home in Texas with her loving family, sweet dogs, and evil cat.
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