Alisa Sheckley - Moonburn

Praise for the novels of Alisa Sheckley

MOONBURN

Alisa Sheckley has an understanding of human foibles and lust, and a light, intelligent touch with inhuman foibles and, er, lust, that marks her as an author to watch and enjoy.

N EIL G AIMAN

Full of fascinating characters and loads of surprises, Alisa Sheckleys Moonburn brings an engaging new twist to shape-shifter romance.

J ULIE K ENNER, USA Today bestselling author

THE BETTER TO HOLD YOU

An intense werewolf story with some interesting new twists.

Fresh Fiction

A story filled with passion and mystery.

Romantic Times

Praise for Alisa Sheckley writing as Alisa Kwitney

TILL THE FAT LADY SINGS

If Milan Kundera, Tama Janowitz and Dr. Joyce Brothers had collaborated on a book, they might have come up with this imaginative and quirky first novel.

M AXINE C HERNOFF,
The New York Times Book Review

A lively novel and a compulsive read, which is saying a lotand it taught me a thing or two, which is saying even more.

F AY W ELDON

Subversive, revolutionary Its great!

C AROLYN S EE, Los Angeles Times

A delicious confection, as tart and spikey as a lemon meringue pie.

L AURIE M UCHNIK, Newsday

Bright and funny and remarkably poised.

The Boston Globe

A cool, funny, stylish, and very original look at life and love in Manhattan, by a remarkable new writer.

A LISON L URIE

Till the Fat Lady Sings is an engrossing satire of the New York female intelligentsia.

N AOMI W OLF

An immensely poised and well-crafted performance, which kept me smiling to myself throughout.

P HILLIP L OPATE

FLIRTING IN CARS

This exciting tease of a novel will set your heart pounding like the best love affair. Smart, funny, sexyI loved it!

P AMELA R EDMOND S ATRAN ,
author of The Man I Should Have Married
and Suburbanistas

Flirting in Cars is a modern-day fairy tale about finding happily-ever-after where you least expect it. I couldnt put it down.

K AREN Q UINN,
author of The Ivy Chronicles and Wife in the Fast Lane

Alisa Kwitneys cross-cultural love story is intelligent, funny, and sexy.

T HELMA A DAMS, US Weekly

SEX AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

The romance between Kat and Magnus is true-to-life and achingly bittersweet with one of the sexiest scenes involving two forty-somethings since The Thomas Crown Affair.

D EBRA P ICKETT of the Chicago Sun-Times

An engaging and intelligently written comedywith a few genuinely titillating sex scenes.

Publishers Weekly

Sex as a Second Language, Alisa Kwitneys smart, sassy, sexy tale of the single mom who brings in a spy from the cold and warms him up, is funny and emotionally true, a great read!

J ENNIFER C RUSIE, bestselling author of Bet Me

ON THE COUCH

A teasingly good read. Sexy, sassy and a little kinky. A different take on Manhattan lifemore handcuffs than cocktails.

C AROLE M ATTHEWS, USA Today bestselling author

DOES SHE OR DOESNT SHE?

Alisa Kwitney is my guilty pleasure.

N EIL G AIMAN,
Hugo Award-winning author of American Gods and
New York Times bestselling author of Coraline

Witty, charming, funny and real, Alisa Kwitney brings a fresh voice to chick-lit and romance!

C ARLY P HILLIPS, New York Times bestselling author

Sharp, sassy, and sexy.

J ENNIFER C RUISIE, New York Times bestselling author

THE DOMINANT BLONDE

Her search for the perfect boyfriend and the perfect hair color is delightful. It belongs right up there with all the legally and naturally blonde bombshells of our time.

L IZ S MITH, nationally syndicated columnist

I was caught in some bizarre redneck version of a French bedroom farce. There we all were, seated around the kitchen table, trying to act as though two of us hadnt just had a close encounter of the ambiguous kind. The one-eyed hawk, a female, was perched on top of a high kitchen shelf, where shed made a nest out of paper towels, twigs, and a fair amount of hair, most of it mine. She was watching me with one unblinking golden eye, like a hostess who suspects you might make off with the silverware, or the host. Our other fosterling, Rocky the raccoon, was curled up catlike on the hammock chair that hung from the ceiling. The bat, who had no name, was hanging upside down from the dream catcher beside the bed.

I wouldnt have minded escaping into sleep myself.

Red and Mal and I were being awfully polite to one another, but there was a peculiar undercurrent in the room, a low level hum from the conversation we werent having.

At least, Mal was clearly too sick to have been doing anything carnal to me. And it hadnt been carnal. At least, I didnt think it had been.

Mal had explained that I had nearly fainted, and Id just finished telling Red about my earlier encounter with Marlene. It seemed like the safest subject at the moment well, the safest for me, at any rate. I was pretty sure Red wouldnt be paying Marlene any house calls, even if she found a timber rattler in her basement.

Red winced when I got to the part where Marlene told me shed have to take care of the problem herself. No wonder you wanted to bite her. What made that fool woman think her dog had been bred by a coyote, anyway?

She said she heard coyotes howling, I said. I guess she just assumed.

Red shook his head in an almost canid gesture of bafflement. I hear it all the damn time. People see a stray dog, start insisting I come by because it looks like a coyote. So I show up and take a look, and its some poor mutt that got left by the side of the road. But no one ever believes me. It must be a coydog, they say. Kill it before it eats my babies. I tell them its more likely to be a wolf hybrid than a coydog, but no one ever listens. Red stood up and took a Budweiser out of the icebox. Either of you want one?

I started to say something about it being a little early for drinks, but then realized that the winter sun was already dipping below the horizon. It had been so warm lately that Id forgotten it was January, the dark month when the ancients used to light candles and look for omens, and modern folk plan tropical vacations.

Ill stick with my tea, thanks. Malachy was frowning. Tell me, why is it so unlikely that a coyote male might breed a domesticated bitch in heat?

Red popped the top of his bottle. Because the coyote male would have to be in season, too. Almost as an afterthought, he added, Folks always seem to think that wolves mate for life, and coyotes dont, but theyre wrong.

I busied myself examining my nails and realized that, once again, Id forgotten to wear the golden topaz engagement ring Red had given me last year. I hoped he didnt think it was symbolic; the ring just wasnt practical with latex gloves, and besides, my divorce still wasnt final. Wed decided it was a friendship ring for now.

Fascinating, said Malachy, stirring sugar into his tea. So coyotes do mate for life?

Sometimes. Red took a swig of his beer. But sometimes wolves lose a mate and then take another. They dont all just pine away.

Still, wolves were a hell of a lot more faithful than people. After all, wolves didnt wake up one morning and decide they were bored with their old mates. You didnt get packs splitting apart because the alpha male had decided that the alpha female just didnt do it for him anymore. Werewolves, on the other hand, were as monstrous as humans when it came to fidelity. Or maybe it was just my former husband who was monstrous, in either form.