MARKED BY OBSESSION BY JAMI GRAY

Yay! Jami Gray is here today. Jami is a friend, awesome author and lover of Labradors.
​It's been awhile since she last visited,
but she comes with a great post and Book III in the PSY-IV Team series,
MARKED BY OBSESSION. 

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MIND vs. HEART

Much thanks to Debbie for letting me bring MARKED BY OBSESSION over for a visit. Especially since you know me so well and the chaos that tends to follow in my wake. (leaning over and wincing) Should I apologize now for the mess the Fur Minxes will do to your garden? (looking around) I love what you’ve done to your place, by the way! Oh look! (pointing excitedly) Nana and Zrinka were here! (waves enthusiastically) Hi, guys! (brushing hands off and getting into author role)

Hello, oh beautiful followers of Debbie’s wisdom, I’m so happy to get a chance to visit with you. I’ve brought along my latest paranormal romantic suspense release: MARKED BY OBSESSION. It’s the third book in my PSY-IV Teams series which centers around a select group of ex-military psychics who’ve come together to protect others from global criminals using their own misfit psychics.

My first love is Urban Fantasy, which blends the magic into the modern world, so playing in the psychic world wasn’t new for me. Explanations of where psychic abilities originate runs the gamut from theory to myth, but when it comes to storytelling, I tend to lean toward the belief that those extra abilities stem from the magical world. For example, in my first series, The Kyn Kronicles, there is a covert government group that works with the Kyn (a race made up of every known myth) which is composed of human psychics. The Kyn agree to work with them because they see psychics as the multi-generational offspring of Kyn and human matings.

When I created the PSY-IV Teams, I didn’t focus on the why behind my characters’ abilities, just that they existed, despite being completely human. Some of the team were born with abilities, others discovered them later on, normally thanks to some traumatic trigger. In my world, psychic abilities don’t come without costs. It takes a toll on the body as much as the mind and spirit, which meant each character needed to have a core of mental strength and discipline. Which then made using ex-military personnel as my psychic warriors a natural twist.

Warriors of any kind have to main traits: a protective streak and a high level of discipline. Discipline when paired with a protective urge, can be pushed the wrong way, say to the point that the one trying to do the protecting will sacrifice themselves. Think of Spock with Capt. Kirk when he willingly goes in to save the crew at the expense of his life. Yeah, just like that.

The biggest challenge I faced with this series was ensuring that my apparently “super-human” warriors weren’t, well, super-human at all. They couldn’t be all knowing, stronger than those around them, or invincible. They are, after all, human, complete with all our nifty little neurosis and self-doubts, and cobweb draped corners of hidden darkness. So while their abilities come in handy, they can also be the reason my characters fail in the first place. Think what it would mean to you if you could read the minds of those around you, or if you knew what the future held. How long before expediency left you twisting the minds of those around you to get the outcome you wanted,  because it was just easier than arguing about it, or you began manipulating situations to avoid certain futures because you know doing it this way hurt less people?

Now I had heroes/heroines with personal stumbling blocks trying to outwit a profit-driven clandestine organization with their own darker versions of the good guys (that would be the paranormal and suspense parts), but it wasn’t enough. I decided to pair my heroes/heroines with partners guaranteed to set their world on its ear, then flip it to its back, kick it in the stomach, then tickled it until they couldn’t breathe. (Yep, that would be the romance part of the story.) For MARKED, our studly hero is Wolf, the team’s telepath and all around alpha protector (growly teddy-bear with fangs). His match? The slightly obsessive, introverted, girl next door, Meli, who’s mind was locked tighter than Fort Knox. Now Wolf has to actually rely on his male instinct to figure out how to get surprisingly independent Meli to trust him enough to keep both her body and heart safe from the mysterious psycho stalker she’s managed to pick up. And to keep it fun—she thinks his colorful vocabulary is a bit much, and he’s determine to enhance hers.
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Despite the unusual talents of my characters, in the end it comes down to discovering our own inherent strengths. Not all of us were meant to kick righteous ass and take down evil with wicked right hooks, some of us are those who face down evil armed with courage, conviction, and a selfless-heart. No matter the weapons, both are warriors to be respected.

Some betrayals hide behind love, others obsession...

The loss of her beloved brother and a series of unexplained events plunges Meli Dwyer into a dangerously unfamiliar reality. Alone and floundering, she turns to the sexy and unsettling Wolf Kincaid, PSY-IV Team’s skilled telepath, for help even as her battered heart whispers to steer clear of a man more dangerous than what hunts her.
Will Meli find the answers to her personal nightmare before one man’s obsession costs her the heart of another?

Available in paperback or e-book at:
jamigray.com
Or anywhere books are sold!

MUSE IT UP Publishing     AMAZON     B&N     KOBO

Jami Gray is the award winning, multi-published author of the Urban Fantasy series, The Kyn Kronicles, and the Paranormal Romantic Suspense series, PSY-IV Teams. She can be soothed with coffee and chocolate. Surrounded by Star Wars obsessed males and two female labs moonlighting as the Fur Minxes, she escapes by playing with the voices in her head.

Hunt her down at:
www.jamigray.com       Twitter     Facebook     Goodreads

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