The Moonlight Market by Aidee Ladnier ♥ Fun Facts, Book Tour & GIVEAWAY ♥ (LGBTQ+ Paranormal Romance)

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College senior Cory Long tracked his missing sister to the magical Moonlight Market to bring her home. Instead, he found a disorienting world of performers and hawkers, bizarre sights and sounds, and one very familiar showman, Sanderson Beets. Like a drowning man, he latched onto Sanderson, trusting him to navigate the twists and turns of the Market as unerringly as he had steered Cory to passion in their furtive trysts on campus.

But Sanderson was tired of being the quickie in the alley.

Sanderson Beets had escaped the Moonlight Market to attend college, hoping to settle into a normal life, maybe meet someone and fall in love. To obtain that new life he made a dangerous bargain. And when the sinister woman known as the Weaver of Dreams is involved, second chances always come with strings attached…and sacrifices. Sanderson’s debt has come due, and the only payment he has to offer is Cory, and their chance at a relationship.

1. THE MOONLIGHT MARKET is my longest book to date. I started out as a short story writer and I’m still feeling my way with longer stories, but I think I’m getting better. Something that THE MOONLIGHT MARKET has that none of my other stories have, is a complete character arc for three characters—my main character Cory, his lover Sanderson, and Cory’s sister Poe. That added up to a much larger word count than some of my original stories. My first story was less than 6500 words. And I have literally won awards for my flash fiction. I placed in a Writer’s Digest Short Short Story contest with a 1,000 word story and came in third in the Queer Sci Fi Flash Fiction Contest with a 300 word story. So I know how to write short. It’s writing longer stories that is still a little bit of a mystery to me.

2. THE MOONLIGHT MARKET originally took place over a single night and the Weaver was barely a cameo. Although the Weaver of Dreams is now the undeniable villain of THE MOONLIGHT MARKET, she wasn’t always. In the original story, Cory came to the market in search of his sister who had been missing for a year! The Weaver’s tent was a much shorter stop on Cory’s way to discovering what happened to his sister Poe. And Sanderson wasn’t in college in that version. He was simply another mysterious denizen of the market. I think Cory’s a lot happier with the new version of Sanderson, even if Sanderson makes some rather dangerous deals to pay for his tuition.

3. The magician Johnny Preston, in THE MOONLIGHT MARKET, was written to honor my Dad. My father was a magician his whole life. When I was eight, he began grooming me to be his assistant, teaching me rope tricks so he could demonstrate them and then hand the rope to me so I could duplicate them. Then he’d hand the rope to his hapless victim and say, “Even a child can tie that knot. Surely you can do it.” When the bystander failed and asked my Dad how he did it, he would calmly take back his rope and wink at me, saying, “a good magician never reveals his secrets.” I’ve written an extra piece of flash fiction about Johnny Preston (as well as a couple of other characters from THE MOONLIGHT MARKET), so check my blog at www.aideeladnier.com during the month of November to read them for free.

4. The Praxinoscope mentioned in THE MOONLIGHT MARKET is a device nearly a hundred and forty years old. It was an early animation device that utilized drawn images. Each image was drawn just a little differently and when they were put in the whirling contraption, the pictures seemed to move. I love antique gadgets, so I knew I had to put one in this story! There are a few other antique objects referred to like the Victorian skyhook. I love the idea of whimsical tin balance toys. So much more interesting than a stationary statue. And a Jacob’s ladder toy—my sister used to have one of these and I loved how it clattered as it fooled me into thinking the wooden blocks were cascading down.
Those are my fun facts. Do you have anything you’d like to know more about from THE MOONLIGHT MARKET? Just ask and I’ll be glad to answer!

“Cory?”

He swiveled to see Sanderson leaning out of the main office of the Center. “Is there something I can help you with?”

Cory felt tongue-tied for a moment. He stepped back, and the pins on the corkboard stabbed into his spine. Sanderson would be here. Of course he would—he was a center volunteer. Here to witness Cory at his most vulnerable. That was pretty much the only time they interacted. Ever since the Meet and Greet and the abortive drink at the bar, Cory had gone out of his way to avoid seeing Sanderson. There was only so much self-loathing and want Cory could stomach in himself. And he didn’t want it on display to someone as nice as Sanderson had been to him.

But he remembered their first time and the flyer Sanderson had ripped to give him his number. Could it be the same one Cory was looking for?

“Hi…um, I was looking for a flyer I thought I saw up here.” He pointed to the bulletin board. “It was yellow?”

Sanderson gave the board a once-over and shook his head. “Looks like someone snatched it. I know the one you’re talking about. I’ve got more.”

Sanderson jogged back to the desk, and Cory trailed after him. He bent down to his backpack, affording Cory another eyeful of muscular ass. The barest strip of pale skin showed between the hem of Sanderson’s T-shirt and the belted waist of his jeans. Below it, his hips rounded into a tempting curve. Cory clenched his fist, pushing back the yearning to crowd close behind Sanderson, push him to his knees, and let his fingers delve under the denim to grasp that curve as he—

Excerpt Three:
He almost ignored it.

Almost.

Tiny bells tinkled nearby.

They sounded closer.

His skin tightened with goose bumps.

Niari glided into the pool of light cast by the lantern hanging on the back of the tent. Her long, inky dress brushed the bells on her ankles and pulled the shadows forward with her.

“Your debt is coming due.” Her trilling, accented voice floated over the noise from the fairway beyond. In front of the tent children giggled and laughed, the calliope blared out its joyous concert, and the lanterns burned away the darkness. But Sanderson stood in the shadows behind…with her.

Sweat coated his palm, and it slipped from the curtain. He swiped at the bead of perspiration on his upper lip, the pit of his stomach icing into a lump.

“I found someone.” He blurted out the words. “A lost soul. Someone who’s lost something.”

Panic bloomed in Sanderson’s chest. Was he actually going to offer Cory to the Weaver? Cory who just wanted to find his missing sister. Cory of the soft hair, bitable nipples, and beautiful, slim cock. Who made Sanderson feel normal. Like a regular guy.

“Good.” Her smile widened, filled with too many tiny teeth that gleamed bright in the lantern light. “Are they tasty and ripe?”

“Madame?” Sanderson’s gut twisted at the hard glitter in her eyes. A chill crept down his spine. She looked…hungry.

He blinked. Niari stood before him, still and silent, waiting, just a woman again. The malevolent flash must have been a trick of the dim light. He shrugged off the unease and shook the numbness from his fingers.

   

Aidee Ladnier, an award-winning author of speculative fiction, began writing at twelve years old but took a hiatus to be a magician’s assistant, ride in hot air balloons, produce independent movies, collect interesting shoes, and amass a secret file with the CIA. A lover of genre fiction, it has been a lifelong dream of Aidee's to write both romance and erotica with a little science-fiction, fantasy, mystery, or the paranormal thrown in to add a zing.

        

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