The Moonlight Market NBtM

Blurb:

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.

Excerpt:

“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—

Danger in the Moonlight

When I think of Halloween, inevitably I think of the huge golden harvest moon overhead. That full moon means ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties are roaming the shadows just beyond my vision. But you know, my fear of the dark might go back even farther, maybe as far back as recorded history. Some researchers think our instinctual fear of the dark and hyper-awareness of the full moon are linked to a time thousands of years ago when our ancestors lived with the lions on the savannas of Africa.

Unlike most animals, humans never evolved to have good night vision. We're fairly helpless with no moon to guide us. But we still enjoy the night life and are generally active until about 10:00 p.m. at night. So, on moonless nights or nights with little moonlight, humans with their poor eyesight were easy prey for animals like lions who can see much better in the dark.

As to why we sometimes dread the coming of the full moon? The full moon rises about an hour after sunset. Humans expecting to be able to see in the brightness of the full moon are still active during that hour despite the fact that it's very dark. Humans are future-thinking animals. We anticipate moonlight to guide us, even if it's not there yet. Animal attacks during the full moon within that dark hour, between sunset and the full moon rise, are more numerous than at any other time of the month.

Is it any wonder our ancestors came to dread the full moon? It appeared to them (and to us) as if all bad things came with that bright disc in the sky. And since they didn't pass down the genes for good night vision, they passed down the instinctive fear of the full moon instead. It looks like a fear of the darkness, and the creatures that roam within it, is genetically coded into our DNA.

That’s why when I wrote THE MOONLIGHT MARKET, I wanted a place where shadows might grow long, taking on shapes both sinister and menacing. And the perfect place to put it was under that bright full moon and its false sense of safety.

Stay safe this Halloween and keep to the lighted paths. Who knows what might be lurking in the shadows!

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Author Bio and Links:

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.

You can find her on her blog or on her favorite social media sites:

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