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Kate Messick

    About the author Tell us your story? What made you start writing? Long story short – I wasn’t getting enough sex in my marriage, so I wrote my husband a guide in the form of a romance novel. It didn’t improve my sex life, but I found I really enjoyed writing. If you’re looking for a bit more: I’ve always been an avid reader. I wrote a terrible novel in high school (USA); my Dad and teachers were brutally honest about it. I was in the special education program because of dyslexia and a hearing impairment, so writing wasn’t easy for me. I put the concept out of my mind and focused on more attainable goals. Fast forward twenty years, I’m now a displaced classical clarinetist living in England – away from my family, my friends, and the orchestra (Symphonic Anime Orchestra) that I founded and wrote a ridiculous amount of music for every year. I’d gone from a career-oriented woman with big goals to basically a decorator wife. It was fun for a bit, but wow, not having my creative outlet got really old, really fast. Which also messed with my marriage. In a fit of rage, I just barfed all my issues into a story and gave it to a friend, who was really encouraging. That led to another book, not about my issues, which led to my first trilogy. Writing words lights up the same happy creativity that music notes did in my brain. I’m still married,… Read More »Kate Messick

    Class Studies: The Thorns of Charbon Institute by Kate Messick

      A terrifying mix of drugs, fear and pure need forced my hand. I didn’t necessarily want to mind control the Magical Authorities auditing the Charbon Institute’s broken system. But they kept me from my mages and hurt the people they should’ve protected. Now I have to live with the consequences of my actions. Operation DUMP has to free me from my magic’s lust-filled need so I can remove my dark stain from the people trapped in my spell before I drag the men I love down with me. With a new recruiter stirring up trouble in the student body, I must find myself and the confidence to claim my path before the Institute is ripped apart. Class Studies is a fast burn, reverse harem, dark bully romance with M/M/F and M/F themes. The trilogy is a college-age academy setting, 18+. All three books are written and complete the story. Please be aware there may be triggers, see inside of book for the list.  Class Studies is the third and last book in the Thorns of Charbon Institute trilogy. If you haven’t read the previous books, you probably should start from the beginning. There’s a lot going on that gets explained earlier on. If you have read the two previous books and are pondering if the third one’s worth it: Hell yeah! If you haven’t read the series yet, go get them books! You should know this story is dark, deep and spicy in all the right places. There’s magic, love,… Read More »Class Studies: The Thorns of Charbon Institute by Kate Messick

      Group Studies: The Thorns of Charbon Institute by Kate Messick

        To say my start at Charbon didn’t go well would be an understatement. Now, socially outcast with limited access to my magic, I must find a way to keep safe from those who want to use me, and from the Magical Authorities desperate to control me. I’m denied the men my heart desires while my power rages inside me, ready to explode at any moment. Although I feel alone, the new incredibly hot transfer student sticks to me like glue. Only he’s a walking mystery and I still don’t know who to trust. Group Studies is a fast burn, reverse harem, dark bully romance with M/M/F and M/F themes. The trilogy is a college-age academy setting, 18+. All three books are written and complete the story. Please be aware there may be triggers, see inside of book for the list. The second book to the Thorns of Charbon Institute did not disappoint. It was everything I expected it to be after reading Self Studies, and more.  We get to know Ashe, the mysterious hottie who saved his Kitten from the suitcase. Brooding and overprotective, this new edition to Aphrodite’s harem hides secrets beyond what anyone would ever expect. Keeping all the other men away from her becomes his biggest challenge that he repeatedly fails on. And his reactions are absolutely fun to read! Seeing Aphrodite — Aphy, Dot, Kitten, Goddess — grow as a person and in her magic was very satisfying. And all the twists and turns this book… Read More »Group Studies: The Thorns of Charbon Institute by Kate Messick

        Alex Austin

          About the author Tell us your story? What made you start writing?* I’d always been an obsessive reader, cereal boxes and warning labels, comic books (bought or stolen), then short stories and novels, but I didn’t write much (except, countless repetitions of “I will not talk in class.”) After high school (and a brief stint in the shipping department of the Peter Pan Swimwear Company in Newark, New Jersey), I joined the Navy. In the service, I enjoyed penning letters to family, buddies, and girlfriends. I liked riffing off my environment, the setting and people around me, using some detail I hoped would surprise or amuse my correspondents, perhaps make them laugh. I liked making stuff up. Honorably discharged from the military, I decided to advance my education, took the SATs and did okay, which I attribute to my obsessive reading. I enrolled in a local college, where it was suggested I major in history. Sure. In one of the required English courses, I wrote a character sketch the instructor liked so much he suggested I submit it to the college literary magazine. I did, and it was promptly rejected, but with faint praise—enough to raise some hope. A year later, I moved to California and attended UCLA, where I would get a BA in history, but by then my interests had turned to less academic writing. So, while I was reading Huizinga’s The Waning of the Middle Ages, I peddled satire to alternative weeklies. I also took a few… Read More »Alex Austin

          Self Studies (The Thorns of Charbon Institute #1)

            I knew nothing but the touch of my master until the Magical Authorities killed him and set my world on fire. Now, I’m a prisoner at an institute stressing students beyond their limits. I’m a sorceress who can’t access her magic and wanted by wickedly handsome mages who all have their own agenda. I spent my life following directions. Now I can make my own decisions, I don’t know the right ones. Why is saying ‘no’ so hard? With the administration judging every action I take and weighing them on their uneven scales of morality, I must come to terms with my darkness to survive and, if I’m lucky, even gain my freedom. Self studies is a fast burn, reverse harem, dark bully romance with M/M/F and M/F themes. The trilogy is a college-age academy setting, 18+. All three books are written and complete the story. Please be aware there may be triggers, see inside of book for the list. This paranormal romance deals with the darker parts of human nature and how Aphrodite struggles through waves of hate to become a better version of herself and eventually — hopefully — fit into the society. Having grown up isolated from the world under a strict Master-Slave situation, she knew nothing else until her Master was killed and she got taken to a magical academy to learn to control and use her magic in an approved way. To top it off, every time she used magic, or people used magic around… Read More »Self Studies (The Thorns of Charbon Institute #1)