Step Into The Mists with our adventurous band of award-winning authors to otherworlds of paranormal, SF, fantasy and speculative romance. Nervous? Don't be. The creatures that live here are friendly. Most of the time... This blog is for age 18 and over only.
Sometimes a story just sinks its teeth into you. That’s what happened with THE VAMPIRE’S CONSORT and not just because it’s a story about the undead.
I was actually working on THE LOST when I first started getting flashes of ideas for THE VAMPIRE’S CONSORT and they went something like this:
Vampire friends warn their undead friend about choosing a young beautiful woman to be his keeper.
Young female keeper watches falls in love with her vampire boss, but also has feelings for her human ex-boyfriend
Vampire boss tries to make his keeper happy by arranging for a reunion with her ex-boyfriend which leads to a ménage a trois.
It was the last that intrigued me the most, especially as I started thinking about the setup for that particular scene. Why? Well both men that are involved with Eliza, the keeper, are fairly alpha so what would make them agree to share her and pleasure her at the same time?
Exploring the dynamics of the love triangle between Eliza, Adrian, her vampire boss, and her human boyfriend was very interesting. It was also just as interesting to see the development of the relationship between Adrian and Eliza, from the first moment he spies her in a pub in Ireland to the night Adrian realizes he must free Eliza from her servitude so that she find happiness.
I guess the last is one of the things that most appealed to me about the story: that Adrian was willing to suffer the heartache of losing Eliza forever so that she might experience true love with her human boyfriend. Of course, after their little ménage, will Eliza choose romance with her ex or a lifetime of love with Adrian?
I hope you’ll take a moment to check out THE VAMPIRE’S CONSORT and find out for yourself.
Teaser:
Vampire Adrian offered Eliza a choice: die of a fatal illness, or become his consort and attend to his every need. Eliza chose life, but she did not expect to fall in love–and lust–with him.
Nothing compares to the erotic excitement of watching Adrian pleasure one of his many willing companions, but she’s tired of waiting for Adrian to see her as more than his consort. She thinks she’s ready to move on with her human lover, John–until Adrian surprises all three of them with a sensual encounter that changes everything.
Excerpt:
The first time Eliza had realized the moan was one of pleasure and not pain, she should have walked away from the peephole.
But she hadn’t.
The peephole had been placed in the wall after a so-called Slayer had tried to stake her master. Adrian had subdued the overly eager and decidedly naïve young woman. In time, the Slayer had come to realize that Adrian was not only one of the white hats, but an excellent lay.
Despite the truce struck with the Slayer, Adrian had decided that the peephole was necessary for safety’s sake along with the loaded tranquilizer gun in Eliza’s nightstand.
Luckily she’d not had a reason to use the gun, but the peephole had been another thing. Peering in it had almost become an obsession.
She used it way too often, drawn by the sight of Adrian and his lovers. Unable to yank herself away from her gorgeous master as he pleasured yet another willing woman before taking his sip of their blood as compensation for the wicked satisfaction they found in his arms.
Eliza imagined herself in those arms more than she should.
It was wrong, she knew. She was here to serve Adrian and keep his home, not to love him. But after nearly two hundred years of being his consort, it was hard to deny that was exactly what had happened.
Eliza had fallen in love with Adrian.
She loved him and lusted for him, she thought as she peered through the peephole once again and watched him move over the body of his latest companion.
The young woman was a lithe strawberry blonde with surgically amplified breasts that barely moved as she lay on the bed with Adrian’s big body snuggled between her long thin legs. Tanned skin which would one day be leathery contrasted sharply with Adrian’s pale alabaster perfection.
As Adrian lowered his head to suckle her breasts, Eliza’s nipples tightened in response and her sex grew heavy and damp with need.
Bracing one hand on the wall, she tugged at the belt for her robe. The silk fabric fell open and even that subtle movement of smoothness against her body dragged a breathy sigh from her as she imagined it was Adrian’s skin along hers.
I'm honored to have Julia Phillips Smith on the blog here today. She's been a long time friend and advocate of all things author. She's been my cheering section for as long as I can remember and now I have the absolute pleasure to cheer for her.
Julia has a book coming out November 11, 2011. A self-pub title involving Vampires and since tomorrow is Halloween it's fitting to interview an author who writes in the genre.
Thanks for coming here, Julia!
Tell us about your upcoming release.
SAINT SANGUINUS is my debut novel which combines vampires with a Welsh Dark Ages historical setting, and a superhero origin story woven throughout for good measure.
What gave you the idea to write SAINT SANGUINUS?
If I go back a little ways, I've been a fan of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Count Saint-Germain series since I read my first taste of them, TEMPTING FATE (original publish date 1982,) when I lived in Toronto in the 90s. All of her books center around the constant need for an eternal being to relocate before the locals realize that the count never ages. The books are filled with all of the hassles of moving house, making arrangements for the house to be left to a faraway nephew in the future - which will be himself in a few generations - and I always loved the practical problems that Saint-Germain had to deal with, which get brushed aside in most vampire tales.
So my own story began with me wondering how it would feel to be a brand new vampire asked to consume the blood of men, when he'd been a man himself only days before.
Rather like the post-accidental-shooting car clean-up scene in Pulp Fiction, I love scenarios that aren't addressed as often.
Is there a sequel planned?
Definitely. In the superhero origin story category, SAINT SANGUINUS sets the stage for my main vampire character, Peredur, who will be called upon to use these new powers in upcoming showdowns. But Peredur isn't the only new vampire to rise from these pages. There's another one who many readers may feel takes them into the POV of a vampire in a way they've never encountered before.
Why Vampires?
I've been a fan of vampires since I was a small kid. I used to try to watch Dark Shadows, a gothic soap opera featuring vampire Barnabas Collins, although my mom would always switch it off. But I know I used to see it somehow.
When I was in junior high, a BBC version of Dracula completely captivated my cousins, my sister and me. It inspired us to write a script for our own vampire movie, for which we scouted locations and rehearsed without having any equipment to shoot it, whatsoever.
Then following high school I was the assistant director for a community theatre production of Dracula here in Halifax, where I got to audition child actors and direct my own transition scene pieces which held the audience's attention away from set changes on the main stage.
Meanwhile, I've been reading vampire tales, watching vampire films and TV series steadily all along.
Can you tell us a bit about your journey writing this piece?
My cousin used to urge me to write a vampire novel when I was working on gritty historical stories. She knew I had a vampire tale inside me, waiting to emerge. But nothing ever really came to me until I first decided to take up the challenge of doing NaNoWriMo.
I just started with that simple premise of going through the mental progression of being a human to being a vampire, and when the virtual starting pistol went off for the writing marathon, Peredur was born.
Also, I've always had a real affinity for the archetype of the Unknown Soldier. Perhaps having my birthday fall on Remembrance Day has something to do with it, I don't know. But just thinking of fallen warriors laying on their last battlefields really wrings my heart into shreds, so I used that as my jumping off point for Peredur and went from there.
What made you decided to pursue self-publication?
Two things. The simple advance of technology making it possible for writers to viably self-publish, along with the eruption in the popularity of e-readers is the greatest reason.
The second reason is my own personality. I'm someone who never watched Friends, but watched Hercules and Xena Warrior Princess religiously. Although people who know I went to film school assure me that Under the Tuscan Sun has gorgeous cinematography, I've still never seen it. But I have watched Bubba Ho-tep in a packed theatre with other cult film enthusiasts. I've always known my writing would never fit into the mold being purchased for the Big Six publishing houses. I had no idea there would ever be such a thing as indie self-publishing, but in retrospect, it's almost as though I've always been waiting for this development. I embrace it with joy.
You did an amazing trailer for this release, how did that come about?
I've always been a big reader, but my first love has definitely been film. I graduated from Ryerson University's film program in 1995 and was more focused on screenwriting and gathering film credits. However, financially I couldn't afford the whole apprenticing stage of gaining those credits. I really needed to keep my day job, so to stay in the telling-stories game, I switched over to novel writing, which turned into a decade-long learning curve. The way to tell screenwriting stories and the way to tell prose fiction stories is radically different.
In the meantime, I worked on several film and TV projects over the years, never losing my passion for my original medium of choice. I have several film projects rumbling around in the old noggin, and I used to say to myself, "I just need to find the right producer."
Meanwhile, who should show up at my writers' group but a woman who has her own production company. At last year's writers' retreat, we really hit it off. She suggested we do the book trailers, and I have to tell you - when she said that, I hadn't realized how much I'd protected my heart over the years from the longing to work in film. Inside my chest I felt the Grinch-heart-grew-three-sizes thing, I was so happy.
So from January of this year Tara MacDonald of Charlie Mac Productions and I did pre-production on the trailers, which we shot in one day at the end of April, and I worked in post-production with Doug Woods of 902 Post to edit the trailers in time for the New York RWA conference, which I attended.
How much research did you have to do for SAINT SANGUINUS?
Quite a lot. I've always been very picky about authenticity, so personally I want to get it right in my own work. I've been attracted to the time period of Dark Age Britain since I was a girl and read Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy, and I've got a personal library of Arthurian research nonfiction books that I've devoured over the years. Recent discoveries about that time period always loom large on my radar, and I find it thrilling that we've been able to learn so much more about a time that wasn't well understood until the past few decades.
However, the very murkiness of the time period makes it a perfect setting for a vampire tale, as who's to say they weren't roaming the countryside back then? Also, the following witch hunts that swept Europe in the middle ages makes a writer surmise that maybe there was a reason for such fear...
What made you decide November 11th for the release?
Because that falls on Remembrance Day, and because the brotherhood which my vampire joins then acts as a peacekeeping force between humans and vampires, I felt that this particular date held good resonance for the story.
And on this particular Remembrance Day, it will be 11 - 11 - 11. That certainly doesn't happen every day.
Also, November 11th will be my birthday, and for me this is a major milestone present to myself.
Do you have anything else in the works?
I've been writing a dark fantasy series for a while, part of which is posted on Wednesdays on my blog as serialized fiction. I'm seriously in love with that main character. I can't wait to send him off into the world.
I've also got a Victorian convict story, a Scottish gamekeeper story and a Jacobite post-Culloden story in various stages of development.
I've also got a few film projects that I'm looking to pursue, as well. And don't forget the day job.
Where can we find out more about you?
You can visit me at my web site, www.juliaphillipssmith.com or at my blog, A Piece of My Mind. I've been blogging since 2007 and I've made many wonderful friends there over the years.
Is this going to come as any surprise? Red and black.
What is your favourite drink?
Prosecco, pinot grigio and Glenfiddich. Oh, I had to stop at one...?
What is your favourite food?
I realize most people wouldn't say this. But rice is my favorite food ever. Especially the way my family does it - cooked in chicken or turkey broth with a little bit of butter, salt & pepper and several large glugs of ketchup. But I'll take stir fry, rice in casseroles, plain old rice just steamed, you name it. Just not rice pudding. I don't want it to be dessert.
Trapped on a desert island what three movies would you take with you? What three books and what three fantasy men?
Movies:
Kate & Leopold with Hugh Jackman and Meg Ryan
The Turning Point, mainly for the ballet pieces danced by Mikhail Baryshnikov, but the whole film is marvelous
Gladiator with Russell Crowe
Books:
THE SILVER CHAIR by C S Lewis
DEVILISH by Jo Beverley
BLOOD GAMES by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Fantasy Men:
Dean Winchester from Supernatural
Wolverine from X-Men
Horatio Hornblower from the PBS series of the same name
Here are Julia's amazing book trailers:
Blurb:
An elite brotherhood stands between humans and vampires, preventing one side from annihilating the other. Who are called to this service? Only those warriors who curse God with their dying breath.
Welsh warrior Peredur falls to a spear before he can claim Tanwen for his bride. Raging on the battlefield, Peredur utters the curse that seals his fate and leads him to another life. Using the power of a saint whose bone makes up an amulet, Peredur takes on the trials to become a true member of the brethren. Yet his need for the chieftain’s daughter Tanwen still burns.
Tanwen resists her father’s command to take a husband. The only one who understands her sorrow is Cavan, the wise woman’s son. When he promises that he can reunite her with her beloved, she agrees to his terms. But does Tanwen truly understand the depth of the price that must be paid?
Xakara here, and today I bring you Gabriella Hewitt who joins us to share a few of her favorite characters and inspirations. Please welcome her aboard and be sure to catch details about her blog tour at the end!
Doctor Who?
My favorite character of all time is one who repeatedly changes, Doctor Who. The 4th and 10th Dr. fascinate me the most but there are many in-between and a new Doctor introduced recently.
My father hooked me on the British import television show in the early 80’s. Now mind you that Doctor Who had been floating around in outer space and time traveling since the 1960’s! Nothing was cooler to me than getting into a police box named TARDIS and being whisked off to another dimension in time or some other planet where robotic humanoids ruled.
It has been years since I sat down and enjoyed a good edition of the Doctor. But I came across a Doctor Who marathon being played on BBC America. I screamed with joy. I invited my two sons, both younglings to sit with me and watch. They were a bit confused as to why The Doctor kept changing. My little one could have cared less about a regenerating Time Lord, he was all about the giant robot attacking London. My eldest son wanted to figure out who really was Who. Eventually he declared that he didn’t get it but then we watched another episode and he liked it better. This was because of the flying stingray with outer shells and he was hollering for the Doctor to figure out how to get through the wormhole and close the hole before the aliens got through. Seriously, this was my conversation with my 7 year old. It was fun and fantastic. And I realized that it didn’t matter who the next Doctor was going to be as long as he continued to transfix me with brilliant ideas and irrational thought and creatures from other universes, other dimensions and portal and wormholes to other realms.
Yes, The Doctor is my favorite character, no matter who is playing him.The best part is I guess I put my childhood fondness for the wondrous worlds and enemies of The Doctor into my writings. You can see some of those dimensions, portals and other worldly beings found throughout my stories.
In OUT OF THE SHADOWS, there are evil creatures that come from the celestial heavens to destroy humanity much like the Cybermen on Doctor Who. The cybermen were once human but replaced their weak mortal flesh with plastic and metal and lost their emotions and controlled by a powerful computer. Which is similar to my evil creatures called the tzitzimime. They were once evil humans who were consumed by their own evilness and taken over by much more powerful beings to do their dirty work. Both creatures have one thing in common, they are bent on destroying humanity and reshaping the world into their own.
Alas, fear not there are good guys like Doctor Who and Shadow Warriors who are willing to risk it all and beat them before they can cause havoc.
OUT OF THE SHADOWS releases August 16th. You can pre-order it now at Samhain Publishing
In celebration of the 1st book in the SHADOW WARRIOR series, I am holding a contest. Follow me & the tzitzimime (celestial demon and nemesis of Shadow Warriors) on the blog tour and leave a comment to be entered to win a $25 gift certificate from Samhain Publishing. It’s that easy!
All entries must be in by August 24th. The winner will be declared on www.gabriellahewitt.com/blog/ August 26th. Contest starts June 5th and ends midnight August 24th (EST).One winner will be chosen at random.
About the author:
Gabriella Hewitt is the pen name of creative writing talents Sasha Tomaszycki and Patrizia M.J. Hayashi. Together they weave tales of romantic suspense and dangerously sensual paranormals. Check out the website www.GabriellaHewitt.com to find out about upcoming releases and events on her blog.
Please welcome our guest blogger, Dana Marie Bell! --Carolan
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13 Ways WereCats Are Better Than WereDogs (As Written By Ms. Anonymous of Halle, PA)
1. Cats pick one human to love; dogs love everybody. Seriously. You've watched them lick complete strangers, you know you have. Do you know where your Dog has been, and why he's got that goofy, sloppy smile on his face when he comes home? Think about it.
2. Tree climbing. An important skill to learn, especially if your Hero/Heroine is caged in his/her room/tower by an evil Stepparent/King. While the Dog howls below her window inconsolably, the Cat merely climbs the tree, scampers agilely into the room, and rescues the knight/damsel in distress.
3. Dogs will spread their legs and lick themselves anywhere, any time, regardless of the presence of women, children, and Cats. At least Cats find a nice, quiet corner to do their business in, and if you happen to run across one whilst in the midst of performing his daily "cleansing", he still manages to look both dignified and pissed off that you interrupted his bath.
4. Dogs do not have the innate grace and balance of a Cat. Or the stunning beauty. They're just big, hairy animals with saliva running off their tongues and onto the carpet. And you wonder why we walk along the back of your sofa?
5. Dogs stink. Have you ever taken a good whiff after he comes in from rolling around in whatever he found out in the back yard to scratch his itch? It's like, "Oh look, stinkweed! Let's go roll in it, guys! Arf arf!" And then they have the nerve to look upset when you shove them in the shower before they can touch you.
6. Cats are attractive, no matter the breed. Dogs? Sharpei. Nuff said.
7. Dogs chase Cats. That makes them bullies. And nobody likes a bully.
8. Because we're just. That. Cool.
9. Cats can get away with a little nip at your fingers and still get petted. Dogs get overnight trips to the backyard if they bare fang, or worse... vet trips!
10. Cats are both feared and revered across the world, and rightly so! Can you imagine a world were a DOG was the sacred animal of the Pharoahs? We'd probably be greeting each other by presenting butts instead of hands.
11. Speaking of butt sniffing, Cats take a different view of that than Dogs. Cats will sniff delicately once or twice and move on. Dogs, on the other hand, will sniff butt, back, sides, crotch, and then sneeze all over everything they just smelled, all the while wagging their tails like demented metronomes. No wonder humans shove them away!
12. Cats can point at Dogs and say "He did it!" with a reasonable expectation of being believed. Although we have not yet mastered the technique known as "puppydog eyes" that invariably get the silly canines out of trouble, we do have the "It wasn't me, that's too undignified" look down pat.
And finally...
13. Our Alpha is smarter/stronger/faster/handsomer/cooler than their Alpha. And how could he not be? Theirs is a Dog.
Please welcome D. McEntire, who is filling in for Gia Dawn while she recovers from surgery. Thanks for hanging out with us, D.! ~Carolan
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Turn the page and enter a world where vampires walk among us though we, humans, are none the wiser. They have worked alongside humans for decades, adding their skills and compassion to the community. But, there are those among them who refuse to blend, refuse to follow the rules of society. They are rogue vampires―merciless killers of both humans and their own kind.
The Universe has a way of counterbalancing. Where there's a Ying, there's a Yang. Where there's Evil, there's Good, and where there are Rogues, there are Watchers─vampire warriors who hunt them.
Your journey into The Watchers Series begins in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. Trigg is one Watcher among four in the Louisville Cell. He has two drives that keep him going each night. The first is to do his job as a Watcher. The second is to be left the hell alone.
Trigg's first drive isn't a problem, as he has been a Watcher for over fifty years. The second becomes more of a struggle when Robyn Andrews steps off a bus from Texas and onto city’s streets in the pouring rain.
It only took one look at the petite form huddled in the rain, counting a small stack of bills, to put a crack in his amour and chip away at his self-imposed solitude.
An act of kindness, which Trigg blames on a moment of temporary insanity, is repaid when Robyn jumps into a battle between himself and three Rogues without knowing she was not facing normal men. Her injuries force him to take her home...and into his heart, both of which he may never be able to undo.
Robyn came to Louisville to escape a deadly past. Can Trigg overcome his doubts of a relationship between a vampire and a human before her past catches up with her, or will he rebuild the crumbling wall around him and walk away?
The answers are in Midnight Reborn - The Watchers, Book One
EXCERPT
Just as he arrived at Fourth Street, the block where the restaurant was located, a small figure amidst the crowd caught his eye. A waif of a girl was standing in the pouring rain while huddled over a small stack of bills, counting the cash. Suddenly, her shoulders slumped and she hesitated a few moments before shoving them into her back pocket.
With a slight shrug of her shoulders, she pulled the collar of her jacket closer to her neck and proceeded down the street, heading in his direction.
Trigg didn’t know why she had caught his attention. He had walked the streets of this city and cities like it night after night for what seemed like an eternity, hunting rogue vampires in an effort to protect humans and fellow, more civilized, vampires. Not once in all this time had he paid much attention to those around him, those he swore to protect. His focus was always on seeking out and eliminating Rogues.
Only a short while ago he had passed throngs of people on his walk to Fourth Street, but had paid them no mind. It wasn’t as if he had a particular dislike for humans, or others of his kind for that matter, he just didn’t want to deal with them. He wanted to do his job and be left alone.
What in the devil made him notice her? Unmistakably, he had felt something as he watched her, as if her sadness and despair, so evident in the way she carried herself, washed over him. Trigg scowled at himself for even thinking such a thing. He was just tired and needed to eat and get back to the Cell.
Turning away from the girl as she continued to make her way in his direction, he rounded the corner and walked to the door of the restaurant.
In an attempt to convince my fellow bloggers that I should totally be kept on board despite my rapidly approaching Maternity Leave, I have begged and schmoozed my way into the hearts and heads of some Very Famous Writers. Okay, so only two have not slapped me with a restraining order so far, and I have had to promise to be this author’s personal stalker fangirl. (which was not so difficult, as I lurve her work, and she’s a terrifical person besides. And I’m not just saying that because she’s letting me use her in such a shameful way.)
So…here’s my interview with (*fangirl squee here*) Gena Showalter!
What do you have coming out next? And can we have a sneak peek? (Erm, seriously, I want an ARC, please.)
Up next are the first three books in my Lords of the Underworld series. I’ve never been more excited! They feature immortal warriors who opened Pandora’s box, releasing a horde of demons upon the earth. Now, as punishment, each warrior carries a demon inside himself.
Maddox, the hero of The Darkest Night, is keeper of Violence. His heroine, Ashlyn, is able to stand in one location and hear every conversation that’s ever taken place there. Lucien, the hero of The Darkest Kiss, is keeper of Death. He’s been ordered to escort the goddess of Anarchy’s soul to the hereafter. The tempestuous and fun-loving Anya views his attempts as a game. Reyes, the hero of The Darkest Pleasure, is keeper of Pain. He’s forced to self-torture to survive. Danika, his heroine, is being chased by his best friend, the demon of Wrath, for reasons the warriors do not yet know.
(*note: I did not get an ARC. *sigh* I have plans to stalk harder.)
Do you have a favourite character? Who is it, and why?
Anya, the goddess of Anarchy. She has a somewhat warped sense of humor that I adore. She steals unabashedly, spent some time in an immortal prison, and isn’t afraid of the Lords. She’s their equal in every way. To me, there’s just something so very magical about her. And, considering the number of dark things happening in these books – Maddox is murdered every night, only to awaken the next morning knowing he has to die again – it’s ironic that Anya, Anarchy herself, proved to be my calm center while writing.
Which was your favourite book to write?
Even though Anya from The Darkest Kiss is my favorite character, and her man Lucien is my favorite Lord – he’s a man who deals in death, and I adored giving him, well, a life -- The Darkest Pleasure is actually my favorite book (although my answer could change tomorrow). Writing that book took everything I had.
Which was the hardest book to write?
The Darkest Pleasure, Reyes’ story. By far. At his demon’s urging, he is sometimes forced to jump from the roof of his fortress simply to feel his bones break. Pain is his pleasure, and pleasure is his pain – if that makes any sense. Writing this book was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I had to tap into an emotional well I hadn’t known I possessed. Afterward, I was completely drained.
(Fangirl note: I want this book. Seriously, the pain-pleasure thing grabs me. Read into that what you will)
Do people often mistake you for JR Ward?
Oh, I wish! She is one of the most amazing authors out there, and I would love to be in her shoes. (No, seriously, what size does she wear?) She writes some of the most highly addictive novels I’ve ever read.
(fangirl note: I think Gena underestimates the power of her own books. And her legion of stalker fangirls. However, I like her modest, don’t you?)
Which is your favourite cover? (I’ve got to say the Lords of the Underworld series has some amazingly hot ones.)
Thank you so much! I was floored every time a new cover came in. They just seemed to get better and better – and that shouldn’t have been possible, as The Darkest Night is stunning. But I fall into a lust-fog every time I look at the The Darkest Pleasure cover.
Would you like to see a movie made of any of your books? What about all of them?
Seeing one of my books play out on the big screen is a major dream of mine.
a. Would it be difficult to leave creative control in someone else’s hands?
Not at all. I think it’d be kind of cool to see someone else’s interpretation of my vision.
(interviewer note: I have to interject here that Gena posted on her blog no less than three days after this interview that her book Redhanded will be a TV show. My inner fangirl is thoroughly saddened I didn’t get the scoop.)
Your list of books ‘coming soon’ is quite impressive…have they all been written in the past four years? If so…how the heck do you do it?
I think I average three to four full length novels a year. It usually takes me a month and a half to write a rough draft. Then I spend another month fixing what I’ve written and another few weeks reading over everything. That puts me at about 3 months for one book. But not all of my “coming soon” books are written. I just turned in The Vampire’s Queen (Layel’s story). Right now I’m working on Twice As Hot, the sequel to Playing With Fire. After that, I’ll write the fourth Lords of the Underworld book. And after that, the next alien hunter novel (Devyn’s story).
(writer note: This level of organization kinda frightens me a little. )
What was the worst advice you ever got? (writing related or not)
Write to the trend. If you’re doing that, the trend will be over by the time you finish your book. You gotta write from the heart.
*fangirl love right here*
From your website: No matter the date or time, I’m drinking too much coffee, eating too much chocolate and working on my newest series… Future stalkers...er...fans...want to know:
a. What’s your favourite coffee?
The Bella latte at my favorite local coffee shop. It’s amazing. Even when ordered skinny, decaf, low carb, it’s like liquid candy.
(side note: Now I want one. )
b. Favourite chocolate?
Cinnamon spiced almond. I can only find it at Christmas time, so I’m currently in withdrawal.
Say it for me? sloooooowly. I will never live that down!
LMAO no, Never. For those of you who’ve missed it…
What book(s) have you read that made you think “Oooh I wish I wrote that?”
Anything by Kresley Cole, Meljean Brook, Nalini Singh, JR Ward, Karen Moning, PC Cast, Jill Monroe, MaryJanice Davidson, Susan Grant, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Jennifer Crusie, Eve Kenin, Marjorie Liu, Michelle Rowen, Michele Bardsley, Jeaniene Frost and so many others. There are so many amazing authors out there today.
(fangirl note: more modesty here. Innit adorable?)
I'm Bettie. I'm a bit of a newbie at Samhain. My first novella came out on January 15, 2008. I'd like to thank the regulars at Beyond the Veil for allowing me to guest post today.
Strangers and the Night Our ancestors spun stories from the dark mystery of night. Their imaginations shaped creatures in the flickering shadows cast by their campfires or hearth fires. Their tales filled the night-darkened land beyond the reach of their torches and lamps with vampires, witches, sidhe, djinni, yosei, and a thousand other mythical creatures that used magic and darkness to confuse the unwary and to hide their true forms.
Every culture and age has had archetypes of the mysterious stranger. In myths and stories a stranger can embody all of the mystery, the danger, the possibilities of the unknown. A mysterious man or woman is a canvas for our dreams, our desires and our deepest fears.
In folklore the stranger is often a force of evil, a devil who seeks to make bargains with the credulous and unwary. In these tales, even if the stranger seems innocent, he is not. In the Welsh telling of "The Devil's Bridge" the devil appears as a monk, but is outsmarted by the clever farm girl he tried to trap. In some versions of the folklore of the American South, the devil is a stranger who stands at the crossroads waiting to trade talent, knowledge or skills in exchange for souls.
In other stories, the stranger is a force of good—the bent old woman who begs kindness from the knight errant, and upon receipt of that kindness is revealed to be a beautiful fairy with the power to grant the knight a boon.
In modern archetypal tales, like westerns and mysteries, the dark stranger is a wanderer. He may be a good-hearted gunfighter, or a surly private eye with a hidden streak of nobility. She may be a woman from the wrong side of the tracks, or on the wrong side of the law.
When Samhain put out a call last spring for submissions to an anthology entitled "Strangers in the Night" my imagination immediately filled with possible stories. I knew right away that I wanted both my hero and heroine to be dark, dangerous strangers.
I wanted to write a world of shifting shadows—to create a setting that was as full of possibility and danger as the shadows beyond the edge of a campfire's light. I ended up with "Like a Thief in the Night," the story of a thief and an assassin—two people who live outside of society, outside of the law. And since the story is a paranormal, they live a little bit outside the bounds of reality, as well. Secretive and stealthy, Aniketos and Arden are strangers to the world, but by the end of the story, they are not strangers to each other.
In the end, I think the appeal of the stranger is not that the stranger is unknown; the appeal is our desire to know. The same blend of fear, excitement and curiosity that drives us to spin stories out of shadows drives us to read and listen to so many different stories about strangers. We want to unmask the devil beneath the monk's robe. We want to discover the black-clad gunfighter's heart of gold. We want to know and understand the stranger that walks out of the shadows and into the light.
CONTEST! What's your favorite story about a stranger? Comment, and I'll drop your name in the hat for a copy of Like a Thief in the Night. I'll post the name of the winner in the comments one week from today.
Bettie Bettie Sharpe is a Los Angeles native with a fondness for hot weather, classic cars, and air so thick it sticks in your teeth. When she's not busy attempting to metabolize smog into oxygen, Bettie enjoys romance novels, action movies, comic books, video games, and every other entertainment product her teachers said would rot her brain. Visit her web site at www.bettiesharpe.com
Carolan Ivey offered me this chance to guest blog and I was more than happy to accept the invitation. I’m a fan of Carolan’s and Beyond the Veil, as well as a fellow author. Like Carolan, I write paranormal romance although most of my books are the lighter, sexy, contemporary paranormals. However, I do stray into the dark side of paranormals every once in awhile, too.
I was thinking about what I’d like to write when one of my favorite television shows, Ghost Whisperer, came on the screen. As I watched this week’s ghost appear to the main character, I began to wonder. What would it be like to have a power like hers? Would I appreciate such a gift? Or would it be more of a curse? For that matter, what would it be like to have any kind of supernatural power?
Would you want such a power? Would you like to be a modern-day Nostradamus and see the future? How would you feel seeing dead people pop up in your living room right before the in-laws dropped by for a holiday dinner? Which makes me wonder…how does John Edward, a real psychic medium, handle parties? Do the other guests hit him up for readings like a doctor being asked for free medical advice? Does he walk into a room and have to immediately declare that he’s “tuned out” for the night for him to simply enjoy being a normal partygoer? Or does he accept the fact that he is the ultimate party favor?
I believe everyone at one time or another has wondered about having a super power. For instance, I remember wishing I was Samantha from the old Bewitched show when I found out that my best friend in high school had cheated with my boyfriend. Oh how I wanted to twitch my nose and turn her into an ant and him into an anteater! Thankfully for them, I was just plain ole me and couldn’t take supernatural revenge. But could I really handle the stress of seeing ghosts like the Ghost Whisperer does? Would I want my days interrupted by messengers from the Other Side? I don’t think so. I’d become a nervous wreck.
There are, however, certain powers I would love to have, while there are others I wouldn’t want even for a ton of money. Let’s take a look at a few.
Divination or Predicting the Future: Maybe it’s just the planner in me, but I’d love to see the future. I’m always making lists and goals, and it would make me incredibly happy to know all my efforts were going to pay off. If the future wasn’t as bright as I’d like, I’d still want to know so I could plan accordingly. Unlike a lot of people, I’d want to see the path ahead of me whether it’s a smooth walkway or a rocky road.
Speaking with the Dead: Uh-uh. This one is definitely not for me. I don’t like uninvited guests, even in living breathing forms, so I’m thinking a surprise visit from my neighbor’s Aunt Maud wouldn’t sit well with me, either. The Ghost Whisperer heroine and John Edward can keep this power all to themselves.
Invisibility: I can definitely see the practicality of this power. Think of all the gossip I could have by slinking around unseen. Other uses come to mind, too. Like gaining free access to a concert or never again worrying over a zit on my chin. Heck, I could do anything, go anywhere without getting dressed, much less worry about my hairstyle flopping.
Flying: This ability, I think, would depend on the specifics of the trip. Sure, it’d be great to fly on over to Hawaii, free of charge and with no delays, but what about luggage? Who can go anywhere without at least three pairs of shoes? So, if I had to choose, flying wouldn’t make the top of the powers list for me.
Super-Strength: As far as safety goes, I think this power would come in handy. I’d feel secure knowing I could take down any mugger and bring him to his knees. Plus, I could get rid of all those rubber grips I use to open jars.
Intuitive Psychic: In my book, TOUCH ME, my heroine has the ability to touch a person and name their soul mate. I chose this power for her because being able to help people find their true love appeals to me. I mean, what’s better than helping people find someone to share their life?
After going through some of my choices of possible super powers, I discovered something very exciting. In a way, authors do have a super power. Much like the intuitive psychic in my book, writers are helping people—albeit fictitious people—find love. Yet in doing so, we also take the reader into worlds of joy and affection, giving them a taste of what true love can be like. Next to having the power to touch someone and tell them the name of their soul mate, writing the stories where wonderful romance can happen is the next best thing.
