Congratulations to Sharon Ashwood for her 2011 RWA RITA: UNCHAINED, the third book in her Dark Forgotten series, won for Best Paranormal Romance. Yay, Sharon!
Currently working on: Revising sci fi novella Mood: Spacey!
The idea of demonic possession freaks me out. I know that’s kind of strange, considering my Marked Souls series is based on my characters being possessed by demons. But I write romance, not horror, so my demons learn their lessons — thanks to true love — and everyone/thing lives happily ever after*, I promise.
I’ve decided I can’t watch American Horror Story, the new FX series about an evil house, because there isn’t the promise of goodness and light winning out anytime soon. (‘Cuz then the series would be over.) I need my horror in manageable doses. I have to read Dean Koontz only when I have a full day to read the whole book in one sitting because I have to get to the ending where evil loses and goodness overcomes.
I don’t know if demons are real or if evil is “just” another angle of humanity’s many-faceted expression, but as my dad once told me as he handed me money to put in a Buddhist prayer jar, “It’s good to cover your bases.”
Most people know that pumpkins — and in older days, turnips — carved into scary faces were meant to ward off evil that was able to more easily move around our world at this season. Pictured is our blue hubbard squash, carved earlier this year. Stars are often used as a symbol of protection and good luck.
Other instances of apotropaic magic (apotrope being Greek for turn away or avert) include charm bracelets, the gargoyles on the peaks of buildings, painted eyes, and scattering salt.
My personal favorites, though, are old horseshoes, mirrors, and hag-stones — river pebbles with natural holes worn through them. I picked up almost a dozen new hag-stones walking at Ruby Beach in Washington earlier this month, so I have extra wards for this Halloween. What are you using to keep the ghosts and goblins away? (Besides turning off your porch light and scattering empty candy wrappers in the driveway?)
For all the warding, though, it IS Halloween, and while I am freaked out by wandering unrepentant demons, I don’t mind a good evil movie (that ends in 2-ish hours with me rushing out of the theater on a sugar high and preferably with at least ONE of the characters alive). I don’t know how many characters survive in the upcoming movie The Devil Inside, but the preview certain freaked me out.
Wishing you a safe, sugary, as-many-scares-as-you-like Halloween!
Bwahahaha! Imagine that we are all out in the woods, and it’s DARK and we’ve got only the light of a small fire and some flashlights, and lots of spooky, mysterious forest sounds!
If you’ve read my Shadow Guard books, you already know I like my romance a little spooky.
But in reality, I’m more of a Ghost Hunters International girl than Ghost Adventures. In other words, I’m a skeptic. Weird things don’t happen to me, and I don’t get “odd feelings”. I think 99% of the ghost encounters on the reality TV shows are made up.
But I do have one story to tell, one I don’t usually talk about because I guess I really don’t like trying to figure out how or why it happened.
When I was writing the first book in the Shadow Guard series, NIGHT FALLS DARKLY, I had a very strange experience. Those of you who have read the book know the story centers around Jack the Ripper and his murders. I read numerous books and sifted through various archival and investigative accounts about his and other terrible, gory murders that took place around the same time period in England and the U.S. Sometimes my research took place in the middle of the night, when the house was quiet and everyone was asleep, and needless to say, I’d get completely creeped out. At a certain point, I’ll just say I felt a change. That my research had crossed a line where things felt too dark and too close and personal. Several strange things happened (and again, I’m not a “strange things happened” kind of person).
First off, I had several dreams about a very nice and likeable fellow, with a kind face and sandy colored hair. He was about my height (I’m 5’4″). In my dreams he’d strike up a conversation with me, friendly as anything, and try to help me carry my packages or whatever, and then, in a flash–he’d turn evil and terrifying and threatening. I would always wake up instantly, before the dream progressed any further. I chalked up the dreams to being a little too “into” my current work-in-progress.
The next thing that happened at the same period in time, is that for three or four nights, without explanation, our house alarm went off several times in the middle of the night. This was at the end of September and October, which if you look at the Jack the Ripper timeline, was a very frightening and terrifying time. This was also at the same time when I was having the creepy dreams.
And thirdly (this is the really spooky one!) … I’d been writing on deadline to finish the book and I was exhausted. I’d been alone all day in the house, and honestly, a little spooked. Things just felt strange, and I chalked this up to my storyline and the fictional battle between good and evil that was taking place on the page. At 2:30 in the afternoon, I went downstairs, went in my bedroom and changed clothes and drove to the school to pick up my kids. When we got home, the kids went straight to the living room and sat down to watch TV. I went in the kitchen and made a phone call. Next, I went to my bedroom…but the door was closed. I never close my bedroom door. So I turn the knob and open my bedroom door…
All the pillows from my bed–eleven total–were piled in a stack against the inside of the door.
(SCREAM OF TERROR!) Explanation anyone? I didn’t have one. I asked the kids if they’d been in my room, but they could barely take their attention from SpongeBob to say “No”, so I’m assuming they weren’t responsible. Even so, I don’t know how anyone could stack that many pillows in a pile behind a door and be able to successfully leave the room.
I also picked up a heavy three-hole punch for a weapon, and checked every room of my house (while keeping Elle Jasper on the phone as backup).
So what did I do then? In short, after that I took a step back emotionally. I lightened up my storyline a bit, and finished the book, and there were no other strange occurrences. I will also admit to saying, out loud, while standing in my office: GET OUT OF MY HOUSE.
I’m still a skeptic. I can explain away the dreams and the quirky alarm system. And I’d like to think there is some completely normal explanation for the pillow incident. (I haven’t come up with one, so I just don’t think about it too much!)
Congratulations to Chris B who won Mimi Barbour’s October 20 book draw!
****
I do love October 31. Some of that is due to the prevalence of tiny candy bars. The rest is thematic. After all, Halloween and paranormal romance go together like, well, chocolate and peanut butter. Trick and treat. Vampires and haemoglobin. I seem to be building up a backlog of Vampire Diaries episodes on my PVR – maybe that will be my Halloween fun. I can snuggle with the cats, who need a bit of comfort with all the firecracker action outside.
Speaking of scary, the other thing about October 31 is that it is the day before November 1, which is the start of NaNoWriMo a/k/a National Novel Writing Month. For those that don’t know, this event is a kind of authorial Iron Man, in which folks try to write their novels in a month. Or just about. Actually, the aim is not to create a finished, polished book, but a good chunk o’ draft manuscript which can then grow up to be a novel. People join in whether they’re beginners or professionals—this is a totally level playing field. The only person you’re competing with is yourself, but it’s a lot more fun when you’re doing it with friends.
There is a web site where participants go register, and there are bulletin boards, support, tips, tricks, coffee mugs and everything else to help get you through those 30 days of writing madness.
Since I seem to have a very full writing schedule at the moment, I’ve signed up in hopes a burst of furious activity will get me through the first leg of my writing journey. I’ll be working on the first of my Nocturne books. I’ve started it, so my goal is to get it as close to the finish as possible. I’ll give weekly updates to let you know how it’s going!
Is anyone else doing NaNoWriMo? If you are, let me know and we can cheer each other on!
Currently working on: Page proofs for DARKNESS UNDONE! Mood: Focused
Putting together a book for your reading pleasure seems to take forever. After writing it comes the rewriting and then revisions, then more revisions, then line edits and copy edits. In between, there are cover conferences and back cover copy proofs, and finally* — finally! — page proofs which is the writer’s last chance to tweak the words. That’s where I am now on the fourth Marked Souls novel, DARKNESS UNDONE, which means the story is now in its almost final form — finally!*
So here is the cover — finally!* — of DARKNESS UNDONE, a novel of the Marked Souls.
The war between good and evil has raged for millennia, and as a powerful new enemy ascends, the Marked Souls are pushed to the ragged edge…
Sidney Westerbrook has always studied darkness and damnation from a sensible distance. Now, to earn his place as a league Bookkeeper, he must discover why Chicago is such a battleground of soul-linked warriors. But the research becomes personal when he finds himself over his head and under attack — and at the mercy of a waif with demon-lit eyes and a deep yearning in her heart.
Alyce Carver has been alone longer than she can remember, battered by the living nightmares that haunt her city. Cornered by yet another gang of demons, she unwittingly joins forces with a handsome scholar who can salvage her past, and she in turn may be the key to his investigations. But she won’t let him go until he shows her everything she’s been missing.
What begins as an experiment in possession becomes a trial by desire so powerful it threatens both their lives, even as it binds their souls.
I do, however, have an actual cover flat, which is a printed version of the book jacket. If you’re interested in such things, leave a comment on this post and I’ll have random.org draw a winner for a giveaway next week.
Mimi Barbour is a fellow member of my RWA chapter and writes a slightly different kind of paranormal romance. Time travel is a perennial favourite with readers, and Mimi’s always have a twist!
Read the post below and leave a comment – you’ll be automatically entered in a draw for one of Mimi’s fabulous books!
Traveling forward in time, Dani Howard’s spirit becomes magically united with reporter, Troy Brennan. He’s everything a girl could want in a man, and during their time together, she falls deeply in love. Though she must return to her own body, she gains his promise to come to her birthday party in seven days time where they will meet in person and continue their romance.
Troy can’t believe he’s fallen for a sixteen-year-old spirit invader. He’s so infatuated that when renowned author, beautiful Ellie Ward, comes on to him, as attractive as he finds her, he’s honor bound to stay true to his young love—or is he?
I’ve been asked what gave me the idea to put someone’s spirit inside another’s body and then move them either forward or backwards in time. I’ve got to admit to loving the TV program years ago called Quantum Leap. Guess that came to mind while I battled with the idea and worked out the kinks. Of course, I took it a step further than the television show, because I have both characters always aware of each other and having to deal with their situation together, which is where the title “Together Again” came to mind for this latest release.
The story line in “Together Again” taxed my imagination. I had sixteen-year-old Dani leap into the body of twenty-nine-year-old Troy, and then once they were truly in love, she returns to her own pregnant self. He promises to come for her in a week, on her seventeenth birthday, but what he doesn’t know is that she’d travelled forward in time, and for her, ten years will pass until she sees him again. Her overwhelming concern is whether he can love the woman she’s become. Because he’s so committed to the younger Dani, he doesn’t recognize the now famous author who uses her alias as a cover and tries to seduce him. The antics that Dani conjures with the help of her uncle and his housekeeper are hilarious, and her jealousy of her younger self gets poor Ellie (Dani) into very hot water. Until her daughter saves the day.
Pitting two people against each other—always knowing that one person has the power because they have the body—has kept me invested in these books. I find it a real lark to get my characters into situations where they can’t easily get away from the other. Makes for interesting conflicts, and the sensual foreplay can be somewhat tumultuous. With each book I’ve written, I’ve taken this premise a little further. I guess the more you work with an idea, the stronger it becomes, and the possibilities seem endless. For instance, imagine that if the imprisoned character can see through the other person’s eyes, hear with their ears, and so on. Then why couldn’t they control the other person’s body and use their hands or feet every so often. It seemed to make sense that when the host wasn’t doing anything, their relaxed posture could enable the overpowering, and it was fun to work this concept into the stories at appropriate times.
Dialogue is always challenging and my favourite part of the process. Two people inside one body limits the need for long narratives because they share everything. Adds spice to the flirtation and works well to develop their growing romance.
We all know that editors and agents consistently demand something new and in a fresh voice. I think that’s why Wild Rose Press bought my first book “She’s Me”. And why my editor seems continually pleased whenever I send her another edition for the series. Maybe spirit-time-travel will become the newest craze. I can only hope so.
My next book for the series “Together for Christmas” will be released on November 25th.
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Excerpt from “Together Again”…
“So this is what the inside of the pub looks like. I’ve wondered.”
“Why would you care?”
“Being it’s a sanctified adult area, all kids want to know what goes on here. Some of my mates got phoney cards and have tried to get in, but they were I.D.ed and thrown out.”
“And so they should be. It’s no place for youngsters.”
“I’m a youngster. I’m here.”
“Yeah! But you’re with me, and if there’s any nonsense going on you shouldn’t see, I’ll close my eyes.”
Erupting giggles tickled him. He lowered his head and stared at the beer-foamed glass in his hand so no one could see the silly grin fighting to appear on his face.
Dani, the bane of his existence, made him laugh more than anyone else he’d ever known. And she was only sixteen years old.
“I’m not a child, you know. And I’m almost seventeen.”
“So tell me, Miss Methuselah, how did you get inside me? Are you ever going to explain? I’m thinking to take out a long-term lease if you’re planning to homestead.”
She teased right back.” You’ll have to co-sign for me, ‘cause I’m underage.”
“Whoa! I’ve never met anyone who can play the age game better than you. You’re an adult when it suits you, but reverting back to childhood when you feel the need doesn’t bother you at all.” He loved hearing her cheeky laughter, but not nearly as much as he liked the warmth flooding over his internal self. Exuberance filled him, and he had to admit to getting hooked on the high.
“You are so easy, Troy. I’m gonna hate to leave you. But I guess I’ll have to, since tomorrow’s Saturday, and that’s the day we’ll be able to undo the switch. Right. Here goes—and don’t interrupt, no matter how silly it seems. The fact is – well, it really is the rose bush.”
“You’re still trying to feed me that baloney. The rose bush! I thought we settled that subject. Next you’ll be saying it’s magical.”
“It is.” Her voice strongly emphasised the last word.
He filtered through his senses systematically. And was forced to accept one thing. She was telling the truth. A magic rose bush! “Holy cow!”
“According to my uncle’s notes, if I understood them correctly, and I think I did, I read them twice and—”
“Dani…”
“Right! He’ll have my body near his rose bush—the one I pricked my finger on, at precisely twelve noon each Saturday until the changeover occurs to get me back there. He’ll prick my finger in hopes that you will also prick yours at the same time. He knows I’m aware of the magic and how it works, because he’ll know I read all his notes about a similar case he investigated last year. I accidentally knocked them off his table, the notes that is, and probably didn’t get them back in their correct order. It’s what started this whole thing.”
“And you’re sure it’ll happen?”
“No. But it’s what I gathered from going through his papers, and it worked for two other women who had the same experience.”
“Great! Tomorrow! We’ll be there early.”
****
He had hurt her feelings.
She shut herself off, hiding away so he couldn’t feel the devastating ache that clutched at her and made her gasp. Tears, a physical reaction to release overwhelming pain, weren’t available to her. Emotions too advanced for a young girl tore away rose-coloured glasses, wounding, maturing. Her almost seventeen-year-old psyche had started connecting to him in a way that confused her. Every moment she’d shared his life, little bits of her soul had shifted to him until there wasn’t much left he didn’t own.
This past weekend I went to SteamCon III, which was my first Steampunk event. The Steampunk genre seems to have arrived later in my corner of the world, so I realize I’m a beat behind in discovering it. Anyhow, the trip was inspired by a) curiosity, b) it was nearby and relatively inexpensive and c) a friend wanted to go, too. In other words, it was a low-barrier way to see what all the fuss was about.
I’d read some really fun books in the genre and seen pictures of great costumes, but couldn’t—and probably still can’t—explain Steampunk. It’s kinda sorta Victorian alternate history, but that description falls short of reality. Imagine pirates with ray guns, dancing jellyfish, and women with lobster tails for bustles. Imagine gamers and androids and long discussions about how to keep an airship from tipping over. I found myself at an unholy hour (i.e. before noon) in a lecture hall listening to some academics—at least one from Harvard—discussing nuclear particle thingummies with a man wearing a birdcage around his head, and a bowler hat on the birdcage.
Sidebar: I was never very good at physics. I had not fully grasped how not very good I am. Frankly, the whole idea of celestial aether sounds reasonable to me.
The nuclear-aether-birdcage event describes one end of the weekend’s experience. The other involved a stuffed hedgehog and a deal of draft beer at the inevitable Irish public house. Every roadtrip seems to include at least one such establishment, but the hedgehog was a new innovation. Great icebreaker. I named it Smithwick. I tried to buy him a top hat but couldn’t find one small enough.
Saturday night was a concert with three new-to-me bands: Unwoman, The Clockwork Dolls, and Vagabond Opera. If you like eclectic—and I do—this was a treat, but a diverse one. Each act had a very distinct sound.
And the merchant room? There was some jaw-dropping craftsmanship there. One could walk in one door with a credit card and come out the other with an entire steam-driven household. There were costumes, books, weapons, artwork, housewares, practical things, impractical things, and a lot of cephalopods. I was almost too dazzled to shop, which is saying something. However, I seemed to walk away with a fetching red and black corset.
As you can probably tell, I had a blast. In turns, the experience was mind-expanding and giggle-inducing. By the end of the weekend, I concluded that you can’t define Steampunk, it just is. And the last thing it needs is someone trying to put it in a box with a label.
My parents were in town this weekend and the weather was that gorgeous secret of the Pacific Northwest: the sunny week in October. See, right before the rains close in, nature gives us one more week of glorious blue skies and balmy temps. A cruel taunt? A promise? Whichever.
So we headed up to the Olympic Peninsula for a bit of walking, then back down Hwy 101 to the Oregon Coast.
While we walked, I thought about the new story I’m working on, and it seems to me, that our hiking and my story have a lot in common.
1. The stuff
When I start a new idea, I am excited and overwhelmed by all the stuff I might stuff in the story. Secondary love triangle! BB guns! String theory!
Much like my car has five doors for stuffing, I figure my story has many, many openings to be filled. But as you can see, Monster Girl is concerned about where she will fit. So it goes with my story; I have to ask myself — fun though it might be — whether I really need a talking, one-armed octopus.
2. First steps
I love the beginnings of hikes and the beginning chapters of a story. Both are so filled with promise. I feel strong and confident, with plenty of chocolate in my backpack.
The way ahead doesn’t necessarily look easy. There are barriers to be surmounted, but the adventure calls.
3. Lost
This part is less fun, but it seems to be true of hikes and stories, at least for me. Okay, I’m not EXACTLY lost, but there comes the moment where I definitely want to sit down, where the way seems a little more hazy and bleak than just a few steps or chapters ago.
This is where hikers and writers are made, I think. To quit? To continue? Walking out into the waves isn’t really an option (not on a Pacific Northwest beach, at least, not without a dry suit!) but I could parallel the shore on a new path.
Or build a boat of driftwood and dreams.
4. The view
I must continue — somehow — because I know — somewhere — I will come to the point where I can SEE the point. THIS is why I am here.
5. Panting fun
I’ve said before, I love love love The End. Whether writing or hiking, coming to the end (in mostly one piece with relatively few debilitating blisters) is a great feeling of satisfaction. But the satisfaction does seem relative to the exertion. Some of our best hikes (and by best, I mean make the best stories, of course) have been the worst technical hikes. Too long, too wet, too ridiculous, waaaay too much panting. But in The End, totally worth the reliving.
Especially if there’s a little chocolate left.
Do you find a certain pleasure in some kinds of hard work? Got any favorite hikes I should try someday?
Sometimes it’s great to get away and clear the mind, talk out your story proposals and plot holes with a writer friend and write lots of pages!
This week my critique partner and I, Elle Jasper, met up in San Antonio for brainstorming and writing. Oh, and lots of Mexican food, a ghost tour, the Alamo and the Riverwalk.
We stayed in a great hotel, the Fairmount:
While on our spooky ghost tour we both downloaded the Ghost Radar Classic app, and … um, guess where we had the most “readings” for ghosts? That’s right, in our hotel room. Eeeek!
We also had a drink at the famed (and reportedly haunted) Menger Hotel Bar, where Teddy Roosevelt is said to have recruited some of his Roughriders.
And we shopped-til-we-dropped in the market, where we bought lots of cool Dia De Los Muertos items.
And between it all, we worked out a few plot holes and wrote some pages. I’m headed home tomorrow feeling very motivated with my current projects!
Have you taken any interesting trips recently? If so, where’d you go?
So, the other day…my ten year old began asking me prolific questions. The conversation went something like this…
Daughter (ten years old and in her “I’m bored” mode as usual): Mom, why do you write about paranormal stuff?
Mom: Well, it is a very popular genre right now.
Daughter: So, you think if you write paranormal that you’ll get big sales?
Mom: That would be great! But that’s not the only reason WHY I write it.
Daughter: Why do you write it then?
Mom: I like the idea of being able to create characters who have supernatural powers and I enjoy the mythology and fantasy of it all.
Daughter (twirls her hair, staring out the window): But you didn’t invent demons.
Mom: No, of course not but I invented the ones in my book like this vampromancer demon who is part vampire and part necromancer.
Daughter (scrunches up her nose at me): But vampires aren’t real. Demons are real.
Mom (suddenly feeling inadequate as to how to respond to the too smart 10-year-old): Yes, well, I write fiction and so my characters aren’t necessarily based on the real study of demonology.
Mom (feeling smart with her wise answer).
Daughter: Hmmm…well can you name any real demons?
Mom (trying to wash dishes and break up battle between a 3 year old and a 1 year old that is currently brewing nearby): Uh, well…let’s see…
Daughter: Because we studied about demons in Bible class.
Mom: Oh, good. I’m getting my money’s worth out of that school.
Daughter (rolling eyes at Mom): I’m serious. Demons are real. Vampires are not demons.
Mom (deep sigh): Let’s talk about this more later. I can’t really concentrate on this discussion with your brother and sister screaming and my hands in the dishwater.
Daughter (shrugs): Okay, well anytime you want to learn about REAL demons…you know where to find me.
Mom (smiles)
How did these kids get to be so smart at such a young age? I mean, when I was 10 years old (I struggle to remember the time) I was into those little pencils that had the removable lead pieces that you pushed down from the top of the pencil to replace it with a freshly sharpened piece. Then you put the used piece back through the top to advance the next nub of lead downward. Kind of like a mechanical pencil but I think they were called “push pencils”. Anyone remember those? The ones I had were the kind where the pencils themselves were also scented with a fruity scent.
That was my 5th grade obsession. That and the new bad (very bad) permanent that my mother (who was a cosmetology student at the time) gave me. I wanted to look like Molly Ringwald and came out looking like…well…most definitely NOT Molly Ringwald.
I was also into this nifty little machine named Atari that my Dad brought home for us. It was the first in real video games and I was determined to master the game “Pong” before all the other kids in my neighborhood.
I most definitely was NOT thinking about demonology or the study thereof. So, are our kids smarter than us? There’s a show dedicated to just that theory (Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?) and despite the fact that my sleep deprived brain couldn’t focus in on my daughter’s impromptu discussion of demons—I’m still the boss in this house. Or, am I?
In Courting Demons, Paisley thinks she’s the boss too. She’s the mother of two children, a much more powerful witch than she realizes, and now the judge of all demons in the Underworld. But really, we may all have something to learn from our kids.
What is something you’ve been taught by your kid? Or, better yet, what were you “into” in the 5th grade?
Thanks for hosting me today at Silk & Shadows. Hope everyone will chime in with their own lessons learned.
Giveaway for the day:
Leave a question or comment to be entered to win today’s prize: A Vintage Push Pencil and an e-book copy of Courting Demons!
Then, enter to win my book tour Grand Prize Kindle by following me on tour and e-mailing me the answers to each question of the day at the end of tour. The more questions you answer, the more entries you gain.
Question of the Day:
To whom is my book Courting Demons dedicated?
Details on how to enter to win the GRAND PRIZE Kindle at the end of my “Dark Days of Demons Tour” located here.
* * *
Paisley Barton was already having a bad day before she turned her husband into a rat.
First, she was fired by her boss and then came home to find hubby in the shower with a naked blonde chick. They say that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned but this break-up may just unleash hell on Earth when Paisley casts a spell of vengeance against her philandering husband.
After her spell casting inadvertently opens a portal between dimensions, Paisley finds her family home transformed into a nightly courtroom for settling disputes between demons of the underworld and she’s the judge! If that’s not enough, she’s got to deal with a charming, ancient demon named Camden who wants to be her personal bodyguard while trying to explain her husband’s sudden, mysterious disappearance to sexy police Detective Dalton Briggs.
But Paisley will show them all that an everyday working mom is better equipped than most to deal with the mystical mayhem…and with a tempting demon hottie and a flirtatious young detective vying for her affection, she soon learns that being single again isn’t so bad after all.
“When a wronged wife turns her cheating husband into a rat, you know you have to keep reading! Kerri Nelson offers up a lot of fun and wild magic in Courting Demons!” –Bestselling author, Linda Wisdom, Demons are a Girl’s Best Friend
Kerri Nelson discovered her love of writing at an early age and soon became a columnist for her local newspaper winning the Outstanding Young Journalist of the Year Award for her efforts.
After a fifteen year career in the legal field, Kerri fulfilled her lifelong dream of publication and is now an award winning multi-published author of nearly every genre under the sun (and moon) and also writes young adult fiction under the penname K.G. Summers.
A true southern belle, she comes complete with a dashing southern gentleman and three adorable children for whom she often bakes many homemade treats.
Kerri is an active member of Sisters in Crime and Romance Writers of America as well as numerous chapters
including Futuristic Fantasy & Paranormal Writers and her Presidency of Celtic Hearts Romance Writers.
This past weekend, I celebrated the Canadian Thanksgiving with extra gusto (and an excess of pumpkin pie). As well as the usual general feelings of turkey-day well-being, I have something very concrete to be thankful for—a contract for a new book series!
In good journalistic fashion, here are a few particulars:
Who: The series will be brought to you by the Harlequin Nocturne imprint.
What: This is straight-up, toasty-hot paranormal romance involving vampire/werewolf super-spies, lost diamonds, and royal feuds. Of course there is a lot of humour in it, because this stuff just begs for one-liners. I mean, really.
Where: The action is split between North America and the Mediterranean. Stay tuned for moonlit palaces.
When: No release dates scheduled yet.
Why: Because it was there. This series has a lot of fantasy elements—big houses, exotic locations, car chases, impossibly gorgeous men—and writing it is a bit like indulging every girlie daydream out there. I actually had to go buy wedding magazines for research purposes.
How: Mostly sprawled on the couch with my laptop and a lot of Scottish Breakfast tea.
Of course I’ll post more information as things firm up, but for now I’m thrilled to be able to announce the series is coming!
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