Author Archive
Welcome to the December 2022 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.” For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
You can subscribe to this monthly newsletter here:
The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, e-mail me to request the desired issue, and I’ll send you a free PDF of it. My e-mail address is at the end of this newsletter. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
A complete list of my available works, arranged roughly by genre, with purchase links (gradually being updated as the Amber Quill and Ellora’s Cave works are being republished):
For anyone who would like to read previous issues of this newsletter, they’re posted on my website here (starting from January 2018):
This is my Facebook author page. Please visit!
Facebook
Here’s my page in Barnes and Noble’s Nook store:
Barnes and Noble
Here’s the list of my Kindle books on Amazon. (The final page, however, includes some Ellora’s Cave anthologies in which I don’t have stories):
Carter Kindle Books
Here’s a shortcut URL to my author page on Amazon:
Amazon
The Fiction Database displays a comprehensive list of my books (although with a handful of fairy tales by a different Margaret Carter near the end):
My Goodreads page:
Goodreads
Please “Like” my author Facebook page (cited above) to see reminders when each monthly newsletter is uploaded. I’ve also noticed that I’m more likely to be shown posts from liked or friended sources in my Facebook feed when I’ve “Liked” some of their individual posts, so you might want to do that, too. Thanks!
Happy winter holiday season!
Writers Exchange E-Publishing has just released SEALING THE DARK PORTAL, a sort-of-Lovecraftian paranormal romance. Magically altered memories, a vengeful sorcerer from another world, creatures from the void between dimensions, a cat shapeshifter. . . . An excerpt appears below.
I’m interviewing mystery and paranormal author Iona Morrison, another author who contributed to the Wild Rose Press “Christmas Cookies” series.
*****
Interview with Iona Morrison:
1.What inspired you to begin writing?
I have always enjoyed writing. But eleven years ago, I was home alone for ten months while my husband went out of state to work. I decided to take a writing class. I like to think that I found my inner landscape. I also found my creativity and this writer was born. It is still magic to me.
2. What genres do you work in?
I write romantic mysteries with a touch of paranormal for the Fantasy line.
3.Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I keep notes about my characters’ traits but mostly I wing it and let my characters take the story.
4.What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
I write about subjects that are near and dear to me, like domestic violence, and human trafficking to name a few. They are worked into the crime area of the story.
5. Please tell us about your Blue Cove Mysteries series.
My first day on a new job as a church secretary, the custodian said to me, “You know we have a church ghost.” And that became the basis for the first book in the series. The series has grown to include another main character a cousin to Jessie Reynolds, and their love interests. The two cousins have a family gift of sight and help to solve crimes in their unique way. There’s another cousin waiting in the wings in my mind who might get a crack at it too.
6. What kinds of research do you do for your mystery novels?
It depends on the way the story leads me. In my last story a friend from Ireland helped me with research about the Potato Famine and Irish Legends and in the same story I researched about the treatment of indigenous children in boarding schools.
7.What inspired your Christmas Cookies novella “Magic and Midnight Mint Bars”?
I wanted to write a happy story about one of the secondary characters in Blue Cove. Sally Mansfield was a domestic violence victim and with a bit of magic she finds the possibility of love again. The cookies are super awesome too.
8.You mention in an interview that you never read the genre you write. Why not? (I know it’s not too unusual for authors to practice that habit, but I’m just the opposite.)
This wasn’t intentional. I was never interested in Mysteries as far as reading goes. I leaned more towards Historical Stories and Regency Romance. I have started reading Heather Graham and a few other mystery writers. I loved the book, Rebecca.
9.What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
My latest book is “Beyond The Door.” I also have a novella that is coming out next year. “Destiny’s Spring”, and one with my editor right now.
10. What are you working on now?
I just finished the first chapter in another Blue Cove Mystery.
11. What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Keep writing. I started writing later in life and I never thought I would have thirteen published works.
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
Iona Morrison Website
Instagram
Facebook
Pinterest.com/ionamorrison/
Iona Morrison | LinkedIn
Iona Morrison (@ionacrv) / Twitter
Iona Morrison Books – BookBub
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
OUTLANDER AND THE REAL JACOBITES, by Shona Kinsella. A detailed, thoroughly researched history of the Jacobite rising of 1745, with an overview of the background leading up to it, tying in characters and episodes from Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series (and the TV adaptation) wherever appropriate. Part 1: “Highland Life in the 1700s” covers topics such as the clan system, the status of women in eighteenth-century society, medicine, witchcraft, and the British army in Scotland. This is the section of the book heaviest on specifically Outlander topics, and Chapter 6 explores locations mentioned in the novels or used for filming in the TV series. Parts 2 through 6 cover the Stuart dynasty, the rising, and the aftermath, with its long-term effects on Highland society and culture, up to the death of Bonnie Prince Charlie. The author clearly distinguishes between actual historical events and how they’re depicted in (or adapted for) the novels. Her style is lucid and entertainingly readable. A timeline of the Stuart dynasty and the various attempts at its restoration provides a useful quick reference. The extensive bibliography demonstrates the scope of the author’s research. Most Outlander fans would enjoy this book, while anyone interested in this historical period could appreciate Kinsella’s work even if unfamiliar with Gabaldon’s series.
OVER THE WOODWARD WALL, by A. Deborah Baker. On first sight of this title, I immediately thought it sounded a lot like an installment in Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series. Well, guess what, A. Deborah Baker IS Seanan McGuire. The middle-grade series beginning with this novel isn’t labeled as taking place in the Wayward Children universe, but it could be. Like those stories, this portal fantasy doesn’t occupy an instantaneous pocket of “Narnia time,” from which interdimensional travelers return to our world with no time having passed here. Rather, as in McGuire’s YA series, the parents of the children in OVER THE WOODWARD WALL know they’ve disappeared and worry about them, as we learn on the last page of the novel. The story begins by introducing a boy and girl who live in the same neighborhood but have never met because they go to different schools. Avery, a meticulous child whose protective parents have brought him up as a lover of rules and order, clashes in personality with Zib, a free spirit who runs wild and rushes headlong toward anything the looks like an adventure. Avery’s extreme dismay when he loses the shine from his shoes and Zib’s cheerfully unkempt hair and clothes encapsulate the contrast between them. One day when a utility line repair blocks their usual ways to school, they run into each other while looking for alternative routes. Instead, familiar streets and houses are abruptly replaced by wilderness, and a wall blocks their path. On the advice of a talking owl, they climb over the wall, Zib excited by the mystery, Avery deeply reluctant. They find themselves in the Up-and-Under, a realm divided into four kingdoms with rulers named after the Tarot suits and representing both the four seasons and the four classical elements. The lost Earth children get help from a drowned girl (who’s been literally drowned, then restored to life as a creature of water) and a Crow Girl, with the power to change shapes between a human child and a murder of crows. This series, by the way, addresses one question most portal fantasies ignore, why the visitors can understand the speech of the residents with no language barrier. To find their way back to the mundane world, Zib and Avery must traverse the improbable road to the Impossible City, facing a variety of threats, potential helpers, and ambiguous tricksters. The two cross-dimensional travelers have a hard time adjusting to their forced alliance, since each is the last person the other would have chosen for a companion. While the quest for home with a party of mismatched comrades evokes echoes of THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ, the tone also has something of an Alice-in-Wonderland feel. Explanations offered by the Crow Girl and the drowned girl do little to mitigate the sense of chaos and illogic Avery and Zib frequently grapple with. The Wayward Children books would probably classify the Up-and-Under as a Nonsense World. At its heart, the Up-and-Under series explores the nature of friendship. The ordeals shared by Avery and Zib illustrate the deep bond that two people can form even if they don’t understand or sometimes don’t exactly like each other. Two sequels, ALONG THE SALTWISE SEA and INTO THE WINDWRACKED WILDS, continue the story with more to come.
*****
Excerpt from SEALING THE DARK PORTAL:
Hissing, the cat whirled around to face the front yard. His coat puffed up like a porcupine’s quills. Rina peered through the rain, trying to see what had spooked him.
A sharp acetone smell, like nail polish or overripe bananas, stung her nose. Something materialized a few yards away on the sidewalk between the house and the street. At least, the word “materialize” popped into her mind because one minute she saw nothing and the next minute, there it was. A grayish, four-legged creature, maybe a huge dog like an Irish wolfhound. Its eyes gleamed red. She blinked and rubbed her eyes. Four legs? For a second the beast looked as if it had at least six.
No way, it’s the rain. She couldn’t see clearly through the downpour outside the circle of the porch light. That was why she had trouble counting its legs. That had to be why its edges blurred, almost like a cloud rather than a solid body. It expanded, and its mouth gaped to show fangs longer than any dog’s. It stalked toward her. Too paralyzed with disbelief to retreat, she stood petrified, watching.
The cat’s hiss segued into a snarl. Claws out, he charged at the beast. The creature backed up. Its outline melted into amorphous clump of smoke or sooty fog. The cat sprang on it and sank his claws into the gray clot. The thing solidified into something like a giant dog again. The cat leaped to the ground and raked a slash down one of the elongated legs. The beast retreated to the shadow of a crape myrtle tree at the corner of the yard and vanished. The cat dashed after it into the darkness and out of sight.
Rina slammed the door, shot the bolt, and fastened the chain with trembling fingers. Shaking, she leaned on the panel.
I did not see that.
The rain must have confused her vision. Everything was a blur out there. She hadn’t seen a crimson-eyed smoke creature that changed shape. It must have been a dog. And the cat had chased it away.
My hero. I owe him another can of tuna.
Why hadn’t the Pirellis, the retired couple in the other half of the duplex, come out to investigate the noise? Was the rain that loud? She clenched her fists against the wood and willed herself to stop trembling.
By the time she managed to relax, the rush of the rain slackened to a patter. Outside, a man’s voice spoke so faintly she could hardly make out the words: “Varina, you’re in danger. Listen carefully.”
“What?” The voice sounded almost familiar. But she couldn’t place it, and he’d addressed her by somebody else’s name. She called with her lips next to the doorjamb, “Who’s there? You’ve got the wrong house.”
“Varina, you have to awaken your pendant.” The man sounded closer this time.
-end of excerpt-
*****
My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Wild Rose Press: Wild Rose Press
You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter
Welcome to the November 2022 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.” For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
You can subscribe to this monthly newsletter here:
The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, e-mail me to request the desired issue, and I’ll send you a free PDF of it. My e-mail address is at the end of this newsletter. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
A complete list of my available works, arranged roughly by genre, with purchase links (gradually being updated as the Amber Quill and Ellora’s Cave works are being republished):
For anyone who would like to read previous issues of this newsletter, they’re posted on my website here (starting from January 2018):
This is my Facebook author page. Please visit!
Facebook
Here’s my page in Barnes and Noble’s Nook store:
Barnes and Noble
Here’s the list of my Kindle books on Amazon. (The final page, however, includes some Ellora’s Cave anthologies in which I don’t have stories):
Carter Kindle Books
Here’s a shortcut URL to my author page on Amazon:
Amazon
The Fiction Database displays a comprehensive list of my books (although with a handful of fairy tales by a different Margaret Carter near the end):
My Goodreads page:
Goodreads
Please “Like” my author Facebook page (cited above) to see reminders when each monthly newsletter is uploaded. I’ve also noticed that I’m more likely to be shown posts from liked or friended sources in my Facebook feed when I’ve “Liked” some of their individual posts, so you might want to do that, too. Thanks!
My lighthearted ghost novella “Spooky Tutti Frutti” was included in Cherie Colyer’s “Something Spooky This Way Comes” blog feature in honor of Halloween:
Something Spooky
On November 2, the Wild Rose Press published another of my former Ellora’s Cave erotic paranormal romance novellas, “Merry Twinness.” On Christmas Eve, the heroine learns her fiancé has kept a vital secret from her—he has an identical twin. But that’s not the real shock. . . . There’s an excerpt below.
Merry Twinness
This month’s interviewee, Annette Miller, is a paranormal romance author who has a Christmas Cookies story with me in the Wild Rose Press anthology A HINT OF VANIILLA.
*****
Interview with Annette Miller:
What inspired you to begin writing?
I always loved telling stories, even when I was a child. Books always enthralled me, and my parents even gave me a small typewriter on Christmas. So I guess I was always inspired to start writing.
What genres do you work in?
I write in contemporary paranormal romance both sweet and steamy. I have an idea for a YA series, and yes, it will also be paranormal. It’s kind of my jam.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I do something in between. I write summaries of the chapters in a notebook and expand from there.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
Major influences on my work have been ghost stories, fairy tales, anything supernatural. We live in the real world every day. I like bringing the fantastic to life.
Please tell us about your Angel Haven series. And what kinds of powers do the characters have?
My Angel Haven series was born from a superhero role playing game my husband and I used to play. We started with gaming and then I got to thinking about what would happen if these two characters got together? Superheroes are fun to write about because there are so many different ways to cause them problems. There are wizards, mythical beings, cyborgs, and of course, superheroes. The heroines are all part of the Angels team. I can’t tell you about the hero in my 5th book. It would ruin the surprise.
What inspired your Christmas Cookies story “Macaroons by Moonlight” (which appears in the anthology A HINT OF VANILLA as well as a stand-alone e-book)?
Macaroons by Moonlight was born almost instantly. When the topic for the new series came up, I knew the characters, the story, everything just popped in my mind. I have to give a shoutout to Rhonda Penders at The Wild Rose Press. When I told her I was better at eating cookies than baking them, she said I could use that in the story, and I did.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
My latest book is A Spirited Romance. It was just released on September 26. It’s a sweet paranormal romance set in the same little town as Macaroons by Moonlight.
I thought it would be fun to write a ghost story, and what better than a matchmaking ghost. I got inspiration for this story from ghostly TV shows and Celtic folklore. I have a novella coming out on April 3, 2023 in the Jelly Beans and Spring Things series.
What are you working on now?
Right now I’m working on the 6th book in my Angel Haven series. This one has aliens and one of my favorite tropes, cop and the criminal she’s hunting fall in love.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
My advice to aspiring writers is to learn all you can about the craft and don’t worry if you don’t have a fancy degree in anything. I only have a high school diploma but I’ve won awards. Basically, just absorb all the knowledge you can.
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
My website is Annette Miller.
Facebook
BookBub
Twitter: @AngelHavenR
LinkedIn
Instagram: annettemillerauthor
Pinterest
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
PUTTING THE FACT IN FANTASY, edited by Dan Koboldt. The essays in this anthology, contributed by over thirty different specialists, explore a wide range of subjects writers of fantasy may need to know about in order to make their fictional settings feel authentic. The foreword emphasizes the importance of getting the mundane background right. Readers will accept the wildest flights of fantasy if they’re grounded in a world that works believably. If geography, climate, physical abilities of normal animals and human characters, etc. conform to known facts, such phenomena as unicorns, dragons, elves, and magic are more likely to win acceptance. Conversely, if errors appear in details supposedly faithful to how things work in the real world, the audience won’t trust the author enough to suspend disbelief in the fantastic elements. The introduction, titled “How to Ask an Expert,” offers practical advice on getting help from people with firsthand knowledge and experience. This book aims to help authors avoid errors in portrayal of environments, social structures, animals, weapons, etc. that will jar the reader out of the imaginary world. The anthology is divided into six parts, covering the broad areas of actual history as inspiration, languages and culture, world-building (e.g., money, food and drink, plants, ecology, politics, among other topics), weapons and warfare, horses, and wilderness adventure. Each category includes a wide range of sub-topics (aside from the horse section, which is more tightly focused). Entertaining as well as useful, the book could be picked up and sampled in any order. The contents tend to consist of short, quick reads. Therein lies its one drawback. Most of the essays comprise broad introductions to their topics. Some contain suggestions for further reading, but many don’t. On the other end of the scale, some contributions list highly specific content such as popular myths about horses, fascinating material but touching on only one aspect of a wide field. Still, PUTTING THE FACT IN FANTASY, although subtitled “Expert advice to bring authenticity to your fantasy writing,” includes information that could benefit authors in almost any genre. If nothing else, it’s a fun read that may spark ideas for adding depth to the physical and social environment of your story. Non-writers, too, can enjoy it simply for its entertainment value.
ETERNALLY YOURS, by Patrice Caldwell. An anthology of original paranormal romance stories. Caldwell’s introduction consists mainly of a captivating personal essay about her lifelong fascination with monsters. This book includes numerous BIPOC authors and LBGTQ+ characters, reflecting the contemporary broad scope of fantasy and the paranormal. I was mildly surprised to find only two vampire stories—Melissa Cruz’s “Once Upon a Time in Charleston,” in her Blue Bloods series, and “Pierce My Soul,” by Kat Cho—plus a vampire-like character in “Undead Ghoul Meet-Cute,” by Kendare Blake. Other stories feature a variety of different creatures—among them, angels, demons, merfolk, the Sea Witch, an allegedly cursed girl called an asura, and a pair of teenage lovers who’ve been reincarnated many times over the centuries. One especially striking tale, “Katrine and Rowan’s Exit Interview,” by Sarah Gailey, recreates the myth of Circe amid an island community of women. Fans seeking innovative stories of supernatural love among human and nonhuman characters won’t want to miss this book.
ORDINARY MONSTERS, by J. M. Miro. A monumental (660 pages long) work for lovers of Victorian horror. The first chapter begins on a freight train in the English countryside in 1874. Soon afterward, the scene shifts to 1882, which remains the period of the main action but with several substantive flashbacks to the 1870s. Like the sprawling novels of the nineteenth century, this book features a huge cast of characters, some displaying Dickensian eccentricity, in chapters and sections with intriguingly Gothic titles such as “The Thing on the Cobblestone Stair,” “Monsters in the Fog,” “The Study of the Impossible,” “The Girl Who Was Seen,” and “The Vanishing of Jacob Marber.” Marlowe, the baby found by a runaway servant girl in the opening scene on the train, sometimes shines with a blue glow and can heal or destroy with his power. Charlie, in 1882 a teenager suffering a brutal life in Mississippi, heals from any injury without a scar, but the damage and the healing still hurt. Alice Quicke, a freelance detective formerly with the Pinkerton agency, tracks down these two children to escort them to a refuge for “Talents” with paranormal abilities. The mansion in Scotland where the residents, ranging from young children through teenagers, are trained in mastery of their gifts adds another layer of Gothic atmosphere. Its head, Dr. Berghast, genuinely cares about his young charges, but he has an overriding agenda of his own. The combination orphanage and school guards a portal to a shadowy realm where memories and the dead dwell. A quasi-undead predator called a drughr has seduced the antagonist, a former student named Jacob Marber, into a symbiotic union. Flashbacks to Tokyo in the 1870s reveal how Jacob changed from a trusted disciple into a deadly enemy. Eventually Dr. Berghast decides he must recruit Charlie and Marlowe to cross over into the other dimension in order to save the school and perhaps the human world. Meanwhile, some of their new friends, including a girl with the gift of becoming invisible, set out on a related quest of their own. There’s also a protective spirit in the form of a cat (usually), with which Alice forms a bond. These details only skim the surface of the complex, multi-layered, riveting plot. The characters in the ensemble cast are all fully developed, evoking the reader’s sympathy as well as genuine sadness for those who fall in battle, as some inevitably do. A fascinating historical dark fantasy, not quite like anything else I’ve read.
THE GOLDEN ENCLAVES, by Naomi Novik. Since this is the final volume in the Scholomance trilogy, discussing it inevitably involves spoilers for the second book. At the end of THE LAST GRADUATE, El (short for Galadriel) achieves the unprecedented feat of getting the entire student body through the deadly exit battle alive—with one exception. Just as she cuts the portal to the Scholomance off from the real world and launches the school into the void, Orion, her boyfriend, sacrifices himself to save her and the rest of the class. Involuntarily leaving him behind, El instantaneously returns to her home like all the other graduates. Safe back in the hippie-style commune where her pacifist healer mother welcomes and cares for her, El plots how to reenter the Scholomance and rescue Orion whether he wants saving or not. She has to persuade her close friends and allies from school to help her; she also visits several high-status enclaves in an attempt to form alliances. Rivalry to the point of paranoia pervades interactions among the elite families of the enclaves, but El recognizes the futility and danger of maintaining that system. She travels to enclaves all over the world, confronting the most powerful magical clans. The “Golden Enclaves” refer to her dream of establishing communities where the non-elite can practice their magic in safe, non-toxic environments. She meets Orion’s family and uncovers shocking secrets about his origin and true nature. Her infiltration of the decaying remnants of the Scholomance with her friends and the aftermath when Orion, deeply scarred by the experience, has been restored to the outside world enthralled me. How can Orion be liberated from the burden he has carried his entire life? The book doesn’t have an unmixed happy ending, which would be unrealistic, but it does conclude the trilogy in a satisfying and optimistic way.
*****
Excerpt from “Merry Twinness”:
“Time for the special gift.” He plucked a tiny box wrapped in red foil from under the tree. “Wait,” he repeated when she reached for it. “Before you open this and answer the question that goes with it, I have something important to tell you. Or more like show you.”
His hesitant tone and the apprehension in his eyes chilled her. “So you do have a dire secret?” She didn’t quite succeed in keeping her voice light.
“I hope you won’t think it’s too dire. But it will come as a shock.” He set the box on the couch and clasped both of her hands in his. “Please don’t freak out.”
Footsteps muffled by the carpet sounded in the adjacent dining room. The door leading to it opened. A man stepped through, took three paces toward the fireplace, and halted. Nicole blinked up at him, at first too stunned to process what she saw.
Cal’s double.
Except that he wore a University of Maryland sweatshirt instead of a pullover sweater with a white shirt and Christmas necktie, he looked identical to her lover. No, not quite—the mane that grew to just below his ears was less tousled than Cal’s but a bit shaggier, as if overdue for a barber visit. The clothes and hair, though, didn’t negate her first impression. She couldn’t doubt his identity.
She sprang to her feet. “You have a twin brother? And you never told me?”
“I don’t exactly have a twin. I am twins.”
-end of excerpt-
*****
My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Wild Rose Press: Wild Rose Press
You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter
Welcome to the October 2022 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.” For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
You can subscribe to this monthly newsletter here:
The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, e-mail me to request the desired issue, and I’ll send you a free PDF of it. My e-mail address is at the end of this newsletter. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
A complete list of my available works, arranged roughly by genre, with purchase links (gradually being updated as the Amber Quill and Ellora’s Cave works are being republished):
For anyone who would like to read previous issues of this newsletter, they’re posted on my website here (starting from January 2018):
This is my Facebook author page. Please visit!
Facebook
Here’s my page in Barnes and Noble’s Nook store:
Barnes and Noble
Here’s the list of my Kindle books on Amazon. (The final page, however, includes some Ellora’s Cave anthologies in which I don’t have stories):
Carter Kindle Books
Here’s a shortcut URL to my author page on Amazon:
Amazon
The Fiction Database displays a comprehensive list of my books (although with a handful of fairy tales by a different Margaret Carter near the end):
My Goodreads page:
Goodreads
Please “Like” my author Facebook page (cited above) to see reminders when each monthly newsletter is uploaded. I’ve also noticed that I’m more likely to be shown posts from liked or friended sources in my Facebook feed when I’ve “Liked” some of their individual posts, so you might want to do that, too. Thanks!
Happy Halloween!
My erotic paranormal ghost romance novella “Heart Diamond” (another lightly edited former Ellora’s Cave publication) was released in September:
After losing her fiance to a car accident, Roseanne has one thing to remember him by—a ring with a gemstone made from his ashes. Anchored to the jewel, he returns to her from the other world. But the ghost of a love isn’t enough. An excerpt appears below.
Diamonds made from cremains are a real thing, by the way.
In November my next re-release will come out, a Christmas erotic paranormal romance novella titled “Merry Twinness.”
For the month of horror, I’m interviewing poet, artist, and fiction author Marge Simon. She created many illustrations for my former fanzine THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT, and she’s a frequent contributor in fiction, verse, and artwork to the vampire and horror zine NIGHT TO DAWN. She also writes a column on dark poetry for the Horror Writers Association monthly newsletter. Moreover, she’s the cover artist for my story collection DOCTOR VAMPIRE, available here:
*****
Interview with Marge Simon:
What inspired you to begin writing?
As soon as I mastered writing my name, which is the same as yours, I figured I might as well learn some other words to write. At the time, it seemed that “Margaret” was as long as the alphabet. I couldn’t saddle my daughter with a long name. My daughter’s name only has 5 letters.
What genres do you work in?
Everything except Romance, Mystery, Detective and Westerns.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
Depends, but I usually have an idea where I’m going with a poem or flash. I’m not sure what I’ll find along the way, for it’s not a cut-and-dried deal.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
For my vampire stories and poems, I gained inspiration experience from Ann Rice’s series that begins with Interview with the Vampire, the Sonja Blue collection by Nancy Collins and Robert Steakley’s VAMPIRE$. Of course, I read Carmilla. These are the main influences on my imagination as I began writing on the subject. I knew the story of Dracula, and have read Dracul, by Dacre Stoker and J.D. Barker.
How does the writing of horror-themed poetry differ from the creation of other types of poetry, if it does?
It doesn’t. If you are a good poet, you can turn a mainstream poem like Frost’s “Stopping Through Woods on a Snowy Night” into a full blown horror story and have ideas left over for more.
Please tell us about the background and content of your collaborative Dracula-themed book, THE DEMETER DIARIES.
Dr. Bryan Dietrich asked me about collaborating on this set of poems one bright morning in spring of 2018 at an ICFA conference. We didn’t know what would happen, or how it would take shape – but we soon found our places, as if this were foreordained. Working on it was like writing a play that needed no rehearsal.
For the space of time it took, we assumed the identity of our characters while writing. It was amazing how Mina responded to Vlad, and vice versa – with very little discussion. I remember needing to know where Vlad was and how close, and how much longer the voyage would take. Things that happened in Mina’s life while Vlad was en route came so naturally for me to convey. I felt the days of Mina’s life were more discovered, than invented. Of course, I researched aspects of the Victorian era, including the pastimes and fashions, popular opinions, medicines, etc. Bryan’s poems gave me clues and in response, Mina would often perceive what Vlad was going through or thinking about. It was a work of unique harmony.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
Sifting the Ashes (with Michael Bailey)
What are you working on now?
A short sf story about a time traveler with Shikhar Dixit.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
READ, READ all kinds of works, from non-fiction to mainstream, contemporary to the classics, and don’t stop! You will never regret it.
What is the URL of your website?
What about other internet presence?
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Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
I CONTAIN MULTITUDES, by Ed Yong. Subtitled “The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life,” this nonfiction book deals with a broader subject than the microbial life within human beings. It discusses a wide range of animals and other creatures as well. The first chapter (after the prologue), “Living Islands,” sets the tone. Every multicellular life-form is an “island” inhabited by millions of organisms in addition to its own cells. In the sentence, “Symbiosis hints at the threads that connect all life on Earth,” Yong (a Pulitzer-Prize-winning science writer) encapsulates the theme of the entire book. Chapter 2 briefly surveys the history of microbiology, beginning with Anton van Leeuwenhoek’s first glimpses of “animalcules” through his lenses in 1632. For a while after the germ theory of disease became accepted, there was a negative attitude toward “germs” in general. The more sterile, the better, it was believed. We now know that most microbes in our environment and our bodies are neutral or beneficial. Children brought up “too clean” are more susceptible to allergies. Many of the bacteria in symbiosis with us occupy niches that would otherwise be infested with harmful organisms. A robust internal ecosystem—microbiome—supporting the right kinds of symbionts is essential to overall health. Some insects and animals wouldn’t be able to digest the foods they live on without the help of certain gut microbes. In an engagingly readable style, Yong’s ten chapters explore these and many other roles, vital to life on Earth, played by microscopic organisms. The text’s structure varies between anecdotes about scientists studying the role of microbes in the web of life, often in remote regions scarcely touched by human development, and in-depth explorations of how those hidden connections work, sometimes with intricate discussions of biochemistry. (I confess I occasionally skimmed the more technical parts of those passages.) As a bonus, there are several pages of color photographs in the center of the book. The bibliography is huge and the index highly detailed.
OLLIE’S ODYSSEY, by William Joyce. This children’s chapter book with rather creepy illustrations was made into an excellent miniseries on Netflix, LOST OLLIE. I didn’t know it was a book until after watching the film, and contrary to my usual position, in this case I recommend reading the novel first. As good as the novel is in its way, I felt slightly let down upon reading it because I think the TV series made some improvements. Ollie is a homemade stuffed animal—a rabbit in the film, a bunny-bear hybrid in the book—sewn by Billy’s mother when he’s a baby. Inside the toy’s chest, she sews a bell that is the only remnant left from a doll she loved in childhood. Billy and Ollie become inseparable from the beginning. One outstanding feature of the novel is the way Ollie’s comprehension of the world clearly reflects and grows with Billy’s. They communicate with each other in their imaginative play, since children can understand the speech of anthropomorphic toys. In the film, adults (with one poignant exception at the end) can’t hear Ollie talk or see him move even when he does it right in front of them. In the book, not only toys but all inanimate objects imbued with life through being constantly used by humans can move, speak, and interact with children. It would be fair to say the film echoes TOY STORY in that respect, while the book, with its motley crew of animated things (including a pet rock, who can talk but not move independently), feels more like THE BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER. In both media, the antagonist, ZoZo, begins life as a toy clown in a carnival booth. As the carnival gradually goes downhill and eventually closes, a dancing doll, Nina, whom ZoZo loves, is taken away by a little girl. She pronounces Nina her new favorite toy. In the novel’s present day, ZoZo has conscripted a gang of minions who steal favorite toys for him to imprison and torment, not only out of malice toward all “favorites” but with a remote hope of finding his beloved again. The minions kidnap Ollie out of Billy’s backpack while Billy attends a wedding with his parents. Billy searches for Ollie and eventually becomes ZoZo’s prisoner. Ollie, who has meanwhile escaped from ZoZo’s underground lair, finds his way to a junkyard, where he wins a band of allies—toys and other discarded household objects—to help him rescue his boy. Wild, dangerous adventures ensue, culminating in a battle in ZoZo’s sinister underworld, with heroism, sacrifice, and love prominently on display. The limited and sometimes quirky view of the world held by household items and especially toys is vividly rendered. Ollie never steps out of character as a stuffed animal who understands his environment on the same level as the child he grew up with. A thrilling, heartfelt story for children, the novel also contains numerous cultural references and bits of humor designed to appeal to adults. Still, on the whole I prefer the film adaptation. It adds the illness and premature death of Billy’s mother, shown in flashbacks, which infuse the story with extra emotional depth. Instead of being stolen, Ollie gets lost in the aftermath of Billy’s mother’s death, as a result of Billy’s own despairing actions. By the time Billy remorsefully sets out in the night to search for his lifelong friend, Ollie has been picked up as abandoned and offered for sale in a secondhand shop. He meets ZoZo on the shelf where ZoZo ended up during his long, vain quest for Nina. In the series, ZoZo undergoes more complex character development, in my opinion. He bargains, apparently sincerely, to help Ollie search for home and Billy, if Ollie will help to find Nina. ZoZo finally snaps only when he notices Nina’s bell in Ollie’s heart. A character invented for the film, an old friend of ZoZo’s, adds another layer of complexity. The film device of revealing the backstories of Billy, Ollie, ZoZo, and Nina through a nonlinear structure, in flashbacks sprinkled throughout, enhances suspense. It also leads to a shocking, yet deeply moving zinger at the end as we abruptly have to revise our impression of the story’s time scale.
FAIRY TALE, by Stephen King. My favorite novel by King in a while. A fitting tagline might define it as a merging of “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone” (a story in the IF IT BLEEDS collection, boy makes friends with an eccentric old man), 11/22/63 (protagonist inherits a magical portal), and THE TALISMAN (a quest for the means of saving a beloved life, through a fantasy landscape in an alternate dimension). King states in his afterword that he tried to keep FAIRY TALE separate from the Dark Tower universe, but stray references crept in. The most striking, for me, is the line, “There are other worlds than these.” The adventure begins with the unlikely friendship between the narrator, Charlie, a high-school athlete, and Mr. Bowditch, reclusive owner of the town’s archetypal decaying, spooky house, a borderline hoarder with no family or friends. After Charlie’s mother died, run over while walking across a dangerous bridge, his father sank into alcoholism and eventually lost his job. Charlie spent a long time taking care of his father as well as himself. Now that his father has been in recovery for several years thanks to the AA program, their lives are stable and their relationship strong. Fortunately, Charlie has long since pulled himself out of a threatened slide into juvenile delinquency. This background helps to account for his strong sense of responsibility. The present-day adventure begins with Mr. Bowditch’s female dog, Radar, who has acquired a perhaps undeservedly fierce reputation among the local kids but is now old and feeble. As Charlies is passing the house one day, she runs out, howling for help, and leads him to her master, lying on the ground with a broken leg. After Charlie calls 9-1-1 and the paramedics arrive, Mr. Bowditch, although he doesn’t trust anybody, has no choice but to let Charlie take care of Radar during his hospital stay. On his daily visits, Charlie becomes attached to the dog and also does what he can to mitigate the rundown condition of the house. By the time Mr. Bowditch comes home, the seeds of friendship have begun to sprout, and eventually Charlie wins the old man’s full trust. Thus, when Mr. Bowditch dies, Charlie inherits not only his property but a tape cassette revealing secrets of his friend’s longevity and financial status. Below the shed behind the house, a staircase leads to a portal into another world. The lure of mystery and gold draws Charlie, of course, but his main purpose in crossing over to the other dimension is to heal Radar’s infirmities and extend her life. Achieving this goal, of course, proves to be only the beginning of the adventure, as a larger quest pulls him in. Like the protagonist of THE TALISMAN, Charlie is mistaken for a promised savior. He does end up saving the kingdom, although far from singlehandedly. The realm is plagued by a disease that causes gray skin and other, more serious effects. The members of the royal family are immune to it but suffer from a cruel curse conjured by their treacherous brother, afflicting each of them with a different handicap. Charlie stands out because of his rarity as a “whole” (non-diseased) person. One feature of FAIRY TALE that especially appeals to me is the style of the chapter headings. As in many Victorian novels, the title of each chapter lays out an overview of the events to come. My one reservation about the book concerns the prevalent association of evil with ugliness and deformity. On the other hand, almost all the good people suffer some kind of physical defect, too, given the curse on the kingdom. Echoes of “Rumpelstiltskin” and THE WIZARD OF OZ permeate the story, along with numerous references to other fairy tales. Through Charlie’s first-person narrative voice, King manages to make him both a believable teenager and an obviously kindhearted, heroic person, as much as he resists being labeled a hero.
*****
Excerpt from “Heart Diamond”:
Roseanne’s eyes snapped open. A man’s shape lay beside her. A neon-blue glow surrounded it. Tim’s face and body, translucent except for the gray-blue eyes. His hand flowed over her like cold water. A shudder coursed through her.
“Roseanne? Don’t be afraid, love. I’m sorry I scared you at first.” The voice sounded so real, exactly like her memory of Tim’s.
“Of course it sounds the way I remember it,” she muttered, “because it’s coming from my imagination.”
“No, it’s not,” he said. “I’m really here.”
She gasped and sat up. When the apparition’s fingers trailed down the valley between her breasts, she drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them to shield herself.
He reached for her again. She let out a half-stifled scream.
He blinked in and out of visibility like a failing light bulb. “Please don’t.”
A chill enveloped her. “What are you?” she whispered.
“It’s me. Honest.”
Shaking her head, she squeezed her eyes shut then opened them. He hadn’t vanished.
“Why are you afraid?” Lying on his side, he leaned on one elbow and gazed into her eyes. She noticed his elbow and hip didn’t dent the mattress. With one finger he touched the diamond. At the moment of contact, his outline momentarily became sharper.
“Are you kidding? Because if you aren’t a dream, you’re a ghost.”
“Well, yeah,” he said with a sad smile. “Considering I’m, you know, dead and all that.”
Her throat constricted so that for a few seconds she couldn’t choke out any words. “Why? How?”
“Why? Because I couldn’t stand being torn away from you. I’m able to reach you now because of the diamond.”
She stared at the gem, which glimmered in the eerie light he radiated. “You’re haunting the ring?”
“If you want to put it that way.”
-end of excerpt-
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My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Wild Rose Press: Wild Rose Press
You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter