Author Archive
Welcome to the September 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 dark paranormal erotic romance novella with Lovecraftian elements “Crossing the Border” was published by the Wild Rose Press in August. A horror author’s widow learns why he urged her not to publish his final book—because the terrifying alternate dimension in his fiction is real.
An excerpt from the heroine’s memory of her husband’s final night appears below.
My erotic paranormal ghost romance “Heart Diamond” will be re-released by the Wild Rose Press in September.
In this issue I introduce mystery and suspense author Randy Overbeck.
*****
Interview with Randy Overbeck:
What inspired you to begin writing?
I’ve been a writer most of my life, one way or the other. During my high school years, I had dreams of becoming a novelist, but real life intervened and I became an educator instead. Over almost four decades, I served children as a teacher, college professor and school leader and loved it. I also found there was a good bit of writing in all these roles, especially as an administrator, so my work kept nurturing my writing gene. As I was completing my career in education, I returned to my first love and began doing creative writing again. Now four, almost five novels later, I’m definitely an author now.
What genres do you work in?
As with most things in my life, I like to push myself, always looking for new challenges. My first novel, published in 2012, LEAVE NO CHILD BEHIND, is a thriller about a terrorist cell which takes over a Midwest high school and the teacher who fights the terrorists. My three most recent titles, the Haunted Shores Mysteries, are paranormal mysteries featuring a ghost-whispering teacher and coach. I’m currently shopping my newest work, HARD LESSONS, an amateur sleuth mystery about a rogue drug in 1995 responsible for the death of five middle school kids. And I’m hard at work on my newest writing project, a historical suspense novel about colonial spies in the Revolutionary War.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I clearly straddle the middle between these two camps. In order to write with clarity, when I starting, I need to have some basic organization—murder, ghost, larger crime, primary suspects and of course location—all laid out and planned. I usually use some kind of basic outline—though it looks nothing like the outline taught in school—to guide me through the first 40% of the narrative. Once I’m well into the manuscript, I let the story evolve as it develops. BTW this might be interesting to your readers. I don’t decide on the murderer until I’m almost finished the narrative. As I write, I place clues for several characters to be the murderer. “They all could have done it!” Then, as I’m nearing the climax, the “perfect” culprit comes to me and voila! I have my killer. It’s a little unorthodox but it works for me.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
While several factors have influenced my work, my experience as an educator has had the most impact, but I’ll address this in the next question. From my travels I gained inspiration and an appreciation for the culture, people, natural beauty of other places. For example, my return trips to the magnificent Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay inspired me to craft a mystery there for the first entry in the series, BLOOD ON THE CHESAPEAKE. Early on, I was fortunate to attend a few great writing conferences and met several major authors like Hank Philippi Ryan and William Kent Kreuger. I found them to be rather down to earth and very much like me when they started out. They gave me the courage to move forward with my writing.
What impact has your career as an educator had on your fiction?
One of maxims for writers is “Write what you know.” Over my almost forty years in education, I was blessed to meet and work with thousands of teachers, administrators, parents, students and board members. This experience has given me a tremendous respect for those who toil quietly and without fanfare to give our children the best chance at happy, successful and productive lives. I interacted with them in all kinds of situations from mundane to crises and believe educators are truly the unsung heroes of our country. And I’ve seen them at their best and their worst. This has given me a wealth of experiences to draw on to craft engaging and believable fictional stories. I write what I know. It should be no surprise that the heroes in my tales are and will continue to be educators.
What kinds of research do you do for your mysteries? Have you visited all the locations featured in your novels?
Research was one of the skills that transferred well from education to writing. In my school career, I was the person responsible for research on curriculum, on technology, on grants. So when I began writing in earnest, I used the same researching skills to make sure my tales were authentic. Not only did I visit the location for each entry, I spent time with the locals, completed on-the-ground research at the local library, met and worked with town and Chamber representatives. I worked to learn the idioms and culture of each area. Plus each story required new areas of research—sailing on the Chesapeake Bay, learning about the lives of migrant workers, discovering the unique history of the area. I have to admit I love the research almost as much as I love the writing.
I notice your blog covers a wide variety of topics. Please highlight a few for the benefit of our readers.
I view my blog as a conversation between my readers and me. At times, I share a bit about my writing or some writing advice I’ve found quite helpful. Other times I’ll blog about some of the social issues exposed in my novels. For example, January is Human Trafficking Awareness month. Since the second title in my series, CRIMSON AT CAPE MAY, exposes the horror of this crime, I do a post that month sharing some important information. My recent posts in December, the giving season, have shared organizations and non-profits particularly deserving of our support. Oh, and since ghosts play an important role in my series, I share a post about the spirit world every few months. In fact, I have another ghost blog post coming up next month.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
My latest book is the third entry in the Haunted Shores Mysteries, SCARLET AT CRYSTAL RIVER. In the tale, my teacher hero, Darrell, is taking his new bride on their honeymoon to a quaint small town on the Gulf coast of Florida. But their newlywed celebrations are interrupted by the ghosts of two murdered children, who plead with Darrell to help them find justice. (And of course, only he can see them.) Even though it is third installment, SCARLET can be read separately from the first two, and is a Christmas mystery as well. The novel has already earned three national awards and scores of 5-star reviews.
“Author Randy Overbeck intrigues the reader with a tantalizing mystery, cleverly drawn characters, haunting paranormal activity, and a great story steeped in contemporary social issues and interests.”
Review of Scarlet at Crystal River
What are you working on now?
As I mentioned earlier, I’m currently deep at work on a new manuscript of a historical suspense about the Culper spy ring which helped Washington win the Revolutionary War. The preparation and execution is requiring the most extensive research I’ve ever done for a novel, but I’m excited to be doing it. It’s still early but it’s coming together well and shows promise. And guess what? The hero, er I should say heroine, is a teacher. Big surprise.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
The only advice I can give is what has worked for me. Make sure to attend one or more writing conferences. Most good ones may require some travel and come at a cost, but the benefits are worth it. New writers get to mingle with and learn from both veterans and those who may be a little ahead of them on the learning curve. Conferences also enable newbies to build a network of support, in addition to all they learn at the sessions. Second, if they are serious about their writing, aspiring writers should participate in a strong writers’ critique group. Even though writing is at its essence a solitary experience, emerging writers can benefit tremendously by getting feedback from colleagues on their writing…and learning from the feedback.
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
Here are the details:
Website: Author Randy Overbeck
Facebook: Facebook
Twitter: Twitter
Instagram: Instagram
BookBub: BookBub
Amazon: Amazon
Goodreads: Goodreads
Podcast: Podcast
Also my latest project is a new podcast, GREAT STORIES ABOUT GREAT STORYTELLERS, where I share the unusual and weird backstories about famous authors, poets and directors. The podcast is available wherever listeners get their podcasts—Spotify, iHeart, Apple Podcasts or they can also get them at this link on my website
Great Stories Podcast
Dr. Randy Overbeck is a best-selling author of the award-winning series, The Haunted Shores Mysteries, each a cold case murder mystery wrapped in ghost story served with a side romance, set in a beautiful resort location. He is the author and voice of a new podcast, “Great Stories about Great Storytellers,” which reveals the unusual backstories of famous authors, directors and poets. He is also a speaker in much demand, sharing his multi-media presentations, “Thanks Still Go Bump in the Night” and “A Few Favorite Haunts” with audiences all over the country. More info about his novels, programs and podcast can be found at his website:
Author Randy Overbeck
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
BITCH: ON THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES, by Lucy Cooke. The author, a British zoologist and documentary filmmaker, presents a fascinating survey of the long-neglected status of females in biologists’ studies of the animal kingdom—or should that be “queendom”? As Cooke describes the state of the field until recent decades, zoologists regarded males as overwhelmingly the primary drivers of evolutionary change, with females dismissed as “passive” and boring. She takes on the mission of demonstrating how wrong those scientists were. She begins at the microscopic level, with gametes, revealing flaws in the image of the female’s egg as passively floating around waiting to be penetrated by one of the active sperm cells. In fact, the ovum has ways of controlling which sperm will be allowed to fertilize it. Chapter One, “The Anarchy of Sex: What Is a Female?” covers the development of the embryo, what determines its sex, and many examples of ambiguous sex among animals. Cooke goes on in subsequent chapters to explore the “mysteries of mate choice” (in which females are much more active than had been assumed in the past), the assertiveness and competitiveness of females of various species, female-dominated animal social groups, how mating patterns can function as competition between male and female, sexual behavior in supposedly monogamous species, nonreproductive sexual encounters, the complicated nature of maternal behaviors, females who devour their mates, “primate politics,” parthenogenesis, and the vital importance of older females in the societies of animals such as elephants and orcas. The final chapter, “Beyond the Binary,” discusses intersex phenomena, animal homosexuality, and creatures who change sex. Some species can switch back and forth, and one fish is known to change sex up to twenty times in a day for optimal reproductive efficiency. The author writes from a feminist perspective, justifiably if the masculinist bias in biology continued to dominate research as recently as she suggests. But this slant on the theme doesn’t in any way overshadow the abundance of concrete information she entertainingly provides.
PALADIN’S GRACE, by T. Kingfisher. This fantasy romance is the first in the “Saint of Steel” trilogy, connected novels starring three different characters in the same order of paladins. Their god, the Saint of Steel, suddenly and inexplicably died, leaving them with a void in their souls. As berserkers, often possessed by the god in combat, they’re now at risk of being overcome by the “black tide” of battle madness with no divine force to channel it. Those who survived this catastrophe now live as best they can under the patronage of the White Rat God, whose domains are healing and law. The trilogy takes place in the same world as SWORDHEART, and Zale, a legal advocate who plays a major role in that novel, also appears in PALADIN’S GRACE. Paladin Stephen more or less accidentally rescues Grace, a gifted perfume-maker. They feel an instant mutual attraction, which both resist, Stephen because of the unpredictable battle madness and Grace because of experiences with the emotionally abusive husband from whom she fled. Nevertheless, as one would expect, their paths keep crossing. Grace receives a commission to create a perfume for a foreign prince, a job that gets her unwillingly entangled in the hazards of court politics. By the time she falls under suspicion of poisoning and witchcraft, she and Stephen are so deeply involved that he risks everything to save her. The Temple of the White Rat comes to their aid, as, in a more subtle and problematic way, does Grace’s landlady and best friend, who turns out to be a professional spy. In addition to the devotees of the White Rat (of whom I can’t get enough), these books include an entertaining nonhuman species, gnoles, three-foot-tall, badger-like humanoids who perform a variety of jobs. One of their common sayings, “Humans can’t smell,” encapsulates their perception that most humans are so oblivious we can hardly be blamed for our ignorance. The gnoles’ own language applies gender pronouns according to class rather than biological sex. In the human tongue, though, they hardly ever use pronouns or proper names at all (except when very rarely being unusually formal and precise). A gnole refers to itself in the third person as “a gnole,” other creatures as “a human,” “an ox,” etc. The author’s afterword states that she wanted to write a fluffy fantasy romance in the world of SWORDHEART and the Clocktaur duology. By the time she finished, she realized fluffy romances don’t usually contain so many severed heads. The other two books in the Saint of Steel trilogy star two of Stephen’s comrades in their own love stories. In PALADIN’S STRENGTH, the love interest is a bear-shapeshifter lay sister of the Order of St. Ursa on a mission to rescue a group of kidnapped werebear nuns. In PALADIN’S HOPE, it’s a lich-doctor, this society’s equivalent of a medical examiner, who has the secret ability to view the final moments of any dead person or animal he touches. All these novels display Kingfisher’s irresistible wit and sparkling characterization.
CLOCKWORK BOYS and THE WONDER ENGINE, by T. Kingfisher. These two novels, which actually comprise a single book split into two volumes because of its length, predate the Saint of Steel trilogy. The author’s afterword to CLOCKWORK BOYS explains that she conceived the story in reaction against the brooding, guilt-ridden paladin with a dark past too common in fantasy games. While her paladins are burdened by dark pasts and specialize in guilt, they offset their brooding tendencies with sardonic self-reflection and Kingfisher’s trademark snappy dialogue. Sir Caliban, to a reader already familiar with the other books in this world, foreshadows the traumatized Saint of Steel paladins. He serves the Dreaming God, whose devotees specialize in vanquishing demons. We meet him in prison after he committed mass murder while possessed by a demon he was trying to exorcise. Only the possession kept him from being sentenced to death, but he was expelled from his order anyway, and the decaying remnants of the dead demon still haunt his soul, while he feels himself cut off from his god. Slate, an expert forger, lock-picker, and document thief, imprisoned after she committed an inadvertent act of treason, recruits Caliban to join her and her best friend (really, her only one, for a certain value of “friend”) and former lover, assassin Brenner, on a potential suicide mission. Both she and Caliban wear magical tattoos that will come to life and painfully bite them if they stray from the assignment. They’re sent to an enemy city to investigate and, if possible, eliminate the Clocktaurs or “Clockwork Boys,” an incongruously playful-sounding nickname for terrifying, gargantuan, unstoppable, magically animated war machines. Unfortunately, Slate has grave reasons to fear returning to that city, a backstory not revealed to either her companions or the reader until well into the novel. Along with them goes Learned Edmund, a naïve, young scholar of an order traditionally suspicious and disdainful of women. Edmund, naturally, learns better as he travels and fights alongside Slate. A gnole also joins the group, and we get glimpses of gnole culture. The story would make an excellent Dungeons & Dragons campaign, with an oddly-assorted party of reluctant allies, side adventures that tie into the main quest in surprising ways, and an epic final showdown in which the skill sets of all the characters play vital roles. The climax goes to very dark places, yet the second book ultimately reaches a satisfying conclusion in which the overarching mystery is solved, while Slate and Caliban achieve the romantic fulfillment they and the reader have been impatiently anticipating. Again, if you decide to read the Clocktaur duology, be sure to get both volumes because they make up one continuous story.
THE EASTER RISING: A GUIDE TO DUBLIN IN 1916, by Conor Kostick and Lorcan Collins. Basically a printed counterpart to the authors’ 1916-themed walking tour of Dublin, this book covers dozens of sites associated with the Easter Rising. Since it’s organized by location rather than dates, it doesn’t lay out the progress of the rebellion in strict chronological order. However, a timeline at the beginning lists important events from 1884 to Easter Monday, 1916, and the book’s introduction provides an overview of the background that led up to the Rising. The final chapter, “Dublin Castle Courtyard,” summarizes the aftermath. So there’s a chronological framework for the site-specific historical facts. Also, despite the unavoidable skipping around in time, a rough impression of forward movement remains. The book is profusely illustrated with black-and-white photographs. Each chapter includes biographical sidebars about the significant people discussed therein. An appendix offers more detailed information about the seven men who signed the Proclamation of Irish independence. There’s also a selected bibliography for further reading. Anyone seeking information about the 1916 Rising or the history of modern Ireland in general will find this book of absorbing interest.
*****
Excerpt from “Crossing the Border”:
Paula quickly realized Kyle was headed for the labyrinth. He’d shown her the place right after they’d moved in, and she’d avoided the trail to it ever since. Not because she feared a plain patch of ground, of course, just that the barren clearing looked so dreary. A labyrinth was supposed to provide a peaceful space for meditation, but this one made her nerves twang. By the time she reached it, her fingers and toes felt chilled, as if the temperature had fallen ten degrees since she’d left the house.
Stopping at the edge of the clearing and turning off the flashlight, she hid among the trees to watch Kyle pace along the spiral to the center. In the moonlight she could make out his moving silhouette but no details. When he stepped into the heart of the labyrinth, though, a glow suffused the spot.
Paula stifled a gasp. A violet-blue aura surrounded Kyle, expanding as she watched. Had he lit some kind of lamp? No, by the unnatural light she saw that he wasn’t holding anything, and no such device sat on the ground next to him. He stretched his arms over his head and took one more step.
And vanished.
A second later, the glow blinked out of existence. She rubbed her eyes, sparks flashing behind the lids. He’s got to be here somewhere. She ran to the edge of the labyrinth and aimed her flashlight beam at the center. Nothing. She swept the beam over the entire clearing. He couldn’t have dashed out of sight that quickly. “Kyle, where are you? Stop scaring me.” No answer.
She paced the perimeter of the clearing, certain in advance that she wouldn’t find any sign of him. Shivering even though the air couldn’t be much cooler than sixty degrees, she retraced her steps to the house. This time she wouldn’t let him escape without an explanation.
For over an hour, she sat on the bed watching the office cottage from the window. Oh, God, what if he never comes back? The moment the office light switched on, she rushed downstairs, outside, and across the yard to the little building.
When she burst in, Kyle, slumped in the desk chair, looked up with that stunned, dazed expression. “Paula?”
She gripped his arms. The heat of his skin seared her palms. “What happened to you? Where have you been?” She fingered the red marks. “And what’s this?”
“The blob. It got me when I let go of the talisman.” He nodded toward the desk.
-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 August 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!
“Chocolate Chip Charm,” my story in the Wild Rose Press Christmas Cookies series, can now be bought in paperback. This light paranormal romance novella about a love potion that goes wrong, or maybe unexpectedly right, is included in the new anthology A HINT OF VANILLA:
My novella “Crossing the Border,” a former Ellora’s Cave erotic dark paranormal romance with Lovecraftian elements, lightly revised, was released today by the Wild Rose Press. Paula, a bestselling horror novelist’s widow, discovers his fiction was based on a terrifying alternate dimension he stumbled into through a labyrinth in the woods on their property. Right before his death, he warned her not to publish his final work in progress. However, Doug, his agent and literary executor, their best friend from their college years, urges Paula to get her husband’s posthumous work into print. Together they cross over into the eldritch realm, while coming to terms with their mutual attraction. The opening paragraphs appear below.
This month I’m interviewing multi-genre author Babs Mountjoy.
*****
Interview with Babs Mountjoy:
What inspired you to begin writing?
It’s something I always had to do. My mother was a painter; my creativity came in stories. Even in elementary school, I remember I wrote this story about how my cat caught and killed a rabbit. Ugh, right? Maybe that foreshadowed my newspaper career. 🙂
What genres do you work in?
As Lyndi Alexander, I write fantasy, space opera, and science fiction romance. As Alana Lorens, I write romance, suspense and combinations of the two,
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
Usually I wing it for the first half of the book. I’ve got a general idea where I’m going, and I see what the characters generate. Then I outline vaguely for the next quarter, then the last 25% I outline closely to get where I want to end up.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
There is some bit of my life experience in everything I write. The Clan Elves come from my time in the Bitterroot Valley in Montana. Such a beautiful area, and very old. I imagine all sorts of secrets are hidden in those forests. Setting is extremely important for most of my work, and becomes part of the action thread. Whether you’re in New Orleans, Miami, rural Pennsylvania or deep dark mountains, your story is going to evolve differently and hopefully organically from the places the characters find themselves,
How have your careers as a journalist and a lawyer affected your writing? Journalism and fiction are different, of course, but what crossover, if any, have you found in the skills required for those two types of writing?
My years as a news reporter helped hone research skills, so I have definitely benefited from that time. One of my heroines, in LOVE ME, KISS ME, KILL ME, is in fact a reporter, so she did for sure. My 30 years as a family law attorney are more useful in my romance and suspense books, many of which feature a lawyer as the main character. I also learned by practicing law that you can never know exactly how far one human can push another. It gives me freedom to reach for the stars.
Are your elves inspired more by fiction, folklore, or a bit of both?
A bit of both. They’re not cute little fairy type beings. They are human-sized, and every bit as politically savvy as Game of Thrones type skullduggery–a parallel line of development alongside humans of the area. The Native Americans in the area have deep roots in those forests–who’s to say their “spirits” might not be this sort of supernatural?
Please tell us about your work with shelter cats.
When I moved to Asheville, NC six years ago, some of the first social contacts I made were through foster organizations for cats. My daughter and I housed sick cats who needed to be out of shelter to heal, as well as taking on batches of kittens during the very real “kitten season,” spring through fall. We provided much-needed socialization for several weeks, then the kitties would go for adoption. We placed many–but we also “foster-failed” with Ziggy, Reba, Clarice, Daisy Mae, Korben Dallas, Dilly, Twilight Sparkle, Terra and lastly 21 year old Kitty Lou. Our house and hearts are full.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
PROPHECIES AND PROMISES, an historical romance with pirates! From the Wild Rose Press, Tamsyn McKiernan thinks her dreams have come true. She’s engaged to a dashing Key West bachelor and finally in her widowed father’s good graces. But in her heart, she knows something’s wrong. She loves the ocean and the quiet pleasures of nature—so what does the aristocratic life she’ll lead truly hold for her?
Mercenary captain Drake Ashton is neck deep in preparations for the Spanish-American War, running guns and other supplies to Cuban natives who want out from under their Spanish masters. He and his brother Freddie risk their lives daily, focused on saving his friends on the island. Nothing else matters but his mission.
A chance encounter with a spiny sea urchin brings the two together, and neither of their lives will ever be the same again.
Tag Lines: When the ‘good’ man is bad, and the ‘bad’ man is good, how’s a young woman to choose?
Buy Links
Paperback Amazon
B&N Barnes & Noble
What are you working on now?
A thriller set in 1996 Miami, where the main character, a lawyer, wakes up next to a burnt-out car in the Everglades with a dead body in it. She has no memory of how she got there or who the dead person is.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
It’s so simple it sounds trite, but it’s true. LEARN and WRITE. I had my first piece published for money when I was 18, short stories and articles until I was 40. I was 42 when my first non fiction book was published, and then 43 when my first novel was picked up, THE ELF QUEEN. Since then, l’ve had 23 more novels published by mostly small press. I’ve gone to many conferences, taken classes online and in person and have a fantastic crit group in Fellowship of the Quill out of Pennwriters. But the hardest and most productive this is just to keep writing and getting better,
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
Author Links
Website and Blog: Lyndi Alexander
Facebook: Facebook
Goodreads: Goodreads
Amazon Author Page:
Amazon
BookBub: BookBub
Smashwords — Lyndi Alexander: Smashwords
Instagram: Instagram
Twitter: Twitter or @AlexanderLyndi
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
THE CALL OF POOHTHULHU, edited by Neil Baker. Yes, believe it or not, ten authors wrote stories crossing the Lovecraft Mythos with the world of Winnie the Pooh. Imagine hunting a heffalump and finding a shoggoth. Baker’s introduction states that the idea for the anthology was spawned when Milne’s original WINNIE THE POOH entered the public domain. (When I began to wonder why Tigger doesn’t appear in this volume, it occurred to me that he doesn’t arrive until THE HOUSE AT POOH CORNER, published later.) Some tales that, for me, merge the two fictional universes particularly well: “The Celery at the Threshold,” by John Linwood Grant, reveals what happens when Pooh and friends decide to search for the South Pole and encounter a very Small Elder Thing, separated from its family, and help it to find them. In “The Very Black Goat,” by Christine Morgan, Pooh and company barely escape the clutches of a devious girl (with goat) who turns out to be one of the children of the Goat with a Thousand Young. “Back to the Black Bog,” by Lee Clark Zumpe (a frequent contributor to the vampire and horror zine NIGHT TO DAWN), in which a Cosmic Lump lands in the Hundred Acre Wood, pastiches Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space.” I particularly enjoyed a direct Lovecraft parody, Eeyore’s report of his friend’s fatal descent into forbidden depths, “The Statement of Eeyore Carter,” by Kevin Wetmore. (“You fool! I already told you—Pooh is dead!”) A weakness of some stories, in my opinion, is that the characters speak and behave too maturely, out of keeping with the tone of Milne’s fiction. Eeyore is a valid exception, since he doesn’t act very childish even in the original, and as the introduction points out, his personality fits well into a Lovecraftian universe. A couple of pieces verge on metafictional, with the inclusion of Christopher Robin as a young man. The book’s final selection, “Acrewood,” by Jude Reid, although delectably creepy, is an anomaly. It’s straightforward folk horror with nothing distinctively Lovecraftian, aside from the motif of a cult in a rural setting. Moreover, it takes place in the primary world, not Milne’s fantasy realm, and readers could easily overlook the subtle allusions to the Pooh series if encountering the work somewhere other than this anthology.
NO ORDINARY PEOPLE, by Joel D. Heck. Subtitled “21 Friendships of C. S. Lewis,” this book takes its title from Lewis’s essay “The Weight of Glory,” in which he says we have never met an “ordinary” person, for every human being was created for eternal glory. The high value Lewis placed on friendship (as particularly highlighted in his THE FOUR LOVES) makes it appropriate to devote a book to his relationships with friends and colleagues not necessarily well know to the general public or even to Lewis devotees. The two main exceptions, his brother Warren and Mrs. Janie Moore, extensively discussed elsewhere, do make me wonder about the exclusion of Lewis’s wife, Joy Davidman Gresham, a dear friend for years before he married and fell in love with her (in that order). Granted, however, several entire books have already been written about that relationship. The author stretches the definition of “friendship” a bit, in my opinion, since a few of the people profiled seem more like cordial professional acquaintances than friends in the full sense of the word as defined in THE FOUR LOVES. Nevertheless, the breadth and depth of Heck’s research are impressive, as he delves into exhaustive detail about Lewis’s relationship with each person. We also get a thorough overview of the background of each subject, exploring them in terms of their own lives and careers, not just their importance in connection with Lewis. The extensive bibliography highlights the author’s care and diligence. Most hardcore Lewis fans will want to read this book, especially those who enjoy biography for its own sake.
TOUCHSTONES, by Stephanie Burgis. It’s not necessary to have read any of Burgis’s fantasy novels to enjoy this collection of stand-alone stories, but after reading them, you’ll probably want to explore her other works. While most of the tales display a light touch—although, of course, the characters’ plights are serious to them—a few darker pieces are included. “The Wrong Foot” introduces a girl whose foot coincidentally fits the glass slipper, but she didn’t even dance with the prince, whom she has absolutely no desire to marry. In “Undead Philosophy101,” vampires mingle unobtrusively among the residents of a university town, and the narrator, an outwardly nondescript girl from the wilds of northern Michigan, knows how to deal with them. The title character of “Dreaming Harry” is a boy whose dreams literally come to life, so his parents have to monitor his reading material carefully. In “Good Neighbors,” later incorporated as the first section of a novel, the heroine has to cope with a necromancer who moves to town and persists in sending her his zombies for repair. “The Disastrous Debut of Agatha Tremaine” stars a young woman happily studying magic until her overbearing aunt moves in and takes over her life for more sinister motives than immediately apparent. A queen decides to renegotiate her dynasty’s pact with a dragon in “A Cup of Comfort.” “Love, Your Flatmate” explores the protagonist’s tribulations with a fae roommate she unwillingly hosts. In one of the darker stories, “House of Secrets,” the narrator is summoned to the home of the father she’s never met and must face the grim truth that he wants her for reasons totally unlike the welcome she expected. Those titles comprise only a sample of the delightful contents. Since most of the stories were new to me, I found the book a satisfying addition to my library.
WHAT MOVES THE DEAD, by T. Kingfisher. Kingfisher’s two previous horror novels (both reviewed in previous newsletters), THE TWISTED ONES and THE HOLLOW PLACES, enthralled me. Both are modern-day sequels or spinoffs to classic stories, Arthur Machen’s “The White People” and Algernon Blackwood’s “The Willows,” respectively. WHAT MOVES THE DEAD, inspired by “The Fall of the House of Usher,” approaches its model differently. Kingfisher’s novel retells Poe’s tale in the 1890s in an imaginary middle-European country. The narrator, a friend of Roderick Usher (and, in this case, of Madeleine also, having known the twins in childhood) as in Poe’s original, marks an intriguing departure from the contemporary female narrators of the two previous horror novels. Alex Easton is a “sworn soldier” from the also imaginary Ruritanian country of Gallacia, a land inhabited by a “fierce warrior people” who happen to be very bad at warfare. Gallacian, a language with complexities difficult for foreigners to master, has at least two gender pronouns in addition to masculine and feminine. Priests, nuns, and preadolescent children are referred to as “va” rather than the Gallacian equivalent of “he” or “she.” (Applying the latter to a child may cause native speakers to suspect you of pedophilia.) Sworn soldiers go by the nonbinary “ka.” Some who’ve left the military revert to gendered pronouns and lifestyles. Many others, such as Alex, retain their nonbinary persona and pronouns for life. Alex has received a message informing kan that Madeleine is very ill, perhaps dying. When ka arrives at the Usher mansion, it turns out to be infested with fungi, as is the land surrounding the ominous-looking tarn. Roderick looks almost as sick as his sister. In addition to the Usher twins and their few remaining servants, Alex meets a brilliant amateur mycologist, Euphemia Potter. This fictitious spinster aunt of Beatrix Potter ultimately helps to solve the mystery of the “cursed” mansion. The dry wit of Alex’s narrative voice, even in the midst of the most dire events, kept me enthralled. Kingfisher always delivers a satisfying experience in that department. The major plot points unfold much the same as in Poe’s tale, but with a quasi-scientific rationale. The organisms infesting the landscape and the house prove to be far more than ordinary fungi. The fascinating Author’s Note at the end elaborates on her inspiration for the story and the decisions she made in writing it. My only complaint about this novel is that it’s too short (less than 160 pages not counting the afterword). By the way, the title has a gruesomely literal significance.
*****
Excerpt from “Crossing the Border”:
“Why haven’t you answered any of my messages? I’m not lying, crazy, or putting you on. The stars are coming right soon. The danger’s real, and I can help. My number is—”
Paula deleted the voice mail without bothering to listen to the rest. Why wouldn’t that nutcase take the hint and leave her alone? It’s time to call Doug. I’ve put this off too long already.
She shook her head in irritation at the way her hand trembled as she picked up the phone. Her pulse accelerated when she punched the speed-dial number for Douglas MacNair, her late husband’s agent. Why would the prospect of talking to Doug make her breath quicken and her stomach flutter? She’d seen and spoken to him often enough in the year since Kyle’s death. Doug is just a friend. Always was, always will be. A close enough friend that he wouldn’t mind getting a call at home at nine in the evening.
When he answered, his bass voice flowed through her like molten honey. She’d often thought he should have become a singer or actor instead of a literary agent, with that voice. “It’s always great to hear from you, Paula, but what’s wrong?”
Damn, do I sound that shaken up? She swallowed and drew a deep breath to steady herself. “What makes you think anything’s wrong?”
“Come on, as if I didn’t know you well enough to hear it in your voice.” She imagined him lounging in the overstuffed chair by the window in the living room of his New York high-rise condo, doodling on a notepad the way he always did during conversations. “Besides, if this were some routine thing, you’d call in the daytime or send an email.”
“I’ve decided it’s time to go through Kyle’s unpublished stuff. How soon can you make it down here?”
“And this was too urgent for email? Let’s hear it—what brought on this decision all of a sudden, after I’ve been trying to talk you into it for the past six months?”
She twisted a lock of hair around an index finger the way Kyle had found so annoying. She almost stopped, then mentally snapped at herself, Kyle isn’t here. “There’s a guy who’s been bugging me with emails and phone messages. He’s got some kind of bat in his belfry about that unpublished novel Kyle posted excerpts from.”
Tension hardened Doug’s tone. “How long has this been going on?”
“Well…since the week after Kyle died.”
“And you didn’t say a word to me about it.” He sounded halfway between angry and hurt. “What am I here for anyway, if not to help with problems like that?”
“It wasn’t worth bothering you with. Not until he started phoning instead of just emailing. I decided the message he left a minute ago was the last straw. He keeps babbling about some kind of danger.”
A long sigh gusted over the phone. “Okay, who is this person?”
“Somebody named Gary Furness. He edits a webzine called Scribes of Darkness.”
“Sure, I know it. Won a couple of awards. He interviewed Kyle once. He didn’t seem crazier than anybody else in the field.”
“Yeah, that’s him. He must have tipped over the edge after that. We met him at a horror con the month before Kyle died. Furness trailed us around the hotel, harassing Kyle with his obsession over that unpubbed novel.” She had a vivid mental image of a weedy young man with rapid-fire speech, who wore his brown hair tied back in a ponytail.
“You can tell me all about it when I get down there.” After a brief silence, Doug went on, “Okay, I’m logged onto the ticket site. Looks like I can get a flight day after tomorrow. I’ll clear my schedule and stay as long as it takes.”
-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 July 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
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My erotic paranormal romance “Calling Back Love,” in defunct-publisher-limbo for ten years, was republished in June. The heroine, Kirsten, uses magic to twist time in order to get one last weekend with her fiancé, missing and presumed dead in battle. There’s an excerpt below. You can find the story here (or on Amazon):
Another “orphaned” erotic paranormal romance novella, “Merry Twinness,” set on Christmas Eve and featuring telepathic twins with a twist, has a release date of November 2.
In this issue, I’m interviewing urban fantasy author Mark Rosendorf, who works as a guidance counselor and has performed magic onstage.
*****
Interview with Mark Rosendorf:
What inspired you to begin writing? What genres do you work in?
Writing has always been something I’ve enjoyed since middle school. Since then, I always knew I’d eventually become a writer. Interesting note, however, this is actually my second time as a writer.
Between 2009 and 2013, I had written four books and a short story. At that time, I had a limited knowledge of the industry, and by the time I fully did understand how to navigate the industry, my books felt somewhat outdated. I was burnt out, both on creativity and promoting, so I decided to quit writing.
I was sure writing was in my rearview mirror. I still had ideas for great stories, but I was no longer motivated to put pen to paper. Years had passed. Then, one night at around 2 a.m., a random thought hit me…about witches. As a magician myself, I asked “What if witches used their powers to put on a magic show?” Most people wouldn’t know the difference; the audience would just see it as amazing magic. For the witches, it would be a perfect way to hide in plain sight, because they could practice their powers without being discovered or persecuted.
I figured these witches would end up in Las Vegas because that’s the magic capital of the world. They’d amaze their audience. Plus, they wouldn’t incur the cost of the typical magic show since they’re using their powers to create the performance. But how would this affect the rest of the Las Vegas magic community? They’d never be able to keep up; what would happen to them? The first two characters formed in my head, two teenagers, one is Isis Rivera, the teenage member of the witches. The other is Zack Galloway, a teenage magician’s assistant who has watched his family suffer because of The Witches’ superior performance.
Before I knew it, I had written a new story, in a new genre, and for a new audience. It’s not a continuation of my writing career, I restarted and became an author all over again. That’s why I call myself a “born again writer”.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
My ideas are like lightning, meaning one bright flash, then it’s gone. That is why I keep note pads everywhere. They’re next to my bed with a flashlight, they’re taped to wall outside of my shower, I have one in the car. Whenever an idea hits me, I write it on one of these pads. Then, I use these notes when writing a chapter in a notebook. At this stage, I’m not worried about grammar or sentence structure, I just want to get the idea on paper.
Next, I type out the chapter. That’s when I’m focused on the writing part. Thanks to this process, the first time I’m typing the chapter, it feels like I’m on my second draft. Once the book is complete, the edits, insertions, deletions and rewrites take place. It’s a long process, but well worth it in the end.
But before any of that happens, the first part of any writing process is coming up with a concept. In the past, my first part of the writing process was mapping out what was going to happen in the story from beginning to end. That’s where The Witches of Vegas is unique in that the story actually came to me as if it were shot into my brain, from beginning to end. For this story, the process involved a lot less mapping out and more writing up the details so I could commit them to memory.
What have been the major influences on your fiction (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
Working both as a guidance counselor and a magician have certainly influenced The Witches of Vegas. I also read a lot of books and watch a lot of movies and TV shows, particularly in the sci-fi and fantasy genres.
How has your work with students affected your writing?
The biggest advantage of working in a school is that the day ends by 3:00 which leaves me plenty of time to write. Also, as a high school guidance counselor, I work intimately with my students, discussing behaviors and feelings. I’ve worked with students with special needs—many of which are emotional—for many years. Through this experience, I’ve come to understand the teenage mind regarding outlook and motivations. I believe that years of working with my students has helped in making my teenage literary characters feel real to readers.
The ironic part was that most of the criticism I received about my writing prior to “The Witches of Vegas” was that even though I was writing for adults, the language was better for a young adult audience. That’s probably because of all the time I spend talking to teenagers, analyzing them, and helping them work through daily drama. At the time, I never thought I would end up writing young adult books, but it turned out the criticism was right; it is a great fit.
You’ve performed stage magic—sounds like fun. Please tell us a bit about that.
My interest in magic started for me when I was in high school. In my junior year, I was required to take a class on public speaking where we had to make speeches. With the first speech we had to present an area of interest to the class. This was a concern for me because I wasn’t popular among my peers, I had a slight stutter, and I didn’t really have an interest that my classmates would find impressive. I certainly couldn’t go up in front of the class and talk about my comic book collection. What could I do?
My Grandmother lived in Long Island and there happened to be a magic shop in her neighborhood. I went there and told the magician behind the counter about my situation. He showed me some “dummy-proof tricks” (meaning they require little to no skill) that would look impressive to an audience. I performed them for my class and wowed them. From the front, I watched kids who constantly bullied me with stunned looks on their faces and jaws hanging down. More importantly, throughout the entire ten-minute presentation, I did not stutter once.
The next weekend, I went back to the magic shop and told the man behind the counter (Herb) all about the reaction. He proceeded to teach me, and sell me, more magic tricks which included a video on card tricks. Soon, I went there every weekend and Herb had me speaking with, and learning from, magicians who frequented the shop. I took all I learned to college where I performed in the talent shows, and then campus’ nightclub. So, to say magic changed my life is a literal truth.
After college I performed at birthday parties and bar-mitzvahs. Although I no longer perform, as a guidance counselor in my school, I also run the performing arts program and I teach magic to my students. I teach it to build their confidence and self-esteem just as magic did for me when I was their age. Our performing arts team have had opportunities to perform at other schools (mostly before Covid although that program is starting up again) which helps create the momentum for them to succeed in their studies and their job training. This leads to them all overcoming their special needs and being successful in their career paths after they leave our school.
Now magic has helped my writing as I have used my experience both on stage and behind the scenes in The Witches of Vegas. I consider this my best writing because my passion for magic and all it has done for me shines through. Some of the secrets of magic are revealed in those pages…so if you have a curious mind when it comes to magic, you may pick up on a few secrets from the magician characters that I am able to share.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
The Witches of Vegas series has certainly made an impact. The first book, The Witches of Vegas, won the 2021 RONE award in the YA category. As of this printing, the sequel, Journey To New Salem, is a 2022 finalist in both the Young Adult and Audiobook categories. The third book which just recently came out, Witch’s Gamble, is perhaps my favorite of the series as it presents a unique take on a time travel story within the world of The Witches of Vegas and brings all three books together.
I’m happy to announce the fourth book, Portal to Vegas, is on its way as I have recently submitted the manuscript to my publisher, The Wild Rose Press. Now, I am working on the rough draft of book number five. The funny thing is that originally, the entire series was supposed to be a trilogy. Apparently, Isis Rivera, Zack Galloway, and The Witches of Vegas had more adventures to share.
What are you working on now?
Okay, huge news to share…I am currently working with a scriptwriter on adapting the first book, The Witches of Vegas, into a script. I’ve also been in touch with the head of a production company who connected with a few studios (such as universal and Netflix) and is interested in funding the movie. Granted, it’s early in the process, which means anything can happen, but hopefully this leads to good things.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
My advice is to get ready for a long, frustrating, and exhausting process, and that’s after the book is written. Whether you’re looking for a traditional publisher or you want to self-publish, you have a lot of work ahead of you. But, remember, nothing in life worth doing is easy. When you finally see your book in print, when you look at your cover for the first time, all that hard work is well worth it.
One thing to keep in mind: when your book finally becomes real, understand that’s not the goal…that’s the starting line. It doesn’t mean you won your race, it means you are now entering the race, a race that never ends because there are always people out there that haven’t read your book yet and you want them to know about it.
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
My website is Mark Rosendorf. I am also on Twitter and Facebook. As well, I have video trailers on youtube, each under the titles of the books (The Witches of Vegas, Journey To New Salem, and Witch’s Gamble), each are 90 seconds long.
You can also hear an exclusive interview with teen witch, Isis Rivera, about being a member of The Witches of Vegas. Check it out at:
Witches of Vegas Interview
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
DEATH AND HARD CIDER, by Barbara Hambly. I’ve enjoyed every novel in the Benjamin January historical mystery series, set in and around antebellum New Orleans, from the beginning, A FREE MAN OF COLOR. All except this newest volume I’ve read at least twice, many of them several times. DEATH AND HARD CIDER brings us, with musician and trained surgeon January, to the presidential election of 1840. Although they can’t vote, he and his Black friends, both free and enslaved, are naturally interested in the outcome. He’s well-informed about the issues despite his belief that no matter who wins, nothing substantive will be done about slavery or the plight of the Black population. Henry Clay, “The Great Compromiser,” plays a prominent role in this novel. January admires him, as much as he could any politician, but suffers a disillusioning blow after learning about ostensibly anti-slavery Clay’s treatment of one of his own slaves. Clay supports William Henry Harrison, of “Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too” fame. Throughout the book people keep asking, “Who the hell is Tyler?” even though John Tyler had a career of government service as extensive as if not more than Harrison’s, whose main claim to fame consisted of his military record, especially in combat against Native Americans (notably, of course, the battle of Tippecanoe). The election of 1840 provides an early example of flamboyant political campaigning in the modern style, whereas previously it had been assumed that a gentleman seeking public office, especially the presidency, shouldn’t “toot his own horn.” Despite his cynicism about the whole process, January welcomes the political rallies (lubricated by free cider), parties, and balls for the money he and his musician friends will earn playing at them. He listens with obligatory courtesy to the opinions of white men on both sides of the contest, while privately thinking the giant rawhide ball covered with signatures in support of Harrison is the stupidest idea he’s ever heard. He becomes personally involved in the whites’ problems when a flirtatious, much-courted young woman is murdered. By one of her rejected suitors? By another woman out for revenge? A close friend of his, a free Black woman, gets arrested for the crime, being the most plausible suspect who’s not well-to-do and white. In his attempt to solve the murder, January becomes personally acquainted with Clay, who treats him with respect despite the unbridgeable distance between them. January, like most fictional amateur detectives, gets injured at least once per book, and this mystery is no exception. We have the pleasure of re-encountering his brilliant wife, Rose, who runs a school for free girls of mixed-race parentage, his voodoo-healer sister, his Irish musician friend and recovering alcoholic, Hannibal, and homespun but incisively intelligent policeman Abishag Shaw, along with other recurring characters. As always, one entertaining aspect of the novel is the exposure to free and enslaved Black viewpoints on the foibles of white folks. They take a particularly caustic attitude toward the ”colonization” scheme Henry Clay advocates. How many people born in America, regardless of ethnicity and ancestry, would really want to be shipped to Africa to farm marginal land while battling unfamiliar diseases and unwelcoming natives? Reading those passages of dialogue, one wonders how the “return to Africa” movement ever gained enough recruits to found the nation of Liberia. January, of course, helps to expose the true murderer and, as a bonus, saves Clay’s life in a climactic scene.
THE SCIENCE OF STAR TREK, by Mark Brake. This book uses STAR TREK (the entire fictional universe, not just the original series) as a gateway to exploration of various scientific concepts, particularly but not exclusively those related to space travel. As the author states in the introduction, he doesn’t devote a lot of wordage to the hardware but deals mostly with big-picture issues. The body of the book is divided into four sections, titled Space, Time, Machine, and Monster. The beginning of the Space section intriguingly compares interstellar exploration to the diffusion of human settlers across the Pacific Ocean and proposes a plausible solution to the Fermi Paradox. Other topics in this part include the probability of intelligent life and alien civilizations, the practicality of terraforming, how STAR TREK has influenced real-life space culture, and the portrayal of aliens in the series. The rest of the book touches upon alternate history (e.g., the pitfalls of stepping through the Guardian of Forever), panspermia, evolution and extinctions, language, replicators, the holodeck, interstellar communication, machine intelligence, and the series’ speculations about politics and war. There’s a whole chapter on how much it would cost in today’s dollars to build the Enterprise. Another presents “a history of STAR TREK in seven objects,” defining “object” broadly to include such things as the groundbreaking interracial kiss between Kirk and Uhura. The Machine section includes the one chapter explicitly focused on the question of which STAR TREK technology has come true so far. These examples represent only a few of the many topics on which the author speculates. I was surprised and a little disappointed, however, to find no discussion of Vulcan telepathic powers or the feasibility of warp drives and faster-than-light travel. The final chapter, “Are We Borg?”, tries too earnestly and specifically, in my opinion, to connect the themes of STAR TREK with recent cultural trends and geopolitical crises. The book redeems itself from this brief lapse, though, by concluding with allusions to Gene Roddenberry’s hope of a brighter future for humanity as envisioned in the STAR TREK universe.
LINKED, by E. Rose Sabin. A fantasy romance in a secondary world not connected to other series by the author, with an unusual premise. One of the co-protagonists, Aradal, is a Cutter. Cutters are immortals who serve the Guardians (who have jurisdiction over the spirits of the dead) by severing links between the dead and the living to enable the souls of the deceased to move on to their destined afterlives. Aradal has the assignment of severing the too-strong link between twin girls, one dead and the other alive. Nine-year-old Yralle, granddaughter of the queen of Lapala, is the only person who knows what happened to her twin, Ellary, who went missing and presumed dead as a small child. The dead girl fell down an abandoned, forgotten well accessible only by a crevice too small for an adult. Yralle can sense Ellary’s presence anywhere in the palace complex, but they can converse only at the site of Ellary’s remains. Lapala is always ruled by women, so the marriage prospects of Yralle’s mother (the crown princess) and two aunts hold vital importance. Trey, one of the two younger princesses, enjoys gardening more than diplomacy and courtly gatherings, and, like the shy, bookish middle sister, she receives scant approval from her mother and older sister. When Aradal appears in the garden on his search for the link he’s been sent to sever, Trey is suspicious of this strange man who gives no satisfactory account of himself, yet they’re immediately attracted to each other. Aradal has the ability to become unnoticeable or literally invisible, and he can revert to his immaterial spirit form at will, although it’s wise to avoid doing so very often. He’s not supposed to get involved with human affairs, much less become infatuated with a human woman, yet he can’t suppress his attraction to Trey. He comes to care for her and, indirectly, the royal household so that the distractions jeopardize his mission. Trey becomes progressively more torn between her unwilling feelings for him and misgivings about whether whatever he’s up to endangers her family. Yralle, sensing that Aradal means to separate her from her twin, tries her childish best to thwart him. Meanwhile, tensions with a neighboring kingdom break into open hostility. And who is the newborn boy whose skeleton turns up in the garden, and why doesn’t anyone seem to know of his existence and origin? The royal family’s problems and the fraught relationship between Trey and Aradal become more and more dire, while he faces the prospect of punishment for failing his duty. Although we know Aradal and Trey will somehow find happiness, at the darkest moments that outcome seems impossible. The solution comes as credible but not predictable. The book begins and ends with chapters in Yralle’s voice in present tense, and she speaks at intervals throughout the story. Aradal’s chapters are also in first person and present tense (the latter device for no obvious reason). Trey’s viewpoint scenes appear in third person, past tense. My only reservation about the story’s development concerns the infatuation at first sight between Trey and Aradal. It seems inadequately justified, driven by plot necessity rather than organic character interaction. Their relationship grows believably close later, though. The author skillfully plays with variations on the concept of “links,” between the various living characters as well as between the living and the dead, and the forbidden bond that grows between Trey and Aradal.
FORESTBORN, by Elayne Audrey Becker. Another fantasy set in an imaginary world, this one shadowed by conflict between humans and the magical inhabitants of the Vale. Again, for no apparent reason, young adult shapeshifter Rora narrates in present tense. (What is with this entirely too widespread fad, anyway?) Nevertheless, I quickly became immersed in her story. She and her brother, Helos, belong to one of the magical species viewed with suspicion and fear by inhabitants of the human realms. The powers and limitations of shapeshifters are clearly specified, so that when these features become critical to the plot, the reader is prepared. Rora and Helos can assume the likeness of any person they’ve met, but their particularly useful gift, taking animal form, allows them to become a maximum of three different animals. The latter power develops gradually as a shapeshifter grows, with each new shape manifesting at a moment of crisis. As children, Rora and Helos saw their home destroyed and their father killed. Their mother disappeared. When they’re taken under the protection of the king of Telyan, Rora grows up to spy for him, while Helos becomes a healer. Despite the king’s patronage, a supernatural Prediction read in public every year threatens their security, for it seems to portend deadly danger from two shifters. Since the queen died at the same time the brother and sister were found, many people see them as harbingers of doom. They’ve become close friends with the king’s younger, misfit son, Finley, while the crown princess has little contact with them and the older prince, Weslyn, seems to barely tolerate them. As the book opens, a deadly disease of magical origin, the Fallow Throes, is ravaging the human lands. They discover Finley, who’s secretly in love with Helos and vice versa, has fallen ill with the sickness. With madness and death inevitable unless a cure can be found, the king sends Weslyn, Rora, and Helos incognito into the Vale to seek the magical substance called “stardust.” As they encounter giants and other nonhuman creatures, dangers beset them at every turn. The author creates a perilous, enchanted region where the terrain can change unpredictably in an instant. Worse still are the human villains who want to wipe out all the “Forestborn.” The narrative maintains a well-paced balance between suspenseful action and character interaction. The relationship between Rora and Weslyn develops believably from the coolness of reluctant alliance to a deep bond that delivers an emotional punch when it’s strained by Rora’s desperate choices. The love between brother and sister also suffers a severe test. Toward the end of the novel, at moments all seems irreparably lost. To my dismay, this book turns out to be the first part of a duology, which I hadn’t realized when I started it. The second half, WILDBOUND, won’t be out until August.
*****
Excerpt from “Calling Back Love”:
“No magic can call back the dead. And even if it could, you know that never ends well. You’ve read ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ and that book about the cursed pet cemetery.”
“But I can’t leave it like this. When we talked on Skype the night before his last patrol, we had another fight about his career. I came this close to making him choose between the Army and me. We didn’t have a real goodbye. If there’s any way magic can give me one more chance, I’ll take it.” In the two months since the report of Shawn’s presumed death in Afghanistan, the memory of that argument had been eating her alive.
“When I promised your grandmother I’d mentor you in the Craft, I accepted certain responsibilities, one of which is to stop you from making reckless choices.”
Kirsten rubbed her eyes, sore from yet another crying fit just before she’d come here, and stared at her mentor with wild hope. “You wouldn’t talk about stopping me if it weren’t possible in the first place. Okay, witchcraft can’t bring the dead back to life. How about calling up his spirit so we can have one last conversation?”
“Have you ever seen me conduct a séance? Me or any other responsible witch? It’s against nature to disturb the peace of the dead.” Estelle strolled to the counter to pour two mugs of coffee. The window over the sink framed her silhouette against a serene background of sun-dappled trees, in ironic contrast to the turmoil that racked Kirsten. Her teacher’s spacious kitchen with its granite floor, exposed oak beams and aromas of drying herbs usually welcomed her with its warmth. Today it felt as bleak as the rest of the world.
“I don’t believe he’s at peace. He was blown to bits on a mountainside with nothing left to bring home.” Survivors of the platoon had reported two explosions, the second of which had obliterated Shawn. No remains had been found, not even a minute fragment, hence the “missing and presumed dead” conclusion that left him in official limbo. “We were supposed to get married after he finished this tour. The IED stole that from us. I’m not at peace with that so how can he be, wherever he is?” She shoved aside the mug Estelle set in front of her.
The older woman clasped her hand across the table. “When the gift for magic skipped your mother, your grandmother entrusted your training to me. She’d find a way to rise up and haunt me if I let you risk yourself with any such dark working.”
“There you go again, hinting at something you’re hiding from me. Well, maybe I don’t need your help. There’s got to be somebody on the left-hand path who’ll teach me what I need to know.”
Estelle’s thin face hardened, as stern as an avenging angel’s, her blue eyes turning icy. “Don’t even think that. Do you imagine for one minute the Goddess would shelter you from the consequences?”
-end of excerpt-
*****
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You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter