Author Archive
Welcome to the December 2021 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
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 holidays to all!
“Chocolate Chip Charm,” my Christmas Cookies story from the Wild Rose Press, was published in November. What can you do when a love potion baked into a cookie goes disastrously wrong—or maybe surprisingly right? An excerpt appears below.
The publisher’s page:
Chocolate Chip Charm
The Amazon page:
Chocolate Chip Charm on Amazon
If you would like to be notified by e-mail when this newsletter is uploaded each month, please contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
This month’s interview introduces thriller author Glenda Thompson.
*****
Interview with Glenda Thompson:
Q. What inspired you to begin writing?
A. For as long as I can remember, reading has been an escape mechanism for me. Whenever life would get too dark or too heavy or just not fun, I would hide in a book. Reading propelled me through some rough times allowing me to revel in someone else’s victories or realize others’ problems were worse than mine. Sometimes, reading just gave me a breather in a hectic day. I wanted to be able to provide that escapism to others.
Q. What genres do you work in?
A. Currently, the only book I have published is a thriller but I also write westerns and am attempting to write a romance. So far, I’m struggling with the romance. I guess being a non-romantic in real life (my ideal of a romantic getaway is going deep sea fishing) makes it difficult for me to get into the heads of my characters who want roses, moonlight, and champagne.
I do better with criminal activities and darkness. Probably comes from having been exposed to so much as an EMT and being married to a law enforcement officer although if I’m completely transparent here, I’ve always preferred reading Dean Koontz, John Sandford, James Patterson, and the ilk.
Q. Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
A. I’m somewhere in between. I start with my characters and their problems. Each of them has a hidden secret or challenge they are trying to overcome. From there, I pick a crime that I feel needs attention. In Broken Toys, the focus is on human trafficking—not the grab-a-kid-off-the-street kind that most people think of first off, but instead the Romeo.
The Romeo is a young person of the opposite sex who moves in on a vulnerable teen and makes them feel wanted, important, and loved. Over a period of time, they isolate this teen from friends and family, from anyone who could help them, and convince them it would be a grand adventure to run away together and live madly in love happily forever after. In reality, the Romeo gets the teen away from anyone who could help them and either sells them into slavery or pimps them out. Either way, the teen is lost in a world of sexual abuse, drugs, and no hope.
Once I have my characters and my crime, I put together a loose, organic outline. I have an idea of a list of things I want or need to happen and build scenes around each of them and then “quilt” each of these blocks/scenes into the story. My outline is a living document that changes as the story grows. Sometimes I refer to my outline as my vomit draft. I just kind of open up and dump everything into the outline.
Q. What have been the major influences on your writing (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
A. Interesting question… So many things in my life have influenced my writing from a rocky adolescence with an alcoholic father and violent, drug-addicted stepmonster to dealing with mental health issues of my own. Many of these experiences color my writing.
Some of my favorite authors include Stephen King, Patricia Cornwell, Nora Roberts writing as JD Robb, and Lee Childs. I guess I’ve always been drawn to the dark.
Q. How has your former career as an EMT contributed to your fiction?
A. Having been at numerous emergency scenes (I was an Emergency Medical Technician and volunteer firefighter) I’ve experienced the adrenaline rush first hand and try to convey that feeling to my readers through the thoughts and actions of my characters. Working as an EMT exposes you to many different people and situations. Sometimes the littlest details make the biggest difference in a scene.
I also spend a lot of time listening to Darlin’s law enforcement radio. It allows me to immerse myself in the jargon and the emotion shown through the voices of the dispatchers and the officers. I’ve also had inside access to reports on certain crimes that I’ve studied to learn investigative techniques. Hint: if you are a criminal, you should really limit what you post on social media. It’s amazing the amount of incriminating photographic evidence that gets posted on Facebook.
I love having a built-in technical advisor. My husband aka Darlin’ reads everything I write and lets me know whether or not I’ve nailed it. His pet peeve is when a magazine for a gun is referred to as a clip. Clips are for hair, not guns. Just ask him. ;p
Q. Please tell us about your Broken World series.
A. I was visiting with an old friend who was going through a divorce when he made an offhand comment about no one wanting him because he was a broken toy. His comment hit a nerve with me. I realized we are all broken in some way, even the heroes among us. Each of us has a lie that we believe to be truth. Often that lie is hidden in the foundation of who we are and holds us back from achieving our best. My Broken world explores that premise.
Each book in the series revolves around a Texas Ranger trying to solve a horrendous crime while dealing with his or her personal demons.
Q. Tell us about some of the resources available on your website.
A. On the resources page of my website (https://glendathompson.com/resources-for-my-writer-friends/) you can find links to some of the best helps I know of including the Ten Minute Novelists group, Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi’s One Stop for Writers, K.M. Weiland’s Helping Writers Become Authors, Janice Hardy’s Fiction University, and Unleashing the Next Chapter.
Q. What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
A. My latest, also my first and only published book at the moment, is Broken Toys.
Texas Ranger Noah Morgan has his life together—with a great job and the girl of his dreams. Too bad it’s all based on a lie. A single phone call threatens to bring it all crashing down. After an irate citizen complains shoddy workmanship has left him with a booby-trapped driveway, and the local sheriff’s office is too busy to respond, Noah takes the call. The investigation of local scam artists uncovers a human trafficking ring. Noah fights to avoid being swept back into the sights of his murderous family—people he escaped at the age of seventeen.
Can he keep his past a secret or will his carefully crafted life come to a violent end?
Q. What are you working on now?
A: I have a whole universe of books riding around in my brain ready to follow Broken Toys.
The one I am working on now is Rhyden (the support character from Broken Toys) Trammell’s story. Poor Rhyden, he’s a single father of three fantastic but challenging girls ranging in age from six to eighteen. And he’s in the middle of an investigation where a sniper is setting fires as bait to draw in first responders and then picking them off one at a time. At the same time, an ER nurse is nagging him about starting an internal investigation off the books because she believes the serial rapist targeting sixteen to eighteen year old girls is a deputy in the sheriff’s office. To top it off, Rhyden has a secret battle of his own but you’ll have to read the story to find out what it is.
After Broken Dreams, I plan to write Broken Wings about a helicopter pilot who assists the Rangers; Broken Vows—a prequel to Broken Dreams; Broken Minds—the story of Rochelle from Broken Toys; and several others that build on characters introduced along the way.
Q. What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
A. I know all the standard advice given to aspiring writers. Things like “you can’t edit a blank page” or “write drunk, edit sober” but I think the most important advice I can offer is stay true to yourself. This is your story and you are the only one who can tell it.
It doesn’t matter if the premise is the same as a show you saw on television or another book you read as long as you make the story your own. I believe it’s true there are no new ideas. But there are endless ways to present these ideas. No one else has your background, your experience, your emotions in the exact same way you do. I’m not saying copy someone else’s story, absolutely not. I’m saying be true to your inner heart. Reach inside yourself and write YOUR story.
I think Dr. Seuss said it best. “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”
Go with that. Don’t give up. Get your story on the page. Make your characters come to life. Don’t worry about what everyone else is doing, and never, ever compare your first draft to someone else’s published work. Most importantly? Write.
Q. What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
A: My website is Glenda Thompson and my email address is rattlerpress@gmail.com
Or you can follow me on Facebook at Facebook Page
Or on Twitter @PressRattler
Or on Instagram at Instagram
Or on Amazon at Amazon Page
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
DRAGON’S GREEN, by Scarlett Thomas. This quirky YA portal fantasy is the first book of a series but, thankfully, it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger. The heroine spends part of the story in a magical realm; unusually, though, the world where she originates isn’t quite ours. In Euphemia (Effie) Truelove’s version of the modern world, a “worldquake” struck in the recent past, recent enough that old people can remember when electricity was reliable, the internet consisted of more than bulletin boards accessible by dial-up modems, and cell phones had functions other than taking photos and substituting for flashlights. (Those who can afford two-way radios use them as a substitute.) Books hold such potency that if all copies but one of a book are destroyed, the Last Reader of that final copy gains special power. Magic is loose in the world, but few people believe in or approve of it. For example, Effie’s father scoffs at her grandfather’s magical studies and discourages Effie from listening to the old man. On her grandfather’s deathbed, he emphasizes the importance of a ring he has given her, tells her to “get as many boons” as possible, and warns her against the “Diberi.” He also promises her his library of old books. Her father, however, dismisses the notion of keeping a collection he considers useless and has no room for. When he sells the books to a dealer with obviously sinister motives, Effie persuades an oddly assorted group of new friends to help her try to steal back her grandfather’s library. She discovers “boons” are magic items. She has the power to use one of them, the ring, while each of her friends has the ability to master one of the other objects she has inherited. In the midst of their quest, she temporarily crosses over into the Otherworld, which most people in her “real” world don’t believe in. There she becomes a sacrifice to a dragon with whom she has to match wits in a riddle game. So this novel is part urban fantasy and part fairy-tale-like high fantasy. As a Truelove, Effie is special and has to face the challenges and dangers of “chosen one” status in both her home world and the Otherworld, while unearthing the secrets of her family heritage. Thanks to her character growth and sometimes prickly interactions with her allies, as well as the conditions of her eccentric world, this novel held my interest enough that I immediately ordered the other two volumes. The loose threads left dangling in DRAGON’S GREEN, such as the truth about the disappearance of Effie’s mother, tantalize without frustrating the reader.
STRANGE TALES FROM JAPAN, retold by Keisuke Nishimoto, translated by William Scott Wilson. The introduction to this collection distinguishes the kinds of supernatural stories in the book from “folk tales,” probably what we would think of as fairy tales. Folk tales in this sense have no fixed location or date; happening “once upon a time,” they retain the same basic elements wherever they crop up. The stories in STRANGE TALES always claim to occur in a definite place, sometimes with the approximate time period mentioned. In that respect they resemble urban legends, except that all these incidents take place in bygone eras rather than the present. The book is divided into two parts, “Traditional Tales” and “Strange Tales,” with multiple subdivisions under each. To me, the choice of where to place particular stories seems rather arbitrary. Why do “Spirits and Ghosts,” “Demons and Wolves,” and “Tanuki and Foxes” appear under the first heading but “Ghosts’ Requests,” “Shape-Shifting Cats,” and “Being Deceived by Foxes” under the second? Maybe there are historical and cultural reasons that escape me. Anyway, it’s intriguing to read these authentic legends of demons, ghosts, and other yokai (supernatural beings and phenomena) from Japanese traditional lore. Some creatures are mischievous, dangerous, or downright evil, while others are beneficent. The stories range roughly from two to four pages long, so it’s easy to pick up the book at random and read one or more at a sitting. In fact, I’d recommend not reading too many in a row at once, because naturally they display a certain similarity and can feel repetitious if consumed in large quantities without a break. The book is illustrated with numerous full-color reproductions of Japanese art depicting ghosts, demons, and monsters like those in the narratives.
ARCH OF BONE, by Jane Yolen. This YA sequel to MOBY-DICK takes place in nineteenth-century Nantucket and features as protagonist the fourteen-year-old son of the Pequod’s first mate, Starbuck. The story begins with a predawn knock on the door that awakens young Josiah Starbuck. As a whaler’s son, he knows to brace himself for bad news. The visitor, introducing himself as Ishmael Black, reports the sinking of the Pequod and the loss of the entire crew except for himself. Josiah naturally feels less than kindly toward this harbinger of grief and barely refrains from outright rudeness under the calmly firm gaze of his Quaker mother. He reacts like a very realistic teenager, suspicious of the messenger’s honesty, searching for any pretext to believe Ishmael is lying about the great whale and the destruction of the ship and its company, and jealous of his mother’s friendliness to the visitor. At last Josiah heads to town, where he meets up with a group of boys his own age, shares his news, and, going to the harbormaster’s office, impulsively tries to sign onto a whaling ship on the spot. Rejected because he’s too young to ship out without a parent’s permission, Josiah decides to go for a sail in his boat to clear his head. When a storm springs up, he and his faithful dog, Zeke, are blown away from Nantucket and stranded on a nearly barren island. With a damaged boat and limited sources of food, Josiah struggles to survive. Months go by before he finds enough meager supplies even to attempt the repair of his craft. Meanwhile, he comes upon the arch of the title, made from the huge jawbone of a whale. This artifact generates the book’s only fantastic content, a series of dream visions in which he witnesses scenes from his father’s service on the Pequod. Between the visions and the effects of solitude and hardship, Josiah begins to come to terms with his loss. This coming-of-age novel vividly portrays the historic milieu and the rugged natural setting as well as the teenage hero’s emotional growth. The book lives up to the quality one would expect from Jane Yolen. My only disappointment was that the story ends slightly before I wanted it to. When I got to the last page, I mentally squealed, “What? That’s it?” But I realize what happens next isn’t the main point; the point is the change in Josiah, and from that perspective, the novel culminates at the proper moment.
SO MANY BEGINNINGS, by Bethany C. Morrow. Subtitled “A Little Women Remix,” this novel, like Louise May Alcott’s classic, follows the coming-of-age of four sisters named Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy during and after the Civil War. Morrow’s March family, however, consists of Black Southerners, not white New Englanders. Former slaves, they live in the Freedpeople’s Colony on the island of Roanoke, North Carolina. Meg teaches school; Jo writes articles in her spare time while helping to build houses; Beth works as a seamstress; Amy aspires to become a dancer. Their father, during the early part of the book, is away from home serving in the Union Army. Although the girls have the benefit of education and the opportunity to support themselves as free women, they have to work hard while dealing with the Union officers who oversee the colony and the well-meaning Christian abolitionists who’ve migrated from the North to “uplift” the freed slaves. Reminiscences of the “old life” highlight how far they’ve come and how far they still have to go. Even though the March family didn’t suffer under a cruel Simon-Legree type of master, it’s made clear that nobody could be truly secure or happy as a slave. For instance, Meg’s former teenage mistress cherished the blithe assumption that Meg would feel privileged to go along as a lady’s maid after the young mistress’s marriage (instead of being devastated by the separation from her own family). That mindset is echoed in the present by white people who either want to use the former slaves for their own purposes or think they know what’s best for Black people better than the latter do themselves. The girls strive for independence and success in their vocations, explore romantic relationships, and undergo painful losses as well as some triumphs. Jo’s articles are well received in Northern abolitionist circles, but at one point she confronts a white editor’s strongly worded request to change her style from standard English to Black dialect for greater mass appeal. She rightly refuses to dumb down her prose. The incident raises a question, though: Why do ALL the Black characters, regardless of background and educational level, speak standard English? If not an obviously Black mode of speech as such, why not a Carolina dialect, at least? In my own (white) family, my father’s mother, from North Carolina, spoke with an unmistakable Carolinian accent and vocabulary, and her sole surviving offspring, my elderly aunt, still does. This linguistic issue was the only detail that pulled me out of the story. The historical setting held fascinating surprises for me, particularly the existence of the Freedpeople’s Colony, which was real. I had no idea free Black towns thrived in the South at the height of the war. This book, by the way, would stand on its own perfectly well without the few LITTLE WOMEN allusions. Recommended for anyone interested in historical fiction set in nineteenth-century America.
SCALES AND SENSIBILITY, by Stephanie Burgis. This Regency romance with dragons takes place in a version of England different from either the world of the author’s “Kat Incorrigible” novels for preteens or her “Harwood Spellbook” alternate Britain. Elinor, the protagonist of SCALES AND SENSIBILITY, lives as the stereotypical poor relation in the home of her timid aunt, overbearing uncle, and obnoxiously self-absorbed cousin Penelope, currently preparing for her debut. Since every fashionable young lady is “doomed to social failure” without a dragon, naturally Penelope has one. These dragons aren’t noble, fire-breathing monsters, but pets about two feet long customarily draped around their mistresses’ shoulders like animated decorative stoles. Unfortunately, Penelope’s dragon, Sir Jessamyn, untrained and high-strung, suffers messy incontinence whenever he gets nervous, which happens often around his insufferable, often abusive owner. Elinor, in her status as grateful object of charity, has to clean up after the dragon, of whom she’s quite fond. In the opening scene, Penelope goes too far for even Elinor’s tolerance. Elinor blows up and leaves the house with all her few worldly possessions, plus Sir Jessamyn. After she’s nearly run over by a carriage belonging to the charming Benedict Hawkins and his eccentric, dragon-obsessed best friend, the gentlemen make amends by putting her up at an inn for the night. It turns out Benedict is on his way to pay court to Penelope, whom he has never met, because he’s in desperate need of a wealthy bride. Wishing out loud that she were more like Mrs. De Lacey, an old friend of her aunt’s and a formidable arbiter of society, Elinor makes an astonishing discovery: Dragons aren’t merely pets and living ornaments. Sir Jessamyn possesses magic that grants her wish by turning her into a replica of Mrs. De Lacey. As such, she receives a lavish welcome from her aunt and Penelope. Of course, Elinor then has to worry about slipping up through ignorance of things Mrs. De Lacey would know, not to mention having no idea how long the spell will last. Meanwhile, she finds herself falling in love with Benedict Hawkins, who’s likable and kind for a fortune hunter. One madcap mishap after another follows. Another impulsive wish causes her aunt to grow a spine, stand up to her husband, and express herself with no fear of the opinions of others, a condition she enjoys so much that she stays that way after the magic wears off. The humor in this novel, like most good comedy, arises from situations dire to the characters but funny to the audience. Suffice it to say that Elinor earns her happy ending through twists and reversals that will keep the reader wondering whether she’ll ever extricate herself from the tangle of complications.
*****
Excerpt from “Chocolate Chip Charm”:
Inside, Stacy piled most of the loose books back into the carton, hauled it into the office, and carried the holiday cookbook into the kitchen. As an afterthought, she turned around to retrieve the spell notebook, too. After setting it on the end of the counter for later perusal, she flipped to the chocolate chip cookie page. She’d already bought chocolate bits, the red and green candies, and peppermint extract, knowing she’d need those if she found the recipe. She ought to have the rest of the necessary items on hand. Checking the list, she confirmed that assumption.
As she got out ingredients, bowls, utensils, and cookie cutters, her unruly brain wandered to Rob again. If he and Doreen can make each other happy, that’s what I want. If only I could fix this for them, she mused while sifting flour and sugar into a mixing bowl. That’s what a true friend would do, right?
Her gaze shifted from the recipe page to the notebook at the end of the short counter in her cramped kitchen. A love potion could fix it, if that really worked.
Laughing at herself, she opened the loose-leaf pages to the love spell anyway. Come to think of it, hadn’t Grammie dropped hints now and then that some of her old friends’ magic seemed to produce real-world effects? Speaking of rational, this is not definitely not it. On the other hand, I can treat it like a science experiment. What can it hurt to try, as long as the concoction doesn’t include anything poisonous?
The page was labeled, “To Awaken Love.” She scanned the list of ingredients. Nothing harmful or likely to ruin the taste of the cookies, just ordinary kitchen supplies such as cinnamon for heat, ginger for spiciness and protection, honey for sweetness, and cardamom to allegedly make the user irresistible. Sounds like flavoring for a mince pie. In fact, it sounded too simple to be magic, if there was such a thing. Reading on, she found a note at the bottom stating that passionate intention and a firm will were the most important components. The instructions finished with a charm to recite while mixing the potion. For best results, she should brew it in spring water. Okay, she had a plastic jug of that on hand.
The directions admonished the spellcaster to work with pure motives, seeking the best for the other person, not applying coercion. That’s exactly what I’m doing. I’m not trying to force them into anything. I only want what’s best for them.
With that mindset, trying a magic spell couldn’t be evil, could it? Besides, her grandmother wasn’t the type to dabble in anything morally dubious.
Stacy reread the whole thing once more, searching for any hidden trap of the kind that always seemed to lurk in fairy-tale enchantments. From all she’d read or heard, magic, like gaming, law, and computer programming, followed rules. This example of it looked safe enough, guaranteeing that the one who consumed the potion would fall in love with the next suitable person he or she saw. Suitable. Good, she’d run no risk of Rob’s developing a mad crush on the church office’s resident cat, like Titania and donkey-headed Bottom in Midsummer Night’s Dream. On the farfetched assumption that this enchantment worked, it couldn’t do any harm. Furthermore, the spell manual claimed the charm would wear off after seven days. In that time, the magical kick-start, if any, should revitalize Rob and Doreen’s mutual affection.
-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
Just before their church choir’s Christmas party potluck, Stacy learns her former boyfriend, Rob, has broken up with her best friend, whom he was dating. Stacy got over Rob a long time ago, or so she thought. Shouldn’t she try to repair her friends’ fractured relationship? A love potion recipe she finds in her grandmother’s old notebook of magic spells might fix the problem. On the wild chance that it could work, Stacy mixes it into a cookie. But the charm misfires, and now Rob insist he’s been in love with her all along. The spell will wear off in seven days—but does she really want it to?
Order from the publisher.
Order from Amazon
Welcome to the November 2021 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
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 U.S Thanksgiving!
Writers Exchange E-Publishing has just re-released my contemporary fantasy elf romance, PRINCE OF THE HOLLOW HILLS. Two elven princes and a half-elf baby complicate Fern’s life after the mysterious death of her sister:
My story collection formerly titled DAME ONYX TREASURES has been republished, slightly revised and with a new bonus story, as LOVE AMONG THE MONSTERS. (If you ever tried in vain to follow my old link to DAME ONYX TREASURES, I didn’t realize it had become invalid with the closing of the original publisher. Sorry!)
Here’s the Draft2Digital page for purchase from retailers other than Amazon:
Below is an excerpt from one of the stories original to this collection, “Fantasia Quest.” The heroine, Carrie, and hero, Rolf, are stuck inside a computer fantasy roleplaying game. Graystreak is Carrie’s familiar, a flying squirrel. Rolf’s sword, by the way, sings movie lyrics.
“Chocolate Chip Charm,” my story in the Wild Rose Press Christmas Cookies line, will be released on November 16. How can you fix the mess you’ve made when a love potion baked into a batch of chocolate chip Christmas cookies goes horribly wrong—or maybe surprisingly right? Here’s the preorder link on Amazon:
This month I’m interviewing Ellie Gray, author of contemporary romance and romantic suspense.
*****
Interview with Ellie Gray:
WINTER STORM, by Ellie Gray
Q. What inspired you to begin writing?
A. I didn’t actually begin putting pen to paper until in my late teens, but I have always written stories in my head – full-blown, complete stories – it used to help me get to sleep. It just never occurred to me that I should write them down until much later.
Q. What genres do you work in?
A. I write contemporary, heart-warming romance and romantic suspense. I also write YA fantasy fiction, although haven’t yet had any of these published. I’ll get around to it someday…
Q. Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
A. I guess a bit of both? As I said in my first question, I started off by writing the stories in my head, and I still do that now. I don’t start writing it down until I have the full story written in my head. That doesn’t stop the story from changing or expanding when I do start actually writing it – quite often the characters start to become a little more vocal in terms of where they want to go!
Q. What have been the major influences on your writing (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
A. I was one of those children who always had her nose in a book, as I’m sure most writers were and still are. I read a lot of Enid Blyton as a child – I loved those books – but quickly developed an eclectic taste in genres. As a teen I read a lot of Stephen King but also Mills and Boon which I think inspired my actual writing as that fitted my style; although I love Stephen King, it just wasn’t the type of writing that I naturally fitted into, whereas romance was. And, of course, romance always has a happy ending….
Q. When creating fiction set in the area where you live, do you tend to mention real places or “disguise” them?
A. A little of both. In Winter Storm, the little isolated village where Willow lives is called Millendale, and this is based on a real village in the Yorkshire Dales called Thixendale, so I changed the name and layout of the village to fit the story. However, for Warwick’s Mermaid, much of the story was set in the North Yorkshire coastal town of Whitby, and I described parts of Whitby and the Abbey in detail in the book.
Q. What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
A. My next book, following Winter Storm, is Love on the Nile, which has previously been published, but is now being re-released by The Wild Rose Press, with a lovely shiny new cover. As you can probably guess by the title, it is set in Egypt. Kiya goes on the holiday of a life time and meets handsome but grumpy archaeologist, Kyle – sparks fly!
Q. What are you working on now?
A. I’m working on a new romantic suspense novel set in Scotland, and am hoping to be able to release this later next year.
Q. What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
A. Every author will say this, but read as many books and different authors as you can. If you can afford it, go to a writer’s workshop to learn the technical aspects. It really helped me to know about the craft of writing – plot, structure, character arcs. There are plenty of books available to buy which can teach you those things too. It really makes you see things in a different light, and it helps you as you write your book because you are already looking out for those errors that editors will pick up on.
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
Website
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Pinterest
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
RATIONALITY, by Steven Pinker. This book by one of my favorite nonfiction authors, a psychologist at Harvard, is subtitled “What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters.” Chapter Ten of the eleven chapters asks the vital question that doubtless occurs to most of us now and then while reading or watching the news: “What’s Wrong with People?” Before we get there, however, Pinker takes us step by step through the many obstacles to rational thinking that can trip up perfectly intelligent people. He analyzes the meanings of rationality and its opposite, as well as when it’s reasonable to make an apparently irrational decision. He explains the rules and application of formal logic, plus an array of biases and fallacies (which have an index of their own in the back of the book), such as confirmation bias, all-or-none causation, sunk cost, discounting the future too steeply, and many others. Even though I took a logic course in college and enjoyed it, I found some of the diagrams and formal propositions heavy going. YMMV, if you happen to be more visually-oriented than I. His exposition, however, is as lucid and entertaining as always. Also, as in most of his books, he illustrates the messages of the text with cartoons from various sources, including “Peanuts.” In answer to what’s wrong with people, Pinker maintains that it’s not that we’re inherently irrational or even simply that our brains evolved to cope with a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. We can learn better. RATIONALITY exhibits the same hopefulness about humanity’s future as his earlier books THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE and ENLIGHTENMENT NOW.
BRIARHEART, by Mercedes Lackey. This fantasy novel based on “Sleeping Beauty” isn’t part of either of Lackey’s two long-running fairy-tale retelling series, 500 Kingdoms and Elemental Masters. BRIARHEART is narrated by the endangered princess’s teenage half-sister. Her father was the king’s best friend, killed in battle, and the king married Miriam’s mother after a suitable interval. Their household is refreshingly free of typical fairy-tale step-family hostilities. Miri loves her royal “Papa,” who sensibly indulges her love of a physically active lifestyle in addition to giving her plenty of books and a proper education. Since she’s technically not a princess, she doesn’t have to endure most of a royal daughter’s duties. Far from being jealous of the baby, Miri adores her new sister. I was mildly surprised that the future Sleeping Beauty bears the name “Aurora,” a choice that would seem to violate the precaution “don’t mess with the Mouse.” Character names, however, can’t be copyrighted (although they can be trademarked), and all the details of the story differ so much from the Disney movie that it’s hard to see how even the most sharklike lawyer could find grounds for a suit. At Aurora’s christening, of course, the family’s serenity is shattered. They’ve taken meticulous care to invite all the Fae in their small kingdom. The Rules of the compact among Light Fae, Dark Fae, and humans protect the latter as long as they don’t give offense in any way—and Fae are easily offended, especially the Dark ones, who actively seek excuses to incite the human anguish and terror that nourish them. A Dark Fae unknown to anyone, human or not, shows up at the christening and tries to curse the baby. When Miri impulsively leaps to protect her sister, the evil magic bounces off. Without knowing what she’s doing, Miri blasts the attacker into oblivion. Now, with magical power of unknown origin, she has to be instructed in its use by one of the Light Fae. For non-supernatural protection, she and a few of her friends are designated as Aurora’s Companions and assigned to combat training. Miri quickly comes to enjoy her new training regimen and rejoices in her growing skills as fighter and magic-user. The acquisition of these skills takes up a large proportion of the narrative. The characters are engaging, and watching them interact is a pleasure in itself, as in all of Lackey’s fiction. Miri, although talented and well-meaning, isn’t perfect. Her impulsive reactions to the dangers that arise get her and her friends into trouble. When facing the climactic crisis, however, she makes the correct although unorthodox choice. Along the way, she meets other kinds of inhuman creatures, including a unicorn, a dragon, trolls, and the keepers of the Goblin Market, but so far the source of the threat to Aurora remains a mystery. I must warn you that (to my dismay) this book proves to be only the beginning of what will probably become a multi-volume story. At the end, Aurora is still a baby.
THE CHRISTMAS PIG, by J. K. Rowling. A fantasy directed at a younger audience than the Harry Potter series, with a seven-year-old boy, Jack, as the protagonist. He loves DP (Dur Pig, baby-talk for “the pig”), his security object since infancy, more than any other toy. In Jack’s mind, DP understands him and communicates with him on a human level. The relationship between boy and stuffed animal is portrayed as a deep emotional bond, complete with vivid descriptions of the toy’s comforting smell, which has to be renewed whenever Jack’s mother insists on a spin through the washing machine. Up until Chapter 13 (page 41), Jack’s story proceeds on a mundane track with realistic problems. His parents get divorced. Eventually his mother remarries to a nice man with a teenage daughter, Holly, who had been kind to Jack when assigned as his mentor during his first year in school. Now that they’ve become step-siblings, though, she bullies him half the time. When she quarrels with her mother and insists on spending Christmas with her father and his new family, a fight between Holly and Jack leads to her throwing DP out the car window on the highway. At that point, magic enters. On Christmas Eve, “the night of miracles and lost causes,” the replacement toy bought for Jack—CP, the Christmas Pig—comes to life and offers him a desperately dangerous chance to recover DP. Shrunk to toy size, Jack crosses over into the Land of the Lost, where the “Alivened” souls of lost things go. From the temporary holding area of Mislaid, Jack and CP travel to the districts of Bother-It’s-Gone (home of things people miss and want back) and Disposable. Constantly having to outwit the Loss Adjustors, who make sure Things don’t wander where they have no right to be, and in danger from the giant, monstrous Loser, who eats whatever Things he can catch, Jack and CP receive help from a few friendly creatures. Eventually they find their way to two other parts of the Land of the Lost, whose existence the creatures in charge of Bother-It’s-Gone and Disposable don’t want to admit. To get there, they have to risk the Wastes of the Unlamented. From resentment and active dislike of CP, Jack gradually comes to depend on and finally love him. The countries and creatures, both inanimate objects and personified abstractions such as Bad Habits and lost Hope, Happiness, Power, and many others, are wildly inventive. I get the impression that Rowling’s world-building in this more limited setting is better organized and less ad-hoc than in the Harry Potter series. Other than the character of Hope playing a somewhat dea-ex-machina role at one point, the story rigorously follows its own rules. A beautifully detailed, black-and-white, two-page spread illustration introduces each of the book’s nine parts. The age range of the book’s intended audience isn’t quite clear. On the premise that a children’s or YA protagonist should be the same age as or slightly older than the prospective reader, this story should be meant for six- or seven-year-olds. I doubt many of them would be able to read a chapter book of this length and vocabulary level on their own. As a read-aloud experience for children of that age, however, it’s perfect. It would also appeal to many older fantasy fans, including adults, provided they aren’t put off by a hero who, in the mundane chapters at the beginning, sometimes comes across as rather childish (tantrum-prone) for his age. His adventures mature him, though. On the whole, I found THE CHRISTMAS PIG highly entertaining and suspenseful, worthy of a reread.
THE LAST GRADUATE, by Naomi Novik. Prospective readers of this YA dark fantasy need to have read its predecessor, A DEADLY EDUCATION, the first volume in what’s apparently shaping up as a trilogy. To recap: Narrator El (short for Galadriel) attends a uniquely designed school for wizards in its own pocket dimension. The quasi-sentient Scholomance has no teachers, no kindly Dumbledore or even a harsh Snape, only self-guided study. Assignments, grades, and class rankings magically appear out of nowhere when students aren’t looking. They arrive as freshmen and don’t leave until graduation—if they survive the four years. They have no contact with the outside world aside from information gleaned from the annual crop of newbies. Personal possessions brought with them fall under a tightly restricted weight allowance. In theory, the school provides the necessities of life, but in erratic availability and quality. The vast, labyrinthine building is infested with mals, a catch-all name for the myriad species of supernatural creatures ravenous to eat wizards, their mana (magical energy), or both. Graduation consists of fighting through a horde of mals in the Great Hall to reach the exit portal to the real world. As THE LAST GRADUATE begins, El is a senior. She’s reluctantly falling in love with Orion Lake, a student from the privileged enclave group, enclaves being clans of wizards rich in mana, material wealth, and political connections. Orion has a reputation as a rescuer of other students, effortlessly slaying mals and actually enjoying the experience. El, on the other hand, has been shunned by her classmates for most of her school career because she’s a known high-powered maleficer, capable of lethal magic if she loses control. No matter that she’s never seriously hurt another student; they fear her dark side anyway. In the first book, however, she made a few friends with whom she developed a formal alliance. Now alliances and teamwork become all-important as seniors complete their final semester of course work and prepare to spend the last six months of the school year strategizing and practicing for graduation. Despite the interpersonal friction and the outright hostility of some of her classmates, who have no qualms about trying to murder fellow students, El trades favors and draws others into her network. Gradually she learns that it’s possible to reach out in kindness, even altruism, without getting stabbed in the back, contrary to the ingrained selfishness all students have customarily depended on for survival. As the end of senior year approaches, she concocts a mad scheme to get her entire class through graduation alive. You’ve seen those TV previews that claim “the next episode will change everything”? Well, about a sixth of the way from the end of this book, El discovers a secret about the Scholomance that changes everything. Her friendships and her determination to save those she cares about (albeit some grudgingly) deepen, as does her finally acknowledged passion for Orion, even though he often exasperates her. Although I’m not a great fan of “snark” in general, I enjoyed El’s acerbic narrative voice, a veneer over the loneliness she’s reluctant to acknowledge. To her own surprise, she ultimately becomes as much of a self-sacrificing hero as Orion. Be warned: The last line of the book leaves us dangling from a figurative cliff, and we probably have to wait another year for the resolution.
*****
Excerpt from “Fantasia Quest”:
Carrie conjured the usual floating globe. They dismounted and led the horses. Just beyond the cave’s maw, the space opened up enough to let them walk side by side. “Looks like a tunnel,” she said. “Would have been nice if the map had told us about it.”
Several paces on, a gossamer veil shimmered across the span. A web. Desiccated corpses of two birds and a bat hung in the network.
Rolf’s fist clenched on the hilt of his sheathed sword. “Damn. If the spider that spun this is hanging around, I don’t want to meet it. This has to be a surprise Zack planted for me.”
The tension in his voice reminded her of the arachnophobia he’d confessed. “I’ll get rid of the web.” Surrounded by rock, the strands could burn without endangering nearby plant life. At her arcane word, flame shot from her wand and engulfed the web. It blazed for a second, then crumbled to ash.
Graystreak volunteered to scout to the end of the cleft. When he glided back to Carrie’s shoulder, he said, “It’s a tunnel and there’s a spider guarding the other end, all right. A big one.”
His face set in a strained mask, Rolf glanced at her, then back at the web. “How big?”
“You don’t want to know,” the squirrel muttered.
“I’ll find out in a second anyway. It’s not like we have an alternative.” Rolf whispered to the horses, patting their necks and commanding them to stay put. He drew his sword and strode forward.
At his side, Carrie flourished her wand to the sword’s lyrics of a spy thriller title song about a villain with a spider’s touch. Fifty paces in, they glimpsed a multi-legged lump silhouetted against a patch of daylight at the far mouth of the tunnel. It shambled toward them with a scrabbling of claws on rock. Once inside the passage, its eight eyes glinted scarlet in the dimness.
Rolf halted, a visible tremor in his upraised sword arm. The shaggy thing in front of him looked like a tarantula the size of a pony. Venom dripped from its fangs. It headed for the bladewarden, who only stared as if paralyzed.
Carrie cast an acid dart at the spider. It shuddered when the dart sizzled in its bristle-covered torso but turned toward her only for a second before looming over Rolf. He still didn’t move.
It’ll bite his head off for all I know!
“Rolf, do something!”
He took a step backward, his sword arm frozen. Shouting his name again, she charged between him and the spider. She flung a spray of rainbow dazzle at the monster’s head, blinding it. It staggered in confusion but not before its mandibles nipped her arm. Pain stung her, brief but sharp.
She stumbled and fell to one knee.
“Crystal, no!” Rolf surged into action with a yell of rage. He sliced off two of the spider’s legs before she managed to struggle to her feet. Though he hadn’t stopped shaking, he brandished his sword between her and the monster. In spite of its temporary blindness, it scored a glancing bite on Rolf. With his mouth twisted in revulsion, he cut off a third limb.
-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