Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Welcome to the March 2025 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.”
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
To subscribe to this monthly newsletter, please e-mail me at MLCVamp@aol.com, and I will add you to the list.
For other web links of possible interest, please scroll to the end.
On February 24, N. N. Light’s Book Heaven featured my vampire romance SEALED IN BLOOD:
The excerpt below from SEALED IN BLOOD features the vampire hero’s sister, whom the hero and heroine are trying to find and rescue from a con artist cult leader who mistakenly believes she can convert him into a vampire.
This month I’m interviewing mystery and thriller author Arthur Coburn.
*****
Interview with Arthur Coburn:
What inspired you to become a writer?
My mother regaling me with tales of her life as a girl in the early 1900s.
The dramatic school assemblies I used to run.
The junior year school play in which I played the lead.
Listing to 40s radio dramas like The Great Gildersleeve, Allen’s Ally, The Fat Man, The Green Hornet, Amos ‘n’ Andy, The Falcon, The Whistler, The Lone Ranger and Sky King
As a young boy I created dramas in our living room – turning a card table on end, painting and putting up background scenery, writing lines, suspending my teddy bears on strings and reciting their lines. For 2 cents a head tickets to neighborhood kids and parents.
Being read to my mother and father.
Seeing my father perform plays in the local drama club.
I was an only child and I made up companions to have adventures with – Tagly and the little guys.
I was president to my junior class and put on comedy acts with my friend, Jack.
Putting on magic shows.
Going to the circus when it came to town
What genres do you work in?
I write mystery/thrillers.
Though I wrote a couple of short stories for Sisters in Crime that were more general – one about a house in Venice, CA on the canals; and one about a woman who remembers being abused by her uncle while he was teaching her to play golf.
I wrote an international novel about a film editor in Poland who gets involved with gypsies, Nazis and film crew people
I’m currently writing a sequel to my published novel Murder in Concrete that involves U.S. history: the amazing women pilots in WII – the WASP; the story includes threads of Nazi plots in the US in the 1930s and 1940s; and a small section about a death camp in Poland and the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial located in Colleville-sur-Mer, France.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I’m basically a Pantser, though I sometimes have notions of segments or elements I want to flesh out – or pursue – I may have an idea of how I plan to end the story – though sometimes the ending changes as I revise the manuscript. Years ago, I took a course from a smart Princeton grad, named John Truby, who had developed a comprehensive outline of the steps of a novel. It made total sense but I found when I wrote to the outline my story was mechanical; I was doing it by the numbers. Only by letting my unconscious tell me what to write next, do I create organic moments and stories.
I write fiction the way learn a to speak language (the way I’ve worked on French and Italian). I plunge ahead, not worrying about mistakes, knowing that I’ll improve and correct my dialogue skills as I practice.
I play the piano the same way – my sight reading ability is negligible. I just sit down and let my fingers find melodies and chords – either jazz style or classical. I do make mistakes, but I like discovering melodies and rhythms and chords in an ad hoc way.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors or whatever)?
I’ve been influenced by working and living in foreign countries. I studied Italian, and I’ve worked on films in Italy and lived there for month. I lived and worked in Poland, where we filmed in Auschwitz Birkenau. I studied Polish for the trip. Also lived and worked in Halifax, and also in Morocco where I marveled at culture and Arabic/French language.
I’ve also done film editing in Arizona, in Los Angeles, and Skagit County in Washington. I’ve done biking trips in both Normandie and Provence. Other cultures and attitudes influenced how I think about the world.
I’ve been influenced by teachers – took a course from Tod Goldberg at UCLA – by Lynn Neri, and several courses by John Truby. I took a week-long course from Damon Suede – still have his notes.
Years ago, I read all the Agatha Christie Novels. I’ve read lots of Daniel Woodrell: Here are a couple of passages of his I love: (if I could write like this I’d quit and just savor my own prose)
REE DOLLY stood at break of day on her cold front steps and smelled coming flurries and saw meat. Meat hung from trees across the creek. The carcasses hung pale of flesh with a fatty gleam from low limbs of saplings in the side yards. Snow clouds had replaced the horizon, capped the valley darkly, and chafing wind blew so the hung meat twirled from jigging branches. Ree, brunette and sixteen, with milk skin and abrupt green eyes, stood bare-armed in a fluttering yellowed dress, face to the wind, her cheeks reddening as if smacked and smacked again. She stood tall in combat boots, scarce at the waist but plenty through the arms and shoulders, a body made for loping after needs. She smelled the frosty wet in the looming clouds, thought of her shadowed kitchen and lean cupboard, looked to the scant woodpile, shuddered.
I also love Bob Dugoni’s spare and to-the-point prose. And Donna Tart’s long novels. I’m in the process of reading and enjoying the grace of Alcott’s dialogue in Little Women, the complex emotions in Jane Austen’s novels; and the powerful scenes of Martin Cruz Smith’s The Siberian Dilemma.
Films have influenced my writing, too. I am a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, through which I get to watch dozens of foreign movies (from France, Norway, Palestine, Germany, Italy, Thailand and a score of other countries). Plus, regular US films. British crime series shows also influence me, including Vera, and Inspector Linley.
In the non-fiction realm, I loved a biography called Tomboy Bride: A Woman’s Personal Account of Life in Mining Camps of the West. I love Robert Frost’s Haiku-like poetry.
How has your career in the film industry influenced your work as a novelist? Did you find the transition between the two fields difficult?
Working with images in film conditioned me to “see” places and people. I’m pleased with my ability to do that. I also learned about pacing from film editing. Learned I need to alternate fast and slow written scenes with quick and slow sentences, plus single words.
I got the chance to write a couple of scenes for Triumph of the Spirit, directed by Robert M. Young. And I suggested a couple of script ideas for Sam Rami when I was editing and he was directing Spiderman
From my work as a film editor, I learned you have to go over and over and over your material to make it as good as it can be.
One of my final stages of writing is to play my writing back to me from Word; that helps me to hear mistakes and also to see how the flow and pacing works.
I found the transition between film and novel writing a pleasant one – novel writing is different because you are creating rather than manipulating stories. I like being able to make up things and not always finding myself working with someone else’s material.
What would you say are the principal differences between writing screenplays and writing prose fiction?
I haven’t written a screenplay in ages, but I recall you need to fill in lots more material in a novel. Screen plays are a kind of shorthand way of writing.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
My novel in progress, currently out for feedback, is a follow-up to Murder in Concrete. It has the same protagonist, Charlie, a nineteen-year-old girl, still living with her old PTSD issues, including suspicions. She sometimes imagines things that are not there.
She is pulled into a mystery about what happened to her now deceased Grandma Lottie’s best friend, from a letter written forty-plus years earlier than the 1987 time of the novel.
There are two time threads: one starting in 1936, and one in 1987. The threads intersect and interact partway through the novel. There are lots of planes and Nazis and bits of history.
I’m toying with possible titles, including “Hot Planes and Valiant Women.”
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
READ….WRITE… LET YOUR INNER WISDOM TAKE CHARGE… REWRITE…PLAY YOUR MATERIAL BACK SO YOU CAN HEAR HOW IT SOUNDS
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
Arthur Coburn Website
Instagram: @arthurcoburnauthor
Facebook: Facebook
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
SHE WALKS THESE HILLS, by Sharyn McCrumb. I’ve read this 1994 book, one of my favorites of McCrumb’s Appalachian “Ballad” novels, multiple times. I bought this trade paperback edition to get the auxiliary material collected in it. McCrumb’s new introduction delves into the inspiration, sources, and themes of the novel. The major and most prominent theme is “journeys.” The other, less obvious, is “diminishing” (e.g., the fading of traditional mountain culture). The story weaves together several plotlines: In the colonial era, when Tennessee was still the frontier, a young woman was kidnapped by Shawnees who had massacred most of her family. Months later, she escaped and trekked home for hundreds of miles through the wilderness, only to meet a tragic end upon her return. In the present, a history professor obsessed with her story decides to retrace the final part of her route, even though he has never camped or hiked before in his life. Meanwhile, an old farmer named Harm Sorley, sentenced to life for murder over thirty years earlier, escapes from prison. Suffering from brain damage that makes him unable to form or retain new memories, he doesn’t even remember his crime, thinks he’s still a young man, and sets out through the woods to find his way home, where he expects his wife and little daughter to be waiting. His wife, who divorced him long ago, married a pompous, uptight man who assumes she and her daughter (now a budding geologist) should be grateful for the secure suburban life he has bestowed on them. Another storyline involves a discontented young “hillbilly” mother living in poverty among the relatives of her neglectful, sometimes abusive husband. When her baby disappears, she claims the escaped convict must have snatched him. Continuing characters Sheriff Arrowood, Deputy LeDonne, and Martha, the dispatcher, investigate the crimes. Martha persuades the Sheriff to give her a chance at becoming a deputy, a change that stresses her romantic relationship with LeDonne. Yet another important character, a late-night radio host known as “Hank the Yank,” becomes curious about Harm’s long-ago murder case and digs into it on his own, convinced there’s more to the killing than official records reveal. The ill-prepared history professor, naturally, gets hopelessly lost in the forest, where he runs into Harm, the mother of the allegedly kidnapped baby, and eventually the ghost of the eighteenth-century woman whose journey he’s trying to replicate. At the climax, McCrumb brilliantly weaves all these threads together. Nora Bonesteel, an elderly woman with the “Sight” – a keeper of local history and lore who appears in most of the books — plays a vital role at that point. The Acknowledgments section includes a brief bibliography of historical sources. In addition, a collection of essays by McCrumb follows the text of the novel. She discusses the geography of the Appalachian mountain range, the “Serpentine Chain” that connects them to the mountains of the British Isles along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge; the transmission of folk music, customs, and tales from the Old World to the New; the functions of storytelling (define a people, describe a place, record history, transmit cultural values, entertain); magic in nature, including beliefs in fairy folk and other supernatural beings; the tradition of quilting; the Sight, as in premonitions and extrasensory perception; the “Other World” of faerie; and “Once Upon a Time, It Was Now,” about the past and present of the region and how Appalachia is perceived by outsiders. This edition of SHE WALKS THESE HILLS, signed by the author, can be purchased only on her website, http://www.sharynmccrumb.com. If you haven’t read the book before, consider springing for this trade paperback to get the fascinating bonus material.
WITCHCRAFT FOR WAYWARD GIRLS, by Grady Hendrix. The mundane content of this novel, set in 1970 (aside from the epilogue), struck me as more harrowing than the supernatural component. It takes place in a home for unwed mothers, where they live in the months before giving birth, almost always surrendering their babies for adoption. Hundreds of those institutions existed in the United States between World War II and the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. As a teenager in the 1960s, I was vaguely aware of them. Until reading Hendrix’s novel, I had no idea they’d survived into the early 1970s. The protagonist arrives at the Wellwood House, many miles from home, with little idea of what to expect. Her father, who drops her off and slips away without saying goodbye, treats her coldly, his only positive statements consisting of the assurance that she’ll be able to have the baby and return to her normal life, forgetting about the entire episode. Only that way can she erase the shame she has inflicted on her family. As was usually the case with such girls, everybody except close family has been told she’s spending the time in a distant city for some non-pregnancy-related purpose. Although the staff members at Wellwood House, including the head (Miss Wellwood) and the institution’s doctor, treat the girls brusquely and often contemptuously, the place isn’t portrayed as a hellhole like a Dickensian workhouse. Nevertheless, the treatment of the inmates is chillingly dehumanizing. Any questioning of rules or even requests for information are quashed as “disrespect.” They’re assigned pseudonyms, forbidden to use their real names or discuss their backgrounds with each other. The protagonist is renamed Fern. The girls are lied to, told they won’t feel anything during labor because they’ll be unconscious throughout. They receive no preparation for childbirth, no explanation of the procedures involved. The staff claims, probably sincerely from their viewpoint, to be doing what’s best for the inmates and the babies. It soon becomes clear, though, that the pregnant girls are treated as breeders of infants for “deserving” couples who – unlike the birth mothers – have the capacity to become good parents. If a girl insists she wants to keep the baby, she runs into a Catch 22: Asking to rear her own child, despite her age, single status, and lack of resources, proves she’s neurotic and therefore unfit for motherhood. Immediately after delivery, they’re pressured to sign documents they don’t understand and often haven’t been allowed to read. As Fern says decades later, the newborn infants aren’t “surrendered”; they’re taken. The institution’s regimen is strict, sometimes harshly arbitrary. For instance, when one inmate repeatedly violates her salt restriction, the doctor removes salt from the menu altogether. He enforces highly restrictive weight-gain limits – which I recall vividly from my own first two pregnancies, standards now recognized as not only unrealistic but hazardous to health. Yet, ironically from today’s perspective, the girls aren’t forbidden to smoke. In accordance with the tendency of that period to dismiss morning sickness as psychosomatic, he withholds medication for a patient’s debilitating nausea. Everything changes when the bookmobile librarian, Miss Parcae (a name any fan of classical mythology will recognize as ominous), surreptitiously lends Fern a book titled HOW TO BE A GROOVY WITCH. At first Fern and her companions don’t take the guidebook seriously. When they experiment with a spell to inflict their friend’s uncontrollable vomiting on the doctor, though, it succeeds beyond their wildest imaginings. Spontaneous, inexplicable changes happen to the manual, turning its spells stronger and darker. A gruesome body-horror revenge on Miss Wellwood confirms that the magic is both real and dangerous. But can it have any significant impact beyond petty retribution? Can magic change the system confining and oppressing the girls? For instance, is there any way they can save the youngest member of their group and her unborn baby from being handed over to the clergyman who’s been raping her for years? As always, magic has a price. Miss Parcae and her coven have plans for Fern that violate her free will even more than the coercive “surrender” of her child. The sociopolitical background of 1970, the heartrending personal plights of the individual girls, and the mind-blowing magic weave together to create a deeply emotional story. I wouldn’t exactly say this novel has a happy ending; some losses and scars can’t be healed. The promise to unwed mothers of getting on with their lives, as if pregnancy and birth form a minor episode easily relegated to the past, proves to be another lie. Fern’s epilogue set fifty-four years later, though, provides a satisfying resolution with a sense of peace attained at last. An afterword by the author adds historical context along with his personal angle on the issues with which the story grapples. In my opinion, Hendrix’s THE SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB’S GUIDE TO SLAYING VAMPIRES is one of the best vampire novels in recent years, and this new book is equally gripping and horrifying.
THE GIRLS WHO WENT AWAY, by Ann Fessler. This 2006 nonfiction book was one of Hendrix’s principal sources for WITCHCRAFT FOR WAYWARD GIRLS. Reading Fessler’s meticulously researched work immediately after Hendrix’s novel reveals how much historical reality he drew upon. Each chapter alternates historical and sociological background information by the author with retrospective first-person narratives by women who “went away” to homes for unwed mothers – run by the National Florence Crittenton Mission and the Roman Catholic Church, among other institutions – and surrendered their babies for adoption. In the framing introduction and conclusion, Fessler lends a further personal touch to the topic with her perspective on her own experience as an adoptee from that period. I was surprised to learn that originally most institutions for single, pregnant girls and women focused on giving them resources and skills to rear their children themselves. A radical shift occurred during the 1940s, after which residents of homes for unwed mothers were automatically expected to give up their newborns for adoption. Interestingly, Black families and communities, rather than routinely sending pregnant girls to “homes,” more often provided support to help young mothers keep their infants. In the post-World-War II institutions, as portrayed in Hendrix’s novel, the inmates were shamed, assumed to be neurotic and/or sexually promiscuous. Little or nothing, of course, was said to condemn the boys and men co-responsible for the pregnancies. Some of the young women eventually went on to marry the fathers of their children. Most, at least in Fessler’s sample population, did not. A few, interviewed decades later, reported their stays in the “homes” as positive experiences and were in fact glad to surrender their babies to married couples, who could give children stable families, and move on with their lives. Most, however, did not feel that way. The loss of their babies, often perceived as forced upon them, resulted in lifelong trauma, even if hidden. Often their “shameful” past was concealed from the children they later bore within marriage and even from some of the women’s husbands. Although I grew up in that era, I still found it hard, while reading this book, to wrap my head around the lengths to which families went to conceal their daughters’ “disgrace.” From a contemporary perspective, I can’t help looking back and thinking, “Good grief, why on Earth did they care?” Of course, for an unmarried teenager, dealing with pregnancy and motherhood would have been (as it still is) a terribly difficult plight. But to act as if having it revealed would practically be a fate worse than death? In short, every facet of Hendrix’s story except the supernatural element is based on true history within living memory. Fessler’s book would make fascinating reading for anyone interested in that history from a sociological or personal perspective.
THE SECRET LIFE OF THE UNIVERSE, by astrobiologist Nathalie A. Cabrol. The author, director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute, has worked on multiple unmanned space exploration programs. Reflections on her own experiences in that field enhance her in-depth analysis of the subject. Published in 2023, the book contains information about discoveries nearly as up-to-date as a reader could hope for. After two introductory chapters about Earth and the origins of living organisms here, she lays out the basic conditions for life as we know it — mainly a temperature range where liquid water exists, the presence of certain vital elements, and particular levels of gravity and atmospheric pressure. Ideal geological and meteorological conditions also contribute to the probability that life could develop and survive. Detailed analyses of Venus and Mars explore whether living creatures, if only on the microbial level, could exist there. Other possibilities are some of Jupiter’s and Saturn’s moons, since organic molecules and liquid water have been discovered on them. More surprisingly, Cabrol proposes possible environments for organic evolution on dwarf planets and even Mercury and our moon. Later chapters plunge into more speculative discussions of life that might exist on planets of other stars. She delves into the Drake formula (how statistically likely are extrasolar biospheres, intelligence, and civilizations?) and the Fermi Paradox (if other advanced civilizations exist in the universe, where is everybody?). Of course, the problem with determining the likelihood of some of the factors involved is that we have a sample of only one, our own world. There’s a chapter on the active search for life throughout the galaxy, especially the SETI project. The author also considers the broad issues of the definition of life and whether artificial intelligence could qualify. In my opinion, however, the question of “What is life?” would have fit better at the beginning than the end. I also wonder why terrestrial “extremophile” organisms aren’t covered in depth instead of being hardly mentioned. Their evolution and survival in conditions that would kill most creatures would shed further light on environments that might support life on other planets. The endnotes direct the reader to the resources the author drew upon. Her treatment of the various topics is so extensive and deep, however, even sometimes getting rather technical with discussions of organic and inorganic chemistry, that a writer wanting to use this work as background for creating alien lifeforms would hardly need to look elsewhere.
For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
*****
Excerpt from SEALED IN BLOOD:
No light seeped through the locked shutters–the sole comfort of Laura’s imprisonment. Nevertheless, she knew when day sank to dusk. When her part of the earth turned away from the sun, her heartbeat and respiration quickened, stirring the sluggish blood in her veins. Her frozen limbs thawed to mere chill, and she awoke.
Woke to stomach-wrenching hunger and burning thirst. She uncurled herself from the sheepskin rug and stumbled to the bathroom. Several times, she refilled and drained the plastic cup. The tepid water soothed her throat momentarily, with no promise of true quenching. She grimaced at her reflection in the mirror. Why hadn’t Don removed that, if he no longer trusted her with glass? And what did he think she could do with broken glass that her own teeth and claws couldn’t manage?
She raked fingers through her tangled red hair. Finding the comb and brush to groom herself seemed like too much trouble in her low-energy condition. Her mouth tasted like a slaughterhouse floor. She’d used up the tube of toothpaste several days ago, and she wouldn’t stoop to ask Don for anything.
Dragging herself back into the bedroom, she huddled on the coffin lid. Her amusement at Don’s bizarre notion of furniture had long since worn out; she thought of the thing as simply a convenient seat.
The idea of rooting in the closet for a book she hadn’t read didn’t inspire her. Hugging her cramp-racked stomach, she felt herself drifting into a half-doze. How could she be drowsy after a full day of sleep? She gave her tousled head an irritable shake. How long had she been locked in here, anyway, with no proper nourishment and no companion besides her jailer? She began counting on her fingers–
The scrape of the key snapped her awake. Damn, she’d fallen asleep again! She sprang to her feet, feeling the hair bristle at the back of her neck.
Don stepped through the door, leveling the revolver at her.
That gun again–as if his fear of her weren’t obvious enough without it. Not only did he stink of fear, it shouted in the way he clutched the silver cross at his throat. She looked forward to disabusing him of that superstition by ripping the thing off his neck–but not as long as he had the .38 pointed at her breast.
“How’d you sleep today, Laura? Enjoying your reducing diet?” His voice quavered with anger as well as fear.
“Must you come bothering me like this every night? If you aren’t going to let me out, just stay away.”
“That’s no way to talk to your host–and I’ve got news you’ll want to hear.”
“I doubt it.” Fixing her eyes on his, she strove to draw him in, seduce him with her gaze.
Well-practiced at this game, he stubbornly stared at her chest instead. “That sneaky little son of a bitch–” He sounded hoarse with the effort of stifling his anger. “The pictures–I was right about them.”
In spite of herself, Laura pricked up her ears at this remark. “Brewster?”
“You got it. I trusted him, the little snake!” Don’s aura smoldered with resentment. Still, to Laura’s disappointment, he didn’t forget to avoid her eyes. “He had one of those miniature cameras, it looks like. Anyway, like the paper said, he claimed he had photos of a winged alien. Had to be you at the Sabbat–what else?
Laura felt a twinge of alarm. “You aren’t sure? Didn’t you get the prints?”
“Hell, I tried,” Don said with an acid grin. “Somebody else got there before me.”
At that, her stomach churned with more than hunger. “Someone else has them? Who?”
“I think I know. I’ll get them back, don’t worry. Think I wouldn’t take good care of my prize monster?”
She gritted her teeth to hold back the retort that leaped to mind; she couldn’t let him goad her.
He went on. “I have to go easy, though. When I leaned on Brewster to find out where the pictures were, he put up a fight, and things got out of hand.”
It took a second for his meaning to penetrate Laura’s abused brain. “You killed him!”
He shrugged. “Don’t sweat it. It was an accident, and I heard the cops chalked it up to a burglary.”
Her heart racing, she said, “You can’t be sure they’ll stick to that.” Did this development necessarily threaten her? In a way it offered hope, for if Don were arrested, she’d be found and liberated. On the other hand, Don’s exposure might carry the risk of someone else learning her secret.
His right hand trembled; no doubt his fingers ached from gripping the hilt of the gun. “I didn’t really come down here to talk about that. You know what I’m here for. Have you changed your mind?”
“The answer is the same as last night and the night before,” she said. “It won’t change. What you’re asking for just isn’t possible.” Wouldn’t he ever believe that simple truth? Perhaps she should pretend to give in, go along with his delusion. Maybe that piece of trickery would win her freedom. She couldn’t shift position too abruptly, though. “Why not forget about it and start up the Black Masses again? Your friends must be wondering what’s happened.”
-end-
*****
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, visit the Dropbox page below. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
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All Vampire’s Crypt Issues on Dropbox
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Carter Kindle Books
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Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
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You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter
Welcome to the February 2025 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.”
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
To subscribe to this monthly newsletter, please e-mail me at MLCVamp@aol.com, and I will add you to the list.
For other web links of possible interest, please scroll to the end.
In the romantic spirit of February, below is a teaser from my one Harlequin romance, EMBRACING DARKNESS, a stand-alone novel in the Vanishing Breed vampire universe. The publisher’s blurb:
Caring about her beyond a basic need to keep her safe, he could not. Maxwell Tremayne never should have touched her, kissed her, tasted her. It was foolish–dangerous–for a vampire to get involved with a human, let alone a flesh-and-blood spitfire of a woman with curves like Linnet’s. Maxwell had to remember that it was tragedy that had brought them together on this dangerous quest to catch a cold-blooded killer. Even if they survived this struggle unscathed, imagining that they could share anything more than a fleeting affair was as ridiculous as…imagining that he could live another hundred years without her.
You can find the e-book here:
Embracing Darkness from Harlequin
And here:
I’m thrilled to announce that the Wild Rose Press has accepted my light paranormal romance novella “Summertide Echoes.” Set in the Blue Ridge Mountains, it includes the ghosts of a Saint Bernard and a teenage girl.
Also in keeping with the month of Valentine’s Day, I’m interviewing romance author Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy.
*****
Interview with Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy:
What inspired you to become a writer?
I was the kid who hung around the oldest family members to hear their stories. I was read to and learned to read early so it wasn’t long before I made up my own tales. The true inspiration was when my Granny showed me the class prophecy she’d written when she graduated and when I asked why she didn’t pursue a career in writing, she told me “I couldn’t but you should.”
What genres do you work in?
Romance, everything from contemporary to historical to suspense and sweet to heat. These days I primarily write sweet romance.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I always know how a new novel begins and how it ends. I wing everything in between.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors or whatever)?
Some of my favorite authors are Susanna Kearsley, Carolyn Brown, and Sharon Sala.
The largest and most profound influence on my work came from my grandmother. Granny showed me a manuscript she’d written for her 8th grade graduation in 1912. I was fourteen and already wanted to become an author. It was well-written, and I asked her why she didn’t become a writer. She said, “I couldn’t but you should, and you can.”
Her life was far from easy so I understood why she couldn’t, but I took her words to heart and the torch was passed!
What kind of research did you do for the hero’s background in THE SCARRED SANTA?
One of my grandfathers had PTSD (although they didn’t call it that yet) after his service in the Pacific during World War II. I’m the daughter, niece, cousin, and granddaughter of veterans. I’m also an American Legion Auxiliary member. For research, I used print resources and talked with professionals at area VA hospitals and centers. I talked to veterans, too.
A common thread in your Wild Rose Press novels is the motif of a severely injured hero. Could you tell us more about your choice of that theme?
That’s true in the ones currently out although I have two upcoming Wild Rose Press titles where it’s not the case, but I’ll admit many of my novels (with other publishers) have a injured hero.
As for why I choose the theme, it’s because I’ve seen the resilience of many people under duress, after an accident or illness. It’s a way for my heroes to demonstrate their inner strength and yet be vulnerable to love. Also, it makes one heck of a plot device, too!
Please tell us what types of material we’ll find on your blog.
My blog is very eclectic. I write about life events dating back to childhood, guest other authors, share some of my work, and about anything. One of my most popular recent posts was “The Year of the Dictionary”, about receiving my first dictionary and what it meant to me. Another one was about my Pop (grandpa) and Buddy Poppies.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?’’
The third book in my historical Laredo series, The Birthright of Ezekiel Wilson, debuts from World Castle Publishing on February 24 and is now available for pre-order.
What are you working on now?
Pre-edits and trimming down word count for “Fear’s Sharp Edge”, under contract to Wild Rose Press as part of their new Men And Women of Valor series. I’m working on another for the same line as well.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Sit down and write. Don’t listen to conflicting advice but follow your heart. Do learn proper punctuation and grammar. Believe that you can and will do this thing@
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
Weebly
Amazon
Facebook
Goodreads
Twitter
Coming in 2025, The Birthright of Ezekiel Wilson) Book three of the Laredo series, Fear’s Sharp Edge, Uglier Than Homemade Sin, The Cajun Cowboy and more!
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
ADRIFT IN CURRENTS CLEAN AND CLEAR, by Seanan McGuire. This year’s new Wayward Children novel reveals the backstory of a secondary character in an earlier book, BENEATH THE SUGAR SKY. Uniquely in the series, Miss Eleanor’s school isn’t even mentioned in this installment. Nadya, abandoned at birth and lacking a right arm from the elbow down, spends her first eleven years in a Russian orphanage. She doesn’t mind having only one and a half arms, unable to miss what she’s never had. She watches over the younger children, rejoices in their adoptions, and has no desire to leave the institution herself, despite the prospect of “aging out” within a few years. She’s far from happy when a missionary couple adopts her and whisks her off to the alien land of America. Granted, she finds material comforts and luxuries there, but she never fits in. With her foster parents, there’s dutiful kindness on one side and dutiful obedience on the other, but no true understanding, much less love. They think they’re doing Nadya a great favor by fitting her with a prosthetic arm, which she detests. Deeply fond of turtles and tortoises, she visits the neighborhood pond as often as possible. When she comes across a turtle with “Be Sure” etched on its shell in Russian, she falls through a door-shaped shadow into a water world. Literally so, where even what she experiences as breathable “air” is just the highest, thinnest level of water. In this world, many people bond with the highly intelligent giant turtles that live alongside the human inhabitants. Adopted by a kind family, Nadya eventually forms such a bond and becomes a scout, exploring the wilderness with her beloved turtle partner. Unlike most between-realm travelers in these stories, she grows to adulthood in her proper world, in symbiosis with the water that enfolds her. Ultimately, she becomes not only an adventurer but a hero. She seems to have built an idyllic life, but, as longtime fans know, happiness in this series is always precarious. Like all the unique environments featured in the Wayward Children novels, the aquatic world is strange, captivating, and vividly described. Although I found this book (of course) enthralling and worthy of multiple readings – like its predecessors – it isn’t however, among my favorites. My reaction to the ending could be summarized as, “That’s it? No way!” Your mileage may vary. Fortunately, we can learn the rest of Nadya’s story by reading or rereading BENEATH THE SUGAR SKY.
MISS AMELIA’S LIST, by Mercedes Lackey. An Elemental Masters novel, set in the Regency period rather than the late nineteenth or early twentieth century like most of the series — PRIDE AND PREJUDICE with magic. In 1815, Amelia and her distant cousin Serena travel from their plantation home in the American South to England, where a male relative will introduce them into society. Amelia, who suffers from anxiety, composes lists to keep it in check. One major goal for this relocation is to find a husband for Serena, and Amelia makes a list of desirable qualities. Foremost, of course, he must be an Elemental magician. In this version of our world, most people aren’t aware of magic. But everyone employed on Amelia’s family estate – all of them paid servants, not slaves – knows about paranormal abilities, and some have gifts of their own. Serena herself, incidentally, has a trace of Black ancestry but passes as white. Moreover, she’s also a shapeshifter, although we don’t immediately learn what kind. She’s a Fire mage and Amelia an Earth Master. The recently concluded War of 1812 somewhat biases Amelia against the English, but she quickly finds friends among her new acquaintances (as well as, on the negative side, people who imagine America as a howling wilderness inhabited by barbarians). As for marriage, although unlike Serena she has no particular desire to wed, she’s not totally averse to the idea. The two young women plunge into the London social whirl, meet Elemental mages and Masters from all levels of class and wealth or lack thereof, search for a suitable country house, and make allies among the local nature spirits, e.g., brownies. Only near the story’s climax do they encounter the numinous terror of a major Elemental. This book wouldn’t offer a suitable introduction for a reader new to the series, because it presupposes some level of familiarity with the type of magic used by Lackey’s characters. Also, magic doesn’t figure prominently in the early part of the book, and the supernatural threat doesn’t surface openly until fairly close to the end. (Warning: The blurb gives away too much of that development.) The novel is as much comedy of manners as paranormal fantasy. A new reader might get frustrated and wonder when something would actually start happening. A longtime fan of Lackey’s work and the Elemental Masters world in particular, though, would probably agree with me in enjoying the characters and their interactions as Amelia and Serena navigate the social intricacies of their new environment. The two of them have delightfully different personalities but are equally strong characters, in the senses of being both well written and decidedly self-assured. As for the PRIDE AND PREJUDICE analogy, the girls deal with a charming, financially embarrassed rogue and a rather arrogant, rigid gentleman who underestimates Amelia and incites her to vague suspicion as well as annoyance. Naturally, surface impressions shouldn’t be taken at face value. Who ends up marrying whom may come as an entertaining surprise for many readers; it did for me.
THE GENETIC BOOK OF THE DEAD, by Richard Dawkins. The title refers to this book’s dominant metaphor of a palimpsest, a document whose text has been written over, sometimes more than once. On a literal palimpsest, the original words have been obliterated by the later ones. That isn’t the case with the genetic, anatomical, physiological, and behavioral traces that reveal the ancestral past of animals and other living creatures, so the metaphor isn’t perfect (as Dawkins notes) but still makes a fruitful device for contemplating the evolution of life on Earth. As the cover blurb puts it, every creature can be regarded as “an archive of the worlds of its ancestors.” What do an animal’s body structure, genome, and behavior inform us about the environment that shaped it? Naturally, it’s easy to tell a herbivore’s skull from a carnivore’s by their teeth. We can learn much more about the past of various species by observing present-day creatures, though. A lizard with skin like rocks and sand must have descended from ancestors that lived in a desert; the forebears of insects that look like twigs must have evolved in trees. Many other types of visual deception exist, some truly weird. The “palimpsest” can tell us about animals whose predecessors left the ocean to become land-dwellers, returned to the sea, and some cases even developed back into terrestrial animals. Convergent evolution can result in animals that look uncannily similar although not at all closely related, because they’ve developed to fill the same kinds of environmental niches. One page displays pictures of a variety of marsupials alongside their placental mammal counterparts, some almost indistinguishable to a casual glance. “Divergent” evolution, on the other hand, refers to closely related species that have developed so differently in different habitats that they look nothing alike, e.g., whales and hippos. And those topics take us less than halfway through the book. Some other broad subjects include “the immortal gene” and “variations on a theme,” with fascinatingly detailed examples. Dawkins devotes considerable attention to the concept of the “extended phenotype” (about which he previously wrote an entire book), especially in the chapter titled “Out Beyond the Body Wall.” A gene’s visible expression, such as eye color, is a “phenotype.” Dawkins explores how genes perceptibly affect features of the environment that aren’t parts of the organism itself. Obvious examples might be a bird’s nest or a beaver’s dam. In an exciting twist in the final chapter, we learn we may have acquired a nontrivial portion of our genes from ancient viruses. As a bonus, the book includes many color illustrations.
JOY, by Abigail Santamaria. The first in-depth biography of Joy Davidman Gresham, the wife of C. S. Lewis. (I recall the earlier book by her son Douglas, in contrast, as more of a personal memoir.) Of course, there’s much more to Joy than her marriage to Lewis in his late middle age, and this biography – subtitled, nevertheless, “Poet, seeker, and the woman who captivated C. S. Lewis” – contains a ton of information about her life and career new to me. (And, yes, the title of his autobiography, SURPRISED BY JOY, is purely a coincidence; it comes from a Wordsworth poem.) This book tells us in depth about her childhood, education, literary career, long-term membership in the American Communist Party, marriage to novelist and screenwriter Bill Gresham, plus their involvement in L. Ron Hubbard’s pseudo-science, their conversion to Christianity, and of course her relocation to England to meet and marry Lewis, followed by her cancer diagnosis, apparently miraculous temporary remission, and eventual death. Bill, by the way, gets a more three-dimensional treatment than the typical portrayal of him as mainly an abusive alcoholic. Joy comes across as a passionate, brilliant, idealistic, aggressively outspoken, and sometimes unlikable woman. Rumors that she deliberately formed a relationship with Lewis intending to seduce him if possible are confirmed. And yet the well-known story of their friendship’s growth into mutual, deeply devoted love is also true. Moreover, the account of their relationship reveals the extent to which Joy became virtually an uncredited collaborator on some of Lewis’s later works. To the question of the sexual element in their marriage, inexplicably doubted by an eccentric minority of scholars, yes, they definitely had a satisfying sex life, confirmed by independent evidence that corroborates Lewis’ frank statements in A GRIEF OBSERVED. Santamaria creates a fully rounded, meticulously detailed portrait of Joy that, while not glossing over her flaws, highlights her achievements, strengths, unique character, deep faith, and capacity for love. In addition to many photos of Joy from the age of two until three months before her death, the book includes thorough footnotes and index and an extensive bibliography. Recommended for hardcore C. S. Lewis fans as well as readers who simply enjoy well-written, sympathetic biographies of fascinating people.
For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
*****
Excerpt from EMBRACING DARKNESS:
No sign of life stirred inside the building below. Maxwell Tremayne soared on silken wings, circling the three-story split-level. He didn’t worry about chance observers, since the house sat off the road in the center of a wooded lot. The vacant driveway only confirmed the emptiness his inhuman senses detected. Had the owner left temporarily or permanently? Permanently, if she has any discretion, he reflected. Not that her recent behavior suggested any.
He scanned the trees around the house. The sun had barely set, and its afterglow made his head ache and his eyes sting. He knew he shouldn’t have shapeshifted until full dark, but his patience had worn out. From this vantage point he would notice at once if his quarry, or anyone else, showed up. Amid random heat traces that he identified as small animals, a motionless patch of deeper red caught his eye. A human intruder. Max spiraled lower, shrouding himself in a psychic veil that rendered him invisible to human eyes. Through the summer-green leaves, he glimpsed a woman crouching near the edge of the woods. She watched the front of the house with a pair of binoculars.
Not a casual hiker, then, but someone who, like him, took a particular interest in this place. Still veiled, Max glided toward her. He landed a few yards away and let his body melt into wingless, fully human shape.
The female’s scent and the crackling of her aura conveyed fear, frustration, and tightly reined anger. Any ephemeral who knew the truth about that house would be wise to fear its owner, but the other emotions puzzled him, as did her intense watchfulness. She swatted a mosquito just below the cuff of her denim shorts without shifting her eyes from the binoculars.
His nostrils flared, savoring the salty tang of her flesh. The humidity made her T-shirt cling to her breasts. Her soft curves implied a wholesome disdain for obsessive dieting. The sweetness of her natural fragrance confirmed that sign of robust health. She had pale golden hair, a color never found in his own species. Cropped to just above her shoulders, it left her neck bare. If he had time for self-indulgence—
But I don’t. He shook his head, impatient with his own woolgathering. No matter how appetizing this ephemeral might be in other circumstances, here and now she presented a threat to his mission. He had to get rid of her.
-end of excerpt-
*****
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, visit the Dropbox page below. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
All issues are now posted on Dropbox, where you should be able to download them at this link:
All Vampire’s Crypt Issues on Dropbox
A complete list of my available works, arranged roughly by genre, with purchase links:
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 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 January 2025 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.”
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
To subscribe to this monthly newsletter, please e-mail me at MLCVamp@aol.com, and I will add you to the list.
For other web links of possible interest, please scroll to the end.
Happy New Year!
N. N. Light’s Book Heaven gave my new Christmas novella, “A Ghost in the Green Bestiary,” a fantastic 5-plus-star review. The reviewer comments, “There’s a sublime gothic vibe to the narration, making it impossible to put down. The world-building is immersive and captured my imagination. The characters, though, are what make ‘A Ghost in the Green Bestiary’ an unputdownable read.”
Ghost in the Green Bestiary Review
Continuing the holiday theme, we have an excerpt from “Little Cat Feet,” my YA fantasy Christmas story, based on the legend that animals can talk on Christmas Eve. The protagonist, Lauren, has run away from home and is trying to get to her grandmother’s house. She has just rescued a stray cat from a pair of cruel boys. The story is in my collection LOVE AMONG THE MONSTERS, which can be found here:
And here:
This month I interview Pam Binder, a multi-genre author who has written books in the “Christmas in the Castle” series and other fiction for the Wild Rose Press (as well as other publishers).
*****
Interview with Pam Binder:
What inspired you to become a writer?
Very easy question. My maternal grandmother inspired me to become a writer. She was a poet, and when I wrote to her, she would also send the letters back edited. I know that might sound harsh, especially when this started happening when I was seven, but it was a wonderful way for us to connect. She encouraged me to not just write about events in my day, but make them sound interesting and fun.
What genres do you work in?
I enjoy writing in many genres. I am published in Time Travel, Romance, Fantasy, Romantasy Young Adult, Contemporary Romance, Historical which includes, western, Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Regency.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I use a type of outline. I use the scene headings from Blake Snyder’s, Save the Cat, and Christopher Vogler’s A Hero’s Journey. Then I write a scene for each beat. When that is finished I expand my story.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors or whatever)?
I read my first romance novel when I was in the fourth grade. My folks bought a house with a library, and the owner had left all of her books. Her book collection were novels written from the 1940’s. One of the books I selected was Forever Amber, by Kathleen Winsor. Forever Amber is a novel that tells the story of Amber St. Clare, an orphaned young woman who rises from poverty to become a courtesan in the court of King Charles II in 17th century England. Along the way, she has numerous lovers, including a nobleman, a soldier, and the king himself, while keeping her love for the one man she can never have. It was a beautifully written book that was turned into a movie. When my mother discovered I had read the book, the only thing she said was – “Do you have any questions?” I think I loved my mother even more that day. She did not believe in censoring books. From that day forward, I was hooked on historical romances. I even named my first heroine Amber.
Please tell us about your “Christmas in the Castle” novels.
The Christmas in the Castle novels, Christmas Proposal and Christmas Secrets, were fun novels to write. Of course, I made life challenging for my heroes and heroines, but they were strong and could handle a few bumps in the road.
What kinds of research do you do for your historical fiction?
I conduct extensive research. The stories I write take place in cities and countries I’ve visited, which gives me a real sense of place. I also have a room I’ve turned into my home library. The sections cover, the United States, Scotland, England, Ireland, and a few countries in Europe. I have books on weapons and costumes from different time periods, histories of the countries, legends, political and religious trends throughout history, and much more. I know people go on line for their research, but you need to be careful and always check your sources. I believe in books.
How does the process of writing for the shared-world “Haunting of Pinedale High” series work?
I was very lucky and the process with The Wild Rose Press was smooth. They had a clear vision for the series. When I received the contract for Raven Spirit, I was told that my book would be released second. With that in mind, authors under contract met via email to discuss their books. Each of our plots were different. The constant was the location, and a few reoccurring characters. If we mentioned any of these reoccurring characters, we needed to make sure they were described the same in each story. These characters did not have to be main characters.
Tell us about some of the writing workshops you present.
Great question. I teach two 9- month workshops, but I am considering breaking them out into shorter sessions. The first is WRITE YOUR STORY. In this series you will write at least two scenes per class. You have the opportunity to turn in three pages per week that I will review as well as consult with you on your scenes. At the end of WRITE YOUR STORY you will have a finished draft. The second class is called EDIT YOUR STORY, and is designed to help you edit and polish your draft.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
My latest book is Christmas Secrets, which was released on December 11.
What are you working on now?
I am working on both another Christmas Regency, as well as a Romantasy. Look for both in 2025.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Never give up. A keynote speaker at a conference asked this question which I never forgot. “Do you know the difference between a published and unpublished author?” He paused and then said, “The published author never gave up.”
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
ARILINN, by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Deborah J. Ross (mainly the latter, given that Bradley died in 1999). An attractive hardback with a full-color illustration printed directly on the cover instead of a dust jacket. I enjoyed this novel more than most other recent releases in the Darkover series; I was especially pleased that it doesn’t take place in the post-WORLD WRECKER era (my least favorite) but in a much earlier period. It’s set before the Ages of Chaos, at a time when Comyn alliances and the Tower system as we know them in books such as THE BLOODY SUN and HERITAGE OF HASTUR are just beginning to develop in a recognizable form. The story concludes with the founding of Arilinn Tower after a sequence of personally and politically traumatic events spanning many years. Ross does an admirable job of holding the reader’s interest over such a long period in the characters’ lives as they undergo drastic changes. Protagonist Leora Hastur, almost fifteen at the beginning of the story, discovers her laran (psychic gifts) unusually late, with a severe bout of “threshold sickness.” Her gifted older half-sister, daughter of their father’s deceased first wife, nurses Leora through the ordeal and helps her begin to control her powers. A feud with a neighboring household that soon erupts into open war leaves Leora scarred physically and mentally by the catastrophic outcome. She’s sent to a Tower for healing and training, while her half-sister goes to a different one to become a Keeper. Although Leora finds happiness and fulfillment at the Tower that she comes to think of as her true home, familial and political circumstances divert her from her chosen vocation. Meanwhile, the destinies of her younger siblings illustrate the various other life pathways open to Comyn offspring. Throughout, tensions with their parents’ expectations complicate the young Hasturs’ lives. Their mother holds particularly rigid views about suitable futures for them, not to mention the stepdaughter she regards coolly at best. The clash between Leora’s role as laran-wielder and her duty to her clan demonstrates the primary value aristocratic families place on young women, as bargaining chips in marriage alliances. This situation leads to the dramatic crisis in which she discovers the full extent of her gift. I found the conclusion completely satisfying, with Leora remaining a sympathetic, down-to-earth character even after her cataclysmic display of power. One quibble about the paratext: The back-cover copy isn’t a conventional blurb. Instead, it’s more like a synopsis, summarizing the entire plot up to the climactic confrontation near the end of the book. Since the novel is published by the MZB Literary Works Trust, I assume Ross herself wrote this material, and I was surprised to see it from such an experienced author. So if you object to spoilers, don’t read the back cover – or the identical summary on Amazon — first!
FEUDS, edited by Mercedes Lackey. The newest Valdemar anthology, with its theme clear from the title. Stories feature Heralds, Bards, Healers, and a handful of ordinary non-gifted folks as protagonists. Some tales are humorous, others darker, but none ends in tragedy. Heralds always manage to sort things out, although not necessarily to the complete satisfaction of all participants. Musical rivalries seem an especially popular topic with these authors. Long-running family grudges run a close second. On the more quirky side, we find a grim rivalry between master clockmakers and a competition between the chefs in a pair of wealthy households, which I especially like. High-profile contributors include Diana Paxson, Elisabeth Waters, and Rosemary Edghill. My favorite story in the volume is Lackey’s own, “Uncivil Blood.” I silently chortled with glee when I realized, a short way into the narrative, that this is a retelling of ROMEO AND JULIET. This anthology offers a can’t-miss treat for Valdemar fans and an entertaining introduction to the series for new readers. As for editorial material, the book includes detailed author biographies at the end but, to my disappointment as usual, no introduction.
GOLDEN LORD, by Mary Jo Putney. This sequel to SILVER LADY is the second installment in her new “Dangerous Gifts” series, set during the Napoleonic era. Characters from the first book reappear, but this novel can be read independently. The “Gifts” are psychic powers. As far as I can tell, in this slightly altered history their existence is generally known, and many people have weak, erratic levels of such abilities as clairvoyance, foresight, etc. The rare truly gifted people, however, are often viewed with suspicion, even regarded as “dangerous.” The series centers on the Tremaynes, a couple dedicated to rescuing neglected or abused gifted children. They find homes for some and bring up others themselves along with their biological offspring. Their oldest daughter, Tamsyn, is the protagonist of GOLDEN LORD. Near the beginning of the story, she and Cade, one of her foster siblings, travel to France on a covert mission. War breaks out between England and France while they’re on the Continent. During their attempt to return home, Cade gets arrested. To save him, Tamsyn poses as a poor but respectable Frenchwoman looking for work. Meanwhile, he falls into the grasp of a psychically gifted enemy agent with a personal grudge against him. Readers might expect Cade’s rescue to form the climax of the book, but as usual Putney devises a more complex story. Psychic torture has impaired his memory. When his long-hidden passion for Tamsyn surfaces, he mistakenly believes she’s his wife instead of his foster sister. Although shocked, as she reveals the awkward truth to him she discovers to her dismay that she harbors hitherto suppressed feelings in return. But how will this development affect the dynamics within their extended family? Must they deny their feelings for the greater good? And what about their highest priority, combatting the threat from Napoleon? Both principal characters are strongly developed and sympathetic, as one would expect from Putney. The wartime suspense and intrigue plotline are well balanced with the untangling and blossoming of the relationship between Tamsyn and Cade. An afterword by the author gives an overview of the historical background of the story. I eagerly look forward to the next volume.
For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
*****
Excerpt from “Little Cat Feet”:
The bigger boy clutched her pendant. “Yo, what’s this? Real silver?”
Her heart pounding furiously, she said, “Don’t touch that.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.” He broke the chain with a quick jerk.
Lauren writhed in the smaller boy’s grasp. “Give that back!” she cried. “It’s my grandmother’s!”
“Yeah? What’ll you give us for it?” the boy with the buzz-cut asked. Relaxing his hold, he snaked one hand down her front to squeeze a breast, hard, through her shirt. Her head reeled with fear and anger. She kicked the larger boy in the shin, then wiggled around to face the smaller one. She drove a knee into his groin. He doubled over, groaning.
Hey, that really works!
The hefty guy was reaching for her. She shoved the palm of her hand into his nose. The crunching noise made her stomach lurch, but he stumbled backward. Thank God her mom had made her practice those moves.
Mentally giving thanks for her time on the girls’ cross-country team, too, Lauren bolted for the street. She sprinted around the corner and ducked into the next alley she came to. There, she dropped to her knees behind a dumpster and huddled in the deepest pool of shadow.
Unless she got super lucky, they would find her sooner or later. Probably sooner. The snow wasn’t falling heavily enough to cover her tracks right away. Meanwhile, those jerks had her pendant. Grandmama’s pendant. Fresh tears welled in her eyes. She choked down a sob to keep from making a noise that would give her away.
Now that she’d stopped running, the cold hit her anew. She hugged herself and shivered while the wind spattered her with damp snowflakes. She heard the two punks yelling to each other as they searched along the street. Another sound cut into her misery, a low hiss.
Glancing up and rubbing her eyes with a gloved hand, she found the orange tabby staring at her. Its pawprints lined up beside her own footprints. With a flick of its tail, the cat paced toward the far end of the alley.
A female voice said, “This way. Quickly, before those two catch up with you.”
Lauren looked frantically from side to side, searching for the woman who’d spoken.
The cat trotted back to her and rubbed insistently against her leg. “Get up! What are you waiting for? Follow me.” She headed for the alley’s outlet again.
Okay, that cat did not talk. I’m dreaming or losing my mind.
Nevertheless, the animal acted as if it wanted to lead Lauren somewhere, and it wasn’t like she had a better plan. She hauled herself to her feet and hurried after her feline guide. Around the back of the rowhouse that marked one side of the alley, the cat led her to a stoop and a boarded-up door. Behind the boards, the door stood an inch or two ajar. Picking its way up the three concrete steps, the cat nudged a spot where the planks had been broken to create a narrow opening.
“You should be able to fit through this hole, just barely,” the female voice said.
Not the cat. Definitely not. There must be some crazy bag lady ventriloquist hanging around.
The cat disappeared into the house. Kneeling on the stoop, Lauren stretched one arm through the gap. Maybe she could squeeze in there. Just barely, as her guide had said. The sound of the boys’ voices, louder and closer, made her decision for her. She pulled on the splintered plank to widen the hole. After pushing her backpack inside, easing the door open farther in the process, she lay on her stomach and wiggled through the narrow space. Once she turned on her side to fit her shoulders in, she didn’t have much trouble getting the rest of her body through. The boards closed on her like pincers. Luckily, she had layers of clothes to keep her from getting scraped raw. Her heart raced in panic when her hips got stuck.
“Faster,” the guiding voice hissed.
-end of excerpt-
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, visit the Dropbox page below. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
All issues are now posted on Dropbox, where you should be able to download them at this link:
All Vampire’s Crypt Issues on Dropbox
A complete list of my available works, arranged roughly by genre, with purchase links:
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 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
*****