Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Welcome to the April 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.
My light paranormal novella “Summertide Echoes” has an official release date: July 7 of this year. The cover blurb:
Joyce Walton wants to sell the vacation cabin she and her childhood best friend, Mark Girard, inherited together. The money will make her long-cherished business plan come true. To her shock, he’s determined to hang onto the place. Although they’ve drifted apart in recent years, she still cares for him. She’s always counted on his support, so why can’t he understand the urgency of her need? Mark believes his younger sister, who died in her teens, lingers on the property, visiting him in dreams at the cabin but nowhere else. He struggles with severing this last remaining tie. Yet he doesn’t want to hurt Joyce, especially when his old feelings for her reawaken. After encountering the ghost of their long-dead Saint Bernard and dreaming of Mark’s sister, Joyce accepts the reality of the supernatural manifestations. Why are the two spirits haunting the cabin? On top of that, she’s falling in love with Mark. How can they settle the clash over their shared property without ruining any hope of a shared life?
There’s an excerpt below.
This month I’m interviewing Kimberly Baer, a Wild Rose Press author who writes mostly paranormal YA fiction.
*****
Interview with Kimberly Baer:
What inspired you to become a writer?
My mother read stories to me when I was very young, and that early exposure ignited my love of fiction. At one point, I was so taken with a particular book that I painstakingly copied some of its text onto paper and told my mom I’d written a really good story. She explained that I shouldn’t steal somebody else’s story but, rather, should write my own. So I did. My first “book,” written at age six, was about a baby chick that hatched out of a little girl’s Easter egg after somehow surviving the hard-boiling process. My mom typed it up and placed it in a binder, and she even put my name and the title (“The Wonderful Easter Egg”) on the cover. I was so proud of my “published book”!
What genres do you work in?
Mostly paranormal young adult, though I’ve also written several middle-grade novels and one adult romantic suspense novella.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
Something in between. I never create a formal outline, but I do like to have a firm idea of the story arc before I start to write. At the beginning of each chapter, I type a bulleted list of plot developments, contextual details, and other elements that I want to include in the chapter. Of course, sometimes the characters seize control and take the story in a whole different direction—but that’s usually a good thing! It’s their story, and I trust them to know what they’re doing.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors or whatever)?
When my kids were in school, they brought home a lot of middle-grade and young adult novels, which I would promptly whisk away to my favorite reading chair. That’s how I became interested in the MG/YA genres. As both a reader and a writer, I love robust, offbeat plots, so I was particularly captivated by works such as Louis Sachar’s HOLES, the HARRY POTTER series, the HUNGER GAMES trilogy, and various Neal Shusterman novels. In addition, I always strive to deliver my best writing, and I find inspiration for that in novels such as Janet Fitch’s WHITE OLEANDER. Her writing blows me away every time I read that book.
What is it like to write in a shared-world series? What’s the procedure, and how is consistency of the setting maintained from book to book? How does participating in it differ from writing in your own fictional world?
For me, writing in a shared-world series (THE HAUNTING OF PINEDALE HIGH) was slightly more challenging than dreaming up my own fictional world, because I was constrained by certain “rules.” But all in all, it went well. The publisher provided a list of guidelines and set up a Facebook page for the authors’ use in posing questions and sharing details from our individual stories. When I was writing my book, I communicated directly with a few of the other authors to ensure consistency in the layout of the town, the names of local establishments, character descriptions, and other details that aren’t addressed in the guidelines.
What main differences have you found between writing YA fiction and adult fiction?
YA fiction often includes a coming-of-age component that isn’t present in adult fiction, as well as an emphasis on the insecurities and angst common to that age group. But generally, there’s a fine line between YA (specifically, upper YA) and adult fiction. A lot of today’s YA contains mature themes, including sex, violence, drug abuse, suicide, and more. I try to avoid the really dark themes in my own books, though.
What will readers find on your blog?
My blog consists primarily of interviews with other authors, though it’s been a while since I’ve interviewed anyone. I’ve also written a few general blogs; for instance, there’s one about the calendar that foretold my husband’s death and another about the true event that inspired my paranormal YA novel THE HAUNTED PURSE.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
My latest release, WOULD YOU RATHER…, is part of the HAUNTING OF PINEDALE HIGH series I mentioned earlier. It’s a standalone novel about a classroom game of “Would You Rather” that takes an ominous turn when the students’ choices start coming true. Some of the kids get good fates, others get bad fates, and a few get REALLY bad fates that will result in death if they come true. A small group of friends try to track down the mysterious substitute teacher who hosted the game in the hopes of persuading him to end the curse. The story is presented from multiple perspectives to show how individual characters are affected by the curse.
What are you working on now?
I’m still doing a lot of promotional work for WOULD YOU RATHER…, and I’m polishing a middle-grade novel about a boy with a unique superpower. In addition, I’m thinking about taking back the rights to my paranormal YA novel THE HAUNTED PURSE when they expire later this year. I might reissue it as a self-published book. So I’m reading through it again and making some minor edits.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
(1) Read well-written books in your genre. Not only will you become familiar with what readers expect from the genre, but you will also absorb good writing techniques through a kind of literary osmosis. (2) Don’t let rejections from agents or publishers discourage you. If your dream is to be a published author, you absolutely can make that happen. Learn the ins and outs of book marketing, and then self-publish your books. These days, many self-published authors are selling a decent number of books, and a few are doing extremely well. Not gonna lie: it’s a lot like playing the lottery. But who knows? You could be the next sensation—and you won’t have to share your profits with a publisher!
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
Author Website
Instagram
Bluesky
Amazon
Goodreads
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
CONCLAVE, by Robert Harris. After watching this Oscar-nominated, near-future movie about the election of a Pope, I immediately ordered the novel. To my delight, the movie follows it very closely, so I didn’t suffer any disappointments in either direction. The most prominent difference is a change of name and nationality for the protagonist, the Dean of the College of Cardinals. In another noticeable alteration, the Archbishop of Baghdad in the book becomes the Archbishop of Kabul in the film. Although I have no idea of the purpose for either of these changes, they have no material effect on the plot. CONCLAVE is a difficult book to review effectively, because to reveal the mind-blowing double twist at the end would constitute an unpardonable spoiler. In the first scene, the previous Pope—who the author declares is not meant to represent the current real-life Holy Father, although clear similarities exist—has just died. The Dean, Cardinal Lomeli, bears the responsibility of presiding over the Conclave to elect a new Pope. He agrees with a close friend in the “liberal” wing of the Church that Cardinal Tedesco, a rigid traditionalist with reactionary views (not only does he want the Church to revert to the doctrines and practices of over fifty years ago, near the end of the book he openly calls for a holy war against Islam), must not become Pope and wipe out all the progress made under his predecessor. Although the Cardinals aren’t supposed to lobby for themselves or anybody else but instead remain open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, it quickly becomes clear that the system doesn’t transcend politics, behind-the-scenes intrigue, and all the other failings of human power structures. The major players have no compunctions, it seems, about nudging the Holy Spirit in the right direction. Two other men stand out as viable alternatives to Tedesco. Meanwhile, Lomeli reacts to any hint that he might be a candidate with horrified rejection. He had tried to resign his position as Dean to join a monastic order, but the Pope had turned down his resignation. The first shock to the characters and the reader comes when a previously unknown Cardinal, spiritual leader of a dangerous, war-torn region and renowned for his radical work on behalf of the oppressed, appears out of nowhere. Shortly before the late Pope’s death, he made the Archbishop of Baghdad a Cardinal secretly in an irregular but legal procedure. Not surprisingly, this is a heavily male-dominated story, aside from the nuns who cook, serve meals, and otherwise perform necessary housekeeping duties for the sequestered Cardinals. The Sister in charge, however, a strong character capable of intimidating even men in positions of ecclesiastical power, plays a critical role in Lomeli’s eventual discovery of revelations that turn the tide of the electoral process. Although the participants are supposed to be strictly shielded from contact with and information from the outside world, Lomeli bends the rules. When he uncovers scandals that eliminate two major candidates, who’s left to block the ascendancy of Tedesco? Lomeli reluctantly considers the possibility that he might get stuck with the papacy. As mentioned above, I can’t say anything further without disclosing a major crisis and its astonishing outcome. Other than those elements, I found the most memorable scene to be Lomeli’s introductory speech to the Conclave, in which he deplores certainty and prays for a Pope who can embrace doubt. Also, the intricate details of how a Pope’s death is handled and a papal election is held are fascinatingly portrayed.
WOOING THE WITCH QUEEN, by Stephanie Burgis. This secret-identity, enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance is the first book in a series called “Queens of Villainy.” The heroine, Queen Saskia, isn’t actually a villain at heart. She assumes the “wicked sorceress” persona to protect herself and her realm from her truly villainous uncle, whom she overthrew to claim her rightful throne. Other than the safety of her subjects, all she wants is to get the neglected castle library straightened out and find her mother’s research notebooks scattered amid the chaos. Saskia greatly prefers working in her laboratory over routine royal duties or, worse, hosting the diplomatic social events needed to offset her image as a “monster”—an image she reinforces with a crown of bones and an appropriately grim-looking castle. Meanwhile, Felix, the young archduke of a neighboring country allied with her uncle in support of his campaign to retake Saskia’s kingdom, has fled into exile. His late wife’s father, Felix’s former regent and now Chief Minister, would gladly see him dead. Given the enmity between the Chief Minister’s regime and Saskia, Felix grasps at the chance of appealing to her for protection. When he appears at her castle gate, however, she mistakes him for the dark wizard she’s awaiting to organize her library. Before he can correct this misconception, he overhears a conversation among Saskia and her allies, the other two Queens of Villainy. They believe him responsible for his cruel father-in-law’s ruthless tyranny and thirst for conquest. Moreover, potentially rich rewards await whoever kills or captures the missing archduke. Felix doesn’t dare reveal his true identity. To make matters worse, he has no magical ability or knowledge at all. Organizing books, though, he does very well. In the process, he tries to teach himself enough magic to fake the role of a dark wizard. Saskia is pleased with his progress as temporary librarian. After a rocky start, he begins to feel at home in her unusual household, which includes a troll, an ogre, and a flock of intelligent crows. Naturally, he and Saskia soon develop a mutual attraction. But what will happen when she inevitably discovers who he really is? If she realizes he has betrayed her trust, how can he regain it? And what about their respective evil relatives? Quirky characters, moments of humor, a delightful dark-fairy-tale setting, life-threatening suspense, emotional upheavals, and sensuous sexual tension interweave to create a story sure to appeal to readers of secondary-world fantasy romance.
WOULD YOU RATHER. . . by Kimberly Baer. This novel reminds me of a YA horror story by Vivian Vande Velde, not in any specific element of content, aside from the focus on a group of teenagers, but in the foreboding paranormal tone. It also has something of a “Monkey’s Paw” vibe of “be careful what you wish for.” This installment of “The Haunting of Pinedale High” is told from multiple viewpoints of students caught up in the inexplicable events. No need to summarize the plot any further, since the author provides a lucid synopsis in the interview above. The mysterious substitute teacher won’t allow anyone to skip the choice between two offered alternatives, even the direst such as two terrible deaths. The experiment begins almost lightheartedly but quickly grows darker. “Would you rather be an amazing artist or a brilliant mathematician?” and “Would you rather get the romantic partner of your dreams or land the perfect job?” sound fun to speculate about. But there’s no good answer to “Would you rather go missing forever or have the person you love most go missing forever?’ The students, naturally, think it’s only a twisted game and try to put it out of their minds—until the choices start coming true. Some of the “bad” choices turn out worse than they sound, and even the paired “good” alternatives don’t necessarily unfold as expected. Tracking down the substitute proves to be a problem, since nobody on the staff seems to have heard of him. Juggling an ensemble cast of characters and multiple viewpoints while making each person vividly individualized and sympathetic is a difficult task that the author expertly pulls off. Body horror, life-threatening events, and mounting suspense keep the reader’s attention riveted from start to finish. The satisfying resolution to the supernatural mystery realistically leaves no one completely unchanged. I especially like the denouement “spreadsheet” chapter that lists each of the affected characters with the nature of their curse and how it turned out.
For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
*****
Excerpt from “Summertide Echoes”:
Joyce poured a glass of bottled iced tea and settled in a lawn chair on the front porch with the paperback mystery she was currently reading.
Her attention wandered from the page only when fading daylight made it hard to focus. As she glanced up to rest her eyes, she caught sight of movement among the trees. An animal? A doe strolled into view, picking her way around the edge of the clearing, with occasional pauses to nibble leaves on low-hanging branches. Joyce held still to avoid scaring her, although this close to the national park most deer didn’t tend to be wary of humans. Seconds later, though, the doe’s head shot up, and she dashed into the woods.
Joyce caught her breath in surprise when the Saint Bernard she’d seen twice before emerged from the undergrowth, chasing after the deer. He disappeared under the trees but reappeared in less than a minute, apparently giving up the pursuit. He ambled up the path toward the cabin.
She moved cautiously from the chair to the top step, stretching a hand toward the dog. “Hi, there. Nice of you to visit. I wonder where you live.”
Instead of veering away this time, he walked straight to her, tail wagging and tongue hanging out. Strangely, she didn’t hear panting. Nor did she feel warm breath on her skin as she reached for his collar to check the tag.
Her hand passed through him as if he were a hologram. Or a hallucination.
He couldn’t be. Ms. Ortega and Mark had seen him, too. She snatched her hand back. “Bruno?” Hesitantly Joyce fumbled for the collar again. Again she touched nothing. The dog licked her, but she didn’t feel a wet tongue. Instead, a dry chill enveloped her fingers.
This can’t be happening. She squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them, he was still there. A second later, though, he vanished. He didn’t run into the woods and fade out of sight among the trees but blinked out of existence like a popped bubble.
Her legs wobbled, and she folded into a heap on the porch steps. Did I dream that?
She didn’t bother with the pinch test. She smelled the mountain laurel blossoms. A breeze rustled the trees and cooled her skin. The boards of the wooden steps felt rough against her thighs. “Bruno? If you’re really here, come back.”
No response, of course. After steadying herself with long, shuddering breaths, she returned to the chair and picked up her abandoned glass of tea. When she gulped a swallow of it, the tinkle of ice and the chill of the liquid flowing down her throat confirmed she was awake.
-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:
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All Vampire’s Crypt Issues on Dropbox
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Carter Kindle Books
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You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter
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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“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:
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All Vampire’s Crypt Issues on Dropbox
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“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter