Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Welcome to the December 2021 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.” For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, e-mail me to request the desired issue, and I’ll send you a free PDF of it. My e-mail address is at the end of this newsletter. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
A complete list of my available works, arranged roughly by genre, with purchase links (gradually being updated as the Amber Quill and Ellora’s Cave works are being republished):
For anyone who would like to read previous issues of this newsletter, they’re posted on my website here (starting from January 2018):
This is my Facebook author page. Please visit!
Facebook
Here’s my page in Barnes and Noble’s Nook store:
Barnes and Noble
Here’s the list of my Kindle books on Amazon. (The final page, however, includes some Ellora’s Cave anthologies in which I don’t have stories):
Carter Kindle Books
Here’s a shortcut URL to my author page on Amazon:
Amazon
The Fiction Database displays a comprehensive list of my books (although with a handful of fairy tales by a different Margaret Carter near the end):
My Goodreads page:
Goodreads
Please “Like” my author Facebook page (cited above) to see reminders when each monthly newsletter is uploaded. I’ve also noticed that I’m more likely to be shown posts from liked or friended sources in my Facebook feed when I’ve “Liked” some of their individual posts, so you might want to do that, too. Thanks!
Happy winter holidays to all!
“Chocolate Chip Charm,” my Christmas Cookies story from the Wild Rose Press, was published in November. What can you do when a love potion baked into a cookie goes disastrously wrong—or maybe surprisingly right? An excerpt appears below.
The publisher’s page:
Chocolate Chip Charm
The Amazon page:
Chocolate Chip Charm on Amazon
If you would like to be notified by e-mail when this newsletter is uploaded each month, please contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
This month’s interview introduces thriller author Glenda Thompson.
*****
Interview with Glenda Thompson:
Q. What inspired you to begin writing?
A. For as long as I can remember, reading has been an escape mechanism for me. Whenever life would get too dark or too heavy or just not fun, I would hide in a book. Reading propelled me through some rough times allowing me to revel in someone else’s victories or realize others’ problems were worse than mine. Sometimes, reading just gave me a breather in a hectic day. I wanted to be able to provide that escapism to others.
Q. What genres do you work in?
A. Currently, the only book I have published is a thriller but I also write westerns and am attempting to write a romance. So far, I’m struggling with the romance. I guess being a non-romantic in real life (my ideal of a romantic getaway is going deep sea fishing) makes it difficult for me to get into the heads of my characters who want roses, moonlight, and champagne.
I do better with criminal activities and darkness. Probably comes from having been exposed to so much as an EMT and being married to a law enforcement officer although if I’m completely transparent here, I’ve always preferred reading Dean Koontz, John Sandford, James Patterson, and the ilk.
Q. Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
A. I’m somewhere in between. I start with my characters and their problems. Each of them has a hidden secret or challenge they are trying to overcome. From there, I pick a crime that I feel needs attention. In Broken Toys, the focus is on human trafficking—not the grab-a-kid-off-the-street kind that most people think of first off, but instead the Romeo.
The Romeo is a young person of the opposite sex who moves in on a vulnerable teen and makes them feel wanted, important, and loved. Over a period of time, they isolate this teen from friends and family, from anyone who could help them, and convince them it would be a grand adventure to run away together and live madly in love happily forever after. In reality, the Romeo gets the teen away from anyone who could help them and either sells them into slavery or pimps them out. Either way, the teen is lost in a world of sexual abuse, drugs, and no hope.
Once I have my characters and my crime, I put together a loose, organic outline. I have an idea of a list of things I want or need to happen and build scenes around each of them and then “quilt” each of these blocks/scenes into the story. My outline is a living document that changes as the story grows. Sometimes I refer to my outline as my vomit draft. I just kind of open up and dump everything into the outline.
Q. What have been the major influences on your writing (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
A. Interesting question… So many things in my life have influenced my writing from a rocky adolescence with an alcoholic father and violent, drug-addicted stepmonster to dealing with mental health issues of my own. Many of these experiences color my writing.
Some of my favorite authors include Stephen King, Patricia Cornwell, Nora Roberts writing as JD Robb, and Lee Childs. I guess I’ve always been drawn to the dark.
Q. How has your former career as an EMT contributed to your fiction?
A. Having been at numerous emergency scenes (I was an Emergency Medical Technician and volunteer firefighter) I’ve experienced the adrenaline rush first hand and try to convey that feeling to my readers through the thoughts and actions of my characters. Working as an EMT exposes you to many different people and situations. Sometimes the littlest details make the biggest difference in a scene.
I also spend a lot of time listening to Darlin’s law enforcement radio. It allows me to immerse myself in the jargon and the emotion shown through the voices of the dispatchers and the officers. I’ve also had inside access to reports on certain crimes that I’ve studied to learn investigative techniques. Hint: if you are a criminal, you should really limit what you post on social media. It’s amazing the amount of incriminating photographic evidence that gets posted on Facebook.
I love having a built-in technical advisor. My husband aka Darlin’ reads everything I write and lets me know whether or not I’ve nailed it. His pet peeve is when a magazine for a gun is referred to as a clip. Clips are for hair, not guns. Just ask him. ;p
Q. Please tell us about your Broken World series.
A. I was visiting with an old friend who was going through a divorce when he made an offhand comment about no one wanting him because he was a broken toy. His comment hit a nerve with me. I realized we are all broken in some way, even the heroes among us. Each of us has a lie that we believe to be truth. Often that lie is hidden in the foundation of who we are and holds us back from achieving our best. My Broken world explores that premise.
Each book in the series revolves around a Texas Ranger trying to solve a horrendous crime while dealing with his or her personal demons.
Q. Tell us about some of the resources available on your website.
A. On the resources page of my website (https://glendathompson.com/resources-for-my-writer-friends/) you can find links to some of the best helps I know of including the Ten Minute Novelists group, Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi’s One Stop for Writers, K.M. Weiland’s Helping Writers Become Authors, Janice Hardy’s Fiction University, and Unleashing the Next Chapter.
Q. What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
A. My latest, also my first and only published book at the moment, is Broken Toys.
Texas Ranger Noah Morgan has his life together—with a great job and the girl of his dreams. Too bad it’s all based on a lie. A single phone call threatens to bring it all crashing down. After an irate citizen complains shoddy workmanship has left him with a booby-trapped driveway, and the local sheriff’s office is too busy to respond, Noah takes the call. The investigation of local scam artists uncovers a human trafficking ring. Noah fights to avoid being swept back into the sights of his murderous family—people he escaped at the age of seventeen.
Can he keep his past a secret or will his carefully crafted life come to a violent end?
Q. What are you working on now?
A: I have a whole universe of books riding around in my brain ready to follow Broken Toys.
The one I am working on now is Rhyden (the support character from Broken Toys) Trammell’s story. Poor Rhyden, he’s a single father of three fantastic but challenging girls ranging in age from six to eighteen. And he’s in the middle of an investigation where a sniper is setting fires as bait to draw in first responders and then picking them off one at a time. At the same time, an ER nurse is nagging him about starting an internal investigation off the books because she believes the serial rapist targeting sixteen to eighteen year old girls is a deputy in the sheriff’s office. To top it off, Rhyden has a secret battle of his own but you’ll have to read the story to find out what it is.
After Broken Dreams, I plan to write Broken Wings about a helicopter pilot who assists the Rangers; Broken Vows—a prequel to Broken Dreams; Broken Minds—the story of Rochelle from Broken Toys; and several others that build on characters introduced along the way.
Q. What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
A. I know all the standard advice given to aspiring writers. Things like “you can’t edit a blank page” or “write drunk, edit sober” but I think the most important advice I can offer is stay true to yourself. This is your story and you are the only one who can tell it.
It doesn’t matter if the premise is the same as a show you saw on television or another book you read as long as you make the story your own. I believe it’s true there are no new ideas. But there are endless ways to present these ideas. No one else has your background, your experience, your emotions in the exact same way you do. I’m not saying copy someone else’s story, absolutely not. I’m saying be true to your inner heart. Reach inside yourself and write YOUR story.
I think Dr. Seuss said it best. “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”
Go with that. Don’t give up. Get your story on the page. Make your characters come to life. Don’t worry about what everyone else is doing, and never, ever compare your first draft to someone else’s published work. Most importantly? Write.
Q. What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
A: My website is Glenda Thompson and my email address is rattlerpress@gmail.com
Or you can follow me on Facebook at Facebook Page
Or on Twitter @PressRattler
Or on Instagram at Instagram
Or on Amazon at Amazon Page
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
DRAGON’S GREEN, by Scarlett Thomas. This quirky YA portal fantasy is the first book of a series but, thankfully, it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger. The heroine spends part of the story in a magical realm; unusually, though, the world where she originates isn’t quite ours. In Euphemia (Effie) Truelove’s version of the modern world, a “worldquake” struck in the recent past, recent enough that old people can remember when electricity was reliable, the internet consisted of more than bulletin boards accessible by dial-up modems, and cell phones had functions other than taking photos and substituting for flashlights. (Those who can afford two-way radios use them as a substitute.) Books hold such potency that if all copies but one of a book are destroyed, the Last Reader of that final copy gains special power. Magic is loose in the world, but few people believe in or approve of it. For example, Effie’s father scoffs at her grandfather’s magical studies and discourages Effie from listening to the old man. On her grandfather’s deathbed, he emphasizes the importance of a ring he has given her, tells her to “get as many boons” as possible, and warns her against the “Diberi.” He also promises her his library of old books. Her father, however, dismisses the notion of keeping a collection he considers useless and has no room for. When he sells the books to a dealer with obviously sinister motives, Effie persuades an oddly assorted group of new friends to help her try to steal back her grandfather’s library. She discovers “boons” are magic items. She has the power to use one of them, the ring, while each of her friends has the ability to master one of the other objects she has inherited. In the midst of their quest, she temporarily crosses over into the Otherworld, which most people in her “real” world don’t believe in. There she becomes a sacrifice to a dragon with whom she has to match wits in a riddle game. So this novel is part urban fantasy and part fairy-tale-like high fantasy. As a Truelove, Effie is special and has to face the challenges and dangers of “chosen one” status in both her home world and the Otherworld, while unearthing the secrets of her family heritage. Thanks to her character growth and sometimes prickly interactions with her allies, as well as the conditions of her eccentric world, this novel held my interest enough that I immediately ordered the other two volumes. The loose threads left dangling in DRAGON’S GREEN, such as the truth about the disappearance of Effie’s mother, tantalize without frustrating the reader.
STRANGE TALES FROM JAPAN, retold by Keisuke Nishimoto, translated by William Scott Wilson. The introduction to this collection distinguishes the kinds of supernatural stories in the book from “folk tales,” probably what we would think of as fairy tales. Folk tales in this sense have no fixed location or date; happening “once upon a time,” they retain the same basic elements wherever they crop up. The stories in STRANGE TALES always claim to occur in a definite place, sometimes with the approximate time period mentioned. In that respect they resemble urban legends, except that all these incidents take place in bygone eras rather than the present. The book is divided into two parts, “Traditional Tales” and “Strange Tales,” with multiple subdivisions under each. To me, the choice of where to place particular stories seems rather arbitrary. Why do “Spirits and Ghosts,” “Demons and Wolves,” and “Tanuki and Foxes” appear under the first heading but “Ghosts’ Requests,” “Shape-Shifting Cats,” and “Being Deceived by Foxes” under the second? Maybe there are historical and cultural reasons that escape me. Anyway, it’s intriguing to read these authentic legends of demons, ghosts, and other yokai (supernatural beings and phenomena) from Japanese traditional lore. Some creatures are mischievous, dangerous, or downright evil, while others are beneficent. The stories range roughly from two to four pages long, so it’s easy to pick up the book at random and read one or more at a sitting. In fact, I’d recommend not reading too many in a row at once, because naturally they display a certain similarity and can feel repetitious if consumed in large quantities without a break. The book is illustrated with numerous full-color reproductions of Japanese art depicting ghosts, demons, and monsters like those in the narratives.
ARCH OF BONE, by Jane Yolen. This YA sequel to MOBY-DICK takes place in nineteenth-century Nantucket and features as protagonist the fourteen-year-old son of the Pequod’s first mate, Starbuck. The story begins with a predawn knock on the door that awakens young Josiah Starbuck. As a whaler’s son, he knows to brace himself for bad news. The visitor, introducing himself as Ishmael Black, reports the sinking of the Pequod and the loss of the entire crew except for himself. Josiah naturally feels less than kindly toward this harbinger of grief and barely refrains from outright rudeness under the calmly firm gaze of his Quaker mother. He reacts like a very realistic teenager, suspicious of the messenger’s honesty, searching for any pretext to believe Ishmael is lying about the great whale and the destruction of the ship and its company, and jealous of his mother’s friendliness to the visitor. At last Josiah heads to town, where he meets up with a group of boys his own age, shares his news, and, going to the harbormaster’s office, impulsively tries to sign onto a whaling ship on the spot. Rejected because he’s too young to ship out without a parent’s permission, Josiah decides to go for a sail in his boat to clear his head. When a storm springs up, he and his faithful dog, Zeke, are blown away from Nantucket and stranded on a nearly barren island. With a damaged boat and limited sources of food, Josiah struggles to survive. Months go by before he finds enough meager supplies even to attempt the repair of his craft. Meanwhile, he comes upon the arch of the title, made from the huge jawbone of a whale. This artifact generates the book’s only fantastic content, a series of dream visions in which he witnesses scenes from his father’s service on the Pequod. Between the visions and the effects of solitude and hardship, Josiah begins to come to terms with his loss. This coming-of-age novel vividly portrays the historic milieu and the rugged natural setting as well as the teenage hero’s emotional growth. The book lives up to the quality one would expect from Jane Yolen. My only disappointment was that the story ends slightly before I wanted it to. When I got to the last page, I mentally squealed, “What? That’s it?” But I realize what happens next isn’t the main point; the point is the change in Josiah, and from that perspective, the novel culminates at the proper moment.
SO MANY BEGINNINGS, by Bethany C. Morrow. Subtitled “A Little Women Remix,” this novel, like Louise May Alcott’s classic, follows the coming-of-age of four sisters named Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy during and after the Civil War. Morrow’s March family, however, consists of Black Southerners, not white New Englanders. Former slaves, they live in the Freedpeople’s Colony on the island of Roanoke, North Carolina. Meg teaches school; Jo writes articles in her spare time while helping to build houses; Beth works as a seamstress; Amy aspires to become a dancer. Their father, during the early part of the book, is away from home serving in the Union Army. Although the girls have the benefit of education and the opportunity to support themselves as free women, they have to work hard while dealing with the Union officers who oversee the colony and the well-meaning Christian abolitionists who’ve migrated from the North to “uplift” the freed slaves. Reminiscences of the “old life” highlight how far they’ve come and how far they still have to go. Even though the March family didn’t suffer under a cruel Simon-Legree type of master, it’s made clear that nobody could be truly secure or happy as a slave. For instance, Meg’s former teenage mistress cherished the blithe assumption that Meg would feel privileged to go along as a lady’s maid after the young mistress’s marriage (instead of being devastated by the separation from her own family). That mindset is echoed in the present by white people who either want to use the former slaves for their own purposes or think they know what’s best for Black people better than the latter do themselves. The girls strive for independence and success in their vocations, explore romantic relationships, and undergo painful losses as well as some triumphs. Jo’s articles are well received in Northern abolitionist circles, but at one point she confronts a white editor’s strongly worded request to change her style from standard English to Black dialect for greater mass appeal. She rightly refuses to dumb down her prose. The incident raises a question, though: Why do ALL the Black characters, regardless of background and educational level, speak standard English? If not an obviously Black mode of speech as such, why not a Carolina dialect, at least? In my own (white) family, my father’s mother, from North Carolina, spoke with an unmistakable Carolinian accent and vocabulary, and her sole surviving offspring, my elderly aunt, still does. This linguistic issue was the only detail that pulled me out of the story. The historical setting held fascinating surprises for me, particularly the existence of the Freedpeople’s Colony, which was real. I had no idea free Black towns thrived in the South at the height of the war. This book, by the way, would stand on its own perfectly well without the few LITTLE WOMEN allusions. Recommended for anyone interested in historical fiction set in nineteenth-century America.
SCALES AND SENSIBILITY, by Stephanie Burgis. This Regency romance with dragons takes place in a version of England different from either the world of the author’s “Kat Incorrigible” novels for preteens or her “Harwood Spellbook” alternate Britain. Elinor, the protagonist of SCALES AND SENSIBILITY, lives as the stereotypical poor relation in the home of her timid aunt, overbearing uncle, and obnoxiously self-absorbed cousin Penelope, currently preparing for her debut. Since every fashionable young lady is “doomed to social failure” without a dragon, naturally Penelope has one. These dragons aren’t noble, fire-breathing monsters, but pets about two feet long customarily draped around their mistresses’ shoulders like animated decorative stoles. Unfortunately, Penelope’s dragon, Sir Jessamyn, untrained and high-strung, suffers messy incontinence whenever he gets nervous, which happens often around his insufferable, often abusive owner. Elinor, in her status as grateful object of charity, has to clean up after the dragon, of whom she’s quite fond. In the opening scene, Penelope goes too far for even Elinor’s tolerance. Elinor blows up and leaves the house with all her few worldly possessions, plus Sir Jessamyn. After she’s nearly run over by a carriage belonging to the charming Benedict Hawkins and his eccentric, dragon-obsessed best friend, the gentlemen make amends by putting her up at an inn for the night. It turns out Benedict is on his way to pay court to Penelope, whom he has never met, because he’s in desperate need of a wealthy bride. Wishing out loud that she were more like Mrs. De Lacey, an old friend of her aunt’s and a formidable arbiter of society, Elinor makes an astonishing discovery: Dragons aren’t merely pets and living ornaments. Sir Jessamyn possesses magic that grants her wish by turning her into a replica of Mrs. De Lacey. As such, she receives a lavish welcome from her aunt and Penelope. Of course, Elinor then has to worry about slipping up through ignorance of things Mrs. De Lacey would know, not to mention having no idea how long the spell will last. Meanwhile, she finds herself falling in love with Benedict Hawkins, who’s likable and kind for a fortune hunter. One madcap mishap after another follows. Another impulsive wish causes her aunt to grow a spine, stand up to her husband, and express herself with no fear of the opinions of others, a condition she enjoys so much that she stays that way after the magic wears off. The humor in this novel, like most good comedy, arises from situations dire to the characters but funny to the audience. Suffice it to say that Elinor earns her happy ending through twists and reversals that will keep the reader wondering whether she’ll ever extricate herself from the tangle of complications.
*****
Excerpt from “Chocolate Chip Charm”:
Inside, Stacy piled most of the loose books back into the carton, hauled it into the office, and carried the holiday cookbook into the kitchen. As an afterthought, she turned around to retrieve the spell notebook, too. After setting it on the end of the counter for later perusal, she flipped to the chocolate chip cookie page. She’d already bought chocolate bits, the red and green candies, and peppermint extract, knowing she’d need those if she found the recipe. She ought to have the rest of the necessary items on hand. Checking the list, she confirmed that assumption.
As she got out ingredients, bowls, utensils, and cookie cutters, her unruly brain wandered to Rob again. If he and Doreen can make each other happy, that’s what I want. If only I could fix this for them, she mused while sifting flour and sugar into a mixing bowl. That’s what a true friend would do, right?
Her gaze shifted from the recipe page to the notebook at the end of the short counter in her cramped kitchen. A love potion could fix it, if that really worked.
Laughing at herself, she opened the loose-leaf pages to the love spell anyway. Come to think of it, hadn’t Grammie dropped hints now and then that some of her old friends’ magic seemed to produce real-world effects? Speaking of rational, this is not definitely not it. On the other hand, I can treat it like a science experiment. What can it hurt to try, as long as the concoction doesn’t include anything poisonous?
The page was labeled, “To Awaken Love.” She scanned the list of ingredients. Nothing harmful or likely to ruin the taste of the cookies, just ordinary kitchen supplies such as cinnamon for heat, ginger for spiciness and protection, honey for sweetness, and cardamom to allegedly make the user irresistible. Sounds like flavoring for a mince pie. In fact, it sounded too simple to be magic, if there was such a thing. Reading on, she found a note at the bottom stating that passionate intention and a firm will were the most important components. The instructions finished with a charm to recite while mixing the potion. For best results, she should brew it in spring water. Okay, she had a plastic jug of that on hand.
The directions admonished the spellcaster to work with pure motives, seeking the best for the other person, not applying coercion. That’s exactly what I’m doing. I’m not trying to force them into anything. I only want what’s best for them.
With that mindset, trying a magic spell couldn’t be evil, could it? Besides, her grandmother wasn’t the type to dabble in anything morally dubious.
Stacy reread the whole thing once more, searching for any hidden trap of the kind that always seemed to lurk in fairy-tale enchantments. From all she’d read or heard, magic, like gaming, law, and computer programming, followed rules. This example of it looked safe enough, guaranteeing that the one who consumed the potion would fall in love with the next suitable person he or she saw. Suitable. Good, she’d run no risk of Rob’s developing a mad crush on the church office’s resident cat, like Titania and donkey-headed Bottom in Midsummer Night’s Dream. On the farfetched assumption that this enchantment worked, it couldn’t do any harm. Furthermore, the spell manual claimed the charm would wear off after seven days. In that time, the magical kick-start, if any, should revitalize Rob and Doreen’s mutual affection.
-end of excerpt-
My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Wild Rose Press: Wild Rose Press
You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter
Welcome to the October 2021 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.” For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, e-mail me to request the desired issue, and I’ll send you a free PDF of it. My e-mail address is at the end of this newsletter. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
A complete list of my available works, arranged roughly by genre, with purchase links (gradually being updated as the Amber Quill and Ellora’s Cave works are being republished):
For anyone who would like to read previous issues of this newsletter, they’re posted on my website here (starting from January 2018):
This is my Facebook author page. Please visit!
Facebook
Here’s my page in Barnes and Noble’s Nook store:
Barnes and Noble
Here’s the list of my Kindle books on Amazon. (The final page, however, includes some Ellora’s Cave anthologies in which I don’t have stories):
Carter Kindle Books
Here’s a shortcut URL to my author page on Amazon:
Amazon
The Fiction Database displays a comprehensive list of my books (although with a handful of fairy tales by a different Margaret Carter near the end):
My Goodreads page:
Goodreads
Please “Like” my author Facebook page (cited above) to see reminders when each monthly newsletter is uploaded. I’ve also noticed that I’m more likely to be shown posts from liked or friended sources in my Facebook feed when I’ve “Liked” some of their individual posts, so you might want to do that, too. Thanks!
Happy Halloween!
My lighthearted ghost story “Desk Specter,” featuring my vampire-human hybrid psychiatrist, Roger Darvell, was published in issue 40 of NIGHT TO DAWN, which you can find here:
The opening scene appears below.
My three light paranormal romance novellas inspired by Japanese folklore—YOKAI MAGIC, KITSUNE ENCHANTMENT, and KAPPA COMPANION—have been combined into a collection titled YOKAI ENCHANTMENTS, in a trade paperback for readers who prefer hard-copy print. For those who like e-books and haven’t read all three stories yet, the Kindle edition sells at a bargain price compared to buying the novellas individually:
This month I’m introducing a new Wild Rose Press author, Susan Thomson, writing as S. Hilbre Thomson.
*****
Interview with S. Hilbre Thomson:
What inspired you to begin writing?
I have always enjoyed writing, whether it was poetry, short stories or essays. I think though that the inspiration to write a novel came from being an avid reader. After reading hundreds of books, I got the idea that maybe I could be an author.
What genre do you work in?
I enjoy writing suspense/thriller stories. There has to be a hint of humor, most likely snarky humor in it!
I want my characters to be people my readers can recognize either in themselves or a friend or relative.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I would like to think that I am an organized person, but the truth is I am not. I write like I drive; I have a general idea of where I am going, but not sure how I am going to get there. It leads to some wonderful surprises, but can be frustrating as well.
What have been the major influences on your writing (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
My mother was always reading. She favored romance, which isn’t my favorite genre, but it got me reading. In my teens I was hooked on Stephen King. The gorier the better! After that I switched to writers like Mary Higgins Clark, John Grisham, and Patricia Cornwell where their stories were more realistic and didn’t leave me sleeping with the lights on!
What research have you done in the course of writing your novel?
For this book, I needed to do some research in the area of how law enforcement worked together, some of their lingo, and some scoping out of areas around Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire.
Please tell us about your forthcoming book.
Trevor is a book about a young boy, Trevor Reed, who is being stalked by Matthew Stone. Stone is from North Carolina and has experienced trauma and loss and is looking to get his son back. He believes that Trevor is his son and will not stop until they are together again. The Reed family calls in an old friend and police officer, Joe, to help keep Trevor safe. Joe can’t let the family down but has never dealt with this before. He ends up confiding in reporter Karen, who gives some insight to Stone’s past. The story follows Stone as he struggles with what he knows is right and the reality he wants to recreate and the Reed family as they work to keep Trevor safe.
What are you working on now?
I want to take two of the characters from Trevor and build on their budding relationship. They go back to Karen’s home town to solve a cold case. That case is the unsolved crime from Matt Stone’s past.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
I think when most writers give this advice, they say to write a lot, and then to write some more. In the process of getting my first book published, my advice is to be open to edits! Put the ego aside and allow those who are trying to help give you advice.
Where can we find you on the internet?
Working on that now! The plan is to get them live once I have a release date for my book.
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
DOWN AND OUT IN PROVIDENCE, by Geralyn Wolf. At the time of the events narrated in this 2005 book, subtitled “Memoir of a Homeless Bishop,” the author was the Episcopal Bishop of Rhode Island. She decided to experience the plight of homeless people firsthand by immersing herself in that subculture. For almost a month, she lived incognito in shelters. In preparation, she changed her hair style and color, had a fake ID made, and sought advice from colleagues who worked in that field. She took $200 in cash for the month (more than some homeless people possessed, less than others), a few bus tickets, and a backpack with basic clothes and toiletries. As explained in the prologue, she made no claim to fully sharing the authentic experience of homelessness. As well as starting out with advantages many of her neighbors in the shelters lacked (e.g, good health), she allowed herself the option of going home for the night in some circumstances, such as getting sick (which she did at least once). I expected this book to resemble journalist Barbara Ehrenreich’s NICKEL AND DIMED, the account of her experiment in living on a minimum-wage income in several different American cities. Wolf’s book, however, is slanted more personal and anecdotal. It takes the form of a daily journal, from December 30 through January 24. She spent nights in shelters and most days in a community center for the homeless called Crossroads. Clients at the main shelter she slept in got food plus shuttle service between there and the Crossroads center. Wolf writes about the people she got to know, some with mental illness, substance abuse problems, or physical disabilities, and some with jobs that simply didn’t pay enough to cover the cost of a room, much less an apartment. She places great emphasis on the importance of “community and trust” among the homeless. At one point she lists positive aspects of this way of life, such as freedom from expectations, mundane tasks, responsibilities, fixed roles, and the burden of possessions. Nevertheless, obviously these features don’t outweigh the negatives. Aside from the physical discomforts and hazards, the homeless are too often not “seen,” even in churches Throughout the book, the author does insert more generally applicable, concrete information about the plight of the homeless. In the epilogue, she writes about the aftermath of her “coming out” to her fellow shelter residents and mentions what became of a few of them. She also touches upon systemic problems and potential solutions, especially universal health insurance and the need for affordable housing—virtually unavailable in many areas (including Providence) to someone working for minimum wage, even full time. Although Wolf, of course, writes from a Christian perspective, her story doesn’t come across as heavy-handed “preaching.” A moving and illuminating book for anyone interested in these issues.
HOW TO SLAY A DRAGON, by Cait Stevenson. The author, who holds a doctorate in medieval history, moderates the AskHistorians forum on Reddit. Subtitled “A Fantasy Hero’s Guide to the Real Middle Ages” and addressed in a humorous tone to “you” (the hypothetical would-be hero), it’s nevertheless chock-full of solid facts and real-life medieval events and people. The text is divided into sections titled “Preparing for Your Quest,” “At the Inn,” “On the Road,” “Hazards Along the Way,” “Winning the War,” and “Reaping Your Reward.” You’ll learn about becoming (or how to avoid becoming) the Chosen One, finding a mentor, staying clean, cursed swamps, enchanted forests, barbarian hordes, genies, dragons, unicorns (spoiler, they probably originated as distorted reports of rhinoceroses), buried treasure, kingly feasts, and many other topics. Each chapter includes accounts of interesting historical persons, such as princesses who saved themselves. There’s a selected bibliography plus a separate list of suggestions for “Further Reading.” This handsomely produced almost-200-page hardcover is a fun and educational book for readers and writers of fantasy fiction and/or roleplaying games.
FLATTERLAND, by Ian Stewart. This sequel (subtitled “Like Flatland, only more so”) to the classic FLATLAND (1884), by Edwin A. Abbott, features the great-great-granddaughter of “A. Square,” in-universe author of the original book, which reveals how he saw his two-dimensional world in three dimensions under the guidance of a mysterious Sphere. Teenage Victoria Square, living with her parents and two brothers, stumbles upon her ancestor’s forbidden work, which led to his confinement in a mental institution. Her outraged father burns the volume, but since this time period in Flatland corresponds to our 21st century, Vicki first secretly scans the whole text and later reads it at her leisure. As she records in her electronic diary, she’s fascinated by the book and finds a code in it, which she deciphers. Consequently, she receives a visit from a higher-dimensional entity called the Space Hopper, who takes her on a mind-blowing tour of the Mathiverse. Meanwhile, we get occasional glimpses of her parents’ devastated reaction to her disappearance. I liked the human (so to speak) interest of this part of the story, while not at all disappointed by the absence of the extended social satire found in Abbott’s book. Vicki’s travels explore not only the third dimension, but higher dimensions of spacetime. She learns about hyperspheres, quarter-dimensional spaces, fractals, triangles whose angles don’t add up to 180 degrees, rotating objects to produce their own mirror images, wormholes, expanding universes, and many other strange phenomena. In addition to explaining the math of multiple dimensions, the Space Hopper escorts her to the realms of the unimaginably vast cosmos and the irreducibly small quantum level. She’s introduced to the wild theories of mathematicians and physicists from Planiturth, including Alberteinstein. She meets weird creatures such as (among others) Schrodinger’s Cat, the Charming Construction entity, and twins who are different ages because of relativistic travel. While I enjoyed FLATTERLAND, it’s more complex than the original FLATLAND, and I must admit a lot of the explanations and diagrams left me more confused than informed. The novel can best be fully appreciated by math-minded readers and those interested in topology. Nevertheless, it’s inventive and entertaining, with the often baffled Vicki as our surrogate who constantly asks the Space Hopper to clarify the complications. I’ll probably tackle it again sometime in the future.
*****
Excerpt from “Desk Specter”:
“I want to find out if I’m going crazy.”
Dr. Roger Darvell scanned the new patient sitting—not lying, a largely obsolete custom—on the couch opposite his armchair. He’d positioned the chair so that the sunlight filtering through the window blinds wouldn’t shine directly into his eyes. While it wouldn’t harm him, it would cause discomfort he wanted to avoid. In her early thirties, Liza McCall was a slender woman of medium height with sepia-toned skin, her chestnut hair coiled in a braided crown. Her clean scent and rose-pink aura confirmed her physical health, and he read perplexity but not fear in the emotion she projected. Vampiric extranormal senses streamlined the diagnostic process.
“We try to avoid that term. It’s unscientific as well as counter-productive. Do you have some specific grounds for concern about your mental state?”
“I’ve started seeing a ghost.” She shook her head, projecting more confusion than in denial. “I tried to show it to my sister, and she didn’t see what I saw, so I must be having hallucinations.”
She flashed a smile. “But I don’t feel any crazier than I did three weeks ago.”
Keeping his disbelief in ghosts to himself for the moment, Roger said, “You spoke of a ghost. Only one?”
“So far.” She shrugged. “Isn’t one enough? Since I go to the same church as your partner, Dr. Loren, I mentioned it to her. She said it wouldn’t be professional for her to counsel somebody she knows socially, so she recommended you. So here I am.”
“Three weeks? Did the—appearances—start then?”
The patient nodded. “I just bought my first house and moved in a couple of months ago, but I didn’t see the ghost until three weeks ago. The house is only, like, thirty years old, and I bought it from the original owners. I looked up obituaries under their name, and nobody died while they lived there except a grandfather, who died of heart trouble in a hospital. So it doesn’t make sense for the house to be haunted.”
Steepling his hands, he said in a carefully neutral tone, “You don’t seem frightened.”
“Well, I was startled the first time. I thought, you know, how did this strange woman get into my house? But when she vanished a couple of minutes later, I had to admit to myself I’d seen her appear out of thin air. She hasn’t done anything scary or threatening, though.”
“Can you think of something that happened around then to trigger the phenomenon?”
“I bought a Victorian rolltop desk from an estate sale. Every time the woman popped out of nowhere, it was when I was touching the desk.” She twisted her fingers together in her lap. “I think I’ve got a haunted piece of furniture. Either that, or I’m losing my mind. I’d like to know which.”
*****
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 September 2021 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.” For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, e-mail me to request the desired issue, and I’ll send you a free PDF of it. My e-mail address is at the end of this newsletter. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
A complete list of my available works, arranged roughly by genre, with purchase links (gradually being updated as the Amber Quill and Ellora’s Cave works are being republished):
For anyone who would like to read previous issues of this newsletter, they’re posted on my website here (starting from January 2018):
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Carter Kindle Books
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My urban fantasy elf romance PRINCE OF THE HOLLOW HILLS will soon be republished by Writers Exchange E-Publishing. There’s an excerpt below. A strange man enters the bookstore where heroine Fern works, searching for her sister, Ivy, a single mother who has recently sensed a premonition of danger to her baby son, Baird.
For fans of print fiction: My three connected Japanese-folklore-inspired paranormal romance novellas—YOKAI MAGIC, KITSUNE ENCHANTMENT, and KAPPA COMPANION—will be released together in a trade paperback collection called YOKAI ENCHANTMENTS on September 29.
This month, I’m interviewing romantic suspense author Desiree Holt.
*****
Interview with Desiree Holt:
What inspired you to begin writing?
I loved reading from the time I was 6 and had an incredible urge to write stories myself. My brain would look at people and scenes when I was out and imagine stories about them so the next natural step was to write them down.
What genres do you work in?
Primarily romantic suspense, both high heat and erotic
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
Something in between. I’m at a point where my brain needs something more than “winging it” so I do a very bare bones outline. I make a lot of changes along the way but at least I have a road map.
What have been the major influences on your writing (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
First major influence was Linda Howard, whose CRY NO MORE inspired MOVING TARGET. I wanted to create a character like her Diaz. Others are Allison Brennan and Toni Anderson.
Life experience, always, although probably more character influence. I love to make up stories about people I meet.
How do you research the backgrounds of military professions such as SEALS?
First, I am blessed and honored to have a really good friend (a best selling author himself) who was a Navy SEAL for 20 years and who is willing to answer questions for me. I also am friends with a former Air Force Special Forces veteran as well as a retired Marine Brigadier General. The rest I get from the Internet.
How do you plan a series? For instance, do you plot an overall story arc and know from the beginning what the general topic of each book will be? Or are your series completely open-ended? Do you maintain a “series bible” for each?
I do a general outline of a series so I know what it’s about (example: Heroes Rising, where all books are about SEALs medically retired looking to find a new place in society and The Phoenix Agency, about 5 men each from a different branch of the military who are all friends and start a private agency that takes on the worst of the worst). I have a bible for each series so I keep to the theme and don’t misplace my characters. LOL!
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
I am currently working on ABSOLUTE ZERO, Book #4 in Galaxy, about 4 lifelong friend, all former SEALs who started a private agency and their office is on their plane. Then I have the lead book in TEAM TROJAN, in Elle James’ Colorado Brotherhood Protectors World and I just turned in MISSING PIECES, Book #6, Guardian Security. And in January I release SHADOW DEFENDER in the multi-author Shadow SEALs series.
What are you working on now?
ABSOLUTE ZERO, Book #4, Galaxy; SHADOW DEFENDER, an as yet untitled Phoenix Agency book with several others scheduled for 2022.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Don’t worry about mechanics as much as you do the story. That and the characters are key. Don’t try to copy another author., Have your own style. Readers are always looking for freshness. Try to write at least one page a day. And spellcheck!
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
Here are all my links:
Desiree Holt
Facebook Page
Other Facebook Page
Twitter @desireeholt
BookBub
Blog
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*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
BILLY SUMMERS, by Stephen King. I wouldn’t pick up a novel on the well-worn premise of a professional hit man’s last job before retirement by any other author (except maybe Dean Koontz). Billy himself reflects on the familiarity of this trope and the fact that something always goes wrong (spoiler, it does). King, however, reliably creates irresistibly enthralling protagonists, and the narrator of this book doesn’t disappoint. In Dungeons and Dragons terms, Billy would be a chaotic good assassin. He kills only bad guys. He acknowledges, and becomes more deeply aware in the course of the story, that he isn’t a truly good person himself and that more people than he likes to admit are a mix of good and bad. Yet, despite a childhood trauma that could have warped him irreparably, he comes across as a basically nice person. He takes no pleasure in killing, aside from pride in using the phenomenal sniper skills he learned in the military, and he never murders anyone who doesn’t qualify as “bad” by any reasonable standard. The novel takes place in a small city in an unnamed southern border state, where Billy has been set up with a cover persona while awaiting the extradition of his target from California to be arraigned for murder. Since nobody knows for sure when this event will occur, Billy may have a wait of several months. In this respect the story resembles King’s time-travel novel about the traveler’s plan to prevent Kennedy’s death by assassinating Oswald. That character, too, settles into a false identity and becomes part of the community while awaiting the moment to strike, except that in 11/22/63 the protagonist has to inhabit his alter ego for years instead of months. Billy Summers performs the role of an aspiring author whose agent has supplied him with a rented house and an office, from which he’ll take the fatal shot. He knows it’s a bad idea to become close to people he meets on the job while under a fake persona, but friendships form anyway. Suspicious of the huge payment he’s offered, he establishes a second false identity, unknown to his employer, in a different part of the city. There, also, he unwillingly gets close to a neighboring family. The reader has to concentrate a bit to keep track of his three identities, four if we count what Billy calls his “dumb self.” This persona leads his employers to consider him a useful dimwit skilled at nothing except his brilliant shooting ability. In reality, he’s well-read and, if anything, of above-average intelligence. While playing the role of a beginning author, he decides to pass the time by actually writing his autobiography. The present-day action is narrated in the present tense, I suppose to enhance suspense, with the flashback passages he’s writing in past tense and in bold type (not italics, thank goodness). In tantalizing chunks, we learn how his mother’s boyfriend murdered Billy’s little sister, after which Billy killed him, and about Billy’s experiences in foster care and his eventual entry into the military and service in the Middle East. To my surprise, the climactic event of the professional hit occurs at the midpoint of the novel. The rest of the book narrates Billy’s preparations for disappearing into retirement, with the intention of possibly becoming a writer in earnest. In another surprising turn, King makes the risky choice of introducing a second major character at this point. (I don’t count Holly’s mid-book advent in THE OUTSIDER as the same kind of device, because Constant Readers already know her well from the Mr. Mercedes trilogy.) Billy’s new friend, Alice, a young woman he saves from a dire plight, becomes a source of complications as he plans his escape. Unlike most of King’s novels, this one sticks entirely to a single viewpoint, Billy’s, until a few pages before the end; by then Alice has grown into almost a co-protagonist. I don’t want to reveal any further spoilers to weaken the impact of the conclusion’s emotional roller coaster. To my delight, the book does contain a hint of the supernatural, apparently included as a bit of “fan service,” since it could be omitted with no impact on the characters or plot—occasional glimpses of a spectral vision of the burned-down Overlook Hotel. BILLY SUMMERS impresses me as another can’t-miss book for Stephen King’s fans. For readers not familiar with his work, fans of crime thrillers would probably love this story.
THE KING IN YELLOW, by Robert W. Chambers. This reprint of a story collection first published in 1895 is part of the Horror Writers Association’s Haunted Library of Horror Classics, a series of reissued public domain works (many undeservedly obscure to modern readers) lightly footnoted for vocabulary and historical context, with introductions by distinguished authors in the field, as well as bibliographies and suggestions for further reading. This volume has an introduction by Gothic mystery writer Nic Pizzolatto. In the 1890s, the color yellow was often associated with transgression, corruption, sensationalism, and decadence, as notoriously exemplified by the avant-garde literary magazine THE YELLOW BOOK. I’m surprised Pizzolatto doesn’t mention this connection, but, then, he declares up front that he isn’t a scholar of Chambers’s work. The title refers to a sinister play by that name, which features in several of the stories. It’s never summarized, only alluded to with character names and fragmentary quotations. This imaginary drama reputedly drives anyone who reads it to disaster and/or madness. Most horror fans will recognize it as having been incorporated into the Lovecraftian mythos. Not all the contents fall into the horror category or make reference to the play, however. About half, love stories of one kind or another, are set in the bohemian subculture of the Paris artistic community. The creepiest piece, in my opinion, is the first, “The Repairer of Reputations.” Not until the end does it become fully apparent that the homicidal narrator suffers from delusions, and he may have been driven mad by reading “The King in Yellow.” In “The Mask,” a sinister occult-scientific discovery turns living creatures to stone. The narrator of “The Court of the Dragon” flees from a black-clad figure hunting his soul while his body sits suspended in trance. In “The Yellow Sign,” the insidious corruption of “The King in Yellow” is associated with the living dead. These tales produce their effects, for the most part, by subtle suggestion rather than scenes of outright horror. A gentler story, “The Demoiselle D’ys,” involves the love-enchanted narrator with either time travel or ghosts. It won’t take the genre-savvy reader long to realize there’s something other-worldly about the old-fashioned lady in the ancient mansion. Fans of classic supernatural fiction would probably find this trade paperback a worthwhile purchase just for the first half of its contents, even for readers who consider (as I did) the Paris art-scene stories less alluring, although not without points of interest.
SCANDAL IN BABYLON, by Barbara Hambly. Devoted fans of Hambly’s work will instantly recognize the cast of this murder mystery in the Hollywood silent film era as alternate-universe versions of the people in her delightful fantasy novel BRIDE OF THE RAT GOD. The principal characters—young English widow Emma, her glamorous actress sister-in-law Kitty (aka Camille de la Rose), and photographer Zal, Emma’s love interest—are their counterparts from BRIDE OF THE RAT GOD under different names. Many secondary characters even have identical names to those in the earlier novel, including Kitty’s three Pekinese dogs. Although without any supernatural elements, SCANDAL IN BABYLON is equally captivating. Emma, still mourning her husband killed in the Great War and the loss of all her own immediate family, is nevertheless deeply grateful to Kitty for rescuing her from an oppressive existence as a paid companion. Emma has gradually realized Kitty is more than a beautiful featherhead who possesses “It” but can’t act worth a darn. Aching with homesickness for Oxford, where she’d shared her archaeologist father’s academic pursuits, Emma considers southern California as exotically fantastic as Oz, from the bizarre Hollywood culture right down to the unfamiliar climate and plant life. Yet it holds a certain fascination for her, and she’s rapidly falling in love with Zal, who makes no secret of his feelings but doesn’t push her. In addition to her tasks as Kitty’s all-purpose assistant, she does part-time work as a film scenarist (apparently the silent movie equivalent of a script writer), struggling to impose some order and sense upon the extravagant plots and historical blunders. As the story begins on the set of TEMPTRESS OF BABYLON, Kitty’s latest anachronism-packed costume epic, Emma receives a letter from her one surviving relative, an aunt who’s returning from Asia with her husband and proposes to pick up Emma on their way back to England. Emma may live with them in Oxford if she wishes. Throughout the novel, this offer lingers in the back of her mind. Of course she wants to return to the world she considers home, but what about Zal, not to mention hard-drinking, drug-taking, sexually adventurous Kitty’s obvious need for a keeper? Then Kitty’s sleazy first husband, who may or may not have ever divorced her, turns up shot to death in her dressing room. To Emma and Zal, it’s obvious Kitty is being framed, rather unconvincingly at that. Who would want her accused of murder, and who else might want the victim dead? Amid the publicity ramifications, dealings with the police and a private detective on the case, connections with bootleggers and other underworld figures, and the jealous oversight of Kitty’s lover, the head of the studio, Emma, Zal, and other members of the staff run in circles trying to keep everything from falling apart while the filming proceeds more or less as planned. While she and Zal probe for a solution to the murder in between film shots, Emma has to cope with Kitty’s cheerful debauchery, difficulty in sticking to any reasonable schedule, and romantic escapades (her patron’s jealousy being fully justified). Further violent incidents make it clear that Kitty herself is a target, possibly the main one. Along the way, Emma becomes acquainted with surprisingly polite mob enforcers and a courtly, elderly millionaire also infatuated with Kitty. Madcap chases and near-misses, fascinating details about the silent movie industry and southern California in the early 1920s, and a generous sprinkling of witty dialogue make the book unputdownable. As for Emma’s own future, her choice won’t surprise the reader, even though it may surprise Emma herself. I hope this novel proves to be the beginning of a series with the staying power of Hambly’s Benjamin January historical mysteries.
*****
Excerpt from PRINCE OF THE HOLLOW HILLS:
When the front door jingled again a second later, the man who stalked into the shop didn’t act like a customer. He didn’t spare a glance for the books. Instead, he marched straight to the counter. Tall and lean, he wore sleek-fitting, black jeans with a short-sleeved, blue polo shirt. Though his long hair, tied back with a leather thong, was entirely silver, his face, pale with a hawklike profile, showed no signs of old age. Despite his grim expression, he didn’t look much more than thirty.
Fern caught herself staring into his eyes, an unusual shade of light brown that looked almost amber in the shop’s overhead lighting. She swallowed and forced out the words, “Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for a woman.” He pulled out a wallet and flipped it open. Glancing down, Fern saw a private detective’s license. She blinked, trying to focus on the details, but he snapped it shut before she could even make out the man’s name. “I need to speak to Ivy MacGregor. Have you seen her today?”
The abrupt tone of the question put her on guard. “Yes, as a matter of fact, she was here earlier this afternoon.” His cold gaze induced a slight wariness that kept her from volunteering her relationship to Ivy.
“Do you know where she might be now?”
“Not a clue.” Fern felt sure her attempt at a cheerfully casual reply fell flat. He would probably pounce on her lie like a cat on a wind-up mouse.
‘Then perhaps you know where she lives.” Though relentless in its persistence, his voice was almost a pleasure to listen to, like the pealing of a bell.
Fern shook her head to dispel the ridiculous image. He sounded like any other man with a melodious tenor voice. “I can’t tell you that.”
“But do you know?” His tone shifted from inquisitorial demand to smooth persuasion. “If so, it’s important that you tell me. I must find her. I need to give her a warning.” He leaned on the counter, capturing her gaze again.
“About what?”
“She is being pursued by a man who intends to lay claim to her child. He’s a relative of Adair Hunter.”
The name broke the reverie Fern was drifting into. She dragged her eyes away from the detective’s. “What do you know about Adair?”
“That he has disappeared and that his family wants the boy. They’ve sent someone to kidnap him. You must help me warn Miss MacGregor before it’s too late.” He leaned still farther over the counter, until it almost seemed he meant to grab her.
The echo of Ivy’s claim that Baird was in danger knocked the breath out of Fern. Her fingers crept to the necklace her sister had insisted she wear. She drew the chain out of her blouse and nervously twirled the Celtic cross. “I can’t help you.” Her voice sounded thin and shaky to her, with none of the determination she wanted to project.
The man straightened up and took a step back. “All right. I’ll return and talk with you tomorrow, if I don’t find her before then. If you are her friend, I’m confident you’ll reconsider your—reticence.” He wheeled around and walked briskly out of the store.
-end of excerpt-
*****
My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Wild Rose Press: Wild Rose Press
You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter