Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Welcome to the November 2022 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.” For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
You can subscribe to this monthly newsletter here:
The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, e-mail me to request the desired issue, and I’ll send you a free PDF of it. My e-mail address is at the end of this newsletter. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
A complete list of my available works, arranged roughly by genre, with purchase links (gradually being updated as the Amber Quill and Ellora’s Cave works are being republished):
For anyone who would like to read previous issues of this newsletter, they’re posted on my website here (starting from January 2018):
This is my Facebook author page. Please visit!
Facebook
Here’s my page in Barnes and Noble’s Nook store:
Barnes and Noble
Here’s the list of my Kindle books on Amazon. (The final page, however, includes some Ellora’s Cave anthologies in which I don’t have stories):
Carter Kindle Books
Here’s a shortcut URL to my author page on Amazon:
Amazon
The Fiction Database displays a comprehensive list of my books (although with a handful of fairy tales by a different Margaret Carter near the end):
My Goodreads page:
Goodreads
Please “Like” my author Facebook page (cited above) to see reminders when each monthly newsletter is uploaded. I’ve also noticed that I’m more likely to be shown posts from liked or friended sources in my Facebook feed when I’ve “Liked” some of their individual posts, so you might want to do that, too. Thanks!
My lighthearted ghost novella “Spooky Tutti Frutti” was included in Cherie Colyer’s “Something Spooky This Way Comes” blog feature in honor of Halloween:
Something Spooky
On November 2, the Wild Rose Press published another of my former Ellora’s Cave erotic paranormal romance novellas, “Merry Twinness.” On Christmas Eve, the heroine learns her fiancé has kept a vital secret from her—he has an identical twin. But that’s not the real shock. . . . There’s an excerpt below.
Merry Twinness
This month’s interviewee, Annette Miller, is a paranormal romance author who has a Christmas Cookies story with me in the Wild Rose Press anthology A HINT OF VANIILLA.
*****
Interview with Annette Miller:
What inspired you to begin writing?
I always loved telling stories, even when I was a child. Books always enthralled me, and my parents even gave me a small typewriter on Christmas. So I guess I was always inspired to start writing.
What genres do you work in?
I write in contemporary paranormal romance both sweet and steamy. I have an idea for a YA series, and yes, it will also be paranormal. It’s kind of my jam.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I do something in between. I write summaries of the chapters in a notebook and expand from there.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
Major influences on my work have been ghost stories, fairy tales, anything supernatural. We live in the real world every day. I like bringing the fantastic to life.
Please tell us about your Angel Haven series. And what kinds of powers do the characters have?
My Angel Haven series was born from a superhero role playing game my husband and I used to play. We started with gaming and then I got to thinking about what would happen if these two characters got together? Superheroes are fun to write about because there are so many different ways to cause them problems. There are wizards, mythical beings, cyborgs, and of course, superheroes. The heroines are all part of the Angels team. I can’t tell you about the hero in my 5th book. It would ruin the surprise.
What inspired your Christmas Cookies story “Macaroons by Moonlight” (which appears in the anthology A HINT OF VANILLA as well as a stand-alone e-book)?
Macaroons by Moonlight was born almost instantly. When the topic for the new series came up, I knew the characters, the story, everything just popped in my mind. I have to give a shoutout to Rhonda Penders at The Wild Rose Press. When I told her I was better at eating cookies than baking them, she said I could use that in the story, and I did.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
My latest book is A Spirited Romance. It was just released on September 26. It’s a sweet paranormal romance set in the same little town as Macaroons by Moonlight.
I thought it would be fun to write a ghost story, and what better than a matchmaking ghost. I got inspiration for this story from ghostly TV shows and Celtic folklore. I have a novella coming out on April 3, 2023 in the Jelly Beans and Spring Things series.
What are you working on now?
Right now I’m working on the 6th book in my Angel Haven series. This one has aliens and one of my favorite tropes, cop and the criminal she’s hunting fall in love.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
My advice to aspiring writers is to learn all you can about the craft and don’t worry if you don’t have a fancy degree in anything. I only have a high school diploma but I’ve won awards. Basically, just absorb all the knowledge you can.
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
My website is Annette Miller.
Facebook
BookBub
Twitter: @AngelHavenR
LinkedIn
Instagram: annettemillerauthor
Pinterest
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
PUTTING THE FACT IN FANTASY, edited by Dan Koboldt. The essays in this anthology, contributed by over thirty different specialists, explore a wide range of subjects writers of fantasy may need to know about in order to make their fictional settings feel authentic. The foreword emphasizes the importance of getting the mundane background right. Readers will accept the wildest flights of fantasy if they’re grounded in a world that works believably. If geography, climate, physical abilities of normal animals and human characters, etc. conform to known facts, such phenomena as unicorns, dragons, elves, and magic are more likely to win acceptance. Conversely, if errors appear in details supposedly faithful to how things work in the real world, the audience won’t trust the author enough to suspend disbelief in the fantastic elements. The introduction, titled “How to Ask an Expert,” offers practical advice on getting help from people with firsthand knowledge and experience. This book aims to help authors avoid errors in portrayal of environments, social structures, animals, weapons, etc. that will jar the reader out of the imaginary world. The anthology is divided into six parts, covering the broad areas of actual history as inspiration, languages and culture, world-building (e.g., money, food and drink, plants, ecology, politics, among other topics), weapons and warfare, horses, and wilderness adventure. Each category includes a wide range of sub-topics (aside from the horse section, which is more tightly focused). Entertaining as well as useful, the book could be picked up and sampled in any order. The contents tend to consist of short, quick reads. Therein lies its one drawback. Most of the essays comprise broad introductions to their topics. Some contain suggestions for further reading, but many don’t. On the other end of the scale, some contributions list highly specific content such as popular myths about horses, fascinating material but touching on only one aspect of a wide field. Still, PUTTING THE FACT IN FANTASY, although subtitled “Expert advice to bring authenticity to your fantasy writing,” includes information that could benefit authors in almost any genre. If nothing else, it’s a fun read that may spark ideas for adding depth to the physical and social environment of your story. Non-writers, too, can enjoy it simply for its entertainment value.
ETERNALLY YOURS, by Patrice Caldwell. An anthology of original paranormal romance stories. Caldwell’s introduction consists mainly of a captivating personal essay about her lifelong fascination with monsters. This book includes numerous BIPOC authors and LBGTQ+ characters, reflecting the contemporary broad scope of fantasy and the paranormal. I was mildly surprised to find only two vampire stories—Melissa Cruz’s “Once Upon a Time in Charleston,” in her Blue Bloods series, and “Pierce My Soul,” by Kat Cho—plus a vampire-like character in “Undead Ghoul Meet-Cute,” by Kendare Blake. Other stories feature a variety of different creatures—among them, angels, demons, merfolk, the Sea Witch, an allegedly cursed girl called an asura, and a pair of teenage lovers who’ve been reincarnated many times over the centuries. One especially striking tale, “Katrine and Rowan’s Exit Interview,” by Sarah Gailey, recreates the myth of Circe amid an island community of women. Fans seeking innovative stories of supernatural love among human and nonhuman characters won’t want to miss this book.
ORDINARY MONSTERS, by J. M. Miro. A monumental (660 pages long) work for lovers of Victorian horror. The first chapter begins on a freight train in the English countryside in 1874. Soon afterward, the scene shifts to 1882, which remains the period of the main action but with several substantive flashbacks to the 1870s. Like the sprawling novels of the nineteenth century, this book features a huge cast of characters, some displaying Dickensian eccentricity, in chapters and sections with intriguingly Gothic titles such as “The Thing on the Cobblestone Stair,” “Monsters in the Fog,” “The Study of the Impossible,” “The Girl Who Was Seen,” and “The Vanishing of Jacob Marber.” Marlowe, the baby found by a runaway servant girl in the opening scene on the train, sometimes shines with a blue glow and can heal or destroy with his power. Charlie, in 1882 a teenager suffering a brutal life in Mississippi, heals from any injury without a scar, but the damage and the healing still hurt. Alice Quicke, a freelance detective formerly with the Pinkerton agency, tracks down these two children to escort them to a refuge for “Talents” with paranormal abilities. The mansion in Scotland where the residents, ranging from young children through teenagers, are trained in mastery of their gifts adds another layer of Gothic atmosphere. Its head, Dr. Berghast, genuinely cares about his young charges, but he has an overriding agenda of his own. The combination orphanage and school guards a portal to a shadowy realm where memories and the dead dwell. A quasi-undead predator called a drughr has seduced the antagonist, a former student named Jacob Marber, into a symbiotic union. Flashbacks to Tokyo in the 1870s reveal how Jacob changed from a trusted disciple into a deadly enemy. Eventually Dr. Berghast decides he must recruit Charlie and Marlowe to cross over into the other dimension in order to save the school and perhaps the human world. Meanwhile, some of their new friends, including a girl with the gift of becoming invisible, set out on a related quest of their own. There’s also a protective spirit in the form of a cat (usually), with which Alice forms a bond. These details only skim the surface of the complex, multi-layered, riveting plot. The characters in the ensemble cast are all fully developed, evoking the reader’s sympathy as well as genuine sadness for those who fall in battle, as some inevitably do. A fascinating historical dark fantasy, not quite like anything else I’ve read.
THE GOLDEN ENCLAVES, by Naomi Novik. Since this is the final volume in the Scholomance trilogy, discussing it inevitably involves spoilers for the second book. At the end of THE LAST GRADUATE, El (short for Galadriel) achieves the unprecedented feat of getting the entire student body through the deadly exit battle alive—with one exception. Just as she cuts the portal to the Scholomance off from the real world and launches the school into the void, Orion, her boyfriend, sacrifices himself to save her and the rest of the class. Involuntarily leaving him behind, El instantaneously returns to her home like all the other graduates. Safe back in the hippie-style commune where her pacifist healer mother welcomes and cares for her, El plots how to reenter the Scholomance and rescue Orion whether he wants saving or not. She has to persuade her close friends and allies from school to help her; she also visits several high-status enclaves in an attempt to form alliances. Rivalry to the point of paranoia pervades interactions among the elite families of the enclaves, but El recognizes the futility and danger of maintaining that system. She travels to enclaves all over the world, confronting the most powerful magical clans. The “Golden Enclaves” refer to her dream of establishing communities where the non-elite can practice their magic in safe, non-toxic environments. She meets Orion’s family and uncovers shocking secrets about his origin and true nature. Her infiltration of the decaying remnants of the Scholomance with her friends and the aftermath when Orion, deeply scarred by the experience, has been restored to the outside world enthralled me. How can Orion be liberated from the burden he has carried his entire life? The book doesn’t have an unmixed happy ending, which would be unrealistic, but it does conclude the trilogy in a satisfying and optimistic way.
*****
Excerpt from “Merry Twinness”:
“Time for the special gift.” He plucked a tiny box wrapped in red foil from under the tree. “Wait,” he repeated when she reached for it. “Before you open this and answer the question that goes with it, I have something important to tell you. Or more like show you.”
His hesitant tone and the apprehension in his eyes chilled her. “So you do have a dire secret?” She didn’t quite succeed in keeping her voice light.
“I hope you won’t think it’s too dire. But it will come as a shock.” He set the box on the couch and clasped both of her hands in his. “Please don’t freak out.”
Footsteps muffled by the carpet sounded in the adjacent dining room. The door leading to it opened. A man stepped through, took three paces toward the fireplace, and halted. Nicole blinked up at him, at first too stunned to process what she saw.
Cal’s double.
Except that he wore a University of Maryland sweatshirt instead of a pullover sweater with a white shirt and Christmas necktie, he looked identical to her lover. No, not quite—the mane that grew to just below his ears was less tousled than Cal’s but a bit shaggier, as if overdue for a barber visit. The clothes and hair, though, didn’t negate her first impression. She couldn’t doubt his identity.
She sprang to her feet. “You have a twin brother? And you never told me?”
“I don’t exactly have a twin. I am twins.”
-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 2022 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.” For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
You can subscribe to this monthly newsletter here:
The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, e-mail me to request the desired issue, and I’ll send you a free PDF of it. My e-mail address is at the end of this newsletter. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
A complete list of my available works, arranged roughly by genre, with purchase links (gradually being updated as the Amber Quill and Ellora’s Cave works are being republished):
For anyone who would like to read previous issues of this newsletter, they’re posted on my website here (starting from January 2018):
This is my Facebook author page. Please visit!
Facebook
Here’s my page in Barnes and Noble’s Nook store:
Barnes and Noble
Here’s the list of my Kindle books on Amazon. (The final page, however, includes some Ellora’s Cave anthologies in which I don’t have stories):
Carter Kindle Books
Here’s a shortcut URL to my author page on Amazon:
Amazon
The Fiction Database displays a comprehensive list of my books (although with a handful of fairy tales by a different Margaret Carter near the end):
My Goodreads page:
Goodreads
Please “Like” my author Facebook page (cited above) to see reminders when each monthly newsletter is uploaded. I’ve also noticed that I’m more likely to be shown posts from liked or friended sources in my Facebook feed when I’ve “Liked” some of their individual posts, so you might want to do that, too. Thanks!
Happy Halloween!
My erotic paranormal ghost romance novella “Heart Diamond” (another lightly edited former Ellora’s Cave publication) was released in September:
After losing her fiance to a car accident, Roseanne has one thing to remember him by—a ring with a gemstone made from his ashes. Anchored to the jewel, he returns to her from the other world. But the ghost of a love isn’t enough. An excerpt appears below.
Diamonds made from cremains are a real thing, by the way.
In November my next re-release will come out, a Christmas erotic paranormal romance novella titled “Merry Twinness.”
For the month of horror, I’m interviewing poet, artist, and fiction author Marge Simon. She created many illustrations for my former fanzine THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT, and she’s a frequent contributor in fiction, verse, and artwork to the vampire and horror zine NIGHT TO DAWN. She also writes a column on dark poetry for the Horror Writers Association monthly newsletter. Moreover, she’s the cover artist for my story collection DOCTOR VAMPIRE, available here:
*****
Interview with Marge Simon:
What inspired you to begin writing?
As soon as I mastered writing my name, which is the same as yours, I figured I might as well learn some other words to write. At the time, it seemed that “Margaret” was as long as the alphabet. I couldn’t saddle my daughter with a long name. My daughter’s name only has 5 letters.
What genres do you work in?
Everything except Romance, Mystery, Detective and Westerns.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
Depends, but I usually have an idea where I’m going with a poem or flash. I’m not sure what I’ll find along the way, for it’s not a cut-and-dried deal.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
For my vampire stories and poems, I gained inspiration experience from Ann Rice’s series that begins with Interview with the Vampire, the Sonja Blue collection by Nancy Collins and Robert Steakley’s VAMPIRE$. Of course, I read Carmilla. These are the main influences on my imagination as I began writing on the subject. I knew the story of Dracula, and have read Dracul, by Dacre Stoker and J.D. Barker.
How does the writing of horror-themed poetry differ from the creation of other types of poetry, if it does?
It doesn’t. If you are a good poet, you can turn a mainstream poem like Frost’s “Stopping Through Woods on a Snowy Night” into a full blown horror story and have ideas left over for more.
Please tell us about the background and content of your collaborative Dracula-themed book, THE DEMETER DIARIES.
Dr. Bryan Dietrich asked me about collaborating on this set of poems one bright morning in spring of 2018 at an ICFA conference. We didn’t know what would happen, or how it would take shape – but we soon found our places, as if this were foreordained. Working on it was like writing a play that needed no rehearsal.
For the space of time it took, we assumed the identity of our characters while writing. It was amazing how Mina responded to Vlad, and vice versa – with very little discussion. I remember needing to know where Vlad was and how close, and how much longer the voyage would take. Things that happened in Mina’s life while Vlad was en route came so naturally for me to convey. I felt the days of Mina’s life were more discovered, than invented. Of course, I researched aspects of the Victorian era, including the pastimes and fashions, popular opinions, medicines, etc. Bryan’s poems gave me clues and in response, Mina would often perceive what Vlad was going through or thinking about. It was a work of unique harmony.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
Sifting the Ashes (with Michael Bailey)
What are you working on now?
A short sf story about a time traveler with Shikhar Dixit.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
READ, READ all kinds of works, from non-fiction to mainstream, contemporary to the classics, and don’t stop! You will never regret it.
What is the URL of your website?
What about other internet presence?
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
I CONTAIN MULTITUDES, by Ed Yong. Subtitled “The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life,” this nonfiction book deals with a broader subject than the microbial life within human beings. It discusses a wide range of animals and other creatures as well. The first chapter (after the prologue), “Living Islands,” sets the tone. Every multicellular life-form is an “island” inhabited by millions of organisms in addition to its own cells. In the sentence, “Symbiosis hints at the threads that connect all life on Earth,” Yong (a Pulitzer-Prize-winning science writer) encapsulates the theme of the entire book. Chapter 2 briefly surveys the history of microbiology, beginning with Anton van Leeuwenhoek’s first glimpses of “animalcules” through his lenses in 1632. For a while after the germ theory of disease became accepted, there was a negative attitude toward “germs” in general. The more sterile, the better, it was believed. We now know that most microbes in our environment and our bodies are neutral or beneficial. Children brought up “too clean” are more susceptible to allergies. Many of the bacteria in symbiosis with us occupy niches that would otherwise be infested with harmful organisms. A robust internal ecosystem—microbiome—supporting the right kinds of symbionts is essential to overall health. Some insects and animals wouldn’t be able to digest the foods they live on without the help of certain gut microbes. In an engagingly readable style, Yong’s ten chapters explore these and many other roles, vital to life on Earth, played by microscopic organisms. The text’s structure varies between anecdotes about scientists studying the role of microbes in the web of life, often in remote regions scarcely touched by human development, and in-depth explorations of how those hidden connections work, sometimes with intricate discussions of biochemistry. (I confess I occasionally skimmed the more technical parts of those passages.) As a bonus, there are several pages of color photographs in the center of the book. The bibliography is huge and the index highly detailed.
OLLIE’S ODYSSEY, by William Joyce. This children’s chapter book with rather creepy illustrations was made into an excellent miniseries on Netflix, LOST OLLIE. I didn’t know it was a book until after watching the film, and contrary to my usual position, in this case I recommend reading the novel first. As good as the novel is in its way, I felt slightly let down upon reading it because I think the TV series made some improvements. Ollie is a homemade stuffed animal—a rabbit in the film, a bunny-bear hybrid in the book—sewn by Billy’s mother when he’s a baby. Inside the toy’s chest, she sews a bell that is the only remnant left from a doll she loved in childhood. Billy and Ollie become inseparable from the beginning. One outstanding feature of the novel is the way Ollie’s comprehension of the world clearly reflects and grows with Billy’s. They communicate with each other in their imaginative play, since children can understand the speech of anthropomorphic toys. In the film, adults (with one poignant exception at the end) can’t hear Ollie talk or see him move even when he does it right in front of them. In the book, not only toys but all inanimate objects imbued with life through being constantly used by humans can move, speak, and interact with children. It would be fair to say the film echoes TOY STORY in that respect, while the book, with its motley crew of animated things (including a pet rock, who can talk but not move independently), feels more like THE BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER. In both media, the antagonist, ZoZo, begins life as a toy clown in a carnival booth. As the carnival gradually goes downhill and eventually closes, a dancing doll, Nina, whom ZoZo loves, is taken away by a little girl. She pronounces Nina her new favorite toy. In the novel’s present day, ZoZo has conscripted a gang of minions who steal favorite toys for him to imprison and torment, not only out of malice toward all “favorites” but with a remote hope of finding his beloved again. The minions kidnap Ollie out of Billy’s backpack while Billy attends a wedding with his parents. Billy searches for Ollie and eventually becomes ZoZo’s prisoner. Ollie, who has meanwhile escaped from ZoZo’s underground lair, finds his way to a junkyard, where he wins a band of allies—toys and other discarded household objects—to help him rescue his boy. Wild, dangerous adventures ensue, culminating in a battle in ZoZo’s sinister underworld, with heroism, sacrifice, and love prominently on display. The limited and sometimes quirky view of the world held by household items and especially toys is vividly rendered. Ollie never steps out of character as a stuffed animal who understands his environment on the same level as the child he grew up with. A thrilling, heartfelt story for children, the novel also contains numerous cultural references and bits of humor designed to appeal to adults. Still, on the whole I prefer the film adaptation. It adds the illness and premature death of Billy’s mother, shown in flashbacks, which infuse the story with extra emotional depth. Instead of being stolen, Ollie gets lost in the aftermath of Billy’s mother’s death, as a result of Billy’s own despairing actions. By the time Billy remorsefully sets out in the night to search for his lifelong friend, Ollie has been picked up as abandoned and offered for sale in a secondhand shop. He meets ZoZo on the shelf where ZoZo ended up during his long, vain quest for Nina. In the series, ZoZo undergoes more complex character development, in my opinion. He bargains, apparently sincerely, to help Ollie search for home and Billy, if Ollie will help to find Nina. ZoZo finally snaps only when he notices Nina’s bell in Ollie’s heart. A character invented for the film, an old friend of ZoZo’s, adds another layer of complexity. The film device of revealing the backstories of Billy, Ollie, ZoZo, and Nina through a nonlinear structure, in flashbacks sprinkled throughout, enhances suspense. It also leads to a shocking, yet deeply moving zinger at the end as we abruptly have to revise our impression of the story’s time scale.
FAIRY TALE, by Stephen King. My favorite novel by King in a while. A fitting tagline might define it as a merging of “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone” (a story in the IF IT BLEEDS collection, boy makes friends with an eccentric old man), 11/22/63 (protagonist inherits a magical portal), and THE TALISMAN (a quest for the means of saving a beloved life, through a fantasy landscape in an alternate dimension). King states in his afterword that he tried to keep FAIRY TALE separate from the Dark Tower universe, but stray references crept in. The most striking, for me, is the line, “There are other worlds than these.” The adventure begins with the unlikely friendship between the narrator, Charlie, a high-school athlete, and Mr. Bowditch, reclusive owner of the town’s archetypal decaying, spooky house, a borderline hoarder with no family or friends. After Charlie’s mother died, run over while walking across a dangerous bridge, his father sank into alcoholism and eventually lost his job. Charlie spent a long time taking care of his father as well as himself. Now that his father has been in recovery for several years thanks to the AA program, their lives are stable and their relationship strong. Fortunately, Charlie has long since pulled himself out of a threatened slide into juvenile delinquency. This background helps to account for his strong sense of responsibility. The present-day adventure begins with Mr. Bowditch’s female dog, Radar, who has acquired a perhaps undeservedly fierce reputation among the local kids but is now old and feeble. As Charlies is passing the house one day, she runs out, howling for help, and leads him to her master, lying on the ground with a broken leg. After Charlie calls 9-1-1 and the paramedics arrive, Mr. Bowditch, although he doesn’t trust anybody, has no choice but to let Charlie take care of Radar during his hospital stay. On his daily visits, Charlie becomes attached to the dog and also does what he can to mitigate the rundown condition of the house. By the time Mr. Bowditch comes home, the seeds of friendship have begun to sprout, and eventually Charlie wins the old man’s full trust. Thus, when Mr. Bowditch dies, Charlie inherits not only his property but a tape cassette revealing secrets of his friend’s longevity and financial status. Below the shed behind the house, a staircase leads to a portal into another world. The lure of mystery and gold draws Charlie, of course, but his main purpose in crossing over to the other dimension is to heal Radar’s infirmities and extend her life. Achieving this goal, of course, proves to be only the beginning of the adventure, as a larger quest pulls him in. Like the protagonist of THE TALISMAN, Charlie is mistaken for a promised savior. He does end up saving the kingdom, although far from singlehandedly. The realm is plagued by a disease that causes gray skin and other, more serious effects. The members of the royal family are immune to it but suffer from a cruel curse conjured by their treacherous brother, afflicting each of them with a different handicap. Charlie stands out because of his rarity as a “whole” (non-diseased) person. One feature of FAIRY TALE that especially appeals to me is the style of the chapter headings. As in many Victorian novels, the title of each chapter lays out an overview of the events to come. My one reservation about the book concerns the prevalent association of evil with ugliness and deformity. On the other hand, almost all the good people suffer some kind of physical defect, too, given the curse on the kingdom. Echoes of “Rumpelstiltskin” and THE WIZARD OF OZ permeate the story, along with numerous references to other fairy tales. Through Charlie’s first-person narrative voice, King manages to make him both a believable teenager and an obviously kindhearted, heroic person, as much as he resists being labeled a hero.
*****
Excerpt from “Heart Diamond”:
Roseanne’s eyes snapped open. A man’s shape lay beside her. A neon-blue glow surrounded it. Tim’s face and body, translucent except for the gray-blue eyes. His hand flowed over her like cold water. A shudder coursed through her.
“Roseanne? Don’t be afraid, love. I’m sorry I scared you at first.” The voice sounded so real, exactly like her memory of Tim’s.
“Of course it sounds the way I remember it,” she muttered, “because it’s coming from my imagination.”
“No, it’s not,” he said. “I’m really here.”
She gasped and sat up. When the apparition’s fingers trailed down the valley between her breasts, she drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them to shield herself.
He reached for her again. She let out a half-stifled scream.
He blinked in and out of visibility like a failing light bulb. “Please don’t.”
A chill enveloped her. “What are you?” she whispered.
“It’s me. Honest.”
Shaking her head, she squeezed her eyes shut then opened them. He hadn’t vanished.
“Why are you afraid?” Lying on his side, he leaned on one elbow and gazed into her eyes. She noticed his elbow and hip didn’t dent the mattress. With one finger he touched the diamond. At the moment of contact, his outline momentarily became sharper.
“Are you kidding? Because if you aren’t a dream, you’re a ghost.”
“Well, yeah,” he said with a sad smile. “Considering I’m, you know, dead and all that.”
Her throat constricted so that for a few seconds she couldn’t choke out any words. “Why? How?”
“Why? Because I couldn’t stand being torn away from you. I’m able to reach you now because of the diamond.”
She stared at the gem, which glimmered in the eerie light he radiated. “You’re haunting the ring?”
“If you want to put it that way.”
-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 September 2022 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.” For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
You can subscribe to this monthly newsletter here:
The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, e-mail me to request the desired issue, and I’ll send you a free PDF of it. My e-mail address is at the end of this newsletter. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
A complete list of my available works, arranged roughly by genre, with purchase links (gradually being updated as the Amber Quill and Ellora’s Cave works are being republished):
For anyone who would like to read previous issues of this newsletter, they’re posted on my website here (starting from January 2018):
This is my Facebook author page. Please visit!
Facebook
Here’s my page in Barnes and Noble’s Nook store:
Barnes and Noble
Here’s the list of my Kindle books on Amazon. (The final page, however, includes some Ellora’s Cave anthologies in which I don’t have stories):
Carter Kindle Books
Here’s a shortcut URL to my author page on Amazon:
Amazon
The Fiction Database displays a comprehensive list of my books (although with a handful of fairy tales by a different Margaret Carter near the end):
My Goodreads page:
Goodreads
Please “Like” my author Facebook page (cited above) to see reminders when each monthly newsletter is uploaded. I’ve also noticed that I’m more likely to be shown posts from liked or friended sources in my Facebook feed when I’ve “Liked” some of their individual posts, so you might want to do that, too. Thanks!
My dark paranormal erotic romance novella with Lovecraftian elements “Crossing the Border” was published by the Wild Rose Press in August. A horror author’s widow learns why he urged her not to publish his final book—because the terrifying alternate dimension in his fiction is real.
An excerpt from the heroine’s memory of her husband’s final night appears below.
My erotic paranormal ghost romance “Heart Diamond” will be re-released by the Wild Rose Press in September.
In this issue I introduce mystery and suspense author Randy Overbeck.
*****
Interview with Randy Overbeck:
What inspired you to begin writing?
I’ve been a writer most of my life, one way or the other. During my high school years, I had dreams of becoming a novelist, but real life intervened and I became an educator instead. Over almost four decades, I served children as a teacher, college professor and school leader and loved it. I also found there was a good bit of writing in all these roles, especially as an administrator, so my work kept nurturing my writing gene. As I was completing my career in education, I returned to my first love and began doing creative writing again. Now four, almost five novels later, I’m definitely an author now.
What genres do you work in?
As with most things in my life, I like to push myself, always looking for new challenges. My first novel, published in 2012, LEAVE NO CHILD BEHIND, is a thriller about a terrorist cell which takes over a Midwest high school and the teacher who fights the terrorists. My three most recent titles, the Haunted Shores Mysteries, are paranormal mysteries featuring a ghost-whispering teacher and coach. I’m currently shopping my newest work, HARD LESSONS, an amateur sleuth mystery about a rogue drug in 1995 responsible for the death of five middle school kids. And I’m hard at work on my newest writing project, a historical suspense novel about colonial spies in the Revolutionary War.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I clearly straddle the middle between these two camps. In order to write with clarity, when I starting, I need to have some basic organization—murder, ghost, larger crime, primary suspects and of course location—all laid out and planned. I usually use some kind of basic outline—though it looks nothing like the outline taught in school—to guide me through the first 40% of the narrative. Once I’m well into the manuscript, I let the story evolve as it develops. BTW this might be interesting to your readers. I don’t decide on the murderer until I’m almost finished the narrative. As I write, I place clues for several characters to be the murderer. “They all could have done it!” Then, as I’m nearing the climax, the “perfect” culprit comes to me and voila! I have my killer. It’s a little unorthodox but it works for me.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
While several factors have influenced my work, my experience as an educator has had the most impact, but I’ll address this in the next question. From my travels I gained inspiration and an appreciation for the culture, people, natural beauty of other places. For example, my return trips to the magnificent Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay inspired me to craft a mystery there for the first entry in the series, BLOOD ON THE CHESAPEAKE. Early on, I was fortunate to attend a few great writing conferences and met several major authors like Hank Philippi Ryan and William Kent Kreuger. I found them to be rather down to earth and very much like me when they started out. They gave me the courage to move forward with my writing.
What impact has your career as an educator had on your fiction?
One of maxims for writers is “Write what you know.” Over my almost forty years in education, I was blessed to meet and work with thousands of teachers, administrators, parents, students and board members. This experience has given me a tremendous respect for those who toil quietly and without fanfare to give our children the best chance at happy, successful and productive lives. I interacted with them in all kinds of situations from mundane to crises and believe educators are truly the unsung heroes of our country. And I’ve seen them at their best and their worst. This has given me a wealth of experiences to draw on to craft engaging and believable fictional stories. I write what I know. It should be no surprise that the heroes in my tales are and will continue to be educators.
What kinds of research do you do for your mysteries? Have you visited all the locations featured in your novels?
Research was one of the skills that transferred well from education to writing. In my school career, I was the person responsible for research on curriculum, on technology, on grants. So when I began writing in earnest, I used the same researching skills to make sure my tales were authentic. Not only did I visit the location for each entry, I spent time with the locals, completed on-the-ground research at the local library, met and worked with town and Chamber representatives. I worked to learn the idioms and culture of each area. Plus each story required new areas of research—sailing on the Chesapeake Bay, learning about the lives of migrant workers, discovering the unique history of the area. I have to admit I love the research almost as much as I love the writing.
I notice your blog covers a wide variety of topics. Please highlight a few for the benefit of our readers.
I view my blog as a conversation between my readers and me. At times, I share a bit about my writing or some writing advice I’ve found quite helpful. Other times I’ll blog about some of the social issues exposed in my novels. For example, January is Human Trafficking Awareness month. Since the second title in my series, CRIMSON AT CAPE MAY, exposes the horror of this crime, I do a post that month sharing some important information. My recent posts in December, the giving season, have shared organizations and non-profits particularly deserving of our support. Oh, and since ghosts play an important role in my series, I share a post about the spirit world every few months. In fact, I have another ghost blog post coming up next month.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
My latest book is the third entry in the Haunted Shores Mysteries, SCARLET AT CRYSTAL RIVER. In the tale, my teacher hero, Darrell, is taking his new bride on their honeymoon to a quaint small town on the Gulf coast of Florida. But their newlywed celebrations are interrupted by the ghosts of two murdered children, who plead with Darrell to help them find justice. (And of course, only he can see them.) Even though it is third installment, SCARLET can be read separately from the first two, and is a Christmas mystery as well. The novel has already earned three national awards and scores of 5-star reviews.
“Author Randy Overbeck intrigues the reader with a tantalizing mystery, cleverly drawn characters, haunting paranormal activity, and a great story steeped in contemporary social issues and interests.”
Review of Scarlet at Crystal River
What are you working on now?
As I mentioned earlier, I’m currently deep at work on a new manuscript of a historical suspense about the Culper spy ring which helped Washington win the Revolutionary War. The preparation and execution is requiring the most extensive research I’ve ever done for a novel, but I’m excited to be doing it. It’s still early but it’s coming together well and shows promise. And guess what? The hero, er I should say heroine, is a teacher. Big surprise.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
The only advice I can give is what has worked for me. Make sure to attend one or more writing conferences. Most good ones may require some travel and come at a cost, but the benefits are worth it. New writers get to mingle with and learn from both veterans and those who may be a little ahead of them on the learning curve. Conferences also enable newbies to build a network of support, in addition to all they learn at the sessions. Second, if they are serious about their writing, aspiring writers should participate in a strong writers’ critique group. Even though writing is at its essence a solitary experience, emerging writers can benefit tremendously by getting feedback from colleagues on their writing…and learning from the feedback.
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
Here are the details:
Website: Author Randy Overbeck
Facebook: Facebook
Twitter: Twitter
Instagram: Instagram
BookBub: BookBub
Amazon: Amazon
Goodreads: Goodreads
Podcast: Podcast
Also my latest project is a new podcast, GREAT STORIES ABOUT GREAT STORYTELLERS, where I share the unusual and weird backstories about famous authors, poets and directors. The podcast is available wherever listeners get their podcasts—Spotify, iHeart, Apple Podcasts or they can also get them at this link on my website
Great Stories Podcast
Dr. Randy Overbeck is a best-selling author of the award-winning series, The Haunted Shores Mysteries, each a cold case murder mystery wrapped in ghost story served with a side romance, set in a beautiful resort location. He is the author and voice of a new podcast, “Great Stories about Great Storytellers,” which reveals the unusual backstories of famous authors, directors and poets. He is also a speaker in much demand, sharing his multi-media presentations, “Thanks Still Go Bump in the Night” and “A Few Favorite Haunts” with audiences all over the country. More info about his novels, programs and podcast can be found at his website:
Author Randy Overbeck
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
BITCH: ON THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES, by Lucy Cooke. The author, a British zoologist and documentary filmmaker, presents a fascinating survey of the long-neglected status of females in biologists’ studies of the animal kingdom—or should that be “queendom”? As Cooke describes the state of the field until recent decades, zoologists regarded males as overwhelmingly the primary drivers of evolutionary change, with females dismissed as “passive” and boring. She takes on the mission of demonstrating how wrong those scientists were. She begins at the microscopic level, with gametes, revealing flaws in the image of the female’s egg as passively floating around waiting to be penetrated by one of the active sperm cells. In fact, the ovum has ways of controlling which sperm will be allowed to fertilize it. Chapter One, “The Anarchy of Sex: What Is a Female?” covers the development of the embryo, what determines its sex, and many examples of ambiguous sex among animals. Cooke goes on in subsequent chapters to explore the “mysteries of mate choice” (in which females are much more active than had been assumed in the past), the assertiveness and competitiveness of females of various species, female-dominated animal social groups, how mating patterns can function as competition between male and female, sexual behavior in supposedly monogamous species, nonreproductive sexual encounters, the complicated nature of maternal behaviors, females who devour their mates, “primate politics,” parthenogenesis, and the vital importance of older females in the societies of animals such as elephants and orcas. The final chapter, “Beyond the Binary,” discusses intersex phenomena, animal homosexuality, and creatures who change sex. Some species can switch back and forth, and one fish is known to change sex up to twenty times in a day for optimal reproductive efficiency. The author writes from a feminist perspective, justifiably if the masculinist bias in biology continued to dominate research as recently as she suggests. But this slant on the theme doesn’t in any way overshadow the abundance of concrete information she entertainingly provides.
PALADIN’S GRACE, by T. Kingfisher. This fantasy romance is the first in the “Saint of Steel” trilogy, connected novels starring three different characters in the same order of paladins. Their god, the Saint of Steel, suddenly and inexplicably died, leaving them with a void in their souls. As berserkers, often possessed by the god in combat, they’re now at risk of being overcome by the “black tide” of battle madness with no divine force to channel it. Those who survived this catastrophe now live as best they can under the patronage of the White Rat God, whose domains are healing and law. The trilogy takes place in the same world as SWORDHEART, and Zale, a legal advocate who plays a major role in that novel, also appears in PALADIN’S GRACE. Paladin Stephen more or less accidentally rescues Grace, a gifted perfume-maker. They feel an instant mutual attraction, which both resist, Stephen because of the unpredictable battle madness and Grace because of experiences with the emotionally abusive husband from whom she fled. Nevertheless, as one would expect, their paths keep crossing. Grace receives a commission to create a perfume for a foreign prince, a job that gets her unwillingly entangled in the hazards of court politics. By the time she falls under suspicion of poisoning and witchcraft, she and Stephen are so deeply involved that he risks everything to save her. The Temple of the White Rat comes to their aid, as, in a more subtle and problematic way, does Grace’s landlady and best friend, who turns out to be a professional spy. In addition to the devotees of the White Rat (of whom I can’t get enough), these books include an entertaining nonhuman species, gnoles, three-foot-tall, badger-like humanoids who perform a variety of jobs. One of their common sayings, “Humans can’t smell,” encapsulates their perception that most humans are so oblivious we can hardly be blamed for our ignorance. The gnoles’ own language applies gender pronouns according to class rather than biological sex. In the human tongue, though, they hardly ever use pronouns or proper names at all (except when very rarely being unusually formal and precise). A gnole refers to itself in the third person as “a gnole,” other creatures as “a human,” “an ox,” etc. The author’s afterword states that she wanted to write a fluffy fantasy romance in the world of SWORDHEART and the Clocktaur duology. By the time she finished, she realized fluffy romances don’t usually contain so many severed heads. The other two books in the Saint of Steel trilogy star two of Stephen’s comrades in their own love stories. In PALADIN’S STRENGTH, the love interest is a bear-shapeshifter lay sister of the Order of St. Ursa on a mission to rescue a group of kidnapped werebear nuns. In PALADIN’S HOPE, it’s a lich-doctor, this society’s equivalent of a medical examiner, who has the secret ability to view the final moments of any dead person or animal he touches. All these novels display Kingfisher’s irresistible wit and sparkling characterization.
CLOCKWORK BOYS and THE WONDER ENGINE, by T. Kingfisher. These two novels, which actually comprise a single book split into two volumes because of its length, predate the Saint of Steel trilogy. The author’s afterword to CLOCKWORK BOYS explains that she conceived the story in reaction against the brooding, guilt-ridden paladin with a dark past too common in fantasy games. While her paladins are burdened by dark pasts and specialize in guilt, they offset their brooding tendencies with sardonic self-reflection and Kingfisher’s trademark snappy dialogue. Sir Caliban, to a reader already familiar with the other books in this world, foreshadows the traumatized Saint of Steel paladins. He serves the Dreaming God, whose devotees specialize in vanquishing demons. We meet him in prison after he committed mass murder while possessed by a demon he was trying to exorcise. Only the possession kept him from being sentenced to death, but he was expelled from his order anyway, and the decaying remnants of the dead demon still haunt his soul, while he feels himself cut off from his god. Slate, an expert forger, lock-picker, and document thief, imprisoned after she committed an inadvertent act of treason, recruits Caliban to join her and her best friend (really, her only one, for a certain value of “friend”) and former lover, assassin Brenner, on a potential suicide mission. Both she and Caliban wear magical tattoos that will come to life and painfully bite them if they stray from the assignment. They’re sent to an enemy city to investigate and, if possible, eliminate the Clocktaurs or “Clockwork Boys,” an incongruously playful-sounding nickname for terrifying, gargantuan, unstoppable, magically animated war machines. Unfortunately, Slate has grave reasons to fear returning to that city, a backstory not revealed to either her companions or the reader until well into the novel. Along with them goes Learned Edmund, a naïve, young scholar of an order traditionally suspicious and disdainful of women. Edmund, naturally, learns better as he travels and fights alongside Slate. A gnole also joins the group, and we get glimpses of gnole culture. The story would make an excellent Dungeons & Dragons campaign, with an oddly-assorted party of reluctant allies, side adventures that tie into the main quest in surprising ways, and an epic final showdown in which the skill sets of all the characters play vital roles. The climax goes to very dark places, yet the second book ultimately reaches a satisfying conclusion in which the overarching mystery is solved, while Slate and Caliban achieve the romantic fulfillment they and the reader have been impatiently anticipating. Again, if you decide to read the Clocktaur duology, be sure to get both volumes because they make up one continuous story.
THE EASTER RISING: A GUIDE TO DUBLIN IN 1916, by Conor Kostick and Lorcan Collins. Basically a printed counterpart to the authors’ 1916-themed walking tour of Dublin, this book covers dozens of sites associated with the Easter Rising. Since it’s organized by location rather than dates, it doesn’t lay out the progress of the rebellion in strict chronological order. However, a timeline at the beginning lists important events from 1884 to Easter Monday, 1916, and the book’s introduction provides an overview of the background that led up to the Rising. The final chapter, “Dublin Castle Courtyard,” summarizes the aftermath. So there’s a chronological framework for the site-specific historical facts. Also, despite the unavoidable skipping around in time, a rough impression of forward movement remains. The book is profusely illustrated with black-and-white photographs. Each chapter includes biographical sidebars about the significant people discussed therein. An appendix offers more detailed information about the seven men who signed the Proclamation of Irish independence. There’s also a selected bibliography for further reading. Anyone seeking information about the 1916 Rising or the history of modern Ireland in general will find this book of absorbing interest.
*****
Excerpt from “Crossing the Border”:
Paula quickly realized Kyle was headed for the labyrinth. He’d shown her the place right after they’d moved in, and she’d avoided the trail to it ever since. Not because she feared a plain patch of ground, of course, just that the barren clearing looked so dreary. A labyrinth was supposed to provide a peaceful space for meditation, but this one made her nerves twang. By the time she reached it, her fingers and toes felt chilled, as if the temperature had fallen ten degrees since she’d left the house.
Stopping at the edge of the clearing and turning off the flashlight, she hid among the trees to watch Kyle pace along the spiral to the center. In the moonlight she could make out his moving silhouette but no details. When he stepped into the heart of the labyrinth, though, a glow suffused the spot.
Paula stifled a gasp. A violet-blue aura surrounded Kyle, expanding as she watched. Had he lit some kind of lamp? No, by the unnatural light she saw that he wasn’t holding anything, and no such device sat on the ground next to him. He stretched his arms over his head and took one more step.
And vanished.
A second later, the glow blinked out of existence. She rubbed her eyes, sparks flashing behind the lids. He’s got to be here somewhere. She ran to the edge of the labyrinth and aimed her flashlight beam at the center. Nothing. She swept the beam over the entire clearing. He couldn’t have dashed out of sight that quickly. “Kyle, where are you? Stop scaring me.” No answer.
She paced the perimeter of the clearing, certain in advance that she wouldn’t find any sign of him. Shivering even though the air couldn’t be much cooler than sixty degrees, she retraced her steps to the house. This time she wouldn’t let him escape without an explanation.
For over an hour, she sat on the bed watching the office cottage from the window. Oh, God, what if he never comes back? The moment the office light switched on, she rushed downstairs, outside, and across the yard to the little building.
When she burst in, Kyle, slumped in the desk chair, looked up with that stunned, dazed expression. “Paula?”
She gripped his arms. The heat of his skin seared her palms. “What happened to you? Where have you been?” She fingered the red marks. “And what’s this?”
“The blob. It got me when I let go of the talisman.” He nodded toward the desk.
-end of excerpt-
My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Wild Rose Press: Wild Rose Press
You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter