Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Welcome to the November 2020 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
My Goodreads page:
Goodreads
Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers! May we all find something to celebrate even in these strange times.
As you may know, Yahoo Groups will close permanently on December 15. This newsletter will continue to be uploaded here:
Please bookmark the page and check for new issues at the beginning of each month. Thanks! I will post a notice on my Facebook author site—address noted above—when each newsletter is uploaded. By following that page (if you don’t already), you can be sure not to miss an issue.
Below is another snippet from my werewolf novel, SHADOW OF THE BEAST, recently republished by Writers Exchange. At this point in the story, heroine Jenny doesn’t yet realize she’s actually a werewolf. She thinks her memories of transformation were nightmares. The book’s page:
http://www.writers-exchange.com/Shadow-of-the-Beast/
Here’s an interview with Sydney Winward, author of vampire romances and other romance subgenres.
*****
Interview with Sydney Winward:
What inspired you to begin writing?
I first found my love of writing after I wrote down an awesome dream I had. I expanded on the details, and eventually, the story became a book. The book was awful! I was only twelve years old at the time. But I remember the pride of the accomplishment from writing a book, and it inspired me to keep writing.
What genres do you work in?
I mainly write fantasy and paranormal. Always romance. But recently, I’ve been veering toward historical. I just finished writing a historical fantasy trilogy, and now I’m working on a western historical for The Wild Rose Press Wylder West Series.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
Something in between. I’ll have a vague idea of the direction of the book and what scenes I want to include in the story, and from there, I’ll wing everything in between. If I outline too much, I find I lose interest in the story. I prefer to be just as surprised and excited by what happens next as my readers.
What have been the major influences on your writing (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
During my teenage years, Christopher Paolini played a big part in my love of writing. I loved the world he created in the Inheritance Cycle and the depth of his characters. I was such a geek that when I went to an event to listen to him speak many years ago, I didn’t want to wash my hand when he shook it after haha!
I also fell in love with reading, which also played a huge part in me wanting to write my own books. Brandon Sanderson taught me there is no limit to the worlds you can create. Sarah J. Maas taught me great characters contribute to a great storyline.
Please tell us about your vampire series. How do your vampires differ from the traditional type (if they do)?
The vampires in The Bloodborn Series are closely related to traditional vampires in the sense that they don’t have a reflection, sunlight burns them, and they can’t enter a room or building without permission. I sprinkled in a bit of my own magic and lore into the world I created. Although my vampires do drink human blood, they also have their own set of morals and standards they adhere to.
How did you research witchcraft for ROOT BREW FLOAT?
Growing up, I was a HUGE fan of Charmed, the tv show. Some of my ideas came from what I learned from the witches. Other ideas stemmed from my own imagination. One thing I love about writing fantasy is being able to create my own rules in my own world.
Do you have any advice for authors wanting to start a newsletter?
I highly recommend opting into a newsletter builder promotion with Booksweeps. I got over 900 new subscribers, plenty of which interact with me and follow the progress of my books. I’ve heard of other authors who have had success with Authors XP promotions and Story Origin. You have to make sure you have good content in your newsletter that will entice readers to open the email and read what you have to say. It also doesn’t hurt to offer incentives/freebies/giveaways!
What is your latest-released or soon-forthcoming work?
My third book in The Bloodborn Series, Bloodscourge, is currently undergoing edits with my editor. It’s my favorite book I’ve written in the series, a story about Dracula when he meets Elisabeta during a dangerous time in Ichor Knell, the vampire city.
What are you working on now?
I’m currently working on a western historical romance set in 1879, a part of the Wylder West Series with The Wild Rose Press. Here’s a rough blurb for the book:
When Sophia Meadows’ closest friend dies (the man she has secretly loved for years), a piece of her soul, and her music, dies with him. Two years later, her father arranges a marriage to a wealthy businessman across the country. Along the journey to meet her fiancé, the train gets derailed and robbed by bandits.
She seeks help at the nearest town, and upon arriving, she runs into the man who ripped her heart out with his death two years earlier. Alive and healthy.
Samuel Woods is a bounty hunter, and when one of his jobs goes south, he is forced to fake his death to protect those he loves. When he runs into Sophia during a job in the middle of nowhere, he’s floored. He has to win back her trust, and her heart, before she shuts away from him completely, and before she chooses to return to the man she’s been promised to.
As their relationship gets rekindled into something far more than friendship, Sophia finds her music again. However, the danger Samuel has feared for so long returns when the bandits kidnap her to get to him. He must stop them and finish his job, otherwise he’ll lose the woman he loves for a second time.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Just keep writing. I wrote maybe something close to two million words in stories and books just for fun before I got Bloodborn published, my debut novel. I’m excited that Bloodborn is a finalist in the New Jersey Romance Writers Golden Leaf contest! Perseverance and dedication helped me get here. Each project you finish, you become a better writer by the time you start your next project. Getting published takes a lot of time and practice!
What’s the URL of your website? Your blog? Where else can we find you on the web?
Website: Sydney Winward
Twitter: Twitter
Facebook: Facebook
Instagram: Instagram
BookBub: BookBub
Amazon Author Profile: Amazon
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
A DEADLY EDUCATION, by Naomi Novik. The subtitle “Lesson One of the Scholomance” foreshadows more to follow. In fact, although the plot of this book reaches a satisfying resolution, the final lines set up an irresistible hook for the next volume. So be warned. Novik’s Scholomance isn’t the Devil’s academy mentioned in DRACULA, probably just named after it. It’s not clear where this Scholomance is located, or, at least, where its entry gate is anchored, since its interior space exists on a plane separate from the mundane realm. Wizards at this academy get a much harsher education than those at Hogwarts. Novik’s school was constructed in the late 1800s mainly for teens from enclaves, the elite clans of the magical community. Lower-status students are admitted principally to serve as cannon fodder for the protection of the elites. The mana—magical energy—of young wizards attracts hordes of ravenous monsters of various types and power levels, collectively called maleficaria, “mals” for short. Layers of magical wards protect the students, but not very effectively, judging from the frequent attacks they have to fend off. There are no teachers; scholars are self-taught, highly motivated by the goal of living to graduate. Freshmen can bring in only items they can carry under a limited weight allowance. They’re trapped inside until graduation, receiving no contact from the outside world unless a new student agrees to deliver a message. The school itself appears quasi-sentient, supplying books, food, and other necessities, but in a capricious manner. If you put something down without securing it, the object may not be there next time you look for it. Each single-occupant dorm room has a window opening onto the void, from which the resident may request items from the school and sometimes actually get what he or she needs. At the end of four years, surviving students enter the graduation hall and fight their way to the exit. The first-person narrator, Galadriel (called El), in her third year, has no friends. Although her commune-dwelling mother is a gentle, New Age witch, compassionate toward all living things, El herself has vast destructive potential but less aptitude for modest, more useful spells. Her classmates fear she is or will become a maleficar, this world’s equivalent of an evil sorcerer, although even the nicest of the students falls short of altruism. Orion Lake appears to be an exception. He infuriates El with his habit of protecting other students, even rescuing El from monsters more than once. In the opening scene, she seriously considers killing him to stop him from saving her life. (There’s no penalty for attacking classmates aside from informal ones students themselves may impose.) She wants a chance to destroy a mal herself in a flamboyant way, demonstrating her power and usefulness. Thus she hopes to win allies and get invited to join an enclave after graduation. Over the course of the story, she manages to form an alliance by other means and, though at first reluctantly, make a few friends. With Orion, she develops a fraught frenemy relationship, peppered with snarky insults, that may develop into something deeper. At the climax, the two of them join forces with other students in a grand project to change the terms of graduation. This book differs markedly from both the Temeraire “Napoleonic War with dragons” series and Novik’s two high fantasy novels. I found A DEADLY EDUCATION enthralling and can hardly wait for the next installment.
ELSEWHERE, by Dean Koontz. I like this latest novel best of Koontz’s recent thrillers that I’ve read, primarily because it’s a portal fantasy. Technically, though, it’s science fiction, since the characters travel the multiverse by means of an electronic gadget the size and shape of a cell phone, but without buttons. Single father Jeffrey Coltrane, whose wife left him and vanished seven years earlier, lives with his eleven-year-old daughter, Amity, and her pet mouse (adopted as practice for a puppy). Jeffrey supports them by restoring and selling vintage radios. Ed, a friendly but apparently deranged homeless man who turns out to be a brilliant quantum physicist in hiding from the government, gives Jeffrey a box containing the “key to everything,” warning him not to open it. Of course Jeffrey opens the box, and of course the device accidentally gets activated, sending him, Amity, and the mouse to an alternate America. It’s a dreary place under a totalitarian regime, complete with an organization analogous to the Hitler Youth. The Coltranes manage to escape back to their Earth, but their troubles have only begun. Despite Amity’s pleading to use the key to find a universe where an alternate version of her mother might enable their family to reunite, Jeffrey decrees that random jumping among universes is too dangerous to undertake for such a tenuous possibility. Nevertheless, as we’d expect, they’re forced to use the key to escape when agents of a covert government organization scour the neighborhood in search of Ed (who has disappeared) and the key. They zero in on the Coltranes, leading to suspenseful flights between our universe and another, much worse than the totalitarian America. Jeffrey and Amity find an unexpected ally and narrowly avoid capture or death several times. An alternate-universe Ed, still eccentric but mentally sounder than the one Jeffrey knew, enters their lives as a sort of science-fictional fairy godfather. Jeffrey and especially Amity are endearing characters, and their well-deserved denouement feels right, even if a little rushed. The one thing I don’t like about this novel is the antagonist. The head of the team in pursuit of the key, he’s yet another iteration of the same unbelievable villains Koontz has been creating for the past few decades. Like all the rest of them, he’s an arrogant sociopath with delusions of restructuring society to eliminate or subjugate the unfit—practically everybody—after accumulating enough wealth and power to impose his will without restraint. With boundless contempt for most of the human species, he has no characteristics outside this template unless we count the attempt to give him some motivation through the backstory of an evil stepmother (from his viewpoint, at least). He’s a caricature of a melodramatic supervillain but without superpowers. Couldn’t he be a credible, normally human bad guy working for the dark side? Wouldn’t the urgency of retrieving the key give him enough motivation without making him pure evil incarnate?
THE HOLLOW PLACES, by T. Kingfisher. Although I didn’t find this novel as mind-blowing as Kingfisher’s superb THE TWISTED ONES, it’s an excellent story that I’ll reread more than once. It combines a peculiar house with one of my favorite motifs, portal fantasy. Like the earlier novel, THE HOLLOW PLACES features a female first-person narrator with an irresistibly witty voice. However, unlike the heroine of THE TWISTED ONES, who reluctantly returns to her late grandmother’s grim house to clear out mounds of hoarded junk, newly divorced Kara finds a welcome refuge in her eccentric uncle’s Glory to God Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosities, and Taxidermy, where she often hung out while growing up. While other people, including her ex-husband, might consider the bizarre collection creepy, she thinks of the displays, artifacts, and stuffed animals as old friends. She gladly accepts an invitation to live at the museum, in a back bedroom adorned by her favorite taxidermy piece, an elk’s head she named “Prince” in childhood. In return, she waits on tourists and begins the monumental project of creating a digital catalog of the collection. Soon after a box of miscellany including a “corpse-otter” carving from the Danube arrives, her uncle has to go into the hospital, leaving Kara in charge on her own. Almost immediately, she discovers a hole in the wall that turns out to be much more than it initially appears. At first assuming a visitor did the damage and left without mentioning it, Kara enlists Simon, who works at the coffee shop next door, to help with the repair. Simon is a quirky character, a middle-aged, gay man who proves to be a brave and loyal friend, sticking to Kara throughout the harrowing adventure that follows. Probing behind the wall, they find more space than the building could reasonably hold. They soon run out of plausible explanations for the anomaly and come upon a mysterious door. It leads to a realm of water and fog, dotted with small islands overgrown by willow trees. Each one, it turns out, probably harbors a portal to a different realm, like the Wood Between the Worlds in C. S. Lewis’s THE MAGICIAN’S NEPHEW. The comparison doesn’t escape Kara, who eventually begins to think of the place as an anti-Narnia. Though eerie and desolate, the landscape doesn’t seem outright scary at first. Exploring it, though, Kara and Simon stumble upon horrors both human and inhuman. Graffiti that warn “They can hear you thinking” and “Pray They are hungry” are just the beginning. An encounter with a trapped explorer from another world is particularly gruesome. They manage to escape and get home, just barely, but Kara soon learns that walling up the hole doesn’t end the danger. The final revelation of what caused the crack between dimensions came as a surprise to me, poignant as well as terrifying. My first thought when Kara and Simon entered the fog-shrouded island landscape was of Algernon Blackwood’s “The Willows.” Sure enough, the concluding Author’s Note reveals that she was inspired by Blackwood’s classic story. This novel is another can’t-miss read for fans of numinous horror with a subtly Lovecraftian feel.
THE MERE WIFE, by Maria Dahvana Headley. When I learned this retelling of BEOWULF was set in contemporary suburbia, the premise didn’t appeal to me. Having read highly favorable reviews, though, I decided to give the book a chance. The characters and the author’s craft drew me in. Although you don’t need familiarity with the ancient epic to appreciate this story, awareness of the parallels adds richness and depth to a reading of the novel. It focuses on two mother-son pairs. Willa lives in a gated community named Herot Hall after the family of her domineering husband. Dana, a traumatized war veteran and former POW, grew up in the same area and came home after her release and confinement in a military hospital to find the upscale development in place of the landscape she remembers. She secretly moves into partly flooded caverns that include an abandoned train station, where she gives birth to her son, Gren. Because of her severe PTSD, she doesn’t remember how he was conceived. She brings him up in a survivalist lifestyle, totally isolated from the outside world. As a preadolescent boy, he tests his boundaries by sneaking around to investigate Herot Hall. There he meets Dylan, Willa’s son, and they become friends. Unaware of this influence on Dylan, his parents fear he’s becoming mentally ill. Unlike the slaughtered warriors in BEOWULF, Dylan doesn’t get killed by Gren but voluntarily runs away to join him in the caverns. The narrative explores the characters of both Dana and Willa in depth, revealing that Willa is almost as troubled in her quieter way. Other viewpoint characters occupy less onstage time, notably the police officer (Beowulf’s modern counterpart) with whom Willa eventually becomes involved. There are also first-person plural interludes that function in a Greek chorus mode, such as overviews by the ladies of the community and monologues by a collective voice that seems to represent the landscape itself. While I didn’t much like the present-tense narration (as usual), it does enhance the surreal quality of the novel. I was slightly disappointed by the absence of fantasy content, except perhaps the voice of the mountains (if taken literally) and the hints about Gren’s appearance (he’s never explicitly described in detail). Like the original epic, MERE WIFE is essentially a tragedy, so prepare for much sadness. Nevertheless, it’s highly effective and worth reading for its own sake as well as its transmutation of BEOWULF into modern terms.
*****
Excerpt from SHADOW OF THE BEAST:
In the bedroom Jenny fumbled the covers down and collapsed onto the sheets without undressing. The bed rocked like a sailboat in the wake of a motor yacht. She swallowed the nausea and let her eyes droop shut.
The next thing she knew, she was sitting on a wooden footbridge gazing at the moon’s reflection in a pond. A cool breeze wafted the scent of pine from nearby trees. On the bank a few yards away, reeds rustled with the movement of a drowsy bird. She panted; she must have been running a moment ago.
She trotted across the bridge, her nails clicking on the boards. A sundial sat in the middle of an artificial layout of sand, gravel, and assorted grasses. Around her Jenny saw trees, shrubbery, and marsh weeds; in the middle distance loomed a dark building. Beyond the trees she heard the subdued roar of traffic.
Her mouth tasted dry and stale. Mincing through squishy grass to the edge of the pond, she bowed her head to lap the murky water. Her stomach was a little queasy, and her head felt clogged.
A few yards away, a mallard duck flapped its wings. When its smell penetrated her senses, she began to salivate, stood with her jaws agape and her tongue out.
Her hindquarters twitched. She clamped her jaws shut on the snarl that tried to rumble out of her chest. Another nervous flutter from the bird spurred her to action.
She sprang.
A leap into the air caught the duck as it tried to launch itself to safety. Her fangs slashed a wing. Shifting her jaws for a firmer grip, she gave the bird a vigorous shake. Her sharp ears heard the neck snap.
Hot blood gushed into her mouth.
When she was done, her belly filled with a warm heaviness, she stretched her forelegs, licked her muzzle, and emitted a luxurious yawn. Picking her way through the damp weeds away from the scraps of her kill, she found a sheltered nook under a stand of trees. She curled into a ball and fell asleep.
#
A hard lump poked her in the ribs. Her fingers brushed damp earth and pine needles. She opened her eyes. A full moon shone through swaying branches. She rolled onto her other side. The lump under her was a root.
Oh, God, I’m really out here!
She gathered her stiff, sore legs under her, clutching the tree trunk for support as she stood up. She skimmed her palm down the front of her body. Bare skin, crawling with the chill of the night breeze.
Looking up at the building that loomed over her, she realized where she was. She had sleepwalked all the way to the Tawes Garden, behind the District Court complex near the stadium.
Her plight could have been worse; she could have crossed a major highway. She tiptoed in the direction of the massive, gray stone court buildings. Her tender feet winced at the pebbles and twigs on the ground. Dizziness made her stop and grab hold of a limb or bush every few yards. Her mouth tasted rank, and the pulse throbbed in her temples.
Jenny slinked around the corner of the building and crouched in the shadow of a tree a few feet from the sidewalk. She stared across Taylor Avenue to the parking lot and the dark bulk of the stadium. Crossing Taylor and sneaking past the stadium to the residential neighborhood presented the main hazard. Jenny knelt under the tree, trying to make herself small as a car turned from Rowe Boulevard onto Taylor. The headlights just missed her.
Then she jumped up and dashed across the street. Not much of a dash, for her weary legs could manage little more than a shuffling trot. She reached the stadium lot and ducked under the chain next to the sidewalk just as a car rounded the curve on Taylor. Jenny dove full length onto the blacktop, scraping her palms and knees when she hit the ground.
She lay gasping until the noise of the car’s motor merged with the traffic on Rowe. After a couple of minutes she dredged up the energy to stand. She stumbled from one shadow to the next into the neat rows of houses, with a pause for breath at each stage. Finally she stopped to rest in a back yard shaded with a cluster of trees.
She sat in the dark under a weeping willow, hugging her bare legs. She felt tired enough to fall asleep on the spot, despite the damp and chill.
With a sigh she pulled herself to her feet again. Only a couple of blocks to home. When she crossed the yard, a dog started barking behind the chain link fence next door. Jenny knelt behind a holly bush. Shut up, dog! she silently begged. Next door the porch light flashed on. A heavy-set man in boxer shorts leaned out.
“Quiet, Tramp!” The dog charged the fence and kept barking. “What’s wrong with you? Somebody out there?” The man clicked on a flashlight and shined it around the yard.
I’m not here. Jenny held her breath. I’m invisible.
The beam missed her. After a moment the man yelled, “Damn dog, shut up!” and slammed the door.
Jenny lost no time in making a rush for the street. With no traffic in sight, she crossed in the center of the block, away from street lamps. Sticking to the deepest pools of darkness, she crept from one yard to the next.
-end of excerpt-
*****
My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Whiskey Creek: Whiskey Creek
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 2020 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, now that the Yahoo group is useless for that purpose, 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
My Goodreads page:
Goodreads
Happy Halloween!
If you’re a fan of C. S. Lewis’s THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS, you might enjoy my attempt at writing a Screwtape letter for these times. I hope I’ve achieved my goal of critiquing the current political climate in a nonpartisan way. It’s on my website here:
My fox shapeshifter paranormal romance novella, KITSUNE ENCHANTMENT, has been released into the world! It’s technically a sequel to YOKAI MAGIC but can stand on its own. On the verge of losing her job, Shannon leaps at the chance to sell her graphic novel series to a major publisher. If only she could trust her reclusive artist partner, Ryo, to show up for editorial meetings at the science fiction convention they’re attending. She’d love to have a closer relationship with him, but how can she count on a man who keeps disappearing with the flimsiest of excuses? Ryo, who’s half kitsune, is prone to transforming into a fox at inopportune moments. Furthermore, a bungling amateur sorcerer is stalking him. Ryo returns Shannon’s feelings but fears she couldn’t accept the truth about him.
There’s another brief excerpt below. In this scene, Ryo and Shannon are sharing dessert in his room at the convention hotel. Raptor and Vixen are their graphic-novel characters.
This month I’m interviewing vampire romance author R. E. Mullins.
*****
Interview with R. E. Mullins:
What inspired you to begin writing?
Divorce. That’s the honest, albeit unsavory, answer. My husband left for, uh, a younger pasture after twenty years of marriage. Long and short of it: After eighteen years as a homemaker, all previous skills were pretty rusty. I found a continuing education course catalog, and became a phlebotomist. I was lucky enough to work at a clinic that allowed me a flexible schedule. I was able to drop my youngest off at school before work and got off in time to pick him up. I worked weekends and holidays when his father had visitation. And, at night after my kids were in bed, I started to write.
Writing was something I’d fantasized about doing, but never seriously.
What genres do you work in?
Romance in the paranormal or fantasy genres. It seemed only natural that a phlebotomist would write about blood. Daily, while drawing my patients’ blood, I fantasized about a female phlebotomist. What would happen if a phlebotomist, working the nightshift, got bitten by a vampire? At night, I began putting those thoughts into a word file that kept getting bigger and bigger. Before I realized it I had a 96,000-word document that became: It’s A Wonderful Undead Life.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I don’t have a set pattern. With my first novel, It’s A Wonderful Undead Life, I ‘thought’ it out first. The Blautsaugers are (an old Bavarian word for Bloodsucker) an ancient family of vampires. When they find themselves the target of an evil plot, it’s up to the eldest brother, Gabe, to protect his family.
The second book, Vampire In The Scrying Glass, features the youngest brother of the Blautsauger family. I definitely winged that one. In fact, it seemed as if I had little to do but write down what the characters told me write. My third novel in the series, A Vampire To Be Reckoned With, my favorite, was fun to write as I loved researching the historical elements in the glimpses into Metta’s background. This led to a more organized style of writing. For better or worse, I reverted during the writing of the last book in the Blautsaugers of Amber Heights series. Cold Hearted Vampire was done completely by the seat of my pants.
What have been the major influences on your writing (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
As a child, I LOVED the Dark Shadows series on TV. I guess it gave me an early love for vampires. As for books, I tend to favor vampire books with some humor as in Nina Bangs and Lynsay Sands.
How do your vampires differ from the traditional type (if they do)?
As human ancestors learned to use fire and tools, so did vampires learn to cope with the world. Their need to go out in direct sunlight led them to invent both sunglasses and sunscreen. Still, they do prefer the nights. It must also be pointed out that, due to their long age span, they mature slowly. They don’t reach their majority until they pass the century mark, and it is celebrated in much the same way as a twenty-one-year-old human.
Please tell us about your Amber Heights setting and series. What other supernatural beings besides vampires does it include?
Amber Heights, Missouri is a fictional town but shares a lot of landmarks with the area I grew up in. Grand Falls, Shoal Creek, the Greenway Trail, and the low-water bridge are all part of my old stomping grounds.
Amber Heights isn’t just home to vampires, but a family of witches also reside there. Morgan Maguire’s story is found in Vampire in The Scrying Glass. After a spell goes horribly wrong, the young Morgan refuses her gifts. Now she must face her fears and learn to control her power in order to save Rafe Blautsauger.
What is your latest-released or soon-forthcoming work?
Diaper Duty Vampire is a novella that bridges the gap between
The Blautsaugers of Amber Heights Series and The Vampires of Amber Heights series. It tells the story of John Alden, Rafe Blautsauger’s Enforcement partner, and Joann Clarkson, Dr. Michaela Blautsauger’s laboratory assistant. Hilarity ensues as John unwillingly finds himself babysitting Joann’s toddler, Cody.
What are you working on now?
For over a year now, I’ve been working on the first complete novel in The Vampires of Amber Heights series. The working title varies between, Waking Up Dead and Waking Dead. Unfortunately, I’ve been battling some health issues that make it uncomfortable to type for any length of time. Some of the pain meds have also contributed to a major case of writer’s block. Yet, I keep plugging away. Hoping for inspiration to strike.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Put your butt in the seat and keep trying. So many aspiring writers have asked me how I managed to write 4 novels and 2 novellas. Some have a plot in mind, some a character, but every one of them seems to suffer from the same problem. And, that is sticking to it. Words don’t magically appear on the page. You must write. Remember to frequently save your work. And when you’ve enough words you start to edit. Edit, Edit. And edit some more. All of this is before you even start to worry about professional editors or agents or publishers.
What’s the URL of your website? Your blog? Where else can we find you on the web?
And my books can be purchased at
Amazon
Or any online book seller.
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
CINDERELLA IS DEAD, by Kalynn Bayron. Two centuries after Cinderella’s death, her fairy tale has become established as the compulsory pattern for every woman’s life. As soon as each girl in the kingdom reaches marriageable age, the law—imposed by the king descended from Cinderella and Prince Charming—dictates that she must attend a royal ball, where she may be chosen as a bride. Any female who offers herself at three balls and remains unchosen becomes a “forfeit.” Nobody knows the fate of the rejected girls. Bayron portrays an authoritarian, patriarchal society in which everyone lives in fear of the monarch and his cohorts. Even in fairly happy families, parents feel they have no choice but to steer their daughters toward the legally and socially required destiny. Girls eager to be chosen by their own equivalents of Prince Charming obsess over their costumes for the ball and dream of encountering a fairy godmother, which seldom or never happens. At sixteen, Sophia does not want to be chosen by any man. She’s in love with her best friend, Erin, who rejects the proposition of running away together. (Somewhat understandably—where would they go? And when they’d almost certainly get caught, they would face a dire fate.) Another close friend, Luke, prefers boys over girls. In their country, of course, same-sex romance is not only taboo but nearly unthinkable. On the night of the ball, their plan for Luke to choose Sophia catastrophically fails. She escapes to a series of adventures that upend her entire concept of how the world works. Discovering the long-lost tomb of Cinderella, she meets Constance, the only surviving descendant of one of Cinderella’s stepsisters. From Constance, with whom she quickly develops a strong mutual attraction, Sophia learns the true story of Cinderella, her “evil” stepmother and stepsisters, and the perfidy of the original Prince Charming. Together, the two young women discover the king’s dark secret, and they set out to overthrow him. While I love the premise of this novel, it has some plot weaknesses, in my opinion. Sophia wanders around aimlessly much of the time, blundering into important discoveries (such as Cinderella’s tomb) and finding useful things and people by sheer luck. She ignores good advice but, thanks to her protagonist plot armor, survives and succeeds anyway. Still, she struck me as a sympathetic character despite my urge to shake sense into her sometimes. On the plus side, the story doesn’t imply that disposing of the wicked king will automatically make life perfect for all women and girls under his reign. Most fans of revisionist fairy-tale retellings should find this novel fresh and thought-provoking.
JUST ELLA, by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Another re-imagining of Cinderella, this one published in 1999. I came across it among our thousands of books and didn’t remember reading it, although I must have when I bought it. It’s possibly unique in retelling the tale with no magic at all. Narrated in the first person, it begins with Ella, renamed Cynthiana Eleanora now that she’s betrothed to the Prince, waking in her cold castle bedroom. She’s afraid to re-start the dead fire because she’s been scolded for previously doing such an un-princess-like thing. She’s astonished when she learns of the rumors about her fairy godmother. In fact, Ella dressed herself and got to the ball on her own by cleverness and hard work. She hadn’t even thought of dancing with Prince Charming, much less becoming engaged to him. She hoped to make connections with wealthy people who might hire her as a tutor, allowing her to escape from her stepmother and the Step-Evils, as Ella calls her stepsisters. Now she’s living in the castle (in the guise of a foreign princess unfamiliar with local customs), being trained for her new status in preparation for the wedding under the ruthless domination of Madame Bisset, her instructor in etiquette and protocol. Ella is never allowed outside the castle and sees the Prince only briefly, once a day, with a chaperone. Her only relief comes from clandestine frank conversations with a serving maid and Jed Reston, who’s tutoring Ella in religion as a substitute for his ailing father. Jed has ambitious plans to establish care centers for refugees from their country’s long-running war with a neighboring realm, while Ella has escaped from a life of drudgery into one of stifling dullness. She gradually realizes the Prince is boring and empty-headed. In fact, it dawns on her that she has never been in love with him, only dazzled by his charm and good looks. But how can she get out of the engagement? Her attempts to assert herself, naturally, make matters worse, until she lands in a desperate plight where her only recourse is to flee the castle and become a fugitive. Despite the absence of magic, I found this novel enthralling and its conclusion completely satisfying.
A WIZARD’S GUIDE TO DEFENSIVE BAKING, by T. Kingfisher. This YA fantasy novel set in a secondary world is quite different in tone and content from Kingfisher’s superb adult horror novel THE TWISTED ONES. The only obvious similarity is that both are narrated in first person by female characters with distinctive, witty voices. Fourteen-year-old orphaned teenager Mona works in her aunt’s bakery. Mona’s baking talent encompasses more than mundane skills. In this world, many people have magical gifts, although more often small and specialized than big and flashy, and Mona can do amazing things with dough. She entertains customers by making gingerbread men dance, and she has one long-lived animated gingerbread figure she keeps as a sort of pet. Her other mascot is a bucket of sentient sourdough starter named Bob. He’s kept in the basement because of his habit of eating animals that stray within his reach. As the story begins early one morning, Mona finds a dead girl on the bakery floor. Local law enforcement takes Mona into custody for questioning, and things get worse from there. Following her release after many hours, she’s attacked by ten-year-old Spindle, brother of the murdered girl. After Mona convinces him of her and her family’s innocence, the two of them team up to uncover the truth. A mysterious figure known as the Spring Green Man seems to be involved. Magic-users have been disappearing or dying. Aside from Mona herself, one of the few left in the city is Molly, a kindly but deranged woman whose gift is animating dead horses; she wanders around with a dried-up, nearly skeletal zombie horse. Meanwhile, their city-state is at war, and the authorities are cracking down on magical folk. In desperation, Mona and Spindle eventually sneak into the castle to appeal to the Duchess herself. As the plot thickens, Mona gets unwillingly involved in combat and discovers extraordinary uses for the baking magic she’s always considered minor and ordinary. While fast-paced and entertaining, with moments of humor, this novel also delves into issues such as the nature of responsibility and heroism.
BRYONY AND ROSES, by T. Kingfisher. In this 2016 fantasy, Kingfisher retells “Beauty and the Beast” with some variations unique to her. As in Robin McKinley’s ROSE DAUGHTER (whose influence Kingfisher cites), the heroine is an avid gardener, and roses play a central role. Bryony, however, far from beautiful, is the plainest of the three sisters, a pragmatic young woman whose third-person narrative viewpoint is tart, self-aware, and tinged with snark. Unlike the heroines of other versions, she doesn’t much care for roses, considering them more trouble than they’re worth and often outright vicious (all those thorns). The backstory follows the usual pattern, a widowed merchant losing all his wealth and property except for a cottage in a remote village, where he retires with his three daughters. In this novel, both parents have died already, leaving the young women on their own. Bryony’s sisters are affectionate and hardworking rather than vain and jealous as in the classic tale. Holly is as practical and astringent as Bryony, while Iris is beautiful, delicate, and romantic. As the novel opens, it’s Bryony who gets stuck in a snowstorm and takes refuge, with her pony, in the mysterious, palatial manor house. After being feasted and sheltered, she tries to take a rose for Iris, provoking the Beast’s wrath. She delivers a chest full of coins to her home, packs a supply of plants and seeds, and returns to the Beast’s mansion. The house proves to be sentient and eagerly helpful almost to the point of smothering. As she cultivates her garden and grows to care for the Beast, she finds that he can’t talk about the crucial elements of his past. The magic forcibly prevents him. As in some earlier adaptations, she dreams of a seductive man. Both the dreams and the house itself, though, have sinister undertones. This version is darker than any other I’ve seen or read, with a climax verging on horror. The Beast’s origin story reveals him as neither an innocent victim of a malicious curse (as in the familiar fairy tale) nor a selfish brute needing to reform (as in the Disney version). He did bring his punishment upon himself, but the penalty was disproportionate to the offense, and he has long since repented and matured. The background of his transformation—and that of the house—is eerie and otherworldly. To my delight, he doesn’t revert to human form at the end. That denouement has always felt like a letdown to me, no matter how well written or acted.
*****
Excerpt from KITSUNE ENCHANTMENT:
“What kind of babies would Raptor and Vixen produce if they did mate? Winged fox cubs hatched from eagle eggs?” He polished off the last of his cake.
“I’m almost tempted to write that scenario just to see you draw it.” To avoid the sight of Ryo licking chocolate from his fork, Shannon concentrated on finishing her dessert, too.
“Considering the fans of a certain major film franchise don’t seem to have a problem with dragon-donkey hybrids, it’s not so farfetched.”
He set his empty box on the coffee table, then took hers from her and did the same with it. Turning toward her, he clasped her hand before she could withdraw it.
His skin felt fever-hot, a heat that radiated up her arm. On the other hand, like he said, sometimes we should live dangerously. She swayed closer to him.
“Magic,” he murmured. “Magic can do almost anything.”
He cupped her cheek with his free hand. He leaned in, giving her plenty of time to draw back if she chose.
She didn’t. Instead, she parted her lips, waiting. His lips brushed hers. The heat spread over her whole body and flared at her core. His tongue teased hers, and she twined one arm around his neck. Her nipples peaked and tingled. Twisting sideways to close the space between them, she couldn’t suppress a sigh of pleasure when he drew her into a loose embrace that tightened as she snuggled up to him.
Her eyes drifting shut, she ran her fingers through the dense pelt of his hair while he deepened the kiss. Waves of sensation rippled through her. As she moved her hand downward to skim over his cheek, fuzz tickled her palm. Whiskers? Surely she would have noticed if he’d been unshaven. Besides, this growth felt more like velvet than sandpaper. She opened her eyes.
Ryo flinched and pulled back. In the twilit dimness relieved only by the light from the overhead fixture just inside the door, his skin definitely looked lightly furred. Not only that, his teeth looked, well—sharp. She scooted to the end of the couch.
Ryo snapped his mouth shut and covered it with one hand. Springing to his feet, he mumbled, “Sorry—not feeling well all of a sudden. I’ll see you tomorrow morning. Sorry!” He scurried to the bathroom and slammed the door.
Staring after him, Shannon stood up, suddenly lightheaded, and gripped the back of the couch to steady herself. What’s gotten into him? And his ears—why do they look the wrong shape?
Did he expect her to leave just like that? Assuming he was actually sick, he would have asked for help if he’d wanted it. So, yes, he apparently did expect her to clear out. Well, she wasn’t about to beg him to let her stay. Tears prickling her eyes, she grabbed her purse and stomped out.
-end of excerpt-
*****
My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Whiskey Creek: Whiskey Creek
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 2020 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, now that the Yahoo group is useless for that purpose, 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
My Goodreads page:
Goodreads
Below is another snippet from my paranormal romance novella KITSUNE ENCHANTMENT, scheduled for release on September 23. It’s a follow-up to YOKAI MAGIC but can stand alone. How can a writer of graphic novels and her reclusive artist partner find happiness together when he has a secret life as a fox shapeshifter?
In this excerpt, half-human kitsune Ryo gets cornered by a co-worker who’d accidentally seen him changing into a fox.
This month’s interview showcases romance and women’s fiction author Mona Sedrak.
*****
Interview with Mona Sedrak:
What inspired you to begin writing?
When I was a child, we moved around a lot. In fact, I don’t remember going to the same school or having the same friends year after year. There was a lot of movement and constant change and instability that impacted my world so much that I learned to escape in books. We didn’t have a lot of money to spend on books, but my mother was very wise. She was a librarian for Harvard University and understood the gift of books and reading. She brought home many books for me and she would stop by any yard sale she passed and buy boxes and boxes of books. She didn’t necessarily limit what I read, and therefore, I read everything from engineering textbooks to romance. I learned to love books and the escape they provided. I consumed volumes of books, and she could barely keep up with my voracious appetite to read and learn. By the age of 13, I was reading probably 10 to 12 books a week on every subject under the sun. Nothing bored me. I also found out that I could teach myself anything by reading a book better than anyone could teach me. Then I started journaling and writing short stories, and I discovered that I communicated best through the written word.
As I matured my love for books only increased and my ability to learn on my own was even more pronounced. In my mid-30, I found my voice, first through academic publications–– journal articles and textbooks–– and then fiction. Fiction is my passion and I enjoy creating a world that readers can sink into and forget what is happening in their world. When I write, I too escape into that world, and perhaps that is why my academic life has minimal impact on what I write.
As a tenured professor and college administrator, my academic life is filled with rules, conflict, and stress. I love academia, and I love academic administration, but I have found that I am better as a person if I am able to escape and express myself in a different way through my writing.
What genres do you work in?
When I first started writing professionally, I was published in medical journals, chapters of various medical texts, and I co-authored a pharmacology textbook and an internal medicine review for physician assistant students.
About five years ago, I began writing fiction under a pseudonym and wrote two romance novels. My last two novels, published by The Wild Rose Press, are categorized as mainstream fiction/women’s fiction.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
The very first work of fiction I wrote, which I never published, I completely winged it. I wanted to see if I could write fiction, and once I started the words flowed, and I found that I absolutely loved writing fiction so much more than academic work. As my writing matured, I found that I had to do some significant research and character building before I began writing. I also began outlining the story using software called Scrivener. I can’t say that I outline the novel from beginning to end, but I come pretty close. Sometimes when I start writing I do follow the outline fairly well, but then the characters take over, and they do whatever they want and all that outlining I did goes right out the window. The character development, the world building, and the research is priceless. I know everything about my characters before I begin to write. I even choose pictures from the Internet so I know exactly what my characters look like.
I always know how a story will begin and how it will end. But each and every time I write, the characters take over and run amuck in the middle, and I always have to rein them in and many times I fail. The story unfolds as it wants to, and I go along for the ride.
What have been the major influences on your writing (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
Earlier in my writing career I would’ve said that certain authors made a huge impact on my writing. I still think that my writing is influenced by the many, many great authors whose novels I have enjoyed and learned from. However, now I believe life experience has the most impact on my writing. I think I have led an unusual life and have had many experiences that have molded me into the person I am today. There is no escaping from those experiences. Even if I suppressed or attempted to suppress those experiences from the words I write, they would still unconsciously have an impact on my writing.
Beside life experiences, I find people to be very interesting, and their actions and decisions never fail to surprise me. Sometimes hearing or reading a news story will spark an idea. Other times, a story idea comes to fruition just by listening to a conversation or speaking to family and friends. For instance, I was on vacation one year in a tropical location and the woman sitting next to me by the pool said she was waiting for a man she had never met before. Apparently, they had been emailing one another for years but had never spoken or seen each other’s picture. They lived in different countries and over the years, just through writing one another, they fell in love and decided to meet for the first time and get married. Neither knew each other’s age, background or family, or what they look liked. Their entire romance unfolded before my eyes over the next week, and I always thought their story would be a pretty cool prompt.
What academic field do you work in, and how has experience in that form of writing affected your fiction (if it has)?
I started my career as a clinician and then earned a Master’s degree in education, research, and leadership and a doctoral degree in higher education. I entered the world of academia over 20 years ago and taught in graduate health sciences for many years before I entered higher education administration. Several years ago I moved across the country and changed to undergraduate education. I am an Associate Dean at the University of Cincinnati Clermont. I also teach in the undergraduate health professions and still dip my toes in graduate education now and then.
Writing academically is very different than writing fiction. I enjoy writing fiction much more than I ever did writing academically, but I have to say that the experience I have with academic writing has positively impacted my writing on the whole. My experiences in the academic field probably impact my writing now in terms of research. I also watch people much more closely now and notice mannerisms and habits and forms of speech. I often draw from my experience as a clinician as well. As a clinician, the first thing one has to do is be an excellent listener. So, as I people watch I also listen very carefully to what they say and how they say it. My medical background often impacts my writing, and in fact, in my new book, Gravity, one of the main characters is a medical assistant.
What kind of research do you do for your fiction?
I do quite a bit of research before I ever start writing. I like to research as much detail I can about the setting in which the story takes place. Most of the time I can do the research via Internet, but sometimes it requires a visit to the location. After I know exactly where the story will take place, I research restaurants, stores, accents, special words or phrases in that area of the country, temperature and seasons and even architecture of buildings. If I’m going to describe a house or an apartment, I actually search the real estate ads and find a home that fits the story line and the location, and I do a virtual tour as if I was buying the house. Sometimes I take screen pictures so I can appropriately describe each room if need be. If the character is going to travel anywhere, I research time zones, how long a flight would be from one area to another, costs of the flight, etc. and then of course I have to research that setting as well.
I like to be as realistic as possible in my description, painting the picture for the reader. Gravity is mainly set in Florida. I visited Florida on a number of occasions and took many pictures and had many details, even about what time the sun set in a particular month. A reader just told me that they read the book while they were on a beach in Florida and each scene was so well described they felt that they were actually part of the story. So, details do matter quite a bit. While fiction can stretch the reader’s imagination and the writer can go as far as they want in creating their own world, when I write women’s fiction I like to create a realistic world and a realistic story. It would be different if I wrote science fiction or in a different genre.
Do you have any tips for authors wanting to start a newsletter (scheduling, subject matter, etc.)?
Newsletters are an interesting way of reaching readers, but they can also be incredibly annoying if you send too many. I will admit that I have a wonderful personal assistant who handles my newsletters. When I first started writing, I made the mistake of sending out way too many newsletters. Now, I send them seasonally or when something exciting is happening such as the release of a new book, a contest, a sale on my books or awards my books may have received. There are number of platforms that authors can use to build an audience where newsletters can be used. Readers are more likely to open a newsletter if there’s something in it for them such as a giveaway or contest. Telling readers a little bit about yourself, what you’re writing now, and even asking them questions about their opinions on your latest book or if you’re having trouble finding a name for a character or restaurant. Engaging the reader is huge and I tend to do more of that via social media than newsletters.
While I do not manage a blog myself, I am interviewed on quite a few blogs throughout the year. I also use a promo company who I love called N.N. Light. They are wonderful where blogs and getting the word out through social media is concerned and come up with a lot of great ideas such as character interviews, etc. They are also very affordable and you get to know a lot of other writers they work with. Will support one another with retweets and Facebook.
What is your latest-released or soon-forthcoming work?
Gravity was released on July 15, 2020. It is a woman’s fiction novel with strong romantic elements based on the Middle Eastern culture. Even though I am Middle Eastern, I still had to do some research, and actually, it was a harder book to write than other novels I’ve written. Perhaps this was due to me being too close to the subject matter and spending a lot of time making sure I offered a balanced message. This story is about a young Middle Eastern woman, Leila, who was born and raised in the United States, but lived a very sheltered life. She makes a decision which leads to her being shunned by her family, and for the first time in her life she’s alone. She has to learn who she is because she never identified with the American or Middle Eastern culture. The story is complex and has strong cultural elements. After being sheltered for so long, then thrust into the world on her own, Leila must rebuild her life and learn forgiveness, understanding, and tolerance. The story also is about an American man, Aiden, who is a single father of a child with down syndrome. Leila and Aiden come from remarkably different backgrounds and yet they are inexplicably pulled to one another. There are many challenges they have to overcome including each other’s cultural backgrounds and beliefs. At the end of the day, I want readers to understand that while we all may be different, our similarities outweigh our differences. With understanding and tolerance, the world is a better place.
What are you working on now?
At the present time I’m working on two different projects. I’m outlining a family saga which will be a five book series. I love writing about families and strong female characters. This series has a lot of drama, a lot of action, and a lot of twists and turns. I’m also working on a memoir for my family. I’m using StoryWorth to answer questions my children pose to me in story format, and at the end of the year, the stories will be bound into a book. This actually is very time-consuming as I have to dig up pictures and call on family members all over the world for information. I immigrated when I was five years old and many family members moved to other countries. Both projects are a lot of fun, and I often wish I had more time in the day to complete everything I want to do.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
I think aspiring authors are often terrified of putting themselves out there. They keep putting things off day after day, waiting for the perfect story to suddenly pop into their head and the perfect words to magically appear on paper. The thing is, there is no perfect story, and there are no magical words. The best advice I can give an aspiring writer is… Words on paper. Just do it. Sit down, start anywhere, and put words on paper. Once you start, the words will begin to flow. Your first draft will be just that––a draft and nothing more, but you should be proud of yourself because you would have completed an entire novel. Then comes the really hard part. You must share your work with someone. You can’t keep it locked up in your computer or in a notebook. Every writer struggles with sharing their work. We are all terrified of rejection that sometimes we let that fear overcome us, and we forget to visualize what success would be like. The best way to get feedback is to join a writer’s group locally or online. You’ll find that everyone is in the same boat, struggling to write the perfect story. They have the same questions you do about publication, marketing, and promotion and is it all worth it. They wonder if their work is worth anything, and if they should even send it to any publishing company at all or should they self-publish or should they try to find an agent. They have the same exact fears that you do. Therefore, when you join a group you will feel supported so much that the words will flow, and you will find an entire community that will support you through the process, but you must do the hard work. You have to write the words, and you have to share your words. Don’t let fear rule you because you will regret it.
What’s the URL of your website? Your blog? Where else can we find you on the web?
Social Media Links
Website: Mona Sedrak
Amazon: Amazon
Twitter: Twitter
Facebook: Facebook
Goodreads: Goodreads
Newsletter: Mona Sedrak’s Newsletter
Instagram: Instagram
Bookbub: BookBub
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
THE OTHER BENNET SISTER, by Janice Hadlow. I’ve always been disappointed that Mary Bennet in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE is treated so shabbily by the author. Jane Austen presents the bookish, socially awkward middle sister as a figure of mockery instead of showing her intelligence as worthy of respect. I enjoyed PRIDE AND PROMETHEUS, by John Kessel, which imagines Mary developing a bond with Victor Frankenstein and his creature. Hadlow’s book takes a realistic novel-of-manners approach, writing in a style similar but not identical to Austen’s own and focusing on the same issue central to PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: How can a woman with limited financial resources find her place in society? By her early teens, Mary has internalized her mother’s judgment of her as the plain daughter, a disappointment compared to all her sisters. In Mrs. Bennet’s view, marriage, which depends on beauty, is the only worthwhile goal for a young woman. Mary decides to concentrate on her strengths, music and reading. The pompous statements she interjects into conversations constitute her attempts to win respect for her scholarship. When she realizes her father, who she hopes will recognize her as a kindred spirit, regards her with the same detached amusement as he does the other girls (with the possible exception of Elizabeth), she feels her lack of worth confirmed. When she gets her first pair of spectacles, she’s delighted to be able to read comfortably but doubly convinced of her plainness. The early part of the novel passes rapidly over the events of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, seen through Mary’s eyes as an outsider to her sisters’ dramas. The main story starts after all four of the other girls are married, even Kitty (to a respectable clergyman), and Mr. Bennet dies. After the loss of the family estate, Mary has to depend on Jane and Elizabeth to shelter her. She even returns briefly to their former home as a guest of their friend Charlotte, now Mrs. Collins. Hadlow develops Mr. Collins, the clergyman presented as a buffoon in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, into a rounded character who engages the reader’s sympathy. When Mary turns as a last resort to her mother’s London relatives, the Gardiners, their affection and the example of their happy home life lead her to self-respect and, finally, a love worthy of her, a man who shares her deep enjoyment of literature and philosophy. I did notice one tiny, annoying error that an author this perceptive and intelligent shouldn’t make: She repeatedly refers to the children of Mary’s Aunt Gardiner as Mary’s nieces and nephews, using the correct “cousins” only once that I remember. But on the whole this novel should delight any fan of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.
THE CARE AND FEEDING OF WASPISH WIDOWS, by Olivia Waite. This is the second of Waite’s nineteenth-century lesbian “Feminine Pursuits” romances, following THE LADY’S GUIDE TO CELESTIAL MECHANICS. It’s not exactly a series, since the two books don’t share characters or story elements. Like the earlier novel, this one focuses on female characters working at unusual vocations for women of that era. Penelope Flood, beekeeper in the village of Melliton, has a platonic marriage with a man who’s actually partnered with her brother. The two men spend most of their time away at sea. Agatha Griffin, a widow with a nineteen-year-old son, owns a print shop in London. When a swarm of bees colonizes her warehouse in Melliton, she hires Penelope to deal with them and finds herself reluctant owner of a beehive. Back in London, she corresponds with Penelope about the bees, and soon their letters progress to intimate friendship. While Agatha begins to make regular visits to Melliton, she has to cope with her son’s radical tendencies and the romantic attraction between him and her young female apprentice. Meanwhile, Penelope clashes with the village lady of the manor and the minister of the local parish. The deep affection between the two heroines grows against the background of political unrest catalyzed by the alleged adultery of Queen Caroline. Waite makes the physical, social, and cultural setting come fascinatingly alive. The technology of printing and the lore of honeybees are presented in absorbing detail. Both Agatha and Penelope are strong characters in their own ways. Each hesitates to express her feelings openly, but of course they eventually do. Before they can form a permanent union, though, Agatha has to settle the issues of her London business and her son’s potentially dangerous radicalism, as well as his future with her apprentice. The love scenes between the two heroines are hot, sensual, and deeply emotional. Recommended for fans of unconventional historical romances.
CATALYST, by Sarah Beth Durst. Although the premise of this early-YA novel sounds silly at first glance, it’s a surprisingly good book, with the implications of its fantastic elements seriously explored. Twelve-year-old Zoe finds a lost kitten small enough to fit into her hand. She has a habit of rescuing stray animals of many different species, and after the skunk incident, her parents forbade her to bring home any more of them. The tiny kitten, whom she names Pipsqueak, is easy enough to hide in Zoe’s bedroom—until she grows far beyond normal cat size within a couple of days and starts talking. Zoe has gotten permission to keep the kitten, on strict conditions, but a giant, talking cat is another matter. When her parents wonder where the little kitten has gone, and Pipsqueak grows almost too big for the backyard shed, Zoe and her best friend, Harrison, decide they have to find a way to return her to normal. Zoe writes to Aunt Alecia (her mother’s estranged sister), considered the crackpot of the family, and her aunt invites Zoe to bring the cat to her home for a solution to the problem. So, with the cover-up assistance of Harrison’s teenage girl cousin, Zoe and Harrison embark on an adventurous journey, riding on the kitten, who’s now the size of an elephant. Along the way, they pick up an extraordinary dog and mouse, too. Given the fantasy premise, Zoe’s problems and her relationship with her lively, affectionate family are realistically rendered. The answer to the riddle of Pipsqueak’s transformation is one I would never have guessed.
SURVIVOR SONG, by Paul Tremblay. Horror author Tremblay has written a story of the temporary breakdown of society during a lethal epidemic, presented intimately through the eyes of two women in desperate straits. Its publication at this point has to be an uncanny coincidence, given the length of time required to write a novel, then get it printed and released by a major publisher. The virus in SURVIVOR SONG is a mutated form of rabies with a frightfully short incubation period, often transforming a human victim into a ravening beast in as little as an hour. Like animals (which are also susceptible to the disease), human sufferers have an aversion to water and a compulsion to bite. Although they don’t die and revive, the term “zombie” inevitably occurs to many people, including Natalie, a woman in late pregnancy whose husband is killed by a rabid man before her eyes. She manages to slay the attacker, but not without getting bitten. She seeks help from her best friend, Dr. Ramola Sherman. Together they manage to get to the hospital where Ramola works. There Natalie receives an injection that may prevent her from developing the disease. She needs a transfer to a facility where she can have a caesarian delivery to prevent the baby from getting infected. The plan goes wrong, of course, and the rest of the story (except for the epilogue) is intensely compressed into the brief period while Ramola and Natalie search desperately for a hospital or clinic able to perform the procedure. As Natalie’s condition deteriorates, they struggle with traffic congestion and hysterical crowds, while encountering maddened disease victims, a self-appointed militia cohort, and a pair of teenage boys determined to label the outbreak a zombie apocalypse and react accordingly. Because of the infection’s virulence and rapid development, it proves easy to contain after the initial chaos. As the epilogue, set ten years later, portrays, the world does recover and return to normal. Despite inevitable personal tragedies, the story ends on a mood of hope. The book is told in present tense, which as usual, I consider a pointless distraction, aside from the journal entries Natalie dictates into her phone as a record for her unborn child. In fact, in my opinion their poignant immediacy would come across better if the third-person passages were in the conventional narrative past. Still, the novel’s unrelenting tension gripped me, and the two women are three-dimensional, sympathetic characters. I could even overlook Natalie’s constant use of obscenities, which she herself often remarks upon with disarming humor.
*****
Excerpt from KITSUNE ENCHANTMENT:
When Ryo managed to stop worrying about ContrariCon, his thoughts reverted to the problem of Joel Brady. On the following Wednesday, Ryo’s next day at the office instead of working from home, he tried to stay out of Joel’s path. He succeeded until he left his desk late in the afternoon and headed for the elevator, only to find the corridor blocked by the very man he wanted to avoid.
“Ryo, just who I need to talk to.”
Ryo couldn’t quite make himself shove past Joel. “What for? I’d like to hit the road before the traffic gets bad.”
“Come on, I’m sure you can guess what I want to discuss—what happened last week at your place. I know what you are.”
Ryo’s pulse accelerated. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you do.” The other man smiled as if inviting him to share a joke. “I saw you change into a fox.”
“Are you kidding or just losing your mind?”
With a glance down the hall, where two women were rounding the corner toward the elevators, Joel said, “You don’t want to talk about this where anybody could hear, do you? Let’s go someplace private.” He clutched Ryo’s arm and steered him toward the nearest vacant conference room.
Ryo let himself be steered, not eager to have his coworker raving on about magical transformations in range of potential witnesses. What can he do to me right here, anyway? Maybe I can convince him he imagined the whole thing…
Leaning against the window frame, he warily watched Joel, who took the seat at the head of the table as if preparing to chair a meeting. “Give it up, Ryo. I wasn’t high on anything. I know what I saw.”
“Sounds like your reality check bounced. You saw me, and then you saw a fox. I don’t know what made you imagine some kind of connection.” He kept his hands relaxed at his side rather than clenched and drew slow breaths to calm himself inwardly as well as outwardly. The last thing I need is to sprout ears or a tail with him staring straight at me.
“We spend most of our waking hours on video games about wizards and monsters. Why shouldn’t I have an open mind about the supernatural?”
“You really believe this?” Ryo tried to echo the other man’s casual tone.
“I’d rather believe you changed into a fox than think I actually have gone crazy.” Joel leaned back in the chair, his gaze fixed on Ryo as if expecting the change to repeat at that very moment. “I’ve been reading up on kitsune. Fascinating stuff, including little details like their favorite foods being tofu and red bean paste. According to the folklore websites, you’ve got some amazing powers.”
“So work them into a game. Which you seem to be confusing with reality.”
Unfortunately, the repeated denial didn’t deflate Joel’s confident manner. “The legends mention a lot of other abilities besides changing shape. Foxfire, invisibility, possession, and a bunch more.”
“If I could turn invisible, the first thing I would’ve done was dodge you.”
As for fox possession, when Ryo had discussed it with his mother, she had warned him as a teenager not to try. “Until you gain much more experience, that would be dangerous for you. It is too easy to lose yourself in the mind of the person you attempt to possess, unless you have a companion to support you—ideally another kitsune.”
“But you’re the only kitsune I know,” he’d said.
“A human partner would do, if you find one you can trust completely.” Her wistful tone gave him the impression she’d never found one, even in marriage.
He had little hope of forming a bond with any such person, and it certainly wouldn’t be Joel. Ryo started toward the door, but Joel stood up to block him.
-end of excerpt-
*****
My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Whiskey Creek: Whiskey Creek
Wild Rose Press: Wild Rose Press
You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter