Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Welcome to the November 2018 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):
This is my Facebook author page. Please visit!
Facebook
Here’s my page in Barnes and Noble’s Nook store. These items include some of the short stories that used to be on Fictionwise:
Barnes and Noble
Go here and scroll down to “Available Short Fiction” for a list of those stories with their Amazon links:
Kindle Works
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
Happy American Thanksgiving!
I have a light paranormal romance novella, “Yokai Magic,” inspired by Japanese folklore, coming out from the Wild Rose Press on January 7, 2019. I’ve posted the cover in the Photos section of the Yahoo group. The heroine, Val, inherits a magical Japanese scroll, which conjures up a cat yokai (spirit) who’s being hunted by a wolf demon. As Val’s house becomes infested by magic, she has to turn for help to her former high-school boyfriend, now an officer in the Navy.
My humorous ghost story “Haunted Book Nook” will appear in SWORD AND SORCERESS 33, release date November 2. It takes place in the rare books room of a magical university’s library, where books and other objects have been mysteriously vanishing. An excerpt appears below. (Fenice is the librarian, and Milo is her assistant.) You can find the Kindle edition of the anthology here. (There should be a trade paperback, too, but it doesn’t show on Amazon yet.):
Here’s a post where the editor of the anthology interviews me:
The Romance Reviews website is having a huge giveaway promotion for the entire month of November. I’ll be giving away a PDF of my story collection DAME ONYX TREASURES. Check for my contest question on November 23:
This month, I’m interviewing paranormal and SF romance author Mary Auclair.
*****
Interview with Mary Auclair:
What inspired you to begin writing?
Like most writers, I have written for as long as I remember. My mother kept some of my earlier writing from first grade, and it already showed how much I loved putting my internal world onto a page as a story. So I guess I just never stopped!
I have been working more seriously in the past 5 years, as I chose to take a break from my engineering career to focus on being a mother. I now write full time, and I would never go back!
What genres do you work in?
I love everything paranormal and science fiction, and I also like historical work, although I have mainly focused on paranormal and science fiction romance lately.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
As an engineer, I’m a stickler for order and control. I outline generously and with lots of detail. Only then do I feel confident enough to start writing a novel.
What have been the major influences on your writing (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
As a reader, I’m fairly diverse in my taste. I do adore Stephen King and Nalini Singh, but I also revere the great classics like Alexandre Dumas and George Sand. My absolute favorite is Anne Hebert, a French Canadian poet and writer whom I have discovered in my late teens.
How has your mechanical engineering background affected your fiction (if it has)?
I guess it made my writing life more ordered than most artists. I create checklists and outlines for all my stories, from the general series arc to each novel inside it. I also create a calendar with predicted end date for each story, and I work very hard to stick to it.
As I’m not writing hard science fiction as of late, I don’t really apply my scientific knowledge to my work, but it’s certainly in the plans.
Do you maintain a systematic “bible” for each of your series?
I maintain a bible for each series, with a glossary and timeline. I’m a control freak!
How would you describe your dragon species?
I intended the Dawn of Dragon series as a breach between fantasy and science fiction. I am quite enamored of dragons, although I wanted to steer clear of the dragon-shifter, so I imagined a world where powerful aliens would maintain a symbiotic relationship with dragons.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book (or both)?
I am working on two series right now, alternating between them for release. I just released Venomous Hunger (Book 2 in the Eok warriors series) and I’m in the final stage of editing Caress of Fire (Dawn of Dragons, book 2).
What are you working on now?
I’m currently outlining Venomous Heart (Eok Warriors, book 3) and I am in the final stages of editing Caress of Fire (Dawn of Dragons, book 2).
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Keep writing, no matter how much you self doubt. Also, consume as much as you can on books about writing. And learn to outline, whether it’s scene by scene or in broad strokes is up to you. Experiment to see what works for you. There is no method out there that works for all of us, so you need to search for what works for you, then stick to it.
And above all, believe in yourself.
What’s the URL of your website? Your blog? Where else can we find you on the web?
I maintain my website fairly often, here at www.maryauclair.com, and I’m also on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. I love Pinterest and maintain vision boards for all my novels!
Website: Mary Auclair
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Thank you for the chance at being featured in your newsletter!
Mary Auclair
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
THE CABIN AT THE END OF THE WORLD, by Paul Tremblay. Even stranger than the author’s horror novels, A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS and DISAPPEARANCE AT DEVIL’S ROCK. Those two books employ familiar horror motifs, even though in unsettling and ultimately ambiguous ways. This latest book approaches the currently popular apocalyptic tropes from a microcosmic, personal angle in a unique scenario. Chinese-born Wen, almost eight years old, is vacationing with her two adoptive fathers, Eric and Andrew, in an isolated cabin deliberately chosen for its lack of wi-fi and cell phone reception. One day, a seemingly nice man named Leonard walks out of the woods and starts a conversation with her. When she becomes uneasy enough to run for the house and tell her dads about the stranger, two women and another man join Leonard and demand to be let in. They insist they mean no harm but have an urgent message for Eric and Andrew. Eventually, they manage to break in. With the tautly suspenseful action, the reader hardly notices that almost a third of the book has gone by before the intruders announce the revelation hinted at in the cover blurb. They claim to have separately received “messages” about the imminent end of the world (although it soon becomes clear that what they expect is the end of human civilization, not the literal destruction of Earth). They deliver the ultimatum that either Eric, Andrew, or Wen must die by the willing hand of one of the other two in order to forestall the apocalypse. They display sorrow over their mission and treat the captives kindly, aside from tying up the two men. Are they deranged killers? Sociopathic liars on a homophobic rampage (Andrew’s hypothesis)? Well-meaning but delusional fanatics? Or could their claim of having received a supernatural revelation be true? The cabin has cable TV, so Leonard and his companions can access news reports that seem to validate their “message.” Every bit of evidence in their favor can be explained away, though. They announce a deadline, exacerbating the relentless suspense. The immediacy of the timeline probably accounts for the author’s use of present-tense narrative (sigh). Scenes are told in third person from the viewpoints of various characters, mainly Wen and her fathers. The portrayal of the child’s thought processes struck me as convincing. Near the end of the book, perspective shifts to first-person singular and plural voices. Readers who hope for a conclusive resolution to the questions of truth and falsehood, not to mention the nature of a deity who would impose such a condition (if the intruders are telling the truth), will be disappointed. As in his other supernatural fantasies, Tremblay maintains ambiguity, leaving the reader to draw conclusions from the evidence provided. Also, if you can’t stand graphic violence, skip this novel. I didn’t care for the quantity and intensity of it, but I stuck with the book to find out how the sympathetically portrayed family survives (or not) their horrific plight.
THE ADVENTURE OF THE INCOGNITA COUNTESS, by Cynthia Ward. A short trade paperback novel (110 pages) in the publisher’s “Conversation Pieces” line, this quirky story takes place in an alternate history reminiscent of Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula series. Like Newman, Ward populates historical events with fictional characters from a wide range of sources. Although her world doesn’t measure up to the complexity and depth of Newman’s (at least as apparent from this brief sample), it’s cleverly constructed and offers the fun of spotting the allusions. The narrator, Lucy Harker, dhampir daughter of Mina Harker and Dracula, serves as a secret agent for the British government. The head of her organization, M (of course), actually Mycroft Holmes, is also her stepfather, having married Mina after her divorce from Jonathan. Lucy’s step-uncle, the famous “consulting detective,” is mentioned several times. M assigns her to travel first class on a new transatlantic steamship leaving England in April 1912, in order to protect an American military officer carrying confidential documents about the reverse-engineering of the recently recovered submarine Nautilus. Thanks to technology derived from the failed Martian invasion in the late nineteenth century, the highly advanced ship is claimed to be unsinkable. The reader, naturally, knows we’re on the Titanic well before its name is mentioned. Lucy meets vampire Carmilla Karnstein, now using the name Clarimal. Other passengers include a pair of German agents and an English peer, Lord Greyborough, and his wife, Joanne (stand-ins for Lord Greystoke—Tarzan—and Jane). Lucy and Clarimal, drawn together by instant, ardent passion, become sexually intimate, even though Lucy considers it her duty to stake vampires on sight. Clarimal claims eagerness to be released from her cursed existence, but somehow they keep putting off the fatal deed night after night. Lucy doubts their mutual attachment because she has always believed vampires to be incapable of genuine emotion. The fast-paced plot culminates in the anticipated collision with the iceberg, and all Hell breaks loose. Thanks to Clarimal and Lord Greyborough, Lucy succeeds in foiling the Germans’ scheme, at least for the present. I enjoyed the story but didn’t feel a deep emotional connection to the characters. We don’t get to know Clarimal well enough for the growing love between her and Lucy to be, for me, fully convincing. Still, this quick, fun read would appeal to most fans of classic vampire fiction. There’s a sequel, THE ADVENTURE OF THE DUX BELLORUM, set during World War I.
THE BARTERED BRIDES, by Mercedes Lackey. Another fantasy novel with a Sherlock Holmes connection, this is the third in the Elemental Masters subseries featuring Holmes, John and Mary Watson (Elemental Mages), and medium Sarah and psychic Nan from the main series. A more suitable title, actually, for the sake of accuracy in addition to alliteration, would be “Beheaded Brides,” since the “bartering” isn’t that important a plot point; “Beheaded” might give away a bit too much at first glance, though. As the book opens, the public believes Sherlock Holmes plunged to his death along with Professor Moriarty. Wisely, the narrative doesn’t drag out artificial suspense on this point. Holmes reveals himself to the Watsons, Nan, and Sarah almost immediately, although his survival is to be kept a secret among his inner circle for the present. Moriarty, though dead, lingers as a ghost bound to a talisman prepared beforehand by a necromancer henchman of his. The beheaded corpses of young women, many of them mere girls, turn up dressed as brides. We get numerous scenes from the necromancer’s viewpoint, so we know what he’s up to long before the heroes do. By constructing a sort of “battery” of psychic energy from the girls’ bound spirits, he plans to transfer Moriarty’s spirit into a new body. For that purpose, the villain snares a disgruntled young would-be poet in opium addiction. The suspense arises from watching Nan, Sarah, and the Watsons pull together seemingly unrelated threads to discover that the various crimes and attacks plaguing them come from the same person. Their preternaturally intelligent birds, Grey and Neville, of course play vital roles in the investigation. So does the ghost of a young woman, Caro, prematurely dead after leading the sheltered life of an invalid, whom Sarah befriends. For a while toward the end of the book, the heroes engage in more waiting and watching, reactive rather than proactive, than is usual in a Lackey novel, but there is a certain amount of realism in recognizing that they’ve hit a dead end in their investigation. Good ultimately triumphs, of course, with a happy ending for everyone who deserves it, even Caro, except the murdered “brides” (unless one considers their escape into the peace of the afterlife as such). Unlike almost all the other Elemental Masters fantasies, this book doesn’t rework a fairy tale, aside from one scene’s allusion to the poisoned apple in “Snow White.”
*****
Excerpt from “Haunted Book Nook”:
That evening Fenice and Milo met in the deserted hall outside the Rare Books Archive. After unlocking the outer door to the suite, she cast invisibility spells on her assistant and herself. Milo’s clothes rustled as if he were flapping his arms. “Wow,” he whispered. “This feels weird.”
“You’ll get used to it.” She groped for the doorknob and let the two of them into the anteroom, then shut the door behind them. Although the lamps on the reading desks had been extinguished for the night, a smaller, dimmer version of the ceiling globe in the book vault allowed them to see their way to the inner portal. They stepped inside and closed that door, too. “Nobody here,” she said. “My first guess would be that somebody is filching objects by long-distance teleportation, but the wards should prevent that.”
Milo bumped into her and murmured an apology. “However they’re doing it, I wonder why they’re taking ink and stuff like that. Valuable books, I can understand.”
She felt around until she could clasp one of his hands, clammy to her touch. She guided him to the corner next to the oversized painting and pulled him down beside her. “We’ll be out of the way here in case a flesh-and-blood person shows up. We don’t want them to trip over us. Now we should stay quiet.”
A tedious stretch of time followed. In the windowless room, no sounds broke the stillness except the flutter of the pen in the drawer and the skittering of the glass cat’s paws. After a while, her legs and rear ached from sitting on the hardwood floor. She cautiously shifted position to ease cramps and heard muted scrapings and rustlings as her assistant probably did the same. Just when she wondered whether they’d waited long enough and ought to give up until the following night, a chill crept over her. The next moment, the temperature of the air fell from its usual dry coolness to the cold of a bleak autumn day.
Milo gasped. Fenice squeezed his hand to remind him of the need for silence. Directly across from them, several books in the center of a shelf halfway up began quivering. After a few seconds, one of them detached itself from its place and floated across the room toward the picture. About an arm’s length from the wall, the volume blinked out of existence, or so it appeared.
-end of excerpt-
*****
My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Hard Shell Word Factory: Hard Shell
Whiskey Creek: Whiskey Creek
You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter
Welcome to the October 2018 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):
This is my Facebook author page. Please visit!
Facebook
Here’s my page in Barnes and Noble’s Nook store. These items include some of the short stories that used to be on Fictionwise:
Barnes and Noble
Go here and scroll down to “Available Short Fiction” for a list of those stories with their Amazon links:
Kindle Works
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
Happy Halloween!
Harlequin has scheduled a 31-percent-off Halloween sale. On Halloween, visit their website and apply this code: NEVERMORE31
For those who haven’t read EMBRACING DARKNESS, a stand-alone vampire romance in my “Vanishing Breed” universe, here’s a chance to buy the e-book at a large discount:
An excerpt appears below. Heroine Linnet and hero Max (a vampire, though she doesn’t know that yet) are preparing to interrogate a minion of the female vampire responsible for the deaths of Linnet’s niece and Max’s younger brother.
G. Kent (whose vampire trilogy I review below) posted a wonderful 5-star review of DARK CHANGELING on Amazon:
Amazon Review of Dark Changeling
October’s interviewee is multi-genre romance author Marie Dry.
*****
Interview with Marie Dry:
Thanks for having me over Margaret. I love talking about writing and my stories.
*What inspired you to begin writing?*
I’ve made up stories ever since I can remember. I first wrote something down at seven. Sadly that masterpiece was lost.
*What genres do you work in?*
I have one Paranormal Romance book and six Science Fiction Romance Books published. I am also working on a steampunk trilogy, contemporary romance and more Paranormal Romance Series and a Dragon Story. If it’s a romance genre I probably have an idea somewhere in a file or on my computer that will fit the genre.
*Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?*
I “wing it”. I’d love to be able to outline and shave some time off my process but that just doesn’t work for me. Any planning I do is with character development. I always have this suspicion that people that plot know things I’m supposed to know.
*What have been the major influences on your writing (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?*
Jayne Anne Krentz is one of the biggest influences. A few of my favorite authors are Nalini Singh, Georgette Heyer, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Christine Feehan and of course my CP Cassandra L. Shaw and many more. The stories have always been there, I think of myself as a story teller and through good times and bad I could depend on the characters in my head to get me through anything.
*How would you describe your dragons?*
Different from what you’d expect a dragon to be and about to meet a catalyst in the form of my heroine.
*How do your vampires differ from the “traditional” type?*
They are elitist and arrogant, so not that much different from most vampires. When I write Alaina and the Vampire I will learn more about them.
*What’s your world-building procedure for alien cultures? Do you keep a series “bible” for each of your series?*
I have a rough bible for the Zyrgin Warrior series. I have an extra set of my books which I use to keep myself reminded of all the facts in the series. It’s full of post-it stickers and with relevant passages highlighted. I do world building the way I plot. By the seat of my pants.
*What is your latest or next-forthcoming book (or both)?*
Dawn of the Cyborg came out 1 September and next will be Alien Redeemed. After that I will either write the next Cyborg or Alien Rescue.
*What are you working on now?*
Alien Redeemed.
*What advice would you give to aspiring writers?*
Write every day, enjoy the writing process and learn the craft of writing. But above all enjoy the characters in your head and their stories.
*What’s the URL of your website? Your blog? Where else can we find you on the web?*
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
GRANADA HILLS BLOOD WAR and GRANADA HILLS BLOOD LUST, by G. Kent. These two novels complete the vampire trilogy begun in GRANADA HILLS BLOOD. In the first novel, Bach, a native of Bakersfield, California, now living and teaching high school in Granada Hills, gets transformed into a vampire. He quits his job, embraces a new lifestyle, and learns of the ongoing feud between the minority of killer vampires and the generally benign majority. Bach reconnects with Annie Mosher, a former girlfriend, who aligns with the killer vampires and betrays him. He converts and falls in love with a woman named Sophie. In the second and third novels, Bach becomes more deeply initiated into the vampire world. He meets older, wiser undead and teams up with police officers who know about the killer vampires and, in a sometimes precarious alliance, fight against them alongside the non-killers. Annie reappears, her allegiance and moral stance remaining ambiguous. Some people Bach honors and cares for die. In the course of the “blood war,” he discovers the dangerously addictive quality of draining blood, especially vampire blood, in act of killing. Bach’s California milieu is permeated with popular culture, especially the movies of recent decades. Film stars are frequently name-checked and sometimes appear in person. The practice of including living celebrities as characters strikes me as legally risky, although at least the narrator doesn’t say anything derogatory about them. Johnny Depp appears as a vampire, but he’s a nice one. I admire the way this author gives his vampires several unique features. A fledgling vamp will become ill if he tries to go outside the boundaries of his territory. He also needs to consume blood from residents of his home territory. As a vampire grows older, his or her range gradually expands. Although these vampires do need blood, they can also eat and drink ordinary foods and beverages. In an intriguing innovation, mercury acts like “kryptonite” for vampires. A knife blade or a bullet coated with mercury can seriously wound or even kill one of the undead. Bach struggles with not only addiction to the kill (a not-uncommon motif in vampire fiction), but also, more unusually, with depression, personified as the “black dog” of melancholy. It bothers me that Bach so casually resorts to stealing to support himself (even if he can’t teach or coach in the high school anymore, there are plenty of night jobs he might work at). Otherwise, though, he’s a pretty decent guy. Fans of stories that explore the plight of an ordinary person adjusting to the demands of a vampire existence should enjoy this trilogy.
ALTERNATE ROUTES, by Tim Powers. This is a rich and strange work of fantasy, as one would expect from the author of THE STRESS OF HER REGARD and THE ANUBIS GATES. This latest novel reveals ghosts haunting the Los Angeles freeway system. The “currents” generated by the flow of traffic on the freeways attract the spirits of the dead. Ex-Secret-Service agent Sebastian Vickery (not his real name) is in danger from a covert branch of his former service that investigates the freeway ghosts or, as they’re officially labeled, “deleted persons.” Vickery had to leave the Secret Service when he accidentally overheard a fragment of speech the authorities didn’t want him to know about. Now he drives for a “supernatural evasion car service” (as the cover blurb puts it) disguised as a fleet of food trucks. In the first chapter, Ingrid Castine, an agent who has become disillusioned with her organization, saves his life in a gunfight. Thus begins a shared road trip along the highways of both mundane southern California and a surreal alternate dimension. The covert agents, under the supervision of Terracotta, a creepy antagonist who has rejected the concept of free will and the reality of consciousness, monitor and sometimes communicate with deleted persons. Precautions must be taken; for instance, if you speak to a ghost in complete sentences, it may be able to track you down. Therefore, a circle of three or four agents reads a message from a written script, one word per person at a time. As fugitives on the L.A. freeways, Vickery and Castine seek help from several quirky characters. Also, Vickery encounters his dead wife, who committed suicide after learning that they couldn’t conceive children (because he had a vasectomy before they met). The conventional wisdom holds that ghosts aren’t the people they appear to be, but only simulacra with their memories. Yet they THINK they are the people who died, so don’t they deserve to be treated with consideration? In addition to the spirits of the dead, the freeway also harbors the “never born,” shades of individuals who might have existed in a different reality but never lived in ours. Vickery and Castine meet one such shade, his potential daughter. When Castine drives onto an on-ramp that shouldn’t be there and instantly vanishes after passing through the portal, Vickery follows her into the other dimension to bring her back. They have to anchor themselves against the chaos of that realm by fixating on logical, immutable facts such as basic math. They each carry a string abacus and constantly remind each other (for example) that two and two equal four. At the heart of the chaotic landscape stands “the factory,” opposite to the ever-shifting unreality of that world—a site, rather, of “hyper-reality.” Similarly to the mythological allusions in THE STRESS OF HER REGARD, this novel identifies the alternate-dimension freeway Labyrinth with the maze constructed by Daedalus in Greek legend. ALTERNATE ROUTES offers a riveting combination of terror, courage, love, and fascinatingly weird science-fantasy inventiveness.
FLIGHT OR FRIGHT, edited by Stephen King and Bev Vincent. A mostly-reprint anthology of horror stories featuring airplanes. It begins with an introduction by King and ends with an afterword by Vincent, and King prefaces each story with brief commentary. “About the Authors” includes a full paragraph of biographical background on each contributor. The contents range as far into the past as “The Horror of the Heights,” a terrifying adventure by Arthur Conan Doyle, and Ambrose Bierce’s sardonic short-short piece, “The Flying Machine.” The best-known tale in the batch is Richard Matheson’s “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” about an airline passenger who spots a gremlin on the wing, filmed as a classic TWILIGHT ZONE episode. Almost all the others were new to me. This book provides a valuable historical overview of air travel as a motif in horror fiction. Naturally, I like some of the stories more than others, but they all showcase high-quality writing. Two were written especially for this volume: “The Turbulence Expert,” by Stephen King, features a man who has the covert job of riding on commercial flights, going through traumatic psychic ordeals to prevent them from crashing. “You Are Released,” by King’s son Joe Hill, told from the viewpoints of multiple passengers and crew members on a commercial jet, follows the airliner’s suspenseful quest for safe harbor after an international crisis erupts into war. My one gripe about this volume is that the stories appear neither in alphabetical order by author nor in chronological order of publication (which would be preferable). Why do so many anthologies have apparently random layouts?
*****
Excerpt from EMBRACING DARKNESS:
The door behind her swung open. Linnet jumped. In the heat of the conversation, she’d forgotten about Max lurking outside. He darted around her so fast her head spun, grabbed the young man, and shoved him onto the couch. “Linnet, lock the door,” he growled without looking at her.
Shaking, she fumbled for the doorknob, closed and locked the door, and hooked the chain. The man didn’t even try to fight off Max. Instead, he gibbered incoherent phrases that conveyed nothing but terror.
“Shut up.” At Max’s quiet command, the man fell silent. “You will be quiet and listen. You will not speak or move unless I order you to. Is that clear?” The man nodded. Though he slumped, with his arms limp at his sides, his eyes stayed wide open. “Good. Now sit still.”
Linnet couldn’t help retreating a step when Max walked over to her. “You hypnotized him somehow.” She’d never heard of any form of hypnosis that worked so fast, with no soothing chants or shiny focal objects.
“More or less.” His hands skimmed up her bare arms to settle on her shoulders.
Recalling the vertigo that swept over her each time his eyes captured hers, she said, “You tried to do the same to me. But you can’t.”
“So I’ve concluded. Very intriguing.” One of his hands crept from her shoulder to her neck. His cool fingers on the flushed skin made her shiver. “But I don’t want you to hear my conversation with our host, so—”
She felt pressure on the side of her neck. Gray spots clustered before her eyes. He’s strangling me! The gray thickened to black. With a sensation like a rapid fall in an elevator, she tumbled into the blackness.
-end of excerpt-
*****
My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Hard Shell Word Factory: Hard Shell
Whiskey Creek: Whiskey Creek
You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter
Welcome to the September 2018 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):
This is my Facebook author page. Please visit!
Facebook
Here’s my page in Barnes and Noble’s Nook store. These items include some of the short stories that used to be on Fictionwise:
Barnes and Noble
Go here and scroll down to “Available Short Fiction” for a list of those stories with their Amazon links:
Kindle Works
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
Happy Labor Day to my American readers!
G. Kent, author of the “Granada Hills” vampire trilogy, gave my DARK CHANGELING, vampire horror with romantic elements, a 5-star review on Amazon:
He says:
“The book is an absolute page-turner, and you don’t have to be a fan of the genre to delight in the hunger and intoxication. Highly recommended!”
Below is an excerpt from “Dusting Pixie,” a humorous fantasy short story in my Kindle collection HARVEST OF MAGIC, which you can find here:
This month, I’m interviewing multi-genre author Nancy Northcott.
*****
Interview with Nancy Northcott:
What inspired you to begin writing?
I’ve always been interested in “What if…?” That led me to writing Legion of Super-Heroes fan fiction, and people who read my stories encouraged me to create my own worlds.
What genres do you work in?
I write paranormal romantic suspense, nonmagical romantic suspense, historical fantasy, and space opera.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I guess I’m in between. I outline major turning points, but I give myself permission to change them if I get an idea I really love.
What have been the major influences on your writing (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
I grew up reading comic books, Nancy Drew, historical fiction, and YA romance. If you look at my bookshelf, you can see the influences of those childhood favorites.
Do you maintain “series bibles” for your various series?
This is one of those “should” things. *g* I have one for the Outcast Station space opera series because my co-author, Jeanne Adams, and I could never have collaborated on the world without one. My Light Mages do not have one, alas, and they really need one. So do the other series, but the rest aren’t far enough along to make writing the bible daunting. The Light Mage Wars are, though. I need to block out time and just do that.
Please tell us about Wayfarer, Georgia.
It’s a small town near the Okefenokee Swamp. Wayfarer is different from most small, southern towns in that the whole town loves the paranormal. It’s a very New Age place, with the Serenity’s Rainbow coffee shop, Fairy’s Table bakery, etc. I grew up in a small, southern town, and while it was somewhat annoying have everyone in everyone else’s business, the sense of community made a lot of that okay. So I wanted Wayfarer to have that.
I created the town when I wrote Renegade because I didn’t want Griffin Dare, the hero, to be totally alone. He was a fugitive from mage justice, but I wanted him to have a place he could belong. That was the seed that sprouted into Wayfarer.
What are the basic principles of magic in your Light Mages series?
It’s nature-based magic. Mages draw natural energy from the world around them. There’s only so much one can draw at a time, and the power requires replenishment. The mages’ deadly enemies, the ghouls, have magical power, but it’s dark energy. Any power they absorb goes dark.
Please tell us about some of the resources available under “Extras” on your website.
You may have noticed that I’m still working on that area. What I have posted is kind of a hodge-podge. I have tips on contest entries and conference interactions for control freaks. I also have an essay about my longstanding interest in Richard III and the controversy surrounding him. That interest inspired my Boar King’s Honor trilogy.
The next release in the Light Mage Wars, Nemesis, is set in Brunswick and Savannah, Georgia, more than it is in the Okefenokee. I have a blog post called “On Location: Nemesis” with photos of the places I visited researching that book. I hope to do posts like that for every series, though probably not for every book.
There are also thumbnail summaries of books I’ve found informative about historical periods, mostly medieval England. I’m a history geek, so I love reading about the ways people lived in earlier eras.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book (or both)?
My next release is Nemesis, the next Light Mage Wars book. It’s about Tasha Murdock and Carter Lockwood, two mages who met a decade ago, when both were serving in the US Navy, but parted on bad terms. It’s set up by a scene in Warrior, the prior book in the series, where the two meet again. Now she’s a general contractor and interior designer and he’s a deputy shire reeve, the mage world’s equivalent of a Deputy US Marshal.
Duty kept them apart before. Now danger reunites them, with Carter determined to protect Tasha from the ghouls targeting her. Of course the old attraction between them blooms, but a secret in her past makes her reluctant to believe what they have can last.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on a fantasy project that’s too unformed to discuss yet and on my novella for Christmas on Outcast Station, the followup Jeanne Adams and I are doing to our anthology Welcome to Outcast Station. It’s space opera, and we’ll each have a novella in it.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Study the craft. Learn characterization, conflict, and structure. Learn punctuation and grammar because they help writers express ideas clearly.
What’s the URL of your website? Your blog? Where else can we find you on the web?
My website is Nancy Northcott, and the blog, where I post very irregularly, is linked to the homepage. On Twitter, I’m @NancyNorthcott, and my Facebook page is Facebook.
Thanks for having me, Margaret!
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
DEEP ROOTS, by Ruthanna Emrys. A sequel to WINTER TIDE, the first book in the Innsmouth Legacy series, in which we met Aphra Marsh, her brother, Caleb, and their foster-sister, Neko (whose family, during World War II, had been confined to the same internment camp where the survivors of the raid on Innsmouth had been imprisoned). In WINTER TIDE, Aphra and the other characters developed relationships with, among others, Professor Trumbull of Miskatonic University, whose mind had spent years on a distant planet while her body hosted a member of the alien race called Outer Ones, and FBI agent Ron Spector, who sympathizes with the Innsmouth remnant and has become almost a friend. In DEEP ROOTS, Aphra and Caleb are trying to track down other survivors or people with at least some Deep One blood in order to rebuild Innsmouth. They find a young man named Freddy, part Deep One, who’s involved with the Outer Ones. In the process of negotiating the tricky interactions that result, they also run into the Mi-Go, an even more enigmatic and potentially dangerous alien species. On top of the preternatural threats, Aphra and her friends have to adjust to the unfamiliar milieu of New York. I always enjoy a good revisionist Lovecraftian tale, and this series definitely qualifies. Through Aphra’s first-person narrative, we see her people as, rather than hideous hybrid abominations, simply another race with their own customs, gods, and history of persecution. Other characters’ viewpoints also appear, and the author helpfully provides date headers to help the reader keep track of the chronological shifts. The two species of aliens, the Innsmouth folk, and agents of the federal government interact in tense but not necessarily hostile confrontations. In the story thus far, Aphra doesn’t attain her goal as she originally envisions it, but she does reach a tentative compromise she can live with.
SILVER ON THE ROAD, by Laura Anne Gilman. This 2015 novel, first in the Devil’s West series, takes place in an alternate nineteenth-century North America divided into the United States in the east, the Spanish Protectorate in the southwest (a larger area than in our history), “unclaimed lands” in the northwest, and, between the Spanish and American possessions, the Territory. A man known as the devil rules the Territory from his headquarters at the saloon/casino in the small frontier town of Flood. It gradually becomes clear that he isn’t literally Satan, the fallen angel, but he’s definitely some kind of supernatural being who drives hard but fair bargains. Sixteen-year-old Isobel has grown up in the saloon as the devil’s ward, indentured to him by her parents when she was only two. She’s comfortable in her life there, hard-working though it is, and thinks of the devil as simply “the boss.” On her sixteenth birthday, however, her indenture expires, and she must choose the direction of her future. She wants to stay in Flood, working directly for the boss, and he agrees to enter a contract with her. She becomes the Devil’s Left Hand, destined to represent him to the people of the Territory. To her dismay, the first thing she has to do is leave her home and travel around the land, learning its ways and her own abilities. The boss makes a bargain with a stranger in town, Gabriel, to act as her guide and mentor, teaching her how to survive on the road. She already knows a lot about such vital matters as using silver for protection, being careful at crossroads, and avoiding magicians, but she has much more to learn. Gabriel, born in the Territory, trained as a lawyer in the urban American east, and now returned “home,” has his own secrets. On their journey, he teaches her both mundane wilderness survival skills and supernatural lore she hasn’t previously encountered. He’s quite human, though, while Isobel’s bargain with the devil grants her preternatural gifts she must explore and learn to control. Along the way, they meet a magician, an often annoying trickster character who latches onto them as a traveling companion and sort-of ally. A strong relationship develops between Isobel and Gabriel, although with no tinge of romance, given their age difference (so far, anyway). Demons as well as other dangers prowl the Territory. Eventually Isobel and Gabriel discover a dark force rampaging and killing across the land, worse than any demon. The world-building, vividly described and often menacing settings, and strong characters make this novel well worth the attention of dark fantasy fans.
SEA WITCH, by Sarah Henning. This revisionist novel based on “The Little Mermaid” tells the tale of a girl who ultimately becomes the Sea Witch of the fairy tale. It’s set in a version of nineteenth-century Denmark where magic is real. (I assume that to be the period because, although sailing ships predominate, steam technology has been introduced.) Even though no witches have been burned in a very long time, witchcraft is known to exist and is feared and loathed. Evie, an ordinary girl aside from her hidden magical power, narrates her story in first-person present tense. (I hope this fad for present-tense narration fades away soon.) Periodic flashbacks in third-person past tense fill in the backstory. Thus we learn of the incident in Evie’s childhood when she and her best friend, Anna, almost drowned. Their mutual friend, Nik, crown prince of their small country, and his cousin, Prince Iker, succeeded in rescuing Evie, but Anna died. Although Evie is only the daughter of the royal fisherman, she is allowed to visit the castle at will and remain friends with Nik. For this reason, and because many people blame her for Anna’s death, she’s treated with suspicion and resentment. She lives with her aunt, a witch, and secretly practices whatever scraps of witchcraft she manages to learn on her own. One day a strange girl appears out of nowhere. Named Annemette, she looks to Evie exactly like a grown-up version of Anna. Annemette, however, emphatically denies being Evie’s dead friend somehow resurrected. She does have a secret, though. She soon reveals to Evie that she is a mermaid in human form, fated to die if she doesn’t win Nik’s love within four days. Evie introduces her into the prince’s circle under the guise of a baron’s daughter. While Annemette tries to exert her wiles on Nik, Evie and Iker begin to fall in love. Has the alleged mermaid told the full truth about her past and her agenda? The answers unfold with surprising and potentially tragic plot twists, changing Evie’s life in a profound way. My only minor objection (aside from the present-tense narrative) is that until late in the book the flashbacks don’t name the characters, labeling them only “the boy,” the blonde girl, and the dark-haired girl; this device strikes me as an unnecessarily confusing affectation. Otherwise, I highly recommend the novel.
THE CHANGELING, by Victor LaValle. Apollo Kagwa’s wife, Emma, commits a horrific deed, apparently under the influence of postpartum psychosis, and then vanishes. In desperation, Apollo (after a period of hospitalization to recover from his injuries) perpetrates an irrational crime that gets him sentenced to two months in prison. After being paroled, he begins searching for Emma, led on by cryptic clues that draw him into a surreal world beneath the surface of workaday reality, whose existence he never would have suspected. This much, we learn from the cover blurb. To my surprise, the novel starts with the meeting of Apollo’s parents, a mixed-race couple. His father disappears during Apollo’s childhood, leaving the boy with recurrent dreams in which his father returns for him. Apollo grows up to be a dealer in used and rare books. He marries Emma, a librarian, and they have a much-loved baby son. When the baby, Brian (named after Apollo’s long-lost father), is about six months old, Emma, sinking ever deeper into depression, is heard to mutter, “It’s not a baby.” Then things start to get strange. Apollo’s quest for the truth reveals layers upon layers of deceit and illusion. On top of the fantastic problems and risks he confronts, we aren’t allowed to forget that he and the friend who helps him have to cope constantly with the mundane pitfalls of navigating a white-dominated society as black men. Is he facing an epidemic of postpartum psychosis, a paranoid feminist cult, or a genuine changeling phenomenon? Although the story and characters enthralled me, well past the midpoint of the book I began to wonder whether it would turn out to have any fantasy content at all. Despair not, fans of fairy-tale motifs transplanted into a contemporary setting; it does. This gripping tale features characters who are flawed yet deeply sympathetic and offers a new slant on the changeling motif.
*****
Excerpt from “Dusting Pixie”:
Who would have expected magic to shed so much dust? Ardyth certainly hadn’t visualized it as a major part of her apprenticeship in witchcraft with her Aunt Zenobia. Tearing open yet another crate, Ardyth sneezed at the puff of dust that billowed from the mildewed tomes inside. She still had to unpack three of the seven boxes Zenobia had brought from the estate of an old friend of hers, the recently deceased wizard Zaddok.
Ardyth set a stack of books on the floor and paused to brush her brown curls, frizzed from humidity and stray magical energy, off her forehead. Most of the miscellaneous books and paraphernalia in these boxes would probably prove to be worthless and wind up in the cramped chamber at the far end of the attic where unwanted junk was stowed, never to be seen again. Since Zenobia’s cottage, like most witches’ and wizards’ homes, was bigger inside than out, with more rooms than the inhabitants could keep track of, there was no incentive to throw anything away. Still, Ardyth had to inspect every item one by one, no magical shortcuts, in case anything valuable turned up. Zenobia expected to find the job finished when she returned home the next day. She’d often said Ardyth had a strong mage gift but needed to learn focus, a goal these routine tasks were supposed to promote.
With a longing thought for her own experiments that languished in the workroom downstairs, Ardyth flipped through a tattered bestiary and set it aside. A gleam at the bottom of the crate caught her eye. Something under the books radiated multicolored light.
She pulled out the next layer of volumes and exposed a glowing crystal sphere. Her pulse quickening, she picked up the orb, which rested on an ivory base etched with runes and just big enough to cup in her two hands. A diminutive creature stared at her from inside the sphere. Mouse-sized and vaguely feminine, although draperies of prismatic mist swirled around its twig-thin body and concealed all details, the being had a halo of silver-blue hair that floated as if in an invisible wind.
It, or she, pounded tiny fists against the inside of the crystal and cried, “Help! Get me out!” Her birdlike voice sounded as sweet as wind chimes.
“Calm down. Who are you, and how did you get stuck in there?”
The sprite folded her arms, her silver eyes glowering. “My name is Iridia. An evil wizard imprisoned me in this arcane trap.”
“Why?” Ardyth had already learned enough about sorcery to refrain from assuming all magical beings, no matter how beautiful, were benign.
“I don’t know! Because he was evil,” the sprite retorted in an exasperated tone. “I never did anything but toil faithfully for him. Please work the spell to liberate me, and I shall reward you.”
-end of excerpt-
*****
My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Hard Shell Word Factory: Hard Shell
Whiskey Creek: Whiskey Creek
You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter