Archive for October, 2024

Order from the publisher

Order from Amazon

Welcome to the October 2024 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.”

Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog

To subscribe to this monthly newsletter, please e-mail me at MLCVamp@aol.com, and I will add you to the list.

For other web links of possible interest, please scroll to the end.

Happy Halloween!

My Victorian Christmas romance novella “A Ghost in the Green Bestiary” was published in September:

A Ghost in the Green Bestiary

Spending the Christmas season at her aunt and uncle’s country manor for the first time since her father’s death, Lucy both yearns for and dreads reuniting with Walter, to whom she’d almost become engaged. In her present financial straits, Lucy feels she’s no longer a proper match for a wealthy gentleman’s heir. How can she let Walter down gently without destroying the friendship she still treasures? On the night before Christmas Eve, Walter tells a tale of a long-ago daughter of the household who eloped with her forbidden lover, a simple farmer. After his violent death in the mansion’s topiary garden, his spirit supposedly lingered. When Robbie, Lucy’s little brother, claims to glimpse the ghost among the animal-shaped bushes, she joins Walter in investigating the apparition—forcing them to face their shared past and the challenges of the future.

In the excerpt below, Walter tells his ghost story.

This month’s interview features Dena Weigel, author of historical fiction and other genres.

*****

Interview with Dena Weigel:

What inspired you to become a writer?

Being a writer was something I feel I was always meant to do, but it wasn’t until I was in my thirties that I realized it was something I actually could do.

The town I grew up in was so small it didn’t even have a bookstore, but my mother was the local librarian, so I was always surrounded by books and I had a pretty active imagination. (I was known as the “daydreamer” in class throughout my school days.)

Years later, when my husband and I were on a trip in Italy we were on a train and I was looking for something to keep me occupied, so I started doodling around with an outline inspired by one of my favorite movie characters–Indiana Jones. My husband thought it was a good start to a story and encouraged me to keep going with it. After many years learning about what it takes to write and publish a novel, I’ve combined my three loves of travel, art, and history into The Byzantine Cross.

What genres do you work in?

My debut novel is historical fiction with a lot of action/adventure, and a little romance and paranormal themes thrown in. I love history and am very inspired by courageous women in history, especially the women who were spies and journalists during World War II.

I’ve also written some poetry and have started a science fiction series. I enjoy the freedom science fiction provides a writer. You can write about anything, jump time to whenever you like, and there’s so many fascinating technical possibilities to incorporate into the story.

I have a couple of ideas for memoirs, too. I would love to record the stories of the women in my family and the journey my own family went through when we adopted our daughter. We only had two weeks notice, so it’s a bit of an action/adventure story, too!

Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?

I create a general outline to make sure the story doesn’t veer too much off course when I’m writing, but the content in the scenes develops organically. I find that if I get too specific in my outline it can constrict the creative flow when I’m writing. And dialogue comes easiest for me when I allow the characters to develop on their own, too. I try to stay out of my characters’ way as much as possible.

What is your writing process like?

I start out knowing I have a three act story, with strong hooks at the end of each act that I’ll need to lead up to. With that in mind, I start researching to find interesting locations and important art and history to incorporate into the plot. I’ll find other bits and pieces, too, to connect the plot points or give the story depth. I keep these gems in a mental “bucket” as I put the plot together, but not necessarily in any kind of order. I only know they are 1) interesting enough to be a good addition to the story, and 2) they make sense within the confines of the plot.

Then, I write–or, as I think of it, I put the puzzle pieces together. I try not to get too caught up on the first draft and, instead, just power through, but that is a challenge for me. Being new to the fiction writing life, I edited my book a lot on my own right up until it went to the publisher, but with the next book I’ll be relying on editors more throughout the process.

I also really enjoy connecting unexpected things together and throwing in a paranormal element to add an unpredictable spark into the plot, so sometimes the outcome of the story is a surprise for me.

What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors or whatever)?

Dan Brown, Gayle Lynds, and Steve Berry are all at the top of my list of influences. They are great with putting in the immediacy and high tension needed to make a story thrilling. Also, Stephen King is such a great writer and I’ve used his book “On Writing” to help me develop the craft, along with a lot of other teachers. I’ve also read just about everything Hemingway ever wrote and love how effective his phrasing is in conveying a strong emotional response in a poetic, but very relatable way.

The Sarah Kraft series, of which The Byzantine Cross is the first book, is heavily inspired by the Indiana Jones and the early James Bond movies. Because I was new to writing fiction when I started writing The Byzantine Cross, I relied heavily on the plotting in those movies to set up my own plot, changing some aspects of it to represent a modern woman’s life.

What kinds of research do you do for your historical fiction?

I’ve read quite a few biographies about female spies in World War II, as well as a journalist named Martha Gelhorn and a World War I diplomat named Gertrude Bell who was instrumental in shaping the Middle East alongside T.E. Lawerence. I pulled aspects of their personalities and ideas from their activities to use as inspiration for my character, Sarah Kraft.

I also read a lot about the Romanovs, World War II, and the Cold War. I focused on areas that aren’t as well known, such as the Battle of Montecassino in Italy when the Allies were pushing into Axis territory. There’s a wealth of great stories during that time that can add so much to a plot!

I’ve also been fortunate enough to visit several of the locations mentioned in the story, so I pull from those memories and the photos I’ve kept. For instance, there is a scene in my book where Sarah and a double-agent are running through the Kremlin’s Grand Palace in Moscow. I was able to re-create a path through the royal apartments based, in part, on what I saw when I toured it.

Your website mentions that you’ve studied in over thirty countries. How has this experience affected your writing career?

Travel provides me with endless inspiration! I write about the places I’ve been, things I’ve seen, my impressions of the people, and the history and cultures I was exposed to. The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey is a great example of that! It was the perfect place for a high-intensity foot chase where the twists and turns and hidden spots in the bazaar allow for a lot of improvising by my characters.

Also, travel articles were some of the first pieces I sold, and I think it’s because being in a new environment is a freeing experience for me and helps me think in different, interesting ways. All good things needed to write a compelling story!

How do the skills required to write for businesses and nonprofits resemble or differ from those used in writing fiction?

Writing for a business is all about strategy–projecting the right image, providing insight into a product or service, and motivating people to respond to some sort of call-to-action. Non-profits require a similar but softer approach, and one that carries a stronger emotional impact to motivate people to act. They are fun to write because the topics are oftentimes so compelling on their own, but they can be heartrending stories to process as you write them.

Fiction allows you much more freedom of thought and experimentation and allows for the kind of free-flowing writing that lets your characters speak for themselves through you so the story can develop naturally. It is much less strategic during the first draft, but as you edit you have to rein it in, and that’s where experience in writing for business helps out.

What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?

I’m working on another Sarah Kraft novel to follow The Byzantine Cross. It’s tentatively called The Argentinian Affair and connects the world’s first empire (ancient Mesopotamian’s Akkadian Empire) with post-WWII escaped Nazis. And there is a love triangle, too, which I think will be really fun to write!

I want my main character, Sarah, to continue to develop throughout the series. I like the idea that when we first meet her in The Byzantine Cross she feels disconnected from who she really is and is forced into a role that doesn’t exactly fit. Then, as she gets back to doing what she’s really great at, her true self emerges.

What advice would you give to aspiring authors?

I have two pieces of advice that really helped me.

The first is to become part of writing communities. When I started writing this book I didn’t know I could come up with a good story and write it well. Surrounding myself with people who were better, more experienced writers than myself and hearing what they were doing and what they found good about my writing gave me the confidence stay focused and start believing that someday I could be a published author, too!

The second piece of advice is to trust your instincts when it comes to your plot. I find that if I’ve written something that doesn’t feel right to me, it’s typically because it’s not the right direction and there is a better way to go that will eventually come to me. You can always go back and change it if you need to, but, typically, if it feels right–it is right. Sometimes your gut instincts are more knowledgeable than your logical mind.

Title: The Byzantine Cross
Pre-order now: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Google, Hoopla, Scribd, Kobo, Overdrive, and Ingram.
Pen name: Dena Weigel
Release date: November 11, 2024

Author Website

Facebook
Instagram
TikTok: @denaweigel

*****

Some Books I’ve Read Lately:

THE BRIGHT SWORD, by Lev Grossman. I’ve often wished for a fantasy novel about the immediate aftermath of the fall of King Arthur and the ruin of Camelot (ideally as a sequel to THE MISTS OF AVALON written by Marion Zimmer Bradley or her literary heirs). Now the author of THE MAGICIANS has written one, which is mind-blowing. The orphaned protagonist, Collum, never knowing his father and barely remembering his mother, grows up in an insignificant village on a small island in the northern region of Britain. His stepfather places him in the household of the local lord, supposedly to become a squire and knight. Instead, Collum is ignored when not actively abused. Eventually managing to induce the arms master to train him, the boy shows a gift for swordplay and hand-to-hand combat. In his late teens, he runs away to chase a dream: To join the court of Arthur, the legendary Christian high king of Britain. We learn Collum’s backstory gradually, first meeting him on his journey to Camelot, during which he more or less accidentally kills an anonymous knight in a duel. This end to what he’d envisioned as a glorious encounter like those in the tales he’d heard proves to be only the first of many disillusionments. As revealed in the cover blurb, he finally arrives at the nearly deserted Camelot just a bit too late. Arthur and Mordred have slain each other, and the associated battle has wiped out most of the Round Table. The few embittered survivors have little time for a naïve would-be knight, even though Collum exaggerates his background (or, bluntly, lies about it) in an attempt to fit in. Still, he serves as a catalyst to goad the remnant of the Round Table into trying to save what’s left of the kingdom. If Arthur truly rests, not quite dead, on the fabled isle of Avalon, can he be awakened to rule anew? If not, who should become king? Flashbacks to the shining past told from various secondary characters’ viewpoints relieve the mood of despair overshadowing much of the present-day narrative. Among other episodes, we learn about Arthur’s astonishing revelation as the chosen one who drew the sword from the stone, how Palomides and several other knights made their way to Camelot, the truth about the relationship of Lancelot and Guinevere, the outcome of the Grail quest, and how Nimue defeated Merlin (who’s a much more unpleasant person than depicted in most versions), all from Grossman’s unique angle. As he discusses in his afterword, in the grand tradition of Arthurian tales THE BRIGHT SWORD blends the historically realistic setting of the British Isles after the withdrawal of the Romans with anachronisms (e.g., plate armor, the Muslim knight Palomides), magic, and myth. Tensions between the pagan adherents of old Britain and the Christian Romanized Celts are complicated by the threat of invading Saxons. The atmosphere segues between mundane and numinous, between a slowly disintegrating realm of petty domains in frequent conflict and the mystical Otherworld of the fairies and gods, where time and the rules of nature flow differently. Readers should prepare for devastating emotional peaks and chasms. More often than not, a spark of optimism is followed by a twist that upends the characters’ hard-won beliefs about the truths of their world. In the end, though, questions are answered, including secrets about Collum’s past he never suspected. While he isn’t quite the hero he fantasized becoming, neither is he the worthless nobody he has always feared. And even if the “one brief, shining moment” of Arthur’s Camelot can’t be recreated, the epic tale concludes with hope.

SAVING SUSY SWEETCHILD, by Barbara Hambly. Her third “Silver Screen Historical Mystery.” By now, I’ve gotten over my initial disappointment with this series for being an alternate-universe version of BRIDE OF THE RAT GOD instead of sequels to it. Although straight mystery with no fantasy element, these novels captivate me with their vividly drawn characters, witty style, and clearly well researched 1920s, Prohibition-era Los Angeles setting. Emma Blackstone, a war widow transplanted from England to California as companion and Pekinese-minder to her sister-in-law, glamorous and flighty silent film star “Camille de la Rose,” aka Kitty Flint (not her birth name either), still often wonders what she’s doing in the modern Babylon. She has a friend and lover in cameraman Zal, however, and a challenging part-time job writing scenarios (the silent movie equivalent of scripts) while fighting in vain against anachronisms and other story oddities. As in the first two novels, she’s a sympathetic, intelligent protagonist who’s a pleasure to spend time with. The title character, a proto-Shirley-Temple, lives up to her stage name, but her mother displays the worst traits of a stereotypical Hollywood parent. When Susy almost gets trampled by a horse during a stunt gone wrong, her mother barely glances away from the interview she’s giving. As Emma notices, little Susy proves herself a consummate professional, a real trouper, displaying only a brief flash of terror. She can’t rely on her weak, alcoholic father for protection, and her employers, of course, regard her mainly as a human gold mine. Shortly thereafter, she gets kidnapped for ransom. Is the villain one of the gangs that dominate the blatantly open market for illegal alcohol? An agent of a rival studio? Somebody with a more personal motive? Or could the incident be a publicity hoax? And how much will the studio pay for the return of a child star whose peak cuteness phase won’t last much longer? (They’re already passing her off as younger than she really is.) Meanwhile, two sets of mercenary relatives launch a custody battle for the missing girl and her money. Family secrets are unearthed and hidden facets of various characters’ personalities revealed. Emma and Zal investigate the crime, narrowly evading life-threatening perils, while Kitty displays unexpected flashes of perceptiveness. Action, mystery, and suspense are balanced by plenty of the quieter scenes I most enjoy, heavy on characterization and dialogue. Details of early Hollywood subculture and the technical aspects of silent cinema are fascinating to read. A surprising and satisfying twist at the end gives the title a double meaning.

A MARRIAGE OF UNDEAD INCONVENIENCE, by Stephanie Burgis. An arranged marriage romance with a vampire bridegroom and a hint of “Beauty and the Beast,” in an alternate-reality Regency setting. When Lord Riven awakens from a prolonged Sleep (sic), his business manager informs the vampire that he faces the confiscation of his entire estate, real and personal, unless he marries a living woman. A recently enacted law forbids vampires, being legally dead, from owning property (a clever premise I don’t recall reading anywhere else). In the opening scene, we find Margaret Dunhaven, having just been coerced into that marriage, in the kitchen of Lord Riven’s mansion trying to brew a potable cup of tea. The fact that the lack of decent tea looms foremost in her mind during this crisis immediately alerts the reader that this novel will be a light paranormal romance, not a tale of Gothic horror. Her unwanted husband proves to be relatively harmless, subsisting mainly on animal blood, though we eventually learn vampires also need human blood for optimal health. Margaret’s aunt and uncle, who control her inheritance, forced her out of her university studies and into wedlock with no warning. Since both she and Lord Riven believe they were extorted into this union, sparks fly between them. The spirited argument that comprises the first scene provides an entertaining set-up for the romantic attraction we know will develop. It turns out that Margaret’s rapacious relatives lied to her about their debts being paid by Lord Riven and simultaneously demanded a priceless family treasure from him in exchange for the bride he needed: The Rose of Normandy, a magical gem responsible for the origin of both werewolves and vampires. Also at issue is a rare grimoire Margaret has been studying, the source of information on how to use the Rose. She and Lord Riven join forces to solve their mutual problems, a quest involving scholarly mysteries and narrow escapes. A dramatic clash with her obnoxious and rather thickheaded academic rival climaxes the story. Throughout the book, lively repartee and reluctantly acknowledged but inexorably growing attraction transform the couple’s relationship. Margaret’s occasional blood donations to Lord Riven turn into sensual interludes. A quick, delightful read.

THE ONES WHO COME BACK HUNGRY, by Amelinda Berube. This YA horror novel is a very different kind of vampire story. I’ve rarely come across a fictional work that features a vampire so similar to the authentic revenants of folklore, an animated corpse irresistibly drawn to prey on the people he or she was closest to in life. The author has obviously done conscientious, in-depth research. Her prefatory “Note About Content” warns of “sibling death, grief, anxieties about germs and infection, graphic descriptions of dead and decaying human bodies” among other real-life horrors, culminating in “graphic violence.” Narrator Jo’s late sister, Audrey, was the “golden girl,” popular and accomplished, immersed in multiple extracurricular activities, around which the family’s schedule revolved. Jo, an artist, sees herself as insignificant in comparison. Her contemporaneous narrative is in present tense, with flashbacks in past tense. On the first page, she struggles with how to break the news of her sister’s sudden end to her (Jo’s) texting contacts. Audrey’s apparently mild symptoms escalated to an unknown, virulent infection followed by hospitalization and death over a span of twenty-four hours. She’s buried promptly without embalming. Soon afterward, Jo notices footprints around the outside of the house. When she encounters Audrey, who has been lurking in the backyard shed, Jo naturally jumps to the conclusion that her sister didn’t really die. But enough doubts linger that it seems impossible to tell their family or anyone else. As it becomes progressively clearer that Audrey has returned from the grave, Jo clings to a tenuous hope of “curing” Audrey of her condition or, if she’s actually dead, restoring her to life. The undead girl’s gradual deterioration comes across as both poignant and horrific. Then they discover Jo’s blood can temporarily enable Audrey to revert from near-zombie to a semblance of a living person. There’s no hint of glamour or eroticism; the bite hurts. Jo keeps this secret while grappling with family trauma and the grief of Audrey’s friends. Jo’s attendance at the memorial gathering of the latter is a painfully fraught scene. Reaching out to Audrey’s former boyfriend, Jo finds herself developing unexpected feelings for him. Mundane teenage problems such as these intertwine effectively with the supernatural plot. The relationship between the living and undead sisters fractures as past sibling conflicts erupt afresh. As Audrey gradually loses more of her “real” self and devolves into a self-centered, obsessive predator, Jo realizes this situation can’t continue indefinitely. She’s forced to seek help and share the dark secret. The teens’ research on vampire legends, an interlude with moments of dark humor, uncovers a confusing array of superstitions and alleged methods of destroying the undead, most of which prove useless. The one that does work leads to a couple of gruesomely graphic scenes. The isolation Jo endures through most of the book is relieved only in the direst way, by bonding with a few of her peers over how to deal with what’s left of her loved yet resented sister. Which was the real Audrey, the dearly missed girl or the monster? The ultimate resolution, though heartbreaking in its way, allows Jo’s family to begin healing and her to make a new beginning, through her art, as someone besides Audrey’s inferior sibling. This searingly emotional novel foregrounds the archetypal conflict between love and fear of the dead in a way that pierces to the original roots of the vampire myth.

For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires

*****

Excerpt from “A Ghost in the Green Bestiary”:

Walter said, “I do have a story to tell, but I wouldn’t want to scare anybody so close to bedtime.”

He looked straight at Robbie, who responded with a vigorous shake of his head. “I won’t be scared. I like ghost stories.”

“Very well.” Walter met the expectant gazes of each person in turn before beginning.

“This happened right here, once upon a midnight a very long time ago, a night in the Christmas season much like this one.” He lowered his voice to a solemn, resonant tone.

“With snow, like now?” Robbie piped up.

“More than now. It fell for hours and piled in drifts against the sides of the house. It was so cold the woodland animals shivered in their burrows and birds’ feet froze to the branches of trees. The oldest daughter of the family—our family—sat up in her chamber long past dark, yearning for her beloved.”

“What’s her name?” Robbie asked.

Walter hesitated as if unprepared to supply this detail. “You know, it was so long ago nobody remembers. We’ll call her Madeline. Her parents had forbidden her to marry the man she loved because he was a simple farmer.”

Of course they did. Social standing mattered then even more than now. Lucy forced herself to shake off the thought and focus on the story.

“She was determined not to let money come between them, though. They plotted to elope. Near midnight, when everybody in the house should have been in bed, the young man slipped out of the woods and sneaked through the garden of green beasts to the kitchen entrance at the rear of the manor. Knowing the risk that someone might wake up and catch him, he had a plan to deal with that problem. He had visited a witch who lived alone in a cottage in the forest.”

Naturally, Robbie had another question. “Was she a wicked witch?”

“Not at all. She was a good witch, who was glad to help a pair of young lovers. She gave the lad a charm to cast an enchanted sleep on everybody in the house except Madeline.” Walter paused to sip from his drink. “He whispered the magic words the witch had taught him. Moments later, Madeline put on her winter wraps, picked up the bag she’d packed, tiptoed down the back stairs, and unbarred the door. It turned out she didn’t need to be so quiet, for the entire house was deep in slumber, from her parents and brother in their bedchambers to the servants in their attic rooms. Even the cat lay curled up asleep by the kitchen hearth.”

Sounds like “Sleeping Beauty,” Lucy reflected.

“Shutting the door behind her, she followed her sweetheart through the windswept snow. In her bag, she carried an emerald necklace, the most valuable jewelry she owned. They didn’t have any money to speak of, you see, so she thought once they ran away to a big city, she could sell the necklace to support them until they were married and settled. But it didn’t end that way. Can you imagine what happened next?”

Robbie shook his head, his eyes wide.

“The green animals came to life. They were determined to protect the honor of their house. They charged at the young man. He ran as fast as he could, but they surrounded him and blocked his path right before he reached the exit that led to the forest. The peacock and the griffin flew at his head and battered him with their wings. The lion pounced on him and knocked him down. The elephant and the bull trampled him.

“Realizing she couldn’t save him, the girl fled into the woods. She disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again, and nobody knows what happened to the emerald necklace. From midnight until dawn, her family and all the servants tossed and turned with nightmares, but they didn’t wake up until the sun rose. The next day, they found the man’s body face down in the middle of the garden with all the animal sculptures in their usual places.

“Ever since, sometimes on snowy December nights his ghost wanders through the garden, trying to find a way out.”

-end of excerpt-

*****

The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, visit the Dropbox page below. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:

Vampire’s Crypt

All issues are now posted on Dropbox, where you should be able to download them at this link:
All Vampire’s Crypt Issues on Dropbox

A complete list of my available works, arranged roughly by genre, with purchase links:

Complete Works

For anyone who would like to read previous issues of this newsletter, they’re posted on my website here (starting from January 2018):

Newsletters

This is my Facebook author page. Please visit!
Facebook

Here’s my page in Barnes and Noble’s Nook store:
Barnes and Noble

Here’s the list of my Kindle books on Amazon. (The final page, however, includes some Ellora’s Cave anthologies in which I don’t have stories):
Carter Kindle Books

Here’s a shortcut URL to my author page on Amazon:
Amazon

The Fiction Database displays a comprehensive list of my books (although with a handful of fairy tales by a different Margaret Carter near the end):

Fiction Database

My Goodreads page:
Goodreads

Please “Like” my author Facebook page (cited above) to see reminders when each monthly newsletter is uploaded. I’ve also noticed that I’m more likely to be shown posts from liked or friended sources in my Facebook feed when I’ve “Liked” some of their individual posts, so you might want to do that, too. Thanks!

My Publishers:

Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Wild Rose Press: Wild Rose Press

You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com

“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter