Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Welcome to the November 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 American Thanksgiving!
YOKAI ENCHANTMENTS, my three-novella collection of paranormal romances featuring creatures from Japanese mythology, was featured in N. N. Light’s Book Heaven’s Trick or Treat Bonanza event:
Below is an excerpt from one of the included stories, “Kappa Companion.” Heidi, a young widow with one child, Adam, has recently bought a house previously rented by a Japanese family.
No author interview this month. Instead, here’s a Halloween-appropriate character interview originally posted on the Compelling Beasts blog in 2015, with Dr. Roger Darvell, my human-vampire hybrid psychiatrist. The best works for getting acquainted with Roger are the e-book duology TWILIGHT’S CHANGELINGS (comprising full-length novels DARK CHANGELING and its sequel, CHILD OF TWILIGHT):
Twilight’s Changelings from Amazon
Twilight’s Changelings from Other Retailers
And DOCTOR VAMPIRE, an e-book collection of three lighthearted stories reprinted from the NIGHT TO DAWN horror zine:
*****
Interview with Roger Darvell:
Vampire Specific Questions:
How long have you been a vampire?
Technically since birth, because I am a human-vampire hybrid, not a demon-possessed walking corpse as in those absurd folk legends. In a sense, however, I became a vampire when I learned my true nature and origin at the age of forty. Previously, I thought I was afflicted with an aberrant fetish for blood-drinking—a mutant of some sort, perhaps, because of my psychic talents, but essentially an ordinary man.
Do you drink blood or are you a psychic vampire?
Mainly blood, but a bit of both. The bulk of our nourishment consists of animal blood and occasionally milk. (After all, that’s a bodily fluid too.) We need human blood to thrive, however, although the amounts aren’t large, and it’s the emotional energy carried on the blood that satisfies us. If we’re deprived of that for too long, we go insane.
What’s the worst thing about being a vampire?
The inconvenience of that blasted sunlight sensitivity. Daylight doesn’t kill us, and I’m slightly less bothered by it than a purebred vampire, but direct sun gives me a headache, and prolonged exposure has an effect similar to heatstroke. Also, being naturally nocturnal, I find it uncomfortable to maintain the diurnal waking hours required of a practicing psychiatrist.
What is the best thing about being a vampire?
The ecstasy of sharing blood with my beloved.
Are there many others like you?
Vampires? No more than 10,000 in the world. Like myself, part vampire and part human? I personally know of only three others, one of whom is my own daughter. Interbreeding in nature (as opposed to deliberate hybridization) has been an extremely rare accident.
Are you a magical creature or are you a different species?
A different species living secretly among humankind, extremely long-lived and hard to kill.
Do you enjoy being a vampire?
Yes, now that I have a human partner who freely offers her blood, saving me from the guilt of preying on unwitting victims.
General Questions:
Where are you from?
I was born in France to a female vampire and her human lover, who were murdered when I was about a year old. I was taken to Boston and privately adopted by a human couple, who weren’t aware of my true background, which was why I didn’t know it myself for the first four decades of my life. I earned a medical degree at Harvard; I chose psychiatry as my specialty mainly because the abnormal mind fascinated me on account of what I thought to be my own mental illness.
Do you have a love interest?
Yes, my partner in my psychiatric practice, Dr. Britt Loren. Early in our association as colleagues, she deduced there was something unusual about me, and when she learned of my vampiric nature, she embraced instead of fearing it.
What makes you happy?
Britt’s love, which even after many years together feels like an undeserved miracle. Because of the guilt that plagued me during the decades before I learned my blood-thirst was natural rather than a grotesque aberration, I freely admit that I am—in layman’s terminology—a neurotic mess.
Do you have a code of honor?
In general, I try to follow the moral precepts of my faith, like any man with a strong religious background. (I’m a practicing Catholic.) If I have a vampire-specific code, it’s to refrain from harming anyone in the process of getting the blood I need.
What makes you angry?
Any threat to Britt’s life or welfare.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I would travel back in time and ensure that I knew about my true heritage all along, instead of spending all those years in confusion, guilt, and misery.
Name one person you trust.
Aside from Britt, my half-brother, Claude, a purebred vampire who hides in plain sight as an actor in horror films.
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
JULIA, by Sandra Newman. This uninformatively titled novel (unless you happen to look at the cover image and note the date “1984” above the protagonist’s name) is an authorized retelling of NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR from the viewpoint of Winston Smith’s lover. Its flipped perspective opens up numerous aspects of the classic work’s dystopian society not revealed through Winston’s eyes in the original. It also answers the reader’s natural question of why Julia would have initiated a love affair with a rather stuffy, far from outgoing man significantly older than herself. Experiencing life in Oceania from her angle, we learn that the Party isn’t the omnipotent, omniscient, inexorable entity Winston makes it seem. It’s as corrupt and inefficient as the bureaucracy of any other dictatorship in history. For Julia, guarding one’s words, actions, and facial expressions is a routine part of everyday life, ingrained from her childhood in a slightly looser but still dangerously fraught rural environment. Flashbacks reveal tragic elements of her past such as her own role in the death of her mother. However, Julia has a “cheerfully cynical” (as another review puts it) attitude toward the Party’s propaganda and the adjustments required to survive under its rule. She takes pride in her skill as a mechanic. In addition to working on novel-writing machines in the Fiction department of the Ministry of Truth, she informally repairs equipment such as the frequently clogged plumbing in her dormitory, which has only two lavatories for all the resident women. Her facade of devotion to the Anti-Sex League doesn’t stop her from enjoying as many casual affairs as she can manage, despite the risk of arrest for sexcrime. I wondered why pregnancy isn’t more of a worry, since contraceptives are illegal. Answer: Many single women who suspect they’re in the early stages of pregnancy seek artsem (artificial insemination). If they’ve actually conceived already, they’re covered; if not, the procedure didn’t “take.” And it seems to be common knowledge that some women volunteering to bear children for the Party are already pregnant. In general, most comrades seem to be acting a role rather than sincerely embracing fervent devotion to the Party. Everybody knows about bribery and the black market, and in relaxed moments they joke about the intricacies of Newspeak. Scenes in the prole neighborhoods reveal how the non-Party working class regards life in Oceania (they despise the Party yet adore Big Brother and mainly just try to get along day to day). From Julia’s viewpoint, Winston comes across as an odd blend of intellectual pretension, naïve idealism, and fatalistic despair. His fascination with forbidden political, philosophical, and literary topics bores her, although she maintains a facade of enthralled interest. While JULIA reads as slightly less dark and claustrophobic than NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR, it’s still set in a dystopian dictatorship pervaded by telescreens and other surveillance devices, where no one can’t afford to trust anybody completely. Nevertheless, it does answer some questions Orwell’s original leaves as nebulous mysteries: Does Big Brother, as an individual, literally exist? (Yes.) Is there really an anti-Party underground, and was its demonized alleged leader, Goldstein, a real person? (Yes.) Is Oceania really at war? Yes, we witness the bombed sections of London, though we never find out if the enemy is Eurasia, Eastasia, or neither. In this grim setting, Julia can’t remain unscathed forever, and readers can’t expect a truly happy ending. However, unlike Orwell’s, this novel’s conclusion offers hope for the future.
THE FOREST OF LOST SOULS, by Dean Koontz. One positive feature of Koontz’s latest thriller: Near-absence of the cartoon-villain sociopathic geniuses bent on destroying the world for their own gain that have tended to dominate his recent novels. Most of the antagonists in this book act out of plausible greed, self-preservation, and/or sadistic pleasure in others’ pain and death. The one sort-of exception, head of a corporation determined to establish a wind farm on a sacred plateau, is a miserably paranoid, perpetually angry multibillionaire obsessed with extending his life by centuries; still, he’s mainly driven by lust for money and power. While Koontz’s fixation on the idea that the world is headed straight for perdition lurks in this novel as in all his recent work, it doesn’t hit the reader over the head so hard as in some of his books. Annoyingly, though, the whole thing is narrated in present tense, including the flashbacks, for no apparent reason. The heroine, Vida, lives alone in the middle of the woods, in a house inherited from the loving, wise great-uncle who became her guardian after the death of her parents in an accident (genuine, no conspiracy involved). For both artistic expression and income, she cuts and polishes gemstones gathered at an abandoned mining site. The locale is an unspecified western state, with wolves and mountain lions roaming the forest. Koontz’s style shows itself to best advantage in the lyrical, elaborate, multisensory descriptions of plants, animals, and landscape. Vida, who once heard from an enigmatic fortune teller that she was destined to become a champion of the natural world, has a quasi-mystical bond with the surrounding terrain and wildlife. A dominant male wolf she has named Lupo frequently visits her with his pack. Another supernatural feature, or perhaps a touch of magical realism, consists of a seldom-seen white mountain lion widely believed to be an incarnation of the angel of death. And of course there are dogs – not Golden Retrievers this time, but a pack of German Shepherd search dogs, whose handler arrives on the scene rather late in the story. Sam is an Afghanistan war veteran with a horribly disfigured face but a kind heart. Outraged by the work the bad guys expect of him, he joins Vida in opposing them. As told in flashbacks, months earlier her fiancé, one of the town’s most influential opponents of the corporation’s project, died in what looked like an accident. He left behind a cryptic note and a gift she hasn’t opened yet. When she discovers the truth of his murder and who was behind it, she becomes a target of conscienceless men who’ll stop at nothing to feed their avarice and guard their power. Her victories against successively escalating attacks are hard-won and satisfyingly plausible. Her final destruction of the Big Bad, however, strikes me as too quick and easy. I didn’t really mind, though, being more than ready for the unrelenting danger to end and for Vida to find peace with Sam and his dogs (no spoiler, any reader of Koontz knows she will).
A CHRISTMAS GHOST STORY, by Kim Newman. This short novel is as absorbing as one would expect of a story by the author of ANNO-DRACULA. For an American reader, in addition to its other qualities it delivers the slightly exotic (to me) pleasure of very British folk horror. It also includes elements of urban legend. Mystery author and single mother Angie lives with her teenage son Rust (short for Russell) on the outskirts of a small town in Somerset. He produces a monetarily successful paranormal podcast for which he conducts meticulous research, eschewing the sloppy sensationalism of many self-styled ghost hunters. The story begins on December first, as they prepare for the Christmas season. They follow their long-established family traditions, e.g., the Advent calendar with chocolates behind the doors, singing parodic Christmas “cruels” in lieu of carols, replacing Rust’s cherished action figures on the mantel with the seasonal cards they receive. This year, though, Rust discovers the first Advent chocolate tastes “off” and unsettles his stomach. That minor disappointment proves the harbinger of strange events that escalate into quiet horror. A new creepy card with a disturbing or downright threatening message, unsigned, arrives in the mail every day. The pictures of snow-covered woods change from a merely gruesome dead-looking robin on a branch to the Holly Child, a “twiggy” snowman accompanied by ominous stick figures, growing gradually more distinct and closer. Angie soon realizes this phenomenon duplicates the plot of a TV Christmas ghost story that terrified her in childhood. However, nobody else remembers this episode of the horror anthology series, and Rust’s online research can’t find any reference to it. Although a true ghostlike apparition doesn’t show up until near the end, the fear of persecution by some unknown force slowly builds day by day. Amid futile and increasingly desperate attempts to intercept the mail carrier and learn the source of the cards, Angie’s mental state deteriorates from upset to practically unhinged. Tension mounts even higher when a snowstorm knocks out the electricity, exacerbating fear with isolation and privation. At the climax, passage into a dreamlike realm reveals the truth about the “ghost” and the surprising origin of the cards. Unfolding the mundane and the supernatural in parallel, this story intertwines a fraught mother-son relationship with a delightfully twisted variation on a traditional Christmas in a modern English village.
HERE THERE ARE MONSTERS, by Amelinda Berube. Like Berube’s YA vampire novel THE ONES WHO COME BACK HUNGRY (reviewed last month), this book focuses on a pair of teenage sisters, in this case in a more overtly love-hate relationship. Sixteen-year-old Skye begins her story on “the night my sister disappears,” with her narrative of current ongoing events in present tense and flashbacks in past tense. Her parents blame her for falling asleep and failing to notice when thirteen-year-old Deirdre left the house, and naturally Skye also blames herself. At the same time, she hates being held responsible for the sister who, as Skye sees it, has dominated and messed up her life for years. Deirdre has a fantastic imagination. She invented an elaborately detailed fantasy kingdom that she rules with Skye as her champion, the Queen of Swords. For years Skye enthusiastically joined in this game, but she’s tired of it and of serving as her sister’s protector from real-life bullies as well as playing an imaginary knight in shining armor. Deirdre clings to her created world with a fierce insistence on its reality more like that of a much younger child. Her emotional volatility makes her seem younger than her chronological age, too. With the family’s recent cross-country move, their parents hope a fresh start in a new school will straighten out Deirdre. Skye regards the relocation as a chance to establish an identity of her own separate from her weird kid sister, since they’ll now be attending different schools. Adhering to the “script” of how teens are supposed to act with and speak to each other, Skye manages to make a few friends, but she’s always on guard. Meanwhile, Deirdre continues to demand participation in the old game and shows sulky resentment of Skye’s new companions. The days and weeks after the disappearance, with a pile of leaves and twigs left in Deirdre’s bed reminiscent of the stick figures she was constantly building, are pervaded by real-world fearful events: Police and other searchers swarm the neighborhood and repeatedly question the family. Friction and mutual blame haunt interactions among Skye and her parents, alternating with futile attempts at normalcy. Awkward relations with her peers become severely damaged by mistrust. Skye keeps secrets about the past with Deirdre at their old school, especially one unpardonable thing she did to defend her sister, which is hinted at but not revealed until well into the book. Forbidden to search for the missing girl, Skye sneaks into the woods and of course gets caught. As in THE ONES WHO COME BACK HUNGRY, the protagonist knows her lost sister is out there somewhere, but she can’t tell the adults the basis for her belief. In another parallel to the vampire novel, Skye alienates her friends and must struggle to regain their trust in order to rescue Deirdre. Here’s where the supernatural element comes to the fore. “They” – entities in the woods, creatures born of Deirdre’s powerful imagination – have taken her, and they demand a terrible price to consider returning her. Is rescue possible? And if Skye manages to restore Deirdre, can fractured relationships ever be repaired? This novel is true horror, arguably even darker than THE ONES WHO COME BACK HUNGRY.
For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
*****
Excerpt from “Kappa Companion”:
Heidi woke to a bloodcurdling yowl. Heart pounding, she sat up in bed. After a second, she realized the noise wasn’t a remnant of a monster in a nightmare, but a cry from the cat. She’d never heard Ebony make a sound like that before. Maybe she’s protecting us from a wild, fierce mouse. She hoped not. The pre-sale home inspection hadn’t reported any pests. The caterwauling receded along the hall and down the stairs, then stopped.
Heidi lay back and closed her eyes, waiting for her breath and pulse to slow to normal. Now that Ebony had fallen silent, though, a different sound wafted from the hallway. Singing.
Sitting up again, Heidi strained her ears. A child’s soprano voice sang in a language she didn’t recognize. “Adam?” No answer. The voice grew fainter and faded away.
She extracted a flashlight from the nightstand and crept to the closed bedroom door. Leaning against it, she didn’t hear anything. She stepped into the hall and switched on the flashlight, not wanting to wake Adam with the overhead light if he’d slept through the cat’s cries and the song, assuming he hadn’t done the latter himself.
Tiptoeing toward his room, she glanced at the floor, which showed traces of water at regular intervals. At first sight, they looked like child-size wet footprints. Had Adam made the tracks after his bath? Surely she would have noticed them before, though, and anyway they would have dried by now. She nudged his partly open bedroom door farther ajar and peeked in. In the faint glow of the night light, he lay sprawled on his side, breathing deeply and evenly, with no sign of faking sleep. Also, when she thought to check the floor inside his room, that space showed no wet marks. Withdrawing into the hall, she found the tracks already drying.
After going downstairs to check all the doors, which were locked the way she’d left them, she returned to her own bed, shaking her head in bewilderment. If he wasn’t singing, what did I hear? The TV? She didn’t think she’d become so absent-minded at the age of thirty-four that she would leave the set on and forget doing it. Maybe the cat had stepped on the remote control in the living room just long enough to switch the TV on and off. And if she’d been pawing in her water bowl and then taken a stroll upstairs, that could explain the wet spots. Sure, blame it all on the cat. Considering the hypothetical identification of “Zashi” as the name of a ghost child, she emphatically preferred blaming the cat over suspecting a mischievous spirit.
She’d poured every dollar she could spare into the house. What would she do if it was actually haunted? Sue the home inspector for missing that problem? Abandoning her investment like a hysterical heroine in a horror movie wasn’t an option. She dismissed the whole idea with a shaky laugh. This place is our fresh start. There can’t be anything wrong with it. No way would I accept that—even if I did believe in ghosts, which I don’t.
-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:
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:
For anyone who would like to read previous issues of this newsletter, they’re posted on my website here (starting from January 2018):
This is my Facebook author page. Please visit!
Facebook
Here’s my page in Barnes and Noble’s Nook store:
Barnes and Noble
Here’s the list of my Kindle books on Amazon. (The final page, however, includes some Ellora’s Cave anthologies in which I don’t have stories):
Carter Kindle Books
Here’s a shortcut URL to my author page on Amazon:
Amazon
The Fiction Database displays a comprehensive list of my books (although with a handful of fairy tales by a different Margaret Carter near the end):
My Goodreads page:
Goodreads
Please “Like” my author Facebook page (cited above) to see reminders when each monthly newsletter is uploaded. I’ve also noticed that I’m more likely to be shown posts from liked or friended sources in my Facebook feed when I’ve “Liked” some of their individual posts, so you might want to do that, too. Thanks!
My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Wild Rose Press: Wild Rose Press
You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter
Welcome to the October 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:
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
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:
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:
For anyone who would like to read previous issues of this newsletter, they’re posted on my website here (starting from January 2018):
This is my Facebook author page. Please visit!
Facebook
Here’s my page in Barnes and Noble’s Nook store:
Barnes and Noble
Here’s the list of my Kindle books on Amazon. (The final page, however, includes some Ellora’s Cave anthologies in which I don’t have stories):
Carter Kindle Books
Here’s a shortcut URL to my author page on Amazon:
Amazon
The Fiction Database displays a comprehensive list of my books (although with a handful of fairy tales by a different Margaret Carter near the end):
My Goodreads page:
Goodreads
Please “Like” my author Facebook page (cited above) to see reminders when each monthly newsletter is uploaded. I’ve also noticed that I’m more likely to be shown posts from liked or friended sources in my Facebook feed when I’ve “Liked” some of their individual posts, so you might want to do that, too. Thanks!
My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Wild Rose Press: Wild Rose Press
You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter
Welcome to the September 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.
My Christmas romance novella “A Ghost in the Green Bestiary,” set in the 1890s in rural England, will be published by the Wild Rose Press on September 23. You can read a bit of the opening scene below.
N. N. Light’s Book Heaven featured the duology of my first two vampire novels, TWILIGHT’S CHANGELINGS (comprising DARK CHANGELING and CHILD OF TWILIGHT) in their August “Backlist Bonanza” promotion:
This issue features a follow-up interview with Jean Lorrah, co-author (with Jacqueline Lichtenberg) of the far-future SF Sime-Gen series, as well as many solo books, including one of the very best professional STAR TREK novels, THE VULCAN ACADEMY MURDERS. To learn about the Sime-Gen universe, go here:
*****
Interview with Jean Lorrah:
For readers who might not be familiar with the Sime-Gen universe, please summarize the basic premise.
The sf question this universe is based on is “What if compassion were a survival trait?” Sime~Gen posits a human mutation that produces exactly that situation. As the mutation, a fairly complicated twist on the vampire archetype, happens in the near future, very few humans can summon compassion when their lives are threatened—let alone the fact that no one has yet discovered that that is the solution. Civilization collapses and centuries pass in typical post-apocalypse scenarios that Jacqueline Lichtenberg and I skip, to get to the good parts. If you want horror stories about civilizations collapsing, there are plenty of Zombie Apocalypse scenarios available.
Instead of depicting the collapse of human civilization in despair, Sime~Gen focuses on the rebuilding of the world in hope.
S~G begins when humanity has figured out some means for Simes and Gens to end their perpetual warfare, and live in relative safety. But it’s a kludged solution, and over sixteen books (so far) covering several centuries, we watch people working toward the true solution. Reuniting the human race begins in a sort of wild west era, the restoration of agriculture and trade, and communities larger than a handful of families. The books are quest stories, love stories, family dynasty stories, war stories, coming of age stories—every kind of personal adventure set against the history of a well-established ongoing universe.
What are the current developments in the Sime-Gen series? What will be the next book, and does it have a scheduled release date?
The most recent S~G books make up the Clear Springs Trilogy, completed in 2023, which brings the series into the era of flight. The plan is eventually to take S~G into the space age, where Jacqueline originally intended it to move rather quickly. So the move into space will be her book. However, her life is currently on hold because of her family situation, so at this moment there is no title and no date for that book.
Meanwhile, I have two books to write, one in the Unity era and one just after the Trilogy, which will set up the human situation that makes space navigation possible. However, my creativity is going into art right now, something completely unexpected which I have finally recognized to be the product of my third Saturn Return. It’s all going to come together somehow, but at this moment I don’t know how.
I believe there’s a Sime-Gen computer game – how was it developed, and is it publicly available?
It never happened. We had several years of development talks with the producer, and two iterations of prototype games, but it all fell through in the end. We haven’t heard from the producer in years. If any game developers out there are interested, contact us! You can find a much fuller explanation of S~G than I can give here at Sime~Gen.
How did you become an official STAR TREK author? What was the process of writing the novels like?
It was forty years ago, yet all the books are still in print and paying me (small) royalties after all this time. My first two (TOS) novels, The Vulcan Academy Murders and The I.D.I.C. Epidemic, went like every fangirl’s dream. I submitted a synopsis through my agent, it was approved, I wrote the book, it was approved with two or three requests to change a phrase, and it was published. Paramount and Pocket Books basically wanted well-written books based on what they at that time saw as a dead TV series. The only concern was that the stories not violate what had been seen on TV, but authors were free to invent new history, new planets, new species and cultures, whatever, because no one (except ever-hopeful fans) thought there would ever be more official Star Trek than already existed.
Then Trek was revived, with Next Gen and movies. I watched Next Gen, and wanted to write something about Data, but fully recognized that so would every other Trek writer. But then in one of the early episodes we learned a few tantalizing facts about Tasha Yar’s origin story. I was intrigued, and proposed a story that would include how she escaped from that situation and ended up in Starfleet. Paramount passed on it, saying they did not want to establish backstories on continuing characters.
Okay, I had other books to write—but a few months later Denise Crosby asked to leave the series, and Paramount decided to kill off her character. The fangirl’s dream kicked in again—before I had time to resubmit my proposal, Paramount called my agent with approval for what became Survivors! Even better, I was able to rewrite to include Data’s point of view.
Survivors was a huge success, and on its basis I was able to propose Metamorphosis, in which Data gets a taste of what it means to be human. The dream continued: the book would be the first giant Next Gen novel, would have a hardcover edition, and the audio book would be narrated by Patrick Stewart. I wrote the book, I turned it in—and heard nothing. Weeks passed with no response from Paramount or Pocket Books.
And then we learned what had happened. While I was writing, the dream had come crashing down, not only for me, but for all the Trek fiction writers who wrote the character-driven books fans loved. A new person had been put in charge of approving the books who hated these kinds of books—and this person had the ear of Gene Roddenberry. This was in the time period when Roddenberry suffered a stroke, and there were rumors of his disrupting production of the TV series by demanding massive changes in ongoing storylines. Sadly, the producers had to ban him from the set in order to meet the production schedule, and someone had the bright idea of steering him to work with his friend who had the job of approving the books.
We book writers had no idea what hit us. As the character-driven books sold best, Pocket editors had been choosing more of them as time passed. But Gene Roddenberry’s friend hated such stories, and not only approved only plot-driven stories for the future, but started going through the contracted but not yet published books looking for ones he disapproved of. Of course he got nowhere with Pocket Books on books already in the pipeline—until he suddenly had the backing of the creator of the universe.
Numerous contracted books were canceled, and the single thing that saved Metamorphosis was that Pocket Books had it in production, with advertising already in progress. Roddenberry absolutely did not want a book published in which Data became (temporarily) human. He refused to read it—the subject matter could not be published.
You understand that I got all this second hand, from people fighting to save their publication schedule for the next year or so, with practically the whole of one of their best-selling lines being ripped out. But over the years other sources have confirmed in print the same sad story I was told. And I was the lucky one whose book was not canceled.
However, the hardcover edition of Metamorphosis was canceled, as was the audiobook. Roddenberry was persuaded that it was impossible to stop publication of the paperback, or to make massive changes to it at that stage. So he settled for insisting that one line be added—without reading the book with its very carefully crafted ending in which Data is returned to his former existence via means well established in the series, he insisted that it had to be “all a dream.” Yeah. The one ending guaranteed to sink any story.
So, assuming (correctly) that Roddenberry would not read the edited book, I agreed, left everything the same as I already had it, and found a place to insert a line in which Data feels *as if* his experience was a dream. Absolutely no one at Pocket Books “noticed.” The book was published and was a great success, but of course not the spectacular introduction to the giant novels that it could have been.
And that was the end of my writing Star Trek novels.
How did you get into visual arts? Please tell us about your painting projects.
I am a life-long learner. Even during my teaching career, I often studied abroad during the summers, and sometimes I took courses on interesting subjects at my own university. When I retired, I started taking one course each semester, auditing most of them. Then a few years ago something interesting happened.
I had all my life been one of those people who did not know how to draw. Any number of times when I had tried to explain to a cover artist an idea to represent the content of a book, I would try to sketch my idea and end up with an incomprehensible scribble.
I really don’t know what made me decide to purchase a book that promised to teach me how to draw in 30 days, but it was the beginning of summer, and I decided I would take the half-hour every morning to do the day’s exercise, and see what happened. I did it, faithfully, for thirty days—and to my astonishment, at the end I could actually draw a building that looked like a building, a ribbon that looked like a ribbon, a rose that looked like a rose, etc. Now you have to understand that I was in no way an artist, and that I was basically just copying the author’s sketches—but I actually ended up with tools I could use to show a real artist an idea of what I wanted!
I guess I went a little crazy, because with half the summer left, I saw an online course that promised to teach me to draw portraits in just 21 days, and decided to take it. Well ….
Oh, gawd, was I awful! But so were most of the other students, and a wonderful online workshop came along with the course, where both tutors and fellow students commented and encouraged and offered suggestions. That workshop is permanent, btw, and we were not held to the 21 days to complete the course. Almost nobody even comes close, although most finish all the exercises in a few months. It took me two years, but I completed it. Was I a portrait artist? Of course not—but I have a sketchbook showing my progress, which for someone of my (lack of) natural skill, is just amazing. I learned several things in that course that have kept me going: 1) drawing is not a talent but a skill, 2) practice makes progress, 3) if I can see it I can draw it (IOW a big part of learning to draw is learning to see in a new way), and 4) push the darks!
So I enrolled in Art 101, Basic Drawing, at my university. I came in as easily the worst prepared student in the class, but I left with another set of immense improvements and a much better idea of how to train my artist’s eye. All four principles from the online portrait class were repeated, and again when I took Life Drawing the next semester. I guess in the next three years I put in the 10,000 hours to actually become an artist, because I improved in every course, never, ever even close to the top of the class (some of these kids come in as freshmen with both talents and skills to go pro immediately), but successful in my own way.
Two years ago I dared to show some of my work to an artist friend, who took me to the PAPA gallery in Paducah and insisted that I join. I did, I started displaying my work … and it started to sell! I entered a local art contest and came away with 2nd prize in drawing. I entered a juried show for a local museum and got juried in.
Since then I have entered every local contest available, and usually earn some level of recognition, if only an honorable mention. Last year I had the amazing experience of taking first prize in the professional division of the Paducah Women’s Club art show—my first, and so far only, first place.
In other words—I am an artist! I’m not sure quite how it happened, as I was really just going on through the courses for the fun of actually being able (sometimes) to draw and paint what I saw in my mind’s eye. I am still learning, but I’m getting just enough recognition to believe I should continue. I have now been juried into three museum exhibitions, in one of which I won the Members’ Choice prize, and in another of which I had not just one painting but an installation of two paintings and a PowerPoint presentation—and that one was in an international exhibition in Estonia!
Last Spring I reached the point at which demands for my artwork were competing with the demands of studio classes, so for now I have stopped taking studio courses. However, I am auditing an art history class this semester, for further inspiration.
I’m trying to work on a standalone artist’s page, but website building has become incredibly more complicated since the last time I tried, and I can’t seem to find time to work on it. So for now I’m using my page at the PAPA Gallery, The PAPA Gallery. I also have Facebook pages, Jean Lorrah and Jean Lorrah, Artist.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Write. Take workshops. Write. Write fanfic in whatever thing you’re interested in. Do not jump into self-publishing until other people have consistently chosen to publish your work. If you publish before you are ready (and it is VERY hard to know), you’ll just be lost in the gigantic cloud of self-published authors.
Make a reputation being published by other people, so you have a following before you self-publish. Even better, make a reputation as a blogger and/or vlogger before you attempt to sell your work. Become part of a group of online people who encourage one another. Interview other authors and review their work. Become part of a community.
And write, write, write.
But don’t wait to be discovered. Today the online community is where you have to go. Find YOUR community—it’s out there, and you will know them because they’re interested in the same things you are. Comment on their work and build your own reputation. Contribute anywhere you can, and have a good time. Be honest but kind. If you’re the one with the snarky comments, that’s what you’ll get when other people review your work.
And write, write, write. Write reviews. Do a little research and write some history on the topic your community is interested in. If you have an opinion, write an opinion piece—but don’t try to score points by cutting down everyone’s favorite. Again, be honest but kind. Any time you are writing about somebody else’s work, imagine it’s your work when you do that last readthrough before posting. How would you feel if someone said that about your work?
And write, write, write.
Jean Lorrah, Author: Facebook Author Page
Jean Lorrah, Artist: Facebook Artist Page
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
TO TURN THE TIDE, by S. M. Stirling. Science fiction about time travel to the Roman Empire in the second century CE, the first volume of a new series. It’s partially inspired by L. Sprague DeCamp’s vintage novel LEST DARKNESS FALL, but Stirling’s book is better, with deeper characterization, far more detail, and a more complex plot. In LEST DARKNESS FALL, an archaeologist is accidentally thrown into the past by a lightning strike. The journey in TO TURN THE TIDE is meticulously planned, although not by the people who take it. In 2032, a Harvard history professor named Arthur Vandenberg and four graduate students, lured to Vienna under false pretenses, are introduced to the top secret time-travel project just as the world totters on the brink of a nuclear war. A passing mention of the U.S. President’s illicit third term in office, by the way, hints that the characters inhabit a history not identical to ours. (On the other hand, since it’s eight years into the future, who knows?) The device that sends five and a half people (the inventor gets bisected in his attempt to dash into the transport circle after setting the controls) to central Europe in 165 CE is stationary, not a vehicle like the machine in H. G. Wells’s classic tale. Therefore, the protagonist and his companions necessarily take a one-way trip. Whether the changes they’ll cause create a new timeline or alter their own history, they’ll never find out. In either case, everyone they’ve ever known is effectively dead to them. Along with them comes a literal ton of supplies, books, medications, drawings, scale models, crop seeds, gemstones, authentic-looking coins, etc., as well as a laptop and a solar-powered charger. The travelers are found by a highly intelligent and scrupulously honest Jewish merchant who introduces them into society. Starting slowly with “Type A” changes, things the inhabitants of that era and locale can implement with available tools and materials once they’re given the concepts, “Artorius” and his students rapidly build momentum. In the approximately two years covered by this first book, the evolution of the Roman Empire has already been irrevocably altered in small but critical ways. “Type B” inventions, those that require inventing the tools to make the tools, will come later, as discussed by Stirling in his afterword. The characters are likable but believably imperfect. Their attitudes and behavior strike a nice balance among grief for the world and people they’ve lost, awe at finding themselves in an environment previously known only from history texts, cognitive dissonance and attacks of homesickness as they adjust, and competence at mastering the skills they need to thrive in a preindustrial society. I avidly consumed the lengthy, detailed, heavily researched accounts of what they’re doing, why, and how. As always, Stirling renders colorful, multisensory descriptions of the setting and its details large and small. Admittedly, to enjoy this novel, a reader has to like exposition. I love a well-written expository lump and delight in scenes where characters explain things to each other. Like Robert Heinlein, Stirling excels in that kind of dialogue. For readers who like action scenes, on the other hand, they’ll relish the battle that extends over the final chapters, going on a bit too long for me. I had to embrace a certain suspension of disbelief to accept the amount of progress the characters achieve in a relatively short time span, but the author portrays the people and events in such vivid and convincing detail that I never seriously doubted the plausibility of the story.
THE LIGHT EATERS, by Zoe Schlanger. The title refers to plants, and the author, a science journalist, discusses cutting-edge discoveries about the remarkable abilities of those organisms. As the book’s blurb states, she explores their capacity “to communicate, recognize their kin and behave socially, hear sounds, morph their bodies to blend into their surroundings, store useful memories that inform their life cycle, and trick animals into behaving to their benefit, to name just a few remarkable talents.” Plants, of course, don’t communicate by voice; they emit chemical signals. Are these signals in some sense deliberate? Without brains, how can they “store memories” and make choices? When they adjust to the behaviors of animals, insects, fungi, and other vegetation, are they doing something more than just responding automatically to environmental conditions? In short, are they intelligent? Even conscious? Farfetched as these ideas sound when phrased so bluntly, this book abounds in examples grounded in exhaustive research. Schlanger intersperses the biological and botanical information with anecdotes from her own conversations and adventures with many of the scientists working in the field. She defines intelligence as “the ability to learn from one’s surroundings and make decisions that best support one’s life,” a criterion plants fulfill. However, the temptation to anthropomorphize them should be resisted, as she cautions. Yet readers may get the impression she herself doesn’t resist that temptation strongly enough. As much as I enjoy the idea of sentient and even sapient plants, some passages struck me as overly sentimental or mystical. Nevertheless, the book is packed with solidly factual, extremely detailed material that will fascinate anyone interested in the subject. It’s supported by lengthy endnotes and index but, alas, no illustrations.
A SORCERESS COMES TO CALL, by T. Kingfisher. A full-length novel (over 300 pages) set in a quasi-Regency society and inspired by the fairy tale of “The Goose Girl.” Although the book doesn’t follow the plot of the traditional story to any significant extent, they share several elements: The magical and eventually decapitated horse Falada; a heroine and villainess, neither of whom is quite what she seems, moving into a wealthy household; and geese — as the LOCUS review puts it, attack geese. The first chapter introduces Cordelia, a fourteen-year-old girl trapped in an appalling situation by her subtly abusive mother. The opening scenes and Cordelia’s despairing reflections make painful reading. Her mother, Evangeline, exercises only one kind of magic so far as we witness, but it’s a terrifyingly powerful one. As punishment or sometimes apparently at random whim, she makes Cordelia “obedient.” In that condition, the girl has no control over any voluntary physical actions except blinking and moving her eyes. Her mother operates her body like a puppet, keeping Cordelia in that condition for hours or occasionally longer. Moreover, Cordelia has no privacy aside from her rides on Falada; her mother doesn’t allow her to close any doors in the house. (Contrary to the book’s blurb, the rooms do have doors.) Evangeline, of course, claims she loves her daughter and inflicts this control for her own good. Cordelia manages to make one friend during her horseback rides, a consolation ruined by the discovery that the friend’s father is Evangeline’s “benefactor.” After the sudden, violent termination of the “benefactor” relationship, Evangeline captures the interest of a generous country squire, who invites her and her daughter for an extended visit. Evangeline intends to trap him into marriage, but she can’t achieve that goal with magic because certain elements of the wedding ceremony cancel spells. She can, however, use her powers to manipulate him indirectly. She has already demonstrated her ability and willingness to inflict horrible consequences on people who offend her, compelling victims to maim or kill themselves or others. Because everyone who believes in sorcerers at all thinks they’re capable of only weak effects such as illusions, nobody suspects her involvement in those crimes. Thus Cordelia contemplates what her mother might do to the squire and his innocent household with helpless terror. Here’s where one of Kingfisher’s most engaging secondary characters (and that’s saying something) comes in. The squire’s middle-aged, unmarried sister, Hester, a goose fancier, takes an instant aversion to Evangeline but at first doesn’t know what to make of Cordelia. When Hester learns the truth about Cordelia’s plight and her mother’s evil, the aging spinster recruits a former suiter who’s still a dear friend, plus her closest female friends, each with her own entertaining quirks, to combat the sorceress. In addition to fascinating character interaction and development, the story features library research into arcane lore, scintillating dialogue, desperate confrontations, and moments of bone-chilling horror. Codelia grows into an independent person and discovers her own hidden strength. After narrow escapes, dark moments, and twists designed to surprise even the most genre-savvy fans, the good guys attain a well-deserved victory. A satisfying experience for devotees of T. Kingfisher’s fantasy and horror as well as a worthy stand-alone introduction to her work for new readers.
THE LOST STORY, by Meg Shaffer. Naturally, I couldn’t resist a novel advertised as inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia. Shanandoah (sic), the world beyond the portal in THE LOST STORY, isn’t quite like Narnia, but not nearly so dark as Fillory in Lev Grossman’s THE MAGICIANS. In the prologue, fifteen years before the main action, two boys who’d vanished in a West Virginia state forest six months earlier miraculously return. Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell have aged more than six months can account for but not enough to cast doubt on their identities. As we later learn, magic has altered their memories. Rafe remembers nothing about their experiences during that lost time. For reasons ultimately revealed, Jeremy (who’s forbidden to tell Rafe what happened to them) remembers everything except how to find the portal again. In the present, Rafe, an eccentric artist, lives alone in the woods. Meanwhile, Jeremy’s clairvoyant gift has earned him a high-profile career as a finder of missing persons. The main story begins when Emilie Wendell tries to enlist him to search for the long-lost half-sister she never knew, kidnapped by a serial rapist and presumed dead but with no trace of a body. Jeremy adamantly refuses when he learns the girl disappeared in the same area where he and Rafe were lost. The mention of Emilie’s sister’s name, however, changes his mind. Now he must repair his strained relationship with Rafe to persuade his former best friend to cooperate in the quest. Flashbacks show how their youthful friendship developed, with Jeremy offering Rafe a refuge from his semi-impoverished household and a harsh father who disapproved of his art. In the present, the gradual build-up to the team’s departure from our world deepens the reader’s understanding of the characters and intensifies curiosity about the boys’ missing months. It’s about a third of the way into the book when Jeremy, Rafe, and Emilie finally cross through the portal into Shanandoah. Numinous and perilous fantasy-realm excitement, emotionally fraught encounters, and a quest into a darkness both material and psychological follow. A deeply moving, bittersweet denouement reminds us that although fairy tales typically conclude with “happily ever after,” those consummations often require sacrifice. Interludes by an anonymous, omniscient narrator, the “storyteller,” appear throughout the novel to provide metafictional commentary on the heroes’ adventures. The storyteller, her identity finally revealed, has the last word, reminding us that “books are magic. Maybe the strongest magic there is.”
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”:
Four men hauled the Yule log up the broad, tree-lined drive toward the house, three young servants with Walter Griffin, the landowner’s son, in the lead. Lucy caught herself watching him with rapt attention and quickly looked away. True, he carried the front end of the huge segment of tree trunk with an ease that belied his slender build, but that was no excuse to stare like a lovesick girl. Nor was the fact that until today they hadn’t seen each other for over a year. She hoped if he glanced her way, he would attribute the flush on her cheeks to the crisp winter wind. Or that even with his spectacles, he couldn’t make out the details of her expression from that distance.
A light dusting of snow covered the ground. Shivering, Lucy pulled her fur-lined cape tighter around her shoulders. Along with the rest of the family and staff gathered outside the front entrance to the circa-1600 Tudor manor with its half-timbered facade, she joined the log-bearers in a hearty, off-key rendition of “The Holly and the Ivy.” The men dragged their burden inside to the original great hall, now the main parlor. Trailing after them, Lucy stuck close to her mother, who kept a firm grip on six-year-old Robbie’s hand.
Lucy’s little brother grinned up at her, skipping as he tried to break free and race ahead. The family’s Irish setter bounced and wagged at his side. “Does the Yule log mean Father Christmas will come tonight?”
She shook her head. “Not tonight. Christmas Eve is tomorrow night, remember? Two more sleeps until Christmas.”
Walter and the other men shoved the gigantic log into the vast, stone fireplace, where it barely fit. The mantel already bore garlands of greenery. The servants had previously stacked up kindling and coaxed it into a steady burn. Under the supervision of Walter’s father, Lucy and Robbie’s uncle by marriage, the men arranged the log atop the pile. Everyone watched with bated breath until it became clear the flame had caught. In celebration, they sang all the verses of “Deck the Halls” they could remember. See the blazing Yule before us… Soon the scent of wood smoke blended with the evergreen aroma of the fir tree standing in the nearest corner.
Uncle George rubbed his hands with a satisfied smile. “Good choice, lads. This one is sure to burn until Twelfth Night.” He glanced down at Robbie. “Maybe tonight we’ll sit around it and tell Christmas ghost stories. Would you like that?”
After a moment of hesitation, the boy said, “Oh, yes.”
As the servants began to disperse to their duties, Lucy grasped his free hand. “You must be cold. How about a cup of hot cocoa?”
“I’m not cold,” he said, “but I still want cocoa.”
Over his head, Lucy and her mother exchanged amused smiles at his boyish indifference to the weather. Spotting Walter heading in their direction, Lucy quickened her steps toward the corridor that led to the kitchen.
Her mother’s puzzled frown made it obvious she noticed Lucy’s eagerness to evade Walter, but she didn’t remark on it. In the almost stifling warmth of the spacious kitchen, with another antique fireplace large enough to stand in, alongside modern furnishings such as the newest model of cast-iron, coal-burning stove, they watched the cook heat milk for Robbie’s cocoa. Meanwhile, he knelt on the flagstone floor to pet the gray tabby who guarded the pantry from mice. When the chocolate was ready, Lucy carried the mug while she and her mother escorted Robbie up to his room to drink it there.
They had a suite of three connected bedrooms, his a cramped nook between his mother’s and sister’s chambers. As soon as he got settled for the moment, Lucy’s mother followed her into her room to launch the interrogation Lucy had been dreading. “Why are you avoiding Walter? Before he went medical school in London, you had an understanding, didn’t you?”
Lucy couldn’t deny she and Walter had established that “understanding.” Cousins could marry, and anyway the two of them were only step-cousins, if that word existed. “That was then. Things have changed.” She hadn’t met him in person since her father’s funeral, when they’d exchanged only brief remarks.
-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:
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:
For anyone who would like to read previous issues of this newsletter, they’re posted on my website here (starting from January 2018):
This is my Facebook author page. Please visit!
Facebook
Here’s my page in Barnes and Noble’s Nook store:
Barnes and Noble
Here’s the list of my Kindle books on Amazon. (The final page, however, includes some Ellora’s Cave anthologies in which I don’t have stories):
Carter Kindle Books
Here’s a shortcut URL to my author page on Amazon:
Amazon
The Fiction Database displays a comprehensive list of my books (although with a handful of fairy tales by a different Margaret Carter near the end):
My Goodreads page:
Goodreads
Please “Like” my author Facebook page (cited above) to see reminders when each monthly newsletter is uploaded. I’ve also noticed that I’m more likely to be shown posts from liked or friended sources in my Facebook feed when I’ve “Liked” some of their individual posts, so you might want to do that, too. Thanks!
My 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