Welcome to the August 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.
If by any chance you’ve tried the Dropbox link for THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT (at the end of the newsletter) and had trouble with it, check out the current one, which should work.
My paranormal romance novelette “Chocolate Chip Charm” was featured by N. N. Light’s Book Heaven in their “Christmas in July” promotion:
Just before their church choir’s Christmas party potluck, Stacy learns her former boyfriend, Rob, has broken up with her best friend, whom he was dating. Stacy got over Rob a long time ago, or so she thought. Shouldn’t she try to repair her friends’ fractured relationship? A love potion recipe she finds in her grandmother’s old notebook of magic spells might fix the problem. On the wild chance that it could work, Stacy mixes it into a cookie. But the charm misfires, and now Rob insists he’s been in love with her all along. The spell will wear off in seven days. But does she really want it to? There’s an excerpt below.
This month, we welcome Amy Hahn, author of historical fiction and nonfiction as well as other genres.
*****
Interview with Amy Hahn:
What inspired you to become a writer?
I’ve always been a writer. I can’t remember when I wasn’t. I was a very early reader and wrote stories at a young age. I filled notebooks with stories. I carried those notebooks everywhere. Stories came easy for me. Writing stories was a natural thing for me.
What genres do you work in?
I’ve written paranormal, contemporary and historical. I’ve also authored nonfiction history. And The Duchess Egg Hunt is a cozy romance mystery. I enjoy reading and writing many different genres.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I keep a notebook where I write down my book ideas. I sometimes write a general summary of the story with short character descriptions. And sometimes I’ll make notes about what I envision happening in each chapter. But I usually know how the story will evolve from beginning to middle to end. Once in a while there’s a twist or surprise I didn’t expect which changes the narrative, but most of the time the plot remains the same as the first time I imagined it.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors or whatever)?
I can’t specifically pinpoint influences on my work. I’ve been writing since childhood and I have story ideas come easily and endlessly (it’s just finding the time to put them to paper!). But often after I read or see something interesting, such as a documentary, an original story related to that topic pops into my head. I do have many favorite authors that have most likely inspired me in some way. In the classics, I love Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Louisa May Alcott, Maud Lovelace and L.M. Montgomery. The beloved characters of Jo March, Betsy Hart and Anne Shirley, all passionate dreamers and writers with independent personalities, certainly offered inspiration. In contemporary, I enjoy Kate Morton, Sarah Addison Allen and Wendy Webb. And I’m a big fan of historical nonfiction by Erik Larson, David McCullough and Nathaniel Philbrick. I’m constantly amazed by the talent it takes to write historic nonfiction that reads like fiction narrative. Incredible.
What sparked your “Jelly Beans and Spring Things” book, THE DUCHESS EGG HUNT? What kind of research did you do for it?
I’ve read a lot of cozy mysteries and I do enjoy them, but I’ve never written one. So, when the “Jelly Beans and Spring Things” series was announced, I decided I wanted to give writing a cozy romantic mystery a try. But it had to have a historic story weaved into it. Contemporary mysteries surrounding a historic artifact, such as a painting or manuscript or photos, are a favorite of mine. And in addition to being a writer and editor, I am also a historian. With this series and its spring theme, I thought about the decorated porcelain eggs Tsar Nicholas Romanov gave his wife and mother every spring. These were extravagant creations. Many were designed with beautiful gems. So, I had an idea of having a story revolve around the lost jeweled eggs given to the four Romanov daughters who were known as Grand Duchesses. These decorative eggs are completely fictional. There is no record of the girls receiving their own eggs. But it sounded like a fun idea for a story. Add a museum curator who specializes in Imperial Russian art (and is especially knowledgeable about the lost eggs), a skeptic detective, an art heist by an elusive art thief, and a mysterious heiress with a family connection to Imperial Russia and a fun and interesting story developed.
MR. JACK FROST has the possibly unique premise of *the* Jack Frost as a romantic hero. What inspired you to choose him for that role?
That was my first book with The Wild Rose Press. It’s been a while since I wrote that one, but I remember wanting to write about winter and how beautiful it can be and that Jack Frost would be the perfect name for the hero, a magical hero, made of out snow, arriving to help the heroine rediscover joy in the holiday season and to be open to new love after experiencing tragedy.
Is the Ice Carousel in your story of that title based on a real-life counterpart somewhere?
That would be wonderful. I’d love to see a carousel made of ice. What a beautiful thing it would be! Even though I don’t know of a carousel carved in ice, there are many ice and snow sculpting contests across the world, including one in my home state of MN. That one takes place during the winter carnival in St. Paul. And the creations are amazing. Images and descriptions of these unique ice creations gave me inspiration for my icy carousel.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
My most current is The Duchess Egg Hunt. I’m not sure what my next published book will be.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on several different manuscripts at the moment. I’m sure many authors do the same. A couple are paranormal romances and another is a historical romance Christmas story. I also have a couple ideas for historical nonfiction, focused on regional MN history, that have been percolating for a while. And I’d like to write historical fiction about a few of my ancestors, and put together a collection of family history essays.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
1. Don’t compare yourself to other published authors. Focus on you and your own writing abilities and goals. Do what works best for you. Give energy to that.
2. Don’t stop writing. If you stop, you’ll never realize your dream to be published.
How has your career in journalism and TV affected your fiction writing (if it has)?
Working as a news producer for a television newscast definitely offered great exposure to a variety of interesting people and fascinating stories. I’d say my work as a journalist has certainly impacted me in many ways and there could always be a future book that is heavily influenced by my experience in news. And I believe my journalism education and my work as a professional journalist, writing and crafting news stories, has certainly helped improve my writing and editing skills.
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
Author Website
Facebook
Instagram
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
A DAUGHTER OF FAIR VERONA, by Christina Dodd. A historical mystery narrated by the oldest daughter of Romeo and Juliet. Yes, really. Without retconning any elements of Shakespeare’s play except the tragic ending, Dodd postulates that Romeo and Juliet botched their respective suicide attempts and survived to remain married, thereby reconciling their repentant parents. (Not that minor feuds among other families don’t continue in Verona.) Having married in their teens, Romeo and Juliet are still fairly young (by today’s standards if not those of Renaissance Italy) and passionately in love. Their daughter Rosaline, Rosie for short, observing their tempestuous relationship and dealing with her resultant brood of siblings, has no interest in marriage. She disposes of the suitors her parents foist on her by matchmaking them with more suitable girls. Rosie would rather spend her time studying herbs and potions with the elderly Friar Lawrence. Now in her twenties, she thinks she’s home free because she’s practically a confirmed spinster in the view of her contemporaries—until her parents betroth her to a notoriously debauched older nobleman who has already buried more than one wife. To make matters worse, at her engagement ball she falls in love, or at least infatuation, at first sight with a young man from a family hostile to her own. How embarrassing to find herself in the same plight as her impulsive parents in their youth! Then her prospective husband gets murdered. Rosie falls under suspicion, a quandary not improved by her potion expertise, a skill that some people regard as the next thing to witchcraft. To clear her name, she investigates the man’s death and uncovers secrets about what really happened to his earlier wives. The plot thickens into an amateur-detective romp from which the reader never really believes Rosie won’t emerge mainly unscathed. Well, for one thing, she’s the narrator! Fast-moving, clever, and witty, the mystery includes multiple twists and a solution I didn’t see coming. While I like Rosie as a character, I never felt a deep emotional connection to her. I do sympathize with her apparently hopeless crush on the boy from a rival household, though, and feel some curiosity about their eventual fate (not enough to motivate me to buy the sequel, but your mileage may vary). I don’t mind the breezy narrative style, with the language of Romeo and Juliet’s Verona “translated” into modern American colloquialisms. I did wince, however, when Rosie scoffs at the concept of the Earth’s being round, a fact all educated people have known since antiquity. But I suppose I can give the author the benefit of the doubt and accept this detail as part of the humor.
WILDFIRE, by Peter Sartucci. Post-apocalyptic, near-future science fiction, first volume in a trilogy (continued in FIRE BREAK and BACK DRAFT) that will remind S. M. Stirling’s fans of his “Emberverse” series, beginning with DIES THE FIRE. Indeed, Sartucci’s saga is effectively fanfic inspired by Stirling and was written with that author’s full approval. The triggering phenomenon in WILDFIRE, an enigmatic extraterrestrial entity labeled the Visitor that has hovered over Earth uneventfully for some time before the fateful day, differs slightly from the set-up in Stirling’s series, but they lead to the same fundamental premise: In a single instant, the laws of physics change so that no advanced technology functions. No electricity, no explosions, no steam power capable of doing work. As far as the characters and readers ever discover, this change is permanent. While Stirling’s long-running series portrays the growth of a new society over the course of two generations, Sartucci’s trilogy focuses on the first few months after the Rupture (as the triggering event comes to be called). The protagonist, Sam Hyatt, teaches martial arts. He and his wife, Ellie, have two children. They live in Montana, but when the catastrophe hits, they’re in Denver with his team for a regional competition. As soon as they realize things won’t immediately return to normal, they set out with their team, bicycles for transport, whatever portable supplies they can gather, and a few other people they pick up on the way. They head for Ellie’s parents’ rural home, a small Colorado town in a comfortably remote, easily defensible location. Yes, of course they have the necessary skills, knowledge, and resources to survive, plus a relatively safe place to retreat to. A post-apocalyptic story about people without those advantages would be awfully short. Various other viewpoint characters are introduced along the way, some only walk-ons, others destined to become important later. The most significant secondary character outside the Hyatts’ personal circle turns out to be a Catholic priest serving as a hospital chaplain. A paranormal element arises, involving cryptic visions of each other experienced by him and Sam Hyatt. We await their eventual meeting in real life and aren’t disappointed. They’re also visited by mystical epiphanies that hint at the source of the Rupture, although Sartucci’s trilogy (unlike Stirling’s series) never offers specific details of the cause and motive for the event. In addition to the deities who reveal themselves to Sam and the priest, demonic forces have broken into the world. By the third volume, a spiritual battle between good and evil parallels the desperate physical clashes that end the lives of some characters. Alongside the attacks of gangs and organized armies determined to conquer the protagonists’ home, the internal politics of the town generate their own stress and hazards. While the books contain more battle scenes than I would have chosen, the author held my attention throughout, and I seldom had trouble understanding the action. My favorite sections are those where the heroes struggle to cope with the logistics of a suddenly pre-industrial world. Sartucci goes into deep and convincing detail about the problems and solutions. All the characters, both heroes and villains, are portrayed with lifelike vividness, and the good guys engage our full belief and sympathy. Their dangers and triumphs strike me as consistently plausible. The writing flows smoothly, with lucid exposition and lively dialogue. However, the text could have used another proofreading pass, with the repeated misplacement of apostrophes in plural possessives especially glaring. That glitch, though, didn’t prevent me from being captivated by this trilogy and not wanting it to end.
WICKED MARIGOLD, by Caroline Carlson. A fun middle-grade fantasy deconstructing a familiar fairy-tale and fantasy trope, good and bad princesses. All her life, Princess Marigold has heard about her perfect sister, Rosalind, who was kidnapped by the evil wizard Torville before Marigold was born. Rosalind was beautiful, kind, sweet, and virtuous – magically so. Animals loved her, and flowers instantly sprang up in her vicinity. Inquisitive, impulsive Marigold, aside from her cleverness at inventing “contraptions,” is an ordinary girl with a normal tendency to get into trouble. When she’s eleven years old, out of nowhere Rosalind escapes from Torville’s castle and comes home. For Marigold, the lavish festivities highlight her own flaws in contrast to her idealized older sister. When she accidentally-on-purpose dumps a bucket of water on Rosalind, Marigold decides – in accordance with fundamental fairy-tale principles – that if Rosalind is good, she herself must be the wicked one. Marigold runs away to the lair of wizard Torville. He and his imp assistant, Pettifog, after all those years of Rosalind’s incorrigible sweetness, want nothing to do with another princess. When Marigold insists she’s wicked and begs to become Torville’s apprentice, he gives her seven days to prove herself. Failure will result in a dire penalty, probably transformation into a beetle. Torville’s home is a delightful example of everything an evil sorcerer’s lair should be. Rummaging through spell books and scouring the “dank and dismal fortress” for ingredients, Marigold manages to squeak through the trial period. We learn along with her about the contentious atmosphere of the evil wizard community, including Torville’s far from civil relations with his own brother and sister. When Marigold’s best friend, the kitchen boy Collin, shows up in search of her, he informs her of Rosalind’s grand project, a peace conference to change the Cacophonous Kingdoms into the Harmonious Kingdoms. The evil sorcerers, of course, prefer that the realms continue hiring wizards to cast curses on each other. In the midst of the crisis, Marigold’s experimental spell work changes Torville into a blob of glop. She and Pettifog, with Collin’s enthusiastic help, have to conceal this disaster as the political situation grows more and more tangled. The clever contraptions she makes out of found objects contribute to solving the problems almost as much as magic does. The cranky Torville and disdainful, fastidious Pettifog develop into interestingly rounded characters who aren’t nearly so bad as we and Marigold thought at first. Ultimately, she even discovers Rosalind to be a likable person who’s more than one-dimensionally “good.” Is Marigold wicked or not? Even though her heart never shrivels up like Torville’s, can she be wicked in her own way? In the end, she becomes appreciated for who she is rather than forced into the mold of what either a princess or an evil wizard “should be.”
THE SPELLSHOP, by Sarah Beth Durst. Marketed as a “cozy fantasy,” this novel reminds me of another specimen of that subgenre, Travis Baldree’s LEGENDS & LATTES (reviewed in the April newsletter, No. 223). In both books, the female protagonist settles in a small town where she opens a store offering wares otherwise unavailable to the locals and forms unexpected friendships. Baldree’s retired orc mercenary Viv, however, has meticulously planned her peaceful retirement, while Durst’s protagonist is fleeing a violent revolution. Kiela, on the staff of the Great Library of Alyssium, lives in a suite in the library and hardly ever speaks to another human being, a lifestyle she’s perfectly happy with. She doesn’t actively dislike people, but she likes books more. When revolutionaries attempting to overthrow the emperor start burning the city, including (to her shock and horror) the library, she collects all the rare spellbooks she can transport and escapes from the city. Private possession of these tomes is forbidden, but she has to “steal” them or abandon them to probable destruction. She has one companion, her assistant Caz, a sapient, talking spider plant, a unique being who’s the most delightful secondary character I’ve encountered in a fantasy novel in a long time. In search of a refuge remote and obscure enough that imperial agents won’t follow her there, she travels to her island-based home town. Her late parents left for the big city when Kiela was a child and had no interest in returning, so she no longer has social ties there. She does own a house, though, which can provide a home for her and Caz if it hasn’t fallen into ruin or been coopted by squatters. Fortunately, the cottage and its grounds need a lot of work but are livable. Most of the villagers remember her mother and therefore tentatively accept Kiela, including a nosy and intrusively over-helpful—from her viewpoint—male neighbor, Larran, a caretaker of merhorses. To survive, she has to interact with people, however reluctantly. She decides to make jam from a family recipe to sell to the local baker as well as individual customers, a process that requires her to learn the technique from scratch. Her new acquaintances include a variety of nonhuman persons as well as humans from a wide spectrum of backgrounds and colors (including some unknown in our world, such as blue). All the species and races intermingle freely, with no trace of prejudice. Suspicion falls only on outsiders. Meanwhile, Kiela notices how impoverished the town has become. Learning the cause, the failure of imperial wizards to visit and replenish the island’s magic as they used to, she realizes her cache of forbidden spellbooks offers the potential for restoring fertility, prosperity, and protection from magical storms. If, that is, she can learn to use the spells. After all, she’s a librarian, not a sorcerer. Also, when she does manage to cast a few spells by trial and error, she has to pass off the resulting potions as “old family remedies,” since it’s illegal for laypersons to perform magic. Her jam shop not only supplies tasty treats but also serves as a front for the titular spellshop. Naturally, her safe haven can’t remain so indefinitely. Fallout from the rebellion and the threat of imperial investigators find their way to the island despite its insignificance. Although Kiela ends up forming strong ties with the locals, especially Larran, she remains a confirmed introvert, with whom I can heartily identify. Regardless of how deeply she comes to care for her new neighbors, she can endure only so much company at a stretch. This novel contains irresistible humor, pathos, and fantasy worldbuilding, as well as suspense. All the characters have their individual quirks, including Caz the spider plant, with his hyper-cautious, Eeyore-like outlook on life, and the new companion he bonds with, an accidentally created sentient cactus. It’s not much of a spoiler to reveal that Kiela and her newfound friends overcome the threats and that she eventually feels she has truly come home. The fun lies in discovering how she reaches that point. This is another book that I didn’t want to see end and will certainly reread.
For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
*****
Excerpt from “Chocolate Chip Charm”:
The following night around eight, when Stacy had just inserted one of her favorite animated Christmas specials into the DVD player, the doorbell rang. She opened the door to find Rob standing on the stoop. Well, so much for the spell-cancellation ritual. He instantly burst into song. For a minute or two, she watched, stunned, as he sang about strolling through snowy lanes and getting married by a snowman, who surely couldn’t legally perform such a ceremony under existing state law.
The front door on the other side of the duplex opened. Mrs. Hermann, the female half of the elderly couple who lived there, stepped onto the porch in a quilted, rose-pink bathrobe. After a stern glance at Stacy, she glared at Rob.
“Sorry,” Stacy blurted in a feeble squeak. After her neighbor retreated inside with a slam of the door, Stacy folded her arms, summoning up a frown although an impulse to laugh bubbled inside her. “Quiet! Do you want to get me evicted?”
“That couldn’t happen, could it?”
“No, not really, but I get along fine with the Hermanns, and I want to keep it that way.”
Before she could recover her equilibrium, he stepped inside the open door and closed it behind him. He peered over her shoulder at the cartoon paused on the TV screen. “Remember how we used to sing along with the music and recite the dialogue with Boris Karloff?”
“How could I forget? Cocoa and popcorn on the couch in my parents’ basement, making snarky remarks at the dialogue in all the Christmas classics.”
He said with a sly grin, “Yeah, when you weren’t trying not to cry over them. I’ve missed that in the past four years. I’d love to watch Christmas movies with you again, not to mention all the other stuff we used to do together.” In his right hand, he displayed a bouquet of green leaves and white berries she hadn’t noticed before. “Meanwhile, I come bearing mistletoe.”
Holding the sprig above his head, he wrapped his free arm around her waist. When his lips tentatively nibbled hers, she didn’t dodge as she knew she should. Instead, she let herself savor the shivers of pleasure that coursed through her. She broke contact only when he tried to deepen the kiss.
“We can’t do this. You were going with Doreen up until a few days ago.”
“That doesn’t matter. She knew all along that I’d never gotten over you.”
Stacy wiggled out of his loose embrace. If only she could believe that claim, but of course it was a magically induced delusion. “I don’t want to talk about it. You have to leave.”
He sighed. “If that’s what you really want.”
“I do.” She forced herself to speak in a firm tone that wouldn’t expose the assertion as a lie.
“Okay, but I’ll see you again tomorrow.” He opened the door and stepped out.
The instant it closed behind him, she locked the latch and deadbolt so she’d be less tempted to call him back.
-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