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Welcome to the June 2022 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.” For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires

Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog

You can subscribe to this monthly newsletter here:

Subscribe

The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, e-mail me to request the desired issue, and I’ll send you a free PDF of it. My e-mail address is at the end of this newsletter. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:

Vampire’s Crypt

A complete list of my available works, arranged roughly by genre, with purchase links (gradually being updated as the Amber Quill and Ellora’s Cave works are being republished):

Complete Works

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

Newsletters

This is my Facebook author page. Please visit!
Facebook

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

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

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

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

Fiction Database

My Goodreads page:
Goodreads

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

NetGalley reviewer Jeremy F. gave AGAINST THE DARK DEVOURER four stars! He says:

“Against the Dark Devourer was the best combination of Charmed and Lovecraftian Horror that I didn’t know I needed. Margaret Carter’s Dark Devourer world continues to be great in this story following Deborah and Victor as they take on a new evil that feels all too familiar. One of the best things about this book is that you don’t have to read the first book to understand the world but it definitely enhances the read!”

Reviewer Barbara Custer (editor of NIGHT TO DAWN) gives the novel five stars on Amazon and says, “If you enjoy paranormal romances, you’ll love Against the Dark Devourer.”

You can find AGAINST THE DARK DEVOURER here:

Against the Dark Devourer

The Wild Rose Press will release the new edition of my erotic paranormal romance novella “Calling Back Love” on June 13. Lovecraftian erotic paranormal romance novella “Crossing the Border” (an excerpt from which was included in last month’s newsletter) will be published on August 1. A third re-release, erotic ghost romance novella “Heart Diamond,” has also been contracted, to appear on September 14. The heroine receives a ring with a gemstone made from her late fiancé’s ashes (which is a thing that really exists, by the way) and finds herself confronted by his ghost. An excerpt appears below.

June’s interview features women’s fiction author Shirley Goldberg.

*****

Interview with Shirley Goldberg:

What inspired you to begin writing?

I never planned to write a book. Never planned to start over, either.

I’d split up with my husband and moved back from Crete where we’d lived for eleven years. Went back to school for a teaching certification, moved in with my mom and started internet dating.

It was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done, other than writing my master’s thesis.

I began keeping a diary, although it wasn’t a real diary. More like scribbles in a small, old calendar book with a ribbon to mark the page.

I took notes, sometimes during a date. Yup. Excused myself and went to the restroom to jot down funny or ridiculous details about the guys I met. Some of them couldn’t stop talking about themselves. Others complained about their ex-wives. Quite a few didn’t resemble their photos on the dating site. I wrote it all down. Then I fictionalized some of it and changed the names. That was my first book, Middle Ageish.

What genres do you work in?

I write romantic women’s fiction. Women’s friendships are important to me and my books wouldn’t exist without friendship stories.

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

In between, but I need to know a lot about my characters before I write. I live with them in my head for several days or weeks before I put anything down on the page.

What have been the major influences on your writing (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?

I’ve lived and worked in London, Paris, Casablanca, and lived in Greece, so that’s influenced me. My friends of long standing still influence me and we keep in touch, no matter where we are in the world. Author-wise, here are a few favorites: Ed McBain, Nora Ephron, and Helen Gurley Brown. Not kidding. And many many more.

How have your teaching experience and living in different parts of the world affected your fiction?

I’m now working on a book that takes place in Heraklion, Crete, where I used to live. I haven’t been there in a few years, so I still need to research and ask my friends what’s changed downtown, and in the villages where we used to hang out for lunch. Luckily, beaches don’t change and I have my favorite beach, Lygaria, as my screensaver. My teaching background is reflected in my characters. Many of them are teachers and some of the humorous classroom scenes came out of my own experiences.

Please tell us about your Midage Dating website.

My website, Midage Dating, grew out of my dating stories a year before I published my first book. It’s also a place to feature other authors and books I’ve read and loved.

What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?

My new book, A Little Bit of Lust, is with my editor in production. Here’s a teaser: What happens when your best friend is suddenly the sexiest option around—do you risk your friendship for a happy-ever-after? Three middle-aged friends share a bond that is tested by careers, loss, and love. A heartwarming story of forgiveness and starting over.

What are you working on now?

I’m working on the book I mentioned that’s set in Crete, Greece. A widow and her best friend take a vacation to Crete, where the widow honeymooned with her husband over twenty years earlier. She’s so not looking for a man, and her impulsive friend is the opposite, always on the lookout. Guess what?

Two men and two best friends. But things might not work out the way you think they should. Except for the happy-ever-after ending, of course.

What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

Never give up! Read great books of all kinds. Write as often as you can, even if it’s fifteen minutes a day. That way you’ll keep in touch with your work-in-progress. I’m going to follow my own advice when I finish writing this. Not kidding.

What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
Midage Dating

Shirley’s SOCIALS

Facebook Personal Page
Facebook Midage Dating Page
Twitter
Instagram
BookBub Profile

*****

Some Books I’ve Read Lately:

SPEAR, by Nicola Griffith. A gender-flipped retelling of the Arthurian legend of Sir Percival (aka Parsifal, Perceval, Peredur, and several other names), who, in the most familiar version of the tale, grew up with his mother deep in a forest, sheltered from the outside world that she feared would destroy him if he learned of and embraced his knightly heritage. The first time the boy encountered knights, however, he was naturally fascinated and wanted to become one of them. The Author’s Note to this novel discusses the legend’s history and its many variants. Griffith’s heroine, Peretur, who lives alone with her mother in a cave in the wilderness, at first doesn’t even have a name. Her mother calls her by nicknames but refuses to divulge her true name or the identity of the girl’s father. The girl becomes an expert with spear and bow, hunting for food while coping with her mother’s mood swings and descents into outright derangement. Magic plays a part in the girl’s life in the form of an antique bowl, a spear she finds near the body of a dead warrior, and a mystical vision of a lake that sometimes appears to her. Covertly watching a band of knights in the forest, she hears about King Artos and his court at Caer Leon. With her spear, she chances to defend the knights (who mistake her for a boy) from deadly peril. Her heart set on joining the King’s company, she suffers a violent reaction from her mother, who finally gives her the name of Peretur but rejects her and revokes her ability to penetrate the magical sphere of protection that surrounds their cave home. At the court, posing as a boy, Peretur enters the royal service but is flatly refused the opportunity to become a knight because “he” won’t reveal “his” past or lineage—ignorant herself of the latter and magically prevented from talking about the former. The masculine disguise, by the way, remains just that; she never stops thinking of herself as a girl. As her adventures unfold, the reader won’t be surprised to learn of the significance of the spear and the bowl. A sword and a stone also figure in the tale, all rooted in Celtic myth. The truth about Peretur’s ancestry and background, however, will probably come as a surprise (it did to me). Her journey of self-discovery and quest for acceptance by the order of knighthood, the twists on the familiar Arthurian mythos, and the numinous magical elements of the story captivated me.

NETTLE & BONE [sic], by T. Kingfisher. Starting with my discovery of this author by way of THE TWISTED ONES, nothing I’ve read by her has disappointed me. This fantasy novel opens with a familiar fairy-tale scenario, a heroine assigned three impossible tasks. When we meet Marra, youngest of three princesses in her minor kingdom’s royal family, she’s deep into the arduous process of wiring bones together to construct a skeletal dog. That painful task and the two others, weaving a nettle shirt and gathering a jar of moonlight, however, mark only the beginning of her quest. When she meets the conditions, the dust-wife—the witch she consulted for advice—will give her the means to kill the prince who’s married to her older sister, Kania. With the second chapter, the narrative backtracks to show how Marra reached this point. For protection against powerful neighbors, their small realm allied with a neighboring kingdom by marrying the oldest princess to the prince. After that sister’s sudden death, Kania, next in age, became the prince’s new bride. Grateful to be spared the role of a pawn in such arrangements, Marra retired to a convent, where (without taking vows) she trained as a midwife. Attending Kania in childbirth, she learns the prince—soon to be king—has been abusing Kania and probably killed their elder sister. Although the two younger princesses have never gotten along well, Marra can’t abandon Kania to a similar fate. Moreover, if the sadistic ruler kills his current wife, Marra will be in line to become his next queen. Therefore, she must eliminate him in some way that won’t plunge her homeland into war. Guided by the dust-wife, she risks a foray into the goblin market to exchange a tooth for what she needs. That turns out to be Fenris, a dishonored knight recently delivered from enchanted sleep in a fairy fort. Since the story is narrated in third person, we eventually get scenes in his viewpoint as well as Marra’s. With Fenris, the dust-wife, the witch’s chicken familiar, and the Bonedog, Marra sets out to rescue her sister and eliminate the evil king. Her mission involves learning the truth about Fenris’s shameful past, venturing into a royal tomb, and confronting ghosts and a fairy godmother, among other ordeals. The story develops with unexpected yet wholly credible twists, suffering and near-tragedies, sacrifices and anguished interpersonal ruptures, and ultimate reconciliations. Marra impresses me as a strong, compelling character, an intelligent, single woman in early middle age with no illusions about her deviation from the image of the ideal princess.

WEREWOLVES, DOGMEN, AND OTHER SHAPESHIFTERS STALKING NORTH AMERICA, by Pamela K. Kinney. Written in an accessible, conversational style, this nonfiction book clearly announces its content in its title. It surveys a broad range of folklore, traditional and contemporary, under the wide umbrella of its subject matter. After the Introduction, the text is divided, in accordance with the title, into three major parts—Werewolves, Dogmen, and Other Shapeshifters. The word “other,” however, seems a little misleading, since there’s no indication of shapeshifting by most of the dogmen. I was surprised at how widespread are encounters with alleged dogmen, bipedal creatures with canine heads and sometimes other animal features. Readers might want to consume this section in small bites rather than all in one sitting, since the dogmen anecdotes tend to have a lot of similarities. Legends and sightings of werewolves and other shapeshifters, such as coyotes, ravens, badgers, and owl witches among others, display more variation over locations and time periods. The book visits many different states as well as parts of Canada and Latin America, hopping around in a thematic rather than geographic mode of organization. The longest single parts cover Alaska and the American southwest. The book deals in extensive detail with skinwalkers, both legendary and contemporary. There’s also a long section on the wendigo. Many of the shapeshifting creatures were new to me. The author straightforwardly reports anecdotes of weird encounters without passing judgment on their truth or falsehood. The narrative mode tends more toward questions than answers. Anyone curious about traditional creatures and modern urban legends in the general category of beast-human hybrids will find plenty of material in this book. Although there’s a three-page bibliography, the main body includes no footnotes to indicate what particular sources contain information about which incidents, in keeping with the generally informal approach (though some sources are identified in the texts of individual narratives). The evocative titles of many of the listed books, however, will surely whet the appetites of readers wishing to pursue certain types of cryptids and mythical beings in greater depth.

*****

Excerpt from “Heart Diamond”:

The door buzzer cut through the bleakness of yet another Saturday evening. Too late for a door-to-door solicitor. Who would visit at this hour without calling first? Roseanne switched off the black-and-white movie she’d been half watching and trudged to the door. Pausing with her hand on the chain, she said, “Who is it?”

“Just me.”

Ted, her late fiancé’s brother. She sighed. I should have guessed. He was her only friend who never bothered to phone before dropping in. As little as she wanted to deal with him on a weekend night, she didn’t have the heart to tell him to get lost. “Yeah, what’s up?” she asked, unfastening the chain. Through the door, she heard the patter of a steady rain.

“I’ve got something important to tell you. Okay if I come in?” His voice sounded enough like his brother’s to give her a fresh twinge of sorrow, though they weren’t completely alike. Ted’s was pitched a little higher.

“You might as well, just for a minute. I was thinking about getting ready for bed.” Lucky she hadn’t changed into her nightgown yet. The way Ted’s eyes roamed over her even in a ratty T-shirt made her vaguely uncomfortable, though he’d never overtly hit on her.

His face always gave her an unwelcome shock. She hoped he didn’t notice the wince of pain she tried to suppress. It wasn’t his fault that he’d been in the car when his brother died or that the two of them looked so much alike. Strangers had often mistaken them for twins, despite the seventeen-month difference in their ages. They had the same honey-gold hair, which Tim had worn a bit longer and shaggier than Ted’s. The same height—six feet two—and they shared a trim, broad-shouldered but not muscle-bound build. Their eyes were different shades of blue—Tim’s closer to gray—and Ted’s profile was a little sharper. Still, any unexpected glimpse of him pierced her breast with a pang of longing and sometimes ignited a flare of need, chased by a shadow of guilt. She never considered pursuing that illusion. She knew the inner differences between the brothers too well. Friends with them since high school, she’d dated Ted only a few times before she’d discovered reasons to prefer Tim.

“Mom and Dad asked me to bring you this.” He strolled into the living room, lounged on the couch and took a small box out of his pocket. His hair and shirt were damp from the rain.

Roseanne sat down, careful to keep space between them. “What is it?”

“Something Tim left for you.” Ted opened the box. It held a silver ring with a blue-tinted, oval-cut diamond flanked by a pair of diamond chips.

She took it from him, her hand trembling and tears misting her eyes. “How—?”

“While the folks were visiting Tim in the ICU, he was conscious for a little while. He asked them to have this ring made for you if he didn’t survive. He said you’d talked about it once. Sounded kind of creepy to me.”

“Why?” Roseanne’s tears made a sparkling halo around the gems. During Tim’s lifetime, they hadn’t gotten around to buying an engagement ring. “What’s creepy about it?”

Ted visibly swallowed, as if working up the nerve to answer. “Because it’s made from his ashes. I tried to talk Mom and Dad out of it, but they said that was his last wish and he’d been in his right mind when he made it. Personally, I wasn’t so sure.”

“He did show me the website when he happened to stumble on it. We thought it was cute and sentimental in a weird way. Heartdiamonds.com, it’s called.” After touching a fingernail to the central stone, she set the box on the coffee table.

“Morbid, if you ask me. Frankly, if I hadn’t known our parents would follow up on it with you, I wouldn’t have given you this thing. I’d have returned it for a refund and snuck the money back into their account.”

-end of excerpt-

*****

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 May 2022 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.” For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires

Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog

You can subscribe to this monthly newsletter here:

Subscribe

The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, e-mail me to request the desired issue, and I’ll send you a free PDF of it. My e-mail address is at the end of this newsletter. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:

Vampire’s Crypt

A complete list of my available works, arranged roughly by genre, with purchase links (gradually being updated as the Amber Quill and Ellora’s Cave works are being republished):

Complete Works

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

Newsletters

This is my Facebook author page. Please visit!
Facebook

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

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

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

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

Fiction Database

My Goodreads page:
Goodreads

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

The Wild Rose Press has contracted to republish “Crossing the Border,” an erotic dark paranormal romance novella with Lovecraftian elements. I’m delighted that it’s going to be back on the market after several years of being unavailable. A deceased novelist’s widow and his literary agent discover why he warned against publishing his final book—because the realm of eldritch horrors in the author’s fiction is real. A teaser from the beginning of the story appears below.

In honor of reaching the milestone of 200 issues of this monthly newsletter, on Friday, May 6, I’ll randomly choose one subscriber to receive a $20 Amazon gift card. To subscribe, go here:

News from the Crypt

This month I’m interviewing multi-genre romance author Anna M. Taylor.

*****

Interview with Anna M. Taylor:

What inspired you to begin writing?

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t write. However what inspired me to write professionally was a challenge from my mother-in-law. At the time I was writing X-Files fan fiction and she asked me why I wasn’t writing about my own characters. It revived in me an old desire to do just that so I joined Romance Writers of America to get me started.

What genres do you work in?

I write inspirational romance as Anna Taylor, erotic/steamy romance as Michal Scott and gothic/ghost story romances as Anna M. Taylor.

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

I outline. You could call me a plotter on steroids. I’ve been using a series of templates created by Mary Buckham and Dianna Love from their book Break Into Fiction that make sure I build my story correctly.

What have been the major influences on your writing (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?

Hands down Mary Buckham has been the major influence on my writing. Many years ago I took my first class with her on writing synopses and query letters. Talk about learning what I didn’t know. Then while I was still unpublished she asked me to be part of a panel she was proposing for a Romance Writers of America. When I said, “But I’m not published,” her response was, “You’re an author whether you’re published or not.” She challenged me to think of myself in asset-terms not deficit ones. I’ll always be grateful to her for that.

How did your first career as a minister affect your fiction writing (if it did)?

Because I see the longest running unrequited love story being played out in the two testaments of the Christian Bible, I believe being a minister has attracted me to the second chance romance trope. The messages of my sermons centered around God’s love for us and how God continually seeks us out despite all the times we reject that love or think we’re unworthy of love. However, the biggest influence being a minister had on my fiction happened in seminary when I was introduced to the love mystics of Begijn. Their prayers inspired me to try my hand at Christian erotica and Christian erotic romance. When you read translations of those prayers you’ll understand why. When someone asks how I as a minister can write erotic romance, I point them to the ecstatic prayers of these mystics. I say if there can be Christian erotic non-fiction, there can be Christian erotic fiction, too.

What kind of research did you do for your historical romances?

I research geography first. I need to be sure that how things look today don’t interfere with how my characters interact with their setting back then. I then look up what significant events took place in the year my story takes place to see if it can have an impact or should have an impact on the events in my story. This last is particularly important since I write about Black history and settings which don’t usually get attention from mainstream historical sources.

What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?

My next-forthcoming book is the third story in my Haunted Harlem series. It’s called Always the Dead Between and combines my normal ghost elements and second chance romance trope with time travel.

What are you working on now?

I have two works in progress: an inspirational historical called A Pearl of Great Price where the hero and heroine have given each other thirty days to prove they deserve to be the other’s spouse. The other is a steamy historical set in an alternate universe 1800’s African American New York City and Brooklyn called Or What’s A Heaven For? It’s my attempt to tell Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold from the point of view of the women in that opera.

What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

Find a supportive community. There are times your internal editor will try to convince you you’re no good. You need others to remind you that’s not so.

What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?

My Michal Scott erotic romance website is Michal Scott and my gothic/ghost story romance website is Anna M. Taylor.

On Twitter I’m @revannable and @mscottauthor1 where I share aspirational songs to keep us hopeful as well as promos and recommendations for other authors’ work. On Facebook I’m annamtaylorAuthor. There I share aspirational music and updates on my gothic/ghost story works in progress.

Thanks for the opportunity to share.

Anna T.S.

*****

Some Books I’ve Read Lately:

PETER DARLING, by Austin Chant. By far the most unusual re-imagining of PETER PAN I’ve ever read. Since the title hints at Peter’s secret and it’s revealed fairly early in the book, mentioning it here isn’t too much of a spoiler: Peter is Wendy, or vice versa. From the first time Wendy invented tales of Peter Pan to entertain her younger brothers, she has always insisted on playing the role of Peter in their games. Her father takes a dim view of her obsession with the Peter persona, while her mother gently suggests she’s treating the “game” a little too seriously. When Tinkerbell transports the protagonist to Neverland, he gains a male body as well as the power (albeit unconscious) to shape the magical island according to his fantasies of freedom and adventure. This version of Neverland doesn’t include “Indians,” but it does contain fairies, mermaids, and pirates. The story is narrated in achronic order, with some of the flashbacks told before events that happen earlier in the timeline, a slightly confusing technique, but I managed to catch on. We gradually learn Peter’s backstory, how he returned to the mundane world after a month in Neverland, tried to tell his family where he’d been and become, and, under the threat of confinement in an asylum, resumed the role of Wendy. Ten years later, on the verge of suicide, he summons Tinkerbell, who transports him back to Neverland. Unlike the island in Barrie’s original story, here Neverland doesn’t confer immortality or eternal youth, even upon Peter. He has grown ten years older, and so have the Lost Boys. Furthermore, meanwhile a new Lost Boy has arrived, a young man named Ernest who has taken over leadership of the small band. He cares for a weak little boy, provoking scorn from Peter, who promptly forgets his mundane past and reverts to the “innocent and heartless” lad of Barrie’s fiction. The perpetual war between the Lost Boys and the pirates becomes more than a game. People (and fairies) die. Suppressed memories break through. The rivalry between Peter and Captain Hook evolves into a mixture of bitter enmity and irresistible fascination. When they are thrown together in a crisis where they depend on each other for survival, the dark truth about Neverland comes out, along with the revelation of what Peter, Hook, and Ernest have in common. While the concept of love between Peter Pan and Captain Hook may sound farfetched, the author makes it heart-wrenchingly believable. I did, however, notice what appears to be one plot hole: Given the nature of Neverland as eventually revealed, Tinkerbell shouldn’t be able to visit Peter in London. The novel’s bittersweet conclusion, although not anything I expected, struck me as completely satisfying.

LITTLE (GRRL) LOST, by Charles De Lint. A 2007 YA novel set in De Lint’s invented Canadian city, Newford. This story, having no direct connection to the events of the main series, can be read on its own. Fourteen-year-old T.J.’s family, forced by financial reverses to give up the farm where she was happy, has moved to Newford. In addition to missing her home and friends, she’s had to give up her beloved horse. She feels that her parents have little sympathy for her teenage misery. Her self-absorbed unhappiness is realistically rendered without making her seem unappealingly whiny. As the novel begins, she thinks she hears mice inside the walls, a guess supported by her cat’s behavior. Instead, that space is inhabited by Littles, six-inch-tall people living in the interstices of the world of the Bigs (us), like the diminutive characters in THE BORROWERS and MISTRESS MASHAM’S REPOSE (both mentioned in the novel). The book also brings to mind De Lint’s own much earlier novel THE LITTLE COUNTRY, which uses similar tropes. T.J. meets Elizabeth, a sixteen-year-old Little running away from her parents’ overly strict rules (as she sees them) about never letting Bigs know their kind exist. After a prickly start, T.J. and Elizabeth become friends. Unfortunately, when Elizabeth has second thoughts and decides to return home, she discovers her parents have moved away, in an excess of caution over their presence having been discovered. T.J. proposes seeking help from an author who has written children’s books about Littles, in case she might actually know them and have secret information about them. Luckily, she happens to have a book signing scheduled in Newford. The two girls’ plan to smuggle Elizabeth into the bookstore, naturally, doesn’t go smoothly. Instead, an attack by a gang of bullies separates them; from that point, the narrative alternately follows T.J. and Elizabeth. T.J.’s scenes continue to be told in third person, past tense, with Elizabeth’s in first person, present tense. As T.J. desperately searches for her missing friend, helped and hindered by two very different boys she meets along the way, Elizabeth encounters a “feral” Little, though he prefers the term “ranger.” With his help, as well as learning where her parents went, she tries to uncover the truth about a legend that some Littles can change into birds. Lots of adventure and suspense—at first I wasn’t sure what to make of the author’s reaction when T.J. finally gets to meet her. Through their separate and shared explorations and dangers, both girls grow in adaptability and emotional maturity without losing their sharp edges.

PROMISES TO KEEP, by Charles De Lint. Also set mainly in Newford, this novel, which takes place in 1972, reveals the backstory of De Lint’s major recurring character Jilly Coppercorn. At the beginning of this book, Jilly (born Jillian Carter) hasn’t yet become aware of the supernatural realm she knows so well in the other volumes in the series. As we learn from her first-person account, she has a happy, productive life as a budding artist, after a rough childhood followed by years spent mostly as a teenage homeless drug addict. A voice from the past calls her by her old name. Donna, whom Jilly hasn’t seen in many years, was her best friend in the Home for Wayward Girls and later on the street. Now Donna, who’s also become clean, belongs to a band. She invites Jilly to watch them perform at a nightclub that, as far as any of Jilly’s friends know, doesn’t exist. Nevertheless, Jilly manages to find it and has a wonderful evening. Afterward, Donna leads her out a back door—into a different place. They’ve passed through a portal into an apparently ideal city, Donna’s new home. The residents work at fulfilling vocations and somehow have all their needs supplied. A bank account in Jilly’s name appears out of nowhere, and she lucks into an apartment as well as a group studio where she can paint. All the people she meets seem unfailingly cheerful, friendly, and helpful. Well, all except one. When she encounters a grouchy man who warns her against taking the city at face value, she gets her first inkling that it may have a dark side. As the true nature of the place gradually becomes clear, Jilly faces the decision of whether to stay there or return to the flawed real world. If she chooses the former, her friends will probably think she disappeared for no reason and abandoned them, maybe to fall back into the pit of addiction. Her choice will be irrevocable, for there’s no free travel between the paradisial city and the mundane realm. Moreover, she’s warned she’ll also forget the entire experience if she returns home. De Lint renders the balance between the genuine joys of the city and the darkness at the margins with subtly disturbing effect. Jilly is a believable, engaging character, and she comes across as authentically torn by her dilemma. Even though readers of De Lint’s other work know how she’ll end up, we feel the suspense of her choice. She narrates the flashbacks that reveal her painful backstory in past tense, with the current action told in present tense. In this case, that narrative choice seems justified in order to maintain the suspense while staying in Jilly’s first-person viewpoint.

TALES FROM THE SEA. This lovely hardback compilation of fairy tales and legends from a variety of different countries doesn’t list an editor, only an illustrator (Maggie Chiang). While a few of the contents slightly stretch the definition of “sea stories,” all are entertaining, especially for readers intrigued by different styles of storytelling in different regions of the world. All the selections are in the public domain, with their original publications listed in the back of the book. Stories come from China, Japan, Norway, Iceland, Hawaii, New Zealand, Armenia, Russia, Ghana, Korea, and the Philippines, among others. The cautionary narrative of the fisherman and his greedy wife will be familiar to most readers from the Grimm brothers’ tales. The only other piece already known to me was the Japanese legend of the fisher lad Urashima Taro, whose sojourn under the ocean seems like a few days to him but spans centuries in the real world, as in many tales of human beings spirited away to faerie realms. Anyone interested in folklore from multicultural sources would enjoy this book.

*****

Excerpt from “Crossing the Border”:

“Why haven’t you answered any of my messages? I’m not lying, crazy, or putting you on. The stars are coming right soon. The danger’s real, and I can help. My number is—”

Paula deleted the voice mail without bothering to listen to the rest. Why wouldn’t that nutcase take the hint and leave her alone? It’s time to call Doug. I’ve put this off too long already.

She shook her head in irritation at the way her hand trembled as she picked up the phone. Her pulse accelerated when she punched the speed-dial number for Douglas MacNair, her late husband’s agent. Why would the prospect of talking to Doug make her breath quicken and her stomach flutter? She’d seen and spoken to him often enough in the year since Kyle’s death. Doug is just a friend. Always was, always will be. A close enough friend that he wouldn’t mind getting a call at home at nine in the evening.

When he answered, his bass voice flowed through her like molten honey. She’d often thought he should have become a singer or actor instead of a literary agent, with that voice. “It’s always great to hear from you, Paula, but what’s wrong?”

Damn, do I sound that shaken up? She swallowed and drew a deep breath to steady herself. “What makes you think anything’s wrong?”

“Come on, as if I didn’t know you well enough to hear it in your voice.” She imagined him lounging in the overstuffed chair by the window in the living room of his New York high-rise condo, doodling on a notepad the way he always did during conversations. “Besides, if this were some routine thing, you’d call in the daytime or send an email.”

“I’ve decided it’s time to go through Kyle’s unpublished stuff. How soon can you make it down here?”

“And this was too urgent for email? Let’s hear it—what brought on this decision all of a sudden, after I’ve been trying to talk you into it for the past six months?”

She twisted a lock of hair around an index finger the way Kyle had found so annoying. She almost stopped, then mentally snapped at herself, Kyle isn’t here. “There’s a guy who’s been bugging me with emails and phone messages. He’s got some kind of bat in his belfry about that unpublished novel Kyle posted excerpts from.”

Tension hardened Doug’s tone. “How long has this been going on?”

“Well…since the week after Kyle died.”

“And you didn’t say a word to me about it.” He sounded halfway between angry and hurt. “What am I here for anyway, if not to help with problems like that?”

“It wasn’t worth bothering you with. Not until he started phoning instead of just emailing. I decided the message he left a minute ago was the last straw. He keeps babbling about some kind of danger.”

A long sigh gusted over the phone. “Okay, who is this person?”

“Somebody named Gary Furness. He edits a webzine called Scribes of Darkness.”

“Sure, I know it. Won a couple of awards. He interviewed Kyle once. He didn’t seem crazier than anybody else in the field.”

“Yeah, that’s him. He must have tipped over the edge after that. We met him at a horror con the month before Kyle died. Furness trailed us around the hotel, harassing Kyle with his obsession over that unpubbed novel.” She had a vivid mental image of a weedy young man with rapid-fire speech, who wore his brown hair tied back in a ponytail.

“You can tell me all about it when I get down there.” After a brief silence, Doug went on, “Okay, I’m logged onto the ticket site. Looks like I can get a flight day after tomorrow. I’ll clear my schedule and stay as long as it takes.”

-end of excerpt-

*****

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 April 2022 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.” For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires

Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog

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The Wild Rose Press will release my erotic romance novella “Calling Back Love” (previously published by Ellora’s Cave) on June 13: War has stolen Kirsten’s fiance Shawn from her. After he’s reported missing and presumed dead in Afghanistan, she turns to witchcraft to bring him back. Though she can’t recall him from the dead, magic can grant them one last weekend together for a proper farewell. There is no way to make his return permanent—or is there?

An excerpt appears below.

This month’s interview features Karen Guzman, author of a women’s fiction book from the Wild Rose Press.

*****

Interview with Karen Guzman:

What inspired you to begin writing?

The wonderful books of my childhood and teenage years.

What genres do you work in?

Fiction: novel, short story, flash fiction–I’m dabbling in !
Essay

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

Something in between. I tend to sketch out a very broad and flexible outline, highlighting just major plot points, and then I fill in all the connective tissue between them by winging it.

What have been the major influences on your writing (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?

Some favorite authors who’ve really influenced me, in no particular (or even rational) order: F. Scott Fitzgerald. Anne Tyler, Graham Greene, Andre Dubus and Andre Dubus III, Chekhov, Raymond Carver, Marilynne Robinson, Elizabeth Strout, Evelyn Waugh, Kurt Vonnegut, Ellen Cooney, John Updike, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Wally Lamb, John Irving, Lorrie Moore, and on and on. I know this is a crazy eclectic list, and it’s also very partial. I continue to discover new writers all the time whose work I admire and who inspire me. Wish I could be more succinct!

How did your MFA degree contribute to your career as a novelist (if it did)?

My MFA did help me as a writer, but it would take years post-graduation until I saw the publishing evidence. Looking back on it, I think I was too young when I did my MFA. I wasn’t ready in terms of maturity and technical ability to put into practice many of the techniques and insights I encountered in workshops. I needed more time to marinate as a writer. In my mid to late 30s, though, it all started kicking in. The concepts came back to me, and I was in a much better place to understand and apply them. Something had just clicked. You can’t rush a writer’s growth, but it’s great when you hit new levels.
My MFA also introduced me to a dear friend and fellow writer, who continues to be my best reader and editor, as I hope I am for her.

What would you describe as the main differences between fiction writing and journalistic writing (aside from the obvious fiction vs. nonfiction distinction)?

Journalistic writing is pretty contrived, because you already know the ending and who’s involved. You know where the story is going and how you’re basically going to get there.
With fiction, the process of creation is one of discovery and surprise and following the story where it needs to go.

What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?

My latest book is my 2021 novel, Arborview, available everywhere now!

What are you working on now?

I am now working on a short story collection.

What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

Write what matters to you, the stuff that keeps you up at night. Don’t worry about trends. If you don’t love your work, nobody else will either. AND get a couple of good readers of your works-in-progress whose judgement (and motives) you really trust. It can get pretty ugly out there.

What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?

My website is Karen Guzman
My blog is Blog

Here are some social media handles:

Instagram
Twitter
Facebook
Amazon

*****

Some Books I’ve Read Lately:

SWORDHEART, by T. Kingfisher. In addition to Kingfisher’s two superb horror novels, THE TWISTED ONES and THE HOLLOW PLACES, she has written numerous fantasy novels, and I’ve enjoyed all that I’ve read so far. For me, the most enthralling aspect of Kingfisher’s fiction consists of her protagonists’ irresistibly distinctive voices. Halla, heroine of SWORDHEART, is no exception, although this novel is narrated in third person rather than first. A widow in her thirties, she has just inherited the estate of her husband’s great-uncle, for whom she has kept house since her husband’s death. Her great-uncle by marriage, although stingy and eccentric, was always kind to her in his way. The postmortem gift of his house and fortune, however, proves far from a boon. Her in-laws, outraged at the bequest, want her to marry her unappealing cousin-in-law, Alver. Locked in her room, Halla rationally analyzes the pros and cons of either accepting that fate or killing herself with the only lethal instrument available to her, an ancient sword hanging on the bedroom wall. When she manages to wrest it out of its scabbard, a man appears from thin air. Long ago, Sarkis was cursed to become one with the sword, taking flesh when it’s drawn and vanishing when its wielder sheaths it. The total healing that occurs in the latter status (including the regrowth of amputated appendages) makes him immortal, a “gift” that he considers part of the curse. He has no clear idea of how many centuries he has existed in this condition because he spends the time “inside” the sword in a sort of suspended animation, barely conscious. The spell obligates him to serve the weapon’s wielder, who retains ownership of it until he or she dies or voluntarily gives it away. Therefore, Halla finds she has acquired an unkillable bodyguard. After he breaks her out of her makeshift prison, they decide to travel to the big city and enlist the help of an order of priests specializing in legal problems. On the way, it soon becomes clear that Halla’s trusting nature would get her into serious trouble without Sarkis’s protection. At their destination, the order assigns an advocate, Zale, to return home with Halla and bring a lawsuit to reclaim her rightful inheritance. Zale, a character with a delightfully dry wit and a relentlessly calm, logical attitude, presents as nonbinary. The text doesn’t make a point of this fact; Zale is simply referred to without comment as “they.” In one of my favorite scenes, they and Halla devise a series of experiments to find out whether everything detached from Sarkis’s body vanishes when he dematerializes into the sword. (It does; he agrees to the urine test but draws the line at such tests as having a fingertip removed.) During the adventurous journey, as one would expect, Halla and Sarkis progress from constant annoyance with each other through respect and friendship to romantic attraction. Sarkis considers himself unworthy of love, quite aside from his magical link with the sword, because of the circumstances that led to the curse. Gradually we learn fragments of his past. When he reveals the full truth to Halla, she reacts to the revelation with believable distress. Their reconciliation doesn’t come without effort, while the ultimate showdown with Halla’s in-laws looms, its result not a foregone conclusion. Even when that issue is settled, how can she and a warrior who’s also a sword, sort of, find happiness? The dialogue is constantly entertaining, even in the midst of problems that seem insoluble. Every stage along their quest kept me enthralled. Although their troubles eventually reach a satisfactory resolution, the epilogue contains a teaser for a potential sequel.

GWENDY’S FINAL TASK, by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar. The final book in a trilogy, after GWENDY’S BUTTON BOX and GWENDY’S MAGIC FEATHER (the latter with Chizmar as the sole author). At age twelve in the first novel, Gwendy Peterson received custody of the magic button box, alluring but dangerous, capable of cataclysmic destruction in the wrong hands. GWENDY’S FINAL TASK reveals that the box’s guardian, Richard Farris, is not an avatar of Randall Flagg, as I’d suspected. Although no longer quite human, Farris, despite his suggestive initials, serves the light. Now a U.S. Senator, Gwendy has been chosen by Farris as the only person he can trust with (as the cover blurb says) “a secret mission to save the world. And, maybe, all worlds.” Yes, I’m delighted to report that this novel has connections to the Dark Tower saga. The danger of the button box can be neutralized only by removing it from human reach altogether by launching it into space, the task Gwendy must perform during her brief stay on the Tet Corporation’s space station, unknown to anyone else aboard. Except, that is, the covert agent of the dark forces determined to stop her. To complicate her mission, she suffers from early onset Alzheimer’s, which she has so far managed to conceal from the public as well as the authorities who chose her as a passenger on the space station. Her struggle against memory lapses throughout the voyage is both suspenseful and heart-wrenching. She uses every trick she’s been taught to keep her focus, terrified of forgetting at the crucial moment why she’s in space at all. Gwendy and the secondary characters around her are as lifelike as we’d expect from Stephen King. The Dark Tower allusions lend the story a resonance that makes the threat of the box all the more compelling. The poignant conclusion evokes the Dark Tower universe with the familiar consolatory line, “There are other worlds than these.”

THE HIDDEN PALACE, by Helene Wecker. Ever since discovering THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI (2013), I’ve wished for a sequel. At last, here it is. In the first book, set in the 1890s, Chava, a golem created as a wife for an arrogant, lonely man, lost her master to appendicitis on the transatlantic voyage. When the ship docked in America, she ended up adrift and masterless in New York. Her fundamental nature as a servant and protector left her vulnerable to the thoughts, emotions, and wishes of everybody around her. Ahmad, a jinni imprisoned in a copper flask by a wizard, was accidentally freed after a thousand years by a Syrian immigrant tinsmith. Stuck in human form, Ahmad worked for his rescuer by day and roamed the city after dark. One night he met Chava, who, with no need for sleep, spent her nights the same way. The creature of fire and the creature of clay formed a deep bond. THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI ended with Ahmad’s departure for his desert home to safely dispose of the magic flask, with the evil wizard now trapped in it. As THE HIDDEN PALACE begins, he returns to New York. Chava, after the death of the man to whom she was briefly married, still works in a Jewish bakery. She and Ahmad resume their friendship, while he again takes up his metalworking craft. Their lives as outsiders among the human throngs go less smoothly than the opening chapters imply they might, though. While Chava’s nature draws her into the lives of ordinary humans, Ahmad prefers to remain aloof, although he doesn’t always manage that. In THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI, he had an affair with Sophia, daughter of a wealthy family, who now suffers from a perpetual chill as a result. Distancing herself from her parents, she travels the world, and in the Middle East she encounters a jinniyeh (female jinn), Dima. Banished from her tribe and unsuitably curious about humanity, Dima yearns to cross the ocean and meet the enigmatic jinni trapped in human shape, of whom she’s heard tales. Sophia and Dima form a precarious alliance, which Sophia hopes will lead to her cure. Back in New York, the child of a rabbi, a girl with unfeminine aspirations to study Torah, is consigned to an orphanage. She’s secretly accompanied by the golem her late father constructed to protect her. This golem has none of the socialization Chava has gained. He lurks in a remote corner of the orphanage basement, waiting for the time his mistress may need him, her visits the only break in his monotonous existence. His and Chava’s paths cross when she takes a job as a teacher of domestic science in the orphanage. Meanwhile, Ahmad becomes absorbed in the crafting of wrought iron, despite the danger of that metal to his kind. After a grievous loss, he becomes a recluse obsessed with creating a masterpiece. The principal characters come together in a catastrophic climax involving both tragedy and reconciliation, healing the estrangement between the golem and the jinni. As in the previous novel, a major appeal for me is the exploration of the early-twentieth-century immigrant experience in a vibrantly multicultural New York City. Spanning well over a decade, the story touches upon the public events one would expect to see mentioned in that era, e.g., the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, the sinking of the Titanic, and the Great War. Against this background, fully realized characters both human and nonhuman struggle to bridge gaps between ethnicities and species.

*****

Excerpt from “Calling Back Love”:

By the time Kirsten had the food cooked and served, her mood had cleared. She had to stay in the moment, make herself as oblivious to the inevitable end as Shawn was. When she poured syrup on her pancakes and sampled the result, her appetite sidetracked her from those worries. Both of them were hungry enough to eat in silence until they’d almost emptied their plates.

“The mimosas are cold and the coffee is hot. I can taste the food and feel the breeze from the window.” He reached over to squeeze her hand. “I can touch you in daylight, not just in bed making love.” After a pause for another forkful, he said, “You burned the first pancake. I might dream about sex with you but I don’t believe I’d dream this realistically about the smell of scorched batter.”

Unable to think of an answer that wouldn’t reveal more than she wanted, she responded only with a nervous laugh.

“Give it to me straight. This isn’t a dream or a vision. I’m home. How?”

She couldn’t tell him the truth, not only because she feared an explosive reaction from him but because she didn’t know how giving him that knowledge would affect the spell. “What do you think is happening?”

With a sigh, he bowed his head in his hands for a second before gazing into her eyes. “How the hell do I know? Maybe I suffered major brain trauma.” The bewilderment on his face made her heart clench. “All I can figure is that I got amnesia from a head injury and I’m just coming out of it.”

She poured him another drink from the pitcher. “Try not to think about it. Just relax and let your memories emerge naturally. Soon it will all make sense.”

He sipped from the champagne flute, his expression clearing. “Okay. This day is perfect and I sure don’t want to screw it up. I’ll go with the flow.”

He’d accepted his own explanation with surprising ease. Maybe some soothing component of the magic kept him from questioning too persistently.

-end of excerpt-

*****

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