Author Archive

Welcome to the June 2020 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.” For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires

Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog

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

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, now that the Yahoo group is useless for that purpose, 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

My Goodreads page:
Goodreads

The Wild Rose Press has released my lighthearted ghost story “Spooky Tutti Frutti” in its summer reading “One Scoop or Two” ice-cream-themed series:

Spooky Tutti Frutti

Here’s a spreadsheet displaying all (or most) of the covers and blurbs of e-books in the “One Scoop or Two” series:

One Scoop or Two Spreadsheet

And the page for the series on the publisher’s website:

One Scoop or Two Overview

Another snippet from the story appears below.

I’ve started posting some of my self-published works on Draft2Digital, in case readers want to acquire them in formats other than Kindle. The two so far:

DEMON’S FALL:
Demon’s Fall

VAMPIRE’S TRIBUTE:
Vampire’s Tribute

On the release date of “Spooky Tutti Frutti,” I was interviewed on the Wild Rose Press blog:

Carter Blog Interview

*****

Some Books I’ve Read Lately:

IF IT BLEEDS, by Stephen King. A collection of four new novellas. The title story, the one I was most eager to read, measuring about 190 pages, could qualify as a stand-alone novel. It’s a sequel to THE OUTSIDER, with Holly Gibney as the central character. Observing one particular TV news reporter who covers an abnormally high number of disasters, she becomes suspicious of him and gathers evidence that he’s a type of creature related to the shapeshifting “Outsider” she helped to destroy. Not quite the same, this entity feeds on pain and suffering without necessarily causing it. In that role, he’s not unlike a natural scavenger surviving on roadkill, like a vulture. Lately, though, he has become greedy. Now that he has the potential to turn into a serial murderer, Holly feels compelled to track down and eradicate him. Meanwhile, her beloved uncle’s Alzheimer’s has progressed so far that he has to be committed to a nursing home. The crisis forces her to deal with her mother, who dominated Holly for decades, crushing her spirit and keeping her dependent until the events of MR. MERCEDES changed her life. I love reading about Holly, whose non-neurotypical quirks are an intrinsic part of her personality and contribute to her strengths as an investigator. Combine this delightful character with a psychic vampire, and what more could I ask for in a short novel by Stephen King? In his concluding Author’s Note, he doesn’t mention the possible source “If It Bleeds” immediately brought to mind for me, a classic story by Ray Bradbury about certain people who mysteriously appear at the scene of every fatal accident. My second favorite story in the book, which I’ll definitely reread, “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone,” draws upon King’s strengths in writing about children and adolescents. The first-person narrator reminisces about his odd friendship with the title character, beginning when smart phones were new and exciting. Mr. Harrigan, fabulously rich yet frugal and reclusive, hires young Craig to read to him and perform other incidental chores. He sends greeting cards to the boy on major holidays, with lottery tickets enclosed as gifts. After an astonishingly large win, Craig gratefully presents the old-fashioned, technophobic millionaire with a smart phone. Initially skeptical, Mr. Harrigan comes to appreciate the gadget’s advantages (for instance, up-to-the-minute stock market reports). After Mr. Harrigan’s death several years later, Craig sentimentally slips the phone into the old man’s pocket in the coffin. When Craig calls the number to listen to the voice mail message one more time, he gets a cryptic text response. There’s no doubt Mr. Harrigan is dead, so is the reply a software glitch or a supernatural phenomenon? Various events over the years hint at the latter, yet they could be coincidence. This being a Stephen King story, I prefer to believe in the supernatural explanation. This story reminds me of a TV episode (from THE TWILIGHT ZONE, maybe?) about phone calls ultimately traced to a fallen wire hanging over a grave (probably not the same program King mentions as an inspiration). I also tend to embrace the supernatural in the story “Rat,” one of King’s fascinating glimpses into the workings of a writer’s mind. The protagonist, a modestly successful short-story author, has failed several times to finish a novel. Now he has a new idea that he’s sure will flow to a successful conclusion, and he retreats alone to the family’s vacation cabin in the Maine woods to work on the projected book. Unfortunately, a major winter storm closes in, and he comes down with a cough and fever. On the bright side, the novel progresses brilliantly—until it doesn’t. The writer finds a dying rat at the door and brings it inside to perish in comfort beside the fire. Instead, the rat revives and talks to him, offering a devil’s bargain as a reward. After agreeing to the proposal, the protagonist does triumphantly finish his novel. Or are the conversations with the rat the product of a fever-dream and the subsequent events purely coincidental? The dilemma remains unresolved. In addition to the insight into the author protagonist’s process, the glimpses of life in the wilds of rural Maine also make this novella memorable. My least favorite of the four, “The Life of Chuck,” is still worth reading. Its experimental structure presents its three “Acts” in reverse order. The first act, the longest and (to me) most interesting of the three, portrays a world in the process of disintegrating into a gradual yet apocalyptic collapse. Billboards and other media begin to display the message “Charles Krantz. 39 Great Years! Thanks, Chuck!” whose meaning nobody seems to know. At the end of that section, we meet Chuck, dying in a hospital of a brain tumor. The other two sections narrate earlier episodes from his life. The novella turns out to be an extended development of the metaphor that every person contains an entire world. Since this point becomes clear fairly early, I don’t feel I’m giving away a major spoiler here. As always, I enjoyed King’s discussion of how he came to write these stories. While some readers may skip this kind of thing, I’m always disappointed if it’s omitted.

THE MOMENT OF TENDERNESS, by Madeleine L’Engle. The stories in this collection were unearthed and compiled by L’Engle’s granddaughter, Charlotte Jones Voiklis. She freely acknowledges that readers expecting “vintage L’Engle” won’t find that kind of fiction in most of these pieces, almost all written from L’Engle’s college years through the 1950s. Only the last four (as far as I recall)—The Fact of the Matter,” “Poor Little Saturday,” “That Which Is Left,” and “A Sign for a Sparrow”—constitute fantasy or science fiction. Some of the stories are early versions of material that later appeared in L’Engle’s volumes of autobiographical memoirs. Others, dealing with the inner lives of lonely, sensitive children, teenagers, and young adults (mostly female), reflect the author’s own youthful experiences. There are also slice-of-life glimpses into mature marriages, often troubled. Although these stories are, of course, exquisitely written, if I’d encountered this volume before L’Engle’s novels I wouldn’t have felt motivated to seek any more of her work (and she wouldn’t have become one of my favorite authors). I must regretfully confess that I find several of the early pieces downright depressing, when they leave their young protagonists in solitary unhappiness with no immediate prospect of change. For a longtime fan of the author, however, all the contents are worth reading for the insights they provide into her early career, her creative processes, and some aspects of her own life.

THE GOOD BROTHER, by E. L. Chen, author of SUMMERWOOD / WINTERWOOD (reviewed in last month’s newsletter). Like SUMMERWOOD / WINTERWOOD, this novel has an Asian-Canadian protagonist. Tori Wong has dropped out of college and moved out of her parents’ house, where she felt suffocated by their traditional Chinese attitudes. The death of her overachieving older brother, Seymour, made her life more difficult, for now she’s being judged against an idealized figure. Tori herself is a bit of an underachiever, happy with her low-paid job at a bookstore, where she takes justified pride in being able to find whatever a customer needs. Barely scraping by financially, she rents a room in the house of a male acquaintance. As the story opens, the Festival of Hungry Ghosts is beginning. During Ghost Month, neglected spirits supposedly roam the Earth. Families burn ceremonial paper money and paper images of other things spirits might need in the afterlife. Tori’s mother expects her to perform this service for her late brother, a duty Tori wants nothing to do with. The apparition of Seymour appears to her in the bookstore, and her right arm instantly becomes numb and paralyzed. Although the effect wears off, then comes and goes erratically, she discovers Seymour can take control of her arm at will. He also has some ability to affect the physical environment, poltergeist-like. He doesn’t speak but still finds ways to make demands of her. She tries with limited success to figure out exactly what he wants so he’ll leave her alone. The ghost is a Good Brother in the sense that fairies have often been called the Good People—to avoid offending dangerous supernatural entities. Then two more ghosts arrive, not spirits of the dead, but something more intimately related to Tori. To avoid spoilers, I won’t be more specific. The ghosts are literally hungry; when Tori provides them with food, they eat it, sometimes right off her plate without permission. Because of their erratic behavior, especially Seymour’s, Tori gets into trouble at work and in her already shaky relationships. Her life, far from perfect to begin with, starts to disintegrate. The climactic blow falls when she realizes the full truth about her brother’s death. Since she narrates the story in first person, we discover layers of truth about herself and her family at the same time she does. Chen pulls off the difficult task of writing about a depressed protagonist without being depressing, although at times I did get exasperated with Tori for figuratively shooting herself in the foot even without the interference of ghosts. Like the protagonist of SUMMERWOOD / WINTERWOOD, however, she eventually grows into self-awareness and finds a measure of peace.

*****

Excerpt from “Spooky Tutti Frutti”:

Celia started at a rapid clicking behind her. Turning toward the entrance, she came face-to-face with the source of the noise. A huge, black, hairy dog—a Newfoundland. He panted and wagged his tail at the sight of her.

“What the heck are you doing in here?” She glanced at the door—securely shut, of course.

The dog sat in the middle of the floor and stared up at her with a goofy, tongue-lolling expression. When she offered her hand, he sniffed it. “Wherever you came from, you can’t stay.”

As she leaned over to look at his collar, a feminine voice said, “Oh, neat, you found Nigel.”

Again Celia flinched in surprise. She whirled around to discover a girl who looked no more than twenty, at least fifteen years younger than Celia herself, leaning against the counter.

Where did she come from? Again Celia checked the door, which was still definitely closed and locked. “How did you get in?”

“I saw your sign about needing help.” Which wasn’t an answer. The intruder, petite and lightly freckled, had flame-red hair in a pixie cut with fringed bangs. Dressed in white capri pants, a loose, white, V-necked blouse trimmed in red and blue, and canvas deck shoes, she looked as if she’d just come from a boating excursion.

“Is this your dog?” Celia frowned down at the girl, whose delicate frame made her feel even taller than she normally did. “He can’t stay in here. It’s against health regulations.”

“Oh, sorry.” The girl opened the front door and shooed the dog outside. “Go on, Nigel.” A second later, the door closed again, and the dog was gone.

I didn’t see her turn the deadbolt or the knob either time. I must be falling asleep on my feet. “Wait, will he be okay? You can’t just let him wander the streets.”

“It’s cool. My boyfriend will take care of him.”

Celia marched to the entrance and peeked through the glass. She didn’t see any sign of the animal by the glow of the nearby street lamp. The alleged boyfriend must have whisked him away instantly.

She turned back to the visitor. “You’re interested in the temporary job? I’d rather you’d have come during regular hours, but since you’re already here…” She gestured for the girl to take a seat at the nearest table. “I’m Celia Rossi, the owner.”

“I’m Suzie Conroy. Making ice cream is my hobby, so I’d love to work however long you need me.” She scanned the room. “It’s so different from before.” She spoke softly, as if to herself.

“Oh, you used to come here when the previous owner had the place?”

“Longer ago than that.”

-end of excerpt-

*****

My Publishers:

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

You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com

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

Order from Amazon

Order from Barnes and Noble

Welcome to the May 2020 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.” For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires

Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog

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

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, now that the Yahoo group is useless for that purpose, 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

My Goodreads page:
Goodreads

I’ve started releasing some of my self-published e-books through Draft2Digital, so readers can buy them from outlets other than Amazon. First, DEMON’S FALL, a steamy paranormal romance novella in which a rebel angel, assigned to tempt the heroine away from her destiny as a force for good, falls in love with her instead. The Universal Book Link (UBL) leads to a page listing all the retail sites where the work is sold.

Universal Book Link for DEMON’S FALL:

Demon’s Fall

Also VAMPIRE’S TRIBUTE: TWO ROMANTIC TALES, featuring a vampire hero in a novella and a short story set in the same location about a thousand years apart. UBL for VAMPIRE’S TRIBUTE:

Vampire’s Tribute

My lighthearted ghost story “Spooky Tutti Frutti” releases May 25! It features an ice cream parlor in the Annapolis historic district and unfinished business from the 1950s. Here’s the Amazon page:

Spooky Tutti Frutti

Part of the opening scene appears below.

No original interview this month, but here’s a link to “Monstrous Voices,” a LOCUS magazine interview with Theodora Goss about the background and writing of her delightful historical dark fantasy / Victorian SF “Athena Club” trilogy, starring the daughters of the major nineteenth-century fictional mad scientists:

Monstrous Voices

*****

Some Books I’ve Read Lately:

THE PURSUIT OF THE PANKERA, by Robert A. Heinlein. This posthumous novel constitutes the original, previously unpublished version of Heinlein’s 1980 NUMBER OF THE BEAST. That universe-hopping adventure introduced the concept of “multipersonal solipsism” and postulated a total number of alternate dimensions so great that any imaginable world actually exists somewhere in the multiverse, including fictional worlds. According to the “Publisher’s Note,” the entire text of POTP, aside from standard editing touch-up work, is Heinlein’s, pieced together from recently discovered fragments. The Note doesn’t mention when this version is assumed to have been written. The book also includes an introduction by David Weber, a general appreciation of Heinlein’s work rather than a commentary on POTP. “Pankera” (collectively “Panki”) turns out to be the official name of the “Black Hats,” the alien invaders. Approximately the first third of the book virtually duplicates the opening of NOTB, aside from minor dialogue variations. Zebadiah John Carter meets Dejah Thoris (Deety) and her father, mad scientist Jacob Burroughs, at a party given by Hilda “Sharpie” Corners. After a mysterious attack, the four of them flee in Zeb’s ground-and-air car and promptly get married, Jake to Hilda (a lifelong friend of Jake’s late wife) and Zeb to Deety (even though they’ve just met, but, after all, John Carter and Dejah Thoris are already married). These typical super-intelligent, highly articulate, resourceful Heinlein characters end up at Jake and Deety’s high-tech mountain hideaway. After Jake installs his dimension-hopping invention in Zeb’s car, they clash with another “Black Hat,” whom they kill (after which Hilda dissects it, a scene I found fascinating, and I wish we were told more about the aliens’ anatomy and physiology). They then commence their multi-universe odyssey. The point of divergence from the 1980 book, on page 152, is helpfully marked. I definitely like this version better. NOTB is a clever romp, but it abandons the initial premise—the alien invasion—midway through and never resolves it. I found that lapse quite disappointing, despite the excursions to other universes. In addition to the foursome’s quest for a safe world wherein to settle down and hide while Hilda and Deety have their babies, POTP does follow up the war against the aliens rather than simply forgetting about it. Its conclusion feels much more like vintage Heinlein than that of NOTB. To my delight, this version includes the stops in Oz and Wonderland that also appear in the 1980 publication. The longest sections cover visits to Barsoom and the Lensman universe, and for my taste they feel just long enough. I see the absence of the Lazarus Long subplot as a decided improvement. His presence in NOTB sucks the whole rest of the story into the black hole of his dominant personality. He appears at the end of POTP under an alias, but only devoted Heinlein fans are likely to notice. That subset of readers will definitely want this book. While it’s certainly not a novel with which to introduce a new reader to the whole science fiction field, it would also be fun for most SF fans.

THE IMMORTAL CONQUISTADOR, by Carrie Vaughn. This spin-off from Vaughn’s Kitty Norville series, about a werewolf who hosts a late-night radio talk program, surveys the life, or unlife, of good guy vampire Ricardo de Avila (Rick). You don’t need prior acquaintance with Kitty’s world to appreciate this collection, although knowing about Rick and Kitty would enhance your enjoyment. It’s a mix of reprints and original tales, only one of which I’d read before. The frame story brings Rick back to Europe for the first time in five centuries, to report to the Order of Saint Lazarus of the Shadows, “a holy order of vampires,” about the death of a vampire priest. The opening scene, in the present, is followed by “Conquistador de la Noche,” introducing Ricardo as a nineteen-year-old soldier under the command of Coronado. Ten years later, jaded and weary of violence in pursuit of nonexistent gold, he encounters an old comrade who lures him to an isolated village where easy wealth can allegedly be gained. Instead, a vampire attack transforms Rick into one of the undead. When he learns what he has become, he rejects his new companions and the evil deeds they want him to participate in. He refuses to reject God, even though he can no longer touch holy things. Instead, he exterminates the other vampires and takes over the estate and its village to rule them benevolently. Many years later, in “El Hidalgo de la Noche,” for the first time since his transformation he meets other vampires, who fill some of the many gaps in his knowledge of their kind and the workings of their society. They’re shocked to find him leading a solitary existence with no master and no desire to become one himself. In “Dead Men in Central City,” he meets Doc Holliday. The final story, “El Conquistador del Tiempo,” picks up with Rick’s visit to the Order of Saint Lazarus of the Shadows in the present, where he’s initiated into further complications of undead society and clashes with a powerful, legendary vampire. Vaughn concludes the book with an Author’s Note in which she explains a bit about how she developed Rick’s backstory. Fans of Kitty, the radio-hostess werewolf, will definitely want this collection, and most vampire fans should enjoy it.

SUMMERWOOD / WINTERWOOD, by E. L. Chen. This pair of YA fantasy novels, bound in trade paperback format back-to-back and upside down relative to each other like the vintage mass market Ace Doubles, comprises an anti-Narnia saga with some heart-wrenching moments. Asian-Canadian teenager Rosalind Hero (who likes to be called by her middle name) and her older sister Juliet are dropped off to spend a few weeks at their grandfather’s house in Toronto while their parents ostensibly deal with their father’s forthcoming art show. In fact, the true purpose of the trip is a last-ditch effort to patch up their marriage. Hero can hardly wait to explore her grandfather’s house, because he wrote books about the magical land of Summerwood. Convinced the Summerwood is real (the child protagonists have the same names as her grandfather and his siblings), she’s determined to find her way into it. Juliet, at the age where she has no patience with her annoying younger sister, scorns the idea. Their mother cautions Hero that she shouldn’t want to find the Summerwood, because it “tears families apart.” Staying with her grandfather doesn’t live up to her expectations. His disapproval of her parents’ marriage hasn’t softened over the years, and far from welcoming Hero as the logical heiress to his adventures, he wants nothing to do with the girls. In fact, they seldom even see him. The housekeeper, who serves unappetizing vegetarian meals, doesn’t seem to like them either. Still, Hero is determined to find her way to Summerwood and perhaps become the heroine who saves that world as her grandfather’s generation did. Her exhaustive search through the house doesn’t uncover the door into Summerwood until she has almost given up. Finally, of course (or there wouldn’t be a story), she walks into a broom closet and emerges in a country where animals talk. She promises aid to the family of her new rabbit friend, Thaddeus, but first wants to go home and bring her sister to Summerwood. Naturally, as any reader of the Narnia series would expect, the portal has vanished when she tries to return with Juliet. When both of them later stumble through a portal together, Hero becomes aware of the darkness at the heart of Summerwood. The Lady who rules the country isn’t the benevolent monarch she first appears; she forces the animals to wear clothes, live in houses, and walk upright like humans, all to fulfill her concept of what a magical land should be. In a reversal of the plight of Narnia in THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE, the balance of nature in this world is out of joint because it’s perpetually summer. Who is the Lady, really, and what happened to the immortal evil queen the previous heroes allegedly defeated? When Julie gets either captured or enticed by the Lady, Hero must try to save her. Setting forth through the forest with Thaddeus as her guide, she finds her image of herself as a heroine relentlessly eroded and finally destroyed. In the sequel, WINTERWOOD, when, several years later, she’s a damaged young adult calling herself “Lindy” instead of “Hero,” she’s drawn back into Summerwood. In a world now shrouded in endless winter, she must undo the damage she unwittingly inflicted during her original quest. Any fan of portal fantasies should find this duology an enthralling read, provided you’re prepared for tragedy along the way. Hero/Lindy grows into her role, though, and the power of story triumphs in a satisfying conclusion.

BECOMING C. S. LEWIS, by Harry Lee Poe. This in-depth work on C. S. Lewis’s early life, from 1898 through 1918—with occasional brief passages glancing ahead at future developments—is best suited for hardcore Lewis fans. I hesitated on whether to buy the book, wondering whether it would mostly duplicate information found in Lewis’s spiritual autobiography, SURPRISED BY JOY. On the contrary, Poe seems to presuppose the reader’s familiarity with SURPRISED BY JOY and touches only lightly upon many incidents and conversations narrated in detail by Lewis. Poe maintains that Lewis’s childhood and youth haven’t received adequate coverage in earlier biographies. That period deserves deeper exploration because of the groundwork it laid for CSL’s later intellectual and spiritual growth. According to Poe, virtually every important facet of Lewis’s mature career and beliefs is foreshadowed in his early years. Poe often defends this claim by connecting poets, philosophers, and novelists young CSL read and studied to the adult Lewis’s writings. Sometimes this procedure stretches a little too far, in my opinion, as when Poe speculates that the sacrifice of Iphigenia at the start of the Trojan War inspired the sacrifice of Psyche in TILL WE HAVE FACES. Doesn’t he know that incident comes straight from the original myth of Cupid and Psyche? BECOMING C. S. LEWIS, drawing extensively upon letters and diaries, goes into background details about people and events that Lewis as a child wouldn’t have known and therefore didn’t include in SURPRISED BY JOY. Other elements appear in Poe’s biography that didn’t interest Lewis or didn’t fit into his plan for SURPRISED BY JOY; for instance, we learn a bit about his father’s political viewpoints (CSL detested politics). Lewis’s essential Irishness comes out more clearly than I’ve seen it revealed anywhere else. I was disappointed to find not a single mention of the 1916 Easter Rising; regardless of how apolitical young Lewis tried to remain, surely he must have had some reaction to that pivotal event. One thing that struck me was how unlikeable Lewis must have been in his early teens. He himself acknowledges that fact in SURPRISED BY JOY, but it shows up much clearer from the perspective of a biographer. By the end of the book, he has survived wartime service and begun to transform into the adult we meet in his mature writings. In short, the devoted Lewis fan will find BECOMING C. S. LEWIS highly illuminating. The author hopes to produce two more volumes covering the rest of the subject’s life.

*****

Excerpt from “Spooky Tutti Frutti”:

Just as Celia Rossi turned the placard on the door of Sugar and Ice from “Open” to “Closed,” Blair O’Neill strolled up the brick-paved sidewalk. She held the door ajar to let him in.

After a light kiss on the cheek, a gesture still new enough to make her pulse flutter, he asked, “What’s with the Temporary Help Wanted sign in the window?”

She sighed. “Tanya had her baby early. Oh, they’ll be fine, but I was hoping she’d be around until after the sailboat race. I could manage without her on any normal weekend, but on race day I’ll need enough people to hold down the fort here and help at our booth.” Tanya’s absence left the shop with only two part-time employees instead of three. Having owned the ice cream parlor for less than a year, Celia counted on strong sales at the climax of the coming weekend’s race to augment her fledgling reputation as well as her bank account. Contestants would sail from Delaware down the Chesapeake Bay to the Severn River, then up Spa Creek into the Annapolis harbor. After taking off her apron and hanging it behind the counter, she locked the door and followed Blair onto the brick-paved sidewalk. “I can break for dinner the way we planned, but I have to come back right afterward to finish cleaning up and prepping for tomorrow.”

Blair shook his head in commiseration. “Okay, but at least stop and take a breath. I’m glad I decided to be a vet, not a retail businessperson. Except for random emergencies, when the clinic closes we go home on time every day.”

At seven p.m. in late June, the sun hadn’t set, and the downtown historic district was still thronged with tourists. The two of them strolled from the dead-end side street where Sugar and Ice was located to the foot of Main Street, also surfaced with red brick. Walking past the traffic circle adjacent to City Dock, Celia noticed a young mother and her two small children tossing bread crusts to the seagulls and mallard ducks, despite the sign sternly admonishing people not to feed the birds. Cars crawled around the circle trying to push their way into the stream heading one way on the narrow, half-mile Main Street. In other words, a totally normal summer evening.

A gentle breeze off the water relieved the humid heat and ruffled Blair’s thick shock of sandy hair. “Crabs okay with you?”

“Sure.” Celia absently replied, her mind on the upcoming event rather than dinner. She lifted the French-twist braid off the back of her neck to cool her damp skin. “We’ve got less than a week until the celebration. I have the permits, and I’ve rented the booth and equipment for the day, but I’m still trying to come up with a new flavor to make us stand out from the other downtown ice cream parlors.” Her store’s location away from the principal tourist magnets of Main Street and Maryland Avenue allowed her to pay less exorbitant rent, but with the drawback of less foot traffic. Well, the former owner, her employer for almost a decade, had warned her of the pitfalls, so she just had to deal with them.

She and Blair reached the entrance of the crab restaurant across from the traffic circle, and he held the door for her. “How about Rossi’s Rocky Road? Rossi’s Regatta Raspberry Sherbet?”

She laughed. “We already have a rocky road, I don’t do sherbet, and anyway I have no intention of tacking my name onto a product. That sounds a little too egocentric.” Like most ice cream shops, Sugar and Ice mainly stocked varieties of a national brand, aside from four flavors of her own creation. She wanted to add another in honor of the occasion, but so far inspiration hadn’t struck. The few ideas she’d tried hadn’t worked out.

On a Monday evening, she and Blair had no trouble getting seated in the restaurant’s second-floor dining room. Their window-side table gave them a panoramic view of the inlet known as Ego Alley, crowded with sailboats and motor craft. That coming Saturday, at the culmination of the race from Delaware to Maryland, the dockside parking lot would be roped off for speeches, awards, food stalls, and a local band. Sharing a platter of steamed crabs, Celia and Blair continued their conversation about her part in the event. “Summer’s make or break time for this kind of business,” she fretted. “If it doesn’t turn out make, I’ll be letting down Dan, not just myself.” Her cousin Dan, an accountant who served as silent partner in charge of the partnership’s finances, had pooled his share of their late grandmother’s legacy with Celia’s to buy out the retiring previous owner of Sugar and Ice.

“Not to mention your parents,” Blair said.

She’d discussed the situation with him multiple times, grateful for his continued patience in listening to her worries. “Yeah. They think Dan and I were crazy to pour our inheritance into what they call a black hole, and they say so every chance they get.” She pounded a claw with her wooden mallet for emphasis.

“You’ll prove them wrong. I have faith in you.” He raised his beer glass in salute.

-end of excerpt-

*****

My Publishers:

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

You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com

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