Author Archive
Welcome to the July 2023 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
You can subscribe to this monthly newsletter here:
For other web links of possible interest, please scroll to the end.
Barbara Custer, editor of NIGHT TO DAWN magazine, gave “Bunny Hunt” a five-star review on Amazon:
“I loved reading this. It was perfect for Easter. I especially enjoyed the use of the amulet and setting. Margaret Carter has worked her magic with her characters again. This is a must-read.”
The Wild Rose Press is releasing two of my former Ellora’s Cave erotic paranormal romance novellas this month, “Sweeter Than Wine” (July 3) and the quasi-Lovecraftian “Song from the Abyss” (July 26), very different in tone from each other.
“Sweeter Than Wine”: Maybe an amorous Revolutionary War ghost is just what Marie, widowed for a year and a half, needs to attract tourists to her historic bed-and-breakfast inn. “Song from the Abyss”: A recording of an eerie song summons Alyce’s old boyfriend from the alien dimension into which he vanished during an arcane ritual many years ago.
Below is an excerpt from “Sweeter Than Wine.”
This month I’m interviewing paranormal romance author Terry Newman (another writer in the “Jelly Beans and Spring Things” line).
*****
Interview with Terry Newman:
What inspired you to begin writing?
I’m not sure there is one thing I can point to that was inspirational. I’ve wanted to write fiction since I was in grade school (sounds so cliché, I know). My earliest memory of my decision to be a writer was when I read The Happy Hollisters, a typical 1960s series for elementary and middle grade students. I fell in love with the characters and the places they went and the things they did. And I wanted to create a world of my own. At the time, I thought I would write my own books and illustrate them, too. You should be thankful I don’t illustrate my novels today.
What genres do you work in?
I write paranormal romance. But I’m laying out the characters and the plot for a cozy mystery. It’s about murders in an assisted living facility. The idea came to me when I was writing a scene for Heartquest, which will be a companion volume to Heartquake.
In the scene, several older women sit talking about a local television personality who they believe is good looking. When they talk about the assisted living facility, Lily of the Valley, one lady says it should be called Death Valley, since someone is killing of the residents. “Yes,” I said, rubbing my hands together. “Yes, they are.”
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I pretty much wing it. I write romance, so I know the ending will be a happily-ever-after, but I don’t know much else. I usually have an opening scene in mind that sets the tone for the story and a few other scenes. I also have an idea of some of the points I want to make in the story. I try to let the characters take me where they want to go. I know that may sound crazy, but once I start writing the action, options I hadn’t thought of come to mind. That’s the thrill of the creative process.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
My books reflect the author I admired most at the time of the writing. When I originally wrote the story that would become Rewrites of the Heart, I had been reading Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series. I admired her humor and sometimes just bizarre circumstances she put Stephanie in.
Heartquake’s style was inspired by the romance novels of Jessica Bird. You probably know her better as J.R. Ward, the author of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. I was unsure if I pulled the story off well, but it’s a finalist for a RONE award, sponsored by Ind’tale Magazine.
My favorite-authors-of-the-moment are Ali Hazelwood and Alexis Hall. Their words keep me glued to the page. And Hall especially creates quirky characters that make his stories shine. Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis is a great take on the fake dating trope. It inspired me to write one myself. Its working title is Hearts on the Rocks.
It’s often said that humor is hard. Any tips on writing romantic comedy? For instance, how do you keep the stakes high for the characters while creating fluffy fun for the reader?
When I was a senior in high school, I had the role of Karen Nash in Act I of the play Plaza Suite, by Neil Simon. I fell in love with how he interjected humor in the midst of a tragic moment.
Timing is the key to good humor and that comes with practice. Once you’ve written something that makes you laugh, read it to someone else and gauge their reaction. If they don’t laugh, go back to the drawing board.
Many of the high stakes moments in a story can be defused with humor from the quirky secondary characters. Every great romantic comedy needs an offbeat character or two. Alexis Hall mastered this in Boyfriend Material. Don’t be afraid to make outrageous characters. You can always tone them down.
Finally, create characters who have a sense of humor. In this way, when something tragic strikes them they can naturally see the humor in it. And the comic relief will not be forced.
What inspired your story in the “Jelly Beans and Spring Things” line, THE WIZARD OF HER HEART?
I created a character who was a wizard, because I felt there were too few of them and too many witches in literature. That’s how Wyatt Ginn was born. It seemed only proper that a wizard in the real world would have a paranormal publishing house. And, of course, his new employee—and love interest—had to be a skeptic of magic. I thought the idea of casting love spells over jelly beans set the tone for a romantic comedy.
I enjoyed their meet-cute in front of the post office.
Once I began thinking of paranormal activity, I thought of UFOs and Bigfoot. I’ve attended many paranormal meetings and all the topics I use in the story, I’ve experienced in real meetings. And yes, I have attended a Bigfoot conference.
I enjoyed your trailer for that book. Can you tell us a bit about the process of creating a book trailer?
I’m still new to the process of making book trailers. Some individuals make trailers from still photos. I prefer short clips of videos. I use the blurb for the book, and edit it some. Then I look for clips that give me the feel of the description. I deliberately chose videos that were close to specific scenes and situations in the book.
Then it’s a matter of mastering the technology to get the length you want. I use Canva Pro. It has so many choices of text and options for transitions from one clip to another.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming work?
The Wizard of Her Heart is my latest book. Nothing is scheduled for release at the moment because, well, I’m still writing them.
What are you working on now?
I have two works-in-progress. The one I’m actively writing is Hearts on the Rocks. It’s a fake dating trope inspired by some of the romantic comedies I’ve read. The second, Heartquest, is a companion to Heartquake. I give the secondary characters, Jared Sparrow and Mel Milan, their own love story while they’re raising funds for an aviary for the local natural museum of history. I’m about three-quarters of the way done with that.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Make sure you really want to write. Determine whether it’s just a whim or “writer” is something you just want to call yourself. Once you know writing is your driving desire, then write. Write anything. Write often. You don’t have to write every day. But you write.
One of the habits I’ve found that has helped me is to keep Morning Pages. Julie Cameron, in The Artist’s Way, described them. I write 20 minutes every morning, pen and paper. Often I find myself creating scenes for stories I’m working on. Write anything during that time. The intent is to create a stream of consciousness-like writing flow.
If you’re serious about writing, don’t ever give up. Don’t let people say you’re not good enough. The only way to become good enough, to become great, is by writing. Writing. Writing.
And believe in yourself.
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
Social media links
Website
Terry Newman
Facebook: Terry Newman
Twitter: @tnewmanwrites
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Goodreads
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
THE GRACE OF WILD THINGS, by Heather Fawcett. When I discovered that the author of EMILY WILDE’S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FAERIES (reviewed in the June newsletter) had written numerous children’s fantasy novels, I immediately decided to read a few of them. THE GRACE OF WILD THINGS, partly inspired by ANNE OF GREEN GABLES and also set on Prince Edward Island, features a preteen orphan girl who, like Anne, becomes the ward of a crotchety older woman who at first doesn’t want her. Grace, realizing she has some innate magic, runs away from an orphanage with the dream of becoming apprenticed to the woman rumored to be a child-eating witch. Learning from a witch has to be preferable to her dreary life so far. The witch, having no desire for an apprentice, shoves Grace into an oven littered with bones of former victims. Grace manages to make a deal: Within a designated time period, if she masters all 100 (and a half, the hardest challenge) spells in the witch’s grimoire, she’ll be accepted as a pupil. If not, the witch can take all her magical power. Like Anne, Grace loves poetry and longs for a home and friends. She soon comes to regard the witch’s cottage as home, and she makes a best friend. As in ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, Grace gets into trouble with her friend’s mother but wins acceptance by intervening in a crisis. Meanwhile, with her friend’s help Grace works through the grimoire, one spell at a time. Children have no trouble believing in magic, although most adults forget and/or rationalize such phenomena. It gradually becomes clear that the witch has actually come to like and depend on Grace, although the old woman maintains her curmudgeonly façade and constantly grumbles about what a nuisance the girl is. As Grace develops her magical gift, gains confidence, and wins other friends (even the school’s mean girl), the witch’s health declines, and a threat from her past looms. To save their home, Grace must draw upon her newfound power and the help of her friends. Her quirks and her warmhearted impulsiveness make her delightful. The old woman proves to have hidden depths beneath the outer layer of wicked-witch stereotypes she displays to the world, and the bond between her and Grace grows in a natural, believable way.
THE SCHOOL BETWEEN WINTER AND FAIRYLAND, by Heather Fawcett. In this novel’s magic-school setting, the protagonist isn’t one of the star pupils. Rather than a wizard in training, she’s a servant among many in and around Inglenook School, housed in a vast castle with the requisite secret passages and towers. Like her grandmother (her parents are dead), her brothers, and their ancestors before them, Autumn works as a beastkeeper, with the gift of animal communication. She and her family tend the monsters kept at the castle for student magicians to practice on. She gets along well with most monsters and has a boggart (a shapeshifting creature, amorphous and essentially invisible in its true form) as a loyal companion. Her twin brother, Winter, has disappeared, presumed dead by everyone except Autumn. She can sense his presence and spends most of her spare time vainly searching for him. A breakthrough occurs when she glimpses him in a reflecting surface. Is he trapped in a mirror dimension? This book does include a Chosen One, but it subverts that trope as well. Twelve-year-old Cai, handsome, intelligent, kind, and universally admired, lives under the shadow of a prophecy: Before he reaches the age of thirteen, he’s destined to slay the terrible Hollow Dragon that lurks in the forest, ironically called Gentlewood, adjacent to the school. Cai, however, has a severe dragon phobia. Whenever he gets near one, he becomes so paralyzed with fear he often passes out. Dragons come in many shapes, sizes, and degrees of danger or harmlessness, and although they guard hoards like classic dragons, their hoarding takes the form of cultivating gardens. Cai makes a deal with Autumn that she will help him overcome his phobia while he helps her look for Winter. Being treated like a human being by a magician, even a student, instead of being ignored or regarded as a lesser life form, is a new experience of which she’s suspicious. In the course of their shared quests, they become friends. Meanwhile, scenes from Winter’s viewpoint reveal what has happened to him, at least as far as he can remember, and raise the stakes of the timeline for his rescue. Eventually dire secrets about Cai’s background and destiny come to light, along with the truth about the prophecy and his link to the Hollow Dragon. Moreover, Autumn learns a mind-boggling fact about her own family line. Her fiercely single-minded focus on saving Winter makes her a sympathetic as well as compelling protagonist, although prone to rushing into frightful predicaments. The monsters, while resonating with familiar fictional and legendary portrayals of the same or similar creatures, have intriguing quirks to distinguish them from the typical beasts of fantastic tales, such as the gardening dragons. The revelation of the true nature of the Hollow Dragon is chillingly gruesome. The overall happy ending nevertheless includes irrevocable loss. One element of the story strains my suspension of disbelief, however: Autumn’s grandmother turns out to know much more about Winter’s fate than she has told Autumn, for reasons I don’t find totally convincing. Not quite an “idiot plot,” but still a bit hard to accept. On the whole, though, I highly recommend this novel for its characters and its fresh approach to the tropes it engages with. Fawcett seems to have a special interest in the theme of people who aren’t what they seem to be, e.g., Cai in this novel, the male lead in EMILY WILDE’S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FAERIES, the witch in THE GRACE OF WILD THINGS, and a boy in a book I haven’t reviewed, EMBER AND THE ICE DRAGONS (set at an Antarctic research station in an alternate-world nineteenth century), who’s a mystery to himself as well as others.
OUR HIDEOUS PROGENY, by C. E. McGill. The author’s afterword confesses a dislike for FRANKENSTEIN upon first reading. Later rereadings altered McGill’s attitude toward the classic book, aside from an unchanged conviction that Victor Frankenstein is a “wimp,” and this novel, set in the 1850s, is the result. The protagonist, Mary, is the granddaughter of Victor Frankenstein’s only surviving brother, but she knows nothing about her great-uncle except that he vanished in mysterious circumstances. She doesn’t stumble upon the letters that reveal his secret until about a quarter of the way through the book. Part I introduces us to Mary and her husband and lays out the background of her determination to recreate Victor’s discovery. She and her scientist husband, Henry, have recently lost a baby girl, who died within an hour of birth. The parallel with Mary Shelley, who also suffered the death of a very young baby, is obvious. The novel’s title quotes Shelley’s description of the book that won her fame. However, it’s also clearly meant to refer to the life Mary and Henry aspire to create. Later in the story, Mary indignantly repudiates the suggestion that this project serves as an outlet for her thwarted maternal drive, as if a woman existed only to produce children and couldn’t have any other ambition. Although she works as an equal research partner with her geologist and paleontologist husband, his scientist colleagues view her (if they think of her at all) as a mere secretary and illustrator. His unconventional theories about dinosaurs and his readiness to get into fights over them make him unpopular, while he’s determined to prove his correctness and his rivals’ wrongheadedness. This attitude doesn’t help the couple’s desperate financial straits. When Henry’s father’s death summons them to his ancestral home in Inverness, Mary meets the sister Henry labels “the dreaded Margaret.” To her surprise, Margaret (nicknamed Maisie) turns out to be a sickly but cheerful and affectionate girl younger than Mary herself. Disappointed by the provisions of his father’s will, Henry returns home depressed and embittered. While the loss of a child sometimes brings a couple closer together, it has done the opposite to Henry and Mary. Her discovery of his gambling debts makes matters worse. They need something to mend their relationship as well as vindicate Henry’s theories. In her great-uncle’s secret, Mary finds that “something.” Rather than attempting to build an artificial man, they plan to recreate one of the extinct aquatic saurians. They decide to complete their work at the family estate in Inverness, where Mary and Maisie form a close bond. Mary’s gradually worsening estrangement from her husband is believable and heart-wrenching. Meanwhile, an obnoxious professional rival forces himself on them and tries to take over. Mary finds her cherished creature in danger and herself robbed of any credit for the grand achievement that was her idea in the first place. The story draws the reader deeply into the plight of women in the mid-nineteenth century, especially intelligent women frustrated by society’s limitations. Mary stands for the many female scientists of that period whom mainstream history has virtually erased. The science-fiction dimension of the novel is equally fascinating. The experiment apparently succeeds, but are the wide-ranging applications of it imagined by the villain possible, or have the experimenters merely animated dead flesh rather than creating life?
THE GOD OF ENDINGS, by Jacqueline Holland. An unusual vampire novel in the first-person voice of a woman transformed as a child of ten. In this author’s mythos, undead children grow to adulthood; they “bloom but do not decay.” Therefore, the horror and pathos of Anne Rice’s child vampire Claudia play no part in Holland’s story. Other features of her novel more than make up for this difference, though. The horror and pathos of protagonist Anna’s afterlife spring from the many losses she suffers through her unnaturally prolonged life, her loneliness and estrangement from ordinary mortals despite her repeated (and increasingly reluctant) efforts to make connections. I especially like the way Holland embeds Anna’s pre-change life in the actual nineteenth-century American “vampire” panics associated with tuberculosis epidemics. After her parents and brother die in a tuberculosis outbreak suspected of being caused by vampire attacks, and she’s also on the verge of death, her Hungarian grandfather appears out of nowhere, whisks her away, and ironically transforms her into what her neighbors feared. Far from a doting grandparent, he believes in strength through self-reliance and eventually ships her off to Europe in the care of his trusted minion. Frightened and repulsed by the man, Anna soon finds a loving home with a mysterious but benign witch-like woman and a pair of brothers, one vampire, one mortal. Sadly, that interlude ends in the first of Anna’s multiple bereavements. Chapters recalling her two and a half centuries of existence alternate with chapters set in the novel’s present, the 1980s, when she runs an exclusive preschool in her grandfather’s former home in upstate New York. Although I normally dislike present-tense narration, its use for the current story in contrast to the flashbacks works for me in this book. Immortally young and apparently indestructible, Anna doesn’t share many other conventional traits of fictional vampires. She sleeps at night, isn’t bothered by the sun, and has no special powers such as transformation or mesmerism. Feeding only on animals except in exceptional circumstances, she ordinarily needs only modest amounts of blood. Recently, however, her craving for it has increased beyond her control. Furthermore, she starts to suffer blackouts and fugue states resulting in evidence of violent rampages she can’t remember. Having little contact with her grandfather and none with others of her kind, she has nowhere to turn for an explanation. Meanwhile, although she has resolved to stay aloof from mortals rather than risk fresh heartbreak, she reluctantly gets entangled in the problems of a little boy with precocious artistic talent, trapped in what may be an abusive family situation. The bittersweet ending promises hope in the midst of sorrow.
For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
*****
Excerpt from “Sweeter Than Wine.”
When the bedroom door closed, Marie let her shoulders slump with fatigue, glad for a couple of hours to rest before her dinner reservation at the restaurant attached to the winery. She hadn’t taken a weekend off since Frank’s death. She’d poured all her energy into the bed-and-breakfast because running it had been a dream they’d shared. She suspected he’d succumbed to a premature heart attack mainly from juggling innkeeper’s chores with his day job. Frank’s insurance had paid off the mortgage, but if she wanted the inn to thrive, she’d have to do more than pass out brochures. She needed an angle to set it apart from all the other B&Bs in the historic district of the colonial capital.
Today would have marked their thirtieth anniversary, as good a time as any to wake up and get on with her life. To include a new man? Not likely. She smiled wryly at the idea. Having enjoyed a long marriage of solid happiness, she didn’t expect to hit that jackpot twice. As for a passionate fling, her fantasies ran along the lines of somebody like Gordon MacBain, probably an extinct breed.
What she needed right now was a snack, not a fantasy lover. She chose a peach from the fruit basket and started to peel it with a paring knife. “You can be my inspiration, Mr. MacBain,” she said to the portrait. If the son of Scottish immigrants could transform himself into a rich landowner, surely she could transform herself into the hostess of a flourishing historic inn. Too bad she couldn’t find the hidden stash of the smuggler’s lost treasure, which tradition claimed was hidden somewhere in the Williamsburg house.
A masculine chuckle sounded in her ear. At the same instant, a gust of wind ruffled her shoulder-length hair and blew her denim skirt up to her waist.
The knife in her hand slipped and nicked her left index finger. Blood dripped on the brick hearth at her feet. With a muttered curse, she sucked the wound. She’d either picked up a stray sound from outside or started hearing imaginary voices. And where had the wind come from? The half-open window let in the mild air of a late afternoon in September, but no breeze stirred the lightweight, ruffled curtains.
Shaking her head, she set aside the knife and fruit, then took the wineglass from the mantel in both hands. The cut on her finger smeared a drop of blood on the rim. Before she could raise the glass to her lips, something pinched her bottom.
With a yelp, she spun around. Nobody there. At the same instant, the goblet slipped from her hand.
Instead of hitting the floor, it hung suspended in midair.
“Okay, no reason to freak out. This is a dream. I must have lain down and dozed off.” She glanced at the canopied bed, half expecting to see herself asleep on top of the quilt.
She scented a vagrant aroma of pipe tobacco. “Nay, Mistress, you are awake.” The rich bass voice, tinged with humor, vibrated under her breastbone. The glass tilted, and the ruby wine began to drain into nothingness.
-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, 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:
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):
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
Welcome to the June 2023 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
You can subscribe to this monthly newsletter here:
For other web links of possible interest, please scroll to the end.
In May my Lovecraftian paranormal romance, WINDWALKER’S MATE, was re-released by a new publisher after several years in limbo. Shannon’s little boy Daniel has disturbing psychic powers. He talks to the wind–and it listens. Shannon wants to forget the cult of the Windwalker, a dark god from another dimension, and the terrifying night when her child was conceived. But her first love, Nathan, son of the cult leader, contacts her for the first time since that horrific ritual. He claims his father is stalking Shannon and Daniel. Whose child is Daniel, Nathan’s or the Windwalker’s? An excerpt from the first chapter appears below. The publisher’s page for the novel:
This month I’m interviewing paranormal fiction author Terry Segan.
*****
Interview with Terry Segan:
What inspired you to begin writing?
In short, an overactive imagination! Over the years I’d come up with the beginning of a story but lacked the follow-through. I guess it wasn’t the right time for me. About a decade ago, I began taking myself seriously and threw myself into writing a full-length book. Time travel and paranormal happenings have always fascinated me, so it made sense that my first book, Photographs in Time, would involve time travel.
What genres do you work in?
At present, everything I write is paranormal fiction, usually a mystery as well. My most recent release, The Jelly Bean Jump Project, is a little bit of a departure from what I’ve written before. While it involves time travel, it’s also a Happily Ever After. Spoiler alert—nobody dies in the end. I’d have to say, tying the plot line up with a sugary sweet bow took great effort on my part, but I’m proud of the results and think readers will enjoy it.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I am a pantser. If you look closely, you may even see it tattooed on my forehead. Usually, I have a beginning and end in mind. Everything else spills out onto the keyboard as I go along. When I create minor characters, they want to stick around longer, and sometimes I let them. Occasionally I write myself into a corner and need to backtrack or move in a different direction. At that point, I say to myself, “What unexpected antic can I throw at my main character now?” From there the storyline twists in ways I’d never imagined.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
Many of the settings in my books are places that I’ve either visited or lived. I love it when I can incorporate details of fun trips into my writing. Obviously, I haven’t traveled to the 1950’s (yet) when The Jelly Bean Jump Project begins, but the setting of Oregon is someplace I’ve traveled to many times. Some of my favorite books are those with a dual timeline, like The Eight by Katherine Neville. In my recent release, the story is told from two viewpoints, Keira and Grayson, and at times they’re in different decades.
What sparked the unusual combination of jelly beans and science fiction in THE JELLY BEAN JUMP PROJECT?
The initial idea was inspired by the publisher, The Wild Rose Press. They created a new line of novellas released over the spring months called Jelly Beans and Spring Things. With my science fiction brain shifting into gear, I decided jelly beans as the catalyst for the characters’ leap through time to be unique. The exact moment of travel each year takes place at the Spring Equinox. As stated earlier, the concept of writing simply a romance conflicted with my tendency to write mysteries with a paranormal twist. I chose to combine the two and created an inventive story with a satisfying conclusion.
In your time-travel fiction, how do you deal with the familiar paradox that if the protagonist changes the past (and therefore its future, his or her own “present”), he or she will then have had no reason to go back in time and change the past?
For the purposes of this book, the characters are constantly leaping forward in time, so no paradox is created. In my first book, Photographs in Time, the characters went back and forth in time using an old sepia camera. If a character changed the timeline in the past, only those who had time traveled would be aware of it. They would then have an opportunity to go back and put things right or let it ride. I try to keep deep concepts such as paradoxes to a minimum, so my head doesn’t explode trying to resolve them. While I love science fiction, concepts of pure science elude me, and I can live with those limitations. Math isn’t high on my list either. That’s why I write!
Your bio mentions that both you and your husband work from home. Do you have any tips for people working from home or hoping to do so?
First of all, lock the liquor cabinet and hide all the knives. That will eliminate the need for police tape, chalk outlines, or alibis. If those do come into play, and you’re a writer, you may want to erase your browsing history. Beyond that, if you and your partner both need work space, set up in separate rooms. As we are full time RVers, that becomes a challenge. Investing in noise-cancelling headphones goes a long way to having an environment where I can still be creative if he is on a conference call. Since we’re both dedicated to what we do, we make it work.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
My next book, Manatee Soul—The Marni Legend Series Book 2, releases October 16th. It’s a paranormal mystery in which Marni Legend assists lost souls to resolve their issue and move on. She’s from Long Island, as am I, and sarcastic humor is part of her genetic makeup.
What are you working on now?
I’m just beginning the third book in my Marni Legend Series. I’ve got a beginning and an end. We’ll see where my characters lead me.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Join a critique group and don’t be afraid to share your work. While every writer loves to hear how great their stories are, it’s just as valuable, if not more, to hear constructive advice on what can make your writing stronger. A new set of eyes (or several) goes a long way to perfecting your writing voice.
Thanks so much for allowing me to visit and chat about my writing, Margaret!
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
Author Website
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Amazon Author Page
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
NOBODY’S PRINCESS and NOBODY’S PRIZE, by Esther Friesner. Friesner is best known as an author of humorous fantasy. I’ve enjoyed her novels and stories in that subgenre as well as anthologies she has edited, especially the “Chicks in Chainmail” series. The “Princesses of Myth” YA novels depart from that pattern. This duology, comprising the first books in the series, imagines the youth of Helen of Troy when she was still Princess Helen of Sparta. At the beginning of NOBODY’S PRINCESS, she hasn’t yet become a legendary beauty, a role to which she doesn’t aspire anyway. She wants training in the use of weapons like her two brothers. After persuading the arms master to accept her as a student, she becomes proficient enough to trail after the participants in the hunt for the ferocious Calydonian boar. She meets and learns from her idol, the famed warrior maiden Atalanta, makes friends with the current Delphic oracle, and frees a slave boy who becomes her best friend. Helen takes a dim view of the legendary exploits of heroes such as Hercules, which she realizes are exaggerated or outright invented. For example, the hydra was really a nest of oversized swamp snakes. Nor does she place much credence in tales of divine parentage, including her own. In NOBODY’S PRIZE, she sneaks onto the Argo to join the quest for the golden fleece. The voyage is complicated by the need to stay as far as possible away from her brothers, in case they recognize her despite her being disguised as a boy. Once the ship arrives in Colchis, Helen assumes the identity of Atalanta. Although these novels contain moments of humor, they also include dangers, sorrows, and some deaths. As for fantasy elements, everybody believes in the gods and their occasional intervention in mortal affairs, but onstage magic is mostly limited to the powers of oracles and the reality of visions. These two books deal strictly with Helen’s youth; the only hints of her future as “Helen of Troy” come in said visions. She’s an engaging first-person narrator, and since the story involves events not covered in classical mythology, readers can enjoy plenty of suspense as to the outcome of Helen’s adventures. Other duologies in the series feature Nefertiti, Maeve, and the third-century Japanese princess Himiko.
ANNE FRANK REMEMBERED, by Miep Gies and Alison Leslie Gold. Viewers of the TV miniseries A SMALL LIGHT will find this autobiographical work interesting, since it covers the actual events on which the screenplay is based. Contrary to the implication of the book’s title, it doesn’t focus on Anne Frank herself, but on the life of Miep Gies, Otto Frank’s secretary and close friend, and her role in hiding his family from the Nazi occupying forces. Along with a few other people in on the secret, she protected the Franks and their companions in the hidden annex, supplying them with food and other necessities. Originally published in 1987, this edition includes an afterword added in 2009, the year of the author’s hundredth birthday. Having outlived everyone else who endured the wartime ordeal with her, she reveals the real names of people for whom she herself and Anne Frank originally used pseudonyms. Miep also points out some inaccuracies in stage and film adaptations. Comparing her book’s account of the historical events with the new miniseries, we can notice places where the TV adaptation makes minor departures from real-life chronology for dramatic effect. Moreover, some episodes briefly alluded to in Miep’s book are expanded in the series, while the script adds many incidents not in the book at all. Everything in the film that can be confirmed from the 1987/2009 book, however, seems to be accurate, and events that were probably invented for the screen feel true to the historical background. (After all, doubtless nobody was keeping exact notes of private conversations between Miep and her husband, for instance.) One of my questions isn’t answered: Who betrayed the Franks to the Nazis? Otto Frank (Anne’s father) didn’t want to investigate, and the police never made an arrest. Miep concludes that we’ll never know. With both the TV series and the book, we’re aware in advance that the story will have a sad ending. As is well known, of the people hidden in the secret annex, only Otto survived the war. Nevertheless, ANNE FRANK REMEMBERED is ultimately a moving, uplifting account of quiet heroism.
A TEST OF COURAGE, by Mary Lou Mendum, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, and Jean Lorrah. As the third volume in the “Clear Springs Chronicles” trilogy, this wouldn’t be a suitable entry point for a reader new to the Sime-Gen universe. The trilogy as a whole, however, explains the basic premise and background of that series well enough to serve as an introduction. As established fans know, many centuries in the future humanity has split into two “larities” (short for polarities). At puberty, every person becomes either a Gen, a producer of life-energy called selyn, or a Sime, who must drain selyn from a Gen once a month to survive. Simes have tentacles on their arms, while Gens look like us (Ancients, who are extinct). The cause for this catastrophic development is lost in the mists of history. Until the events of FIRST CHANNEL, an early book in the series and chronologically first in internal order, it was believed that Simes had to kill Gens to extract selyn. The discovery of Channels, who can harmlessly take selyn from Gens and transfer it to ordinary Simes, constituted a crucial breakthrough. At the time period of the Clear Springs Trilogy, this society has developed technologically as far as ours in some ways but lags behind in others. Generations after Unity (I don’t remember exactly how many, but not a terribly long time), the treaty that ended the long border war between the Simes and Gens of North America, the two protagonists run a Sime Center in Clear Springs, a college town in Gen Territory. Rital comes across as a typical earnest, driven, compassionate Channel. Den, his cousin and Companion (personal donor), is a delightful character with a passion for researching and recreating Ancient technology, especially powered flight. During their tenure in Clear Springs, they’ve acquired substantial cohorts of both enemies and allies, the latter especially recruited from the university’s student body as well as a few reasonable local officials who recognize the benefits of having a Sime Center in town. In A TEST OF COURAGE, the community faces a virulent, previously unknown disease informally named the Creeping Need, after a horrifying Sime urban legend. The way they cope with the plague eerily foreshadows the real-life COVID-19 pandemic (which didn’t begin until around the time the authors finished the first draft). Meanwhile, Den and his student assistants continue their undaunted quest to duplicate the Ancients’ early-stage flying machines. Naturally, at the climax these plot threads intertwine as the newly constructed light aircraft plays a vital role in the fight against the epidemic. If you’re a fan of the Sime-Gen universe, you probably know of this book already. For new readers, the previous novels, A CHANGE OF TACTICS and A SHIFT OF MEANS, would make an excellent gateway to this far-future SF series.
EMILY WILDE’S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FAERIES, by Heather Fawcett. This isn’t a reference work, but a novel set in an alternate-world Edwardian era, specifically 1909. On this variant of Earth, fae beings of many different types exist openly, and the title character, a professor at Cambridge, is an authority on them. During research for her monumental encyclopedia, a project spanning years, she travels with her dog, Shadow, to an invented far-northern Scandinavian country. The novel, in the form of Emily’s journal, chronicles her exploration of the nature of the Folk, especially the Hidden Ones—the euphemistic term for any aristocratic, dangerous high-elven race—of this little-studied land. In the midst of adjusting to the primitive conditions of the cottage she’s renting and learning to navigate the social customs of the easily offended local villagers, she finds that her colleague, rival, and frenemy Professor Wendell Bambleby has unilaterally decided to join her. Typically, he brings along a couple of student assistants to relieve him of any manual labor. Not only physically attractive, he’s both exasperatingly annoying and irresistibly charming. The academically brilliant Emily, on the other hand, has minimal social skills and gets along better with the Folk than with human beings. For instance, she befriends a timid faerie creature who frequents a spring near the village, who later reluctantly gives her vital information. It’s not much of a spoiler, considering the revelation occurs early in the book, that her suspicion about Bambleby’s being one of the Folk himself proves correct. In fact, he’s a faerie prince in exile. In the course of Emily’s research, she records several local folk tales. Some of this material proves important to solving the trouble she gets into with Bambleby. She recognizes that it wouldn’t be wise to pursue their mutual attraction, which of course the reader notices before she does; romantic liaisons between mortal and fae seldom end well. Once she gets back on good terms with the local people, she becomes entangled with the search for a child abducted by the Hidden Folk and the quest for a certain tree that may hold the key to Bambleby’s fate. When she ends up a “guest” imprisoned in the faerie king’s court, she discovers to her surprise that her new human friends care enough to take risks for her. Incidentally, a certain magic word she has assumed to be of only academic interest becomes unexpectedly useful, as often happens in fairy tales. Her unwilling stay in the faerie realm is convincingly both enchanting and frightening. I found her narrative voice, characterized by intellectual analysis even in moments of crisis, with frequent academic side remarks and occasional footnotes, delightful. The cover blurb describes her with perfect accuracy as “curmudgeonly,” and watching her open up to human neighbors as well as to Bambleby complements her external predicament with internal growth. Although the story comes to a satisfactory conclusion, a sequel is promised.
For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
*****
Excerpt from WINDWALKER’S MATE:
Sometimes a gust of wind is just a harmless breeze.
Shannon clutched at that belief when she caught sight of her son in the lobby of the Little Stars preschool and day care center. Ms. Ginelli, the teacher of the four-year-olds’ class, gripped him firmly by the hand. His curly, reddish-blond hair looked as if a gale had swept over it. The question, “Oh, no, what did he do now?” leaped into Shannon’s head. She bit her lip to keep the words from bursting out.
“What’s going on?” she asked instead.
Ms. Ginelli’s frown hinted at perplexity rather than annoyance. “We had a little accident, Ms. Bryce,” she said, “but I’m not honestly sure what happened. I wasn’t in the room when it started. Paige said Daniel and Jacob got into an argument in the block corner. When I got there, she’d already separated them.”
Paige, the aide for Daniel’s class, appeared behind the reception desk at that moment. Her hair, not confined in a tight bun like Ms. Ginelli’s, bristled as if she’d run her fingers through it—or she’d stood in front of a fan. “Jacob has a small bruise on his arm, but he’ll be okay. And don’t worry, Daniel didn’t hurt him. I was holding your son on the other side of the room when it happened.”
Shannon locked stares with Daniel, who gazed up at her with his lower lip quivering.
“What happened?”
Paige shook her head. “I’m not sure, either. It was over so fast. The wind rushed in and blew the blocks around. I mean, not just scattered them, lifted them off the floor. Hard enough that one of them bounced off Jacob’s arm.” Obviously mistaking Shannon’s gasp of alarm for worry about the other boy, she said, “No biggie. They’re soft plastic. It wouldn’t have left a mark at all if it hadn’t hit him so hard. It’s weird, though. The wind just sprang up all of a sudden, like a mini-tornado, and stopped a minute later.”
“It’s true,” Ms. Ginelli said. “I came in just in time to see the end of it.”
Shannon didn’t doubt the story for a second, though she couldn’t explain why freak winds surrounding her son didn’t surprise her. She flashed on a memory of him on the backyard swing set, at the age of three, swinging back and forth without pumping his legs, a breeze ruffling his hair while no wind blew anywhere else. She thrust the image back into the compartment where she stored all the impossible events she wanted to forget.
-end of excerpt-
*****
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“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter
Welcome to the May 2023 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
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My contemporary fantasy in the “Jelly Beans and Spring Things” line, “Bunny Hunt,” was published in early April. After Melanie, a professional doula, rescues a wild rabbit from a runaway dog and the animal seemingly changes into a heavily pregnant, human-size rabbit woman, Melanie convinces herself she saw only a woman in a costume. But that same night she hears a desperate plea for help inside her head. “Bunny Hunt” was featured on Vicky Burkholder’s April 13 blog:
She left a lovely 5-star review on Goodreads. (As she mentioned, the story isn’t actually a romance, despite how it’s labeled.):
There’s an excerpt from “Bunny Hunt” below. You can find the story here:
Bunny Hunt
I’m interviewing another “Jelly Beans and Spring Things” author, multi-genre writer D. V. Stone.
*****
Interview with D. V. Stone:
What inspired you to begin writing?
I’ve always been a huge bookworm. Several times over the years, I’d attempted to write a book, but life got in the way. Then after being laid off from a long-term job, I had the opportunity. That time it took. The book is still a work in progress, but I hope to publish it one day.
What genres do you work in?
I’m all over the board. When I began writing, I thought I would be a fantasy author. However, the first book picked up by my publisher was a Romantic Suspense. But I continue to write in multiple genres. Romance, suspense, fantasy, paranormal, mid-grade, and recently historical. My latest release is contemporary with light paranormal elements titled Sophia’s Magic Beans.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I found my preference is to be a pantser, aka wing it, but that doesn’t work for the second books in a series. These days my writing is the in-between.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
My fantasy is undoubtedly based on the influences of Tolkien and CS Lewis. My Impact series, which is about EMTs and First Responders, comes from my past. I was an EMT for many years and worked in medical facilities for probably 30 years on and off.
Please tell us about your Shield-Mates series and the Mortar & Pestle series.
The Shield-Mates are independent fantasy books. Felice was the first book I ever published. Kisa was released in Dec. of 2022, and I’m working on Orsolo as we speak. The stories are about Darrian sisters. Darrians can shift, and the royal house is all big cats. The books are fantasy, but up in them are the importance of family and friends, loyalty, duty, and hopefully, the reader will enjoy my tucked-in humorous side.
The Mortar & Pestle series is a cooperative effort between seven authors who began as a sounding board for the writing process. It ended up with a series that spans time, genres, and styles but held together by a mystical Mortar & Pestle. Sea Hunter was the fourth book in the series and was based in post-WW-II. It was my first historical and a hoot to write. I loved penning Zahra and Jack’s story, which is romance, paranormal, and action/adventure
Is your Lake Unami setting based on a real location?
Northern NJ is where I call home. I live at a lake and often visit a nearby lake with a boardwalk. I’ve combined the rural areas where I live and developed the town of Lake Unami. I do mention Branchville, which is an actual nearby town.
What do you see as the major differences between writing adult fiction and writing for middle-grade readers (aside from the ages of the audiences, of course)?
Not as much as you might think. Most of my books can be read by, say, twelve and up. There are no language or heat issues though they are romance, and the violence is not graphic. I try not to talk down to my mid-graders. Kids are smart. I try to treat them that way.
What sparked “Sophia’s Magic Beans,” your “Jelly Beans and Spring Things” story?
When my publisher, The Wild Rose Press, called for the series submission, I jumped in. I wanted to go back to Lake Unami, and this was the opportunity. What’s a boardwalk without a candy store? I also dedicated the story to my son, who survived this single mom. Calliope is a single mom.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book, and what are you working on now?
I’m working on several projects. Remember Doug from Up? Squirrel! I mentioned Orsolo above from the Shield-Mates. I’m fleshing out the story now. Another hot project is a novella with some of the characters from Rainbow Sprinkles and Sophia’s Magic Beans.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Don’t let fear hold you back. I still sometimes think, “Who do you think you are, and why would anyone want to read your books?”
Hire a professional editor. The best you can afford. It’s so important.
Covers are SO important. Same as above, get the best you can.
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
D. V. Stone
Universal link to Social Media: Social Media
Margaret, thank you so much for letting me have the space to talk about one of my favorite things. Books. My dog Hali keeps poking me to ask if she can insert her two cents?
Hali says, “Woof, woof.” (translates visit shelters and adopt pets from there. They need you.)
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
THE WAY HOME, by Peter S. Beagle. These two stories, “Two Hearts” (a reprint) and “Sooz” (original to this book), are spinoffs from THE LAST UNICORN, set decades after that novel. Although the volume is labeled “Two Novellas,” the much longer of the two, “Sooz,” could qualify as a short novel. When we first meet the title character of the latter, the narrator of both adventures, she’s nine going on ten. The king has sent a succession of many knights to save her village from a marauding griffin, but none has survived. Sooz impulsively decides to go on her own, with the faithful dog who’s been her lifelong companion, to appeal to the monarch himself. Setting out with only a general idea of how to find the royal castle, instead she comes upon Schmendrick the magician and his life-partner Molly Grue, both now mature and confident yet recognizable as the quirky characters from THE LAST UNICORN. For fans of the novel, it’s a delight to see what they’ve become. When they guide Sooz to the king, the former Prince Lir, they find him pathetically changed, lethargic and verging on senility. Mention of the unicorn’s name awakens him to something like his true self and reminds him of his duty to defend his people. Even a king can’t defeat a griffin easily, though; the story climaxes with a scene of dire peril, the reappearance of the unicorn herself, and a conclusion that mingles triumph with loss. Before parting, Molly gifts Sooz with a magical song she must sing only on her seventeenth birthday, when someone or something will come to her in response. “Sooz” begins with that song. She hopes to see Schmendrick or Molly; instead, she meets someone unimagined—Jenia, the sister who disappeared before she was born. Her father tells Sooz the truth: Jenia was taken by the Dreamies, as their culture calls the Fae. Shocked by this revelation as well as another that comes with it (too much of a spoiler to state here), Sooz determines to save her sister. Surely Jenia must want that, or else why would she have appeared? But what if she doesn’t want to be rescued? Soon after entering the forest, Sooz herself faces attack from ordinary human “monsters.” Afterward, she gains an unusual protector and companion, a woman of animated stone who’s seeking Death (both the condition and the anthropomorphic personification). She and Sooz develop a close bond as they travel through the phantasmagoric, unstable landscape of Faerie. The Dreamies stalk them, offering both allure and threat. When the seekers find the elusive Jenia, their danger doesn’t cease, nor is it certain until the very end whether Jenia will choose to return to her human home or embrace immortality with her Fae “family.” Beagle’s lyrical prose descriptions of the enchanted realm in all its glamour and terror are enthralling, and he does a masterful job of keeping the reader in doubt as to whether Sooz’s quest will succeed. Again he leaves us with a bittersweet conclusion.
A HOUSE WITH GOOD BONES, by T. Kingfisher. This author’s newest horror novel, a Southern Gothic incongruously set in a suburban tract house, doesn’t captivate me quite so strongly as her first three, but I’ll still reread it multiple times. A theme of return and/or reunion to find unsettling or outright shocking changes pervades this book, like the previous ones. “There was a vulture on the mailbox of my grandmother’s house.” How could any fan of dark fantasy resist an opening line such as that? Narrator Samantha (Sam) receives a message from her brother that their mother seems “off.” Since Sam has been temporarily furloughed from her job as an archaeoentomologist (a scientist who studies insects in archeological digs), she travels to North Carolina to check out the situation. Her mother owns the house where she and her two children spent an impoverished period during Sam’s childhood living with the late grandmother, Gran Mae. Upon arrival, Sam finds the usual cheerfully eclectic, cluttered décor replaced by a “sterile” ambience more reminiscent of her grandmother’s taste. The walls have even been repainted off-white. Her mother acts nervous, as if she feels watched or overheard. Sam sees the environment in terms of ecology in general and, of course, arthropods in particular. In the house’s monoculture rose garden, she immediately notices the lack of insects aside from ladybugs. This phenomenon and the flock of vultures roosting in a neighbor’s tree, however, are the least of the strangeness. For instance, a swarm of ladybugs invades Sam’s bedroom at night. We gradually learn about her childhood and her grandmother’s oddities, including strictness verging on abuse, while Sam unearths buried family secrets—literally, in one case. It takes a while to reassure herself that her mother isn’t sinking into senility, but the alternative is almost worse. She discovers her great-grandfather, Gran Mae’s father, practiced dark magic. No wonder Gran Mae was obsessed with “nice and normal.” Furthermore, the “underground children” she warned her grandchildren about turn out to be real, not imaginary boogeymen. And the rose bushes are sentient. I feel the climax, when the house collapses into a sinkhole, besieged by the underground children, requires a certain amount of suspension of disbelief, but I enjoyed it anyway. Gran Mae’s sort-of return, however, strikes me as believably, deeply disturbing. Sam’s witty narrative voice, the vulture lady and local “witch” Gail, and the friendly gardener Phil, who grounds the whole story in the mundane milieu of a “cookie-cutter” housing development, irresistibly draw the reader into the experience. Kingfisher has an enviable talent, through Sam’s chatty yet sometimes sardonic tone, to feed backstory to the reader with never a sense of info-dumping. Amid the mainly happy ending, Sam’s unease with the idea that she might have inherited her grandmother’s magic causes the supernatural danger to linger in the reader’s mind after the final page. In Kingfisher’s afterword, she mentions her own battles with roses and the fact that this is her second novel to portray rose bushes as evil, the first being her “Beauty and the Beast” retelling, BRYONY AND ROSES. The section headings (labeled “First Day,” “Second Day,” etc.) enhance the theme with a brief description of a different rose variety for each one.
THE WITCH AND THE VAMPIRE, by Francesca Flores. I’m ambivalent about this dark fantasy YA novel. It has an intriguing alternate-world setting, and the two teen protagonists are sympathetic characters with a strong connection, even though fraught with hostility because of circumstances that destroyed their earlier friendship. On the other hand, it’s told by both of them in alternate first-person chapters—perfectly okay and an effective device for creating suspense—in present tense, not so okay (in my opinion). Moreover, the two girls’ voices read, to me, exactly the same and not very convincing as teenage-girl speech. If they were presented as writing their narratives in past tense, their rather formal language wouldn’t feel so distancing. Sometimes I had to glance back at a chapter heading—each helpfully titled with the name of the viewpoint character—to remind myself which narrator was speaking in a given scene. In this world, vampires openly exist, with hunters trained to track and slay them. Witches, whose powers fall into various categories such as flame, root, healing, and others, also help to defend the human community. The protagonists’ town is protected from the vampire-infested forest by a magical barrier. (Although the book reveals nothing about the wider world, there doesn’t seem any reason to assume other areas don’t face similar threats.) Ava, a root witch, deriving her power from contact with the earth, has been turned into a vampire by her mother. Her mother, a leader of the community, keeps her own vampirism secret and confines Ava to the house, supposedly for her safety. Ava’s abusive stepfather performs experiments on her, adding to her misery. When Ava accidentally discovers that her mother—for a reason never totally clear or convincing to me—plots to take down the protective barrier, Ava escapes, determined to reach and warn the legendary vampire queen who dwells in the middle of the forest. Meanwhile, her former best friend Kaye, a flame witch, mistakenly thinks Ava killed Kaye’s mother. On an expedition into the forest, hunter-trainee Kaye runs into Ava and captures her. Circumstances force them to travel together and cooperate, tentatively and grudgingly on Kaye’s part. She believes all vampires are irredeemably murderous and possessed by uncontrollable bloodlust. Gradually, the girls overcome their misconceptions about each other and repair their friendship. This slow process, believably complicated by mutual suspicion, impresses me as the strongest feature of the novel. Their childhood best friend, a hunter-trainee named Tristan, also plays a major role. Encounters in a human-occupied city deep in the woods enlighten them to the truth that not all mortals are heroic and good, just as not all vampires are evil. The world-building constitutes the novel’s other main strength. And like Catherine Yu’s DIREWOOD, the core of THE WITCH AND THE VAMPIRE has a fairy-tale atmosphere, with a quest through a forbidden forest.
For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
For other reviews of older vampire fiction, posted on the fifteenth of each month, visit the VampChix blog: VampChix
*****
Excerpt from “Bunny Hunt”:
Melanie hurried toward the woods after the dog and rabbit. They’d already vanished into the trees, but she had Kiki’s continuous yapping to guide her.
She raced along the narrow trail. Judging from the volume of the barking, the dog hadn’t gotten far yet. Melanie sprinted toward the noise, hoping to sight the runaway around the next curve in the path. What if she chased the rabbit into the underbrush?
No need to worry about that problem until she caught up with the animals. Rounding a bend, she forced herself to a burst of speed. She didn’t see her quarry, but the yapping grew still louder. After the second loop in the trail, she almost tripped over Kiki’s leash and skidded to a stop.
Not far off the path under the trees, the dog stood with her front paws pinning the rabbit to the ground. She kept barking but didn’t move otherwise, as if she had no idea what to do with her thrashing, kicking prey. The wild animal appeared to weigh at least ten pounds, barely smaller than the dog herself.
Panting and sweating from the run, Melanie lifted her ponytail off the damp nape of her neck while she seized a loop of the leash with her other hand. If one of those kicks connected, Scott’s pet could get seriously hurt. “Kiki, drop it!”
The pup didn’t even glance at her. That must have been a command she either hadn’t learned yet or chose to ignore. Melanie gave the leash a firm jerk. Startled, Kiki tumbled off the flailing rabbit and struggled to land on all fours.
The rabbit sprang upright. Melanie retreated a couple of steps, hauling the dog with her. To her surprise, the rabbit turned its head and gazed up as if assessing her. Kiki, already recovering her balance, strained at the leash.
“Well, what are you waiting for, bunny? Get out of here.”
I’m talking to a wild rabbit. Unless maybe it’s an escaped pet? That possibility would account for how little fear of humans it showed.
Staring straight at her, it reared up on its haunches. Its amber eyes gazed at her with an expression of unnerving attention.
What’s it thinking about me? Melanie shook her head. Whoa! Now I’m giving it credit for human intelligence.
A bright shimmer dazzled her vision. When it faded, the animal was standing on its hind legs—and growing. It expanded to person-height. Kiki emitted an alarmed yip and huddled against Melanie’s leg. Melanie simply froze, her mouth gaping open.
When the glow faded, a human-size bunny stood before her. It—no, she—displayed the same cinnamon-brown fur and long ears. Her face had the general shape of a woman’s, but with whiskers, amber eyes, a button nose, and rabbity incisors. Her leg joints bent at an angle suitable for hopping. Most striking, two vertical rows of nipples, four and four, adorned the front of her body, and her belly bulged with an obvious pregnancy.
Now I’m even getting baby reminders foisted on me by hallucinations!
To cap off the impossibility of this apparition, the rabbit-woman spoke. “Thank you.” Her voice chimed like a silver bell, its echo lingering as she turned and hopped into the woods. Before she’d gone far enough for the trees to hide her, she seemingly vanished into thin air.
Fighting a wave of dizziness, Melanie sagged against the nearest tree trunk and closed her eyes. When her pulse and breathing steadied, she looked down to find Kiki shivering as if in fear. “Girl, I don’t blame you a bit.” She leaned over to pet the dog until Kiki perked up and yipped to announce she wanted to get moving again. Melanie led her back up the path toward the playground.
Her mind churned as she covered the distance at a brisk walk. Okay, get a grip. I did not see a rabbit turn into a person. I haven’t fallen down a hole into Wonderland. The actual rabbit, obviously, had scampered away while she’d been distracted, and a pregnant woman in a disturbingly realistic costume had coincidentally shown up. Not so unbelievable on the day before Easter. Maybe she’d been recruited as entertainment for the kids.
-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, 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:
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):
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