Author Archive
Welcome to the January 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.” For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
You can subscribe to this monthly newsletter here:
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!
Happy New Year!
My erotic paranormal romance “New Flame” was re-released in December. Judy, owner of a struggling bookstore, considers giving up the business after a frightening confrontation with a burglar. Then she receives a strange Christmas present, an antique oil lamp, inherited from her deceased great-aunt. An excerpt appears below.
Our first guest of 2023 is mystery and romance author Laura Freeman, writer of the Wild Rose Press Christmas Cookies story “Tackling Molasses Crinkles.”
*****
Interview with Laura Freeman:
What inspired you to begin writing?
When I was twelve, I read “The Hobbit” and “Lord of the Rings” and wanted to create stories about friendship and adventure, especially for girls. I had four brothers, and they always seemed to do the “fun” stuff.
What genres do you work in?
I have written a six-book historical romance series, a holiday supernatural romance novella, and a female detective mystery scheduled for release Jan. 30. I like to mix two genres like a romance within a mystery or a mystery within a romance.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I begin with my main characters’ names and keep a character list going. Then I write a rough draft of the action and dialogue to form a series of events broken into chapters that make up the story which is around 100 pages. I create a formal outline from those chapters and adjust it as I add details or move scenes around. To help build tension, I’ll edit the last chapter and move backwards through my story so I know where the story is heading. This allows me to reveal clues later in the story and remove them from the beginning or replace a clue with a subtle hint. This is a must for me because I initially reveal too much too soon and this forces me to move important details to a later chapter and create suspense.
What have been the major influences on your work?
My favorite authors have been J.D. Robb, Sue Grafton, and Janet Evanovich, who have strong female characters. I was a reporter for 16 years and covered events, politics, and crime which I draw from for ideas. I also worked in a hospital and use that setting in “Raining Tears.”
What effect did your journalism career have on your fiction writing? And what would you say are the principal differences between those two types of writing?”
Reporting requires research and interviewing others which helps with background and historical data for my fictional writing. News writing also limits how long a story can be which makes me choose my words wisely. Fictional writing allows more flexibility to convey meanings and share the thoughts of a character to explain behavior or the why of a crime.
Please tell us about your Impending Love Series. Also, how did you research the historical background?
Each book is about a different Beecher sister and begins in 1860 with a runaway slave and ends in 1866 with the last villain stalking the youngest sister. I researched my family tree and used family names but placed them in different time periods. I made Sterling Beecher the father of the six sisters in the books. He was my great-great-grandfather with a long family history back to New Haven, Connecticut. Set during the Civil War, I read books, visited battlefields, and interviewed reenactors. I used real historical figures sparingly but researched them to make sure they would act the way they did in my books.
What inspired your Christmas Cookies novella “Tackling Molasses Crinkles”?
I wrote a column under Freeman of the Press, “The unopened gift on Christmas morning” about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings on Dec. 14, 2012, in which parents had bought presents for their six-year-old children, but they would never be opened. The gifts represented a child’s unfulfilled life and inspired this story. I wanted to give hope to those who have lost a child and imagine their angel watching over them.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
My next book is “Raining Tears” due out Jan. 30, 2023. It is a female detective mystery that is told from the viewpoints of four women connected by the death of an innocent man. I attended a Citizens Police Academy, and my brother was a police officer and detective which helped with the technical information. I enjoyed writing the villain because she could say and do outrageous things.
What are you working on now?
I am working on two stories. One is a cozy mystery where a woman finds a body in the park and discovers later that her co-worker’s husband was having an affair with the victim. She tries to help her friend and uncovers important clues that put her life in danger and angers the handsome police officer investigating the case. The other story I’m working on is a historical romance set in 1774 where the heroine tries to figure a way out of a forced marriage and uncovers the hidden reasons for the union.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
You can have lots of ideas in your head but until you put them in print, you aren’t a writer. And your writing requires a goal, problems, and resolution to be a story. Learn the basics of writing, the expectations of a genre, such as a happily ever after in a romance, and study other authors. Writing can be time consuming and challenging, but if you love creating characters and putting them in danger, you need to write. It makes you happy. At times developing a story will drive you crazy, but don’t quit.
Author Website
Facebook
Twitter
Amazon
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
THE LARAN GAMBIT, by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Deborah J. Ross. The first new Darkover novel in quite a while (mainly by Ross, of course, unless a séance was involved). Even though it’s set in my least favorite period of the planet’s history, the post-WORLD WRECKERS era, I enjoyed it very much. This novel has one unusual aspect: The protagonist, a Terran woman, doesn’t even get to Darkover until at least one-third of the way through the book. Nevertheless, her plight engaged me and kept my attention riveted throughout. Bryn, a child psychologist, specializes in treating children traumatized by the Star Alliance’s wars aimed at subjugating other human-inhabited planets. Her father leads the party that opposes the authoritarian policies of the current regime. When he broadcasts a speech endorsing a position counter to everything he believes, then vanishes soon afterward, Bryn knows the government must have done something to him. After rescuing him, she finds his mind radically damaged. He fights against the domination of the implanted thoughts, but no technique known to Terran psychology can permanently fix him. Bryn’s research introduces her to the rumored telepathic powers of certain people on Darkover, a world that has broken off relations with the Terran hegemony and withdrawn into voluntary isolation. This information isn’t a spoiler; it’s all in the cover copy. After a desperate race to elude government agents, involving the murder of someone dear to Bryn, she, her father, and her former mentor wrangle transportation to the world of the Bloody Sun. The plot from that point hits all the familiar Darkover highlights—a trek across the rugged landscape of the snow-covered Hellers, an encounter with Free Amazons, Towers and learning about laran, and Bryn’s discovery that the premonitions she’s had all her life hint at latent laran. (Of course they do; as a humorous filk song puts it, “Every Terran who comes to Darkover, as anyone plainly can see, develops the power called laran. . . .”) Some high-status Darkovans are opposed to any cooperation with Terrans, even on a personal level, but the leroni of the Tower in the capital recognize the importance of training Bryn’s newly discovered powers. In the process, a close friendship grows between her and the man designated to shepherd the visitors through the intricacies of Darkovan culture. Can Bryn’s father be healed? And if they return to Terra, is there any way she can ethically use laran to take down the would-be dictator? The incident that explains the book’s title doesn’t appear until the climax. Although the ending feels a little rushed to me, I found it satisfying anyway. Bryn’s ultimate life path makes sense, and her potential new love interest develops gradually and believably in the context of her recent loss.
INTO THE WEST, by Mercedes Lackey. Volume Two of the new “Founding of Valdemar” series. In the first book, Kordas, Baron Valdemar, led 15,000 people through a magical Gate to escape the tyrannical Empire, leaving the capital devastated behind them. At the beginning of INTO THE WEST, however, they know they’ve found only a temporary refuge, not far enough out of the Empire’s reach for safety. Moreover, they need to make a long-term home somewhere they won’t encroach on already inhabited lands. The third-person narrative features two viewpoint characters, Kordas and his wife’s younger sister, Delia, who has a crush on him. While Kordas, plagued by a fear of never getting everything right and a reluctance to delegate, grapples with the burdens of shepherding his horde of refugees, Delia valiantly struggles against her infatuation and seeks useful tasks to perform. Therefore, she’s more pleased than not when assigned to a small party scouting ahead of the main body, even though she suspects Kordas made that decision more to give her time to outgrow her feelings toward him than from a belief that she’ll be a true asset. Of course, she discovers previously latent abilities within herself and realizes her value to the group. Meanwhile, the main community travels by barge through lands still marred by the Mage Wars of a thousand years in the past. They narrowly escape disaster in a warped, quasi-sentient forest and face suspicious locals as well as creatures mutated by Change Circles. Lackey keeps the logistical details and social problems of a mass migration fascinating even during lulls from natural and magical threats. The advantages and limitations of Gates also become clear as the journey proceeds. The Valdemarans receive unexpected help when needed most, always foreshadowed skillfully enough to keep it from feeling like deus-ex-machina intervention. They meet the Hawkbrothers and hertasi (who answer the question many readers have doubtless pondered, why those clever lizard-folk willingly act as apparent servants to the Hawkbrothers). Alas, however, no inkling of Companions yet. I suppose we’ll see them sometime after the Valdemarans settle in a permanent homeland. The book isn’t perfect; in several places, I mentally screamed, “Where was the copy editor?” In at least one instance, two passages a few pages apart relate exactly the same information in almost the same words. And Lackey seems inordinately fond of the word “literally,” which she uses correctly (of course) but often enough to become obtrusive. Regardless, this novel, like the first in the series, is a must-read for Valdemar fans.
ILLUMINATIONS, by T. Kingfisher. Not a horror novel like the books that made her one of my new favorite authors, but an alternate-world fantasy for preteens (judging by the age of the protagonist, although readers of any age can enjoy it). It takes place in an alternate nineteenth-century Europe in which the French Revolution, or its local equivalent, seems to have succeeded better than in our history, for the whole continent uses the Revolutionary calendar with its renamed months and days. The heroine, Rosa, dwells in a city resembling Venice, with canals, a Dynast instead of a king, and mostly Italian-sounding names. An orphan, she lives with her eccentric but endearing extended family, one of the most distinguished lineages of illuminators. She’s practicing the art but so far hasn’t graduated to producing actual illuminations. Her favorite things to draw are radishes with fangs. Unfortunately, that image serves no useful purpose. There’s a massive reference tome listing all known illuminations, each of which must be drawn in precise, unvarying detail to be effective. Fanged radishes aren’t among them. Against the background of a major civic project using illuminations to fix a long-term problem with the city’s sewage disposal, Rosa’s own trouble begins when she finds a mysterious box in the basement. She accidentally releases a creature imprisoned in the box, and a crow painted on the lid comes to life. His information about the history of the box and its connection to one of Rosa’s ancestors seems a bit shady, and he’s easily distracted by the urge to pilfer shiny objects. His insistence that she not tell the rest of the family about him gets her into trouble when the diminutive monster starts vandalizing their home workshop and the illuminations themselves. After the nuisance escalates into danger, though, the crow does come clean with the full truth at last. I don’t want to go into spoilery detail about the family’s fight against the creature and its minions, so I’ll only mention that Rosa’s radishes play a surprising role. Meanwhile, the story nicely balances Rosa’s magical woes with her preteen-girl difficult relationship with her best friend, daughter of another important illuminator family, who’s just enough older than Rosa to start making real illuminations for clients. Like Kingfisher’s A WIZARD’S GUIDE TO DEFENSIVE BAKING, ILLUMINATIONS portrays a young heroine whose odd magical talent turns out to be of vital importance. As usual, Kingfisher writes the protagonist’s viewpoint in an irresistibly witty style.
YULETIDE FRIGHTS, edited by William P. Simmons, subtitled “Victorian Ghost Stories for Christmas.” Telling scary tales during the Christmas season was, of course, a longstanding British tradition that peaked in the nineteenth century, with A CHRISTMAS CAROL being only the most famous of such works. This anthology collects over twenty of them by classic authors such as Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Algernon Blackwood, M. R. James, Sir Walter Scott, and many writers less known to modern readers. To the editor’s credit, he includes mainly stories not often anthologized, if ever. The vast majority of them were new to me and probably would be unfamiliar even to most fans of Victorian horror other than specialists in the field. For instance, I’d never read the Le Fanu, Blackwood, and Hawthorne pieces before, despite being (I thought) quite familiar with those authors. Of the two Dickens stories, only “The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton,” sort of a trial run for A CHRISTMAS CAROL, is likely to be widely known. The other best-known tale, Elizabeth Gaskell’s “The Old Nurse’s Story,” also strikes me as one of the few that’s truly scary. Most of the works are, to me, more cozy with a touch of pleasant eeriness than terrifying. Also, the protagonists more often serve as passive observers than take any action in response to the apparitions, so one doesn’t usually feel they’re in real danger. But, then, classic ghost stories have always been a form of literary comfort food for me. Aside from Simmons’s atmospheric and informative general introduction, there’s no editorial material such as introductions to the individual stories and authors. That omission, however, doesn’t lessen the anthology’s fitness for picking up and dipping into whenever one feels in the mood for a ghostly angle on the holiday season. YULETIDE FRIGHTS is an ideal volume for a fan of vintage horror to curl up with on a cold night.
*****
Excerpt from “New Flame”:
Judy lifted the lamp out of its box. The base felt too heavy for brass—bronze, maybe?
She ran her fingertips over the smooth curve of the chimney. It looked like an antique, probably brought from the old country. Old enough to be worth money? Could she sell it for enough to cover one of those pesky bills?
Marta, her mother’s aunt who’d died recently at the age of ninety-nine, had emigrated from Eastern Europe as a girl. Judy remembered her only as a tall, slim woman with steel-wool-colored hair. She’d met her great-aunt at infrequent family reunions. Their unmarried status was likely all the two of them had in common.
Experimentally turning up the wick, she felt a sudden impulse to light the lamp. Why not? Its parts seemed in working order.
She had a bottle of bayberry-scented oil stored with the hurricane lamp she kept for earthquake-related power outages. It took only a minute, rummaging through a cabinet next to the desk, to find the bottle. After pouring a small portion into the lamp, she set a match to the wick. On first try, it blossomed into a clear glow, flooding the room with the sweetish scent.
At the same moment, a bright streak flared at the edge of her vision.
She spun around in the swivel chair, ready to climb the wall. Or run out screaming if the thug had come back for seconds.
In the corner of the room loomed a pillar of fire. A six-foot column of orange-red flame, fading to indigo and violet at the edges. It undulated slowly like a candle in a light breeze.
Oh, Lord, she had set the place on fire! Her books! She leaped to her feet.
The apparition radiated none of the fierce heat expected from a blaze that size. And how could a spark have jumped from the desk to the center of the room without igniting anything in between?
While she stared, the flame’s outline shifted, growing curves and appendages. It took a few seconds for her to recognize the emerging shape as the figure of a man. The fire had all but died away. She saw an apparently solid body, although it still emitted a faint glow.
The naked man, lean and graceful, stood about a foot taller than Judy. He had tawny-bronze skin and an angular, striking face. Coppery hair growing to his shoulders floated as if stirred by a phantom wind. With his every move, his muscles appeared to flow like molten gold.
*****
My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Wild Rose Press: Wild Rose Press
You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter
Welcome to the December 2022 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.” For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
You can subscribe to this monthly newsletter here:
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!
Happy winter holiday season!
Writers Exchange E-Publishing has just released SEALING THE DARK PORTAL, a sort-of-Lovecraftian paranormal romance. Magically altered memories, a vengeful sorcerer from another world, creatures from the void between dimensions, a cat shapeshifter. . . . An excerpt appears below.
I’m interviewing mystery and paranormal author Iona Morrison, another author who contributed to the Wild Rose Press “Christmas Cookies” series.
*****
Interview with Iona Morrison:
1.What inspired you to begin writing?
I have always enjoyed writing. But eleven years ago, I was home alone for ten months while my husband went out of state to work. I decided to take a writing class. I like to think that I found my inner landscape. I also found my creativity and this writer was born. It is still magic to me.
2. What genres do you work in?
I write romantic mysteries with a touch of paranormal for the Fantasy line.
3.Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I keep notes about my characters’ traits but mostly I wing it and let my characters take the story.
4.What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
I write about subjects that are near and dear to me, like domestic violence, and human trafficking to name a few. They are worked into the crime area of the story.
5. Please tell us about your Blue Cove Mysteries series.
My first day on a new job as a church secretary, the custodian said to me, “You know we have a church ghost.” And that became the basis for the first book in the series. The series has grown to include another main character a cousin to Jessie Reynolds, and their love interests. The two cousins have a family gift of sight and help to solve crimes in their unique way. There’s another cousin waiting in the wings in my mind who might get a crack at it too.
6. What kinds of research do you do for your mystery novels?
It depends on the way the story leads me. In my last story a friend from Ireland helped me with research about the Potato Famine and Irish Legends and in the same story I researched about the treatment of indigenous children in boarding schools.
7.What inspired your Christmas Cookies novella “Magic and Midnight Mint Bars”?
I wanted to write a happy story about one of the secondary characters in Blue Cove. Sally Mansfield was a domestic violence victim and with a bit of magic she finds the possibility of love again. The cookies are super awesome too.
8.You mention in an interview that you never read the genre you write. Why not? (I know it’s not too unusual for authors to practice that habit, but I’m just the opposite.)
This wasn’t intentional. I was never interested in Mysteries as far as reading goes. I leaned more towards Historical Stories and Regency Romance. I have started reading Heather Graham and a few other mystery writers. I loved the book, Rebecca.
9.What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
My latest book is “Beyond The Door.” I also have a novella that is coming out next year. “Destiny’s Spring”, and one with my editor right now.
10. What are you working on now?
I just finished the first chapter in another Blue Cove Mystery.
11. What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Keep writing. I started writing later in life and I never thought I would have thirteen published works.
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
Iona Morrison Website
Instagram
Facebook
Pinterest.com/ionamorrison/
Iona Morrison | LinkedIn
Iona Morrison (@ionacrv) / Twitter
Iona Morrison Books – BookBub
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
OUTLANDER AND THE REAL JACOBITES, by Shona Kinsella. A detailed, thoroughly researched history of the Jacobite rising of 1745, with an overview of the background leading up to it, tying in characters and episodes from Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series (and the TV adaptation) wherever appropriate. Part 1: “Highland Life in the 1700s” covers topics such as the clan system, the status of women in eighteenth-century society, medicine, witchcraft, and the British army in Scotland. This is the section of the book heaviest on specifically Outlander topics, and Chapter 6 explores locations mentioned in the novels or used for filming in the TV series. Parts 2 through 6 cover the Stuart dynasty, the rising, and the aftermath, with its long-term effects on Highland society and culture, up to the death of Bonnie Prince Charlie. The author clearly distinguishes between actual historical events and how they’re depicted in (or adapted for) the novels. Her style is lucid and entertainingly readable. A timeline of the Stuart dynasty and the various attempts at its restoration provides a useful quick reference. The extensive bibliography demonstrates the scope of the author’s research. Most Outlander fans would enjoy this book, while anyone interested in this historical period could appreciate Kinsella’s work even if unfamiliar with Gabaldon’s series.
OVER THE WOODWARD WALL, by A. Deborah Baker. On first sight of this title, I immediately thought it sounded a lot like an installment in Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series. Well, guess what, A. Deborah Baker IS Seanan McGuire. The middle-grade series beginning with this novel isn’t labeled as taking place in the Wayward Children universe, but it could be. Like those stories, this portal fantasy doesn’t occupy an instantaneous pocket of “Narnia time,” from which interdimensional travelers return to our world with no time having passed here. Rather, as in McGuire’s YA series, the parents of the children in OVER THE WOODWARD WALL know they’ve disappeared and worry about them, as we learn on the last page of the novel. The story begins by introducing a boy and girl who live in the same neighborhood but have never met because they go to different schools. Avery, a meticulous child whose protective parents have brought him up as a lover of rules and order, clashes in personality with Zib, a free spirit who runs wild and rushes headlong toward anything the looks like an adventure. Avery’s extreme dismay when he loses the shine from his shoes and Zib’s cheerfully unkempt hair and clothes encapsulate the contrast between them. One day when a utility line repair blocks their usual ways to school, they run into each other while looking for alternative routes. Instead, familiar streets and houses are abruptly replaced by wilderness, and a wall blocks their path. On the advice of a talking owl, they climb over the wall, Zib excited by the mystery, Avery deeply reluctant. They find themselves in the Up-and-Under, a realm divided into four kingdoms with rulers named after the Tarot suits and representing both the four seasons and the four classical elements. The lost Earth children get help from a drowned girl (who’s been literally drowned, then restored to life as a creature of water) and a Crow Girl, with the power to change shapes between a human child and a murder of crows. This series, by the way, addresses one question most portal fantasies ignore, why the visitors can understand the speech of the residents with no language barrier. To find their way back to the mundane world, Zib and Avery must traverse the improbable road to the Impossible City, facing a variety of threats, potential helpers, and ambiguous tricksters. The two cross-dimensional travelers have a hard time adjusting to their forced alliance, since each is the last person the other would have chosen for a companion. While the quest for home with a party of mismatched comrades evokes echoes of THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ, the tone also has something of an Alice-in-Wonderland feel. Explanations offered by the Crow Girl and the drowned girl do little to mitigate the sense of chaos and illogic Avery and Zib frequently grapple with. The Wayward Children books would probably classify the Up-and-Under as a Nonsense World. At its heart, the Up-and-Under series explores the nature of friendship. The ordeals shared by Avery and Zib illustrate the deep bond that two people can form even if they don’t understand or sometimes don’t exactly like each other. Two sequels, ALONG THE SALTWISE SEA and INTO THE WINDWRACKED WILDS, continue the story with more to come.
*****
Excerpt from SEALING THE DARK PORTAL:
Hissing, the cat whirled around to face the front yard. His coat puffed up like a porcupine’s quills. Rina peered through the rain, trying to see what had spooked him.
A sharp acetone smell, like nail polish or overripe bananas, stung her nose. Something materialized a few yards away on the sidewalk between the house and the street. At least, the word “materialize” popped into her mind because one minute she saw nothing and the next minute, there it was. A grayish, four-legged creature, maybe a huge dog like an Irish wolfhound. Its eyes gleamed red. She blinked and rubbed her eyes. Four legs? For a second the beast looked as if it had at least six.
No way, it’s the rain. She couldn’t see clearly through the downpour outside the circle of the porch light. That was why she had trouble counting its legs. That had to be why its edges blurred, almost like a cloud rather than a solid body. It expanded, and its mouth gaped to show fangs longer than any dog’s. It stalked toward her. Too paralyzed with disbelief to retreat, she stood petrified, watching.
The cat’s hiss segued into a snarl. Claws out, he charged at the beast. The creature backed up. Its outline melted into amorphous clump of smoke or sooty fog. The cat sprang on it and sank his claws into the gray clot. The thing solidified into something like a giant dog again. The cat leaped to the ground and raked a slash down one of the elongated legs. The beast retreated to the shadow of a crape myrtle tree at the corner of the yard and vanished. The cat dashed after it into the darkness and out of sight.
Rina slammed the door, shot the bolt, and fastened the chain with trembling fingers. Shaking, she leaned on the panel.
I did not see that.
The rain must have confused her vision. Everything was a blur out there. She hadn’t seen a crimson-eyed smoke creature that changed shape. It must have been a dog. And the cat had chased it away.
My hero. I owe him another can of tuna.
Why hadn’t the Pirellis, the retired couple in the other half of the duplex, come out to investigate the noise? Was the rain that loud? She clenched her fists against the wood and willed herself to stop trembling.
By the time she managed to relax, the rush of the rain slackened to a patter. Outside, a man’s voice spoke so faintly she could hardly make out the words: “Varina, you’re in danger. Listen carefully.”
“What?” The voice sounded almost familiar. But she couldn’t place it, and he’d addressed her by somebody else’s name. She called with her lips next to the doorjamb, “Who’s there? You’ve got the wrong house.”
“Varina, you have to awaken your pendant.” The man sounded closer this time.
-end of excerpt-
*****
My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Wild Rose Press: Wild Rose Press
You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter
Welcome to the November 2022 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.” For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
You can subscribe to this monthly newsletter here:
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 lighthearted ghost novella “Spooky Tutti Frutti” was included in Cherie Colyer’s “Something Spooky This Way Comes” blog feature in honor of Halloween:
Something Spooky
On November 2, the Wild Rose Press published another of my former Ellora’s Cave erotic paranormal romance novellas, “Merry Twinness.” On Christmas Eve, the heroine learns her fiancé has kept a vital secret from her—he has an identical twin. But that’s not the real shock. . . . There’s an excerpt below.
Merry Twinness
This month’s interviewee, Annette Miller, is a paranormal romance author who has a Christmas Cookies story with me in the Wild Rose Press anthology A HINT OF VANIILLA.
*****
Interview with Annette Miller:
What inspired you to begin writing?
I always loved telling stories, even when I was a child. Books always enthralled me, and my parents even gave me a small typewriter on Christmas. So I guess I was always inspired to start writing.
What genres do you work in?
I write in contemporary paranormal romance both sweet and steamy. I have an idea for a YA series, and yes, it will also be paranormal. It’s kind of my jam.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I do something in between. I write summaries of the chapters in a notebook and expand from there.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
Major influences on my work have been ghost stories, fairy tales, anything supernatural. We live in the real world every day. I like bringing the fantastic to life.
Please tell us about your Angel Haven series. And what kinds of powers do the characters have?
My Angel Haven series was born from a superhero role playing game my husband and I used to play. We started with gaming and then I got to thinking about what would happen if these two characters got together? Superheroes are fun to write about because there are so many different ways to cause them problems. There are wizards, mythical beings, cyborgs, and of course, superheroes. The heroines are all part of the Angels team. I can’t tell you about the hero in my 5th book. It would ruin the surprise.
What inspired your Christmas Cookies story “Macaroons by Moonlight” (which appears in the anthology A HINT OF VANILLA as well as a stand-alone e-book)?
Macaroons by Moonlight was born almost instantly. When the topic for the new series came up, I knew the characters, the story, everything just popped in my mind. I have to give a shoutout to Rhonda Penders at The Wild Rose Press. When I told her I was better at eating cookies than baking them, she said I could use that in the story, and I did.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
My latest book is A Spirited Romance. It was just released on September 26. It’s a sweet paranormal romance set in the same little town as Macaroons by Moonlight.
I thought it would be fun to write a ghost story, and what better than a matchmaking ghost. I got inspiration for this story from ghostly TV shows and Celtic folklore. I have a novella coming out on April 3, 2023 in the Jelly Beans and Spring Things series.
What are you working on now?
Right now I’m working on the 6th book in my Angel Haven series. This one has aliens and one of my favorite tropes, cop and the criminal she’s hunting fall in love.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
My advice to aspiring writers is to learn all you can about the craft and don’t worry if you don’t have a fancy degree in anything. I only have a high school diploma but I’ve won awards. Basically, just absorb all the knowledge you can.
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
My website is Annette Miller.
Facebook
BookBub
Twitter: @AngelHavenR
LinkedIn
Instagram: annettemillerauthor
Pinterest
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
PUTTING THE FACT IN FANTASY, edited by Dan Koboldt. The essays in this anthology, contributed by over thirty different specialists, explore a wide range of subjects writers of fantasy may need to know about in order to make their fictional settings feel authentic. The foreword emphasizes the importance of getting the mundane background right. Readers will accept the wildest flights of fantasy if they’re grounded in a world that works believably. If geography, climate, physical abilities of normal animals and human characters, etc. conform to known facts, such phenomena as unicorns, dragons, elves, and magic are more likely to win acceptance. Conversely, if errors appear in details supposedly faithful to how things work in the real world, the audience won’t trust the author enough to suspend disbelief in the fantastic elements. The introduction, titled “How to Ask an Expert,” offers practical advice on getting help from people with firsthand knowledge and experience. This book aims to help authors avoid errors in portrayal of environments, social structures, animals, weapons, etc. that will jar the reader out of the imaginary world. The anthology is divided into six parts, covering the broad areas of actual history as inspiration, languages and culture, world-building (e.g., money, food and drink, plants, ecology, politics, among other topics), weapons and warfare, horses, and wilderness adventure. Each category includes a wide range of sub-topics (aside from the horse section, which is more tightly focused). Entertaining as well as useful, the book could be picked up and sampled in any order. The contents tend to consist of short, quick reads. Therein lies its one drawback. Most of the essays comprise broad introductions to their topics. Some contain suggestions for further reading, but many don’t. On the other end of the scale, some contributions list highly specific content such as popular myths about horses, fascinating material but touching on only one aspect of a wide field. Still, PUTTING THE FACT IN FANTASY, although subtitled “Expert advice to bring authenticity to your fantasy writing,” includes information that could benefit authors in almost any genre. If nothing else, it’s a fun read that may spark ideas for adding depth to the physical and social environment of your story. Non-writers, too, can enjoy it simply for its entertainment value.
ETERNALLY YOURS, by Patrice Caldwell. An anthology of original paranormal romance stories. Caldwell’s introduction consists mainly of a captivating personal essay about her lifelong fascination with monsters. This book includes numerous BIPOC authors and LBGTQ+ characters, reflecting the contemporary broad scope of fantasy and the paranormal. I was mildly surprised to find only two vampire stories—Melissa Cruz’s “Once Upon a Time in Charleston,” in her Blue Bloods series, and “Pierce My Soul,” by Kat Cho—plus a vampire-like character in “Undead Ghoul Meet-Cute,” by Kendare Blake. Other stories feature a variety of different creatures—among them, angels, demons, merfolk, the Sea Witch, an allegedly cursed girl called an asura, and a pair of teenage lovers who’ve been reincarnated many times over the centuries. One especially striking tale, “Katrine and Rowan’s Exit Interview,” by Sarah Gailey, recreates the myth of Circe amid an island community of women. Fans seeking innovative stories of supernatural love among human and nonhuman characters won’t want to miss this book.
ORDINARY MONSTERS, by J. M. Miro. A monumental (660 pages long) work for lovers of Victorian horror. The first chapter begins on a freight train in the English countryside in 1874. Soon afterward, the scene shifts to 1882, which remains the period of the main action but with several substantive flashbacks to the 1870s. Like the sprawling novels of the nineteenth century, this book features a huge cast of characters, some displaying Dickensian eccentricity, in chapters and sections with intriguingly Gothic titles such as “The Thing on the Cobblestone Stair,” “Monsters in the Fog,” “The Study of the Impossible,” “The Girl Who Was Seen,” and “The Vanishing of Jacob Marber.” Marlowe, the baby found by a runaway servant girl in the opening scene on the train, sometimes shines with a blue glow and can heal or destroy with his power. Charlie, in 1882 a teenager suffering a brutal life in Mississippi, heals from any injury without a scar, but the damage and the healing still hurt. Alice Quicke, a freelance detective formerly with the Pinkerton agency, tracks down these two children to escort them to a refuge for “Talents” with paranormal abilities. The mansion in Scotland where the residents, ranging from young children through teenagers, are trained in mastery of their gifts adds another layer of Gothic atmosphere. Its head, Dr. Berghast, genuinely cares about his young charges, but he has an overriding agenda of his own. The combination orphanage and school guards a portal to a shadowy realm where memories and the dead dwell. A quasi-undead predator called a drughr has seduced the antagonist, a former student named Jacob Marber, into a symbiotic union. Flashbacks to Tokyo in the 1870s reveal how Jacob changed from a trusted disciple into a deadly enemy. Eventually Dr. Berghast decides he must recruit Charlie and Marlowe to cross over into the other dimension in order to save the school and perhaps the human world. Meanwhile, some of their new friends, including a girl with the gift of becoming invisible, set out on a related quest of their own. There’s also a protective spirit in the form of a cat (usually), with which Alice forms a bond. These details only skim the surface of the complex, multi-layered, riveting plot. The characters in the ensemble cast are all fully developed, evoking the reader’s sympathy as well as genuine sadness for those who fall in battle, as some inevitably do. A fascinating historical dark fantasy, not quite like anything else I’ve read.
THE GOLDEN ENCLAVES, by Naomi Novik. Since this is the final volume in the Scholomance trilogy, discussing it inevitably involves spoilers for the second book. At the end of THE LAST GRADUATE, El (short for Galadriel) achieves the unprecedented feat of getting the entire student body through the deadly exit battle alive—with one exception. Just as she cuts the portal to the Scholomance off from the real world and launches the school into the void, Orion, her boyfriend, sacrifices himself to save her and the rest of the class. Involuntarily leaving him behind, El instantaneously returns to her home like all the other graduates. Safe back in the hippie-style commune where her pacifist healer mother welcomes and cares for her, El plots how to reenter the Scholomance and rescue Orion whether he wants saving or not. She has to persuade her close friends and allies from school to help her; she also visits several high-status enclaves in an attempt to form alliances. Rivalry to the point of paranoia pervades interactions among the elite families of the enclaves, but El recognizes the futility and danger of maintaining that system. She travels to enclaves all over the world, confronting the most powerful magical clans. The “Golden Enclaves” refer to her dream of establishing communities where the non-elite can practice their magic in safe, non-toxic environments. She meets Orion’s family and uncovers shocking secrets about his origin and true nature. Her infiltration of the decaying remnants of the Scholomance with her friends and the aftermath when Orion, deeply scarred by the experience, has been restored to the outside world enthralled me. How can Orion be liberated from the burden he has carried his entire life? The book doesn’t have an unmixed happy ending, which would be unrealistic, but it does conclude the trilogy in a satisfying and optimistic way.
*****
Excerpt from “Merry Twinness”:
“Time for the special gift.” He plucked a tiny box wrapped in red foil from under the tree. “Wait,” he repeated when she reached for it. “Before you open this and answer the question that goes with it, I have something important to tell you. Or more like show you.”
His hesitant tone and the apprehension in his eyes chilled her. “So you do have a dire secret?” She didn’t quite succeed in keeping her voice light.
“I hope you won’t think it’s too dire. But it will come as a shock.” He set the box on the couch and clasped both of her hands in his. “Please don’t freak out.”
Footsteps muffled by the carpet sounded in the adjacent dining room. The door leading to it opened. A man stepped through, took three paces toward the fireplace, and halted. Nicole blinked up at him, at first too stunned to process what she saw.
Cal’s double.
Except that he wore a University of Maryland sweatshirt instead of a pullover sweater with a white shirt and Christmas necktie, he looked identical to her lover. No, not quite—the mane that grew to just below his ears was less tousled than Cal’s but a bit shaggier, as if overdue for a barber visit. The clothes and hair, though, didn’t negate her first impression. She couldn’t doubt his identity.
She sprang to her feet. “You have a twin brother? And you never told me?”
“I don’t exactly have a twin. I am twins.”
-end of excerpt-
*****
My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Wild Rose Press: Wild Rose Press
You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter