Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Welcome to the June 2025 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.”
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
To subscribe to this monthly newsletter, please e-mail me at MLCVamp@aol.com, and I will add you to the list.
For other web links of possible interest, please scroll to the end.
FROM THE DARK PLACES, my quasi-Lovecraftian dark contemporary fantasy with romantic elements, was featured in N. N. Light’s Book Heaven’s May “Celebrate Mothers Bookish Event”:
Author Roni Denholtz gave “Kitsune Enchantment” a 4-star Goodreads review, in which she comments, “This is a fun romance novel! I wanted to read a friends-to-lovers trope so I gave this a try. I loved the light, folklore-based paranormal elements.”
My light paranormal romance novella “Summertide Echoes,” set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, will be released on July 7. There’s a glimpse of the opening scene below.
This month’s interview guest is romance author Kathleen Haley.
*****
Interview with Kathleen Haley:
What inspired you to become a writer?
I loved making up stories and writing children’s stories since I was 6. When I was 8 I started writing plays for our neighborhood every summer and winter, and the other kids and I would bring them to life for adults. I laid creative writing aside from college on as I did more academic writing and research. But three years ago I did the NaNoWriMo challenge and ended up writing my first romance novel. Since then, I’ve written 19 more novels and am on my 21st.
What genres do you work in?
Mostly contemporary and dark romance.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
Each book is slightly different, but my general M.O. is to type out about 14 pages of very detailed notes about characters, plot twists, and a few scenes that spring to mind. Then I wing it from there, starting to write. Every few chapters I’ll type out more notes for where I see things headed.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors or whatever)?
I’m a sponge—from TV shows I’ve loved (Insecure, Succession, Grace and Frankie) to movies I’ve watched a thousand times (Dr. Strangelove, Some Like It Hot, The Parent Trap) to dark and angsty romances (LJ Shen, Renee Rose, Laurelin Paige)—everything feeds into my imagination and percolates there.
As a “former academic,” what did you specialize in, and did that field have any connection with your fiction? How would you characterize the main differences between academic and creative writing?
My specialization was English and comparative literature, and, within that, the early modern period—specifically Shakespeare and Rabelais. A lot of this feeds into my writing—for instance, I usually find myself dropping a Shakespeare paraphrase or quote now and then. And the Rabelaisian comic spirit infects all my characters—they love eating, drinking, conversation, and sex. Having taught some 36 varied courses, I draw on that material all the time for my plots, themes, and characterization.
For the first year of writing novels, I had to learn to not explain so much, not to be so precise with my grammar, and not tie myself down so much to reality. It was an uphill battle, because I’d been trained for so long (over twenty years) to do all those things! But my keenness for research has stood me in good stead with novels. I’m pretty good at recognizing when not to go down certain rabbit holes (because they won’t lead to anything productive) or when to call it quits with detail and facts and just flesh out the rest with my imagination.
Many of your novels are described as featuring BDSM. What kind of background research have you done for those elements?
With each novel I research the sexual practices the characters engage in. I have about sixteen helpful websites I pillage for information, insights, and images. I’ve also read a lot of BDSM novellas and novels written by authors who’ve lived the lifestyle. When I say a lot, I mean upwards of 300!
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
I’m seeking ARC readers for The Perception of Vice, number eight in the Senses Series, about a man who forces his girlfriend to marry him and goes to become president of a foreign country in turmoil. The dark romance comes out June 25 and has elements of sci-fi, political intrigue, spy thriller, mystery, and suspense.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on the first novel of the Tainted Love series, called Jaded Lover, about a cynical woman who’s drawn against her will to an upbeat man with a bright outlook. Since the series revolves around the mafia in Scotland and is primarily set in Glasgow, I’ve had to do a lot of initial planning and research to make all eight books unite in theme, plot, and characters. I’m very excited to see what this book—and the series—bring.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
If you’re like me, it may take you a few novels before you hit your stride in writing. It also may take many years before your novels get seen and read by the public. In the meantime, keep writing and don’t give up, however much it feels like you’re struggling in quicksand. You are making progress, even if it’s not visible to you.
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
IMPOSSIBLE CREATURES, by Kathleen Rundell. This YA portal fantasy joins a boy and girl from the mundane world and a magical realm described as “a secret place in our world,” respectively, in a desperate quest. The hardcover is beautiful as a physical artifact, with red-edged pages and lavishly detailed black-and-white drawings. An appendix titled “The Guardian’s Bestiary” provides illustrated descriptions of numerous fantastic creatures. The opening sentences of the two brief first chapters, introducing the co-protagonists, offer irresistible hooks: For Christopher, the boy from our world, “It was a very fine day until something tried to eat him.” For the girl, Mal, “It was a very fine day, until somebody tried to kill her.” (The chapters, by the way, have titles but not numbers.) Christopher’s part in the adventure begins when he arrives in Scotland to stay with his grandfather. Christopher’s mother, who died nine years earlier, shared his strange affinity with birds and animals, which are inexplicably drawn to him. He hasn’t seen his maternal grandfather since then. His father, withdrawn and diminished since Christopher’s mother’s death, has extracted an agreement from his grandfather that Christopher must not approach the top of a certain nearby hill. The reader would know, of course, even if the novel didn’t have an omniscient narrator (which it does), that the boy will violate that prohibition, as always happens in fantasy and fairy tales. Meanwhile, in the other plot thread, we learn Mal, who also lost her mother at an early age, possesses a “flying coat” gifted to her in infancy by a traveling seer, which allows her to ride the wind. On the fateful day, the murderer watches her as she buys a casapasaran, a sort of magical compass, from a dubious curio shop (another familiar fantasy motif). This object saves her life when the assassin knocks on her door. Why has a mysterious “he” sent this man after her? What does she have to do with the fact that magic is fading and creatures dying? Christopher, discovering a lake on the forbidden mountain, witnesses a stampede of mythical beings. He takes an injured baby griffin home to his grandfather, who tells him about the Archipelago, “the last surviving magic place.” The Glimourie Tree, also the last of its kind, generates the magic. On that cluster of islands live creatures extinct and relegated to legend everywhere else, with the “glimourie” making the location unfindable and unchartable. Christopher’s maternal bloodline guards the portal in the lake — the way to the Archipelago – making him the next guardian. Mal comes through, searching for her griffin, and asks Christopher to return with her. She has to take the griffin back, or he’ll die for lack of magic, and she fears for her own life if she goes by herself. The lure of adventure, Mal’s urgent plea, and Christopher’s inherited duty as guardian of the Waybetween persuade him to cross through the underwater gateway. In the course of solving the mystery and saving magic, he and Mal win through a succession of breathtaking adventures and perils, encounter beings from mythologies of many cultures, and confront impossible choices. The narrative maintains a satisfying balance between forward-momentum action and character-revealing interludes. By the climax, the heroes develop a bond of friendship that grows into love. I have one reservation about the story: Considering the significant risk of death, Christopher seems to agree too easily to accompany Mal to the Archipelago. He raises objections, but she quickly overcomes them. If he didn’t answer her call, of course, there would be no story. Still, his motivation strikes me as barely sufficient. That concern didn’t impair my enjoyment of the novel, though. Recommended for fans of portal fantasy and magical creatures, as well as readers of Philip Pullman in particular, with whose Dark Materials series IMPOSSIBLE CREATURES resonates, but in a lighter tone. Granted, Rundell’s novel involves high stakes, dire threats, and some deaths, but it doesn’t subject characters and readers to the outright horror occasionally found in Pullman’s work. IMPOSSIBLE CREATURES culminates in a moving blend of loss and eucatastrophe. A sequel, THE POISONED KING, is forthcoming in September.
JAMES, by Percival Everett. A retelling of HUCKLEBERRY FINN in first person by the slave Jim. The earlier part of the book, allowing for the radical perspective flip, follows the plot of Mark Twain’s novel pretty closely. About halfway through, though, Huck and Jim get separated for most of the remaining action. Consequently, Jim’s solo adventures take the story in an original direction. The Mississippi River and its surrounding landscape remain a dominant motif, however. For me, the most intriguing aspect of JAMES is the title character’s narrative voice. He communicates with the reader and his Black peers in polished standard English. In fact, he speaks better English than Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. In the presence of white folks, the Black characters talk in stereotypical slave dialect. In rare moments of humor, Jim coaches slave children on how to use “proper bad grammar” the way the masters expect. In a darkly funny scene near the climax, when Jim holds a gun on a prosperous white man, the threatened character focuses less on the risk to his life than on why Jim suddenly speaks like an educated person. Jim can also read and write, skills that would condemn him to death if discovered. In contrast to the half-witted, shuck-and-jive persona he displays to whites, his internal monologue features references to classic philosophers. He saves and protects Huck partly because of reluctance to abandon a runaway child to danger, but mainly from a motive revealed in an astonishing twist late in the story. Yet on occasion he does consider letting Huck go his own way, since Jim needs to focus on the primary goal of somehow liberating his wife and child to flee to freedom with him. Through his viewpoint, his relationship with the boy shows none of the simple-minded devotion portrayed in Mark Twain’s novel. Overall, JAMES proves darker than HUCKLEBERRY FINN (and that’s saying something, given some of the scary incidents in the original, but Twain varies the suspense with broad humor, whereas most of JAMES is downright grim). The King and the Duke, for example, are more openly menacing rather than merely grotesque comic relief. Unsurprisingly, the issue of people treating other people as property on the same level as horses or cattle (chillingly highlighted by a brief glimpse of a “breeding” plantation late in the book) forms a major theme. James discovers that even men who disapprove of slavery don’t necessarily regard members of his race as fully human. Another prominent theme is identity. Jim eventually takes on his true name, “James,” and contemplates but by the end still hasn’t chosen a surname. The reader can’t expect the miraculous, last-minute liberation Twain bestows on Jim out of the blue. Instead, the conclusion of JAMES arises from the protagonist’s own narrowly won triumph over hardship and life-threatening dangers.
HAUNTING MELODY, by M. Flagg. The latest volume in the Wild Rose Press’s “Haunting of Pinedale High” YA shared-world series. Unlike the earlier installments, this one doesn’t start in Pinedale, North Carolina. Melody has a reputation for “aggressive anxiety.” After a last-straw blow-up at school, Melody’s widowed mother, a teacher, decides to move from New Jersey to small-town Pinedale, home of her brother (Mel’s uncle), who has recently suffered a heart attack. She’ll have the opportunity to teach younger children, a welcome change, and Mel will get a fresh start. Aside from the culture shock of the transplant, Mel feels she’s losing her only friend, the ghost of a teenage boy who haunts her house. She has interacted with him ever since her father died years earlier. Her anxiety and anger issues are exacerbated by her ability to sense emotions and see ghosts, along with the need to keep those powers secret. On top of that, her excess weight further erodes her self-esteem. In a new town and school, will she manage to find acceptance as someone other than the crazy, unattractive girl who talks to herself and gets into seemingly unprovoked fights? Since music is her main passion, she hopes to join the motet chorus at Pinedale High. She also does well in English, less so in some other classes such as math. After a clash with a hostile guidance counselor, she manages to get the schedule she wants. She begins to make a few friends but, to her dismay, discovers the school swarms with ghosts. One, a janitor named Hank, befriends and helps her. (In this book we’re told for the first time in the series that he’s a ghost; unlike the other spirits, he can be seen by anybody.) On the other hand, Hammer, who died in a motorcycle crash decades earlier, threatens her when she ignores his warnings to stay away from Justin, a boy with whom Mel forms a tentative friendship. Hammer and his two sidekicks enjoy playing mean pranks on the living students and teachers. Mel’s anxiety ramps up at every setback. She struggles to leash her volatile emotions when she senses negative feelings from other people. In addition to unpleasant encounters with some of the adult staff, occasional tension with her mother, and friction with the malicious ghosts, she has to deal with her juvenile delinquent cousin, in contrast to his kind, welcoming parents. What does the elderly man haunting her new house have to do with the spirits bound to the high school? And could her cousin’s rebellious behavior have initially been triggered by the subliminal influence of the school ghosts? She tries her best to fit in but runs into trouble at every turn. At least the friendliness of a few girls in the motet group somewhat offsets the problems she faces – including harassment by a ghost bully, about whom she can’t even complain to adults. This novel, told in first person by Mel as well as present tense (which I got used to fairly quickly, although I don’t like the latter narrative device), is almost painful to read. Moment-by-moment sharing of her experience immerses us in her conflicted emotions. “The Haunting of Pinedale High” isn’t a horror series, so we know to expect a positive resolution to the protagonist’s problems. One plot tangle strikes me as being solved a bit too easily; we’re told things have turned out well but with no details. On the whole, though, the story delivers a satisfying, well-earned conclusion for Mel and her friends and family.
For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
*****
Excerpt from “Summertide Echoes”:
This place looks a lot better than I expected.
Joyce stepped over the front-door threshold into the cabin. Only stale air and closed curtains hinted at its uninhabited status. Great, the neater it is, the quicker it’ll sell. According to her research, vacation retreats in the Blue Ridge Mountains were always in demand. She made a circuit of the living room, opening drapes and windows to let in the sunlight and honeysuckle-scented mountain breeze of an afternoon in June. Roaming through the rest of the house—bathroom, kitchen, two bedrooms, screened back porch—a process taking less than five minutes, she noticed a thin layer of dust on furniture but nothing to indicate neglect. The property management company must be doing its job reliably. Remembering Mark sometimes stayed here overnight if bad weather made it unsafe to drive to his home in the valley, she figured he did his part to keep the place livable, too. She let her tense shoulders sag in relief. What did I expect, spiderwebs and bats? Mushrooms sprouting from the floorboards? As co-owner, Mark wouldn’t let the cabin degenerate into the House of Usher any more than she would.
She woke her phone and texted him: “I’m here. I’ve lined up an appointment with a realtor for tomorrow at 10 a.m. Hope you’re free then.”
Just as she paused in front of the fireplace to glance at a group photo on the mantel, a relic of their teen years, her phone buzzed with a text from him.
“??Realtor??”
She tapped out a reply: “Like we discussed, putting the place up for sale.”
While waiting for his next response, she lingered over the family picture, taken the month before her two-years-older brother, Glenn, had left for the Air Force Academy. Who took this photo? One of our friends who happened to come along that week, I guess. Or were my folks or Mark’s here then? Neither of their parents stayed at the cabin very often. In retrospect, Joyce realized they probably welcomed the occasional breaks from their offspring. The group in the frame posed in front of the porch, with Mark’s Aunt Claire, a blonde of Junoesque height, and Joyce’s Aunt Ruby, short, curvaceous verging on plump, with dark, curly hair already gray-streaked, standing in the middle.
Since the women had lived together for as long as Joyce could remember, the children of both families called both of them “aunt,” regardless of blood relationship. Joyce had been well into her teens before it had dawned on her what “very dear friends” meant in their case. Their Saint Bernard, Bruno, sat in front, his tongue lolling in a doggie grin. Joyce and Glenn stood on one side of the two aunts. Contemplating her younger self, she spared a wistful second for her girlhood wish that she shared Aunt Ruby’s curves, although aware that many of her school friends in her teens had envied her own slim figure. On the other side of the older women Mark, six feet tall even then, with honey-blond hair, stood with his arm loosely around his younger sister, Paige.
Tears blurred Joyce’s vision as she contemplated petite, blue-eyed Paige, with shoulder-length, cornsilk-blond hair lighter than her brother’s. On the day of that picture, she’d had only about a year longer to live. She’d drowned in the lake at the end of the following summer, right before Joyce and Mark’s senior year of high school, on a weekend Joyce hadn’t been at the cabin. Rubbing her eyes, Joyce turned away from the fireplace and wrenched her thoughts back to the present. If we’re going to give a realtor the grand tour tomorrow, I’d better think about what needs fixing or sprucing up, if anything, so I’ll be prepared to discuss that stuff.
The contents of the bookcase beside the hearth distracted her again, though. Hundreds of dollars’ worth of hardcover gaming manuals were wedged in the middle shelf. Her mind boggled as she recalled the small fortune in allowance and babysitting money that collection had devoured. Whatever spare change they’d had left went for comic books to read in the evenings in front of the fireplace. Stacks of them filled the lowest shelf. I can hardly believe Mark kept these. They were all too recent, too tattered, or both, to have any monetary value. Yet they’d inspired her to start seeking ones that did, leading to her present vast accumulation. On the highest shelf, the miniature metal figures she and the other kids had used in their endless tabletop roleplaying games stood in precise rows and columns. The models representing their characters shared space with fantasy monsters of every imaginable species. She smiled at the memory of rainy afternoons spent painting those miniatures with Mark and Paige. Glenn, more of a dice and battle statistics guy, hadn’t been interested in adorning his barbarian fighter. She ran her fingertips over the once-cherished figures—her wizard, Zora, and warrior priestess, Hildegarde; Mark’s bard, Ivor; and Paige’s rogue, Maris. Why had Mark left these mementoes in their old spot for all this time, nine years after the two of them had graduated from high school?
Joyce shook her head and stepped away from the bookcase. Quit woolgathering and get to work. As much as she’d enjoyed those summer weekends, that was then. Now she urgently needed her half of the money selling the cabin would net. After ten months since the death of Aunt Claire, the second of the aunts to pass away, the estate was finally settled. As co-heirs, Mark and Joyce could dispose of this house however they wished. She couldn’t waste time drifting on a tide of nostalgia.
-end of excerpt-
*****
The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, visit the Dropbox page below. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
All issues are now posted on Dropbox, where you should be able to download them at this link:
All Vampire’s Crypt Issues on Dropbox
A complete list of my available works, arranged roughly by genre, with purchase links:
For anyone who would like to read previous issues of this newsletter, they’re posted on my website here (starting from January 2018):
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Facebook
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Barnes and Noble
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Carter Kindle Books
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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):
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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
Welcome to the May 2025 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.”
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
To subscribe to this monthly newsletter, please e-mail me at MLCVamp@aol.com, and I will add you to the list.
For other web links of possible interest, please scroll to the end.
In keeping with the season of spring and Easter, an excerpt from my light fantasy novella “Bunny Hunt” appears below. After Melanie, a professional doula, has had a strange encounter at the community Easter Egg hunt, that night a mysterious telepathic voice summons her. The publisher’s page:
Our May interviewee is Elizabeth Schechter, who writes in multiple speculative romance subgenres.
*****
Interview with Elizabeth Schechter:
What inspired you to become a writer?
I am a total cliché – I always wanted to be a writer. I just came at it the long way around. I was told (often) that I was never going to make it as a writer, so I went into teaching, and when I burned out on teaching, I went into a variety of different things – retail, jewelry design, university admissions, independent artist. And all the while I was still writing, still working on getting better. I made my first short story sale at the age of 37, and my first novel sold one month after my 40th birthday.
What genres do you work in?
I write under the speculative romance umbrella. Everything I write is a romance, and the catalog includes Fantasy, Steampunk, Paranormal Romance, Science Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Weird Western, and Romantasy.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I make jokes about this – I write long, detailed outlines that my characters laugh at before doing whatever the heck they want. So my books will often start where the outline starts, and usually ends where I think they’re going to end, but what happens in between is anyone’s guess. My writing style can, I think, best be described as “taking down the incident report.”
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors or whatever)?
I have told Jacqueline Carey that my career is all her fault. Years ago, there were several authorized play-by-email role playing games set in the Kushiel universe from Jacqueline Carey. This involved sending long, detailed story messages to the Yahoo group and tagging in the people who needed to respond to that post. You had to keep track of plotlines and characters and all sorts of machinations. The game ran for five years, and four published authors came out of it.
How do you define the relatively new subgenre label “romantasy”? Is it the same as paranormal romance or fantasy romance? A subset of one of those? An umbrella term encompassing both?
When I first heard the word romantasy, I thought it was just marketing. But now it seems to be an actual subgenre in speculative romance, and distinct from fantasy romance. It’s definitely not paranormal romance, because that really seems to signify some flavor of shifters, witches with lower back tattoos, and more modern settings.
I haven’t really dug into the brass tacks of the genre hallmarks of romantasy vs fantasy romance, but I think it might be that romantasy is where the plot is driven by the relationship growth, and fantasy romance is where the plot is driven by the fantasy elements. In both cases, the fantasy and the romance are integral to the plot, but which one does more of the heavy lifting determines fantasy romance or romantasy.
Please tell us about your various novel series.
My longest series is the one that started as stunt writing – it was a steamy closed-door serial that ran weekly on my Patreon for four years. That’s Heir to the Firstborn, and it’s a seven book romantasy series where you have the Chosen One and her four Companions (fated mates and why choose?) who have to save the world when a usurper overthrows the previous ruler and throws everything out of balance. That series is complete, and book one was my Vivian finalist Written in Water.
My favorite series is my historical erotic fantasy Swords of Charlemagne, a four book series that I occasionally pitch as The Song of Roland meets The Parasol Protectorate… in a blender. I take the legends and lore of Charlemagne’s court, and thread parallel storylines set in late-700s Carolingian France, and 1898 Victorian Europe. The series starts with the book Hidden Things, and is also complete.
I have two incomplete series as well. The first is Tales from the Arena, an erotic SF series about genetically engineered supersoldiers and the submissives who love them. There are two books out now, and there will be two more (I think. There might be three. It depends on how long book 4 gets.) The first book is Tales from the Arena: Opening Gambit.
My other incomplete series includes my most recent release. Blood of the Raven builds off my first book Princes of Air, and is a sequel series of two books of Celtic mythology inspired romantasy. Raven’s Fall came out in February, and Raven’s Flight is currently in edits with the publisher.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
My latest book was Raven’s Fall, which I mentioned above, and which follows Lorcan, the son of the Raven King who was featured in my first book, Princes of Air. The only problem with Lorcan being the son and heir to the Raven King is that his older cousin was heir first and isn’t letting go of his position without a fight! Lorcan finds himself kidnapped and sold as a gladiator in Rome.
My next book will probably be The Sea Prince, which is book one of a series that doesn’t have a name yet. It’s a sort of gaslight fantasy Master and Commander. I’m hoping to have this one out sometime this summer. (I say probably because there are other irons in the fire at my publisher, and I’m not sure if they’ll beat me to the publishing punch!)
What are you working on now?
Right now, I’m working on The Coral Throne, which is follows The Sea Prince. I’m also working on Tales from the Arena: King of Swords, which is book four of Tales from the Arena.
I have Tales from the Arena: Dead Man’s Hand (book three of Tales from the Arena) with an editor now, and I’ll be revising that to submit once I get it back.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
I’ve given this advice to a lot of aspiring writers. They need to understand that as a new writer, their writing is going to suck, and that they are not alone. We ALL sucked when we were new writers, and the only way to not suck is to keep going. Keep writing. Keep reading. Keep learning. Eventually, you learn enough and read enough and write enough that you get good at it. Jake the Dog said it best: Sucking at something is the first step towards being sorta good at something.
Don’t be afraid to suck at something.
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
I have all the socials, so the easiest way to corral them is with a linktree. You can find my website, my sales sites, my newsletter, and all my various social media links here.
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
THE BUTCHER OF THE FOREST, by Premee Mohamed. This short novel has the shape and atmosphere of a dark fairy tale. It takes place in a secondary world, in a country oppressed by a ruthless, capriciously cruel foreign conqueror known as the Tyrant. Veris Thorn’s small village lies adjacent to an enchanted forest all the locals know mustn’t be entered, ruled by old gods and dark fae. Many years ago, Veris trespassed in the forbidden wood to rescue a child captured by its nonhuman inhabitants, as children are so often lured or kidnapped by fairies in folklore. Nobody else in living memory has ventured into the forest and returned. At the end of the book we learn the truth of her finding, but not quite saving, of the lost child. The story begins, however, with Veris snatched from her home by soldiers of the Tyrant, not even allowed time to change from her nightclothes and robe. She learns the reason only when she’s presented to the warlord. His two small children have disappeared into the forest, and he expects her to recover them within an absurdly brief time. The only reward for accomplishing the mission before the deadline will be not having her family slaughtered and her village burned. Somewhat to her surprise, he clearly cares for his children. When she eventually catches up with them, she discovers they don’t view him as a cruel oppressor but as the father who teaches them the principles of rulership. She reluctantly forces herself to acknowledge that the Tyrant’s son and daughter can’t be blamed for his crimes. During the ordeal of bringing them safely out of the enchanted wood, she even comes to like them a bit, especially the girl. Like an archetypal fairy-tale protagonist, Veris gets aid from talking animals, possesses some modest magic of her own, and engages in contests of wit with tricky and sometimes malicious faerie beings. After finding the children, she faces the still more daunting challenge of keeping them alive and out of the supernatural creatures’ clutches until they reach the border between the magical realm and the fields we know (to borrow a term from Lord Dunsany). The numinous milieu offers both dangers and temptations. One price of her victory is a grievous wound. A believably flawed but appealingly strong character, Veris wins through a suspenseful series of perilous encounters to an ambiguous but satisfying conclusion.
HUNGERSTONE, by Kat Dunn. A re-imagining of J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s “Carmilla,” set, like the original, in the second half of the nineteenth century, but in England instead of central Europe. Dunn’s protagonist, rather than a young girl like Le Fanu’s, is a married, upper-class woman in 1888. The love between Lenore and her husband, Henry, a prosperous, rigidly proper, social-climbing industrial magnate, has long since cooled. Her “failure” to conceive a child has contributed to their quiet estrangement. Propriety must be outwardly observed, though, and Lenore prides herself on her competence in running their household and providing hospitality to Henry’s associates. When they leave the city for a stay at a huge, rundown country mansion he has just bought, she has to pull the place into shape quickly enough to be presentable for a hunting party he plans. There the real story begins like its classic prototype: A mysterious young woman in allegedly delicate health is foisted upon the household. Like Le Fanu’s Laura, Lenore finds Carmilla simultaneously alluring and alarming. The name of the estate, Hungerstone, foreshadows the entire novel’s thematic focus on hunger in all its forms, physical, emotional, and metaphorical. It’s sometimes harrowing to read Lenore’s first-person narrative of her struggle, torn between the duty she has always embraced and her yearning for freedom and self-expression. Carmilla embodies the latter, of course, goading Lenore to take daring risks, while the financial and social trap of marriage to Henry closes progressively tighter around her. Where can she turn for help when a Victorian husband can have his wife committed as insane at will, and no male doctor is likely to listen to the truth as she sees it? “My appetite is vast,” she admits to herself late in the book, “and I am in agony knowing myself to be unsatisfied.” A shocking event ultimately liberates her, taking advantage of conventional society’s unquestioning image of what a proper wife must be, to go with Carmilla and become her true self. The word “vampire” never appears as far as I recall, and we don’t learn exactly what kind of vampire Carmille is, except that a psychic, energy-draining component seems to be involved. An afterword by the author discusses the historical background of the industrial revolution in the Sheffield setting.
AMERICAN GHOUL, by Michelle McGill-Vargas. A very different vampire novel about an ambiguous bond between two women. Shortly after the Civil War, former slave Lavinia meets Simone, who feeds on her without killing her, creating a bond. The term “ghoul,” by the way, refers to a living person bonded to one of the undead, not the vampire herself. On the plus side, Lavinia now heals fast. As a serious disadvantage, being separated by more than a certain distance from Simone causes intolerable pain. Tough-minded Lavinia is more annoyed than frightened by finding herself in this predicament. Having never even heard of vampires before, she has to learn the nature of her new companion/mistress with no background knowledge to draw upon. Moreover, Simone herself knows almost nothing about her kind, having been turned against her will and abandoned with no explanation. Lavinia tells her story in first person to the constable who guards her while she’s in jail for allegedly murdering Simone. Lavinia tries to hammer into his head the points that (1) technically, Simone was already dead, and (2) she may still be undead. In either case, Lavinia didn’t kill her. As she gradually persuades the constable that she might be truthful instead of a lunatic or liar, she obsesses over her fear of a lynch mob and tenuous hope that Simone might come to her rescue. The jail interludes are narrated in present tense and the flashbacks (the greater portion of the text) in past. Tension between Lavinia and the jailer builds, enhancing the suspense of the present-time plot thread. During Lavinia’s adjustment to her role as caretaker, servant, and sort of babysitter to an impulsive vampire, an odd semi-friendship grows between them. Knowing she can’t leave her mistress, Lavinia puts up with finding prey for the vampire, disposing of bodies, hiding out in uncomfortable situations, and coping with Simone’s suspicion and jealousy of any human connections Lavinia tries to form. I felt she too quickly developed a callous attitude toward choosing people for Simone to “eat,” showing scant evidence of guilt. On the other hand, Lavinia does try to pick potential victims who “deserve” their fate and rationalizes her complicity on the grounds that Simone would do much worse if left to herself. Eventually Lavinia attains a position where she isn’t tied to the vampire constantly and can enjoy a limited degree of normal human interaction. We know from her plight as an accused murderess, of course, that no such precarious happiness can last for long. Her deepening relationship with a man she could actually fall in love with is complicated by a clash with a family of fanatical vampire-hunters. Lavinia displays a ruthlessly clear-eyed view of race relations in post-Civil-War America, cleverly maneuvers within the limitations of her social status, and reflects on the meaning of freedom. The transformations she undergoes over the course of her life as she narrates it culminate in an ending I didn’t expect.
For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
*****
Excerpt from “Bunny Hunt”:
Melanie realized she’d fallen asleep only when she jerked awake to the faint sound of bells. Glancing at the clock on her nightstand, she found she’d slept no more than half an hour. No, she wasn’t hearing bells. A silvery voice called to her. *Wake up.*
“What?” She flipped the sheet aside and sat up. “Who’s there?” She whispered, not wanting to disturb Jason.
*Help me.*
One look at her husband confirmed he was still asleep, if the rhythm of his breathing hadn’t already made that fact clear.
*Come to me. I need your help.*
Jason didn’t stir, so that must not be an audible voice speaking to her. It’s talking inside my head.
Her legs wobbled when she stood up. Her head seemed to float, as if from one glass of champagne too many. Who is this? And why me?
*You helped me earlier. I need your aid again. Please hurry.*
Again Melanie glanced at Jason in the dim light of the bedside digital clock. Still asleep. He inhaled and exhaled in faintly whistling snores. I guess I’m dreaming. Pretty interesting dream so far. Might as well go with the flow.
She pulled off her nightgown and fumbled into underwear, jeans, and T-shirt in the near-dark. As she was slipping on her sneakers, the voice said, *Wear the amulet.*
The what? Oh, the voice must mean her grandmother’s necklace. She put it on.
Just as she stepped into the hall, it occurred to her that she might need her professional kit. Unsure where that impulse came from, she decided it was simply dream logic, which she should obey. She tiptoed back into the bedroom, picked up the zippered gym bag that held her supplies, and sneaked out again.
Downstairs, she exited the house through the kitchen door, since the voice in her head seemed to be coming from that direction. She carefully left the door unlocked, not wanting to get stuck outside even in a dream.
Their yard backed up to the wooded area whose other end bordered the playground where the children had searched for eggs that morning. She started toward the trees, listening hard, hunting for the source of the call. When the plea for help echoed in her mind yet again, she realized there was no question of its origin. The voice definitely came from the woods, and there was only one way in from here.
As soon as the damp grass touched her ankles, she realized she should have put on thicker socks. Also, the April night breeze chilled her bare arms. When she considered going inside for a sweater, though, the disembodied voice chimed, *Please hurry. Still feeling pleasantly drifty, Melanie shrugged off the chill and quickened her pace.*
On the trail that led into the woods, trees cut off most of the light from houses and street lamps. Even with a full moon, she could barely see her way, but fortunately she’d strolled this path many times before. The second time she stumbled on a root, though, she yielded to common sense and dug the emergency flashlight out of her bag. Wouldn’t you think I’d be able to see fine and walk safely by moonlight in a dream?
Every few yards, the voice renewed its appeal for her to hurry. Where was it coming from? How long had she been walking, anyway? Surely not much more than ten minutes. Shouldn’t she have reached the border of the woods by now? The walk from one end to the other took no more than fifteen minutes at a leisurely stroll, and by road the long way around only about five minutes.
Of course, that was in daylight. Maybe she’d unconsciously slowed down to avoid a fall, despite trying to obey the urgent appeal of the voice. On the other hand, she didn’t recall the trail having this many curves. Could she have accidentally stepped off the main track onto a side path?
Around the next bend, what she ran into convinced her she was definitely not on the right path anymore.
Overhanging the trail, a tangle of tree limbs entwined with thorny vines formed an arch. This shouldn’t be here. This dream is getting wilder by the minute. Am I supposed to go through that?
-end of excerpt-
*****
The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, visit the Dropbox page below. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
All issues are now posted on Dropbox, where you should be able to download them at this link:
All Vampire’s Crypt Issues on Dropbox
A complete list of my available works, arranged roughly by genre, with purchase links:
For anyone who would like to read previous issues of this newsletter, they’re posted on my website here (starting from January 2018):
This is my Facebook author page. Please visit!
Facebook
Here’s my page in Barnes and Noble’s Nook store:
Barnes and Noble
Here’s the list of my Kindle books on Amazon. (The final page, however, includes some Ellora’s Cave anthologies in which I don’t have stories):
Carter Kindle Books
Here’s a shortcut URL to my author page on Amazon:
Amazon
The Fiction Database displays a comprehensive list of my books (although with a handful of fairy tales by a different Margaret Carter near the end):
My Goodreads page:
Goodreads
Please “Like” my author Facebook page (cited above) to see reminders when each monthly newsletter is uploaded. I’ve also noticed that I’m more likely to be shown posts from liked or friended sources in my Facebook feed when I’ve “Liked” some of their individual posts, so you might want to do that, too. Thanks!
My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Wild Rose Press: Wild Rose Press
You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter
Welcome to the April 2025 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.”
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
To subscribe to this monthly newsletter, please e-mail me at MLCVamp@aol.com, and I will add you to the list.
For other web links of possible interest, please scroll to the end.
My light paranormal novella “Summertide Echoes” has an official release date: July 7 of this year. The cover blurb:
Joyce Walton wants to sell the vacation cabin she and her childhood best friend, Mark Girard, inherited together. The money will make her long-cherished business plan come true. To her shock, he’s determined to hang onto the place. Although they’ve drifted apart in recent years, she still cares for him. She’s always counted on his support, so why can’t he understand the urgency of her need? Mark believes his younger sister, who died in her teens, lingers on the property, visiting him in dreams at the cabin but nowhere else. He struggles with severing this last remaining tie. Yet he doesn’t want to hurt Joyce, especially when his old feelings for her reawaken. After encountering the ghost of their long-dead Saint Bernard and dreaming of Mark’s sister, Joyce accepts the reality of the supernatural manifestations. Why are the two spirits haunting the cabin? On top of that, she’s falling in love with Mark. How can they settle the clash over their shared property without ruining any hope of a shared life?
There’s an excerpt below.
This month I’m interviewing Kimberly Baer, a Wild Rose Press author who writes mostly paranormal YA fiction.
*****
Interview with Kimberly Baer:
What inspired you to become a writer?
My mother read stories to me when I was very young, and that early exposure ignited my love of fiction. At one point, I was so taken with a particular book that I painstakingly copied some of its text onto paper and told my mom I’d written a really good story. She explained that I shouldn’t steal somebody else’s story but, rather, should write my own. So I did. My first “book,” written at age six, was about a baby chick that hatched out of a little girl’s Easter egg after somehow surviving the hard-boiling process. My mom typed it up and placed it in a binder, and she even put my name and the title (“The Wonderful Easter Egg”) on the cover. I was so proud of my “published book”!
What genres do you work in?
Mostly paranormal young adult, though I’ve also written several middle-grade novels and one adult romantic suspense novella.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
Something in between. I never create a formal outline, but I do like to have a firm idea of the story arc before I start to write. At the beginning of each chapter, I type a bulleted list of plot developments, contextual details, and other elements that I want to include in the chapter. Of course, sometimes the characters seize control and take the story in a whole different direction—but that’s usually a good thing! It’s their story, and I trust them to know what they’re doing.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors or whatever)?
When my kids were in school, they brought home a lot of middle-grade and young adult novels, which I would promptly whisk away to my favorite reading chair. That’s how I became interested in the MG/YA genres. As both a reader and a writer, I love robust, offbeat plots, so I was particularly captivated by works such as Louis Sachar’s HOLES, the HARRY POTTER series, the HUNGER GAMES trilogy, and various Neal Shusterman novels. In addition, I always strive to deliver my best writing, and I find inspiration for that in novels such as Janet Fitch’s WHITE OLEANDER. Her writing blows me away every time I read that book.
What is it like to write in a shared-world series? What’s the procedure, and how is consistency of the setting maintained from book to book? How does participating in it differ from writing in your own fictional world?
For me, writing in a shared-world series (THE HAUNTING OF PINEDALE HIGH) was slightly more challenging than dreaming up my own fictional world, because I was constrained by certain “rules.” But all in all, it went well. The publisher provided a list of guidelines and set up a Facebook page for the authors’ use in posing questions and sharing details from our individual stories. When I was writing my book, I communicated directly with a few of the other authors to ensure consistency in the layout of the town, the names of local establishments, character descriptions, and other details that aren’t addressed in the guidelines.
What main differences have you found between writing YA fiction and adult fiction?
YA fiction often includes a coming-of-age component that isn’t present in adult fiction, as well as an emphasis on the insecurities and angst common to that age group. But generally, there’s a fine line between YA (specifically, upper YA) and adult fiction. A lot of today’s YA contains mature themes, including sex, violence, drug abuse, suicide, and more. I try to avoid the really dark themes in my own books, though.
What will readers find on your blog?
My blog consists primarily of interviews with other authors, though it’s been a while since I’ve interviewed anyone. I’ve also written a few general blogs; for instance, there’s one about the calendar that foretold my husband’s death and another about the true event that inspired my paranormal YA novel THE HAUNTED PURSE.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
My latest release, WOULD YOU RATHER…, is part of the HAUNTING OF PINEDALE HIGH series I mentioned earlier. It’s a standalone novel about a classroom game of “Would You Rather” that takes an ominous turn when the students’ choices start coming true. Some of the kids get good fates, others get bad fates, and a few get REALLY bad fates that will result in death if they come true. A small group of friends try to track down the mysterious substitute teacher who hosted the game in the hopes of persuading him to end the curse. The story is presented from multiple perspectives to show how individual characters are affected by the curse.
What are you working on now?
I’m still doing a lot of promotional work for WOULD YOU RATHER…, and I’m polishing a middle-grade novel about a boy with a unique superpower. In addition, I’m thinking about taking back the rights to my paranormal YA novel THE HAUNTED PURSE when they expire later this year. I might reissue it as a self-published book. So I’m reading through it again and making some minor edits.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
(1) Read well-written books in your genre. Not only will you become familiar with what readers expect from the genre, but you will also absorb good writing techniques through a kind of literary osmosis. (2) Don’t let rejections from agents or publishers discourage you. If your dream is to be a published author, you absolutely can make that happen. Learn the ins and outs of book marketing, and then self-publish your books. These days, many self-published authors are selling a decent number of books, and a few are doing extremely well. Not gonna lie: it’s a lot like playing the lottery. But who knows? You could be the next sensation—and you won’t have to share your profits with a publisher!
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
Author Website
Instagram
Bluesky
Amazon
Goodreads
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
CONCLAVE, by Robert Harris. After watching this Oscar-nominated, near-future movie about the election of a Pope, I immediately ordered the novel. To my delight, the movie follows it very closely, so I didn’t suffer any disappointments in either direction. The most prominent difference is a change of name and nationality for the protagonist, the Dean of the College of Cardinals. In another noticeable alteration, the Archbishop of Baghdad in the book becomes the Archbishop of Kabul in the film. Although I have no idea of the purpose for either of these changes, they have no material effect on the plot. CONCLAVE is a difficult book to review effectively, because to reveal the mind-blowing double twist at the end would constitute an unpardonable spoiler. In the first scene, the previous Pope—who the author declares is not meant to represent the current real-life Holy Father, although clear similarities exist—has just died. The Dean, Cardinal Lomeli, bears the responsibility of presiding over the Conclave to elect a new Pope. He agrees with a close friend in the “liberal” wing of the Church that Cardinal Tedesco, a rigid traditionalist with reactionary views (not only does he want the Church to revert to the doctrines and practices of over fifty years ago, near the end of the book he openly calls for a holy war against Islam), must not become Pope and wipe out all the progress made under his predecessor. Although the Cardinals aren’t supposed to lobby for themselves or anybody else but instead remain open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, it quickly becomes clear that the system doesn’t transcend politics, behind-the-scenes intrigue, and all the other failings of human power structures. The major players have no compunctions, it seems, about nudging the Holy Spirit in the right direction. Two other men stand out as viable alternatives to Tedesco. Meanwhile, Lomeli reacts to any hint that he might be a candidate with horrified rejection. He had tried to resign his position as Dean to join a monastic order, but the Pope had turned down his resignation. The first shock to the characters and the reader comes when a previously unknown Cardinal, spiritual leader of a dangerous, war-torn region and renowned for his radical work on behalf of the oppressed, appears out of nowhere. Shortly before the late Pope’s death, he made the Archbishop of Baghdad a Cardinal secretly in an irregular but legal procedure. Not surprisingly, this is a heavily male-dominated story, aside from the nuns who cook, serve meals, and otherwise perform necessary housekeeping duties for the sequestered Cardinals. The Sister in charge, however, a strong character capable of intimidating even men in positions of ecclesiastical power, plays a critical role in Lomeli’s eventual discovery of revelations that turn the tide of the electoral process. Although the participants are supposed to be strictly shielded from contact with and information from the outside world, Lomeli bends the rules. When he uncovers scandals that eliminate two major candidates, who’s left to block the ascendancy of Tedesco? Lomeli reluctantly considers the possibility that he might get stuck with the papacy. As mentioned above, I can’t say anything further without disclosing a major crisis and its astonishing outcome. Other than those elements, I found the most memorable scene to be Lomeli’s introductory speech to the Conclave, in which he deplores certainty and prays for a Pope who can embrace doubt. Also, the intricate details of how a Pope’s death is handled and a papal election is held are fascinatingly portrayed.
WOOING THE WITCH QUEEN, by Stephanie Burgis. This secret-identity, enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance is the first book in a series called “Queens of Villainy.” The heroine, Queen Saskia, isn’t actually a villain at heart. She assumes the “wicked sorceress” persona to protect herself and her realm from her truly villainous uncle, whom she overthrew to claim her rightful throne. Other than the safety of her subjects, all she wants is to get the neglected castle library straightened out and find her mother’s research notebooks scattered amid the chaos. Saskia greatly prefers working in her laboratory over routine royal duties or, worse, hosting the diplomatic social events needed to offset her image as a “monster”—an image she reinforces with a crown of bones and an appropriately grim-looking castle. Meanwhile, Felix, the young archduke of a neighboring country allied with her uncle in support of his campaign to retake Saskia’s kingdom, has fled into exile. His late wife’s father, Felix’s former regent and now Chief Minister, would gladly see him dead. Given the enmity between the Chief Minister’s regime and Saskia, Felix grasps at the chance of appealing to her for protection. When he appears at her castle gate, however, she mistakes him for the dark wizard she’s awaiting to organize her library. Before he can correct this misconception, he overhears a conversation among Saskia and her allies, the other two Queens of Villainy. They believe him responsible for his cruel father-in-law’s ruthless tyranny and thirst for conquest. Moreover, potentially rich rewards await whoever kills or captures the missing archduke. Felix doesn’t dare reveal his true identity. To make matters worse, he has no magical ability or knowledge at all. Organizing books, though, he does very well. In the process, he tries to teach himself enough magic to fake the role of a dark wizard. Saskia is pleased with his progress as temporary librarian. After a rocky start, he begins to feel at home in her unusual household, which includes a troll, an ogre, and a flock of intelligent crows. Naturally, he and Saskia soon develop a mutual attraction. But what will happen when she inevitably discovers who he really is? If she realizes he has betrayed her trust, how can he regain it? And what about their respective evil relatives? Quirky characters, moments of humor, a delightful dark-fairy-tale setting, life-threatening suspense, emotional upheavals, and sensuous sexual tension interweave to create a story sure to appeal to readers of secondary-world fantasy romance.
WOULD YOU RATHER. . . by Kimberly Baer. This novel reminds me of a YA horror story by Vivian Vande Velde, not in any specific element of content, aside from the focus on a group of teenagers, but in the foreboding paranormal tone. It also has something of a “Monkey’s Paw” vibe of “be careful what you wish for.” This installment of “The Haunting of Pinedale High” is told from multiple viewpoints of students caught up in the inexplicable events. No need to summarize the plot any further, since the author provides a lucid synopsis in the interview above. The mysterious substitute teacher won’t allow anyone to skip the choice between two offered alternatives, even the direst such as two terrible deaths. The experiment begins almost lightheartedly but quickly grows darker. “Would you rather be an amazing artist or a brilliant mathematician?” and “Would you rather get the romantic partner of your dreams or land the perfect job?” sound fun to speculate about. But there’s no good answer to “Would you rather go missing forever or have the person you love most go missing forever?’ The students, naturally, think it’s only a twisted game and try to put it out of their minds—until the choices start coming true. Some of the “bad” choices turn out worse than they sound, and even the paired “good” alternatives don’t necessarily unfold as expected. Tracking down the substitute proves to be a problem, since nobody on the staff seems to have heard of him. Juggling an ensemble cast of characters and multiple viewpoints while making each person vividly individualized and sympathetic is a difficult task that the author expertly pulls off. Body horror, life-threatening events, and mounting suspense keep the reader’s attention riveted from start to finish. The satisfying resolution to the supernatural mystery realistically leaves no one completely unchanged. I especially like the denouement “spreadsheet” chapter that lists each of the affected characters with the nature of their curse and how it turned out.
For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
*****
Excerpt from “Summertide Echoes”:
Joyce poured a glass of bottled iced tea and settled in a lawn chair on the front porch with the paperback mystery she was currently reading.
Her attention wandered from the page only when fading daylight made it hard to focus. As she glanced up to rest her eyes, she caught sight of movement among the trees. An animal? A doe strolled into view, picking her way around the edge of the clearing, with occasional pauses to nibble leaves on low-hanging branches. Joyce held still to avoid scaring her, although this close to the national park most deer didn’t tend to be wary of humans. Seconds later, though, the doe’s head shot up, and she dashed into the woods.
Joyce caught her breath in surprise when the Saint Bernard she’d seen twice before emerged from the undergrowth, chasing after the deer. He disappeared under the trees but reappeared in less than a minute, apparently giving up the pursuit. He ambled up the path toward the cabin.
She moved cautiously from the chair to the top step, stretching a hand toward the dog. “Hi, there. Nice of you to visit. I wonder where you live.”
Instead of veering away this time, he walked straight to her, tail wagging and tongue hanging out. Strangely, she didn’t hear panting. Nor did she feel warm breath on her skin as she reached for his collar to check the tag.
Her hand passed through him as if he were a hologram. Or a hallucination.
He couldn’t be. Ms. Ortega and Mark had seen him, too. She snatched her hand back. “Bruno?” Hesitantly Joyce fumbled for the collar again. Again she touched nothing. The dog licked her, but she didn’t feel a wet tongue. Instead, a dry chill enveloped her fingers.
This can’t be happening. She squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them, he was still there. A second later, though, he vanished. He didn’t run into the woods and fade out of sight among the trees but blinked out of existence like a popped bubble.
Her legs wobbled, and she folded into a heap on the porch steps. Did I dream that?
She didn’t bother with the pinch test. She smelled the mountain laurel blossoms. A breeze rustled the trees and cooled her skin. The boards of the wooden steps felt rough against her thighs. “Bruno? If you’re really here, come back.”
No response, of course. After steadying herself with long, shuddering breaths, she returned to the chair and picked up her abandoned glass of tea. When she gulped a swallow of it, the tinkle of ice and the chill of the liquid flowing down her throat confirmed she was awake.
-end of excerpt-
*****
The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, visit the Dropbox page below. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
All issues are now posted on Dropbox, where you should be able to download them at this link:
All Vampire’s Crypt Issues on Dropbox
A complete list of my available works, arranged roughly by genre, with purchase links:
For anyone who would like to read previous issues of this newsletter, they’re posted on my website here (starting from January 2018):
This is my Facebook author page. Please visit!
Facebook
Here’s my page in Barnes and Noble’s Nook store:
Barnes and Noble
Here’s the list of my Kindle books on Amazon. (The final page, however, includes some Ellora’s Cave anthologies in which I don’t have stories):
Carter Kindle Books
Here’s a shortcut URL to my author page on Amazon:
Amazon
The Fiction Database displays a comprehensive list of my books (although with a handful of fairy tales by a different Margaret Carter near the end):
My Goodreads page:
Goodreads
Please “Like” my author Facebook page (cited above) to see reminders when each monthly newsletter is uploaded. I’ve also noticed that I’m more likely to be shown posts from liked or friended sources in my Facebook feed when I’ve “Liked” some of their individual posts, so you might want to do that, too. Thanks!
My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Wild Rose Press: Wild Rose Press
You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter