Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Welcome to the August 2021 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.” For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, e-mail me to request the desired issue, and I’ll send you a free PDF of it. My e-mail address is at the end of this newsletter. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
Also, all issues are now uploaded on DropBox (though some appear to have landed in sub-folders, but they’re all there), where you should be able to download them at this link:
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!
I’ve posted one of my old fantasy stories on my website, “Cold Magic,” first published in AFTER HOURS 15 (1992):
An excerpt from the opening scene appears below.
Vampire and horror zine NIGHT TO DAWN, issue 40, includes “Desk Specter,” a lighthearted ghost story featuring my vampire-human hybrid psychiatrist, Roger Darvell. You can find NIGHT TO DAWN here:
Barbara Custer, editor of NIGHT TO DAWN, gave my recent dark paranormal novel AGAINST THE DARK DEVOURER a 5-star review on Amazon:
Amazon Review of Against the Dark Devourer
SEALED IN BLOOD, my light suspense vampire romance whose opening scenes take place at a science-fiction con in California, has been re-released and can be found here:
On August 4, the Wild Rose Press will publish my new light paranormal romance novella KAPPA COMPANION, starring a young widow and her little boy haunted by a kappa (Japanese water monster) and a ghost child. Although a sequel to YOKAI MAGIC and KITSUNE ENCHANTMENT, it’s loosely connected enough to stand on its own.
My short e-book in the Wild Rose Press Christmas Cookies line, CHOCOLATE CHIP CHARM, a light paranormal romance featuring a love potion mix-up, will be released on November 16.
This month’s interviewee, Debby Grahl, also a Wild Rose Press author, writes contemporary and paranormal romance.
*****
Interview with Debby Grahl:
What inspired you to begin writing?
I have a disease of the retina called Retinitis Pigmentosa which causes gradual vision loss. I lost the ability to read in my early twenties, but even when I had sight, seeing the printed word was always difficult for me. Reading a book would take me twice as long as a person with normal sight. I became frustrated with this and began to make up my own stories. It wasn’t until the invention of screen reading software that I was able to put my stories into print.
What genres do you work in?
I love a good mystery, so in both my contemporary and paranormal romances, there’s some kind of suspense. I also enjoy ghosts and witches, so they might appear as well.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I write by the seat of my pants, but I do begin with the location, story plot, and character development. After that, anything goes.
In writing a series, do you typically know in advance that there will be more than one book? Do you keep a series “bible” of characters, places, etc.?
Mountain Blaze is my first series book. As of now, there will be three stories all taking place in the Carolinas. Island Heat is the second and is set on Hilton Head Island. The third will be in Charleston, SC. I have my characters and plot, but I’m having trouble with the title. I wanted A Lowcountry Boil, but discovered it’s already a cookbook.
How did you become involved with the anthologies in which you’ve had stories published?
I actually have stories in three anthologies. A Magical Fall and Fall into Magic are part of The First Coast Romance Writers series Romancing The Holidays. Sundae My Love is part of Wild Rose’s One Scoop or Two anthology. And The Stagecoach to Badger’s Drift is in A Haunted West.
What have been the major influences on your writing (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
I’ve always loved to make up stories. I’ve been so fortunate to have wonderful support from family and friends. I come from a family of artists and graphic designers. I believe that since I can’t see to paint, my talent came out in words.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
I’m hoping Island Heat will be released by next summer.
What are you working on now?
I actually have two projects, the next book in my Carolina series, and I’m hoping to reissue The Silver Crescent, a book that was published years ago by a small press no longer in business.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Learn as much as you can about the writing process and take writing classes. Trust me, I learned the hard way. My first mistake was thinking that you just write the book, send it to a publisher or agent, and away you go. Not! I sent the first twenty-five pages to a publisher who was offering a free critique. She wrote back and said I had a good idea for a story if I could write it. Ouch! She said she marked all my writing mistakes in red. Well, most of the page was in red.
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
Debby Grahl
Author of Mystery, Magic, and Romance
Available from Amazon, Kindle, Barnes & Noble
Website
Facebook
Amazon Author Page
Twitter
BookBub
________________________________________
Mountain Blaze, from Wild Rose Press;
His Magic Touch, from Wild Rose Press;
Rue Toulouse,
The Silver Crescent,
Decorated to Death, a Christmas cozy mystery;
Romancing the Holidays anthology
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
FRIGHT FAVORITES, by David J. Skal. This attractive hardcover by a distinguished historian of the genre (author of, among many other books, HOLLYWOOD GOTHIC, about screen adaptations of DRACULA), lavishly illustrated with movie posters and stills, isn’t an exhaustive guide to horror films. As Skal points out, that would take up an encyclopedia’s worth of text. It’s just what the cover says, a “sampler” of thirty-one works he views as especially noteworthy, in chronological order. Apparently the book was designed as a sort of historical tribute to Halloween through the lens of horror movies. After an introductory overview of Halloween in the movies, he begins with two classic silent films, NOSFERATU and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. You’ll find the expected highlights, such as the vintage Universal monster movies and a selection of groundbreaking Hammer films. More recently, ROSEMARY’S BABY, THE EXORCIST, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, and THE SHINING are included, as well as numerous other high-profile movies. Toward the end, Skal necessarily has to be more selective, so the entries appear to reflect his personal tastes, although each movie has some claim to fame that makes it stand out among its peers of a particular decade. Each essay starts with a standardized information block listing studio, release date, running time, producer, director, writer, and major cast members. Along with brief plot summaries, Skal delves into the background, making, and cultural context of each movie. Most readers will find new tidbits of information in every chapter. Each also contains a sidebar that offers a “if you liked that movie, you may like this one” suggestion. FRIGHT FAVORITES is a don’t-miss tome for devoted horror movie fans, especially since it’s priced under $17.00 on Amazon.
LOST BOY, by Christina Henry. Another very dark spinoff from PETER PAN. Since this prequel has the subtitle “The True Story of Captain Hook,” it’s no secret who the narrator, Jamie, will grow up to be. This version of Neverland doesn’t appear to occupy an alternate dimension as in WENDY, DARLING. Although Henry’s Peter Pan brings boys from the Other Place (the mundane world) through a magic tunnel, the pirates sail freely in and out of the harbor, cruising the seas and visiting normal ports. They continually return to the island in hopes of discovering the hypothetical enchanted water that keeps the Lost Boys perpetually young. Fairies and mermaids are mentioned but not shown face-to-face; Tiger Lily’s Native tribe doesn’t exist in this version of Neverland. Jamie was the first boy Peter brought to the island and still goes with him to pick up new ones, a not-infrequent errand, since death often thins the ranks of the gang. Peter regards fighting and even killing as great fun. If things get too peaceful, he deliberately stirs up trouble. When members of the group get killed by pirates or Many-Eyed Ones—intelligent giant spiders—he soon forgets about them, as he forgets anything inconvenient to him. Although Jamie has lived on the island for well over a century and still looks about eleven years old, he has aged mentally and devotes attention to caring for the other boys, especially Charlie, a five-year-old Peter regrets having burdened the group with. A fight between Jamie and the bully of the group, a clash with the Many-Eyed Ones, and the catastrophic aftermath of an attack on the pirate camp cause the group’s precarious equilibrium to disintegrate. Jamie can no longer force himself to ignore Peter’s cruelty and love of violence for its own sake. Also, he gradually begins to remember his past in the Other Place and what really happened when Peter recruited him. Jamie and one of the surviving boys begin to grow up, a process that not only further alienates them from Peter but leads to epiphanies about the true nature of the island and Peter himself. This is a violent, sad novel, though fascinating in its approach to the Peter Pan mythos. Because we know from the first that Jamie will become Captain Hook, readers must unavoidably anticipate a tragic ending. If you can accept that inescapable conclusion, you might be enthralled with the author’s twists on Hook’s origin story and the ecology of Neverland.
JUNIPER WILES, by Charles de Lint. As de Lint discusses in his introduction, he’s regarded as one of the pioneers of urban fantasy, whose works helped to establish the subgenre. Yet what typically springs to mind at the mention of “urban fantasy” nowadays—a “kick-ass” heroine fighting supernatural evil in a present-day or sometimes nineteenth- or twentieth-century city (or an alternate-world analog of one) that harbors vampires, werewolves, witches, etc.—differs markedly from most of de Lint’s contemporary fantasies. In JUNIPER WILES, he plays with the currently dominant urban fantasy model by making his first-person narrator, Juniper, a young actress who achieved fame starring in a TV show as teenage detective Nora Constantine. After the cancellation of the series, tired of show business and uninterested in dealing with fans at conventions and other public events, Juniper came home to de Lint’s invented Canadian city of Newford. Here she returns to her first love, painting, shares a house with her brother, a musician, and hangs out with artist Jilly Coppercorn and her eccentric friends. Juniper assumes Jilly is joking when she talks about spending time in Faerie and associating with supernatural creatures. But then Juniper is approached in a coffee shop by a young man who claims to come from a universe where Nora Constantine is a real person and the adventures in the books featuring her really happened. He seems to believe Juniper is Nora and begs for her help. Readers won’t be surprised to learn that he’s neither lying nor mentally ill. Neither overly gullible nor unrealistically skeptical about the paranormal, Juniper eventually has to accept the alternate-world actuality of Nora Constantine and her (Juniper’s) own obligation to solve the murder of the ghost who accosted her. When she and her friends talk to the author of the original books, who naturally at first considers the whole tale a hoax or delusion, they learn the events surrounding the mystery originate in an unpublished manuscript. At last they’re forced to cross into the alternate reality to solve the case. This novel impressed me as great fun, and even urban fantasy fans not familiar with Jilly Coppercorn and her Newford friends would probably enjoy it.
BEYOND, by Mercedes Lackey. This latest book in the Valdemar universe stands first in the chronology of the series and will probably remain so, since it launches a new sub-series about the founding of the nation of Valdemar. I don’t know how many novels are projected in this sequence, but without much of a spoiler I can warn readers who, like me, hoped to witness the origin of Companions that we apparently have a way to go before reaching that point, maybe (with luck) in the next volume. This first book reveals how the Duke of Valdemar transports his family, his retainers, and many others under his protection to a distant new home. Valdemar, a small, unimportant, rural duchy, possesses nothing of importance except a reputation for breeding the finest horses in the Empire. Under the rule of a capricious, tyrannical emperor, Duke Kordas Valdemar wants to relocate his people to a refuge so far away the Empire and its royal mages will never find them. The Duke has carefully cultivated the façade of a simpleminded country lord with no interests or knowledge beyond his horses. He even helps to deliver foals with his own hands. He also makes it appear that Valdemar has little magic, while in fact he shelters the strongest mages in his realm—including a gaggle of crabby, eccentric old men far more powerful than they look—within the castle, where they can carry on research undetected. They construct a portal and discover a suitable location for their new country, while Kordas struggles to preserve good relations with the emperor, conceal his own true nature and goals, and misdirect the Empire’s spies. We know the huge, secret migration will ultimately succeed, of course, but plenty of obstacles and close calls maintain a high level of tension until the end. Kordas and his wife have an unusually comfortable relationship for spouses in an arranged marriage in fiction. Although not in love, they have a very warm friendship and apparently enjoy a fulfilling sex life (offstage). To avoid having their offspring “invited” to the Emperor’s court, the children have been brought up with tender care but no knowledge of their true parentage. Kordas’s young sister-in-law, Delia, the other principal viewpoint character, is infatuated with him but would never think of disrupting her sister’s marriage. Delia, who has no magic, does possess psychic talent that foreshadows the Gifts of the Heralds later in Valdemar’s history. Both she and Kordas are engaging characters; the reader enthusiastically roots for them and for the success of Kordas’s complex escape plot. I’m eagerly looking forward to the next volume, which, sadly, will doubtless be almost a year away.
*****
Excerpt from “Cold Magic”:
The vial felt like a lump of ice in Devora’s open palm. Her empty hand, clammy with sweat, mechanically smoothed her tawny hair, as if a single strand out of place might betray the ferment inside her head. Did she dare to drink, unsure of the potion’s side effects?
I dare not do otherwise. If I surrender to Tyras, my life will be worthless in any case.
Flicking dust from the vial, whose minute weight dragged at her like a lump of lead, she glanced down into the secret drawer from which she had taken the potion. The compartment held her scant hoard of magical treasures — her ceremonial knife, a couple of rings, a few scrolls. Her father had presented her with this chest, concealed niche built in, out of a playful delight in secrecy that she shared with him, rather than any serious fear of thieves. The potion was the only dangerous item in the cache, the only one Devora had never used. Her father, the late Lord Guardian, a more accomplished sorcerer than she could hope to become, had given it to her as a curiosity.
Tears stung her eyes. She clutched the vial, its chill searing her skin. How Lord Girvan would grieve if he knew what had befallen his Ward! That’s why I must do this. Tears are a waste of energy.
A rapping sounded at her door. With a start that almost made her drop the vial, Devora sprang to her feet. Hastily she fumbled the bottle back into its hiding place and snapped the drawer shut. The latch on her chamber door lifted. She stepped over to her oval mirror of polished silver and pretended to inspect her pale violet gown.
An auburn-haired boy in his late teens, younger than Devora herself, entered the room. His eyes roamed insolently over her bare shoulders. “Lady Devora, Lord Tyras directs that you meet him in the antechamber to the great hall as soon as you’re dressed.” The servant’s tone, as usual, held no respect. Tyras did not encourage his men to show her any.
“Haven’t I ordered you to wait for permission before entering my quarters?”
Ignoring the rebuke, the boy said, “I’ll inform Lord Tyras that you will be down immediately.”
Shutting the door after him, Devora felt her hand shaking with anger, another indulgence she could not afford. The servant would doubtless assure Tyras that Devora was resigned to going through with the evening’s charade, and she had to maintain that illusion. Her plan depended on lulling the usurper into complacency. Tyras, her father’s cousin, had several times asked to marry Devora. Even as a child, she had disliked Tyras, a blunt, unimaginative man who could never share her scholarly interests. She had refused him. Her father, Lord Girvan, had backed her up, well aware that Tyras, as Lord Guardian of the adjoining Ward, wanted Devora only because she stood to inherit her father’s holdings.
At Lord Girvan’s death, Tyras had shown up with his retinue to pay his respects. Once more he had asked — no, demanded — that Devora become his wife. He must have expected the rejection he got, for his “ceremonial” retainers, unmasked as armed knights, had overrun the keep. They had easily overwhelmed Devora’s guards. Her family, ruling a small, quiet Ward, devoting themselves for generations to scholarship and the theory of magic, had little experience in warfare.
When Devora had not struck him down with a bolt of lightning on the spot, Tyras had apparently decided that her magic was as useless a trifle as he had always assumed. She had feigned surrender, awaiting her chance. This evening Tyras had summoned the leading knights and freeholders of the Ward to a banquet, where he planned to announce his betrothal to Devora, sealing his lordship in the eyes of his new subjects. She counted on the celebration to keep him occupied while she carried out her plan. That diversion, however, depended on her using the potion.
-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 July 2021 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.” For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, e-mail me to request the desired issue, and I’ll send you a free PDF of it. My e-mail address is at the end of this newsletter. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
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 vampire romance with suspense and touches of humor, SEALED IN BLOOD, has been republished by Writers Exchange E-Publishing. I love the new cover, which seems to capture the SF-con milieu of the first couple of chapters.
Science fiction conventions attract some strange people, but Sherri Hudson never expected to spend a con weekend helping a sexy man in a cape steal photos of a winged alien. When the photographer is murdered and Nigel Jamison reveals to Sherri that the “alien” is actually his sister, the situation gets intriguingly complicated.
Unwillingly swept up in Nigel’s quest to rescue his sister, Sherri can’t help being fascinated with him. By the time she finds out he’s a vampire, the fascination has become mutual–and too strong to resist.
There’s an excerpt below. At the convention hotel, Sherri and Nigel are following the man who claims to have photos of Nigel’s sister. Sherri doesn’t yet know the truth about Nigel or why he’s pursuing this man.
This month’s interviewee is contemporary romance author Jennifer Wilck.
*****
Interview with Jennifer Wilck:
What inspired you to begin writing?
I’ve been writing my thoughts down and creating stories since I was a kid. As an adult, I kept hearing voices in my head and I thought I was going crazy. Turns out, after talking to other writers, this is fairly normal, and those voices were characters. When I started writing down what they were saying, the voices quieted and I started writing novels!
What genres do you work in?
I write contemporary romance. Some of my stories have Jewish characters, others are more mainstream. I’ve also started to dabble in women’s fiction, but I’m a long way away from publishing in that genre.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I basically wing it. Like I said, I start with the voices in my head and go where they take me. Sometimes I do need to plot out where I’m going, but if I write from an outline exclusively, the stories don’t flow. I actually tried it once and wrote an entire romance without any romance in it. Now I save my outlines for the editing process, which I find helpful for consistency, plot and character development, etc.
What have been the major influences on your writing (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
I’d have to say my critique partners have been life savers. I always have a favorite author or two, but they tend to come and go. My critique partners are essential for plotting help and just overall making my writing better.
When writing stories that take place in cities where you haven’t lived, how do you research the settings?
The Internet is my friend! I read articles, look at photos, and do a lot of research. Social media is also really helpful.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
My latest release (June 11) is Better Together in Boston, a contemporary romance that is part of a multi-author series, Ticket to True Love. Here’s the blurb:
Do you believe in the legend of True Springs?
Mr. Right doesn’t exist…
Anna Levinson was raised by a single mother, who sacrificed her dreams to give her daughter a warm, loving home. Now a respected professor on the tenure track, Anna is driven to live the life she thinks her mother should have had. She’s long since come to terms with the understanding that “having it all” is impossible if she wants a successful career.
He’s been told he’s Mr. Wrong more times than he can count…
Despite being left at the altar twice, Ben Diamond still believes his soul mate is out there. He’s ready to marry and start a family of his own. He just clearly won’t recognize her when he does find her. And then he meets the maid of honor at his cousin’s wedding, and his world is thrown off kilter.
Settling down might be more than they bargained for.
A long-distance relationship isn’t what either of them has in mind, and Anna isn’t about to ruin another person’s dreams. However, giving each other up is harder than it looks. Can Ben convince Anna that she’s got him all wrong, and that he’s finally gotten it right?
Fall in love with Anna & Ben in this steamy contemporary romance.
Ticket to True Love is a steamy contemporary romance series about new beginnings, second chances, and finding true love in unexpected places. Fall in love all over the world with bestselling and award-winning authors JB Schroeder, Savannah Kade, Moni Boyce, Shirley Hailstock, Holland Rae, Julie Strauss, & Jennifer Wilck. Start your next romance with Better Together in Boston now!
What are you working on now?
I’m currently writing a women’s fiction story about four female friends who play mah jongg together, and the lives that they lead.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Don’t give up. Keep plugging away, improve your craft, and talk to people.
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
Author Website
Facebook
Newsletter
Twitter
Instagram
BookBub
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
THE HUMMING ROOM, by Ellen Potter. This YA novel from 2012 reimagines THE SECRET GARDEN in the present day on an island in the St. Lawrence River. The site of the mansion, Cough Rock Island, bears that name because the house originated as a sanitarium for children with tuberculosis. Twelve-year-old Roo, like Mary in the classic novel, loses her parents in a traumatic event. Roo’s father and his girlfriend, however, were drug dealers, murdered while Roo crouched in her hiding place under their trailer. Ms. Valentine, an employee of her father’s wealthy brother, takes Roo to live with the uncle of whose existence she was unaware. A half-feral loner who bonds with animals rather than people, she enjoys the fact that most of the time the servants in the mansion seem to forget her existence. She likes the house’s nooks and crannies and the island’s hiding places, especially when she wants to escape from the private tutor forced upon her. Like Mary in the original, she reluctantly develops a friendship with a no-nonsense staff member, in Roo’s case a young woman named Violet from whom she learns scraps of information about the island and her uncle’s family. Roo, of course, eventually discovers the dormant garden—in this novel, a neglected greenhouse built for her uncle’s late South American wife—and her cousin, Phillip, a sickly boy subject to uncontrollable fits of rage. The collection of animal skeletons he has assembled adds an interesting wrinkle to his character. On the river, a strange boy named Jack, half-seriously rumored to be actually a water spirit, befriends Roo, introduces her to the wildlife of the area, and eventually helps her restore the garden. In short, the story unfolds parallel to the plot of THE SECRET GARDEN, with characters in similar roles. Yet the wild setting of the St. Lawrence islands and the haunting past of the mansion engender their own unique atmosphere. The novel includes tenuous hints of magic realism in the ambiguity of Jack’s nature as human boy or water spirit and the preternaturally rapid flourishing of the replanted garden.
THE DIRT ON CLEAN, by Katherine Ashenburg. Published in 2007, this nonfiction book fascinatingly surveys attitudes toward cleanliness and methods of keeping clean from antiquity to the contemporary era. The introduction lays out the theme continually reverted to throughout the book, that the definition of proper hygiene varies widely among different times and places. To each society, its own attitudes and customs in this area seem normal, while other cultural practices are either self-evidently over-fastidious or (more often) offensively dirty. As the author puts it, “hygiene has always been a convenient stick with which to beat other peoples, who never seem to get it right.” For example, few cultures in the past (and not all in the present) have shared our conviction that body odor is inherently disgusting. She focuses on Europe and America and sometimes the Middle East, with only occasional references to other regions of the world by way of comparison and contrast. The chapters cover, successively, ancient Greece and Rome, late antiquity up to the year 1000, the Middle Ages, 1550 to 1750 (whose uncleanness might surprise many readers), 1750 to 1815 (labeled “The Return of Water”), two chapters on 1815 to 1900 because Europe and America changed at different rates and embraced different levels of fastidiousness, 1900 to 1950, and finally 1900 to the present with emphasis on contemporary obsession with absolute cleanliness as essential to both health and beauty. Ashenburg debunks common misconceptions such as the idea of the Middle Ages in Europe as a nadir of filth, while in fact it was the self-styled Enlightenment period that rejected bathing. Through most of the history covered in this book, however, it’s true that immersing the body in hot water was regarded as a procedure to be undertaken with caution, for heat opened the pores and allowed harmful effluvia into the body. Also, hot and warm baths were often disdained as signs of hedonism, with bracing cold immersions recommended. Only in the nineteenth century and after did medical authorities proclaim the benefits of open pores, a doctrine that encouraged frequent bathing. The author writes in a lively style, in depth and in detail, exploring the shifting philosophies behind the customs as well as supplying factoids that both entertain and inform. Numerous sidebars expand on particular topics, and later chapters include advertisements from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that illustrate the intersections among popular beliefs, medical recommendations, and commercial exploitation of anxieties about dirt. In addition to bathing and washing the body or its parts, the text touches on oral hygiene but devotes little space to the primary use of the chamber Americans call the “bathroom.” (I suppose including the topic of toilet habits would have doubled the length of the book, at the very least.) My only reservation is a feeling that Ashenburg exaggerates the depth and extent of obsessive-compulsiveness about dirt and odors (especially among women) from the mid-twentieth century to the present. Yes, as amply demonstrated, advertisers want us to think that way, but how many of us have ever fully bought into that obsession?
THE PARASITE AND OTHER TALES OF TERROR, by Arthur Conan Doyle. This handsome, inexpensive trade paperback is the latest in a series of public-domain horror classics re-published by the Horror Writers Association, with introductions and footnotes. The dramatic phrase “Tales of Terror” isn’t applicable to all the contents of this collection. Two are humorous, one is a mystery without much fear involved, and not all have supernatural or paranormal elements. All make enjoyable reading anyway, and most will probably be new even to devoted Sherlock Holmes fans, if they haven’t delved into the rest of Doyle’s works. I had read “The Parasite,” of course, a classic psychic vampire novella, plus a couple of the others, but I encountered several for the first time in this volume. The title story, presented as the journal of Professor Gilroy, a physiologist, narrates his harrowing experience with Miss Penclosa, a mesmerist who exerts a terrible power over him despite his initial skepticism about the reality of psychic talents. “The Mystery of Sasassa Valley,” set in South Africa, deals with a supposedly haunted location that holds treasure but nothing truly supernatural. “J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement” offers an ingenious and frightful, although non-paranormal, explanation for the mystery of the Marie Celeste (a real-life ship found derelict and inexplicably deserted in 1872). “The Captain of the Pole-Star” is a chilling (both literally and emotionally) yet poignant ghost story set aboard a whaling ship in the Arctic. “In the Great Keinplatz Experiment,” one of the comic tales, an exercise in astral projection through mesmerism goes wrong, causing a professor and his student assistant to switch bodies. “The Ring of Thoth” features an immortal Egyptian mystic lurking in a museum that holds the mummy of his lost beloved. Another ghost story, “The Bully of Brocas Court,” presents a match on a lonely road between a boxing champion and a deceased fighter from a previous era. “Selecting a Ghost: The Ghosts of Goresthorpe Grange,” another humorous piece, is told in the first person by a rich man whose pretensions to an ancient bloodline won’t be complete, he thinks, until he finds a ghost to haunt the medieval mansion he has bought; hiring an alleged spiritualist expert to fulfill that wish ends in disaster. “How It Happened,” a brief tale with little plot beyond the easily anticipated “surprise” ending, simply records a dead man’s experience of his own death as revealed through the pen of a spirit medium. Fans of Doyle’s detective stories and of Victorian supernatural fiction in general would enjoy this collection.
WENDY, DARLING, by A. C. Wise. One of the two darkest novels derived from PETER PAN I’ve ever read. (The other was THE CHILD THIEF, by Brom.) In Wise’s sequel to Barrie’s original tale, Wendy, now grown up and married, must find her way to Neverland to rescue her preteen daughter, Jane, when Peter Pan kidnaps the girl. The story begins as Wendy hears a sound from Jane’s room and realizes Peter has finally returned. After sneering at Wendy for growing up, he flies away with Jane, whom he persists in calling Wendy throughout the book. To him, apparently, all “Wendys” are interchangeable. This version of Peter is not only “heartless,” as in Barrie’s text, but outright cruel. Jane witnesses his capricious treatment of the Lost Boys, randomly either playful or bullying. She befriends a small, timid child named Timothy, who has only fragmentary, fleeting memories of a life before Neverland. Since her mother has never told her about Peter Pan, Jane has to figure out the situation on her own. Resisting the tendency to lapse into a dreamlike state where she accepts Peter’s fantasy world and even forgets her own name, she fights to hold onto her true self. With no desire to play “mother” to a group of strange boys or live on cauldrons of leaves, twigs, and stones magically transformed into soup (or the illusion of soup), she persuades Timothy, who hates Peter’s violent games such as boar-hunting, to sneak away with her. Meanwhile, Wendy reclaims her childhood power of flight and crosses into Neverland, a realm where even the stars are different. There she fully comprehends the truth she didn’t grasp as a child, that everything in Neverland is created by Peter, reflecting his idea of pirates, mermaids, and “injuns” on a paradisial island. Although the Lost Boys are apparently real people, there’s a chilling hint (during one of Jane’s viewpoint scenes) that at least some of them are actually dead. Wendy speculates on the horrifying possibility that Captain Hook may have been a real man trapped in a self-absorbed boy’s fantasy world. The mermaids’ bones lie in shallow water, and the pirates have vanished, leaving behind Hook’s wrecked ship. The one element I missed from the original was the pixies. What, no fairies? Even Tinkerbell isn’t mentioned. When Wendy encounters her dear friend Tiger Lily, the “Indian” princess has begun to wither like a mummy. Yet Wendy clings to the hope that Tiger Lily, at least, has a reality beyond Peter’s magical constructs. As Wendy searches for Jane, interspersed flashbacks reveal what happened after the return of Wendy, John, and Michael from Neverland. While her brothers quickly forgot the reality of the adventure, dismissing it as mere fantasy, Wendy refused to deny the truth she knew. Finally, as a young woman, she was committed by John to an insane asylum. During her ordeal there, she met Mary, a half-Native woman from Canada, who became a lifelong friend. In the present, Wendy, Tiger Lily, Jane, and Timothy must descend into the core of the island to discover the dark secret of Peter’s true nature. This deeply unsettling novel has a bittersweet ending that leaves both Wendy and Jane permanently changed.
*****
Excerpt from SEALED IN BLOOD:
In the next hallway Brewster went into a conference room from whose open door guitar music emanated. At the entrance he paused to glance back at the thinning ranks of strollers that included Sherri and Nigel.
Instantly Nigel grabbed Sherri, backed her against the wall, and kissed her on the mouth. She bunched her arms between their chests, trying to push him away. She might as well have shoved the wall itself. He responded to her struggle to free her mouth by matching her every move, with firm but not grinding pressure. In spite of herself, her lips parted to admit his tongue. At that point she gave up the fight and switched to aggressive cooperation. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she teased his tongue with hers. In contrast to his hands, cool on the flesh exposed by the scoop neck of her dress, his mouth felt feverishly hot. She was just beginning to enjoy the duel when he released her so abruptly she staggered.
Sherri’s hands flew to her disheveled hair. “What was all that about?” Luckily anger–or so she chose to label it–choked her so that she couldn’t yell at him. “Don’t say uncontrollable passion, because I won’t buy it.”
“I didn’t want him to get a good look at our faces.”
Nigel stepped into the conference room and lounged by the door. Sherri peeked around him until he waved her back into the hall. The table had been moved to one side, leaving a circle of chairs occupied by ten or twelve people, Brewster among them, his back to the entrance. A filksing. The guitar player strummed a chord, and the group began a thumping chorus of “What do you do with a drunken hobbit?”
Nigel faded into the hall. Sherri saw him wince as the volume of the singing rose a few more decibels. “Sometimes having perfect pitch is a liability. How long would you expect that to go on?” he asked.
“At least a couple of hours. That’s why I like to get a room in the hotel. Who wants to drive home after a post-midnight singing marathon?”
“Oh, do you call it singing?” Nigel offered a wry smile. “I’m glad you don’t have to rush off, because I want to ask you a somewhat complicated favor. Will you join me for a drink in my room?”
Could all this rigmarole be an inventive plot to lure her into bed? Not likely–she didn’t consider herself irresistible enough to be worth so much trouble. Besides, these days a professional man, acutely health-conscious, would be no more likely to make that move on a first meeting than a sensible woman would. Well, she could learn what he really wanted only by listening to him. And what could he do to her in a crowded hotel, anyway?
“All right, I’ll accompany you to your lair.”
“Just a temporary lair,” said Nigel as he guided her to the elevator. “You should see the castle in the Carpathians, the one with the rat-infested dungeons and the hundred-foot tower.”
“Which location do you keep the captive maidens in?”
“Depends on their behavior. The ones who please me get immured in the tower, with the door bricked up.”
“And you visit them by magic,” said Sherri.
“Of course.”
-end of excerpt-
*****
My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Whiskey Creek: Whiskey Creek
Wild Rose Press: Wild Rose Press
You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter
Welcome to the June 2021 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.” For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, e-mail me to request the desired issue, and I’ll send you a free PDF of it. My e-mail address is at the end of this newsletter. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
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!
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Here’s my page in Barnes and Noble’s Nook store:
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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
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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!
Below is another excerpt from my forthcoming light paranormal romance novella KAPPA COMPANION, which now has an official release date—August 4 of this year. Heidi is a widow who has recently bought an old house. Adam is her seven-year-old son, “Zashi” is his possibly imaginary friend, and Ebony is the cat.
This month’s interview guest is multi-genre romance author Liz Crowe.
*****
Interview with Liz Crowe:
What inspired you to begin writing?
The very idea that I could create entire worlds and characters that I’d want to read, and hope that others might too.
What genres do you work in?
Mostly contemporary romance, some rom coms and mainstream fiction with romantic elements. I’m currently working on my first mystery/thriller.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I am a total pantser. Or as the manuscript developer I’m working with on my mystery/thriller calls me: total chaotic pantser. I’m being forced into outlines for that book and I’ll admit that it’s teaching me new skills.
What about series works? In each case, did you know in advance that the novels were going to be part of a series and plan accordingly?
I’ve done a bit of both—planning out books in a series (like the Love Brothers, for instance where each brother has his own novel) and winging it for series that grew in my brain a bit more organically (like The Stewart Realty series, which runs through two generations of characters).
What have been the major influences on your writing (favorite authors, life experiences, or whatever)?
I bring a fair bit of life experience to my books, at least in terms of settings. I read across almost all genres so I also take a lot from my favorite authors like Margaret Atwood, Stephen King, Lee Child, Barbara Kingsolver, and Lianne Moriarty just to name a few.
How have you incorporated your experience in real estate and beer brewery into your books?
I use them as settings and bring the sort of veracity that I sometimes find lacking in books. I’ve worked for years in both industries and know a lot about how they both work so I try to make it (the setting) almost as interesting as a character each time.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
I’ll be releasing a second chance romance July 13 called Backup Offer. It will be the final book in my best selling Stewart Realty series but is a stand alone, a sort of 10-years-later look at a couple who were teenagers in the book before it. My hope is that it snags new readers for this series who will then go back and read the 8-book backstory. Or if not, that they’ll enjoy the story of a couple in their early thirties who were a mess as teenagers but now have their acts together alone—and they reunite.
What are you working on now?
I’m finalizing edits for Backup Offer and also am starting book 4 of The Detroit Sports Network series, called SMASH. It’s an enemies/rivals to lovers story in the series about a fictional TV sports network/website run by women. I’m also still outlining the mystery /thriller and look forward to being in a place where I can actually begin writing it soon.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Never turn down the opportunity for a good, honest critique or editing session but don’t take it personally. The book is not your baby. It might be really bad and need a lot of work. Most first drafts are terrible and always need work. Keep working at it to make it better!
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
Here are all of my links:
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FACEBOOK CHAT ROOM: Chat Room
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TIKTOK: TikTok
BOOKBUB: BookBub
AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE: Amazon Page
GOODREADS PAGE: Goodreads
WEBSITE: Liz Crowe
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*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
THE LIGHT OF THE MIDNIGHT STARS, by Rena Rossner. An unusual fantasy novel set in the late Middle Ages in Eastern Europe. In a Hungarian village, Rabbi Isaac (who sometimes rides a cloud dragon) and his three daughters preserve the sacred magic inherited from their illustrious ancestor, King Solomon himself. Steady, bookish Hannah has gifts for growing plants and healing. Volatile, rebellious Sarah has power over fire that she can’t control. Shy Levana, at first a less strongly defined character (to me, at least), is fascinated by the secrets of the stars. Summoned to heal the mysterious illness of a Gentile noblewoman, Hannah falls in love with Jakob, the lady’s son. The rabbi agrees on the conditions that they wait until Hannah comes of age and that Jakob convert to Judaism. Around the same time, the Black Mist creeps over the land, inflicting blight on plants and sickness on people and animals. Although Levana secretly fears the worst, having seen ominous portents in the night sky, Hannah’s engagement proceeds as planned. The happiness of the wedding, however, is tragically shattered when Jakob faces execution as a heretic for abandoning his family’s religion. Meanwhile, Sarah, painfully aware that her parents consider her difficult and disappointing, covertly forms an attachment to Guvriel, a fox shapeshifter who teaches her to channel her powers. In the second half of the novel, the family, forced to flee from their home, starts afresh under a new identity. There Levana has a love affair with a man who’s actually a fallen star in human form, while her sisters are courted by young men of the local prince’s entourage. What will happen when the family’s Jewish heritage comes to light? And what about the Black Mist (which the author’s afterword describes as a combination of the medieval Black Death and biblical leprosy, used as “a metaphor for antisemitism”)? Several different voices tell the story. Interludes by an omniscient narrator, in the past tense, supply background information and an overview from a historical or legendary perspective. Sections narrated by the three daughters are in present tense (for no particular reason I can see, but I got used to it). Toward the end of the book, Levana’s words are framed as free verse rather than prose. The intertwined plot threads culminate in a bittersweet ending reminiscent of the darker type of fairy tale. Rossner’s afterword discusses the history, family memories, fairy tales, and legends she combined and modified to create the story.
SPARROW HILL ROAD, by Seanan McGuire. Opening novel of a trilogy narrated in first person (aside from a few short inserts from fictional documentary sources about contemporary folklore) by a hitchhiking ghost, Rose Marshall. I don’t find its present-tense narrative as obtrusive as usual; the device seems to fit this story, especially given the achronic order of the chapters in this opening volume. As Rose explains in a later book, ghosts don’t experience time the same way the living do but exist in a sort of perpetual present. As a sixteen-year-old girl from a poor family in a small town in Michigan, she died in 1952 on what would have been the night of her prom. Urban legends call her the Girl in the Green Silk Gown, the Phantom Prom Date, and many other names. Her car crashed when she was deliberately run off the road by Bobby Cross, a James-Dean-type actor who disappeared into the desert, presumed dead. He isn’t dead, though. He made a bargain at a crossroads for perpetual life and youth, provided he fuels his car with the souls of people he kills with that vehicle. Thus his weakness is that he’s bound to the car and the road. Rose, as the one who got away, becoming a “hitcher” instead of a sacrifice to his immortality, obsesses him. SPARROW HILL ROAD originated as a series of short stories, and some of the chapters could still stand on their own. The episodes skip around in time and place, with the location and year at the head of each. Rose serves as a psychopomp, helping people who die in traffic accidents move on to their destiny. A few stay in the “twilight” between life and the final destination, whatever that may be, rising as hitchers, phantom riders, or spirits trying in vain to go home. At truck stops and diners on the twilight level, Rose encounters other spirits and routewitches, still-living people who work their magic while traveling the roads, ruled by a Queen named Apple, a young-looking Japanese-American woman. Rose often stops at the Last Dance Diner, run by a bean sidhe named Emma. These are only a few examples of characters and settings from McGuire’s extensive mythology, borrowed from both traditional folklore and urban legends. Not surprisingly, many contradictory tales have attached themselves to Rose. Some stories accuse her of killing drivers who offer her rides, while in fact she does her best to prevent accidents she foresees. In one episode, she witnesses the death of a boy, Tommy, in a drag race; he and his car rise together, and he becomes a phantom rider. Decades later, his girlfriend, Laura, a college professor who has devoted her career to studying contemporary ghosts, tries to get revenge on Rose for supposedly killing her one true love. (People my age will recognize the popular song origin of Tommy and Laura.) Rose also runs into one of her few surviving relatives, who has an ulterior agenda. She later finds her way to the deathbed of her boyfriend, now a very old man, who has never stopped loving her. Throughout the book, Bobby Cross pops up, forever striving to complete the sacrifice he started by killing Rose. Sometimes she temporarily defeats him, while on other occasions she barely escapes. The two subsequent volumes in the trilogy, THE GIRL IN THE GREEN SILK GOWN and ANGEL OF THE OVERPASS, have more conventionally linear novel plots, focused on the escalating conflict between Rose and Bobby. Each book includes a glossary of supernatural entities; the first volume also contains lyrics of associated songs written by McGuire. Rose is a sympathetic character who can seldom resist helping those who need it, despite her tough-gal façade and sometimes abrasive personality (and her habitual use of obscene language, which she must have picked up after death, because innocent girls in the 1950s seldom talked that way). Most fans of ghost stories and especially urban legends will find this trilogy enthralling.
THE MAP OF TINY PERFECT THINGS, by Lev Grossman. An e-published novelette by the author of THE MAGICIANS. A movie of this story is available on Amazon Prime Video. The teenage narrator, Mark, is caught in a “Groundhog Day” loop. Grossman doesn’t waste space on a setup. As the story begins, Mark has already relived August fourth numerous times. On the whole, this situation is okay with him. He’s in the midst of reading through the entire science fiction and fantasy section of the public library, although at this point he’s still in the A shelves. He has considered devoting his apparently endless free time to discovering a cure for cancer, but he realizes he doesn’t have the background or resources for such an endeavor, not to mention the problem that any records he tries to keep will have disappeared each morning when he wakes up in bed again. So, to the best of his ability, he relaxes and enjoys his unique position. As becomes clear later, however, he does suffer from an increased sense of disconnection, starting to think of all the people he encounters as mere automata, fated to repeat the same actions over and over in perpetuity. Then he meets Margaret, a girl who shares his awareness of the time loop. As they explore their bubble existence together, he begins to fall in love with her but doesn’t know whether she returns the attraction. She has secrets, exemplified by her disappearing without explanation for several hours each day, which he doesn’t feel free to pry into. Both of them rejoice in the “tiny perfect things” of the title, moments of wonder that repeat at the same time and place on every recurring August fourth. They record those incidents on a map, even though they have to re-draw it from memory every morning. When they try to find out whether the temporal anomaly covers the rest of the planet or only their town, the result serves as a catalyst for Mark to investigate Margaret’s activities while they’re apart. The revelation that follows impressed me as a surprising and poignant climax. Before reading much of the e-book, I watched the beginning of the Amazon Prime video but found it less engaging than I’d hoped. Mark’s intelligent, articulate narrative voice in the story doesn’t come across in the portion of the movie I viewed. Now that I know how the plot unfolds, though, I’ll probably give the rest of the video another chance.
*****
Excerpt from KAPPA COMPANION:
Heidi woke to a bloodcurdling yowl. Heart pounding, she sat up in bed. After a second, she realized the noise wasn’t a remnant of a monster in a nightmare, but a cry from the cat. She’d never heard Ebony make a sound like that before. Maybe she’s protecting us from a wild, fierce mouse. She hoped not. The pre-sale home inspection hadn’t reported any pests. The caterwauling receded along the hall and down the stairs, then stopped.
Heidi lay back and closed her eyes, waiting for her breath and pulse to slow to normal. Now that Ebony had fallen silent, though, a different sound wafted from the hallway. Singing.
Sitting up again, Heidi strained her ears. A child’s soprano voice sang in a language she didn’t recognize. “Adam?” No answer. The voice grew fainter and faded away.
She extracted a flashlight from the nightstand and crept to the closed bedroom door. Leaning against it, she didn’t hear anything. She stepped into the hall and switched on the flashlight, not wanting to wake Adam with the overhead light if he’d slept through the cat’s cries and the song, assuming he hadn’t done the latter himself.
Tiptoeing toward his room, she glanced at the floor, which showed traces of water at regular intervals. At first sight, they looked like child-size wet footprints. Had Adam made the tracks after his bath? Surely she would have noticed them before, though, and anyway they would have dried by now. She nudged his partly open bedroom door farther ajar and peeked in. In the faint glow of the night light, he lay sprawled on his side, breathing deeply and evenly, with no sign of faking sleep. Also, when she thought to check the floor inside his room, that space showed no wet marks. Withdrawing into the hall, she found the tracks already drying.
After going downstairs to check all the doors, which were locked the way she’d left them, she returned to her own bed, shaking her head in bewilderment. If he wasn’t singing, what did I hear? The TV? She didn’t think she’d become so absent-minded at the age of thirty-four that she would leave the set on and forget doing it. Maybe the cat had stepped on the remote control in the living room just long enough to switch the TV on and off. And if she’d been pawing in her water bowl and then taken a stroll upstairs, that could explain the wet spots. Sure, blame it all on the cat. Considering the hypothetical identification of “Zashi” as the name of a ghost child, she emphatically preferred blaming the cat over suspecting a mischievous spirit.
She’d poured every dollar she could spare into the house. What would she do if it was actually haunted? Sue the home inspector for missing that problem? Abandoning her investment like a hysterical heroine in a horror movie wasn’t an option. She dismissed the whole idea with a shaky laugh. This place is our fresh start. There can’t be anything wrong with it. No way would I accept that—even if I did believe in ghosts, which I don’t.
-end of excerpt-
*****
My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Whiskey Creek: Whiskey Creek
Wild Rose Press: Wild Rose Press
You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter