Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Welcome to the January 2024 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.”
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
You can subscribe to this monthly newsletter here:
For other web links of possible interest, please scroll to the end.
Happy New Year!
My steamy paranormal romance novella “Wizard’s Trap” was published by the Wild Rose Press in December. The heroine rents a house owned by a sorcerer who’s been cursed into the astral plane. He communicates with her through his journal, hoping she can set him free.
In the excerpt below, she tries to contact his spirit, not yet realizing he isn’t dead.
For e-mail subscribers: As of the end of February, TinyLetter will cease to exist, so this newsletter will have to migrate to its parent company, MailChimp. I’m mildly distressed by this development, since TinyLetter is easy to use and includes all the features I need with none I don’t want. But I’ll try to implement a smooth transition. The subscriber list will be transferred without your having to do anything.
For the first interview of the new year, meet contemporary romance and romantic suspense author Carol Henry.
*****
Interview with Carol Henry:
What inspired you to begin writing?
Writing wasn’t my first thought, but reading was a life-long activity that started when I was old enough to hold a book. It wasn’t until after graduating high school that I started reading romance novels and found myself writing character snippets. My writing branched out to being a photojournalist in my spare time, then travel writing for a major international magazine, and finally I joined a writer’s group and got serious about writing a romance novel.
What genres do you work in?
Mostly I write contemporary romance, with a series of light romantic suspense adventure. I liken it to Indiana Jones meets Romancing the Stone. I’ve always felt that life has a way of ‘connecting’ me to the outside world, be it people, places, or things. Thus, calling it my ‘Connection’ Series was an obvious decision. I do have an American historic saga I couldn’t keep from writing, seeing as I’m also the historian for my hometown. The history of the railroad in this area called to me (see the section on Ribbons of Steel below).
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I am a plotter, first and foremost, however I usually start out with a few chapters with characters that won’t let me sleep at night. Then, I have to delve into their background, and find out more about them. I’ve been known to teach a few online classes on Character Development—Beyond the Basics, so I tend to practice what I preach. For me, it pays off. That doesn’t mean my characters don’t go off-course and I have to doctor up my plotting notebook on occasion and either get in line with my characters’ way of thinking, or theirs to mine. Sometimes it’s a losing battle, but either way, my characters win out in the end.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors or whatever)?
Critique partners, writer’s groups, attending conferences and workshops have all been a great inspiration. As for authors, there are several, but the most inspirational one is Debbie Macomber. I enjoy her family, small town, and inspirational writing.
How has your experience as a travel writer affected your fiction career (if it has)?
As a world traveler and travel writer, having visited the locations/countries/cities I write about has been the inspiration for my Connection Series. I’ve been frustrated reading novels where we are ‘told’ what town/city/country a novel takes place. Must be the traveler in me. So, I tend to incorporate my characters’ surroundings as part of their daily encounter by ‘showing’ what they are dealing with throughout my novels. And, getting to know the people of the countries my husband and I have visited makes it easier for me to write about the people and cultures on a more first-hand knowledgeable level. My titles—Amazon Connection, Shanghai Connection, Rio Connection, Cairo Connection, and my newest novel Arctic Connection, all take place in countries we’ve visited and have had fascinating adventures. They make awesome backdrops for my characters to experience their own adventures along the way. And having lived in Europe for three years has broadened our outlook, as well. Still, I do a bit more research for each location in which I turn my characters loose, in order to bring my time period up to date. You just might find my characters have visited locations outside their hometown in a few of my more contemporary novels. I admit, I love to share travel experiences with my readers.
What inspired your novellas in the “Christmas Cookies” line?
To begin with I love Christmas, as my family will attest. That includes hosting several Christmas teas, luncheons, and impromptu gatherings. And, I am a big cookie baker and have held a cookie baking day since the 1990s where I invite anywhere from 4 – 8 family grandgirls, nieces, and their friends, ages 4 – 16, to come to my house to learn how to bake cookies. We do 8 different types of cookies in a day—each working individually on their own special cookie, which can be quite the challenge. In the late afternoon, when the cookies are out of the oven and lined up on a special table, we have a formal high tea in the dining room—very fancy—where we all get to enjoy the fruits of our labor, and we discuss the day’s events. So, it was natural for me to decide to write a novella for the Christmas Cookie line.
As a side note, my granddaughter who was one of my early bakers, now with a daughter of her own, who is part of our baking group, read the novella Linzer Tarts and Broken Hearts, and had this to say:
“OMG Linzer Tarts & Broken Hearts was beautiful, not going to lie, I legit cried at the last page…I’m such a sucker for the ooey-gooey, lovey-dovey stuff. It is honestly a book that I will cherish, the references to our family traditions for the holiday was so special! I am truly so thankful for all that you do for me and our family! Those memories are the absolute best and I am so blessed that my daughter also gets to know the special feelings of Cookie Baking Day and Tea Time. You have no idea how truly special that is to me! I am so excited to have a book that will also keep these traditions and memories alive.”
What kinds of research did you do for your historical novel, RIBBONS OF STEEL?
Ribbons of Steel was an inspiration I had while taking a creative writing class at Cornell University. In my early writing endeavors. As a local historian, I was fascinated by the history of the railroad that ran through our town. I had a distant family member who worked the rails and traveled to Pennsylvania during the week, and returned to our home town in New York to be with family. Keep in mind this was only a short writing assignment for the class, so I really didn’t delve too deep into the topic. When others in the class asked when the book was coming out—I wasn’t sure how to answer, but was pleased that they thought it was worthy. However, I was working on other more contemporary novels, so I set this aside. However, my characters kept calling to me and I finally caved, only to realize there was so much more I wanted and needed to know. Research began. I visited ILR Library at Cornell and came back to my office with a handful of books that laid out the work I was in for. I immediately started researching and discovered that there was a major railroad strike in 1877, and ended up writing the entire novel as a family saga that had to deal with the ordeal. It took months, and even a few years, before I finished, and found a publisher that was interested in Ribbons of Steel. It became a hit, locally.
What’s it like to write in the two shared-world “Lobster Cove” and “Deerbourne Inn” series?
Writing for the Lobster Cove series was a breeze for me. I wrote the first novel in the series, and had a hand in researching the area and location of Lobster Cove. Having visited the area numerous times, and visiting with friends in the area, helped. Although a bit more research is always helpful. As for writing my own trilogy in the Lobster Cove series, for some reason I have a hard time leaving the adversary out on a limb, where she more than likely deserves, but with reasonable doubt, I had to write about their story, as well. Thus, Juelle’s Legacy, Breakfast with Santa, and Nora’s Redemption became part of the Wild Rose Press’s Lobster Cove Series.
As for the Deerbourne Inn series, I had only intended to write one novel—Ciara’s Homecoming Christmas—because I love Christmas (as I’ve mentioned above), and the theme seemed to call to me. Writing the second Deerbourne Inn novella—Love a la Carte—was more of a challenge, as it was the last episode in the overall series. I had to do a lot of reading of the stories that pertained to the characters who needed to show up in the finale, even though I threw in a few new characters (the heroine) to make the story come alive and give the two main characters something to think about and overcome.
How does the procedure differ from creating a stand-alone novel?
The procedure is a bit easier, as The Wild Rose Press provides a ‘bible’ of sorts that lays out a lot of the town’s streets, businesses, history, location, and a few main characters that are involved in the initial episode. So, a lot of the background information is at your fingertips. There is also a map of the town laid out with street names, etc. As authors write for the series, their new characters, locations and events are highlighted, making it easier to share information. And coordinating with other authors, lending characters and knowledge thereof, helps to make the series a bit more cohesive. And much more fun to get creative.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
My latest novel is Arctic Connection, coming out in February 2024. It’s the 5th in my Connection Series and takes place up along the Norwegian Coastline up to the North Cape. It’s a light romantic suspense and has my characters dealing with a touch of climate change, which is believed to be causing the decline in the catch of fish, but is actually a black-market scheme my hero and heroine have to deal with as they research and travel up along the coast. Not to mention the involvement in family matters, when it is believed that the heroine’s family is involved in wrong doing. As my daughter-in-law’s family is from Norway, I had some first-hand connections, which lent a personal touch with my Norwegian characters. That and the fact that, yes, we did travel up along the coast of Norway and even sailed up to the North Cape.
What are you working on now?
Currently working on another Connection novel. This one will take place in France, around Paris and the Champaigne region. But I’m also thinking Christmas—as always. That would be more of a contemporary, family story. And, yes, the sequel to Ribbons of Steel has been on my mind.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
My advice for aspiring authors is not to give up. Join a writer’s group, take a few classes, workshops, and read the books that interest you and what you feel you would be more comfortable writing. Don’t be turned off by negative nay-sayers. Think positive and get started. I have a notebook of ‘great beginnings’ of stories that I’ll probably never finish, but I have pulled a few out and turned them into something different, and worth revisioning and using. Bottom line—if it’s what you love to do—do it. Sending much success your way.
And a special thanks to Margaret for inviting me and giving me such wonderful questions that made me actually spend time looking back at how and why I’m doing what I’m doing today.
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
WEBSITE: Carol Henry
Twitter
Amazon
Facebook
Barnes and Noble
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
SILVER LADY, by Mary Jo Putney. The first novel in a new series, “Dangerous Gifts,” by one of my favorite historical authors. If it resembles her other groups of linked novels, such as “Lost Lords,” each book should be readable on its own. SILVER LADY, as the series title hints, involves characters with psychic talents. Set in Cornwall, it features Bran Treymayne, an agent for the Home Office investigating possible smugglers and French spies, along with a heroine, Merryn, whose past is a mystery even to herself. In this version of the Regency period, the general public seems to accept the existence of paranormal gifts, but they’re regarded with suspicion. Bran is estranged from his noble family because his father rejected him in childhood, banishing him to an abusive “baby farm” when his powers became obvious. Bran and his best friend, after running away to London, were adopted by a gifted couple who have made it their mission in life to shelter mistreated children with such talents. As for Merryn, at the beginning of the novel she’s held prisoner by people who want to use her powers and, to control her until their plans come to fruition, keep her mind perpetually clouded. Her path crosses Bran’s when she escapes and he rescues her. Naturally, while delving into the complexities of their ultimately interrelated problems, the two of them fall in love. The novel climaxes with a threatened attack on the shipyard in Plymouth. In her afterword, Putney explains the historical background of the novel’s events. I especially enjoyed the scenes of Merryn’s courage in silently resisting her captors and her awakening to her true self. The recovery of her memory reveals her as a spirited, intelligent, passionate young woman. The minor characters are also lifelike, and the details of Cornish local color enhance the appeal of the setting. This gripping story includes romance, mystery, suspense, intriguing psychic powers, and deep friendships and “found family” ties among likable characters.
WHEN THE ANGELS LEFT THE OLD COUNTRY, by Sacha Lamb. This absorbing historical fantasy reminds me of THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI, by Helene Wecker. Both novels explore the immigrant experience in New York of the early twentieth century through the viewpoints of odd-couple pairs of supernatural beings. Each couple embodies tension and attraction between opposites, earth and fire in Wecker’s story, an angel and a demon in Lamb’s. Moreover, the protagonists of WHEN THE ANGELS LEFT THE OLD COUNTRY bring to mind the fraught relationship of the respectively celestial and infernal angels in GOOD OMENS. Ashmedai (aka Ashel or Little Ash) is a very minor demon, one of the “mischievous spirits of the earth who enjoy leading people astray.” Banished to Poland, he found he liked it better than his father’s palace in Hell, where the other demons picked on him. He delights in encouraging the “evil inclinations” of humans and causing chaos for the fun of it, not out of true evil. The angel, with no gender or fixed name, goes by the pronoun “it.” It and Ash have spent two centuries studying Talmud together in the shul (synagogue) of a village so tiny it doesn’t even have a proper name. The human residents take no notice of the pair, but Ash observes the people with keen curiosity. When he learns that a young woman of the village, Essie, has left for America and not been heard from since, Ash takes an interest in the mystery. Oddly, it’s the demon, not the angel, who insists they must travel to the “Golden Land” and discover her fate. Ash, who knows more about human society and customs than the angel (a rather low bar to clear), arranges for the journey. On the transatlantic crossing, they become sort-of friends with Rose, who has left her village after her best friend—with whom she’s in love, although not consciously aware of that feeling—abandoned their plan to emigrate together and got married instead. The angel, now called Uriel, befriends a dying rabbi, takes custody of his holy book, and promises to ensure his family in America will carry out the proper mourning rites. Otherwise, the rabbi’s spirit will become a dybbuk. On Ellis Island, Ash discovers America has its own diabolical inhabitants, far more powerful than he, who don’t take kindly to foreign demons. Nevertheless, Ash and Uriel make it ashore and outwardly assimilate into the Jewish immigrant community. While searching for Essie, they deal with an industrial workers’ strike, the rich, avaricious factory owner, and a con man who extorts new immigrants to trap them in virtual debt slavery. Meanwhile, when the late rabbi’s deadline runs out, he degenerates into a possessing evil spirit that preys on his own family. Both Ash and Uriel face the choice of possibly sacrificing themselves to save their mortal friends. The New York immigrant community setting, the mundane, historically believable threats to the good guys’ security and happiness, and the supernatural evil intertwine to from a complex, compelling plot. Uriel and Ash not only transform as they draw closer to humanity, they also develop a relationship that inspires them to recognize their long-time bond for the love it is. Recommended!
THE NUBIAN’S CURSE, by Barbara Hambly. Established fans of Hambly’s Benjamin January historical mysteries will rejoice to welcome the annual first-of-the-year installment. (And I only wish they appeared more often.) This book arrived a little earlier than usual, just before Christmas, befitting the story’s holiday-season setting. For readers not familiar with the series, this isn’t the place to start. Full immersion in the characters and their arcs requires beginning with the first novel, A FREE MAN OF COLOR. To recap: In that book, Benjamin January, born into slavery but manumitted in childhood by his mother’s white “protector,” who bought and freed her along with her two children, has recently returned to New Orleans after sixteen years in Paris. Trained as a surgeon, he soon discovered that even in France, few white people would trust their medical care to a Black man, so he earned his living as a musician. Although not a paradise of equality, France was much better than Louisiana, especially with that region ruled by Americans clueless about the nuances of Creole culture and the status of “free people of color.” January was prepared to spend his life in Paris, until his wife died and grief drove him home. By 1840, the time of THE NUBIAN’S CURSE, he has been happily remarried for several years to Rose, who runs a school for mixed-race girls eager to learn subjects not usually considered suitable for females, such as astronomy and chemistry. She and January have two little sons. As the novel begins, their life seems secure for the moment, and the extended family is happily and hectically preparing for the wedding of January’s niece, Zizi. Then a woman January knew in Paris shows up, pleading for his help to find a mutual friend of theirs from that time, who fled to America after being suspected of murder and may be in trouble again. A coveted antique statuette and the “cursed” scroll associated with it add a touch of quasi-supernatural intrigue to the problem. Previous books in the series have introduced January to historical personages such as Edgar Allan Poe, Henry Clay, et al, involved him in the Underground Railroad, featured a transman as a recurring minor character, and explored topics such as food allergies (not widely recognized in that era), medical techniques of the period, rare poisons, the peculiar religious cults of the nineteenth century, the anthropological pseudo-science of race with its minute distinctions among all possible permutations of mixed ancestry, and a spiritualist medium hoax. THE NUBIAN’S CURSE includes an autistic man, Arithmus, at risk of being falsely condemned for murder. Of course, the concept of autism didn’t exist then. Hambly does her usual superb job of presenting phenomena and ideas known to us by their modern terms through the filter of the American antebellum worldview. In Paris, although the educated son of a prosperous family, Arithmus posed as a savage from darkest Africa and worked with a white partner who exhibited his talents in lectures and at meetings of learned societies. The Paris flashbacks narrate how his partner died in agony of an unknown cause during the exploration of an allegedly haunted mansion. Arithmus speaks in a monotone but is far from devoid of emotion; he has trouble relating to people, avoids making eye contact, and engages in repetitive hand movements and other compulsive tics; he’s prone to monologuing at length about subjects that interest him; he has an eidetic memory and a lightning-calculator gift. The terminology of the period labels him an idiot-savant, but, as January declares, he’s not an “idiot”; he just thinks differently from other people. Confronted by two murders that resemble the enigmatic death in the “haunted” house many years earlier, January strives to solve the mystery while his niece’s wedding looms near. As usual, he struggles through trackless woods and bayous in search of clues and gets attacked at least once. In this novel, though, unlike most of the others, he doesn’t have a narrow escape from slave catchers. A subplot that focuses on Zizi’s qualms about her impending marriage adds to his conflicting obligations. I have to admit that in this installment I had a little trouble keeping the names of the numerous dramatis personae straight, but not enough to impede enjoyment of the book. As always, the rich sensory descriptions of the physical and cultural milieu of antebellum Louisiana, along with a cast of vividly realized characters including familiar ones it’s a pleasure to meet again, make the story enthralling.
For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
*****
Excerpt from “Wizard’s Trap”:
After switching off the phone with a sense of relief, Laurel lit the incense. She settled in a chair with her fingers resting lightly on the planchette. The candle flames flickered in the afternoon breeze from the open window. The draft didn’t completely relieve the summer humidity, but it would have to do since only the living room and master bedroom had window air conditioners. She peeled damp hair off the nape of her neck. Wiring that wouldn’t support central air was a downside of living in an old house only a mile from the Annapolis historic district.
If anyone saw her playing with a Ouija board months away from Halloween, she had to admit she would look obsessed. Naturally she’d been curious as well as shocked when she’d read the original news reports of Gil Vincenzo’s disappearance. She’d met the man several times when he’d dropped in at her store to buy candles, incense, or rare herbs the supermarket didn’t sell. They’d had several lively conversations about whether any of those products had objective benefits and which books—not many, according to Gil—held useful information and which, in his words, consisted of superstitious ramblings by clueless wannabes. He’d even asked her to lunch once, and she’d had to refuse on the grounds that she was involved with somebody. If she hadn’t been living with Kevin then, she would have jumped at the invitation. Attached or not, she could appreciate a hot guy. After all this time, she still had no trouble conjuring up an image of Gil’s chocolate-brown eyes, dark, curly hair, and lean, taut body, as well as reliving her shock when she’d read about his disappearance and presumed death.
Her orange tabby Maine Coon, Tigger, padded into the dining room with his plumed tail held high. “If a ghost shows up, you’ll warn me with your feline psychic powers, okay?” Tigger sat in the middle of the floor and gave her a cool stare. “Ghosts, right, maybe I am losing it after all. Do I think I’m going to solve the case when the police couldn’t, like the daring girl detective in a mystery?”
Breathing deeply, she tried to clear her head. She had a hard time banishing fretful thoughts about Kevin, her family, and the admitted strangeness of renting a house because of curiosity about its dead owner. Her fingers started to cramp, and her mind drifted from those niggling worries to the boxes stacked in the kitchen. She’d almost decided to abandon the spirit communication experiment when the planchette jerked.
She yelped. The cat blinked at her and licked a paw. “Is anybody here?”
The planchette traced a wide circle around the board.
“Who’s there? Are you Gil Vincenzo?”
The pointer slid directly to YES.
Laurel knew, of course, her own subconscious mind could have guided the movement with minute muscle contractions. But the motion had certainly felt independent of her will. She frowned at Tigger. “Big help you are. You’re supposed see spirits. So much for feline psychic powers.” He reacted with only a twitch of his tail.
The planchette moved again. N. She watched, holding her breath. O. T.
“Not? Not what?” That didn’t sound like a message her own brain would come up with. “Not Gil Vincenzo?”
I AM.
“And you are here? In the house?”
The pointer indicated YES again then shifted over to NO.
“Well, which is it?”
A sensation like static electricity zapped from the planchette through her fingers. It sizzled up her arms and down the front of her body. A sudden shiver convulsed her. Her nipples instantly peaked. The electric current raced over her skin and sent a shock through her core. Heat welled between her legs.
She snatched her hands from the planchette and pressed her palms to her breasts. Her heart raced. She swallowed hard and exhaled a shuddering breath. “That was…weird.”
She barely suppressed a scream when the plastic triangle moved again. By itself.
BOOK.
“What book?” she whispered. As far as she knew, her packing boxes contained the only books in the house.
DESK.
“What about the desk? Come on, tell me more.”
The planchette refused to move again, although she rested her fingers on it and muttered questions for several more minutes.
“Fine. If I’m not losing my mind and imagining this whole thing, I guess I should check out the desk.”
-end of excerpt-
*****
The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, e-mail me to request the desired issue, and I’ll send you a free PDF of it. My e-mail address is at the end of this newsletter. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
A complete list of my available works, arranged roughly by genre, with purchase links:
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
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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):
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
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You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter
Welcome to the December 2023 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.”
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
You can subscribe to this monthly newsletter here:
For other web links of possible interest, please scroll to the end.
Happy winter holidays to all!
My Christmas story “A Ghost in the Green Bestiary,” set in an English country manor in the 1890s, will be published as an item in the Wild Rose Press’s “Christmas in the Castle” line (release date not yet determined). Spending the holidays with her aunt and uncle for the first time since her father’s death forces Lucy to face Walter, to whom she was once almost engaged. An excerpt, illustrating an old Yuletide folk custom, appears below. (Robbie is Lucy’s little brother.)
My steamy paranormal romance novella “Wizard’s Trap,” the last of my “orphaned” Ellora’s Cave works, will be re-published by the Wild Rose Press on December 13.
Our December guest is Marla A. White, writer of fiction in several genres, including mystery and fantasy. She has a story, “The Starlight Mint Surprise Murder,” in the Wild Rose Press’s Christmas Cookies series.
*****
Interview with Marla A. White:
What inspired you to begin writing?
Reading. I’ve always loved reading and as the youngest of six, there were plenty of books around. Disappearing into everything from “Black Beauty” to “The Hardy Boys” to “Call of the Wild” inspired me to create worlds of my own to explore.
What genres do you work in?
I’m kind of a weirdo, I play in multiple genres. Mystery is what I’ve written the most and maybe my first love, but I’ve also written a series of books that I would describe as contemporary or grounded fantasy. Magical things happening in the real world. And just recently I started writing a hockey romance with a writing partner, which has been a whole new experience.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
My writing style would be somewhere in between. I like to outline at least in broad strokes first so I know where I’m going, but nothing is ever set in stone. I’m a huge fan of NaNoWriMo because it gives me permission to get messy, to write an outline where I give myself options. I write things like, “Maybe they find a body here. Or wait a few scenes, and put more of the B story here.” I feel sorry for my poor Beta readers when I ask them to read that jumble just to make sure the story as a whole works before I write the real first draft!
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors or whatever)?
Author influences would include Dick Francis, his mysteries set in the horse world were an obvious influence for “Cause for Elimination,” my mystery set in the eventing world that I was a part of for many years. But Louise Penny’s wonderful Three Pines books influence me to try and be better, to attempt to elevate my writing in the next book. Robert Parker was a huge part of why my dialogue reads the way it does, with a bit more of an edge than a typical cozy mystery would.
The amazing Jim Butcher is fully to blame for my fantasy books. His Dresden books opened the door to Ilona Andrews’ series of books and Seanan McGuire’s October Daye books. I can only come up with half of the crazy monsters and heroes that they do!
But the biggest influences on my work are the things I experience in life that strike me as funny or interesting. “The Starlight Mint Surprise Murder” was inspired both by The Wild Rose Press’s call for submissions of cookie-themed stories and my abysmal failure at baking that childhood favorite. Both events happened simultaneously and I thought, “Wouldn’t it be hilarious if the featured cookie was terrible?”. I knew I wanted to set it in the fictional quirky small town of Pine Cove because I’d just come back from one of my favorite places on Earth, Idyllwild. My “Keeper Chronicles” series is inspired by the fantastic, historic Mission Inn in Riverside. Even small things, like a friend riding in pink suede half-chaps (totally not cool in the very proper horse set), made an appearance in “Cause” because I like little details like that.
What kinds of research do you do for your mysteries?
I dread the day I take my computer in for a tune-up and my guy looks at my Internet history! I love doing deep dives on weapons, poisons, where do you have to stab someone to puncture a lung. You know, the usual! There’s a wonderful website, “How To Kill Your Imaginary Friends” with articles such as, “If you shock a flatline, I swear I will come to your home and beat you with a wet chicken”. One of my characters is Scottish so I have a ton of websites bookmarked to make him sound authentic, including “The Septic’s Companion” for British slang words and insults.
But I also talk to friends who are nurses about medical questions, I asked my nephew who builds boats about how to blow one up. Some day I’d love to be a member of some kind of police reserve unit to get first-hand knowledge, but right now I’m juggling enough just to find time to write!
How does a mystery author achieve the ideal of “playing fair” with the reader while not making the clues too obvious?
That’s why I need to outline ahead of time. I admire the heck out of anyone who can figure out when and how to plant clues on the fly! I try to include at least one red herring to throw the reader off the scent.
But as a reader, I’m there more for the characters than the mystery of it all anyway. Reading the Three Pines books, I almost blow past the clues to find out the latest flaw Louise Penny has given Jean Guy!
I was really pleased when my editor was surprised at the reveal of the killer at the end of “Cause”, so that was nice.
“Starlight” was my first cozy mystery and honestly, even the reviews that said the guessed the killer right away said they still enjoyed the book.
How do the angels and demons in your contemporary fantasy novels resemble and/or differ from the traditional image of those entities?
My slightly goofy, quirky Gabriel is very different from traditional angels. First, he hasn’t got any wings, or a halo. He barely remembers his life before waking up naked in the desert. All he knows is that his Boss kicked him out of Heaven over some sort of disagreement. He’s just a guy with a messy mop of hair, bespoke suits, and a Scottish accent trying to figure out why he’s there. Is it to protect Abby Campbell, his charge when he was an angel, and if so from what?
“The Keeper Chronicles” aren’t religious by any means, but the plots incorporate questions of faith. Abby hasn’t believed in anything since her mother’s stroke, Gabriel questions why he’s been abandoned. Evie, who works for his brother now, becomes angry when Gabriel’s life hangs in the balance and it’s left to her, a demon, to save him because his angelic siblings are too afraid of the repercussions.
And that’s the heart of the books – family. Oh sure, there’s action and romance, but the beating heart is the family you’re born into and the one you choose. That and Gabriel’s search for a good cup of tea.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
I’m in a bit of a holding pattern for “Framed for Murder,” the next in the Pine Cove mystery series. Hopefully June of next year?
I’ve also got the third “Keeper” book in with an editor now and will self-publish it probably early next year.
What are you working on now?
Despite the lack of a release date for “Framed,” I’ve leapt into NaNoWriMo and am sketching out the next in the Pine Cove series.
My writing partner and I have finished the first hockey romance, “Lincoln,” and are in the middle of the rough draft of the next.
And Lucifer keeps demanding that it’s time for his book now, he’s tired of his do-gooder brother getting all the glory.:D
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
One of my biggest challenges, and I don’t think I’m alone here, was finding the time to write. A long time ago I was fortunate enough to meet Janet Evanovich, another favorite author of mine, and when asked about her writing schedule, she said she got up at five in the morning to write. I figured if it was good enough for her, it was good enough for me. I can’t swear to getting up that early every day, but I always make it my first priority before e-mails or anything else.
I mean, not before coffee, that would be insane, but everything else.
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
Thanks for asking! My website is http://www.MarlaAWhite.com. I’m also on Facebook as MarlaAWhite and Instagram as Marlawriteswords
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
THE PRIVILEGE OF THE HAPPY ENDING, by Kij Johnson. A story collection by the author of one of my favorite fantasy novels, FOX WOMAN. If, like me, you read the novella “The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe” when first released as a stand-alone book, you might have reservations about the fact that it constitutes almost 100 pages of this 281-page volume. However, the other contents make it well worth buying even if you own “Dream-Quest.” In case you haven’t read that story, it’s inspired by H. P. Lovecraft’s THE DREAM-QUEST OF UNKNOWN KADATH, as the title suggests. Johnson approaches the Dreamlands, though, from a feminine and feminist angle. Vellitt Boe, a professor at a women’s college in Ulthar, the city famed for its cats, has to undertake a quest to the waking realm (ours) in search of a student who has eloped with a dreamer from our world. During her journey to one of the rare interdimensional gates, Vellitt spends time with Lovecraft’s protagonist, Randolph Carter, makes an alliance with ghouls, and fends off attacks from less friendly monsters. Her fish-out-of-water arrival in the waking world makes for delightful reading, and the story ends with an unexpected twist. Among other tales, “Noah’s Raven,” a bird’s-eye perspective on the Flood and its aftermath, portrays the event from a more cynical angle than the Bible does. In “Ratatoskr,” a girl sees the ghosts of squirrels all her life and helps them move on from their abandoned bodies. “Tool-Using Mimics” presents multiple alternative speculations about octopuses who mate with human partners or pose as human. Several of the collection’s shorter pieces aren’t exactly stories, consisting of lists and other clever devices instead of narratives, although in some cases hints of plots or character arcs can be inferred – for example, three “Lorebooks” for apartment dwellers, a bestiary, a stavebook, and an alphabetical dreambook; “Mantis Wives,” exploring various ways intelligent female mantises might kill their mates; crows’ skewed attempts at human-style riddles and jokes. Other than “Dream-Quest,” my favorite stories are “The Ghastly Spectre of Toad Hall” and the title novella. Johnson wrote a sequel to WIND IN THE WILLOWS that added two entertaining female characters to the classic cast, THE RIVER BANK. The Christmas-season ghost story in this collection is an equally fun pastiche, a mixture of suspense and humor, with Toad’s friends determined to rescue him from the doom of his family curse, leading to the revelation of what the ghost (a frustrated poetess) really wants. “The Privilege of the Happy Ending,” set in early medieval Britain, begins with six-year-old Ada forced by her parents’ death to live with a widowed, impoverished aunt and three wicked-stepsister-like cousins. When their village falls to the ravages of all-devouring monsters called wastoures, Ada escapes with Blanche, a talking hen. Their long, wandering quest for a safe refuge leads them to encounters with strange places and people, culminating in the revelation that Blanche possesses more magic than just the ability to speak. The omniscient narrator weaves metafictional commentary throughout the tale, reminding us that stories can branch in myriad different directions. Above all, whether they have happy endings depends on the point where we choose to cut the narrative short. I especially enjoyed Johnson’s wide varieties of prose styles in the highly diverse works, ranging from the dry, cryptic paragraphs of the apartment-dwellers’ lists to the Edwardian dialogue of the River Bank denizens and the lavishly multisensory descriptions of the exotic Dreamlands.
UNDER THE SMOKESTREWN SKY, by A. Deborah Baker. The final volume of Seanan McGuire’s pseudonymously published portal-fantasy tetralogy set in the world of the Up-and-Under. This four-part story seems written for a slightly younger audience than McGuire’s open-ended Wayward Children series. I’ll try to avoid critical spoilers, but of course that’s difficult since UNDER THE SMOKESTREWN SKY is the last book in a connected sequence. Fortunately, in the first chapter the omniscient narrator, whose voice resembles the narrator of the Wayward Children books, summarizes the highlights of the previous three novels. Readers who, like me, tend to forget details during waits for sequels will find this introduction a great help. Throughout the book, the author inserts comments about the nature of stories and their beginnings, middles, and ends. Uptight, anxious boy Avery, preoccupied with order and predictability, and free-spirited, adventurous girl Zib lived in the same neighborhood but had never met before forces beyond their control drew them to a wall between our world and the Up-and-Under. That world, ruled by monarchs of the four classic elements (Air, Water, Earth, Fire), suffers from the disappearance of an elemental queen. In this installment, Avery and Zib continue to travel along the quasi-sentient Improbable Road in the company of a drowned girl, the former Crow Girl, and a new companion, Jack, who also has a bird affinity. Their quest for the Impossible City concludes with desperate ordeals and, at the climax, heartbreaking loss followed by eucatastrophe. Secrets come to light, including the true identity of the missing queen. The characters contemplate the meaning of “impossible” and learn to bend impossibility to their purposes. Unlike Dorothy’s quest for a way home in THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ, the fulfillment of Zib and Avery’s search is shadowed by ambivalence. While they long to return to their proper world, they mourn the prospect of leaving the Up-and-Under forever, not to mention parting from the friends they’ve made. The narrator hints at future adventures, but of course those remain stories for another time. Zib and Avery don’t enjoy the convenience of “Narnia time,” wherein they’d get home a moment after they left. Their parents and the authorities know they’ve been missing for a month, a disappearance the children can never adequately explain. They return to their mundane lives having forged a lasting bond of friendship, Avery learning to take risks and Zib learning a bit of caution as well as respect for the differences between the two of them. Recommended for not only the ingenious plot with unexpected twists at every stage, but also the cast of sympathetic characters both human and not quite human, the enchanting and terrifying fantasy-world setting, and the narrator’s metafictional encouragement, warnings, and analysis. The Up-and-Under tetralogy is likely to thrill most fans of the slightly different approach to portal fantasy in the Wayward Children series.
THE LITERARY UNDOING OF VICTORIA SWANN, by Virginia Pye. A historical novel set in my favorite period, the 1890s. Boston-area author Victoria Swann (not her real last name), like Louisa May Alcott and Jo March at the beginning of their careers, earns decent money and enthusiastic readers with her thrillers, in Victoria’s case hair-raising adventures in exotic locales. Like Alcott and her heroine, Victoria also decides to change her focus to more realistic stories in down-to-earth settings. Her publisher, however, wants her to stick to the reliably successful formula. She recognizes the risk she’s taking, since she’s tied to a ne’er-do-well, weak-willed, alcoholic husband in a union that has become a marriage in name only. Nevertheless, her ambition to create novels about believable female characters suffering under the social ills of her contemporary society is too strong to renounce. Her new editor, Jonathan Cartwright, admires her latest book and heartily supports her endeavor. When the publisher remains adamant, Jonathan strikes out, along with his best friend, to start a fledgling company with Victoria’s book as its inaugural release. As sole support of himself and five sisters, Jonathan is taking a major risk, too. The title accurately focuses on Victoria’s “literary undoing,” as she struggles with the process of reshaping her authorial persona. How can she write the stories she feels called to create while somehow not disappointing avid fans of her romantic adventure tales and the regular advice column published under her pen name? What happens when she decides to divorce her parasitic husband, thus risking scandal if her real-life identity and a certain incident in her background come to light? A strong bond of friendship grows between her and Jonathan. It’s not much of a spoiler, however, to warn readers who expect them to fall in love that a delightful plot twist occurs instead. Satisfying solutions to Victoria’s problems, yet hard-won and believable, wrap up the story. She and Jonathan come across as strong, sympathetic characters. The physical and cultural details of 1890s Boston are vividly portrayed, obviously researched in depth, and a pleasure to read. I particularly enjoyed watching Victoria wrestle with troubles not unfamiliar to authors in the present century, such as publishers who cheat on royalties and readers who endlessly demand more books just like the previous ones, on an exhausting schedule.
For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/vampires/vamprelm.htm
*****
Excerpt from “A Ghost in the Green Bestiary:
About four-thirty, as twilight was falling, Aunt Eunice knocked on Lucy’s door. “The mummers are here. Will you come down to watch? I’m sure Robbie would love to see them.”
Not having spent Christmas here in many years, Lucy was eager to witness that performance herself. After bundling Robbie into his coat, cap, boots, and gloves, she and her mother donned their own wraps and followed her impatient brother downstairs. When they gathered with family and servants at the top of the driveway, the flurries had stopped, covering the earlier snowfall with a fresh, thin layer. Walter, standing beside his parents, smiled at Lucy. Pulling her cape closer, she tried to convince herself that only the brisk breeze sent a shiver rippling through her.
About a dozen local boys and men, some bearing lanterns, clustered in front of the house. They wore oversize coats or heavily padded outfits to disguise their shapes, and homemade masks fashioned with various degrees of skill concealed their faces. Sacks and pillowcases had eyeholes cut in them and grotesque features painted on. One man sported a papier-mâché horsehead, and another shrouded his head in a veil of white lace. A knight in gray trousers and jacket brandished a wooden sword and wore a helmet made of a cardboard box adorned with silver paint. His crudely carved shield bore a red cross. Beside him stood a four-legged, green dragon with two pairs of boots visible beneath its sagging costume.
Robbie shrank against his mother’s side and asked, pointing at the man with the veil, “Is that a ghost?”
“No, dear.” She patted his shoulder.
“And there’s a dragon.”
Lucy whispered, “It’s two men in disguise. Everybody’s pretending. Now, just watch.”
The mummers sang all the verses of “Deck the Halls,” while the dragon cavorted to the tune, its tail dragging on the ground. Next they belted out a couple of rowdy wassail tunes, a clear hint of the festive reward they anticipated.
After the songs, most of the men drew back to clear a circle around the monster and the knight. The warrior, who was probably meant to portray Saint George, pointed his weapon at the dragon and shouted, “Yield, foul fiend!”
With a blood-curdling roar, the dragon raised its claw-tipped forearms and charged. It slashed at the knight while the latter pounded on the monster with the flat of his sword. After several minutes of hearty combat punctuated by bestial snarls and manly vows of dire vengeance, the two foes thrashed on the ground in a climactic exchange of blows. The dragon, groaning in agony, expired in a burst of gore represented by a gush of fake blood from its chest. Saint George rose to his feet with arms raised in triumph. A second later, the dragon leaped up, too, and the pair took a bow to laughter and applause.
Uncle George’s butler and footman brought forth trays of steaming mugs, spiced cider from the aroma, which they passed around to the performers. Slices of brandy-soaked, fruit-studded Christmas cake followed. Some removed the masks to eat and drink, while others simply lifted the bottoms of their cloth face coverings. When the front half of the dragon pulled off its head, Lucy said to Robbie, “See, just men play-acting.”
-end of excerpt-
*****
The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, e-mail me to request the desired issue, and I’ll send you a free PDF of it. My e-mail address is at the end of this newsletter. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
A complete list of my available works, arranged roughly by genre, with purchase links (gradually being updated as the Amber Quill and Ellora’s Cave works are being republished):
For anyone who would like to read previous issues of this newsletter, they’re posted on my website here (starting from January 2018):
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Carter Kindle Books
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You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter
Welcome to the November 2023 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.”
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
You can subscribe to this monthly newsletter here:
For other web links of possible interest, please scroll to the end.
Happy American Thanksgiving!
My short story “The Thing in the Driveway” has been accepted for the Necronomi-Rom-Com anthology, whose theme is just what it sounds like—romantic comedy in the Cthulhu Mythos universe. The target publication date is August 2024. There’s an excerpt from the story below. You can read about the project here:
Necro-Rom-ComJust for fun, I wrote a flash fiction piece about cats, available on my website here:
Here’s another one, playing with a familiar SF trope:
In keeping with the Halloween spirit, this month’s interview showcases Jenna Barwin, paranormal romance author of the Hill Vampire series.
*****
Interview with Jenna Barwin:
What inspired you to begin writing?
I’ve been writing on and off for years. Like a lot of authors, I’d get an idea, get started on a novel, but never finish it.
Then I read a book series that ticked me off—the main couple at the start of the series didn’t get a happily ever after—and I decided I wanted to write my own vampire romance series focused on the developing relationship of one couple who ultimately get their happily ever after.
What genres do you work in?
Paranormal Romance. I write the Hill Vampire novels, which blend mystery, wine, and romance into a heady combination. Dark Wine at Midnight is the first book in the series, and I recommend starting there.
Please tell us about your Hill Vampire series and its setting.
The Hill Vampire series features an exclusive gated community of winemaking vampires and their mortal mates. They live on vineyard estates in Sierra Escondida, a fictional town in the foothills of Central California. Because the town was founded by vampires in the late 1800s, they have been able to maintain control over the town council and decide who may live there.
The series begins with Dark Wine at Midnight, in which research scientist Cerissa Patel must find a way to save humanity from a vampire conspiracy without revealing what’s hidden beneath her skin. But her cover story isn’t enough to fool vampire Henry Bautista—he’s dark, dangerous, and will do anything to protect his town, including stopping her.
The series follows the romantic relationship of Cerissa and Henry, who, along with other members of their community, try to stop the vampire dominance movement (VDM), a vampire conspiracy that is trying to kill the leaders of Sierra Escondida and take over. The VDM plans a political coup, and once the path is cleared, will turn mortals into blood slaves.
The series is steamy. The first book starts out as more of a slow burn, but the rest of the series is definitely in the four to five steam kettle range.
In particular, are your vampires closely similar to the traditional undead of popular culture or different in some way?
I followed some of the traditional undead traits but varied them a bit. They drink blood and do not eat food for sustenance. Silver or a stake through the heart will kill them. They can’t go out in daylight. They can mesmerize their victims. Mortals don’t know about them, except for those in a relationship with a vampire.
Now, here’s a slight variation: The fang serum their bite injects compels the mortal to not speak of them when among uninitiated mortals and forms a bond. Thus, vampires can have relationships with mortals without fear of disclosure so long as they renew the bond.
Fang serum also contains an aphrodisiac, which leads to all kinds of fun!
Your heroine is identified as a “Lux.” Please tell us about the nature of these beings in your universe.
SPOILER ALERT! For those who haven’t read the first few books, you may want to skip this part. The Lux arrived on earth nine thousand years ago, and their appearance started the rumors about flying angelic beings. The records dating back to their arrival were damaged, and they aren’t sure what their origins are: ancient alien astronauts or angels who fell from heaven. They are able to shapeshift and appear as human or animal.
I like the ambiguity in their origin story as it allows members of the Lux to have different opinions about their purpose for being here.
Your bio mentions “an eclectic range of careers.” How have any of them influenced or been incorporated into your fiction?
All of them have been incorporated in one form or another. In my early twenties, I performed magic in a circus and traveled across the country living in a motorhome. It was a wonderful experience—I wouldn’t recommend it as a lifetime career—but the experience provided insider information that helped me set Dark Wine at the Circus in a circus secretly owned by a vampire.
It also gave me great experience performing in front of an audience. If you like cosplay, check out my TikTok or Instagram account—I try to post one Gaea Greenleaf video each week. She’s a side character in the Hill Vampire series but plays an important part. She’s also a great gossip.
I worked for many years in a newsroom as a video editor, so I’ve had a firsthand view of what it takes to produce a television news program, which allowed me to realistically write a side character who is a news reporter.
I returned to school to get a law degree, then worked as an assistant city attorney. The town council and town attorney who appear in the stories reflect my legal knowledge and experience in that role.
That said, no character is based on anyone I know. My characters may have careers and are placed in settings I’m familiar with, but they aren’t based on any specific person or situation.
What is your latest book?
Dark Wine at Christmas was published in August. Here’s a short tease:
As Cerissa and her vampire fiancé celebrate their first Christmas together…secrets abound!
The surprise Cerissa prepares for Christmas Eve will be everything Henry wants, but the gift he gives her on Christmas night will turn their household upside down with happy chaos.
And while Henry promises to start working with Cerissa on their wedding plans once the holiday is over, something seems to be holding him back.
When Anne-Louise calls with her own unreasonable demands, his maker may very well rip the holiday happiness right from Henry and Cerissa’s hands.
What are you working on now?
The eleventh book in the Hill Vampire series, Dark Wine at the Altar. It’s the series finale, and like the title hints at, there will be a wedding, if not more than one!
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I’m a discovery writer. I’ll envision characters in a plot situation, hear them talk with each other, and then start writing. As I go, I’ll discover new facets of their personalities along with what plot obstacles best challenge them to become the person they were meant to be.
Sometimes I’ll finalize a rough first draft, and then I outline. Depending upon the reason I need to outline, I’ll either use the index cards in Scrivener or the timeline method in Plottr. The index cards work great for me when a plot action issue arises, or when I need to check for continuity, or for pacing. I use the timeline method when I feel the emotional side of the romance isn’t gelling properly. For me, it’s easier to break down the romance beats in Plottr.
When I get really stuck for an idea, I’ll use big sheets of paper and start brainstorming, placing the problem in the center and then writing spontaneous options around the central problem until I hit on one that resonates.
Bottom line: I’m a discovery writer who uses outlining as a diagnostic tool to help me discover what my story is missing.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
- Find your tribe. Visit various writer groups to find one that fits. Whether in-person or online, networking with other writers in your genre will give you a leg up whether it’s with writing or marketing.
- Read a lot of books in the genre you plan to write in. Get to know what readers expect from the genre, particularly the popular tropes and plot twists.
- Take craft classes and read a lot of craft books. Lots of classes and books. Not every technique will fit with how you write—but you will discover techniques that do work for you. But beware of instructors who speak in absolutes. Rarely is a rule unbreakable.
- Read these two books: Wired for Story by Lisa Cron, and GMC: Goal, Motivation, and Conflict by Debra Dixon. Also, Story Genius by Lisa Cron is excellent.
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
For the latest news and special offers, sign up to be a VIP Reader at: Jenna Barwin’s Newsletter
Or find me on social media and join the conversation:
Twitter (@JennaBarwin)
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
A STROKE OF THE PEN, by Terry Pratchett. Before his death, Pratchett decreed that his unpublished work be destroyed and no posthumous Discworld fiction be written by anyone else. So this collection doesn’t contain new Terry Pratchett fiction, yet for all practical purposes it does, sort of. Subtitled “The Lost Stories,” the book comprises tales written very early in his career and published under pen names in newspapers. Only a couple of these stories have previously been re-released. All the rest, not identified as Pratchett’s work until collected in this volume, have remained unknown to his readers. The introduction and the afterword, “The Quest for ‘The Quest for the Keys’,” reveal some of the laborious detective work involved in unearthing the rediscovered pieces of fiction. There’s also a foreword by Pratchett’s friend and collaborator Neil Gaiman. No Discworld stories appear herein, although, as Gaiman remarks, the novelette “The Quest for the Keys” has a very proto-Discworld feel, as well as satirizing sword-and-sorcery adventures and D&D roleplaying scenarios. Several pieces involve wacky goings-on in an English village named Blackbury. “The Blackbury Thing,” about an alleged UFO landing, is especially fun. “Dragon Quest,” which has already seen publication in revised form as “Dragons at Crumbling Castle,” will appeal to most fantasy fans. “How It All Began” stars the caveman who invents fire, with some problematic consequences. Among several Christmas stories, my favorites are “A Partridge in a Post Box” (what happens when the suitor in the familiar carol ships his gifts by mail) and “How Scrooge Saw the Spectral Light. ..” My second-favorite story overall, after “The Quest for the Keys,” is “Pilgarlic Towers,” featuring ghosts whose haunted castle faces demolition in the path of a motorway. Some of the very British humor may puzzle the average American reader; I noticed several allusions that were obviously meant to be funny, but I had no clue why. Nevertheless, any hardcore Terry Pratchett fan will enjoy this collection.
STARLING HOUSE, by Alix E. Harrow. A Southern Gothic dark fantasy by the author of THE TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY, THE ONCE AND FUTURE WITCHES (the only one of these titles I haven’t read), and YA revisionist fairy-tale novels A SPINDLE SPLINTERED and A MIRROR MENDED. Most of STARLING HOUSE is narrated in the first person by Opal, a young woman working a low-wage job and living in a run-down motel with her teenage brother, Jasper, a budding artist and filmmaker. Jasper could have a brilliant future, if only (in Opal’s view) he could get out of their decaying small town and attend the private school for which she’s saving up. Other scenes are told in third person from the viewpoint of Arthur, the reclusive owner of Starling House. The narrative uses present tense, for no apparent reason, although at least the flashbacks are in past tense. Opal impresses me as a rather unlikable character, prickly and foul-mouthed, without the slightest qualms about her habit of petty theft. Yet her intelligence, self-reliance, early loss of her dysfunctional but loving mother, and determination to save her brother (whether he wants her to or not) make her compelling and sympathetic. She has only two sort-of friends, Charlotte, the head librarian at the public library, and Bev, the motel owner, more often grouchy and stingy than affectionate. The setting, a played-out coal-mining town in Kentucky, its prosperous days long past, is dominated by the Gravely family. They hope to revive coal production, if only they can access the mineral rights to the land around Starling House. The mansion’s builder, Eleanor Starling, was a one-book author with an enigmatic past, whose husband, a Gravely, died in mysterious circumstances. Her children’s picture book, UNDERLAND, about a portal to a world much darker than Alice’s wonderland, has creepy illustrations and an ambiguous ending. Did Eleanor base the tale on an actual experience of another realm where she met strange Beasts? (Any Constant Reader of dark fantasy knows the probable answer to this question.) Opal has read her copy of the book innumerable times. For many years, she has dreamed about Starling House, dreams in which she feels at home there. A bold gesture on her part leads Arthur to grudgingly hire her to clean his home, which at this point looks more like the House of Usher than anything fit for habitation. As Opal gradually restores the place to livability, a reluctant rapport grows between her and Arthur. Meanwhile, an agent of the Gravely company pressures her to spy on him for them. If she complies, she’ll be rewarded; if not, the coldly polite woman drops ominous hints of what might happen to Opal and, worse, to Jasper. The Gravelys have money, power, and the aforesaid ruthless agent. Opal has her stubbornness, her devotion to her brother, and her bond with Arthur. By now, she has developed sincere feelings for him. The conflict between her loyalty to him and the welfare of her brother makes the story engaging and suspenseful even before the supernatural element becomes overt. She learns disturbing facts about her own heritage and the dark past of the town, and she hears at least three conflicting stories about Eleanor Starling and the mansion. The final account reveals the truth—maybe. At the climax, Opal and Arthur have to unite to protect themselves and the house, a crisis that culminates in a descent into Underland. Numerous footnotes, often casting doubt on the “facts” stated in the text, probably contributed by Charlotte along with the bibliography, constitute one of my favorite features of this book. The other is the sentient house, cheerful and welcoming when well cared for but dingy and gloomy when neglected, apt to rearrange its rooms depending on its relationship with the occupants or its own inscrutable whims. In the face of seemingly inescapable disaster, Opal, Jasper, and Arthur make it through to a satisfyingly redemptive conclusion that still retains a touch of mystery.
EVE, by Cat Bohannon. Immediately upon starting this massive tome (437 pages of text, not counting notes and bibliography), which surveys the evolutionary history of the human female from the first mammals to Homo sapiens, I felt like a cartoon character on the PBS Kids network who says, “My brain just exploded.” On almost every page, I encountered at least one fact that evokes the same character’s catchphrase, “Well, THAT’S new information.” Moreover, Bohannon’s style is irresistibly lucid, readable, and witty. Each chapter discusses one of many “Eves,” ancestors of our species that exemplify the developments leading to modern woman. After the introduction, the chapters cover the following topics roughly in chronological order of development (aside from the last three, with dates of origin not precisely known): Milk (lactation and breasts), Womb (placental mammals), Perception (the senses), Legs (walking upright), Tools, Brain, Voice (development of language), Menopause, Love (human mating patterns and the social status of women versus men). So many questions arise, with thought-provoking speculation about the answers. Why do human females have breasts, unlike other primates? How did the placenta develop? Is there such a thing as the “female brain”? What are the differences between male and female senses, e.g. hearing the pitch of sounds and seeing colors? Why do women go through menopause? Are human beings “naturally” polygamous, promiscuous, or monogamous? Why do women live longer and, for the most part, healthier than men? Bohannan combines solid facts and scientific hypotheses with occasional personal anecdotes in language both information-dense and engagingly colloquial. Recommended for readers interested in evolution, biology, and/or the mysteries of human development and the differences between the sexes.
THE FRIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, by Jeff Belanger. This author has written numerous books on folklore, legends, and superstition, as well as hosting or participating in a variety of podcasts and TV programs on those topics. This physically beautiful slim volume, printed on sturdy, glossy paper and lavishly illustrated with reproductions (many in color) from paintings, woodcuts, book illustrations, vintage cards, and magazines, even includes an attached red satin ribbon bookmark. Subtitled “Surviving Krampus and Other Yuletide Monsters,” it begins with a background section on pagan winter solstice celebrations, the development of Christmas as we know it, and the life and legends of Saint Nicholas. The large middle section discusses frightful winter “monsters” such as Krampus, Belsnickel, the Yule Cat, the ogress Gryla, Black Peter, and many others. Despite the subtitle, however, some benevolent folkloric characters also appear, such as La Befana, the Tomten (a usually helpful species of house-elves), and of course Santa Claus, whose history is explored at length. Some chapters include anecdotes about the modern-day incarnations of traditional monsters, e.g., the now-popular Krampus. Belanger writes in a breezy but nevertheless fact-dense style that makes THE FRIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS equally appealing as both entertainment and reference work.
For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
*****
Excerpt from “The Thing on the Driveway”:
Spiders shouldn’t sparkle.
They shouldn’t have a leg span the size of Eve’s palm, either. Or be deep purple, shading to indigo on the abdomen. Most important, they shouldn’t swarm in her garage.
Her black cat, Onyx, dashed back and forth across the concrete floor, pouncing on the spiders. Eve flailed at them with a broom in vain. They vanished and reappeared before the blows could land.
Which is impossible. On the other hand, their materializing out of nowhere was impossible. Yet they’d done that just as she’d started trundling a wheelbarrow out the garage door to collect fallen branches. The debris littered the lawn from the summer afternoon thunderstorm that had swept through an hour earlier.
Granted, Arkham had a reputation for strange phenomena, but she figured most of them for urban legends. And, as far as she knew, the famous Antarctic expedition about a century past hadn’t shipped any sparkly, violet-blue spiders home to the university’s biology department.
She changed tactics, trying to sweep the creatures toward the open door with Onyx in pursuit. He skidded to a halt at the upper edge of the driveway and arched his spine, hissing.
Something wiggled—slithered? oozed?—from the driveway into the garage. It reminded Eve of a huge snake from a rain-forest wildlife documentary. She’d never seen one that looked translucent like an elongated blob of rainbow-hued gelatin, though
.
It gulped down the nearest dozen of the spiders. Most of the others popped out of existence like glittering bubbles.
-end of excerpt-
*****
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“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter