Welcome to the June 2025 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.”
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
To subscribe to this monthly newsletter, please e-mail me at MLCVamp@aol.com, and I will add you to the list.
For other web links of possible interest, please scroll to the end.
FROM THE DARK PLACES, my quasi-Lovecraftian dark contemporary fantasy with romantic elements, was featured in N. N. Light’s Book Heaven’s May “Celebrate Mothers Bookish Event”:
Author Roni Denholtz gave “Kitsune Enchantment” a 4-star Goodreads review, in which she comments, “This is a fun romance novel! I wanted to read a friends-to-lovers trope so I gave this a try. I loved the light, folklore-based paranormal elements.”
My light paranormal romance novella “Summertide Echoes,” set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, will be released on July 7. There’s a glimpse of the opening scene below.
This month’s interview guest is romance author Kathleen Haley.
*****
Interview with Kathleen Haley:
What inspired you to become a writer?
I loved making up stories and writing children’s stories since I was 6. When I was 8 I started writing plays for our neighborhood every summer and winter, and the other kids and I would bring them to life for adults. I laid creative writing aside from college on as I did more academic writing and research. But three years ago I did the NaNoWriMo challenge and ended up writing my first romance novel. Since then, I’ve written 19 more novels and am on my 21st.
What genres do you work in?
Mostly contemporary and dark romance.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
Each book is slightly different, but my general M.O. is to type out about 14 pages of very detailed notes about characters, plot twists, and a few scenes that spring to mind. Then I wing it from there, starting to write. Every few chapters I’ll type out more notes for where I see things headed.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors or whatever)?
I’m a sponge—from TV shows I’ve loved (Insecure, Succession, Grace and Frankie) to movies I’ve watched a thousand times (Dr. Strangelove, Some Like It Hot, The Parent Trap) to dark and angsty romances (LJ Shen, Renee Rose, Laurelin Paige)—everything feeds into my imagination and percolates there.
As a “former academic,” what did you specialize in, and did that field have any connection with your fiction? How would you characterize the main differences between academic and creative writing?
My specialization was English and comparative literature, and, within that, the early modern period—specifically Shakespeare and Rabelais. A lot of this feeds into my writing—for instance, I usually find myself dropping a Shakespeare paraphrase or quote now and then. And the Rabelaisian comic spirit infects all my characters—they love eating, drinking, conversation, and sex. Having taught some 36 varied courses, I draw on that material all the time for my plots, themes, and characterization.
For the first year of writing novels, I had to learn to not explain so much, not to be so precise with my grammar, and not tie myself down so much to reality. It was an uphill battle, because I’d been trained for so long (over twenty years) to do all those things! But my keenness for research has stood me in good stead with novels. I’m pretty good at recognizing when not to go down certain rabbit holes (because they won’t lead to anything productive) or when to call it quits with detail and facts and just flesh out the rest with my imagination.
Many of your novels are described as featuring BDSM. What kind of background research have you done for those elements?
With each novel I research the sexual practices the characters engage in. I have about sixteen helpful websites I pillage for information, insights, and images. I’ve also read a lot of BDSM novellas and novels written by authors who’ve lived the lifestyle. When I say a lot, I mean upwards of 300!
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
I’m seeking ARC readers for The Perception of Vice, number eight in the Senses Series, about a man who forces his girlfriend to marry him and goes to become president of a foreign country in turmoil. The dark romance comes out June 25 and has elements of sci-fi, political intrigue, spy thriller, mystery, and suspense.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on the first novel of the Tainted Love series, called Jaded Lover, about a cynical woman who’s drawn against her will to an upbeat man with a bright outlook. Since the series revolves around the mafia in Scotland and is primarily set in Glasgow, I’ve had to do a lot of initial planning and research to make all eight books unite in theme, plot, and characters. I’m very excited to see what this book—and the series—bring.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
If you’re like me, it may take you a few novels before you hit your stride in writing. It also may take many years before your novels get seen and read by the public. In the meantime, keep writing and don’t give up, however much it feels like you’re struggling in quicksand. You are making progress, even if it’s not visible to you.
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
IMPOSSIBLE CREATURES, by Kathleen Rundell. This YA portal fantasy joins a boy and girl from the mundane world and a magical realm described as “a secret place in our world,” respectively, in a desperate quest. The hardcover is beautiful as a physical artifact, with red-edged pages and lavishly detailed black-and-white drawings. An appendix titled “The Guardian’s Bestiary” provides illustrated descriptions of numerous fantastic creatures. The opening sentences of the two brief first chapters, introducing the co-protagonists, offer irresistible hooks: For Christopher, the boy from our world, “It was a very fine day until something tried to eat him.” For the girl, Mal, “It was a very fine day, until somebody tried to kill her.” (The chapters, by the way, have titles but not numbers.) Christopher’s part in the adventure begins when he arrives in Scotland to stay with his grandfather. Christopher’s mother, who died nine years earlier, shared his strange affinity with birds and animals, which are inexplicably drawn to him. He hasn’t seen his maternal grandfather since then. His father, withdrawn and diminished since Christopher’s mother’s death, has extracted an agreement from his grandfather that Christopher must not approach the top of a certain nearby hill. The reader would know, of course, even if the novel didn’t have an omniscient narrator (which it does), that the boy will violate that prohibition, as always happens in fantasy and fairy tales. Meanwhile, in the other plot thread, we learn Mal, who also lost her mother at an early age, possesses a “flying coat” gifted to her in infancy by a traveling seer, which allows her to ride the wind. On the fateful day, the murderer watches her as she buys a casapasaran, a sort of magical compass, from a dubious curio shop (another familiar fantasy motif). This object saves her life when the assassin knocks on her door. Why has a mysterious “he” sent this man after her? What does she have to do with the fact that magic is fading and creatures dying? Christopher, discovering a lake on the forbidden mountain, witnesses a stampede of mythical beings. He takes an injured baby griffin home to his grandfather, who tells him about the Archipelago, “the last surviving magic place.” The Glimourie Tree, also the last of its kind, generates the magic. On that cluster of islands live creatures extinct and relegated to legend everywhere else, with the “glimourie” making the location unfindable and unchartable. Christopher’s maternal bloodline guards the portal in the lake — the way to the Archipelago – making him the next guardian. Mal comes through, searching for her griffin, and asks Christopher to return with her. She has to take the griffin back, or he’ll die for lack of magic, and she fears for her own life if she goes by herself. The lure of adventure, Mal’s urgent plea, and Christopher’s inherited duty as guardian of the Waybetween persuade him to cross through the underwater gateway. In the course of solving the mystery and saving magic, he and Mal win through a succession of breathtaking adventures and perils, encounter beings from mythologies of many cultures, and confront impossible choices. The narrative maintains a satisfying balance between forward-momentum action and character-revealing interludes. By the climax, the heroes develop a bond of friendship that grows into love. I have one reservation about the story: Considering the significant risk of death, Christopher seems to agree too easily to accompany Mal to the Archipelago. He raises objections, but she quickly overcomes them. If he didn’t answer her call, of course, there would be no story. Still, his motivation strikes me as barely sufficient. That concern didn’t impair my enjoyment of the novel, though. Recommended for fans of portal fantasy and magical creatures, as well as readers of Philip Pullman in particular, with whose Dark Materials series IMPOSSIBLE CREATURES resonates, but in a lighter tone. Granted, Rundell’s novel involves high stakes, dire threats, and some deaths, but it doesn’t subject characters and readers to the outright horror occasionally found in Pullman’s work. IMPOSSIBLE CREATURES culminates in a moving blend of loss and eucatastrophe. A sequel, THE POISONED KING, is forthcoming in September.
JAMES, by Percival Everett. A retelling of HUCKLEBERRY FINN in first person by the slave Jim. The earlier part of the book, allowing for the radical perspective flip, follows the plot of Mark Twain’s novel pretty closely. About halfway through, though, Huck and Jim get separated for most of the remaining action. Consequently, Jim’s solo adventures take the story in an original direction. The Mississippi River and its surrounding landscape remain a dominant motif, however. For me, the most intriguing aspect of JAMES is the title character’s narrative voice. He communicates with the reader and his Black peers in polished standard English. In fact, he speaks better English than Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. In the presence of white folks, the Black characters talk in stereotypical slave dialect. In rare moments of humor, Jim coaches slave children on how to use “proper bad grammar” the way the masters expect. In a darkly funny scene near the climax, when Jim holds a gun on a prosperous white man, the threatened character focuses less on the risk to his life than on why Jim suddenly speaks like an educated person. Jim can also read and write, skills that would condemn him to death if discovered. In contrast to the half-witted, shuck-and-jive persona he displays to whites, his internal monologue features references to classic philosophers. He saves and protects Huck partly because of reluctance to abandon a runaway child to danger, but mainly from a motive revealed in an astonishing twist late in the story. Yet on occasion he does consider letting Huck go his own way, since Jim needs to focus on the primary goal of somehow liberating his wife and child to flee to freedom with him. Through his viewpoint, his relationship with the boy shows none of the simple-minded devotion portrayed in Mark Twain’s novel. Overall, JAMES proves darker than HUCKLEBERRY FINN (and that’s saying something, given some of the scary incidents in the original, but Twain varies the suspense with broad humor, whereas most of JAMES is downright grim). The King and the Duke, for example, are more openly menacing rather than merely grotesque comic relief. Unsurprisingly, the issue of people treating other people as property on the same level as horses or cattle (chillingly highlighted by a brief glimpse of a “breeding” plantation late in the book) forms a major theme. James discovers that even men who disapprove of slavery don’t necessarily regard members of his race as fully human. Another prominent theme is identity. Jim eventually takes on his true name, “James,” and contemplates but by the end still hasn’t chosen a surname. The reader can’t expect the miraculous, last-minute liberation Twain bestows on Jim out of the blue. Instead, the conclusion of JAMES arises from the protagonist’s own narrowly won triumph over hardship and life-threatening dangers.
HAUNTING MELODY, by M. Flagg. The latest volume in the Wild Rose Press’s “Haunting of Pinedale High” YA shared-world series. Unlike the earlier installments, this one doesn’t start in Pinedale, North Carolina. Melody has a reputation for “aggressive anxiety.” After a last-straw blow-up at school, Melody’s widowed mother, a teacher, decides to move from New Jersey to small-town Pinedale, home of her brother (Mel’s uncle), who has recently suffered a heart attack. She’ll have the opportunity to teach younger children, a welcome change, and Mel will get a fresh start. Aside from the culture shock of the transplant, Mel feels she’s losing her only friend, the ghost of a teenage boy who haunts her house. She has interacted with him ever since her father died years earlier. Her anxiety and anger issues are exacerbated by her ability to sense emotions and see ghosts, along with the need to keep those powers secret. On top of that, her excess weight further erodes her self-esteem. In a new town and school, will she manage to find acceptance as someone other than the crazy, unattractive girl who talks to herself and gets into seemingly unprovoked fights? Since music is her main passion, she hopes to join the motet chorus at Pinedale High. She also does well in English, less so in some other classes such as math. After a clash with a hostile guidance counselor, she manages to get the schedule she wants. She begins to make a few friends but, to her dismay, discovers the school swarms with ghosts. One, a janitor named Hank, befriends and helps her. (In this book we’re told for the first time in the series that he’s a ghost; unlike the other spirits, he can be seen by anybody.) On the other hand, Hammer, who died in a motorcycle crash decades earlier, threatens her when she ignores his warnings to stay away from Justin, a boy with whom Mel forms a tentative friendship. Hammer and his two sidekicks enjoy playing mean pranks on the living students and teachers. Mel’s anxiety ramps up at every setback. She struggles to leash her volatile emotions when she senses negative feelings from other people. In addition to unpleasant encounters with some of the adult staff, occasional tension with her mother, and friction with the malicious ghosts, she has to deal with her juvenile delinquent cousin, in contrast to his kind, welcoming parents. What does the elderly man haunting her new house have to do with the spirits bound to the high school? And could her cousin’s rebellious behavior have initially been triggered by the subliminal influence of the school ghosts? She tries her best to fit in but runs into trouble at every turn. At least the friendliness of a few girls in the motet group somewhat offsets the problems she faces – including harassment by a ghost bully, about whom she can’t even complain to adults. This novel, told in first person by Mel as well as present tense (which I got used to fairly quickly, although I don’t like the latter narrative device), is almost painful to read. Moment-by-moment sharing of her experience immerses us in her conflicted emotions. “The Haunting of Pinedale High” isn’t a horror series, so we know to expect a positive resolution to the protagonist’s problems. One plot tangle strikes me as being solved a bit too easily; we’re told things have turned out well but with no details. On the whole, though, the story delivers a satisfying, well-earned conclusion for Mel and her friends and family.
For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
*****
Excerpt from “Summertide Echoes”:
This place looks a lot better than I expected.
Joyce stepped over the front-door threshold into the cabin. Only stale air and closed curtains hinted at its uninhabited status. Great, the neater it is, the quicker it’ll sell. According to her research, vacation retreats in the Blue Ridge Mountains were always in demand. She made a circuit of the living room, opening drapes and windows to let in the sunlight and honeysuckle-scented mountain breeze of an afternoon in June. Roaming through the rest of the house—bathroom, kitchen, two bedrooms, screened back porch—a process taking less than five minutes, she noticed a thin layer of dust on furniture but nothing to indicate neglect. The property management company must be doing its job reliably. Remembering Mark sometimes stayed here overnight if bad weather made it unsafe to drive to his home in the valley, she figured he did his part to keep the place livable, too. She let her tense shoulders sag in relief. What did I expect, spiderwebs and bats? Mushrooms sprouting from the floorboards? As co-owner, Mark wouldn’t let the cabin degenerate into the House of Usher any more than she would.
She woke her phone and texted him: “I’m here. I’ve lined up an appointment with a realtor for tomorrow at 10 a.m. Hope you’re free then.”
Just as she paused in front of the fireplace to glance at a group photo on the mantel, a relic of their teen years, her phone buzzed with a text from him.
“??Realtor??”
She tapped out a reply: “Like we discussed, putting the place up for sale.”
While waiting for his next response, she lingered over the family picture, taken the month before her two-years-older brother, Glenn, had left for the Air Force Academy. Who took this photo? One of our friends who happened to come along that week, I guess. Or were my folks or Mark’s here then? Neither of their parents stayed at the cabin very often. In retrospect, Joyce realized they probably welcomed the occasional breaks from their offspring. The group in the frame posed in front of the porch, with Mark’s Aunt Claire, a blonde of Junoesque height, and Joyce’s Aunt Ruby, short, curvaceous verging on plump, with dark, curly hair already gray-streaked, standing in the middle.
Since the women had lived together for as long as Joyce could remember, the children of both families called both of them “aunt,” regardless of blood relationship. Joyce had been well into her teens before it had dawned on her what “very dear friends” meant in their case. Their Saint Bernard, Bruno, sat in front, his tongue lolling in a doggie grin. Joyce and Glenn stood on one side of the two aunts. Contemplating her younger self, she spared a wistful second for her girlhood wish that she shared Aunt Ruby’s curves, although aware that many of her school friends in her teens had envied her own slim figure. On the other side of the older women Mark, six feet tall even then, with honey-blond hair, stood with his arm loosely around his younger sister, Paige.
Tears blurred Joyce’s vision as she contemplated petite, blue-eyed Paige, with shoulder-length, cornsilk-blond hair lighter than her brother’s. On the day of that picture, she’d had only about a year longer to live. She’d drowned in the lake at the end of the following summer, right before Joyce and Mark’s senior year of high school, on a weekend Joyce hadn’t been at the cabin. Rubbing her eyes, Joyce turned away from the fireplace and wrenched her thoughts back to the present. If we’re going to give a realtor the grand tour tomorrow, I’d better think about what needs fixing or sprucing up, if anything, so I’ll be prepared to discuss that stuff.
The contents of the bookcase beside the hearth distracted her again, though. Hundreds of dollars’ worth of hardcover gaming manuals were wedged in the middle shelf. Her mind boggled as she recalled the small fortune in allowance and babysitting money that collection had devoured. Whatever spare change they’d had left went for comic books to read in the evenings in front of the fireplace. Stacks of them filled the lowest shelf. I can hardly believe Mark kept these. They were all too recent, too tattered, or both, to have any monetary value. Yet they’d inspired her to start seeking ones that did, leading to her present vast accumulation. On the highest shelf, the miniature metal figures she and the other kids had used in their endless tabletop roleplaying games stood in precise rows and columns. The models representing their characters shared space with fantasy monsters of every imaginable species. She smiled at the memory of rainy afternoons spent painting those miniatures with Mark and Paige. Glenn, more of a dice and battle statistics guy, hadn’t been interested in adorning his barbarian fighter. She ran her fingertips over the once-cherished figures—her wizard, Zora, and warrior priestess, Hildegarde; Mark’s bard, Ivor; and Paige’s rogue, Maris. Why had Mark left these mementoes in their old spot for all this time, nine years after the two of them had graduated from high school?
Joyce shook her head and stepped away from the bookcase. Quit woolgathering and get to work. As much as she’d enjoyed those summer weekends, that was then. Now she urgently needed her half of the money selling the cabin would net. After ten months since the death of Aunt Claire, the second of the aunts to pass away, the estate was finally settled. As co-heirs, Mark and Joyce could dispose of this house however they wished. She couldn’t waste time drifting on a tide of nostalgia.
-end of excerpt-
*****
The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, visit the Dropbox page below. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
All issues are now posted on Dropbox, where you should be able to download them at this link:
All Vampire’s Crypt Issues on Dropbox
A complete list of my available works, arranged roughly by genre, with purchase links:
For anyone who would like to read previous issues of this newsletter, they’re posted on my website here (starting from January 2018):
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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
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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