Welcome to the July 2025 issue of my newsletter, “News from the Crypt,” and please visit Carter’s Crypt, devoted to my horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance work, especially focusing on vampires and shapeshifting beasties. If you have a particular fondness for vampires, check out the chronology of my series in the link labeled “Vanishing Breed Vampire Universe.”
Also, check out the multi-author Alien Romances Blog
To subscribe to this monthly newsletter, please e-mail me at MLCVamp@aol.com, and I will add you to the list.
For other web links of possible interest, please scroll to the end.
My light paranormal romance novella “Summertide Echoes,” set in the Shenandoah Mountains of Virginia and featuring the ghosts of a St. Bernard and a teenage girl, will be published on July 7. There’s another excerpt below. Joyce, the heroine, is cleaning the mountain vacation cabin she jointly owns with the hero, Mark, who disagrees with her about selling it.
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This month’s interview features Roni Denholtz, author of romance in multiple subgenres, as well as children’s books and other types of works.
*****
Interview with Roni Denholtz:
What inspired you to become a writer?
I was an avid reader even as a child. I devoured the Nancy Drew series and wanted to write my own books. I was always making up stories and acting them out with my Barbies.
What genres do you work in?
Romance (sweet, spicy, paranormal and historical–in other words, many different kinds). I have also published over a hundred articles, stories and poems in magazines and newspapers and 9 children’s books.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I used to outline completely. Then I began winging it at the beginning of a story, and outlining toward the middle.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors or whatever)?
I love so many authors I can’t list them all. But when I was about 14, I started reading the works of Phyllis A. Whitney, Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart and other “gothic” romance authors. They probably had the greatest influence on me. I actually corresponded with Phyllis A. Whitney, who wrote articles and books on writing. She was very encouraging!
How has your teaching career affected your writing?
I taught special ed students and also an adult school class on writing. Reading students’ works made me aware of common mistakes we all make, so it was easier to avoid those mistakes.
What would you describe as the main differences between writing for adults and writing for children (aside from the ages of the readers)?
It is difficult to make a story that is short contain the basic elements of plot and characters; also to make it interesting in fewer words, while making it easier to read.
Please tell us about your “Lightning Strikes” series.
I have always been fascinated by the occult and paranormal. I had the bizarre idea, what if people were struck by lightning and developed psychic abilities? What if there was a center to study those people? So The Lightning Center was born. I thought I’d call the series the Lightning people series but my editor suggested the “Lightning Strikes” series and I liked that name.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
My latest is “Lightning Strikes Anew” which is a second-chance romance which features a psychic researcher at the Center and her former love, who was struck by lightning as a teenager.
What are you working on now?
A new Hanukkah novella. I have several ideas for more books in my Lightning Strikes series. which has been nominated for, and won, awards such as the NJ Golden Leaf.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Read a lot. Also listen to criticism and get a good editor. Just because someone is good at grammar doesn’t mean they can tell you how to improve your story. And don’t give up!
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
Please find me under Roni Denholtz and Lightning Strikes series on Facebook and Roni Denholtz on Instagram.
Thank you, Margaret!
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
NEVER FLINCH, by Stephen King. Latest mystery novel featuring Holly Gibney, now running the Finders Keepers agency on her own after her partner’s retirement, with occasional help from her young friends Jerome and Barbara Robinson. After her introduction in MR. MERCEDES, Holly soon captivated me, and I always look forward eagerly to seeing her in a new story. She has grown in confidence and competence over the series, yet with no distortion of her essential personality. She still sometimes second-guesses herself and hears her mother’s admonishing, demeaning voice in her head. In this book, she shares the viewpoint role with other characters, notably police detective Izzy Jaynes, with whom she developed a true friendship after the horrific case depicted in HOLLY, and a serial killer who calls himself “Trig.” This novel, like HOLLY, has no supernatural content, although NEVER FLINCH does include the uncanny element of a character with dual personalities. Izzy asks Holly’s advice on an anonymous letter threatening to kill thirteen innocent people and one guilty one. Although Holly has no official connection with the case, she’s intrigued and pursues it on her own time. It soon becomes clear that the villain murders randomly targeted victims as surrogates for members of the jury that convicted an innocent man recently killed in prison. Meanwhile, Holly reluctantly accepts a job as temporary bodyguard for a high-profile women’s rights advocate whose current lecture tour will culminate in Holly’s home city (named here for the first time in the series). As well as enthusiastic supporters, Kate McKay attracts rabid protesters who label her a baby-killer. She’s a charismatic speaker but not very likable, domineering to her assistant and often resistant to Holly’s reasonable precautions. Kate presents an excellent example of the truth that “good” isn’t necessarily “nice.” A religious fanatic plotting to assassinate her proves Holly’s meticulous protectiveness is justified. The timing of a show by famed soul and gospel singer “Sista Bessie,” who takes Barbara Robinson under her wing, almost overlaps with Kate’s speaking engagement. The two celebrities form a striking contrast, especially between Kate’s treatment of her assistant and Sista Bessie’s of Barbara. The two murder-suspense plot streams, although completely unconnected aside from Holly’s involvement in both, cleverly merge at the climax. King delves deeply into the minds of the two killers, especially Trig, yet legitimately manages to withhold their identities from the reader until Holly unearths that information. Deviating from his usual, more spontaneous writing method, King acknowledges he had to plot this novel in advance – no wonder, with so many threads to weave together. While this isn’t my favorite Holly Gibney book (that would probably be THE OUTSIDER), I’ll definitely reread it.
GREENTEETH, by Molly O’Neill. This novel has been compared to the work of T. Kingfisher, for sound reasons. The narrator, whose voice resembles that of a typical Kingfisher first-person character, reminds me of Toadling, the amphibious fae protagonist of her THORNHEDGE. GREENTEETH begins with a splash (so to speak) when the townsfolk throw an accused witch into Jenny Greenteeth’s pond. While Jenny, contrary to popular belief, seldom eats humans, she doesn’t associate with them either. Not sure what to do with the shackled, drowning witch, Jenny drags her into her (Jenny’s) underwater cave lair to avoid having a corpse befoul her carefully tended pool. Naturally, when the witch revives, she’s terrified and attempts to cast a defensive spell. Jenny manages to make her harmless intentions clear, though, and they become acquainted. The witch, Temperance, has served her neighbors with benign magic all her life, like her mother before her. But now a newly arrived, fire-and-brimstone pastor has turned them against her, convincing them witchcraft is evil. After some conversation, Jenny decides to help Temperance flee the area, even giving her money. After all, a Jenny Greenteeth has no use for the hoard of coins in her cave. Discovering she enjoys the friendly interaction, she’s almost sorry to see Temperance leave. When the witch returns, determined to stand up for herself rather than abandon her lifelong home (which her husband, she realizes, wouldn’t want to leave), Jenny agrees to help gather ingredients for a spell to erase the villagers’ memory of Temperance’s “evil.” With the aid of Brackus, a goblin peddler, they collect the needed items. Temperance’s magic, however, fails. She realizes some dark force, not merely a fanatical preacher, is working against her. To defeat an ancient evil known as the Erl King, a threat not only to the village, Temperance, and Jenny but to all of Britain, the three oddly assorted allies appeal to the king and queen of the High Fae. The long middle section of the book has the narrative structure of a fairy tale. Assigned three seemingly impossible tasks by the capricious faerie king, Jenny, Temperance, and Brackus embark on the Wild Roads in search of the quest objects. Through hardships and perils, alliance grows into genuine friendship. Their battle against the Erl King leads to the expected dark moment when all seems lost, followed by eucatastrophe at the climax. A delightful twist intertwines their quest with Arthurian legend. It’s especially satisfying that Jenny doesn’t emerge unchanged from the ordeal, having learned to value the human community around her as well as her formerly solitary water home.
THE ADVENTURES OF MARY DARLING, by Pat Murphy. A spinoff from J. M. Barrie’s classic that could be titled “PETER PAN on the Home Front.” After Wendy, John, and Michael disappear from the nursery, what does their mother do? In Murphy’s novel, Mary Darling doesn’t wait at home fretting by the open window. As an intrepid Edwardian heroine, she embarks on a globe-spanning adventure, armed with skills gained during her unorthodox Australian childhood. With the help of unusual friends, including a semi-retired smuggler, she returns to Neverland where she, too, was taken as a child. This novel portrays Neverland as a physical island to which one can sail if one knows the way. Murphy’s version of the tale envisions Peter Pan, not as a runaway child, but as some sort of ancient nature spirit wearing the body and personality of a self-absorbed little boy. If a Lost Boy dies or leaves, Peter forgets and replaces him, giving new children the names of previous ones. Hence the island hosts a succession of multiple Curlys, Tootleses, Twins, etc. The Lost Boys are ragged, dirty, and more often than not hungry. (Peter, in keeping with his changeless existence, doesn’t need to eat.) Boys who start to grow up are “thinned out.” As for girls, Peter regards them purely as “mothers,” a role in which child-Mary had no interest. Murphy complicates adult Mary’s quest by making her the niece of Dr. John Watson, although Watson’s celebrated friend proves less help than one would expect. Aside from the annoyance of his arrogant personality, Sherlock Holmes persistently devises scientific, rational explanations for all apparently magical phenomena. Fairies? A previously unknown species of bioluminescent insects. In another surprising departure from the source material, George Darling, the children’s father, reveals hidden depths beneath his conventional, rather timid middle-class-businessman surface. Also, this is the only Peter Pan retelling I’ve read in which James Hook is quite nice, his fearsome reputation a deliberately cultivated artifice. He, too, turns out to be a friend of Mary’s from her childhood sojourn in Neverland. The presence of non-white characters as fully rounded people rather than stereotypes helps to further deconstruct the worldview of the original, described by the author as “a boys’ adventure book in the spirit of British imperialism.” Her afterword quotes several passages from Barrie’s novel to illustrate the underlying grimness of Neverland. She also lists numerous details in her story based on real people and events in the Victorian and Edwardian eras — for instance, an orchid-hunting aristocratic lady voyaging around the world in her private steam yacht. The only blatant anachronism Murphy perpetrates, as she acknowledges, concerns the pirates flourishing out of their proper time period.
VESPER GLEN, by Coryn Noble. A fresh take on my favorite subgenre, scientifically explained vampirism. Like many small towns, Vesper Glen, Vermont, has a secret – in this case, vampires. But not the horror-movie supernatural type. They host a symbiotic organism that requires them to consume blood, usually from animals. They need human blood only in case of severe injuries. Like typical vampires in most fiction, they heal preternaturally fast, have enhanced strength and senses, can’t endure UV radiation such as direct, unfiltered sunlight, and can live for centuries (although not truly immortal). Infection with the symbiont occurs only through a deliberate act of blood-sharing. Most of them identify with one of three factions: Hounds, who believe in coexistence with the human population; Wolves, who claim a right to feed on humans, often forcibly converting them with a long-range goal of dominating the “inferior” mortals; and Foxes, willing to exist in peace but skeptical of revealing themselves to mortals. In Vesper Glen the small population of V’s, as they’re known, lives openly and harmoniously with the ordinary human majority. Children receive initiation into the town’s secret at the age of fifteen. As the story begins, Charlie Pike, a police detective in Boston, accepts the invitation to return to his home town as the new police chief. After he manages to convince his wife, Abbie, of the reality of vampires, she’s reluctant to move to Vesper Glen but goes along with Charlie’s plans. The first one-third or more of the book is episodic, introducing us to the inhabitants and customs of Vesper Glen by way of a miscellaneous sample of Charlie’s police work there. Everybody we meet, both human and V, turns out to be thoroughly nice, a refreshing change from the common horror-fiction trope of having supernatural evil mirrored by mundane malice and corruption. It does feel a little strange, though, to read a novel with no interpersonal conflict among the main characters, aside from Abbie’s hesitance to fully embrace the human-V relationship and her distress over the interest her teenage daughter displays in possibly turning V at some future time. Midway through the novel, a violent incident draws unwanted attention to the town. Fanatical vampire-hunters who subscribe to all the superstitions and pop culture beliefs about demonic bloodsuckers begin to endanger the peace and safety of Vesper Glen. Attacks by members of the “Wolves” faction complicate the crisis. Charlie faces the problem of dealing with the FBI and the military while hiding the truth about his not-quite-human neighbors. Suspense and action scenes alternate in a satisfying balance with character interaction and background lore. It’s gratifying to read a generally happy denouement that restores the status quo of “normal for Vesper Glen.” The novel could have used a bit more editing, though. For instance, almost all of Charlie’s conversations with new people end with handshakes. Sure, that act of courtesy highlights the reasonableness of most of the outsiders he meets, but the same gesture over and over, narrated in nearly identical words, becomes obtrusive if not outright tedious. On the whole, however, the author gives us likable characters in credible predicaments (credible for an SF novel about vampires, anyway). The specificity of detail enhances suspension of disbelief. She has created a language for the V’s, derived from Slavic roots, with a glossary several pages long, very helpful for the reader encountering untranslated phrases in the main text. My favorite part of the book is the six-page appendix describing the origin and biology of the symbiont, a species of slime mold.
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”:
Fuming over the argument with Mark, Joyce spent half of Saturday afternoon dusting and scrubbing surfaces that hardly needed cleaning. After discharging most of her anger with physical exertion, she washed up, turned on her laptop, and opened the file of her current freelance editing project. Never mind the vacation she was supposed to be taking. She needed something to get her mind off the impasse about the cabin. Furthermore, if she couldn’t talk Mark into selling, she had no alternative but to increase her income enough to augment her savings and cover that balloon payment when it came due. I’ve poured too much time and money into the comic business plan to turn back now. If I have to double my workload, so be it.
Two hours later, when she started doubting her own corrections and developing a headache from eyestrain, she closed the file and shoved her chair away from the kitchen table. Rubbing her neck to ease a cramp, she mentally scolded herself for hunching over the keyboard. Her stomach grumbled. Although residual tension made food less than appealing, she realized the sandwich she’d slapped together for lunch had been a long time ago. After clearing the computer out of the way, she served herself a packaged salad with grilled chicken slices from the supplies she’d stashed in the refrigerator upon arrival. She grudgingly acknowledged that she felt more relaxed after the meal. She poured a glass of bottled iced tea and settled in a lawn chair on the front porch with the paperback mystery she was currently reading.
Her attention wandered from the page only when fading daylight made it hard to focus. As she glanced up to rest her eyes, she caught sight of movement among the trees. An animal? A doe strolled into view, picking her way around the edge of the clearing, with occasional pauses to nibble leaves on low-hanging branches. Joyce held still to avoid scaring her, although this close to the national park most deer didn’t tend to be wary of humans. Seconds later, though, the doe’s head shot up, and she dashed into the woods.
Joyce caught her breath in surprise when the Saint Bernard she’d seen twice before emerged from the undergrowth, chasing after the deer. He disappeared under the trees but reappeared in less than a minute, apparently giving up the pursuit. He ambled up the path toward the cabin.
She moved cautiously from the chair to the top step, stretching a hand toward the dog. “Hi, there. Nice of you to visit. I wonder where you live.”
Instead of veering away this time, he walked straight to her, tail wagging and tongue hanging out. Strangely, she didn’t hear panting. Nor did she feel warm breath on her skin as she reached for his collar to check the tag.
Her hand passed through him as if he were a hologram. Or a hallucination.
He couldn’t be. Ms. Ortega and Mark had seen him, too. She snatched her hand back. “Bruno?” Hesitantly Joyce fumbled for the collar again. Again she touched nothing. The dog licked her, but she didn’t feel a wet tongue. Instead, a dry chill enveloped her fingers.
This can’t be happening. She squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them, he was still there. A second later, though, he vanished. He didn’t run into the woods and fade out of sight among the trees but blinked out of existence like a popped bubble.
Her legs wobbled, and she folded into a heap on the porch steps. Did I dream that?
She didn’t bother with the pinch test. She smelled the mountain laurel blossoms. A breeze rustled the trees and cooled her skin. The boards of the wooden steps felt rough against her thighs. “Bruno? If you’re really here, come back.”
-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:
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Carter Kindle Books
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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