Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Welcome to the November 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.
Happy American Thanksgiving!
My werewolf novel SHADOW OF THE BEAST was featured in N. N. Light’s Trick or Treat Bonanza promotion:
There’s a short two-part excerpt from the novel below. The viewpoint character of the second half is Jenny, the heroine. The viewpoint character of the first half is her long-lost father.
This month’s author guest, Dan Rice, writes fantasy, science fiction, and horror.
*****
Interview with Dan Rice:
What inspired you to become a writer?
When I was 11 or 12, I read Dune by Frank Herbert for the first time. My mind was blown by how he could create such an immersive world in such a slender volume. After finishing that, I decided to give writing a try for myself.
Go back in time a bit further to third grade or so, and I attended The Young Writers’ Conference at the behest of my teacher. I wasn’t thrilled. I had to write a book and present it at the conference. I penned a memoir about building a robot with my father at a science conference. It even had detailed schematics. My fellow attendees, many of whom wrote tales about unicorns or fairies, looked at me like I was an alien.
What genres do you work in?
I mostly write YA fantasy, sci-fi, and horror.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I’ve always been a planner.
For Phantom Algebra, I knew upfront that I wanted the manuscript to be about 75,000 words, and I had a deadline. I created my most detailed outline ever and followed it assiduously while writing the rough draft. It worked precisely how I had hoped. I wrote the draft faster than ever, completing it in about three months. It was within 2,000 words of 75,000, and, to my considerable surprise, the story and prose were clean, making for an easier editing job.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors or whatever)?
Two authors who have influenced me quite a bit are Fonda Lee and Rachel Hartman. Books by both authors helped me craft conflicted characters, particularly Allison Lee, the protagonist of the eponymous series, The Allison Lee Chronicles.
In Lee’s EXO duology, the hero is caught between his loyalty to his friends, his fidelity to his alien overseers, and his desire for freedom. Lee does a fantastic job characterizing his conflicted loyalties. I learned a lot reading these books.
Hartman presents a character adrift in a world where no one will accept her in Seraphina. The protagonist is a human dragon hybrid caught between two worlds, with the denizens of both unaccepting of her. Again, fantastic characterization.
Please tell us about your Allison Lee Chronicles series. And what tips would you offer about integrating mythological and fantasy creatures into a contemporary setting?
Allison’s dreams of becoming a photojournalist are dashed when she is blinded in a brutal attack. Her vision is miraculously restored after undergoing an experimental medical procedure. There is a side effect—she can now see incorporeal dragons following some people around. She will discover that her destiny and the fate of humanity are tied to this unseen world.
When integrating fantasy creatures into a contemporary setting, ensure consistency. Unless you keep meticulous notes that are easy to dig through, this can be harder than you think, especially if the overarching story spans several books. You’ll be amazed at the inconsistencies you will discover while editing.
What sparked the plot of PHANTOM ALGEBRA? What is it like to write in a shared world?
Since the story is in a shared world, I wanted to differentiate my tale from others in the series. I gave Zuri, the protagonist, a traumatic past and an obsession with becoming a mixed martial arts champion. I think a past traumatic past is a solid horror trope, and her obsession with mixed martial arts separates her from other characters I’ve encountered in the genre.
I was very concerned that writing in a shared world would be problematic due to the numerous rules and potential continuity issues. That didn’t turn out to be the case. Zuri’s traumatic past and interest in martial arts helped prevent this.
What kinds of topics will readers find on your blog?
On my blog, you’ll mostly find my musings on speculative fiction, updates on my writing, bookish guest posts from authors obscure to well-known, and occasionally, a random topic that piqued my curiosity. Recently, I’ve started sharing my thoughts on the banned books I have read. I was inspired to do so after listening to Ta-Nehisi Coates speak about his book Between the World and Me on NPR. Some of the books that have been banned are truly astounding. I was shocked to learn A Wrinkle in Time—to my mind, an innocent YA adventure—had been banned.
Also, on my website, the curious can find free stories for their reading pleasure.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
My latest book is Phantom Algebra. Recently, I turned in the fourth and final volume of The Allison Lee Chronicles to my publisher.
My other project is Solarflame, an epic fantasy that is Robert Jordon’s Eye of the World meets Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern. Solarflame is currently in the hands of the editors at Cloaked Press. It is the first entry in either a duology or a trilogy.
What are you working on now?
I’m starting a YA horror/thriller that is a collab with my 10-year-old son. He told me he wanted a book featuring vampire dragons. It’s still early days, but I envision the yarn as a cross between Swarm and The Last Kids on Earth. I plan to sub this book to agents once I have a polished manuscript. To that end, I’m already researching and reading comp titles, and thinking about potential hooks for the query letter.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Edit more than you think you need to. There are always words to cut, typos to correct, and plot holes to fill. If you can’t find any, you’re not looking hard enough.
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
Author Website
Bluesky
Instagram
Amazon
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
THE BEWITCHING, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. This horror novel centers on Mexican folklore of “witches who drank the blood of innocents on moonless nights.” Judging from the gradual revelation of their nature herein, the perpetrators of the “bewitching,” while born human, aren’t quite human any longer. This cleverly structured story unfolds in three alternating timelines. The 1998 protagonist, Minerva, has moved from Mexico City to Massachusetts for graduate study at a small liberal arts college, Stonebridge. Fascinated by supernatural horror fiction, she has chosen for her dissertation a relatively obscure author named Beatrice Tremblay, a correspondent of H. P. Lovecraft. (Tremblay’s name, by the way, is only one of several sly allusions to contemporary horror personalities.) A strange incident in Tremblay’s life, the disappearance of her roommate when the two young women attended Stonebridge, intrigues Minerva as much as the author’s work does. Minerva feels certain Tremblay’s one novel, THE VANISHING, is based on that event. Desperate to get access to Tremblay’s private papers, Minerva becomes acquainted with an elderly, wealthy friend of Tremblay through the autocratic old woman’s bad-boy grandson. Minerva’s great-grandmother Alba, who used to tell her, “Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches,” is the protagonist of the 1908 story. Teenage Alba has an almost squicky crush on her twenty-something uncle from Mexico City, whose charming manners and supercilious attitude toward her family’s rural home make him seem irresistibly sophisticated to her. Amid family conflict, mysterious attacks occur, leading to superstitious fear of a witch stalking the ranch. The uncle-niece relationship turns out as bad as you might expect, although probably not in the expected way. The 1934 narrative, the only one told in first person, comprises Beatrice Tremblay’s memoir of the events surrounding her roommate Ginny’s disappearance. In each section, the plot gradually unfolds from the mundane through the increasingly ominous to openly supernatural horror. While I sympathized with Minerva’s introverted personality and her anxiety about her stalled dissertation but often wanted to shake some sense into Alba, I felt deeply invested in all three protagonists. Although “witches” play a role in each timeline, I wondered how the author could possibly weave the separate stories into a coherent whole. She manages that feat in an astonishing conclusion that nevertheless feels inevitable.
DEFANGED, by H. E. Edgmon. A “vampire as naturally evolved species” novel with some unusual twists. Although it’s probably technically a middle-grade book, since it starts on the protagonist’s twelfth birthday, it seems to me more like YA for its writing style and the dark plot elements. Ever since their species came “out of the coffin” in the 1990s, vampires have been regarded with suspicion by the human majority. Promptly upon reaching the age of twelve, their young are eligible for a “Defanging” treatment, administered by an organization called Vampirism Sucks, which obliterates most of their vampiric characteristics. While not legally compulsory, this procedure is strongly encouraged by social pressure. The few families who don’t subject their children to it are viewed as at best eccentric and at worst dangerous rebels – for instance, protagonist Lux Priddy’s best friend, Emma, whose family insists there’s nothing wrong with being a vampire and they don’t need to be “cured.” Moreover, there’s a law under consideration to require all vampire adolescents to undergo the procedure, with a goal of reducing their species to only the middle-aged or older and children under twelve, leading ultimately to extinction. When Lux’s parents take him to the clinic for defanging on his twelfth birthnight, he becomes progressively more conscious that the procedure will violate his essential self. He already feels not quite “normal,” and he’s certain the treatment would make things worse for him, not better. His misgivings erupt into open rejection. He sneaks out of the facility and flees in a desperate search for the rumored secret, underground vampire refuge, Nox Urbus (a misspelled attempt at Latin, by the way, that makes my teeth grind). When he stumbles upon it by a fortunate accident, he finds Nox Urbus not to be the utopia he imagined. It’s reminiscent of the tunnel community in the TV series BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, but much less comfortable both materially and socially. While Lux isn’t exactly welcomed with open arms, he soon manages to fit in with the group of tweens and teenagers. To his surprise, he meets a person who may be a shapeshifter, a subspecies whose very existence he doubted. The leader of the colony, a man known as Dog, has an unexpected connection with Lux’s mother. Secrets of both Lux’s family and Emma’s are revealed. Eventually, it becomes clear that Vampirism Sucks is much darker than the public image it projects. A daring rescue mission climaxes the novel (leaving the details vague to avoid spoilers). For me, the hopeful ending wrapped up in the epilogue feels rather abrupt, but on the whole I found the book satisfying anyway. Lux’s adventures are narrated in present tense, which didn’t bug me as much as it usually does. Either I’m getting used to it (shudder), or maybe in this case it feels like an acceptable device to generate suspense in the compressed timeline of the story. The Vampirism Sucks procedure reminded me of the “conversion therapy” forced on some homosexual youths, although the author’s afterword reveals that the primary intended real-world analogy is the treatment often inflicted on people with autism.
WHAT STALKS THE DEEP, by T. Kingfisher. The third installment in the “sworn soldier” series, set in the late nineteenth century, starring and narrated by Alex Easton. From my viewpoint, the only thing wrong with these novels is that they’re too short! As a former sworn soldier in the army of Gallacia, a mountainous Ruritanian country most of its inhabitants eagerly leave given the opportunity (according to Alex’s frequent sardonic remarks), Alex has a nonbinary identity. Gallacians speak a complicated language, featuring multiple third-person pronouns in addition to he, she, and it, including a unique word for rocks and one applied only to God (which I’d think would prevent a lot of theological controversy about the divine gender). Sworn soldiers go by ka/kan. To avoid longwinded explanations, Alex usually allows people to think of kan as a man. This novel begins with Alex’s voyage to the United States – accompanied by Angus, an older man who served as kan batman in the army, now “combination valet, groom, and voice of reason” (as described in a previous book) — in answer to an urgent plea from kan friend Dr. Denton, a fellow survivor of the horrific destruction of the house of Usher in WHAT MOVES THE DEAD. Alex is bemused by the American custom of frequent handshaking and astonished by how BIG the country is. Their train trip from Boston to West Virginia takes so long they could have traversed Gallacia several times over in the same number of days. Denton’s cousin has vanished in an abandoned coal mine after a couple of very alarming letters and a final, cryptic telegram. Could some unnatural fate have befallen him? Well, of course, as the reader immediately surmises, but Denton, Alex, and their companions grasp at natural explanations first. Descending into the mine, they cope with darkness, pockets of poisonous and/or explosive gases, precarious spaces where cave-ins seem all too likely, blockages from previous such disasters, and narrow, curvy, low-ceilinged passages (where Alex continually assures kanself ka is NOT claustrophobic). According to the author’s afterword, the story was inspired by H. P. Lovecraft’s AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS. The search party encounters labyrinthine tunnels, a vast cavern with an iridescent floor like translucent pearl, and Kingfisher’s version of shoggoths. Happily, the human characters manage to communicate with the latter more successfully than Alex did with the titular entities in WHAT MOVES THE DEAD, but still not without potentially lethal dangers. The atmospheric setting and scenes of breathless suspense are artfully balanced with interludes of lively dialogue, believable character interaction, and skillful exposition. Denton’s partner, Ingold, displays endless fascination with the weird phenomena in the mine, brightly expounding his observations and hypotheses to the others regardless of terrifying circumstances. As always in Kingfisher’s fiction, the narrative style is irresistibly engaging. I can’t get enough of Alex’s voice, with its frequent notes of wry humor. Examples from early in the book: On avoiding discussion of the Spanish-American war: “I passed our days at sea having gin and tonics and no opinions about Guam.” Alex’s reaction to Ingold’s heavy Bostonian accent: “I had an involuntary urge to snatch up the teapot and find a harbor to dump it in.” On the overwhelming mauve décor of the hotel, including the staff’s uniforms: “I wondered if the bellhops ever stood up against the walls for camouflage.” Well, I could go on for several pages about Kingfisher’s work. If you enjoy sympathetic, intelligent, three-dimensional characters and innovative twists on traditional horror, folklore, and fantasy plots, do give her a try.
THE SUMMER WAR, by Naomi Novik. A short (127 pages), standalone fantasy by the author of the Scholomance trilogy (a magical school that apparently wants to kill its students) and the Temeraire series (the Napoleonic wars with dragon-riders). The book’s title refers to the perpetual hostility between the protagonist’s homeland and the summerlings, this world’s equivalent of elves. Like most such beings in folklore, they appear to humans incomprehensible, capricious, and often cruel. Their lord blames the lineage of the human king for the death of his sister in the distant past. To his kind, however, who experience time differently from mortals, the tragedy might have happened just yesterday. The summerlings attack only in summer, retreating with the onset of autumn, and they don’t come every year. Twenty years might go by before they remember the war. A tense peace with trade between humans and summerlings currently exists, Celia’s father, Grand Duke Veric, having ended the war before she was born. Even so, only heroes and song-spinners can venture into the Summer Lands and emerge unscathed. “Celia was twelve years old on the day she cursed her brother,” the novel begins. Celia, though descended from a legendary witch-queen, has never shown any signs of sorcerous power before. She and her two brothers are half-siblings, children of the three deceased wives of the Duke. Roric, the middle child, hardly counts for Celia or anyone else. The oldest, Argent, however, has earned a reputation as the best knight in the land, celebrated in story and song. Upon what should be his triumphant return home, though, he announces he isn’t staying. Their father will never accept his homosexual identity. Argent’s attempt to slip away without even pausing to bid farewell to Celia triggers the inadvertent curse. Up to this point, Celia didn’t strike me as very nice, with her disdain for Roric and her overreaction to Argent. But, after all, she’s only twelve, and she soon improves. She’s horrified when her furious outburst condemning Argent to be unloved comes true. Over the next few years, while he rises to the fame of a living legend, he remains alone. Meanwhile, as the estate suffers from their father’s neglect, she and Roric manage it together. Roric’s true ambition, though, is to become a song-spinner. At the age of fifteen, Celia determines to travel into the Summer Lands in search of Argent. Roric plans to go with her in the guise of a wandering song-spinner. But before they can act, Celia finds herself snared in the clutches of the summer lord. The ensuing scenes immerse characters and reader in an atmosphere reminiscent of folklore, ballads, and fairy tales: Life-or-death bargains in which exact words vitally matter. A succession of ritualistic single-combat challenges drawn out over several days. A bard in disguise – Roric, of course – whose clever tales and songs offer his siblings their last, desperate hope. We see all this through Celia’s viewpoint, including a eucatastrophic resolution to both the interminable war and Argent’s plight. I found the blend of naturalistic characterization, political intrigue, and fairy-tale motifs enthralling.
For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
*****
Excerpt from SHADOW OF THE BEAST:
With the taste of blood burning like acid in his mouth, Tim lay curled up on his side next to a dumpster behind a 7-Eleven. The cold of the ice-coated blacktop seeped into his naked flesh. Despite the shivers that racked him, he couldn’t summon the strength to move.
*It’s getting worse!*
He used to have some control over where he woke. Lately, though, he clawed his way to consciousness in strange places, perilously far from home. Damn, how was he supposed to sneak back to his apartment naked in the freezing night?
The attacks were getting worse in other ways, too. His body’s memory of raw flesh and hot blood on his tongue used to sicken him. Now it seemed normal. Indeed, he relished the heaviness of newly devoured life in his belly.
Lightning bolts of memory crashed through his skull. Bones crunching between his teeth. The pleasurable ache in his limbs from hours of running. A distant howl answering his own cry.
If only that part were true! He was alone, so alone.
He couldn’t wait much longer. He had to find an escape from this isolation before he deteriorated so far he would disintegrate at the lightest touch.
* * *
*I want to wake up. I will wake up right now.*
Well aware that she was dreaming, she crouched under the open window, poised to spring. A chilly breeze tickled her nose with smells of damp earth and Mrs. Perlman’s crocuses. An unseasonable shift toward sixty-degree days had melted the snow and beguiled the early bulbs out of dormancy.
Her nostrils twitched at the scent of some small creature, probably a squirrel, in the tree outside. With her legs bunched under her, she whined out loud, resisting the urge to leap through the window. Her whiskers and the hair on the back of her neck bristled at vagrant puffs of wind.
*This is a dream. I know who I am. I am Jennifer Cameron, and I can wake up whenever I want to.* She wrenched herself away from the window. As her body began to dissolve like an ice sculpture in the noonday sun, darkness congealed before her eyes.
When consciousness returned, she was lying naked on the bed.
-end of excerpt-
*****
The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, visit the Dropbox page below. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
All issues are now posted on Dropbox, where you should be able to download them at this link:
All Vampire’s Crypt Issues on Dropbox
A complete list of my available works, arranged roughly by genre, with purchase links:
For anyone who would like to read previous issues of this newsletter, they’re posted on my website here (starting from January 2018):
This is my Facebook author page. Please visit!
Facebook
Here’s my page in Barnes and Noble’s Nook store:
Barnes and Noble
Here’s the list of my Kindle books on Amazon. (The final page, however, includes some Ellora’s Cave anthologies in which I don’t have stories):
Carter Kindle Books
Here’s a shortcut URL to my author page on Amazon:
Amazon
The Fiction Database displays a comprehensive list of my books (although with a handful of fairy tales by a different Margaret Carter near the end):
My Goodreads page:
Goodreads
Please “Like” my author Facebook page (cited above) to see reminders when each monthly newsletter is uploaded. I’ve also noticed that I’m more likely to be shown posts from liked or friended sources in my Facebook feed when I’ve “Liked” some of their individual posts, so you might want to do that, too. Thanks!
My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Wild Rose Press: Wild Rose Press
You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter
Welcome to the October 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.
Happy Halloween!
My YA ghost novella, “Her Death Was Doubtful,” an installment in the “Haunting of Pinedale High” shared world, was released on September 29.
Eleventh-grader Mia Petrelli’s worst problem is her forthcoming oral report on Hamlet, until a ghost wearing a bloodstained skirt confronts her. The phantom begs for help to find her lost baby. Mia has seen spirits before, but none so alarming as this one. Persistently haunted by the dead girl, she has little choice but to investigate the ghost’s past. With the support of her long-time friend Ethan Abbott, Mia strives to uncover the truth so the ghost can rest. Just as Mia’s friendship with Ethan begins to grow deeper, she discovers a buried secret in his family that threatens their budding romance. To work through the snags in their own relationship, together they must help two troubled spirits achieve peace.
It can be found here:
There’s an excerpt below, which features an encounter in the school cafeteria while Mia and her best friend discuss an upcoming dance.
N. N. Light’s Book Heaven gave it a 5-star review:
N. N. Light’s Book Heaven Review
They say, “The descriptive narration works so well with the world-building to bring readers a delightful spooky read. I loved the way Margaret L Carter wrote in clues relating to Hamlet. It was easy to connect with the characters, especially Mia.”
Please welcome Kim Ligon, author of cozy mysteries and various romance subgenres.
*****
Interview with Kim Ligon:
What inspired you to become a writer?
I’m not certain. I only know when a story comes on my heart, I have to write it down (or type it up) even if I’m the only one who ever reads it. I have been writing since I was eleven years old, but only became a published author when I was able to retire from my day job. Sometimes the story needs to percolate a while before it’s fully formed. I have folders full of snippets—characters, plot lines or situations that I don’t want to lose but aren’t enough for a full story.
What genres do you work in?
Cozy mysteries with a happy-ever-after, Sweet Clean Victorian and Contemporary Romance, Romantic Suspense, Christian Romance
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
When I begin a book I usually have a very rough outline of who the characters will be although sometimes they are nameless in the beginning, the element of suspense or mystery, and how it will end. Usually, I end up with a story that falls within the rough outline but often there are added tangents and sometimes additional characters.
My characters are strong minded. They come to me in my dreams to insist on a name change, object to a plot line or push me through a writer’s block with the right plot twist. I’ve found I get a lot more sleep if I listen to them and follow their advice.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors or whatever)?
I have been a lifelong reader of all types of fiction and non-fiction following my mother’s path. She was seldom seen without a book in hand. I grew up in a large family in a small town and I draw a lot on that experience in my stories. Growing up I loved the five little Peppers and Nancy Drew. My mom was a Harlequin romance reader and I’ve read tons of those. I have read much of my World Book encyclopedia because I wanted to know more about things or how something worked or where something was located. I have traveled all over the United States and Europe keeping journals as I did. All those things meld together to create my characters and stories.
How would you define “cozy mystery”?
One of my reviewers said it was “a story where you get the spice of mayhem and murder without the gore and horror.” I like that description. You may see blood and be frightened for the character’s life, but the descriptions are not graphic.
What kinds of research do you do for your Victorian-era fiction?
I was a history major in college focusing on British history particularly during the Victorian and Edwardian eras so I knew a lot of the history. There is a helpful book called “How To Be A Victorian: A Dawn-To-Dusk Guide to Victorian Life” by Ruth Goodman that takes you through a day as a Victorian. I used Debrett’s Guide to the Peerage to understand titles and how to use them appropriately and for etiquette information. I’m also a big Jane Austen fan and her novels give you good pictures of life during this era. One of my beta readers is an unofficial expert on the period and helped me get some of the etiquette items correct.
Your website mentions that your romances are “laced with faith.” Any tips on incorporating that feature into fiction in a way that doesn’t feel either “preachy” or artificially tacked-on?
Let me tell you how my readers say I lace in faith. From my debut novel, Polly’s List, one reviewer said: “One thing that surprised and pleased me was the integration of the characters’ faith without proselytizing. This is done organically in a way most of us can relate to.” For my second book, Landing On Her Feet, a reader said: “This element (spiritual dimension) further enhances the novel, making it not only a suspenseful tale but also a soul-stirring experience.” In my stories there are prayers for safety and guidance, grace before meals, children’s bedtime prayers and well placed sermon topics as part of the characters’ well rounded development. They are good, if flawed, people who do love their neighbors and try to follow the Golden Rule.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
In May, my fifth book, “Running To Daylight” came out. This is my fourth cozy mystery set in the small town of Lansdale, Wisconsin. There is suspense and slow burn, clean romance ending with a happy-ever-after. Each of my Lansdale stories are standalone novels, but if you’ve read them all you’ll see old friends pop up on the pages of each one.
What are you working on now?
I am working on a fifth Lansdale, Wisconsin cozy mystery tentatively titled “Abby’s Gift” and a Regency period romance with a working title of “A Cheshire Promise”.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Don’t worry about getting everything perfect when you start a story. Get it down on paper or in the computer as soon as you can. Start at the end if that is where you are inspired. I can’t tell you how many times I took fifty pages, printed them out, then rearranged them trashing some things and adding new sections. Ask people who know you well and love you to read your work and be open to their feedback. What makes sense to them and what questions do they have? Then get it to a publisher. Read the submission guidelines carefully and follow them explicitly. If it doesn’t hit on the first one, go to another. BE PERSISTENT!
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
Spinning Romance is my blogsite
kimjanine@spinningromance.com is my email
Buy Link is the universal buy link for all of my books.
No other social media.
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
STEPHEN KING’S MAINE: A HISTORY AND GUIDE, by Sharon Kitchens. Illustrated by a copious collection of photographs and a few hand-drawn maps, this trade paperback guides the reader through Maine locations (1) where Stephen King has lived and (2) that inspired places in his fiction. The two categories, naturally, overlap. The author begins chronologically, with towns where King lived in his childhood and teens, but moves to a more geographically oriented approach after that time period. Of particular interest to many fans, naturally, will be Lisbon Falls, the probable inspiration for Derry, and Bangor, the acknowledged model for Castle Rock. Each section includes interviews with local residents, sometimes friends or acquaintances of King, often people with unusual occupations and avocations. The table of contents is organized with admirable clarity. There’s an extensive bibliography but, alas, no index. One other feature I’d have liked to see – an alphabetical list of novels and notable short pieces with their real-world Maine counterparts appended. The actual text ends with suggestions for several tour itineraries. It’s fascinating to see how King’s lifelong practice of drawing upon actual experiences and locations lends vivid realism to his fiction, regardless of its supernatural or paranormal premises. If you consider buying this book, note that the content of STEPHEN KING’S MAINE focuses much more on the places and their inhabitants than on his work itself. Still, this guide is absorbing and fun. Most of King’s Constant Readers (to borrow his own terminology) would probably be delighted by it.
Speaking of Stephen King, in September a lavish hardcover picture book of HANSEL AND GRETEL was published with his retelling of the fairy tale to accompany illustrations by the late, great Maurice Sendak. An introduction by King includes an account of how he approached the project, plus his personal tribute to Sendak. The colorful, intricately detailed pictures include some creepy features beyond the obvious ones you’d expect. Close examination of the forest reveals subtle glimpses of eyes and claws. The gingerbread house has a face, which alternates between jolly and menacing. King adheres to the familiar tale in most respects but with small variations. The children’s father becomes a broom maker instead of a woodcutter. The stepmother presents a semi-plausible argument to her weak-willed husband instead of stating outright her intention to leave the kids to die. The witch gets a bit of backstory, shown flying on her broom with captive children for her meals rather than always waiting for them to stumble on her cottage. As a special treat for fans of the Dark Tower saga, King names her – Rhea of the Coos.
THE LORDS OF CREATION, by S. M. Stirling. Although this novel is a sequel to THE SKY PEOPLE and IN THE COURTS OF THE CRIMSON KINGS, set respectively on Venus and Mars, reading them isn’t necessary for appreciation of the third book. Naturally, however, readers familiar with the first two installments will enjoy picking up references to them. This series is set in an alternate universe where space exploration, which started earlier than in our timeline, discovered a Venus and Mars resembling the inhabited planets of pulp science fiction. To get the idea, think of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s A PRINCESS OF MARS and its sequels. Beginning in the prehistoric past, a mysterious, virtually omnipotent alien species, the titular Lords of Creation, terraformed Mars and Venus. They imported animals and humans from various Earth time periods. Thus we have a primitive, swamp-covered Venus with dinosaurs and a desert Mars with an ancient civilization. Inspired by the enigmatic, coldly rational Martians, by the way, this universe’s version of STAR TREK features a logical starship officer who’s a Martian. In THE LORDS OF CREATION, Earth explorers have recently discovered interdimensional gates left behind by the godlike aliens. Chapter headings consisting of paragraphs from the 2004 ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITTANICA help to fill us in on the background of this alternate world. Although the cover blurb hints that the nature of the Lords of Creation and the reason why the gates have suddenly become accessible will be at least partially revealed in this novel, they aren’t. As the story begins, an expedition prepares to enter the Gate in the Atlantic Ocean, which leads to a vast, hollow sphere large enough to hold 500 million Earth-sized planets. It’s illuminated by a sun-equivalent that never exactly sets, and the curvature of the sphere’s interior means it has no true horizon. Protagonist Janice DiFalco holds a PhD in physics as well as a degree in linguistics. The ship that traverses the Gate carries, in addition to Janice and the rest of the WestBloc team, a representative of the EastBloc, Chinese astrophysicist (with additional specialties in archaeology and linguistics) Lee Daiyu. (In this alternate history, the EU has declined into a minor power.) Although it’s an open secret that she’s also there as a spy, she and Janice get along fairly well. Their adventures involve them with a barbarian tribe, a society originating from Enlightenment-era France, and New France’s rival, a society seeded from nineteenth-century England. I enjoyed the worldbuilding and character interactions, especially the growing sort-of friendship between Janice and Lee. Despite their unavoidable mutual distrust because of their ideological differences, they discover many things they have in common as twentieth-century “Round World” people among living anachronisms. They become, as they put it at the end, “friends with qualifications.” The stakes are raised when the Earth explorers find themselves stranded, at least for the present. The plot has plenty of forward momentum to keep the reader’s attention engaged and enough battle scenes to please fans of that aspect of Stirling’s fiction. Although the cover blurb identifies this book as the final volume of a trilogy, I wistfully hope for more — short works even if no future novels. The setting of the Sphere offers almost infinite scope for fascinating ecosystems, cultures, and stories.
TIFFANY ACHING’S GUIDE TO BEING A WITCH, by Rhianna Pratchett and Gabrielle Kent. Upon Terry Pratchett’s death, it was announced that no more Discworld novels would appear (not even completions of unfinished works he might have left). This illustrated hardcover, co-authored by his daughter, is the next best thing. Any devoted fan of Discworld, especially the “Witches” subseries, will want this book. On the other hand, readers unfamiliar with the series might find TIFFANY ACHING’S GUIDE more confusing than entertaining, so this wouldn’t be a suitable entry point for novices. Chapter topics include, among many others, “Becoming a Witch,” “Hierarchy & Sisterhood,” “Witch Attire & Accessories,” “Witch Magic,” “The Power of the Land,” “The Nac Mac Feegle,” “Familiars & Companions,” “A Witch’s Abode” (be very careful with gingerbread cottages), and “On Gods & Other Monsters” (one of my favorite chapters — “Most witches don’t believe in gods” – they exist, of course, but witches know them too well to believe in them). The text is embellished with marginal notes and supplementary essays by characters such as Nanny Ogg, Granny Weatherwax (the leader the witches don’t have), Mrs. Letice Earwig, Miss Tick, Queen Magrat Garlick, et al. As in Terry Pratchett’s best work, a core of serious meaning underlies the humor, especially in the final chapters, “Life & Death” and “On Journeys.” At the end of the book appears a helpful list of characters, animals, places, etc. mentioned in the text (broken down by categories such as witches, wizards, gods and monsters, among others), noting which novels they appear in.
For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
*****
Excerpt from “Her Death Was Doubtful”:
The idea of going to the dance with Ethan appealed to Mia more than she wanted to admit. But suppose she asked him, and he declined? What if the resulting awkwardness ruined their friendship?
“You should buy a new dress and everything. I’ll help you pick one. We could go to the mall in Raleigh. It would be fun.” Keisha possessed fashion savvy far above Mia’s level. Mia was more of a big-box store shopper than a boutique connoisseur. “With your long, black hair, brown eyes, and pale skin, you’d look fantastic in a deep jewel tone. Jade green, probably. How about it?”
“Maybe.” At that moment, the ghost girl from the restroom appeared on the other side of the table. She materialized out of thin air between one second and the next, bloodstained clothes and all. Mia suppressed a gasp as the phantom sat across from her like the specter at the banquet in Macbeth.
“What’s wrong?” Keisha gave her a teasing smile. “Is the idea of dress shopping that scary?”
Mia shook her head. “It’s nothing. Swallowed a crumb the wrong way.”
With an unblinking stare, the ghost moaned, “Where’s my baby?”
“Go away,” Mia silently mouthed, waving as if shooing a fly.
“Help me find my baby.”
The girl looked and sounded so real Mia had trouble convincing herself nobody else could see or hear her. Dredging her fork through her half-finished meal, Mia forced her gaze away from the apparition and stared at her plate.
“You sure you’re okay?” Keisha asked in a more serious tone.
“Sure. I’ll ask Mom if I can buy a new outfit.”
“So that means you’ll ask Ethan to take you to the dance?”
“I’ll think about it.” The ghost stretched to a standing position and floated through the table like wading into a pool, her body visible only from the waist up. Mia flinched.
“And if he doesn’t want to for some crazy reason, you’ll come solo?” Keisha waved a hand in front of Mia’s face. “Earth calling, come in, please.”
“Sorry.” The ghost leaned forward until a chill emanating from her made Mia’s skin prickle. Mia scrambled off the bench. “I need to leave. I don’t feel so good all of a sudden. You can have my cake.”
Keisha twisted around to watch her. “Maybe you should go to the nurse’s office. Want me to come with?”
“No, I just need a drink of water and some air. I’ll be all right in a few minutes.” After grabbing her purse and backpack, she scurried toward the exit.
In the corridor, she leaned against the wall, gulping deep breaths. She pressed one hand against her queasy stomach. So much for hoping the ghost couldn’t leave the site of her death. At least she hadn’t followed Mia out of the cafeteria. Mia hustled down the hall to the girls’ room, where she blotted her flushed face with damp paper towels. A couple of students who walked in cast curious glances at her, but they didn’t say anything. Maybe she looked less freaked than she felt.
When her breathing and heartbeat calmed, she left the restroom and retreated to the library on the second floor. There she settled at a secluded table with her American history textbook to start on the next day’s chapter. The words swam in her blurred vision. Closing her eyes, she laid her head on her folded arms with the book open under them.
After only a few minutes of rest, an icy touch skimmed her bare forearm. With a stifled cry, she whipped her head up and looked wildly around. The ghost girl bent over her, staring into her face.
“Leave me alone,” Mia ordered in a harsh whisper. “I can’t help you. Haunt somebody else.”
“I can’t find my baby.”
Instead of answering, Mia fixed her gaze on the textbook. The ghost’s repetitious pleas faded into an unintelligible murmur and finally stopped. When Mia glanced up, the phantom girl had disappeared.
-end of excerpt-
*****
The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, visit the Dropbox page below. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
All issues are now posted on Dropbox, where you should be able to download them at this link:
All Vampire’s Crypt Issues on Dropbox
A complete list of my available works, arranged roughly by genre, with purchase links:
For anyone who would like to read previous issues of this newsletter, they’re posted on my website here (starting from January 2018):
This is my Facebook author page. Please visit!
Facebook
Here’s my page in Barnes and Noble’s Nook store:
Barnes and Noble
Here’s the list of my Kindle books on Amazon. (The final page, however, includes some Ellora’s Cave anthologies in which I don’t have stories):
Carter Kindle Books
Here’s a shortcut URL to my author page on Amazon:
Amazon
The Fiction Database displays a comprehensive list of my books (although with a handful of fairy tales by a different Margaret Carter near the end):
My Goodreads page:
Goodreads
Please “Like” my author Facebook page (cited above) to see reminders when each monthly newsletter is uploaded. I’ve also noticed that I’m more likely to be shown posts from liked or friended sources in my Facebook feed when I’ve “Liked” some of their individual posts, so you might want to do that, too. Thanks!
My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Wild Rose Press: Wild Rose Press
You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter
Welcome to the September 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 YA ghost novella “Her Death Was Doubtful,” an installment in the “Haunting of Pinedale High” shared-world series from the Wild Rose Press, will be published on September 29.
Eleventh-grader Mia Petrelli’s worst problem is her forthcoming oral report on Hamlet, until a ghost wearing a bloodstained skirt confronts her. The phantom begs for help to find her lost baby. Mia has seen spirits before, but none so alarming as this one. Persistently haunted by the dead girl, she has little choice but to investigate the ghost’s past. With the support of her long-time friend Ethan Abbott, Mia strives to uncover the truth so the ghost can rest. Just as Mia’s friendship with Ethan begins to grow deeper, she discovers a buried secret in his family that threatens their budding romance. To work through the snags in their own relationship, together they must help two troubled spirits achieve peace.
A teaser of the opening scene appears below.
My light paranormal romance novella “Summertide Echoes” received a lovely 5-star review from N. N. Light’s Book Heaven. They say, “The author writes with emotion and lush world-building. Once you start, you won’t want to leave these characters.”
This month’s interview presents Darin TaDream, who writes romance in a variety of subgenres.
*****
Interview with Darin TaDream:
What inspired you to become a writer?
Never in my youth would I have dreamed of writing since I disliked reading. But with my wife being an avid reader, to the point of feeling neglected, I chose to embrace reading. She introduced me to books on my favorite TV show, Star Trek. 135 books later, I joined her in her stories, listening, then reading out loud to each other. When one story in particular had a letdown of an ending and I made a snide comment about the publisher’s choice of authors.
Yep, I said if they published that person’s story, they would publish anybody. Ahh, right I put my foot in my mouth. With a look and a laugh, she pushed that foot down my throat. So, I had to try.
Creating my first story I found I enjoy the creative process of writing, so since 1998 I’ve been writing. After volumes of rejection from not understanding the query, submission, agent acquisition bureaucracy I found the growing self-publishing capability. I decided to self-publish my third work first.
What genres do you work in?
Romance, adult, and young adult, contemporary, from sweet recovery to explicit erotic with widely diverse characters including an LGBTQIA character revelation, imparting the life differences of those declaring themselves LGBTQ to those who live with being intersexed.
Do you outline, “wing it,” or something in between?
I wing it… being in a manufacturing career that works on cyclic timing, often allowing time for creative thoughts (daydreaming). With each new creative Idea, then the work begins on how to integrate that scene into the story.
What have been the major influences on your work (favorite authors or whatever)?
I can’t say that there has been a major influence, often I notice a lack of attention to a
topic or characters. LGBTQ was being over covered so, RUN THE TABLE: ACCEPTANCE involves an intersex character. Started in 2000, I felt there was a lack of African-American central characters, so, with a son (stepson technically) being interracial, well, CHANCE UPON WILMARTIN needed to be written.
Did you base the background of RUN THE TABLE: ACCEPTANCE on personal experience with Professional Billiards or on research? If the latter, do you have any hints for authors wanting to write about a field outside their own experience?
Let’s say it was family experience that was the background. My oldest brother (7 years older, now deceased) ran a pool hall and made the amateur tours. But yet I still had a lot of research to do. Corresponding with the governing agencies of sports, no matter how obscure the sport, is a place to check for me. Again, my brother’s connections in this case. It was the medical confirmation research that will honestly open a reader’s eyes and mind to the category of intersex individuals. FACT: Intersex individuals are more common than those with natural red hair, fair complexion, and freckles.
FOR MY HEART AND MIND features the movie industry and the beauty pageant subculture (wow!). What research sources did you use for this novel?
Once again, the governing councils of the national beauty pageants have historians, and record archives, for that part of the story. For the movie industry, just watch TV, other movies and shows, documentaries and behind the scenes exposes.
Fun Fact: To even my surprise, FOR MY HEART AND MIND turned out to be a prequel to my debut novel …CAN COME TRUE that mentions the completion of the movie being started.
What is your latest or next-forthcoming book?
FOR MY HEART AND MIND is my latest release with the audiobook version still in work.
What are you working on now?
Currently in progress is UNDER THE NEW MEXICO MOON; an astronomy intern chooses to prove an anomaly is more than a glitch in the computer system. With permission from a UFO network, she reopens an abandoned missile silo turn observatory. Hearing scurrying from within the dome she fears what could be infesting the facility she desperately needs to use. At the same time a lagamorphologist hopes to make a name for himself and save the Zoo he works for from what lies inside. How they build into romance is still unknown.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Be (read my penname again) and …CAN COME TRUE.
What is the URL of your website? What about other internet presence?
I’m on a few of the popular social media sites every now and then, I’m not that impressed with online interaction. Questions and comments are welcomed at fans.darin@outlook.com while my basic website is:
DarinTaDream
Thank you for this opportunity to be part of your Crypt.
*****
Some Books I’ve Read Lately:
GOING HOME IN THE DARK, by Dean Koontz. Like Stephen King’s IT and numerous other subsequent dark fantasy novels, Koontz’s latest work of science-fiction horror features an ensemble cast of youthful friends returning to their hometown in adulthood to confront unfinished business with a supernatural or paranormal evil. Like King’s characters, Koontz’s have also forgotten the past horrors they faced. Their situation differs, though, in that their memories were purposely erased. Furthermore, over the course of the story the “four amigos” have those memories deliberately restored, little by little. Thus the reader learns what happened back then at the same pace as the characters remember. They recall Maple Grove as an idyllic small town like the setting of a 1950s family sitcom. Even the street names reinforce that impression, labeled after characters and places such as Mayberry, Winkler, Cunningham, Harriet Nelson, etc. Yet the four friends are haunted by a vague sense of having forgotten some terrible event. All of them, perhaps as a byproduct of that suppressed trauma, have grown up sort of neurotic, although – typical of Koontz’s protagonists – they’ve remained goodhearted people. Also, each has achieved creative success in a different field, Rebecca as an actress, Spencer a visual artist who paints his canvases in a fugue state, Bobby an author, and Ernie a composer of country songs. The story begins when three of the four amigos receive the news that Ernie, the only one who stayed behind in Maple Grove, has inexplicably lapsed into a coma. During his friends’ visit to the hospital, Ernie apparently dies. Intuitively sensing that he’s not dead but in suspended animation, they sneak his inert body out of the intensive care ward. There follows a madcap series of adventures, simultaneously suspenseful and farcical, as they try to hide his body, evade the shadowy menace threatening them, and solve the mystery of the horrors in their past. The ultimate revelation of who or what lies behind those horrors struck me as satisfyingly unusual. Koontz narrates the story from an omniscient viewpoint. Furthermore, he plays with metafictional elements I haven’t seen in any of his previous works. The narrator addresses the reader directly, sometimes in mini-essays of several paragraphs, about authorial decisions on issues large and small such as pacing, foreshadowing, dialogue tags, and even whether to describe food (he doesn’t). In recent years his similes and other figures of speech have grown progressively more elaborate and idiosyncratic. In this book, they’ve become extravagantly over-the-top. Moreover, although he engages our sympathy for the good guys, a slight feeling of detachment pervades the narrative. While he does ride his customary right-wing hobby horses, the exaggeratedly sardonic tone makes the rants more bearable than I usually find them. Strangely, this book doesn’t include a dog. Nor, thankfully, does it feature his usual cartoonish sociopathic genius bent on destroying the world from no rational motive. The antagonist, whose nature I’m leaving vague because anything more specific would spoil the climactic revelation, does want to destroy 90 percent of the human species. The two minions we meet, though, aren’t geniuses, much less fabulously wealthy and/or powerful supervillains. Given the metafictional passages, the sardonic tone, the moments of dark comedy, and the wildly extravagant flights of prose, I strongly suspect Koontz of deliberately writing a parody of his own typical conspiracy-heavy SF thrillers. This isn’t a book readers new to Koontz should start with; however, long-time fans will probably find it intriguing.
THE GRIMOIRE GRAMMAR SCHOOL PARENT TEACHER ASSOCIATION, by Caitlin Rozakis. The title and cover of this novel suggest a lighthearted, humorous fantasy, and the quote on the front calls it “hilarious.” Those hints are a bit misleading, though. The book starts out funny, true, but it takes a seriously dark turn before the end. Still, granted, touches of humor appear throughout, especially in the headings that precede each chapter, consisting of messages from the school to parents. These epigraphs highlight the vein of incongruity running throughout the story between typical, often nitpicky elementary school preoccupations and the paranormal nature of the pupils and staff. The notifications normally arrive by text, although the alternative of “mental summons” is offered. Among other topics, they cover allergens (e.g., nuts, garlic, and silver), sensitivity to ethnic slurs against various supernatural minorities, avoiding holiday costumes that promote offensive stereotypes, and a rule against harming mortals during the Talent Show (even if they’re mindwiped afterward). Protagonist Vivian’s five-year-old daughter, Aria, has become a werewolf from the bite of a maddened rogue. The revered head of the local pack, accepting responsibility, arranges for Aria’s enrollment as a kindergarten student in an exclusive school for supernatural creatures. Lacking control over her shapeshifting and prone to throwing up as a side effect of wolfing-out, Aria has a lot to learn. So do Vivian and Daniel, her husband, forced to move from their old home to one near the school and abruptly thrust into a secret world whose existence they hadn’t suspected. Even though a vampire teaches the kindergarten class, Grimoire Grammar School seems their only chance at a normal life for Aria (for a certain value of normal), since they’ve been informed any other alternative available to a formerly mortal shifter child is worse. Vivian gets off to a shaky start when she brings brownies to the school potluck picnic. The problem isn’t that werewolves can’t eat chocolate – they know to avoid it – but that, as the only ordinary human mother present, she has contributed such a mundane dessert. Happily, Moira, another kindergarten parent, reaches out to Vivian, the first person to offer her anything like friendship since their family’s relocation. In the awkward moment when Aria involuntarily changes into a wolf cub on the playground, Vivian reflects that at least nobody runs away screaming; they just bestow pitying looks. The first serious setback involves the annual Talent Show. To their dismay, Vivian and Daniel learn the children’s performances determine whether they’ll move up to first grade or get expelled from the school. Although Aria makes a few friends among her classmates, there’s no denying her late start as a werewolf constitutes a handicap. A disaster at the Talent Show forces it to close early, and things get more chaotic from there. Some parents fixate on the idea that an ambiguous prophecy dredged up from the past refers to Aria. Vivian can’t tell whom to trust. Meanwhile, Daniel, who initially alternated between amusement at the school’s oddities and skepticism about enrolling Aria there in the first place, grows progressively more unhappy with the situation. His and Vivian’s relationship becomes strained, especially when she starts studying magic. Anybody, even if not born with magical talent, can learn at least simple spells, and she’s determined to fit in for Aria’s sake. He begins to spend evenings away from home for vague reasons. Dire, potentially life-threatening events occur. Vivian’s initial impressions of some people turn out to be mistaken, and she bonds with unexpected allies and friends over the rapidly worsening crisis. At first, I found it hard to believe in her obsession with fitting in among the “right” people. Good grief, why would anybody care? Later, though, it becomes clear that this character trait isn’t a sign of shallowness, but rather a lifelong trauma caused by a toxic relationship with her mother. The estrangement between Vivian and Daniel also feels genuine, as do their anxiety about Aria and the possible danger threatening the children, parents, and staff at Grimoire Grammar School. Any parent of a kid starting school in a strange town could empathize with Vivian, regardless of this school’s unique challenges.
A WITCH’S GUIDE TO MAGICAL INNKEEPING, by Sangu Mandanna. A cozy fantasy with the requisite “found family,” quirky characters human and otherwise, and a quaint, vividly realized setting. The thirty-year-old witch protagonist, Sera Swan, runs her great-aunt Jasmine’s B&B, the Batty Hole, enchanted by a powerful spell Sera cast in her teens. Other permanent residents include Sera’s preteen nephew, Theo, who also possesses magic; Matilda, a middle-aged woman eccentrically devoted to the growing of vegetables that don’t normally thrive in England; Sir Nicholas, a knight in armor who performs at the local Medieval Fair but lives his role full-time; Clemmie, a fox who’s actually a witch under a curse (and constantly complains about her lack of opposable thumbs); and a skeletal undead rooster Sera accidentally reanimated. Magic runs in families but isn’t necessarily inherited by every member of a bloodline. With the general public unaware of the existence of magic, the inn’s transient guests have no idea why they randomly find their way to this warmly welcoming place exactly when they need it. Sera, born with a dazzlingly strong gift, spent her early youth as the apprentice of the most powerful magician in the Guild. Only later in life does she fully realize how determined he was to prevent her talent from surpassing his own. When Sera was fifteen, Jasmine, the beloved great-aunt who takes the place of her disengaged parents, unexpectedly died. Sera raised her from death, losing most of her own magic in the process. The Guild expelled her for that transgression. Now, at thirty, she continues the seemingly hopeless quest for a spell to regain her lost power. She can perform minor enchantments such as heating the house, but only slowly and with difficulty. Two nearly simultaneous events trigger the main plot: She gets possession of a restoration spell in an ancient language unknown to her. Soon thereafter, Luke, a historian and scholar of magic, stumbles upon the Batty Hole (or so he thinks, unaware of the inn’s supernatural magnetism) with his autistic little sister, Posy. Because of their mundane parents’ fear of magic and Posy’s inability to understand she needs to conceal her talent from the outside world, the two of them had been living at Guild headquarters – where her magic was accepted but not her autism. Realizing his tiny apartment wouldn’t work for her either, Luke hopes to find a new home. He first plans to stay at the inn only one night, then only a week or two. He adamantly refuses to get involved with Sera’s problem. Sure, he translates the restoration spell for her, but that’s all he’ll do – really. Of course, that resolution doesn’t last. The translated spell proves hardly less cryptic, requiring apparently impossible ingredients. Posy loves the inn, and Luke, who gets reluctantly drawn into its life, finds himself helping Sera while fighting their mutual attraction. Triumphs and disappointments, narrow escapes, magical conflicts, and a climactic clash with Sera’s old mentor follow. The endearing qualities of the major characters combined with their flaws and vulnerabilities give this novel a special appeal. Theo, like Posy and Luke, has suffered quiet rejection from his parents because of his magic. Luke has learned to hide and even suppress his emotions; the adjective most often applied to him is “arctic.” Matilda thinks she’s too old to find love. Jasmine, throughout her life, has absorbed the idea that her clubfoot makes her unattractive and unworthy. And Sera considers her basic identity bound up with her magical disability. Also, the cast of characters exhibits a delightful range of diversity, both ethnic (Sera, for instance, has Icelandic and Indian parents) and gender/sexual (at least two same-sex couples), not to mention mundane versus magical, neurotypical versus neurodivergent, and human versus not-quite.
HEMLOCK & SILVER, by T. Kingfisher. This author never disappoints, and I especially love her adaptations of fairy tales and classic literature. HEMLOCK & SILVER (sic) is based on “Snow White,” with elements of Alice’s trip through the looking glass. It gives us a possibly evil queen, a poisoned princess, enchanted sleep (apparently, anyway), apples, creepy mirrors, portal fantasy, a doppelganger dimension, and a talking cat. The opening sentence is irresistible: “I had just taken poison when the king arrived to inform me that he had murdered his wife.” Narrator/protagonist Anja experiments on herself with carefully measured doses of poisons to study their attributes and discover antidotes. She also uses roosters as experimental subjects, since chicken breeders often have a surplus of them. And she keeps a snake, which she describes as more of a colleague than a pet, for the useful qualities of its venom. The king’s unheralded arrival in her solitary workshop throws her into confusion; after all, she isn’t nobility, only a prosperous merchant’s daughter. The monarch killed his wife when he caught her in the act of cutting out their daughter’s heart. Now his surviving daughter, twelve-year-old Snow, suffers from a mysterious chronic illness. Grief and depression? Some kind of food or drink sickening her? Or poison? Having heard of Anja’s expertise in the latter field, the king asks her to tackle the problem because she has no court entanglements. A royal request, however affably presented, amounts to a command, so Anja packs up, snake and rooster in tow, to travel to the palace despite her trepidation. How will the king react if she fails to solve the case? Suppose Snow really is being poisoned and Anja becomes a target, if the culprit sees through her guise of being the princess’s new natural history tutor? Whom can she trust? It quickly becomes clear that Snow isn’t deliberately making herself sick, yet Anja believes she knows more than she’s admitting. The girl’s volatile adolescent moods complicate the situation. Anja methodically sets up procedures for ruling out possible causes, employing the scientific method she excels at and enjoys. On the other hand, she finds attending court dinners an ordeal. Dealing with people has always been hard for her, especially since her usual conversation focuses on poisonous and venomous plants and animals along with other bizarre natural phenomena that fascinate her. According to the Healer who’d been her beloved mentor, most members of their profession regard cases as people with problems; Anja, although she’s sincerely driven to find cures, sees a case as a problem with a person inconveniently attached. When she discovers the strange mirrors made of sand from the late queen’s native country, Anja is baffled. She doesn’t believe in magic. Therefore, she addresses the conundrum of the mirrors and the other world inside them with the same experimental rigor she applies to poisons. She gets help from one of the local bodyguards assigned to her and a one-eyed, talking cat who has no patience with answering tedious human questions. The solution to the mystery and the connection between the mirror realm and Snow’s illness will astonish most readers as thoroughly as it does Anja. Although still unwilling to believe in magic, she keeps an open mind. Between her lack of confidence outside the boundaries of her profession and her bodyguard’s taciturn manner, it takes her a while to begin to recognize their mutual attraction. Its gradual development from friendship to passion is charmingly awkward. The supercilious, enigmatic feline is also a constant delight. (According to the afterword, by the way, he’s based on the author’s own one-eyed cat.) As typical of Kingfisher’s first-person narrators, Anja is an entertaining character whose combined intelligence and vulnerability can’t fail to engage the reader’s sympathy.
For my recommendations of “must read” classic and modern vampire fiction, explore the Realm of the Vampires:
Realm of the Vampires
*****
Excerpt from “Her Death Was Doubtful”:
As usual, the girls’ restroom in the east wing of the school’s second floor was deserted. Mia staggered to the nearest sink, swallowing over and over to quell the churning in her stomach. Her hands shaking, she splashed water on her face until the queasiness faded. She didn’t want to show up at the after-school meeting of the game club looking like a total wreck.
If she couldn’t stand in front of the junior-year AP English class to deliver a two-minute summary of her chosen topic from Hamlet without an attack of nausea, how would she get through the entire oral report later? Why hadn’t Mr. McCall assigned just the written essay, which wouldn’t cause her any problem? Why did he have to require a speech, too?
A moan interrupted her thoughts. Had somebody come in while she wallowed in a pit of anxiety? “Who’s there?” She whirled around.
A girl stood in the middle of the room with her arms stretched out as if begging. “Help me!” What Mia’s grandmother would call “pleasingly plump,” with round cheeks and short, curly blond hair, the stranger wore a baggy sweatshirt over a calf-length, denim skirt.
Bloodstains spattered the skirt. “Help me,” she cried again. “Please, I can’t find my baby.”
Mia gasped and backed away. “OMG, what happened to you? Wait here. I’ll get somebody.” She glanced in the mirror and didn’t see the girl’s reflection. Where did she go? When Mia looked around, the girl was still there. Okay, no mystery. She didn’t happen to stand in the right position to show up in the mirror. Nothing to worry about. Finding an adult to deal with this crisis was the important thing at the moment.
Fortunately, Mia had noticed Hank, the senior custodian, working in the hall a couple of minutes earlier. Rushing from the restroom, she found him pushing a broom just outside the door.
“Whoa, hold up, what’s wrong?”
She gasped out, “There’s a girl in there. I think she’s hurt.”
“Take it easy. Let’s have a look.” He leaned the broom against the wall and opened the door.
Steadied by his calm voice, she walked inside ahead of him. No trace of the girl. “She was just here. She must be in a stall.” Although a glance showed all the doors ajar, Mia checked each one. Empty. “I don’t understand. She couldn’t have gotten past me into the hall. I really saw her, honest.”
Hank said, “I believe you—Mia, right?”
She nodded, “Mia Petrelli. You don’t think I’m lying? Or I imagined the whole thing?”
“Of course not. I’ve seen her myself a few times over the years.” He exited the restroom with Mia trailing behind him.
“Years? What do you mean?”
“Haven’t you heard stories about the school being haunted?” His matter-of-fact tone didn’t sound as if he was making fun of her.
“Sure, but I thought they were just urban legends. You’re saying the girl I saw is a ghost?”
“Yep, and not the only one by a long shot. Don’t worry, they’re mainly harmless.”
-end of excerpt-
*****
The long-time distributor of THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT has closed its website. If you would like to read any issue of this fanzine, which contains fiction, interviews, and a detailed book review column, visit the Dropbox page below. Find information about the contents of each issue on this page of my website:
All issues are now posted on Dropbox, where you should be able to download them at this link:
All Vampire’s Crypt Issues on Dropbox
A complete list of my available works, arranged roughly by genre, with purchase links:
For anyone who would like to read previous issues of this newsletter, they’re posted on my website here (starting from January 2018):
This is my Facebook author page. Please visit!
Facebook
Here’s my page in Barnes and Noble’s Nook store:
Barnes and Noble
Here’s the list of my Kindle books on Amazon. (The final page, however, includes some Ellora’s Cave anthologies in which I don’t have stories):
Carter Kindle Books
Here’s a shortcut URL to my author page on Amazon:
Amazon
The Fiction Database displays a comprehensive list of my books (although with a handful of fairy tales by a different Margaret Carter near the end):
My Goodreads page:
Goodreads
Please “Like” my author Facebook page (cited above) to see reminders when each monthly newsletter is uploaded. I’ve also noticed that I’m more likely to be shown posts from liked or friended sources in my Facebook feed when I’ve “Liked” some of their individual posts, so you might want to do that, too. Thanks!
My Publishers:
Writers Exchange E-Publishing: Writers Exchange
Harlequin: Harlequin
Wild Rose Press: Wild Rose Press
You can contact me at: MLCVamp@aol.com
“Beast” wishes until next time—
Margaret L. Carter