Vampire/Cowboy romance - Give Me Tomorrow by Kaye Spencer #vampire #vampireromance #PrairieRosePubs #paranormalromance

On September 20th, my paranormal-lite, cowboy-meets-vampire story Give Me Tomorrow was released through Fire Star Press. The story is actually a rerelease of a short story that I expanded, deepened, and retitled. This is Part 4 in my release-day series. You can read the three previous articles by clicking on the dates:

Part 1 - June 25, 2018 - Give Me Tomorrow - upcoming release
Part 2 - July 23, 2018 - Do You Remember 1990? A stroll down memory lane | Give Me Tomorrow
Part 3 - August 27, 2018 - Give Me Tomorrow

Why do I call this story 'paranormal-lite'? Give Me Tomorrow is a vampire story, yes, but the vampire aspect is not the primary thread in the story. It’s a story about learning to live with what life hands you while coming to terms with the ‘demons’ of your past so you can move forward in life with someone you love. The heroine is the vampire, who handles her vampireness as a health issue that she's learned to live with. It doesn't dominate her life. She is not an I vant to drink your blood. Blah Blah Blah vampire. *wink* Hence, the 'lite' aspect of paranormal.

Give Me Tomorrow is a short novel. Many of the scenes are drawn from my real-life experiences. Well, none of the vampire aspects of the story, but others.

• The scene with the veterinarian tending to an injured horse is something I have much experience with. Veterinarians made barn calls 24/7 in vehicles like this one. (imagine a much older model pickup truck, though)

Vet truck box - Image: http://www.800toolbox.com/vet_box/vet_box.html

• The accident with the pony and the little boy really happened. I ten years old-ish, and I witnessed what happened and how it turned out.
• The protagonist, Jax, owns a horse boarding and layover facility. I was involved in thoroughbred racing many years ago, and I fashioned Jax’s business after one that I worked at during the off season from thoroughbred racing at Thistledown Racetrack in Cleveland, Ohio.

Example of a horse boarding facility

Dreamstime photo #23821276 (license purchased for use) 

• The protagonist also runs a horse transport service. I didn’t drive a transport van or semi with trailer, but I did haul horses from one racetrack to another several times with my pickup and fifth-wheel horse trailer. We called this kind of trailer a 'goose neck trailer' back then.
• Jax and Lissa (Melissa) galloping horses on a track is also something I've done.
• The restaurant where Jax and Lissa have dinner is a real restaurant. In its heyday, it was a swanky, expensive place to dine. My first waitressing job was at the Colonial in 1974.

Colonial restaurant c.1960s - Postcard - Kaye Spencer's collection

• The setting of this story is in northeastern Colorado, which is where I was born and raised. The real town I grew up in is Fort Morgan. My fictional name for this town is Platte River City. This fictionally-named town shows up in some of my other works. Historically, Fort Morgan was on the South Platte Trail and the safest river crossing was Platte River Crossing, but that is a story for a future blog article.
• There is riding accident scene near the end of the story that I experienced. I was with the person who was hurt in the same way that the character in the scene is hurt. The real-life outcome was not a happy one.

  

  Runaway, riderless horse

  Dreamstime photo #9025616 (license purchase for use)

Forever, like a fine wine, is better when shared.

BLURB

Vampire Melissa Price’s heart has hardened to an empty shell of remembered love. Lifetimes of experience and self-preservation have taught her that relationships serve only two purposes—sustenance and superficial companionship. Her work as a veterinarian gives purpose to her solitary life, but three hundred years of loneliness catches up with her when she responds to an emergency call and meets the least likely man to bring down the wall of her emotionless existence.

Jaxon Granger is part-owner of his family’s thoroughbred racehorse boarding and layover facility. His world revolves around his business, family, and a penchant toward hedonism. Horses are his life and womanizing bachelorhood is his religion. He boasts that there isn’t a woman alive who can make him a one-woman man.

That is, until he falls for a woman who isn’t alive—in the strictest sense of the word.

EXCERPT

As Jax watched Lissa tidy up, his curiosity demanded satisfaction. “Tell me about your health problem. Does it have something to do with your preference of working nights?”

“You’re perceptive. I’m sensitive to sunlight.”

“Sensitive as in Lupus, or something like that?”

“No. Not Lupus.”

“So, what is it?”

Without missing a beat, she said, “Too long in the sunlight and my skin sizzles and sloughs off. It’s a nasty sight.” She closed a door and walked to the other side of her truck. “It takes a lot out of me to regenerate the damaged skin. I don’t care for it.”

Jax snorted. “Where did Doc find you? 1‐800‐DRACULA?” He attempted a dramatic and campy Bela Lugosi impersonation that even he realized fell flat, although Lissa came around the back of her vet truck grinning.

“You have more personality than I anticipated.”

“Personality? What do you mean?”

“Doc Bohlanger has purposely kept me away from your facility. He wanted me to build up a clientele and a reputation before making my first call out here.” She closed the back door of her truck. “He warned me about you.”

“What, exactly, did he warn you about?” Jax liked the way her dimples deepened and the sassy turn of her pouty lips when she smiled. He also speculated on what she wore under her scrubs—hoping it was black and lacy—while estimating how many times he’d have to take her to dinner before she slept with him.

“He said you have a poor opinion of career women, which has manifested as a notorious reputation as a lady killer. Consequently, you’ll be determined to get me into bed, so you can put another notch on your bedpost.”

Jax grunted a hmmpf.

“You deny his assessment?”

He shook his head, grinning. “No.”

Give Me Tomorrow

Available at Amazon.com

Kindle | KindleUnlimited | Print

So you like stories that incorporate the author's real life experiences? Does knowing these stories behind the published story enhance your reading enjoyment? Let me know in the comments. I'm looking forward to reading what you have to say.

Until next time,

Kaye Spencer

Writing through history one romance upon a time

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New Release -- Give Me Tomorrow by Kaye Spencer

Vampire Melissa Price’s heart has hardened to an empty shell of remembered love. Lifetimes of experience and self-preservation have taught her that relationships serve only two purposes—sustenance and superficial companionship. Her work as a veterinarian gives purpose to her solitary life, but three hundred years of loneliness catches up with her when she responds to an emergency call and meets the least likely man to bring down the wall of her emotionless existence.

Jaxon Granger is part-owner of his family’s thoroughbred racehorse boarding and layover facility. His world revolves around his business, family, and a penchant toward hedonism. Horses are his life and womanizing bachelorhood is his religion. He boasts that there isn’t a woman alive who can make him a one-woman man.

That is, until he falls for a woman who isn’t alive—in the strictest sense of the word.

EXCERPT

     Lissa materialized from the darkness with the ethereal grace of a phantom shadow floating on a night breeze.
     “Where the hell were you hiding?” He’d have sworn there was nothing there a second ago.
     “I wasn’t hiding. I was right here beside the house in plain sight if you’d have only taken the time to see, which isn’t the same as looking.”
     Her face reflected an eerie, bloodless-corpse‐aura under the mercury lighting, and the sight sent a shiver scuttling down his spine.

     

SHUT UP AND WRITE, by Mollie Hunt, Cat Writer

Artwork: Mike Maihack

Christmas is coming! The emails for holiday book events are piling up in my inbox. Some of my best events are during the holidays, but it just adds more stress to an already stressful time.

When I get all balled up in promotion, I sometimes forget why I’m doing this in the first place. I long ago accepted my writing would never make me rich or famous, but a few bucks and a few fans mean a lot, so the promo must go on. What also must go on is the writing, itself. The story must continue, because that’s what it’s all about.

I love writing, though it isn’t terribly easy for me. After a stint at the computer, I feel like I’ve hauled a few truckloads of hay, then run a five-mile marathon. Carted a boulder up a steep hill. But I love that boulder and will do it again soon as my mind recovers enough to carry on. (The purring cat on my lap reminds me to mention that writing is a perfect opportunity to spend time with a favorite feline, as long as you don’t plan on moving too much.)

So even now I am being distracted from my stories. Blogs, announcements, posts, event pages, not to mention the daily living stuff like vacuuming and feeding the cats. All important, all reaching out to me like needy children vying for attention.

“Yes, kiddies, “ I say to the chorus of demanding cries. “All will be done in its own time.”

I press save, exit the program, turn away from the computer, and—tea in hand—move to my internet-less laptop which is where the stories happen.

The cat follows me, curling up for a quiet nap.

Check out more blogs by Mollie Hunt, Cat Writer at:

Mollie Hunt: Crazy Cat Lady Mysteries and more

Happy reading!

Choosing Hope

This post is in a similar vein to that of fellow author and cat lover Mollie Hunt's post in July. (If you missed Molly's post you can read it HERE.) My posts for the last three months have covered #cockygate and book stuffing - two issues currently making big waves in the world of publishing. While both issues started in the Romance world, they quickly spread to other genres. (And sadly, romance is still an much maligned genre so issues have to spread to other genres in order to be taken seriously. But, that's a rant for another time.)

I've had to limit the amount of time spent checking on the latest developments in both areas. Why? Because it depresses me. For me, both reading and writing are for a love of words and stories. To see words and stories sullied by people who enter the publishing arena just to make money, makes me want to cry. I have a hard time calling these people writers because so many utilize the services of ghostwriters; the stories they capitalize own aren't even their own. I don't understand the mindset of those who look at publishing strictly as a way to pad their bank accounts instead of as a way to share the stories of their hearts. And, when these people begin actively working to remove their competition... Well, I just feel like throwing in the towel. Why am I even trying to tell my stories when people with much deeper pockets than me are working to suppress me and others like me?

As someone who has dealt with major anxiety issues in my life, I have learned that it is easy for current events to trigger my anxieties and the best way to combat the problem is to remove those triggers. So, while it's important for me to stay informed, I can do so by checking the latest information once or twice a week, not multiple times a day.

Doctors report an increase in the numbers of cases of anxiety and depression. I firmly believe that, in part, it is a direct result of the never-ending negativity that has become so pervasive in our culture. All you have to do is turn on the television and the news media is more than happy to beat you over the head with how horrible the world is and how everyone in it is out to take advantage of you. Yes, terrible things happen every day, but so do wonderful things. As for people, I still believe that there are far more good, kind people in the world than there are evil.

Image courtesy of Depositphotos.com

I refuse to be a part of the problem. I choose hope. I choose to use my voice, as small as it is, to spread love, joy, and laughter. I write stories about love, friendship, and fighting to overcome the bad in order to find the good. On my Facebook back, I share stories about people (and animals) doing their part to make the world a better place. It may not be much but it's what I believe I am called to do. I hope you'll join me.

How do you spread joy?

Sign up for my newsletter here:  http://madmimi.com/signups/112968/join

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New Release I DREAM OF YOU by Sarah J. McNeal (Wilding Series)

Kyle Red Sky has dreamed of the woman with fire in her hair, but when she comes to Hazard, Wyoming, something dark and dangerous follows her. She is reclusive, avoids men, and wears a scarf around her neck to hide a secret. When someone tries to burn down her seamstress shop, Kyle has to take action—even if it means pushing her to accept his help in any way he can.

Beautiful Mia Beckett is a survivor—but only she knows of the horror she’s fled to this small western town to escape from. Finally, she’s found sanctuary from the unspeakable evil that has clouded her past and forced her into the solitary existence she lives. To allow Kyle into her life would put him in harm’s way, and Mia is not about to let that happen—not to someone who cares so much for her.

But Kyle has other ideas. Visions and dreams are sacred in his Lakota heritage, and can’t be ignored. Mia is in grave danger, and he is determined to not only protect her but to show her he will lay down his life for her. When the demon from Mia’s past follows her to Hazard, Kyle stands beside her to battle for their future. Love has never been more powerful than when Kyle Red Sky tells Mia, “I DREAM OF YOU…” 

But will they live to see those dreams come true?

EXCERPT

     Kyle kicked open the door of his mother’s former dress shop despite the sign that read, No Men Allowed. The raging fire upstairs in the private quarters made this an emergency, certainly enough to ignore that sign. Smoke began to fill the shop as he raced up the stairs calling out the name of the new shop owner. “Miss Beckett! Miss Mia Beckett, where are you?”

     As he reached the landing of the second floor, he heard someone cough nearby. With the wet blanket wrapped around him he rushed toward the direction of the cough until he found the woman lying on the floor almost unconscious from smoke inhalation. As soon as he removed the wet blanket from himself and wrapped her in its protective layer, he scooped Miss Beckett up in his arms to carry her away from the flames and smoke. The scarf she wore fell away from her neck and her head lolled back against his chest to reveal a thin, straight scar that ran all the way across her throat from her left ear to her right. It wasn’t an old scar, most likely no more than two or three months in the past. She attempted to raise a hand as if to cover her throat and replace the silk scarf. He’d always seen her wear a scarf of some kind or another around her neck since her arrival in town. Now he knew all those scarves were not her unique sense of fashion, but her desire to hide the scar. She was a woman attempting to keep a secret.

     In a whisper he could barely hear, she said, “Please, don’t let them see.” And then she fell unconscious.

     

The Unborn Galaxy series by Michael E. Gonzales

Another rousing BLOG post by Mike Gonzales, the American, Spanish, Englishman.   

I cannot start to tell you how fortunate I am to have been published buy Fire Star Press.

Who among us can’t wall paper their home

with rejection letters? I was once told, by a literary agent I was courting, that “a rejection is not a reflection on you, personally.”

Of course not. It’s just a rejection of the work I poured my heart and soul into. It’s a comment on the vast amount of emotion, consternation, and yes, at times even tears, that I have invested in the telling of that story. It's a comment on that part of me that I have transferred onto that page.

Not that I'm bitter, you understand!

Despite the pain associated with these rejections - I persevered. I still have pinned to my computer the quote by Richard Bach, “An author is a writer who didn't give up.”

The circumstances that brought me into contact with Prairie Rose Publications, as I look back on it, seem highly unlikely. Perhaps even guided by an unseen, all powerful hand. Anyway, that’s how I like to see it.

So here I am, four books on the open market and I still can’t believe it. So, thank you, everyone at Fire Star Press! (Really, can’t say that enough!)

My first published works are a five-book series called, “The Unborn Galaxy.” Each book is a standalone story but they all take place in the same fictional universe. Their commonalities are that they all origin on JILL, the Joint International Lunar Laboratory, and there are bleed over characters. For Example, in “Across a Sea of Stars” Kathy is a minor character popping in and out of the story but only briefly. However, in “The Vampires of Antyllus” she is the main character.

I hope you’ll follow me on this adventure through The Unborn Galaxy, to the Moon, and beneath is cratered surface.

To a battle ground inside the great Moon base.

Come, be whisked away from the desolation of the lunar surface to a world of beauty and danger.

And take your position aboard the Demeter for a many years long voyage to another world and a fresh start for humanity, that is, if the promise of this new world doesn’t bring about its destruction.

             Then in the fifth book…              

The Unborn Galaxy; Dark Moon Rising, The Battle of Broken Moon, Across a Sea of Stars, The Vampires of Antyllus - Available through Amazon.com, Kobo, iBooks, Books-a-Million, Walmart.com, and Barnes and Noble.com

Please visit my Web Site:  http://www.mikegonzalesauthor.com/home.html

And follow me on Face Book:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010275572869

Thank you!

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