Pennytook is a war-weary Gypsy who longs for peace from the past, and wants something meaningful in his life for the future.
Esmeralda, a Gypsy trick rider, has harbored a deep affection for Pennytook, for many years. But her dark secret will never allow him into her life.
A mythological creature is about to unleash its horror and change the destinies of Esmeralda and Pennytook forever. Will forgiveness allow them the love they both search for…if they manage to survive?
PEREGRINE’S CURSE
Peregrine McKnight is a wildly successful musician who only wants to fall in love with a woman who understands him and have a loving family. But Peregrine knows that can never happen for him—he’s been cursed.
After a foray into the magical dimension of Winatuke, Peregrine suffers a curse placed on him by the evil Navasi king. Though Peregrine manages to survive, the curse prevents him from ever falling in love.
Beautiful dancer Parisa Habuba survived the war in Syria—but at a price: she has lost her hearing in the constant bombing attacks. When Parisa learns of a position for a dancer with the famous musician, Peregrine McKnight, she doesn’t hesitate to audition. This may be her only chance to prove she can dance—in spite of her hearing loss.
Although it might take a miracle for Peregrine and Parisa to find love—anything is possible in the magical realm of Winatuke...
EXCERPT PENNYTOOK:
Esmeralda remembered how
Pennytook's eyes had followed her while she rode. She did her best tricks to gain
his attention. It was a stupid thing to
do. He might recognize me and then
what would I do? In her own defense, Esmeralda knew she could not help
herself. When Pennytook was young and had a wife and baby, even then, she
thought him handsome and charming. He was lean and muscular with black hair, dark
eyes, and an olive complexion. The years had changed him very little. Feathers
of silver now ran through his black hair, and his face was more angular, with
lines around his mouth and the corners of his eyes. His hands, though worn and
hardened by hard work, were still strong.
His abilities with horses and
music were renowned. Everyone loved Pennytook. He led his tribe with a fair
hand and kindness. His campfires were always warm and his ways generous and inviting.
Many said of him that he knew the
ways of magic and held great wisdom. Esmeralda knew this to be true firsthand
from that time on the Dark Isle when hell opened up and spewed horror. She knew
Pennytook would eventually realize her association with his son and that night
on the Dark Isle. He would learn her terrible secret. When he came to know she
was the cause of him losing his son, he would hate her, and she would be
shunned by his tribe for all time. Knowing that Pennytook would think ill of
her if he knew the truth hurt like a dagger sticking in her chest. She had
always loved him, though she held her feelings close to her heart. Still, even
though he would turn away from her and curse her, she knew she had to tell him
what she had done. He needed to hear her reveal her secret from her own lips,
and from no other. And then, she would have to bear his hatred.
One guess who forgot her post last month? Yes, it was me. Sigh. My posts are due the first Friday of each month. Last month I suddenly realized late on the first day of May "Wait a minute. Today is the first Friday of the month." So, to make sure I don't do that again, I'm writing this post well in advance of the due date.
I'm super excited that Dances with Werewolves, the newest entry in my Kudzu Korners sweet paranormal romance series is now live! You can see the details HERE.
Livia did a wonderful job on the cover!
Sydney Hall is the heroine of Dances with Werewolves and readers and I both met her for the first time in Dial V for Vampire, the first book in the series. I worked on the first draft of Dial V one year during NaNoWriMo. My husband made it a point to check in with me every day and ask what was going on in my story. One of our conversations went something like this:
Hubby: "So, what's going on in your story?"
Me: "I really hate my main character's best friend."
Hubby: *blinks* "What do you mean you hate her? You created her!"
Me: "Yes, but that doesn't mean I like her." (Writer brain completely baffles my husband.)
Not only did I not like Sydney upon our first meeting, I pretty much detested her. This was a problem because I knew she was supposed to be the heroine in Dances with Werewolves. How could I expect the hero to fall in love with her if I couldn't even like her? Fortunately it turned out that once I got to know Sydney a little bit better and understood why she was the way she was, I liked her just fine. Crisis averted!
I guess even in the world of fiction it pays to get to know someone before judging their actions. Who knew? #lessonlearned
Danielle Reigh has her future planned. She is about to begin her dream career as a physical therapist. When she discovers an old trunk in the attic of the building that’s being renovated for her clinic, she finds a ring. Though she only means to try it on, she gets more than she bargained for when she is suddenly transported to 1775 America.
Joseph Webster never believed the tales his great-grandfather told of those who could travel through time, but the proof seems to have landed at his feet. Not knowing Dani’s purpose in coming at a time of war, he hides the ring until he can decide what to do with his unexpected apprentice. Before long, he finds himself in love with Dani, and faces the decision of whether to tell her he has the ring, or let her go on believing it to be lost.
As Dani learns to adjust to the 18th century, she and Joseph plan a future together. But these are dangerous times…fraught with uncertainty. When the two lovers are caught in the midst of a Revolutionary War battle, Joseph must take the chance of sending her back through time—to modern-day Maine.
In a bittersweet reunion with her family, Dani refuses to say where she’s been. Who would believe her? She tries to move on with her life, even as she mourns the loss of her one true love. Can she recapture the excitement she once felt for the career she cherished? Will she ever be able to find happiness and love in her own time? She has to face the fact that it may never happen for her, now that she’s had A PATRIOT’S LOVE…
EXCERPT
Danielle tried, unsuccessfully, to suck in a breath as pain radiated
from head to toe. Had she died? Should being dead hurt this much?
A not-so-gentle nudge to her ribs had her pulling in that desperately
needed breath.
Had Bethanell come back and hit her? “Get out,” she mumbled.
“Ye lazy lout! I’ve no time for you to be napping. There’s work to be
done.” A sharper nudge followed the words.
“Ow! Please…stop.” She raised a hand to her aching and confused head
only to find the hat had fallen over her face. No wonder the world turned black. She pushed the hat off and
blinked her eyes, trying to focus on the face above hers. “Wh-who are you?”
“Your master.”
“My what?” she shrieked and sat up, then grabbed her head as the room spun again.
Blog-a-Book-Scene is a monthly themed blogging endeavor from a group of authors who love to share excerpts from their stories. Find us on Twitter with the hashtag #blogabookscene and #PrairieRosePubs.
October’s theme is all things autumn, spooky, and Halloween. The excerpt below is from my contemporary paranormal (vampire) romance short novel, Give Me Tomorrow.
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
Like a jackrabbit running for cover, Lissa spun out of the yard in a spray of gravel in her flight to get away from Jax. She was miles down the road before her nerves calmed enough that she could think. How had he done that? How had just a kiss turned her inside‐out? His mouth, burning and possessive. His thoughts pulling her into his mind and drawing forth feelings she believed were as dead as the husband and daughter she’d lost centuries ago. One second, they were sinking to the floor, and the next, the blood pulsing through his carotid artery mere inches from her mouth lured her into the bite before either was ready. The instant she’d tasted his blood, her mind had spiraled into a tailspin of vertigo and vivid memories of her past, which broke her already-tenuous telepathic hold on his mind.
What happened? Even as the question formed, she knew the answer. Those older and wiser had warned that her cavalier indifference toward her victims would catch up with her. Someday she’d meet The One. The man whose strength of mind and will of heart matched—or exceeded—her own. She knew this man from her dreams. He stole into her lonely nights, faceless and ethereally enticing, with a whispered promise of tomorrow on a voice as tender and familiar as the caress of a lover. Only this man could lift the centuries of loneliness from her shoulders and breathe life back into her cold, dead heart.
And now she’d found him…or he’d found her, and he wasn’t immortal, not her kind. He was hindered by a finite lifespan. He couldn’t go where she traveled.
Moving on to the next job and the next town was her reality, as always, but for the first time, she didn’t want to leave. Better judgment argued with her emotions. She wanted an-other chance with Jax, but that meant explaining, which meant she cared. Caring brought confiding and confiding required trusting, which she had precious little to draw from. The very essence of what allowed her to live also kept her alone and kept her safe.
Suddenly, she was tired. Tired of staying one suspicion ahead of people when they questioned why she didn’t age. Tired of concealing what she was. Tired of her nomadic life. Just plain tired. What good was immortality if she had to endure eternity alone?
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.
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.”
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
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.
This is Part 3 of my release day countdown for Give Me Tomorrow...
Give Me Tomorrow is a paranormal-lite cowboy/vampire novella set in 1990 Colorado. It releases through Fire Star Press on September 27, 2018 [Author's Note: Release day moved to September 20, 2018] just in time to kick off the October spooky reads of the Halloween season.
Lissa Price, a veterinarian, is a centuries-old vampire. Her
heart has hardened over the years out of self-preservation brought on by years
of loneliness compounded by the necessary isolation of being a vampire.
Jaxon Granger is part-owner of his family’s thoroughbred
racehorse boarding and layover facility. Bachelorhood is his religion, and
there isn’t a woman alive who can make him a one-woman man.
That is, until the woman he falls for turns out not to be
alive in the strictest sense of the word.
Excerpt
"I learned a good long time ago that horses respond well to the sound of my voice."
Jax scoffed. "You say that like you've been around for ages. You don't look more than thirty-five or so."
"Forty-one, actually, but I appreciate the compliment. It's been a long and eventful forty-one by ordinary standards. I've aged well, I guess."
The regret in her sigh made him wonder what sadness she carried in her memories. When he lifted his coffee mug, her gaze pinned him with an intensity that stopped his hand. He couldn't look away. She pulled him into her mind, claimed his thoughts as hers, and read what he was thinking. She reached inside his heart and opened the door to his deepest secrets. The room blurred. A crazy thought popped into his head that he was prey to a psychic predator. A shuddering prickle of goosebumps along his arms snapped him back to reality.
Unnerved, he fumbled his cup and tipped his chair in his hasty retreat. "I'm going to check the fire in the other room."
If Lissa replied, he didn't hear her in his flight from the kitchen. With each step from her, his mind cleared...
Part 4 - September 24th with cover reveal [Author's note: cover revealed Sept. 20]
Give Me Tomorrow will be available through Amazon.com.
Give Me Tomorrow, my paranormal-lite cowboy/vampire novella set in 1990 Colorado, releases through Fire Star Press on September 27, 2018 just in time to kick off the October spooky reads of the Halloween season. Yes, Halloween is a month-long season at my house that begins with sundown on September 30th and ends at sundown November 2nd.
But more on my Halloween obsession at a future date.
Give Me Tomorrow tells the story of what happens when two mismatched people meet and fall in love despite their mutual determination to stay out of Cupid’s arrow range.
Lissa Price, a veterinarian, is a centuries-old vampire. Her heart has hardened over the years out of self-preservation brought on by years of loneliness compounded by the necessary isolation of being a vampire.
Jaxon Granger is part-owner of his family’s thoroughbred racehorse boarding and layover facility. Bachelorhood is his religion, and there isn’t a woman alive who can make him a one-woman man.
That is, until the woman he falls for turns out not to be alive in the strictest sense of the word.
Between now and publication day, I will share more about Lissa’s and Jax’s story on my Fire Star Press blogging days:
I admit it. I love anything that glitters or sparkles. My husband calls it "Magpie Syndrome." (I haven't had the heart to tell him that recent studies have shown that magpies are NOT attracted to shiny objects.) However, this attraction to the new and shiny extends beyond just jewelry and clothing - it permeates my writing as well. A new story idea is so exciting and holds so much promise - what will it be when it grows up ? A short story? A novella? A novel?
I'm not a plotter, I don't outline. It has just never worked for me. Even in high school and college, I never wrote the outline until after I was done with the paper and then only because it was required. I mean, how could I know what I was going to write until I wrote it? When I begin developing a story I know who the main characters are, I know how the story begins, how it ends, and have a few miscellaneous scenes that go somewhere in the middle. The rest evolves as I write.
Oooh, shiny!
When writing was something I only dreamed of doing I often worried that I wouldn't be able to come up with enough story ideas. Ha! I have so many ideas I can't keep up with them. At this point my primary focus is on Dances with Werewolves, the second novel in my Kudzu Korners sweet paranormal romance series. (You can read about the first novel, Dial V for Vampire, here.) But, at the same time I have ideas for at least 15 other stories percolating in my head. Heck, I even have covers for books that I haven't written yet.
It would be easy to let all of these ideas distract me because of their freshness - so many unknowns waiting to be discovered! However, if I flit from story to story like a hummingbird nothing will ever get finished. I am (mostly) able to focus on my work in progress (WIP) but I have learned that when an idea won't quit going "Mom, mom, mom, mom! Pay attention to me, Mom" it's best to put the WIP aside for an evening or so and pay attention to it. This normally consists of just making notes to get some of the ideas out of my head. On occasion, "notes" become chapters. But, this means that when those other stories have their day in the sun, I'll already have a good start.
I know I'm not alone. This cartoon was recently shared on the Writing About Writing Facebook page. It's perfect! :-)
Distractions are a part of life, not just writing. How do you stay focused?
