Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Cat's Meow

"I'm smiling because I just found a cute TRUE story about cats and kitties just like me."


"That's TOTALLY awesome!"


"Where? Where?"
"Can we see it too?"

"I would like to see this too! Where do you go to see such a thing?"

"Yes! I've heard it's toe-licking good!"

"This is the cover right here! I've heard you can find it on some place called AMAZON."
"What's it about?"
"Well, its about this lady author... oh, there she is right there..."
"Ooo, she's perrrrfict!"
"And her husband--he's 'The Cat Whisperer'. This is him right there looking out onto a beautiful lake."
"Anyway, its about how a female feral cat came into their yard one day and he fed it table scraps, and she stayed and had her kittens, and they took care of them. But not all of it was good and fun. There are villains, death, and how they survived and took care of each other."

"Wow. I think it sounds great."
"Oh, and that's them right now... shhhhh. They're sleeping."
"That makes me sleepy to watch. I think I'll take my cat nap now."
"Me-OWWW!"

The Cat Whisperer can be found at Amazon for $1.99. A true story about feral cats, covering a whole year of fun, sorrow and their triumphs!

Sunday, November 24, 2013

VAMPIRE ASCENDING Not a cookie-cutter paranormal romance

You've seen them, lining bookshelves in the fantasy/horror section of your local bookstore, or on Amazon. Paranormal Romances all have the same look to the cover (half-naked man and woman--hint, one is usually a vampire--going at one another). Who is surprised at the end? No one.

Vampire Ascending is not another cookie-cutter  paranormal romance. 
It is darker and more realistic than Twilight, and I've heard people say they were very happy about that--needing to stay away from the sparkly vampires, don't you know?




Many who have read this one, have gone on to read the second book, Vampire's Trill, 

and then on to read Vampire Nocturne.

These Urban Fantasy books all have a blend of mystery, romance, horror, action and adventure. Sabrina doesn't fall for just one man, but many, and has many suitors. She does her best not to be bitten by a vampire. But there's no guarantee in this, since she works for a powerful master, seven foot tall Bjorn Tremayne.

Vampire Nocturne is my only Steampunk, which follows touch clairvoyant, Sabrina Strong into another world where she has to find her cousin before Drakulya does.

Great eBooks for those who want a vampire read with bite!

Sweet dreams....

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Are We Having Fun Now? (NaNoWriMo)

Hello, my pretties. Well, as you know this month has a lot of people working on their manuscripts for NaNoWriMo. And if you are one of them, you are wasting your time here. Really. Get back to it or you won't get your word count in for the day.

Okay, are they gone?

Good.

I was looking for something on Bing, and found some fun stuff about NaNoWriMo. I thought I would share them with you today. I don't usually do these sort of blog posts, but this seemed like soooo much fun, I had to share.
So, here we go.

You know how it is, to finally have time to write and you just can't decide what to write?
...and then nothing comes when you need it most?!?$!#^@%F**%!!!

This is you on November 1st:

You're working HARD toward your target goals....

Well, you're at least close, right?

This is your brain on NaNoWriMo:
What you hope to have on Novemer 30th:

What you really have...


You on November 30th

And who's bright idea was it anyway to do this in November when you've got one or two holidays in which you either have to cook, travel, eat, go to the mall, and NOT WRITE ANYTHING!!!


 AND...


Hope you enjoyed my little poke at NaNoWriMo... And don't give up, you've got nine days left and you've almost got it down to your goal.

Wait don't throw the typewriter out the window... Oh hell....

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Rooting Around

You might recall my saying that I've been writing a long time, and as a result have a lot of old manuscripts laying around in boxes. I kid you not!

Well, the other day I was rooting around upstairs in our 1906 farm house where I've stored a lot of things I don't use any more--like old typewriters, and some computers, and bins and boxes with my writing in it. I opened one box and found something I'd forgotten about. From all indications it was written in 2000. It was meant to be a sequel to another ambitious work called "Vampire Legacy". I had tried so hard to get that published, even thought one agent was interested, but she fled after I couldn't get it just right for her (and said that vampire fiction doesn't sell very well--huh!).

Anyway, this is called "Lucy's Diary" (working title), and when I read the first four pages I thought it wasn't too terrible, but for a few places. And I could see, if I could marry this beginning with the aforementioned piece, I'd have a YA paranormal novel. It goes on to describe what happened at the end of last book, but I stopped at a point where I thought I might see if I couldn't tell the story from that point using the novel I'd written called "Vampire Legacy"--and maybe change the title, or something. I've been wanting to mess with it. Originally I'd written a form of this book in 1982-'83, but it was far different from what I had re-written in the '90's.

So, any way, I brought this partially written mss. down, along with another piece I'd written back when, and read through a little more of it. Aside from a few corrections and some additions, it's basically unchanged. I give you the first pages of "Lucy's Diary":

July 5, 2000

I just picked up this notebook today. I mean, my dad did. I couldn't go into the store. Or rather, I couldn't go out of the camper. Not into the sunlight. It would kill me.
This is weird. I don't feel different, except that I don't have a pulse. My dad tells me I don't look different, except that I'm really pale and that my eyes seem to have an odd glow to them, but that's all. I still have the same large brown eyes, long black hair and cute pouty lips. I had my doubts, so I tried looking into the mirror—you know, to see if the myth was true that a vampire casts no reflection. Yeah, something was looking right back at me in the mirror, but it wasn't me. It was too frightening. So much so I slashed out and broke the mirror. I looked nothing like me, Lucy Vladislav. It looking nothing like a human at all, but looked demonic. It freaked me out so that I worried about what I did look like. I mean, when I touch my face there isn't an ugly snout, or when I look at my arms and such, my skin isn't mottled green with red veins worming beneath the surface. (Yuck!) No, my skin looks as white as milk, and somewhat translucent, maybe. And only when I drink blood can I see the veins beneath the skin. It grosses me out so I try not to look.
Maybe it's what I'm supposed to think. What if the mirror has stolen my true identity—my soul, or whatever—and what I see is a cruel joke created by unseen forces from the spirit world? Forces which I sense more now than when I was alive. Now that I've become a supernatural being I'm aware of the other worlds swimming around me. Spheres,I think they're called. People, like my Grandmum Marci, who are mediums, are able to communicate with those spirits in the unseen worlds. She can tap into them and learn things that we, (well, I can't include myself any more), as humans could never know.
I've learned that this was how my father came to realize what was going on in our town, Vernon Oaks. People were disappearing without a trace. What do you know? A vampier was living in the old Berke Mansion, at the end of town. His name was Adriev Zaylik. He was turning the whole town into a bedlam of horror. People who supposedly disappeared had actually become vampires. And I'm one of them. I guess I got this diary so that I might write things down—how things happened—before I forget. If only to get it all straight in my head. So much happened!
I would never have dreamed that I'd wake up one night and learn that I had been changed into a vampire. It doesn't seem possible. I mean, I didn't believe in such things, not really. But come to find out, Gypsies do believe in such things, very deeply. I think my dad has always tried to shield me from out true heritage. Well, for one thing we certainly don't live like Gypsies. That's what I am. Plus one-sixteenth Cherokee Indian. That comes from my Grandmother Marci.
The story of why we don't live with my father's clan, on the road, is a long story—and one I'm not really well informed about. I only know that my dad was shunned by them when he was just a teenager. Not only was he shunned, but his mother, and dad, and merely because of the color of his eyes. They're gold. Sort of reminds me of the gem called tiger's eye. I suppose, if you weren't used to them, you'd be a little spooked by them because they have a strange animalish look to them. I only know this much by talking with my grandmother. She told me that Gypsies shun anything that's different, or might alude to bad spritis, and vampires are one of those things. Blue eyes are okay, because lots of people have blue eyes. But our people usually have dark skin, black hair and dark eyes. Sometimes they are nearly black. Yelow eyes are just too different. I read once that Gypsies originated from somewhere in India, a long time ago. Anyway, I guess they thought he could either put a curse on them—with his eyes—or bring a curse on them because of it. So, they banish him and us. Now we live like Gaje—that's Gypsy for regular people—ever since. I've never known anything else. I think I was still a baby when they banished him. But there are a lot of things I want to know more about, too.
Like my mother's death. It's been a mystery all my life. I only know things from Grandmum. I wasn't yet one year old when my mom was killed by a stray bullet in the crossfire from gang members in a bad neighborhood. I've never found out the details. Marci wouldn't tell me all of the story. She said that my dad would tell me these things when he felt I was ready. When would that be? When I'm thirty? I'm 15 now.
Seems I'm dwlling on the negative, here. Maybe I am. In health class, last year, our teacher stressed that we shouldn't dwell on the negative side of things. Try to find the positive in everything and everyone.
Okay. Positives. I feel—what? More alive than ever. If that isn't the craziest thing for me to say. But it's true. I certainly don't feel dead! I suppose this is why we're called “undead”? (I can't believe I just wrote that!)
I also feel very powerful, like I could go through a brick wall without breaking a nail. Hey! That's a positive. I never could grow my nails before. They always used to be brittle and break off if I tried to grow them to look nice. Now they're so long I could butter my toast with them. Just kidding.
Okay. Moving on. I'm only 15 and will remain that age in looks, at least.
I'm also very strong and fast, and can see in the dark really well.
I can't think of any more positives.
I guess I should put down that my dad and I are on the run. Have been since two nights ago. That's when we killed Zaylik and his whole nest of vampires. I can't get the image of my father that night out of my mind. His long, black hair flowing loosely beneath the wildly colorful scarf (?) tied around his head. The bright orange silk shirt he wore had become torn and soiled from our venture down into the dark, creepy tunnel beneath Zaylik's mansion.
But maybe I should start from the beginning. This whole story is sort of scrambled up in my brain, right now. My head has barely stopped spinning, because this all happened just days ago. Maybe writing it down will help me keep it all straight.

For the record, my father is—or was—a detective with the Vernon Oaks Police Department. That's before our sort of burning down an historical building, and maybe a little blowing up of things.

Have you ever gone back to read old manuscripts you have and wonder if you couldn't work on it some and get a novel out of it?

Saturday, November 9, 2013

NO to NaNoWriMo YES to working on projects

Hey, my pretties! What are you all doing here if you're busy writing those 50K words, HUH? GET BACK TO WORK!
Now to those of you who are not doing NaNoWriMo, gather around... that's right. The fire is just right. Oh, and here's a little kitten to put in your lap. He'll purr for you if you'll pet him...
Awww, he looks like little Peanut!

Well, I have finished my afghan and have started a new one--this one is for my husband. What? I'm not allowed to dabble in arts and crafts? I did have a craft business at one time and did not write a word for 4 years. That was a long hiatus, but I think I needed it.

At the moment I'm knee deep in stuff. Kittens, who are now orphans, are in our care. Mother wandered off into the wilds one night, and never came back. We are pretty sure she became victim to the coyotes around here. Sad, but that's the way things are out this way. We're determined to care for these little guys until they are a little larger and we can give them away. The drama of keeping cats is too much for us. You don't think so, you'll have to read "The Cat Whisperer" when it comes out.

Speaking of kittens and cats, I've finished "The Cat Whisperer". Right now the cover is being worked on and I'm going over the book again, after my formatting bud, John Gill, has worked on it. And then it will be ready for the world.
I'm still working on #8 book in the Sabrina Strong series. But I'm also working on #4 Vampire Caprice, which I hope to get out in January of 2014.
Edits:
It had begun raining as Bill drove toward Denver(How about: Bill drove toward Denver when the rain began.). That was why his mind had flooded with that one particular memory that often caused him pain in his heart to remember. Bill shook his head while making a disparaging growl, trying to pull himself from that very(Ital) old memory. Hell, it had been so long ago. Ninety-one years ago.
His father was very happy(find another word to say this) that he'd found the sibyl—showering him in monetarily ways. But when he kept asking when they would be married, it was difficult to tell him how hard this was. As it was, Sabrina was difficult to seduce. He couldn't keep her with him long enough to get to know him. Lord knows he'd tried every way he knew how. She was beautiful, and intelligent. Perhaps enough to stay away from the likes of him. He wondered if he could fall in love with her, gradually over the years. Certainly not like he had Celeste—who he had instantly fallen for—but perhaps, in time he would love Sabrina Strong, the sibyl. Would she fall in love with him? It might take an act of God—or an angel—but he figured he was up to it. He hadn't quite perfected dating, and wooing. Thanks to Father he was pretty much forbidden from dating anyone but the sibyl. But if he could charm old ladies into believing he was their grandson, he figured he could swing a liberal dose of magic to get Sabrina to begin taking a shine to him. He had already begun working on her. But somebody had put up a super ward on her house, so that even he could neither enter her yard, nor even call her—for the love of angel's wings!
Of course, this didn't prevent him from running into her brother, Randy. And, with a little bit of his mind-bending abilities, he was able to make Randy (whose mind was very easy to bend), invite him over for the Thanksgiving dinner at his house—with Sabrina in attendance.
Cooper had kept abreast of it all, via their communications. But he was also watching developments on another level. A level which even Bill wasn't privy to, and he wasn't even sure how Cooper was able to navigate into that parallel universe which included ley lines and other worlds. Possibly he had operatives who had crossed over. He simply didn't know. It was not entirely impossible to become an Undead, but it was rare. Not everyone who wished to become an Undead could. It was extremely difficult, because basically you had to first die, and then somewhere along the line be able to not become either a ghost or cross into the next stages of death, but actually become a physical being once more and yet not be alive or dead, but actually Undead.
That had been Cooper's report only last night, when he had called him—in the middle of the night, no less—about The Albino, and that he had been tracking Sabrina.
No matter how the news had come to him, The Albino was bad news. Knowing that The Albino had killed the last sibyl in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Pompeii in order to feed on her soul was especially not good since it had been rumored he himself had caused the eruption.(Way too long-I’m panting) How is anyone's guess.(?) However, that was probably just a legend that had been blown out of proportion. Stories that old often built into monumental fish tales. Bill decided that The Albino simply took advantage of certain situations, waited for the right moment and struck. More than likely, he had probably stalked the sibyl of that era and was in the right place at the right time and then he vanished after having fed on her soul.
The very fact that this Undead seemed to be in the right place at the right time seemed a bit unnerving. He knew that the sibyl—Sabrina—existed, and was now following her as though he knew something might happen to her and he could take her soul. This was all according to Cooper. He wasn't all that sure that the story was made up in order to get him to snatch Sabrina against her will before the Undead did.
However, if any of this was true Bill had to get to her before something did happen to her. She was their people's only hope. Without her, Bill's purpose would be null and void. He really didn't want to wait another 90 some-odd years again to be wed. His mission was cut in stone. He had to get to Sabrina before the Albino did.

Looks like fun, right? Riiiight.

Well, I've been working on this today, and getting my links over on Goodreads changed. I hadn't even thought about this, but people who would hit the link to buy any of my books would find nothing. That's not a good idea. So, I spent about an hour or so getting those changed over. Well, probably longer since I had to reset my password there so that I could get in there and edit out my former publisher's name, and get the ASIN numbers put in.

Now for the fun stuff...
November always makes me think of hot drinks, Thanksgiving meals, the naughty deserts...
What do you think of this time of year? And I don't want to hear how many days it is until Christmas--it's become too commercialized these days. Let me know what your favorite thing is about November. If you're looking forward to snow (Mr. Kendall?), I'll love to hear about it.

Friday, November 1, 2013

WINNERS!!!

Hello, my pretties. I hope you all had a wonderful and safe Halloween, and all your treats divided up. I'm partial to licorice and chocolate.

Anyway, if you were playing along in my Halloween give away, and since I had several people make comments along the way (and feeling generous), I've decided to choose two winners from the general contest.

The first contest was for the person who made the most comments. And that person is WILLIAM KENDALL. William commented on all my posts during this week of Halloween, and he gets the choice of any of my Sabrina Strong books, or Spell of the Black Unicorn.

Now let's see what the magic pumpkin has chosen for the other winners who has a choice of any of the three Sabrina Strong series ebooks.

Drum roll, please...



The Magic Pumpkin has chosen:
SHELLY ARKON
EMMA of Little Gothic Horrors

CONGRATULATIONS EVERYONE!!!

and thank you all for stopping by my blog this week and making comments!

Contact me so that I can get your prizes to you loreleibell4 (at) gmail (dot) com, unless I contact you, first, of course.

And I have another announcement about a FREE BOOK by Author Shelly Arkon! It's called Time on Her Side


Book description:
They say God gives second chances. 

Forty years have shown Wilhelmina has nothing but a lifetime of four failed marriages, a job she hates, and her most recent affair with a married businessman. Until one day, while sipping coffee her silent prayers are answered--she’s visited by her future self, offering Wilhelmina a chance to re-do her life, giving her a mission to save the future world from the baby she’s unknowingly pregnant with. 
Is it the miracle she hoped for, or will this lead into a whole new set of problems? 


AUDIO BOOK NOW AVAILABLE!

Hi, everyone, I have some great news! My first Sabrina Strong book, Ascension, is now in an audio book format.  NOW THAT I HAVE YOUR ATTE...