Nocturne... the Other White Meat

Hello, my pretties.
That title just jumped into my head. And since I hate trying to think up something, I went with it hoping it might grab someone who normally doesn't come over to the dark side.

News is Nocturne is on sale (ebook, of course) for $0.99 from August 8-14th!

Nocturne, Sabrina Strong's third adventure in the series is, what I like to refer to as my "steampunk" novel. If you enjoy that genre, you may like this one. I enjoyed writing it, so different from the others, but it certainly creates more delemmas in Sabrina's life. And it sets her up for the 8th novel. In case anyone questions my reasons for writing it. I actually don't need to defend it. I write fantasy. 
Here is the description:

When Sabrina's cousin Lindee goes missing, it's up to Sabrina to find her. She fears that vampires are at the root of things... and soon finds out that it's not only that, but much worse. 

Beyond the Black Veil vampires outnumber humans ten to one, and people are merely blood donors and objects of the vampires' sexual desires. It's here where Sabrina encounters Drakulya, the Impaler, who has managed to not only become a vampire, but lives in this strange world and rules as king. 

With the Dagger of Delphi Sabrina will face the Dreadfuls - merciless stalkers and killers. With her is also the stone containing the spirit of Dante Badheart, and more mysteries surround this magical artifact as well. 

Nocturne is the exciting third book in the Sabrina Strong paranormal romance / urban fantasy series.

Well, thanks for stopping by, and if you have read it and enjoyed it (or are about to), be kind and write a nice review for it. Thanks! 

In The Beginning... Or maybe Somewhere In Between... The Vampire Ascended

He moved closer in a liquid way that seemed to defy gravity, and the use of his feet. I think he merely floated over to me. I felt the power from his eyes—a sort of hypnotic bondage. A weakness, or a deep lassitude overwhelmed me, and I sagged. As though anticipating this, he caught me by the arms, his minion caught me from behind, and they held me upright between them.

“One important thing, Ms. Strong. Did the wolf bite you?”

Hello, my pretties. I've just received the edits of my first book to review and okay. I'm sure they're fine, but I will read through this. It's been a while since I've read it. I've shared a portion of it above, where I was on an early page in first chapter.

My publisher, Miika, has suggested title changes to my books. This first one, Vampire Ascending will be renamed :

Book I - Ascension 

The rest of the series will go like this:

Book II - Trill

Book III - Nocturne

Book IV - Caprice

I thought this was a good move/idea, and agreed with this change. A number of authors (with traditional publishers) seem to have gone this route. I'm reading one now that uses this theme on the title, and I do like the idea, as I think it will blend in with other books in the fantasy genre that are out there.

Today's post is short, as I'm busy with reading this edit of the first book. I might not read it word for word, but I'm enjoying reading the first chapter. If there are any more changes, I'll let you know, and also will post with a longer portion of this first chapter, when I have time.

Have a nice Sunday!

July Updates

This week has gone by slowly. I've slowed down time, actually. I'm not sure how I've done this, but it might have something to do with my not having to go into work, and I get a lot done in one day. I'm certainly not sitting and relaxing much.

Hope everyone had a good July 4th celebration, or whatever you do. We stay home. We don't like crowds, and it's very quiet here, and we grilled a couple of steaks. Been a while since we've done that with the cost of such things, but once in a while we treat ourselves. Besides, my husband's birthday is on Monday. He's told me he's turning 50 (again). I said if he was turning fifty again, then I should too.

I do feel MUCH better this summer than I did last. I was struggling with my weight, up until I began the Atkins diet. I've now lost 17 pounds! And I'm within 11 pounds of my goal weight (125). I have so much energy it's alarming. In fact, yesterday I worked on digging up a flower bed, moving large rocks and flagstone around--I began this around 7-ish in the morning, took a 45 minute break for lunch, and was back at it for another two hours. I built my little waterfall with the large flagstone, but that was as far as I got in getting this area ready. I later will put down brick for a walk way. I've wanted to do this for a long, long time. There used to be old railroad ties in the area where I've worked, and we pulled these rotting ties out, back in the spring. Now, this is my project, and I'm doing this by myself. The only thing my husband did was haul away the dirt in the mini cart hooked to the large mower he uses out at the park. Later that night I still had energy to cut up a chicken and fry it for Dennis' birthday meal (he doesn't know if he's going to take the 7th off or not--gets behind in the mowing out there in the park).

My raspberries have come on strong. One day this week I sprayed myself down with repellent, and went out and picked what might have been two quarts. Yum!

I've watched all the Harry Potter movies first to last. Now, I really need to work on my book. My beta reader, Jennifer Weydert now has a different job, and it's at the university. She's been able to find a little time to work on my 5th book. Hopefully, she'll continue to be able to find the time. But she claims that she loves this series, and can't really put it down.

As for the fourth book, Vampire Caprice, is now on Smashwords, if anyone is interested. Since my publisher quit the business, I've gone Indie, and I'm sorry, but I simply don't have the money to put out a soft-bound book for this. If I could, believe me, I'd do a hell of a lot better job than was done with that third one. I was actually happy that he quit, since he didn't give my third book his complete attention. My suspicion was that he was too busy publishing and promoting his own book. So, this was why he was so quick to allow me to use the book covers for all three books--he felt guilty.

Anyway, I'm working on the 8th book, working on the plot. I know when not to write much down into the main document, because I don't have a good grasp of the plot. I've had a few revelations, however--and have the plot twist--but I need the meat of it, and what sort of clues to drop and how. This is going to be a sort of Western, but it will still have fantasy elements. Maybe it's a little bit of Harry Potter, too, since I use a train ride in this from one place to another in Drakulya's realm. Oh, and she is back on Black Veil to help find Princess Aljhambra, who has been abducted by one of Drakulya's off-spring, Hawk--who HATES vampires. She's told they've threatened to kill her if Drakulya doesn't comply with their wishes. Which is to stop invading a neighboring country and taking humans. But Joha, Drakula's son, claims he is not doing this!

So, at the end of my first week off, I've got a pretty good start of getting things that need doing done. The outdoor work will get done, but I need a day off in between. I'll be posting once in a while in here, and when I can, checking out what everyone else is doing out there. In the meantime, I hope you're all fine and don't mind me while I'm in my writing cave.

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....

Black Holes and Ley Lines

Hello, my pretties. Well, as you may recall, I've been sick with the flu, these past few days and have not been able to do much but rest--which is what you should do when down with the flu. But today I'm able to sit at the computer--and my eyes aren't burning any more, thank goodness!--so I though I'd bring you a little something about this third book.

I liked the idea of using ley lines in my stories. "Leys is used to indicate ancient straight lines that connect natural points of power in the earth. They were discovered by Alfred Watkins (1855-1935) He believed that the leys indicated the course of subtle earth energies. Where two or more leys cross is a power point that has, in the past , naturally drawn people to assemble or build structers such as standing stones, barrows, tembles and churches." - The Witch Book.

I've had interest in this for years. I don't know how many other authors use ley lines but Kim Harrison uses ley lines for her Rachel Morgan series for her witch and demons to cross from one world to another.

When I began work on my Sabrina Strong Series, I felt that the ley line could be used to make things more interesting, give the main character strange new worlds to explore, and give greater depth in her fantasy world. I other words, she wouldn't always be stuck on Earth, or in the same place book after book.

In the second book, Vampire's Trill, Sabrina travels via ley line to Dark World--a not so nice place--filled with lots of strange creatures, demons and so forth. I don't remember when I decided that the third book, Vampire Nocturne, would mostly take place in a completely different world (BEyond the Black Veil), but it was early on. That was when I began looking into "black holes" and the theories surrounding them.

Carl Sagan (scientist), thought that black holes might be considered a "rapid-transit system" between galaxies. A network of black holes (small black circles within larger violet circles are connected by violet lines), might permit objects to travel through time and space. Scientist have been trying to unravel this, and find an explanation of the possible existence of UFOs--and thus explaining Micheal Jordan (who everyone knows is really an alien, right?)

According to Einstein's theory of relativity, time would pass more slowly for those on board a spacecraft if they were to travel at the speed of light--which is 186,000 miles per second. The idea of slowing down time interested me, and I wanted to show it through Sabrina's watch--which stops, or dies, and becomes useless to her the more she uses the ley lines.

(Spoiler alert!)

In Vampire Nocturne, Sabrina, more or less, learns quickly (out of desperation), how to tap a ley line in a scene where she has been taken to a room to await a visit by Drakulya. A visit whhich she wants no part of, and so she thinks about going home and eventually does. She finds her trips back and forth from one world to the other is becoming easier. In fact, she decides to make a visit to one of her favorite haunts, Tom's Tavern, where she meets up with Rick (leprchaun), Morkel (elf), and the quiet, bu7t psychic Tom the bar keeper, who always knows what you want to drink, and you never have to pay a dime. (Hey, it's my fantasy, deal).

The idea of a portal that opens up to take anyone and anything to this planet was another idea that I used, so that knowledge of our world exists in Beyond the Black Veil. I love to use portals in my fantasises as well. I tied this in with the ley lines and black hole idea to place Sabrina on Beyond the Black Veil--the world that is stuck in Victorian times, and is ruled by vampires who out-number humans ten to one.

When I write, I don't like to put restrictions and rules as to what I can and cannot put into my story. The wilder the better. If my urban fantasy has a little science fiction or fact in it, so be it. This one happens to be a bit of a steam punk, for those of you who like that sort of thing.

Well, until next time, happy reading. I'm just glad to be feeling better, have my appetite back, and hope to get back to work tomorrow.

Vampire, My Own

I remember when I was a teenager thinking "What if I ever met a real vampire?" What would he be like? Well, being that I was an impressionable teenager you can just imagine, I suppose, what I may have wanted in a vampire.

He would have to be handsome, of course.

Charming - without a doubt.

Romantic - naturally.

Mysterious and somewhat dangerous, because it comes with the package.


So, when I began writing this short story this summer, I sort of fell back on some of my memories of being a teenager, and worked on "Vampire, My Own". Since it had been rejected, by the place I sent it to, I figured there was no reason to not publish it myself, and so have been working on the cover and having the formatting done for me.

And YAY! I just got it up on Amazon this morning. It will go live in less than 12 hours now.

This is my first YA paranormal. I had to go with Occult/supernatural on Amazon. Here is the blurb:
While taking her usual short cut through the cemetery one night, sixteen year old Karen Murdock meets handsome Lute Riley. Over the next few nights a romance blossoms. But when her best friend, Angeline, becomes sick and dies suddenly, Karen realizes that Lute had been seeing Angeline on the sly. Karen wants revenge. But can she kill a vampire?
Here is the link to it: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009FAXUP8#_

I want to thank Carole and John Gill for helping with formatting and the cover (getting it enlarged).