Coming Soon! A New Story In the Blood Feud World

I turned in my next story last week and turned it in to Harlequin. It will be part of their Nocturne Cravings line, which means erotica paranormal romance.

As far as I know, the title will be Phoenix Burning. At least I haven't been asked to submit alternate titles yet. I'm hoping this one sticks because coming up with names for a story is excruciating. I suck at titles.

Anyway, before I digress too far, the title looks as if it will be Phoenix Burning and it's scheduled to come out January 2014.

This isn't the best blurb ever and I don't have time to do a better job just now, but I hope this makes sense:

Vampire enforcer Ivar LeBlanc has been assigned to bring in the male who killed the clan lord's human beloved several centuries earlier. He's watching the daughter, Phoenix Cahill, waiting for her father to make an appearance.

Ivar has a small problem, though--Phoenix makes him burn with desire--and his life gets more complicated when it becomes clear that the woman he's staking out is being hunted by another vampire. Protecting Phoenix means sticking even closer than what he's already doing.

Phoenix has been taught all her life what the guidelines are for feeding and number one is: Don't feed too close to home. Ivar is her next door neighbor. Number two is: Don't feed from the same person twice. But she can't resist Ivar and she doesn't want to, not even if it means breaking all the rules because he makes her feel alive and she doesn't want to give him up.

More Stories Coming

There will be more stories set in the Blood Feud world! I sold two stories to Nocturne's Cravings. This is their novella length, ebook line.

The first story is tentatively titled Phoenix Burning. The hero, Ivar, is a vampire enforcer in Los Angeles, sent by his clan lord to find the man who centuries earlier killed the clan lord's human beloved.

The heroine is this guilty man's daughter and Ivar plans to stick close to her until she leads him to her father. Only things don't go quite the way Ivar planned. He's so attracted to the heroine that he can't see straight or think about anything except sex.

I don't have a release date yet or a for sure title, but I had to share my awesome news! Stay tuned.

The Blood Feud Universe

The Blood Feud world has a back story and a lot of history going on there, but then it's full of all kinds of different peoples. The first story, BLOOD FEUD, featured a vampire heroine and a demon hero, and since that time, I've introduced the human contingent—demon slayers, the vampire hunters and the wizards. And one of the proposals I have under submission introduces another species (not a shifter).

 

As an intro to the world that I've been spending quite a bit of time in, vampires and demons fought a war that ended eight hundred years ago. They are still largely enemies and BLOOD FEUD is the beginning of trying to heal that breach.

 

The demon slayers come in with the second story, DEMON KISSED. The slayers recruit specific people to their ranks, and while there's not outward tie, they are run by the same group that gives orders to the vampire hunters. They make their first appearance in SHADOW'S CARESS.

 

Each of the stories can have a hero or heroine from any group. Same thing with the villains—they can be anyone or anything. I like the ambiguity because real life has plenty of it.

 

ENEMY EMBRACE introduces the wizards and not necessarily in a good way. In this story, we find out that the wizards are out for themselves first, last, and always. They're not the villain in this piece, but it introduces another group with ambiguous aims.

 

The story I'm writing now in the world? The h/h are both wizards. Also, two of the other stories I have under submission involve wizards as well, but it's really the story I'm working on now that gets into the problems in their world.

 

One of the other things I like about the ambiguity in bad and good is that each hero and heroine, depending on which group they belong to, has their own viewpoint about the other groups. It also shows the characters by spotlighting what interests them or what they observe in the world.

 

What I mean by this is that different h/h don't think about or even mention some of the groups because they're just not a blip on their radar screen. In BLOOD FEUD, the slayers and hunters aren't part of the equation that the h/h are dealing with so they don't worry about them. Their focus is on the demon who's killing the vampires and preventing another war from erupting. Same with the other books. The h/h's voice and viewpoint drives what comes out and who they think about and that's the way it should be if a writer is being true to who their characters are, IMO.

Characters don't think things like: Hey, I'm hunting the evil murdering demon, but let me wax poetic about the wizards even though they're not in this story and have no bearing on it. That's totally cheating character viewpoint. Again, this is IMO and I'm sure there are writers that disagree with me, but if Point of View is being done correctly, the writer shouldn't be interjecting herself or what she thinks the readers need to know about the world. It should flow naturally from the characters.

What I Am Working on Now

My current Work In Progress (WIP) is set in the Blood Feud World. This is actually a trilogy idea that I've had for a while, but didn't get going on for a few reasons.

The first delay came because I didn't have a third couple for a trilogy idea. I thought about just doing two couples, but it made the arc unbalanced. It really needed that third story. Then one day as I was looking back on past work that hadn't gone anywhere, I saw one of my old couples and I realized I still wanted to write them.

 

It was a new experience, bringing a couple from a previous world into different one. The characters changed because their life experiences had changed who they were. We are a sum of our experiences after all. And the hero's name also changed, which was also interesting to me. Those of you who follow this blog know that I don't get to pick my characters' names. They tell me who they are.

 

The project's second delay came in because the other two couples—the ones who were in the story for a while and waiting for the third couple—weren't working. Oh, I tried to make them work, but there was no chemistry between them. So I swapped them.

 

That was another new experience for me and I was afraid they'd balk, but they didn't. The new pairings work much better and there's actually heat now.

 

The final big delay came in with book order. I put together a series overview and I struggled with the arc. It wasn't coming together in a logical way and it felt off. I also had a great deal of trouble getting my h/h to kick off the series. Then one Saturday, I had an epiphany—switch the books around. I debated, though. I hadn't needed to do this before either, but when my writing buddies suggested the same thing, I decided to do it.

 

First, I rewrote the series overview and switching the stories around eliminated some of the big issues I wash having with the arc. Then I started working on the new opening story and it's actually going fairly well. I was hoping to have a draft done by the end of the month, but I'm not going to make it.

It's okay, though, because I figured out a few things as time passed and I think it's improving the story. Sometimes time for things to percolate in the subconscious is good.

Blood Feud

Blood Feud is available now in multiple formats at Smashwords! And is still available at Amazon for Kindle and Barnes & Noble for Nook. I hope to have the story in the Sony Store, Kobo, and Apple among others. I'll update when it's up. Now on to Troll Bridge!

Blood Feud at Smashwords

Blood Feud at Amazon

Blood Feud at Barnes & Noble

Shadow's Caress Coming In Feb!

Shadow's Caress, my short story from Nocturne Bites, has a release date now! You can find it online everywhere February 1, 2011! This is the third story set in my Blood Feud world.

I've been trying and trying, BTW, to come up with a name for the series that wasn't the title of the first story that takes place in it, but nothing fits better. I finally decided to surrender and just call it Blood Feud because it fits. One of the main issues in the world is the animosity between vampires and demons and how their respective leaders are trying to bridge that and form an alliance. It's not easy going for them because it is a Hatfield and McCoy situation.

So the vampires and demons realize that humans have become a bigger threat and would be better addressed with a unified front. Humans have vampire hunters and demon slayers out there, although the vast majority of the population is unaware any of this is going on. And the vampires have a small issue--the rogues.

In my world, all vampires are part of a clan through blood exchange. If you're bit by someone who was bit by someone who was bit by clan lord #1, then you're part of his clan. Everyone is affiliated--except during the Demon Wars, one of the clan lords was killed. Most of these vampires joined other clans, but a sizeable number did not. They haven't made an appearance in any stories yet, but they're out there. Waiting.

The thing that's so interesting from a writer's perspective (at least to me) is introducing this all in small chunks because they're short stories. I've never subscribed to the barf out everything about your world up front school of writing. It's hugely boring to read. But I have been able to reveal bigger chunks of say my Light Warriors world than I've been able to do with the Blood Feud stories because of the length. Blood Feud, the first book, introduces the vampire and demon conflict. Demon Kissed brings in the demon slayers, and Shadow's Caress will introduce the vampire hunters.

I do have plans for more stories set in this world. There are two characters (vampires) mentioned in Shadow's Caress that have stories. I just need to finish a few other projects and take time to work things out. Time is always such a problem!

Blood Feud Is On Kindle!

Last year, I wrote a short story for The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance 2, called Blood Feud. Until now, it's only been part of the full collection and I wanted people to be able to buy it on its own if they only wanted to read my story. It took me a little while to find the time to figure it all out, but Blood Feud is now available in Kindle format!

Demons and vampires have always been enemies, but they reached an uneasy truce. A truce now threatened by a demon who is murdering vampires.

Isobel is a troubleshooter for her vampire clan and she's ordered to work with a demon to find the killer. She never expected her new partner to be Seere, the demon lover she'd abandoned.

The last thing Seere wants is to fall under Iso's spell a second time. But as they work together to find the murderer, Seere learns that what burns between them is more explosive than any Blood Feud.

If you've read my Nocturne Bites story, Demon Kissed, Blood Feud is set in the same world. In DEMON KISSED, when Andras makes reference to the demon prince being in love with a vampire, he's referring to Isobel and Seere from BLOOD FEUD. There's a third story in this world coming out in 2011 from Nocturne Bites as well. I think the title is going to be SHADOW'S CARESS, but I have no idea on the release date yet.

Anyway, I've been working on this plan to upload Blood Feud on my own for a while. I had this awesome cover made and then procrastinated on the actual conversion for Kindle upload. It was a little tedious to format, but it went much easier than I expected.

I know not everyone reads on a Kindle. I'm going to try to format for the other readers as well, but I can't promise when I'll manage to get it done unless I can upload the file in the same format that Amazon took. Somehow I'm guessing it won't be that easy.

And as I'm typing this, I'm working on getting The Troll Bridge uploaded for Kindle, too. TROLL BRIDGE was part of The Mammoth Book of Time Travel Romance and is set on Jarved Nine. It takes place about seven years after the end of Eternal Nights, Wyatt and Kendall's story. I know a lot of fans of the Jarved Nine series have been asking for this to be available as a stand alone, so I'm excited to get this out there.

Blood Feud for Kindle

New Covers!

I mentioned earlier that I was going to get the two short stories I wrote for the Mammoth Books collections out in ebook format. I have the electronic rights to those stories, so I decided to get covers made and take the plunge. Well, my covers turned out utterly awesome and I have to share here even though I haven't finished writing the book description blurbs yet or even started formatting.

First up is the cover for The Troll Bridge. This is a time travel where the heroine, Lia Stanton, goes from 2010 to 2050 and meets up with Troll Maglaya, a Special Ops soldier stationed on the planet Jarved Nine. He's the one assigned to guard Lia.

The second cover is for Blood Feud. This story is about a vampire heroine, Isobel, and her former lover, demon prince Seere. Unfortunately, for Isobel and Seere, their romance was doomed 200 years earlier because demons and vampire are enemies. But when a demon starts killing vampires, the two sides have to work to find the killer before war erupts. Again. Isobel and Seere are assigned by their respective leaders to work together and get the murderer.

Totally awesome, yes? Now I have to get moving on writing the book descriptions and formatting so I can get this up on Amazon and other places.

Brave New World

Y'all know I wrote two short stories for Mammoth Books. I only contracted for non-exclusive print rights and have my electronic rights. I've decided to take the leap and self-publish the E version myself.

I'm having covers created as we speak. I'm writing the "back cover" copy that describes the book right now, too. This is forcing me to flex writing muscles that have mostly been unused since my college days when I was an advertising copywriting major. When I have these two things finished, I'll have to work on getting the stories formatted correctly for upload. This is the part I'm concerned about.

My plan is to start with Kindle and then figure out what to do with the other formats. If other authors have done it, I can, too. Especially since I'm more tech savvy than most writers are. (Don't even get me started on "I want an XP computer because Windows 7 is too different.")

I know that I want to clearly label these stories as being short so that no one is surprised when they read one. I also want to label them as being previously published in Mammoth Book collections so no one gets a repeat when they expected something new. As a reader, I sure would want to know these things ahead of time.

I'm excited about getting these stories out there on their own. I know there are people who want The Troll Bridge (it's a Jarved Nine tale), but who don't want to buy the entire Mammoth Book collection to get it. Also, I want to get Blood Feud out on it's own because it's the first story set in the same world in which my Nocturne Bites take place.

When the covers are finished, I'll share them here, of course. I'll also post when the stories are available. If this goes awesome, I might try to slip a few more Jarved Nine short stories into my schedule. I'd love to do Flare, Gravedigger, and Z-Man's stories. What would be most fun about it? They happen before Troll's story so I'd get to see his character when he was younger than in Troll Bridge.