Druids, anyone?

Kay Derwydd's long-running Druid serial 'Taliesin's Grove' in Forbidden Fruit is always a favourite, with lots of nice mythology and a couple of very hot men into the bargain. And her vampire tales are legendary. Put the two together and you have an explosive mix! I reckon I can thoroughly recommend this, her latest Druid/Vampire story:



Crossing the Veil by Kay Derwydd

Modern Druid Elijah has a lot going for him: a nice loft, a good bartending job at a hot gay nightclub...and a vampire for a boyfriend. So what happens when he begs for his lover to turn him during a Samhain ritual?

Get your copy HERE!

RomanceWiki

Spent ages this afternoon updating my RomanceWiki listing as I suddenly realised it was hopelessly out of date. I created a separate page for Roses in December, added at least three other stories/books I've had published recently (Watery Grave, Sticky Wicket and the Whiskey Creek Torrid Teaser) and added a list of similar authors.

It's a great resource now and filled with hundreds of books, authors, articles and links to resources. And not all the books/authors are modern, newly published ones either - whilst browsing today I came across entries for Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer and Mary Stewart, to name but a few classic authors that somebody hardworking has written entries for.

More spookiness

James Buchanan has an absolute rip-snorter of a story in the current issue of Forbidden Fruit, which is unusual, thought provoking and delightful. So I can thoroughly recommend this further collection of stories by the same author, based on creepy myths from around the world and brought out just in time for Halloween. :)



Taste Test – Bittersweets: A Taste of Halloween by James Buchanan Things that go bump in the night abound in this Taste Test from James Buchanan. From summoning an ancient spirit to magical spells that go awry, these fours stories will chill and thrill you.

Capturing folktales from Mexico to Russia, these steamy tales will have you jumping at every sound, and wishing you had more. Be careful what you wish for, though, for like the characters in these stories, you might get more than you bargained for! Give yourself a treat today!

Buy It Now

Amusing story

Something reminded me today of a story Mum used to tell me about her childhood. Apparently her sister, who was several years older than her, had been given a green Bakelite dressing table set (brush, comb, mirror etc) but decided she didn't like it. Rather than throw it in the bin like anyone else, she dashed downstairs with it one night and flung the whole set on the living room fire. Bakelite is flammable. Very, very, flammable. The flames hit the top of the chimney and set fire to it, and the fire brigade had to be called to come and put it out!

It's such a nice story I'm going to use it in my latest novel. I love putting odd bits and pieces like that into my writing - it seems to bring a book to life.

Slow progress

The new project is proceeding at a snail's gallop. Yesterday I managed about 980 words; today I've added another 800 but had to delete a fair chunk of those because I realised my character's motivations were all wrong. Sigh. Still, at least it is progress and at least I'm writing something every day, which up to last week I could only dream about doing.

I discovered to my horror yesterday that the link on my webpage to the catalogue page for Roses in December at Torquere Press was wrong. Blush. Many apologies for the inconvenience if anyone has tried to use the link and failed. I've repaired it now and you should be able to find the book with a single click.

So why the interest...

...in World War Two? I was chatting to some writer friends today and realised that several of my stories and novels have a wartime theme. 'Three Degrees of Separation' has a wartime backstory, whilst 'The House on Penny Lane' is set in Liverpool during the height of the blitz and draws quite heavily on some of my Mum's memories of living there during the war. 'Garden of Remembrance/Roses in December' is partly set in the years leading up to the war. And my latest project is set, once again, in WW2.

So why the fascination? The quick answer is, I honestly don't know. I'm not old enough to have lived through the war, and I never even studied that period at school. I can only think that listening to my parents' and grandparents' stories and memories has influenced me. My family was rather old fashioned and used to live in the past, ('do you remember' was a frequent cry at the dinner table) and it seems I soaked up the endless tales of a bygone age with my tea. So much so that at times, I feel I know more about the 1940s than I do about later decades when I was growing up!

Oooh! Creepy!

I can't believe it's nearly Halloween already! But the shops are full of pumpkins and furry bats, and Aspen have marked the occasion by releasing an anthology of four themed stories, just in time. I haven't had a chance to read this myself yet, but if Emily Veinglory and Laura Baumbach's previous stories are anything to go by it'll be a darned good read. Bring out the fake blood and the false teeth. LOL

The ERWF Promo LJ is pleased to announce a new Halloween anthology by Aspen Mountain Press entitled:

Creatures of the Night, Creatures of Delight

containing four short stories and selling as an e-book for $6.99 from the Aspen Mountain Press.

* "Walk Through Fire" by Laura Baumbach M/M
* "Devilish Good Time" by J.M. Snyder M/M
* "Things That Go Bump in the Night" by Lucynda Storey M/F
* "Blue Murder" by Emily Veinglory M/M

Contest winner

The 'Fall in Love' book giveaway/contest over at Forbidden Fruit finished yesterday and we drew four winners from the correct responses. Congratulations to Jenny, who won a copy of Roses in December - I hope you enjoy the book!

And the answer is...

...Nat from Roses in December. Well done if you guessed right!

I'm toying with the idea of a sequel to Roses and have been scribbling some notes today, trying to come up with some interesting characters and a different sub-plot. I don't want to just re-hash the first book and call it something else, I want it to be a stand-alone novel if at all possible. Not sure yet if it's achievable but I'll keep a note here if I do decide to go ahead.

Guess who?

Torquere Press have just been running a fun little contest on their readers' yahoo group, to guess the character from a series of clues. First up was this - can you guess who it is? No prizes, I'm afraid, but I'll reveal the answer in a day or two. :)

1. He's a soon-to-be ex-soldier

2. He enjoys a fag by the pool *g*

3. He travels a lot without ever leaving the place he lives

4. He rings a bell for his heart's desire

5. He loves gardens

Garden make-over

Just a snippet to say that the garden I based most of Roses in December on, Biddulph Grange in Staffordshire, is having some additional work done on it, including rebuilding the Great Wall of China. Those of you who've read the novel will know what that means! It's lovely to know that work is still continuing to rescue this gem from nature's throttling grasp. :)

I'm back!

Back from vacation and a very nice time I had too. Cornwall is a stunning part of the country and we had super weather, especially for this time of year. Well, apart from the tail end of Hurricane Gordon, which blew my cup of tea away at Land's End!

The only downside... Cornwall is *not* well supplied with internet access points so I couldn't update this (or anything else, for that matter) for several weeks. But now I'm back and raring to go.

Since we got back I've been working on a new novel called 'Paradise Lost', based on a 'celebrity love island' style tv show, with a hero who has to resist temptation for as long as possible in order to claim the top prize. The only trouble is, he's been set up and will have to resist a totally different temptation from the one he's expecting! For about the first time ever, I've got a strong female central character (the hero's agent) and may also develop a het relationship in the plot. I've never tried that before so it'll be interesting to see how it goes. Excerpts in due course, hopefully.