My new book is released! I love this story so much. In this third book in The Dream Factory series, Cassie Mark, the teenager who shows up in Alice's costume shop in Book One, has an adventure to discover who she wants to be. Not everyone is cut out for living in a small town. I sure wasn't and neither was my co-author Shea. We both wanted to share a story about a young woman who had to leave the village of Gold Coast, Illinois for Rome, Italy. There is something liberating about being in a big city with a rich history. Visiting these places puts your issues in perspective and gives you endless inspiration. Writing this book gave us a chance to armchair travel to one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Also, you can buy signed copies of all three books over at my website. This is the perfect book for when you want to cuddle up with a warm beverage and a darn good read.   Buy Links: My Web Site Amazon Barnes and Noble Kobo Apple Books

A Dream of Words is available for pre-order!

  Hello, beautiful people. I stopped engaging so much here and on social media because, first, it's been a gothic novel of a year, and second, I wanted to spend my energy on actually writing books. This turned out to be an absolutely winning strategy.

 

As a result, I have THREE new projects up for pre-sale now. The one I want to talk about today is my latest collaboration with my incredible co-author, Shea MacLeod.

Please welcome our newest book baby, A Dream of Words!

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Everyone knows each other in Gold Coast, a friendly place where dreams bloom. Once a depressed flyspeck on the map, the village has grown in warmth and love.

Welcome back to the magical town in Southern Illinois, where everyone glows with hope.

Alas, life in a small town is not for everyone.

Cassie Mack hated living in Gold Coast. Everybody knew each other’s business, her toxic family tried to use her as a workhorse, and there was no way romance would ever come for her. She dreamed of making a world of words, sumptuous words that described food, love, and flavor.

When the luscious words of her secret blog catch the eye of a flailing bakery in Rome, she jumped at their offer to come help them revitalize their presence.

Cassie can run from her family and create herself into who she wants to be. But the wounds still linger. If she wants a chance at a future that suits her, she will have to grow and become the embodiment of her Dream of Words.


Preorder today for the October 3rd release. This will be the perfect book for autumn, full of amazing food descriptions and learning to adore oneself.  We hope it will inspire to dig into your dreams and create them even further.

Watch for the newsletters on the rest of my projects - a book and deck of affirmations based on the Cafe of Hopes and Dreams and another writing reference book.  It's going to be a wonderful end to 2022.

Buy Links:
My Web Site
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Kobo
Apple Books

 

Location, location, location

Radu (not in picture) loves Istanbul.

 Dracula Unleashed takes place all over the world. I've been lucky enough to travel to some of the locations I write about. Here we go, across the globe!

Amsterdam is the home of Luc Breton, the European leader.

More Amsterdam. So gorgeous!

The Hagia Sophia.

Once a cathedral and a mosque, the Hagia is a museum. Can you imagine worshipping here?

The Sultan's private rooms in the Topkapi Palace.

Valerie and her boys.

Motivation!

Every book has its own rhythm and its own soundtrack. I did try to do a bunch of YouTube Links here  but that didn't work so well. Instead, here is a Spotify playlist that you can revisit over and over.

Here we are - classic heavy metal to women of rock!

Click here for the awesome sound of Valerie's world!

Coming soon!

I'll be releasing Dracula Unleashed in the fall - a perfect adventure story for the cold days.

In order to whet your appetite, here is a snippet!

Patience was a virtue Valerie Tate usually lacked. Loyalty, though, she had in abundance. Therefore she loyally, if impatiently, told Glenath Tempesta for the sixth time. “No.  I don’t know where Luc is.”

Luc Breton, the leader of the paranormal community in Europe, was obviously avoiding Glenath. On a stranger note, though, he was avoiding television and all media appearances. For as long as Valerie had known Luc, oh, a couple of centuries now, he was an attention hog. She cleared her throat in emotional discomfort. Personal honesty forced her to admit to having this particular flaw herself.

“I’ve got this damned conference in three weeks,” Glenath said for the seventh time. “I need him here, in Portland, so we can renegotiate the Treaty of Prague.” A slight slurping sound came over the phone. Glenath had taken to calling Valerie during mealtime. The woman was living on milkshakes snatched between meetings. Valerie said nothing on the Bishop’s terrible habits. Her own diet was equally limited. “This whole situation stinks,” Glenath said after swallowing. “The tensions here are rising. I’m sure there will be a war.” In the background, Glenath's vampire lover, Anthony, growled in agreement.

Valerie made a non-committal sound. Her own extensive experience of war had left her jaded. There was always going to be another war. Her friendship to Glenath kept her silent on the topic. The mortal had an aversion to such matter-of-fact thoughts.

Humans, Valerie thought kindly. Always so hopeful.

Glenath and her boyfriend, Anthony, are based off of this hot pairing.

Dracula Unleashed.

Behold! The cover for Dracula Unleashed, the last book in the Blood Wings Trilogy.

On the cover, we have our lovely and dangerous Valerie. The sleeveless one is everyone's favorite angel, Lance Soleil.

And rocking that gray tee-shirt is John Jante, the sweetest of our little menage.

Here are some other pictures that I am using to inspire my writing:

Angle Wing Chalcedony

My original vision for Lance.

Valerie loves diamonds.

The inspiration for her dragon embroidered coat.

Topkapi Palace

Lots of people visit Topkapi

Some More Virtual Book Tour. :)

Don't we all need some Nike today?

April 22:  Taylor Made Fiction
April 24:  Coffee and A Book Anytime
April 26: Racing To Read
April 30:  Today!! Shelley's Book Case
May 3:  Let's Get BOOKED!
May 7: The Most Recent! Long and Short Reviews
May 9:  Simply Ali
May 14:  Welcome to My World of Dreams
May 15:  It's Raining Books
May 17:  Queen of the Night Reviews

Virtual Book Tour, Stop Three!

My book tour for Dracula Unleashed continues!

April 22:  Taylor Made Fiction
April 24:  Coffee and A Book Anytime
April 26: Racing To Read
April 30:  Today!! Shelley's Book Case
May 3:  Let's Get BOOKED!
May 7:  Long and Short Reviews
May 9:  Simply Ali
May 14:  Welcome to My World of Dreams
May 15:  It's Raining Books
May 17:  Queen of the Night Reviews

Ok, so I ran out of cute alligator pics...

Dracula's Secret, Blood Wings #1
Dracula's Desires, Blood Wings #2
Dracula Unleashed, Blood Wings #3

Virtual Book Tour, Stop 2!

My book tour for Dracula Unleashed continues!

April 22:  Taylor Made Fiction
April 24: Today!! Coffee and A Book Anytime
April 26:  Racing To Read
April 30:  Shelley's Book Case
May 3:  Let's Get BOOKED!
May 7:  Long and Short Reviews
May 9:  Simply Ali
May 14:  Welcome to My World of Dreams
May 15:  It's Raining Books
May 17:  Queen of the Night Reviews

When you comment, you are entered into a drawing for one of my stylish and sexy dragon necklaces.

Countdown to Dracula Unleashed: Giveaway 1

Dracula Unleashed, the third book in the Blood Wings series, will be released on March 21st!

In order to share my excitement, I am going to do a special blog post every Friday until then. I might have a giveaway of my hand painted fans, vampire themed jewelery,  gift certificates, perhaps a sample of the book,  or a special  guest.

Today's Countdown post is...

A Giveway!

Valerie's Tears

This one-of-a-kind hand painted fan, named Valerie's Tears after the heroine of the Blood Wings series, is free to a random commenter!

You can comment here at my blog, at my Facebook, or on Twitter. I'll put everyone's names in a bowl and pick one.

Good Luck. :)

Dracula's Secret, Blood Wings #1
Dracula's Desires, Blood Wings #2
Dracula Unleashed, Blood Wings #3, to be released March 21, 2013

Dracula Unleashed!

Check it out! The third book in the Blood Wings series is now available for pre-order.

The release date is March 21, 2013.

After centuries as the Dracula of Legend, disguised as a male, Valerie Tate's current incarnation is the last thing she expected: mother of a precocious half-angel, half-vampire, and wife to two men. But Valerie is more familiar with battlefields than domesticity. . .
 
Some overwhelmed mothers relax with a glass of wine. Valerie soothes her immortal soul with a refreshing blood and coke. How else can she deal with her toddler Minerva's psychic powers--not to mention her determination to throw knives. Thank goodness for Valerie's two loves, John Jante, guide to Fallen Angels, and Lance Soleil, Angel of the Lost. Without them, the trauma of her dark past and her primal, Dracul urge for violence and power would overtake her. Yet in a world where humans and paranormals uncomfortably co-exist, Valerie's peace will be short-lived. . .

 Tensions have erupted with bombings and the emergence of creatures heralding the apocalypse itself. And Valerie's vampire brother and nemesis, Radu, is at the center of the conflict. Now Valerie finds herself at the forefront of an epic battle between good and evil--and facing a choice no woman in any realm should have to make. . .


Available at Amazon here.

Here we go again; the denegration of women's reading

To be clear; I have not read 50 Shades of Grey yet. I have been too busy getting Dracula Unleashed (Book Three of the Blood Wings series) into some kind of order. But naturally, I have an opinion about the nasty, denigrating comments about books that women like to read.

I have touched on these themes before in my Defense of Twilight posts, (here, here, here, here, here), but they bear repeating.

In no particular order, I want to point out the following things.

1. Women are not stupid.  
 Some critics think that the people who read 50 Shades are going to jump right in and start doing unsafe sexual practices, such as untutored BDSM. There are millions and millions of people tying each other up and spanking like crazy without having been to a single workshop at a leather conference and somehow they survive. Guess what. We do know how to do research.

2. Women are able to separate fantasy from reality.  
 Teenagers who watched the Batman series in the late 1960s did not try climbing up buildings crouched over with a single rope.

3. Women are not illiterate.
50 Shades is considered to be horribly written, with cliches and redundant phrasing. Here's a little rebuttal from Joanna Russ' How to Suppress Women's Writing, pg. 129:

Women always write in the vernacular....

In the vernacular, it is...hard to be "classic", to be smooth, to be perfect. The Sacred Canon of Literature quite often pretends that some works can be not only atemporal and universal (that is, outside of history, a religious claim) but without flaw and without perceptible limitations. It's hard, in the vernacular, to pretend this, to paper over the cracks. It's also hard to read the vernacular as Holy Writ...

Minority art, vernacular art, is marginal art.

4. Women's sexual fantasies and arousal are important.
Portnoy's Complaint is considered Great Literature. Susie Bright gets told to shut up. Say no more.

5. Ultimately, it is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS what a woman reads.
Adult men can read comic books, war novels, spy novels - anything they want, really. Because it is none of our business what they read. Same for women.

Will I read 50 Shades of Grey? After I meet my deadline, for sure. I'm sure parts of it will annoy me and others will get my motor runnin'.

Just like any other novel.
 

Soundtrack

Lots of authors like to post what they listen to while they write.  I'm currently on a Judas Priest kick for Book Three. Of course, I only have the British Steel album, but it's getting me through. :)

Book Three, opening sentence (for now)

"Lucifer's left testicle!"

I do love me some consonance. :)

Book Three.

For the first time in my life, I'm writing a baby as a character. Like the rest of the beings populating my world, she's a little weird, too.

Meet Minerva Dracul Soliel. Isn't she a cutie?

Book Three.

It looks like Book Three is going to be an interesting combination of the story of Henry II and Thomas Becket, Beauty and the Beast, and the One Thousand and One Nights.

AWESOME!

Working hard on Book Three

Yes. This does count as working.

Woohoo!

Me on the Pont Neuf in 2010

I made it! I got the manuscript for Dracula's Desires in to my editor, Martin Biro at Kensington.

I am taking a few days off, then I get to dive into brainstorming for Book Three in addition to doing the revisions my editor will want me to do for Dracula's Desires.