New Covers!

NEW COVERS!

Sometimes, an independent author just feels the urge to shake things up. So I got my first three books, Dracula's Secret, Dracula's Desires, and Dracula Unleashed, new covers and pretty formatting. 

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Halloween Giveaways, Dracula's Secret.

 

In keeping with the Halloween theme, let me introduce to you, Valerie Tate. She is the heroine of my Blood Wings trilogy; Dracula's Secret, Dracula's Desires, and Dracula Unleashed. This were my first three books ever published! They have been completely revised since then, with more adventure and thrills than before.

 

I created a giveaway for the first book, Dracula's Secret, just for my newsletter people.

It is HERE.
 

Again, like last week, if you don't mind a less than perfect hard copy, head on over to my website for for the scratch and dent sale. Use the coupon "Scratch and Dent" to get $3.00 off on Dracula's Secret.

 

 

SHE HUNGERS FOR HIS LIGHT

She calls herself Valerie Tate. One of the few vampires left on earth, as
beautiful as she is powerful, Valerie has resisted her craving for human blood
for years, just as she once hid her true gender. But the night she lays eyes on
the most enticing man she's ever seen, her appetite can no longer be denied.
He radiates goodness and light-and searing sexual energy. Valerie must have
him. Taste him. Consume him. For he is temptation-and he is her destiny . . .

HE BURNS FOR HER DARKNESS

Lance Soleil is a rugged war veteran who runs a homeless shelter in Portland.
At first gaze, he knows what Valerie is-and wants her even more. But when he
welcomes a pack of werewolves into his shelter, he attracts the attention of
Valerie's oldest rival-her bloodthirsty brother, Radu, who hopes to become the
first vampire President of the United States. Valerie knows Radu has a hidden
agenda, and with Lance's help she is determined to stop his unholy rise to
power. But first, she must risk their growing love by fully revealing herself-as
the one and only Dracula . . .

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Cliches that gotta go, Part Four.

 Cliche: Telling us how sexy someone is.

 

 Show us how sensual a person is.

From American Photo, Nov/Dec 1993

.

One day, I got ice cream with a male friend. Conversation lagged while we enjoyed our treat. 

 He closed his eyes and swirled his tongue around the scoop, licking and sucking at the cone. I nearly orgasmed from watching his mouth relish the smooth, cold, silky cream. He was entranced by the flavor and simply abandoned himself to the sensations. If I hadn't already been thoroughly besotted already, I would have fallen just from watching him get into the moment.

A few years later, I showed my book hero impressing my heroine by his firm, assured handling of her classic muscle car, a 1966 Ford Shelby. This car model boasts 350 horsepower and went from zero to sixty in 4.5 seconds. This is the kind of automobile that easily could be pushed and pushed hard. I almost had the hero gunning the engine, squealing the tires - basically pushing the ferocious engine to its limits. But wait.

I remembered how my friend’s un-selfconscious pleasure seduced me. I wanted my character to seduce the heroine by showing how he handled power, by showing that he had class, sensuality, and stamina. I wanted her to be intrigued by his ability to unleash this magnificent automobile's potential with a long smooth ride, not something rocky, jerky, and way too short.

Don't just describe your sexy person. Show us what about them turns on the observer.

Behind the Character: Valerie Tate

 

Many years ago, I had a nightmare about the Napoleonic Wars (if you have ever studied the Napoleonic Wars, you will understand. They were dreadful). One part of this nightmare was amazing, though. A dark woman, one full of secrets and violence, came into the tent where the generals were planning the Peninsular Campaign (Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Spain). She gave the best tactical advice but the men dismissed her. She left the tent, returned in men's clothing, and they thought she was a genius.

I knew this woman was Vlad Tepes, the vampire Dracula. This dream stuck with me. I was fascinated by this idea. Naturally, I did a little research. There are very few primary resources about Vlad (see here, here, and here). Most of the literature talked about the alleged atrocities she committed. If I looked at these stories through a feminist lens, I could see how these fictions could be seen as acts of a furious woman (impaling, especially. How Freudian of her!).

This began the long process of writing the Blood Wings series. Who was she? Why would her family hid her born gender? How could that be done? What motivated her? Did she have secret dreams? What were her wounds?

The series took many drafts and lots of brainstorming. I had to learn what kind of lovers she had, who she thought she was. 

I have been honored to share this journey with you. With the final revision being released on May 6, 2021, I feel like Valerie Tate has finally found a place of happiness.

At long last!!

Kensington Press and I released the first edition of Dracula Unleashed, the third book in the Blood Wings Trilogy, in early 2013. I had to write the book in less than four months, while doing promo and edits on the first two books. As a result, I wasn't terribly thrilled with the results. I got my rights back to the trilogy and released Dracula's Secret in 2016, Dracula's Desires in 2017. And then....nothing. 

My well had run completely dry. I had no idea how to strip this book down past its bare bones and completely rebuild it. 

It took several books for me to get even an inkling of an idea for Valerie Tate's final adventure. It wasn't until I finished The Cafe of Hopes and Dreams that I realized what she needed. She needed sweetness, dreams, and her own hopes. At last, the words flowed. 

And now, the book is available for pre-order at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0934FVTBS?notRedirectToSDP=1&ref_=dbs_mng_calw_2&storeType=ebooks!!

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 and Lance Soleil. Without them, the trauma of her dark past and her primal, urges 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. . .

Someone is killing the world's best paranormal diplomats. And Valerie's vampire brother and nemesis, Radu, is at the center of the conflict. Now Valerie finds herself as vulnerable and as weak as she had been as a human....

Good Ol' Dracula

This year marks the 8th anniversary of the first printing of my first book, Dracula's Secret! As a result, I'm revisiting some early blog posts about my process.

Even the most cursory look at the secondary and tertiary sources on Vlad Dracula shows a stunning (or tedious, depending on your personality) number of resources on how bloodthirsty and cruel this particular historical figure was.

To find out where they got their information, I did what every self-respecting historian does. I checked their bibliographies for their primary sources. This is what I found.

Vlad Dracul II lived from 1431-1476.

No sources survive from Vlad himself (despite it being commonly reported that he was highly educated and literate). This includes any of his legislative acts.

No sources survive from his brothers, father, wives, other relatives, or even friends.

The only primary source that is contemporary to Vlad's life is in the Monastery of St. Gall, in Switzerland. It was written by an unknown author in 1462. The manuscript gives a number of anecdotes about Vlad (thirty-two, according to the translation I read). The translator claims that six of those thirty-two stories are confirmed by other sources, but does not name those sources.

The stories discussing Vlad's crimes against humanity were not verified by other contemporary sources.

The Russian and German documents that discuss Vlad's preference for disemboweling animals, etc., etc., etc., date from 1490 at the earliest.

The woodcut portraits of Vlad date from 1488 and 1491. The famous oil portrait comes from the second half of the 17th century. Which, I might point out, is nearly 200 years after Vlad died.

Many scholars make much of the oral transmissions of the folk tales of Romania. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any analysis of these stories by anthropologists or historians that would confirm the accuracy. Folk tales often are multipurpose stories - they could be cautionary tales or money makers to fleece the unsuspecting. I've not seen any studies done of where the folktales agree with the primary sources.

For example, contemplate the relationship people in the United States have with George Washington. The old cherry tree tale has been discredited, but how many of us still remember it and tell it?

What all this boils down to is very simple:

We don't know that much about this historical figure.


So as a result, I felt like I could play with this person, bring my own interpretation to the story of Dracula. After all, my outrageous ideas seem to fit right in with the rest. :)

I'm sure that I've missed a lot of information on the historical Dracula. I look forward to hearing from others who want to share their research with me.

Literary Life: Re-releasing Dracula's Desires

Back in 2012, Kensington Publishing and I released the second book in the Blood Wings series, Dracula's Desires. This book continued the adventures of the real Vlad Dracula in present day.

I got my rights back for all three books and now I am re-releasing all of them! I've already put out Book One: Dracula's Secret (oh, and what a secret it is!).

And now, it is time to reveal the new cover for Dracula's Desires!

Isn't it gorgeous! I plan to release this book in June (just in time for sexy and brave summer reading).

And just for a tease, here are the first few paragraphs of Dracula's Desires:

Dracula's Desires by Linda Mercury

John Janté’s life hung by a thread.

Valerie Tate smelled his blood hanging in the air. If those idiot Fallen Angels let him die, she’d empty Hell itself in vengeance.

She gunned her black 1966 Shelby Mustang to the limit, burying the tachometer in the red. The tires howled as the car fishtailed against the gravel-laden highway cutting through the Swiss Alps. Cursing, she spun the steering wheel against the skid and roared between two honking tourist buses.

“Lucifer’s wormy teeth, I spit at thee ,” she damned the slow-moving vehicles.

The heavily forested mountains and charming villages blurred until the view out her window seemed an unending wall of green and stone. Lake Geneva was nothing but a long blue line below her. The powerful engine propelled her through the hairpin turns faster than a vampire could run. Her smaller weapons duffel sat on the passenger seat, an innocent black bag filled with high-powered destruction.

---

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Welcome to my Literary Lair.

Hi, I'm Linda Mercury and I write very sexy paranormal romances!

Dracula's Secret is my first book and the first in the Blood Wings trilogy. The second and third books, Dracula's Desires and Dracula Unleashed, are currently being re-edited and will be released in 2017.

As you may guess, it's about Dracula. :)

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 Curse of the Spider Woman is a stand-alone novel that blends Ancient Greek Mythology with the action-adventure tension of a James Bond movie.

With consensual sex, that is.

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 Vamping It Up is an erotic coming of age novel with a very special breed of vampire.

Read about Holly getting her mojo back here at

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 The Little Sexy Workbook is for all the people who want to have a joyous, uninhibited sex life. If you want to be able to communicate fearlessly with your lover, this is the book for you!

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Hello, and awesome to meet you! 

Yes, yes, yes! or The Re-release of Dracula's Secret!

I am thrilled to announce the re-release of my first book, Dracula's Secret.

Dracula's Secret is the first book in the Blood Wings Trilogy. I've revised it and I'm super pleased with it.

Buy Here!

Blast from the Past: Primary Source Research

A blast from the past - a blog post from 2010.

For Dracula's Secret, I had to do a lot of research into the Nazi war effort. I wasn't satisfied with the usual secondary and tertiary sources, so I went hunting.




 I got sidetracked by some research. I was figuring out how modern Berlin differed in layout from World War II Berlin, especially what happened to the land where the final bunker was.

(It's an apartment block and playground now. How very cool!)

In the course of looking that up, I found a book called In the Bunker with Hitler by Bernd Freytag von  Loringhoven.

Von L, as I started to call him, was a Captain in the regular Army, and was aide-de-camp to the Army chiefs of staff- Guderian and Krebs. He describes his experiences in the Bunker from July 23, 1944 to April 29, 1945.

It's a fast,  fascinating read, and I suddenly wanted to do a paper on Group Think and the Third Reich. Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes, by Irving L. Janis is one of my favorite books. This would be an amazing study, full of footnotes and quotes (and parenthetical statements).

But alas, there is only so much time in the world. So instead, I'm going to use In the Bunker... as a primary source on Hitler's behavior and personality in the last days of World War II. Some of my notes:

1. Never underestimate the power of charismatic, motivated, deluded idiot.
2. As much as it sucks, it really does help to listen to people who disagree with you.
3. As nice as it is in your own little world where your soldiers are at full strength with plenty of food, ammunition, fuel, and not being killed by your enemy, you might want to maybe, just maybe try playing make-believe.
4. The regular Army really didn't know about the war atrocities. I never understood that before, but after hearing how Hitler ran things, I see how he did it, and why. (Secret meetings with the Nazi party because he didn't trust or like the regular Army men).

This is why primary source research is the most fun of all.

What's up in the new year?

Back in 2012, Kensington Publishing Corporation published my very first novel, Dracula's Secret.

And by Halloween 2016, I will re-release Dracula's Secret (and the rest of the Blood Wings trilogy, too), revised, re-edited, and resuscitated.

To get myself back in the mood for Valerie Tate and her wacky hi-jinks, here are some of the photos I used for character references.

The Coat.

Valerie and her dragon coat. I love her strong nose and her ability to admit her vanity.

I really enjoyed writing such a dark leading lady. I wonder what this revision will reveal about her.

Those lips could light my way any day.

Daniel Craig and his beautiful mouth were the inspirations for Lance Soleil.

I wanted a story where the hero was the light bringer to the heroine. She needed redemption and he was the one to show her the rest of the way.

Let us not forget The Car.

And of course, Ilona, Valerie's Shelby Mustang. What hot, dangerous woman doesn't own a bad-ass car? (by contrast, I own a Prius)

Dracula's Secret: Valerie's Response

Try it!

Last week, I showed how writing a supernaturally strong character allowed me to face my fears. I gave the set-up - my female lead, Valerie Tate, was being surrounded and harassed by a group of teenaged males.

And this is her response:

Predictable. A slow, knowing smile curled her lips. Bullies were always good for a giggle.

Killing them would take hardly any time. That was her problem with young men. Once she got started, it would be so hard to stop. Like humans and their potato chips.

My Vampire world.

Buy here.

My father (Dr. Dad, PhD), often asks me, "Why Vampires?" And being the smarty pants he is, he then goes on to wise crack such things as, "Do you carry a lot of garlic to keep those vampires away?"

I have no idea how I survived growing up with that.

But seriously, I do have a fascination with the mythology of vampires.  They represent our suppressed Shadow sides, the part of ourselves that crave power at any cost. For me, vampires are also completely unafraid of confrontation. Since they are physically strong, they have to fear of walking alone in the dark or dealing with hostility.

One of the first scenes I wrote for Dracula's Secret explores what it would be like to face one of my greatest fears: being trapped by a group of people much stronger and aggressive than myself.

“You lookin’ for a good time, darlin’?” Chad propped his fist against the old brick building, blocking her in with his arm. The rest tightened their circle, like hyenas crowding a wounded zebra. Anger and lust from his skin teased her nostrils.

Their smell and movements telegraphed their intentions. As a group, they moved, boxing her in. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. No one to come to her rescue.

They would throw her against the wall. She would reel, stunned. The boys would start off with a little light brutality, moving on to rape. They needed to recover face from their earlier defeat.

 Stay tuned for next week for how my character Valerie Tate handled this!

Quotes and snippets; Dracula's Secret.

Here is a teaser from my first book,
Dracula's Secret:

Then sheer vehicular lust overwhelmed everything. The black Shelby Mustang crouched on the pavement like a rare predator. This sweet machine was the pinnacle of all muscle cars, the most legendary of engines combined with perfect design.

And he was about to get in it. There was no way he was going back to work just yet.

“She’s a ’67?” He touched respectful fingers to the glossy black paint over the hood. The white Le Mans stripes decorating the hood shimmered in the outdoor lights of the motel.

“’66.” The smooth skin around her eyes crinkled, giving her a mischievous air. She was planning something. With a sly smile, she said, “You want to drive her?”

“You would let me behind your wheel?” He slapped his hand over his heart and staggered, feigning a heart attack

A creaky, unpracticed laugh escaped from the vampire. What a beautiful noise.

She pulled out keys, complete with a battered leather Mustang fob, and dangled them in front of him. They chimed like church bells in the dark. Her smirk revealed still-extended, wickedly delicious fangs.

His mouth watered at the thought of those 350 vintage horses under his fingers waiting for his command. A vague memory from his youth told him the Shelby could go from zero to sixty in 4.5 seconds. This was every car-crazy boy’s fantasy, hot babe included, right here in front of him.

“No need to ask me twice.” He snatched the jingling keys from her hand. Their eyes met.

Watchfulness swam in those dark depths. She was testing him. His awareness slid up a notch. The wrong move from him and she’d take that gorgeous car and disappear from his life.

That would suck.