Samhain Publishing Ltd. Weblog

Things that go Bump in the Night

I write paranormal romance. Sometimes—okay a lot of times—it’s naughty paranormal romance. Really naughty.

But, today, I’m not so much interested in the “bumping” in the night as the “things” that are doing said bumping. This is October, after all, my favorite month of the year, and the holder of my favorite holiday—Halloween—so I want to talk about it.

Since I love Halloween, it’s probably not surprising that I fell in love with paranormal romance. I love spooks, witches, warlocks, werewolves, vampires, elves, fae…you know, the things that go bump in the night.

Let’s see…a few creatures that are my faves that probably aren’t super duper well-known to everyone.

Cockatrice. First, I just love the name. You know why. This one is a half-rooster, half-dragon. I has a dragon tail and wings, but a rooster’s head and body. Who thinks of this stuff?

Skinwalkers. Dude, love this one. The basics of this creature is that it’s a shapeshifter that can turn into any animal it wants by wearing a piece of that kind of animal. Wolf skin for wolves, feathers for birds, you get the idea. There are many different versions of how this mythical beastie works, but that’s the simplest one to explain. Also, they’re considered quite evil.

Wendigo. It’s fun to say, isn’t it. Wen-dee-go. Anyway, this is a human turned into a malevolent, cannibalistic spirit. It could also possess people and make them turn into cannibals.

I just love research in my genre. It’s so much fun. Enjoy your October and your Halloween!

All Good Things Must Come To An End

It’s that time. Time to say good-bye to another series. It’s always the hardest part for me. I may torture my characters (okay, who am I kidding, I definitely do), but I toil alongside them, learn to love them and their world, adore their secondary characters, friends and family.

So, here I am, about to release the last of my In the Heat of the Night series. The third one came out in late April, and the very last of my stories comes out in late July.

Just typing that out makes me a bit sad, but it’s time. I’m breaking up with this world and these characters. They need to go on with their lives and I need to go on with mine. We’ll all do just fine I’m sure. I have to confess, as much as I loved the rest of the series, the last one is my favorite. I’ve been wanting to write Malcon’s story since the very first book in this series. And he was as awesome as I expected him to be. But his story is told, he has his happy ending, and I must move on. sniffle

All that being said, my editor may talk me into writing another one or two or four stories in this world. She’s evil that way, also tempting me into more. It’s probably why I love her muchly. Stay tuned!

I do have to share my final cover of loveliness. Isn’t it pretty? I love my Samhain covers!

Twists

Sometimes books throw twists at you. You can’t see these things coming. Sometimes you roll with it and sometimes you scrap it.

Here’s a few that I’ve had.

It’s Raining Men: one of the heroes decided he was going to be half-Fae and half-siren. This meant he was a jazz singer. And had wings. And could seduce people with just his voice. Nice! Totally kept that little surprise. He was supposed to be a werewolf. He had other plans.

On the Prowl: I had three nice guy on girl stories going in this anthology. Nice world building. Hot panthers. Fun with shape-shifting. A little tied up, spanky spanky naughty sex. I was loving this story. Then I hit the third book that decided the hero was twins. Yes, twins. Who are sufer dude, extreme sports loving guys who moonlight as straight-laced lawyers. And they wanted the same mate. Ooookay, rolled with that one too. It worked out, but…dang. Did not see that one coming.

However, the second heroine in On the Prowl came with sexual baggage. Lots of it. At first I thought it was rape, but I had to scrap that twist. It was too much for me to deal with in the confines of a novella. So, it was assault, but I toned down on it. Some twists just don’t work. Some do.

What twists have you seen in books that you didn’t see coming? What twists have popped in your writing? Fun stuff!

Writing As An Extreme Sport

Okay, “extreme sport” is a bit of an exaggeration, but not too much of one. While I was on vacation in December, I found out that my apartment had flooded. There was a team brought in to clean up the mess and dry things out, but I knew I’d be coming home to chaos.

And I was so right.

Never Drink Tea After 9 PM

Last night I went out with a friend to dinner and a movie and then dessert after the movie.

The dinner was at a new (to me) Middle Eastern restaurant that had amazing Cardamom tea with rose sweetener and a red lentil soup that I wanted a gallon of. The lamb dish was kinda meh, though.

Then on to The Duchess which I thought was beautiful and well-done, but had some pacing problems and I found my attention drifting a few times.

After the movie we went for dessert at this heavenly coffee shop and split two kinda of chocolate cake. Mmmm-hmmm. I had chai tea with mine. It was rather divine, I must say.

When I got home, I hopped on the phone and talked non-stop for over an hour until I realized it was well after midnight and I had to be up, showered, dressed, and at work by 7AM.

Um. Yeah. I was still so jacked up from all the caffeine and sugar that I was shaking a like a crack addict.

So, I laid it bed and hoped I’d just fall asleep anyway.

Yeah, right. Instead, I got a million and one story ideas based around the movie I’d watched. Only, wait for it…I don’t write historicals. Not generally speaking. I’m a paranormal girl. Futuristic. Maybe a little time travel occasionally. But not straight up historical. I have a grand total of one historical short story. One. And I struggled with it. sigh

This is why I should not have tea after 9PM. It’s bad for me. Note to self.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

What is it with me that I can’t just write one book? No, I have to write series. I fall in love with a world, and then all the secondary characters become all shiny and pretty and want me to write them, too.

Case in point: my next Samhain release. Total Eclipse of the Heart. It was supposed to be a book all by itself. But, then it tied in so well with another book I had that needed a home, Big Girls Don’t Die. A little tweak here and there, and POOF! Sequel.

But that wasn’t enough, was it?

Book Trailers

Though I think the term “book trailer” is copyrighted, so I’m just going to call them book videos.

There are several different ways to handle book videos as a promotional tool for books. I think they’re pretty fun, myself. I like the visual representation (outside of the cover, of course) of my book. Plus, there’s fun music. maybe this makes me a bit on the sick and twisted side that I like them so much, but that’s probably not surprising to anyone who knows me or has read any of my books. Sadly, I am an open book…I wish I had a little more mystery to me.

In any case, the big options I’ve seen are the Do It Yourself (DIY) method and the hire someone else to do it. Either way, you have to go through the same process. First, you usually pick the music that works for your book’s theme. Then you decide on the script for your trailer. Believe me, this is harder than it seems. It has to be broken out into tiny sentences that work with the pictures. Then you cruise a million and one stock photography sites to find the perfect pictures to work with your script. The final put-it-together-and-make-it-pretty part with transitions and matching the words and pictures to the music is handled by the hired person in the second option, and by you in the DIY option.

Samhain even has it’s own channel on YouTube were you can check out book videos for some of your favorite Samhain books. Check it out here

If you click on the “Read More,” you’ll find examples of different kinds of book videos I hunted up for your amusement.

The Men in My Life

I had an interesting discussion with one of the men in my life the other day. He—a friend who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent (though I’m not sure that applies to either on of us, but I digress)—was giving me a run down of all the ways in which love does not exist and that we fool ourselves into thinking we’re in love by long-term exposure to one person (or multiple people if you’re the polyamory type). What we really are, to his mind, is complacent and have just gotten used to our partners.

Then he asked the million dollar question that I seem to get from all my male acquaintances who know that I write romance (for the record, this includes brothers, father/grandfathers, uncles, and cousins—I dread the day one of my nephews is old enough to ask): Does my (bitter) opinion about relationship change how you’ll write your heroes in the future? I’m pretty much like every other guy, so if you’re really going make the men real…

My answer always seems to shock them.

No.

Why? Because while I do like to write real characters with real emotion, there’s still a certain level of fantasy to it. Not every guy is great in bed, a wonderful conversationalist, intelligent, charming, a total alpha male who’s also caring and compassionate, and loves puppies and children. Some are…but it’s not “every other guy.”

Then again, even the men who don’t have all those qualities can be pretty awesome. In fact, for some perverse reason, I often find I like the flaws better. I try to put some of those flaws in, but by the end of every book, even the most bitter of bachelor (or bachelorette) believes in love.

So, I might use the real men in my life for some inspiration while writing the fantasy men in my life…but, no, no matter how much they might want me to stick to reality as they see it, I’m still going to write my always-great-in-bed heroes. That’s what I call artistic license. Sorry, boys!