I'm welcoming Meredith Allard to tell about her new book, Her Dear & Loving Husband

I've been eagerly reading the preview information for Her Dear & Loving Husband. I'm excited to have Meredith Allard here today to share more about her new book.

What is a vampire?

On the surface, it’s an unnecessary question since, with Twilight and True Blood all the rage, everyone seems to have a keen sense of the undead. Yet that’s one question writers of vampire stories must contend with, and it’s one question I had never considered.

I had never thought much about vampires. I was never into the paranormal genre, the main reason being I’m not a fan of horror. I’m not a fan of violence, real or pretend, and since vampires have traditionally represented violence, I didn’t care to know them. I won’t go into the story about how one of my students gave me Twilight to read here. Suffice it to say, I liked what I read enough to begin seeking out other vampire stories. I eventually found my way to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire, and Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampires series. The more vampire books I read the more I realized that there was no one way to describe a vampire. The question of ‘What is a vampire?’ is answered differently according to what authors want or need from their preternatural characters. What a grand revelation as I embarked on my own vampire stories.

I had a decision to make. Would I go the more traditional route and keep my vamplings asleep during the day, unable to go out in the sun, or would I take the more modern route of sunbeams and sparkles? In the beginning, I had no idea. I hopped on the computer (God bless the Internet) and searched vampire folklore to see how the undead have been traditionally defined. I was fascinated by what I found. Turns out that vampire legends have abounded for as long as there have been people to tell them, long before vampire stories were ever published. Who knew? There are vampire legends from all over the world, and while there are cultural differences, there were more than a few commonalities, and this is what I focused on—the commonalities. 

So what is a vampire to me?

I tended to stay along more traditional lines. One similarity between almost all vampire legends is that they’re nocturnal creatures. My vampires are as well, sleeping during the day and living at night. My vampires drink blood. Now, how they chose to drink blood differs from vampire to vampire, but let’s say that they do drink human blood. Their human bodies die as they are transformed (by the bite of another vampire) into a preternatural, immortal being. Again, pretty traditional. As to garlic and silver, well, I don’t know what to say about that. It’s true that traditionally (especially in the Slavic cultures) those are considered supreme weapons against the undead, but it seems to me that if you can live forever a little plant bulb or metal won’t harm you much. But that’s just me.

Part of the fun of writing in the paranormal genre is the ability to create your fantasy creatures however you want. If you want your vampire sitting on the sofa in broad daylight eating pizza (as Aidan does in the BBC series Being Human), then do it. There is no right way to create a vampire. As long as authors believe that the world they’re describing is true, then readers will follow. What is a vampire? As the writers, we get to decide.

Thank you for reading my post. I hope you enjoyed it.

Purchasing information for Her Dear & Loving Husband can be found here:

http://www.meredithallard.com

http://www.copperfieldpress.com

Blurb:

James Wentworth has a secret. By night, he’s a mild-mannered professor at Salem State College in Massachusetts. He lives quietly, making few ties anywhere. One night his private world is turned upside down when he meets Sarah Alexander, a dead ringer for his wife, Elizabeth. Though it has been years since Elizabeth’s death, James cannot bring himself to move on.

Sarah also has a secret. She is haunted by nightmares, and every night she is awakened by visions of hangings, being arrested, and dying in jail–scenes from the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. As James comes to terms with his feelings for Sarah, he must also dodge accusations from a reporter desperate to prove that James is not who, or what, he seems to be. With the help of their friends, witches Jennifer and Olivia, James and Sarah piece their stories together and discover a mystery that may bind them in ways they never imagined. Will James make the ultimate sacrifice to prevent a new hunt from bringing hysteria to Salem again? 

Author Bio 

Meredith Allard received her B.A. and M.A. degrees in English from California State University, Northridge. She is the author of Her Dear & Loving Husband (Copperfield Press, 2011), a paranormal love story set around the Salem Witch Trials. She is the executive editor of the award-winning literary journal The Copperfield Review, named one of the top markets for new writers by Writer’s Digest. Her work has appeared in journals such as The Northridge Review, Wild Mind, The Maxwell Digest, Moondance, Muse Apprentice Guild, The Paumanok Review, CarbLite, Writers Weekly, and ViewsHound, where her article won the Silver Medal Prize. She has taught writing to students aged 10 to 60, and she has taught creative writing and writing historical fiction at Learning Tree University and UNLV.  Meredith has been the featured guest speaker at the Los Angeles Civil War Round Table and the Civil Warriors Round Table.  She has also interviewed such notable authors as John Jakes, Jean M. Auel, and Jeff Shaara. She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada.

You can find Meredith Allard on Facebook and Twitter (@copperfield101). She welcomes e-mail at meredithallard(at)aol(dot)com.  

Important Links 
Meredith Allard’s website: 
http://meredithallard.com/ 
Buy HDLH from Amazon: 
http://www.amazon.com/Her-Dear-Loving-Husband-ebook/dp/B004UVQOBO/ref=sr_1_1/191-1528738-2256535?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1304477668&sr=1-1 
Buy HDLH from Lulu: 
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/meredith101 
Buy HDLH from Smashwords: 
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/49588 
Meredith Allard on Facebook: 
http://www.facebook.com/people/Meredith-Allard/100000069807223 
Meredith Allard on Twitter: 
http://twitter.com/#!/copperfield101 
Video Trailer HDLH: 
http://meredithallard.com/2011/05/05/video-trailer-for-her-dear-loving-husband/ 
Goodreads HDLH: 
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11473888-her-dear-and-loving-husband 

How to get other e-formats

Meredith Allard has put her book temporarily available for free on Smashwords. From Smashwords, you can download any e-format you like: .mobi, .epub, etc.

A .pdf and .epub is included with this mail, but other formats can be downloaded for free.

Here’s the smashwords link: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/49588You can download the book for free from there.

Six Sentence Sunday--Caught in the Act!

 

This snippet is from my latest paranormal romance short story release, Sea Glass and Sand Memories. Here the witch, Zandra, discovers her boyfriend, Anson, in bed with the heroine. Some creepy revenge forthcoming!

Anson gathered his clothes and left obediently. With only a chilling look cast at me, she turned and followed him.

What would she do to him? I dressed quickly and quietly, moving to a position under their sitting room window, listening to every noise. Soon, they argued.

“I own your soul,” Zandra pronounced.

Blurb:

Looking forward to a relaxing week at a Lake Michigan coastal resort, Kate finds much more than the picturesque dunes she intended to paint. Adventures start when her requested room is switched beside an unusual couple – a witch and her lover, a ghost.

During her stay, the handsome ghost, Anson, tries to ensnare her into helping him escape the witch who killed him and then enslaved his spirit. That witch holds him captive on the property of his mother’s resort. Anson wins Kate’s heart and loyalty, but is that enough to set him free?

Warning: This story contains paranormal sex, pagan abuse of a ghost spirit, nightmares, and happy family memories.

Be sure to read the other fantastic entries for this Sunday at: http://www.sixsunday.com/

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Have you read Sea Glass and Sand Memories yet? You can find it at MuseItUp Publishing. Happy Reading!

My Lunch with J.K. Rowling

For this week’s Alternate Read Blog Hop, the topic is…

If you could have lunch/dinner with one author, who would it be? What sort of restaurant would you select for the meeting? What would you want to ask him/her? How would you expect the conversation to go? Paint a written picture of the event.

I’d be waiting in an out-of the-way, little, English pub for her to arrive, worrying if she would or wouldn’t show up. I’d be disappointed if she didn’t, but scared speechless if she did. As she entered, I’d forget to breathe. She’d smile as she shook my hand and took a seat at our table, probably pleased the media hadn’t located her yet. I’m sure after her latest news, getting out of the house without reporters would be a real occasion. Her eyes would often dart to the door, knowing they’d be on her tail soon, given her recent announcement to “self-release” her own e books for the Harry Potter series solely through her website. Everyone’s clamoring to determine if she’s “going Indie,” and I am too! She must feel like a queen, doling out chores as she sees fit, permitting Scholastic to only assist with marketing.

However, I’d probably save those industry questions for later, not wanting to appear like a gossip-hound. All that is sensational and exciting break-out news in the changeable publishing industry, but what I most admire is her writing. I’d take a deep breath and several sips of water to steady my nerves to stop the incessant strings of verbiage gushing out of my mouth. Hopefully, I’d ask if she planned the entire series as she designed the first book. I suspect she did, since many clues in book one are utilized later. But, perhaps not; maybe she expanded upon little bits of magical nothingness from the first book once she realized the potential for success of the series. Many later books have deftly-placed red herrings or misclues. I’d ask if she initially worried those might have been misunderstood by readers or criticized as loose ends she left dangling. Ms. Rowling would be her usual cordial self and answer me with sincerity as well as a chuckle or so.

Only after some press bounded in, would she raise her guard. Her shoulders would stiffen, but she’d give me a quick-but-magical smile and thank me politely as her aides tried to rush her away from the media scrutiny.

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Have you read Sea Glass and Sand Memories yet? You can find it at MuseItUp Publishing. Happy Reading!

Please be sure to check the other great posts in today’s blog hop by clicking on the logo below.

What is Yin Yoga?

Yoga has been a part of my daily life for twelve years. The peaceful inner strength it fosters definitely shapes my writing, my outlook on life, my relationships, everything.

This past Sunday I attended a yoga workshop that was very new to me—Yin Yoga. Most strength-based practices are designated as Yang type, masculine and powerful. Yin is feminine and softer, a slow stretching of deeper tissues.

Yin yoga has been popularized in Western Culture by teachers Paul Grilley and Sarah Powers. I own and use three recorded teachings of Paul Grilley—they’re wonderful. His technique incorporates ideas related to traditional Chinese medicine, qigong, and Taoist yoga. Yin yoga improves the flow of chi or energy through the body. It is often used to prepare the body for meditation postures, where flexibility is required in the connective tissue, ligaments and tendons of the hips and spine.

In a yin practice, the asanas or poses are held for much longer, usually three to five minutes, but can be held for as long as twenty minutes. The reason is while muscle, being more elastic, stretches relatively fast, the connective tissue requires much longer. Only after the muscle is fully stretched will the deeper tissues respond. Obviously, patience is needed.

By now I’m sure you’re thinking it hurts to hold a pose that long. Not really. The tissues soften and release. It is work, but more to embrace the stillness than to hold the pose. We want to move; seldom do we remain motionless. The only difficulty I had was getting out of a few poses. After loosening, it was sometimes tricky or unnatural to find the route back to where I began.

The practice is a wonderful balance to any strength training, whether Yang yoga, weight-training, or any muscle-building sport. Increasing your range of motion through Yin is a benefit those activities do not emphasize.

While I’ve practiced Yin with recordings many times, the live instruction was rewarding. It was beneficial to have an instructor help position me according to my specific body structure. The workshop I attended was taught by yogini Tiffany Cantrell. http://tiffanytheyogini.com  I highly recommend her instruction or the study of Yin Yoga in general.

Namaste.

Art credit: Phantasien by Veronika Pinke

Magical Monday: I’ve found some enchanted flips-flops! Who might use these and how?

For this week’s Magical Monday, I came upon an especially odd item. This seems easy enough to be a pair of thongs. Footwear…but, for who? Dust off your best imagination caps and help me consider who might make use of these and how.

My take on this is a meadow nymph used these to allow her some freedom to travel from the confines of her home. Certainly perfect for summertime--having the soft, green grass underneath her feet, she was able to maintain the requirements of her kind, while venturing into other environs, perhaps deserts, streams, dense woodlands, or even paved roadways in urban worlds. Maybe someone caused harm to her homeland meadow and she must seek revenge. This would be a useful accessory for the dedicated meadow nymph.

Who do you think may have used these magical flip-flops? And for what purpose?

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Have you read Sea Glass and Sand Memories yet? You can find it at MuseItUp Publishing. Happy Reading!

Six Sentence Sunday--The Unusual Kiss

It's great to be back with Six Sentence Sunday! I'm eager to read some old friends' posts and meet new folks.


My snippet is from my latest paranormal romance release, Sea Glass and Sand Memories. Here the hero and heroine are having their second kiss that he uses for a decided purpose. As you will soon understand, his kisses are a bit unusual--he's a ghost!

I felt electricity as his lips approached mine. In his kiss I envisioned horrors, the tragedy of his death, drowning on this coast after he swam into a rip current. Zandra stood on the dock, life preserver in hand, laughing. Mags ran out, screaming, but too late. She jumped into the surf. Her ankle broke as the tide slapped her against the rocks; it never healed right and gave her that limp.

Blurb:

Looking forward to a relaxing week at a Lake Michigan coastal resort, Kate finds much more than the picturesque dunes she intended to paint. Adventures start when her requested room is switched beside an unusual couple – a witch and her lover, a ghost.

During her stay, the handsome ghost, Anson, tries to ensnare her into helping him escape the witch who killed him and then enslaved his spirit. That witch holds him captive on the property of his mother’s resort. Anson wins Kate’s heart and loyalty, but is that enough to set him free?

Warning: This story contains paranormal sex, pagan abuse of a ghost spirit, nightmares, and happy family memories.

Be sure to read the other fantastic entries for this Sunday at: http://www.sixsunday.com/

~   ~   ~

Have you read Sea Glass and Sand Memories yet? You can find it at MuseItUp Publishing. Happy Reading!

♥Getting to Know Your MC Blogfest♥

I’d like to give a big thank you to Jeannie Campbell and Elizabeth Mueller for making this blogfest happen.

For this activity, we are to select a main character we’d like to get to know better. For this, I’m choosing the hero, Cullen Drake, of my upcoming fantasy romance series, The Enchanted Bookstore. Cullen leads a double life, as an owner of an indie bookstore on a vacation island along Lake Huron, and as the grand Imperial Wizard of the Alliance. There he is know by the name Sire Drake.

Question 1: What is your greatest fear?

Cullen’s greatest fear is also the root of his greatest internal conflict. He has two goals: 1) accomplish his appointed task of keeping the new scribe, Lyra, safe so she may complete her quest to save the Alliance; 2) find a way to share a life of love and happiness with Lyra. He quickly learns that those two goals conflict.  The more he loves her, the less he is able to command his power to safeguard her. This leads to his greatest fear—losing her. That loss would be tragic for him personally and for the world of the Alliance.

Lyra’s quest is to save that world from destruction by the Black Dragan before he utilizes forces of the August Red Moon to expand his power and overthrow the opposing Imperial Dragan, leader of the Alliance. If evil wins, Cullen will perish along with his world. So, losing Lyra holds great cost for him—his world, his love, and his life.

Question 2: What is your biggest accomplishment?

Cullen’s greatest accomplishment was to locate the next scribe. He found Lyra when she was a child, completely innocent of the magic she inherited and the important quest that would be laid before her as an adult. Once he located the new scribe, he was appointed the position of Imperial Wizard of the Alliance High Council, the greatest sorcerer in the land.

But, finding Lyra was also his biggest personal accomplishment, because she would become the only woman to touch his heart.

Question 3: What is your biggest regret?

Cullen’s greatest regret is losing track of Lyra after he met her when she was a ten-year-old girl. He was her playmate when she was given a magical copy of the Book of Draganspeir. He took her into the fantasyland within the book and had wonderful adventures. He discovered they possessed a special bond, deeper than magic, but she was still a child. His aging process slowed, he waited for her to blossom into a woman and share a life with him. Then, as years passed, she lost the book and him, grew into a woman with adult troubles of divorce and death of close family. For twenty-five years he searched for her and lost hope of his dream.

Click on the logo below to read more great entries for this fun event.

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Have you read Sea Glass and Sand Memories yet? You can find it at MuseItUp Publishing. Happy Reading!

The Use of the Senses in Hearts in Darkness by Laura Kaye

I'm welcoming Laura Kaye back once again, to tell us about the unusual technique she used to allow her hero and heroine in Hearts in Darkness to get to know each other while trapped in a pitch black elevator--a feast for the senses other than sight!

  

The Use of the Senses in Hearts in Darkness by Laura Kaye

Thanks to Marsha for having me and Hearts in Darkness here again! Today I’d like to talk a little about what went into writing this book. Something unique about Hearts in Darkness is a long section of the book occurs in the pitch-black darkness. This presented a special challenge in writing, because it removed arguably the most important of the senses, from a writing perspective, anyway—sight.

Writers always try to emphasize the five senses in their writing, as it’s one of the best paths to showing rather than telling.  Removing the most descriptive of those senses made smell, sound, taste, and touch significantly more important.

Smell:

In Hearts in Darkness, smell becomes central to establishing their attraction for one another.  Without the ability to evaluate one another’s appearances, their bodies used more primal ways of assessing attractiveness.  For example, hero Caden’s first brief glimpse of Makenna, right before the power fails, included this:

Red reached in front of him to press a button. Caden almost laughed when she punched it at least five times. But the laughter died in his throat when he caught the scent of her shampoo. One of the things he loved about women: their hair always smelled like flowers. And that scent, combined with the redness and the softness and the waviness…Caden shoved his hands in his jeans pockets to keep from running his fingers through the thick mass of her hair. But, Christ, how he wanted to, just once.

With his claustrophobia, Caden’s identification of her scent becomes a lifeline for him when the darkness falls.  Working his way out of a panic attack, he thinks:

Caden had a hard time breathing. The only thing that kept him from losing his shit entirely was the calming scent of Makenna’s hair and neck.

Her scent becomes such a fundamental part of how he relates to her that he later says:

He leaned his head back into the crook of her neck and breathed deeply. Without having seen more of Makenna than her gorgeous red hair and her tight little backside, Caden was sure he’d be able to pick her out of a crowd by her luscious scent alone.

And Caden’s not the only one affected by the sense of smell.  Heroine Makenna hadn’t had a chance to see Caden at all before the lights died.  Here’s her first impression in the darkness:

She wished she knew what Good Sam looked like. His aftershave was clean scented. She bit back a laugh as the thought of running her nose up his throat dashed through her head.

Later, when they’ve gotten to, ahem, know each other a bit better:

Pleased she could finally do what she’d wanted, she turned her face towards him and swam in the tantalizing scents of crisp, clean aftershave and man.

Sound:

In Hearts in Darkness, sound was vitally important to both characters in analyzing what the other had said.  Without facial expressions, both focus on verbal cues, hesitations, and tone of voice to try to get to know the other better.  Sound is also important for establishing reaction and attraction.  Finally, sound is useful for establishing physical actions and position that can’t be seen, but can be interpreted by what they’re hearing.

An example of the role of sound in establishing their relationship occurs here:

Caden didn’t respond, and Makenna was almost certain she’d put him to sleep. Then he said, quietly, “I really like the sound of your voice.”

Makenna’s flush ran down into the neck of her silk blouse. Saying she was pretty hadn’t gotten to her, but his saying he liked her voice set butterflies loose in her stomach.

“Me, too. I mean, your voice. I like it, too. Your voice, that is.” Makenna bit her lip to cut off the spectacular stream of nonsense coming out of her mouth, then pretended to thunk herself in the forehead. In that moment, she was glad for the darkness.

And sound’s contribution to the growing sexual tension between them occurs early:

“And what do you do, Mr. Grayson?”

He swallowed thickly at the sound of her saying his name that way. It…did things to him.

There are lots of examples of the way sound helps establish physical movement and proximity.  For example, this excerpt occurs during an early awkward moment between them, and also shows how his ability to hear—as well as smell—her grounds Caden against his anxiety.

    He heard her over there fidgeting and sighing and shifting. He started concentrating on the sound of her legs shaking against the short-knapped carpet of the elevator floor, and the distraction helped him slow his breathing. The deep breath he finally pulled into his lungs relieved and surprised him.

Feel/Touch:

Since readers couldn’t see what was happening in the elevator, I had to find constant ways to make them feel it. So describing temperatures, textures, and other tactile sensations was key.

For example, it’s September in Washington, D.C. when this happens, and the air-conditioned air only holds out so long before heating up:

            A comfortable silence enveloped them. But now, without the conversation to distract her, Makenna was hot. It might’ve been the end of September, but the daytime temperature still felt like the middle of the summer. The lack of air conditioning was starting to make a difference inside the old elevator and her silk blouse clung uncomfortably.

Touch also becomes a central way they get to know each other.  Here’s the first time Makenna touches Caden, an initially innocent move that stemmed from playing Twenty Questions:

            Makenna’s pulse raced as she smoothed her hand over Caden’s head. His hair was shaved so close it felt soft and ticklish as she rubbed her fingers over it. Long after it was necessary, Makenna continued to stroke his hair. She didn’t want to stop touching him. And when he scooted his body a little closer so she didn’t have to extend her arm so far, she smiled, thinking he liked it, too.

Caden’s first touch of her was a little less innocent *winks*:

He pushed himself across the carpet until his chest encountered her side. He slowly lowered his head so he didn’t hurt her in his blind impatience. His mouth found a cheek first and he pressed his lips against the soft apple of it. She moaned and wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders. His right hand landed in a pile of silky curls, and the satisfaction he felt at finally touching her hair made him swallow hard.

Touch is also really great for discovering new things about one another, especially Makenna’s discovery of Caden’s scars and piercings, particularly tactile objects:

That was when she felt it. The fingers on her left hand clearly traced what could only be a scar on the side of his head. She hesitated for less than a second, but he sensed it and pulled back just a little.

“I’ll tell you all about it,” he whispered against her neck, “I promise.”

And:

She worked her lips and tongue down his temple and he braced himself for her reaction to what she’d find at the edge of his eyebrow. Finally, he felt her tongue, right there. She gasped. “Oh God, more?” she whispered.

Caden had no idea whether her reaction was positive or negative until he heard her moan as she lightly sucked the barbell piercing into her mouth.

***

Often, the uses of multiple senses best developed a scene:

The darkness intensified every sensation. The sounds of their pleasure were amplified. Textures sprang out against his fingertips. He was swimming in her scent. He couldn’t wait to see her, but as he sat holding this sensual woman in his arms, he wasn’t complaining he couldn’t.

So...I hope you enjoyed this little behind-the-scenes peek at Hearts in Darkness! If you’ve read the book, how did the use of senses contribute to your reading experience of the book? If not, how do you most enjoy senses being used in a story? If you’re a writer, how do you make use of the senses?  Is there one you most prefer/use? Feel free to give us a few sentences from your own work to illustrate!

Thanks for reading!  And thanks again to Marsha for hosting me!

Laura Kaye

Website: http://www.LauraKayeAuthor.com
Blog: http://laurakayeauthor.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/laurakayeauthor
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/laurakayeauthor

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Publisher/Buy: http://www.wildrosepress.us/maincatalog/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=800

Or Buy Hearts in Darkness, and use this DigiBooks Café code for a 20% discount: e3d9d10a3c - http://tiny.cc/wamqo