A backstory and other tidbits from an old writer’s life part 1

The Story of Egyptian Heart

A backstory and other tidbits from an old writer’s life

Eternal Press buy link:http://www.eternalpress.biz/book.php?isbn=9781615724437

Digital ISBN: 978-1-61572-443-7 * Print ISBN: 978-1-61572-444-4

You Tube Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cogCNYKzPqc

Let me start with this: I have always loved ancient Egyptian stories since I was a child. I remember I wrote one of my first school papers at around eleven years old in pencil on the ancient Egyptians after dragging home an armful of musty smelling books from the library. I don’t recall exactly why I loved this particular time period and the people that lived in it but it might have had something to do with the movies The Ten Commandments (I was raised a Catholic), the horror mummy movies of the 1960’s and the early TV shows on Nefertiti and Cleopatra. I just had this affinity for the period.

It was February 1994 (I noted it on the outside of the manila folder where I keep a running book history on each novel) when I began Egyptian Heart. Originally I called it The Cursed Scarab. Later, I retitled it Egyptian Heart because I wanted it to more reflect the romance tale it had become.

I still had my agent, Lori Perkins, who’d sold four earlier novels for me to Zebra Books (Vampire Blood, 1991; The Last Vampire, 1992; Witches, 1993 and The Calling, 1994…after I’d sold my first three novels on my own to Leisure Books: Evil Stalks the Night, 1984: The Heart of the Rose, 1985; Blood Forge,1989) and she’d told me about a new romantic horror line that Silhouette was starting called the Shadows Line. They wanted to tap into the darker romantic paranormal market. Lori said they wanted the kind of story I wrote but with more romance. It was Silhouette after all.  I’d been labeled as a horror writer from the get go, though all my novels blended genres; usually I wrote a romantic horror mixture with dashes of adventure, suspense and sometimes threw in a little history or mystery as well…but in those days the big publishers felt the need (and I think they still do) to squeeze a writer into one narrow slot. So I was a horror writer.

But by 1994 I’d lost my sweet editor at Zebra and a new one took her place...and over the next year he didn’t like anything I wrote for him and later that year Zebra unceremoniously dropped me and my latest book (Predator, a story about a dinosaur in Crater Lake…which never came out but still lingers like some weird ghost book in every computer on the global Internet) only six weeks away from going to the bookstore shelves. I’d begged the new editor not to call it Predator, bad title since there was a popular movie out of that name and it was nothing about a dinosaur, and the cover was awful, an empty boat on a lake…what!!! Having that book – my first ever – dumped like that was a crushing experience, let me tell you. I had a stack of finished, printed covers and had already done my final edits! I got to keep my advance but the book was officially dead. The new editor-that-didn’t-like-my-writing explained: “No one wants to read a book about a dinosaur.” And six months later Jurassic Park came out! The book is still sitting in a drawer somewhere and perhaps one day I’ll resurrect and finish it as well).

At that point, my agent wanted me to branch out so I wrote two manuscripts for the Silhouette Shadows Line or tried to.  Egyptian Heart and Shadow Road (a romantic suspense about a woman truck driver driving a dangerous wintry route with a murderer on her tail, and a hitchhiker in her cab that she feels she’s falling in love with…and fears, at times, he’s the killer; which later I retitled and sold as Winter’s Journey). To make a long story short, Silhouette Shadows turned both down. Seems I had too much horror in them; not enough sex. I didn’t follow the formula. Sheesh. I’ve never liked depending too much on sex in any of my books or writing a book too predictable. The originality of the novel and the characters make the story for me.

After that my agent dropped me. Ah, the life of a writer.

So, then life (as it has many times in my 39 year writing career), family and job problems, and my other novels (I was into murder mysteries for years and sold two to Avalon Books), got in the way and Egyptian Heart and Shadow Road went into drawer hibernation until, oh, about 2004, when I rediscovered them, dug them out, rewrote them and began trying to sell them again. Sometimes, I’ve found, a book left alone in a dark cubbyhole ages like good wine. (Or sometimes it just turns to vinegar.)

Fast forward three years to 2007 and a new e-book (e-books still being considered a risky new-fangled craze at that time!) publisher called The Wild Rose Press contracted both and eventually a third called The Ice Bridge, a ghostly romantic murder mystery set on Mackinac Island, and published them. Good publisher. They treated me well. But in 2010 when I contracted my two newest novels, Before the End: A Time of Demons and The Woman in Crimson (both romantic horror) my new publisher, Kim Richards Gilchrist at Damnation Books wanted to bring out all my old out-of-print novels again (going back to those early Leisure Books from the 1980’s) in print – and e-books for the first time ever.  Seven old paperbacks. I’d rewrite them all, get new covers and they’d all live again. I was thrilled. And grateful. It would take a lot of work on both our parts but when we were done ALL my old novels would be in print again and in electronic form out in the world. I jumped right in.

Then when my two year contract (I was lucky, e-books still being new, it was only for two years; now most e-book publishers contract for five years or longer) ran out with The Wild Rose Press. I happily switched Egyptian Heart, Winter’s Journey, The Ice Bridge and a novella Don’t Look Back, Agnes to Eternal Press (Damnation Books sister company). Kim Richards, and her husband William, had just brought Realms of Fantasy Magazine into the fold, as well.

So. Egyptian Heart has had a very long history. Simply put, it’s a time travel paranormal romance set in the ancient times of Nefertiti and her heretic Pharaoh Akhenaton.  It’s more romance than history, though I did a lot of research in 1994… originally for my 1994 Zebra horror paperback The Calling. I thought: why waste all this hard worked for research on just one novel? So I also used it for Egyptian Heart and an erotic short story, The Nameless One, one that Zebra had placed in their 1994 horror anthology Dark Seductions and now it’s available from Damnation Books.

The new cover for Egyptian Heart by Dawne Dominique is amazingly beautiful and Kim Richards herself was my editor. Thank you both.

So from a child’s love of ancient Egypt to the finished book, it’s been a long journey and goes to show all you writer’s out there that, yes, persistence does sometimes win out.  And a good book never dies. It just ages like wine in a dark drawer.

I hope you’ll give Egyptian Heart a look and a read. The best way to describe it is through its blurb and so here it is:  

Maggie Owen is a beautiful, spirited Egyptologist, but lonely. Even being in Egypt on a grant from the college she teaches at to search for an undiscovered necropolis she’s certain lies below the sands beyond the pyramids of Gizah doesn’t give her the happiness she’d hoped it would.

There’s always been and is something missing. Love.

Then her workmen uncover Ramose Nakh-Min’s ancient tomb and an amulet from his sarcophagus hurls her back to 1340 B.C – where she falls hopelessly in love with the man she was destined to be with, noble Ramose, who faithfully serves the heretic Pharaoh Akhenaton and his queen Nefertiti.

She’s fallen into perilous times with civil war threatening Egypt. She’s been mistaken for one of Ramose’s runaway slaves and with her light hair, jinn green eyes and fair skin she doesn’t fit in. Some say she’s magical and evil. Ramose’s favorite, Makere, tries to kill her.

The people, angry the Pharaoh has set his Queen aside and forced them to worship one god are rising up against him.

Maggie’s caught dangerously in the middle.

In the end, desperately in love, will she find a way to stay alive and with Ramose in ancient Egypt–and to make a difference in his world and history?

Because Maggie has finally found love. ***

                           And thank you for having me on your blog! Kathryn Meyer Griffith

Eternal Press buy link: http://www.eternalpress.biz/book.php?isbn=9781615724437

 You Tube Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cogCNYKzPqc 

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A word about Kathryn Meyer Griffith, August 2011...

Since childhood I’ve always been an artist and worked as a graphic designer in the corporate world and for newspapers for twenty-three years before I quit to write full time. I began writing novels at 21 and have had fourteen (nine romantic horror, one historical romance and two mysteries) previous novels published from Zebra Books, Leisure Books, Avalon Books, The Wild Rose Press, Damnation Books and Eternal Press.

I’ve been married to Russell for thirty-three years; have a son, James, and two grandchildren, Joshua and Caitlyn, and I live in a small quaint town in Illinois called Columbia, which is right across the JB Bridge from St. Louis, Mo. We have two quirky cats, Sasha and Cleo, and the four of us live happily in an old house in the heart of town. Though I’ve been an artist, and a folk singer in my youth with my brother Jim, writing has always been my greatest passion, my butterfly stage, and I’ll probably write stories until the day I die.

       

Novels and short stories from Kathryn Meyer Griffith:

Evil Stalks the Night (Leisure, 1984; Damnation Books, July 2012)

The Heart of the Rose (Leisure, 1985; Eternal Press Author’s Revised Edition out Nov.7, 2010)

Blood Forge (Leisure, 1989; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out February 2012)

Vampire Blood (Zebra, 1991; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out July 2011)

The Last Vampire (Zebra, 1992; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out October 2010)

Witches (Zebra, 1993; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out April 2011)

The Nameless One (short story in 1993 Zebra Anthology Dark Seductions;

  Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out February 2011)

The Calling (Zebra, 1994; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out October 2011)

Scraps of Paper (Avalon Books Murder Mystery, 2003)

All Things Slip Away (Avalon Books Murder Mystery, 2006)

Egyptian Heart (The Wild Rose Press, 2007; Author’s Revised Edition out again from Eternal Press in August 2011)

Winter’s Journey (The Wild Rose Press, 2008; Author’s Revised Edition out again from Eternal Press in September 2011)

The Ice Bridge (The Wild Rose Press, 2008; Author’s Revised Edition out again from Eternal Press in November 2011)

Don’t Look Back, Agnes novella and bonus short story: In This House (2008; ghostly romantic short story out again from Eternal Press in January 2012)

BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons (Out from Damnation Books June 2010)

The Woman in Crimson (Out from Damnation Books September 2010)

Her Websites:

http://www.myspace.com/kathrynmeyergriffith (to see all my book trailers with original music by my singer/songwriter brother JS Meyer)

http:// www.bebo.com/kathrynmeyerGhttp://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1019954486

http://www.authorsden.com/kathrynmeyergriffith

http://www.jacketflap.com/K.Griffith

http://www.shoutlife.com/kathrynmeyergriffith

http://www.goodreads.com/profile/kathrynmeyergriffith

http://romancewriterandreader.ning.com/profile/KathrynMeyerGriffith

http://romancebookjunction.ning.com/profile/kathrynmeyergriffith

E-mail me at rdgriff@htc.net  I love to hear from my readers.

MY FIRST… NOVEL with Guest Blogger Morgan Fox

With the release of her novel, Enticed by the Moon, Moonlight shifters 3, I thought it would be fun to ask Morgan Fox about her first…novel, so, without any ado whatsoever…

Who first introduced you to the love of reading?

There was no one person in my life that introduced me to the love of reading, and unfortunately, my parents were so busy with raising my other siblings and running their own business that they didn’t have time to enjoy a good book.  That instinctive desire came naturally to me, but not for a very long time.   

I was always in advanced reading classes in school, but the funny part of that was that I never finished one book fully.  Like a math problem, I figured out where all the good parts of the story were and simply read through those.  It wasn’t until I was in my very late teens that I actually completed reading my first book, and discovered how much of each story I was missing.  I can still remember the story, Goodnight Kiss by R.L. Stine, a young adult vampire story.  That young adult book opened up the doorway for the plethora of books that I’ve devoured over the years. 

I now have a personal home library of well over 2,000 books and I can’t stop collecting and reading. 

Who influenced your decision to become a writer?

I owe my decision to become a writer to two people.  First, my grandmother Barbara Ragland was the first person in my life to see that I had a passion for writing and she encouraged me to keep it up.  With her help, I entered my first writing contest when I was fifteen and placed with an Honorable Mention and was published. 

The other person who influenced my decision to become a writer was my husband Eric.  He was the one person who knew that the passion for writing I had as a child never went away and it was something I secretly longed for.  With his love, strength and encouragement I’m now a published author and a full time writer. 

Finish this thought. “If not for--------I would be-----------“

If not for my writing career I would be stuck in a corporate environment doing something I don’t love. 

On that all important DEDICATION PAGE who did/will you thank?

For as long as I’m a writer I will dedicate and thank my husband for standing beside me and being that one person who won’t let me quit no matter how hard I think things get. 

Look for Enticed by the Moon from Siren Publishing August 24th, 2011

The Perks and Perils of Writing with a Partner With Guest Blogger Margaret Breashears

The Perks and Perils of Writing with a Partner

When we started writing together, we didn’t know whether a mathematician and a Ph.D in women’s history could actually write a romance novel. So, of course, we jumped right in.

Who knew years of teaching geometry gave Donna insight into cause and effect, or Margaret’s ton of history books and biographies provided endless backgrounds, motivation, and settings? All the solving of logic puzzles and hours of reading were worthwhile.

We shared a love for action-packed stories, a fondness for spirited lovers and feisty ghosts. Now learning the craft – point of view, show not tell, characterization, goal, motivation, and conflict – let’s just say those skills took a lot of workshops, discarded pages, and hair pulling to soak up.

Despite the occasional gripe of “You don’t like any of my ideas,” we eventually mesh our creative visions into a humor-filled, love story chock full of adventures, mishaps, and surprises. Angst simply isn’t in our repertoire.

Logistically, we write face to face using one computer with dual monitors and keyboards. While our editor dubbed our setup as dueling keyboards, our writing method is more talk it out, put it on the screen, then revise, revise, revise. Getting each other’s facial expressions, hand flutters, and rolled eyes into words is still a challenge.

Sharing the ups and downs of writing is a definite benefit for us. There are two of us to figure out how to Facebook, Tweet, Twitter and blog. We have a built in critique partner to add spark to flat scenes, provide missing words, locate typos, and flip the story upside down if it becomes too predictable. We also have a shoulder to cry on when those nasty rejections get us down, and someone to celebrate with when we sold our first novel.

Actual writing time, maneuvered around two family schedules, can be a bit challenging. But there is a bright side. A set time and place motivates us and keeps us turning out the pages. When we aren’t together, we let the ideas stir and grow so that we return to our work with fresh twists and turns.

But the best perk of all is our laughter and friendship.

Margaret Breashears lives in Allen, Texas with her husband, Eddie. Retired from teaching history, she can be found either at the stable riding her horse, Evento Rex, or at  her writing with her partner Donna Helmedag about spirited lovers and feisty ghosts. www.wantedghostbustingbride.com

www.tell-talepublishing.com

Margaret Breashears and Donna Helmedag

www.wantedghostbustingbride.com

My First....Novel with Guest Blogger Julian Adorney

Please Welcome my fellow Gypsy Shadow Author, Julian Adorney

Who first introduced you to the love of reading?

                That would be my 3^rd grade teacher, Ms. Hughes.  She recommended I read Terry Brooks’ The Sword of Shannara.  It was a thick book, but from the first chapter I was hooked.  Terry’s world was so layered, with distinct cultures and exotic creatures that somehow felt as real as history.  I remember reading for hours, letting the outside world fade as Shannara—the homey city of Culhaven, the abandoned grandeur of Paranor—swept me up.  I finished the book in about a week.

Who influenced your decision to become a writer?

                K.A. Applegate, who wrote the Animorphs series.  I remember being struck by how real her characters felt: she used first-person, and she got in her characters’ heads so well that you could pick up any one of her books, flip to the middle, and figure out who was narrating, just by reading a page.  Those 6 characters came alive for me, until I almost felt like they lived outside her books.  I realized that I wanted to create characters like that, people I cared for.  Even when I write today, I try to make my characters come alive.

                She also taught me about the magic in the world.  Animorphs was bursting with the unexplored: new creatures the kids could morph into, new alien species, new environments.  Some other aspects of the books weren’t that amazing, but K.A. Applegate definitely made me see the magic of the unexplored.  When you write, you have a blank canvass and no limits except your imagination, and there’s no freedom like that.  I realized early on that if I truly wanted to explore everything—not only this world, but others; not only the 21^st century, but ancient civilizations—than I needed to write.

Finish this thought. “If not for--------I would be-----------“

                If not for Ms. Hughes, I would be a businessman.  I’m good at business, and there’s definitely money there.  I think I’d run marketing campaigns for a small firm, make good money and be fairly happy.  I still would have adventured, and tried to see over the next horizon like I do in my writing.  But adventure wouldn’t have been my career.

On that all important DEDICATION PAGE who did/will you thank?

                My dad, Thom Adorney.  He was my biggest supporter even in middle school.  He edited my first novel, let me relax during summer instead of working so that I could write, bought me books on writing for my birthday.  When I finally publish a novel, I’ll dedicate it to him.

 
For more about Julian, stop by his Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Julian-Adorney/261486503861813

Or you can go to

http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4789167-julian-adorney

Freedom: http://www.gypsyshadow.com/JulianAdorney.html#Freedom

Deals: http://www.untreedreads.com/?p=1708

The Cult of the Ebook With Guest Blogger Chris McKenna

Okay, I'll admit it. I was more than a little sceptical of ebooks at first. I'm not a big fan of reading on the computer – at least not anything longer than an article - and as convenient as my laptop is the thought of taking it out on the morning train, I have always found less than thrilling – doubly so when my machine seems to devour battery life like Charley Sheen in a crack house after a spell in rehab.

Then my life was saved.

The great gods of the arts sent down their saviour child. And lo she was called “Kindle”: Her saving energy! Her clarity! Like many, I soon became a convert. After all, who could resist such graces? With all the negatives gone, the world of the ebook was truly open to me.

But are Kindle and the other plethora of ebook prophets out there speaking the truth, or are they just another group of mad people shouting in the wilderness? Is the sudden rising of the ebook just a fad of fanaticism that will soon die out or will it develop in to full and lasting institution?

It seems few converts would be interested in going back to the old days – certainly as a writer I would not. I guess one big part of the revolution of the ebook has been not just the way it has changed the experience for the reader, but also the changes that it has enacted upon the publishing industry as a whole.  Few can deny the way that control has been, at least, partial wrestled from the big publishers, giving a range of small publishers and independent authors access to markets that were previously far out of their reach. I don't think anyone would doubt the growing number of indie writers that have carved out their own successes in a place where they were previously told there was: “no commercial interest” in their writing. Likewise, it's given the reader more choice, no more so than those interested in niche markets: Space Operas, BDSM, Christian literature are all thriving and even the most avid vampire reader would have to make a full time job of reading all the blood sucker books out there.

So all great right? - Well no.

As fast as the ebook market is growing, it's still a bit of cult and far from firmly established. There are more than a few orthodox readers who are less than willing to join the movement, but there are not really the problem - there will always be doubters. As with all such developments, the real danger comes from within: Poor formatted and poorly written books; fake reviews plastered all over the internet; mutual uber-star ratings from writing cliques; misleading blurbs and descriptions – just to name a few. And what's the end result of all this? Confusion, bitterness, loss of faith!

The old gate keepers are gone and they're left us with the keys.

As a reader there has been nothing more frustrating in for me than just trying to find a good book. Distrust has become the name of the game when it comes to reviews:

            All five stars– no!

            Reviews with comments on only one books – no!

            The same sycophantic writing on each – no!

And then at the same time you have to weed out the ever present hatters of everything that seem to linger on the “bottom of the internet”. It all just leaves you tired and wishing for the good old days when there were only have a dozen well known books to chose from.

So that the end of the then. The death of the ebook before it's really had a chance to make it's mark? - Again, probably not.

As will all new movements and religious there are going to be problems along the way and solutions will usually come along to sort it all out. I hear that in the first Vatican council they sorted out that tricky problem of castrates being allowed to be priests or not (NB: It's only okay if you didn't do it to yourself.) So we'll probably figure something out, whether that's the growing of more trusted review sites or well known reviewers – perhaps we'll all develop a prater natural ability to judge a book by its cover?

However it's dealt with, it clear that the cult of the ebook is still evolving - if we're allowed to believe in such a thing – and we're still in the early stages of development. To believe that things would or even could stay the same would be foolish at best. To believe that they couldn't get better would simply be to lack faith.

My First....Novel with Guest Blogger Teel James Glenn

As I anxiously await the release of my first novel, Dragon Lover, I’m reminded of where I started and the moment I fell in love with the written word. For me, it came later in life (I was 18 before I realized I could lose myself in a book) and my first novel was gifted to me by my eldest sister. It was a romance, go figure, and I’ve been hooked ever since. So I started thinking, I know where I got my inspiration. I know the moment I realized I could be a writer myself. However, I’m interested in when others have made that monumental decision. So I've asked Muli-Published Author Teel James Glenn (and fellow Gypsy Shadow Author) to answer a few questions.

Who first introduced you to the love of reading?

I learned to read from comic books! I would sit and have my mom read the captions to me on the Sunday papers and then Batman comics.

I jumped quickly to the Hardy Boys, the Alfred Hitchcock & Three Investigators, the Tom Quest books and the last but not least the great Doc Savage series excited me. I read two Doc books a day at one point in grammar school. I was hooks….

Who influenced your decision to become a writer?

I don’t know if there is any one writer, per se but Edgar Rice Burroughs’ hard luck journey to success has been a constant inspiration to me. When I discovered his Mars books and the original Tarzan novel I was inspired to work on my first books.

Finish this thought. “If not for--------I would be-----------“

Mister O’Donnell my high school English teacher who was also a fan of old pulps and fantasy books I would not have had the world of pulps, Burroughs, Conan, old radio and movie serials opened to me. He is whom I think of when I teach my sword classes in hopes of inspiring the next generation…

On that all important DEDICATION PAGE who did/will you thank?

The first book I wrote (mostly in secret for fear it wouldn’t be very good or people would make fun of me for writing it) was eventually published as Vision Quest Factor. It didn’t’ make it into print until after I’d sold three other books to the same publisher, ePress Online. The first one that was published (accepted by an amazing lady Joan Mc-Nultly Pulver who nursed me through the whole process) was Death at Dragonthroat. It is the first in the Altiva world series and harks back to those Burroughs’ interplanetary tales but with a more adult, sardonic twist.

I wrote the dedication to my daughter Aislin Rose, the best and brightest moment in my life who hadn’t even been a possibility when I wrote the book. I hope to leave her a legacy of fun stories to be able to read someday and it wouldn’t be terrible if I could pay for her college eventually with some book sales. ( I have four years to go so everyone get out there and buy my books!).

Later I was able to dedicate The Traveler’s Tale, an all age fantasy romance book from Eternal Press which she got to read and enjoy! I hope to dedicate many more to her and someday her children…

A biography:

Teel James Glenn was born in Brooklyn though he’s traveled the world for thirty years as a stuntman, fight choreographer, swordmaster, jouster, book illustrator, storyteller, bodyguard, and Actor. As an actor he has appeared on all the new York soap operas, Spenser for Hire and the Equalizer plus over 100 genre SF/horror films.

His stories and articles have been printed in scores of magazines from Mad to Black Belt to Fantasy Tales as well as a number of books and anthologies. In the ensuing years he has sold a score of short stories (while continuing to teach and perform) and has written and contracted over two score novels with a number of publishers in many genres including Steampunk, westerns and mysteries including the SF thrillers “The Exceptionals’ series. One of the novels in the Altiva fantasy series “Sister Warrior” was named one of the hundred best fantasy novels of all time by Fantsybookreview.uk.

To learn more about Teel, visit

http://www.gypsyshadow.com/Teel.html#top

his author page at

Interview with a S'nat

Interviewer: Today I'm interviewing Fray Matsen, hero of the YA paranormal romance S'nat Wars by the mother/daughter team of Linda Palmer and Julie Kimbrell.  To begin, maybe you should tell us what, exactly, a "S'nat" is.

Fray Matsen:  "S'nat" is a slang term for a Supernatural.  Actually, make that vampire or shapeshifter. 

Interviewer:  You qualified that rather quickly.  Are there other kinds of S'nats out there that we don't know about?

Fray Matsen:  Vampires and shapeshifters came out several years ago.

Interviewer:  That doesn't really answer my question.

Fray Matsen:  I know.

Interviewer:  Hm.  Tell us about WatchDogs, Inc., the personal protection agency you work for.

Fray Matsen: My dad and his brothers, all shapeshifters like me, own the agency.  We're dogs.  We also have normal guys working there, too.  Dad makes assignments based on the situation.

Interviewer:  And what situation brought you to the Daniels' house?

Fray Matsen:  Mr. Daniels is a lawyer who represents S'nats in court.  Lots of humans hate S'nats, so when he won a high-profile case, someone threatened the family.  I was assigned to guard Gabi Daniels, his seventeen-year-old daughter.

Interviewer:  What kind of dog do you shift into?

Fray Matsen:  A Rottweiler.

Interviewer:  Does Gabi like Rotts?

Fray Matsen:  I guess.  She didn't complain, though she did ask if I could shift into a Chihuahua so she could stick me in her purse when she went to the mall. She was joking, though.  At least I think she was.

Interviewer:  Did you and Gabi get along, then?

Fray Matsen:  Most of the time.  She was pretty stubborn and didn't take orders well.  Sometimes it seemed like she was deliberately trying to irritate the he-- um, heck out of me.

Interviewer:  What did guarding Gabi entail?

Fray Matsen:  I spent every second with her Monday through Friday, which meant going to her high school; running, shopping, and eating with her; and even tagging along when she went to a movie with a, um, friend.

Interviewer:  Guy or gal?

Fray Matsen:  Guy. 

Interviewer: You went on a date with her? Wow.  I'll bet that was awkward.

Fray Matsen:  It wasn't a date, and I went as a Rott and stayed in the back seat so I could watch them.

Interviewer:  Watch them?

Fray Matsen: The movie.  I watched the movie.

Interviewer:  O-kaaay.  How did you handle the nights?

Fray Matsen:  I slept with her. Well, not with her.  I slept nearby...on the floor...as a dog.  Let me start over.  I shifted into a Rott and slept on a rug next to her bed.

Interviewer:  I...see.  And what about the weekends?

Fray Matsen:  My brother Dion took over.

Interviewer:  What's that frown about?

Fray Matsen:  What frown?  I'm not frowning.

Interviewer:  My bad.  Is there anything you'd like to tell readers?

Fray Matsen:   Check out S'nat Wars if you want the whole story.  A lot happened, and sometimes it was hard to tell where the threat was really coming from. 

Interviewer:  Do you still talk to Gabi now that everything is resolved and you've both moved on?

Fray Matsen:  You could say that.

Interviewer:  What's that grin about?

Fray Matsen:  What grin?  I'm not grinning.

S'nat Wars blurb:

            Everything should've changed the day vampires and shapeshifters came out to the world six years ago, but it didn't--at least not for Gabi Daniels. She still sleeps, eats, runs, and goes to school. And when she's out in public, she still can't tell if the people she passes on the street are humans or actually Supernaturals, a.k.a. S'nats.  No one else can, either, which is the problem. If S'nats have actually populated the globe for eons without anyone knowing, what else might be lurking out there, ready to pounce?

            Then Gabi's dad, a lawyer, defends a vampire accused of murdering a human. His high-profile win results in threats from S'nat haters.  To keep Gabi safe, he hires WatchDogs, Inc., a personal protection agency with bodyguards that actually shapeshift into dogs.  Fray Matsen, a Rottweiler, has his work cut out for him and not just because he finds Gabi a big distraction.  Is the threat really human?  Or could it be S'nats with an agenda of their own?  And will his human strength and canine senses be enough to save Gabi when they find themselves face-to-face with the enemy? 

Available at: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Allromanceebooks, 1placeforromance, and Smashwords.

Linda's website: www.lvpalmer.com

Julie's website: www.juliekimbrell.com and www.laneystrykerbooks.com

My First....Novel with Guest Blogger Lynda Scott

As I anxiously await the release of my first novel, Dragon Lover, I’m reminded of where I started and the moment I fell in love with the written word. For me, it came later in life (I was 18 before I realized I could lose myself in a book) and my first novel was gifted to me by my eldest sister. It was a romance, go figure, and I’ve been hooked ever since. So I started thinking, I know where I got my inspiration. I know the moment I realized I could be a writer myself. However, I’m interested in when others have made that monumental decision. So, I've asked fellow author, Lynda Scott to stop by and tell her story.

Now, Here's where I always put a profile picture of the author, But Lynda insisted I put a picture of her writing partner/inspiration/muse/babysitter, is there anything she CAN'T do?  Wookie, the alien kitten.

Who first introduced you to the love of reading?

This may sound corny and old-fashioned but my mother introduced me to the joy of reading. She only had a 6^th grade education but she was an avid reader and she encouraged me to read everything that came my way. She often said you could do anything or go anywhere if you could read.

She was right. I’ve been to alternate Earths, alien planets, the past, the future. I’ve performed archelogy, surgery, and forensic police work. I’ve lived on a prairie on a planet with a lavendar sky. I’ve survived cryogenic freezing to wake up in the distant future as the sole survivor of some unknown catastrophe. Yes, some of this was written by other authors and some of it by my own hand.

Who influenced your decision to become a writer?

I don’t remember her name, but it was my 4^th grade teacher. She had us write a story about a magic door set in a tree trunk. This was the first time I ever had FUN doing homework. It excited my imagination and opened neural pathways that just exploded with more and more and more ideas. I was hooked. From that time on, I wrote story after story.

Finish this thought. “If not for Isaac Asimov, I would be a nurse.“

Now, there’s nothing wrong with being a nurse. Honestly, it’s one of the most honorable, courageous professions there is. It takes a special kind of person to be a nurse. Unfortunately, I’m not that kind of person but I did kick the idea around quite a lot. Then I read an old battered copy of The Foundation by Isaac Asimov. It was the very first Science Fiction I’d ever read and, even more importantly, there is a love story in it. This captured my still maturing writer identity and I was off to the races writing Science Fiction with romantic elements. It also awakened my interest in science and engineering and computers…which is where I ended up on my day job.

But I never quit writing. I wrote on lunch hours and breaks. I wrote at home after work. When I wasn’t writing, I was reading. But the books I read, while excellent, lacked a certain spark if there wasn’t at least some romantic elements. Then I read Witch World by Andre Norton. Fantasy with romantic elements? I now had a new genre to glom and I began including Fantasy in my writing.

Then I met some lovely romance writers online. And they, though they were contemporary romance writers, told me about paranormal romance. They told me that I was practically writing paranormal romance and that I should read some to see if they weren’t right. For an avid reader like myself, this was like manna from heaven. This genre gave me the Science Fiction and the Fantasy that I loved AND the full blown romance that, for me, makes the book a complete journey. After I indulged in all these lovely paranormal romance books, I realized that my friends were right. I was just a fingernail away from writing Science Fiction/Fantasy Romance instead of Science Fiction/Fantasy with romantic elements.

On that all important DEDICATION PAGE who did/will you thank?

My very first published book thanked my lovely romance writer friends, of course. Had it not been for them, I’d still be writing and keeping my work to myself. I also thanked my crit group, who while not romance writers, were excellent critiquers in their own right. And, of course, I thanked my family without whose support the book would never have been written. Family and friends and good books to read…what more can you ask?

A little more about Lynda: In her family of Kentucky 'ridge runners', oral tales were a tradition that even the children participated in. She spent many nights with her brother, cousins and friends telling tall tales to excite the imagination. Now she creates award winning science fantasy romance filled with despair, hope, love and courage

Her website is http://www.lyndakscott.com/ Check out her contact page for Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Myspace and especially for her newsgroup. she's always got giveaway drawings (either her own or by guest authors on her blog) that readers are eligible to enter. Lots of cool books and other nifty stuff ;-)

Altered Destiny, Stranded on an alternate Earth, architect and Jill-of-all-trades, Liane Gautier-MacGregor must find her way back to her homeworld before she's enslaved...or falls in love with a man who is the exact duplicate of her ex-husband. 
Devyn MacGregor's alter ego as the Reiver Lord is the only way he can fight the Qui'arel and their nefarious Bride Bounty, a tax paid with human females...until he meets the oddly familiar woman who claims he is her husband. And who sets in motion the rebellion that will either free his countrymen or destroy them.

Kindle,     http://www.amazon.com/Altered-Destiny-ebook/dp/B00579FKFO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=books&qid=1308692836&sr=8-2             

Nook   http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Altered-Destiny/Lynda-K-Scott/e/2940012882417

Heartstone, Eric d'Ebrur is out of time. He must find the legendary Heartstone and fulfill the ancient Gar'Ja bond he shares with the Stonebearer. But when he finds her, he discovers that love can be more dangerous than the Gawan threat. Eric can defeat the mind-controlling Gawan but will it cost him the woman he loves?

After terrifying episodes of hypersensitivity, Keriam Norton thinks she's losing her mind. When handsome shapeshifter Eric d'Ebrur saves her from the monstrous Gawan, she's sure of it. But insane or not, she'll find the Heartstone and, if she's lucky, a love to last a lifetime.

Mundania Press http://www.mundania.com/book.php?title=Heartstone

Amazon             http://www.amazon.com/Heartstone-Lynda-K-Scott/dp/1606592335/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307896585&sr=8-1

Heartstone is available in print and ebook format