Cover Artist: Kelley York, X-Potion Designs

I’ve always had an interest in storytelling, but didn’t pursue writing to share stories with others until the last ten years. Books were my best friend as a kid living in a small town, so the transition to writing the stories was a natural one. 

I wrote a creative non-fiction story called The Gift, which was about finding the perfect way to celebrate my father’s 80th birthday. It focused on life in a small town and how giving of yourself is the best present you could get for someone. It was published in 2013 in a college journal-- Penn State’s From the Fallout Shelter. 

For as long as we can remember we’ve been creating and writing in some form. We both wanted to eventually write novels, but it wasn’t until we tried doing it together…that it all fell into place.

Reborn is our debut and it just released October 19th.

I’ve been interested in storytelling since I was age 5, when I would help my dad in the kitchen and pretend we were on a TV show. My first short story I wrote at age 8, so I’ve been telling stories a long time.

My first novel was my only self-published novel. It’s called Godchild and is a coming-of-age story set in the South in the summer of 1969. It’s based on a screenplay that my partner wrote. My first traditionally published piece was the short story As You Sow, which was published in the anthology Sha’Daa: Last Call.

I’ve always enjoyed the noir stories of Raymond Chandler and Dashell Hammit, although in all honesty I know them more from the movies than the books. I thought it would be fun to take the hard-boiled noir stories and run them through a fantasy filter. Matt Forbeck did something similar with the Shotgun & Sorcery stories, which I highly recommend, although my take on it is far less serious than his.

The characters in The Malaise Falchion are my fantasy versions of the archetypes used in noir storytelling: The Hardboiled Detective, The Faithful Sidekick, The Femme Fatale. As such, they bear little resemblance to me. The closest trait would be Spade’s sarcasm, which is certainly close to my own caustic wit.

Before I could write, I made up stories for the amusement of my sister when we didn't want to go to sleep. As a youth, I "embellished" the ordinary, boring truth to make an occasion more interesting. In school, my essays were so grandiose and wandering that I'd get an "A" without really knowing the answer. I can't NOT expand upon the obvious. Life is too short to be dull! I can't paint or make music, but I can do both with words!

My first publication was a fractured fairytale based on Cinderella in my elementary school paper when I was in 5th grade. I was hooked the minute I saw my name in print! My first published novels were in 1987, a Regency-set historical, SWEET TEMPEST written under the name Lauren Giddings and a swashbuckling romance PIRATE'S CAPTIVE written as Dana Ransom, both published by Zebra/Kensington and released in the same month! 60 books later, I now use my own name.

I love bad boys, and they don't get more deadly, damaged and delicious than the princes in the House of Terriot, a clan of thuggish warriors introduced in my "By Moonlight" series. Looking to enlarge my shape-shifter world, I gave their would-be king his own book in PRINCE OF SHADOWS and fell hard for the rowdy band of brothers who are prisoners of their own pride and isolation, so I just had to invite them into the "real" world to serve their clan, protect their king, and find females strong enough to tame them.

All of my characters have stolen something from me. Kendra's strength, Cale's stubbornness, Sylvia's fears, James' fixations, Turow's dreams, Colin's pragmatism, even Fawn's bitchiness. They're the voices that speak to me at night and in the car during my drive to work. If I wasn't a writer, I'd probably be on medication!

The verbal sparring! I love writing gritty action scenes and pouring on the heat between the covers, but give me a good, bitey, snarky repartee that makes you laugh out loud and I consider my job well done. There's some great dialog in PRINCE OF HONOR to balance out the angst and occasional darkness. I consider it a reader's reward for turning the pages.

When I was a teenager I remember creating all these magical worlds that I wanted to escape to. But only later, years later, did I begin writing it all down.

The first book I published is called Till Death and Beyond. It is also the first book in my Witch World Series.

Into The Shadows.

I wanted to create an original story and in all the paranormal books I've read the paranormals like werewolves, vampires etc are always in hiding. So I decided to create a world where humans co-existed alongside paranormals and the plot built from there.

Ava James. I'm like her in appearance on some qualities like long black hair, blue eyes, Ava's piercings and I'm stubborn like Ava too. I'm loyal, loving and caring like she is also.

As an only child, it seems like I’ve been a storyteller my whole life. I used to make up stories to entertain myself as a kid, but I never really considered writing them down until November of 2011, when I had a dream that refused to leave me until I got it down on paper.

Seal of Destiny, 2013.

Honestly, this story was very much a product of what I was seeing happening in the world around me and it was my way of dealing with it. I asked myself, what if there was an alternate universe, one where humans were low man on the totem pole species-wise, but still had these same issues to deal with. Was a happily ever possible under those circumstances, and what would it require the characters to do to get there.

Ha! That’s a great question. Hmm, I’d say Anna is probably most like me. She’s smart, skeptical, and wants to do the right thing. Least like me I would hope would be Basher. He was fun to write, but man, he’s not a nice guy at all.

<

I have always enjoyed reading. At some point the idea “I can do this” formed in my mind. This was confirmed during high school in composition class. My teacher accused me of plagiarism. In the end, I received an A++ and she used my work during a teacher’s conference as a representation of her students’ best work. And as I continued writing my stories, I discovered that writing is a gift—a chance to lose yourself in a world of your own creation. It’s also an entertaining avenue for sharing a message, or daring a reader to believe. We’re living in a New Age. It’s time to open our minds and explore the metaphysical world around us.

Portrait of Rage

Cover Artist: www.thedarkrayne.com

Thanks so much for hosting me today. It’s great to be here!

I’ve always had characters living in my head, which probably sounds a bit unhealthy, but it was like watching a movie that only I could see.

Diners, Dives and Dead Ends, which is a humorous mystery. I turned it into a series. Revisiting those characters is like going home and meeting up with a group of friends.

I wanted to put my own stamp on a paranormal world, add some humor and romance with a mystery thrown in for good measure.

From the time I could talk I was always devising little stories to tell my friends and my parents. I finally got a chance to tell all of San Francisco when my story, “The Little Pottery Wheel” was published in the Examiner. I have also been steeped in comedy. I did improve and stand up and usually enjoyed a great time performing. I loved plays and when I became a forensic psychologist, the stories just sprang out. The things people will do without any compunction of other people’s space, trust, or even awareness.

My first story, “The Little Pottery Wheel” was published by The Examiner newspaper in San Francisco when I was 13. It was a comedy about a Pottery wheel that took on a life of its own during the night when all the other little pottery wheels lay dormant, waiting for their operators to come back in the morning. My teacher, Anee, died of leukemia that year and I imagined she came back to life at night as that pottery wheel.

I love gambling and I do it for sport. Luckily, I’m not addicted. But one of my friends lost everything he had including his savings and that triggered interest about why someone could get so hooked. My friend lost fifty thousand dollars and then began borrowing from everyone he knew. He owed so much money that law suits sprang up from people he didn’t think he’d even met. During alcohol blackouts, he’d roam the streets late at night to make money and finally put himself in rehab just to get some boundaries. Hot Shot is a tome for him. A hope that he replaces this horrible addiction with love and connection to people.

I am a really good liar. I always have been. I always made up stories and adventures that I had been on. I even had this whole story where Daniel Radcliffe ( Harry Potter) was my cousin, and I used to handwrite letters from him and show them to everyone in my fourth grade class. The teacher finally called my parents to ask if it was true. I figured I should use my story telling talents and put them to good use.

Darkness Whispers is my debut novel. It was released November 2, 2016. It is the first book in a planned trilogy, along with one, maybe two accompanying novellas.

In November of 2015 I went to my first author event to meet Leigh Bardugo. She looked me dead in the eyes and told me that I looked like a writer. I had always enjoyed storytelling and wanted to write books. But, I had never actually thought about doing it seriously. That night, I went home and started on a story i had been playing in my head for years. Thus came Darkness Whispers.

I’ve always loved a good story. From as young as fourteen years old, I’ve put pen to paper to give outlet to the voices in my head.

Waiting for You

The blurb reads: Audrey Kelly finds her way back home to Crystal Valley with her bruised pride and a shattered dangerous past mocking her rear view mirror. What she didn’t expect was to be face-to-face with Adam Parker, resident bad boy, sexy Navy SEAL and one of the reasons that Audrey ran all those years ago.

Audrey was the last person Adam had ever expected to see back in Crystal Valley. Over a decade ago, they shared a sizzling night together before he received the worst news of his life and he hasn’t seen her since…until she’d moved back unexpectedly. She was no longer the sweet innocent girl he once remembered, but Adam has his own problems without having to deal with Audrey’s ice princess recital, no matter how tempting the auburn haired seductress may be.

Sparks begin to ignite between them but can they accept Audrey’s past when it threatens to engage them in a dangerous twist? Can they save each other from themselves and stop running once and for all?

Two things actually. My husband – he’s an absolute grease monkey and adores all things engines and torque and speed and blah blah blah. I usually switch off when he’s trying to give me a mechanics lesson (Sssh don’t tell him). But I find a man who can handle…. Ehem…. His heavy machinery, to be quite sexy. And then you add a gorgeous little boy into the mix, and voila, the story blossomed. Children are funny, they really say the funniest things and I think that translates well into a story.

Cover Artist: Tom McCaw

It started with long conversations with my Barbie’s and progressed from there.

My first book was in a completely different genre. It’s called OLIVIA’S MINE and it’s historical fiction, based on true events that happened at Britannia Beach, British Columbia circa 1901. Enough mining disasters to make the BeeGees cry.

Nightmare on Jacey Street is the second book in the HELENS-OF-TROY series. In the first book, we learned it is not okay to love a vampire. In this book, we learn it’s never good when the dead are at your door.

I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t storytelling. I was like Sarah from Labyrinth, always dressing up and running around the woods, making up stories. I would often tell stories to myself before falling asleep. My Dad ran several Army bands, so I had to sit through tons of concerts growing up. I know that sounds very romantic, but for a seven-year-old child, it was oftentimes dreadfully boring and just hellacious, with my mom hissing at me to be quiet, sit still, etc. I learned that if I used the music as a soundtrack to the story in my mind, the concerts went a lot faster.

THROUGH THE VEIL, the first book in The Aisling Chronicles was my first real story and my first real attempt at fiction. I do have some terrible sonnets floating around the internet, though, and once I won an award for a poem I wrote in college. Oh! And I did publish a dissertation once called Fragmented Histories: 1798 and the Irish National Tale. It’s a real page-turner.

CHILDREN OF THE VEIL is the second book in The Aisling Chronicles, and I feel like my characters truly inspired this book. I had started THROUGH THE VEIL with no intention of writing a series, with no real intentions at all but to see if I could actually write a novel. At the end of the book, I just had to know what happened next. I had some clues, but I was desperate to know where the journey would take my characters. I think I took a week off and then dove right in, letting Elizabeth and Finn drag me along on their incredible adventures.

From the first time I read a Golden Book when I was a child.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/214003 

I self published it, and made my own cover (which I may update in the near future). It’s a very short, yet impactful story. I’ve thought about expanding it, as some people have asked, but I think it stands alone as it is.

I’ve been a storyteller my entire life. When I was a child, I told big stories and heard “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” many, many times in return. I’ve also had lifelong insomnia; so, as long as I can remember, I’ve told myself stories at night to get to sleep. I still do…and then I get up and write them so I don’t forget them.

I was published in anthologies, but my first individual title was Frosted, a romance novella about Jack Frost and his wife.

I wanted to write about a different sort of paranormal character associated with winter holidays. When I came up with the idea to go with Father Time and his sons, the world began building itself.

I guess Hannah and I have more in common. My sense of humor I think matches hers. Zeit has that whole immortal…thing and I’m not feeling so immortal these days.

Cover Artist: Rae Monet

Before I could write, in fact, I’ve been telling stories since I was a child—and got in trouble for telling them. Now I get rewarded!

Hmm, now you are making me dig through my files! My first published fiction story (I also write non-fiction) was PICA in Web Mystery Magazine in 2005. I was fascinated by a family legend that said we had a two-headed cousin in the Smithsonian Museum in a jar. My family roots are in Kentucky, so I combined that oral history with a mid-wife I created from Frontier Nursing, now a university, one of the first nursing services to send midwives out into rural areas, and the story grew from there. It’s creepy, but believable in a dueling banjoes kind of way.

My husband and I travel a lot for work and pleasure. We have had so many good, bad and weird (see also paranormal) experiences at hotels that when I was telling someone about our latest horror story, she said, “You should write a book about that.” That’s when the bells went off.