A Vampire a Day: HEARTBLAZE by Shay Roberts

I don't know about you, but if I see ONE MORE paranormal book where the heroine is a passive little twit, I'm going to throw up my garlic pizza. HEARTBLAZE is a refreshing change.

Right from the start, author Shay Roberts serves notice that this is not going to be an ordinary paranormal romance. Yes, there are vampires and werewolves in the story, but there’s also a richly detailed paranormal world, where there are rules and reasons for what happens. Then there’s the setting—Rhode Island, a place steeped in history that comes alive, particularly in the sections of the book set in Emma’s past life. That past life element is very appealing, especially since there are “real life characters” woven into the tale. (Watch for a great bit involving the birth of the national anthem.)

Written in a briskly cinematic style—we’re plunged right into the action as heroine Emma Rue finds herself acting in inexplicable ways for reasons she doesn’t understand—and told from multiple points of view across two timelines, HEARTBLAZE delivers on all levels. There’s a vampire hierarchy, complicated clan politics among the shifter characters, and a vengeful ghost who has an agenda related to the larger world. And there’s a romance that’s deepened not just by conflict, but by intelligence. Emma is not a silly little girl and her pursuit of the truth about herself, about who she was and who she is, draws us in. And bonus points for the spooky old mansion! Both Gothic and contemporary, this book is a treat for readers who are tired of the same-old/same-old.

Vamprie a Day: Vampyre: Legal Chronicles by C.C. McKenzie

This book caught my eye because I'm a sucker for urban fantasy stories that combine real-world type situations with paranormal creatures. I love Batton Lash's WOLFF & BYRD series and have always thought it would make a fantastic television show. (I love the tagline for the series--"Beware the Creatures of the NIght. They have laywers.") At first I didn't notice that the little red squiggle at the bottom of the cover was a name (MARCUS), I just thought it was part of the design. This book is part one of a three-part series, and all of the volumes are available, both as individual books and as a boxed set/collection. That's always good.

This is actually billed as a vampire romance, but while the writer did a good job with that element of the story, what interested me more was the way the corporate backdrop played out against the magical elements. And it's not just vampires on the loose here, there is magic--true, and DARK magic.

The vampires (the spelling with a Y just annoys me, so I'll use that and not  the spelling the author prefers) have a history and have personalities. Duncan Gillespie, a vampire elder and a vampire prince, is ancient but not entitled, and he immediately stands out in a sea of "alphahole" vampire princes preying on gorgeous young people.

Right from the start, the author gives us bits and pieces of a wider world. Gillespie, for instance, wonders if he's beginning the life transition known as "the Fade." (Even vampires don't live forever.) But we know that Duncan is not one of the people on the cover--the male vampire is presumably the "Marcus" of the title and the woman (despite her less-than-corporate attire) is most assuredly Anais, the ambitious lawyer we're told Marcus has been mentoring.

A Vampire a Day: Daughters of Darkness: Victoria by W.J. May

There are a lot of vampire novels (or in this case, novellas) out there, and I realized I had about a bazillion of them on my Kindle. I decided to see how many I could read in a month. I'm aiming for one a day. Here's the first one.

This is a novella, which is exactly the bite-sized bit of story I was looking for today. I like the setup of the daughters of Vlad being scattered all over the place and so numerous that they don't necessarily know each other. That makes sense to me. After a couple of centuries, it would be easy to lose count of your progeny, particularly if you move around a lot.

The title character is a "hunter," and as the story opens, she's after a girl who's a witch. But complications ensue when she finds out that the witch is actually one of her (many) sisters. And then, it gets really complicated.

Victoria (or "Tori" as her hunting partners call her), is a tough chick in the obligatory skin-right black leather outfit. She doesn't have a lot of patience with humans or half-vampires who can't keep up. (But who does really?)

A lot of this feels like it's been filtered through the UNDERWORLD movie franchise (vampires versus werewolves), but that's not necessarily a bad thing.  I like adding the witch element, especially when we find out that the witch in question is untrained and having to "wing it" as her magic is activated with a heavy blood scent. I prticularly liked it when Tori corners her prey and the witchling's newborn powers seem to be fizzling out. Because you could see that happening!

Tori starts out with a little Katniss action (she's armed with a bow and arrow) and then switches to guns, but before the story's over, we get ultraviolet guns and gizmos. It's fun. The writer also gives us a sens eof a larger universe at work, with talk of "the Council."

Not Your Average Post Apocalyptic Novel

The Night Once More: A Wildclown Novel by G. Wells Taylor

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The world has changed.
Or rather, the world has Changed…and it wasn’t quite the apocalypse anyone was expecting. Certainly not Tommy Wildclown. This novel is a wild acid trip through a rainy landscape peopled by the walking dead, hell beasts and a floating spirit that can’t quite remember who he is or why he’s here. It’s a mystery wrapped in an enigma and Taylor—author of the Dracula of the Apes trilogy—is having himself a stylish good time as he plays with time and place and point of view. You don’t have to have read the other novels in the series (this is #4) to enjoy this new book, but if you do enjoy it, it’s nice to know there are other books to discover. At the heart of the story is a noir-ish genre-blender of a mystery that transcends just “who done it” and becomes “what’s going on?” The play of personalities is neatly done and fans of transgressive and slipstream fiction will delight in the way the author serves up the surreal.




View all my reviews

12 Nights of Christmas--Shameless Self-Promotion

My collection of dark short stories based on "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is back, just in time for the holiday season. I've been all about the Amazon in the past, but with this release, I'm going wider. The book won't be on Amazon but you can find it at Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Tolino (if you happen to live in Germany), and a number of others.

Some of these stories originally appeared in Dark Valentine Magazine or on the website and it's a pretty eclectic batch of tales. I enjoyed writing them. The cover is by the talented Joy Sillsesen of Indie Author Services.

A quickie review: Laini Taylor's DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE

Laini Taylor's writing is incredibly lush. Her descriptions of Prague make me want to book a flight there tonight. Just gorgeous writing. I also like the inventive and original mythology surrounding the wishes and the teeth. It feels like she's stumbled across an old legend found in a crumbling crypt somewhere. Excellent characters too, and the relationship between Karue and her best friend feels real. I have some quibbles about the plot--it seems like all Karue has to do is "wish" for things and she "levels up," and that cover? Looks like it's a romance set in Venice or something. But still, I liked this book enough to want to track down other books she's read. This was a refreshingly different urban fantasy.

Shakes[eare Silliness for the Season

What says the holidays more than a Shakespeare paper puppet? (Well, probably most anything, but work with me here.) Once again, Etsy does not disappoint. find this great Shakespeare puppet here. It's $3.50 for an instant digital download from raidersofthelostart.

#GiveABook

Sometimes it's kind of overwhelming how much need there is. You want to help, but your resources and disposable income just can't keep up. And then there are times when people make it easy for you. You can sign up for Survey Monkey, for example. For every survey you complete, they'll donate 50 cents to a charity of your choice. And not only that, but you get a chance to win an Amazon gift card or other prize. The money starts to add up after a while (you get a running total every time you log on). If you're interested, here's where to sign up.
This Christmas, Penguin Books is sponsoring their second annual book giveaway. For every tweet and Facebook post using the hashtag #giveabook between now and December 24, they'll do just that--up to a total of 35,000 books (which is up 10K from last year's giveaway). How fantastic is that? With just a couple of keystrokes you can have a book donated on your behalf. Go Penguin!!

the Book Purse

It's almost time for the fourth annual Kattomic Energy holiday gift guide, but here's a preview. The BOOK PURSE!  Crafted by Etsy artisan Novel Creations, these are whimsical purses upcycled from leather-cound and hardback books. See them here.

Solidarite

#PRAYFORPARIS
I have friends and clients and colleagues who live in Paris. They're all safe. Or as safe as you can be in a city that's in lockdown mode. By early evening US time last night, social media was already full of ribbons and French flags and hashtags and expressions of horror.
And I couldn't help thinking that the word "terrible" is the same in French as it is in English.
And how terrible is it that there's even a colored ribbon FOR terrorist acts?
Paris is my heart's hometown. The Charlie Hebdo attack hit home for me because I started life as a journalist.
And now, after this latest atrocity, there are conservative journalists already blaming the influx of Syrian and Iraqi refugees for fueling the crisis. Classic and cruel "blame the victim" mentality. But I remember what it was like in the days after 9/11. The Indian man murdered by the zealous patriot who decided he was a terrorist because of his skin color.
Today's tears and prayers are for the people of France, but tomorrow they must be for all people who live under the shadow of terror.

#HEARTBLAZE--Twilight with a Bite!

If you're looking for something new in paranormal romance, you might want to check out Heartblaze 1: Secret Soul, the debut novel by Shay Roberts. the story mixes a contemporary tale about a troubled college student name Emma Rue with a past life adventure when she was a vampire aristocrat. And just to make things more complicated, there's a vengeful ghost trying to manipulate her, an anti-paranormal organization that's out to kill her, and a conflicted werewolf who can't decide between his duty and his feelings.

There's a real depth of world-building here--an element most paranormal romances skip over--and real stakes at hand. This is Twilight with a bite,  a story with some edge to its emotions.

Heartblaze is a great read, and it's available worldwide.

Clean Living--Flash Fiction for Halloween

Rena Jacobs had been offered the job via email, which wasn’t unusual.

People were often embarrassed to be associated with a hoarder house, even if they weren’t the hoarder responsible, and they liked to put as much distance between them and the house in question as possible.

Rena understood the impulse. Cleaning other people’s houses wasn’t exactly the career she’d envisioned for herself. But an art history degree doesn’t go very far in a small town, and when the owner of the gallery where she worked had died, she’d found herself with few prospects. After maxing out her credit cards, and discovering that any job she was qualified for was already being done by unpaid interns from the local university, she’d narrowed her options to medical transcription or becoming a career barrista.

And then one day as she was channel surfing, she came upon a reality show about hoarders. It was perversely fascinating and Rena found herself sucked in. At the end of the episode, a team of specialty cleaners had been brought in to bring order out of chaos. There’d been a phone number to call for people who needed “help with a “situation,” and when Rena had called, she’d found herself on the phone with John T. Macallan, who was more than happy to talk to her about franchise opportunities with KLEEN LIVING.

Are you mysterious?

If you're on Facebook and you're interested in all things mysterious--books, movies, writers, television--consider joining the Bellingham Mysterians group.  We are a book club sponsored by the awesome Village Books in Bellingham, WA but our FB group is open to all. We post articles about books and giveaways and fiction contests and  all sorts of things that might be of interest to the mystery fan. We're looking for suggestions for reading in the next three months. Join the discussion. Make a suggestion. Pimp out your own book!

Find us here.

Shakespeare's Guide to Parenting

Shakespeare was a parent. And he also was the author of the famous line, "How sharper than a serpent is an ungrateful child." (King Lear). This book looks like a lot of fun.

Shakespeare Retold

You may have heard that Hogarth Shakespeare is publishing a series of "Shakespeare Retold" novels in which writers such as Margaret Atwood and Jo Nesbo have been paired with plays. (Nesbo will be doing Macbeth and I cannot wait.) For a full list of writers involved so far, check here.

Sean Haldane: The Devil's Making, a review

Darwin and the edge of the Empire

Amateur naturalist Chad Hobbes—the atheist son of a preacher—has come to the colony of British Columbia to learn a bit about life before he settles down to a life as a lawyer. Unfortunately for Chad, he’s just missed the Gold Rush, which means that nobody in Vancouver or nearby Victoria really needs a lawyer. But what they do need is a policeman. The wilderness settlement has several police officers but none with Hobbes’ particular set of skills. The idea of being a “peeler” appeals to Hobbes and he’s soon thrust into the heart of a murder mystery that has racial and colonial implications.

Hobbes is fascinated by his duties and dutifully records everything he observes in a leather-bound journal his mother gave him before he left home. There’s plenty to observe. Elections are pending and one of the questions is whether B.C. will become part of America. Passions run high on both sides of the question but not as high as when an American “alienist” is found dead and the most likely suspect is a medicine man.

Sean Haldane’s novel transcends genre here with its literate (but never ponderously literary) style and the sharp observations on everything from class to vegetation. (Hobbes is fascinated by the quality of blue in the sky, so different from the English sky back home.)

Fans of historical mysteries are in for a treat with this book.

the horror! the horror!

I am in the process of planning out the rest of the year's writing. I have a couple of short stories I want to finish, one for Gerri Leen's anthology of dark goddess stories, a couple that have been in the works for a year or so. I will also finish up a bunch of the novella-length stories in preparation for finally (FINALLY!!!) getting Misbegotten done. but as the seasons turn and i start looking toward autumn, i start thinking about horror. (See post below)
I used to read a LOT of horror. When I first started writing I wrote a lot of horror. I haven't gotten a lot of traction with that genre though, and I find myself wondering if it's simply not commercial any more. Most of the time I write what I want to write and devil take the consequences, but as a full-time freelancer, I don't just write to amuse myself. So I need to figure out if there's some fiction/fusion formula that will work. Horror/spuspense maybe? Haven't seen that for a while. Maybe something with voodoo? I havne't read a good voodoo story in a long time.

A Ppicture is Worth a Thousand Words

I like writing short horror stories. I have a couple available on Amazon and I have a couple of others ready to go. To be honest, no one really buys my horror shorts--I don't know if it's that the genre isn't as commercial as the fantasy romance fairy tales I write or if I'm just not writing what horror fans want to read. I write a lot of stories about spiders...I'm not sure why. I do know that in my household I am the designated spider killer. Yes, to spiders, I am as deadly as Furiosa.
One of the things I've noticed about writing horror is that I'm inspired by visuals more than anything else. And while trolling through Bigstock this month, looking for images to illustrate two proposals I was creating, I found this image.
And it spoke to me. I think it's genuinely creepy. The black stone somehow makes it even creepier than it might be in white marble. It's the texture. It almost looks volcanic to me. Expect a short story to go with this picture soon. I'm still thinking about what it might be but in the meantime...ponder the picture.