Just hear those sleigh bells jingling!

It’s the Epiphany or Los Reyes as we call it at our house! Hanging on to Christmas just a little longer. Who wouldn’t love that? How about a grinchy bah humbug but sexy vampire whose past Christmases have been filled with pain and loss? To be honest, when my editor called me and said, “We want you to write a Christmas vampire story”, I was a little dumbfounded. Vampires and Christmas? Really? But no sooner had I said “Of course” my mind was whirling with ideas and the story for Fate Calls totally came to me! It took a lot of planning to make sure that vampire elder Hadrian had real reasons for hating Christmas so that when Connie Morales ends up on his doorstep in her Santa outfit, madly ringing her bell to raise money for charity, he has a reason to make her stop! I loved giving Hadrian his backstory, especially since it included a great deal of Roman history and also vampire elder Stacia’s backstory as well. She’s one of my favorite characters since she’s so outrageous and tortured. If you haven’t had a chance to read Fate Calls and want a taste of Christmas through the eyes of a vampire, you can download Fate Calls at https://amzn.to/488Fm7F.

vampire christmas story

To Release or Not To Release? That is the Question?

When I first wrote Darkness Calls, my vampire romantic suspense novel, it was longer and grittier with more scenes with the serial killer. FBI Agent Diana Reyes and sexy Southern vampire Ryder Latimer were also edgier and their romance was more intense. A lot of that had to be cut due to length and content requirements for the New York City publisher who bought the book. So the question is: To release or not to release that original version? Inquiring minds want to know. Would you read that longer, more intense version of the novel?

P.S. – You can download the current version of Darkness Calls for free on Kindle Unlimited at https://amzn.to/3Ml6szD.

#FearlessFriday – Tackling My Fears for an Awesome Experience

Some of you may know from following the blog that I have a fear of heights. Not a little fear, a great big one. Standing on the edge of the subway platform or even at the top of a two step stepstool have me feeling queasy. Airplanes? A major challenge. Those glass elevators? Find me in one at a conference and I’ll be the one tucked by the nice solid door, looking away from all that glass.

So what did I do when I was in Mexico many years ago and presented with the opportunity to climb the Pyramid of the Sun? By the way, this pyramid is the third tallest pyramid in the world! Well, I decided I could miss this unique and possibly once-in-a-lifetime experience or I could suck it up and climb.

Climb I did all the way to top to snap that photo of the Avenue of the Dead and the Pyramid of the moon in the distance. It was truly amazing. Then came the hard part again: getting down. The steps were quite narrow and steep so I had a constant sensation of falling. Half way down I decided I was going to do this on my butt. I sat and went the rest of the way to the ground on my butt. No excuses for that one since I’d conquered my fear to go up the pyramid.

What about you? Have you ever had to face a fear like this?