Tag: paranormal

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Stronger Than Sin Research Part 2

This is a crazy time of year for me! I’m putting the finishing touches on STRONGER THAN SIN, the second book in the SINS series, while also visiting people to chat about SINS OF THE FLESH which will be released on October 27th! Less than a week away.

Be sure to check the calendar to the left of this blog post for the dates of my various online and in-person appearances. There are a tons of giveaways going on for SINS OF THE FLESH and you might be one of the lucky winners of a copy! Also check out the Contests page on the site for other contests that are currently in progress.

But back to STRONGER THAN SIN which I am absolutely loving. It’s about another genetically engineered patient – Jesse Bradford, a former pro football player. Once from the wrong side of the tracks, Jesse now owns a multi-million dollar home in Spring Lake (more on that town in another post).

The heroine – not spilling the name here so that I don’t spoil anything from SINS OF THE FLESH – is smart and strong, but introspective. I needed somewhere that she would feel safe and also very spiritual since she is a devout Catholic and very connected to family. After spending the summer wandering through the various shore towns, I knew the perfect place for her new home would be Ocean Grove.

If you haven’t had a chance to visit, you must do so during the summer. There is always something going on. Plus it’s a lovely landmark historical town filled with Victorian homes surrounded by carefully tended gardens. Main Avenue has an assortment of shops, galleries and restaurants you will totally enjoy. In addition, it’s just a walk over a footbridge or along the boardwalk to hit the renovated Asbury Park boardwalk and take in some of the sights there.

One of the more unique things about the town is the tent city that goes up every summer season. The tents date back to the revival meetings held in Ocean Grove. Today the tents are leased and occupied through the summer season. Here are some photos of the tents up for the season and some that have been closed for the winter.

Ocean Grove was the perfect place for my heroine and as the setting for some of the scenes in STRONGER THAN SIN which will be out in October 2010. So, I’m sharing some of the photos I took during my research and hope you will enjoy them!

If you can’t see the slideshow below, you can visit this link to see more pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2037563&id=1130005412&l=6ac91988b1

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The Home Stretch

stretchWith only a few weeks left until the deadline to deliver my next book – STRONGER THAN SIN – the second book in the SINS series, I’m in the home stretch, racing toward the finish.

Just a little bit more work, some polishing and the book will be finished. Always a rewarding feeling, especially when I’m liking it as much as I am.

I always think of writing a novel much like running a race. Start off slow and get a solid foundation in the first few chapters. Start picking up speed, but keeping mindful of the pace and where I am with both the romance and suspense so that the synergy between the two is keeping things moving.

Not so easy at times, so there is an occasional stumble. There are other obligations to handle in my life, like work. My family, who always comes first. Writing obligations, like prepping everything necessary to promote SINS OF THE FLESH which will be out on shelves on October 27th! 😯

Woo hoo, but scary. My first single title paranormal romantic suspense (and isn’t that a mouthful of a description?).

I’ve waited a long time to see that happen, another kind of race. Building a career and trying to take it to the finish line for this race because inevitably, the time in the winner’s circle is short before you have to hit the track again. 😕

But if you think about it, life is a race also (and hopefully not a rat race!). I like to think of it as a race against myself and not others. Always striving to do something different and to improve. Reaching for personal bests.

How about you? How do you deal with your reaching your goals, whether it’s writing or something else? We’d like to hear your thoughts on this Thoughtful Thursday.

Also, while I’m at it, the winner for last Friday’s Favorite Hero contest is Kayla! If you could send your postal address to cpsromance at att dot net, I’ll get your prize out to you.

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Favorite Hero Friday

Today is a departure from our usual Fun Fridays, although I hope that it will still be fun for you!

My friends at eHarlequin asked me to blog about my favorite hero from THE CALLING Vampire Novels. Now I know most of you would expect for me to say my favorite hero is Ryder, but there’s a surprise dark horse that’s come out of the pack.

So join me over at eHarlequin to find out who is the mystery Favorite Hero and get into his brain.

If you leave a comment on either this blog or the eHarlequin blog by Midnight EST Saturday, October 10th, you’ll be eligible to win a SINS OF THE FLESH T-shirt!

Click here to visit My Favorite Hero or cut and paste this link: http://community.eharlequin.com/node/125987

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What to do in-between books?

This Thoughtful Thursday is about a question I am frequently asked? What do you in-between books? The answer is that you hope you’ve got something else contracted!

But seriously, what I do is start research on the next book and work on other proposals to be sent out by my agent. I’m always working on a new idea because for every book I am lucky enough to sell, there are at least one or two that end up gathering dust at my desk. Sometimes even though I think it’s a rocking book (like UNDEAD UPRISING!).

So the first answer to the question is: Always be preparing another project for consideration. Even if you’re in the middle of working on books that are contracted, keep your creative mind going, even if it’s to just to jot down some story ideas that you can flesh out later.

The second answer is: Get to work on the next book you need to write.

This spring and summer was blessedly busy for me. I had to finish two more book in THE CALLING vampire novels – ARDOR CALLS and VENGEANCE CALLS. Also had to do copy edits and galley proofs for SINS OF THE FLESH. And in the midst of all that, I was busy writing the next book in the SINS series – STRONGER THAN SIN – as well as researching that book.

Third answer: Spend some time researching your next novel.

For me, researching STRONGER THAN SIN meant long walks through some of the shore towns where I planned to set the novel. Snapping photos of places where I might be putting the hero and heroine so that I could get a real feel for the places. I’ve always thought that it’s important to really let you get a sense of the place and am always delighted to hear from someone who visits one of those towns that they felt like they knew it because of something I put in a novel.

So far in STRONGER THAN SIN, my ability to move them around has been limited, but I’m working up to allowing more and more scenes where the hero and heroine will be walking along the same streets that I visited and sharing their views of some of New Jersey’s delightful shore towns.

In STRONGER THAN SIN, most of the action will be taking place in Bradley Beach, Asbury Park, Ocean Grove and Spring Lake. For today, I’m sharing with you some pictures of Ocean Grove and Asbury Park. I’ve got to head down the shore again this weekend and work on adding some shots of Spring Lake and also, the wonderful tent city area close to the Ocean Grove auditorium.

Hope you enjoy the photos and if you can’t see the slide show, you can follow this link to the photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034521&id=1130005412&l=1c0a076248

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DragonCon Spirit Orbs and a challenge!

Had lots to do at DragonCon, but as you know from the last few days on the blog, I was able to go out and enjoy the wondrous costumes created by some of the attendees. As I was uploading my photos on the first day, I noticed something unusual on one of the photos – orbs.

You may remember our discussion about spirit orbs from last year (you can click here for that blog post). So while I was uploading to Facebook, I mentioned the orbs to my friend Joy Nash and lo and behold – she had similar orbs on her shot of the same people! You can check them out down below.

This is my shot of the angel couple. I’ve circled the orbs for you.

ghost2b

This is Joy’s shot of the orbs where I’ve circled 3 orbs as well.

ghost1a

Dust? Pollen? Did I mention that none of our other photos seemed to have these orbs?

Luckily, Dave Tango from the Ghost Hunters happened by our booth and my friend Shannon talked to him about the orbs. Probably dust or pollen, Dave said. He explained that digital cameras interpret what they are seeing and make shapes out of things like dust. But he did say that if the two shots were taken at different times and different locations, that might warrant some further investigation.

Here’s a picture of Dave and me at the booth!

So how about you? Do you believe in spirit orbs? If you were at DragonCon and got a picture of this angel couple, do you have orbs? If so, please send me an e-mail with the photo. You can click here to contact me!

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DragonCon Day 4 and Guilty Pleasure Monday

DragonCon WarriorToday’s Guilty Pleasure Monday is an unknown DragonCon attendee who was kind enough to pose for me. There was nothing fake about all those abs and arms!

We’re starting to wind down here, but there are still lots of interesting costumes to see. There are some who really went out of their way to do different things and you’ll see them in this album – a lady from The Birds movie, two young black and white ladies from Invasion of the Body Snatchers and a Terminator that was absolutely amazing.

You can follow this link to the next album for DragonCon 2009:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2033093&id=1130005412&l=53730d32f6

You can also watch the last half of the DragonCon parade with these videos.



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Undead Uprising Chapter 18

ww.jpgThis week’s Wicked Wednesday brings you another installment of my urban fantasy involving a twist to the werewolf mythology, battles with vampires and a struggle for control in a werewolf pack. I hope you like this next free chapter that I’m offering you.

In the prior chapter, Catalina’s father goes to visit her before she goes out to hunt vampires. Because of her unusual state, Catalina is stronger than the other wolves in her pack in human form, but cannot control herself when she shapeshifts into the wolf. Because of that, she hunts throughout the month, except for the days in around the full moon when she loses control. In this chapter, Catalina is out on the hunt.

For those of you who may have missed the first chapters, you can read them here:

  • Chapter 1
  • Chapter 2
  • Chapter 3
  • Chapter 4
  • Chapter 5
  • Chapter 6
  • Chapter 7
  • Chapter 8
  • Chapter 9
  • Chapter 10
  • Chapter 11
  • Chapter 12
  • Chapter 13
  • Chapter 14
  • Chapter 15
  • Chapter 16
  • Chapter 17

Chapter 18

She barely got her sword up to block the downward swing of the nail-studded bat. Reaching behind her, dazed from an earlier shot to her head by the vamp she had just dusted, she couldn’t quite get her hand on the grip of the crossbow.

The vampire raised the bat again, but she knew better than to continue kneeling there. Her awkward position made it difficult to effectively ward off another swing. Feinting to the left, she drew the vampire’s attention and he shifted the direction of his attack.

The bat impacted against the concrete of the street as she rapidly rolled to the right and came to her feet. Dropping her sword, she reached up behind her shoulder and this time, got a solid grip on the crossbow. Whipping it over her head, she fired as the vampire came at her.

He froze in place a few feet away, a stunned look on his face before he glanced down at the arrow protruding from his heart. The bat slipped from his hand and he scrabbled for a solid grip on the shaft of the arrow with his long, nearly skeletal fingers.

For good measure, Catalina notched another and fired again. Her aim true as the first. With a satisfying thud, the second arrow buried itself deep in the vamp’s heart. He finally crumpled to his knees, and then fell face forward toward her.

Catalina took a deep breath, tossed the crossbow back over her shoulder and picked up her sword. Glancing around, just to make sure there wasn’t another vampire beyond the two that had already attacked her, she approached the body. Turning him over, she realized he still wasn’t dead. He must be one of the old ones to be able to withstand two direct hits to the heart and the arrows driven deeper into his body by his fall.

He snarled at her, long fangs crimson with the blood of an earlier kill, and feebly reached for the arrows once more.

She didn’t hesitate a second longer. Raising her sword, she finished him off, severing his head from his shoulders. The surprising thing was, his hands continued to pluck at the arrows for long moments after. He definitely had been one of the old ones, which made her wonder why an elder was out hunting. Vampire elders usually forced the younger ones to bring them food, so one being out tonight hunting was unusual. As was having one attack her outright.

She walked over to the vampire she had killed earlier in the fight. What was left of him sat up against the edge of the building. Or at least part of him did. The lower half of him sprawled flat on the ground, legs splayed at an awkward angle.

Kneeling beside the upper half of his torso, she glanced into his sightless eyes and held her hand up over the middle of his chest. Nothing left of his power. He had clearly been a young vamp. Maybe even younger than the one who had attacked her a few nights ago. So beyond newly turned.

But even with that lack of age, he had managed to get in a good shot, she thought, rubbing at the knot on the back of her head where he had connected with the quarterstaff he had carried. As she bowed there, a prickling sensation sprang up between her shoulder blades.

Another one of the undead. Nearby.

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