BLOODSTONE hits the e-shelves on October 28th!

What if looking at the face of the man you loved meant death?

Years ago, warrior Durren Drakkonwehr was cursed by a mage. Now feared and reviled as the Shadow Man, he keeps to himself, only going to town to trade rare bloodstones—petrified dragon’s blood—for supplies. Though he hides his face, he can’t hide his heart from the woman who haunts his dreams…

Needing bloodstones for a jewelry commission, Mirianna and her father journey across the dreaded Wehrland where the beast-men roam. When their party is attacked, only the Shadow Man can save them. Strangely drawn to him, Mirianna offers herself in return for her father’s rescue.

Living in the ruined fortress with the Shadow Man, Mirianna slowly realizes that a flesh-and-blood man, not a fiend hides there in hoods and darkness. But are love and courage enough to lift the curse and restore the man?

BLOODSTONE, my Beauty-and-the-Beast-type fantasy romance debuts as an Amazon Kindle Select title on October 28th. I hope you'll join me for an awesome release!

Read on for an excerpt:

“What about us? What do we do?”

            Only the hood rotated, cocking with exaggerated deliberation. “Why, you die, old man.”

            Her father blanched. His grip on Mirianna’s arms faltered.

            She saw the Shadow Man turn, saw the muscles of his thighs bunch as he prepared to leap down the hillside, saw, in the corner of her eye, shapes gathering along the tree line below, horrible shapes she’d seen only hours before rushing at her from a darkened clearing. With a shudder, she broke from her father’s grasp.

            “Please!” She reached out to the black sleeve. “Help us!”

            He recoiled at her touch like one snake-bitten. The sudden, sharp focus of his regard staggered her, but she backed no more than a step. No matter how he terrified her, he’d helped her once. She’d been led to him again, and not, her instincts told her, without reason.

            “Please,” she repeated. “Help us. I—we’ll do anything.”

            “Anything?”

            His voice was a whisper that caressed flesh. Mirianna’s stomach quivered. Her breasts tingled. Her mouth grew even drier. Without thinking, she slid her tongue along her lips. Vaguely, she wondered what she’d done. And why time seemed suspended, as if everyone but she and the Shadow Man had been cast in stone and all sound arrested. All sound except the taut, guttural repeat of his question.

            “Anything?”

And now for something completely different...

I enjoy baking, and I enjoy fairy tales, and I especially enjoy romance. What about combining all three--just for fun?

Recipe for a Fairy Tale

Take one orphan teenager

Add a wicked stepmother

Toss in two cruel step-sisters

Combine with beatings and press under a heavy work load

Let stand several years

Prepare one handsome prince in need of a wife

Arrange a fancy dress ball

Combine with a dash of pomp, a teaspoon of circumstance, and one full tablespoon of glitz

Measure one cup of fairy godmother and sift with a liberal helping of magic

Add to previously battered orphan

Stir in prepared prince and fancy dress ball

Caution:  Some lumps will remain

At midnight separate two glass slippers

Add one to princely mix

Reserve one for topping

Bake several days in despair and confusion

Topping:  Combine three-fourths cup of proclamation and reserved glass slipper

Sprinkle liberally over all

Dust with happiness

Serves two

That's my recipe. How about yours? What's your favorite fairy tale recipe?

Thank you and a Giveaway!

I want to thank everyone who voted for the cover art for BLOODSTONE in the Affaire de Coeur Magazine Cover Art Contest.  There were 22 entries and BLOODSTONE took a respectable 10th among some fierce competition.  This was my first entry in a cover art contest, so I had no real idea what to expect.  I just know I really like my book's cover.  The book is in production galleys now, so I hope to have a release date soon (fingers crossed!).

In anticipation of BLOODSTONE's upcoming release, I decided to try a Goodreads Giveaway to see how that works.  It took me more than 30 minutes to figure out what to upload, but...success!  Click on the widget to the right if you'd like to enter to win a free copy of the paperback version of THE PRINCE OF VAL-FEYRIDGE.

It’s here! The cover art for BLOODSTONE, my upcoming release from The Wild Rose Press.

Waiting for a cover is like waiting for the birth of a baby. Will it be a boy or girl? Will it take after the pretty side of the family or the one with ‘character’? The author fills out a form describing the hero and heroine, the setting, mood, and any objects important to the plot. Then the artist does what he or she does best, marketing weighs in and—voila!—a cover is born. And the author has to live with it.

I was fortunate enough to have Rae Monet, the same cover artist for THE PRINCE OF VAL-FEYRIDGE, do this cover. I threw a challenge at her with this beauty-and-the-beast story, but she came through admirably. It’s a beautiful baby, don’t you think?

Royal Baby and Goodreads

I admit it—I’m a William and Kate fan, and I was keeping track of the royal baby watch. I thought Diana brought some much needed good looks into the Windsor bloodline, and I’m rooting for William and Kate to have the kind of marriage Cinderella dreamers hope for them.

But as for the baby’s name—I’ve recently seen THE KING’S SPEECH (great movie, by the way), and I understand the significance of George in the name of the king as well as the patron saint of England, but still…I guess it’s a more popular name in Britain than here.

Maybe they’ll call him Alex in daily life; it’s got to be better than Georgie. What do you think?

On another note, Goodreads recently emailed to tell me I’ve made their top one percent of reviewers. My first reaction was—Really? I’ve written reviews of over 180 books, which doesn’t seem to me to be a huge number, but okay.

I joined Goodreads because even though I’m a writer, I’m a reader first and I love books. Their recommendations have occasionally appealed to me and I’ve discovered some new authors that way. Plus, my Goodreads friends tip me off to new authors or established authors I think I should try. (That’s what got me into Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden books. A number of my friends were reading them.)

How about you? If you use Goodreads, what do you use it for? What treasures have you discovered as a result? Any tips or recommendations?

Layering a Scene

When I write, I have a basic idea of a scene, and then I make multiple passes over it to add details and significance. The whole process may take days—or weeks—until I’m satisfied. I call this process “layering” and it’s something I’d like to share today.

Plot, or what happens, is the basis for a scene. If nothing happens relative to the overall plot, the scene should be cut. But just recording what happens isn’t enough to make a scene memorable or create enough of a hook to keep the reader involved. To do that a writer needs to put flesh on the bare bones of the plot. That requires using these tools in the writer’s toolbox: the five senses, the character’s emotions, elements of conflict, and symbolism (if possible).

Consider the following bit of plot:

She paused at the foot of the stairs. The doors above were open. Swallowing, she went in.

Let’s flesh this out first by adding the five senses with time and place:

• Who? Name the character.
• Where exactly is she?
• When? What’s the time of day? Day of the week? Year? Season?
• What does she see? Texture, color, temperature? Objects?
• What does she smell? Hear? Dialogue?
• Are there others—people, animals—in this scene?

 Now add the character’s emotions:

• How does she feel about being in this place?

 Bring in elements of the conflict, either main or contributing:

• Why is she here?
• What’s at stake? (story question)

 Enhance symbolism, if possible:

• Stairs can represent choices and decisions. A character can go up to something new, or down into something bad, or refuse to participate and remain aloof.

·         Are these stairs central to some particular conflict or memory?

Layering means to go through your scene as often as necessary to add pieces of “flesh” to it. From the bare bones you can construct something meaningful and evocative that also advances your plot, reveals character, creates conflict, and—even—suggests symbolism.

Here’s an example of what I mean:

Jennifer Bryant halted at the foot of the courthouse stairs.

Twenty-four granite steps, two flights of twelve with a six-foot wide landing in between, stretched toward the colonnaded portico above. As a child she’d raced up these steps and dashed from end to end amid three-story high pillars only to stand panting in the middle at the precise spot where the boulevard ran straight to the steps.

“All roads lead to Rome,” her grade school teacher had told her. McKintock County wasn’t Rome, but to her fourth-grade self, that spot up there had been the center of the universe.

All around her, a steady stream of people flowed upward, not a single one pausing at that special spot. Men clad in suits, ties flapping, women dressed in conservative brown, black and tan, all carrying briefcases in one hand and cups of varying descriptions in the other. The strong smell of fresh coffee wafted in their wakes.

She breathed the aroma, and wished for the third time in as many minutes she’d stopped at Coffee Joe’s for a brew of her own. Having something to cling to just might galvanize her into taking that first step.

When had the simple act of climbing these steps, passing under those Doric columns and entering her workplace of the last six years become so daunting?

From three starter sentences, we’ve expanded to a name, particular place, sights, smell, a memory, emotion, and a story question.

Now I invite you to share. What’s your process for fleshing out a scene? How do you make your plot come alive?

Why Writers Need to Go to Conferences

I’ve recently returned from my RWA chapter’s annual conference, and while I wondered several times in the previous six months whether I should spend the money and go, I’m glad I decided to attend.

First, no one understands writers like other writers. Writing is a lonely vocation by its very nature. It involves delving into one’s imagination for long periods of introspection which, to most of the members of the human race, looks like daydreaming. If you can’t show them ‘pages,’ they don’t think you’ve had a productive day even if you’ve finally gotten a handle on your main character’s deepest secret. Other writers get that. And they’re willing to talk to you about it. For a whole weekend.

And no one understands a romance writer like another romance writer. Let’s face it: not all writers think alike or value the same elements in their writing. For instance, poets are a whole other breed from fiction writers. And non-fiction writers, while their narratives share some of the same elements as those of fiction writers, their criteria for publication are entirely different. Finally, there’s a reason for genres in fiction—not all genres value the same elements in the same way. So romance writers regularly need to communicate with other romance writers, if only to maintain hope that what they’re doing is valued by others.

Put faces to names. Today’s writer spends a lot of time online, and it’s nice at a conference to finally put a face to the name of the person who’s given you a spot-on critique or a particularly useful piece of advice.

Share a ride, share expenses, share meals. Everybody needs friends, but most of our long-term friends or work friends aren’t writers, so when we get stuck at the one-third point of our current story, they aren’t the people we need to call for help. Going to a conference and sharing the experience with writer friends from your area or from your online community can help form or cement those relationships so you know who to call upon when the writing gets rough.

Gain new knowledge and perspectives on craft, meet editors and agents. Those are the points of attending a conference, and we know we’re going to get that new information, do that networking, but I put this last because while it’s the stated reason we give our families, it’s not necessarily the most important or longest lasting reward.

Next time a conference opportunity comes up and you’re considering the cost vs. the benefit of going, consider the intangibles. There’s nothing like recharging your emotional batteries among like-minded people.