New Vampire Short Story Collection Announced

I'm pretty hardheaded at times.  I admit it.  I sometimes have to hear a bit of advice multiple times before it actually sinks through my thick skull.  But I finally listened to the fans and the friends who have been urging me to release my short fiction work in a collection.

Originally, I was going to stuff all my short stories into one tome, but I like things to be a bit orderly.  There were a slew of old gothic/romance/horror vampire shorts on my hard drive and they just seemed to land in the short story collection like a redheaded stepchild.  Pretty...but just not quite fitting in with all the brunettes.  So I yanked out all the vampire shorts and put them into another document.  That is when I began to see certain themes in all the stories: love, blood, and revenge.

Last night I excitedly laid out the vampire short stories and worked on a publishing plan for the collection.  (Another collection of my other horror works will come out later this year.)

Basically, the stories are written and just need a final edit.  I have already contacted one of my regular editors to see if she has a slot available for me.  Right now the collection is with the test readers.  These are older stories, so I'm anxious to get their feedback.  I have contacted several cover artists about working on the cover and I believe Detra may be returning for this cover (squeal of delight).  His work was previously seen on the original self-published As The World Dies novels.

 It will start off being a Kindle exclusive when released and later be available in other ebook formats.  Since it is a slim tome, it will be available in paperback format at conventions I attend and probably on my own website.  It would just be too expensive if I tried to sell the paperback version via the regular online retailers.

The name of the collection at this time is BLOOD & LOVE and Other Vampire Tales.

I will keep you posted as I move closer to publication.

Coming Soon

Just to give all of you fans a heads up, my short story "Fleeing" will be in the upcoming werewolf anthology "Wolves of War" edited by Eric S. Brown and released by The Library of Horror Press. As soon as a get a drop date on the book, I will post it here.

Check out the cover!
Though the theme is werewolves and war, my short story is not a shoot 'em up, blow 'em up tale. It's a little tale about a soldier being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I really love it, and I hope you will, too.

Some Cool News to Share

First off, I will be attending Fear Fest 3 in the Dallas/Fort Worth area to promote my book. I will be sharing space with my good friends from Creepy Classic Videos. She has some truly awesome zombie t-shirts, caps, totes, and lots of good ol' horror movies. I've attended cons with her before, but this is my first time I'm actually vending my own stuff and not just helping with her table!

I'm so excited!

For details, click on the links in the sidebar of this blog. If you're in the area, please come and check it out, buy and book and chat.

Second good news is my short story Vengeance on Scribd has made the Hot List. I'm very excited about this. It was awesome to get that news today.

This is a very short update, but hopefully I'll have more in the future.

The Vampires Arise

The last few years I have been all tied up with the zombie hordes. They've been damn annoying, too. I absolutely despise zombies and they have a really good way of wrecking a good dream when they show up and start eating everyone. I hate it when that happens. But I've been writing about the cannibalistic dead pretty heavily for awhile now and if I don't write I get "stopped up" and the zombies run amok in my dreams until I wrestle them down onto paper.

In other words, my mind doesn't let me rest until the story is done.

But my first, true love, is the vampire. The bloodsucking undead have terrified and fascinated me for years. I absolutely feared them and nothing my mother or anyone else said could convince me that they were not real. I'm not even sure where I first heard about Dracula, but I begged my Mom relentlessly to let me see the old black and white film when it showed on TV. I think I was around six. She finally gave in. The next morning she found me curled up on my sleeping bag outside her bedroom door with a towel wrapped around my neck.

In fact, for years, it was part of my nightly ritual to tuck my covers up around my neck securely. Now I was just a kid, so I really didn't think about the fact that Dracula or any of his minions could just pull down the covers and have a nice hearty drink.

Of course, what I fear is what I am drawn to it seems. I would watch Hammer films as a kid with a pillow over my face, peeking around the edges, and then screaming at the slightest hint of blood. I finally read a vampire novel when I was a teenager. It was like nothing I had ever read before. It was Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat . I had a healthy diet of Agatha Christie, Victoria Holt, science fiction and classic literature novels before I borrowed that book. I read it in one night and it literally made me sick to my stomach. I just remember I felt like I was drowning in darkness and I felt queasy. Funny how life works out...considering I'm Goth and a horror novelist!

I avoided vampire novels like the plague for awhile, but finally sat down and read Bram Stoker's Dracula and I was smitten. Since I love Victorian Gothic Literature, I read the old classics first and worked my way up to modern times. I was reluctant to pick up Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, but I finally read it and loved it. Though I read all the books that followed up to the novel about Armand, the first in the series held the most magic for me.

The state of vampire novels today actually makes me quite sad. I do love the urban fantasy of the Sookie Stackhouse and Rachel Morgan novels, but the bloodsuckers never quite feel like "real" vampires. I'm not sure what it is, but something just feels like its missing. Most of the other vampire novels are stuck in the paranormal romance genre and I have a rough time imagining a vampire looking like a Fabio clone. I have tried to read a few of these series because I was desperate for a good vampire read. I threw one book across the room and just gave up.

My own vampire stories are rather diverse. My favorite is about Lady Glynis Wright, an English aristocrat who longs for an indecent life as Lord Byron's lover, only to end up the Bride of a powerful vampire. My great love for Victorian literature definitely influenced that novel and its rich in Gothic imagery. The heroine, though, is just great fun and I adore her. She's a bit wily and always contrary. I recently renamed the and I hope to release it early next year.

The second vampire novel is about a modern day girl in East Texas who starts off the story buried in the forest. That vampire novel is very Texan, and very modern, but keeps to the traditional vampire lore. One of the things that haunts the character named Amaliya throughout the story is that she has no reflection and she has to go to great lengths to hide this from others while dealing with it emotionally. Since there is necromancy, zombies and vampires in this novel, I see it coming out after the zombie trilogy.

I'm not saying that my vampire novels are greater than anything else out there, but I am aware they are different. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I like my vampires to be something dangerous and not tame. Creatures that aren't swayed by a beautiful virginal girl's undying love or seeking their long lost soulmate. I adore Glynis because I would be afraid of her if I met her. Despite her courtly manner, she is dangerous. She is a passionate creature that is also a killer. The same with Amaliya. They are both creatures of instinct and great power.

After the zombie trilogy is out, I will be turning my attention to both these novels. The vampire stories I posted on Scribd got my vampire muses stirring around in my head and I have at least one unfinished vampire story that is begging to be finished.

I think posting the vampire stories on Scribd yesterday reminded me that yes I like my zombie tales, but I also write about much more than just the shambling, mindless dead. The beautiful undead with the wickedly sharp teeth and jewel eyes are also lingering in my imagination.

Maybe its just time to look back at what scared me first...and most.

Zombies, Vampires, Genetically Altered Rats and Robots.

I'm a fan of a blog called Paperback Writer. Lynn Viehl is a very prolific writer and I am in awe of the amount of work she puts out every year. I'm not necessarily a fan of her genre, but since I found her blog and found her to be so entertaining, I do plan on picking up her science fiction work. I enjoy reading her advice on the writing process and though I have decided to be an Independent Self-Published Author, her insight on the publishing world is fascinating. Reading about how she does not have control over the titles to her books or the covers made me grateful that I have creative control over what I will be presenting to my readers.

One of the things my husband and I had discussed at the beginning of this endeavor was that we wanted to have free material online for fans to read. We're big believers in the new media and have a lot of respect for Trent Reznor and his recent stand against the big corporations' stranglehold on the creative process. Though I would like to make enough money from my writing to one day be able to stay home and only write, I'm aware of the fact this will take some time and my readership needs to grow. Presenting free works online is a good solid way to bring awareness to my writing and to also give back to the fans who have supported me the last two years with their encouraging words.

While visiting the Lynn's blog, I noticed she had free short stories, writing guides, and short novels for free online at Scribd. I've been slowly reading through these and enjoying them very much. And they are doing their job in that I am now aware that 1) she exists as a writer 2) I enjoy her writing style 3) I want to pick up her books. As I was prowling around Scribd, I realized this was the perfect way to post the works I had wanted to give out free to the public and possibly garner awareness that 1) I am out here 2) I'm a good writer 3) maybe someone will pick up my books.

Therefore, I have now uploaded three vampire tales, one robot tale, and my latest zombie novella. Anyone interested in my writing can visit my Scribd page here. Some of the stories have had a long shelf life on my hard drive and I'm very glad to finally get them out to the general public.

One of the stories, Vengeance, was actually well received by an editor who actually turned it down for her magazine. It was too violent, but she took the time to tell me she did like the story, especially its ending. Maybe it was too controversial with the idea of a battered wife getting her revenge against her abuser from beyond the grave, but I still love the story and it felt great to get it up onto Scribd.

Another one, Flesh and Circuits, was originally written for a robot anthology. I mucked up the original premise trying to get it to fit the guidelines and the editor rejected it. Though I agreed the horror element did not belong, he made quite a few suggestions for the story that did not feel right to me. In fact, my husband was livid over the proposed edits. "That's not your story," he said to me. I considered changing my story completely to try and satisfy the editor, but realized I liked my story as it was. I had no desire to eliminate one character altogether, change the basic plot or throw out the "happy" ending. This was during a time where I was dying to get my foot in the door in the publishing world and it was a rough choice to make. But in the end, I loved my story as it was and was determined to keep it that way. Now you can read the original version on Scribd.

Another short, The Aspect of her Eyes, came to me one night and I could not stop writing until it was done. It is a darkly romantic piece and I really loved the way it flowed. The narrator of the piece is a servant of a master vampire and he/she (it is never clarified which sex the narrator is) observes the great eternal love the vampire has for his bride. It's a story that was very well received by my friends who love the vampire genre and they encouraged me to try and get it published. When I submitted it to a magazine that specializes in the genre, the editors never answered. I was more than glad to dig it out and put it up on Scribd.

The Memoirs of Moniki the Great was a short that I loved writing, but when I got done I had no idea what to do with it. I couldn't even figure out what market it belonged to. But its a fun yet touching story and I wanted to share it. After posting it today, I feel inclined to do a follow up called Moniki and Monsieur Rat versus the Nazis.

The last story I posted today is actually a novella. It is one of the As the World Dies: Untold Tales. It's recent appearance on the forums was very well received, so I thought I would tidy it up a little and post it for the Scribd readers. Also, anyone who enjoyed the story when it was on the other forums can download a complete copy of it on Scribd.

I have some uncompleted short stores tucked away on my computer that I now feel the inclination to finish. At one point I had tried to write short stories to try and pry the door open to the publishing world. The problem was that my short stories were not what magazines or anthologies were looking for. It's rough to break in when the gatekeepers have predetermined concepts of what they want.

I hope to post a fantasy short called Dragons in her Eyes and a vampire short called The Two Mothers in the next few days. I have a few other short stories and novella ideas bouncing around in my head, so those may be posted in the future as well.

I hope you enjoy my works. Please drop me a line and let me know. I always love hearing from the readers.