Live chat/interview with romance author Barbara Winkes - 6/16/13

The Writer's Chatroom presents romance author Barbara Winkes.

WHEN?

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Eastern USA Time.....7-9 PM

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The Writers Chatroom at: http://www.writerschatroom.com/Enter.htm

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Interview with horror/sci-fi author Barbara Custer

Dark fiction/sci-fi author Barbara Custer is here to tell us a bit about her novel Steel Rose.

Barbara is going to award one randomly drawn commenter at every stop a backlist e-book – City of Brotherly Death or Twilight Healer – or one of her Night to Dawn magazines, and one randomly drawn commenter on the tour will receive a $15.00 gift certificate to Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks, winner's choice. To increase your chances of winning, visit other tour stops and leave comments.

Bio:

Barbara lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she works full time as a respiratory therapist. When she’s not working with her patients, she’s enjoying a fright flick or working on horror and science fiction tales. Her short stories have appeared in numerous small press magazines. She’s published Night to Dawn magazine since 2004.

Other books by Barbara include Twilight Healer and City of Brotherly Death. She’s also coauthored Alien Worlds and Starship Invasions with Tom Johnson. She enjoys bringing her medical background to the printed page, and then blending it with supernatural horror. She maintains a presence on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and The Writers Coffeehouse forum. Look for the photos with the Mylar balloons, and you’ll find her.

Welcome, Barbara. Please tell us about your current release.

The story opens with protagonist Alexis searching for a cure for her debilitating illness. Her search lands her in open combat with zombies and renegade aliens. Yeron, her doctor and a Kryszka refugee, develops a drug to control her arthritis, but her weakness prohibits her from handling most weapons. Yeron is determined to practice human medicine, but most people fear him. Alexis, his patient, is afraid, too…until his seductive attentions profoundly arouse her. Although Alexis is an adult, she has growing to do if she wants to survive, and she learns painful lessons about love and war. The Kryszka soldiers and zombies who break into the hospital are hungry. So very hungry. How will she fight them?

What inspired you to write this book?

Before I wrote it, I had severe arthritis in both wrists and needed reconstruction for both. I had Walter Mitty fantasies of science coming up with an easy operation or drug that would rebuild cartilage. Yeron’s clinical trials were among those fantasies. I was also caring for my husband who has Parkinson’s disease. During that year, I read about Efren Saldivar, a respiratory therapist who’d been convicted of killing six patients with Pavulon, a drug that stops a patient’s respirations when they’re about to go on a ventilator. All of this left me a lot of material to write Steel Rose and a sequel.

Excerpt:

Shattering glass. Plodding footsteps. IV poles crashed to the floor. Glass shards tinkled, punctuated by low-pitched groaning from the rear elevator, the exit Hoffman had claimed to seal.

“Dear God, help us.” Alexis reached for her gun.

“What are you doing? Guns are forbidden on this floor, and…Oh, my God!” Ms. Grese cupped her hands over her mouth. Her authoritarian demeanor vanished, replaced by horror-stricken pallor. “Where are the officers?”

“You think our visitors give a shit?” Alexis scuttled toward the door, feeling vulnerable. The vest didn’t protect her face or hands, but the intruders wouldn’t care about that either. She shoved Ms. Grese ahead of her, pushing with her mind, Yeron beside her. “Run!” she hollered.

As the creatures poured through the ward, a stench crawled down her throat, the stink of things many days dead. Moaning drowned out the sound of Ms. Grese’s cries, a continual chant of “hungry.”

Skeletal figures in tattered rags skirted around Mark, who fired at any who got too close. Their tendons flashed gray against cold cobwebs of rib and knuckle. The flesh that quivered through widened skin tears had the sheen of rotting meat. The skin resembled cracked leather. Weeds sprouted on some of the figures’ necks and hair, the way they did in her nightmares. They made their way to the desk, where two nurses sat. The two women jumped up, both screaming. One of them opened fire with a Glock.

The armed woman was her mother.

What exciting story are you working on next?

Blood Moon Rising, the sequel to Steel Rose. Alexis goes on the road with Yeron, Shively, Mark, Tyrone, and Johnny to kick some serious zombie ass. But they run into complications and lethal injuries. Alexis’s beloved mother gets caught in the crossfire. The romance between Alexis and Yeron blossoms but before they can make any commitments, they have to stay alive. I hope to finish this book before the year’s up.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I tried my hand at writing in 1976, when I was going through a rough patch. I had no college at the time, and the writing quality was raw. I couldn’t afford to go back to school. Fast forward to 1990, after my mother’s death, Kelly, a collage instructor, encouraged me to journal and write stories to turn over the grief I felt over my mother’s death. The stories began to appear in small press magazines. At that point, I took my writing seriously.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I have a day job, so I make time to write in the evenings and on my days off. Writing could be blogging, writing stuff for the Night to Dawn Magazine, and of course, my work in progress. I get up about five for the day job. I eat supper when I come home. That leaves me about two to three hours for writing in the evening.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I love Mylar balloons. They take on a life of their own, and some of my stories, including Steel Rose, have scenes involving Mylar balloons. Sometimes I’m at my best when I keep a well filled Mylar balloon standing over me. The balloon is like an instructor making sure I concentrate on my work and not daydream.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be an actress. I fantasized about being a nurse, too, but I really wanted to be in the movies.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers? Well, I’m gonna let you in on something I rarely discuss at interviews. Most people who write horror are trying to face secret fears, and that goes for me, too. I’ve feared skeletons since I was ten, when I saw a mummy up close and personal, sitting up in a sarcophagus, waving her arm. Later on, I’d realized that the entertainer was using props to make the body move, but at the time, all I understood was that this mummy was reaching for me. I tore out of that pavilion fast. You can get the details about my encounter here.

Fast forward to college, Kelly taught us in an anatomy room, which had a skeleton in the back. Each time I showed up for class, I draped my coat and scarf over the skeleton so I wouldn’t have to look at it. She recommended that I start journaling about my fear, and I began turning out short stories about zombies and walking dead.

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Publisher’s website | Buy link | The Library Thing | Book video

Thanks, Barbara. Readers, don't forget about the giveaway gifts! Leave an e-mail with your comment for a chance to win.

Interview with historical fiction author A.C. Croom

Today's guest author is multipublished fiction author Arthur C. Croom (A.C. Croom). He's going to talk about his latest novel, The Guns of Lazarus Thorne, and more.

Bio:
A.C. Croom is a published author of historical, western/frontier, and romantic fiction. His three current releases, a personal best for him, include: Delta Trails, a historical romantic fiction novel; Prophets Rest, a contemporary western fiction novella with just a touch of romance; and The Guns of Lazarus Thorne, a contemporary western fiction novel. All were accepted and published by Damnation Books and Eternal Press. Each are available in e-book and print on demand trade paperback through numerous outlets including www.damnationbooks.com, www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com, www.eternalpress.biz, and many others. Google "A.C. Croom" to find more outlets.

His upcoming western novel Showdown in Shadow Creek, is completely rewritten. It now includes material that initially was scheduled to be a sequel to the original novella, and releases the first week in May 2012. It was also accepted and will be published by Damnation Books / Eternal Press.

Another upcoming novel is more contemporary. Lessons Learned, is as hardcore with eroticism as it gets without crossing the line into pornography. The setting is modern day Miami, Florida. Elements of police drama, the BDSM underworld, and a burgeoning romance take the reader on a thrill ride they will be long in forgetting. The novel is set to release in September 2012 through Damnation Books.

His other published credits, (out of print), include the contemporary romantic short story “Kate’s Song”, a contemporary romantic novella sequel “Kate’s Song; Awakening” and his first western/frontier novella “Showdown In Shadow Creek”, all published by the now defunct Forbidden Publications.

A.C. proudly adds his talent to the website www.goldinalaska.net as “Texas Red” with occasional editorials and “How To” articles for outdoorsmen and prospectors.

Among his many and varied pursuits, A.C. is a Design Draftsman / Quality Control Manager for Western Tank Company, a musician, a recreational gold miner, member of the Gold Prospectors of America Association and avid outdoorsman. Recently he has joined others in the writers’ guild as member of Western Writers of America and member of The West Texas Writers Association.

He and his wife, Ann, reside in Odessa, Texas. Through almost 44 years of marriage, he and Ann have two children, five grandchildren and one great-grandchild. His oldest grandson proudly serves our nation as a specialist in the U.S. Army.

A.C. has taken his love for the outdoors from weekend warrior to planned prospecting trips in the states of New Mexico and Alaska and uses his experiences as research for background material in the Western / Frontier genre. Gold mining is his hobby and writing books about the western way of life, as well as many other genre is his passion.

Visit his blog http://ac-croom.blogspot.com or look for him at Facebook.com for more insight into his books and life.

Welcome, A.C. Please tell us about your current release, The Guns of Lazarus Thorne.
We first meet Lazarus Thorne on the Shiloh battlefield facing his test of manhood for the first time. During the day long battle against Grant’s First Army, he confronts his many fears and earns his first gun by facing a young Union officer one on one as the battle rages around them both.

Afterwards, we follow Thorne as his journey takes him to the hill country of Texas as a ranch hand/cowboy, and into the mountains of Colorado where he meets and befriends a mountain man from Illinois. While deciding whether to travel on to Arizona or take the offer of a life as a trapper, they are attacked by Indians. The two win out and their decision is made for them. The pair leave hastily fearing reprisal from the Apache for the deaths of their attackers.

Thorne earns his second gun as he and his companion enter Three Wells Arizona. Lazarus is forced into a gunfight with a local drunkard and bully. The bully is killed outright and Thorne and his companion move onto a ranch inherited from an uncle. The two work that ranch for almost nine years before Hell breaks loose in the small community of Three Wells.

The streets of Three Wells, Arizona turn into a bloody battle ground as outlaws seem to come out of the very woodwork. Shootings leave the town bereft of law until United States Marshal Shay O’Hara steps in to restore order. He asks Lazarus Thorne to assume the role of lawman. Lazarus is torn between his duty as a man who has recently found himself in the role of father to an eight year old daughter he was never told about until the murder of the only woman he ever cared about, and facing the threat to Three Wells.

Will law be restored to Three Wells, or will the town become another Tombstone, with open bloodshed in the streets?

What inspired you to write this book?
Originally, I visited Tombstone and the OK Corral. It occurred to me that while Arizona was a Territory, there were numerous cities and towns that faced the same type lawlessness without the benefit of hired gunmen like the Earp brothers to clean up those towns. The story took on a life of its own. When I first had the idea, Thorne was supposed to be one of the bad guys who was convinced his guns were unbeatable. Luckily, another character drew that role and a fully fleshed novel wrote itself. I’m glad that it came out the way it did.

Readers should enjoy The Guns of Lazarus Thorne much more when they find it is far beyond the simple ‘shoot ‘em up’ Western.

What exciting story are you working on next?
Coming in May: Showdown in Shadow Creek

This is the story of gunfighter J.R. Bell and his wife Eve as they face Blood Feud to save the town of Shadow Creek, Oregon and themselves from the vengeance of a family seeking ‘Blood Justice’ for twenty-five years of imagined injustice from neighboring ranchers, lawmen willing to face their kin in open gunfights and other real, or imagined threats.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
To this day I do not consider myself a ‘writer.’ Rather, I consider myself a teller of interesting stories. I have made up stories since I was a young boy to entertain myself and others willing to sit still and listen. Most of that became more than real in 2006 with the release of my first e-book, ‘KATE’S SONG’. That little short story began my journey to where I am today.

What do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I write when I can. I am lucky that I have a boss that lets me throw a few words into my stories while I work. I have a full time job as Design Draftsman / Quality Control Manager for an oil field related company in West Texas.

Between my job, writing, doing edits and marketing my books, I find time for married life, children, grand-children and my hobbies.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
That’s a hard question. I guess the answer would be research. I have always been a history nut and I have traveled extensively in my sixty-two years to various areas that I use for back ground material. I practice what I write. I have been on a trail drive, a real one, not the kind weekenders pay for. I visit battlegrounds of the civil war. I use the internet to get the story behind the story. My most interesting quirk would be: If it doesn’t fit the story, I won’t write it in.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to build things. I wanted to design them and build them. I became exactly what I wanted to be. My early life I was a metal fabricator building what others designed. I graduated into my perfect profession. Now I design things and find ways to get them built. I guess you could say my writing fell right into line with my ambition. After all, you have to build a world, design your characters, fabricate a plot that works and satisfy the customer.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Only one thing left to say: If you can dream it, you can do it! Dreamers, Dream; Writers, Write. Sometimes the two become one. I’ve been a lucky man to see all my dreams come true.

Thanks, A.C. You're quite an inspiration with all your writing successes!

Live chat/interview with author A.C. Croom

The Writer's Chatroom presents historical, western/frontier, and romantic fiction novelist A.C. Croom.

WHEN?

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Eastern USA Time.....7-9 PM

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The Writers Chatroom at: http://www.writerschatroom.com/Enter.htm

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Guest blogger - Kathryn Meyer Griffith

Today is a special treat. Novelist Kathryn Meyer Griffith is sharing the story of how her novel Vampire Blood came to be. If you've ever been curious about a writer's process, here's a chance to take a peek behind the curtain. :)

The Story of Vampire Blood
Author’s Revised Edition by Kathryn Meyer Griffith
A rerelease of my 1991 Zebra paperback romantic vampire novel out from Damnation Books on July 1, 2011.

In 1990 or so, I’d just got done releasing my first three paperback novels with Leisure Books, a romantic historical (The Heart of the Rose 1985) and two romantic horror books (Evil Stalks the Night, 1984 and Blood Forge, 1989), and because I wasn’t making much money on them, was looking, as most so-called restless young authors were doing, to move up in the publishing industry.

So I wrote snail mail letters to three established authors of the day – Dean Koontz, Stephen King, and Peter Straub – asking for a little advice and a little help. What do I do next? I want to be one of the big dogs running in the big races. I want to make the big bucks. Be famous like you. (Ha, ha. I was so naïve in those days!)

Well, Stephen King and Peter Straub never answered my letters, but one rainy fall night I got a phone call from Gerda Koontz (Dean Koontz’s wife) and she said Dean had gotten my letter and wanted me to have a name of a brand new agent who I should call or write to and say I was recommended by him. If I thought it strange that Dean Koontz himself wasn’t actually talking to me I was told by Gerda that he was a shy man and had had a particularly hard couple of months because of family problems (I think it had something to do with his father in a nursing home or something, but can’t exactly recall now) and he’d asked her to call me. She often did that for him, as well as helping him with the business side of his writing career. He (through her…and I got the impression that he was actually nearby telling her what to say the whole time) said I had to have an agent (I didn’t have one) and then he gave me the name of an ambitious one, Lori Perkins, just starting out and his advice on what I should do to advance as a writer.

I do remember being incredibly touched that he, a famous busy novelist that I admired – I loved his Twilight Eyes – would take the time to talk to me, even through his wife. They were both so sweet and we talked for nearly an hour all about writing, books, and everything.

I took their advice and contacted that agent and she agreed immediately to represent me on my fourth book, Vampire Blood, no doubt, because I said Dean Koontz had recommended her to me. Name dropper! But Vampire Blood was the reason I’d contacted those famous authors in the first place. I thought it was the best book I’d done so far and wanted it to go to (what I thought at the time) would be a better publisher than Leisure Books, which contracted and hog-tied their writers with a horrible 'potboiler' one-size-fits-all ten year contract with low advances and 4% royalties. Yes, I got a whole whopping 14 cents a book in those days, but, I must confess, they did print thousands of paperbacks each run and had a huge distribution area. I thought I could do a lot better. Anyway, Lori Perkins wanted me to send her the book and she did like it and eventually sold it, and then three others zip-zip-zip right after, to Zebra Books (now known more as Kensington Publishing) at 6% royalties and double the advances I was used to getting. They slapped a sexy blonde vampire with a low dress on the cover and a hazy theater behind her. Lovely colors. I thought it was an eye-catching cover. I was so happy. I thought I’d made it! Again, so naïve.

Vampire Blood. A little story about a family of vicious killing vampires who settle in a small Florida town called Summer Haven and end up buying and fixing up an old theater palace to run and pluck their victims from, and a divorced, down-on-her-luck ex-novelist and her hard luck father, who along with friends, help thwart them.

Now to how and why I wrote it.

My husband and I lived in this small Illinois town, Cahokia, at the time and there was the neatest little hole-in-the-wall theater in a nearby shopping center we used to go to all the time…run by a family of a sweet man, Terry, and his wife, Ann, and sometimes their three children, two teenage boys and a girl named Irene. Such a friendly, but odd couple. The run-down theater was their whole world it seemed. The kids helped take in the tickets, pop the popcorn, and sell the candy snacks.

Now, the minute Terry and Ann found out, in one of our earliest conversations, that I was a published novelist they were my greatest fans. Terry went right out and bought all three of my books and they all read them. Terry always thought they’d make great movies. Next time my husband and I went to the little theater, Terry and Ann greeted us like old friends, so delighted to see us, and refused to take a dime from us for anything. We got in free whenever we went from then on. Now, in those days my husband, my son, James, and I were pretty broke. I worked as a graphic designer at a big brokerage firm in downtown St. Louis (across the Poplar Bridge from our Illinois town) but my husband was in between jobs. We lived on a shoestring. Hard times. So I always was so tickled that we could get into the local movies for free. We went a lot, too, as we loved movies, especially science fiction and horror films.

One night, I was watching Terry and Ann and their joy in running that little theater, with the kids bustling around doing their jobs, and I got the idea for Vampire Blood. Just like that! Use them and the theater as a backdrop for a vampire novel. Hey, wouldn’t it be neat, I off-handedly mentioned to Terry one night, if I wrote a book about a family of vampires that was trying to pass as a real human family, the man and woman wanting so badly to fit in and lead a normal life for a while, renovating and then running a theater together…but the kids are wild and, as kids always do, make trouble for them in the town…killing people? Terry loved the idea and I asked him if it’d be all right to use him and his family as a template for the vampires. He was thrilled to be part of anything to do with my books and said yes. So…I wrote this book about them (sort of), the theater (making it much grander than it was, of course), a small town terrorized by cruel, powerful vampires who can change into wolves at will...and a saddened lonely woman, her brother, and her ex-husband (who she still loves and ultimately ends up with again after he saves her life) who finds herself again, but loses a lot, as well, fighting these vampires. Vampires she doesn’t believe in at first.

I was very happy with the book when it was done and dedicated it to Terry and Ann when it came out in 1991. Terry and Ann were thrilled, too.

So Vampire Blood came out and did very well for me, second only to my Zebra 1993 Witches. As the years went by it went out of print and when, twenty years later, Kim Richards at Damnation Books contracted my 13th and 14th novels, BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons and The Woman in Crimson, she asked if I’d like to rerelease (with new covers and rewritten, of course) my 7 out-of-print Leisure and Zebra paperbacks – and I said a resounding yes!

So…here it is…Vampire Blood…twenty years later, alive again and better, I believe, than the original because my writing then was done on an electric typewriter, with gobs of White-Out and carbon paper (I couldn’t afford copies), using snail mail; all of which didn’t lend itself to much rewriting. And in those days, editors told an author what to change and then the writer only saw the manuscript once to final proof it. Who knew what those sneaky editors were slipping in inbetween and before the final book was in an author’s greedy little hands. Hey, and I was working full time, raising a son, living a life and caring for my big extended family in one way or another, too. Busy, exciting, loving, happy and sad times.

For this new version, Damnation Book’s cover artist Dawné Dominique made me an astonishingly intriguing cover of a lovely vampire (Irene the youngest vampire who turns out to be the most brutal and ancient in the end)…but, thank goodness, without the low sexy top. And my DB editor, April Duncan, helped me make it a better novel.

A lot has happened to me and my family in these twenty years, as well. Both my parents, and my beloved maternal grandmother, the storyteller of her generation, have since passed away. Many people we used to know have. Old boyfriends, old friends and relatives. I miss them all! I no longer have that agent; she went on to bigger advances and bigger writers. I lost my good job at the brokerage firm, bumped around in lesser jobs for years, always writing in my spare time, and now, at long last, write full time while my husband works way too hard in a machine shop to support us.

Rewriting the book brought back so many good memories…and tears over those no longer here. The theater closed sixteen years ago, the owner believing it’d served its purpose and used up its time. Terry and Ann, heartbroken, were never the same. They had other jobs, none they truly cared about. Ann is still with us, but Terry died a few years ago, I heard from someone. We lost contact once they stopped running the theater and we moved from Cahokia to a nicer town miles away.

But I’ll never forget those early days and the stories that came with them. Days of high hopes and far distance future dreams…some of which have come true and some which haven’t. I’ve never made the big bucks, never gotten truly famous, but now, at long last and to my great delight, all twelve of my older books, from Leisure, Zebra, and The Wild Rose Press are being rewritten and reissued from Damnation Books and Eternal Press between June 2010 and July 2012. Better than ever after I’d rewritten them. I have plans to write more books and short stories, too, when they’re done. Most importantly, I’m living a good life with a husband I adore and brothers and sisters I love. Writing the stories I was born to write and happy I am. I have my memories. All in all, I’m a lucky, lucky woman.

So, all you writers out there…never give up and never stop writing!

Thank you!

***

Kathryn Meyer Griffith has been writing for nearly forty years and has published 14 novels and 7 short stories since 1984 with Zebra Books, Leisure Books, Avalon Books, The Wild Rose Press, Damnation Books and Eternal Press in the horror, romantic paranormal, suspense and murder mystery genres… and all 12 of her old books, see below, (and two new ones) are being brought out again between June 2010 and July 2012 from DAMNATION BOOKS www.damnationbooks.com and ETERNAL PRESS www.eternalpress.biz again in print – and all in e-books for the first time ever! Learn more about her at www.myspace.com/kathrynmeyergriffith or www.bebo.com/kathrynmeyergriffith or www.authorsden.com/kathrynmeyergriffith or www.bebo.com/kathrynmeyergriffith and http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1019954486 .

***

List of published novels and short stories:
Evil Stalks the Night (Leisure,1984; Damnation Books, July 2012)
The Heart of the Rose (Leisure,1985)
Blood Forge (Leisure,1989; Damnation Books, February 2012)
Vampire Blood (Zebra, 1991; Damnation Books, July 2011)
The Last Vampire (Zebra, 1992; Damnation Books, October 2010)
Witches (Zebra, 1993; Damnation Books, April 2011)
The Nameless One (short story in 1993 Zebra Anthology Dark Seductions;
Damnation Books, February 2011)
The Calling (Zebra, 1994; Damnation Books, October 2011)
Scraps of Paper (Avalon Books Murder Mystery, 2003)
All Things Slip Away (Avalon Books Murder Mystery, 2006)
Egyptian Heart (The Wild Rose Press, 2007 / out again from Eternal Press in August 2011)
Winter's Journey (The Wild Rose Press, 2008 / out again from Eternal Press in September 2011)
The Ice Bridge (The Wild Rose Press, 2008 / out again from Eternal Press in November 2011)
"Don't Look Back" (2008 / out again from Eternal Press in 2011)
"In This House" (2008 / out again from Eternal Press in 2011)
BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons (2010)
The Woman in Crimson (2010

Interview with fantasy author Teel James Glenn

Reviews and Interviews is happy to welcome fantasy writer Teel James Glenn today.

Welcome, Teel. Please tell us a bit about yourself.
As a writer, I have over two score novels currently on the market including the SF thrillers 'The Exceptionals' series for Whiskey Creek Press, one of which was a best seller and one an EPIC finalist. One book in my sword and fantasy Altiva series, Sister Warrior was named one of the hundred best fantasy novels of all time by Fantsybookreview.uk.

I have had short stories published in Mad, Black Belt, Fantasy Tales, Pulp Empire, Sixgun Western, Fantasy World Geographic, Silver Blade Quarterly, Another Realm, AfterburnSF, Blazing Adventures, Fantasy World Geographic, and scores of other publications.

On stage, I’ve performed at 53 Renaissance Faires and on screen I have been in many genre films and TV series including Citizen Toxie (as fight choreographer and Toxie’s double), Spenser for Hire, Lord of the Strings, and all the New York soap operas, but am known most widely as Vega in the world wide web series “Street Fighter: the later years.” Needless to say, all my sword swinging on stage and screen go into my written work.

Please tell us about your current book, Wake of the Red Mistress.
The book is a fantasy tale of thwarted love and piratical lust, blood and treasure! Sister Shinara of the Yulinites is on a ship that is attacked by the notorious pirate Aurzia - the Red Mistress. When the pirate’s men are going to kill Shinara and the five novices in her care the sister makes a deal with the pirate queen to lead her to a ‘great treasure’ in a distance monastery.

Meanwhile, near that monastery, young monk Zak has been having an affair with a noblewoman but he feels guilt for the affair (and has memories of Shinara) and keeps trying to resist his desires for the older woman.

The Red Mistress leads her brigands on a cross-country trek to loot the monastery with Shinara and the sisters in tow.

When these characters come together and how they interact is the tale.

What inspired you to write this book?
I had written two stories before My Seven Kingdoms World (a novel “The Traveler’s Tale” and a short “The Jester’s Touch”) but wanted to explore other parts of society. And I wanted to write something that dealt with life on a number of different levels; lustful, unrequited, religiously motivated and platonic — all in the same story. I’m very happy with the result – it is one of the more unusual and unpredictable stories I’ve written.

What exciting story are you working on next?
I am working on the next of my Dr. Shadows series. He’s an adventurer in the 1930s who investigates unusual crimes and fights against the Japanese Imperial ambitions. His stories take place in America and China and are written with an attempt to create a character/series that might have been on the newsstands then, with no nod to the modern point of view. It takes a lot of research but its very rewarding.

The first collection “Shadows of New York” is out from Booksforabuck.com.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I’ve always written and I sold articles to major magazines while still in college, but it was just a ‘side thing’ to my performing career. It wasn’t until I was sidelined by an ailment in 2004 that I pulled an old novel out of my ‘trunk’ and sent it out into the brave new world of cyber publishing. The day I got the phonecall from the acquisitions editor was the day I new that I was a writer!

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
When people ask me what my day job is I tell them writer, but I still teach sword one day a week and have the ‘odd’ show or film to choreograph fights for. It has reached the point where I resent the ‘intrusion’ of the other work into my writing time - which is how I know I’m really a writer!

My best work day involves rolling out of bed directly to the computer (about five feet away) and writing for 16 hours without leaving my 'work station.' And when I’m lucky I can get two or three of those days in a row. Heaven!

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I hate to write in silence so I have the TV running from the second I wake up — I love the history channel and the military channel — get lots of good ideas/facts as a bonus.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Oddly enough, I always dreamed of writing and drawing comic book characters and then playing them in film. Skip ahead 40 years and I drew comic professionally, I write characters, and have even played some characters I have created on film. Pretty cool.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Just that you can never be sure what is coming so never give up — any dream can be achieved with enough time, work and a little luck. I’ve been blessed to live many of my dreams so just keep dreaming!

Thanks for being here today, Teel. You're quite a busy guy!

Live chat/interview with Kim Richards 10/3/10

The Writer's Chatroom presents Kim Richards.

WHEN?

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Eastern USA Time.....7-9 PM

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WHERE?

The Writers Chatroom at: http://www.writerschatroom.com/Enter.htm

Scroll down to the Java box. It may take a moment to load. Type in the name you wish to be known by, and click Login. No password needed.

Please note: The chatroom is only open for regularly scheduled chats.

Interview with paranormal author Heather Kuehl

Heather, welcome to Reviews and Interviews!

Please tell us about your current release.
Malevolent Dead is the sequel to Fade to Black and the second book in the Sarah Vargas series. It was released by Eternal Press yesterday. Malevolent picks up six months after the end of Fade.

Synopsis: To save everyone, she'll have to do the unthinkable. Werewolf Sarah Vargas thought all she had to worry about was the Blood Moon Corporation's retaliation. She never dreamed that another vampire would arrive, disputing Damian's claim over the throne to Charleston, SC. To make matters worse, he is no ordinary vamp; he's a vampire necromancer. Exceptionally hard to kill, Sarah will have do what ever she can to keep those that she loves safe... Even if it means doing the unthinkable.

What inspired you to write this book?
Writing Fade to Black was the inspiration for the events in Malevolent Dead. I knew that Sarah’s story wasn’t finished and I wanted to know more about her and the world she lived in, so I sat down and got to work.

What exciting story are you working on next?
I’m currently writing the sequel to Malevolent Dead, entitled Blood Moon. It will be the third, and possibly final, book in the Sarah Vargas Series. I won’t say it’s the last because I am sure I will write about Sarah again. She’s just so interesting! I am also working on a book about my favorite witch T.D. Drake. She has a small role in both Promises to Keep (a fantasy title that was released by Eternal Press in March 2010) and Malevolent Dead.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
After Fade to Black was accepted for publication. I had published almost forty short stories by then, but to me a writer was someone who had books published. Now that I have three books published, I feel that I can say with pride that I am a writer.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I wish I did! I am a stay-at-home mom for a beautiful little boy and a wife to a wonderful man. I struggle to find the time to get anything written, since I’m usually playing catch-up with the chores while the kiddo is taking a nap. But somehow I manage it.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
Whenever I’m working on a book, I keep all of my notes, rough drafts, and final draft in a 4-inch binder. If I get the book contracted with a publisher I also keep a copy of the contract in that binder as well. I like to be able to look back and see my writing process and how it’s changed.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I used to want to be a whale trainer at Sea World or a zookeeper, but the dream that has lasted the longest is wanting to be a published author. I knew back in sixth grade that one day I wanted to see my title on the shelf in a bookstore and every day I get closer to that goal.

Anything additional you'd like to share with the readers?
I’d like to share my contact information as well as an excerpt from my latest release, Malevolent Dead. You can visit me online at www.heatherkuehl.com, www.heatherkuehl.blogspot.com or follow me on Facebook or Twitter. Interested in my books? All three of my books are published with Eternal Press, which is where readers can buy the eBook edition if they so choose. However, if readers prefer print, please visit Amazon.com.




Excerpt from Chapter One:
(NOTE: This excerpt may contain spoilers for Fade to Black.)

From the outside, Malevolent Dead didn’t look like much. There wasn’t even a sign out front, just tinted windows and a heavy bass pounding from the inside. Humans who came here to dance slowly left as I walked through the coffin encased foyer and upstairs. I heard them grumbling about it closing early. I didn’t blame them. Most nights, Malevolent Dead stayed open until 5am.

I crossed the dance floor and opened the door marked, “Employees Only.” Everyone in the room looked up as I entered.

Damian leaned against the wall, his arms crossed over his bare chest. He wore a pair of dark-washed jeans tucked into black leather boots. A Celtic knot necklace hung around his neck. When his eyes caught sight of me, he smiled and held out a hand.

“Phaedra, my love. Look who’s come to visit us.”

Phaedra?

I was careful not to let my confusion show as I took his hand. He guided me into his arms. I looked up into his plum colored eyes, waiting for some kind of explanation.
He said nothing. Instead Damian turned me to face his guests. A man sat on the couch across from us, backed by five Necrovamps. Icky, disgusting Necrovamps. They were the product of a vampire transformation gone wrong. Their bodies slowly rotted, exposing muscle and bone. Gore leaked from them, creating a kind of snail trail on the ground behind them. The worst part of all were their fangs. Super long, the Necrovamps couldn’t even close their mouths because of them. They were mindless killers and took orders from only one type of creature.

A necromancer.

“Marcellus, you remember my wife.”

The man in the chair nodded. “Of course. How could I forget such beauty? But as I heard it, she died.”

Damian laughed. “Does she look dead to you?”

Marcellus shook his head. “Not at all. How is it that she’s still alive?”

“I changed her.”

Marcellus laughed. “I can hear her heart beat, old friend. I’d say she’s human, but she reeks of Were.”

I huffed. There was something important about Marcellus thinking that Damian’s wife still lived. I decided to just go with it and hoped to God that Damian explained it to me later. “Shows what little you know, Marcellus.” I turned to Damian. “How much longer will you be, baby? I’m ready to go home and the bed is so cold without you.”

I stood on tiptoe to place a light kiss on his lips. Damian smiled as he rubbed noses with me, his hand sliding down to cup my ass.

“Not much, my pet. Marcellus was just about to tell me the reason for his visit.”

Marcellus grinned. “I know you killed the Skyner twins, Damian. Only a fool would believe the lies floating around. Only a fool would believe that two Weres from that dreadful corporation did the deed. You know that it’s against our laws to kill another vampire. I’m here for that reason.”

Our laws? I took a deep breath through my nose and finally picked up the scent I hadn’t noticed earlier; vampire. Marcellus wasn’t only a necromancer, but he was a vampire to boot. This didn’t bode well.

Damien’s voice turned to ice. “Excuse me?”

Marcellus stood and slowly walked over to us. “Since you murdered the twins, I’ve been sent here to be the new lord of Charleston. Your position is forfeit.” He drew a sword out of a sheath on his back. “As is your life.”

Damian laughed. I felt his power flowing out, wrapping itself around Marcellus. Damian’s hand cupping my ass moved up and unholstered my Walther P22. He held the gun up, aiming at Marcellus’s face. The gun wasn’t loaded with wooden rounds, but the shot would still hurt Marcellus. It would slow him down enough for Damian to get the upper hand.

“You are no longer welcome here, old friend. Leave and take your rotting scum with you.”

Marcellus hissed as he backed away. I narrowed my eyes as they left, realizing something important. Marcellus had no intention of killing Damian today. He wanted to draw it out. After all, it wasn’t every day that a vampire was allowed to kill one of their own.

Damian sagged against the wall once they left, dropping my gun onto the polished marble floor. “Dammit,” he growled as he raked a hand through his ebony hair.

I sat in the chair Marcellus had just vacated, waiting for Damian to collect himself. “What the hell?” I asked when he finally did. I didn’t need to go further than that. Damian could read my mind like a book. He knew everything I felt curious about. Damian shook his head.

“Not here. I don’t trust it.” He stood up and walked over to a large black door that led away from the club. I stood and followed him, hoping he wasn’t going to keep me in the dark about all of this. I mean, he was the one that dragged me into this.

“I’m not,” Damian said. “We’re going to my study to speak about this.”

Damian’s study was a small room with a bookcase and desk tucked in the corner. A large decorative curtain hung on the wall, and I assumed it covered a window.

The moment we entered Damian’s study I tore into him. “What’s going on? I thought you were safe? Why is Marcellus after you? How can he be both a necromancer and a vampire? And who the hell is Phaedra? And why did he think I was her?”

Damian sighed. “I hope this will answer your last question.” Damian walked over to the far left wall and pulled the decorative curtain aside.

Heather, thank you so much for stopping by today. Best wishes with all your writing endeavors!