Trendy

If you’ll glance to your right, you’ll notice I’ve added the cover for Slayer for Hire to our list of books. This is my spinoff from Belonging and Legacy; one of the leads is the son of the Legacy threesome. It’s also YA and has no sex scenes. It’s perfectly safe for anyone 14 or older. Oh yeah, there are vampires, and a couple of people get attacked and killed. But nobody has on-screen sex. That’s far more important to a lot of people, including my library’s content filter. Go figure.

# # #

I didn’t write Slayer because YA was really big at the time. Ditto for the inclusion of vampires. It was a story I wanted to write, and nagged at me until I committed it to paper/screen. That’s pretty much how all my books and stories come into being. Some idea gets into my head and keeps kicking my brain and demanding, “Write me write me write me.” So I do. If the nagging lasts long enough for me to get it finished, off to market it goes. If not, it goes into the closet for exhumation at a later date. If it stays in the closet, the idea probably wasn’t that important to me to begin with.

I don’t write to trends. I’m not even aware of trends. I can’t see them coming, and every time I jump I miss the bandwagon. I’m like Hollywood. By the time I notice a trend, it’s over. I write whichever idea hits, and it takes me forever to finish it. Sometimes I get lucky and one of my ideas turns into a trend by the time I finish the book. Then the book comes out just in time to hit the wave. It makes me look smarter than I am.

For instance, I discovered I like writing M/M just as it was getting big. Some publisher put out an open call for angel and/or demon stories. So I wrote about an angel and a demon, both male, who discovered they really, really liked each other. It wasn’t intentional. My mind just happened to skew in that direction. It didn’t sell to that publisher but did to another, and all of a sudden I was trendy.

I didn’t switch from SF/fantasy to romance because romance was big. I just felt like writing romance for a while. I may switch back, especially if that horror/fantasy I exhumed from the closet sells. Or I may switch over to straight horror. Stephen King doesn’t write the kind of stories that made him famous any more. Somebody should step in to fill the void. Maybe I can start a new horror trend, just like he did when he started publishing.

Because that’s the secret to trends. You don’t want to follow one, or try to anticipate or guess what it’s going to be. You want to start the trend. Let everybody else follow you.

Everybody’s always looking for the “next big thing.” What’s going to be hugely profitable six months to a year from now? Lots of money and people’s careers hinge on guessing right. Editors and agents put out lists of what they’re looking for, things they want to see. Writers pour over these lists and write what they think the market wants.

Until one writer (name not given, so I can’t properly credit him/her) put everything into perspective with a single Tweet: “Remember, nobody was looking for Harry Potter.”

So how did J. K. Rowling become a megaseller and kick off a massive feeding frenzy for middle grade/young adult fantasy? By writing the book she wanted to write, and doing a damn good job of it. Readers responded to her belief in her story and characters, and the rest is publishing history.

Ditto for Stephenie Meyer and Suzanne Collins. I doubt if publishers were looking for teenage vampire romances or YA dystopias until Twilight and The Hunger Games crossed their desks. Now the market’s saturated and you can’t give the damn things away. On to the next trend.

Which will be … what? Hell, I don’t know. Your guess is as good as mine. I can tell you how it’ll start, though. Some writer will write the book that’s pounding in their brain. They’ll eat, sleep, and breathe their characters’ lives and world. It may share tropes in common with countless previous books, but be told in a way that makes it new and unique. It will have that something, that magic, in the writing that speaks to the heart of the reader, and readers will respond. The publishing world will look at some surface aspect—“Oh, it has oppressive governments/magic/vampires/spaceships/lesbian tarantula wranglers”—and declare that the Next Big Thing. And so begins the trend.

Who knows? One of you may write that book. You may be writing it right now. I can pretty much guarantee it’s not like anything that’s currently on the market. It’s the book you have to write, even though it isn’t part of a trend and nobody says they’re looking for it. That’s because they haven’t seen it yet.

So why are you sitting there reading blogs on the Internet? Get back to kicking off the latest Big Thing in Publishing so the rest of us can ride on your coattails. But hands off the lesbian tarantula wranglers. I’ve got dibs.

The Book I Won't Be Writing

I didn’t mean to write a series. Belonging was supposed to be a stand-alone. However, my sequelitis kicked in, and before you know it, there was Legacy. That book sparked my spin-off, the upcoming Slayer for Hire, involving my threesome’s children. Preacher’s book is sitting in limbo right now, waiting for the plot to gel, and I’ve got an idea involving Wallace’s daughter Dina, who co-stars in Slayer for Hire.

I suppose these two books will get written eventually. I love the characters, and the ideas just keep coming. I can’t let go of them yet. I want to keep it going. As long as I keep coming up with plots and publishers keep showing interest, I suppose I can squeeze another couple stories out of these people.

But there’s one story I don’t think I could write, even though I recently figured out a way to give it an HEA. That’s the wrap-up, the grand finale. For lack of a better word, the end.

There’s a huge elephant in this family’s room, one they (and I) have been trying not to deal with. There’s Wallace the vampire, his human lover Jeremy, their half-vampire lover Colleen, and the kids. So far, so good. Here’s the problem: everybody except Wallace is mortal, or partially mortal. Nobody wants to be turned. They’re content with their mortality and everything it means.

What it means is, Wallace’s family—his partners, his children, everyone he loves—will eventually grow old and die. Sooner or later, inevitably, even the kids will be gone, and immortal Wallace will have to go on without them. The only ending I could imagine involved Wallace walking into the sunlight. That’s something I, as these people’s “mother,” just don’t want to face.

Luckily for me, though not necessarily for one of the other characters, my subconscious couldn’t take it either and came up with a workable solution. It involves someone we haven’t seen for awhile: Shayla, the adopted daughter of Gus and Annie Stanton.

Don’t get your squick in an uproar. Shayla’s not the five-year-old we last saw in Legacy. At least 25 years have passed since then (Jeremy’s son Matt is 22 in Slayer, and he has two older siblings). She’s had a full life in the interim, with relationships and jobs and possibly a failed marriage that didn’t produce any children (the reason why it failed?). She comes back to California to reconnect with her family, and walks right into peril.

At one point in the long-lost past, Gus and Annie were slayers. A vampire from that era returns to exact his revenge. However, since vampires don’t age, they don’t always have a firm grasp on the passage of time. This one finally gets his vengeful ass in gear 50 years too late. Natural causes have already done the job for him. Well, the vamp decides, if he can’t kill the slayers, he’ll replace the flock they staked, his family, with their family. He targets the Stantons’ children and grandchildren, starting with Shayla.

Wallace’s retaliation comes too late. The vampire’s already turned her.

Now Shayla’s joined the undead. There’s no cure. All Wallace and his family can do is take her in, and teach her how to be a vampire. Over the course of the following weeks, as Wallace and Shayla share vampire hunting and blood on the nighttime streets of Los Angeles, the inevitable happens.

It’s not as icky as it sounds. Like I said, this Shayla is a grown woman. She’s roughly the same age Wallace was when he got turned. She knows about her parents’ former vocation. She’s known for years Wallace is a vampire (his failure to age was a dead giveaway). She knows he’s the one who saved her from vampires when she was a child. She even had a crush on him in her teens, though nothing ever came of it. She grew up, left California, had a life, and came back. Now she’s undead and falling in love with a man she’s always admired. Wallace has always been fond of her too, and that fondness quickly grows.

So the threesome becomes a foursome, at least emotionally. (Adult or not, no way Jeremy’s sleeping with someone he remembers as the little girl he used to sing to sleep.) Colleen and Jeremy are good with it, even relieved. Now they can grow old together without guilt, knowing Wallace will have someone to look after him when their time finally comes. The new couple might even find a pretty young man they can share, and start the flock over again.

That’s my happy ending, but I don’t think I can write it. It’s enough for me to know I’m leaving Wallace and his family in a good place. There’s also the time factor to think about. I was able to fudge it with Slayer because it’s a different genre appearing under another publisher. There’s a 25-year gap between Legacy and Slayer, yet both appear to take place in the current now. Somebody’s bound to notice. Either that, or Matt and his siblings were born and matured within the space of a couple years. I know they did that in the final Twilight book, but I try to stay away from Twilight plots.

Maybe I can write the book, stick it in the closet for 10 to 15 years, then shop it around and hope the new generation of readers isn’t swift on math. Or just direct the curious to this blog. That’ll reassure any concerned readers, and save me a lot of time. Life goes on, even for vampires, especially when their creators are willing to twist time, space and logic to guarantee they get their HEA. I wish real life could be manipulated that easily. I’d be a whole lot richer and a whole lot thinner. Wouldn’t we all?

My Favorite Vampire

Thanks to Hurricane Sandy’s multi-day trip through the Northeast, I was able to spend half a week indoors typing up my longhand young adult manuscript (see blogs from September 6 and October 11). It looks like it’s going to come out to around 60,000 words, more or less, depending on how much I cut and how much I add in the final draft. I thought it would top out in the 45K range, so the length was a bit of a surprise.

I’m surprised I’m still writing about vampires. I thought my writing career would consist of lots of werewolf and shapeshifter sex. I’ve always been a dog person, so liking werewolves comes naturally. The vampire storyline kind of snuck up on me and bit me, and now I’m stuck chronicling this particular flock’s adventures.

I do have a favorite vampire. It’s not Count Chocula. I put him in for the humor. I do like chocolate, though. Maybe if he brought me chocolates I’d go out with him. We could go to Hersheypark. How do you stake this guy? With a swizzle stick from your hot chocolate? I’m not sure how it works with cartoons.

It’s not Edward Cullin. I read Twilight just to see what all the fuss was about. I can see why 14-year-old girls are enamored of him. I haven’t been 14 in quite a while, so I wasn’t impressed. He’s a bit of a wuss. I’ve only seen snatches of the

movies on TV, and then I tend to get distracted by Taylor Lautner’s chest. In fact, screw Edward. Here’s Jacob. Told you I prefer werewolves.

It’s not Louis and Lestat. Louis is whiny and angsty and Lestat is a twit. I blame Anne Rice for all the wimpy, emo vampires we’ve been subjected to over the last twenty years. I’ll bet Louis and Edward are drinking buddies and get together regularly to bitch to each other. At least Louis isn’t dating a high schooler. He just hangs out with the five-year-old little girl vampire. This all gets ickier the longer I think about it. Technically, I suppose all vampires are pedophiles. Given their ages, it’s not like they have a choice. As George Burns once said, “I’d date women my age, but there are no women my age.”

It’s not Barnabas Collins, though I do have a fondness for him. I was one of those kids who ran home from school to watch the original Dark Shadows. Barnabas was my first encounter with a sympathetic vampire character. However, I wasn’t watching the show for him. I was watching for Quentin Collins, the uber-sexy werewolf. Dog person, remember?

It’s not Batman. Batman’s not a vampire. Batman is my choice for “superhero I’d most want watching my back if I ever got into a jam.” I can’t picture Edward, Louis or Lestat earning the respect of the entire Justice League while having no superpowers. Take that, creatures of the night.

It’s not even Wallace, my own vampire creation, even though in my mind he looks like

Jensen Ackles. Maybe that’s because I’m a Sam girl. Wonder if Jared Padalecki ever played a werewolf?

So who’s my favorite vampire? Is there any doubt?

SPIKE!!!!

This is what vampires are supposed to be. Bloodsucking bad boys in leather and bleached hair with an accent to melt your knees. What the hell was Buffy doing with that wussified Angel when she could have had this? Spike could mop the floor with all those other posers combined and take you out for a drink afterwards. You might be the drink, but who cares?

Closing the gap to second place: Damon Salvatore, Spike’s dark brother from another mother. He’s making vampires fun again. Gotta love those intense eyes. They make up for the lack of accent. I can easily picture Spike and Damon arm-wrestling in a bar over who gets to bang and then suck on the waitress. I need to check out the fan fiction sites. Somebody’s sure to have written that. Some series demand a crossover.

Once the YA’s done and out of the house, I’m going back to shapeshifters for a while. At the moment the frontrunner stars a mountain lion who looks like Brendan Fraser. My Favorite Mummy? I don’t think so …

Legacy in Print!

It’s here! My first-ever ménage and sequel to Belonging is now available in print at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. It’s got mystery, action, excitement, two guys making out and a woman joining in, and one of the guys is a vampire. I always try to give my readers their money’s worth.

I realize Kindle and its kin are the wave of the future, but I really, really, really like print. There’s just something immensely satisfying about holding your novel in your hand and seeing your name printed on the cover. It’s so permanent.

In brief: Colleen Brenner is being stalked by vampires. Wallace and Jeremy, the vampire/human couple from Belonging, offer to help her out. Through the twists and turns of the story she falls in love with them both. Who wouldn’t? I liked these guys so much I had to write another book about them. I love this job.

Serena, if you’re here, I haven’t forgotten about Preacher’s story. I’ll get to it eventually, I swear. Right now, though, something from Legacy’s last chapter sparked another idea, and I’m currently fiddling with that. If anything comes of it, you’ll hear about it here.

Legacy is available in print here: www.amazon.com/Legacy-Sequel-Belonging-Publishing-Menage/dp/1622411390/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_2e and here: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-legacy-jere-cunningham/1001059507?ean=9781622411399&itm=1&usri=pat+cunningham

You can also get Belonging in print from Amazon and B&N. If you prefer to live in the 21st century, both are available as e-books from Amazon, B&N, and at www.bookstrand.com/pat-cunningham

EXCERPT

“Oh. Oh God.” Jeremy clutched at Wallace’s arms to maintain his balance. He glanced at the clock on the wall and swore afresh. “Gus will be here any minute, and I don’t even have dinner started.”

“Gus will run late like he always does, and you know he’s not staying for dinner. I’ll bet you’ve got time for a shower.” He slapped Jeremy’s naked ass. “Go on, go make yourself pretty. We’ll hold down the fort.”

“You’re monsters. Both of you.”

“Just the way you want us, you bat-loving slut. We’re always happy to oblige. Right, sweetheart?”

Colleen wiped her mouth to buy time. “I’ll make dinner. I was planning to anyway.”

“You heard the lady. Go get yourself cleaned up.” Wallace smacked a wet kiss on Jeremy’s cheek. “Better hurry, before we muss you up again.”

“I hate you both,” Jeremy said, though with a sated smile that proclaimed just the opposite. He paused to brush Colleen’s tousled hair away from her face before he tugged his briefs and slacks back up over his hips. He stumbled from the kitchen without bothering to zip up. At the doorway he paused. “Nobody touches anything until you wash your hands.”

“Yes, Mom,” Wallace said. Jeremy made a face at him and headed for the stairs.

“I should clean up, too.” Colleen started to scramble off the floor. Wallace caught her arms and lifted her easily and set her on her feet. “Thanks,” she said, with a little too much heartiness. “I left groceries by the front door. I hope you guys like Swedish meatballs.”

“I’ll tell you what I like.”

His mouth attacked hers like a predator. Colleen stiffened involuntarily, instinctively. Wallace didn’t seem to care. He took his time, fully exploring her mouth, all the places Jeremy’s dick had been only minutes ago. He withdrew at last with a half growl, half chuckle.

“You and Scarecrow,” he rumbled. “Two great tastes that taste great together.”

Taste. She had the taste of Jeremy’s blood on her tongue now, stolen from Wallace’s mouth. “I saw what you did,” she said. “You made him drink your blood.”

“I can’t make him do anything. You should know that by now. He only took a gulp or two, same as I did. We do it all the time.”

“You’re turning him into a vampire.”

“No way. I’d have to drain him for that to happen. A sip every now and then won’t hurt him, and he knows it.” He leered at her wickedly. “In fact, it gets him horny. Want to go surprise him in the shower?”

“Don’t you ever quit?”

“Never. When you quit, you die. I’ve been fighting dead for way too long.” He pulled her more tightly against him. His lips teased a line down her cheek to her neck. He made no attempt to bite down. His hand crept under her blouse and found her nipple through the thin barrier of her bra. Colleen gasped and pressed into his caress.

“This is why I keep going back to chicks,” he murmured. “Dicks are a blast, but sometimes I just miss tits.”

“You’re so deep.”

“Don’t get all self-righteous with me, sweetheart. You’re not any different.” He scraped his teeth along her throat while his hand continued to torment her breast.

Colleen knew she ought to be terrified. She’d just seen him bite and drink from Jeremy. Right now, though, terror of him was the furthest thing from her mind. She made no effort to escape, even when he released her breast and transferred his hand to her thigh. His palm slid brazenly inward and upward, stopping just short of the spot that ached the most for his touch.
She tightened her legs to trap his hand. Without meaning to, she growled aloud.

Wallace answered in kind. His finger pressed against her panty-shielded slit. “I know you, sweetheart,” he rumbled against the pulse in her throat. “I’ve been in your head. There’s a predator inside you. She likes to play with fire. You’re as close to a bat as a breather can get. No wonder Scarecrow’s so hot for you.”

The reference to vampires doused the fire Wallace was playing with. She pushed at his chest. “I should get dinner started.”

He caught her arms. “Stay.”

“Gus is coming over. We need to get ready.”

“I meant when this is over. Stay with us—him. Will you stay with him?”

Taken aback by his intensity, Colleen stumbled over her answer. “You mean live here? With both of you?”

“Forget about me for a minute. Think about him. You care about him, right?”

Care sounded so inadequate when she considered her feelings. “It hardly matters, does it? He belongs to you. He loves you.”

“That’s because he’s an asshole. A stupid, stubborn, human son of a bitch.” He looked away from her to the corner where he’d tossed Jeremy’s shirt. “He’s going to die.”

Release Day!

It’s release day! Legacy officially goes on sale today. This is my fifth book with Siren/BookStrand and I’m still jumping up and down like I did with the first one. Like eating chocolate or falling in love, it’s a feeling that never gets old.

I’ve already blogged about several aspects of this one, so here’s the recap: Legacy was a happy accident. I was writing what I thought would be a standalone, Belonging, when I got an idea for a sequel. This book made me stretch my writing muscles, because I’ve never written a ménage before. I got to flex my length muscles and mystery-writing muscles while I was at it as well. A London Werewolf in America was a mystery too, but it wasn’t as long as this one. Plus I got to hang out with Wallace and Jeremy some more, and give them an extra-happy ending in addition to the first one. Given what I put them through, I suppose they had it coming.

I think this is it for the boys, though. Their little flock has been through enough. Time to settle down and raise those kids Colleen always wanted. This isn’t quite the end of this “universe,” however. I’ve got a couple other things I’m working on, but eventually there should be one more story to round out the trilogy. After all, the victims of the vampire conspiracy are still running around out there, and the Preacher isn’t the type of man to let loose ends dangle for long.

And now, the commercial portion of our blog.

Legacy
Available through www.bookstrand.com/legacy

BLURB

Colleen Brenner doesn’t believe in vampires, until she’s attacked by one. Two men come to her aid: Wallace Hamilton, a slayer, and his lover, Jeremy Teach. The pair take her into their home and under their protection. It turns out vampires have targeted not only Colleen, but all the children from the commune she grew up in. What are the monsters after?

As the three delve into Colleen’s repressed memories, she finds herself drawn to both of the men guarding her. Jeremy is human, but Wallace is a vampire himself, and Colleen’s growing attraction to him is countered by her mistrust of what he is. Then their investigation uncovers a decades-old evil tied to Colleen’s shrouded past. She herself may not be as human as she’s been led to believe. Can their newfound love survive the truth of Colleen’s inhuman legacy, or is it—and Colleen’s soul—doomed?

EXCERPT

Balancing the grocery bags, she fumbled the door open. Her psychic prickle clamped down on the greeting she’d been about to call out. Colleen sensed Wallace in the kitchen. If she strained, she could hear faint noises that had nothing to do with pre-dinner prep.

Jeremy’s kitchen, Wallace awake. Easy to add two and two.

Courtesy demanded she leave them alone. She could go upstairs, linger in the shower, and make a ton of noise coming back down. Then she caught Wallace’s growl and decided, screw courtesy. She wouldn’t deny she enjoyed watching them together. Wallace encouraged it, in fact. Freaking undead exhibitionist. With a mischievous smile lighting her face, Colleen set her grocery bags on the floor and crept to the kitchen doorway.

Two pots, a knife, and a bag of carrots lay abandoned on the counter. Colleen’s imagination set the scene—Jeremy at the counter, his back to the doorway, Wallace stalking his unsuspecting prey with his uncanny silent tread. Perhaps Jeremy had a moment of warning before his capture—a hint of scent, a whisper of lips against his neck. Or perhaps he was as attuned to the vampire’s presence as she was and always knew when his lover was near.

They’d ended up beside the kitchen table. Wallace stood behind Jeremy with his arms clasped tight around the human’s waist. His lips nuzzled Jeremy’s neck. Jeremy leaned into the embrace, his eyes shut, humming that low, throaty purr of his that always turned her on. No doubt Jeremy had loosened his shirt collar himself. His enjoyment of the vampire’s attentions made itself boldly known against the fabric of his slacks. Colleen stared at that tantalizing bulge, right up until the moment Wallace bit into Jeremy’s neck.

It wasn’t anything like the violent, melodramatic attacks depicted in vampire movies. His fangs sank into Jeremy’s flesh right over the mark on his neck in a smooth, unhurried movement that was gentle as a kiss. Perhaps this was a kiss to Wallace. His throat rippled with a single swallow before he lifted his mouth. He laved his tongue across the bite, as tender as a mother cat with her kitten. Not so much as a drop of blood escaped it. Jeremy melted against him with a whimper of pure bliss.

Colleen’s gut dropped. This was so wrong in so many ways. Yet everything about Wallace’s actions, even the bite, said love.

Too late, she remembered Wallace could hear her heartbeat.

Persistence

Over on a writer’s forum where I like to lurk, somebody started a discussion about the works of Stephen King. Specifically: which do you like better, his earlier stuff that he wrote while drunk off his ass, or his later works, after he cleaned up his act? A good question, and one which provoked a lively discussion.

For myself, I love his early stuff. We were both decades younger, when weird is appealing, and his doped-out brain came up with some totally full-on crazy stuff that dragged you in and never let go. (Think The Stand and It here.) Then he hit a low period, where he kind of lost his stride (From a Buick 8 sucked big time). He got it back with Duma Key. I like this new mature, sober King. He’s not the batshit-crazy writer he was in his 20s and 30s, but who among us is any more? I still look forward to a King book. I still buy them in hardcover and read through them in about a week or so. These days I can once again close the cover with a sigh of satisfaction, the way I did 30-odd years back.

Then somebody on the forum made a telling point. Say what you will about King’s writing prowess or lack of it, the man keeps writing. Drunk or sober, healthy or in agonizing pain, tanked up on booze or hopped up on pain pills, King has never once stopped writing during the last 40 years.

Let’s examine this. King doesn’t deny his alcoholism. He claims he was so wasted he doesn’t even remember writing Cujo. Somewhere in middle age he straightened out. Things were going fine until he got hit by a careless driver and wound up in the hospital. There followed a long period of recuperation during which he could only find relief from the pain by lying flat on his back on the floor. None of which put so much as a dent in his output. He even published books under a pseudonym (Richard Bachman) at the same time he was publishing as King.

Dig that. There were two of him, and neither one quit writing. Maybe Bachman slowed down a little. King kept plugging away.

There’s a lesson to be learned in this for all of us. Maybe it’s passion for writing, or he’s serious in his pursuit of his career, or obsessed, or compulsive, or just plain flat-out nuts. Doesn’t matter. This is what he does. This is what he is. King is a writer, and ain’t nothing on this earth gonna stop him from putting words on paper.

And you’re going to stand there and tell me you don’t have time to write? Or that you have a stomach ache, or you’re busy, or you’re blocked, or you’re tired, or you just don’t feel like it? I’ve used every one of those excuses on myself, sometimes several at once. Do I feel like a putz right now.

People claim persistence constitutes a huge percentage of success. Here’s the man who’s living proof. Talent and luck do play a part, but without the persistence to keep at it day after day, year after year, you might as well just pack it in.

No more excuses. If Stephen King can write a novel while lying on the floor in excruciating pain, then, by God, I can write a page today.

Be nice if I could also rake in the bucks he’s getting. Maybe that’ll come if I persist.

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And here’s where persistence pays off. Legacy, the book I spent a year farting around on and finally finished, comes out February 16. It’s now available for pre-order at www.bookstrand.com/legacy. Lots’a vampires, action, angst, and threeway sex. Pick up a copy and make me happy. Pick up the prequel, Belonging, as well and make me ecstatic. End of shameless plug.

Seeds

I just wrapped up a major editorial wrestling match with my latest manuscript. The story’s now 1000 words longer, with a couple scenes added to flesh out relationships and another sex scene just ‘cause. I hope I’ve plugged up all the plot holes now. I’m betting it’ll have to go through another pass before it’s ready for the readers’ eyes. That little extra polish never hurt.

A lot of the plot problems came about because this was an unexpected sequel. That’s both the excitement and the drawback to being a pantser. Nothing’s planned. I created a book that demanded I write it, then had to make sure everything jived with the previous book. It’s called continuity, and it’s a bear to deal with if you’re writing comic books or episodic television. Or, as I just found out, unexpected sequels.

One of the questions I wanted to answer when I wrote Belonging was, “If vampires are technically dead, how can they have sex?” Partway through writing that one, another question arose: “Can the undead reproduce?” I know vampire Darla managed it on Angel, but I was never a regular viewer of Angel so I don’t know how she pulled it off. I’d have to come up with my own explanation.

Let’s assume you need a living womb to produce a child. That means human mother, vampire father. I’d already established how the undead can have sex. But are the undead fertile? Can they even procreate with humans if they’re another species? Is there any way I can explain all this without contradicting the first book?

Yes, I could. In Belonging I’d established that a diet of vampire blood made a vampire different from the norm: warmer body temperature, able to eat real food, capable of having sex without a blood infusion. Supposedly it could restore fertility as well. As for the compatibility question, maybe vampire blood fed to the human mom would fix that problem too. We are what we eat, after all.

Now stir in an evil vampire who’s figured all this out, and wants to create a race of vampire/human hybrid slaves, and voila, you’ve got a sequel.

How to get my heroes involved? Back to the first book. Toward the end of Belonging Wallace the vampire rescues a little girl from a flock attack. His friends the Stantons adopt her. The kid’s gotta go to school somewhere. By putting her in a local preschool she became a perfect plot device, allowing Wallace’s boyfriend Jeremy and preschool teacher Colleen to meet and get the story rolling. I love it when an unplanned plan comes together.

But wait, there’s more. How about giving the boys an even more personal stake in the story than simply protecting the heroine? In the previous episode, we revealed Wallace became a slayer when vampires kidnapped his girlfriend and murdered their infant son. Suppose there was more to it than that? What if Wallace’s woman was taken on the evil vampire’s orders, to serve as a broodmare for his hybrid army? Wallace doesn’t find this out until they begin investigating kidnap attempts on the heroine. His whole life was changed by this incident. Now it’s come back to bite him again. Think he’s pissed? You betcha. This is why on TV shows old friends of the cop/detective hero are always getting iced. I didn’t even have to create a new character. It was all there in the first book. Damn, I’m good.

Same for the subplot involving the slayer. Years ago the Preacher killed Jeremy’s vampire family, in a cameo appearance in the first book. Wallace would want him to suffer for that, even if Jeremy doesn’t. Guess which slayer holds vital information regarding their case? What will Wallace do when he finds out?

This is how you write a sequel where no sequel was planned. You work with what you’ve got. You go through the first story looking for seeds that can be cultivated into plots and characters. Everything grows out of what’s already there. Whether it’s planned out before the first word hits paper or thrown on after the fact, it’s the end result that matters. Do it right and the reader will never know the difference.

And yes, eventually there will be a third book. Again, an idea in the second book begat another plot. Now I’ll have to go through two previous books to make sure everything matches up. There has to be an easier way to make a living.

The Promise Of Spring

Springtime always fills me with enthusiasm. My creative energies flow and new stories bubble through my mind vying for prominence. In the UK, spring can last a long time. The days lengthen with lighter evenings, and warmer weather promises summer around the corner. The energy at this time of year, when the trees are bright with pink and white blossom and lush with fresh leaves, is ripe with promise. Anything seems possible.

This is the time of year when fairies emerge from their winter retreats to catch the sun and play among the thick foliage, hidden from human eyes. (You’d better believe it!)

Spring has traditionally been celebrated as a time of birth and renewal. Many folk tales and myths celebrate entities such as the Green Man who embody rebirth, new growth, fertility, and all kinds of things that make my blood buzz with story possibilities. The spirit of nature emerging from his winter hibernation with flowing hair, lean muscles and an appetite honed by abstinence, eager to demonstrate he’s the god of fertility.

Okay, give me a moment…ahem.

Fall, or autumn as we call it in the UK, has a fascination of a different kind. The cycle of death and renewal once again dips toward the barren period of winter when nature retreats into itself and the nights draw in. Long cosy evenings before a roaring log fire, wood smoke, shadowy trysts. Death itself is endlessly intriguing and the subject of speculation through the ages. As the herald of winter, fall promises darkness and all that lives in the dark, vampires, demons, the wicked desires of the night.

I admit, there is something seductive about fall, but I’m still a spring person. Which season fires your imagination and why?

Abusing the TBR Pile: Readers' Advisory For Writers - The Vampire Edition!

It's the inaugural Abusing the TBR Pile series post! Woot! I suspect I'm probably the only person really excited about it. Which is why I'm giving away a copy of one of these books to one lucky TM reader who comments before 11:59 p.m. central time today! I'll announce the winner, who will then squee, and directly afterward e-mail his or her choice to me. If you choose an e-book, your prize will be in the form of Fictionwise micropay credits/publisher gift certificate for the amount of the book. Violating e-book copyrights is bad, m'kay?

So, what's up with the AtTBRP book lists? Back in February I posted an entry called "Books that Suck and the Readers Who Love Them." We discussed how performing peer critiques and analyzing some of the published work we read can help us improve our own writing.

I decided to use my Librarian Readers' Advisory Superpowers to make balanced lists of books for writers who are analyzing genre markets.

We'll abuse our TBR piles every month with a different genre and giveaway, as close to the 15th as we can get.

Two caveats:

These lists are by no means comprehensive. Omission or inclusion of a title makes no statement about the its quality. I will, more than likely, repeat genres as older titles go out of print and new ones get published.

AtTBRP book lists aren't just for writers! Bibliophiles of all flavors can use them to discover new authors and expand their reading.

Ready? Since we Title Magicians all write paranormal (among other things, of course!), I figured it would be appropriate to start with a paranormal subgenre. This month? It's all about vampires.





Blood Ties: The Turning by Jennifer Armintrout
Nocturne by Elizabeth Donald
Evermore by Lynn Viehl
Kiss Me Forever/Love Me Forever by Rosemary Laurey
Lord of the Night by Robin T. Popp
Tall, Dark, and Dead by Tate Halloway
Sweeter than Wine by Bianca D'Arc (E-book)
Night Rising by Chris Marie Green
Wicked Game by Jeri Smith-Ready
Lover Unbound by J.R. Ward



So, tell me. What genres are you most interested in?

*Today's list was compiled with the help of Gale Group's "What do I Read Next" database , AquaBrowser's Fiction Connection, LibraryThing, Vampire Romance Books and the book Genreflecting: a guide to popular reading interests by Diana Tixier Herald

**Edited for clarity. Never let me post pre-caffeine again.

The Power Of The Paranormal

I'm delighted to welcome Nancy Haddock as our guest blogger this Friday. Nancy writes fun vampire mysteries. La Vida Vampire, the first book in her new series, will be released on April first. Congratulations Nancy! Check out the wonderful cover.

Good Friday, Title Magic readers! I’m sooo delighted to be guest blogging with this outstanding group of American Title Contest finalists! They have The Power!

“The power of what?” you might ask.

For starters, they have the power of the paranormal in their writing. That’s right! Romance promises a brighter future, and the paranormal element in romance -- or in any genre -- brings a touch of mysticism and magic into our lives.

What is your favorite paranormal element in a book? Preternatural beings, such as vampires, faeries, or dragons?

Do you like your paranormal flavor in the form of witches or wizards? What kinds of magical abilities would you claim for your own? Throwing fireballs, making love potions, casting wealth spells?

If you love the paranormal of psychic phenomenon, would you choose to be clairvoyant, clairaudient, clairsentient?

I’ll be honest. My wildest fantasies aren’t about men. Nope, mine are about paranormal powers. I had a blast mixing and matching paranormal abilities in my upcoming release, LA VIDA VAMPIRE, but I have two favorites I didn’t give my main characters.

The first is teleportation! Yep, I want to be able to teleport – and not just to avoid the whole airport scene, or the increasingly expensive not-so-friendly-skies. I want to teleport simply so that I don’t have to pack for trips. Not only would teleporting get me where I want to go, it would let me pop home if I forgot my favorite hairbrush. Handy, huh?

My second paranormal ability – my back up if the whole teleporting thing didn’t work out – is to change clothes with a snap of my fingers. A new outfit appears, the old one goes into the ethereal cleaners, and all without setting foot in a clothing store!

Fun as it is to fantasize about paranormal powers -- and to give our characters a whole slew of them! -- the truth is that we often forget the powers that already reside within each of us. One of those is the power of choice. The American Title Contest finalists exercised their power to submit their work, and in a very public forum! This couldn’t have been easy, but they chose to seize the opportunity. They have The Power!

Next time you’re enjoying a paranormal romance, and really digging the powers the author has given the characters, remember you, too, have the power! Oh, and if you learn the secret of teleporting, give me a call. I’ve got a pot of gold with your name on it!



Nancy Haddock’s debut book, LA VIDA VAMPIRE, is a paranormal mystery romance, the first in a new series from Berkley. LA VIDA VAMPIRE will be released on April 1, 2008 in trade paperback. Nancy gives presentations on the Power of Persistence and other topics, and is currently persisting in her quest to re-learn surfing. To enter her monthly, “Where’s Cesca” contest, visit http://www.nancyhaddock.com/, and click on the Beach Party page.

STOP PRESS!

LA VIDA VAMPIRE is a RT 4 1/2 stars Top Pick for April.

Mega congratulations, Nancy. I'm thrilled for you. Helen