I'm participating in an awesome giveaway next week. It's a great way to get to sample authors you've never tried before. I'll be posting a blog and an excerpt here on Monday, with a question for you to answer for a chance at winning my prize (downloads of two of my Regency novellas) and the grand prize. I will also list the other authors in the giveaway, with links to their blog contests. (I'm listing them below, too, in case you want to plan ahead.) The more author contests you enter, the better your chance of winning the grand prize of a $50 gift card. 

 Grand Prize

$50 Gift Card

to the Book Retailer of Your Choice

24 Author Prizes

—All International—

Author Participants 

Rue

 Allyn
http://rueallynauthorblog.com
Amylynn

 Bright
http://thequillsisters.com
Collette

 Cameron
http://www.blueroseromance.com
Téa
Cooper
http://www.teacooperauthor.com
Beverley
Eikli
http://beverleyeikli.blogspot.com.au
Susana
Ellis
http://susanaellisauthor.wordpress.com
Aileen
Fish
http://aileenfish.com/blog/
Debra
Glass
http://debraglass.com/debraglass/
Amy
Hearst
http://www.amyhearst.com
Evangeline
Holland
http://edwardianpromenade.com
Piper
Huguley
http://piperhuguley.com
Eliza
Knight
http://www.historyundressed.com
Kristen
Koster
http://www.kristenkoster.com/
Cora
Lee
http://coraleeauthor.wordpress.com
Georgie
Lee
http://georgielee.blogspot.com/
Suzi
Love
http://www.suzilove.com
Denise
Lynn
http://deniselynnauthor.blogspot.com
Deborah
Macgillivray
http://deborahmacgillivray.blogspot.com
Barbara
Monajem
http://pinkfuzzyslipperwriters.blogspot.com
Shelly
Munro
http://www.shelleymunro.com/blog
Ella
Quinn
http://ellaquinnauthor.wordpress.com
Eva
Scott
http://www.evascottromance.com/apps/blog/
Shereen
Vedam
http://shereentwo.livejournal.com
Elaine
Violette
http://elainevioletteblogs.blogspot.com

I'm thrilled to announce that SUNRISE IN A GARDEN OF LOVE AND EVIL, the first in the Bayou Gavotte series, is a romance pick for Panera Bread's summer reads.

I'm a huge fan of Panera Bread! I buy bread and pastries there. I adore their Greek salad and asiago roast beef sandwich. Panera is my first choice for lunches when traveling. It was my first choice for lunches at home, too, when I worked in an office. I was so, so sad when a Panera in a nearby mall was closed...sniff.

Anyway -- Amazon Kindle and Panera Bread are offering Sunrise in a Garden of Love and Evil for only $1.99 for the month of July. Here's the link to get there:  http://mypanera.panerabread.com/community/bookclub/

Dark secrets abound in the town of Bayou Gavotte, Louisiana, from blackmail to fetish clubs to murder, and when blood-and-love starved vampire Ophelia Beliveau calls in the police to scare away whoever is desecrating her garden, Detective Gideon O'Toole unearths more than he ever dreamed...

In other great news, the cover, blurb, and buy links for Heart of Constantine in both Kindle and paperback are up now at Amazon.com. The Kindle version is only $2.99 and the paperback is on special for $7.77 right now. The release date is September 10th.

This is the third book in the Bayou Gavotte series and the closest I come to a book of my heart -- mostly because I started it eons ago and wrote so many different versions that when revising it a few months ago, I had no idea which scenes I had chucked and which I had kept. It was like rediscovering an old, much-loved story. I wrote the first versions of it before writing Sunrise in a Garden of Love and Evil and Tastes of Love and Evil, and the character and story of Constantine changed gradually over the years.

Vigilante Native American rock star Constantine Dufray has hit rock bottom. His telepathic abilities have spun out of control, and destructive rumors about him run rampant. Some are true—he caused a violent cop’s suicide, and telepathy destroyed his marriage—but he didn’t poison his wife, and he couldn’t have caused riots at his concerts, killing his fans . . . or could he have? Now an unknown enemy is trying to frame him for rape and murder.

Aura reader Marguerite McHugh finally gets a close encounter with the mysterious star, but it’s nothing like she expected. When Constantine finds her after she’s been drugged at one of his shows, Marguerite is pulled into his quest for the truth. As danger mounts and murders pile up, Constantine and Marguerite are forced into an ever-more intimate relationship. Only by facing their fears and working together can they unmask the killer before more innocent people die.

What's in a name? As a writer I planned my perfect pen name. I chose to use my first and middle  names, Mary Marvella, since my married name, Barfield, didn't sound like a good name for a romance author.  Overby, my maiden name, didn't work for me, either.  I spent years planning and building my brand around that name. Mary Marvella has a nice ring to it, a New York editor told me that years ago. My southern friends like saying the names together.  It sounds southern and romantic.  I indie published using that name and edit under that name.

Well, times change and now I am with a publisher who publishes erotic romances. That means my readers who find the language of erotic fiction embarrassing shouldn't see my Facebook posts with explicit covers and language. Some of my Facebook "friends" use that language and the covers make even me blush. What could I do? How could I keep my readers and editing clients from being confused or offended. Then it hit me! Mary Marvella was a pen name and I could have another one.

What kind of name would be easy to remember and help my readers who want to cross over to the erotic side find me? I liked the MM thing, so I grabbed the maiden name of my daddy's mama, Mayfield. Her name was Melissa Marvella, so the name M M Mayfield seemed perfect! 

Look for me on Facebook as M M Mayfield, author, if you don't mind explicit covers and comments using language I don't usually write. I need my friends who write erotic language to support me and here they can. And my shy editing clients never need to know! They pay me now and I need them.
 
Look for my cover for Protective Instincts soon! 
http://mmmayfieldauthor.wordpress.com/about/
MMMayfield.author@aol.com
Love, Lust, and Southern Comfort

Disclaimer: I'm not a photographer, and I don't really have a garden. It's more like a wildlife preserve.

It's been a cool year so far, but here at last is the first ripe blackberry. Usually they're all ripe by now and mostly eaten by birds. (Not that I don't like blackberries, but the mosquitoes like munching on me.)

It's been rainy, too, and this week mushrooms popped up everywhere.

 

Even a blue one. Is it really blue, or is that mold?

This is my favorite -- a hat!

And farewell from the rosemary bush, which thrives regardless of neglect and the weather.

When you feel the presence of the hawk totem, avoid distractions and focus on the task at hand.

 I’ve had two visits from hawk. The first happened at the beginning of the week. I was driving when this blur flew across the road in front of me, landed on the shoulder of the road, flapped its wings, and became airborne again with a small rodent clutched in its talons. It flew back across in front of me. Slowing the van, I got a good look at the hawk, it was brown with a white chest. Sort of speckled looking and beautiful. I think it might have been a Redtail, but can’t be sure. Then, on Wednesday, hawk again presented himself to me. Or rather I should say themselves, there were two hawks this time.

The road that winds through the small college campus in the town where I live is well-manicured and well- travelled. On my way home from water aerobics, I noticed two very large birds under a tree beside the road. As I passed by, I realized there were two hawks. Beautiful, youthful looking birds who were leisurely enjoying their breakfast right beside the busy roadway. I sat and watched them for quite a while.

When I got home, I went to get my Animal Speak book and looked up hawk’s message.  Avoid distractions and focus on the task at hand. Yep, that is a very strong message for me. I tend to scatter my energy. Hawk is telling me to focus. As you can see, the hawks in the pictures were not allowing any distractions, they maintained focus. Now if I can just apply their message.

Over 10 years in the making, having started its long life as 1,000 pages, Sinners' Opera was released last Friday by Double Dragon Publishing.  I've been happy dancing all weekend!  In the next week, it will be released in a trade paperback.  A preview of the novel is available at the publisher's web site, and the book is also available on Amazon.  The talented Elise Trissel designed the dynamic cover.

Sinners' Opera stars my favorite hero, Morgan D'Arcy. Let me describe Morgan.  He is tall with long blond hair, sky blue eyes and heartbreakingly handsome.  He is sophisticated, a man-of-the world. In the newbie day of writing, I followed him to every concert, every party and around his house!  That's why I had to cut a LOT from the final product.  It's been a long road to publication, but finally, here is a blurb and an excerpt.

Blurb:

Morgan D’Arcy is a classical pianist, an English lord and a vampire.  He has everything except what he desires most—Isabeau.  When she was a child, he appeared to her as the Angel Gabriel, influencing her life and career choice, preparing her to become Lady D’Arcy.  Many forces oppose Morgan’s daring plan—not the least of which is Vampyre law.  A vampire must not sire a child on a mortal.

Isabeau Gervase is a brilliant geneticist engaged to a prominent attorney. Though she no longer believes in angels, she sees a ticket to a Nobel Prize in the genetic puzzle presented by her long-absent childhood friend. She intends to unravel Gabriel’s secrets, using the DNA contained in a lock of his hair and identify the non-human species she named the Angel Genome.

Morgan is ready to come back into Isabeau’s life, but this time as a man—and a vampire—not an angel.  Will he outsmart his enemies, protect his beloved and escape death himself?  For the first time in eternity, the clock is ticking.

 

Excerpt:  From Chapter 24 - Dead Ringer

 

The hair at my nape rose.  A chill awareness possessed me.  An ecstatic cry upstairs snapped me to attention.  Only a vampire would have heard the faint stain of laughter.  I mounted the elegant staircase and whisked to the first floor landing.  No sound, but the Darkling, as my Irish nurse had called the unnerving sensation, stood every hair on end.

I plunged into the darkness, my footsteps silent.  The night was still, ominous.  Down the hall, I followed my sixth sense, halting at the door to one of several unused bedrooms.  I flung the door open.  Like ghosts, furniture shrouded in sheets crouched by bare walls.  The scent of blood and sex overpowered me.  One enticed.  The other sickened.

Moonlight washed through the tall windows.  Blood and pearly vampire sperm gleamed on the polished oak floor.  Another of my kind had violated my house.  Outrage streaked through my veins.  The rogue would pay.  My left hand fisted, my right gripping the bottle.  Suckling sounds and the orgasmic sigh of a mortal rising to the vampire’s kiss drifted from downstairs.  Expending energy I could ill afford, I teleported to the foyer.  Light leached through the etched glass door, shimmering on a rivulet of blood.

The rogue vampire had disappeared.  I inched toward the woman’s corpse.

A tangle of blonde streaked hair framed a beautiful face—a beloved face.  The ghastly scene seared my eyes.  My heart turned to ice, my blood freezing in my veins.  Horror clawed up my throat on a wretched cry.  Pain lanced my temples, ripped through my guts.  The bottle I’d forgotten crashed to the floor and shattered, blood seeping beneath my feet.

She’d died in orgasm, arms flung above her head.  Vampire sperm smeared her spread legs and clung to the curls on her mons.  A pitiful whine unwound from my throat.  I clamped a hand to my mouth and gagged.  Hating the sight, but unable to look away, I staggered to Isabeau, praying that a breath of life remained.  My knees buckled, and I fell.  The floor was cold.  Her lips would be cold.

“Isabeau,” I whimpered.  “Merciless God, what have I done?”

By all that was holy, I would not allow my dreams to perish.  My hand shook as I lifted her wrist.  No pulse.  And no heart.  A black hole gaped beneath her left breast.  Bile scalded my throat, and a hard shudder rocketed through my numb body.  Dead violet eyes accused me of murder.  If only a spark of life remained, I could steal her from death, but she was beyond my reach.  Isabeau was dead.

 

I have another book from Double Dragon, Gemini Rising, and a self-published novella, The Night Before Doomsday, about the Grigori, the angels who fell for lust...or was it love?  Purchase links are available on my web site http://www.lindanightingale.com, along with a free read (one of the deletions from Sinners' Opea).

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Please welcome Cyndi Faria and learn about her newest release AND her contest!

Look at that cover!

Promise Worth Remembering Release (CONTEST)

Thank you for letting me share my second release titled A Promise Worth Remembering (Download FREE here from Amazon for Kindle today and tomorrow). I want to say how excited I am to guest blog on the Pink Fuzzy Slippers!

To celebrate the release, not only am I giving the Kindle eBook away for FREE, but just by leaving a comment, you’ll be entered in a raffle to win the necklace inspired by the story (see photo at www.cyndifaria.com). So make sure you leave your contact information. I can’t wait to see who the lucky winner of the pendant will be… It’s so beautiful!

Have you ever received something from a lover? Something that carries more meaning than metal and stone?

Symbolism can take many forms. When Tucker Pierce, the hero, gifts the heroine Bailey a stone pendant, she considers the rock symbolic of his solid commitment to lover her and see dreams come true.

But when that dream is shattered by Tucker’s betrayal, the impenetrable surface represents the hardened shell of Bailey’s heart. She has to protect herself from being hurt again. A decade later, widowed, the twenty-six year old realizes she’s clinging to the past in the same way the etchings scrawl her pendant and petroglyphs mark the enchanted Kissing Rock where her and Tucker’s story began.

On his return, how does she forget her past and his betrayal? She can’t erase her scars. How does she simply reverse course and choose a different path without, again, risking heartbreak?

You’ll have to read the story to find out if Bailey stands up to her inner demons, lets down her guard, opens her heart, and embraces her future happily-ever-after with Tucker. *grin* I can guarantee, however, by the end of the story the pendant no longer represents a caged heart, but something else entirely. To read now, click the title below.

A Promise Worth Remembering…

After ten years, tiger preserve owner Bailey Yant never thought heartbreaker Tucker Pierce would return to Safe Haven. With a hundred-year-old feud between the Pierce and Yant families escalating, and despite a mystical lovers’ rock stirring memories of their forbidden love, she’s walled up her heart tighter than her sanctuary. When her prized tiger trespasses onto the Pierce’s hunting range, and poachers threaten not only her tiger’s safety but the livelihood of her preserve, will Bailey open her heart and trust Tucker in time to save her endangered Bengals?

At seventeen, Tucker Pierce fell in love with Bailey’s strength the day he’d pulled her from the river and promised to make her dreams come true. However, to keep Bailey safe from his abusive father, he risked everything—and in the process lost her to another man. For ten years, he’s kept his reason for leaving Safe Haven secret, but he can’t forget the promise he made to her or who his heart belongs to. After finding the widowed Bailey standing on their special rock, will he finally convince her to trust he’s a man of his word?

I hope you enjoy Bailey and Tucker’s story! To be entered in the necklace drawing, don’t forget to leave a comment below. Also, each positive review on Amazon helps A Promise Worth Remembering to reach more readers. 

Wishing you much love and happiness,

Cyndi Faria

About the Author:

Cyndi Faria is an engineer turned romance writer whose craving for structure is satisfied by plotting emotional and cozy paranormal romance stories about cursed spirits, lost souls, harbingers, and even a haunted coastal town. If you love a tale with courageous heroes and heroines, where their unconditional love for each other gives them strength to defeat their inner demons, Cyndi Faria invites you to enter the pages of her stories and find happily ever after.

On and off her sexy romance pages, this California country girl isn’t afraid to dirty her hands fighting for the underdog and care taking rescued pets. Find her helping fellow writers and leading readers to happily ever after at www.cyndifaria.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/cyndifaria

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cyndifaria

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00BEV8JYS

I’m still on the road to discovery

By Deb Julienne

 Ever heard of the “overnight” success?

Yeah, that’s not me…not unless you take into consideration that it took me eighteen + years to finally get a book contract.

Work, life, family, health issues, you name it; it got in my way, until now.

Today I received the cover for my debut book “Sex, Lies, and Beauty Aids” and I couldn’t be happier--well okay, I lied, I will be happier when it’s finally released.

I’ve already gone through the pre-edits…only to discover I’m a “was” whore…can you say passive? See, I’m learning...and we won’t even go into the other over used words, now changed.

When I think back to when I started writing and the journey it’s taken me on…and yes, I got lost, several times, but the road to discovery…I honestly don’t think I’d change a thing.

In a perfect world we’d know what we need to know to get there. In my world getting lost takes you on some seriously hysterical detours. Needless to say, I am thrilled to be where I am now.

I’ve met some of the most wonderful people on this path, friends I never want to be without. We’ve had fun moments, sad moments, crazy moments and lots of laughs and for those lovely people, I am truly blessed.

I want to say "Thank You" to everyone who helped me along the way.

More to time as I go through the editing process.

You can find me on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deb.julienne

Twitter: @debjulienne

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/debjulienne/

 Blurb for Book I: Sex, Lies, and Beauty Aids

 

Sabrina Thompson is the editor in charge of finding and sharing Natural Beauty Secrets for articles in Skin Deep Magazine. Her perfect little world crumbles when her new boss informs her she will have to take on another column or lose her job. Imagine her surprise when she discovers her new job is offering advice for the Love and Sex column. What does a twenty-four year old virgin know about Love or Sex, when she's never been on a third date?

 

Trent Wellington is playing one final game of “Sexcapades” with his twin brother. Only this time the con is on the family. While Travis is drying out, Trent assumes his brother’s identity in order to save the magazine. Trent knows about Sabrina’s lack of experience and plans to be her practice toy until Sabrina discovers she’s been conned.

 

What happens on the road to "Educating Sabrina" is a wild and bumpy ride. Getting even has never been so much fun.

Old Dogs and Blue Fuzzy Slippers

  by Ginger Chambers

I hope I won't be shown the virtual door because my favorite pair of slippers are blue and fuzzy!  If it's any help, they're a shade of pale blue that looks very pretty with pink.  (waits to be tossed out) (isn't) (big smile) Thank you!  My blue slippers and I have been together for quite awhile. Even written several books together. Let me prop my feet up, cross my ankles properly as shown in your photo, and tell you a little story.

I'm sure you've all heard the saying, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks." Well, don't believe it. You can. I'm the "old dog" and the "new trick" is e-publishing.  Now wait! Wait! Don't everyone rush off in horror. It's not going to be THAT bad. I'm not going to try to teach you anything while we're enjoying having our feet up. I'm just saying that it can be done. "Old dog" here is doing it! And, believe me, if I can do it, you can do it...if you haven't already!

All of my writing life has been in Category Romance. I loved reading it before I started writing, and I have loved (almost) every moment of writing it for the past 30-odd years. I'm a fairly slow writer, so that time accounts for 33 or so books. And as I said, all Category. I'm a sucker for a HappyEverAfter ending. Gets me every time. Only, once the books had their moment in the sun (2 to 4 weeks on store bookshelves), that was it. The only way the book stayed alive after that was at Used Book Stores, with the pages growing shabby and torn from use, and the cover fading... 

Now we have pixels and readers and Fires and Pads and Nooks and cell phones. And all those old books--the ones we wrote and the ones we once read--can be new again! With authors having final say on content and covers! Oh, joyous day! No more hero who looks like a vampire as he bends to 'kiss' the heroine's neck (and it's not a vampire book), no more "But my heroine is a blond, not a redhead!" Or my favorite, she's shown bursting out of a D-cup when she has trouble filling a B-cup in the story.

Which brings us to the event that brings this all together and is happening at this very minute. Today is the launch of LOVE ME SOME COWBOY! A boxed set of 5 full novels by 5 best-selling authors who have taken the e-publishing bull by the horns and wrestled it into submission. Yay, us!  Jean Brashear, Day Leclaire, Barbara McMahon, Lisa Mondello, and Ginger Chambers. All at the bargain price of 99¢  ($.99) for the boxed set. My contribution, Love, Texas, is my first attempt at self-publishing at all the usual e-suspects: Kindle, Apple, Nook, Kobo, Smashwords. What an experience! And soon there will be another, Call It Love, which was my first Candlelight Ecstasy Romance back in 1982. After that, another, then another... Once this gal gets going, ya can't stop her! I'm loving this new world for writers. 

There's a lot more to tell, but a little story is just that--little. So I'll uncross my ankles, put my fuzzy slippers on the floor, and get back to work. Thanks to all of you for listening.

Ginger

www.gingerchambers.com

www.facebook.com/GingerChambersAuthor

www.facebook.com/OnFireFiction

I don't think I'm crazy. I might have some quirk that people notice, but pretty much I feel I am in the realm of normal. So how about you? Do you look at people and wonder what the hey? Is he whacked? Too may Margaritas maybe? Wrong medication?
What makes people have a sense of entitlement? Why do families fight? Why is there a nut in every family? Who took the last cookie and why can't you admit to it?
I think about these things, it helps me to not think about the things that really bother me.

My, makes you wanna say, Huh, look.

I saw a video of a police artist drawing women's picture's. He drew one from a bystander and one from the description of the woman herself. The results were astonishing. The women described themselves in a way that portrayed them much more unattractive then they actually were, in every single case. So what does that say about self image? I thought I was the only one who saw a fat person in the mirror no matter what I weigh! Don't it make you want to say, Huh?

 

Then there is the guy who kidnapped those poor young girls. It could happen anywhere, his own family didn't know? Makes you think, these people are actually out there, living, in houses just like mine. Now I am wondering about my neighbors. I don't talk to them and they don't talk to me. There have been a few odd occurrences, mostly in those converted garage rentals. I remember the swat team and percussion grenades when they busted a crack house in the back of a lovely historical Spanish style home, in an illegally converted garage apartment. Hey, if it's there long enough the city of West Palm Beach will grandfather it in! My point is what goes on in those places, who should I be looking to save, if anyone?

• 

Yesterday I got a fortune cookie, and in it was an odd saving. Writing is a craft, not an art. Huh? Now, think about it. Do you mean to tell me that people can learn how to have a voice? Can learn how to tell a great story, it doesn't take imagination or a mind, you just learn the craft and poof, Nora Roberts, Jane Austin, Stephen King, you are!!! Good luck with that one. In my mind you have to have a talent, so that translates to art, hey, just my opinion... Don't it may you want to say, Huh?

 It's called Attached Parenting, and it sounds a bit nuts to me.

I read an article from Time Magazine, 'Are You Mom Enough', it got me thinking. In the May 2012 issue a picture of a mother with a probably three year old kid breast feeding. Now hey, I am one of the original flower children, peace, hanging ta ta's, I get it. But, when a kid can stand there and ask for it, it's time to give it up. I never was bothered by women breast feeding, I'm more of the Ooh, Ahh, type. Move the boob, I wanna see the baby! But, when I attended a neighborhood party one time and this lady whips out the girls to give a snack to her three and five year old, it was just too much. I was like, huh? Hey, if you can carry the kid on your back all day you can still breastfeed, if you ask me. When the kid is half your size, it's just plain odd. Don't it make you want to say, Huh?

So, what do you think? Does this make you want to say, Huh? What else is bothering you Mary?

I hate my hair.  It's baby fine and breaks before it gets past chin length.  So!  I decided upon a hairy adventure.  I bought a shoulder length human hair full lace wig.  Now that I had it, what to do with it.  I wanted low lights, took it to a beautician I knew and trusted.  She charged me $185 to put a few streaks in the wig.  After I recovered from that shock, my new hair and I set off to be united.

The process sounds daunting.  First they put tape below your hairline, then add some glue to the tape.  Next, the wig is applied.  The wigs generally are custom made to fit the head.  I was amazed at the results.  You cannot tell that it is a wig, and it can be pulled up and worn in a high ponytail.  I am very proud of my new tresses.  No pix except in my cell phone.  And it is very convenient.  Just brush and go.  Every two weeks, it is removed, cleaned and reapplied.

We'll see how long I love it or if it ends up on Ebay as a friend of mine predicted.

This has nothing to do with hair, but I wanted to post Bianca's shiny brand new banner.

Excerpt from On Wings of Desire:

The stench of Hell burned Salseph’s nostrils.  Lost Souls¸ how he hated to return home.  For all his trials on Earth, he preferred the human realm to this insufferable place.  In the mortal plane, he could, with considerable effort and pain, divest himself of his wings, and feel as if he belonged—at least for a time.

Evolerzzal, a slimy glob of green flesh, grabbed Seph’s shoulder as he passed into the gloom of the Demon Realm.  “Well, if it isn’t Salseph the Beautiful.  What are you doing here amongst us humble creatures?”  A clawed hand beckoned Charzzel, a demon of the Second Order.  “Look who’s come home.”

Seph shrugged free, arched his wings.  The dim, smoky light refracted on his feathers, and the movement immediately drew the attention of every demon in sight.  His jaw tightened, a muscle twitching.  He yearned to drive his fist into the grotesque face and take to the air, but it wasn’t Evolz’s fault the demons hated Seph.  Paimon had insured that Salseph was an oddity, a freak.  His appearance and the majestic wings set him apart from the others of his kind.  Hell, there were no others of his kind.  In all of Perdition, he was the only demon who looked like an angel.  His face was handsome, his body lean and muscled—the body of a man, not a monstrosity—his blond hair thick and silky.

“I smell angel,” a low-ranking atrocity shouted, his high-pitched voice rasping on Seph’s nerves.

The demons stank of brimstone and ash.  Salseph’s Creator had only missed one detail in replicating a celestial being.  Like an angel, Seph possessed an individual, mysterious scent, the airy fragrance part of his allure.  Unlike an angel, Salseph had no sigil.   A sigil, the angel’s name in Malachim script, was branded in his palm at his creation.  Paimon did not have the ability to bequeath a sigil to his demon son.  The fallen angel had, however, created Seph with an irresistible sexual magnetism.

A disgustingly ugly brute bared his fangs.  A laugh rumbled from the creature’s slavering maw.  He stumbled into Seph, crushing one of the long white feathers trailing the ash-gray ground.  “Hello, Salseph.”  Two taloned fingers drifted down the feathered arch.  “Wish I had pretty wings.”

Seph flinched from the malicious caress, folding his wings in a tighter arch.  The creature chuckled, and anger ground Salseph’s good intentions to dust.   When he landed, he’d planned to hurry to his cave, avoiding another senseless confrontation with his brethren.  The fiends detested him as much as he abhorred them.  It was an effort of will to resist a scathing retort.

“I think he’s hideous,” a demon in the shadows called.  “Angels are our enemies.  Every time I look at Paimon’s favorite, I want to draw sword.”

Jealousy and envy gleamed in Evolz’s yellow eyes.  The demon reeked of the Pit.  Sulfur wasn’t an enticing perfume.  “Now, who would want to spit our lovely Salseph on a sword?”

“Let me pass.” Seph would have shouldered by Evolz, but touching the creature repulsed him.

“Coming home from another assignment?” Evolz smirked.

Seph refused to give the other demon the satisfaction of a reply.  He was returning from another demeaning mission with his stomach in a knot and his heart bleeding for a poor human woman whose only sin was falling in love with him.

“Did you eat her baby or pump a little half-demon into her womb?”  Evolz leered, his glob of a head tilted to the side, his hairy ears wagging.

“I don’t consume human flesh.  Now, step aside.”

“Or you’ll do what?  Report me to Paimon?”

Seph flared his wings, striking the demon and sweeping Evolerzzal into a stumbling retreat.  “Sorry, Evolz.”  He drove his wings down hard, rising straight into the sultry, close air.  Voice dripping sarcasm, he said, “I forget how powerful I really am.”

He hovered above the gross blob, his condescending smile goading Evolz to react.  The demon glared at him but said nothing, a quick comeback beyond his limited mental capacity.  Why were they all so fiendish?   One of the monsters tried to capture his ankle.  Laughing, he flew higher and, still chuckling, soared toward home.  The place I hide.  He’d never thought of the dim stone cavern as home.  His heart stuttered over a painful beat.  He had no home and belonged nowhere.

 

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Words of Wisdom from Nancy Knight, Editor

Well, here we are again. Staring at the computer. Today’s the day you promised yourself you’d send that manuscript off. So what have you been doing? What should you have been doing? Before you send that ms. off, you should take a look one more time in your word processing program for potential problems, very carefully re-read your first few pages, re-read your synopsis and then look for stupid stuff.

Today’s word-processing programs are very sophisticated. Microsoft Word, for instance, will underline mis-spelled words in red, underline possible grammatical errors in green and underline homonyms in case you picked the wrong one. The programs do these things for a reason . . . to help you. Paying attention to these marked errors may just be the saving grace for your manuscript. If I get a ms. with “they’re” in place of there or their, along with a passel of other mistakes, I’m not likely to trust your writing at all. If you make a lot of grammatical errors, are you careful about your research? How can I know? If I get a clean ms. and one with too many grammatical errors, which one do you think I should take? Let’s see . . . I’ll take the one with fewer errors. Sounds simple, right? For the most part, it is. Many times I get a story with really great potential (Read: Nancy loves, loves, loves this ms.) but the number of spelling and grammatical errors is just daunting. So when your word processor tells you there’s an error—do something about it.

You should always re-read the first five pages very carefully before you send your ms. to an editor or agent. Those five pages (maybe less) might be all the editor reads before rejecting your submission. Why? Time is limited. I talked to another editor last summer who works for a traditional NY publisher. They receive between 800 and 1000 unsolicited ms. a month. Once a month, they closet themselves in a room with all those subs and go through them. Yes, that’s right. They go through all of them. This editor said they start opening envelopes (or e-mails) and read a few lines. If the story doesn’t catch their interest within a few lines, it’s an automatic rejection. Sometimes the editor might realize that the ms. isn’t her cup of tea and—if it’s good enough—pass it along to someone who might like that particular sub-genre. Note: the key words in that last sentence were “if it’s good enough.” That means, no spelling or grammatical errors, a reasonably interesting opening, proper format, etc. Your book should start when the primary character’s life changes irrevocably. Don’t give me ten or fifteen pages of stuff leading up to that moment. Get to the point. Grab my interest immediately. Oh, my editor friend also said that if the ms. was her type of book and it caught her interest, she’d put it in a separate pile to read more of later. Sounds brutal, I know. But the harsh truth is that an editor’s time for reading unsolicited subs is extremely limited. Don’t limit your chances by sending less than your best.

The third item to check off your list is the synopsis. Read it slowly, as if you’ve never seen it before. Make sure you’ve included all the pertinent information. Is your structure clear and concise? Have you told the editor/agent what the primary conflict is? Have you given enough information to make him or her love your protagonist? If you’ve recently revised your synopsis, try to read for missing information that needs to be there.  Look for holes in the plot. Is the story told in a simple narrative style? Have you told the complete story—including the ending. I can’t tell you how many subs I get wherein the synopsis doesn’t reveal the ending. No editor is going to buy a pig in a poke. You must tell the story and the ending.

Finally, read it again for stupid stuff. You can interpret stupid stuff in a couple of ways. It could mean that you have tried, in your synopsis, to be cutesy. That doesn’t always work. It can be annoying. Very annoying. It you include those kinds of elements, get an outside, unbiased opinion to see if they work. Unbiased doesn’t mean your mama or your spouse or your best friend. I once received a ms. that had a diagonal red sash that began in the lower left corner of the ms. and continued to the top right corner. The sash said, “Copyright by _______.” That’s a really childish thing to do. What editor in his or her right mind is going to steal a manuscript? Generally speaking, those people don’t need to worry about having their ms. stolen. In my experience, it’s the worst writers who are the most concerned about someone stealing their books. Finally, there are writers who bury a phrase within the ms. just to see if the editor actually read the ms. Or, in the case of a hard-copy submission, maybe the writer will turn a page backwards to see if the editor read that far. Skip that crazy stuff. It just makes you seem juvenile.

My last piece of advice to you is this: Submit, submit, submit. After you’ve submitted to three or four publishers and all have rejected the ms., re-read their comments (if any) and decide if you need to re-write before sending your precious out again.

By the way, you can always submit to me. (novelkid@aol.com) I’ll look at any of the romance genres, suspense, thrillers, YA, inspirational, horror and mystery. I’m not really interested in non-fiction, so don’t send any non-fiction. But I am totally passionate about a really great YA . . . well, okay  . . . great fiction. I’m waiting to read yours!

Nancy Knight is a multi-published author. She has been part of Belle Books and is now executive editor for Gilded Dragonfly Books.  Nancy edited their first anthology Carousel Déjà vu.

Look for her visit as an author! We will reveal secrets. 

www.gildeddragonflybooks.wordpress.com

www.gildeddragonflybooks.com

*This piece is reposted from my wordpress blog. I hope you enjoy your garden tour and a Happy Mother's Day to all.

The lighting this morning was exquisite and Elise took some pics of the garden. Now it’s pouring rain again and thundering, but for a time, it was heavenly. So join me for a tour of my lovely May Garden. I think May is the most exquisite time of year. Balm for the soul.~

“I hope some day to meet God, because I want to thank Him for the flowers.” ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com

If you’ve never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower inspring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom. ~Terri Guillemets

(***A shorter form of iris)

No two gardens are the same.  No two days are the same in one garden.  ~Hugh Johnson

***Wood hyacinths given to me by my late Great Uncle Houston, like fairy bells.

Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed.  ~Walt Whitman

From an aunt, long ago:  “Death has come for me many times but finds me always in my lovely garden and leaves me there, I think, as an excuse to return.”  ~Robert Brault

Many things grow in the garden that were never sown there.  ~Thomas Fuller,Gnomologia, 1732

My garden is my favorite teacher.  ~Betsy Cañas Garmon,www.wildthymecreative.com

Shall we compare our hearts to a garden —
with beautiful blooms, straggling weeds,
swooping birds and sunshine, rain —
and most importantly, seeds.
~Terri Guillemets

(Late season multi-colored Tulips)

I sit in my garden, gazing upon a beauty that cannot gaze upon itself.  And I find sufficient purpose for my day.  ~Robert Brault

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God’s heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.
~Dorothy Frances Gurney, “Garden Thoughts”

Gardening is civil and social, but it wants the vigor and freedom of the forest and the outlaw.  ~Henry David Thoreau

Where man sees but withered leaves,
God sees sweet flowers growing.
~Albert Laighton

(Late season tulips that are just gorgeous)

That God once loved a garden we learn in Holy writ.
And seeing gardens in the Spring I well can credit it.
~Winifred Mary Letts

And Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth’s dark breast rose from the dreams of its wintry rest. ~Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Sensitive Plant“

Every spring is the only spring – a perpetual astonishment.  ~Ellis Peters
Spring is sooner recognized by plants than by men.  ~Chinese Proverb
(***Tulips with our old red barn in the background)

The naked earth is warm with Spring,
And with green grass and bursting trees
Leans to the sun’s kiss glorying,
And quivers in the sunny breeze.
~Julian Grenfell

I think that no matter how old or infirm I may become, I will always plant a large garden in the spring.  Who can resist the feelings of hope and joy that one gets from participating in nature’s rebirth?  ~Edward Giobbi

Spring has returned.  The Earth is like a child that knows poems.  ~Rainer Maria Rilke

(Heirloom orange-red poppies that have bloomed every May here forever)

The sun has come out… and the air is vivid with spring light. ~Byron Caldwell Smith, letter to Kate Stephens

Images from my May garden by daughter Elise