Storywitch's "Book of Shadows"

Happy weekend, everyone! Here’s Part 4 – I wanted to be sure and get this posted this afternoon, so was only able to do two full read-throughs when I was done. Therefore, if you see any glaring typos, just let me know, and I apologize in advance for them. Hope they don’t interrupt your reading enjoyment!

[Note – added the above pic after the original post – Dotty, a wonderful friend and reader, snapped this pic with her husband on a vacation, a beautiful sand sculpture that helped inspire this segment .]

Oh, and before I forget, Monday, March 7, I’ll have a post over at Forbidden Bookshelf, http://www.theforbiddenbookshelf.com/. There will be the usual book giveaway, which you’re welcome to comment to enter, but the main reason I wanted to tell you about this is that it’s part of their month-long "Get Tied Up" event where they’re featuring blogs, book reviews etc., all about BDSM erotic romance. So be sure and go over there this month and check out possible new reads and blogs by favored authors, or those you’d like to know more about (smile). Okay, enough of this. I’ll get out of your way so you can see what David and Mina are doing. Hope you like this!

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First things first. I’ve received the cover for Bound by the Vampire Queen and wanted to share it with you all! Hope you like it. And yes, he IS wearing jeans. I had to look twice to verify that myself…maybe three times (wicked grin – I even put on my reading glasses). The book comes out in December, after the upcoming July release of Vampire Instinct! Speaking of which, the folks on the forum talked me into giving them another sneak peek excerpt of VI to tide them over until July, so there are now TWO excerpts for it on the fan forum, under the Excerpt section. Hope you enjoy those as well. If you need logon instructions for the forum, click here. I hope to have a BBtVQ excerpt for you once my editor does her first approval of the manuscript.

Now, on to the REALLY important stuff. This month’s book-of-your-choice newsletter contest winner is BlindCrush. Congratulations, BC! Love your UserID! I’ve emailed you directly so you can let me know what title you’d like.

Okay, this month there was a “Part 2” request to the contest submission, and it turned into quite a close race! As you know, we’re in the middle of the David and Mina vignette (Part IV to be posted by the end of this week!). However, looking ahead, I asked you all to vote for the next vignette from three possible selections:

Daegan and Gideon’s one-on-one scene, as mandated by Anwyn in Vampire Trinity…

The threesome between Peter, Ben and Dana which was mentioned by Dana in Afterlife…

Ben O’Callahan’s takedown of the gossip columnist, Celeste De Mille, also referenced in Afterlife…

Needless to say, I intend to write all three of these; the muse is quite enthusiastic about all of them. And when she doesn’t have a distinct preference for order, you all get to decide what comes next!

So here were the results –

Daegan/Gideon – 40% of the vote

Peter/Dana/Ben – 34% of the vote

Ben/Celeste – 24% of the vote

Yes, Daegan and Gideon won, so they’ll be the next vignette, but Ben fans should not be concerned! Etiquette-wise, I feel like I MUST write the Ben/Celeste vignette before I release Hostile Takeover (Ben’s book), so that Marcie, the woman who will be Ben’s ultimate hard fall, won’t go after me for writing about him in a one-on-one with another woman (laughter). And the scene with Peter/Dana/Ben will likely work as a nice piece shortly after the release of his book to amp up further interest in it. So in short, I foresee doing all three of these this year, barring any unexpected schedule problems.

Given how volatile two alphas can be, I think I’m going to call each part of Daegan and Gideon’s vignette “rounds” instead of “segments” (grin). So, when will Round One happen? I’m anticipating one or two more David and Mina segments before their vignette concludes. Which means I should start  Daegan/Gideon’s vignette sometime in late March.

Thanks for all your help in making this choice! Hope you enjoy the rest of your visit with David and Mina later this week.

Happy weekend, everyone! Hope you continue to enjoy our day with David and Mina. And remember, these segments are simultaneously posted at the fan forum under the Vignette section. Plus, when each vignette is fully complete, the forum ladies turn it into one complete, downloadable file so you can put the whole thing on your readers and revisit them at your leisure (smile). Thanks as always!

* * * * *

He didn’t take her to a sand bar in the middle of the ocean, as she expected. Instead, he took her somewhere she’d never been before. He saw her dare a glimpse as they came in for a landing. The unique blue color of the water would tell her that the small, uninhabited island was in the Caribbean. When he glided in over the thick tree cover, he dropped down into it to bring her to the narrow beach of a secluded lagoon. The water was flanked by caves, and as he took her hand, guiding her into the mouth of one, her face brightened at the discovery of a chain of pools that formed when the current receded. Of course, that left the sea life washed in on the high tide trapped until the next cycle. Right now, that included a small school of darting, bright-colored fish and a languidly gliding barracuda shark, unconcerned about his circumstances, probably because of the darting fish. The pools also included a scattering of crabs that might have scuttled up from the beach, preferring to dine on what the ocean left in the tidal pools.

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Here’s Part Two, taking off right where we left off! (Though I included the last key sentence, as a refresher). Hope you enjoy it! Have a great weekend.

* * * * *

“Would you kill our child, Mina? My child?”

Yes.

The Dark One blood within her hissed it. David had a limited ability to actually read her mind, an ability Mina knew he didn’t need to use. He could command the truth from her with a simple, intent look, like now.

And though the blood’s answer was the truth, looking into his brown eyes, at the strands of hair that fell carelessly over his fine brow, the taut, stern lines of his handsome face, he’d commanded the answer from a different part of her. A part that responded to everything he demanded from her and begged for more.

Mina closed her eyes, her fingers sliding into the openings of his, lacing them together even as everything else in her body went rigid, afraid. She closed her eyes. “I can’t be a parent, David.”

“Answer me, Mina.”

“No. And yes. Two answers from the same person, the same twisted creature that no one but you trusts. I can’t be a parent.”

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The winner of the book-of-your-choice contest in January’s newsletter is Lisa A! Congrats, Lisa – I’ve sent you an email directly to find out what title you want.

I’m hard at work on Arcane Shot, which means I’m in the “getting-to-know-you” phase with the characters, Derek and Ruby, and that seems to be going well. However, don’t worry – I’ll be taking the time to post the next segment of the David and Mina free vignette here and on the fan forum hopefully sometime on Friday.

If you want to learn more about me than you already know, Deviant Divas is posting an interview about me on their site February 7, and of course as always there will be a book giveaway (smile).

Finally, Branded Sanctuary is an eligible nominee for Long and Short Reviews Best Book of 2010. If you think it deserves that award, the polls will open Feb 14-27, but it will also be a good place to visit to add other books to your TBR list!

In the meantime, anyone remember Lucky Vanous, the “Diet Coke” guy from the mid-90s? I love ruggedly handsome men, versus “pretty boys”, and this guy fit rugged to a T. Anyhow, if you want a blast from the past, this is a little grainy, but enjoy the 45 second trip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI3Ft363PZ8

And it turns out this gentleman had the background of a real romance heroine – he was a real life Ranger! Here’s an article on him –

http://www.mostbeautifulman.com/actors/luckyvanous/bio.shtml

Apropos of nothing, but given our mutual love of our very appealing romance heroes, thought I’d share (wink).

Well, it’s here at last. The next free vignette! Thanks so much for your patience over the crazy holiday period. This one features David and Mina from A Witch’s Beauty. If you read Mermaid’s Ransom, the third in the Daughters of Arianne series, you’ll recognize this loose end that was a result of something Clara, Alexis’s friend in Mermaid’s Ransom, accidentally reveals to David. So yes, there are some spoilers in this, but nothing too major if you’d like to read it anyway (smile).

Because the books are somewhat plot-complex, Part One took some backstory setup, but I hope you enjoy it regardless! And anticipate Part Two, when David takes Mina to that quiet little island in the ocean, a place just  for the two of them. Look for that in about two weeks!

There’s more… If you’d like a sneak peek at Arcane Shot, a free Chapter One excerpt for that was also posted at the fan forum today, under the Excerpt section. The fan forum is always a great place to browse and visit, but especially now. While we have to say good-bye to the the Knights of the Board Room background graphics that we’ve immensely enjoyed for several months, we now get  to praise/feature our Australian vampire-servant couple, Danny and Dev of Vampire’s Claim. There are also two contests going on under Mina’s Coral Sanctuary; one to celebrate the beginning of this vignette, and one to celebrate the new graphics. Enjoy!

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As usual, I had a great selection of charity suggestions for the December newsletter contest random drawings. Though Gigi’s American Diabetes Association won the $50 donation, I always like to share the other suggestions with you, so you can discover additional destinations for your 2011 future charity offerings. Best wishes and many blessings to you all in the new year! [Note: Like last year, I included a brief description if the purpose of the organization wasn’t entirely obvious.] Thank you all for your generosity to those in need.  Read more to see the list!

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The winner of the December Newsletter contest is Gigi! Congratulations, Gigi – her chosen charity was the American Diabetes Association, http://www.diabetes.org/,  so her prize was a $50 donation to that charity, as well as a book of her choice. In about a week, after I’ve turned in the latest work-in-process (Bound by a Vampire Queen) and handled some other things, I’ll do an additional blog post, listing out all the worthwhile charities suggested for the December contest – you may find new venues for your charitable dollars, because there were a lot of good ones!

Anyhow, happy new year everyone, and back to BBaVQ – it gets turned in tomorrow!!

Tonight, 12/18 from 8-10pm ET, the Joey W. Hill fan forum will be hosting the next Book Club Chat Night, as well as Afterlife holiday party! Come on out and bring your comments and questions about Afterlife or my other work, or just to lurk and enjoy all the holiday fun.

Click the Read the Rest of this Entry link below for the communique from fan forum moderators. And in case you’re wondering what bookclub night has to do with the lovely cover to the left, the answer is…nothing! lol

However, Ellora’s Cave has recently been splitting up some of its older anthologies and releasing the stories as standalone digital novellas. As such, they created this cover for my story Choice of Masters, which was originally released in the Enchained anthology with fellow authors Ann Jacobs and Jaid Black. So I thought you all would enjoy seeing it. Anyhow, on to the information about tonight’s event – hope you can come!

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My apologies – the month has gotten away from me! You’ll be happy to know it’s because I’ve been neck deep in Bound by a Vampire Queen, the next book in Jacob and Lyssa’s journey in the Vampire Queen series. I hope everyone’s holiday preparations have been going well, and you’re anticipating delightful, memorable times with loved ones.

The winner of the November newsletter contest is Erica! She chose Vampire Trinity as her “Book-of-Your-Choice” prize. In a few days, I’ll be sending out the December newsletter, where you’ll once again have that contest option, as well as $50 to the charity of the winner’s choice, in honor of the giving season.

If you’re not completely booked to the gills with holiday happenings, here’s a couple other things you might enjoy.

First, this Thursday, December 16, my agent, The Knight Agency is having its annual Christmas chat at 12:30pm ET. The TKA Santa will be giving away goodies to US and Canada residents (I’ve donated a book of the winner’s choice as my goody – I’m very consistent – grin), and there may be appearances by a  variety of TKA-represented authors. I hope to come by for awhile myself!

To join in, visit the TKA site Community page and scroll down to the Chat section to find out how to join the chat  – http://knightagency.net/community/index.html.

Then, this SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18, 8-10 PM ET, the Joey W. Hill fan forum will be holding the latest Book Club chat night! The main topic of conversation will of course be the newest release, Afterlife, Jon’s story in the Knights of the Board Room series.

Here’s the official invitation from the forum moderators:

Book Chat Night is getting closer! Less than a week away and all members will be kicking off the holiday season with Joey’s luscious pack of Knights! Jon Forte has graciously offered up his lovely home as the party location and every day since then plans and preparations have been going on to get ready for the event. To further add to everyone’s enjoyment we have started up the official Holiday/Afterlife contest in Mina’s Coral Sanctuary on the forum main page. This is one you do not want to miss, especially if you would like to bring ALL of Joey’s Knights home with you for Christmas, along with other gifts that will be included in this big prize package. The thread for this has been opened in the contest section and we are anxiously awaiting your entries!! The winner will be announced first thing on Chat Night. GOOD LUCK to all of you planning on entering and we all hope to see you on chat night.

So bring your questions and comments about the book or anything else you’d like to discuss, and we’ll toast the delight of the Christmas season together. Our Book Chat bartenders make the best virtual drinks anywhere! And remember, even if you can’t attend from 8-10pm, the transcript to the event stays up for awhile, so you can come back later that night and enjoy everything that happened, as well as leave your own comments and questions. I always check back for a few days afterward to make sure I didn’t miss anyone’s question!

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and holiday season…