Welcome to Strasburg, Virginia

Downtown Strasburg

Sorry I didn’t blog last week, but we had no heat and it was twenty degrees out. We managed to get it working Sunday night, but thanks to a lot of miscommunication it went out on Tuesday again, but it’s all working now and in good time since I left Thursday for my first quarterly writer’s retreat of 2025. I really didn’t want to leave Moose and ZigZag in danger of shivering. My poor dog though is seriously sad. I had just come back from South Carolina two weeks ago. Luckily she loves my son and his partner.

View from walk

I did manage to finish the draft of Deceptive Waters last week and it went off to betas. I started going through the second book, Eye of the Serpent, which does have a first draft, but after poking at it a few days here and rewriting the beginning I realized that I absolutely have to sit down and reread this before diving in to serious edits. I haven’t touched this in a year and while I know what happens broadly, I also know it needs a lot of work so once I get back to work on Tuesday it’s time for a print, a binder, a highlighter and red pen.

Bruno

We actually extended the first retreat this year by one day. So Thursday I packed up my car, reassured my dog that I will be returning to her, and headed for Strasburg. Got there just in time for lunch where we went to an awesome diner called Queen Street Diner and had a childhood favorite, turkey on bread with gravy and mashed taters, precious. So good. We settled in for some good writing, took a detour to WalMart for some fuzzy socks and snacks. (It’s an old house so a little chilly.) I met Bruno and took him home with me.

It's an old house, the front part is 100 years old while the back part is about 60 so it has all these funky nooks and crannies, a hidden attic stair and this strange stair section upstairs between the old section and new that involves three little steps down and three steeper, narrower steps up that thankfully has bars to pull yourself up with. There’s gas fireplaces in a couple of rooms and when they poured the concrete for the front porch a cat had a heyday.

Writer's Retreat

I still haven’t figured out yet what I’m doing for Marguerite so I’m going to let it percolate a little longer. The Feral Writers is working on a collaborative madcap mystery, comedy, slight horror book about a group of writers trapped in a haunted house. Speaking of haunted, the ghost in my bedroom here likes to play tricks like popping the door open when I’m changing but we had words on the second day and they’ve been behaving themselves since.

Karin and I went on a nice walk yesterday before the storm threatened, met some adorable floofers, and got our quads burning with all the hills. I find when I’m stuck a good walk really helps. We’ve also explored Strasburg a little. There are some beautiful murals.

Cat Prints

We went to a comic book shop, bought stickers, wrestling figures, and a mug that says “I have no ducks. I have no rows. I have squirrels an they’re at a rave.” We drank wine and laughed and I started a list of crazy assed things overheard at a writer’s retreat and plan on posting them sometime out of context.

I’m going to work on the opening for my character for that book today and get in some more words on book three of the epic fantasy series The Hand of the Crone. I realized one of my main characters who I love dearly is not emotionally suited to be alone. He loves people so I’ve given him a necromantic kitten he calls Murder Scrapper for companionship until he can be reunited with his loved ones. It’s been fun.

Mural

Later on we’re going to discuss Feral Writer goals and figure out what shows and events we want to do this year. So until next my friends, happy writing and reading.

Oh, maybe I should leave you with a little snippet of what I’ve written this week.

The commotion coming from the alley drew his attention, the sharp barking of dogs who had cornered prey along with the yips of pain and fear. Curiosity had him stepping into the mouth cautiously. If they were feral, it wouldn’t be wise to get too close. Three dogs circled, whining, barking around the fallen body of an even larger dog. A couple times, one of them lunged, only to draw back with a yelp.

The oddity of it all, had him moving closer toward the sound of growling and hissing. The nerve of the remaining dogs broke and they rushed past him looking to escape. Then he caught sight of what had so terrorized the dogs and it startled a laugh out of him. A kitten, no bigger than his hand crouched on top of the dead dog, its back arched in fury, it’s claws shredding beneath it. It was so covered in blood that he couldn’t tell what color it was, but he suspected light fur.

Tobren crouched as it turned it’s baleful gaze on him. “Did the bastards try to corner you and get more than they bargained for or do you have a family nearby that helped?”

He hoped it wasn’t the case that the half-feral pack had destroyed the litter and it was all that was left. The kitten narrowed his eyes at him, laid it’s ears back and hissed. “You’re a little scrapper demon aren’t you?” he said soothingly and reached into his pouches for anything that might tempt it, but the only thing he found was a bit of honey bread left over from lunch.

Tobren broke off a tidbit and held it out. “I don’t have anything suitable for kittens, but this has to be more enjoyable than a flea bitten dog.”

 

 

Another New Year, Another New Start

I’m a fan of beginnings. I like Mondays because it’s a fresh start to the week. I like the first of the month for the same reason. When I was younger, I used to think that New Year’s Day was a bit boring, but then I had my son that day and it changed everything. 2024 brought a lot of challenges and victories. It started with a real setback in my health. I had been battling Long Haul Covid and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and had made real headway, but over the holidays I caught something and it set it all the way back. Well, 75% back. I began to make progress when the overtime at work started and it’s been a struggle.

I’ve determined that this year since I can’t get rid of the overtime, that I will take full advantage of my accommodations at work and take my quick nap mid-morning and mid-afternoon. That ought to help and I’m determined to start walking again to build my stamina again. I know it’ll mean more tiredness and naps, but going a little at a time and listening to my body makes a big difference.

I also published my first book in years! I love that The Monster Within is finally, finally out! That was a true labor of love. I started doing book shows and conventions again with my awesome Feral Writers and that’s been a joy. That was such a huge part of my marriage with Keir. As a comic book artist, we had a show at least once a month if not more and I missed that life. Plus, I am hanging out with the best girls and getting a chance to meet new writers.

I did not finish the edits on Deceptive Waters but I’m going to be posting here for accountability. I have 137 pages left to read through and then it’ll go off to betas. I’ve started edits on the second book in the series The Eye of the Serpent, but that’s going to take a lot of work, a lot of rewriting for this initial edit. I’m also going to get back to drafting book three The Hand of the Crone. I’ll update with those goals as the weeks go by, but the first deadline is Deceptive Waters. It’s my first attempt at an epic fantasy and which is one of my favorite genres forever.

So I’m looking forward to sharing more about the progress. I might be publishing it under my real name because it’s different enough from my Marguerite Labbe books that I think it would make sense. Not that I’ve kept much of a wall between Meegan and Marguerite. It’s never been a big secret. This series is called The Longest, Darkest Night. I’m also considering what I’m going to do next for Marguerite Labbe. I’m going back and forth between two different mystery series. One series is set in New Orleans around a BDSM club and will follow three different couples. The second will follow the same couple and involves art thievery rings throughout Europe. Chime in and let me know what you’re interested in.

Book Launch and Excerpt

Today I had the joy of having my very first book launch at Fenwick St. Books in Leonardtown, MD. If you’re a fan of quirky bookstores and you’re in Southern Maryland, I’d highly recommend it. It’s one of those small, independently run shops that just begs for a browse and the people who run it are just awesome. The store was busy and I had plenty of people stop by to chat. I love talking writing. There were some who were interested in writing, but didn’t know where to start. I even got to talk to another NineStar Press author Ivy L. James who writes queer romances. Here is her website if you are interested: https://www.authorivyljames.com/

I also got some surprise visits from friends and family, which made my day. Shout out to my beautiful sister Amanda and two of her best friends who came by. Plus, my two best friends from forever swung in. So that was really neat. I’m doing one last event this year and then I’m taking a break from fairs, cons, and bookstores until 2025. The holidays are almost upon us and my work overtime is getting the best of me. It’s going to be November 2nd, from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Alexandria Holiday Crafts & Treats Fair in Alexandria, VA.

The Monster Within came out on Tuesday. It’s wild to me to see how much of a difference 20k makes in size, which tells me that my current epic fantasy is going to be a chonky boi indeed.

I want to thank the wonderful blogs that posted a blitz about it this week. When you’ve been away from publishing for a few years, you worry that you’re going to have to start from the ground up again. Queer SciFi, Love Bytes Reviews, the Faerie Review, IndiGo Marketing and Design and Rainbow Book Reviews. Some of them have contests which may still be going on. If I missed any, my apologies, I’ll try to catch them next time.

Here is a quick excerpt from The Monster Within. I will fully admit, it took a while for my heroes to meet and converse. There was so much to set up for them both, but when they did, the attraction was immediate, even if the trust wasn’t.

As they poured over the maps and made plans, a knock came at the kitchen door. Salome moved to answer it and returned a moment later. “My lord, there’s a Monsieur Constantin Severin here to see you. The one who’s been sending you the notes. Shall I invite him in or send him on his way? He says to tell you, ‘I know what you search for in your journals when you are alone at night, and I know why you allow no visitors. I have some of the answers you seek.’”

“Oh, him.” Régine made a disparaging sound. “He’s an odd one, if you ask me, impatient and rude. He’s a con man, looking for a payout. What a ridiculous message.”

Michel-Leon glanced up from the maps, intrigued by the cryptic message as the ancestors tried to call out through the barrier he’d erected. What were the chances that his intruder would return so boldly? That was the one person he could think of who would give such a statement. Michel-Leon suspected that at least one mystery from last night would be solved. He lowered the barrier in his mind long enough to send out one query, and the answer came before he’d even fully formed the thought.

“The watcher is here.”

Indeed.

“Go ahead, invite him in and offer breakfast. I doubt another refusal will deter him.”

Michel-Leon sat back and studied the man as he came in. He had the impression of a slim figure swathed in layered and patched clothes. A hat jammed low over his head shaded his face, and long, wavy, gold-shot hair tumbled halfway down his chest. He didn’t appear like a man who could render himself invisible. He appeared to be a harmless vagabond. Someone with abilities such as that could steal whatever they wanted and live like a king. Now, this was interesting.

“There is no point in me staying since our guest has no use for women,” Régine announced as she rose with a glare in their visitor’s direction. “I’ll let Hadrien know we’ll leave within the hour.”

Michel-Leon almost warned her that Severin was their intruder from the night before but stopped himself. He could handle the man, despite his abilities. They needed to move faster on what was happening with the mists. If she knew, she’d insist on staying. “Be careful,” he urged, and she waved him off.

“I’m always careful, Michie.”

Michel-Leon waited until she left and then turned to Severin. “You’re a man who has an uncanny knack for uncovering secrets. Seems like that would be a very dangerous profession,” Michel-Leon said as the stranger sat on the bench across from him. “Almost as dangerous as infuriating my sister.”

“It has its hazards, same as any other.” The voice was husky and then it lightened with rueful amusement. “As I have so recently discovered to my chagrin. My apologies to your sister. I thought you were trying to foist me off with some excuse.” He took off his hat and Michel-Leon found himself staring, to his profound embarrassment.

Monsieur Severin was beautiful, with sharply chiseled features, a sensuous, soft mouth, and dark eyes too old and mysterious for his lovely face. The man gave him a cynical smile as if he knew what Michel-Leon was thinking.

Michel-Leon glanced away, caught off guard. He’d known for years that he was more attracted to men than women. Not that it mattered since he’d taken his vow to not wed, to concentrate on his duties as a chevalier and nothing more.

 

 

Moodboard and Spotify Playlist for The Monster Within

This week’s blog is going to be short and sweet. I’m at a hotel right now in the beautiful Shenandoah for a craft fair with my other Feral Writers. So if you’re in Warren County, come by the Fairgrounds and say hi.

My day job has been absolutely kicking my ass and interfering with my writing time. I hope that’s going to end soon. This is also the season of four painful anniversaries all within less than three weeks of each other, my husband’s birthday, the date of his fall and when he went into the hospital for the last time (which I had mercifully forgotten his year until Facebook reminded me), the date of his death and our wedding anniversary. It would’ve been twenty-five years this year, though in truth we were a couple far longer since we started in high school. I am grateful that in the other months of the year; I forget how hard this time is. I’m also grateful for the reminder of just how loved my sweet Keir is.

I’m in the process of getting a new tattoo, one to celebrate turning 50 this year and starting a new chapter of my life. It’s the Crone, Mother, and Maiden on my calf. I’ll get that finished up on Wednesday, which is our anniversary. I think that’s fitting.

So, onto The Monster Within. We are 9 days away from it being released! I’m so excited. Every writer approaches the craft in their own unique way. You have your planners and pansters and those who fall in between. You have writers that plan by story beats or get lost in a lot of world building, those who are character centric or plot centric. Some make moodboards or play certain music while they're writing. For me, I fall in between planning and pansting. I can’t outline, because I won’t follow the outline. Invariably, my characters or subconscious drives me off the rails. I have to know enough about my story to get started, but I absolutely have to leave wiggle room for improvisation.

The characters almost always come first, usually in a what if idea. I collect images as I’m plotting and coming up with ideas. For Monster, I found images of the mountains where Michel-Leon confronts the goblins, pictures of what I consider to be his home in both Sangipay and Paris. Pictures of what the swarm consists of, kind of a cross between cicadas and Star Spawn. I don’t necessarily make a moodboard like many do, but I have that collection, so I decided to grab some of them and make one for you all.

I also always make a playlist on Spotify. The mood of each one is very different. I can’t listen to music while I’m writing, but this playlist is absolutely on every time I’m in the car, or cleaning my house, or going for a walk. It helps get me into the mindset of the story and generates ideas. The one for Monster is an interesting mix of genres, so if you’re interested, here’s the link: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2bErhhHENjpPKst9j1z4QE?si=NEsTOfIWTfOVQDp9YkAGmw

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Meet the Heroines

First off, I apologize for not getting the blog out last week. The day job is kicking my ass with too much overtime and last weekend would’ve been my husband’s 50th birthday, so I ended up taking the weekend to chill with family and friends for my mental health. But I’m back at it this week. A bit ago, I talked about the main characters for The Monster Within. As much as I love my heroes, it’s time to talk about the ladies.

I love a good, strong female character and this book has two of them. Where would Michel-Leon and Constantin be without our heroines? Régine is Michel-Leon’s right hand, confidant, the person who has kept him grounded since he found himself without a home.

Though rumors have abounded for years that she’s his bastard half-sister, in truth, they are a family by bonds, not blood. Régine lives and breathes the life of a chevalier, yet the attitudes of the era toward women hamper her. Even Michel-Leon struggles with this from time to time, leading to arguments between them. It is a stance that Régine often finds frustrating, especially given that a woman found the Chevaliers de Rouen.

Régine is fiercely protective of Michel-Leon and often the more pragmatic of the two. She gives him a balance he desperately needs when he’s likely to fly off in several directions. She is courageous to a fault and doesn’t hesitate to dive into dangerous situations. This is a trait of the two that often makes Constantin nervous. Her protective nature also rouses her suspicions toward Constantin and his motives. It doesn’t help that Constantin dismisses her initially because of her gender.

Régine grows as well during the book. She forges a role for herself outside of just being Michel-Leon’s second. She even goes on to challenge the villagers to allow their women, who want to help defend their homes, to join the chevaliers as well.

Gabrielle is like Constantine. She’s a fey kissed child, only she’s locked in the nightmare that Constantin once escaped from. She recognizes the magicman is an evil creature that feeds off the children, not the doting grandfather it tries to pass himself off as.

Before he meets Gabrielle and sees the other children at the orphanage, Constantin is ready to run away from the torments of his past. Meeting her changes everything. He can’t leave her in the magicman’s clutches, even if it might cost him his life. She gives him a purpose again and her courage convicts him.

Though she appears waiflike, there’s an inner core of steel in Gabrielle that carries her through her time in the orphanage and eventually gives her the trust to allow Constantin to steal her away. Upon meeting Régine, she discovers women can fight back and she takes to those lessons with a relish that Constantin sometimes finds alarming, even as he recognizes she needs to be able to protect herself. He allows her to dare as much as she can safely do while he struggles with trusting himself enough to provide a stable home for her. In the end, her faith in her Constantin is justified.

Régine and Gabrielle will definitely lead the forefront of the next generation of chevaliers. I hope you enjoy reading about them as much as I enjoyed writing them. 

Going Home - And Hitting My Bucket List

View from the Commonwealth Hotel

 So for those of you who follow me you may know that I'm originally from New Hampshire. There's definitely a lot of Maryland gal in me, I've lived here now for 36 years, but my family is from the Great North Woods. I was born in Dover. And I still have a lot of family left up here. Whenever I cross that line past Franconia Notch I feel this incredible peace come over me. I'm home.

My beautiful cousin Sarah was marrying her love Steph this weekend and we were going to have one hell of a party up in Pittsburg. My son couldn't come with me on this venture and though my sisters were coming too I knew I needed some peace and quiet in between the partying. I'm a morning person. They are not. Lol, I also like road trips and side quests so I invited one of my besties to come with me. I knew she wouldn't mind 5 a.m. start times and taking the car and stopping by places for quick hikes.

Statue of Paul Revere

One of the things I knew I wanted to do was catch a game at Fenway. I love the Red Sox. I'm a third generation fan, but I've never, ever been to a game at Fenway. Whenever I go home, I feel guilty for stopping in Boston because I have so much family to see in New Hampshire and Vermont. Lucky for me, my niece goes to school in Boston so I had every excuse to hang out for a few days. So I texted her and asked if she'd be interested in a game. To make it even better, they were playing the Baltimore Orioles. So here I am in Boston, at a game in Fenway lol and I brought I bunch of O's fans with me. It was an amazing game. You could see Fenway from our hotel. It went into the 10th inning and we had great seats. 

Since my friend and I are also nerds and foodies, we had to get some Italian in the North End. We also found an amazing LGBTQ owned BBQ joint that had the most amazing biscuits and homemade jam. We also did a portion of the Freedom Trail. (I'm going to have to go back and finish it.)

Sweetcheeks BBQ

We left for New Hampshire the following day and stopped in Franconia Notch for a little hiking. I dearly wanted to do more, but I'm still working on building up my stamina after getting Long Haul Covid. I can do a 2.5 mile hike, but that was also on lesser climbs so we limited this first one to a mile. In between visiting family and figuring out where in the Great North Woods I'd build my house when I retire up here we also visited Lake Francis, had some ice cream in Moose Alley, went to Beaver Brook Falls and hiked along the stream a bit until a saw a pretty good sized fisher cat and said nope, we're going in the opposite direction. If anyone has read All Bets Are Off they'd know that fisher cats can be real assholes.

Red Sox vs Orioles

The wedding was beautiful. My uncle owns a good part of a mountain in Pittsburg and so we had it in my cousin's back yard. Absolutely gorgeous land. They'd been smoking brisket, chicken, pork and pork belly all week. We ate like kings, danced our feet off, and made the mountain ring with music. If there's one thing my family does well, it's a wedding. 

So I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the break from talking about writing and books. I'll be back next week with more. (There will be more pictures later when I talk hikes LOL.)

Meet the Heroes From The Monster Within

Hello everyone. I’m back after a crazy week of trying to keep my head above water at my day job and spending Saturday at Leonardtown’s first Local Author Book Faire. It was a lot of fun. I bought too many books. And we were chased out early, less by the threatening rain and more from the high winds that caused havoc among the tents. Most of the day was absolutely gorgeous, though.

The last couple of weeks, I talked about the origin of The Monster Within and about one of my monsters. This week I’d like to focus on my heroes, Michel-Leon and Constantin. Later on I will have to include a post about the brave woman and girl who are family to Michel-Leon and Constantin.

Meet Michel-Leon Parisee the Baron de Dagonville and a Chevalier de Rouen. His family has served as chevaliers since 1431. His father preferred the older son, who was more of a warrior, while Michel-Leon was a scholar. The wounds from his relationship with his father and the death of his family in a fire continue to haunt Michel-Leon. He is utterly dedicated to his calling, as Constantin would say, sometime to a frightening degree, but his relationships with his adopted family give him the sense of home he needs to be more balance. He sometimes has a childlike way of looking at the world, full of wonder, and openness to embrace the different.

However, his wounds and dedication have isolated him from opening his heart to another. He has taken a vow to remain single and changing Michel-Leon’s mind is not an easy task.

Constantin Severin is a man haunted by the monster who destroyed his childhood. Fear of the creature keeps him moving from city to city, eking out what living he can. However, when he actually does encounter the magicman again and discovers that it is preying on another group of children, Constantin finds the courage to stand his ground. Using the unusual glamour abilities of the fey kissed, he seeks out any weakness in the magicman. His search also leads him to Michel-Leon in the hopes that a chevalier will aid him or provide him with the weapon he needs.

He is a man jaded and terrified of becoming a monster himself, whose life has become nothing but a bid for survival. Michel-Leon once says of him “You are a marvel who creates marvels, but I fear people have let you down so often you cannot see the wonder in the world.” Despite this, he is a man willing to risk everything to protect those most in need.

It is a rough start for our two heroes who are mistrustful of each other at first, though they are willing enough to work together to achieve their own ends. Though they are attracted, they both resist to various degrees. They do have an ally, though, who is more than willing to speak to both of them to nudge them toward each other. In this scene below, Janvier urges Michel-Leon to really consider the idea of a romance.

“I am not your father,” Janvier replied gently. “I don’t care that he’s a vagabond with no home. Nor do I care that you both are men. I’ve witnessed you engage in conversations with him for hours, and it’s not always about the problems you both face. I care that you both share an interest in things outside of hunting monsters. You can work side by side with him in your lab and you both are content. He’s a man who would plunge into known danger to rescue you and call you out for risking yourself later. You need that. As I believe he needs someone who gives him a sense of home, a reason to return. You can do that for him.” 

Magicmen

 The Monster Within has many villains, monsters, creatures that the characters strive against. It starts with the goblins who are more of a nuisance than bad guys. The swarm is a menace to be sure, and the Boar is another danger, but for me nothing is more monstrous than the magicmen. Creatures who were once human, twisted by their addiction to souls, most particularly, the souls of children.

I cannot claim that the magicmen are creatures of my imagination. They belong wholly to my husband. When he was young, he came up with a group of superheroes he called The Repellers led by a fallen angel to save the world. In high school, he designed a role-playing game around his concept and for four years we battled magicmen, My’riah, Hotep, and black widow sharks amongst many other villains.

My character was an empath who had a particular aversion to magicmen. She developed a sixth sense for when they were around, but oftentimes her companions didn’t believe her until they came to light. She developed a big of a Cassandra complex from it. The magicmen were her nemesis and one even ended up stealing her own daughter.

I don’t remember exactly how I came up with the idea to use them in Monster but Keir loved the thought of me including a creature he created. The fey kissed link was new to this book, but everything else about the magicmen derived from Keir. They’re hard to detect because they tend to lie low. Each magicman feeds differently, and some aren’t quite as evil as Andre Nightingale. Which was often quite a dilemma for my high school character.

When it came to designing this particular magicman, I was greatly influenced by Stephen King’s Storm of the Century. I loved that movie. I loved the horror of the choice the town had to make. I loved the sheriff who kept fighting to keep all the children safe. How he kept searching even after it was too late. (There is definitely a bit of him in Constantin.) And I really loved that bastard who forced that choice on the town.

At first glance, he looked completely normal, that seemingly bland face that held such evil. The way he relished the townspeople’s infighting and pain stuck in my mind. Like Andre Nightingale, he was dangerous when crossed. And Nightingale also enjoyed toying with those around him.

I wanted to connect this particular magicman to French history. So I did some research into French serial killers and came across Gilles de Rais. The fact that he served in the 100 Years’ War with the founder of the Chevaliers de Rouen only cemented my choice. Gilles is not the magicman, but one of his servants who helped with everything and was also executed serves as the base for my monster. I hope he creeps you out as much as he does me.

As a little Easter Egg if you notice when Michel-Leon reaches out to his colleague in Prussia regarding a magicman who had been hunting in Hamelin, that is absolutely a reference to the pied piper.

 

The quote I use above probably sums up Nightingale. He’s arrogant. He’s cruel. And he has zero remorse. The full dialogue for that little bit is here:

“I can crush Constantin’s mind anytime I wish to.” Nightingale’s finger stabbed the air, and then it straightened with a sly smile. “It amuses me to make him suffer. He deserves to suffer after what he has stolen from me.”

“An interesting conceit, considering you stole from him first.” Michel-Leon braced himself on the railing and opened his mind further to the ancestors and their unceasing whispers. Those who had fought such monsters in the past vied for his attention.

“Do you apologize to the lamb when it graces your table?” Nightingale sneered. “The children are prey. Those who should shelter them cast them out, and I take them in. They are unwanted, unloved. If you valued them so much, you’d ensure their care. So spare me the lecture.”

Michel-Leon couldn’t deny the partial truths the magicman threw at him. If it hadn’t been for Constantin, no one would’ve ever noticed the children’s sufferings. There were too many in need of shelter, food, and love. They had to do better.

Origin of The Monster Within

 I am sitting here on a mountaintop in northeastern Pennsylvania at my last writer’s retreat of 2024. I’m so excited to announce the release date for The Monster Within and to reveal the cover art. (Those of you who follow me on Facebook have seen both, so I have a little extra fun for you here.) Some exclusive content that never made it into the book.

On October 15, 2024, The Monster Within will finally (and I mean finally) be released from NineStar Press. https://ninestarpress.com/product/the-monster-within/

Isn’t the cover gorgeous? Wow, they took my suggestions and exceeded my expectations. I love that the various elements could represent so much, that dark cloud hovering could be the mists or it could be the swarm coming down. The figure in the forefront could be our hero, Michel-Leon, the last Chevalier de Rouen, but it could also represent our villain who roams the mists hunting for children. The shadowy figures could be the people who disappear into the mists or the shades of Michel-Leon’s ancestors that he meets on the astral plane. And I think the image of the Arc d’Triomphe gives it a certain amount of hope because for as dark as the story can be it is at it’s heart a story of love not just for our heroes, but also for people, for a nation, even love of the strange and wondrous.

The Monster Within has taken over a decade to come from concept to this date. One very foggy morning on Veteran’s Day in 2012, when the streets were weirdly deserted because most everyone in the city had the day off because of the Federal holiday. I remember exactly where I was when the idea hit me - as I navigated the ramp from 295 to 395.

Its original working title was Dark Things from a line my husband gave me for Janvier. “I never involved myself in your father’s affairs out of fear. Your grandpère told me more than I wished to know, even more so after he saw I took on the responsibility of tending to you. They sought dark things and those things ate your father’s soul raw. I watched him die two deaths and could do nothing to stop either.” Originally, the book was supposed to be set in London because where else would I set a novel that has a city beset by fogs and mists? However, the story stalled. London just wasn’t working for me.

It wasn’t until I moved the story to Paris and renamed it Mists on the Seine that I got a better idea of what the story would entail. Below is an excerpt from Michel-Leon’s journal. As much as I wanted this journal entry into the novel it never did make it. The voice didn’t really work for Michel-Leon who can be quite humorous for a man who lives with what he does.

The mist rose from the Seine, smothered Pont Neuf and then spread to ooze through the streets of Paris. It crept down the broad boulevards, wreathed the gaslights and rendered them all but useless in the consuming nothingness. Tendrils of gray, sleepy, sentience surrounded both palace and hovel. It reared up to clamber over the Notre-Dame de Paris, slithering around the buttresses, swallowing the gargoyles, until it only a faint outline remained in the shadows. It seeped under doors and sought the cracks in the window shutters. The fog hunted day or night and struck when hungry.

And when the sunlight broke through, driving back the fog in shredded tatters, it revealed the damage left behind. Individuals, families, sometimes whole streets of people… gone. Doors and windows flung open, evidence of tasks or play interrupted, and no trace of violence. The people had disappeared and were never seen again.

It was never spoken of. Not by the denizens of the slums, huddled in their pleasure houses or taverns, fodder for the dark rites practiced by those whose greed for power and knowledge had enslaved them. By the factory owners and the bourgeois, those who forced toil and rent out of their workers and tenants, ignoring the screams that pierced the dark and the diminished numbers in the morning. It was never spoken of by the lingering nobility who clung to their crumbling titles as if they still had meaning and dreamed of a return to relevance.

Throughout all the madness, those who considered themselves the elite, the ones who held the reins of power continued to meet in secret with their circles and salons, thinking they were orchestrating events when in fact, they were the ones being manipulated like so many puppets on a string. They could not see the trap closing in about them.

Something was coming. The taste of it hung heavy in the air. It coated the throat until it had become so thick it could be choked upon. And that omen too was ignored. Only now, even as I write this, I’m not sure if the portents I sense are true ones or merely the effects of the slow, eroding insanity that had consumed my father and his father before him.

Over the next couple of years, it stayed on my radar, but I didn’t do much with it as I worked on other projects. I was having a hard time conceptualizing the lifecycle of my swarm and the science behind everything. The magicman wasn’t a problem. I’ve been wrestling with magicmen since I was 14, but the crux of the story was the swarm and I needed to get that handled. In 2018, my sweet husband ended up in ICU for months. He had multiple surgeries, was in and out of consciousness, and I spent countless hours at his bedside. It was that nightmarish spring that I finally figured it out and work began on Monster in earnest.

I originally had the idea of writing an epic poem to go with it and putting a couplet at the start of each chapter, but the epic nature of it never arose. It ended up being quite short so I never used it, but I quite like it so I’ve included it here.

Grave symbols etched in strange motif,

Warning of perils yet unborn.

And break of dawn brings no relief,

To those who ever mourn.

Do not heed the alluring cries,

When the mists on the river rise. 

In 2019, I finished the rough draft and my husband passed away. Writing used to always be an escape, but suddenly I couldn’t write anymore. All my words left me. It hurt, but I set writing aside until I could focus and free that part of myself again. When I did start writing it was poetry which was what I started with way back when in elementary school. Eventually, in September 2020, almost a year later, I picked it up. I focused mostly on fun writing. A fantasy around a couple of D&D characters my husband and I had that I didn’t expect to go anywhere. That fun writing brought me back to the joy and discipline of writing again and I began to think of my abandoned project. I wanted it out there. I needed it out there. It carried so much of my husband and I within it.

It was slow going, but I edited it and eventually got it off to betas. I took their suggestions worked on the third draft and more betas before I finally, finally had it where I thought it was good enough to submit. I’m so glad I stuck with it. I hope you enjoy this tale of monsters and love as much as I did.

A Beautiful Disaster Blog Tour

Blog Tour

Hello everyone, just wanted to give an update on where I’m going to be at the end of the month for A Beautiful Disaster’s blog tour. There will be interviews with Brenden and Dakota, a talk on vacations, some conventions stories, and a little more so please stop on by! There is also going to be a few release day reviews coming up!

July 30 – Love Bytes https://lovebytesreviews.com/

July 31 – My Fiction Nook http://www.myfictionnook.com/

August 1 – Two Chicks Obsessed http://twochicksobsessed.com/

August 2 – Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words https://scatteredthoughtsandroguewords.com/

August 6 – Dreamspinner Press Blog https://dreamspinnerpressblog.wordpress.com/

A Whole Latte Sass Blog Tour!

Hello everyone. I'm announcing my blog tour for A Whole Latte Sass. There may be some additions or date changes and if that happens I'll update, but for now, here's where all the fun begins!

January 1 - Two Chicks Obsessed 

January 1 - Long and Short Reviews 

January 2 - Boy Meets Boy 

January 3 - Love Bytes 

January 4 - My Fiction Nook 

January 7 - Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 

January 8 - Dreamspinner Press Blog 

Nano - Day 1 - The Monster Within

Constantin

Since I'm wrapping up A Beautiful Disaster I decided to dive into National Novel Writer's Month this year with a brand new project. This year I'm also trying to plot things out more and I'm attempting the snowflake method. It's going much better this time than the first time I tried it. I think the trick for me is not to start cold. I need to let an idea percolate for a while and I've been percolating on The Monster Within for many years. It used to be called Mists on the Seine, but that title never worked for me.

It's my Lovecraft meets Hugo meets Verne story. The last Chevalier de Rouen and a vagabond must discover the secrets to the mists before the swarm hatches and devours Paris.

Michel-Leon

It's going to be a wild ride. Today I fleshed out our two antagonists and expanded my synopsis. I'm discovering more about this world every day. As much as I wanted to do it sooner, plot elements wouldn't gel, and I couldn't figure out how the mists led to the missing people. Sitting in ICU with my husband this summer gave me a lot of time to think about it and I worked out a lot of what was blocking me. But I had the geeks to finish.

Now it's time to dive into a darker world. Today I'd like you to meet my two heroes. Michel-Leon Parisee, the Baron de Dagonville and the last Chevalier de Rouen. And Constantin Severin, a wandering man of mystery who holds many dangerous secrets.

A Beautiful Disaster - Book 3 Geek Life

I'm wrapping up edits on Brenden and Dakota's story. I love these two. I say that every book I know, but I love these two.

Brenden Wade has made a name for himself promoting events and has turned his micromanaging, organizational skills toward his second love comic book conventions. He has worked toward making Chessie Con the biggest name in the Chesapeake Bay area all with the help of his best friend Dakota Nye. Only now, the weight of the secrets he’s been carrying since they were teenagers threatens their friendship.

Dakota wants to enjoy life by the moment, run his podcast, and annoy his plus one as they run their conventions. He has never believed himself capable of settling down. But Brenden makes Dakota dream of possibilities. He sees no problem testing the heat between them. After all what happens between friends is no one’s business. He never expected to discover that Brenden is in love with him.

One night of passion changes both men’s preconceptions. Brenden is faced with everything he’s ever wanted but he risks having another family turn their back on him when they discover his broken promise. The last thing Dakota wants to do is hurt Brenden, but he doesn’t trust himself to stay even if Brenden has him longing for a future. Both of them are scarred by their past, but they know that no matter what they always figure out where to go together, especially when their hearts are on the line.

A Whole Latte Sass - Coming January 1, 2019

Preorder at Dreamspinner Press

Check out this beautiful cover by Kanaxa. She is doing an amazing job with these. I can't wait to work with her for the third book. Let me tell you, that smile is pure Felipe. I'm delighted by it and the warm, happy colors suit him.

I love the characters in this book. Sass touches on many themes that are personal to my life. I'll be announcing a blog tour probably sometime in December and I'm sure I'll be talking about those themes.

But I really hope you enjoy Trask and Felipe's story. They are just so sweet. All of the couples for the Geek Life series have been such a joy to write. I'm excited!

A Little Side of Geek Blog Tour

Come check out these upcoming blogs for snippets and sneak backroom peeks into the series.

May 15 – MM Good Book Reviews http://mmgoodbookreviews.com/

May 21 – My Fiction Nook http://www.myfictionnook.com/  

May 22 – Love Bytes http://lovebytesreviews.com/

May 22 – Happily Ever Chapter http://happilyeverchapter.blogspot.com/

May 23 – Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words https://scatteredthoughtsandroguewords.com/

May 24 – The Novel Approach http://www.thenovelapproachreviews.com/

May 25 – Long and Short Reviews http://www.longandshortreviews.com/

May 29 – Kimi-chan Experience http://kimichanexperience.com/

May 30 – Dreamspinner Press Blog http://blog.dreamspinnerpress.com/

January 11th Daily Deal

Dreamspinner Press has Make Me Whole for their Daily Deal. In celebration, I posted one of my favorite excerpts. One of the first scenes that started the whole story.

$1.11 Deal Link

Shadows blanketed the hallway, but he had grown accustomed to making his way through the museum with just the security lights for illumination. The museum wasn’t that big, and it didn’t take him long to get to the new exhibit. Galen paused in the doorway, stunned by the sight before him. The security lights hadn’t been set up here yet, but the row of skylights stretching across the roof faced the rising full moon, and the room was awash with a pale-blue glow. In the shadows and light, the statue facing him looked almost alive, ready to move at any moment and finish the action he’d started.

Galen walked over to him, his heart thudding, and laid his hand on the man’s forearm. How surreal. For a moment it almost seemed like heated flesh beneath his fingers and not cooler bronze. “Who are you, Dexios? And why do you seem so familiar to me?”

Silence answered him, and Galen had the insane urge to slip under those embracing arms to press himself up against the man. He stepped back with a short, uneasy laugh and stuck his hand into his pocket. With his luck he’d get stuck. He didn’t want to hear Suzane’s laughter the next morning when she found him entangled with a statue. He’d never live it down.

This obsession, this inability to get these statues out of his mind, was unhealthy. He needed to go home and relax, as Suzane had suggested. Go home and find some way to get Nick out of his thoughts.

“Shouldn’t you prefer flesh and bone to metal? You never were one to put your faith in the mystical.”

Galen stiffened and spun around to face the man in the wide arched doorway. Adrenaline raced through him and his breath quickened. At first all he could see were shadows, and then the man stepped into the moonlight. He wore no undershirt beneath his breastplate and the studded leather fringe that hung from his waist did nothing to hide his muscular thighs. A teasing smile played on his lips and his eyes held mysteries in the shadows and light. Galen couldn’t tell what color they were or what the man intended. “Would you kiss these lips now that I stand before you?”

Galen’s breath caught on a wave of recognition. “Nick?” Wait, no. Not quite, but similar. This man’s hair came to his shoulders in thick waves, unlike Nick’s short, rumpled style groomed to look careless. Old scars ridged his arms and legs. And though Nick worked out, this man had hard muscles all over as if he drove himself all the time. In fact, now that he looked at him closer, Galen was uncomfortably reminded of his sexy statue. They even had scars in the same places.

The back of his neck prickled with uneasy awareness. If he turned around, would he still see it standing in its place behind him? He wavered between looking over his shoulder and keeping his eyes on the strange man before him. It was a ridiculous thought—statues didn’t wake up and move around. He really needed to get away from this place and take a break if he was having thoughts like that.

“Nick? That is an interesting pet name, not one you have used before. What does it mean?”

Galen stumbled back, almost falling as the man moved closer. His hands caught a hold of metal and he clung to the reassurance that he hadn’t lost his entire grip on reality. This man wasn’t the statue come to life. “Who the hell are you?”

The coaxing smile died and his eyes widened. “You don’t remember? A part of you always does. Could it have been so long this time?” He tapped Galen’s chest just over his heart. The physical contact was another small comfort. The strange man wasn’t a figment of his imagination, though Galen supposed an intruder wasn’t a better option. “How can you not remember me, remember us?”

Galen looked over his shoulder at the control panel on the wall. He needed a better nighttime security system, maybe even a guard. “I don’t know how you got in here or what possessed you to dress like that, but I suggest you leave before my security comes.” The man did not react the way Galen expected him to with that desperate gamble. Instead, a puzzled look crossed his face as strong hands settled on Galen’s hips.

“I do not understand the words you say. You look different, yet I know it is you born again to bring me to life.” Those hands on his hips tugged, and Galen gasped as groin met groin with a hot tingle of awareness. Oh yes, hard all over. Damn, it had been so long since he had another man against him. And the resemblance to Nick made it even more disorienting. “Kiss me, Lykon. Make me whole again.”

Happy 2018

Well, it's the start of another year and once again I'm getting over an illness. Last year it was the stomach flu, this year some kind of sinus thing but that's what you get when you have 19 people under one roof for an extended holiday with 7 of them kiddies of various ages. The germs were strong with them this year. But I think we're kicking the bug in time to drive back home tomorrow.

As much as I may worry about a year ahead. (2017 was a banner for anxieties.) It's impossible to start out the year on a sour note. Fifteen years ago, in the middle of a Southern Maryland ice storm my son was born three weeks early, after scaring us into thinking he was going to come a couple months early. This kid clearly had a mind of his own and we headed to the hospital right after the ball dropped. Since then we've had the tradition of singing Happy Birthday to him as it comes down.

So happy birthday my sweet Moose the Meme Lord. I love you and I cannot wait to see what you will accomplish in 2018 or see you in your flight suit for Space Camp. If it still actually fits you when the time arrives. Last year brought you your Confirmation, graduation from middle school and the start of high school, your first girlfriend and your first heartbreak. 2018 will be just as action-packed and awesome. Just you wait and see.

Last Two Comic Book Conventions of the Year

Star Wars Days Table for Kids

 I’ve had to slow down on the number of comic book conventions I attended in this last year. I work a regular day job Monday through Friday with a long commute. And as much fun as comic book conventions are, they are work too and they often involve travel time. I need my weekends to catch up on house cleaning and errand running and sometimes hiding in a corner with a cat on my lap, a cup of coffee at my elbow, and a book in my hands. So sometimes I’ll tell my husband to go on without me and have lots of fun. Usually, our son will go with him when given a choice. I can blame him for picking to get up early and work a table over whatever chores he knows I’ll lay on him if he stays.

 

My son with his newly purchased headband

I did go to the last two of the year though. The first one, Star Wars Days, is organized and run by a local Boy Scout Troop. This particular Boy Scout Troop petitioned to be the 501 Troop and then contacted the 501st Legion in their area to be involved with their event. The 501st Legion is a worldwide cosplaying group dedicated to Star Wars. And the convention that the Boy Scout Troop puts on is amazing. They have standees of many characters for photo ops. There are droids zipping around. The 501^st Legion is there in full get up. And they have a Jedi training center in the gym. The young men are running around the whole weekend taking food orders from the vendors, providing directions, and helping out with every little task that they can. It's so much fun.

We go as part of the Artway Alliance team. At the con, we provide classes throughout the weekend that kids can attend. My husband did a class on drawing aliens. Since this wasn’t a regular table gig and space was limited, I found an out of the way place and worked on edits and writing in between a little Christmas shopping with the vendors and catching up with some friends that I haven’t seen in a while. My husband has been with Artway Alliance for about four years now. They provide afterschool artistic activities and classes to local schools as well as attending cons like this all over the place.

Holiday Cosplayers

The second con was the Richmond Comicon at the Raceway. Our very first comic book convention as vendors was this con. Over the years the people there have become family. My son is one of their volunteers. We almost always have our podcast Role With Us as one of the panels where we run a live game. My husband either has a table where he sells his artwork or run’s a kid’s section where kids can come and sit and color or draw for a bit. Sometimes he’ll have classes, sometimes he’ll do commissions or both. They had a scavenger hunt for the kiddies and we handed out prizes. In addition to the podcast panel, Gary Cohn asked me to be on a panel with him Robert Sodaro, James Noll, Ray Felix, and Chris Otto on Self-Publishing.

Despite the snow and the fears that so many in this area seem to have when it comes to that stuff we had pretty good attendance. And the afterparty was so much fun. It was neat to see holiday themed costumes. So until 2018. I’m conned out. LOL.

Coming soon. Wow, cover art. The most amazing cover art for A Little Side of Geek. 

A Geeks Life Trilogy

So for the last year I’ve been hard at work on a trilogy that follows comic books conventions and the people that work them. All the books are set in Maryland, DC, and Virginia. The first book A Little Side of Geek. Has been submitted and hope to hear within the next few weeks whether or not I’ll get a contract offer.

Proud geek and comic book artist, Morris Proctor wants nothing more out of life than to live it in semi-seclusion with his devil cat and gamer friends. Despite what his well-meaning family thinks, he’s perfectly content with his status-quo. The last thing he wants is to date another non-geek hell bent on changing him.

Then he meets his adorkable new neighbor, Theo Boarman, who doesn’t know Star Trek from Star Wars, but everything about heating up a kitchen, and who tempts him like no other.

Theo has spent the last year recovering from the loss of his parents and trying to play both roles for his teenage brother, while working to keep the family restaurant afloat. Dating is the last thing on the menu, especially with a man who views the height of dining is shoving a packaged meal into the microwave.

But if Morris gives him one more shy smile, or flaunts that kilt he wears so well, Theo will be forced to convince him that a hot summer fling is just the recipe to let off a little steam.

Neither of them count on their fling becoming this serious, this fast. When two worlds tangle, it’s anyone’s game, and it’s up to the lovers to decide to take a chance on their perfect match.

I’m working on a first round of edits for the second book A Whole Latte Sass, which follows Morris’s best friend, cosplayer Felipe Suero and his silver fox Trask Briscoe who owns a comic/gaming store in Richmond called Old Dominion Magick Den. Once the edits are done, I hope to get it off to beta readers and I’m about 10k into the third book A Heap of Trouble, which follows convention promoter Brenden Wade and his step-brother Dakota Nye, trouble maker and podcaster and the man Brenden has been in love with for half his life.

Stay tuned!