Contest for NANCY'S THEORY OF STYLE

You can enter a contest for two copies of my upcoming release in my Grace Coopersmith persona, Nancy's Theory of Style, over at Mom's Mutterings.

Contest for 2 Copies of BLOOD BORN by Linda Howard & Linda Jones, My Ultimate Interview

 First the important stuff.  Since I was so clueless about the publishing world when I started out, I like to help others trying to get published.  I've keep in touch with some of the young writers I've met at the San Francisco Writers Conference and I was thrilled when one of my pals from the conference, Kristina Meister, signed with Jeri Smith-Ready's agent for her speculative fiction.  One of her novels is now out with excellent editors, and I'm hoping she gets a book deal soon.

She's just posted an in-depth interview with me at her website.  I'm actually answer questions seriously.

So after Marta gave her very illuminating and humorous talk, I approached her, mostly stoked I was getting to meet someone I admired. I walked up boldly and told her that I loved her work and identified with her ever-tormented character Milagro, because I wrote exactly the same type of fiction and was in almost exactly the same situation, minus the peer group with bloodsucking genetic disorder. Marta seemed to take a step back without exactly moving, looked at me rather speculatively, and shook my hand. “How funny,” she said, “I've always felt like Milagro was kind of a Crackpot.”

 I like that Kristina capitalized Crackpot, because it's something a crackpot would do.

CONTESTS! CONTESTS! CONTESTS!

I've got a whole mess o' contests going on!

• Contest for Richard Danksy's ghostly and thrilling Firefly Rain, runs though May 9.
• Contest for The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker or The Darkly Luminous 
• Fight for Persephone Parker (winner's choice) by Leanna Renee Heiber, runs through May 10.
• Contest for futuristic suspense The God Patent by Ransom Stephens, runs through May 15.
• Contest for Hunted by the Others by Jess Haines, runs through May 16.

TODAY'S CONTEST:  Because two is better than one, two Linda's have written Blood Born -- Linda Howard and Linda Jones -- and Ballantine Books/Random House has given me TWO copies for a contest.

Here's the publisher's summary:

When the human and the vampire worlds collide, there will be hell to pay. 

Luca Ambrus is a rare breed: vampire from birth, begotten by vampire parents, blood born. He is also an agent of the Council—the centuries-old cabal that governs vampirekind, preserving their secrecy and destroying those who betray them. 

When a cryptic summons leads him to the scene of the brutal killing of a powerful Council member, Luca begins the hunt for an assassin among his own people. But instead of a lone killer he discovers a sinister conspiracy of rogue vampires bent on subjugating the mortal world. 

All that stands in their way are the conduits, humans able to channel spirit warriors into the physical world to protect mankind. Chloe Fallon is a conduit—and a target of the vampire assassin who’s killing them. When Luca saves her life, an irresistible bond of trust—along with more passionate feelings—is forged between them. As more victims fall, Chloe and Luca have only each other to depend on to save the world from the reign of monsters—and salvage their own future together.

Hmm, the idea of rogue vampires conspiring against their vampire Council in order to subjugate mortals sounds really familiar.  It's almost as if I dreamed a book like that...but my dream included a party that went out of control, an egomanical movie star, and sort of a Hotel California setting.  Dreams are crazy.

 Read Blood Born's Prologue.

Visit Linda Jones's Website.and Facebook page.

To enter the contest for Blood Born, just tell me something about dreams.  That's all.  Do you have a reoccurring dream, or do you never dream, or do you have those dreams where you're late, or have you ever dreamed anything that came true.  (I dreamed I was late to something and then the alarm clock didn't go off and it came true!)  One of my reoccurring dreams is that I'm in an old mansion and I've been there before.  I know the secret stairways and passages.

Entries limited to U.S. and Canada and the contest runs through May 19.  Winners will be selected in a random drawing.

GRATUTIOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

Is it Friday already?  Then Friday fun. Have a great weekend!

Jess Haines Guest Blogs & Contest for Hunted by the Others

"Hunted by the Others reminded me why I fell in love with the urban fantasy genre in the first place...A paranormal world that sucks you in, characters you actually care about, romantic tension that truly sizzles, and did I mention Royce?"

All Things Urban Fantasy

"Royce - the big, bad yummylicious vampire - is one of the things that kept me reading the story...With lots of funny moments, plenty of action and a bit of a romance, Hunted by the Others is a fun read and I'm definitely going to be reading the next book in this new series."

The Book Lush

My guest blogger today is Jess Haines, whose debut Hunted by the Others,  was released this week.  Congratulations, Jess!

Here's her publisher's summary of the first book in the H&W Investigations series:

Shiarra Waynest's detective work was dangerous enough when her client base was strictly mortal. But ailing finances have forced her to accept a lucrative case that could save her firm--if it doesn't kill her first. Shiarra has signed on to work for a high-level mage to recover an ancient artifact owned by one of New York's most powerful vampires.

As soon as Shiarra meets sexy, mesmerizing vamp Alec Royce, she knows her assignment is even more complicated than she thought. With a clandestine anti-Other group trying to recruit her, and magi being eliminated, Shiarra needs back-up and enlists her ex-boyfriend--a werewolf whose non-furry form is disarmingly appealing--and a nerdy mage with surprising talents. But it may not be enough. In a city where the undead roam, magic rules, and even the Others aren't always what they seem, Shiarra has just become the secret weapon in a battle between good and evil--whether she likes it or not. . .

Jess is giving away an autographed copy of Hunted by the Others.  Read to the end of the post for contest rules.  Now, she tackles that question that scholars have pondered since time immemorial, Vampires: Hot or Not?  Welcome, Jess!

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Vampires: Hot or Not?

There are many flavors of vampire out there.  Sometimes they are good looking and suave; other times they are ugly and deformed.  You’ve got the classic elegant beast in Dracula, the disgusting monster in Nosferatu, the broody reformer-in-search-of-redemption in Angel, and the sparkly hunk of teenaged angst-on-a-stick that is Edward Cullen.

In addition to their looks, vampires have some of the most interesting blends of strengths and weaknesses of all supernatural creatures.  These attributes vary greatly depending on the myth, legend, book, or TV series you’re watching/studying.  The vampires may be allergic to garlic, silver, sunlight, holy objects or consecrated ground, running water, fire, etc.  They need to periodically consume (human) blood to survive.  As immortal creatures of night and shadow, they frequently seduce their victims using their looks, their charms, or magic powers.  Often they possess unnatural strength, agility, speed, stamina – pardon me, must pause for a moment to fan myself.

One thing I’ve noticed from the reviews I’ve seen for my book, Hunted by the Others,  is that the reviewers are mostly slanted in favor of the vampire in my story, Alec Royce.  Royce is an ancient, elder vampire who rules over a good chunk of real estate on the East coast, including New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  He also presents a big problem for my protagonist, Shiarra Waynest, since he’s the one who has the artifact she’s supposed to collect for a mage coven, and he’s not about to make it easy for her to get her hands on it.  As one reviewer put it, “Half the time he is stalking Shia I don’t think even he knew if he wanted to eat her or sleep with her.”  Yet he’s a reader favorite – why is that?  What makes him desirable despite the obvious danger he poses? 

Mine is not the only book where I’ve seen this phenomenon (or experienced it myself).  Now, to stick with the topic at hand—are they hot or not?—we’re going to discuss and study vampires like Bram Stoker’s Dracula:

Angel and Spike from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show:

Louis and Lestat from Interview With The Vampire:

David from The Lost Boys:

Eric from True Blood:

Blade from the Blade Trilogy:

Not to mention Blade’s nemesis, Deacon Frost:

Edward Cullen from the Twilight Saga:

Wow.  While I might have gotten a bit carried away there, I may have made my point.  Those pictures pretty much speak for themselves.

So what do you say, folks?  Vampires – Hot or Not?  You decide!

As a side note, for more delightfully hunky vampires, please visit my new best friend, Vamp Boyz (or, if dudes aren’t your thing, check out Vamp Chix  instead!).  This eye candy has been a public service announcement brought to you by Jess Haines (with a little inspiration from Michele Hauf of Vamp Boyz!).

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Read Chapter One of Hunted By Others.

CONTEST RULES:  Just leave a comment on whether you think vamps are hawt, or if you prefer another paranormal creature or regular human beings.  Or you can leave a comment for Jess.  The contest runs through May 16, and a winner will be selected by random drawing.  Restricted to those in the U.S.

GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

Wherein we explore the theme, vampires, hot or not? By the way, what is it about vampire fans that they're wild about disco beats?





I apologize for this song. It feels me with despair for modern civilization.

Marta's Amazing and Fabulous Announcement!

"Nancy’s Theory of Style  is a fiercely fun and witty contemporary love story nestled in one of San Francisco’s trendiest neighborhoods, Pacific Heights... This heartwarming and romantic story will have readers pacing in their Prada’s to see what happens next."

Nob Hill Gazette

"Nancy's Theory of Style is chick-lit with brains, manners, zest and know-how."

Leah Garchik, San Francisco Chronicle

"Nancy's Theory of Style is a witty, emotion-packed contemporary romance novel, which will leave you longing for the story to go on. I loved this story."

Romance Book Junkies

So here's the amazing news that I've been saving:  my hilarious and touching new book, Nancy's Theory of Style, will be released on May 18 under the name Grace Coopersmith.  Why Grace Coopersmith?  Because 1) the new name distinguishes Nancy from my vampy books, and 2) because Grace sounds like someone who knows the best source for Belgian linens and I sound like someone who collects penguin salt and pepper shakers.  (This is no offense to those who do collect penguin salt and pepper shakers, because they are awesome!)

At left, you will see me at six in my ballet portrait, when my mother cut my bangs and I had aspirations of being graceful and elegant.  I liked pink, and I liked and owned fluffy kittens.  I smiled without showing my teeth. I liked telling funny stories.  The pink is gone, the idea of being a ballerina is gone, the fluffy kittens are long gone, so please help that child's dreams of funny stories come true!

Want and need to know more about my new novel?  Here's the summary.

Lively young socialite Nancy Carrington-Chambers has always believed an excellent sense of style and strict attention to detail are what it takes to succeed, but her own husband Todd is showing symptoms of incurable tackiness, so Nancy flees their McMansion for her posh San Francisco apartment. She knows her event planning company, Froth, is a real winner, but she must prove herself by reinventing the turgid Barbary Coast Historical Museum fundraiser. Luckily, Nancy now has the perfect assistant. Derek Cathcart is British, impeccably dressed, gorgeous, and clearly gay—so why does Nancy find him so attractive?

Before Nancy can unravel her feelings, her irresponsible cousin Birdie abandons her little daughter with Nancy and takes off. Nancy, Derek, and Eugenia make an unlikely “family,” but strangely it seems incredibly right. Now Nancy’s parents are pressuring her to return to Todd, and she still has to pull off a spectacular party. For someone who’s always known exactly where she’s going, Nancy is in dangerously uncharted waters.

The reviews are starting to come in and they've been great.

Dirty Sexy Books: "...a fantastic, feel-good contemporary romance...I think it’s more accurate to call this a love story, because Nancy doesn’t just find the right man, but she also learns to love a child too. That’s the part that really tugged on my heart, and okay, maybe I got a little misty-eyed at the end."

BlogCritics:  "...the big reveal at the end left me feeling warm and fuzzy. In fact, I couldn’t put the book down....For a somewhat wacky, sometimes touching venture into contemporary women’s literature, give it a spin.

Reading with Tequila:  "Nancy's Theory of Style is a fresh feeling novel of life, love, losing control and finally realizing what's truly important. Surprising plot twists really make this novel something special...fabulous fun."

Pam's Personal Reflections:  "a humorous and poignant romantic tale of a finicky young socialite...I could easily say I 'heart' Nancy's Theory of Style."

Read an interview with me as Grace at Bookaholics Romance:  "I love stories about young women who come into their own. It’s such an exciting time in life – that cusp between girlhood and real womanhood... Your inner life is so passionate and consuming.  Inside every mature woman there’s still that young woman, who’s so hopeful and brave about the future. These are the stories I want to tell."

Enter a contest to win a copy of Nancy's Theory of Style at Bookaholics Romance.

Yes, it's a wonderful book!  Buy it and read it and tell your friends about it so I can keep on writing books and blogging and finding great videos for you to enjoy.  This is the perfect summer read and the sun is out, so click on your favorite bookseller below to be taken directly to Nancy's Theory of Style!

A1Books Amazon.com   Barnes & Noble   Books-A-Million   Borders   Powell's Bookstore Wal-Mart Online   Waldenbooks

Visit my Grace Coopersmith Website, where you can learn more about Nancy's posh Pacific Heights neighborhood.

Add Grace on Twitter and on Facebook.

If you're a blogger and/or reviewer and you're interested in this book or would like me to be a guest at your blog, email me!  I'm counting on all of you to help me get the world out about my new book!


GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

It's a special day for me, my coming out as Grace day, so I'm sharing a few of my very favorite GVDs.

Okay, I think this song has permanently fried my brain.

Interview with Ransom Stephens & Contest for THE GOD PATENT

 

"...a narrative that sings of the heart and the scientific method as two parts of the same song."

San Francisco Chronicle

"Ransom Stephens got it right. The Petaluma scene. The suspense software. The dark side in all of us that is battling our hardwired angels."

The Petaluma Democrat: Book Case

I'm quite delighted to have a certifiable brainiac as my guest today. Ransom Stephens is not only the author of the newly released The God Patent, but a former professor of particle physics, which is all kinds of awesome.   He's also a pal and well-known in the San Francisco literary scene, where he participates in conferences and hosts the writers' program Speakeasy.

Now, Ransom is a thoughtful fellow, so his answers are well considered.  This makes for a long Q&A, but I highly recommend that you read to the end.  He has interesting observations for both readers and writers trying to get that first deal.

The publisher describes the book as "“Nick Hornby meets Stephen Hawking and writes a Neal Stephenson novel.”  Ransom is offering a signed copy of his book for a contest here, so read to the end of the post to learn how to enter.

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MARTA: Welcome to Vampire Wire, Ransom! Congratulations on publishing The God Patent. Would you tell us a little about it?

RANSOM: Love to! The God Patent has three primary plot-lines. Foremost, it’s about a man named Ryan McNear who, in the course of salvaging a life ruined by bad choices (“Was it meth, hookers, or gambling?” Dodge asks, and Ryan replies, “Well, it wasn’t gambling…”), moves into an old house-turned apartment complex. His landlord, Dodge Nutter, is a former lawyer, current conman (and is a lot of people’s favorite character) and his neighbor is an 11 year-old girl named Katarina. Katarina’s father died a year before so she’s sort of obsessed with figuring out what death is; her mother hasn’t recovered from her husband’s death and isn’t much of a parent. Ryan becomes Katarina’s mentor and discovers that, in addition to being obsessed with death and a nasty adolescent skate-rat, she is a math prodigy. Most of the story is about Ryan and Katarina growing up together.

The arc of the story is the culture war between science and religion. Ryan’s old friend Foster is an evangelical Christian who believes that he can prove the existence of God by developing technology that he and Ryan proposed as a joke back in the heady days of the dotcom/tech boom. Well, Ryan needs money to fix his life so it’s not too hard for Dodge, the landlord/attorney-conman, to convince Ryan that he should sue his old friend – which means debunking the technology in a very public way.

This is where Emmy comes in. Emmy is Dodge’s sister and she is a professor of particle physics. An interesting side note on Emmy is that I based her on my fantasy of Emmy Noether who was mathematician at the turn of the last century. Noether’s theorem is, in my mind, the most important discovery in the history of humanity! So I think it’s a crime that so few people know who Emmy was. Other than dedication to the truth embodied in mathematical science, my Emmy actually has little in common with the real Emmy, but maybe (maybe!) if Emmy Noether had grown up in Los Angeles in the 1980s instead of the Kaiser’s Germany in the 1900s, Emmy Noether might have been like my Emmy Nutter.

Anyway, Emmy immediately understands what Ryan’s friend is trying to do and why it can’t work. She also understands the political motivation of the fundamentalist Christian right in pushing this technology whether it work or not.

Ryan falls for her immediately and soon find himself stuck in the middle of the science vs religion culture war. On the one hand, his best friend has gotten funding from a cynical military contractor to develop this limitless energy source and on the other is his girlfriend trying to show the world that it’s a big con.

All the while, Katarina is alongside Ryan, trying to figure out where the science ends and the religion begins. Most of the science in the book emerges from Katarina’s quest to understand what happens after you die. Over the course of the story Katarina grows from an 11 year-old with scratched up knees to a 14 year-old desperately in need of a parent. Ryan does his best and you can judge for yourself whether or not his best is good enough.

The book concludes with Katarina’s concept of the eternal soul. The cool thing about this concept is that whether or not you believe it can be boiled down to your answer to a single question of faith.

MARTA: I think people too often see creativity and science as mutually exclusive. Any thoughts?

RANSOM: I think that the creative people are the ones who become great in any field. The difference is that arts tend to be considered more “creative” than the sciences. I haven’t found this to be true in my experience as a particle physicist. Some of the most creative people I’ve known have been physicists, engineers and mathematicians – people who invent things out of thin air whether they’re gadgets, ideas, or new ways to understand the universe. Ultimately, I think that where we invest our time is where our creativity emerges.

I’ve found writing novels almost alarmingly similar to writing software. If you change one thing, you have to go back and debug everything else or it won’t work. Novels are wily; they’ll slip away if you’re not careful. And, of course, ideas are the heart of all creativity.

I guess the only real difference between the creativity of writing fiction and that of understanding nature is that nature will let you know if you’re right or wrong and no one can tell you if you’re “right” or “wrong” with fiction. Critics certainly try and they’ve been awfully nice to me so far so I’m not going to say anymore about them.

MARTA: You write a lot of nonfiction, including scientific papers and a memoir on raising your daughter. Did you discover anything about writing in general and your writing in particular when you were writing The God Patent?

RANSOM: What Steven King says in his book, On Writing, is true: Do it for the buzz. The buzz from science writing is different from the buzz of writing fiction or memoir. In science writing – I write a lot of papers for high tech company marketing departments, which is what paid my bills while writing The God Patent – it’s more like puzzle solving and documenting the solution, the buzz is in the solution, not the documentation.

Writing fiction though – what a rush! The months I spent in this world of Ryan, Katarina, Dodge and Emmy were wonderful. I felt everything each one of them went through.

Most of the book is set in Petaluma where I now live and every day I’d walk by the wonderful old Victorian that the “Nutter Mansion” is based on. I’d look up in the second floor and wonder what Ryan was up to, down the street, to the old Phoenix Theatre that inspired the Skate-and-Shred skate park+gig venue in The God Patent and it was easy to picture Katarina painting murals inside. In the middle of the night I’d wake up and streams of novel-reality, possibilities and backstory would run through my head to the point where I didn’t really want to fall back asleep.

Of course, in addition to the buzz, is the craft. I am a craft junkie. I’ll talk about it for as long as you want. How to integrate backstory so it increases tension, ways to use point of view to keep things clear and edgy, the right way (imo) to build similes and metaphors, … all that stuff. Mastering the craft has been my strength in every job I’ve had. I don’t so much mean grammar and spelling, they are important, but they’re mechanics, not craft. I have a web page with most of my craft notes included.

 

MARTA: Are scientists or non-scientists your primary audience? Is your book difficult to follow for those of the “science makes my brain hurt” set?

RANSOM: Non-scientists are the primary audience for The God Patent. Novels have to deliver a story first and any thematic intellectual stuff should come second; it mustn’t be forced, and it should be integral, organic to the plot and served in small doses.

My publisher has described The God Patent as “Nick Hornby meets Stephen Hawking and writes a Neal Stephenson novel.”  The Amazon reviews, comments and all the email I get indicate that The God Patent appeals to a lot of different people.

There is authentic science in The God Patent, though it is never comes in longer than 4 page bites, which is still more than the big publishers probably would have allowed. Numina Press believes the science adds a lot of value; they don’t like to publish the same old stuff. Truth is, they let me keep way more science than I thought a publisher would ever let through. So far, no one has been put off by the science content – not even my sister who loathes all things technical. Most of my readers are drawn in more by the human story of Ryan trying to emerge from his problems with his teenage sidekick Katarina.

We spent a terrific amount of time working on the scenes where science emerges to make certain that there are at least two major sources of plot tension intertwined in those scenes. For example, in the most science-centric scene, where Emmy describes the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, Ryan is hitting on Emmy and Katarina hassles him for it mercilessly, plus Ryan is in the course of realizing something that, well, I can’t tell you what because it would be a spoiler.

And, just to make sure, there are little sign posts before the few scenes with science to fill you in on enough to enjoy the story without having to taxing your neurons enough to digest the science completely.

That said, ultimately, my readers should expect me to provide some good gee-whiz science in every book I write and they should be confident that the science is all legit. There will be no Michael Crichton BS science in anything I write.

MARTA: During the dot.com bubble, there was a lot of magical thinking going on in business, that something can come of nothing. What are you trying to say about that craziness in your book?

RANSOM: Engineers love this book because they can relate to the little games. The games were not isolated in the days of the dotcom bubble, they’ve been going on for as long as Intel, Microsoft, HP, etc, have been encouraging people to work ridiculous hours.

There is just a bit of Dilbert in the plot. The people who develop technology are well aware that you can’t get something from nothing, but their bosses frequently can’t tell the difference between something and nothing so sometimes engineers like to mess with their heads. I know a guy who works for Intel who holds over a hundred patents. Some of them are quite valuable, but many are jokes that he squeezed through the system. I’ll never tell you his name!

MARTA: So is anyone actually trying to make a God gene?

 

RANSOM: I suspect that biochemists play the same games. I had a biochem roommate once who insisted that creating a life form would be the greatest experience possible. I used to chide him with questions like: “Would you kill it if it didn’t believe in you?” 

MARTA: You went a new route to publication, posting your book on Scribd first and garnering a following that led to a book deal. Any advice for writers trying to get published?

RANSOM: The whole problem that we face in this business is signal-to-noise. There are so many books out there that it’s impossible for the system of agents and publishers to be efficient filters. What worked for me was getting on Scribd early when the amount of content they had was small enough that, with a little bit of promotion, I could get enough people to look at my book. Once you have lots of people looking, you quickly find out whether it has enough appeal to make it on a larger field.

I was blown away the first few weeks that The God Patent spent in Scribd’s top 5 most read e-novels; then the weeks kept accumulating and at week 13 I got a note from Numina Press who had already obtained rights to three other books that did well on Scribd.

It’s still doing great on Scribd, too, I think it’s accumulated over 25 weeks in the top ten by now. 

MARTA: Tell us a few books or movies that you think integrate fascinating science themes with thrilling fictional themes.

RANSOM: The movie, “The Prestige,” has the same little germ of idea that the concept of the soul in The God Patent has. I saw the movie two months after I started work on The God Patent and thought I’d been scooped. But no, it was only obvious to me.

There are very few books that integrate real science into the plot that are not science fiction. That’s not a rap on SF, but the science in SF tends to be the heart of the fiction. I don’t do that. My science is the truth as far as we know it when the book goes to print. Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon shows how to work math, technology and history into an awesome plot.

My favorites are the naturalists Loren Eisely and Farley Mowat. Never Cry Wolf is one of my favorite all time books.

MARTA: Ransom, I hate to do this with a man of your capacious intellect, but I always have a obligatory inane question. I was forced to attend team-building exercises based on the “Wizard of Oz,” which I hated (both the movie and the team-building). If you had to create and anti-team-building exercise, one meant to foster disharmony, what fantasy or paranormal story would it be based on?

RANSOM: “The Prestige” would do the trick! Two guys who manage to destroy a great friendship over one’s huge blunder. “Office Space” would help prevent people from buying the company line.

“Life of Brian” has some choice pieces about how not to form committees.

That’s kind of tough, isn’t it? Most fantasies are more about the milieu, the world, than about the characters or plot so they tend to foster team-building. My favorite movie is “Excalibur” and, I guess, you could say that sending a bunch of people on a quest for the Holy Grail is a good way to destroy the team…

MARTA: What’s next for you and where can readers find out more about you and your writing?

RANSOM: Everything is at The God Patent website: the calendar, a reader’s guide including a bibliography, reviews all that stuff.

I’m about to start revising my next novel – I finished the first draft just before The God Patent was released in print. The Sensory Deception is an all out enviro-thriller. It features Somali pirates, burning rainforests, a really cool type of virtual reality based on the most up to date theories of neurology, and some designer drugs. Moby Dick makes an appearance, too.

I have to admit that my favorite character in The Sensory Deception is the migraine-suffering bad guy. One thing I *hate* in fiction are black and white good-guy/bad-guys. We should always understand what drives the bad guy and it ought to be buried in that character’s concept of good.

Meanwhile, I’m giving a lot of speeches on things tangentially related to The God Patent. I also recently accepted the offer to be the National Science and Society Examiner with examiner.com so there will be a lot of nibbles of controversial science available there soon.
 

MARTA: Thanks for visiting, Vampire Wire.

RANSOM: Marta, it was a pleasure – I owe you a drink. Edinburgh Castle? 

MARTA: Ransom, you’re a man after my own heart!  Edinburgh Castle, it is.

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CONTEST RULES:  To enter the contest, just leave a comment about science.  Do you hate it, love it, love science fiction that's mostly fiction?  Are you obsessed with "Star Wars" (you geek!), or do you like more apocalyptic scenarios, like "Road Warrior"?  The contest runs through May 15, and a winner will be selected at random. 

You can also leave questions and comments for Ransom.  His schedule is pretty crazy, but he'll try to drop by and respond.

GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY 

 Oh, I couldn't find much, but I did find these videos from "The Prestige" and I will have to see it.

The Darkly Luminous Haunted London Blog Tour & Contest!

 

"The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker is made of all kinds of awesome and is just as exciting and romantic as the first book. Not to be missed."

Smokin' Hot Books

"Leanna Renee Hieber's writing voice shines brightly. I love it...a lush love story and an enthralling tale about good vs. evil."

Anna's Book Blog

I'm delighted to have Leanna Renee Hieber here to guestblog about The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker, her second Darkly Beautiful novel, and to share an excerpt.   She's also offering a copy of either of her novels in a contest, so read to the end for information.  Welcome, Leanna Renee!

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The final tour stop! I am so thrilled to be back here at Vampire Wire again, talking my favorite subject: Ghosts.

About The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker

“Death-pale Percy Parker was a beacon for Fate. True love had found her, in the tempestuous form of Professor Alexi Rychman. But her mythic destiny was not complete. Foretold by ghosts with which she alone could converse; a war was coming. Victorian London would be overrun by a spectral host. Yet, within mighty Athens Academy, alongside The Guard who shielded mortals from the agents of the Underworld, she counted herself among friends. Wreathed in hallowed fire, they would stand together, no matter what dreams or nightmares—may come.”

About the Haunted London Blog Tour

I’ve been busy telling ghost stories here on this tour to celebrate the freshly released sequel in the Strangely Beautiful series of Gothic Victorian Fantasy novels; The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker. And we’ve come to the part of the tour where I share some of my own ghosts that I’ve made up along the way. All the London ghosts within the book – save for my ghostly residents of the fictional Athens Academy and the grim Whisper-world- are taken from real, documented London haunts. But here at Vampire Wire I want so show you a glimpse inside the ghostly Whisper-world I’ve created – and the unpleasant force you find there…

From The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker

Chapter Two:  The Whisper-world was in a state of unprecedented chaos. Not that Darkness didn’t like a certain amount; he thrived in it, enjoyed creating it. But everything has a scale, and every scale must have a fulcrum. Darkness fancied chaos of his own making, carefully orchestrated and meticulously controlled, with crafted conflicts, builds and climaxes, a well-made play that he, as director, could change at will. There was an art to chaos. Not this. This was not his, and this was not art.

The battle cries of his sworn enemies echoed down the endless halls, they having escaped their prison tower. He would, of course, round them all up again. But it was surely her fault.

He glided through the careening forms of once-human energy, spirits too agitated to obey him or offer appropriate deference. His shadow reached out as he passed, black phantom limbs that lengthened to shove spirits out of his way while his body remained gracefully still and erect, tossing spirits toward the river to drown, smashing their fragile heads against stone. His jaw ground with pleasure as he heard each satisfying crunch of bone and gorgeous keening that was the last of a humanity draining away, a pathetic cry of pain and dust, its owner never to plunge from these purgatorial shadows deeper into hell, or even to cross into the mysterious Beyond.

He glided toward a rectangular slate door that hissed, molten liquid bubbling around its edges. The haste and force with which the portal had been closed was evidenced by a few finger bones caught in the corners. Ash was everywhere. It filled what served as Darkness’s nostrils as he moved to touch the door still rumbling with residual tremors.

The Groundskeeper appeared, cursing the mess everyone was making of his riverbank, his gravestone gardens, his fountains of mist and trellises of bones. At the mouth of the corridor, he paused, staring into the inscrutable shadows that rose tall and smothering: the lord of the land, himself. The Groundskeeper bowed and scraped, his long coat brushing the wet ground. “Ah, hello, Master,” he sputtered. “The crash sent me runnin’. Something dreadful’s gone…” He stopped and bent down to examine a heap before him, some of which became discernable as body parts made of ash, still hissing with vanquished heat. He cried out, voice cracking, and raked hands through his shock of calico hair. “Oh, no! My sweetie-snaky-lassy, my Gorgon-girl. What’s this? What’ve you gone and done?” His voice shifted accents as he spoke.

Darkness stepped back, repulsed. This pile of ash was what remained of the Gorgon that had been his spy, his emissary and best soldier. And where was the dog? If the dog were in pieces, this place had not yet seen his anger.

“I’ll put you together again, my lovely,” the Groundskeeper crowed. “You’ll be as good as new, just let me just bottle you up! Indeed, Master?”

“Indeed,” Darkness replied. “But you’ll have to commence another Undoing. The seals must be open. Pour the restless onto the earth until they drag her back!”

“But, Master.” The Groundskeeper trembled. “The pins between worlds are sealed fast again.” He held up fingers blackened with blood.

“Undo. Them. Again,” Darkness growled. “As often as it takes.”

“But Master, my lovely needs me! The longer she’s in pieces, the less of her I can—”

Darkness’s shadow arms pounced, twisting the Groundskeeper’s wrist and binding with his royal crimson cloak the creature congealed from a hundred spirits who’d once served human masters. Clutching the bloody and sore patches of his servant’s hands with one preternatural grip, he held a razorlike nail to his throat with the other. The Groundskeeper squealed like an animal as the nail cut deep, and the sound was caught up in the vast stone chambers and amplified, a warning that the Master was not in a mood to be trifled with.

“Why do you punish those loyal to you?” the Groundskeeper gasped, pleading. “Because I can’t get my hands on who dearly deserves it,” Darkness growled. He threw his servant to the floor and kicked his pathetic form for good measure. “Put my best soldier back together, then. Undo. The. Seals!”

“Yes, Master, of course,” the Groundskeeper sniveled, crawling off to procure supplies. As he did, he began an awkward singsong rhyme: “Lucy-Ducy wore a nice dress, Lucy-Ducy made a great mess…” ---

(End of Excerpt)

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The Strangely Beautiful saga will continue again with “A Christmas Carroll” (Strangely Beautiful #2.5) novella in Dorchester’s A Midwinter Fantasy anthology this October!

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“Strangely Beautiful” Blessings!

Leanna Renee Hieber

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Watch the book trailer for The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker.

GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

I'll look for GVDs that reflect the Victorian theme of Leanna Renee's books.

Please ignore as I’m still experimenting with Windows Live Writer & Evil Sam

Can this update my blog if I only use text?
Yes.
What if I now add a pic from the web?



But adding a video gets a "forbidden access" message from Blogger. So basically, I still have to cut and paste. Agh.