In celebration of my critique partner’s debut novel that releases tomorrow, June 15, I’m participating in my first official event in over a year. WooHoo!
The event is a Zoom conversation all about Southern Gothic, with just a few highlights about each of our new releases. It’s FREE and hosted by The Haunted Book Shop here in downtown Mobile, Alabama, but everyone is welcome to join us–even if you aren’t local.
Register here to receive the link and come hang out with us for an hour. Candice Marley Conner‘s Southern Gothic YA mystery The Existence of Bea Pearl is the main release we’re celebrating. Besides me and Candice, author Jodi Cain Smith is joining us. She is the founder of the Mobile Literary Festival, which I’ve been lucky enough to work on with her from the beginning. Besides that connection, all of us (including Angela from The Haunted Book Shop) are Mobile Writers Guild members, so it will be like a literary family reunion.
If you have any interest in Southern Gothic or want to learn what it’s all about, join us. There will be a Q&A at the end too.
And, one more time, in case you missed the embedded hyper-link above. Here’s the registration information.
In conjunction with the release of the first novella in The Possession Chronicles, Bienvenue Press is running a rare sale on the Kindle editions of the first four books in the series. If you haven’t heard yet, Mosaic of Seduction, The Possession Chronicles #1.5 novella, is now available for download.
To go along with release week for the novella, the publisher has put the first three novels in the series on sale–major sale!
If you haven’t tried The Possession Chronicles, now is the time to read. If you love the series, tell you friends. Post the link to this update or reblog it to your readers. Share the love for this historical Southern Gothic family saga series.
We’re halfway through November. Though life as we know it might not be what we expected a year ago, there are plenty of things to be thankful for. Yes, I write a lot of Gothic stories but I’m a Pollyanna at heart. I may not play “The Glad Game”, but I do have a window full of prisms (that look especially lovely this time of year when the sun is lower) and I always try to look on the Brightside.
So what’s the happy news? I’ll choose three things out of many.
1. I’m enjoying my new glasses. I’ve been using OTC readers for several years for increasingly numerous things and finally got an eye exam last month. On a walk one day last week, I decided they make a good flower holder.
Me. No filter. No makeup.
2. I’m almost done with the first draft of a new novel. I’ve mentioned before that I was slamming out first drafts of The Possession Chronicles novels (average word count for those was 120,000) in about two months. Ode to 2020 and emotional exhaustion, I’ve been struggling to complete a novel I began a year ago this month. I passed 75K on it last night and hope to complete it by Thanksgiving/the end of the month.
Historical inspiration for the main character.
This project is a Possession Chronicles spinoff–a stand alone young adult Gothic novel that takes place in 1897. I get to weave in my Fortitude research (which took place in 1898) as well as Possession Chronicles tidbits, and give a detailed backstory to a minor character from the series (Sean Spunner) while name dropping a few of the main families from the series (Easton and Melling). I’m back to my coming-of-age roots with this one, complete with first person POV for the main character and teen angst/hormones with other main players. (Ever wonder what a Mystics of Dardenne member was like before his initiation, you’ll find out with seventeen-year-old Sean.)
3. Another sale on books! There’s been a lot of those lately. While I share them on social media pages and, if timing is right, in my monthly newsletter, I’m making an effort to include my blog/website with news like this. In celebration of the forthcoming Homeroom Heroes Christmas charity anthology, Bienvenue Press has the digital editions of the two previous Christmas anthologies on sale the month of November. Hometown Heroes benefits Cajun Navy Relief and Rescue and features a Fortitude short, “Courtship and Courage”. Finally Home proceeds go to regional animal rescue nonprofits. You can read Possession Chronicles short #3.5, “Grace Shadowed”, there.
These Christmas anthologies are romance collections, so my stories are a bit cheerier/happily ever after than typical, but I do keep the hint of Southern Gothic readers have come to expect from me. Find “Natural Selection in Life and Love”, Possession Chronicles #6.1 (which takes place the winter of 1912-1913), in next month’s release of Homeroom Heroes.
That wraps things up for me. How are things going for you? Are you able to find the Brightsides in your life?
The day is nearly upon us. Hostile Charms, book 5 of The Possession Chronicles, releases next Tuesday, September 8, 2020.
Set during the first half of 1912 in Mobile, Alabama, the continuation of this family saga brings new faces and the return (if they ever left) of the demons that plagued the characters inside Seacliff Cottage–and more.
Springtime in “Azalea City” is charming, but danger often lurks behind beauty. Find out Frederick Davenport’s side of the story and see how far he is willing to go to protect his girls. Preorder on digital platforms now for the sale price of $0.99.
Missing any of the novels in The Possession Chronicles? Find their digital editions here or order autographed copies of the paperbacks through The Haunted Book Shop. Happy reading!
It’s here! Bienvenue to the Chateau Rouge, the paranormal romance anthology that includes my first ever co-writing project released today!
I wrote “Revelry’s Requiem” with Jolie St. Amant, who acts as hostess for all these stories as they are set in her world of the Chateau Rouge series. While the other three authors also had to play by her rules, I was the lucky one to be able to co-write a story with her. Why? Because she loves my character Claudio De Fiore of The Possession Chronicles and invited him to New Orleans to play. Looking back, we might should have declined the invitation. Bringing a priest to hang out in a bordello inhabited by vampires during Mardi Gras 1911 isn’t the best idea. Sorry, Claudio!
As always, my anthology short stories can be read alone though they have their chronological order within The Possession Chronicles. Find the listing of all stories relating to the series–and purchase links–on The Possession Chronicles page. Happy reading!
