Minnie Schultz interviews author Joselyn Vaughn

Today Minnie Schultz, from Hauntings of the Heart, interviews Joselyn Vaughn the author.

Minnie: Everyone probably wants to know why you write romance, but I think the answer to that is obvious. Romances are wonderful stories. What’s better than a happy ending?

Joselyn: Not much. I have to agree.

Minnie: So let’s get to the real dirt. How did you meet Mr. Vaughn?

Joselyn: We first met my freshman year in college—

Minnie: And it was love at first sight.

Joselyn: Umm, no. We didn’t talk again for two years.

Minnie: Why not? He’d awfully cute. Someone could have snatched him away from you.

Joselyn: Not a chance.

Minnie: Why not?

Joselyn: One word. Mullet.

Minnie: Ah-ha. I see. No wonder he was still available two years later. I hope he rectified that unfortunate hair decision.

 

Joselyn: Well, he shaved his head and grew a goatee. But it’s a much better look for him.

Minnie: So then what happened?

Joselyn: He ran down three flights of stairs to hold the door open for me as I was moving into my apartment at the beginning of the school year.

Minnie: A good ploy. Did you drop the box so he could carry it for you? That’s my go-to suggestion.

Joselyn: No. I didn’t see him much after that.

Minnie: But didn’t you live across the hall from him?

Joselyn: Yes, but I travelled a lot with the cross country team.

Minnie: Well how did you finally get his attention? I can’t believe you didn’t call me for help. My friends and I could have straightened this out in two shakes.

Joselyn: My roommates and I tried to get him to come over to fix things, but every time we’d knock on the door we’d get one of his roommates.

Minnie: Were they single?

Joselyn: Yes, but they had committed much worse hair atrocities than mullets. I can’t even describe them, besides there was only one man over there I was interested in. So finally, it came down to the Christmas banquet. Somehow my roommates and I decided I should ask him. Roommate #1 said she would ask him for me (since she was friends with him), but she was already in her porky pig pajamas and she wasn’t going across the hall dressed like that. She said she would call. Roommate #3 was on the phone, so Roommate #2 went across the hall to borrow their phone. (This would have been so much less complicated after the advent of cell phones. J) Roommate #1 tried to call, but the guys wouldn’t answer their phone, thinking it was something weird with their phone being used in our apartment.

Minnie: Did you finally get him to go to the banquet with you?

Joselyn: Yes. If I remember, I had to call him myself when our phone was free. Mr. Vaughn was oblivious to all the previous adventures as he was studying for a Spanish test. Hey, what are you writing?

Minnie: Oh nothing, never mind me. And what exactly did you do after that?

Joselyn: Give me that notebook. Hey! Minnie! This better not end up on your blog. Where are you going? Come back here.

I can’t believe she can run that fast.

Blurb:When lost love shows up on your doorstep, what do you do? Minnie Schultz slams the door in his face. She and Gordon Anderson have a history—close to ancient history, given the fifty years since their last encounter. After all that time, it might seem like water under the bridge. But the water pours from the plumbing in Minnie’s bed and breakfast, the Lilac Bower, uncovering all the secrets and heartache between them. With the help of some paranormal investigators, an Elvis impersonator and a couple of nosey friends, can Minnie and Gordon find the future they were meant to have?

Buy Links:

Astraea: http://astraeapress.com/#ecwid:category=662245&mode=product&product=7355585 

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Hauntings-of-the-Heart-ebook/dp/B005Z8WJRY/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1319568032&sr=1-1
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1106922258

Contact Links:
Email: jvaughn@joselynvaughn.com
Webpage: http://joselynvaughn.com
Blog: http://joselynvaughn.blogspot.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/joselynvaughn
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/joselynvaughn

Meet the first author of Paramourtal this week

This week THoR is hosting a collection of authors who, together, participating in this compelling paranormal anthology Paramourtal. And our first featured author
Nicole Brugger-Dethmers 

"Paramourtal is a collection of spellbinding new paranormal romance stories that will grip your heart and haunt you for days."http://www.cliffhangerbooks.com/books-paramourtal.html

Today Nicole Brugger-Dethmers Author of "A Touch of Sand" in Paramourtal tells us a little bit about herself and her contribution.

Author Bio: Nicole Brugger-Dethmers likes romance best when she can couple it with fantasy. Previously, she has published a YA fantasy short story. She lives in the Midwest with her husband and two cats.

About Paramourtal: I am so lucky to be represented in Paramourtal with so many great writers! I’ve laughed and/or gasped my way through every story, and I think there’s a little bit of something for everyone. One of the things I like best is the wide variety of paranormal characters, including unusual ones and unique spins on familiar ones.

Interview with Angeline and Nicholas:

Nicole: Angeline and Nicholas, can you tell me a little bit of how you first met?

Angeline: I was really quite young, eight or nine perhaps. I was being a dreadful nuisance to my mother one day. She sent me out of doors with my nursemaid, and I suppose I thought it was great fun to annoy her as well, as children often do. The poor woman chased me all over town, it seemed. To get away from her, I ran across the bridge spanning the river, but since I was paying more attention to what was behind me than what was before me, I tripped and nearly plunged headlong into the water. Nicholas appeared as if by magic and saved me.

Nicholas: Although I remember that day fondly, I recall meeting Angeline before then. It was some years prior, and Angeline had lost a favorite rag doll. She was crying most prodigiously, and even at that young age, I felt I had a duty to stop those tears. I found the doll in a bag of flour in the pantry, of all places! How she managed to get past my mother, I will never know.


Angeline: Oh, I do remember that day! Yes, Nicholas appeared before me all covered in flour, holding my little Betsy doll. I was so embarrassed at having been found out playing in the pantry, I just grabbed her up and ran away!

Nicole: How do you handle coming from two different social worlds?

Nicholas: Very badly, in some cases! It is tiresome dealing with those who do not understand our situation and cannot imagine a world in which people like us are together. I am afraid to say I have lost my temper on more than one occasion.

Nicole: Situation?

Nicholas: Angeline being from her family, myself being the son of the housekeeper, and both of us deeply in love with each other. It seems likely we would have continued on the paths assigned to us by our families and society if it had not been for the Sandman’s interference. For that, at least, I can thank him.

Nicole: Ah, yes, the Sandman. Could you speak a little about him? What was he like?

Angeline: He was… very kind to me. Very gentle. But also very sad and lonely. I could read it in his face and his tone. It must have been so hard to be by himself for so many years. I find I cannot be too angry with him.

Nicole: He took you to his castle outside of time, in the Desert with No Name. What was it like there?

Angeline: Terrifying, to begin with. It is difficult to appreciate the beauty and splendor of a place when you have been taken there against your will! But the Sandman’s castle is truly wondrous. He can change the very nature of the walls to make windows appear!

Nicole: Nicholas, what is your favorite thing that Angeline does? And Angeline, your favorite thing Nicholas does?

Nicholas: She has this adorable little dance she does when she gets excited or is extremely happy…

Angeline: *blushes* When he cleans the oven without a shirt on!

Story excerpt from “A Touch of Sand”: Somnus the Sandman has taken Angeline to his castle in the Desert with No Name. With the help of a mysterious crone, Nicholas has travelled through his dreams to find her, but the enchantment will not last forever…

Nicholas reached out again, as if to caress her face. His fingers curled into fists. She could see the walls through his incorporeal body.

“God, I wish I could touch you,” he breathed, voice catching.

Heat flashed through her, leaving her limbs weak and nearly taking her voice away. “Please, do not leave me!”

“I will always be with you,” he said, and he leaned in until his ghostly lips were alongside her cheek. “Wait for me!”

His countenance faded from view, but his words echoed in her ears.

Angeline reentered the maze of corridors and returned to her room. The few minutes with Nicholas had revitalized her. Now in his absence, she felt spiritless, like a toy that had wound down.

Sitting in the room’s overstuffed armchair, she imagined his sun-bronzed arms enveloping her and easing her anxious heart.

You can learn more about Nicole Brugger-Dethmers at http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4428562.Nicole_Brugger_Dethmers

Please come back tomorrow and meet K. Stoddard Hayes

Bats and Vampires

Why do you suppose it is, people connect bats with vampires? And why aren’t vampires called batmires? Of course, having a species of bat that exist on blood no doubt plays a large role in the connection of these bad boys. And the fact that both vampires and bats are mainly seen at night no doubt is another factor. Also that a rabid bat’s bite can cause death has added to the equation connecting these two mysterious creatures.

Bat’s certainly spell trouble for Zoe Tempest:

The bat swooped down. Its wing slid over my throat in an icy caress. I shrank back against the dank black wall. The bat fluttered in front of me. “Zoe.” The voice brought my stomach to my throat. Clammy beads of sweat broke out on my forehead. Dere!

“You thought you’d killed me, didn’t you?” His laugh echoed and reechoed in my head. I clasp it to stop the mad laughter.

“You can’t kill me, Zoe, but I can kill you.”

I screamed then but as in most dreams no sound came out, except a horrible moan that stuck in my throat.

The bat hovered in front of my face. He squealed and revealed fangs that dripped with saliva. I threw up my hands to protect my face. The rodent swooped in and bit my hand. The pain woke me.

CONTEST:

I’m running a contest at http://sandracox.blogspot.com. First prize: a Starbucks gift card, a Cooke Lee crystal bracelet and a download of Vampire Bay. Second Prize: a paper copy of Moon Watchers, Third Prize: a paper copy of Vampire Island. To enter just leave a comment at http://sandracox.blogspot.com and mention Vampire Bay Contest.

Vampire Bay is available as a download at Smashwordshttp://www.smashwords.com/books/view/72332


and Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005BCODIM
for $3.99.

Samantha inteviews her heroine Serena Star

Samantha Combs Interviews her heroine: Serena


Q: Serena Starr, tell us a little about yourself.
A: Well, as you know, I’m a witch. I live in Lancaster, New Hampshire with family, Elizabeth and Tabitha. My parents died long ago.

Q: And your boyfriend is Logan Daniels?
A: (blushes) Yes. I think he’s the cutest boy at school.

Q; Whit Mountain High School in Lancaster was really your first taste of real school, wasn’t it?
A: Yes, we’d been home-schooled mostly before that.

Q: But not in what you’d call regular school topics, right?
A: (laughing) No, not exactly. Elizabeth taught Tabby and I things like spellcasting and potions along with reading and writing!

Q: When did your life start to change?
A: I guess you could say things started to get a bit hairy at the first school dance Logan asked me to. That’s where Christophe tried to first kidnap me.

Q: That must have been terrifying!
A: It was. But it was also the first time I realized Logan was someone I could depend on. Someone who could protect me. I guess I was already in love with him by then.

Q: Do you think it happened fast?
A: Yes! I was half in love with him the first time I saw him, practically!

Q: I don’t want to give too much of your story away, but something is revealed about Logan, isn’t it?
A: Yes. He finds out some things about his heritage that shook him to the core, but he is so grounded and has strength of character, he learns how to deal with the information easily.

Q: And he has a confrontation with Christophe alone.
A: He does. And battles magnificently. And began to realize there was an inner strength and quiet reserve of power within him that I never knew existed. And fell even more in love.

Q: (laughin now, too) You were a goner for him!
A: I was!

Q: But you had your work cut out for you, didn’t you?
A: Yes. Christophe wanted us both now. And he had discovered even more secrets about Logan’s sister’s bloodline as well.

Q: In the end of your journey, a huge battle requires the aide of many of your coven sisters. How did it feel to have so many of your sisters helping you?
A: Enlightening and empowering. These women are my sisters, my friends, and some of the most powerful witches in the world. I am still in awe of their talent. To see them in action is incredible!

Q: Together you were able to defeat Christophe?
A: You’ll have to read the adventure and see!

Q: Serena, thank you for joining us today! Join us next for a chat with your fated love, Logan.
A: That should be fun! And you’re welcome.

***

Buy link: http://www.astraeapress.com/#ecwid:category=662245&mode=product&product=4435577

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Spellbound-ebook/dp/B0055T3D1E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1309285775&sr=1-1

samanthacombswrites@gmail.com

http://www.samanthacombswrites.blogspot.com

http://www.twitter.com/samanthacombs1

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Samantha-Combs-Fan-Page/205186202866933

Please come back tomorrow for Logan's interview

Please welcome debut author Samantha Combs for the next four days

Hi Samantha :-)
Thank you for guesting on THoR. Please will you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I’m a married mother of two, and I live in Southern California


Why writing and not something else?
I can’t stand the sight of blood (no medical profession) don’t think I’d pass the bar (no legal profession), and don’t like guns (no military career) Writing seemed a natural fit. I can write about blood, bypass the legal part (not many shapeshifters and paranormies go to jail) and learn all I need about guns from Law and Order and CSI on tv.


 Where do your ideas come from?
Any time someone cuts me off on the freeway and I wish I had supernatural powers to wipe them off the face of the earth….shazam! There’s an idea. Living in Los Angeles provides me with a boatload of ideas. Daily. Hourly. Almost by the minute. Basically every time I leave the house and face the great uncivilized and super-rude masses I am stunned by an idea. Also, a five and an eight year old come up with them all the time. “Hey, mommy what if this toy was a blankety-blank and it could blank all the blanks in the world? Wouldn’t that be neat?” You know what kids? That WOULD be neat. Run and get Mommmy a piece of paper.


Do you base your characters on people you know, and if so, would they recognise themselves if they read your books?
I  hope not, because that law career would have sure come in handy.


Do you base your characters on any famus people, if so please will you include a pic of them with your hero and heroine interviews?
I decline to answer on the grounds that it may tend to incriminate me. (LOVE when they do that on television! You just KNOW they are hiding something. Not that I am. Whatever. Move on.)


What is your favourite flower, and why?
I love the snap dragon, because its neither a dragon, nor does it snap, but it wears that name fiercely, damn it!


If you could spend a day with any celeb who would you spend it with, and why?
Easy. Hands down I would spend the day with Kathy Griffin. In disposable diapers. Because I scream with laughter when she even opens her mouth. And I am sure I would pee a little if her mother was around because that woman is hysterical.


Who influenced your writing and how?
Stephen King, James Patterson, JD Robb, Nora Roberts, and all for one reason. They all have tremendous pacing and believability. There is truth in their writing even though they write fiction. Truth in fiction is a gift.


What is the most important peice of writing advice you've ever been given?
Don’t force details. Feed information to a reader like you are feeding an infant; one small spoonful at a time, too little and he wants more, too much and he will choke. You have to find balance.


What advice would you pass on to aspiring writers?
Write because you love to and have to. If you are writing to make money, quit now and go to work at Starbucks. It can happen, and you will make the money but the motivation is all wrong and you are cheating the reader. He/she may not know it now, but will one day find out and your break-up will be brutal. And you will know it.


Are you a 'pantser' or a plotter, and if a plotter, how long does it take you to plot out your book?
I am a pantser, a term, you must know, I only learned AFTER I wrote my first novel. I wrote a blog post where I admitted that for most of the book I would sit down at the laptop and have no idea where the story arc would go, only a vague idea where I thought it might. I was always wrong. You see, I am never really in control, my muse is. I write this sentence and even re-read it knowing full well it sounds slightly insane, yet there is no better way to word it. I simply guide the book, am the driver for the car, it is being navigated by my creative muse. Make of that what you will. :D


Do you do any research for your books, and if not, where do you ideas for the paranormal element of your stories come from?
The paranormal element comes from things I wish I could do, or completing this sentence: wouldn’t it be neat if…….and I fill in the blank. Sometimes the idea s a flop and sometimes I tuck it under my arm and run it all the way to the goal posts. Touchdown!


If you could own and drive any make of car in the world, what would it be?
I’m not picky. I like cars with butter leather seats and rumbly engines I can feel vibrating under my thighs. Oh, excuse me…..I need a glass of water.


Do you let any family members read your books before they are published?
I have two readers. One is a brilliant friend named Cathi I called my FR – First Reader. She calls me out on technical errors, like if I drop my hero a grade by accident or give the wrong witch the wrong ability several chapters in. My other reader I give manuscripts for because she says I’m an amazing writer. Hee hee….who doesn’t want to hear that?


What comes next?
Do you have another book in the pipeline? And do you want to give us a teeny-weeny clue what it's about? :-) Absolutely. I have three WIP’s right now, but I’m closely attached to one with the working title of Waterdancer, about a girl who discovers her dad is a sea creature. And that’s all you get!

 Spellbound Blurb:
Logan Daniels has always led a sheltered life in sleepy, predictable Lancaster, New Hampshire. But when beautiful Serena suddenly appears at school one day, his comfortable existence becomes anything but as he finds himself falling in love with her. There’s something special about Serena Starr. He realizes what it is when he sees her unleash her spells. Soon, a mysterious and foreboding presence settles over his placid home.
Logan and Serena find themselves battling darkness and evil with an ominous mission: it wants Serena and will stop at nothing to have her. Tearing apart Logan’s town, threatening his friends, even causing harm to his family, the demon will spread its doom over every facet of Logan’s once placid life. Logan matures in ways he could never have imagined as he struggles to protect those he loves, including Serena. But he can't do it alone.
Serena hails from a long line of able and powerful women who will aide in the battle and perhaps settle a score of their own. The strength of the coven and Serena's love will be behind him, but ultimately this is Logan’s fight to win. But, will he?

Excerpt:Prologue
LOGAN
My girlfriend’s anguished screams pierced my soul and I spun around, frantic to find her. I spotted her across the barn, struggling against the clutches of the demon, Christophe. He had my Serena trapped in his arms and was headed with her across the party to the gaping tear in the air. If I let him get there with her and go through to the other side, I would never see her again. What could I do? I was only a teenager. But, I was her only hope. Besides that, in the short time that I had known Serena, she had become my world. It didn’t matter that she was a witch. It didn’t matter that in knowing her, I had uncovered startling revelations about my own heritage, my own background. It mattered only that she was my destiny, my future, and that we were fated to be together. It mattered only that I loved her. I’d loved her from almost the first moment I laid eyes on her at school. I remembered every second of that day like it had only just happened. I couldn’t have known it at the time, but that meeting was the first step on the journey that had brought me here today, fighting for our lives. The day my spellbinding life with Serena began.

Buy link: http://www.astraeapress.com/#ecwid:category=662245&mode=product&product=4435577

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Spellbound-ebook/dp/B0055T3D1E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1309285775&sr=1-1

samanthacombswrites@gmail.com

http://www.samanthacombswrites.blogspot.com

http://www.twitter.com/samanthacombs1

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Samantha-Combs-Fan-Page/205186202866933

You have asked a great bunch of questions! Here is just a couple more pieces of information about upcoming releases I have:
September 2011, from Astraea Press, a YA paranormal romance: Juice and the High School Ghost
October 2011, from Aura Speculative Fiction, a Middle Grade horror/thriller. The Detention Demon

Thank you so much Sherry! Let me know when you are ready for the next installments and how you liked my answers on this one!

Kim Bowman and Contractions...

Please welcome Author and editor, Kim Bowman today as she talk's about contractions.
No! Not THOSE kind of contractions, ladies :-) 

I Feel a Contraction Coming On

If I had to pick the one mistake I see writers make over and over it would be that they don’t use contractions. I’m serious. This is by far the biggest correction I make when editing a manuscript. Was not to wasn’t, is not to isn’t, are not to aren’t…the list is endless.

This is jarring to read, it interrupts the flow of the story, and it makes the writing seem choppy. Fiction is supposed to sound natural, and when we speak, we use contractions. Here are some examples from my book Wayward Soul. Read them out loud and see which example sounds better:

A - Please do not go to work. Stay here. Stay safe.

B - Please don’t go to work. Stay here. Stay safe.

A - “Well, we cannot have that, Lieutenant Nash.”

B - “Well, we can’t have that, Lieutenant Nash.”

A - Zanna took his face in her hands. “No, you did not scare me at all.”

B - Zanna took his face in her hands. “No, you didn’t scare me at all.”

A - “Please do not cry. I hate it when you cry. I was a jerk.”

B - “Please don’t cry. I hate it when you cry. I was a jerk.”

Even if you read these examples to yourself, the sentences that don’t have contractions probably felt awkward. The others, more natural and easier to follow. I guarantee this small change will make a world of difference in your manuscript.

On the other side of the coin, sometimes it’s better not to use a contraction. For instance, if you want to add emphasis like in this example from my short story The Ballad of Brenda and Willard:

A - “I cannot believe that you care so little about me that you don’t even remember our anniversary. How dare you. Our anniversary is not March tenth.”

B - “I can’t believe that you care so little about me that you don’t even remember our anniversary. How dare you. Our anniversary isn’t March tenth.”

Either scenario above would work, however example A clearly helps show the character’s emotion and anger just a tad better. This is part of developing your voice as a writer. Just don’t overdo it.

No matter how many times you edit your manuscript, you’ll likely miss some of these. The best way to find them, and avoid spending hours reading and re-reading your story, is to use FIND and REPLACE feature in your word processing program like this:

Whala! Simple. Easy. You can repeat this process to fix any words that should be contracted.

Another alternative is to just use the Find function and search for the word NOT, for example, then click the Reading Highlight button and Highlight all.

 This is the quickest way to find words that should be turned into contractions, but it’s certainly not the easiest way to fix them because once you click in the document and make a change, the highlights disappear and you have to repeat the process. However, this will without a doubt ensure you haven’t missed anything. So my advice is to use the table below to help you figure out which words should be contracted, use the Find/Replace function to fix them, and then use the Find function with Highlight to double check yourself.

• Full form      Contracted
• Not               -n’t
• Let us            let’s
• Am                -’m
• Are                -’re
• Is                   -’s
• Does              -’s
• Has                -’s
• Have              -’ve
• Had                -’d
• Did                 -’d
• Would            -’d
• Will                -’ll

This list isn’t all inclusive and there may still be some contractions that you miss, but just this one change will make your manuscript much better and more appealing to those publishers when you send it out. :-)

Wayward Soul blurb:

When Zanna Seoul accidentally causes the death of a fellow spirit guide’s charge while trying to save the life of the man she loves, she is stripped of her position and banished to Earth to die. In the spirit world, one doesn’t mess with what’s written. With Zanna no longer guiding him and his memory of her erased, Owen Nash is left wide open as the target of the vengeful spirit guide who feels he’s been wronged. A guide who also happens to be a werewolf. Once on Earth, Zanna refuses to stand by and watch Owen die, so she intervenes again, setting off a chain of events that could mean death for all of them if she doesn’t go back and undo the mess she’s made. Can Zanna succeed before the werewolf does?


BIO:
Kim Bowman lives in Indiana, where she was born and raised. For the past eleven years, she has been married to her best friend, Tony. She has four wonderful, awesome children. Three she was lucky enough to inherit from her husband and one she was given by the grace of God. They live on a small farm with two of their four kids, five horses, and two dogs. Kim works as an editor for Evernight Publishing and indulges in her passion of writing when she can.

Kim's Blog
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Buy Wayward Soul HERE ~ HERE ~ HERE

Please come back tomorrow when Kim talks about Variety is the Spice of Writing