Danger: Women Writing

#37 – Using Random.org, I’ve picked a winner for $10 Gift Card, autographed copy of SINS OF THE FLESH, STRONGER THAN SIN Tote bag and an autographed copy of AZTEC GOLD.: Rachel Comment # 7 Please e-mail me your postal addresses so I can send out your prize.

I’m so excited to have my wonderful editor, Selina McLemore, here to share some fresh buzz from Forever Romance! Leave a comment on today’s blog for a chance to win a $10 Gift Card, autographed copy of SINS OF THE FLESH, STRONGER THAN SIN Tote bag and an autographed copy of AZTEC GOLD.

Selina began her publishing career as an intern for a magazine—Sesame Street Magazine. But soon instead of editing pages full of puppets, she was editing stories about heartache, heartbreak and the kind of love that can make you forget you ever felt any of those things in the first place. Now Selina is a Senior Editor at Grand Central Publishing, where she acquires literary and commercial women’s fiction and narrative non-fiction, multicultural fiction, and all types of romance. Some of the authors she’s had the privilege of working with are New York Times bestselling author Kimberla Lawson Roby; national bestselling romance author Jennifer Haymore; New York Times bestselling paranormal romance author Caridad Piñeiro; and New York Times bestselling author Stella Cameron.

Prior to Grand Central Publishing, Selina worked at HarperCollins Publishers and Harlequin Books. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, where she earned degrees in English and Spanish Literature.

Without further ado, here’s Selina!

So when I was asked to do this, I was told I could write about anything I wanted. ANYTHING. I thought about the customary topics, you know, the stuff editors typically write about: the kind of submissions we want, upcoming books, company news, etc. But I don’t want to do that. Or at least, I don’t want to do just that. Because sure, I do want readers to know that I’m looking for new books–lush, sensual historicals; dark, edgy paranormals; sweet, funny community-based contemporary romance. And sure, there are a lot of books coming out in the next few months that I’m excited about and think you’d love to read. But before all that, there’s something else I want to talk about: The Royal Wedding.

Don’t worry, it’s not what you think.

This isn’t a post where I go on and on about how much I loved the dress or the hats or Prince Harry (Well, maybe a little about Harry. Come on, how can you not love him? He’s the goodtime prince!) See, I was totally mocked for being so excited about the Royal Wedding. Not in a mean way—the teasing was all in good fun. But over and over again I found myself trying to describe why I was so enamored of it.

I loved the Royal Wedding because it marked a new beginning. Not just for William and Kate personally; it’s like a royal reset button for the British monarchy. Instead of royals entering unhappy marriages, having illicit affairs and trying to sell access to one another, we get a young couple who seems genuinely, happily in love. The even seem normal, in their own way. And so whatever is to come down the road, right now, at the beginning, we get to believe everything is good.

I like beginnings. I think anyone who likes romance does, too. Stories of people who take risks for a chance at a new life with a new love—or sometimes a new life with a former love, that counts too. I find myself drawn to novels that make me believe the characters are truly about to begin something wonderful, and in the next few months I’m lucky enough to have several authors beginning brand new series that do just that:

In July I have a new author who makes her Forever debut, Kendra Leigh Castle. Her novel DARK AWAKENING is the start of her new Dark Dynasties series. It’s the story of a woman who discovers she’s the heiress to a powerful legacy, and the sexy, shape-shifting vampire who vows to protect her.

Before I was lucky enough to be Caridad Piñeiro’s editor, I was one of her many fans. She’s kicking off a new series this summer too, when she releases THE LOST in August. THE LOST begins the Sin Hunters series, featuring dark, ancient magic and heroes with unimaginable powers.

As if that weren’t making summer hot enough, I have another new series starting in August, this one from historical author Jennifer Haymore. CONFESSIONS OF AN IMPROPER BRIDE is the story of a woman reinventing her life, and is the debut of a series featuring the Donnovan sisters. Trust me, wherever these girls go, scandal is sure to follow.

With that, I think I’ll bring my blog post about beginnings to an end. Thanks for inviting me to be a Dangerous Woman for a day!

If you’d like to know more about Forever, you can find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/ForeverRomance and follow us on Twitter @ForeverRomance. And don’t forget to download our free Forever Yours App, and put your picture on the cover of a romance novel!

Today’s Dark Side Demon Monday is about an interesting aspect of one of our favorite kinds of demons-Vampires. There are many rituals and myths associated with vampires, but one of the more interesting myths seems to have fallen by the wayside except for Count von Count.

What does Count von Count have to do with the myth? It’s said that if you spread millet, mustard or poppy seeds around the vampire’s grave or your home, the vampire would become occupied with counting the seeds and leave you alone. Chinese vampires share a similar trait, although their OCD traits happen when a sack of rice is placed before them. Much like with the seeds, the vampire would have to count every grain of rice in the sack.

What about Count von Count on Sesame Street? The Count’s job on Sesame Street is to count everything he encounters no matter how annoying he is to the rest of the Muppets! That OCD counting is a nod to the myth about vampires and hot to protect yourselves from them.

Hope you enjoyed today’s not so Dark Demon Side Monday.

The amazing thing about vampires is that you can look at a number of cultures and they all have some kind of legend about the blood-sucking undead! Maybe it’s the universal fear of dying, but that’s good for us vampire writers since it gives us a lot of different mythologies from which to borrow for our stories.

One of the different kinds of vampires that I’ve used in one of my paranormals is the Chinese vampire or Jiang Shi/Kiang Shi.

Unlike the European concept of vampires, Chinese vampires really don’t have much of a consciousness. They are actually more like zombies since they are walking corpses that are said to hop around, stealing the life forces of those that encounter.

Also unlike European vampires, the Jiang Shi are created when a person’s soul fails to leave the body, possibly due to some dishonor at the time of death, desecration of the corpse or suicide. Also unlike Euro-vamps, Jiang Shi are corpses and so it’s not uncommon to see pictures of them in various states of decay or with long hair/fungus (green or white) on their bodies.

You can keep the Jiang Shi out of your home by placing a small piece of wood at the bottom of your door or by dropping seeds or grains of rice in front of the Jiang Shi who will have to stop to count them (much like a Euro-vamp!).

Jiang Shi became quite popular in movies from Hong Kong in the 1980s.

If you want to read a little more about Chinese vampires, you can visit these sites:


Deliriums Realm
Chinese Vampire Movies
Monstrous

Otherwise known as Caridad’s Dark Side Demon Monday!

We’re launching a whole new series of blogs here at the Danger Women Writing for our Dangerous Readers.  Check back each day for a new theme and Dangerous Woman writer sharing insights on all kinds of topics.

For my turn at the plate, I’ll be offering up thoughts and insights on demon lore and some of the more interesting things happening with the creatures that go bump in the night.

Many readers wonder how paranormal writers manage to come up with their ideas. Sometimes you develop totally new creatures and later on during another Dark Side Demon Monday I’ll talk about how I went about creating the mystical beings that will stream to the Jersey Shore in Books 3 and 4 of the SINS series (which will be renamed the SIN HUNTERS series).

Sometimes you look at existing mythologies and tweak them to fit the needs of your story. That’s what I did in DEVOTION CALLS when I introduced a slightly different kind of vampire — a chupacabra.

Chupacabra (or chupacabras) means “goat sucker” in Spanish, but the creature has become quite well known throughout the United States and the rest of the Americas.

The first attacks attributed to chupacabras began in the early 1990s in Puerto Rico so the legend is actually not all that old. Additional sightings of the animal began to appear in other parts of South America as well as the American Southwest.

Farmers reported attacks on various livestock, but the animals were not eaten or taken to another location for dinner. The reports indicated that the animals were killed by being drained of blood through two small incisions, much like a vampire.

One theory as to the origin of the chupacabra is that it’s an alien pet that escaped. Another is that it’s either an alien genetics experiment that got loose or a human genetics experiment. Finally, others believe that the chupacabra is merely a coyote that has a skin disease, accounting for the lack of hair and strange coloration on those animals which have been found and called chupacabras.

Witnesses describe the chupacabra as being anywhere from 4 to 6 feet tall when upright, with green/gray scales. The beast has quills along its head and neck, possibly a long tail and clawed fingers. In addition, it has large glassy eyes that can be reddish in color. Way different than the supposed creatures being found in various areas of Texas!

Regardless of whether or not chupacabras really exist, the creatures have managed to embed themselves in our folklore and have even been written about in songs!

For more information on the chupacabra, you can click on one of the links below.

Encounters with Chupacabras
Texas Mystery: Defective Coyote or Chupacabra?
Watch the Monsterquest Television Program on the Chupabacra!