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Monday, March 19, 2012
It's that time again. Monday Mentions! So I have been flipping through some interesting pages lately and this is what I have found to be worth a mention this week.
A Taste for Passion, Kendrian Vampires by Patrice Michelle was actually on my TBR list. The book was awesome! It was a little short for my taste, but well worth the read and the time. If you are searching for a hot read, look no further! Lucian is one man..or should I say Vampire, that knows how to please a woman!I am looking forward to reading more of this author's work...and I found she has a few more titles out there to offer. There may be an extended version of this read out there now, according to B&N's site, which would be great.
So give Lucian Trevane and Rana Sterling a visit! You will absolutely love them!
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
It's my pleasure to introduce you to my guest author this week, Amy Cross, here today on A Darker Passion! Her first in her Dark Season series, The Last Vampire, is one of eight books in the series.
When Sophie Hart is rescued from a mugging by a mysterious, silent vampire, she discovers that she is part of a dark prophecy. Patrick is the last vampire on Earth, having killed the rest of his species at the end of a bloody war, and he has plans for Sophie. But will she survive?
This volume collects the first 8 Dark Season books, covering the entire first series. Along the way, Sophie encounters not only a vampire but also werewolves, ghosts, evil maids with sharp teeth, crazed psychiatrists and dream-sucking Tenderlings. She travels to Gothos, the ancestral home of the vampires. She discovers a secret hidden inside the body of an old woman, and later she finds another dark secret hidden inside her own body.
Grab your free copy of Dark Season The Last Vampire here!
Hello! First, I
want to thank Adriann for asking me to write something for her great blog. I've
never written a guest post on someone else's blog before, so I'm kind of
nervous. What if I break it? How many words does Adriann want? Does she want
something wise? I'm not very wise! Does she want something insightful about the
writing process? I'm not very insightful. Does she want something funny? Oh
dear, this could be awkward... I'm quite a good speller, though, and I'm
persistent. I'll try to bring these two qualities to today's guest post!
Anyway, I figured
I'd write something here about character names. I think character names are
hugely important. Some people might say that's superficial, that what's
important are the themes, the narrative, the structure and so on. That's kind
of true, but character names are vital too. Imagine the 'Harry Potter' series
if Harry had been named George Smith, or the James Bond franchise if the main
character was named Dave. Names tell us something about people, and they define
people too. My name is Amy. I grew up with people saying Amy to me a lot. It's
a light two-syllable name. If I'd grown up as Gertrude, with people saying
Gertrude to me all the time, I think I'd be a different person.
To grab the full series of Dark Season (8 books) visit http://amzn.to/yumq6R You can also get more info on Amy and her plethora of great books @ http://amycrossbooks.wordpress.com/
Thanks for stopping by....one lucky commenter will win a digital bag of goodies. Just comment and leave your email address!
When Sophie Hart is rescued from a mugging by a mysterious, silent vampire, she discovers that she is part of a dark prophecy. Patrick is the last vampire on Earth, having killed the rest of his species at the end of a bloody war, and he has plans for Sophie. But will she survive?
This volume collects the first 8 Dark Season books, covering the entire first series. Along the way, Sophie encounters not only a vampire but also werewolves, ghosts, evil maids with sharp teeth, crazed psychiatrists and dream-sucking Tenderlings. She travels to Gothos, the ancestral home of the vampires. She discovers a secret hidden inside the body of an old woman, and later she finds another dark secret hidden inside her own body.
Grab your free copy of Dark Season The Last Vampire here!
Hello! First, I
want to thank Adriann for asking me to write something for her great blog. I've
never written a guest post on someone else's blog before, so I'm kind of
nervous. What if I break it? How many words does Adriann want? Does she want
something wise? I'm not very wise! Does she want something insightful about the
writing process? I'm not very insightful. Does she want something funny? Oh
dear, this could be awkward... I'm quite a good speller, though, and I'm
persistent. I'll try to bring these two qualities to today's guest post!
I'm going to talk
about character names. While I was trying to work out what to write about for
this guest post, I was facing a separate problem: I couldn't come up with a
name for a character in a book I'm working on at the moment. If you read my
books, you'll know that I rarely describe my characters' physical appearance,
unless there's something really important I have to mention. If Mr. X has an
eyepatch, I'll mention it. If Mr. Y has mousey blonde hair, I'll probably let
it slide. So for me the names are more important than the characters'
appearances, and I can't get started on a book unless I get the names right.
Sophie and Patrick are the stars of 'Dark Season', but if I'd named then Bob
and Sue the whole series would probably have been very different.
Side note: This
reminds me of a scene in the film 'Gentlemen Broncos'. If you haven't seen it,
I highly recommend it. It's by the people who made 'Napoleon Dynamite', and
it's brilliant. It's about a guy who writes a book that gets plagiarized by a
sci-fi author. There's a scene where the author talks about the importance of
character names. Of course, he gets it all completely wrong. Seriously:
funniest film I've seen in years.
Anyway, back to
the subject. Character names. Yes. Hugely important. Even a slight change can
be huge. 'Oliver Twist' sounds like a book about a kid escaping from a
workhouse; 'Olivier Twist' doesn't. But while character names are very
important, inspiration can come from anywhere, and sometimes the stories behind
character names are very surprising. So here, for the first time, I'm going to
admit where I got the names for the main characters in 'Dark Season':
Patrick – I
immediately imagined Patrick as a kind of brooding, dark anti-hero. Someone
with a hint of danger, someone who'd (probably) come good (kind of) (maybe) in
the end. I'd recently been watching (don't judge me) some 'Days of Our Lives'
re-runs and happened to spot the character of Patrick Lockhart. So that's where
I got the name Patrick from, although I never imagined Patrick looking like the
guy from 'Days of Our Lives'.
Sophie – This is
more complicated. Some names have huge literary significance. For example, the
name Alice immediately makes most people think of 'Alice in Wonderland'. The
name Cathy makes many people (well, me at least) think of 'Wuthering Heights'.
I've always liked the name Sophie, and I've always felt like there's never been
a definitive literary Sophie. In other words, I felt the name wasn't claimed by
another author. So I took it. Then I remembered the book 'Sophie's Choice'. Oh
well...
Vincent – I
remember reading an article about the making of the old sitcom 'Newsradio'
(seriously, this is the kind of thing I do with my spare time), which mentioned
that the character Matthew was the kind of person who insisted on always being
called Matthew rather than shortening his name to Matt. I wanted something
similar for Patrick's father. The fact that Vincent doesn't shorten his own
name to Vince says something about him, I think. Plus, I have a very calm, very
smart friend called Vincent and the name seemed like a natural fit.
Shelley – Like I
said, I usually think long and hard about the names of my characters. But this
time, the name Shelley just popped into my head. I thought “No, there are no
teenage girls around today named Shelley”. I planned to change it. Then I
forgot. Then it stuck. I liked the idea of this goofy, messed-up girl with such
a traditional name. Oh, and Shelley is very important in the 'Dark Season'
story. Very, very important. She might seem like a side character, but if
you've read 'Dead End', you'll have seen a glimpse. By the very end of the
whole saga (which I have all planned out), Shelley will be as important as
Sophie.
So there you go.
The true story of how 'Days of Our Lives', 'Newsradio' and 'Alice in
Wonderland' (sort of) inspired the character names in 'Dark Season'. And
writing all of this has helped me with my original problem: I now have a name
for the character in the book I'm writing at the moment. I'm going to call him
Henry. A nice, simple name that sounds a little old-fashioned and perhaps a
little 'safe'. But I like that contrast, because Henry is going to pop up in
one of the 'Lupine Howl' books I'm writing at the moment, and he's going to be
neither old-fashioned or 'safe'. Henry is going to be a terrible person. Now
that I have named him Henry, I have no excuse. I must get back to writing the
book.
Well, I have to go
now. My dog has just walked into the room, looking like he wants to go for a
walk. His name is Barney. That's a good name for him, it makes him sound
friendly and good-natured, which is exactly what he's like. I can't help
thinking that if his name was Brandon, he'd be a very different dog. So thanks
again for letting me waffle on about names here, it's been fun and it's been an
excellent distraction from the latest book I'm writing!
Amy Cross is a British writer of paranormal and horror fiction, though she occasionally strays genres.
To grab the full series of Dark Season (8 books) visit http://amzn.to/yumq6R You can also get more info on Amy and her plethora of great books @ http://amycrossbooks.wordpress.com/
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Happy Tuesday! Keeping in tune with Monday Mention, I thought I'd pull a paragraph from Dark Season, The Last Vampire. The tidbit for the day:
The dead girl is Jessica Harper, 20, of Bloomville town. She was found entirely drained of blood in an upstairs bedroom of the house at 517 Hoover Street. The only wound on her body was a pair of small holes on one side of her neck. There was no sign of a struggle, nor of the girl's blood.
Jessica Harper's friend Rose Tisser, who was with her the last time she was seen, has not been home in almost five days and fears are growing for her safety.
~ Amy Cross, Dark Season The Last Vampire
Be sure and stop by tomorrow, Witching Wednesday, to meet Ms. Cross as she introduces herself to you in her guest post!
Monday, March 5, 2012
I recently came across this free book on smashwords and thought I'd give it a try. Some of you may be already familiar with Amy Cross and her books. If not, she may just be your next read! Turns out, the book is a good read. Dark Seasons is a series of stand alone novellas that need not be read in any particular order. Each one is about 25k words. It's worth a good mention or shout out! If you'd like more info on Amy, visit her at http://amycrossbooks.wordpress.com/ . She actually has a great selection of books to choose from and I'm sure you will find one that you will like. I did!
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Sunday, March 4, 2012
Here's your chance to win a $10 Amazon gift card. It's simple...all you have to do is become a follower of this blog! Leave a comment with your email, stating that you are a new follower and answer the following question. What is the name of your favorite PNR novel? That's it! I will randomly draw 3 followers on March 16th, each to win the $10 gift card...showing my appreciation!
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Goodness, I cannot believe that February has gone by so fast! Alas, Spring is just around the corner and I for one am so happy that it's on the way!
With the new month, I want to get a good start and get some good interactions going and would love for you to join me....to get me more involved with what's going on elsewhere and not so focused on me and what I'm doing , what I propose to do going forward every other week is this...
Monday - Monday Mentions - A shout out to or a list of authors/books that I have found to be interesting to watch/read. If you'd like to get a mention here let me know by emailing me @ adriannrenae@gmail.com
Tuesday - Tidbit Tuesday - A selected paragraph of the book that I'm reading. Would love to know what you're reading as well.
Wednesday- Witching Wednesday Guest post from and invited or requested PNR author (again, email me with your info, adriannrenae@gmail.com)
Thursday - Trailer Thursday - Interesting book trailer, suggested or chosen.
Friday - Friday Funatics - A mixture of all the above and then some!
With the new month, I want to get a good start and get some good interactions going and would love for you to join me....to get me more involved with what's going on elsewhere and not so focused on me and what I'm doing , what I propose to do going forward every other week is this...
Tuesday - Tidbit Tuesday - A selected paragraph of the book that I'm reading. Would love to know what you're reading as well. 
Wednesday- Witching Wednesday Guest post from and invited or requested PNR author (again, email me with your info, adriannrenae@gmail.com)
Friday - Friday Funatics - A mixture of all the above and then some!
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