Meltdown / Thom Tate

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Thriller

Approximate word count: 16-17,000 words

Availability    

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Author:

Thom Tate lives with his spouse and two children north of Atlanta, Georgia. This is one of a planned series of shorter spy thrillers planned, each featuring Blake MacKay.

Description:

“While tracking down a missing nuclear Physicist, Dimitri Evanko, Blake uncovers a devistating plan by the Islamic Terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah. When a plan to rescue Evanko and his family backfires, the terrorists fast forward their destructive plan of terror. In the shadows of an impending disaster, Blake finds himself and Dimitri in a race against time with the lives of thousands on the line.”

Appraisal:

This spy thriller novelette is a quick read with a plot that had a lot of promise. However, in the end, the story didn’t work for me. Some of this was the writing, giving too much detail at times, possibly not enough at others, and giving the reader information that is needed, but in a less than optimal or entertaining way in other situations.

An example of a few of these issues is the introduction of Hadi Lie, a significant character (although not the protagonist). The reader had been briefly introduced to this character previously. Although we didn’t know much about him, we did have a reasonable understanding of his role. Then we start Chapter 5 with an info dump about Hadi’s back story. Specifically his past work history. It isn’t that much (a paragraph just over 150 words), but it does very little to move the story forward and has detail that goes beyond the needs of the reader to understand the character. Were this a novel, some of this might have been valuable to understand the character. However, in shorter works, too much detailed back story only bogs the story down. Even if this information was needed, doing it as an information dump isn’t the way to go. For example, this paragraph is followed by a conversation between Hadi and Blake. At the end of that conversation Blake could have asked Hadi about his history. Since they’ve never worked together before, this would seem natural and would be a chance to get some of his back story on the record. This same issue (with information dumping) happened with other characters as well, including Blake, the main character, early in the story.

I also thought the climax of the story was a combination of unbelievable and too predictable. I know, that seems to be contradictory. Without spoilers, it is hard to explain. I can say that when the story reached that point there seemed to be only one way for it to resolve (the predictable part), but to get to that ending and (it seemed to me) in an unsuccessful attempt to ratchet up the tension, several obstacles were put up between our hero and success. I didn’t believe either the obstacles or the hero’s actions to get there.

Last, for a book of this size, there were too many copy editing and proofing issues.

Format/Typo Issues:

Too many editing issues, IMO, for a book of this length.

Rating: ** Two stars

Winner Lose All / William F. Brown

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Suspense/Historical

Approximate word count: 110-115,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: NO

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Author:

Brown is the author of six mystery and suspense novels as well as being a playwright. For more, visit his website.

Description:

“In the closing months of WWII, as the war grinds to an end in the rubble of Nazi Germany, all eyes turn to the next ‘cold’ one. The Americans, the Russians, and the British all know that the future belongs to whomever can grab the new rockets, jet fighters, long-range bombers, synthetic fuels and other ‘wonder weapons’ that Hitler unleashed upon them. They will shape the balance of world power for decades to come. It is also the story of the torrid but impossible love affair between Ed Scanlon, a brilliant, young, American OSS agent and Hanni Steiner, the gritty, street-smart leader of the communist resistance cell in Leipzig. They now find themselves on opposite ends of an international tug of war over the plans for Germany’s revolutionary Me-262 jet fighter and the scientists who designed and built it. To succeed, they must not only outwit each other, they must stay one-step ahead of Otto Dietrich, the sadistic Gestapo Chief of Leipzig, who has plans of his own."

Appraisal:

Winner Lose All is an entertaining and engrossing combination of suspense and cold war spy thriller set in a period of history that I don’t know much about. Figures and events, both real and imagined, form the story which is the essence of historical fiction. The historical aspect of the book set it apart from my typical reading fare. Both the different time and places (primarily Germany and Russia immediately before and in the aftermath of WWII) were new settings for me and added to the uniqueness of the story. All in all, a fun read.

FYI:

A small amount of adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

A small number of typos and copy editing misses.

Rating: **** Four stars

Oblivion / Francois Soriano

Reviewed by: Keith Nixon

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Approximate word count: 35-40,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: NO

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Author:

I couldn’t find any information about the author.

Description:

Francois Soriano is an artist, bored with life and suffering with creator’s block and starts writing a diary.

Appraisal:

This is an odd book. I’m not sure whether I liked it or not. It’s apparently a diary, recording the author’s thoughts. In the opening chapter Francois is sitting in a Parisian café. It’s 1968. He starts writing. Then after a couple of pages, it’s 2013 and he’s not in Paris, but California. Hmmm, I’m confused. The author carries on talking, explaining the reasons for writing Oblivion. That’s day one and I’m wondering what the hell is going on.

Day two he explains his name. Still not with the programme.

Then it’s day four and Francois has been shopping. Finally we have an interesting event. A woman cuts in front of the author in a queue for the till. Francois tears into her. It’s an interesting interaction.

Francois goes home and starts painting and we return to artistic introspection. And that was the trouble for me with this story. It’s largely day-to-day stuff that’s pretty dull. Every now and again the author would reveal items that interested me, like a relationship, but then the narrative would drift again after a tantalizing explanation that didn’t reach a satisfactory conclusion – like a thought that had just been thrown in.

From a technical standpoint Oblivion isn’t badly written, sometimes it’s pretty good. It’s well structured and edited. The problem was I just didn’t value the majority of the subject matter. I simply wasn’t engaged. Often the narrative came over as self-indulgent and pointless - the product description Oblivion says ‘darkly comic’. I failed to experience this and by the end I didn’t really care anymore.

FYI:

Swearing and adult situations.

Format/Typo Issues:

None.

Rating: ** Two Stars

Blinders Keepers / John Rachel

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Satire

Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words

Availability    

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Author:

Novelist John Rachel is an ex-patriot American, who currently lives in Japan. He has three other books available.

For more, visit his website.

Description:

“Collapse, chaos, confusion, rioting, looting.

And that's the good news!

America is coming apart and the President can do nothing to stop it.

But 23-year-old Noah Tass has his own problems. Stuck his entire life in the hayseed capital of the Bible Belt after his father abandoned him 18 years ago, he has no future, all his friends are losers, his job is a dead end, his mother is stark raving mad, and his sister is a meth head stripper.”

Appraisal:

Although never explicitly stated, Blinders Keepers is set in contemporary times, call it the very near future. It’s satirical and definitely has its moments. For example, the sitting President of the US can string together clichés while saying nothing as well as any politician you’ve ever seen. Or the description of an odor as “unlike anything Noah had ever encountered, having never exhumed a person from a grave or stuck his head inside the bloated anus of a cow that had been rotting in the sun for several weeks.”

However, it also has some issues. A fair number of errors that were not caught in proofreading is one. Mysterious happenings around the country and massive social changes occurring in a short amount of time that stretched my ability to suspend disbelief without more explanation or justification for how they were happening. Eventually I managed to just take it on faith and go with the story, but it was a struggle to get there. There were minor issues as well including stating that it was “supposed to be impossible” to determine your approximate location if you visited a website. This is actually fairly trivial and has been for some time. Or the protagonist knowing that something was fake with no way for him to have figured that out. However, by its nature, I think satire gets more leeway than most genres in straying from reality and by the last half of the book I was engrossed in Noah’s adventure in spite of the flaws.

FYI:

Adult language and mild adult situations.

Format/Typo Issues:

A large number of copy editing and proofing misses.

Rating: *** Three stars

The Editor's Eye / Stacy Ennis

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Non-Fiction/Writing

Approximate word count: 55-60,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES

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Author:

“Stacy Ennis is a book and magazine editor, writer, book coach, and speaker. Her greatest joy is helping people achieve their book-writing dreams, and she has had the opportunity to work with a diverse group of authors in varied genres, editing several chart-toppers.”

For more, visit stacyennis.com.

Description:

“The Editor's Eye: A Practical Guide to Transforming Your Book from Good to Great shows you how editing can help you write your best book. In this no-nonsense guide, book coach and editor Stacy Ennis takes you through the ins and outs of the often bewildering book-editing process. As you begin to understand how writing and editing complement each other, you'll become more confident as a writer, finish your book faster, and move toward the ultimate goal: publication.”

Appraisal:

Regular readers of my reviews or ramblings elsewhere, primarily at Indies Unlimited, know that where copy editing and proofreading are concerned, I tend to come down hard on indie books that are deficient in this area. If a book falls short here, I see it as an unambiguous indication that the author or publisher failed to put the proper polish on their product in a way that is easily measurable and has nothing to do with personal taste, other than how forgiving a reader’s inner editor is. If I start picking apart a book with lots of specific examples of shoddy writing, plot holes, or scenes that did nothing to move the story forward, the book has even bigger problems. All of these are indicative of less than adequate editing at some point in the writing and preparation of the book. All of this is a lot of words (that with proper editing would be many fewer) to say that I believe every author needs an editor (and a copy editor and a proofreader). Being indie doesn’t give anyone a pass.

In this book (well edited, BTW) Stacey Ennis explains for the current or wannabe author (or the interested reader) each stage of the editing process, what is involved, and how each will make your book better. In her words, how to take your book from good to great. She also tries to straighten out some misconceptions associated with editors, what they do, and gives advice on finding and hiring the right person (bad editing might be worse than no editing).

Although I had a basic idea of what each phase of editing involved, I felt like I came away from reading this book with a deeper understanding of the details. The only complaint I have is minor, that at times it felt like the fine line between informing about editing and making a hard sell might have been crossed, at least for some people. However, the discussion of the various modes of publishing (self-publishing, small press, Big 6, and variations) largely made up for it in its evenhandedness in explaining the pros and cons of each, while including an appropriate disclaimer to beware of and steer clear of the predatory vanity publishers.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four stars

Thanks, Dad: A Guest Post from Edward Lorn, author of Life After Dane

I don’t have many fond memories of my father. In fact, there’s only one that really stands out. And that one only became a good memory later in life. My dad lived off my mother for twenty-five years. He cut grass on the side, but only when Mom couldn’t afford his beer and cigarettes. Even though he didn’t put into the pot while I was growing up, he was still king of the castle. What he said went, and so on. When his mother died, instead of helping Mom pay off the immense credit card bills our family had accumulated just trying to make ends meet, Dad went out and bought himself a new truck with his inheritance money. Class act, my father.

Now, most of you might be wondering why this became a fond memory for me in my adult years, so let me explain. Not that Dad meant to do this, but he taught me a very valuable lesson that I will always be grateful for. By observing his inactivity, I learned what not to do. Because of Dad, I will do anything to make sure my family is safe and secure, financially or otherwise. Thanks, Dad.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think my father was an evil man. He didn’t beat me or my mother. The only real abuse he was guilty of was emotional, but he was subtle about it. The man never once said he was proud of me, nor did he congratulate me when I did something right. In my freshman year of high school, I brought home all As, to which he responded, “What? You think you’re smarter than me?”

Yeah, he wasn’t evil, but he was a horrible human being. He simply lacked the will to participate in life for fear of failure. He felt no need to provide for his family because his wife was capable. I don’t think it ever crossed his mind that things would have been much easier if he’d have gotten even a part-time job. From what I was told, Dad’s step-father was a good man with a strong work ethic. Why my father didn’t turn out the same way, I haven’t a clue. Everybody seemed to love my dad, though—strangers, extended family, even my childhood friends. The man was as charismatic as he was lazy. By the time I reached my final year of school, I came to realize that if I ever wanted to succeed at anything in life, I had to be better than him. Once again, thanks, Dad.

In my newest novel, Life After Dane, I created a serial killer whose childhood was filled with physical abuse and neglect. I kept one key thought in mind: What would I have become had I followed in my father’s footsteps? Though no one character was based on my father, I see parts of him everywhere in the book. That’s a first for me. Usually, I find myself bleeding into my characters.

In the end, I turned out all right because I was able to use my old man as a template for what I didn’t want to become. Dane, not so much. But you’ll have to read the book to understand why.

Until next time, Books and Pals,

E.

P.S. Big Al, you die in the next book. Not this one. Cheers!

***************

I may have to hire some fictional bodyguards, E. At least I can be glad it wasn't Dane who kills me. I sure hope I go fast. :)

You can get your copy of Edward Lorn's latest, Life After Dane, from  Amazon US (paper or ebook), Amazon UK (paper or ebook), or Barnes & Noble. 

Also, be sure to enter the giveaway for a chance at some great prizes.

: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Working for Heat / Donovan Sotam

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Humor/Short Story Collection

Approximate word count: 6-7,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: YES  Paper: NO

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Author:

Donovan Sotam describes himself as “Portuguese by origin,” which will seem pertinent when you read the explanation for this book title. He also has a second volume now available, Working for Heat II.

Description:

“A collection of short-stories centered around the working world. Surreal aspects of everyday workplaces and exaggerated characters, that we can all, unfortunately, relate to. Working for heat is a direct translation of the Portuguese idiomatic expression - “trabalhar para aquecer” - which, very roughly, translates into working to no avail. A humorous satire about the working world.”

Appraisal:

A small collection of three short stories, each about the workplace, its humor and frustrations. I found that each story had both good and not so good things, although not the same things from story to story.

The first story, Severance Coffee, was my favorite (at least as far as the content of the story goes). It’s about an employee who is being laid off, in spite of being the best employee in her department. (We not only have her opinion on this, but also a bit of evidence to back up her contentions.) I found the two main characters in this story, Jenny, the employee being let go, and Victor, the senior manager doing the dirty deed, to both be sympathetic (anyone who enjoys firing an employee isn’t much of a person and he was nervous, to say the least). The biggest problem with this story is the abundance of typos, also an issue with the third story.

The second story is called, The “older you get, the less you work, the more you earn” Paradox. Yes, that whole thing is the title. He shot his wad there. There isn’t much else to say. The story itself doesn’t add much. There’s a bunch of ridiculousness (which isn’t meant in a bad way, these stories are over the top on purpose) with an ending that leaves the reader with nothing more than a short chuckle at best.

The collection ends with The Forgotten Chosen One. In the book’s description, one word used is surreal. This story might fit that word the best. It’s the most bizarre, the least true to life, yet I can see how, depending on a reader’s taste in fiction, how this could be considered the best of the bunch. One reason is the ending. The first story just kind of died. It made sense, but left me wanting something more or different. The second did nothing for me. This last story came to a logical, satisfying ending.

Format/Typo Issues:

An abundance of typos (often a missing or incorrect letter) and other minor proofing misses for a book of this size.

Rating: ** Two stars

#Free Books for your #Kindle, 7/25/2013

The author of each of these books has indicated their intent to schedule these books for a free day for the Kindle versions today on Amazon. Sometimes plans change or mistakes happen, so be sure to verify the price before hitting that "buy me" button.

Crossline by Russ Colchamiro

Amazon US

Amazon UK

No Good Deed by M.P. McDonald

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Author's interested in having their free book featured either here on a Thursday or a sister site on a Monday, visit this page for details.

Adrift in the Sound / Kate Campbell

Reviewed by: Pete Barber

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Approximate word count: 90-95,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES

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Author:

A novelist, journalist and photographer, Kate Campbell grew up in San Francisco and has lived and worked throughout California and the West. Adrift in the Sound, was a finalist for New York's 2011 Mercer Street Books Literary Prize. Campbell's environmental and political writing appears regularly in newspapers and magazines throughout the U.S. She lives in Sacramento and, in addition to writing fiction and poetry, publishes the Word Garden blog.

Description:

Lizette is a gifted abstract painter with severe personality issues—perhaps bi-polar—although I don’t believe this was stated. Pressured to achieve as a child, when her artist mother committed suicide something snapped inside Lizette. Estranged from her father, she drifts into bad company, and makes unwise life-choices. The story follows Lizette as she struggles with mental illness and searches for meaning in her life. Although set in the Seventies, no attachment with that era is required to connect with this story.

Appraisal:

I read because I love to lose myself in another world and experience life vicariously through someone else’s eyes. Also, as an aspiring writer, I read to learn. For me, reading Adrift in the Sound was tantamount to attending a fiction writing master class.

Tactile scene settings sucked me into a story as multi-layered as one of Lizette’s beautifully described oil paintings. Ms. Campbell colors her scenes with fine details, often transforming the settings into another character to add emotion. For example, after an argument with her father, Lizette turns her back on him and the house and takes the path in the rain toward the small cabin her mother used as her artists’s studio. Lizette perceives the cabin like this: “Two big windows stared into the tangled garden, watching the house through rain-streaked eyes.” Or her view of the car ferry that will take her to Orcas Island in the Puget Sound, where much of the story unfolds: “The wide-bodied boat nudged the dock, bounced against the pylons, settled into its berth like a lumbering beast nestling into a safe burrow.” Or the way the ocean appears to her: “The afternoon sun scattered silver sequins across the water.” I confess I have a ton more highlights on my Kindle; so many I had to stop myself. Unable to choose which to use in the review, I simply chose the first three—they’re all exceptional.

Lizette’s world is populated by a cast of complex, multi-faceted characters. Many are unpleasant. All were real to me. A brutal sexual assault early in the story permanently scars Lizette and scarred this reader along with her. It happened because she takes crazy chances and trusts the wrong people. But don’t see her as a weakling. On a number of occasions she does significant harm to those whom she perceives as a threat. Although, as I watched Lizette become a danger to others, I was never quite sure of her intentions. That’s a measure of how off-balance the author kept me, and how hard I was rooting for Lizette.

Lizette’s affinity for the native Indians who live on Orcas and form her support group provides more wonderful characters whose lifestyle grounds the story in history and in nature. I have no connection with Native Indians or their customs, but I found their lives and beliefs and plain commonsense added to the palette of an already colorful story.

The novel is a deep, slow burn, and not without humor. One particular scene involving a large snake and an unpleasant junkie had me laughing so loud I woke my wife (I read at night). A larger-than-life character--self-described poet, Toulouse--is described in the eyes of Lizette’s friend, Marian thusly: “Toulouse moved off with a flourish, tipping a goodbye from the rim of his foolish hat. Marian watched him go, his self-importance shoved up his ass like a mop handle.”

Complex, troubled, and gifted, Lizette connects with the natural world on such a deep level that she pulled me along until I stood beside her marveling at the natural beauty of an ocean wave, or the fearsome power of the killer whales as they hunt in the Sound, or the subtle simplicity of an old Indian woman dancing in a mask of feathers and bear skin. She broke my heart as we watched a seal taken by a predator, or a pet dog injured. I know, as she does, it’s natural. You can’t interfere, you can’t help—but still, you share the stab of her guilt.

With more “Oh, didn’t see that coming” moments than I had any right to expect, Adrift in The Sound is the best book I’ve read in a long time.

Check it out. You won’t regret it.   

Format/Typo Issues:

No typos to mention. Some graphic scenes and bad language (used appropriately).

Rating: ***** Five stars

The Automat / Cristina Martin

Reviewed by: Keith Nixon

Genre: Thriller / Crime

Approximate word count: 65-70,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES

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Author:

Cristina Martin was born in Miami, Florida. She earned a degree in Criminal Justice from Florida International University, then moved to New York where she began a career in investigations for the city.

Description:

Horace Gray lives a mundane life. He hates his job and is bullied by his wife. Everything is routine. Until the day he sees a pair of beautiful eyes staring back at him through the slot of an automat…

Appraisal:

This was an incredibly frustrating story. Horace Gray is a very dull man. He lives a very dull life. His wife hates him, there are shades of domestic abuse around their relationship. He has an awful job. Then one day a pair of eyes change his life and he obsesses about them. That’s about the sum of The Automat really. It’s tedious and I struggle to think of a single redeeming feature.

Unfortunately the author makes several fundamental and huge mistakes. In an effort to demonstrate how dull his life is the story is dull – we don’t need to see everything he does to understand this, but nevertheless this is precisely what happens. The same with Horace’s character, there is nothing likeable about him. He’s an utter wimp. Once he begins to obsess about the girl at the automat this becomes excessive too.

Then there are the other characters. The wife is brutal to the extreme, far too much. Another example, Detective Bones, a homicide detective who apologises for his surname and says how inappropriate it is – yes really. I very quickly had no affinity for the cast at all (it’s worth noting it took 13% into the book to learn he’s called Horace and 18% before his surname is revealed which doesn’t help either).

Also the author will tell you several times what the character is doing, e.g.:

I walked closer to the automat and its old neon sign grew larger as I drew nearer to it. It flickered as I walked closer and closer.

It happens over and over. Then there’s an incredibly high use of repeat words within sentences and paragraphs. Here are a couple of examples:

On this unusual day I went to the coffee station to get a cup of coffee and then to the window to get my coffee cake. I inserted the coins in the slot and watched as the window opened. I reached into the window to get my coffee cake as usual, but when I did the back door opened. What was unusual…

I went downstairs and turned on the television, but it was hard for me to watch the television with my wife mixing drinks in front of the television. She would stand there, obstructing my view to the television, mixing up a gin and tonic…

This happens many times.

The dialogue is also poor and stilted. It just sounds like nothing anyone would say. Finally, there’s no sense of place. I couldn’t tell it was in New York, I only learnt this from the author’s bio.

All in all a tiresome, frustrating novel that I struggled to see the point of or care what happened to anyone.

FYI:

Nothing of consequence.

Format/Typo Issues:

Many paragraphs in bold.

Rating: * One Star

Dark Pool / Helen Hanson

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Thriller

Approximate word count: 95-100,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

A former employee of high-tech manufacturers in Silicon Valley, Helen Hanson now lives in Texas with her husband and son. She’s lived from coast to coast, worked a variety of jobs, and even has a pilot’s license, but what makes me jealous is that she “saw the Clash at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium sometime in the eighties.” This is Hanson’s second novel.

For more, visit the author’s website.

Description:

“Maggie Fender’s law degree remains a daydream as she supports her ex-felon half-brother and their incoherent father. Suffering from Alzheimer’s, Dad’s rarely lucid, but when he’s accused of murder, only the gorgeous Russian neighbor flickers Maggie’s hope.

In the news, disgraced hedge fund manager Patty O’Mara awaits trial for bilking investors out of forty billion dollars. The legendary dark pool wizard offered phenomenal profits. But the SEC discovered O’Mara never made a single legitimate investment. His fund was a total scam.

Maggie’s Dad barely functions, but her hacker brother swears Dad is sending them vital messages about O’Mara’s pot of gold. A private investigator hunts for the money and aims to find it before a notorious Russian mobster. When their efforts focus on Maggie’s father, her remaining hope turns to rampant fear.

She’s the only adult left in her family, and her weary camel won’t carry a single extra straw. Her teenage brother’s hacking skills landed his ass in prison, but he swears he was framed. No fans of the Fender family, the local police assume Dad ran away when he goes missing. Maggie will never find her father without help.

But who can Maggie trust when everyone has betrayed her?”

Appraisal:

An engaging story with plenty of mystery along with the unrelenting conflict and danger you’d expect from the thriller genre, Dark Pool is an intense read. However, what set it apart for me is summed up in the portion of the description that reads “who can Maggie trust.” She’s overwhelmed with responsibility and those she should be able to depend on, her family, aren’t any more helpful or trustworthy than the rest of the world. Her father due to his Alzheimer’s, which makes anything he says hard to interpret, at best, and often suspect. She finds her brother hard to trust because of the crime he was convicted of committing and his continual denial of having done anything wrong. (Don’t all ex-convicts deny committing the crime?) Maggie’s situation not only jacks up the tension, but had the effect for me of making me sympathize and pull for her to get through this even more.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: **** Four stars

Why I Love Writing About Vampires, a guest post from Rachel Carrington, author of Vampire's Fury

We all have our different takes on vampires. Some of us still adhere to the beliefs that vampires should burst into flames in the sun, be repelled by garlic, and frightened by a cross like Spike and Angel from Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.

Newer takes on vampires, Edward Cullen and the Twilight vamps, have them as being virtually indestructible. Even a stake to the heart won’t quite do it, but the sun makes them glitter like diamonds.

Oh, and let’s not forget Mick from the television show that only lasted one season, Moonlight. He couldn’t be killed by stakes, only paralyzed. And he could walk out in the sun, but he quickly became dehydrated.

Christine Feehan writes vampires as foul creatures who need to be destroyed while other authors portray them as sexy, tormented beings who are only looking for love.

There are myriads of readers who adamantly swear one type of vampire is the only way. Whether it’s the Buffyverse, the Twi-Hards, or whatever other groups exist, they want vampires to remain the way they’ve known them, possibly the way they’ve seen them first.

Now you know why I like writing about vampires. There is no one way to define them, and the challenge of creating the undead is something that never fails to excite me. Whether I’m giving him a new take on the old mythology or sticking with the tried and true, I prefer to inject a little something different into each one I write. Whether it’s a curse that made him that way or a vampire who undergoes an excruciatingly painful procedure to keep from killing humans, they all have something that set them apart from different vampires.

But a few things do remain the same. They are always sexy. Always handsome. And always out for blood.

About my newest release, Vampire’s Fury

Available now from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and All Romance Ebooks

He returns home to find a killer. Instead, he connects with a vampire whose heart is as lonely as his own. 

Devlin never expected to find love after 150 years, but Detective Joely Grayson slowly strips away the barriers around his heart. In the midst of a potential vampire rebellion, he discovers a woman whose been desperately trying to fit into the human world to which she no longer belongs. 

Joely's been struggling to live the life she used to have, but all that changes when someone tampers with the local blood bank supply. Her hunger overwhelms her, and the creature overtakes the human she's pretending to be. 

Saving Joely will help prevent a massacre of a small town, but it will also reveal the truth Devlin isn't ready to face. And it could rip away his only chance at the happiness that has been eluding him since he was changed.

About Me

I started writing years ago, and my first attempt was a contemporary romance that will never see the light of day. I think I may even have thrown it away by now. It was absolutely horrific as I knew nothing about well…anything to do with writing.
After that, I started writing fantasy romances about wizards and wizards, and once those took off, I segued to paranormal romances (hello, vampires and ghosts) and romantic suspense. I also write articles for various magazines, including The Writer’s Journal, Writer’s Magazine, Writer’s Weekly, Writing for Dollars, Absolute Write, and Funds for Writers.
I’m fortunate to make my home in historical Charleston, South Carolina. Beautiful city. Beautiful people. When I’m not writing, I love to read, create videos, keep Target in business, play visitor in my city, and drink lots of coffee.
You can find me all over the internet, but here are just a few of the places:

My website: www.dawnrachel.com

Twitter: @rcarrington2004

Facebook: rachelcarringtonwrites

Pinterest: rcarrington2004

Goodreads: rcarrington2004

Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/rachel-carrington/63/7b0/b6a

Wattpad: http://wattpad.com/RachelCarrington