Summer Reading Sale

In that other universe in which I teach English at an alternative high school...summer has arrived. In celebration of the fact that about 10 percent of the graduating class did so because I tutored them through their reading and writing exams during my planning period and after school, I'm putting my Guardian series on sale through the end of June. The coupons are good on Smashwords. All you have to do is enter the coupon code prior to completing your checkout. Book #1: The Guardian Michel was originally $0.99 -- with the coupon code PA46R -- you can get it for free through June 30, 2012. Book #2: The Guardian Michael was originally $1.99 -- with the coupon code KE93L -- it is $0.99 through June 30, 2012. Book #3: The Guardian Gabriel was originally $2.99 -- with the coupon code KX63P -- it is $1.99 through June 30, 2012. The books are available in the e-book format of your choice at Smashwords. Happy reading!

The Guardian Michel: On Sale Now

Description: Lilly Evans has a past she's buried from everyone, including herself. From the moment she meets the mysterious Michel de Valois, memories she'd just as soon forget push their way from dream to reality. When she realizes he is a vampire, the horror of her past could pull them apart forever.

Michel recognizes Lilly as soon as he sees her. What he doesn't know is if she can accept the past they share and the vampire he has become. To regain her love and save her very life, he'll have to call on his brothers, The Guardians, for help. In the end, the choice is between Lilly's life and her love. .


Excerpt: Lilly picked up the big zoom lens, loving the weight and feel of it in her hands. There was power there, power to freeze time. Scanning the horizon, she zoomed in on a few gulls, winging, diving and standing still in the wind. She followed one to the surface of the water only to see it abruptly cut its dive short, and with a startled cry, wing up and away.
Something moved in the water several hundred feet offshore. Lilly zoomed in closer and could make out the indistinct form of arms and a head. A swimmer on a day like today? Was the person crazy? Or was someone truly in trouble? Lilly clicked. The swimmer drew closer, but on a path that would intersect the shore north of where she stood. So, not someone in trouble, simply someone who must have a death wish to be swimming with a storm headed in.
As she continued to click, she felt again the sensation of being watched. It was the same tingle she had felt first in Charlevoix and then again as she snapped pictures out in the woods that first day. The urge was overpowering; Lilly wanted to drop the camera and look around. She was being paranoid. She fought the feeling down, unwilling to lose her opportunity, her camera lens glued to the swimmer. As the light changed, she adjusted, and almost before it seemed possible, he rose from the pounding waves as if he were doing no more than emerging from a swimming pool. In surf that would make most adults stagger out of the water, he moved as gracefully as if he walked on dry land.
He shook sleek dark hair like a seal sloughing off water before he pushed it back from his forehead. His body rippled with muscles as if it had been sculpted. Lilly’s hands shook. A sense of familiarity overwhelmed her until she thought: Michelangelo’s David had come to life. Long-limbed and muscular, not an ounce of fat on him, nor a stitch of clothing for that matter, he moved with a grace that was catlike. She continued to click as if hypnotized, hands shaking and breath coming in gasps, and then as she concentrated on framing what she saw in the viewfinder, he turned and looked at her. His expression was unsmiling, not annoyed but searching, and Lilly had the odd feeling that he wasn’t just looking in her direction, he was looking at her.
Her breath stopped. She felt a shock again, almost like recognition, but that couldn’t be. She had never seen this man before in her life. She would have remembered. Oh, yes, she would have remembered this man.

Available now on Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Smashwords

Taking the Step into Indie Publishing

I've discovered there's a good side and a bad side to having spent years writing without actively seeking publication. I have, as my husband likes to call it, a veritable woodpile of manuscripts. It does mean I have plenty to choose from when it comes to sending things out to publishing houses--and that is a great problem to have.

The bad part is my woodpile is far from silent. I can't get those other manuscripts still waiting out of my head. And I can't get them out fast enough to silence their clamoring. I also realized while working with editors at two different publishing houses at the same time that trying to speed up that process would cost me my sanity. Don't get me wrong. The editors and the publishers are great. I've learned a lot, and they've improved the manuscripts I've given them, along with my own attention to detail. I will continue to send them manuscripts which I hope they will continue to publish, but I also wanted to try something on my own.

The Brotherhood of the Guardians series is that experiment. Call them the knights in shining armor of the vampire world, but these guys break a lot of rules when it comes to vampire mythology. So, if you're a Dracula-style vampire purist you won't be happy with me. However, as a writer, I've found there's only so much control I have over my characters. Please don't call the psych doctors, but it's a little like having people living inside your head. I just tell their stories. So welcome to the world of the vampire accountants. Okay, they're really financial advisors, but they have a real kick-ass side to them too.

In addition to Gabriel (whose story is book #3), there's Michel (pronounced me-shell), Michael, Mikhail, Miguel, Michaly and Mick. OMG--did I really put all those forms of Michael together?? Yes, all forms of the name Michael--one of the Guardian Angels--and the impetus for the series name.

Right now, my plans are focused only on ebooks with this series, but we'll see. In the meantime, I'm still shifting through the woodpile. Depending on how things go...well, who knows.