Back in 2006, I was looking for something to read and a bookseller, knowing my love of medievals and Templar Knights, suggested a new author and series to me – Lynn Viehl’s DARKYN series about a race of ‘vampires’ or the Darkyn who began in the Middle Ages. Intrigued, I read the first book in 2 days and went back for numbers 2 and 3 immediately. I’ve now read all of the series AND the spinoff KYNDRED series, too. And some short stories. . . and novellas. Yes, I am truly and well hooked on Lynn’s stories! So, when looking for a guest blogger, I contacted Lynn who is now beginning a new series for NAL – Disenchanted & Co.

Today, Lynn’s going to tell us about how she transitioned from vampires to, um, something else. Welcome, Lynn!

Trading Fangs for Fichus

            After writing about vampires for nine years, and publishing three paranormal romance series involving them, I was ready for a change of pace.  I wasn’t worried about making the leap; I’ve written in many genres, and I’m always ready to try something new.  As a ghostwriter I’d published some critically-acclaimed historical novels, but nothing under my own byline.  I’d also never tackled urban fantasy or mystery fiction.  This melded together with my love of history into an idea for a steampunk urban fantasy series in a historical era (and so it wouldn’t be left out, my SF side contributed a parallel universe.)

The idea seemed great, and I wrote a draft of the first novel during NaNoWriMo 2009.  At that point I discovered many of the differences between writing vampire fiction and non-vampire fiction.  Here’s a list of some important points:

Brotherhoods:  In non-vampire fiction these are typically made up of a less formidable crew who are not so inexplicably bonded, or engage in conflicts that last for centuries, or hang out in bars not getting intoxicated while discussing the many ways in which they despise humankind but still must protect them at all cost.  No, if your characters are in a brotherhood, they generally have the same mom and dad.

Day Job:  Unlike your vampire crew, your characters can seek employment with work hours that begin before sundown; this includes but is not limited to landscaping, lifeguarding or suntan oil testing.

Diet:  Your characters have to eat food.  This would be food that does not walk around on two legs, talk back or fall madly in love with them.

Emotional Relationships:  Your characters are free to form friendships, infatuations and/or fall in love with anyone they want, not just the one surly, resistant, combative individual whom Fate has chosen to be their lifemate.  They can also break up, end liaisons and get divorced without it condemning their former partner to an eternity of solitude.

Immortality:  While we’re on the topic of eternity, in regards to duration of existence, living forever is pretty much off the table completely.  Same goes for non-ageing — your characters will get older, sprout gray hairs, wrinkles, paunches, have midlife crises, go through menopause, etc.

Monologues:  When your characters rant it won’t be about all the millennia they’ve wandered the Earth, how tiresome it’s been to sleep with thousands of clueless humans, or what instantly-regenerative limb they’d sacrifice to be mortal again. Your characters are going to gripe about things like their unpaid bills, their unsympathetic boss, or the dog chewing to pieces their favorite boots.

Morphing Capabilities:  Your characters will no longer be able to flash fangs, make their pupils or irises take on an inhuman glow, or shift into huge, mindless, nightmarish beasts that lay waste to everything in their path.  The closest alternative you have here is like them wearing a really convincing costume at Halloween.

Non-instantaneous Healing:  When wounded, your characters will need a little more time than twelve seconds to recover.  When seriously wounded, your characters will be out of commission for some weeks.  And when fatally wounded, your characters will actually have the bad taste to die on you.

Settings:  The Arctic fortress of solitude, the elaborate underground warren of pre-WWII tunnels filled with priceless antiques, and the remote European castle secretly occupied since the Romans sacked Britannia aren’t really practical places for your characters to inhabit.  Plus they have no access to the unimaginable wealth they haven’t been squirreling away since the Black Death, so they really can’t afford them.

Superhuman powers:  This is also a bit of a problem with the non-vampiric sort.  You may invest your characters with a middling psychic talent or two, but bench pressing a Subaru, or leaping over the Chrysler Building in a single bound?  Not happening.

Although writing my new series has been a challenge in many other ways (no super convenient secret society of vampire haters to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting and blood-dependent), so far it’s been very enjoyable.  I may not have huge hulking immortal warriors to storm into a scene, but my Victorian lady private investigator, her gadget-loving inventor neighbor, the brothel madam BFF and the formidable death mage determined to carry off my lady PI do keep things interesting.   From fangs to fichus, that’s what is most important with whatever you write:  have fun with it.

    Lynn has graciously offered a lovely giveaway for one lucky person who comments today –

Hubby and I are at that stage when the nest is emptying . . and not just for those temporary things like sleepovers or college. I never thought I would have a problem with it — I thought I had lots of things to do and would never really go through the heartache and angst that I always heard about. Now, of course, it realize it’s much more poignant than that – it’s really been happening all along the way as the kids grow up and take step after step away from us. It’s only when their room is empty that it all hits!

So, last year as two of three were officially out (even though one came back in for a while before he left again!), I began to plan my re-claiming of my house!

C’mon – you parents know!You put off buying the things you need because you want to buy what the kids need. One thing we put off (clearly for too long!) was a new mattress.  Two weeks ago, we bought a new one – and wow, what a difference! We got one of those ‘memory foam’ types and some of my back pain is easing!

And, of course, little by little, child by child, their stuff took over the house and mine got pushed and shoved into smaller and smaller places. My first computer was in the corner and the kitchen. Then it was in the corner of the storage room. Gradually I claimed the whole storage room – but it’s a really small room. As I wrote more and collected research books and storage files and supplies (and BOOKS), my space began to inch its way into other places — the living room bookshelves, the family room corner, the closet in the smaller bedroom.

Well, I finally made my stand just as number two son moved out — I was taking the larger of the two, now-empty bedrooms as my new office! Yay! I spent time browsing furniture websites like IKEA to find the perfect (and perfect amount) shelves to house and hold all those books that needed to be collected into one place. I bought a new desk but chose a color with the NEW OFFICE in mind.  The first big step is next — we’re getting some new carpet!

So, how about you? Do you spruce things up as you go or do you wait for things like ‘empty nest’ to make bigs changes? Have you gone through the ‘empty nest’ experience? Is there something in your house you’d change or will change? I just found a $20 Lowe’s gift card that might help a bit for one commenter who has something to do in their house!

   Terri is working on the next MacLerie Clan story and looking forward to new projects and characters! Stop by her website for more info about events, books, and news! 

I’ve been doing a lot of traveling over the last couple of years and especially during the April-May months. I travel for writing conferences and for my dental hygiene licensing boards (I’m in Pittsburgh writing this blog at the moment!).  So, a couple of years ago I also decided (for many reasons) to avoid all the newfangled scanning machines that they make you go through at airport security checkpoints, choosing instead the more personal attentions of TSA agents. . . .

AKA the PATDOWN.

I traveled through many airports, some big and some small, from the East Coast to the Midwest and out to the West Coast, spending many minutes, hours?, being legally groped from my head to my toes. by a number of different TSA agents. I tried to be positive about this process, especially since I’d made the choice to do them and so I decided to share my experiences and evaluation of the various airports and screeners.

LOL – I even told them I was going to blog about them!

So. . . what did I learn in undergoing lots of up-close-and-personal-attention?

The first thing I learned is that TSA agents must have undergone more training in late 2011-early 2012 because I found a big change in their whole attitudes in how they took the news that someone was ‘opting-out’. Before that, they seemed ready to argue and tell you why you were being stupid. After that, they seemed to be more zen about it — nodding politely, mentioning only that it would mean a ‘thorough pat-down using their hands to search your body’.

And, their approach–calm, soothing voices, polite instructions–became nicer, too. I had some very interesting conversations as the agent would be skimming her hands over my body parts, using the back of her hands in the ‘sensitive areas like the breasts and groin’. LOL!

Looking back at all the screenings, at all the airports, I would say that the Midwest screeners were just a tiny bit nicer in carrying out their duties. They generally had a nice sense of humor and seemed to try to put me at ease during the sometimes embarassing situation. The screeners at the Grand Rapids airport receive my award for best patdown at an airport!

The worst? Well, I hesitate to say this but I have terrible travel karma at the Orlando airport – yes, the gateway to my favorite place on earth is the airport I’ve had the most trouble traveling through! Clearly, they need some Disney magic or Tinkerbell’s pixie dust applied there!

How about you? Have you experienced the up-close-and-personal screening? Do your travels go smoothly or are you travel-challenged?

  Terri is busy working on her next MacLerie story even while she awaits the release of HIGHLANDERS, an HQN anthology in June. Visit her website or friend her on Facebook to keep in touch with her.

Each year, the Washington DC chapter of the Romance Writers of America hosts a weekend retreat that’s called “In The Company of Writers”.

The first two times I attended this retreat, it was held at the historic Hilltop Hotel in Harper’s Ferry WV — a hotel that had been built in sections over decades and left me feeling that I needed to carry breadcrumbs to drop along the way to find my path back! The view from the hotel’s patio and various rooms was spectacular and inspirational – it overlooked the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers and you could, if you wanted, sit and listen to the trains as they passed through the mountain tunnels and across the bridge below.

A couple of years ago, the hotel was closed and the retreat had to find a new location. This year’s was held in Westminster MD

   Throughout the weekend, workshops were interspersed with lots of side conversations and social events and wonderful speakers.  Cathy Maxwell moderated an interesting panel discussion by the editors and agents present and was the ‘closer’, too. Jane Porter spoke several times and I enjoyed her talk “Ten Keys to Success and Survival”.  Diane Gaston spoke about writing historical romances. Kathleen Seidel and Pamela Regis (two academic heavy-hitters!) did an interactive workshop that had us planning, drafting or revising our works-in-progress. I have never been a write-on-demand writer and usually find this type of workshop unappealing, but by the time they finished, I had a Christmas novella planned out! Woohooo!

There are two retreat events that have legendary status — Friday evening’s American Title and Saturday’s Romance Jeopardy game!  American Title features editors and/or agents who listen to ‘cold reads’ – first pages read from anonymous writers and then comment on them. It’s like watching American Idol live! The comments can be positive or negative (though they did all seem to try not to be too negative!) but they are candid and real. At least one was requested on spot!

Romance Jeopardy (aka The Game Is Not Fair!) is played by teams, sometimes dressed in thematic costumes, that includes lots of confusion, yelling, whining, sometimes singing, and possibly alcohol consumption! It’s played like the real Jeopardy game but all the questions focus on romance novels or authors. The funniest thing is when the question refers to a WRW member author who is playing the game…and who gets the question WRONG! Diane Gaston did that this year – LOL!  And this year, the theme was Scottish and each team did it in their own fashion. My favorite was this one:

When the judges came around to count teams to make sure they had the acceptable number of members, this team had one too many. When they were told this, they explained that the sheep was not a person so they didn’t count! Since the game is not fair, the sheep was allowed to remain on the team!

I have to say – I came home feeling rejuvenated, refreshed and ready to write. The Christmas novella idea is almost fleshed out in a synopsis that I plan to finish ASAP. I met up with friends, made some news ones and can’t wait for 2014′s retreat.

Gotta say – it’s events like this one that make me glad to be a writer!

So, how about you? Do you like attending events like conferences or retreats? Are you comfortable in large groups or do you prefer small ones? Interactive workshops or ones where you just take notes? Readers – do you attend signings or other author events?  Post a comment and I’ll share some of the books I brought home with some of those who do! 

Terri is working on her next MacLerie Clan historical romance and awaiting the release of her HQN anthology HIGHLANDERS, which arrives in digital formats in June! Visit her website for lots more info and some exciting news!

. . . that time of year again!   And, indeed, it is that busy time of year when I will be out of town more than I’ll be in. Between writing events and dental board assignments, I’ll be traveling from NC to MD to MA to NJ to PA to ME and back again between now and mid-May.

Spring and traveling have gone together for me for years — April and May are my busiest months of the year and, frankly, I love it. After the cold and dark of Winter, the sun is up longer, the weather is warming and I’m going all over the place to meet people, talk writing and administering dental hygiene licensing boards.

As I approach getting ready for all the traveling, I realize I must be more like my mother than I usually admit — for years, she kept a suitcase packed by the door in case she was asked to travel! LOL! She never turned down a chance to go with friends or her senior group. So, I’m searching for my travel accoutrements, charging up my electronic devices and getting ready to head out.

    How about you? How is your Spring looking so far? Will you be staying put or heading out like me? Spring cleaning ahead? Are you thrilled to see Winter end or lamenting a lack of snow as I am?  Since I have a new book out, I’ll pick out two commentors and give them a copy of my latest – AT THE HIGHLANDER’S MERCY!

   I have to say that I really, really don’t like the tv networks habit lately of putting series into hiatus. Some take a few weeks at a time off – Once Upon a Time, for example, is off now until April 21st. Others are off for longer – Revolution disappeared from tvs for FOUR WHOLE MONTHS! Long enough for viewers to: 1) forget their storylines and characters, and 2)find other shows they like better.

Some cable shows simply have shorter seasons with 8-10 episodes before they go off for months (or almost a year!) — like GAME OF THRONES, TRUE BLOOD, BOARDWALK EMPIRE, etc. So they’re just long enough to get me interested and then they leave for extended time – not fair either!

I tend to find new shows….and sometimes lose the old ones — I think I’ve given up on REVOLUTION due to the hiatus. I found THE BORGIAS after THE TUDORS ended and plan on finding DAVINCI’S DEMONS soon,  too.  I am so looking forward to GAME OF THRONES return this weekend. Sometimes, I have discovered a show while it’s on break and that’s given me time to catch up — I did not begin watching DOWNTON ABBEY until just before the second season – and I spent Christmas week 2011 watching season 1 in preparation for season 2.

How about you? Any tv shows you are waiting for? Any you miss and/or can’t remember because it’s been too long since you saw it?

 Terri is thrilled that her latest release – AT THE HIGHLANDER’S MERCY – has hit the shelves in print and will be available in digital formats on April 1. Visit her website for lots more info.

Serials have been around forever — both in writing/publishing and even on radio and tv.  Telling a story in small segments over a period of time entranced and intrigued readers (or viewers or listeners) and drew large audiences.  More recently Stephen King tried it (unsuccessfully) and some publishers are presenting online serials – chapter by chapter – from either one author or a variety of them.

Last year a group of Harlequin and Mills&Boon Historical authors got together and planned out a historical serial romance – Lady Ambleforth’s Afternoon Adventure - a Regency romance told in serial format.  About 6 authors planned out the story and told it by posting a chapter a day on the Harlequin Historical Authors blog. They all said it was a lot of fun to do, working out each day so that there would be a cliffhanger-of-sorts to draw the reader along.

    So, this year a larger group decided to try it again, this time with a time-travel serial so that the authors could use the time periods they liked the most – no surprise to most of you that I chose Scottish Highlanders in medieval times! We planned out our basic storyline (in a process that was kind of like herding cats!) and then each moved the plot and romance (s!) along until we reached a happily-ever-after.

Now, we are sharing the story with you! We’ve called it “Lost in Time: The Lady in Green” and it’s 21 chapters long, running all through March over on the Harlequin Historicals Authors‘ blog…. please stop by!

Have you ever read a serialized romance or other fiction? Do you like reading stories in little bits at a time?  I’d love to hear what you think of our newest adventure – which will be available in one volume (much like the original Victorian serials were!) in digital formats next month!

Terri is thrilled that AT THE HIGHLANDER’S MERCY  will be ‘on the shelves’ in print next week and available in digital on April 1st!  And she’s now working on another MacLerie Clan romance that will follow November’s THE HIGHLANDER’S DANGEROUS TEMPTATION sometime in 2014! Love those MacLeries! Visit her website for lots more information!

 Stress – we all have it in our lives. Some stress can be good, it can push us to move and change. Lots of it can be bad and cause physical illnesses. I tell my dental patients that stress is a killer – it causes toxic chemicals to be spilled into our bodies and can destroy our immune system. Some stress can be a great motivator.

Stress was actually what started me writing romance novels. I was on our local school board, president of it, and we were involved in some very stressful contract negotiations that caused many long, late meetings. When I would get home, my story ideas seemed to swirl in my brain stronger than ever, preventing me from sleeping until I sorted them out and wrote them down. Writing helped me process what had happened during the meetings and spurred me on to write my first novel.

So, that’s what I call good stress.

Now, stress comes in the form of my deadline-binges-o-writing, pushing me to write, write, write and forcing the ideas and words out of my brain and onto the page.

And in neither of those situations did I ever feel that the stress is out of control. So, that’s good stress to me.

I could list the bad stressful situations in my life, but we all have them and you know what causes you stress. It’s made worse sometimes by our reactions.  Instead of dealing with it in a productive or effective manner, emotions go into overdrive and cause even more stress…. A vicious circle.

Lately, I’ve been taking some classes in Mindfulness Meditation and learning how to stop reacting to stressful situations. I have a long way to go though! LOL! It has been interesting, though a struggle sometimes to stay awake once I’ve begun practicing!

How about you? How do you deal with stress in your life? How do you relax? Reading a good romance novel? Share a stress-reduction tip and I’ll choose two to receive a hot-off-the-presses, not-even-on-sale copy of my April release – AT THE HIGHLANDER’S MERCY.

Marcy Shuler!

      Congrats, Marcy, you’ve won a copy of THE AUTUMN BRIDE from Anne.  I’ll be in touch to make arrangements!

Thanks to everyone who visited!

And a special thanks to Anne for being our friend!

   I’d been feeling quite self-satisfied lately — as people all around were falling victims to the cough-cold-flu-fever-bronchitis-crud that has been spreading all over the place, I boasted once again about how I never EVER get sick. I am usually very healthy, in spite of working in the dental profession where a surprising number of people arrive for routine treatment sick.

Then, to tempt fate, I went off to WDW in a plane filled with coughing-hacking people! And, I’d cleaned out my handbag and left most all of my allergy/cold meds at home.

Yeah. . . bad idea that.

After two fun and meeting filled days, I was attacked by something that has yet to be identified. . . and it was not pretty!  And worse, it has destroyed my firm belief in the power of Disney magic. I mean – I never expected that a person could get sick in WDW? Really?

The good news? They have a pharmacy that delivers to all Disney hotels. The bad news? I still had to travel home!  And once I did that, I spent the whole next week in bed. . .in pajamas. . .drinking copious amounts of fluids and resting. . . and coughing my lungs out!

T-h-e l-o-n-g-e-s-t w-e-e-k o-f m-y l-i-f-e.

Now, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and am beginning to feel really human again. I’m almost drug/medication-free, too. LOL! I’ve been wearing real clothes and staying out of bed while it’s daytime. Good signs!

How about you? Has the flu invaded your area? Your home/family? Are you taking vitamin C? Wearing a face mask? Getting some extra rest? What’s your secret to staying healthy during these contagious times? I’ll be taking notes because I NEVER want to do that again!

   Terri is also getting back to writing – finishing a novella that will feature characters from her MacLerie Clan stories will be part of the anthology – HIGHLANDERS – in June 2013.  And she’s getting ready for her April release – AT THE HIGHLANDER’S MERCY. Gorgeous cover, huh?  Visit her website for more info!