KILLING YOUR DARLINGS by Yves Fey

Welcome, my guest, Yves Fey, as she takes about killing your favorite characters.

Killing Your Darlings

Killing your darlings is a phrase you see used to recommend you kill off your favorite bits of prose.  The idea is that if they are too precious, too treasured, it will show and distract from your story rather than adding to it, or that they may be doted on by you for good reason, but add nothing.  For darlings of this nature, I can only hope you don’t have to slay them because they are perfectly attuned both to their place in your story and to your style.  One would not want Raymond Chandler to remove the tarantula from the piece of angel food cake.

I’m talking about killing even more precious darlings, your favorite characters.  I’m talking about it for a couple of reasons.  First because I’ll be killing off a character I like quite a bit in my next book, and because it’s rather painful, I’m looking at the map of the moment for my series, and wondering if I need do it again.  Need in my case because my series is quite dark, and if I guard my loved ones too closely, it is likely to lose reality for the reader.  I have about five books planned in all, with possibilities to branch out beyond that.  The number is small enough that I may only have to sacrifice the one darling.  But if I were writing a longer series, I believe something dire would have to happen to someone of import.

The second reason plays into and off of the first, as I’m about two thirds of the way through Elizabeth George’s latest mystery, Just One Evil Act, and things are looking very dire indeed for a couple of favorites, and if she carries through with the darkest possibilities, the repercussions will ripple outward to yet more beloved characters.  And, because she has been ruthless in the past, I know these darlings are not safe.  Perhaps they will not die.  Perhaps they will not be ruined.  But perhaps they will, and I’m filled with dread and fascination about where she will take the story.  The emotional risk is far more riveting than any car chase or barroom brawl could be.

In one of my all-time favorite historical series, The Lymond Chronicles, Dorothy Dunnett was also absolute ruthless in killing off favorite characters.  I was often devastated at the loss, but I admired and respected her as a writer for doing it because it gave the books more emotional power.  Blake’s 7, a very dark British Sci Fi TV series leaps from dramatic space opera to superb and stunning tragedy in its last episode as the darlings fall dead.  I think about amazing show too, though I know I don’t want a tragic outcome for my series.

If you are writing genre romance, or writing a cozy, you won’t want a tragic or unhappy outcome.  You probably won’t want to kill off a sympathetic character.  Your reader wants to remain safe from emotional bruising.  But even a small step into the darker realms of those or related genres, romantic suspense, say, or any mystery series beyond the light classic, should lead the writer to question if killing off a darling might give greater power and reality to their book.

FLOATS THE DARK SHADOW is a literary mystery set in the dynamic and decadent world of Belle Époque Paris.  Aspiring artist Theodora Faraday and Detective Michel Devaux clash in their search for a mysterious killer who has already claimed too many children.  Classic detection and occult revelation lead Michel and Theo through the dark underbelly of Paris.  Following the maze of clues they discover the murderer believes he is the reincarnation of the most evil serial killer in the history of France—Gilles de Rais.  Whether deranged mind or demonic passion incite him, the killer must be found before he strikes again.

Floats the Dark Shadow is Yves Fey's first historical mystery, set in the dynamic and decadent world of Belle Époque Paris.  It won several 2013 Indie awards--a Silver IPPY in the Best Mystery category, a Finalist Award in the ForeWord Book of the Year Awards in mystery, and it was one of four Finalists in both History and Mystery in the Next Generation Indie Awards. 

It’s available in hardback, paperback, Kindle, and now as an audio book.

Previously Yves wrote four historical romances set in the Italian Renaissance, Medieval England, and Elizabethan England. She will soon be republishing these under her own name of Gayle Feyrer. 

Author’s Biography:

Yves has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Oregon, and a BA in Pictorial Arts from UCLA. She has read, written, and created art from childhood. A chocolate connoisseur, she's won prizes for her desserts. Her current fascination is creating perfumes. She's traveled to many countries in Europe and lived for two years in Indonesia. She currently lives in the San Francisco area with her husband Richard and three cats, Marlowe the Investigator, and the Flying Bronte Sisters.

Taming Alex by Jill Sanders

Check out Jill Sanders's new novel, Taming Alex. Only $0.99 today.

Alexis has always been the wild child. She’s the girl everyone always gossips about behind her back. Now that she’s engaged to the town’s bad boy, Travis, she finally thinks she’s heading in the right direction. Then life throws a tall, dark, and good man her way and causes her whole world to shake.

Grant’s back in town. Helping his father with his legal practice had never been in his plan, but after trying to live in the city and decided it wasn’t for him, he wants nothing more than to settle down back in his hometown. He even buys a small farm to prove to himself that he’s back to stay. Then, after stepping in and helping the town’s bad girl out one night, he starts to see below Alexis’ act. Now all he needs to do is convince her that choosing a good guy is not always a bad thing.

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Disciple, Part IV by L. Blankenship

Kate slipped away from a banquet to nurse her newborn son, Rafe. She hasn't seen Kiefan in months, thanks to both their busy lives.

My eye caught movement and I turned back. Kiefan stepped off the flagstone path and crossed the grass, warm light from the doorway catching on his gold band. I smiled. “You escaped.”

“It was not easy.” He put a hand on my arm and looked to be sure none watched us. We drew further around the kitchen-cottage, into the gap between it and the stockade wall. Deeper in the shadows. I put my hand out, brushed across the mud-plaster wall, and set my back to it.

Kiefan’s hand on my arm slipped up to my cheek, tipped my head and his kiss, sudden and deep, squeezed a whimper from my throat. His tongue, his whiff of lavender soap, tore open a yearning I’d half forgotten. Gently pressed against the wall, I wished I could put both arms around him. I had to settle for clenching a handful of his cote, at the shoulder.

Rafe wiggled between us, and Kiefan looked down. He slipped a finger across Rafe’s open hand, and my baby gripped in return.

“I meant no disrespect to your grandfather,” Kiefan said, voice low. “Rafe is as much his blood as my father’s. I only wanted to see you, and my son, and know you’re both well.” He tugged against Rafe’s grip as he said it. My baby’s hand opened and his arm dropped to his side as he relaxed into his work. “I’ve missed you,” Kiefan murmured.

There’d been some letters, far too limiting for what needed to be said. I’d doubted myself, as Anders and I settled into our comfortable routine. I’d worried what I’d say in this moment, to Kiefan. Feared, even, that he’d sense it. Smell Anders’ kindness on me and how it made my heart quiver.

And all this was a heartbeat too long for me to answer; Kiefan put his forehead to mine. “What do you fear?” he whispered.

My breath caught in my throat, at that. “I’ll miss you more, once you’re wed,” I managed to answer. It was part of the truth.

He wore his lamia-tooth brooch, on the shoulder of his black silk cote, perhaps to remind everyone why the monsters hadn’t sung in the forest all year. It was the sparkling cote from Solstice, I realized with a blink. I’d helped him peel it off over his head.

Slim chance I ever would again, no matter how much love lay between us. He was here to find a pair of Caer brides, after all; it was his duty. They’d know they had to share him, and weren’t likely to share him any further. Even if he were so lucky as to find twins that he got on well with…

“Stay, tonight.”

He touched a kiss to my neck, just by my ear, and a shiver shot along my spine. The memory of his hands on my skin, his mouth — but my heart stretched, strained in my chest. It was well snared by Kiefan and dragged toward him, but felt the pull of another hook.

Anders. His little touches. How he kissed my cheek in the morning. How he’d always take Rafe, when asked, and walk him to sleep. Anders loved me, he surely wanted more, and to lead him on — and lie to Kiefan — was more than I could bear. 

Rafe, tangled in the middle of it all, had his own hooks in my heart. “I have a new lord,” I whispered in kind, “and I must attend him four times nightly. I have a saint and duties to him. As do you. Once the Caer ladies are here…” I had to trail off on that thought. Kiefan deserved love. 

Back cover of Disciple, Part IV

Kate can’t avoid the simple truth any longer; as much as she loves Kiefan, he’s now the king and his duties leave him precious little time for her and their newborn son. Kate’s husband Anders, the ne’er-do-well knight, is the one who kisses her cheek every morning and soothes the baby to sleep on his shoulder.

Kiefan’s protective jealousy still casts a shadow over her life. He would gladly throw Anders to the wolves if it will keep alliance negotiations from collapsing. Their homeland desperately needs these allies against the invading Empire. The kingdom barely survived the first wave of the enemy’s monstrous army and more is to come.

But Kate can’t stand by and let Anders become a victim — or let Kiefan suspect she’s falling in love with her husband.

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Disciple, a gritty fantasy romance by L. Blankenship

 Today my guest is L. Blankenship, author of Disciple. Check out an excerpt below, and if you like it, get the entire first part free. Links below.

Announcing the Disciple Half-Omnibus!

Disciple is a six-part gritty fantasy romance by L. Blankenship -- Part IV will be out on March 1st. The Disciple Half-Omnibus collects the first three parts of Disciple into one hefty ebook and is on sale now at all major retailers!

Excerpt

Snow still fell when Ilya shook me awake in the middle of the night. The patter of flakes on the overhead tarp blended with anxious whispers and sharp coughs. A pony puffed nearby and hooves shifted.

“Ulf says stay close,” Ilya whispered in my ear. “Get the bedroll off and flat so nobody trips. Careful of Acorn, he’s right here.”

I blinked and rubbed at my eyes and a whiskery horse nose nudged my cheek. Acorn shifted away as I struggled out of my bedroll and to my feet. I put my arm over his neck for balance as I kicked the heavy blanket off and tried to spread it flat. Puck snorted, close by too.

The fire, half sheltered by our tarp lean-to, had lowered to glowing coals. Ulf and Sir Kiefan stood on the far side with their backs to it, one with bow and nocked arrow, the other with sword in hand. Kiefan asked something of the woodsman and he muttered a reply. Beyond them, the black forest waited, crusted by a layer of snow that glowed blue when moonlight fought through thin patches of the clouds. Tumbling flakes kept up a quiet patter as we all fell silent, even the ponies.

Fear drove off the lethargy of waking so late, but there was nothing to see in the clusters of squat pine trees and thickets. Ulf and Kiefan moved a few steps apart, tense and alert. I wanted to ask what was wrong.

Lantern eyes lit up beyond the fire, paced by, and vanished. A shape moved across a snow-laden pine branch. That coughing sound came again, from the moving shadow, and it was answered from behind me.

Ilya, holding Acorn’s bridle beside me, whispered, “Mother Love, we’re surrounded.”

I sidled closer to the middle of the tarp, though it meant letting go of the solid mass of the pony. Ther Boristan stood holding Puck. A few steps out from that side of the lean-to, Bjorn faced the forest with bow and arrow ready. Beyond him, another pair of eyes caught the light.

“I could stoke up the fire,” Ilya raised his voice to a murmur.

Ulf answered, as he was closest. “They’re not afraid of fire. Whatever you do, stay together. Stand and fight.”

Back cover

War is coming. Kate Carpenter is only a peasant girl, but she’s determined to help defend the kingdom and its bound saints against the invading empire. Her healing magic earned her a coveted apprenticeship with the master healer; now she must prove herself ready to stand in the front lines and save lives.

She’s not ready for the attentions of a ne’er-do-well knight and the kingdom’s only prince, though. This is no time to be distracted by romance — the empire’s monstrous army will tear through anyone standing between them and the kingdom’s magical founts. All disciples must put aside their tangled feelings and stand in the homeland’s defense.

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DISCIPLE, PART IV arrives on March 10th!

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Or try out PART I for free!

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Werewolves in the Renaissance Blog Tour

Today meet author Tracy Falbe and read about her novel, Werelord Thal: A Renaissance Werewolf Tale and the world it inhabits. This fascinating novel kept me up all night. Read my review below.

The Medicinal Herb Garden of the Witch in Werelord Thal

By Tracy Falbe

Some scenes in my new historical fantasy Werelord Thal: A Renaissance Werewolf Tale take place in the medicinal herb garden of Gretchen his deceased witch mother.

The plants valerian and comfrey are mentioned in the novel. Although these are minor details, they still required research to make sure they were historically accurate and appropriate to what I was saying about them in the novel.

In choosing these herbs, they needed to meet these requirements:

1. Conceivably be present in a garden outside of Prague in 1561.

2. Able to grow back after being cut and trampled. In the story Gretchen’s garden is destroyed by the men who hauled her away to torture and death because the garden was seen as a source of her wicked potions. (She actually just made medicine, but truth can’t stop an angry mob.)

3. Have a medicinal use appropriate to what they are being used for in the novel.

Let’s start with valerian. It’s a perennial native to Europe and Asia. Its recorded history goes back to ancient times when it was described by Hippocrates and Galen. Valerian was also known to be used in the 16th century. It typically acts as a mild sedative. My catalog from the Oregon-based company Horizon Herbs described it as a standard item for a medicinal herb garden.

So how did valerian fit in the story? First of all, it’s a perennial which means it grows back every year. Therefore I could realistically describe it as growing back after being cut and trampled. In Werelord Thal I actually don’t mention its medicinal properties. It’s simply noticed by the heroine Altea when she visits the burned out cottage and ravaged garden of Gretchen.

Moving on to comfrey I confirmed that it is native to Europe and has a long history for speeding the mending of bone fractures. A traditional name for it is knitbone. It is also described as impossible to remove once established. I grow several specimens of this wonderful plant and can attest to its vigor. One of its primary uses is to generate fertilizing mulch, which means it’s meant to be cut over and over. I whack mine down about three times a season and it always come back. Bumblebees utterly adore its flowers by the way.

In the novel, Thal applies comfrey after setting broken bones. He harvests the comfrey from his mother’s abandoned garden where it has indeed grown back.

I can personally attest to the power of comfrey. Late last winter I injured a finger. It was bent at the last joint, but I never went to a doctor. I braced it for weeks but it would not return to straightness. I eventually gave up on the splint and accepted that I would have a crooked finger. But spring had come and the comfrey was shooting up, so I broke off some leaves and rubbed the sap on my finger. Immediately my finger tingled. I continued to apply the comfrey regularly and noticed a rapid improvement in my finger. It is now straight and troubles me not at all.

Please note that comfrey is poisonous if ingested. Topical use only gentle readers.

Thank you for letting me to share these snippets from my historical research for Werelord Thal: A Renaissance Werewolf Tale. I believe an adventure in a historical setting benefits from well chosen little details meant to summon the past.

Book Description:

Werelord Thal: A Renaissance Werewolf Tale

by Tracy Falbe

Thal is wanted for Devil worship and shape shifting but still boldly walks the streets of 16th century Prague. Jesuits hunt him. Mercenaries fear him. Musicians sing his praise, and women are captivated by his alpha swagger.

Born of a witch and a sorcerer, he is summoned when his desperate mother casts the werewolf spell before facing torture and execution. Burdened with her magical call for vengeance Thal seeks the men that killed her. His hunt is complicated when the Magistrate’s stepdaughter Altea Kardas crosses his path. Horrified that her community is burning women to death, she can confide her doubt and fear only to Thal.

He desires her greatly but knows he will bring ruin upon her. Across Bohemia and beyond people who are different are labeled heretics in a restless world hobbled by tyrannical ignorance. The Renaissance has thrown the Holy Roman Empire into turmoil. Printed books are spreading radical ideas. Firearms are triggering a new age of warfare. And the human spirit is shaking off obedience.

Thal embodies the ancient magic of the pagan past. He challenges a world conquered by a spiritual system that denies the flesh and forgets the Earth. And he awakens within Altea recognition of these truths. She believes any risk is worth loving him until she becomes the bait in a trap set by Thal’s enemies.

My Review: 

This one kept me up all night. Set in Renaissance Bohemia, Werelord Thal has a host of fascinating characters and interesting historical detail. Thal Lesky chose to live his life as a wolf, but is called back for vengeance when his mother is burned at the stake as a witch. His quest for vengeance is complicated by his falling for the Magistrate’s daughter. The novel has adventure, romance, and isn’t too terribly bloody.  It does have some weaknesses.  There are a lot of unanswered questions: Why did Thal chose a wolf’s life to begin with? Why would his mother be so set on vengeance when she is portrayed as a kind and generous woman?  Why does Thal inspire such loyalty? People are also a little too nice. But despite its flaws, it is a fascinating story that I couldn’t stop reading. I give it a solid four stars.

You can read the first four chapters for free at Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/Braveluck/werelord-thalpreview. I urge you to check it. You'll be hooked as I was.

Discounts available:

Ebook

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$12.99 (6x9 trade paperback 356 pages)

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Time Travelling and Dennis Higgins

Welcome to today's guest, author Dennis Higgins. He talks about time travel. Check out his books and enter to win a free copy below.

I would like to thank Jamie Marchant for hosting me for the Indie and Proud yearlong event.

I am Dennis Higgins, author of time travel stories. I am the “Gone But Not Forgotten” guy. My own books are not heavily into science or sci-fi. Time travel is sort of taken for granted and the stories involve the intimate and detailed lives of my traveler which I call Time Pilgrims.

In this segment, I want to explore the many modes of travelling in time from a few different points of view and authors. The guy who started it all was HG Wells and the mode he used was the same as the title of his famous book, The Time Machine. The machine was a Victorian invention which propelled his protagonist into the future. The George Pal, 1960 movie version of this title has actor Rod Taylor amazed at the changes going on around him. He watches a woman’s dress shop and the changing styles as the years move up, making him comment to himself, “That’s a dress?”

In more modern times, Doc Brown creates a time machine out of a DeLorean in the Back to the Future series, which when reaches 88 miles per hour, via the flux capacitor, propels him and Marty to various times.

Jack Finney used a machine and the famous New York City, Dakota apartment building to travel back to the 1800s.

There can’t be a post like this without talking about a time-traveler first seen in 1963 on the BBC in the UK. Doctor Who uses a device that is stuck in the image of an old police box called the TARDIS. The letters stand for Time And Relative Dimension In Space. It is infinitely large on the inside and can move the doctor and his colleagues anywhere and to any point in time.

Superman flies around the earth backwards to its rotation, making it literally reversing it in time, while the Enterprise in Star Trek slingshots around the sun to transport them back or forth.

There has been anywhere from body switches with people in the past, to mirrors, to genies in bottles, to totally unexplained phenomenon to transport individuals in time. But there seems to be a common thread to most time travel stories…love. Love can often transcend time and space. It is the most powerful emotion that we humans possess.

The book, originally titled, Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson was renamed after the popularity of its’ screen adaptation to, Somewhere in Time. In it, Richard Collier uses a unique technique to travel back to meet the woman he becomes obsessed with. He goes to an old hotel and removes everything modern from the room. He uses the power of his brain to concentrate on the time that she was in the hotel and eventually makes it. I happen to love this concept. SPOILER ALERT: His fateful mistake was accidentally bringing a modern penny with him. Upon looking at the little cent, he is whisked back to his own time. Remember, if and when you time travel, you must bring the correct currency with you. Especially if love is involved.

Now I will give you the time travel mode used in my books. First, a person has to be born with the God-given ability. Not everybody is, but those who are must realize the secret that is contained in the simple element of water. The same water that is all around us and within us is the water that has existed in every time period since the Earth was formed. It is the conduit to every possible timeline. So it is the same water that character’s Kevin and Cheryl encounter down Route 66 in 1946, that is there when Katya and Cyrus find themselves in the great Chicago Fire of 1871, and when Cathy Callahan finds love in 1906 during the San Francisco earthquake. Water, along with concentration, is my character’s main mode of travel.

Gone but not forgotten. Comment with your favorite person, place or thing from the past for a chance to win a free Smashwords eBook of Parallel Roads (Lost on Route 66). I will pick (3) three winners from my favorite answers.

Dennis Higgins is world traveler and distant relative of Davy Crockett. A native of Chicago, Illinois, he has always possessed a romance with things of the past that are gone but not forgotten.  He now lives in the suburbs with his lovely wife, two dogs and three birds.

Among his influences are:  Richard Matheson, Jack Finney, Dean Koontz, Joan Wester Anderson, Peter S. Beagle and Audrey Neffenegger . The Time Pilgrims series is exciting and is treasured and loved by young adults, new adults as well as full blown adults.

You can find Dennis Higgins at:
http://www.timepilgrims.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dennis-Higgins-Author/162823450485698

http://www.amazon.com/Dennis-Higgins/e/B00BAE6LSK/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Books:

My Sweet Valentine by Jill Sanders

My friend Jill Sanders is releasing her new book, My Sweet Valentine, with a giveaway. Check out her new book, and enter to win some fantastic prizes.

WIN SOMETHING SWEET - Celebrate this release with a giveaway... http://on.fb.me/1a4uo4N

Just in time for Valentine's Day, come to Oregon and find the sweet tastes of a something new. My Sweet Valentine, by NY Times bestselling author, Jill Sanders

Grand Prize - Silver Baker's Charm Bracelet as mentioned in My Sweet Valentine

2nd Prize - Cheryl's classic treat box

3rd Prize - Jill Sanders novel of your choice

My Sweet Valentine

Sara Lander was back in town. She had big plans for her inheritance along with her freshly printed business degree

and years of experience in some of Seattle’s finest bakeries, she has a rich idea for Pride. Sara's Nook is going to be the next biggest thing to hit town. All she needs now is to steer clear of the hunky ex-Navy SEAL who is hell bent on taking all her focus away from starting her own business.

Allen Masters has been living in Pride for several years. Setting up a new branch of the Coastguard and training all the new recruits took years of skill and all his patience. But when he sees the black-haired beauty, who had come back into town, he realized she was the one he'd been searching for. Taking one taste of her sweets, he knew he'd be in for a sinful time, but losing his focus while flying into the eye of a storm was the last thing he could afford. 

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