~ Go Out and Get Ya Some BLOOD STAINED MEMORIES! ~

I'd like to welcome Kathy L Wheeler to the blog with her latest release, part of the A World of Gothic Series, BLOOD STAINED MEMORIES. If that doesn't sound eerie enough, wait to you read the blurb! But first, let's find out a little bit more about Kathy...

What is the best thing you’ve learned about writing and/or the publishing business? 

The best thing I’ve learned about writing and the publishing business is that I could finish something. I started with a 13,000 word Cinderella story called The Shoe the Other Foot Fit. Not an ideal title, right? Another 40,000 words later and a new title The Wronged Princess, and voila! I had the beginnings of an exciting new series.

Do you have hobbies that you’d like to share? 

I used to have a job outside of writing. For sixteen years, I was a computer programmer with the Hertz Corporation. But like many big companies, they went the skeleton, and overseas route. I had a couple of other positions since, but the sudden dip in oil prices hit the Oklahoma City market hard and I was once again laid off. My husband has his own business. Right at the time I was laid off from Devon Energy, he had hip replacement surgery and was out of the office for a couple of months. I helped out by answering the phones, running mail and typing documents for him, at the same time, completing The Mapmaker’s Wife, which incidentally, won 1st place in the Historical Short Category of the International Digital Awards. So now, I focus on my writing. I also took on the acclaimed 25th Annual National Readers’ Choice Awards as the Contest Chair for 2015. A rousing success! Now, I will be giving my first RWA Workshop at the New Jersey’s Put Your Book in a Heart conference on formatting for self-publishing. I’m very excited.

Where do you live, family, pets? Where would you love to live? 

Currently, I live in the Oklahoma City area. I was season ticket holder with the OKC Thunder NBA since 2009, but sadly, recently sold my season ticket package because we will soon be migrating to the northwest. I have a daughter in the San Francisco area, she has the cutest baby boy, and shockingly, another on the way. By the time, the 2nd baby arrives, baby # 1 will just have turned 2. I’m looking forward to seeing them on a much more regular basis!

What CD is in your CD player right now? 

Funny, funny question. Okay, for me, maybe not you. I graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma, which I recently learned is #23 in regional colleges. My degree is a BA in Management Information Systems with a vocal minor. I was almost 40 when I graduated. Too old to do anything truly spectacular with my vocal music except for, well.... karaoke. Okay, so I go the the bar and sing and am usually one of the better singers. Oh, right. You were asking what is in the CD player... Beauty and the Beast. It’s my vocal practice CD when I need to get my voice in shape. I use 3 songs from that particular cd: Home; Something There; End Duet / Transformation. I also love to sing Jewel’s Down So Long and Foolish Games. I also won $300 in a contest with Foolish Games and Celine Dion’s Titanic song: My Heart Will Go On. I doubt I could come close to singing that today. 

I actually karaoke "Foolish Games," too! And I LOVE "Home" from Beauty and the Beast! Beautiful song! Thanks for joining us, Kathy, and for sharing a bit of yourself with us. Now let's learn a little bit more about BLOOD STAINED MEMORIES...

Blurb ~

There on the Gulf Coast in the Florida Panhandle lies the ruins of a haunted, old armory...


Helena Abigail Evans-Ross remembers nothing from her past except the sting of her Aunt Lydia's hand almost knocking her head from her shoulders. "Don't look!" she screamed, just as Abby's gaze meets her father's blank stare, and the realization that she is holding the bloody knife that ended his life. She's home to learn the truth—but can she live with a truth is she is the one who murdered her own father? 

Excerpt ~

I glanced over to my handsome chauffeur. Water from his hair dribbled down a strong neck that disappeared into the collar of his rain-soaked shirt. He and Adam must be somewhere in their mid-to-late thirties by now. I knew his dry hair would resemble burnished gold. The light from the dashboard didn’t reflect the tone of his skin. 

I leaned back in the seat and let his accent wash over me. Its familiarity settled nerves drawn so tight I felt I would shatter with a sudden move. I cleared my throat. “Where do you call home, Mr. Creighton?” There wasn’t much of him that reminded me of that long ago young man, just the clipped British words, making it easier to remember to refer to him as Mr. Creighton.

He grinned. Most likely relieved I’d finally joined the conversation. “Call me, Ian. Manchester, mostly. I’ve been here since spring assisting Adam with his research. I spent summers here on the island as a younger man until—” He tossed a quick glance in my direction. “Well, I’d planned on returning home by now.” His gaze dropped to my ringless fingers before he shifted his attention back to the road. “Though I may find my stay here pleasantly extended.”

Until what? I wanted to scream. Instead, heat flamed my cheeks at his not-so-subtle regard. I curled my fingers beneath my tote and out of sight, at a loss for words. My goal on this quiet Gulf Coast island was not to find romance. My sole agenda dealt with the bland contents of the letter stowed in my bag. A letter stained with my own bloody prints.

Links~

Amz preorder buy link (won’t have the rest until the 8th): https://amzn.com/B01K82OKJG

A World of Gothic Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AWorldofGothicSeries

Author Bio ~

Kathy L Wheeler (aka Kae Elle Wheeler) is the author of fourteen contemporary and historical novels and novellas that range from sweet to spicy. She has a BA in Management Information Systems from the University of Central Oklahoma that includes a vocal minor. She loves the NFL, the NBA, musical theater, travel, reading, writing and just to scratch the singing itch.... karaoke. She is a member Romance Writers of American and The Beau Monde chapter. She currently serves as editor of both, the Regency Reader and Novel Notes Authors newsletters. Kathy lives in Edmond, OK with her attorney and musically talented husband, Al. She has one grown daughter with an adorable baby boy and another on the way, and one bossy cat, who acts as if she were the rescuer rather than the rescue-e!!


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~ THE PRISONER OF SILVERWOOD CASTLE Will Keep You Captive! ~

Returning today I have Marie Treanor with her latest release, THE PRISONER OF SILVERWOOD CASTLE. She's treating us to an excerpt...

Excerpt~

From the corner of this room, a narrower set of stairs led upward. I followed them, coming to yet another door, also of iron, but with a small square hole cut in it and covered by a grill. Since the grill was just above my eye level, I couldn’t see in.

I pushed at the door, but it remained determinedly shut.

“Whose dream is this anyway?” I said aloud. “Open.” I pushed again, harder, but the door was clearly locked. “Damn.”

Inside, something clanked, like metal against stone. I shivered with delight. Clanking chains! This was much better.

“Damn what or whom?” enquired a deep, male voice from within, in perfect English.

A thrill ran through my bones from my toes up. “This door,” I said. “It won’t open.”

The chains, or whatever they were, clanked again.

“Perhaps you could unlock it for me?” I said hopefully.

“Sadly not. I don’t have the key.”

I frowned. “You mean you’re locked inside? Or is there another way out?”

“There’s always a way out.”

“Oh.” I set down my candle, meaning to take off my shoes and stand on top of them to try to see through the grill. “Who are you?”

There was a pause. “Kasimir,” said the voice, as my candle shone on a low stool on the far side of the landing. “Who are you?”

“Guin,” I said, placing the stool by the door and standing on it to peer through the grill. Inside was pitch-dark, so I bent and retrieved my candle.

“Just Guin?” Metal clanked again as I raised my candle to the grill.

A young man in a torn shirt and faded trousers with holes at both knees sat on the edge of a truckle bed, hands raised against the pale light I shone on him. He seemed very large for the tiny room, but otherwise, I couldn’t see much more than a mop of shaggy blonde hair and two big, if slender hands with chains dangling from both wrists. He lowered them slowly to reveal a lean, fine-boned face with glittering blue eyes, lips parted, perhaps in surprise. He was handsome enough to make even my determinedly hard heart beat faster. Dreams could be very pleasant…

On the other hand, manacles bound his wrists, a thick chain running between them and up to a bolt in the wall above him.

“Goodness,” I said, impressed and appalled all at once. “I really did hear clanking chains. You’re a prisoner.”

“Yes. Are you?”

“Lord, no.”

He stood, tugging at the chains so that he could take a step nearer the door. My heart lurched, but the chains pulled him up short. Even in the dim light, his wrists looked red and raw.

“Oh dear,” I said. “I’ll bring you ointment for your wrists.”

He peered at the grill, leaning his head from side to side as if trying to see me better. “You will? Why?”

“They look sore.”

He stepped back and glanced at them. “I suppose they are.” He sounded vaguely surprised. “Are you my new keeper?”
“Your keeper?” The phrase sounded odd; perhaps it was the translation. “No. I’m the duchess’s sister. Why are you in here? What did you do?”

He seemed to think about that. “I don’t know that I did anything.”

Blurb ~

Dead men don't tell tales. They wail them from the top of the tallest tower.

Darke of Night, Book 2

Lady Guinevere (Guin) Harvey would much rather be writing gothic tales of intrigue and adventure than dancing attendance on her sister, the newly married Duchess of Silberwald. Until they arrive at Silberwald Castle, a place of enchanting perfection—and gothic shadows.

Ghostly groans and clanking chains lead Guin through ancient, misshapen passages to one of the castle's many mysteries: a cell where the odd but charming Kasimir is kept chained like an animal. He could be a figment of her vivid dreams, the ghost of a dead, mad prince, or just a political prisoner no one wants to talk about.

Desperate to discover what beast is howling such soul-chilling cries, Guin summons the medium Barbara Darke. But by the time Barbara arrives, Guin can no longer distinguish dream from reality, friend from enemy. Even with all Barbara's unique talents, they have to face new dangers before they finally discover the terrifying truth of Silberwald Castle.

Warning: Gives new meaning to falling madly in love…

Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31136643-the-prisoner-of-silverwood-castle

Book Links ~ 


Amazon Kindle: http://amzn.to/2b90HDz

B&N Nook: http://bit.ly/2bycyhA

Kobo: http://bit.ly/2aUqZGy

iBooks: http://apple.co/2aXX2aE

Google Play: http://bit.ly/2b90xvO


Author Bio ~  

Marie Treanor lives in Scotland with her eccentric husband, three much-too-smart children and a small puppy who rules them all. Having grown bored with city life, she resides these days in a picturesque village by the sea where she is lucky enough to enjoy herself avoiding housework and writing sensual stories of paranormal romance and urban fantasy – with a bit of science fiction and time travel thrown in. 

Marie is the award winning author of over forty sexy paranormal romances – Indie, New York and E-published. Since childhood, she has always written stories, at first secretly and for her own amusement, later with more serious intention to earn a living by writing. After working as a researcher and a librarian, she was lucky enough to have her first romances, GHOST UNLAID and QUEEN'S GAMBIT, immediately accepted by an e-publisher in 2004. Since then, she has published continuously, most notably with NAL, Samhain, Changeling Press, Ellora's Cave and The Wild Rose Press. She now writes full time. 

In 2010, she made her New York publishing debut with BLOOD ON SILK, first of the award winning Awakened by Blood vampire romance trilogy. Reviewers have described her undead anti-hero Saloman as the best vampire in the genre. Most recently, she has been trying her hand at self-publishing, with three new paranormal romance series, Serafina's, The Gifted, and Blood Hunters (a sequel series to Awakened by Blood). 

When not writing, Marie can generally be found among the chaos of her family, or walking the dog on the beach in all weathers. She loves to travel and meet new people. - See more at: http://www.marietreanor.com/about-the-author-marie-treanor/#sthash.ahFX5oNK.dpuf

Author Links ~   




Website: http://www.marietreanor.com/

Newsletter: http://www.marietreanor.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/marietreanor

Facebook: http://bit.ly/29r6oLA

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1722834.Marie_Treanor

Amazon: http://amzn.to/29wCmpY