~ Fall Under The Spell of MORGAN D'ARCY: A VAMPYRE RHAPSODY! ~

This new book, my third from The Wild Rose Press, is a collection of short works featuring Morgan D’Arcy, the hero in Sinners’ Opera, the book of my heart. In edits on Rhapsody, my editor asked for more about Isabeau. She is the heroine in Sinner’s Opera and a continuous thread through most of the stories. I wrote the following in answer to this request, but she then clarified and wanted it—since all of the stories are from Morgan’s first-person POV—from his viewpoint. But this is it as it was originally written. I had envisioned it originally as a Epilogue, titled Never Goodbye.


Because Morgan was the first character to “speak” to me, this book is special. To celebrate its release, I will give one commenter a PDF of Sinners’ Opera.

Morgan D’Arcy: A Vampyre Rhapsody

By Linda Nightingale

From The Wild Rose Press

Cover Artist:  Debbie Taylor

Editor:  Callie Lynn Wolfe

A titled lord, concert pianist, and … vampire, Morgan D’Arcy has everything he wants…except what he most desires…the woman of his dreams—the search is on.

Rating:  Spicy

Digital Price:  $3.99

Print Price:  $13.99

Blurb ~

The greatest enemy of a vampire is boredom. Four centuries of existence have taught Lord Morgan Gabriel D'Arcy to fear nothing and no one. Humans and their weapons have little chance against his preternatural speed and arcane powers. Vampires are viral mutations of human DNA. Still, the Vampyre code requires secrecy, and he has learned to hide his nature from the world. The lure of mortality, of a life in the sun, puts Morgan again and again at the mercy of calculating human women though they fail to consider his charm and determination into the equation. However, even grooming a future bride from infancy proves to be fraught with heartbreak. And second chances are not always what they seem unless... you are Morgan. Immortality and beauty, aren’t they grand?

“…Morgan…is a tour de force of egotism, wit, sensuality, and talent…” ~Author Toni V. Sweeney

 “Morgan D’Arcy is a class act and the most arresting vampire I’ve ever encountered in literature or films.” ~ Historical and Paranormal Romance Author Beth Trissel

Ω

Excerpt ~

Never Goodbye

Isabeau, my Isabeau.

Isabeau with blonde-streaked brown hair and the most beautiful purple eyes. How could she forget me so quickly and return to that bastard?  Dark-haired, dark-eyed John Payne—my complete opposite—was my sworn enemy. One day soon, he’d die.

The Grim Reaper—with fangs—would teach him that Isabeau was mine.

I’d been present at her birth, had chosen her to be my wife in that moment, and had watched over her as her guardian angel. She’d been the most exquisite blonde child.

I’d influenced her career choice and financed her education by grants through anonymous foundations. I’d even bought her a white Andalusian horse. These things I’d given her. She’d given me more than I’d ever dreamed. To this unknown bargain, Isabeau had brought beauty, grace, and a vast intelligence. As a geneticist, she could find a cure for the fatal gene of madness that all progeny of vampires and mortals suffered. She had the required vampire DNA, mine in fact, but she didn’t know about the flawed chromosome. It was tragedy that she’d driven me away before I could confess.

Isabeau had been born in Beaufort, South Carolina. Her parents were friends that I’d chosen carefully to breed my future bride. She’d attended the College of Charleston, one of the finest Ivy League universities, and returned to Charleston when LifeGen, a genetics firm, offered her a position.

I’d given her my heart, unconditionally, and she’d broken it. After she banished me from her life, she returned my letters, deleted my emails, and refused my phone calls. Why? She’d discovered how I shaped her life and accused me of manipulating her.

For the thousandth time, I lifted a phone to my ear to make a hopeless call. This time, I was in Charleston. She wouldn’t recognize the number as I was ringing her from my hotel room.

“Hello.” Her voice! Music to my ears.

For a moment, I couldn’t speak, then I took a deep breath, and plunged. “Isabeau, you must talk with me.”

“Morgan, I’ve made it perfectly clear that I never want to hear from you again.” Anger stained her voice a shade deeper.

I imagined her in her sunshine yellow kitchen, leaning against the granite counter, coffee brewing and filling the room with its rich scent. Isabeau was tall and beautiful with a captivating smile. At the moment, unfortunately, she’d be frowning.

God, how I missed her! She was my light—I her dark—two pieces of a soul.

“Please, don’t ring off.” I paced the confines of my hotel room. “I’m in Charleston. I want to see you.”

“I have a date,” she said coolly.

A vision of Isabeau dressed for a night out on the town blinded me. Was she wearing one of the lovely dresses I’d given her while we lived our idyll in my house on the Battery? The Rover House overlooked the ocean. She’d left her Orange Street home to come to me. For five short months, we’d lived in a dreamlike state of bliss...together at last.

“A date with that bastard John Payne.” My hand fisted at my side. I wanted to strike something or someone. Tonight, the Royal Pain would join his ancestors.

“It’s none of your business.”

“You’re carrying my child, Isabeau. That makes it my business.” I washed to a halt by the bed. “You love me.”

Buy Link:  Morgan D’Arcy: A Vampyre Rhapsody

Author Bio ~

Born in South Carolina, Linda has lived in England, Canada, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Atlanta and Houston.  She’s seen a lot of this country from the windshield of a truck pulling a horse trailer, having bred, trained and showed Andalusian horses for many years.

Linda has won several writing awards, including the Georgia Romance Writers Magnolia Award.   She is the mother of two wonderful sons, a retired legal assistant, member of the Houston Symphony League, and enjoys events with her car club.  Among her favorite things are her two marvelous sons, a snazzy black convertible, and her parlor grand piano.  She loves to dress up and host formal dinner parties.

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/LNightingale - @Lnightingale

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/LindaNightingaleAuthor

Web Site:  http://www.lindanightingale.com – Visit and look around. There’s a free continuing vampire story.

Blog:  https://lindanightingale.wordpress.com/ - Lots of interesting guests & prizes

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4839311.Linda_Nightingale

Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/lbnightingale1/

Book Video: 

Other Reads by Linda Nightingale:

Gambler’s Choice

Love For Sale

Sinner’s Opera

Sinner’s Obsession

Cardinal Desires

Gemini Rising – Controversial Dark Fantasy with deep psychological undertones

~ Who Wouldn't Be Interested in a GHOST IN THE RAIN? ~

Please help me welcome Marie Treanor with her exciting release, GHOST IN THE RAIN. Marie brought along her rock star hero--and y'all know how I feel about rock stars. So, without further ado, I give you Dan Stewart!

Tell me about yourself? You're a rockstar. Why? What are your strengths & weaknesses?

My name is Dan Stewart. I used to play keyboards in a rock band called Bad Mouth. Aye, that band. Why? Because I love music and when I was 18 years old I wanted to see if I could be famous. Or infamous. Strengths? I’m a good musician, I think. I’m good at organizing people and business. And I suppose I look after my friends, whatever happens, or whatever they’ve done. Weaknesses? I can be too focused and selfish, lose my sense of proportion. I’ve behaved as badly as most rock musicians and I’ve let my friends do the same – with terrible consequences.


What’s your family like and how does your upbringing affect you now?

My family was always hard working, when they had work. They taught me loyalty and to always try as hard as I could. We weren’t well off. I grew up in a housing scheme in Glasgow, but my mum encouraged me to stick in at school, and to go to uni. I got the others – my pals Liam and Ross and Mick - to do the same, so we could all go to Strathclyde University together. That’s where we formed Bad Mouth and met Islay. Once she joined the band, it really took off and we all dropped out of uni. My parents thought we were nuts.

How did you and Kate meet? What was your first impression of her?

She came at me with a pepper spray. I thought she was insane. Beautiful but insane. No, she arrived in the middle of a storm to study some 18th century letters that I’d acquired along with Invershiel House up in the Highlands. I liked what she got out of those letters, how she perceived the people behind them. I liked that she was afraid of the dark, like a kid, and yet wouldn’t give in. I liked her sense of humour, the way I could talk to her about anything, even the weirdest… I just liked her.

What is it that you want out of life?

When I find out, I’ll let you know. I want to make a difference. And I want to play music. Beyond that, Kate’s opening doors to a life I never imagined before.

Has life handed you any major disappointments?

(Glaring) Are you kidding? You do know what happened to Bad Mouth? Liam, Ross, Islay, are all dead. That’s major. Though disappointment doesn’t quite cover it.

Yes, quite tragic! What CD is in your CD player right now?

A new solo album of Mick’s – the bass player from Bad Mouth. Best thing he’s ever done. I played keyboards on a couple of tracks. Sounds good. When it comes out, you should buy it.

I might just do that. Thank you for joining us today! Now let's hear a little bit more about GHOST IN THE RAIN...

Blurb ~

A haunted Highland house, battered by storms and murder... 

Notorious rocker Dan Stewart isn’t anything like Dr. Kate Yorke imagined. Arriving at his remote home in the Scottish Highlands to research some valuable letters - only to discover he’s forgotten their appointment - Kate soaks up the Gothic atmosphere of Invershiel House. But it’s the owner who truly fascinates her.

Reclusive and abrupt, Dan is haunted by the deaths of his fellow band members, especially his one time lover Islay Lamont, whose shade seems to flit around the grounds in the rain. But the ghost is not the only mystery Kate encounters. Light bulbs disappear around her – and only Dan knows she’s scared of the dark. Then she trips over a dead body which inexplicably vanishes.

It becomes a race against time to find the identity of the body and the killer. And to discover if she and Danny have any kind of future together. Or even at all...

A World of Gothic is a Gothic Mystery Romance Series by authors all over the world. For information on other titles, check out A World of Gothic Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1105411939511452&fref=ts

Buy now from:

Amazon: http://amzn.to/242zolj

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/26t6c5R

B&N: http://bit.ly/1qT8WZn

Kobo: http://bit.ly/1TvPiwg

i-Books: http://apple.co/1YTP2sg

Excerpt ~

I had to acknowledge that my peace was churned up by his unexpected presence here. It wasn’t even an unpleasant feeling; in fact it felt rather…exciting. But it was disturbing.


I took off my glasses and rubbed my eyes. I suspected Dan Stewart carried such disturbance wherever he went. If I thought about it, the whole house felt different now. As if its peace had gone too; as if it had sprung to life, eager, waiting.


Mocking my own silly fantasy, I stood abruptly and paced around the room, trying to recover my lost concentration. I suspected I was just tired and would work much faster and much better after a good night’s sleep.

I paused by the window to watch the storm. Although the thunder had stopped, the wind and rain were still blasting the trees and rattling the window. Close-up, I could feel the draught through my thick sweater. On impulse, I retrieved my phone from my bag and tried to capture the raging storm on its camera. But it looked too tame on the screen, not deep or dark enough, no real movement in those black clouds still scudding and swirling across the sky. I wished I could paint. For a moment, I even wished I could be part of it, to go outside in it again. There was nothing to stop me, except common sense.

I smiled to myself and lowered the phone, just as a movement in the garden below caught my eye. Someone was out in this. Someone not remotely dressed for it either. Through the darkness and the almost opaque mist of rain, I could make out only that it seemed to be a woman wearing only some kind of floating, white, wispy garment, more like the loungewear of wealthy women of past centuries than anything anyone would wear today for any purpose. The odd garment shimmered as the figure glided across the lawn, impossibly graceful.


On impulse, I raised my phone again and snapped.

Perhaps she moved too quickly. Nothing of her showed on the screen except an indistinct blur of light against blackness. Frowning, I looked again out of the window, but the woman had gone. Vanished.

Gone back inside if she’s got any sense whatsoever.

I could tell myself that, and believe it. I just couldn’t quite silence the tiny voice in my head that whispered I might just have seen a ghost…


And then, before I could laugh myself back to sceptical normality, another figure strode into view. Two figures. A man and a large dog. The dog was trotting along at his side, sniffing the grass. Even in darkness, the man was unmistakably Dan Stewart. He seemed to be wearing the same old khaki jacket. I could see the rain running off him in rivulets. It hadn’t seemed to touch the ghostly woman…

He stopped, gazing ahead, and slowly turned as if looking for something, or someone. Just for a moment, I was tempted. I even raised my phone hand. But it felt too wrong to take a picture of him without permission in his own home. He was facing the house now and without warning, he tipped back his head and caught me staring down at him.

I felt frozen in that distant gaze. Forcing myself, I gave a feeble wave and dragged my eyes free towards the black, wooded hills and the furiously scudding sky. Still, I was aware of him striding back towards the house. I even heard his voice calling to the dog which loped after him.

Restlessly, I abandoned the window. I needed to go to bed. My eyes, my mind, were all far too tired.

Ellie had been quite blasé about leaving the letters out of their locked cabinet. “Even if anyone knew about them, who’d steal them round here?” she’d said reasonably. I took her at her word and just stuffed my own notebook into my bag before picking it up and heading for the closed door, where I paused, because I could hear footsteps pounding up the stairs.


My heart drumming, I waited for them to pass before I left the room. They strode closer, along the hall, and I held my breath. He’d go past; he must go past…


The door flew open, and Dan Stewart stood there, scowling at me. Raindrops stood out on his wet hair and clothes.


No, he wasn’t pretty. But there was something devastatingly attractive about that rough, bony face and those big, grey eyes that seemed much darker than before.

“Did you take any pictures?” he asked abruptly.

A rock star and a ghost. Two characters to get your heart racing. 

Author Bio ~

Marie Treanor lives in Scotland, in a chaotic house by the sea, together with her eccentric husband, three much too smart children and a small dog who rules them all. Most days, she avoids both housekeeping and evil day jobs by writing stories of paranormal romance and fantasy.

Marie is the award winning author of over forty paranormal romances - Indie, New York and E-published.

You can find out more about Marie here: 

 www.MarieTreanor.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Marie-Treanor-Paranormal-Romance/105866982782360.

Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarieTreanor

And on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/marietreanor/ 

Subscribe to her New Release Mailing List: http://www.marietreanor.com/marie-treanor-newsletter/ 

Buy GHOST IN THE RAIN here:

Amazon: http://amzn.to/242zolj

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/26t6c5R

B&N: http://bit.ly/1qT8WZn

Kobo: http://bit.ly/1TvPiwg

i-Books: http://apple.co/1YTP2sg