Free Spirit in Paperback

As of today, Free Spirit, the second book in my New Orleans Magick series, is available in paperback! Of course, it is still available for the Kindle as well, but I know some of you really prefer to read your books in paper. You can find it on Amazon via this link.

Once you've read it, please consider writing a review for it. It doesn't have to be more than "good book" or "skip it" if you want, and yes, I DO want honest reviews, so don't hesitate if it's not 5 stars. Both Amazon and Goodreads are great places to post your review. Thanks so much! It's hard to get noticed on Amazon, and reviews are a place to start. And by all means, if you love it, please share with your friends! Huge, happy hugs from me (and you guys know I'm kind of all about my personal space, so you know a hug means you're loved!)!

If you're in the Northern Virginia area, signed copies of Magick Charm, the first book in the series, will be available at 13 Magickal Moons in Occoquan, VA. As soon as I get my first box of Free Spirit in my hands, 13 Magickal Moons will have those as well!

I'm very excited to share this news with everyone, and I hope you enjoy the book!

A Writer's Life: Book Release Day!

Want a brief glimpse into a writer’s life? Here’s mine:

You know how people say writers have to have a thick skin because they have to be prepared for any kind of review? Know how they say you develop this skin over time? And you know how some authors even say they don’t read reviews at all?

Not me. I know, I know, I should just write the best book I can and then move on. And for the most part, I do. But I just have to know. I think it’s akin to that moment in a horror movie where the sorority girl comes out of the shower, hears a strange noise, and goes to investigate in a towel. We all know it’s a bad idea, but she HAS to know what that noise was. Well, that’s me. I have to know what that review said. And, yeah, it feels a lot like being naked in a towel in front of the world.

My point of this little story is to say that some writers like me pay close attention to the first few weeks of our book babies’ lives. Part of this includes the dreaded Amazon ranking. When you scroll down to Product Details on a book’s sale page, you can see a list of categories the book has been sorted into and where the sales are for that particular book at that particular moment in time.

I’ve watched it before, when I’ve run a sale or when a new book was released. I was like, yay, I broke the 10,000’s. Well, today was a first for me. I broke the top 100.

Let me say that again before I tell you the rest. I. Broke. The top. 100. Now the less impressive part. This ranking was only in a very specific category of books, but even so! I will take every scrap of goodness I can out of this publishing thing and celebrate it. So here’s where the first two New Orleans Magick series books stood as of yesterday evening:

Magick Charm's ranking Monday night

Free Spirit's ranking Monday night

A minor victory, but it feels kind of huge right now. I think I’ve earned that glass of champagne.

Magick Charm Now Available on #Kindle! (#pnr #iartg)

Magick Charm on Kindle for $2.99

It’s official! My first book, Magick Charm, was re-released a week ago. It’s my first self-pub effort, and I’ve been busy figuring out all the details and getting everything set up and out there.

Now I’m busy working on several new things. I’m editing a novella that occurs about three months after Magick Charms ends. Voodoo Magick is a story about Officer Megan Beaty and a murder case that hits a little too close to home. After that, I’ll be working on two major rewrites. The first one is the second New Orleans Magick book. The second is a rewrite of the first book I ever completed. But I’m keeping the rest of the details of that project under wraps for now.

Recently, several of the authors from my former publishing house have been releasing new books. I’m going to take some time over the next several weeks to tell you about them. Please check them out and pick up a couple new reads!

Voodoo Movies and Books

            Voodoo has always been fascinating to me ever since I saw a movie about it long ago. I can’t even remember which one, and it was likely not at all accurate – most of them aren’t – but it sparked an interest to learn what it’s really all about.

            Voodoo isn’t evil the way it’s depicted on television. It refers to several related religions, such as Louisiana Voodoo and Haitian Vodou, with roots in West African Vodun. I’m seriously oversimplifying here because it has such a rich culture and tradition, but the point is, it’s not all about voodoo dolls and zombies!

            However, voodoo dolls and zombies make for a really entertaining story! Here are a few of the most famous movies involving voodoo:

• Angel Heart (1987) – This dark, complex horror film starring DeNiro, Rourke, and Bonet has become a cult classic.
• The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) – Loosely based on a nonfiction book, Wes Craven makes things downright scary!
• White Zombie (1932) – I’m putting this one on my Netflix list since I haven’t seen it yet, but you gotta love the classics!
• Skeleton Key (2005) – Okay, this one is a little bit of a cheat since it’s about hoodoo, not exactly voodoo, but it’s very creepy and awesome all the same.

           Warning – shameless marketing pitch here – if you want a fun fiction book with a touch of voodoo in it, check out my novel, Magick Charm! If you enjoy nonfiction, you'll also want to check out The Serpent and the Rainbow.

            What are your favorite voodoo movies and books?

Twins and "Twintuition"

            “Rache, you had me pretty scared today. I thought you were the one who needed a cast.”

            “You should have known better,” Rachel said in a condescending tone. “I mean, we’re twins. If I had broken something, you totally would have felt my pain too.”

            I looked at her like she’d grown a second, and perhaps identical, head.

 “I’ve never felt that sort of thing before. What makes you think I’d start now?”

            “Your third eye chakra was closed before. I hoped maybe you’d grown, you know, psychically and spiritually.”

            She hadn’t worried about scaring me with tearful phone calls from the hospital because of some mystical bull-puckie? “For the love of…”

                                                                - excerpt from Magick Charm

Twins - One having a good day, the other not so much.

            I’ve always been fascinated by the bond between twins. Lots of special powers attributed to twins have been studied for years. Twins raised apart sometimes show incredible similarities in their personalities, hobbies, and job choice, for example. It’s been said twins can feel each other’s pain. Some even go so far as to suggest twins have a certain type of telepathy, which was what I played on in Magick Charm. It was a lot of fun to match a quirky, mystical-loving twin - Rachel - with a practical, disbelieving one - Janie!

            Do you believe in special twin traits and abilities? 

Soundtracks for Novels

            You know how hearing a certain song can take you back to a specific place in time where you once heard it? This is why I like to create a soundtrack for my novels. Sometimes listening to a particular song can put me in a character’s head or can conjure the image of a specific location in my book.

            Here are the soundtracks I’ve created for my books:

• Magick Charm playlist
• Practically Dreaming playlist

Is there any music which you associate with a specific book?

Outlander and Diana Gabaldon

            This week I was fortunate enough to get to listen to one of my favorite authors speak. Yes, Diana Gabaldon, author of the fantastic Outlander series, was in Fairfax for a book signing.

            I will start by saying that if you haven’t read Outlander, you really need to pick it up. I was sitting next to a man who had come to the event by himself. He asked me why I thought about 95% of the people there were female. Why didn’t men read Diana’s books too? He – along with the speaker who introduced Diana – pointed out that her books cross so many genres, there’s pretty much something for everyone. Is it a romance? Well, there’s a romantic story, but that’s not all it is. Saying it’s historical fiction doesn’t cover it either. And then there’s the time travel element, which kind of makes it science fiction. Whatever it is, her stories are fantastic!

Diana Gabaldon
Sam, my partner in crime that evening,
took this pic. Thanks, Sam!

            Also, if you ever have the chance to hear her speak, go! She talks like she writes - you’ll understand if you’ve read her stuff – so she had us totally entertained and wanting more at the same time. 

Haunted House Stories

            Who doesn’t love a good story about a haunting? Probably my favorite book about ghosts and hauntings is The Shining by Stephen King.

            I’m writing my own ghostly tale, called Free Spirit. Here’s an excerpt when Rachel goes to talk to voodoo priestess Viola for help:

            If anyone would understand what was happening and would be able to help me, it would be Viola.

            “I, uh, have some weird stuff happening,” I said. “I think I’m haunted.”

            Yeah, that sounded as ridiculous as I’d feared it would. At least nobody here was laughing.

            Viola nodded sagely but said nothing. She looked at me for a long time. 

            “You are out of balance,” Viola declared. “Your throat chakra, it is far too open, as usual.” She seemed to wave away the cause of my occasional foot-in-mouth disease. Obviously that wasn’t important right now. “Your heart chakra is the problem. There is a darkness there. Something follows you.”

            Well, great. This visit had been ever so comforting thus far. I thought that leaving my house would be enough to keep me entity-free. Apparently, my ghost was of the take-out variety.

            “What does a ghost have to do with the energy centers in my body?”

            “The ghost has little energy of its own,” Viola explained. “It draws energy from around it to manifest, take action. Become.”

            The ghost was drawing energy from my heart? Ew! “What the hell is the ghost trying to become? She’s already dead,” I said.

            “You know the spirit?” Viola asked. “That is good. It will make things a bit easier.” It was the first comforting thing Viola had said.

            “I think she’s the spirit I saw in the cemetery last night,” I said. “But I don’t know how. She was trapped there in her plot. She couldn’t move away from her crypt.”

            “Your spirit,” Viola told me, “she is free now.”

            It was such a simple statement, and yet it chilled me to the core. Another miracle, given the temperature outside was nearing ninety.

            “How do you know?” I challenged Viola. I’d come to her for her expertise, but at the moment, I wished with all my heart she was a raving loon because I didn’t like her answer.

            Viola gave me a look like I was a particularly slow child. “Because she is there.” Viola pointed at the place my heart chakra would be. “She cannot be trapped in her grave. I know because I see her there.”

            What are your favorite books about ghosts and hauntings? And do you believe in ghosts?

Why is Game of Thrones So Awesome?

            It was inevitable I write another post about Game of Thrones/Song of Fire and Ice. Why? Because it is just so awesome! I resisted the GoT movement for a while until I gave the sample read a try and was immediately hooked. Now I’m like a junkie waiting for my next ebook or HBO fix!

Or read one book of the series either!

            I like to read with an eye toward what makes a book good (or not so much). So I’ve been thinking a lot about why Game of Thrones is so successful. It has far too many characters and plenty of foreign language bits – these are both no-nos according to typical novel-writing wisdom, but GoT fans would say they only add to the awesomeness. After all, this imaginary world is enriched by so many diverse, well-drawn characters, each with their own complex motivations and relationships to the other characters.

            What Game of Thrones does really well is the unexpected. Again, typical story-telling wisdom fails here, which says that good will prevail and your favorite characters will dodge adversity time and again. This is not always the case in the world of Westeros (I’m trying really hard to be spoiler-free here, but readers/watchers know what I’m talking about. Just keep it out of the comments for those who haven’t read it yet, please.). The story always keeps you guessing!

            If you haven’t checked it out, pick up a book or turn on HBO!

Forensics in Fiction

            Before I became a writer, I went back to school for forensic molecular science. The fall I began classes, C.S.I. started on TV. One of my instructors loved to point out inaccuracies in each week’s episodes, because of course, life isn’t exactly like fiction. Even so, I love the show, and of course it comes naturally that I love forensics in fiction as well!

            Probably the two most famous authors of forensic fiction are Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell. Most of Reichs’ 18 novels are about forensic anthropologist, Tempe Brennan. Yes, this is the book series on which the TV show Bones is (very loosely!) based. I personally like the books better than the show, but they're both good.

    

            Patricia Cornwell writes most of her novels about medical examiner, Dr. Kay Scarpetta. There are currently 20 Scarpetta novels, with another one due this year. I read a bit more than half of these until… well, I’m not going to give any spoilers! But the writing also changed a bit, going from first person past tense to third person present tense. I always enjoyed the stories from Dr. Scarpetta’s point of view, so I didn’t like the change. I may give the new ones a read, though, because I hear she’s gone back to her previous point of view.

            Am I missing out on any other great forensics novels?

What Do Dogs Think About?

            Yesterday, I started telling you about my animal psychic character in my most recent book, Practically Dreaming, and what I think cats think about. Today, I’m wondering what dogs think.

            I saw a joke once about the difference between a cat’s and a dog’s diary, which I think pretty well sums it up, at least on the dog’s side. I personally think cats are awesome and not as cynical as the cat in this diary!

            However, I will admit that while cats can seriously hold a grudge, dogs can be more forgiving. Scold them for ripping the carpet from the floor and, not only do they do the lowered-head, sad-eyes-looking-up-at-you apology thing, but they’ve forgotten all about it five minutes later. They want their owners’ approval. They’re generally happy, easy-going, and fun-loving.

            Here’s a short scene in which the animal psychic, Tierra, meets her mom’s new dog, Ruby. This puppy, a sweet, white ball of fluff, is based on my parents’ dog, Bella.

Bella, AKA "Ruby"

            The hurried click of little doggie claws on the hardwood floor drew both of their attention. Ruby burst into the room as if she had been announced by a late night talk show host. She paused in the center of the room, looked around to make sure she received adequate attention, and bounced up onto the nearest lap. Luckily, Hestia had put aside her cup quickly enough to avoid spilling her tea.

            “She’s spoiled, but I love her. What does she have to say? Is she as happy as I hope she is?” Ruby was a new addition to the household, a young dog who had only been living with Hestia for a couple of months.

            Tierra paused and probed Ruby’s thoughts, though she already knew the answer. “She’s ecstatic. She doesn’t want for anything. And she loves you beyond the telling of it.”

            Hestia laughed and blushed.

            “Ruby likes the treats in the blue bag,” Tierra said. “You only bought them once or twice, but they’re her favorite.”

            “The peanut butter,” Hestia smiled. “I’ll buy her some the next time I’m at the store.”

            “And she likes when you take her to the dog park. Especially when the Standard Poodle is there to play with her.” Ruby didn’t know the name of the breed, of course, but she showed Tierra an image of the black, curly-coated dog.

            “That’s the Thornton’s dog, Marley. Tell Ruby I’ll arrange more play dates with him.”

Check out more about Practically Dreaming here.

What Do Cats Think About?

             Tierra, the main character in Practically Dreaming, is an animal psychic. In writing her character, I found that I not only had to understand what motivated her, but what the animals around her wanted as well. What exactly does a cat think about?

            Tierra’s cat is named Solaris, a spoiled orange ball of fluff. In my mind, I pictured him as something like a Maine Coon or a Norwegian Forest Cat. As for his personality, it is an amalgamation of many of the cats in my life.

            My cats do some odd things sometimes, which just defy explanation. For example, what is the deal when a cat can go from serene to insane in about half a second? They’ll be sitting all chilled out, then the eyes go wide and they sprint from the room with the speed of light. I don’t even know if an animal psychic would be able to define that behavior!

            As to the question of what cats think about when they're not sprinting about like mad creatures…I think it’s mostly sunbeams, food, sleep, and being petted. At least, that’s the way I wrote about Solaris, who always seemed to be searching out a warm place to sleep, but only after his belly was full. Here’s a little snippet from the book:

            An itch on Tierra’s nose pulled her from the depths of sleep. She reached a drowsy hand up to brush something off her nose, only to be rewarded with the tickling sensation again a moment later. Finally, giving up on the idea of continued sleep, she opened her eyes. Solaris leapt up onto her chest, his solid weight squeezing an “ooof” of discomfort from her. He spun around in a circle, kneading his paws on her chest through the comforter. His fluffy bristle brush of a tail swept across her face, telling her all she needed to know about the tickle that awoke her.

            “Sol, really?”

            The cat swatted his tail defiantly at Tierra’s face once more, surely a punishment for his nickname, which he hated. Intent on his goal, his disposition turned sweet again as he turned on his adorable charm. He spun around so he was face to face with his human, stared insistently into her eyes, and meowed. The supplication came with a clear vision of his food dish overflowing with tuna. He even sent her the image of the red label on the can. It was the premium tuna, not the cat food can. Nothing but the best for Solaris, or so he believed. He followed up his request with a more strident meow.

            Tierra loved the sounds he made, from the strong, motorboat purr to the chirping, burring sounds he made when he was happy. Her favorite was his meow. It reminded her more of a rusty gate than a proper meow. Instead of “meow” or “rowr,” the cat said something sounding more like “meh-eh.” She thought it was adorable, and Solaris knew it, too. It begged the question of who exactly was in charge here; who owned who? Tierra preferred not to ponder that question for too long.

Read more about Practically Dreaming tomorrow when I write about what dogs think! And for more about the book, you can check it out here.

Books and Babies

A few years ago, my best friend from junior high was expecting her first baby and I was expecting my first…book! I was finishing final edits on my manuscript and we were both wondering which of our little bundles of joy would arrive first. As it turned out, Magick Charm did, on September 1. Little Finn arrived about two months later.

In a way, writing books is a tiny bit like raising children. Writing them takes countless hours and sleepless nights. Editing them can make you feel alternately happy and overwhelmed. You do everything you can to make them the best books possible before sending them out into the world, a prospect both thrilling and terrifying at the same time. You feel proud when they’re received well and fiercely defensive when they’re criticized.

Proud parent of Magick Charm and Practically Dreaming

Side note: This doesn’t mean you should go on the offensive with critics of your books. Let your paper and ink children stand on their own and speak for themselves. Getting into nasty online debates is the literary version of being the dad who screams and fights with all the coaches and refs from the sidelines of his kids' games. Just don’t do it!

Marcus and his "Nen"

Today, it seems I’m surrounded by kids. My childhood friend now has two little ones, and I spend a lot of time with the newborn of another close friend. I have two paperback children and several more on the way. 

Sometimes it can take more than nine months from conception to delivery of a literary work, but hey, I don’t have to pay for my books to go to college! 

Happy Book Birthday to Fairyproof and Demons of the Sun!

Two of the talented authors at Crescent Moon press had their books released this week. Happy book birthday, Constance and Cindi!

Fairyproof by Constance Phillips

When Monique finds out her brother, Kieran, is planning her future with the one fairy she wants nothing to do with, she seeks refuge in the human world. Now Kieran fears she will be the next victim in a string of murdered fairies and is determined to bring her home.

Hiding should be a breeze. She can control any human with a flirtatious smile and an attraction spell. Until she meets Daniel Elliot, the only human who's immune to both.

A year ago, Daniel's fiancée disappeared with the engagement ring, an Elliot family heirloom. He's ready to move forward with his life, but his mother's obsession with retrieving the ring makes that impossible. Then Monique walks into his office to apply for a job.

Daniel and Monique can't deny their attraction, but will the reason he's Fairyproof be too much to overcome?

About the author:

Constance Phillips lives in Ohio with her husband, two ready-to-leave-the-nest children, and four canine kids. Her perfect fantasy vacation would involve hunting Dracula across Europe with her daughter, who also digs that kind of stuff. When she's not writing about fairies, shifters, vamps, and guardian angels, she's working side-by-side with her husband in their hardwood flooring business.

Constance is actively involved in her local Romance Writers of America chapter (MVRWA) and the Southeast Michigan chapter of the United States Pony Club. When not writing or enjoying the outdoors, she loves reality television or can be found at a Rick Springfield concert (just look for the pink Converse high tops).

Constance's website

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Demons of the Sun by Cindi Madsen

Persephone didn't ask to be the guardian of Hades Dagger, an artifact Hades forged to turn demons into daywalkers and wants back. She didn't ask for the demon blood running through her veins that allows her to touch the thing, either. And she definitely didn't ask for Jax, a cocky Warrior, to barge into her life and proclaim himself her bodyguard. Suddenly, she has to deal with all three, along with an increase in demon attacks and the fact members of the Order of Zeus keep turning up dead.

When demons tell Persephone that she's one of them, she's appalled. And a little intoxicated by the power she feels when they call her their queen. Telling Jax about her demon side might turn him away from her forever, but something bad is brewing, and if Persephone doesn't figure out something, and soon, she'll be responsible for unleashing Hell on Earth.

About the author:

Cindi Madsen sits at her computer every chance she gets, plotting, revising, and falling in love with her characters. Sometimes it makes her a crazy person. Without it, she'd be even crazier. She has way too many shoes, but can always find a reason to buy a new pretty pair, especially if they're sparkly, colorful, or super tall. She loves music, dancing, and wishes summer lasted all year long. She lives in Colorado (where summer is most definitely NOT all year long) with her husband and three children.

Cindi's website

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