Hello everyone! I hope you’ve had a pleasant month!! I know I have.

I’m happy to announce that several of my backlist titles are well on their way to being re-released for kindle and several other ebook formats (look for print next year!). You can learn more about them here.

And I have to do a quick thank you to Mandy Roth/Nat Winters for providing such awesome covers!!

And now, please join me in welcoming Shelli!

Shelli Stevens, Interview by Michelle M. Pillow
Multi-genre author Shelli Stevens might not have been abducted by aliens or raised by a shifter clan, but that doesn’t stop her from creating imaginative paranormal worlds. I had the opportunity to talk with Shelli about her latest erotic paranormal offering, Sexy Beast VII where she delves into a world of were-jaguars to discover what it is that inspires her.

Q: In your book, His to Reclaim from Sexy Beast VII, you delve into the world of shifters. What inspired you to write about this?
Shelli: Well all stories in the Sexy Beast books need to be paranormal. Kate Douglas is in each book in the series with her popular Chanku stories. I was thrilled to be invited to write a story for the Sexy Beast anthology, and it was a great experience for me to plot out this fun capture and reclaiming story, and delve into the world of shifters.

Q: When world building, did you base your story off of known myths throughout history?
Shelli: I really don’t base my shifters on legends or other ‘rules’ from other shifter books, those just make me feel boxed in. I try and just have fun and make up my own world and my own rules.

Q: Why do you think readers, and society in general, are fascinated by the paranormal?
Shelli: I think because it’s the unknown and the fantasy aspect. Authors/Movies humanize these paranormal characters and make us care and become even more drawn to them.

Q: What are your favorite paranormal shows, movies and books?
Shelli: I love A Haunting on the Discovery channel, and have to confess I do like the Twilight series *wince* Well, until the last couple books. She lost me there.

Q: Do you believe in the supernatural?
Shelli: I do believe. Definitely with the paranormal ghost/haunting aspects. Other stuff…not so much. But it’s fascinating to imagine. Hence the escapism of reading it in a book or seeing it in a movie.

Q: Have you ever had a paranormal experience?
Shelli: Possibly. On the haunted tour in D.C. last summer, our group was at the last house that was not occupied. Totally creepy, fantastic house with so much history. And as the guide was talking about it, the lights inside flickered. Even he was surprised.

Q: How would you react if you came face to face with a paranormal creature?
Shelli: I’d probably freak out for a few minutes, then interview the heck out of it.

Q: Have you ever been abducted by aliens?
Shelli: Sigh. No. How boring am I?

Thanks for joining us, Shelli!

You can learn more about Shelli and her books at her website, www.shellistevens.com. Sexy Beast VII is currently at all major bookstores.

Interviewer Michelle M. Pillow is a multi-published, award winning author writing in many romance fiction genres. She can be found at www.michellepillow.com. Paranormal Underground Magazine’s website is here.

Mandy M. Roth, Interview

by Michelle M. Pillow

Please join me in welcoming an extraordinary paranormal and dark urban fantasy author, Mandy M. Roth. Mandy and I have co-authored several titles together, run The Raven Books bookstore and co-host Raven Radio. She’s highly prolific with over fifty published books and a book cover artist.

Her newest book, Sin’s Pride, just released from Harlequin.

About the Book:

* * * * *

Q: You often delve into the world of the paranormal. When world building, do you base your story off of known myths throughout history?

Mandy: I’ve borrowed from the Eastern European vampire myths, legends of were creatures from all walks of mythology and also a good deal of Native American-like supernatural aspects. I also took from history and humans’ ignorance to things they don’t understand or fear. So many times throughout history humans have tried to destroy what they don’t understand. In my series, Project Exorcism, the people on Earth gathered all the supernaturals and loaded them on multiple space vessels, sending them off to unmanned, habitable planets. Only one of the many crafts actually arrived at its assigned destination. The others crashed on various planets, causing the supernaturals on board to have to integrate with the humanoids at each location. Some did so without issue. Others, like the main villain in the storyline, decided to seize control and take advantage of everything at his disposal.

Q: Why do you think readers, and society in general, are fascinated by the paranormal?

Mandy: I think the unknown element is what draws so many people to the paranormal. Your imagination is really the only limit. Plus, throughout history man has turned to the supernatural and myths to explain what they couldn’t understand. I think it’s just natural.

Q: Do you have any paranormal pet projects?

Mandy: I co-host/co-author an online, free, ongoing paranormal story and radio show with fellow author Michelle M Pillow (hey, you might know her… grin).

Michelle: Nope, the name isn’t ringing any bells, lol

Q: I know the Halloween is HUGE at your house. I know it’s your favorite holiday. Does your family have any special Halloween traditions?

Mandy: Halloween is a big deal here at the Roth house. I even have a Halloween tree (similar to an xmas tree). We generally bake themed cookies, cakes, gingerbread houses, bob for apples, make popcorn balls, carve pumpkins (one year my brother had a pumpkin so big that an electric handsaw was required to carve it). We’ll often do some themed craft projects here as well as talk about Samhain and All Hallows Eve. I always dress up and pass out candy for the local kids. We also watch the cartoon version of The Legend of Sleepy Hallow every Halloween. I’m not sure why but I love that movie.

Q: What are your favorite paranormal shows, movies and books?

Mandy: Dracula by Bram Stroker, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstien, early Stephen King, Dark Shadows TV show from way back when, Being Human on the BBC and countless others.

Q: Do you believe in the supernatural?

Mandy: Of course.

Q: Have you ever had a paranormal experience?

Mandy: Growing up, I dabbled a lot in things better left unsaid. During that timeframe, many unexplainable things happened to me. As I grew up, matured and stopped the insanity, the oddness around me lessened but never fully went away.

Q: What kind of paranormal creatures do you wish you could meet?

Mandy: Vampire, werewolf, werecat of some sort just to make it even, a faerie, goblin, zombie, ghost, the grassman, bigfoot, etc. Okay. Any. The only one I’d not want to meet is the mothman. He wigs me out for some reason.

Q: If given the chance, would you become a vampire?

Mandy: Heck yeah! I don’t have any aversions to blood, living forever sounds good to me and I already avoid sunlight as much as possible. Can I take my answer back if vampires turn out to be hideous, drooling, mindless monsters?

Q: How would you react if you came face to face with a vampire?

Mandy: Honestly, I’m known to take things in stride. I’d most likely end up best buddies with it by the end of the night and be chatting it up on the net or cell phones the next night. It’s just the way I am. I do know I’d annoy the poor thing with endless questions on the myths surrounding them.

Q: What does the future hold for your writing?

Mandy: I have another Harlequin Spice Brief releasing sometime in the near future and am hoping to fill my schedule at my current publishers as well. Other than that, the sky is the limit.

Thanks for joining us, Mandy!

You can learn more about Mandy, her artwork and her books at her website, www.mandyroth.com. For The Raven, visit www.ravenhappyhour.com and www.theravenbooks.com.

Interviewer Michelle M. Pillow can be found at www.michellepillow.com.

Today is the official release day of my first book published as Emma Lang. It’s not my “first” book per se, since I already have over 2 dozen novels/novellas/short stories published, but it’s Emma’s first.

So who’s Emma? Well, Emma is me and I am she.

No I don’t have multiple personality issues, although my DH might argue that point. I am now published as Emma Lang with Kensington. A writer who embarks on a new adventure with a new pen name does it for various reasons. Perhaps she/he wants a new start, or a publisher may request it, or sometimes it’s even the market.

In my case it’s a combination of a few of those reasons. For Kensington, I will now exclusively publish as Beth. However, both pen names will still be actively publishing across the romance world. I promise!

So today is the release date for RUTHLESS HEART, my wild and intense western starring Eliza (a runaway Mormon scientist trying to find her runaway sister) and Grady (a hard, dark hired gun who can’t seem to shake Eliza). It’s fun, sexy, sad, and happy, plus everything in between.

I’ve posted excerpts on my blog over the last week. Please pop on over and take a read to meet Eliza and Grady, and of course, Emma Lang.

Happy Release Day! And to my fellow release buddy, Cynthia Eden! Woot!

First, an announcement…

Good With His Hands by Michelle M. Pillow

For sale from Ellora’s Cave!

Photographer Teresa Kelley is on assignment to shoot old ghost towns and desert scenery. What she doesn’t anticipate is that scenery including the delicious Max Draper. The sizzling desert sun isn’t the only thing heating up the abandoned mining town when the hot, muscled and oh-so-sexy mechanic offers to give her a hand. Dusty floorboards and ghost tales aside, Teresa finds herself on the other end of the lens when she and Max are caught in flagrante delicto by an unexpected… assistant.

Since this book has to do with photographing spirits, I thought I’d share info on one of my latest research projects for Paranormal Underground Magazine.

~***~

Memento Mori: Photographing the Dead

These days when you talk about photographing the dead most people think about capturing apparitions or orbs, but in the early stages of photography the concept had an entirely different meaning. With the affordability of new photographic techniques came the practice of memento mori, “remember death”, or post-mortem photography, in which people hired photographers to photograph the corpses of their loved ones before burial. This sometimes included the remains of deceased pets. Though now seen as a macabre practice and used as otherworldly movie props in such films as The Others to build supernatural suspense, in the mid-1800’s photographing the deceased became a culturally accepted practice to help memorialize the dead and to help with the grieving process.

In 1839 portraiture became commonplace, as inventions like the daguerreotype, an early kind of photograph, made it possible for the masses to afford to have their pictures taken. The shorter exposure times made sitting for a portrait not only feasible but more practical than it had been in previous years. Hitting the height of its popularity in the mid-19th century and dwindling toward the late 1800’s, post-mortem photography persisted well into the 20th century in some Eastern European cultures. What, by today’s standards, may seem morbid was in fact a reflection of the average 19th century person’s ability to understand and deal with death. These pictures were often included on mantle places, mingled with pictures of the living, or sent to distant relatives who could not make the trip to pay their respects.

High mortality rates meant many people didn’t always have the opportunity to get their picture taken when they were alive. Every household was touched by death. According to Ancestry.com, “in the United States in 1850, the average life expectancy at birth was 38.9 years” and the “infant mortality rate in 1850 was 217.4 per 1,000 births”. It is this high mortality rate in children that accounts for the numerous post-mortem images of Victorian children. With so much death, the Victorians were more adept at dealing with the grieving process than we are today and these photographs were an important step in their process.

Earlier photographs were often close-ups of the adult’s face or full body shots of a child. Loved ones were rarely posed in a coffin. Before the advent of the funeral home, bodies were laid out in at home in a parlor, kept cool by a block of ice. It’s not so unusual then that people would want to remember their loved one in a natural setting. Often, they were laid out on a bed or couch to look as if they slept, or arranged in poses meant to mimic the living. Props, such as toys, religious items, or flowers, were added to the scene. In some cases eyes were left open or the photographs were later doctored to paint pupils over the closed eye lids and to add a rosy flush to the cheeks.

Sometimes even the living relatives were included in the photograph, posing with or, in the case of a young child, holding the deceased. Children normally were posed on a couch or crib. When they were held by a living parent, they were posed with their eyes closed. Adults were more commonly pictured sitting up in chairs, braced into place by special frames. It wasn’t until embalming practices improved after the Civil War that people could be preserved long enough to be photographed inside their coffins, which were made to order and not readily available the day of death. By the time corpses were photographed in coffins, less effort was made to make them appear more lifelike.

Other variations of the post-mortem included mourners holding a photo of the deceased, family members photographed by a shrine dedicated to the passed loved one including a photo from the deceased’s life, or the funeral goers surrounding the open coffin. Today, the post-mortem photograph is more of a strange curiosity to be wondered at and collected. One of the largest collections in the United States is kept by the Burns Archive at www.burnsarchive.com. Other web sources include Paul Frecker at www.paulfrecker.com and at The Thanatos http://thanatos.net. All three of these sites show a tasteful representation of the subject and are not gory.

~***~

I just found out that my first audio book is to release next month! Last Man on Earth, 3/29/2010!

Or at least it’s beginning to feel like it.  And, honestly, I’d rather have the books than the snow. Though apparently I’m going to get both this month. LOL

Every once in awhile in an author’s career–at least in mine–there comes a month where several different publishers decide to release at the same time. This month I’ve had four releases–3 print, 1 ebook. The print is a reprint of the entire Realm Immortal series from Samhain Publishing. Mandy Roth, aka Natalie Winters, did the cover art for the second printing and I am totally thrilled with the look she gave them!

Which one is your favorite? I’ve been getting a lot of emails for all of them, but the unofficial tally is that Stone Queen is in the lead.

Realm Immortal:
1.King of the Unblessed - ebook / print
2. Faery Queen - ebook / print
3. Stone Queen - ebook / print

On the ebook front Divinity Warriors continues with the new alternate reality plane, Divinity Healers: Ariella’s Keeper. This is the first book of the trilogy.

Hope you all had a wonderful Jan! Stay warm!!

Today marks the release of my Kensington Brava historical western, The Stranger’s Secrets. It’s not just the third book in a series (with a kickin’ hot cowboy on the cover), it’s a book that brings to life a different kind of heroine.

One of the things I like to do as a writer is to write unusual characters. Many of my heroes and heroines have shall we say, unusual features, out of the ordinary for something they’ve done, or perhaps odd because of how they choose to live.

As a reader and as a writer, I can identify with people who aren’t perfect, who have flaws (real or imagined), and who struggle for triumphs. Not knocking those perfect, beautiful or handsome folks out there because hey, it takes all kinds, right?

But as someone with flaws, imperfections and downright issues (I may have to capitalize the word issues), I feel closer to my heroine if she’s more real to me. I’ve had heroines who are scarred, scared, fearless, and even a homeless heroine. It’s not about what they are, but who they are.

This brings me to my Sarah Spalding, my heroine in The Stranger’s Secrets. Sarah is my first disabled heroine–she walks with a cane because her leg was disfigured (you’ll have to read the book to find out why, lol).

She’s a bit of a ball-buster too. The fantastic Lori reviewed The Stranger’s Secrets on her blog I Just Finished Reading… and I think she hit it on the head when she said Sarah is “brash, bold, and sassy, yet extremely vulnerable and fragile at the same time.”

Sarah is not afraid to tell it like it is, give it back as good as she gets, and take what she wants. Yet all of that hides what is beneath the surface, a woman who needs love so badly even the reader can taste it.

I love the fact that Sarah stood up, knocked me on the head with her cane, and told me to get my ass in gear and write her like she really was. Strong, outspoken, sarcastic and intelligent.

Yeah, a different kind of heroine…

Below is an excerpt for your reading pleasure! Enjoy!

***

Sarah eyed the cursed shoe with a sneer. Damn thing was deliberately being difficult and she was having a hell of a time getting it on her foot, much less laced. The gray light of dawn coated the room as she tried to hurry and get ready.

Whitman would be there any minute and there’s no way she wanted him to see her helpless to the point of being unable to get her shoes on. Her clothes were made specifically for her so she didn’t have a problem getting those on. However the boots were an extravagance she bought two days before the trip.

She regretted that impulse now.

When the knock at the door came, she dropped the shoe with a thunk. Damn.

“Sarah, are you ready?” Whit at least didn’t sound chipper. She was not a morning person herself, and God forbid she got trapped with someone who was.

“Not quite.” She bent down and picked up the shoe again. “I need five minutes.”

“We don’t have five minutes. You were supposed to be downstairs half an hour ago. The train leaves in fifteen minutes.” He paused. “Do you need help?”

The dreaded question dropped on her pride like a rock. As Sarah wrestled with whether or not missing the train was more important than her stubbornness, Whit grew impatient.

“Look I don’t care what you need, what you’re doing or anything like that, but if you make me miss the train, I…”

When he didn’t continue, Sarah got the shoe on. Finally.

“What will you do?” she egged him on.

He opened the door and charged in, which made her wonder what he would’ve done if she was nude. The thought made her entire body clench, not what she wanted of course, since she refused to be attracted to him.

“What are you waiting for?” He looked her up and down, noting the packed bags. “Were you hoping to challenge your walking skills this morning or my patience?”

She raised one brow. “Neither. I was hoping to actually walk in shoes this morning.”

He glanced down and grimaced. Before she could stop him, he’d dropped to his knees and started lacing the boots.

Instead of resenting his interference, Sarah simply gazed at the top of his head, noting the still damp waves of his chocolate hair, and the lovely clean smell from his skin. Having him at her feet was the most unique, delicious experience.

The urge to feel his hair made her fingers twitch. The fact he was lacing her shoes up sent a tingle up her legs straight to her pussy. If it had been another situation, another man, she might have followed her instincts and take him into her bed.

Yet, it wasn’t the right man or the right time. When she got to Denver, Sarah must focus on finding someone who was the right person to play with. For certain, she wouldn’t have a husband in her bed permanently. She’d made that decision long ago.

That didn’t mean she couldn’t have someone in her bed occasionally though. She had needs and even if her body was damaged, parts of her worked perfectly.

One part was humming right then for a man she should never have in her bed.

He glanced up and met her gaze. Those green orbs were unreadable. The moment stretched on for so long, Sarah started to learn toward him. What she would do when she reached him, she had no idea.

“Let’s get moving. We’re going to miss the train.” He rose and held out his hand. “If I’m going to be your traveling companion, you and I are going to have to set some ground rules.”

Sarah’s arousal ended as abruptly as it began. With Whit.

She accepted his help and stood. “Don’t think I will simply accept your rules without argument.” She hobbled toward the door, the stiffness in her legs almost excruciating that morning. Even after she’d massaged in the liniment Vickie had found for her. Damn it, she hated being crippled.

“We’ll see about that.” Whitman picked up her bags as they headed towards the door. “I can be just as pigheaded as you.”

Of that, Sarah had no doubt. One thing was certain, their trip would never be boring.

***

Have a wonderful Holiday Season and an even better New Year!

Free Holiday Reads!

(must be 18 years or older to visit above site)

I’ll keep this month’s post short and sweet. Several authors got together again this year to give our readers a holiday gift. Click the above link to download your free book. (I’ve even included last year’s free gift in case you missed it). For those of you celebrating Christmas, I hope Santa brought you everything you wanted. You were all good girls and boys, right?

New Release: Just in time for Christmas

Christmas Curse by Michelle M. Pillow

Megan’s been telling her friend Victoria for years that she’s cursed. Christmas cursed! Every year she celebrates Christmas, something bad happens—broken bones, chicken pox, house burning down. After agreeing to finally go home for the holidays, she’s not surprised when her all-too-sexy boyfriend breaks up with her—and by note, no less!

Sean doesn’t believe in curses, but his girlfriend does. It’s her one fault. In all other ways Megan’s perfect, from her interesting mind to her gorgeous body. And the sex? HOT. But because she’s convinced something bad will happen, he’s not surprised when she leaves for the holiday without him. Convincing Megan she’s not cursed may take some creative “maneuvering”, but Sean plans to make sure he turns her holiday luck around.

Note: Want to know more about Megan’s BFF, Victoria? Pick up Trust in the Season by Mandy M. Roth.

December 1 my latest Nocturne story will be out. THE BEWITCHING HOUR is a BITE about Hector Morales of the San Antonio crime lab and he’s come to Necropolis for Lyra and Theron’s wedding. And it just happens he gets the best present…

I hope y’all will check the lastest story of the Valorian Chronicles.

After that there will two more books in the series. The next full length book will be out in July, it’s called THE VAMPIRE’S KISS and then the one after that will be likely October and is called THE WOLF’S HEART.

I’m working on new stuff for Nocturne but sometimes its hard finding the perfect next series to work out. I’ve written 6 Valorian books and it will be both sad and exciting to work on something new.

What would you like to see as a series in Nocturne? What kind of creature? What type of story?

Morning, world! I hope this finds you all well.

I love October and fall in general. The colors and smells, the pumpkins and well, people handing out candy left and right for FREE! How awesome is that concept?

This October is particularly cool for me. My first official magazine interview (with me as the interviewer) came out this month. You can check it out here: Paranormal Underground Magazine It’s the first of monthly fiction author interviews I’m doing. Also, coming in November’s issue, I’ll be spotlighting Wichita Paranormal Research Society (WPRS), a ghost hunting team from the Midwest. Anyone else love the idea of paranormal investigating? I *will* go on at least one investigation in my lifetime. I just hope I can keep my cool under paranormal pressure.

So, with thoughts turned to Halloween and the paranromal, I thought I’d ask everyone… What’s your favorite paranormals? Creature? Shows? Books? Groups? Have you ever been ghost hunting? Would you?

Few announcements:

I also had a sexy quickie release this month from Ellora’s Cave: Last Man on Earth. The hero isn’t the last man on earth, but he’d darn close to being. He lives in post-apocolyptic earth, beneath the water. Read Excerpt (Over 18). Buy Now.

CONTEST: Raven Online Scavenger Hunt. Open Month of October. Chance to win over 25 prizes.

No I’m not talking about Halloween coming up, I’m talking about my story The Bewitching Hour which will be released by Silhouette Nocturne in December. It’s a BITE, a short about a secondary character in my Valorian Chronicles. This story is about Hector Morales, the chief investigator from the San Antonio crime lab. I had a lot of fun writing a story for him…

Check out the cover…

Here’s a short excerpt:

There was only ten minutes until the wedding ceremony. Hector Morales shut the hotel room door behind him, tucking the key card into the inside pocket of his suit jacket and walked swiftly down the wide opulent corridor to the bank of elevators. Luckily, the Necropolis Grand Hilton had eight elevators serving the huge lavish hotel. He hoped at least one of them would get him to the penthouse suite in time. He really didn’t want to be late for Lyra and Theron’s wedding.

After pressing the up button, he sat in one of the red velvet high backed chairs to wait. He smoothed down the wrinkle on his gray trousers and cursed himself for not making more time before the wedding. His suit definitely needed pressing, and he likely needed a shave. He rubbed a hand over his chin, already feeling the first prickles of stubble. But the phone call from the office in San Antonio had taken up his grooming time and then some.

The sheriff had called him about a missing person’s case his crime scene team was working on. As usual, the sheriff had called to chew him out. It still surprised him he had a job after that fiasco in San Antonio when Caine Valorian’s forensic team, from Necropolis, came out to help him on a strange murder. The murder ended up being part of a series of rituals that a very powerful vampiress was conducting in order to open a portal to hell. She ended up being a demon of all things.

Hector still had trouble believing that all of that had happened. Vampires, lycans, witches, these were the types of people that lived and worked in Necropolis. He was both pleased and perplexed to call some of them, namely Caine’s crime scene team, his friends. Enough so, that he was attending Lyra’s, who was a witch, nuptials to a half vampire/half witch named Theron who hailed from the Otherworlder European city of Nouveau Monde.

Sometimes it got really confusing keeping everyone’s species straight.
The elevator arrived. When the doors slid open, Hector walked into the plush mirrored elevator for the twenty floor ride. His room was on the tenth floor and the wedding was in the penthouse suite in a tropical type atrium. A night wedding. He liked them around this time. It seemed more romantic to him. It was no surprise thought especially since a lot of the guests were vampires and couldn’t tolerate the hot sun for very long.

The elevator stopped on the thirteenth floor. The hoteliers obviously weren’t superstitious. The door slid open but no one came on. Shrugging, Hector pushed the close door button. But before it could slide shut, a slim pale hand stopped it. The door bounced open again from the intrusion, and a tall slender woman in a lavender dress stepped into the box.

Her hair was as red as a Texas sunset and it swirled around her in long perfect curls. It shone in the muted elevator light and Hector had a terrific urge to reach out and caress one of those perfect spirals. He actually had to fist his hand tight against his leg to stop from doing just that.

She glanced at him and smiled. “Good evening.”

He just nodded, his mouth too sticky to open and form any coherent words. He was usually quite comfortable around most people. He worked in law enforcement long enough to be confident and sure in his position. But nerves zapped through his body the second the woman entered the elevator. The air seemed thick around him, and he was having a difficult time breathing. Was it just because she was an Otherworlder? Or was it because she was breathtakingly beautiful?

She looked at him again. “Are you going to Lyra and Theron’s wedding?”

Her eyes were as green as fresh spring grass. He didn’t think a color like that could exist in someone’s eyes. Knowing he was staring, likely impolitely, he cleared his throat and lowered his gaze. “Yes,” he finally managed to say. His throat was tight and he pulled at his tie. The temperature in the elevator was definitely rising.

“I’m Fiona Woodland, Lyra’s estranged cousin.” She stuck out her slim elegant hand toward him.