A Brand New Cover for Dance on Fire

Hello, Fire Enthusiasts. I come to you this week with what will be the first of three cover reveals in a row, all created by author and cover artist extraordinaire Maria Zannini. This week, I present to you a new cover for an old favorite. Dance on Fire has a new cover that I think better exemplifies the story within. It is horror, but at it's heart is so much more. It's getting good reviews, and I hope this new vision of the book will help catch the attention of a much wider audience. With no further delay, here's the cover:

Speaking of reviews, I just received this one a few days ago from author Tracy Krauss: "This is definitely NOT your typical vampire tale. ...The book is written from an omniscient point of view, so we often see inside the heads of more than one person at a time. It doesn't distract, though, like head hopping might normally do. For some reason it seems to work and I think helps us have more sympathy for the victims. If you enjoy paranormal tales, you will like this book."


Another glimpse into the fire:

Perhaps the tiny girl could sense the terrible evil which stood over her crib, perhaps not. However, as Vincent leaned closer to get a better look, she began to wail and wriggle much stronger than before. Unfortunately for the little girl, Mommy wasn't listening, nor could she do the littlest thing about it.

The vampire reached into the crib and retrieved the frightened young infant. Had she been a fish, he would have lost her as the baby tried to get away from the form that she somehow knew was most definitely not family, and certainly not Mommy. He held the child high above his head. Behind his purple lips, gleaming fangs hungrily protruded from the corner of his mouth. Slowly, confidently, they pierced the air between them on their way toward the baby's warm, vibrating little throat.

The vampire has heightened senses: taste, smell, touch, sight and hearing. All five are far more highly tuned to his world around him than that of his victims. He has better vision than that of a hungry eagle in search of a morsel from high above the forest. He can smell the presence of human beings faster than the deer can smell a mediocre hunter. Not only can the vampire hear a pin drop, but he can recognize the disturbance in the molecules as the pin slices its way through the air toward the ground. In fact, just one of these senses makes it impossible for the vampire to be taken by surprise.

Except by another vampire.

Therefore, when Nathaniel suddenly came out of nowhere and swept the baby from his hands, knocking him into the far wall in the same motion; he actually let out a cry of surprise.

Nathaniel replaced the baby in her crib and with but a touch quickly pushed the piece of furniture safely behind him.

“Nicely done, Nathaniel. I wondered when you might show yourself,” he added quietly, stepping away from the wall and running both of his hands through his long hair in order to get it out of his face. “Cliché, I know, but I taught you very well, indeed.”

“You taught me only to hate. And I hate you very much.”

Vincent sighed, and then took a threatening step forward.

“Remain where you are, Vincent!” Nathaniel commanded. “These are under my charge.”

“Oh, but Nathaniel, surely you don't think me gluttonous. I will gladly share them with you.”

Nathaniel made no effort to respond.

“Ah, but that is right,” he quickly interjected. “You don't feed on human blood, do you, Nathaniel? Such a pity. Cats and vermin!” he said with a dramatic shudder. “It makes you considerably weaker than I, you realize. In that instance, I guess I will have both!”

“No!” Nathaniel stood his ground.

“I will not be ordered around, Nathaniel,” Vincent said firmly, taking another step forward.

Nathaniel said nothing and made no effort to withdraw.

Two telephones began to ring in other rooms. No one acknowledged the ringing.

Vincent stopped. “Ah, you mean to challenge me. I adore challenges. It has been a challenge, my finding you. It has been a challenge following a cold trail across the globe.” Vincent stepped closer. “And now that I have you…” He stared his adversary down, menacingly. A moment later he reached out delicately with his left hand and lovingly moved a stray hair out of Nathaniel’s face. He whispered: “And I do have you, Nathaniel.” He lowered his hand back to his side and changed his expression again, this time to a look of intimidation. Then, he shook it off again.

“Just go, Vincent,” Nathaniel said, placing his hands on the back of the little baby's crib. In the background, the phones continued to ring. “It is still early. I trust you have more than enough time to acquire for yourself another meal.”

Vincent sighed again and smiled, turning his attention back to the nearest baby. They were each still screaming their lungs out, red-faced panic on their tiny faces. Something in that scene coerced a giggle out of him.

“So lovely!”

He reached down into the nearest crib and gently and tenderly caressed the skin of the baby boy's throat with his ugly discolored fingernail. The infant recoiled at the touch and did his best to move away.

“So warm!”

Vincent pulled the hand away from the baby and then, glancing dramatically into Nathaniel's eyes, stuck the caressing finger into his mouth and licked the scent from it. Down the hall in the kitchen, Barbara’s voice could be heard as the answering machine engaged.

“No more games, Vincent.”

Vincent turned his gaze back upon Nathaniel, his face devoid of expression. He appeared neither pleased nor angered. “It is so good to hear you speak my name again after all of these years.”

“It has been much longer than years.” There was a pregnant pause where Vincent’s name should have followed, but Nathaniel refused to satisfy the monster any further. “And not at all long enough.”

Next week, I'll showcase the new Flash Point cover in like fashion. The week after that will finally see the revealing of my new novel's fabulous cover. As you read this I am taking a break from the social networks and going over the edits for my paranormal romance, Seeing Ghosts. I can't wait to reveal that to you as well. It should be very soon. Dance on Fire can be found on Amazon where the e-book is only 99 cents.

We'll talk soon.

Pushing 200 Blog Posts

Hello, Fire Enthusiasts. Thank you for stopping by for post 199. We're approaching a bit of a milestone, aren't we? Now, I would have been to 200 much sooner had I posted more often; however, I learned a long time ago that with my time constraints I had time only for posting once a week and visiting the sites of others with what little time remained. The other thing is I also don’t offer advice. I never really felt qualified to be doing that. I share what I’ve been up to and where I’ve been – with regard to this writing career; I clue you in on what I’ve been reading, watching or listening to. Really, until I feel the day has come that I deserve a full website, I’ll just use this place. Some will offer that having an official website just conveys how professional one is – and I get that. It just gets back to that time thing…

With hitting this number comes the opportunity to offer giveaways. I think I will do that, but not just yet. There’s simply too much in flux at the moment. The fabulous author/cover artist Maria Zannini is putting the finishing touches on brand new covers for my first two books as we prepare to do the big cover reveal on book three. I would counsel patience in this matter, but I can hardly stand it either. *laughs*

Let’s get back to the issue of time constraints again. This new job I just transferred into has really thrown me. It’s going to be great once I fully settle in, but in the meantime it has blown up my routine. I worked from 7 am to 7 pm my first two days in this gig. I haven’t seen my treadmill since last Tuesday and I have barely touched this laptop. If you don’t catch me prowling about your blogs or hear from me across the social networks – you’ll know why! During the week I barely had time to check my iPhone. I have two more days to work with the outgoing supervisor this week, but then I am on my own. There are so many new things to learn that I feel as if I’m cramming for a big final…

When the new facility becomes smaller in my eyes and I set up my routines, life should be so much better…and you should mercifully hear no further whining from me. *crosses fingers* I pray once we get into the 200's there will be much more discussion over new covers and new interest in my first two crossover vampire books, followed by the release of my Paranormal Romance which I really am excited to present to you, a secret collaborative writing project and much more. Big things are coming. I promise.

I’ve learned quite a lot over these past few years, as I know we all have. There really is so much to learn, isn’t there? On the other hand, it is all so very exciting, too. No matter how successful each of us are, we’re really living the dream.

We are living the dream, aren’t we? And we have made so many new friends to help us celebrate along the way. Thanks, you guys.

We’ll talk soon.

Day Trippin'

Hello, Fire Enthusiasts. How’s it going? I hope you had a Happy Easter, a nice long weekend or are simply doing well. I won’t take up too much of your time this week. There really isn’t much to tell…

There has been a delay with regard to getting started with the editing on my latest offering. I’m told it should get started very soon. Once I have a feel for how long that process might take I will begin sending out the information on the cover reveal for it. My thanks to all who have asked to be involved in this project. I appreciate the heck out of you for doing so. If you have yet to sign up and would love to be considered, please just let me know here in the comments. I’m easy. I will send out an e-mail with the blurbs and cover of my new book. It is a paranormal romance for those of you who have been away in writer’s cave or parts unknown. The cover is gorgeous, but you can see that for yourselves when I send it to you. If for some reason you change your mind or are unable to be involved – no worries.

For those who heard that I am transferring positions at the day job, I spent part of last week at the new facility and will spend a couple more days there training before taking hold of the reins, as it were, on April 8^th. It is a cold storage that my company bought a few years ago. It has a handful of production lines in it and a lot less people. The difference here is I get to smash my dreadful alarm clock and get up with the sun. *grins* The ten years I spent getting up before God did (3 am) seem to be over. I will be acting manager at this place, in charge of nearly everything except the maintenance. I’ll let you know how it goes…

My family took advantage of the long Easter weekend and took a day trip to the coast. We live in the California Central Valley so it’s only a three hour drive to get anywhere. As hot as it gets in the summer, the fact that we are that close to everything makes it really a great place to live. Anyway, we started our day in Morro Bay. We had lunch there and did some window shopping. At the bottom of this post you will find a photo of a bar here because I used the real-life location in my second novel, Flash Point. We then moved down the coast and stopped in San Luis Obispo. My oldest son visits there with his pals all the time and wanted to show us his hang-outs. There’s a record store there that is pretty famous: Boo Boo Records. It has a little bit of everything. We left with a handful of cds: a re-mastered version of Boston’s first album and Black Sabbath’s first album for me since I couldn't seem to get it on iTunes. We then headed to Pismo Beach for dinner and the famous Splash Café. We had the award winning Clam Chowder Bread bowl as you can see.

All in all it was a nice day. It was cold and cloudy near the water at both Morro Bay and Pismo, but SLO was nice. The four of us had a good time and we got back home safely at about 10 pm. Have any of you locals been to any of these places? I’d love to hear about it.

We’ll talk soon. 

Celebration Day

Greetings, Fire Enthusiasts. I hope this post finds you and yours well. As I pen this note to you it is a wonderful Saturday morning. It’s March 23, and yesterday was my forty-fourth birthday. It was very nice and I thank many of you who bombarded my Facebook Profile with well-wishes. I don’t know how, but I had forgotten how great that day is thanks to social media. I thank you all for making a crazy day very special.

If you were here for a visit last week you are aware that I am being transferred from the main facility to a cold storage facility that Sun Maid owns that is just a few minutes down the road from there. I’m unsure whether I start this new gig on April Fool’s Day or the Monday after that. I promise you it isn’t some sort of cruel joke – I am being moved. In any event, potentially yesterday was my last day with my 100+ employees; a crew that I have known as their supervisor for ten years, and many of whom I’ve known in one capacity or another longer than that. So the day was bittersweet. There was food, cake, wine (ok, I took that home unopened) and very nearly tears shed as most were quite unhappy to see me go. We were busy, I’ve been pulling away to enable my partner to realize how tough the job is going to be without me doing most everything, I was celebrating a birthday at the same time that I was saying goodbye. As I said, it was a crazy day.

In book news, I’m waiting to hear back from my editor extraordinaire. She’s had Seeing Ghosts for a week now. As for the cover, I have given sneak peeks to a bunch of my besties and the reviews have been ecstatic. Once I get a feeling for how big the final editing job might be, I’ll begin setting plans in place for the reveal. I promise you you’re going to love this cover. If you would like to potentially be involved in that reveal, simply let me know. I will provide the cover and a pair of synopsis to choose from via an e-mail, and anyone can choose to be involved or not. No pressure.

I do have a secret project taking place this summer which I will divulge at a much later date. I’m a little nervous since it is a collaborative effort – something I’ve never done before. I can’t say much about that. I’ve probably said too much already…

Other than that, this year will be about promoting the new book. I will be working on soft cover versions for all three of the books, which most likely will include new covers for the vampire books.

Before I go, I would like to leave you with the blurb for the new book once again. I hope the regulars aren’t getting too sick of it already. I know many people can only visit a few times a month. I’m like that myself. If you haven’t visited and potentially might like to make yourself available for a cover reveal, interview, guest post or review once the book comes out, I’d love to hear from you.

 

“Paul Herrera finds himself bequeathed a mysterious old house near the California central coast by a deceased aunt he never knew. The woman who shows it to him is the spitting image of his wife, taken from him three years before in a senseless car accident which also took his unborn son. While he deals with the ghosts of a past he cannot let go, there are new ghosts Paul must deal with - alone for the week in the expansive two-storey house that he will soon discover holds many secrets. Eventually, he will see that he is surrounded by ghosts as he struggles to hold onto the only thing that he has left in this world - his sanity.”

 

Now I’m going to go play with my birthday presents. I received three Blu-Rays: Les Miserables, Let Me In and Led Zeppelin’s Celebration Day. Yes, I’m a brat. Was there ever any doubt?

We’ll talk soon.

The Dawning of a New Day

Hello, Fire Enthusiasts. I hope you’ve had a good week, and that the new one treats you equally well. Everyone here is well. That list includes my teacher wife, my 15 year old son, my 18 year old son and me. My wife also coaches track this time of year which makes for some long days. The boys come and go with schedules that get harder and harder to remember seemingly every week. They are doing well in their respective schools, are involved in music programs, as well as church, and don’t get into any trouble. Their bedrooms look like war zones, and I cringe every time I glance inside; however, if that’s all I have to complain about, than life is good! Am I right?

As for me, my last week and a half has been crazier than usual. It all began with me simply attempting to perform my daily schedule, all the while plotting the schedule of my new book. I want to build a slow buzz over the course of spring/summer until the eventual release. The cover’s done and frigging awesome, so I want to build a buzz for the reveal. However, I want to make sure I get completely through the editing phase before I get too far ahead of myself with that. Then there’s formatting and researching reviewers for arcs, etc, etc.

That’s when the Plant Manager at my day job pulled me to the side and informed me that there was an opportunity to change jobs.

What?

If you’ve been around me enough you have no doubt heard me whine about my 3 am alarm, my 3:45 am start time, my 11 hours, and more recently about working Saturdays. Well, I work as an Administrative Supervisor in the Packaging Department for Sun-Maid Growers of California - the lady on the red box. Now I was being offered a chance to transfer to another facility that we own and operate that’s just down the road from the main plant. I would go from 100+ employees to about 20-30. It would also be a lot less production lines and items. However, although it would be lateral for the moment, it is basically running the entire facility myself (Processing, Packaging, Inventories, Sanitation, Shipping, Quality – everything except the Maintenance). I’ll have a second Supervisor who handles that part.

So, why am I telling you all of this? Because after dealing with the prospect of having to interview with some Managers, the Plant Manager and the Vice President, and all the stress of that – I got the job. In a few short weeks my schedule will be more like 7 am to 5 pm. Hopefully this will be much better for everything I’m currently juggling, and there will be much less whining. Of course, I can’t promise you anything. *evil grins*

 

My thanks to all who’ve signed up for a cover reveal that should occur sometime in late April or early May. It will all depend on the editing process. I’m still looking for more help there, so let me know in the comments. My plan is to reveal the cover and blurb to you well in advance, and allow you to make the decision to be involved or not once you’ve seen it. Trust me. This cover is gorgeous! You will not be disappointed. I’ll leave you once again with a short blurb for the Paranormal Romance that I'm calling, Seeing Ghosts.

  

Seeing Ghosts

Paul Herrera finds himself bequeathed a mysterious old house near the California central coast by a deceased aunt he never knew. The woman who shows it to him is the spitting image of his wife, taken from him three years before in a senseless car accident which also took his unborn son. While he deals with the ghosts of a past he cannot let go, there are new ghosts Paul must deal with - alone for the week in the expansive two-story house that he will soon discover holds many secrets. Eventually, he will see that he is surrounded by ghosts as he struggles to hold onto the only thing that he has left in this world - his sanity.

 

 We’ll talk soon.

Something for the Paranormal fans

Hello, Paranormal Romance enthusiasts. How’s it going? Can you tell I’m grinning? Trust me. I am.

I am so excited to be reporting this week that things have progressed well on my latest novel. We have a cover, a new title and have already passed the first beta hurdle.

You know, I have never really spent that much time choosing a book title. With Dance on Fire, I recall hating it, and assumed I would find something better by the time I’d finished the book. Well, as many of you know, it took nearly twenty years to complete. By then, the title had already cemented itself into my head and there would be no changing it. Flash Point had itself titled well in the beginning because of the whole fire theme. I had planned to use “Inferno” for the next one, but Dan Brown just grabbed it, so we’ll see what happens. See how important it can be? I finally did get around to checking how many books had the original title I had hoped to use. The result of this caused me to change it. There was much discussion as to what title I could choose, but everything seemed too dark or just plain silly. With a paranormal audience in mind, I think I found just the right balance.

Therefore, my latest novel is entitled: Seeing Ghosts.

The manuscript has been to the first beta reader. With her busy schedule she had it read in four days. She reported that she cried at the end. That’s got to be a good sign. Right? And, no, it wasn’t my mother! She’s actually got next. J My friend the beta did give me some great feedback. I have already taken some of that to heart and made the necessary tweaks. It’s going to be read a couple more times, but then it’s off to my professional editor.

As I mentioned previously, I had been working with Author and cover artist extraordinaire Maria Zannini. We spent the big money and a good bit of time on this, and the result is quite striking. My wife and kids adored it immediately. Bless her heart, Maria also made me a wallpaper of the cover. I have it on my computer at work and the guys can’t stop drooling over the lovely model that graces the cover. I have shared it with another writing buddy. She was very envious and called it a “gorgeous cover.” I think you’ll agree, but I apologize because I’m not ready to reveal it. *teases*

What I am doing right now is building a list of folks who might be interested in hosting a cover reveal. Trust me - you’re going to adore this cover. However, you do not have to agree to do anything until you’ve seen it. So, leave me a note somewhere. You can e-mail at rapture22 (at) hotmail (dot) com, leave a comment here, or drop me a note on any of the social networks – wherever is the easiest to get hold of you. I will then send you the cover and you can choose to be involved or not. I’m easy. At that point, if you just wanted to display it somewhere, you could do that. Perhaps you would schedule it as a post one day, along with the synopsis; or perhaps we could do an interview where we discuss the cover and the book. Whatever. Again, I’m easy. I’d also love to hear from you if you’d like to read/review it…

  

Seeing Ghosts

Paul Herrera finds himself bequeathed a mysterious old house near the California central coast by a deceased aunt he never knew. The woman who shows it to him is the spitting image of his wife, taken from him three years before in a senseless car accident which also took his unborn son. While he deals with the ghosts of a past he cannot let go, there are new ghosts Paul must deal with - alone for the week in the expansive two-story house that he will soon discover holds many secrets. Eventually, he will see that he is surrounded by ghosts as he struggles to hold onto the only thing that he has left in this world - his sanity.

 

I think that’s enough for now, my friends, but oh so much more to come. I hope I’ve whetted your appetite, and you are as excited as I am about this latest project.

We’ll talk soon.

Updates n' Things

Greeting: Hello, Fire Enthusiasts. How’s it going? I had planned on simply posting excerpts from either my debut vampire novel or perhaps tease you a bit further with my current WIP, but in the end decided just to offer an update on several things. I realize no one likes to read a lot of something unless they bought it. I get that. Besides there’ll be plenty of time for that in the coming months while I finish the work on my paranormal ghost story.

Latest: I just finished the last edit before beta. I’ll be printing the novel and handing it off this week. The reader is a co-worker who has read my work before and seems really excited to be involved. I will then make any necessary changes and send it off to my editor. I have changed the title because the previous one has been used a few times and very recently. Once I finalize it I will share it with you, along with the cover. Speaking of covers, I have been working with the wonderful Author Maria Zannini on that front. Right out of the gate she came up with some great stuff. It’ll probably be a while yet on revealing that, but I’m very excited about where we’re heading.

Promotion: I’m pretty much dead in the water here. I just don’t have the time. That’s why you’ll see some more teasers this year. I have some fairly good vampire stories out there that few know about. Perhaps it’s the subject matter. I’m not convinced there’s an issue with them since the reviews have been very good. I’m really hoping the paranormal market will embrace me and then find my other novels. We’ll see.

Physical: Many will recall my whining about gaining a bunch of weight during the holidays. I’m usually at about 183 or so. I ballooned to 188 and the clothes weren’t fitting all that well. J I have been watching the portions, laying off the garbage and hitting the treadmill especially hard – and am pleased to report that Saturday evening the scale displayed 176.8. Now…where’s the chocolate? *grins*

Music: I haven’t offered much in the way of what I’ve been listening to in a long time. I go back and forth. Treadmills are boring so one has to spice it up in order to keep climbing back up on them, especially when sessions last anywhere from 40 to 90 minutes. In the past week I’ve been listening to Green Day, The Rolling Stones, 30 Seconds to Mars, Iron Maiden and Jamie Cullum… What? Cullum? Who’s that? C’mon, you know. If you saw Eastwood’s film Gran Torino than you must know that song. My 18 year old got me hooked and I have been playing the heck out of him for the past 6 months or so. Check him out. He’s not just a jazz guy. This weekend while catching up on yard work, I listened to Cullum and Melody Gardot. How’s that for a wide range of music tastes? Now, back to my Zeppelin.

Books: I continue to read slowly due to lack of time. I actually do the first part of my treadmill routine – time permitting – by power walking with my Kindle. I’m currently reading Kate O’Reilley’s book,It’s Nothing Personal. It is a work of fiction based on actual events that happened to her. I recently finished Dark Corners by Liz Schulte and Coincidences by Maria Savva. I enjoyed them and I think many of you might as well. In fact, many of you already have – that’s how behind I am in my reading. I will have reviews for them very soon on Goodreads, if not here as well.

Dreaded day job: Thanks to many of you who have wished me well of late. We didn’t work this weekend and my partner should be in line to work the next one. I know I shouldn’t complain since many of you have to work Saturdays and I rarely have over the years. It just isn’t fun to work 11 fairly tough hours and then not have an entire weekend to decompress from it. Oh, well. It is what it is, as the saying goes. You don’t want to hear about it and I certainly don’t want to think about it until my alarm goes off at 3 am and I start the next work day.

Final word: That’s enough for now, I think. Have a great week. Now that I’ve come toward the end of the writing part of my WIP, you should begin to see me a bit more around the blogosphere. We’ll see how that goes.

We’ll talk soon.