Hi, everyone! Today I’m going to post the first section of a fun, Halloween round-robin story…I do hope you enjoy it!  Several of my writing buddies (Shelli Stevens, Juliana Stone,  Jess Granger, and Rebecca Zanetti) all agreed to help me write this tale. Each day, I will post a different author’s segment until, on October 31st, the last installment is posted.  So, let’s just dive in to…

Part 1

By: Cynthia Eden

Confession was supposed to be good for the soul.

It wasn’t. Sometimes, it was the worst damn thing that could happen to a soul.

Karen Harvey stared at her husband. Husband. They’d been married for less than twenty-four hours.  Now this…

“Don’t say anymore,” she told Jon and refused to look at the ridiculous heart-shaped bed that waited behind them. They’d wrecked that bed last night. The sex had been incredible—all fire and passion. From the moment they’d met, everything had been fire and passion.

Until this morning, when she’d woken up and taken a good look at the marks he’d left on her neck.

How could I be so stupid?

“Karen…” A muscle jerked along his jaw.  That sexy, strong jaw that she’d stroked so many times. “This is going to be hard for you to understand, but I need you to trust me.”

She almost rolled her eyes.  There was very little that she didn’t understand about this world.

“I’m…not human.”

Her hands fisted. Hadn’t she told the guy not to say anymore? She glanced away. Looking at him hurt too much. Why did I fall for him so fast? “What are you?”  Though she knew. The instant she’d seen the bite marks, she’d known.

Not a vampire. There would have been puncture wounds if he’d been a vamp. But when she’d been having the best climax of her life, Jon hadn’t been drinking from her. Instead, he’d been claiming her. She knew a claim bite when she saw one.

“I’m a werewolf.”

Damn, damn, damn.  She spun away and ran a hand through her tangled red hair.  Her suitcase was open, perched on a chair just a few feet away.  “Yeah, I figured that one.”

Mated to a werewolf. Her family was going to flip out over this.  Even if she lived to be a hundred, she would never live this one down.

Silence behind her. She shoved her hand into the suitcase.

“You don’t seem surprised to find out that werewolves are real.” Now a new tone had entered his voice. Anger? What—he got to be the mad one? Hell, no.

She’d dated him for a month and hadn’t suspected the truth. Not even once.  Or had she?  “I’m not.”

He grabbed her arm and spun her around. Ah, there it was—that fast werewolf speed. He’d been holding back on her. Tricky. Then again, she’d been holding back on him, too.

“How do you know about werewolves?” Jon demanded. Handsome, sexy Jon. With his rugged features, that thick mane of dark hair, and the greenest eyes she’d ever seen…She’d wanted him from the first moment she saw him.

We can’t always get what we want.

But she’d taken him anyway.  Now he stood before her, his muscled chest bare and a pair of jeans riding low on his hips.  She could still taste his kiss on her mouth.

Slowly, she lifted the weapon that she’d taken from her suitcase. A knife made of solid silver. She pushed the blade against his chest—right above his heart—and watched as his eyes widened. “I have a confession, too,” she told him, even as she felt stupid tears well in her eyes.

She’d thought she could escape her past. New city, new name, new life. No more death and blood.  No more monsters.

A new life—a fresh start.

“What the fuck?” He glanced down at the knife. The tip pressed against his flesh and already a soft plume of smoke was rising where the silver touched him.   Werewolves could never handle their silver.

“I’m a hunter,” she told him, voice quiet. The old story about Red Riding Hood had been so wrong. Twisted. A big, bad hunter hadn’t come out of the woods to save Red—Red had been the hunter.  She’d also been Karen’s very distant relation.  Hunting was in her blood. She’d been trained to kill monsters since she hit puberty. Trained to kill them on sight.

Not fall for them. Not marry them. Not…love them.

She saw his canines begin to lengthen. Figured that it would come to this. Hunters and Weres were mortal enemies.

Then Jon smiled, showing off his fangs, and her blood chilled when he said, “I know, sweetheart…why do you think I married you?”  He glanced down at the knife. “Now do you really think you can kill me—or are you ready to hear what I have to say?”

Ready to hear—

Her eyes narrowed and in an instant, she brought up her left hand. She always kept supplies tucked in her bag. She sprayed the liquid silver right at his eyes and when he howled, she jumped back.

“I can kill you,” she’d killed plenty of wolves before, “but I won’t.”

While he cursed, she leapt for the door.

Bones snapped behind her.  His curses became snarls, and she looked back just once…

And saw that her husband had transformed into a big, bad wolf.

***

Tomorrow, the lovely Shelli Stevens will be taking charge of the story. Come back to find out what happens!

You know those crazy moments where the light comes on and you learn something new about yourself? A few years back a person asked me (nicely), how I could write some of my darker tales and still remain in the light myself. We had a good discussion, and the question evolved of how I can pen darker emotions, darker beings, things that are scary.

That made me really, really think. After all, if I’m a good person, how can I write about horrible things? How come some of my very best stories (in my humble opinion) are the ones where I conveyed the most wretched of emotions? Where I showed readers my nastiest serial killer ever (the dude in TREACHEROUS WISHES Ellora’s Cave www.ellorascave.com) from inside that serial killer’s point of view. Yeah, this guy rivaled even Jack The Ripper, who is in DARK, DEADLY LOVE  (Samhain Publishing www.samhainpublishing.com).

After a little bit of thinking, the light bulb came on.

With a flash bang I suddenly understood why I write about that shadowy side. I know that without the dark there is no light. I also know that I love showing how good overcomes evil, and how true love honestly exists.

I explained that if I tried to write stories that were straight traditional romances, romances that sometimes didn’t deal with things as twisted and dastardly, that I couldn’t hook into the story as readily. This isn’t to say that I’ve never written lighter stories. Case in point, my contemporary romance MEANT TO BE (Cerridwen Press www.cerridwenpress.com). But there had to be something utterly compelling to me about writing that story.

Still, to stop writing about the paranormal, the serial killer, the danger that can be out there…well, that would just about kill me. It’s in my blood. Writing paranormal and suspense elements is part of who I am, built into the fiber of my being. I love to read it and I must write it. Dang it, I like a good scare and while I’m dipping the reader in hot romance, I want to sometimes scare the dickens out of them, too.

I believe that when an author is hooked in to their story and there’s something in the tale they’re trying to convey that matters to them, it shows. When an author is into what is called “deep point of view,” the author is into the head of that character, feeling what that character feels. Those are my very best writing moments.

So what does that say about me when I’m relishing writing from the bad guy’s point of view? Not sure. Perhaps I’m like the actors who cherish that juicy part of playing the evil person. I’m exploring a side we all have, whether we want to acknowledge it or not. I definitely enjoyed writing the evil vampire who is featured in my vampire trilogy, DEEP IS THE NIGHT (DARK FIRE, NIGHT WATCH, HAUNTED SOULS at Ellora’s Cave.)

In the near future but possibly not until late 2011, I’m going to write another set of stories that lean toward a horror/gothic romance sensibility. They call to me in the night. Write me! Write me! 🙂 Wait, I have that other twisted, weird trilogy to finish first. Ah, so many ideas.

It wasn’t until I had this more recent conversation with my friends that I understood that the dark side has always been with me. Since the time I was a little kid I’ve always liked watching the spooky stuff, and I still do. My mother didn’t restrict what types of programs I could watch when I was a child, nor did she restrict what I could read. In my case, I think that was a good thing, because I already had a huge imagination and loved reading so much. For that I’ll always be thankful to Mom.

There are just as many people who don’t enjoy reading about the dark side as there are people who do. Do you enjoy reading about the dark side? And if you do, what do you like about it? Give it some thought. Wait…what was that? Was that a creepy, creaky door opening in the dark places of your mind? I’ll pick a winner at the end of the day to receive a trade paperback from my backlist.

Suspenseful, erotic, edgy, thrilling, romantic, adventurous.  All these words describe Denise A. Agnew’s award-winning novels.  Romantic Times Book Review Magazine called her romantic suspense novels “top-notch” and she’s received a TOP PICK from Romantic Times Book Review Magazine in erotic romance. Denise’s record proves that with paranormal, time travel, romantic comedy, contemporary, historical, erotic romance, and romantic suspense novels under her belt, she enjoys writing about a diverse range of subjects. The fact she has lived in Colorado, Hawaii, and the United Kingdom has given her a lifetime of ideas.  Her experiences with archaeology and archery have crept into her work, as well as numerous travels through the UK and Ireland. Denise lives in Arizona with her real life hero, her husband.  Visit Denise’s website at www.deniseagnew.com to read excerpts, enter contests and find links to her on Facebook, Twitter and My Space.

First, I’d love to thank Cynthia for allowing me to be a guest on her blog today.

I have this thing that I like. For as far back as I can remember I enjoy movies, books or tales of spook or horror. Tales that make you stay up at night listening for that bump in the night. Make you pulse pound and you wonder what is around the next corner. All the things that make you shiver. I love to shiver.

In my opinion there are different degrees of shivering.

Slight shiver – this is the one, which only gives me a little thrill. A little tingle that feathers my hair.

Body Shiver – the body shakes, your heart pounds, sweat breaks out and you start looking around to see what is lurking waiting for you.

Shiver so hard my teeth rattle and I drop on my knees – this is when you hands shake, heart feels like it is coming out of your chest, you are sweating and wondering if that sound you heard is for real.

I can go on and on about all sort of shivers but I’ll leave at the few above. When you tell someone to make me shiver it can be taken many way. It can be sexy, scary or spooky. All those shivers can encompass so many emotions. One shiver can tell a story of how a person is feeling. The movement in it self is it’s own story. It’s amazing how much you can learn from a shiver.

Being October and the month of spooky I am looking for the scare me type. This is when there are lots of scary movies on TV. The time I pull out my favorite horror and thriller books. When I look forward to the decoration and so on. In all of them I am looking for that shiver that makes your hair stand on edge. Then you laugh in that uneasy way. Put your hands over your eyes and watch with fingers sprawled. And wonder why I let myself be scared like this.

I love it. After all it’s all about making me shiver.

CONTEST: Share with me things that make you shiver. One commenter will win a chance to choose one pdf download of any one book from my available e-book backlist. One winner chosen from the comments below! Contest will end on 10/25/10 at 11:59pm EST. I’ll post the winner at the top of this blog post on 10/26/10. Be sure to check back.

Good luck!

****

Taige Crenshaw is a multi-published author with books available at Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Liquid Silver Books, Loose Id, and Total-E-Bound. Taige has been enthralled with the written word from time she picked up her first book. It wasn’t long before she started to make up her own tales of romance. With novels set in today, in alternate dimensions, or in the future she writes with adventure, fun sassy heroine’s, and sexy hero’s. Always hard at work creating new and exciting places Taige can be found curled up with a hot novel with exciting characters when she is not creating her own. Join her in the fun, frolic, interesting people and far reaches of the world in her novels. You can find out more about Taige at her website: http://www.taigecrenshaw.com or blog: http://www.taigecrenshaw.com/blog.

Thanks to the uber fabulous Cynthia for inviting me to blog during this wickedly fun time of year!  I love Halloween.  Something about the cooler weather after such harsh temperatures and 100% humidity for several months.

I can still vividly recall walking down my street along with dozens of other kids as we went from house to house trick-or-treating.  There were parents holding flashlights and making sure no one ran off, but not once did I think anything bad could – or would – happen.  It was a night full of fun and scares, a night when things that go bump in the night are supposed to be out.

And every year my mother dressed me up in the same thing – a gypsy costume used with whatever we had around the house.  I loved it at first, but by the third year I was so tired of it I refused to go out unless we could do something different.  She gave in, but she wasn’t happy.

To her, costumes were meant to be something to put together from what was on hand, not store bought.

Fast forward to today…

Boy, how things have changed.  I don’t like my kids going trick-or-treating to houses and people I don’t know.  I’ve read the newspaper and seen the reports on TV.  I know the freaks out there.

As much as I want my kids to have fun, I want them to be safe.

But I think it would be really neat if my kiddos could know what it was like for me during Halloween.  Walking along the semi-darkened streets with my friends all dressed up, seeing if our neighbors could tell who was who beneath the costumes, and most of all seeing how much candy we could get.

What is your favorite Halloween memory?

I’ll be giving away a copy of the second book in my Dark Sword series, FORBIDDEN HIGHLANDER to a commenter.

To find out more about me, check www.DonnaGrant.com.  To find out more about the Dark Sword series, see pics of the Warriors, take the quiz, search the characters, or see the book trailers, check www.donnagrant.com/darksword.

hugs,

D