Hi Cynthia!

Elizabeth Amber here for the Month of Monsters! Thank you so much for inviting me. I finished writing the first draft of my 5th novel, Dane, The Lords of Satyr, about two weeks ago. Since then, I’ve been reading like a demon. A fiend. Attacking the TBR stack I couldn’t get to for months.

I usually pick up a new book in the evening as I sit down with a glass of wine, often as a defense against my husband’s TV-watching tastes. Not that my tastes are more refined, but we’re just different. He rarely reads books, but devours magazines. However, if a book is really gripping, I’ll stay up till 4 in the morning to finish.

I was with a group of authors and readers a few nights ago, and I revealed the fact that I almost always decide which book I’m going to read by going through these steps, in this order. I . . .
1. Look at the cover
2. Read the back cover blurb
3. Read the first few pages
4. Read a random paragraph or two within the book
5. Read the ending

Number 5 drove everyone I was with insane. Is it really so unusual to do this? I’ve always done it. I had to come up with a reason why on the spot. People were really upset with me. Authors especially. I can understand that–we write a book in a certain order, and that’s the order we’d prefer events to be revealed to a reader.  I think the reason I read the endings early on is because I worry about the characters so much that I can’t bear to be in suspense. I’m so busy wondering what’ll happen to these characters I care about–if they’ll be okay–that I can’t focus on the story. Reading the ending doesn’t spoil the book for me.

So what are the steps you follow in reading a book? Do you ever read the ending before reading the book? Does it spoil things for you?

To celebrate Cynthia’s Month of Monsters, I’d like to give away a copy of my first novel, NICHOLAS, THE LORDS OF SATYR, to one person (over 18 in the USA) who drops a comment below. If you already have Nicholas, no problem. You can choose another of the satyr novels. Good luck and Happy Halloween!

Elizabeth Amber
erotic historical paranormal romance
Nicholas | Raine | Lyon | Dominic | Dane: The Lords of Satyr
Kensington Aphrodisia
excerpts: www.elizabethamber.com

Are you planning to dress up for Halloween this year? What are you going to be? I’m thinking about Medusa–should be easy enough to get some fake snakes to put in my hair!

If you’re looking for some costume ideas, check out this video. Interesting…

Let me know what you’d like to be for Halloween…I’ll pick one winner to win a mystery prize pack. Ah, yes *mystery* (that means a box full of paranormal books…just in time for Halloween!

First, thanks to Cynthia for having me here during her Month of Monsters. I’ve enjoyed reading all the other posts so far. Some of them were good and scary! That Carolyn Jewel put a good fright into me!

Though I don’t live there now, Louisiana has always been “home” to me. My first two books are set there. Changing Times is in New Orleans. Everyone knows that New Orleans is one of the most haunted cities in America, but did you know about the surrounding areas? Well my second book, Changing Hearts, is in the bayou country of my home state. I want to tell you about a monster that may or may not be a monster. Depends on who you are talking to, cher.

Deep in the bayou, mostly late at night, if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, you may see a light moving – just over there. Now, some folks will tell you that ain’t nothing but swamp gas. You can believe that if you like…but let me tell you about Le Feu follet before you go off traipsing through the swamps. After all, it’s not just the gators you have to watch out for.

Black Bayou, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana

The older Cajuns will tell you Le Feu follet are the souls escaped from Purgatory – or maybe the souls of babies who were never blessed by the Church. Maybe you believe them to be the Fae or Elves – holding their dances over those marshy places just waiting to trap unwary wanderers in the swamps and bayous. Whatever you believe them to be, they certainly hold a place in Louisiana folklore.

Wandering into the bayou where the trees grow close together and the darkness holds sway, where the gators and water moccasins hold court, you might see those dancing lights. If you’re coming home after dark, poling your pirogue along that black water, don’t be surprised if those lights follow you along the shore – they can’t cross that water to get to you, so don’t be afraid. But you’d better be wary when you step back on land. Cold iron will stop those restless spirits from following you – take a pocket knife and thrust it into the ground behind you – that’ll hold ‘em for a bit. I was told once, by an old Cajun woman making her home far away from most, that she preferred pushing a needle into the ground as those restless feu follet just couldn’t resist trying to fit through the eye of that tiny bit of steel.

Abandoned boat house, Lake St. John, Louisiana

In Louisiana, to this very day, you can buy a beer in a local bar and listen to stories of those who just last week escaped the feu follet. Down in Gonzales, just outside of Baton Rouge, get directions from a local resident to the intersection of Narcisse and Cante Roads – listen to the warnings about those who follow the lights. Some will tell you the Gonzales feu follet is perfectly harmless – others tell a more compelling story of terror.

Have I ever seen Le Feu follet dancing across the bayou late at night? Well, once, gazing out my bedroom window while thinking about a boy I liked, a flicker of something caught my eye. I remember straining my eyes, trying to make that light come into focus, but it danced just at the edge of the water–mocking me. When I went to tell my Mama, she told me not to dare go “dancing with the Devil,” and to go back to bed. She might have called me a foolish child, but I saw her drive that steak knife into the front porch.

There are no feu follet to scare you or pull you deep into the bayou in my Lusting Wild books, just a bunch of shifters finding their mates and journeying through their lives. I hope you’ll take a look at the excerpts on my website then come back and share your own ghost stories with me.

Lusting Wild: Book 3

Changing Focus is book three in the Lusting Wild series. It was released September 2009. While not set in Louisiana, it does feature a few New Orleans scenes and some familiar faces from books one and two.

WHO: Marilu Mann brings the steaminess of the Louisiana bayous to her books and she doesn’t stop there. Marilu’s willing to travel to the frozen tundra of Wisconsin to heat up those northern nights and melt a little snow. She’ll also circle the world to Wales, Ireland, Scotland and back just to bring you books that make you sweat.

(Louisiana photos copyrighted to Stephanie Arwen Lynch. Book cover courtesy of Ellora’s Cave.)

Hey everyone! Lauren Dane here, thanks for having me, Cynthia! I thought I’d talk about my latest release from Samhain, Cascadia Wolves: Trinity – featuring one cat shifter, one werewolf and a very sexy (and lucky) witch who gets them both!

Since Jack Meyers appeared on the page when I wrote Tri Mates, I knew I wanted to give him his own HEA. I didn’t know how, I didn’t know who but once he played such a big part in Standoff, I knew it would have to be soon.

Fortunately for me, my editor thought the same, as did many readers who wrote to ask me to give Jack his own story. Given the end of Standoff, the story would need to take place Boston, where the National Pack is located and Jack serves as Enforcer.

Of course, once I started tinkering around with ideas, he didn’t want to be with another wolf, he wanted a witch named Renee. But again, as I started to work on the synopsis, Renee already had a man. Her man was Galen de La Vega, a very sexy lawyer who also happens to be a jaguar shifter.

These three had a lot of great chemistry as I began to write. At first I wasn’t sure how they’d end up as a ménage. I’d already done a tri-mate bond in Tri Mates and it’s very rare anyway, obviously too rare to have one twice in the same series, LOL.

So I started to build the world Galen inhabits, the world of his shifters and their bond with a partner is different, though no less intense and special, than wolves. Add to that the fact that Renee is a powerful witch and the possibilities for how they come to be bound to each other were endless (and I hope the way I went works for readers as much as it did for me as I wrote)

I love this world and I’m thrilled that I was able to continue it with some new characters in a new city! Trinity is part one of a two book story arc – Renee and her men get their HEA by the end of Trinity, but there’s something else, a larger story about Renee and Kendra’s past and the threat to their future – this was too big to tie up neatly in just one book (much like the Pellini story was too big to end in a book or two). This something is a problem her sister Kendra will help solve in the next book – I’m tentatively calling it Hunted just now, but I’m working on the proposal so the title may change as I get through the story a bit.

I love this part of the process – because the more I write, the more I want to know more about the world of the de La Vega cats (Galen’s seven siblings and his parents who lead the jamboree). The great thing is that they’re living in the same city as the National Pack that Grace and Cade now lead so there’s some back and forth between my wolves and the cats too. Lots of new ground to break while still keeping in contact with those characters I’ve grown to love so much.

Writing is the best job I could ever imagine. Yes, there’s stress and heartbreak, but there’s far more joy and limitless opportunity to create new stories, new worlds, new characters and to fall in love with them.

I hope you do as well!

Wanna win something? What’s your favorite kind of paranormal character? A vamp? A shifter? A witch or demon? Any fave characters or books? I’ll give away a copy of Cascadia Wolves:Standoff, the book where readers really get to know Jack Meyers – to one of the commenters at the end of today. Good luck!

That’s the question I’m asking today over at Enchanted By Books. If you get a chance, come by and comment–I’m giving away two copies of BELONG TO THE NIGHT.

Also, don’t forget the 10 Days of Dangerous fun kicks off tomorrow!