Branching Out

Next Tuesday, my first foray into strictly m/f romance, The Lost Coast, will be released. It's a gothic romance in a contemporary setting, both novel things for me. The only element that carries over from my previous body of work is the paranormal (although a tiny bit of BDSM did sneak in there). I'd originally planned to set the story in a non-magical world, but as I started writing, I soon discovered the characters had secret lives and histories rooted in magic.

My favorite thing about this book, though, isn't the paranormal twist (though I certainly enjoyed writing that part). It's the gothic. I grew up on gothic romance, hiding under the covers with a flashlight at night to read Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart, and Phyllis A. Whitney.  I tried to stay true to those influences while giving the story a more modern edge.

The other thing that's a little different about this story is the heroine. Millie is an orphan who grew up in foster care after being badly burned and abandoned as an infant. Although the cover doesn't show it, Millie has burn scars covering the right side of her face and down the right side of her body. I wanted the cover to reflect that, but the design work required would have been too pricey.

I hope readers will be able to see Millie as a three-dimensional person instead of a conventionally beautiful romance heroine with flawless features. Millie is beautiful, but she doesn't fit what society tells us that word should mean.

But aside from not judging a book by its cover, I hope people will enjoy a little something different from me, especially those who love the old gothic romance tradition.

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Some histories should stay lost. Especially those written in blood.

The only things Millie Lang’s mother gave her were third-degree burns, and a name Millie refuses to use. Abandoned as an infant, Millie grew up as “the girl with the scars”, shunted from one foster family to the next.

Before she met Lukas Strand, she’d never understood what “home” meant. Then Lukas disappeared without a word. Eight years later, Millie is secure in the life she’s built as a physical therapist. Until she gets a letter from a mysterious stranger who knows her real name.

From the moment she arrives at the sprawling vineyard manor on California’s Lost Coast to work with the owner’s young son, she begins to doubt her secret benefactor’s motives. The vineyard is known as The Strand—and Lukas is her patient’s father.

As Millie delves into the tangled threads of their family histories, she realizes the fire that scarred her may not have been an accident—and Lukas’s son is in danger. Unless she survives long enough to unearth the key to some very uncomfortable truths…

Warning: Contains a vineyard owner whose family tree may not have the ideal number of branches, and a woman who is about to discover the magic hidden in her own DNA. May cause unsettling feelings of creeping anxiety and a sudden urge to make bad puns about wood.

The Lost Coast is available for pre-order now (and for purchase on December 15) from the following vendors:

Amazon | ARe | Barnes & Noble | BAM! | iBooks | Kobo | Samhain Publishing

Going Dark

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, the time has come when night and darkness dominate. The weeks between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice have always been my favorite time of year, when night becomes longer than daytime in the decent toward its darkest hours.

This is when my candles come out. I love the warmth of candlelight and the romantic shadows it throws, and although I don’t have a fireplace, I love it when the scent of burning wood begins to carry on the crisp fall air as people who do have fireplaces light their first fires of the season.

Perhaps because of the dying light, scent just seems to become more important. The aromas of apple cider and pumpkin pie and warm, wintry spices entice like few others.

And then there are the creatures of the night. Nothing sends a delightful chill up my spine quite like the supernatural: Vampires and werewolves. Demons and dark Fae. Ghosts and goblins and witches. The dark things in our psyches we’re supposed to be afraid of somehow hold a particular romantic attraction. Maybe it’s the unapologetic power they wield or the fact that they exude a feral sensuality. But give me a dark, dangerous beastie over a stalwart knight in shining armor anytime.
Even better if that dark, dangerous beastie is a little bit tortured, damaged, and misunderstood. Or better still, a tragic hero enchanted under a dark curse.

Because let’s face it: everyone looks good in black.

What’s your favorite thing about the season? Are you, too, a sucker for creatures of the night?

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By the way, if you’re looking for dark, misunderstood heroes—and heroines—I’ve got them in spades:

Belphagor, in my Demons of Elysium series, has secrets he still hasn’t told about his past. He’s hinted at them in the Demons series and its companion series, The House of Arkhangel’sk, but he plays his cards close to the vest.

If you like thieves, gamblers, and rogues, and you love m/m erotica and BDSM, Belphagor’s your man. Er, demon. The first book in the trilogy, Prince of Tricks, is a good place to start:

Amazon | ARe | B&N | BAM! | iBooks | Kobo | Samhain




In my Looking Glass Gods trilogy…well, where do I start? Pretty much everyone here is tortured and full of secrets, but Ra takes tortured to new depths—and heights. In this dark fantasy, heroes become heroines, heroines become heroes, and mortals become immortals.

The final book in the trilogy, Idol of Glass, comes out at the end of this month and is available for pre-order now at the usual suspects.

Amazon | ARe | B&N | BAM! | iBooks | Kobo | Samhain



And my first m/f gothic paranormal romance, The Lost Coast, has a classic broody, angsty alpha hero in Lukas Strand.

A dark paranormal romance about fire, wine, and old-growth forests, The Lost Coast is coming in December and is also available now for pre-order.

Amazon | ARe | B&N | BAM! | iBooks | Kobo | Samhain