Handling Rejection by guest blogger Carrie Pulkinen

Being a published author, the question I get asked most from aspiring writers is, "How many times did you get rejected before you were published?" My answer is usually, "Too many to count."

But, if I think about it, I could put a number on it—approximately fifty. Ouch. Just thinking about that stings a bit. Will it be like that for every author? I honestly have no idea.

But I went about it all wrong. After I wrote my first novel, I had these grand delusions that I'd get a big-name New York agent, get signed at a huge publishing house, and have a best seller within a few months. Don't we all wish that? My story was too good to not be a best seller. Uh-huh.

I'd taken writing classes. I'd perused countless websites on how to get published. But I completely ignored the advice that—in most cases—the first book you write isn't the first one that gets published. So, I sent out my queries and such to all these agents, and I got nothing. Out of the thirty-odd agents I queried, maybe 3 asked for sample chapters. And those weren't interested after they read them. Most of the agents weren't interested from the start.

But, did I give up? Hell, no! So my first book wasn't ready to be published. I could live with that. The second novel would be the one. I tried the same avenue again. More agents were interested in sample chapters this time, but I still couldn't find anyone to take a chance on me, the inexperienced, unpublished author.

I was still in love with writing. And, I was in the process of sending out my second novel when I started taking a short story class. Then, I came across a contest for erotic romance short stories that contained demons or witches.

I was so stoked! The story I was writing for my class was about a half-demon demon hunter. It was a perfect fit! I sent it in to Breathless Press, and a few days later, they contacted me. I'd won! Sweet Release was to be published that October.

It took a while for it to sink in. After rejection upon rejection, I had to read the email at least six times before I believed it was true. I was getting published! And it was the first place I'd sent the story. I didn't have to go through tons of "thanks, but no thanks" emails this time.

I had another full-length novel published the following April, and a new one will be out in October of this year. I got my break, and now I'm on a roll. J

So, my advice to any aspiring author would be, "Don't give up." Remember that one rejection is just that—it's one person's opinion. If you get thirty no's, you might consider working on another project or revamping the one that keeps getting rejected. Otherwise, just keep trying. Persistence pays!

The day Miranda Billings dies isn't the worst day of her life, but it's close. Miranda dreams of adventure and escaping her boring existence, but death might be too much of an escape. But with the help of Andre the demon slayer, she discovers the adventure she craves and ignites the passion within her heart.

When Andre, the half-demon EMT, finds the woman he loves crushed by a bus, he reawakens her soul with his magic and his blood.  Now, Andre must decide if he’s willing to let her join him in his perilous quest to slay demons and save humans. He almost lost her once. Is he willing to risk losing her forever?

Carrie's Blog

Carrie Pulkinen is giving away a copy of Sweet Release! To be entered in the drawing please leave a comment or a question for our generous guest. DON'T forget to leave your e-mail address. I can't contact you without one. LOL Winner will be announced tomorrow.

Please welcome Jane Toombs!!

Why Do We Enjoy Paranormal?

In the old days everything that wasn’t completely “normal” had not yet been debunked. There might be fairies in the rose garden or gnomes hiding near the stones or elves dancing among the forest trees.

The howling heard at night could be werewolves rather than wolves or coyotes. And the fact no one has ever taken a picture of a real dragon doesn’t mean they don’t exist--somewhere.
The present era is one of debunking. We’re considered a bit nutty if we believe in any of the above. Mermaids? No, they were sea cows. UFOs? Not really, those lights can be explained by normal phenomena and pranksters made those crop circles. Every possible paranormal element has a scientific explanation.

Bah, humbug!

I believe humans crave a touch of the unknown, which may account for the popularity of paranormal stories. And most of us, writers or readers have our own favorites. My SO, while he loves astronomy, hates astrology. He does not care for the paranormal genre at all. I love him anyway. And he behaves as though he loves me, despite my enjoyment of paranormal. He’s happy with my taste as long as don’t try to make him read the genre. So, I grant you, not everyone likes it.

But lot of us do, which makes me happy because I like to write and read stories with at least a touch of , or are frankly paranormal. Some authors stick to vampires or shape shifters. Other choose demons or zombies or angels. What satisfies me the most is to writ about dragons, ghosts or shapeshifters and the occasional witch.

Sometimes I make a detour into areas of modern science, where things like nanabots are not behaving exactly as the scientists planned. Like in my Dangerous Darkness Series of four books, for example:

Shadow On The Floor--ghosts

What does an ex-special op agent turned lawyer have in common with a woman hiding from her ex-husband who means to kill her? And why is she aware of the shadow on the den floor of his uncle’s house where she’s been hired as a helper? No outsider ever before has been.

Watcher At the Door--shapeshifter

Sarah came home to take care of her young brother after their home was destroyed in an arsonist's fire that killed their parents. They’re temporarily living in a summer cabin in the woods. The last person she expects to see is Mal, her once lover. Worse, she has the feeling she and her brother are being secretly watched. But is the watcher human or an animal?

Terror From Before--Death Bird
Stranger On The Shore--wayward nanabots

The first two books are out now from Red Rose Publishing and buy links are on my website at www.JaneToombs.com
The last two are being written.

Inspiration can come from anywhere.

When the muse strikes, sometimes it's when you least expect.

If a picture is worth a thousand words—this one speaks a million. My Daughter-in-law saw this photo and proclaimed it the most unflattering photo ever. I don’t think so.


Let me explain why.

I just got back from my son’s Marine homecoming in North Carolina. He’d been deployed to Afghanistan with the 2/8 Marine Infantry for eight months. We stood in 106 degree temperatures for five hours waiting for the buses. Cate was so nervous—the longer it took, the more nervous she became. When one of the mothers climbed up on a bench and yelled out into the crowd she saw buses, everyone went wild, screaming, whistling and yelling. The buses came around the block and disappeared behind a building and reappeared in the spaces between them. My daughter-in-law caught a glimpse between buildings, and this photo was snapped.

The raw emotion on her face is powerful—you can see how much she loves her Marine. It brings tears to my eyes just looking at it.

Then I thought, can I capture that in my stories? And then I decided I needed to try. That is my goal for the next year, to capture what you see, the emotion on her face in a story. Wish me luck.

Have a great Saturday,

D L Jackson

My Paranormal Misbegotten Youth by Lisa Fox

First, a big thanks to Rebecca for inviting me to be here today!!!

As many of you may know, I grew up in the suburbs of New York City. Like all suburban kids, I was bored most of the time. I mean there were only so many hours in a given day that I could spend at the mall. It does close eventually. Thankfully, New York has a wealth of freaky, unusual and alien sighting locations so when my best friend could get the keys to the ye olde parental Lincoln Continental, there were plenty of strange and sinister places to explore.

One of my favorite adventures was the time we went to Pine Bush to hunt for aliens. Supposedly, it is the alien capital of New York State, complete with ghost lights, abductions and strange objects in the sky. There used to be a billboard on the Route that would get you there that read:

ET Phoned Home

You Can Too!

Pine Bush, NY

I don’t know if it’s still there, but I sure hope it is.

One snowy night in the middle of winter, we decided to hunt up some aliens of our own. I don’t quite know what we were expecting to find—something odd I’m sure—but all we found when we arrived was a small suburb that was shut down for the night. There were no other cars out and it was so quiet we could feel the silence.

My friend, who was driving, decided that a certain Dead End road looked suspiciously a little too dead end-ish and we absolutely had to explore it. I agreed and we set out down the dark, deserted road. There wasn’t a single streetlight to be had and there was snow everywhere and I swear to you, forces beyond the human realm existence forced our car into one of the drifts. Really. Or maybe it was just an ice patch. Either way, we were stuck.

Now this happened in a time before cell phones and back in those days, a person had to go inside somewhere, a house for example or store or phone booth, and use a phone that remained fixed in that location. Unbelievable, I know, but nonetheless very true. Unfortunately for us, it was so pitch black on the tiny road it was impossible to ascertain if any of those things were nearby.

As luck (or maybe forces beyond this dimension) would have it, a police car appeared from the supposedly ‘Dead End’ portion of the road and pulled up alongside our hopelessly incapacitated car. Two police officers exited the cruiser, one tall and blond, the other dark-haired and wearing mirrored sunglasses. Now I realize that mirrored sunglasses on a cop is not an unusual thing, but it was close to midnight. And pitch black as I think I’ve mentioned. I can’t say why he would be wearing them in the middle of the night while sitting with his partner at the end of a dark, deserted, dead end road, I’m merely telling you the facts. You must draw your own conclusions.

The blond took my friend’s driver’s license and when he noted the address, he asked us what we were doing so far from home. We told the truth. We were hunting for aliens. Mirrored sunglasses just nodded and said, “Yeah, I’ve heard something about that.” These were troubling words spoken in a very troubling (and perhaps alien?) monotone, but we had no time to dwell on the irregularities. The car was stuck, it was getting late, and we had school in the morning. Something had to be done.

The officers agreed to see what they could do to help us and offered to help push the car out of the snow mound. When my friend and I had tried this before the officers arrived (or beamed down) the car had not budged, but with their superhuman, indomitable strength, the car went flying out of the snow with very little effort. Before I could even blink, we were back in the car and left with the suggestion to maybe do our alien hunting in the summer months. And then, the officers were gone, disappeared, just as though they had never been there at all.

And that is the story of the time I went alien hunting in Pine Bush, NY.

Actually, maybe that one isn’t my favorite paranormal story of my youth. I didn’t see any aliens after all. Trying to find the Amityville horror house out on Long Island was pretty fun too. And so was that time we went to Sleepy Hollow. Or that trip to Untermyer Park where the Son of Sam was said to once roam. All good times.

Have you ever gone on an alien or ghost hunt?

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Please welcome Lex Valentine!

It would be presumptuous of me to assume that readers of paranormal romance know who I am so I’ll take a moment to give you a little background. I’m Lex Valentine and I’m probably best known for writing an erotic paranormal series entitled Tales of the Darkworld. The Tales series has a little something for everyone from M/M to M/F to a ménage a quatre. There’s also vampires, werewolves, demons, various fae, the Magia (the magical race) and dragons. I always have a HEA and really hot sex in my books. I do write other genres, but I think my first love is paranormal simply because it’s what I’ve been writing the longest.

The Tales of the Darkworld first took root in my mind back in the 80’s as the Dark Realms which are now the Five Dark Realms of which the Darkworld is one. I had a story of witches and wizards and mythical creatures who shapeshifted and horses with blue eyes who belonged to mages and had magic in their souls. It was pretty fanciful and it became the basis for the books I write now. This world, these realms, have existed in my head for thirty years. Could be why people say the world building for them is so rich! I’ve been living with this stuff in my head for most of my life!

I wish the Darkworld was real most of the time because I would love to hang out with werewolves and dragons and wizards and vampires. Maybe someday it will be discovered that vampires and other paranormal races have been walking amongst us for centuries. I certainly can believe it.

In my latest venture, I decided to take to heart fan mail I’d received asking for more of characters who have already had their HEA and more of secondary characters whom I’d had no plans for beyond the book(s) they were in. My new series are short stories built around a single sexual act or night of sexual activity. They may or may not have a HEA or HFN. Some of the characters already had their HEA. Others are just having fun before they inevitably meet their mate. Some are about to get their own story.

This is the case with the first of the Five Dark Realms Encounters. Blood Play is a single night in vampire Aiden Swann’s life. With his near pure blood, he’s basically vampire (or Acerbian as they are called in the Darkworld) royalty. He can have whomever he wants. But he’s intrigued by a half vampire, half demon female he meets while infiltrating a BDSM club in Paris.

Cadence O’Connor wants Aiden but doesn’t want him. She’s metaphysically and physically drawn to him. But she fears losing her heart to him. She’s learned that most vampires what nothing to do with a woman who is pretty much an abomination. Being half demon when demons are the vampires’ natural enemy makes her very rare indeed. And she’s tired of other vampires thinking she’s a freak. Aiden’s overtures turn her on, but she won’t ever trust him.

The deep scars of the heroine and the deep-seated sense of possession the hero has for her rock this short story and hopefully carry over to the reader the need to find out what happens to them in their own full-length book. I hope to write Aiden and Cade’s story next year after I finish the 8th book in the series, which oddly enough is number 7. ;)

Below is the blurb and excerpt for Encounters: Blood Play. I hope you enjoy this little taste of my Darkworld. If you’d like to win a copy of Blood Play, leave a comment and I’ll put your name in a hat and pick a winner on Friday night.

Thanks very much to the Paranormal Romantics authors for having me here. I’ve had a great time talking about the Darkworld and my characters and I hope you all have had a good time as well!
Lex
Website
Blog
Series
Blood Play Buy Link


Vampire Aiden Swann has a tough job, infiltrate Paris’s most notorious BDSM club Perdition. While he’s all Alpha, Aiden’s no Dom, yet he finds his time in Perdition no hardship due to a mysterious female vampire. Cadence O’Connor intrigues him and makes him hard as stone. He knows there’s no reason that a pure blood vampire like him couldn’t play with a mixed blood vampire like her, but Cade disagrees. She’s got a chip on her shoulder about her heritage and refuses to see Aiden as a sexual partner. All Aiden needs to do is convince Cade that she’s no abomination and that everything she is, is everything he wants.

Blood Play Excerpt:

“This is a little too cliché even for you,” the dark shadow murmured in a sardonic tone.
“Vampires indulging in blood play?” One brow rose in amusement as he turned to face her.
She slipped from the shadows into the light with a lithe grace he’d rarely seen a woman exhibit. Her short hair gleamed like polished ebony, the silken strands curving around her sculpted cheekbones and jaw line. His cock strained the front of his leather pants, evidence of his rapidly slipping control. He needed a release--hadn’t been with a woman in months--spending all his time protecting Garrick. Now, his body seemed to want to end his celibate streak with Cadence O’Connor, a vampire of mixed heritage known to the patrons of Perdition as Cade. His family would have a fit. Not that he cared what they thought.
“You have to admit that blood play, while naturally tempting, is not very creative play for a vampire,” Cade said as she leaned against the door and peered in through the window that Aiden had been using.
Her husky voice sent a shiver down his spine, and her casual pose caused his blood pressure to rise. He’d always been attracted to petite women, but Cade stood nearly as tall as he did, all long, lean muscles, angles and bold beauty. She was so not his type, and yet she roused him as no other woman had. Her femininity came from an incredible grace and a stark, in your face elegance. She wore her dark hair short. Layered attractively, it framed the imperious face of a goddess. Her body had the honed muscles of an athlete, and she always dressed severely in dark colors. Her clothes often molded tightly to her frame, something his dick always noticed.
Cade turned her head, her gaze meeting his, and Aiden’s breath caught in his throat. She had the most amazing eyes. At first glance they seemed as black as her hair, but upon closer inspection they proved to be a deep, cobalt blue. They also gave him the sense that he stared at a locked treasure chest. Cade gave away nothing with her expression, yet when Aiden gazed into her eyes, his gut reaction was that a wealth of emotion and passion lay locked within her. And he ached to be the one to release them. Too bad she didn’t seem to like him one little bit.

Mishmash of Inspiration

Inspiration comes in so many packages. It can be a book that sparks a "what if" idea or a song with lyrics that speak to you. It can be a movie or a person that touched your life. Really, inspiration can be and can come from anything.

When you consider how many books use song titles as titles...yeah. It's easy to see how much music feeds creativity.

While I was writing Evermine, one of my critique partners emailed me a link to a song and said--this is Emma. I gave it a listen, and it is. I got chills listening to it. I still do. I'd like to share that song with you.

I guess I have Emma on the brain lately, since I'm working on second round edits on that book. She was the voice I heard while writing Everlong. Her story, and Harper's, I sometimes think is the reason I wrote the first book. (Let's not tell their siblings that, shall we?)

Once I wrap up Evermine, I still have Frost edits ahead of me. Once those are finished, I'm looking for a way to reconnect with Dillon and Isabeau as I write Eversworn. Music seems like the logical choice, and I have a song in mind...

Yep. I'm smiling as I write this. That song speaks to me on so many levels, and I think it's a good connection between Dillon and me. Of course, while I was song shopping, I found one for Vaughn (from the next Araneae Nation novel), but I think I'll keep that under my hat for now.

How about y'all? Any songs you listen to over and over to connect with a character or to get in the mood to write certain scenes?

April Fifer and Danielle Hylton: Flesh and Feathers….

On a cigarette break one afternoon, Danielle and I were sitting in my car. I looked over at her and said, “Don’t laugh, but I started writing a book.” Thankfully, she didn’t laugh. In turn, she said that it was so strange because she had always wanted to write a book too. We had been friends for five years and had no idea that either of us had the same dream. Together we pulled out my pitiful twenty two page manuscript, carefully read it, and then threw it in the trash. It was horrible. The entire thing revolved around a Christmas party. We still laugh about it to this day. However, what came from those twenty two pages was a new, genuine bond between me and my friend. After that, we learned that each of us had strengths in areas the other did not. Descriptions and visuals became my obsession, while Danielle’s detail to the characters and their interactions gave them a life of their own.

Looking at the characters, Azaleigh, is our best friend. She is the person who, no matter what happens, will always be there for you. The more we wrote about her, the more we fell in love with her. She became so real to us, we actually began asking ourselves, “What would Az do,” in our everyday lives. As for the two men in Azaleigh’s life, Kale and Gage, we hope that everyone loves them as much as we did. Danielle and I had to pick a side; I was the Gage fan and Danielle was the Kale fan. We wanted the readers to struggle with who they would choose, because it was surely a struggle for us. Kale was the mysterious, sexy one. While Gage was the confident, outgoing one.

Flesh and Feathers is the first book of our series. We are currently working on Flesh and Flames, book two, and we are already obsessed with the new plot. In this book the reader gets more insight into each of the characters lives; past, present, and future. Things also start to heat up between the characters, hopefully making it harder for the reader to decide who they will root for. Then there is Anna. You will finally get to meet her and learn how truly important she is to the story.

We have been so blessed on this journey with the help of a really great friend. (You know who you are.) Thanks for all the support.

April Fifer and Danielle Hylton

Excerpt:

All he did was watch me. Looking at him only made the pain rise to the surface, and for once the true me came out. “I always knew I liked you more than you liked me. You never proved me wrong. I wanted you in every way a person could want someone. All I wanted was you. So I guess I’m the one to blame, for believing that you could feel the same in return.”

I couldn’t look at him another minute. I was crushed and didn’t want to show him how badly, even though I am sure it was a little late for that. I pushed past him and ran out the back door where our cook, Jackson, would normally sneak off to take his smoke breaks. I could feel the tears welling up, weighing heavy on my eyelids and ready to break free at any second. I had to clear my head and didn’t want an audience during my nervous breakdown.

The back door spilled out into an alleyway that ran beside the diner. I stood outside pacing back and forth, trying to calm myself. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to scream and cry or find a baseball bat and start swinging.

I turned when I heard the back door open again. Kale stood a few feet away, trying to keep a safe distance. “Azaleigh, if you would let me explain.”

“Go to hell!” I shouted as I began walking hard steps down the alley that would lead to the city sidewalk.

“Azaleigh!” he shouted, grabbing my arm and spinning me around to face him.

My only reaction was to slap him hard across his face. The loud sound of my hand making contact with his cheek shocked me, but I was too angry to care. “No! You don’t understand! You don’t ever get to touch me again!”

I shrugged harshly out of his grip. Just then, a heavy gust blew, ruffling my hair and blinding me as I turned to walk away, followed by a loud thud. Taking a step forward, I brushed my hair from my face, but then stopped suddenly. A man wearing a white hooded cloak stood in front of me. At first I stopped because I was astonished by what he was wearing, but as I studied him, I noticed the slender sword-like object that he gradually pulled from his side. My body began to tremble with fear.

“Azaleigh, get behind me!” Kale demanded, in a firm voice.

Settings for Vampire Tales by guest blogger India Masters

In thinking about vampire paranormals for this blog post, one of the first things that popped into my mind was setting. Now, a vampire story can be set anywhere but think about the settings you remember. What made them stand out?

Interview With A Vampire by Ann Rice was set in New Orleans. Lestat the hedonistic vampire who revels in his immortality and Louie who despises it. And the story is set against the backdrop of plantation life. Louis is the wealthy master with his frightened slaves who know exactly what he’s become. Blood and sex and magic. If that’s not New Orleans I don’t know what is.

This is where I choose to set my vampire stories. There’s just something about the history of New Orleans that lends itself to a good vampire novel. The decay appeals to me. As does the way New Orleanians revel in it. Patch the crumbling plaster? Heck no, let the brick show through. The city becomes a character in the story because it’s one of the oldest and most eclectic cities in the United States. Founded in 1718, the Crescent City is old enough that it’s not impossible to believe any number of strange goings on may have occurred there—everything from voodoo to witchcraft to vampires and werewolves. I mean, they call their cemeteries cities of the dead. What better setting for a paranormal than New Orleans?

Let’s not forget the original vampire, Count Dracula. Bram Stoker published that book back in 1897. The setting was a crumbling castle in the Carpathian Mountains somewhere on the border of Transylvania. Another ancient, historical setting if there ever was one. I never got into any of the Dracula movies until 1979 when Frank Langella portrayed the seductive Count. There hasn’t been a serious challenger since then, IMHO.

Of course, we can’t forget the Twilight movies and another really great setting for vampires. A small sparsely populated town in the Pacific Northwest where it’s almost always overcast if it’s not raining. The town is surrounded by mountains and there are any number of national and state parks around to provide the seclusion one needs to hunt. Whatever one hunts.

Other mentions, of course, are the Underworld movies and the Sookie Stackhouse Southern vampire series. Again, Louisiana comes into play with the southern vampire books. If you’ve spent any time in the beautiful state of Louisiana, you can’t deny there’s a certain mystery to the place—especially if you’ve ever ventured into bayou country. It’s beautiful and enigmatic, and a little creepy with the Spanish moss, the gators, all manner of snakes, and the nutria screaming in the night. A person could easily get lost in the bayous and never be seen again. Seems like a good vampire or werewolf setting to me.

If anyone asked me what was the most important aspect of an romantic erotic vamp story, I’d have to say—after the romance itself—it’s setting. As is true of my previous comment about New Orleans being a character in my stories, the setting of a vampire novel should, in my opinion, have some aspect of threat to it. New Orleans has that reputation of “be careful where you go.” I’ll add the caveat that all major cities contain that aspect of threat, which is why they can almost seem like characters in and of themselves. It doesn’t matter if your vampire lives in a crumbling castle in Transylvania or a luxury loft Belltown. Each lair can hold that air of threat. Anything could be lurking in that crumbling castle but the luxury loft can be just as frightening simply because of what isn’t there. Perhaps it’s cold, sterile, with no sense of human warmth, no hint that anyone remotely human lives there. But a monster could live there just as easily as in the ancient castle high in the Carpathian Mountains.

I’ve written two vampire novels thus far, with a sequel to one planned and another one I’d considered setting in Seattle. Maybe. No matter where I think I want to set a paranormal, New Orleans always seems to call my name. And why shouldn’t she? She’s beautiful and bawdy and steeped in a history that leads visitors to think anything goes. Sometimes it does. And isn’t that pretty much the erotic essence of a vampire?

Blurb for Eternal Soulmate:

When Olivia Sheppard left the service, she had no idea what to do with her life. She never thought she’d wind up as head of security, and so much more, for trendy club owner and international mystery man Noah Lazarus. Breaking her rule of non-fraternization with the boss, Olivia and Noah begin a torrid affair.

Steamy sex isn’t enough to win a woman like Olivia, and Noah knows it. But he’s compelled to win her. Unfortunately, he has a secret, one that may cost Olivia her life. What he doesn’t know is whether Olivia can love and accept him for who he is. Or whether he can keep her alive long enough to prove that love can last for all eternity.

Author bio:

India Masters

India Masters was born and raised in a small coastal town in Florida, where she learned to love surf fishing, boating, and anything to do with the outdoors and water. She has been happily single since the mid-’90s with no plans to rectify the situation. She has a twenty-two-year-old daughter whom she refers to as the coolest person currently breathing on Earth.

 

India is a multi-published author and recently finaled third in the Great Expectations writing contest in the erotica category. She is a retired social worker who has worked in community mental health, corrections, addictions and child welfare. She has an undergrad degree in Forensic Pathology and recently earned her Master’s of Science in Psychology.

 Giveaway! India Masters will pick a lucky commenter to win a copy of her book. DON'T forget your e-mail address so we can contact you. Winner will be chosen tomorrow.

Please show Deborah Cooke some love!!

Do You Believe in Magic?
By Deborah Cooke
Also writing as Claire Delacroix

I’ve always believed in magic. There are so many things in the world that simply can’t be explained satisfactorily by science, at least not to me. Why do flowers bloom in the spring? Why do the birds migrate and how do they know when to do it and where to go? What really makes the world go around?

And here’s the biggest test of magic of all - how is it that two people can fall in love, even when they seem to be completely at odds?

I think that romantic love is the greatest sign of magic of all, so it probably makes sense that I’m a romance writer. It probably also makes sense that I tend to write romances that have paranormal elements.

A little bit of magic in the air heightens the romance, to me, and increases the reader’s sense that something truly special is happening for the characters. Falling in love is always special and magical, a time out of time, and I like to play with story elements that highlight that. It could be that the characters only can meet because one has traveled through time to the other (ONCE UPON A KISS and THE MOONSTONE). In those cases, I think that love was stronger than the constraints of time and space – pretty potent stuff! Or there can be sympathetic elements in the world around the characters who are falling in love – like Lilith’s tarot cards in LOVE POTION #9, which take on a life of their own in guiding her to make a match that lasts forever.

I also like to write stories of destined lovers, particularly of those who have a second chance to get it right. Sometimes, the reason they parted is mundane (THE ROGUE) and earthly; sometimes they need a second life, a reincarnation, in order to have the chance to make their union last forever (THE WARRIOR).

Although I have a tendency to make my heroes be the ones with paranormal powers, I sometimes play with the secondary characters. My Jewels of Kinfairlie medieval trilogy (THE BEAUTY BRIDE is book #1) (http://www.delacroix.net/jewelsl.html) features a naughty fairy named Darg who makes trouble for all the family with her thieving and drinking. Only Elizabeth can see her and try to control her, although that tends to be troublesome. I like Darg, I like that she speaks in rhymes and that she loves ale enough to not mind drowning in it.

And I love to write books in which either the hero or the heroine has magical powers. My Dragonfire series features heroes who are dragon shape shifters – how sexy is that? Each hero becomes a massive, powerful, loyal, ferocious and *hot* dragon, determined to defend the woman he loves. I’ve written a wolf shifter hero (ENCHANTED) and a panther shifter hero (A MAGICIAN’S QUEST) and even a vampire hero (“Coven of Mercy”). What these heroes all have in common – besides being more sexy than should be legal – is that they have a power to win the heroine’s heart forevermore, partly thanks to their magical abilities.
Recently, I switched things around and wrote about a heroine with magical powers – my Dragon Diaries YA paranormal series is a spin-off from Dragonfire, in which Zoë comes into her powers as the only female dragon shifter of her kind. That’s supposed to mean that she gets extra powers, but she’s not entirely sure what they are or how she should master them – and there’s no one to ask.


So, what do you think? Do you believe in magic? Do you believe that love is a magical force? And do you think that paranormal elements in a romance add a little kick to the mix?

Thirteen Things D L Jackson finds incredibly sexy—in no particular order.

1. Men in uniforms, any uniform.

2. Said man in uniform stripping it off, while maintaining eye contact with you the whole time.

3. A man that will climb into the tub and wash your back.

4. A man that blushes when you catch him looking at you. No innocent thoughts there.

5. When a man comes up behind you in a very public setting and tugs your hair, leaning in to whisper something very naughty into your ear, starting a game of “How hot can I make you before I get you home.”

6. When he peels your panties off with his teeth.

7. Fixing things around the house. When I see a wrench in his hand, I want to jump him.

8. Seeing him play with his children.

9. Hearing him laugh.

10. A phone call at work that would put a phone sex operator to shame.

11. Getting pinned to a wall and kissed like there’s no tomorrow.

12. Watching him do yard work and then take the hose and cool off. Wet t-shirts aren’t just for men to enjoy, ladies.

13. Cowboys.

So, what things would you add to the list?