Older Books
After Midnight
After Midnight is an anthology of vampire tales
Vampires have never been on my list of romantic heroes. I discovered, from my research, that the modern tale of vampires was primarily based on 19th century literature. Prior to that, legends stated that vampires took their energy from their victim's life force, not their blood. Now that I could use.
My story is entitled A Dance in the Dark. Enter a heroine who is impossibly ugly. All of the genetic errors of a hundred years have been visited upon her face. (No, we're not talking about her becoming beautiful by taking off her glasses and ruffling her hair.) Add a vampire who hides away from people in order to save them from his touch and the plot, as they say, thickens. I really did enjoy the end result, with Louisa learning to look past a mirror, and my vampire deciding to dare life.
Oh, about the cover. It deserves a look, if nothing else. He has crimson eyes and she's falling out of her 60's dress. Want to see it up close? Click here. You can just see her silicone shift.
Heaven Forbids
In addition to being the world's ugliest book cover (can I say that?) Heaven Forbids is not your usual romance.
It is my opinion that writers must possess a depth of compassion for humanity, else they could never do justice to their characters.
Heaven Forbids is not a quick little romp through history. It will not be everyone's cup of tea. It is a strong and passionate story about two people who should have known better, but who fell in love despite circumstances, the times, and themselves. Kathryn is not a typical heroine. She is human and flawed and made some terrible decisions. She and Hugh will both have to live with the consequences of one of them for the rest of their lives. Can their love overcome their sense of culpability?
In other words, Heaven Forbids is a story about adultery, madness, and tragedy.
I still think it is the most hideous cover. There are green things growing out of the picture frame. And what, exactly, are they doing? (Don't tell me just kissing, either. <g>
Heaven Forbids is also my only RITA finalist. (Since I no longer enter the RITA, it really is my ONLY finalist.)
A Promise of Love
A Promise of Love is the story of Judith Cuthbertson, a twice widowed English woman who is tricked into marriage to a reluctant laird.
It's a desolate time in Scotland's history, two years after the '45, and the MacLeods of Tynan Castle have barely managed to survive after so many of their countrymen died due to war and starvation. The very last thing Alisdair MacLeod wants is an English wife. The very last thing Judith can tolerate is a husband, regardless of his nationality. They are, however, more alike than their pasts would lead them to believe.
Scotland after Culloden was a desperate place. There was hardship and privation and fear. But, even among the ruins of Tynan Castle there was the promise of hope.And love.
A Promise of Love is one of my favorite covers - both characters are clothed and they aren't trying to rip that clothing off in this pose.
Above All Others
Above All Others is about a penurious young woman who had previously sacrificed her innocence out of loneliness. She enters into an unholy bargain with a rake who is already rearing an illegitimate child.
You can probably tell from the paucity of that description how I feel about the book now. It is my firm belief that writers grow in their craft. At least I hope I do. There are two books I've written in the past that I would not write today. (Neither is an Avon book, by the way.)
Angel Love
Angel Love is an anthology with the theme of?.......angels, of course. Frankly, I rarely mention this anthology. Why? Because I've never met anyone who read it.
But the story behind the story has always fascinated me.
I was trying, desperately, to come up with a story idea. I couldn't think of a scenario in which an angel could be considered a hero. I mean, an angel is dead, right? (Little did I know that I would face a similar challenge with vampires later.)
That night, I dreamed of a scene in Pompeii, and a man who had lived a life of hedonism. Before he died, however, he helped hundreds of people escape Pompeii as it was being destroyed by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius. I woke up, went to my computer, and wrote the story as I dreamed it. Frankly, I loved it.
One day, about a year after the anthology was published, I was thumbing through a book on angels, thinking that I wish I had had the book as an inspiration when I'd needed it. I stopped and stared when I came to one image. It was a lithograph of a mural found at Pompeii. A picture of an angel. Too weird.
I bought the book, had the lithograph framed. It sits on my bookshelf as a reminder that things happen that are sometimes unexplained. Or that angels really exist.
Click
here to see a picture of my ancient angel.
Tapestry
Tapestry was my first published book, but actually the second book I wrote.
Tapestry is the story of first love/only love. Laura loved her next-door neighbor ever since she was a child. The Seven Years War separated them, however, and in the intervening years, Alex lost his youthful enthusiasm for life, while Laura grew into a woman who was more certain than ever of her feelings for Alex. He returned home from the war horribly scarred, and it is his attitude about his disfigurement and his resultant reclusive life that poses the greatest threat to their happiness. But then, fate steps in and separates them once again.
A reviewer once stated that Zebra was to be commended for taking a chance on a book that wasn't a formulaic romance. Tapestry certainly wasn't what most people expected. However, it is very sad in parts; I'll be the first to agree.