Michele Hauf's Blog, page 18

Story done!

In celebration of having completed the AAs (Author Alterations) for FOREVER VAMPIRE, which is the last step in the editing process before the book is prepared to go to press, I found the perfect pic.  Vail, the hero of FV, is tall, dark, wears black and silver, likes black nail polish and cowboy boots, loves Johnny Cash, and happens to have a pet snake named Green Snake.  So I give to you a picture that I had never seen until this morning, but how strangely appropriate.  And he's even lying on a ratty old bed, which, once you read the book, you'll wonder if I saw this pic before a certain scene in the book (I did not).

Club Scarlet debuts!

Club Scarlet, a hot new place to visit to find all the information on any character in my Beautiful Creatures world, is finally open!  It's a club where vampires, faeries, demons, and familiars hang out.  You can learn a little bit about each one, maybe some secret facts, as well.  If you've read one of my books, and liked a particular character, you can look them up and find out if they make appearances in any of my other books.  Or maybe you want to know if they have children, and if so, if they have their own story.  If you like vampires or werewolves, or witches, you can look up characters by their creature type.  As well, find a term list for my world, and in the Ichor Den—a secret little spot within the club—you can learn about contests, new releases, upcoming releases, and maybe a character will stop in once in a while.

Why Club Scarlet?  Well, I have a tendency to put club scenes in my books, so the club idea was a no-brainer.  Scarlet Rose was the name of my very first heroine (Dark Rapture), so that was the obvious choice, and if you've read any of my books, you may have noticed I usually give my club names a color.

So stop in and check the place out.  Send me a message from the Contact page and let me know how you like the club.  There are a lot of characters hanging out right now, with more to come soon.  Some characters are from stories that haven't been released yet, so you can learn about them before other readers do.

Have fun!  And don't spend too long in the Ichor Den.  The stuff they serve in there is addictive.  ;-)

M

Ninja Vamps and Much Derring-Do

It's out!  And now for a few comments on the story:
First, I do like the cover.  I love how the artist sort of alluded to the hero having a scar on his cheek and because the scar runs from forehead, through his eye (which makes it white) and to his cheek, she used the light beam to sort of give him a white eye.  Hey, he's not Mr. Handsome, but he is to me.  I kind of had a version of Spike in mind when writing this, with touches of Jude Law, so the guy on the cover is close enough.  But no ninja blade.  I'm sorry.  He does have a cool dagger on the end of a long chain, though, that I think is just swell.  I borrowed that from the movie Ninja Assassin.
Is he a ninja or isn't he?  Well, you'll have to read to find out.  I loved the idea of a ninja vampire and wanted to use that title.  Actually, I had hoped to make the title, The Ninja Vampire's Girl's Secret Baby.  Seriously.  But the story only takes place over an evening, so I just couldn't work in the secret baby.  Sigh...  Maybe next time?  How about The Samurai Werewolf's Forbidden Bride?  (Oh dear, now that I typed that, you know my brain will be working on that story all day.)
Zane is one of my first vampire heroes that actually considers himself a monster.  Poor guy.  He's also formerly allied with the Anakim tribe, the one vampire tribe that cannot walk in the sunlight because their ancestors were Nephilim, and their bloodline has not been replenished for millennia.  Again, poor guy.

The heroine in this story, Coco Stevens (Rococo Marie Stevens) has a sister, Cassandra, who gets her own story in ASHES OF ANGELS.  AOA isn't out until next August (I know, a long wait).  Coco shows up in AOA again, along with Zane, to help bring the Of Angels & Demons series to a close.  I actually imagined her as a sort of Carey Mulligan type, yet she's French/British/African-American, so her skin color is a gorgeous soft brown (unlike the pale Mulligan).

I always write the Nocturne Bites in first person.  It's just the way the shorter stories want to be.  It's not such a long read that the first person gets obnoxious, and I like stepping right into the character's head that way.  I usually alternate POVs between hero and heroine, one each per chapter.

This is the first story since my Bombshell FLAWLESS that I've set in London.

The heroine wears a mehndi angel sigil on her palms.  I love henna art and try a little on myself every summer.  I actually tried to do it without a stencil this year and I just can't get the consistency of the henna thin enough to draw long thin, even lines.  Sigh...  Anyone have any suggestions?  The pic is similar to what Coco would have on her palm, yet more angel sigil-ish.

If you haven't read a book from my Of Angels & Demon series yet, the angel halos are much sought after.  Angels can use their own halo (which they lose upon Falling) as a weapon, or to regain their earthbound soul and become mortal.  The halo is a bit rinky-dink looking.  It's about a foot across and looks like dull, cheap tin.  But it is unbendable and unbreakable.  And when it is near its original owner it glows blue.
So I hope you like the story!  It's a quick read, but I think fun and adventurous.

Contest Winners!

I've drawn winners for copies of SEDUCING THE VAMPIRE, both from the blog comments here and those comments made when this post showed up on my Facebook page (plus one bonus winner).  Winners please email me your snail mail address!  And the winners are:

Johanna Jochum
Jennifer Lower
Claudia Paci
Paranormal Haven
Romanticalreader
CatsMeow

The Ninja Vampire's Girl

This electronic novella is available December 1st from eHarlequin.com.  You can pre-order, then download on Wednesday.  I don't see it up at Amazon yet, but you can also get it there, or any of your favorite online retailers.  It is in the Of Angels & Demons series, and as always, in the Beautiful Creatures world.  It's one night in the life of a mortal woman who is on the hunt for an angel's halo.  To read the first chapter, check my website.

This and That

Yes, I'm heading out on Black Friday.  Not for any major Xmas shopping.  I just saw you can get Taylor Swift's album for $7 at Borders (cheaper than both iTunes and Amazon).  I watched half of her special last night and I kinda sorta really liked her stuff.  I wouldn't judge her singing to be the highest calibre, but her lyrics really appealed to me.  So why not?

Now, just a reminder that I have sent out all contest win books (save for contest in the below post which will announce winners on Monday; you can still enter in the below post!).  So if you were waiting to get a prize book from me, but haven't, then you need to email me to let me know.  It's very easy to miss someone, especially with the VampBash going on in October, and I had lists of all sorts lying here and there.  If you leave a comment on this blog telling me you haven't received the prize, and I click on your profile and there's no email address, well then, I can't contact you.  I know one of you did leave me a note in the comments, and nope, no email for me to contact you.  So...you have to email me directly!

This weekend I'm working up an idea I have for Rogue Angel because I'd love to do another of those.  I found this picture of Rupert Friend (he was in Cherie and I think he's Kiera Knightley's guy).  He looks very matador-ish in this pic for some reason.  Arrogant, entitled, and chillingly deadly.  But check the girlie strappy shoes.  :-)

Had a great Thanksgiving.  Much was eaten by all.  I managed to not gain any weight, so that was a good thing as well.  Yes, my sweet potatoes rocked!  And I even ate some despite them being 75% sugar.
Now I'm looking to planning out 2011 and what books are due when.  Right now the schedule is nice and loose, but I'm hoping it'll get a bit more crowded so I need to dive into writing immediately so I can be ahead of schedule (as I always like to be).  I don't think my next book is due until May, but you never know what might come up.  :-)
Here's to a warmer December and a happy holiday season!

Contest!

I have shiny new blood-spattered copies of SEDUCING THE VAMPIRE!  And I'll send out one to five lucky winners so you can read it before it hits the bookstores.  What do you have to do?  Just tell me your Thanksgiving plans in the comments.  And if you're not in the US do you celebrate some sort of Thanksgiving at another time in the year?  And if you're reading this on FB, do the same in the FB comments.

Please state if you are US or other.  I'll draw 4 US winners and 1 in another country.  Sorry about that, but my postage bill has been insane lately.  I sort of didn't pay attention to my US-only rule for contests this year.  Ah well.  I appreciate all my fans and would never want to rule anyone out of a contest!  So leave a comment.  I'll draw winners maybe next Monday.

Making a few bookmarks this weekend. I get the craf...

Making a few bookmarks this weekend.  I get the crafty bug every once in a few years.  I like making these because they are easy (at least they used to be).  I noticed this time I had extreme trouble threading through some of those tiny, shiny hematite beads.  I think that means I need bifocals when I'm peeking under the bottoms of my glasses to see better.  Sigh...   I'm making a few, and if I have any contests in the next few months either here or at the VampChix site, I may include a bookmark as a bonus.  I think this pic is upsidedown and it's not quite clear because I just set it directly on the scanner and scanned it, but it's an idea of what I'm doing.  Some have red, a few silver pieces, and a lot of the hematite (my fav kind of bead).  Must find waxed string though, this slick stuff I have now makes it much harder to work with.

Wishful Thinking

Yesterday was a weird and curious day.  Also a good day.  I had four wishes fulfilled yesterday.  Seriously.

It all started when I tweeted that I wished the UPS guy would show up because I was waiting on a speakerbar for the TV.  It's been over a year since my cat chewed through the speaker wires and I haven't been able to play my iTunes over the TV since then.  I like to have music throughout the house when I'm cleaning.  Anyway, five minutes after that tweet?  The UPS guy knocked on my door.  He actually knocked.  He usually tosses the box and runs.  Cool.   A wish fulfilled!

So I thought I'd give it another try.  I TweetWished for a contract.  Not asking too much.  I had hopes my editor would call soon and buy something.  Of course, I'd been hoping that for a month now.  Less than two hours later?  I had a contract.  (More on that below.)  That blew my mind a little bit.

I decided to go for all the marbles, and after a little deliberation on fav sexy guy, TweetWished for Johnny Depp.  Right after that tweet, I checked my email.  First email I opened to read?  It was about Johnny Depp.  The hairs on my arms rose for that one.  Sure, I hadn't actually found JD on my doorstep, but still, it was too cool.

So I pondered.  Perhaps there's a three wish limit to these things?  On the other hand, shouldn't I press my luck and try for the lottery?  Heh.  Nah.  I decided to give it one more try though.  Just to prove that my wishes were up.  So last night before I went to bed, I TweetWished for a silent night without my hubby snoring.  Ha!  I knew that would never happen.

I didn't sleep much last night.  Not because of the usual racket of snoring, but because of the lack of it.  I'm serious.  The hubby was so quiet last night, I lay awake most of the time thinking, "He's not snoring.  He's really not snoring!  He's lying on his back and he's not snoring.  That's impossible."  And then, "What will I wish for next?"

So, four TweetWishes in a row.  How cool is that?  But I'm done.  The universe gave me some fun yesterday, and I'm grateful for it.  (Though don't be surprised if I try the non-snoring TweetWish on occasion.)

So about the contract.  I sold three more books to Nocturne and a couple Nocturne Bites.  I will be writing, The Werewolf's Wife, which is the werewolf Ridge's story.  He was in Her Vampire Husband as the righthand man to the pack leader.  He was stalwart and honest, and I really liked him, so now I'm going to pair him with the baddest witch in the west—er, make that midwest.  I'll also write Forever Wild, which is a followup story to Forever Vampire (May '11).  It's about Trystan (werewolf) and after you've read Forever Vampire, you'll have learned a bit about him.  He's fun, lots of charisma and likes to play (in many ways) and I'm pairing him with a werewolf who has never in her life shifted.

Not sure what I'll write for the third book, but if you've read my stories and have wanted to see a secondary character get their own story, now is the time to make some recommendations!

Everyone have a wishful day!

Opinions please!

All right, what do you think of this cover?  It is set in 17th C Paris, and a soldier exchanges love letters with a woman he adores—but who is really writing the letters?  This was originally pubbed in '99 (I think) and was my second historical romance.  The original cover below.  The original was freakin' gorgeous, despite the fact the dress was more medieval than 17th C. I tried to find a face or a couple, but nothing really worked for me.  And, as usual, I don't have my review quotes file anymore, so even though this one got some excellent reviews, I don't have a single one to use on the cover.  Sigh...  I'd love to hear your thoughts before I make this cover 'the one'!  I hope to have it in digital format by the end of the month, or early December.