Tara Maya's Blog, page 36

Excerpt - A Vampire Carol, Part 2

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A Vampire Carol The last thing Alex wanted was to become a vampire for Christmas...
Excerpt:Alex stayed in the dumpster until nightfall. He crept out and stood in the alley, trying to understand, trying to believe, and failing. He recognized the back of his office building.His car was still parked in the parking garage, on the fifth floor. The keys were in his jacket pocket. Dazed, he opened the car, but for a long while, he sat in the driver’s seat, with his...

Write Like the Wind

I know from personal experience that fans get grouchy if they have to wait for the next installment of an epic fantasy. Granted no one has made me a YouTube video yet... or an HBO show. *grin* I like the part where they go over how long various authors took to write various projects. Also, the dueling drumsticks.

And, yes, I am working on Blood!

A Measure of Rice (Short Christmas Story)

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Excerpt: A Vampire Carol

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(There are already several vampire and zombie versions available, if you want one, don't fear!) It's a story I've had knocking around my brain bins for a while. But I didn't know what to do with it.  Vampire vs Werewolf would be trite on its own, if there were not some other interest, but this story was too brutal for the comic My Three Werewolf Sons story I was originally contemplating. (I hav...</span></i></div><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ ゴシック"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Adobe Caslon Pro"; panose-1:2 5 5 2 5 5 10 2 4 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:7 1 0 0 147 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:6.0pt; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} h2 {mso-style-priority:9; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-link:"Heading 2 Char"; mso-style-next:Normal; margin-top:10.0pt; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan lines-together; page-break-after:avoid; mso-outline-level:2; font-size:14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt; font-family:"Adobe Caslon Pro"; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ ゴシック"; color:green; font-style:italic; mso-bidi-font-style:normal;} span.Heading2Char {mso-style-name:"Heading 2 Char"; mso-style-priority:9; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-locked:yes; mso-style-link:"Heading 2"; mso-ansi-font-size:14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt; font-family:"Adobe Caslon Pro"; mso-ascii-font-family:"Adobe Caslon Pro"; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ ゴシック"; mso-hansi-font-family:"Adobe Caslon Pro"; color:green; font-weight:bold; font-style:italic; mso-bidi-font-style:normal;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} </style></style>

St. Nick's Favor

[image error] Read this on your Kindle.
Everyone is welcome to please drop in  to the virtual release party for St. Nick's Favor, the sequel to Chasing the Trickster.

There will be novel and short story giveaways.  And if I get it done there will be a book trailer for St. Nick's Favor as well.

Blurb: St. Nicholas asks Nina Weaver to be his emissary. Her mission is to take a one-way trip five years into her past to save the lives of thousands of children. Doing this will result in her losing the...

Beltane: Ten Tales of Witches

You can find more fab anthologies in the Ten Tales series here: Rayne Hall's Dark Fantasy.

The Car Antlers (Short Christmas Story)

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Cover Reveal: A Vampire Carol and Other Christmas Tales

This will go on sale today or tomorrow. At the moment, it will only be available on Amazon and Scribed. The flash fiction pieces I've been posting on my blog are in there as well as The Dragon and the Angel, a short story (but not flash), an excerpt from the Unfinished Song: Root and an original urban fantasy novelette, A Vampire Carol.

I'll have more excerpts up soon.

My Cover Looks Like Crap! - Fix 03 - Font Bling

You could hire the most awesome cover artist in the multiverse, but if your text looks bad, your cover will look bad.

Case in point:

Bad. Good.
So let's talk font bling.

I use Photoshop, so I'm most familiar with how to treat text in that program. I'll refer to how to do these effects in Photoshop, but I assume other equivalent programs can do similar things.

In Photoshop, right click on the text layer you want to enhance. Right under Layer Properties, you'll see Blending Options. Choose that and a...

Guest Post: Wonder Weapons: Release the Magic

Rayne Hall has published more than forty books under different pen names with different publishers in different genres, mostly fantasy, horror and non-fiction. Recent books include Storm Dancer (dark epic fantasy novel), Six Historical Tales Vol 1, Six Scary Tales Vol 1, 2 and 3 (mild horror stories), Six Historical Tales (short stories), Six Quirky Tales (humorous fantasy stories), Writing Fight Scenes and Writing Scary Scenes ...