Terry Spear's Blog, page 391

Playing around with The Vampire is Mine!

Ghosts LOVE days like this! They blend right in with the mist!


 Here's the vampire bear I created. His fangs are embroidered. He's all dressed up and has no place to go!



Kiss of the Vampire
(Blood Moon Series, Book 1)




The motto of the vampires is that humans have to deal with problems on their own. But when Levka and his friends risk all to save human girls, he is injured and so the adventure begins. A cruise. A human girl who is terrified of water. And a vampire who has targeted her for his mate. But she has some secrets of her own.  Forced to take a cruise ship to babysit her foster sister, Caitlin has to face her own demons. But add to that her foster sister's and her friend's antics and Caitlin's inability to use her witch's magic over water and she has little hope to enjoy this trip. Until she meets a wheelchair-bound teen and wants to make friends with him in the worst way.

Levka and his friends make a hasty retreat from Dallas before the vampire elders stake them for getting involved in human affairs--again. But when he meets Caitlin on the cruise ship, hating that he's so weak after being injured so severely that he has to use a wheelchair, he finds their troubles have just begun. Kobo
AmazonB & NAReSmashwordsI've been playing around with The Vampire is Mine, Sequel to Kiss of the Vampire (YA Blood Moon Series.) :) I still haven't figured out how I'm going to end Highland Rake. :( 
I have 12,000 words done on this story. It's the continuing story about the vampires Levka, Arman, Stasio and Ruric, and Elaine who they picked up in the first book. Arman is the one who's getting them into trouble this time over a girl named Fiona, thinking to protect her from a master vampire, only she's making a declaration of her own in The Vampire is Mine! But I need to get back to Silence of the Wolf also!!!Have a super great weekend!!!Terry"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy IS reality!"www.terryspear.com

More Misty Fog for a Spooktacular Halloween

More of a view of the fog on a nice Halloweenish day, albeit a bit early. This was a view of my neighbor's yard that normally you can see clearly. I'm always looking for neat foggy backgrounds for a vampire book cover, well, I had it!!!

Perfectly spooky, right?




All the ghosts and witches and wait, black and white kitties and a black and white panda bear? Oh well, they wanted to be part of the plan! My mother gave me the black and white kittens and panda. Except panda is distracted. Hey, look at the camera, this way!!

I had a black and white cat, Trixie, who was full of the devil and my baby for years. So I have a collection of black and white cats! Just pretend they are all black. :)

I'm here today!

10/12 Books and Beyond 

And tomorrow, I'll be at Romance at Random!! 10/13. 

Jaguar Fever now listed on Amazon!

And I wanted to wish everyone a terrific Friday!!!

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy IS reality!"
www.terryspear.com

Halloween is for Spiderwebs and Spooky Mist!

Yes, the question is: Where is the spider who made this huge web???

Isn't it just perfect for Halloween? As long as it's outside and I'm not about to walk through it, yes!

Why does the yard look so blurred beyond? It's not the camera, or the photographer or Photoshop, but we had a spectacularly ghoulish mist blanketing the whole area. Perfect for a Halloween day/night. Only it's too early!!!

I'm here today, and truly, on a day that looked like this??? Staying under the covers really is a great place to be!

10/11 Under the Covers Book Blog 
A Day with a Jaguar Shifter
Under the Covers Book Review


Remember when we were talking about troll dolls? See the troll dressed as a black kitty cat and carrying her own jack-o-lantern trick-or-treating bag? I got it for my daughter years ago because of her red hair and she was a black kitty cat one year! But guess who kept it???  The wizard bear I created. And my parents made the two little wooden jack-o-lanterns!

Have a spooktacular day!

Terry 
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy IS reality!"
www.terryspear.com

Readers: A Question???

So many have been so good to ask to see more of certain wolf packs, of certain characters, and I try to always give the most realistic kinds of stories--despite being urban fantasy--and really different stories each time.
I don't think there's anything worse than finding an author's work you love and each story is the same as the last 6 or 10 or 15--just the names and plots changed up a little.
But when an author tries to do something different, he or she can get themselves into hot water.
So, here's the situation. In the wild, red wolves and coyotes mate. Coyotes are known in Native American lore as being tricksters, sneaky. They can live in packs, howl, hunt rodents for the most part.
In reality, they're predators like wolves but have adapted so that they live closer to established areas and scavenge. In a way, they're more like dogs but because so many kill them, they're extremely wary and adaptable.
Red wolves are being diluted by coyote genetics to an extent because the red wolves don't have enough wolves to mate with.Department of Fish and Game Massachusetts


I've had mixed reviews on the idea of having a half coyote/half red wolf shifter find a wolf mate.
What do you all think?
I'm here today: 
10/10 Urban Girl Reader: A Trip to the Jungle
& Literal Addiction: Wild is Wild!
Have a super wonderful Wednesday!!!
Terry"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy IS reality!" www.terryspear.com [image error]

Does NOT Grow Here

The biggest tree I have in the garden is the Silver Maple. After my parents planted it, they were told they don't grow well in Central Texas.

Tell that to the Silver Maple! I was just reading on it and it said that it's disease prone, weak wood, fast growing, not sure about an age, but it's been there for about 35 years. What you don't want to do is plant it anywhere near cement!!!

This is what it's done to the nice cement walkway! And the brick paver trim along the edge.I have to be really careful when I'm moving watering hoses around. I've about killed myself, forgetting that my sidewalk is VERY uneven at this place!

I was reading where someone was giving advice to a homeowner in Dallas--remove the Silver Maple at once! It should never be planted as a landscape tree.

I think this tree is the tallest one in all Central Texas. It's wreaking havoc with my walkway, but in the end, I love it for it's shade!


Besides, I'm stuck with it!

Do you ever get stuck with something that would be too costly to fix so you try to look at the good side of things? 

Have you ever been told you can't do something? But then you found you could? But then, should you?

That reminds me of Jurassic Park. You can start up a dinosaur park, but should you? Hmmm, I wonder if Michael Crichton had a Silver Maple growing in his yard!

I'm here today for more free giveaways!

10/9 Manga Maniac Cafe & Karen Nutt's Halloween Treat

I have a special guest visiting today! Stephanie Shaw is a fan of my books and she's coming down to visit. We'll have lunch, pick some pears and she can see my "real" work space. Heaven's forbid. If she has a camera, I will have to confiscate it! :) 

Have a super Tuesday!

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy IS reality."
www.terryspear.com

Pests in the Ground

I swear if you look long and hard enough, the mound is crawling with fire ants. In truth, they were too cold and they are staying inside. But if I'd stepped on it, or pushed the top layer over, they would have boiled right out.

Our soil is black clay, very, very hard when baked in the sun, and when soaked through, it sticks like...clay, glues to boots or shovels or anything that comes in contact with it and it's awful to get off. Digging in it to plant is no fun.

Yet if you look at this pile of dirt...which is the same hard/sticky clay, it's soft and refined just because of how the fire ants have worked on it. If they'd turn all the clay into lovely soil like that and then move far away, it would be great! :)  Or if they weren't vicious, big toothed, predatory creatures, they'd be welcome. But if you've ever stepped in a mess of them, you know they are like the clay and cling to everything. And then? They bite.

Worse? Long after they've bitten, you still feel like they're biting. Which gives them the name fire ant!

 Okay, today I'm here talking about Creating the Culture of Shapeshifting Jaguars.

10/8 Night Owl Reviews 

I'm busy working on Highland Rake again today! 17K to go! :) 

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy IS reality."
www.terryspear.com

Pretty Can Mean a Mess

Aren't they pretty? And they're delicious too. Only they are dropping at a rate faster than I can pick them up and get rid of them!!!

This is the last of the pears. And as you can see, there are tons of them! I spent a good part of yesterday in the cold cleaning up the mess they're making since the yellow jackets weren't as bad. Though they were still out.

I shook some of the pears off the tree limbs and down came yellow jackets too. Yikes!

But I also worked all day on A Highland Wolf Wedding and getting the newsletter out. Both were done!

Now, I'm back to Highland Rake. 20K to go!

Then it's back to Silence of the Wolf! I also have another Highland wolf tale to write and Jaguar 3. So I've got to start thinking about both of those. :) And I want to propose another wolf book! Oh yes, and Hawk Fae, that's the next in that series!

Okay, off to write! Alana is having a real time with her brother and Dougald's sister. But more on that later. :)

Have a super great Sunday!

It's really cold out and I hope to saw down a couple of photinus that died. Already took down the main branches, just need to cut down the main trunks. Because next week it'll be hot and buggy again!

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy IS reality."
www.terryspear.com

Autographed Books in Waco!

So this is one of the pink rose blossoms still managing to shine. I love these rose bushes. They continue to bloom really late, really early and all summer long.

I signed books at the various book stores in Waco, so if anyone is looking for the series, here are the ones autographed and ready to buy!

At Books-a-Million, they had one copy of Savage Hunger and one copy of Dreaming of the Wolf.

At Hastings, here are the books: Destiny of the Wolf (book 2), Wolf Fever (book 6), Heart of the Wolf (book 1), Dreaming of the Wolf (book 8), To Tempt the Wolf (book 3), Seduced by the Wolf (book 5) and Savage Hunger.
At Barnes and Nobles they had 3 Savage Hunger, and Legend of the White Wolf (book 4), Seduced by the Wolf (book 5), Destiny of the Wolf (book 2), To Tempt the Wolf (book 3) and A SEAL in Wolf's Clothing (book 9).

You'd think I would have put them in order! But in truth, the ones up above were on a shelf down below, bottom shelf, so I had to  practically sit on the floor to take the picture. Course I guess I could have moved them up above and then moved them down below again. LOL They're dark because I couldn't use a flash. It's shines off the cover inside the stores. I tried lightening them up a bit, and this was the best I could do with them!



So what is missing? Heart of the Highland Wolf. He's getting together with his pack mates to help me with edits this weekend, that I planned to get to but couldn't today. Okay, so I took care of one little minor editing issue last night. I have two more minor issues and it's done!

I had to write 2 guest blogs and an interview yesterday. But I also went to the 3 book stores and autographed books, talked to my editor while I was in a dressing room trying on really pretty new cable knit sweaters, and talked to the dress clerk about my books and gave her a book mark! And picked up some more jasmine for the jasmine planter. I have huge bare spots. I don't know why. I plant huge amounts of jasmine, and sometime in between planting them and later, they're gone. I think my gardener is weedeating them out of existence.

Anyway, I planted some more. Then learned today was going to be a high of 60 and a low of 49. Poor babies. It is going to get back to 82 by Wednesday.

We were supposed to have rain, but doesn't look like it now.

Okay, I've got this planter underneath my window. The Boxwood died, so I needed to plant something else. Something that grows quickly, is evergreen, doesn't grow too tall or it'll hit the underside of the roof, and not too wide, or it'll rub against the house or windows. I picked up two holly that are like pillars that don't grow too wide, but when I got them home, I saw that they grow to ten feet. LOL So they would hit the underside of the roof. I would love to have something bigger than the boxwood though, because it would help to shade those windows from the sun. And something that goes fairly fast. Boxwood grows slow, and youpan holly grows even slower.

Everything else was too shrubby and wouldn't fit in there.

Off to do my edits on A Highland Wolf Wedding so I can get this off and start working on the newsletter!

Have a super cold Saturday!

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy IS reality!"
www.terryspear.com

Fall Colors--Limited in Central Texas

The first picture was taken of the pyracantha on Oct 1. As you can see the berries are just beginning to turn. I love them because for fall and pumpkin time, they change from green to...


...orange in the second picture. That was taken on Oct 4, the berries on top are even a brighter orange than the ones down below. We're desperate down here for fall colors. So this is it!  And then in winter for Christmas, the berries turn red. Now how can you not love a tree that changes color to decorate itself for the holidays and you don't have to do a thing???



 Then I have to show off the showy sunset last night also!









And today I'm here!

10/5 Fresh Fiction & 7 Scribes
Okay, my editor called last night and said she loved A Highland Wolf Wedding, which is always great!!! That means a couple of edits on my part and I ship it back on Monday to await the final read through. :)
But she just loved it. So another hot Highlander coming up, that one in May!
All right...got to get to the edits!
Happy TGIF!!!
Terry"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy IS reality!" www.terryspear.com

Bears Have Personality

She's confused.


She's sad.


She's all ears.


He's dressed up for Halloween and is ready to cast a spell, so you'd better watch out. Doesn't he look like if you gave him any grief, you'd be in trouble? He's not really JUST dressed up for Halloween. He's the real deal.

And the next two bears ran away from home. They did! They're my antique looking bears, two of them, and they disappeared.  This is what they looked like before they ran away. *sigh* They must have known I was going to take new pictures of them with the new camera and they didn't cotton to the idea.

[image error] Brown mohair bears made of a sparse antique looking English mohair.
 :) I think the fae did it. (Stole my poor little bears, or hid them from me. I couldn't have misplaced them.)

Have a super great Thursday, and watch out for the fae. They are EVERYWHERE and are known to create great mischief!

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy IS reality!"
www.terryspear.com