Majanka Verstraete's Blog, page 14

Monthly Goals November 2019

Unlike most other months, I actually managed to finish a lot of my October goals, and I’m quite happy with all my progress so far! I finished a short story for the Witching Hour: Zodiac Anthology, I wrote the third book in The Adventures of Marisol Holmes Series, The Wolf of the Baskervilles, I wrote and edited a story called Princess of Dreams for a Sleeping Beauty box set I’m participating in, I wrote and edited the manuscript for Wicked Blood, the first book in the Blood Witch series, and I promoted all the box sets I’m participating in. Overall, it was an incredibly busy but productive month!

Here are my goals for November. As usual, I’m participating in NaNoWriMo!

Finish rewriting the first 30k of Symphony of the Departed (Allegro Academy #1).
Format Symphony of the Departed and submit to a box set I’m participating in.
Write my book for NaNoWriMo: Confessions of a Teenage Warlock (YA Fantasy).
Go through edits of The Wolf of the Baskervilles (The Adventures of Marisol Holmes #3).
Make a book release schedule for next year.
Review three books for Ind’Tale Magazine (total: 0/3).
Write at least two posts per week on my blog.
Contact font designer for A Monstrous Beauty .
Set up A Monstrous Beauty for pre-order on Amazon.
Write Wonderland Wars: villain book (still untitled).
Write Wonderland Wars: hero book (still untitled).
Write first draft of Fae Academy series.
Cover reveal for Fae Academy series.
Send out newsletter for this month.
Finish complete rewrite of Symphony of the Departed (Allegro Academy #1).

What are your goals for this month?

 

Pre-order the Kingdom of Villains and Vengeance Box Set

I’m working on my story in the Kingdom of Villains and Vengeance Box Set, which will feature a retelling of Alice vs. the Queen of Hearts, from the villain’s perspective. There is a mirror-box set to this one, Kingdom of Crowns and Glory, which will tell the story from the hero’s perspective, and which I posted about earlier.

Pre-order your copy of this box set now (the cover of the set is amazing, by the way!) so you can be one of the first to read it when the set is released!

Here is the box set synopsis:

Fairytale heroes, but not as you remember them…

The age old tale of Good versus Evil comes to life in this epic boxset featuring only the heroes from your favorite fairytales.

Will light triumph over dark? Will the heroes beat the villains?

Be part of the battle and explore your favourite fairytales from different perspectives, in this one of a kind split fairytale anthology retelling collection.

This set by USA Today and Amazon Best Selling authors is like nothing you have never read before.

Paired up with The Kingdom of Villains and Vengeance boxset, you can now read the story from the perspective of both the heroes and villains. Come on a magical journey to see if good does always triumph over evil.

Stories included are:

The Little Mermaid Vs The Sea Witch

Snow White Vs The Evil Queen

Sleeping Beauty Vs Witch

Robin Hood Vs Sheriff

Alice Vs Queen of Hearts

Princess Vs Rumpelstiltskin

Peter Pan Vs Hook

Little Red Vs Wolf

Release Date: December 18, 2019

Format: eBook

Price: $4.99 (eBook)

Pre-order the box set from Amazon.

Pre-order the Kingdom of Crowns and Glory Box Set

I’m working on my story in the Kingdom of Crowns and Glory Box Set, which will feature a retelling of Alice vs. the Queen of Hearts, from the hero’s perspective. There is a mirror-box set to this one, Kingdom of Villains and Vengeance, which will tell the story from the villain’s perspective!

Pre-order your copy of this box set now (the cover of the set is amazing, by the way!) so you can be one of the first to read it when the set is released!

Here is the box set synopsis:

Fairytale heroes, but not as you remember them…

The age old tale of Good versus Evil comes to life in this epic boxset featuring only the heroes from your favorite fairytales.

Will light triumph over dark? Will the heroes beat the villains?

Be part of the battle and explore your favourite fairytales from different perspectives, in this one of a kind split fairytale anthology retelling collection.

This set by USA Today and Amazon Best Selling authors is like nothing you have never read before.

Paired up with The Kingdom of Villains and Vengeance boxset, you can now read the story from the perspective of both the heroes and villains. Come on a magical journey to see if good does always triumph over evil.

Stories included are:

The Little Mermaid Vs The Sea Witch

Snow White Vs The Evil Queen

Sleeping Beauty Vs Witch

Robin Hood Vs Sheriff

Alice Vs Queen of Hearts

Princess Vs Rumpelstiltskin

Peter Pan Vs Hook

Little Red Vs Wolf

Release Date: December 18, 2019

Format: eBook

Price: $4.99 (eBook)

Pre-order the box set from Amazon.

Book Excerpt Academy for the Wicked – Prequel Novella

The prequel novella to my Academy for the Wicked series, a reverse harem academy series, released on September 30 as part of the Alchemy Academy box set, so I figured it was time to share an excerpt!

Book Excerpt

In the nightmare, I was in the red room again. I called it the ‘red room’ because its walls were drenched in the color from top to bottom. A canvas of blood, some of it still dripping from the ceiling. In the middle of the blood-engulfed room stood a throne made entirely of human body parts: torsos, legs, arms, heads. It was so grotesque that the first time I’d had this nightmare, I’d promptly woken up and threw up all over my bedsheets. But now, after suffering from the same nightmare for years, I’d gotten used to that horrible sight of something so mismatched it shouldn’t even exist. I barely felt nauseated anymore during the nightmare, or afterward.

On the throne sat ‘the woman’. I didn’t know her name, and it probably didn’t matter either. She was a woman, but at the same time, she wasn’t. Her body appeared female, but her face was horrible: her mouth was gigantic, easily taking up half her face, and opened wide to show off sharp, shark-like teeth. She didn’t have a nose, and her eyes were two empty sockets gauging blood.

Like this blood-soaked room, she was a creature of nightmares, a being that shouldn’t exist. And the worst part about her, even more discomforting than her appearance, was her voice. Every word she uttered sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

“It’sssss coming,” she said, slurring the ‘s’. “You’re not ready for thsssss.”

“What’s coming?” I asked. Even though she scared me to death, I tried not to show it, tried to keep my cool. If I pretended not to be afraid, then I felt more in control. Besides, no matter how horrific the woman looked, she was just a figment of my imagination. Whatever she could do to me here in the red room, in the real world, she didn’t even exist.

“The invitaaaaation,” the woman said while a maggot crawled out of one of her empty eyesockets. Sometimes, I called her ‘the queen of maggots’ because of this—like Frankenstein’s monster, she was a maggot-infested corpse brought to life. Unlike the monster Mary Shelley invented, mine wasn’t created by a doctor toying with the boundaries of death, but by an overactive imagination.

“The invitation to what?” This was the first time the woman had mentioned something about an invitation, and it took me aback a little. For years, she hadn’t uttered a word, just started at me from atop her throne of limbs. Only in the last few months, had she started to speak, but she’d never made it beyond repeating that ‘it was coming’, whatever ‘it’ was. Maybe tonight, this nightmare would start to make sense after all.

“The invitation to your dessssstiny,” the qeen of maggots slurred. “But you’re not ready.” She shook her head, which somehow made her look even more frightening. “You’re not ready, and you’ll get hurt.” A dry, humorless laugh escaped from her throat.

In response, goosebumps erputed all over my arms. “What do you—”

I couldn’t even finish my sentence because the alarm blared, disrupting the nightmare.

Seconds later, I opened my eyes in the real world, where rooms made of blood and thrones of body parts did not exist, except perhaps in a serial killer’s fantasy. The walls of my room were blue, the only chair in my room was made of wood rather than flesh.

I sighed and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. Despite having gone to bed at nine, I felt as if I’d barely slept at all. That was usually the case whenever I had the nightmare, when I woke up, I felt absolutely drained.

The nightmare had followed me for years now. At first, I woke up at the sight of the red room alone. Then, as my senses grew accustomed to that sight, I saw the second monstrosity in the red room: the throne of flesh. A few more versions of the nightmare later, and I’d gotten used of that monstrosity and moved on to the next: the woman.

But she’d never said as much to me as she had tonight. An invitation was coming. An invitation to destiny, whatever that meant.

She had also warned me that I wasn’t ready. Maybe she was just playing games, taunting me… Or maybe she was telling the truth.

She could be, as my mother always tried to convince me, a part of my subconscious, a manifestation of my own doubts, insecurities and fears.

If Mom is right, is her message even real then, or just a figment of my imagination too?

I pondered the question while I got up and wobbled to my closet to grab some clothes. It wasn’t like I had much planned for today. Although it was my eighteenth birthday party, I didn’t have many plans; it was just a weekday and my friends and I had already decided to go out and celebrate over the weekend. My plans could be summed up in two bullet points: first, get through three shifts at my summer job in our local fast food bar, Joe’s Diner—which was, ironically, not owned by a guy named Joe—and secondly, eat pizza with Mom tonight when she came home from work while the two of us watching some romcoms together, our favorite genre.

So, what could ‘the invitation’ possibly be?

I pulled a shirt over my head in my favorite color, black, and put on a pair of ripped jeans, all the while contemplating if the nightmare message was real or not, and if it was real, what it could possibly mean. I glanced at the mirror and quickly pulled my messy, waist-length brown hair into a ponytail. There, at least I looked semi-presentable right now.

My phone beeped, and a text message from my best friend Cassie popped up.  Happy Birthday, D.! You feeling old yet?? I already booked a spot for you in the nursing home. Hahaha, kidding! LOVE YOU SO MUCH. I’ll drop by at Joe’s around 3pm. Xoxo

I chuckled at Cassie’s joke—she was a year older than me, so in an ideal world, she’d be holding a spot for me in the nursing home months before I ever got there. Still, I was glad she’d be dropping by at work; Joe’s Diner was always quiet between 2 and 4pm.

I grabbed my leather jacket and shrugged it on. After glancing at my mirror image one last time, I rushed out of my bedroo, slamming the door shut behind me. Taking two stairs at a time, I raced downstairs into the kitchen, and nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw my mom standing in the kitchen. Wasn’t she supposed to be at work?

She stood with her back toward me, and she didn’t move when I came in. Had she decided to take a day off  as a surprise for me? Was she feeling ill?

I frowned, distinctly remembering she told me yesterday how sorry she was that she had to work, but that she’d make it up to me with pizza.

“Mom?” My voice came out as a squeak. “Is everything okay?”

She flinched at hearing my voice, but she didn’t turn around.

I inched closer toward her, growing worried. Something about this, about her being here, about the jerky way she moved, didn’t feel right at all. Shivers ran down my spine. “Mom?” I tried again.

She straightened her shoulders, but she still didn’t turn toward me.

I was only a few feet away from her now, but all my senses screamed at me not to move closer, to just stay away. What the hell was going on?

“Mom, you’re scaring me.” I reached out for her, my hand almost touching her shoulder—

And then she spun around, lightning fast.

For a second, I feared I was back in the nightmare. Mom didn’t look like herself at all. Her eyes weren’t their normal brown color; the irises had all but disappeared, and white orbs gazed at me. Her face was ashen-pale, her lips almost blue.

I was too scared to scream.

Mom’s nails dug into the skin of my upper arms, and with formidable strength, she pulled me closer until my face was inches away from hers. Those eyes….

“You, Devina Ashworth,” Mom said in a high-pitched, screeching sound that didn’t sound like her own voice at all, “are hereby invited to the Academy for the Wicked. Your test will begin at 4pm sharp today. Don’t be late.”

My mouth dropped to the floor, and I could barely progress what the Mom-that-wasn’t-my-Mom was saying. Academy for the Wicked? What the hell was that? And why was I invited to it?

The invitation. The woman from the nightmare.

But what worried me the most was what was happening to Mom. Had someone or something taken control of her? Was she hallucinating? Had she been drugged?

And the most worrying question of all: was this person even my Mom?

Replica-Mom blinked slowly, and when she opened her eyes again, the white orbs had turned back into her regular, brown eyes.

“Devina?” Mom touched her head and wobbled a little.

I grabbed her arms to support her.

“Why am I… Why are you up?”

“Come on, sit down.” I was shaking too, but I tried to focus on Mom. Despite her eyes having returned to their normal state, she was still as pale as a ghost.

She sat down without protesting. “I don’t feel very well. Am I ill?” She put a hand on her forehead, feeling her temperature. “What time is it?”

“It’s seven am. That’s why I’m awake, I have to be at Joe’s in half an hour.” I kept holding on to her, rubbing her arms. I was afraid that if I let her go, even for just a moment, she would turn back into the horrible doppelganger I’d seen seconds ago.

“Seven?” Mom frowned. “But I’m supposed to be at work…”

“It’s okay. I’ll call Frank, don’t worry about it.” Frank was my Mom’s boss at the hairdresser’s she worked at and unlike Alfred, the owner of Joe’s Diner, he was actually an upstanding guy who had the best interests of his employees in mind.

“I don’t remember… Dev, I don’t even remember waking up.” Mom looked so fragile, so small in that moment, that I couldn’t help but wrap my arms around her, despite the lingering fear that she would turn back into whatever it was that had seemed to… possess… her seconds ago.

“It’s okay, Mom.” I hugged her and rubbed her back. “It’s okay.”

But was it? The nightmare woman’s message had turned out to be true; I had received an invitation that I probably wasn’t ready for at all, and delivered in a way that had scared me half to death.

If I didn’t know better, I would guess I was still dreaming, and that I hadn’t managed to wake up from the nightmare yet.

Besides, what the hell was the Academy of the Wicked, and why was I, of all people, invited to it?

And more importantly, what the hell had just possessed my mother?

Alchemy Academy Box Set

Alchemy, a process thought to have begun ages ago, is said to invoke transformation and magic.

Practicing alchemy and creating magic is not an easy task. And certainly, not one that should be taken lightly.

For ages—maybe as far back as the dawn of time, there were a select few in the human race who were chosen, randomly perhaps, to hold the power to practice alchemy. Over the centuries their numbers have increased, creating a need for structure within their kind, as well as a need for teaching the ways of this ancient gift.

Alchemy Academy fills that need. Providing a place for the young minds who hold such powers. They may have been given the gift of manifesting magic of all kinds, but it is up to the staff at the academy to show them how to properly harness and fine-tune their skills.

Though they may teach the ways of good magic, there are sometimes a select few who practice the dark arts.

The good are wonderful students. But the bad ones… they can be truly evil.

Purchase from Amazon for just $0.99!!

New Box Set Release: Kingdom of Thorns and Dreams

I submitted a story to the Kingdom of Thorns and Dreams Box Set that releases today, a collection of Sleeping Beauty retellings!

Purchase the box set from Amazon for just $4.38!

My novel, Princess of Dreams, features a young spaceship captain called Aurora Dawn, an evil witch-turned-queen-of-the-universe, a terrible sleeping curse, and a rebel group of fairies deadset on kicking the queen from her throne. Oh, and there’s a roguish rebel-prince aiding the fairies in their quest. Think Star Wars meets Sleeping Beauty, but with tons of romance, secrets and ancient curses.

Book I: A Reign of Night is included in the box set. Book II: An Empire of Dawn will soon be up for pre-order!

Here is the box set synopsis:

Sleeping Beauty, but not how you remember it…

One kiss.

That’s all. Just one kiss and the curse will be broken.

But is love’s true kiss a myth and will it be strong enough to break the curse that’s held her in its grasp for a century?

The compelling tale of a young princess fated to sleep forever and the prince destined to save her retold in this spellbinding collection by USA Today and Amazon bestselling authors.

Monday Musings #48

Monday Musings is a post in which I talk about my writing goals for the upcoming week, and the progress I made on my goals for the past week.

My list of monthly goals for October 2019 is here, in case you want to check out my insane list of goals for this month.

Here’s a rundown of my goals for last week, the ones I reached are scratched through:

Finish writing short story / novella for the Witching Hour: Zodiac Anthology (the zodiac sign I got signed up for is Aries!)
Write first part of Sleeping Beauty Retelling (still untitled).
Edit first part of Sleeping Beauty Retelling for a box set I’m participating in.
Finish writing manuscript for Wicked Blood (Blood Witch Series #1).
Edit manuscript for Wicked Blood (Blood Witch Series #1).
Promote Wicked Blood (Blood Witch Series #1) on release day of the box set.
Send out newsletter for this month.
Review three books for Ind’Tale Magazine (total: 3/3).
Promote the box set I’m part of with the prequel novella to Academy for the Wicked.

Yes, crazy or not, but I finished all my goals for last week! Wow!

This week’s goals are still quite ambitious, but maybe slightly less so:

Contact font designer for the book cover of A Monstrous Beauty , now that the design itself is finished.
Finish writing the manuscript for The Wolf of the Baskervilles (The Adventures of Marisol Holmes #3).
First round of editing for The Wolf of the Baskervilles (The Adventures of Marisol Holmes #3).
Set up the first book in the Academy for the Wicked series for preorder.
Write at least two posts per week on my blog (get at least six posts pre-scheduled).
Work on outline for Wonderland Wars, villain book (still untitled).
Update information about my books on Goodreads and forums I frequent.
Promote Kingdom of Thorns and Dreams when it releases on October 15.

What are your goals for this week?

Book Excerpt: Wicked Blood (Blood Witch Series #1)

I’m happy to share this excerpt with you today from my paranormal romance novel, Wicked Blood (Blood Witch Series #1) which released exclusively for the Playing With Fire Box Set!

Book Excerpt

I glanced at my cell phone for the third time in less than ten minutes, sighing when it still showed no text messages.

The music was blasting through the speakers of the home stereo installation, and the room was filled with the sweat-covered bodies of half-drunken teenagers. For some teens, this was the perfect Saturday evening. For me, it was torture.

This many people cramped in such a tight space, the alcohol and the rhythm mixing into adrenaline that caused their blood to pump in their veins, speeding to their hearts like freight trains.

I would rather be anywhere but here. Sitting on the couch at home, reading a book while tucked under a blanket and not a single sound to distract me, except for the occasional chimes of the grandfather clock in our living room—that was my scenario for a perfect night.

But Camille and Dean had dragged me along, nagging me for the umpteenth time about why I should join them to this party, which was already duped to be ‘the best party of the year’, only because the hostess was none other than Nathalie, perfect princess Nathalie, queen bee and captain of the cheerleading squad. If Nathalie held a party, then everyone was there.

Everyone, it seemed, except the one person I was waiting for.

Camille elbowed me in the side. “Don’t space out on me, Kieran,” she shouted over the music. “Move!” She demonstrated how exactly I should move by swaying her hips in a rhythm that did not match the music’s rhythm in any way, shape or form. Camille, with her blonde curls and petite frame, looked like a pixie, light and elegant, no matter how terrible her sense of rhythm was. If there was someone who could be called the epitome of ‘cute’, then it was my best friend.

Next to her, I sometimes felt like the epitome of ‘boorish’. I was at least a head taller than Camille, which still only made me of average height, but when standing next to her, I always felt like an oversized giant. My long, brown hair was straight, so stubbornly straight that even when Camille and I attacked it with a curling iron, it refused to hold a curl for longer than half an hour.

“You guys want a drink?” Dean asked, tipping his empty cup from left to right demonstratively. Dean was the third member of our friend’s circle, and he looked like the regular guy next door: the kind of blue-eyed surfer boy your parents would be thrilled about if he came to pick you up for a date.

“No, thanks,” I said.

“I want some!” Camille pushed her empty cup into Dean’s hands.

“Okay, see you in five.” Dean turned and vanished into the crowd, his blonde hair disappearing in seconds.

Camille moved in front of me, grabbing my hands. “What’s up?” she half-yelled at me.

“No—” Before I could even respond, a new song came up, and Camille’s eyes went wide, her mouth dropping to the floor.

“That’s my song! Woo!” She started dancing with more enthusiasm, dragging along several people who were dancing next to us—classmates, vague acquaintances, for Camille it didn’t matter. She was a social butterfly, including anyone easily into her social circle.

If you wanted to get into my social circle, you practically had to lay siege on the walls I had pulled up, survive a bombardment of sarcasm and supposed-indifference, and then maybe, just maybe, I would let you in. At least, that was how Dean and Camille always described it.

While Camille danced with another girl from our class, Evelyn, I dug out my cell phone and pressed on the screen.

One new message.

A wave of relief rolled over me. Finally, he’d replied.

The only reason why my two best friends had managed to pull me away from my couch, which had looked more and more attractive with every passing minute before they had arrived to pick me up, was because going out was a good excuse to see him. The alternative, namely sneaking out of my bedroom in the dead of night, was far more dangerous—not that I hadn’t done it countless times before, but I rather erred on the side of caution.

Because if my parents knew what I was up to…

If they’d knew what I had been doing for the past months, nearly a year… I could consider myself lucky if they only grounded me until I was in my eighties.

I clicked to open the message. On my way. I’ll be there in five.

Sent at 11.14. And it was now… I glanced at the clock on my phone. 11.20.

Cursing under my breath, I pushed a way through the crowd, toward Camille.

She had thrown her hands up in the air and was jumping up and down, screaming at the top of her lungs.

“Cam.” I touched her arm, startling her.

“What?” She stopped jumping, while the music kept on trying to make my eardrums pop, as if someone was deliberately crunching up the volume every minute.

“I have to go. I’ll…” Looking at her face for a second, I tried to decide whether to tell the truth or a lie. I didn’t want to see her disappointed in me, again. This wasn’t the first party I had bailed out from.

“I’ll be back soon.”

“Wai—”

She didn’t get to finish her sentence, because I stormed off, nudging people here and there as I struggled to get out of the mass.

With Camille and Dean next to me, I could manage somewhat. It helped to focus on them. But without them, it was pure torture. Every person I bumped into was another pulse, another rhythm, their own beats a thousand times louder than the blaring music, swelling into a cacophony that made my head hurt.

I finally made it to the front of the house. The front door was wide open—Nathalie clearly couldn’t care less if her neighbors called the cops on our semi-illegal house party or not—and the hostess herself was leaning in the doorway.

As soon as I reached the door and breathed in the night air, I let out a sigh of relief. The cacophony of noise, that haunting symphony, was behind me. Before me, loomed the night—calm and tranquil, so much more enticing than the day.

Nathalie chuckled, and I turned toward her. She was sipping from a cup that, judging by the smell of it, was obviously filled with liquor. Her eyes were a little glassy, and she was obviously tipsy, but nowhere near as drunk as half the people inside her house were. “Are you tired of my party already?” She seemed amused by the thought, as if it was a ridiculous idea, and maybe for someone like her it was.

“Just catching some air.” I tried to keep my tone neutral, while I started walking off the stairs that led up to her home.

“Don’t catch a—” She stopped mid-sentence, blinking as she gazed at something in the distance. “Who’s that?”

I didn’t even have to look to know it was him.

Arthan.

I could see it just by watching how the features changed on Nathalie’s face, how her glassy eyes turned focused, glistening with interest, how her lips curled into a smile that was supposed to be seductive.

He had that effect on people.

Rather, his kind had that effect on people.

We were hardwired to like them, to feel attracted to them, because how else could they lure us into their trap, whisper sweet promises to us that led to nothing but death and despair, and how else would we be stupid enough to believe them?

The wind carried his scent. To Nathalie, no doubt mesmerizing—a mysterious, ancient aroma, a bit musky, similar to vintage wine. But if you inhaled deeply, you could catch a wisp of death in his scent, however vague.

I turned toward the street and saw him standing there, at the bottom of the stairs, clad in black jeans and a dark red shirt the color of blood. How fitting.

His hair was as black as a starless night sky, but his eyes were the color of garnets, brown with a hint of red.

A dark god walking amongst humans, using us for his own pleasure and entertainment. A creature of hell, a demon who preyed on the weak and innocent.

I rushed down the stairs toward him, two steps at a time.

“You’re late,” I spat at him, trying to muster as much annoyance as I could.

He shrugged. “I’m not at your beck and call.”

The first time I had met with him, I had been terrified. I had trembled with fear when he had come closer, when his ice-cold skin had touched mine, feverish with heat.

Part of me was still terrified when he was this close. Then, I tried to tell myself it was good to be afraid; it was wise to be on my guard.

Always. It’s like handling a tiger at a zoo: even if you’d done it a thousand times and you knew the tiger quite well, could predict most of its behavior, you still had to be watchful, because one day, that tiger might turn on you, seemingly without reason or cause.

He was like a tiger—no more fitting comparison existed. Glorious, powerful, a predator, capable of reigning destruction on everything in his path.

But I was quite good at keeping up my bravado, at trying to fool him that I wasn’t as scared as my heartbeat no doubt gave away. “Seems like you are,” I said with all my false bravado, “because whenever I call for you, you show up.”

Arthan smirked, not in the least phased by my sneer. “Yet, you’re always the one calling me.”

Touché.

“Let’s go. Too many eyes here.” I glanced up at the front door, from where I could feel Nathalie’s eyes burning into my back.

We walked away, him following my lead.

Nathalie’s house was at the end of a cul-de-sac, and besides the immediate neighbors who were, no doubt, being kept awake by the musical bombardment, the rest of the street seemed very much asleep.

“You know, since we’ve been doing this for this long, I was kind of hoping you’d become a bit more open by now,” Arthan said with a hint of amusement in his voice. “More like: ‘How are you doing, Arthan? How is life on the dark side? Still looking gloomy up there?”

I grinned, and for a second, I had trouble sticking to the sarcastic, fake-tough persona I always put up with him, the self-defense I had developed so that he wouldn’t get too close.

As if he’s not already way too close. You’re only fooling yourself, Kieran. You became way too close from the moment you started this madness.

The trouble was, I realized while I moved in the shadow of an overgrown tree in the front garden of one of Nathalie’s distant neighbors, hiding from the moonlight, that he wasn’t as bad as I thought he was. He wasn’t as horrible as I was raised to believe he and his kind were. Or maybe he was, but he was extremely good at hiding it. His dry humor sometimes managed to pierce through my defenses and if he was anything but what he really was… Then I might’ve even liked him.

As silent as a ninja, he also moved under the cover of the tree, away from sight.

“Do you have it?” I asked. To my horror, my voice trembled a little.

From the cold.

But it wasn’t the cold that sent shivers through my spine—it was the anticipation of what was to come.

“Yes.” He fumbled in his pocket, and then revealed the small, cylinder-shaped tube filled with burgundy-red blood. “All yours.” He moved closer toward me, his scent encompassing the entire space around me. For a moment, he was everything: the world began and ended with him, and me, and this tree in a stranger’s garden.

The night was still, holding its breath in anticipation. A church owl howled in the far distance, but around us, the silence was almost unearthly: no crickets, no mice squirrelling over the grass, no cats meowing to their feline friends.

My heart was beating faster, racing through my chest.

He put the vial in my open hand and then closed my fingers around it.

No matter how much I hated myself for it… I enjoyed it. I enjoyed his touch, the cool fingers against mine, the ice toning down some of my own heat…

He licked his lips, and I inhaled sharply. This was it.

This was my darkest secret, the most horrible thing I had ever done, and continued to do, because I could not stop. Not just because then he wouldn’t give me what I needed, but also because this… this feeling… it was like a drug, too powerful for me to quit.

Adrenaline coursed through my body and I gasped as Arthan opened his mouth, revealing his sharp, white fangs. I had seen those fangs before, at least a dozen times, but still, the sight of them shocked me every time—they weren’t natural.

Then again, nothing about him was natural. Not the way his eyes, already almost red, now turned bright red and brighter than the sun. Or the way he had no heartbeat, which was suiting for me rather than alarming.

Arthan closed the distance between us, as swiftly as a tiger jumping its prey. He pushed me against the tree, and I could feel the cold tree bark against my back, but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except him, and me, and this moment. It meant everything, and perhaps that was the greatest sin of all.

His one hand circled around my waist, while his other hand removed the choker I wore around my neck. Luckily, chokers were good fashion statements nowadays, but they also worked well to hide the two tiny bitemarks decorating the skin of my neck.

A shiver went through my spine when he took the choker off, as if I was finally set free from an invisible chain holding me back.

He pulled my head to the side—softly, always so softly—and his fangs pierced the skin of my neck. It hurt, but only for a second. Then, he drank my blood, and all the pain was forgotten; none of it mattered anymore.

There was no noise, not a thousand heartbeats trying all at once to get my attention. That constant humming in my head, the always-present sound of blood rushing through veins, was gone. His kind, vampires, had no heartbeats, had no streaming blood.

He squeezed my shoulders, and I could almost feel his own hunger, his own desire.

Our union was unholy by all standards, his kind’s, and my kind’s, but for something so unholy, it certainly felt… perfect.

A moan escaped from my lips. I felt alive, all my senses on edge, my heart just about jumping out of my chest. I clutched on to Arthan’s back, my fingers digging into his skin.

It was wrong on so many levels. Wrong because he was what he was, a vampire, and I was what I was, and we were supposed to be enemies.

Not just because our kind and his kind were at war, not just because of the ancient history of bloodshed between us, but also because everything about us, probably even down to our DNA, was hardwired to hate each other, to destroy each other.

But in that moment, while he drank my blood, deeper and deeper, and my fingernails scraped his skin and I had to struggle not to moan out loud again, none of that mattered. Not the ancient blood feud. Not how my family would hate me and probably disown me, if they ever found out.

It didn’t even matter that much anymore why I—we—started this in the first place. Nothing mattered except the here and now, except the feeling that washed over me while he drained me of my blood, the feeling—

He stopped, letting go of me, and the moment vanished as swiftly as it had started, and the world had somehow become a little bleaker, a little more tainted.

I didn’t move. Trying to catch my breath, as if I had run a marathon, I just stood there and stared at him, taking him in. We were still so close that if he had been a living, breathing human being, I would’ve no doubt felt his breath on my skin.

A small trail of blood traveled down from his lips. My blood.

Blood that was as black as the starless night above us.

Wicked Blood (Blood Witch Series #1)

As a blood witch, Kieran is one of the rarest breeds of witches and heir to an impressive family legacy.

Unfortunately, Kieran’s powers are nowhere near as spectacular as her sister’s powers were…

That is, until her sister was attacked and severely injured. Her survival now depends on the blood of their sworn enemies: vampires.

But to get the vampire blood her sister desperately needs, Kieran is forced to commit the ultimate sin: offer a vampire her own blood in return.

The first book in a brand new series of witches, seduction and mayhem.

Release Date: October 8, 2019

Exclusively available in the Playing with Fire box set.

Buy the box set from Amazon.

Read the free sample of Wicked Blood on Wattpad.

New Release: Wicked Blood (Blood Witch Series #1)

In the Blood Witch Series, 16-year-old Kieran has to commit the ultimate sin in order to save her sister: offer her blood to a vampire.

In a lush world of vampire royals, ancient magic and ruined castles, Kieran’s sin could have disastrous consequences she never saw coming, as an ancient evil is unleashed.

Wicked Blood (Blood Witch Series #1)

As a blood witch, Kieran is one of the rarest breeds of witches and heir to an impressive family legacy.

Unfortunately, Kieran’s powers are nowhere near as spectacular as her sister’s powers were…

That is, until her sister was attacked and severely injured. Her survival now depends on the blood of their sworn enemies: vampires.

But to get the vampire blood her sister desperately needs, Kieran is forced to commit the ultimate sin: offer a vampire her own blood in return.

The first book in a brand new series of witches, seduction and mayhem.

Release Date: October 8, 2019

Exclusively available in the Playing with Fire box set.

Buy the box set from Amazon.

Read the free sample of Wicked Blood on Wattpad.

Playing With Fire Box Set

It doesn’t matter who you think you are…falling in love with the wrong person can have dire consequences.

They say love conquers all, but in the paranormal worlds of these twelve USA Today and international bestselling authors, falling in love means playing with fire…

Someone’s about to get burned.

Dig into hours of forbidden love, lust, and heat as these heroes and heroines long for their beloveds, break taboos, and fight for the ones they never should have chosen—but could never resist. This boxed set is bursting at the seams with romance grounded in all things magical—from dragons and sexy shapeshifters, to angels, warlocks, and uninhibited masters. We have something to strike everyone’s fancy. There are 1000s of sizzling pages full of forbidden love and the trials these gorgeous paramours face to fulfill their deepest desires.

Authors in the Playing with Fire set include:



Adrienne Woods – USA Today bestselling author

Carlyle Labuschagne – USA Today bestselling author

Kristin Ping – USA Today bestselling author

Ashlee Nicole Bye

Toni Cox

Carissa Andrews

Kathrin Hutson

Kat Stiles

Majanka Verstraete

Kat Parrish

Karen M. Bryson

Monique Singleton

Purchase from Amazon for just $0.99!!

Monthly Goals October 2019

I’m starting to think time is cursed and the hours at just flying by at rocket-speed. September went by even faster than August. I’m in serious need of some down-time I think. But Halloween and Christmas are coming up, and those are my favorite times of the year.

Anyway, I did already tackle some things in October, and I have a lot more items on my plate. A full to-do list, but I’m in full-on writing mode!

Contact font designer for the book cover of A Monstrous Beauty , now that the design itself is finished.
Finish writing part two of A Monstrous Beauty .
Make A Monstrous Beauty available for preorder on Amazon.
Format and prepare the paperback of A Monstrous Beaut y.
Finish writing short story / novella for the Witching Hour: Zodiac Anthology (the zodiac sign I got signed up for is Aries!)
Finish writing the manuscript for The Wolf of the Baskervilles (The Adventures of Marisol Holmes #3).
First round of editing for The Wolf of the Baskervilles (The Adventures of Marisol Holmes #3).
Write first part of Sleeping Beauty Retelling (still untitled).
Edit first part of Sleeping Beauty Retelling for a box set I’m participating in.
Finish writing manuscript for Wicked Blood (Blood Witch Series #1).
Edit manuscript for Wicked Blood (Blood Witch Series #1).
Promote Wicked Blood (Blood Witch Series #1) on release day of the box set.
Send out newsletter for this month.
Write outline for Wonderland Wars, villain book (still untitled).
Write outline for Wonderland Wars, hero book (still untitled).
Update information about my books on Goodreads and forums I requent.
Set up the first book in the Academy for the Wicked series for preorder.
Promote the box set I’m part of with the prequel novella to Academy for the Wicked.
Write at least two posts per week on my blog.
Review three books for Ind’Tale Magazine (total: 0/3).
Finish rewriting Symphony of the Departed (Allegro Academy #1).

 

Monthly Goals September 2019

August flew by in the blink of an eye. I sometimes wonder how it’s even possible for time to go by so fast. Overall, I’m pretty happy of my progress in August, although I hope to do even better in September. Here are my goals for September:

Finish writing part two of A Monstrous Beauty .
Finalize the book cover for A Monstrous Beauty in cooperation with the book cover designer.
Format and prepare paperback version of A Monstrous Beauty .
Finish writing the manuscript for The Wolf of the Baskervilles (The Adventures of Marisol Holmes #3).
First round of editing for The Wolf of the Baskervilles (The Adventures of Marisol Holmes #3).


Write at least two posts per week on my blog.
Review three books for Ind’Tale Magazine (total: 0/3).
Finish rewriting Symphony of the Departed (Allegro Academy #1) .
Work on an outline for first book in RH academy series.
Finish first draft for first book in RH academy series.
Work on manuscript Wicked Blood (Blood Witch #1).
Write an outline for Wonderland Wars .
Finish outlining the Sleeping Beauty retelling I’m working on for the Kingdom of Thorns and Dreams box set.
Update information about my books on forums I’m participating in, on my website and on Goodreads.

What are your goals for this month?