Linda Nightingale's Blog, page 85
June 19, 2012
June 8, 2012
The Romantic Writing Challenge
http://riverinaromantics.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/music-for-muse-writing-challenge-2.html?zx=888a30d0b0acf69e Join other writers for their offerings to musical selections at Riverina Romantics for this month’s musical writing challenge. My offering is:
My musical inspriation: The Civil Wars – Poison & Wine.
Alina closed her eyes, tilted her head back and fed her bruised soul to the grand piano. She sensed her husband outside the door—hovering like the argument they’d just suffered—in the cold sea air that permeated the stone walls of Alastair Keep. She played. He was silent. Was he wringing his hands or did anger still disfigure his handsome face? She’d always known it wasn’t forever. The only forever in her life was her family—but even now the incessant waves eroded that rock.
Rory’s voice penetrated the music, but she didn’t turn from the piano, her fingers flashing over the keys of Liszt’s Liebestraum—a love song. Love, fear and a slow, creeping anger colored the music.
“I can’t offer you music,” he said. “I can only offer you myself, but I know that will never be enough for you, unless we leave Alastair Keep forever and don’t look back. The past will never leave us alone.”
If you are interested in Rory and Alina, please read the first chapter at Double Dragon Publishing: http://www.double-dragon-ebooks.com/single.php?ISBN=1-55404-978-4
This confrontation isn’t in the book! Alina and Rory decided to tell me something!
June 6, 2012
Sin and Oscar Wilde — Or Love and Oscar Wilde
Oh, can it be
There is some immortality in sin,
Which virtue has not?
They do not sin at all
Who sin for love.
June 2, 2012
Open the Champagne!
The publisher (Double Dragon Publishing, Inc.) just let me know that my dark fantasy, Gemini Rising, was released today. I’m soooo excited! Please visit the Gemini Rising page here for the beautiful cover, a blurb and excerpt. Soon, there’ll be a trailer as well.
http://www.double-dragon-ebooks.com/
May 26, 2012
Excerpt from WIP – Devil’s Waltz
If I sit quietly as I am doing now, allowing my mind to wander, the years brush past my eyes like snowflakes, each with its unique design and momentary brilliance. I can time travel from the latter days of the reign of the hapless –and later headless—Charles I to today, Christmas 2012. The early years are not as clear in memory as the centuries since my birth to the Vampyre.
I am Morgan D’Arcy, the Earl of St. Averil and, in this lifetime, a concert pianist.
In 1659, Dominique du Montcleare gave me eternal life.
I’m quite certain that, even before her transformation, Dominique was as strong and aggressive as a man. She demanded passion hot and sport dangerous. She mastered her stallion on the spur and wielded her ivory-handled pistol with a marksman’s skill. In a peach-and-silver tissue gown, she appeared at the theatre and stopped hearts. In peach-and-silver brocade doublet and hose, she could stop a man in his tracks with her fist. There wasn’t a meek bone in Dominique’s curvaceous body or, I’m convinced, a heart beneath her luscious left breast. But we were kindred spirits she and I. Dominique was the mirror in which I first recognized my own reflection. Hunters both.
When Oliver Cromwell seized the English Parliament and disposed of his rival, King Charles I, most of the displaced nobility fled with the Royal Family. For two decades, Charles II and his Cavaliers were to wander Europe.
In 1658, Charles II sent me back to France and sealed my fate.
Destiny wore a woman’s face.
This character, Morgan D’Arcy is the hero in my paranormal romance, Sinners’ Opera, to be released next year by Double Dragon Publishing, Inc.
May 11, 2012
Music for the Muse
Riverina Romantics writing challenge: http://riverinaromantics.blogspot.com/2012/05/music-for-muse-writing-challenge-1.html#comment-form
SONG: Walk Me Down the Middle
“I waited for you for fifteen years. So long I thought you didn’t exist. Then when you did reappear, again you lied. About so many things. Why didn’t you tell me this baby is yours?” Isabeau smiled down at the pink blanket in her arms. A tiny fist appeared, grasping her thumb.
I loved that baby girl and her beautiful mother with all my vampire heart. Emotion overcame me, and I peeled back the blanket. Hair as blond and eyes as blue, my daughter cooed at me, and my heart broke for the lost months.
The woman I’d groomed to become my wife pinned me with her lovely amethyst gaze. “Why did you let me believe vampires were sterile?”
I fled from the accusation in her eyes, paced to the mullioned windows. It was May in Devonshire, and the formal gardens at my ancestral home—the home I’d hoped Isabeau would share with me—were in full, spectacular bloom. A peacock strode across the manicured lawn. The sun drew a thin line across the horizon. Not the most opportune time for this conversation.
The silence lasted too long, and Isabeau prompted, “Morgan?”
“I was afraid you’d think my child was a monster and abort…” I raked a hand through my hair and spun to face her. The accusation this time was mine. “You left me, Isabeau. Robbed me of my daughter. Royal Oak is her birthright. She belongs here.”
Isabeau rotated her shoulders, rocking the child. “How many women have you had in the interim? No more lies.”
“I waited for you.” I shrugged out of my blazer, tossed it on a Carolean chair and loosened the tie choking me.
Doubt shaded Isabeau’s voice. “And the pretty blonde who opened the door?”
“Alethea?” I arched a brow. “She’s the chatelaine of Royal Oak. Bloody hell, Isabeau, she’s my housekeeper.”
“Eroica,” she stroked our little girl’s cheek, “and I are here now, and if you want me to stay, I expect you to announce that you’re mine. To the whole world. Including your housekeeper.”
Annoyed that she didn’t trust me, I captured her gaze. “You named her for Beethoven’s Eroica? I’m surprised…and pleased.”
Isabeau tried but could not break eye contact. As if it were an accusation, she said, “Her father is a classical pianist.”
Holding her gaze, I strode across the room, my feet silently skimming the silk rug. I halted in front of her and extended my arms. “I want to hold my daughter.”
My heart stuttered when she laid the precious bundle in my arms. “My Lady Eroica, I’m your father.” I lifted my gaze to my beloved. “Isabeau, I want to marry you. I always have.”
She shook her head. “You never asked me.”
May 8, 2012
Featured Today — Kindle Romance Novels
The Night Before Doomsday is featured today at Kindle Romance Novels. Present this invitation at the door to be admitted. 
Hope to see you there.
April 26, 2012
WOOHOO! New Contract–for a book very close to my heart.
Morgan Gabriel D’Arcy is a classical pianist, a British Lord and a vampire. He has everything–except Isabeau.
For centuries, he has cherished a dream—a race of immortal crossbreeds possessing vampire strength and human morals. Ambition is not his only motivation. Love is. When Isabeau, his chosen bride, was a child, he appeared to her as an angel and watched over her. As the Angel Gabriel predicted, Isabeau is now a brilliant geneticist. She has come of age, and Morgan is ready to marry her. However, many forces oppose them, not the least of which is Vampyre law. Mating between the human and Vampyre is prohibited–for a very good reason.
An enemy from Morgan’s distant past is stalking him. Paul D’Alembert seeks eye-for-an-eye justice, intending to kill Isabeau as once Morgan killed his beloved. In fact, his enemies are rapidly closing in on them. Will Morgan have time and an opportunity to make his dream come true—to sire a child on Isabeau? Will he outsmart his enemies, protect her and escape death himself? For the first time in eternity, the clock is ticking.
Sinners’ Opera contracted today by Double Dragon Publishing! This is a special book for me, and I’m delighted to see Morgan “on stage.”
