Mia Darien's Blog, page 4

Blood Rights ~ Bad Blood

It’s begun!

The first book in the re-branded and soon-to-be re-released urban fantasy series is up for pre-order!

Bad Blood Pre-order Graphic

Okay, so the image is a little cheesy, but I was having fun, lol.

PRE-ORDER NOW!

A New… New Start!

I’d started a new blog when I revamped my website, but then when I made some changes to my hosting, my blog went a bit askew so I started over again… So this is my new…new start?

My Love Affair with the Beast

I first read about the Beast of Gévaudan when I was a teenager, paranormal geek that I was, and read The Werewolf Encyclopedia. Out of all the crazy, cool creatures in that book, I can’t actually say why I found this particular beast as fascinating as I did, but I did.

The entry told of a creature that terrorized the province of Gévaudan, France, from 1764 to 1767. It didn’t act like a “normal” wild animal and was a nasty piece of work, and in the encyclopedia, there were accounts of it sometimes walking on two feet and sometimes on four. (Later research didn’t pan this out, but it was perhaps what caught my attention at first.)

First, I wrote it as The Villain in my first Preternatural, Unlimited novel, from the now defunct series that ultimately gave birth to the world of Adelheid. What’s funny is that while writing that early book, I rented a French movie called Les Pacte des Loups because I read a good review of it. I discovered that, low and behold, it was about the Beast of Gévaudan!

It was fate! It was kismet!

It wasn’t really meant to be. That book went the way of the Dodo, but the movie (in English known as The Brotherhood of the Wolf) became a favorite of mine and still is.

Years later, I decided to write this romance about a pair of wounded souls, a monster, and a forest. Later, I decided to revisit my old flame of the Beast. I will admit that the movie inspired me as well and I used it for further inspiration in terms of ambiance and fashion, but I did my research outside of that.

Researching was ‘fun,’ however, because as you would imagine, information about a beast that terrorized a French province is in French. I don’t happen to actually speak French, so this led to an on-again-off-again romance with BabelFish and some incredibly entertaining translations. as well as pestering a multi-lingual European friend. Fortunately, the feature on the movie with a man known for his research on the Beast had English subtitles!

In the end, I persevered. I picked and chose my historical tidbits, mixed in with my dashes of inspiration, and wove it all together with my own creative ideas to bring about a romance in the time of the Beast.

Fortunately for my readers, it’s not a romance actually with the Beast. ‘Cause that would just be gross.

Check out beauty by Sadie Johnston
releasing july 29th!

Cover Reveal: Beauty

Beauty

Sadie Johnston

One to kill.

One to be killed.

The year is 1767, in the province of Gévaudan, France.

For three years, the people have lived under the deadly reign of a murderous creature known as the Beast. It shows an intelligence and discernment unlike any animal ever seen, yet such bloody viciousness is surely only a monster’s work. The farms and homes, the hills and forests, are no longer safe.

And yet into these forests come Tristan, the Marquis du Lyon, and Constance Marie de Marin. One to kill. One to be killed. The last thing either expects to find is each other, but can two wounded souls overcome the pain of the past and the trials of the present to be together? Can they wrest their future from the hands of men and beasts?

Can love really conquer all?

Author’s Note: This book was previously released as “Deeper than Skin” by Mia Darien and “Hiding in Plain Sight” by Marie Johnston. It contains references to sensitive subject matters, such as sexual assault and suicide, and contains a scene of consensual but explicit sexual acts.

Release Date: 29th July 2019

Pre-order on Amazon!

About the Author

Sadie Johnston is the voice inside the head of K. B. Thorne that writes the romance stuff, and they all used to be known as Mia Darien. She lives in the snowy lands of New England with her menagerie, which includes a husband and a child.

Website ~*~ Facebook ~*~ Newsletter

A Fresh Start

Welcome to the home of my new blog, where I can put all the words that don’t fit into a story…

The Other Side of the Pen: December 26th, 2016

As a writer, as a freelance editor, as a reviewer… Well, sometimes Mia gets mouthy, and the fourth week of the month is when she’s gonna let you know just what she thinks!

In with the New

This is the last From Mia’s Desk post of 2016, and I’m looking forward to 2017. Wolf’s Bane released today, and Ashes will release in two weeks and be my first story of 2017. You’ll get to meet the cast of Hunter’s Point late January/early February. And since I’ll be moving to other areas in my new series, I will probably have different FMD categories.

Nutmegs & the Charter Oak: December 19th, 2016

Mia is from CT, and Adelheid is in CT…so, let’s talk about Connecticut!

Happy Holidays!

(Image from Dog Breed Gifts)

Whatever holiday you celebrate during this season, or none at all, I and my pug obsession are wishing you all the best! Further more, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t say that 2016 was rough…ruff?…so I’m wishing us all a better 2017!

From Mia’s Desk: December 12th, 2016

From Mia’s Desk will post the second week of each month and discuss something of interest to Mia, which she hopes others will find interesting too! It may focus on opinion pieces, literature (historical and current), or even movies–because a good story is a good story.

Release Day!

Doing right can hurt.

When the key witness in a high profile trial needs protection, “human taser” Special Agent Serafina Torres is put on protective detail.

But when said witness is a vampire and those in the spotlight are anti-preternatural activists, how could it possibly go smoothly?

Buy on Amazon

Note: This story was previously released in the anthology Good Things, which raises money for Random Acts, a charity to promote kindness through the world.

The Adelheid Chronicle: December 5th, 2016

The Adelheid Chronicle will post the first week of the month to discuss interesting facts about the series, the setting, its creation, about current and future releases, teasers, etc.,

About Adelheid

So…I published Cameron’s Law in December of 2011. That means, as of this post, I’ve been publishing Adelheid stories for five years. A lot has happened in my life since then, and a lot has changed. I’ve learned a lot about writing and publishing, and I hope with that learning has come improvement.

The final stories on this seven-story group are now up for pre-order. As I’ve said here and there, the last of these–Ashes–may in fact be my last Adelheid story. It will mark sixteen novels/short stories written in the city of Adelheid with this cast of characters, and that’s quite a few. It has always lingered in my mind as my “main” series, and now would like to be quiet for a time.

Because while Adelheid has been around for five years, the stories and characters have been in my head for much longer. I started the first iteration of what would later become this series back in 2002. It’s been a long time, and we’re all a little tired of one another, quite frankly. I know Dakota is…

It might not be the end. I’m not willing to truly shut that door, but it will be shelved at the least for a while. To allow me to work on other stories and new series. Two I have planned will be in the same “universe” as Adelheid, so I hope that you will stick around with me! I look forward to new towns, new characters, new sarcasm, and fun.

The Other Side of the Pen: November 28th, 2016

As a writer, as a freelance editor, as a reviewer… Well, sometimes Mia gets mouthy, and the fourth week of the month is when she’s gonna let you know just what she thinks!

Repetition & Redundancy

When I was in high school, my mother (who was my teacher because I was home-educated through middle and high school) told me about writing a paper: your introduction is to tell your reader what you’re going to tell them; the body of the paper tells them; and then the conclusion tells you what you just told them.

This is good advice for paper-writing, but less for novel writing when you do all this in one paragraph.

I’ve edited some things that would easily be sent off to the Redundancy Department of Redundancy. They will tell you the same thing about three four times in one paragraph; sometimes with the same words and sometimes in different ways. They always read to me something like this.

“I’m going to tell you this thing, because it’s really important. This important thing that I’m about to tell you is really important. It’s a thing, and it’s important. Do you remember that I am going to tell you this important thing?”

Readers usually have enough of a memory to recall that you told us Character A’s hair is black, you don’t need to tell us three times in three paragraphs. We know their last name, so you don’t have to use both first and last name every time you refer to them.

Try not to start every paragraph with the same word, especially pronouns.

Yes, sometimes you need to repeat things; you have to remind readers about important information. But watch out how often you do it in short spans of times. Are there any other ways to deliver information? Do you really NEED all of those words and descriptions? Do you use the same word that many times? Try to do a “find” function on a word or phrase, and you might be surprised how often you use it. (“Smirk” is apparently my curse.)

So…there it is. Watch out for repetition, redundancy, and reiteration.