Mercy Walker's Blog, page 3

The Loss of Our Childhood Fantasies

I don’t know about you, but when I was little I lived in my head.  Wood nymphs fazed into tree trunks to hide, brave kids fought with magical weapons, and dragons were not only lethal, but freaking amazing!  I’d be lost in fantasy and role-play “more than was healthy.”  And if I’d been a kid nowadays, I’d have been drugged to the gills to make me concentrate.  For me real life was boring, especially school.  And because I grew up with one or both of my parents always laid-off from work or ill, I latched onto my make-believe world all the harder.

I lived for Dungeons and Dragons—the cartoon on every Saturday morning—and for Voltron, Thunder Cats, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and Robo-Tech.  I would also play out some of my own, though similar, story lines with my Barbies, stuffed animals, and anything else I found lying around.Once at a carnival, while riding that swing ride where you fly a hundred feet in the air around a giant poll, I had a vivid hallucination…I mean fantasy.  I and my fellow flying children dislodged from the chains that bound us to the giant poll, and we flew like fighter jets through a skyscraper littered Metropolis, fighting an evil horde of furry, winged beasties.

I must’ve been screaming my fantasy out loud, because quite a few kids were staring at me as if I’d grown a second head after the ride was over.Then my teachers told my parents that it “wasn’t healthy” for me to be “daydreaming” so much, and especially in class.  I was on the verge of failing.  This was before the whole No Child Left Behind crap: failing a subject actually had repercussions.

So I had to stop playing in my head when I was at school, which just made being in school, and being picked on for being the “weird kid,” all the more painful.  I didn’t even have the benefit of taking Ritalin.Soon I sort of lost the ability to get lost in my head anymore.  Life was so glaringly sad, and when you’re living off food stamps, government cheese and peanut butter—good lord the peanut butter was horrible!—that sadness can really soak into your soul.

I was also more than a little dyslexic, so I only read when I was forced to, and then as slowly as a snail.  It wasn’t until after high school that I finally found out the true joy of reading.  The secret was finding books I really, really wanted to get lost in.  And yes, I wasn’t just reading these novels, I was letting myself become lost in them.  Though I read slowly, maybe one book every couple of months, I loved them.  I had found a way back into that lost imaginary world of my childhood.First there was Anne Rice and her vampires, then a long period of depressing “Literary Fiction.”  From there I found Carl Hiaasen’s crime comedies, Janet Evanovich and Jennifer Crusie romantic crime comedies—I turned out to really like authors that made me laugh—and then finally back to fantasy and paranormal fiction. 

First with Twilight—don’t start—and then Anita Blake Vampire Hunter, Sookie Stackhouse, The House of Night, Patricia Briggs and JR Ward, Rachel Caine and Jim Butcher.  And now I write about what I most love to read.  I hunger to get lost in my own fantastical worlds even more than I do others’.  And though I only have two Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy novels out yet—more on the way—I feel so free being able to self publish them exactly as I intended them. 

And when someone reads one and emails me, it’s as if the make believe world I finally found my way back into is just as real to them too.  I don’t know about you, but that’s something wondrous.   

From Cordelia Chase to Lucy Hart: A New Kind of Heroine

I'm a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan. I mean, total loco, watch one-to-two episodes a day for the last tenyears fanatical.  I shiver when I see thename of one of the writers or producers from the show on new projects: Supernatural or the new Fright Night.  I started watching a sci-fi space western—Firefly. I even started reading comic books for a while—all because JossWhedon started writing an X-Mentitle.

I love the Buff-ster.  Joyce Summers is my favorite TV mom.  I had a huge crush on Xander…and for a shorttime Willow—I have a thing for redheads, don't ask.  And just saying the name Faith fills me withfiendish delight.And Spike…and Spike…

But my favorite character has to beCordelia Chase.  She's funny, straightforward…so politically incorrect.  Andout for number one…until she started fighting the good fight on Angel. It took half a dozen characters betweenthe two series to replace what her character pulled off with nothing more than asupporting role, boiling complex issues down to brutal one-liners.  Just look at episode Faith, Hope & Trickfrom Buffy season three.  "You mean how the only guy who ever liked herturned into a viscous killer and had to be put down like a dog?" 

Or on Angel, season one, in Five byFive, where she's talking to a prospective client: "No, it's not about themoney…Oh, it's about that muchmoney?  How soon can we meet?"  And then later in the next episode, sportinga ripe shiner, she lets Angel explain why he feels he needs to help Faithrehabilitate herself.  The whole whileshe's having him sign checks payable to her. She'd decided to take a paid vacation while Angel playedtwelve-step-program with the homicidal slayer."Like I'm going to stick around herewith psycho-case roaming around downstairs, with three tons of medievalweaponry?  Not!"

Fast forward to 2009.  I'd just got another rejection letter sayingthat my heroine was, yet again, too wimpy…but they just loved the bitchy bestfriend.  I get that a lot.  I can write a hell of a vicious, funny, man-eatingb-i-t-c-h.   

I'd recently read Jennifer Crusie's The Assassination of Cordelia Chase, agreat article that really limned Cordie's impact on both series.Halfway through a bartending shift at alocal resort, a young woman dragged her rather hot, broad shouldered boyfriendover to get a drink.  She was wearing thetightest, shortest plaid catholic school girl skirt you have ever seen.

To her detriment the thing looked likehell on her rather plump rump; a fact every woman and cocktail waitress grousedabout.  But me, I couldn't get onethought out of my head: I wondered what her super hot boyfriend would look likein that skirt…and nothing else?
Then I wondered what kind of girl couldget a guy to let her dress him up in school-girl drag?

And voila, I could see her, clear asday, the spitting image of Cordelia Chase…but not.No, this girl was the star of her ownstory.  And her name was Lucy Hart.

Right away I wanted Lucy to haveCordelia's best traits: a sense of style and entitlement, absolutely no tact, acool, calculating intelligence, and a rich daddy.  Then I made her lose everything in aspectacular fashion, and plopped her six months later flipping burgers at a McDonald's.  But I wanted her to pull herself up out of this poverty inducedfunk, and to do it in a ruthless, manipulative, utterly Cordelia-esque way. Ontop of all that, I wanted Lucy Hart to have her own superpowers, ones that wereall her own, not given to her later on. 

So I decided to give her necromancy—powerover the dead.  Just like Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter.  Iknew that would gross Lucy out completely.So I wrote Last Rites, a Lucy Hart Ritesnovel, and no one in publishing would give it the time of day.  They said it was nicely written, but that themain character just wasn't likeable enough. I didn't want Lucy Hart to be just some sweet, misunderstoodgoody-goody.  I wanted her to be in itfor herself, to be funny in an inappropriate, honest way, and to be possessedwith self-confidence.

So I moved on to write another book, andleft Lucy how she was.  I'd already wroteup a good outline for the next book, and about seven thousand words of text,but decided to write something more saleable to get my foot in the publishingworld door.  A couple months ago I read aboutKindle's self publishing program and simply couldn't resist publishing Lucy'sbook as I really wanted it.  I just knewsomehow, somewhere, there would be others out there that would understand mynew kind of heroine, and love her just as much as I do. 

Just the way she is.

Contact Me

Dark Surrender: Paranormal Romance, Out now!

Mynew Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy novel, Dark Surrender is up and free onSmashwords.com.  It's also on Kindle andNook, but it's not free there.  So go,download it, and if you enjoy it, review it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble,Goodreads and Smashwords.  Or anywhereelse you can think of.
Discription:
Whenyou're dealing with vampires, don't become desert. And when scary fae queensand a pack of werewolves show up, make sure the weapons are handy.
Fans of JR Ward, Laurell K Hamilton andPatricia Briggs will enjoy this.

When her mother is forced into a magical stasis, her soul stolen, Min must finda way of getting her back. But will she succeed when she takes a sexy vampire(one that wants to eat her) into her bed, has a platoon of vampire-hunting werewolvesgunning for her and her new honey, and the thing that took her mother's soulhas suddenly set its sights on her.


https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/145705
http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Surrender-...

Wet or Wetter...

Wet...

Or wetter?

Just watched Hop. Loved it. So cute.

Just watched Hop.  Loved it.  So cute. 

I think I'm kinda in the mood for something wet...Man I'm...

I think I'm kinda in the mood for something wet...


Man I'm thirsty...

My Romantic Comedy, Rebound, is free on kindle!

 So my romantic comedy, Rebound, is going to be free on Amazon.com Friday and Saturday, a kindle ebook. Check it out, then give it an honest review.

Here's the set up.

Fans of Sex and the City and Jennifer Crusie novels will love this.
...
Groom dumps you at the altar? Fall in love with your hunky best friend.

When Susan is dumped at the altar--via cocktail napkin--it is up to her best friend Kevin to help her recover. After a brief post-wedding-that-wasn't coma, Susan finds herself in paradise, on her honeymoon, but with Kevin, not her groom. After some crying, paragliding, frozen margaritas and bad advice from her other best friend Liz, Susan decides to seduce Kevin and get rid of her pain with a rebound fling.

Kevin has secretly loved Susan for years and finally giving into her cuts him deeper than he could have expected.

He leaves her and severs all contact with her until six months later, when they are both vying for the same account--designing Chicago's new opera house.

Competition takes on a whole new meaning for Susan when Kevin shows up on the arm of her arch nemesis, the cougar Francesca Costa. She now must not only vie for the opera house...but for her best friend's heart as well.


http://www.amazon.com/Rebound-ebook/dp/B007FMIXL4/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332471878&sr=8-1-spell [image error]

An interview with Lucy Hart: from Last Rites, a Lucy Hart Rites Novel

Here's something fun for those who've read my YA ParanormalRomance, Last Rites, a Lucy Hart RitesNovel: An interview with the one and only Lucy Hart. 
I caught up with her earlier this week, right after she'dspent the morning weapons training with her soon-to-be brother-in-law, andoverall hottie, Micah Enoch. Unfortunately she'd broken not one but two nails while training with thebig, sexy werewolf, and I ended up having to conduct the interview while shegot her nails done.  (Trying to fostersome sisterly solidarity with the former cheer leading captain, and currentreluctant necromancer, I went ahead and had my nails done too.)
MW:  "So what do yousay to some of my readers that think you're a…well, a royal bitch?"
Lucy shot me with a hard glare, but then licked her lips andsmiled—she really does have some awesome dimples. 
LH:  "You can't pleaseeverybody.  I'd like to say I'm a goodperson, deep down, but at the end of the day I'm most interested in getting towhere I want to be."
MW:  "The whole "lookingout for yourself" mind set?"
LH:  "Something likethat."  She sipped a Diet Coke andconferred with the nail technician about a new color—something more of a summercolor, given the recent warm up in the weather. Then her bright hazel eyes locked on me. "At first I just wanted my future back. I'd lost everything—money, social status, my father's…" 
She closed her eyes and seemed to close down on me for amoment, but then continued.    
LH:  "But somehowGabriel just…he weaseled his way into my heart—and don't even start!"  She put her now perfectly manicured hand upto halt me from delivering a solid one-liner. "I may be goal oriented, and more than a little selfish, but I do havefeelings, and a heart.  And not just mylast name."
I earned another glare when I coughed…but I swear I wasn'tmaking a covert comment…I swear.
MW:  "So how arethings going between you and Gabe?"
Lucy smiled at me using his shortened name.  I know how much she enjoys wielding it on him.
LH:  "He hates that,you know."
MW:  "I know."
LH:  "That's why I useit whenever he's around.  You can neverlet the man get the upper hand…always keep him off balance." She sighed androlled her eyes.  "But to answer yourquestion, we're doing great.  That iswhen I have any time to actually spend with him.  Between his family and the wedding plans, andGram and my new necromancy studies—which are just disgusting, may I add—andtraining with Micah and the werewolves, I might get to see him once aweek."  Her eyes went distant for a moment,but then they sparkled again when she said, "But I do everything I can to makethose times memorable."
MW:  "I'm sure youdo.  I'm also wondering how things aregoing with your vampire?"
LH:  "My what?"  Her voice shot up half an octave at the meremention of the vampire.
MW:  "You know, VinTokar, brother of your nemesis, Delia Tokar. You two share a blood bond now, and that can be a very intimate thing toshare, especially with a vampire with Vin's qualities.  He is rather good looking, isn't he?"
LH:  "I'm sure he hasplenty of female admirers," Lucy said coldly, "but just because I had his bloodforced on me—"
MW:  "Well, he didsave your life—"
LH:  "Don't you meanafter I kicked his sister's skanky vampire butt and saved myself first?"
MW:  "I'm just sayingI know you two have a psychic link, and that alone could cause problems for youand Gabriel.  Even if you were pack and mated, would your matingbond be enough to compete with such a thing?"
She sat perfectly still for over a minute, just staring atme.
LH:  "You're thewriter." she said.  "You tell me."
MW:  "Well, um…"
She waved me off like an unwanted pair of last season Pradamules. 
LH:  "Here's what I'vegathered so far.  You've written me so Ipretty much get what I want, whether that means it falls at my feet, or I haveto kick a little ass to get it." She leaned forward and leered at me.  "Or lop off a few heads, as it stands so farwith your next installment in the series, BloodRites.  So I'm going to go out on alimb and say that the laws of magic, pack and blood bond alike, will prettymuch do as I wish them to do.  So it's ofno consequence."
MW:  "Well said…wishI'd written it."
She smiled.
MW:  "But what way do youwant it to go?  All to Gabriel, or isthere some you'd like to have fall to the vampire?"
With that Lucy checked her iphone, and responded to a textmessage. 
LH:  "Sorry,Mercy.  I have to get going.  I've got studies with Gram and then dinnerwith mom, my lowlife brother, and Gabriel afterward."  She stood, brushed an imaginary wrinkle fromher short silk skirt, and then flipped her long mahogany hair over hershoulder.  "It's been a pleasure…wereally should do this again."
And with that Lucy Hart sauntered out of the nail salon andslipped into the back seat of a Lincoln Towne car.  I sat there looking at the rather prettycolor I'd chosen to have my nails done in—Revlon's new "Saucy" red—and shook myhead.  How the hell was I going to chosewhich man—or monster—she'd end up with?
Oh well, that's what coffee, Red Bull, and chocolate weremade for.
 Drop me a lineat  mercy(dot)walker(dot)books(at)gmail(dot).com  Tell me what you think of the book.
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LastRites, A Lucy Hart Rites Novel

What they might look like...

The new novel is just about rewritten, so now I'm thinking about what the characters would look like.  Here's what I think Luca will look like.



And this guy could be Gunter...if you shaved his head.