The Bad Death on all eReaders

Previously an Amazon exclusive, The Bad Death is now also available at iTunes, Kobo, and Barnes&Noble.com. Captivating, sensuous, and terrifying, The Bad Death, at once a sequel and a prequel to Bloodroom, unfolds against a background of eighteenth century human bondage and southern gentility. Passion rules the heart but terror rules the night in this breathtaking tale of love, desire, betrayal, Gullah sorcery, and supernatural horror in the antebellum South. 
 

Bloodroom eBook 99 Cent Sale

You can have this sexy and dangerous bad boy for 0.99 cents Monday, November 25 through Saturday, November 30 in any digital format. Just visit Amazon or the online bookstore of your choice.

Online stores vary in the speed with which they adopt new prices. If you see Bloodroom still at its normal $2.99, buy straight from my distributor, Smashwords.

Bloodroom is the first book in the Bloodroom Series of modern and historical paranormal novels. The Bad Death is the second book in the series.

Thomas Jefferson, Single Parent

Thomas Jefferson, writer of the Declaration of Independence and 3rd President may have also been our nation's 1st hot dad (DILF?). When his young wife died; the grief-stricken man had infant Lucy, four-year old Polly, and 10-year old Patsy to raise. Due to a deathbed promise never to remarry, he remained a single parent. Lucy died in childhood. Jefferson, Polly, and Patsy clung tenaciously to each other and, though more often separated than not, remained in constant contact through letters. Jefferson set standards for his girls in education and deportment that were unusual for his day and appear impossible and unhealthy in ours. I give you a few parenting rules from Thomas Jefferson, with tongue in cheek:

No Casual Friday:  Jefferson instructed Patsy in one letter, "Be you from the moment you rise till you go to bed as cleanly and properly dressed as at the hours of dinner or tea. A lady who has been seen as a sloven or slut in the morning, will never efface that impression ..." Ouch!

Sources Cited Below Post

No Downtime:  Here's a typical study schedule:

• From 8. to 10 o'clock practice music.
• From 10. to 1 dance one day and draw another
• From 1. to 2. draw on the day you dance, and write a letter the next day.
• From 3. to 4. read French.
• From 4. to 5. exercise yourself in music.
• From 5. till bedtime read English, write & c. 

Of Course, I'll Always Love You, If ... Jefferson's instructions were at times given as a road map to his heart. In a letter to Patsy, he wrote, "I have placed my happiness on seeing you good and accomplished, and no distress which this world can now bring on me can equal that of your disappointing my hopes ...Keep my letters and read them at times that you may always have present in your mind those things which will endear you to me."

It Ain't Just a River in Egypt: What illegitimate children? What mistress? When Patsy and Polly lived at Monticello as young adults, it can't have gone unnoticed that his unmarried slave woman, Sally Hemings, only got pregnant when their father was home from Washington. The illicit relationship was never acknowledged. When it became a national scandal, the Queens of Denial visited Jefferson in Washington to provide a united family front.

As women, each developed her own way of resisting their father's demands. Patsy blamed kids and a troublesome husband for her lack of free time, and pointed to Lucy as being way more behind than she in keeping the pace. Polly seems to have adopted the slacker role to her advantage, basically throwing up her hands and saying, 'I know, I'm so lazy!' But there can be no doubt that the three of them were crazy about each other.


I thought it would be fun to create a similar relationship between The Bad Death's Julian Mouret and his much younger sister, Charlotte. She was three years old when their father died and left the fifteen year old Julian as man of the house (and therefore, its legal head). Raising a child to be the Ideal requires you to embody that Ideal, yourself. By the time we meet them in The Bad Death, Julian has achieved this. But what happens when the Ideal "parent" falls from grace? We'll see in the next novel, House of the Apparently Dead.

Sources: The Women Jefferson Loved by Virginia Scharff; The Family Letters of Thomas Jefferson edited by Edwin Betts and James Bear, Jr.; Thomas Jefferson, An Intimate History by Fawn Brodie.

FREE Kindle download: The Bad Death

Monday through Friday, November 4-8, The Bad Death will be a FREE eBook on Amazon. You're welcome ;-)

Racial Accuracy in Literature and Genre Fiction

The Bad Death is my historic paranormal novel with interracial romance. The protagonist is Anika, a slave woman. She's attracted to her master's brother, Julian. She becomes attracted to Marcus, an enslaved man who is a slave driver. A modern woman's spirit takes refuge in Anika's body and influences her mind. In adventure stories the hero prevails through gumption and daring. But how does The Bad Death align with historic reality? As Americans attend and react to 12 Years a Slave, a a new film based on the true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery, it seems a good time to examine the treatment of slavery in genre fiction and literature, particularly as it relates to autobiographies written by slaves.

Consider the critically acclaimed novel, Kindred by Octavia Butler. The heroine, Dana, is a modern African-American. She is repeatedly pulled through time to the antebellum south in order to protect the white boy destined to father the Caucasian side of her family. There (and then) Dana's treated as a slave. Kindred is a good book. I'm glad I read it. I can't say I enjoyed it. Why not? It's grueling. She's victimized relentlessly. She and her fellow slaves endure terrible conditions. The antebellum interracial liaisons are exploitative and cruel. Kindred isn't an adventure story. It is a historically accurate novel in the literary tradition.

Because the slave woman was chattel, she had no power to resist her master's advances. Even relationships based on affection and mutual attraction exploited her. Also, the environment of slavery varied from benign to brutal. Two autobiographies from that period recount the harshest conditions explicitly: The History of Mary Prince and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Mary Prince and Linda Brent worked on West Indies' plantations in conditions that injured and sickened them. When this affected their productivity, they were beaten and whipped till they couldn't stand and then made to somehow continue working. They were hounded sexually by their masters. They were unable to live healthy married lives to the free black men who courted them. Both women learned to read and write. Both escaped and became outspoken abolitionists. Both autobiographies are in The Classic Slave Narratives, edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Slaves on South Carolina Lowcountry rice plantations worked under better conditions, as described in Charles Joyner's history Down by the Riverside: a South Carolina Slave Community. Anika's story is set in a South Carolina slave community like that documented by Joyner.

I wanted to write a paranormal historical with sexy romance and a crossbow-wielding adventuress. I could have written The Bad Death more realistically, but then it would be a book in a different genre. Due to the novel's setting, even the most benevolent white characters have racist viewpoints. I hope readers understand that these views belong to the characters – not to me. And I hope readers are moved to explore libraries and bookstores. There's great literature out there and inspiring nonfiction accounts of history's real heroes and heroines.

Monsters in Gullah Folklore

The Boo Hag by Ashere http://ashere.deviantart.com/art/The-Boo-Hag-339906658

I guest posted at M.R. Gott's Cutis Anserina's blog as part of his month long Halloween Bash of guest posts. You can read about the great monsters of the South's Gullah folklore here. See you back at my blog soon!

Working with Beta Readers to Write a Better Novel

By the time a writer has polished the manuscript, he's lived inside the story so long he's lost objectivity. It's time for someone with fresh eyes. An editor will examine your work from a production perspective, but it saves a lot of time if you've first identified and fixed your story's weaknesses. That's where beta readers can help.

To paraphrase Wikipedia's definition, a beta reader is a person who reads a novel manuscript with a critical eye. A beta reader may highlight plot holes or problems with continuity, characterization or believability; and assist the author with fact-checking.

Many writers request fellow writers to be beta readers. I chose readers who weren't writers because I wanted the customer's reaction. I focused on readers interested in elements present in my novel, such as paranormal romance, the Gullah culture, or ballet. A few curious friends volunteered. I emailed nine potential beta readers. Here's an excerpt:

I'm contacting you because your interests and experiences give you the unique view I'm looking for in a beta reader for The Bad Death. Essentially, The Bad Death is a vampire slayer novel with a Gullah heroine and is slated for publication in summer/fall 2013. The details below give the cover art and synopsis; an explanation of a beta reader's contribution; my novel's characteristics such as length and similarity to its genre sisters; and particulars of the beta-reading period. I also attached the first few chapters. If you say "yes", I'll contact you again May 1. 

I made a similar appeal on a Goodreads discussion thread, with the moderator's blessing.

I wound up with eight readers (three from Goodreads) who had a month to read and review. Five gave feedback. The most valuable input was constructive criticism. For instance, some said my heroine was too passive, too much of a victim. Her identity was revealed way too late, and a couple of readers just gave up on her. Ouch – but thanks! I thought of a way to reveal her identity much earlier. I gave her a mission from the start and made her active instead of reactive. This required changing other characters' interactions with her. It really strengthened the first 3rd of the book. Other input affected how many Gullah words I used in dialogue, chapter length, and the additions of a Gullah dictionary and a list of characters. My revisions per beta feedback resulted in my editor getting a much better manuscript. And readers got a much better book! Though it isn't for everyone, The Bad Death is getting good reviews.

In addition to my heartfelt gratitude, I gave each beta reader an autographed copy of the published version, in the format of her choice.