Mayan Prophecy Fulfilled

Recently some authors have been talking about sequels...about how once you write "the end", sometimes the starring characters of that book are done telling their stories, but the supporting characters  want to continue.  I've written two series' like that, with the earlier "starring characters" still involved with subsequent stories but in supporting roles.

With Prophecy of the Undead, which was inspired by two separate dreams, I thought I was done with the story when I was writing the last chapter.  Then I began to imagine how to tie up the loose ends that in retrospect were obviously crying out for resolution.  I soon began the first chapter of Mayan Prophecy Fulfilled.  As with my other series books, you can read each one independently but you will get a more interesting experience if you read them in order.

At the end of Prophecy of the Undead, Keisha and Yuri are enlisting the aid of vampires he knows to help them convince those who control the world behind the scenes that the human race should not be dumbed-down any further before the return of the alien vampires who brought across to blood-drinking humans in many cultures on their last visit.  They took many humans back to their planet with them the last time, and promised to return for more humans in 5,000 years when their planet would once again be aligned with the Earth.  Vampires must decide if they have any skin in the game, since many feel that losing a few thousand humans would be good for the worldwide population and not hurt them in any way.

Keisha and Yuri receive help in their quest from a most unexpected source: a tall, blue-skinned alien covered with darker blue fur, who tells them to call him "Frank".  He is from a race of eternal beings that call themselves "Visitors" because they visit planets all around the universe to help nudge evolution along so that each planet's dominant species can venture out into space and achieve their birthright as star travelers.  But first they need to convince Niu Ying, a Chinese female vampire with a chip on her shoulder, that she should care about the human race.

Blurb:
As a gifted child she was given to the state by her Chinese parents, leading to a harsh life.  Her un-dead existence has been worse.  When other vampires urge her not to further the destruction of humans, they bring a blue-skinned alien Visitor. She never expected to discover her own humanity in the arms of an alien; he never expected to fall in love.  Can their passion bridge the gap between their races?  And can they join forces to face the return of the Mayan aliens and save humanity?  

Mayan Prophecy Fulfilled will be available on Friday, February 1, 2013 from Eternal Press at: http://www.eternalpress.biz/.
You can also find my books at the usual sources, like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, All Romances eBooks, CoffeeTime Romance, etc.
For more information, head to my website: www.fionamcgier.com

Those naughty bits...what do you call them ?

I'm not trying to be flippant here.  I'm really wondering.  I've read humorous blogs on this topic that listed the most outrageous purple prose that the writers had ever read.  It was hilarious reading all of the euphemisms that writers had used to describe a handful of body parts.

Some of my favorites?
Male part: Manroot, purple tulip, turgid rod, rampant manhood, and throbbing pole/shaft/etc.
Female part: Quivering quim., slick love grotto, passion-bedewed portal,  honeypot,  love canal,  etc.  Other important female part: Love button, nubbins, pearl of pleasure. Other two female parts: Alabaster mounds, twin peaks of pleasure. 
Sigh.  You get the picture.
But what's an author to do?  It ruins the mood if you go all clinical and describe his erect penis rubbing her vulva, before entering her vagina.  Sounds like a medical program...maybe Makeus Sexy, MD? 

The reason I'm even thinking about this is because I just read a book that kept using a term for the female part, c***,  repeatedly in very hot, very long and descriptive sex scenes.  I'm sorry, but that drew me out of the scenes way too much!  I've used that word myself as a swear word when I'm really aggravated, and most females I know get agitated even hearing it used that way.  They give me shocked looks at my being so bold as to swear "like a Marine".  I learned to swear at my Mama's knee, and from her brothers who had all been in the army during WWII.  They all swore magnificently, with great flourishes of nastiness and humor.  And from my Dad who was in the British Army where swearing was raised to an art form.

But to use a word that has such a negative connotation in a sex scene that is supposed to be getting me all hot and bothered?  Nope...ruined the mood.  How about you?  Are there any particular words that will make you look away from the book and say, "Ew!"?

My latest release, Prophecy of the Undead, is now available. There are sex scenes, but after having read some other erotic books I feel that mine are romances with erotic bits, rather than erotica.  My sex scenes are not the focus of the story.  They happen then we go back to character development and the plot.  Sex is only a part of why my heroine and hero fall in love.  But it is too important of a part not to include.  I just hope I avoid anything that might make you say, "Ew!" Or giggle.

Read more about my books at: www.fionamcgier.com where the first page is my blog.

What Kind of Vampires Do You Like?

 So there are the traditionalists, who read Bram Stoker's saga Dracula years ago, and found the idea of a walking corpse that survived by drinking blood to be horrifying.  They are the ones who love Nosferatu, the movie, with the creepy guy with the long fingernails, since nails are supposed to continue to grow for a while after death.  He was made up to look like a rat, with pointy teeth and a feral look to his face.

Then there are the folks who favor Bela Lugosi's Dracula, which he portrayed in so many movies that he got to believing he was going to become undead, so he had himself buried in his tux and cape. Of course his drug addiction might have contributed to that delusion.  But still, his "Come...he-ah", has to reign as one of the most memorable lines in any of his vampire movies.  And the women under his spell always went to him, only to be terrified and ashamed the next morning, when their boyfriends would confront them with the evidence that they were allowing the Count to take liberties with them at night.  (Euphemism for sex, much?)  But still, in those movies, the vampires only took blood from the heroines...and even the female vampires were only seeking hemoglobin, not he-men parts.

Anne Rice's vampires were compelling.  I read her first vampire book when I was in college, and the second book didn't come out until I had been out of college almost 10 years.  She has vampires discuss in one of her books, the question of: If you could live forever would you improve--becoming a better person eventually?  Or would you just become even more set in your ways, so that if you were a self-centered jerk in life, you'd be an even bigger jerk in immortality?  Her vampires were fascinating creatures...human, but not quite.  They could savor the pleasure of being alive forever, tempered with the knowledge that they were not allowed to enjoy 2 of the pleasures most humans wouldn't willingly give up: 1)food and drink, which I could give up, and 2)sex...definitely not! To cope with that shortfall, she wrote lots of vampire sagas that delved into the past of many of her vampires...back to a time when they were still mortal and having lots of sex.  But always they had to return to the present and being eunuchs forever.  Not the kind of immortality I'd choose!

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Laurell Hamilton's vampires don't think of much else...and when they are not feeding one appetite, for blood, they are feeding the other, having so much sex that it becomes repetitive and routine!  There are some books and movies in which vampirism is a secret that you're afraid to reveal, similar to being gay. And there are many other versions of vampires these days, most of them taking more after the forever horny and insatiable, rather than the resigned to treat drinking blood as a second-best substitute to sex.  In fact, I have read so many other vampire books, including the very funny Mary Janice Davison Unwed and Undead series, that I figured there wasn't much original to be said. 

Imagine my shock and surprise when one of the voices in my head presented himself as a vampire, and told me he had to be the hero of the book I was having trouble writing! I kept most of the first chapter that I had already written, and deleted the second one.  Then I rewrote the end of the first chapter, the other voices began to speak up, and before I knew it the book, Prophecy of the Undead, was done!  I sent it out with crossed fingers, and immediately started writing the sequel, since I had left some issues unresolved. 

Now El Día de Los Muertos is quickly approaching, and on November 1, my contemporary paranormal vampire romance, Prophecy of the Undead, will be published!  I only hope that my vampires can make their contribution to vampire lore.

But I ask you readers, what kind of vampires do you enjoy reading about?  Is the whole idea of immortality worth giving up food and sunlight, as well as mortal things like having children? Would it matter to you whether or not you would have to give up sex?  Would you say "yes", if given the choice?  Why or why not?

Excerpt
Here my vampire Yuri explains what he has done to Keisha:

     They stared at each other for a while before he broke the silence.

     "Aren't you going to ask me anything?  You are a scientist, so I thought you would be ready to investigate."

     "Investigate what?  I figure I'm just dreaming, so what does it matter?"

     He smiled, "Dreaming?  Are you sure?"

     She nodded solemnly, "Dreaming...or dead.  Either way, there isn't much I can do about it at this point is there?"

     He moved his elbows onto the armrests to tap his fingertips against each other, steepled on his chest.

     "And what makes you think you are dead?"

     "I...uh...I can't find my pulse.  If I don't have a pulse, I'm dead."

     "Do you want to check for mine?"

     She shrunk back against the chair, "Why?" she asked in a small voice.

     "I don't have much of one either.  It's part of the nature of the beast...or rather, of what I am...what we are, because you are like me now."

     "What are you?  Us?  Am I dreaming? Is all of this a function of my neurons misfiring while my brain is dying?"

     "What do you remember from yesterday?"

     Keisha furrowed her brow.  "I remember being in the trunk of a car, tied up.  I remember the two voices of the men who were hired to kill me.  I remember the trunk being opened and a gun was jammed into me.  It was kind of dark, so I didn't see much, but I heard some weird sounds and some fighting.  Someone was trying to rescue me, I guess.  Then the gun fired and I took a bullet in my chest.  I think it pierced my heart, because the pain was unbearable, and breathing became problematic."

     The man nodded.  "Anything else?"

     Keisha looked confused, "The rest was only dreaming, I think.  There was a man's voice..."

     "Mine."

     "He offered me a choice in living or dying...then the next thing I knew we appeared to be having wild sex."  She felt herself blushing as the smile on his face grew wider.

     "Was it good for you too?"

     Keisha jumped out of the chair, "What the fuck is going on here?  You ask me to remember, then you expect me to believe you were a part of my dream?  Why do I get the feeling there's a lot you're not telling me?  Isn't it time for you to do some explaining?"

     He nodded, but before he was able to speak, she pulled the robe tighter around herself and asked in a small voice, "I'm asking you again, am I dead?  How the hell was I able to fly up to the window in the bathroom?  Why don't I have a pulse?  What the hell is going on?"

     The man nodded to indicate that she should sit down again.

     "Stop that pacing, girl.  You are agitating yourself, which will make you hungry more quickly.  I'd rather have answered all of your questions to your satisfaction, before you need to eat."

     She exploded, "I'm not hungry!"  But the minute she said it, a gnawing, empty feeling began to roil in her gut.

     "You will be very soon.  I can see it on your face.  Now sit and listen while I talk."

   

There will be mated vampires, Hispanic and other Russian vampires, and a 5,000-year old Mayan vampire mummy who hates everyone.  The Mayan prediction of the end of time figures into the plot, along with Keisha's research into intelligence.  The book is available on November 1, and the 13th Baktun in the Mayan long-count calendar ends on December 21, 2012.  That should give you enough time to read what happens.

Find out more at: www.fionamcgier.com

   

                                                              

Title? Title? I don't need no stinking title!

How do you choose what title to use on your finished manuscript?  Does it suggest itself to you during the course of your writing/rewriting/editing?  Or do you sit and look at it, trying to think of a pithy selection of just a few words that will encapsulate your book neatly and entice readers to try it?

For most of my published books, the 6 Reyes Romances, and my 2 stand-alone contemporary romances, I chose the titles myself.  But for my 2 romantic suspense novels, I had to turn to my family.  Keep in mind that none of my in-their-early-twenties kids read romance novels except for occasionally checking out one of mine.  So they don't have any idea what the popular titles are any more than my husband, who also reads lots of other books, but only romances written by me.  So when I ask them, they listen to my short explanation of who the main characters are and the story arc, then they fire suggestions at me. 

Since they refer to what I write as "Mom's porn", though I prefer "smut", they often suggest titles that sound much more erotic than what I write!  I write romance novels with a bit of naughtiness.  I've read enough erotic romance and erotica to know that's not what I write! So I reject the titles that sound like a porn movie, lest I disappoint a randy reader.  Then I consider their other choices. 

This worked wonderfully, I thought, when I wrote Secret Love, about a female spy who breaks the rules by falling in love while on active duty.  Then I went onto Amazon, excited to see my new book there, and when I typed in the title in the search line, I found 4 other books by different authors, with the same title!  Surely this was an anomaly, I thought. 

Then I needed a title for my second spy novel, about a retired female spy who is drawn back into the world she thought she had left for good.   2 male spies are assigned to guard her 24/7 from the psycho-killer she thought she had put away forever when her testimony put him in jail. She falls in love with one of them, but they both pursue her.  I kept thinking of titles with the word "spy" in them, but my oldest son suggested Undercover Lovers.   I thought it was an excellent title!  But apparently so did 9 other authors, 8 of whom used the singular lover...but all of their titles pop up when you search Amazon for Undercover Lovers.  Heavy sigh.

That same oldest son just tried to explain to me about how savvy techies are able to game the search engines, and tag their items with zillions of words to ensure that no matter what you are looking for, their products will appear.  I just got off of work and that sounded too complicated for me to grasp!  Oh well...

My next book will be published November 1, and it's about the Mayan prophesy involving the end of the calendar in 2012.  It also has vampires and a 5,000 year old Mayan vampire mummy.  And a conspiracy to dull the intelligence of the human population for nefarious purposes.  I agonized over this title also, and even called it unnamed Mayan romance in my files.  But when I was offered a contract, they needed to have a title to put on it.  My quandary had to end quickly!  I chose  Prophesy of the Undead.  Ah, great!  Nothing pops up with that title on Amazon!  I guess I'm going to have to check there from now on before I choose my titles for my next books. 

How much do you feel a title grabs your attention or causes you to want to read a book?  Or are you more interested in the cover?  I think I've been extremely lucky with the cover artists I've been assigned.  I just wish there was such a thing as a title artist!  Don't you? 

Please visit www.fionamcgier.com and feel free to comment on the creativity (or lack thereof) involving my titles.  Hey, I truly enjoy writing the best books I can...everything else is much harder!