Today's the Day!

Release day! The day I've long been waiting for ... The Wild Rose Press released my short vampire romance story, Eternity Waits.

Here's an excerpt that I hope whets your appetite.

Alexandra Ivanov gazed with longing at the tall, manly soldier before her. His musky, masculine scent caused her to shiver with desire. Sandy-colored hair fell in waves on both sides of his tanned face. Alexandra had spied him on her forays through the outskirts of the army camp. Each time she'd seen him, he'd been alone, but she'd waited until tonight to approach him.

Since the war began, she'd not lacked for fresh blood. These lonely, young soldiers, so far from home, were all too willing to allow a strange, loose woman to wrap her arms around them. The army blamed the deaths on a vicious, nocturnal animal roaming the woods at night.

But this man carried the essence of her long lost love. Alexandra felt drawn to him, like to no other. Centuries ago, she'd lost the one and only man she'd ever truly loved.

She moved closer to the soldier, his long, lean-muscled form not unlike Dimitri's. He gulped, but lowered his rifle and didn't back away.

"Why are you here?" He clawed absently at his collar while his gaze locked on hers.

Heat swept through her at the sight of his throbbing pulse. Although hungry, she wouldn't take too much from him. She didn't want to kill him. Yet.

For more info on Eternity Waits click here.

Tuesday Ten: Victorians & Vampires

I'm completing research on a new short vampire story set during the Civil War and bought a book on the origins of vampire lore.

Although I knew Dracula was published during the Victorian era, I hadn't realized how many novels and stories during the period revolved around vampires. Aside from Dracula, though, these vampires weren't your classic blood-suckers. There were a lot of variations as there is in vampire legends and folklore around the world.

1) Edgar Allen Poe's story "Ligeia" (1838) is the tale of a dead woman who brings back the corpse of her husband's second wife.

2) Smyth Upton's novel, The Last of the Vampires (1845) held that vampirism was a special form of magic.

3) G. M. W. Reynold's Faust (1847) reflected the same theme where vampires used sacrifice to obtain life, pleasure and power.

4)W. Harrison Ainworth's Auriol (1850) is a tale of immortality gained through human sacrifice.

5) In 1853, the first English language novel, Spiritual Vampirism was a story about energy draining vampires who could be men or women.

6) Two more novels in 1890 and two in 1897 also featured energy draining vampires.

7) Vampires by Julian Gordon (1891) used vampirism as a metaphor for the destructive relationship between the characters.

8) In 1892, in The Lost Stradavarius, a sorcerer drains energy from musicians who play a certain violin.

9) In a story by W. L. Alden in 1894, a teacher's talents are absorbed by one of her students.

10) And of course, the king of all vampire novels, Dracula, by Bram Stoker came out in 1897.

Source: The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters by Rosemary Ellen Guiley: Checkmark Books, 2005.

My Cover for Eternity Waits

I just got my cover art for my short vampire story, Eternity Waits, to be a future release from The Wild Rose Press.

I don't have an official blurb yet, but the story is set in a Civil War Confederate camp. My vampire, Alexandra, goes after a Rebel soldier she thinks is the reincarnation of her lover who died on a battlefield in Siberia in the 16th century.

I don't have a release date yet, but the cover is so gorgeous I just had to show it off to all my Victorian friends.

What do you think?