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Monthly Archives: December 2011

Dreamcasting – Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down

I can’t possibly release a book without sharing who I would cast if this sucker got made into a movie or a TV show. So without further ado, here is who I see the characters as:

Anja Evans: Teresa Palmer – So I haven’t cast a female lead as a blonde before, but since it went with the Viking ancestry link for this series, I decided to try something new. I like Teresa Palmer because she can play innocence well, but you get the feeling like she could seriously kick a little ass once she comes into her own.

Bishop: Chris Evans – Before I even nailed down this character I had Chris Evans in mind, as he looks in the movie Push, which is a little rough around the edges, but definitely formidable. He’s got that ability to play tough, but with a vulnerability that makes him relatable. Plus, he’s so damn pretty to look at.

Bridget Russo: Kat Dennings – Such a sassy actress, I could totally picture her delivering the lines with just the right balance of bitter bite mixed with playfulness.



Mason: Ryan Reynolds: a la Hannibal King in Blade Trinity. No one else could play his goofball humor while still conveying that he could break your spine with one hand if he wanted to. Overall a great contrast to Bishop’s strong, silent type.


Hanna Evans: Kristin Bell – Because a) I put her into every book I can, and b) her coloring went well as Anja’s sister and c) I love the thought of her verbally sparring against Mason later.



Detective Andrew Lucas: Matt Passmore – Have you seen The Glades? God he cracks me up in that show! I wanted that kind of light hearted banter from him, like he takes everything as a big joke, but he’s also crazy smart and he’ll figure out all your secrets in the end…


Aleksandr Kursik: Daniel Craig – I could just picture him as the suave, powerful vampire, alternately charming and brutal depending on the situation at hand.



Booth: Ron Perlman – Isn’t he in every sci-fi movie?





Rob: Jason Statham - Rob is a character I borrowed from my True Blood fanfic, and I pictured him as Handsome Rob from The Italian Job at the time and the name just stuck.



Jakob: Alexander Skaarsgard - Okay so I'm typecasting a little here, but who else can you picture as a Viking with flowing blonde hair? Okay, maybe the guy from Thor, but he was the wrong type for this role, knowing what's coming ahead. I couldn't find a good picture of him with long hair that didn't look kinda derpy though.

Now I've got just about every other bit player assigned to a celebrity as well, but this is getting long enough, so I'll save some for the next book, Meet Me When the Sun Goes Down.

Review of Storm Chaser by Mark R. Hunter

I was trying to classify this novel and found that it’s not easy to stick into a particular genre. The author Mark R. Hunter describes it as an action-adventure-romantic comedy-mystery, and I have to agree, that about sums it up, with a focus on romance. The story follows Allie Crane, who chases storms and other dangerous phenomena for her career as a freelance photographer, bringing her to a small town in Indiana. Chance Hamlin, the state trooper and quintessential “good guy”, suffers from his own set of preconceived notions of what a journalist from California is like. I found myself thinking of Pride and Prejudice, with the main girl being too proud to share her weaknesses with anyone and the man too prejudiced to accept her for who she was instead of who he assumed she might be. Of course Allie has just enough secrecy wrapped around her to send his imagination into overdrive, and all manner of miscommunications ensue.

This book was easy to pick up and hard to put down, and that’s saying a lot for someone like me who finds very little time to read! I knew from the first chapter I downloaded as a free preview that I wanted to read more, and I was glad when it finally came to Nook. The characters were engaging and had that rapid fire, witty repartee I tend to like. Chance and Allie had a combustible chemistry, and it was equally fun to watch them spark with conflict or simmer with heat depending on the mood. Allie was spunky and smart, just the kind of heroine I like to read, and she didn’t let Chance walk all over her as some heroines do in romances. I admit, I don’t know much about storms, fires or chemical spills, but it was obvious the author has done his homework with enough details to lend authenticity and keep things interesting without bogging us down with unnecessary minutiae. All in all, a very entertaining read!

Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down is now available online!

The first book of my new vampire series is now available for sale on Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com! It’s out as an e-book for $3.99 but you don’t have to have a Kindle or Nook to read it, they have free downloadable apps so you can read it on your PC, or even your phone. It’ll be available in print as well in a couple of weeks through Amazon.

I wrote this one during November for NaNoWriMo and I’m super happy about how it came out and how the characters evolved. You know me and taking breaks are non-mixy things, so I’m currently working on the outline for Mercy for the Damned, due out next spring. My Vampire Diaries fanfic idea fell flat after I got the first chapter done, so I’ve decided to put that on hold and wait for better inspiration while I continue to work on Mercy and the Push fanfic (which doesn’t have many readers, but I’m loving the characters there!).

In the meantime, Happy Holidays to everyone who celebrates them, and don’t worry, it’ll all be over soon to those of you who don’t. ;)

We Have A Winner!

Thanks to everyone who voted on cover art for Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down, it came in at 14 for the one on the left, and 9 for the one on the right, counting votes offsite. I kind of agree, the one on the left looks more suited to Paranormal Romance even though the one on the right is probably cleaner when shrunk down. So, I’ll be using the one on the left, and hopefully it’ll be up and available for sale in the next few days. Tracy was our winner for a free copy of a book and she chose The Touch. Congratulations Tracy, I’ll send it out tonight.

I’ll take a break for a couple of weeks for the holidays before I get into serious plotting for The Fallen sequel, Mercy for the Damned, due out next spring. In the meantime, I’ve started a couple of fanfictions. One for the movie Push called Someone to Watch Over Me. If you’ve never seen the movie before, I recommend it, it’s set in a world where people have psychic abilities and a government agency is chasing after them. Chris Evans is fantastic in it, and he helped inspire my main guy Bishop in Wake Me.

I’m also working on another Vampire Diaries one where Damon lives next door to Elena while she’s in college on the west coast. It’s completely AU and nobody knows that vampires exist, should be fun. :)

Vote For Cover Art – Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down

It’s that time again to give me your thoughts and feedback on the cover art for my new book coming out this month, Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down. Anyone who comments on the covers on the website will be automatically entered for a chance to win a copy of one of my books (your choice of books). This time I was able to narrow it to a picture I liked, but I’m still trying to decide on the font. I’d also love to hear constructive criticism and ideas for how to improve them if you have any suggestions. Please keep in mind that they have to be not only eye-catching, but easy to identify when much smaller in ads and for sale on websites.

Here is a little blurb of what the book is about:

“It was ironic that this happened to me; I was never a night person at heart. So you can see right off the bat why a vampire was the very last thing I would have chosen to be.”

Anja Evans wakes up in the morgue with a helluva hangover. She chalks it up to a strange brush with death and gets back to her life as a music student in San Francisco. It takes almost eating her best friend before she figures out… she’s a vampire. When a dark and dangerous vampire shows up at her door asking to see her license and registration, Anja assumes Bishop is a regular cop. But breeding among vampires is strictly controlled, and her unlicensed status makes her an enemy of The Order. Struggling to find a balance between her former life and her undead one, Anja tries to blend school and living up to her new identity, all while searching to find the elusive Viking whose blood gave Anja the strength of a vampire hundreds of years old.

A Taste of Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down

I’m done with the first pass of edits for my new vampire series Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down! So now it’s off to the next part of my editing team and I thought I’d share a little taste.

This scene takes place after Anja finds out that Bishop is there to take her into custody since she doesn’t have the proper license to be a new vampire. It’s from his POV and has a little bit of insight into why he’s there and his role in The Order.

*********
Bishop had no idea what he was doing.

It was not a normal thing for him, not by a long shot. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d gone so far off book. It was supposed to be a routine call. Check the girl’s papers, fine her Sire for letting her turn up in the morgue pronounced as dead, and do what he did best; scare the hell out of him to keep him from ever getting sloppy like that again. So why was he standing in her living room holding her purse while she made herself pretty?

He wasn’t used to letting a slip of a girl wind him around her little finger. But there was something about her… when she’d first opened the door the night before, she’d knocked him speechless. For a moment he’d almost thought he was seeing Carys again after so many years…

She wasn’t, of course. They had the same long, golden hair, the same heart shaped face and her innocent, blue eyes were close. But her mouth was wrong; the lips too full, her smile too hesitant. Not that there was anything wrong with the girl’s lips… why was he thinking about her lips again?

The Order always came first. He’d pledged his life too many years ago to count. For endless nights he’d upheld the laws, meting out justice as he saw fit. Bishop was more successful at it than most because while he didn’t have a love of violence, he recognized when it needed to be used without anger, and understood just how much pressure to apply. So while his first instinct had been to try and protect Anja, his sense of duty led him to do the right thing. She had to be taken into custody. Let one go and you set a dangerous precedent; wasn’t that how he’d been trained? And if it became necessary to close those pretty, blue eyes forever? He would deal with it when the time came.

Speaking of time, he’d been more than generous in allowing her time to change into dry clothing. It wasn’t as if she could catch a chill now, and where she was going there wasn’t any need for fancy preparations. Bishop set down her bag, approaching the bedroom door with a brief knock. “Miss Evans? I don’t mean to be rude, but do you think you could hurry it up?” Nothing but silence greeted his ears, and he frowned as he rapped again. “Miss Evans?”