Thanks to everyone who voted, it was a really close race! Counting the four offline votes we got, the cover on the right narrowly edged out to become the winner. Random selection (don’t you just love online dice rollers?) picked Seleana as the winner for the free book and she’ll get to choose between an ebook copy and a signed print copy of Miss Me When the Sun Goes Down.

I am done with edits as of this morning, so it’ll be out very soon, just waiting on James to work his magic with some final tweaks on formatting for Kindle and Nook.
Stay tuned for a sneak peek.

Also, Nine Steps to Sara is a freebie today through Wednesday on Amazon here. This will be the last time you can snap this one up for free for the foreseeable future, so pick up a copy today, or if you’ve already read and enjoyed it, tell a friend!

The Fallen books 1-3 are now available as a boxed set for your kindle. I’ve never done a boxed set before, but it looks awful spiffy doesn’t it? (thanks James for the lovely pic, as usual!) Easy to navigate between books from the table of contents, this set contains Angel of Mercy, Mercy for the Wicked, Mercy for the Damned, deleted scenes form Mercy for the Damned and a preview of Child of Mercy. It can be found here on Amazon.com for $7.99.

In other news, I’m already deep in planning for my next book which I hope to begin in early March. It’s a stand alone novel about a demon hunter and his too-curious-for-her-own-good neighbor. It’s got sexy demons, magic, missing girls, a brooding hero with a dark secret, intrigue, body switching, mythology, tattoos, cheese whiz, you name it. I’m thinking of calling it In Darkness Bound or Let Darkness Bind Them.

Psst – Nine Steps to Sara is also free today on Kindle.

I’ve been so busy writing I’ve completely neglected to mention that Nine Steps to Sara is now available in print through Amazon.com!

Here is a little sample to whet your appetite:

Lying in the dark, Sara’s mind started to drift when the squeak of the door’s hinges made her eyes snap open. Instead of the comforting hall light, the room was pitch black, the window coverings doing their duty after she’d made sure the windows were locked up tight to avoid a repeat of the freeze out that morning. The creak of floorboards told her someone was in the room, but she couldn’t so much as glimpse a hint of movement in the inky blackness.

“Katie?” she whispered, thinking the maid might be sneaking in to leave or retrieve something, and the noise stopped. Long seconds passed, Sara’s heart pounding loudly in her ears as she waited for the intruder to identify itself, but the next sound that came was another footfall at the side of the bed. Quick like a fox, Sara reached over and snapped on the bedside lamp, squinting at the sudden burst of light, but there wasn’t anyone standing there. “Seriously losing my mind…” her head fell back against the pillow in disgust.

That’s when she noticed the bedroom door stood a few inches open.

“I know I shut that door,” Sara muttered, but now she wasn’t sure what to believe. There was no one in the room as far as she could see. Unless they were hiding under the bed…

“Hello?” she tried, her voice sounding small in the stillness of the room. Deciding she was being an idiot, she jumped out of bed and ducked her head under it, prepared to spring away at the first sign of a murderous asylum escapee. “You’re the one who belongs in an asylum,” she sighed, not finding so much as a dust bunny under there. Grabbing a fireplace poker, she methodically checked the bathroom, and the dressing room, but she was completely alone. Deciding to chalk it up to an overzealous imagination, she shut the bedroom door again, turning the key in the lock; Katie could knock the next morning.

“Seriously losing my mind…”

Once again it’s time to share who I would cast in a movie version of my lastest book, Nine Steps to Sara.
I’ve got every role cast down to the cook’s assistant, but I’ll try to just hit the main characters or it’ll stretch on forever!








Sara Darling: Liv Tyler – She has such a sweet, open smile, I could really picture her as a caring mom who’s open to new things from staying at a haunted house to giving love another chance.





Jackson Darling: Kieran Culkin – He was such a cutie as a little boy, and I can see him delivering some of the precocious things Jack says.






Will Talbot: Jake Gyllenhaal – Okay, I know I might catch a little flack for this, not casting a Brit for this role, but when I was thinking about what Will looked like, I kept coming back to this little half smile Jake has. That cinched it for me, plus I could see him relating to both Sara and Jack alike.




Joanie Wilson: Emma Stone – Can I just say that I love Emma Stone, and I don’t really think of her as a bitch at all. But I think she could handle some of Joanie’s bitchier moments while bringing the humor.





Mrs. Poole: Maggie Smith – I actually started with a completely different actress in mind for this role, but about two chapters in, I realized I was picturing Maggie in my head whenever she spoke.





Thomas Poole: John Hurt – Love this actor, he has such great range!







Hugh Cole: Rufus Sewell – So good at playing as asshole! And I could really see Joanie being taken with him despite his asshattery.






Gemma Darling: Gemma Arterton – I had her in mind before I picked a name, and ended up just going with it. I can see her as being both ethereal and spooky as well as breathing real life into the dead character.





Katie: Felicity Jones – Such a fresh faced beauty. She deserves her own book really, but I thought she captured Katie’s wide eyed innocence particularly well.





Pottinger: Christopher Plummer – I knew I wanted a kooky old man character, and I have always loved the way he looked as “Shitty” in Where the Heart Is. I couldn’t find a picture from that obscure movie, but I think this one is nearly scruffy enough.




My new ghosty thriller Nine Steps to Sara is now available for sale on Amazon.comand 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.

When single mom Sara Darling inherits an estate in the remote English countryside, she jumps at the chance to become Lady of the Manor. With 8 year old son Jack and best friend Joanie in tow, they explore the nearly deserted mansion, isolated from the rest of the world except for the nearby village where everybody seems to know her business. Distracted by the charming chauffeur, Will, soon Sara never wants to leave her newfound home.

But the eerie manor house is hiding more than a ruined garden and plumbing issues, and it’s up to Sara to find out what the loyal staff isn’t telling. When Sara finds Jack talking to an empty room, she begins to wonder if she made the right decision uprooting her tiny family as the spooky surroundings fuel her imagination.

Especially when she starts to hear the voice talk back.

Is her ancestor’s unnatural attachment to Jack borne of concern or something more sinister? When she discovers the truth, will Sara accept the legacy she’s inherited, or run for her life?

I’m just about ready to start writing on the next book Meet Me When the Sun Goes Down, the next in my vampire series Forged bloodlines.

Okay, wasn’t meaning to get all philosophical on you guys, really just reporting that I’m days away from publishing Nine Steps to Sara and starting in on the sequel to Wake Me, Meet Me When the Sun Goes Down. I’ve pretty much got the plot all laid out and I can’t wait to get started!!! I had a lot of fun re-reading Wake Me and getting back into Anja’s head.

I couldn’t resist getting in a little fanfiction oneshot in there before I get started on the new book though, so I posted a Vampire Diaries Delena fic Hate to Love You. Holy crap I missed writing for those guys! It’s so tempting not to take them on another epic adventure, but I’m trying to stick to my timetable and still get another two books written this year.

Pretty Witches All in a Row.

Nine Steps to Sara should be available in a couple of weeks and I’ve got two other books planned for this year (sequels to Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down and the next Mercy book), so here’s to more success in the year to come!

Despite the recent success from the last Pretty Witches All in a Row giveaway, Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down
has continued to sell the least out of my books, despite the fact that I get the most fan mail about that one.

So, we’ve decided to try and shake things up a little and redesign the cover. What do you guys think?

In other news, I finished my first draft of Nine Steps to Sara and have just started the editing process! Woot!

Nine Steps to Sara is coming along well, and I’ve only got one more scene to write before the grand finale. Here is the proposed cover art (thanks Cap’n for the design!) for the book. I thought I’d share a little taste from chapter one. Please keep in mind that this is a rough draft and not the polished final version.

*****

“Repeat after me, I am Sara J Darling; millionaire. I own a mansion and a yacht.”

The corner of Sara’s mouth tilted up into a faint smile as she conjured images of Elmer Fudd going through psychoanalysis to cure him of his rabbitosis. “I don’t own a yacht.”

“You could own a yacht…” Joanie’s green eyes darted to the dark window for a brief squint before they returned to regard Sara steadily. “You don’t know.”

“That’s true, I suppose,” Sara allowed, leaning back against the supple leather seats of the chauffeured Mercedes. Despite the fact that the car was at least thirty years old by the body style, it’d obviously been kept in mint condition and still impressed the hell out of her. It was the first time she’d ridden in a car that cost more than her college education and for sure was the first time she’d been driven around in the back seat unless she counted the time she took a cab to the hospital on the night Jack was born (but somehow, she didn’t think that fell into quite the same category).

Joanie had a good point though, she had very little understanding of her inheritance so far, only that it was big enough to earn her a plane ride and an all expense paid trip to England in style, and there was a manor house somewhere in the countryside with a family history she knew nothing about. After the year she’d had, it hadn’t taken more than thirty seconds to decide to go check it out, especially when her best friend offered to come along for the ride. Still, Joanie’s excited speculation had spilled into the ridiculous after so many hours spent traveling.

“Why would I have a yacht? It’s a land locked estate.” Probably. There could be a lake, she supposed. If she hadn’t been so excited to get the heck out of town, she might have asked a few more questions. As it was, she had a vague sense that the estate was somewhere in the south, but that was about it.

Joanie waved her hand back and forth, unconcerned with logic. “So? England is basically an island. It’s like a nothing commute to get to the water.”

A snort came from the front seat, and Sara looked up to catch a flash of the driver’s grin. “I’m not too sure about that,” she murmured, looking out the window, but she couldn’t penetrate the gloomy fog apart from the occasional glimpse of an empty paddock or a copse of dark trees. “We’ve been driving an awful long time.”

“You’re telling me, I shouldn’t have had those drinks on the train,” Joanie muttered, shifting in her seat. “Excuse me, driver?” she leaned forward, bright auburn hair glowing as it caught in the dashboard lights. “How much longer is this gonna take?”

“Just until we arrive, Miss.”

“Okay, thanks,” Joanie slumped back against the seat and Sara looked up again, teeth pressed against the inside of her lips to keep from laughing as she caught his wink in the rearview mirror. Had he introduced himself? Sara couldn’t be sure with all the rigmarole to get their luggage to the car and make sure Jack didn’t go wandering off on his own. What he must think of them… Sara wasn’t sure what to expect from the locals yet. Would they accept her as the new heir or did they have their hopes set on a different disposition for the estate? Would they even care? It wasn’t clear just how much her family’s estate was tied up in the local community, but for a town called Darlington, she imagined it was close.

Incapable of maintaining silence for more than a few minutes, Joanie snuck her way back onto Sara’s train of thought. “Thank God you got the call after your divorce came through,” she said, out of the blue.

“What?” Sara blinked, not tracking the change in subject right away. “Oh I don’t know, I could have used the luck a little earlier in the game.” When she thought of the tiny little apartment they’d been crammed into for the past six months… the call couldn’t have come soon enough.

“Are you kidding me? Peter would have pissed it all away inside of a year.”

“Joanie!” she exclaimed, somewhere between a whisper and a hiss.

“What?”

“Shh, I don’t want him to hear you,” Sara scowled, even if it was true.

“Oh please, you know Jack can sleep through a hurricane,” Joanie demonstrated by poking the boy in the ribs with no response. But for the slight rise and fall of his chest, Jackson appeared dead to the world.

“Still…” Sara looked down at her sleeping son, slumped over on the seat between them. Small for a boy of eight, his dark brown hair was the exact shade as hers, blue eyes hidden behind round glasses that slipped low on his nose in his present position. Despite the fact that she knew he wasn’t listening, it didn’t feel right to talk about his father with him right there, even if she did agree with her friend’s opinion of the guy.

“I’m just saying, it gives me a happy to think he won’t get his hands on all your money. Can you imagine Peter with some serious cash behind him?” a roll of the eyes was given.

“I’m having a hard enough time picturing me with money,” Sara answered diplomatically, hoping to change the subject. For the next twenty minutes they chatted about what might be waiting for them at the end of their journey. Joanie seemed to think they’d land in an episode of Downton Abbey; the liveried servants lined up in front of the building, neatly dressed and pressed to greet her. Sara couldn’t imaging owning something so large; she was convinced it’d be more along the lines of a cottage with some pretty gardens. At least she hoped so; gardening was one of the few things she missed about the three bedroom split level home in LA.

A crunch of gravel alerted them as the car pulled onto the private road. “This is it, we’re almost there,” Sara breathed in excitement, wondering if she should wake Jack or let him keep sleeping. As they drew closer to the hulking shadow of the building, she decided to go with the latter; for the moment there was nothing to see. The house was completely dark, no signs of life to be found as they approached.

“Are you sure you have the right place?” Joanie frowned, leaning forward with a squint that couldn’t penetrate the darkness.

“This is Darling Park right enough,” the driver spoke, the lilt of his accent reminding Sara of the brief wink she’d seen in the mirror. “Don’t worry; I’m sure they’re about somewhere. Hold on a tick, I’ll get things sorted out. I’ll leave the engine running to keep the car warm for you.” Before either of them could so much as blink, he was out the driver’s side door and bounding into the fog that closed ranks behind him, enveloping him into the velvet murkiness.

“See, I told you it wouldn’t be like in the movies,” Sara’s voice fell to a whisper as she focused her attention on the stone drive.

“Sure it is; it’s just the type of movie where we get murdered in our beds before sunrise,” Joanie replied sourly and Sara gave her a playful shove.

It was pretty creepy out there, the fog encasing them in a cocoon of silver mist, completely obscuring the house from view. She got the sense it was big, bigger than she’d thought, but that was about it. “At least we’re warm enough.” No sooner had she made the pronouncement, than the fates intervened, the car engine dying with a sputter. “I’m sure he’ll be back in a minute,” Sara added, unsure which one of them she was trying to convince more.

“This is stupid; why don’t we just get out and go up to the front door?” Joanie muttered, unbuckling her seat belt.

“Yeah, okay,” Sara nodded, preparing to do the same. All at once, the mist swirled higher, cloaking the car in darkness. Sara shivered as the temperature plummeted, her breath visible in the sudden chill. “On second thought…”

Joanie pulled up the fur collar of her coat, bringing her hands up to blow on them. “Did I say murdered in our beds?”

“It’s just fog,” the words full of false bravado, Sara leaned against the window, desperate to find anything in the swirling fog to give her a point of reference. They could be completely cast adrift at sea for all she could tell; even the hulking shadow of the house was entirely hidden. Another shiver went through Sara as her fingertips pressed against the frigid glass; the sudden crunch of gravel the only warning before the door flew open and she nearly tumbled out, if not for the strong arms of the driver.

“Careful, my Lady,” he smiled, restoring her balance. Behind him, she could just make out the entrance of the house and then the fog seemed to dissipate, the porch lights dispelling the gloom with warm, yellow light.

Okay, so far this year I’ve given up fried foods, baked desserts, fast food, and started exercising 5 days a week and tracking everything I eat. It’s June, so that means it’s time to give up something else and this one is going to hurt rolling into the summer months – no more ice cream!

I went back and forth on whether it was a better idea to wait until after summer to give this one up, but in the end decided that it would be healthier to give it up now.

Let’s see… what else is going on… Nine Steps to Sara is coming along great! I’m in the home stretch now, just a few major scenes to get to, and I’ll be done with my first draft. We’ve found a great cover idea, so that’s progressing well too.

Also, my oldest is graduating high school in a few days!!! Man, I’m old…