A lot of people have asked me – when is the next Forged Bloodlines book coming out? It’s hard to pinpoint exactly with the holidays coming up, especially because my oldest is coming home for a visit and I want to be able to do family things without a tight deadline over my head. So, when I say “early 2015″ I’m aiming for sometime in January, but the reality might be February if too many family commitments take precedence.

In looking to 2015, I’ve drawn up a very rough sketch of my writing plans for the year, which are of course, subject to change.

Early 2015 – Tempt Me When the Sun Goes Down
Spring – The Company of Death, the final book in The Company series.
Early Summer – Book 10 of Forged Bloodlines
Late Summer – A sequel to my shifter book, Moonsong, where we follow Scarlett out into the world.
Fall – Book 11 of Forged Bloodlines
End of 2015 – Let Sleeping Ghosts Lie, a stand alone ghost story.

Like I said, this could totally change. The Company might get suddenly popular and I could write Cady adventures ’til the cows come home, or one of the other projects on my back burner could fight its way to the front of the line. Because there are SO MANY IDEAS waiting for their turn!

Let’s hear from you guys. If you could hack into my robot brain, what writing order would you set for me?

I’m very excited to be part of Amazon’s new venture, and have published my story The Vampire Diaries: Tabula Rasa through the Kindle Worlds program. This lets authors “borrow” the characters from specific shows they’ve obtained permission from and spin their own realities. The authors retain ownership of any new characters they bring to the table, but we can build on each other’s worlds and the show could even decide to use our ideas if they like it enough.

I’m giving it a shot to see how it pans out, mostly to try and reach new readers, and also just because I love, love, love writing Damon in The Vampire Diaries. It’s a fun change to play in their world every now and again instead of my own, and with Tabula Rasa in particular, I had a lot of fun winking at established canon through my own eyes since it’s an amnesia story, the name inspired by one of my favorite episodes of Buffy.

Here is the blurb:

Tabula Rasa means blank slate, hence a perfect name for a fic about amnesia. The premise is this: Elena, Katherine, Caroline, Bonnie, Damon, Stefan, & Mason all wake to find themselves trapped in an abandoned warehouse with complete amnesia. Stripped of their past histories and all the baggage that comes with it, how will they interact with each other? Who can be trusted? And who has betrayal in their heart? Will we end up with canon pairings? Or will other true feelings be revealed? This story takes place after episode 2.5 Kill or be Killed, going completely AU after that.

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.

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.

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.

I just finished the final update of my Vampire Diaries Fanfic, Dark Side of the Moon and that always gets me to thinking about starting something new. I can’t wait to start the next one, but it’ll have to wait a few weeks I think until the novel is edited and ready to go. I might even take a break and get to some reading I’ve been looking forward to (Got Storm Chaser by Mark R. Hunter already downloaded to my Nook and ready to go!) before I start the next book in The Fallen series.

I’m looking forward to some turkey with family and friends this week. I always make the same delicious recipe with lemons, rosemary and dijon mustard. (I know it sounds a little weird, but it makes the best gravy!) I’ve just about got my holiday shopping done too except for some online purchases, how about you guys? Are you going to brave the Black Friday deals or settle in with some cocoa and hit the online sales?

Okay so I know that season 2 is long gone now, but I just hate leaving things unfinished, so I thought I’d continue with the recaps at least through the end of this season. 

As we start the show, Elena has just removed the dagger from Elijah’s chest and sits there, calmly waiting for him to wake up.  (I don’t think I’d be quite so calm!)  When Elijah opens his eyes for the first time, he mistakes her for Katherine (or Katarina, as he calls her) and we are transported back to England 1492 with another period flashback.  Will we get to see the elusive Klaus?  I’m assuming so from the title of the episode.  Everybody gets their silly hair of course, but when Elijah sees Katarina, he’s very taken with her as she reminds him of someone else.  Klaus makes a grand entrance, and proceeds to woo Katarina without any real interest in her; something she picks up on, even as she acknowledges that he’s very charming.  Elijah points out that many unions have been built on less but Katarina insists that she wants more.  She makes a very pretty speech about love, saying that there’s no point in living without it.  Elijah says he doesn’t believe in love and might have said more but Klaus returns and spirits her away.

Back in real time, Elijah can’t breathe because he hasn’t been invited into the house.  (interesting because vampires don’t need to breathe anyway… but I digress)  On the porch, Elena tries to convince him that he can trust her by handing over the dagger.  (No don’t do that!  Use it to kill Klaus!)  Stefan wakes to find Elena gone and immediately fears for the worst.  But Damon seems unconcerned, canoodling with Andie until they notice the door to the basement is ajar and go down to find Elijah missing. 

Elena offers Elijah her help (along with some blood bags until he is looking his usual hunky self) and in return asks for his help.  She believes that he is a noble man and follows a code of honor and that she can trust him.  Telling Stefan to back off and let her handle this on her own, she goes with him to the Lockwood Estate, (how random is that?  Were they just looking to use the pretty set again?) so that he can get a change of clothes and they can have some time to talk.  Elijah gives us the lowdown on some of his family’s past history, revealing that Klaus is his brother, and at one time he would have done anything for him.  There were seven children in his family, but they were all born human.  While they are the Original family and all vampires are descended from them, he doesn’t go into how they all ended up vampires at all.  (damn!)  He also reveals that the entire Sun and Moon curse is a load of crap!  No truth to it in any part, they made it up in order to obscure what they’re really looking for, even going so far as to draft the old Aztec legends themselves.  That way there would be an army of werewolves and vampires out there searching for the doppelganger and the moonstone for them and they can defeat the real curse which is on Klaus alone.

Damon can’t believe that Elena is playing herself right into Elijah’s hands and believes they should stop her before she gets herself killed.  But Stefan tells him to respect Elena’s wishes and back off.  They look like they might fight about it for half a second but Damon agrees to let them call the shots.  Only as soon as Stefan leaves Damon decides to break from the team and do his own thing, bringing Andie in tow. 

 Katherine gets Klaus (in Alaric’s body) to tell her that he needs to do the ritual to break the curse right there in Mystic Falls since it’s the birthplace of the Doppleganger.  Klaus compels her to stay in the apartment, effectively trapping her until he changes his mind, or dies, whichever comes first.  Bored out of her mind, she starts to look for something to do, but then Damon shows up with Andie.  He decides to give her some vervain to keep Klaus from compelling her any further, but it still doesn’t break the compulsion she’s already under and she’s still trapped in Alaric’s apartment. 

Stefan rushes over to the Gilbert house, desperate to keep Jenna from spending any time with Alaric now that he’s possessed by Klaus.  Only Alaric is already there acting super creepy.  He makes some awkward small talk while brandishing a large cooking knife.  Jenna just gets more and more pissed off while he babbles on about vampires and werewolf legends and she orders him from the house.  Stefan is revealed as a vampire when he has to use his super speed and strength to hold Alaric back.  Jenna is stunned to see Stefan all vamped out, but leaves the house when he tells her to.  The secret is out!  Stefan calls Elena to tell her about Jenna and Elijah reluctantly lets her go take care of family business.

Elena rushes back to the Salvatore place to beg Jenna’s forgiveness for keeping her in the dark this whole time.  Jenna demands to know who else knows and is livid that everyone else knew all about it, even Jeremy.  She falls apart and Elena feels terrible.  (don’t worry sister, I would have done the same thing in your shoes.  Or hmm, would I have?  I am terrible at keeping secrets!)  Elena leaves Jenna there with Stefan and goes back to Elijah after Stefan and Damon have another staring contest over who is the bigger man.  (somehow these feel manufactured to me.  I just can’t picture Stefan holding his own in a match against Damon, if only because he’d fight more honorably than Damon would)

Alaric/Klaus returns home just as his luggage arrives, including a huge box that contains his body and his own witch (Luka’s missing sister!)  More than ready to get out of Alaric’s body, they start preparations to return Klaus to his own body.

Elena surprises Elijah by returning to him and demanding to know what Klaus’ curse is all about.  Klaus was not his full brother, and from a different bloodline as their mother had taken a lover.  When Elijah’s father learned of this, he hunted down Klaus’ father and killed him, thereby starting the war between vampires and werewolves that continues to this day.  This makes Klaus both a vampire and a werewolf.  (eewh!  Somehow I find the idea a little creepy but YMMV) The curse binds the werewolf half of himself, only allowing him to access the vampire side.  Dun, dun, dun!

Last ten minutes of the show:

Elijah tells Elena that Klaus wants to break the curse in order to sire his own race of werewolf/vampires, which would threaten those on both sides.  When Elena asks why Elijah helped him to try and break the curse when he posed such a threat, Elijah reveals that he helped Klaus for so long because he loved him, but not any longer.  The only way to kill Klaus now is for a witch to channel enough power to kill him (which is really hard to do).  Elijah’s plan is to go through with the ritual and kill Klaus when he’s at his most vulnerable. 

We flash back to Elijah telling Klaus that the witches might have found a way to spare the doppleganger’s life but Klaus doesn’t seem to care.  One human’s life means nothing to him.  Elijah begs him to reconsider (seriously, did he fall in love with her?) but denies that he had any feelings for Katarina.  Klaus warns that love is a vampire’s greatest weakness.  “We do not fear and we do not care,” he says.  “We did once,” Elijah reminds him, but Klaus doesn’t care and instructs him to tell the witches not to bother trying to save her life.

Elena is surprised to hear that she might not have to die, but they weren’t able to test the theory out since Katarina took matters into her own hands, becoming a vampire.  She realizes that Elijah must have had feelings for Katherine back then, but he shrugs it off, saying it’s a common mistake or so he’s told and one he won’t make again. 

Andie tries to comfort Damon who’s upset that Elena’s out there with Elijah again, but Damon tells her to leave him alone, in too bad of a mood to deal with being fussed over.  Stefan shows up to chide Damon for keeping Andie around like a plaything, reminding him that she’s a person.  Damon replies that Stefan should be grateful that he’s keeping Andie around, it keeps him from going after what he really wants.  “You’re right, thank you, for being in love with my girlfriend,” Stefan says, and the cards are all out on the table now!  “You can be in love with Elena all you want if it means you will protect her, but I have the one thing you never have, her respect.”  Ouch!  Damon responds with a resounding punch that sends Stefan flying across the room.  (Go Damon!)  They growl and snap at each other a little while longer until Elena appears with Elijah, demanding that they stop. 

Elijah flashes back to a similar memory of fighting with Klaus after Katarina has gone missing.  Klaus threatens to kill Elijah if he had anything to do with her escape. 

Damon is pissed to see that Elena invited Elijah into the house but she tells the brothers that they have renewed the terms of their deal.  Elijah promises that neither of them will come to any harm at his hands, in exchange for one thing; an apology.  I had to laugh at the look on Damon’s face over that request.  Stefan steps forth to apologize for the part he had in Elijah’s death but that he did it for Elena and will always protect Elena.  But Damon tells them to all go to hell, he doesn’t trust Elijah at all.  They all shake their head over his behavior and Damon goes up to his room to find Andie waiting in her underwear.  “I thought I told you to leave,” he says.  “You didn’t compel me,” she grins, before adding that she wants to be there for him.  Damon isn’t amused.  He’s upset, and knows what will happen to her when he’s upset.  He yells at her to leave but she refuses.  “You need to know that someone cares about you.  I care about you Damon,” she insists.  Damon bites into her neck savagely and I thought for sure she was a goner, but instead he lets her go and compels her to leave before he kills her.  Andie grabs her clothes and stumbles out while Damon tries to get ahold of himself.

Back at Alaric’s apartment, the ritual works and Klaus is put back into his own body.  Alaric passes out with no memory of what happened while Klaus was possessing him.  Klaus steps out of the crate looking fresh as a daisy.  “Now that’s more like it,” he says; a mischievous smile on his lips. 

Random thoughts I had:

I am dying to know who the Petrova dopplegangers resemble!  One of the Originals?  But then that would make it one of Elijah’s sisters, ick! 

If you had just found out about the existence of vampires (Jenna) and saw one vamp out in front of you (Stefan), is his house the first place you would run?  I’m just saying…

Is it wrong that I cheered when Damon knocked Stefan across the room?

Am I the only one who liked Klaus better in Alaric’s body?

Boy, what a lot of revelations in this episode.  No sun and moon curse, Klaus is not only Elijah’s half brother, but half werewolf and the one the curse is really on.  Elijah had a thing for Katherine back in the day.  There might be a way for Elena to survive the ritual… it goes on and on.

I could always start another book, I’ve got another stand alone novel idea all prepped and ready to go.  Okay so it’s not fully mapped out, but I have the basic premise in mind.  Or I could do a sequel to one of my other four books, each of them can definitely work as part of a series, especially Angel of Mercy which ends on a definite cliffhanger.  I am enjoying the lazy pace of posting to fanfic though, I am addicted to the instant feedback for one (hey, it’s been an hour since my last update, where are my reviews?!) and I love, love, love writing Damon, he’s gotta be the most fun to write for, hands down.

I do intend to get back to finishing the Vampire Diaries recaps too, it bothers me that I didn’t finish them, even though everyone’s probably seen them by now.  I’ll tackle the next one this weekend, I’ve got them all on Tivo.  We’ve also got some private ventures going on, working on setting up an online store of all kinds of interesting, eclectic gifts and that’s taking up some of my time too and on top of that some home remodeling stuff we’ve been putting off for far too long.  So… just a little to keep me busy these days. �

Work has been crazy busy lately and all of my writing has taken a hit because of it as I’ve been more braindead when I get home and less productive, but it’s a huge weight off to have the 1st draft done of The Touch and find that it came out alright. 

Vacation is coming up all next week and we’ll see if I end up taking a vacation from writing too or if I let myself do some fun writing as relaxation… we’ll see.  I just got the new Sookie Stackhouse book to read too so I’m looking forward to delving into that.

Sorry I haven’t updated the Vampire Diaries recap but I just haven’t had the time and based on web traffic I’m not convinced too many people were really following it anyway, so it became lower on the priority list of what to work on.  I’ve got all the eps on Tivo, so if I get the time I could still write them out, but right now I’m not making any promises. 

Well off to start the first of many rewrites before Justified is on tonight!  10pm on FX, don’t forget to watch!

Episode 2.18 – “The Last Dance”

Klaus in Alaric’s body is getting a crash course on Alaric’s life from Katherine while he looks for something to wear out of his limited wardrobe.  Katherine pleads with him to kill her and spare her the torture, but he’s not done with her yet.  He searched for her for over five hundred years and her death is going to last at least half that long if he gets his wish.  Before he leaves, he compels her to stab her own leg with a knife over and over again.  The wounds heal quickly, but still cause her considerable pain and blood loss.  The torture begins!

Elena officially signs the papers that give her ownership of the Salvatore boarding house.  She invites Stephan in right away but makes Damon promise to obey her and he does so reluctantly (why do I not believe him?).  But just as soon as she secures her safety, she and Bonnie leave to go to school despite Damon and Stephan’s protests that they didn’t give her a safe house so she could leave it.  Bonnie promises to stick by her side and since she’s the best weapon they have against Klaus, they agree to let her go. 

Klaus has a little trouble fitting into Alaric’s life when it comes to teaching about the 60’s.  All he can say about them is that they kind of sucked except for the Beatles.  Unfortunately we only get to watch him flounder his way through it for a few minutes before we’re shown the preparations for the dance.  Jeremy continues to push Bonnie to tell the others that it could kill her to harness the power of the other witches but she won’t budge.  He leaves in a snit once Elena arrives in the cafeteria.  Random girl we’ve never seen before this episode shows up to tell Elena that a totally hot guy named Klaus asked if she’s going to the dance tonight and if she’ll save him the last dance. Bonnie and Elena look suitably freaked out, but the girl doesn’t seem to notice. 

Damon and Stefan plan to go to the dance to try and spot Klaus and keep Elena safe.  In the midst of making plans with Elena and Bonnie, “Alaric” shows up, proving that Klaus needs no invitation to enter the house while in his body.  He learns that Bonnie not only has her powers but is capable of channeling the power of the witches.  There’s also a live demonstration when she easily bats down a surprise attack from Damon who wants to test how strong she is.  So much for the secret weapon!

Klaus confers with his witch and they come up with a plan to provoke Bonnie to death.  Knowing that it’ll kill her to channel that much power, his witch says he can offer Alaric’s human body some extra protection to keep him alive long enough to keep attacking her long enough for her to die. 

Elena finds enough vintage clothing in the Salvatore’s old stuff to outfit herself for the 60’s dance.  Matt has trouble acting normal around Caroline, but somehow manages to pull it together and take her to the dance.  Jeremy offers Bonnie his magical ring but she tells him that it won’t work on her because she’s supernatural, not human.  Damon overhears them talking and knows that Bonnie could die if she uses all of that power. 

Klaus dedicates a song to Elena “This is dedicated to the one I love”, which puts everyone on edge.  Damon insists that they try and blend in and let Klaus come to them so they pair off to dance while Damon goes to talk to Ric.  “I’m not impressed,” he tells him and Klaus looks affronted.  Stephan goes off to warn Caroline of what’s going on when he spots her arriving, leaving Elena in Damon’s very capable arms.  She’s surprised to see him dance so well and he brags that he has moves she’s never seen before.  It’s nice to see them share a lighter moment together.  Next Damon cuts in to dance with Bonnie and he admits that he overheard that she only has a fifty-fifty shot of surviving.  He has no plans to tell Elena, he’s just glad she’s willing to do whatever it takes to keep Elena safe like he is. 

Jeremy wanders away from the dance but Stefan goes after him and he can’t help but spill the beans that it might kill Bonnie to take on Klaus.  Of course Stefan runs right off to tell Elena before confronting Damon to see if he knew.  Elena tells Bonnie that she won’t let her go through with it.  But Bonnie asks if the situation was reversed, would Elena do it for her?  When Elena admits that she would, Bonnie says then you should know why I have to do it for you.

Jeremy gets jumped in the hallway by a bunch of teens who Klaus has compelled to attack him in order to separate Bonnie from the others and Stephan and Damon arrive in time to save him.  The teens are well armed to fight vampires, staking Damon in the shoulder but the brothers are still able to easily defeat them.  Stephan tells Damon to go find Bonnie and Elena, he’s going to take care of the boys himself.  (strange that he didn’t want to be the one to go after Elena, isn’t it?)  But while they’re dealing with this diversion, Alaric lures Bonnie and Elena to another deserted part of the school.  Before they get too far he reveals himself as Klaus.  Bonnie hits him with a couple of good solid blasts, and they run away.  Damon finds them, and asks Bonnie if she’s still willing to do whatever it takes to kill Klaus?  (My spidey senses are tingling here, what are they plotting?)

Bonnie goes hunting down Alaric, finding him by some vending machines.  She fires blow after blow at him, but soon starts to tire, her nose starting to bleed.  Elena finds Stephan and they try to go help Bonnie.  Bonnie deliberately locks Elena and Stephan out while she continues to attack Alaric until she finally collapses on the ground, unmoving.  Damon tells Stephan to get Elena home so he can take care of the body.  He pulls an inconsolable Elena away while Damon gathers up Bonnie, closing her eyelids with an air of finality.  Uh oh, doesn’t look so good for Bonnie, but I don’t really believe that she’s gone for good. 

Last ten minutes of the show:

Damon tells Jeremy that they need to have a little talk after putting Bonnie’s body in the trunk.

Elena is still a mess, sitting by the fire with Stephan, crying that it’s all her fault.  Damon comes in and she demands to know what he did with Bonnie.  He tells her to calm down, but she slaps him, incensed that he knew all along that it might cost Bonnie her life to fight Klaus.  Damon takes the slap, but tells her calmly that she needs to listen to him and prepare for what he’s about to say.  Bonnie had to die because she wasn’t prepared to fight Klaus in Alaric’s body.  Klaus wouldn’t stop attacking until he knew Bonnie was dead, he needed to believe it, so Bonnie cast a spell to make him think that she’d died. 

Cut to the old ruined mansion where the witches were killed and we see Jeremy arranging Bonnie’s body in a ring of candles and she smiles after drawing in a gasping breath.   He unpacks a computer with “MiFi” (shameless product placement!) since she’ll be there for a while. Elena and Bonnie video chat for a minute and Bonnie apologizes for putting her through that.

Stephan scolds Damon for not telling him about his plan with Bonnie, but Damon points out that he never knows when Stephan’s going to go blabbing to his girlfriend and Elena needed to believe that Bonnie was dead in order for it to look real.  Damon says he’s willing to play the bad guy and make all of the hard decisions, even get hit for it, but at the end of the day, he’ll be the one to keep her alive. 

Elena comes to see Damon later and she says that she understands why he did what he did.  “Here’s to duplicity,” he salutes her with his drink.  But she wants to get one thing straight, she doesn’t want Bonnie to die, she wants them to find another way to stop Klaus.  She apologizes for hitting him and he accepts but wants to make one thing perfectly clear to her in turn.  If it comes down to it, he’ll gladly let Bonnie die to save her, because he will always choose her life first.  Elena doesn’t argue, but goes down to the cellar and pulls the magic knife out of Elijah’s chest!   Cue the dramatic music!

Random thoughts I had:

How come there’s this new character Dana that we’ve never seen before who’s suddenly in every scene as a random student? 

Why does the idea of Damon as a chaperone at a school dance make me giggle?

How cute was Alaric dancing his way through the crowd when he first got there?

My first thought was that Damon had given Bonnie some of his blood so she’d come back as a vampire witch if she died, I wasn’t expecting the spell thing!

Okay I so did not see Elijah’s resurrection coming!  This is seriously cool, I can’t wait to see him up and around again!