Okay… I’ve been heads down on the book so… I’ve not really even breathed long enough to write a blog post. But of course I am not neglecting you on purpose.
It’s rainy AF today in SoCal. Not as cold as the past few days. We’re sitting at a morning of 60º instead of 45. It’ll warm up like usual to about 70.
But man, the rain makes me sleepy. Soooo sleepy.
The dog’s already gone to crash in his dog bed. Because well, he’s getting old and he’s a dog. I’m sure he’ll wake up in time to bark at a bird or a lizard in the backyard.
Tutus and Tinsel WILL have a blog tour so… I’ll be posting about that in a bit. Hope you all have had a good November and let’s wrap up this year with a bang! Okay, maybe just some cookies and a cup of coffee.
I wanted to take a few moments before I started cooking — okay that’s a lie because I started a little bit of things — to tell all of you thank you.
So much of my life has changed over the last eight years. The writing stuff hasn’t, actually. I’ve always been a writer but this part of my life — Rhys Ford part — altered how I live. How I work. And has given me some very deep friendships.
All of which are because of all of you, the readers.
When I wrote Dirty Kiss, I never expected to discover and embrace siblings-not-in-blood along the way. I have found Lisa Horan, Mary Calmes, the San Diego Crewe, and Greg Tremblay. I’ve made countless friends and some of them are quite dear, way too many to list. And I think if I began to, I would leave somebody out and it would devastate me. Seriously, names are just popping up in my mind like fireworks.
I am forever grateful to Elizabeth North has become a good friend and to everyone at Dreamspinner — especially Naomi — because I’m sure I drive them insane and I’m a bitch and a half to work with. I’m very grateful for my editors. From Lynn, Grace, Liz, and everyone else who checked over my words and sprinkled or erased commas. We have battled over word choices ( okay, battled is really just a strong word… I would actually say discuss) and actually at one time, had a back-and-forth conversation about paladins turning the undead at two levels higher than a cleric based on the rules in the Unearthed Arcana.
But really, I am in total debt to every single person who picked up one of my books. You have allowed me the opportunity to come visit with you, both through my words and by traveling to events. As many of you know,I feel very strongly about readers. You have welcomed us authors into your lives and spent a part of your day earning the money to bring us there. We are in your homes and thoughts and dreams by your grace.
I am honored to be there. I hope to continue to be there to entertain you and to give you stories that keep you up at night because that’s the greatest gift I can give you… sleeplessness because you want to turn the next page.
So thank you again from the bottom of my heart and I can’t wait to see what next year brings
It is Sunday morning and I’ve been woken because of cat shenanigans and the dog needing to go to the bathroom. Today is Veterans Day as well as Remembrance Day, time when set aside a few thoughts those who were in the service and who gave all while in the service.
So wherever you are, please take a moment to stop and send a bit of positive wishes to the souls (both living and dead) who wore their uniform and protected our freedoms.
I was going to make a long post today, just rambling about this and that but I realize there’s kind of so much to say and I don’t really have a good game plan on where to start.
So, right now, I’ll leave you with my wishes that you have or had a good Sunday and that your week is a wondeful one.
Narrated by Greg Tremblay, the anthology will now be fully realized in its most vibrant form! Well, okay… now I’m getting a little bit crazy there with the wording BUT I do know Greg probably had as much fun voicing this book as we had writing it. Can’t wait to hear everyone’s tales of horror, machinations, comedy and love.
I love writing complex characters. At first, they might seem pretty simple, even tropey. My heroine is “feisty” which in itself is a trope of the genre, but is she just an ordinary person who steps up to the plate…or is there more to her and her history?
My heroine Kylie Strange moves from California to Maine to start a new life and open Strange Herbs & Teas. But when doing some renovations, she accidentally breaks through a wall and finds an ancient book called “Booke of the Hidden.” When she opens it she unwittingly releases deadly creatures into the world that she is tasked with hunting down and returning to the booke. But along with the creatures of supernatural lore, the Guardian of the Booke is awakened, a demon called Erasmus Dark.
What happens when a four-thousand-year-old demon who is only awakened for a few days every several hundred years, finds himself confronted with someone like Kylie for the first time in his life, a woman of the 21st century who befriends a misfit coven of Wiccans to help her, and refuses to go down fighting? And what happens when this demon, who has a deadly relationship with all those in the past who opened the booke, finds himself falling for a human?
When I devise my characters, I like to give them full backstories, some of which the reader will never know about. It flavors their reactions to stress and gives them reasons for doing what they do. And an important part of that is their name, or the meaning behind the name. Character names are important to me. The names have to sound and look right on the page, and they have to mean something. Sometimes that’s just my little secret, but at other times, they can get downright Dickensian. Kylie Strange has a surname that might seem a little over the top at first, but having done the research, I found the “Strange” surname has been in New England since it was New England.
As for Erasmus Dark, well, the “Dark” name is self-explanatory. But the “Erasmus” part I chose for two reasons. One, it’s old and sounds out of date, much like he is himself. He’s a fish out of water. The last time he was awake, it was 1720. Now there are cars, computers, and women who aren’t afraid to go toe to toe with him. He certainly was no virgin for four thousand years but there were never any emotions involved. And now there is. Kylie seems to be his match and the big and bad demon must come to terms with what he has been required to do to the ones who opened the booke, but now there are feelings of protectiveness for this human. Being a deadly demon, he has walked alone and now he finds he no longer wants that. So his name was perfect. It means “worthy to be loved.” Is he? Does his past get in the way of that? Can he be worthy to be loved?
Kylie isn’t so sure she wants to get involved with Erasmus, but his broodiness and exoticism is very alluring. But so is the handsome sheriff in town. Kylie is a woman of her time and can’t decide, and does she have to? I guess readers will find out.
Award-winning author Jeri Westerson likes to make the fur fly in her new paranormal series Booke of the Hidden. The second book in the series, DEADLY RISING, will release October 23rd. See her “booke” trailer, friend her on Facebook, and sign up for her quarterly newsletter on her website BOOKEoftheHIDDEN.com.
Rhys Ford 