In the Dark --now in print

When you live forever, you're bound to make a few mistakes...

What can you say about a 1960s hippie chick who died? That she was as beautiful as Ali McGraw playing Jennifer Cavilleri. And possibly braver. That she loved Christmas and chocolate. And the Beatles. And a sexy, eleven hundred year old vampire she met while crashing a party. 

Or that I'm totally ripping off Erich Segal's Love Story with this opening. 

It's fitting, actually, because In the Dark (which was just released in print this week) really is a love story, as opposed to a romance. 

I know. That totally surprised the hell out of me as well. In fact, the book was finished before I realized what I'd done and, by then, with the rest of the series mostly planned out, it was too late to change it even if I'd wanted to. Which I didn't.

I will admit that the final scene between Conrad and Suzanne/Desert Rose was the most difficult I've ever written. I will admit to having become convinced, at one point, that I was channeling the ghost of Nick Spark's evil, dead, gay twin brother (a bitchy and totally fictitious [so far as I know] spirit whom I decided to call Dick). But what can I say? As my malicious muse kept insisting, you really can't write about vampires without writing about death. Besides,  this book opened the way for the sequel, which Samhain has just contracted, which is a romance  So I guess it all worked out after all.

So if you like vampires and tragic love stories with what Holly from Long and Short Reviews has termed "a different kind of happy ending," I hope you'll give it a try. 

Blurb: 1969 San Francisco. World-weary Conrad Quintano should have known better than to fall in love with a human—much less Suzanne Fischer, the barely legal, adventure-seeking hippie beauty known as Desert Rose. And the very last thing he should have agreed to do was to raise her babies and protect them with his life. But even twelve-hundred-year-old master vampires can find it hard to reject a deathbed request—especially when issues of love, guilt and blood are involved.

Present day. Raised in virtual isolation, twins Marc and Julie Fischer have always known they are vampires. But they never knew their parentage—or their unique status in the vampire world—until their “uncle” Damian comes to fetch them home. The family reunion, however, isn’t what they expect. They’re thrust into a world for which they’re totally unprepared. And the father they expected to see, Conrad, is missing.

How to find him…and whom to trust? Solving the mystery of betrayal and vampire family values will prove the Beatles had it right. All you need is love…and an occasional side of blood.

Warning: While reading this book you may experience any of the following, an increased desire to wear flowers in your hair, dress in tie-dye or nap during the day. Other symptoms may include an intolerance to sunlight, an aversion to garlic-flavored tofu and a pronounced urge to bake…or get baked.  

Excerpt:   “This is not what I had in mind for tonight, chérie,” [Conrad] protested but she was already pressing closer, going up on her toes. At the first brush of her lips on his, he was lost.

Mine, his body insisted again, even louder than before. Growling in satisfaction, he caged her in his arms and kissed her back voraciously. Knowing he would never get enough of the taste of her, knowing this would likely be the last night they would ever spend in each other’s arms, he decided to throw caution, common sense and all his scruples to the wind. He would make the most of their time together. He would make love to her as she had never been made love to before.

He’d picked her up and was headed for the bed when she stiffened suddenly, a muffled exclamation bursting from her lips.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, pulling back to look at her.

She pointed over his shoulder. “I can see you. Look, there in the mirror. I thought vampires didn’t have reflections?”

Conrad shook his head. “Don’t believe everything you’ve heard about us, chérie. Very little of it is true.”

“Like what?” she asked as he deposited her on the bed. Curling up on her knees, she gazed at him curiously as he began to undress.

“Well, as you can see, I have yet to explode in sunlight, for one thing. I don’t die again each day at dawn. Crucifixes bother me not in the slightest, nor does holy water.”

“How about things like wooden stakes?” she inquired, bringing a teasing smile to his lips as he dropped his pants to the floor.

“I do not believe that I am the one who needs to worry about being impaled here tonight, mignonne.”

She blushed and dropped her gaze. “Stop it. I’m being serious.”

“So am I.” Climbing into bed beside her, he took her hand and wrapped it around his erection. “Very serious.”

Her fingers trembled as she tightened her hand on him and shyly stroked up and down the length of his shaft. “So, you’re saying things like that really don’t hurt you either?”

Sighing, he leaned into her and softly kissed her lips. “Yes, my curious one, I’m sure it would hurt to be stabbed through the heart, or to be set on fire, or any of the many other equally unpleasant things you can, no doubt, imagine. Many things can hurt me. For the most part, however, only something that destroys my heart, severs my head, or leaves me drained of blood would likely be fatal. Other than that…” He shrugged dismissively. He’d been wounded on numerous occasions over the course of his lifetime. To live at all was to know pain, in one form or another. But pain, like pleasure, was a transitory thing. One endured and moved on.

“Will you really live forever?” she asked as he drew her down beside him. “And never grow old?”

“Forever is a long time, chérie, and there are always accidents waiting to happen. I suspect that, sooner or later, something will occur to put an end to my life. But, it will not be tonight.” He rolled on top of her then, settling himself between her thighs, wrapping her legs around his hips. “Tonight we are both safe and the only ‘death’ either of us need worry about is la petite mort, the little death.”

“What’s that mean?” she asked, pushing at his shoulders until he’d raised his head. Her eyes were wide with dismay.

Conrad grinned wickedly, enchanted anew by her innocence. “Have you really never heard the term? Then relax, my sweet, and I will show you.”

Link to reviews:  http://pgforte.com/reviews_for_In_the_Dark.html

Link to buy book: http://samhainpublishing.com/print/in-the-dark-print

Growing Stones

Have you ever thought to yourself, that’ll never happen to me? I thought that once, but then I found myself in the ER with a kidney stone. I’ve listened to others talk about it. I’ve heard the news of my brother, my sister and my husband’s brothers suffering from the ailment a time or two…or more, but I never knew the word “suffering” until now.

In mid-March, while sitting in my day-job’s office, a tightness had started in my back and side. I’d thought I was having a muscle spasm. By the time I’d left work, the pain had increased. When early evening had rolled around, I’d wanted someone to hit me over the head with a two-by-four.

After an evening visit to an Immediate Care Center, then a visit to my local ER two days later, both of which dismissed it as a UTI and sent me home with antibiotics, I’d finally received a referral for a scan.

And what do you know…a lodged kidney stone.

Then the adventure truly began.

There are several things I’d learned during the adventure. The first had been that Stadol is the bomb! That being said, let’s move on to the second one.

A lot of conversations go on in the ER, and it seems sitting behind a curtain make sthe voices louder.

One particular “ER mate” had proven rather comical. She had a habit of clearing her throat, which to me had sounded more like hawking a loogie. Though the sound had turned my stomach, it evidentially had no affect on the soundee.

The woman had continuously talked about food, whether it was crispy fried potatoes or chocolate. Her “there’s a rumbly in my tummy” had almost made me laugh out loud. The bed busting fart she’d emitted had managed to break my restraint.

My humor had quickly ebated when a nurse pushed aside the curtain and entered my little sterilized domain with the unsettling news she had to obtain a lean urine sample via a quick cath. Little did I know it takes three nurses to achieve such a task, especially when the first nurse had failed to operate the contraption correctly. All was well when the task was completed, and the three went on their way.

I’d finally arrived at my private suite, which had been just big enough for the bed and a closet-size bathroom.

Speaking of bathrooms, I’d quickly discovered making the trip while maneuvering an IV pump wasn’t as easy as they make it look on television.

Another thing I’d learned was how little it takes to amuse the staff. Days before my self-imposed incarceration, I’d made a visit to the nail salon. My shiny blue nails with elegant white stripes lined with silver color and matching toe nails had incurred many a conversation. More than once the comment had been made that I didn’t look as though I belonged in the hospital, and I couldn’t have agreed with them more. There’d been a million other places I’d wished to have been.

While awaiting surgery, I’d found myself in the company of several vampire romance lovers, and of course I’d felt the need to tout my vampire romance series, The Watchers.

Stent in place, I’d been sent home to wait out the curing of a major infection before surgery to remove the stone.

Ever heard of a stent? It’s a wire that runs from your kidney to your bladder and feels as though you’ve got a coat hanger for a tampon. Not pleasant. Not pleasant at all.

You know, I do believe the surgical staff were in need of comic relief the day of my surgery. Before going under, comments on my, once again newly painted toenails which matched my fingernails filled the room. I shouldn’t have been surprised that while in recovery, I discovered one of the booties had disappeared, leaving exposed the nails which had amused the staff.

Another reason I say the staff must have been in rare form was the fact that a few days later I discovered a 4” piece of tape in a spot where I wouldn’t even pay someone to place and remove.

When I’d made the joke to my doctor as to how a 1” piece of tape should have sufficed, he’d laughed and referred to the tape on my leg to hold the string which was tied to the end of the stent to aid in removal.

My leg. Someone surely had not gotten the memo on that one, I thought as I recalled the “Ah! Kelly Clarkson” moment I’d had during remove of said tape.

Pulling the rip cord on the stent as the approved time had been the highlight of my adventure. It had meant I’d neared the end of the journey.

As I write this little ditty, I must say I’m feeling more and more like myself every day. And for that, I am truly grateful.

So, the next time you hear someone is suffering from a kidney stone attack, I hope you’ll remember my little tale on Growing Stones and offer your sympathy, because believe me, they deserve it.

D. (Diane) McEntire
www.dmcentire.com
The Watchers Series
Samhain Publishing

Introduction - Diane McEntire

Hello everyone! I’m D. (Diane) McEntire author of the paranormal romance series The Watchers.

Nine Questions for the Nine Naughty Novelists:

1. If you had to choose only one form of chocolate for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Dark chocolate has always been my favorite. Never was a Hershey’s person. I’d be happy to switch is there was a “will not go to your butt and thighs” chocolate.

2. What author got you started reading or writing romance?

I love the JR Ward’s Brotherhood of the Black Dagger Series. They didn’t actually get me started, but if I’m in a funk, reading one of them gets my juices flowing again.

3. What's the naughtiest thing you've ever done?

Sounds lame…but I made out in the back of my car at Cherokee Park.

4. What do you like best about the heroine in your latest book?

I put a lot of myself in her (Midnight Savior releasing Dec. 15th). Many of her trials through life have been my own.

5. What is a must have in your writing routine?

Ideas. My creative flow has to be going. I can’t just sit and write. I have to be in the mood. I often wonder how authors can bang out books so fast. I envy them.

6. What was the most interesting thing you learned in researching your most recent release?

The locale I used was the US Marine Hospital located behind where I work. It is one of the last standing Marine hospitals. We are talking merchant riverboat marines and not the marines today.

7. You're marooned on a tropical island, what sexy celebrity and comfort reads would you want with you?
Probably all of the books from the JR Ward series. I could read them over and over and over…

8. Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what's your favorite, or does it change from book to book?
I can’t listen to music while writing. It’s too distracting. I need quiet to hear the voices in my head.

9. What's your favorite writing procrastination trick?
Still trying to find one.My latest release is Midnight Savior – The Watchers, Book Four coming out on Ebook December 15, 2009 through Samhain Publishing.

Blurb:

The phrase “home sweet home” means nothing to Marie DeVeux. Her parents never understood her ongoing relationship with her dead grandmother. Plus, she’s plagued with dreams of a man being tortured. Dreams so real, the burden strips away every vestige of normal life. At rock bottom, she hears her grandmother’s voice telling her that the man exists, and she’s the only one who can save him.

Kern, a Watcher, should have been more careful when he wished for a little more excitement in his life. Kidnapping wouldn’t have been his choice. Torture, solitary confinement and starvation have left his soul consumed by a burning rage and inner demons that push him to lash out at the first face he’s seen in eight long months. Marie.

Is this woman his knight in shining armor, or just another experiment? Kern must sift through the chaos of his mind for the truth that lies hidden in his heart. And make a decision before time runs out—for them both.

http://www.dmcentire.com/