It’s October! The month when Autumn begins to show
her change of seasons, at least here in the United States. The month when we
begin to think about the Holidays. The month when we think about the Halloween
activities approaching. To some it ends the baseball season with the World
Series. Football is in full swing, both high school, college and professional. And
all the marathon movies on television with scary movies.
As an author, it brings those of us who write about
the vampires, werewolves, witches, zombies and any other paranormal creature we
can imagine to life. My first book was contracted in October which I consider
as a lucky omen for getting a contract. I’m superstitious like that.
I never set out to write about vampires. I was a fan
of the Dark Shadows television
production back when I was in high school. That was the extent of my “love” and
didn’t particularly care for the “horror” genre. When I decided to take up the
pen, I wanted my vampires to be dark and edgy, but not scary and horrific. As I’ve
progressed in my writing, I have to admit my heroes in the worlds I’ve created
are a bit more “bloody” which is totally not me. I’ve even gone so far as to
write my latest one with zombies. Oh, my goodness, that was a real stretch.
Yuck! I thought. But, it was fun. Put the story on the screen to visually see
those images—no freaking way.
Another “celebration” of the month of October I’ve
come to participate in is the Anne Rice Vampire Lestat Fan Club (ARVLFC) Ball
which takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana. My husband, Mike, and I attend the
Undead Conference and the Ball and have a blast. There’s nothing like visiting
the French Quarter and get a taste of the city and history. This year I’m doing
research at the cemeteries and any number of voodoo shops. I’m in the middle of
writing a vampire and voodoo story and I want to get more “hands-on”
information. Of course, the story takes place in New Orleans as well. If anyone
is interested in attending the four-day event and this year Anne Rice will be
attending with her son (also an author) Christopher, you can go here for the
information: http://arvlfc.com/.
Here’s a little snippet from my latest, A Vampire’s
Bite of Flesh, the vampire and zombie one.
It took him several minutes, but he
finally saw his target—a vacant place to sit and have a strong drink. He forced
his way through the oversexed crowd of sweaty skin, strong perfume, and the
tables with seated customers, advancing slowly to the bar on the far right side
of the nightclub. He strode quickly toward his objective, an empty stool at the
end of a long, curved bar. On the other side of the sleek wood counter, a man
stopped restocking bottles of Vlad’s popular blood soda and stared in Dick’s
direction.
Halfway on his trek to the bar, a
woman slammed into him. Obviously drunk or high on something, he instinctively
sensed she was human, not vampire. He pushed past her, cursing under his
breath. What the hell was the world coming to? Vampires, zombies, and what
would come next? Werewolves and the Easter Bunny?
Dick reaffirmed his reasons as to why
he hated coming to Fang Shui. The dildos that worked there were no different
than the types he dealt with when human. Nothing
ever changes. Not even the predictable weather.
The first week of July in Florida
brought the bitch heat of summer in full swing. Ninety degree days and
seventies at night made for sticky situations when hunting for the zombies on
the loose. Hurricane Chucky blustered through the Orlando area only a week ago.
Eighty-five mile an hour winds along with spotty tornados ripped roofs off
houses, damaged parts of the international airport, and the amusement parks
suffered enough to keep them closed after seven days. Not that any of those
problems affected him directly, but it did make for interesting news to take
his mind off Noelle.
Buck
Rogers’ Spaceship! Stop thinking of her.
Despite how he didn’t want to be at
the meeting, safety at the bar was a welcome relief compared to the chaos he
passed on the drive over. Traffic lights were still out at some of the
secondary intersections, and people didn’t adhere to the rules of the road.
Long lines at gas stations didn’t make sense, either, when the power didn’t
work. Did all common sense get blown away
with the storm? Was I that dense as a human?
Shaking his head as he grabbed the
edge of the wooden barstool to stake claim to the valued real estate, he hauled
himself up onto one of the last remaining seats. The place looked like the
entire population of vampires and wannabe human groupies had decided to join in
the rowdy behavior at the same time. A lot of residences had been damaged, as
well as night haunts of the blood-kind. Hurricane Chucky wreaked havoc on the
area in more ways than one. The scare of
the zombies must be driving them here. What’s with the public display of sex?
That’s a new one for this place.
Blooding and sex always seemed to go
hand-in-hand in this new life he led, but Dick hadn’t seen such an overwhelming
sense of laissez faire toward
revealing what he considered a private matter. Was Vlad aware of this? Granted,
he’d only been a vampire since last October. Halloween exactly, which was more
like November first, but he’d seen a lot of action in those eight to nine
months. Maybe this is a special event
night at Fang Shui, like Karaoke Night. No, Stormin’ Chucky Sex Night!
BUY LINKS:
Hope everyone has a wonderful October and write lots
of stories about the creatures that go bump in the night!
Cynthia Arsuaga
Erotic Romance Author
