What Supernatural Would You Choose?

WHAT SUPERNATURAL WOULD YOU CHOOSE?

Halloween is almost here – the time when thoughts turn to the supernatural. The way paranormal is exploding in popular culture - books, TV, movies – it seems the supernatural is in our thoughts year-round, and the trend for all things paranormal shows no signs of abating. I’ve heard it said that when times are hard, people gravitate to the supernatural as a means of escape. Or maybe the paranormal is so popular because anything otherworldly is just plain fun.

I love reading time travel romances, love books about beings who have magical powers, love shifter stories. I don’t much like anything to do with vampires, but that’s just me. Vampires have scared me since Bela Lugosi lured unsuspecting and “too stupid to live” people into that old castle. Vampire romances are still hugely popular.

My question today is: If you could have any magical power or be any supernatural being, what would you choose?

I’ve always wanted the powers of Samantha in the old TV show, “Bewitched.” I want to twitch my nose and have my whole house cleaned. Wow! Can you imagine that! I’d take it further. Whenever I wanted to change my wardrobe, I’d look at pictures of couture clothes, shoes and handbags, twitch the nose, and voila! A new wardrobe. Cool, huh? And shallow, but who cares?

Wouldn’t it be fun to be able to think something and make it happen? But there’d be a rule that you can’t hurt anyone. Imagine driving and some jerk cuts you off or runs a red light and almost plows into your car. Wouldn’t you love seeing the jerk’s wheels fall off his car when he pulls one of these stupid moves? And as a person with magic abilities, you could curse him that the minute he does something stupid any time while driving, the wheels would fall off his car. You could be a one-person avenger giving the jerks of the world what they deserve. But, remember, don’t hurt anyone. I know, my mind works in strange ways.

I wouldn’t mind being a sexy witch, one who can mix love potions. Now that would be fun. I’d be beautiful with long black hair. Instead of a black cat, I’d have a white one, just to be different.

 While I don’t read vampire stories, I do enjoy shifter stories and witch stories. One of my favorite series is the Mayfair witches from Anne Rice. Those are some darn scary witches. I plan to write my own witch romance someday, with a witch heroine who will have great powers, but she won’t be evil. However, she’ll be surrounded by evil beings.

Would you want to be a vampire? Think of all that power and immortality. Imagine drinking blood. Shivers. Or would you rather be a sexy witch who has the power to make men fall at your feet? Or a one-person avenger out to rid the world of jerks?

What supernatural being would you choose?

I’ve always been fascinated by ghosts and spirits so I’ve written a ghost story. Ghosts of Deveraux Manor, set in Normandy, France, is up for pre-order now. My husband and I took a river cruise from Paris through Normandy in 2016. It rained every day, and it was cold. And this was June! Normandy is beautiful but rainy, and it can be gloomy. It lends itself to Gothic romances or ghost stories.

Mayhem, Mystery, Murder, and Matchmaking Ghosts

When an American woman inherits a manor in France, she finds it comes with some unexpected accessories—matchmaking ghosts and a hunky ex-pat Brit who may or may not be a murderer.

Philadelphian Charlotte—Charli—Deveraux had no idea she had relatives in France until she receives notice she’s inherited a chateau in Normandy. Her art history degree has led to nothing but a soul-sucking bank job, so she takes leave, and, with her best friend, heads to France to check out the centuries-old manor. But her inheritance comes with more than she expected, including an enticing, maddening neighbor. She’d been betrayed by a man once. She’s not about to trust another one.

International art restorer and expat Brit, Travis Gardner, wants nothing to do with any woman named Deveraux. He’d been married to one. When his ex-wife was murdered, suspicion fell on him. Although he had a strong alibi and was cleared by the police, a cloud hangs over him. It doesn’t matter how sweet and wholesome Charli is, he’s on the hunt for the real killer. He doesn’t have time to help Charli find missing necklaces or the keys to a mysterious locked turret.

But a pair of matchmaking ghosts—and their equally ghostly cat—have other ideas. To get into the good graces of the Big Guy, they need to bring Charli and Travis together, and solve not only his ex-wife’s murder, but their own. In a village full of suspects, can Charli and Travis find the keys, the jewels, and the truth before they, too, become ghosts of Deveraux manor?

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The world of the supernatural is all around us... #NewRelease #MysticMagic #99cents #PNR @RomanceBoxedSet

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Are You Ready For Some Strange Magic?

What is it about books set in paranormal realms with otherworldly beings that fascinate so many of us? I read in several genres, yet I always seem to gravitate toward stories set in strange and sometimes terrifying worlds where mystifying creatures live and love.

If you read paranormal romance or urban fantasy, do your tastes run to shifters or vampires, witches and warlocks, or do you simply enjoy a shadowy supernatural world where they all exist? If you haven’t read either genre, what would make you curious enough to try one or both? I’d really like to know.

Whether you love all things paranormal or are simply curious, leave a comment today, along with your email address and I’ll choose one lucky person to win a Kindle copy of Strange Magic.

Vampires, shifters, and fae, oh my!

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This limited edition collection has a story for every reading taste, and if the idea of sexy jaguar shifters tickles your fancy, you won't want to miss Assassin’s Kiss. I've left you a PG excerpt...

Can an outlaw shifter change the heart of an assassin pledged to kill her?

She’d come over a thousand miles to find others like herself, someone to answer all her questions. He might, once they were safe. It wasn’t as if she had a lot of choices right now. “I can swim,” she said, then mumbled, “sort of,” under her breath as he turned away and slipped through the waterfall.

Her “sort of” was a very clumsy, fast-as-she-could-manage dog paddle. He was still frowning and rigid with anger when he pulled her, naked, from the water. He yanked up one arm, nearly tipping her over. The poultice was gone but the long pink line along her ribs wasn’t.

She shivered, feeling his strength and his anger as he slid his hands up her arms and flicked away the specks of water. Blood sizzled through her at the touch of his fingers trailing down her arms possessively. As if he didn’t want to give up touching her but at the same time looked as if he might regret it.

He stepped away abruptly, motioning her to follow. With the wind at their backs, the air currents carried his scent—warm earth, human, the musky, familiar hint of jaguar. She wanted them all wrapped around her like a protective mantle, driving away the loneliness of the past ten years. Not even his anger dampened her desire to be held again. She was pitiful.

Half an hour later they reached the tree where she’d left her clothes tucked into the black plastic garbage bag with her other meager possessions. He’d tracked her from here. The knowledge sent a shiver through her and she didn’t honestly know whether it was from excitement or fear.

She quickly dug past two pairs of frayed shorts, a dingy thermal long-sleeved shirt and a small straw doll that she carefully rewrapped in its threadbare flannel blanket. Finding what she wanted, she pulled the tattered khaki tank top over her head before tugging a pair of loose, army surplus fatigues over her bare hips.

“If it’s not a deep, dark secret, I’d like to know a little bit more about this halfling business.” She was trying to ignore the fact that he was still naked. His smirk told her he wasn’t bothered a bit. “Could you at least tell me where we’re going?”

“Sangre de la Luna,” he said, tensing as he sniffed the air.

Before she could ask how much farther Sangre de la Luna was, a jaguar’s cry ripped through the jungle. He lost his smirk, reached down and grabbed her bag.

“Run.”

Don’t forget to leave a comment!

Until next month,

Happy Reading!

Paris Brandon

Website: http://parisbrandon.com

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Sex and the Supernatural by Suz deMello

For many of us who write erotica, paranormal is the most enticing of the sub-genres, offering many ways to increase sexual tension. World-building allows us to create our own erotic settings, invent sexier creatures than those who exist on our planet, traipse through time to find or lose lovers. We can bend reality any way we choose. We can invent supernatural beings both virtuous and villainous while investing the corners of our new world with quirks that facilitate the thrills and spills that make a great read.

The paranormal encompasses so many sub-sub-genres! A partial listing: futuristic, including science fiction; steampunk; time travel; fantasy, which encompasses "creature" stories with vampires, weres, the fae, dragons, zombies and the like. Magic and witchcraft is also a subgenre of fantasy. All of these can be mixed into any story brew you please.

World-building 101: Take the basic elements of any book and consider how they may be made paranormal, i.e., beyond the normal.

Characters and conflicts: There's a natural tension in a romance between a paranormal entity and a human, and you can exploit this to your advantage and to the betterment of your book. Vampires are a great example. How can there be a "happily ever after" ending to a romance between an immortal, virtually invulnerable being and someone who will, inevitably, die? Would any sensible vampire dare to open his or her heart to a fragile human?

And how can a human trust in the love of an immortal? We who age must fear the loss of an immortal's love.

Vampires, being denizens of the night, are intrinsically mysterious. Powerful predators, vamps step easily into villainous roles, but lately we've been reading about heroic vampires. With their extraordinary senses, vampires can make extraordinary heroes. The vampires in my Highland

http://tinyurl.com/NaughtyList2014           

Vampires series aretypical case in point, possessing super-strength and swiftness, as well as longevity.

            

There's also natural tension in a relationship between different supernatural beings. Werewolves and vampires are both dominating creatures. The males often figure as alphas in many an erotic romance. What happens when territories overlap? Clashes are inevitable, and the sex is awesome.

            

Many writers have created supernatural beings whose abilities amplify each others. For example, Jayne Castle (Jayne Ann Krentz) created different types of psychics in what I call her flower trilogy (Amaryllis, Orchid, and Zinnia); the differing talents need each other in order to effectively focus and use their powers. Often one of the dyad was female and the other male. Thus, they'd have to work together to solve the mystery and trap the villain. But the sexual tension and conflict were maintained using this device, for the female would wonder if the male truly loved her for her qualities other than her ability to focus his energies.

Others create creatures made for sex. Succubi and incubi, supernatural demons who use humans for sex and seed, have become popular. Some writers have invented aliens which can extrude body parts and insert them into their human subjects for pleasure and pain.

Setting: Setting is an often overlooked aspect of our novels. As an editor, I have read several stories that are completely non-specific as to setting. As a reader, I like to be grounded in a story. I like to know where and when the story's taking place. I don't believe that I suffer from terminal uniqueness, so as a writer, I let the reader know where and when the story's taking place, even if the both are completely imaginary, i.e., "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away."

In a paranormal, it is fatal to overlook setting. More positively, some settings are so compelling that they will earn your book a spot on many a reader's keeper shelf. Fans return again and again to the Harry Potter books and to Tolkien not only because of the intriguing characters, compelling conflicts and universal themes, but because they want to spend more time studying at Hogwarts and exploring Middle Earth. Orson Scott Card calls fiction dependent upon a particular setting milieu fiction, and gives Tolkien's Ring Trilogy as an example. 

Of course you may create any setting that compels you, but when you do so, consider how your

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setting will facilitate or block mystery and romance.

When world-building for a paranormal erotic romance, I like to factor in elements that will facilitate sexy situations. In Queen’s Quest, a paranormal erotic thriller, I postulated a planet with an extremely low birthrate. Babies were rare and prized. Thus, sex was encouraged—including public sex—which enabled me to include numerous sex scenes, while the dearth of normal births encouraged the characters to find other reproductive methods. These added to the suspense subplot (I don't want to say more without providing a spoiler alert).

Settings need not be exotic and magic need not be arcane, invented from whole cloth. You can use what you already know. I drew upon my teenage interests in tarot reading and Wicca to write Gypsy Witch, an erotic short story set in my hometown of Sacramento, California during the dog days of late summer. A character used witchcraft to bring to life the stone statues of knights set at the doorway of the downtown Masonic Temple, bringing magic to an otherwise mundane setting. The romantic conflict ended in a ménage—a different kind of magic.

Another example is Ocean Dreams, a short story set in a fictional marine park, much like Sea World or similar places. Many people visit them, so readers are able to draw upon their experiences to create the setting in their minds. That story features a dolphin shifter, which a fun departure for me. Find that story in the Naughty Reunions box set, http://tinyurl.com/NReunions.

            

Theme: Also overlooked, but as intrinsically a part of our stories as words themselves. Many paranormals feature the clash of good against evil. Paranormals employing figures out of religious traditions, such as angels, devils, demons and the like, will inevitably dabble in moral questions whether or not the author is aware that s/he is doing so. Raising such questions is older than Faust, older even than the Bible.

            

with Moon Maiden's Matehttp://tinyurl.com/NaughtyChances

Coming of age stories are also common. In erotica, we often read the induction of a virgin into the pleasures of sex. One of my erotic short stories, The Moon Maiden's Mate, is about an arranged marriage on a lunar colony. Another popular theme is the BDSM newbie learning about the joy of kink.

            

The message? Erotica isn’t only about sex. Write a good story and weave in explicit sex and you’ll have a really good story. Put it on another planet and you’ll have a great story. Paranormal content is a great way to engage the reader.

Do Vampires Pay Taxes?

Okay...I admit I like an occasional vampire story that's not too bloody. I'd rather read a good vampire romance book than watch a vampire movie. Too much bloody stuff for my viewing pleasure (?)  isn't for me.

I started to wonder about vampires and everyday life. Yes, we suspend disbelief for most of this stuff in order to concentrate on the "real" story...that of the romance and passion between the hero and heroine.

But let's talk about some "real life" issues a vampire might face. They can't all be rich, can they? Live in mansions, own expensive cars, never work? Right?

So...how does a vampire get a birth certificate? A driver's license? Social Security number (in the US)? Does a vampire pay taxes?

Maybe there's a secret central Vampire Identification Unit that works solely on providing necessary documentation like fake passports, licenses, birth certificates. And, now in the age of advanced technology, these could be updated quite easily.

Surely a 300-year-old vampire can't provide an original birth certificate. In fact, a new one would have to be issued every 30 + or - years to keep the vampire in question "looking" close enough to be in a particular age bracket. With eternal youth at whatever age a vampire was first bitten and "turned", you could only say, "I've had plastic surgery" so long before people would get suspicious.

Now that I'm dwelling on all this, what about resumes? Do vampires get phony ones? Would anyone do a background check and start asking questions?

I guess moving every 30 or so years would help, but new "ID proof" would surely be needed even then. What about voting? Can vampires register? And, here's another question from a far-off tangent from the inquisitive side of my brain...what costume does a vampire wear on Halloween?

Sigh.

I'm thinking way too much about this. I should sit back and enjoy a vampire romance book at face value...as a romance without pesky "hows" getting in the way.

Photos: Flickr: Design Haus and christmas_graphics_plus.com