Uncial Press Blog

A big source of inspiration for my writing is music.  I’ve written whole books based on an idea that resulted from a song title or the lyrics themselves.  Places inspire me, as well, especially the mountains or woods.  And there’s nothing I love more than a good rainy day.  I usually sit on my front porch and watch it pour.  My mind inevitably goes somewhere a zillion miles away where an irresistible plot waits to be found.

Most of all, however, I credit a lifetime of reading wonderful books for bringing out the writer in me.

One of my earliest favorite books was High Trail, written by Vivian Breck, copyright 1956.  In this story, a young girl goes trout fishing with her dad in the mountains.  He slips and breaks his leg. A looming cold-weather front makes getting out critical, and even though she promises her dad she’ll hike out the easier, longer way to get help, she takes a shortcut that almost proves fatal.  I loved everything about this book, which I still have on my shelf, from the snowy weather to her foolish courage.  And when her path unexpectedly crosses with that of two recreational mountain climbers, that not-so-romantic twist I adore makes everything perfect.  I honestly don’t know if this book is even in print anymore (sorry, I’d never loan my copy), but if it is, you should snag it.

Another author whose books I inhaled was Madeleine Brent, the pseudonym of Peter O’Donnel in the sixties and seventies.  These adventures all featured strong heroines, perhaps because they were secretly written by a man. At any rate, the twisty plots enthralled me.  I still own them all.

A Gothic author I adore is Victoria Holt (real name Eleanor Hibbert).  Just writing about her books makes me want to search my shelves and read them all over again.  Eleanor was very prolific and wrote under many pen names, including Philipa Carr and Jean Plaidy.  I adore her.

And I can’t leave out Lady Mary Stewart. I tracked her down through the credits of a Walt Disney movie, The Moonspinners, and went on to read every book she wrote.  I’ve written her fan letters twice.  She wrote back both times.  What a gracious, talented woman.  She’ll never know how much she influenced the writer I am today.

Last but not least, I have to credit the authors my dad read, one of them inappropriate for my age at the time: Mickey Spillane, Zane Grey, Erle Stanley Gardner.  Bless you, Mr. Gardner, for those Donald Lam-Bertha Cool detective novels you wrote as A. A. Fair.  I own all of them, and though they’re fragile, horribly yellowed and held together by tape, I still read them.

Thanks for letting me blog this week.

Peace…

Jael

I’ve always been a big fan of movies as a source of entertainment. Early on, they piqued my imagination, resulting in a fun-filled adventure that was all inside my head. Romantic that I am, I’m drawn to on-screen relationships, especially if they’re not central to the plot. That means I don’t really care for movies that are blatantly romantic or cutesy. Confused? I apologize. For clarification, here are some examples of the best not-so-romantic movies I’ve ever seen:
Blood Diamond – Leo DiCaprio and Jennifer Connelly really don’t have much screen time together and when they’re face-to-face, they’re arguing. They don’t even kiss. But their chemistry leaps off the screen, and by the time I get to the end of the movie and their final telephone conversation, I’m always an emotional wreck. Now that’s a love story.
The Departed – It’s Leo again, and he’s stuck in the undercover assignment from hell. His shrink is played by Vera Farmiga, a woman involved with double-dealing law enforcer Matt Damon in the story. Leo and Vera manage one dangerous, irrational, totally forbidden tryst, but I’ve never rooted so hard for a couple to find a way to be together.
The Gangs of New York – Leo yet again, and oh my goodness what a movie! The object of his affection is Cameron Diaz. These are rough, rough times in the early slums of New York, with the horrors of the Civil War thrown into the mix. Watching two people find each other in the chaos is simply a joy.
Kingdom of Heaven – Orlando Bloom is a reluctant baron in Jerusalem. His lady love is a queen with a warrior king that is alive and well. Though the backdrop of the story is the Crusades and the age-old Christian vs Muslim struggle, it’s Orlando’s unfailing chivalry that makes him an unforgettable knight and draws me in every time.
Robin Hood – Russell Crowe’s portrayal is the best ever (and I’ve seen them all). Cate Blanchett’s Marion is played with a Taming of the Shrew edge, and their fall into love is funny, touching, and completely addicting.
I could go on and on, but I’ll just toss out a few more not-really-romance titles that have touched my heart and made me want to be in love in a movie: Constantine, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Underworld and Underworld Evolution, Blade Runner, Bourne Identity, The Order, Stigmata, Avatar, the Harry Potter movies, Bone Collector, {proof}…  Yep, too many to name, and I can’t leave out my most favorite not-really-romance movie of all, which is without a doubt the single most romantic movie I ever saw, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

I wish you could see the room where I write.  I think I can best describe it by quoting the guy who came to my house to fix my ailing computer:  “This must’ve been a teenager’s room.”  Um, no.  I left my teens in the sixties. This is my office! And all the posters on the wall?  They’re from movies and books that inspire me: the Twilight series, Prince of Persia, Robin Hood, True Blood, Harry Potter.  There is also a painting of a knight holding a baby with a quote that reads: ”Although a lion on the field, a lamb in turn thy shalt him find. – Eleanor F. Brickdale from The Book of Old English Songs and Ballads.” That line says it all to me.  I want a hero who is tough on the battlefield, but a marshmallow when it comes to his lady love.

I believe that romantics are born, not made.  Proof is my falling in love with Roy Rogers at the tender age of four.  I was certain he’d ride up to my house in Little Rock, Arkansas, sweep me onto Trigger, and off we’d go us into the sunset.  Alas, it never happened.  My next hero was Flash Gordon. I’m talking about the version that starred Steve Holland and aired in the early fifties. (Told you I was old.) Then along came Robin Hood as played by Richard Greene in the Disney serialized version. You can probably imagine how Errol Flynn’s wonderful portrayal affected me. With starry eyes, I’ve watched every single version of Howard Pyle’s The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood that I could get my hands on through the years, but my all time favorite Robin Hood is Russell Crowe.  Two words: oh my.

Simon Grayson, the hero of my novella Knowing, isn’t a flashy sort of guy.  His Trigger is a Harley, and you’ll never see him hefting a bow (though he does pack sage bundles, candles, and a bell).  But he’s still Natalie Dane’s savior, willing to fight for her in a battle of wits between her and her mother.  Check out their story Knowing by Jael Gates at www.uncialpress.com.

The corner of my office from the top left and moving like the hands on a clock: New Moon (Bella, Edward and Jacob), The Prince of Persia (Prince Dastan), True Blood (vampire Bill), Robin Hood (as portrayed by Russell Crowe of course), and The Prince of Persia (Princess Tamina).  The blurry, too-light shot on my desktop is that hurried kiss between Ginny and Harry in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2.

I love a good paranormal read. My favorite authors are Jeaneine Frost, JK Rowling, Stephenie Meyer, Charlaine Harris, and Jim Butcher, all of whom write books with supernatural themes. For that reason, writing about the paranormal comes easy for me, and I have not only written about psychics, but also tackled demons, demidemons, shapeshifters, witches, vampires and werewolves.

My Ladies in Red series (by me as Jael Gates) is about four vampire princesses taking on sexy guys who have no idea their lady loves have fangs. These erotic novellas were great fun to write.  The first is called A Sip of Red.  There are five, total.  These are short reads.

Writing as Jocelyn Michel, I tackled the age-old theme of vampires vs. werewolves with my Assassins in Lace erotic novella series. It’s pure hate that motivates my vampire assassins to stalk some very wily wolves…or is it? Unexpected attraction puts a new spin on their situations, and in no time murder is the last thing on anyone’s mind. The first is called Impressions.  There are four short reads in the series.

Phoenix Burning, my first full-length erotic romance has paranormal elements, too. Written by me as Jocelyn Michel, this book delves into mythology by featuring a heroine who is cursed when she accidentally breaks a phoenix egg. Every time the season changes, Kristy Tremaine goes up in flames only to arise from the ashes with a new body. That makes romance pretty tricky, especially when she falls for a doctor who might be a keeper. While she loves only one man, he is ultimately attracted to four different women. Can a guy like that even be trusted?

Love Trade by Jocelyn Michel, my second full-length erotic romance is about a young woman who is forced to enter The Palace of the Sevens, a den of iniquity owned by Asmodeus, one of the demons of hell. She goes there to bargain for the soul of her father, who has a large gambling debt. Tori can save him only if she agrees to give up her true love (the emotion, not the man) by the full moon. Unfortunately, Torie doesn’t even have a boyfriend when the countdown begins. Though this plot sounds heavy, I can promise that my sense of humor kicked in early on.

Check out my website www.eroswithfangs.com to see all the covers and for a complete list of titles.

Years ago while writing category romance for Silhouette Books (as Linda Varner), my editor and I discussed “perfect” characters and how we hated to read stories about unrealistically attractive, talented people.  All that’s really required for a good love story is for the hero and heroine to be beautiful to each other, and that’s more about seeing what’s on the inside rather than the outside.

I’ve kept to that philosophy through the years, deliberately inventing characters who are more normal than beautiful and don’t have airbrushed personas.  After all, what reader can really rate to perfection?

For example, Natalie Dane, heroine of Knowing by Jael Gates, is a young woman trying to break the bonds of maternal disapproval and a lifetime of nagging.  Though Natalie is out on her own and miles away, her mom is still inside her head, censuring, advising, but seldom approving.  When hero Simon Grayson is openly attracted to her, she actually doubts his sincerity.

Natalie struggles to be comfortable in her own skin; Simon loves that skin and is pretty vocal about it.  That made the story fun to write.  After all, nothing is more intriguing than a heroine on the road to self-discovery and self-confidence.

I think it is the flaws that draw us in as readers and keep us interested.  One of my very favorite books is Jane Eyre.  The hero Mr. Rochester is a brooding, miserable man who is often dismissive and downright rude, but Jane is somehow able to see past that grumpy exterior and fall for him.  Another hero I love is Jason Bourne, an assassin with amnesia.  The woman in his life, Marie, accepts him as he is and becomes his rock as he struggles to accept the truth about the killer he once was.  And then there’s Rhett Butler, an unapologetic rogue from the get-go, yet Scarlett (and every other female on the planet) can’t resist him.

What’s your idea of beauty?

I sincerely believe that our brains are the final frontier. It makes perfect sense that our minds could control our bodies if we just knew how to tap into that resource.  I think we could manage our weight, heal our broken bones, and who knows what else if we had the smarts to do it.

So I can easily accept that there are people out there who have figured out how to utilize more than the 10% we supposedly use.  Or is that percentage an urban myth?  I guess the jury’s still out, but I think it’s safe to say some people use their brains better than others.  In fact, that may be what “woman’s intuition” is all about. Maybe the female gender is just a little more in tune with what’s out there–one of those women-are-from-Venus things.

In Knowing, my January 16^th release from Uncial Press, hero Simon Grayson is one of those people who have a handle on what their brain can do.  Specifically, Simon is a psychic.  When heroine Natalie Dane needs to find out why potential buyers recoil from the amazing old house she’s trying to sell, she calls on him for help.  As a psychic able to read thoughts and sense spiritual entities, he is able to tell her the house is haunted.

One of my favorite TV shows is Psychic Kids, which features notable psychics Chip Coffey, Chris Fleming and Kim Russo as well as others.  These psychics help children and teens with psychic abilities by believing in them and turning the negativity associated with this type of gift into something positive.  I’m also fascinated by the psychics on Paranormal State and Dead Files. Another psychic I admire is John Edward, who had a television show called Crossing Over that I watched without fail when it aired on a network I had access to.  Yes, there are people out there who doubt his and any other psychic’s abilities, but I choose to believe these people are honest and their gifts real.  And since I believe in them, I find psychics (and the idea of them) both inspiring and fascinating.  That’s why I think my character Natalie did the smart thing when she consulted Simon even though she doubted his abilities. Their resulting romance makes for a read with a twisty plot that I hope you will enjoy.

Maybe we’re all a little psychic.  I know for sure that when I pay attention to my thoughts, especially the seemingly random ones, I’m often surprised by the outcome.

My novella Knowing (by Linda Palmer writing as Jael Gates) has been released by Uncial Press. The story is about a young realtor named Natalie Dane, who is trying to sell an old house. Based on the negative reactions of potential buyers, she seeks the help of Simon Grayson, a psychic who might be able to figure out what is wrong with the house. Simon can and does: the house is haunted.
This plot raises the question do you believe in ghosts? An even better question might be do I? I’ll admit I’m addicted to what I call paranormal TV. You may know the guilty pleasures to which I refer: Ghost Adventures, Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters International, Paranormal State…the list goes on and on. And generally I believe what I see, as in I don’t think the experiences of the hosts are being faked. So I definitely have an open mind when it comes to spirits. Do I want to meet one myself to prove they exist? That would be a no. Let the pros do the ghost wrangling. I’ll cheer them on from the sidelines.
Another question that comes to mind is can a house really be haunted? According to everything I’ve seen and read that’s entirely possible. There are apparently two kinds of haunting: residual and intelligent. In a residual haunt, a certain scenario plays out over and over, sort of like a recording stuck on one spot. Any spirits involved are nothing more than shadowy memories of the dead that play, rewind, and play again. An intelligent haunt involves spirits that are cognizant of their surroundings and perhaps there because they’re attached to something–a rocking chair, the bed, the building itself. Or maybe they simply want to be around someone who’s alive. At any rate, their desire to interact with the living may result in their sucking energy from wherever they can get it so they can materialize. The result is cold spots, dying batteries, and exhausted ghost hunters.
As I began writing Knowing, I naturally wondered if there were any hard and fast rules when it came to ghosts. No author wants what they write to be factually wrong. So I tried to do some research on the topic. What I found is that there are many opinions out there on what ghosts can and cannot do, as well as lots of photos and recordings to support them. And while one researcher may insist ghosts cannot talk, another can provide an electronic voice phenomenon (EVP) that seems to prove they can. Bottom line: who really knows?
Are ghosts inherently good or evil? I think that they’re probably as decent as the people they once were, which is why I’d have been proud to stand beside the ghosts in Knowing, who are fictional but representative of an amazing historical effort.
I hope you’ll enjoy reading their story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Our guest blogger next week will be Jael Gates author of Knowing.

Knowing by Jael Gates and Skylark by Sheila Simonson are our new releases today.

Another day of walking and looking and geeking at CES in Las Vegas. I did not see any new ebook readers today, but I did see what I think may be the coolest new device. Samsung has a new phone/tablet/thing coming out soon. AT&T will be the first, they say, to carry it. Larger than a current smartphone, but thinner. It does many of the things that I like to do on my tablet, without sacrificing the stuff my Android phone does best. I hope that it is available on my carrier soon, I think that it would make a dandy addition to my arsenal of Things I Can Read My Ebooks On.

The best part of my day today was dinner. We went to an Irish pub in New York New York called Nine Fine Irishmen. Now I did not see nine fine men, nor a single Irishman,  but after they delivered the food it really did not matter. The chicken was fantastic, the salmon divine, and the bangers and mash… Well, I don’t have much to compare it to, but it tasted good and the name is really great. We are going back tomorrow for more. Who knew that putting cabbage and in plain ol’ mashed potatoes would elevate the dish to heavenly.