Castles

 

In July of 2012, I had the pleasure of announcing that I had become a published author, with my first book, Hotel of Lost Souls. Last February, I had the joy of announcing the sequel, Pet, and then in December, their sequel, Bridges! Then, November of 2014, I released Predators. 

If you like vampires and Urban Fantasy (especially Anita Blake or Sookie Stackhouse), then you should like my books! Hotel and Pet were a blend of Urban Fantasy and Psychological Horror. Bridges and Predators are much more Urban Fantasy/Dark Fantasy. They explore the relationships between the characters and Zack finding his place in his world. It's about life and death and life after death.
From the back cover:

If someone ever tells you that being a newly changed vampire is easy, they're either gifted, lying, or they're not going to live very long. You can be pretty sure that they don't have a family to balance.

Zack Henderson has learned the hard way just how right his sire was when he warned him that there would be unexpected, harder challenges brought on by his new nature.

Now he and Sarah are back home and finding their places in this new world into which they've been reborn. But has too much changed, and can they keep their family together in the face of events beyond their control?

 
You can read a sample chapter on my writer's blog or on Amazon or Lulu, and if you like it, you can purchase it from Barnes and Noble,  Amazon, Kobo or Smashwords. All the links for purchase are available at my website.

You don't need an eReader to read my eBook, either! You can read the book now on your phone, tablet, iPad or computer using the Nook App or the Amazon Kindle App (both of which are free!). If you're using an iPad or iPod, you can get Stanza, a free eReading app and read any format that you like! Several other apps are available, too.

If nothing can replace the feel and smell of a real book for you, head on over to Lulu and pick up a slightly-larger-than-average paperback! You'll get to experience it the way it was meant to be read! eBooks can't display the little artsy touches at the beginning of each chapter or the fonts that the handwritten notes in the story use. With a physical book, you get back cover art, too! 

Predators

In July of 2012, I had the pleasure of announcing that I had become a published author, with my first book, Hotel of Lost Souls. Last February, I had the joy of announcing the sequel, Pet, and then in December, their sequel, Bridges!
If you like vampires and Urban Fantasy (especially Anita Blake or Sookie Stackhouse), then you should like my books! Hotel and Pet were a blend of Urban Fantasy and Psychological Horror. Bridges and Predators are much more Urban Fantasy/Dark Fantasy. They explore the relationships between the characters and Zack finding his place in his world. It's about life and death and life after death.
From the back cover:

Death has been following Zack Henderson for ten years now. He woke up surrounded by it on a train a decade ago. He's watched it take friend and foe, strangers and family. It's weighed heavily on his mind. 

It was through death that his life finally began. He understands better than most how fragile life is, and he's done being prey.

At some point, you have to stop running from death and embrace it.

You can read a sample chapter on my writer's blog or on Amazon or Lulu, and if you like it, you can purchase it from Barnes and Noble,  Amazon, Kobo or Smashwords. All the links for purchase are available at my website.

You don't need an eReader to read my eBook, either! You can read the book now on your phone, tablet, iPad or computer using the Nook App or the Amazon Kindle App (both of which are free!). If you're using an iPad or iPod, you can get Stanza, a free eReading app and read any format that you like! Several other apps are available, too.

If nothing can replace the feel and smell of a real book for you, head on over to Lulu and pick up a slightly-larger-than-average paperback! You'll get to experience it the way it was meant to be read! eBooks can't display the little artsy touches at the beginning of each chapter or the fonts that the handwritten notes in the story use. With a physical book, you get back cover art, too! 

 

You can follow my author page on Facebook if you would like updates on future titles and to be able to connect with me personally as well as other readers. Thanks to everyone who has encouraged me over the years and to everyone who purchased a copy of Hotel of Lost Souls, Pet and Bridges!

Holy Moral Disengagement, Batman!

(this was originally written during my class last year, but has been edited to better fit a blog post)

So, studying the Stanford Prison Experiment in my Psych class last year after the Milgram experiment, I immediately think of moral disengagement (and indeed, I'm sure this is where the concept came from).

It's especially interesting to me because the first book I completed was about Stockholm Syndrome, but the more I learn, the more I see other psychological concepts in play. I talk about moral disengagement later, but I realize that it happened fairly early on in the first book (since the series is about becoming/being the villain's flunky).

So when the professor said "You may think differently about 'evil,'" I couldn't help but think that I already do. Also makes me think about Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. And fans of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles -- Lestat is a despicable creature, yet beloved by tens of thousands of fans.

We're not looking at the various series' vampires who choose not to kill humans (Being Human, for example, before people start in on the conformist Twilight bashing). Lestat can't choose not to kill. "...they killed two, sometimes three a night." But as he's the protagonist, that's okay. (Yes, it started with Louis, but Lestat was Anne's "dark prince" -- the character that she was in love with). In the fourth book, he rapes a woman with absolutely no real consequences (including no major loss of audience).

It also makes me think of the shift of what we look for in a hero historically to now. For instance, going from Superman to Batman. Superman is this bright, optimistic character who derives his power from the sun, stands for truth, justice, blah blah blah.

Batman, though, comes from the darkness. He was created through an act of violence. He prowls the night. He is the darkness come to protect us.

What do these two have in common? They're criminals. Vigilantism is illegal; it's a crime. But they still engage in it (Spiderman obviously has a lot of focus on this, but Batman does as well). They stop major crimes whenever possible, but they do it without any authority, and they employ violence (early Batman killed, but sometime in the 80s, it was decided that he shouldn't do that, or use guns, etc.), break and enter, etc. But it's okay for them to break the law and hurt people because they're doing it in the name of justice.

The very existence of the Punisher really drives this home. He's not serving justice--his entire existence is devoted to revenge and death.

I love me some Deadpool. Who else loves him? Now, who would willingly subject themselves to an entire 24 hours with him? How about going on a mission with him? (I'm scared of anyone who wants to do that last part unless they're suffering the delusion that they can somehow stop him from wholesale slaughter with whatever amazing powers Hypothetical Person has).

We're taught moral disengagement from a young age in this way. Depending on what we choose to read, it becomes reinforced.

Heck, I forget how dark the material I'm writing is until I'm confronted by my readers. My two best friends -- one is my editor, the other is my oldest friend -- both have given me direct feedback to this effect. My oldest BFF won't read another book after the first. It disturbed her too greatly. Just to write this stuff takes a certain (mild though it may be... until you take into account that I believe in multiverse theory) amount of moral disengagement in and of itself.

That said, you know what disturbs me? The main 'romance' in the book is a classic domestic violence situation with one partner being blatantly abused by the other (nothing subtle here; if these were your neighbors, you would either be calling the cops on them or wishing someone else would), and people (including myself, to be honest, but I'm the one who dreamed the whole thing) love that pairing. The antagonist-turned-protagonist (as the protagonist falls in love with him) is presented as a sociopath, and people love him. People want to classify my first book, which is psychological horror, as romance.

"We like him, so it's okay if he does evil things like rape the protagonist, strive to create a dictatorship and kill people. We'll just not think about that part." On the plus side, that tells me that I wrote the character well. He's doing to the readers exactly what he did to the protagonist (and I love it).

This fiction entreats us to not only suspend disbelief, but also our morals. More, knowing all of this does not banish the effect. I still love me some Deadpool.

Bridges

In July of 2012, I had the pleasure of announcing that I had become a published author, with my first book, Hotel of Lost Souls. In February, I had the joy of announcing the sequel, Pet! 

If you like vampires and Urban Fantasy (especially Anita Blake or Sookie Stackhouse), then you should like my books! Hotel and Pet were a blend of Urban Fantasy and Psychological Horror. Bridges is much more Urban Fantasy/Dark Fantasy. It explores the relationships between the characters and Zack finding his place in his world. It's about life and death and life after death.

From the back cover:

When Zack Henderson made the decision to abandon his ordinary human life, he thought he was giving up on any semblance of normality. The last five years of his life have certainly given him no reason to believe otherwise.

Normal is a point of view.

Zack and his family aren't very traditional, but they are most definitely a family. Now a new threat has moved into town to attempt to destroy it. For years they have put off moving on with their lives. Now it is finally time to face the bridges that once seemed so far away. They can only hope that the threat from the darkness doesn't burn them as they cross.

You can read a sample chapter on Amazon or Lulu and if you like it, you can purchase it from Barnes and Noble,  Amazon, Kobo or Smashwords. All the links for purchase are available at my website.

You don't need an eReader to read my eBook, either! You can read the book now on your phone, tablet, iPad or computer using the Nook App or the Amazon Kindle App (both of which are free!). If you're using an iPad or iPod, you can get Stanza, a free eReading app and read any format that you like! Several other apps are available, too.

If nothing can replace the feel and smell of a real book for you, head on over to Lulu and pick up a slightly-larger-than-average paperback! You'll get to experience it the way it was meant to be read! eBooks can't display the little artsy touches at the beginning of each chapter or the fonts that the handwritten notes in the story use. With a physical book, you get back cover art, too!

You can follow my author page on Facebook if you would like updates on future titles and to be able to connect with me personally as well as other readers. Thanks to everyone who has encouraged me over the years and to everyone who purchased a copy of Hotel of Lost Souls and Pet!

Pet

Last July, I had the pleasure of announcing that I had become a published author, with my first book, Hotel of Lost Souls. This month, I get the joy of announcing the sequel, Pet! I also have a series name: the Lost Humanity series.

If you like vampires and Urban Fantasy (especially Anita Blake or Sookie Stackhouse), then you should like my books! Hotel was described as a psychological horror book with vampires in it. Pet continues in the psychological horror tradition with themes of hate crimes, deprogramming and addiction as well as a continuation in descending into the dark side and how the lines blur.

From the back cover:

Hate is a four-letter word—one that hits home for Zack Henderson only three years after being the victim of terrible violence.​​

While settling into his new life, he finally manages to put the past behind him. Just as he believes he is finally safe, though, hate comes smashing through his door. When everything he cares about is torn away from him, he must find the strength to make decisions of which he had never believed himself capable.

In a world with vampires, humans can still show that being dead is not a prerequisite for being a monster.

You can read a sample chapter on Amazon and if you like it, you can purchase it from Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Kobo or Smashwords. All the links for purchase are available at my website.

You don't need an eReader to read my eBook, either! You can read the book now on your phone, tablet, iPad or computer using the Nook App or the Amazon Kindle App (both of which are free!). If you're using an iPad or iPod, you can get Stanza, a free eReading app and read any format that you like!

If nothing can replace the feel and smell of a real book for you, head on over to Lulu and pick up a slightly-larger-than-average paperback! You'll get to experience it the way it was meant to be read! eBooks can't display the little artsy touches at the beginning of each chapter or the fonts that the handwritten notes in the story use. With a physical book, you get back cover art, too!

You can follow my author page on Facebook if you would like updates on future titles and to be able to connect with me personally as well as other readers. Thanks to everyone who has encouraged me over the years and to everyone who purchased a copy of Hotel of Lost Souls!

Not Ready For Radio

 

I had a very interesting new experience this week. In my publicity endeavors, I was presented with a great opportunity: to do a podcast! Now, I'm terrible about listening to these things. The Nerdist tends to be the only one I can listen to for any amount of time (my ADHD is not audio-friendly). I still tend to check out after 15 minutes or so, even if it's, say, Jeri Ryan. 

However, when I was told this Larry Duane of Not Ready For Radio was interested in interviewing me on his podcast, I gave it a listen. This guy is hilarious. He held my attention, he was polite to his guests--it made me feel very confident that I could manage! 

For anyone who isn't aware, I have agoraphobia. To do this, I had to be dropped off and have my husband take the shorties off to go play so they wouldn't be noising up the studio. This presented the problem that not only is it hard for me to be around strangers, particularly men I don't know well, but I wouldn't even have a baby to help balance me. It ended up being a non-issue. 

Get me talking about my favorite subjects and I'm immediately comfortable! Throwing in some pumpkin cream liqueur does not hurt, apparently (I also very seldom drink). He was just as funny in person and his girlfriend is a friend from a local mama's group (how I got connected to him). 

I had a lot of fun and hopefully expanded my reach for Hotel of Lost Souls. Which, by the way, he read and really enjoyed!

If anyone has ever wondered what I sound like, you can check me out here (click the pic--audio is NSFW):

The Cage

Larry Duane continues talking terror in this episode of his show, and he's joined by author H.S. Kallinger. Her book, Hotel of Lost Souls, is an urban fantasy novel featuring the scary-story staple that are vampires; so the pair chat about that a bit, but not before daring to utter -- three terrible times -- HIS horrifying name! Who is HE? Tune in to witness HIS summoning!

Hotel Of Lost Souls

In February of 2011, I conceived Katarina and had a dream, which I talked about in my pregnancy announcement in March, here. This turned into a book that I have the proud pleasure of announcing is now officially published!

I am a published author! That is so exciting and fulfilling to be able to say! My book is called Hotel of Lost Souls and I really enjoyed the process of writing it and even editing it. It hasn't become old to me, rereading it over and over to make sure to get all the tiny little errors that I and my editor missed the first, second, third, etc. time through, so I think this one is a keeper!

If you like vampires and Urban Fantasy (especially Anita Blake or Sookie Stackhouse), then you should like my book! My dream was very strange that night so long ago in that I was a male and had no memory of being my real self--I'm usually quite aware that I'm not normally a guy in my dreams. It was complex and so thorough that a little prompting from a friend encouraged me to bring it to life.

From the back cover:

News-media segments about modern slavery are short and quickly forgotten by the average Joe or Jane. But it's out there. So are vampires. They're known, legal citizens--and they aren't the only relic from the past still alive and well. Their victims certainly don't have the opportunity to forget that slavery is still a very real problem.

On a train to Florida's tourist traps, Zack Henderson, an EMT in training, meets college students Sarah Gallagher and Jamie Adams. They're just hoping for a break from the tedium of college tests and professors. They can never imagine what is in store for them when vampires show up to take over their lives. When the smoke clears, they are left wondering: Did they really survive?

You can read a sample chapter here. If you like it, you can purchase it from Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Kobo or Amazon. All the links for purchase are available at my website.

You don't need an eReader to read my eBook, either! You can read the book now on your phone or computer using the Nook App or soon using the Amazon Kindle App (both of which are free!). If you're using an iPad or iPod, you can get Stanza, a free eReading app and read any format that you like!

If nothing can replace the feel and smell of a real book for you, head on over to Lulu and pick up a slightly-larger-than-average paperback! You'll get to experience it the way it was meant to be read! eBooks can't display the little artsy touches at the beginning of each chapter or the fonts that the handwritten notes in the story use. With a physical book, you get back cover art, too! 

See? Now with a spine and everything!

You can follow my author page on Facebook if you would like updates on future titles and to be able to connect with me personally as well as other readers. Snippets from the book and notes (such as the mouse-drawn floorplan for the hotel room) are also available on the page. Go and show your support for an independent author!

Thank you to all my readers who have supported and encouraged me, leading me to this point! 

Defending Twilight

You're staring at the title in disbelief. How can anyone defend Twilight, you wonder? Well, I'm not going to defend the writing (not that I had a problem with it, but I don't always read to search out the bigger thesaurus, sometimes I just want to shut down and enjoy the story--and this is a young adult romance series... who the hell expects to have deep thoughts while reading a romance novel?). I'm not going to defend the main character (although seriously? Everyone has to be amazing and fantastical in their own heads? Romance novel heroines aren't there to be role models for anyone).

What I'm here to defend is largely misconceptions, unfair comparisons and outright geek affronts that I see on a very regular basis. Frankly, I'm not a Twihard, but the vitriol people have against this series and the energy they put into outright hating it really, really gets on my nerves. (As does my feeling the need to defend it)

I'm going to start with this: the vast majority of people who hate Twilight never should have picked it up (and if you're judging it based on the movie, just leave now, because you've already lost your case--and I'm sorry if you were dragged to those pieces of crap against your will) or have never even bothered to read it. However, just because you don't like something, doesn't automatically make it garbage.

I hate Stephen King's writer's voice viciously. He's also one of my greatest inspirations as a writer, because we write in the same linear, time-dependent fashion. Every minute I spent reading Dune was like torture. I choked the whole thing down and while I enjoyed the story, I couldn't force myself to read the second (though I tried). I decided I'd been punished enough. Anne Rice... well, I cannot get through Queen of the Damned no matter how I try. I have to skim her verbose, irrelevant, superfluous Nathaniel Hawthorne-esque voice to stay in the stories that I like (loved Interview, Lestat, Tale of the Body Thief and Vittorio, other than her writing).

These are three respected, good authors. They write very well. Their stories are not garbage, even if I absolutely despise reading them. I can't abide Harlequin Romance novels for the most part, but I like a nice, fat historical romance now and then. Most of those are about the heroine learning her place (I even read one where she was whipped with a crop until she stopped misbehaving for her later-to-be husband--yet Edward is a monster?) and doing as she's told (although the ones I enjoy tend to have stronger female leads, like Anne Bonnie: Pirate Queen).

It transfers into music, too. I'd rather be stabbed than listen to jazz (music of hell!), R&B, country (with a few exceptions), Kenny G (special kind of hell), most modern pop, hip hop (except Will Smith), reggae or anything with a floppy bass, bongos or brass or very staccato instruments. I can, however, still acknowledge the incredible talent in these musicians and their value in entertaining others--the people who do enjoy that sort of music. To say that someone should die because they entertain people, but you don't like their (non-hate-spreading) entertainment is disgusting and it shames me that so many people find it funny.

Now, onto my original theme. Let's start with this:

"Real vampires burn in the sun."

No, they don't. "Real vampires" don't exist, to start (unless you count the deluded masses who think they live on the life forces of others and drink clamato juice while disgusting goths with their bastardization of the original 'death walkers'). Second, the original vampires were shambling corpses who typically only woke during the night to feed on family members (causing illness, pregnancy, whatever needed a scapegoat). The sun didn't hurt them and, shockingly, they could be killed with a plain old bullet.

Dracula was the first really romanticized vampire and guess what? He walked around in the sun with nary an ill effect (unless you count him not being able to become mist, a wolf, a bat, et cetera). The first vampire to be killed by the sun was Nosferatu (who was originally supposed to be Dracula, but became his own vampire in the end... and it was the crowing of the cock that seemed to do him in). I'm not sure at what point they started burning, but if it wasn't a movie, then it was certainly a part of the Vampire Chronicles in the 70s.

"Sparkling is stupid."

Maybe, but that negates a lot of Hollywood through the years. I can't tell you how many bad guys sparkled on Star Trek (the original series). And most movies in the 80s employed some heavy glitter at some point. Quite frankly, us kids of the 80s grew up with a lot of sparkling going on and it's not a surprise to me at all that one of us had a dream about someone sparkling in the sunlight. A large chunk of MySpace was a glittering mess long before these books came out. I'm sure that gave plenty of people weird dreams.

The whole sparkling vampire is just one of many, many odd vampire mythos. Just because something wasn't written 200 years ago doesn't mean it can't be written now. I don't know why people are so obsessed with this--personally, it made me think of old Greek legends and gods. But it leads me into...

"The vampires in Twilight are gay."

Gay people love/have sex with people of their own gender. This is probably the first vampire series I've read where there wasn't any gay vampires. As someone who is not heterosexual, I find this incredibly offensive. You detest something, so you brand it gay? Yeah, Edward's a freaking prep. That doesn't make him gay. Having sex with Jacob would have made him gay, but that didn't happen (in the canon universe--calm down, slash fans). In fact, all the vampires were paired off in nice little heterosexual relationships. Being sparkly doesn't make them gay any more than a lisp makes a human guy gay. No H8.

This is gay:

...and one of my favorite screen captures

Asher and Jean-Claude, gay vampire couple supreme. Thanks to Spiffiness

This is not:

The less of Robert Pattinson's face, the better to me

Twilight, the Graphic Novel

And no, having a moral compass that matches the one he had when he was alive does not make Edward gay. His not wanting to have sex with her was partly because of, like Superman, what could happen if he lost control. Frankly, I'm still wondering why his sperm wasn't venomous when every other bodily fluid he had left was. Sheesh, condemn the guy for not wanting to look like a wife-beater.


"Buffy never would have put up with that."

This bothers me even more if they reference Spike. Both Angelus and Spike stalked Buffy, watched her sleep at night and slept with her. Further, Spike beat her, repeatedly and their sex was this side of non-con right up until he went too far because they never bothered with a safety word and he almost fully raped her.

Buffy, being bitten by Angel to save his life,
knowing that he might not be able to stop and it could kill her

In her loving relationship with Angel, they made love and he became a monster that tortured her friends and family and murdered people she was protecting. She did eventually kill him, right after his soul was restored and she watched him get sucked into hell to be tortured for who knows how long.

Don't challenge me on Buffy, it remains my single favorite television show of all time. Comparing anything to it is useless, as it stands in a class of its own. And you certainly can't compare a book with a younger target audience to it. Nor that book to any adult horror novel, urban fantasy, etc. I love the show, but Buffy totally ended up screwing her abusive stalker. They were in the middle of beating the shit out of each other when they stopped to have sex as the building they'd beaten each other into collapsed around them.

These:

(although Spike and Angel both died for Buffy--
it's okay for guys to die for girls, but not vice versa)
Again, both Spike and Angel watched Buffy sleep at night and tried to eat her.
Edward never tried to eat Bella--the exact opposite, he fought not to want to
and the only time he did feed from her was to save her life

No, Buffy didn't throw herself to her death over a guy. She killed herself for her imaginary sister:

Cliff jumping: not okay. Actual suicide, where it breaks everyone around you: just dandy.

This was designed by someone who never
read the books: you can't stake marble.

Let's face it, with Buffy's track record, she'd have been on Edward in a hot second. He wouldn't have lasted, though, because as dangerous as he is, he had no intention of harming anyone at any point. And you also can't bring age into it if you bring Buffy into it. Angel and Spike were both older than Edward (although at least Spike wasn't chasing a 15 year old Buffy).

 

First: As I understand it, Blade doesn't hunt anyone who's not hurting anyone (maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like an Avenger wouldn't go for that shit). Second, my husband assures me that his sword is made of adamantium or similar, but I couldn't find anything supporting that claim. I don't know if an "acid-etched" sword is going to cut through a Twilight vampire. Pretty sure they can snap titanium without much difficulty. They may annoy the shit out of him, but he's not going to actually kill someone in cold blood.

Okay, that's all for now. I will say one last thing, though: Liking Twilight vampires is not the same as liking vampires. Because I'm sure you aren't liking James, Victoria or the Vulturi (unless you like your vampires good and evil. aka: normal). You like the neutered ones. That's valid. But if you were confronted by what a vampire really is, you'd probably pitch a fit and drop them in a hot second.

Hate Twilight all you like, but stop judging people for enjoying it and stop being so mean about it. I don't care if there's a Mormon agenda (people can find an agenda for anything that they want to in anything if they look hard enough) or that Bella's personality isn't as bright as her husband's skin. And maybe I sympathize because I have been that 'in love' as a teenager and still remember it (and heck, maybe you hate it for the same reason I like it!). And, if you've never read it? Shut up. Everyone can just move on now and enjoy this video of cute animals.