Darkspell By Elizabeth Mueller

Just in case you missed it the first time, today I am re-featuring Darkspell, the young-adult paranormal romance from the beautiful, awesome and talented Elizabeth Mueller.

The Book
Winter Sky believes she is everything ordinary ... until she is kissed by Alex Stormhold. As seer of Stormhold Coven, Alex is sworn to be Winter's protector against the darkness that hunts her. Violently thrust into a magical realm she always thought impossible, she stumbles upon a disturbing secret of her own. Will love prove thicker than magic? Included in this volume are author-created illustrations that bestselling author Ellen C. Maze calls a mind blowing treat. Darkspell is classified as a Young Adult Paranormal Romance that will appeal beyond the genre.

About the Author
Elizabeth Mueller knew that books couldn’t bite, but even though she never admitted, she was scared of them. What she didn’t know, ironically, was that she was building her way toward a career in books. She started writing poetry when she was 9, and stories when she was 11 that make her laugh now. It wasn’t until her creative writing teacher in 12th grade made her realize there was more to writing than life. That’s when she fell in love with books. She hasn’t stopped since, feverishly working to perfect the craft late into the night. She lives with her husband, four kids, a wolfdog, and two cats. Darkspell is her first novel. You can find her at elizabethmueller.blogspot.com or AuthorElizabethMueller.com, and email her at elizabeth.mueller.author@gmail.com

The Heroines Behind the Voices In My Head

Thought for the Day

"Christmas can't be bought from a store... Maybe Christmas means a little bit more." Dr.Seuss

Christmas is almost here! Order your copy of Stories of the Heart - A Christmas Short Story Collection from Amazon.com or JewelAdams.com

Heroine of the Week

Heroine: Elina
Book: Place In This World

Rubbing her lightly covered arms against the frigid cold, Elina trudged through deep drifts of snow, knowing that if she stopped, she would surely freeze to death. She probably would anyway.

Before escaping her captor she had managed to trade her tattered robe for a cotton tunic, leather leggings, and boots that were two sizes two big and had seen better days. The thin shawl she

tightened around her shoulders did nothing to warm her against the fierce winds that blew against her face, burning the cut on her chapped lips and the open wound on her forehead. By rights she shouldn't have felt any pain in the numbing air. She shouldn't have felt anything after hours of exposure.

She kept her head down and continued to walk, her frail body battling against the elements that

assaulted her. She was surrounded by desolation as far as the eye could see. There was absolutely

nowhere to seek shelter or refuge. No mountain crevices, no trees, no bushes, nothing to even lend

the illusion of shelter. The land was flat and void of any life but hers, and the only thing that disturbed the desolate landscape was the sound and sight of a single set of footprints crunching in the thick blanket of snow. Hers. It was one of the bleakest sounds she had ever heard, coming second only to the sound of her captor's footsteps approaching the door of the tower room she had been locked in for the past year.

She escaped and she was free now. But to what end? She didn't know where she was going or what she was going to do, only that she must keep moving. The evil and vile powers that be would not simply let her go. She knew she would be hunted–hunted until she was found, then made to pay for the trouble of having to be captured. And even if she was not found, she was sure she would forever see her captor's face when she slept.

So she would never sleep, at least not for a very long time.

The mass of long, dark, spiraled ringlets she'd hastily braided had now come loose and she futilely tried to keep it out of her face. Not that the view was even worth looking at. Besides, her eyesight was slowly beginning to blur with each exertion-filled step. Each step found her weakening

and her strength waning. A couple of tears fell from her eyes and froze on her cheeks.

I must keep going. Must not . . . stop.

Even as she mentally repeated the commands, she knew she would not make it. At that moment she realized she couldn't take another step. She tried, but she couldn't move. The desolate world around her began to spin and she felt herself falling, with one last coherent thought filtering through the eerie silence of her mind.

My life is at an end . . . and I shall never see the sun again.

She was completely oblivious to the sound of the winged being that gracefully landed next to her in the snow, or the strong arms that enfolded her before taking flight once again.

Place In This World is available on Amazon.com and JewelAdams.com

Getting to Know Olivia Wilde

In October I attended the Utah Romance Writers of America conference in Park City and signed next to Olivia Wilde, a talented author and a beautiful lady. I enjoyed visiting with her and her mother, who is also an awesome PR person for Olivia:-)
Olivia was kind enough to answer some questions, tell us about her book The Dawn of Silva, and help us to get to know her better.

About the Book
Filmmakers Alex and Shari run into more than a few snags in casting their new movie, Silva. Alex is obsessively determined that only the ethereal Ashlyn can portray the lead, and she cannot be found.

Shari leaves the hustle and bustle of New York City, and travels to the serene beauty of the Cascade Mountains, 3000 miles away - the search is on! Ashlyn's family and estranged lover try to protect her from the fast-thinking Shari's unwanted intrusion.
Ashlyn has found her paradise in the Cascade foothills, to heal the crushing pain of a star-crossed love. She wants solitude and time to heal and contemplate what her future holds.
Shari, in her journey, has found a whole new universe and has met an absolutely dynamic and maybe even diabolical man, whom she immediately hates. She is inexplicably drawn into a relationship that rocks her very foundation.
In the short space of one week, four people's lives converge in an Eden-like setting, to begin an adventure that turns each of their lives upside down.
The Dawn of Silva is the first in a series of Silva novels by Olivia Wilde.

Rita, tell us a little about yourself.

My childhood was a dream. I was raised on a farm in Central Washington, on an Indian Reservation. My dad was a beekeeper and my mom was a stay at home mom, I have a brother, a sister and four foster brothers. My mom and dad took in 'problem teenagers' who were not such problems, mostly misunderstood. We had lots of animals to take care of and lots of chores to do. I started riding horses when I was about 2 or so and then started showing them. Farm life gave me the greatest lessons - discipline, hard work, selfless love, nurturing, joy and loss. Unfortunately animals don't live as long as we do and even though I know that, losing them is always hard. At 14 I started modeling and acting and after high school I moved to Seattle to be closer to my work. I joined the theatre group and took as many acting, directing, makeup and stage classes as I possibly could. After a difficult breakup with fiance' #1, I moved to Boston, gave up acting, and started working in financial services. That profession continued for the next 20 years while I moved from Boston, to Washington, then Oregon and Utah. Writing has always been an important avenue of expression for me and my creative brain. The only professional writing I did during those years was for research and training projects. In 1993, during a 1 1/2 year breakup with fiance' number 3, I started pouring my heart out, attempting to mend some serious pain and disappointment. The characters in my writing started to come alive and redirected my writing to a fiction novel which became The Dawn of Silva.

A few months after I finished my novel, my real life fairy tale came true. After some spiritual and inspirational events and a pastor's powerful prayer asking for a man to come bursting into my life, I met my husband at Sea-Tac airport in the middle of the night. Funny though, he forgot to get my name and number so a couple days later he put an ad in the personals that read, "Sleepless Since Seattle. I left without even getting her name. Please help me find this woman I met at Sea-Tac Airport Tuesday night . . . if you know who she is please have her call Barry in Eugene." So fiance' #3 was out and I married Barry 9 1/2 weeks after our meeting. Shortly after, our love story went out on the associated press and we received 1000's of calls and letters from well wishers - the National Enquirer published our actual phone number. While lots of folks were happy for us, there were many who thought we couldn't last - that love at first sight doesn't exist. Last October we celebrated our 17 year anniversary and our love continues to grow stronger each day. I want to share our story because it's a feel good story and I think we can use more of them.

When did you first start writing?

My Mom was a believer that you say what you mean and don't say anything you can't take back. So whenever I would get hurt or upset about something she would have me write it down and if it was really painful, I would burn it and watch the smoke rise. I would visualize the anger dissipating so it couldn't hurt anyone. When I was about 7 or 8 I started writing poetry and songs, but I was very shy. Whenever someone would hear me sing or see one of my poems, I would get embarrassed and stop writing. It took me years to get over my fear of an audience. Like so many others, it took the most embarrassing speech to get it through my head that I could never top that feeling again.

Tell us about The Dawn of Silva. How did you come up with the story?

Well, it was so long ago, like I said earlier, I wrote this in 1993-94. I remembered deciding to buy a computer so that I could start writing. I never thought it would become anything. But after reading some passages to my mother and getting her feedback, I kept going and let the characters create. I remember thinking that if I was as strong as I wanted to be, like my grandmother, my aunt, and my mother, I wouldn't be sitting at a computer healing my pain. I would find a cabin in the woods and take all my critters with me and create the most beautiful place I could think of and make my dreams happen. After I had the first chapters done and at my mother's encouragement, I sent it to several agents in New York. One said they wanted it, so I finished it and sent it off. But it came back in the mail several weeks later 'undeliverable'.

Tell us about your upcoming projects.

The Silva series will be at least 3 novels. I started the second in 1994 after I thought the first was going to be published. Once the series is finished or maybe before, I will write 'Sleepless Since Seattle' which will be based on true events. I also write childrens' books under a different pen name. I didn't want a mom or dad to get confused and buy a steamy love story for a child. My grandfather was a published author and has about 6 or 7 books that I would like to publish, so I will also be working on those.

Where can we buy your book?

Currently it is available online at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com & xlibris.com.

I'm Thinkin' Books for Christmas!

Here are a couple of neat little books by a couple of
awesome people. One is an amazing friend, the other, my amazing daughter:-)
So if you are needing gift ideas for friends who love books, then both of these are available to order on Amazon. And I promise you will enjoy them!

Book: Me, Myself and God - Volume 1
Author: M. L. Walling

About the Book
A collection of short personal family stories that reflect the love of my mother and father for each other, their children and those around them. And how through their example, they influenced the decisions and choices others would make in their lives. Amazon.com

Book: Bailey's Book of Randomness
Author: Bailey Adams

About the Book
If you have ever wanted to get inside a teenager’s brain and see how it works, here you go!
Welcome to Bailey’s World of randOmnEss! Amazon.com

And as always, in you are in the mood for romance, swing by my website or visit my Amazon page and check out my books!

The Heroines Behind the Voices In My Head

Today I'm excited to introduce the heroine of my new contemporary romance, That Kind of Love - A Legacy Novelette! This novelette is the first in a series of Legacy novelettes introducing a new generation of the St. John family from The Legacy. I had not planned to do a sequel to The Legacy, but after hearing from so many fans asking if there would be anymore Legacy books, this story came to me. I'm ecstatic to share it! That Kind of Love is available to order in Kindle format on Amazon.com or PDF format on JewelAdams.com.

Heroine: Evangeline Patton
Book: That Kind of Love - A Legacy Novelette
About the book

Strong and fiercely independent, Evangeline Patton has never experienced love in any shape or form–not from her parents, or a man. She has overcome some major obstacles in her life, but at twenty-five she is still alone. All of that changes when Adagio St. John the third walks off a plane from Italy and into her life.

Evangeline and Adagio are both looking for love, but can she trust her heart to someone she will never see? And can he look past her blindness and see into her heart?

Excerpt

Salt Lake City, Utah

Andrew is dead.

And the sigh that escapes me is one of relief and gratitude. My blind eyes can make out the shadows of medical personnel moving around the hospital room, but I can't see Andrew's still features. I don't need to. There is a new silence in the room–the absence of irregular shallow breathing–for the next few moments. Then the soft sobs of his mother and mine dispel that silence.

With Andrew's death from undetected heart disease comes my freedom. The pressure of my parents to marry him has vanished and I feel as if a great weight has lifted, brightening my world like the sun coming out after a long, murky year of rain. I don't mean to be cold, but I've never loved Andrew. I've never even liked him. Nevertheless, my parents have been relentless in their desire to merge our family with Andrew Tanner's, to strategically combine two financial empires.

Andrew had been willing to put his own happiness aside, as well as mine, and go along for the ride. Had everything gone through, I would soon be trapped in a gilded prison I couldn't see, and would likely have died in. That death would have been a slow one, stealing my strength and my spirit a little each day until all of the things that have made me me disappeared, leaving an empty shell, my armor weakened, emotionally scarred and battered. Just like our parents, with Andrew, it had been all about the money. Love had nothing to do with it because, hey, let's face it. Who needs love?

“I do,” I had told him. And he'd laughed. He actually laughed! It was never about our wants or desires. It was about our parents pimping us out to insure that the two companies went to bed together as soon as possible. “After all,” Andrew had said, “the end justifies the means. Blind, deaf or lame, it makes no difference to me.”

I offer my condolences to the Tanners, and then extend my cane and turn to leave. I imagine the mouths of the men silently opening and closing like fish lying on a shore in need of water, and the women shooting invisible fire darts with their eyes. Later on, I am sure my parents will dutifully harp about my cold and heartless exit, hoping to guilt me into showing the influential world the face of a grieving and heart-broken fiancee. But the days of me feeling guilty are long gone. If anything, I feel sympathy for the Tanner's loss. Andrew was their only son–their Golden Boy–the child they based their hopes and dreams on. His sisters are a different matter. Other than marrying rich men and breeding more sons to work in the family business, their two daughters are treated as if they are of no consequence. And since I'm an only child, my parents' dreams and ambitions for me are shot . . . unless a new financial opportunity emerges, an opportunity that will drive them to once again attempt to prostitute me for their gain. Of course, it figures since I'm not the daughter of their blood. I was adopted by them during one of their philanthropic trips down south. Boy, did they ever rack up brownie points for adopting a token black baby, and a blind one at that!

Will I always be worth so little to them?

However, I have been given a healthy dose of strength, and I will no longer let my parents–Mr. and Mrs. What Can You Do For Me Patton–run my life. Thanks to the good Lord, I am in charge now, and I am open and ready to receive the kind of love, and the kind of life, He has in store for me. In God's eyes I am worth more. I don't know how much more, but definitely more than the value my parents place on my existence.

The trust fund I inherited four years ago on my twenty-first birthday has given me the financial freedom to live on my own in a downtown high-rise condominium that I own outright. And the money I earn giving violin and cello lessons takes care of my needs. I guess you could say I have it all.

Yes, you could say that . . . but you would be wrong. Until now, the thing I have desired most–what I have needed most–has eluded me.

I smile, sensing a coming change. A change bringing a life that has always been mine. A change I have been prepared for, and one I am now ready to receive.

I hope you will love this story as much as I do. Wait, what am I saying? Of course you will!

The Heroines Behind the Voices In My Head

Thought for Today

"If a woman can only succeed by emulating men, I think it is a great loss and not a success. The aim is not only for a woman to succeed, but to keep her womanhood and let her womanhood influence society." - Suzanne Brogger

Heroine of the Week

Name: Cisely
Book: The Legacy

In my twenty-two years of life, I have seen and suffered things no one should have to. Having been raised by an alcoholic mother and an abusive father, childhood had been nothing but miserable for me.

From the age of six to twelve years old, when other children were laughing and playing and sharing secrets with their friends, I was a woman-child, barely surviving and telling my secrets to no one. In the afternoons after school when I should have been busy at the business of being a child, I was subjected to the screams of my mother as my father beat her. And at night while other children were safely tucked in their beds and sleeping, I was forced to endure the sickening presence of my father in my room as he abused and defiled me.

One day my mother finally found the courage to leave her husband. She packed our things while he was at work and we moved from Charlotte back to her hometown of Asheville. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late, for my life had been permanently scarred. And it didn’t help that every man who came into our home and lived with my mother seemed to think I should be part of the deal.

Throughout my whole life I felt dirty and cheap, but more than anything, I felt alone. There was no one I could turn to and share my painful burdens. Later in life, that loneliness guided me to make decisions that only added to my misery and brought even more shame upon me.

A single tear slips down my cheek as I painfully remember the days and nights of endless partying, each one filled with drugs, alcohol, and sometimes immoral conduct. When I was younger, my father made it his solemn duty to tell me repeatedly that I was worthless and only good for one thing in life. It seemed his comments found a permanent place in both my mind and my heart. My father had foreseen my future and had helped as much as he could to make that future happen. But I know in the end, the choices had been my own, just as the choice to finally change my life had been.

I smile, melancholy coming over me as I remember the day I made the decision to abandon the self-destructive lifestyle. It was a little over a year ago. I had just gotten home from work. I was tired, my feet were sore after working all day waiting on table after table, and I was looking forward to a tall can of beer and some rest. I had just sat down when there was a knock at the door.

When I opened the door to the braid-wearing teenage girl donning heavy makeup, a dirty mini skirt, and scuffed up high heels–one of them broken, my first words were, “Sorry, no customers at this house.”

She gave me a teary smile and replied, “I'm not looking for a customer . . . I'm looking for a way out.”

Tears slip down my cheeks as I remember how my heart had instantly gone out to her. I knew the life she'd lived and what she'd suffered before reaching this point in her life. I didn't know her, had never seen her before, but I knew, because I had been there, myself. I invited her in and listened as she talked, my suspicions about her abusive childhood confirmed. I fed her and gave her some clothes to change into. Taking the tips I'd made that day from my purse, I called a cab, took her to the bus station, and put her on a bus to Raleigh to go and live with her aunt. Arriving back home, I sat on the sofa, closed my eyes and cried. Nothing I'd ever done in my life left me feeling as much peace as that one act had.

I immediately threw away every bit of alcohol in the apartment, vowing to never take another drink, pop another pill, or smoke another joint for the rest of my life. I stopped partying and made a commitment to change my life.

Getting to Know Sara Fitzgerald

I had the privilege of reading Sara Fitzgerald's new YA paranormal romance Darkness Within, and I really enjoyed the story. It has the two favorite things: A hot vampire and romance. You can't go wrong with that!

About the Book
Samantha Van Skyhawk's, life is in terrible danger—and her unlife may just be beginning. Samantha’s dad is a vampire and soon, she too will change. She flees with her mom and brother to Shadow Falls to find the spell to kill the vampire blood flowing through her veins. When Samantha encounters Brent, a human with the most bewitching smile, things get complicated. She doesn’t have time for a romance, not with the daunting task of defeating a vampire who has been around for centuries. Then Samantha meets Drake, a totally hot vampire, who claims she belongs with him and the darkness within her completely agrees. She must fight her incredible urge to be with Drake and the yearning within her soul to become what she fears most. Will she save herself and those she loves or will she embrace the night forever?

Sara was kind enough to speak with me about herself and her book.

Sara, tell us a little about yourself.

I have been married for almost 20 years to a wonderful, kind man who has always supported my dream of writing. He even bought me my first computer and second writing course. I have a little girl who I adore. I love writing. Darkness Within is my fifth book. I have four other books published with Champagne Books. I love reading. I also love going to the movies and shopping.

When did you start writing?

I guess I stared writing in the fourth grade. I wrote a poem and my teacher hung it on the wall. That made me feel really really cool. I belonged to literary club at my high school and signed up and took a writing course through Writer Digest School. I wrote my first historical romance novel at age nineteen which will never see the light of day. It took several years to get my second novel published.

How did you come up with the story for Darkness Within?

I came up with the story of Darkness Within because my husband and I have always loved vampires. I thought it was a fun and unique idea. I also like the concept that people can change and choose their own fates.

How long did it take you to write it?

I have a little daughter with autism so I wrote it during the time she was being treated, so it did take about three years to write it and edited.

Do you have any other books available? Any upcoming projects?

I have four books out with Champagne. All four are sweet romance novels. I am working on the sequel to Darkness Within.

Where can we get your book?

You can purchase my book at champagnebooks.com and Amazon.`

Sara, thanks for taking the time to talk with us:-)

Thank you so much, Jewel, for having me as a guest. It has been a pleasure.