I’m blogging at Cobblestone Press today. Check out my post about the lure of the vampire.

Battle, my vampire story for Cobblestone Press, is now available!

When Mélanie Laurent receives a black rose, she can’t afford to ignore it. Her adversary wants L’Hôtel Roseraie and the rest of her holdings. To reach his goals, he’s willing to involve humans. To win, Mélanie must defeat her rival at his own game.

Justin Garvey knows Mélanie isn’t what she seems. When his assistant is murdered by Mélanie’s adversary, Justin vows to get revenge–a vow that brings him into the vampire world. Justin and Mélanie discover that they make great partners . . . but to succeed, they must risk everything.

In honor of Battle, my upcoming release with Cobblestone Press, it’s all vampires all week long!

Although I love reading about vampires, I can’t think of a vampire movie I really enjoy. I’d love to see a faithful adaptation of Dracula, but so far I haven’t seen one. The closest I’ve come to enjoying a vampire movie or TV show is select episodes of Buffy and Angel.

I have high hopes for the upcoming True Blood, an HBO show based on Charlaine Harris’s series. Can’t wait to see it!

What’s your favorite vampire movie or TV show?

In honor of Battle, my upcoming release with Cobblestone Press, it’s all vampires all week long!

Yesterday I talked about reading Dracula. My love for that book and for romance led me to seek out vampire romances. Here are some of my favorites.

Karen Harbaugh: The Vampire Viscount
This is one of the first vampire romances I ever read, and I loved it.

Charlaine Harris: Southern Vampire series
This series is more urban fantasy than romance, but there is romance throughout the books. My favorite? Eric.

J.R. Ward: Lover Awakened
Ward has a unique take on vampires, and I loved seeing the tortured Zsadist find love.

What’s your favorite vampire romance?

In honor of Battle, my upcoming release with Cobblestone Press, it’s all vampires all week long!

My love affair with vampires began when I read Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It was an assignment for a college class, but once I started reading, it swept me up completely and didn’t let go.

It’s a beautifully written novel, very atmospheric and creepy. And Dracula is a horrifying villain. If you haven’t read the story, I definitely recommend it.

Do you have a favorite classic vampire tale?

I was interviewed by Cobblestone Press about my upcoming Vampire Oracle story, Battle. You can download it here; my interview is on page 16.

You can also get a glimpse of the other writers and stories in the series.

Enjoy!

I’ve updated my website! The home page now shows the cover for Battle, and you can read more about this book—including an excerpt!

Battle will be available July 4—less than a month away. (Where did the time go?)

In the picture of my writing nook, you can see a small stuffed animal by my computer. It made me realize that I’ve had writing props like that one for the past few books. Each one is unique to the book I’m working on at the moment. The stuffed animal is for Shay and Jeffrey’s story, a story targeted for Cobblestone Press’s Shifters line.

Shay has blonde hair and is a werepanther, so I was drawn to this stuffed animal when I saw it in the grocery store.

I had a similar prop when I wrote Battle. When I proposed the story, I had to write 1,000 words and a summary. The first scene shows my heroine, Mélanie, receiving a black rose from a business rival. You can imagine that I snatched up this fake flower when I saw it in the store.

When I wrote The Greatest Gift, I used an audio prop rather than a visual one. You can read more about that here.

Each prop sits on my desk as I work on the story. It’s a visual reminder of the story and the characters, just one more thing that gets me back into writing mode. I don’t know if I will have props for all of my stories now, but I definitely enjoy the ones I have.

I’m pleased to announce that I finished my final round of edits for my upcoming vampire story, Battle. It’s all set to go. It was good to revisit that story after a bit of a break from it. When that happens, I find things to improve, but I also find sections I read and think, That’s good. Those are nice moments for a writer.

I’m pleased with the way it turned out, and I’m grateful for my editor, who made the story even better. Battle will be available in e-book on July 4. I don’t know the release date for the print version yet, but you’ll be the first to know. I’ll post a few excerpts when we get closer to July.

I’m doing the first round of edits on Battle. With each manuscript, I overuse a word or phrase. This time around, it’s sighing. My heroine does way too much sighing throughout the story. So I’m editing that out.

I’ve had several different editors, and have so far enjoyed them all. Their goal has been the same as mine—to make the story as strong as it can be. It’s a valuable opportunity to go back to the story after I’ve had some distance.

So I enjoy this part of the process—even when I feel stupid about overusing something. *Sigh.*