The Editor's Pen

Do you like paranormals? Vampire hunters? Macabre humor? Then pick up Power in the Blood, by Angelia Sparrow.

This is the first novel I’ve edited for Storm Moon Press, and it’s the most outright fun I’ve had with an edit in quite a while. Full of quirky characters, from the insatiable Oren Stolt and the six kids who’ve grown up in his shadow to assorted lunatic immortals, nothing about Power in the Blood is bland, stock, or repetitive. It’s composed of equal parts horrifying ideas and inappropriate giggles.

It won’t be for everyone–the violence level goes past “high” all the way to “gruesome” and two pagan readers have suggested that it really ought to carry a blasphemy warning for the Christian portion of the audience. But if you think you can handle that, it’s a hoot. The eBook is priced under $6, and the dead tree version should be available within the next month or so.

Here’s the official blurb:

Oren Stolt understands the natural order better than most people. Vampires prey on humans and Undying keep the vampires’ numbers in check.

And all that stands between humanity and eternal night is Oren, his kids, and a thin line of insane immortals.

Power in the Blood, by Angelia Sparrow, now available from Storm Moon Press

Rebound!, by Kellie Kamryn, just released from Secret Cravings Publishing. This one is a contemporary romance I found interesting for me to edit, because I got to do some fun research on the world of competitive and professional gymnastics during the process.

This time, I think the book blurb tells you about it better than I could. Have a look:

Claire LeMay is at the top of her game – she’s head of a prominent gymnastics facility with her gymnasts winning awards for her outstanding choreography. Now her biggest challenge is to coach alongside the man she’s avoided for three years after he demanded she live in his shadow instead of forging her own path.

As their old passion tumbles out faster than a gymnast sprinting down the vault runway, they realize they are in the same impossible position as they were three years ago. Are they destined to repeat the same old routine or will they be able to choreograph a new one?

Yikes, I’m running behind. You’d think I was editing or something.

Two for the Price of One, an erotic romance by Sandy Sullivan, is the latest installment in the Montana Cowboys series.

Red Rock, Montana is one of those little towns where everybody knows everybody else’s business and nothing ever happens . . . until the day Brandon Tucker, country music’s hottest new star, is on his way through town, and his bus hits Emma Weston’s pickup. Suddenly, the bus isn’t going anywhere and Emma discovers the dead-hot country crooner is a jerk. Which doesn’t stop her from reacting to his kiss.

The only thing more complicated than one hot guy you shouldn’t fall in love with his two, and Beau Tucker isn’t just Brandon’s identical twin, he’s a genuinely nice guy. The twins are nothing if not competitive, but they’re both falling for Emma, who won’t be the prize in some game. If they can’t compete for her, they may just have to share.

Two for the Price of One is available from Secret Cravings Publishing.

Murder Most Dreadful, by Jacqueline Stirrup, is one of those delightful little gems I get to read occasionally that’s written for a romance market, but which has a stand-alone plot separate from the romance which is engaging and entertaining at the same time.

Wren Coatsmith has no recourse against her husband’s abuse in 1880s London, but she never meant to kill him. She means to hide the body, though, and isn’t at all pleased when it turns up and she has to go identify it. When a bruised and battered woman in the morgue catches Wren’s attention, Detective Sergeant Alfie Beckett can’t understand why she doesn’t dismiss the woman as a dead prostitute like everyone else.

Alfie pursues the woman’s death, first out of obligation, and then to keep Wren from investigating on her own–for as well as that works! As their paths cross more and more often, he finds himself increasingly and unfortunately suspicious of her husband’s death. He likes Wren too well to want to see her hanged as a murderess, but no one is above the law . . . is she?

Murder Most Dreadful reminds me of the mysteries that were my guilty pleasure reading until I was somewhere in my teens, only with more humor and set against a historical backdrop. And what a historical backdrop! I cringe every time I get a historical romance to edit, because I spend half my time cross-checking facts and turns of phrase to be sure they are correct for the time period. This manuscript was a joy: the writer knows exactly what she’s doing, and I didn’t catch her in anything historically inappropriate throughout the course of the novel–not once! London in the 1880s jumps off the page and invites the reader to come along for joyride in a time long gone.

An engaging and entertaining read, I can wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys sweet romances, mysteries, or both.

Better off Without Her, by Rita Hestand, will be marketed as a Western Romance, but I would characterize it more as a Western with a strong romance subplot. The characters are engaging and the plot takes twists and turns neither a Western nor a romance usually would as our heroes chase a serial killer across Texas in the late 1800s.

forthcoming from Secret Cravings Publishing, autumn 2011