Samhain Publishing

A talentless witch, a deposed Greek god and one unusual matchmaking agency – can love be far behind?

Dating in today’s world is tough enough. Pair a busy lifestyle with a paranormalady and it’s a recipe for loneliness. At ParaMatch.com, Lucilla Wainwright has taken all the frustration out of finding true love in today’s para community. But as the owner of a successful matchmaking business, why is she one of the loneliest people in all of Sleepy Hallow Woods?

As a talentless witch born into a family of legendary spellcasters, Lucilla has made a niche for herself in a unique manner. She owes the strength and reputation of her business to all the brilliant matches she has made with various paranormal beings over the last few years. There is no combination of traits or backgrounds she hasn’t been able to place together in a loving and committed relationship.

Until now.

Enter Jager Cronus deposed king of the Titans and successful paratrader. As a client, he’s a nightmare. As a man, he’s irresistible. When he demands a date with her to the annual Legion Halloween Dance, Lucilla is hard pressed to refuse her own attraction to the dynamic Titan. With her professional ethics on the line and a deep need to prove herself capable of matching even the most difficult clients, Lucilla gives Jager two more chances at finding love. But Jager didn’t rebuild his world after his downfall without learning a few things about prevailing in even the stiffest negotiations.

Now, he’s about to negotiate the deal of a lifetime—a future with Lucilla.

Come join the fun the print release of ParaMatch.com is so close I can reach out and touch it.

I had a great time writing this story. It started out with a clear picture of the opening scene in my head. Lucilla Wainwright sitting across the desk from a lonely werewolf. Having no talent of her own, I had to give Lucilla a hero worthy of her strong character and determination to make a name for herself despite her adversity in the Paraworld. And what character is as large in stature and mythos as that of a fallen Greek God. Cronus was perfect for my needs. And he happily obliged when I approached him about being teamed with Lucilla. You see, he’d been on the dating scene a very long time and was ready to settle down with a nice girl, from a good family. It didn’t matter to him if her powers were non-existent. His own had been rather weak since his descent from Olympus. They seem like the perfect match. If only Lucilla was as good at matching herself as she was her clients. Oh, how I despaired of her at times.

You’ll have to read the book to see how it all worked out, and how I persuaded them to find common ground.

Enjoy!
-Kat

I loves me some sci-fi! I can’t help myself. Ever since I was a very little storyteller, sitting on Saturday afternoons and watching the original Star Trek with my dad, I’ve been a sucker for traveling the galaxy at faster-than-light speed and meeting new civilizations. To me, Gene Rodenberry and George Lucas are gods. The worlds they built are so vast and amazing, it simply boggles the creative mind.

Oh, to be able to geneflect at the altar of their genius.

And yet, I try.

Something comes over me when I slip on my supersonic boots and take myself to distant planets, emerse myself in alien cultures. I’ve always been more of a planner and plotter than not. However, when my imagination soars into the stratosphere, my fingers become overtaken by the ideas and the stories tend to write themselves. Thus is the case with my latest work-in-progress. It’s a little ditty that started out as a shorty-short and is ending up as a novel-length duology. Pieces of the puzzle just sort of falls into place when I sit down to write the characters. The fact it’s more of an erotic futuristic-fantasy with a clash of ancient beliefs and gadget-driven technology is a plus.

Is there a particular genre or sub-genre you write that seemingly takes over your body and the stories spew forth as if you’re speaking in tongues? If you are a reader, is there one particular time period that whisks you away and makes all your problems melt away?

Let’s hear about it.

-Kathleen Scott/MK Mancos

I’m adrift in a sea of chaos.
Tsunamis of paper and binder clips rush by on a wave of ideas.
I drown, never seeing the light, never touching the bottom.

I need help.

I need a dry erase board. Maybe two.

- While that might be as far away from Shakespeare as the North Pole is from the South, it does break down my current angst. I have so many projects and so many committments, I’m having a hard time keeping track of them all. Add that to a guilt-laden personality and I’m always eager to keep up my end of the agreements I make with people. Even if I’m being pulled terribly thin in places.

To this end, I thought, what can I do to simplify my life and be able to see what I need to be doing at-a-glance. Well, for work I have an organizor/calendar. For submissions I have a calendar/journal. What would work for keeping track of the important dates I need to keep every month- like editing projects for the Samhellion and the Heartline Herald Newsletter?

That’s where the dry erase board comes in. Oh, the wonders of non-permanent magic markers and glossy boards. Was I the last person on the planet to get clued in on the fact they make them with the days of the week on them? An erasable caldendar – cool. However, for my specific have-to-do-it-by-the-same-day-every-month, I added the dates, but left the month off. If I’m sitting at my desk, I only have to look at the back of my office door to see the due-by date for certain projects.

Will this work? I don’t know, I’m going to give it a try. Anythings better than carrying around all that stuff in my head. Now my mind is free to create.

-Kat

Yes, it’s true…I am a sequel whore. Both reading and writing them. I’ll read any series, any genre, any time, for any price. There is just something so yummy good about opening a book with continuing characters, or those secondaries from another book who get their time in the spotlight.

Sometimes I’m reading along very happily in a book and suddenly my mind is racing, wondering the fates of those character that might not have much time on stage, but seem intriguing. – And I hate to wait. There is nothing that fills my heart to overflow more than the instant gratification I get from buying all the available books in a series and greedily reading them one after the other. You see, I have this deep seeded need to see that everyone in a particular world gets a happily-ever-after. I’m just that much of a snuggle-touch.

As for writing sequels, let’s just say I have several “series” in the works. I seem unable to even write a simple one-off without finding something about the secondary characters that I want to explore in a later book. I’ve even had them stop me in the middle of writing when they say, “If you think that story is something, you should hear mine.” – It’s very rude of them, I know, but hey, I’ll take the stories and inspiration where I can get it.

But I come by this trait honestly. I began my journey to publication writing fantasy fiction. Now, I don’t know a fantasy author out there who doesn’t write in the mindset of a series or sequel. I just don’t think it’s possible. Right? It’s all or nothing. Long, winding stories that span decades are generally the norm (or they are the way, I write ‘em.) And those of my favorite fantasy authors are most definately series.

So, what do I do when I have the idea for a stand alone? Do I write it? – Oh, absolutely….and then I think, “what if?” and I’m off and running again.

Personally, I think there should be a new holiday. National Celebrate a Sequel Day. I can see it now, booksellers, libraries all over the country will promote the multi-book story arc. Authors will publish lists of their favorites. Readers will goggle them up… I really think I’m on to something here.

-Kat

I love to name characters. It’s one of the first steps I take when deciding what direction a story will take – this is of course after the initial flash of the idea hits me. Sometimes the name will come with it, oftentimes it won’t – unless it’s a sequel or part of a series where the name is a known commodity.

Often the characters themselves will say, “Hey, Kat, this is my name and my story.” But for the ones that are a little more reluctant to name themselves, or I have to pry the information out with a pair of pliers, I have a couple of great baby naming books I use. They are listed in alphabetical order and then give the origin, meaning and derivitives for other languages or regions. I’d say that is probably one of my first sources to use if I’m coming up with bupkiss. I also do my research online, so a quick trip to Googleland to plug in the country (if I want a name common to a specific area) brings up a goldmine of lists to choose from. Then there are the less used places like telephone books, bibliographies, Who’s Who publications, resources like that where you can find first and last names that can be mixed and matched and otherwise shaken up to create characters.

But no matter what source you use, the name has to fit the characters. That more or less refers to the line where my characters mostly name themselves. The ones who don’t tend to be rather picky. So, as I’m going through the lists, they have a tendency to say, “No. I don’t like that one.” or “No, that’s not me.” Sometimes I get, “Don’t make me laugh.” I keep going until I find the one we can all agree on. Then finally I’ll come across a name that makes the clouds part, the sun shines and the angels sing. And I know I’ve got it.

In a university creative writing class once, the professor suggested that characters should be named by concentrating on particular traits and then using names that mean the same or close to the trait. Though I don’t know if I necessarily believe this, I do think it’s a subconcious part of “knowing when the right name comes along.”

Characters, just like people, have to be comfortable in their skin and their names. If you’re ever stuck on a name, try the suggestions I’ve used. And if you have any favorites, pass them along.

-Kat

I began my love affair with the paranormal as a child when I first read the Unadulterated Brothers Grimm. To me, Disney just never quite cut it. I wanted the grit the grime and the out and out badness of the first collected folktales from those most famous of siblings.

As I got older I sat on Saturday mornings and watched a television program out of Detroit called Sir Graves Ghastly. He was the host of a horror show that played all the old Universal monster movies, Hammer films and anything outragously sci-fi. If it had a ghost, ghoul, zombie or creature from swamps unknown, it appeared on SGG’s show. (Do you remember the creepy movie The Hand? – I still have nightmares about that.)

Is it any wonder that when I started developing ideas for stories they would involve those same twisted legends I clung to in my childhood? Any and all odd beings are up for grabs. And the best part is that all an author needs is a kernal of the story in order to build a world around it for their own purpoes. I always find the best stories are those where the author turns the legends on their heads, or explains away the popular myth in other ways. Not letting the accepted folklore box them into a corner.

I also love to see legends from other cultures show up in paranormal tales. My reference library is stuffed full of book devoted to myths and folklore and paranormal happenings from all over the world. Talk about story fodder! If I never have another idea slap me upside the head again – which is highly unlikely since I have more ideas in my folder now than I have time to write – all I have to do is open one of the books and let my imagination run wild.

-Kat

It’s a little less than two weeks before the Romantic Times Convention. The plane ticket is bought, the room secure (let’s hope), the giveaway items are packaged and ready to go. So, why do I feel like I’m forgetting something?

I love conferences. But I have to admit to more than my fair share of pre-con lunacy. There’s so much to prepare, not just in the way of promo materials, but prepping myself to a conference shine. There are new contacts to purchase, so I don’t miss seeing those hunky cover models, pedicures to get – so my feet look festive in my new sandals, haircut and highlights (if you could see the roots now, you’d know it’s been a long winter!), new clothes and costumes and shoes – there’s just so much. By rights I should start in about October to get myself ready, but I never do. I always wait until about three weeks out and then start the RT sprint. Madness. Simply madness.

By the 15th, I’d have whipped myself into such a frenzy I’ll arrive at the hotel looking like I have five separate nervous ticks and a bad case of Tourettes. Not pretty. But still – I love it. I wouldn’t miss going to a big conference like this. Every year it’s either this or the RWA Nationals, depending on distance needed to travel and dates I can get for my vacation. This year, unlike past ones, I’m taking the entire week off after the con. If it’s half as outragous as it promises to be, I’m going to need the recovery time.

If you happen to be attending, mosey on over and introduce yourself. I don’t bite. Much.

Hope to see you there,

-Kat

Four-hundred years ago, Tristain St. Blaise worked as an apprentice for alchemist, Benito Achilles. When an experiment went terribly wrong, it fused an entity to Tristain’s soul, turning him from an enlightened man of reason to one of dark passions. He takes on the mantle of a hired killer in order to protect innocents and rid the world of men like Achilles, and find some measure of redemption.

Angelia Lightheart has worked hard trying to purge her life of unhealthy relationships. One night in a dark Manhattan alley, she is saved from a would-be rapist by a man who seems able to look into her very soul to the weary heart she hides from the world.

Now, as Angelia and Tristain fall in love, his work as a contract killer brings him face to face with the one responsible for his immortal state and endangers not only their love, but Angelia’s life.

Now, for a book trailer for your viewing pleasure.

-Kat

If there was ever a more accurate oxymoron used to describe me than prolific procrastinator, I don’t know what it could possibly be. Now this isn’t to say that my procastination has reached epic proportions—no, far from it. Instead it tells of the fact I seem able to produce unbelievable amounts of work while managing to stay true to my lazy nature. Let me explain.

At the beginning of 2007, I wrote a list of all the unfinished novels and novellas I had on my desktop waiting for that last few pages, chapters or scenes that would make it ready for submission. My plan was to finish them all by June, then begin to work on all new projects.

Guess what?

If you said, “It’s 2008 and she only has one of those books finished and submitted,” you’d be right. And all the time, throughout this past year I’ve come up with more and more ideas waiting to be written. And not just single ideas, but entire series that now have character sketches and complete outlines on deck. Oy!!! There needs to be more hours of the day so I can manage to finish all the stories I have. -That or I need to win the Win For Life lottery, or the Power Ball so I can actually meet the mortgage and car payments while I sit my butt in the chair and write.

There are fewer things more frustrating than having a mind full of stories and no time to finish them on my self-imposed deadlines. The ability to write more than one thing at a time certainly helps to move the projects along, but those deadlines of mine get closer and closer all the time.

Before I let you believe I only submitted one thing in the whole of 2007, I’ll let you in on a not so little secret: instead of working on the unfinished projects, I started new ones and submitted them. I actually am geeky enough to keep a calendar of what I submit and to whom and the projected time frame in which I’ll hear from them. My goal for last year, along with finishing the open projects, was to submit at least one thing to an agent or editor, magazine, etc, each month. I surpassed that goal back in July. I had already managed to have 12 submissions. Not too shabby. So, even if one goal wasn’t met, I did meet the other. I should be happy…I should be proud…I should carry a samwhich board up and down Broadway announcing I’m not a total slacker. But I’m not. I’m going to reasses my goals for 2008 and see if I can’t fit some of those unfinished works in while I’m working on the newer ones. It’s all about spreading the love.

-Kat

Wish you could escape from the cold weather and blizzard conditions? Do you want to put some heat into your chill winter nights.

Welcome to a world of high tech and hot sex!

For over twenty years the planet of Cimirion has experienced devastating climatic changes that have turned it from a planet of four seasons to one of perpetual winter. The Cimirion High Command has sent an advance team of Runners to the duel-sun planet of Solarion to scout for possible relocation.

Kara Zaire’s talents as a Visionary—a psychic who can hear energy patterns as musical notes— have placed her on the advance team to determine how well Cimirions will adapt to the constant summer heat of Solarion. That task would be accomplished easier if only Team Leader Jonah Cash would quit treating her like an unwanted commodity. But sometimes there is a heat behind his gaze that makes her feel as if he could burn her as sure as any sun.

Jonah Cash has led many missions for the Runners, but none as desperate as that of Solarion. He’s leery of the Visionary’s talent, especially when a strange force field blocks her from reading the planet’s energy. He’s willing to put up with her hocus-pocus talent if it means a successful relocation. He just never expected for the mystic to cause him to see visions of his own and her beauty to heat his blood to the boiling point.