ANXIOUS!!!

Book 1in my first ever series is releasing this month with Naughty Nights Press!!!! Okay now imagine me screaming that several times in a row – well that was the feeling with which it was written. LOL I never thought I would write a series. I mean people have asked for more of a story or for sequels before, but I’m usually done with characters or stories when I finish writing them. But I’ve done it! I’ve written an erotic, paranormal series where three covens (vampire, witch and werewolf) are all at war. So I’m just soooo excited about the release of the first novella in the series – The Vampire’s Witch: At War in the Willows, Book 1.

This really is a series about that fine line between love and hate, peace and war, as well as stereotyping and prejudices born of fears of the unknown. Yes, that is it in a nutshell there. Simple right? These are subjects I am passionate about though – people learning compassion, acceptance, so it was nice to create and deal with them in a paranormal world where the stakes are a bit higher. I tend to do that though, hide little messages in my writing *winks*

Though, writing this series was very different for me in a couple of ways. First, I was juggling so many characters that I followed a family tree of sorts, and I mean of sorts because with vampires there are birth families and then created families. Also, the point of view is different in that each story takes place in only one head, and each of them in the mind of a vampire - book one is male vampire POV, book two female vampire POV and book three another male vampire POV. Yet, I had to represent all three clans and all three couples. A challenge for sure.

Honestly though, since I am pretty much a plotter, I wrote Book 1, The Vampire’s Witch, in no time flat. And, I mean like breaking-all-my-writer-daily-word-count-records fast. The second book, The Vampire’s Wolf, went pretty much the same except at one point I wrestled with the plot. I got ahead of myself, thinking into the third book which had an ending but not a final scene, and somewhere in there I got all concerned I wasn’t addressing all the unfinished business in book one and book two in book three. Whew, did you get that? Hence my nerves to begin with in writing a series. So I had to read back through and take even better notes on my plot before I could continue.

Then I started writing the third book, and not having that final scene really bugged me. I mean how do you end a series? Nothing seemed good enough. Then the real stumbling block came – the covers!!! They simply blew me away. I mean it was like the cover artist, Shane Willis, got inside my head and then improved upon what I had seen there. I panicked :(  I felt like my stories would never live up to those covers. I seriously wanted to go back through the whole series and re-write it. But, I had already turned the first story in. Which I am grateful for, because I think sometimes over-thinking a story muddies it. Edits calmed me. Rereading that first book got me back in the game thanks to the support of my wonderful editor, Jennifer Gunn :)

But still, a writer’s block of sorts lingered with that ending. I mean I had the outline and only half a story to finish, but the right words just wouldn’t come, at least not to meet that cover *sighs* But, I pulled it off. Just had one of those moments where I rallied, and wrote. And, ending are where I usually find as a reader I take issue. Not all are ever going to be happy with the way things turned out. Point is, I was really challenged as a writer with this one. And, I think in the end that is a good thing.

Now I am seriously sitting here counting down the days on the calendar, like a kid in December waiting for Christmas, waiting for release day for the first book. And if readers think it is hard to wait between books in a series releasing, well a part of me just wants the whole series to release *winks* Don’t know if I have the patience in me. Especially since I have my first mainstream novel releasing this year as well. I am a ball of impatient nerves! So I just keep planning promo. And I think I am too old for time to start moving this slow *giggles*

So, onto the good stuff. Here is the blurb for the At War in the Willows series along with a great banner that I got from a wonderful author friend of mine, Jennifer Labelle.

At War in the Willows Blurb:

The Willows is a resort town run by vampires, werewolves and witches. Here, their true identities are kept secret from humans, and intimate relations between the individual clans are strictly forbidden.

When it becomes known that the vampire Amberlyn has fallen in love with the werewolf Kane, the tedious line of their co-existence has been crossed. Caught in the crossfire of this revelation, Drake, the vampire clan leader and Amberlyn’s maker, is killed along with an innocent witch. These deaths spark a series of horrific events leading to an all out War In The Willows.

In Book 1, Amberlyn’s vampire brother, Isaac, always one to kick ass first and deal with the consequences later, kidnaps a witch, Winter. He intends to find out what type of retaliation the witch clan is planning against the vampires and werewolves. In doing so, he finds so much more then he bargained for.

By Book 2, Isaac and Winter devise a plan to try to get the Elders of the clans talking peacefully.. But, things don’t go as they’d hoped, and the fighting between the clans becomes more devious – deadly. Now, Devin, another vampire of Drake’s making, steps in to help pick up some of the pieces.

When Book 3 begins, it is Devin who hides the biggest secret; he’s in love with a local human. In a moment of desperation – of love – Devin sweeps this human, Sara, away to his home in order to keep her out of harm’s way.

Unexpected close encounters, bodies ripe with need, and situations beyond their control lead to forbidden relationships. Now three vampires, a witch, a werewolf and a human must ride along the edges of the rules. They will attempt once unthinkable romantic entanglements despite all those who oppose their relationships while fighting for their lives as well.

With the Willows full of violence and bloodshed, meetings and magic amiss, will the clans ever be able to find peace among them again? Or, will this war destroy the Willows?