It's All About The Animals

ANIMAL INSTINCTS, my new urban fantasy romantic suspense novel, is all about the animals. Attending a couple of Humane Society meetings about passing laws to help stop dog fighting, I wanted to raise awareness by using murders related to dog fighting as my crime. It was quickly pointed out to me that readers would think of their pets, and so I took a left turn and made them shifter fights.
    My hero, Luc Lazare, is half-human, half-Kindred, and he’s a man who has been pulled between his two worlds all of his life. His retired social worker mother is all human and has instilled the idea of caring and justice in him. The Kindred part is reference to his father’s line–descendents of the Nephilim (progeny of fallen angels and earthly women) who are shapeshifters. Luc’s family is black panther, but other Kindred are other predators–wolves, hawks, African wild dogs, pythons and more. In their human form, their goal is to gain power by corrupting the rest of humanity.
     My heroine, Skye Cross, is an animal advocate. She arrives with Animal Control at a dog fight, her purpose to see to the welfare of the dogs. To her surprise, the only dog she sees is an African Wild Dog. It’s opponent, a coyote, escapes the arena and she goes after it, only to be surrounded in the dark by wild predators, who see her as their next snack. Yes, she can “hear” their thoughts. And, saved by Luc, she realizes he, too, has gotten in her head:

    Dark hair whipped around features so rugged they could have been cut from granite. High cheekbones. Broad forehead. Square chin. His eyes appeared silver in the moonlight, and they glowed at me, tightening my stomach and making it hard to breathe.
    Trembling, I gasped, “What just happened?”
    “You got into something that doesn’t concern you.” Forget about it.
    I started. He hadn’t said the last bit out loud. There was something about him so powerful that I almost agreed.
    I fought the desire to give in, saying, “I’m not forgetting about anything. Who are you?”
    I felt as if he were trying to push the command into my mind.
    Glaring at him, I pushed back.
    “What are you?” he asked.
    “Someone who protects animals.”
    His silence told me that wasn’t exactly the explanation he was looking for. My pulse threaded unevenly as he stepped closer. I sensed both threat and something less tangible, something that made my stomach knot and my throat tighten. I’d always had a psychic connection not only with animals, but with my brother. No one else. Not until now. And this guy being able to mess with my mind went beyond any previous experience I’d had.
    “Did you have something to do with the fight?” I gasped. “Where did those predators come from? What kind of power do you have over them?” It had to be something supernatural.
    He stepped closer, and I sucked in a breath as his power cut through me, speeding my pulse, drying my mouth.
    “You need to forget about them, Skye.”
    This time he said it aloud. And he used my name.
    “How do you know who I am?” I demanded, my heart beating so fast I could feel it bump up against my ribs. “What were you doing here? Who are you?”
    Rather than answering my questions, he reached out and slid a palm along my cheek. The touch seared me, reminding me of the time I’d inadvertently touched a live wire. Wanting to move, wanting to run, I stood frozen instead. He was so close, I imagined I could feel the heat of his body as he splayed fingers around the side of my head. My insides trembled and my breasts felt full and tight.
    What was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I move? Or speak?
    You never saw me. You’ll forget about me the moment I disappear.
    Every fiber of my being longed to do what he wanted. But something in me, the thing that made me do what I do, was stronger.
    “Disappear to where?” I demanded through a parched throat when I finally found my voice. “I have an excellent memory.”
    Appearing frustrated that I’d been able to hear the silent command, he dropped his hand. “What are you?” he asked again.

    It is all about the animals for me. The holidays from Thanksgiving to the New Year is a time of giving, and I’m hoping that this year, those of you who can will support an animal shelter or sanctuary or zoo, whether it is by volunteering, buying gifts that help the organization or by donation. Here are a couple of places that I support:
    PAWS Chicago, with it’s adoption center, spay and neuter clinic, and at the forefront of animal advocacy.
    Lincoln Park Zoo, one of the last free zoos in the country.
    Humane Society of the United States, the nation’s largest animal protection organization.
***
New York Times & USA Today bestselling author Patricia Rosemoor has written 95 published novels that have generated more than seven million sales for eight publishers. Her fascination with "dangerous love" has led her to bring a different mix of thrills and chills and romance to each book. ANIMAL INSTINCTS and CRIMSON DUET (2 related holiday novels at a discounted price) by Entangled Ignite is available at digital retailers. And don’t miss DANGEROUS ATTRACTION Boxed Set – romantic suspense novels published independently by Patricia and nine other USA Today bestselling authors.

You buy ANIMAL INSTINCTS at these digital retailers:
Amazon, BN, Kobo, iTunes

You can find Patricia at
Website: http://patriciarosemoor.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PatriciaRosemoorAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PRosemoor

WRITING CHRISTMAS

HOLIDAY IN CRIMSON

There’s something about murder and Christmas that just seems to work for me. Even though they have a short shelf life, Christmas romantic suspense stories are my cup of eggnog.

I’ve actually written FOUR Intrigues set at Christmas.

In my last blog, I wrote about killing Santa Claus in HOLIDAY IN CRIMSON, published last month in Entangled Publishing’s new Dead Sexy romantic suspense line.

What you might not know is that HOLIDAY IN CRIMSON actually is an updated and editorially revised version of CRIMSON HOLIDAY, which I wrote for Harlequin Intrigue in the late 80s.

Then, when Intrigue wanted to celebrate its 10th anniversary several years later, the powers that be decided not only to reprint some of its most loved books in a leather bound edition, but to offer readers connected books to each of the ones included in the collection.

And so I wrote CRIMSON NIGHTMARE, using many of the fun characters from CRIMSON HOLIDAY. My heroine, Pippa McNabb is the younger sister of Rand McNabb, who was my hero in the original story. I revised and updated CRIMSON NIGHTMARE for Dead Sexy, as well.

NIGHTMARE IN CRIMSON is now available in digital formats:

Another year, another Christmas party...another dead Santa! Run down by eight tiny reindeer and a sleigh, was he killed by accident—or was it murder?

NIGHTMARE IN CRIMSON

At last season’s party, it was Pippa McNabb’s faithless Santa-clad husband who died—so after another St. Nick ends up dead, she’s at the top of the police suspect list. When hunky sleigh-driver Sky Thornton offers his help to find the real culprit, she accepts, and soon finds herself snuggled up with him before a holiday fire—and falling hard for the blue-eyed stranger. But how does he know so much about her...?

Suddenly she isn’t certain if her mysterious new lover is attempting to help her clear her name, trying to frame her for a murder he might have committed...or working to win her heart forever.

Writing romantic suspense doesn’t get much more fun (at least not for me) than that.
                       
The most challenging part of writing the second story was to make it different from the first. Both CRIMSON stories are set at Christmas, both at the same department store, both with a dead Santa as the central mystery. The first thing I had to do was figure out a death that would be different, interesting and leave the authorities confused about whether the hero, the heroine, or someone else did the deed. The fun for me was in having Pippa and Sky suspect one another even as they are attracted to each other. And in having Pippa discover Sky’s true involvement AFTER she falls for him. I hope that’s fun for readers, too.


In RED CARPET CHRISTMAS, a 2005 Intrigue -- the final book of the Club Undercover series -- my hero Gideon put his former lover Simone’s father behind bars for killing his own father. Now she needs his help... to clear her of a murder she didn’t commit.





And in CHRISTMAS DELIVERY, a 2010 Intrigue, part of a Holiday Mystery at Jenkins Cove series with Rebecca York and Ann Voss Peterson, my hero Simon returns from the dead after 13 years and is hell-bent on revenge. Only a Christmas miracle could reunite him with Lexie, the girl he’d once loved... and the daughter he didn’t know he had.


Take the time to enjoy a holiday read this coming week.

Happy Holidays to all and to all a good night :)

Patricia Rosemoor has written more than 90 novels for 8 publishers and has more than 7 million books in print. She writes “dangerous love,” casting her lovers against a backdrop of mystery and suspense.

                           

SPOTLIGHT ON: SKIN

SHE WOULD DO ANYTHING TO SAVE HER SISTER...

After a decade of searching for her runaway sister, Lilith Mitchell finds her dancing at a gentleman's club. They barely reconnect when a killer kidnaps Hannah. Keeping his victims prisoner for days, he then hunts and kills them in a forest preserve.

Determined to identify the killer and find her sister, Lilith transforms herself into Hannah’s double and gets a job at the club to lure the killer into coming after her.

The killer savors the idea of doing the sisters together but first takes up Lilith’s challenge by terrorizing her.

In a world of deception, where everyone seems guilty, who can Lilith trust?

FILLING THE CREATIVE WELL

Writing romantic suspense has pretty much been my professional life since I first sold to Intrigue in 1985. I’ve written 53 Intrigues and have sold about six million copies world wide. But in order to fill my creative well, I need variety in my writing life.

I love writing any combination of romance with suspense or thriller elements, with or without a paranormal element. PUREBRED, my April Intrigue, has them all. So did HOT TRICK, my Carina book released last October. The difference is in the balance of those elements. PUREBRED is romantic suspense with a paranormal element, while HOT TRICK is an urban fantasy thriller with a romantic element.

Now I’ve tried my hand at something a little different. My current new release, SKIN, is a fast-paced dark thriller with a romantic element. The difference between SKIN and my Intrigues is that the ‘hero’ of the story is actually heroine Lilith Mitchell. The thriller story focuses on her efforts to rescue her sister Hannah from the killer who took her before he ends Hannah’s life. But of course the story still has that romantic element that I can’t seem to write without.

SKIN has a long history. I wrote the first version – then known as THE LAST DANCE – as a screenplay in the 90s. I entered the screenplay in the Motion Picture’s Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting competition. It made the semi-finals (top 100 of approximately 5000) and garnered a lot of interest from agents and producers. Then a producer optioned it. She got a director (actually, two), had music written for it, found actors who wanted to star in it, had a backer with the money to publicize and distribute it, but she couldn’t get the money to produce the movie. So goes my short-lived experience with Hollywood (until I wrote another screenplay, but that’s another story).

I didn’t give up on this story, however. Since my Intrigues were so successful, I thought surely I could sell a single title thriller with a romantic subplot. I wrote a book proposal based on the screenplay in 2002. I heard “too dark” as the reason for rejection from nearly every editor who read it. In 2008, I made a major-major revision to the story and rewrote the proposal, which I renamed SKIN. My then longtime agent let it languish. My next agent sent it to a half-dozen editors, most of whom thought it had a good commercial premise and solid plot, characters and writing. However, the thriller editors thought it should go to romance editors, and romance editors were still afraid of the dark elements in the story, even though I’d lightened them up considerably.

Caught with my feet straddling the line between thriller and romantic suspense. Again.

So what to do?

I let SKIN languish for a year while I worked on other projects, but I couldn’t forget it any more than I had since writing the original screenplay. Thematically, it’s as current now as it was then. With the hope that SKIN had the potential to ‘thrill’ readers if only they had a chance at it, and the indie digital market spiraling upward, I had good reasons to write it for myself. So when I made a New Year’s resolution to fill the well writing stories I loved, SKIN fit the bill to start off the new year. I finished the book, and it’s finally available to readers.

Currently SKIN is listed at Amazon.com as part of the KDP Select Program, which means Prime members can choose it as a free book. It also means Amazon has a three month exclusive. By April 1, it should be available in trade paperback both at Createspace and at Amazon.

Whether or not SKIN is read as widely as my Intrigues, I am glad I took a chance on it. It was one of those ideas that just didn’t let go of me, and it turned out to be a book that practically wrote itself and truly filled my creative well.

Good reading. :)
Patricia Rosemoor