CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE SCP BLOG HOP

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Welcome to my blog for the Secret Cravings Publishing Contemporary Romance Blog Hop!

I write contemporary paranormal, emphasis on vampires and shifters, and I've also dabbled with a Sci-Fi/Fantasy epic, a western novella, an anthology of short stories and a Christmas-themed short. My first love is my vampire buddies, though. So for this giveaway blog hop, I'll be offering a PDF of any on my backlist, and there are quite a few! To participate, all you have to do is comment below on the excerpt and answer the following question:

What are the names of the main characters from my first published book?

All correct answers will be added to the hat and one participant will be selected randomly. Enjoy the excerpt from A Lusty Vampire's Valentine. This one is my recent release and is Episode 2 in the Misadventures of Dick Grewcock. But first, Episode 3 is in editing now and will release soon and wanted to introduce it! Here's a debut of the cover I received just this week.

BLURB for A Vampire's Bite of Flesh

     Dick Grewcock is a vampire working full-time as a computer consultant for Vampires ‘R Us. He had everything he wanted—a pretty girlfriend and a great job—or so he thought. A hurricane blows through town a week before the Fourth of July making a real mess, including riling the sugar craving mush-brain humans. Operation Zombie Takedown begins at Fang Shui, the local vampire bar, to get the infestation under control. Dick’s existence was about to change—again.

     Noelle St. Nicholas is Dick’s girlfriend, but four months ago she met with an unfortunate accident and ended up in a cryopreservation chamber at a high security laboratory. She’s revived and Dick isn’t sure she’ll forgive him for what he did.

     Dick battles zombies with fireworks exploding and learns what it means to be the vampire he was meant to be, but at what price to losing what’s left of his humanity?

BLURB for A Lusty Vampire's Valentine:

Richard “Dick” Grewcock is a fledgling vampire, turned by choice on Halloween Night. He’s a computer geek, thirty-two years old, and thinks vampires are handsome, powerful, and have women falling over them—everything he’s not. Problem is, after he turns he doesn’t get any of those qualities. On Christmas he got the girlfriend of his wishes, and weeks later his new life takes a turn.

Valentine’s Day he meets with his maker and is made an offer he can’t refuse, but he has a date planned with his girlfriend.

Noelle St. Nicholas is Dick’s new girlfriend, and a little geeky too, they seem to be a perfect match. She plans a night her boyfriend won’t soon forget, but he tells her something she can’t forgive.

On his second adventure to find love, Dick Grewcock gets a Valentine surprise he won’t soon forget.

STORY EXCERPT:

“Dick, Dick, Dick, you’ve been a naughty boy, haven’t you? C’mon and calm down. We can fix this. First, you have to stop erasing her memory and be a true vamp. Tell her the truth. Be her master. Then, I want you to bring her to me and let me check her out. We can set this right.”

“You sure?”

“Positive, my boy. I’ll take care of you if you take care of me. Fix my computers and I’ll put Noelle back into working order.”

She’s not broken, like a car needing a tune-up. Geez! “Yes, sir. How about bringing her by tomorrow night?”

“Hmm, I can do that. But remember, don’t do anymore mind erasing. Resist, my dear Dick. Remember you can do it. Now if that’s it, I have another appointment.”

“Okay.” Dick stood and reached his hand over the desk to thank his sire.

Vlad stood and placed his cold mitt in Dick’s. “Ah, does my Dick feel better now?”

Huh? The question gave him pause. No, he didn’t mean that the way it sounded. Dick changed the subject. “So, Master Vlad when do you want me to start on the computers?”

“Tonight, of course.”

“Really? But, I need to quit my day job, and I’m busy tonight. I have a Valentine’s date with Noelle, remember?”

“Hmm, that’s right you did say today is Valentine’s. Well, I was counting on you. I need to move on this immediately. I hate down time in my businesses.”

“I can’t give Noelle a call first? I have reservations at a nice restaurant and can’t change my plans.”

“All I need you to do is find me the best hardware and software system then network all of them back to my computer. As long as I’m up and running by the end of the week I’ll be happy. You can have your romantic date with Noelle, and then work on it when she’s asleep or is she an insomniac who stays up all night? If she is, you might have a problem working for me.”

“No, she sleeps normally. I guess I could start tonight after our dinner. And, sir, the end of the week is in two days. You want this done for seven stores in two days?”

“Oh my, how this week has flown by. The days and nights all blur into one for me lately. Insomnia is such a bitch. I have trust in you, Dick. Plus you’re industrious and can make it work. That’s why I hired you, but I’ll give you a few extra days because I like you.” Vlad paused and bit his bottom lip. “Hmm, I wonder if vamps can suffer old age symptoms. You know like, dementia or inability to sleep. And this,” he said as he grabbed his stomach and squeezed the skin through his shirt. “Do you think I’m fat? Look. I think I’ve gained a few extra pounds around the middle.”

“Um, I don’t know. I haven’t been doing this vamp thing for very long. You look fine to me, by the way.”

“Hmm, you’re right.” Vlad turned to the side facing Dick. The older vamp pushed aside his leather duster coat with one hand and the other hand he placed over his abdomen. Arched his back slightly, he let out a breath, extending his stomach, sucked in the muscles, then back again. After a couple more times repeating the in and out of his belly, he glanced back at Dick. “Be honest, I can take it. Do you think I’m getting fat?”

Holy crap! I’m damned if I do or not. Maybe cutting back on the ice cream might help. “No, I don’t think you look fat, sir. You…you look fabulous. As always. Hell, I wished I looked as good as you. You’re one reason I wanted to become a vampire.” Not really, well maybe, but Dick had to tell a little lie because he recognized no way he’d win this argument with Master Vlad.

“Really?” Vlad’s voice squealed a couple octaves higher, piercing Dick’s ears.

For a moment the younger vampire reconsidered his decision to take the position with Vamps ‘R Us, but at this point, he couldn’t back out. The offer was made and accepted, and in the Master’s world that meant a contract had been sealed. Dick took a deep breath and forced a smile.

“Where was I? Oh, yes. I almost forgot.” The master walked to his desk, retrieved a file folder, and then leaned across the desktop, outstretching his hand with the folder. “This is for you. Everything you need to know. Addresses, phone numbers, store managers’ names, all concerning the properties I’ve purchased. If you can think of anything I’ve forgotten, please let me know.”

“Sure thing. I’ll get right on this.” Dick turned to leave, but stopped abruptly when the cold chill of Vlad’s hand came to rest on his shoulder.

“Oh, one more thing, my boy. When you stop by Tina’s desk to make an appointment to come in with Noelle, let her show you one of the offices down the hall. You can pick where you want. She’s so good at welcoming my new employees and can get you set up with everything you need.” Dick felt the chillier breath of his maker near his ear. The soft whisper sent chills down Dick’s spine. “Just don’t mention anything about her fingernails. She’s very sensitive about them for some reason.”

“Okay, no problem.”

“No seriously. The last guy that came to work for me said something about how he thought they were weird with the multi-colors of polish and sharp as needles.” He paused. “Well, anyhoo, he doesn’t work here any longer.” Vlad patted Dick on the shoulder again and walked toward the door.

Dick swallowed hard. “Anything else you should tell me, sir?”

BUY LINKS: 

Secret Cravings Publishing: http://store.secretcravingspublishing.com/index.php?main_page=book_info&cPath=4&products_id=517

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Vampires-Valentine-Misadventures-Grewcock-ebook/dp/B00BAYLYV4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1368843822&sr=1-1&keywords=A+Lusty+Vampire%27s+Valentine
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-lusty-vampires-valentine-cynthia-arsuaga/1114300258?ean=2940016393568
BookStrand: http://www.bookstrand.com/a-lusty-vampires-valentine
All Romance EBooks: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-alustyvampire039svalentine-1053261-139.html

Thanks Again!

Cynthia

VAMPIRES FOR VALENTINE'S GIVEAWAY HOP

I'm participating in the Vampires for Valentine's Giveaway Hop February 12 - 18. How could I pass up this one? I write about the little devilish characters AND I have a short out for the love holiday. Which brings me to the giveaway I'm doing--a PDF copy of A Lusty Vampire's Valentine to one participant drawn randomly. Please leave your name and email address in the comment space below AND join my blog followers OR like the story on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookstrand, or ARe. Winner will be announced the 19th!

Thank you Felicity Heaton, Caris Roane and H. D. Thomson  for sponsoring this fang-tastic giveaway hop and letting me share the love of my journey into the world of the Undead—Vampires. . .here’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

I began to write the winter of 2009 and submitted my first manuscript late summer of 2010, followed by several more within a few months. I write two different worlds of vampires, quite by accident actually. A long story that I won’t get into here, but I’m glad I did because I love everything about each. Suffice it to say, the accident worked out just great. One world is darker and edgier with the other with vampire warriors who are more “business-like.” Yeah, I know that sounds strange, but it works. Each series currently has two books released each and others are in the works, a minimum of four each.

When I created the two different worlds, I started with an idea about the women, the heroines. The story/plot came next with the Heroes, the vampires, created to compliment the women.

For the research in the Born Vampire series, I had the hero as a 500 year old Romanian vampire and not the leader of the local family of vampires, he is the “Enforcer” or Sergeant Palatine of the group. The hierarchy of this “blood family’ is based loosely on the Knights Templar. The head of the family (read as a clan, nest or coven) is called the Master and Commander with other members as Sergeant Palatine, Knights, and the supreme commander of all is a Grand Master of North America, Europe, or Asia.

From the beginning, I wrote the first story adding in some of the vampire folklore, but not the typical types. Researching the many myths and legends, I picked those that would fit into each world and had the stories revolve around BDSM in the Born Vampire series with added elements that weave through each successive story, and in the Forces of Beauty series, different “powers”.

As I mentioned before, the Forces of Beauty series has the vampires as businessmen. The hero of the first book owns a hospitality and entertainment company who meets his lady in Crete at one of his resorts. (BTW, hubby and I stayed at this particular resort and I had it in mind when I wrote the location.) In the most recent release, A Vampire in Paris, the hero was in the first book as a secondary character and I had to give him his own love story. The company he works for is also owned by an ancient vampire who just might show up in a future book and he is one of the company’s best security investigators. You never know where the inspiration comes from! The heroines in both are “older” women, quite accomplished in their own professions but doubt their attractiveness to the “younger” men, until they find out who these men really are.

As a fun project as an escape from the serious story-lines, I have recently begun a vampire comedy series of short stories put together as an anthology. The first short releases December 2012 and will have a total of five shorts releasing around holidays in 2013.

In closing, I’d like to share a few vampire traits, myths and folklore that may or may not be widely known.

·       CLOCKS:  According to European folklore, a person’s house can be protected from a vampire attack by stopping the clocks at the time of death. Stopping a clock is said to put the corpse into a sort of suspended animation, preventing demonic forces from entering the body until it is ready for burial and therefore not becoming a vampire.

·       COUNTING:  In Chinese narratives about vampires, they state that if a vampire comes across a sack of rice it will have to stop and count all the grains. These are similar myths recorded on the Indian continent and even in South America. The vampire isn’t repelled or pierced by the objects, rather the creature is compelled to eat them or count them one at a time, thereby slowing them down and away from the living. (I used a variation of this in the Born Vampire series. The vampires have OCD, I explained.)

·       INCENSE:  Composed of grains of resins and spices that are burned or sprinkled on lighted charcoal to create a sweet or pungent odor, incense has been used in many religions over the centuries to drive out evil entities from a person or a place. In fighting vampires, it ranks alongside garlic as a preventative measure and as a way to counteract the stench of death. In some regions of Romania, it was often pushed into the ears, eyes, and nostrils of a corpse to stop an evil spirit from entering and reanimating the body.

·       SECONDARY POWERS:  Folklore, not of the fictional types created today which have variations ~

o  The ability to cause impotence ~ This surely wouldn’t work with any of my vampires.

o  The ability to cause plagues, epidemics, crop failures and the deaths of livestock.

·       PROTECTION:  Methods of protection differ from region to region and country to country, but some of the most common means of securing safety are listed below:

o  Thorns:  Considered to be magical barriers against vampires and witches.

o  Calling three times:  In Romanian lore it was believed that one should never answer someone unless they call three times, because it was said that vampires can only ask a question twice. If someone answers a vampire, the vampire has the power to kill them.  (This sounds like a “Beetlejuice” variation!)

o  Lemon: In Saxony in Germany, a lemon was placed in the mouth of suspected vampires.

o  Bread and cheese:  Among some Slavic Gypsies, offerings of bread and cheese were made to appease vampires. In Transylvania wine was buried with bodies for the same purpose.

o  Holly, hawthorn, and wild rose are all said to harm vampires.

·       SNEEZING:  There are numerous widespread folk beliefs that the soul temporarily leaves the body through the mouth during a sneeze and is therefore vulnerable to the forces of evil. Sneezing creates an opportunity for evil entities to enter the body through the mouth and take possession of it. In the folklore of Romania, sneezing can attract or empower a vampire unless a blessing is given immediately after.

·       SOCK:  According the lore of the Gypsies from Eastern Europe, the left sock of a vampire can be used to drive it away or even kill it. Vampire hunters steal the sock from the grave, fill it with rocks, and throw it outside the village, preferably into a river or running water. The vampire will then wake up, miss its sock, and start searching for it, even if that means entering the water and drowning in an attempt to retrieve it. Like the use of seeds and grain to distract the vampire into counting for centuries, this is based on the widespread belief that vampires are obsessive creatures. (Why the hunters just didn’t stake the vampire instead of stealing its sock just doesn’t make sense, but this is all myth, right?)

·       VISION:  The eyes of vampires are often described as hellish and hypnotic and able to paralyze victims. They may also turn blood red when the vampire begins to feed. The superb night vision of vampires isn’t explained or even mentioned in folklore but it is implied, as generally the vampire of folklore is a nocturnal creature. (My vampires’ eyes turn red not when they want to feed, but when their sexually aroused.)

And last, but not least, is this one!

WATERMELONS:  Among the Muslim Gypsies of Yugoslavia, watermelons like pumpkins, could become vampires, especially if they had teeth and had been kept for more than ten days or for too long after Christmas. Stained with drops of blood, these not very deadly or threatening vampires roll around making growling sounds, for no other reason than to irritate the living. (Yep, fanged watermelons rolling around the ground certainly would irritate me!)

All these interesting facts are from “The Element Encyclopedia of Vampires” by Theresa Cheung and I hope you have enjoyed learning a few new things about vampire folklore, myths and legends.

All my books are available from Secret Cravings Publishing and all retailers—Amazon, All Romance Ebooks, Barnes & Noble, and Bookstrand. For excerpts on all my books, visit my the individual tabs above or my WEBSITE.

Don't forget to stop by all the other fang-tastic participants!

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