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Today’s six sentences are taken from my newly published vampire romance, THE MERZETTI EFFECT. My hero, Dr. Delano Bowen, needs to keep Ainsley Crawford (who has been attacked by a vampire) under his care to give him a legitimate reason for drawing her blood, which he believes holds the cure for vampirism. Since there is too much on the line to leave anything to chance, he manipulates her unwitting cooperation:

He cursed himself, but didn’t let up. “Do you see what I’m saying, Ms. Crawford? They can’t help you. Worst-case scenario, they will literally kill you with their ignorance. Best-case scenario, you turn out not to have been infected with the vampirism virus and will eventually be released, albeit permanently stigmatized by your mental illness.”

She didn’t nod or otherwise signal comprehension, but the spreading bleakness in her eyes was all the confirmation he needed.

Versatile? (Looks over shoulder; sees no one behind me.) Me? Do you think so? Do you really think so?

Well, apparently one person does, to wit, the very cool and talented Shéa MacLeod. And who am I to quibble? <g>

Yes, Shéa has touched me with the Versatile Blogger Award stick. And you know what that means. Well, okay, you probably don’t. Here are the rules:

Okay, Part 1, thank you, Shéa! You are a darling.

Part 2, here are seven things about me:

1) I can’t leave the house without making the bed. I can leave dishes on the counter, jackets draped on chairs, shoes in a pile by the door, dust bunnies firmly entrenched in their protected habitats. But God help me, I have to make the bed. What does that say about me?

2) I’m a little compulsive and am easily spellbound by simple, repetitive tasks. If I get started weeding my flower beds, I’d better have all day, because the weeds – they … all … must … come … out. Of course, I wind up being sore for three days, but my gardens look good.

3) I have a weird aversion to the name Betty. I’ve known some very lovely Bettys, and the name does not have any awful-Betty associations, but nevertheless, never will a character in one of my books be named Betty.

4) I am learning not to be such a grudge-holder. My policy has always been to take everyone pretty much at face value, giving them the benefit of a doubt – until they demonstrate that I can’t. And then I can hold a grudge for a very, very long time. As in, forever. Slowly getting past that. Life is too short to harbor animosity for any length of time. Plus it tends to crowd out the good stuff.

5) I’m starting to wonder if I’ll keep watching Castle next year. This disturbs me deeply. I love(d?) that show. We’ll see what next year brings.

6) When I meditate, I see a really deep, rich amythst color. Huh.

7) Recording artist I would most love to meet: Everlast, aka Erik Shrody, aka Whitey Ford. He fascinates the hell out of me and writes the best songs. (“What it’s Like” will always be one of my favs.)

Okay, moving on to Part 3, wherein I tag some other bloggers with the Versatile Blogger Award. Shéa definitely deserves to be on this list, but I don’t think it’s good etiquette to tag back… So without further ado, here are my selections:

Bonnie Vanak

MJ Fredrick

Esri Allbritten

Theresa Ragan

Les Floyd (Shéa already tagged him, so I don’t expect him to repeat the feat, but I wanted to mention him. His blog is awesome.)

Breaking Point by Pamela Clare

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh, where to start? This book had everything I love. A thrilling action adventure plot, an amazing larger-than-life hero in Zach (former Navy SEAL turned Deputy US Marshal), a smart, courageous heroine in journalist Natalie Benoit, and a scorching-hot romance. Pamela Clare gives both Zach and Natalie a ton of baggage – some very bad stuff has already happened to these very good people – and then she heaps more bad stuff onto them. But they come through the ordeal stronger, each helping the other to heal the grievous emotional wounds of the past.

Oh, and bromance! (Sigh) This book gives us a reunion of some of my favorite heroes from Clare’s previous novels, who come together to help protect Natalie. I especially loved revisiting Julian Darcangelo and Marc Hunter. Much as I adored Zach and Gabe, I’m still hung up on Julian & Marc. The story line in BREAKING POINT could not have been tailored better for me, though I had some rough moments….

A gritty, sexy, emotionally rewarding read! I can’t recommend it highly enough.

View all my reviews

I love reading other people’s six-sentence writing samples on Twitter. It’s a great way to get an idea of a writer’s voice, or at least their character’s voice. Today, I’m joining in the fun by posting the first six sentences from a new book I just published. It’s a little different (okay, a lot different) from my usual offering, so I’ve gone with the name N.L. Wilson instead of Norah Wilson, to try to signal to readers that this is definitely not serious romantic suspense. Rather, it’s very light, funny mystery, featuring a female sleuth. This series, like it’s protagonist Dix Dodd, private investigator, will never be accused of taking itself too seriously!

Okay, without further ado, the six sentences:

If you have a toothache you go to the dentist, not the doctor (unless he’s a really hot doctor and then you go there first). If you need a new roof, call the roofer. You wouldn’t go to a mechanic for your annual pap smear, nor have your OB-GYN under the hood of your … um … car. Okay, bad analogy, but you see where I’m going, right?

The point is, when you have a special job in mind, you call a specialist. And if you live in Marport City and need someone to get to the truth of a matter – and when the matter is private and dear to your heart – you call me.

The book is called The Case of The Flashing Fashion Queen: A Dix Dodd Mystery, and it’s available now on Smashwords (and will be available momentarily at Amazon’s Kindle Store) for the introductory price of just $0.99.

I love me an ambiguous hero. If he starts out heroic and ends up heroic, where’s the fun in that? I like characters with a certain degree of darkness and moral complexity. Heck, make him dangerous, debauched, menacing. Because in a romance, I know there’s going to be a happily-ever-after, and I know I’m in for a hell of a ride as the hero is transformed into someone I can call heroic. Anne Stuart does this better than anyone else, in my opinion.

Why is she so successful at it? I think because she doesn’t let you see too much of her hero’s innate capacity for goodness – that tiny, buried kernel – too soon. She keeps you on the knife edge of indecision about his true character, right along with the heroine. She masterfully dispenses dribs and drabs of backstory in a way that allows us to only gradually appreciate how he came to be who he is. We have a front row seat as Stuart puts our guy through tests and trials, giving him plenty of opportunities to fail. But when the chips are down and he mans up and does the heroic thing, we’re cheering like crazy for him (and yes, probably crying). We know that our heroine’s leap of faith was rewarded, because when he’s tested, he proves himself to be a hero. In the words of screenwriting guru Robert McKee, “True CHARACTER is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure – the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character’s essential nature.”

Not that I always require quite that much ambiguity in a character. I’ve read and loved plenty of books where the hero isn’t necessarily mad, bad and dangerous to know. Heck, I’ve written them! But when I’m reading back cover copy, it’s definitely an element that revs my engines.

What about you? What’s your favorite kind of character to read?