A Halloween Treat #2 by Christine DePetrillo

I hope you've still been good, people. If you have, Halloween treat #2 is Abra Cadaver, a paranormal romance novella.

Blurb:
Holly Brimmer never expected to be brought back from the dead. After a fatal car crash, a mysterious stranger gives her a second chance at life—but it comes with a price. To stay alive she must pay it forward, accomplish an important deed, thus making her mark in the world. Until she does, her savior is bound to her. Now she has a backyard full of dead bodies and one unwanted houseguest.

Keane Malson kills bad guys to keep the innocent alive, but he’s still a monster. Cursed by a witch moments before an honorable death on the battlefield, he’s lived thousands of years, roaming from place to place with no end in sight. It’s a lonely life…until he meets Holly.

When a wanted man targets Holly, Keane will do anything to protect her, even if it’s the last thing he ever does.

Excerpt:
Holly Brimmer stared at the dead body resting in the grass in her backyard. She knew it wasn’t truly human, but shit, it sure looked like a real person. This one was actually good-looking. His rusty brown hair was only slightly matted with dried, greenish blood. 

Must not have put up too much of a struggle. 

His skin wasn’t that post-life purplish color yet either. He still appeared fresh, as if he might pop open his eyes and say, “Just kidding! I’m not dead.” 

But that wasn’t going to happen. 

This fellow had definitely taken his last twirl on the carousel of life. She inhaled the summer-heated air and exhaled slowly. How did I end up here? 

“I don’t know why you insist on burying them, Holly. Demons only last eighteen hours after death, and I like to burn the bodies before then anyway.” 

The mere sound of his voice tensed every muscle in her already stress-beaten body. If she could take back one horrible decision, Keane Malson would be it. 

Keane leaned on the threshold of the back porch door. If he stood up straight, his head nearly hit the top. For a man of his size, he moved like a butterfly—absolutely no sound whatsoever. The snake tattoo circling his left bicep twitched as he folded his arms across his chest. Holly loved snakes, but that one slithering in black ink across his pale flesh confused her. She wanted to stay away from it and inspect it more closely at the same time. 

Stay away from it, Holly. Snakes bite and Keane probably does, too.

Pick up Abra Cadaver today and see how sexy monsters can be! 

Happy Halloween, Pumpkins!

Toodles,
Chris
www.christinedepetrillo.weebly.com 

A Valentine's Day Treat

“The course of true love never did run smooth.” ~ William Shakespeare

This quote is so true in romance novels. If the course of love did run smooth, readers would be bored out of their skulls. So would authors. I’ll admit to feeling bad when obstacles get in my characters’ ways, but those obstacles are also what make things exciting. They are what reveal character traits and personalities. They are what build a strong relationship between the hero and heroine. They are what eventually lead to a happily ever after or a happily for now ending.

This year, I tried something new in playing with characters and their courses to true love. It’s called Kindle Worlds, an Amazon-controlled program in which Amazon has licensing agreements with other artistic works that allows authors to essentially write “episodes” of their favorite television shows or books. You can borrow the characters and the setting and branch off into those storylines you’ve always dreamed about seeing.

This might be the right time to tell you I’m obsessed with the CW television show The Vampire Diaries.

And yes, Amazon does have an agreement with this show.

Yay!

So, I buckled down and wrote a 14,000-word novella based on vampire Damon Salvatore of The Vampire Diaries. If you’ve never seen him, see him immediately right here, wipe the drool off your chin, and come back to read the rest of this post.

Right? Gorgeous? Thought so. An inspiring muse to say the least.

I decided to put him with a new character that I created, Angelique DeLucas. She’s got her own supernatural twist and the relationship she has with Damon in this novella is not without its bumpy spots. Something happens at the end that could create a really bumpy spot should I decide to write more in this series.

Writing for Kindle Worlds was a new adventure. It was fun and I’ll see where it takes me.

Because the course of writing never does run smooth either…

Here’s the blurb for The Vampire Diaries: Blood Angel -

Vampire Damon Salvatore has returned from The Other Side only to find his true love, Elena Gilbert, has compelled all memories of loving him out of her mind. Needing an escape from the heartbreak, he heads for the woods of northern Vermont, the best place for a man—or a vampire—to lose himself.

Angelique DeLucas was robbed of her life when a drunk driver slammed into her car. She begged for a second chance while on The Other Side and her wish was granted—not without a price. She’s lived the reckless life she’d been cheated out of and has kept up her side of the deal she made.

Until she finds Damon Salvatore in her woods.

Damon and Angelique spend two weeks together in the snow-covered mountains, finding what’s been missing in their lives in each other. An admission on Valentine’s Day, however, threatens to take all the magic between them away.

This novella can be found here. Did I mention part of the story takes place on Valentine's Day? Yep, it does. 

If you’re a fan of the show or just love a little supernatural short story, download it and enjoy. Maybe even browse the works Amazon has an agreement with. You might find some inspiration for a little side project for yourself.

Toodles,

Chris

The Maple Leaf Series, Available on Amazon, print and ebook

www.christinedepetrillo.weebly.com  

How About a Cookie? by Jena Galifany

In celebration of Pet Month, I want to share a short piece I wrote after watching my dear pet, Puppy Dog, watching the neighbor kids at a birthday party. I could only imagine what was in her mind. She's a Golden Retriever/Terrier mix with a wonderful disposition, even at the age of nearly 13 years old.

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How about a cookie?

I was outside on my rope, enjoying one of the first warm days after the long cold days. The trees were budding and the grass was just long enough to make a comfy lay-down spot, which I took advantage of. There was a loud ruckus from the next yard. I couldn’t believe my doggy eyes. They were pulling a person from the house and had a rope on him. He didn’t fight them as they pulled him to the tree. They threw the rope over a branch and hauled the poor guy up. He still didn’t struggle. I got excited, wondering why they were doing this to the guy.

The people all clapped, even the smaller people in the fancy clothes. Just when I thought it was over, a big person came out with a long stick. It was too big to make a good fetching stick but the guy seemed to be happy to have it. I stood up from my lay-down spot and watched. To my horror, they wrapped a cloth around a small person’s face and turned him around a couple of times. They gave him the stick and he started swinging at the man in the tree.

YIKES! I couldn’t stand it any more. I had to call for help. I had to do something. I was on my own rope so I knew the person on the rope in the tree couldn’t go anywhere either. We were both stuck. I sounded the alarm. I barked… and barked… and barked. I knew my person would be out quickly to see what I needed. When she came out the door, I showed her with my eyes what the problem was. I barked again, telling her to go help the guy in the tree.

She laughed at me. Was she as crazy as the people hanging the guy in the tree and hitting with a stick? I’d have never thought so. She sat on the ground beside me so I sat, too, to watch the horrible happening next door. After several of the smaller people took turns hitting the man in the tree, he split into pieces. I held my breath, watching with eyes wide. His insides spilled out on the ground and the small people laughed and dived to grab handfuls. It was awful. I turned toward the open door to my house. I couldn’t watch any more.

As I walked slowly in to the house, my person followed me.

“Don’t worry, Puppy. It’s only a piñata. You must think they were killing someone.”

Then she said the words that made my world right again.

“How about a cookie?”

(c) 2009 Jena Galifany
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For other Free Reads, visit my web site HERE
Check out my Published Books HERE

I hope you've enjoyed Puppy's story as seen through her eyes...well, her eye. She was blinded on her left side by a car many years ago while playing in the street. No matter what happens in her life, it can be corrected by a cookie. Cookies make her world all better. She's stood by me for the writing of each of my seven published books and was the first to celebrate every contract with me. (A cookie party, of course!) I can't imagine living or writing without her and pray it is a long time before I have to try.

Cheers!