Celebration Times Four

 

I’m celebrating the escape writing brings. During the past year, I’ve needed that escape. Fortunately a writer can get high on a story (especially this writer). The author gets her fix without ever suffering the consequences of other mind altering substances—drugs, alcohol, or evil deeds.  Someone runs you off the road, kill ‘em on page 38.  Have a bad day? A guy who looks like Brad Pitt can give you a back rub.

My story telling started years (and years and years) ago. I’m a long way from my childhood home in Tupelo, Mississippi. One day—in that very rural setting with cotton fields in the background and the ever-present hum of insects, my grandmother said something that made a profound impact on my life.  “If you don’t stop telling stories, the devil will come up through that ground and get you with his pitchfork.”

By stories, my grandmother meant lies. Did I mention she’s very southern? So what did I do? Being a smart butt-in-training, I made up a story about Mr. Satan. I’ve evolved into a schizo author, writing mystery/romantic suspense and contemporary novels under my real name Robin Weaver, kinda/sorta. I say kinda/sorta because Robin is my middle name. I write fantasy/paranormal under my alter ego…eh, I mean pseudonym, Genia Avers. My first name is actually Sugenia, so SuGenia WeAvers. Don’t ask me why I added the S.

 

As Genia Avers, I’m celebrating the release of Book II in my Forbidden series, FORBIDDENFLAME.  The book is the sequel to Forbidden Magic, originally titled, Ancient Skills. The novel originally detailed the struggles of a woman from a vampire-like civilization who attempts to save her people by marrying a man she believes is her cultural inferior. The groom-to-be is heir to a country who controls the last source of plasmania, a blood substitute necessary for survival on a planet without warm-blooded creatures.

Because the market was saturated with vamps, my editor suggested I create a new race of people, thus my characters became Dökkálfar (dark elves) and álfar (light elves) who needed crystals that mimic the spectrum created by Earth’s sunlight to survive. Read more at Amazon.comhttp://www.amazon.com/Forbidden-Lanatus-Chronicles-Series-ebook/dp/B0085XCJAS/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367267327&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=Forbidden+flame+Genia+avers.

FORBIDDEN FLAME was released on April 26th. GOOD NEWS: My publisher is offering Forbidden Magic free with the purchase of Forbidden Flame. Thanks to the help of my fab critique partners, I think the story has a rather catchy logline: If love carried a death sentence, would you bite the bullet?

 

I’m celebrating the completion of Book III, FORBIDDEN TWICE. I’m really excited about this book because I think the concept is rather unique. I have twins fighting over the same man—a triangle as old as Middle Earth, right? But…every time the women argue, an earthquake or tornado occurs. I also have a novella, Magic’s Song, which should be released by the Wild Rose Press later this year.

 --and most important, I’m celebrating you, the reader. Most writers are compelled to write, but nothing is more fulfilling than having someone actually read the words an author has labored over. Well, except to have the reader LOVE those words.

What about you? Celebrating anything you’ve written (or read) lately?