Once Upon All Hallows Eve... #paranormal #romance

Once upon a time...
I had a hankering to write a holiday romance but was coming up blank. As an author of predominantly sci fantasy/scifi romance, the idea of Christmas in Spaaaaaace! wasn't gelling at all well with my muse (I've since been proved wrong by actually writing a Christmas story for my main SFR couple, and with a winter solstice SciFi mystery still in progress. Unfortunately neither are available right now. Oops?).

As for the other holidays...so many Christian holidays are based on pagan origins that celebrated the solstices and the seasons that I wondered if they'd be valid in the far future, on alien worlds with different cycles. Would they change to fit our new planets? Would we cling to them as such deeply ingrained tradition we might forget their origins (and ours) even while still keeping them? Or would we find new ones to celebrate?

But eventually a passing tweet about a Halloween book by Neil Gaiman sparked something. I had an idea for a story featuring a character called Hallow, and Hallow's Eve was born. While it's been out for a while and still my only published holiday story, I thought I'd share five facts about it with you:

1. Originally the main character was a teenage girl and not a thirty something guy.
2. I wrote the spell used in the story in English but ran it through Google Translate into Latin. However, I'm pretty sure it would give any Latin scholar major fits (it certainly did for my editor), and if you try translating it back to English, you'll get total gobbledygook (but have fun trying it!).

3. It's the only story I've written to date where my former career as an Analytical Chemist has come in useful, converting the chemical composition of the average sized human female into household items that would be easy to get hold of for use in the spell. From chemistry to alchemy...
4. Hodge's spiced elderberry cordial is a real thing...or was. Made by Bottlegreen, it's my favourite winter drink but only stocked at that time of year. *taps foot impatiently waiting for it to reappear*

Hodge the brownie

5. It's also my only story to feature a pet, but I'm not going to tell you what kind! I think you'd be surprised.

I hope those facts intrigue enough to check out the story (and I've just dropped the price to $0.99 as well as a little Halloween treat).

A Paranormal Romance Short

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Available at... 

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When love comes home...

Twelve months ago, Hal's world crashed and burned, taking the love of his life with it. He's waited all year for that one special night when the souls of the departed come home, hoping his candle will summon back one in particular to heal his broken heart. But the forbidden knowledge he's learned could call something far worse, and put more than his own soul at risk...