Showing posts with label lynsay sands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lynsay sands. Show all posts

Lazy Days of Summer *Spontaneous* Giveaway Hop

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Lazy Days of Summer *Spontaneous* Giveaway Hop
July 24th to August 4th


The magic in the Fateful Trilogy is centered around a curse that is triggered by night while the moon hangs in the sky. During the day, Ethan is like any other guy. It's only at night that he's a vampire. His fangs won't even come out during the day.

Different authors have come up with different ways the vampire myth works. Here is how it works with Fateful vampires:
The vampire curse only surrounds them when the sun has set and the world is lit with moonlight. At night their hearts stop beating. Like snakes, they have fangs. Their eyes turn magical and hypnotic. Their breath is also dosed with the magic, becoming a potion that will subdue the victim and make them want the death the vampire can bring. With supernatural powers and strength, a cursed being cannot be escaped when moon resides in the sky. During the day, none of this is the case...you would never know you could be facing someone who is a bound by a dark curse by night--and a mortal by day.







As a writer, I was also intrigued by how other authors have handled this myth:
Lynsay Sands created vampires from Atlantis with the use of nano technology, which I found highly fascinating. The only drawback for them--while the nanos make them perfect and help to heal them, the nanos also require extra blood, hence the need for fangs. I wish I'd thought of it!

Kerrelyn Sparks created a world where there are good vampires and bad vampires. The bad love to feed off of people, but the good drink a line of special vampire cuisine created by one of the good vampires who happens to be a scientist. They have chocolood, and a wine version. What a fun idea! Wish I'd thought of this too.

Anyway, those are two of my favorites. After writing my own vampires, I actually realized that mine unintentionally resemble the old (original) vampires, like Varney the Vampire. (1845) This is from Wikipedia on Varney:

"Varney was a major influence on later vampire fiction, particularly Dracula by Bram Stoker. Many of today's standard vampire tropes originated in Varney: Varney has fangs, leaves two puncture wounds on the necks of his victims, has hypnotic powers, and has superhuman strength. Unlike later fictional vampires, he is able to go about in daylight and has no particular fear or loathing of crosses or garlic. He can eat and drink in human fashion as a form of disguise, but he points out that human food and drink do not agree with him. His vampirism seems to be a fit that comes on him when his vital energy begins to run low; he is a regular person between feedings. This is also the first example of the "sympathetic vampire," a vampire who loathes his condition but is nonetheless a slave to it."

You may find this comparison of traits in other vampires interesting:
Fateful vampires: Are not pale, have fangs, good feed on animals, hypnotizing eyes, potion-like breath, and are alluring.
Varney the Vampire (1845): white and bloodless, has fangs, hypnotic eyes, looks ordinary until he is a vampire.
Bram Stoker's vampires (1897): Are pale, have fangs, hypnotic eyes, and are very beautiful.
Anne Rice's vampires: Skin is pale, smooth, marble-like, have fangs, good feed on animals, are alluring and beautiful.
Vampire Diaries: Are not pale, have fangs, good feed on animals or bagged blood, hypnotizing eyes, and are alluring.
Twilight: Are pale, hard as marble, sparkle, no fangs, good feed on animals, and are very alluring.
Vampire Academy: Are pale, have fangs, ordinary looks, but have red-ringed irises.
Dresden Files (White court):Are not pale, no fangs, are extremely attractive.

I've listed very few here. But most vampires have special gifts, many can read minds, most have some sort of change in eye color, and many can turn a person with just one bite.

Let's move on to the prize!:

The Prize:
One winner will receive a signed paperback copy of Fateful. USA only please.

To Enter:
(This giveaway just ended. I will email the winner as soon as I can. Thanks to everyone who entered!)

Simply follow my blog via GFC or email subscription and fill out the form at the bottom of this post so I know who to contact if you win.

Note: Winners are chosen via Virtual Hat. Winner will be contacted via email.


~XOXO~

And for summer I'm having a spontaneous sale on Fateful.

Snatch up the eBook for only .99 Cents!!!!

 
Synopsis for Fateful:
A huge fan of Jane Austen, Danielle hopes to find her own Mr. Darcy when she leaves Colorado to attend art school in London. Of course she knows it's silly to wish for that, naive even. But she's met enough males who lacked respect for women, a growing trend it seemed. And at nineteen...well.... However, on only her second night there she gets lost and is threatened by a stalker who proves to be immune to her martial arts training. Before she is completely overpowered, she is then saved by Ethan Deveroux.

While Danielle does find the romance she seeks in Ethan, he's no Mr. Darcy. Her hero is held by a spell which fractures their chance at a happy ending. During the day Ethan is closer to mortal than immortal and can date her like any other man. Yet, as the sun sets, the powerful magic of an ancient curse returns and the evil of that spell is revealed. When that magic begins, Danielle's fairytale romance ends because Ethan Deveroux is a vampire.

I love comments as much as I love reviews.... Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to post either for me. I'm very grateful.

Lunar Love Giveaway Hop ~Vampires...

Wednesday, March 6, 2013


2nd Annual
Lunar Love Giveaway Hop
March 8th to 13th


This hop features books with paranormal, supernatural, science fiction or space travel elements, or books that have something to do with the moon or have a moon on their cover.

The magic in the Fateful Trilogy is centered around a curse that is triggered by night while the moon hangs in the sky. During the day, Ethan is like any other guy. It's only at night that he's a vampire. His fangs won't even come out during the day. In the Fateful cover designs it was important to me that the moon be visible. In the test cover to the right, you can actually see the sun and the moon at the same time because of the story line.

Here is how it works with Fateful vampires:
The vampire curse only surrounds them when the sun has set and the world is lit with moonlight. At night their hearts stop beating. Like snakes, they have fangs. Their eyes turn magical and hypnotic. Their breath is also dosed with the magic, becoming a potion that will subdue the victim and make them want the death the vampire can bring. With supernatural powers and strength, a cursed being cannot be escaped when moon resides in the sky. During the day, none of this is the case...you would never know you could be facing someone who is a bound by a dark curse by night--and a mortal by day.

I'll let Ethan explain how the curse came about:
Ethan exhaled, his golden brows wrinkled, and then he began. “Once upon a time there was a sorceress who fell in love with a mortal man named Benjamin. He didn’t know she was a sorceress, but when she confessed this to him, wanting him to know the truth, he was disgusted. When he tried to leave her, he told her that she was a curse to humanity. Lilith, that was her name, was so hurt and so angry that she cast a spell on him before he could leave. She said, ‘Now you will forever be the curse to humanity!’ Her spell turned him into a demon, a predator of humanity. She gave him immortality like herself, so he would be forced to wander this earth, forever lonely. And she made him beautiful so women would want to love him, but he wouldn’t be able to love them back without killing them. She also took his heart away from him, by causing it to stop beating, because he had broken hers. She made him into a demonic human to curse humanity … she turned him into a vampire.”

Lilith made them need blood, but it's not just about the blood. It's also about the life-force that is taken when a vampire feeds on someone. As I wrote my version of this myth, I realized I needed the vampire to feed on someone or something living, not bagged blood, because I really think that is how Lilith would have planned it. She wanted Benjamin to become a killer and to be miserable. She wanted him to be a monster that took more than just blood from the victim. She wasn't pleased when she realized that she'd mistakenly left a few loopholes in her curse, and that Benjamin actually liked being a vampire. After I'd made my decisions about the way I wanted my myth to work, I further researched how other writers had done vampires...

Lynsay Sands created vampires from Atlantis with the use of nano technology, which I found highly fascinating. The only drawback for them--while the nanos make them perfect and help to heal them, the nanos also require extra blood, hence the need for fangs. I wish I'd thought of it!

Kerrelyn Sparks created a world where there are good vampires and bad vampires. The bad love to feed off of people, but the good drink a line of special vampire cuisine created by one of the good vampires who happens to be a scientist. They have chocolood, and a wine version. What a fun idea! Wish I'd thought of this too.

Anyway, those are two of my favorites. After writing my own vampires, I actually realized that mine unintentionally resemble the old (original) vampires, like Varney the Vampire. (1845) This is from Wikipedia on Varney:

"Varney was a major influence on later vampire fiction, particularly Dracula by Bram Stoker. Many of today's standard vampire tropes originated in Varney: Varney has fangs, leaves two puncture wounds on the necks of his victims, has hypnotic powers, and has superhuman strength. Unlike later fictional vampires, he is able to go about in daylight and has no particular fear or loathing of crosses or garlic. He can eat and drink in human fashion as a form of disguise, but he points out that human food and drink do not agree with him. His vampirism seems to be a fit that comes on him when his vital energy begins to run low; he is a regular person between feedings. This is also the first example of the "sympathetic vampire," a vampire who loathes his condition but is nonetheless a slave to it."

You may find this comparison of traits in other vampires interesting:
Fateful vampires: Are not pale, have fangs, good feed on animals, hypnotizing eyes, potion-like breath, and are alluring.
Varney the Vampire (1845): white and bloodless, has fangs, hypnotic eyes, looks ordinary until he is a vampire.
Bram Stoker's vampires (1897): Are pale, have fangs, hypnotic eyes, and are very beautiful.
Anne Rice's vampires: Skin is pale, smooth, marble-like, have fangs, good feed on animals, are alluring and beautiful.
Vampire Diaries: Are not pale, have fangs, good feed on animals or bagged blood, hypnotizing eyes, and are alluring.
Twilight: Are pale, hard as marble, sparkle, no fangs, good feed on animals, and are very alluring.
Vampire Academy: Are pale, have fangs, ordinary looks, but have red-ringed irises.
Dresden Files (White court):Are not pale, no fangs, are extremely attractive.

I've listed very few here. But most vampires have special gifts, many can read minds, most have some sort of change in eye color, and many can turn a person with just one bite.

On to the next creature of the moon. Werewolves...I've got those in my stories too...But I won't bore you with that. Let's move on to the prize!:

The Prize:
One winner will receive a Kindle eBook copy of Fateful. USA only please.

To Enter:
Simply follow my blog via GFC or email subscription and fill out the form at the bottom of this post so I know who to contact if you win.

Note: Winners are chosen via Virtual Hat. Winner will be contacted via email.


~XOXO~

Would you like to get Fateful for free if you don't win? Simply buy the Complete Fateful Trilogy instead of getting each book separately.


Synopsis for Fateful:
A huge fan of Jane Austen, Danielle hopes to find her own Mr. Darcy when she leaves Colorado to attend art school in London. Of course she knows it's silly to wish for that, naive even. But she's met enough males who lacked respect for women, a growing trend it seemed. And at nineteen...well.... However, on only her second night there she gets lost and is threatened by a stalker who proves to be immune to her martial arts training. Before she is completely overpowered, she is then saved by Ethan Deveroux.

While Danielle does find the romance she seeks in Ethan, he's no Mr. Darcy. Her hero is held by a spell which fractures their chance at a happy ending. During the day Ethan is closer to mortal than immortal and can date her like any other man. Yet, as the sun sets, the powerful magic of an ancient curse returns and the evil of that spell is revealed. When that magic begins, Danielle's fairytale romance ends because Ethan Deveroux is a vampire.

I love comments as much as I love reviews.... Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to post either for me. I'm very grateful.

Leibster Blog Award

Wednesday, August 1, 2012



I got nominated for the Leibster Blog Award by Erin of Wrathsqueen’s Books! Thanks for thinking of me, Erin! I’m sending a cyber hug your way...oh, wait, you said hugs make you feel awkward. Never mind! ;D

Erin has her own YouTube channel, and I really enjoying watching her. She’s just super adorable, if you ask me! Check out her blog here:

So I was curious about the origin of this award, and after doing a couple of Google searches, I found this blog post by Sopphey Says:

She links to the original, or what she thinks is the original post, here:

I don’t speak German, but from what I understand, based on info from online translators, “leibster” means most favorite or dearest or loved in German. And my teen, who took German in high school, confirmed this by saying she thought it meant “most dearest.”

After translating the German blog, I was able to catch the basic idea behind the original posting of this award. I found that the purpose was to help draw more attention to rarely noticed bloggers. I thought it was a very thoughtful idea. Anyway, I think it’s very sweet that Erin nominated me and I’ll accept the challenge. Cheers!

Since people have changed the rules—who knows how many times— I’m going to do it too because I’m feeling rebellious at the moment. It seems the number of people you need to pass this award along to has increased from 3-5 to 11. LOL The questions weren’t in the original either.  I’ll still answer the questions and share some facts since I think that’s a fun idea, but I’ll send this to 10 instead of 11. And for those of you whom I nominate, and decide to do it, I’ll leave the “rules” part of it up to you too! ;)

Eleven facts about me and my books:
1. I love any book with romance in it. It can be historical, western, spies, paranormal, fantasy, whatever, as long as it has a good dose of sappiness and kissing, I’m good. I wish I could read more, but the only time I have time for it is right before I go to bed. If a book really grabs me, then I’m up until 1 or 2 AM reading.

2. I paint watercolor paintings of fairies and mermaids mostly. This is one that is mentioned in Fateful that hangs on my office wall:

3. I love reading The Saint books by Leslie Charteris. They don’t necessarily have enough romance in them for my tastes, but I’m very intrigue by the adventures of a modern day Robin Hood, Simon Templar. Charteris isn’t the only author I love...I love the way Lynn Kurland writes banter and magic. I love the way Kerrelyn Sparks makes me laugh. I love the way Lynsay Sands writes about vampires, the myth and how she tosses in bits of humor—I also love her historical novels. And I love how Catherine Anderson makes me cry.

4. Just like Danielle and Ethan, the young woman on the cover of Fateful was really raised in the Midwestern US and the young man was really raised in England.

5. I had no idea “Lucas” had a reputation for being the Prince of Darkness when I chose that name for my villain. Read about that in this post I did a while back. http://cherischmidt.blogspot.com/2011/04/funny-bit-of-trivia-about-fateful.html

6. I’m related to The Black Prince whom I resurrected for my story. I did change the character’s actual name from Edward to Richard for obvious reasons...

7. The similarities are not obvious, so you may not have noticed, but Fateful was inspired by The Frog Prince. My teen did a rewrite of the tale for a school assignment, and for some reason I couldn’t stop thinking about it and how I would change it too. I got to thinking: What if the hero wasn’t cursed with being a frog but rather cursed with being a vampire instead. And the heroine would have a part in curing him, but not with a kiss as happened in the original. (See the frog prince on the top of the fountain?)


8. I love miniature gardening. I've had a fairy garden before, but moved away from that house. I'm in the process of planting another one at my new house.

9. Places I love to shop for clothes are: Free People, Down East Basics, Target, Old Navy, Cordelia, Shabby Apple, and Shop Ruche.

10. I love to read good reviews from my readers, and I’m extremely grateful they take the time to post them. I absolutely LOVE it when a reader gets what I was trying to accomplish with my stories, like this...http://thelibrarymousebooktails.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/fateful-series-by-cheri-schmidt.html

11. Right now I’m working on:
An epilogue for Fair Maiden.
The Trapping Club, which is the sequel to Fair Maiden.
And Max and Nadia’s story, which is a continuation to the Fateful series. It will probably be entitled, The Oder of Curse-Bound Knights.
This is just a small list of what I’m working on. My head is a very crowded place at the momonet...and my summer is waaaay too busy to get much writing done!

The questions sent to me and my answers:
1.  Is there a book at the moment that you've heard about but unsure if you want to try it?
Not really. I usually know whether I'll try a book out or not based on the synopsis and what people are saying about it. Basically anything with romance in it will tempt me. But I'm not interested in reading erotica. I prefer some plot with my romance.

2. If you could only ever recommend one book to someone, what would it be and why?
Eeek! I don’t think I could ever recommend just one book! No way. Nope. So I guess I’d just recommend reading, and read what interests you.

3. Do you have any irrational fears?
They’re completely rational to me, so the answer is no? LOL

4. What is the most times you have re-read a book?
Three to four, I guess. I haven’t exactly been counting.

5. Favourite book to movie adaptation?
Totally Harry Potter.

6. What is a quote you find inspiring?
This is from a church song the children in my church occasionally sing on Sundays entitled “Hum Your Favorite Hymn.” Basically the point of the song is to hum a hymn if you’re thinking unkind thoughts. Good advice for children and adults alike, I think:
Before you say an angry word,
Remember you’ll regret it,
For once it’s said the harm is done,
And some folks won’t forget it.”

7. Are there any fictional characters that you've fallen for?
Simon Templar from The Saint by Leslie Charteris.

8. When you're browsing for books, what makes you pick one book over another?
First the cover, then the final decision is made based on the synopsis on the back. It needs to have a lot of romance in it. Sorry, I already said that, didn't I?

9. Which genre would you like to live in: dystopian, paranormal, historical or just contemporary.
I’m torn between historical or paranormal, so how about a mix of the two?

10. If you could talk to ANY author, current or from history, who would it be?
Lynn Kurland.

11. Favourite fairytale?
Cinderella. I still love watching all kinds of retellings of this classic story.

The blogs I’m nominating are: (Please don't feel pressure to participate if you don't have time, but if you do, I'll look forward to seeing your post!)