ETD is on sale until June!

If you missed your chance to get a free copy of Embrace the Darkness from Amazon, it's not too late to get it at a discount. From now until its official release on June 21, 2013 Amazon is selling Embrace the Darkness
for only $2.99. After June 21, the price goes up to $5.99.


And while you're checking out ETD, why not pick up a copy of the first book in my Darkness Series? Out of the Darkness is on sale now for $2.99 as well. So check it out on Amazon and own the two book set. Hoping there's a third or even a fourth book in the future. :)

Sequel Secrets

When I first began writing the sequel to Out of the Darkness, I thought it would be easy. I already had my hero and heroine. Gerard and Tina were great secondary characters in the first book. They even had a budding romance. What could be better? It took about ten chapters for me to realize their story wasn't going to work. Tina had a daughter. And Gerard was a vampire.

Why did that bother me so much? Because as the mother of two daughters, I realized a good mother would never put romance ahead of her children. No matter how much Tina was attracted to Gerard, he was a vampire living in a dangerous world between worlds. Would a good mother risk falling in love with a man who's very existence could put her child at risk? Maybe. But would readers respect or even like a woman who did that? I had a hard time respecting her as I wrote their story. In my opinion, if Tina really cared more for her daughter than herself (which is how I feel about my own children) I figured she'd avoid getting involved with Gerard and she'd be upfront with her reasons. And if Gerard was as honorable as I wanted him to be, he'd respect that. So, I had to find another love interest for Gerard. And that's when I came up with what I hope is a gripping opening to the sequel, Embrace the Darkness.

The prologue practically wrote itself. I was on fire. I thought I could just keep typing away until the book was finished. But as soon as I sent a rough draft of the first few chapters to my critique partners, authors Andris Bear and Amy Corwin, I realized writing a sequel wasn't just a matter of picking up where the first story left off. As Amy pointed out, Embrace the Darkness wasn't Vincent and Megan's story. It was Gerard and Amber's story and Vincent and Megan had to take a back seat. And Andris informed me that although I needed to give readers enough information from the first book so the second book would make sense, I couldn't just dump it all in the first few chapters because it would still be backstory dump, which is a big no-no. So, I had to filter in the elements of the first book that would be crucial in the second book the same way I'd filtered backstory into the first book--a little at a time.

Easier said than done!

A lot happened in the first book. There were good vampires, villains, military operatives, a questionably bad vampire, a potential cure...How did I filter the information in without backstory dump? I figured I had to tell the first of the story from Amber's point of view. Amber is a new character. She knew nothing about vampires. So after the prologue, I began writing book two in her POV, and things seemed to click...for awhile. Then my characters took over and changed my plot, which left a lot of holes that needed to be filled.

To fill those plot holes, I had to do more research. And I found the answers I was seeking by researching some little known vampire myths. I finally finished the book in July and submitted it in August. And now I'm happy to report, Embrace the Darkness will be released on June 21, 2013.

For those who haven't read Out of the Darkness, here's what happened:

And for those interested in Embrace the Darkness, this is what you can expect:

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

Thanks to my adorable but snarky critique partner, Andris Bear, I've been "tagged" in The Next Big Thing Blog Hop. And this thing is BIG. Big as the moon big! I'm not sure how long it's been going on, but you can back track through the blogs and see what all your favorite authors have been up to lately. And maybe even meet some new authors.

But be warned, this thing is exponential. Because whoever started it, tagged more than one author, who in turn, tagged several others.

Each author answers ten questions about their latest project, whether it's a new release, a work in progress, or in my case, a soon-to-be released paranormal romance from The Black Rose line of The Wild Rose Press.

Simple. Huh? And loads of fun. So here goes!

1. What is the working title of your book? Embrace the Darkness. It's more than a "working" title. The book just went to galley, which means a proof copy is being created to send to review sites. It means, I'll soon have a release date. It means, I already have a fabulous cover by the wonderful and talented Angela Anderson.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

Embrace the Darkness is the sequel to my 2010 paranormal vampire romance, Out of the Darkness. As soon as I introduced Gerard Delaroche in OTD, I knew he'd have to have his own book. So, this is his story. There also some new characters as well as several "appearances" from old characters.

3. What is the genre of the book?

Both ETD and OTD are paranormal romances.

4.Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Easy. Wrestler/actor, John Cena would be perfect for Gerard Delaroche. I even mention his name in my book. And Jessica Biel could play former MP turned detective Amber Buckley. Yea, having even one of my books turned into a movie would definitely be a dream come true!

5.What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

 To find their way into the light, Amber and Gerard must first EMBRACE THE DARKNESS.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency/publisher?

It's being published by The Wild Rose Press.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

 It took a little over three years from start to finish. I received the offer to publish Out of The Darkness on Mother's Day 2009. The book came out almost exactly a year to the date in May 2010. I started writing Embrace the Darkness (which was originally called Into the Light--thanks Andris Bear for suggesting the new title!) as soon as I completed the galleys for OTD. It was the first book in which I used a plot chart. But, when I got to chapter 10, I realized the story wasn't going to work. There were major plot holes and I had a problem with the heroine. So, I gave Gerard a different love interest and started over. From scratch. But I couldn't give the manuscript the attention it needed because between OTD and ETD, I published 3 other books. So, it's taken a bit longer than I'd planned.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I'd like to think I have an original voice and there's no comparison. lol! To be honest, the last vampire series I read was Jenna Black's Guardians of the Night series. Jenna was my critique partner for Out of the Darkness, but we have different styles/voices. But being compared to her would totally make my day.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I thought about doing a sequel to Out of the Darkness while writing it. But family, friends, and my co-workers at Granville Medical Center kept after me to "just do it." So, I did. And while researching ancient vampire legends, I came up with a working plot for Embrace the Darkness.

10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Vampirsm is a virus--a possibly curable virus. But will a cure for the condition lead to a war between mortals and immortals? I guess I'll have to write book three in the series to find out. lol!

Next author up? None other than Brenda Gayle. And no, we're not related, but don't you just love her last name? lol! Check back to see when Brenda's blog goes live and follow the tour!

One Step Closer!

Embrace the Darkness the sequel to my 2010 paranormal/vampire release is one step close to publication. Tonight, I got approval on my blurb:

An experimental vaccine gives vampire Gerard Delaroache hope for the first time in two centuries--until two people are brutally murdered, and he suspects a conspiracy between vampires and mortals. To solve the crime, he must put his trust in a beautiful detective. But is former soldier and MP turned detective, Amber Buckley, a threat to his existence? Or the answer to his prayers?

Amber Buckley and her partner are assigned to do follow up interviews in the Lifeblood of America slayings. Amber believes she and Reid are just new eyes on a cold case.  That is until she meets Gerard Delaroache. Something about him teases long-buried memories Amber would rather not chase. However, the two join together, falling into more than resolution of a murder case. It seems Amber has some dark secrets of her own.

 To find their way into the light, Amber and Gerard must first EMBRACE THE DARKNESS.

Hope the blurb will tempt you all to buy the book when it comes out in 2013!

Book Signing and Blogging

Me with my mom at Stovall's last year when OTD was released.

On Saturday October 1, 2011, I will be signing books at Stovall's Gifts: 101 Main St. Oxford, NC.
I'll have at least 10 copies of Wholesale Husband, my American historical, 6 copies of Slightly Tarnished, my British-set historical, and 3 copies of my paranormal vampire romance, Out of the Darkness.

If you live in the area, please stop by. I'd love to see some friendly faces and meet some new folks.

I'm also blogging at Caroline Clemmons' blog today. http://carolineclemmons.blogspot.com/2011/09/lilly-gayle-discusses-her-writing-plus.html Stop by and comment for a chance to win an e-copy of one of my books!

Day One. Destination: Germany

 My husband and I recently vacationed in Germany with a side trip to Amsterdam. We went to visit my daughter and her husband who's stationed in Germany. We left on a Tuesday afternoon, flying Jet Blue out of RDU to JFK.

Flying over New York was not what I expected. For one thing, I thought to see tall buildings and crowded streets. I didn't expect to see oceanfront property. Yes, I know New York is a coastal state and that Long Island and Manhattan are, well, islands. But the expanse of sand took me by surprise. So did the empty beaches. It was 80 degrees when we flew over. NC beaches are packed when the temps reach that high. But I could barely see anyone on these beaches. And the sand looked almost concrete. Is it paved like a sidewalk? I don't know. But the view from the air was incredible.

Once we reached JFK, we rushed to our next gate to wait for our connecting flight on Swiss Air that would takes us to Zurich where we'd change planes again. Our experiences on both Jet Blue and Swiss air were great. Planes left on time. The flight attendants were friendly. And the view of New York at night was awe inspiring.

It was an overnight flight and I awoke in time to see Paris. Or not. The plane had dropped below its 37,000 feet cruising altitude but we were still too high to see much of anything. And it was cloudy. But I got a glimpse of the Swiss Alps as we entered Switzerland. Seeing the tops of those jagged, snow-capped mountains jutting high above the clouds was a sight I'll never forget. It reminded me of that movie, Alive. Alive is based on the book Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors and details the events surrounding the Uruaguay rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes mountains in 1972. A fellow writer posted this blog after hearing one of the survivors of the crash speak at a lecture. http://tonianderson.blogspot.com/2011/03/complaining-is-optional.html It will give you cold chills and make you think.

From Zurich, we caught a connecting flight to Nuremberg where my daughter picked us up. I'm in the process of writing the sequel to Out of the Darkness, my paranormal vampire romance. There's a scene in the book set in a cemetary in Nuremberg. And so, my daughter took us to the cemetary so I could take some pictures. She thought it was creepy, but I love old cemetaries.

I find them incredibly peaceful and beautiful, not like modern cemetaries with the plastic grave markers or flat foot markers. I love the artistry of old grave yards. And there are always beautfiul statues.

And in Germany, there are many gorgeous old churches, some that date back to mideival times.
 

This particular cemetary had some new graves and some from WWII and older. My daughter said some victims of the plague were buried in mass graves on the church grounds. We did see some family graves and I wasn't sure if they were headstones to mark the family plot, or if they were indeed, mass family graves.

This grave, for instance, had no other markers near it. And nothing that looked like additional plots. So, I can only guess about the Sebald family and how/when they died and were buried.

Visiting cemetaries may seem a bit macabre, but luckily for me, my husband enjoyes it too. He says walking through cemetaries makes him feel grateful he isn't sprawled out in the dirt getting eaten by worms. Then, I remind him he wants to be cremated.


After spending a relaxing afternoon touring the cemetary, we walked through Nuremberg and discussed plans for our week long visit with my daughter and her husband. Nuremberg is a beautiful old city, but I think I like Beyreuth better.

Check back later in the week, when I post day two's adventures in the beautiful city of Beyreuth, Germany.

Finding Photos for That Blog or Website

There's been much talk on the writer loops about using photos on blogs and trailers. I have two book trailers--although I'm having issues re-uploading my trailer for Out of the Darkness--you can see the trailer I created for Slightly Tarnished at http://www.lillygayle.com/.

The photographs for both trailers came from multiple locations.  For my Out of the Darkness photo (hopefully to be re-posted to my website soon!) my brother used my personal photographs and some he had and he drew in the characters so they're kind of like avatars. Very cool. But I made the trailer for Slightly Tarnished. Luckily, I had my brother to give me advice.

For Slightly Tarnished, I used many of my own photographs or ones my daughter sent to me from Europe.Some of the London photographs I found in the public domain. And I also purchased photographs from http://us.fotolia.com/?gclid=CNLRwunyjKgCFcm8Kgod9X6sEA and Jimmy Thomas' site http://www.romancenovelcovers.com/ . 

If you write romance and need a sexy cover or picture, Jimmy probably has the pic you need and he's resonably priced.
I purchased the music for both sites at http://www.neosounds.com/. Great soundtracks with "movie-like" themes.

But for scenic photos or pictures of the every day, check out my 100 % free photos on the facebook page I created specifically for photo sharing. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Blogbook-trailer-photos/114267278651956

Feel free to use the pictures or share some of your own on my page. For photo sharing, you must own the rights to the photograph or have written permission to share them for the purpose stated. But the photos I've posted are there to use. Enjoy.

Looking to update my Website

My website http://www.lillygayle.com/ is awesome. My brother designed it and until recently, managed it. The entire site is dedicated to my first book, Out of the Darkness. It has cool links and character bios and the trailer for OTD opens in its own window with the click of a tab.

My brother is a graphic designer by trade. He's also the father of two young boys, and he and his wife raise vegetables and chickens on their private little farm in rural North Carolina. The man has his hands full. And, I have two more books coming out so my website can no longer be about one book.

Slightly Tarnished is my first historical romance. The British-set tale of an English Earl and an American sea captain's daughter is set to release from The Wild Rose Press www.thewildrosepress.com June 3, 2011.

I also have another historical release, Wholesale Husband. This one is set in New York in the late 1800's. There's no cover or release date yet, but I'm soon going to be very busy adding books to my website. And bless his generous heart, my brother no longer has time to manage my site for free when he has a full time job that pays him to do work like this.

So, I'm going to take the plunge and try building my own website while maintaing a link to the current page my brother built. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions. Or a clue how Go Daddy works? My brother's instructions sounded like so much Greek. And I took Latin in high school.

I feel a headache coming on....

Inspiration Inspires Imagination

I often find the most mundane of facts fascinating, and it often inspires my imagination. Others read some obscure fact or witness a seemingly normal occurrence and are inspired to invent.

Karl Friedrich Benz of Germany invented the first gas-powered automobile powered by an internal combustion engine. But it was America's own Henry Ford who made the automobile affordable by utilizing assembly lines in his factories.

The idea of utilizing a production assembly line came to Mr. Ford after he saw a dis-assembly line the Armour and Swift meat packing plants used to process meat.

And nature inspired Swiss inventor George de Mestral to create Velcro. When he and his dog returned from a walk in the woods, they were both covered in burs. He looked at the burs under a microscope and got the idea for a new type of fastener. He named his invention Velcro from the words velour and crochet.

 And Martin Cooper became inspired to invent the cell phone from watching Captain Kirk speak into his communicator. Much of the futuristic technology in the science fiction series Star Trek is based on real science.

Makes me wonder if teleportation might one day be possible. It's not something I'd want to try. I saw the movie, The Fly!

But fiction and fantasy are often based on real science. Or inspire real science. In Robert Heinlein's Glory Road, he has a character reading from an electronic tablet in his future world as books are no longer made from bound pages. Since Glory Road was first published in 1963, it makes me wonder if the inventor of e-readers might not have been a science fiction fan.

I'm more of a romance fan but I also enjoy science fiction and the paranormal, especially when there are romantic elements. My favorite paranormal/horror writer is Dean Koontz. I enjoy Stephen King's work, but Mr. Koontz has a unique way of combining science fiction, horror, and/or the paranormal with a dash of romance. In Dark Rivers of the Heart, Mr. Koontz combines suspense and science fiction with romance in a tale of a man, a woman and a dog on the run from a high-tech rogue government agency.

I like the concept of rogue government agencies. The idea stayed with me after reading this book and played a big part in my own paranormal romance. Later, I read Fear Nothing, the first book in Dean Koontz' Moonlight Bay trilogy. The main character, Chris Snow, has XP--exeroderma pigmentosum. I was fascinated by the idea of a "real" disease that prevented the sufferer from venturing out in daylight without risking severe burns and skin cancers. I read all three books in the series and began researching the disease while contemplating ideas for a vampire book. Around the same time, I saw a re-run of the old Jean-Claude Van Dam movie, Universal Soldier. And by 2005, I had completed my first draft of Out of the Darkness.


Books, movies, life, and the most mundane of events can trigger the imagination. And inspiration can come from any direction. As a writer, I'm always reading or listening, hoping to get an idea for that next book. And when I'm reading, I often wonder what inspired the writer.

So, if you're a writer, what inspired your latest release? And if you're a reader, what inspires your decision to choose a paranormal over a historical? Or suspense over horror?

Inquiring minds want to know!

Resesarching the Story

I've always loved trivia and researching useless and little known facts. I often spend days searching the itnernet for that one tidbit of information that grabs my interest and gives me the next story idea. The only bad thing is that I sometimes forget to write and spend hours on the computer researching.

Searching the internet for historical information on England is how I came up with the idea for my soon-to-be released historical, Slightly Tarnished. While scrolling through articles on London, I came across information on a period of time in London known as "The Great Stink."http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/great_stink.html

Just the title of the article intrigued me. And in 1997, I spent weeks researching and plotting a rough draft.

Before  "The Great Stink," sewage emptied into cesspits under homes or poured directly into open drainage ditches. Run-off washed into the Thames and cesspits backed up into houses.  Sir Marc Isambard Brunel came up with the idea of tunneling beneath the Thames. 

He submitted a plan to drain London's sewer to the lower side of the river by building a tunnel under the Thames. Work began on the original tunnel in 1825 but after several accidents and severe flooding, the tunnel was sealed in 1828.


In 1834 Parliment loaned The Thames Tunnel Company the funds to complete the project and Brunel's son Isambard Kingdom Brunel acted as chief engineer. The senior Brunel redesigned a tunnel shielding to prevent flooding and work on the tunnel began again in 1840. It was completed in 1841 and in March of that year, Queen Victoria knighted Sir Brunel.The tunnel officially opened in 1843 but the stinch continued to plague London.

After completion of the tunnel, the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers ordered all cesspits closed. House drains were then connectted to the sewer system and drained directly into the Thames. As a result, there was a cholera epidemic in 1848-1849 and by 1858 the stinch from the river became unbearable.

"The Great Stink" created new interest in Sir Brunel's sewer tunnel. Many cried, "Dilution is the solution to polution!" But adding more water to the tunnel systems didn't stop the stink. It reached its peak the summer of 1858 when thousands were forced to flee the city. But Parliament remained in session, trying to find a soultion to the problem.

Government officials and citizens who either refused to leave the city or had no country estate to go to, draped their windows with curtains soaked in chloride of lime to keep out the odors and "dangerous miasmas."

A new sewer design was needed and civil engineer Joseph Bazlgette was put in charge of the project. By combining the old with the new, he helped create a separate system for human waste and storm drains.

The Queen was so pleased with the results of the larger tunnel system, she ordered engineers to construct a rail system inside the tunnels. The sewer tunnel was quickly transformed into a promenade and tourist attraction. The tunnel still exists today and is part of London's famous underground.

Currently, I'm researching ideas for the sequel to Out of the Darkness, my paranormal vampire romance. For a creepy peak into one of the websites that inpsired part of Into the Light, see the video at:http://anc.funkybuu.net/davisvideo.html

A Writer's Pain

When I first started writing, I thought it would just be for fun. And maybe one day, I'd get published. It soon became an obsession.

My first attempts at writing were poetry and children’s books. But in 1996, I decided to write what I loved reading. Novels. Specifically, romance novels. My first book was a medical thriller and my first heroine had the same job I had. She was a radiologic technologist. (RT, x-ray technologist, or radiographer. Take your pic but don't call us techicians.) My fingers flew across the keyboard, typing story ideas and plot lines as they came to me. I didn’t plan the story out. I didn’t even have a rough draft. Just a basic plot in my head. It took less than six months to write what turned out to be the most God-awful book ever written.

It read like a boring radiology text book with a few characters thrown into the mix. I made every mistake new writers ever make. There were tense changes, no true POV, no uniformity of writing, and too much technical detail and backstory dump. I don't think I even submitted it. Anywhere.

The book no longer exists. It was written in Lotus Works and the floppies aren't compatible with today's technology. No great loss. The plot was dated so it would no longer work anyway. My radiographer still used film screen technology and developed films in the darkroom. Most every hospital and urgent care now uses computed radiography or digital radiography. No film. No darkroom.

My next attempt at writing was a time-travel. Again, the words flew from my fingers and I thought it was brilliant. Until I went back and tried reading it from beginning to end. Ug! That was a painful experience. But at least that story still has potential. So, maybe someday…

Until then, I have other stories both written and yet to be written. I love starting a story. The excitement is still there and the ideas are still flowing. I know how the story starts and I know how I want to end. But getting to the end? Now, that's when the fear sets in.

Once I reach the dreaded sagging middle, I freeze. What if I can't do it? What if I finish and it sucks as badly as that medical romance I wrote in 1996?

When I’m in the editing phase, the hard part is over. The book is finished. And it’s just a matter of fine-tuning and adding emotion to the story. But sometimes, it takes a while to get to that point.

I’m really more of a pantster than a plotter. I always plot a general outline of characters and the basic story premise, but once that's done, I just sit down and write. There's an excitment about getting to The meet. The kiss. The black moment. But that's where the excitement ends for me. I can't seem to move forward. And I have to make myself finish the book. I sit down at the computer and think of all the loose ends I have to tie up in the story before I can reach my happily ever after. Then I think of how long it took to get those first books published, and my mind starts to wander.

Invariably, I start web-surfing. I look for ideas for new stories or read blogs or just waste time on Facebook.
The good news is I'll never run out of story ideas. The bad news is I may never finish the damn book!

I know Out of the Darkness was good. And I know Slightly Tarnished is even better. Reading the final galley on those two books infused me with such pride. I couldn't believe I'd actually written such good books. Seeing the covers for those books and knowing I wrote them should make it easier to write the next book. That's what I always thought would happen anyway. Instead, I see those books and I'm afraid.

From first word put to paper until publication, Out of the Darkness was five years in the making. And Slightly Tarnished? Twelve! It was the third book I ever wrote. It only took a year to write but eleven years to edit to the point where it was publishable. And I think that's the key to my fear.

What if every book I ever write takes that long to publish? I don't think I can be that patient a second time.

Fortuantely, it's nice to know I'm not the only author who feels this way.

Amy Corwin is one of my critique parners. She's a multi-published author who's published Regency romances and paranormal. And she’s soon to publish a mystery but that’s not my story to tell. You can follow her publishing success at: http://amycorwin.blogspot.com/

Amy says, “I can edit with joy. It’s this painful midway-to-the-end that is horrendous re: initial writing. The first few chapters are a breeze. The rest is blood pouring out of my veins.”

I know exactly how she feels!

So, what is your least favorite part about writing? Or, if you’re a reader, what do you most hate to see in a romance story?

Let me know. Maybe it will improve my writing skills and help lesson my pain. Lol!

Happy New Year!

I can't believe another year has come and gone. I seem to measure my life not in days, weeks, or months, but in Summers and Christmases. And the older I get, the closer Summer and Christmas seem to get to one another.

Along about September, I start getting ready for Christmas. Though, truth be told, I sometimes start my Christmas shopping in July. I like to get a head start on gift buying because I like buying presents for the people I love and can't afford to buy nice ones if I have to do all my Christmas shopping between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I know. I know. I could save money. But that's never been my strong suit. And I use my Christmas club money not for gift buying but to pay the lot rent on my beach camper.

My husband and I actually started the holiday season off at the beach. The first weekend in December, we went to our camper so we could see the Christmas Flotilla in Beaufort. 

We had clams and beer at The Dock House Restaurant before the parade started.

After eating supper, we stood along the water front and watched the parade float by.

The boat parade runs along the water front from Morehead City, NC to Beaufort, NC. And it is truly a sight to behold.

This year there were even snow flurries on the waterfront. And it snowed on the beach last year and this year. I didn't see it either time. And although I much prefer warm weather to cold, it is my life long dream is to see it snow (and accumulate) on the beach.




As of this year, I've only seen snow on the beach

in Virginia. While visiting relatives in Fredericksburg last February, we took a side trip to a beach along the Potomac River. It was freezing! But beautiful.

As 2010 comes to a close, I can't really complain. My first book OUT OF THE DARKNESS was published.OUT OF THE DARKNESS is a paranormal vampire romance that's gotten some fantastic reviews. Another good thing about 2010.

And on October 18, 2010, I signed a contract for my first published historical romance. SLIGHTLY TARNISHED is an British-set historical and is set for release from The Wild Rose Press' English Tea line sometime next year.

I also received my first royalty check, making me a professional writer this year. There were book signings and blog appearances and I've genuinely had a good time with my new career.

If only I could finish the sequel to OUT OF THE DARKNESS before midnight tonight. Then, my year would be perfect. But that's about as likely to happen as me winning the lottery. And so, for my New Year's resolution, I resolve to complete the sequels to OUT OF THE DARKNESS and SLIGHTLY TARNISHED in 2011.

And hopefully, I'll one day get to see it snow on the beach.