I'm from Venus, Where are you from?

Hi, all my friends, fans and readers. How has your Memorial Day Weekend been going?
Mine's been eh... Rained for the most part. We couldn't grill the steaks out. Oh well. Today's a gloomy day, but at least I'm home.

The Work In Progress (#7 novel/aka Vampire Interlude) is taking shape. I've gotten well past page 100. Sabrina has lost her memory in the beginning of this work, and I've been trying to not be too repetitive. As with any series you have to introduce new characters in each one, or it becomes stale. And you have to kill a few people off, so you do need to bring in new characters to give it a little spice. I love inventing the new person, and as much I also like to come up with a name for them. This guy's name is Bryce Witherspoon. Conjures all sorts of things about him, doesn't it? Here's a description of him:

James brought the guy in. At six-two Bryce was a handsome dude with about three inches of brown hair that had no direction at all. I wanted to take a comb to it and make sense of it all. Glacially blue eyes met mine as he greeted me. “Ms. Strong,” he said, smiling. His face had not seen a razor in a few days. I thought that maybe he might have been a Gladiator in a distant past life—I don't know where that came from. One long scar on his left cheek plowed through the dark bristle giving him that borderline dangerous look. I knew the scar had not been won in any ally fight.

As I worked on Bryce, the character sort of emerged. In other words, his character simply developed over night. In order to show any character's personality, dialogue is usually one of the best avenues for that:

He seemed to know where we were heading and drove through the city. Bryce was a quiet, introspective guy. I didn't want to take a read from him, but bits and pieces were coming to me. But if I didn't ask him where he was from and such, I might begin saying stuff and freak him out. Plus the quiet between us grew so uncomfortable, I was about to scream.

“So, Bryce. You married?”

“Nope.” No elaboration? Hmm.

“Girlfriend?”

“Nope.”

“Boyfriend?” I smiled to myself, waiting to see how he would react to that question.

He chuckled.

“Yes?” I prodded, chuckling to myself. I knew he wasn't gay. I knew he wasn't in any relationship. Just getting him to open up was like trying to open a can with a rock. Sheesh!

“No.” He glared at me. Homophobe. “My turn,” he said, giving me an edgy look, one I would later call The Bryce Look, a.k.a. The Eye Fuck. Damned if it didn't hit me in my female area making a tingling sensation down under.

“Okay. Go,” I said.

“You're getting a divorce. So, whose the unlucky guy?”

“His name is Vasyl. Vampire.”

“Why are you divorcing him?”

I sat and pondered this for the first time since the idea came up. Yeah. Why was I? Because Stefan made me think it was a good idea?

“It's complicated,” I said.

“Try me. I've been with these vampires for three years. Nothing you could possibly say could shock me.”

No? “Well he left me,” I said. I only knew what Stefan (and others) had told me. I couldn't remember any of it. I hadn't given Vasyl a chance to speak up about it. Did I have him on speed-dial? No. I hadn't seen his name on my scroll earlier. Why wouldn't I have a number for Vasyl? Strange.

“Why'd he leave you?”

“Vampire. The whole blood thing. Apparently I have irresistible blood.”

“Hmmm,” he said, and his eyes raked up and down me which gave me another little tingle again. Crap, I really had to rein in my womanly desires. I could just guess what he thought about me was irresistible.

“Okay, no more relationship questions,” I said. Definitely. I felt such questions might lead to dangerous territory. Gak, it already had. Best to just not go there. “Where were you born?”

“Mars. You?”

“Venus, of course,” I said not missing a beat.

“Where on Venus?” He was a real smart ass, I had to admit.

“In the country, about sixty miles west from here. You?”

“City. This one.” No wonder he knew the city well and drove with such aplomb. He bent his head forward and looked out the windshield. “Sky looks like it wants to snow.”

“Yes. It will,” I said, my voice calm and collected. “It will snow at precisely twelve fifteen.”

He gave me a startled look. “Seriously?”

I smiled, I'd gotten him with that. “We'll wait and see.”

When I'm working on a scene sometimes the dialogue comes right away. Other times, I'm trying to get the scene down and worry about dialogue (to a certain extent, if it's extra), later. So, this morning at around 4a.m., I had this in my head and I got up and got out my notebook and wrote it down.

“Is there a drug store nearby?” I asked, finally able to straighten and lean more on the doorway, and not on him.

“I think so. Why?”

I fumbled with my purse, found what I was looking for and said, “I need to fill a prescription. Do you mind?”

“Not at all.” I dipped back into the car, and he got in and drove us back out. The Walgreens was only a few blocks away. Bryce seemed to know the city well.

It didn't take very long. Fortunately we could use the drive up for what I needed.

I handed him the pill pack that had my prescription information on it. He put it into the little sliding drawer for the pharmasist.

“Birth control?” he said. “I didn't know you could get pregnant from a vampire.”

“Who said anything aobut my having sex with a vampire—or anyone?” I countered. “A woman can take the pill for other reasons, like regulating her period. Mine isn't regular, and it's very heavy.”

“I'm sorry,” he said. “It was none of my business.”

Damn straight.

He was looking out the windshield, not at me. I'd embarrassed him, maybe even grossed him out a little. Good. Odd how I'd been able to come up with that excuse so quickly. Then images popped into my head: Lindee and me doing something with my pill pack and then me with a handsome guy with long coiling hair (obviously a vampire), and then throwing it into a waste can. Then I'm in his arms.

Whoa. A memory? Was that man Vasyl? If it was, he was extremely handsome. Why was I throwing away the pill pack?

Lindee might know something about that, since she and I were doing something and I got that it seemed devious. Why would I throw the pill pack away?

“They need your card,” he said, killing my thoughts then.

“Huh?” I looked at him.

“They need payment? You've got money or a card to pay?”

“Oh, sure.” I handed him my Visa.

It had begun to snow. Small flakes. I smiled, but wanted to go home and wondered how I would manage since Bryce was there to keep an eye on me, and keep me in the penthouse. Oh, yes. I knew Stefan had given him orders that no matter what I was to remain in the building, except for small excursions—like to the hospital and drug store.

Well, that's all I have for today. Hope your Memorial Day goes well, whatever the weather.

Advertisement:

Vampire Nocturne

The third installment of
the Sabrina Strong series:
Steampunk with werewolves,
Drakulya, and more hunks!

BRAND NEW!

Chronicles of Zofia Trickenbod, sorceress Book One

Spell of the Black Unicorn

 

Published on May 21, 2013

Dark Castle Publication

Kindle ebook format

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Sorceress Zofia Trickenbod is from another planet and stuck on modern-day Earth, hiding out from the evil ex-wizard, Vesselvod Blood, striving to keep the Stone of Irdisi (which is the most magical implement of their world, out of Blood's grasp. Things have been quiet for the past three years, until one morning she finds her husband, Dorian—who she thought to be dead—on her doorstep. Oh, and he's un-dead. Then sightings of the black unicorn has her and her family unsettled, because the black unicorn goes wherever Blood is. So, seeing the creature eating her petunias and veggies in the garden is a bad sign. While she and her Aunt Tillie scramble to find a spell to turn Dorian back into a wizard, he becomes a prime suspect in the murder of a friend's lover and is put into jail. Meanwhile, Blood is hypnotizing her neighbors to do his bidding in order to get the Stone—and maybe kill Zofia in the process. The black unicorn figures into Zofia's only salvation when Blood abducts her children, and she has to deal with a nasty demon, get past a dragon, deal with a lamia, save her children, and tell her boyfriend (who is a cop) that her husband is back.