What's Your Sign?

***WINNER ALERT!***  Congratulations to justinbarnes, who is a Pisces!  Justin has won the full set of Vicki Pettersson's Zodiac series!  In addition, because we had so many enthusiastic entries, we're going to give away two more of Vicki's books as extras:  You Said What Again gets a copy of SCENT OF SHADOWS, and Kaelie gets a copy of CITY OF SOULS.  Justin, Kaelie and You Said, send an email to booksthatgobump@gmail with your mailing info, and we'll get your books in the mail.  Thanks so much for everyone who played along - peace, love and kisses to all, whatever your sign!***

There was a time when the phrase, "Hey, baby, what's your sign?" was a universally acknowledged "pick-up phrase" of men everywhere. The modern day "Age of Aquarius" brings to mind the sixties and seventies, a period of spiritualism and open-mindededness where peace, love, cosmic forces (and evidently a few magic mushrooms!) reigned supreme.

In reality, astrology is believed to have begun with the ancient Babylonians sometime in the 3rd century B.C., and was used as a method to determine the will of the gods.  Man looked to the heavens for answers, because it was the heavens who ruled their lives: the rain that made the crops grow, the breeze that cooled their brow, the sun that beat down on their heads, the damage from storms and floods.  The movement of the sun, moon and stars began to be seen as the activity of the gods themselves, and it was believed that if these movements could be interpreted properly, man could use these patterns to his advantage.

It took several centuries before the art of horoscopic astrology came into existence, led largely by the Greek astronomist Ptolemy, whose teachings on the movements of the planets and their influence over a person's physical birth laid the foundation of astrological teachings for thousands of years afterward.  So today, in the 21st century, there are many, many people who believe that the sign you're born under has a direct influence on who you are as a person (c'mon, admit it... how many of you read your horoscope every day, even if you don't really believe it?) Many prominent rulers through the centuries were said never to make a move without consulting their personal astrologers (as recently as Ronald Reagan!), as the heavens continue to be looked to for answers, even now. 

Most of us take some kind of pride in the sign we were born under, although the actual casting of horoscopes is much more complicated than just what constellation was in the sky at the time of our birth - the place, time and position of the planets all come into play, as do the elements those planets represent.  Details aside, we seem to like the idea that some of our personal traits are given to us at birth - the good traits make us feel good about ourselves, and the bad traits are the perfect excuse for when we're less than perfect, right?  :)

So, as a proud Scorpio (loyal, passionate, independent, resourceful) my question for you today is the good, old-fashioned "What's your sign?".  One person (who if astrology is to be believed, will have been born under a lucky star), will win the ENTIRE set of Vicki Pettersson's Zodiac series!

(Two books, The Touch of Twilight and Cheat the Grave, have been signed by Vicki herself!)

Up your chances of winning by:

+1 Posting in the comments section

+1 Linking to this post on Twitter
+1 Linking to this post on Facebook
+1 Linking to the Supernatural Underground blog on your own blog/website

Post what you did in the comments section.  So c'mon, baby... what's your sign?

A Mish Mash of Sorts.....

Hey everyone! It is Friday and for me, being Canadian, the long weekend has already started. (Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canunks) So far it hasn't turned out the way I'd expected...I was supposed to go up north to spend some time with the family at a friends cottage. On a lake. With a boat. A jet ski. Beer. BUT...I had edits arrive for another publisher and according to my editor, revisions are coming today for my third book in the Jaguar Warriors series, HIS DARKEST SALVATION. So I decided to let the hubby go and have fun with the kids and leave me all alone...by myself in this house. FOR THREE WHOLE DAYS.....

So, Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Okay, I do love my family, for reals and I had to try really hard to appear sad at the prospect of missing out on the cottage, but um, I am so happy to have some time alone.

I've already finished my edits on Black Destiny, which is a time travel short story. I loved re-visiting this world. I hope to get my revisions started on Salvation, because I am hard at work on my fourth book which is due in September.

I shall organize my new office, get my covers up on the wall, do some cleaning, take the dog on long walks....and float in the pool! What is everyone else up to? I know my American friends are celebrating July 4th!

Tell me your plans, I'd love to hear. In the mean time, I'm starting to organize promo etc for my fall release, the second book in the Jaguar Warrior series, HIS DARKEST EMBRACE...here is a teaser of the cover...

What do you think? Ya'll like? I will admit at first when I saw this I thought, oh my, Jagger is nekkid...butt, (pun intended) it's a beautiful cover and Tom the cover god has outdone himself.

So, I will be holding a contest for ARC's for this book in the next little while. In the meantime have a wonderful weekend whatever you are doing!

Making My Bow—& Why I Love Fantasy!

Contest Results: The sorting hat has now duly sorted and the results are:

The Heir of Night ARE (US/Canada Posters Only):

Barbara E.
Stacey

Thornspell (Signed Copies) (International)

Sweet Rachel
Stella (Ex Libris)

Please contact me on contact@helenlowe.info with your postal address so I can get the books to you.

Thank you again to everyone, for participating.

---

Contest Closed: It's officially July 2 everywhere in the USA/Canada now (yup, even Anchorage) so time to close the contest. I'll post the winners of the 2 x The Heir of Night AREs (US/Canada only) and the 2 x signed copies of Thornspell here sometime tomorrow when the "sorting hat" gives me its result. (You can't rush the sorting hat, not if you don't want everyone to be in Slytherin!:-))

But remember, there's still another 4 hours before the companion contest on my own Anything, Really blog, for 2 x further signed editions of Thornspell closes off, so you can still comment there and be in with a chance to win.

But thank you so much everyone for participating—it's been great fun, and I've loved meeting you and finding out why you share my love of Fantasy. I'm really looking forward to spending time with you again on 1 August. meanwhile, don't be a stranger, come visit me at Helen Lowe on Anything, Really any time you like.

HelenL :-)

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When Pamela Palmer approached me to blog right here on the Supernatural Underground, my first reaction was what a tremendous privilege—to be given the opportunity to work collaboratively with so many great writers. And secondly, to have the opportunity to share my writing with such an enthusiastic and knowledgeable audience—both reactions that have only been underlined by reading the posts and comments over the past month.

So I’m very excited to be making my debut on the Underground today, exactly 1 month on from the Grand Welcome to “Books That Go Bump In the Night.” :-)

So—down to business! Who am I, anyway? And what stripe of speculative fiction do I write?

Making My Bow
Well, (waves, smiles) my name is Helen Lowe, I hail from Middle Earth—I mean, New Zealand—and I write Fantasy.
My first novel, Thornspell (Knopf 2008), has just come out in paperback and is a fairytale retelling: in this case of Sleeping Beauty, but from the perspective of the prince destined to break the spell—with a dark little backstory around the motivation of the wicked faery who has not at all given up her vile plots and machinations. Described variously as “darkly imaginative” (Canvas), and a “full blooded tale of ambition and romance” (Booklist) Thornspell was my first foray into the kind of Fantasy I love to both read and tell: swashbuckling, adventurous, and romantic, with overlapping layers of mystery and magic.

On 1 October, Eos will be releasing my second novel, The Heir of Night, which is a darker and more epic tale aimed at older and “crossover” readers—and the first of the 4-book, WALL OF NIGHT series. Heir is a story of darkness and peril, mystery, friendship and love, which unfolds in a broken world of shadow and conflict where nothing is precisely as it seems …

OK, Why I Love Fantasy:
Introductions complete, I thought maybe the best starting place for my very first Supernatural Underground blog is why I love Fantasy—reading it, writing it, and when you have something like The Lord of the Rings on offer, watching it at the movies as well. There are so many places to start: from loving fairytales, myths and legends as a young child, and graduating from there to Lewis and Tolkien, McKillip and McKinley and Cherryh, Gaiman and Hobb—to name just a few. But that’s “what”, not “why.”

Why is definitely tougher and leads more into why I love writing Fantasy as well. So many words spring to mind: color and imagination for starters, but I think the key word for me is possibility. Fantasy offers the possibility of something “other” to be explored, whether it is an historical world that is almost—but just not quite—our own, as in Thornspell, or a completely alternate world like the WALL OF NIGHT. Or worlds, as with Urban Fantasy, that are definitely ours but with the possibility of the “other” overlapped or entwined with them.

Together with possibility comes wonder—what if a world could be like this, or this, or this? Why would a boy growing up in a castle beside a great forest care about some story of a sleeping chick and a 100-year old spell, let alone “get involved?” Why would a people fight an eons-old war? What would keep them going? What effect would it have on them? How would that play out on a world where their very arrival had brought cataclysm and ruin? (This is Heir, btw.)

So a big part of the fascination and also the fun of Fantasy for me has always been the excitement of new ways of looking at the world, and the flexibility to play with those possibilities. As a reader, I enjoy exploring other writers’ visions; as a writer, I love asking those why and what if questions and having the freedom to answer them without being bound by what we know has happened in history, or constrained too much by the laws of physics.

How about you? What draws you to Fantastic fiction? What kind of speculative fiction spins your wheels, and why?

Another thing I love about Fantasy is the whole experience of world building—to look through another writer’s eyes into a world that has texture, color and history; that is real and believable when you walk its streets. As an author, writing Fantasy allows you to unfold new worlds to share with readers . . . I use the word “unfold” advisedly, because sometimes it does feel as though the world is already there and my role is simply to reveal it through the characters’ eyes; a mystery, perhaps—but also one of the great fascinations of writing Fantastic fiction.

I could never exhaustively list all the Fantasy worlds that I have fallen in love with, but here’s just a few of my favorites: CS Lewis’s wardrobe opening onto the lantern burning in a snowy wood; Tolkien’s Middle Earth, from Bilbo Baggins’ round hobbit hole to the golden woods of Lothlorien, and the older, darker secrets of Fangorn; Patricia McKillip’s rich, fantastical, and mysterious world of the Riddle-Master series, and Robin Hobb’s Rain Wilds; Terry Pratchett’s Discworld (definitely flat, circular, and on the back of four elephants standing on a giant turtle . . .) and China Mieville’s darkly realized city of Bas-Lag.

So what are your favorite Fantastic worlds? Which writer’s world building has stayed in your imagination?

And Yes: there’s give-aways! My editor, the lovely Kate Nintzel of Eos, has put up two AREs of The Heir of Night to go to readers resident in the USA or Canada, and I’m also adding in two signed copies of Thornspell for readers anyway in the world.

You can earn points by:

+1 Posting in the comments section
+1 Linking to this post on Twitter
+1 Linking to this post on Facebook
+1 Linking to the Supernatural Underground blog on your own blog/website

Just post the total number of points that you’ve earned in your comment (and say whether you’re from the USA/Canada for the Heir AREs.) Your name will be entered in the draw again for every point you earn. Eligibility will close at midnight today, July 1.

And if you visit me on my blog: Helen Lowe on Anything, Really you can also go in the draw to win one of two further copies of Thornspell, once again for anywhere in the world. I look forward to meeting you, both here on the Supernatural Underground, & at home on Anything, Really.

DRAGON LOVE

CONTEST CLOSED!

Thank you to everyone who commented. The winner of an autographed advance reader copy of Firelight is: Catie S (Book Bound)! Congratulations, Catie! Please email me your address at sophie@sophiejordan.net. I'll see you all here again on July 30th with a new post and more goodies to give.



I was fortunate enough to attend the BEA conference (Book Expo of America) this past May, where my upcoming book, Firelight, was featured on a YA editor buzz panel. In that panel, Scholastic editor Arthur Levine, (I tried not to blather incoherently in the presence of the man responsible for bringing Harry Potter to the US) asked my HarperTeen editor, the brilliant Farrin Jacobs, “So, when a dragon has sex does steam come out of her nose?”

Sitting in my seat, I laughed, blushed and then I thought. And I thought. I reflected back over the pages I’d written. His question wasn’t that “out there”, if you know what I mean. Jacinda, the protagonist in Firelight, does tend to “overheat” when she’s … ahem, engaging in intimacy. How’s that for vague?

No, she’s not Drew Barrymore in Firestarter (gah, did I just age myself?). To give you a better understanding of Jacinda, let me back up and tell you a bit about her. Jacinda is actually a draki – which is what dragons have evolved into over the millennia. Why, you may ask, have dragons evolved? For the same reason any creature evolves – to survive and avoid extinction.

The draki are neither dragon nor human, but something in between. The draki spend most of their time walking about as humans, to protect themselves from mankind, of course, but at their core they are winged, scaled creatures possessing varied talents. Meaning each draki has his/her own specific talent.

Whereas the dragons of my lore (yes, I’m making this stuff up) possess myriad mystical “gifts”, i.e., fire-breathing, the ability to sprout scales and breathe underwater, the gift of immense strength and speed, the ability to mesmerize, the ability to make oneself invisible … the list goes on. Each individual draki, if lucky, has only one talent. Naturally, some talents are deemed better than others. And that takes us to Jacinda.

Jacinda possesses a coveted talent. She’s the last fire-breather in her pride. So, yeah, she’s the bomb – even if she doesn’t want to be, even if she would rather be a “normal” draki. Instead, she’s this commodity, revered, protected, suffocated … her future mate hand-picked already. But I digress … let’s get back to the dragon love.

As a fire-breather, Jacinda demonstrates attraction and desire a little more … expressively. Okay, when I say she gets all hot and bothered, I mean she really gets all HOT and bothered. Yep. Since her lungs can produce fire, burning up inside with a smoldering sky-high fever doesn’t hurt her. But it can make kissing a little risky for the guy. Whenever I hear Firelight described as a steamy read from those who have already read it I can’t help but smile. Because it is a steamy read. In so many ways.

So, Arthur Levine posed a very good question when he asked: “So, when a dragon has sex does steam come out of her nose?” Hmm… I think I’ll quote my editor’s response to that. “Arthur, you’ll have to read the book.”

And I hope many of you pick up a copy when it releases on September 7th and find out for yourself. For now, one commenter will win an autographed ARC of Firelight. To get the ball rolling, why don’t we continue the discussion on dragon love, shall we?

Danger, Will Robinson

***WINNER ALERT!!*** - Congrats to jellybelly82158, who's won a copy of Sara Creasy's SONG OF SCARABAEUS!  Jellybelly, send your mailing info to booksthatgobump@gmail.com, and thanks to everyone who commented!  Sci-fi rules!!

Sara Creasy can't be with us today - so in her honor I am doing a sci-fi blog.

I have been a sci-fi geek for as long as I can remember. Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, The Time Tunnel were all favourite viewing when I was a kid.

I remember going to Star Wars: Episode 4 – A New Hope when it was originally screened in our small town and being totally blown away. I sat in my seat – popcorn and jaffas  forgotten while this whole new world of space travel opened up before me. From the very first scrolling yellow writing to the final scene – I was glued to my seat. And how I counted down the sleeps a few years later when the Empire Strikes Back came to town. OMG. This was awesomeness at its greatest.

I was totally addicted to the original Battlestar Galactica – what can I say but Apollo and Starbuck – swoon. And who can forget Buck Rogers or the original series of V. Lizards walking around in human clothing and when Diana swallowed a guinea pig whole – that was amazing.

Now I never was never really a Star Trek girl - Captain James T Kirk seemed like an egotistical . . . who went down to a planet each week to fight the nasty beastie even though he was supposed to be running the ship – plus being a child of Star Wars, the effects seemed lame. And then came along Captain Picard– the thinking geek’s action hero – and the Next Generation. That was a Trek I could enjoy – even if sometimes Captain Picard did go down to the planet and fight the nasty beastie when he was supposed to be running the ship. I could forgive him. He was Captain Picard.

Since then I have enjoyed so much more sci-fi TV shows and movies: shows like the X-files; Babylon 5; the Re-imaging of Battlestar Galactica; and of course the new V to name just a few. I loves me some good sci-fi especially a good laser gun fight. Though I think my all time favourite is and always will be Firefly.

BTW - I will not mention the Phantom Menace, Return of the Sith and whatever the other one was called. Nope. I will not mention them. Lips sealed. Humming starts now.


So come on geek girls and guys – stand up and be proud.

Okay - we have a copy of Sara's book SONG OF SCARABAEUS up for grabs - to be in the draw post a comment and tell us if you love sci-fi and are you a Captain Kirk or a Captain Picard kind of geek.

Feathers, Fur, Fangs, and Snakes

The giveaway is closed. The winner is Honey Cuddles. Please contact me at dakotaATdakota-banks.com to claim your copy of Sacrifice + swag. 

Thanks to all who responded for your insightful comments!

Hi, I'm Dakota Banks. If I were to die and come back as something, it would be as a Dove extra dark chocolate bar in the hands of the man to the left. I I'd promise not to melt on his hands, only in his mouth. Sweet!

Now that you've learned everything there is to know about my personality, I might as well move on to my topic. Eyes over here, please. I'd like to talk about the origins of some of our favorite types of characters.

Shapeshifting is the basis of most paranormal fiction today because it is also the basis of many myths, ancient and current, widely spread around the world. Vampires and werewolves are the best-known shapeshifters and dominate paranormal fiction.

Vampire legends go much further back in time than Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula. Stories of blood-drinking spirits have been around for thousands of years. In Persia, 2,500 years ago, blood drinking was shown on pottery. In ancient China, people believed a vampire was created when a dog or cat jumped over a corpse. Makes you wonder why so many civilizations throughout the world and through history seized on a version of the same legend. In Europe of the 1800s, vampires inspired a mass hysteria where corpses were dug up and "re-killed" with stakes, and suspected vampires were put to death and buried upside-down.  Where's the shapeshifting in all of this? Vampires weren't associated with shapeshifting until Bram Stoker introduced the idea, based on real vampire bats. Count Dracula could also change into a wolf.


Werewolves also have a long history of stories behind them. Ancient Greek gods turned a king with an appetite for human flesh into a werewolf. There is a famous story from the 1600s involving a she-wolf. A French king saw a hunter in his woods and asked him to report on the success of the hunt. The hunter encountered a vicious wolf who was too strong for him to kill, but he managed to cut off the wolf's forepaw. He wrapped it up and took it to the king. When the king heard the story, he unwrapped the bundle and found a woman's hand with a gold ring on her finger. Horrified, he recognized the ring as belonging to his wife. Searching her out, he found her injured, with her hand missing. She admitted being the she-wolf and was burned to death.

Beyond vampires and werewolves, there are many other shapeshifters in myth and folklore around the world. Werefelid (werecat) stories of Africa, Asia, and South America far outnumber werewolves. They are humans who can change into lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, or domesticated cats. Werefoxes and weresnakes are popular in Asia. We tend to think of weresnakes as evil (such as Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter or Thulsa Doom in Conan the Barbarian), but in India they are the good guys!

People tend to develop their myths and folklore using animals that are local to where they live. That gives us werehorses from Europe, weredolphins from Brazil's Amazon River basin, wereseals from island communities, werehyenas from Africa, and weremers (okay, mermaids) from countries that sailed the oceans.

Most of the time, the human can change into a single animal that reflects his or her personality. The human form of the werewolf is powerful and dangerous. The human form of the werefox is tricky or mischievous, and so on. There are a couple of well-known exceptions. Skinwalkers, from Native American traditions, are shamans who can transform into several animal forms. Ireland has the pooka, an all-purpose creature who ranges from annoying to seriously bad. The pooka can change into a black goat, an eagle, a horse, and a man. To the right is an image of a pooka, something I'd prefer not to come across in spite of the cute name. Activities went from tripping people into mud puddles to sitting on them, putting pressure on the chest until they died (perhaps an early explanation of heart attacks?).

For my writing, I wanted to see what I could do outside the vamp and werewolf norm. I found the myths of ancient Sumeria fascinating, so I built a story around the idea that some of their gods, goddesses, and demons are still around today. Only a few humans know about them, and are aligned for or against. I was lured in by shapeshifting, though, so there are demons who transform into various horrid forms. I have a lot of fun writing the Mortal Path series! The second book is Sacrifice, to be released August 31.

I'm giving away a signed copy of Sacrifice, to be mailed near the end of August. Included are a bookmark, a magnet, and a pen. The drawing is open internationally. To enter to win, please tell me what kind of shapeshifter stories you enjoy. You can earn points by:

+1 Posting in the comments section
+1 Linking to this post on Twitter
+1 Linking to this post on Facebook
+1 Linking to the Supernatural Underground blog on your own blog/website

Just post the total number of points that you’ve earned in your comment. Winner to be announced in this post in two days. Contest ends Tuesday, June 29th at midnight. Contest is now closed.

Visit my website at www.dakota-banks.com.

Forbidden Fruit (And Don't We Love It!)

We've all met the forefathers of the paranormal world. Bram Stoker's Dracula, George Waggner's The Wolf Man, and other early prototypes of the much-maligned fur-and-fanged world have been ingrained in our racial memory almost as deeply as a fear/fascination of fire.

Think I'm joking? Don't worry, I am... mostly. While there is no (credible) evidence of fanged cavemen stalking the Neanderthals of ages past, there is, instead, a like fascination with the things that go bump in the night. We have loved to hate vampires who creep through bedroom windows, cheered when the werewolves have been put down by silver bullets (carefully crafted from one's father's melted down watch, natch), covered our eyes when the blood-bathing witch was burned at the stake and the souls of her cursed victims set free.

If you're here, then you share that love with me.

And perhaps you can answer a question that has always interested me: How, in all that is (un)holy, did vampires go from this unfortunate child of the night to this blessed hunk of blood-love? Where in our society did we decide that being stalked by furry-faced flesh-eaters was not nearly so fun as being seduced by them?

I have a theory, gentle (and not so gentle) readers. My theory is this: We as a species, a culture and a shared memory are routinely fascinated by the forbidden. From as majestic as the ancient tales of locked gateways to heaven to the mundane as being told we shouldn't touch the stove, we are drawn to that which we cannot have.

A creature of the night who is as likely to kill me as kiss me is about as forbidden fruit as I can get. Add in the most-certainly intimate trappings of blood, penetration of fang (hey, now!), and the invariable mechanics of dark nights and lonesome surroundings, and you have a recipe for one smoldering romance.

Aside from that whole "may possibly get killed by my fanged lover" bit... A tiny, insignificant detail, of course.

Does it stop with the traditional critters? Absolutely not! In this very blog, we have mermaids and dragons, vampires and gods; a veritable cornucopia of creatures, A to Z. (Do we have a Z, actually? What on earth—or beyond—starts with Z? Anyone? Anyone? ... Bueller?) And while modern fairy tales have been Disneyfied quite a bit, we all know that the old tales weren't nearly so light and happy (and only rarely featured a song and dance number).

Mermaids have been known to eat and drown thirsty men; sirens lured sailors to their deaths on craggy rocks. Gods have rarely been so kind as to help from the goodness of their hearts—most have been portrayed as selfish, flawed beings with phenomenal cosmic powers (and very large living spaces, to boot!). Vampires, as we mentioned, drink human blood, werewolves feast on human flesh; witches ate children and bathed in the blood of innocents.

And as if the natural state of their being wasn't enough, we humans have always hunted and destroyed (or captured!) what we don't understand. We have to quantify everything, and to do so we, we must pick it apart... Can you imagine a vampire in a laboratory?

So tell me your story. What draws you to these once-upon-a-time killing machines? Why do you read paranormal, and what makes you want them?

Hi, my name is Karina Cooper, and I'm addicted to paranormal romance.

In my debut novel, Blood of the Wicked, Silas Smith is not a man who is lured by the forbidden. In his line of work, the forbidden is executed, and he's one of the best witch hunters the Mission can claim—thorough, deadly, and most of all, dedicated. His task? Simple enough: use Jessie Leigh to hunt down the witch that is her baby brother, no matter how many lies it takes to force her hand. Unfortunately for him, Jessie's a witch, too, and she's not going to roll over without one hell of a fight. There's just one problem...

Like most of us, Jessie's got a thing for the forbidden. And the man who'll kill her if he learns the truth is about as forbidden as a witch can get.

Bets, anyone?