Posts Tagged ‘kidnapping’

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Bewitching Book Tours has organized an awesome tour for T.F. Walsh’s Cloaked in Fur!

I love the cover art! The luminescent glow spotlighting the top and the eyes of the beautiful wolf.

Enjoy the excerpt and the authors guest post, and don’t forget to enter the giveaway!

T.F. Walsh is here to tell us about writing Cloaked in Fur!

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Hi and thanks for having me on your blog. Today I want to chat about where I came up with the wolf names and terms I use in Cloaked in Fur.

One of the things I struggled with when writing ‘Cloaked in Fur’ was what the names of the various creatures in the story.  When I started writing, I originally called Daciana’s kind ‘Werewolves’ and the creature was a ‘Wolfwere’.  This became confusing not only for the people reading it, but for myself. I also felt that as the mythology of the story evolved, I wanted to avoid the term werewolf.  Werewolves have so much pre-existing mythos, with certain expectations, that I wanted to create unique terms to allow the readers to keep an open mind when learning about Daciana and her pack.

I eventually decided to call Daciana’s kind ‘Wulfkin’.  Wulf was derived for the Germanic term for wolf and may hint at some of the origins of the pack which might be explored in later books. It is also a common element of names in the Germanic region, which could reveal a bit more about the people with that name.  And of course kin refers to family.

I also wanted to differentiate Daciana from the full blown ‘Wulfkin’ and therefore created the term ‘Moonwulf’.  Because Daciana is yet to perform the rite to become a Wulfkin, her change is still controlled by the moon.  So I use the Moonwulf to describe this condition.

Finally, I created the term ‘Dracwulf’ to explain the creature I had been calling Wolfweres.  The component Drac was derived from the Romanian word dracul, which refers to devil.  So I wanted a term that referred to the bestial nature creature.

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 Cloaked in Fur
T.F. Walsh

Cloaked in Fur

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Genre: Paranormal Suspense with strong romance elements

 Publisher: Crimson Romance

Date of Publication: August 5, 2013

 ISBN: 978-1-4405-7161-9 / ASIN: B00DV0XJ4A

 Number of pages: 216 / Word Count: 73,000 approx.

 Cover Artist: Stephanie Hannus

Book Description:

As a moonwulf, Daciana never expected to fall in love with a human. Hell, she never imagined that she’d abandon her pack, endanger everyone around her, and break the worst rule possible. But she did.

A rogue werewolf is killing Daciana’s friends, and she sets on capturing the creature.  She’ll do whatever it takes to stop the beast. The police and her boyfriend, Inspector Connell Lonescu, are starting to question her involvement in the murders, which is endangering the pack’s secret existence. But when the pack alpha kidnaps Connell, revealing the awful truth about the creature and its connection to the pack, Daciana must choose between saving the man she loves and saving her pack family from certain death.

Available now!

Amazon     Amazon UK    BN    iTunes   Crimson Romance

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OPENING OF CHAPTER 4

The phone’s strident ringing woke me up, and I glanced over at the bedside clock blazing

5:13 A.M. Too damn early for anything.

Tempted to dive back under the covers, I checked the caller ID: Connell. Crap. The previous night’s events came pouring back: me turning into a wulfkin outside the full moon, running with the pack all night, collecting my keys from the woods, and ditching Connell again. On top of that, I never retrieved the old books for the elixir. Double crap.

I pushed my legs over the edge of the bed, scrunched the sheet in my fist and answered the call. “Hi.”

“Where are you?” The panic in his voice turned my stomach.

“At home.”

“What happened to you last night?”

My throat dried up as my mind whirred with excuses. “I uncovered something in my research and got stuck into it, not realizing it was past midnight when I checked the clock. I didn’t want to wake you and went straight home. I’m sorry.”

“I suspected you wouldn’t come. Looks like I was right.”

“Come on, Connell, give me a break. I’m working on something majorly important.

When you’re on a case and spend nights in the office, I don’t give you shit about it.”

“That’s not what pisses me off. It’s that you never tell me anything. Send me a message if you’re going to be late or not turn up, anything to let me know what’s going on. It feels like you’re only staying with me on until something better comes along.”

“That’s not true. I only want you.”

Silence.

I lowered my head and stared at the dirt beneath my toenails from the previous night’s run.

“I don’t want to talk about this now,” he said. “We found two more bodies this morning. The victims were located on the opposite sides of the city.” He paused. “Why would a wolf bolt across the city after a kill? They attack in packs, don’t they?”

A shiver rippled down my spine, the possibility of two more dracwulf kills made me furious. There was no convincing myself the attacks weren’t related to the others; I felt the truth in my gut. Worse yet, I wondered whether the dracwulf was simply hungry or territorial, and Sandulf had to know. I flopped onto the bed and curled into a ball.

When I gave no response, Connell continued. “I need you to review the reports from the previous attacks today and visit the new scenes to see if you believe it’s the same animal.”

I cringed at the innocent wolves who could lose their lives over Sandulf’s stupidity.

“Your team can test the evidence and see if it’s the same predator without me.”

“We have limited testing resources in this country, so we need your expertise to move things along.”

The way he said “your” sounded full of contempt, and it pained me to hear him talk like that.

“The chief wants a hunting party issued this weekend, preferably with Romania’s Animal Research Institute’s approval. He’s already spoken with your boss, Vasile.”

I climbed up and paced the room, shaking my head. Typical Vasile to agree to anything the cops asked.

“If I could leave you out of this, I would, but I can’t. Trust me, I tried.”

“I appreciate that. Where should we meet?”

“Piaţa Square. Half an hour?”

“I can do that.”

He hung up.

A snarl ripped past my throat at the terrible start to the day. Who could blame Connell for being upset? I’d be livid if he kept avoiding me.

I threw on a pair of Levi’s, boots, and a gray hooded top. The bathroom mirror reflected gray wolf eyes from my recent transformation, and already the silvery color was fading into a darker shade. I pulled every strand of my nest-style hair into a ponytail and rushed outside into the morning twilight.

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I’m reading Cloaked in Fur right now.

I can’t do my review yet, since I’m not finished, but I can say that I’m really liking this moonwulf and her wulfkin pack.

The killings are brutal, the pack wants Daciana back, she wants Connell, and the dracwulf is still hungry.

I can’t wait to see what’s coming next as the fur flies!

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About the Author:

Cloaked TF Walsh

T.F. Walsh emigrated from Romania to Australia at the age of eight and now lives in a regional city south of Sydney with her husband. Growing up hearing dark fairytales, she’s always had a passion for reading and writing horror, paranormal romance, urban fantasy and young adult stories. She balances all the dark with light fluffy stuff like baking and traveling.

http://tfwalsh.wordpress.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/TFWalsh

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tfwalsh

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/tfwalsh/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/TFWalsh

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Tour Wide Giveaway
1 set of six wolf wineglass charms –open to US Shipping
4 wolf keychains–open to US Shipping
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Click on the rafflecopter link below to enter

RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY

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It comes as no surprise that Paula Cappa’s The Dazzling Darkness has won the

Gothic Readers Book Club Choice Award!

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But that’s not all!

The Dazzling Darkness also won the eBook Cover Design Award!

Read more HERE.

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Congratulations Paula!

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The Dazzling Darkness

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At the gates of Old Willow Cemetery, the twisted vines choke the bald ironworks, their thorny cords crisscrossed into images of wrinkled faces and hoodwinked eyes.

This excerpt is from the prologue. With such visually descriptive writing, Paula hooked me before I got to the first chapter.

Young Henry is missing.

His sister is burdened with guilt. She only let go of his hand for a moment.

The parents are struggling to keep it together as days pass and still no sign of Henry.

Eerie, unnatural occurrences, Henry’s laughter in the tree in the backyard, his voice counting in the cemetery, all point to Elias Hatcher, caretaker of the graveyard.

Detective Balducci has Elias firmly in his crosshairs. No one can get in or out of the cemetery without Elias knowing, and the tracking dog alerted to Henry’s presence all over the graveyard.

He feels sure, if Hatch didn’t do the actual kidnapping, he has knowledge of the crime. But he can’t seem to move forward in the case.

“This case is like writing with a black pen on black paper. I can’t see it, but it’s right there in front of me.”

After Balducci’s own strange sighting on the cow path where Henry first went missing he wonders, “Is this an illusion? Or is the fact of the illusion the lead?” He thought again. “What is speaking here?”

The Dazzling Darkness defies a genre. I would say it’s a supernatural mystery/thriller laced with Gothic horror.

The author fed me bits and pieces, like bread crumbs. I gobbled them up, knowing they led to some revelations, to answered questions. I would start to get rushed, to speed ahead, but then I would become so engrossed in such things as a description of a new morning or getting started on a new day, that I would pause and reread the scene, visualizing it, feeling the moment.

Much of the story feels like it was written in a long ago era, though it takes place in the present. I wish I could explain it better. It reads like a classic, reminding me of a vintage bottle of wine. I gently lift the bottle from the rack, dust it off, open it and breathe its essence.

With bold, fresh, almost poetic writing, I can honestly say, I was beguiled.

5 Stars

Paula Cappa

Paula Cappa

Paula Cappa is a novelist and published short story author in literary journals and e-zines (Fiction365, Every Day Fiction, Smokelong Quarterly, Twilight Times, and others). As a writer of news and features for community newspapers, she gained a respectable readership in New York and Connecticut. She works as a freelance copy editor in advertising, business, and medical/pharmaceutical. Night Sea Journey, A Tale of the Supernatural is her debut novel in 2012. The Dazzling Darkness, a supernatural mystery, is her second novel.

Visit Paula Cappa’s Web site: http://paulacappa.wordpress.com/author/

She writes a weekly fiction blog, Tales of Terror, which features classic short stories of mostly 19th-century authors, with commentary. Visit her blog at http://paulacappa.wordpress.com/

Goodreads / Blog / Twitter / Amazon

Books by Paula Cappa

Night Sea Journey, A Tale of the Supernatural  The Dazzling Darkness

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Welcome to My Monday Minis.

This is where I review very short stories and flash fiction.

For today I’ll be telling you about The Harvesters

by Ashley Hill

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You get all of the ingredients for a good horror story. A thunderstorm, a rustic old cabin deep in the woods and some really creepy characters. There’s the huge shambling guy with the axe, the sly shotgun wielding old man, and the creepy kids.

I think the kids creeped me out the most. It had me thinking Blair Witch, when they hear the weird voices outside their tent and the kids giggling and slapping the tent.

The Harvesters is relentless and you land right in the thick of it from the get go.

Ash creeps around in the cellar of the ratty cabin and finally spots her boyfriend, Jason. He’s manacled to a metal table.

From this point on, I girded myself for what was coming.

Ash manages to get his hands free before this huge man throws an axe at her. She heeds Jason’s warning and hightails it but is rushed by a little kid. She sweeps past him and slams the door of the cellar shut behind her.

That’s when she hears the whispering.

She rushes to the truck outside, but, of course, there are no keys. A vision flashes in her head of the keys hanging on a hook inside the cabin.

This is where I wonder what I would’ve done. We know the warnings for these scenes. “Don’t go back inside!” But if your true love is lying in there, helpless, about to be carved up, what else can you do?

So, in she goes again.

From the very beginning it’s a mad dash through this short story.

You’ll get to read about it from two points of view. Ash narrates most of the story, but Jason does have his own side to tell.

Then their story meets again as they struggle to survive multiple attacks with no help for miles in any direction.

 I was thinking serial killers or a family of cannibals maybe. I’m still not sure exactly what they wanted from Ash.

That brings me to the ending. It’s a cliffhanger and a big one. I kind of saw it coming, but I think I would have been disappointed if it wrapped up neatly.

This way, I get to look forward to more. I wonder if one of the next books will be about Jason. He has a dark past and I think his story would be harrowing.

We’ll see.

3 Stars

Go here to check out the trailer!

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Author Info
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harvesters trailer ashley5
I’m a college student still trying to get a handle of the adult world. When I need to get away from it I lose myself in books, my own writing, and in spending time with my amazing boyfriend which he supports me to no end. Finding my passion in books has led me to finding a passion in writing my own fictional stories back in 2009, I have turned this into a dream career and going one step further I would love to open up my own book store.
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WWW Wednesday

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Hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?

• What did you recently finish reading?

• What do you think you’ll read next?

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What are you currently reading?

Obsession by Sharon Buchbinder

Obsession

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A year after a barbaric childbirth, complete with a near-death experience and an encounter with her guardian angel, Angie Edmonds is just happy she and her son, Jake, are alive. She’s finally in a good place: clean, sober, and employed as a defense attorney. But at the end of a long work day, she finds herself in a parent’s worst nightmare: Jake has been kidnapped and taken across the Mexican border by a cult leader who believes the child is the “Chosen One.”

Stymied by the US and Mexican legal systems, Angie is forced to ask the head of a Mexican crime syndicate for help. Much to her chagrin, she must work with Alejandro Torres, a dangerously attractive criminal and the drug lord’s right-hand man. Little does she know Alejandro is an undercover federal agent, equally terrified of blowing his cover–and falling in love with her.

The blurb just touches the surface. I can’t wait to tell you about this!

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What did you recently finish reading?

Dark Whiskey by Emma Meade

Darkwhiskey

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Jesse senses something off about the nightclub. She wants to leave, but  her best friend, Tasha, is determined to have a night to remember.  There’s no way Tasha’s turning down an invite to the VIP section.
Against Jesse’s better judgement, she follows Tasha up the ivory staircase to  the mysterious room above. The whiskey and champagne are flowing, and  pretty soon the blood will be too.

You can read my review here!

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What do you think you’ll read next?

Draculas by  multiple authors

DRACULAS

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A DYING MAN’S GREATEST TREASURE…Mortimer Moorecook, retired Wall Street raider, avid collector, is losing his fight against cancer. With weeks to live, a package arrives at the door of his hillside mansion—an artifact he paid millions for…a hominoid skull with elongated teeth, discovered in a farmer’s field in the Romanian countryside. With Shanna, his beautiful research assistant looking on, he sinks the skull’s razor sharp fangs into his neck, and immediately goes into convulsions.OPENS THE DOOR TO AN ANCIENT EVIL…A rural hospital. A slow night in the ER. Until Moorecook arrives strapped to a gurney, where he promptly codes and dies.

WHERE DEATH IS JUST THE BEGINNING.

Four well-known horror authors pool their penchants for scares and thrills, and tackle one of the greatest of all legends, with each writer creating a unique character and following them through a vampire outbreak in a secluded hospital.

The goal was simple: write the most intense novel they possibly could.

Which they did.

A Word of Warning:

Within these pages, you will find no black capes, no satin-lined coffins, no brooding heartthrobs who want to talk about your feelings. Forget sunlight and stakes. Throw out your garlic and your crosses. This is the Anti-TWILIGHT.

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Going to have fun with this!
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So, whatcha readin?

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