An excerpt from Whispers At Midnight

Whispers at Midnight is a Gothic Romance set in Colonial Era America.  I particularly like exploring the early days of our country and imagining what might have been.  The following excerpt is from the prologue. I hope you will enjoy it.  A longer excerpt is available at Amazon.

Whispers At Midnight

Virginia, July 1730

The night was hot and still. More so than any Evelyn Wicklow could ever remember. She held tightly to her husband’s arm, so that her steps would not falter and reveal the tug of fear at her heart. Not a sound rose up in the cloying heat, not the chirp of a cricket, not the song of a bird. It seemed both time and the movement of the elements had come to a halt as an omen of the evil she sensed.

“He’s a heartless man, Jubal,” her lovely, sad voice petitioned Jubal Wicklow. “If only there were another way.” Her soft gray eyes, rimmed with worry, pleaded silently with him. At sunrise Jubal would fight a duel on the riverbank near Wicklow House. Knowing he had been one of the best shots in England failed to ease Evelyn’s mind, for deep in her soul she already knew the outcome of this senseless contest.

A dark wave of apprehension swept through her as hazy images clouded her thoughts. Her head ached violently, yet her hands clung lovingly to those of her husband. Since childhood she had borne the peculiar gift of foretelling the future. Evelyn had often thought that ability was more of a burden than an advantage. Sometimes, as now, when the vision involved those to whom she was closest, what would happen could only be viewed through a deep, murky mist and not clearly enough to see one’s way. And yet she had read disaster in the dark warning clouds long before she knew John Mott had come to Virginia.

“Aye, but there will be no reasoning with John,” Jubal Wicklow responded calmly as he clasped Evelyn’s hands between his own. “Four years at sea with the man and I learned to know him well.” He did not try to make light of her words; instead he marked the depth of anguish in her voice and eyes. She was so lovely to him, with her fair hair and eyes which at times were as luminous and mysterious as silver moonlight. He never tired of looking at her, his Evelyn, the sweetest treasure a man could ever possess.

Jubal Wicklow smiled reassuringly. As always, Evelyn aroused his protective instinct. He did not ask what she saw. He knew the effort would only heighten her pain. He understood his wife’s power and the toll it required of her delicate body. For even though she possessed great spiritual strength, she was as fragile and beautiful as an orchid. Above all things in life, he swore to himself, he loved Evelyn and their young daughter, Elise. Nay, more than that, he loved nothing or no one else on earth.

Evelyn lifted her pretty chin. “I prayed, Jubal, you could settle this debt with John Mott without bloodshed.” Still, she did not believe prayers could help and would send Elise to a trusted friend in Williamsburg.

Jubal led his wife into the newly finished maze of hedges, her single request for the grounds of Wicklow.

“Bloody bastard,” he said, and nodded. “Begging your pardon, my love, but it boils my blood that he should come here making his challenge after a full decade. As for the debt he claims, there is but what he invents. John holds no right to the gold or the ruby. The full bounty we took on our last voyage we divided before returning to England. I take no blame that John Mott’s share rests on the ocean floor. He sailed into weather no sane man would have faced.” Jubal halted his steps at a turn in the hedges and glanced about until his puzzlement brought the wanted smile from Evelyn. She pointed out the correct path. “The blighter lost his crew to the last man,” he said. “It should be enough he has his life.”

“It is more than gold and jewels he has come for,” Evelyn said softly. She had not thought John would follow them to the colonies. With an ocean and the passage of time between them it seemed that her dreadful destiny with the man could be overcome.

Once she had been betrothed to John, a prosperous sea captain and a widower with a young child. As a girl of seventeen she might have been enthralled with the handsome Mott and even delighted in accepting the marriage her parents arranged. But there was always something about the man that his smooth words and elegant manners could not overcome. He frightened her.

A fortnight before the date of the wedding, John Mott introduced her to a seafaring companion, the exuberant and red-haired Jubal Wicklow. One week later Evelyn and Jubal eloped and in so doing made a fierce enemy of John Mott. Having seen in her vision what John meant to do, Evelyn convinced Jubal that they should leave immediately for the colonies. A month following their departure, John wed another young woman.

For once Evelyn believed the visions had been wrong. John had forgotten them. But now, on the tenth anniversary of her marriage to Jubal Wicklow, a duel would be fought. She did not enjoy seeing John Mott’s face so plainly in her mind. Indeed she could not shut it out as she prayed that once again what was destined would be postponed.

Jubal Wicklow embraced her. “You must not worry, love. No harm will come to me. Not to any of us. I promise you.”

“Jubal, my darling,” she whispered, wishing she could be reassured. “If it should, you must remember this: we will find one another again. That I can promise you.” Her soft, liquid eyes gazed deeply into his and then she kissed him long and lovingly. “For time, my darling, is only a moment after death.” Her voice softened. “I will wait for you, Jubal.”

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Find Whispers at Midnight at your favorite ebook retailer:

Romantic Heroes And Their Loves

Writing a romance you get to fall in love with a new guy for a while.  When the book is finished and in the hands of readers, you say goodbye to your hero and move on to the next man in your life.  Breaking up is sad and difficult but in your writer’s heart you know he’ll be back and no matter how many fans and new sweethearts he has, you will always be his first love.

The heroes in my novels have been flaxen-haired, ebony-haired, had blue eyes and brown and shades of each, though I admit a weakness for the black-haired, blue-eyed heart-throb. They are generally tall and muscular, sometimes lean and fit. They have amazing prowess and are generally the sort of men who have to peel women off them.

A little dark and dangerous in spirit, but good deep down and an ever ready champion of those in need. Those are the loves of my life. Bad boys, good hearts.

Roman Toller in Dark Splendor is blonde and bold and forgets he is supposed to be a gentleman way too much.  Ryne Sullivan in Whispers at Midnight looks nothing like my predecessor love, Roman, but is equally negligent of his gentlemanly skills. Dark-haired Tabor Stanton in Delilah’s Flame has good reason to forget how to treat a lady, and he does.

Blame Lilah Damon. She deliberately forgets she is a lady of society. As Delilah she is bawdy and bad and adventurous and bent on revenge and really good at making men pay for their wrongs. Tabor doesn’t like the price and sets another.

Lilah is a redhead. I always thought it would be fun to have red hair. And it is! I’ve tried it twice as heroines in my books. Those girls have pluck!

Amanda Fairfax in Whispers at Midnight matches wits with Ryne and loses her heart just where she wants it to be found. Beauty, fierce determination that neither ghosts nor villains could break. Amanda gets her man and more.

Silvia Bradstreet, my first heroine for romantic readers, has all a damsel in distress must. She is lovely, vulnerable, curious to a fault, drawn to Roman, a man she cannot trust, and trapped on an island where there is no escape. Did I mention she has the wardrobe of a princess?

Slipping into the skin of a heroine is as heady as gazing into the blue, amber, green or gray eyes of a hero. It is love.

Fall in love again, in a past century. Roman, Ryne and Tabor will make the heart beat faster. Silvia, Amanda and Lilah will renew what you love about being a woman, or what you are looking for in one.

Watch out for villains. They are sure to show up in another post.  Like the heroes and heroines from my heart, the bad guys never behave as I expect.  Listen for the knock.

Unclenched

Romance covers have evolved.  The clench, that passionate embrace with the love-charged gazes, ruled romance covers for decades.  Historicals generally featured a pair of stunningly attractive models in period costume and in a daringly posed clench who were photographed then painted in acrylic on canvas.  The clench cover was effective when books were displayed on shelves in book stores, superstores and grocery stores in abundance.

Over time the women featured on romance covers have evolved from support role heroines to heroines in a fantasy to today’s stronger heroine who is more in a partnership with the hero.  Many newer covers feature a woman alone or dominating a man.  Paranormal romances are a significant part of the market at present and showcase heroines for every imagination. Vampire hunters, military women and what a recent article referred to as “butt-kicking babes” have emerged.

Covers today are likely to feature a headless couple with knockout bodies allowing the reader’s imagination to determine exactly what they look like.  Others feature only the hero, allowing the reader to insert themselves as heroine or they feature only the heroine so that the reader can appreciate that she is the strong, dominate character.

More and more books are purchased online or as ebooks and the way covers are produced has changed as well.  Most appear to be produced straight from photographs, skipping the artist with a brush.  Ebook purchasers may be looking at only a stamp sized cover so it must have punch.

The gorgeous covers for the e-versions of my books Dark Splendor and Whispers at Midnight were designed by Frauke Spanuth at Croco Designs.  Any reservations I had about digital art covers was quickly put to rest when I saw her work.  The covers are terrific and capture the historical elements of the Gothic storyline in an edgier, high impact way that is right for today’s market and the eBook trade.  I have always appreciated cover art and now I am a fan of Croco Designs. I am eagerly awaiting Croco’s cover concept for my next release, Delilah’s Flame, a Western Historical Romance.

I mean it when I say I appreciate cover art. In my house is a four by eight foot poster of my Western Historical Romance Devil Moon given to me by my publisher after a conference in Nashville. It’s by Pino.  It hangs in my office.  I’ve seen it every day for years and still love the colors and the romantic pose (and, of course, that it is my book).

Covers will continue to evolve as technology continues to change the way we connect with books.  Clench covers will hang on even if there are fewer of them.  I’m hanging on to my library of paperback romance novels.  Those original covers may become desirable collectibles one day and the stories are still great.

Covers change.  Romance lives on.

Author Andrea Parnell snapshot with cover model Fabio

 

 

postscript: Fabio, the epitome of cover hunks graciously posed with me at a writers conference in California.  It was a fun moment.

 

 

 

The Muse Went Missing

For quite a long time, fairy tale length, in fact, my muse slumbered.

Pages and pages of thanks to Dan McGirt at Trove Books for pushing, prodding and patiently persuading me to get with it and get my backlist of books out in digital format.  A few months later my first two novels, Dark Splendor and Whispers at Midnight, Sexy Gothics, first published in the late eighties are available as ebooks with brand new beautiful covers.  They debuted at Smashwords.com and in a few weeks will be widely available at Amazon and other ebook retailers.

The bonus is that I now have characters, plots and storylines kicking around in my head and I am now as excited about writing as I was when I started my first novel.  My muse is wide awake again.  She nodded off because she did not want to deal with me.  We have a new bargain.  I write.  She keeps the ideas coming.

Pages of thanks, also, to J.A. Konrath, a man I have never e-met or otherwise but whose blog I read.  Thanks to Mr. Konrath for throwing wide the doors on epublishing and showing so vividly the procedures and possibilities.  His frankness and openness made it all so clear.  I got it!  He’s done a lasting service to aspiring, successful and even floundering writers everywhere.

A special note: Dan McGirt is my son, favorite author, and now publisher.  Trove Books takes care of so many details and leaves me the fun part of creating and writing.  Dan’s Jason Cosmo fantasy series is available in both the original (Jason Cosmo, Royal Chaos and Dirty Work) and revised versions, (starting over with Hero Wanted).  Visit TroveBooks.com or JasonCosmo.com to see all of Dan’s works.

Hello world!

Welcome to AndreaParnell.com

You can now read Andrea’s books Dark Splendor and Whispers at Midnight as multi-format ebooks available from Smashwords. Compatible with your Kindle, Nook, iPad, Blackberry, Kobo or other ebook reading device.

These titles will soon be available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, the Apple iBook store and other online retailers.