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Author Wednesdays are back!!! My guest today is Linda Nightingale! Oh and Linda is offering a giveaway too. Enjoy and good luck!
The story behind the story is that my editor asked me for a sequel to Sinner’s Opera, and, thus, Sinners’ Obsession was born. It was a difficult birth. But I hope a good baby. I had the characters but had never even contemplated a series. Now, I have the prequel and the prequel to the prequel in my crowded little mind. The prequel is Sinners’ Waltz, another Morgan story, depicting how he became a vampire and his wanderings with the exiled Charles II, rightful ruler of 17th century England.
Can you tell I’m a Royalist? When I participated in English Civil War reenactments, since I was a rider and owned a horse, along with my friend Helen from CA, we were the Royalist cavalry. The picture is of Helen and me at a reenactment in St. Augustine. I am mounted on my Andalusian stallion, Alegre, and she is riding a half-Andalusian gelding that was bred on my horse farm.
I will award one commenter a PDF of Sinners’ Opera, the first in the series.
Blurb:
A frantic mother researches her daughter’s flawed DNA in a race against time, suffering disappointment after disappointment in her search for a cure.
In this sequel to Sinners’ Opera, Morgan D’Arcy, English lord, classical pianist and vampire, finally wins his Isabeau. Six months of painful separation have eroded Isabeau’s need to remain true to her wicked bargain with the most powerful vampire in the world, Lucien St. Albans. During their estrangement, Isabeau gives birth to Morgan’s daughter, Eroica—a DarkeChilde, half-human and half-vampire, outlawed by the Vampyre Code. She loves Morgan too much to live without him and relents to his enticing pursuit, but a dangerous confession nearly shatters their idyllic existence. In a dark moment, Morgan tells Isabeau their child carries a defective gene that will cause Eroica to go mad at puberty.
Eroica D’Arcy is the subject of Isabeau’s deal with the devil. When their beautiful blonde daughter reaches her twentieth birthday, she is promised to the Dark Prince of vampires, Lucien St. Albans.
Buy Link:
Double Dragon Publishing
Available in eBook and Paperback
I’d like to share the book video of Sinners’ Obsession: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yM7s3cuDKo
Excerpt:
Chapter 1
Beaufort, South Carolina
In six months, the pain should have subsided.
Grief and sorrow still twisted her heart. Isabeau clamped a hand to the burning in her chest and hurried through the darkness along the familiar path to the log cabin. She’d grown up in Beaufort, but it no longer felt like home.
Nowhere does.
Only the whisper of the pines broke the silence of the chill November night. Before she left the stables, she’d checked the white ceramic watch she’d bought on sale. The silver hands pointed to nine o’clock. In her jewelry box at home were countless reminders of a life lost. She never wore the emeralds, diamonds or expensive watches anymore. The jewelry he’d bought her glittered alone in the darkness.
Time had dimmed the exquisite, dreamlike happiness she’d known but not the memories.
By eight, her mother would have tucked Eroica into bed. She’d stayed too long with Bianco, grooming and petting the white stallion. On her sixteenth birthday, a transport van had delivered the answer to Isabeau’s prayers. For thirteen years, she’d begged her parents for a horse. The driver claimed that her father had won a contest, the prize a beautiful Andalusian. Bianco was the first of many mysterious gifts. For twenty-eight years, Marianne Gervase kept a secret from her daughter…and her husband. When Isabeau learned the truth, it was too late. She was already in love with her godfather.
Last month, on October 11th, a miracle was born. Isabeau intended to breast fed her little Libra, but the baby had tried to bite her nipple. Knowing who—what—Eroica’s father was, Isabeau bottle fed her daughter. As Lucien St. Albans had predicted, Eroica was a female reproduction of her father. She had his silken blond hair, his captivating blue eyes. Isabeau had rejected Morgan’s calls, hadn’t opened his emails or the snail mail letters arriving once a week. She was familiar with his iron will. In every way possible, he tried to seduce his way back into her life. If she’d heard his aristocratic voice on the phone or read the same lilting cadence in the emails, she’d have lost her battle against him.
But, God, it hurt.
The Thanksgiving holiday had raced by. After Sunday fried chicken, Isabeau returned to Charleston, she and Eroica alone in her echoing Orange Street house. She’d never accepted her friend Kirsty’s offer to babysit. Except for the hours spent at LifeGen earning their living, Isabeau hated to be separated from her miraculous child. She refused to touch the small fortune Morgan sent as child support. That money belonged to Eroica and would, one day, pay college tuition and settle her comfortably for life. She didn’t dress her daughter at the expensive children’s boutiques as her father would have done, but shopped at sensible department stores.
Isabeau’s life centered around Eroica and the genetic puzzle of nonhuman DNA. She longed for the state-of-the art lab behind Rover House, abandoned now for months. In fact, she yearned for the idyllic life she’d shared with Morgan. She’d been a princess, living in a fairytale spun by her beautiful lover. She hadn’t chosen this lonely existence. Fate and Lucien St. Albans had made the choice. The truth of freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose had been drilled into her heart. Yet, her life was in her hands now. Oh, but tonight she wished Morgan were near to whisper promises…whisper madness…into her ear.
A shadow materialized from the trees. Her heart chugged over a beat of fear. She halted in her tracks, a shiver rippling the hair at her nape. Who—what—lurked on the path ahead? Her mother wouldn’t leave the sleeping baby. Strangers failed to notice the dirt and gravel drive to the cabin. She tried to call, “Who’s there?” but her dry throat constricted.
Six months ago, Isabeau had made a bargain with the devil. Her racing heart cramped. Had he come to collect? The shadow wafted closer. Holding her breath, she retreated. Again, it moved. Too fast to be human. If the dark figure was Lucien St. Albans, she’d be lucky to escape the confrontation with her life.
“Isabeau.” The elegant voice would forever summon terror.
Dread iced her spine, her pent-up breath escaping. He would smell her fear, sense the dread pounding in her temples. Isabeau gripped her throat. How would he kill her? Rip her head from her body? Or drain her to a husk?
Blurb:
Morgan D’Arcy is a classical pianist, an English lord and a vampire. He has everything except what he desires most—Isabeau. When she was a child, he appeared to her as the Angel Gabriel, influencing her life and career choice, preparing her to become Lady D’Arcy. Many forces oppose Morgan’s daring plan—not the least of which is Vampyre law. A vampire must not sire a child on a mortal.
Isabeau Gervase is a brilliant geneticist engaged to a prominent attorney. Though she no longer believes in angels, she sees a ticket to a Nobel Prize in the genetic puzzle presented by her long-absent childhood friend. She intends to unravel Gabriel’s secrets, using the DNA contained in a lock of his hair and identify the non-human species she named the Angel Genome.
Morgan is ready to come back into Isabeau’s life, but this time as a man—and a vampire—not an angel. Will he outsmart his enemies, protect his beloved and escape death himself? For the first time in eternity, the clock is ticking.
Buy Links:
Amazon: Sinner's Opera
Paperback: Sinners? Opera
You can read my review of Sinners' Opera here.
Excerpt:
For almost four hundred years, I’ve witnessed miracles of technology and the political wars that reshaped the world's destiny. I’ve seen much to hate and a great deal worthy of forgiveness. I was born May 29, 1632, the only son of the Earl of St. Averil and his Lady Ilsabeth de Gueraint D’Arcy. He died at the Battle of Naseby fighting with Charles I. My mother died alone in 1685. By that time, an unnaturally long youth had forced me to fake my own death for the first time. I watched from afar, unable to attend her funeral.
Yesterday, I was a celebrated pianist. I learned my art on the harpsichord from an Austrian genius named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Later, I studied with Liszt, Ravel and Debussy. From the Duke of Newcastle then the Frenchman de la Gueriniere, I learned classical horsemanship.
Tonight, I am a wanted man. Mortal justice would hang me for a crime I did not commit. My brethren wish to destroy me for a crime I committed with willful intent.
It all began in December, a brief six months ago. Actually, my saga began in 1659 before the restoration of Charles II, but that’s another story...
This is our story—Isabeau’s and mine—our Folie à deux.
Born in South Carolina, I've lived in England, Canada, Miami, Atlanta and Houston. Somewhat of a gypsy, I've seen a lot of this country through the window of a truck pulling a horse trailer. I bred, trained and showed Andalusian horses, rode sidesaddle and did musical freestyle exhibitions to Phantom of the Opera. My stallion Bonito, imported from Costa Rica, was twice National Champion at halter. Besides writing, I loves horses, sports cars, books and piano. I am the mother of two wonderful sons.
Contact Linda
Website
Blog
Amazon Author Page
Vimeo
Goodreads
Thank you so much Linda for being here today! Make sure to visit Linda's links and check out her books. I haven't read Sinners' Obsession yet, but I'm looking forward to learning how things turned out for Isabeau and Morgan.
To win a copy of Sinners' Opera, please leave a comment answering this question. Have you read Sinners' Opera or Sinners' Obsession? Please include your email so I can contact you if you win.
Please come back next Wednesday when my guest will be Kayelle Allen.
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