Have you ever read something by H.P. Lovecraft?

Lovecraft was an urban explorer himself. He liked exploring old houses especially. In his books I've read descriptions of the old places which bring poetry to them I envy (as a writer and explorer myself). Anyone who has explored an old house, especially those who have explored many of them and still love finding yet another, will treasure reading Lovecraft's short stories.

I knew about his books for a very long time but thought they were too gruesome and frightening for me. I think that would have been true while I was still a young woman of high school age. But, now that I am nearing 50 and a seasoned explorer... they seem more like stories I've heard before. This is no fault of H.P. Lovecraft.

His stories were horrifying, terrifying and gruesome enough at the time he wrote them. But, like an old house, we have become weathered to horror, especially when it's in fiction. Lovecraft read horror, modern people see it in movies, which is far different than reading it in print.

I began reading the Immortality Bites series when the first paranormal romance came out in paperback at my local book store. The last three books in the Immortality Bites series have evolved from paranormal romance to the mystery genre. An interesting switch in genre while staying true to the original characters and style of the books.

Michelle Rowen is a Canadian writer, from the Toronto area. This year Michelle celebrated a ten year anniversary for heroine, the main character, Sarah Dearly. Ten years from the original idea, books published in two genres to now. Quite an accomplishment.

Finding Michelle Rowen Online

Michelle Rowen Twitter Facebook

A Quick Interview with Michelle Rowen

I was disappointed to read that you have put the Immortality Bites mystery series on the back burner. Do you have plans to keep Sarah Dearly going, maybe in another genre?

I'm very happy to hear you've enjoyed the series! I would say, more than "putting it on the back burner," that after writing about Sarah for a decade, over seven books in which she "starred," we've both come to a comfortable stopping place. I absolutely adore the paranormal mystery genre, so the future will probably include more books about a brand new main character, or perhaps I'll get the urge to revisit Sarah and Thierry one day and see where their adventures have taken them.

What was the hardest or most interesting thing about writing in the mystery genre?

I started writing in what could only be properly described as "paranormal chick-lit" when it was a hot genre back in 2006. Before too long, most paranormal readers began looking for grittier and sexier books, rather than quirky and funny. What I love about paranormal mysteries is that the "fun" stuff that I love can rise to the surface again. Mystery readers (specifically in cozy paranormals) are totally okay with talking animals, wacky spells, and sarcastic heroines -- which is what I love to write the most.

Why did you choose to write a mystery rather than science fiction, fantasy or the horror genre?

For many of the reasons stated in the last question... there's more room to explore the fun side of things that isn't entirely welcomed in other genres. Also, I will admit that Sarah is the one character I've written that stubbornly directed me in what she wanted -- probably since she's existed in my head for so long, she feels she can take such liberties. And after she got the vampire of her dreams (who, FYI, was not the guy she was originally supposed to end up with at the end of Bitten & Smitten!), she implicitly stated that now she was ready to solve some mysteries. There were always mystery and suspense elements in the original series, so it felt like a very natural evolution.

I really enjoy your writing style. What was your writing background before you became a published writer?

Thank you! It took me a while to find my voice. I spent my "wannabe a writer" years trying to write historical romances and literary fiction, to no great success or personal passion. I'd say that my love of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a huge influence on me -- and I know it was a huge influence on many other paranormal authors. Around the same time, I discovered first person urban fantasies, in particular the earlier Anita Blake books, that helped me develop my own writing. I even wrote some fan fiction to practice, which will never, ever, ever see the light of day. grin They say write what you love to read, so that's what I tried (and still try!) to do.

What do you especially like to read yourself?

I'd love to say I read widely, but that is a goal I constantly fail at. Currently I seem to read a great deal of YA paranormal and fantasy books, almost always in first person, and...judging from my TBR shelf... not much else! I used to be a big Stephen King fan and would love to get back to his writing. And I am a major Karen Marie Moning fan who is counting down the days until the next Fever book.

What do you see as the future of paranormal novels? It seems to be a genre that's slowing down a bit.

I think, like with every "hot" genre, there is a life span to it. Paranormal has been super hot for, I'd say, twelve years now, which is quite a long time in publishing. A few years ago, I visited a bookstore to see that the shelves, particularly in the romance department, were full to overflowing with paranormals, as publishers scrambled to put out what readers were buying. Nothing can be sustained at those numbers for long, and readers' tastes change. As businesses that need to see a profit to survive, publishers will try to meet these changing interests. Luckily, now there is the option of self publishing and authors who love to write PNR can take the fates of their vampires, werewolves, or fae princes, into their own hands -- and straight to the reading public who can't find it as plentifully on the selves anymore. It's a great time to be a writer!

Reading Immortality Bites

The name Sarah means "princess" and I was expecting the character would be another of those vampire princess types who seem to have endless money and resources for shopping, beauty and fashion being a feature of the book as much as the story itself. I was very glad to be wrong.

Although fashion is part of the story it is not the focus. Instead you will find an adventure with plot twists, a strong backstory, unexpectedly likeable villains and characters you don't easily forget. The writing style flows and carries you along. I found myself unable to stop reading until after 4:00 AM when I came to the last page and all the loose ends were tied up in a fairly happy ending for most of the characters. No, not everyone gets a happy ending, some just get to carry on and maybe find themselves in another story.

The story is the thing in a book by Michelle Rowen.

Links for Christopher Moore Fans

Christopher Moore Twitter - @TheAuthorGuy Bluesky - @theauthorguy Christopher Moore's Blog

You don't need to read the books of Christopher Moore in any order. I can say that from my own experience. I have read them in no order what so ever.

I read "The Stupidest Angel" first. I thought it might be a funny Christmas story so I added it to my over night bag when I visited my brother over the Christmas holidays (about 3 years ago). Sure, it was in the holiday theme.

I would not now claim it as a family friendly, warm hearted holiday tale. Don't mistake this to mean the book was anything less than great. From that first book I have searched and dug for Christopher Moore books until I have now read all but 3 of them (I've started reading Lamb so that will leave just two soon).

A Quick Interview with Christopher Moore

I read a review you wrote about Dracula. I haven't read it yet but was surprised you have it as a favourite. It's not a funny book! :)

I started out a horror writer, it's just that people laughed at my horror stories, so I went that way.

Your books overlap from humour to horror, historical and dabble in science fiction/ fantasy - which is your favourite genre to write?

I don't even think about genre because my stuff straddles so many. I do prefer writing historical for a couple of reasons. One, I usually learn something cool in the research, and second there were no cell phones. Cell phones can be a great device to get information between characters, but for suspense they can be a killer, and I'm finding a lot of writers are depending on the "no service" device to keep the suspense heightened. (Last episode of True Detective. Why not call back-up? No cell service.)

Your one liners on Twitter are great. How do you keep fresh inspiration and ideas flowing for your books and Twitter too?

Well, I tend to react to the world in a humorous way by default, so Twitter is easy because I can react to anything in the news, a quote, a meme, anything. Twitter is sort of the natural habitat of the nonsequitur, so if something comes out of left field, it's okay, it will probably work. For a novel, I'm usually reacting to the world that I've created in the book, and usually from the point of view of the characters, so I'm constrained by say, 19th century Paris, so I have to think in that context. There are times, though, when I'm working on a book and I just don't have anything to put on Twitter because I'm in the world of the book. I'm still not sure I know how to do Twitter, right, anyway. Cleverness doesn't necessarily translate to followers. I think I've discovered that people respond better to being nice and insipid than being clever and funny.

I loved the idea of vampires being turned to statues but what I really want to know - Is Abby Normal going to be back soon?

You read all three, right? She's sort of the star of Bite Me. She also has a cameo appearance in the book I'm writing now, the sequel to A Dirty Job.

Sacre Bleu was more than just a fun read. You did a lot of research for that book. I think it must have been tricky to bring famous people from history into life, as characters in your story. How did you decide on their personalities and how far to take them into your fiction?

The thing about the impressionists is we know a lot about them, unlike the characters in Lamb, from 1st Century Palestine, about which we know almost nothing. So you have letters by Cezanne, for instance, both to Bazille, and about Bazille. Renoir's son wrote a biography of him while the artist was still alive, and Renoir comments on the personalities of the artists. Most of the letters, of course, are much more formal than anyone would speak, so I have them being more casual in their speech, and probably more casual than they actually were. Toulouse-Lautrec was the one I really took a lot of liberties with because I needed a character who was naturally funny, but when you see the photos of him, he seems like he was a pretty playful guy. Ultimately, though, I crafted the book around the artists who I thought I would like, personally, like Bazille and Renoir, and I didn't have the ones who didn't resonate as much with me, like Degas and Cezanne, although I think that the latter two were probably the better painters.

I'm looking forward to your new book, Serpent of Venice. But, I'm partial to Pine Cove because I began reading your books with The Stupidest Angel. I've read them in backwards order, finished reading Practical Demonkeeping this Spring and read the Lust Lizard last year. Are the people of Pine Cove going to survive the next monster you drop in on them?

I really don' t have any plans to go back to Pine Cove. When I was writing those books I lived in a little coastal town in California that sort of mirrored Pine Cove, but I left there in 2003 and since then my "go to" location has been San Francisco. I just don't have new observations about a small town I could put in a new book.

I read Frankenstein this year and began short stories by H.P. Lovecraft over the summer. Do the horror classics inspire you and which (if any) are your favourites?

I read those when I was coming up, in my teens, and with both of those, Frankenstein and the Lovecraft stories, you have to take them as products of their time. The stories and mood of Lovecraft stick with you, the feeling of dread, but his writing was very formal and sort of dense, I think largely because he was getting paid by the word, but also because of the 19th century stories that inspired him. So you learn very early on that you can't and shouldn't write like Lovecraft. Shelly is similar. She was brilliant, sort of beyond of my ability to comprehend of someone who was 19 year old, but she was of her time. Frankenstein is extraordinary in many ways, but I think I knew by the time I was 17 that I'd never be able to write that way and make a living, and that's what I wanted to do. So yes, you HAVE to read those classics. You have to know what has come before. (What T.S. Eliot calls "the poetic tradition") Otherwise you're going to do something that was done better a hundred years ago and you may not even put a good spin on it. There used to be a running joke among sci-fi writers that everyone, at some point, would write a "the star was a spaceship and Jesus was an alien" story and think they were the first one to have the idea. (I know I did.) If you don't know that's a non-starter, you just pile on. You read that stuff and you take what you can from it. You'll go back years later, after you know more, and Frankenstein will be a new book.

I wrote a story or two imitating Lovecraft and Poe in my teens and they were terrible, but that said, The Serpent of Venice is partly based on an Edgar Allan Poe story, so having read those classics have served me pretty well. I could probably do with a refresher read on a lot of them.

Why I'm a Fan of Christopher Moore's Books He writes horror, fantasy, and humour all some how rolled up into one winding yet believable story. The key is, believable. No matter what he writes about: vampires, monsters, drug dealers, serial killers, or ageing porn stars - the stories will keep you reading more and laughing along with him.

I have read every book in the Lords of the Underworld series. I just finished ‘The Darkest Craving’ (Gena Showalter’s latest in the Lord’s of the Underworld series) while sitting in my favourite breakfast restaurant.

All of Gena Showalter’s books are all too easy to get into. She has a writing style which you fall into. When you actually pull yourself out of the story and look around you, it’s dark… maybe the weather has changed and did you really need to catch that bus, keep that appointment, get out of bed that morning anyway?…

The Lord’s of the Underworld are immortal warriors (and yes, I know you’ve heard that one before, stick with me) they open Pandora’s box, let out various and assorted evils into the unsuspecting world. In penance, they are each given one of the evils which they released. The rest are given to others who were prisoners in the same underworld realm at the time. Each Lord of the Underworld was created fully grown, in order to be a warrior. So they have no family, no childhood, but they do have each other – and of course, the great women they meet along the way.

Kane, the Keeper of Disaster Meets Josephina, the Blood Slave and Daughter to the Fae King

In this book the hero is Kane, the keeper of disaster. Disaster is the name (and always the focus) of the demon who lives inside Kane. So, every time Kane does something which makes him happy, Disaster causes terrible things to happen. Mostly, floors begin cracking as he is standing on them, I did think more could have been done with this in the book but it wasn’t a big issue for me.

Kane meets Josephina Aisling. He calls her Tinker Bell, or Tink. A theme with so many romance books is past pain, abuse and so on. This is true for Josephina and Kane as well. (Sometimes I find this theme gets a bit tiresome but the writing, the story and the characters save this book from falling off my list of books I will always read).

Josephina and Kane like each other right away, though Josephina actually saved Kane from hell and asked that he kill her as payment. She wants to stop being the whipping girl for her sister who lives with the rest of her family in the lands of Fae. Kane, recovering from abuse in hell and feeling the guy always left out from his group of warrior friends, feels he has finally found the woman who is “mine”.

Of course, all ends well. Kane and Josephina rule the lands of the Fae together and the bad king and queen are locked away in the dungeons under the palace. The evil brother and the disinterested sister have a story of their own and will likely appear in another book in the Gena Showalter, Lords of the Underworld series.

If you want to find a paranormal romance series you can really enjoy reading, this is your series. But, it is a light read, not a lot of depth to the story and I find the abuse which the characters suffer is glossed off rather than actually dealt with. They fall in love and all become right with the world. Taken as a good read, you will not find many which will as great as this book and the others in the series.

Get into the Lords of the Underworld series one (or more) book at a time.

My favourite of the Lords of the Underworld warriors has been Gideon, the keeper of lies. I've listed this book below. Or, you can get into the series with the first three books, or go for more and get the bigger collection if you have time for a lot of reading. These books are hard to put down.

BookCrossing: Free Books for the Finding (or Trading)

BookCrossing is a free, travelling library around the world, based on one website which started it all in 2001.Finish reading a book, go to the site and get an ID number for your book. Leave a review of the book if you like. Leave the book to be found by someone else, randomly. Or, you can trade with other members of the BookCrossing site. Someone may be looking for a copy of the same book. Whoever gets your book can go to the BookCrossing site, look it up by the ID number, see your review, comments about how you found the book, who gave it to you or why you choose to buy that book for yourself. Then the person who has the book from you reads it, leaves their notes and review and releases the book out into the world for someone else to pick up at an airport, a park bench, a bus stop, or maybe a local meeting of BXing (BookCrossing) people.

You may never have heard of BookCrossing (also BC, BCing or BXing) and that's a shame. BookCrossing is how you can find a book lost out in the wild. A wild book is a special thing, not always so easily found when you are actually looking for it.

However, wild books are not dangerous. They won't bite, or scratch. At most you may get a paper cut through mishandling of the book. Bring a book bag, one you can fasten up for good measure. Books have been known to escape after all, you just found one yourself out in the wild!

What Does a Frequent Book Reader Need?

What gadgets and tools does a book reader need? Some extra light for reading at night. A bookstand - especially nice if you're using a cookbook to follow a recipe. Magnification for those words as they seem to get smaller print every year...

Don't forget the bookmarks! How many different bookmarks have you owned over the years? Better yet, how many different things have you used as bookmarks?!

BookCrossing is for Book Readers

BookCrossing is an international network of free, travelling books. Pick one up and pass it along.

Register a book you have read on the BookCrossing site. You don't need to buy the stickers and other accessories. Just write inside the book cover about BookCorssing, explain the book is free (not lost) and should be passed along to someone else. To register a book you just get an ID number for that book in particular. Now, anyone who picks up that book when you release it into the wide world will be able to go to BookCrossing and add themselves (and a review of the book if they read it) to the information which stays with that book and it's ID number on the site.

Ron Hornbaker began BookCrossing. With the help of Ron's wife, Kaori, and cofounders Bruce & Heather Pedersen, the site was launched on April 21st, 2001.