That's it! I freely admit I'm addicted to storytelling. But it doesn't stop there. I love to read, to discover new worlds, to find new romance.
*sigh*
When I was a kid and budding teen, I loved to read. At one point, we were living in Central Florida, a swampy jungle across the street from our development, with the Sahara Desert- worthy mountains of sand across the canal from my backyard. But it was also hot and muggy and mosquitoes attacked every speck of skin not protected by insect repellent. So I loved to read inside in my air conditioned bedroom.
My parents were not really big readers and wanted me outside to play. And so I explored the jungle with neighborhood kids (which I'm sure if my parents had known, they would have much preferred I stayed in my air conditioned bedroom to read a safe story), and climbed the sand dunes that stretched to the sky, all the while making up my own stories of pirate treasures, being marooned in the desert, or lost in a jungle, and all kinds of other neat scenarios to explain the unnatural worlds I was exploring.
Then my best friend's parents asked me to accompany them to a Florida lake cabin and spend a few days. Yes! They were readers. And I could read as much as I liked. Although we went for long walks through the treed national park and heard a bear's cry, which had us moving back to the cabin pretty quickly. And we swam with snapping turtles, or it might have been a water moccasin, not sure. But we plunged through the reeds at the bank of the lake, making enough racket to scare everything out of there--which was our intention, and played on rafts, while we watched whatever it was, watch us. It had a head like a snake, but a snapping turtle looks much the same in the dark lake with only its nose showing. And their sharp beaks can take off a toe.
And then at night, we all settled down to read.
But...it was never enough. I loved to create my own stories too. And at a very early age, that's what I was doing.
Then life got in the way of reading for pleasure and of storytelling--college degrees, Army courses, then babies... So reading began again with teaching my children to read. And then it was my turn. To create my own stories again. To read for enjoyment again.
With deadlines for promotions, or edits, or the submission of new books, or the pitching of new ideas, I'm in Seventh Heaven as I overindulge in writing.
But I can't and won't give up my reading addiction either! I have two more published author contests I'm judging in the next couple of months, and a stack of TBR books piling ever so higher, and I listen to audio books whenever I can't actually read--so I get my fix.
I'm winding down at the end of THE HIGHLAND WOLF IN PARADISE, 10th book in the series, which was my last contracted book with Sourcebooks. And I was getting antsy with myself. What would I do if I finished the book and didn't have another to write??? No new deadlines?
I'd be lost in the desert sand dunes of my youth, or floundering in a snapping turtle and water moccasin infested lake--we did worry about alligators too--or running amok with no direction in a steamy jungle.
Deb and Sourcebooks came through--Sold!
6 Books---3 more of the wolf books and 3 of a new jaguar shifter series!
So I'm back in Seventh Heaven--or maybe even soaring a lot higher!!!
More wolf tales and some big sexy cat shifters to add to the collection.
Vampiric Calling
Ebook By Terry Spear
$0.99
Published: Mar. 05, 2011
Category: Fiction » Anthologies » Short stories – single author
Words: 10231 (approximate)
A vampire targets a huntress for his own, and she’s torn between wanting him and knowing she should terminate him. But in the dark of night, who will win the battle?
Samantha Ramsay’s always been different, a huntress born with the gene that makes her kind take up the sword to terminate rogue vampires, yet something isn’t right. They’ve never targeted her before tonight, and now she realizes she can’t kill the sexiest vampire she’s ever encountered, who claims her for his own.
Ralston Vaccarra has waited all the huntress’s life to have her and no one, vampires or hunters alike, will have the woman he claimed for his own the day she was born, only will a huntress be able to accept him and his kind for what they are?
Seducing the Huntress
Ebook By Terry Spear
$0.99
Published: Feb. 12, 2011
Category: Fiction » Anthologies » Short stories – single author
Words: 18013 (approximate)
When the vampire takes on a dare to seduce the huntress, little does he know he’s on her terminal list already!Set in an island paradise, neither the huntress nor her prey really knows who the real rogue is and who is being made to take the fall, but will she succumb to the ancient vampire’s will before it is too late?
The vampire Sarzoven and his sister are bored with life so a death-defying game of seducing the huntress is an attempt at eliminating boredom. But Miranda isn’t about to be seduced by the vampire no matter how sexy he is, not when he’s on her terminal list. Sarzoven soon realizes she’s a dark huntress, who doesn’t eliminate a rogue vampire until she’s sure he or she is truly a renegade.
So why is he on her list? Now he must convince her to remove him from her elimination schedule before she decides he really is a rogue. Miranda knows she can’t permit the vampire from swaying her from her mission, but soon she finds she’s on someone else’s list. But who’s behind this twisted game that’s bound to stir up vampire and hunter hatred alike? And can the huntress and vampire overcome their age old distrust of one another before it’s too late?
The Siren’s Lure
Ebook By Terry Spear
$0.99
Published: Feb. 25, 2011
Category: Fiction » Anthologies » Short stories – single author
Words: 18592 (approximate)
A vampire wishes upon a falling star and ends up with more than he bargained for. When he attempts to rescue a woman in distress, he soon learns she’s not quite human and not a huntress–or at least like any he’s ever known. That’s when the seduction begins–but who is seducing whom?
Tristina isn’t a huntress in the normal sense. Before meeting the vampire who would rescue her from danger, she never thought anyone could love her for herself. Now, just maybe she’s found the right man for her.
Sardis wants nothing more than a vacation from his ponderous role as prince of the New York vampire clans, but ends up having anything but a peaceful time while staying at a beach resort when he meets the most enticing siren. Trouble doesn’t even begin to describe the new world he finds himself in as he tries to seduce her, and he falls under her siren’s spell instead.
Goddess in Training
Ebook By Terry Spear
$0.99
Published: Feb. 19, 2011
Category: Fiction » Anthologies » Short stories – single author
Words: 9089 (approximate)
In a game of the gods, librarian Lisandra, who has never been loved, is chosen to be the goddess of fertility. The demi-god of pleasure, Assarian is ordered by Zeus to train her in the hallowed halls of Mount Olympus to prove to his wife, Hera, goddess of marriage, mortals and immortals alike only need be physically satisfied to find fulfillment, to which Hera disagrees—all creatures must have love to be whole.
And the vampire novel:
Forbidden Love
Ebook By Terry Spear$2.99
Published: Mar. 10, 2011
Category: Fiction » Literature » Fantasy (paranormal)
Words: 88151 (approximate)
B&N
Coming to Kindle soon.
Huntress Alena MacLeod is given a mission: work undercover to discover a rogue vampire’s secretive work, then terminate him.
Ephraim MacNeill, aka Sutton Bastrop, knows Alena is his Elizabeth MacLeod from an earlier time, and he’s determined to return to the past and right all the wrongs to end the curse placed on the love of his life before it’s too late—again.
Together, they must risk all to stop a war between a newly formed Brotherhood of rogue vampires, tired of the status quo, and the League of Hunters, who have ruled for centuries over the vampires—both changed during the Black Death—some of the survivors becoming vampires, and others hunters of the same. And that, my friends, is my overindulgence. My love of stories!
Can you imagine not loving to read???
Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."
www.terryspear.com
Congratulations on the new series, Terry!
ReplyDeleteI know how exciting it is to hear that people want more of what you love doing.
Kudos!
(And I'm glad you survived your hazardous childhood! All we had in Massachusetts were garter snakes. Completely harmless.
Again congratulations on the new books. I'm so glad you've had so many adventures with the Snapping turtles and all the wolves that howl at night outside my windows, because you have brought them out of the pages of your books into my home. I'm happy your're a Adventeress and avid reader writer and friend.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Terry! Huge Congrats on the new series and the additional books in your werewolf series. Your adventures as a kid have definitely paid off!
ReplyDeleteOh, Ash, I could deal with garter snakes and the like!!! :) Thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Donna! My mother was bitten by a snapping turtle in another lake. He cut into her toe with his beak and could have cut it right off. She was screaming and trying to get out of the water. My dad was the first one out of the lake. Boy was my mom mad! He said when he heard her screaming, he knew it was time to get out of the water! He had been a WWII prisoner of war for 16 months at the age of 16, and helped a fellow AF crewman hide from the Germans, escaped twice from death marches, so he wasn't always that way. LOL
Thanks, Sara!!! Deb just approved Dreaming of the Wolf's mss, and so I'm in Seventh Heaven!! It releases in Dec. But I'm excited about starting the new jaguar series also!
Terry,
ReplyDeleteLove the stories about growing up in a jungle, love the images (especially Goddess in Training) and love how versatile and prolific you are. Your overindulgence makes a lot of readers very happy, I'm sure.
CONGRATULATIONS!! on the new sales! Wonderful news. Loved reading about your hazardous childhood. No wonder you write awesome books with that background!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Grace!!! Standing outside for the bus on school mornings gave me nightmares. The mosquitoes were like a whole enemy AF as they attacked in swarms. I will have Ghostly Liaisons (YA) self-pubbed later, that was based in part on my living in Florida and the stories I drummed up in my head while exploring. The picture of the jungle for Seducing the Huntress and for Goddess in Training, I took at RWA Nationals in Orlando. One was somewhere at Disney World, the other at an Italian restaurant at one of the theme parks. :) I never thought they'd become book covers! :)
ReplyDeleteLOL, Carolyn! Thanks so much!!!
ReplyDeleteShoot, off to work. How did it get to be that time already??? Argh on springing forward!
Congratulations on the 3 additional wolf books and on the contract for 3 new Jaguar shifter books!!! Yay for both you and us:)
ReplyDeleteI lucked out as a child, my mom is a voracious reader,and while she did put the housework first, as soon as we were done with chores we were allowed to read as much as we wanted. My sisters and I were regular visitors to the library and would hold pictnics in the yard where we would use a big blanket and eat sandwiches and then read for hours.
Such a array of terrific books to choose from! Glad you're keeping busy Terry!! @@
ReplyDeleteO
Congrats on the new series! Can't wait to read more about them.
Congrats on the sales!
ReplyDeleteMine was a childhood that included large periods of reading and I couldn't imagine it any other way. Obligations on time mean that I don't get to indulge as frequently as I once did, but books are my small vacations from anything going on around me.
Congrats on the new books! They sound fabulous!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the new series!!! I used to love having adventures as a kid, too. In Michigan, the scariest thing I ran into was a snake.
ReplyDeleteHi, Maria! Thanks! Oh, wow, I love your mom! And what a neat way to read!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Stephanie! I'm thrilled you're enjoying the series!!!
Lil, thanks, "books are my small vacations"--that is so well said. That's exactly how I feel when I'm immersed in stories!
Mrs. Axcell, thanks so much! I can't wait to get started!
Shana, I ran over one when I was a kid riding a bicycle when we lived in California. It probably was a common garden variety, but it about gave me a heart attack. I imagined falling off my bike and being fanged to death. :( Thanks on the new series!
Congrats on the new series, Terry. Girl you have a lot going on. I am totally in awe. You're childhood sounds fascinating too. Water moccasin...yikes!
ReplyDeleteYay Terry! Congrats!!! You've been busy, haven't you? I was a voracious reader and storyteller myself as a child. I wrote my first "book" when I was in 1st or 2nd grade for a young authors competition at school. Since then I was hooked.
ReplyDeleteAnita, thanks so much! Yeah, the more I have to do, the more I get done. :) And yeah, I loved living in Florida, though I had different kinds of adventures in California. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sydney, that's so neat!!! I took creative writing in high school in addition to lit classes--and because I was always ahead in literature, I got to spend most of a semester in the library reading on my own. Those were the days!
Yay! So glad to hear you'll be continuing with your wolves and starting a new jaguar series, too. Congrats!
ReplyDeleteI'm in awe of your productivity, Terry! Great post!
ReplyDelete