Exactly what are bejeebers, and why are they so easily scared?

By Jenna Byrnes

A woman named Mrs. Andrews was visiting the grave of her daughter in a cemetery in Queensland, Australia in 1946 or 1947. Her daughter Joyce had died about a year earlier, in 1945, at the age of 17. Mrs. Andrews saw nothing unusual when she took this photo of Joyce's gravemarker.

When the film was developed, Mrs. Andrews was astonished to see the image of a small child sitting happily at her daughter's grave. The ghost child seem to be aware of Mrs. Andrews since he or she is looking directly into the camera.

Is is possibly a double exposure? Mrs. Andrews said there were no such children nearby when she took the photograph and, moreover, did not recognize the child at all – it was no one she would have taken a picture of. She remarked that she did not believe it was the ghost of her daughter as a child.

Investigating this case, Australian paranormal researcher Tony Healy visited the cemetery in the late 1990s. Near Joyce's grave he found the graves of two infant girls. ~ About.com on paranormal

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I love ghost stories. Some of them scare the bejeebers outta me, but I think they're fun. I like writing about ghosts for the same reasons Lisabet mentioned yesterday. There aren't as many pre-existing rules about ghosts. I'll never forget the first time I discussed writing vampires with a group of authors. They were quite serious about what a vamp can or cannot do. I had always figured if I was writing fantasy, I could have the characters do whatever I wanted. Apparently, that is not the case.

I've done one book about vamps and one about werewolves (also a loose interpretation!) and they were fun, but I love ghosts. In several of my first short stories I used the old "person has sex with someone and finds out later he or she is a ghost" routine. I used to think that was a blast. I still like the twist at the end, but I believe I've evolved from that particular plot line.

In the Kindred Spirits series Jude Mason and I are writing, there is no sex with ghosts. Each of the ghosts/spirits has a story, and part of each book is spent uncovering one of the tales. Ethan's Choice dealt with Angry Annie, and exactly what made the chick so angry. One of my favorite lines (which Jude created and I use liberally) is when Cade told Ethan that Annie "has a scream that will shrivel your nuts". LMAO!

Part of what I'm enjoying about writing this series is giving an interesting history and delicious description to the ghosts. Even now as I'm writing about her, I can picture Angry Annie in my mind. It's my hope that after you read the book, you can, too.

*door slam*

Annie? What are you up to?

*Jenna stomps off to find out*

Location, Location, Location...

By Jenna Byrnes

Hey to everyone out there in Grip-land! This is my first official 'Jenna' post but I feel like I know you already. *sly grin* This week our topic is 'setting the scene', which is a part of creating a book or story that I really enjoy, so let's get right to it.

Sometimes, my plot or characters are all that matter. I've written a few stories where the location was never named. Usually in novels, the setting matters so I pick a spot from the wide variety of places I have traveled...home--> Walmart--> grocery store.

Okay, I have traveled a bit more than that, but not much. That's where the beauty of the internet kicks in. When I was a kid, I'd have had to drag my rear to the library to research the kind of stuff that can now be found online. Jude and I are in the middle of a Phaze Rocks series called Slippery When Wet-- all the heroes in these novellas have recently been released from Corcoran State Prison in California. I promise you, I've never been inside COR. But I have half a dozen sites bookmarked which gave us tons of great insider information.

In our Untamed Hearts shifter series, Jude and I created an undisclosed location, near a small village we made up, somewhere in the north. This works because shifters are other-worldly, and don't necessarily need to be located in California or Chicago (two of my location favorites!)

For our Kindred Spirits series, Jude secured this picture (with sexual favors, I think) and I fell in love with it. It made the cover of the series, with an eerie glow added by the cover artist, to fit our ghostly theme. In the reviews we've recieved on Ethan's Choice so far, people don't know if Whiskers' Seaside Inn is a real place or not, but they love the homey feel we've given it. Jude and I love to hear that, it's exactly what we were after.

Sometimes, when I don't want to focus on a lot of research, I'll make up a town. I do that often if I don't want readers to get bogged down in a location they're familiar with, and spend half the book thinking, "Hey, Main Street never intersects Whazzup Aveune!"

I've been to Seattle and have used that as the backdrop for a couple books. I like Chicago for when I need a big city where lots of things could happen.

At the end of the month I have a story in TEB's Pleasure Bound anthology and I had to pick a vacation spot. I chose Hawaii, and borrowed a tourist guide book from someone who used to live there. That, with the internet, gave me lots of tidbits to toss into the story. The added benefit was me, walking around for a month, saying "Howzit, bra?" like Dog the Bounty Hunter.

Bottom line for me, location isn't the first thing I think about when planning a story, unless it's for a themed call. But I do like to use a variety of places, and thanks to the internet, I think I get away with it reasonably well. Aloha. *g*

Thank you, Nora Roberts

I've mentioned before that I grew up reading the series of Nancy Drew mysteries. While they were indeed a series, not much ever changed in Nancy's fictional 18 year-old world. I'm still not sure if she ever kissed Ned Nickerson, George and Bess were her unchanging best friends, Nancy's father, defense attorney Carson Drew, and faithful housekeeper Hannah Gruen were always present in the background. I loved those books at a certain age, just as I grew to love another type of book.

Hey, this isn't the Nancy I remember! Maybe she did kiss Ned! Maybe she dumped Ned and kissed that blond in the background!



Danielle Steel introduced me to the romance novel, with the romance part behind closed doors. Danielle writes stand alone titles, which means not only does she have to come up with one hell of a lot of ideas because she's very proliofic, but also, if we loved characters, like Oliver and Charlotte in Daddy, we never got to see what happened to them in the future. Sure, there were the Lifetime TV movies, but Patrick Duffy and Lynda Carter were never my idea of the Daddy lead roles. *sigh*




Then I discovered Nora Roberts. Not her early category romance stuff (though many of those titles were brought back, spiffed up with new covers and eventually rereleased.) I loved her series. The Key Trilogy, The Three Sisters Trilogy, In the Garden Trilogy, and my favorite, Night Tales, with four connected stories in one. The first book centered around DJ Cilla O'Roarke, who plays requests in the Denver area. One night during the show she gets a threatening phone call from someone who says he's going to kill her. Although Cilla is stubborn and doesn't want to call the police, the manager of the radio station does. Enter Detective Boyd Fletcher... Of course they end up together, and the next three books are about her sister, his partner, and his sister. In each book we get to see how far Boyd and Cilla have evolved: marriage, children, and so on. There was even a fifth book about Boyd and Cilla's grown daughter, now a cop. That was a very satisfying series to read and enjoy.


That was the kind of series I was after. Sex, with a thread of continuing plot line and characters that changed over the years. Thank you, Nora Roberts. Exactly what I was looking for. Those books inspired me to write my Unexpected Love Trilogy.

Three tales of unexpected love and unadulterated lust!




Nothing to Lose: Bailey Montgomery travels to 'Small-town America' with one purpose in mind—settle her late mother's affairs and leave as soon as possible. She doesn't appreciate nosy neighbours, especially Doug Kenny, all around handyman, who meddles his way into her bed and heart.

Worth the Risk: Sarah Stevens isn't looking for romance when Sam Buchanan leases her loft apartment. Her sister-in-law Bailey, almost nine months pregnant, hires Sam to take over her job. Sarah's unnerved to discover her tenant is a very handsome man. Dating with a teenager in the house is titillating, forcing Sarah to re-examine her priorities and decide if Sam is Worth the Risk.

Having it All: Mandy Stevens is away at college when she meets handsome Nick Westchester. She's had little experience with men, but suspects Nick's intentions are less than honourable. Nick is captivated by Mandy, and though he starts out wanting to seduce her, he ends up falling for her, hard.

Three women, one amazing family. Three times the passion, three times the fun!
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That feeling of continuity is also behind the new series Jude Mason and I are writing for Total E-Bound, Kindred Spirits.

"Welcome to Whiskers’ Seaside Inn. Do you have a reservation?"

Whiskers' Seaside Inn doesn't sound like the most exotic location for a weekend getaway, but it's certainly intriguing. Ethan Roberts is smitten the moment he sees the weathered clapboard inn and finds out it’s for sale. He’s even more taken with the establishment's hunky handyman, Cade Wyatt.

The inn has two paying guests, but Ethan discovers another cast of characters who come and go as they please. Cade might be nonchalant about the ghosts, but Ethan's not sure he feels the same. He wants Cade more than anything, but Cade won't leave the inn. Somehow, Ethan must find a way to live with the spirits as well as the man he's come to love.

Can I ever make this place my home? He knows he could, in a heartbeat, if the inn was truly as serene as the face it presents to the world. Deep inside, something’s festering. He’s tried to ignore it—or not to believe in it—but he’s past that, now. There are ghosts or spirits at Whiskers’, plus one batty old woman, and he needs to know more about all of them.

"Annie, Laura and Ben," Ethan repeated dully. "The ghosts."

Chuckling, Cade faced him. "Actually, they’re spirits. You really don’t want to believe in them, do you?"

"Ghosts—spirits—aren’t real," Ethan insisted. "I believe that."

"Well, Mr. Roberts, I have a feeling your beliefs are about to be tested."
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A bunch of different people will pass through the doors of the Whiskers' Seaside Inn. (Okay, most of them are hot, gay men.) But we get to see the evolution of Ethan and Cade's relationship, which Jude and I had a blast writing, and continue to enjoy as we work on more titles in the series. As Lisabet mentioned yesterday, a series like this requires a 'big picture' mentality, but to me, that's part of the fun. Keeping track of details can be interesting, but so far there have been no major gaffes.

The other type of series I've done is the similar setting, different cast of characters. Jude and I did this with our Untamed Hearts Series, three sets of shifters in one particular area. While the characters have a common setting, and might touch on each other, their stories aren't deeply interwoven. Same with my Rose & Thorn Society series. All the books share the common backdrop of the same BDSM club, but the tales aren't related and don't have to be read in order.

Saturday, our guest blogger will be Carol Lynne, creator of the Cattle Valley series and many others. Cattle Valley is a town for gay people, which sounds odd until you read the first book and discover the poignant way it came into existence. Carol writes gay and straight novels, but no lesbian stuff. I became involved when she decided it was time to bring some women to Cattle Valley. My first lesbian title, CV: Truth or Dare, was released last fall. My second lesbian title, CV: Fool's Gold, comes out in June. They were so much fun to write. Carol has created a town of memorable characters, and I got to stick some new people in and amongst them. It was great.

I'll continue to do stand alone titles because I don't want to scare readers off. (Get back here, Ray.) But I love writing series!