Lulu M. Sylvian's Blog
November 24, 2025
An Improper Derailment Chapter Forty One
Start the adventure from the beginning.
Mary was jostled awake.A low moan ripped from her lips. “No, no… why isn’t the storm over?”
She slowly came to the realization that the Profound Name listed strangely to its side. The air balloon that kept it aloft looked withered and sad, like an old plum long past its ability to be eaten.
As she tried to push herself to her feet, she realized that the rope around her middle kept her tethered to the ship and prevented her from moving about. She fought with the thick ropes until she was free.
“Marshall?” she asked, as she looked around for him.
He had saved her last night. Had protected her. Had she groaned again as she realized he had been there while she was sick.
“Are you feeling better?” Marshall asked.
She looked up and watched as he braced his hands and feet in awkward positions, making his way from the front of the ship back toward where she was struggling to stand.
The flooring of the boat was at the wrong angle. The boat dipped, as it had many times during the storm. Mary gasped and grabbed anything she could hold on to, only instead of the boat dropping out from underneath her completely, they banged hard against something before lifting up again.
“What was that?” she asked.
“We’re being dragged along the ground. I don’t know how we made it, but no, we did not fall out of the sky last night. However, I think this might actually qualify as a crash landing. I have no idea how to stop us from getting dragged along any further. It’s not like there’s an anchor or anything on this boat.”
“How long have we been like this?”
Mary looked out. They seemed to be back in the middle of the plains of Kansas. There were no outcroppings of rock to be spotted, and what trees there were, were few and far between.
“We’ve been slowing down,” Marshall said. “We’ve been bouncing around like this for at least an hour, but we’ve been slowing down. I suspect the ship will come to a stop soon.”
“Soon?” Mary asked.
Marshall shrugged.
“Soon is definitely not quick enough. How fast do you think we’re going?” she asked, as she looked over the railing to watch the prairie lands pass by beneath them.
“I can’t be certain, but we’re going at a pretty good clip.”
Mary looked up at Marshall. “Could we just, you know, jump out?”
“I don’t know how safe that would be,” he said.
“We jumped out of a moving train. Just how much worse could this be?”
Marshall’s brow furrowed as he contemplated what Mary said. “Maybe we could. Are you sure you’re up for it? You were none too pleased the last time.”
“It wasn’t as if you had given me an option last time. Marshall, please get me out of this boat,” she pleaded.
“Well, alrighty then.”
Marshall adjusted the rope that he still had tied around his middle, but before he could take a further step closer, the boat lurched—and suddenly, it was no longer moving.
Mary was thrown off her feet and landed against the side of the gondola with a thud.
“What was that?” she cried out.
“Looks like we’ve stopped,” Marshall said, as he glanced over the railing.
“Oh, thank heavens,” Mary said, as she clambered to get unwrapped from the ropes. She fell—more than controlled her movements—across the side of the gondola that was lower, and without really looking, she jumped.
There was no need to fall and roll before coming back to her feet, since they were barely a few inches above the ground.
“Oh, how I have missed you,” Mary cried out as she fell to her knees, grabbing handfuls of dirt and grass in her hands.
“What stopped us,” Marshall called from the gondola.
Mary cast her gaze about. “I can’t tell… well, it appears that one of the ropes is caught on something—maybe a rock or a root. There’s… I can’t really see from this angle.”
Mary slowly continued to look about. The Profound Name shifted in the wind and began moving again.
“Marshall, hurry!” she cried out. “You must jump before it takes off again!”
The Profound Name seemed to pick up speed.
“Marshall!” Mary yelled after the boat.
And then—he was on the ground next to her.
She let out a sigh of relief. There was no way she would have been able to survive without him, lost in the middle of the prairie as they were.
“Are you all right?” he asked as he stepped up to where she still knelt with handfuls of earth.
Her eyes were full of sadness as she looked past him.
He turned to see what she was looking at. The Profound Name bobbed along the ground, picking up speed as it moved its way through space, away from them.
“Captain Forsythe will be so very sad,” she said, finally dropping the contents of her fists and dusting her hands off on the patchwork skirt she wore.
“You know,” Marshall said as he watched after the airship, “kind of reminds me of one of those little kids’ balloon toys, bobbing along tied to the end of a stick.”
“How are we ever going to tell Captain Forsythe about his airship?” Mary wondered aloud.
“I doubt that we do. Maybe he’ll finally find his way to the west coast without his airship,” Marshall said. “After all, he never seemed to be able to get past Colorado and the Rockies with it.”
“He did seem destined to sail back and forth across the airways of Kansas,” Mary said.
“Maybe,” Marshall chuckled, “maybe it’ll just float its way back to him.”
What’s in store for Mary And Marshall next? Tune in next time…
©2025 Lulu M. Sylvian
November 13, 2025
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Paranormal Packages by Lulu M. SylvianGiveaway ends November 30, 2025.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
November 3, 2025
Why are name so hard?
The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn’t just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
– T.S. Elliot
Yes, T.S. I think we can say the same for book characters. I’m not always on those baby name websites because I’m going to have a kid, I have to name characters.
I think naming my kids was easier.
I used to keep a list of names that I had used. I started after one of my editors said I could no longer have heroes named Jason or middle aged aunties named Michelle. I should turn it into a game, how many variations of James have I used?
I was recently editing some shorts to be wrapped up into this years Christmas Stripper offering Paranormal Packages when I encountered the same names I had just edited for the Halloween audio books.
Yikes.
The. Exact. Same. Names.
Well, at least those short stories were only ever released for a limited time and not in the same collection and I’m pretty sure no one will ever know, except for me saying something about it.
Double yikes.
I started doing the whole rapid release publishing strategy, and then I took a side job as a ghost writer, and I couldn’t keep up with the name list.
MISTAKE. Huge mistake.
I was diligent about not having any kind of cross over from ghost writing to what I was writing, but clearly I stopped paying attention to the characters in my own books.
And I don’t have an up-to-date list for checking to make sure I’m not using the same name again.
Names I am no longer allowed to use:
JasonJames or any variationMichelleKarenDrake or any derivatives like Drach or Drogo, anything that means dragonSteve or Stephen, and no more last names of StevensConnorHunterTomPete, Peter, or PeteyPercyany iteration of IsabelApparently these names all show up way to many times as side characters, or much to my chagrin, I’ve named the main character the same name multiple times.
I guess it’s time to break out the names list again, and stop trying to name my heroes Stone. I need that name for a future book!
October 26, 2025
Thoughts from the treadmill: its Fall
Its fall fair season. And that means I’m going out into the world. A little bit. Or I’m trying to.
This year I had small plans for hitting one of those Highland Fairs. It was being held close to home, and so if I got too tired, it wasn’t a long haul to get home. Those plans were quelled after I took one look at the entry fee. Yikes.
You know it’s bad when I’m passing up an afternoon being surrounded my men in kilts.
The next festival I’ve been looking forward to is Dozer Days. I’m not particularly interested in heavy trucks, but… I’m an author, I should know these things. Right?
I really wanted to go watch all the little kids be so happy around the big dump trucks, and possibly climb up into one of those back hoes. I couldn’t go last year because I was sick, and it was raining—a bad combination. And this one was also a complete bust.
We made an honest attempt to attend after lunch. But the parking lot was completely blocked off (it was not full) and cars leaving had a hard time getting around the orange cones.
The event was held in what was once a semi rural area that is under rapid development, so the road there is a 5 lane highway where everyone drives too fast, with the fifth center lane for making left turns. There were 2 cop cars blocking any left turns into the event (and also blocking any left turns out of the event). Defeated sigh, no big trucks for me.
I did managed to get out to a quilt show.
I didn’t think I was going to make it. I really didn’t. Crisis hit the week prior and it was a lot to manage. Fortunately, by the end of the week, everything had settled down and game plans were in place. While I was resolved to holding down the fort, just in case, my husband kicked me out of the house and told me to go. I wasn’t about to turn down an opportunity like that.
I am new to quilting. I got to it through bag making. Apparently there is a bigger connection between bags and quilts than there is between clothes and quilts. (I’ve been sewing for a ridiculously long time).
I want to bring in a quilt shop owner into my writing. I don’t think a shifter running a quilt shop would be the best idea. They’d get fur all over the fabric, not cool. I think a quilt shop would fit well into the Belvoir County world, I already have a yarn shop, it could be an interesting rivalry to establish.
In my brain quilt shops fit cozy mysteries more so than romances. I can picture an entire series: The Quilt Shop Murders, with titles like Fat Drawn and Quarters (fat quarters are a cut size/shape of fabric), and the Long-arm Meets the Law (a long-arm machine is a fancy specialty sewing machine for quilting). And with all good cozies there would be a quilting tie-in—free quilt square patterns, and if you make the squares as you read the series, you end up with a cute finished quilt.
It’s easier to imagine a murderer using the good fabric scissors (ifykyk) than it is to find a plot point that would bring a hunky love interest into the shop—maybe he’s a machine mechanic? I might have something there.
Or maybe I need to try my hand at cozies… Like I need more stories to write.
September 29, 2025
An Improper Derailment Chapter Forty
Start the adventure from the beginning.
Wind and rain buffeted The Profound Name.It lurched side to side, losing altitude with a swiftness that left Mary and Marshall hanging in midair for seconds—until either gravity made them catch up, or The Profound Name rushed back up to them.
“Is there any way we can… is there any way you can make it stop?” Mary cried.
“It’s a storm, Mary. What do you expect me to do? Land this ruddy ship? We’d be on the ground if I knew how to do that,” Marshall yelled back.
The ship continued to lurch and spin as if it were caught in the eddies and waves of the actual ocean, instead of being suspended and floating in the air.
The ship dropped out from underneath Mary. She screamed as she flailed her arms to grab hold of something—anything. She was not meant for flying, at least not like this.
Marshall wrapped a firm arm around her torso and hauled her against him. He had a firm grip on one of the many ropes that seemed to connect the gondola to the dirigible above them.
“Here. Lash yourself down with this.” He handed her the rope.
She gripped it tightly, unsure of what to do.
“Tie yourself down!” Marshall yelled against the howling wind.
Rain whipped at Mary’s face for a few long moments as she tried to quell the lurching and rise of bile in the back of her throat. It was bad enough that The Profound Name rocked back and forth, but for her body to betray her in this moment was unconscionable. Unforgivable.
She swallowed hard and took several breaths to control the urge to be sick. It wasn’t as if she could fold herself over the railings and empty the contents of her stomach now. It took everything in her to resist vomiting into the night sky.
“Dagnabbit, woman! I said tie yourself down before you get hurled overboard!”
Mary swallowed hard and finally nodded. She wrapped the rope around herself and tied it tightly as Marshall secured the other end to the ship. With another rope he fastened himself to her side.
“I think it might be better if we hunker down instead of standing up,” he said as he lowered himself to the bottom of the gondola.
Mary shook her head nervously. There was no way to be delicate about it. If she needed to be sick, she wanted quick and easy access to the side of the boat.
“I’ll be fine here,” she said with false bravado, as she gripped the railings and prayed to a god she wasn’t certain even existed.
Please do not let me be sick in front of Marshall Hunter.
She had managed to withstand so many atrocities against her person. She had overcome situations that her previous life as a young lady in Chicago society could never have even dreamed of. But she knew this one thing—she would not survive if she threw up in front of that man.
The storm continued to batter The Profound Name back and forth like a cat playing with a favorite toy—constantly swatting at it, only to seemingly abandon it for long, drawn-out moments before pouncing again with an attack that should not have been a surprise.
As the ship rocked, Mary lost her balance and practically fell against the side.
“Mary!” Marshall called out as he jumped up to grab hold of her.
It was all simply too much for her constitution. She was not as strong as she wanted to believe, and this time, when bile burned the back of her throat, there was no swallowing it down. There was no preventing the unthinkable.
She gasped as her eyes met his. Her hands flew to her mouth, and she barely spun away in time to lean over the railings.
Not only was she losing the contents of her stomach where Marshall could witness it—he was holding on to her as she did so. Wave after wave of nausea prevented her from pushing him away. She didn’t want him seeing her this way. She didn’t want anyone to witness such unseemly behavior from a lady.
Her need to be sick quelled while the storm continued to leave her dizzy.
“It’s okay, Mary. You’ll be okay,” Marshall said in soothing tones that she did not deserve.
He should have been mortified, should have been disgusted by her—and yet he was so gentle as he eased her back to a sitting position at the bottom of the airship’s gondola.
“This can’t go on all night,” he said. “It’ll be over soon enough.”
She suspected he was lying to her as she closed her eyes and wished for sleep—or a blow to the head—to take her into unconsciousness.
Will the storm ever end? Tune in next time…
©2025 Lulu M. SylvianSeptember 22, 2025
He’s the town libertine. He’s convinced she’s an angel.
Book Boyfriend of the Month:Bobby Cray from Complete, Legatum book 5
She’s the angel he sees glowing. He’s the wolf with a past he can’t hide.
New to town and nursing a shattered heart, Ramona has one goal: rebuild her life in peace. The last thing she needs is a charming small-town playboy trying to reform himself at her expense. But Bobby isn’t like other men. There’s something… different about him. Something magnetic. Something she can’t ignore.
Bobby knows the second he lays eyes on Ramona—She glows. Literally. Bobby doesn’t know what she is… only that he’s drawn to her in a way that feels like fate. Earning her trust won’t be easy, not with the long trail of broken hearts behind him—and definitely not with the secret he’s spent a lifetime hiding.
Ramona isn’t looking for complications. Burned by a toxic relationship in the city, she’s come to this small football-obsessed town for a fresh start—not to fall for a sweet-talking playboy with a reputation for breaking hearts. But when Bobby offers to become her student in how to treat women right, she reluctantly lets him in, she starts to believe he might be more than the womanizer everyone warned her about. But when his past—and his true nature as a wolf shifter—comes to light, the real question isn’t whether Ramona can trust him…
It’s whether loving him will cost her everything.
Steamy, emotional, and full of small-town magic, this installment in the Legatum series is perfect for fans of fated mates, reformed bad boys, and protective wolf shifters willing to risk it all for love.
one click your copy of Complete now
All month we’re discussing Bobby in my Facebook group Lululandia. Come join the conversation.
Interested in reading Complete with your own bookclub?Here are some great questions to get you started
Healing and TrustRamona comes to town seeking peace and healing after a toxic relationship. How does her journey reflect the real-life process of rebuilding trust after heartbreak? What moments in the story show her growth the most?The Reformed Bad Boy Trope
Bobby is introduced as a small-town heartbreaker trying to change. How does the novel handle his redemption arc? Did his transformation feel believable, and what role does Ramona play in that shift?The Glow and the Bond
Bobby literally sees Ramona glowing. How does this mystical element enhance the fated mates trope? Do you think their instant connection is portrayed as romantic destiny, or does it create tension for their relationship?Secrets and Vulnerability
Bobby hides his identity as a wolf shifter, and his reputation creates barriers. How do secrets and past mistakes add depth to his character and their romance? Did you sympathize with his reasons for hiding his true nature?
September 7, 2025
Six Ghostly Romance Reads
Why do ghost stories always have to either be horror or have a sad ending? I know, because: ghosts.How do you get that happily ever after when the love interest is dead?
I know I’m not alone in thinking Ghost (1990) with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore would have been even better if there was a way they could have ended up together.
I think that’s why I love Heaven Can Wait (1978). Yes, its an old movie (and deserves a modern remake), but in the end his angel finds a way of making it work, and he gets to be with the love of his life.
Florence Day is the ghostwriter for one of the most prolific romance authors in the industry, and she has a problem—after a terrible breakup, she no longer believes in love. It’s as good as dead. Romance is most certainly dead… but so is her new editor, and his unfinished business will have her second-guessing everything she’s ever known about love storiesThe Love of My Afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood
A recently deceased woman meets “the one” in the afterlife waiting room, scoring a second chance at life (and love!) if she can find him on earth before ten days are up…Ghost Walk by Cassandra Gannon
Grace Rivera just wants to be normal. Trained as a crime scene investigator, she believes in science and cold, hard facts. …So why is she suddenly looking at the ghost of a dead pirate? Now, Grace is helping Jamie set history right. Even if it means some time-traveling forensics work and risking her life by tracking a murderer. Because falling in love with a scoundrel of a ghost is a fact that Grace just can’t deny.Tall, Dark, and Haunted by Mia Harlan and Hanleigh Bradley
Quick word of advice: Don’t shift and die. Rhiannon’s afterlife takes her to a haunted castle and her three fated mates. They’re handsome ghosts… beneath their top hats, sideburns, and nineteenth century mustaches, that is. When an errant spell drops them in a paranormal town, they get our bodies back. But if they don’t find a way to keep them by sunrise, they’ll be doomed to an eternity as ghosts: floating around, unable to touch, kiss, or worse, do the dirty.A Ghost in Shining Armor by Therese Beharrie
Gemma Daniels has never been quite the “down to earth” woman her adoptive parents raised her to be. She even has a unique gift: she can see ghosts—and she likes helping them settle their unfinished business. But the hotter-than-hot stranger she impulsively kisses on a bet is not only a phantom, he’s determined to help her. And the only way Gemma can explain his presence is to pretend they’re a real-life coupleDead Sexy by Lulu M. Sylvian
Medical illustrator Gillian is surprised to discover her talent for communicating with spirits. When forbidden sparks fly with the ghost of former TV heartthrob Peter, their desire blazes into a love that breaks all the rules
August 19, 2025
Fearless: WIP
I’m just getting started on Fearless, book 8 in the Legatum series.Joe Diablo has made minor appearances in previous books, now its his turn to shine.
Here’s a little hint at what’s happening:There are new shifters in the Legatum world. Joes is sent out to track down an anomaly on a DNA report.
He discovers Ruana, she is not what he was expecting, at all.
He’s a redhead and heading out to the desert is never high on his list.
He may be a wolf shifter, but the sun is not his friend. After all he’s redhead and his skin comes in two shades: pale or lobster red.
August 11, 2025
My boyfriends back and theres gonna be some trouble
“Why would I want to get out of trouble? The whole point is to pull on the thread and unravel their organizations. Can’t do that when I look like this.”
He gestured at his chest, and tilted his granite, hard square jaw up.
He was right. Johnny liked to pull on threads and see what came undone. It was one of his redeeming traits. It was also one of his worst.
Johnny Urban is a fiction within a fiction. His origins are woven into the pages of Dead Sexy.
Peter Keith is a washed up teen heart throb. He finds Gil and convinces her to help him fix the mistakes of his past. Together they create Johnny, a character based on Peter. Only Johnny is more perfect than Peter could ever be. After all, Johnny isn’t a ghost, but Peter is. Alone, without Peter’s presence as her muse, Gil takes the story of Johnny Urban and makes it her own, giving the characters a paranormal twist and something more to do other than set up house and make babies.
In the end Gil creates Tails from the Urban Jungle. This is that story.
Get your copy of The Return of Johnny Urban now
If you want to host your own discussion here are some talking points for a conversation
“Why would I want to get out of trouble? The whole point is to pull on the thread and unravel their organizations.”How does this line reflect Johnny’s personality and moral compass? In what ways is chaos a tool for change or healing in the story?Johnny can shift between a tiger and a Maine Coon cat—two drastically different forms.
What do you think each form represents about his personality or emotional state? How does this duality reflect his role as both protector and provocateur?Michelle is a human, but she’s deeply familiar with big cats as a circus handler.
How does her expertise influence her relationship with Johnny? Do you think she understands him on a deeper level because of her work, even though she’s not a shifter?Unlike many shifter romances, Johnny’s story isn’t focused on finding a mate or building a pack.
How does the story use shifter traits to explore identity and freedom rather than domesticity? What new themes does that open up?
~*~*~
All month we’re discussing Johnny in my Facebook group Lululandia. Come join the conversation.
August 3, 2025
Maybe that character should…
I’m looking around at all the potential clean up projects in the garage where my treadmill is located—anything to keep my mind occupied. I haven’t exactly figured out how to multitask while I’m walking. You’d think it would be easy enough to remember to grab my tablet so I could watch a movie or something, but that hasn’t happened yet. I’m also not really walking long enough just yet to get into a show. And I can’t listen to an audio book because my ears sweat and that’s an instant ear infection, and the book I’m listening to requires serious earphones. Who knew gargoyles were so sexy?
Instead, I’m exercising my ability to be quiet and in the moment. Let’s just say it’s not exactly working, because in the moment, all I can focus on is how bad my feet hurt. Right? There’s a reason I don’t walk, and it has nothing to do with being lazy. It has everything to do with the fact that I have chronically bad feet.
My new orthopedic walking shoes are in the mail, and they cannot get here soon enough.
While I’m trying not to focus on my feet, my eyes land on one of my sparkly hula hoops. I have many sparkly hula hoops, and while I know that is so 2005… I still like them. They still bring me joy.
Why don’t I have any characters who hula hoop? I have one Native American hoop dancer in a short story, but he’s a stripper and I practically forgot he existed. Oops.
But why doesn’t Mancey do something like hula hoop? After all, there is more to her than her singular goal of attaining Colin. Or… is there? I want my characters to be more than just flat, single dimensional descriptions on a page. Especially for the novels.
I want my characters—and my locations—to be more. I want the stories I write to invoke a sensory experience. And that means my characters have to have a little bit more going on than being a one-time ghost of a movie starlet turned scientist, all in the name of getting to her man. I want Mancey to be someone you love, someone you hate, someone you wish was your ghostly bestie to help you get the hottie of your choice.
Maybe Mancey should hula hoop? She could say something sassy to Colin like “I know its a kids toy, but its fun. You hula, I hoop.”
Of course, this thought then sparks an entire internet rabbit hole. Once I get off the treadmill, I have to find out: When did hula hoops become popular? And were they around when Mancey was a starlet?
Dear reader, the hula hoop rabbit hole has proven that their popularity in the United States didn’t start until the late 1950s—well past Mancey Heartlove’s heyday. And since the hula hoop resurgence was hot 20 years ago, probably not something she would pick up now.
So, back to my feet.
My feet are swathed in K-tape. And if you aren’t familiar with K-tape, it’s a kinesiology tool used by physical therapists. As soon as I was introduced to it for some knee problems I had several years ago, I became a K-tape devotee.
I don’t care if it’s just Dumbo’s magic feather or not—I’m going to magic-feather up. The K-tape is helping my feet.
It’s something some athletes and dancers really embrace. It seems like the kind of thing that—maybe not Colin—but Bro would use.
Mancey has accused Bro of flashing his knees at her, so why not flash his knees wrapped in some lurid K-tape?
And all these things in the garage I look at keep me distracted while I meet my walking goal—they quickly serve their purpose. My walking goal has been met, and I found a couple of ways to make my characters a little more interesting… and a little less singularly focused on one plot point.
Wait a minute… who is Bro? You met Colin in his parent’s backyard in Falling Star, and Mancey instantly fell in love with the man. In Hidden Gods we finally get Mancey’s romance. Bro, Dr. Brody Nakamura is one of Colin’s colleagues at the university, and on location while taking reading from the active lava flows on Big Island. Hidden Gods has been a perpetual work-in-progress this year. I can’t wait to see where these characters take me, and for you to be able to read all about it.
