Erica Jurus's Blog

I’ve been searching for a curse to banish all stupid scam emails.

I realize they go with the territory, i.e. being an author with an online presence, but seriously:

a) How stupid do these people think we are?!

b) Find something constructive to do, for the love of god!!!

Every day I receive up to a dozen scam emails. They frequently address me as “Dear Roads”. My name IS NOT “ROADS”! I have a name. At the very least, these bozos could take the trouble to learn it.

Usually they refer to “your book”, which they’ve discovered and are all excited about. I’ve written three books so far. Perhaps they could enlighten me as to which one?

Sometimes they jump in at my third novel, Out of Time. They then proceed to give me a general synopsis of the plot, as if that’s going to convince me that they’ve read it. They think it’s wonderful. I wonder how they’ve figured out what’s going on, as it wouldn’t make much sense without having read the first two novels. Nevertheless, they want to promote the heck out of it, introduce it to the 2000 readers in their book club, or the 10000 contacts they have on Amazon, or shop it out for a movie, blah blah blah.

Of course, this would just require a modest fee of $200 or so. But for that, they could guarantee amazing success.

Uh huh.

The queries are often just inane.

Other times they take the curious approach of being insulting.

Nevertheless, despite the poor job I’m doing, I was delightfully surprised to hear that someone found my book in the British Library. That’s quite a coup for me. Clearly the supernatural was involved, as my book was magically transported 3500+ miles. But I like to keep an open mind about these things.

Recently I heard from Oprah. I’m so happy she’s really interested in my book, although I’m surprised she uses a ‘gmail’ address.

Also, I was thrilled to hear from Melania Trump, aka Rita M. Mondal. It seems that scammers don’t expect us to actually look at the faux-mail address they’re using.

I also got an email from Gwyneth Paltrow. And James Patterson, who wants to know if I’m still writing. He’s also using Gmail (writer.jpatterson.profile@gmail.com) – I guess you don’t become a multi-millionaire without cutting some corners.

 With Elon Musk and Prince William following me on Instagram, I think I could put together a marvelous tea party. Something along the lines of the Algonquin Round Table, and I could be Dorothy Parker’s sarcastic successor.

I really love this one. It’s supposedly from the “Author Credibility Society”, but features just a marginally bogus sender address.

All authors receive this garbage. It’s incredibly annoying, even though it all gets redirected to my Spam box. All of it. I haven’t received a genuine contact yet. Some day, I’d like to.

In the meantime, I guess I’ll keep looking for a good curse.

“Who was this extraordinary woman, Queen over a people apparently as extraordinary as herself, and reigning amidst the vestiges of a lost civilisation? And what was the meaning of this story of the Fire that gave unending life?”

She, by H. Rider Haggard

There was a moment at Machu Picchu in the Andes Mountains where I was able to wander away from our organized tour and just walk alone amongst the ancient stone walls. Just me, the breeze, and the views of the blue-green mountains all around. I imagined being one of the residents six hundred years earlier, walking those paths each morning to carry out their daily duties and looking out over the Sacred Valley the way that I was doing.

My time-regression spot at Machu Picchu, Peru – photo by author, all rights reserved.

It’s one of my favourite memories from that trip, that sense of reaching back in time to connect with someone perhaps standing in the very same spot centuries ago.

We see the remnants of former civilizations and wish we could look through a time tunnel to see what life there was really like. There’s a lot we can extrapolate from what’s still standing and any anthropological finds – if they haven’t been looted. So no matter what we do, we can only speculate what those times were. It’s tantalizing, just out of reach, as if there was a curtain we could pull back and see for ourselves.

Imagine if we could find that curtain, or, even better, be there in person. What if there was a civilization still out there, but lost from the history books?

That’s the very premise of a slew of Lost World stories that were popular in the 1800s and early 1900s, when real explorers were bringing fascinating information about ancient Egypt and other cultures to Europe and North America, but most of the world was still ‘dark’, undiscovered. What else might be out there?

Dinosaurs still alive? The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1912). Daily Gazette reporter Edward Malone wants an assignment to impress his girlfriend, and joins the expedition of notorious explorer Professor Challenger to South America. The team finds a remote plateau in the Amazon basin where a number of prehistoric animals still survive, along with an isolated Indigenous tribe battling a tribe of vicious ape-like creatures.

Illustrator Maple White’s sketch of a living Stegosaurus.  By Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) – https://archive.org/details/lostworldbeingac00doylrich, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10829535

Fabulous fabled mines full of treasure? King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard (1885). Adventurer Alan Quartermain is approached by Sir Henry Curtis and his friend Captain Good to help them find Sir Henry’s brother, who’s disappeared while searching in the unexplored interior of southern Africa for the legendary mines of biblical King Solomon.

“To those who enter the hall of the dead, evil comes”; Walter Paget, illustrator. By Walter Paget – https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tothosecassell1888268.jpeg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60590889

A spiritual paradise where people live forever? Lost Horizon by James Hilton (1933). In the time of the British Raj in India, a revolution necessitates that the residents of Baskul be evacuated. They fly out on the Maharajah of Chandrapur’s plane which is hijacked and flown to Tibet. The plane crashes in the mountains, but before dying, the Tibetan pilot tells the survivors to seek shelter in the hidden city of Shangri-La.

All of the real discoveries in the world at the time fired the imagination of writers. Lost Horizon is the most philosophical of the many resulting tales, but they’re all wonderfully romantic adventures into what might be.

My introduction to these Lost World stories came through the classic movies made around them. The 1959 Journey to the Center of the Earth movie is one of my all-time favourites to this day. My dad and I used to watch it on Sunday afternoons any time it aired on television.

But it didn’t make me want to follow in Professor Lindenbrook’s footsteps. The movie that sunk its hooks in deep was She (1965). It was made with great style by Hammer Films, and follows the novel reasonably closely.

In 1918, Professor Holly, young Leo Vincey and their orderly/valet Job are hanging about in Palestine after receiving honourable discharges from the British Army. They meet a local woman named Ustane, who intrigues them enough to set out into the desert of central-east Africa in search of the lost city of Kuma, following a map that’s given to Leo. (In the novel, the city is called Kor.) Leo also has visions of a beautiful woman beckoning him on, even as they become lost and near death.

Eventually they find Ustane in her desert village, where her father rules a lost tribe called the Amahagger, who guard the entrance to the kingdom of ‘She Who Must Be Obeyed’: the magnificent and cruel Ayesha.

Holly and Leo discover that Leo is the incarnation of Kallikrates, the long-lost lover of Ayesha, whom she murdered twenty centuries before for being unfaithful. She’s kept herself alive through a strange phenomenon called the Eternal Flame, and wants Leo to join her in immortality.

I won’t spoil the rest for you, but it’s a terrific adventure with plenty of rich mysterious-desert atmosphere. Ayesha is imperious and enthralling – even stoic Holly, played suavely by Peter Cushing, falls for her. The character of Leo Vincey is, in the novel, incredibly handsome, and Hammer cast John Richardson in that role.

For the part of Ayesha, they needed someone special, and chose tall and statuesque Ursula Andress. Dressing her in gorgeous Grecian-style gowns and gold jewelry, cinematographer Harry Waxman also  used special lighting to enhance the effect. Interestingly, though they loved her somewhat ‘exotic’ look, they didn’t like her Swiss-German accent, and had her lines dubbed by the same woman who did it for the movie Dr. No. Monica Van Der Syl mimicked a slight Swiss accent so that audiences didn’t suspect anything.

The desert scenes were filmed on location in the Negev, giving the movie a sweeping adventure tone and authenticity that captured that of Haggard’s novel.

Sir Henry Rider Haggard was an English writer who was considered a pioneer of the Lost World genre. After failing his army entrance exam, he was sent to a private school in London to prepare for the entrance exam for the British Foreign Office. During that time, he encountered people interested in the study of psychic phenomena. In 1875, Haggard’s father sent him to the southern part of Africa, where he served in various positions.

Eventually returning to England in 1882, Haggard published a book on the political situation in South Africa, then several unsuccessful novels. But in 1885 he put out King Solomon’s Mines, which was enormously popular, and still is – numerous movie versions have been made, and the character of Alan Quartermain was even used in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The story of She, with 83 million copies sold by 1965,  is one of the best-selling books in history.

Rider Haggard after his return to England in 1881. By Unknown; photo taken prior to 1900. – http://divers-and-sundry.blogspot.com/2008/05/henry-rider-haggard.html, Public Domain, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26616742

The romance of a civilization long disappeared from common knowledge, but still accessible if one only knows how to find it, is irresistible. H. Rider Haggard parlayed his knowledge of exotic locations, and an imagination that wondered what might be in the places still unexplored, into a very successful writing career.

Now, there aren’t many unexplored frontiers left on our world to use as a setting. An author might have to revisit Jules Verne’s concept in Journey to the Centre of the Earth, or come up with some form of  aquatic civilization hiding in one of the deep ocean trenches.

Still, an intriguing thought.

Our fascination with Lost Worlds hasn’t waned – how many different movie versions of all of the above-mentioned tales have come over the years. There’ve been suggestions that this genre now has to move out into space, and certainly the series Stargate SG-1 played with that a fair bit.

But I still love the old stuff, sprung from the days when not all the maps had been filled in yet. How about you?

The Cambridge Dictionary describes an adventure as “an exciting, unusual, and potentially risky undertaking. It often involves stepping outside your comfort zone, embracing unpredictability”, and mentions the “psychological thrill of a daring journey”.

My hubby and I began our adventures before we even embarked on our honeymoon. We’d just gotten engaged, and had taken what was my first trip involving flights to Santa Monica, CA to visit family friends. My first time on an airplane, first time out of the country, first sight of the ocean and palm trees – the entire thing was exhilarating for me. And then came the earthquake on New Year’s Day. Oh, that was an intense experience that we’ve never forgotten.

Several months later, when we did go on our honeymoon, we had a category 5 hurricane, a tornado, and just escaped the Caribbean before a category 4 hurricane hit.

You might say we got used to the unpredictable, even developed a sense of humour about it. Largely in self-defense, as the jokes really began to fly. We became the couple most people DIDN’T want to travel with.

I’ve been reading of a trend to sign up for an out-there experience like a Survival experience. You’re given a knife and a fishing line. One group wrote S.O.S. on the sand within 24 hours.

But even closer to home, ‘adventure’ travellers have been known to whinge about being woken up by bird calls in the jungle, or the sound of waves around an over-water bungalow. I think we can agree that perhaps those weren’t the best fit in the way of vacations.

View from the deck of our over=water bungalow in Tahiti at dusk — all photos by author, all rights reserved.

Scientists have found an actual ‘adventure’ or ‘wanderlust’ gene: DRD4-7R. They believe it enabled early civilizations to send out explorers to find new land. In our times, it merely provides less-sensitive dopamine receptors in our brains that crave more thrilling experiences that those who don’t have it.

I’m guessing that Mike and I do. If we didn’t, we’d have been pretty silly to get ourselves tangled in travel craziness so, so many times.

Our trip to Egypt for our 10th anniversary was fairly tame – just a hotel fire of note – but the adventure of the exotic dug its hooks into us and never left. Our family and friends were flabbergasted by our decision to go, and we became the near-mythical ‘Indy and Marion’ icons of everyone we knew. I believe there was general relief when we got home safely, but it was short-lived after regular ‘quirks’ began to add themselves to our vacations. We’re now up to six hurricanes, three volcanic eruptions, a bush fire, and too many more to list here.

I’ll tell you one thing, though: we learned how to be resilient and make the best of things.

When friends recommended years ago that I become a travel agent, I thought that might be cool, and I looked into it. I took courses, attended conferences, looked into certification.

And I began to notice two things: that most people now expect things to run perfectly, and they want to be able to contact their agent 24/7. That’s not necessarily a bad thing in the event of an emergency, but otherwise, hell no.

I had no interest at all in booking trips to lie on a beach. The voyages that interested me were the kind that hubby and I took: adventures to exotic places where you learned things about other cultures, and about yourself as well.

Adventure travel isn’t soft or easy. It’s wild, exhilarating – a ‘you never know what’s around the next corner’ experience.

These trips require:

– an open mind

– a good sense of humour

– the understanding that very little of the trip will go smoothly

– a willingness to make the best of whatever situation you find yourself in, i.e. resilience

– you must be comfortable with a certain amount of risk

Hiking to Mt Aoraki in New Zealand (where Edmund Hillary trained for his Everest climb — all photos by author, all rights reserved.

The heroines in my books possess a lot of these qualities. In the adventures I put them through, they’d be eaten alive otherwise. But that’s the nature of novels – they take us on virtual adventures for the thrill without the risk.

Conditions on real adventure trips are usually very different than what you’re used to – THAT’S WHY YOU GO! (Sorry, we’ve just seen too many people abroad whine when they can’t find a hamburger joint or a beer that they’re used to drinking.)

When we went on our first safari in Africa, I did a lot of research about the conditions. It was to be a mobile camping trip, deep in the bush of the Okavango Delta in Botswana. No electricity = no plug-in shavers or flat-irons (rechargeable all the way, baby), and we found portable solar panels to recharge my camera batteries with. I found out what we should be wearing, what pre-trip medications we’d need (the usual foreign-travel inoculations, plus antimalarial medication for the duration), all the different flights we’d be on (bush planes will only soft-sided luggage below a certain weight).

A lot of prep? Loved it. And here’s how the trip gifted us back. Our first night camping in thin 9×9 dome tents in the middle of the bush, under the African stars, was the most exhilarating thing we’ve ever done. It was such a visceral experience, tucked under our duvets against the night chill, listening to the chiming of the tree frogs and fruit bats all around us as we fall asleep and the insistent wake-up call of the noisy francolin birds. On the game drives we saw every type of animal imaginable, and I remember looking directly into the golden eyes of a lion as it lay in the shade, and watching an elephant spray itself with muddy water on a hot day. As dusk fell, we returned to camp to have a hot-bucket shower and eat dinner around a campfire as the sky turned blue-violet.

Dinner table at Nxabega bush camp, Okavango Delta — all photos by author, all rights reserved.

In the Amazon jungle, our lodge was a thoroughfare for lizards and stick insects and agoutis and parrots and you-name-it. We hiked through the jungle for several hours in the company of an Indigenous guide, who coaxed tarantulas out of their ground holes with a stick, showed us how to swing on lianas, and how to send messages with the trunks of trees that can boom through the thick jungle for miles. It wasn’t a fancy lodge, but the surroundings were spectacular, the food was authentic and the cocktails were fun.

Our lodge in the Amazon jungle — all photos by author, all rights reserved.

But not all of adventure travel is Instagram-worthy, and that’s the point. To get into the Amazonian jungle, you typically fly into a muddy frontier town called Puerto Maldonado. You buy supplies for fun – any kind of clothing, fruit and dried weird stuff you can think of – then walk down a rickety wooden plank to board a rickety boat that transfers you to a motorized canoe for a 1.5-hour journey along the Madre de Dios River to your lodge. It’s fantastic to zip along with the wind in your hair, watching wild papaya trees and gold dredgers go by.

Puerto Maldonado, the stepping-off point for an Amazon jungle adventure — all photos by author, all rights reserved.

My hubby and I are middle-of-the-road adventurers: far beyond most of the people we know, but far behind the people who do things like climb Mt. Everest. We’re comfortable with that status, and have no issue with the many people we know who prefer to travel closer to home or stay in luxury hotels. Nothing the matter with that at all.

We didn’t become intrepid adventurers overnight. It took us several…challenging…trips to get grounded and confident. Each small step outside our comfort zone stretched it, until now we’re comfortable just about anywhere.

To us, the best things happen when you’re not expecting them. Magical moments, like having tea under an active volcano in New Zealand as it rumbled, or helping an entire class of schoolgirls in Bangkok practice their English. In that Amazon jungle, a friendly spider monkey climbed down and sat on my head for a while, playing with my water bottle.

Those are the kinds of experiences we love, and that turn up in all my novels in one form or another. But unless I can set up those kinds of trips (and I have run a few), where my travellers want to really ‘see what’s out there’, being a travel agent just isn’t for me. I can’t set up a trip that will run perfectly, and I don’t want to. And I’d want to run trips where you learn to take care of yourself – no 24-hr hotline needed.

So that’s it in a nutshell. If you want to embark on a real adventure, do your homework so you understand what you’re getting into. If you think better of it, that’s fine too – vacations are meant to be enjoyed.

You can take an armchair adventure any time, though, by reading my novels There’s a new one coming out this fall, a horror adventure that takes my heroine into some very dark and erotic, but dangerous, places. Will you be up for that? The payoff, as with all great adventures, will be remarkable.

It’s a common question for authors.

I was reading an interesting article the other day, from a writer who was facing severe idea-blockage during the COVID lockdowns, until his wife convinced him to get a dog. He found inspiration in the new relationship, as so many people have.

Maybe blockage is a phenomenon tied to more literary, standalone novels. For writers of fantasy/urban fantasy/ sci-fi/horror, I think the ideas just flow.

I could be wrong – I haven’t polled other writers. That’s difficult to do that these days when our inboxes are filled with so much scam email that it’s hard to make a trustworthy connection. (Oh, I’ve had plenty of messages from other ‘authors’ who want to connect, but in reality just want to sell me something.)

But here’s my experience.

I began with a small idea that formed in my head over a decade ago, about Roads that bypass normal space and can take you somewhere else instantly, or a little longer depending on how far away the endpoint is.

Okay. Then what? I had to create an entire ‘world’ around that – who knows about these Roads, who can use them, are they dangerous, do they go to other dimensions or even other planets…?

And then there are all the people involved.

Who would my MC (main character) be, and what would she have to do with these Roads? What would give her a place in the story special enough to write about?

Who else would be involved? Characters don’t function all by themselves. They’re part of an ecosystem of other players in the drama. Where do those others live, what do they do for a living, how do they fit into this world? Are there organizations, cults and so on?

Those of us who write in my set of genres have an unlimited idea bank. There’s also an advantage of writing a trilogy that hasn’t been stripped down to movie-script essentials.

As that trilogy was wrapping up, many of my fans began asking me to write more stories that tied into it, and so began my current journey. I have at least four more books planned, each one part of a larger arc that does two things:

a) Follows the exploits of each of four characters from the trilogy. Some of their journeys are very dark, some more adventurous. But they all have, in some form, ‘Magic in my Bones’.

b) Extends the story of the Chaos Roads with what happens afterwards – because a few NeoAtlanteans are still active, and there are still things among the stars that will change life on Earth. (Oooh!)

I’m very excited to be telling these new stories! The fourth novel, The Summer Door, is a horror tale mixed with spicy dark romance. My original intention was just to tell a horror story, but a friend gave me the idea of adding a twisted romance to my Main Character’s descent into darkness. It will be released in October! (If you’d like an advance peek at the final cover design, sign up for my monthly newsletter through the pop-up on this site.)

My little town of Llithfaen holds a large cast of characters – not that I’d intentionally set out that way, but in real life there are usually plenty of people who become involved in an underlying story. That’s made it easy to start mapping out the next three novels.

The fifth will also be a horror novel, expanding on a character from an ancient bloodline who discovers she’s not alone.

The sixth will take a character back to a place among the stars.

And a very different war is coming – we’ll find out what happens in the seventh book!

Honestly, there are so many facets to the world I created in the Chaos Roads that I don’t think I’ll ever run out of material.

I suppose that speaks to my inventive brain, as much as it does to the power of human imagination. In a recent article (yes, I read plenty of articles – about the writing industry, about fascinating aspects of history, the richness of mythology and ancient culture, science and much more), author Dave Eggers said he tells his students that they’re unique. “You’re unprecedented in the entire line of human history. Only you have your brain. Only you can think of what you can think of. Only you can tell a story in a particular way. Why would you cede that to a machine?“ He was appalled by “the idea of us willingly, without any overlord telling us so, saying ‘I think my voice would be better expressed by an unthinking machine who has plagiarised all of the world’s authors and has come up with this terrible soup of bad writing.’”

I think that says a lot about the difference between human ingenuity and AI ‘slop’ (the official term for it among the writing community). Our human brains are limitless. AI brains can only regurgitate.

Did you know that every kind of true tea that you drink, from white to green to oolong to black to pu’erh, all comes from the same plant, in fact the top three leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant?

The look and taste of the tea in your cup depends entirely – well largely – on how those leaves are processed.

If the leaves come from a different plant, it’s not true tea. What you’re then drinking is called a tisane, or an infusion.

After water, tea is the most popular beverage on the planet. And so it was a happy accident that brought the two together. Legend has it that in 2737 B.C., the Chinese Emperor at the time, Shennong, was out researching plants. He was a botanist, herbalist and agriculturalist who had a habit of testing out hundreds of plants for medicinal purposes. Some say this is what did him in one day. Regardless, he is venerated as the Father of Chinese Medicine.

Nevertheless, while taking a break on one of his excursions, he was boiling water over an open fire – convinced that those who drank boiled water were healthier. Either a breeze blew leaves from a nearby shrub into the pot, or leaves from the twigs that he plucked to fuel the fire were lofted upward into the pot. Curious, Shennong drank the resulting brew and declared it gave “vigor of body, contentment of mind, and determination of purpose.”

This painting depicts Shennong as he chews a branch, illustrating his role as healer. By Guo Xu (1456–c.1529) – ‘Shennong, the divine farmer’. Telling Images of China (2010 exhibit). Dublin: Chester Beatty Library.(direct link to image)(web archive link for work)(web archive link for exhibit), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36301128

Over 4,000 years later, we’re able to imbibe our favourite beverage thanks to his generosity of spirit. Tea is consumed in virtually every country in the world. There are over 3,000 varieties of tea, and you can find a tea to match any food or flavour.

The journey of those raw tea leaves to the sophisticated products we buy today, and the numerous cultures built around them, is long enough to fill a book (no, I’m not going to write one).

Originally tea was consumed very differently than we do today. It was considered medicinal, and people would boil raw tea leaves into a concentrated liquid, creating a bitter yet stimulating drink. Through the centuries, the Chinese began experimenting with a variety of techniques for processing the leaves, and a number of different forms of tea were developed. It became widely popular and spread to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, often by visiting scholars who would take seeds or cuttings home with them.

An entire tea culture developed in China, with social gatherings and poetry competitions. Poets and philosophers rhapsodized about the qualities of tea. The Japanese created beautiful tea gardens in order to contemplate life, tea and serenity.

Japanese tea garden in Ireland – photo by author, all rights reserved

After experimentation, it was found that if the tea leaves were steamed and pounded, and slowly dried over low fire, then shaped into bricks and hung to air dry, it kept quite well. As the drinking of tea spread across the continent, remarkable systems developed to transport it.

The most famous was the Tea-Horse Trade Route. The ancient passageway once stretched almost 1,400 miles across Cathay, from China, to Lhasa, Tibet. It was long, dangerous and rough, traversing four deadly 17,000-foot passes, though torrential rains and snowstorms. The journey took 3 months.

Tea was first brought to Tibet, legend has it, when a Tang dynasty Princess married the Tibetan King.

By the 11th century, brick tea had become the coin of the realm. The Chinese used tea to buy sturdy horses from Tibet to take into battle against Mongolian invaders, while for the Tibetans, in a cold climate where little grew, a hot cup of tea mixed with yak butter provided fat, protein and greens.

Tea-horse trade offices were set up in all districts, and private trade was strictly forbidden.

Tea porters, both men and women, regularly carried loads weighing 150 to 300 pounds. The more you carried, the more you were paid. Wearing rags and straw sandals, the porters used crude iron crampons for the snowy passes.

It was dangerous, back-breaking work. There was a saying in the caravan business that:

“the money earned on this route could be enjoyed by nobody but parents”

Map of the Tea-Horse route. By Redgeographics – Created map from scratch, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61104845

Tea caravans would carry bricks of tea either by horseback or on camels from China across the Siberian mountains and as far away as Russia. During the bitterly cold nights en-route, the camels would huddle around the fire with the traders, and their cargo of tea naturally absorbed some of the wood smoke. The Russians loved this robust, smoky tea, and canny purveyors learned to create Russian Caravan tea for everyone to have access to.

Explorers and traders from the west had slowly been making their way to the Orient since biblical times, but it was Marco Polo’s colourful account of his travels in the 13th century that really captured the imagination of Europeans. Portuguese priests and merchants during the 16th century were the first to bring tea back to Europe with them. Once the beverage caught on, the Dutch East India Company began shipping cargoes of tea as early as 1607.

When Charles II of England married Catharine of Braganza in 1662, she brought her tea-drinking habit with her from Portugal to the English court, and the British East India Company added tea to their growing trade network.

Tea from China had a lengthy route to Europe. It spent at least 3 months on the Tea Horse Road, and if mountain passes became closed by rains or snow, the journeys became even longer. From Chinese ports like Fuzhou or Shanghai, it then took several months of sailing time to Europe. The best early teas arriving in England were always at least a year old.

However, tea was one of the very few commodities that could carried at speed, and was valuable enough to justify racing the typhoons and shoals of the South China Sea just to be able to dock in London a few hours or days ahead of the pack.

Cutty Sark, the last extant tea clipper, photographed at sea by Captain Woodget using a camera balanced on two of the ship’s boats lashed together. By Allan C. Green – This image is available from the Our Collections of the State Library of Victoria under the Accession Number:, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15656203

By the middle of the 19th century, demand for fresh tea was so high that the first vessel home could command a premium price for its teas, and a ship might bring home a cargo worth almost 1/4 of what it cost to build the vessel on its very first voyage. Tea traders were always looking for ways to speed up transit, and eventually the light, sleek and fast Tea Clipper ships made their appearance, battling the seas to be the first to port. Crowds would gather on the docks in London to celebrate the first arrival, and betting at Lloyds was fierce. The best captains were the rock-stars of the period!

In the meantime, because tea trade was so lucrative, the British government taxed it, which of course resulted in smuggling. In 1784 the Prime Minister suggested that of the 13 million pounds of tea consumed in Britain, only 5.5 million had been brought in legally.

As with drug smuggling today, tea smugglers and merchants would often extend their supplies by adulterating them with other materials, from leaves of other plants to used tea leaves, which they would tint with things like Prussian Blue pigment and verdigris to make it look better. The additives could be toxic, and adulterations continued until eventually physicians began to notice consistent illnesses among tea drinkers.

The tea tax had consequences abroad as well. In the 1760s, Britain was deep in debt, so British Parliament imposed a series of taxes on American colonists to help pay those debts. The colonists were furious at being taxed without having any representation in Parliament, and strongly protested.

The taxes were repealed in 1770, except on tea . Britain didn’t want to give up tax revenue on the over 1 million pounds of tea the colonists drank each year. In protest, the colonists boycotted tea sold by British East India Company and smuggled in Dutch tea, leaving the East India Company with millions of pounds of surplus tea and facing bankruptcy.

In May 1773, British Parliament passed the Tea Act, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea to the colonies duty-free but still tax the tea when it reached colonial ports. Colonists in Philadelphia and New York refused to allow the tea to be offloaded and sent the ships back to England. In many other colonial ports, the shipments of tea were unloaded but left untouched on the docks to rot.

Finally, in December 1773 a group of colonial merchants and tradesmen called The Sons of Liberty disguised themselves in Native American outfits, boarded the docked ships in Boston and threw 342 chests of tea into the water à the equivalent of nearly $1,000,000 dollars today.

Boston Tea Party. Original uploader was Cornischong at lb.wikipedia – W.D. Cooper. “Boston Tea Party.”, The History of North America. London: E. Newberry, 1789.Engraving. Plate opposite p. 58. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (40)Transferred from lb.wikipedia (all following user names refer to lb.wikipedia):2007-02-18 21:38 Cornischong 696×393× (312674 bytes) *Sujet:Boston Tea Party *Source:W.D. Cooper. “Boston Tea Party.”, The History of North America. London: E. Newberry, 1789.Engraving. Plate opposite p. 58. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (40), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16857908

Squabbling went on between Britain and the colonies for 2 more years, eventually culminating in the American Revolution.

On the Eastern front, Britain was losing revenue importing silks, porcelain and tea from China, while they didn’t have anything that China wanted in return. In the 17th century the British tried cultivating tea in India, and also discovered a variety of tea plant native to India which produced fine, rich black tea. That didn’t completely repair the trade imbalance, though, and in the 18th century, the British East India Company decided to increase their revenue by importing Indian opium illegally to China, addicting thousands of Chinese people. Some Americans entered the trade as well, including the grandfather of President Franklin Roosevelt.

In 1839, after a Letter to Queen Victoria begging for a stop to the opium trade was ignored, the Chinese Emperor ordered the seizure of all the opium in Canton. The smugglers lost 20,000 chests of opium without compensation. The British responded with military force in the First Opium War. The Chinese lost and were forced to sign the Treaty of Nanking, which, among other things, gave Hong Kong to the British for 99 years. Hostilities continued, and in 1858 after the Second Opium War the Chinese had to make further concessions, including the legalization of the opium trade.

So after all the blood, sweat and tears, how did we come to associate tea with genteel indulgence?

It started with Afternoon tea.

Delightful afternoon tea at the Campden General Store – photo by author, all rights reserved

In the middle of the 1800s Anna, Duchess of Bedford, started the custom of an afternoon tea break. At the time, the normal hour for dinner was between 7:00 and 8:30 p.m. An extra meal called luncheon had been created to fill the midday gap between breakfast and dinner, but it was very light and the long afternoons left people feeling hungry.

The Duchess would become peckish around four o’clock in the afternoon, and began asking that a tray of tea, bread & butter, and cake be brought to her room. She liked it so much that it became a habit and she began inviting friends to join her.

Sandwiches were invented by the 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718 – 1792). He was a dedicated gambler and refused to leave the gaming tables to eat, once playing for 24 hours non-stop! During one of these marathon gambling sessions he ordered a waiter to bring him a piece of ham between two pieces of bread, and the rest is history.

The afternoon pause for tea with sandwiches caught on and eventually spread around the world.

Afternoon Tea became an integral part of safaris when they began to be offered commercially by British game hunters in Kenya in the 19th century.

After Teddy Roosevelt’s famous safari in 1909 for the Smithsonian Institute made headlines around the world, not least for its style, with 250 porters and guides, and all the amenities, including china, crystal, even a piano, the idea caught on, and famous big game hunters like Frederick Selous, after which one of Kenya’s game reserves is named, catered to their select clients. The custom of afternoon tea continues on safari to this day, in various forms.

Tea at The Ark, Aberdare Kenya, overlooking the viewing pool. photo by author, all rights reserved

Afternoon Tea became an integral part of safaris when they began to be offered commercially by British game hunters in Kenya in the 19th century.

After Teddy Roosevelt’s famous safari in 1909 for the Smithsonian Institute made headlines around the world, not least for its style, with 250 porters and guides, and all the amenities, including china, crystal, even a piano, the idea caught on, and famous big game hunters like Frederick Selous, after which one of Kenya’s game reserves is named, catered to their select clients. The custom of afternoon tea continues on safari to this day, in various forms.

For a long time, tea etiquette was fixed, but I’m happy to say that you can enjoy tea any way that you please now.

A classic Afternoon Tea includes a selection of savouries (anything from sandwiches to tarts to cups of soup), a scone with clotted cream (or whipped cream; personally I prefer to use crème fraiche) and a fruit preserve (strawberry is traditional, but feel free to experiment), and several pastries. Everything should be finger-food size, eaten from small, salad-sized plates. Avoid anything heavily scented for your décor (such as scented candles or perfumy flowers), as they’ll detract from your ability to appreciate the tea and food.

Whatever tea you choose to serve should have a distinct aroma of its own. If it doesn’t, toss it out – it won’t have any flavour either. Do buy good tea; find a good purveyor (I use Murchies in British Columbia). In a pinch, Twinings teas available in grocery stores are good.

Afternoon tea can be accompanied by small glasses of sherry (very traditional), but I favour a great Mimosa myself. Cocktails are acceptable.

High tea is NOT equivalent to afternoon tea. It’s a supper served with tea – something the lower classes in Britain, who couldn’t afford all the fancy china, silver and expensive teas, would share with each other.

Themed teas are fun. I’ve done several Halloween teas myself, of course. Tea, spooky goodies and costumes – who doesn’t love that! Honestly, six of us had so much fun last year! Don’t think I’ll be able to reprise this year, as I have two live events on two back-to-back weekends towards the end of October. But, you never know.

Last year’s Halloween Tea with friends – photo by author, all rights reserved

Of course, tea is the perfect beverage to accompany a good book, a practice I highly encourage.

There’s so much more about tea that could be included, but then this post would turn into a book. But there are plenty of good books available on the history and culture of tea, should you want to learn more.

And if you’d like to have special fun, I recommend The Official Downton Abbey Cookbook, by Annie Grey and Gareth Neame. A delightful read, and free on Kindle Unlimited. Do yourself up like the Earl & Countess of Grantham, and send me photos!

Would you turn down a $175,000 prize to avoid having to do promotional activities?

That’s exactly what US writer Helen DeWitt did in April. It made the news.

I’ve been reading through her blog posts about this, and, without passing any judgement, she seems highly stressed by a series of recent events, and even just the thought of talking to people.

Publishing a book is an exposed activity, like any work of art. You put yourself onto the ‘paper’ – not literally, but a piece of your soul – in words that you hope people will like. DeWitt gave a very intimate look at what she’s been going through on her blog, but there’s still separation between what she types and having to face fans in person.

The question for all authors now, in this age of social media and guest appearances, how much further must we put ourselves out into the world to sell our stuff?

Well, quite a bit. Even traditionally-published authors are expected to promote their books personally. Fans want to go beyond the printed/electronic interface and actually see – and even better, talk to – their favourite novelists. If companion events are added – such as the Winter Ball the night before December’s Pages & Pleasures Romance Convention in Hamilton – the appeal is irresistible.

I completely understand it. Imagine being able to sit down for a spot of tea with J.R.R. Tolkien to discuss his epic Lord of the Rings trilogy, or with Stephen King on a stormy night to trade horror stories. Of course, King is in the literary stratosphere, so he doesn’t have to worry about making personal appearances to promote his books, but the rest of us, to my mind, might as well embrace the landscape we’re in.

When fans are able to meet authors, it creates an energy and a bond that transcends the books themselves. I look forward to each and every one of my live appearances. If a year were to go by without any, I think I’d be heartbroken. In 2025, I launched my third novel at Niagara Falls Comic Con, and dang, it was so much fun!

My hubby (my constant roadie, salesman and all-around greatest supporter) and I had a fantastic time from the vendor perspective – we enjoyed walking around while everyone was setting up and even got a few free samples of boozy chocolates, got to meet some of the celebrities and costumed performers behind-the-scenes, chatted with our neighbours and other vendors during breaks, and had a blast talking with many of the convention visitors. Some of my small-business group came out to support me, and had such a great time that they stayed all afternoon. I spoke to everyone from children to cosplayers to Daleks, and honestly, the weekend went by far, far too quickly.

At other appearances, I’ve been approached by budding writers who were eager to talk with someone published. The ability to possibly inspire other people to take up the pen isn’t something I ever envisioned, but it’s wonderful.

I held a draw at the Niagara Falls con to be able to name a character in my next novel, and you’ll be able to read all about the new character in my upcoming horror novel, The Summer Door, this October!

Once upon a time I was very shy, and in those early days I might have shrunk from some types of promo. I still won’t make videos of myself, but that has more to do with not being very photogenic than anything else. (If you’re thinking of arguing about my professional photo, I had a fabulous photographer who was skilled enough to capture a few good shots.)

But over the years, I’ve gradually stepped out of my shell and learned the art of small talk. I also spent several years in Toastmasters®, the program that teaches you how to be a public speaker. During that time, I started giving travel talks and tea workshops – it stood me in good stead at last year’s dReadCon dark fiction convention, where I made more sales after a workshop I held on world building.

Fans crave immersive experiences.

The annual Jane Austen Festival in Bath, England, is huge! (It’s coming up this September, by the way.)

Reese’s Book Club is inaugurating a four-part, in-person fan festival, beginning today and continuing on July 21, August 18 and September 26. It will include conversations and signings with Reese’s Book Club authors, as well as other interactive programming. Book Club EVP Kristin Perla said they’ve been seeing “a growing appetite for experiences that bring people together around shared interests”.

My hubby and I have noticed this at my event appearances. Conventions and book festivals are built on that very premise – especially conventions, which have been enabling fans to get together in a supportive space ever since they first began in 1964 (in Greenwich Village, where a younger George R.R. Martin, later to be the author of the Game of Thrones juggernaut, bought the very first ticket!).

If you’ve ever hosted a movie night, a sports-viewing event, a themed party, or a Canada Day celebration, you can understand the conviviality of sharing something fun with other like-minded people.

Never slow on the uptake, Amazon Prime Video has launched Obsessed Fest, an in-person fan event scheduled for June 27 in Los Angeles that will feature a “literary lounge”. A companion event to three of their series – Every Summer After, the hockey romance series Off-Campus, and Elle, based on Amanda Brown’s Legally Blond. There will be author signings, cast appearances and workshops. Fans will be able to “step into recreated scenes from key titles and capture personalized photo and video moments”. Sounds like a lot of fun!

I binged on the tv series Castle in reruns whenever the day-to-day drudgery of a ‘9-5’ job got me down. It was the appeal of having a career that allowed one to wander around whenever one pleased. Turns out, that’s not always possible when a book draft is due, but the one episode of that show which inspired me the most was Season 5, Episode 6, The Final Frontier, where author Castle is signing books at the fictional San Diego Comic Con-equivalent ‘Supernovacon’.

At the time I thought that was the coolest thing ever, and 10-plus years later, having been in that position myself several times, I haven’t changed my mind.

I think authors who shrink from doing public appearances are missing one of the best parts of being an author: getting to meet the fans who love us, and repaying them for their undying support.

At the Eden Mills Writers Festival in 2025, on a glorious early Fall day. My booth/tent is the nearest one on the right – photo by M. Jurus, all rights reserved

This is not a political blog post. It’s about how countries evolve, develop problems and work them out. Authors pay attention to these things when we’re crafting the worlds our stories play out in.

I wasn’t paying a lot of attention in May, when the protests in Bolivia began – I was neck-deep in finishing the first draft of my new novel. Recently, though, protests and blockades in Bolivia’s capital city, La Paz, began to make an impression, largely because my hubby and I were there a few years ago, and once you’ve been to a place, you develop a connection.

We didn’t spend a lot of time in La Paz, only an afternoon and overnight at the tail end of a three-week adventure mainly in Peru. However, for me, one of the highlights of the trip was a visit to the ancient ruined city of Tiwanaku in Bolivia.

The barren Altiplano around Tiwanaku – photo by author, all rights reserved.

Tiwanaku is one of those remote places that become spell-binding because of their mystery. The citadel is high in the Andes mountains, lying on a barren, treeless golden plain over 13,000 ft up the mountains. It was ‘discovered’ in 1549 by Spanish conquistador Pedro Cieza de León while he was searching for the southern Inca capital of Qullasuyu.

The partially-excavated Akapana pyramid at Tiwanaku – photo by author, all rights reserved.

The site spreads over about 4 square kilometers of dusty brownish soil. Most of it is still being excavated, but what you can see is astounding. The first thing you see when you make the long walk from the entrance is the Akapana, a reddish step-pyramid about 840 feet long and 646 feet wide. Then you walk the length of the towering red sandstone walls of the Kalasasaya, a vast courtyard more than 300 feet long that houses the massive 13-ton megalithic Gate of the Sun. Opposite the Kalasasaya you can descend into the Semi-Subterranean Temple (hey, I didn’t make up that bland name), where the red walls of its sunken courtyard are studded with almost two hundred pale stone heads of different shapes.

The Semi-Subterranean Temple at Tiwanaku – photo by author, all rights reserved.

A great deal of mystery and legend surround Tiwanaku. It’s believed that that the site was inhabited by 10,000 to 20,000 people in 800 AD, but early 1900s engineer and explorer Arthur Posnansky asserted that the site was 11,000–17,000 years old. A more remote section of the site, Puma Punku, is filled with such strange, and advanced, architecture that many believe it was built by aliens (Ancient Aliens: The Impossible Stone Blocks of Puma Punku, Season 9).

The plain on which Tiwanaku rests its enigmatic bones is so barren and inhospitable – at that elevation, the nights are bitterly cold, and the nearest source of water, Lake Titicaca, is ten miles away – that you immediately wonder how, or why, anyone would set up a citadel there. But the ancient peoples of Tiwanaku were master agriculturalists, growing food on raised beds that created warmer microclimates. As for why, Tiwanaku is located in a place of great spiritual importance, in the valley between two sacred mountains, Pukara and Chuqi Q’awa. Tiwanaku was the centre of the universe for the Aymara people, who are thought to be descendants of the Tiwanaku and still inhabit the area around Lake Titicaca.

The massive, 13-ton Sun Gate at Tiwanaku, with an image of the creator god Viracocha – photo by author, all rights reserved.

You don’t see this location on many tours, and I count myself privileged to have been able to explore it myself for a short while between passing storms. Then we were off to the country’s capital, La Paz, the highest administrative capital city in the world. It sits in its own bowl amid the mountains of the Altiplano.

Looking down on La Paz from the encircling road – photo by author, all rights reserved.

The city’s full name is Nuestra Señora de La Paz (meaning Our Lady of Peace). It was founded in 1548, by the Spanish conquistador Captain Alonso de Mendoza, and is now the seat of the Bolivian government, as well as an important South American cultural centre. All of the city is at such a high altitude – ranging from 11,975 ft to 13,000 ft – that all the hotel rooms serve coca leaf tea in the lobby. That’s the plant that cocaine is derived from, and it’s present in the leaves when steeped or chewed. In such a mild form, the natural stimulant helps tourist bodies adapt to wandering around in the thinner air.

The ubiquitous coca leaf tea in hotel lobbies – photo by author, all rights reserved.

As I mentioned, we weren’t able to see much of the city at all, but it bustled along with its usual rhythms. In May, however, ongoing mass protests began in La Paz.

Bolivia is in the middle of an economic crisis, apparently the worst the country’s had in decades. Protests had started intermittently back in January, but erupted at news of a new land mortgage law, which was feared to allow businesses to buy land out from under farmers. Even though Paz annulled the law on May 13th, the protests haven’t abated.

Street vendors in La Paz – photo by author, all rights reserved.

Protesters began by setting off explosives and clash with police around the presidential palace. They’re   calling for the resignation of President Rodrigo Paz. There have been escalating blockades that are keeping essential goods out of the city. Within a week, four people had been killed; the total is now up to ten.

Bolivian miners have jumped into the fray, protesting for labour reform and fuel, and have been joined by teachers and Indigenous Bolivians. On May 26th, the Bolivian Congress passed a law allowing Paz to deploy the Bolivian Army against the civil unrest. According to the Ombudsman’s Office, the country is on the “edge of the precipice”. Protesters have numbered in the tens of thousands.

La Paz is a warren of sloping streets – photo by author, all rights reserved.

According to one article I’ve read, it will be four million rural Quechua-Aymara in the highlands and valleys, and their allies in the trade unions, who’ll ultimately transform the unrest. On June 3rd, they announced that they’ll march on La Paz to remove the President. Paz has tried to negotiate with the protesters and tried to avoid severe clashes by the police force. But demonstrators are refusing to back down. To date, I haven’t seen any news of the big march; we’ll see what happens and where this all leads.

My hubby and I were only there long enough to see the surface of the country’s economy and culture. All I can say is that La Paz was peaceful at the time and felt like a place we’d like to revisit. I hope the Bolivia we saw, with such amazing history and culture, can recover without further violence. Tiwanaku alone fascinated me so much that I included it in my Chaos Roads trilogy.

But I’ll admit to watching this play out with an author’s viewpoint, like a drone hovering over the whole thing, and making notes that I plan to use in an upcoming novel. It’s a way to bring more authenticity to the burgeoning war I’ll be describing on a planet far, far away. Can my war be avoided? We’ll have to see. I certainly hope Bolivia manages it.

“Writing the last page of the first draft is the most enjoyable moment in writing.” Nicholas Sparks

It’s alive! It’s alive!

Well, sort of.

I feel like a proud mad scientist, having stitched together my creation, given it its first breath of life.

But it’s not ready for the world to see, yet. There’s more work to be done.

So, the first draft of my horroromance is finished. It’s just a barely formed creature, unable to walk. (It’s probably afraid of fire, too.) The first draft is messy, rough, a spilling of all your ideas out of your head and into a usable form. It generally follows the plot I outlined at the outset, but – and this is what I love about writing novels – there are always surprises along the way! Characters develop a mind of their own, and then curious things happen that I didn’t expect.

“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” Terry Pratchett

Next comes Celebration! Some authors seem to produce numerous books in a year, but for me, it takes a lot of thought and planning, and often life gets in the way as well. Typing “The End” deserves some celebrating, and my lovely hubby took me out for dinner.

Now my novel rests while I step away from it to go back with fresh eyes. This is a critical step. Also, I have a house that needs cleaning. I’ve made some notations on my running plot spreadsheet of things that need fixing and improvements I want to make, but otherwise I won’t touch the draft or even look at it.

In about three weeks I’ll return to the world of The Summer Door and do the first edit. It’s an intensive process, starting with one read-through to get a general sense of the storyline, glaring errors and things that could be improved.

I’ve found writing a horror novel very different from my trilogy. Horror coats everything with a layer of dread. It’s not just a matter of getting my heroine from the start to the finish – she has to suffer and be terrified along the way. Since I’m not writing gore, I have to craft psychological torment deserving of the pickle she’s gotten herself into.

“Awful first drafts are fine… If you don’t finish something, you’ll never get in the game. Just quell the voice in your head that says “Are you kidding? No one is going to want to read this drivel” and keep on going. You’re going to revise and revise and then revise again anyway.” Jamie Freveletti

When I’m revised, and revised, and am satisfied, the edited copy goes to the first people who lay eyes on the book, my Beta readers. They’re a very dedicated and enthusiastic group who’ll give me the straight goods on what they liked and didn’t. As a horror novel, this is a shorter word count (typically 80k to 100k for psychological/supernatural horror, about half of what each of my urban fantasy novels have been), so I’ll request their feedback in three weeks instead of a month.

I’ll use this time to finish the front cover, spine and back cover designs, including the all-important ‘blurb’ – the few paragraphs that entice a prospective reader to buy the book.

With their feedback in hand, I’ll begin the final editing, final proofing, and prep the manuscript for uploading to Amazon. I also have to register the book for an ISBN – the International Standard Book Number, a 13-digit number that uniquely identifies each specific edition of a book or monograph from a publisher (i.e. me). I must list this number on Kindle Direct Publishing (the publishing arm of Amazon) during the upload procedure. They then complete the process from there, and I order whatever number of Author Copies I feel I’ll need for the live events that follow.

In October, I unpack the first shipment and admire fully-realized Creature !

Just in time for my first live appearance for the year at dReadCon in Burlington. I did this convention for dark fiction and horror last year, and had so much fun! Plenty of great writers and vendors of merchandise, and the most enthusiastic crowd of any!

Then a mere week later (yes, I’m apparently a glutton for punishment), I’m taking my first crack at perhaps the premiere horror convention in Canada, Frightmare in the Falls. Three days of fear-fest! I’m so looking forward to this one, to the atmosphere, to all the creepy goodies, to the celebrity guests (not announced yet), to the crowd of fellow creep-lovers. You’ll find me in a corner booth again, leaning much farther into the dark Halloween vibe for this one!

And finally, in early December, because my novel is also a dark romance, I’m doing my first ‘adult’ romance convention: Pages & Pleasures in Hamilton. Only a six-foot table, so not much room for all the décor of the previous events. But these conventions are hugely popular, and my novel, with a three-chili pepper spice level (medium spice, a fair bit of sex but it’s neither overly explicit nor the dominant feature of the plot), will fit right in. There are many different kings of ‘romance’ these days, from sweet to monstrous (more in a later post), and I felt it would give an interesting dimension to my heroine’s predicament, as well as introduce my writing to an entirely different market.

The convention says it “doesn’t shame your kink”. And there will apparently be vendors with “toys”. Should be interesting, and a very different vibe from the conventions I’ve done so far

In addition to the one-day convention, on the night before, my hubby and I will be attending the Frostbitten & Forbidden Winter Fantasy Ball associated with it – glitter, ballgowns, cosplay, drinks and dancing.

Because I love to meet my readers. I really do. Not all authors embrace this aspect of modern marketing, but I want to go beyond an online interface or a printed page. I love to connect face-to-face and chat.

So that’s the process for an indie author. It involves some work, but the ultimate reward is when someone lets me know how much they’ve enjoyed my novel.

I hope to meet some of you at one of these events. Watch my Events page for more details as they become available, including a pre-order link for dReadCon.

“You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.” — Jodi Picoult

Like the storm that brought Dracula to the shores of England, a storm of evil is descending on the town of Llithfaen. I’m down to the last few chapters that will decide the fate of Stephanie, who got in way over her head with the Fae, and what’s lurking beyond the borders of Tír na nÓg. This is the first draft, that will be edited and sent on to my beta readers, then edited again, so that you can read the entire story this October!

I’ll resume the blog next week as I step away from the book for a few weeks to return with fresher eyes, although I already have some ideas for improvement and it will take resolve to keep away. Wish me luck with that!

In the meantime, enjoy the legacy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the novel that began our endless fascination with vampires.