Good Morning Friends,
Tuesday, Linda shared with us something she treasures and we mentioned her new book,
Four by Moonlight. Well today we are spotlighting her book!
My very favorite poem, and
one of my favorite works of literature, is The
Highwayman by Alfred Noyes. It is
lyrical enough that it has been recorded many times over.
This poem inspired my “Gypsy
Ribbons,” which is included in an anthology from Class Act Books, Four by Moonlight. I wanted to see what the
idea of the highwayman, combined with other elements, would become in prose.
Once I read the story on a
PodCast. I had practiced the entire day
before the reading, and only stumbled once.
No surprise, I had almost memorized Gypsy
Ribbons. I don’t have a copy of that
PodCast or I’d include the link so that you could have a laugh as a South
Carolinian with an accent tried to read a story starring British characters.
I often wondered if I could
expand the story into a book, but it seemed happy as a short story. The piece dates back quite a few years, but
it has been polished and edited. I didn’t
have to worry about the advent of modern technology. In the late 1800s, no one had a cell
phone! “Gypsy Ribbons’” setting is the
Yorkshire moors, the time period parallel with the American Revolution.
Four by Moonlight also
includes a novella, “The Night Before Doomsday,” the tag line to which is
“Azazel resisted temptation…until the wrong woman came along.” The story takes
a look at the angel Azazel in a different light—not as the demon he is often
portrayed. “Night Before Doomsday” is
about the Grigori’s descent to Earth to teach men to survive/thrive after their
oust from the Garden of Eden.
One story is very spicy. “The
Gate Keeper’s Cottage” bears a
warning sign: Enter at your own risk.
The fourth offering is “Star
Angel,” a sci-fi romance and is very New Age.
The hero and the heroine are soul mates separated by a dimension.
Come with me on a journey to
1789 with “Gypsy Ribbons.” Next whistle stop is the Garden of Eden,
and on to a plantation outside New Orleans, and finally a rescue in an Idaho
potato patch. In Four by Moonlight, no one is exactly what he/she may
seem.
Four by Moonlight: An anthology of love in the
moonlight…in the paranormal universe.
Gypsy Ribbons – A moonlight ride on the
moors and meeting a notorious highwayman will forever change Lady Virginia
Darby’s life.
Star Angel – Lucy was stuck in a rut
and in an Idaho potato patch. She’d seen him in the corner of her eye—a
fleeting glimpse of beauty—now he stood before her in the flesh.
The Night Before Doomsday – All
his brothers had succumbed to lust, but Azazel resisted temptation until the
wrong woman came along.
The Gate Keeper’s Cottage –
Newlywed Meggie Richelieu’s mysterious, phantom lover may be more than anyone,
except the plantation housekeeper, suspects.
Excerpt:
Red eyes watched from the grate as
she slipped into the cold, empty bed. Simon should have been there to warm her
rather than the dying fire. Not pursuing a dangerous dream. Too angry, too
miserable to weep, she tossed and turned. The relief of sleep eluded her.
An icy breath whispered through
the room. Tory snuggled deeper beneath the goose down covers. Had the weather
made up its mind? Was Simon riding in ice and snow? She imagined white flakes
in Goliath’s long black mane and on the highwayman’s plush velvet cloak. Poor
darling, he would be cold. Tory slowly drifted to sleep unrelated thoughts
scrolling in her mind. A soft sound snapped her wide awake. She sat bolt
upright, tugging the covers over the breasts.
The room was iceberg cold. The ghost.
“Not Simon.” She held her breath,
ears stained for the horrifying, otherworldly whisper, a warning of imminent
death. The sound came again, closer. A slow footstep creeping over the old
oaken floor. Tonight, the ghost of Darby Manor wandered its dim corridors.
“No. No.” Tory squeezed her eyes
closed and prayed, forgetting she didn’t believe in ghosts.
The footsteps halted. Tory’s
heart stopped. She started to cover her ears, refusing to hear. The ghost
breathed that heartbreaking sigh at her door.
Shuddering, she slid back under
the layers of down. The warmth had no effect on her shivers. She folded into a
fetal position. I’m no longer alone. Fear
chilled her anew. Though she couldn’t
see clearly in the dim light, she knew her breath puffed white clouds in the
frigid air. Dread sank its wicked claws into her racing heart.
Get your copy of Four by Moonlight directly from Class Act Books or at Amazon!
Linda
Nightingale is a native-born South Carolinian who has lived in England and
Canada, and now resides in Texas. Before turning to writing, she bred,
trained and showed Andalusian horses for thirteen years.
In
2012, her novel, Gemini Rising, was
voted Best Mainstream Novel in the Preditors & Editors Readers Poll. Her
vampire romance, Cardinal Desires won
the Georgia Romance Writers Magnolia Award in 2013, and that was followed by her
science fiction romance, Love for Sale,
being awarded Best SF/Fantasy novel of 2015 by the Paranormal Romance Guild’s
Reviewer’s Choice, and also voted one of the Top Ten Romance Novels of 2015 by
the Preditors & Editors Readers Poll for that year.
Four by Moonlight
is her first novel for Class Act Books.
Find out more about Linda at:
Twitter: @LNightingale
Wow..sounds like a great anthology for you lovers of paranormal romance!
Until next time, take care and God Bless.
PamT
Linda Nightingale is a native-born South Carolinian who has lived in England and Canada, and now resides in Texas. Before turning to writing, she bred, trained and showed Andalusian horses for thirteen years.
