That moment when a writer gets "the call" from a publisher and finally sells a book is one of the best moments in a writer's life. Mine happened over twenty years ago (yes, I was twelve) and I still remember every jumbled second of it.
When I heard that my friend Lexi Post got
her call, I couldn't have been happier and so I'm thrilled to be spotlighting her here on my blog with her newly published debut novel,
MASQUE. Please join me in congratulating her and please take a moment to read this wonderful blog and excerpt from
MASQUE. Be sure to read to the end....there's a giveaway or a fabulous Venetian mask !
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Thank you Erin for inviting me to your blog. You
have always been very open about your own foray into authorship, and your
“haunting” books have been so amazing that I feel a bit in awe J
Speaking of haunting, has anyone Googled “haunted
bed-and-breakfasts” lately? I did. Over
3,500,000 sites came up, but then again, that’s how Google works. So I clicked on a couple links. The first
link was an article from the Travel Channel.
The second was a site that listed 200 haunted inns from all over the
United States. Whoa, I didn’t realize this was such a “normal” item, but it
certainly made my debut release MASQUE a little more believable, that is if you
believe in ghosts.
Yes, my just released erotic romance is set in a
haunted abbey that was actually used as a Pleasure Palace by a prince. Wait,
let me step back. Before anyone thinks
I’m throwing everything at my setting except the kitchen sink (well, it did
have one, but no electricity), I should explain that my story was inspired by
Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Masque of the Red Death.” It actually wasn’t
me who made the setting an old abbey that was formerly used by a prince to
entertain his aristocratic friends while his subjects died outside. Nope, that
was all Poe’s doing.
However, I do write erotic romances inspired by the
classics, so at the end of Poe’s story, when everyone died, I was a little
stuck. How could I make this story come
alive in a very different way today? First, I simply made 73 of the guests from
Poe’s story into ghosts. Now I had some characters. Second, the masked figure
that somehow gets into Poe’s sealed abbey is supposedly Death. Well, I didn’t see how Death would make a
honorable, hunky hero. This is an erotic romance after all. So I decided, since
everyone died in Poe’s story, how would they know it had been Death, especially
because Poe claimed to hate allegory and particularly Hawthorne’s? Perhaps it
wasn’t Death at all, but a friend of the prince who was trying to make a point
and help the prince see the error of his ways and finally help his people
outside the abbey.
Only, of course, everything went wrong. Everyone died and 73 ghosts were trapped in
the abbey along with the hero, whose name is Synn. I decided to go with that J
And this abbey of Poe’s is a magnificent place for a haunting, for not only
does it look like a Medieval Castle, but it has 7 colored entertainment rooms.
I’ve kept these rooms the same in my story, even down to the way they were lit
which was with braziers on the outside of two opposing walls and large stained
glass windows through which the firelight colored the room. The rooms were
blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and black, except the black room
has red windows. In fact, both Poe’s and my story is full of color because it
features a Masque (a costume party). The clothing, especially in 1861, was
elaborate and the masks, masterpieces.
The modern day heroine, Rena, buys the abandoned
abbey to turn it into a haunted bed-and-breakfast. See, I get to the point
eventually. Rena turns out to be quite brave, as well as quite interested in
Synn.
Personally, I’ve only stayed in one haunted hotel
and that was the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, NH. Have you ever
stayed overnight in a haunted place? If
so let me know, and I will put you in a drawing to win this mysterious Venetian
mask made in Italy.
While you try to remember, I will give you a sneak
peak at MASQUE.
Enjoy, Lexi
From the cover:
Rena Mills plans to turn an abandoned
abbey into a haunted bed-and-breakfast to prove she can be successful without
her ex-fiancé. What she finds inside is Synn MacAllistair, the distinguished,
self-proclaimed Ghost Keeper. Her dreams soon fill with sexual cravings for
him. But are they dreams?
Synn, born in 1828, is determined to free
the souls of the resident spirits, blaming himself for bringing the Red Death
that killed them. When Rena steps into the old Pleasure Palace, he’s sure he
can take her through the after-midnight Pleasure Rooms and stoke her passion to
complete the Masque so the souls can cross over. Her innocent fire makes him
crave more, but it’s far too late for him.
As Rena begins her erotic journey, her
heart becomes more involved with every sensual caress until she discovers by
completing the Masque she would lose her ghosts. Synn’s betrayal wars with her
compassion for her ghostly friends. Torn, she must make a choice between her
financial security and freeing seventy-three trapped souls. Either way, she
could lose her Synn.
Keep reading for an excerpt from MASQUE:
Rena leaned with her back against one of the dining
room windows and stared hard at her friend. “Val. I’m not going to let you tell
me it can’t be done.”
“It can’t be done.”
She ground her teeth and stalked back to the table.
Putting both hands on the dark wooden surface, she scowled. “I said, don’t tell
me that.”
Valerie sat back in her chair and clasped her hands.
“Look, I know how important this is, but unless we can find a way to drill
through this stone that will take less time, there is no way you will be able
to open until next year.”
“My finances won’t make it until next year. I have
to get this place up and running by fall and I’d still be missing the entire
summer tourist season.” She dropped her head in defeat, a familiar sensation.
Valerie placed her hand on hers. “I know, kid. I’m
doing the best I can.”
“Can I help?”
Rena turned at the sound of Synn’s deep voice,
loving the way it reverberated through her like a well-played bass cello,
chasing away her inadequate reality. He stood leaning against the doorway of
the dining room in a pair of tight, muscle-defining tan leggings and a loose
white shirt. Very casual and very sexy.
At her inspection of his person, he returned the
favor and she wished she’d left her hair down instead of in the clip she’d
thrown it in. Her jeans and baggy sweatshirt didn’t exactly say “sexy” either.
Synn strode toward them to peer over Valerie’s
shoulder at her list of tasks. “What is it that is causing you trouble?”
Valerie glanced at him, and Rena had to smack down a
little green envy bug at the attention he paid her best friend. She should be
grateful. Valerie could be doing a dozen other jobs right now instead of
helping her with this bed-and-breakfast project.
Valerie circled two items on her list and pointed
with her pen. “These are our major projects, updating the running water and adding
electricity. The last, the electricity, is huge. We have to drill conduits into
these walls for every inch of line we need to feed, and that will take a lot of
time. From the size of this place, I’d say there are literally miles of
conduits we will need.”
Synn stepped back and looked at the walls. Without a
word, he strode over to a brass candlestick set upon a built-in shelf and
pulled it down. The wall moved.
She and Valerie scrambled to see inside.
Synn swept his arm toward the opening. “Will this help?”
Grabbing her flashlight off the table, Valerie
walked through. Rena followed.
“We’ve got a freaking racetrack back here, Rena.
Look at this!”
She did look. It was a narrow hallway built between
two walls, yet in the distance she could see a small window where light spilled
onto the floor. She stepped back and bumped into Synn. “Damn, but you’re
quiet.”
He steadied her with a hand to her shoulder. “These
are the servants’ corridors. They run throughout the Abbey. Can you use these
as conduits?”
Valerie couldn’t have smiled wider. “Of course! We
can run the lines high on the wall so the employees can still use these
hallways. Then all we need to do is drill through the thickness of the walls to
where you need the plugs and lights. It’s perfect.”
Rena dared to hope. “Really? Are you absolutely
sure, Val?”
Her friend nodded.
“Yes!” She turned to Synn and gave him a hug. “Thank
you so much. I owe you one.”
He quirked his brow. “I like the sound of that.”
A shiver raced across her skin and deep inside her
chest. She still didn’t know what he thought of her little escapade the night
before and didn’t have the guts to ask. Nope. Not knowing would save her all
kinds of embarrassment. She glanced back at the hidden servants’ corridor.
“Hey, wait a minute. Why would an abbey have a servants’ corridor? Don’t
priests or monks take a vow of poverty or something?”
Synn waited for them to exit, then pulled the
candlestick vertical again and the hidden door closed without a sound. “As I
said yesterday, the name Ashton Abbey is a misnomer. This was always intended
to be a Pleasure Palace for the prince. At one point, over a hundred of his
closest friends lived here with him.”
Valerie sniffed. “Well, so far, I’ve only seen one
ghost and that’s not a very big haunting if you ask me.”
Synn turned his gaze upon Rena. Her body temperature
rose at the knowledge in his eyes, but he addressed Valerie. “You will not
remain disappointed for long. Rena has already—”
The sound of a dish shattering interrupted him. Rena
looked at him and Valerie. “Ghosts?”
He sighed. “That would be Mrs. McMurray. She is
frustrated with her inability to help you after waiting so long to have guests.
My guess is she tried to move something even though she should wait at least a
couple more days. I’ll go look in on her.”
Rena watched Synn’s ass as he strode through the
doorway leading to the kitchen. She barely contained her sigh, but Valerie
wasn’t fooled.
“Ree, are you seriously thinking of pursuing that
man?”
She shook her head. “I know, I know. I need to stop
falling for upper-class men.”
Valerie grabbed her arm. “You listen to me, girl. I
don’t know what Bryce told you, but you have twice as much class as he does.
But this guy here? There is something he isn’t telling us. I can feel it in my
bones. Can you wait until we figure out what it is before you rebound into
another relationship?”
“Hey, who said anything about a relationship? I
think I need a good year before trying another one of those. I was thinking
more along the lines of a little rebound sex. I mean, come on, you have to
admit, the man is hot.”
Valerie narrowed her eyes.
“Okay, okay.” She threw her hands up. Valerie was
right. She needed to get control of her sexual interest and focus on her main
objective. No sex until the Abbey was complete. She nodded with assurance as
she made the pact with herself.
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Lexi is giving away a Venetian mask to one lucky commenter so be sure to let her know what you think about her exciting new novel!
For more information on
Lexi Post visit- http://www.lexipostbooks.com/
