Archive for January, 2009
The Curse of Culcraig
Here’s the official blurb and an excerpt for The Curse of Culcraig coming soon from The Wild Rose Press. Enjoy!!
After a devastating personal tragedy, history professor Hillary Bennett seeks refuge in the quaint Scottish village of Culcraig, hoping to research a legend and salvage her career. Instead, she finds her hostess dead, and her hopes for the future pinned to the woman’s black sheep heir.
The last thing Caid Douglas needs is a decrepit manor house to remind him of his estranged family, but he does need the money selling the house would bring to pay off his debts. In desperation he offers to honor his great aunt’s arrangement with Hillary—if she pays him to stay at Glendon House and view his ancestor’s journals, he’ll have the money to fix up the family mausoleum and sell it.
But an ancient curse hovers over the village, and the secret to lifting it lies in the journals. Will Caid and Hillary realize what they have and uncover the truth before a twisted killer silences them forever?
The Curse of Culcraig
© Dawn Brown
Someone was in the house with them…
“You know,” Hillary said, keeping her voice low. “This house is huge. We could check each room individually, but who’s to say that whoever’s here won’t just keep moving around as we search, eventually working their way into a room we’ve already checked? We’ll never be one hundred per cent sure we’re alone.”
“Are you suggesting we separate?”
Her grip on his hand tightened. Did she even realize she’d done that?
“It would probably make more sense to split up. If we worked from opposite ends and met in the middle, it would reduce the chance of an intruder slipping away. But as I said, this place is huge and we’re only two people, the odds of our mystery person eluding us are still pretty good. Not to mention the confusion.”
“Confusion?” Caid tried to suppress his grin.
“Yes. If we separated, we could easily wind up tracking each other. At least together, if we hear or see anything out of the ordinary, we know that it has to be someone else.”
“What an astounding rationalization.”
She frowned at him in obvious consternation. “I think I made some very good points.”
He smiled. “Aye, you did. I’m sure you’ve convinced yerself quite nicely. Did you bring the subject up simply because you were concerned that I might think you liked holding my hand?”
He couldn’t stop his smile from widening, especially when she struggled to untangle her fingers from his, but as they entered the kitchen, he tightened his grip.
“Dinnae be like that. I’m just having a wee bit of fun with you.”
She ceased struggling as her delicately shaped brows drew together in disbelief. “That wasn’t here earlier.”
“What?” He turned to the direction she pointed.
A brass fireplace poker lay dead center on the battered harvest table. On the floor, a series of watery footprints stretched between the back door to the table.
Christ’s sakes. Hillary hadn’t just been frightened alone in an old house, there had been someone else here.
But who? And why?
Posted by Dawn Brown @
1:31 am |
A Day Late and A Dollar Short
Yes, I realize that we haven’t quite reached the end of January and already I’m not meeting my goals as far as trying to blog three days a week. I have to admit, part of the problem is coming up with things to talk about. I try not to use my blog as place to vent a steady stream of complaints. Note my use of the word try. You see where this is going, don’t you? A few things have been getting on nerves lately.
The first, my Internet provider. Last week I call their customer service number because my email was down. The operator who takes my call informs that my email will likely remain down for the next four to six hours and then asks me if I would like to upgrade my service. Now maybe it’s me, but when the product/service you provide isn’t working, I’m not sure this is the best time to up-sell. Kind of like ‘Thanks for calling and telling us our crap doesn’t work, but can I interest you in some more expensive crap that also will not work.’ In case you’re wondering, I said no, and purely out of spite.
Also, I’ve noticed a steady decline in in basic manners. When did words like ‘please’ thank-you’ and ‘excuse me’ became passé? I think I missed the memo.
Okay, enough ranting. Off to work.
Mood: Shaking head.
Music: Voices Carry, ‘Til Tuesday. (Ha, remember them?)
Posted by Dawn Brown @
3:15 pm |
Cool Contest and Other News
My editor at Samhain is putting together a Valentine’s themed contest on her blog featuring her authors. It sounds like it’s going to be a lot of fun and there will be great prizes, e-books and a big grand prize. For details you can check out her blog, and I’ll be sure to keep you posted as I learn more.
The writing (crossing my fingers so I don’t jinx myself) is going fairly well. I’m actually seeing a significant dent in Blood and Bone and my word count for The Devil’s Eye has crept past 40K.
I had a my interview over the phone last week. I think it went fairly well. I did blank on my lead character’s name from The Curse of Clucraig. But I only ‘er’d’ and ‘um’d’ a couple of times before her name finally came to me. Oh, and the cat spilled my coffee all over my desk during the interview, right about the same time he was asking me if it’s glamorous being a writer. Snort! Pretty funny, huh?
Music: For No One – The Beatles
Mood: A little sleepy, actually.
Posted by Dawn Brown @
1:22 am |
The Press Kit
January 15, 2009 | Writing
Tonight I’m going to be interviewed for a newspaper. I know what you’re thinking. ‘She said she was going to work harder at promotion, and looky there, an interview.’ And that would be quite impressive were it true. But the truth is, this sort of fell into my lap by fluke. Perhaps it was the good promo vibes I was putting out into the universe. Oh well, let’s not over analyze the situation.
Anyway, as I was scrambling to get my information together (bio, picture, cover image, book info) I couldn’t help but think to myself I really should put something together that has all this information in one document, something that I could just print out or email as needed, something like a…press kit.
Did I really need a press kit? I only have one book out, I don’t teach writing seminars, I don’t have whack of articles and short stories out, nor do I have any appearances planned at all this year. Yet, I’m starting to believe that if you plan on promoting your book and yourself as a writer you really should have something prepared, even if it is just your bio, photo and book details.
Now to take my own advice.
Posted by Dawn Brown @
1:12 am |
What a Crock!
January 13, 2009 | life
Yeah, I know I said I’d post Monday, but DS is home with the flu so I’m behind.
So I believe I’ve mentioned a few hundred times just how much I hate to cook. Well for Christmas my MIL gave me a slow cooker. Now I must admit, when news reached me that this was what I was getting, I was a little dubious. After all, why would someone who hates the whole cooking process want a tool for cooking? But hey, maybe hubby could use it. 
Anyway, a friend of mine was telling me how much she loved her crock pot, and that something like that would be perfect for someone like me. (Hmm. Someone like me? I probably don’t want to dwell on that for long. LOL) So this morning I gave mine a try.
Best invention ever! Now, given that I haven’t yet tasted the food, perhaps I’m speaking too soon. But I gotta say, if the dinner is even just passable, I will still love this machine. It took me fifteen minutes to throw the ingredients together. That’s right, FIFTEEN! After I turned the thing on and I tidied the kitchen, I just stood there thinking ‘That’s it? That can’t be it.’ But I reread the recipe and, sure enough, that was it!
Anyway, I’ll let you know tomorrow how it turned out.
Writing was going well. Didn’t get much done yesterday with DS home. He’s home again today, but seems to feeling a little better. So I should be able to get a little more attic time.
Mood: Good
Music: Carnival, Natalie Merchant
Posted by Dawn Brown @
2:07 pm |
Resolutions
Well, it’s a new year and with it comes new goals and resolutions both personally and professionally.
The personal goals are pretty typical, I suppose. Healthier living–eating better and exercising more (with the hope of dropping a few pounds) de-stressing, making an effort to keep in touch with friends, that sort of thing.
And I suppose the professional resolutions are fairly typical as well. Better time management. (I was keeping track this week, and it’s surprising how many time wasters can pop up and interrupt your day. But that’s a blog post all on it’s own.) Also, spend more time on promotion. I have love hate thing where promotion is concerned. Sometimes it can be a lot of fun, yet a large part of me resents the time it takes from writing. Still, it’s necessary. And lastly, maintain the blog. I’m aiming to update regularly, Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays at least.
So there they are folks. Now I just have to live up to them.
Mood: Hopeful
Music: None
Posted by Dawn Brown @
1:11 pm |
Happy New Year!
Wow, it’s been awhile.
Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Mine was very relaxing, which was good after such a busy December. Now, I’m slowly getting back into the swing of things.
I’m hard at work wrapping up my rewrites with Blood and Bone. As much as I’m well into the story, I keep going back to tweak the opening. The truth is, the opening scene is not entirely necessary to the story, yet I feel the chapter flows better with it than without it. I’ve tightened it and shifted some stuff around so I think it should work out okay. Only time will tell.
I’m also hard at work on the first draft of The Devil’s Eye. I absolutely love my hero in this story. I took a bit of break over Christmas, but since I started back at it on Monday, the writing has been going very well. I can’t wait to get to it every morning. Keep your fingers crossed for me that the momentum continues.
I guess that’s all for now. Since one of my resolutions for 2009 is to blog more often and with regularity, I’ll be back Friday. 
Mood: Content
Music: Season of the Witch, Donovan
Posted by Dawn Brown @
11:45 pm |
