Hi all. Thanks for the patience!
The winner of the blog hop is
*dum dum*
NATASHA!
Congrats lady. You win the GC from Amazon and the book!
Big congrats to you today!
Thanks to everyone who participated and commented
:)
Showing posts with label Angels Demons Blog hop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Angels Demons Blog hop. Show all posts
Friday, July 6, 2012
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Angels and Demons Blog Hop!
Longing for a Story of Love with What?
Michael Mandrake
Good morning to all. I’m excited to be here to talk about a story I’m very fond of called Vertigo. The book is the long version of a short I did called Longing for a Normal State of Vertigo for the Riding the Rocket anthology through Sizzler Editions.
When I looked at the submission call by Sascha Illyvich, the editor of the collection, my first thought was to write a story of my main character receiving blinding love and passion from an immortal, something other than a vampire. *shudder*
At that time, I was very new to the genre and wanted to get a shot at being in this anthology by creating something totally new and different from any of the others he might have seen.
When I started writing, my first thought was to make it a historical since my main character Hayden Curry was a scientist from the 1900’s in Britain. Then I thought of the secondary character, David. He had to be someone strong and unique. Could he be a shifter, a chimera as Sascha offered that he might be? Who knows! Honestly, in the beginning, I had absolutely no idea what kind of being he actually was. Just as Hayden was clueless, so was I.
Then, I contacted Sascha later on after the anthology was released to ask him about doing a longer version. When I pulled the story back out of the WIP file, I looked it over and got more of a sense from David almost immediately. What I came up with without giving all the details is an immortal, some kind of angel or demon with powers to read minds, change forms, as well as an endless amount of sexual energy that Hayden takes a lot of pleasure in. *snicker*
So my story really has no mythological basis. It’s a complete fantasy story with the only factual things being the setting of that time period, the clothing of the characters, and the speech. The other thing I truly enjoy about my tale is the love and chemistry between my two men. How they communicate, get through trials and shortcomings during the early parts of their relationship, all the way to the ultimate test at the end which to this day I am astounded by what they asked me to write.
And to think, the basis was really, nothing! What did Hayden fall in love with? An angel or a demon? You’ll have to read Vertigo to find out.
Before I went to my haven, I glanced outside my window. Outside, the rainfall reduced to a drizzle, coupled by slow moving clouds over the moonlight. The trees blew after only a few gusts of winds, ripped the leaves off and made quite a mess on the grass underneath.
These would be the nights I would cherish with him most. After relishing in the afterglows of new inventions and glasses of wine, there were mind blowing affections to follow.
Such a good lover…
Once I got to my place of work, I immediately began searching for the vials I had for the latest concoction. When I did not see them, I lost my head rather quickly.
“Where on God’s green earth,” I screamed and walked from one end of my laboratory to the other. "Where are those samples I just had? Libertina!"
Immediately, the pale and slim maiden with dark hair ran to my aid.
"Yes sir, have you lost something again, sir?"
"I have Libertina. The tubes I examined the night before. They seemed to…oh."
Within moments, my dearest uncovered the missing necessities I searched for, right underneath my novel, The Bounded Scientist.
I shrunk back and smiled wryly. "Thank you Libertina, ahem, that will be all my sweet."
"Yes sir, if there is anything you need, I'll be tending to your clothes, sir." Quickly, she curtsied and scurried off, closing the door behind her.
Ah, what a fine young maiden I have. If I were more attracted to the ladies, then I might give her go, but only gentlemen tickled my fancy these days.
I could not be that upset even in this pitiful state. Not that many people understood me when they came to know me. Throughout the years, many thought they should have thrown me in the local mental ward because of the ideas I'd had.
Nevertheless, my determination and visions had made me one of the most recognizable names in London, apart from the fact I inherited my father's large fortune.
Still, even with all the money and notoriety, I had always felt something was missing from my life. I longed for something new to happen. Whether it was a new discovery or invention it had to be different from what I had already seen.
I looked at the experiment I had been working on for seemingly weeks in disgust. Things hadn’t been the same anyway since Lawrence departed but I was determined to move on with my life’s work despite what happened to him. I had to hold on to the hope he would return.
After around the fifteenth trial of not receiving my desired result, I retreated to my bedroom to sleep. Unlike times before, I decided not to read before bed but instead lay there until my eyes got too heavy.
I hoped the nightmares would not start again since after they occurred I stayed awake staring at the ceilings of my room, often needing a drink of the alcoholic variety to put me to rest. I felt myself becoming rather dependent on the beverages. Certainly, doing this sort of thing would cloud my senses and not allow me to function properly. Many men of science I knew had become like this and I refused to become one of them.
I’ll never.
I always reassured myself that I wouldn’t continue to down this dangerous path, however, everyday, being alone with only yourself to talk with could be a detriment to one’s mental state.
Although fully capable of doing everyday things, I’d come to accept that I was different. After all, for one, I wasn’t attracted to women. Two, I enjoyed reading more than being outside playing in games.
In fact my mom would frequently say that she wished I’d be like “normal” boys and go play ball instead of reading. This from the same woman who didn’t know how to read until after she birthed me. With the help of my caregiver, I taught myself how to read the written word thus showed my mum in the process. Still, even afterwards, she didn’t consider it as an important skill. “I’ve always had people to do things like read for me,” she said, giving illiteracy credence. Totally absurd but true.
If I wasn’t able to read and learn I might die.
Such is true of me, Doctor Hayden Curry. I preferred to have my mind stimulated before anything else. This isn’t saying that I didn’t enjoy the sins of the flesh because I did, but, books were like gold to me, more important than any penny I owned. I’d inherited most of it which allowed me to live the lavish lifestyle and work on experiments instead of seeing patients to cure their ailments. I wasn’t interested in short term solutions anyway. I wanted results that could change the world and mankind forever.
****Comment with email address and win a copy of Vertigo and a $10GC
***Grad prize A Kindle Touch and a 60GC
Check out the other hoppers
Friday, June 22, 2012
Angels and Demons Blog Hop Next Week!
Next week, I'll be participating in the Angels and Demons blog hop!
I'll be giving away a couple of ebooks and swag and the group gieaway is a Kindle or Kobo as well as a $60 GC!
Can't beat that can you?
Tune in next week and comment for you chance to win!
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