Heather Kuehl is a Character Inspiration Spy

I spy…
By: Heather Kuehl

I’ve been asked how I come up with my characters. It depends on the character. Sarah Vargas popped in my head thanks to a song lyric. T.D. Drake is from my high school creative writing class. Denna Rainerd from my new release Dream Lover is from people watching.

I love to people watch. It’s how I get ideas and create characters. Most writers do it, but I doubt most writers aren’t as rude about it as I am. I don’t try to hide it if I’m caught watching someone. It’s fun to see their reaction. In a way, it shows what type of person they are. Do they quickly look away? Do they glare at me? Do they stare back? It makes me wonder what they would do when faced with adversity. I also like to see how people react to other people. Store clerks. Family. Just like the staring, it tells me so much about the person they are. From there, my imagination takes off.

I also listen to conversations. The ones about little Susie’s school day aren’t the conversations that get my juices flowing. “I wasn’t sure what to do. But since he told me to, I just slit it open.” I still don’t know what that one was about, but it got me thinking. He who? Slit what open? My mind falls straight into the paranormal world of witches and vampires, and this conversation tidbit was just what my imagination was looking for.

Like with most things, people watching takes time. I don’t always see or hear something that strikes my Muse’s interest. But when it does…watch out!

Read more about Denna Rainerd in my new release, Dream Lover.

Dream Lover blurb:

Denna Rainerd has dreamed about Warren Connelly for the past ten years, their relationship in the dream world hot and passionate. Pity he isn't real...or is he? Warren wishes that Denna was in his real world, but a human in his world would be a liability. He's a Hunter shapeshifter; sworn to protect his world from the darkest of creatures while he's focused on revenge for the death of his brother. Their worlds collide when Warren saves Denna's life, setting up a chain of events that will change their lives forever.

Will Denna be able to accept Warren's supernatural secrets?

Buy link: http://eternalpress.biz/people.php?author=273

Don’t forget to check out another one of my new releases, Epiphany.

Epiphany blurb:

Everlena doesn't usually go out to clubs, but one night she decides to, on a whim. She meets Mika, a man who is as mysterious as he is delectable. Everlena doesn't know that Mika has plans for her, or that dark forces are out to get her. Mika is the Fey-King of the Unseelie Court. He's trying to find the princess of the Seelie Court, and is shocked to find her living life as a human. Even more shocking is that this human has no clue Mika’s world even exists. Mika must get Everlena to safety while convincing her that a union between her light court and his dark court is the only way to end the violence.

With danger around every turn, will Everlena be able to leave her human life behind and take her place as a princess of the Seelie Court? Or will the feelings blossoming between Everlena and Mika get in the way?

Buy link: https://sites.google.com/site/heatherkuehl/epiphany


Check out my other books at http://www.heatherkuehl.com

Win a PDF of Malevolent Dead by Heather Kuehl

Curiosity got the better of me, as it always does.

This time, it got me when I was writing Malevolent Dead. I knew from the start of Fade to Black that Sarah looked like Damian’s dead wife Phaedra, but didn’t plan to do anything with it.

Damian would always care for Sarah because she looked like Phaedra, but that was going to be it. Until I got curious. I wanted to know exactly how Damian felt, and I wanted to know if Sarah could ever feel the same way. I was dying to write about the feeling of Damian’s hands on Sarah, the feel of his fangs as they brushed across her skin. I knew that I didn’t want a vampire/werewolf love triangle (wasn’t there enough of that going around these days?); I just wanted one night to find out how gentle Damian’s touch could be.

However there was a complication in the form of Jared. Sarah was head-over-heels in love with him and she couldn’t be with the vampire while her werewolf boyfriend was around.

It’s amazing what lengths I will go to sate my curiosity. To say anything more would spoil everything.


Excerpt from Malevolent Dead, Chapter One (before final edits).

When my phone vibrated at 2 am, I knew it wasn’t good.

As I rolled over to answer it, my mind ran through the list of people who could be calling me. Donavan? Nah. He was on his second honeymoon with his wife, Monique. They vacationed in the middle of the Caribbean. Jared? That thought immediately banished as I had to reach over his sleeping body to get to my phone as it crawled across the bedside table. That left only one person.

“What do you want, Damian?” I muttered as I snapped my phone open.

“Good morning to you too,” Damian said, his ancient accent sliding across my skin and slithering down my spine.

I crawled out of bed, doing my best not to wake Jared. Like I even could. He slept so heavily I doubted that Armageddon could wake him. I slipped into the bathroom and shut the door.

“Why are you calling me?” I asked as I flipped on the bathroom light. Damian rarely used the phone. When I did get a call, usually Dez relayed Damian’s orders. This was different and when it came to the born vampire on the other end of my phone, different was bad.

“I need you to come to the club. We have a visitor that would like to meet you.”
Several things made my spidey-sense tingle. One, I lived in one of the guestrooms at Damian’s club, Malevolent Dead. Damian made it sound like I lived somewhere else. Whoever was there, the born vampire didn’t want them to know I lived with them. Two, who in the hell would make Damian that nervous?

“Are you in trouble?” I asked. I heard Damian grunt.

“Immediate, no. Given some time, yes.”

Peachy.

“I’ll be right there.” I glanced at my pajamas in the mirror. “I have to change first. I don’t think ‘Hello Kitty’ will make a good first impression.”

Damian laughed. Even over the phone I could feel his laughter travel over my skin, making me shudder. I flipped my phone closed, disconnecting the call.

Grabbing my clothes from yesterday out of the hamper and my Walther P22 from the dresser, I quickly changed and combed out my black hair. My blonde roots were starting to show. I had to either dye it again, or do something to make it look good while I grew it out. I liked myself better with black hair, but it represented a part of me that I’d rather forget.

Six months ago I tried to kill Jared because I discovered he was the Were that changed me. No, not tried. Did. I threw the silver knife and delivered a mortal wound that only Damian could fix. I despised myself for letting my hatred go as far as to hurt the man I loved. I felt guilty whenever I saw the scar over his heart.

Jared still slept when I left the bedroom and headed toward a little known emergency exit. I cautiously exited the club, relieved to find no bad guys around. The only person outside was Nyesha, an ebony-skinned witch that sold her sweet grass baskets near the entrance of Malevolent Dead.

“Sarah, is everything okay?” She knew damn well I lived here and could easily exit the club from the front door.

I shrugged. “Don’t know yet. We’ll see.”

“And you’ll tell me, right?”

That woman just loved her gossip. “If it’s mine to tell.”

She nodded, her head dropping back down to the basket in her lap. With patrons coming in and out of Malevolent Dead until the early morning, Nyesha made a killing on our corner. The chilly Charleston air sent shivers up my spine, and I wished that I had thought about throwing on a jacket. I walked around the corner to the main door of the club.

From the outside, Malevolent Dead didn’t look like much. There wasn’t even a sign out front, just tinted windows and a heavy bass pounding from the inside. Humans who came here to dance slowly left as I walked through the coffin encased foyer and upstairs. I heard them grumbling about it closing early. I didn’t blame them. Most nights, Malevolent Dead stayed open until 5am.

I crossed the dance floor and opened the door marked, “Employees Only.” Everyone in the room looked up as I entered.

Damian leaned against the wall, his arms crossed over his bare chest. He wore a pair of dark-washed jeans tucked into black leather boots. A Celtic knot necklace hung around his neck. When his eyes caught sight of me, he smiled and held out a hand.

“Phaedra, my love. Look who’s come to visit us.”

Phaedra?

I was careful not to let my confusion show as I took his hand. He guided me into his arms. I looked up into his plum colored eyes, waiting for some kind of explanation.

He said nothing. Instead Damian turned me to face his guests. A man sat on the couch across from us, backed by five Necrovamps. Icky, disgusting Necrovamps. They were the product of a vampire transformation gone wrong. Their bodies slowly rotted, exposing muscle and bone. Gore leaked from them, creating a kind of snail trail on the ground behind them. The worst part of all were their fangs. Super long, the Necrovamps couldn’t even close their mouths because of them. They were mindless killers and took orders from only one type of creature.

A necromancer.

“Marcellus, you remember my wife.”

The man in the chair nodded. “Of course. How could I forget such beauty? But as I heard it, she died.”

Damian laughed. “Does she look dead to you?”

Marcellus shook his head. “Not at all. How is it that she’s still alive?”

“I changed her.”

Marcellus laughed. “I can hear her heart beat, old friend. I’d say she’s human, but she reeks of Were.”

I huffed. There was something important about Marcellus thinking that Damian’s wife still lived. I decided to just go with it and hoped to God that Damian explained it to me later. “Shows what little you know, Marcellus.” I turned to Damian. “How much longer will you be, baby? I’m ready to go home and the bed is so cold without you.”

I stood on tiptoe to place a light kiss on his lips. Damian smiled as he rubbed noses with me, his hand sliding down to cup my ass.

“Not much, my pet. Marcellus was just about to tell me the reason for his visit.”

Marcellus grinned. “I know you killed the Skyner twins, Damian. Only a fool would believe the lies floating around. Only a fool would believe that two Weres from that dreadful corporation did the deed. You know that it’s against our laws to kill another vampire. I’m here for that reason.”

Our laws? I took a deep breath through my nose and finally picked up the scent I hadn’t noticed earlier; vampire. Marcellus wasn’t only a necromancer, but he was a vampire to boot. This didn’t bode well.

Damien’s voice turned to ice. “Excuse me?”

Marcellus stood and slowly walked over to us. “Since you murdered the twins, I’ve been sent here to be the new lord of Charleston. Your position is forfeit.” He drew a sword out of a sheath on his back. “As is your life.”

Damian laughed. I felt his power flowing out, wrapping itself around Marcellus. Damian’s hand cupping my ass moved up and unholstered my Walther P22. He held the gun up, aiming at Marcellus’s face. The gun wasn’t loaded with wooden rounds, but the shot would still hurt Marcellus. It would slow him down enough for Damian to get the upper hand.

“You are no longer welcome here, old friend. Leave and take your rotting scum with you.”

Marcellus hissed as he backed away. I narrowed my eyes as they left, realizing something important. Marcellus had no intention of killing Damian today. He wanted to draw it out. After all, it wasn’t every day that a vampire was allowed to kill one of their own.

Damian sagged against the wall once they left, dropping my gun onto the polished marble floor. “Dammit,” he growled as he raked a hand through his ebony hair.

I sat in the chair Marcellus had just vacated, waiting for Damian to collect himself. “What the hell?” I asked when he finally did. I didn’t need to go further than that. Damian could read my mind like a book. He knew everything I felt curious about. Damian shook his head.

“Not here. I don’t trust it.” He stood up and walked over to a large black door that led away from the club. I stood and followed him, hoping he wasn’t going to keep me in the dark about all of this. I mean, he was the one that dragged me into this.

“I’m not,” Damian said. “We’re going to my study to speak about this.”
Damian’s study was a small room with a bookcase and desk tucked in the corner. A large decorative curtain hung on the wall, and I assumed it covered a window.

The moment we entered Damian’s study I tore into him. “What’s going on? I thought you were safe? Why is Marcellus after you? How can he be both a necromancer and a vampire? And who the hell is Phaedra? And why did he think I was her?”

Damian sighed. “I hope this will answer your last question.” Damian walked over to the far left wall and pulled the decorative curtain aside.






Grab your copy of Promises to Keep and Fade to Black today, available from Eternal Press and Amazon.com.

Get your copy of Malevolent Dead from Eternal Press on September 7th.


Heather Kuehl is the author of Promises to Keep and The Sarah Vargas Series as well as numerous short stories and poems. Visit Heather online at http://www.heatherkuehl.com/, http://www.heatherkuehl.blogspot.com/ or follow her on Facebook or Twitter.

Contest Time!

Want to win a pdf of Malevolent Dead?

Just leave a comment on this psot with email address

One lucky person will win

Contest Closes Tuesday at Midnight EST

Villian Therapy with Author Heather Kuehl

When I create a villain for a book, I do it as a form of therapy. I mean, how many times have you felt horrible for something negative a person has done to you? Whether it is a coworker, family member, or a friend, I use the feelings I get to create the perfect villain.

Some of my best villains have been created during times of stress. Why? Because it’s the ultimate “teach them a lesson.” My characters can have the snappy comebacks that I didn’t have and in the end show them the error of their ways in a deadly showdown. In the mean time, the person that made me feel insignificant won’t be any the wiser (well, until now that is).

Dreashae was created twice; once when I wrote the original draft of PROMISES TO KEEP over ten years ago and again when I rewrote it for National Novel Writing Month. She was a poor example of a bad guy in the original draft and now I know why; I didn’t have anyone to be angry at. No one ticked me off, no one did anything to make me want to do “writing therapy.” But in 2006, I had a lot to be stressed out and angry about. I had just gotten married five months before, and quickly discovered that my wonderful new husband knew nothing about keeping a budget. Mix that together with stress from work and voila! Dreashae was born. It was wonderful, creating the fight scenes between Dreashae and my heroine Starlette with real anger in my heart. And by the end of the book, I felt so much better. I no longer cared about any of my problems. I felt at peace.

All because I took my anger and channeled it into my writing. A fantastic healing process that didn’t cost a dime.


Buy PROMISES TO KEEP today at Amazon.com or on the Eternal Press website at http://eternalpress.biz/book.php?isbn=9781770650480

PROMISES TO KEEP summary:

Starlette is on a mission, and nothing will get in her way...

Starlette DeFore knows that her father is alive, even though her family buried him ten years ago. When a faerie confirms this she travels to Charleston, South Carolina to hunt down Sivad Night, the only person to have ever escaped from the hands of a power sorceress, the Dark Lady Dreashae. With help from a witch, Starlette travels into Verella a fantasy realm filled with dragons, centaurs, and magic. She is very close to finding her father, but first she must defeat Dreashae. Will Starlette, a mere mortal, have the strength needed to finish her quest and save her father?

Today I'm offering a free pdf of my ebook FADE TO BLACK.

About the book:

The story of when love, revenge, and the paranormal meet and clash.

Werewolf bounty hunter Sarah Vargas has only one goal in life; to kill the Were that attacked and changed her. However a slew of werecreature murders send Sarah and her partner, Jared Fontaine, on the mission of their lives, ending with a discovery about Jared’s past that might destroy them both.

Do you want to win a download of FADE TO BLACK? Just comment on this blog post. One random commenter will become the lucky winner! (contest ends April 5)


~HEATHER KUEHL

Discover a world where dragons roam the skies and vampires own the night…
Visit Heather Kuehl’s blog at http://heatherkuehl.blogspot.com/