Confessions of a Sneak

Okay, I’ll ‘fess up. I don’t write Romantic Suspense, at least, not yet. I do write things with lots of suspense, and I have written romance, but I haven’t gotten around to combining them yet.

So why am I here?

Because I snuck in when they weren’t looking, that’s why. You aren’t going to turn me in, are you? I do write good books, exciting books that can get your heart pounding in another way… Let me show you.

THE HOLLOW HOUSE is a cozy murder mystery set in Denver in 1919. Don’t ask me why. I knew nothing about either one – though now I know lots! – but the story wouldn’t let itself be written in any other place or time. The teaser is, “When a murder is committed in her employer’s home, Geraldine Brunton knows she must solve the crime to hide the fact she herself is a killer.” THE HOLLOW HOUSE will be released by Carina on 14 November.

Out now is a tasty little horror novella called LURE OF THE MUMMY. It’s the first horror ever published by Carina Press or, if I have heard it correctly, by Harlequin. Set in my beloved Cairo, LURE is about a down-on-his-luck translator named Bert who acquires an ancient votive cat mummy dedicated to the lion-headed destroyer goddess Sekhmet. It’s just a mummy… or is it? As Bert’s circumstances begin to change, he begins to wonder. Then he looks at the dried-out husk, its wrappings so old and desiccated they are crumbling, and something looks back at him from the bony eye sockets…

LURE OF THE MUMMY had its genesis in two incidents on my latest trip to Egypt last year. In a little town I was exploring while the rest of our group was happily arguing over the hieroglyphs in a small temple, and a strange man appeared from nowhere then tried to sell me a cat mummy. Ick! Then, later, in the Cairo Museum, we saw a number of votive mummies, including the ferocious looking one my dear friend Dr. Salima Ikram likes to call ‘Bad Kitty,’ and the story was born.

Right now I’m working on the revisions of another horror novella, this one entitled TIMELESS INNOCENT. It’s about a not-too-skillful lawyer who has to handle the strange will of some old friends and must deal with a lot of things she can’t really handle, including a crowd of demons.

Awaiting its turn at revision is perhaps the closest thing I have to a Romantic Suspense. It is a Traditional Gothic currently entitled DARK SUN, though I am told that will change. It concerns the daughter of an author of high fantasy novels; she never knew her father, believing that he committed suicide when she was a toddler and might have intended to sacrifice her. His books live on, though, and finally she attends one of the conventions held to honor her father and his works. This particular gathering is at the small college where he once taught, and sponsored by men who knew her father. What she does not expect is the appearance of an old love nor the threat of danger, and especially the fact she must face the possibility that the fantastical world her father created might not be totally fictional.

Both TIMELESS INNOCENT and DARK SUN (under whatever title) will be out sometime in the spring of 2012.

So, not a single real Romantic Suspense in sight, but a lot of pulse-pounding, heart-stopping action and suspense. And a little romance as well.

Ooops! I better go. I think someone just noticed I’m here. Thanks for reading Carina books!