What a great Month of Monsters! Thanks, Cynthia, for letting me post about my favorite creatures. I can’t wait for your Night Watch to get here in December! (And not just because I want that chest on my bookshelf 
)
Speaking of books finally landing… It’s almost here! My debut urban fantasy romance, SEDUCED BY SHADOWS, Book 1 of The Marked Souls, officially appears in book stores tomorrow, October 6! (Although rumor has it, Archer’s rippling abs have graced a few shelves already.)
It’s a dream come true. And to think it all started with a nightmare….
Well, not an actual awake-sweating-in-the-middle-of-the-night nightmare, but the story did arise — ghoul-like — from the marshy mists of my imagination where more than one nightmare has been known to walk.
I think the one of the reasons I love science fiction, fantasy, urban fantasy and paranormal romance is that the bad guys can be soooo bad… and they don’t even have to be human. Human monsters are wonderful too — think Hannibal Lecter, for example — but he just didn’t drool enough, ya know?
I like long, jaggedy teeth in my monsters. I also like drool. And stench. I’m no artist, and I don’t have scratch’n’sniff on this computer, but here are some of the unkind critters that have invaded the world of the Marked Souls. I penned them out because I wanted to get a feel for them. Not that you’d want to feel them — eew — since I like weird pebbly skin on my monsters, and scales, and more ooze.
Of course, these little sketches don’t do justice to what’s squirming in my head. I’m a particular fan of the monsters produced by Weta Workshop — who created creatures for Peter Jackson’s vision of The Lord of the Rings — the Nazgul steeds rule! — and Guillermo Del Toro’s freakish beasts from Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy 2. But until I can get them to do my movie (weren’t we speaking of dreams coming true?) I’ll weave words to share the mayhem in my mind.
Here’s an excerpt from “Boys’ Night Out,” the free online short story I use to introduce the world of the Marked Souls, where the talyan — immortal warriors possessed by repentant teshuva demons — fight the resident nasties, including the ferales:
_________________
Waiting for the other talyan to make their way to the end of the block and back along the alley, Jonah crept closer to the building. He kept to the darkness beside the lighted windows. The feralis might be animated by demonic forces, but it still used physical matter from this realm to build itself, so the bright light of the Laundromat should blind it to the destruction creeping upon it.
Or so he hoped. Where demonic forces were concerned, should didn’t always matter.
He peered around the corner. Dear God in heaven. He whispered the words as a prayer, though he knew he no longer had the right. The thing was huge. It stood half again as tall as the industrial-sized washing machines that could easily hold all the talyan’s dirty trench coats. It lurched upright, vaguely humanoid. But no one—even under the influence of more beers than they’d planned to consume, even with the disguises of Halloween—no one would mistake it for human.
Especially since it was missing a head. The hulking shoulders sloped inward, and where the neck should have been was only a moist, gaping hole ringed with finger-long teeth. Where it had scavenged the organic residue for teeth like that, Jonah didn’t want to guess, although the etheric mutations a feralis wreaked on its physical husk could grow even more bizarrely dangerous if left unchecked.
He was the check and balance, he reminded himself. His demon twisted within him, yearning to match itself against the feralis, to drain its malevolent power. He tamped the teshuva down, wouldn’t let it rise past his control. If only Liam and Archer would make an appearance, they’d make sure at least one demon didn’t celebrate tonight.
The feralis huddled—if a thing almost the size of a Volkswagen Bug could huddle—behind the tables where a single sock had been abandoned after someone’s last folded load. Strangely, it had draped itself with a tattered housecoat. Jonah frowned. For all their animalistic nature, ferales lacked the common sense God had given even the lowliest of its constituent parts when alive. A feralis might eat the frau who had worn the coat, but it wouldn’t save the wrapper. Why would one have covered itself?
He moved closer to the window. At least its headlessness ensured it wouldn’t see him. Or so he hoped.
It had snagged a pigeon, recently, judging by the fact that he could still identify the remaining wing, feathers bedraggled but recognizable. The wing stuck up from one stooped shoulder like half a pet bird perched on an eccentric—and headless—housewife.
An abomination. His gorge rose, along with his demon. Every impulse screamed that the thing was a blight and must be banished. The demon was more than willing to oblige. Its fires crowned in him, shifting his vision to the hunter’s black light phosphorescence.
_________________
You can read the rest online at the Borders short story page. How about you? When it comes to inhuman monsters, what do you find most terrifying? Sheer size, like Godzilla? Or maybe tiny, like the out-of-control ants from Them? Speed and animal cunning, like the velociraptors from Jurassic Park? The gross factor, like Alien?
In celebration of tomorrow’s release, I’m giving away two signed copies of SEDUCED BY SHADOWS. Share your favorite icky monster factor for a chance to win!
My Month of Monsters will kick off next Thursday, October 1. I’ve got some wonderful authors scheduled to come in and guest post…here’s just a sampling for the first 7 days:
