Tag Archives: Paranormal Romance

Dar’kind Promises – Secret Twenty

Isobeau is featured as the confidant. She is The Healer. She will help Maura and Zelia in Dar’kind Promises. She has been the protector for Wren in (W/T) Dragon’s Mark. She will be Kiernan’s Love in (W/T) Dragon’s Soul. She is a significant character who will later lead to the discovery of Ardith in Dragon’s Soul.

Her voice is described this way: “Izzy’s voice made you feel good all over. She explained her warn and unusual accent as a combination of native tribal mother and Scottish father.” by Wren. She has long dark hair that falls in waves around her shoulders and back. She has a certain gypsy quality of mystery and freedom.

She is one of the Dragon race and sister to the Royal Twins, Ethan and Caleb. Not many people know that. Isobeau holds her own secret as well.  She has been labeled a recessive. That’s how she was accepted into the Watchers. Her recessive trait is also why when she is taken back to WyrmArach she is sentenced to be given as a pleasure slave. What they don’t know is Isobeau can transform. Like her brothers her transformation is unique and so unusual it must remain hidden forever rather than reveal the abomination she is. Some call her a witch. Some call her a freak.

Dar’kind Promises – Secret Nineteen

The Dragon Guardian is mentioned in Dar’kind Promises. Just who is the Dragon Guardian and what is the significance. She is on the fringe of the story. The villian talks of her and has plans for her.

As the events of Dar’kind Promises unfold the Dragon Guardian is being revealed. Isobeau recognized her some time ago and has been keeping an eye on her to keep her safe. Isobeau is one of the “Watchers” Alas, a secret for another day. Suffice it to say, the watchers have kept the Guardian hidden and safe while she has grown to womanhood. They might not be able to keep her safe much longer. Naturally, the young guardian has no idea she’s being watched and guarded. Cathwren comes from a powerful heritage. Will she live long enough to learn to control her emerging powers?

Wren and Isobeau are friends. Isobeau reads tarot cards at Wren’s shop once a week for clients. Wren is going to have a disasterous date with a man she and Isobeau have nicknamed “Stinking Ron”. Wren’s life is getting ready to change. She has a heritage she doesn’t know about and a destiny she hasn’t chosen.

Dar’kind Promises – Secret Eighteen

The Town.

The setting for this story is identified as a small town in rural North Florida. It has not been named in any published work yet. Where is this little oasis of paranormal wonder you ask? I guess I have hesitated to call the town by it’s real name and I haven’t settled on its fictitious name yet.

Here are the clues. It is about 45 minutes west of Jacksonville. It is about 45 minutes north of Gainesville. Two major highways run from the east to the west through the town. Half the county is federal forest. i.e. a small rural town in North Florida. LOL. There are shops on main street through town. The apartments and stores are made up.  None of the characters in my stories resemble any of the real people who live in that town. The characters are totally invented.

This small rural town is the location of Salynne’s Crystals and Thyme and Thompson, Thornton, and Castellano, Attorneys at Law featured in another story. Can you name that story?

 

Dar’kind Promises – Secret Seventeen

Salynne’s Crystals and Thyme is mentioned in the story. Zelia went by the shop tracking Isobeau. She sensed dragons presence and was able to pick out Isobeau’s trail.

Salynne’s is a curio shop with herbs, crystals, interesting objects, jewelry, oddities. It is a location where Wren does her part for local artists by featuring their work for sale. Magical supplies are for sale. It is owned by Cathwren Aldridge “Wren” for short. The shop is part of the downtown commerce section of a small rural town in North Florida. The shop is the corner of the building. The shops continue down the main street.  The second floor has apartments. Wren lives over her shop. Where did the name come from? My middle child’s first and middle names are Sabra Lynne. Salynne’s was created from that merge of names. I love the way Salynne’s Crystals and Thyme rolls off the tongue.

The shop has been featured in another one of my stories. Can you name the object and the story?

 

Dar’kind Promises – Secret Sixteen

At this juncture I’m more than half way through the reveal of Thirty Secrets about Dar’kind Promises. I have to admit at this point I am wondering what insanity possessed me when I thought up the Thirty Secrets plan. I hope you are finding the secrets interesting and revealing about my world. I have been reading your comments and appreciate the dialogue we’ve created.

So today, I venture into evil to whisper the secrets of the villian in Dar’kind Promises. He is vile, nasty and without moral compass. That’s what the Dragon Race would have you believe. However, that is only one side of the legend.

The villian is the hero of his own story. In his world he is “The Chosen.” His investigation and experiments are on the forefront of the Knights of Druiere’ and their battle against the monsters invading our world. The Knights of Druiere’ have fought against the beast for centuries.

Human kind is blind to the danger lurking on the fringe of their existence. An ancient evil is slowly infiltrating. Monsters have been discovered again. The Knights thought the wretched creatures exterminated. Yet, the ancient writings keep them ever watchful for the return of the Dragons. The Chosen took their existence on faith when the leader of the Knights of Druiere’ recruited him for the battle against evil. When he realized his place in prophecy.

One of the most significant things The Chosen has learned is how to bring the flying monsters down with sound waves. He gave the Knights lost knowledge, like the power of iron to bind the Dragon and weaken it. His research into the physiology of Dragons might provide the secrets that will save the human race.

Dar’kind Promises – Secret Fifteen

There isn’t a direct mention of the Dragon Races in this Dar’kind Promises story. There is a reference from Verucca’s POV. She was old when the royal twins were born.

“Drab robes swirled around the crone’s  legs while she stretched her arms over her head. In recent years movement without pain became harder and harder. She’d been old when the royal twins were born and they were men, grown now. She ignored her creaking joints and made grand sweeping motions in the air, accompanied by incantations in an ancient language.”

Who were the royal twins she’s talking about? One day I will reveal the secret of their birth.

Many generations ago, a class division erupted resulting in the Arach human clan becoming the ruling power and the Wyrm clan the response driven muscle behind the power. The joint distinction faded through the passage of time to become Wyrmarach a bastardization pronounced Were March of the classic WyrmArach world. The significance of the joined name is lost on the inhabitants.

Their world is separated from ours by a wide gulf of difference protected by the veil. In their world order reigns under the guidance of an autocratic matriarch with a very specific view of acceptable moral citizenry.  A Queen whose mind set is so oppressive her own sons were banished as an embarrassment to her rule.

Ethan and Caleb Monroe, the prince heirs, are in a word, unusual. They live among us in exile, charged with enforcing that the barrier between our worlds remains intact.

A messiah is needed to usher in a new era of Wyrmarach understanding and tolerance. Where can salvation be found? The curtain between dimensions is thinning tempting some to look to Earth Dimension for answers. Wouldn’t it be unusual if salvation rested in the hands of a somewhat ordinary human named Cathwren, who turns out to not be very ordinary at all.

 

Dar’kind Promises – Secret Fourteen

Titles are the other challenge that almost defeat me. I struggle to find the title of each piece. The working title for this story was “That Cat Story” for ever so long. It was completely written in draft form before I could find the title.

Of course the story has a happily ever after.  That is a promise I make to readers. Yet, the journey to get to that happily ever after changes the characters. It can be a difficult and harsh journey.

The Dar’kind Fae race are a people of honor. Their commitments are covenants. Maura and Zelia pledge their lives and souls together. “Dar’kind Promises are not broken”.

Dar’kind Promises – Secret Thirteen

Is something I’ve written every really finished? I edit each piece I write, extensively. My critique partner goes through the work and gives me feed back and her thoughts. I edit again. I would guess I have probably been through Dar’kind Promises at least a hundred and fifty times editing. I let it rest and edit some more with fresh eyes. I make probably twenty passes working on format and tweaking words. When I send it off to the editor I feel like I’ve done my best to make it finished. Then she goes through and makes her edits. I receive her comments and I go through the piece again addressing things she has noted. I often find things at that time that I edit some more. Is it finished yet?

At some point you just have to stop and send it. But No, it probably isn’t really finished. I have to let it go. Even now I’ve seen a couple things while I’m preparing these articles. A word here or there. A thought that I should have developed a concept a little more. Perhaps, I didn’t address something clear enough.

The secret is, I don’t think I am ever completely satisfied with the work. I just let go.

Dar’kind Promises – Secret Twelve

Dar’kind Fairy Wings are very different. They are shaped like a butterfly but translucent like a dragon fly.

dragonfly_wing_stock_2_by_mirandarose_stock-d4afd3u

They can be flexible and floaty or stretched tight and rigid. The individual controls the firmness of the wings in response to need and mood. The amount of blood in the channels of the wing membranes controls their texture.  When a fairy needs to fly the wings have to be very tight and rigid.  Yet when they are relaxed the wings can drape and float around their body.

When I was creating the book trailer for Dar’kind Promises I needed a model with fair wings.

color dark haired fairy)

My daughter is a photographer and has Lynn Marcello Photography. She helped me with some of the photographs.

Fairy back dark hair)

Take a look at the book trailer and see what you think of the final result.

Dar’kind Promises Book Trailer

Dar’kind Promises – Secret Eleven

There are two races of Fae people. The Dar’kind Fairy and the Daie’kind Fairy. While the Dar’kinds are dark almost gothic, the Daie’kind are fair and light like the Day.

Dar’kind Fairies were inspired by this piece of art by Anne Stokes. http://www.annestokes.com

dark-fairy

However, the wings are different. But that is a secret for another day. LOL

In the creation phase I gave some thought to making the Dar’kind Fae people very fair and light in odds to their name Dark. They would have white hair. I thought that would be a twist yes.

However, an even bigger twist would be in their natures. The Dar’kind are the good Fae. They are honorable and embrace the light of the soul. The Daie’kind Folk are generally selfish and choose what will benefit them more than the greater good.