Aproaching the end of another year

Another few hours and we have to write 2014 onto our checks and letters. Postage in Canada will be going up in the new year, discouraging most people from sending out letters. I haven't been using regular mail for a long time now. Most of the stuff I sent is by electronic means. I wonder about the people who run Canada Post (I'm sure it is no different in other countries). They think by raising postage they will make more money. They sure have no idea about merchandising. Typical government mentality. If you need more money just raise the taxes, no matter the consequences.

Our railroads aren't run anymore efficiently, either. Mismanagement is one of the reasons they don't make money. Too many people collecting huge salaries and too little production. When I was still in business, I sometimes employed a couple of guys who worked for the railroad to help me out temporarily in wiring houses. (I was an Electrical Contractor). They usually worked nights for the railroad, that's why they had the time and opportunity to work during the day on other jobs. They told me they didn't work much on their regular job. They mostly relaxed and even slept sometimes. It meant they had the energy to still work for me and make some extra money. I heard stuff like that a lot from other people who worked for the railroad.

Anyway, I don't want to get carried away with that. I use my personal blog for venting about stuff like that. As for my own progress with my work, I'm at about 25,000 words with the novel I'm currently working on. No title yet, just the working title: Lews Canon. There is never enough time around Fall and Christmas. Hopefully in the new year I'll get more time to write. I've spent some time on it developing different characters and writing down important date so I can keep the story straight. It is a detective story written in a humorous tone. I hope I can keep it going until the end of the story. And I hope my efforts aren't going to be wasted because people may not want to read it.

I just read on somebody's blog about what readers like. Most like romance and paranormal stories, even romantic westerns. Perhaps I should write romance. When I was a teenager I read a lot of westerns and I loved them. I've always been fascinated with that era in time. Maybe I should try my hand at writing a western with some romance thrown in. I'd have to do a lot of studying up, though, like how cowboys talked and things like that. Shucks, I believe I'm gonna strap on my six-shooter right now, jump onto my bucking bronco and hit the dusty road. Sheriff McCalla is waiting for me down by the corral. I reckon I'll be seein' y'all by the ol' oak tree for the hangin...

It was worth a try...or maybe not.

For now have an easy slide into the New Year

I wish you a prosperous and successful 2014.

Happy New Year

When is a poem a poem?

I don’t consider myself a poet, but I do write the occasional poem, mainly for my wife. She is my inspiration. I usually write her one for her birthday, Valentine’s Day, Easter, and Christmas. I’ve written probably over 50 so far. When I told her I want to publish them, she said they belong to her and are not mine to publish. And I respect her wish, but sometimes I make an exception and publish one, like the poem I wrote for her this Christmas. Should you be interested in reading it, please go to my personal blog. ( http://www.hergros.blogspot.com/ ) Much of what I wrote there I wrote here, but you’ll also find the poem.

Writing a poem isn’t much different from writing a story. First, of course, I need a theme, but my heart has to be in it also. That’s why writing a poem for my wife is easy.  I start with a word or line and go from there. Sometimes I sit and wait for inspiration. If I get stuck, I quit and continue the next day. Something always pops up. I may write different short sentences and see where they take me. I try to rhyme the last word of two successive lines. I’ve written some poems with rhyming the first line with the third line. There are probably many other ways to write a poem. The way I write mine works best for me.

Like I said, I’m not into poems and haven’t done any studies on how to write them. I’m sure there are rules. However, sometimes other writers publish their poems on the forums I visit and I must say, I’ve read some awful stuff. Some so-called poems don’t rhyme at all. The writers just make up a string of words, sometimes unfinished sentences, and give them their own lines. This is an example of what I’ve seen (not exactly something I read. I made this one up, but it is close enough to give you an idea):

Ice, Water, cold

Must go swimming

Cold, cold, cold

Wet and strange

Clouds in the sky

Flowers and rain

Beauty everywhere

Snowflakes in the clouds

Fairies dancing

Blah...blah...blah...

Went out into the rain

Saw mud all over the place

Strange, how the sounds make echoes

Everywhere mud and water

Must write a poem about this

Wonderful experience with water

in the can and in the sky

Fell into a puddle

And got wet

And dirty

Crazy people watch

Must fly to Africa (Huh?)

The mantra of the world rests on my shoulders

And it is my calling to follow it

Blah...blah...blah.

I’m not kidding, I read similar stuff like that. It doesn’t make any sense and it doesn’t even rhyme. As far as I’m concerned, any idiot can write garbage like that. Oops, I wrote this. What does that make me? An idiot or a poet. I wonder. Wow! This could be the beginning of something big...Maybe I’m a poet after all. Or maybe another Picasso. Oh, right, he was not a poet but a painter. I never understood his paintings either, but people who apparently know what they’re all about pay millions to buy them. Apparently, it takes a different mindset.  Anyway, I don’t consider that kind of stuff poetry. Unless...? Hmm. Perhaps I don’t understand this whole thing. Makes me wonder...Something to ponder... Hey, that rhymes. Another poem coming up?

SLAP! Let’s get back to reality.

Merry Christmas to you all and may you all have a prosperous 2014 writing many stories, novels, and poems that  make sense.

Changing a title and other musings

After giving it much thought, I changed the name of the main character in the novel I'm presently working on. It is slow going because of other things I'm doing. This time of year is always busy with hunting season just behind me, Christmas coming, and other stuff that pops up. Perhaps I'm not as dedicated to my writing as I used to be. There are many reasons for it progressing so slowly, but I've been trying to write something every day, even it is just a few lines or paragraphs. I have an outline already worked out, now it's just a matter of fleshing it out and writing the story.

As usual, things change as I'm writing the story. New ideas pop up and I'm going with the flow. I changed the name of the detective from Mark Canon to Luus Canon and now to Lews Canon. It makes more sense. You'll see when you read the new posting, or perhaps it is not easily noticed from such a short excerpt. Maybe I'll post a bit more.

I'm at around 19,000 words right now. I have no idea how many words it will take to finish the novel, but as I write more ideas appear and that's how the story moves ahead...one word, one sentence, one paragraph at a time. Eventually I will be done with it.

As I wrote in a previous article, I'm not sure where my writing will take me. I'm going to try with this humorous detective novel to see what readers want. I am sort of enjoying writing this one, but I have to admit, I enjoyed writing Fantasy and Science Fiction more. Somehow I can immerse myself deeper in those stories and they seem to flow easier and better. The erotica adds a bit of spice to the writing.

There are no explicit sex scenes in Lews Canon. Sex is mentioned, there is bantering going on between the male and female characters, but everything happens behind closed doors. We don't enter.

I keep reading that most readers who buy ebooks are women. They like romance novels. And they do like erotica. Just look at the success of 50 Shades of Grey. Not many writers actually understand how such an apparently bad novel can achieve such success. It is an enigma, but I'm sure the writer doesn't care. She sold over 50 million copies and made over 90 million Dollars. Who cares if the novel is badly written with many mistakes. The readers didn't seem to mind or care.

It is doubly sad when I think how many hours I spend editing my novels, making certain there are no inconsistencies and no spelling errors (but they creep in no matter how often I read the novel!), just to find that none of that really seems to matter. The readers aren't there for the kind of novels I love to write. Much of the problem, of course, is marketing. I don't want to spend money on advertising and the sites where I talk about my new and old novels have a score of other writers doing the same thing. Competition is fierce and the members (readers and writers) who belong to these groups don't change much, even though sometimes new people join. They prefer to read certain genres and they will only buy from writers they've read before. If I'm one of those writers I am happy and consider myself lucky.

I know I don't spend enough time marketing my books. If my name doesn't pop up all the time, it will be forgotten. But I'd rather write my stories than spend my time commenting on sites (I do that anyway. Sometimes more often than not) or trying to peddle my books. I always hope somebody sees my name and book in the ocean of other writers and books and I hope this someone likes my stuff. That's all I can hope for. So I'll just keep on writing.

In fact, I should have been writing on my novel instead of writing this into my blog. That's just how it goes. Somehow I always get sidetracked, but I enjoy doing this, anyway.

Free pdf copy

Welcome Visitors.
If you are unfamiliar with my books, please feel free to browse my blog and look through old archives. I will give away a free pdf copy of Book One of the Xandra series, Daughter of the Dark, or should you by any chance already have it or are interested in another book, may I suggest The Xandra, Book 4, Lure of Seduction, which starts the new cycle in the series. But you are free to chose any of my other books, except Book seven or eight in this series.
Just send me an email and I will send you a pdf copy for free and without any obligations.

All of my books are available from Melange Books, except Alien World and Dark World, which I published with Smashwords. Please, check them out. Many of my other books are available from Smashwords. Find them here  https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/Herbert1

 Thank you for visiting and I hope to hear from you. If not, please, come back and visit again. Perhaps you'll find something next time.

Happy reading.

Should I write more Science Ficition or not?

Before I published anything I wrote just for fun. At first it was supposed to improve my command of the English language. Since I loved Science Fiction it was only natural to write in that genre. Later on I added a bit of erotica. I didn't worry too much about being morally or politically correct. I just wrote what popped into my head. Every story was an adventure and a journey that  took me away from mundane life. Then I published my first story. It was exciting. I was even more excited when my first novel was published, even with all the erotica in it. I dug up all my other stories, rewrote them and added more erotica, since that was what apparently sold.

Of course, with all the excitement came a downside. Suddenly, I wasn't just writing for my own entertainment, now I wrote for an audience. I had to follow certain guidelines, be morally and politically correct, use proper English, make certain the sentences were correct and no words misspelled. There had to be consistency in the story and it had to be believable. As believable as one can make Science Fiction and Fantasy. Instead of writing I had to spend (waste ?) a lot of time editing and rewriting. But it was still fun. And I was hoping for the big reward for all my hard work: fame and, maybe, a small fortune. One is allowed to dream a little ^_^.

But now, after having published 28 books, two as an indie publisher, I am a bit disillusioned. Actually, quite a bit. Fame has eluded me, so far. And fortune? Pardon me if I take time out to burst out laughing. It is a lucky thing that I don't have to depend on the money I make from my writing.

The internet is a wonderful thing in many ways. It allows writers, who would never have had a chance to ever get published, to share their work with others. However, with every positive side there is a negative side. Now there are so many books being published that it is nearly impossible to get noticed among the huge offering. It is a dream come true for readers. Books can be bought cheap, some even downloaded for free. A writer has to advertise, possibly even put out a lot of money, for his (her) book to get noticed. And then there is no guarantee the books will sell.

The title of this article is 'Should I write more Science Fiction or not?' Actually, it should read: Should I keep on writing anything? Or maybe I should replace writing with 'publish'. Because that's what it really boils down to. Writing is part of me; I can't give it up, but should I keep on wasting my time with rewrites and editing just to make a novel ready for being published when only so few people actually read the story? It doesn't make much sense. Can I stop trying to publish my books? It won't be easy, because there is a bit of an ego trip involved here. It is nice to see my name on a book cover. I don't have that if I just write for myself. Besides, I like to share my stories with others.

I wrote a few non-Science Fiction books, hoping they may sell better, but was disappointed. A couple of years ago (or was it just last year?) I published a 3-volume contemporary novel (180,000 words): Web of Conspiracy. It took 2 years to write it. I firmly believe it is a good story; my publisher thought so, and yet, sales were pitiful. The same with 'Mark of the Cobra', a contemporary novel full of adventure and plenty of erotica. Bullet of Revenge, featuring a tough detective, Frank Hummer, didn't do that well, either. I am baffled when I see similar books by other authors sell. I've read a few of them just to see what I may be missing, and some of those books are badly written, yet they seem to sell. Maybe I'm writing the wrong stuff, but how can I write something I don't enjoy? Should I write about vampires, werewolves, zombies?

Right now I'm at around 12,000 words with my new novel. It is detective story. The protagonist is Mark Canon, a private investigator. I'm intending to write this one tongue-and-cheek, with a bit of humor. Some people think I have a sense of humor and I can tell funny stories. I'm trying to use that in this novel. We'll see. If you are interested in reading the first draft of the beginning, go here:
Mark Canon.

Dark World, Book Eight of the Xandra series

I finally managed to find the time. I published the eighth book of my Xandra series today with Smashwords. 'Dark World' is actually the continuation of Book seven 'Alien World'. I set the price at $2.99. I also changed the price of 'Alien World' to $2.99. It just wasn't selling. I'm very disappointed. After all my hard work. I think it is a good story, written, of course, for people who love Science Fiction and a little Erotica. Unfortunately, there are so many books available these days and the problem is to get readers to notice your book. Perhaps the new price will encourage readers to buy it.
Dark World is available here from Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/370920

Do you need a website?

As authors we want to get our name and product out to the public. How do we do that? There are many ways it can be done. We make comments on forums, join groups where writers and readers meet. We have blogs and websites. So what to you write about? Obviously, we write about our books, but not every writer has many published books, especially the newcomers. You can't constantly write about the one or even the two or three you may have. Readers get bored with that.

I have 28 published books so far, but even I have problems with what I should write about. My next book is waiting to be published, and I'm at 10,000 words into the book I'm currently working on. I'm not as prolific as I used to be, because I've decided to spend more time with other things I'm interested in. I'm not making a living with my writing, anyway. It is a hobby and sometimes I'm a bit disappointed and discouraged with the few books I sell.

I think I'm a good writer and I try to put out a good and entertaining product. I take my time writing and editing. I advertise on the groups and on my blog. I even have two websites. I have no idea if I actually get any visitors on my first website http://www.hegro.shawwebspace.ca, because it doesn't allow me to install a sitemeter. My latest website http://www.fictitioustales.weebly.com has a sitemeter. In the beginning I received many visitors, but that has fizzled down to pretty much 0 visitors. I spent a great deal of time building the website and it looks great. All my books are listed, with the beautiful covers, I even have a few excerpt, but that's all I can do. I do have a blog with the website, but I am using this one to write about my books and my personal blog http://www.hergros.blogspot.com to write about more personal stuff, things that interest me and things that bug me.

I am getting more visitors to my personal blog, which tells me that people are more interested in me than in my books. And that is fine. I feel honored by the interest.

This all makes me wonder: Do I actually need a website? What really is the use to have one when nobody visits it? It's a good thing it is free, otherwise I'd be wasting my money. Perhaps I should spend more time with it, but then again, what should I put on it if I don't really have anything new to report with my publishing.

I'll still keep the website, because I enjoyed creating it and I enjoy looking at it once in awhile, always hoping other people do so also.

Anyway, thanks for visiting and thanks for reading this far. Come back soon. Perhaps I'll have something new to read. As soon as I find a bit of time, I'll publish Book eight in the Xandra series, Dark World, with Smashwords. Right now I'm busy with the cleanup of my yard and garden.

See you later.

Dark World, Book Eight in the Xandra series

I've edited Dark World and got it ready for publishing with Smashwords. I've even designed the cover already. I was aiming for October, but I think I'll publish it end of September. I'm disappointed with the performance of Book Seven, Alien World. I expected more action, but it isn't happening. Hopefully, when Dark World is published, it will generate more interest in Alien World.

I'm beginning to wonder if I should continue writing Science Fiction. Are readers actually interested in buying and reading it? I've got a few different story ideas, beginnings of stories that I may work on. It's just, I love my Science Fiction. I'm comfortable writing it. When I write a contemporary thriller, it involves doing a lot of research. It is important to get places right, history, things that are in the news, and everything has to be correct. I've never been to New York, for instance. So writing a story that takes place in New York is difficult. I can't just make up street names and other stuff. When I wrote my contemporary thriller 'Web of Conspiracy', I spent a lot of time on the internet doing research about Iraq and other places. I've never been there and I knew nothing about the culture, its people, cities, countryside, and other important information. It was interesting to do the research, but also time consuming. I have to do nothing like that when I write Science Fiction and Fantasy. I can make up anything and make it plausible. It is important to have a fertile imagination, which, fortunately, I do have.

So we'll see what I'll come up next.

Alien World, Book Seven in my The Xandra series

It is done.  I self-published the seventh book in my 'The Xandra' series with Smashwords. Book eight, Dark World, will probably be published in October. It depends how long it will take me to edit and format it.

It took me a year to write both books. Actually, it was supposed to be only one book, but it ended up longer than anticipated, so I decided to make it into two books.

Why did I publish it myself? Well, my publisher, Melange Books, is not accepting any Science Fiction at this time. I didn't want to wait until they are doing so again. Besides, once they accept a book, it takes a year until it gets published. I couldn't wait that long. My last books were published last year, and to have two years without publishing anything is way too long.

I was a bit apprehensive about going this route. My first choice was Amazon, since I published my book 'The published Writer' with them a few months ago, but publishing with Amazon makes the book available only for Kindle readers. With Smashwords it is available in pretty much every format that is out there. Before I sent in my book, I read the guidelines available for free from Smashwords, and then I began formatting my book. It seemed daunting at first, but it wasn't that difficult. My book published without a glitch.

The most difficult part was designing the cover. I downloaded all kinds of pictures from the internet and tried them out in my paint program, since I don't have Photoshop and won't ever buy it. They want about $600.00 for it. Too much money for my budget. I finally bought a picture from Dreamscape and worked with that. I can even use part of it for Book eight, Dark World.

The book sells for $4.99 and is available from Smashwords.
    https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/345117

My new website

I have a new website. I call it 'Fictitious Tales'. Click on the name to check it out.
My old website, which I still have, doesn't do the things I want  it to do. For instance, I couldn't install a visitor counter, so I have no idea if anyone actually visited my website. With the new site I do have a counter. It took me a while to figure out how to set up everything and I'm still learning and experimenting. I'm not finished with it yet, but I've done quite a bit and I think it looks good and impressive, almost professional, if I may say so. Take a look and judge for yourself. Perhaps you can even leave a comment. I think there is provision for that, if not I'll have to look into it.

Update on my work progress

The progress on Book Seven of The Xandra Series is going slow, but steady. I try to write something every day, but there is so much else I am doing these days. I'm at 88,000 words right now. I'm aiming for around100,000 words and I hope I won't go over that. There is still much to write about in the story, but I may just make it.

Review for Daughter of the Dark

From All Romance Books a reader review. Short but sweet.

The Xandra, Book 1: Daughter of the Dark
by Herbert Grosshans

Submitted By: BonDarKen on Apr 25, 2013

Wonderfully exciting.

 

my email address

This post will be up only for a couple of days. It is mainly directed at Ciara.
my email address is hegro@shaw.ca

The published writer - a review

Every writer hopes for good reviews. My book 'The published Writer' got one review from another writer, and I must say I am quite pleased with the praise. Here is the review:

cusstomer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars

(1)

5.0 out of 5 stars

5

0

See the customer review

Share your thoughts with other customers

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-read For Everyone Who Wishes To Get Into Electronic Publishing!! February 28, 2013

By Dr. Johnson C. Philip

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I am a published writer, and I have published a number of Kindle books on this subject, yet I love to read books by others on this subject. A good book helps one to keep in touch with the current trends -- more so when the book is about electronic publishing, which changes by the day.

I must say that I was pleased to read this book. The author has tried to cover a lot of ground and he has succeeded in doing so. Here are my observations:

My Observations:
*** The book helps newcomers to discover all the basics of electronic publishing.
*** You do not have to reinvent the wheel.
*** The author shares a good number of experiences and insights.
*** The author explains the whole subject in a very absorbing manner.

To The Potential Buyer:
*** If you plan to get into electronic publishing, you would love this book.
*** It will give you a very good orientation to the field.

Free pdf copy

Welcome to my blog. As usual, I'll give away a free copy of any of my books. Just send me an email to hegro@shaw.ca and ask for it.
Hope to hear from you.

Amazon is cheating us authors

Amazon has a policy where a buyer can return an ebook up to seven days after they purchased it. That is long enough to read the book. Many people return their book after reading it because they can. That is not fair to us authors who spend hours upon hours writing a good book, editing it and trying to publish it. We should be the only ones to decide if we want to give our books away for free.


I just signed the petition "Amazon Kindle e-Book Return Policy: Stop allowing refunds on e-Books after e-Books have been read." on Change.org.

It's important. Will you sign it too? Here's the link:

http://www.change.org/petitions/amazon-kindle-e-book-return-policy-stop-allowing-refunds-on-e-books-after-e-books-have-been-read

Thanks!

Herbert

Easter

Happy Easter to everyone. Hope everyone gets a bunch of Easter eggs filled with dreams that came true.

I had a little bit of good news. My publisher Melange Books put up my first book in the Xandra series 'Daughter of the Dark' for a free download with Amazon. 581 people downloaded the book for free and it generated quite a few sales already. I know, somebody will say, "What? You gave away 581 copies? That is insane." Actually, it isn't, because it is a form of advertising and it cost me nothing. Out of those 581 some will buy the other five books in the series and possibly some of my other books. Sales I would not have otherwise.

In fact, I'm already thinking of putting up another one of my books for free. The more people get to know my name and my writing the more fans I will attract. Simple arithmetic.

Free book offer

If you are a visitor from Riley Banks' website and would like to know how you can get a free pdf copy of any of my books, send me an email hegro@shaw.ca and tell me the name of my favorite character in the novel 'Iceworld'. It says so in the interview. Then let me know which one of my books you would like.

I was interviewed

I've been interviewed by Riley Banks. If you're interested in reading my
interview please go to
http://www.rileybanks.net/2/post/2013/03/herberts-erotic-stories-are-out-of-this\
-world.html

The Published Writer and a free copy of my books

Anyone who downloaded my book 'The Published Writer' will find a link in it to this blog. I promised readers who would like to have a free pdf copy of any of my books, to send me an email and ask for it. Even it you're just a visitor by chance, the offer also stands. Send an email to hegro@shaw.ca  and ask for one of my books. Please, mention how you know about the offer.
I hope I could be of some help in your quest to publish your book after reading The Published Writer. It is available from Amazon for $2.95

http://www.amazon.com/The-Published-Writer-ebook/dp/B00BHKZBBU/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1361380527&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Published+Writer

Please, come again.

The Published Writer

I took the plunge today and did something I've been thinking about for some time. I wanted to make the first book in my Xandra series 'Daughter of the Dark' available for free on Amazon for a short period of time, but they only do that with books that are in the KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) program. So I wrote a book. A book on how to become a published writer, and I entered it in the KDP Select program. I'm not quite sure about this, but the way I understood from their terms, it will be available for free for 5 days; after that it will sell for US $2.99. But it will also be available for readers to borrow it from their library. I still get paid for every book readers borrow. Not a bad thing. And it will be available everywhere in the world where Amazon has sites. We'll see how it goes.

It is not that complicated to publish with Amazon. I wrote the book in Word first, then I followed Amazon's instructions and saved in in their requested format. The first time is always the most difficult. Now I know what to expect and the next time will be easier and won't take that much time.

I designed the cover myself using the publisher in my Word program. I'm quite happy with it. Unfortunately, when people download it to their Kindle, it will be in black and white, actually, in 16 shades of gray.

The book won't be available for at least 12 hours, perhaps even longer. I'm not sure about the cover and the picture of me on the last page. They may take longer to appear.

Anyway, here is the cover I designed:

MFRW Blog Hop -My First-

Welcome to my blog. The theme for this blog hop is ‘My First’.

I don’t really write romance novels, but in all of my books there is a certain element of romance. Without that, my characters would never have any intimate encounters.

The book I’m featuring here is the first of two books in ‘Stars in Chains’, a Science Fiction novel. ‘Slave’ tells the story of David Stark, who is abducted by aliens and kept as a slave. It is also a story about love. The book begins when David Stark finds again the young girl he met ten years ago. She was his first true love. He could never forget her and she haunted his dreams every night.

Here is a short excerpt:

His thoughts came to an abrupt halt.

A shape on the side of the road.

A girl…waving her arms.

His tires screeched as he hit the brakes. Before he realized it, he had

stopped and backed up toward the girl who came running. He opened the door

for her and she slid into the bucket seat.

“Hi, what are you doing walking on the road at this time of night?”

Looking outside, he noticed there were no houses. Without comprehending,

he had left the city.

She smiled shyly, hooding her eyes with one hand. “I ran away,” she said

with a soft voice. She had a strange, heavy accent. A strangely familiar

accent.

“So you ran away,” he said. Looking at her, he noticed that she was

practically nude. She wore a transparent cape that didn’t hide anything.

She wore a small red cloth around her hips, like a loincloth, to cover

parts of her lower body.

He kept his eyes on the road, but the sight of her shapely legs and nude

white hips made his loins pound with desire. He cursed under his breath for

getting himself into this situation. Picking up a naked girl-hitchhiker was

never a good idea.

“Would you get my cigarettes from the glove compartment, please,” he

said.

She reached into the glove compartment and handed him the package.

“Take one for yourself,” he said.

She shook her head. “No, thank you. I don’t smoke.” She brushed her

long black hair out of her face and looked at him for the first time.

An icy breath seemed to touch his mind as he looked into her eyes.

They glowed softly in the dark. She had the eyes of a cat.

The strange people in the Brazilian jungle. He remembered their eyes.

They had eyes like the ones that looked at him now. The same eyes that

haunted him every night in his dreams.

She smiled gently. Her hand reached out and touched his arm. “Hello,

David. I finally found you.”

Her soft voice awoke something in his sub consciousness. He

remembered a girl—a girl with strange eyes and an enchanting voice. She had

looked after his needs, feeding him and washing him, as he recovered from

his wounds. Sometimes she sat beside his bed and sang for him with that

sweet, alluring voice. One night she came to him…

I hope you’ve read this far and want to read more. Feel free to check out all of my books. Should you like one, send me an email to hegro@shaw.ca and tell me which of my books you would like to read. I will draw a few names from the emails I receive by February 14, Valentine’s Day, and send you a free pdf copy of the book you selected.

Come back again and happy blog hopping.

Blog Hopping

Check out my new page on Blog Hopping. Just click on the menu at the top.