Guest Post & Giveaway featuring Author, Donna Galanti

Hey, everyone! Donna Galanti is here on my blog today, discussing the monsters inside us and also to do a special re-release of the killer thriller, A Human Element. If you'd like to check my review of this fantastic novel, click here. There's also a wonderful character interview of Donna's dark villain, X-10 that you just have to check out too!

We've got lots of exciting things scheduled for today, including a giveaway below. Without further delay, please welcome a talented author and friend, Donna Galanti!

The Monsters Inside Us

(Source)

In some movies and books the monsters are obvious. But are the monsters inside us? 

In my paranormal suspense, A Human Element, X-10 is obviously monstrous. He kills. He seeks blood and revenge. He has no remorse. Yet as we come to discover it’s a combination of his genes and environment, can we blame him?

And sometimes we create the very monsters we fear who are really to be pitied, like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. We can identify with him as we have all felt like an outcast, rejected and unloved at times. Is Frankenstein truly the monster or is it the human who created him?

I believe the true monsters in my book lie beneath the surface of characters that are not so obviously monstrous.

The abusive foster father.
The scientist who tortures his experiment.
The doctor who sells a baby.
The men who kidnap and torture a sailor.

Do they get what they deserve in the end? You’ll have to read to find out…

I created new scenes of the monster, X-10, for the re-release of A Human Element that blur the boundaries of good and evil further for him. We see him now once loved and desired, and in return he shines kindness on the only soul that ever touched him with tenderness. While genes and environment have made X-10 what he is, should he be feared or pitied? Or both? In an interview here with X-10 awhile back, you may fear him more than pity.

New scene with X-10. A true monster?:

As X-10 ran under the full moon, leaping over rocks and roots, darting around boulders he could see her in his mind.

Laura. You are mine.

Then he saw her with her man. Water coursed all around them. Her hair hung wet about her shoulders. X-10 closed off his mind's eye to the scene. It made him feel strange. And in that strange feeling he couldn't define, X-10 hated her even more.

Rage surged through him and his blood pulsed fast, throbbing under his white skin in blue rivers. Why did she get to have her man when he couldn’t have his woman? Why was she worthy and he wasn’t? But Sabrina’s touches had made him feel worthy. Even if they were paid. And she had smelled and looked so good.

The night flashed through him again and he moaned with agony over the loss of the girl who left a hole in his heart. The girl who called him Charlie and loved him for just one night.

After Sabrina’s fear of him had left her, she’d sat down on his bed then. "Why don't we just lie here for now? We can talk, you know. Like real…people."

He stood over her, considering. What would he talk about with a human girl?

She lay down on her side and he did too, facing her. Her blonde hair curved along her breasts like silky strands of sparkly cotton candy. He'd seen a picture of it once being swirled on a stick at a fair. He wondered what it would taste like. What she would taste like.

She touched his face then pulled her fingers away. "When you look at all your parts, you're not so bad."

"A monster."

"No. I've been with monsters."

"Like me?"

She shook her head. "Monsters on the inside."

Even in the garish light she was the loveliest thing he had ever seen. He wanted to touch her, but was afraid of his urges. To hurt and maim and kill. Good guys don't do those things. And she had called him by his name. As if he was a good guy.

No! No good guy!

He was evil to the core.

And hate spurred him on now. Hate would help him survive. He forced himself to run faster through the night. Why did Laura get to live a normal life? He vowed to make her end not normal. And in that end, she would wish she had never been born.

A lonesome dog bayed in the hills above X-10 as if approving his plan. Streaks of moonlight and shadows fell across his face like whip lashes over and over, creating a living painting from darkness and light. He would show Laura darkness like she never experienced, and pain. There would be so much pain. He howled back at the creature that rode alone through the woods as he did. Perhaps they would meet along their journeys.

He hoped so. He was getting hungry again.
Who are some of your favorite monsters? And did they get what they deserved in the end or were they to be pitied and redeemed?

About A Human Element:

Evil comes in many forms…

One by one, Laura Armstrong’s friends and adoptive family members are being murdered, and despite her unique healing powers, she can do nothing to stop it. The savage killer haunts her dreams, tormenting her with the promise that she is next.

Determined to find the killer, she follows her visions to the site of a crashed meteorite in her hometown. There, she meets Ben Fieldstone, who seeks answers about his parents’ death the night the meteorite struck. In a race to stop a madman, they unravel a frightening secret that binds them together.

But the killer’s desire to destroy Laura face-to-face leads to a showdown that puts Laura and Ben’s emotional relationship and Laura’s pure spirit to the test. With the killer closing in, Laura discovers her destiny is linked to his, and she has two choices—redeem him or kill him.

**Get your evil on with this re-release by Imajin Books! Newly edited, new scenes, new cover!**

Praise for A Human Element:

“An elegant and haunting first novel. Unrelenting, devious but full of heart. Highly recommended.”
–Jonathan Maberry, New York Times best-selling author

“Lyrical and creepy, A Human Element tugs on our heartstrings and plucks the gut-strings of horror. This debut thriller author is a true storyteller, highly reminiscent of Dean Koontz.” –Dakota Banks, Award winning author

About Donna:

Donna Galanti writes murder and mystery with a dash of steam as well as middle grade adventure fiction. She is an International Thriller Writers Debut Author of the paranormal suspense novel A Human Element, A Hidden Element (August 2014), the short story collection The Dark Inside, and Joshua and The Lightning Road (Books 1 and 2, 2015). She’s lived from England as a child, to Hawaii as a U.S. Navy photographer. She now lives in Pennsylvania with her family in an old farmhouse. It has lots of writing nooks, fireplaces, and stink bugs, but she’s still wishing for a castle again—preferably with ghosts.

Website: www.ElementTrilogy.com
Blog: http://www.elementtrilogy.com/blog/Twitter: http://twitter.com/DonnaGalantiFacebook: www.facebook.com/DonnaGalantiAuthor

Purchase A Human Element, Book 1 in the Element Trilogy, here: http://amzn.to/1mNcyCOJoin Donna’s Facebook Launch Party today 7/28 from 4-9pm EDT to celebrate the re-release of A Human Element and chat with cool guests + win giveaways!

MONSTERS vs. ALIENS GIVEAWAY!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

***

Thanks for stopping by, Donna!

Well that was a treat, huh?  Did you sign up for the giveaway?  Have you read A Human Element?  

Have a great week!

Mina B.

Guest Post: Meredith Allard, author of Her Dear & Loving Husband

Today I have Meredith Allard here discussing the wicked topic about Researching the Salem Witch Trials. Meredith's Her Dear & Loving Husband is on tour this month check out the details on this magical paranormal love story. Please welcome Meredith!

Researching the Salem Witch Trials 

Leave it to me to decide to write paranormal/romance/historical novels—The Loving Husband Trilabiogy—that were set in a New England town I had never been to.  In fact, I decided to set the stories in Salem, Massachusetts by accident.  When deciding on a setting, I stayed away from the Pacific Northwest and Louisiana in the U.S. since other well-known literary vampires live there.  Then I decided that if I wasn’t going Northwest how about Northeast?  I pulled up a map of the U.S., looked at the Northeast, saw Massachusetts, and there in a little dot near Boston was Salem.  And I knew I found the location I had been looking for.

Being the historical fiction person I am, when I settled on Salem as my location I knew I had to incorporate the Salem Witch Trials somehow.  I did a few Internet searches and read some general information.  Then I went to my local university library at UNLV and found books about the witch hunts.  One of the most important books I found about the era, one that helped me a lot with understanding the era, was The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege by Marilynne K. Roach.  When I’m researching for a historical novel, I take a lot of notes, and I take them by hand because I absorb the information better that way. While I’m taking notes I imagine my characters in that time and place so I could get some sense of what would happen to them in that era.  What would a conversation between James and his father look like in 1692?  How would Elizabeth feel when the constable showed up at her door ready to arrest her as a witch during the hunts?  As I write the scenes I have my notes right next to me so if I need to recheck some facts the information is handy.

I hadn’t visited Salem when I wrote Book One in the trilogy, Her Dear & Loving Husband. But by the time I started writing Book Two, Her Loving Husband’s Curse, I thought it was time I saw the town for myself.  I’m so glad I went. Being in Salem gave me an understanding of the place I couldn’t get over the Internet. It’s a small, walkable place, Salem, but being there gave me extra insights—a Salem FYI. There is a quietness, a calm in Salem that I can’t associate with any other place I’ve been.  It might be a New England thing, or a Massachusetts thing, or a seaside thing. But people are different there. They smile at you.  Say hello.  The coastline along the bay is beautiful, scenic, the bay stretching out into the expanse of the Atlantic Ocean, the trees along the coast adding green to the blue of the water. There are the little boats chugging and bobbing in the waves, caught in the mud at low tide. Those are things I wouldn’t have been able to write about without visiting Salem. 

One of the reasons I love writing historical fiction is because I enjoy the research. I’m fascinated by history, the Salem Witch Trials in particular, and researching is my opportunity to learn about these important times in more depth. 

About Meredith Allard: 
Meredith Allard has taught creative writing and writing historical fiction workshops at Learning Tree University, UNLV, and the Las Vegas Writers Conference. Her short fiction and articles have appeared in journals such as The Paumanok Review, Wild Mind, Moondance, Muse Apprentice Guild, The Maxwell Digest, CarbLite, Writer's Weekly, and ViewsHound. She is the author of the Loving Husband Trilogy, Victory Garden, Woman of Stones, and My Brother's Battle (Copperfield Press). She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. Visit Meredith online at www.meredithallard.com.
Find Meredith on Facebook,  Twitter & Google+

About Her Dear & Loving Husband

James Wentworth has a secret. He lives quietly in Salem, Massachusetts, making few ties with anyone. One night his private world is turned upside down when he meets Sarah Alexander, a dead ringer for his wife, Elizabeth. Though it has been years since Elizabeth's death, James cannot move on.
Sarah also has a secret. She is haunted by nightmares about the Salem Witch Trials, and every night she is awakened by visions of hangings, being arrested, and dying in jail. Despite the obstacles of their secrets, James and Sarah fall in love. As James comes to terms with his feelings for Sarah, he must dodge accusations from a reporter desperate to prove that James is not who, or what, he seems to be. Soon James and Sarah piece their stories together and discover a mystery that may bind them in ways they never imagined. Do vampires and witches live in Salem? Will James make the ultimate sacrifice to protect Sarah and prevent a new hunt from bringing hysteria to Salem again?

Part historical fiction, part romance, part paranormal fantasy, Her Dear and Loving Husband is a story for anyone who believes that true love never dies.

Get your copy on Amazon here!  Want to read an excerpt? Click here!

Thanks for stopping by!

Mina B.

Guest Post: Faith McKay, Author of Prophecy Girl

Hiya, minions!  Today, I'm excited to have fellow author, Faith McKay here on my blog.  She's here as my guest to discuss her recently released novel, Prophecy Girl.  

Minions!...I give you Faith "On the Importance of Enthusiasm."

Thank you, Mina for having me.

I've been told to calm down more times than I could ever remember. I've been told I laugh too much. I care too much. I get too involved. I need to slow down and not stress and play it cool and I never really understand what people are talking about. There was a period of my life where I really gave it my all to do this—to be a more mellow person, more socially acceptable. All this seemed to do for me was grow a healthy sense of apathy. You know what apathy is really bad for? Creativity. I didn't really understand the concept of creativity, because it was just my whole life, until I became apathetic and lost that part of myself. In its absence, I learned its power.

"I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. He taught me that if you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it at full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good. Hot is no good either. White hot and passionate is the only thing to be."
Roald Dahl, My Uncle Oswald

There is this quote, from My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl, and it is a reminder of why it's okay that I laugh so much, I care so much, I become so involved and just enthusiastic—because the alternative leaves me without much idea for what to do with myself.

It's not very prestigious. It's not very dignified, or socially acceptable. But I'm just not sure how to live, let alone how to write, without that white hot passionate drive that gets me up at five in the morning with a document open, typing away as fast as I can, lost in my own head.

If I wasn't so enthusiastic while I pursued my stories, I think I'd be miserable as I approached another day of trying to reach my word count. I couldn't imagine the long and slow process of revising a novel without the enthusiastic need to see it completed.

That's not to say I don't wake up some days lacking that enthusiasm. I may still feel the motivation to work, but I'm not naturally enthusiastic and driving forward with passion. So, what do I do then? I find a way to find that in myself. You'd be surprised what a good air drumming session to a great song (or a REALLY bad one) can do for me. Honestly, banging my head to "Pour Some Sugar On Me" is one of the fastest ways to feel completely silly. A little bit of silliness can be just the ticket to loosening up, and then a quick reminder why I love to write, or about the importance of enthusiasm with that quote from Roald Dahl, and I'm usually ready to enthusiastically have a go at a word document.

What makes you enthusiastic, and what do you do when you lose it?

Faith McKay's Bio:

Faith McKay writes stories about characters with real world struggles in otherworldly settings. She is the author of PROPHECY GIRL, a story where characters struggle with the idea of having a destiny. In comparison, she feels really lucky that her destiny was to struggle with comma placement and be that awkward lady who points out puns at parties.

Other things to know about Faith… She wears two different colored shoes. She is a survivor of child abuse. She has lived with chronic illness for over a decade. A lot of people don't like her because she laughs too much. It's also the reason a lot of other people do like her, so go figure. She listens to more music than people are probably supposed to. She's a nomad. The word sounds really cool, so a lot of people say it, but she actually lives in an RV with her husband and their pet bunny rabbit, Dorian Gray.

Prophecy Girl:

Ever since Samantha Winthrop's mother moved them to Lacuna Valley, supposedly in search of better weather, the list of strange questions she has no answers for has been growing out of control.

Does her little sister, Violet, have the ability to make things happen just by "praying" for them? Are Sam's dreams really predicting the future? Is she destined to marry the boy she just met, and what is the mysterious orb that he's guarding? Why does she get the impression that there are dangerous creatures watching from the woods?

While Sam should be focusing on answering those questions, there is one other that makes them seem almost irrelevant: Is her mother planning on killing her and Violet?

***

Thanks, Faith!

You can purchase Prophecy Girl via Amazon of Barnes/Nobles.
Or check it out on GoodReads.

To learn more about Faith visit her at any of the locations below.

Faith's Website:  http://faithmckay.net 
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/faithmckaybooks 
Twitter:  http://twitter.com/faithmckay

Mina B.