So, just in case anyone has been living under a rock or otherwise incommunicado for past week, I am very excited to announce that I am having a book launch party for Moonlight Medicine: Epidemic on Saturday, November 8th at the Barnes and Noble in Ann Arbor on Washtenaw from 1-3pm. Woohoo! Did I mention that I'm excited? In the unlikely event that there are people present that I don't know, I plan to start off by introducing myself, talking a little about my larval writing career and my books, and taking questions from the audience. Next I will be screening my two book trailers and a bonus video. I then plan to read a sneak peek excerpt from Moonlight Medicine: Epidemic. Following that will be a rousing couple of rounds of werewolf bingo with fabulous prizes. Finally, we will end the event with a book signing.

Now, if you haven't read the first book yet (Moonlight Medicine: Onset), it is still available in paperback or for the Kindle or Nook on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. I also happen to know of two free copies that are out there just waiting for someone to pick them up.

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?tracker=TB654TB
http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?tracker=TB654T0

Hope to see you there!
:) Jen

Ahoy maties! Another Moonlight Medicine vignette for the pleasure of ye scurvy dogs! This one be named Agents, and she's a fine tale of blood and plunder, of sailing the high seas, of sword fights and treasure! Or maybe I a scoundrelous liar be, and it's just talk like a pirate day. Aye, that be more likely. And if ye don't fancy me tale, then to Davey Jones's locker with ye!




Agents:

Whitmore entered the room looking serious and impatient. His black suit was freshly pressed, his dark hair smoothed back, and his general appearance immaculate. Dark, razor-sharp eyes immediately locking in on Grant, Whitmore strode purposefully over to Grant’s desk and planted his feet.

“There’s been another sighting.”

Grant had surreptitiously watched the other man’s entrance, but pretended to be enthralled by the open chart on his desk.

“Hmmm?” He didn’t look up.

Whitmore’s jaw clenched.

“I said, there’s been another sighting. Another were-“

Grant held up a hand, finally glancing up and regarding Whitmore with his tired hazel eyes.

“Please don’t start that again.”

“That makes four sightings in two months.”

Grant sighed and closed the chart.

“Yes, plenty of crazies out there.” He glanced down at the calendar on his desk. “Full moon too. Nice. Fits.”

Whitmore glared down at him.

“These aren’t just nuts. These are reliable witnesses.”

Grants eyebrows lifted.

“Witnesses who claim to have seen werewolves.”

Whitmore dropped a folder down on Grant’s desk looking smug.

“There’s more. Each sighting was accompanied by a missing persons report.”

Flipping open the folder, Grant perused its contents.

“The people who reported seeing werewolves have gone missing?”

Whitmore slammed a hand down on Grant’s desk causing a widespread lull in both conversation and activity around the previously bustling room.

“No, dammit! Other people have gone missing at the same time the sightings were reported!”

It was Grant’s turn to set his jaw.

“Sit down and keep your voice lowered.”

A brief look of abashment flashed across Whitmore’s face and he sat, but then he straightened his back as his confidence returned.

“You can’t ignore these reports any longer. Three different states, four missing persons. We have to investigate.”

Inspecting Whitmore’s face, Grant could find no crack in his resolve to exploit. He nodded slightly.

“Fine. As long as you promise to say that we’re investigating missing persons possibly related to new gang or cult activity and not investigating werewolves.”

“Fine.”

Whitmore rose and turned away, taking several steps before he realized that Grant wasn’t following him.

“Aren’t you coming?”

“Let me finish up just a few things here. I’ll meet you outside in ten minutes.”

The waves of protest rolling off Whitmore were almost palpable, but he said nothing, turning away again and threading his way through desks and fellow agents to the exit. After watching Whitmore until his back disappeared through the double doors, Grant’s eyes scanned around the room for any sign that he was still under scrutiny due to his partner’s outburst. Once satisfied that this was not the case, Grant opened a drawer of his desk and fished out a cell phone. He pinched the bridge of his nose before typing in the number, and cleared his throat as he brought the phone up to his ear. Marcus wasn’t going to be happy about this.

So roughly seven months ago I blogged about what I was doing for birthday presents for my 6 nieces and nephews (on my side of the family) this year. Here's a recap: For each one I attempted to write a personalized science fiction or fantasy story that had them as the protagonist and tried to impart a subtle life lesson. Not only did this require me to give my writing skills a work out, but it (hopefully) also encouraged my nieces and nephews to READ! Having now delivered all but one of the presents, I can say that each child that had already received their story was super excited for their sibling to open my gift to them on the subsequent birthdays. Now I did "cheat" a little and also included several pictures of me and other family members with the child in question in a little photo album, but still, it was really cool to see them get excited! Anyways, since I feel like I have a few more blog readers now, I'm going to throw down the gauntlet again to all writers and even to non-writers to challenge yourself to make a unique gift which will encourage a future generation of avid readers.

Challenge: I challenge every author who reads this to write a short story not only for, but ABOUT a young person in their life and gift this story to that child to introduce them to or remind them of the joys of reading. After you write the story and present it to its protagonist, then comment on this post to let me know how it was received. Now the actual prize should be the satisfaction of helping to personally introduce a new generation to the wonders of reading, however, this time I will offer up a signed copy of my new novel, Moonlight Medicine: Epidemic (coming out this Halloween) to the first person to complete the challenge and send me a copy of the story (for verification). I hope this carrot will encourage you busy people to get cracking at your keyboards.

Go!

So how many time traveling train stories can one person write? Well, I’ll tell you, quite a few. I didn’t mean to set out writing a bunch of time traveling train stories, it just sort of happened. And here’s how it happened: first, I wrote a time traveling train story to enter in the Amtrak Residency for Writers contest. Unfortunately, I also thought that it would be a good story to enter in the Writers of the Future contest, and it was only after submitting it to the latter that I read the very fine print which said that the Amtrak contest would not accept any entries that had been submitted to other contests.

“Well shoot,” I thought. “I guess I’m just going to have to come up with another idea for the Amtrak Writer’s Internship contest. Hmmmmmmm, I really kinda like the time traveling train idea…. so maybe the same idea and just a different plot. That’s legit, right?”

So that’s what I did. I came up with a time traveling train story that had a completely different plot…and then my husband pointed out to me that the story’s plot was a bit dark for Amtrak.

“Gosh darn it!”

Sigh. So now I have come up with yet a third story idea involving a time traveling train, that also has a slightly lighter plot for the Amtrak residency, but I do still feel compelled to write the time traveling train story with the darker plot, so in the end I will in fact have a sum total of three time traveling train stories. Is that a lot? It seems like a larger number than it should be. Anyways, back to my quantum leaping locomotives.