Shelley Munro Blog

A few months ago I purchased magnetic signs from VistaPrint for my car. They feature Midnight Treat and were so pretty when they arrived my husband suggested I take them on holiday. We’ve slapped them on the rental car. Here’s a photo of shelleymunro.com on tour.

Sally Painter, Margaret Carter and I are guests over at the Midnight Moon Cafe today. There are prizes…

Come on over and say hello.

Woohoo! Midnight Treat is officially out today. It’s a paranormal anthology featuring a gagoyle, a vampire and a werewolf. I’m looking at my own copy right now. In fact, I’ve stroked it a couple of times. It’s very pretty!

WANTED: Kissable bachelor with fangs seeks soft, sexy lady for a kinky good time. Meet me at midnight….

SALLY PAINTER
To Kiss a Gargoyle

Tempted by the half-man/half-lion statue perched outside her high-rise office window, Marcy puts her hot lips on his rock-hard body, bringing the towering, muscular stud to life — along with her wildest fantasies.

MARGARET L. CARTER
Tall, Dark and Deadly

After a business meeting with irresistible leading man Claude Darvell ends in carnal ecstasy, Eloise learns he’s no actor — he’s a vampire — and his seductive bite arouses her erotic appetite.

SHELLEY MUNRO
Curse of Brandon Lupinus

The gorgeous hunk who haunts Jess’s dreams shows up in the flesh, claiming to be a ghostly eighteenth-century werewolf — and together they indulge in some naughty bedroom play that leaves both of them panting for more.

About Gargoyles and To Kiss a Gargoyle by Sally Painter:

To Kiss a Gargoyle is pure fantasy. The idea came to me one day when I was thinking about gargoyles and how I’d like to write a story about them. That was in 2000 and I didn’t send the book out until nearly six years when I brushed it off to revamp for an erotic romance. I always enjoyed the gargoyle cartoons and the idea of being trapped inside a stone statue, specifically a gargoyle statue, intrigued me. Gargoyles are rather unknown creatures of the night and therefore very mysterious. They lend themselves to many stories and each can be very different. Some I’ve written were born as gargoyles, while others have been held spellbound. Also, the rules of their world can all be different. There’s a lot to work with when writing about a gargoyle.

So when I wrote To Kiss a Gargoyle, I thought what if a woman had an office overlooking a sexy half-man, half-lion gargoyle statue hanging off a ledge. For the past three years she’s talked to him as though he’s a real man and her fascination evolves into sexual fantasies about him coming to life and transforming into the man of her dreams. Marcy was the perfect heroine for such a scenario only her fantasies escalate until the statue she’s named Leonardo, becomes an obsession. She’s consumed by a compulsion to climb outside her high-rise onto the narrow ledge to kiss him. Just one kiss is all she craves. So, in that respect, the story is a kind of reverse-gender sleeping beauty - only with a gargoyle twist.

About Vampires and Tall, Dark and Deadly by Margaret L. Carter:

“Tall, Dark, and Deadly” belongs to my “Vanishing Breed” vampire universe, about a nonhuman, non-supernatural species of vampires living secretly among us. I’ve been an ardent vampire fan ever since reading DRACULA at the age of twelve, and even then, I wondered about the “monster’s” viewpoint on the story. Not only did the motif of sharing blood appeal to me as intimate and sensual, I was intrigued by the mental and emotional inner life of a creature who is almost human and yet, in some essential ways, alien. So I’ve always written fiction about sympathetic vampires. When my husband’s SF story “Vanishing Breed” appeared in my first published book, an anthology called CURSE OF THE UNDEAD (1970), I loved the idea of vampires as a natural species and was eventually inspired to convert my fictional vampires from the traditional undead into the SF type.

Claude in “Tall, Dark, and Deadly” is the half-brother of Roger Darvell, the vampire-human hybrid protagonist of my first vampire novel, DARK CHANGELING. Claude, however, was originally created independently in a short wish-fulfillment tale many years earlier, about a writer who meets an actor at a convention and finds out he’s a ravishing vampire. Claude began as a sort of Christopher Lee type of actor, and I still visualize his physical appearance as a cross between Lee in the early Hammer Dracula films and a young Lord Byron. The female writer in that story was a pure Mary Sue character. Eloise, as she eventually grew into the character who now appears in “Tall, Dark, and Deadly” as well as in CHILD OF TWILIGHT (sequel to DARK CHANGELING), remained an idealized version of myself—better looking, more confident, and more successful.

The complete chronology of the “Vanishing Breed” universe appears on my website.

About Werewolves, Ghosts and Curse of Brandon Lupinus by Shelley Munro:

I love ghost stories. I also love werewolf stories, and it came to me one day in a flash of brilliance. Why don’t I combine the two story elements? Once the original idea came to me, I embellished it in my head, as I do during the plotting stage. I thought about a man and a curse. I thought about the setting and decided an old estate in a British village would work nicely. I thought about my favorite historical time period, which is Georgian, by the way. I thought about an old ghost poem my mother used to read to her classes when she was a schoolteacher. Finally, I stirred all these ideas together and Curse of Brandon Lupinus was born.

Brandon Lupinus suffers from a curse and is forced to stay at his old estate, never seen, but sometimes his howls echo through the hills. The locals whisper of ghosts and wolves. None of this frightens Jess Whittlebury who falls in love with the estate and spends time lovingly restoring the old house. Jess fascinates Brandon and then he discovers she can sense him, feel his presence. If only he could break the curse…

Purchase your copy at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Fishpond or your favorite book store.

I have a new cover for Cat and Mouse, the fifth book in my Middlemarch Mates series. It will come out on 1 October from Ellora’s Cave. Here’s the blurb:

Every woman has sexual needs. Lana Sinclair, feline shapeshifter and widow, is more than ready for a fun night with a likeminded male. Hot lovin’ is compulsory because she’s determined to scratch the itch that’s driving her crazy. This time, career-girl Lana is picking a malleable male who won’t try to corral her into the housewife role.

Fellow shifter Duncan Ross is the perfect candidate. The cowboy follows the rodeo circuit and is only in Middlemarch for the bull riding. One night of mutual seduction, slick, naked bodies and pleasure then he’ll be on his way.

Duncan is astonished when Lana propositions him, but no one could ever call him stupid. He’s always desired Lana and now that she’s ready for sex, he’s all action. It’s time to lasso the woman of his dreams with some sweet lovin’ and charm, a sexy massage and ropes spliced together with addictive pleasure. He’ll seduce her to his way of thinking—a permanent arrangement. This is one go-round Duncan is determined to win.

I’m giving away a copy of Midnight Treat over at Author Island today - that’s the anthology with Sally Painter, Margaret Carter and me. (cover in the sidebar to the right) Make sure you hop on over and enter the contest. The winner will receive a print copy of the anthology just as soon as I get my hands on one. This book hits the shelves on June 10 2008.

I have a new interview up at The Romance Studio this month featuring my latest release Wanderlust.

What’s next for me? My next release is called Lovers at Last, and it’s a friends to lovers story, which is one of my favorite plots. Read an excerpt here. Lovers at Last is out on 4 June from Ellora’s Cave.

June 10 is also the release date for Midnight Treat anthology, featuring my story Curse of Brandon Lupinus. It’s already available for pre-order from Amazon and other online bookstores, including Fishpond (for NZ and Australian readers).

I’ll leave you with a video of The Feelers and their song Stand Up. The Feelers are a New Zealand band and their song is currently playing on my ipod. The video was shot in Downtown Auckland.