Vampire and Florida Panther Shifter - Sea Panther by Dawn Marie Hamilton

Last time I visited Voices From The Heart I revealed my inspiration for a Florida panther shifter and shared an except from Sea Panther. (Unusual Inspiration for Sea Panther) Today, I'm sharing another except from the story.





Robert's initial reaction to meeting Kimberly:

E-book available from Amazon,
Amazon UK, 
  Smashwords, Apple,and Barnes&Noble.
Trade paperback available
at Amazon.

The simple act of returning the woman’s scarf had taken a dangerous turn when their fingers touched. Robert managed to control the vampire by sheer will alone. Nonetheless, the power surge coursing through his veins from the brief contact with the lass awakened the panther. He barely made it to the tall grass on the outskirts of town before being claimed by the transformation.

He chose not to fight the change. He welcomed it with every fiber of his being.

Heart raced. Blood throbbed at his temples and a tortured curse escaped his lips. He discarded his garments and clenched his teeth. Muscles ripped and tendons snapped and bones distorted to conform to the panther’s shape. Coarse golden fur tipped with a reddish tinge rippled over bare skin, making him quiver with urgency.

Nostrils flared, he sniffed the salty breeze. There would be precious few moments for his pleasure before the beast seized complete control.

He darted through the salt marsh, paws sinking into moist earth. His growl sounded out a soul-wrenching lament on the injustice of his life. Robert couldn’t shake the feminine image of the tall graceful woman with brown curls and haunted chocolate eyes. The desire to mate shook him to the core.

Far from the trappings of civilization, he slowed to a rhythmic lope. He hoped no one found the tracks. The headlines would be sensational.

Big Cats Return to South Jersey

Cougar Tracks Sighted in Cape May County

On closer inspection, a zoologist would recognize the smaller pawprints and attribute them to the Florida panther, Puma concolor coryi. Researchers would bombard the foundation with inquiries. His secret would be in jeopardy.

The panther reared its full power and forced away Robert’s human thoughts.

A raccoon moving through the reeds caught his keen gaze. He pounced on the prey. Yet on the fringes of consciousness remained the unquenched desire for his mate.


Hope you enjoyed this wee snippet.

~Dawn Marie

Unusual Inspiration for Sea Panther by Dawn Marie Hamilton

Thursday was release day for Sea Panther, a Scottish inspired paranormal romance. How did the vampire hero become a Florida panther? Well that's part of the story. But I will tell you how I came up with the idea of a Florida panther shifter.

At the very infancy of the story's development, I drove through Southern Florida with my husband. On the way north from  Everglades National Park, we passed one of those signs that read something like ‘Panther Crossing Next 7 Miles’. The idea hit me like a splash of cold water. What if the vampire hero shifted into a Florida panther? How cool would that be?

Florida panthers are beautiful animals, in danger of fading away, and must be protected.

Here is an excerpt form 'Sea Panther':

E-book available from Amazon,
Amazon UK, 
  Smashwords, Apple,and Barnes&Noble.
Trade paperback available
at Amazon.

She nodded and followed Robert along a corridor of closed doors until he stopped in front of a plate glass window. Inside, a young woman fed a small cat with black spots from a baby bottle. Two other young cats sat in an animal carrier on a stainless steel lab table.

“I was told these kittens were rescued from the side of the road after a car killed their mother on a highway south of here,” Robert said with a frown.

The kittens were beyond cute. It was hard to believe they would grow into full-sized panthers. Her nightmare from the evening before replayed in her mind, and she shivered again.

“You are cold.”

“I’m fine.”

He stared at her for a moment then turned. “Come on.”

She followed him along the hall, past window after window where men and women, dressed in white lab coats, worked with test tubes and microscopes.

“All of this in an attempt to save an endangered species?” Kimberly asked when they stopped in front of a closed door. “You must be proud.”

“Aye.” Robert’s cinnamon eyes glistened. “We have field biologists, veterinarians, geneticists, along with other specialists working on a solution.”
“What about your blood disease?”

His hand froze on the doorknob. She took a step back when his hard stare locked on her, his emotions masked. “Doctors and scientists are working on a cure as we speak.”


Hope you enjoyed this wee snippet.
~Dawn Marie

Pre-release Jitters and Giveaway for 'Sea Panther'

Jitters? Yep! I have them. Sea Panther is scheduled for release on March 20th. I'm as nervous as a parakeet being stalked by a cat. Or in this case a Florida panther shifter. Oh, and don't forget he's a vampire too.

Robert MacLachlan sails the Atlantic seeking to reverse the Voodoo he believes turned him into a vampire shifter. One taste of crewmember Kimberly Scot's blood convinces him she is the one woman who can claim the beast's heart and break the curse. But at what price to his honor?

For the full blurb and an excerpt, visit the Sea Panther page at my blog,
Dawn Marie Hamilton Writes


So...to overcome the jitters, I thought the best thing to do was have a Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


~Dawn Marie Hamilton

Cover Reveal - Sea Panther

Sea Panther

A Crimson Storm Novel

2013 GOLDEN HEART® Paranormal Finalist

Coming March 20th

Can love mend a fractured soul?

After evading arrest for Jacobite activities, Scottish nobleman Robert MacLachlan turns privateer. A Caribbean Voodoo priestess curses him to an eternal existence as a vampire shifter torn between the dual natures of a Florida panther and an immortal blood-thirsting man. For centuries, he seeks to reverse the black magic whilst maintaining his honor. Cruising the twenty-first century Atlantic, he becomes shorthanded to sail his 90-foot yacht, Sea Panther. The last thing he wants is a female crewmember and the call of her blood.

Although she swore never to sail again after her father died in a sailing accident, Kimberly Scot answers the captain's crew wanted ad to escape a hit man. She's lost everything, her fiancé, her job, and most of her money, along with money belonging to her ex-clients. A taste of Kimberly's blood convinces Robert she is the one woman who can claim the panther's heart. To break the curse, they travel back in time to where it all began—Jamaica 1715.


I'm really excited to share Kimberly and Robert's story.
~Dawn Marie

10,000 Sales and Counting!!!

by Terry Spear

Marriage, Las Vegas Style

Ebook By Terry Spear

Published: July 23, 2011
Category: Fiction » Literature » Romance - Contemporary
Category: Fiction » Literature » Romance - Adult
Words: 48015
Amazon
B&N

I self-published for several reasons, but it turned into 10,000 in short order!

B & N

Amazon

1. I was giving away my stories for free in my newsletter and readers wanted to buy them to get them in one book instead of reading them as a serialized read.

2. Fans were asking me to write faster, but I already write fast and have tons of stories ready, or nearly ready, to be published.

3. Some were novellas and my publishers weren't interested in anything that short. Some had already sold, the companies have bitten the dust, and I had the rights back. The epub companies they had been with hadn't sold but maybe a couple of dozen of the stories during a time when ebooks weren't as much in demand.

4. Some were novels that other publishers turned down. I'm never one to start something and not see it through. But after a couple of rejections, I'd set the manuscript aside and figure, the next one will make it. I did this so often, that I have a huge stockpile of books.


B&N
5. I'm eclectic, so love to read just about anything, and when I find an author's voice I love, I read everything she or he writes. Some readers are like me and are willing to check out my other works even if they're not about wolves or Highlanders. :)

Lady Caroline and the Egotistical Earl

Ebook By Terry Spear
Published: Jun. 12, 2011
Category: Fiction » Literature » Romance - Paranormal
Category: Fiction » Literature » Romance - Historical
Words: 91825



6. I can't NOT write. I have to write about different stuff as the mood moves me. It's that old saying, "Write the book of your heart." When I do that, I can get it out of my system and continue to write fresh werewolf stories, or fresh Highlander stories without them sounding as if I'm writing the same story over again, just changing the character names. I love my Highlanders and I love my wolves and now my jaguars, but it really helps if I can take a short break and write something else. Or even write something else while I'm working on a longer book and am trying to figure out where to go with it.

7. I hoped that maybe short reads that weren't as expensive might catch new readers' eyes and after giving them a try, they'd check out my other books.

8. I hope that someday I can just write and quit the day job.

9. I love to create new stories and no publisher would publish them as fast as I can write. :)

10. I love being able to write out of the box.


B&N
So 10 reasons turned into 10,000 as I uploaded my very first three vampire shorts the last two days of February.

I made 21 sales on Amazon that first day. More than I had made at one of my ebook publishers in the two years they'd had any of the books.



And the sales would dip and rise daily as I continued to edit books and add them to the growing list of books offered for sale. Until I counted them all up and was shocked to find I had sold 10,000 books already!

One of the reasons I'm self-publishing is that I can. It's like when I was doing embroider work and cross-stitching and quilting and rug-hooking...I had given more than enough to my family members that they couldn't use or want any more. And I began to incorporate that work into original handmade teddy bears that began to win awards. I offered them to the world.

So it is with my writing. I have more than enough stories to share with the world. And now more than ever is the time to do so.

I'm working on revisions to a couple who made a hasty marriage in Las Vegas, and I'm over a quarter way done on writing the new book in the World of Fae series, The Winged Fae. No sense in stopping now!!!




Do you find you have more ideas than you can write???

I have so many partially written books in addition to the fully written books that it makes it fun when I have a break between contracted books to look them over and work on them some more.

Whatever way you go with publishing, never give up! Write to your heart's content and love what you do! Readers will appreciate you for it. :)

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."
www.terryspear.com