The Scenic Side of the Spooky Witch's Tower - Dayton, Ohio Hike

 As promised, my demon hunters, here are the pretty nature photos I took on my hike to The Witch's Tower. Enjoy!

Sheldon and Larry Hiked with Us.

Roadside memorial for 21 year old, Tony

Box Elder Bug

Kissing Bug

Kissing Bug

Me at the Witch's Tower.

Welcome Back & The Haunted Witch's Tower in Dayton, Ohio

It's been a long time, my demon hunters, but I am finally back and ready to share a new tale of terror with you!

Yesterday, I visited Five Rivers Parks and hiked to the infamous Witch's Tower, also called the Lookout Tower, Patterson's Tower, and Frankenstein's Castle. This site is reportedly haunted and a popular tourist destination, drawing visitors from around the USA.

The tower, built in 1941 by the National Youth Administration, is made out of salvaged stone and stands 30 feet tall. The walls are more than three feet thick and an impressive spiral staircase with fifty steps leads to the lookout at the top. Unfortunately, due to a tragic accident in the late 60s and vandalism in the 80s, park officials decided to block entrance to the exquisite tower, removing and sealing the doorway forever and adding iron rebar to all the accessible windows. If you watch YouTube footage, you will see that some enterprising people have gotten around these obstacles, though.

In 1967, 16 year old Peggy Ann Harmeson from Bellbrook and her 17 year old boyfriend, Ronnie Stevens, were caught in an evening downpour in the park. The young couple sought shelter in the tower. Lighting struck the tower and Peggy was found dead on the 11th step; half her body covered in horrible burns. Ronnie was the lucky survivor, though I am sure he didn't feel so lucky losing his girlfriend.

There are reports of shadow figures seen dancing atop the tower and a lady in white has been seen. Peggy Harmeson also haunts the tower where she died.

I went to investigate for myself with a friend and wasn't expecting the ghosts to put on a show for me, but I got more than I bargained for that afternoon. The hike to the tower was a normal one, though it is a rather steep climb. It is very scenic in the woods. The forest is bustling with squirrels and bird life, even in the fall and the changing tree colors were beautiful to photograph. 

As I approached the tower from below, I felt a shift in the air, but I told myself this was just my imagination. Upon reaching the tower and walking around it, I noted however, that all the normal forest noises I heard on the way up were gone. It was like being in a soundproof bubble. I put my hand on the stone of the building and felt it vibrating, which again, could just be psychosomatic, but with what happened on the hike down, I am going to say it was the lasting effect of visiting the tower.

I wasn't able to see much inside the windows, even though, I snapped a few shots. I didn't see Peggy or hear any ghosts and there were no dancing shadow figures present on top of the tower, much to my disappointment. After photographing for a while, I headed back down the steep trail and this is when I started to get woozy and develop a wicked headache. I also noted the forest sounds had returned, after leaving the tower. Thinking to check my blood sugar, I recorded that my sugars had dropped by 60 points, which is unusual for me because my blood sugar usually climbs when I am working out, even if it is just walking. Also, I had made sure I had a snack before I went out to hike the location. The further down the path to my car I went, the more sick I became. I felt terribly nauseous and my head was pounding.

The tower windows.

The missing door handle.

   Upon reaching the car, my friend noticed the driver's side door was locked, but none of the passenger doors were locked. If he had locked the car, all the doors would have been locked, but he left his 20 year old car unlocked that afternoon. He too experienced the same sound bubble, the headache, the dizziness, and the extreme nausea. We both concluded it was the tower drawing off of our energy. We started to feel much better after leaving the park and heading to lunch. 

Can I truly say The Witch's Tower is haunted? Well, I have no factual evidence, only what I and my friend experienced together that day, but I believe there is some unusual activity at the site and it is worth investigating. It is also interesting to note that Dayton is home to many prehistoric Native American mounds, some of which were desiccated by white settlers in the 1800s and a prominent ley line runs through the city. There is also a source of fresh running water in the woods and water is known to be conducive to active paranormal sites. Others have captured EVPs and floating orbs and had their own experiences. It's a haunting and ethereal place and if you have the time and money, I invite you to explore The Witch's Tower for yourself, my demon hunters.

Here are some links for more information on The Witch's Tower:

The Ghostly Tales Behind the Witch's Tower

Hills and Dales Lookout Tower: The Real Story

Tolloween Tales

Ghoul Scouts Present: Specter Inspectors Patterson's Tower

Top of Witch's Tower, Dayton Ohio

Have you ever explored a haunted location? Do you believe in the paranormal? Have you had any interactions with ghosts? I would love to hear from you in the comments below. 

Check back tomorrow for some more scenic nature pics of the surrounding woods.

Stay safe, my demon hunters, until next time.

Bryan Hall on His Novellette: The Vagrant

Bryan Hall is a fiction writer living in a one hundred year old farmhouse deep in the mountains of North Carolina with his wife and three children. Growing up in the Appalachias, he's soaked up decades of fact and fiction from the area, bits and pieces of which usually weave their way into his writing whether he realizes it at the time or not. He's the author of the sci-fi horror novel Containment Room 7, collection Whispers from the Dark, and the upcoming Southern Hauntings Saga. You can find him online at www.bryanhallfiction.com

I've gotten asked about this a few times as the release of The Vagrant approached, so I figure it's time that I talked a little bit more about the series' central character.  Without him, this saga would just be a series of stories set in the south with only their location to bind them together, so he deserves a closer look.

Creighton Northgate lives out of his truck, moving from town to town as he needs to.  You could call him a paranormal investigator, but he would never use the term himself.  He helps people, and he's developed quite a reputation for doing so.  Word travels fast in small towns, and when you're providing something that nobody else can you quickly find that word of mouth is better than any business card.   People hear about the guy who can see the dead; the guy who tracked down a Sasquatch in the Linville Gorge; the fella who figured out why the walls of a church in Alabama bled thick blood every Thursday night.  People hear about him, and they call him for help.  And Crate carries on, travelling to wherever his cellphone calls take him. 

He's not perfect.  No interesting character is.  His brother's death, and subsequent reappearance as a spirit almost every night, makes it hard for him to sleep.  He self-medicates with booze, and what started as a sleep aid has become alcoholism pure and simple.  Knowing that there's more after this life – along with the rough hand he's been dealt – makes it hard for him to empathize with those who are grieving.  And the fact that he deals with those who are grieving constantly, makes that a little bit harder to manage, when you get right down to it. 

And he's afraid.  His brother's constant presence, following him everywhere, is a reminder of a past that he's trying to forget.  One that's cloaked in as much mystery and confusion for him as it is for the readers.  As he starts to peel back the layers of shadow covering his past, as his brother's spirit and his own desire to be rid of his demons keeps growing, he'll be led back to where he came from.  And what's waiting for him there will change him forever. 

A story's only as good as the people in it, and I hope you find that Crate's someone you want to spend a little bit of time with.  Truth is, things are only going to get worse for the poor guy.

Creighton Northgate is a man shrouded in mystery and on the run from a past he doesn't even fully understand. Blurring the lines between vagabond, enigma, drunkard, and savior, he spends his days staring into the southern legends and paranormal events that most only speak of in hushed, half-believing whispers.

In the midst of a sweltering southern day, he attempts to help a homeless man who seems to share his curse; a man haunted by a silent figure from beyond this world who pursues his every step. By the end of the day, Crate discovers that some things are best left alone; some truths best left in the dark. 

This novellette serves as an introduction to the Southern Hauntings Saga and its central character Crate Northgate, a man whose shadowy past is slowly catching up to him. The first novella in the series will be released late summer 2012. 

To find out more about Crate visit www.whoiscratenorthgate.weebly.com.

Buy Southern Hauntings

Roxanne Bland's Blackrose Press

Roxanne Bland Bio: A lifelong fan of fantasy and science fiction, Roxanne Bland began her writing career in 2001. Born in Akron, Ohio, she grew up in Washington, D.C. She received her A.B. from Smith College and her J.D. from Tulane University Law School. She currently works as an attorney and lives in the Baltimore, Maryland area, and is the owner of Blackrose Press.

Thank you, Nora, for hosting me today on your blog. I hope someday I can return the favor.

I’ve dreamed of Doing Something Literary with my life since I was a teenager. Back then, the dream took the shape of a bookstore, the kind where you could drop in, drink herbal tea, eat scones, read in big, comfortable, well-loved chairs, and occasionally even buy a book. The inventory changed over the years, but it essentially boiled down to fantasy, science fiction, horror, mysteries and thrillers. In other words, genres that I liked to read.

Little did I know that after decades, my dream would finally come true, albeit with a twist: Instead of a bookstore, I now own a publishing house.

Blackrose Press opened its doors in 2011. I publish speculative fiction and am especially interested in cross-genre works like my current project, The Underground, a paranormal urban fantasy/science fiction blend. I decided to go POD and ebook because given that I don’t have a literary or publishing background, I figured it was a good way to learn some aspects of the business. Not to mention that I don’t have the space to store 1,000 or so books from a normal print run. At present, since I still have my day job, I expect to publish one, maybe two books per year. Though I’m not accepting submissions at this time, I hope to add more authors as Blackrose matures.

There is a saying that a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. I see my founding of Blackrose Press as the start of a journey. I’m taking baby steps, and I will make mistakes, but I believe that what I learn will ultimately enrich my life in expected and unexpected ways.

Thanks again, Nora!

Check out Roxanne’s blog “Of Werewolves and Other Strangers."     

Between the Covers - Book Review #4

This week's book review is brought to you by this cute, cuddly cat from The Dallas World Aquarium. I've got three picks for you.

1) I discovered Valerie Laken at my local library's fundraiser book sale. When I read she teaches at the university where I started graduate school, my interest was piqued. Dream House, her debut novel, started out relatively slow. If you're willing to stick with the story, the plot does pick up after about four chapters. Its cover blurb is misleading. I thought I was purchasing a ghost story, but it wasn't much of one. It was a great study in character development, though. The writing is good, but honestly, after reading it and putting it aside, the story hasn't stayed with me the way good ones do. Dream House follows a young couple through their troubled marriage and renovation of a house once owned by a family with a dark history of domestic violence. After being released from prison, a mysterious man befriends Kate, the woman of the house, and offers to help her renovate, but he has a secret himself. He used to live there and he knows what happened the night that tore his family apart forever. I'd say this book is worth a vacation read, but don't expect any gothic grandness, paranormal experiences, or a seriously profound ending.

2) Teeth: Vampire Tales edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling was better than Dream House. This young adult collection of tales entertained me. A few stories stuck with me well past when I closed the cover. Genevieve Valentine's Things to Know About Being Dead was a lovely take on Asian vampires. I truly enjoyed the female character in Christopher Barzak's Gap Year, struggling with the coming of age debacle after high school. Delia Sherman delivered a unique perspective from a family of circus performers and lovely collection of cats, my very favorite story in the anthology. And Tanith Lee's Why Light? proved to be a great love story. I recommend this one for all ages and I've been introduced a new author, so thank you kindly, Ms. Datlow and Ms. Windling.

3) Then I read Patricia Cornwell's From Potter's Field, a Kay Scarpetta novel that did not disappoint. I love the Kay Scarpetta series because she's a strong female character who doesn't wimp out for love, sticks to her principles, and works well under pressure. Also, it helps that the other characters are interesting and the subplots aren't boring either. The murders never fail to entertain with their details too. This one deals with the case of a young woman found naked and frozen, propped up beside a fountain in a New York park during the holidays. Scarpetta is on the hunt for the sadistic Temple Gault, a character her readers are very familiar with by now, one that's eluded and traumatized her family, friends, and coworkers, leaving a trail of bodies behind him to shame Hannibal Lector. Will she catch him this time? Read and find out.

As always, happy reading and happy writing to all!

Hauntings by Paranormal Author Pamela K. Kinney

Pamela K. Kinney is a published author of horror, science fiction, fantasy, and poetry, along with nonfiction ghost books published by Schiffer Publishing. Her first two ghost books were nominated for the Library of Virginia Award. Her third one, Virginia’s Haunted Historic Triangle, was just released July 2011.

Under the pseudonym, Sapphire Phelan, she writes erotic and sweet paranormal/fantasy/science fiction romance. One of these, Being Familiar With a Witch, is a Prism Awards 2010 winner and a EPIC Awards finalist 2010! The sequel, A Familiar Tangle With Hell, was released June 2011.

She admits she can always be found at her desk and on her computer, writing. And yes, the house, husband, and even the cats sometimes suffer for it!

Find out more about her at: http://FantasticDreams.50megs.com and at http://www.SapphirePhelan.com for Sapphire Phelan.

Hauntings

“O Death, rock me asleep, bring me to quiet rest, let pass my weary guiltless ghost out of my careful breast.”
Anne Boleyn 

In my current nonfiction ghost book, Virginia’s Haunted Historic Triangle: Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown, And Other Haunted Locations, I report, “History has a way of causing hauntings.” But that’s only part of the reason for hauntings. Modern phantoms still hang around after death, too.

No matter why they still are here, or if they come back and forth, they are with us lingering in our homes and places, at lonely crossroads or crowded bars and restaurants. They are the stars of stories we tell around campfires or before a fire burning in a hearth, terrifying us or awing us in myths, legends, and folklore too.

Who hasn’t said, “Bloody Mary” while staring into the mirror in the hope that a ghost appear? There’s the tale of the hitchhiking woman dressed in an evening gown that’s picked up and climbs into the back seat, giving directions to an address to the driver. But once they arrive at the house, the driver discovers that she has mysteriously disappeared. When he goes to the door, he is told that his hitchhiker is the daughter of the owner of the house, who had been killed just after she left a party several years before, never making it home. Stories like the hitchhiking ghost existed for a long time. Before it was a car, it was someone driving a horse and buggy that picks up the hitchhiker.

What are spirits? In traditional belief, a ghost is the soul of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestations, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely: The mode of manifestation in photos or seen by the living’s eyes can range from an invisible presence, shadow people, translucent or wispy shapes, and orbs, to realistic, life-like visions—solids. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a deceased person is known as a séance. Paranormal investigators use equipment to find proof of paranormal activity and to make contact with phantoms.

Ghosts were often thought to be deceased people looking for vengeance, or imprisoned on earth for bad things they did during life. The appearance of a ghost has often been regarded as an omen or portent of death. Seeing one's own ghostly double or "fetch" is a related omen of death.

Ghosts are also termed spook, spirits, phantoms, fetch, haint (a common feature of southern oral and literary tradition), wraith, revenant, apparition, spectre, shade, and entity. Poltergeist, German for a “noisy spirit,” is for a spirit said to manifest itself by invisibly moving and influencing objects.

Besides the poltergeist phenomena, there are three other types of hauntings. First are residual hauntings. These are a recorded playback of what happened in the past. Maybe it could even be a time warp (one idea of mine, though I can’t prove this, but who knows, a feasible one like any other theory). There is no interaction with the living -- the ghost does not see or hear you because the ghost is not actually there. Only his/her energy remains, it is a remnant of his living form that you are seeing, just like when you watch a video. This cycle continues in the same place at usually the same time of day or year indefinitely until the energy is exhausted or diminishes to a low enough level that it is undetectable by human perception. One account of I know of this concerns the Civil War soldiers that march into Centre Hill Mansion in Petersburg, Virginia every year at certain time in January.

Traditional, or intelligent, hauntings are the second. Whether actual human spirits that had not crossed over into heaven and had some unfinished business with a living person, or a message they wanted to deliver before they could move on, or even those that just want to stay in a place they lived in life or be on our plane of existence (more and more, I suspect they can travel back and forth between here and the “other side.” These ghosts will unlock doors and open windows, run the faucets and even interact with you directly because they are an "intelligent" presence, the personality of a person who was once alive but has stayed behind rather than passing over.

The third type of haunting, and undoubtedly the most frightening, is a demonic, or inhuman, haunting. To me personally, I think when a human was evil in life, they too would be considered under demonic. There have been stories of where priests have gone in to exorcise a possessed person, and instead of a inhuman demon, this one claims to be the parent or someone alive once, tormenting the person.

The entity is similar to a traditional haunting because the spirit is intelligent and are existing in the present moment with you. These spirits are malevolent and hostile, suffering from psychological instability or distress stemming from an unresolved conflict with the people who are being subjected to the demonic activity. Demonic presences tend to be ‘unleashed' in order for them to manifest. This is one reason why the use of an Ouija Board is customarily discouraged among many ghost hunters. So if you find one in the game section of the store, don’t buy one. Not understanding and without protection, one can open up a portal, letting in things they can not handle and most times, demonic in nature.

I enjoy investigating haunted places for my books. Unlike my fiction, I learn things. I learn snippets of history I never knew and most of, interesting stories that seem too unbelievable to be true, but many times are.


Read a chapter from Virginia's Haunted Historic Triangle: Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown, and Other Haunted Locations.

Vampires Suck and That's Why We Love Them by Guest Blogger Billie Sue Mosiman

If you look really close, you might find Billie Sue Mosiman in this picture.

About Billie:  After keeping journals and diaries in her teens and aspiring to be a writer, Billie Sue Mosiman studied English Literature as her major at the University of Alabama. Hoping to experience the Hippie Revolution in 1968 in order to further her writing, she traveled to San Francisco and then to Long Beach, California where she met her husband-to-be. Throughout her twenties and early thirties, she wrote short stories and finally began work on novels. She had three NY agents before going with the William Morris Agency in 1982. Her first novel, WIREMAN, was sold in 1983. In ensuing years, she published thirteen novels and more than one hundred fifty short stories. One novel was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel and later another novel was nominated for the Stoker Award for Superior Novel. She taught writing for AOL online and Writer's Digest. She was an editor, a columnist, a book reviewer, and published articles and poetry. Today she travels frequently and is writing a new horror novel, BLACK WINGS.

Vampires Suck and That's Why We Love Them

by Billie Sue Mosiman

Nora asked me to stick up for vampires since she'd had a guest blogger who did the same for zombies. First off, let me say I like zombies just fine and dandy. I've written a zombie story that you can find in my hardcover collection of short stories, DARK MATTER. (This story will soon be in an e-book collection.)  But I've written about all sorts of paranormal creatures, so I'm an equal opportunity lover of the non-human. These sorts of characters give writers the freedom to explore completely different worlds and even emotions that might be different from what we feel as humans. So I love them all, take that as a given.

Until I wrote LEGIONS OF THE DARK, I had written only of the vampire in a few short stories. I was contacted by DAW Books to write a trilogy of vampire novels and I had to think it over a little while. Though I had admired Anne Rice's INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE, recognizing it as a book that would become a classic, and though I had written vampire short stories, the thought of an entire trilogy of novels seemed a daunting task. Did I love the vampires enough to want to live with them through three or four years of writing? Most importantly for me, did I have anything at all to say new or fresh about vampires? I couldn't answer the last rhetorical question until I wrote the books; I knew that, so that left the questions of how much I cared about vampires and was it enough to sustain me through lengthy works? I finally answered yes and dove into the first of the VAMPIRE NATION CHRONICLES in LEGIONS. I discovered I loved the characters—which is the most important thing to me when writing—and the fact they were vampires had a lot to do with it. They could live forever, given they did not meet some unforeseen accident. They were the repositories of vast amounts of historical knowledge. They had heft, they had weight, they even, in some instances, had duties to preserve and even help mankind. No, they do not sparkle. No, they are not weepy and weak. No, they are not just creatures to represent sex, either gay or heterosexual. These are unhelpful stereotypes. My vampires were great creatures, nearly god-like, with longevity that boggled the mind, and with distinctly human emotions. It always seemed to me that whether you were alive as a human or dead as a vampire, you would still be beset by all your earthly problems and desires. That would not change.

CNN interviewed me by phone for their CNN site when I was writing VAMPIRE NATION CHRONICLES and asked me why I thought people loved vampires so much. I said I thought it was because we are mortals and we live with the notion we would die. The vampire does not die, his immortality is what the mortal longs for deep in his soul, therefore the vampire mesmerizes us; we admire and envy him. For we will all die. We will lie in a grave or become ashes in an urn. We know this and it is a thought we must live with—the hardest reality any human faces. As we read the novels of vampires for a small time we become that immortal being. We live his long, long life, we follow him through centuries, and we revel in his life, even if he is among the “undead.” For that time immersed in the novel we, too, are immortal.

Except for an angel, the vampire is one of the only fictional creations that is truly immortal. Now that I am writing about fallen angels--ANGELIQUE and the forthcoming novel, BLACK WINGS—I have a large overview of writing about the immortal and after a long career of writing realistic suspense thrillers, I've discovered that the immortal is more fun. Whether he has fangs or wings, whether he can disappear or fly, he is not me, he is not US, and as a writer, I can explore all sorts of avenues that are blocked to me when writing about real people.

In LEGIONS OF THE DARK, I was able to explore and examine the vampire life of a young girl just becoming vampire. In RISE OF THE LEGEND the story progressed with her son, Malachi, whose father was human, making him a half-breed—a dhampir. In HUNTER OF THE DEAD Malachi has to hunt down the monster vampire who killed his wife and took his only child. The trilogy gave me a broad canvas where I could carry through and follow generations of vampires. I grew to love these creatures more than ever before because I recognized their humanity and that is what we care about most in our fiction. In subsequent lifetimes, do we grow more moral or less? It was a question I wanted to explore and a trilogy of novels afforded me the time and space to do it.

This trilogy of novels has moved my work away from criminal suspense thrillers into dark fantasy-horror territory and it seems that is probably where I was headed all along. I was one of the first female authors to ever write about serial killers, one of the first to use that term, and I plumbed the subject for many years in my writing while doing copious research and study of famous serial killers. Today I write of a different creature in the vampire and the fallen angel where I can deal with an even greater evil than that displayed by the monstrous human being. In the end it appears my entire career of work deals mainly with evil, terror, the innocent taken too early, the wrinkled, dry, uncaring heart, the corruption of the soul. As I hoped to entertain, I was doing my own exploration of the questions that I hoped to answer for myself--what is evil, are we born into it or do we acquire it, how does a heart and mind allow itself to commit atrocity against a fellow man, where are we going and where have we come from? Is there redemption? Whether I write of the damaged human man or woman or the immortal creature, the questions are all the same because in the end it has to do with the condition of spending time on earth in a body--live, undead, or supernatural.

So I have no quibble with the zombie or the werewolf or the vampire or the angel or the ghost. I love them all equally well, but so far, my work has concentrated on vampire and angel so I can say for sure that we don't have to settle for one or the other, pin all our love on one, or disrespect those who choose an immortal that is not the one we have chosen to write about. We can have them all. We can love and enjoy them all. I know I do.

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What Are You Reading Between the Covers? - #10

Well, it's cold in Wisconsin where I am vacationing. Spring has come to Dallas and I am not there to enjoy it, but it's still under the cover book reading weather in Milwaukee. As usual, I raided the local library the day after my flight home to see my folks. I've read three novels on vacation so far, Nightlight, a parody of the Twilight series by The Harvard Lampoon, Dean Koontz's What the Night Knows, and Nightwalker, the first Dark Days novel by Jocelynn Drake.

Nightlight didn't even take me a full day to read. Whether or not you are a fan of the Twilight series, this is a funny parody. (For the record, I am not a fan. I think Bella and Edward are whiny and annoying. Bella is not a strong female character and Edward annoyed me with how indecisive he was about being near Bella or staying away). The parody plays on a lot of the plot from Meyer's work. Belle Goose is the female protagonist. Her klutziness is even more apparent, which is funny, so is her need to cook for her father. She drives a U-Haul she is obsessed with. Her relationship with Edwart is very dramatic and you can't help but snort at the way The Harvard Lampoon pokes fun of Meyer's drawn out love triangle. However, about halfway through the book the humor becomes a bit heavy and the read gets slower. This is not a book I would recommend for anyone looking for a stellar parody, but it is passable.

What the Night Knows by Dean Koontz was a wonderful read. I really enjoyed this one. The two sisters, Naomi and Minnie were my favorite characters. Naomi is the older sister who still believes in fairytales and knights, while Minnie, the younger sister likes to keep her grounded in stark blazing reality. Minnie's personality is essential to the conclusion of the story. The plot centers around a serial killer's ghost coming back to finish the job he started. Not a new idea, but Koontz writes an engaging plot. And who couldn't love the endearing ghost of the family dog, Willard, who tries to warn them of impending doom?After recently losing a pet, this small detail really touched my heart. I recommend this read, if you are a fan of Koontz. It is more like classic Koontz than some of his newer books have been. It was nice to see him back again.

I was skeptical about Nightwalker, mainly because of the cheesy artwork on the cover. It looked like it was going to be the same type of vampire novel I read before, but Drake managed to freshen up the vampire image with her female character, Mira, also a fire starter. And then of course, there's the naturi, which are her version of the fey. Mira is searching for the naturi to stop them from completing a magical rite that would open a mysterious seal and change the world for supernaturals and humans alike. Along the way she meets, Danaus, a hunter, who has some odd powers of his own. We don't learn what he is in the first book, but I have my suspicions he is not fully human. I would recommend this book, if you like Rachel Morgan in Kim Harrison's Hollows series. Mira could match Ivy fang for fang, in my opinion.

As always, happy writing and happy reading to all!