Stephanie Summers - The Writer's Voice Entry

I am ecstatic to be participating in The Writer's Voice competition! So without further ado, I present my Query and the first 250 words of my novel, Craving.

Query:

I am seeking representation for Craving, an adult paranormal romance, that is the beginning to the Willow Creek Vampire Series. Craving is complete at just under 62,000 words.

A small idyllic town nestled in the Appalachian Mountains is home to a thriving community. People are happy, crime is practically nonexistent, life is good…unless you’re Sabine Crowley, who has been chosen to be the next blood bag for the vampire lord who has protected the town from otherworldly creatures for 200 years.

Sabine has big dreams for her life, and none of them include becoming a vampire’s concubine. On her 18th birthday, she seeks solitude to process the cruel turn her destiny has taken. As she sits alone in a park near her house, a sexy stranger approaches her. He’s tall, mysterious, handsome, and a complete ass. He soon reveals himself to be a vampire and she’s terrified of him and her strange attraction to him. She wants to get as far away from him as possible, yet finds herself wondering if she’ll see him again.

Remy, the cocky newcomer vampire, has been summoned by his maker, Bastian, to take his place beside him in the hierarchy of vampires inhabiting Willow Creek. He’s none too thrilled to be stuck in a boring little town in the middle of nowhere where he’ll have to feed exclusively from the girl he’s been paired with. He’s repulsed by the whole situation. 

When Sabine tries to run away from her fate, Remy is forced to follow and bring her back. They’re unwillingly thrust into each other’s lives and reluctantly find an undeniable attraction between themselves. Will they ever look past their contempt for one another and act on their urges? Or are they destined to hate each other forever?

I am a self-published paranormal and contemporary romance author. I've always seemed to have a story or two or ten running around in my mind. At the ripe old age of 30, I finally decided it was time to put aside the thought that I didn't have what it took to write a novel and began writing my first story.

I have since started and finished a paranormal romance, The Willow Creek Vampires Series: Craving. My short story, Love Forgotten, was chosen to be published in Stardust: A Futuristic Romance Collection, due out in May 2014. My contemporary rock star romance, Take Me On, as well as the second installment in the Willow Creek Series is scheduled to be released later in 2014.

Thank you so much for your consideration!

Sincerely,

Stephanie Summers

250 Word Excerpt of Craving (Book #1 of The Willow Creek Vampires Series):

Sabine Crowley sat under the weeping willow in the side-yard of her parents’ home. Her dark hair danced gently in the breeze. Brown eyes focused on the pad of paper in front of her as her hand sketched a scene of Paris. Drawing always seemed to calm her when she had some sort of crisis she needed to hash out. This particular crisis was the biggest she’d ever faced, and she knew it was coming for as long as she could remember. Time slipped through her fingers as she hurdled toward a potentially cruel fate, not the one she dreamed of for herself.

She pondered her future and the two drastically different paths her life could take in exactly three days. If she could manage to get through her birthday without being called or summoned or whatever the hell they liked to call it, she’d be free to do what she wanted, when she wanted. After graduation in a few weeks, she could flee and go anywhere in the world she wanted to go. 

She was an aspiring artist with dreams of exploring the world for inspiration; not some blood bag destined to rot in seclusion while the world outside went on without her. If fate chose her to be the one, she would be confined to a life of slavery, all for the sake of a town she didn’t really care about in the first place.

“Beanie? Are you out here?” Her mother, Vivian, walked out the back door and knowingly scanned the yard.