Upcoming Books

Since self-publishing Medea as Victoria Bell on June 4, 2015 I have prepared 3 novels and 2 story collections for self-publication using CreateSpace.com.  These five books should be available on Amazon.com as early as next week.  I'm just waiting for the proof copies to arrive in the mail, as I have learned the value of actually having a hard copy in hand before okaying a book being made available- that was lesson one from Medea.

These are the three novels that will be available later this month:

The Subtlety of Light and Shadow- a sort of romance/suspense novel about a young woman who lands her dream job as a public relations/promotions officer at a prestigious Adirondacks art gallery owned by a dark, divided, damaged man named Rex Royce.  There are three other in-house artists with studios at Perspectives. Lucie Palmer is warned to keep her distance from Royce, to not talk to him, but from her very first day on the job their paths keep crossing. Lucie can't seem to do anything right and is somewhat overwhelmed by everything involved with new job. Another of the artists is a predator who sets his sights on Lucie. Tensions rise and simmer, then explode, placing Lucie's life in jeopardy. Royce is on the verge of losing the young lady who has become his muse and the love of his life. Lucie is the only one who knows his secrets. Can they both find happiness together, or will the tension and violence surrounding them shatter their developing relationship?

My Magical Life- Evangeline Teale is a witch who has lived many lives.  In each life that she has lived her evil warlock father has killed her lover before her eyes in every cruel and cold-blooded manner possible. Yet the lovers always manage to find one another in their next lifetime. Now, Evangeline has managed to eliminate her father.  She lives in Maplewood and works at an insurance agency. Then one evening a bat gets stuck in the wreath on her backdoor. She opens the door and frees it and it flies off into her house. She can't find the bat but she does find a dark, handsome man in her kitchen and soon recognizes him as her lover, returned to her in this lifetime, only this time he's a vampire, and not happy about it. He embroils her in a plot to murder her wicked witch mother, help him find an old grimoire that just might contain the spell to turn him back into a living human being again, only the book still seems to be in the possession of the cold, cruel vampire who changed Ardis into a vampire centuries ago. With the help of friends and Evangeline's cat that Ardis has resurrected from the 13th century, a cat who now can talk and is loaded with attitude, they set out to eliminate the threat posed by Evangeline's mother and her cohorts, locate the book, and find their happily ever after.

The Archetypes-First Generation- Amanda Pennington has just buried her renowned geneticist/biomedical engineer, M.D. father.  With her is her longtime best friend Benjamin "Beans" Carter. When they go to her father's mountainside laboratory to start going through his various projects they make some startling discoveries, including the fact that she and Beans are what her father called archetypes- beings he created using various techniques he devised in his lab. As they struggle to unravel the web of lies, deceit and manipulation Leonard Pennington left behind they make additional disturbing finds- they were not his only archetype creations. There were others. Now, someone is out to kill them. Who can they trust? Who can''t they trust? Will they survive long enough to find the answers they seek?

Miss Peculiar's Haunting Tales, Volume I- six tales of the supernatural or of suspense. Shifting Sands is set at an inn on the wild coast of Maine. Lorraine "Ginger" Talbot is at a crossroads in her life when a mysterious man in black and his feline companion check into the inn. Who is he and why is he there? The answer is both a shock and a surprise. In All Soul's Night a mute young woman who is abused by her older sisters and father is pleasantly surprised when an author she likes checks into the inn close to Halloween. During Rowan Hearne's stay a dashing pirate attends the Ghostly Gathering Halloween party at the Hawthorne Inn. The very next morning young Lissa finds her two sisters dead in their beds, their throats horribly slashed. Old secrets surface, shaking Lissa's already shattered world. Drakes Fall Manor is where young Tessie lives.  The walls within her home are full of secret passages and narrow staircases. She longs to explore what lies within the walls. The overseer of this secret domain is a strange little man she calls Mr. Needy. As she reaches adolescence a crisis arises as her mother seeks to have her committed to an asylum. What will happen to Tessie? In  Blackstone's Menagerie (second place winner in the Saugus.net 2014 annual Halloween story contest on November 1, 2014, written under the pseudonym Victoria Bell) Rex Blackstone is weighted down by ennui and depression. His once fabulous menagerie is diminished and is disturbing condition- well past its prime. Blackstone discovers a terrifying truth about himself that drives him deeper into despair. Halloween at the Victoria Wayfarer Inn finds a young woman encountering a number of ghosts at a Halloween party. One of those ghosts wants her dead, because Annabel Payton is more than she appears to be- and she is only just now discovering who and what she really is! Black Rose is about an unpopular girl at school who is asked to host the senior Halloween party at her parent's second empire mansion home because it is the creepiest house in town- plus her father is an undertaker and her mother is the county coroner which only make it all the more scary. Rose meets a mischievous young man at school and develops a crush on him. She invites Kieran Crowe to the party even though all the popular kids in school don't like him. He shows up as a dark, sexy pirate, embarrasses her in front of everyone else. In the garden he apologizes and they discover they are more or less meant to be together, only her father is more than just an undertaker. He is the grim reaper. And Kieran is more than just a high school senior, he is the youngest son of Lucifer himself. Will Rose and Kieran find a way to see one another once he is banned from the house?

Miss Peculiar's Haunting Tales, Volume II- this volume contains three novellas. The Magic of Cross and Crowe is about a pair of popular Vegas magicians. They have a longstanding show on the strip and are very popular. Simon Crowe is looking for yet another new assistant for the solo parts of his act within the whole production. He chooses small town New England girl Tessie "Pepper" Rumford. Crowe has fully embraced the culture of Sin City. He lives dangerously, recklessly. Sebastian Cross is his complete opposite, living quietly, not making headlines, not making waves, not blowing up showgirls in his hotel room, or hurling knives on a whim while blindfolded. Will Crowe end up destroying his new assistant or will Pepper be the one who finally tames the wild magician? The Girl with the Ivy Tattoo finds young tattoo artists and body piercing expert Eveleen Glenrowan working at the well-respected funeral home The Cedars after she is thrown out of her father's apartment and breaks up with her bad boy biker boyfriend. Adrian Frey-Dayne is confident that he's made the correct choice by hiring Eveleen but James and Madeline Mitchell are less enthusiastic about Eveleen's presence at The Cedars. Then Eveleen's tattoo artists/biker father is killed in a terrible hit and run accident. The Cedars will handle Jack Glenrowan's funeral, but Eveleen's former boyfriend still thinks of her as his. Meanwhile. Adrian has developed feelings for the pretty redhead with the ivy tattoo, only Adrian has a secret that prevents him from becoming too attached to anyone. Jack Glenrowan tattooed Adrian when the young man was fresh out of college- giving him a grim reaper tattoo on his right shoulder and upper arm. Hidden in the folds of the reaper's robe is a small red-haired waif with an ivy tattoo! Is Eveleen the girl Adrian has been looking for? Did her father know when he gave him the tattoo? Thunderheads is the disturbing tory of the cruel, abusive, utterly evil Pemberton family. High school senior Jessamyn Pemberton is not like the rest of her family. To escape them, she prowls through the secret passageways and staircases hidden within the walls of the sprawling Pemberton mansion. One rainy day she discovers a strange young man living in one of the attic rooms! This young man has a secret agenda of his own- to destroy the Pembertons. Will he eliminate Jessamyn as well? Or will she be spared the fate set in motion for her family by this young man who has taken on this task on behalf of an entire town and many surrounding communities where so many have suffered at the hands of the Pembertons for generations?

There is a sequel to The Archetypes and a third Miss Peculiar's Haunting Tales in the works.

I am also working with a graphic artist who is designing a cover for the first book in another series I've written. The cover will feature the house that inspired the novel. I have been in love with this particular house since I was a little kid. I was born in Northampton, Massachusetts and grew up in Easthampton, Massachusetts. My graphic artist went to the house to get a photograph and is developing a cover using that photo. I am so excited to keep my projects local to western MA. This area has a rich history in literature. It's nice to be a writer/author working and living here my entire life.

I'd like to just insert a thank you to my big sister, Lynnmarie May, who is also a writer and who has always been supportive of my wanting to write.

I'd also like to thank my daughter, Kelly, who also writes. I've written for her since she was a little girl- children's stories, adolescent stories and now adult stories. She is my biggest fan and my hugest supporter. I just want to say that I am so very proud of her for her own literary accomplishments. She is a magnificent and unique writer in her own right. You rock, Kelly Buffum!