Evoking a Mood--Highland Vampire by Suz deMello (@MFRW_ORG #MFRWHooks #highland)

         I love to write about setting, because setting is a great way to evoke a 

mood in the reader. That may be the reason I love Gothics. Damsels in distress 

in mysterious castles with broody owners...Yum. I used to adore Victoria Holt, 

Mary Stewart and Daphne du Maurier even before I really got into reading and 

writing romance. 

         Here's the beginning of a Gothic I wrote a few years ago, a short story 

called Highland Vampire:

I had fled as fast and as far as I could. I could run no farther than to the edge of the world, here at the northwestern corner of Scotland.

The gloaming was deep upon the land when I found Kilburn Castle. Isn’t that what Scots called it, the gloaming? That mysterious time between day and night, when blue dusk dims the sky and magical beings wander forth.

I let my little rented Vauxhall roll to a stop and considered the broody hulk of a castle high on a hill above the sea, silhouetted against the deepening night. The crash of the waves against the cliff was interrupted by a car roaring out of the fortress’s gate. It sped past me, almost clipping my bumper in its haste, and raced down the hill, its headlights switching on as it traversed a curve in the narrow road. 

Here's what the story is about:

Natasha Desmond is a woman on the run. But the castle in which she seeks refuge may harbor a greater menace. Though she welcomes the attentions of the castle's broody owner, she awakens with two tiny punctures on the side of her neck...

Intrigued? Score your copy here:

               

         http://tinyurl.com/HighlandVampHQ (publisher's site)

http://bit.ly/HighlandVamp (Amazon)

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