'Into a Vault of Blood' Is Now Available on Amazon

-

Into a Vault of Blood, book #3 in the Pearl Dragon novella series, is now available on Amazon and Amazon Kindle Unlimited!



The blurb

New Orleans. A city brimming with spiritual energy and magic.

Art thief Pearl Tham is lured out of hiding. The Fortingris werewolves might still be after her for what she did in France, but the promise of long-lost treasure is too tempting. 

She travels to a Haitian vodou shop in New Orleans expecting to learn the location of a painting she’s long wanted. Instead, she finds trouble of the worst kind. It isn’t in her nature to run, so she does what she does best: go into full battle mode. 

The problem is, she’s fighting the most bloodthirsty of the supernatural entities that call New Orleans home.

Laissez les bons temps rouler. Let the good times roll. 

Dive into this fast-paced adventure if you love strong female antiheroes, monster slaying, high stakes, werewolves, and vampires. 


***********************************


These novellas are a spin-off of my Geomancer’s Apprentice series. They feature the early adventures of Pearl Tham, a side character in The Geomancer's Apprentice books. 

If you haven’t already, please check out books 1 and 2 here:

Offerings for the Dead

Under a Hunter’s Moon

If you do read and enjoy the books, I hope you can leave a review and/or a rating on Amazon, Goodreads, BookBub, or another platform of your choice. Reviews and ratings raise a book's visibility, and help other readers to find me and my work. Thank you in advance!    


Here’s a snippet from Into a Vault of Blood



They took a taxi to New Orleans’s Bywater neighborhood, which was famous for its quaint and colorful Creole cottages and shotgun homes. Gabriel directed the cab driver to the poorer part of the area, where the paint on the houses was faded, and weeds sprang from cracks in the sidewalks and roads.

The cab dropped them at a pale blue shotgun house with bright pink trim. The door and window shutters matched the trim. Several banana plants with pendants of yellow fruit grew in the front garden. A hibiscus with red blooms drooped in a cracked clay pot beside the steps leading up to the front door.

Pearl stared doubtfully at the house. It didn’t look much different from its neighbors. Nothing designated it as the home of a powerful New Orleans Vodou high priestess. She wondered whether Gabriel was taking her for a ride.

Gabriel’s shoulders drooped as he trudged up to the door. His hand shook when he knocked.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Asian Myth of the Queen of the Night Cactus

-
Image
I couldn’t resist buying this little Easter cactus. I’ve never seen blooms this color on these plants. Aren’t the flowers pretty? I’ve got a thing about Easter and Christmas cacti because they remind me of a very special plant in Asia. It’s the “tan hua” or “keng hua” (in Hokkien, a southern Chinese dialect). The plant is a night-blooming cereus (epiphyllum oxypetalum) also known as Dutchman’s Pipe or Queen of the Night. You may have seen a reference to the plant in Kevin Kwan’s book, Crazy Rich Asians , or the movie . The main character’s future in-laws throw a party to celebrate the blooming of their tan hua. Epiphyllum Oxypetalum The tan hua has blossoms that can grow up to 6 inches across. The white flowers have a very heady scent (the better to attract moths and other pollinators). The flowers bloom only at night, and they last just for that night. The plant is special not only because its flowers are so beautiful. Some people believe your household will have good luck and pro...
Read more

'Jiangshi': the Hopping Vampire in Chinese Folklore

-
Image
My latest book  The Corpse Ritual features a vampire-like Chinese folklore monster that some of you may recognize. It’s a “jiangshi,” which means “stiff corpse” in Mandarin. Those of you who’ve watched the Mr. Vampire Hong Kong comedy movies from the 1980s will be familiar with this creature. It’s basically a reanimated corpse. Its appearance depends on how long it’s been dead. It hops because its limbs are stiff from rigor mortis.  In Chinese popular culture, the jiangshi usually is shown wearing clothes from the Qing Dynasty (1644 to 1911). Although it’s called a “vampire” in the movies, there are major differences between a jiangshi and a vampire.  A jiangshi— doesn’t drink blood. It sucks a person’s life essence, or qi. isn’t good-looking or suave. behaves more like a zombie. doesn’t turn into a bat. doesn’t command other creatures of the night. doesn’t sparkle in daylight and won’t ever get the girl (or guy). The hopping corpse folklore supposedly dates b...
Read more

The Nightmarish Demon Child of Southeast Asian Folklore

-
Image
In a nod to the Halloween season, I’d like to talk about what I consider one of the creepiest creatures in Southeast Asian folklore—the toyol. Some of you may already know what that is. A toyol is the spirit (some say zombie) of a fetus who died before he or she could be born. To create a toyol, a bomoh (a witch doctor or shaman from Malaysia or Indonesia) searches for the grave of a woman who recently died in childbirth. The bomoh digs up the mother’s corpse and extracts the fetus. He enslaves the fetus through black magic and binds it to a piece of its body, such as a sliver of bone. The bone chip is placed in a bottle in a suspension of corpse oil. The oil is produced by burning the chin of the fetus’ mother with a candle. Once the toyol is enslaved, it has to do its master’s bidding. In folklore, toyols were used to steal from the neighbors, harass enemies or vandalize property. In more recent times, it is said a toyol may help you obtain valuable information such as winning lo...
Read more