Carmen DeSousa

In every myth there is a modicum of truth… Creatus The reason we believe in fairy tales—and monsters. Her mouth turned up a fraction, obviously proud with herself, but she held a full grin at bay. “I always thought you were a vampire or something.” He cleared his throat, resisting the urge to laugh. “Vampires don’t exist. The dead don’t walk. And if you don’t have a heart pumping blood through your body, you can’t do any of the things that supposed vampires do.” He raised his brow, inquiring if she caught the gist of his comment. He’d always wondered how books and movies portrayed vampires as sensual and erotic when they purportedly didn’t have the necessary body functions required to make such acts possible. You didn’t have to be a doctor to understand that if you don’t have a heart pumping blood through your body, vital sexual organs aren’t going to function properly. “I know vampires don’t exist,” she rejoined. “But…” she moved her head slowly from sid...

This is a question I hear every day. Along with other comments such as, "Readers aren't buying anything but free books anymore", or "If I promote another author's book, I'll lose a sale." A little recap from the previous posts in this series before you look at the list below. Although Amazon's algorithms are confusing, authors and book aficionados like myself, who watch the book market daily, have come up with an estimate of what it takes to be on the first page of Amazon's bestseller list. A bestseller rank of 3 to 8 means you’re selling about 4,000-plus books a day! Do the math on my first star pupil below with 483 days in the top 100. That's almost two million books. Yes! Readers are still  buying  eBooks, even if they're not four-star rated, and even if the eBook cost more than the Wal-Mart paperback version. Reviews of top-selling books on Amazon 13,500 revs avg . 3.8 483 days in top 100 5 star : (5,...

After years of searching for the mysterious stranger who saved her life, twenty-two-year-old Kristina is alone and desperate. Seeing no future in her worthless existence, she attempts to force her protector out of the shadows the only way she knows—killing herself. Ignoring his family’s disapproval, Derrick continues to safeguard the girl he rescued from a vicious attack years earlier. The one thing he can’t protect her from, however, is herself. When Kristina jumps off a bridge, he must reveal himself, even if saving her means she will now be in danger  from  his kind. To make things worse, a video revealing Derrick’s supernatural ability when he saved Kristina is now in the possession of a government agency, and someone in his family will do anything to keep their existence a secret, even kill Kristina, the woman Derrick can no longer live without. The Creatus Series is not your normal paranormal story ... it's a  realistic ...

Now Available! In every myth there is a modicum of truth… Creatus The reason we believe in fairy tales—and monsters. Start from the beginning   here , or read on for this week's excerpt . She hadn’t planned to go home with a stranger. But when he’d suggested they could get high together, it had sounded like fun, a chance to escape her nightmares and her empty apartment. A chance to do anything but feel the pain she endured by her guilt every time she closed her eyes. Kris strained to hear the chirp from her vehicle as she weaved along the sidewalk. Her heels lodged into the cracks in the concrete, causing her to trip several times. Somerville was such a dump. She should have used the money from selling her mother’s jewelry six years ago on eBay and moved to California. Instead, she’d stayed in this frigid, run-down suburb of Boston. But she knew why she hadn’t. She was afraid if she left, she’d never see her protector again. A day didn’t go b...

    Twilight Publication Date: July 18, 2007 Date I downloaded: August 20, 2011 Let me start by saying, I loved Twilight . It was original, sweet, romantic, and a tad bit suspenseful. But I was surprised to see that a book that had been out for four years when I downloaded it still had an error in the first chapter . Now, I normally won’t point out an error , as they don’t bother me too much and I never want to injure an author, but I don’t feel it’s possible to hurt Stephenie Meyer, so I’m going to point out this error, just so readers know I’m not making this up. J The room was familiar; it had been belonged to me since I was born. Unlike Indie books, which may not even have one editor other than the author, books like Twilight have three or more, if not ten, editors and proofreaders, so it always surprises me how often I find errors in mainstream books. But the error is not what bothers me. As I said, I don’t care that an error slipp...