Karilyn Bentley and her #New Relase THE SHADOWHEART CURSE

My guest today is Karilyn Bentley, author of a number of fabulous paranormal novels including The Demon Huntress series (one of my favs) She's visiting today to celebrate the release of her latest paranormal romance THE SHADOWHEART CURSE - and share the unique story behind it! I'm currently reading this book (loving it!) and my review will be up on Monday... in the meantime...

Welcome, Karilyn!
  Hi Katie! Thank you for letting me drop by for a visit today! I'm excited to announce the release of my newest book, The Shadowheart Curse. This book is special for a number of reasons, the main one is:  

it's being made into a movie!

You can live stream the movie as it's being made. Which is a pretty cool idea! How did this come about, you might ask? Well, I got a call from my publisher asking if I'd be interested in writing a book based on the movie director's idea. Long story short, I said yes. (If you want the long story, here's a link to my publisher talking about what happened: https://thewildrosepress.blogspot.com/2019/06/twrp-goes-to-movies.html )

So what's it's like to write a ghost story based off someone else's idea? (I'm a ghostwriter, get it? Okay, sorry, dumb pun, just couldn't help myself) This was a new experience for me, one that I enjoyed. 

As a little background, for the last year, the writing muse had totally abandoned me. I guess she wanted an extended vacation at the beach or something because she wasn't around no matter what I did. It was so bad, I thought my writing career was over. Then my publisher called and I accepted this offer. 

The fun part was I didn't have to come up with my own story idea. The director told me what he wanted. He didn't have an ending to his story so I wrote one. He had to approve the synopsis I wrote and once that was done, I started writing the story. There were several scenes he had in mind as well as the location which meant I needed to write the scenes according to his direction. He sent a bunch of pictures of the place where he'd be filming and gave directions for scenes where there were no photos available. 

This pantser found having a guideline to be relaxing. No more sitting in front of the laptop wondering where my story was going. The plan already existed. 

On the flip side, it's nerve wracking to write someone else's story since I'm constantly wondering if he's going to like it. As far as I know, he has not yet read it but is convinced he'll like it as long as I stuck with the synopsis. Okay, but my insecurities still make me a little worried. The worry is getting better as time passes. Also, it helps to know that he already has this story as a movie vision so he's going to produce it the way he sees it no matter what I write. And yes, I'm good with that. In an odd way, that knowledge chills out my insecurities.

Which brings me to whether or not I'd do this again. Yes, most definitely! I enjoyed the experience of writing someone else's idea. I've learned things about me I did not know (I can write a story in six weeks and I can write from a synopsis without killing my creativity.) While stressful, it's been a lot of fun!

If you are interested in watching the movie being made, go to https://deadlyten.com/ and sign up. You'll get email alerts for all the movies and can pick and choose which to live stream. The movies (all ten of them!) will release on 2/14/20. The Shadowheart Curse is currently scheduled to be filmed in September. Read on for the blurb and excerpt.

BLURB:

Escaping New York after a client’s untimely death, medium Adrianna Sinclair flees to her family property in Italy. All she wants is to avoid ghosts, but an attractive one tempts her in ways she never knew possible. 

Luca Fausto has been trapped on the Romani property for over a century for a crime he didn’t commit.  Adrianna may be the answer to breaking the curse that keeps him bound.  Standing in their way is a demonic spirit's plan for revenge.  Will they prevail or will Luca be cursed to the shadows forever? 

EXCERPT:

Lights drew her attention to the opposite wing of the mill, where a man stood staring at her window. At her. Breath caught in her lungs as she froze.

But only for a brief moment until she realized it wasn’t a man, at least not a living one. Her breath escaped on a whoosh of relief. Intuition whispered the man was the spirit who’d watched her last night.

The one from her dream.

Shadows clung to his body, ghostly fingers releasing as he stepped into the dim slash of moonlight. Lights flickered from behind him, like the dying gasps of sputtering candles. Dressed in a white shirt with an old-fashioned high collar, sleeves rolled halfway up his forearms, and dark trousers, he reminded her of a working man in a World War I photograph. As if he had removed his coat and tie and rolled up his sleeves to get to work.

Except the men in those photos didn’t sport the wide-eyed, happy look of this man. Ghost. Whatever. Yeah, he wasn’t the only one surprised. She’d sworn never to see a ghost again, yet there stood a ghost, captured by her gaze. The man was hot, in an old-fashioned way. At least he didn’t sport a handle-bar moustache.

He gestured to her, his hand beckoning in a “come here” motion.

She squeezed the bridge of her nose. Was she actually thinking of heading his way? Judging by the way her feet pointed toward the door, she’d already decided. Dammit. She might not want to see a ghost or speak to a spirit, but past experience told her if she ignored them, they ramped up the annoying factor.

       How bad could it be to talk to an attractive spirit?

BIO:

Karilyn Bentley's love of reading stories and preference for sitting in front of a computer at home instead of in a cube, drove her to pen her own works, blending fantasy and romance mixed with a touch of funny.

Her paranormal romance novella, Werewolves in London, placed in the Got Wolf contest and started her writing career as an author of sexy heroes and lush fantasy worlds.

Karilyn lives in Colorado with her own hunky hero, two crazy dogs, aka The Kraken and Sir Barks-A-Lot, and a handful of colorful saltwater fish.

BUY LINKS:

Amazon: https://www.amzn.com/B07TBBZXZC

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-shadowheart-curse-karilyn-bentley/1132821747

iBooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-shadowheart-curse/id1473825800

Where to find Karilyn:

Website:         www.karilynbentley.com

Newsletter:    https://eepurl.com/ba_0Rf

Facebook:     https://www.facebook.com/KarilynBentleyAuthor

Twitter:           https://www.twitter.com/karilynbentley1

Goodreads:   https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4051943.Karilyn_Bentley

Pinterest:       https://www.pinterest.com/karilynbentley

BookBub:      https://www.bookbub.com/authors/karilyn-bentley