Happy Valentine’s Day! I’m participating in Romance Divas’ eBook Challenge. Click here for the full list of participants and genres, though I think some of the latter are a bit out-of-date. (Gotta love it when you change your mind about what you’re writing, LOL.)

Here’s a short excerpt from the story I’ve contributed, Transformation. I should mention that the story isn’t a romance. It’s dark urban fantasy with a different spin on werewolves and vampires. I had a lot of fun writing it, and I hope you enjoy reading it!

Chill air surrounded me, shadows of souls long since passed haunting its crisp essence. Goosebumps rose across my flesh, tingling; I shivered. Surrounded by death, Kestrel. You will always be surrounded by death. My grandmother’s last words rang through my head. My face paled. The bouquet of flowers I had brought her dropped from my hand to the grave below.

What would she think? I could do naught but stare down at it as night’s mist wrapped around me. I loved my grandmother very much… perhaps almost too much. It’d been five years since her death, and still, I brought her lilies every anniversary of her death.

And now these are soiled by the touch of another soul. I could, of course, pick them up and take them to Grandmother’s grave anyway–but both she and I would know the truth. She haunted my dreams enough. I did not need to give her cause to do so further.

Apprehension roiled in my stomach as the howl of my brethren pierced night’s flimsy armor. Nearly time. Clouds moved, and the moon shone down, through withered scarecrow trees. My heart beat fast, and my gut clenched.

So close. I hadn’t realized…

“Houndfather’s bloody kill!” I swore, but anger disguised confusion within. With the full moon so high, I should already have felt the alterform stirring within me, claws scraping beneath my skin, tearing at the mask of humanity. Perhaps even have already entered the beginnings of the transformation–body hair multiplying in patches, fingernails sharpening, enlarging, sense of smell increasing …

But I felt nothing but my own fear.

Wanna read the rest? Click here!

Aug 5-7 :: Paranormal Event with Carrie Vaughn, LA Banks, CT Adams/Cathy Clamp, Gena Showalter, and Kelley Armstrong.

Aug 11 :: Jessica Faust: Bookends-inc agent in the Chatroom. 9PM EST

August 8-18 :: Getting To Know The Voices in Your Head Workshop with Jo Ann Ferguson/Jocelyn Kelley

Aug 18 :: Theresa Meyers: PR/Promo in the Chatroom.

August 25 :: Multi-cultural Authors Chat with Ann Christopher, Patricia Sargeant, Maureen Smith and Sophia Shaw

• Book in a Week! I’m running a writing challenge this week over at Romance Divas. Basically, the way it goes, you figure out a goal for this week, write/edit your butt off, and check in for cheers and booyahs. More info here.

• Lucy Monroe is holding a Blog Party the entire week, with lots of nifty prizes. There’s lots of cool topics — and all you have to do to be entered in the contests is comment!

• Lynn Viehl is posting writing workshops on her blog this week; the first two are Building Series Novels and Trend Tracking vs. Jumping.

Have fun!

Very awesome contest, though. I judged all the other entries — I had to do something on the plane — and it was very educational. I’ve entered some of their other contests before, like the Best 5 Page Scene one, and found them fun, but not quite as practically useful for me. This, on the other hand, kicked ass.