I was thinking the other day that it would be interesting to see the romance writer again from Single White Vampire. The older one who was called Lady something (sorry, I had to return it to the library so I can't look up her name). She showed up again in Tall, Dark and Hungry and everyone was worried that Vincent was going to bite her. When I saw that there was a book about him I thought perhaps it would be about her as well, since the age thing would't be an issue and he seemed interested in her. He's already older even if he looks younger and once she was turned wouldn't it be like the Fountain of Youth? I think that would be pretty neat to see (well, read about anyway) the body repair the damages of that many years. Would gray hair change back or would it just fall out and new hair grow in?

So, what does everyone else think? Do you have a secondary character that caught your interest? I specified "besides Thomas" because I think everyone here is already looking forward to hearing his story and we know that Lynsay has been hard at work on it.

Oh, I forgot! Hi! My name is Kim and I'm new to the message board. I've been lurking for a week or so but I wanted to wait until I read the entire series before I posted. My first book that I read by Lynsay Sands was Love is Blind and I really loved the writing style, lots of comedic moments. So when I saw another book by her at a used book sale I thought, vampires? Well, who knows, this could be interesting.

So I read about Etienne and Rachel and then I was hooked and had to hunt down her other books. I've been spending too much money on books lately so I decided to try my library first and they came through. Don't you just love interlibrary loan? One library had 2, another had 1 and then another had the others. My library has something called the SHARE program where we are linked up to over 20 other libraries so we can search their catalogs online. I love it! More books that I have access to!

I definitely will have to buy the other Argeneau books eventually but I'm hoping to locate them at used book sales so I can save some money. (I'll need it to buy Thomas' and Marguerite's books because I'm not waiting to read them. Nope, I'll be right at the bookstore the minute they come out. Oh, and Victor's book too.

Well, I guess that's all I have to say at the moment. Hello to everyone. I did fill out the survey that Lynsay posted, Getting to Know You I think it was called, so if anyone is curious about me, feel free to read what I posted.

One last thing, I just wanted to say that it's great to see that Lynsay Sands herself posts on this message board. If you read this, thanks for giving me some really enjoyable moments while reading your books and I'll return the favor by telling everyone else that I know who reads romances what a great author you are. We need to rack up those book sales, right? ;)

Kimberly

Hi!

I agree with you on the Thomas comment, ha ha. I think everyone wants him. I want to see one of Jeanne's or one of the other cousin's story.

Kimberly my darlin', you're getting two characters confused. The older romance writer was Jodi Hampton. Lady Barrow is the owner of Romantic Times Magazine which holds a conference every year. She's a truly lovely lady, by the way. I have no plans to write her into another romance at the moment, but you never know.

However, Elvi from The Accidental Vampire was in her late fifties when she was turned, so you will get the older woman turned young theme when that comes out.

As for the rest of the cousins... Who knows? It all depends on them, I guess you could say.


Lynsay

Lynsay,

Many apologies for not getting her job correct. I knew she was at the conference but had forgotten why so I thought she was the writer. I wish I could have kept the book out from the library long enough to read it a second time but someone else had it on hold so I wasn't able to renew it.

That's great to hear that your next character will have been turned when she was older. I hope we have a flashback scene or at least hear her relate to someone the circumstances of how her turning went. I admit to being extremely curious of what this next story will be like. The title "The Accidental Vampire" really makes me wonder how someone could become a vampire by accident. I suppose she could have fought back against an attacker like Terri did but I guess I'll just have to wait until the book comes out. *sigh*

I'm guessing (from the title) that Evi will have had no choice about becoming a vampire so her story isn't exactly what I was talking about. I think it would be nice to hear a story sometime about an older heroine (or hero) or someone who is handicapped or terminally ill who has to be persuaded that the younger-looking/healthy person really doesn't care about appearances/illness and that it is the inner person that they love. The immortal would want to be loved only for himself and not the benefits that he or she could give the other person so would keep it a secret at first. It would be quite a challenge, trying to overcome the mortal's hang-ups and fears while trying to keep their true nature a secret (especially since they could not read them if the person was their lifemate). And then once that was settled, the immortal would have to figure out a way to reveal their secret without totally freaking out the mortal person.

I realize that you have your own ideas about what stories to tell and I believe you have also mentioned that sometime the characters themselves kind of take over and demand to tell their stories the way they want. I'm just throwing a wish out there. Feel free to totally ignore me. :) I promise that I will continue to keep reading and loving your work no matter what you write about.

Thanks for the taking the time to write back. I can't tell you how much I appreciate visiting a website where fans can have such a personal experience with the person who created the books that have given us so much pleasure. And I can only imagine how busy you must be to be constantly writing, proofreading, correcting and meeting or talking with editors, publishers, etc. The fact that you take the time out of what little personal time you have left over says a lot about the kind of person you are. Thank you.

Kimberly

Sorry, just noticed that I wrote Evi instead of Elvi. I couldn't see a way to edit my original message, are we allowed to do that after posting it? Anyway, sorry for the typo.

Kim

Me again. Speaking of typos, I reread the excerpt from The Accidental Vampire and I noticed one. I don't know if this is still something that can be corrected or if it has been sent off to the printers already but I thought I'd mention it just in case.

"Victor actually preferred motorcycles, but this was business not pleasure and needs must."

I think part of the end of the sentence is missing because it just ends oddly. I'm guessing it ended something like "needs must come before personal comfort." Wait, that doesn't sound right either. Are the "needs" pleasure or business? Because if the needs relate to pleasure then it would be something like "needs must be put aside." Well, whatever. I'm sure whatever was cut off made sense and just needs to be put back.

Isn't it weird how you can read something over and over and your mind somehow fills in the correct thing so you don't notice a typo until after you have read it 3 or 4 times? This is the first time that I noticed it. Granted, I was reading it a lot more slowly than the first few times.

Kim

Kimberly, never apologize for mistakes made here, spelling or anything else. If you apologize, I'll feel I have to to, when I make mistakes and this is where I get to make mistakes if I like. This is more play than work you see.

As for "needs must" it's an old expression. That's my regency writing coming out. Medieval does occasionally too, so just ignore such odd comments. The comment "needs must" comes from the old saying "Needs must when the devil drives" (or something along those lines, remember I can make mistakes here (grin) It's often used -- at least around where I live and in England -- by itself. As in, "I didn't really want to attend the company Christmas party, but needs must."

As for your comment chock full of ideas...WOMAN!! You mentioned several ideas or themes I already have on the books for the future or have already used, and I can't tell you which ones for fear of ruining a future story for everyone. ARRGGH!! LOL. Talk about frustration. Ah well. You'll just have to wait and see.

Lynsay

P.S. I didn't mean to make you feel bad about Lady Barrow and the author business. In truth, I had to go to my Single White Vampire files and look up the Jodi Hampton's last name because I couldn't remember it...and I'm the WRITER for heaven's sake. Besides, I get names mixed up all the time. I call Terri Jac-Terri, and Jackie Ter-Jackie all the time. Fortunately, they know me well enough to ignore it.

Well, I guess I won't apologize for any more typos but I will apologize for stealing your thunder if I have given away any surprises or plot twists in future books. However, I have to admit that I am feeling pretty happy because I get to look forward to these future stories and see how similar they are to what I wished for.

I still am a little unclear on what "needs must" actually means. Would a modern translation be something like "I must do what needs to be done"? Because the full quote about the devil really threw me for a loop. Are you originally from England or is this just a saying that you picked up doing research for your historical romances?

Don't worry about not remembering a secondary character's last name. It's when you start forgetting your own name that you need to worry. I have 3 small children (7,5, and 3) and sometimes when asked what my name is, I almost say Mom!

Kimberly

Another character besides Thomas? There are other characters...lol. Just kidding. I think everyone is in love with Thomas...how can you not be... and after reading about those red satin sheets...*sign*.

I think I would like to hear more about the younger cousins. They were so sweet in "A bite To Remember".

PS: Hi Kimberly, Welcome to the site. Lynsay is great. And I know what you mean about her taking time to talk to the fans, I have been on other sites where the authors say they are too busy so they cannot answer back. Or the site is too confusing and you cannot leave a message on it.

Tiara,

Hi, and thanks for the welcome. I think that everyone is really glad that Thomas' story will be coming out soon. The day that the actual release date is announced I'm guessing there will be a lot of people preordering books at Amazon!

I agree with you that it is great to visit a site that is so personal. Have you ever watched the show Numb3rs on CBS? On the website numb3rs.org the actual creators of the show, Nick Falacci and Cheryl Heuton, post pretty frequently on the site, answering questions and giving a few teasers about upcoming shows. Nick is an amateur photographer too and will post behind-the-scenes photos the day before a new episode airs. David Krumholtz, who plays one of the main characters, Charlie, on the show will post every once in a while as well.

I also watch Heroes and on NBC's website they have an online comic book that is available on Tuesdays, Beeman's blog where one of the directors posts info on camera angles, lighting, etc., and about halfway through the season they started having online commentaries (they have two screens, one with the episode and one with 2 or 3 people related to the show (actors, director, or writers) that you could watch the day after a new show aired.

It's great when there are extra things available for fans so that we don't go crazy with waiting in between shows or books. Like here we are able to read the excerpts for upcoming books and talk with other fans who can give us recommendations for other books we might like or just talk about what our favorite books, scenes, characters were by Lynsay. And then there is the actual interaction with the author herself. [:)

Kimberly

Kimberly, the “needs must” is actually something I picked up around here in Canada. We have a lot of British euphemisms and so on here. I can still remember my husband bursting out in uproarious laughter the first time I told him to “bugger off” He found it vastly amusing to hear such a British term muttered in a Canadian accent, but it was a term my mom used a lot. Her Gran was very Scottish and a sweetie. I used to eat lunch at her house every day when I was in school. We had things like strawberries and cream and other British fare so I may have picked it up from her. Who knows.

I love Heroes! My hubby doesn’t understand why and wanders off when it coms on, but I watch it faithfully even if I have to record it and watch it later when on deadline. Never seen Numbers though.

Lynsay.

P.S. Sorry I neglected to welcome you Kimberly, that’s my brain going in twenty different directions and missing things. WELCOME!

Thanks for the welcome Lynsay. Another Heroes fan, how cool is that? Are you able to access NBC's website? I seem to remember some people posting complaints about not being able to access it from Canada. Are you in the part of Canada that gets to view it earlier than here in the States? If so, I'm jealous.

I usually record Heroes and then start watching it about 20 minutes after it comes on just so I can FF through the commercials! Don't you just hate this long break? At least by visiting the website I've learned they have a good reason for it. As I understand it, a regular hour-long drama takes about 7 days to produce but Heroes averages 11. The special effects are a big reason for that but also, they shoot from several different angles and then do a lot of editing. So they needed to take a break around Christmas because they had shown all of the shows that they had plus the actors needed a vacation. Now they are shooting the final 5 episodes of this season then we'll have to wait until fall. It's already been announced that they will be back next season though. Yeah!

It's odd to think of Canadians using British expressions. I know that parts of Canada speak a lot of French but I guess I tend to forget about the rest of the country. Hmmm. Come to think of it, I really don't know much about Canada at all except for stuff like Canadian Mounties, hockey teams, and the fact that a lot of Americans go there to buy cheap prescription medicine. Wow, I really need to go and read up a bit. This is kind of embarassing.

You'll be happy to know that I'm going to have to enrich your wallet by buying the books of yours that my library doesn't seem to carry. The one about the lady pirate sounds especially interesting. Do you have any books that are published under a pseudonym? I just finished a book by Amanda Quick and thought, "Hey, I'll have to read more by her" and found out that I already have but under the name Jayne Anne Krentz. I'm not overlooking any of yours, am I?

*yawn* Time to go to bed. My oldest son turned 5 today and his birthday was at Chuckie Cheese. Do they have those in Canada? If so, stay away! Fun for kids, exhausting for parents.

Kimberly

Yes, I can access the website. No problem here. As for whether I get to see Heroes earlier, that depends on where you are. If you’re in the Pacific, Mountain or Central time zone…than yes!! I’m Eastern. LOL. Even better, if I miss it at 8 o’clock, I can watch it on the Pacific time three hours later because for some reason we get those channels as well on cable

And yes I HATE commercials. They’re such a pain, AND a waste of time which I have little of. It’s much more fun to zoom through them. And COOL on there being another season. I do hate it when you start to watch a show and they dump it after one or half a season.

A lot of Brits and Scots settled in Canada, hence the reason so many names here in Ontario originated in England; London (a city in Ontario) which has a Thames river. Chatham, Windsor, Blytheswood, Halifax, Stratford, Blenheim, Cambridge, Perth, Pickering, Peterborough, Lambeth, Brampton, Whitby, and so on are all places in England as well as here. A lot of French settled here as well and actually had a strong hold on the country, or at least the eastern section, but the British battled for it and the French ceded to the British in the Treaty of Utrecht. After that the British deported many of the ancestors of French settlers (Acadians) to other areas of Canada and the U.S.. A large number settled in Louisiana and started the Cajun culture there….er…sorry, went into history mode there. LOL. I’ll stop before I start on about Indians, French, English, and so on.

Canada isn’t much different than America in a lot of ways. Here in Southern Ontario our summers are hot, our winters cold. We pay taxes and gripe about our politicians and so on just like Americans and we hate commercials

I had great fun with Lady Pirate! I loved Valoree and her motley band of pirates. I soooo wanted to write a follow up to it but my editor at the time said no, that pirates don’t sell. Sigh. I bet it would be a different story now that the Pirates of the Carribean movies are so popular.

No, I don’t use a pseudonym…yet… So if you’ve checked out my website, you’ve seen all the books I have out to date.

When I lived in Windsor we had a Chuckie Cheese there, but I haven’t seen any up this way. And I don’t even know if they still have the Chuckie Cheese there. But I shall heed your warning and steer clear.

Lynsay

Lynsay,

Don't worry about the history lesson, I don't mind. Wow, the British actually deported the French to another part of the country? I feel sorry for the people who just had to give up their houses and land. Did they give any of the French people a choice of accepting British rule or was it just "get out!"? I suppose they probably didn't want to have to worry about the French people secretly plotting a revolt so they had to deport them just to be safe. Hmm.

Do you read the online comic for Heroes? The best part about it is that they have continued it through the break. Every Tuesday there is a new one. And I've heard that they plan to continue it through the summer break as well. I was planning on watching every episode again but my DVR died and I had to exchange it for a new one through Directv so I lost everything that was saved on the hard drive. I could still watch it on the computer I suppose but I like watching it on a bigger screen. My favorite episode has to be the one where Claude (the invisible man) is teaching Peter and he first knocks him off the roof and he falls onto the top of the cab and then has to cold clock him when Peter starts to lose control. I admit, when Claude first shoved him off the roof, I was so shocked that I said a very bad word. *blush* Good thing my kids were already in bed.

I bet you are right about now being a good time to write another pirate book. Or perhaps just rerelease the first one? My husband and I just watched the first two movies this past weekend for the first time. I really liked the first one, not sure I liked being left hanging with the second one. At least it won't be too long a wait to find out the ending. I believe the third is due out Memorial Day weekend.

Well, off to do the taxes. Nothing like leaving it until the last minute. It could be worse I suppose, it could be April 14th. I'm guessing that you and your husband pretty much have to use an accountant. I imagine there are all sorts of tax laws involved with the profits on each book. Leave that stuff to an expert right? My father-in-law is a CPA but do we take advantage of that? No. My husband says he is busy enough this time of year, let's just do it ourselves. Ourselves being me, of course. In 12 years of marriage, my husband has done them once.

Speaking of your husband, I read some of your blog, noticed a comment by him and popped over and then read some of his blog. Do raccoons really eat squirrels?!! The things you learn quite at random. We have racoons living in our sewer system. Do you know the grate at the corner of the streets where the gutter drains into? They crawl out of there at night and I really can't imagine how they fit. I hope they ignore the squirrels, I'd rather they cut down on the chipmunk population. Those darn things dig up practically everything I plant. Then they have tunnels undermining all of the ones that I've replanted until they've decided that it wasn't edible. Nothing will kill a plant quicker than having it's roots hanging in air instead of soil.

I've procrastinated enough, the taxes await.

Kimberly