{"id":1768,"date":"2017-04-06T01:05:59","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T05:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kate-hill.com\/compellingbeastsblog\/?p=1768"},"modified":"2017-04-02T10:01:13","modified_gmt":"2017-04-02T14:01:13","slug":"story-sample-draculas-mistress-by-carmen-stefanescu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/compellingbeastsblog\/2017\/04\/06\/story-sample-draculas-mistress-by-carmen-stefanescu\/","title":{"rendered":"Story Sample: Dracula\u2019s Mistress by Carmen Stefanescu"},"content":{"rendered":"

Title: <\/strong>Dracula\u2019s Mistress<\/p>\n

Author: <\/strong>Carmen Stefanescu<\/p>\n

Blurb:<\/strong><\/p>\n

From the day that the powerful, brave and merciless Vlad III Basarab, a descendant of the Draculesti family\u2014better known to most people as the infamous vampire Dracula\u2014ascends the throne, he knows only battles, betrayal and intrigue.<\/p>\n

Evil grips the town of Targoviste, capital residence of Walachia. The secrets behind the stone walls of the palace are as dark and violent as a winter\u2019s night, as terrifying as the prince\u2019s deeds. Dead bodies, drained of blood and missing their little finger keep appearing in the streets at night.<\/p>\n

Lovely, smart, determined, Angela Oltenescu ignores all the aggressive rumors and her mother\u2019s warning regarding Vlad. Will she suffer the consequences of falling in love with a man nicknamed Dracula by his enemies\u2014an infamous creature of the night?<\/p>\n

Rich, sly, treacherous,\u00a0 Marin Craioveanu, a powerful landlord, craves the same woman loved by Vlad. Marin’s hatred toward the prince will make him an ally to Handsome Radu, Vlad\u2019s brother and Sultan\u2019s friend, ready to sell the country to the Ottomans to get rid of his rival.<\/p>\n

Dracula\u2019s Mistress will awe legions of fans of Gothic literature, paranormal and historical fiction.<\/p>\n

Excerpt:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Angela smiled with fond indulgence and looked at her father. \u201cPrepare for mother\u2019s. . .\u201d She stopped as the words passed her lips, looked over her father\u2019s shoulder, and started violently. The image behind her father made her words freeze on her lips. A sickening sense of dread overpowered her.<\/p>\n

The pale light of the moon fell on a man\u2019s face. A man dressed in torn clothes. Some ragged ends of silken thread were still attached to his arms, stretched towards them in begging.<\/p>\n

His face, all covered in blood. His eyes were closed. His bluish lips mumbled something Angela couldn\u2019t clearly understand. Slurred words reached her. She thought she heard, \u201cCandle. . . candle. . . pleaaaase. . .\u201d A sickening odor reached Angela\u2019s nostrils. Slowly, the closed eyelids opened revealing two empty sockets instead of eyes.<\/p>\n

A low moan of horror escaped her.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat? What\u2019s wrong?\u201d Grigore asked.<\/p>\n

But before he turned his head to see what triggered Angela\u2019s reaction the apparition melted into the darkness.<\/p>\n

Angela staggered a little, and then found her balance.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing,\u201d she answered in a shaken voice. \u201cI thought . . . Nothing, Father.\u201d She pushed the horrible apparition from her mind. Perhaps all the stories about the souls of the young noblemen killed so cruelly here were not just stories.<\/p>\n

Grigore shook his head and shrugged. Then reaching out his hand, he helped her climb into the carriage. She was barely able to move as she trembled from head to foot. She shrank back on the bear skin spread inside.<\/p>\n

Grigore sat facing her, but looked absorbed by the things that had happened that night.<\/p>\n

The neighing of the horses sounded strange to her ears. The sound of a tree branch scraping the roof of the carriage sent Angela\u2019s heart into her mouth.<\/p>\n

She leaned forward until her nose was touching the glass of the carriage window. Outside, on the side of the road, she glimpsed again the silhouette of the horrible man, dressed in tattered clothes. She peered into the darkness to see better. There was no doubt. The same specter. With begging hands stretched towards her. She covered her mouth with her hand to suppress a cry. And then she shook her head and passed a hand over her eyes and dared to look out again.<\/p>\n

There was nobody in sight. A dark cloud had settled over the moon. All that met her eyes was the deep darkness. Her heart hammered as she gripped her fan harder, almost crushing the fragile spikes. Sweat collected at the base of her neck despite the cool evening. With a trembling hand, she covered the window of the carriage with the small curtain and leaned back on the carriage pillow. To fight the panic yammering in her head, Angela forced Vlad\u2019s face back into her mind.<\/p>\n

All through the rest of the journey home, the thought of Vlad\u2019s enthralling smile and dark, intent eyes never left her.<\/p>\n

Purchase Link(s):<\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B06XNW7RXD\/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1489663418&sr=1-1<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Author Bio:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Carmen Stefanescu resides in Romania, the native country of the infamous vampire Count Dracula \u00a0where, for about 50 years of communist dictatorship, just speaking about God, faith, reincarnation or paranormal phenomena could have led someone to great trouble – the psychiatric hospital if not to prison.<\/p>\n

High-school teacher of English and German in her native country, and mother of two daughters, Carmen Stefanescu survived the grim years of oppression \u00a0by escaping in a parallel world, that of the books. Reading was, is and will always be her greatest hobby.<\/p>\n

She has dreamed since childhood to become a writer, but many of the things she wrote remained just drawer projects. The fall of the Ceausescu\u2019s regime in 1989, and the opening of the country to the world meant a new beginning for her. She started publishing. Poems first, and then prose. Both in English.<\/p>\n

Several of her poems were successfully published in a collection of Contemporary English Poems, Muse Whispers vol.1 and Muse Whispers vol.2 by Midnight Edition Publication, in 2001 and 2002.<\/p>\n

She likes to blend genres and thus she writes paranormal stories with a smidgen of mystery, history and romance. The reader will find suspense, dark themes, adventure, danger as well as sweet revenge. She calls her stories\u00a0 \u201cgothic\u201d romance. Her writing focuses on rebirth, past life regression, karmic retribution.<\/p>\n

Her first novel, Shadows of the Past, was released in 2012 by Wild Child Publishing, USA, folowed by Till Life Do Us Part released by Solstice Publishing, USA.<\/p>\n

Carmen joined the volunteer staff at Marketing For Romance Writers Author blog and is the coordinator of #Thursday13 posts.<\/p>\n

Autor Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/shadowspastmystery.blogspot.ro\/<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/carmenstefanescu.simplesite.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/Carmen_Books<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/carmens007\/<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Carmen-Stefanescu-Books\/499245716760283<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/author\/show\/6624397.Carmen_Stefanescu<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/plus.google.com\/117216040843648957646\/posts<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/s\/ref=dp_byline_sr_ebooks_1?ie=UTF8&text=Carmen+Stefanescu&search-alias=digital-text&field-author=Carmen+Stefanescu&sort=relevancerank<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/coldcoffeecafe.com\/profile\/CarmenStefanescu<\/a><\/p>\n

Trailer Dracula\u2019s Mistress<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/_JfSJGAwM_w<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Title: Dracula\u2019s Mistress Author: Carmen Stefanescu Blurb: From the day that the powerful, brave and merciless Vlad III Basarab, a descendant of the Draculesti family\u2014better known to most people as the infamous vampire Dracula\u2014ascends the throne, he knows only battles, betrayal and intrigue. Evil grips the town of Targoviste, capital residence of Walachia. The secrets…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,249],"tags":[281,17,64],"class_list":["post-1768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-excerpts","category-story-sample","tag-featured","tag-paranormal","tag-vampires"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kate-hill.com\/compellingbeastsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/CSDraculasMistress.jpg?fit=192%2C308&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kq3e-sw","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/compellingbeastsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/compellingbeastsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/compellingbeastsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/compellingbeastsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/compellingbeastsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1768"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/compellingbeastsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1771,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/compellingbeastsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1768\/revisions\/1771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/compellingbeastsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/compellingbeastsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/compellingbeastsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/compellingbeastsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}