My Writing Corner : A Delicate Balancing Act

As somone who started reading books set in the realm of the supernatural back when I was a teenager, today's guest in My Writing Corner immediately caught my attention with her latest book. My guest in My Writing Corner is M. (Mickey) Flagg, and her newest work, His Soul to Keep, sounds like a page turner. It is book three in the Champions Chronicles series.

As an avid reader, she says, the realm of paranormal fiction was the perfect landing point for her after a successful career as a music teacher and an urban school administrator. While Mickey spins stories of passion, love and redemption, she also has been a contributor to a book on urban music education and has also authored an article for Still Standing, a web-magazine about loss and healing. Named a Distinguished Music Educator at the Yale Music Symposium, Mickey is a life-long New Jersey resident, and a member of Liberty States Fiction Writers and NJRW.

Mickey, what is your book that you will feature today and how did you come up with the idea to write it?

His Soul to Keep is Book 3 in The Champion Chronicles, a paranormal romantic suspense series that‘s been revised and republished by The Wild Rose Press.

To be honest, I didn’t start out to write a series. Book 1, The Vampire’s Retribution introduced Michael, my main character, and his fantasy of love and redemption. Book 2, Mystical Consequences is the reality of Michael’s survival, his love for Alana and his troubled human son, Lukas.

Then, my imagination kept spinning with all the possible ‘what ifs’ for this unique mystically enhanced vampire. With that in mind, Book 3, His Soul to Keep came about. Originally entitled Inheritance, the number of books with that title resulted in TWRP requesting a title change.

So, what does an author do when you see the title in your mind because it makes perfect sense, and then you have to unsee it, with a deadline approaching? Michael reclaimed his soul and survives a second unique Divine Intervention. The nighttime prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep", kept rerunning in my brain. It just took some time to realize the connection, but voila, the right title was born.

I wrote these three books before 2010. I assumed that, after not writing for over a decade, my very vivid characters now rested in peace. Once retired, I played around with a minor character in the series, trying to write a story, just on a whim. When I realized her true love interest was Michael’s son, Lukas, the story came to life. But, in order to believe Martine’s love for Lukas, His Soul to Keep needed the most revising to support their world of witches, vampires, and mystical warriors. The new series, Moonlight Benedictions, picks up in present day with Night of the Crescent Moon, in final edits with my fantastic TWRP editor of 17 years. Michael and his eternal love are still in the picture, so are other characters, near and dear to me.

His Soul to Keep is the crucial bridge between then and now, between father and son in a world where the battle between evil and good continues.

Let's get a blurb.

Too many questions, too many doubts… Michael Malone’s new existence is beyond puzzling. Yet keeping his distance from Alana, his soulmate, and Lukas, his troubled son, only makes more of a mess in these important relationships. The mystically enhanced vampire’s beast-within is now safely entombed in consecrated ground. When it is resurrected by dark magic and implanted in a teenage girl, he fully senses this aberration… feels responsible. Will he be able to destroy the entity, or will he be forced to take it back within his soul to save an innocent? Alana and Lukas are integral during his quest to locate the wicked wizard and a beautiful but cunning female vampire he knew centuries ago who inspired this heinous act. When his new reality, his very human life, hangs in the balance, together they face unparalleled evil. Many innocent lives are at stake—should they not succeed.

Want more? How about an excerpt:

In a familiar way, Alana settled between his long legs. Pulling out of the steamy kiss, her head rested on his heart, and every thump filled her with wonder. No ordinary man could wear snug black jeans and a simple black shirt with its sleeves rolled up the way Michael did. Dark colors enhanced his singular, intense look. Even with her eyes closed, she could see only him. She could sense strength in his soul, in his muscular body. His embrace was a place of comfort as well as erotic joy.

Years apart, and then realizing how much she loved him... What he had put himself through ten months ago had reshaped their destiny, and now, the possibility of a long life together had real meaning. She felt him deep in her soul. Being with him made her very core ache with a lover’s need. In an intimate way, she studied his day-old beard, the width of his shoulders, the lines of his face. Her hands weren’t willing to leave his chest. He shifted, and she drifted farther away to sit on her heels, to drown in the full vision of him. His eyes shimmered as his warm fingers threaded hers.

“How’d it go with Lu? Did you get a chance to talk?”

“Jeez, Mom, that’s a tough one. Couldn’t we start with something easier?”

She chuckled. “I think Mom sounds sweet. He lets me call him Lu.”

“If you’re okay with it, so am I.”

“Where is he?”

“Anywhere I’m not, apparently.” He groaned in a frustrated way and pushed back to sit up against the padded arm. His hands slipped out of her hold, and he laced them to his chest. When he blew out a slow breath, shivers ran down her spine.

“Did something happen?”

“I expected non-stop questions, not a sudden shutdown.”

“Do you have any idea how unbelievable this is? How unexpected—”

“No, really,” he said with a touch of sarcasm. A distant look she’d never seen before settled on his face. “I asked for an end to my existence. I didn’t ask for life.”

His eyes dulled while hers blazed. Sucking in a breath, she held it. Maybe she’d misunderstood. “You wanted an end to your existence? Meaning… the forever kind of death?”

“Alana, I’m not about to lie.”

“Nope, rewind and talk. Talk fast.” The proverbial romantic, rose-tinted glasses had just ripped right off her eyes.

“What I did in undeath, unexpected questions fired at me by twelve individuals to explain or clarify… then sitting in the church after a six-hour inquisition—which took place a full month after I completed their Document of Atonement. I fucking came undone. Before I left you last May, I had no right to ask for your love.” He looked at the wall, down the hall, at anything but her.

“Michael—”

“And whose idea was it to have my son here, waiting for my return?”

“We all thought—”

“I told him I’d come for him when I was ready. That was the deal. He should have been forced to stay at school in England. I had no right believing I could teach him how to deal with life, either.”

“Michael, stop,” she managed to whisper. Illogical words came from a most rational man. She couldn’t swallow, didn’t recognize the chill in his tone.

Want more? You'll have to buy the book! Here are Mickey's buy links as well as social contact information.

Buy Links:

All three books are available on Amazon and Barnes & Nobles.