Deborah Cooke: Author

Today, I’m swapping blog posts with the fabulous Terri Garey. Terri is a wonderful, energetic and charming writer. I first met her online, but we’ve met live too. It surprises me every time I see her or her picture with her hair short – it’s been years since she cut it, but when I met her, it was long. I guess because we don’t see each other that often, I always remember how glam she looked that first time.

Here’s her website, for those of you who are so tempted by her post that you want to read more.

Terri is going to post my guest blog over at Supernatural Underground today. Here’s the permalink to my post over there – you should know that there are doorprizes… And now, a drumroll please.

Everyone, please welcome Terri Garey!

Hi, all you Deborah Cooke/Claire Delacroix fans!  My name is Terri Garey, and while I’m not nearly as naughty or entertaining as Terri Brisbin, who was here the other day, I’m still tickled to be here! (You can call me the “good” Terri, just for clarity’s sake).  🙂

Before I start talking about what I write (paranormal romance) and why I write it (why be normal, when you can be paranormal?), I want to tell you how I came to meet Deb.  Since I’m a storyteller, I’m going to tell the story in true storyteller fashion:

Once upon a time (before the earth cooled), there was a (not so) young woman who’d become tired and disillusioned by a world full of machines and logic (computer engineering).  Seeking challenge and adventure, she decided that imagination was her best weapon in the war against reality, and decided to put pen (keyboard) to paper (MS Word), and record some of the stories that were always swirling around in her head.  To her surprise and confusion, she discovered that the road to challenge and adventure (publishing) was full of a bewildering array of mythical places (publishing houses, lines, imprints), mystical monsters (editors, agents, critique partners), and mystifying acronyms (HEA, GMC, H/h). While flailing about in the fog, doing her best to turn out exciting tales of daring-do while learning the ropes that threatened to entangle her at every turn, she stumbled across the magical kingdom known as RWAOnline. And there, like a beacon of light in the dark of night, dwelt a fair and softspoken gentlewoman known as Claire Delacroix.  Claire, who had already navigated the Straits of Despair and the Cape of Good Hope, was kind to the (not so) young woman, patiently answering all her questions, even when they were stupid :-), and helped the fledgling writer avoid some of the treacherous highs and deadly lows of doubt, anxiety and foolhardiness.  And when the (not so) young woman (a/k/a “Good” Terri) sold her first book to Avon Publishing (Dead Girls Are Easy, October 2008), she knew that among those she had to thank was Claire Delacroix/Deb Cooke.

So Deb, if I haven’t said it before, I’m saying it now: Thank you, for your kindness and patience with me back in my pre-published days.  It meant more to me than you know, and six novels and two series later, I haven’t forgotten. When people approach me for advice, I treat them the same way you treated me, in the small hopes of paying it forward.

Now, if you readers made it through (and can forgive) all those parentheses, I’d like to talk a little bit about my Devil’s Bargain series.

As you can probably tell by my little “story” of how I met Deb, I’ve always been fascinated myths and legends, and the way they’re told.  One of the stories I’ve always found the most fascinating is one of the oldest stories of all, that of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and mankind’s subsequent fall from grace.  The part I found the most interesting was the part about forbidden fruit, and exactly WHY it was forbidden in the first place.  Surely an all-Knowing God would have foreseen that placing temptation within arm’s length of an innocent was a recipe for disaster… which led me to wonder if maybe He wanted it to be a disaster.  Maybe He knew all along that in order for balance to be achieved in the universe, both good and evil needed to exist. So what if He knew what was going to happen, and created one of his angels with just enough of a rebellious streak to want that fruit to be plucked?  Yes, dear reader, in this fictional retelling of an age-old scenario, I’m suggesting that Eve herself was the fruit, and Samael the Fallen, an arrogant archangel, was the innocent.

Cast out of Heaven for doing what came naturally — that’s the way Samael, the world’s original misunderstood bad boy, sees it, anyway. It’s his anger at losing his wings, denied the forgiveness that mankind is offered that leads him to become Satan, Lord of Darkness.  Now he tempts—as he was tempted—and he lies, as he feels he was lied to, in an effort to prove that temptation is impossible to resist.  As you can read all about in my Nicki Styx series,

it’s not until he meets the one woman he can’t have that he begins to doubt himself, and becomes a DEVIL WITHOUT A CAUSE. Heartbroken and lost once again, there’s one person who’s never given up on him.  His old friend Gabriel, Angel of Light, offers him a chance to take on the job for which he was originally created, that of a guardian angel.

Idle hands are the Devil’s workshop…

Temptation and seduction are the tricks of the Devil’s trade, and when offered the chance to regain his wings by playing guardian angel, he’s hell-bent on doing this his way…

Faith McFarland is in need of a miracle.  So desperate to save her sick child, she’s willing to make a deal with the Devil: steal a ring worn by Finn Payne, the bad-boy rockstar who long ago sold his soul for rock ‘n roll.  Temptation and seduction become necessary evils, yet Faith’s salvation means Finn’s damnation… because the ring is all that stands betweeen him and Hell.  Falling in love was never part of the bargain, but now that they’ve tasted heaven in each other’s arms, can they convince the Devil to give up his due?

Things don’t work out quite the way Gabriel hopes, however, which leads Sammy to teach his old friend a lesson of his own in Book #2, A DEVIL NAMED DESIRE:

Forbidden fruit is always the sweetest…

 …and no one knows that better than Sammy Divine.  Once an angel, now cast down, Sammy’s out to prove he’s not the only angel who can be led into temptation…

Hope Henderson’s sister has disappeared without a trace, and Hope will do anything to find her–even make a deal with the Devil.  An ancient text holds the key to unspeakable power, and it’s the Archangel Gabriel’s job to make sure it stays hidden, even if he has to become mortal to do it.  Lives, love, and the fate of the world hang in the balance, as Hope and Gabriel learn that when passion’s involved, desire can be a devil that’s impossible to control.

Now, in the hopes you might enjoy a little bite of forbidden fruit yourself, I’m giving away a signed copy of DEVIL WITHOUT A CAUSE, along with one of these cute little Limited Edition beaded bookmarks (I don’t knit, but I love beads!).

Thanks Terri! (Okay I got a little sniffly there. Thank you for the kind words.) And now, I’ll give you all a little prompt to get you commenting – What’s your favourite forbidden fruit? Or guilty pleasure? Comment below for a chance to win.