Writer and Editor C.B. Calsing/ G.G. Royale

Keith Thomas’s “The Dunnie” hits all the right notes in a nostalgic horror novel loosely based on folklore. Beth and her son, Asher, have to go to Pa’s house to help the older man move. His dementia is making it harder for him to live alone. Even worse, his state of mind is making it impossible for him to control the Dunnie, a creature that he’s been feeding and hiding for years. As the Dunnie’s hunger grows and Pa’s power wains, Asher must find a way to destroy the monster, or else its appetite could put more people at risk.  This novella is a tight, well-crafted read. It uses a load of great tropes: creepy basement, old house away from town, a strange man who practices folk magic in the woods... The hero is the kid, which we all love in horror, right? I also appreciate how detailed the descriptions of the creature are. It is easy to picture while reading. There is some graphic gore as well.  Basically, this is a fun read suitable for a weekend which most fans of horror will find sati

Brandie June has given us a retelling of “Rumpelstiltskin” for fans of Sarah J. Maas in her book, “Gold Spun.” Nor and her three brothers are orphans, doing their best to get by in a kingdom ravaged by war. After meeting a faerie in the woods, she cooks up a scheme to sell magic straw. The prince of the kingdom catches her, and hoping to expose her as a fraud, promises to marry her if she can spin all the straw into gold in one night. Through the aid of the faerie, she accomplishes this feat and becomes the fiancee of the king-to-be. All is not happily ever after, however; as Nor falls for her prince, other forces are at work to bring down the kingdom.  Although there is obvious influence from the fairy tale, this retelling is original enough that you are still left wondering how it will all come together in the end. I enjoyed the inclusive cast and the growth many of them showed. Brandie June has done a good job ensuring her supporting characters move along with the protagonist.   The

Lauren Blackwood’s “Within these Wicked Walls” is a wonderful dark,  horror romance. I love anything inspired by “Jane Eyre,” and this did not disappoint. Andromeda works as an unlicensed debtera, a sort of exorcist, and she is called into the desert to cleanse a haunted castle. She falls in love with the owner, Magnus Rochester, who is the cursed individual. Together with the help of Andi’s mentor and an unlikely, undead ally, they work to overcome the curse before it is too late.  I really enjoyed this novel. The touches on racial and socioeconomic politics made for interesting undertones. The manifestations, or hauntings, were well thought-out and plenty creepy when they needed to be, but I also liked the touches where they were light-hearted and offered some respite from the grief and labors the characters must endure. There are some complicated relationships, but because of them, the story felt more realistic despite its fantastical elements.  The narrator, Nneka Okoye, did an exc

“In the Grimdark Strands of the Spinneret” by Keith Anthony Baird is marketed as a “fairy tale for elders.” The main thrust of the plot revolves around a deposed princess who spends a lifetime plotting her revenge, only to, in turn, be betrayed by the next in line to her rule. There is magic and war and intrigue in the intervening years.  I generally like fairy-tale retellings or new incarnations based on the tropes of the past. This one has many of the appealing aspects of a dark fantasy. The basic plot points are good and could lend themselves to a very lush, long fantasy novel. Some of the language is quite poetic, but in other spots it feels overwrought. What is really missing here, however, is the deeper perspective that most reinventions utilize and that most modern readers desire. Because of the sparing use of dialogue and deep scene, the narration flows more like summary. I kept expecting what felt like the background retelling to stop and the real scene to begin, but it never

So here is my second installment of magical orphan stories for fall: “The Door by the Staircase” by Katherine Marsh. It has a lot in common with the last one I wrote about, “Misfit’s Magic.”   Mary is twelve years old and has recently been sent from the orphanage for younger children to the one for older girls, where the caretaker immediately dislikes her. She is afraid of never getting adopted and aging out, ending up in a workhouse or worse. Mary decides to run away but is caught. The very next day, however, the mysterious Madame Z adopts Mary and whisks her off to a strange town full of magicians and soothsayers. In this new world, not all is as it seems. Are the illusionists using actual magic? Soon Mary learns Madame Z is not who she claims to be, and Mary must decide if this is her forever home or if she needs to run to save her life.  This was a really fun, quick listen. It has a very cottagecore feel to it and has a cozy happy ending for all. It was exactly what I wanted for an

I was excited to read “The Haunting of Alejandra” by V. Castro when I found it on NetGalley, because I am really looking forward to getting my hands on her Aliens-franchise story, “Vasquez.” Of course, “The Haunting” is an entirely different story that has its own appeal.  The plot follows Alejandra. A stay-at-home mother of three, she battles with depression and her own expectations of what motherhood is supposed to be. Alejandra was adopted by a white family as a baby, and as such doesn’t have a lot of connection to her Hispanic roots. Is her depression and dissatisfaction a mental health issue, or is it something more sinister, dark, and much, much older? To answer these questions, she enlists the help of a counselor who is also a curandera, and Alejandra reconnects with her birth mother. Together the women work to unravel an ancient curse on the bloodline.  I love how the author interwove the perspectives of the women in the modern world with those of their ancestors. This techniqu

I’m in a mood right now to read autumn-set horror and magical stories for kids. I just moved to a new town with actual fall-like weather. There’s even snow on the hills around the house right now! So I absolutely want to feel in the spirit of the season.   I decided to start with Fred Gracely’s “Misfit’s Magic,” narrated by Colin Wats. The story has all the best character tropes: an orphan, a grumpy foster dad and horrible foster siblings, a mysterious stranger, and a talking cat, to name a few. Our protagonist, Goff, has one dream: to write an essay good enough to get into fancy boarding school and away from his miserable existence. When a spell (for research, of course) goes awry, he finds himself a reluctant wizard who must try to stop an evil aristocrat from consuming all the children’s souls in town.  This was a fun listen. The narrator did a great job with the different voices, particularly the evil wizard. Goff is likable and brave, and his friends add a touch of humor to the st

Marcy McCreary’s “The Disappearance of Trudy Solomon” is a fun detective story with a strong female lead. Detective Susan Ford, while embroiled in a racially sensitive shooting investigation, is dragged into one of her father’s cold cases. Together they work to figure out what happened to the titular coffee shop waitress who disappeared forty years earlier. Her boyfriend, another cop, is also along for the ride. The case is made all the more difficult because of the family that is the focus of the investigation: the Roths, former Catskills hotel royalty with a complicated dynamic.  There was a lot to enjoy about this book. The shifting perspectives between Susan and Trudy gave color to the narration. The procedural/ clue collecting part of the book unraveled at a good pace, and the conflict within the Roth family and Mary’s relationship to it offered good tension. My one issue with the story (entirely personal) was I found it hard to sympathize with a detective who had recently shot an

I n Mark Wheaton’s Wraith, Cecily is called away from collecting plant specimens in the Carolina wetlands when her great-grandmother dies in France. Cecily’s life is turned upside down when she learns of a family curse, ancestral secrets, and an inheritance that could change everything. Haunted by the titular character at every turn, Cecily must try to save herself and her friends while uncovering the mystery of her family’s disastrous past. This was a great, tight horror and suspense novel. I was just as eager as Cecily to put together all the pieces of the puzzle her great-grandmother left behind. The supporting characters are diverse, and I was invested in their stories as well. What I really liked about this tale was the author managed to sprinkle in some moments of joy and beauty, which relieved the tension of the plot line. So often horror novels are all one note, and that can be overwhelming for the reader. The narrator did a nice job with the story. Annalee Scott captured Cec

Sunyi Dean introduces us to a new mythology in her novel, “The Book Eaters.  Devon is a book eater. Her sustenance comes from the actual mastication of the written word. Where these creatures came from is a mystery, but nevertheless a few families of them are scattered across the UK. Occasionally a book eater offspring is born a mind eater: a creature who can suck out a person’s memory and knowledge, leaving the body an empty husk.  When Devon gives birth to a mind eater, the result of a family-arranged coupling, she must decide what she values more: the life she was raised in or the life of her son. What is the cost of love?  The world-building and mythos that Dean has created in this novel are noteworthy. I wanted to explore more of it. There is hint of a sequel, which I hope we see. Themes of self-discovery and survival permeate the novel, and the combination of flashbacks and present-day narration ensures that the reader gets all the details they need when they need them.  The narr

Ainslie Hogarth’s Motherthing is, well, something. Told alternately from sort of stream-of-conscious first person and prose set as stage directions and dialogue, the highly odd and unreliable narrator, Abby, relates her experience with the death of her mother-in-law and the resulting fall-out in her relationship with her husband. Right from the beginning, you know that Abby is a little unhinged. She finds the idea of filling a hot tub with diarrhea amusing, and an old cookbook is her bible. We learn later she had an abusive and neglectful mother, and she wanted to connect with her husband Ralph’s mother, but that woman too was inaccessible. Abby finds solace in a client at her long-term care home, but that relationship is a little backward. Abby calls Mrs. Bondy her baby. And there is nothing Abby wants more than a baby with her perfect husband. However, Ralph is pulled into a deep depression by the suicide of his mother and her (maybe?) consequent haunting of the couple. A psychic te

J. H. Markert’s The Nightmare Man gives you everything you want from the trope of the horror writer being trapped in a world of his own making, and then some. I remember watching In the Mouth of Madness as a teenager at the Sunset Drive-in when it was released. As far as I can remember, this was my first exposure to this trope. I’ve sought it out elsewhere as well: in horror films from the seventies and in other books. The Nightmare Man is packed not only with this classic trope, but so many others from across horror subgenres that it is an all-too-satisfying read, and I can’t wait for the sequel that is hinted at in the final chapter.  Ben Bookman is our novelist. He’s (of course) also an alcoholic (a nod to The Shining) and is having trouble keeping his marriage together after an allegation of an affair with the nanny (classic, but it becomes even more twisted later). The novel starts at a book signing of his most recent story. There, a man shoots himself in front of Ben, claiming

Polly Hall’s The Taxidermist’s Lover is unlike anything I’ve listened to before. Scarlett meets Henry on the beach one day, and their love affair begins, both between them and between Scarlett and Henry’s taxidermy. They move in together, and the book follows about a year of their relationship, jumping between Christmas day in the present and the previous months of the year. As time goes on, the narrator slowly reveals exactly how their relationship has ended, and it’s not what the reader expects.   To be honest, if I’d picked up the novel, I probably would not have finished it. I’m not terribly fond of second-person narration, but it worked really well as an audiobook. The second-person perspective is what makes or breaks this story, and for the audiobook it suits. Listening to the narrator, Justine Eyre, really brought this novel into itself, and I was completely invested in following it through to the end. Her voice matched that of the narrator. I have to admit I sort of binged i

Dickens meets Marvel’s X-Men is the best way I can describe Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro. Orphans with extraordinary abilities from all over the world are taken to the mysterious Cairndale Institute in Scotland. Is it for their own protection and instruction, or does the owner have more nefarious plans to carry out? This book follows the adventures of one set of these orphans, each with an amazing power, as they discover whom they should trust and from whom they should run.  Many reviewers have complained about the length of the audiobook, but I enjoyed the extended time I got to spend in this amazingly well-crafted world. Miro has shown a great ability in world building, and though it takes some time to follow all the threads, the reveals are worth it in the end. The themes of trust and family run throughout. Though many of these children are alone in the world, they have each other.  I have to say I did enjoy the narrator, Ben Onwukwe. His accent lent the correct character and grav

One of my favorite genres to read is the updated, canon tale told from a new perspective. I remember reading Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea in college, and it was one of the few titles I returned to later in life. For those that don’t know, that novel tells the backstory of Edward’s first wife in Jane Eyre : what drove her to madness and why he keeps her locked away. I recommend it for fans of the original story.  Silvia Moreno-Garcia's The Daughter of Doctor Moreau gives a similar treatment to the classic by H.G. Wells. Moreno-Garcia resets the story in the lush Yucatan, and the hybrid human/animals have their sources in the creatures that stalk those forests, and Merida is the nearest city where one might find civilization. It is told in a close third-person perspective, alternating between Montgomery, the caretaker, and Carlota, the doctor’s “natural daughter.” The plot revolves around Moreau attempting to secure funding to continue his experiments by securing a marriage between

Without planning to, I read two stories back-to-back which featured an abused wife running with her son from her law-enforcement husband. Both protagonists end up in a situation with a mysterious stranger whose motivations are unclear. But really, that is where the similarities between The Haunting of Orchard Hill and The Beasts of Vissaria County end. Douglas Ford’s The Beasts of Vissaria County follows Maggie as she attempts to start a new life with her son after an alleged suicide attempt. She has run from her husband, an ICE agent involved in some dubious activities, and she is living with her father. This was the one issue I sort of had with the story. Maggie refuses to carry a cellphone because she thinks it can be used to track her, but she’s gone to stay at her dad’s, and her dad, Vernon, is friends with her husband. Her husband even bought him a truck. One would think she would find a less obvious place to hide. But for the story to work, she does need to be found, and she i

Sara Crocoll Smith's The Haunting of Orchard Hill  is solidly a paranormal novel and solidly a romance in the gothic style. It begins with tension as Nina, our protagonist, and her infant son flee an abusive husband, who also happens to be a cop, upping the stakes. When her car breaks down in a rural town, she is taken in by a widow who owns an apple orchard. There are whispers about her too. Did she kill her husband? Then Nina meets the mysterious farmhand, Colin, and is instantly smitten. Colin, however, has his own secrets. The text of this story was well-written and well-edited. Its highlight is definitely the folksy, mysterious widow who offers to take in Nina and her son. Like Nina, in the beginning I could not tell whether this woman was truly kind or had nefarious motivations. I was really cheering for her to be good because Nina already had enough crap going on in her life. The tension is high throughout, and as a reader, I was very interested in finding out what was going

Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments by T.L. Huchu is the second book in a series. Ropa Moyo, our protagonist, is a ghost talker and takes on odd jobs helping the deceased finish their unfinished business. She lives in a caravan in the slums with her grandmother and little sister. She wants nothing more than a better future for her family. In this installment, she is hired by a hospital to help figure out why some schoolboys are falling sick. She also comes across a fortune hunter who wants her to help prove an inheritance. In an alternate reality, after a worldwide catastrophe, magic and cell phones coexist on the streets of Edinburgh, and Ropa repeatedly finds herself in altercations with gangs, magicians, and bureaucrats. I don’t usually read sequels without having read the first book in a series. I don’t like risking that I might get lost in some of the details, nor do I particularly like going back to read the first book when I know a lot of the exposition or backstory. However, I mad

If you like Rocky, but would like it more if it were about a princess and a fairy, then you will love Tasmyn Muir's Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower. This is a short, fun audiobook that follows the adventure of Floralinda, who has been locked at the top of a tower, each floor of which is stalked by a different threat. The point of the tower, the witch says, is to lure princes. It's high art for the witch, but Floralinda would rather be home with her parents. As time passes, it becomes clear that no prince is going to make it to the fortieth floor, and with the help of the fairy, Cobweb, Floralinda decides to try to get out of the tower rather than wait for someone to get her out. The conflict of this story is less about the challenges at each level of the tower and fighting the beasts therein, but more about challenging roles assigned to us and fighting expectations. Floralinda begins her journey relying on the information she has been fed about what it means to

Don’t Look Back starts off and ends up a fairly standard gothic thriller. Adam and Ella win a contest to become the caretakers of a mansion in Cornwall. They are grateful for this chance because one of their twin sons has died, and the remaining three family members all seem a bit lost. Even before they move into the house, they know something mysterious is going on. The original owner hanged himself, there’s (of course) a locked door to a room that is off-limits, and some years previously, another family went missing within its walls. The current owner swears it’s haunted by her dead mother. Once the new family moves in, the house seems to have an effect on all three: Adam writes more, Ella appears happier, and Henry (the surviving son) becomes brave and gets his appetite back. Slowly, however, things descend into darkness, and no one knows whether to blame the supernatural or more mundane forces. First off, the narrator did an excellent job. Ralph Lister set a tone that supported th

I am thrilled to announce another short story acceptance. This one from Knight Writing Press . The anthology is based on "be careful what you wish for." I love this theme and used to teach The Wishgiver  to my third graders and have them write companion stories to go with it. I can give my freshman English teacher credit for that lesson idea; she let us write vignettes to fit into Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine.  I guess today we'd call that fanfiction. My story for this anthology, "Death Stopped for Florencia," is not fanfiction, but it is a bit of an homage to the magical realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, one of my favorite writers. I don't remember when I first read Love in the Time of Cholera  or "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," but I've revisited those pieces many times throughout the years and continue to draw inspiration from them. Of course, the title is a nod to Emily Dickinson as well. I hope you will enjoy my story in this a

Matthew Lyons’s A Black and Endless Sky is a gripping horror novel that begins strong, releases some of the tension, and then builds to a hard crescendo. After Jonah’s divorce, he and his sister, Nell, decide to road trip from San Francisco to Albuquerque. To start things off, they get in a bar fight with some bikers. Then it’s all downhill from there when Nell becomes possessed by a demon in the Nevada desert. With the wounded bikers and an exorcist dogging their every move, siblings have to figure out how to free Nell and get home. I find it difficult to enjoy a book when I don’t genuinely like any of the characters. I didn’t find any of them to be particularly sympathetic. From the beginning, Nell is problematic with how she baits her brother into fights. Jonah is somewhat likable at the beginning, but then his character flaws reveal that even he is not going to be the hero of this story. When Ann, the exorcist, comes on the scene, I was expecting to like her and thought she might

My story "Haunted by the Absent" will appear in "The Theme is Revenge" from  https://darklakepublishing.com/ . A collection of gothic suspense set in the 1800s, the anthology certainly promises to be dark and atmospheric. I can't wait to read the other stories included. Here are the links to Amazone and Goodreads. The release date is April 28, and the presale starts the week before. Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TJB3LS6 Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60506253-the-theme-is-revenge

 My story, "Squid and Girl, Girl and Squid" was selected to appear in Dead Sea Press's Death in the Deep anthology. I'm particularly excited by this because it is a charity anthology, raising money for the Shark Trust. My antagonist in this story is a sleeper shark, and I did quite a bit of background reading about sleeper sharks and giant squid (my main character). I found this little video particularly fascinating while I was working. Learn more about this anthology and others like it at https://www.bloodriteshorror.com/dsp

When I was younger, one of my favorite anime movies was Vampire Hunter D . I loved the atmosphere of it, and as I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, I was sort of obsessed with vampires in middle and high school. I was pretty pleased when I came across the audiobook adaptation of Vampire Hunter D by Hideyuki Kikuchi. The story is the classic one of a half-human/ half-vampire offspring hunting full-blooded vampires. D comes to the rescue of Doris and her brother after Doris is attacked by the local vampire, Count Lee (yes, pretty certain this is a nod to Christopher Lee and his role in early Dracula films). Lee decides to take Doris for his wife, against the wishes of his daughter who believes the human will pollute their noble line. Meanwhile, Doris must also fight off the suitor from town who is in love with her and another set of hunters and their leader, a beautiful fiend named Rei-Ginsei. A lot of people probably think this started out as a manga, but it is in fact a novel. The fi

Bright Ruined Things by Samantha Cohoe follows the story of Mae over the course of an amazingly tumultuous day. She has spent her life on a magical island, where her father was the caretaker. However, since he died and she is approaching her eighteenth birthday, her future on the Prosper family’s island is in question. She does not want to leave, but how can she stay? The solution: marry one of Lord Prosper’s grandsons. She has had a crush on Miles for years but instead ends up engaged to Ivo, the heir to the Prosper magic. The union with Ivo would cement her position on the island, but she doesn’t love him, and Miles thinks Ivo has been doing something nefarious along with his grandfather. On top of everything else, the spirits that work behind the scenes on the island are appearing near death. All the family secrets are revealed on First Night, the lavish party which celebrates when Lord Prosper first harnessed the magic and spirits of the island. Mae must decide what she really wan

I received my first short story acceptance yesterday of the year. The story, "Haunted by the Absent," is loosely inspired by a legend from my husband's family, and the idea has been banging around in my head for a long time. However, it went in a different direction than I intended originally. I am very excited to share it, and a little embarrassed by the praise I received from the editor. This is my first story acceptance since "The Asylum Musicale" in 2017. I went through quite a dry spell without completing any writing. I feel fortunate that I seemed to get right back into the process after so long. That validates the decision I made to write full time.

Laurel Hightower's book Below from Ghoulish Books starts with a jump scare and keeps going from there. After nearly running into a stopped van on the road, Addy stops for a break for her road trip at a truck stop. There she meets a trucker who is willing to convoy with her to make sure she doesn't get lost on the snowy roads. When the trucker crashes through the railing of a bridge, though, Addy's world crashes right down with it. She attempts to rescue the driver but instead becomes lost in a cave system, hunted by something that is other than human. This is a super quick read. Want a scary story for an afternoon at the beach or snuggled up on the couch? Pick this book up. It’s not just about jump scares and scary cave predators, though. It has a deeper theme about learning to live independently. By the end, it reads like an allegory. Addy is recently divorced, and for most of the book, the voice in her head telling her what to do is that of her ex-husband. Addy’s growth a

Hold Back the Tide by Melinda Salisbury starts off as a thriller: Alva lives with her father, and everyone knows her father killed her mother several years before. Alva is trying to survive long enough to save money and move away from him. Every day, she fears she may be his next victim. The story is set in mid-nineteenth century Scotland, and when you get the audiobook, the narrator is Scottish, which goes a long way to making the story very atmospheric and engaging. Eventually, however, we learn that this is not just a thriller about a girl living with her murderous father, but a vampire novel! Now, I have been a fan of vampires in literature since I was in middle school, and a lot of the time, I am sort of bored by new interpretations because I've read a lot of vampire stories and written a few of my own. The last one to get me excited was The Strain,  both as a book and a television series. Hold Back the Tide  got me interested again, the way The Strain  did. I was excited to l

The Beast Is an Animal  by Paternelle van Arsdale is a compelling tale with pretty dark overtones. Alys is left orphaned by "soul eaters," twin sisters who float about the countryside with the promise of rest for the weary. Alys and the other surviving children of the village are taken to a new village, where they are forced to work nights, protecting the sheep and the citizens from the threat of the soul eaters. Alys learns as she grows that she is different than the other children and the citizens of her adoptive town, and she is forced to strike out on her own to set things right. I particularly love this book because of how it plays off the ideas of what is truly good and what is truly evil, and how each individual can decide that for themselves. It's a good message for young readers, that right and wrong can be subjective and just because someone is in power doesn't make them good. The world-building and atmosphere of the book were also well done, so all in all i

The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones mixes folklore with fantasy, horror, and young-adult romance. Aderyn is the daughter of a grave digger, and she's one of the few people who believes in, and deals with, the bone houses, essentially the reanimated dead. Recently, they've started leaving the forest and terrorizing the village. Aderyn, with the help of a mapmaker from the capital Ellis, head into the forest to break the curse and free her village from their violence. Along the way, the relationship between the two grows as they confront their pasts and what they've believed true for their entire lives. I feel so fortunate that I managed to download this audiobook right after House of Salt and Sorrow because I can give two glowing reviews back to back. I LOVED this book too. The heroine is not traditionally beautiful, but she is strong and comfortable in her body, and she makes her living in a traditionally male work, digging graves. She is an awesome role model for young re

 I have a writing article posted over at Readers' Favorite. Check it out if you'd like to find a new way to motivate yourself to write. This method works for me, and helps me also keep track of how much I accomplish each day. During my morning pages, where I review my tasks, set my intention for the day, and reflect on the previous day, I'll look at my score and think of why I got that and what I could do to improve it. I've found a low-scoring day leaves me feeling a little down as far as my writing goes. Striving to meet my bench mark, or beat a high score, keeps me working.

Erin A. Craig’s House of Salt and Sorrows tells the story of the Thaumus family from the point of view of one of the twelve sisters, Annaleigh. At the beginning of the story, her mother and several of her sisters have already died, and the remaining sisters are burying another while trying to adjust to a new stepmother in the house. The circumstances around the most recent sister’s death are suspicious, and while there is talk of a family curse, Annaleigh attempts to uncover the truth about what really happened to her sister. During this, she deals with the competing feelings for her childhood friend, Fisher, and a mysterious newcomer to their island home, Cassius. To be honest, my summary doesn’t even do justice to the rich, intertwined plot of this book. I loved it. It is mysterious, opulent, dark, romantic… It borrowed from fairy tales and Poe-esque plots and settings. It ticked so many boxes for me. I loved that I only figured out a few of the twists moments before they were revea

I am currently open to new editing gigs and can promise a super quick turnaround on manuscripts up to 100,000 words. Check out the page on this site to learn about my rates and other information. Using the pen name G.G. Royale, I wrote and edited for Loose Id for over a decade. My specialty is spicy romance; the higher the heat level, the better, but I also want to make sure you have a good solid story line and characters your readers will love. I can help you create your owns style guide as we work together (if you don't already have one). I have the heart of the teacher, and my goal is to help you polish your work for publication or submission to agents.