Book Spotlight: Witch’s Rule Book 3 by Ann Gimpel

Witch’s Rule
The Witch Chronicles
Book 3

Ann Gimpel


Publisher: Taliesin


Release Date: November 7, 2014
Available for pre-order mid-October

Genre: Dark Paranormal Romance

Jenna falls in love with two very different men. Standing on the verge of Earth’s destruction, will she defy convention and follow the song in her heart?



Book Description:

Jenna’s a special witch, sort of, when her magic works, which it often doesn’t. One of three remaining demon-stalkers, she and her sister witches, Roz and Colleen, are Earth’s only hedge against being overrun by Hell’s minions. On the heels of Roz’s and Colleen’s weddings, Jenna is headed for the U.K. when a demon confronts her. Any other witch could teleport out of the plane, but not her. Frustration about her limited power eats at her. It would be pretty pathetic to get killed for lack of skills a teenager could master.

Tristan is a Sidhe warrior, but his primary gift is attunement to others’ emotions. He fell hard for Jenna, but hasn’t had an opportunity to act on their attraction beyond a few kisses because she returned to Alaska, and he’s been in the field fighting demons.

As seer for the Sidhe, Kiernan is haunted by visions, particularly an apocalyptic sending that seems to be coming true. A confirmed bachelor, he doesn’t understand his attraction to Jenna, but it’s so strong he can’t fight it, and after a while, he doesn’t even try, despite recognizing Tristan’s claim to her.

Startling truths surface about Jenna’s magic, and then there’s the problem that she’s falling in love with two very different men. At first she believes she has to pick one of them, but her spirit refuses to walk away from either. It’s impossible to choose between a seer with dreams in his eyes and a beautiful man who intuits her every need. Standing on the verge of Earth’s destruction, will she defy convention and follow the song in her heart?


 

About the Author:


Ann Gimpel is a mountaineer at heart. Recently retired from a long career as a psychologist, she remembers many hours at her desk where her body may have been stuck inside four walls, but her soul was planning yet one more trip to the backcountry. Around the turn of the last century (that would be 2000, not 1900!), she managed to finagle moving to the Eastern Sierra, a mecca for those in love with the mountains. It was during long backcountry treks that Ann’s writing evolved. Unlike some who see the backcountry as an excuse to drag friends and relatives along, Ann prefers solitude. Stories always ran around in her head on those journeys, sometimes as a hedge against abject terror when challenging conditions made her fear for her life, sometimes for company. Eventually, she returned from a trip and sat down at the computer. Three months later, a five hundred page novel emerged. Oh, it wasn’t very good, but it was a beginning. And, she learned a lot between writing that novel
and its sequel.

Around that time, a friend of hers suggested she try her hand at short stories. It didn’t take long before that first story found its way into print and they’ve been accepted pretty regularly since then. One of Ann’s passions has always been ecology, so her tales often have a green twist.

In addition to writing, Ann enjoys wilderness photography. She lugs pounds of camera equipment in her backpack to distant locales every year. A standing joke is that over ten percent of her pack weight is camera gear which means someone else has to carry the food! That someone is her husband. They’ve shared a life together for a very long time. Children, grandchildren and three wolf hybrids round out their family.






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Book Spotlight: Forever and a Day by Ann Gimpel

              Forever and a Day

The Company Store
Book 2
Ann Gimpel

Publisher: Taliesin
ISBN:  978-1-62916-065-8
Release Date: 7/3/14

Genre: Paranormal Romantic Suspense
Word Count: 50,000 words



Espionage operations and runaway love travel halfway around the globe as Tamara and Lars stay one step ahead of death. Tension heats to boiling, but it’s not half as hot as the attraction licking at their heels.

Book Description:

Tamara MacBride has a much bigger problem than hiding her shifter side from the world. By the skin of her teeth, and with a smattering of Irish luck, she manages to kill her sister’s murderer. Escaping from the scene of the crime is proving much harder than she anticipated. Just when she thinks she might be safe, her cab driver shrieks and slumps over the wheel. She cowers in the back seat, too scared to run, expecting the next bullet will be for her.

An unknown assailant terminates Lars Kinsvogel’s target. Pleased by the outcome, after all dead is dead, Lars exchanges the glitz of Monto Carlo for a nearby airport intent on collecting the private plane he left there. He’s no sooner arrived when a cab jumps the curb. His instincts blare a warning, but Lars ignores them and trots over to investigate. There’s not much he can do for the cabbie, but his passenger is still very much alive—and absolutely stunning. It takes some tall talking, but she agrees to come with him.

Espionage operations and runaway love travel halfway around the globe as Tamara learns to accept her shifter side, and Lars embraces what’s been missing from his long life. Initially reticent to trust one another, it takes a series of crises and a near-fatal accident for them to take a chance on love—and each other.

Book Trailer: Forever and a Day

 About the Author: Ann Gimpel is a clinical psychologist, with a Jungian bent.  Avocations include mountaineering, skiing, wilderness photography and, of course, writing.  A lifelong aficionado of the unusual, she began writing speculative fiction a few years ago. Since then her short fiction has appeared in a number of webzines and anthologies. Her longer books run the gamut from urban fantasy to paranormal romance. She’s published over 20 books to date, with several more contracted for 2014. A husband, grown children, grandchildren and three wolf hybrids round out her family.


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Guest Blog & Giveaway: Blood and Magic by Ann Gimpel

Blood and Magic
Ann Gimpel

Publisher: Taliesin
Genre: Dark Paranormal Romance



Book Description:Can Luke conquer his past and claim the only woman he’s ever loved?

Magic didn’t just find Luke Caulfield. It chased him down, bludgeoned him, and has been dogging him ever since. Some lessons are harder than others. Luke survives by embracing danger and upping the ante to give it one better. An enforcer for the Coven, a large, established group of witches, his latest assignment is playing bodyguard to the daughter of Coven leaders.

Abigail Ruskin is chaperoning a spoiled twelve-year-old from New York to her parents’ home in Utah Territory when Luke gets on their stagecoach in Colorado. A powerful witch herself, Abigail senses Luke’s magic, but he’s so overwhelmingly male, she shies away from contact. Stuck between the petulant child and Luke’s raw sexual energy, Abigail can’t wait for the trip to end.

Wraiths, wolves, and humans with dark magick attack. Unpleasant truths surface about the child and Abigail’s well-ordered world crashes around her. Luke’s so attracted to Abigail, she’s almost all he can think about, but he’s leery too. In over his head, he summons enforcer backup. Will they help him save the woman he’s falling in love with, or demand her immediate execution?


PRFL would like to extend a very warm welcome to our guest blogger, Ann Gimple, author of Blood and Magic, and so many other great books.

Creating a Setting for Your Characters

Thanks so much for inviting me back to your blog, Danica. That’s the best compliment of all. Hope your writing is going well and that 2014 is the best year yet—for all of us.
I’d love to say I use the same process for every book I write, but I don’t. Many of my books begin with an image, or series of images, that form the basis for the book. I occasionally begin with an empty world, and it tells me what kind of characters it needs. I’ve only rarely begun with a character and formed a world around them. 
In Blood and Magic, the world came to me first. It was a nineteenth century version of the United States that’s become a battlefield. People with power stand on one side, and wraiths and other dark creatures stand on the other. I needed gutsy, self-contained characters to survive in such a challenging environment, and they came to me. 
Luke starts out as a scared fifteen year old. His mother’s been taken by wraiths and his father sent him to find the town wizard to help them. Luke knows he has magic, but it scares the living daylights out of him. In many ways this is his story as he comes to terms with who he is. Abigail enters the stage after Luke is long past grown. She’s a powerful witch, but not a match for what’s after them. The story arc brings Luke and Abigail together, but it’s a long, tough journey.
One of the things I love about urban fantasy, as opposed to high fantasy, is it’s set in the “real” world. No odd names for things. No triple moons transiting the sky. My favorite urban fantasies feel so real, they could actually happen. That hunk living next door could be a closet Celtic god, who’s really been alive for millennia.
I’m also wretchedly old-fashioned. We lost something when our lives got very easy. There’s not much challenge left anymore, unless we create it. I think that’s why I’ve had a lifelong love affair with traveling the backcountry with a pack, where I have to rely on my wits. I’ve been cold, lost, and out of food, but I feel ever so much more alive when I get back to civilization. I give my characters similar challenges. They need wits, creativity, and courage to survive to the next chapter. That their worlds hold surprises ups the ante.

How about the rest of you writers out there. Do you create characters first, or worlds? Or do they come to you as a unit that refuses to be separated?

Thank you so much for joining us today, Ann. We really enjoyed the visit and the insights. Good luck and great sales with Blood and Magic!


About the Author

Ann Gimpel is a mountaineer at heart. Recently retired from a long career as a psychologist, she remembers many hours at her desk where her body may have been stuck inside four walls, but her soul was planning yet one more trip to the backcountry. Around the turn of the last century (that would be 2000, not 1900!), she managed to finagle moving to the Eastern Sierra, a mecca for those in love with the mountains. It was during long backcountry treks that Ann’s writing evolved. Unlike some who see the backcountry as an excuse to drag friends and relatives along, Ann prefers solitude. Stories always ran around in her head on those journeys, sometimes as a hedge against abject terror when challenging conditions made her fear for her life, sometimes for company. Eventually, she returned from a trip and sat down at the computer. Three months later, a five hundred page novel emerged. Oh, it wasn’t very good, but it was a beginning. And, she learned a lot between writing that novel
and its sequel.

Around that time, a friend of hers suggested she try her hand at short stories. It didn’t take long before that first story found its way into print and they’ve been accepted pretty regularly since then. One of Ann’s passions has always been ecology, so her tales often have a green twist.

In addition to writing, Ann enjoys wilderness photography. She lugs pounds of camera equipment in her backpack to distant locales every year. A standing joke is that over ten percent of her pack weight is camera gear which means someone else has to carry the food! That someone is her husband. They’ve shared a life together for a very long time. Children, grandchildren and three wolf hybrids round out their family.

Author Links:
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Blog | Amazon

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$25 Amazon Gift Card

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Guest Blog & Giveaway: Witch's Bounty by Ann Gimpel

Witch’s Bounty
The Witch Chronicles, Book 1
Ann Gimpel

Publisher: Taliesin
Release Date: 3/6/14
Genre: Dark Paranormal Romance


A demon-stalking witch teams up with a Sidhe, but their combined power, never mind their love, may be too late to make a difference.

Book Description:
One of only three remaining demon-stalking witches, Colleen is almost the last of her kind. Along with her familiar, a changeling spirit, she was hoping for a few months of quiet, running a small magicians’ supply store in Fairbanks, Alaska. Peace isn’t in the cards, though. Demons are raising hell in Seattle. She’s on her way out the door to help, when a Sidhe shows up and demands she accompany him to northern England to quell a demon uprising there.
Duncan swallowed uneasy feelings when the Sidhe foisted demon containment off onto the witches two hundred years before. He’s annoyed when the Sidhe leader sends him to haul a witch across the Atlantic to bail them out. Until he sees the witch in question. Colleen is unquestionably the most beautiful woman he’s ever laid eyes on. Strong and gutsy, too. When she refuses to come with him, because she’s needed in Seattle, he immediately offers his assistance. Anything to remain in her presence.
Colleen can’t believe how gorgeous the Sidhe is, but she doesn’t have time for such nonsense. She, Jenna, and Roz are the only hedge Earth has against being overrun by Hell’s minions. Even with help from a powerful magic wielder like Duncan, the odds aren’t good and the demons know it. Sensing victory is within their grasp, they close in for the kill.

Guest Post by author Ann Gimpel:
The Writing Life 
Isn't anything like I thought it would be. I suppose I had this romanticized picture in my mind of curling up in front of my computer and turning out, well, stuff. That part has come true. I do write stories--and novels, too. And I truly love that part. There's nothing better than being lost in the creative process where characters are alive in my head and the other world--the real one--fades into insignificance.
There are all those other parts, though. The ones I really didn't know all that much about. I've taught myself to be a better self-editor. And I've gotten better at researching markets for my stories. Not much point in sending a sci fi piece to a market that publishes predominantly horror. Or in sending high fantasy to a publisher that wants an urban slant.
The short story markets are interesting. In many ways it's like trying to hit a moving target with no feedback. If you send them something that looks a lot like what they publish, they often figure there's too much sameness in their stories. "Yes, we want swords and sorcery, but we've had too many stories with ______________ (fill in the blank). We want something else now. Surprise us." Sometimes I'm amazed I've had as many shorts published as I have. Something like fifteen in all. 
Probably a low point was one of my stories that made it to the finals for a particular publication. I did get feedback on that one: a very nice note from the editor telling me it was a good story. That there was "nothing wrong with it". But he wasn't going to use it because it was too long. Even though the publication had a published 10K word limit, they apparently prefer stories half that length. Now some magazines will 
tell you that up front. I'm nothing if not an inveterate direction follower, so I went back to the magazine's website and searched for clues as to preferred length. Didn't find a thing outside the "send us your stories up to ten thousand words". And so it goes.I don’t write many short stories anymore, not because I don’t enjoy them, but I no longer have time. Plus, I’ve found I can cram a whole lot more “story” into novellas 
and novels. My current “preferred” book length is around 60K words. And I just adore the paranormal romance genre. All those hunky alpha males are little shy of amazing. Shifters add a whole new dimension to things.

What’s your favorite genre to read? Why?

About the Author:

Ann Gimpel is a mountaineer at heart. Recently retired from a long career as a psychologist, she remembers many hours at her desk where her body may have been stuck inside four walls, but her soul was planning yet one more trip to the backcountry.
Around the turn of the last century (that would be 2000, not 1900!), she managed to finagle moving to the Eastern Sierra, a mecca for those in love with the mountains. It was during long backcountry treks that Ann’s writing evolved. Unlike some who see the backcountry as an excuse to drag friends and relatives along, Ann prefers solitude. Stories always ran around in her head on those journeys, sometimes as a hedge against abject terror when challenging conditions made her fear for her life, sometimes for company. Eventually, she returned from a trip and sat down at the computer. Three months later, a five hundred page novel emerged. Oh, it wasn’t very good, but it was a beginning. And, she learned a lot between writing that novel and its sequel.
Around that time, a friend of hers suggested she try her hand at short stories. It didn’t take long before that first story found its way into print and they’ve been accepted pretty regularly since then. One of Ann’s passions has always been ecology, so her tales often have a green twist.
In addition to writing, Ann enjoys wilderness photography. She lugs pounds of camera equipment in her backpack to distant locales every year. A standing joke is that over ten percent of her pack weight is camera gear which means someone else has to carry the food! That someone is her husband. They’ve shared a life together for a very long time. Children, grandchildren and three wolf hybrids round out their family.

Author Contacts:
Website | Blog | Facebook | AmazonAuthor | Twitter 

Tour Wide Giveaway:

$50 Amazon GC 

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Author Interview: Earth's Requiem by Ann Gimpel

Earth’s Requiem
Earth Reclaimed, Book One


by Ann Gimpel

Publisher: Musa
Genre: Urban Fantasy/Romance

Our Interview with Ann Gimpel:

Welcome to Paranormal Romance Fans for Life, Ann. We're delighted you could join us. 

Ann: Thanks so much for hosting me! It’s a pleasure to be here.

PR: We want to get to know a little bit about you, so here goes. Can you tell us where are you from and from where/who did your love for writing come from?

AG: I’m originally from Seattle, but I’ve lived in California for a very long time. Currently, I live in Mammoth Lakes, a little mountain village in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. There’s a world-class ski area, Mammoth Mountain, five minutes from my house. I’ve always been a reader. And I’ve always written something, but for most of my working years, the “something” was case notes, or reports, or grant proposals. Writing has always come 
easily to me. I never seriously considered writing fiction until one day late in 2008 when I simply sat down at the keyboard and let the story that had been running around in my head have a voice. It was an experiment, but I’m ever so glad I paid attention to my muse.

PR: Can you say that your journey to publication was difficult? If so, what were the hardest moments to get through?

AG: Compared with others, I’ve had a fairly easy go of things. When my first novel went nowhere, 
for the very best of reasons—it wasn’t any good—I started writing short stories. I didn’t realize my first novel was terrible when I wrote it. A few years later, I not only could see what was wrong, I gutted that book, cut 50% of its length, did a total rewrite, and sold it to a publisher under another name. I felt pretty good about that because it was validation that I’d actually learned something about the craft of writing! 
Anyway, I sold a bunch of science fiction and fantasy short stories during 2010. My first novel was accepted by a publisher in 2011, and they’ve been accepted pretty regularly since then. 
To answer your second question, I’ve always looked at rejections as a learning experience. They’re particularly useful if a publisher tells me why they didn’t accept my book. 

PR: How do you overcome i-suck-at-this, that little voice in your head that tells you your writing 
isn’t good enough?

AG: Oh, you mean that place every author hits in the middle of every, single book? Snort! I just motor on through. I’m always amazed when I go back to self-edit—by a number of things. First, my book wasn’t nearly as bad, boring, draggy, as I’d feared. Two, gosh, how did I miss that plot hole? Three, oops, big POV slip, etc. You get the picture. I think all those things happen because my creative brain and my editor brain live in different houses. They not only don’t talk to one another, they don’t even know the other one exists.

PR: What is your dream vacation?

AG: A backpacking trip to a remote location.

PR: Describe your writing style in five words.

AG: Sharp, concise, intense, paranormal, HEA

PR: What movies are you currently excited to see?

AG: Catching Fire, the second Hobbit one, anything Brad Pitt.

PR: What are you currently reading?

AG: An early Patricia Briggs book, Aralorn. Just finished JD Robb’s latest. Love Eve and Roarke. 

PR: If you weren’t a writer, what other careers would you pursue?

AG: I had, and still have, another career. I’m a psychologist. It was my first love and I’ve never been sorry I spent a lengthy career as a therapist and a teacher and running mental health programs for the disadvantaged.

PR: If you could create a holiday of your own, what would it be called?

AG: Be kind to animals day.

PR: For people who haven’t read your novel, how would you summarize the plot?

AG: Resilient, kickass, and determined, Aislinn's walled herself off from anything that might make her feel again. Until a wolf picks her for a bond mate and a Celtic god rises out of legend to claim her for his own.

PR: What are two of your pet-peeves?

AG: People who can’t own their faults, step up to the plate, say I’m sorry, and mean it.

PR: To you, what makes a good story?

AG: Characters I can care about and fast paced plot lines.

PR: What usually turns you off about a story?

AG: Not surprisingly, it’s the opposite of the above. Plastic, caricature characters are a turn off. So are wandering plot lines and story pieces that the author never gets back to. Or worse, convenient plot twists. In one series, where I read the first two books and stopped, the author says over and over how rare it is for shifters to mate as other than one on one, yet both books feature ménage couplings, as did the third and fourth that I didn’t read. If it’s rare, you wouldn’t have threesomes getting together in every single book.

PR: If you could collaborate with any author, who would you choose, and why?

AG: Oh my, hard choice! I’d love to work with Diana Gabaldon or Nora Roberts/JD Robb. I’d learn 
so much from both women. Aside from being awesome writers, they’re genuinely nice human beings. At least they appear so from places I’ve seen them speak.

PR: What is on your night stand?

AG: My Kindle and my iPad, both loaded with books. There are also real books, including a couple of 
Sierra guide books, Mountaineering Freedom of the Hills, Addicted to Danger, and a couple of wonderful candles. 

PR: What is your favorite book?

AG: If I had to pick one, Lord of the Rings. But the first few Robert Jordan books would be a close 

second. I also like all of Carl Jung’s writings, but they’re not fiction.

PR: Thank you for stopping by today, Ann. We look forward to reading Earth's Requiem!

About the Book:Aislinn Lenear lost her anthropologist father high in the Bolivian Andes. Her mother, crazy with grief that muted her magic, was marched into a radioactive vortex by alien creatures and killed. Three years later, stripped of every illusion that ever comforted her, twenty-two year old Aislinn is one resilient, kickass woman with a take no prisoners attitude. In a world turned upside down, where virtually nothing familiar is left, she’s conscripted to fight the dark gods responsible for her father’s death. Battling the dark on her own terms, Aislinn walls herself off from anything that might make her feel again.Fionn MacCumhaill, Celtic god of wisdom, protection, and divination has been laying low since the dark gods stormed Earth. He and his fellow Celts decided to wait them out. After all, three years is nothing compared to their long lives. On a clear autumn day, Aislinn walks into his life and suddenly all bets are off. Awed by her courage, he stakes his claim to her and to an Earth he's willing to fight for.
Aislinn’s not so easily convinced. Fionn’s one gorgeous man, but she has a world to save. Emotional entanglements will only get in her way. Letting a wolf into her life was hard. Letting love in may well prove impossible.


About the Author:
Ann Gimpel is a clinical psychologist, with a Jungian bent.  Avocations include mountaineering, skiing, wilderness photography and, of course, writing.  A lifelong aficionado of the unusual, she began writing speculative fiction a few years ago. Since then her short fiction has appeared in a number of webzines and anthologies. Several paranormal romance novellas are available in e-format. Three novels, Psyche’s Prophecy, Psyche’s Search, and Psyche's Promise are small press publications available in e-format and paperback. Look for three more urban fantasy novels coming this summer and fall: To Love a Highland Dragon, Earth’s Requiem and Earth’s Blood.
A husband, grown children, grandchildren and three wolf hybrids round out her family.


Author Contacts:

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Amazon

Guest Blog: To Love a Highland Dragon by Ann Gimpel

To Love a Highland Dragon
Dragon Lore, Book 1
by Ann Gimpel

Publisher: TaliesinRelease Date: 9/5/13

Genre: Urban Fantasy/Romance

From Guest Author Ann Gimpel:

Elements of Great Storytelling

I’ve thought about this a lot lately since I ran into a spate of uninspired books, both on my Kindle and in Books on CD. I will say, though, that in the latter format, a gifted actor reading an audiobook can make even a mediocre story come to life and can gloss over awkward grammatical constructions so they aren’t quite as noticeable.

How about if we start with characters? It goes without saying they need to be three dimensional, which means they have thoughts, feelings, and actions that are congruent with their personalities. In my opinion, if a book doesn’t have characters that reach out and grab your heartstrings, then it’s DOA. It can have the most inspired plot in the world, but it’s wasted if readers don’t care about the characters.

Alrighty, so we have decent characters. Maybe not great characters, but they’re good enough you want
to pick up the book to see what they’re going to do next. Plot determines the next moves in a book.
Plot is basically the story that the book tells, but it’s how we get from point A to point B that weeds out
talented writers from the rest of the pack. Brilliant plotting is tightly woven and the writer’s hand is all but invisible. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been somewhere in a book and something happens that just screams “convenient plot twist.” As an aside, this is why all writers need someone—critical partners, publishers, editors—to be a fresh pair of eyes. No matter how seasoned a writer is, he (or she) can’t see the foibles in his own writing. Not all of them, anyway. Another plotting issue is plot threads that go nowhere. They look intriguing, but the writer just never gets back to them.

A corollary of plotting is pace and tension. The plot has to move fast enough to draw a reader along, yet not so fast as to lose them. Writers accomplish this by inserting pacing into the plot and building/releasing tension. Of course certain genres, like horror, have a whole lot more tension than most romances. But even romances—the good ones—have a big, dark moment when it seems like the hero and heroine will never be able to bridge the gap between them. This introduces tension and draws readers into turning pages to see what’s going to happen next.

I think I’m probably like most writers in that I write the same type of fiction I like to read. For me, it’s
fast paced, with strong characters that collide with one another. Lots of passion. Lots of angst. Big,
dark moments that are really big and truly dark. In a lot of ways, writing isn’t so different from being a psychologist. Not everyone will like what I write. I don’t expect them to. Not everyone likes Stephen
King, or any of the really big names of our time. Likewise, I always told my patients that the first couple
of sessions were “getting to know one another,” and seeing if we were a good match. Just like I’m not
the right author for everyone, neither was I the right therapist. That’s just common sense, really.

What sings to you in books you read? Why do you adore your favorite author? If you had to pick great
characters versus great plot, which would it be?

-Ann Gimpel

Book Description:

In a cave deep beneath Inverness, a dragon shifter stirs and wakens. The cave is the same and his hoard intact, yet Lachlan senses something amiss. Taking his human form, he ventures above ground with ancient memories flooding him. But nothing is the same. His castle has been replaced by ungainly row houses. Men aren’t wearing plaids and women scarcely wear anything at all.

In Inverness for a year on a psychiatry fellowship, Dr. Maggie Hibbins watches an oddly dressed man pick his way out of a heather and gorse thicket. Even though it runs counter to her better judgment, she teases him about his strange attire. He looks so lost—and so unbelievably handsome —she takes him to a pub for a meal, to a barbershop, and then home. Along the way the hard-to-accept truth sinks in: he has to be a refugee from another era.

Never a risk-taker, Maggie’s carefully constructed life is about to change forever. Swept up in an ancient prophecy that links her to Lachlan and his dragon, she must push the edges of the impossible to save both the present and her heart.

About the Author:

Ann Gimpel is a clinical psychologist, with a Jungian bent.  Avocations include mountaineering, skiing, wilderness photography and, of course, writing.  A lifelong aficionado of the unusual, she began writing speculative fiction a few years ago. Since then her short fiction has appeared in a number of webzines and anthologies. Several paranormal romance novellas are available in e-format. Three novels, Psyche’s Prophecy, Psyche’s Search, and Psyche's Promise are small press publications available in e-format and paperback. Look for three more urban fantasy novels coming this summer and fall: To Tame a Highland Dragon, Earth’s Requiem and Earth’s Blood.

A husband, grown children, grandchildren and three wolf hybrids round out her family.

Author Contacts:

Website | Blog | Facebook | Amazon

What's the Allure of Climbing?

by Anne Gimpel author of Alpine Attraction

It really is a good question if you think about it. After all, you knock yourself out for hours (sometimes days) to stand on the top of something for a few minutes. The trip back down is always hard. For one thing, you're tired. For another, you have gravity pushing on your steps. Over ninety percent of climbing accidents (fatal and otherwise) happen on the way down. So, no matter how tired you are, you have to somehow gin up enough energy to pay close attention. A physician I knew very peripherally died last summer in the Sierras. He made two fatal errors in his decision making (more on that below). The first was he started too late in the day to do a difficult climb. Error number two happened (and, yes, they tend to compound one another) after he made the summit at eight-thirty at night when it was almost dark. Rather than staying on a rather broad summit plateau and sitting out the dark hours, he decided to descend a steep, cliffy route in the dark with predictable results. Your depth perception goes to hell after dark. As a doctor, he should have known that. 

I read a book recently about the bare handful of women (there were five or six) who'd climbed K2 over the years. At the time the book was written, all of them were dead, either on K2 or other difficult peaks. While I didn't know any of these women, I've known several climbers who died in the mountains. I'm not certain quite what differentiates the ones who are still here from the ones who aren't. It isn't always skill. Some very skilled men and women have managed to die in the world's high places. After hours and hours of extreme physical output, people don't think all that clearly, though.

If you're still reading—and you may not be as this type of post isn't everyone's cup of tea—your eyebrows will go up very soon. With my next sentence, actually. The thing which separates climbers who die at home in their beds and those who end up with the mountains as their eternal shrine is luck. It's that simple. Either lady luck smiles on your efforts, or not. Of course, it helps to have a heaping dose of common sense and decide to turn back short of a summit if conditions turn to crap or your physical abilities run into problems.

Which leads to an interesting segue. I have a much more active imagination than my husband in terms of things which could go wrong. There have been lots of places where I've looked at a slope, assessed the conditions, and made, "Gee, I think we ought to turn around," noises. Hubby has looked at me like I'm nuts. Usually, it means we continue. Occasionally, though, I've stuck to my guns and turned around. Of course, then I settle into my sleeping bag in the tent and worry myself sick until he shows back up.

With the rest of this post as a backdrop, I'm not certain you'll believe me when I say there's nothing quite like standing atop a peak. There's an incredible sense of accomplishment. I live in the High Sierra. There are peaks, like Ritter and Banner, I can see from town. I've stood on top of each of them (twice). Memories flood me when I catch a glimpse of them. I'm getting older and slowing down, but I still climb something every season. It's like Kate Wolf said in the song Unfinished Life: The truest paths always lead through mountains.

What challenges you? What feeds your soul? I'd love to know.

Alpine Attraction
By Ann Gimpel

Publisher: Liquid Silver Books
ISBN: 978-1-93176-193-2
Release Date: 5/20/13
Tina made a pact with the devil seven years ago. It’s time to pay the piper—or die.
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Independent to the nth degree, Tina meets everything in her life head-on—except love.

When an almost-forgotten pact with the devil returns to haunt her, Tina knows she has to go back to the Andes to face her doom.

Caught between misgivings and need, she signs on as team doctor for one of Craig’s expeditions. Though he was once the love of her life, she pushed him away years before to keep him safe. Even if he doesn’t love her anymore, there’s still no one she’d rather have by her side in the mountains.

Trapped in a battle of life and death, passion flares, burning hot enough to brand their souls.

About the Author: 

 

Ann Gimpel is a mountaineer at heart. Recently retired from a long career as a psychologist, she remembers many hours at her desk where her body may have been stuck inside four walls, but her soul was planning yet one more trip to the backcountry. Around the turn of the last century (that would be 2000, not 1900!), she managed to finagle moving to the Eastern Sierra, a mecca for those in love with the mountains.

It was during long backcountry treks that Ann’s writing evolved.

Unlike some who see the backcountry as an excuse to drag friends and relatives along, Ann prefers her solitude. Stories always ran around in her head on those journeys, sometimes as a hedge against abject terror when challenging conditions made her fear for her life, sometimes for company.

Eventually, she returned from a trip and sat down at the computer. Three months later, a five hundred page novel emerged. Oh, it wasn’t very good, but it was a beginning. And, she learned a lot between writing that novel and its sequel.

Around that time, a friend of hers suggested she try her hand at short stories. It didn’t take long before that first story found its way into print and they’ve been accepted pretty regularly since then. One of Ann’s passions has always been ecology, so her tales often have a green twist.
 

In addition to writing, Ann enjoys wilderness photography. She lugs pounds of camera equipment in her backpack to distant locales every year. A standing joke is that over ten percent of her pack weight is camera gear which means someone else has to carry the food! That someone is her husband. They’ve shared a life together for a very long time. Children, grandchildren and three wolf hybrids round out their family.
 

www.anngimpel.com
 

http://anngimpel.blogspot.com
 

http://www.amazon.com/author/anngimpel
 

http://www.facebook.com/anngimpel.author
 

@AnnGimpel (for Twitter)

 

Dancing in the Flame by Ann Gimpel

Dancing in the Flame
By Ann Gimpel

Publisher: Liquid Silver Books
ISBN: 978-1-93176-191-8
Release Date: 4/22/13
Genre: Paranormal Romance

Book Description:

Life in a were bordello is all Keira has ever known. Because of her mixed blood, none of the magicians’ guilds want her, or protested when the Weres bound her as an indentured hooker. Mired in the hopelessness of her dreams, Keira longs for more.

Barrett, one of the Daoine Sidhe, runs a magician supply shop in what’s left of Seattle. No one is more surprised than he when the Sidhe leader commands him to extricate Keira from the weres.

Magic and intrigue throw Keira and Barrett into one another’s arms. Convinced they have a job to do, they struggle against the heat of the passion between them. Until it gets way too hot to handle.


 About the Author:
Ann Gimpel is a mountaineer at heart. Recently retired from a long career as a psychologist, she remembers many hours at her desk where her body may have been stuck inside four walls, but her soul was planning yet one more trip to the backcountry. Around the turn of the last century (that would be 2000, not 1900!), she managed to finagle moving to the Eastern Sierra, a mecca for those in love with the mountains.

It was during long backcountry treks that Ann’s writing evolved.

Unlike some who see the backcountry as an excuse to drag friends and relatives along, Ann prefers her solitude. Stories always ran around in her head on those journeys, sometimes as a hedge against abject terror when challenging conditions made her fear for her life, sometimes for company.

Eventually, she returned from a trip and sat down at the computer. Three months later, a five hundred page novel emerged. Oh, it wasn’t very good, but it was a beginning. And, she learned a lot between writing that novel and its sequel.
Around that time, a friend of hers suggested she try her hand at short stories. It didn’t take long before that first story found its way into print and they’ve been accepted pretty regularly since then. One of Ann’s passions has always been ecology, so her tales often have a green twist.


In addition to writing, Ann enjoys wilderness photography. She lugs pounds of camera equipment in her backpack to distant locales every year. A standing joke is that over ten percent of her pack weight is camera gear which means someone else has to carry the food! That someone is her husband. They’ve shared a life together for a very long time. Children, grandchildren and three wolf hybrids round out their family.

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