Ghosts,Curses & More! 6 Books from My Backlist for the Spooky Season

I thought it would be fun to do a list of the books on my backlist that are especially good to read in the spooky season!

I have to start with STAR CRUISE GHOST SHIP, which one reviewer said “Lovecraftian”. I was inspired by the story of the Mary Celeste, a sailing ship in the 1800’s found sailing along uncrewed.

STAR CRUISE GHOST SHIP by Veronica Scott

After losing his Space Navy career due to an unfortunate accident, Theo Knox is looking for any opportunity to distinguish himself as an officer aboard the luxury cruise liner Nebula Zephyr. When they come upon a derelict freighter, he’s happy to lead a small crew to salvage the ship and bring her to port. But once he’s boarded the little ship questions pile up. What happened to the original crew? Why is the lifeboat still docked? Is the ship haunted? What’s in those mysterious crates in the cargo hold? Security Officer Jayna Evans has complicated feelings about Theo so she’s pleased to be assigned to his salvage crew. She hopes they can work out their future while bringing the derelict to port but the uncanny events aboard the abandoned vessel pile up and she can’t trust anyone, not even Theo. Can Theo and Jayna salvage the ship and their relationship? Will anyone survive a cruise on the Ghost Ship? This 38K word Star Cruise novella is the latest installment in the ongoing, connected series. Have you booked your Star Cruise yet? There is a very brief mention of the loss of a previous pregnancy. Amazon Apple Books Kobo NOOK GooglePlay

Next would be GHOST OF THE NILE, which is a ghost story of a completely different type, being set in ancient Egypt and using the beliefs and myths of the time about ghosts.

GHOST OF THE NILE

2016 RONE Award Finalist

Dear Author sez:

“There’s Egypt and gods and magic and strong men and stronger women and love even beyond death and into the Afterlife. The historic details add spice throughout the story and these definitely aren’t 21st C people in linen kilts.”

The story:

1550 BCE

Betrayed, murdered, and buried without proper ceremony, Egyptian warrior Periseneb is doomed to roam the gray deserts of the dead as a ghost for all eternity.

But then the goddess of truth offers him a bargain: return to the world of the living as her champion for 30 days. If he completes his mission, he’ll be guaranteed entry into Paradise. Periseneb agrees to the bargain but, when he returns to the living world, two hundred years have passed and nothing is quite as he expected.

Neithamun is a woman fighting to hang onto her family’s estate against an unscrupulous nobleman who desires the land as well as the lady. All seems lost until a mysterious yet appealing ex-soldier, Periseneb, appears out of nowhere to help her fight off the noble’s repeated attacks.

Meanwhile, Periseneb’s thirty days are rushing by, and he’s powerless against the growing attraction between himself and Neithamun. But their love can never be. For his Fate is to return to the Afterlife, and Death cannot wed with Life…

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Switching gears to curses, there’s BREAKING THE ALIEN LOVE CURSE, which was actually written for a Halloween-themed anthology, Figuring out how to deliver an alien curse and then break it was a fun challenge. The MMC was also my first ever alien with a tail. I’d like to write another Halloween-themed book with these characters, maybe in 2027.

BREAKING THE ALIEN LOVE CURSE by Veronica Scott

VS Note: This 23K word novella was previously in the Supra Vellum Anthology, which is no longer available, No new material has been added.

Amellia Taneek loved her job as the office manager for a group of Sectors agents from various organizations, all based out of her central location. She enjoyed the challenges of handling administrative details for them and the excitement of constantly meeting new offworlders. She was especially intrigued by Hagan Raljarr, seven feet of green, scaled, muscular SCIA agent, and more than a little curious about his tail. Hey, she was a healthy unmarried, unattached female and there was no rule against dating a co-worker.

But so far he’d shown confusing signs of reciprocating her interest.

Hagan was an honorable warrior and before he could pursue his definite interest in Amellia, who might even be his fated mate, he had to clear up one little detail – the engagement contract he’d been entered into as a child with a female from his own planet. They barely knew each other and she was highly ambitious. Surely in this modern day and age she’d be happy for him to sever the contract and set her free, right? Leaving him in the perfect position to begin courting the lovely human.

But the jilted fiancée sends a mysterious box across the galaxy to him and when he unwisely opens it, a powerful love curse is activated, striking both him and Amellia. They’ll die at dawn if the curse isn’t broken. With help from Amellia’s aunt, who is said to have magic powers, the pair set out on a desperate quest for three special ingredients needed to break the spell. Over the course of a very long night, will Hagan and Amellia find their way to a relationship, break the curse in time and survive? Is such a thing even possible?

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My characters are also dealing with a curse in STAR CRUISE IDOL’S CURSE. My inspiration was the legends about the bad luck that befalls anyone who steals a rock from a national park or certain beaches in Hawaii.

STAR CRUISE IDOL’S CURSE

An unusual bequest….

Juli Shaeffer, the Nebula Zephyr’s cruise director, receives a mysterious bequest from the estate of a longtime passenger – a lump of rock taken from a reef on the planet Tahumaroa. Legend states anyone who steals from the ocean gods will be cursed. The passenger’s will requests the rock be returned to the beach so his heirs won’t be affected by the bad luck he believed he’d incurred. Juli doesn’t believe in superstitions and she agrees to carry out this small favor on the ship’s next stop at the planet in question.

Until the rock disappears from her office…

When the rock disappears and reappears in various locations around the ship, and seems connected to a steadily escalating series of mishaps, Juli turns to Third Officer Steve Aureli as the only one she feels she can trust. Along with Steve and his elderly Aunt Dian – a passenger aboard the Nebula Zephyr for this cruise – she investigates the strange series of malfunctions plaguing the interstellar luxury liner. Steve and Juli enlist his Aunt Dian’s dog, Charrli, a retired Sectors Z Corps canine, to help them track the missing rock as it moves about the ship.

Juli and Steve must find the rock, hang onto it and transport it to the planet’s surface, before the alien idol’s curse turns deadly. The attraction between the two of them grows as the threat to Juli becomes more and more focused. Can she carry out her task while he keeps her safe from the alien curse? Will the capricious alien idol bring them good fortune…or disaster?

This is a re-release of the 42,000+ word novel I included in the Pets in Space® 4 anthology, which is no longer available. No revisions or additions have been made to the original novel for this re-release. I have also now included a 4,000 word prequel story Butterfly Hair, in which the diva Azlaya arrives on board the Nebula Zephyr. This short story was a free reader magnet available only in the time before the anthology was originally published.

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For a wicked witch, try the Witch Queen in my romantasy THE CAPTIVE SHIFTER.

THE CAPTIVE SHIFTER

Concealing her own considerable magical powers, Caitlyn enters the service of the northern Witch Queen masquerading as a simple healer. Under order from her goddess, she’s searching for a magical gem stolen long ago from her own people, believed to be hidden in the massive castle. The task is daunting but Caitlyn is sure she can locate the gem and escape, bringing the prize back to the temple where it belongs. Until she meets the captive shifter and her loyalties become dangerously divided.

In payment for her past services to his people, Kyler the leopard shifter has entered into a life of servitude far from his forest home, allowing the Witch Queen to tap his magic to power her ever darker spells. Factions at Court are threatening to turn the Queen to the Shadow. Her increasing demands for magic will cut short his nearly immortal lifespan. Kyler’s resigned to his fate until the day he crosses paths with the new arrival, whose secrets and magic entice and attract both man and leopard. Has he met his mate at last?

The Queen will never willingly release him from captivity. Caitlyn’s goddess refuses to grant her any delay in accomplishing her own task. Can they locate the magical gem, fight the Shadow and win free of the Witch Queen to earn the right to be together?

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And to finish off the post, let me offer STAR CRUISE CHEF’S KISS, which takes place on an alien planet on a Halloween-like night and deals with an alien demon, who gives the ship’s chef one night to cook him the meal of a lifetime or be forever doomed to work in his kitchen in hell…I pulled on all my years of watching ‘Top Chef’ for this one!

STAR CRUISE CHEF’S KISS by Veronica Scott

Five star chef Stephanie Clemmons has a contract to cater a Halloweenlike party on the planet where her cruise ship the Nebula Zephyr orbits. Little does she know the dangers of a night where alien demons walk among humans and never expects the deadliest demon of all to offer her a bargain. She has to cook a special dinner to satisfy him or spend the rest of eternity laboring in his hellscape kitchens. But as the night and the meal progress, Stephanie and the demon lord discover they both may be getting more than they bargained for, as undeniable attraction grows between them. Can an ancient Lord of the Underworld and a human chef find a way to make a new bargain for love? This story first appeared in the Celestial Seductions anthology, which is no longer available. I’ve added 6K words including an epilogue to the original story for a total of 17K words.

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