Hey, everyone! Happy Wednesday. Today, I’m delighted to have as my guest author Priscilla Bettis. She has a brand new release, Vampire of the Midnight Sun that she’s going to talk about. Priscilla is the author of several horror stories. I’ll have to say after reading her novella The Hay Bale, I’ll never look at a bale of hay without thinking of the story! By the way, if you’ve never read any of her one-line book reviews, you should. She does an amazing job at summing up a story with so few words.
Now, I’ll step aside and let Priscilla tell you about her latest release.
Hello, Joan! Thanks for hosting me on your blog today. I’m excited to announce my latest work, Vampire of the Midnight Sun, a short story duology.
The titular short story is set in Alaska where I grew up. I took real-life experiences and turned them into a story about two men stranded in the Alaskan wilderness. Haha, I don’t mean I’ve encountered a vampire in the Alaskan wilderness, but I have encountered grizzlies, miles of endless tundra, and water so cold it’s like an electrical shock when you touch it. Plus, the description of the main character’s hypothermia is much like what I experienced. Ironically, I didn’t experience hypothermia in Alaska. I experienced it after a springtime swim in a lake in Virginia. (Fortunately, a couple of EMTs spotted me, and I got treatment right away.) Despite the bleak circumstances, “Vampire of the Midnight Sun” has humorous elements, so it was fun to write.
The second short story is “The Fire Witch and The Cowboy.” It’s set in the Northern Plains of Texas where I now live. Again, I took a real-life experience and turned it into a story. Sadly, a wildfire marched through our small town in the spring of 2022. To hear a fire growl through someone’s home or to see a venerable oak succumb to towering, red flames was heartbreaking. But the scariest to me was when a line of low flames inched across the grazing fields. It was silent and broad as the eye could see, like the leading edge of an inevitably rising tide with sand before it, and water behind it. Living grass before it, black earth behind it. Our little town was featured in social media posts asking for prayers, and there were faith-based placards planted in the charred dirt along the roads. So I worked Biblical allusions into the story for an extra layer of meaning. It was a satisfying story to write.
Vampire of the Midnight Sun is available now. I hope readers give it a try.
Blurb:
A vampire in Alaska.
In ‘Vampire of the Midnight Sun,’ Frasier and his best friend, Billy, are stranded in the Alaskan wilderness after a rafting accident: grizzlies, arctic water, frozen nights, soggy tundra, no food, no matches, no civilization. And no one is coming to rescue them.
Plus Billy is convinced he’s a vampire. It’s a five-day hike to civilization. Billy claims he can only go three days without human blood.
Will the men survive the harsh Alaskan elements? If so, can Frasier survive Billy’s vampiric delusions, or will Frasier have to take his best friend’s life in order to save his own?
A showdown between an Old West cowboy and a fire witch.
In ‘The Fire Witch and the Cowboy,’ Henderson is the yellow-bellied coward of Dusty Bend, Texas. His wife is ashamed of him. Kids tease him. And he’s terrified of fire.
But when a wildfire threatens Dusty Bend, it is Henderson who brokers a deal between the townsfolk and the wealthy but formidable Widow Vandermeer, to use her resources in order to fight the fire.
“There will be sacrifices,” she says. If the widow learns Henderson’s decades-old secret, he might be the sacrifice.
Will Henderson grab his wife and run, leaving town while he can? Or will he stay and risk falling into Widow Vandermeer’s clutches?
Meanwhile, the wildfire grows closer…
About Priscilla:
Priscilla Bettis read her first horror story, The Exorcist, when she was a little kid. She snuck the book from her parents’ den. The Exorcist scared Priscilla silly, and she was hooked on the power of the horror genre from that moment on.
Priscilla is an excellent swimmer, which is good because vampires are terrible swimmers.
Priscilla shares a home in the Northern Plains of Texas with her two-legged and four-legged family members.
Connect with Priscilla:
Wow! Sounds like Priscilla has another winner on her hands. I look forward to delving into the pages of this one.
Joan Hall 
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