Monday, October 31, 2011

Guest author Kerri Nelson: A legend in my own mind

Kerri Nelson discovered her love of writing at an early age and soon became a columnist for her local newspaper winning the Outstanding Young Journalist of the Year Award for her efforts. After a fifteen year career in the legal field, Kerri fulfilled her lifelong dream of publication and is now an award winning multi-published author of nearly every genre under the sun (and moon) and also writes young adult fiction under the pen name K.G. Summers.  

A true southern belle, she comes complete with a dashing southern gentleman and three adorable children for whom she often bakes homemade treats.  Kerri is an active member of Sisters in Crime and Romance Writers of America as well as numerous chapters including Futuristic Fantasy & Paranormal Writers and Celtic Hearts Romance Writers, of which she is president. 


Kerri is giving away a Fall Goodie Bag to one commenter on this post. For details on entering her GRAND PRIZE Kindle giveaway, see below.  



A Legend in my Own Mind

My latest release entitled Courting Demons is categorized in the Urban Fantasy genre.  What is Urban Fantasy?  Well, by definition, it is a novel set in a city that contains paranormal or fantasy elements.  My book is set in a city (albeit a small city/suburb of Atlanta) and does contain many paranormal and fantasy elements - and some romance too, although the romance elements are secondary to the other story elements.

This is an extremely popular genre in the marketplace these days.  I’m sure that most people can think of several books or movies that fit nicely into this category. But what are these things called…Urban Legends?  Are they somehow connected to Urban Fantasy?

Well, not really…by definition…but in a way—they too are fictional stories or folklore which often contain paranormal or fantasy element although the settings may vary. In fact, when I was doing research for this post, I found pages' worth of websites devoted wholly to Urban Legends. They make the perfect scary story for telling around the good old camp fire. Here are a couple that I found that stood out for me (courtesy of urbanlegendsonline.com):

The Curse of the Faceless Woman

Lost in time, this story is told, about a woman, dark and bold. 
She walks the streets on a foggy night, with a hood on her head to hide from sight.


Her story starts one summer’s eve, beside the lake an evil deed. 
A thief stole her daughter’s life, and filled her soul with pain and strife.


On a moonlit night along the shore, two young lovers walked and more. 
In each other’s arms that night, they talked of love and held on tight.


In the morning they were found, their hands and feet with rope were bound. 
Eyes wide open a vacant stare, their souls are gone and no one’s there.


The police did search for the one, an evil deed to be undone. 
In vain, they search to no avail, their efforts weak, lost, and pale.


A mother’s hear broken and splayed, a debt to justice went unpaid. 
She walked the streets at night alone, to make the sinners pay and atone.


She searched the shores by day and night, a vain attempt to make things right. 
And then one early morning dawn, she was found her spirit gone.


On foggy night’s times untold, she walks the streets dark and bold. 
She only walks the streets at night, within the fog to hide her flight.


All clad in black she walks alone, an evil soul she’ll make atone. 
She walks among the star-less night, sometimes seen beneath the bright streetlight.


All children know to be aware, least they see her standing there. 
They hurry home at the approach of night, sure that they would die at her sight.


So in the night if you should see, a woman in black, listen to me. 
Look not at her face I say, or with your soul you shall pay


Teke Teke

Teke Teke is the ghost of a Japanese schoolgirl who roams the train stations of Japan. In life, this girl was a scaredy cat and people were always playing practical jokes on her. One day at the train station after school, her friends decided to put a cicada, a bug that appears in the summer in Japan, on her shoulder. Sadly, this turned out to be a fatal prank. She was so scared she fell off of the platform and was hit by a shinkansen (the fastest train in Japan) and her body was split in two.

Now she is haunting the train stations of Japan, dragging herself with her elbows and sometimes her hands. She is known to kill people with her scythe and split people in half with the harsh speed of the Shinkansen to make her victims feel her pain. Her name is “Teke Teke” or “Bata Bata” because of the noise she makes when she is dragging herself around.


What do you think of Urban Legends and do you have a fave one you’d like to share?  I’m giving away a Fall Goodie Bag to one commenter. Details on how to enter to win the GRAND PRIZE Kindle at the end of my “Dark Days of Demons Tour” located here.


Thanks for hosting today, Liane.  Hope everyone will chime in with their own fave legends.

©  Kerri Nelson 2011


Courting Demons by Kerri Nelson

Paisley Barton was already having a bad day before she turned her husband into a rat. First, she was fired by her boss and then came home to find hubby in the shower with a naked blonde chick. They say that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned but this break-up may just unleash hell on Earth when Paisley casts a spell of vengeance against her philandering husband.

After her spell casting inadvertently opens a portal between dimensions, Paisley finds her family home transformed into a nightly courtroom for settling disputes between demons of the underworld - and she’s the judge! If that’s not enough, she’s got to deal with a charming, ancient demon named Camden who wants to be her personal bodyguard while trying to explain her husband’s sudden, mysterious disappearance to sexy police Detective Dalton Briggs.

But Paisley will show them all that an everyday working mom is better equipped than most to deal with mystical mayhem…and with a tempting demon hottie and a flirtatious young detective vying for her affection, she soon learns that being single again isn’t so bad after all. 

“When a wronged wife turns her cheating husband into a rat, you know you have to keep reading! Kerri Nelson offers up a lot of fun and wild magic in Courting Demons! --Bestselling author, Linda Wisdom, Demons are a Girl’s Best Friend

Available wherever books are sold!
Publisher link—free gift available with purchase of print copy—while supplies last):
Read more about Kerri’s books at her website:  www.kerrinelson.com 
Follow her on Twitter here:  www.twitter.com/kerribookwriter
Visit her industry blog here:  www.thebookboost.blogspot.com

Best of luck on your book tour, Kerri!

19 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

I think of Urban legends as modern Grimm's Fairy tales. I enjoy them.My favorite is still the variations on the killer with a hook.

kerribookwriter said...

@Liane~Thanks for hosting me at Novel Spaces today!

For those of you who are entering my Kindle giveaway--the question of the day is...

Question of the Day:
Who is your favorite character from Courting Demons and why?

And this is the last "official" day of the Kindle giveaway portion of the tour. But if you check out my blog, you'll see I'm having a Post-Tour Tour and Twitter Party to wrap things up. More prizes to be won!

It has been a wonderful (and exhausting tour) but I'm thrilled to make this Halloween appearance here at a wonderful blog.

Thanks to all,
Kerri

kerribookwriter said...

@Charles~That's a great way to look at them. Have you seen that new show Grimm? I missed the premiere (I believe) but hope to catch it online. Thanks for stopping by! --K.

Rebecca said...

Hi Kerri! Great post.

You asked about urban legends. I lived on the Outer Banks of NC for several years and was fascinated by its unusual town names. Here is one of my favorites:
“The legend of Nags Head takes us back to days of piracy, when tales drifted ashore about the wonderful treasures traveling at sea being plundered by "rogue businessmen" like Blackbeard, that one of the original Outer Bankers got the inspiration which brought about the equine moniker. A lantern was tied around the neck of an old gentle horse, then this old "nag" was led up and down the tallest of the sand dunes, i.e. Jockey's Ridge, so that the light shone out to sea. As a ship's captain saw this gently bobbing light, it seemed to be from a ship riding at anchor in a sheltered harbor. As the Captain tried to put in to this "safe" harbor, his ship would pile up on the treacherous shoals that constantly writhed and changed shape beneath the surface. The "land pirates" made the crew walk the plank, looted and burned the hapless ship, and made away with the bounty.”

They call it the “Graveyard of the Atlantic” for a good reason! ;-)

I’m sorry to see the tour come to an end, but it has been a fabulous ride. I hope everyone has had an opportunity to read “Courting Demons” by now. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I can’t wait for the sequel. :-)

Rebecca
rrgreene62(at)gmail.com

kerribookwriter said...

@Rebecca~Thanks for taking this journey with me during the tour. I couldn't have done it without you!

Love the pirate legend. Pirates are really "in" right now. Perhaps you should pen a pirate piece?

Hugs,
K.

Kate Richards said...

I saw Grimm, I loved it! I don't know too many urban legends, but supposedly there is an elf of some kind that lives in a grove of trees on the hillside behind my neighbor's house. At least that's what the friend who used to live there said. I suppose anything's possible.:)

steph beck said...

I'm a fan of urban fantasy type stories. They can take on several differnt kinds of twists and tones which keeps them exciting.

s.becken@yahoo.com

kerribookwriter said...

@Kate~I've got to catch the show online but I'm totally like you--if I love it--they'll cancel it for sure! Ugh! Thanks for stopping by and beware of that grove. xo

kerribookwriter said...

@steph~I'm a fan of UF as well but haven't found any new ones lately that I dig. Do you know of any I might have missed? Thanks for stopping by! --K.

JeanMP said...

Watched Grimm, it was quite good, but like most shows, if I like it, it won't last long! I don't know many urban legend stories, just the usual ones that are out there.
I finished Courting Demons, what a great story, absolutely loved it, course now waiting on the sequel *L*

Na said...

Happy Halloween!
Kerri, thank you for having such a fun book tour. It's been great learning so much about your book and you.

I enjoy legends and one that I remember is a man is driving at night on an isolated road. He picks up a hitchkiker and drives her home upon her directions. He gets there and she vanishes. He goes to the house to inquire, and as he's talking to the elderly couple sees a picture of the hitchhiker behind their backs. Turns out she died many years ago and is always asking people to take her home.

kerribookwriter said...

@Jean~I loved Grimm and it was much better than that other new show Once Upon a Time. But I know what you mean--they cancel everything I love. Sigh.

Glad you enjoyed Courting Demons, that makes my day! A sequel will be forthcoming. :-)

Hugs,
K.

kerribookwriter said...

@Na~Thank YOU for joining me on tour. It has been fun but exhausting. Of course, I have one more week of post tour fun. Hope to see you around and back at the Boost!

That legend reminds me of an episode of Supernatural. Have you seen that one?

--K.

Liane Spicer said...

Kerri, thank you for making Novel Spaces a stop on your blog tour! Best of luck with Courting Demons!

I don't know many urban legends, but I find the whole idea fascinating. When I think of these I think of the stories of giant alligators roaming the sewers of NYC.

susan said...

I enjoyed this article..loved to hear about legends..when I was little my pappy would tell me some. I love this contest too and hope to be lucky to enter it and even luckier to win. susan leech garysue@dejazzd.com

kerribookwriter said...

@Liane~Thanks for hosting me my Lollie friend! :-) I really appreciate your support.

Oooh and gators in the sewer--yikes!

I'll be back on Wednesday to draw the winner unless you want to handle it. Please let me know.

Thanks to all who stopped by!

Hugs,
K.

kerribookwriter said...

@Susan~Thanks for the comment and for entering the contest. It is so nice to see you. I haven't seen you around in a while. Hope things are going well for you.

Best, K.

Liane Spicer said...

Kerri, it's our pleasure!

You may go ahead and choose the winner on Wednesday.

Good luck, entrants!

kerribookwriter said...

***WINNER***

Well, I'm a day late with the winner but I've put together a neat little fall goodie bag for the winner so I hope you don't mind the delay!

Thanks to all who came out to comment and another special dose of gratitude to the lovely Liane!

And the winner is...

NA

Congrats! I'll be in touch and get this out to you shortly.

Hugs,
Kerri