Dark Sins & Desert Sands (HQN Nocturne, Nov 2011) is about a modern day minotaur and the woman with unusual sphinx powers that he falls in love with. It’s ancient mythology set against a modern day background of Las Vegas, where old gods like Seth and Xochiquetzal make mortals their playthings.

Some of the elements of the story are the idea of labyrinths, metaphorical and otherwise. My hero isn’t quite a bull shifter–at least, no one is sure if he’s actually transforming or if that’s simply how they see him when he traps them in the maze of their mind. He’s a gun-toting former Arab-American soldier on the run and our heroine is an Egyptian psychologist. Given these elements, how did we do? Can you find the hidden bull in the cover?

Every now and then, a review will make me blush. This one from Chris Jones at Fresh Fiction certainly did:

Alright readers, find a quiet little spot, grab your favorite beverage, and prepare for a treat. Stephanie Draven is a very talented writer, and you will not want to put this book down. When you open POISONED KISSES, you are entering the rich world of mythical War Gods and their offspring… Kyra is a heroine with attitude, searching for meaning and a true purpose for her life… Stephanie Draven is fearless in her writing. She draws you in, leaving you at the crest of the wave wanting more…This book has everything, and I hope she has many more stories for us. She has a new twist on the paranormal, and I greatly enjoyed it. This will be the book you tell your friends about.

Nymphs are my favorite paranormal creature. They embody what the ancient Greeks hoped and feared women might be like if unfettered by the normal rules of society. Primal. Powerful. Capricious. Captivating.

In my Mythica series for HQN Nocturne, two of my heroines are nymphs, so I had the bright idea to make up a ‘Which Kind of Nymph Are You?’ quiz. It looks as if someone else beat me to it, and with much prettier art work than I might have come up with. I’m not surprised at my own result–which I’ve posted below. My latest heroine is an underworld nymph and I clearly identify with her.

But now I hope you’ll take the quiz and post your results. What kind of nymph are you?

What Is Your Nymph Type? Underworld Nymph The Lampades are the nymphs of the Underworld in Greek mythology. Companions of Hecate, the Greek titan goddess of witchcraft and crossroads, they were a gift from Zeus for Hecate’s loyalty in the Titanomachy. They bear torches and accompany Hecate on her night-time travels and hauntings.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

In lieu of ranting about printers and all the artistic things that I’m not good at, I will just show you my bookmarks. They have a lot of black on them and the colors don’t show up quite right, but hopefully you get the idea.

Being an ignorant novice at all this, I ordered 500 of them because they were only two more bucks than if I’d only ordered 250 of them. I’m not sure if this is going to be way too few, or if I’m going to be trying to pawn these off on people for years, but I guess we’ll find out.