Life's Seductive Beauty

Category: Fiction and Poetry

The novels, short stories, and poetry of author Patricia J Esposito, from paranormal thrillers to love letters from a vampire.

  • Dark Vampires, Twists, and a Heart-Breaking Love Story

    TTC Books and More has reviewed Beside the Darker Shore, a vampire thriller and mm love story.

    “…oh wow! This is a fabulous vampire story. You have the darkness, they are evil, yet you can’t help fall for them. I was even rooting for Arturo to find what he was searching for . . . There is several turns and lots of action. It’s quite gripping and page turning and shocking… Yet it’s not actually a romance. You could probably say it’s a love story in a way.” — TTC Books and More

  • When a Vampire Interrupts an Interview

    Love Bytes Reviews posted an interview on my newly released novel Beside the Darker Shore. When asked to speak about my favorite character, the vampire Arturo de Rosa gladly took over.

    Read the Love Bytes Reviews Interview here!


    Available in ebook and print on Amazon and most online retailers.
    Universal Buy Link.

    Beside the Darker Shore

    What might the ethical Governor David Gedden give up for one man’s exquisite beauty? It’s terrifying to consider when the man is a destructive blood prostitute and David is responsible for the state’s peaceful vampire community. Blood sales in Boston are up, blood taxes support a thriving new nightlife, neighborhoods have been refurbished, and deaths by vampires have plummeted. David is assured reelection.

    However, the blood addict Stephen Salando has returned from exile with one unalterable plan: to turn the good governor into a vampire. Stephen is an immortal dhampir, whose beauty obliterates reason, who rouses in David a fierce desire he’s ignored his whole life. But for David to have Stephen, he must ally with an ancient vampire, the community’s seductive archnemesis. To have him, he must become a killer himself.

    Will David hold on to his ethical public life? Or will he follow what he most desires, a kiss with a killer to become a vampire himself? 

  • Five-Star Review for Vampire Novel

    The Paranormal Romance Guild gives a five-star review to Beside the Darker Shore, a vampire novel about love and lust, duty and responsibility, and what it means to be fallibly human.

    “The characters were wonderful, there were secrets, lies, betrayal and surprises. Reading this book was a view of what happens to an honest and devoted man who loves someone who can only bring him down. This is not an easy read but a worthwhile one because the author did a wonderful job of keeping me interested and glued to the story till the end.” – Linda Tonis, Paranormal Romance Guild

    Five-Star Review from the Paranormal Romance Guild:

    The vampire novel Beside the Darker Shore is available from JMS Books, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other ebook and print retailers. See the links below!

    If you do read about these struggling characters looking for love, I’d love to hear feedback or to just chat about what kinds of books you enjoy.

    Where to buy the vampire novel Beside the Darker Shore

    JMS Books, ebook

    Universal Buy Link, print and ebook

    Amazon, print and ebook:



  • The Risks of Love: To Be or Not to Be a Vampire

    Five-star-reviewed vampire novel explores the risks of love. What would you give to have all you desire?

    Beside the Darker Shore

    What might the ethical Governor David Gedden give up for one man’s exquisite beauty? It’s terrifying to consider when the man is a destructive blood prostitute and David is responsible for the state’s peaceful vampire community. Blood sales in Boston are up, blood taxes support a thriving new nightlife, neighborhoods have been refurbished, and deaths by vampires have plummeted. David is assured reelection.

    However, the blood addict Stephen Salando has returned from exile with one unalterable plan: to turn the good governor into a vampire. Stephen is an immortal dhampir, whose beauty obliterates reason, who rouses in David a fierce desire he’s ignored his whole life. But for David to have Stephen, he must ally with an ancient vampire, the community’s seductive archnemesis. To have him, he must become a killer himself.

    Will David hold on to his ethical public life? Or will he follow what he most desires, a kiss with a killer to become a vampire himself?  

    Vampire, MM, Paranormal, Paranormal Thriller, Vampire Mystery, Paranormal Romance, Gay Fiction,

  • Pause

    Pause

    By Patricia J. Esposito

    What is there of your black earth,

    your white sun above the ferns and mango

    where he, brown and young, works for supper,

    what of his hot wax dripping, leaves dipped

    in streams to wrap the candles taking form,

    the humid road where he carts them along,

    what in the smell of his papaya split

    until evening’s tin where he shells his fish–

    is here, in this aluminum and wallboard home

    this control-conditioned heat and microwave hum,

    the rise of powdered spice from potatoes

    plastic-pouched and boiling?  Beside me

    the clock pendulum swings on battery,

    and from the open window, on treated asphalt,

    cars come, recede.  My daughter, one by one,

    fits turquoise beads on string.  I say, “Laura,”

    and her lips part, then close on what she sees–

    burnt leather string threading an ocean through

    her fingers, chaining a jeweled earth across

    her chest.  No, she knows nothing so defined;

    she is only caught in the precision of a moment–

    like you, making us pause while you paint the boy

    in his time, to say this is him; he is this.

         (previously published in Byline, September 2006)

  • Five-Star Review for Vampire Novel

    Tom Olbert gives a five-star-review to the vampire novel Beside the Darker Shore.

    “Esposito has a vivid and delicious power of imagery reminiscent of Ray Bradbury; every dewdrop sliding off every blade of grass and the crackle of every autumn leaf resonates in a narrative that flows like sweet, dark wine. The story takes us from the streets, harbor-side parks and alleyways of Boston to the villas and forests of Spain in a tale of political ambition, moral conflict, love and insatiable animal passion.”

    “Complex and unpredictable, this one will keep you guessing, like an on-going nightmare landscape of sultry silver moonlight. Go buy this one.”

    Read the full review on Goodreads!

    [Author’s note: The review is so beautifully written, and I’ve found the author has many of his own works out. You might like to check those out too! I know I’m going to.]

    Universal Buy Link

  • Five-star review for vampire novel

    Five-star review of Beside the Darker Shore

    Excerpt:

    “Beside the Darker Shore is different. It is not your usual vampire tale. There is no sex in the book, per se, but it is one of the most powerfully sensual books I have read. When humans offer their blood to vampires, the eroticism of the bloodletting has no need for sex. When Stephen is in the throes of his addiction for donating, he is lost to everything but that act in that moment. Ms. Esposito beautifully conveys the addiction and the yearning for the giving through her words…I liked the characters. While there are villains in Beside the Darker Shore, they are not the stereotypical villains of vampire novels…I hope Ms. Esposito is planning a sequel or prequel. There are many unanswered questions and these are characters that have not left my mind since I finished the book.”

    Available at all major booksellers. Universal Buy Link.

     

  • Truth and Beauty, Beauty and Truth

    What Makes Beauty?

    The ten most beautiful women. The ten most beautiful men. We jump to leaf through the lists, knowing that, amid the ten, there might be one on which we agree. Oh, the others might be appealing, might have features we appreciate, but are they the epitome of beauty? Sometimes only one, sometimes none really stand out for any given person. Who is top on your list? And do you know why?

    For that matter, what natural wonders of the world are the most beautiful? Is a beach sunset the purest beauty or a mountain peak sun-glistened? If we disagree on what is most beautiful, is beauty subjective? Or is it objective, with one true definition?

    Was Keats Right in His Poem?

    When, in mathematics, a theory is defined in the perfect equation—simple, accurate, absolute—it is often called beautiful. In chemistry, the blending of compounds is sometimes called a beautiful synthesis. Is it true what Keats said in his poem? Beauty is truth, truth is beauty?

    While looking at life events, recording memories, creating sketches of people I see, and responding to things I hear or read, I hope to look at all life’s seductions, the things that spark us, that stand out as real, as beautiful in one way or another. I believe that something in our subconscious responds to equations of truth, those poignant moments, the world when it shows us true grace.

    Can beauty be an equation, where all variables equate to one need?
    what is beautiful to you?

    What Is Beautiful to You?

    The many moods of nature might offer fear to one and peace to another. Each holds truth, and, in that, maybe beauty.

    For a discussion on how beauty makes us vulnerable, see https://patriciaesposito.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=70&action=edit .

  • In a Present Space and Time

    We daydream when we’re driving, right, in that quiet space and time? Oh, the radio might be playing, and sometimes a song draws us in. Or sometimes the music is just a rhythm in the background of our thoughts. It’s a bit of space in the day when we’re not doing work and chores, attending to meetings and phone calls, worrying about the news and the judgments in advertisement.

    Then we pull into the gas station, where sun shines off the pumps and the few decorative trees shiver a bit in the light wind. A landscaping truck is pulled beside the air pump; men stand about and talk. A white-haired woman holds her cash card, hesitant before fitting it to the slot. Pumping gas: a few minutes of stillness, a moment to let the world around sink in while there’s nothing else to do. Present—for this moment we are in a present space and time.

    Be in the present space and time. Image by Harrison Haines, on Pexels

    Except now, when I open my door, I’m blasted with talk. Gas station TVs, commercials talking at me, media overload. Loud voices crash over the vibration of leaves.

    I don’t like this innovation. The body is most at rest when it’s in the present, experiencing the moment that is. Even stressful times can be better managed if we don’t look ahead, aren’t bombarded with all the possibilities at hand. At the gas pump, I can’t walk away. The video screen has found a hostage audience.

    The men who lean against the truck, cross their legs comfortably and laugh with each other. They’re far enough away not to hear. I want an option. An off switch. I want to lean like those men into only the sounds of sunlight on chrome.

    Do you have any moments in the day when you feel more aware of your surroundings? Would you like to share a memory of a time you felt present and at peace?

    For a more in depth look at the benefits of being present, take a moment here: https://positivepsychology.com/present-moment/ .

  • Vampire Novel Wins Reviewer’s Choice Award

    I was very happy to hear that my vampire novel was chosen as Reviewer’s Choice for December at Two Lips Reviews, where the reviewer had this to say:

    “Beside the Darker Shore is different. It is not your usual vampire tale. There is no sex in the book, per se, but it is one of the most powerfully sensual books I have read. When humans offer their blood to vampires, the eroticism of the bloodletting has no need for sex. 

    “While there are villains in Beside the Darker Shore, they are not the stereotypical villains of vampire novels. There was no right or wrong. There is an air of ‘what is best for me’ for each character. … For the pain each of these men brings to the other, it is hard to dislike any of them. Each is fighting for what he believes …these are characters that have not left my mind since I finished the book.”

    For more of the review or to see what other novels were selected for the Reviewer’s Choice Award, visit 

    http://www.twolipsreviews.com/content/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2002&Itemid=61

     
     

  • Does Beauty Make Us Vulnerable?

    Do beauty and truth leave people vulnerable?

    Truth As Exposure

    The question of vulnerability came up in a story discussion once. Being vulnerable to truth I understood. We often have to face things in others, in life, in ourselves that are scary, that leave us open to having to trust or to move on, to make change or make what we have be our choice. There’s a lot of responsibility involved in knowing truth, and truth is kind of exposure, opening us to the risk of living with others.

    Beauty As Exposure

    For me, whether beauty makes us vulnerable was more difficult to understand. How could something visually pleasing leave a person vulnerable? Isn’t it instead the universe’s gift to us? In the story we were discussing, a beautiful young man walks into a house buried in snow, into a family living with the lingering grief of a husband and father who silently left them. The young girl has relegated love and romance and sex to the fantasies she reads in literature. They satisfy; the stories are known and don’t change.

    But when this beautiful young man walks into her house, his beauty steps past her barriers. He is genuine and exquisite, and she feels suddenly open and vulnerable as he reads her desire.  

    The Power of Beauty

    So what is at work when we see something or someone so beautiful that it makes us stop? What does this beauty strike in us that we need to gaze, to share it with others, to paint it, to snap a picture, to store it in our memory? Something inside must be stirred—something we see within the person or landscape, what emanates from it, recalling or waking something in us. Maybe it wakes a human memory, or maybe it connects with something deeper, connecting us to a broader existence.

    To keep that beauty in our life, in a sense, is to let it have power over us. When we feel attraction to a person, that is the first step in allowing someone to cross into our lives. Before we  even shake hands or say hello, they’ve crossed over, waking something, creating a slight change, if only for a moment—and sometimes creating a lasting change if the gap between closes. When we build our home on a lake, soothed by the water’s constancy, by the sun and moon’s predictable but never uninspiring beauty, we can be mesmerized again and again. If we take the time to look, beauty affects us. It changes our decisions. It confirms our trust.

    Beauty Amid Struggles

    But life is unpredictable too. While we watch the beauty of cranes flying over a twilight sky, a healthy teenage girl suffers five heart attacks while being brutally raped. While the moon rises orange and we stand outside and gasp, a hurricane tears away thousands of lives. Hard news like this, or hard words surrounding us at home, take their toll, but sometimes the smallest thing, the greeting of a soft-lipped wide smile on a face that captures us, can soothe the day.

    Beauty As a Balm

    Maybe beauty is a balm for pain, and we have to be vulnerable to it to let it work its magic. Trust leaves us vulnerable to betrayal, loss, and pain. We never know what might happen. The unknown has always been key to human vulnerability—having to trust, to hope, against odds. The sun and moon keep shining their brilliance and magic, and people keep watching them—mesmerized, curious, and even a bit in love. We connect to something beyond us, and maybe that is where healing is, where truth is too, in that beauty.

    For another look at the power of beauty, visit https://patriciaesposito.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=111&action=edit .

    Further discussion after comments:

    In discussion with people, some issues came up to reiterate: We don’t always see nature’s beauty though it’s right in front of us. And that’s also why I think when we’re attracted to someone’s “beauty,” that we’re really attracted to some inner need at the moment, some expression of ourselves even, that we perceive in someone else. (This is not meant to imply we only act for ourselves in an egotistical way  but that connections happen based on what we’re feeling on a deeper level.)

  • The Magic of Brothers

    When I was a kid growing up on a dead-end street in Hillside, factories at the top, factories at the bottom, all playing fields to us, we had an ice-cream man who served soft ice cream along with the Good Humor bars. The most expensive item on the truck was a chocolate shake.

    The block was full of kids ranging from me and my best friend Anne, the youngest, to older brothers and sisters, in their late teens and early twenties. None of us could really afford the chocolate shakes. I’d stare at the picture as I counted dimes. One day, my brother was there, watching us in line. He must have seen me counting, figuring, looking disappointed, because he got up off the curb and said, “What do you want? My treat.”

    I was afraid to say the shake, but he guessed it and said, that’s fine, and he pulled what looked like a fortune to me from his pocket. I’m sure it wasn’t, but slicing a dollar bill from what looked like tens and twenties had my eyes open wide. He worked. He was older. From that day on, if he was ever around when the ice cream man came, he’d jog over and buy me a shake.

    That wasn’t his only magic. He let me play in his bedroom when he was out. He had swords and daggers hanging on his walls, medieval wall hangings, a spiked flail hanging over his pillow. And he had a wall of model cars. I didn’t take anything down, I just touched things gently, and then lay on his bed and made up stories. I liked cars and dolls equally as a kid; I liked swords and easy-bake-ovens. He encouraged my imagination in what others might have dissuaded.

    And he was an artist, is an artist. He’d let me watch him draw. I’d sit at the kitchen table and watch the array of pencils bring out shadow and light to form trees and mountains and cabins and our own small house in a little street.

    He’s taken to going on vacations with my family now. And I tell him he has to bring his paints and canvases. It takes him nearly the entire week to get up inspiration, and then he sighs and unwraps the canvas and sets out the paint jars and palette. I wonder if he’s doing it just because I’m waiting. We bring home at least two small canvases, little things he says aren’t worth anything.

    I love them. I have two of his large paintings hanging in my house, along with the little things. I still have the sketches he drew me when I was kid, even the fire engines he helped me draw for a school project. He’ll be retiring soon, and I told him he has to come out more often, have dinner with us. He and Gary are very good friends. Maybe we’ll go out for ice cream, and maybe I’ll order the biggest dish!

    Older brothers can be magic to a younger sister. I wonder sometimes how much he’s responsible for my opinions of men and my underlying belief they’re good guys.

  • And the Character Says, Remember Me?

    I woke this morning thinking about favorite fictional characters, whether in books or movies or TV or any other media. The characters that first popped into mind for me ranged from crushes to heroes to soulmates. I’m beginning my list, as they first came to mind, and might keep adding if I remember more.

    I’d be curious to hear what characters have influenced or remained with you!

    Aragorn (Lord of the Rings)
    Eowyn (Lord of the Rings)
    Shep (The Hoax)
    Stephen Dedalus (Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man)
    Quentin (The Sound and the Fury/Absalom! Absalom!)
    Alyosha (Brothers Karamazov)
    Ged (Wizard of Earthsea trilogy)

    Baltasar (The Campaign)
    Orphan Huerta (Christopher Unborn)
    Nayeli (Into the Beautiful North)

    Dante and Aristotle (Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe)

  • The Power of Image

    Imagine Gandalf a minute. What do you see?

    The first image that pops in my mind is the pointed gray hat. Not any gray wizard’s hat, but a softened hat, slightly bent, worn at the edges, a sense of not only history in him but comfort, no need for embellishments or flash. A true hat, a used hat, a fitting hat.

    For each character, there is probably some defining image. My mind flashes with Aragorn’s boots, worn too, mud-stained, a foot traveler, a strong and steady stride. 

    And what about images that represent not a character alone but an entire story or a theme? Why does the hollowed hiding place in the tree linger with so many of us after seeing To Kill a Mockingbird? On a broader scale, what do the wide expanses of frozen white make us feel in Fargo, and do they come to represent the movie as a whole?

    In storytelling, whether in novels or short stories or movies, images can convey as much as dialogue or action. The image doesn’t have to be specifically symbolic, as in a one-to-one relationship like the “A” in The Scarlet Letter, or how a key might come to represent unlocking a secret. Sometimes an image carries with it universal associations that we can’t define: water, doors, open skies, passageways, lone trees, shadows, a sun rise.

    A movie or a book can be subconsciously more powerful if the writer or filmmaker incorporates resonant imagery, letting the setting convey ongoing themes or character transitions, letting a single image speak rather than the characters themselves.

    Imagine a scene in which two characters stand face to face: one is shouting about an important missed phone call, while the other is unable to speak. The argument has nothing to do with what’s really happening between them, which is a betrayal and a broken promise. As they argue, the silent character’s focus is on a china teacup, narrowing in on the crack running between flowers, a crack that appears larger and larger as the argument goes nowhere.

    If later in the book or movie, a teacup is once again seen, in a different house, perhaps an older woman holding a fine cup, never broken, we might not consciously ask, what does this mean, what shift is happening here? But somewhere in our subconscious the new image recalls the old; somewhere inside, something stirs and we sit up, become more engaged with the story, without knowing why.

    There’s magic in the subtle play of images. Sometimes you might see a movie or read a book that brings to mind a color. I’ve heard people say, “That movie was so blue,” or “That book felt orange.” Obviously, the writer or filmmaker associated a color with the mood of the story or with the characters’ emotions. Often it’s not a conscious choice, but something that happens in the writing stage, which is taken up unconsciously by the reader or viewer.

    But when revising any story, the writer should look at the potential of an image, at what the character might not say, at the action that might not happen, but that the image might show. And trust that the reader, the audience, shares a similar consciousness, and will intuitively know.

    Often it’s the subtle image working at the deeper level that stays with the audience, that creates a reaction that feels a bit like a mystery, a stirring inside that lingers after the story is finished.

  • Meet Arturo de Rosa, Vampire

    Arturo de Rosa was born in the year 965, Cordoba, Spain. He currently resides in Potes, Spain, but is visiting Boston on the urging of his human blood prostitute, Stephen. In this scene he’s walking the street of the vampire community’s leader, envisioning Alec Marshall, whom he knew in those early years in Cordoba.

    Excerpt:

    Arturo strummed the cool wrought-iron rails, and sniffed at the row of potted flowers that sat stiff and brown. The lamplight blurred in the descending fog. He paused, closed his eyes, then looked up at the house.

    “Alexandros,” he whispered.

    His vision broke at the sound of footsteps.

    “If you’re looking for Alec Marshall, he’s at the State House gala tonight.”

    Arturo remained staring at the house. “Not at all. I’m looking for something sweet to suit my fastidious palette. Not one human … not one has walked this street tonight.”

    The vampire stepped forward. “No. You see …”

    As Arturo turned, the vampire stopped, marking a distance between them.

    “Simple hunger,” Arturo said.

    “Yes … you see … Le Cauchemar isn’t far. You’ll find bank blood there. Or livebloods.”

    “Livebloods? Ah, blood prostitutes, you mean. But I have one already.”

    This vampire was young, his skin still somewhat porous, not the white sheen that he and Alexandros now had, and his heart beat with erratic weakness. Four humans with torches could overpower and easily kill these community fledglings.

    Still, he seemed to be making an attempt here, this staunch community supporter. And in that he resembled Alexandros. “At some of the clubs, you’ll find humans who give blood freely,” the vampire continued, “or for a price, but the bank blood is available …”

    Ignoring him, Arturo stroked the iron rail and gazed back at Alec Marshall’s redbrick home.

    “Sir, if you haven’t registered at the department …”

    The fence was built with perfectly spaced iron spears, the tips wet but gritty to Arturo’s touch. “Comprende, I sculpt with subtle, sloping lines, nothing as sharp as he’s chosen. Nor anything as refined as the symmetry his house commands.” Arturo sighed dramatically and finally turned to the vampire. “It has made me pause to consider.” He then brushed his hands down his coat. “But mostly, I’m famished. There are humans here, no? In this fine habitat you made?”

    The vampire backed up farther. “You’ll need to register. You’ll need to …”

    Laughing, Arturo pulled off his long coat, and draped it over the railing before Alec’s home.

    “Nine hundred years. That’s how long I’ve battled your careful and conscientious Alexandros Mersecal. I know his many names. Is he still as beautiful?” Smiling, Arturo held up his hand. “Shhh…. Say nothing. My imagination conjures better.”

    Then leaving the coat, Arturo disregarded the vampire and headed back down Bethany Street under thin lamplight, a pale yellow gauze that roused his taste for skin.

    At the corner, he turned back. “South, would you say? Will I find your humans if I go, say … this way?”

    The young vampire turned and, quickening his pace, headed back where he’d come from.

    Arturo watched bemused. “City of proselytes, Marshall belongs only to me.”

    — from Beside the Darker Shore

    Available from most online retailers. https://books2read.com/u/bwQa7a

  • Using Reversals to Refresh a Story

    Sometimes a story or a scene in a novel just isn’t working. Yet we can’t pin down why. Our brain, trained in the dos and don’ts of writing, can’t come up with a solution. That’s often when it helps to begin the scene over, write it fresh.

    But author Stuart Spencer, in The Playwright’s Guidebook, offers another couple suggestions that might, even more than starting over, help writers let go of what they know, what is there and not working, to find instead what’s supposed to be. He calls the technique using reversals: interchanging character names or changing an essential element in the scene to its opposite.

    For example, he says, if Joe is in love with Mike and wants to tell him, try writing it again, exchanging the names, with Mike in love with Joe, wanting to speak. Or change the element: if Joe is in love with Mike, have Joe wanting to kill Mike instead. Spencer’s theory is that “when that first choice doesn’t work, it’s because the intellect has covertly intruded on the work that belongs to the subconscious.”

    By shaking things up so dramatically and diving back in, the writer is more apt to return to that place where the subconscious writes. And “the subconscious knows more about the truth than reasoning intellect.” As they say, when making a difficult decision, trust your intuition, trust your subconscious. Whatever lists you make of the pros and cons, somewhere deeper, you actually know what’s right. Sometimes in writing, we have to abandon the lists and trust the story that comes.