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About the author:
Natasha Gail is a ‘hopeless romantic’ and also enjoys traveling around the world writing poems, books and short stories. Natasha has always had a fascination with castles. Much of Natasha’s inspiration has come as a result of visiting castles around the world; including The Windsor Castle (Europe), The Castel de Monte (Italy) and even the Castle Frankenstein in Germany. Natasha, following in the footsteps of Mary Shelly, took her inspiration for The Dark Castle Series, from these castles. As well as from other castles she’s visited around the world.
What inspired you to write your book?
The love of Romance, Sex, Dark Castles and Vampires.
Here is a short sample from the book:
Chapter One
The Inheritance
Gordon Sumner arrived home from work and kissed his wife Francine. She pulled away from him and began to sort through the mail. Gordon was tall and muscular with short brown hair and hazel eyes. Francine was almost as tall with long, flowing black hair and dark brown eyes. When Gordon first met Francine, he swore that he had met a young Elizabeth Taylor. They were hopelessly in love and had been in a passionate relationship until recent years.
“How was work, dear?” she said in a voice that was cold and distant.
“The usual, Rodney is cutting staff again,” Gordon said as his eyes washed over his wife’s physique. It had been at least two weeks since they had had sex and he was growing restless. It seemed that the fire had all but gone out; and they had both tried to stoke the flames again to little avail. The last time they actually had sex, both of them were fairly drunk on champagne after a night out with friends; and they remembered very little about it.
“Does he have it in for you?” Francine asked.
“Not this week, he fired the secretary that he’d been sleeping with when she threatened to stop the affair,” he said, shaking his head.
“What a class act,” she said, shaking her head.
“Look, I was thinking that you and I need to go away for a weekend, someplace remote and romantic. How does that grab you?” he said as he came up behind her and began to massage her shoulders. She felt stiff and unyielding in response to his touch.
“Ok, have any particular place in mind?” she asked him in a somewhat distant voice.
“Maybe the mountains or the beach would be nice too,” he said.
Francine began to sort through the day’s mail like she was somewhere else.
“Sure dear, either one would be nice,” she responded. Then, suddenly, one particular piece of mail caught her attention. Gordon saw the change in his wife’s expression.
“What is it?” he asked.
“You know my Aunt Hanna, the one that mysteriously disappeared so many years ago?” she said.
“Yes.”
“This is a letter from her estate. I suppose she must have passed away,” she said. She quickly tore open the envelope and read it while Gordon looked over her shoulder.
“Well, what does it say?” he said.
“It says that she was in ownership of the Castle Totdeauna outside of Hohenwald. It also says that she had married a wealthy man from Romania who had the castle built. He left it to her when he dies. Now, she has passed away due to a long bout with cancer,” she said, shaking her head sadly.
“I’m really sorry to hear that,” he said.
“It also says that now she has left the castle and all of the surrounding estate to me,” she said in a puzzled tone.
“Wow! Really?” he said. “Does she not have any children?”
“Not as far as I know; but I haven’t seen or heard from her in twenty years. Looks like we have the destination for our out of town trip,” she said.
“How soon do you take possession?” he said.
“Immediately it says. Everything’s already gone through probate. She passed away two months ago. So sad that no one in the family was there to support her,” she said as tears flooded her eyes.
Gordon kissed his wife on the cheek and clutched her tightly. She yielded to his touch.
“She and I were close when I was younger. I loved how different she was from the rest of the family, always dressing and acting just like she wanted to. I looked up to her. I wish she hadn’t disappeared the way she had,” she said.
“Well, I’m sure she left you the castle because you were the only one that treated her with any kindness. Call the executor and we’ll make plans to go out there immediately. It’s been a long time since we’ve made a trip out to the country,” he said.
The next weekend, they began to pack their bags and get ready for the two- hour trip to the estate. Gordon worked extra hard the previous week to make up for the days that he would be away from work. The plan was to stay a few days and see what state the place was in. From there, they would decide what to do with the castle. The couple had talked about several things that they could do, including selling it or listing it as a rental on Air B and B.
The day was bright and sunny as they set out for the small highway that led out of Nashville and into the countryside. Gordon studied the location on Google maps and was astonished at how remote it was. The castle stood on a thousand acre estate in the middle of a heavily wooded and sparsely populated area.
“This is exciting!” Francine said as she reached across the console and clutched her husband’s hand. He smiled at her; and became hopeful that this trip would be just the thing to spice up their love life. They passed through the small, quaint town of Hohenwald and bought some groceries. As they stood in the line at the grocery store, an elderly woman overheard them talking about their destination.
“You inherited Castle Totdeauna?” the woman asked in a heavy southern drawl.
“Yes,” Francine said.
“God help you. If I were you I would burn the place to the ground and never go inside of it!” the woman said suddenly. Then she left the grocery store without any further explanation.
Francine and Gordon looked at each other in puzzlement.
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