-Official Website-
Embrace the night... give in to the temptation
Bio
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Maria Christine is the founder of Nocturna Media and associate editor for Un-X News. She has also been a Vivian Awards judge for the Romance Writers of America (RWA). She studied quantum mechanics and history at the University of Southern New Hampshire and graduated with honors from Kaplan University, Davenport, Iowa, where she studied crime analysis, ethics, and forensic psychology. She is currently studying general psychology and paleography. She is a lifetime member of the exclusive National Society of Collegiate Scholars and is a member of the United Nations Association of the USA, the NAACP, and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Maria is dedicated to the study of her family history; and proudly traces much of her rich heritage to Northern, Western, and Southern Europe as well as Northern and Western Africa. She is a volunteer scribe for both the Washington State and Missouri State historic archives and is a founding board member of the Local History Preservation Society (LHPS).
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Maria likes to read medieval fantasy and historic romance and enjoys writing about ominous anti-heroes and passionate heroines. Some of her favorite things are forests, dark castles, thunderstorms, folklore, music, and muscle cars. She is a devoted mother and lives in the mid-western United States.
A Letter to You
​​Hello Everyone. Welcome to my humble domain. I love to write because it is utterly freeing. Always there are characters in my mind waiting for their stories to be told. Some harangue me until I (at last) put pen to paper. Others wait ever patiently, but they are always there... sipping tea by the fire, pacing the palace floors in top hats and tailcoats, or gazing through a spyglass over the balcony to a distant sea... all of them occupying what would otherwise be neglected, unsown corners of my mind. This they could never allow, and it does give me comfort.
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Who and what I like to read
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All writers are artists, and I truly appreciate unique ideas and a love of storytelling... but I do have some faves and I covet them. When it comes to non-fiction, I enjoy archaeology and human history and learning about the migration of peoples. As for fiction, I love a good romance or an epic fantasy. For me, it doesn't get any better than Evelyn Rogers' Devil in the Dark, Desert Heat, or The Ghost of Carnal Cove; and J.R.R. Tolkien's timeless tales of Middle Earth. When I find a good story, I usually can’t stop reading until it ends... or until I fall involuntarily to sleep (like I've done so many nights reading both of the aforementioned authors). My favorite time to read is before bed, so this happens a lot.
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My advice to new writers
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Some of the best times I’ve had were while reading unpolished, informal stories by writers who are just starting out. There is something special about writers who do it for fun. They aren’t paid for their work, they write from the heart and for their own pleasure. And therein, magic can be found. Our stories are personal works of art—self-expression in one of its most beautiful forms. As I said in a poem for a sculptor I know, [your personal creation] is “a spark of the unseen soul come to brilliant life”. If it’s a peaceful part of you, then nurture it. Take note of suggestions, read a lot, and allow yourself to grow. As time goes on, I continue to learn from seasoned writers how to hone my skills, but it's often the beginners who remind me to enjoy myself.