Category Archives: Musings

[Vampire Month] Review of Cranberry Blood by Elizabeth Morgan

15 Sunday Mar 2015

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As we have just had a week of Elizabeth Morgan, it seemed appropriate to post my review of Cranberry Blood. A review that has also gone to Goodreads and Amazon.

Cranberry Blood by Elizabeth Morgan

Available from www.e-morgan.com

Heather Ryan is a Slayer, the latest in a long line of family members dedicated to the lifelong quest of killing a particular very old vampire – Marko Pavel. If that is not complicated enough, she was also born infected with Vampire blood, a condition she manages with the help of a concoction of Cranberry juice and animal blood (hence the title).Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000038_00064]

One day her life is saved by a werewolf called Brendan who claims to have been sent by her recently dead grandmother.  It seems grannie had seen the need for them to be together in one of her visions, which are usually scarily accurate. Though Heather always respected her grandmother’s abilities as a seer, she finds it hard to come to terms with why she now has to put up with the irritating Brendan – what danger is he supposed to protect her from?

Morgan quickly establishes a dynamic between her two main characters, one of sniping and arguments. The over protective alpha male with the snarky alpha female rebelling against his attempts to ‘save her’ is a common trope in urban fantasy but one which is presented very well here and will appeal to fans of this genre. This relationship is threaded throughout the plot, which revolves around Heather’s attempts to track down her ancient nemesis and his attempts to use her for his own ends, and adds an appropriate level of zip to an already fast paced story. In my reading of this, there was no thoughts of ‘will they/won’t they’ because it is clear from the first page Brendan appears that they will. The question is more when and how many buildings will be destroyed in the aftermath.

Cranberry Blood is a very British Urban Fantasy novel. Heather is an Irish girl living in London, Brendan is described as having a northern accent and it turns out his pack live in Scotland. The action moves from inner city London to the wilds of Scotland giving this more a Being Human/Dog Soldiers vibe than most US based UF. This is a refreshing change and reminds readers that the Vampire and Werewolf myths that most UF take from originate in Europe. This is played upon in the characterisation of some of the characters – the Vampires are very Eurotrash in their attitude, for example. It certainly makes for a more familiar setting to those who live in the UK than the often unreal skyscapes of New York or Chicago. This may alienate US audiences but then again it may not as there are many Anglophiles on the other side of the pond who may also be looking for something that is different to standard UF.

If I have one issue with Cranberry Blood it is the concept of a Slayer. Now, I am happy with the idea of a family dedicated through many generations to killing a specific Vampire menace. It makes sense – you have to play the long game when dealing with immortal bloodsuckers and I really like the thought that has gone into this. However, I am not sure I would have gone so far as to have made that into a proper noun. Not only is there an issue of Joss Whedon potentially considering it a challenge to his IP (though not a huge one as the similarities basically end with the name and the fact this particular one is female) but I am not convinced that it really deserves that capital letter. That implies there is some official title involved when really it is a private, internal family thing. Had there been a secret underground organisation that trained multiple people to fight vampires (such as the Church order detailed in Skyla Dawn Cameron’s novel Hunter) and that organisation granted graduates of their training programme some form of official title then I’d be happy that they could be called Slayers. Using it in a family seems wrong to me. However, this is only a very minor gripe in what is basically a very well written and fascinating novel.

Overall, Cranberry Blood is a novel worth taking a look at. A very fun romp through a very British urban fantasy landscape. I’d like to see more UF set in this country.

Terry Pratchett 1948 – 2015

12 Thursday Mar 2015

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Over the last few months it is becoming increasingly clear who is writing 2015. With so many popular characters leaving us for the great VIP party in the sky, Nimoy and now Pratchett, it can only be GRR Martin calling the shots. In light of today’s sad passing, it is I feel appropriate to briefly interrupt Vampire month to mark this occasion.pratchett quote

I first encountered Pratchett when I was at school. There was a brief extract from Pyramids in a roleplaying magazine I bought frequently and an article on how to run a Discworld style roleplaying game. I was intrigued and bought a copy of Pyramids and later a copy of Good Omens. The same year I went to a signing at Dillon’s bookshop in Newcastle and met the man himself. Since then I have bought pretty much every book he has produced and seen his development into a great author. I have in the past commented on how his writing developed – from the blatant parody of The Colour of Magic to the subtle satire of his later books – a in particular how Ankh Morpork moved from a copy of Lieber’s Lankhmar to something akin to a cross between Regency London and modern New York.

His books have influenced my life. Each one he produced getting better and better. I remember buying a new one every weekend and reading it in an afternoon. Even though I read them so quickly, they never seemed to end. Nor did they ever lapse in quality. As a writer myself I have always been impressed by this level of output and I am sure many other writers, published or otherwise, would love to be able to replicate this. The style he wrote in was also unlike any other author I have ever seen. He rarely used chapters, he wrote in his own unique stream of consciousness narrative, he added footnotes! To fiction! As if it were some form of academic essay! What a way to break the rules in style! I think that the daring and ability to break the rules so blatantly is a sign of true genius.

When I was running the Vampire LRP at Manchester Metropolitan University in the mid 90’s there was an ongoing theme in the In Character rumours published in our newsletter over Pratchett (and his Hat) dancing at Rock World with Neil Gaiman (and his leather jacket). Players of that game may or may not be surprised to learn there was actually no plot significance to these just me nerding out at two of my favourite authors. I very much doubt any of the copies of those newsletters still exist…

And if you are in any doubt about how much he meant to me, you can consider that earlier this week I was teaching about inspiration and creativity in science and this quote was in my mind all through the lesson:

“It is a well-known established fact throughout the many-dimensional worlds of the multiverse that most really great discoveries are owed to one brief moment of inspiration. There’s a lot of spadework first, of course, but what clinches the whole thing is the sight of, say, a falling apple or a boiling kettle or the water slipping over the edge of the bath. Something goes click inside the observer’s head and then everything falls into place. The shape of DNA, it is popularly said, owes its discovery to the chance sight of a spiral staircase when the scientist’s mind was just at the right receptive temperature. Had he used the elevator, the whole science of genetics might have been a good deal different.*

*Though certainly a lot faster and only licensed to carry 4 people”

Terry Pratchett, Sourcery.

And with that I close my remembrances and raise a glass to the memories of childhood reading.

D.A Lascelles is the author of Lurking Miscellany, Transitions (Mundania Press) and Gods of the Sea (Pulp Empires). He lives in Manchester UK. You can sometimes see him writing about Zombie porn on https://lurkingmusings.wordpress.com/ but he mostly blogs about books, vampires, science fiction and Terry Pratchett. He is inordinately proud of the fact that one of his Pratchett articles was referenced on the French version of the author’s Wikipedia page.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DaLascelles

Twitter: @areteus

Buy Lurking Miscellany (paperback)

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[Vampire Month] Let’s Talk About Vamps by Elizabeth Morgan

12 Thursday Mar 2015

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So the end of the week is in sight and Elizabeth is back again to wow us with her guest post… here she talks about why she loves vampires so much.Elizabeth Morgan

Let’s talk Vampires and why I think we love them so much.

What is it about these creatures of the night that excites us as readers? Is it their immortality and the idea that they are endless; that they can see how the world changes? That they can experience everything the world will ever have to offer them over time? Is it the fact that age does not touch them? That they will remain young and possibly perfect forever? Is it that they are dangerous? That they are killers and there is a part deep in all of us Vamp lovers that longs for their redemption? Is it their kiss? Bloody, and deadly, yet said to give a form of pleasure that no human could possibly imagine? Is it their allure? The fact that deep down we know they are dangerous, but we yearn for such risks? Is it that we find them romantic? They’re mature and full of knowledge; the fact they are from a different lifetime?

Vampires are ageless, and I don’t mean in the sense that they are the undead and frozen at a particular age. There are myths descending back further than the 14th Century which tell of creatures that prey on the weak and thirst for blood. Every culture in the world has its own brand of Vampires. Thousand – if not more – books have been written on this particular species and a ton of films have been made. No one, despite the ever wavering interest in this particular being, will ever tire of hearing about Vampires, but why? What is it that we love so much about them? I have been a fan of Vampires since I was a child. That infatuation first began when I watched the movie Bram Stokers, Dracula. Now, I can hold my hands up and say that the big appeal was naturally the love story. I’m a sucker – forgive the pun – for love. I’m a huge romantic, and the idea of a man condemning god and turning himself into something so beastly, so evil, simply because he felt betrayed and was grieving for his soul mate . . . Well, be still my heart. We have centuries of heartache and turmoil and undying hope mixed in with that, and hot damn, it’s magical.

When I was a child, Vampires were terrifying, but seemed really cool at the same time; they were like the bad boys and girls, rebels, dangerous, and otherworldly. What kid didn’t imagine possessing powers and getting away with all sorts of kick ass things? Naturally, once I was older I began to see other sides of their appeal. They are flawless, sexual creatures. Who doesn’t love that? Who hasn’t at some point in their life liked the idea of being that appealing, or of having someone that hot and mysterious pay them attention? I’m not afraid to say I have, and on many occasions. Then there is power; they are strong, and fast, and they remain healthy. They are past death; something very appealing for anyone who fears death, or for someone who feels they haven’t had enough time in this life. Vampires move with the ages, they can watch the world climb and falPageflex Persona [document: PRS0000038_00064]l around them. They can be a part of history. Just think of all those experiences!

Lastly, and probably the most appealing side to these beings, would be the fight for their soul – whether or not you believe they have one. As readers we all want to believe that these dark and sometimes tortured creatures can be saved, and naturally, we want the heroine/hero – heck, sometimes we want to be in their place – to do the saving. We want the vampire to be redeemed, and to have hope, and love, and happiness. We want a happily ever after for these bloodsuckers.

In my opinion Vampires – or rather the paranormal genre in general – is limitless. Each person will have their own idea of what a vampire is, how they should look, how they should act. In my Blood Series my Vampires are the bad guys and they look similar to the guy from Salem’s lot. They have human features, but when they are ready to feed or fight, their hair falls out, their jaws dislocate and their fangs extend to a horrible length. You really wouldn’t want to bump into them. Trust me.

No one’s view of Vampires is wrong. It is interpretation and belief. It is what a person’s imagination creates. As I said earlier there is a variety of different type of Vampires, depending which country they come from. Every writer will create them differently, tell them differently; some have souls, and some don’t. Some look human, but with fangs and others will shift forms. Some Vampires sparkle and some are blue, bald, and completely terrifying, but no matter what form they come in or how handsome or scary they are, we love them. I think the reason for that is because they are an altered, magical, and limitless version of ourselves. They are the impossible. Humans “aren’t” supposed to survive after death; they “aren’t” supposed to live forever, and they “aren’t” supposed to remain ageless. Vampires break the natural code; heck, they break all the rules and they do it with such style.

Whatever the reason may be for why we are fascinated by this particular species, I honestly believe that they will continue to be one of the most – if not the most – written about species in literature.

 

About the Author:

Elizabeth Morgan is a multi-published author of urban fantasy, paranormal, erotic horror, f/f, and contemporary; all with a degree of romance, a dose of action and a hit of sarcasm, sizzle or blood, but you can be sure that no matter what the genre, Elizabeth always manages to give a unique and often humorous spin to her stories.

Like her tagline says; A pick ‘n’ mix genre author. “I’m not greedy. I just like variety.”

And that she does, author of erotic ménage horror, Creak, paranormal erotic horror and UK, US & Australian Amazon best seller (Gay/Lesbian, Fiction, Lesbian), On the Rocks, erotic romance, US, UK & Spanish Amazon bestseller (Erotica Short Story) Truth or Dare? And sweet contemporary romance, UK & US Amazon bestseller (British/Drama & Plays) Stepping Stones.

She also has her hand in self-publishing. Look out for more information on her upcoming releases at her website: www.e-morgan.com

Away from the computer, Elizabeth can be found in the garden trying hard not to kill her plants, dancing around her little cottage with the radio on while she cleans, watching movies or good television programmes – Dr Who? Atlantis? The Musketeers? Heck, yes! – Or curled up with her two cats reading a book.

Where to find Elizabeth Online:

Website: www.e-morgan.com Blog: www.xxxxmyworldxxxx.blogspot.co.uk Twitter: @EMorgan2010 Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/ElizabethMorgan Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.morgan.944 Blood Series Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/TheBloodSeries?ref=hl Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/elizabethm2012/boards/ TSU: https://www.tsu.co/ElizabethMorgan Blog: (Shared with Dianna Hardy): http://notjustastiffupperlip.blogspot.co.uk/

[Vampire Month] Elizabeth Morgan interview

10 Tuesday Mar 2015

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This week the Vampire interrogation chair welcomes Elizabeth Morgan, author of Cranberry Blood to answer its brutal and probing questions, which it asks with all the pain and suffering of a Klingon Hug Dungeon…

I first met Elizabeth last year at the Leeds Steampunk market and will be sharing a stall with her at the upcoming Yorkshire CosPlay Con in April… if you are in the area pop by and say hi! Click the links to find out more details about these events…Elizabeth Morgan

Now, over to Elizabeth…

1)      What is the earliest memory you have of writing? What did you write about?

Gosh, earliest memory of writing. When I was in primary school I remember my year sixth teacher reading out, god I think it was like a paragraph of some little story I wrote for some assignment in English. He was very impressed. Can’t remember what the story was about, but I think there was snow involved. As you can imagine it was a long time ago, but writing started off for me in my English lessons. If I was told we had to write a story, I would gladly do so and aim to write something good.

2)      When did you decide to become a professional writer? Why did you take this step?

It was 2009 when I decided I wanted to write a book with the aim of publishing it. During my last year in college – 2006 – I started writing scripts – I studied Musical Theatre so I was very in to acting and shows etc – I did this up until 2008 until a friend of mine suggested I try and write a book. I was always very detailed with my scripts, too detailed for scripts really. So yeah, it took me a year to come up with something that I wanted to write and once I had the story I just dived right in.

I’ve wanted to act since I was about four – part of me still does now at the age of 26 – but during my final year of college it dawned on me that as much as I loved performing, and I did, I had an imagination that was constantly throwing ideas out at me and it seemed like such a shame to waste those ideas; to waste my imagination. So, that’s why I started writing with the aim to be a professional writer.

[Guest Post] What is Horror? by Rebeka Harrington3)      What would you consider to be your greatest strength as a writer? What about your greatest weakness? How do you overcome this weakness?

I don’t really feel that I have a strength. I would like to say my stories are interesting, funny, different, and sexy or that I at least have a good voice, strong characters… but I honestly don’t know.

Weakness is easy, and I am utterly ashamed to admit it, but grammar isn’t my strong point. I’m terrible at editing, which I suppose is a good thing because my editor would be out of a job if I was great at tidying my messy writing up. Naturally, it comes down to practice. I’m better than I was when I started writing. You pick things up as you go and notice those bad habits you have.

*Hangs head in shame*

I feel like a bit of a fraud; a writer who isn’t very good with grammar? Terrible. I have an imagination, though. I feel it’s a pretty damn good imagination. I can write a story, tell a -hopefully – good story, but I definitely need my editor to whip everything in to shape before it is ready for the public’s eyes.

4)      Tell us about the place where you live. Have you ever derived any inspiration from your home or from anywhere you have visited?

I have lived in a terrace cottage in Cheshire for the last five years. It’s a lovely house, and the area is pretty, but no, I have not yet had any inspiration from this area. If I’m totally honest, although all my stories are set in different locations I haven’t had any inspiration from areas I have visited. Usually when I have an idea and I get the feel for where it could or should be set I go on google map, and then on to street view. I don’t really travel very much, which is a shame. I’m sure I would be inspired if I ever had the chance to venture out.

5)      Which book, if any, would you consider to be your greatest influence and inspiration?

I wasn’t a big reader as a child. I know, it’s dreadful. I enjoyed my mother reading to me, but I didn’t really read a lot. And then during my first job at the age of 16 my colleague/friend lent me Mooncalled by Patricia Briggs…. I haven’t stopped reading since. I love books. I love stories. I’m ashamed that I didn’t start sooner, but as my friend said, it’s finding the right genre(s) and as crazy as it sounds I wasn’t really aware of how many genres there were until my friend got my hooked on books. That seems so stupid, but like I said I wasn’t a big reader. So Patricia Briggs book Mooncalled. Read it, loved it, read the next book in the series and so on. This was around the time I was writing scripts, around the time my other friend suggested I try writing a book of my own and well, after being introduced to Urban Fantasy I just fell in love with the genre, the possibilities and yeah, my mind was made up.

So, I guess you could say that Mooncalled was the book that inspired me to write my own stories.

6)      What drove you to write about Vampires?

I’ve been dreaming about Vampires since I was a child. I would constantly dream they were chasing after me and my family; they would kill us off one by one and I would always be the one remaining. Yeah, I had issues lol

I’ve always been fascinated by Vampires and the way they have been portrayed through books and films, and well, I decided to pay attention to a very good piece of advice; write what you know and what you love.

I love Vampires. So, I just decided that if I was seriously going to write a book then I might as well write about one of my favourite creatures, so I did.

7)      What do you think is the attraction for Vampire fiction? Why is it such a popular topic?

Personally, I believe the attraction is that they are altered, magical, and limitless version of ourselves. They are the impossible. Humans “aren’t” supposed to survive after death; they “aren’t” supposed to live forever, and they “aren’t” supposed to remain ageless, or possess great power, or strength. They’re primal and dangerous. They live by their own rules, but there is so many ways you can write these creatures, evil, tortured, good, but their nature will be forever held against them – who doesn’t love to read about inner turmoil. They can be the monster you would run from, or the bad boy/girl you desire, or even the boy/girl next door with a few hidden secrets, but you love them any way and will route for their happy ever after.

They are a more mystical and powerful version of ourselves, and at some point in all of our lives we will wonder what it would be like to be a vampire, or at least wonder what it would be like to be that mysterious and appealing.

8)      In a fight between all the greatest Vampires of fiction, who do you think would come out on top?

Oh, tough question. You know, I’m going to go with the prince of darkness, Dracula. I’m sure every other vampire in fiction would fight well and give it their all, but Dracula is… well, the man. The undead man, but he’s epic. I’ve got to believe he will live up to his title.

Team Dracula! *cheers*

9)      What about in some other contest such as sexiness or dress sense? Who would win that one?

Sexiness, well Mitchell played by Aidan Turner in the TV series, Being Human. Irish Vampire, yes please. And yet I still have to say I do find Dracula sexy, he’s the prince of freakin’ darkness, how is that not hot?

I tend to find that most Vampires have rather good dress sense, so I wouldn’t be able to pick anyone out, but Selena from Underworld; totally rocks the leather cat-suit.

10)   How well do you think one of your characters would fare against the winner(s) of the above?

I think any of my characters would give as good as they got. Everyone is capable of being defeated. So, I think they would stand a good chance. I think Heather would be able to kill Mitchell – though it pains me to say that – he was never really a fighter. Selena uses a gun and my Heather uses a sword, so if they were going hand to hand…. well, at present Selena and Dracula would probably beat Heather, but I have faith in my girl and after the U-turn her life is about to take, well, the odds might be more in her favour. 😉

Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000038_00064]11)   Tell us the basic premise behind your latest novel.

My current WIP is still without a title – I have two titles in mind, but I can’t decide which one I prefer at present – so it is currently known as Blood 2. Blood 2 is the second book in my Blood Series, and follows on right where we left off from Cranberry Blood (Blood Series: Book One).

Heather Ryan has gone over to Italy to hunt down the second generation Vampire Marie in the hopes of discovering where the ancient, Marko Pavel is so that she can finally kill him. She is also hoping to discover where the three members of the UK Werewolf Pack – whom were kidnapped at the end of book one – have been taken too, but she is in the territory of the Italian Pack who are having a hard time believing that the Vampires are experimenting on Infecteds, Loup-Garous, and Werewolves with the goal of creating a hybrid.

We’re in new territory, we meet interesting new characters, and as I mentioned above the story is really just continuing from where we left off. So, more Heather and Brendan, more sarcasm, humour, action, blood, and the discovery of a few secrets, which will tie up loose ends from book one.

Blood 2 currently stands at 23,500 words. The aim is 60,000, but it’s just a very casual goal. The story could be longer, but I will know once I get to that point. Otherwise the aim is to have Blood 2 released this summer 2015.

For more information on the Blood Series or any of my other titles:

Where to find Elizabeth Online:

Website: www.e-morgan.com Blog: http://www.xxxxmyworldxxxx.blogspot.co.uk Twitter: @EMorgan2010 Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/ElizabethMorgan Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.morgan.944 Blood Series Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/TheBloodSeries?ref=hl Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/elizabethm2012/boards/ TSU: https://www.tsu.co/ElizabethMorgan Blog: (Shared with Dianna Hardy): http://notjustastiffupperlip.blogspot.co.uk/

Thanks so much for joining me, and thank you for letting me take part in Vampire Month, David. J

About the Author:

Elizabeth Morgan is a multi-published author of urban fantasy, paranormal, erotic horror, f/f, and contemporary; all with a degree of romance, a dose of action and a hit of sarcasm, sizzle or blood, but you can be sure that no matter what the genre, Elizabeth always manages to give a unique and often humorous spin to her stories.

Like her tagline says; A pick ‘n’ mix genre author. “I’m not greedy. I just like variety.”

And that she does, author of erotic ménage horror, Creak, paranormal erotic horror and UK, US & Australian Amazon best seller (Gay/Lesbian, Fiction, Lesbian), On the Rocks, erotic romance, US, UK & Spanish Amazon bestseller (Erotica Short Story) Truth or Dare? And sweet contemporary romance, UK & US Amazon bestseller (British/Drama & Plays) Stepping Stones.

She also has her hand in self-publishing. Look out for more information on her upcoming releases at her website: www.e-morgan.com

Away from the computer, Elizabeth can be found in the garden trying hard not to kill her plants, dancing around her little cottage with the radio on while she cleans, watching movies or good television programmes – Dr Who? Atlantis? The Musketeers? Heck, yes! – Or curled up with her two cats reading a book.

[Vampire Month] Five Ways to Attract a Vampire by Jen Ponce

05 Thursday Mar 2015

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For her second post for Vampire Month, Jen Ponce offers us her dating tips…

5 Ways to Attract a Vampire

Who wouldn’t want to have a powerful, immortal vampire as a lover? Perhaps you read the Vampire Lestat as a teenager like I did, and found yourself yearning for a long-lived French blood sucker who also sings rock-n-roll. Maybe you watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer and lusted after Spike, hoping Buffy would go fall in a grave so you could grab him and give him a big, fat smack on the lips. (And then beg him to bite you.)

Instead of sitting around sighing, follow these five steps to attract a vampire and you, too, could be sucking the blood out of perfect strangers in no time!

1. Cultivate clumsiness
Vampires are predators. The clumsier you are, the more attractive you are as food. The whole point is to lure the vampire in close enough for you to have the opportunity to fascinate them. According to legends, you can toss rice on the ground at your feet and the vampire will be forced to count every grain before he can leave. This will give you the chance to fall down in a gracefully clumsy way, thus attracting the vampire’s acute adoration.
JensHead2. Don’t eat garlic, onions, or silver shavings
Really? You would eat any of these things and still call yourself a vampire lover? Everyone who knows anything about vampires will know that garlic is an anathema to the fangers. Only two people (and they both live in Transylvania) know why vampires hate garlic, but the why isn’t important. Just know that vampires don’t like stinky food. I mean lovers.

Vampires also don’t like silver. At first it was just werewolves, but then vampires had to get all, “Omg, we need to be allergic to silver too,” and that was that.

3. Eschew pointy wooden objects
That white picket fence you have out front? That’s like a chastity belt. You might as well smother yourself in garlic and sunbathe, that’s how likely you are to meet a vampire with a fence like that.

You also might want to stop using pencils. There are plenty of other writing utensils in the sea. What about the pen? The quill? A laptop? Your phone, for the love of all that’s unholy. There’s no excuse for pencils in a vampire lover’s home.

4. Come to love the night
Vampires don’t like sunlight or skin cancer. Invest in some heavy curtains and sleeping pills, because you’re going to need them in order to readjust your sleep schedule to accommodate your vein-drainer. It’s a no brainer. Say no to sunlight. Say goodbye to Vitamin D.

5. Enjoy pain
No, this isn’t a sly 30 Colors of Silliness reference. Vampires bite. It’s what they do. If you still scream when the doctor needs a blood sample, you really need to rethink your desire for a vampire lover.

Now, some vampires can mesmerize you so that you don’t feel pain. DoBlood Curse 2.0 Front Onlyn’t count on getting this kind of vamp though. You could very easily get one that has a mouthful of sharp teeth instead of the two civilized fangs. Vampire dating is a crap shoot. It’s all worth it, though, right? Nothing says romance like lurking in shadows waiting to feed on an unsuspecting human with your vampire lover. “Would you like the first bite?” “No, no, you go first, please.” “You’re so kind.”

There you have it, five ways to attract a vampire. If you have any luck, drop me a line over at my website and let me know: www.JenniferPonce.com

If you’d like to read my dark fantasy/horror novels with vampires, check out my Devany Miller series here:  http://bit.ly/BazaarBoxedSet1-3 and my book Blood Curse here:  http://bit.ly/BloodCurse.

Bio for author Jen Ponce

I’m a voracious reader and growing up, I constantly looked for heroic female characters. To my disappointment, so many of the women in the genre fiction I was reading were doormats, weak-willed, boring, incapable, or even downright dumb. That’s why my fiction features strong women. Women who are heroic, women who don’t fall in love and forget who they are, women who fight for what they believe in. If you are looking for character-rich stories that drive you relentlessly toward the big finish, then you just might like my books. Keep in mind I’m a big fan of blood and horror too. Do you like to be scared while you watch a kick ass woman save the day? My books might be just the thing to keep you up all night long.

I’m a writer, a mother of three boys, a cat herder and zombie apocalypse aficionado. I also love vampires, so if you meet one, send ’em my way, okay? I would appreciate it.

If you’re interested in my Kick Ass Woman’s Manifesto, please visit my website here: http://jenniferponce.com/kick-ass-womans-manifesto/ and follow my blog if you like what you see.

Happy reading!

http://www.JenniferPonce.com

http://www.Facebook.com/JenPonceAuthor

http://www.Twitter.com/JenPonceAuthor 

 

[Vampire Month] Jen Ponce interview

03 Tuesday Mar 2015

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Today we meet the first of this year’s Vampire Month authors – Jen Ponce. I first met Jen through the Dragon’s Rocketship Facebook group and am welcoming the chance to learn more about her here. You can find out more about her on http://jenniferponce.com/about-jen-ponce/

1. What is the earliest memory you have of writing? What did you write about?
I wrote a lot, but the first thing I remember writing and getting an audience response from (which was epic, by the way) was a play I wrote and then performed with my Animal puppet. I was ten. I remember futzing over that little script for days, wanting it to be perfect. My older sisters (both in college), my brother-in-law, my nephew, and my mom were in the audience. I squatted behind the couch and let Animal do the talking. I remember it was a play about the Fourth of July, but I can’t remember much else about it except that my audience all laughed when they were supposed to laugh. That moment made me a writer.

JensHead
2. When did you decide to become a professional writer? Why did you take this step?
The moment I decided to become a professional writer was the moment I decided I was going to sit down and finish a novel. I’d written several with friends, but I’d never finished an entire book myself and I burned to do that. I set myself a goal and dangled tantalizing bait at the end: the DVD set of A & E’s Pride and Prejudice. I knew I’d never be happy with myself if I didn’t hold a book in my hands with my name on it. I knew that I wanted to be a professional writer ever since that moment I made my family laugh with something I wrote.
3. What would you consider to be your greatest strength as a writer? What about your greatest weakness? How do you overcome this weakness?
I think my greatest strength would be the ability to build suspense and my characters. I write by feel: does this chapter feel like it ends on a high note? Does this sentence feel scary? It’s kind of a weird thing but I think I’ve read so many books that the pace and rhythm of novel structure has settled into my muscle memory.

My greatest weakness would be settling into the story long enough to show what’s going on. I sometimes have a tendency to set the pace, to drive toward the end, that I forget some people like to know what the setting looks like, what the characters look like, etc. … I’ve been working on slowing down my prose long enough to settle readers firmly into the place of the book, into the physical body of the character. It helps to have writer friends with those strengths, who can point out places where my setting is thin so I can fix it. I’ve found that being more detailed is fun, though I’m still a “go go go” kind of writer.

4. Tell us about the place where you live. Have you ever derived any inspiration from your home or from anywhere you have visited?
I live in the Panhandle of Nebraska, which is a very homogeneous culture. Whenever I go places, I’m so grateful for diversity it’s silly. Nebraska is a beautiful place and it’s home to people with a great capacity for independence and self-sufficiency.
One place that I visited that inspired the creepy setting of one of my books, Bug Queen, was a coffer dam in Cisco, TX. It used to be the hub of all things social and fun: a gigantic pool, a small zoo, a skating rink. It was an extremely busy place … until there was no more money to keep it running. When my friend and fellow writer Kathy took me there long ago, it was a silent and eerie place. The pool water was covered with green and the remnants of one of the ladders for the diving board still jutted from the murky depths. It was the perfect spot for my alien fungus to drive its victims, to store them, and to let the fungus wriggling inside them grow.

5. Which book, if any, would you consider to be your greatest influence and inspiration?
That would be hard to say. I read and write in several genres. Stephen King’s It is probably one of my favorite books of all time, if I had to pick one. I am still awed by its complexity and the way he wove in the past and the present, all those characters, all those stories, into a novel that still sucks me in when I start reading it, even after many read throughs, even after all this time.

BazaarFrontCoverSkull6. What drove you to write about Vampires?
The Hammer Brothers films started me loving vampires. Those films gave me delicious nightmares when I was a kid, (and if you know me at all, you know I love nightmares—that’s where a lot of my stories come from.) The thing I always wished for was the vampire to live and was disappointed time and again that the vampire would get staked and the world would turn back to normal. Who wants normal? Love At First Bite gave me a good ending—the vampire gets the girl and they fly off into the sunset. Yay! And then the Vampire Lestat came along. If I wasn’t hooked already, I would have been. Anne Rice opened up a wider world view for me and made me hunt for more books about vampires. Some were hits and some were misses, but it was all story fodder.

7. What do you think is the attraction for Vampire fiction? Why is it such a popular topic?
For me, vampires are the promise of something magical. This world is so mundane that we humans are always inventing things to make it more fantastical. (Think Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy.) Why do we have these things? Why did our ancestors believe in jorogumo, fairies, daemons? Partially because there were gaps in our scientific knowledge, sure, but also because it makes life easier to think that just around the corner there could be a leprechaun we could catch to win some gold, or a genie to grant us wishes. I’ve always wanted to become a vampire and gain immortality—think of all the books I’d have time to read! Vampires give us magic and they give us sex and they give us darkness. There are things we don’t want to experience in real life that we enjoy reading about. We don’t want to murder (most of us, I hope) but we settle ourselves into the skin of a vampire main character and murder people. We relish the blood, the violence, the power, and then we go back to our fairly safe, mundane lives. Vampire fiction gives us an outlet, it’s a waking dream. Then we close the book and become human once more.

8. In a fight between all the greatest Vampires of fiction, who do you think would come out on top?
I’m liking Leo Pellissier, from Faith Hunter’s Jane Yellowrock series. I considered Lestat, but he does a lot of navel gazing and pondering the numinous, and I considered Akasha, but of course, Lestat does defeat her, so probably Leo. “Go Leo!”

9. What about in some other contest such as sexiness or dress sense? Who would win that one?

Eric Northman from the Sookie Stackhouse series would win sexy male. (Sorry Leo and Lestat, you’re cute too.) Ivy from the Rachel Morgan series would win sexy female. I crushed on her hard the whole time I read those books. Kisten too, but my heart is still sad over him.

10. How well do you think one of your characters would fare against the winner(s) of the above?
Lady Catherine would win against Leo. She is evil and sadistic and worse, it takes a specific person’s blood to even kill her. She’d have Leo’s head off and he’d be deader than a doornail in minutes. I don’t think anyone in their right mind would think she was sexy though. Evil has a way of shining through and hers is a very base kind of evil.Blood Curse 2.0 Front Only

11. Tell us the basic premise behind your latest novel.
Blood Drunk is the sequel to Blood Curse (featuring the evil Lady Catherine.) It’s the story of Claudia, a vampire focused on revenge against Patrick Montgomery, one of three brothers who figured out how to use vampire blood to lengthen their lives without turning. She thinks him responsible for the horrors she experienced at the hands of the Marquis de Chaval. (I based him on the notorious Marquis de Sade. I figured I should get something out of the horrors I experienced reading his books. Eep.)
Before Patrick became a vampire hunter, he was a pirate, and he was the one responsible for Claudia’s husband’s death. But of course, all is not as it seems, and as the story unfolds, the truth comes to light.
The main characters of Blood Curse, Lorelei and Issala, return in this book, as do Patrick’s brothers and Lorelei’s insane twin, Morganna, who seems to be following in Lady Catherine’s dainty footsteps. I’m planning two more books, each one focusing on a different set of characters and their individual stories against the backdrop of a larger, more complicated story line. Blood Curse sat for a short while at #1 on Amazon in the lesbian horror category and it consistently sits in the top 100. Since the next book’s focus is not on Lorelei and Issala, it’ll be interesting to see how it fares.

Bio for author Jen Ponce

I’m a voracious reader and growing up, I constantly looked for heroic female characters. To my disappointment, so many of the women in the genre fiction I was reading were doormats, weak-willed, boring, incapable, or even downright dumb. That’s why my fiction features strong women. Women who are heroic, women who don’t fall in love and forget who they are, women who fight for what they believe in. If you are looking for character-rich stories that drive you relentlessly toward the big finish, then you just might like my books. Keep in mind I’m a big fan of blood and horror too. Do you like to be scared while you watch a kick ass woman save the day? My books might be just the thing to keep you up all night long.

 I’m a writer, a mother of three boys, a cat herder and zombie apocalypse aficionado. I also love vampires, so if you meet one, send ’em my way, okay? I would appreciate it.

If you’re interested in my Kick Ass Woman’s Manifesto, please visit my website here: http://jenniferponce.com/kick-ass-womans-manifesto/ and follow my blog if you like what you see.

Happy reading!

Find Jen on Facebook and Twitter

 

  

 

[Vampire Month] The return of the undead never dying month

01 Sunday Mar 2015

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So here we are again, another year, another March, another month of dark posts about evil blood sucking parasites with a strong aversion to sunlight and the vampires they write about.Vampire

This year looks to be an interesting one, not least because I filled all the available slots way back at the end of last year rather than the usual last minute panic. The keen is strong in the writers we have this year and I think there may well be some fascinating topics covered in the guest posts.

The line up (in no particular order) is:

Jennifer Ponce, author of Blood Curse and its upcoming sequel.

R.A Smith, author of the Grenshall Manor series. Book 3 is currently in the process of being written

A.J Campbell, a newly published author with her debut novel, Wyrm’s Reckoning out soon

Elizabeth Morgan – author of Cranberry Blood

We are also featuring the photography of Ste Manns from Quattrofoto, who you may remember from the Realm fantasy shoots.

https://flic.kr/p/pLCy3p

 

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D.A Lascelles is the author of Lurking Miscellany, Transitions (Mundania Press) and Gods of the Sea (Pulp Empires). He lives in Manchester UK. You can sometimes see him writing about Zombie porn on https://lurkingmusings.wordpress.com/ but he mostly blogs about books, vampires, science fiction and Terry Pratchett. He is inordinately proud of the fact that one of his Pratchett articles was referenced on the French version of the author’s Wikipedia page.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DaLascelles

Twitter: @areteus

Buy Lurking Miscellany (paperback)

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Death and the Maiden

22 Sunday Feb 2015

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So, yesterday there was an announcement that Michelle Gomez would be reprising her role as Missy (AKA The gender switched Master) in the upcoming series of Doctor Who.

The announcement is here for those who wish to read it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/doctorwho/entries/6a78885d-e0b1-49a0-b7e8-cecba867a99f

Now, do not get me wrong I am in a way pleased by this announcement as I did enjoy seeing the Master reimagined as a woman and I think it is good to get the character back. However, I  have one very  huge misgiving about it… the character has really been killed far too many times now.

The Master was originally on his last (13th) regeneration in the Tom Baker episode The Deadly Assassin, the story which in fact established the canon that there are only 12 regenerations a Time Lord can have before they are finally and completely dead. Later stories in the Tom Baker/Peter Davison crossover point (Logopolis and Keeper of Traken) established a plausible means for keeping him alive a little longer using the possession of another character who looked remarkably like his original goatee bearded form (to the extent it probably is not a spoiler to tell you which character would get possessed…) as a reasonable excuse. This, however, did not give him any more regenerations – once that body (which was not a Time Lord body) died that was it so his quest from that point was to gain more regenerations. This was a fact the Time Lords themselves used as a bribe to get him to perform a task for them in the Five Doctors – the promise of a whole new regeneration cycle*. His appearances since then (some Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy episodes, the Paul McGann movie) were all aimed at that goal – for example trying to steal the Doctor’s remaining regenerations.**

Then at some point he finally did get given the new regeneration cycle because of his promises to help during the Time War and that leads us to Uptopia and the wonderful portrayal by Derek Jocobi who I would have liked to have seen more of before his regeneration to John Simms but the fact he did regenerate shows he had been paid in full by the Time Lords before legging it all the way to the end of the universe and activating his Chameleon arch.

So far so good. John Simm was a good Master and managed to give across the right level of insane evil coupled with that empathic bond with Tennant’s Doctor which rightly portrayed the Xavier/Magneto relationship inherent in their associations – two people who were as close as brothers driven apart by wildly different ideologies.

Then Simm’s Master died. Not in a ‘it’s ok, I will regenerate’ way and merely be played by yet another actor but in a ‘no, there is no way I will regenerate’ way.

Then he came back… in a way that was a little unrealistic and far fetched even for Who.

Then he died again… this time also in a way that seemed to preclude regeneration.

And then with very little explanation as to how it happened, ‘he’ came back as ‘she’. Perfectly fine if it had been a regeneration – oh how much we have wanted to see a regeneration from male to female – but again that was apparently not an option. He was dead and gone, no coming back. Yet suddenly she is back… did they give a reasonable reason why? Not that I noticed…

Finally, at the end of the last series, she is also killed and again regeneration seems unlikely… yet here she is, back and ready for more.

Now, to be fair, that last death may be more than it appears. I am willing to accept that since that episode’s final moments were all about lies (the Doctor’s lies to Clara about Gallifrey, her lies to him about being happy) its possible that her death was an elaborate illusion and she was merely teleported somewhere else with the appearance of being totally vaporised. It’s a trick used before in Who (the Big Brother episode in the Ecclestone series, for example) so I am willing to accept it is possible. However, it does not detract from the fundamental issue. Death should not be cheap.

Some characters are famous only for being killed…

Killing a character should have an emotional impact. Equally so should bringing them back from death. Having grown to love or hate them over the course of your reading or viewing of them, to have that character suddenly be taken from you should be a vicious and painful experience. As a reader or viewer you should feel that pain. However, the more you kill them and the more you bring them back the more you stretch the suspension of belief and the more you dilute the emotional impact. Recurring villains are great, a much loved staple of fantasy and SF and even less fantasy based stories such as the Three Musketeers, and used right they can be wonderful creations. However you can push it too far and using the ‘they’re finally dead for good and this time we mean it. Oh no, we totally didn’t mean it’ card too many times (or more than once, really) is not good storytelling. If you have a popular character who you think may be worth a reappearance it is better planning to not kill them off. Have them escape from being captured (the Master has done this a few times too) or simply slip out the back door while the heroes are battling the convenient distraction they arranged for them. This applies doubly to Time Lord enemies. After all, you already have a convenient and perfectly plausible method for them to come back from the dead (regeneration). Why have to go to all the effort of making up some new ways to bring them back after managing to eliminate that as an option? Fans would rather the enemy were still alive – so they and the heroes know they are still a threat – or able to come back in a way which does not seem too ridiculous and fits in with previous observed metaphysics of the way the universe works.

OK, yeah, in some universes (Marvel and DC I’m looking at you) the afterlife has a revolving door and characters pop in for a brief break between adventures only to pop back when sales of the comic drop. And let us not forget poor old Kenny in South Park. However, in most fictional universes, it is better to stick to a more realistic means of death in order to keep the audience with you. Less South Park, more Game of Thrones, make every death meaningful not a cheap joke or marketing ploy.

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D.A Lascelles is the author of Lurking Miscellany, Transitions (Mundania Press) and Gods of the Sea (Pulp Empires). He lives in Manchester UK. You can sometimes see him writing about Zombie porn on https://lurkingmusings.wordpress.com/ but he mostly blogs about books, vampires, science fiction and Terry Pratchett. He is inordinately proud of the fact that one of his Pratchett articles was referenced on the French version of the author’s Wikipedia page.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DaLascelles

Twitter: @areteus

Buy Lurking Miscellany (paperback)

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*Which incidentally also set up the canon that they can do that leaving the way clear for Moffat to have it happen to Matt Smith’s Doctor.

** May have been interesting at some point in all this to have seen a episode where he was trying to keep the Doctor alive out of enlightened self interest. After all, the more the Doctor dies and regenerates the less there is to steal…

Doctor Who: Agents of UNIT?

18 Thursday Dec 2014

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I had meant to post about this not long after the final episode of the last series of Doctor Who aired. However, real life intervened and made my life a hell of busy days and frantic brain goblins. I’ve finally got some time now to get back into blogging and today saw me spot two articles online which triggered me to revisit some thoughts I had following the last episode.

Osgood: Phil Coulson for the Whoniverse?
First there was this one:
The Doctor could be female
Yeah, I feel it was fairly obvious that Moffat was using the gender switch with Missy as a way of basically setting a precedent to be used to allow the Doctor to one day have a similar switch. He also did the same with River Song – showing a regeneration from a young woman of colour to a middle aged, white woman. You can dredge up even earlier references to Time Lords even changing species, though Romana’s regeneration into several alien forms in Destiny of the Daleks is largely considered controversial for a number of reasons, it still shows the possibility exists. Not that this has triggered a similar change in the Doctor yet (unless you count Scottish as a change of race?) but the indication that Gallifreyians are basically blind to gender (and also likely race and species) is an encouraging thought and I hope that it is acted on sometime soon. Could this be an indication that Lenora Critchlow now has a good chance of being picked next?

If it should happen that the Doctor becomes female I do hope that it is handled with sensitivity rather than being merely a gimmick. It needs to be done in such a way that the viewers can believe it is the same character and this is not always possible even with a male actor. As for any casting, it needs to be based on who can do the job well rather than focussing on any criteria like ‘has to be female’.
Next there was this little gem:
Bad news for Osgood fans
Now, when I first saw Osgood’s death (and man that hurt…) I did have a little suspicion. You see, the whole set up seemed remarkably familiar. Ancient, evil nemesis of one of the heroes is captured by secretive, government sponsored agency keyed to battling alien threats. Said nemesis escapes and in the course of their fiendishly clever plan to get out, manages to kill a high ranking, popular and geeky member of that agency. Was I the only one who was thinking ‘Avengers’? Whether it was deliberate tribute or unconscious copying, you cannot deny there is a link there between Osgood and good old Agent Coulson.

The British version has a better scarf
Which did make me wonder if the plan wasn’t to kick off a spin off series in which a mysteriously resurrected Osgood is put in charge of a rag tag group of UNIT agents and set to fly around the world in a converted jet solving problems and fighting HYDRA… erm, I mean, Daleks… who have infiltrated their organisation. Just picture it, the complicated spy games as they try to figure out which UNIT agents are actually Daleks in disguise (hint: if they can answer a question without using the word ‘Exterminate’ they are probably safe) and the big twist when they realise that one of their own is actually a traitor (they probably should have realised that Dr. Darian Alek was dodgy from his computerised voice and the sink plunger attached to his chest) and the emotional fallout that emerges from that. Has to be compelling viewing.
Though, wait a minute… Doctor Who has already had a popular character killed by a nemesis who mysteriously came back to life to lead a rag tag group of agents of a secretive organisation… Could Torchwood’s Captain Jack have actually been the inspiration Joss Whedon used for Phil Coulson in Agents of SHIELD?
I guess we could trace tropes ad infinitum and claim that all modern SF is actually derived from a stone tablet found in Babylon (probably written by Asimov or Jules Verne) because there isn’t really anything new anymore, just different ways of presenting the same ideas. But I suppose it is not too much of a stretch to wonder if Joss Whedon was familiar with the concept of Torchwood before he developed Agents of SHIELD.
So, in all, I think it is a shame that Osgood has been declared as ‘officially dead’ by Moffat. She was a wonderful character with a lot of potential. Certainly far better companion material than some that have been in that position in recent years. While as a writer I can see the benefit in killing off a popular but not critical character, I feel Osgood’s death was maybe a step too far.
Though, despite all this, I think Moffat is still being beaten by Whedon in the bastard of the century competition. After all, he did kill Wash. You have to be far more brutal in killing off your beloved characters to beat that.
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D.A Lascelles is the author of Lurking Miscellany, Transitions (Mundania Press) and Gods of the Sea (Pulp Empires). He lives in Manchester UK. You can sometimes see him writing about Zombie porn on https://lurkingmusings.wordpress.com/ but he mostly blogs about books, vampires, science fiction and Terry Pratchett. He is inordinately proud of the fact that one of his Pratchett articles was referenced on the French version of the author’s Wikipedia page.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DaLascelles
Twitter: @areteus
Buy Lurking Miscellany (paperback)
Buy Lurking Miscellany (Kindle)