Diana Laurence - Interview and Contest

The contest portion has closed. Thanks to everyone who participated!

Please welcome Diana Laurence, author of How to Catch and Keep a Vampire: A Step-By-Step Guide to Loving the Bad and the Beautiful. Read this helpful interview. It will be your chance to find out everything you ever wanted to know about those dicey, tricky relationships with vampires. At the end of the interview look for contest information.

PVN: Although your book is aimed at women would men also find it useful?

Diana: Definitely, and for a couple of reasons at least.  First of all, there are plenty of men out there who like vampires (why else would Playboy have a vampire issue recently? LOL), and much of my advice applies likewise to them.  And secondly, there are quite a few men who’d like to better understand the appeal of vampires to females, and I explain that too.  (But to any guys hoping to use the book as a guide to pose as a vampire themselves, I highly discourage that.  The real vampires don’t take well to posers, believe me.)


PVN: When did you first find yourself attracted to vampires?

Diana: When I was really young I read Carmilla, which is actually about a female vampire, and was fascinated.  And then when I was 17 I saw the Dracula movie with Frank Langella in the title role and was absolutely hooked.  He was mysterious, dangerous, scary and compelling.  I’d always been drawn to hypnotists in movies (there were quite a few hypnotists in 50s and 60s movies, oddly), and Frank’s Dracula was like a more romantic, elegant form of hypnotist.  And dead sexy too.  Anyway, from that point on I was a die hard vampirophile:  Anne Rice, “The Lost Boys,” “Buffy,” and all that.


PVN: In your opinion is it all right to date more than one vampire at a time?

Diana: Absolutely.  As a society the undead are not especially into monogamy, Bill and Edward not withstanding.  It’s not actually bad at all, for I find vampires have the amazing knack to be really into you even though they are likewise really into others at the same time.  That’s a hard concept for mortals to get their mind around, so I discuss it at length in the book.  Anyway, I think it’s especially beneficial to balance dates with “bad” (not evil) vampires and good ones.  For example, I’ll go to a club with the dark and nasty Mordred one night, and then to a vampire ball with the sweet-spirited Aidan the next.


PVN: Who is your current vampire love interest? What is he like?

Diana: I spread the affection around with a whole crew of immortals, but I do have one special guy, as you learn in the book.  His name is Conner, and he was born in Britain at the time of Chaucer.  He tells the best stories of all my vampire friends, and being a writer, I love that.  Conner is reminiscent of Bill Compton in that he’s the protective, guardian angel sort.  (Towards me anyway—he can be vicious when he needs to be.)  Doesn’t hurt either that he has long, dark, wavy hair and bottomless brown eyes and a face that makes you want to stare at him till your heart falls out.

PVN: Are you at all interested in becoming a vampire?

Diana: Of course anyone who hangs around with the undead is going to occasionally want to join them.  Picturing yourself immortal, impervious to disease, able to stay up all night and never needing the benefit of makeup, you certainly are tempted.  And as a person whose best 5K time was 30 minutes, I envy that vampiric high-speed-darting a lot.  However, there are some serious cons to being a vampire, some of which are not what you might think.  This is another issue I address, with an entire chapter, in the book.


PVN: Why did you decide to write this book?

Diana: It’s an interesting story.  In fact, my editor at Sellers Publishing, Robin Haywood, had the idea to publish a vampire dating guide.  She starting searching the Web for someone to author it and came upon an essay of mine about vampires that I wrote four years ago.  She offered me the gig, and I immediately thought it was a fabulous idea.  With my background—associating with vampires and writing about them—I was totally thrilled to do the book.  I think if I had hesitated for a minute, Mordred would have insisted otherwise anyway, and by “insisted” I mean employing his hypnotic swirly-eyes and compelling me.  Wait a sec…is there any chance he might have done that?  No, no, I’m sure it was my idea, I was thinking quite clearly when I signed the contract.  :-)


PVN: Are there any vampire novels that come close to describing real vampires?

Diana: I just started reading Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse books, having become a huge fan of “True Blood” on HBO.  I think she does a terrific job in so many ways, as do Alan Ball and the writers of the TV show.  Eric Northman reminds me of my friend Gunnar, and is illustrative of what I term “bad” vampires:  immortals who employ a nasty persona mostly because we enjoy it so much.  Gunnar is demanding and pushy and often downright scary, but I’ll catch him smiling at my reaction because he knows that I like it when he scares me.  Isn’t that just like a vampire?  Anyway, although I hadn’t seen “True Blood” yet when I wrote the book, Charlaine and I definitely run with similar vampire crowds.


PVN: What are some of your other writing projects?

Diana: I have ten other titles in print, mostly imaginative and spicy romance.  Also in 2009 I released a short story collection called Soulful Sex: Erotic Tales of Fantasy and Romance Volumes I & II, and a psychological thriller on psychic vampirism called Looking on Darkness.  My most popular book is my 2007 vampire romance novel Bloodchained; I will be releasing the sequel Bloodchained 2: The Secret of Secrets in late November 2009.  Almost all my works seem to have a vampire or vampiric character appear in them somewhere.  I could blame the influence of my undead friends on that:  they are a persuasive bunch.


PVN: Where can readers find you?

Diana: My Web site is www.dianalaurence.com and is chock full of info, including a “vampire” page that will direct readers to relevant works (including my free vampire short story “Playacting”).  My blog is called “Erotica with Soul” and is at www.eroticawithsoul.blogspot.com.  I post about the romantic and erotic in pop culture and psychology, and needless to say, vampire topics arise a lot.  The official site for my Bloodchained series.  And I especially encourage your readers to visit www.howtocatchandkeepavampire.com, where they can interact with me and my vampire pals.  Facebook users can become a fan of the book at, and stay apprised of events, contests, site updates, and so on.  And lastly, to see my video interview, please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOmNRiQ_gtY.  My immortal friends think it’s rather hilarious.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to visit with your readers, Patricia!  I’m always thrilled to meet more vampirophiles and spread the vampire love.

And thank you, Diana, for sharing your unique perspective on love and vampires!

Now for the contest. One lucky commenter will win a signed copy of How to Catch and Keep a Vampire: A Step-By-Step Guide to Loving the Bad and the Beautiful

To be eligible do one or more of the following:
* Leave a comment
* Ask Diana a question
* Link this interview to your own site or a social network site, and be sure to let me know the URL

If your email is not associated with your ID, please put the address in your response.

Contest ends October 1, 2009 at 11:59 PM Hawaii Time.

Kristin Landon'sThe Hidden Worlds Trilogy - SF Review

I rarely review any genre outside the paranormal, but I am going to make an exception with the The Hidden Worlds trilogy by Kristin Landon. I had seen positive references to it on a few other blog sites. Looked quite interesting. I thought I would read it when I needed a break from all things paranormal. At the time there was no thought to writing a review. That changed when, for no reason I can explain, the publisher sent me a copy of The Dark Reaches (Book 3), the final installment in the series. First thing was to buy The Cold Minds (Book 2), and The Hidden Worlds (Book 1). To understand and enjoy Landon's work the books should be read in order.

The stories mesh together so tightly that I won't even attempt to review each one lest any spoilers pop up. Here is the bare outline.

Alien machines called the Cold Minds have invaded Earth and its solar system. They kill swiftly and without mercy. Much of humanity manages to escape by taking all available ships through other space, a dimension that allows travel through great galactic distances. The heroes are the jump pilots. They are the only ones who can safely maneuver other space. In this way most of humanity escapes. They now live in colonies on the Hidden Worlds.

Ian sen Paolo  is one of the elite. He is a jump pilot who lives with those of his kind on the planet Nexus. It is assumed that the members of this exclusive male group are the only ones capable of piloting a ship. The ruling council allows only certain of their pilots to procreate. Only sons are born to them, and the women who bear the children are carefully selected and well paid. They are surrogate mothers who will never see their children again. Pilots consider themselves superior to other humans and, because of their unique gift, that's how they are treated.

Linnea Kiaho comes from one of the poor outer planets. In a desperate move to get money for her family she travels to Nexus carrying with her a secret that could destroy the privileged position of Ian's family, and perhaps the exclusive status of all jump pilots. When she first arrives on Nexus Linnea works as Ian's servant. He is the typically arrogant pilot, but then his world suddenly collapses. Linnea, who knows his secret, is caught with him in the same trap. Out of necessity they learn to lean on each other and from this their love does develop - not easily and not smoothly. There are no hearts and flowers for their romance.

Landon's powerful writing puts you deep into the mind of each character. The reader experiences their joy or pain as if each moment reader and character are one. Landon's imagination has created a vivid universe with gritty realism. Life can be very harsh either because of the physical surroundings or the brutal political power games. The story is so gripping and the characters so lifelike that reading becomes almost an addiction. You desperately want to know what happens next; yet you don't want the story to end.

The Hidden Worlds
Ace (June 26, 2007)

The Cold Minds
Ace (June 24, 2008)

The Dark Reaches
Ace (June 30, 2009)

The League Series by Sherrilyn Kenyon - Promo

Good news for Sherrilyn Kenyon fans the first book from The League Series, Born of Night, will be available Tuesday September 29th. Sherrilyn is best known to vampire fiction readers for the Dark-Hunter books.

An overview of The League series: In the Ichidian Universe, The League and their ruthless assassins rule all. Expertly trained and highly valued, the League Assassins are the backbone of the government. But not even the League is immune to corruption . .

Command Assassin Nykyrian Quikiades once turned his back on the League—and has been hunted by them ever since. Though many have tried, none can kill him or stop him from completing his current mission: to protect Kiara Zamir, a woman whose father’s political alliance has made her a target.

As her world becomes even deadlier, Kiara must entrust her life to the same kind of beast who once killed her mother and left her for dead. Old enemies and new threaten them both and the only way they can survive is to overcome their suspicions and learn to trust in the very ones who threaten them the most: each other.

Read an excerpt of Born of Night

Books in The League series:

Born of Night (A League Novel) St. Martin's Paperbacks (September 29, 2009)

Born of Fire (A League Novel)St. Martin's Paperbacks (November 3, 2009)
Born of Ice (A League Novel) St. Martin's Paperbacks (December 1, 2009)


Background on how the series came to be: "Sherri originally planned for the League to be an ongoing series. She wrote 5 complete novels and started on five more. The first novel was bought and published by Kensington. The proposal for the second and third novels, Born of Fire and Born of Desire, remained there for over two years as option books that were never purchased.

"The fourth finished book, Paradise City was purchased by Dorchester and ended up being the first book to make it into print. Sadly, Dorchester passed on the next three books in the series, as well as the manuscript for Night Pleasures that would have launched the Dark-Hunter books.

"Born of Fire was ultimately completed and ended up being the first ebook published by a New York author in 1996. Fire and Ice, which was the sequel to Paradise City was cut down and then published as a novella (it alone has remained in print since the day it was published. Berkley will rerelease it in March 2010).

Caillen's story remains finished, but unpublished.

Trailer for Born of Night

Unpcoming Event - Interview & Contest with Author Diane Laurence

On Tuesday September 29 Diana Laurence, author of How to Catch and Keep a Vampire: A Step-By-Step Guide to Loving the Bad and the Beautiful, will answer questions by PVN and readers. This will be your chance to find out everything you ever wanted to know about those dicey, tricky relationships with vampires. All participants will have a chance to win a copy of her book.

"Why do perfectly normal people fall for such sinister beings?

And more importantly, what should we do about it when we do?

"Diana Laurence knows.

"With loads of personal experience to draw upon, Diana does everything from explaining the attraction to blood-drinkers, to sharing what red satin ribbon signifies to them. In this book, she has created a road map to show readers how a vampire relationship can be achieved and conducted in harmony with everyday existence. Diana is here to guide you on this challenging but rewarding journey, as she notes in the Introduction:

"I’m not claiming this quest is without its challenges. Having a successful relationship never is. And it’s even tougher when you throw in the special problems of being with a vampire: his ego, the crazy hours, your inability to deny him anything, his natural aversions to garlic and monogamy.

There will be days that being in love with a vampire will seem like, for lack of a better word, a curse. But take heart; I’m here to be your guide, and show you that you do have the wherewithal to balance your vampirophilia with a full, happy, successful life.

"By the time we’re done you’ll know all you need to realize your dreams of bringing a real vampire into your life."

Red Gold Bridge - Review

Red Gold Bridge
by Patrice Sarath
Ace (June 30, 2009

[reviewed by Breia Brickey
]

A year ago, Lynn Romano and Kate Mossland stumbled through the gordath, a portal between our world and Aeritan. They survived and returned from that world- but not without a price.
   
When Lynn passed through the gordath into Aeritan’s war-ravaged society, the man who loved her followed. But while Lynn fought her way back, Joe found his destiny and stayed behind. Worlds apart, Lynn and Joe have not forgotten each other, but neither expects to see the other again.
    
When Kate returned from Aeritan, she brought Colar- a young man whose wounds would have been fatal in that primitive society - with her. But despite his ties to the girl who saved his life, Earth is no place for this Aeritan-born man.
     
Now, as the rumble of the gordath echoes through both worlds, danger from Aeritan has come for both Lynn and Kate. A powerful Aeritan general- driven by his obsession with Kate- has crossed through to Earth and assembled an army of outcasts. This time the battle will rage not only in Aeritan, but also in our world. And all involved must choose, finally, which world they belong.

This was a fascinating tale straddling two worlds that switched from character to character so flawlessly that it was barely a blip on the radar. Wonderful, flawed characters, awesome settings and a great storyline make for a story not to be missed. I didn’t read the first book, but this book had enough back story that it was easy to keep up. I enjoyed this story so much that I am now on the look out for a copy of the first book, Gordath Wood (Ace Fantasy Book).



Breia Brickey