Upcoming Event - Author Susan Blexrud Interview & Contest

 Susan Blexrud, author of the humorous vampire romance series Love Fang, will visit PVN on February 8 for an interview and contest. She will also welcome any questions or comments from readers.

Two lucky readers will win a signed copy of Love Fang - a compilation of 4 stories.

Read a review of the short story from whence comes the book's title.

Paranormal Books Found at the Library

Whenever I visit the library I like to browse the new book section for anything that might be of interest to paranormal readers. Here's a selection of what I found on a recent trip.

Decay Inevitable
by Conrad A. Williams
Solaris, 2009

From the publisher: Decay Inevitable is a novel charting the grim territories of the shadow line that trembles at the very end of life.  These are badlands of horrifying dreams and demons where a black market in unspeakable goods takes place.  A race is on to unearth the secrets of the soul... secrets woven into the fabric of death itself.

Vampire Darcy's Desire: A Pride and Prejudice Adaptation
by Regina Jeffers
Ulysses Press, 2009

From the publisher: In Austen's original novel, Darcy and Elizabeth are compelled to overcome countless obstacles — but that's nothing compared to what they face in Vampire Darcy’s Desire. This inventive, action-packed novel tells of a tormented Darcy who comes to "Netherfield" to escape the intense pressure on him to marry. Dispirited by his family's 200-year curse and his fate as a half-human/half-vampire dampir, Darcy would rather live forever alone than inflict the horrors of a vampire life on a beautiful wife. Destiny has other plans. Darcy meets Elizabeth and finds himself yearning for her as a man and driven to possess her as a vampire. Uncontrollably drawn to each other, their complex relationship forces them to confront their pride and prejudice like never before and to wrestle with the seductive power of forbidden love. Meanwhile, dark forces are at work all around them. Most ominous is the threat from George Wickham, the purveyor of the curse, a demon who vows to destroy each generation of Darcys and currently has evil intentions for the vulnerable Georgiana.

My Dead Body
by Charlie Huston
Del Rey (October 13, 2009)

From the publisher: NOBODY LIVES FOREVER. NOT EVEN A VAMPYRE.

Just ask Joe Pitt. After exposing the secret source of blood for half of Manhattan’s Vampyres, he’s definitely a dead man walking. He’s been a punching bag and a bullet magnet for every Vampyre Clan in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, not to mention a private eye, an enforcer, an exile, and a vigilante, but now he’s just a target with legs.

For a year he’s sloshed around the subway tunnels and sewers, tapping the veins of the lost, while above ground a Vampyre civil war threatens to drag the Clans into the sunlight once and for all. What’s it gonna take to dig him up? Just the search for a missing girl who’s carrying a baby that just might be the destiny of Vampyre-kind. Not that Joe cares all that much about destiny and such. What he cares about is that his ex-girl Evie wants him to take the gig. What’s the risk? Another turn playing pigeon in a shooting gallery. What’s the reward? Maybe one shot of his own. What’s he aiming for? Nothing much. Just all the evil at the heart of his world. 

 

  The Spy Who Haunted Me

by Simon R. Green

Roc Hardcover (June 2, 2009)

From the publisher: Eddie Drood's evil-stomping skills have come to the attention of the legendary Alexander King, Independent Agent extraordinaire. The best of the best, King spent a lifetime working for anyone and everyone, doing anything and everything, for the right price. Now, he's on his deathbed and looking to bestow all of his priceless secrets to a successor, provided he or she wins a contest to solve the world's greatest mysteries. Eddie has to win, because King holds the most important secret of all to the Droods-the identity of the traitor in their midst...

The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Blood Curdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre

by H. P. Lovecraft

Del Rey; reprint edition (May 12, 1987)

From the publisher: This is the collection that true fans of horror fiction have been waiting for: sixteen of H.P. Lovecraft's most horrifying visions, including Lovecraft's masterpiece, THE SHADOW OUT OF TIME--the shocking revelation of the mysterious forces that hold all mankind in their fearsome grip.
"I think it is beyond doubt that H.P. Lovecraft has yet to be surpassed as the Twentieth Century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale."
Stephen King

Lovecraft Unbound

Edited by Ellen Datlow

Dark Horse Comics (October 7, 2009)

From the publisher:  The stories are legendary, the characters unforgettable, the world horrible and disturbing. Howard Phillips Lovecraft may have been a writer for only a short time, but the creations he left behind after his death in 1935 have shaped modern horror more than any other author in the last two centuries: the shambling god Cthulhu, and the other deities of the Elder Things, the Outer Gods, and the Great Old Ones, and Herbert West, Reanimator, a doctor who unlocked the secrets of life and death at a terrible cost. In Lovecraft Unbound, more than twenty of today's most prominent writers of literature and dark fantasy tell stories set in or inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft.

Vampire Hunter D: Twin-Shadowed Knight

by Yoshitaka Amano
Dark Horse Books  (December 23, 2009)

From the publisher:  When Vampire Hunter D entered the town of Sedoc it was in search of answers to the meaning of a dying vampire's last words: "Find Muma." But when he meets Mia, the daughter of the local fortuneteller, he learns the mists emanating from a smoking crater on the outskirts of Sedoc have reanimated thousands of corpses, compelling them to crawl from their graves and hurl themselves into the smoking chasm. When D goes to investigate, he finds himself split in two: a second Vampire Hunter D, full of passion and lust and hunger for the company of women, is born!

Queen Victoria, Demon Slayer - Book Review

Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter
by A. E. Moorat
EOS, January 2010

From the publisher: There were many staff at Kensington Palace, fulfilling many roles; a man who was employed to catch rats, another whose job it was to sweep the chimneys. That there was someone expected to hunt demons did not shock the new Queen; that it was to be her was something of a surprise.

London, 1838. Queen Victoria is crowned; she receives the orb, the scepter, and an arsenal of bloodstained weaponry. If Britain is about to become the greatest power of the age, there’s the small matter of the undead to take care of first. Demons stalk the crown, and political ambitions have unleashed ravening hordes of zombies even within the nobility itself.

But rather than dreams of demon hunting, Queen Victoria’s thoughts are occupied by Prince Albert. Can she dedicate her life to saving her country when her heart belongs elsewhere? With lashings of glistening entrails, decapitations, zombies, and foul demons, this masterly new portrait will give a fresh understanding of a remarkable woman, a legendary monarch, and quite possibly the best demon hunter the world has ever seen.

PVN Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter begins at the house of Lord Quimby who watches dejectedly while his manservant chows down on is favorite dog. Turns out one of Lord Quimby 's more grotesque hobbies is the creation of zombies who must be kept locked up lest their unappetizing eating habits appear for all to see. And that's not to mention the danger to the fresh flesh and blood of innocent bystanders.  On the night of Queen Victoria' ascension to the throne, when dark forces are about, Quimby's zombies escape their prison and begin feasting on a gathering of the lord's favorite prostitutes. What a mess, literally! It's left to Perkins, Quimby's manservant, to take charge of the cleanup once all are safely and permanently dead. In the course of events Perkins has himself become a zombie which works out rather well for master and servant. except for the dog eating scene of course.

Meanwhile at the palace Princess Victoria is told of her uncle's death and that she is now the new monarch. The  transition from King William IV to the young Queen Victoria signals to the demon forces that it is time for war. They plan to usurp the throne and take over the British empire. Fortunately Victoria has help at hand in the form of a fighting force led by the unstoppable, Royal Protektor Maggie Brown. These are specially trained warriors with exceptional weaponry to use against a frightening foe. Eventually Victoria herself becomes a member of this elite squad.

There is quite a bit of messy savagery, but amidst the gore lies a tender love story between Victoria and Prince Albert. It is the true affection of these two good and decent people that becomes the best weapon of defense against the demon onslaught.

The plot and the characters are equally entertaining. This is the type of book that keeps a permanent smile on your face - as long as you have a strong stomach. Fortunately, I do.

[Dear FTC, the ARC of this book was sent to me by Library Journal]

Winners of Samhain Books

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Q and A with Laurie Rauch, Executive Editor of Samhain Publishing. Terrific questions were asked and answered.

As promised Laurie randomly selected the names of 2 participant for a Samhain ebook.

The winners are:  Susan J. Blexrud and Laura Kamoie 


Congratulations!!


Here is what to do next: Go to the Samhain website and pick
the book you want, then email Laurie and let her know what it is. She will
send it to you.

The Reformed Vampire Support Group - Book Review

The Reformed Vampire Support Group
by Catherine Jinks
Harcourt, April, 2010  (YA)



Publisher: Think vampires are romantic, sexy, and powerful? Think again. Vampires are dead. And unless they want to end up staked, they have to give up fanging people, admit their addiction, join a support group, and reform themselves.

Nina Harrison, fanged at fifteen and still living with her mother, hates the Reformed Vampire Support Group meetings every Tuesday night. Even if she does appreciate Dave, who was in a punk band when he was alive, nothing exciting ever happens. That is, until one of group members is mysteriously destroyed by a silver bullet.

 With Nina (determined to prove that vamps aren't useless or weak) and Dave (secretly in love with Nina) at the helm, the misfit vampires soon band together to track down the hunter, save a werewolf, and keep the world safe from the likes of themselves.

PVN: [Setting is Sydney, Australia]

The Reformed Vampire Support Group meets every Tuesday evening at St Agnes Roman Catholic Church. The group leader, Sanford, became a vampire early in the last century. He has gathered this small group with the idea of using his extensive knowledge to help them adjust to being vampires, and to accomplish this without ever having to harm a human.

The rector of the church, Father Ramon a kindly mortal priest, helps out during daylight hours when mortal business must be attended to.

Nina Harrison, a vampire turned at 15, narrates this humorous engaging tale. Being a vampires is not easy. It can be deadly dull. Sanford forbids them to ever go out. The risk that they might be overcome with blood lust is too great, he fears. All survive on supplements prepared by Sanford plus the blood of one guinea pig per day.

Nina lives with her mum, spending most of her time in her room reading or watching TV. Still she finds a creative way to amuse herself by writing the adventures of Zadia Bloodstone, "a heroic crime fighting vampire who preyed only on lowlife scum."

Zadia proves to be the perfect alter ego for Nina. When one of their group goes missing they eventually find what's left of him inside his coffin (he's a traditionalist). All that remains are ashes arranged in a vaguely humanoid shape. A vampire killer is at large! He (or she)must be tracked down, not to kill of course, but to convince that vampires mean humans no harm. After years of insular living the group's analytical skills are somewhat diminished, but in their own bumbling way they begin the necessary research to find the slayer.

Nina happens to be one of those who makes first contact. With her knees knocking and her normal cowardly nature to the fore, Nina silently envisions Zadia, imagining what such a heroine would do. And it works! While Nina doesn't exactly turn into Wonder Woman she comes pretty darn close, even saving the day.

The cast of characters, immortal or otherwise, are diverse and completely believable. Their many misadventures are often cause for hilarious moments. When I picked up this book at B&N I was attracted by the title, and when I opened the book I was captured from the first sentence. Although published as a YA books it's really one that would appeal to all ages.