VAMPIRES, SLAYERS AND ZOMBIES…TAKE YOUR PICK!

I’m so thrilled to be here on Jacquelyn Frank’s blog! Being on a colleague’s blog is a great way for authors to get to tell potential readers about their books, and I love to chat with readers—cyberly (is that a word?) about paranormal romance!

So here’s my chance to tell you a little about myself, and the three paranormal series that I write...and I’m giving away one copy of the first book in each series to three lucky commenters today…so come up with some good questions or comments.

Although I’ve always loved to read ghost stories (particularly ones with hot, sexy heroes) I was never much of a vampire fan. But then the vampire craze began, back in 2005, and I started thinking about those fanged immortals, and mulling over ideas for a new twist on them. But I didn’t really find them sexy or compelling (I know! I know!!), so I couldn’t think of a way to write a book that included them…until a friend of mine loaned me the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I got completely hooked and watched the whole season in two days, then went out and bought the next three seasons and watched them over the next month or two. I loved the show, because I loved not only Buffy and her strength, but also the take on vampires. That was something I could behind—having to slay the creatures.

Then one night, I was watching Cinderella with my daughter, and during the stroke of midnight, when Cinderella had to run away home, a thought struck me: What if she’s not leaving because of the magic…what if she’s leaving because she has to slay a vampire?


And that was how I came up with the historical urban fantasy series The Gardella Vampire Chronicles. It’s a five-book series about Victoria Gardella, a vampire hunter who lives during the time of Jane Austen. I figured it was fascinating enough watching Buffy try and balance her two lives…but how much more difficult would it be for a woman living in Regency-era England. The first book in the series, The Rest Falls Away, was released in 2007.

But by the time I finished the Gardella series, my thoughts about vampires had changed. I’d become a convert…come over to the dark side, if you will. And I recently finished a trilogy (out now) for a new Regency-era vampire romance series called The Regency Draculia. The Vampire Voss, The Vampire Dimitri, and The Vampire Narcise were all released in the last three months, and they are a completely different take on vampires…even though they are set in the same general time period as the Gardellas.

Whereas the Gardellas are about one woman—a superhero, really—fighting demonic vampires, and dealing with the three men who love her (the love story is resolved by book five), the Regency Draculia feature good and bad vampires. Sexy, tortured, compelling men who’ve sold their soul to the Devil thanks to their ancestor, Vlad the Impaler, aka Count Dracula.

These books have all of the elements I love about the Regency period—balls, manners, witty repartee and brooding earls and rakish viscounts—and mashes it up with what I love about vampire romance.

I had to come up with a totally different mythology for these vampires to make them redeemable (as opposed to the ones that get slain in the Gardella books). Those books are dark and sexy and each one is resolved with a happy ending between a hero and heroine.
As if managing vampires and building two worlds for them wasn’t enough, I’ve also dipped my toe into dystopian romance. I write another series as Joss Ware, which takes place in Las Vegas fifty years after the world was destroyed.

If you’ve ever seen The World Without Us or Life After People, you have a sense of what the world of my Envy Chronicles is like: an overgrown, green and lush urban jungle. My world has zombies in it, too, and some crystal-sporting immortal villains who turn out to be connected to what happened to the world half a century earlier.



My heroes are strong, sexy men who lived during our time and somehow time-traveled or were cryogenically frozen for fifty years and find themselves in this new world. They have the knowledge and experience from our time, and use that to help put the pieces together in this new world with what happens. They also each have a special ability that they acquired during their time-travel, which gives this series a little bit of a feel like Heroes.

In fact, I’ve often described the Envy Chronicles as LOST meets I am Legend with a little bit of Heroes thrown in. The first book in the series is called Beyond the Night. There are four books out currently, with a fifth coming next year.

So, as you can see, I think I can give almost any paranormal lover something compelling to read. ;-) I think the only thing I’m missing is shapeshifters…and who knows, maybe I’ll write a series like that some day!

I’ll be giving away a copy of The Rest Falls Away, The Vampire Voss, and Beyond the Night…so please comment and I’ll be popping in to answer questions and hear your thoughts on which series sounds interesting to you!

Thanks again to Jacquelyn Frank for having me here today!

Blurbs:

The Rest Falls Away (The Gardella Vampire Chronicles)

“Sophisticated, sexy, surprising! With its vampire lore and Regency graces, this book grabs you and holds you tight to the very last page!”—J. R. Ward

Beneath the glitter of dazzling 19th-century London Society lurks a bloodthirsty evil... .

Vampires have always lived among them, quietly attacking unsuspecting debutantes and dandified lords as well as hackney drivers and Bond Street milliners. If not for the vampire slayers of the Gardella family, these immortal creatures would have long taken over the world.

In every generation, a Gardella is called to accept the family legacy, and this time, Victoria Gardella Grantworth is chosen, on the eve of her debut, to carry the stake.

But as she moves between the crush of ballrooms and dangerous, moonlit streets, Victoria's heart is torn between London's most eligible bachelor, the Marquess of Rockley, and her enigmatic ally, Sebastian Vioget.

And when she comes face to face with the most powerful vampire in history, Victoria must ultimately make the choice between duty and love.


The Vampire Voss (The Regency Draculia)

"In a world where every third title seems to be a vampire story, it's a pleasure to come across a series that is as unique as Colleen Gleason's. Fresh, unique, sassy, and fun, Gleason's Regency Draculia trilogy is one of a kind, and destined to become a classic. A must-have addition to the bookshelves of vamp enthusiasts everywhere." – Maggie Shayne, NY Times Bestselling Author of TWILIGHT PROPHECY, May 2011

Regency London – a dizzying whirl of balls and young ladies pursued by charming men.

But the Woodmore sisters are hunted by a more sinister breed: Lucifer's own.

Voss, also known as Viscount Dewhurst, relishes the sensual pleasures immortality affords. A member the Dracule – a cabal of powerful, secretive noblemen marked with a talisman that reveals their bartered souls – the mercenary Voss has remained carefully neutral ... until Angelica.

Angelica Woodmore possess the Sight, an ability invaluable to both sides of a looming war among the Dracule. Her very scent envelops Voss in a scarlet fog of hunger – for her body and her blood. But he is utterly unprepared for the new desire that overcomes him – to protect her.

Now Voss must battle his very nature to be with Angelica ... but this vampire never backs down from a fight.




Beyond the Night (The Envy Chronicles, writing as Joss Ware)

“Joss Ware's vision of the future is dark, complex and sharply original. I'm eagerly anticipating the next installment in what promises to be a fascinating new series."
– Nalini Singh, New York Times Best-selling author of Branded by Fire

A man with no future...
When Dr. Elliott Drake wakes from a mysterious fifty-year sleep, the world as he knew it is gone. Cities are now desolate, and civilization is controlled by deadly immortals. Stranger still is Elliott's extraordinary new "gift" – he has the power to heal, but it comes with fatal consequences.

A woman with a past
Jade barely escaped the immortals and is now hell-bent on revenge. She trusts no one... until Elliott. His piercing gaze and tempting touch shatter her defenses, but the handsome doctor seems to have dangerous secrets of his own. Is it safe to trust him with her heart?

If they are to survive in this dark new world, Jade and Elliott must work together to fight the forces that takes them beyond danger.