.99 NOW! Count Down Deal on 3 Books!

Hello, my pretties! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying all your presents. But if you have an Amazon card, and still have a few $ left over for an eBook, look no further. I've got three books that are only .99 today, tomorrow and the next day.

So, if you're looking for a nice deal on a few of my eBooks. Well, I've got a Count Down Deal going for the next several days for the following books at Amazon. All will be .99 for the next 3 days. It will go up in increments by a dollar until January 4th, and go back to the regular price. So, if you've got time head on over by clicking the links below.

Vampire's Trill

Vampire Nocturne

Spell of the Black Unicorn

Again, these eBooks won't be .99 for long, so go on and browse and I hope you choose one!

See you all in 2014!

Crucifixes and Garlic anyone?

Embraced by ambien candlelight, he turned his head toward the fire. His sharp features stood out against the shadows of the room. The fire jumped and lurched suddenly as he put his hands out toward it, as if to warm them. - Lorelei Bell Vampire Legacy 2000

Hello, my pretties. How are you in these hectic days before Christmas? Got the garlic garlands hanging? Crucifixes around your pretty necks?

Good!

I was digging through some of my crap uh-er notes, and came up with a number of interesting facts that I had jotted down years ago, and found an old tabloid clipping worth quoting here. I believe it's from the 1970's at least!

"According to parapsychologist Dr. Stephen Kaplan and author with writer Carole Kane of Vampires Are (ETC Publications, 1983), the nocturnal bloodsuckers are not only real, but they're mulipying rapidly.
" 'I've been fascinated, wooed, mystified, entranced and entertained by them," he wrote. "I've also been threatened, horrified lured,and almost killed by them.'

"A census earlier this year by the Vampire Study Center which Kaplan founded and heads on Long Island, disclosed an alarming 162% increase in their population in the U.S. compare to the first count taken two years earlier.

"Kaplan says most true vampires--who may indeed live several hundred years, but neither turn into bats nor need to sleep in coffins [wow, big news flash here]--do their best to avoid stirringup trouble and attracting notice.
 "Their daily need for human blood however, drives them to do almost anything to obtain it.
Kaplan said they will participate in depraved sadomasochistic rituals that include bloodletting and blood drinking, secually service donors or join blood cults--whatever is necessary..."

Also there was this tidbit from a note I jotted down:
The Vampire Research Society founded in 1970 by Sean Manchester, who feels vampire enthusiasts are playing with fire, and are unwittingly promoting evil--(that's Eeeevilllll)*. He takes vampirism very seriously.
*my input

As you can see, I've been researching vampires for a long while, now. I didn't write down the date on the old news clipping and I didn't have any date on the other note either.

Here was another note I took down from somewhere. Everyone knows who Montague Summers is (1880-1948) wrote "Vampire Kith & Kin"?
~ "Montague Summers was charged with pederasty, but found not guilty." (pederasty: sexual relations between a man and young boy). If it happened today he'd be known as a sexual predator/pedophile and would not be allowed near schools, or where children gather. His face would be up on all sites at facebook and so forth. How time changes things.

Another little note on the same bit of paper:
"Garlic, the crucifix, and sunlight take away the vampire's strength"
Something Buffy Summers would know about, wouldn't she?

The snow outside is falling, and friends are calling... so I shall leave you with this one last quote...

"I am not dreaming. I am not deluded. Nearer to the grave new light streams for me. We shall continue to exist. We shall see each other again." - Goethe

Welcome! Got your Vampires warmed up?

Okay everyone, bring those vampires out of the closet and dust them off. That's right... Wait, put the skeleton away, hon. *chuckles* Oh, and you in the back with the zombie--OUT! 

No zombies PLEEEEZE! This is a zombie-free zone.

This blog is about vampires. And just so you know, I lean heavily toward the URBAN FANTASY, and do not get into the paranormal romance stuff. I mean... what is that but a romance with a vampire or a demon or a werewolf? Or goddess forbid--an effing zombie? Not that there is anything wrong with having a romance thread in the book. But I'll get into this in another post.

I've been into vampires since I was a teenager. That was late 1960-early 1970's. Yes. I'm dating myself. This vampire lover, yours truly, has been around for a long while. It was not "cool" to dig vampires. Usually you met other people into them, and they were far and few between, plus they were a bit on the kookie/weird side (more so than me). Before I get into what I watched or read, let me continue this train of thought. And just so you know, I put full blame on "Dark Shadows" and Barnabas Collins aka Jonathan Frid for my intense interest in vampires.

Johnathan Frid as Barnabas Collins
in "Dark Shadows" the original TV
soap

Well, if I give him mention, I might as well mention a few others...
Bela Lugosi, and Christopher Lee to name a few...

I did everything I could to make sure I either got home in time to watch the soap opera "Dark Shadows", or stayed up long enough to watch the movies with my favorite stars in the infamous roll of Dracula.

But let me make it clear I did NOT like that Dracula wound up being the "heavy" or villain. I wanted him to get the girl in the end. Why not?

Later on, when I began penning my own books, the vampires were not always going to be "evil". There would always have to be a villain, but nothing so cut and dry, not black and white, as with some of the movies, or the books I've read. Back then there were no such genre as "paranormal romance" or "urban fantasy". Vampire books were under the main heading of "horror". At some point, after Anne Rice took the bull by the horns (or vampire by the fangs), things changed drastically. I wasn't paying attention when that happened. I was a little confused as to what the difference between "paranormal romance" and "urban fantasy" was. In the meantime I was writing my own vampire fiction, trying to get an agent (I won't go into details here) *yeah, she was rejected*. Well, it was over 800 pages long...

Let me explain.

This work (Vampire Legacy), has lasted down through the decades whispering to me to re-write it. Yes, it is still with me. In the beginning it was somewhat different, because it was pretty green at writing. And then with time, Vampire Legacy became something of a loose cannon sort of book--I got long-winded. I almost had an agent interested, but alas. She chickened out on me (even when I shortened it in half). She said to me that vampire fiction didn't sell well. Uh.. Huh? At the time Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a big hit, and the movie Interview with a Vampire was out. So, whatever...

I shelved the 300 pound gorilla, thinking that maybe I should try something else. I did. I wrote a lot of other stuff. It was my practicing phase. My learning-to-write phase. Then, I quit writing for a while. But always, that little voice inside me said I had to do my vampire fiction my way.

Eventually I did write something, and a small publisher to took it. Vampire Ascending was born, and it did nicely. Then I wrote the sequel, and published Vampire's Trill. They both had wonderful reviews, and I thought things were going well... then my publisher decided to quit the biz. I went Indie over the summer, which is a good thing, since I have more control over everything, at last. I'm currently working on the fourth book in the Sabrina Strong, and I am currently rewriting Vampire Legacy.

My next post will be more about what I write, and what I like to read. 

What got you interested in vampires? Was it a movie? A book? Which ones?

Carole Gill has left the building!

Yes, my pretties. Carole has left Blogspot for... that other place (in stage whisper) wordpress.
No, I did NOT kill her off. 

Hey! Where'd that come from! Move it, please....

As I was saying, Carole has moved to... that other place. She is a very dear, sweet friend of mine, and we have shared this blog for the past--oh, wow. I think it's been 2 years, now. She still has her books up, and a new blog addy. So it you wish to follow her there, you are encouraged to do so. 

As for me, I'm sticking around, so if you still want vampires, well, we got vampires up the wazoo. Yup. That's why I renamed this blog 

Because, well... I'm a huge fan of vampire anything. And if you are too, you'll want to stop by. I plan on doing a few new posts, the first of which I will re-introduce myself, so that you know exactly what you will get with my posts.

For starters, I am not a new-comer to the vampire scene. 

I will return with another post soon to tell you more about myself, what I enjoy reading, or watching, and what sort of vampire novels I write.

Until then, do let the vampires bite!