Today's Spooktacular Spotlight Author is Lorelei Bell
She's brought Vampire Nocturne for us to sample today.
Sabrina is becoming a magical
creature—not just a clairvoyant with ring that thwarts a vampire's thrall. In
this exciting third installment, Sabrina learns how to travel the ley lines,
and travels to another world called Beyond the Black Veil ~ a world where
vampires out number humans ten to one, and humans are merely blood donors and
objects of their sexual desires.
The Dagger of Delphi becomes her
weapon of choice. And what becomes of Dante Badheart, whose spirit essences is
contained in the stone he gave her when last he spoke to her from the dead, is
another mystery that intrigues her.
Sabrina Strong's cousin, Lindee,
has disappeared, and when she goes to the last place Lindee was seen, she finds
herself transported to another world and century, where vampires rule. While
trying to solve the mystery of where Lindee could be in this world, Sabrina
encounters Drakulya—the real-life Dracula—a.k.a. The Impaler—who has somehow
managed to become a vampire living in this strange world, and rules as King. He
is mystified by Sabrina's various abilities (like being able to disappear at
will from her imprisonment), and he's decided she's to become his blood dame.
Meanwhile his son, Jett, simply wants her, despite the fact he is to marry a
vassal's daughter, Penelope.
After discovering that some
unusual creatures, called Dreadfuls, who spread sickness and death through the
village, she realizes she is the only one who has the power to stop them.
Drakulya's own wife, who is near death, has been infected by these Dreadfuls.
When it is discovered she can “kill” them, Drakulya gives her high status in
his house (yep, no longer a mere blood donor). Now Sabrina's services have
become high in demand, and she has to figure out who is the creator of these
creatures before it's too late. She needs to solve this mystery before she can
find Lindee, and must go up against a blood broker who may be behind the murder
of a popular and well-known blood dame.
Aside from the usual
suspects—handsome men of this world, some of who may be more into her blood—she
encounters adventure, danger, mystery, and suspense.
How About A Sample
Someone's presence overwhelmed my senses—a male presence. Since I felt no pheromones, I had to presume he was human. I reached out. His emotions became tangible. Oops. He was very human if he was that excited.
“Who's there?” I asked into the darkness, my voice echoed slightly. Nearly devoid of furnishings, the room felt and sounded hollow. My clairvoyant abilities produced a bedroom in my mind's eye. Yep, definitely a bed in here. My abilities also affirmed I was no longer on Earth, but in another realm. It had another feel to it—a texture only my senses could ascertain. Where, precisely, was still unclear, except I knew I wasn't on Earth. It simply felt different.
“Show yourself!” even I could hear the edginess and distress in the command. I hated my insecurities. I simply couldn't get the bitchy, ass-kicking thing down. My voice gave me away every time. I caught myself twisting the ends of my gloves—another give away I was nervous or fearful.
A slight rustling of material, possibly twenty feet away, made my eyes dart in that direction. The moon's beam angled in through the only window in the next room revealing a figure. I stood in a tiny separate room—a closet or a small alcove—my back against the wall. I rocked away from the wall. The stranger sat in the darkest shadows, at the other end of the next room. I felt no threat from him. At least, not yet.
The seated figure shifted forward, and the moonlight revealed him in gradual increments. Pale hands draped over the back of the dark stained wooden chair, then the shiny white fabric of his shirt draping his arm. His face emerged from the darkness as he leaned further into the pale moonlight. I would rate him handsome to good-looking. The most remarkable thing I saw was his raven black hair, with a swath of blond—no, white—cutting a stripe down one side of his head. I couldn't tell how old he was precisely. Undoubtedly well into his twenties.
“Don't be frightened,” he said in a moderate, to somewhat tenor voice. “I'm not a sanguine.”
“Oh, well that's good to know,” sarcasm thick in my voice. “That puts me right at ease.” Not. I stepped out of the closet. No point in making it easier for him to capture me if that was his intent.
“I like the dress, however, if that helps?” he went on. “It's very suggestive.”
I looked down at my wedding dress. There was nothing suggestive about it. The dress had an empire waist—I have no cleavage to speak of—and the hem came to the tops of my heels covering me in yards of white satin and lace. “This is suggestive?” I grabbed a bit of taffeta and lifted it. The thing weighed a ton.
“Yes. It suggests that you are a virgin.”
“As if!” I scoffed.
“You aren't?” he chuckled. “That's alright, I'll enjoy the pleasure at any rate.”
A Little Facetime With The Author
K.S. Hello and welcome to the blog. I am very excited to have you here. Why don’t we start off with a small introduction? Tell us a little about yourself.
Wonderful to be here, Katie! A tomboy at heart, I love to travel (road trips), with my husband of 27 years, and we are managers of a forest preserve, and also take care of some half-tamed feral cats.
K.S. Any interesting writing quirks or stories you would like to share with my readers?
I've always written about vampires, there's no secret about that. I've always had this thing for them, and back when I was a teenager this got me tagged as “weird”, because it wasn't cool to like vampires back then. This didn't stop me, however. I've always rooted for the vampire/Dracula to be the hero. In my third book in the Sabrina Strong series “Vampire Nocturne”, I had to place Drakulya (Vlad the Impaler, the actual prince of Wallachia), in my only steampunk novel, and he is quite bloodthirsty and nasty. But Sabrina manages to stand up to him. (I allow him to do a little impaling at the end of it—it was my little joke at the end.)
K.S. When did you realize you wanted to be a writer? What sparked the desire to pen your first novel?
Oh, dear, we're talking a long time ago. I took a creative writing class in my senior year in high school. I think my first novel that I ever finished was in 1983 or '84. That was called “Vampire Legacy”. I've tried to rewrite it since, but the genre has changed so drastically (thank goodness), that it's now just sitting on the shelf. I was once told by an agent that “vampire books are hard to sell”, that's when Anne Rice was big and Buffy the Vampire Slayer was on TV.
The Sabrina Strong series has three novels as of now. The first is, Vampire Ascending, the second is Vampire's Trill. The third is Vampire Nocturne.
K.S. What genre do you write?
Mostly urban fantasy, but it's more of a mix of adventure, mystery and romance, with a dash of humor and danger. I love the freedom of writing fantasy. I can do just about anything I want, and often do.
K.S. What would you say has inspired you most in your writing career? Or, who is your favorite author and why?
Down through the years it's been different authors, but I think I have to say in this century J.K. Rowling made my decision to turn toward fantasy, and do it my way.
K.S. What does your family think of your writing?
They are all proud and supportive of me. My husband especially.
K.S. What was one of the most surprising things you learned while creating your book/s?
There's a lot of us fish in this big old pond. I'd have to say that I'm surprised by the friends I've made out there, many of which are willing to help me and give me a spot on their blogs and share something over on facebook, or help me in a lot of other ways.
K.S. What inspires you?
A great idea comes along while I'm writing, and I'm stuck on what comes next. Then it hits me—usually in the middle of the night. Ah, to be a writer... the magical moment of inspiration!
K.S. Where can we buy your novel?
All of the Sabrina Strong series are eBooks @Amazon.
K.S. Do you have a website, fan site, or Blog that we can visit?
Lorelei's Muse: http://loreleismuse-lorelei.blogspot.com
And there is also a “Fans of Vampire Ascending” group on facebook.
K.S. Do you have any closing advice to aspiring writers?
Keep writing. If it's truly inside you, you won't be able to stop writing. Learn as much as you can from other seasoned writers, and seek help from them, when you can. Learn to take the advice, and criticism to hone your book into a better one.