Thea Harrison's Blog, page 34
April 4, 2012
Writer Wednesday: Guest Author Shiloh Walker, Excerpt and Giveaway!
From Thea: today's treat is brought to you by the extremely talented, and very kind author Shiloh Walker! Shiloh, thank you so much for stopping by to visit!
Shiloh's giveaway will run until 12 noon, MDT, Friday April 6th. Details follow at the end of the post:
The Appeal of the Asshole Hero
Asshole? You want me to like that asshole…
Yes. Yes, I do. By the end of the book. 
So here's the deal. I like to write screwed-up characters. They are fun. And they are fun to fix.
That's part of the journey for me. If they don't have that many flaws, or if they are just searching for love, there's not always enough of a story.
That doesn't mean I haven't done a few of those. I have. They've been fun and I liked the stories and I wrote them because the story came to me.
Usually, though, the stories that come to me have at least one character who is screwed-up six ways to Sunday.
Toronto was screwed-up. He's a werewolf who was found near death in an alley more than a century ago. His skull was pretty much shattered and his memories are gone–he healed but he has no idea who he was and he's spent quite a bit of his life trying to find those answers. And he isn't exactly nice with it.
Getting him to accept who he is? That was a bit of a bumpy ride, but that's the fun of it. If he wasn't so flawed, he wouldn't be as much fun. When they're messed up, you get to fix them, right?
He's not a lost cause, though. He's got a sense of honor. He's a wicked smartass and that just appeals to me. He's smart. And although it takes him some time to work around to it, he's able to admit it when he screws up. (Which is often).
Personally, I love a flawed, screwed-up hero. They are some of the funnest to read…and write. This guy was really fun to write. Not only is he trying to come to grips with who he is, finally, I throw him into the mess of his life.
He's got to stop a bounty hunter from killing somebody who really does need to die. Not the job he'd ever want to have–if he had his way, he'd be killing the bastard himself and then having a barbecue with the remains. But there are reasons…and complications galore. Because this bounty hunter, Sylvia, is a woman who gets to him like nobody ever has.
It was fun messing things up for him and then watching him figure things out. Watching him fix himself.
So that's the appeal of the asshole hero. The flawed ones. The broken ones.
Toronto is the hero of my current release, Hunter's Rise. A small snippet.
Staring at her made the blood in his body hum. Hurt. A faint smile curved the lush pink of her mouth, left him wondering what she was thinking. Then somebody came tumbling out of the bar next to her, spilling bright lights of blue and red onto the sidewalk, and Toronto had a better idea.
As the rainbow of lights flickered off the blade she'd concealed in her left hand, he studied the crush of people around them. It wasn't as crowded here as it was just a few streets over on Beale, but it was still crowded enough.
Not the ideal place for a fight. He'd done it before and managed to avoid human casualties, but he suspected that Sylvia James was a different breed from what he was used to. Ferals fought to live, so they could kill—by nature, most of them weren't always clearheaded. Sylvia, like him, was a trained killer. She would be clearheaded. It would make a difference.
He hunted the ferals.
She hunted for money.
In the end, he'd win, because he was stronger.
But he didn't want to have to fight her. He wanted to have sex with her—down and dirty sex, maybe up against a wall, in the light so he could watch her. Then on a bed, her body under his, or over . . . his hands tangled in that dark, silken hair.
"You know, most men would at least bother to introduce themselves before the guy starts picturing the woman naked," she drawled, coming to a stop eighteen inches away.
Toronto smirked. "That's bullshit. We see a woman, we frequently picture them naked. We mess with the names when we want to actually think about getting them in bed. Some of us, at least." He skimmed a look over her body, taking in the sleek muscles, the powerhouse curves. Then he focused on her face again, smiled slowly. "So. What's your name?"
Sadly, this will be the final book in the Hunters series, but it works wonderfully as a standalone…most of them do. You can check out more about the series at my website.
Who are some of your favorite flawed heroes? TV/Movie wise, off the top of my head, I can think of Doc Holliday, Angel & Spike from Buffy. Book-wise, Korvel from Lynn Viehl's Nightborn, Duncan from her Stardoc series (SL Viehl). And I do love Khalil…(hey, cool dude!)
Give me some of your favorite flawed heroes and I'll pick one winner to win a GC from Amazon or Barnes & Noble, reader's choice!
Shiloh Walker
http://shilohwalker.com/website
**CONTEST ENDS 12 NOON MDT, FRIDAY APRIL 6th!!**
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March 30, 2012
Blog Post: Writer Wednesday Winner!
The winner of this week's Writer Wednesday contest is Ange B! Ange, I've sent you a separate email. You have won a signed copy of Laurie London's Tempted by Blood.
A big thanks to Laurie for offering the giveaway and for guesting on my blog.
Happy reading, everybody!
Thea
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March 28, 2012
Writer Wednesday: guest author Laurie London and Giveaway!
Fron Thea: Today I'm so happy that friend and author Laurie London has come to visit! Thank you, Laurie!
Laurie's giveaway will run until 12 noon, MDT, Friday March 30th. Details follow at the end of the post:
Setting as Inspiration
By Laurie London
Some authors start a new book by selecting a theme they want to explore and then work their way into the story. They may decide they want to write about redemption or forgiveness or revenge.
Others start with a more specific premise like a girl who saves the world or a boy who learns to love himself. These are top-down methods where you start big then work your way to the small, like a funnel.
And still others will start with an interesting character (the main character or the villain) and build the story around him or her.
I wish I could say I was organized and could plan out my books that way. It would make my life much easier…I think.
For me, right now, my process is to start small and work big. I begin with the tone and setting (the minutia) then work my way bigger by asking what if and why.
When I wrote the first book in the Sweetblood series, Bonded By Blood, all I knew was that a man was hidden under a pile of leaves in an old abandoned cemetery. I didn't know the theme. I didn't know the premise. I didn't even know if the man was the hero or the villain…or if he was even a man.
But I liked the "feel" and the tone of the setting (quiet, alone, abandoned, eerie, expectant), so I started asking questions (Why is he there? Why is he covered in leaves? Oh, he's a vampire? Well, why is it daylight?). That's how I worked my way into the story.
The second book, Embraced By Blood, started much the same way, but with a little more direction regarding who the main characters were, since both were in the first book. Again, I wanted the tone to start off dark, alone, cold, hopeless, angry, raw, and primal, so it begins with the reluctant hero on a rainy college campus late at night and unfolded from there. (Hey, they're romances, so when you start out like this, the growth to the happy ending is ginormous!)
For the third book, Tempted By Blood, something a little different happened. I still started with the tone and the setting, but this time, it wasn't at the beginning…and it wasn't with the hero or heroine.
Shortly before starting the book, I'd read this article in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/travel/14czech-overnight.html?_r=1&scp=6&sq=Overnighter&st=tcse) about a monastery in the Czech Republic. A medieval monk collected the bones of 40,000 plague victims and created macabre, yet beautiful, pieces of art that are on display today in the Bone House. It stuck with me, even haunting my dreams. (I SO want to visit someday.)
Maybe I'm a wannabe travel writer or something, 
but the tone was perfect and I wanted to write about it. So I decided that Ventra Capelli, the villainess, was intrigued by a place like that too.
***
She'd heard stories of how beautiful the Darkblood Alliance headquarters were, but nothing had prepared her for this. Her heels clicked on the marble flooring, the sound echoing off the chamber walls, emphasizing the vastness of the space.
Various suspended sculptures hung from the frescoed ceiling, not unlike the Chihuly glass pieces in the lobby of the Bellagio in Las Vegas, a hotel she was intimately acquainted with. As she looked closer however, she realized these weren't glass works of art. They were made from various human bones.
From floor to ceiling, the walls were covered in human-skull sconces. The lower jaws had been removed, replaced instead by pairs of femur bones, making the skulls appear to be biting them.
Unlike jack-o'-lanterns where light shone out the mouth, nasal cavity and eye sockets, each one of these skulls glowed, the bone sheer enough to be illuminated by the candle inside. Hanging down from the coved ceiling was a chandelier made from artfully arranged bones and skulls.
The overall effect was a stunning visual representation of the power vampires would always have over humans.
"Lovely, isn't it?" said a silky male voice behind her.
She spun around to see a thin, middle-aged vampire standing behind a reception desk. She'd been so distracted by the beauty of this place that she hadn't noticed him. She knew better than that. It wouldn't happen again.
With his dark hair slicked back, he wore a hand-tailored Italian wool suit and a crisply starched white dress shirt. In an obvious display of individuality, a flamboyantly colored silk tie completed the look.
"Rumor has it that a monk in the Middle Ages collected the skeletons of humans who had died of the Black Plague. Forty thousand people, to be exact. Our people did the same. It's quite a masterpiece, wouldn't you agree?"
"Indeed it is," she said. "The whole room is magnificent."
She eyed a macabre piece located in one of the corners. Bones had been wired together to create one large, grotesque figure with three heads, its freakishly long arms and legs jutting out from the torso at odd angles.
"Like it?" the man asked.
"Yes, it's amazing."
"It's interesting, isn't it, though it's not human."
She raised her eyebrows and looked at the piece again. "It isn't?"
"It's made from the bones of the Master's rivals."
The new leader of the Alliance was obviously ruthless and cutthroat. Important qualities to have.
On a nearby plaque affixed to the wall, she recognized a paraphrased quote from Cervantes, inscribed in an old world script.
A cat, a rat and a coward.
The man laughed. "The Master does have a sense of humor."
Then he continued where he'd left off. "Of course, we've added to the collection over the years. In addition to this piece, there are a few others in the Master's Chambers, which you'll see next, but these are the oldest and most fragile."
Swinging his arm wide, he spoke with the passion of a museum curator, not a lowly receptionist, although Ventra understood that sometimes you had to befriend the help in order to get access to those in power.
"Right this way," he said, indicating a corridor leading to the left just past the sculpture. "The Master is expecting you."
She cast one last look over her shoulder, cementing every detail into her memory. When she returned home, she vowed to put together a room just like this one.
Or maybe a whole house.
***
You can learn a lot about a character by how they react to their environment, don't you think?
If you'd like to see some actual pictures of the monastery, check out my Pinterest board. (http://pinterest.com/laurielondon/writing-inspiration/ ) An interesting side note is that a woman just happened to see one of pictures of the Kutna Hora monastery I'd pinned to my board and mentioned that she'd been there. I asked if she'd pinned any of her pictures, because I'd love to see them. She hadn't yet, so she proceeded to post a dozen or so and let me repin them to my board. Check them out. They're drop-dead amazing!
I'm giving away a signed copy of Tempted By Blood to a random commenter. (Open internationally.)
**CONTEST ENDS 12 NOON MDT, FRIDAY MARCH 30th!!**
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March 27, 2012
Blog post: LORD'S FALL covers and book copy
I'm utterly excited to share with you the awesome covers for LORD'S FALL, along with the cover copy for the book!
LORD'S FALL will have a step-back cover, which means there will be a front cover and an inside cover, or a "step-back." The front cover will have a die-cut at the top so you can see the step-back through the bars.
Front cover
Step-Back Cover
Cover copy
In the latest Novel of the Elder Races, two mates find themselves on different paths, torn between their duty to the Wyr and the passion that binds them…
Before she met Dragos, half-human half-wyr Pia Giovanni was alone and on the run. Now, she's mated, pregnant and heading south to repair the Wyr's frayed relationship with the Elves. Being separated from Dragos is painful, but for the good of the Wyr demesne they need to figure out how to be partners, in more places than just the bedroom.
In New York to preside over the Sentinel Games, Dragos is worried about his mate, but knows that finding two replacement sentinels is essential to show the rest of the Elder Races just how strong and brutal the Wyr demesne can be. But as the games heat up, Pia's negotiations with the Elves take a turn for the dangerous, straining her bond with Dragos and threatening everything they hold dear…
Expected publication: November 6th 2012 by Berkley
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March 24, 2012
Blog post: IS Bradley Cooper the sexiest man alive?
I don't know if I agree with People Magazine about Bradley Cooper being the sexiest man alive. But I gotta say, he's pretty darn sexy.
Some of you already know that I like to play with matching the characters in my head with current actors. Today I'm playing around with the concept of Bradley Cooper as Graydon. What do you think – do you like that idea?
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March 23, 2012
Writer Wednesday Winners!
My very first ever Writer Wednesday guest, Vivian Arend, has generously offered six copies of her stories for the giveaway!
The winners are:
Black Gold–Myranda and Heather
Wolf Signs–Lisa and Katherine
Six Pack Ranch–Hannah and Vanessa
I'm emailed the winners separately–congratulations, everybody!!
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The Oracle's Moon blog tour concludes, over at Dark Faerie Tales!
Join me over at Dark Faerie Tales for the last stop on my Oracle's Moon blog tour. I talk about staying organized, the characters of Oracle's Moon, and choosing to be one of the monsters today. Plus a giveaway!
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March 22, 2012
March 21, 2012
Winner of @MykeCole's CONTROL POINT!
Congratulations, Paul is the winner of Myke Cole's CONTROL POINT!
Paul, I've sent you a separate email. Email me your mailing address, so I can forward it on to Myke, and he'll get your book off in the mail to you.
Again, thank you, Myke, for being on my blog, contributing to the Men Reading Romance series, and offering your book as a giveaway!
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