Lisa Olsen's Blog, page 17

Review of Storm Chaser by Mark R. Hunter

I was trying to classify this novel and found that it's not easy to stick into a particular genre. The author Mark R. Hunter describes it as an action-adventure-romantic comedy-mystery, and I have to agree, that about sums it up, with a focus on romance. The story follows Allie Crane, who chases storms and other dangerous phenomena for her career as a freelance photographer, bringing her to a small town in Indiana. Chance Hamlin, the state trooper and quintessential "good guy", suffers from his own set of preconceived notions of what a journalist from California is like. I found myself thinking of Pride and Prejudice, with the main girl being too proud to share her weaknesses with anyone and the man too prejudiced to accept her for who she was instead of who he assumed she might be. Of course Allie has just enough secrecy wrapped around her to send his imagination into overdrive, and all manner of miscommunications ensue.

This book was easy to pick up and hard to put down, and that's saying a lot for someone like me who finds very little time to read! I knew from the first chapter I downloaded as a free preview that I wanted to read more, and I was glad when it finally came to Nook. The characters were engaging and had that rapid fire, witty repartee I tend to like. Chance and Allie had a combustible chemistry, and it was equally fun to watch them spark with conflict or simmer with heat depending on the mood. Allie was spunky and smart, just the kind of heroine I like to read, and she didn't let Chance walk all over her as some heroines do in romances. I admit, I don't know much about storms, fires or chemical spills, but it was obvious the author has done his homework with enough details to lend authenticity and keep things interesting without bogging us down with unnecessary minutiae. All in all, a very entertaining read!

Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down is now available online!

The first book of my new vampire series is now available for sale on Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com! It's out as an e-book for $3.99 but you don't have to have a Kindle or Nook to read it, they have free downloadable apps so you can read it on your PC, or even your phone. It'll be available in print as well in a couple of weeks through Amazon.

I wrote this one during November for NaNoWriMo and I'm super happy about how it came out and how the characters evolved. You know me and taking breaks are non-mixy things, so I'm currently working on the outline for Mercy for the Damned, due out next spring. My Vampire Diaries fanfic idea fell flat after I got the first chapter done, so I've decided to put that on hold and wait for better inspiration while I continue to work on Mercy and the Push fanfic (which doesn't have many readers, but I'm loving the characters there!).

In the meantime, Happy Holidays to everyone who celebrates them, and don't worry, it'll all be over soon to those of you who don't.

We Have A Winner!

Thanks to everyone who voted on cover art for Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down, it came in at 14 for the one on the left, and 9 for the one on the right, counting votes offsite. I kind of agree, the one on the left looks more suited to Paranormal Romance even though the one on the right is probably cleaner when shrunk down. So, I'll be using the one on the left, and hopefully it'll be up and available for sale in the next few days. Tracy was our winner for a free copy of a book and she chose The Touch. Congratulations Tracy, I'll send it out tonight.

I'll take a break for a couple of weeks for the holidays before I get into serious plotting for The Fallen sequel, Mercy for the Damned, due out next spring. In the meantime, I've started a couple of fanfictions. One for the movie Push called Someone to Watch Over Me. If you've never seen the movie before, I recommend it, it's set in a world where people have psychic abilities and a government agency is chasing after them. Chris Evans is fantastic in it, and he helped inspire my main guy Bishop in Wake Me.

I'm also working on another Vampire Diaries one where Damon lives next door to Elena while she's in college on the west coast. It's completely AU and nobody knows that vampires exist, should be fun.

Vote For Cover Art – Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down

It's that time again to give me your thoughts and feedback on the cover art for my new book coming out this month, Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down. Anyone who comments on the covers on the website will be automatically entered for a chance to win a copy of one of my books (your choice of books). This time I was able to narrow it to a picture I liked, but I'm still trying to decide on the font. I'd also love to hear constructive criticism and ideas for how to improve them if you have any suggestions. Please keep in mind that they have to be not only eye-catching, but easy to identify when much smaller in ads and for sale on websites.

Here is a little blurb of what the book is about:

"It was ironic that this happened to me; I was never a night person at heart. So you can see right off the bat why a vampire was the very last thing I would have chosen to be."

Anja Evans wakes up in the morgue with a helluva hangover. She chalks it up to a strange brush with death and gets back to her life as a music student in San Francisco. It takes almost eating her best friend before she figures out… she's a vampire. When a dark and dangerous vampire shows up at her door asking to see her license and registration, Anja assumes Bishop is a regular cop. But breeding among vampires is strictly controlled, and her unlicensed status makes her an enemy of The Order. Struggling to find a balance between her former life and her undead one, Anja tries to blend school and living up to her new identity, all while searching to find the elusive Viking whose blood gave Anja the strength of a vampire hundreds of years old.

A Taste of Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down

I'm done with the first pass of edits for my new vampire series Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down! So now it's off to the next part of my editing team and I thought I'd share a little taste.

This scene takes place after Anja finds out that Bishop is there to take her into custody since she doesn't have the proper license to be a new vampire. It's from his POV and has a little bit of insight into why he's there and his role in The Order.

*********

Bishop had no idea what he was doing.

It was not a normal thing for him, not by a long shot. In fact, he couldn't remember the last time he'd gone so far off book. It was supposed to be a routine call. Check the girl's papers, fine her Sire for letting her turn up in the morgue pronounced as dead, and do what he did best; scare the hell out of him to keep him from ever getting sloppy like that again. So why was he standing in her living room holding her purse while she made herself pretty?

He wasn't used to letting a slip of a girl wind him around her little finger. But there was something about her… when she'd first opened the door the night before, she'd knocked him speechless. For a moment he'd almost thought he was seeing Carys again after so many years…

She wasn't, of course. They had the same long, golden hair, the same heart shaped face and her innocent, blue eyes were close. But her mouth was wrong; the lips too full, her smile too hesitant. Not that there was anything wrong with the girl's lips… why was he thinking about her lips again?

The Order always came first. He'd pledged his life too many years ago to count. For endless nights he'd upheld the laws, meting out justice as he saw fit. Bishop was more successful at it than most because while he didn't have a love of violence, he recognized when it needed to be used without anger, and understood just how much pressure to apply. So while his first instinct had been to try and protect Anja, his sense of duty led him to do the right thing. She had to be taken into custody. Let one go and you set a dangerous precedent; wasn't that how he'd been trained? And if it became necessary to close those pretty, blue eyes forever? He would deal with it when the time came.

Speaking of time, he'd been more than generous in allowing her time to change into dry clothing. It wasn't as if she could catch a chill now, and where she was going there wasn't any need for fancy preparations. Bishop set down her bag, approaching the bedroom door with a brief knock. "Miss Evans? I don't mean to be rude, but do you think you could hurry it up?" Nothing but silence greeted his ears, and he frowned as he rapped again. "Miss Evans?"

Instead of her meek little voice asking for more time as he half expected, his ears picked up an "oof" from much too far away… Privacy be damned, Bishop shouldered her door open, taking in the deserted room and going immediately to the open window. Damn it… if Mason heard about this he'd never hear the end of it.

Dropping to the street below, he watched as she loped off like a gazelle, her newly energized limbs propelling her faster than she had any right to move. She would have been a blur to human eyes, but Bishop tracked her easily, a little stunned at her speed and grace. Most newborns didn't master such speed for quite some time. He'd spoken too soon, Anja clearly hadn't learned control as she took a corner too broadly, careening into the side of a building hard enough to send a cloud of dust up at the crumbling mortar. "That's got to hurt," Bishop winced in sympathy before he took off after her, anticipating an easy chase.

He was wrong.

There was nothing easy about the chase she led him on. The girl obviously knew the city well and used it to her advantage. Despite his superior strength and speed, Bishop had a hard time keeping her in his sights. If he hadn't known any better, he would have guessed her to be a much older vampire; certainly not a noob on her first run. But it wasn't his first rodeo either. Knowing how to anticipate his quarry's moves was a skill he'd learned well, and after following her for a while, he figured out how best to trap her.

Cutting sharply to the left, he abandoned the chase, instead diverting to the path he predicted she would take. Sure enough, a few seconds later, Anja turned into the alley and Bishop pounced, his momentum sending them both crashing to the ground. Anja struggled, arms and legs flailing until he pinned her with his body to keep her still. Even with his hands firmly securing her wrists, she continued to resist, her eyes scrunched tightly shut. She even managed to break one arm free until Bishop slammed it back down against the pavement a little harder than he'd intended, and her expressive, blue eyes opened, a soft cry of pain issuing from the back of her throat.

All at once they both stilled, her body struggling to catch breath it didn't need out of habit. "I'm sorry," she whimpered, and he felt like the worst bully for having caused her pain.

"No, I'm sorry; I didn't mean to hurt you." His eyes swept over her face, relieved when the sting of pain faded from her features; the damage seemed to be fleeting. The fact that it bothered him in the first place was far more troublesome.

Anja blinked, eyes shiny with unshed tears. "Please… let me go. Nobody has to know about me, do they?"

"That's not the point. This isn't a minor infraction, you and your Sire need to face the consequences of your actions."

"But that's just it, I didn't do anything! I didn't choose this life, or afterlife, or whatever you want to call it. If you want to punish someone, punish the guy who did this to me."

"I will, I just have to find him."

"So let's find him then, I'll help you," she nodded earnestly, as if he needed it.

"I don't need your help."

"Then how will you do it?"

Her lack of faith was a little irritating, but Bishop reminded himself that she didn't know much about him or the Order. "I'll start with where you were found, the police should be done with their investigation by now; it's time to bring my team in."

"You know where I was found?" she blinked.

"Give me some credit; I've been doing this for a long time."

"How long?"

"Long enough to recognize when someone is stalling me. Anja, I have to take you in." It surprised the hell out of him to find that he wished it could be otherwise. Conscious of the fact that she felt soft beneath him and it had been far too long since he'd had a woman as appealing in his arms, he shifted uncomfortably. That just made it worse. Still, he made no move to get up yet, unable leave the sweet torment.

"Bishop please, don't make me pay for something he did. Let me help you find him, and if he has broken your laws… then I'll pay the consequences."

How many times had another pair of blue eyes looked up at him in that same way? And how many times had he found himself lost to their power, as he was now…

Enough distraction. Bishop pulled them both to their feet, keeping careful hold of one of her wrists. "I will take you with me to the crime scene to see what we can find, that's it. If we hit a dead end, I'm taking you in, deal?"

"Deal," she nodded instantly, and he couldn't believe he was even considering this.

"And no more trying to escape. You saw how easy it was for me to catch you." Though it was much harder than it should have been.

"I understand, I promise I'll be good," she brightened immediately, her smile radiant.

"I'd better not regret this." Bishop backed Anja up against the wall, looming close to make his point, dwarfing her petite frame. "Up until now I've been fairly considerate of your unusual situation, but you wouldn't want to make me angry," he cautioned, wanting to make sure she absolutely understood that this decision to alter his plans didn't mean he was weak.

Her eyes widened a little, but he didn't think she was afraid of him. A slim hand pressed against his chest defensively, and he was surprised to find it offered considerably more resistance than he would have thought. She was a strong little thing, especially against someone as old as he was.

"I won't. Thank you, Bishop."

With a nod he eased back, watching her warily as they walked back to his black SUV parked up the block from her apartment.

Between the Scenes with Iris – Lexi from The Touch

Five minutes with Lexi from The Touch

Iris: Iris here, I'm talking to Lexi Morgan, artist and amateur sleuth of late. Thanks for joining us today, I know you've been through a lot lately.

Lexi: Yeah, it's no problem. I've never been interviewed before.

You'll have to smack me if I say something stupid, okay?

Iris: You've got a deal. Now I noticed the gloves. Interesting fashion statement.

Lexi: It's not so much about fashion as it is for protection.

Iris: You have a thing about germs? It's spiders for me.

Lexi: Ooh I hate spiders too! [her face scrunches up adorably] But no, it's not a germ thing. Didn't your people tell you? I thought that was why you wanted to talk to me. I can see things whenever I touch an object, like who held it last or what they were doing, stuff like that.

Iris: Yeah? That's fascinating, and it works on anything?

Lexi: Yep, any object. It comes in handy when you want to know who drank all the milk and put the container back into the fridge. [she grins]

Iris: I'll keep that in mind if I ever come over to your place. So if I gave you this pen…

Lexi: I'd rather not… [her hands ball up into fists]

Iris: I promise, I didn't do anything nasty with it.

Lexi: I believe you, but I'd rather not go down that path. The next thing I know there'll be a line around the block with people asking me to touch things.

Iris: But you did use your gift in order to help find your niece when she went missing, right?

Lexi: Of course, what else could I do? Not that what I found made a whole lot of sense to start with, but eventually the pieces started to fall into place. I'd never met a real live ghost before. Well, you know what I mean.

Iris: I heard there were actually a few ghosts living in your sister's house. What can you tell us about that?

Lexi: Yes, there were. The ghosts of dead children actually, it was creepy as all get out. The first contact I had with them was hearing them sing.

Iris: What were they singing?

Lexi: [starts singing in a quavery, child like voice] Take the keys and lock her up, lock her up, lock her up. Take the keys and lock her up, my fair lady.

Iris: That is creepy. What did you do about it?

Lexi: I tried talking to my sister Allie, but she pretended like she didn't hear it. I'm surprised they didn't cart me away to the looney bin when I told the cops about it.

Iris: Cops. That would be Detective Gabriel Ryan, right?

Lexi: [she brightens visibly] That's the one. I'd probably be dead if not for him.

Iris: Judging from the smile on your face I'd say he's a keeper. Tell me more about him.

Lexi: Oh, he's… like hot fudge sundaes and Christmas rolled into one.

Iris: That good, huh? Maybe I should call the police the next time I'm feeling lonely.

Lexi: I never thought I'd be into a cop, you know? I always went for the artistic type, or techy guys. But he's not like you'd think a cop would be at all, he's actually really nice.

Iris: Apologies to our readers in the law enforcement branches out there, the views expressed in our interviews do not necessarily reflect the views of the Between the Scenes with Iris segment.

Lexi: Oh… I didn't mean anything by that…

Iris: It's okay, you were saying?

Lexi: Um, just that Gabriel was very helpful in helping us find Chloe and getting to the bottom of what was going on. He kept an open mind, which not everyone does these days, and he was very understanding with my little um… handicap. [she wiggles her gloved fingers and then her face lights up again as she remembers something] Oh and he's a fantastic kisser… I probably shouldn't have said that, I hope he doesn't get in trouble. [her forehead puckers with worry]

Iris: There you have it folks, cops are people too. I wouldn't worry about it too much, but I'll ask him if it's a problem when I see him. So can you still hear the ghosts, now that you saved your niece?

Lexi: No, they're gone now. [the lights flicker suspiciously and she frowns] At least, I thought they were…

Iris: I think it's a good time to wrap up for today. Thanks for reading, guys. Stay tuned for the next Between the Scenes interview with Gabriel, from The Touch.

*If there are other characters you'd like Iris to interview, or burning questions you wish she'd asked, please drop her a line in the comments section here, she adores fan mail.

** The picture above is not an actual depiction of Lexi, merely an interpretation of the author's vision of the character.

Happy Turkey Week!

Wouldn't it be great if we could take the whole week off for Thanksgiving like my kids do from school now? I could laze around, drinking cocoa, wrapping X-mas presents, watching cheesy Hallmark movies on TV, getting to some writing when I felt like it… on second thought, that's not such a hot idea after all. For whatever reason, I need the stress of a deadline to help me produce, and so far so good this month, it's Day 21 of NaNoWriMo and I'm up to about 62,000 words of my new vampire novel, Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down.

I just finished the final update of my Vampire Diaries Fanfic, Dark Side of the Moon and that always gets me to thinking about starting something new. I can't wait to start the next one, but it'll have to wait a few weeks I think until the novel is edited and ready to go. I might even take a break and get to some reading I've been looking forward to (Got Storm Chaser by Mark R. Hunter already downloaded to my Nook and ready to go!) before I start the next book in The Fallen series.

I'm looking forward to some turkey with family and friends this week. I always make the same delicious recipe with lemons, rosemary and dijon mustard. (I know it sounds a little weird, but it makes the best gravy!) I've just about got my holiday shopping done too except for some online purchases, how about you guys? Are you going to brave the Black Friday deals or settle in with some cocoa and hit the online sales?

A Taste of Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down

Day ten of NaNoWriMo and I'm going strong! Up to 32,626 words so far, and it's going well. I thought I'd give you guys a little taste. Here is our heroine Anja who has just woken up in the hospital morgue, to the surprise of the guys about to transfer her to the Medical Examiner's office.

(I should preface this by saying in the spirit of National Novel Writing Month, this is an extremely rough draft. Punctuation and such is bound to be way off.)

A millisecond before the sheet came off, my eyes popped open and a high, keening cry leaked out of me like the air out of a balloon; my only available version of a scream, I suppose. The effect was electrifying. Both men screamed, and like a switch was flipped, I felt the energy rush back into my limbs. Filling my lungs with air, I screamed right back at them, and we stared at each other, all of us screaming for a good ten seconds before the room got really quiet.

"You're… you're…" The guy dropped his clipboard as he backed up a few feet. The other man, the one who came to get me I assumed, continued to stare at me like I had just risen from the dead, which was understandable.

"W-where am I?" My voice sounded shrill to my ears and I couldn't help but wince, doing my best to swallow back my fear. I felt… wrong somehow, but I couldn't quite identify why, finding myself in such strange surroundings was too distracting.

"Shoreline Memorial Hospital in San Francisco. You're um, you're supposed to be dead."

"I'm sorry…" slipped out reflexively, though what I had to be sorry about, I couldn't imagine. Shoreline was the same hospital Bridget worked at, and I wondered if she knew I was there. I was tired of lying down and I might have said something to that effect as I pushed myself up to a seated position, but I was too busy looking at my surroundings to be sure if I'd spoken out loud. It wasn't my own bedroom, or a hospital room as I'd assumed until they started talking about death, but what looked like a morgue, based on my experience with tv and movies.

I was still half lying on a gurney, but a large stainless steel table stood in the center of the room, with holes drilled through it for drainage of various… ugh, I didn't want to go there. "I feel…" dizzy, confused, itchy, nauseous, sore, tired…wrong… "…different." My tongue finally supplied and I again marveled at the sound of my own voice. Was it my ears or the timbre of my voice that had changed? It was impossible to tell.

"That's understandable, you've been dead for over an hour," the morgue attendant replied distractedly, bending to pick up the clipboard.

"Oh come on, Dave, there's obviously been some kind of a mistake. She's no more dead than you or me. I know some folks that are going to be glad to see you're okay." The other guy gave me an encouraging smile.

Walking around didn't sound like too bad of an option, more than anything I wanted out of the morgue with its strange smells and disturbing tables. Despite the dizziness, I launched myself to my feet, throwing myself off balance as my muscles propelled me farther than I had intended. I careened into the icky metal table, sending a tray of tools crashing to the ground. The sound was deafening, and I clamped my hands over my ears as I waited for it to end.

"Whoa, are you sure you should be up and walking around?" Smiley guy reached out to steady me, catching hold of my elbows.

That's when I noticed the front of my dress had been cut and gaped open, showing more of my natural assets than I cared to outside of a beach. When I say my dress, I don't mean my dress. I'd never seen the thing before in my life. No wonder they reported I'd been wearing a costume; I would have made the same assumption. The dress, made of a coarse, homespun material, was held up just below the shoulders by two heavy, round broaches, with three running horses, their legs intertwined. It was hard for me to gauge the whole effect just in looking down. Wherever it came from, they'd never get the deposit back. Besides the long cut down the chest, it was also soaked through with blood on the left side of my body.

"I don't belong here," I murmured, pulling myself free from his grasp and doing my best to hold the dress closed. Overcorrecting, I nearly fell over the other way. Trying to muster a modicum of dignity, I swallowed again, clearing my throat in search of my normal tone of voice. "Can either of you tell me what's going on?"

"I'm… not sure. This almost never happens," Dave replied, losing some of the stunned look from his face, I saw his eyes dip to my chest and I shot him a look.

"But it does sometimes?" That was disturbing to hear on many levels.

Dave's face flushed when he saw that I noticed him looking and he turned away, coughing into his hand as he approached a desk set in the far corner of the room. "Well no, not down here. Usually they catch that sort of thing up on the main floors. Um, let's see what I can find out here." He tapped on the computer and the other man followed him to look over his shoulder. "You were brought in a little over an hour ago… and died enroute to the hospital. They tried to revive you but…"

He'd already said that before, but it was like it had happened to someone else. "I don't remember any of this," I shook my head miserably; it was starting to pound something fierce.

Smiley guy took pity on me, fixing me with that same reassuring smile. "You've been through quite a trauma, Ma'am. Maybe you should sit down?" Nodding, I moved away from the creepy tables and slid into a plastic molded chair by the swinging door. "I'm Mike Turley, I work for the medical examiner's office with SFPD, and I'm glad to find you alive and breathing."

"Anja Evans," I stuck out my hand by force of habit and after a moment's hesitation, he shook it. I was struck by how warm his hand was, but I didn't feel uncomfortably cold. Any difference in temperature was probably from my lying in the chilly morgue for an hour without my socks on.

"Nice to meet you, Anja." He pronounced my name correctly that time. "Sit tight, I'm sure there are a lot of people who want to talk to you." Straightening, he turned back to where Dave sat at the computer. "I'm going to need to make some calls and my signal's for shit, do you have a phone I can use?"

"Oh yeah, there's never any signal down here. Feel free to use this line here, dial nine to get out. I should really get a doctor down here to examine her, or I wonder if I should take her up to the ED myself…"

A lot of people who wanted to talk to me. Cool beans. And lots of doctors poking and prodding me as well. Even better. My eyes flicked to the swinging door beside me, the urge to flee growing stronger and stronger until I lurched out of the chair and out the door with a soft rush of air.

Between The Scenes With Iris – Adam

Five minutes with Adam from Angel of Mercy

Iris: Iris here, I'm talking to everybody's favorite fallen angel Adamiel, or Adam as he goes by these days. Thanks for joining us today, I know you like to keep a low profile.

Adam: You called, I came. [He shrugs nonchalantly, reclined in the chair with lazy grace] [image error]

Iris: If only it was always that simple. Are there many fallen angels living among us? Sam shot me down on this one.

Adam: I haven't taken role lately, but there's a fair number of us, yeah. Most of them keep to themselves though, they've got notions of working off their sins or something. [A roll of the eyes is given]

Iris: But not you?

Adam: I've suffered plenty, believe me. If God had wanted to torture me further he would have done it. No, I believe in taking pleasure where you can.

Iris: Sounds like an enlightened way of looking at it. I gotta ask, what's with the all in black look. Do you have a thing for Johnny Cash? Would a little bit of color hurt every now and then? [He is dressed from head to toe in black. Boots, jeans, shirt, jacket, the whole shebang]

Adam: You don't like it? Most women do. [Those bright blue eyes flash playfully and I have no trouble believing that. In fact, it takes me a minute to remember what I'd asked him]

Iris: No, it's a good look for you, I admit. But it sort of paints a certain picture. Are you really still the same bad boy who's been debauching his way through the past two thousand years? Or have things changed?

Adam: I'll just say that some things have changed, but I won't go into detail beyond that.

Iris: Because you're worried that admitting you have feelings for Mercy will put her in danger? [He drops a quick wink, but doesn't say anything else] Who do you think might be listening in?

Adam: You never can tell who's paying attention. For the moment Mercy will have to get along without me.

Iris: Is that such a good idea? Aren't there a lot of people after her? What about this prophecy I keep hearing about?

Adam: Christ, Sam can't keep his mouth shut… I didn't say she wasn't being looked after, I'm just not… I can't be with her right now. It's for her own protection.

Iris: But you want to be?

Adam: [His eyes unfocus for a moment as if he's remembering something before they return to the present] It doesn't matter what I want. New topic please.

Iris: Okey doke, you mentioned before about coming when called. If that's the typical M.O. for angels, how come you've been giving Mercy the cold shoulder? You don't have to be with her to protect her, right? You could still drop by and make sure she's okay.

Adam: That's complicated.

Iris: Because of what happened to your wife?

Adam: We're not going to talk about that [His eyes flash intensely and it's clear that's a dealbreaker. I can see a little of what scares the hell out of demons behind that easy smile.]

Iris: Yeah, okay, no problem. But um… you know she's kinda worried about you, right?

Adam: She's worried about me? [I appear to have surprised him, bonus points for me!]

Iris: Well, I that's how I took it. She asked how you were, but then changed her mind, she said she doesn't care what you have to say.

Adam: Yeah, that sounds about right [He doesn't seem upset though, a smile plays around his lips as he thinks about her] Well, you can tell her, that I'm just fine, if she wants to worry, she should try worrying about herself.

Iris: That brings me back to the prophecy again, is she in danger?

Adam: That girl seems to fall into some kind of danger every time she turns around. [He mutters disgustedly] But I'm working on it. [Before I can ask him what he's working on to keep her safe, a shriek is heard from the outer office, followed by a series of shouts and the lights flicker] What's all the commotion?

Iris: Oh, there are some people waiting to be interviewed, it has something to do with ghosts, they've been freaking out the staff all morning. Don't worry about it.

Adam: I ain't afraid of no ghosts. [a wolfish grin appears]

Iris: Yeah I'll just bet you're not afraid of much. Look, just say I happened to run into Mercy again, is there anything you'd like me to tell her?

Adam: Tell her… [a wistful look comes over his face and then he hangs his head in regret or sorrow] Tell her to stick close to Sam and the Cop. There's a bumpy ride up ahead.

Thanks for reading, guys. Stay tuned for the next Between the Scenes interview with Lexi, from The Touch.

*If there are other characters you'd like Iris to interview, or burning questions you wish she'd asked, please drop her a line in the comments section here, she adores fan mail.

** The picture above is not an actual depiction of Adam, merely an interpretation of the author's vision of the character.

NaNoWriMo is upon us!

Once again, I've signed up for the crazy breakneck pace of National Novel Writing Month. This year I'll be working on my new vampire series, and hope to have the first draft done my month's end. I'm stealing the name from one of my fanfics, Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down. Apart from some similarities that are bound to come up in the transformation process, it'll be a completely different story though. I was thrown for a bit of a loop at the end of last week's Vampire Diaries when I saw they were making the Originals be Viking in nature, but I've decided to go ahead with my idea anyway. I guess great minds think alike!

I don't have a formal synopsis written up yet, but the basic premise is this:

This series is about a girl in San Francisco who is turned by an ancient race of natural born vampires that are very reclusive. She remembers very little about being turned, the circumstances necessitated her maker leaving without explaining who he is or anything about the fact that she's becoming a vampire, so it's partly a mystery for her to figure out what's going on. It's set in a world where vampire society is very strictly controlled, and you need permission/papers before you can turn a human. There is an order of vampires set to uphold the laws and police them, keeping their presence a secret from humans and my MC is a little surprised when The Order shows up at her door, demanding to see her papers. Through a series of events, the fella who's supposed to put her down for being an unlicensed vampire ends up helping her, forging documents and helping her be accepted.

She's still clinging to her human life, so she's trying to keep anyone from knowing she's been turned and struggles with keeping her humanity in the face of how she has to live now. Because she was turned by such an old vamp, she is much, much stronger than typical newbie vampires, which leads people to believe she's a few hundred years older than she is, and she has to pretend to be someone she isn't in vampire society as well.

Out there somewhere is the vamp that turned her, his own reasons and motivations shrouded in mystery, and there are ties between all of them.

I've had a lot of fun coming up with mythos for the origins of vampires in this one, blending norse mythology with vampire lore, and I can't wait to get started!