Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
M.A. Grant | 20 Questions: RARE VIGILANCE
Author Guest / June 21, 2021

1–What is the title of your latest release? Thank you so much for letting me drop by today! My newest release is RARE VIGILANCE, and it’s the first of the new WHITETHORN AGENCY trilogy. 2–What is it about? This book is kind of THE BODYGUARD meets vampire mafia. It follows Atlas Kinkaid, an ex-Marine turned security agent, who takes on an odd job protecting Cristian Slava, the son of a rich businessman. Atlas eventually learns Cristian and his family are vampires and gets dragged into their world and all its complexities. Oh, and he totally falls for Cristian even if he shouldn’t. 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  The book is set in upstate New York, and I loved bringing in rural Gothic elements. The history of the region and the transformation of different areas due to boom-and-bust economies is fascinating and opened up a whole world of possibilities, especially for wealthy, nearly-immortal beings looking to set down roots. 4–How did Atlas surprise you?  Atlas was a surprisingly personal character to write. I drew heavily on my own experiences with migraines and headaches when I wrote about him dealing with the same thing. It’s kind of…

Debbie Wiley | Vampires Have Come a Long Way
Author Guest / June 10, 2021

I don’t remember the first vampire book I ever read, but I do remember the first vampire movie I saw. I didn’t sleep soundly for days after watching Stephen King’s SALEM’S LOT movie. In fact, even thinking about it now, I can still envision those vampires at the window and hear them trying to come inside! The sound still gives me shivers! It didn’t help that I was still young (not even a teenager yet) and my best friend had giant bay windows in the living room where we watched the made for tv movie. As night fell, the windows behind us seemed more and more ominous as I was just certain a vampire or two would come calling for us! After watching the movie,  I of course had to read the book, ‘SALEM’S LOT, and Stephen King’s words were even scarier than that old movie. I devoured all of his books that I could get my hands on, looking for something to grab my attention like the vampires had. And oh, did I love Stephen King’s books… but the vampires came back to bite me again when I discovered Anne Rice and Lestat. INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE took me…

Exclusive Interview with the Authors of WALK AMONG US
Author Guest / May 6, 2021

Danielle J. Dresser: Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Cassandra, Genevieve, and Caitlin! We are excited to chat with you about WALK AMONG US, set in the world of the RPG game, Vampires: The Masquerade. Were you all familiar with RPGs and this one in particular before you started the project?   Cassandra Khaw: Oh my god, yes. Genevieve Gornichec: I was not, but I always wanted to be! The world just always seemed so big that I didn’t know where to start. Caitlin Starling:  I was obsessed with the source books and clan novels back in the mid-2000s, though I never got a chance to play! I definitely screamed a little when I saw what project I’d been brought in on. * Vampires have always been popular—what do you think makes them so attractive to readers?   Cassandra: The prospect of immortality, of someone who is ancient and ageless and able to have anyone in the world but chooses you to satisfy their needs, I think people like that. I think people like the elegance and sophistication too, the gratuitous amount of black, the tragic nobility. Genevieve: I think there’s something about them that people are drawn to. It’s like, a lot of…

Mimi Jean Pamfiloff | Five Things You Didn’t Know About Vampires
Author Guest / October 26, 2018

Vampires. Mythical creatures or really great at hiding in plain sight? It’s definitely the latter, and though records of them have been around for as long as humans could write, we really know so little about this amazing race. Until now! In my new series, THE LIBRARIAN’S VAMPIRE ASSISANT, we discover what is myth and what is real. And as we dive deeper into Michael Vanderhorst’s (our ancient vampire, who works as an assistant librarian) world in book two, not only will he solve a juicy mystery and come to grips with his feelings for a certain librarian, but he will also reveal more shocking secrets about his kind. For example: 1. Vampires DO walk in the sun. It’s true! SEE PROOF HERE! They just really hate it as they are hypersensitive to the rays and the sun forces their bodies to work overtime, healing their skin. Sunscreen helps a little, but as Michael points out, Arizona—where he lives—is no match for SPF 100! Still, poor guy, keeps having to kill people in order to protect his favorite librarian! (She’s a huge danger magnet.) That means more trips to the desert for a little grave digging. SEE HERE! Now that’s a…

Saturday Smack Down: Damon vs. Angelus
Uncategorized / November 21, 2009

In honor of Twilight: New Moon opening this weekend, our Saturday Smackdown is vampire on vampire, bad boy on bad boy, angst on angst. It’s 20th century versus 21st with a whole new generation of teens to angst and swoon over the silken wickedness of these boys. The Vampires in Question Damon Salvatore is the creation of L.J. Smith in her trilogy of novels that began in 1991. Damon made the leap from novel to television this year with the debut of the CW’s The Vampire Diaries. He arrived in Mystic Falls with more than one fang to grind. Angelus, on the other hand, is a vindictive, cold hearted villain who debuted in Sunnyvale following a night of passion with Buffy. Damon Salvatore For the purposes of the smackdown, we’re going to focus on the Damon from the television series rather than the Damon from the novels. Damon and his brother Stefan loved a vampire named Katherine, They vied for her affections and they were, one after the other, turned into vampires by her. During the Civil War, Katherine and many other vampires were trapped and died. Since then Stefan and Damon have mourned in their own ways, but Damon’s…

Daily Dose | Getting Fresh with Vampires
Uncategorized / November 16, 2009

Saturday, I attend the Fresh Fiction sponsored panel at our local Barnes and Noble. The topic discussed: getting fresh with vampires. No, not that fresh (although Robert Pattinson’s name did come up more than once). Instead, the panel explored the sensuality of the vampire, the appeal of the bad boy and the evolution of the trope that began with vampires as the villains. Fresh Looks, Fresh Thoughts Some of the questions asked included why do vampires appeal? Particularly as romantic leads? Does your first experience with vampires color the rest? For example, if you watched the Lugosi vampire films or Langella, would you have a different perspective from the person who may have read Anne Rice’s angst ridden gothic vampires? Potentially, the answer is yes. In the 80s, vampires were still very much powerful, creatures of the night. It was rare to trust one and rarer still that the vampire would be worthy of the trust. No matter how good their intentions, their blood lust was a biological imperative – they had to have blood. Grief could send them into a tailspin or make them go dormant. Many vampires went to ground or to the sun when they could no…

Amanda Grange |The Vampire Myth
Uncategorized / October 28, 2009

Hi, it’s good to be here on the Fresh Fiction blog, thanks for inviting me along to chat about vampires, it’s a great time of year to be doing it! There are many kinds of vampires, and in Mr. Darcy, Vampyre I add to the myths whilst retaining some of the traditional aspects. The vampires of folk legends are usually described as ugly and bloated. They wear shrouds and return to their home neighbourhoods where they cause trouble as restless spirits. They are created by animals jumping over their corpse, or by evil spirits taking over their corpse as well as by being bitten by a vampire. Typically, they wore shrouds and were usually described as bloated with a ruddy complexion. So they were very different to the kinds of vampires portrayed in modern fiction, which have been altered and adapted continuously over the last two centuries. The idea of a vampire being a wealthy, charismatic, mysterious but troubled entity started with Byron’s “Fragment of a Novel,” where the vampire is “a man of considerable fortune and ancient family . . . It was evident that he was a prey to some cureless disquiet; but whether it arose from ambition,…

Gerry Bartlett | Forget those resolutions! How about a revolution?
Uncategorized / January 13, 2009

Gerry Bartlett here, author of the REAL VAMPIRES series from Berkley. Like my vampire Glory St. Clair, I have an antique business. Too bad it was on the historic Strand in Galveston. Hurricane Ike swooped in and dumped eight feet of water in the shop. Of course, as a writer, I love books and had to watch a mini-bulldozer shove hundreds of my precious volumes to the curb. Sigh. Can you blame me if I’m more than ready to kiss 2008 good-bye? Enough of looking back. Time to look ahead. To a new year. And I vowed a long time ago to never start another year with resolutions. They last just long enough to give me a serious case of the guilts. You know those resolutions. One: Lose weight. Yeah, right. I stick to that diet just until temptation crosses my path. Writer, know thyself. And when a chocolate chip cookie calls my name? Gerry answers. Second same old, same old: Get organized. Sure. Just as soon as I find that box of color coordinated folders I bought in 1998. Oh, and the label maker. Love the label maker. But I lost the directions in 2002. Yup, I’m an organizational…

Delilah Devlin | Today’s the day!
Uncategorized / February 26, 2008

All right it’s in big letters on MY calendar, but likely you’re scratching your head wondering if you’ve missed a national holiday or if I’m excited about watching the next round of American Idol. Well, it’s not a national holiday, but I’m embarrassed to say I am TIVOing Idol so I don’t miss a thing. But that’s still not why I’m so excited. SEDUCED BY DARKNESS will be shipping to readers and bookstores today! So, now that my book will be arriving at bookstores and in the mail to my more modest readers, I can start the next round of “Will they like it?” Writers are notoriously insecure. We live and die by reviews and readers letters, because the actual measure of our success – SALES – won’t be available for months and sometimes years. For those of you who don’t know me, it might be because my books are shelved with the “naughty” romances–sometimes with the romance books, but in a restrictive shelf high out of reach and sight of little ones; sometimes in the erotica section with the tantric sex and Kama Sutra books; and sometimes, strangely, in the zoology section. Which makes it tough for readers who…