Lori Devoti, paranormal romance and urban fantasy author

Today is my first day of 30 Days of Vampires. The event is in honor of my first published vampire tale, The Vampire Who Stole Christmas in the Holiday With A Vampire II
anthology for Silhouette Nocturne. For the next thirty days I will have prizes, interviews, excerpts and essays all on vampires. The full schedule is here. It’s still a work in progress, new authors continue to check in.

There is one grand prize of $100 or so worth of vampire books and stuff up for grabs–featuring many of the fine books you’re going to read about here in the next 30 days. (contest ends Thursday, December 11th at midnight) To enter you just need to comment. You can comment as much as you want, one comment per post will be counted as an entry. There will also be some daily prizes so keep an eye out for those. (Prizes shipped to U.S. addresses only)

So, check back every day for new vampire fun, and to kick things off– a link to a free download of Dracula by Bram Stoker, compliments of Project Gutenburg. How many of you have already read it? How do modern tales compare?

Then later today, a second post, an interview with paranormal romance author, Kerrelynn Sparks. Stop back by after noon central time for that! And thanks for stopping by 30 Days of Vampires!!

I thought this was a great blog post, so I’m sharing. There is a lot of wisdom here, but my favorite has to be this…

I’ve been to all sorts of different writing workshops over the years. I’ll probably go to more in the future. I like being around people who care about writing, and I love talking shop. But when I started going to workshops, and at first when I was an undergraduate in NYU’s Dramatic Writing Program, I thought workshops would teach me The Secret. I’d read the writing guides — heck, I’d memorized them! — and I hadn’t learned what The Secret was, so I figured it must be kept by the teachers of writing workshops.

Here’s The Secret: There is no Secret.

I really learned that when one of my NYU teachers, a wonderful writer himself and a marvelous teacher, asked me how I wrote so consistently. I was flabbergasted. “Practice?” I said sheepishly. “I thought so,” he said, apparently disappointed. He thought I’d found The Secret and could tell it to him.

We have all been like this at some point or another and I think most of us at some point face the horrible fact that there is no “secret”, there is no easy way through writing. You just have to do it and do it some more and it honestly doesn’t get any easier at all. In fact, it gets harder–you know more, more people actually read what you write and more people comment on it. This is not a whine, just a statement of fact that we all have to face. So, we really want to write and stay sane, we have to just pull the chair up to the laptop and get on with it.

I’m at Paranormality today. Stop by for a chance to win a copy of Guardian’s Keep. The next book in the Unbound series will be a follow-up to it, so if you haven’t read it, here’s a chance. And if you have? Free Christmas present for someone.
On, and less than TWO DAYS until 30 Days of Vampires starts!!

I hit the local Borders today. After reading this… I really did feel it was my authorial duty. Actually, the visit was a bit disturbing. I could see a major difference in the number of books on the shelves. Usually, the shelves are completely full–no slide room at all—and behind those books are back stock books.

Today there was slide room AND I’d say 1/3 of the amount of back stock books. Also, two books/authors I specifically wanted to buy were not in stock. One is a new release, Jasper Mountain by Kathy Steffen, the others were older Jeri Smith-Ready’s second two books in her Aspect of Crow series, but still… It was disturbing.

I did however manage to do my part for the cause, some of these are gifts, but I don’t think the people I’ll be gifting read my blog so I’ll share: The Android’s Dream by John Scalzi (I’ve been reading his blog and the book looked light and unusual. It’s a gift.); Scar Night by Alan Campbell (This was a total random pull off the shelf. I like the cover and it just sounds intriguing. Another gift); Melusine by Sarah Monette (This had a recommended tag and a book later in the series caught my eye. Also a gift.) and finally Hex in the City by Simon R. Green (This one is totally for me. I’ve read the first three, so, well, I need more. :)). There were some new releases I wanted, but they were hardcover and I’m not really a hardcover girl unless the author is there to sign it. But Kelley Armstrong’s latest (and her new YA) are totally on my wish list.

My kids bought books too. My daughter got a Goosebumps and a mystery with a horse on the cover…Shadow something. My son got a giant coloring/sticker book of dinosaurs. I’m not sure if that counts towards the book cause or not.

So, what are you all buying book wise? For gifts? For you? Share!

Author of: Any Given Doomsday, The Nightcreature Novels

Favorite Candy: Peanut M & Ms

Favorite Cartoon Character: Scooby Do

Super Power Most Covets: Shape shifting

Q.) First can you tell us about your new release and series , Any Given Doomsday?

LH.) Any Given Doomsday begins in Milwaukee my hometown and travels to many urban cities New York, New Mexico, Detroit, Los Angeles. You see, the world is coming to an end and there are demons all over the place.

Elizabeth Phoenix discovers that the Grigori, the fallen angels of Biblical Legend mated with humans and produced a legion of supernatural creatures known as the Nephilim. They ve been here since the beginning of time, wearing human faces but beneath they are all the monsters of legend vampires, shape shifters and more.

There s a secret society that fights them and she s just been put in charge of everyone.

Q.) Your take on the fallen angels and their offspring adds a new twist to all things beastie. Which came first the idea to use the nephilim or to show a wide variety of legends and myths?

LH.) The concept for Any Given Doomsday came to me several years ago when I was researching another book and came across the legend of the Grigori.

It fascinated me. I bought a bunch of books on prophesy, Revelation, angels, demons and read them whenever I had the chance and an idea started to nag at me one of those ideas that captures an author and won t let go. So using the Nephilim came first and how came after.

Q.) For Any Given Doomsday s world, do you have a mythology built that explains where each monster comes from? Is one fallen angel responsible for starting each type of beast? When the beasts reproduce do they make more of the same or something entirely new?

LH.) The fallen angels made all sorts of monsters. One angel may have mated with several humans and produced different things. Then when these beasts spread over the globe they became the legends of every culture.

For instance, every culture has a shape shifter myth. Most have vampire myths. When the Nephilim mate with each other, or with humans they produce all sorts of strange things. Usually something similar to them, but not necessarily. It just depends. There are also a lot of creatures that have become witches over the centuries and can do just about anything.

Q.) One major character in Any Given Doomsday is a dhamphir.
Can you tell us a bit about dhamphirs? Why did you choose a dhamphir instead of a full out vampire?

LH.) A dhampir is the offspring of a human and a vampire. To me it was much more interesting to have a character tormented by the evil within him rather than being owned by it. Dhampirs are half human, half vampire–what a conflict.

Q.) What kind of research did you do on all of these creatures? Can we expect any new ones to appear in future books? Any you would particularly like to investigate more?

LH.) As always I did a lot of research into the legends of different cultures. In future installments of The Phoenix Chronicles there will be more creatures to meet as well as some off the old favorites to revisit.

Q.) You also have your Nightcreatures series. What is going on with it? Are there more books to come?

LH.) I have no more Nightcreature Novels scheduled at this time.

Q.) In your Nightcreatures series, you chose to make the werewolves the bad guys. Why?

LH.) They aren’t all bad–there are a few good guy and gal werewolves, which only adds to the tension. Who’s good, who’s bad, who knows? The majority of the shapeshifters in the Nightcreature Novels had to be bad guys to fit into the set up of the werewolf army created by Hitler and his pals and the secret society charged with finding them.

Q.) In both your Nightcreatures series and your new urban fantasy Any Given Doomsday you have shapeshifers. The main shifter in Any Given Doomsday uses an object of sorts to shift. Can you tell us more about that? How does he differ from the shifters in your Nightcreatures series?

LH.) Sawyer is a skinwalker, a Navajo shapeshifting witch. Skinwalkers use a robe made of their spirit animal to become that animal. Sawyer has the likenesses of every animal he wishes to become tattooed on his skin. For Sawyer, his skin is his robe. He’s always got it with him.

Sawyer is hard to explain. The reader never knows if he’s good or bad. I’m not sure myself.

Q.) What if anything do your books have in common across series and even genres? How about just between the Doomsday books and the Nightcreature series?

LH.) I believe all my books are written with the same fast paced action and sarcastic humor, be they paranormal, historical or contemporary.

Q.) You have written historical, paranormals, contemporaries and won a Rita for your book The Mommy Quest a Superromance. Do you plan to write more Supers, or in any of the other subgenres? Or are you focusing totally on the paranormal for now?

LH.) I would like to write more Supers definitely, but haven’t been able to
fit one into my schedule yet.

Q.) Are you a plotter or a pantser? Character-driven or plot driven? Ever try to be the opposite? Do you have a set method you use when starting a book?

LH.) Pantser. Character driven. I’ve tried to plot and end up so bored I
can’t write the book because I already know what happens. The fun is in the discovery.

When I begin a book I usually read several general non-fiction books on the setting and the legends I’ll be using. Then I brainstorm on a yellow legal pad, everything I can think of about the characters and
the plot. Then I start writing.

Q.) What is the smartest thing you ve done so far as advancing either your writing or your writing career? What is something you wish you had done differently?

LH.) The best thing I’ve done is to keep writing through ups and downs.
Never giving up and doing my best not to get discouraged. I recently received 17 rejections on a new proposal. Been there, done that, don’t care. Moving on.

I wish I hadn’t stayed with agents or publishers who didn’t believe in me long past the time when I should have left.

Q.) Can you name three things you keep in your writing area that tell us something about you?

LH.) A photo of my husband and I at a Packer party, framed covers of every one of my published books, the dog.

Q.) Finally, do you have any appearances coming up, what books are on the schedule for the next year and is there anything else you d like to share?

LH.) No appearances at this time, but I will have a calendar on my website that will list any that come up.

I have a gorgeous new website up at lorihandeland.com There you can join The Full Moon Club, which has a monthly e-newsletter filled with moon facts, supernatural lore, recipes and more.

Any Given Doomsday, the first book in The Phoenix Chronicles will be in
the stores on November 4. You can download a free prequel short story titled “In the Beginning” by clicking on the link on my homepage.

Doomsday Can Wait-Book 2-will be released April 28, 2009

Apocalypse Happens-Book 3-should be out in late 2009

Here is the schedule. As you can see I still have a lot of stuff to add, but never fear I have a ton of great interviews and essays yet to post. This schedule is tentative–so things may change, but it is here for you to keep an eye on.

This week only Drystan is appearing on the eHarlequin boards. Stop by and ask him a question!

FICTION: GENERAL/OTHER
From Publisher’s Marketplace….

Paula Reed’s HESTER, as cryptically alluded to in the conclusion of Hawthorne’s classic The Scarlet Letter, the story of what happens to
Hester Prynne and little Pearl when they travel to England to find notoriety, intrigue, love, fortune, and social success, but must also face the most formidable Puritan of all, Oliver Cromwell, to Nichole
Argyres at St. Martin’s, at auction, by Kristin Nelson at NelsonLiterary Agency (NA).

Yay, Paula!! Watch for it people!!

The Ledoux Curse by Debra Cowan.

In 1688, a jealous French nobleman cursed the Ledoux family—if a Ledoux woman fell in love with a man, he would die, damning her to a life of loneliness and guilt.

Despite her mother and grandmother’s warnings, Aubrey never believed in the curse. Until she fell in love with Jeff Wyrick. Until Hallowe’en night five years ago.

After that horrible night, Aubrey pushed Jeff away, vowing never to see him again or admit her feelings, even to herself. Even when he appears on her doorstep with those chiseled features and eyes that melt her resistance.

But Jeff didn’t come back for a meaningless night with Aubrey—he came back for a lifetime. And he’s willing to risk everything, including his life, to be with her.

But first they must break The Ledoux Curse.

She has blogged before, guest type of things, but now her agency has officially jumped into the Net. Here’s the link…