Blog with Bite is exited to welcome author D.B. Reynolds to the blog in honor of Vampire Week. D.B. is one of our featured authors and the master mind behind the sexy Vampires in America series.
BWB: When you decided to write the Vampires in America series, what made you decide on vampires?
DB: I’m a huge fan of pretty much anything paranormal, but vampires can be so smooth, so elegantly lethal. I wanted to create a character like that.
BWB: Can you tell us a little bit about your series, in your own words?
DB: Vampires in America centers around the Vampire Lords. These are a very few extremely powerful and dominant vampires—in North America, there are only eight—who control every aspect of vampire existence. Each Vampire Lord has absolute sovereignty over his territory, with the power of life and death over the lesser vampires living there.
BWB: What do you consider your series, paranormal romance or urban fantasy?
DB: I lean toward Urban Fantasy, because each of my books contains a mystery or crime to be solved, and there’s a lot of action and, frequently, bloodshed in my books. My vampires are quite violent and aggressive, not your typical sensitive vampire of the Romance genre. On the other hand, there’s also a very strong Romance storyline in every book. So they probably walk that very thin line between the two genres.
BWB: There is a lot of romance, but your heroine, Cynthia is not your typical romance heroine. Smart, tough and not very willing to go all gaga over a man, even one as easy to inspire gaganess as Raphael. She is quite different than the usual “save me” virgins from other vampire fiction. What pushed you in the direction of the non-traditional female character?
DB: I don’t do virginal females! LOL My women are allowed to enjoy sex every bit as much as the guys. But for Cynthia specifically, I wanted a heroine strong enough to meet Raphael halfway. He’s such a dominating character, so overpowering, that his mate would have to be really strong or he’d just walk right over her. On the other hand, there are different kinds of strength. Cynthia’s an alpha female, as fearless and tough as any guy, but also very feminine. Sarah, the lead female character in Rajmund, isn’t physically aggressive the way Cyn is, but she’s strong enough to have survived some really tough knocks when she was very young and to have rebuilt her life all on her own. The next book in the series, Sophia, features a female Vampire Lord—a woman battling her way to the top in a totally male dominated world.
BWB: The character of Raphael, {Raphael (Vampires in America, #1)} is so very, well overpowering, did you base him off a real person, or maybe another fictional character in film or book? Or is he purely your creation?
DB: I think he’s my own creation. I certainly didn’t consciously pattern him off of anyone else, fictional or otherwise. The character Raphael was inspired by the opening scene of the book, the one with Alexandra. When the kidnapper comes for her, she’s frightened, but what she says to him is, “He’ll kill you.” And she’s absolutely certain of that. That scene is what started the book in my mind. It came to me in a flash and I knew I had to create a character who could live up to Alexandra’s absolute conviction that she would be saved and her kidnappers would be destroyed.
BWB: The world building is always a big factor in paranormal based novels. What inspired your master vampires and their semi-out of the coffin world?
DB: A lot of it was the need for a strong character like Raphael. I wrote him first and then his environment. But, also, I wanted my vampires to be empire builders in the modern world. I wanted them to be the power behind the scenes, which means they couldn’t be sneaking around in the shadows and cringing away from garlic and holy water. And I wanted to go against the too-sensitive and self-hating vampires who have become so prevalent lately.
BWB: There has been a bit of rumbling in the book blogger community that vampires are played out {don’t look over here though we love vamps!} after the Twilight/TrueBlood craze. What is your opinion on this? Are vamps going to slink back into their shadows, or are they here to stay?
DB: These rumblings stir themselves up every once in a while. Personally, I think they originate with people who don’t really like vampires, or don’t understand their appeal. People have been saying vamps are played out for years and yet they’re still here and still selling. No, I don’t think vampires are played out. I don’t think they ever will be. I know I’ll still be reading them!
BWB: What books or authors inspired you to write?
DB: I’ve been a reader as long as I can remember. There were always books in my parents’ home and we made regular trips to the public library. There is no one book or author who inspired me to write. It’s more the combined weight of all those books and all those writers.
BWB: What can we expect next from you? Are there more books in the Vampires in America series expected?
I just signed a new contract with my publisher for five more books, adding to the three already released. I always saw this series as eight books, one for each of the territories in North America. And after that, maybe I’ll move on to Europe, which will necessitate lots of, um, research trips over there!
BWB: Any signings, or tours, or just events you would like us to know about?
DB: I do lots of guest blogging and interviews (like this one) and I usually have a book giveaway in conjunction with those events. I also do book giveaway drawings on my own blog pretty frequently. The best place to know what’s going on is to visit my blog at http://dbreynolds.wordpress.com
And some random thoughts...
BWB: If you had a choice, immortality as a vampire, or stay human?
DB: Immortality as a vampire
BWB: Edward, Wrath or Bones?
DB: Raphael. LOL But, of those three, there’s no competition. It’s Wrath. I’m a big admirer of the blind king.
BWB: Synthetic or straight from the vein?
DB: The vein, what’s the point otherwise?
BWB: eBook or Print?
DB: Personally, I prefer print, as long as I’m sitting at home, or in a coffee shop. But for travel, you can’t beat an e-book reader. And I definitely think ebooks are the wave of the future.
Thank you DB for joining us today - and writing about VAMPIRES! We really do appreciate it.
Available from ImaJinn Books FictionWise.com, Amazon.com
, BN.com
Available at ImaJinn Books, Amazon.com
BN.com and Fictionwise
Available at Amazon
, Barnes Noble on-line, ImaJinn Books, and Fictionwise.
Questions for our readers...
If you had a choice, immortality as a vampire, or stay human?
Edward, Wrath or Bones?
Synthetic or straight from the vein?
Contest Deets:
Comment and answers the questions for extra entries into the contest. Don't forget to stop on by the contest post and let us know that you commented here! {Contest Post Click Here}
