 We can't talk about vampires and not talk about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the cult TV show by Joss Whedon which ran for seven seasons.
Based on the 1992 movie of the same name, Buffy Summers is a teenage girl attending a new school in Sunnydale, California. She is also the Chosen One, granted supernatural strength and speed so she can take down vampires, demons and the forces of darkness. Over seven seasons, Buffy grew from a 16 year old girl, into a strong young woman, who faced many horrors and saved the world once or twice. While vampires were one of the main foes on the show, it also introduced Angel, a vampire with a soul who fought on the side of good. He even got his own spin off show. A lot of the monsters of the week were metaphors for the horrors we face in real life as we grow up. The kid who feels invisible, actually turns invisible and it is a bad idea to be a teacher's pet! Who was your favorite vampire on the show?
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 1) Tell us about your book
Hi and thanks for having me! I’m Melanie Nowak, and I write the venomous vampire series ALMOST HUMAN. The series is available as either 2 trilogies of 6 novels, OR as a series of 21 episodic novellas (in KU) - same story, two formats - pick your poison! *** Shy Felicity never expected to attract the attention of a handsome young man... or a vampire, but if she can keep them both from killing each other she’ll need all the help she can get to navigate perils of addiction, desire, morality, zombies, and...college. Cain is an elder vampire who displays quiet confidence even as he struggles to overcome sins of his past. Surprisingly, he found that in losing his life he gained his faith and a purpose. His mission: find the hostile vampires that inhabit this small college town, and educate them to live in peace with humans. Their leader, Sindy, is a wicked temptress who has set her sights on Felicity's new friend Ben. She will be difficult to control, but after meeting Felicity, Cain's most difficult task lies in controlling himself. *** NerdGirlVamp Melanie Newton of NerdGirlOfficial.com called it “My official must read vampire series of the year! This series has continued to be consistently excellent and I have to say I am seriously impressed that the level has remained so outstanding. The fact that I am so far in and craving a new installment the way a vampire craves blood is INCREDIBLE!!! If you aren’t reading this series, you should be!” 2) What makes your vampires unique? My vampires are unique in many ways, while still exploring the classic vampire traits and mythos. The most defining unique characteristic of my vamps, is that they have an addictive narcotic venom that they inject with their bite! Real vampire bats have a anticoagulant in their saliva called “draculin” (named after Count Dracula!) that keeps blood from clotting. I had the idea that such a thing would be useful for vampires as well - and what if they had something to keep the victim calm, like a drug? I always wondered about a vampire’s ability to put victims in thrall. In old movies, vampires are always able to hypnotize people, and it’s never really explained. People are just ‘under their power’. I always wondered – how does it work? I put that question together with the anticoagulant/drug idea, and took it further. What if vampires could inject their victims with venom, like a snake? Only the venom would not be deadly poison, but a narcotic combination of drugs that kept blood from clotting, kept the victim calm and even willing, and also could mark territory for the vampire – leaving a psychic-aura mark that other vampires could see. The vampire could then use the existence of this ‘drug’ in their victim’s system, to put them in thrall, as well as causing other feelings... I’ve done a lot of research in discovering different powers vampires have in various legends around the world. Using these ideas, my second trilogy goes further to introduce different breeds of vampires with different abilities, such as turning into mist, shape shifting into bats and wolves, flying, using thought control, and even manipulating the weather. All of this is woven into a larger plot in which our beloved characters find themselves trying to stop the plan of an evil coven master trying to take over vampire-kind, even as one of their own finds themselves thrust into a role destined by prophecy - divine leader of vampires the world over - The United One. 3) If you could have a vampire ability what would it be and why? That is a really tough question...there are so many! If I really had to choose, I think I would most enjoy being able to change shape into a bat or a wolf. I love animals! I would love to fly as a bat, run the woods as a wolf, and it would be useful for hiding or eavesdropping on unsuspecting humans as well, LOL. 4) Is your book standalone or part or a series? ALMOST HUMAN is a long running series that definitely needs to be read in order! You could read the second trilogy without having read the first, but there would of course be spoilers, as it is one continuous story - and why would you want to miss out on all of the juicy background stuff? I hope you will check it out - my venomous vampires love new blood! Novel #1 is FATAL INFATUATION www.amzn.com/B001C3ZTXC/ref=nosim/ref=cm_sw_su_dp?tag=menoauofthvev-20 Or, if you’d like your story in bite sized episodes available in KU, Novella #1 is CAPTIVATING VAMPIRES www.amzn.com/B01AVMDPRQ/ref=nosim/ref=cm_sw_su_dp?tag=menoauofthvev-20 Feed the addiction!  The Vampire Diaries was a hit TV show adapted from a series of books by L. J. Smith. The series follows Elena Gilbert, a young woman who finds herself caught between two vampire brothers, Stefan and Damon Salvatore. There are notable differences between the books and the series, but the series ran for eight seasons and boosted the careers of the leads - Nina Dobrev, Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley.
The vampires featured had the ability to compel a person - hypnotize them into doing what they want. This way they can feed on someone and then wipe their memory. The mythology was huge, with a new big bad each season. One big bad - Klaus Mikaelson - was given his own spin off show - The Originals. The series has only grown from there, with a spin off from the spin off, the new series Legacies, which features Klaus' teenage daughter, Hope. The series faced an unprecedented twist at the end of season 6 when the lead actress, Nina Dobrev, left the show to pursue other roles. Her character Elena was placed into a mystical coma to explain her absence. She did reprise her role for the series finale though and her character got the happy ending she always dreamed of. If you haven't seen the show, then I would highly recommend it.  Welcome! We are Jane & Ederlyn and as Jane Ederlyn we write paranormal and contemporary stories...though our preference (and first love) is vampires.
1) Tell us about your book Our debut book is Reborn, Princess of the Blood Book 1. Here is the blurb: Marie Josette d’Orgemont, cousin to Louis XVI, watched in horror as a rogue creature took her husband’s life before turning on her. A powerful vampire swept in and spared her life, but she never suspected surviving meant immortality or the price she’d have to pay to protect her surviving son. Centuries later, in Miami, with her family on the verge of extinction, Marie is preoccupied with the continuation of her human bloodline. When she meets sexy and persistent Odin Ulfsson, his icy-blue gaze and burning touch are hard to resist. Will a forbidden romance with the Nordic werewolf be the key to her happiness, or will it set in motion a wrath that endangers not only her last human heir but her entire existence? The ebook is available to borrow on Kindle Unlimited and for purchase at all Amazon retailers. See some links below: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MEBSN40/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reborn-Princess-Blood-Book-1-ebook/dp/B01MEBSN40 https://www.amazon.ca/Reborn-Princess-Blood-Book-English-ebook/dp/B01MEBSN40 The print book is also available at Amazon and all major retailers. 2) What makes your vampires unique? Our heroine was the granddaughter of a King and turned into a vampire just before the French Revolution. Although the story takes place in present day, her beginnings as a royal during a tumultuous time and her span of immortality gives us lots of juicy morsels to write and contemplate writing. You might have guessed that we love history and vampires are a perfect vessel to dash in a little from other time periods. 3) If you could have a vampire ability what would it be and why? Well, when we set out to write this story, we asked ourselves: what if vampires were real? And if they were real, what abilities would they have or not have? We ruled out superpowers like flying and levitating. But due to their reanimation, we decided that strength could be a plausible ability (she is even stronger than our werewolf hero)…and of course immortality. Another formidable quality about our heroine is her loyalty. While not so much an ability isolated to vampires, it is nonetheless admirable. What would we want to have? Hmmm. We are divided down the middle… One of us would like strength and the other immortality…(or time traveling---nevermind, that’s a different book). LOL 4) Is your book standalone or part or a series? Reborn is the first in the Princess of the Blood Series. Although we originally intended it to be a trilogy, now we are planning to extend. 5) What is next for you? We are currently in the late stages of book 2, need to advance to writing book 3, and at some point want to fit in a contemporary story that has been bugging us to write (hint---he is a very eligible bachelor). If you would like to keep in touch: https://www.facebook.com/janeederlyn/ https://www.instagram.com/janeederlyn/ https://twitter.com/JaneEderlyn https://www.pinterest.com/JaneEderlyn/ http://janeederlyn.com/ You can also follow us at: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/jane-ederlyn https://www.amazon.com/Jane-Ederlyn/e/B01M6USTGM/ Sign up for our newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/c-Av-5 And emails are always welcome at: janeederlyn@gmail.com Thank you for having us. Jane Ederlyn  There are thousands of vampire books on the market, especially with their surge in popularity in the last decade. Here is a list of some of the most popular vampire books. Which book is your favorite?
1. Bram Stoker's Dracula 2. Salem's Lot by Stephen King 3. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice 4. True Blood by Charlaine Harris 5. The Passage by Justin Cronin 6. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer 7. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness 8. The Vampire Diaries by L. J. Smith 9. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson 10. Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist. Each of these books have been adapted into movies or a TV series.  Blood of my Blood
I watched helplessly, as the images overwhelmed me. Images of blood, torture and death at the hands of the vampires. It lasted only moments, but when the visions took over, I was transported to different places and times. It was like I was actually there. “Alexis!” The images vanished and I was snapped back to reality. My great uncle James sat in front on me, in the small parlor, looking annoyed. He knew exactly what was happening to me, it was part of my powers, being sent visions of threats, past and present, yet he acted like I did it deliberately to avoid his lectures. If I could control them, I would. They struck without warning, most of them indecipherable, leaving me reeling afterwards. I rubbed my temples trying to focus. It’s a wonder I haven’t lost my mind yet. “Blood of my blood, it is almost time to be inducted into the Anuri clan. As Priestess you will hold our sacred knowledge inside you. You will move to the reserve after the ceremony and guards will be appointed to keep you safe.” And there it was. The rest of my life mapped out as a priestess. The title meant nothing, I was nothing more than a loyal servant, there to work for the good of the clan. I wasn’t even allowed to marry or have children. It was a lot to put on anyone’s shoulders, but I was only eighteen. “Yes, Uncle James. How long before the ceremony?” “When the full moon rises. Six days from now.” He checked his pocket watch, getting to his feet with the help of his silver tipped cane. It was a mark of his rank rather than an actual walking aid. The silver, of course, was to protect against vampires. The scourge of our world. I stood too. “I’ll be ready.” When he left the room, I let out a frustrated breath. Six days! That’s all I had left. That was nothing. Most priestesses didn’t take on their role until their early twenties, as they only inherited the knowledge of eighteen. I was different. I had very little memory of that day in the cornfield, the day the previous priestess gifted me with the clan knowledge. I was only thirteen. According to my aunt, I spent weeks in bed, bombarded with visions as my brain tried to process everything. Feeling boxed in, I left the farmhouse and headed outside to the yard. The hot July sun beat down on me. It felt good. Looking out across the fields, I was tempted to just start running and never look back. I’ve lived my whole life under scrutiny. Even after my parents died and I came here, the clan were still watching me. I’ve never done anything a teenage girl should. I’ve never had a drink or been with a boy. I’ve never sneaked out of the house to go to a party. I knew this day was coming though, so I had no one to blame but myself. I wasn’t brave enough to break the rules, but now, faced with a deadline, I knew I had to do something. It was early evening, my aunt was in town, visiting a friend. She wasn’t part of the Anuri, she didn’t understand my role, but James made it clear early on, that while I would live here with her, I would be taught the ways of the clan in preparation to join them. What could I do that’s impulsive? I wondered. There was nothing to do out here. Which meant going into town, some five or six miles away. My uncle’s truck was parked by the barn, Aunt Rachel never got rid of it after he died last year. If it still worked, I could drive into town. I went inside to change my clothes to jeans and a t-shirt and grabbed the keys from the hook in the hall. Tucking my dark hair back in a ponytail, I was ready to go. I just hope no one I know sees me and tells Aunt Rachel. Butterflies fluttered in my stomach, as I climbed behind the wheel of the old Dodge truck. I’m really doing this. I turned the key and the engine choked and died. “No, please don’t do this.” I turned the key again, but this time nothing happened. Slapping the wheel, I let out a groan. The one time I act my age, and this happens. Well I wasn’t a priestess for nothing. Closing my eyes, I placed my hands on the dashboard. The Anuri clan were all able to wield magic, but as priestess I had every spell and ritual stored in my brain. It was just a matter of accessing it. Words flitted by my mind’s eye before a spell appeared. It was in German, but my brain was able to translate it. It was a spell to bring forth a spark. Reciting the spell, I felt my hands heat up as the power left them. After a few seconds, I turned the key again and the engine roared to life. Grinning, I threw it in reverse and backed up. There was a loud thump as I struck something. Slamming on the brakes, I checked the mirrors. Oh Goddess, what have I done? What if it was Aunt Rachel? Leaping from the truck, I stumbled but caught myself. Rushing to the back of the truck, I found a man with dark hair and a beard, lying on the ground. He was unconscious. Kneeling beside him, I shook him. “Hello? Are you…alive?” He wasn’t wearing a shirt and his torso was covered in wounds. His jeans were stained with blood, it looked like someone had tortured him. He’s still breathing. I should get help. As I got to my feet, he let out a groan. “Hey, can you hear me?” I asked. “Where…?” he muttered, squinting at me. “Where are you? On the Tate Farm, just North of Wyattsville.” His lips were cracked and bleeding, he needed water and a doctor. “What’s your name?” I asked. His lips moved, but I could barely hear his response. “David?” He nodded. “Look, I’m going to help you inside and we can get you cleaned up.” “I need…to find…priestess.” I froze. How did he know about me? What if the blood wasn’t his own? I removed the solid silver pendant, a sigil for the clan, from around my neck and laid it on his chest. No reaction. “Not one of them,” he croaked. “Then who are you?” He stared at me for a moment, realization struck him and he reached for my hand. “I’ll show you.” After a moment, I took his hand. Images flooded my mind – a battle, a young boy crying over his mother, vampires ripping people to shreds. The images changed, I saw David here, on this farm the day I received my power. Then he was on the road, then locked in a cell. Tortured, beaten, fed on. A woman, well, a vampire with red hair. The image changed again and I saw myself standing alongside the entire Anuri clan and David as we faced an army of vampires. Yanking my hand away, I fell back onto my butt, breathing hard. “What was that?” I asked. “Our end, if we can’t find a way to stop them.”  1) Tell us about your book
UNDERBITE; is about a vampire that spends most of her time on the grounds of a Florida drive in. She looks about 13 but is in reality over 300. 2) What makes your vampires unique? She entered her undead life by accident but the vampire that turned her decided he liked the idea of having a companion and so taught her everything she needed to know. At the beginning she fed on humans as did her creator who was evil. She managed to kill him and continued on her own until meeting a second mentor who taught her how to live beside humans instead of preying on them. Because of his teaching most of the time she lives on animals instead of humans. Every fifty years or so she has to spend a year or more dining out on people. During these times she makes a point of not actually killing anyone simply taking a small amount of blood from minor criminals then hypnotically ordering them to turn themselves in. There aren’t a lot of tweeny vampires and even fewer vamps that process gator blood with a freezer and a blender to make a nightly slush drink. This she does every night at the drive in while watching the movies and getting lost in a world she can never truly join. 3) If you could have a vampire ability what would it be and why? The living forever part is attractive however the attached limitations would be a bit annoying. To paraphrase Love at First Bite (it’s a Mel Brooks movie, yeah, I’m old) Who wants to spend forever living on a “warm liquid protein diet”? 4) Is your book standalone or part or a series? This is defiantly a stand-alone. There’s space to do more but honestly it doesn’t grab me that way. 5) What is next for you? Roughly a year and a half ago possibly a bit more I figured out how to publish on Amazon. I think what they did was finally simplify the process enough so even I could understand. I have spent that time going through my books and putting them on line. Underbite is just one. Proofing is a brain ache but after over twenty years of getting turned down by one press after another I said that’s it, I’m doing it myself before I die. I have a lot done but there’s still eight more to go. When that’s done, I will finally let myself work on something new. My amazon page is amazon.com/author/tabithabaumander You can find the book there or I think this will take you directly. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RYN8BLS/  Vampires are found in many cultures all over the world, particularly European cultures. Stories date back centuries. Vampires are seen as predators who attack innocent victims in the dead of night and try to drink their blood. Many stories tell of graves being opened up to find the vampire, as this is where they return each night. It is believed that because people did not understand what happens to bodies after they are buried, many corpses were mistaken for vampires when they were exhumed. The bodies would have shown evidence of bloating, blood leaking from orifices and fingernails and hair growing longer. Sure signs that they were feeding on people.
There were many myths about how one could become a vampire including - being jumped over by an animal, a body where a wound was not cleansed, people who rebelled against the church. To stop a vampire, a stake was fashioned out of wood, usually ash, hawthorn or oak, and driven through the heart. In some instances, the head was removed from the body too. What tales of vampires are there in your part of the world?  1. Tell us about your book. I love really big books. One of my favorite books of all time is Anne Rice’s The Witching Hour. She wrote with such detail, I felt like I was standing in the corner of the room, an invisible participant in a theater production that was being played out before me. I doubt my writing would ever be comparable to Anne Rice, but that was my model and inspiration for how I approached my current series, The Medici Warrior Series. While I am an avid reader of all genres, I love the freedom of writing fantasy, where you are not bound by any rules. The Blood Covenant, book one in this six book series, follows the exploits of a vampire dynasty that spans four generations in a multi-genre novel with elements of the paranormal, romance, and historical fiction. The saga explores the roots of the Medici vampire dynasty in Renaissance era Florence, Italy as told through the eyes of the novel’s main protagonist, Shade Medici. Book one begins in current times with Shade, a warrior king who is the sole male heir to the dynasty, and is expected to mate and produce an heir to secure the continuation of the coven. He has waited over 500 years for the right mate when he falls in love with Kate Reese, a mortal girl. Kate is fresh off a broken engagement, and reluctant to open her heart to this stranger. His pursuit is unrelenting, and her curiosity gets the best of her as she lets down her guard, letting him into her life. Their passion for each other is searing, and he ignores the anger of the ruling Council when he pursues a mortal as his future mate. Shade is a complex character, who struggles to control his darker impulses as a vampire, and choses instead to embrace his more human emotions. He must draw Kate into his world, and prepare her for all the changes that will be demanded of her should she choose to bind herself to him through the blood covenant. Their path is filled with personal conflict, as well as with deceit, as others try hard to destroy their union, and Kate sorts through her discovery of the vampire sub-culture, learning what is fact, and what is myth. 2. What makes your vampires unique? I have given you a clue in the description, but primarily, the most unique aspect of the vampires in my series are they are not the “undead.” They did not have to die in order to become vampire, they are born vampire. They describe themselves as immortal, however, they will eventually die of old age and they can also be killed by any means that you can kill a human. While they do have superior strength over humans, and an extremely advanced capability to heal, any injury that would be a mortal wound to a human is also mortal wound to my vampires. Humans can leave silver bullets, stakes through the heart, and all that garlic at home, as I have abandoned much of the traditional vampire mythology and created my own. They still must drink blood to survive, and it is a romance novel, so hot sex is also a requirement. Their need to feed comes mixed with sexual desire. 3. If you could have a vampire’s ability, what would it be? My vampires are each born with one unique gift that aids in their ability to protect themselves, such as day-walker, and dream-walker, but they all had the ability to teleport themselves through space. I would love to have this ability to teleport, to simply envision where I wanted to be, and go there. No packing, no TSA lines, no cancelled or delayed flights, no cramped seating on the airplanes, so teleporting would be my desired vampire super-power! 4. What is next for you? Since all six books of The Medici Warrior Series have been written and are with my publisher, waiting to be slotted into a publishing schedule, I am currently working on another paranormal romance series called The Bohannon Witch Series. Book one is Rhiannon’s Circle. Unlike the vampire novels, where the males were dominant, I am making the female witches more dominant, and more powerful than the male witches. Let’s see what happens when we put the women in charge! |
 
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About the Author:S. K. Gregory is an author, editor and blogger. She currently resides in Northern Ireland. “Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.” 
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