Update--Life and Stuff

Alright, here's your update.

Awakening is nearing completion, and yes it's been delayed. That's what happens when your time runs out, along with your money, and you have to go out and get a job.

Yes, I've started working again, and between it and school, my writing time has seriously been eaten into. This sucks tremendously, both for me and you, dear readers, as that means it's gonna take me longer to write future books.

But never fear, they will be written!

Until the writing pays the bills, this state of affairs will continue.  I will do my best to keep you guys happy by producing books as quickly as I'm able, but keep in mind I'm going to be slowed down. Want to speed me up? Spread the word and help make writing my No. 1 career!

Also, we had a leak in the roof and part of my ceiling came down, among other not-so-fun life events. But I am working on Awakening, and it will be published as soon as I can get it published.

So please be patient with me, and thank you all again for loving my series. If it wasn't for you guys, I wouldn't be doing this. You're all awesome :)

We Got It!!! Finding Inspiration--A Guest Post by Kai Kiriyama

This is the one blog post I never intended to write. And never for a blog tour. I don't think that I have anything really new or interesting to say on the topic of getting inspiration. I was joking around about writing this blog post earlier.

"I eat the dust motes in the sunbeams that wake me up in the morning and those dust specks become stories."

"I once swallowed a watermelon seed and the plant that grew in my belly was removed when it was too big and inside were all the stories I would write in my lifetime."

"I gut hobos and read their entrails like tea leaves."

Pathogen: Patient Zero Review!

I received an Advanced Reader Copy of this book to review as part of the blog tour for the book's release.  I had already read Kai's Blaze Tuesday and the Case of the Knight Surgeon, so I was heading into this expecting to get a great story.

ALERT! POTENTIAL SPOILERS!  YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!

You want another Awakening snippet? Here you go!

John stood outside Sanaan's cell, steeling himself for what was coming.  Sanaan, for her part, watched him disinterestedly through the observation window, her expression unchanged.  The predator would wait forever for its opportunity, the outward calm it projected a clever facade for the unbridled rage that stormed within.  And now John--palms sweating, body shaking just a bit--was going to go in there and face her.

Awake, unsedated.  Fully aware and capable.  Likely to shred him in less time than it took to blink.

But there was no other way.  The predator was not about to listen to him while he stayed outside the cell.  He had to go in there, make it personal, appeal to the part of Sanaan that respected and loved him.  That meant his physical presence, terrifyingly close to her.

He took several deep breaths to try to calm himself.  It didn't work.  

Fuck it, I'm just going in.  If I die, at least I will have tried.

Not Your Everyday Vampire Story

I am going to take a moment to address my series, what it's about, and why it's written the way it is. The interview I had recently with Everything Mythology and Amaranthine, as well as some other happenings, got me thinking. And now I'm going to share those thoughts with all of you.

Whether you like the Twilight saga or not, it set off a chain of vampire romance novels, everything from Young Adult romance to some pretty heavy erotica. The current favorites seem to be adult romance with a little bit of erotica, and it seems that's what a lot of people think my books are about.

They're not.  The Amaranthine Blood series follows the story of Sanaan (pronounced Suh-NAHN, because I keep getting asked, LOL), who is, yes, a vampire, but most importantly, she is a person. She has real-person issues that have only been exacerbated by the fact that she is a vampire, and therefore has had much more time to dwell on her real-person issues than normal folks. She does not hate the fact she's a vampire, she does not curse the fact she's a vampire, nor does she seek out nubile teen boys to fall in love with.