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I
AM PLEASED TO WELCOME AUTHOR
Christine
Blackthorne
Bio:
In "real" life, I am an academic with
degrees in Political Science, Economics, Philosophy and Law and an insatiable
desire to confound, baffle and disconcert my students. Someone once suggested
to me the reason for my stories lay in the desire to offset the tedium and
rationality of academic life. He wasn't an academic or he would have known
better. It is best to use research against tedium, students to offset the
rationality and an unlimited supply of stressballs for the faculty meetings.
The stories? Well, they are just for me - like a mental manicure.
I also write a blog on Feminism and Erotica -
come talk to me:
BANTER – STUFF ABOUT YOU
Q: How would you describe
yourself as a color? Think personality here. Are you a light and airy pastel
person, or more of a deep, dark, sultry and mysterious color?
A: Not sure I can choose one
colour – I might see myself more like a Kandinsky painting: full of strong
colours and edges.
Q: Are you a morning person, or
a midnight candle burner?
A: I am a mother – there is
nothing more that needs to be said as an answer.
Q: Tell me one thing about each
of the four seasons you like. It can be anything.
A: Winter = the feeling of the cold air on your skin, that slight
bite and prickle when you breathe it in.
Spring =
The smell of new life. The sounds the world makes when it wakes up again.
Summer = Freshly cut grass and the sound of children
laughing.
Fall = My favourite season – the smell of autumn, the
leaves under your feet and dew drops on spider webs, the way the rain sounds.
With threatning storms and the promise of winter it has such drama without
requiring us, as yet, to face all the discomfort of winter.
Q: If you could morph into any
creature what would it be?
A: A tawny frogmouth
If you don’t mind me asking, why?
A: They pretend, quite
successfully, to be tree stumps and manage to observe everything.
Q: When you think of a garden,
do you picture vegetables or flowers?
A: Flowers – actually roses,
forgetmenots, sunflowers and marguerits. And as we have just bought a house
with a garden I will be able to create it! I admit that this was one of the
main reason’s why we bought the house.
Q: If you didn’t have to clean
them, how many bathrooms would you have in your home?
A: – well, two if the kids are a little older
(mine is only 15 months so not worried yet)
How many if you have to
clean them?
A: I do not understand the obsession with
bathrooms. I can see how you may want to have more than one toilet but when it
comes to bathrooms I see very little reason to diversify. I like sharing my
showers and baths. I even like sharing the sink when brushing teeth.
Q: What kind of music do you
listen to? Do you have an all time favorite song?
A: I am a philistine – really.
I listen to everything from Verdi to Aqua (and have just given away my age).
Music is mood dependent for me, I might want to listen to something today but
not tomorrow. This is why I need a huge ipod with me constantly. I hate if I
only have two or three kinds of music available.
Q: If your life were a movie
would it be considered an action film, comedy, drama, romance, fantasy or a
combination?
A: Drama.
Q: Tell me one thing that your
spouse does that really endears him/her to you. One thing that annoys you.
These can be tiny little things, actually the smaller the better.
A: Same thing – he makes me
laugh. It is great when you are down and need a reminder that you should not
take something (or yourself) so seriously and at the same time you will hate
him for it 50% of the time.
Q: Did you like school when you
were a child?
A: I loved school – it was
where most of my stories got told.
Q: Snack of choice – chips,
pretzels, popcorn, or cookies, cake, candy? Or maybe you’re a healthy snacker -
fruit, yogurt, nuts, raisins?
A: yoghurt – but only red ones.
I do not like yellow ones. Or white ones. And don’t even argue, it does not
have to make sense. Because, yes, I will like an apricot yoghurt if you colour
it red.
Q: Favorite color?
A: red, orange, green…. Strong
colours
Q: Dress up or dress down?
A: dress down
Q: Dine in or dine out?
A: dine in – with a group of good friends and
one or more bottles of wine, discussing politics, philosophy and how to pull
the moon closer to the earth. With diagrams. And yes, we did. I mentioned the
wine, right?
Q: Coffee or Tea?
A: Coffee.
Q: How do you feel about
exercise?
A: Depends on the day – and the
exercise. I can really like it when I got myself up to go to the gym but really
hate the getting ready to do so. Oh, are we counting sex as exercise?
Q: Texting, love it or hate it?
A: love it
BOOKS – ABOUT THE CRAFT
Q: When did you start writing
and why?
A: When it became easier than
telling the stories – and for that reason. I have always told stories
Q: Where do you get your ideas?
A: When I see someone out of
the corner of my eye (an elf carrying an important philactery on the central
line?) or a stray sentence overheard (the vampires are meeting for their
pentannual congress in Chicago this year, who would have thought they choose
the windy city twice in a row?). My stories are dreams and fantasies conjured
whilst I wait for a bus or fill out a form. I have no idea where they come from
– they are just there.
Q: What do you think is the
hardest part of writing a book?
A: to stop
Q: What is your favorite part
of writing?
A: Meeting the characters and
coming to like – or hate – them.
Q; Now your least favorite
part?
A: Letting them go.
Q: Describe your favorite
heroine?
A: Intelligent and smart (those
are not the same thing). She should be independent and stand on her own two
feet without having to make a point of constantly swearing, cursing and
pretending to be hard. She should be rational and have an appreciation for
other people.
Q: Describe your favorite hero?
A: I am going to have to say
something ridiculously cheesy – my husband
Q: Who's your favorite author?
A: Impossible to name only one
but among others: Anne Bishop
Q: Your favorite title?
A: Too many books by too many
authors
Q: Would you ever consider a
joint project?
A: Yes – I love working with
others and have done so before
Q: How do you handle a writer's
block?
A: I have never had writer’s
block
Q: Do you write long hand
first, or does it go straight into the computer?
A: Computer
Q: Are you a sit down and play
it by ear kind of writer, or do you need a structured guideline, or maybe a
little of both?
A: Play it by ear
Q: When crafting the story do
you go from beginning to end, or do you jump around writing the scenes that are
pushing themselves forward in your brain?
A: Beginning to end – I tell
the story to myself. I cry and laugh with the character and will have no idea
what is about to happen on the next page.
Q: Do you always know how a
story will end when you begin writing it?
A: No
Q: Have your characters ever
taken the story in a different direction than you had originally planned? Do
you have a for instance, for us?
A: All the time
Q: What geographical locations
are your favorite and why?
A: Europe – I have spent most
of my teenage years travelling across Europe and love it.
Q: How does the man in your
life feel about the genre you write? Has he read any of your work?
A: He likes the research. Insert smiley face!
BOOKS - NOW LETS PROMOTE – STRUT YOUR STUFF
Q: What are you working on now?
Would you like to share anything about it?
A: I always work on more than
one project at the same time. There is Kathryn who has found her feet and
herself and now has to deal with Elves and
a murder. And there is San who has led a rebellion and lost. Also
someone is stealing children in Equador and Carolyn will need to get in touch
with her estranged husband and finally deal with the death of their daughter.
Q: How can we find you? Do you
have a web page, FaceBook page or any buy links?
A: I am both on Facebook and
have a website (www.christineblackthorn.eu) .
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CBlackthorn
Buy links:
Kobo: http://bit.ly/KoboVoC
Apple: http://bit.ly/AppleVoC
Add to Goodreads: http://bit.ly/GoodreadsVoC
BLURB:
Kathryn McClusky is an ErGer – a rare and highly
prized individual in the supernatural world.
She has spent her life running and hiding, but
circumstances have changed and the only way to protect her family is to hand
herself over to the Vampire Lord of London to face slavery or death.
Lucian Neben runs his London court with a stern
but fair hand, but political pressures are building from both the human and fey
worlds, and taking possession of an ErGer would cement his position of power.
Kathryn is vulnerable and broken almost beyond repair,
but she holds in her hands the one treasure Lucian desperately wants – the
possibility of home and family.
Can he teach her to open herself up; to choose
to life, and him, before reality forces him to take her freedom?
EXCERPT:
"Pick
up the wine and take a sip," he said.
"I
don't drink," she replied.
His
eyes remained expressionless, as was his voice when he spoke again. "It
was not a request."
Absolute
obedience for the safety of the girls.
She
reached for the glass and took a small sip. As she tried to put it back down,
his hands tightened on her waist and brought her attention back to him
mid-movement.
"I
am thirsty, too."
She
offered him the glass, but he shook his head. "My hands are full."
To
illustrate this fact he began to trace little half circles over her belly with
his thumbs. She tried to offer the glass to his lips but he shook his head
again.
"Not
like that." There was a hint of amusement in his eyes and a twitch to his
lips. Instead, she tried to offer her wrist, but that simply made him raise an
eyebrow.
"How
then?" She felt the desperation in her own voice and tried to suppress it
while making the cold return.
"Take
a sip and hold it in your mouth."
She
was starting to have an idea where this was leading. She tried to lean forward
to feed him the wine but his hands kept her from him.
"Set
down the glass first, then let me drink from your mouth."
Carefully
she put down the glass before leaning forward. In her haste and nervousness she
parted her lips before touching his and spilled most of the wine down her chin
and his neck. She froze in terror, aware of the strength in the hands around
her waist and the sharp teeth entirely too close to her. His lips parted and
his tongue snaked out to lazily lap at the liquid dripping down her lips and
chin. Only when he had cleaned her thoroughly did he allow her to move back
enough to meet his gaze. Her eyes fell to his mouth and the spilled wine that
painted his neck and shirt red. Small droplets were still caught in the evening
shadow of the beard along his cheeks.
"Clean
it!"
The
first flick of her tongue was tentative at best, barely a touch, but when he moved
his head to allow her more access she became bolder. The taste of his skin,
mixed with that of the red wine, filled her mouth – unidentifiable, subtle and
strange. As her tongue reached his neck, his arousal grew impossibly large
beneath her, pressing against the folds of her sex through only two layers of
clothes. She shied back – feeling stupid immediately. It was inevitable where
this evening was going to lead. For an ErGer to bond, the mind needed to be
broken open as only sex could – and her own body would force it soon enough. In
her experience, he had shown more patience than any other. Every Lord who had
ever acquired her, either because her brother had sold her to them or because
they had tracked her down, had taken her blood and body within minutes of their
acquaintance. What was the point of delay?
Buy links:
Kobo: http://bit.ly/KoboVoC
Apple: http://bit.ly/AppleVoC
Add to Goodreads: http://bit.ly/GoodreadsVoC
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