The Next Big Thing: My BLOOD OF ANGELS

So, Happy Christmas, everyone! Hope you had a wonderful day - as I did! - and are still enjoying the Festive Season!

Today, I’m participating in The Next Big Thing blog hop, which sees writers answering questions about their works in progress, and tagging other writers to follow on. Last week, I was tagged by the wonderful, multi-talented and intriguingly named K.A. M’Lady, whom you can catch up with here:

http://kamladyotherworld.blogspot.com.

And you can read all about her Next Big Thing here. Many thanks to K for her tag!

Now, the next part of my job is to tag the next authors and their blogs – which was doubly difficult because a) I admire so many and b) everyone’s so busy over Christmas and New Year! However, I'm happy to say I have manage to pin down one of my favourites, my old friend Kate Rothwell/Summer Devon who writes beautiful, unusual and charming historicals (Kate) as well as highly imaginative, erotic paranormals (Summer). Summer's next book is an m/m contemporary called Taming the Bander, published in February by Samhain.

You can track her down here: 

http://katerothwell.com, 

here: http://summerdevon.com

and here: http://katerothwell.blogspot.com - where you can check out her Next Big Thing post next Wednesday, 2nd January 2012.

And so back to my next big thing, Blood of Angels... Here are my interview answers:

What is the working title of your book?

I’ve just been proofing the final files for BLOOD OF ANGELS.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

BLOOD OF ANGELS is the natural progression of a story that began with BLOOD ON SILK, the first of my Awakened by Blood trilogy. I’m now writing a spin off series called Blood Hunters, of which BLOOD OF ANGELS is the second book. It grew largely out of the previous stories and characters which got under my skin. Although I have to confess that Angyalka, my agoraphobic vampire heroine, actually grew out of my own realization that with writing so much I was beginning to avoid going out of the house! So I took Angyalka’s issues a stage or too further J.

What genre does your book fall under?

Paramormal/vampire romance – on the steamy side!

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I always find this a really hard question to answer! Very seldom do I see my characters as like any actor I know. So I suppose I have to pick actors that change dramtically with each role. Johnny Depp in understated mode could play Istvan, my scientific yet kick-ass hero. Not sure about Angyalka – although Hungarian, she has a style I associate with France J, but I can’t think of a specific actress!

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Obsession... a wounded hunter, a damaged vampire

Where do you plan to submit your book, or will you self published it?

I’ll be self-publishing it - I’m self-publishing all the Blood Hunters series

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I can’t remember! A first draft of a full length novel can take anything from three weeks (my fastest ever!) to three months. I think this one was probably seven or eight weeks.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Goodness, there are so many vampire romances out there that I wouldn’t know where to start! Plus, I suppose we all like to think our own story is unique J. The best comparison is probably with my other stories, especially BLOOD GUILT, the first book in this series, and with the prequel Awakened by Blood trilogy, BLOOD ON SILK, BLOOD SIN and BLOOD ETERNAL.

Who or What inspired you to write this book?

Hmm – a combination of things and people! As I say, this book is a natural progression from a story that keeps moving forward in my head. As such, I have to acknowledge my agent, Robert Gottlieb, on whose advice I first wrote BLOOD ON SILK from a long-standing germ of an idea. And my husband, who's actually the inspiration for at least part of all my heroes, including the inventive and off-the-wall Istvan of BLOOD OF ANGELS J.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

 Vampires - both scary and sexy! Need I say more? :) Well, maybe I should! 

BLOOD OF ANGELS is another stage in the saga readers might have read or at least heard of before, and my world seems to grow with every story. It features wounded and yet strong characters whom readers may have met in the past. Plus, there's a hot enemies to lovers tale - always irresistible to me! And meeting old friends such as Saloman, Elizabeth, Maximilian and Mihaela. And of course new readers to this world have a new vampire series to catch up on and follow :) 

Oh and it should be out in January 2013!

Marie