Hello!
I want to give a big thank you to Cameron Allie for letting me participate on her blog. I’ve never done a blog entry so I’m going to try this in paragraph format! I thought I’d promote my book Pray For the Devil. It’s the beginning of my paranormal fantasy/urban fantasy romance. Think Constantine. Think gritty, gothic, exorcism mixed with blood and romance. Then you’re close.
Pray For the Devil came about because I had watched that move: Prey For the Devil. The concept was for a catholic nun who had a connection to a possessed child because it was her child, and she was uniquely qualified to fight the devil. But knowing the love of morally grey heroes in Paranormal Romance I thought, what if the devil wasn’t the villain? The idea adapted from there, and eventually morphed into a spin off Gods and Goddesses series that I’ll be releasing later that will tie into this world.
So, the main idea for Pray For the Devil. Is the devil even who you think he is? The point of the book was to kind of subvert our ideas of good and evil based on intent. It was to take people’s actions and match them with their true natures, with the intent behind them, and to see if that changes your perceptions of who they are.
You start out with Eliza. She is not your model nun. She likes to go to sweaty bars and dance and get drunk and do naughty things in the bathroom. She has this well of energy she doesn’t know what to do with. And she doesn’t know any other way to express herself. She has a tragic past. She was brought up in a catholic orphanage, and she tried to break away. She did. But somehow every choice she made just made her realize how foolish she was, how incapable of living out in the world alone. Or so she thought. Before she realized her past was a carefully fabricated lie, a web that was drawn by those who thought to use her.
Lukman, or Luk as you’ll come to know him quickly, is a creature of Sekhmet, my background and mythology for vampires. Do you know that story? Of how Sekhmet, the goddess of war, or order. Of healing. As Luk himself would tell it:
“Sekhmet is ancient. She is the mother of order and war. And healing.”
Eliza’s brow wrinkled. “There’s a lot of contradictions there.”
Luk smiled. “Not as many as you think.”
He is a vampire who was caught during the crusades and desic
cated after living 50 years of life. He is ancient and a baby by his kind’s standards at the same time. He thirsts for blood but also for connection. You see in my world, if he fulfills Sekhmet’s purpose, he’s promised Soul. He’s promised the possibility of an afterlife, of living a life where he can have family. Where he can meet them again. And that’s what Luk has always wanted. But it’s at the mercy of mercurial Gods.
Luk and Eliza essentially fill those empty parts of each other. The blood and gore and badassery are just a nice bonus.
About me. I don’t want this to get too text heavy, but I grew up reading…well everything. Literally. I went through phases. I can hang with the epic fantasy lovers with Jordan, Tolkien, Martin, Terry Goodkind, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, RA Salvatore. I can hang with the classics, don’t get me started on Austen, I hung in there for the Bronte’s but adored Bradbury and Huxley. Dystopian was probably my first love but Paranormal Romance became my obsession for the last few years. I found that I gravitated towards YA for the plot over smut, and realized I wanted to create books that had both. Disclaimer, I’ve been told by others by Paranormal Romance standards my books are a bit tame, but I’m working on it. I love Jennifer Armentrout, K.F Breene, Amy Bartol, and Karen Lynch.
My author journey is just starting really, so I don’t have much to add besides the usual. I made a lot of initial mistakes. I’m working on them, and then on just getting more content out there! For hobbies: I do hunter/jumper with my wonderful, naughty, up to no good, adorable, Appaloosa Fitz Darcy (I told you I loved Austen). I call him Fitz. Yes, I seriously registered him with that name. He joins my other babies my low content wolfdog and Irish wolfhound Flynn Ryder (respectively. Yes. I am this much of a dork). As well as our very naughty kitten Letty. As expected, she rules the house and everyone in it.
For a giveaway! I have a group on Facebook. I’m trying to grow it as my street team group. It’s called Whisky and Wolves and Paranormal Things. The 10th person who joins it from today will get a book and an exclusive wooden bookmark of Pray for the Devil! (US residents only, ebook for non-US residents) Comment on the blog with “followed” once you’ve joined.
I look forward to interacting more with readers and getting to know you guys too. I hope if my books are your thing, you like them! They’re all available on KU.
