Legend In The Making



Lorelei Bell is author of
new vampire novel,
Vampire Ascending

Maybe it began with Buffy--which I absolutely love. I don't know, but all of a sudden there is a glut on the market of vampire novels that have a heroine in it, who is almost always a kick-ass lady, equipped with a black belt, knowledgeable in all other sorts of nasty fighting tricks, maybe they have some sort of unusual talents, thus can kick the shit out of all vampires and demons and whatnot, and be fearless in their endeavors.

Ho-hum. I'm neither afraid for her, nor can I actually relate to her.

What I have never liked about this sort of book is when I open up and read about a woman who is stalking vampires, or demons, she has either a special gun, or uses her fists to do the job. I once read that the character broke off the heal of her boot in order to drive it through a vampire's heart. Well, nice to have the money to go out and buy another pair of shoes! But also, she winds up walking lop-sided because the 3 or 4" heal is missing on one boot. That's neither realistic, nor does it make me say, "You Go Girl!" The rough and tumble girl gets very old, very quickly for me. Okay, she kicks ass. I get it. What makes her vulnerable? What makes her likable? Why do I care about her???

I can never relate to that sort of woman and this is why. Once upon a time I tried taking a Marshal arts class, and I hated it and after the second class I quit. I was afraid I'd get hurt. It just didn't work for me. So, I have no experience whatsoever in such things, and am not about to start, since I'm closing in on retirement age, and I'm not going to fake it either, just to get readers.


So, if you have been hanging out at my other blog, or my facebook page, and twitter (where I'll post this most assuredly), I'm just saying that if you have not read Vampire Ascending, and wonder about it, you will find out quickly that Sabrina has issues like all the rest of us. She has money, and boy friend issues, she isn't exactly afraid of her own shadow, but she isn't about to let the vampire have the upper hand, and smarts, in my estimation, win out. 

For instance, Sabrina isn't ready to accept that--in my later books, beginning with the second one especially--that she is a sibyl and part of her job is to kill vampires, demons, and even nephilim. I didn't want her to come out swinging. She actually likes a few of the vampires, werewolves, and even a demon or two. I wanted this to be a Legend In The Making.



the original kick-ass vampire slayer



What I've done is brought every reader in at ground level. Get to know who Sabrina is--a touch clairvoyant--and she has to solve several mysteries and crimes by using her talent as a clairvoyant. There's plenty of action, don't get me wrong. The scene where she goes into a nest of rogue vampires to find her friend--who she loves--and has nothing more than a water pistol filled with holy water is, to me, being overly brave, but I've built up her reasons as to why. Plus, she is hopeful that the vampire magnate, Tremayne, who has hired her likes her enough to come and save her cute little tush. Which he does--and on a Harley (any red-blooded ex-Viking would do this, wouldn't he?). What happens after that . . . well, you'll just have to read it to find out. 

I'm currently working on book 4. Book 3 is in first draft. I'm merely working on #4 because it playing out in my head. But I've signed contract for the second book, Vampire's Trill, and it has a September release. Thus The Legend In The Making continues.

Notice something Different?

I went from this as my header to . . .

This:

Like???

I went snooping around in photobucket this afternoon. They sure have some great stuff there. Some of it moves and some of it doesn't.

I found a great haunted, spooky castle there:

And I really liked this graveyard. . .

Sort of peaceful. I want to lie down and take a nap there. Not permanately, though.

And this last picture makes me think of the female vampire character in my next Sabrina Strong Series.




This is Ilona Tremayne, a psychic vampire. But she does have fangs, sort of looks nasty like this one does:

Ilona Tremayne singlehandedly--with help of her underlings--kills several vampires in my first book Vampire Ascending.

You'll want to know how, before you read the second book, Vampire's Trill, because Sabrina gets to meet this bitch from hell. She really, really doesn't want to either.

Come to think of it, I wouldn't either. Would you?

Promotion for Book never ending job

My book Vampire Ascending has been out only a few short months, and things keep on developing. I'm getting messages from people who I don't even know, sometimes, over on facebook. One was from a woman who said she'd read my book, congratulating me on it and wishing me success. She said it was a "damn good book". I chuckled to myself. I enjoy reader's reviews to me like that. I invited her to join the book's facebook page, if she hadn't already. I had just posted about being on Reader Views just this week. This was all because of my publisher, Copperhill Media, who had put this extra effort in promotions. I certainly could not have done this. They are certainly doing everything they can in promoting my book, getting it out there.

Promoting is probably half the job of getting the notice of people who aren't aware of your book.

I brought my book to work with me two days this week. I drive a transit bus for NIU, so I meet all sorts of students. I pick up a student, Tony, who also works for the Northern Star, and he has agreed to interview me. He got on and I gave him the book to look at. This prompted a conversation. He told me he wanted to buy the book and then read it before our interview for the paper. He told me he is an English major. Cool. He said "It would be nice to read something other than Shakespeare."

So he is going to read this during spring break in a few weeks coming up. I'll have a pretty good feature, I'm sure. Looking forward to that. It will be something for my book in March.

Setting things up at other places has been on-going. I don't always get responses. I sometimes get turned down. But not always. I was at Suburban Vampire blog this month too. That was well done, and it was great to see she did a wonderful job on the blog too.

So, I get to the weekend I have to spend some time promoting and the rest of it working on the next book. I've got chapters up at Muse and at Archives for people to check these out.

That's my up-date for now.