Guest Author: Vivi Anna

Today, Literary Escapism is excited to welcome Vivi Anna, author of The Vampire’s Kiss, to the floor.

Olena Petrovich had seen more than enough death and destruction in her three hundred years. Now the vampiress fought as a CSI agent. But nothing about this crime scene seemed right—including the arrogant outsider from Interpol who challenged her authority. Sexy and cocky, the human was downright irresistible…even to a vampiress who should know better.

Though Cale Braxton was out of his league facing the vampires, lycans and witches of Nouveau Monde, he matched Olena in the one way that mattered—passion. Olena had sworn she’d never love—and lose—again, especially a human with his own demons. She and Cale lived in two different worlds, but after only one kiss, Olena wondered how she could ever spend eternity without him….

Make sure you stick around to the end. We’ll be giving away two copies of The Vampire’s Quest, the first novel in the new Otherworld Crime Unit story arc, to two lucky individuals.
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I get ideas for stories in all sorts of ways. Most of my ideas come from characters I see in my mind. I glean interesting types of people from music, and movies, and news articles, and one time from watching one of my favorite TV shows—CSI.

It was at night and I was enjoying my daily dose of CSI. Gil Grissom, whom I adore, was doing something cute and investigative, and I thought out of the blue…What if Gil Grissom was a vampire? What kinds of cases would he solve then? Who else would be on his crime scene team? And that’s how my vampire hero Caine Valorian was born.

Once I had a bead on who Caine was I teamed him up with a few other people, like Jace Jericho, a lycan, and Lyra Magice, a witch, and created the OCU, Otherworld Crime Unit, and plunked them down in a secret city called Necropolis.

The Valorian Chronicles was the result of that musing. Blood Secrets was Caine’s story, Dark Lies belonged to Jace Jericho, and the third installment Veiled Truth, is all about Lyra Magice. Other strong characters came out of it as well…like Captain Mahina Garner, who has a story of her own in my BITE called Mahina’s Storm (Editors Note: Which can also be found in the anthology Midnight Cravings).

Then my editor asked if I could write more books about the OCU. At first I wasn’t sure if I could. I hadn’t planned on doing more than three books, then I remembered that Lyra had gone to a crime scene convention in another city, a city in France called Nouveau Monde (another of my made up Otherworlder cities). So I thought why not set the next three books there with a different OCU team.

So in The Vampire’s Quest I sent Kellen to the European city looking for a cure to his blood disease and there he meets Gabriel Bellmonte and his crime scene team. In the book Kellen solves a case with them and ends up a big part of their team. A team that consisted of Sophie St. Claire, a hard-headed lycan, and Russian vampiress Olena Petrovich.

The Vampire’s Kiss, the fifth book in the series, is Olena’s story.

After this one, I’ve written one more in the series. It’s called The Wolf’s Heart and will be Gabriel’s book. That will be the last one. I have a new series I’m writing that will be out in 2012.

I love reading series. Some of my faves are Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan, every series Rachel Caine has written, I love TA Pratt’s Marla Mason series and am sad that the publisher didn’t pick up the rest of the books. If I love the characters and the world I want to know more, everything about them. I will go on their journey for as long as they want. But sometimes I think some series are too long.

When do you think a series should end?

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Thank you Vivi Anna for taking the time to visit Literary Escapism!

Contest Time! Vivi Anna has graciously offered to give away two copies of The Vampire’s Quest, the first novel in the new Otherworld Crime Unit story arc, to two lucky winners. All you have to do is answer this question: When do you think a series should end?  Or simply ask Vivi Anna a question.

As always, there’s more ways of getting your name in the hat (remember, these aren’t mandatory to enter, just extra entries):

  • +1 for each place you post about today’s contest on your blog, social network, or anywhere you can. Digg it, stumble it, twit it, share it with the world. Wherever you share it, make sure you add a link to it along with your answer.
  • +1 to any review you comment on, however, comments must be meaningful. Just give me the title of the review and I’ll be able to figure it out from there.
  • +1 If you are a follower of Literary Escapism on Facebook and/or Twitter
  • +10 Purchase Blood Secrets, Dark Lies, Veiled Truth, Midnight Cravings or any of novel through LE’s Amazon store or through the Book Depository sometime during this contest and send a copy of the receipt VIA email for your purchase to: jackie AT literaryescapism DOT com. Each purchase is worth ten entries.

There is one thing I am adding to my contests now…the winner must post a review of the novel someplace. Whether it is on their own blog, Amazon, GoodReads, LibraryThing or wherever, it doesn’t matter. Just help get the word out.

The contest will stay open until July 22nd, at which time I’ll determine the winner with help from the Research Randomizer and the List Randomizer.

I have not been contacting winners, so you will need to check back to see if you’ve won.

About Jackie 3282 Articles
I am a 30-something SAHM with two adorable boys and a supportive husband who is very tolerant of my reading addiction. I love to read and easily go through about a dozen books a month – well I did before I had kids. Now, not so much. After my first son was born, I began to take my hobby of reviewing a little more serious and started Literary Escapism to help with my sanity. I love to discuss the fabulous novels I’ve read and meeting all the wonderful people in the book blogging community has been amazing.

12 Comments

  1. This sounds like an interesting book. I’ve read several that combined criminal investigation and paranormal and enjoyed them. I’m looking foward to reading it.

    A series should end when the author has nothing new to say about the characters. There’s nothing worse than reading new books in a series and feeling like the author lost interest in the characters and story but wrote them anyway to fill a contract. I’d much rather have a series end and leave me wanting more.

    follower on facebook

  2. your books sound interesting (adding you to my list). I love PNR and UF, but I really love it when there is a great mystery/crime solving going on too.

    When to end a series? That should be dictated by the story. If the author has to resort to just one sex scene after another to fill the book, then time to wrap that baby up.

    2 points for me

    (do we get a point for commenting on any of your reviews or any reviews anywhere?)

  3. I think a series should end when it starts getting stale and repetitive. I love the Stephanie Plum series but the books are all the same. Will I keep buying them, probably.

    LKH’s Anita series is getting old for me too but I still keep buying the books.

    I love Lora Leigh’s Breed series and JR Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood because the underlying story is there but they are facing different issues in each book. It’s something new and fresh, not the same old same old each book I pick up.

    Great post. made me really stop and think about it. I can’t wait to pick your book up.

  4. Some series can run and run, others bomb out after just a few books – the common factor is always the repetitiveness of the stories and that is really when they should stop.

    Keep the books within a series fresh and I will keep reading them :D

  5. I don’t think I’ve read any series that I thought had gone on too long. As long as the author can keep coming up with great ideas, I think they should go on as long as the demand is there and the publisher usually makes that decision. I’ve seen series end way too soon because the publisher decided to stop buying, and that’s a shame.

    I’m looking forward to reading The Vampire’s Quest, it sounds like a great story.

  6. Honestly, yes, some series do need to come to an end because the storylines just can’t go any further. I don’t want to mention any in particular cuz I don’t want tomatoes thrown at me. LOL!!

  7. So, do you ‘fantasy cast’ any of your stuff, before-during-after your writing process? About 25% of authors do, and about the same percentage of readers. We do, and we made a place just for doing that. We’ve put 17 of your works on our site, Storycasting, so you and your fans can ‘cast’ them for that maybe-someday movie. Here’s a link – bit.ly/Cast_ViviAnna – always free and non-spamming.
    Storycasting – “for the movie in your mind”

  8. That’s a tough question because some are so good I could wish for them to go on without an end. I guess when things seem like they are in a rut or there does not seem to be a new angle that could introduced.

    Love Vivi’s Vampires can’t wait for more :)!

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  9. I hate to see any series end, but I guess there are times in life when the day-to-day just isn’t as adventurous as others. Usually 4 or 5 books make a good short series.

    I’m a follower on FB.

  10. A series should end when it’s getting to be the same old story over & over. I lke when an author makes a whole new story but; somehow takes some of the characters and incorprates them into the next book. Sometimes that’s not done. Enjoyed your interview. Have not read your books. I do love your kind of stories.
    Have you ever visited a famous site or everyday place and said that’s going in my book?
    +1 Commented on the review of Finger Lickin’ Fifteen by J. Evanovich
    +1 New follower on facebook(sue brandes) & Twitter(katsrus2003)

    katsrus(at)gmail(dot)com

  11. A series should end when the storyline is complete and the characters have had individual growth.

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