Guest Author: Tracey O’Hara

5 August 2010 Jackie LE Guests, Tracey O'Hara 26

Today, Literary Escapism is excited to welcome Tracey O’Hara, author of Night’s Cold Kiss, to the floor.

The tension between the Aeternus, an ancient vampiric people, and humanity has been mounting for over a century. But when rogue vampires begin to drain humans in order to achieve an illegal blood-high, all bets are off.

After the death of her parents, Antoinette Petrescu devoted her life to becoming one of the top Venators, the elite hunters who destroy the rogue Necrodreniacs. Her kill count is legendary and her skills superb.

But now the serial killer who killed her parents has returned. And to stop him Antoinette must join forces not only with the Aeternus, but also their most legendary killer. One that is both dangerously attractive, and involved in buried secrets of her past. More dangerous still, a dark attraction grows between them–one that could doom both races.

Make sure you stick around to the end. We’ll be giving away a copy of Night’s Cold Kiss to a lucky reader.
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Shapeshifters, vampires and werewolves – oh my:

The modern trend in vampires is not exactly a new phenomenon. Dracula and Dr. Frankenstein were around a long time before sparkly vampires were even a ghost of an idea. The Middle Ages and Dark Ages were rife with tales of demons, witches and other paranormal creatures out to steal souls and drag unwitting humans down to hell. They were superstitious times where the stories were more than myth, they were a perceived danger.

In Gaelic myth, faeries were not the cute little Tinkerbell from a Disney movie. No – they were creatures of mischief or malevolence, anywhere from playing innocuous pranks on humans through to stealing babies and leading people into danger, just for their own entertainment.

So where did the modern day fascination with the supernatural spring from?

I don’t think it simply sprang from anywhere, it’s always been there. Dracula was the ultimate dark seducer, creeping into the bedroom of the unwitting Lucy and feeding from her in a veiled metaphor for sex wrapped in horror and then turning his attention to Jonathan Harker’s young fiancée, Mina, before meeting his end at the hands of Van Helsing. Anne Rice’s vampire, Lestat, put the sexy into the nightwalker. For a character that couldn’t consummate the act – the sexual tension in her books was fantastic/MESMERIZING.

While J.K. Rowling captured the imagination of a new generation with tales of wizards and magic, I remember reading Eva Ibbotson’s The Great Ghost Rescue when I was a girl and being just enthralled by the idea of attending a school where you could hang out with ghosts, screaming skulls, banshees and headless Scotsmen. I adored that book.

But what I really love about today’s modern tales of the supernatural is the diversity. Authors putting their own spin on old tales or creating new ones. I may not be into sparkly vampires, but I admire Stephanie Myers’ ability to make them her own and create her own lore around them. Vampires no longer have to be the cold, undead and evil creatures they once were – though I do still love a wicked, blood-thirsty vampire villain.

Sometimes people just want to escape – and what better way is there to visit a world where anything is possible, any evil could kill you and any hero can save you? I know when I write my Dark Brethren books I learn more about the world my characters live. It’s like that when I picked up a new series. I love exploring the world, learning the rules, learning how things work. It’s the different sameness to our world that keeps me coming back for more – that and the fabulous characters that inhabit these stories.

So bring it on I say, and long live paranormal.

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Want to purchase Tracey’s novels?

  1. Night’s Cold Kiss at Amazon or the Book Depository
  2. Death’s Sweet Embrace at Amazon or the Book Depository (January 25, 2011)

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Thank you Tracey for taking the time to visit Literary Escapism!

Contest Time! Tracey has graciously offered to give away a signed copy of Night’s Cold Kiss to a lucky reader. All you have to do is answer this question:  Which worlds do you love exploring? Or simply ask Tracey 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 Preorder Death’s Sweet Embrace or purchase any novel through LE’s Amazon store or 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 September 3rd, 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.

25 Comments

  1. If I could visit any world from a book I’ve read I think I’d visit Ann McCaffrey’s Pern.

    +1 facebook follower

  2. Hey Tracey! i enjoyed your book. But I must say, Viktor is one of my favorite characters . So you can imagine my pain . I get the feeling that this book started out much longer, with more details. Did you have to edit out a lot? There is so much story between Antonette and her brother and their relationship. I feel like I missed out on that. My favorite emotional parts of the story were chapter 19(trying not to give spoilers away) and 34. I felt it all . Looking forward to the next book and need to go read the prequel on you website.

  3. I’ll go along with the first comment and choose the world I would visit from a book series. I would choose to explore the world of the Shadow Realm from the Dark Jewels series.

    +1 follower on Twitter @GeckyBoz
    +1 Facebook follower/liker (whatever they call it0

  4. I love to explore fantasy worlds. So much so that I’m working on creating one of my own. ^_^ Speaking of, it’s high time I got back to it!

    +1 Facebook/Twitter follower (both) – Is that one each or just one?

    ^_^
    TL

  5. +1 Follower in FB

    I’d like to visit fantasy worlds from other planets in the universe.

    meredithfl at gmail dot com

  6. Hi T. – looking forward to reading DSE! How goes Bk3?

    Congrats on your new T.Sommers Spice Brief – Blame It On The Moonlight (that was hot!). Looking forward to catching up with you at conference. :-)

    No need to enter me in this comp.

  7. I love the world’s of Keri Arthur, her Riley Jenson series set in Melbourne with werewolves, vampires, various other shapeshifters and baddies is fascinating, and then there’s her Myth and Magic series – with dragon shifters which is set in the US on the West coast.

    I’m looking forward to reading Night’s Cold Kiss, it sounds fantastic.

  8. Sorry – late to the party. That is what you get for living in Australia.
    Thank you all for joining in and the great comments. I ADORE Anne McCaffrey’s Dragon Riders of Pern – I would definately love to visit there. Even with the Thread threat. And Kylie my sweet – see you soon.

    Sharon – Viktor is my fav too. I cried. But *taps nose with finger* you never know.

  9. I love exploring just about any world. Urban settings yet with a different set of rules where the supernatural exists are great. I like a book that can make you feel like you’re in reality but bring in the extraordinary to make a book fabulous.

    I can get into just about every Urban Fantasy book I read. The worlds are real because most of the time they are in a real setting, but there are different rules, like I said where the supernatural are concerned.

    Tracey, do you have any advice for an aspiring writer? What was your road to publication like?

  11. oh, Tracey! Do not tease me like that! Team Viktor here. If I clap my hands real loud and whatever else Peter Pan had to do to help Tinkerbell, will that help?

  14. I prefer urban fantasy worlds to anything else but my favorite world is Wonderland and I love to read books where other authors explore it in a new way.

    FB fan Jennifer L

    Ladytink_534(at)yahoo(dot)com

  15. I’m open to any kind of world really. When I find the time to read, any book is its own world and I find myself leaving reality behind when reading no matter what genre the book may fall under.

  17. I don’t read too much but one of my favorite worlds was Hogwarts, basically the Wizard World of Harry Potter. So want to go the theme park!

    But I do like modern settings too that weave in the supernatural or anything else that’s not natural.

  19. yeah it’s a stereotype, but I would love to explore a paranormal world – you never know what you might come across.

  23. +1 comment: Tracey, I agree with you diversity is fantastic! However, what is a characteristic attributed to some supernatural species that makes you cringe (e.g. sparkling vampires, flying vampires, etc.)?

    And what was your introduction to the paranormal genre?

    +1 tweeted: http://twitter.com/Stella_ExLibris/status/22888783102
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    Thanks for the giveaway, of course I’ll review it on my blog/Goodreads/Amazon, etc.

    stella.exlibris (at) gmail (dot) com

  25. I enjoy fantasy and urban fantasy settings – I love the magic elements always embedded in these.

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