Whenever you start writing anything, the thing you hear
most is, “You have to put a new spin on it,” because everything’s been sooooo
done. And it seems like nothing in the paranormal world has been done as much
as vampires. They’re dark, they’re dangerous, they’re sexy, and they’re fun as
hell to write.
Everybody knows the typical vampire tropes: aversion to sunlight, garlic, and religious symbols; pale, pasty,
and fanged; immortal; comes in two varieties: evil and good (occasionally known
as “less-evil”). Typically, when you think vampire, you think the above. And
that’s fine. But it plays into the same tired trope.
So what can you do to beef it up? When I was working on
This Time Next Year, I had to think about that a lot to avoid any comparisons
to a very popular YA novel about sparkly bloodsuckers. What I ended up doing
was thinking a lot about the
characters and what was most important to them. Kiernan realizes his usual
tricks aren’t going to work, and he decides to go a more personal route:
If this didn’t deter
her, nothing would. “Once the process starts, your body will shut down. Your
organs will begin to fail, and in order to handle the pain, you’ll enter into a
comatose state.” He paused. She hung on every word. “There is a possibility you
won’t wake up.”
For a brief moment, she
shut her eyes. Then she nodded.
Torturous as it was, he
had to continue. “Once you wake, I’ll need you to show me your eyes.”
“Why?”
“Fledglings go one of
two ways. Either they’ll be golden-eyed and normal….”
“Like you.”
“Yes. Or they’ll wake
with eyes red as blood and the lust to go with it.”
She paled and covered
her mouth with her hand.
“Now do you understand
why I hesitate?”
The sheer horror on her
face suggested she did, and surely the realization that he could turn her into
a new Willem would discourage her.
Not necessarily a brand new take on it. After all there’s a lot of
mythology that covers these aspects, but they’re personal to Kiernan and
Moira’s situation, and that’s what makes it unique and fresh.
Enter Cate's Giveaway!
This Time Next Year
by Catherine Peace
Vampire Kiernan Shaw has
never forgotten the night twenty years ago when he’d been forced to stand by
while another vampire killed a six-year-old girl’s parents in front of her.
He’s spent the better part of the last two decades watching over her,
protecting her and hoping for an opportunity to make amends one day.
Ever since surviving the vampire attack that killed her parents, Moira Curran
has dealt with the resulting nightmares and abandonment issues the only way she
could—by throwing herself into her biochemistry career, preferring a life of a
hermit in her lab to facing the reality of her lonely life.
Madame Eve brings them back together for one fateful night. An immediate bond
of sizzling chemistry and respect forms, but can it heal her fears and his
guilt?
Available from Decadent Publishing
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/This-1Night-Stand-Series-ebook/dp/B00DV0X0R6/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1373483216&sr=1-2&keywords=this+time+next+yea
About Cate Peace
Catherine Peace has been telling stories for as long as
she could remember. She often blames two things for her forays into speculative
fiction—Syfy (when it was SciFi) channel Sundays with her dad and The Island of Dr. Moreau by HG Wells.
She graduated in 2008 from Northern Kentucky University with a degree in
English and is still chasing the dream of being super rich and famous, mostly
so she can sit around in her PJs all day and write stories. When not being a
slave to the people in her head, she’s a slave to two adorable dogs
