This Week's Special Guest, Marie Treanor

Marie Treanor lives in Scotland with her eccentric husband and three much-too-smart children. Having grown bored with city life, she resides these days in a picturesque village by the sea where she is lucky enough to enjoy herself avoiding housework and writing sensual stories of paranormal romance and fantasy.

Marie is the award winning author of nearly forty sexy paranormal romances - Indie, New York and E-published. She is represented by Robert Gottlieb of Trident Media Group.

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The Founder Revealed! 

SERAFINA AND THE FOUNDER (Serafina’s, Book 5) 
By Marie Treanor 

Welcome back to Serafina’s, Scotland’s unique psychic investigation agency... where, in the fifth book, the Founder is finally stepping out from the shadows!

So, who is the Founder? If you’ve read the other books in the Serafina’s series, you’ll know that he’s the first vampire ever created, from whom the rest of the undead population is descended. He’s a dark, mysterious, reclusive and terrifyingly powerful figure. Even other vampires know nothing about him, except to keep out of his way. What little knowledge anyone has comes only from legend and rumour

According to this legend, the Founder was a great sorcerer who made himself a vampire thousands of years ago. Feared and hated for his knowledge, he was severely tortured, causing the mutilation of, among other things, his vocal chords. The vampires believe that this is the reason they don’t talk - although, of course, there is now a newer line of vampires, created from a mixture of old blood and new magic, who do talk, but they are generally considered inferior to their silent brethren J.

At Serafina’s Psychic Investigations, they first learned of the Founder through the vampire Blair who has become Serafina’s lover. They know the Founder is best avoided, since even the vampires fear him, but they also know he’s keeping a wary and disapproving eye on them, because of Blair’s relationship with Sera. From being a mere name in the first book, SERAFINA AND THE SILENT VAMPIRE, he became a silent, watchful shadow in Book 2, SERAFINA AND THE VIRTUAL MAN. In Book 3, SERAFINA AND THE LEPRECHAUN’S SHOE, the staff of Serafina’s believed that for his own reasons he helped rescue Jack and Roxy from the Tuatha de Danann. In Book 4, SERAFINA AND THE PSYCHO SOUS-CHEF, he finally spoke, briefly, to the vampire Phil, and to the human witch Melanie, Sera’s friend; both encounters were warnings.

So why should he finally come out of the shadow in Book 5, SERAFINA AND THE FOUNDER? And surely Sera and her friends have no defence against such a threat? Well, I don’t want to spoil the story but I will just say that the answer to both questions involves Melanie, the overcurious witch with a secret, tragic past, and some old enemies of the Founder who’ve finally tracked him down.

I have to say I had fun dragging the all-powerful Founder into Serafina’s wacky world of bizarre paranormal happenings and unlikely relationships. But even to me, he himself is the biggest surprise – a master of illusion, elusive, sexy, unexpectedly humorous and irresistible in more ways than one. I hope you enjoy him :)

SERAFINA AND THE FOUNDER by Marie Treanor


Serafina's Series Book Five

Will curiosity kill the witch?

Kind witch Melanie Merrow regards herself as an honourary aunt to the eccentric staff of Serafina’s Psychic Investigations. But Melanie has buried a terrible past that her friends bring unwittingly to the surface during a séance. Plus her insatiable quest for knowledge has fixated on the most elusive and dangerous being on the planet – the ancient, tragic Founder, from whom all vampires are descended. 

The Founder, who hides himself in shadows and illusions, even from the scattered vampires over whom he watches from a distance, plans to leave the world of humans forever. He should not be engaging in banter and seduction with the beautiful and intriguing Melanie, let alone buying her chips or involving himself in the chaos that is Serafina’s. But, fighting the human police, the possessive spirit of a dead serial killer, a pack of vengeful wolves, and the anger of the Tuatha de Danann is easy compared to dealing with his own reawakening desires.

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Check out all the Serafina Books on Marie Treanor's Website

This Week's Special Guest Marie Treanor

This week at the AuthorIsland Tiki Hut, Marie Treanor's is stopping by to talk about her release BLOOD ETERNAL, book three in her Awakened By Blood Series and how hard it was to end her trilogy.

Marie was born and bred in Scotland, but for some years moved around the UK working and studying. Now she's back home and happily married with three young children. Having grown bored with city life, her family lives in a picturesque village by the sea where, instead of working for a living, Marie is lucky enough to be able to enjoy herself writing stories of romance and fantasy.

She draws the inspiration for her books mainly from the people around her and from Scotland's rich history and culture - with, of course, large helpings of fun and imagination!

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Awakened by Blood… How can it end?
By Marie Treanor

For some time now, I’ve found these words echoing around in my head. More recently, as the release date of Blood Eternal has come and gone, it’s been in the sense of, “How can I bear to leave this world and these people?” Because obviously, after two years and three novels, the main characters of the Awakened by Blood trilogy are almost like family to me!

But the question was bothering me long before that. Obviously, I want readers to be intrigued enough to wonder how it will all end. However, as I began to think out the details of the final book, I found myself scratching my head and thinking, “How can it end?” As in how can I make the ending work? How can I resolve all these impossible situations? Because I already knew the ending I’d originally planned just wasn’t going to happen. Elizabeth and Saloman wouldn’t allow it.

In case you’ve no idea what I’m rambling about – and who could blame you? – I’d better begin at the beginning, and explain that Awakened by Blood is a trilogy of vampire romances/urban fantasy novels featuring a powerful, sexy, enigmatic hero - the vampire Saloman - and his strange love affair with Elizabeth Silk, the young academic who accidentally awakens him from a death-like sleep that’s held him captive for three hundred years.

Blood on Silk opened the trilogy last September, followed by Blood Sin in April this year; and the finale of the series, Blood Eternal, released on 4th October.

As enemies, allies and lovers, Elizabeth and Saloman have fought their way across Eastern Europe, Scotland, New York, and other exotic locations, trying to resolve their turbulent passions while facing down the threats to the world of both vampires and rogue humans. And now, just as the secret of their relationship is out, the secret of vampire existence is also erupting, and Saloman has to confront his painful past in order to save Elizabeth and ensure his future.

However, I deliberately set Saloman and Elizabeth up to oppose each other. Saloman needs to kill Elizabeth in order to gain the mystical strength of his Awakener, which will help him take his revenge on his betrayers and rule the world. Elizabeth needs to kill Saloman to stop him from ruling the world, and from doing all the dreadful things vampires do in the process.

Elizabeth is a little shy, a little introverted and naive, when she first encounters Saloman, but she has to grow very fast into her role as unofficial hunter, just to stay alive when all the vampires in the world want to kill her. Plus, she has to deal with the mind-boggling notion that Saloman, who makes no secret of his attraction to her, sees nothing wrong in making love to her one night and killing her in the morning. In fact, he believes that in giving her a little happiness first, he’s being kind. Saloman just isn’t human.

In addition, Elizabeth’s a good person, and recognizes her duty. So even when she falls in love with Saloman – after all he is fascinating and incredibly sexy - she still knows she has to kill him. Only, of course, she can’t. And as it turns out Saloman’s obsession with her sees him finding ways around his need for her death.

By the beginning of Blood Eternal, this unlikely couple is in a recognized relationship, however troubled, and things are spiraling out of control. Saloman’s rule is having unforeseen effects on both vampires and humans. The vampire hunters who’d become Elizabeth’s closest friends no longer trust her, now that she’s sleeping with the enemy. And of course, Elizabeth and Saloman haven’t really resolved their differences. Saloman is still hell-bent on ruling the world, although he may have adjusted his tactics, and Elizabeth is equally determined not to let him.

Elizabeth has always known she’d never accept immortality, even from Saloman. But now, troubled by prophecy, destiny, mysterious illness and acute temptation, Elizabeth re-examines her options, with and without Saloman. Events force both of them to choose sides and make difficult decisions.

And yet I couldn’t let either of them just give in! It isn’t in Elizabeth’s nature to roll over and follow Saloman blindly, just because she loves him. And would the mighty Saloman really give up his dream of world domination just to please a human woman?

I discovered I’d written myself into a bit of a corner with these characters. Because no matter how strong their feelings for each other, if one of them doesn’t give way, where the hell is the “happy ever after”? In parting and new loves? In “true death” for both of them? As the forces stack up against them, this becomes a genuine possibility.

So how did I fight my way through this morass of tragic impossibilities and find the ending to Blood Eternal?

I didn’t. Elizabeth and Saloman did it for me J. I let them fight it out on paper, with themselves and each other and their friends and enemies, and Blood Eternal is how it ends. For the time being, at least J

But I would love to know your opinion. Can you understand a strong hero or heroine who “gives in” for the sake of love? (I mean, of course, on more important issues than whose turn it is to wash the dishes!). Is it justified, or would it annoy you? Let me know!

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WIN - Tell Marie your opinion on her topic this week and your name goes in the hat for an autographed copy of one of the books in her Awakened by Blood Trilogy. Please leave your email address so we can contact you if you are this week's winner - Good Luck!

This Week's Special Guest Marie Treanor

This week at the AuthorIsland Tiki Hut, Marie Treanor's is stopping by to talk about the setting of her upcoming release BLOOD ETERNAL, book three in her Awakened By Blood Series.

Marie was born and bred in Scotland, but for some years moved around the UK working and studying. Now she's back home and happily married with three young children.  Having grown bored with city life, her family lives in a picturesque village by the sea where, instead of working for a living, Marie is lucky enough to be able to enjoy herself writing stories of romance and fantasy.

She draws the inspiration for her books mainly from the people around her and from Scotland's rich history and culture - with, of course, large helpings of fun and imagination!

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Blood Eternal – Where it all Happens

By Marie Treanor

When choosing the settings for my books, I always find it easiest to follow the old adage, “write what you know”. And although I haven’t visited every single place I’ve ever written about (some of them are made-up for a start!), I do like to have at least a vague knowledge of the country concerned.

Not that I want to fill my books with long descriptions that could double as accurate travel guides! But whether my characters are in a village I invented or in a well-known city inhabited by millions, I do like to be able to convey some kind of genuine atmosphere, a general feel of the place.

This is true in particular of my Awakened by Blood vampire romance novels, which are set in Romania, Hungary, Scotland, the United States and, most recently, Turkey. Apart from New York – where I confess I’ve never set foot and had to depend for my “feel” on film, television and internet research! – I’ve at least visited all those countries. And co-incidentally, I’m not long back from Turkey, where much of the first half of Blood Eternal takes place.

It wasn’t my first visit. My family and I have spent several holidays there over the last five years, staying in the same mountain village, and we love the country and the people. It really is a kind of gateway between east and west, a mix of both familiar and unfamiliar cultures to a western European like myself. I love to lie in bed there listening to the dawn call to prayer and the cacophony of animal noises that greets the sun in a traditional Turkish village. The slower pace of life and the air of peace; the friendliness and kindness of the people – many of whom have very little but want to share what they have; the colour and variety of the markets and the insistence of the traders; the beauty of the mountain scenery and the Mediterranean coast, all make it a magical place for me. And the perfect setting in which to awaken an insane Ancient vampire and chase him as he rampages through the countryside.

Of course, it’s terribly romantic as well! I was happy to fit in a few trysts for Elizabeth and Saloman among this scenery - between vampire hunting and angst, of course!

The house in which Elizabeth and the hunters stay is based on one we lived in several times. So is the village. And the town of Fethiye, where Elizabeth and her friend Mihaela, have their heart-to-heart, is a real, thriving market town. Much of the older town was destroyed by an earthquake in the last century, but here are the ancient tombs carved into the hillside, as visited by Elizabeth and Mihaela in the story, and this is the view they might have had from the harbour-front café where they had lunch.

It’s good to have real places to envision as your characters move through them. I really hope that in the books, I’ve conveyed the charm and generosity of the people as well as the beauty of their country.

How important to you is a genuine setting for a book? Or does it not matter at all, so long as the story grabs your attention? If you have any favourite settings, I’d love to hear about them!

BLOOD ETERNAL: an Awakened by Blood novel by Marie Treanor

Secrets don't disappear after seduction...

Elizabeth Silk is struggling to reconcile her passion for the vampire overlord Saloman and her allegiance to the vampire hunters. When a shocking vampire revolt calls Saloman away from her, she refuses to follow him.

To make matters worse, Saloman's beloved cousin Luk has been
found and awakened by one of his greatest enemies. Frenzied
with bloodlust, Luk embarks on a killing spree and prepares to
expose Saloman's biggest vulnerability: Elizabeth.

But under Saloman's regime, vampires have become less concerned with secrecy, no longer willing to hide their power. Rumors are swirling about attacks on humans. After Saloman joins forces with the vampire hunters to consolidate his power, Elizabeth begins to understand her role in the inevitable collision of the two worlds. She could bring resolution between vampires and humans - if she can manage to stay alive long enough to play both sides.

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WIN - Leave Marie a question this week at the Tiki Hut and your name goes in the hat for an autographed copy of one of her Awakened by Blood books! Please leave your email address so we can contact you if you are this week's winner!

*** Btw - don't forget to check out the Kindle Marie has up for grabs over on the contest page of AuthorIsland.com!!

This Tuesday and Wednesday At The Tiki Hut - Marie Treanor

The winner of a free download from Marie's backlist is ANNE - please email me at AuthorIsland at yahoo.com with your contact information, so Marie can find out which of her books you'd like to try!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to keep Marie company at the Tiki Hut!


This week's guest is Marie Treanor. Marie was born and bred in Scotland, but for some years moved around the UK working and studying. Now she's back home and happily married with three young children.

Having grown bored with city life, her family lives in a picturesque village by the sea where, instead of working for a living, Marie is lucky enough to be able to enjoy herself writing stories of romance and fantasy.

She draws the inspiration for her books mainly from the people around her and from Scotland's rich history and culture - with, of course, large helpings of fun and imagination!

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**A CHANCE TO WIN** One person from all who leave Marie a comment will win a free download from Marie's backlist (anything except her two new releases).

Welcome Marie!

***

Putting the gothic in Gothic Dragon


This week, I’ve been celebrating two releases: my quirky but passionate ghost story, Requiem for Rab, and, perhaps even more excitingly, my first print release at Samhain Publishing - Gothic Dragon.

Finally seeing this book in print, and holding it in my awed little hands, got me thinking about why I wrote that particular story at that particular time.

I couldn't remember :)

Well, the old memory's not what it was! I did recall getting up at five every morning during one summer and dementedly writing until the kids woke up, so I knew I was desperate to write it.

Then I re-read the blurb, and Samhain's humorous warning which says:

"As well as explicit and delicious sex, this book contains the secret of ultimate escapism which could be highly dangerous in the wrong hands. The reader experiments at her/his own risk."

And the metaphorical light bulb snapped on in my head. Escapism!

Admittedly most of my reading and writing is to achieve and provide escapism, but Gothic Dragon is all about it. Probably because I wrote it during a difficult phase of my life. Nothing very tragic, just frustrating - the bankruptcy of one of my publishers which effectively froze several of my books in legal limbo.

So books and escapism were on my mind...

Perhaps I should say at this point that Gothic Dragon is about a young, bored woman who falls into the pages of a book and lives among the characters in this Renaissance-like world which was created by a nineteenth century gothic romance writer. And naturally, my heroine falls in love with the sexy villain of the piece. (Well, who wouldn't? Have you seen his picture on the cover?)

Gothic Dragon has lots of the elements that made gothic romances so popular, particularly with women, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: a dangerous medieval setting, foreign location, sorcery, an insane and brooding villain and a Byronic hero (who are, in my story the same man!) And my helpless heroine, flung into this terrifying world with no control over her life.

Of course, my modern-day heroine learns to control as much as she can. She chooses to re-enter the world of the book and she discovers the truth behind its existence. She takes control of her "real" life, in which she has been passively drifting, and makes her own choice as to where and with whom to spend her life. Early gothic heroines didn't usually have such luxuries.

It's a little bit of a paradox that gothic romances were written largely to provide escapism for educated, middle class women trapped in the inferior role society had prescribed for them. They had very little control over their own destinies and were largely restricted to looking after home and children. Through gothic literature, they could identify with the heroine and be swept away to wildly exciting worlds of terror and romance. It must have been liberating and exhilarating. And yet, to be socially acceptable and therefore popular, the heroines of these books had to behave impeccably and keep their social place under the superiority of men. Which is where our readers started out!

So the heroines of these romances didn't cry out for independence or recognition as the intellectual equal of men. In fact, they were often stupid, and any hankerings after romance were shown to be a Bad Thing leading to disaster. Supernatural happenings were explained rationally, and the heroines found happiness by conforming. Like the readers.

But the excitement remained. And gothic novels retained huge popularity for decades, from Walpole's "original" and critically condemned "Castle of Otranto" published in 1764, through Anne Radcliffe's more "acceptable" creations and all the immitations which followed her. These ideas burgeoned in romantic poetry, including some by Keats and Coleridge, and even in architecture where it became fashionable to build neo-gothic piles with fake medieval ruins in the grounds.

Even when its popularity faded, the genre lingered on in other, changing forms, like the still much loved Bronte novels, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the stories of Edgar Allan Poe, HP Lovecraft... I grew up devouring the gothic novels of Daphne du Maurier, Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart and others, which come from similar roots. I loved the dark, brooding heroes with their mysterious and/or tragic pasts, and the whole delicious atmosphere of danger.

Gothic Dragon is my humble tribute to all of these great authors, and if you read it, I hope it gives you all the escape you want :)

Just be careful what you do with your books. And be doubly careful what you imagine...


Gothic Dragon by Marie Treanor is now available in print from Samhain Publishing: http://www.mybookstoreandmore.com/shop/product.da/p-gothic-dragon .

It is also still available in ebook formats: http://www.mybookstoreandmore.com/shop/product.da/gothic-dragon.

This Tuesday At The Tiki Hut - Marie Treanor

Author Marie Treanor is joining us today in the AuthorIsland Tiki Hut all the way from across the pond in Scotland!!

Marie Treanor was born and bred in Scotland, but for some years moved around the UK working and studying. Now she's back home and happily married with three young children.

Having grown bored with city life, her family lives in a picturesque village by the sea where, instead of working for a living, Marie is lucky enough to be able to enjoy herself writing stories of romance and fantasy.

She draws the inspiration for her books mainly from the people around her and from Scotland's rich history and culture - with, of course, large helpings of fun and imagination!

Visit Marie's Website *** Visit Marie's Myspace *** Visit Marie's Blog *** Get Marie's Newsletter

Thanks for joining us today, Marie!

Hello!

I’m thrilled to be here at the Tiki Hut today. Actually, I have to confess I’m also a tad nervous, because it’s my first visit as guest blogger, and because, like many authors, I live so much in my imagination that it’s difficult to readjust to write about “real life”.

But then, even the most fantastical worlds in fiction have to be based on some degree of reality. My most fantastic world (in the sense of its distance from our world today) is undoubtedly the setting of my City of the Damned trilogy with Changeling Press. It’s a bleak, post-apocalyptic future world, devastated by nuclear war. The survivors live in isolated, very different communities - and the City of the Damned is more different than most!

Here, the particular cocktail of radiation poisoning suffered by the inhabitants appears to have created mutant species - the most powerful of which would be instantly recognizable to many generations of gothic, horror and romance readers as werewolves and vampires.

So, definite fiction. But inspired by some of the more dangerous aspects of our own world. Fascinatng, if scary, to speculate on what might happen if it all goes horribly wrong, and how surviving humanity might cope with what’s left.

This was a big departure for me. When I began writing romances, I set them deliberately in my home country of Scotland, because it’s the place I know best. With the City of the Damned I had to bring my own vision of this ruined, struggling world to life, almost in a vacuum. Somewhere on Earth. And it was curiously liberating. I thoroughly enjoyed creating my unique City.

I’m not sure when I first realized where my City was. I think it was when I first began to consider the relationship between it and the safer Dome City from which Lara, my heroine in Loving the Wolf, came in search of her missing brother. Subconsciously, I’d placed Lara’s Dome City in the south, and the City of the Damned in the north. There’s no such thing as country, so it’s never named, but I began to realize that, without really meaning to, I was still writing about Scotland. And by extension, Britain.

My City of the Damned is, in fact, a devastated Glasgow. The ruined graveyard through which David tracks the beautiful vampire Katia in Loving the Man, is Glasgow’s historic Necropolis. The southern Dome City, better protected than anywhere else from the consequences of nuclear war is, of course, London.

The vast, empty Highlands to the north of the City of the Damned, where my heroes and heroines hope to discover the tether that could save the world, now needs no introduction. The same Scottish Highlands turn out to be the home of the mysterious and powerful Dragul in the two spin-off series Dragul Rising, and Rogue Warriors.

Having admitted it to myself, as more contact formed between these communities, I called their shared environment “the Island”. And when in Rogue Warriors, the Island drifts in to a new war with the next power they encounter spreading from the west, the West is a similarly devastated and recovering America. And the outer islands over which their military forces fight are Ireland and the Hebrides.

So there you have it – the geography of the City of the Damned revealed for the first time! Although the observant may already have guessed! If you haven’t yet read the City of the Damned trilogy (Loving the Wolf, Loving the Vampire and Loving the Man), all three novellas are now available from Changeling Press in one bargain e-book collection: http://www.changelingpress.com/product.php?&upt=book&ubid=1072.

Even better, it’s today’s spotlight book at Author Island - you could win it here: http://www.authoriland.com/.

Well, thanks for letting me ramble about one my favourite subjects! If you’d like to read some excerpts from City of the Damned, or find out more about my other books, please visit my website, http://www.marietreanor.com/.

You can also keep up with my latest news by joining my Newsletter only group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marietreanornewsletter. Or the chat group I share with fellow authors Kyla Logan and Kara Griffin: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sexydelights.

Best wishes!

Marie