A Brave New (Vampire)
World
One
of the fun things about writing fiction is building the world in which your
characters are going to live. If you’re writing contemporary fiction, you get
to decide where you want your story to take place, but you’re pretty much
dealing with humans.
Paranormal
fiction throws that door wide open, but it’s a crowded genre. Have
shapeshifters lost their furry fun? Are vampires all bled out?
When
I set about writing my Penton Legacy series, everybody told me vampires were
done. Stick a fork in ’em. Move on to something else.
But
I had this idea that wouldn’t leave me alone—the idea of what might happen to
vampires if much of the human blood supply became lethal to them? What if they
tumbled to the bottom of the food chain instead of reigning at the top?
What
might happen? Well, for one thing, the city vampires would fan out into rural
areas in search more humans who hadn’t gotten the vaccine that started the
problem to begin. There would be human trafficking—for blood purposes.
Probably, the vampire leaders and lawmakers would be overrun with dissatisfied
vampires run amok and struggling to hang onto their power.
At
the opposite end of the scale, maybe a master vampire had figured out a way to
keep his clan together, along with their willingly bonded humans, in a
symbiotic relationship. He buys up an isolated, abandoned mill town in rural
Alabama.
And
the town’s name is Penton.
There
were a few other decisions to be made—how much traditional vampire lore to use,
and how far afield I wanted to stray.
Here are a few considerations if you’re considering a vampire novel:
--Feeding. Do you want
your vamps to feed from humans, from each other, only from the opposite gender,
or from animals? Can they eat food? Does feeding involve sex, or does it
depend? Is some kind of bond required between a vampire and whomever he or she
feeds from? For the Penton series, my vampires can feed from each other in an
emergency (if one has recently fed and the other hasn’t), but eventually have
to feed from humans. Gender doesn’t matter, and it only involves sex if they
want it to, although the act of feeding and being fed from is apparently VERY
pleasurable. They don’t eat food, but can drink alcohol, although it has little
effect on them.
--Dead or Alive? You have to
decide whether or not you want your vampires to truly be undead. Do they have a
heartbeat? Are they physically incapable of waking and moving during daylight
hours? If so, can they go outside or must they stay in a light-tight space? My
Penton vampires are not undead, but evolved. Their hearts beat slower, their
blood is a slightly different color. They go into “daysleep” during the day but
the very strong and very old vampires can move around a little as long as they
avoid sunlight. They breathe…but it’s more out of habit than necessity.
--Mortal
Weakness.
What does it take to kill your vampire? Stake through the heart? Removal of
heart or head? Fire? Sunlight? Or a more specific substance such as mercury or
silver? After all, a vampire hero who is truly immortal will have a pretty dull
story. I decided that my vampires could be killed by the removal of the heart
or head and by sunlight, but not much else (except, of course, that vaccinated
human blood). Silver does have an impact on them, however—it renders their
strength to that of humans and will burn their skin.
--Superpowers. What special
powers do you want your vamps to have? Can they fly? Have superhuman physical
strength? Mental powers? Psychic abilities? Can they see in the dark? Are their
other senses heightened? There’s a whole cafeteria line full of superpowers
from which to choose! I decided my vampires would have extraordinary physical
strength, but only the master vampires (which are few) have any kind of psychic
abilities. They can’t fly, but they do have enhanced senses of smell.
--Organization. Finally, how
are your vampires organized? Are they loners? Do they live in groups, and if
so, what are those groups called? How big are the groups? Is there a ruling
body over the vampires that sets law and punishment? The Penton Legacy series
vampires are ruled by a Vampire Tribunal (think of an officious, fanged version
of Congress). Most vampires are loners or group together in small scathes of
five or six. The fact that master vampire Aidan Murphy (a 400-year-old
Irishman) has pulled together a scathe of 150 vampires and their bonded humans
isn’t sitting well with the paranoid Tribunal, so they want him destroyed.
What’s
your favorite vampire type? Who is your favorite vampire character? I’m fond of
my own boys, of course—Aidan the Irishman; Mirren, a 400-year-old Scottish
mercenary; and Will, the baby of the group at a mere sixty years old—but I do
love a good vampire from the Black Dagger Brotherhood. And I wouldn’t kick Eric
Northman out of the shower.
Dip
a fang in the pool and leave a comment for a chance at a $10 Amazon Gift Card
or a signed copy of one of the Penton books, print or audio!
---
Omega
Penton Vampire Legacy, Book 3
Susannah Sandlin
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Date of Publication: February 5, 2013
ISBN: 978-1612183596
ASIN: B0073XV3L2
Number of pages: 328
Word Count: approx. 88,000
Book Description:
The
bloody war between the Vampire Tribunal and the defiant scathe of Penton,
Alabama, rages on, forcing its residents and their bonded humans to retreat
into the underground fortress of last resort: Omega. There, Will Ludlam is
charged with the care of Penton's humans, though he longs to fight alongside
his vampire brethren. He knows the risks: as the renegade son of the Tribunal's
vicious leader, Will's capture could doom the resistance.
Yet he
is determined to prove his worth to his adopted scathe, to his vengeful father
and to former US Army officer Randa Thomas, his beautiful, reluctant partner.
Randa has little faith that a former member of the vampire elite has what it
takes to fight a war. But as their enemies descend upon Omega, Will's polished
charm and Randa's guarded heart finally give way to the warrior within.
Fans of
Susannah Sandlin's Penton Legacy are sure to devour this long-awaited third
installment of the steamy paranormal series.
ABSOLUTION
The Penton Legacy,
Book 2
By Susannah Sandlin
Release
date: October 9, 2012
Publisher:
Montlake Romance
Book Description:
With the
vampire world on the brink of civil war over the scarcity of untainted human
blood, battle lines are being drawn between the once peaceful vampire and human
enclave of Penton, Alabama, and the powerful Vampire Tribunal.
A
Scottish gallowglass warrior turned vampire in the early 17th century, Mirren
Kincaid once served the Tribunal as its most creative and ruthless
executioner—a time when he was known as the Slayer. But when assigned a killing
he found questionable, Mirren abandoned the Tribunal’s political machinations
and disappeared—only to resurface two centuries later as the protector and
second-in-command of Penton. Now the Tribunal wants him back on their side—or
dead.
To break
their rogue agent, they capture Glory Cummings, the descendant of a shaman, and
send her to restore Mirren’s bloodthirsty nature. But instead of a monster,
Glory sees a man burdened by the weight of his past. Could her magic
touch—meant by the tribunal to bring out a violent killer—actually help Mirren
break his bonds and discover the love he doesn’t believe he deserves?
It’s a
town under siege, a powerful warrior in a battle with his past, and one woman
who can make the earth move—literally—as the Penton Legacy continues.
REDEMPTION
Book One Penton Legacy series
By Susannah Sandlin
Following a worldwide pandemic whose vaccine
left human blood deadly to vampires, the vampire community is on the verge of
starvation and panic. Some have fanned into rural areas, where the vaccine was
less prevalent, and are taking unsuspecting humans as blood slaves. Others are
simply starving, which for a vampire is worse than death—a raging hunger in a
creature too weak to feed.
Immune
to these struggles—at first—is Penton, a tiny community in rural Chambers
County, Alabama, an abandoned cotton mill town that has been repopulated by
charismatic vampire Aidan Murphy, his scathe of 50 vampires, and their
willingly bonded humans. Aidan has recruited his people carefully, believing in
a peaceful community where the humans are respected and the vampires retain a
bit of their humanity.
But an unresolved family feud and the paranoia of the Vampire Tribunal descend on Penton in the form of Aidan’s brother, Owen Murphy. Owen has been issued a death warrant that can only be commuted if he destroys Penton—and Aidan, against whom he’s held a grudge since both were turned vampire in 17th-century Ireland. Owen begins a systematic attack on the town, first killing its doctor, then attacking one of Aidan’s own human familiars
To protect his people, Aidan is forced to go against his principles and kidnap an unvaccinated human doctor—and finds himself falling in love for the first time since the death of his wife in Ireland centuries ago.
Dr. Krystal Harris, forced into a world she
never knew existed, must face up to her own abusive past to learn if the
feelings she’s developing for her kidnapper are real—or just a warped,
supernatural kind of Stockholm Syndrome in which she’s allowing herself to
become a victim yet again.
Susannah
Sandlin’s REDEMPTION is the first in the Penton Legacy series. Book two,
ABSOLUTION, will be out September 18, and book three, OMEGA, on December 18.
About
the Author:
Susannah
Sandlin is the author of paranormal romance set in the Deep South, where there
are always things that go bump in the night. A journalist by day, Susannah grew
up in Alabama reading the gothic novels of Susan Howatch and the horror fantasy
of Stephen King. (Um…it is fantasy, right?) The combination of Howatch and King
probably explains a lot. Currently a resident of Auburn, Alabama, Susannah has
also lived in Illinois, Texas, California, and Louisiana.
Website:
http://www.susannahsandlin.com
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/susannahsandlin
Indie
Bound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781612183541
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