Guest Blogger, Lizzie T. Leaf

Please join me in welcoming award-winning author Lizzie T. Leaf as the special guest blogger at Thoughts in Progress today.

Lizzie’s latest release in the DEAD series is DEAD Memory. She stops by today to talk about how the series came about and how vampires need love too. And here I thought vampires needed blood.

I like humor, I enjoy reading and writing humor. When approached to do a vampire Halloween story for an anthology by a now defunct publisher, no surprise when my mind went in that direction.

I took the bull by the horns and did it “my way.” In Waking Up DEAD, the heroine (thanks to a Jewish friend who suggested the idea) is a socialite from a Jewish family that keeps a Kosher kitchen. Our gal is a little on the wild side (think Paris Hilton) and a paparazzi darling. Her hook-up with a “hot” guy in a vampire costume at her annual Halloween party, changes her life…forever.

She wakes up smelling pine and discovers, thanks to the helpful stranger lurking outside the funeral home, she’s now one of the living dead. And, her new main food supply is blood. Yuk! She doesn’t eat food that has snuggled against blood, let alone drink the stuff. But a girl can get hungry and real hunger can cause values to slip.

Not to bore you with details, I finished the book and moved on…my vampire days behind me, or so I thought.

After Waking Up DEAD released, readers started to ask, “When’s the next book in the series?” Series? My mind hadn’t ventured down that path. Then one of my friends suggested I write a book about a vampire who faints at the sight of blood.

Once she planted the seed, my mind wouldn’t leave it alone, and DEAD Faint came into existence, as well as the start of the DEAD series.

The publisher, Aspen Mountain Press, believed in the series so strongly, when they decided to open up a Print on Demand line, the first two books in the DEAD series were combined for their pilot book under the title, DEAD Done Right.

Vampires don’t always have to be scary, blood hungry, beasts. They can have “attitude” that will make you smile. And when they connect with a soul mate, it goes to show, vampires need love too.

Are there more in the series, you ask. You bet. In DEAD Hunter the heroine discovers her focus as a vampire hunter has been off course and not all vampires are her enemy, especially the one she falls in love with. Just released is DEAD Memory, in which the hero has a little problem when he can’t remember he’s a vampire, or that he’s not supposed to be attracted to a werewolf.

And if you’d like a change from vampires, consider DOGSPELL at Red Rose Publishing. Originally released as an eBook, it’s also now in print. In this one, witchy twin sisters cause their brother’s life go to the dogs. Of course, while running around in black Scottie disguise, he meets his soul mate. And wouldn’t you know it; he falls in love with a veterinarian. At least it won’t cost him an arm & leg to keep his shots up to date!

Lizzie, thanks for guest blogging here today. You definitely put a different light on vampires. I love the idea of a vampire that faints at the sight of blood. LOL

Now for some background on Lizzie. She started life in Kansas, continued her growing in North Carolina, and currently shivers through the winters in Colorado. She has numerous e-books in varying lengths and her first print book, STRUCK BY LIGHTNING, won dual 2007 Beacon awards, in addition to being a finalist in two other contests. Her novella, DEAD Faint was a 2008 Finalist for Best Vampire at Love Romances Cafe.

Since discovering the fun of writing paranormal, Lizzie plays with creating vampires, faeries and other immortals. The latest eBook in the DEAD series at Aspen Mountain Press is the recently released DEAD Memory. Currently, she is working on a Holiday Historical for the newly launched Aurora Regency arm of AMP.

In her spare time she’s revising a full length paranormal novel set in Scotland that brings in Celtic folklore and a couple of ‘godly’ realms. Mix them together and there will be laughs for sure. 

When not creating mischief for paranormal beings, or exploring the other genres she wants to write, Lizzie loves to read, spend time with her family and travel, as much as time and budget will allow, with her best friend husband. Follow what Lizzie’s up to at these sites: www.lizzietleaf.com or http://lizzietleaf.blogspot.com/ or http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=826769827 or http://twitter.com/lizzietleaf

DEAD Memory is available at Aspen Mountain Press and in Kindle at Amazon.com and coming to other 3rd party distributors.

Here’s an excerpt of DEAD Memory: Werewolf/shifter, Tawny Howls discovered a wounded, nude male in her neighbor’s yard.  She’s been caring for him and has told her mother a fib about why she’s spending time at the neighbor’s.  When her mother shows up at the door, Tawny knows she’s been caught red-handed.

“Okay, so I fibbed a little.” An involuntary glance toward the closed door sent her mother in that direction. “Mama, no.” She should have saved her breath.
 
Lila partially opened the bedroom door and stood for a long moment studying the sleeping man. “Daughter, maybe your daddy is right when he makes those dumber than dirt remarks about some of the things you do. I’d think with all your education and working as a detective for so many years, you’d have more sense than this.”
Panic tightened Tawny’s throat. This was exactly why she lied to her mother earlier. Her parents giving her grief about helping a man didn’t rate high on her list of things she wanted or needed.
 
“Mama, he’s been shot. What was I to do, let him lay there and bleed to death?”
 
Lila sniffed and twisted her head around to glare at Tawny. “His kind won’t bleed to death.”
 
If her mother thought she knew so much, then let her spit it out. “Exactly what kind are you talking about?”
 
“He’s not human. Didn’t your nose tell you that? Don’t go telling me you’ve been gone from your kind so long you lost some of your abilities?”
 
Tawny’s knees objected to standing and she sank down on the chair behind her. “I didn’t detect any smell, other than a little blood from his head wound.”
 
“That should have told you then and there. Humans reek of a scent that is only theirs.”
 
True and she knew that, but something about this man…male whatever he is…had her wanting to ignore other possibilities. What if he were evil? The instincts honed from years of delving into the minds of truly bad people should have kicked in and alerted her. But she really hadn’t connected with his mind, now had she? Her own thoughts had been more interested in his body.
 
“If he’s not human, then what do you think he is?”
 
“As pale as his skin looks, I’d say vampire.” 
 
Tawny shook her head in denial. “No way, he’s a vampire. 

Vampires heal quickly. Plus, he wears a cross. When was the last time you heard of one of the undead doing that?”
 
“Hmmm.” Lila stuck her head in the room for a closer view. “He’s got next to no color on any part of him showing, and there’s a lot showing.”
 
Tawny willed her legs to function and stood, moving up behind her mother and leaned over her should for a better look. Mama had hit the nail on the head. Other than the cross around his neck, the only other thing covering him was the sheet wrapped across the most private parts of her patient. She knew the anatomy under the cover, that defined him as male, was a sight to behold. 
 
And her mother didn’t need to behold it.