A friend of mine got to read Blood Marriage by Regina Richards before it was printed, and she said it is so beautifully written it even made her like vampires and she doesn't like vampire books. So as soon as I heard this was out, I immediately went and bought my copy.
(psshh: it's on sale for 99 cents until January 8th)
I'm excited to have Regina as a guest today.
So Regina, tell us a little about what Blood Marriage is about.
Set in England in 1813, Blood Marriage is the story of Elizabeth Smith, a young woman who is dying of the same mysterious disease that has claimed most of her family. One night she meets Nicholas Devlin, a charming man who lures her into a rose garden with disastrous results. In short order she finds herself married to Nicholas and at turns frightened and confused by his behavior and the behavior of nearly everyone around him: his family, his friends, and even his houseguests.
When a pair of detectives arrive at Elizabeth’s new home to accuse Nicholas of a series of vampire-style killings, Elizabeth is certain they have the wrong man. Yet as servants, friends, and even family die, she begins to question who - or what - she’s married. Is she falling in love with a monster? As the evidence mounts against Nicholas and the detectives close in on their killer, Elizabeth must decide whether to follow her head or her heart.
Why vampires?
I never meant to write a vampire story. Truly. But many of my stories begin with an object and this question: what is happening around this object? It was November 1st and the Halloween decorations were still on the front porch. The previous night my son had been laying in a coffin he’d built from a cardboard box. He’d been dressed as a vampire and rising up to scare the Trick or Treaters that came to our door. The next morning the coffin was still there. As I sat down to write, the empty coffin was less than an arm’s length away on the other side of the window. So a cardboard box was the object that inspired Blood Marriage. And if you start with a coffin and Halloween still fresh in your mind…
A few days later I had an amazingly vivid dream about vampires. I won’t go into detail, though I remember the dream clearly still, but it spurred me on to write this story.
Anything else you'd like us to know?
I blog most Mondays at reginarichards.net and would love to have everyone drop by and add their two cents to whatever I’m musing about that day.
Also, I’m currently working on a new series of three connected romantic alternative history novels. What if the plague that decimated Europe in the Middle Ages had come with a twist that produced a very different society? Look for the first of this series in the winter of 2013.
Finally, if there’s sufficient interest in Blood Marriage, I have a second novel in mind along similar lines and would love to write it. So if readers like Blood Marriage and want to see more Regency Gothic Vampire Romance, they can contact me through my website and let me know.
Thanks for inviting me to your absolutely gorgeous blog today, Clover.
