An Interview with Christine Church, Author of Blood Moon. **Read an excerpt - Giveaway**
Fate of the True Vampires
Novella 3
Christine Church
Genre: Historical Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Grey Horse Press
Date of Publication: February 2018
ISBN: 978-0692063095
ASIN: B07317PW2R
Number of pages: 74
Word Count: approx. 30,000
Cover Artist: Christine Church
Read the 17th century journals of Wolfe Amus MacDonald Stewart and discover the truth to an age-old mystery.
Scottish Highlands, 1692. Befell the tragedy of Mort Ghlinne Comhann, also known as the Murder at Glencoe.
Despite his own incongruous past, all Wolfe Stewart wants is a simple life, free from the persecutions of the Crown. And when he rescues a Child of the Mist from an “Asian man who disappears into the snow as if he were never there,” Wolfe has received his wish. However, mysteries still plague him. He gets no answers, but more questions when a familiar stranger arrives with his cousin and Regiment soldiers to take up the hospitality of the MacDonalds of Glencoe for a fortnight.
Little did the clan suspect what would soon befall them. After the massacre on 13 February, 1692, most MacDonalds lay dead, many exposed to the elements perished, homes burned. Wolfe and his friend Fergus are taken away for reasons unknown.
But why would Campbell and his men commit such a hideous and unholy crime? The truth will not be found in history books. The beast behind this tragic night holds nothing but greed within his heart, and using the Jacobite risings as his cover, he gets what he wants and leaves behind death and suffering.
Welcome to JB’s Bookworms with Brandy Mulder
Tell us about your newest book.
Scottish Highlands, 1692. Befell the tragedy of Mort Ghlinne Comhann, also known as the Murder at Glencoe.
Despite his own incongruous past, all Wolfe Stewart wants is a simple life, free from the persecutions of the Crown. And when he rescues a Child of the Mist from an “Asian man who disappears into the snow as if he were never there,” Wolfe has received his wish. However, mysteries still plague him. He gets no answers, but more questions when a familiar stranger arrives with his cousin and Regiment soldiers to take up the hospitality of the MacDonalds of Glencoe for a fortnight.
Little did the clan suspect what would soon befall them. After the massacre on 13 February, 1692, most MacDonalds lay dead, many exposed to the elements perished, homes burned. Wolfe and his friend Fergus are taken away for reasons unknown.
But why would Campbell and his men commit such a hideous and unholy crime? The truth will not be found in history books. The beast behind this tragic night holds nothing but greed within his heart, and using the Jacobite risings as his cover, he gets what he wants and leaves behind death and suffering.
An Interview with Christine Church
Welcome to JB’s Bookworms with Brandy Mulder
Tell us about your newest book.
In the late 1990’s, I was writing a vampire novel about a woman named Kesi who was an ancient hybrid human/God blood drinker (it’s less complicated than it sounds) who was “collecting” who she considered the ‘perfect’ humans to turn into vampires so she could have a vampire family. Wolfe Stewart (the journal writer in Blood Moon), though not one of Kesi’s “children,” played a role in the whole of the story.
That novel sat for decades until, in 2015, I decided to revamp it (pun intended), tear it apart and make something completely different out of it. That is when I got the idea to have Kesi tell her own story. As she lived way back thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt, I knew these couldn’t be just any journal entries written in some store-bought leather journal with flowers on the cover; they’d have been written on scrolls and be so old as to barely be readable.
That is when I got the idea of “duping” the public by making Kesi’s story seem like “real” documents discovered by an archaeologist, hidden in the sands of Egypt, then restored, translated and published. Something no one else has ever done.
Of course, I never actually duped anyone into thinking these were real. But, I have had a number of reviewers write that they definitely read as being real, and that’s good enough for me.
After Book One, I received a lot of feedback from readers wanting to know more about Kesi’s background and her family, so for Book Two I did a Prequel, taking the reader all the way back to the beginning, long before even the pyramids were built.
Many readers showed a big interest in Wolfe Stewart and Fergus MacGregor (a mute vampire? Whaaa…?), who have a chapter in book one, Sands of Time. Since I was trying to publish these books by chronological date, and since book one actually ends (as a to be continued) in 1789, I went back a bit to 1692 and told Wolfe’s story for book three, Blood Moon: Diary of a Highland Massacre.
So far, that book seems to be everyone’s favorite. But, book four, Love’s Tragedy, is now out and continues where book one left off in 1789 France.
Can you tell I love history?
Indeed.
That novel sat for decades until, in 2015, I decided to revamp it (pun intended), tear it apart and make something completely different out of it. That is when I got the idea to have Kesi tell her own story. As she lived way back thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt, I knew these couldn’t be just any journal entries written in some store-bought leather journal with flowers on the cover; they’d have been written on scrolls and be so old as to barely be readable.
That is when I got the idea of “duping” the public by making Kesi’s story seem like “real” documents discovered by an archaeologist, hidden in the sands of Egypt, then restored, translated and published. Something no one else has ever done.
Of course, I never actually duped anyone into thinking these were real. But, I have had a number of reviewers write that they definitely read as being real, and that’s good enough for me.
After Book One, I received a lot of feedback from readers wanting to know more about Kesi’s background and her family, so for Book Two I did a Prequel, taking the reader all the way back to the beginning, long before even the pyramids were built.
Many readers showed a big interest in Wolfe Stewart and Fergus MacGregor (a mute vampire? Whaaa…?), who have a chapter in book one, Sands of Time. Since I was trying to publish these books by chronological date, and since book one actually ends (as a to be continued) in 1789, I went back a bit to 1692 and told Wolfe’s story for book three, Blood Moon: Diary of a Highland Massacre.
So far, that book seems to be everyone’s favorite. But, book four, Love’s Tragedy, is now out and continues where book one left off in 1789 France.
Can you tell I love history?
Indeed.
Writing isn’t easy. What was the most difficult thing you dealt with when writing your newest book? The research, always the research in historicals. Though I love history, I was never very good at it. So, I have to struggle to understand each detail.
Tell us a little bit about your writing career.
I started writing when I was a little kid. At 9 years old, I wrote picture books, including the drawings, then I would tape them together and give them a publishing house name. In 1992 my first official publication came out in Dog Fancy magazine. My first book (a hardcover nonfiction cat care book) was published by Howell Book House. I had a few other cat care books published, and one of them won the Iams Responsible Cat Ownership Award, which is a big deal. My fiction was slower to see the light.
They say Hind-sight is 20/20. If you could give advice to the writer you were the first time you sat down to write, what would it be?
That would be difficult, since I was so young. But, if I could go back to myself in, say 1995, when I got serious about writing, I would tell myself to get my fiction published ASAP, give myself advice on how to do that and what to do, so I would not be a struggling author at the age I am now.
What was your most difficult scene to write?
They are all difficult in their own way.
Are themes a big part of your stories, or not so much?
Sometimes, but I rarely think of theme. I always think of themes as more for my nonfiction; teaching people something. Fiction, to me, is for entertainment and to FEEL, not to teach lessons. However, if a theme does come from it, and it works, that’s great. For example, in The Early Scrolls (Prequel to Sands of Time), I didn’t plan to make the theme of the book about how hard it is growing up as a teenager. But, as it is the tale of Kesi as a teen blood drinker, she goes through quite a bit of stuff that human teens can probably relate to… such as fitting in. It’s the only book in the series that can even remotely be considered “young adult.”
What are you working on now?
Right now I am writing Book Two in my Anachronistic Dimensions series. Also, thinking about book five in the Fate of the True Vampires, and planning a time travel that’s been on the burner for a couple decades. (For horse lovers, I have a new horse blog and a book I will be writing on the same topic).
Is there a release date planned?
Book Four (Love’s Tragedy) in the Fate of the True Vampires series was just released on May 5th. Book Two in the Anachronistic Dimensions series should be out in July 2018.
Who is your favorite character from your own stories, and why?
Dane Bainbridge from Beyond Every Mirror (book one, Anachronistic Dimensions). I wrote the original of this concept in 1980 (sitting in school) and turned it into a novel by 1996. Dane is my “perfect” (despite his flaws) man and has lived in my heart since I was a teenager.
Most writers were readers as children. What was your favorite book in grade school?
Hard to say, but I LOVED all books about horses. I think Misty of Chincoteague was one of my favorites as a kid.
What are your plans for future projects?
I have the time travel novel, a novel set during the Victorian underground and human trafficking (except in my book, those trafficked will not be human), I also have an epic fantasy series in the works and of course continuing on with Fate of the True Vampires and Anachronistic Dimensions. And many more… I’ve been building my writing list for three decades.
Good luck with your newest release, and thank you for being with us today.
Good luck with your newest release, and thank you for being with us today.
Keep scrolling to read an excerpt from Blood Moon.
Excerpt
A dreary gray mist settled over the Glen, the distant peaks of the Three Sisters Mountains concealed beneath a deep fog that obscured the landscape. However, the weather never kept us young lads from a bonnie game of shot-put in the field. The chill air felt faint against my flesh, though I was donned only in my féileadh-beag, boots and a linen sark.
My shoulder ached from tossing more than my weight in large stones, yet still I was in the game. I lifted quite a bonnie rock, and ignoring the pull in my shoulder, I drew my arm back. Afore I could toss, however, a far-off eerie cry startled me. The boulder landed with a hard thud in the weeds, barely missing my toes.
“Mhac Na Galla!” I cursed, leaping out of its way.
The call sounded once more.
“Wha’ is that?” I asked, rubbing my shoulder and stretching my arm to take off the ache.
“I dinna ken,” said Ian, who stepped up beside me, listening.
“A wolf?” asked Fergus.
Colin weighed in. “An adventure!”
About the Author
Writing has always been in Ms. Church's blood. At age 9, she wrote small picture books, taped them together (too young for staples??) and even gave them a publishing house name (Church Books; what else?). To this day, those ‘books’ sit in storage somewhere. In school, Church could be found in the back of the classroom, writing short stories (and still managing A's in English and Art).
Church's first book, House Cat (non-fiction) was published when an editor who rejected it left the publishing house and the new editor chose Church’s manuscript proposal from the previous editor’s pile of 200 rejected manuscript proposals, and saw it to publication (plus a Revised Edition 7 years later, which is still on the shelves). From there, Church received offers from Animal Planet (when it was still about animals) and more book assignments. Her book Indoor Cats won the 2001 Iams Responsible Cat Ownership Award.
After working for years honing her fiction skills, Ms. Church made the decision to write a novella, a brainstorm idea introducing a brand new, conceptual and innovative vampire series in a way never before done. As a no-name in fiction, this was a big, bold move. With no cash, no job (on disability), she put the book out all on her own; writing, editing, cover design, formatting, everything. Though far from perfect, this was a big step and a big dream.
Book One received a Finalist Medal in the 2016 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, and Book Two received the 2017 Finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Award.
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