The Crimson Crimes by Patricia K. McCarthy
Launch date: 11 October (event details to follow; will take place in Ottawa)
Format: Paperback, Ebook, 308 pages
Book Description:
It’s the dead of night in the dead of winter, and bodies have been found, stacked ceiling-high, in a hillside cave in Ottawa’s Strathcona Park; necks pierced, blood drained – the usual. The city is gripped by a dusk-till-dawn curfew. The press, police and public have whipped each other into a glorious panic over someone or something called the “Vampire Undertaker.” Well, when did a silly curfew ever shut down the kitchen party at the Crimson house? Bring beer, bring smokes, but please bring yourself to meet The Vampires (there are at least four of them) and their quirky human pals. We can take turns feeding the baby vampire, stalling the cops when they come knocking, and tripping out on that time-dream machine up in the bedroom. You’ve got to love people who know how to make their own fun!
Guest Post:
Tell us about
the best piece of fan mail you ever received. What made it so special?
I
was deeply touched when one fan set aside time to write me a letter, thanking
me for my vampire erotica fiction, advising how my characters and the depictions
of sex brought her closer to her partner, especially because she read my novels
aloud to her husband and was infused with an intense desire to ravage him. This
was music to my ears. Reading is generally a one-on-one affair between reader
and book. You enter into the private world the writer creates. We are not
necessarily accustomed to sharing our innermost thoughts (yes, we even withhold
them from partners). And yet, a writer should be able to freely express the
innermost thoughts of their characters like they were their own. Writing
believably always helps. Granted, graphic sex can be taken to Herculean
proportions, sometimes coming across as unrealistic (50 Shades is a fine example – her virginal character achieves orgasm
during her first sexual encounter and this so upset one friend that she wanted
to punch the character in the face; it’s a worthwhile lesson for a writer to
take away). Admittedly, I am guilty of sometimes going over the top. But vampires
give writers the freedom to make them super-human, which for me is the essence
of a vampire. Our blood-sucking superstars have been the darlings of the
literary world for a reason - they connect with the human experience on a
visceral level, delving into consumption and love, the pursuit of power and
youth. The only other fictional character to receive as much attention as the
vampire is Sherlock Holmes. That
said, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle didn’t write the original Sherlock to be a drop-dead gorgeous hunk. If he had, his prose
would have had to include deliberate physical window dressing to render him
sexy. Perhaps it is no coincidence that recent screen treatments of Sherlock have ‘sexified’ his image in
order that he will appeal to a wider female and male audience. We are seeing
how this trend from page to screen is racking up impressive profits.
Author Bio:
Patricia K. McCarthy lives and writes in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Her Crimson vampires series has received extensive media coverage in national and local newspapers, as well as on radio and television. For details, visit her website.
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