Blog Tour: Dark Liaison by Jennifer Brown

Dark Liaison (An Ema Marx Novel 2)
By J.D. Brown
Release Date: May 31, 2013
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Tagline: Being a Romani-Vampyre with an ancestor who wants you dead isn’t normal. Neither is this sequel.

Blurb:  Ema Marx wishes her life would go back to normal, but there’s nothing normal about being a Romani-Vampyre with an ancestor who wants you dead. Apollyon is back, wreaking havoc on the lives of everyone she cares about while plotting her demise.
Ema thought she would find a new best friend in her trainer, Bridget, until the exotic vampire vies for Jesu’s attention. Jesu can date who he wants, right? Ema has more important things to worry about, like honing her powers. When Apollyon’s thugs appear out of the shadows to attack her, Ema knows it’s time to take action. But everyone else has other plans in mind.
One thing is for certain, being under house arrest in the German vampyre king’s castle was not part of her plan to save the day.

Buy Links:
•    Muse It Up Publishing (all eReaders)

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Dark Heirloom (An Ema Marx Novel 1)
By J.D. Brown
Release Date: March 31, 2012
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Tag Line:  She wasn’t bitten. She’s not undead. So how did Ema Marx become a vampire?

Blurb:  “You’re a vampire” is so not what Ema Marx wants to hear when she wakes from a two-day coma in a cryptic yet exquisite castle in northern Finland. Unfortunately, it explains a lot. Like why she’s able to see in the dark and walk through solid objects. What she doesn’t understand is why the other vampires expect her to have all the answers. It’s their fault she turned into one of them…right?
Jalmari’s hatred for his old-man intensifies when he’s ordered to bring that troublesome girl to their castle. He has a clan to run, there’s no time for babysitting newborn vampires no matter how they were converted to their culture. But when a two-thousand-year-old premonition threatens to take the crown and his life, Jalmari sees no other choice than to take out the catalyst. Ema Marx. Fortunately for Ema, she could also be the clan’s only savior.
The race to figure out her vampiric origins is on. And maybe she’ll get the hang of the blood-drinking gig along the way…

Buy Links:
•    Amazon (Print & Kindle)
•    Barnes & Noble (Print & Nook)
•    iTunes (for Apple products)
•    Muse It Up Publishing (all eReaders)
•    Smashwords.com (all eReaders)
•    Book Depository (Print for International shipping)
•    Official Dark Heirloom Vampires Store (signed print copies)

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Author Bio:  J.D. Brown writes Urban Fantasy for MuseItUp Publishing, as well as a monthly “how-to” newsletter column for PDMI Freelance Publishing. She graduated from The International Academy of Design and Technology with a Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts and currently lives in Wisconsin with her two Pomeranians. J.D. loves paranormal characters; from vampires and werewolves, demons and angels, to witches and ghost. She is a self-proclaimed expert in vampire and Greek mythology. Her writings are often a combination of suspense and romance. J.D. enjoys helping her fellow writers and interacting with her fans and leads an active life on the web.

Author’s Social Network Links:
•    Website
•    Facebook
•    Twitter
•    YouTube Channel
•    Amazon Profile
•    GoodReads Profile
•    Blog

Video Trailers:
•    Dark Heirloom Book Trailer
•    Dark Liaison Book Teaser Trailer

Giveaway Details:
One e-book copy of either Dark Heirloom OR Dark Liaison may be awarded to no more than 3 contestants. Winners may choose which book they want. Available formats include .Mobi (for Kindle), .Epub (for all other e-readers), and .Pdf (for computers).

Leave Edward Alone

Hello Pen & Muse readers. For those who don’t know me yet, my name’s J.D. Brown. There are interview questions floating around where you can get to know more about me and my work, but right now, let’s jump into this post.

I’ve got to ask. Am I the only one who’s getting tired of the joke “real vampires don’t sparkle”? Yes, I laughed at first, but now I just roll my eyes and scoff. Come on, you know you were a fan of the books before the movie came out and botched that scene where Edward shows Bella what he looks like in the sun. You know, when you read that scene for the first time, you were like “Oh my God, that’s so original and awesome!” Don’t act like you didn’t.

Or the jokes about how 90s vampires were scary monsters that didn’t hesitate to eat you, while today’s vampires are pansy Emo vegetarians.

Okay, yes, Stephanie Meyer’s vampires were on the soft-side. But as a vampire fan that grew up in the 90s, I just want to set the record straight. Edward was not the first conflicted vegetarian vampire to fall in love with a human girl. In fact, he’s far from the first.

Angle—from Buffy the Vampire Slayer—was guilty and conflicted and sought redemption. He never drank from the source while his soul was intact. Oh, and he fell in love with a human girl named Buffy.

On the same show, there was Spike, who also fell in love with Buffy. And it was Spike’s vampire ex-girlfriend, Drusilla, who said “We can love. We can love very well, and wisely.”

Louie—from Interview with the Vampire—was also conflicted and refused to drink human blood. He fed, instead on rat blood.

Dracula—from Bram Stoker’s Dracula—fell in love with the human Mina Harker, the reincarnation of his wife Elisabeta. Richard Corliss of Time Magazine even said this about the flim: “Everyone knows that Dracula has a heart…that it is more than an organ to drive a stake into.”

Yes, 90s vampires were little more Gothic Horror, and little less The Jonas Brothers, but I always saw the tragic romance in their stories. I never once thought of them as horrifying monsters in the same circle as, say, Freddy Kruger or Jason. There’s a reason Freddy and Jason never have a love interest in their movies. They really aren’t conflicted about killing people.

Do I think it’s time to break the Edward mold? Sure. After all, Twilight had a good run, but it’s over now. Time for next big vampire craze to hit the roof. I suggest a young spunky vampire woman who is equal parts beast and human, and has some awesome kick-ass powers to boot. She doesn’t fall in love with a human guy—but a vampire one—and together they kick some ancient evil butt. I’m talking, of course, of my Ema Marx series.

Interview:

Where are you from? Tell us a little about yourself!

I currently reside a tiny town in Wisconsin that’s a world of difference from the Chicago suburbs I grew up in. It’s just my two dogs and me right now, enjoying the career thing. I’m in no hurry to grow up or settle down. LOL.

Tell us about your book? How did it get started?

Dark Heirloom follows the misadventure of a young woman named Ema Marx as she stumbles fangs-first into the world of vampyrism. She has no idea how she became a vampyre, but she’s convinced the guy who kidnapped her is to blame. Yet, he keeps asking her how it happened. Dark Liaison is the sequel where Ema has to fight a major baddy that she accidently unleashed in the first book.

I really love vampires, ever since I read The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice, but more recent works (well, they’re not so recent any more. Think pre-Twilight) always seemed to focus on the clumsy fragile human and I was tired of it. I wanted to read a book where the vampire was the main character, and all the other characters where vampires too. Really, I just wanted to give my readers an “up close and personal” look at what I thought the vampire world might be like.

How do you create your characters?

Actually, the characters for Dark Heirloom just appeared in my head one day already equipped with their own personalities and history. It was really Jalmari (one of the main characters in the first book) that hijacked my dreams one night and said “Listen. I know this girl, and you need to write her story.” He was talking about Ema, the main character. Whatever details were missing, I hammered them out with research or brainstorming with my writer friends.

Where do you write? Is there something you need in order to write (music, drinks?)

Most of time I write at home on my PC, but this summer I’m exploring the café scene. You know…those people who work on their laptops in Starbucks? I haven’t decided if I like it yet. LOL.

I don’t really need anything to write, except a computer or paper & pen, but coffee and snacks seem to help. And the ability to focus for long periods of time.

How do you get your ideas for writing?

Ideas come to me from everywhere. Things I’ve seen or heard about get filed into my weird brain and later on I’ll be daydreaming and then they come back to me. A lot of ideas come from things that I enjoy—a series I enjoyed reading, or a television show I loved when I was a kid—and I get this desire to write my own little version, or to focus on one aspect that I really liked and magnify it. Most of the time these “ideas” manifest themselves as characters with a cool situation or a problem or an interesting history that I get hooked to and want to explore, and then I flesh out friends and plot and setting for them.

What do you like to read?

Everything. But mostly YA and comedy. I’m huge fan of the paranormal band wagon, so if there are sexy vamps or shapeshifters or demons or something, then I’m set. And I love, love, love witty characters that make me laugh.

What would your advice to be for authors or aspiring in regards to writing?

Take classes and get the know-how, but don’t agonize over it. In the end, no one is perfect.

Anything else you’d like to share?

There are zombie monsters and shapeshifters in the second book. I think that’s an important note. 🙂