Update:  Thanks for all the great comments!  The winner of THE STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL TALE OF MISS PERCY PARKER (ARC) is…Edie! Congrats, Edie!!  And if you didn’t win, well, Leanna still has  a prize for you.  Send Leanna your mailing address (email her at leannareneehieber@yahoo.com) and she will send you an excerpt booklet–the first 3 chapters of THE STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL TALE OF MISS PERCY PARKER.  Now that’s a great deal!

Today, I’m jealous. Yes, I’ll just come right out and admit it–I’m jealous b/c I want the prize that my guest author is offering.  Who is my author today?  The lovely and talented Leanna Renee Hieber.  And guess what she’s giving to one very lucky commenter?  An autographed ARC of her upcoming Dorchester release, The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker.  I cannot wait to read this particular book!!! When August 25th gets here, I’ll be at the front of the bookstore line, this book clutched in my greedy hands.  😉

Welcome, Leanna!

I’m sure you’re as excited about Midnight’s Master as I am and so I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to be here! Thanks Cynthia!

What I love about demons is the ambiguity; the endless possibilities of them.

What exactly can a demon do? What is it bound by? Really, it’s limited only by the rules the author lays down. They can be anything and everything, and honestly I find them the most unpredictable and intriguing of characters, mysterious and powerful. I’ve yet to write a nice or redeemable one. Doesn’t mean it won’t happen, but a good one hasn’t yet crossed my path.

Demons don’t seem to have the same sets of cultural baggage/established expectations you find with familiar creatures like Vampires and Werewolves. With a demon, you’re never sure what you’re going to get, and that’s dangerous and exciting. They are an elevated form of spooky, a higher category of powerful, whether the author chooses to use them for good or for evil. Either way, they’ve always captivated me.

That’s why when writing The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, a Gothic Victorian fantasy full of ghosts, fierce camaraderie and an epic love, I decided to make my sinister characters demon-esque. They needed to be set apart from all the ghosts, a different breed. These creatures are informed by mythological roots. While I don’t say out and out who/what they are, my heroes make demon inferences as they try to comprehend what they’re dealing with. To my heroes, the Guard- essentially Ghostbusters in Victorian England- any supernatural thing other than their usual ghostly suspects is a new problem. They are equipped to fight spectres. Not demons. When Jack the Ripper starts spreading its terror, it is a new breed of horror they’ve never before encountered.

Here’s the scene from The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker in which I first introduce my demon-informed characters:

From the eternally dim shadows of the Whisper-world a voice resonated like a deep, angry bell tolling three o’clock: “Where. Is. She?”

“I’ve no idea, dear,” replied a softer, feminine voice. “Was I supposed to do something about her? I thought you’ve been looking all this time. While you’ve only just noticed, it’s been eighteen of their years. She could be anywhere. She’s not my responsibility, you know.”

The deep voice grunted. “Do. Something.”

The woman sighed, her fair skin glowing in the moonlight. Placing her hands to her coiled tresses atop her head, she found something sharp. With a hiss, she brought her thumbs back into view; their pricked pads sprouted thick, dark jewels, garnets that began to overflow and weep.

Lifting up her hands, she watched in fascination as the crimson trail spread from her thumbs onto her palms. She turned her hands one direction, then the other. “Hmm,” she said after a long moment.

“Well?” pressed the voice in the shadows.

“London,” she replied.

“Something wicked, then?” the voice gurgled.

The woman turned and smiled, nonchalant. “By all means, let the dog loose.”

There was a grinding of stone. A ferocious growl erupted from the deep, before a barking, snarling, ugly cloud leaped into the sky. It vanished into the shimmering portal opposite the shadows where the woman’s master stood brooding, a portal where now rose the Tower of London. The voice tolled again from the shadows. “There will be hell to pay.”

***

Come visit me at www.leannareneehieber.com, connect via any of the social networking platforms of your preference, and I hope you’ll pick up a copy of The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, releasing on 8/25! (Preorder: www.tinyurl.com/strangelybeautifulbn) In August I’ll be launching my Strangely Beautiful Haunted London Blog Tour and Cynthia has graciously allowed this lovely blog of hers to be a stop on the tour where I’ll describe real, documented London haunts I use in the book! Happy Demon Hunting – or Loving!

This entry was posted on Friday, June 19th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Romance. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.