Rachel Vincent's New Adult Series and Author Wits Overloaded

As a reader I always want the download on what's going on with authors, and that's what Author Gossip is all about. Do they have new books coming out, hows their latest tour going, any thing juicy! So, I decided to bring the news to my readers. I'm lurking around all of those author blogs anyway, might as well do something productive.

General Gossip:

If you're a Rob Thurman fan like me, you want everything with her name on it.  Right now Thurman has her book up for grabs for giveaway, you just need to leave a comment stating why you want to when this German copy. 

So go a head and try to sweet talk her into giving you a copy. Click here.

You've been hearing rumors about Rachel Vincent's new adult series right? If you like me you've probably been obsessing about it trying to guess what is she's thought of.  Well, finally all of our questions are answered! 

Series name: The name of the new series is “Unbound.” As in, “An Unbound novel, by Rachel Vincent.” Or something like that.

Title: The first book, currently scheduled for September 1, 2011, will be called BLOOD BOUND.

I know, I know, there's already a Patricia Briggs novel of that name. (I read it years ago. It was awesome.) But because my novel is coming out years after hers did and because the subject matter of my book is NOTHING like hers, I’m not anticipating much title confusion. My original working title for the book was “Bound In Blood,” and we went through literally a dozen or more title possibilities with the awesome people at Mira before finally deciding (unanimously, as far as I know) that nothing else captures the feel and subject matter of this book better than BLOOD BOUND. So, BLOOD BOUND it is.

Genre: The Unbound series is paranormal. It’s a little more romance-heavy than the early Shifters books are, and about in line with romance/relationship content of the last couple of Shifters books.

Audience: The Unbound books are intended for adults. As my editor said, BLOOD BOUND is “twisted.” (Is it wrong that her quote makes me smile? ;)) If this first book is any indication, these books will be very dark and gritty, violent, and tense, but with some humor (mostly dialogue) to take the edge off.

The world: The idea behind the Unbound world-building is simple. The execution is a little more complicated. For me, it all started with the cliché “a man’s word is his bond,” then grew to include, “the pen is mightier than the sword” and the concept of “word of mouth.”

“What…” I thought, as I was brainstorming, “…if those clichés could be taken literally?”

What if a person’s word really was his or her bond? What if, once given, a promise could never be taken back? Would you be more careful what you say? Wouldn’t we all, if we were bound to our words?

Then I took it a step further. If the spoken word carries that much power, how much more would the written word carry? What about words written in (or sealed in) blood? What about words written in (and sealed in) flesh? Tattoos and graffiti take on a whole new meaning, huh?

Needless to say, once I headed down that thought-path, the world-building exploded—there’s much more to it now (but I’m not going to give you any more just yet). The story lines grew from the world-building possibilities and conflicts. The characters developed based on the experiences they would've had, growing up in this world.

The bad guys are bad (twisted, according to some…), but they have very human motivations.

The good guys are…not exactly wearing white hats. But the innocent are still innocent, and someone has to fight for them. (This may, in fact, be the only thing Shifters has in common with Unbound.)

The characters:

Olivia Warren owes her friend Anne a favor. Anne needs someone found and brought to a very quick, private justice.

The catch? Olivia must work with Cam Caballero to complete this favor. The problem? Cam is Olivia’s ex—the man prophesied to either kill her or die by her hand. It's a tense reunion, at best.

As Olivia and Cam chase their target through public streets, private lives, and a dangerous criminal underworld, everything they thought they knew comes into question. In the end, they can only be sure of three things…

No one can be trusted.

Everyone’s lying.

And someone’s going to pay

 That information is enough to have me panting over this new series.  Some readers had additional questions that they wanted answered, which Vincent generously posted about.

Some common questions I've been asked since the announcement:

What POV is the book in? Right now, it's dual 1st person POV, alternating irregularly from Olivia to Cam. That could change. I've never done more than on POV on a novel, and if my editor thinks it would be better to change it, I'll change it during the edits.

What are the characters (re: paranormal abilities/species)? They are human+. But not anything you'd know from other books or movies. That's all I can say right now.

Will BLOOD BOUND be available in electronic/audio formats? I can't swear to it, but based on the fact that all my other books have been and the Unbound books are with the same publisher, I would guess that yes, they'll be available in those formats. Though I couldn't say when.

What do you mean by "twisted?" Will it be too gory for me? Regarding physical violence and gore, Unbound is no more "twisted" than the Shifters series. Maybe less. IMO, BLOOD BOUND is more emotionally/psychologically twisted.

When can we see the cover? Some time after I see it. If it's done yet, I haven't heard. So we're in for a bit of a wait on that.

Questions I'm not prepared to answer yet:

Will sequels be written from the same POV(s) or from different characters' POV(s)?

How many books will there be in this series?

When will they be out in the UK (France, Italy, etc...)?

I can't answer any of those yet because it's simply too early. I haven't even truly plotted out the second book yet. My editor hasn't finished reading the first book yet. To my knowledge, no one else at Mira has even seen the manuscript yet. So it's a little early to talk about sequels and foreign sales, at least in this particular case.

What I can say is that if sequels do take different POV(s), which is a possibility, the main characters from BLOOD BOUND will have much more than cameo roles. (Author Blog)

Your chance to win a HEXBOUND swag pack continues! Drop by this week at the following blog tour stops for your chance to win!

January 10, 2011 I Read To Relax

January 10, 2011 Writers Write, Right?

January 11, 2011 Bookworming in the 21st Century

January 11, 2011 Larissa's Life

January 12, 2011 My Vamp Fiction

January 13, 2011 The O.W.L.

New Cover:

This is the StormLord's Exile UK edition, which will actually be available to everyone.

What the author had to say:

This portrays - at least I think it does - Lord Uthardim, and the dunes of the Red Quarter...He has a large part to play in this volume.I think I love this cover best of all the three.

Hollows it's Norway!!  It's so fun finding out how far one of your favorite series is reaching.  Sadly the covers are the wrong kind of "reaching out "I was hoping for.  In this case I think the US covers when by a landslide.

Found this one off of goodreads instead of the author's site.  All I can say is it looks like a Kotex box, that's right Tampons people.  REALLY disappointing after the last two great covers in the Faeriewalker books.  Happy they at least stuck with the dots.  

Author Wit:

Author Robin Hobb gives us an in sight to her writing life.  Plus she shares some interesting thoughts on how the Internet might be taking writers away from the the love of writing.

Lilith Saintcrow shares with us the best ways to kicking the *beep* out of your characters.  Letting us the readers, and hopeful writers, inside her mind as to how to write some awesome fight scenes.

So far quite a few author's have posted books that they liked in 2010, so far my favorite list has to be author Lauren Kate's.  She has some books that I've wanted to read, and some that I've never hear of.

Books with "soundtracks" are so fun!  Personally I feel like we get an in sight to the authors mind and taste of what they book was inspired from.  Molly Harper just posted her playist for How to Flirt With a Naked Werewolf.

Find out what books Chloe Neil is lusting after.