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.

Review: Nightlife by Rob Thurman

Nightlife by Rob Thurman

Genre: Urban Fantasy

In New York, there's a troll under the Brooklyn Bridge, a boggle in Central Park, and a beautiful vampire in a penthouse on the Upper East Side. Of course, most humans are oblivious to this, but Cal Leandros is only half-human. His father's dark lineage is the stuff of nightmares-and he and his entire otherworldly race are after Cal.

He and his half-brother Niko have managed to stay a step ahead for three years, but now Cal's dad has found them again. And Cal is about to learn why they want him, why they've always wanted him: He is the key to unleashing their hell on earth. The fate of the human world will be decided in the fight of Cal's life...

Thoughts:
It has been such a long time that I've read a book and at the end want to obsessively stroke the cover. This was one of those books, it pretty much had me going all Gollum after the last page turned. Considering this was a reread for me, even better.

One of the main things that I love about Nightlife is the running dialogue. If you've ever watched an episode of Gilmore Girls (not that the two have anything in common story wise) you can appreciate witty conversation. Nightlife is full of it. You can be shivering in terror at one of the scenes in the book completely repulsed by the actions of the evil villains, but you can't stop yourself from smiling. Thurman has dark, witty-gritty humor down to a science. Even if this book only had half the genius of plot and world building, the dialogue would have been enough to carry it.

Luckily, it has all the plot and world building you never knew you could ask for. Cal and Niko, our two awesome brothers have a lot of baggage to bring into this story. Niko has a taste for all things shiny, pointy, and deadly—if it can kill Niko knows about it and can use it. He's smart as all get out, and is quite appealing to the ladies. Cal is lazy and sarcastic, which makes for one heck of a narrator. Most of a dark and witty humor is from Cal, but the banter between the two brothers is great.

The world Thurman has created is beyond believable, everything adds up for better or worse. Going into this you want to forget everything you think you know about the magical creatures of legend. You think elves are beautiful people with long flowing hair? You got the hair right, but don't forget about the evil red eyes and a body straight from the images of hell. They may have stolen children, but they sure as heck wouldn't replace them with anything but the bones from a nights good meal. There are so many dark and scary creatures in here that it's a real treat. By the end of this book you won't be able to look at spaghetti quite the same way. Plus, forget about looking for Bloody-Mary in the mirror, keep a look out for a banshee in the mirror.

Never have I had the pleasure of throughly enjoying characters in a book as I did in Nightlife. Cal and Niko's relationship is pure genius. I know a lot of reviews say how they love the sibling relationship, but this time I mean it. The two have a bond that time, or monsters, can't shake. In really cheesy words, it down right beautiful. Niko refuses to let Cal believable he is a monster, even if he is half human and half monster. By the end of this book, Cal gets a front row seat of what a monster truly is as his own body is taken over. They came into this book with a lot of baggage, and by the end they may have dropped a few, but they gained more.

Other side characters were just as enjoyable. Puck, or Robin—the things with the furry legs—was one enjoyable/annoying son of a gun. I wasn't sure whether to chuck him out a 30 story building or high five the perverted guy. You can't let Robin's laid back sleazy ways fool you, his pretty much immortal existence is taking it's toll. Hopefully with the next books we will get to see his dirty laundry. I can only imagine how much with a guy who new everyone from history, and probably slept with everyone from history. The freckled-face redhead was a great oracle, seeing how such powers could effect a teenager was refreshing. Instead of a crazy wacked out hormone crazed girl, we've got someone who knows the weight of the world. She's not going to drop it until she breaks. A no nonsense Healer, and his cousin/dog really had me begging for more info on the two. Even the villain in this book is . . . there's just no words you have to read it to experience this monster.

One of the things I truly appreciate is the flash backs. In most books you deal with them to get the 4-11 on what's going on. Thurman makes you want to know what happens to these characters. With other books the flashbacks are boring and tedious. Not here, there just as wild a ride as the rest of the book and only add to the story. Thurman doesn't just rely on flashbacks to give us more on the story or what's happened in the characters life. Events unfold smoothly giving out the information in little bits and pieces so it never feels out of place.


Bottom Line:

I read this book back when it was first debuting, 2006, when the Urban Fantasy boom was really starting up. Back then I thought this was the best UF I had ever read. Even after all this time and all of the other UF I've read (and it's a lot) it still holds true. In fact, this is probably the most solid debut novel I have ever read. In the end I'm not going to have enough words, or the right ones, to say just how much I love this book. Everyone I have ever recommended this book to has given it 5/5, and that is pretty amazing considering everyones individual tastes. Lots of reviews claim that this book, or other, has great grit, humor, and original story. This one is a guarantee. Put your big girl/boy pants on and get ready to get messy.

Sexual Content:

No sex scenes, just some dirty talk every now and then.

5/5- Fabulous, a beautiful obsession!

Add it:

Amazon: Nightlife (Cal Leandros, Book 1)

goodreads: Nightlife by Rob Thurman