I'm welcoming Meredith Allard to tell about her new book, Her Dear & Loving Husband

I've been eagerly reading the preview information for Her Dear & Loving Husband. I'm excited to have Meredith Allard here today to share more about her new book.

What is a vampire?

On the surface, it’s an unnecessary question since, with Twilight and True Blood all the rage, everyone seems to have a keen sense of the undead. Yet that’s one question writers of vampire stories must contend with, and it’s one question I had never considered.

I had never thought much about vampires. I was never into the paranormal genre, the main reason being I’m not a fan of horror. I’m not a fan of violence, real or pretend, and since vampires have traditionally represented violence, I didn’t care to know them. I won’t go into the story about how one of my students gave me Twilight to read here. Suffice it to say, I liked what I read enough to begin seeking out other vampire stories. I eventually found my way to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire, and Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampires series. The more vampire books I read the more I realized that there was no one way to describe a vampire. The question of ‘What is a vampire?’ is answered differently according to what authors want or need from their preternatural characters. What a grand revelation as I embarked on my own vampire stories.

I had a decision to make. Would I go the more traditional route and keep my vamplings asleep during the day, unable to go out in the sun, or would I take the more modern route of sunbeams and sparkles? In the beginning, I had no idea. I hopped on the computer (God bless the Internet) and searched vampire folklore to see how the undead have been traditionally defined. I was fascinated by what I found. Turns out that vampire legends have abounded for as long as there have been people to tell them, long before vampire stories were ever published. Who knew? There are vampire legends from all over the world, and while there are cultural differences, there were more than a few commonalities, and this is what I focused on—the commonalities. 

So what is a vampire to me?

I tended to stay along more traditional lines. One similarity between almost all vampire legends is that they’re nocturnal creatures. My vampires are as well, sleeping during the day and living at night. My vampires drink blood. Now, how they chose to drink blood differs from vampire to vampire, but let’s say that they do drink human blood. Their human bodies die as they are transformed (by the bite of another vampire) into a preternatural, immortal being. Again, pretty traditional. As to garlic and silver, well, I don’t know what to say about that. It’s true that traditionally (especially in the Slavic cultures) those are considered supreme weapons against the undead, but it seems to me that if you can live forever a little plant bulb or metal won’t harm you much. But that’s just me.

Part of the fun of writing in the paranormal genre is the ability to create your fantasy creatures however you want. If you want your vampire sitting on the sofa in broad daylight eating pizza (as Aidan does in the BBC series Being Human), then do it. There is no right way to create a vampire. As long as authors believe that the world they’re describing is true, then readers will follow. What is a vampire? As the writers, we get to decide.

Thank you for reading my post. I hope you enjoyed it.

Purchasing information for Her Dear & Loving Husband can be found here:

http://www.meredithallard.com

http://www.copperfieldpress.com

Blurb:

James Wentworth has a secret. By night, he’s a mild-mannered professor at Salem State College in Massachusetts. He lives quietly, making few ties anywhere. One night his private world is turned upside down when he meets Sarah Alexander, a dead ringer for his wife, Elizabeth. Though it has been years since Elizabeth’s death, James cannot bring himself to move on.

Sarah also has a secret. She is haunted by nightmares, and every night she is awakened by visions of hangings, being arrested, and dying in jail–scenes from the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. As James comes to terms with his feelings for Sarah, he must also dodge accusations from a reporter desperate to prove that James is not who, or what, he seems to be. With the help of their friends, witches Jennifer and Olivia, James and Sarah piece their stories together and discover a mystery that may bind them in ways they never imagined. Will James make the ultimate sacrifice to prevent a new hunt from bringing hysteria to Salem again? 

Author Bio 

Meredith Allard received her B.A. and M.A. degrees in English from California State University, Northridge. She is the author of Her Dear & Loving Husband (Copperfield Press, 2011), a paranormal love story set around the Salem Witch Trials. She is the executive editor of the award-winning literary journal The Copperfield Review, named one of the top markets for new writers by Writer’s Digest. Her work has appeared in journals such as The Northridge Review, Wild Mind, The Maxwell Digest, Moondance, Muse Apprentice Guild, The Paumanok Review, CarbLite, Writers Weekly, and ViewsHound, where her article won the Silver Medal Prize. She has taught writing to students aged 10 to 60, and she has taught creative writing and writing historical fiction at Learning Tree University and UNLV.  Meredith has been the featured guest speaker at the Los Angeles Civil War Round Table and the Civil Warriors Round Table.  She has also interviewed such notable authors as John Jakes, Jean M. Auel, and Jeff Shaara. She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada.

You can find Meredith Allard on Facebook and Twitter (@copperfield101). She welcomes e-mail at meredithallard(at)aol(dot)com.  

Important Links 
Meredith Allard’s website: 
http://meredithallard.com/ 
Buy HDLH from Amazon: 
http://www.amazon.com/Her-Dear-Loving-Husband-ebook/dp/B004UVQOBO/ref=sr_1_1/191-1528738-2256535?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1304477668&sr=1-1 
Buy HDLH from Lulu: 
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/meredith101 
Buy HDLH from Smashwords: 
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/49588 
Meredith Allard on Facebook: 
http://www.facebook.com/people/Meredith-Allard/100000069807223 
Meredith Allard on Twitter: 
http://twitter.com/#!/copperfield101 
Video Trailer HDLH: 
http://meredithallard.com/2011/05/05/video-trailer-for-her-dear-loving-husband/ 
Goodreads HDLH: 
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11473888-her-dear-and-loving-husband 

How to get other e-formats

Meredith Allard has put her book temporarily available for free on Smashwords. From Smashwords, you can download any e-format you like: .mobi, .epub, etc.

A .pdf and .epub is included with this mail, but other formats can be downloaded for free.

Here’s the smashwords link: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/49588You can download the book for free from there.