Today, I'm especially pleased to be able to bring you a terrific interview with one of my favorite authors, Susannah Sandlin. She gave some great information about the two books released so far in her Penton Legacy paranormal romance series--Absolution & Redemption. There are certainly some great plot twists and exciting characters--not to be missed!
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In your Penton
Legacy series, a worldwide pandemic results when humans begin to take a
voluntary vaccine that leaves their blood deadly to vampires. The vampire
community is on the verge of starvation and panic. Some fan into rural areas
like Penton, Alabama, where the vaccine is less prevalent, and are taking
unsuspecting humans as blood slaves. In the second book of the series, Absolution,
have more humans now taken the vaccine, making usable blood less available for
the vampires? Have humans connected the vaccine to the result of making
themselves vampire-proof and sought the drug as protection?
The ironic thing about the vampires’
situation is that humans aren’t aware they exist, so the humans could
eventually wipe out the vampire population without even knowing it. As far as
humans are concerned, the pandemic virus of three years earlier is over and
they’ve moved on. Meanwhile, vampires are starving and growing more desperate. In
Absolution, the vampires take a step
closer to civil war as they fight over how to survive the crisis and who will
end up in power. But each book in the series (which can be read as standalones)
is also a romance in which one of the Penton vampires faces up to his past and
finds his future.
Rural towns like Penton become battlegrounds with vampires feuding over
ownership and usage of the unvaccinated humans. The Alabama village gets an
unlikely protector—Mirren Kincaid, once a vampire Tribunal executioner known as
the Slayer. When assigned a killing he found questionable, Mirren abandoned the
Tribunal’s political machinations and disappeared. What sort of execution went
against his personal ethics? Are his ideals in line with the first-in-command,
Aidan Murphy? Or is there friction within those who protect Penton’s humans?
Mirren started his human life as a Gallowglass warrior—a mercenary—in
early 17th-century Scotland and Ireland. He was brought up to be a
killer, it’s all he’s ever known, and the Gallowglass were feared and admired
in their time. When he was turned vampire, it was a natural fit for him to
become the paid killer of the Vampire Tribunal. He was good at it. He never
questioned his assignments until he was ordered to kill a child and he finally
realized the people he worked for were bigger monsters than the ones he was
being paid to kill. He realized that the life he was trained for was not the
one he wanted to live.
Mirren is 100 percent loyal to Aidan Murphy, the leader of Penton. Mirren
doesn’t want Aidan’s job. He doesn’t have the personality or the social skills
or the patience for leading a community. Mirren hates himself for the past he’s
led but he’s also realistic about what roles he is cut out for. He doesn’t
always agree with Aidan’s decisions but he’d never move against him.
The Tribunal wants Mirren back on their side—or dead. They capture Glory
Cummings, the descendant of a shaman, and send her to restore Mirren’s
bloodthirsty nature. How will inciting his ruthless killer nature be to the
advantage of the Tribunal?
The Tribunal naively thinks if it can
turn Mirren back into the mercenary he once was, he can be used to destroy
Aidan Murphy and Penton. Plus, their legendary Slayer would be back under
Tribunal control. When Absolution
opens, Mirren has been locked up by a member of the Tribunal and starved for
more than thirty days. He’s desperate to feed, so when they throw an
unvaccinated human girl—Glory—into the cell with him, they think his bloodlust
will be rekindled.
But instead of a monster, Glory sees a man burdened by the weight of his
past. With her sensitivities and magic touch, she might instead actually help
Mirren break his bonds and discover the love he doesn’t believe he deserves.
Why doesn’t he believe he deserves love? Are his efforts to save lives in
Penton his way of redeeming himself?
Mirren carries around a lot of guilt
because of all the lives he’s taken, both as human and vampire. And as much as
he despises it, he recognizes that there’s a part deep inside him that likes
killing, that likes the cold, black anger that comes over him when gets into
his killing zone. He seeks absolution both by protecting Penton and by marking
himself in a particularly unique way. Can’t say more. :-)
What attracts Mirren to Glory and
vice versa? What might they gain from their relationship?
Except for Aidan, Mirren keeps everyone at a distance, and most people
are afraid of him because he’s a really, really big tough guy—and he likes it
that way. If they’re afraid of him, they’ll leave him alone. Then here comes
this feisty chatterbox that Aidan’s made him responsible for, and she gradually
chips away at his defenses. In each other, they find acceptance and a lack of
judgment they both need. (And they are absolutely hilarious with each other!)
Briefly describe the magical systems of your world. How do those who are
empowered (vampires, shamans, others) gain their abilities?
My vampires have some of the expected
traits—they are created by being drained and re-fed by another vampire. They
can’t tolerate sunlight, feed on human blood, are able to enthrall their prey,
have some super-strength (which is neutralized by silver) and fast healing
(unless injured with silver). Master vampires are those who have proven their
mental toughness and gain greater mental skills such as telepathic
communication and memory modification. (Both Aidan and Mirren are master
vampires.) A blood exchange with a human creates a bond between the vampire and
his or her familiar, so that other vampires can’t feed from that person. What
can’t they do? They can’t fly, rarely cry, and don’t sparkle in the sun! They
aren’t “undead,” but evolved, so their hearts still beat.
Thanks, Marsha!
***
ABSOLUTION
The Penton
Legacy, Book 2
By Susannah
Sandlin
Release
date: October 9, 2012
Publisher:
Montlake Romance
Book
Description:
With
the vampire world on the brink of civil war over the scarcity of untainted
human blood, battle lines are being drawn between the once peaceful vampire and
human enclave of Penton, Alabama, and the powerful Vampire Tribunal.
A
Scottish gallowglass warrior turned vampire in the early 17th century, Mirren
Kincaid once served the Tribunal as its most creative and ruthless
executioner—a time when he was known as the Slayer. But when assigned a killing
he found questionable, Mirren abandoned the Tribunal’s political machinations
and disappeared—only to resurface two centuries later as the protector and
second-in-command of Penton. Now the Tribunal wants him back on their side—or
dead.
To
break their rogue agent, they capture Glory Cummings, the descendant of a
shaman, and send her to restore Mirren’s bloodthirsty nature. But instead of a
monster, Glory sees a man burdened by the weight of his past. Could her magic
touch—meant by the tribunal to bring out a violent killer—actually help Mirren
break his bonds and discover the love he doesn’t believe he deserves?
It’s
a town under siege, a powerful warrior in a battle with his past, and one woman
who can make the earth move—literally—as the Penton Legacy continues.
Book One Penton Legacy
series
By Susannah Sandlin
Following a worldwide
pandemic whose vaccine left human blood deadly to vampires, the vampire
community is on the verge of starvation and panic. Some have fanned into rural
areas, where the vaccine was less prevalent, and are taking unsuspecting humans
as blood slaves. Others are simply starving, which for a vampire is worse than
death—a raging hunger in a creature too weak to feed.
Immune
to these struggles—at first—is Penton, a tiny community in rural Chambers
County, Alabama, an abandoned cotton mill town that has been repopulated by
charismatic vampire Aidan Murphy, his scathe of 50 vampires, and their
willingly bonded humans. Aidan has recruited his people carefully, believing in
a peaceful community where the humans are respected and the vampires retain a
bit of their humanity.
But an unresolved family feud and the paranoia of the Vampire Tribunal descend
on Penton in the form of Aidan’s brother, Owen Murphy. Owen has been
issued a death warrant that can only be commuted if he destroys Penton—and
Aidan, against whom he’s held a grudge since both were turned vampire in
17th-century Ireland. Owen begins a systematic attack on the town, first
killing its doctor, then attacking one of Aidan’s own human familiars
To protect his people, Aidan is forced to go against his principles and kidnap
an unvaccinated human doctor—and finds himself falling in love for the first
time since the death of his wife in Ireland centuries ago.
Dr. Krystal Harris,
forced into a world she never knew existed, must face up to her own abusive
past to learn if the feelings she’s developing for her kidnapper are real—or
just a warped, supernatural kind of Stockholm Syndrome in which she’s allowing
herself to become a victim yet again.
Susannah
Sandlin’s REDEMPTION is the first in the Penton Legacy series. Book two,
ABSOLUTION, will be out October 9th, and book three, OMEGA, on December 18.
Amazon Barnes
and Noble Book
Depository
Excerpt from ABSOLUTION (The Penton
Legacy, Book 2):
What was
Matthias thinking, throwing a human woman in the cell with a vampire who’d been
locked up and starved for over a month?
Mirren waited on the bench, his back
against the wall, his head down. Waited until Matthias climbed the steps,
slammed the door, clicked the dead bolt home. Waited until he could get control
of the hunger that had begun raging the second the woman stumbled down the stairway.
She was unvaccinated, and he wanted nothing more than to take her, blood and
body, until there was nothing left.
If he did that, he’d be no better
than the version of Mirren Kincaid he’d tried so hard to leave behind. He’d be
the Slayer again. His hands could too easily remember the mindless sweep of the
sword, the heavy fall of the battle-ax, the controlled back-thrust of a heavy
firearm. If the cold darkness ever fell over him again, he feared he’d embrace
it.
“Mister, you awake?”
Shit.
She would have to be a talker. Mirren hated a talky woman. They always expected
you to talk back.
He raised his head slowly and caught
his breath. She was young, maybe mid-twenties, and pretty in a rode-hard kind
of way.
“Your eyes are silver—I’ve seen enough
vampires since I was kidnapped to know when your eyes get lighter, it means
you’re hungry. But I’ve never seen any like yours. How long has it been since
you ate? Umm…Make that how long since you drank?”
If the stupid woman kept walking
toward him, he wouldn’t be held responsible. “Stay where you are.” He narrowed
his eyes at her, thinking. How could she help him without sending his need so
far over the edge he lost control of it?
She eeked when he shifted on the bench and turned his back toward her.
“Untie me.”
She stumbled a little when she
reached the bench and sat hard. The woman was stoned out of her gourd. He could
smell the drugs on her.
“Your
wrists are all torn up. That has to hurt.” She sat on the bench behind him, and
Mirren breathed in her scent with his eyes closed. Damn, but he wanted to feed
so badly his muscles ached.
She muttered as she worked, her
drug-addled fingers slipping off the rope. “You’re so big that I’m surprised
this rope could hold you. I should be able to…Let’s see here, it’s too dark.
Man, this is funky rope.”
“Stop yapping, start untying.” She
had that broad, soft Southern accent he found sexy, but she used it way too
much.
“Yeah, yeah, okay.” She tugged harder
on the ropes, burning his sensitive wrists with each pull. “Sorry, sorry. Why
is it burning your skin like that?”
Mirren growled and spoke through
gritted teeth. “It’s laced with silver, and I’m a freaking vampire. Just untie me.”
Damn, he had to get himself under control, or he’d scare the woman to death and
she wouldn’t finish freeing his arms or feed him either one.
“Well, you’ve got the funny eyes,
but I don’t see any fangs.”
God help him, he’d show her some
fangs. “I said I was a vampire. Now finish untying me.”
Mirren twisted his wrists and felt
the rope give way—the woman had gotten it loose enough that he didn’t need her
help.
“But wait, how do I know you—”
She gasped as Mirren pulled his
wrists apart, popped the rope onto the cell floor, and shifted around to face
her.
“Can
you…?” She paused and swallowed hard, edging away from him on the bench. Mirren’s
gaze dropped to her mouth. “Can you feed without killing me?”
Mirren nodded slowly. Maybe. Maybe not.
About the Author:
Susannah
Sandlin is the author of paranormal romance set in the Deep South, where there
are always things that go bump in the night.
A
journalist by day, Susannah grew up in Alabama reading the gothic novels of
Susan Howatch and the horror fantasy of Stephen King. (Um…it is fantasy,
right?)
The
combination of Howatch and King probably explains a lot. Currently a resident
of Auburn, Alabama, Susannah has also lived in Illinois, Texas, California, and
Louisiana.
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~ ~ ~
Marsha A. Moore is a writer of fantasy romance. The magic of art and nature spark life into her writing. Read her ENCHANTED BOOKSTORE
LEGENDS for adventurous epic fantasy romance: Book One, SEEKING A SCRIBE, and Book Two, HERITAGE AVENGED.
She has also authored the Ciel's Legacy series, with fast action mermaid/pirate storylines: TEARS ON A TRANQUIL LAKE and TORTUGA TREASURE. For a FREE ebook download, read her historic fantasy, LE CIRQUE DE MAGIE, available at Amazon and Smashwords.
In her pursuit of a nursing degree, Jean Murray
aspired to see the world and joined the Navy. At the end of 2011 she said a
heart-breaking goodbye to her Navy family and retired after twenty years of
military service. Although her dreams of writing full time have yet to come
true, she continues her writing journey and draws inspiration from her travels
abroad. She enjoys spending time with her family and of course, writing about
the “Carrigan sisters and their mates, Gods of the Underworld,” to bring you
the next installment of the Key to the Cursed series.
