Interviewing Susannah Sandlin about her new PNR release, Omega: The Penton Legacy

Today, I'm very happy to have Susannah Sandlin return to tell us about her third book, Omega, in the Penton Legacy series. 

In your new release, Omega, the bloody war between the Vampire Tribunal and the defiant scathe of Penton, Alabama, rages on, forcing its residents and their bonded humans to retreat into the underground fortress of last resort. How are certain humans bonded to Penton’s vampires? Are all human residents of the town bonded?

Yes, Penton was established by master vampire Aidan Murphy and his community as an “oasis” in the middle of a growing civil war among vampires. All vampires are bonded to him via a blood exchange, which means they’ve pledged their loyalty to him, and all the humans in the town are blood-bonded to one of the vampires. These humans are there by choice, and many have entered into a blood exchange, or bond, with their vampire, which means no other vampire can feed from them. Most vampires and their bonded familiars are very close.

How do the humans react to being forced into hiding? Are they confused and fearful or angry and resistance?

Many leave, albeit reluctantly, and quite a few vampires leave with their familiars. There ends up being a core group that moves into the underground facility called Omega—all voluntary. But it’s harder than they imagined, never being able to go into the sunlight or fresh air, and the vampires are always looking for ways to keep them entertained and not claustrophobic.

In the underground Omega fortress, Will Ludlam is charged with the care of Penton's humans. He knows the risks: as the renegade son of the Tribunal's vicious leader, Will's capture could doom the resistance. How does Will react to his appointed job? What might happen if he is captured by the Tribunal? 

The Tribunal member who’s managed to get himself put in charge of destroying Penton is Will’s father, Matthias. Matthias is the one who turned his son vampire at age 22, thinking he’d have an enternal acolyte to follow his orders for eternity. But Will grew tired of the abuse and he stayed on the run for years before settling in Penton with Aidan. Matthias wants Will back under his thumb, and Will will die before he lets that happen.

Will’s beautiful partner, Randa, a former US Army officer, is reluctant to believe that a former member of the vampire elite has skills to fight in war. Does that lead to stress in their relationship? Does she take part in the fighting?

Randa’s very much a part of the fighting, and in fact turns out to be an excellent strategist as the book progresses. Will and Randa are assigned to patrol together in book two of the series, ABSOLUTION, and they bicker through most of that book. She’s being a hardass to try and fit in and prove she’s as capable as the older male vampires. He’s a smartass and thinks she’s bossy and arrogant. It takes something explosive in OMEGA—literally—to make them let down their guard and see how much alike they are.

Thanks for having me here today, Marsha! 

*~*~*

Omega 

Penton Vampire Legacy, Book 3 

Susannah Sandlin

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Publisher: Montlake Romance

Date of Publication: February 5, 2013

ISBN: 978-1612183596  
ASIN: B0073XV3L2

Number of pages: 328  
Word Count: approx. 88,000 

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The bloody war between the Vampire Tribunal and the defiant scathe of Penton, Alabama, rages on, forcing its residents and their bonded humans to retreat into the underground fortress of last resort: Omega. There, Will Ludlam is charged with the care of Penton's humans, though he longs to fight alongside his vampire brethren. He knows the risks: as the renegade son of the Tribunal's vicious leader, Will's capture could doom the resistance.

Yet he is determined to prove his worth to his adopted scathe, to his vengeful father and to former US Army officer Randa Thomas, his beautiful, reluctant partner. Randa has little faith that a former member of the vampire elite has what it takes to fight a war. But as their enemies descend upon Omega, Will's polished charm and Randa's guarded heart finally give way to the warrior within.

Fans of Susannah Sandlin's Penton Legacy are sure to devour this long-awaited third installment of the steamy paranormal series.

Excerpt: OMEGA (Penton Legacy, Book 3) by Susannah Sandlin

Will stopped and scented the air again. There were two vampires nearby; one belonged to the Penton scathe, and one didn’t.

            He ignored both vampires and skirted to the back of the street where the burned shell of his house still smelled of smoke and ash after three days. Aligning his position with the oak tree twenty feet behind what was left of his chimney, he paced forty steps into the woods.

            A thorny bramble that had been draped over a small, scrubby bush pricked his fingers when he pulled it back. Grasping the trunk of the bush, he eased it from its loose grasp in the soil, exposing the top of a metal box.

            The loud click of a cocked pistol preceded the cold press of steel against the back of his head by less than a second.

            He inhaled, annoyed. A rookie mistake. He’d gotten so engrossed in his task he’d let someone slip up on him.

            Vampire.

            Penton scathe.

            Female.

            Freaking Randa.

* * *

Randa grinned, enjoying the disgusted look on Will’s face. “If I were your father, I’d already have the silver spoon back in your mouth, Willy. He’d have you trussed up like a rodeo calf by now, hauling you back to wherever it is he lives when he’s not terrorizing innocent people.”

            Will Ludlam was the kind of guy Randa Thomas had hated as a human, and she didn’t like him a bit more as a vampire. Less, in fact. Not only was he a spoiled rich boy, he was now a virtually immortal spoiled rich boy. He had probably been a blue-chip jock in school with a 4.0 GPA and a string of girls trailing his every step.

            Plus, he annoyed the hell out of her. The consummate smartass.

            “No, if you were my father, you’d have slit my throat—not enough to kill me, but enough to make sure I couldn’t fight back.” His voice was soft, calm. “Then you’d hand me over to your sadistic, freakshow of a second-in-command Shelton, who would play with me until I couldn’t take it anymore. Only when I was good and broken would you return the silver spoon to my mouth.”

            Good God, would any father really do that? Will didn’t sound as if he were joking. Randa relaxed her stance for only a split second before the world tilted and she hit the ground, landing on her back with Will stretched out on top of her in a full body press. And he had her gun.

            “Damn it.” She pushed against him but it was like pressing on bedrock.

            He propped on his elbows and grinned down at her. His hat had fallen off in the scuffle and the moonlight glinted off his hair, making it look silver instead of a naturally streaked blond. And he had dimples, as if God hadn’t already rewarded him with enough in the looks department.

            “And if I were my father, you would be dead. Or worse. Believe me, with Matthias, there’s always much worse. Give up?”

            She squirmed again, but froze when she realized he was getting turned on by her movements. There was definitely more of him pressing on her than there had been a few seconds earlier.

            He laughed, a white glint of teeth in the moonlight. “Oh, don’t stop moving, sweetheart. This is getting more and more interesting.”

            Yeah, she could feel exactly how interested he was getting. She felt a very un-vampirelike flush of heat as he wedged a knee between her legs. Damn it. She clenched her teeth at her body’s betrayal—which he’d be able to sense. She hated being a vampire; there was no sense of privacy. “Get. Off. Me. Now.”

            Will lowered his head and, damn him, inhaled deeply, with his face pressed against the side of her neck. Her carotid artery also thumped in a very unvampire-like cadence. She waited for the smartass comments to start.

            Instead, he lifted his head and looked her in the eye. She could swear his heartbeat sped up, although it was hard to tell over the pounding of her own. Well, this was awkward.

            He blinked and opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again.

            Well, that was one good thing. Will had been stricken dumb, at least for a moment. It wouldn’

  

ABSOLUTION  

The Penton Legacy, Book 2 
By Susannah Sandlin

Release date: October 9, 2012 

Publisher: Montlake Romance

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.

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REDEMPTION 

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 September 18, and book three, OMEGA, on December 18.

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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.

Website: http://www.susannahsandlin.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/susannahsandlin

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/susannahsandlin

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5828129.Susannah_Sandlin

Indie Bound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781612183541

 

~ ~ ~ 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, Book Two, HERITAGE AVENGED, and Book Three, LOST VOLUMES. 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.