Marie Treanor Interview

We would like to welcome Marie Treanor to the Brazen Broads Book Bash today.  Her book Blood On Silk, out now from NAL Signet Eclipse, is a favorite of both Broads, so this is real thrill for both of us. (Click here to read our review.)

A little bit about the author:  Marie Treanor lives in Scotland with her eccentric husband and three much-too-smart children.  Having grown bored with city life, she resides these days in a picturesque village by the sea where she is lucky enough to enjoy herself avoiding housework and writing sensual stories of paranormal romance and fantasy. 

Brazen Broads:  When did you first understand that you wanted to attempt writing as a career?

MT:  While I was doing a job I really hated!  I began to think of alternative ways to earn my living, and to consider what I actually enjoyed doing.  And since I'd been writing fiction constantly since childhood, with varying degrees of secrecy, I began to wonder if I shouldn't try it with a serious view to publication. Then, just after my youngest child was born seven years ago, I wrote my first romance, a novella length ghost story called Ghost Unlaid.

Brazen Broads:  How did circumstances play out in your first bid to be published?

MT:  Pretty well, actually!  I was lucky.  The first publisher I sent it to-an e-publisher, now out of business-accepted it, and I've been writing constantly ever since!  Incidentally, Ghost Unlaid has since be re-released by The Wild Rose Press...

Brazen Broads:  What made you choose to write about vampires?

MT:  I've always loved vampire stories, ever since I was a kid watching old horror films on late night television with my Dad at weekends:  Hammer Horror movies with Christopher Lee, the original Dracula with Bela Lugosi-great stuff!  When I read Bram Stoker's Dracula, I was hooked for good, and later Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire blew me away.  I soaked up vampire stories like a sponge.  I became fascinated with different "types" of vampire, with the idea that they didn't have to be completely evil, and yet the power of that possible evil could be very attractive. 

Enjoying them as I did, I suppose it was inevitable I should write a vampire story one day. (smiles)  Although it's the longest and probably the most gothic, Blood on Silk isn't actually my first-that was a humorous tale called Undead Men Wear Plaid, later expanded and re-released as Hunting Karoly by Ellora's Cave; and then there was the futuristic City of the Damned at Changeling Press and Freeing Al, again at EC. 

Brazen Broads:  In Blood on Silk, what was the inspiration for the delicious vampire, Saloman? 

MT:  Lots of different inspirations!  It was how I saw him in my first "vision" of the story-rising in a cloud of dust from the stone sarcophagus to advance on my terrified heroine-that made me think of him as so ancient, and his personality grew out of that.  He had to have power, charisma, and humour, and he had to be distant enough to be unreachable, incomprehensible to humans except on the rare occasions when he displayed some slight hint of vulnerability. Through contact with Elizabeth, he does become gradually more approachable, especially as the series goes on, but he's never human and no one in the story, even Elizabeth, ever forgets that.

Brazen Broads:  In a guest spot on another blog you said, "I'm half in love with him myself."  Do you always fall for your characters?

MT:  Sadly, yes.(smiles)  Maybe it's a good thing since it helps in understanding the heroine's feelings.  Obviously, I'm a trifle fickle, since my affections tend to move on to the next hero once my story's finished, but some heroes do stay with me longer than others...Giancarlo from The Devil and Via, Johnny from Ariadne's Thread, Drago from Gothic Dragon, Rab from Requiem for Rab...and Saloman, of course!  I think he'll be around for a while.

Brazen Broads:  Do you feel there's a lot of you in your Blood on Silk heroine, Elizabeth?

MT:  Yes, certainly in Elizabeth as she is at the beginning of the story.  She is loyal and has a strong sense of right and wrong, but is a little wary of people and doesn't form relationships easily.  Of course, I'm not as academically brilliant as Elizabeth, but I do get involved in historical research.  Like me, she's more an observer than a great participator, although as events overtake her, that has to change-she has to learn to fight for herself in a scary new world, and she streaks way past me. (smiles)

Brazen Broads:  Is there a novel in the making outside the Awakened By Blood series? 

MT:  Well, I have a couple of ideas and I have started a new story just a week or so ago, but I'm not sure how any of it will turn out, so I'll keep the details to myself for a while!

Brazen Broads:  When will your next novel be released and can you give us a quick summary?

MT:  My next new release is the second Awakened By Blood book, Blood Sin, in April.  Here's the blurb: 

Even if you stand in the light, you can dwell in the dark.

Months after her dangerous encounter with vampire overlord Saloman, Scottish academic Elizabeth Silk is still trying to cope with both the demands of her ancestral bloodline-which marks her as a vampire hunter-and the overpowering desire she feels for the immortal she brought back from the grave. But she is not alone in her fascination with Saloman. 

When Elizabeth tracks down a distant cousin from America, she learns he possesses an antique sword that has caught the interest of the Grand Master of the American hunters.  It is the ancient and mystical sword of Saloman-a treasure of vast occult powers and a prize beyond measure to both vampires and humans.  Now the race is on for possession of the sword.

Even as her enemies and allies shift their allegiances and battle for supremacy, Elizabeth must decide which will rule her own perilous fate:  unwanted loyalty or unholy love.

Before that, although it's not exactly new, there's a reissue of my Wolf Hunt novellas all together as an ebook collection at Changeling Press.  I believe it releases on Christmas Eve-three romances set in a futuristic world where the Earth government's response to an alien invasion threat is more terrifying than the invasion itself-creating killer werewolves from soldiers deprived from their old lives and identities.

Brazen Broads:  Thank you so much for stopping by the Brazen Broads Book Bash!  We wish you great success with all your writing and particularly look forward to your next Awakened By Blood novel, Blood Sin, to be published in April 2011 and more of the wonderful Saloman and Elizabeth. 

MT:  Thank you! And thanks for having me-it's been fun!


You can find out more about Marie and her books at her website:  www.MarieTreanor.com
Catch all her latest news on Facebook too here!
Or subscribe to her Newsletter here!