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The Italian Vampire is on Amazon. And now I need another description and I need ads.
Date: March 31, 2018
Got a new book idea?
First, you come up with a cover. The photos I could see on Shutterstock - the Vampires are all highly campy. Dripping fangs. Raised black eyebrows. Dom dressed females dripping blood from their lips. This is not representative of my book. Should I join the forces that decry that I should have a caped hero? Bare chested? A beautiful girl draped over his arms, wanting her blood drained? Nope. Not that either.
Who is my heroine? A somewhat worn down working woman who is visiting her childhood haunts and Sandra and her little rental car are caught in a wicked snow storm. Ask anyone who was in the blizzards of 2007 when the book was in its inception. As far as snowstorms go, ask anyone caught in the endless blizzard on the East coast in the winter of 2018. In fact, she ends up in a black ice spin out --- that was something that actually happened to me. Laughing beered up guys setting my Renault Dauphin back in the street actually happened. Driving off at 5 miles an hour with a death grip on the wheel --- yes. Tire tracks that showed that the car drove up the tree trunk and then veered off - all I remember was this huge tree trunk in my windshield and I closed my eyes and jerked the wheel to the left. Yes, I lived through that. So I put my heroine through that.
In her case, you have to wonder about the snow. She keeps missing turns and she knows the area. She crashed into a ditch. She's contemplating the various ways she can die when low and behold, here comes dark dead gorgeous, although she doesn't know about the undead part yet. She's unnerved by his cowboy boots. (Fabio wears cowboy boots.) Broad shoulders. (Check.) Tight jeans. (Check) Blinding smile. (Check.) Long hair. (Of course.) Italian accent. (Oh hell yes.) She does a pratfall on the ice. and he has to come back and pick her up. He takes her into his house. She'll follow him anywhere. He gives her sanctuary. He tries to ignore the bloody knee. And I named him Drako Lanzoni (I had permission.)
What seals the deal is the wine he served her (was that wine he was drinking?) and the dinner he cooks and eats with her.
She gets tipsy, and he takes her to her room, and leaves her there. Alone. Although she really didn't want to be alone.
Drako doesn't take advantage because he has a code of honor. After decades of horror, he has chosen to break away and not be a murderous creature of the night. Turned in the early 1500s, he doesn't even want to be a vampire. And you should see his garage. (Fabio is a car and bike nut. I have seen his black ford so I tossed it in. And the Lamborghini, his pride and joy - esp the one that my Tacoma wanted to eat. I have a photo).
But something wants Drako to suffer. Something that has chased him from century to century and that wants revenge. And if he won't fight, that something is ready to kill. Drako has been found, sooner than expected, and the evil thing haunting him has also learned about Sandra.
The Cover
I decided not to put campy vampires on my cover. Or half-naked men. I decided that horrible week long snow storm, wet snow, mixed with ice storms, would be the cover. And I found a perfect photo of new forest growth in a snowstorm. Perfect.
And I added the admonition that Fabio should not read this book. The fans have read it. They said they would be so embarrassed. Because, Sandra only spent a couple nights alone.... SIGH. And yes, I told Fabio in person not to read it. (His agent approved both it and the cover.)
Now I need to finish getting up to speed on my new iMAC. (The other one has a video card issue. Well, it was 8 y ears old.) I need to send the 3rd try at a cover to CreateSpace. I think I found the problem.
      
      
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