Guest Author Lynda Hilburn Talking About Sexy Vamps

Hello, everyone! I’d like to thank Roxanne for inviting me to blog at Fang-tastic Books today! I really appreciate her gracious support of all things vampire.

I’ll admit it: I’m a rabid vampire fan. From the first moment I read Bram Stoker’s Dracula as a kid, I was hooked. My mother was horrified that I read such dark, grisly material. She felt certain it couldn’t be good for me. I don’t think she understood the depth of her daughter’s love of the mysterious, scary and occult. But my weirdness is her fault, anyway! She’s the one who talked to dead people while doing laundry in the basement, so communing with deceased relatives became normal for me, too. With that kind of background, how could I NOT love vampires and the paranormal?

The idea for the Kismet Knight, Vampire Psychologist series came from a client session in my psychotherapy practice. As I listened to a young woman talk about her paranormal experience and her desire to join an alternative world, I became intrigued. In this case, she talked about being an alien abductee, but the language she used echoed in my mind after the therapeutic hour. It reminded me of scenes from various vampire books I’d read throughout the years.

Prior to that day, I’d mostly written nonfiction: psychology articles, self-help training materials, hypnotherapy guides, newspaper columns, workbooks, workshop information, etc. I’d only branched out into fiction a few months earlier, after discovering a wonderful, new (new to me!) genre called “paranormal romance.”

I went home that evening in 2003, sat down in front of the computer, and began writing the story of a Denver psychologist who thinks she’s discovered a new psychological category: vampire wannabes, but instead finds herself pulled into a dark underworld of real bloodsuckers.

Writing that first book (The Vampire Shrink) was a great experience. Since my main female character, Kismet Knight, is an idealized version of me, I gave myself free rein to live out all my fantasies through her. Not only did she meet frightening nightwalkers, clever witches, a mysterious psychic, a helpful ghost, and a handsome FBI profiler, but her life changed forever when she encountered gorgeous, ancient, magical vampire named Devereux.

The series is reality based. The only aspect of the books that isn’t “real,” (at least I haven’t discovered a real one in my waiting room yet!) is vampires. Everything else exists in the world I’m familiar with. I know lots of witches, psychics, wizards, and ghosts. I wanted my vampires to be hidden from the human world because the unknown, forbidden element of the vampire mythology most appeals to me.

I don’t see vampires as humans with fangs. Due to the mystical transformation they undergo, they’re a separate species – formerly human but no longer. Most of the bloodsuckers have no problem doing whatever they must to exist. They don’t feel bad about being vampires. In fact, some of them view themselves as superior to mortals.

Kismet has a rough time through the first book facing her new reality. The scientist in her refuses to let go of her therapeutic mindset. As a clinician myself, I know there are usually “logical” explanations for every strange symptom and experience presented by clients, so it makes sense to me that Kismet would resist seeing the vampires and vampire wannabes as anything but mentally ill.

But when the proof becomes too overwhelming for her to ignore, the undead fireworks begin!

I’m happy that readers seem to love Devereux. He was a surprise to me. When I wrote the scene where Kismet’s young client describes the vampire master she’s attracted to, I was certain he’d be a dark-haired man. That’s the type I envision when I fantasize about mesmerizing nosferatu. But Devereux insisted on having very light blond hair and blue/green eyes. I even tried to talk him out of it, but – as anyone knows who reads my books – Devereux is a very strong, opinionated fellow, and he refused to be other than he is. But I must admit, he was right. I now dream of that long, silky hair flowing over my body and hearing his velvet voice whispering in my mind . . .

It’s been a challenge to categorize my series. It’s generally paranormal fiction with strong romance elements, mystery, horror, humor, and sex. It can also be viewed as vampire chick lit, urban fantasy and dark contemporary fantasy. It gets shelved in different places in every bookstore: horror, fantasy, romance and general fiction. I just hope readers will keep tracking my books down!

I’m currently working on the third book in the Kismet series, as well as some other book ideas. And my short story, “Blood Song,” is in the recently released Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance.

For more information about my books:
http://www.lyndahilburnauthor.com/
http://paranormalityuniverse.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/lyndahilburn

Now for a contest!

Leave a comment here giving us a description of your ideal, gorgeous vampire. I’ll give away a copy of one of my books (your choice, either The Vampire Shrink or Dark Harvest) to the winner.

Thanks so much for having me!