Showing posts with label New Orleans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Orleans. Show all posts

Friday, March 16, 2012

Kicking Off The Shades of Desire Tour with The Big Easy

Certain cities have certain reputations. New York is the city that never sleeps. L.A. is the city of angels. Las Vegas is Sin City. New Orleans… well, New Orleans is a little of everything rolled into one.

Founded in 1718 by the French, the city changed hands multiple times before finally being sold to the Americans in the infamous Louisiana Purchase of 1803. By that time, the city was a nice blend of French, Spanish, Creole, Cajun…basically, you name it, New Orleans had it. Also home to a large slave population, the city’s culture was influenced by the varied cultures from Africa and the Caribbean. Needless to say, there was a lot going on in the gumbo pot.

This elaborate mix gave birth to some of the most amazing architecture, food, and music in the world. To this day, if you mention New Orleans, there’s a pretty good chance that one of those three topics will be the first thing rhapsodized about. Hurricane Katrina and her after effects might still be touted about, but on the whole, the city of New Orleans has regained her feet and is slowly growing back into the good time place she’s known to be.

There aren’t a lot of cities where you can enjoy a breakfast filled with dishes such as Eggs Hussarde, New Orleans Turtle Soup and Creole Chocolate Suicide Cake, washing it all down with mimosas, and then step out onto the sidewalk (or banquette, if you’re feeling more than a little French) and listen to some lively jazz before strolling down to the river and watch the barges and the West Bank ferry. You’re also not likely to find historical buildings such as the New Orleans Opera House sharing street space with a half dozen or so strip clubs. If you move further Uptown, you have college students renting apartments in houses older than their grandparents and doing their grocery shopping in the same corner stores as the grand dame whose great something or another helped found the American portion of the city.

New Orleans may not have the hustle and bustle of New York, or the glitz and glamour of L.A., or the over-the-top seediness and greed of Las Vegas, but she does have her own unique, Southern charm. Even better, she has the kind of open mind so difficult to find when you start heading north and west, making the streets of the French Quarter the perfect spot for a meeting of vampires, witches, voudouns, and other things that go bump in the night.

Come on in, sit a spell—I’ve got a story for you…

March 16 Tour Launch/Intro
Fang-tastic Books

March 16 review
The Autumn Review

March 17 reviews
Doctors Notes

March 17 Promo and review
SJ Clarke’s Blog

March 18 Guest Blog
Roxanne’s Realm

March 20 review
WTF Are You Reading?

March 24 Spotlight with series review
Cocktails and Books

March 26 Guest blog 
Grave Tells

March 26 Guest blog
J.D. Brown's Blog

March 27 Review

March 30 Guest blog
Louisa Bacio -- Love Knows No Bounds

April 2 Interview and Promo
JeanzBookReadNReview

April 3 Guest blog
Fictional Candy

April 4 Interview
The Speculative Salon:

April 4 Guest blog
Fiction Fascination

April 5 Guest blog
Mama Knows Books-

April 10 When I’m Not Writing Feature
Review
Tynga's Reviews 

April 10 Guest blog
Read2Review 


April 11 reviews
SupaGurl Books

April 12 Promo and review
Reader Girls

April 13 Promo and review
Beverly @ The Wormhole

Shades of Desire


By L.M. Pruitt

Blurb

All I wanted was a little peace and quiet.

Instead, I've got dead Covenant members and a steady stream of letters from the new guy in town. His beverage of choice? A 2002 Merlot, with a shot or two of powerful virgin blood.

On top of that, I'm breaking in a new police liaison, failing at playing matchmaker, and fighting nausea like it's a full time job. All I wanted was a little peace and quiet.

Instead, I've got dead Covenant members and a steady stream of letters from the new guy in town. His beverage of choice? A 2002 Merlot, with a shot or two of powerful virgin blood.

On top of that, I'm breaking in a new police liaison, failing at playing matchmaker, and fighting nausea like it's a full time job.

Did I forget to mention that I've also got enough girls living at the Crossroads to start my own boarding school?

Peace and quiet? Out the window.

--Jude Magdalyn Henries


Buy Links             Kindle    

Book 1 Shades of Grey for your Kindle, in Paperback



About the Author:


L.M. Pruitt has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember. A native of Florida with a love of New Orleans, she has the uncanny ability to find humor in most things and would probably kill a plastic plant. She is the author of the Jude Magdalyn Series as well as New Moon Rising, featuring Cari Gravier, and Taken, featuring Frankie Post. She is currently at work on the next book in the Moon Rising series, Harvest Moon Rising, due out April 2012. Ms. Pruitt makes her home in Florida with two cats--one smart, the other not so much.

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/LM-Pruitt/364776895104

Blog: http://www.lmpruitt.blogspot.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/lmpruitt

Thursday, April 1, 2010

New Orleans and Its Vampire Mystique by Nicole Hadaway

As many of you have probably noticed, New Orleans, and indeed Louisiana in general, has become what Transylvania is to Europe -- the vampire center of the United States. So, what is it about this locale that has people mesmerized, as if they were staring into a vampire's eyes?



Personally, I think alot has to do with the venerable author Anne Rice, and her decision to set Interview With the Vampire in the New Orleans area. Interview has in many ways defined modern vampire fiction -- no longer were vampires the dark, evil monsters as portrayed in Dracula, but they were now immortal humans, who had hopes, dreams, many of them dashed by their newfound vampire lives.

Ms. Rice's decision to include New Orleans and its environs as the setting of her novel was likely due in part by her familiarity of the area: she grew up and lived in New Orleans. However, having been a one-time resident of the Crescent City myself, I can say that there is a certain magic to be found there, perhaps due to its many hauntings, checkered past as the port which harbored such dangerous and nefarious trades as slavery and piracy. New Orleans also had a large population that had fled Haiti during its revolution, and thus the religion of Voodoo was introduced into the region and the US.


That, coupled with hot, very humid weather; the nearby swamps which were home to many strange and dangerous creatures (including poisonous snakes, alligators, and black widow spiders -- no doubt the cause of death of many a missing person who ventured into the Spanish-moss-covered trees never to return) -- it's no wonder the city, and Louisiana in general, has become a place of wonder and mystery.

Haunted history tours are very popular in New Orleans, the most famous of which is hosted by Sidney and Kalila Smith. You can find more information (including about the 'real' vampire that inhabited New Orleans, Jacques St. Germaine -- descendant of the legendary Compte St. Germaine) at their website, and I would like to acknowledge that the research provided in their novel, New Orleans Ghosts, Voodoo and Vampires was instrumental in writing my short story.


 
BLOG DESIGN FOR FANG-TASTIC BOOKS BY BARBARA.
RED CORSET © HALAQUINN ARCADIAS. GOTHIC NIGHT © ASHEN SHARROW.