Magic Thursday Giveaway-Tasting Thanatos

When I started writing as an adult, and decided to try my hand at romance, the only romances I knew were historicals or time travels (which I loved). I didn’t get very far into my first historical because it was more fun to make stuff up than do scads of research, so it became a fantasy novel which now resides at the back of a cupboard.

I did dip my toes back into writing a historical with Mutiny on the Scarborough in the Dead Red Heart anthology. It took me longer to do the research than write the story. Yet, for every paranormal or fantasy I write I do research. Sometimes it’s on a particular culture or time period that I’m using for inspiration, or a particular technology.

What has research got to with Vampires?

While a young Vampire might not have any extra baggage than you or I, a 300 year old Vampire has lived history. They have effected it or been effected by it. So to write about the character I need to know something of their past—not everything—but the bit that screwed them up is especially important. In Kissing Phoenix I read about World War One and available cancer treatments. For Tasting Thanatos I had to brush up my rusty French and dig into the French Revolution.

Etienne, sometimes known as Thanatos, wants to feel again. Anything—pain, pleasure, hunger, thirst. He lost all sensation after being tortured during the French Revolution. His quest has led to a love of body piercing and delivers him into the hands of lovely but aloof fellow Vampire Maria.

Maria avoids her kind, and represses the urge to drink the blood of her lovers. The first time she bit, she killed, and she’s terrified of making the same mistake again. Instead she finds satisfaction through piercing. Until Etienne lays down a challenge—make me feel.

He wants her to take him in every way, to mark his soul. And to do that, Maria must embrace every part of her vampire nature.
Excerpt (18+): http://www.jasminejade.com/productspecs/9781419934049.htm

To win an e-copy of Tasting Thanatos (you have to be over 18) just tell me which period in history you would have liked to experience.