Today we are so lucky to have the always funny Keith Melton here to talk a little bit about his upcoming release Ghost Soldiers. Keith… Take it away!!
Vampires in the mob
So anyway, never believe the negative things your writing teacher told you about starting a guest blog post with the words “so anyway.” He/She was lying to keep that gripping first line all to him/herself. Best way to break the ice is to pretend the conversation is *already* in progress. This also works at parties and in bars. Feel free to try it out.
So anyway…vampires. Wait! Don’t leave yet! Yes, I know some people now see vampires as a bit tired, a bit played out perhaps. This being the case, I mined the imagination and came up with some ideas to make sure my vampires were different from the sea of undead bloodsuckers populating the book world. Alas, since most of those ideas involved crossing vampires with cyborgs (and/or gray aliens), they didn’t exactly work out. In the end, I ditched all those ideas and stuck with what I had in the first book: classic-style vamps who bite people and run the mafia in Boston.
In Ghost Soldiers (the sequel to Blood Vice) Maria is trying to run her mafia family—a near impossible task for two reasons. First, she’s a woman. Second, she’s a vampire. Believe me when I tell you the patriarchy is alive and well in the criminal underworld. Being a vampire makes it a bit difficult to oversee things during normal business hours.
This time around I tried to ditch most of the vampire angst, because, honestly, it’s been done. Hit man Karl Vance is more suck it up (heh, get it? …yeah, not my best—moving on) and get the job done this time around. Maria charges ahead full speed, despite a ton of obstacles, not the least of which is someone in her crime syndicate looking to bump her off. The two lovers, Maria and Karl, are fighting to get back to one another. There’s a good deal of betrayal in this story and a ton of payback. There’s a war brewing between the human knights in the Order of the Thorn and a rogue sorcerer enlisting monsters to break the Thorn’s dominance. Assassinations. Underworld mayhem. The usual.
Fun fact: the term “ghost soldier” in mafia lingo refers to Sicilian hit men brought over to whack a guy and then return to Sicily. Here and gone again like ghosts, leaving no trace, no connections, no ties to American mafia families that might raise uncomfortable questions.
Oh, and about that piece of advice I wrote earlier, starting off this guest post? Yeah. I wouldn’t believe a word I said. I was a completely different person back them. Also, stay tuned for my new vampire-cyborg novel due out in 2012!
Ghost Soldiers – Keith Melton
Get in. Do the job. Get out. If only it were that easy.
The Nightfall Syndicate, Book 2
Vampire hit man Karl Vance has a new target: a rogue, charismatic sorcerer building an army of paranormal creatures in Eastern Europe. The stakes have never been higher, nor the odds so long, but he’s in too deep to turn back. If Karl fails to kill, the powerful Order of the Thorn will hunt down Maria Ricardi, the vampire he loves, and destroy everything he’s fighting for.
When Karl is cut off in enemy badlands, he’s reduced to survival mode, doing the kinds of things he’d sworn would never be part of his vampire existence. Things that will forever color his relationship with Maria…if he survives to see her again.
In Boston, Maria is haunted by disturbing dreams of Karl as she struggles to keep control of her mafia syndicate against a growing tide of threats—traitors, FBI agents, hostile crime families, and the fear that power will turn her into a creature like her hated Master, Delgado. Then she discovers Karl is walking straight into a deadly trap…and there may be nothing she can do to stop it in time.
Product Warnings: Explicit language and intense, violent content. Assassinations, betrayals, paranormal warfare, explosions, gangland slayings, chaos, calamity, rampant pandemonium, and an occasional fiery explosion.
Author’s Website | Samhain Store | Barnes & Noble | Amazon eBook
Thank you so much to Keith for being here today. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m pretty excited for vampire cyborgs!
Keith is offering one lucky commenter an ebook of his new release Ghost Soldiers. Just leave a comment or question for Keith to be entered. Open Internationally and ends on July 19th. Good Luck!
Keith, you are too funny! I’ve got to check this series out! I love the idea of a female vamp running the mob.
*Gives you ‘special sparkly’ coffee* 🙂 I have not had a chance to read this series yet, I will though. 🙂 I have read Zero Dog War and lurved it! Any more coming from that series soon? 🙂
Calamity and rampant pandemonium? Sounds like my house. 🙂
So, anyway, yeah. Fun interview!
I’m in “Assassinations. Underworld mayhem. The usual.”, love it and besides I want to see how a woman Mafiosa deals with the testosterone set that is the rest of the Mobsters!
Always a pleasure to read a post by Keith Melton, there is such scathing humor and impromptu weirdness that it makes one smile despite ones self!
Thanks for the giveaway MinnChica and Keith thanks for the insight into “Ghost Soldiers”, sorry the cyborg thing did not work out.
@RebeLovesBooks Thanks! Yeah, she has a few challenges to put down though. Those mob guys can be hard to keep in line. ^_^
@Ferishia Thank you, Ferishia! This series is very different from the Zero Dog War books. Just a heads up. And yeah, I drank all the special sparkly coffee. Now I’m scintillating. 🙂
@BJ LoL, exactly. Same thing goes around my house. Of course, I blame it all on the kids. They’re handy for that kind of thing. 😉
@Jackie B “Impromptu weirdness” lol, that’s me. ^_^ Yeah, shame about the cyborg thing, right? And Maria has her hands full running her syndicate. No easy sailing for her.
Vampires in the mob! Why didn’t anyone else ever think of that? They just go together, don’t you think? Well, I do! I cannot WAIT to read this book!!! It sounds awesome! Thanks for the great giveaway:)
This sounds totally wild and I loved the warning and excerpt, so thanks for the chance to read your hot off the press release, Keith.
caity_mack at yahoo dot com
@Julie Witt Thanks, Julie! They do rather go together well. 😉
@Cathy M Thank you, Cathy. My pleasure.
You had me at Boston. Mafia. Vampires :grins: I loved Blood Vice and can’t wait for the sequel.
Great interview!
Please add my name to the contest. Your book sounds really cool!
Mara
marajbrandon AT earthlink DOT net
@Erika Thank you! I hope you like Ghost Soldiers. ^_^
@Mara Thanks, Mara. I’m rather fond of it. 😉
Keitttttttthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh if zombies had a caste system, how would you classify and name them?
@Insane Hussein I would classify them according to how much they reminded me of the Three Stooges. Some zombies would be “Moes” some would be “Larrys” and the most amusing would be “Curlys.” There would be a fourth class of “Shemps” but they wouldn’t be as common.
Wow, I rather surprised myself at my classifying genius.
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Keith I’ve been so busy the past couple of months I missed seeing the cover for Ghost Soldiers. WOW!!! As far as the author portrait goes, I have no comment. 😉
@Amanda
Thanks, Amanda. I do like that cover. ^_^
And as author portraits go…I honestly think that one belongs on my driver’s license.
Great cover!! Love it!
Lissette_125(at)hotmail(dot)com
Thank you!
@Lissette Thank you!