Today we have JC Daniels here to talk with us about her latest release in the Colbana Files series. IF you are a fan of Urban Fantasy and haven’t read these books yet, you need to fix that! Take it away, JC.
Your intro to UF?
Do you remember it?
If we don’t count BUNNICULA…and FYI, you should count it. EVERYBODY should count (and read) BUNNICULA, then I think I’d have to say my introduction to urban fantasy was Mercedes Lackey’s CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT. It was a Diana Tregarde book and she was a witch. There was a sexy vampire. This was urban fantasy before urban fantasy even existed. Not long after that, I discovered Emma Bull’s WAR FOR THE OAKS.
WAR FOR THE OAKS made me think of LABYRINTH—remember with David Bowie? But only the vaguest manner. There was a faerie king, if I remember correctly and magic and all these fantastical creatures that I’d never read about before.
It was a few years before I came across anything quite so spectacular and that would have been one of Laurell K Hamilton’s Anita Blake books. I’d read—and so adored—her fantasy NIGHTSEER and was seeking something with a similar feel and although I never quite found it in the AB books, they were fun.
Those books led me on to discover books like Jim Butcher and not long after him, I discovered…swoon…Patricia Briggs, and then…gasp…Ilona Andrews, then Jeaniene Frost, Stacia Kane. From there, Nalini Singh (BLUEBELL!!!!) and oh, so many, many more.
And it all started with the vampire Andre and a witch called Diana Tregarde.
Do you remember who hooked you?
Read on for an excerpt and a chance to win either a Kindle Fire or a tea set and some of the loose leaf tea that Kit would drink…if she was real. 😉
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“These are all random disappearances, too,” Justin said. “No connections.”
“How many?”
“A fair number, I’m afraid. I know two witches personally,” Paddy said, leaning in. “One was a mate of mine. The other…I didn’t know her, but I knew of her. She wasn’t the sort to just disappear and she’s gone. Both of them, just gone. I’ve heard of others, though. Clearwater, then this…it’s enough to make a man worry, Kit.”
“Are we talking five? Ten?”
Padraig sighed and reached up, rubbing at his face. For a moment, he pressed the tips of his fingers against his eyelids, hard. “I talked to an old friend at Banner. They’ve been watching, although watching is all they are doing. They’ve had thirty reports…of witches.”
“What aren’t you saying?”
When Paddy didn’t answer, Justin did. “Other NHs have gone missing. This is some of the information I’ve been tracking. Lone shifters, they just disappear. One small pack in Alabama—it’s like Roanoke. No survivors. I’ve even heard tales of a few vampires here and there.”
He hesitated and then added, “The most recent vampire disappearances have been from here. One of them was Roberto Whittier.”
I tensed.
Justin looked down at his hands, palms facing each other, fingertips pressed together. “I heard you two almost rubbed shoulders not too long ago.”
“I wouldn’t call it that,” I said softly. “He was trying to stare me down at the Assembly’s Halloween thing. It didn’t go very far. He was asked to leave and…” I shrugged. Blowing out my breath through my teeth, I shoved my hands into my pockets. “He’s missing.”
“Yeah.”
Somebody is nabbing vampires?
Read more…
Order:
Haven’t read the Colbana Files? You can check books 1-3, now available in a boxed set.
Enter to win one of two prizes by J.C. Daniels. A Kindle Fire or a tea set—including a mix of Kit’s favorite tea, as well as download of books 1-3. Enter via the widget below. Be sure to check back and see if you’ve won and check out the rest of the participating blogs!
**Two winners from the blog tour, in random order, will be drawn. In the event a non-US winner is drawn for the tea set, a GC of equal value will be substituted. Apologies, but customs can be evil.
Huh. I DONT remember who hooked me. Darn.
I have always loved books with vampires and and werewolves but the first book I can truly categorize as UF would have been Patricia Briggs Mercy Thompson series. I read the first one and had to immediately go buy the next two in the series.
It was Kim Harrison that got me hooked with the Hollows series.
OMG. I haven’t heard Bunicula since grade school. That book brought back memory.
My first was Dark Symphony by Christine Feehan. It was so good!! It was my first paranormal and i was hooked!
My first paranormal book? Fantasy Lover by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Loved it. After that, Christine Feehan with Dark Prince, and yes Laurell K. Hamilton. Susan Sizemore, Alexis Morgan, and o so many more.
Who hooked me? Well, actually, I think it was reading the Sword & Sorceress series edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley that hooked me. Reading those led me to Mercedes Lackey and her Diana Tregarde, as well as Michelle Sagara and so many others! Then I discovered Patricia Briggs, Jim Butcher, Ilona Andrews, and more of my favorites. Thank heaven for gateway books/authors!!