Author Guest Post & Giveaway: Angela Lovell

Today, I have author Angela Lovell here with us with a guest post.

Welcome Angela!

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I’d like to congratulate Brianna on her new baby and thank her for finding time to host such a wonderful forum for writers and readers (cue the song: “I’m Every Woman!”). I haven’t had much time lately to promote my book, Blood Drunk: Faded Blue, and I’m oh-so grateful for the opportunity to do so here.

I’ve worked as a scriptwriter and been wooed by several real-deal lit agents but my work suffered from minor bouts of schizophrenia. The only projects I ever managed to finish were scripts. I spent several years working on a play that almost made it to Broadway but needed to be toned down too much for my liking. (I was told it needed to appeal to “the white-haired crowd,” i.e. senior citizens.) That isn’t really my speed. I spent a few years freelancing, podcasting, and scriptwriting and managed to pay my rent in New York City strictly as a writer - not an easy feat! But when the self-publishing craze took off I decided to give it a shot by first publishing a very controversial collection of essays about the summer I worked at Disney World called Mouseschawitz - My Summer Job of Concentrated Fun. It’s written in satirical form and rather short which has upset many die-hard Disney fans. But the sales were great! And this was just an experiment in self-publishing. What I was really doing was testing the waters for the vampire series I’d been hoping to write for a very long time.

Several years ago I waited all alone on the train platform for the A train to come sweep me up and deliver me to my unbelievably craptastic apartment in upper-upper Manhattan (just under the Bronx.) I stood there reconsidering the dramatic way I’d just dumped the manager of a popular bar (who incidentally looked just like Robert Downey Jr., not to mention he was an undefeated boxing champion.) He lived in the East Village – a five dollar cab ride from the bar where I’d just left him standing after shaking him down for the cash he owed me in front of his drunky peers. Freezing on that subway platform I felt a pang of regret - not at the loss of an incredibly hot idiot, but of his warm bed nearby. That was the moment my imagination distracted me from my woes.

I stood there staring down the dark subway tunnel expecting the bright lights of a train when suddenly I thought, “WHAT IF VAMPIRES CAME OUT INSTEAD?!”

They could. If vampires were real they’d be just as eclectic and enigmatic as any New Yorker I’d ever met. And what better time to feed than 4am when it’s just a bunch of stupid drunk girls who can’t afford cabs all the way home because they were recently fired from their coatcheck job at a swing dancing club? I was more masochistic in those days and stood there with my feet frozen to the platform, telling myself what a stupid, stupid girl I was to put myself in such a dangerous position. But part of me was thrilled by the notion of vampires chasing me down.

I talked about this idea a lot and saw it as a screenplay in those days and not yet a book. For years I would imagine vampires occupying the subways of New York, sometimes even venturing above to find safety in the shade provided by the city’s skyscrapers. The idea took shape and my vampires were fleshed out (pun intended). Paying attention to all of my greatest loves and concerns, I started to see this city through different eyes. Vampire eyes. And that’s when I realized this town would be the ultimate vampire playground.

Though over eight million people are occupying this island, New York City is a small town. New Yorkers are constantly pissing each other off, and while toying with this story I realized the vampires would be just as susceptible to the confines of the city. That’s why there had to be two rival gangs. And it didn’t hurt that the subway runs along the east side and west side as far as their underground habitats were concerned.

I’m a sucker for suspense so I tried to only leak out a little bit of where they come from, what started the riff, who murders for food and who murders for more sadistic reasons. This book is told through the eyes of Blue – a small-town teenager who finds himself enchanted by the city and by a certain female vampire named Kat. I tried to make her a walking version of New York – tough, glamorous, fast, and dangerous. There’s a soft side to both Kat and New York, and not many people could let their guard down to fall in love with them. (I’d say only about four million of the people living here actually like it.)

So, if you enjoy vampires, romance, The Big Apple, and an offbeat mystery, I hope you’ll give Blood Drunk: Faded Blue a shot. Thanks for reading, and happy trails!

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EXCERPT

The girls squeal from the rock, calling to him. The celebration is over. Blue walks toward the rock, prepared to make a speech about how late it's getting and that it'd be best for them to leave the park, when Pixie Cut shouts, "What's that?"

She points to the lake and everyone turns. It looks like an oil slick at first, smoothly gliding on top of the water. The moon is hiding again behind the clouds so for a moment their eyes give into the tricks played by the dark. The spot seems to be approaching, its oval shape twisting back and forth, as it gains momentum. Gliding from beneath a shadow, a set of red eyes appear at its mast.

"Monster!" screams Alexis as she breaks into a run.

The rest of the group is too stunned for a moment, waiting for confirmation. The beast glides up to the rock and that's when the girls run screaming after Alexis. Blue hears their footfalls growing distant from him but the excitement he feels is not fear. It's something else. Is this monster his messenger, his messiah, here to lead him to Lacy? Blue's mind goes almost entirely blank by the time the beast charges onto the shore, taking down a small park fence and knocking Blue backwards. Its weight threatens to crush his bones and without any wind in his lungs, Blue can only gasp for help.

"Minou, off,” a girl cries with authority. The creature backs up, huffing and grunting. Blue rolls to his side trying to help his lungs expand. He sucks hard on the air but a minimal amount enters his chest. The creature stands at attention, its head lifted off the ground and cocked, watching whoever just called it off. It's an alligator. A big one. Blue rolls around a little trying to give pressure to the backside of his lungs, hoping they'll pop back out.

"I'm sorry we had to interrupt you like that," she says.

Her voice is rich as though her tonsils are made of velvet. "I hope Minou didn't harm you."

Blue rolls to the other side, his face red with veins popping out of his neck. As soon as he sees her, he wishes he'd waited until he'd been more composed. She's leaning over him, her hair thick and black, draping around her. Her eyes are wide and as dark as the night. There's a little smile pursed up accenting her heart shaped face. She looks into Blue's eyes and cocks her head slightly as though listening to what they say. Blue hopes they aren't telling on him and the one thought that's bouncing around his head, despite his nearly crushed lungs: You are beautiful.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Angela Lovell is an award-winning playwright, director, screenwriter, essayist and performing monkey. She’s written for MTV, several independent film studios and publications such as BUST Magazine, The New York Press and High Times. You can hear her as Mark Twain’s daughter on the new album Mark Twain: Words & Music (featuring Clint Eastwood, Garrison Keillor and Jimmy Buffett.) Blood Drunk is Angela’s first full-length novel. She lives in New York City with her handsome husband and their two opinionated dogs.

Find the author online: website | blog | amazon | twitter

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ABOUT THE BOOK

With summer waning quickly before the start of his senior year, a family emergency forces Blue Knightly to leave his small Midwest town and travel to New York City to locate his rebellious sister. From the morgue to Central Park to the underbelly of New York, he quickly discovers the big city is the least of his concerns as he reluctantly takes sides within a warring faction of vampires to unravel the mystery of his sister’s disappearance. In their underground world of abandoned subway tunnels, Blue finds himself falling for a femme fatale vampire whose vibe is seldom clear. Not knowing who to trust, Blue finds himself battling not only the undead, but his own heart, as the family crisis escalates and every decision could be his last.

Buy links: Amazon

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**GIVEAWAY**

Thanks to Angela Lovell, two lucky winners will receive a copy of Blood Drunk: Faded Blue – one winner will receive a print copy, the other an eBook copy.

Good luck to all who enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway