Blood Bound
Blood Ravagers, Book One
Traci
Douglass
ISBN: 978-1-945879-17-3 * Release Date: October 10, 2016
Book Description:
Anna Frost had a bad feeling when
her twin sister, Liz, told her she’d run off with a member of the notorious
Otherworld biker gang, the Blood Ravagers. And her unease skyrockets when her
sister subsequently vanishes. The police have no authority and little interest,
so Anna decides to take matters into her own hands by infiltrating the group to
discover for herself what happened to Liz, where she meets….
Dante, half demon, half human. A
mix of two worlds, accepted by neither, he’s had no choice but to learn the
hard way how to play whatever side of the fence kept him alive during his
nearly 500 years of existence. Now, as second-in-command of the Blood Ravagers
biker gang, his survival depends on keeping his humanity a secret. Dante’s
ultimate goal is to fulfill the vows he made over two centuries ago to create a
world where half-breeds can live in safety and equality.
But when sheltered schoolteacher
Anna finds unexpected, white-hot passion in the arms of Dante, will her quest
for the truth cost him more than he ever bargained for? Or will they find a way
to save Liz – and their love – together?
Poised now at the entrance of
Seven, Anna took a deep breath. The ornate brass door handle seemed out of
place on the graffiti-covered wood, symbols both ancient and ominous carved
into its surface. She traced her fingers over the delicate S-shape of a
serpent, pierced by an arrow.
A loud crash thudded against the
door, followed by the tinkle of shattering glass and low animalistic snarls.
Not exactly the most reassuring welcome in the world, but she only had four
days here before she was due to fly back to Atlanta.
It was now or never.
She’d get in, get her information,
get out.
Anna creaked open the front door
and stepped inside the bar’s cool, dark interior. The door slammed shut behind
her, taking with it the sunny world outside. The junkie’s words looped through
her mind as her eyes adjusted.
Forget
Seven and the Blood Ravagers. They’re terminal.
Cigarette smoke clouded the air.
Noisy ceiling fans swirled the smell of booze and bad decisions into a huge
haze of sinister warning. Behind the bar stood a tall, tanned hunk with shaggy
blond hair and violet eyes—a bottle of liquor clutched in his hand, frozen
mid-pour. He stared back at her with an oh-shit
expression. She scanned the large room. There was all manner of fur and fangs
and one dude who appeared to be a fantastical shade of turquoise.
Hands trembling, Anna peered
through the murkiness, broken here and there by a few bare bulbs and buzzing
neon signs. A rusted yellow square with a red one and a percent sign hung
crooked on the wall near her shoulder and an old jukebox in the distance played
seventies punk rock on endless repeat.
Like a bad spaghetti western, all
activity ceased and everyone’s attention zeroed in on her. Anna’s pulse tripped
and her chest constricted, followed by queasy dizziness. She half expected
Clint Eastwood to swagger over and ask her to make his day. Her analytical
brain searched for rational explanations for what was happening.
Anxiety,
hunger, sheer terror?
All of them seemed perfectly
plausible at the moment.
When they were kids, Liz always
joked if the twins lived to see the apocalypse, pragmatic Anna would march
right up to Lucifer himself and demand to see the battle plans. She would’ve
laughed then, if her sister hadn’t been right. Would’ve laughed now too, if she
hadn’t been teetering on the edge of a full-blown panic attack.
Her mouth dried. Cold sweat
prickled the back of her neck.
This was a mistake.
Liz knew better than to involve
herself here, didn’t she?
Flashes of memory slammed into her
mind like machine gun fire. A different crowd. A different threat. A different
time when Anna’s attempts to help Liz had gone horribly, lethally wrong.
She backed slowly toward the exit.
One step, two. A few more and the outside world beckoned. She could run back to
the rental car, start the engine and get out of Dodge or Salvation or wherever
the hell this place was.
Hands fumbling behind her, Anna
reached for the door handle, but encountered only warm, hard muscle. She froze,
a silent squeak lodged in her throat.
***************
Talking with author Traci Douglass:
What is your writing environment?
I
have a bedroom in my house now converted into an office for my writing.
However, these days you’ll mostly find me sitting at my kitchen table, typing
away. I have a nice view out my patio doors there and the dogs like to cuddle
around my feet.
What is your writing process?
It’s
an ever-evolving thing, really. But for now, I do some preliminary outlining (a
hodgepodge of spreadsheets I created myself by combining different techniques I
learned from Shirley Jump, Cathy Yardley, Gwen Hayes, and Mary Buckman), then I
do character bios, setting sheets, and finally, I write. I find I do best by
getting a quick dirty first draft of the book down in about a month, then spend
another month doing 2-3 revision passes before shipping the book off to my
editor. The whole process takes about 2-3 months per book.
How did you get the idea for this
particular novel?
The
idea for Blood Bound came from a What If question. I was seeing a lot of awful
things on the news and humans just behaving badly toward one another and no
solutions in sight. So I began to think, what it these same issues were being
dealt with, but in a different universe, one where humans were the low species
on the totem pole. Of course, I’d also been binge-watching Sons of Anarchy at
the time, and thus an idea was born.
What is your favorite scene in your new
release?
I
really like the opening scene, just because it’s the readers first glimpse into
this strange new world of Seven and my fictional town of Salvation, Wyoming.
The first scene from Dante’s POV is also a fave of mine because it introduces
my villain, Basher.
What are you working on now and when can
we expect it to be available?
Books
two and three of the Blood Ravagers Series, which will be available in 2017
from Tule Publishing. I’ve also got a few other projects in the works that
hopefully I’ll be able to announce soon.
What do you like to do when you are not
writing?
Playing
with my dogs, spending time with family and friends, cooking, eating (LOL),
watching anything with Henry Cavill, Tom Hiddleston or Michael Fassbender,
reading, catching up on TV shows I’ve missed like Project Runway or The
Bachelor.
What is one interesting fact about you
that readers don’t know?
Let’s
see. I used to teach ballroom dancing for seven years and competed
professionally. Does that count? J
Top 3 things on your bucket list?
Visiting
in Paris
Living
by the ocean
Traveling
the world
Great
Questions, Sue. And thank you so much for having me on your blog today.
Happy
Reading! J
***************
About the Author:
Traci is a USA Today Bestselling
Author of Contemporary and Paranormal Romance. Her stories feature sizzling
heroes full of dark humor, quick wits and major attitudes and heroines who are
smart, tenacious, and always give as good as they get. She holds an MFA in
Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University and she loves animals,
chocolate, coffee, hot British actors, and sarcasm—not necessarily in that
order.
Website
and blog: http://www.tracidouglass.net
FB
Author Page:
http://www.facebook.com/TraciDouglassAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Traci_Douglass
Amazon
Author Page:
http://amzn.to/2f67yh0
***************
Tour Giveaway:
1
grand prize:
$25 Amazon gift card, bookmark, and e-book copy of book.
3
second prize winners:
Custom Bookmark by Bewitching Book Swag and e-book copy of book
Thanks so much again for having me on your blog today Sue! :)
ReplyDeleteI liked the excerpt, thank you.
ReplyDeleteGreat post - this sounds like an awesome book. Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDelete