Guest Blog & Contest: COLD IN CALIFORNIA (A New Vampire Mythology)

Today, Preternatura welcomes author Deborah Riley-Magnus, whose new book Cold in California puts a whole new spin on everybody's favorite preternatural, the vampire! Sink  your fangs into this one, and check out the contest at the end.

Cold in California. Vampire Mythology … Shattered!

Deborah Riley-Magnus

What is it about fictional mythology that makes it seem so real? Is it that once one creative mind develops it, other creative minds feel compelled to continue? Is it the fact that the mythology seems so credible? So … unchangeable?

One day I was in West Hollywood, minding my own business, walking back to my car after a meeting with a client. (True story.) It was a pretty typical day there; in other words, it was a little askew of the rest of the world. After the Hindu dude in a bright orange robe stopped to chat with me, I looked up and spied a dwarf across the street. He looked a little scruffy, walked up to a warehouse door then glanced back suspiciously before slipping into the building’s darkness. I was suddenly paralyzed with intrigue and my mind started to swim into the bizarre.

Was that a troll? What’s he doing in there? Are there other tolls in there? Oh, and maybe there are werewolves and shapeshifters in there, too. A sleeping vampire or two? Right? Are they dead? I mean … all … dead? Waiting for a chance to get into heaven? What about the vampires? If they’re double dead … ahhh! I got it!

And Cold in California was born in a blink of the eye. It’s not that I have a blatant disrespect for accepted mythology and lure where vampires are concerned, it simply didn’t make sense to me any longer.  Why can’t a vampire get a shot at heaven? Most of them didn’t choose to become killers, right? So, maybe there can be redemption? But of course, I couldn’t make it easy so I figured …

What happens to a vampire after he’s finally dead? Heaven? Hell? Nope. Purgatory in a West Hollywood warehouse. Go figure.

Of course this story required a cast of thousands--well not thousands, but at least sixty dead supernaturals and twice-baked vampires trying to earn brownie points for the pearly gates.

Our hero, twice-baked vampire Gabriel Strickland, sure finds it a little difficult, because being good all the time just isn’t in his nature. He has to deal with the fact that his beliefs about final death are a lie, taking on responsibilities he never imagined, facing off with an evil warlock and oh of course, he’s also handsome so he finds ridiculous deep love with a human woman. Could his life after double death br any more complicated? To help him through it all, this twice-baked vampire blogs. He has a lot to say at the website too. Gabriel is rather opinionated.

Cold in California is a story about redemption, about the triumph of love and good over evil … and about big confusion and difficulties for Gabriel and the other dead supernatural creatures living in a West Hollywood warehouse.

So what really happens to a vampire after he finally dies? Cold in California, published by ireadiwrite Piblishing, offers a whole new tongue-in-cheek mythology you’ve never seen before. It is the first of a five book Twice-Baked Vampire series.

Curious? Post a response and get a chance to win a FREE signed copy of the ebook. Oh, and Gabriel himself just may respond to your comment, so don’t be surprised.

Amazon Link for Cold in California

http://www.amazon.com/Cold-California-Twice-Baked-Vampire-ebook/dp/B0055EC7E8/  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Deborah Riley-Magnus is an author and an Author Success Coach. She has a 27-year professional background in marketing, advertising and public relations as a writer for print, television and radio. She writes fiction in several genres as well as nonfiction

Deborah produces several pieces weekly for various websites. She also writes an author industry blog, Writaholic, and teaches online and live workshops as The Author Success Coach. She belongs to several writing and professional organizations. In 2011, she has two novels and one nonfiction, The Author Success Coach, being released.

She’s lived on both the east and west coast of the United States and has traveled the country widely.

Deborah's Website and Blog Links

Blogging - http://rileymagnus.wordpress.com/
Teaching - http://theauthorsuccesscoach.com/
Fiction – http://coldincalifornia.com
Writing - http://deborahriley-magnus.com/
Playing - http://whispersofthemuse.org/
Tweeting – http://twitter.com/rileymagnus

 Thanks, Deborah! I'm intrigued--how about you guys? If you'd like to win a signed ebook of Cold in California from Deborah, just leave a comment. Because it might be cold in California, but we all love hot vampires, right? You know the usual drill: four entries possible--+1 for comment, +1 for blog follow, +1 for Twitter follow @Suzanne_Johnson, +1 for Tweeting or Retweeting the contest. Bite!