Y sin más presentación, Deborah Palumbo:

SOBRE LA AUTORA    

Primero, quiero decirles que estoy muy contenta de estar aquí.

Soy una autora y de ficción y publico mis propias obras ahora pero empecé cuando era muy joven, desde los 7 años hasta que tuve 18 escribía poemas a Dios, pero siempre quise escribir novelas; era algo innato. Ese sueño sin embargo, no se cumplió hasta que desgraciadamente me enfermé con una enfermedad debilitante, y como resultado, tengo ahora 9 novelas publicadas con Amazon y muchas esperando en el archivador a que les quite el polvo.

Cuento historias en varios géneros, disponibles en versión electrónica y de papel: Paranormal…mezclado con misterio y romance, histórica, y misterio y crimen…ya saben…quién fue el culpable, con detectives frustrados que siempre están a la caza de algún asesino. El elemento que tienen en común es que todas tienen como elemento central el misterio.

También colaboré en un guion con actor/escritor Jordan Rhodes. Disfruté la experiencia inmensamente, pero sigo prefiriendo escribir novelas.

OK, así que ahora que nos hemos quitado de encima mi humilde biografía, estamos listos para meternos en el meollo de la cuestión.

Así que aquí estamos a punto de discutir mi serie de vampiros The Undeparted (Los que no partieron) y en particular el libro 3 The Banished One (El desterrado) Sí, ya he terminado el libro 3 lo que quiere decir que me tienen que prometer que se abalanzarán hacia Amazon y comprarán los 3 libros y se quedarán enganchados con la serie paranormal misterio/romance y con los personaje, Quentin, el padre de todos los vampiros que está en transición emocional, la bella y una vez mortal Cassandra, la mano derecha de Quentin desde los 1200s, el malo y sexi Christian, y el vicioso y diabólico Lucius.

Si eres miembro de Prime, mis libros te saldrán gratis, y si no, los libros en versión Kindle sólo cuestan $2.99, en papel $7.95. He tenido muy buenos comentarios y críticas, así que espero que les echen un vistazo.

SINOPSIS DE ‘THE VANISHED ONE’ (EL DESTERRADO)      

Para mayores de 18.

El Desterrado, un vampiro asesino en serie también llamado Lucius, sigue creando caos en la tranquila ciudad Tower City (Ciudad de la Torre), y como es supernatural los métodos policíacos usuales no sirven para capturarle.

Un frustrado subteniente Welby se niega a creer que el elusivo Lucius, el responsable por todos esos cuerpos en su ciudad, es un vampiro, ya que eso no tiene lógica. Tiene que haber otra explicación para todas esas marcas de colmillos en las gargantas de las víctimas.

Welby sigue sin creer en vampiros hasta que el forense, Doc McMahon, le hace cambiar de opinión.

Doc le muestra a Welby su diario ancestral desde los 1700s que trata sobre Quentin Castle, el padre de todos los vampiros.

Welby (y el lector) es transportado hacia el pasado mientras lee esas páginas amarillentas llenas de encuentros con hermosas mujeres atraídas a su perdición y transformadas en vampiras por el atractivo y encantador Quentin. Pero lo que hace que Welby finalmente se convenza, es una serie de eventos preternaturales y la evidencia científica del forense.

Welby entonces sigue los rumores que flotan en la ciudad sobre los vampiros hasta llegar a Quentin y su castillo gótico para enlistar la ayuda supernatural de Quentin para capturar a Lucius. Pero, ¿ayudará Quentin, el único que puede detener los ataques vampíricos de Lucius, al subteniente o le transformará en uno de los suyos (undeparted)?

¿Luchará Quentin con Lucius y le enviará a los recesos del infierno por toda la eternidad asegurándose de que Cassandra está a salvo de su ex pretendiente? ¿Estará la vieja ciudad minera a salvo por fin?

EXTRACTO DE EL DESTERRADO

De repente una sustancia química se disparó a través de Lucius mientras estaba contemplando a esa sexi mujer, similar a la sensación que experimentaba cuando era mortal y estaba mirando a una tía buena. Pero su deseo en estado vampírico era más intenso, casi como un choque eléctrico y mezclado con su anhelo lujurioso por sangre. Necesitaba beber de su cuello; probar su esencia vital, y tenía que llevársela a la cama. No había forma de resistirse, no tenía auto-control. Estaba acostumbrado a satisfacer todos sus deseos, sin importar si eran erupciones espontáneas de alguna sustancia química, o un encuentro bien planeado.

¡Espero que todos hayan disfrutado tanto como yo y que se enamoren de la serie! Gracias Olga y gracias a todos por dejarme que les pegue el rollo un rato!

Deborah Palumbo

MIS LIBROS ESTÁN DISPONIBLES EN MI PÁGINA WEB, versión electrónica  y papel y en:

AMAZON; http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=deborah+palumbo&x=6&y=19 SÍGANME EN TODOS ESTOS SITIOS: MI PÁGINA WEB: http://www.deborahpalumbo.com MI BLOG: http://deborahpalumbotheundeparted.blogspot.com/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/deborahpalumbo2 GOODREADS: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6441876.Deborah_Palumbo NINGS BOOK BLOGS: http://bookblogs.ning.com/profile/deborahpalumbo SHELFARI: http://www.shelfari.com/deborahpalumbo

¡Si les gustan mis libros, recuerden darle al botón “like”, dejen un comentario y recomiéndenlos!

Deborah PalumboAuthor of THE UNDEPARTED n writer of Paranormal and Mystery Novels www.deborahpalumbo.com deborahpalumbo2 @twitter Amazon.com: deborah palumbo: Kindle Store

(Traducción: Olga Núñez Miret)

Y la segunda autora de esta selección es la fascinante Jodie Pierce que nos habla con candor de su escritura y su vida en general.

Dime algo sobre ti: Tengo 37 años y vivo con mi marido en Cleveland, Ohio. Siempre me han fascinado los vampiros, desde que era niña pero no empecé a escribir sobre ellos hasta que un día leí el libro de Anne Rice. Yo era una estudiante de intercambio en Brasil y leeréis algo sobre ello en mis historias. Me gusta informarme sobre lugares, comida, ropa, etc para darle más realidad a mis historias. He publicado ocho libros hasta ahora.

¿Qué género de libros escribes? Paranormal.

¿Qué tipo de libros lees? Paranormal.

Dinos algo sobre tu última novela. The Vampire Queen una vez más está al mando de sus sujetos aunque esta vez es una escuela para los niños ‘diferentes’ de Escocia. Una escuela llena de vampiros, brujas, brujos, elfos y hadas, que es odiada y temida por todos los estudiantes. Un nuevo grupo de brujas y brujos aparecen a las puertas de la escuela y causan todo tipo de problemas. Vampiros y brujas se llevan a matar y muy pocos creen que la escuela pueda sobrevivir. La Reina se reúne con un antiguo amante pero ¿a qué precio? Un nuevo amante y uno de sus previos amantes se unen para intentar destronar a la Reina. ¿Lo conseguirán? ¿Seguirá la Reina con su terrorífico dominio sobre la escuela? ¿Funcionarán los encantos  y hechizos y cambiarán la historia? Todo será rebelado al final.

¿Dónde se puede comprar tu libro? www.amazon.com & www.barnesandnoble.com

¿Qué te hizo apasionarte por los libros y el arte de una buena historia? A mis padres siempre les ha gustado la lectura. Mi madre era bibliotecaria y mi padre leía al menos un libro al día así que yo empecé a leer en mi etapa formativa y me encantó.

¿Hay algún libro en particular que haya afectado o cambiado tu vida de manera radical? No recuerdo exactamente qué libro pero fue una de las novelas de Anne Rice. Christine Feehan me introdujo al aspecto erótico.

¿Cuál fue la semilla de tu inspiración para tu último libro? Ya había escrito los libros 1 & 2 y decidí que quería completar una trilogía. Decidí atar algunos de los cabos que habían quedado sueltos en los primeros dos libros y la idea para el tercero me llegó en un sueño.

¿Cuál ha sido tu mejor momento como escritora? El día en que recibí el primer correo electrónico diciéndome que querían publicar mi primera historia.

¿Quién es tu ídolo como autor? ¡Anne Rice!

¿Te reconoces a ti misma en alguno de tus personajes? No, pero introduzco a gente a mi alrededor en mis personajes.

¿Crees que tu sueño se ha convertido en realidad o queda todavía mucho por hacer? Siempre queda mucho por hacer. ¡Más que escribir!

¿Dónde escribes? Yo escribo sentada en mi silla reclinable con mi ordenador en la falda. La mesa junto a mi silla está cubierta de papeles, notas y envoltorios de Luna bar (chocolate).

¿Qué haces cuando no estás escribiendo? Disfruto viendo la televisión con mi marido, yendo a tomar un café o comiendo fuera, visitando a mis padres.

¿Cuáles son los atributos más importantes para mantenerse cuerdo como escritor? Ser persistente, pero la mayoría de escritores y artistas no están cuerdos.

¿Hubo un instante cuando te diste cuenta de que serías escritora? Siempre lo supe desde el instituto. Me encantaba escribir ya entonces.

¿Qué consejo le daría a los que aspiran a ser escritores? Sigue intentándolo. Sigue tus sueños. Sólo fracasas si abandonas.

¿Cuál es tu personaje favorito en tu última novela? Mi personaje favorito es la protagonista, La Reina Vampira.  Al principio es una mujer joven y asustada que tiene que descubrir de nuevo todo lo que sabía sobre si misma. Después de conseguir eso, se convierte en una mujer atrevida, seductora, impulsiva, a veces arrogante y petulante pero sin compasión y determinada a resumir su reinado sobre la raza de vampiros.

¿Son importantes los nombres de los personajes en tu novela? ¿Cómo y por qué? Escojo los nombres de un libro gigante de nombres de bebés que tengo o en el Internet a través de páginas con nombres de bebés. Normalmente pienso en una letra para el nombre y entonces busco por ejemplo, todas las ‘t’s y selecciono un nombre empezando con esa letra que reúna las principales características de ese personaje. Lo hace más divertido para mí y aunque nadie sepa mi ‘diabólico plan de nombres’ me divierte.

¿El viajar juega algún papel en la escritura de tus libros? Bueno, no exactamente si nos referimos a viajar personalmente a los escenarios pero estudio todos los escenarios y sitios que aparecen en mis libros. También me gusta estudiar detalles sobre los lugares, comida, ropas, costumbres, etc. Me ayuda a aprender cosas nuevas y hace la lectura más interesante en mi opinión.

¿Qué te produce más satisfacción al escribir? Me gusta la posibilidad que me ofrece de expresar mi creatividad. Mucho de lo que escribo viene de mis sueños. Sueño un concepto central y luego tengo otros sueños sobre varias escenas que ocurren en el libro. A menudo me despierto a las 4 de la mañana y tengo que escribir. También estoy acostada en la cama antes de quedarme dormida pensando y se me ocurren muy buenas ideas así que siempre tengo lápiz y papel junto a la cama. A veces mi marido me da una gran idea para una historia y yo la desarrollo. Eso es lo que pasó con la historia en la que estoy trabajando ahora. A veces me quedo estancada en el medio pero luego la compuerta se abre y ¡cuidado, apartense!

¿Qué piensan tu pareja y tu familia sobre tu carrera de escritora?

Bueno, esto es algo delicado e intentaré no ofender a nadie, pero tengo que ser sincera. Mi marido es my mayor apoyo. Como he dicho, me da ideas, lee mis libros, los compra (me anima a comprar libros de otros autores que necesito para alimentar el cerebro hambriento de los lectores), etc. Me dice todo el tiempo que está muy orgulloso de mí y me recuerda cuando estoy baja de moral como de lejos he llegado en mi camino para convertirme en escritora. Por el contrario, mis padres (a los que estoy muy unida) no parecen darle ninguna importancia. No han leído nunca ninguna de mis historias (y leen mucho, a veces 4 libros por semana). Mi madre dice que es porque son sobre vampiros y a ella no le gusta ese género. Mi padre me dice que está orgulloso de mí pero no deja de quejarse porque no me he hecho millonaria con mis libros. Es frustrante. Los quiero pero no me apoyan. Me siento perdida con ellos y no saco a relucir el tema mucho estos días.

Dinos cuál es tu restaurante favorito.

A mi marido y a mí nos interesa mucho la comida y la cocina. Vemos todos los programas de cocinar y de alimentos. Nos encanta probar nuevas cosas, sitios, comidas, etc. En uno de los programas de cocina hablaran sobre usar médula ósea. A mí ya me costaba comer carne directamente del hueso así que esto me dio mucho asco. Dije que ‘nunca’ lo probaría. Pues fuimos a comer a un restaurante aclamado por la crítica, Lolita de Michael Simon y estaba en el menú. Mi marido lo pidió y yo seguía siendo bastante escéptica pero me convenció para que lo probara. Tengo que reconocer que no era tan malo como había pensado, y de hecho estaba bueno. No lo comería cada día y es algo a lo que hay que acostumbrarse pero estaba bueno.

¿Quién es tu autor/a favorito?

Mi autor favorito es también la mujer que me inspiró a escribir sobre vampiros. Yo estaba escribiendo novelas románticas, aburrida a muerte con ellas y sin inspiración. A mí me han fascinado los vampiros desde que era pequeña pero no fue hasta que leí uno de los libros de Anne Rice que decidí que debería escribir sobre esos vampiros a los que quería tanto hacía tanto tiempo. Con respecto a mis libro eróticos, Christine Feehan fue mi inspiración adicional después de leer la serie Sleeping Beauty  (La Bella Durmiente) de Anne Rice. Los libros de Ms. Feehan son fantásticos y guiaron mi imaginación a lugares de los que nunca creí podría escribir.

¿Tienes una expresión favorita? ¿Cuál es? “A menudo pinto auto-retratos porque yo soy la que me conozco mejor.”-Frida Kahlo. Me recuerda que tengo que mirar hacia mi interior porque de ahí es donde viene todo en mi vida.

¿Y después de este libro? Ya tengo otra historia en la que estoy trabajando. De momento se llama ‘The Forsaken One’ (‘El abandonado’)

Si quieren saber más sobre mi o ponerse en contacto conmigo:

Website:     thevampirequeen1@weebly.com

Blog:   www.thevampirequeen1.blogspot.com

2^nd Blog:   www.jodiepierceauthor.blogspot.com

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/jodie.pierce.14  y www.facebook.com/authors.authority que comparto con mi favorita  amiga/autora, Deborah Palumbo (Lean al primera entrevista en mi Segundo blog para saber más sobre ella).

www.groups.yahoo.com/groups/Sink_Your_Fangs_In www.goodreads.com/user/show/5216941-jodie-pierce

(Traducción: Olga Núñez Miret)

***************************************************************Por supuesto, antes de nada FELIZ NAVIDAD a todos. Disfrútenla como prefieran y toménselo con calma.

El viernes les revisaremos la entrevista con la fantástica Vanessa Wester.

Y recordarles que mi libro ‘El hombre que nunca existió’ está a la venta en versión electrónica.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009TWEGC8

Y por supuesto, muy FELIZ NAVIDAD

Y gracias por leer mi blog.

And now, without further ado I leave you with Deborah!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:   

First of all, I want to say I’m really glad to be here!

I’m a self-pubbed fiction author now but I began as a young gal who from age 7 through 18 wrote poems for God, but I always wanted to write novels; it was something innate. That dream however, didn’t happen until I was unfortunately stricken with a debilitating illness; as a result, I have 9 novels published on Amazon and many more are sitting in my file waiting to be dusted off!

I spin yarns in several genres, available as ebooks and paperback: Paranormal…laced with mystery and romance, historical, and mystery/crime…you know who dunnit with frustrated detectives who are hot on the trail of some killer. The one element they all have in common is they are all mystery based.

I also co wrote a screenplay with actor/writer Jordan Rhodes. I loved the experience immensely, but writing novels is still much preferred.

Okay so now that we’ve gotten my humble bio out of the way, we’re ready for the meat and potatoes.

So, here we are about to discuss my vampire series The Undeparted and in particular book 3 The Banished One. Yeah, I’ve already finished book 3 which means you have to promise me you’ll rush to Amazon and buy all 3 books and get caught up on the paranormal mystery/romance series and the characters, Quentin, the father of all vampires who is in an emotional transition, the beautiful and once mortal Cassandra, Quentin’s sidekick since the 1200′s the sexy and mean spirited Christian, and the vicious and evil Lucius.

If you’re a prime member, my books are free to you, otherwise, the Kindle books are only $2.99, paperback are $7.95. I’ve gotten terrific reviews, so I hope you’ll check out the series.

SYNOPSIS OF THE BANISHED ONE      

For those 18+

The Banished One, a serial killer vampire also named Lucius, is still wreaking havoc on the sleepy town in Tower City, and since he’s supernatural he can’t be captured by normal police procedure.

A frustrated Lieutenant Welby refuses to believe that the elusive Lucius, the one responsible for those dead bodies in his town, is a vampire; that defies logic. There’s got to be another explanation for those fang marks in the victims’ throats.

Welby remains a staunch disbeliever in vampires until the coroner, Doc McMahon, causes him to change his mind!

Doc shows Welby his ancestral journal from the 1700′s regarding Quentin Castle, the father of all vampires.

Welby ( and the reader) is whisked back in time as he reads those yellowed pages filled with encounters of beautiful women being lured to their mortal doom and transformed into vampires by the handsome and charming Quentin. But what causes Welby to finally be convinced, is a series of preternatural events and the coroner’s scientific evidence!

Welby then follows the old town rumors about vampires right to Quentin and his gothic castle to enlist Quentin’s supernatural aid in capturing Lucius.

But will Quentin, the only one who can stop Lucius’ vampire tirades, help the Lieutenant or make him one of The Undeparted?

Will Quentin battle Lucius and send Lucius to the bowels of hell for eternity, finally ensuring that Cassandra is safe from her old beau? Will the old coal mining town be safe at last?

EXCERPT FROM THE BANISHED ONE:

Suddenly a chemical shot through Lucius while he was watching that sexy female, similar to a feeling when he was mortal and checking out a hot babe. But this desire in his vampire state was more intense, almost electrified and mingled with this lustful craving for blood. He had to drink from her neck; taste her life’s essence, and he had to get laid. There was no fighting it, no self-control. He was accustomed to indulging every desire, no matter if they were spontaneous eruptions from some surging chemical, or a well-planned rendezvous. I

I hope everyone enjoyed themselves as much as I did and falls in love with the series! Thanks Olga and everyone for letting me chew your ear off for a few minutes!

Deborah Palumbo

MY BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE ON MY WEBSITE, ebook and paperback, AND on: AMAZON; http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=deborah+palumbo&x=6&y=19 FOLLOW ME AT THESE HAUNTS: MY WEBSITE: http://www.deborahpalumbo.com MY BLOG: http://deborahpalumbotheundeparted.blogspot.com/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/deborahpalumbo2 GOODREADS: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6441876.Deborah_Palumbo NINGS BOOK BLOGS: http://bookblogs.ning.com/profile/deborahpalumbo SHELFARI: http://www.shelfari.com/deborahpalumbo

If you like my books please remember to hit the “like” button, review them and recommend them!

Deborah PalumboAuthor of THE UNDEPARTED n writer of Paranormal and Mystery Novels www.deborahpalumbo.com deborahpalumbo2 @twitter Amazon.com: deborah palumbo: Kindle Store

And Jodie Pierce talks very candidly about her writing and life in general in this interview:

Tell me a bit about yourself: I am 37 and live with my hubby in Cleveland, Ohio. I have had a fascination with vampires since I was a child but didn’t start writing about then until I read an Anne Rice book one day. I was an exchange student in Brasil so you will find some of that in my stories. I enjoy research so many places, foods, clothes, etc are true in my stories. I currently have eight books published.

What type of genre do you write? Paranormal.

What genre to you personally read? Paranormal.

Tell me about your latest? The Vampire Queen is once again ruling her subjects only this time it is a school for the ‘different’ children in Scotland. A school full of vampires, witches, warlocks, elves and fairies, one that is feared and hated by all who attend. A new group of witches and warlocks show up to her gates and cause all kinds of havoc within the school. Vampires and witches are at odds and only a few can see the survival of the school. An ancient lover and the Queen are reunited but at what costs? A new, as well as an old lover unite to attempt to take the Queen off her throne. Will it work? Will the Queen maintain her horrendous rule over the students? Can the spells woven work and change history? All will be told in the end.

Where is your book available?  www.amazon.com & www.barnesandnoble.com

What sparked your passion for books and the art of a good story?  My parents always read. Mom was a Librarian and Dad read at least a book a day so I started reading while being grounded and loved it.

Is there a particular book that changed or affected your life in a big way?  I can’t remember the exact book but it was an Anne Rice book. Christine Feehan lead me into my erotic side too.

What was the seed of inspiration for your latest book? I already had books 1 & 2 and decided I wanted to be able to say I had a trilogy. I decided to close up some things from the first two books and the idea for the book came to me in a dream.

What has been your best moment as a writer?  The day I got that email that said they wanted to publish my first story.

Who is your author idol?  Anne Rice!

Do you see yourself in any of your characters? No but I write other people around me into my characters.

Do you feel like your dream has come true or is there much more to do? There’s always more to do. More to write…LOL!

What does your workspace look like? I work, sitting on my recliner with my computer on my lap. My table next to my chair is loaded with papers, notes and Luna bar wrappers.

What do you do when you’re not writing? I enjoy watching tv with hubby, getting coffee or a bite to eat out, spend time with my parents.

What are the most important attributes to remaining sane as a writer? Persistence but most writers/artists aren’t sane.

Did you have a moment when you realized you were meant to be a writer? I just always knew since middle school. I loved to write even then.

What advice would you give to aspiring authors? Keep trying. Go for your dreams. You only fail if you give up.

Who would be your favorite character in your current release?

My favorite character is the main character, The Vampire Queen. She is at first a scared young woman who has to relearn everything about herself that she once knew. After that, she becomes sassy, seductive, impulsive, sometimes arrogant, petulant yet ruthless and looking to resume her reign in the vampire race.

Are the names of the characters in your novels important?  How and why?

I pick all my names from a giant baby book I have or from online baby name sites. I usually think of a letter for the name and then search say all the ‘t’s and look for a name with a meaning of the main characteristic of that character. It makes it more fun for me and though no one knows my ‘evil name plot’ it amuses me.

Does travel play in the writing of your books? Well, not exactly travel in as far as my personal travelling to locations but I research all of my locations. I like to do research so I look up everything from places, food, clothes, etc. It helps me learn about new places and makes the reading more interesting in my opinion.

What do you find most rewarding about writing?

I like the creative outlet that it gives me. Much of my writing comes from dreams I have. I dream a concept and then have other dreams about various sequences within the book. I often wake up at 4am and have to write. I also lay in bed before falling asleep just dwelling on it and come up with some great ideas so I have a pen and paper next to the bed for that. Sometimes, hubby gives me a great concept for a story and then I just run away with it. That’s the case for the story I’m working on now. Sometimes I get stuck in the middle but then when the floodgates open, look out! LOL!  J

What does your significant other and family think of your writing career?

Well, this is a tricky one without offending others but I have to be honest. My hubby is my biggest supporter. Like I said, he gives me ideas, reads my books, buys them (encourages me to buy others’ books I need to feed my starving readers brain), etc. He tells me all the time how proud of me he is and reminds me when I’m down how far I’ve come in reaching my goal to be a writer. On the flip side, my parents (which I’m very close to) don’t really seem to care. They have never read any of my stories (and they read a lot-sometimes 4 books a week). My mother claims it’s because they are about vampires and she’s not into that genre. My dad has said he’s proud of me but gives me crap about not making millions on them. It’s frustrating. I love them but they don’t support me, I feel so I’m at a loss with them and don’t bring it up much anymore.

Tell us about your favorite restaurant.

My hubby and I seem to be foodies. We watch all the cooking and food shows. We love to try new things, places, food, etc. On the cooking shows, they spoke about using bone marrow. I already have a hard time with eating food off a bone so it grossed me out. I said I’d ‘never’ eat it. Well, we went to a critically acclaimed chef’s restaurant, Lolita by Michael Simon and it was on the menu. He ordered it and I was still skeptical but he talked me into trying it. I have to say, it wasn’t as bad as I thought and it was actually pretty good. I wouldn’t eat it every day and it is an acquired taste but it was good.

Who is your favorite author?

My favorite author is also the woman who inspired me to write about vampires. I was writing romance, bored to death with it and uninspired. I have had a fascination with vampires since I was a child but it wasn’t until I read an Anne Rice book that I decided I should write about these vampires that I’d grown to love so much over the years. As far as my erotic books, Christine Feehan was my additional inspiration after reading Anne Rice’s Sleeping Beauty series. Ms. Feehan’s books were amazing and took my imagination to places I had never thought I’d be able to put out on paper.

Do you have a favorite quote, quip, or saying? What is it?

“I often paint self-portraits for it is I that knows myself the best”-Freida Kahlo

It reminds me to look inward at myself as that’s where everything in my life comes from.

After this book, what is next? I already have a story I’m working on, temporarily called The Forsaken One.

Website:     thevampirequeen1@weebly.com

Blog:   www.thevampirequeen1.blogspot.com

2^nd Blog:   www.jodiepierceauthor.blogspot.com

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/jodie.pierce.14  and www.facebook.com/authors.authority which I co manage with my favorite author friend, Deborah Palumbo (check her out on my 2^nd blog as the first interview).

www.groups.yahoo.com/groups/Sink_Your_Fangs_In www.goodreads.com/user/show/5216941-jodie-pierce http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jodie-pierce/25/357/b22 Twitter: @vampiregds

http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/thevampirequeen https://www.facebook.com/jodie.pierce.14

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First of all MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all. Second, on Friday we will revisit the interview with author Vanessa Wester, as part of our Christmas special. And before I leave…

Just remind you of my book, The Man Who Never Was

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009TWRT22

And don’t forget my new series of novellas, Escaping Psychiatry about a psychiatrist and writer and her adventures.

‘Cannon Fodder’ (Escaping Psychiatry part 1)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AKWO8Z6

‘Teamwork’ (Escaping Psychiatry part 2)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AKWSQJA

And ‘Memory’ (Escaping Psychiatry Part 3)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AKWVRCS

If 2012 was anything it was the year for women Indie rock stars and Lucius was one of those on the forefront with this nod to 1960’s girl pop. It has soul, it has energy and it has a tremendous vocal style and lyrical quality. These girls could go one of two ways: They could go the Best Coast route of being awesome but still sort of under the radar or they could take it the route of someone like Duffy who is a bit of a British sensation, but hasn’t sacrificed quality for fame. I really think these girls have a bright future ahead of them and that’s one of the reasons I loved this EP.

If you didn’t know, I hate Ginny Weasley. But in this fic, she’s glorious. Because the summary below is so sparse I thought I’d help you out: It’s sexy. 

Ginny/Lucius (M, 125K+) Summary: There is always a choice to be made, and always a life to re-ignite.

Their last album was very ethereal and dreamy. This one took on a more folk rock style and their Crosby, Stills and Nash sounding “Dumpster World” exemplifies that change like no other. They showed range, amazing melodies and harmonies. To me it’s the best song they’ve ever done.

#13 – Work it Out – Hannah Williams and the Tastemakers

Chances are you haven’t heard of this British soulful import, but hopefully this puts her on your radar. With melodies not heard since James Brown was around and vocals reminiscent of Janis Joplin, Hannah Williams works it out on this track.

#12 – The End of the World is Bigger than Love – Jens Lekman

Jens was on my concert bucket list and I got to see him this year. This song is a brilliant depiction of a break up and his being in DC when Obama was elected as he stayed with some friends. Jens has a way of just making everything sound better. Truth be told I could put most of his songs on this list and I don’t think it’d be a stretch.

#11 – Turn it Around – Lucius

These two girls burst onto my radar earlier this year and I was all in when I heard this song. So fun and similar to girl groups of the ‘60’s with their melodic vocals that I just know they’re going to be great. Keep them firmly affixed to your radar.

Eliza And The Bear- Upon The North

So happy that these guys have  gotten a ton of blog pickup since the last time I posted about them. I’m also toootally doing my I-told-you-so-dance right now..

Big Boi Ft. T.I. and Ludacris – In The A

True story: I may have more songs by Ludacris and T.I. on my iTunes than most people would probably expect. The collaborations on Big Boi’s new album are pretty fantastic, and this happens to be one of my favorites. Phantogram? On three songs? Yes, please. Kid Cudi? Yes. Wavves? Yes.  Kelly Rowland? What the hell, yes! And what’s great about them is that it’s not just that they’re featured on the songs, but you can clearly see how they’ve influenced them.  “She Hates Me” is totally a Cudi song. “Shoes For Running” has an obvious taste of Wavves. I think it’s kind of exciting to see how these sounds mix together. Anyway, speaking of Wavves..

Wavves – Sail To The Sun

The Babies – Baby

Wild Combination – Great Expectations

There is a baby in this video, therefore I like it.

Lucius – Ghosting (Freelance Whales )

Love love love this cover.

Colorama – Old Fashioned Girl

Starfucker – While I’m Alive

Springtime Carnivore – Last One To Know

This band name is kiiiinda awesomesauce.

St. Lucia – All Eyes On You (Pacific Air Remix)

Rihanna ft. Mikky Ekko – Stay

So I might have gone through Rihanna’s album in it’s entirety, and I might have come to the conclusion that it’s 95% terrible. But thank god for Mikky Ekko. This song is straight up beautiful.

Today I found some that even J.Coco and Stosh might appreciate.  Somehow, the Poké-craze missed them (we are part of the age group that was affected by its initial popularity) – they’re not even Genwunners.

For Stosh, who loves to read horoscopes:

I don’t know what they based these on, but I’m a Growlithe! <3 And Coco and Stosh are Dragonair!! We’re arguably the two of the best on there. They’re all awesome…

After yesterday…

Now, for both of them, and me, but mostly them:

I’m a little worried that this might set Coco off in a rage. Like it’s blasphemy or something.

I lol’d at “HYASSSSSSHAASSSA”. Let’s ask Pika-Potter to translate what it means. xD

“It looked as if you were egging him on or something! What did you say!?”

“Pi Pika Ka Chuuu!”

For our undisclosed friend/person Stosh avoids

She’ll never read this, but she’s such a Genwunner. Personally, I love Gen 3, with Mudkip being my favorite of all time (yes, I liek them). Look how cute it is in that picture!! <333

And finally, for me. ^_^

So CUUUTE~

-K-Tosh

Y ahora, sin más demora, les dejo con Deborah.

SOBRE LA AUTORA    

Primero, quiero decirles que estoy muy contenta de estar aquí.

Soy una autora y de ficción y publico mis propias obras ahora pero empecé cuando era muy joven, desde los 7 años hasta que tuve 18 escribía poemas a Dios, pero siempre quise escribir novelas; era algo innato. Ese sueño sin embargo, no se cumplió hasta que desgraciadamente me enfermé con una enfermedad debilitante, y como resultado, tengo ahora 9 novelas publicadas con Amazon y muchas esperando en el archivador a que les quite el polvo.

Cuento historias en varios géneros, disponibles en versión electrónica y de papel: Paranormal…mezclado con misterio y romance, histórica, y misterio y crimen…ya saben…quién fue el culpable, con detectives frustrados que siempre están a la caza de algún asesino. El elemento que tienen en común es que todas tienen como elemento central el misterio.

También colaboré en un guion con actor/escritor Jordan Rhodes. Disfruté la experiencia inmensamente, pero sigo prefiriendo escribir novelas.

OK, así que ahora que nos hemos quitado de encima mi humilde biografía, estamos listos para meternos en el meollo de la cuestión.

Así que aquí estamos a punto de discutir mi serie de vampiros The Undeparted (Los que no partieron) y en particular el libro 3 The Banished One (El desterrado) Sí, ya he terminado el libro 3 lo que quiere decir que me tienen que prometer que se abalanzarán hacia Amazon y comprarán los 3 libros y se quedarán enganchados con la serie paranormal misterio/romance y con los personaje, Quentin, el padre de todos los vampiros que está en transición emocional, la bella y una vez mortal Cassandra, la mano derecha de Quentin desde los 1200s, el malo y sexi Christian, y el vicioso y diabólico Lucius.

Si eres miembro de Prime, mis libros te saldrán gratis, y si no, los libros en versión Kindle sólo cuestan $2.99, en papel $7.95. He tenido muy buenos comentarios y críticas, así que espero que les echen un vistazo.

SINOPSIS DE ‘THE VANISHED ONE’ (EL DESTERRADO)      

Para mayores de 18.

El Desterrado, un vampiro asesino en serie también llamado Lucius, sigue creando caos en la tranquila ciudad Tower City (Ciudad de la Torre), y como es supernatural los métodos policíacos usuales no sirven para capturarle.

Un frustrado subteniente Welby se niega a creer que el elusivo Lucius, el responsable por todos esos cuerpos en su ciudad, es un vampiro, ya que eso no tiene lógica. Tiene que haber otra explicación para todas esas marcas de colmillos en las gargantas de las víctimas.

Welby sigue sin creer en vampiros hasta que el forense, Doc McMahon, le hace cambiar de opinión.

Doc le muestra a Welby su diario ancestral desde los 1700s que trata sobre Quentin Castle, el padre de todos los vampiros.

Welby (y el lector) es transportado hacia el pasado mientras lee esas páginas amarillentas llenas de encuentros con hermosas mujeres atraídas a su perdición y transformadas en vampiras por el atractivo y encantador Quentin. Pero lo que hace que Welby finalmente se convenza, es una serie de eventos preternaturales y la evidencia científica del forense.

Welby entonces sigue los rumores que flotan en la ciudad sobre los vampiros hasta llegar a Quentin y su castillo gótico para enlistar la ayuda supernatural de Quentin para capturar a Lucius. Pero, ¿ayudará Quentin, el único que puede detener los ataques vampíricos de Lucius, al subteniente o le transformará en uno de los suyos (undeparted)?

¿Luchará Quentin con Lucius y le enviará a los recesos del infierno por toda la eternidad asegurándose de que Cassandra está a salvo de su ex pretendiente? ¿Estará la vieja ciudad minera a salvo por fin?

EXTRACTO DE EL DESTERRADO

De repente una sustancia química se disparó a través de Lucius mientras estaba contemplando a esa sexi mujer, similar a la sensación que experimentaba cuando era mortal y estaba mirando a una tía buena. Pero su deseo en estado vampírico era más intenso, casi como un choque eléctrico y mezclado con su anhelo lujurioso por sangre. Necesitaba beber de su cuello; probar su esencia vital, y tenía que llevársela a la cama. No había forma de resistirse, no tenía auto-control. Estaba acostumbrado a satisfacer todos sus deseos, sin importar si eran erupciones espontáneas de alguna sustancia química, o un encuentro bien planeado.

¡Espero que todos hayan disfrutado tanto como yo y que se enamoren de la serie! Gracias Olga y gracias a todos por dejarme que les pegue el rollo un rato!

Deborah Palumbo

MIS LIBROS ESTÁN DISPONIBLES EN MI PÁGINA WEB, versión electrónica  y papel y en:

AMAZON; http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=deborah+palumbo&x=6&y=19
SÍGANME EN TODOS ESTOS SITIOS:
MI PÁGINA WEB: http://www.deborahpalumbo.com
MI BLOG: http://deborahpalumbotheundeparted.blogspot.com/
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/deborahpalumbo2
GOODREADS: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6441876.Deborah_Palumbo
NINGS BOOK BLOGS: http://bookblogs.ning.com/profile/deborahpalumbo
SHELFARI: http://www.shelfari.com/deborahpalumbo

¡Si les gustan mis libros, recuerden darle al botón “like”, dejen un comentario y recomiéndenlos!

Deborah Palumbo
Author of THE UNDEPARTED n writer of Paranormal and Mystery Novels
www.deborahpalumbo.com
deborahpalumbo2 @twitter
Amazon.com: deborah palumbo: Kindle Store

(Traducción: Olga Núñez Miret)

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Y hoy no tengo uno, sino dos ANUNCIOS. La semana que viene no tendré un autor (autora de hecho) invitado, si no dos. La primera autora, el día 4 de Diciembre es Jodie Foster. Estamos en vena vampírica ya que nos hablar de sus experiencias, su obra, y en particular The Vampire Queen (La reina de los vampiros). Les puedo decir que su entrevista no tiene desperdicio. Me reservo de momento la sorpresa de mi invitada del viernes.

Y por supuesto no les puedo dejar sin recordarles mi libro.

El hombre que nunca existió

Disponible en:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009TWEGC8

Gracia y hasta pronto!

And now, without further ado I leave you with Deborah!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:   

First of all, I want to say I’m really glad to be here!

I’m a self-pubbed fiction author now but I began as a young gal who from age 7 through 18 wrote poems for God, but I always wanted to write novels; it was something innate. That dream however, didn’t happen until I was unfortunately stricken with a debilitating illness; as a result, I have 9 novels published on Amazon and many more are sitting in my file waiting to be dusted off!

I spin yarns in several genres, available as ebooks and paperback: Paranormal…laced with mystery and romance, historical, and mystery/crime…you know who dunnit with frustrated detectives who are hot on the trail of some killer. The one element they all have in common is they are all mystery based.

I also co wrote a screenplay with actor/writer Jordan Rhodes. I loved the experience immensely, but writing novels is still much preferred.

Okay so now that we’ve gotten my humble bio out of the way, we’re ready for the meat and potatoes.

So, here we are about to discuss my vampire series The Undeparted and in particular book 3 The Banished One. Yeah, I’ve already finished book 3 which means you have to promise me you’ll rush to Amazon and buy all 3 books and get caught up on the paranormal mystery/romance series and the characters, Quentin, the father of all vampires who is in an emotional transition, the beautiful and once mortal Cassandra, Quentin’s sidekick since the 1200′s the sexy and mean spirited Christian, and the vicious and evil Lucius.

If you’re a prime member, my books are free to you, otherwise, the Kindle books are only $2.99, paperback are $7.95. I’ve gotten terrific reviews, so I hope you’ll check out the series.

SYNOPSIS OF THE BANISHED ONE      

For those 18+

The Banished One, a serial killer vampire also named Lucius, is still wreaking havoc on the sleepy town in Tower City, and since he’s supernatural he can’t be captured by normal police procedure.

A frustrated Lieutenant Welby refuses to believe that the elusive Lucius, the one responsible for those dead bodies in his town, is a vampire; that defies logic. There’s got to be another explanation for those fang marks in the victims’ throats.

Welby remains a staunch disbeliever in vampires until the coroner, Doc McMahon, causes him to change his mind!

Doc shows Welby his ancestral journal from the 1700′s regarding Quentin Castle, the father of all vampires.

Welby ( and the reader) is whisked back in time as he reads those yellowed pages filled with encounters of beautiful women being lured to their mortal doom and transformed into vampires by the handsome and charming Quentin. But what causes Welby to finally be convinced, is a series of preternatural events and the coroner’s scientific evidence!

Welby then follows the old town rumors about vampires right to Quentin and his gothic castle to enlist Quentin’s supernatural aid in capturing Lucius.

But will Quentin, the only one who can stop Lucius’ vampire tirades, help the Lieutenant or make him one of The Undeparted?

Will Quentin battle Lucius and send Lucius to the bowels of hell for eternity, finally ensuring that Cassandra is safe from her old beau? Will the old coal mining town be safe at last?

EXCERPT FROM THE BANISHED ONE:

Suddenly a chemical shot through Lucius while he was watching that sexy female, similar to a feeling when he was mortal and checking out a hot babe. But this desire in his vampire state was more intense, almost electrified and mingled with this lustful craving for blood. He had to drink from her neck; taste her life’s essence, and he had to get laid. There was no fighting it, no self-control. He was accustomed to indulging every desire, no matter if they were spontaneous eruptions from some surging chemical, or a well-planned rendezvous. I

I hope everyone enjoyed themselves as much as I did and falls in love with the series! Thanks Olga and everyone for letting me chew your ear off for a few minutes!

Deborah Palumbo

MY BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE ON MY WEBSITE, ebook and paperback, AND on:
AMAZON; http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=deborah+palumbo&x=6&y=19
FOLLOW ME AT THESE HAUNTS:
MY WEBSITE: http://www.deborahpalumbo.com
MY BLOG: http://deborahpalumbotheundeparted.blogspot.com/
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/deborahpalumbo2
GOODREADS: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6441876.Deborah_Palumbo
NINGS BOOK BLOGS: http://bookblogs.ning.com/profile/deborahpalumbo
SHELFARI: http://www.shelfari.com/deborahpalumbo

If you like my books please remember to hit the “like” button, review them and recommend them!

Deborah Palumbo
Author of THE UNDEPARTED n writer of Paranormal and Mystery Novels
www.deborahpalumbo.com
deborahpalumbo2 @twitter
Amazon.com: deborah palumbo: Kindle Store

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And now, one announcement. Next week I’ll have not one guest author in my blog, but TWO. First things first, on Tuesday the 4th we’ll have Jodie Foster telling us about herself and her writing, in particular The Vampire Queen. I can already tell you it’s a fascinating interview. For the moment I’ll keep the second author under wraps…

And of course I couldn’t leave you without reminding you of my book:

The Man Who Never Was

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009TWRT22

The Mean City Mash was the Glasgow Henchman Barry’s first major Malifaux tournament and it coincided with the gaming clubs Spencer Warner Memorial Gaming Day. This meant there would be plenty of other games going on around the hall to have a look at during down time.

I had to get there first though. Just as I made it on to the motorway as we left to drop the kids off at their grandparents for the day the fuel warning light came on. Nothing to worry about normally but it’s a ‘new’ car to us and we have no idea how far the car will go from that light going on until it stops in the middle of the road. As I got to within 50m of the first petrol station I came across the engine cut out and we coasted into the forecourt. I think it’s safe to say that light gives us about 10 miles! Anyway I just made it for the start of the day which I really didn’t think would happen at one point.

We ended up having 10 players for the day, including Barry to round out the numbers, and with the tables all set up the first pairings were announced and we got on with the day.

I’d struggled to decide on a crew for the day so managed to thin it down to three different choices. With the help of one of the other players who’s name I’ll keep quite as they randomly chose my crew. I aimed to blame any defeats on their choice and had hoped to bring a nerf gun to shoot them with whenever I lost… I forgot to bring it though. What I ended up playing with was Lady Justice, Lucius, Executioner, Scales of Justice and two Guild Hounds.

Game One – Shared Slaughter
I was paired up with David Hamilton yet again for the first game. This time he was playing Nicodemus rather than his usual Guild crews and yet again I was coming up against a crew I’d never played before. I honestly didn’t think I had much chance so basically chose two schemes that I thought I would either have no chance in getting or would possibly have a slim chance with. With that in mind I chose Raid and Exterminate  (dogs) whilst David chose Bodyguard on Nico and Grudge against the Executioner.

On turn one I ran Lucius forward and slingshot the Executioner forward. I was amazed how that worked and spent most of my time shouting ‘WOW’ over and over in my head. On the second turn I took down Dave’s Rogue Necromancy and was building in confidence whilst Nico sat in his corner churning out  more undead. I moved Lucius forward expecting to slingshot Lady J only to cast the spell and find she was sitting just over 19 inches away. Bugger. So my plans started changing so that I could move him back into range and then David engaged him in melee.

Turn three I lost my Executioner, one of my hounds was poisoned and Lucius tried and failed twice to disengage and ended up sacrificing the un-poisoned hound by mistake in order to reactivate. I then failed to disengage him with both attempts yet again. I had been recording everything that had happened so far for this write up but after all this it went right out the window.

By this point I gave up and just ran Lady J forward. I just managed to get her into combat and had hit one of his minions that badly that I think I had a three card positive flip for damage to flip and just as my hand went down to do this Barry called the last card flip. Dave tried to encourage Barry to let me flip as it could change the result of the game but quite rightly I never got to do that. As it turned out Dave won the strategy with 13ss worth of my guys killed against my 10ss of his guys killed. He got both his schemes and despite him killing all but one of his dogs I never managed to catch up with the last one. The final score was 6-0 to Dave oh and he had about 32ss of models on the table at the end. Safe to say it was a walkover in that regard though I’m very happy he didn’t wipe me out like last time.

Game Two – Deliver the Message
Next up was Paul and his Sonnia crew. Despite owning and painting almost all the Malifaux figures he’d actually only just started playing the game himself although he’d demoed it quite a bit for folk. We both took the same schemes, Hold Out and Kill Protegee (Executioner) for Paul and Kill Protegee (Francisco) for myself.

This time I had a bit more of a clue what to do but I still got the timing wrong. I ran Lucius up the board once Sonnia had activated and slingshoted Lady J up aiming for Sonnia in the hope that I’d get within the two inches I’d need to deliver the message on activation. It didn’t work that way though as I was short and had to move her up into range. The next turn Perdita delivered the message first and I used up my two actions to deliver the message and then hit her with my last melee action. She had her inferno thing up though so I was going to take damage one way or another. I hit her with a ram for a negative flip I think and pulled the Red Joker on Damage and then pulled another severe on the extra flip. Fourteen hits took her right down and even a damage limitation flip didn’t save her.

Soon after that the stalkers started popping and setting each other off. Paul took down my Executioner and I took down Francisco meaning we had to make a run for our opposing deployment zones and try and stop each other getting in to our own. Lady J sat in Paul’s denying him VP’s for hold out whilst a hound took out the last stalker and Lucius and my totem took out the Austringer that was running down my right flank.

I’d wiped him out and we both thought I’d won. And then we counted up the scores only to find it was a 6-6 draw. We were both amazed by this and had loved every minute of it.

Game 3 – Contain Power
I was drawn against Barry for this one. I always dread this as he’s the Henchman and knows his stuff and he’s also pretty good with his Lillith Crew. He’d brought the box set with him so was fully soulstoned up which made me worry even more. With Mook playing Lillith I have seen plenty of times just what she’s capable of and I’d never managed to best her in combat. I had a new model though so in for a penny and all that…

Again I pushed Lucius forward but had intentionally placed Lady J and Lucius in the centre of the board so that I could get as far forward as possible with the slingshot. When it came time to move her I don’t thin Barry realised what he’d done in moving Lillith to where she was as we went straight into combat on the first round and by the second round we’d used up all our soulstones and Lady J was the only one still standing of the two. My troops picked off the mature nephilim after that but his tots kept hitting their flay trigger and my crew started falling fast.

In the end it was a 4-4 draw with Barry hitting his schemes I think and myself getting the strategy VP’s. It was quick and dirty and I really don’t remember much about it!

Roundup
I loved the day with my only criticism being that everyone else was too slow! I think my last two games finished up 30 minutes early because we got into it so quickly thanks to Lucius facilitating Lady Justice making peoples day end quickly. For me the day was a resounding success with a LDD record which despite not winning I’m claiming as my most successful tournament result to date. I don’t count the wins but I count the losses! I think I came in 5th but I’ll happily be corrected if I’m wrong.

David Hamilton came first with David McGuire and Mark B picking up second and third. Alan picked up the best painted crew award for his Ortegas and Peter picked up the wooden spoon which I honestly thought I’d be fighting for.

All in all a very successful day of Malifaux!

A Few More Photos

I’m playing at the Mean City Mash tomorrow and I’m struggling to work out whether or not to take him in my 25ss crew. At his ss cost it’s a huge chunk out of my total and I’m worried that whilst I’ll be able to hit hard and fast I don’t think I’ll have any staying power. I have no idea how to use him though. I’ve looked over his card a little but I’ve yet to actually get him on the table.

Anyway I hate playing with unpainted models so I rushed painting him just in case I decided to take him. I messed up the base coats and layers enough that I almost decided just to give up and drop him in a mug of Dettol to strip him. It would mean I wouldn’t be taking him though. I persevered though and I think I managed to do a good enough job on the model that on the table he looks really good. I might go back and strip him at a later date, maybe when I do my Judge, and see if I can improve him any.

This photo was taken on my mobile. I’m updating this from the phone and I have no idea if this will even work!

Harry Potter… Where do I start? Do I talk about the characters? (mmmmmm, Lucius), the philosophical quandaries? (when exactly does a person cease being a person, and what does this mean for moldie old Voldie?), the movies? (mmmmm Jason Issacs and Alan Rickman), the sociological aspects? (social control and the Ministry of Magic anyone?), or the twisted, tangled, complicated story?

I have covered the Potterverse a few times already on this blog, and one might think I’m a little obsessed… You’d be correct. But I don’t see anything wrong with a bit of harmless and often cerebral enjoyment…

(now, let’s see if this uploads with the photo and all….)

je suis vraiment désolée de ne pas avoir écris plus tôt!!! La semaine a plutôt était chargé (un peu comme à l’habitude ). (Holy shit, mon voisin joue un jeux qui à l’aire trop epic :O avec son ami… j’aimerai les rejoindre o_o…) 

Hey hey!! Il n’y a pas si longtemps, c’était Halloween .Cool cette fête. Pour  cette occasion, j’ai pu découvrir Lucius. C’est un jeu auquel il faut incarner le fils du Diable et tuer tous ceux qui sont à l’entour de nous. Ça n’a pas l’air terrible comme jeu raconter comme ça, mais il à l’air trop bien. Voici une video (le gameplay du jeu). Ça vous donnera plus une idée de ce que c’est ^^: Lucius: l’enfant du Diable.

L’hiver est à nos portes ≈(. Il fait froid… Donc voici un petit chapeau à l’allure des année 30 pour les derniers jours sans neige^^.

chapeau de style 1930 pour femme

These ladies are part of that group where will look back 10-15 years from now and realize they defined that Silverlake Sound, much in the same way The Flying Burrito Bros., Gram Parsons and the Eagles defined that alt-country California sound that still lingers over the town to this day. The abundance of talent their is astounding and if you’d like to see this amazing band in person they’ll be playing at the Fillmore next Monday, November 12th. They’re opening for Japandroids, who I saw at the Independent earlier this year and they put on an incredibly energetic, chaotic and awesome show.

If you’re not in San Francisco here is the rest of the tour in link form.

Developer: Shiver Games

Publisher: Lace Mamba Global

Platforms: Windows

Release Date: October 26th, 2012

It isn’t common for a game to come out that puts us into the shoes of something we haven’t been before, or something that is “unique”.  In Lucius we’re tossed into the shoes of the devil’s son who happens to be called Lucius, and tasked with doing our father’s bidding which is to murder members of the household, and the only reasoning for this is that Lucifer needs us to reap souls for him. They don’t really explain why we’re doing it, other than the sole purpose that Lucifer told us to.

This is Lucius’ bedroom

The main appeal to this game for me was the fact that you are indeed the son of the devil, and you get to be a horrible little bastard and kill people. I could be crazy, mental, or even a maniac but the sheer fact that I could disembowel or burn people alive as a child has some kind of macabre appeal to it. The game is definitely unique, and you should be able to see that while playing through and killing the residents of your household.

In terms of “powers” Lucius isn’t at all like his father. We don’t get any of these abilities right away, so you won’t be levitating objects, setting people ablaze, or possessing people anytime soon, you’ll need to progress through the game, and to progress you must kill your targets. Your targets are essentially people of the house that are deemed “unworthy” or “sinful” and must be punished so Lucifer can take their souls to hell, and that’s the whole plot/gimmick in a nutshell. You’re killing people to satisfy your father, and getting stronger so you can become the anti-christ. Or, at-least it seems that way. The developers didn’t do a grand job explaining much of the game.

At the beginning of a chapter you’ll be given a target that you must kill, but sadly all the kills are linear and you won’t be able to experiment. This is definitely a major flaw with this kind of game, and really makes someone lose interest in killing their targets. Sure, it’s awesome to cause somebody to fall and have their head sawn in half, but it would have been better and given the game some replay value if we could kill them multiple ways. For example, there’s an incident where you have to crush somebody with a piano by levitating it. This target was a drunk, and I could already think of better, and more evil ways to take him out. Would of been awesome if I could of dumped a ton of arsenic into his whiskey, or skip the entire process and burn him alive. I just can’t get past the linear kills, it really lessens the experience, which is a shame because this game had potential.

This is Lucius

Now, I’ve played games that have had some sub-par, and horrible voice-acting but Lucius definitely has to take the cake. I know most people don’t really care if the game has poor acting or not, but there’s just something about this game that makes it painful to listen to sometimes. Below, is an example of said voice-acting and it sort-of contains a spoiler of one of the kills you’ll have to do. It’s a prime example that either the game didn’t have enough in their budget to hire better voice-acting, or it was just plagued by poorly written dialogue. You be the judge.

You think someone would express their pain a little more, instead we get this horrible incident.

Another flaw you can see from the video itself is this game hasn’t been optimized properly. I run a rather expensive, and top of the line gaming rig but there’s moments in Lucius when it freezes, drops in frames, and just has a ton of environmental issues thrown at your face. They did release a patch last week and I’m hoping it went into optimizing the game a little better because the optimization got me so frustrated, and often had me missing out on the kill cut-scenes.

I do have to give the game SOME credit where it’s due. There’s two neat little meta-game activities that you can perform during the main story/game that can provide you with more power and unlock some unique tools to make your experience easier, and I hate to say it, but more fun.

During the game your mother/residents of the household may give you chores to do around the house. Even though the chores can be exceedingly boring at times, and not fun the end product is somewhat worth the painful experience, and I do mean painful. Most of the chores are to fetch objects around the house like bottles of wine, etc but you’ll be given chores that just seem useless to be put into a game. For example, the mother character was on my ass for about ten minutes because I didn’t go to the bathroom to brush my teeth, or spend the 5 minutes to pick up toy blocks in my room and put them back in my toybox. The chores are at-least a neat concept, even though some of them feel completely useless, and just happen to be the most boring thing I’ve encountered in a video game yet, but at-least you can get a couple some-what useful toys/tools that can help you kill people, or point you in the right direction.

The other little activity is inverting crosses. They don’t really serve much purpose other than restoring power. For example, I was in a room and had to use my Telekinesis to pick up an object but my power kept mysteriously draining. I searched the room, came across a cross and inverted it. My power instantly restored and I could complete my task. It’s an interesting little thing they added to the game, albeit tedious.

Killing dude’s with a piano.

I also found the game hard to navigate, even though they do give you a map. Since the game only takes place inside the mansion you should be quick to learn the directions and locations, but since every room is almost a carbon copy of the last it’s easy to get lost, and most of the game-time is you wandering the halls of the house trying to find your target, and the tools to kill them with. You’re essentially paying $25 for a glorified scavenger hunt game with blood & guts.

In the end, Lucius is quite the mess of a game and at times can be an extremely boring experience. The game suffers from linear kills, horrible optimization, and at times isn’t even fun and feels more like a chore, much like the chores given by residents in the game.

Sadly, I’ll have to give Lucius a 2.5/10 and I have to be honest. It feels like Lucius is one of the worst games I’ve played in 2012. I don’t recommend it to anyone, unless you’re into the whole “gore”/”campy” horror stuff, but even that might not sell you on this pile of wank. I expected good things, and was let down in the end.

While having its fair share of problems that I’m going to get into later, the game itself is fairly good. It’s a neat little adventure puzzle game that has some frustrating moments and odd bugs but is for the most part enjoyable and relatively unique. It is unfortunately not a great game, but I think it had the potential to be, and if it were to be done again, here’s how it could be:

1. Obtuse Puzzles and Pixel-Hunting

While some didn’t have nearly as much trouble with these as I did, I think it’s an age-old problem with the genre itself that slows down gameplay and creates a less fun and less interesting experience. To be fair, not all of the puzzles in the game are as esoteric as others and some are wonderfully inventive that anyone with a sick enough mind could easily conjure up and some others are absolutely ridiculous. A more consistent hint system would probably have eliminated quite a few of these issues. The game itself is a bit aggressive with its puzzles, offering no alternative solutions but the solution that it provided.

I remember one disappointing bit where you’re expected to barbecue a man handcuffed to a wall with your combustion powers only to find that it wouldn’t give me the spurt needed to be able to destroy him and he had no perceivable health bar unlike previous combustion victims. I then realized that I had to use telekinesis on a gas can over his head to pour gasoline on him and then set him on fire and the kill lost some of its satisfaction as I felt I was just clicking pre-scripted events to make them happen. This is a big issue that I’ll go into later.

The pixel-hunts and tracking down certain items did become a bit of an issue, and while I applaud the studio for encouraging the player to explore the mansion that so much lavish attention to detail, the very real fact is that not every object can be interacted with. After a while it gets really boring opening up drawers and wine cabinets, and the gleeful thrill of smashing wine bottles and plates to the distressed reaction of the house’s inhabitants loses its charm rather quickly. The items that you can carry and actual key items that you need almost blend in with the environment at times and it’s not unheard of for some players to search the same room for quite some time just clicking on everything trying to find what they were looking for. Having more interactive objects and having key items stand out just a bit more would have been appreciated.

2. Character Development and Voice-Acting

The voice-acting in this game ranges from forgettable to downright awful. It’s probably not the worst voice-acting I’ve ever heard in a videogame but it’s without a doubt some of the worst I’ve heard in a while. I get that this is an indie studio and there wasn’t that large of a budget but it really does diminish the enjoyment of the game a bit when drunk and Irish Yvor all but practically demands to know what you’ve done with his Lucky Charms.

That brings me to the issue of the characters themselves. They’re badly written and uninteresting fodder for you to kill but none of them ever actually feel like people. There’s definitely some cool things you can learn about some of the servants by looking into their rooms at one point in the game, but these barely touch the service on them as characters, and next to nothing was done to build any sympathy for your two parental figures.

Nancy, Lucius’s human mother might just be one of the worst characters in the game. Her voice-acting is completely atrocious, and the chore system that she gives you can sometimes override her pre-scripted dialogue resulting in a jarring effect where she can suddenly go from freaking out about the accidents to smiling and telling you she can’t find her earrings. It breaks the immersion and it’s voice-acting that’s difficult to be immersed in already because of just how unbelievably bad it is.

It’s safe to say that the characters are as stiff as their animations. While loving details was poured into the mansion and the gory grand guignol style death scenes, the character animations were shafted. These are a group of expressionless people who have taken up permanent residence in the uncanny valley, as wooden and dull as their backstories and personalities. The lack of any pathos for all the victims to me seems such a wasted opportunity for some interesting storytelling and emotional depth or context for any of the deliciously gory kills, and had their been a prior story during the course of the item grabbing and puzzle solving that led to their murder, I might have appreciated their horrible end just that much more.

Another big item to note is that some of the pre-scripted events involving the characters moving from one place to the next can get hung up, resulting in some frustrating gameplay experiences. There’s a nasty early stealth section where you have to use telekinesis on a light-bulb to burst it causing a character to go investigate so you can sneak past him. Instead he remained still and let all of his dialogue go through before automatically catching you no matter where you were on the map, resulting in an instant game-over.  A rather infamous bad spot involves a maid heading to the bathroom to shower, but gets stuck on a door and ends up just walking in the hall for forever and a day.

If more time had been put into the character animations, writing, dialogue, and voice-acting I’m sure a lot could have been improved. It almost feels as if all the love and enthusiasm went into the dense atmosphere, gory kills, and beautifully rendered mansion and then suddenly the developers remembered that there had to be people walking around for us to kill. They seem almost like an afterthought.

3. Player Freedom

This is probably the biggest and most obvious one, which is why I’m saving it for last. Now, I understand that this was set out to be a unique puzzle-adventure game with all of the puzzles ending in murder, and I think that they definitely succeeded in making a fun little title out of that concept, but when the trailer promised us that we would be stepping into the shoes of Damien er, Lucius the son of the devil, well I think we saw more potential than what was actually promised. This is where a lot of potential for greatness was missed and how the game could easily have been retooled to be a truly great game.

All of the solutions are aggressively linear as pointed out, and it’s not so much as the player committing the murders themselves as Lucius is and you’re just being dragged along for the ride. You can’t create your own strategies or set up your own murders and that’s really disappointing. I like the idea of a murder themed adventure game, but if there would have been alternate solutions to the puzzles and the combining of items in the inventory system I think it would have created a more interesting and rewarding experience and might up the replay value on the game itself.

The game is like being given a whole bunch of toys to play with and then being told you’re only allowed to play with them on its terms. You’re given telekinesis, mind-control, combustion, memory wiping, and if you do all your chores a tricycle. I really would have loved it if I could have re-enacted a famous scene from the Omen by knocking my mother over a balcony with the tricycle, or caused a chandelier to fall on someone’s head by using telekinesis. It does itself a disservice by tempting the player with macabre and fiendish ways to end someone’s life and then leaving no room for player ingenuity or creativity.

I would have liked to see it reward you for devising kills that looked more like an accident and were less obvious as a murder, be it a score rating or perhaps alternate endings. I would like alternate cut-scenes that show people getting murdered in different ways, which leads me back to how simple it would have been to create alternate solutions to the puzzles.

If just a bit more imagination and creativity had went into this, I think Lucius could have been a truly spectacular game, as it is the game is good and I don’t think it could be argued that it is a bad game in any way. It’s simply just a horror puzzle game where you help a little kid murder everyone inside his house. If that concept is enough to sell you, I think you’ll enjoy the game well enough as I did, and you can pick it up at Steam or DRM-free at GOG.com

I just discovered a band called Lucius. They wear yellow and make some pretty infectious sounds. Maybe they even sound yellow… I dunno.

One of their songs, Turn it Around, is up for grabs for the princely sum of nothing, click here to download it.

They’re from Brooklyn, like pretty much everyone else these days, and they’re pretty damn good. This is the most fun thing I’ve listened to all weekend.

Enjoy!

Late (extremely late) to the party here but I just picked up a copy of L4D2 while Steam was having some weekend sale (still going on I think) AND I AM LOVING IT.

Wait, Coach has a beard!? Just noticed.

Just finished the first campaign and I swear the Idle bot (was afk for most of the last part) is a better player than I am. BUT NO MATTER. Practice makes perfect.

Zombie apocalypse games really get me excited now (oh no not the Jurassic Park phase again please) because the threat just seems… real. To an extent. More real than demons taking over the world or superheroes or anything. Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading too much The Walking Dead and watching reality TV shit like The Colony — which is actually pretty cool though scripted as hell — but I’m starting to imagine what it’d be like if the 2012 thing happened and boom! It’s a zombie ‘pocalypse get out all your guns and pew pew pew.

Was reading up a little bit on the game and came across this on the Left 4 Dead Wiki:

To portray their personalities Valve uses (perhaps deliberately and with tongue firmly in cheek) a standard screenwriter ploy to populate B-grade action, Western, sci-fi, sitcom and costume drama scripts with characters that are instantly recognizable to ‘popcorn’ audiences. This involves casting four main characters, each of whom have nothing much in common with one another but who are thrown together to face a challenge. Each character is then assigned a stereotyped personality selected from four distinctive types:

Cynic: self-centered, hostile, fires off put-downs and sarcasm, questionable morality, shady past, street or book smart. Francis and Nick.

Optimist: moral, friendly, feelings trump facts, naive, does the right thing, loyal. Louis and Ellis.

Realist: objective, lives by a personal code, disciplined, builds bridges, leadership role, adaptable. Often cast as The Hero. Bill and Coach.

Apathetic: aloof, neutral, from a different social background, enigmatic, along for the ride, swept up in events, victim, suffers bravely, supporter, observer. Zoey and Rochelle.

An interesting tidbit and I’m starting to see these strange character conventions (tropes?) in other games/media as well, changed up a bit here and there but more or less these four stereotypes. Funny to know that there’s some kind of formula for character creation and I guess in a way this makes for more entertaining interaction… though it might get stale after a while.

Will end this spazzy and incoherent post with another game I’m interested in:

LUCIUS

The premise is awesomely creepy – you’re the six-year-old son of Satan and have to KILL EVERYONE IN YOUR FAMILY. I thought Toshio was cute but this just freaks me out for some reason. It’s one of those games where you’re not given any sort of moral choice, from what I’ve seen in playthroughs. You’re just bad, baby, through and through. Fun to play as the truly evil Satanic little boy for once without having to give a fuck about morality.