Giveaway and Author Guest Blog with NYT Best Selling Author Nancy Holder !!!



CRUSADE
in trade paperback

 Vampires: Lovers and Monsters

In Crusade, my new vampire series cowritten with Debbie Viguié, the vampires have won the war against humanity. The only opposing forces left are small bands of vampire hunters. Debbie and I used the template of World War II for our world, and the Resistance for those who stand against the vampires. In Crusade, readers find out pretty quickly that Antonio de la Cruz, who is a member of the Resistance, is in love with a human girl named Jenn Leitner. But Jenn finds nothing alluring about Antonio’s vampiric nature. She would much rather that he were human, and has no wish to become a vampire to be with him. To add to their plight, Antonio is a devout Catholic who was studying to become a priest when he was transformed into a vampire. He still honors his vows and remains faithful to the Church, despite his wish to be with Jenn. Still, the chemistry between them is undeniable, and they are tortured by their deep love and passion for each other. Vampires and humans have been mixing it up for a long time. One of the first “sexy vampires” was Lord Ruthven, who appeared in a short story by John Polidori in 1819. Polidori was the private physician of the notorious rake, Lord Byron. Lord Byron was a heartbreaker--one of his numerous lovers said that he was “bad, mad, and dangerous to know,” and it has been said that Ruthven was Lord Byron with a cape. The character of Lord Ruthven the vampire has proven to be so popular that he has been used by many other authors, including Tom Holland in The Vampyre: Being the True Pilgrimage of George Gordon, Sixth Lord Byron (published in 1995; and Kim Newman, in Anno Dracula.

Another alluring vampire was Carmilla, who was created by Sheridan LeFanu in 1872 , and rather scandalous in her day for her obsessions with and seduction of a young girl. Bram Stoker’s Dracula came next, in 1897, with his overtones of sexuality and sensuality during the repressed (and twisted!) Victorian times.

Anne Rice brought us the Vampire Lestat, and TV gave us Barnabas Collins of Dark Shadows, Nick Knight of Forever Knight; and Spike and Angel of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Then the Twilight saga introduced us to Edward Cullen.


There’s something fascinating about these dangerous demon lovers that draws us in century after century. The very first short story I sold was called Blood Gothic, about a woman who wants to have a demon lover. That story has been reprinted more tomes than any other story I’ve written. As Buffy the Vampire Slayer herself has said, the allure of vampirism is to “die young and stay pretty.” That’s pretty tempting…especially when you can do so in the arms of a beautiful or handsome, supernatural/magical creature who happens to be obsessed with you.

In Crusade, Antonio is very much the sexy vampire, but the other vampires in our series are the more old-fashioned, evil kind. They mesmerize and charm; they lie and seduce, but they do it for one reason only—to drink human blood. So we have tried to mingle the old—the sexy vampire, with the older--the evil monsters of ancient myth, who walk the night and damn our souls.


I hope you’ll join our Crusade!

Nancy Holder
www.nancyholder.com

Nancy mini-bio: 

Nancy Holder is the New York Times bestselling author (with Debbie Viguié) of the WICKED series.  They have two more series, CRUSADE and THE WOLF SPRINGS CHRONICLES.  In addition to books, and short fiction for the SAVING GRACE, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, ANGEL, SMALLVILLE, and other universes, Nancy has written paranormal romances in her Gifted series for Harlequin.  Her POSSESSIONS young adult horror series is in bookstores now.  She's sold over 200 short stories, including many paranormals for ETERNAL, IMMORTAL, and other anthologies.  She has won four Bram Stoker Awards from the Horror Writers

Association, and her work has appeared on the American Librarian Association, American Reading Association, New York Public Library for the Teen Age, and many other organizations.   CRUSADE will come out in trade paperback in May; and the sequel, DAMNED, will come out in August.

Follow Nancy Holder!

facebook general page: http://www.facebook.com/holder.nancy

facebook Crusade page: http://www.facebook.com/crusadeseries

facebook Wicked page: http://www.facebook.com/wickedseries

facebook Possessions page: http://www.facebook.com/possessionsseries

facebook author page: http://facebook.com/nancyholderfans

Formspring: http://www.formspring.me/nancyholder (must have an account)

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/nancyholder

Nancy's Blog: http://nancyholder.livejournal.com/

Publisher's Authors Page: http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Nancy-Holder/1249786

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/nancyholder

One commenter
will win a hard back copy of
Crusade!

This contest is open Internationally.