Q & A with Emily Bex

 
1. Tell us about your book.

I love really big books. One of my favorite books of all time is Anne Rice’s The Witching Hour. She wrote with such detail, I felt like I was standing in the corner of the room, an invisible participant in a theater production that was being played out before me. I doubt my writing would ever be comparable to Anne Rice, but that was my model and inspiration for how I approached my current series, The Medici Warrior Series.
While I am an avid reader of all genres, I love the freedom of writing fantasy, where you are not bound by any rules. The Blood Covenant, book one in this six book series, follows the exploits of a vampire dynasty that spans four generations in a multi-genre novel with elements of the paranormal, romance, and historical fiction. The saga explores the roots of the Medici vampire dynasty in Renaissance era Florence, Italy as told through the eyes of the novel’s main protagonist, Shade Medici. Book one begins in current times with Shade, a warrior king who is the sole male heir to the dynasty, and is expected to mate and produce an heir to secure the continuation of the coven. He has waited over 500 years for the right mate when he falls in love with Kate Reese, a mortal girl. Kate is fresh off a broken engagement, and reluctant to open her heart to this stranger. His pursuit is unrelenting, and her curiosity gets the best of her as she lets down her guard, letting him into her life. Their passion for each other is searing, and he ignores the anger of the ruling Council when he pursues a mortal as his future mate. Shade is a complex character, who struggles to control his darker impulses as a vampire, and choses instead to embrace his more human emotions. He must draw Kate into his world, and prepare her for all the changes that will be demanded of her should she choose to bind herself to him through the blood covenant. Their path is filled with personal conflict, as well as with deceit, as others try hard to destroy their union, and Kate sorts through her discovery of the vampire sub-culture, learning what is fact, and what is myth.

2. What makes your vampires unique?

I have given you a clue in the description, but primarily, the most unique aspect of the vampires in my series are they are not the “undead.” They did not have to die in order to become vampire, they are born vampire. They describe themselves as immortal, however, they will eventually die of old age and they can also be killed by any means that you can kill a human. While they do have superior strength over humans, and an extremely advanced capability to heal, any injury that would be a mortal wound to a human is also mortal wound to my vampires. Humans can leave silver bullets, stakes through the heart, and all that garlic at home, as I have abandoned much of the traditional vampire mythology and created my own.
They still must drink blood to survive, and it is a romance novel, so hot sex is also a requirement. Their need to feed comes mixed with sexual desire.
 
3. If you could have a vampire’s ability, what would it be?

My vampires are each born with one unique gift that aids in their ability to protect themselves, such as day-walker, and dream-walker, but they all had the ability to teleport themselves through space. I would love to have this ability to teleport, to simply envision where I wanted to be, and go there.  No packing, no TSA lines, no cancelled or delayed flights, no cramped seating on the airplanes, so teleporting would be my desired vampire super-power!

4. What is next for you?

Since all six books of The Medici Warrior Series have been written and are with my publisher, waiting to be slotted into a publishing schedule, I am currently working on another paranormal romance series called The Bohannon Witch Series. Book one is Rhiannon’s Circle. Unlike the vampire novels, where the males were dominant, I am making the female witches more dominant, and more powerful than the male witches.  Let’s see what happens when we put the women in charge!