Author's Spotlight - Lee Ann Sonthheimer Murphy

Today on the Vampire Scribe, the lovely and talented Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy joins us. She has a new release entitled, Love Shadows, available from Evernight Publishing. Lee Ann has been gracious enough to chat with us today about her Love Covenant Series and gives some sage advice to new/aspiring authors.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog, Lee Ann.  Can you tell us a little bit more about your current release?  What inspired you to write this story?

Thanks for having me over.  My current release, Love Shadows, is the fourth book in a planned six book series, the Love Covenant series from Evernight Publishing.  It's the story of a more than two hundred year old Irish vampire, Will Brennan, and the sassy Texas gal/singer he made his wife (and a vampire).  The first book - which I didn't know would become a series at the time - was inspired by a late night thought.  I was driving down a two lane highway and noticed at that hour, most of the other traffic consisted of eighteen wheelers, big trucks.  I thought truck driving would be a great occupation for a vampire.  At the time, I was trying to come up with a new paranormal idea because my first novel Wolfe's Lady was coming out in a few weeks and I wanted to get started on something new.  The idea involved into Love Tattoo, the first book where Cara, on her way to Nashville for a shot at a singing career, met Will at a road side rest stop.  In the first novel, they fell in love.  In book two, Love Scars, the vindictive woman who made Will into a vampire stalks him because she's unhappy he's finally happy.  There's another reason she hates him, too, and it comes down to an epic battle to see who survives.  Cara takes matters into her own hands.  At the end of that novel, Will learns his beloved younger brother is also a vampire and still around.  Book three, Love Knots sends Will and Cara across the United States searching for Will's long lost brother.  In the new novel, they meet a very old and powerful vampire named Henri who covets Cara.

 

Do you do anything special to get into the zone of writing?

  

I send the kids to school, LOL.  I get up early and take care of checking email, social networking, blogs, etc.  After the kids go to school I settle into writing, easier to concentrate with them out of the house.  And I write to music, most of the time.

What genre/genres are your favorite, and why?

  

I love romance in all flavors and sub-genres.

 

Can you describe the process you go through when starting a new story?

 

I start with an idea, maybe just an image or thought.  I toss it around and before long - if it's going to fly at all - it starts to build into a story.  I start weaving into the details about who is doing what where and why.  Once I start, my characters usually drive the creative train and sometimes they go in directions I never envisioned.  When I start a new story, I know where it starts and where it will end but the in between is usually a blank page.

  

Tell us what books you have on your own personal To Be Read list?

  

I have so many - I've got a list but I have so little time to read for fun any more, I have no idea when I'll get to any of them.

  

As you know, many of our readers are also writers themselves. What is the most important marketing tip you would share with a newbie?

Don't over promote.  It's easy to get out there and plaster your information everywhere but if you do too much, it turns people away.  I got a major wake up call when my nephew, bless his heart, threatened to drop me as a Facebook friend because his text notifications went off all the time when I posted promo.

 

What can your fans expect to see from you in the near future?

I've got two full length historical romances coming up from Rebel Ink Press, one in May, the other in June.  The first is a World War II era romance In the Shadow of War and the other is a 1920's romance with some paranormal elements called Guy's Angel.

Next up on April 3, I have a romantic suspense coming out called Miss Good Samaritan.

Excerpt from Love Shadows:

Ever since Lafe Bishop told me how close to death – to an eternal end to existence – I came, I craved sex with a ravenous appetite.  Last night, even though Will felt that singing, soaring electricity between us, he wouldn’t give in because I remained so fragile.   During the long day, I’d healed more and I felt almost normal again.  To kindle his desire, I touched my own lips to his throat, kissing with a light caress and letting my teeth, my fangs rake over the skin.  Before he came awake, I felt him harden against me, his cock ready for what I needed most of all.              

“No sooner met than they looked, no sooner looked but they loved, no sooner loved but they sighed but they asked one another the reason, no sooner knew the reason but they sought the remedy,” Will whispered, his eyes drawing mine as if through magic.

“Do you need to seek a remedy for what ails you, mo anam

 cara?”              

“I do,” I told him, one hand straying down to touch him between the legs.              

“Do you feel up to this?” he asked and meant it. If I said ‘no’, he would stop. “If it’s too soon, leannán, we can stop.”              

“Don’t you dare even think about it.”              

He laughed with that sound that reminded me of chimes, musical and sweet. “I’ll be gentle, I promise.” 

“Then love me tender,” I whispered, quoting Elvis. 

With the infinite patience of the stars, Will Brennan put his mouth over mine, as rich and sweet as the somnolent scent of honeysuckle on a summer night. His lips stroked mine with such slow heat that I burned, not the savage flame that hurt so much on Halloween but a gentle fever that moved through my blood like intoxication.  That mouth cherished me as if my lips held the riches of all ages, a king’s treasure. Will’s kisses teased over me like a whisper, reminding me of a light wind that might fondle a cheek or toss a lock of hair.  He handled me as if I might be as fragile as an exquisite antique of extreme value.

He touched me with care as if I might break if he didn’t. 

As his hands moved over my body like heat lightning on a humid night, elusive, my skin became so sensitive that each stroke sent a thousand nerve cells tingling. When his mouth left my lips, they mourned his leaving but I had no time to think because his lips tickled down my throat, nipping and licking where my veins ran.  He followed the largest, using his tongue to trace its course until he reached my breasts.  Will used his thumb to rub against each nipple, one at a time, in a circular fashion that brought the buds to bloom.  He cupped my tits in his hands as if he held eggs, delicate and easy to break, and the weight of his hands against my flesh tortured me but in such an exquisite way that I wanted more.  Then he ran his hands down my sides, palms against my body, in a slow rhythm that filled me with a music that rang in my head. 

When I raised my hand to touch him, he stayed it.

“Let me,” he said, his voice just a faint rustle audible in the roaring I heard in my ears. “Let me do it all, mo anam cara.” 

I yielded, slave to his master, and allowed to do what he wanted.  My body became his to command, his to take and he did with such deliberate measure that I thought I might languish there, imprisoned forever. 

When he entered me, his rod stiff and hard, he burrowed into my warmth, my wet cave that waited for him without force or hammering.  Instead of conquering with might, Will poured into me like a tide sweeping over a beach, natural and powerful.  I felt the impact of his arrival and knew the sweet, sweet release as he covered me.  He filled me to capacity and then he bucked, no longer able to control his own need, yet even then with a gentle consideration.

I rose to meet him halfway, drawing him deeper into myself so that when the moment we sought came, we rode it like a Fourth of July rocket into the stratosphere of our souls and let it explode over us with brilliant joy.  The release brought me to such a brink of physical pleasure that I cried out, unable to contain it and Will stopped my noise with his mouth, with a kiss that gave me the remaining roughness I craved.  He kissed me hard, his mouth all but raping mine as I gloried in the sensation, coming again in a breaking tide that consumed us both.

Buy Links: 

http://www.evernightpublishing.com/love-shadows-by-lee-ann-sontheimer-murphy/