Cera duBois - A Hunter's Angel - Interview -n- Contest

Hello everyone, please welcome Cera duBois, author of A Hunter’s Angel, a paranormal romantic suspense. Before we get into our interview and we get into the details of Cera’s awesome contest, here’s a little bit about Cera…

Cera duBois has a strong belief in never giving up on your dreams…

Although Cera was unable to read due to dyslexia and a learning disability until she was in the fourth grade, she always had a story to tell. She wrote her first novel in eleventh grade when she had to keep a journal for her academic English class. Since her life was far from exciting growing up as a farm girl in West Central Pennsylvania, she decided to rely on her imagination to give her something to write about. Over the course of the school year, she wrote a tangled romance set in the Deep South during the Civil War. 

Becoming an author was her ultimate dream. Despite holding a BS in secondary social studies education from Penn State University, she currently works full-time as a medical secretary. A mother of a teenage son and pre-teen daughter, she lives near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with her husband of nearly 20 years. If she isn’t sitting in a quiet corner with her laptop, warm days will find her in the English garden surrounding her house. Cera loves to read and is interested in history, romance, science fiction and the paranormal. She also writes contemporary Westerns under her real name of Sara Walter Ellwood.

Okay…let’s get to the interview, Cera:)

Please tell us how the idea came to you for A Hunter’s Angel (Book 1 of

The Hunter’s Dagger Series). Please include all the fun details.

“You’d be surprised, Bella, at how often my kind are the source behind the horrors in your human news.” Edward from Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer, page 25. This line inspired the book and eventually the whole series.

What drives, motivates, and/or inspires Ian McHenry?

Ian is seeking divine forgiveness for the crimes he committed before joining master vampire Lucas Pomeroy three hundred years ago. He also has an incredible sense of honor and compassion for humans. He wants to protect humans from the monsters.

What’s Ian’s job? What does he do for a living?

In the human world, Ian is the Special Agent in Charge of a special team of FBI agents who investigate and hunt down serial killers. As a vampire, he’s hated among his kind because he’s a vampire hunter who follows the unique teaching of the ancient vampire master and former monk Lucas Pomeroy.

Give us some insight into Grace Wallace. What’s a bit of her back story?

Grace is the only girl playing in an all boy’s game. She’s the police chief of a small West Central Pennsylvania town.  Before her father died, she lived in Philadelphia where she was a detective on the Philly PD. She left Philly when her father became ill and her relationship with Ian McHenry, who she was working with on a serial killer case in the city, ended abruptly without her knowing why he left her.

Why this location? Anything in particular in real-life that made you select it?

Well, this is an easy one. I wanted it to be a rural area, preferably in the mountains. The winter setting happened as a fluke. When I first visualized the opening scene, I envisioned Grace sitting in her police cruiser staring out at through the freezing rain to where the fourth victim of a serial killer lay in a dormant corn field… I had to make it the winter because I loved the mood of hopelessness that I felt in Grace. She didn’t want to deal with the freezing rain, and she didn’t want to deal with the dead bodies piling up around her.

I ended up fictionalizing the area I grew up in to come up with the perfect setting—southern Blair and northern Bedford Counties in Pennsylvania. I figured if Stephenie Meyer could use Forks, Washington, I could use my hometown. But I did change the names a bit…LOL

Is A Hunter’s Angel included in a series? If so, what series and can you give us titles and a tagline for other books in this series?

Yes, this is the first book of at least a three book series, but I’m tinkering with the idea of a fourth book… We’ll see if that happens.

The second book, A Hunter’s Blade, is currently in the final stages of editing at The Wild Rose Press and hopefully will be release either this fall or early next year.

I’m currently writing the third book, A Hunter’s Wings. I’m hoping to have it submitted by March of next year.

Although I have a good idea what the forth book (if there is one) will be about, I haven’t come up with a title yet.

Tagline:

All that stands between Evil and Humanity is the strength of The Hunter’s Dagger...

Can you share anything about the paranormal in the story? What’s unique about them?

There are many beings that will show up in the series. In A Hunter’s Wings, book 3, the heroine is a banished guardian angel, Tarial. She is banished when she doesn’t kill the monk Lucas Pomeroy, and instead, comes to him in dreams to develop the code he passes on to the vampire hunters. The hero is a newly made master vampire who doesn’t know how to handle his new life. And the villain is Asmodi, the arch demon of the incubi/succubae. He creates the master vampires. (What makes a master vampire in my world is that they are created by the demon Asmodi and not by another vampire and has nothing to do with age).

In A Hunter’s Blade, book 2, the hero is another newly made vampire, who fights the monster within and is trying to live by Pomeroy’s code. The heroine is a Lykan, a born werewolf and the last of her kind in North America. The villain is a lesser wolf, those werewolves created from a Lykan bite to a human.

In A Hunter’s Angel, Ian is a vampire who follows the very strict code of ethics set forth by an ancient monk-turned-vampire Lucas Pomeroy. Although not all the vampires who follow this code are vampire hunters, most of them are. The vampires (and werewolves) who are hunted are those who kill humans, often for sport. Vampires do not need to kill to live, but they must have live human blood and the urge to kill is almost impossible to fight while they are biting someone.

Tell us about A Hunter’s Angel’s world? Does Ian live by a hierarchy or some other code/laws of their kind? If so, can you give us a few of their rules?

As I mentioned above, Ian follows the vampire master, Lucas Pomeroy, who was a monk during the early days of Christianity in Rome during the days of Constantine the Great. Master Pomeroy developed the code which forbids vampires (and werewolves if they chose to follow) from killing humans. In fact, they become protectors of the very beings they must prey upon. This is not easy. The vampire’s demon-implanted instinct is to kill. The hope is that if the vampire follows this code, they can find forgiveness in the eyes of God in Heaven.

The other un-written, universal rule among all paranormal beings is secrecy. They live among humans, but humans are not aware of them.

Which scene was your favorite to write? Can you share a little of it?

I loved writing about Grace finding the Irish history book with Ian’s mortal picture in (it was painted in 1600).

Here’s a bit of the scene...

She turned the book over in her hands. “The Comprehensive History of the Isle of Erin for the New Millennium. How old is this thing?”

She opened the cover. The book had been published in Dublin, Ireland, in 1898.

Damn, Dad, what were you thinking when you stored these in that God forsaken room? Mom probably paid a fortune for them.

Grace slid onto one of the stools and turned to the first chapter. The pages were brittle and the edges of the book moldy from absorbed moisture. She’d pay dearly later when her allergies kicked in, but curiosity ruled her actions now. She spent an hour turning pages reading bits and pieces about the country her grandparents had come from.

Remembering what Ian had told her about his mother being descended from Irish kings, she spent a few moments looking at an illustration of an ancient battle between the Irish and the Norse invaders. She ran her hand over the gruesome drawing. Was this king one of Ian’s ancestors?

Hell, the king could have been even one of hers. Her mother’s family, the O’Sheas, were important in Irish history, too. At least according to her grandfather, they were.

The next couple of pages crumbled under her hands and she cursed, but didn’t give up. She took extra care with the fragile paper as she flipped through the book, reading the passages and looking at the beautiful illustrations.

She had no idea what interested her in the history of a country to which she had only felt a passive connection. When she reached the section recounting the turmoil of the late sixteenth century, she skimmed the narrative describing Ireland’s revolt against English rule during the Nine Years War. Ian had said he fought in this war, hadn’t he?

She turned the page and her heart jumped into her throat and stopped dead. Her hand went to her chest as she stared at the caption above a lithograph, which took up half the yellowed, brittle page in a century old book.

Sir Ian Henry Chamberlain, circa 1600. The flamboyant Colonel of the Royal Army of Queen Elizabeth, accredited for many victories early in the Nine Years War, disappeared with his brother, Sir Shane Thomas Chamberlain, in 1603.

What are you working on now?

I actually have several irons in the fire, as my grandma would say.  I’m finishing the editing process with The Wild Rose Press for A Hunter’s Blade (book two of The Hunter’s Dagger series). I’m in the midst of writing A Hunter’s Wings (book three) and I’m editing/revising Gambling on a Heart (book two of The Colton Gamblers series).  The other project I’m finishing up on is a novella I’m planning to self-publish soon, a paranormal fantasy titled Fangs and Faerie Wings. Also I’m working on edits for my two contracted Westerns—Gambling on a Secret (book one of The Colton Gamblers, Jan 2013, Lyrical Press) and Heartstrings (May 2013, Lyrical Press).

Where can we find you? List all of your links.

Website Links:

Website: http://www.ceradubois.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sarawalterellwood.ceradubois/

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sara_w_ellwood

To Sign up for my newsletter: http://eepurl.com/mVxXf

Buy Links:

The Wild Rose Press: http://www.thewildrosepress.com/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=980

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=cera+dubois

To find out more about A Hunter’s Angel, check out my website (http://ceradubois.wordpress.com/a-hunters-angel-the-book-tour/) for a schedule of my blog stops over the next month. I will be presenting a series of short stories called The Vampire Encounters. Follow me as I interview Ian McHenry, Master Vampire Lucas Pomeroy, Vivian van Dyke Pomeroy, and have a scary run-in with Shane Chamberlain. Hope to see you along the way.

Quickie Quiz

Cera duBois’ Favorite/Preference:

Beverage? Coffee

Writing Tool? My laptop

Pet? Cat. I have a rescue cat named Penny who is the sweetest, friendliest animal I’ve ever known.

Season? Spring

Time of Day/Night? Evening

Fantasy/Paranormal Character? (ghost, witch, mermaid, shifter, vampire, etc.) Vampire

Past time/Hobbie?  When I’m not writing, I love to read and in the spring/summer I love to garden.

What place have you never been and always wanted to go?  Ireland.

Thanks so much for having me.

Cera’s Contest:

Please leave a comment and your email address to be eligible. (Sorry, only USA and Canada residents are eligible for any prize that needs to be mailed. Non-residents and residents of USA are eligible for free PDF copy.)

*One Lucky Commenter will win either a custom-made pair of angel wing earrings, charm bracelet, or necklace (check out my website for photos).

*Two others will get a PDF copy of Bloodwine. (for info on this short story check out my website)

*1^st Stalker Prize: Every Commenter will be entered into a drawing for a chance at a $5 gift certificate from The Wild Rose Press (four to be given away)—drawing to happen on September 1.

*2^nd Stalker Prize: Every Commenter will also be entered into a drawing of a $25 gift card from either Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice)—drawing to happen on September 1.

A Hunter's Angel

Blurb : 

The serial killer stalking Clayton, Pennsylvania, isn’t all that has Chief of Police Grace Wallace worried. For a year, she’s tried to forget Special Agent Ian McHenry and now he’s the expert the FBI sent to catch the killer. She can’t stay away from him, but something primal is telling her to run to save much more than just her heart. 

Despite the strict code of ethics Ian vowed to follow as a vampire hunter, he craves Grace’s blood above all others. If he chooses to stay, Ian risks losing his chance at divine forgiveness. 

But if he leaves Grace unprotected from the evil he’s hunted for over a century, he loses more than just his soul…

Excerpt:

“I’m in love with the man inside the vampire.” Grace moved her hand to thread through his silky hair. When she rested the other over his heart, a soft sigh escaped his lips. Underneath her palm, the slow beat was barely noticeable.

His thumb grazed her cheekbone and slowly trailed down to the hollow of her throat. Her breathing quickened at the zinging anticipation as he caressed the pulse point where he’d claimed to have taken blood from her. He glanced at the spot with eyes as haunted as he sounded. “I’m not a man.”

“But you were once.”

He met her gaze again. “Yes, once.”

His fingers lingered over her pulse. Her heart raced under his touch. She tilted her neck as if his touch awakened some base instinct to offer the sacrifice. “Do you still want my blood?”

Ian stepped away and locked his wide-eyed gaze onto hers. At last, he rasped, “No, I don’t want your blood. Oh, God, I still crave it. You have the sweetest I’ve ever had, but I will never hurt you again.”

She didn’t know what possessed her to do so, but she whispered, “You can take...some of it.”

He closed his eyes, and when he opened them, he acidly said, “No, Grace. I can never taste your blood again. It would kill you.”

Fear of what she’d wanted him to do tumbled through her. She stepped away, and for a moment, she considered telling him to leave. How did she know any of this was real? She couldn’t imagine she’d ever freely offer a vampire her blood. Did she really believe him? He was sucking her into his insanity. But if this was true and he could make people do things against their will, maybe he could control her feelings.

“Maybe I should go?” Ian backed away another step and headed toward the counter where he’d left his dagger. He turned back to her with the sheath in his hand. Her heart shattered with the knowledge that, if he walked out the front door, she’d never see him again. “Goodbye, my sweet angel.”

His jagged murmur ripped at her soul as his eyes took on a blazing intensity and snared hers. She felt a pressure in her mind, and she knew what he intended to do. He wanted to erase her memories of him.

No!

Cera, thank you for sharing so much about your story, story-stars, world-building, and your creative writing process, loved it. Intriguing post! A Hunter’s Angel, sounds like an excellent paranormal romance read. Congratulations on its release and I wish you many more successes:)

Thank you everyone for stopping in and visiting with Cera ~ show her some love and leave a comment or a question :0)

Until Next Time…Warm Hearts & Hugs,

Kay Dee

Articlemania Fest – MuseItUp Authors entertain and educate the month of August with articles. Win e-books! My article is up (How to Build the Paranormal Character)

Also check out Ravencraft’s Romance Realm – lots of hot topics and creative romance authors: http://ravencraftrealm.blogspot.com

Vampires are Sinking Their Fangs into Flint this Fall - Flint, Michigan - Flint Fang Fest Oct. 20 – 27^th: http://www.flintfangfest.blogspot.com/

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