FIRST BLOOD NOVEL QUESTIONS

FIRST BLOOD NOVEL QUESTIONS

“Embrace it, for it will embrace you.”

It’s been quite a while but I’m back with another blog post. This is my first author interview for my paranormal vampire series The FIRST BLOOD NOVELS. There are three books so far in the series with a fourth book to be released in the summer of 2014. These interview questions come directly from my Facebook friend Kim Curry who is a fan of the books. If you are a fan of historical vampire novels with interracial and multicultural romance then you may want to check them out. The questions make sense to all the readers that have read the first three books in the series, BIRTH, AFTERBIRTH AND REBIRTH.

1.      Will there be more full black women in the First Blood Novels? Kattie/Katalena Smada and Stephie are fully black but Emerald is mixed. Sade the Capi-sapien is also fully black. Sade is African but since she is a fox maiden she has the ability to change her outer appearance. Since William has a witch on his payroll I am thinking of bringing more witches into the stories. If I do this they probably with be African American. Now that Elliot is without a wife and mistress he may get another love interest and we know he has a thing for black woman that dates back to slavery.

2.      Is Stephie really gone? I’m sorry to say that Stephie is really gone. She was banished to Iceland for fifty years but she wasn’t killed. There is always the possibility that she will come back. Fifty years isn’t that long for a vampire.

3.      Does Stephie hate Elliot? No she doesn’t. Stephie loved Elliot too much and that’s why she killed Penelope. She didn’t think she would get caught but she is not an Adams blood relative. Elliot gave her the vampox gift but she is sort of common-law married into the family she doesn’t have Adams human blood like her daughter Paris who exposed her in the end.

4.      How could Emerald truly stand back and not have at the least strong words about Elliot marrying one woman and keeping a mistress? Emerald was born a slave although she is now a vampire Elliot is her beloved son. Cotton is her beloved daughter. Emerald’s other son was hung by racists and she spoils her living vampire children because of the death of James. The family views them as special because they are the first human blood and vampire blood children. They are the first of their kind in the Adams family. Anything they do would be overlooked for that reason. Plus vampires live outside of what is morally just for humans.  

5.      Will Elliott meet and fall in love with another Black Woman? I’m sure he will. He is disgustingly handsome and has a thing for Black woman.

6.      John has many secrets and is not the guy everyone thinks he is. Will his secrets come to light? Will they affect Emerald? John’s secrets have a way of spilling out so I’m sure they will continue to do so. His secrets have already had a tremendous effect on Emerald. She would have never gone to visit William if John had not kissed Sade. 

7.      Can Emerald trust her feelings for William? Is she falling in love with him? I think William really loves Emerald. Can he actually be faithful to her? It would be best that Emerald not trust her feelings for William. William is emotionally unstable. I’m sure Emerald loves William but her 100 year bond and marriage to his brother further complicates this.

8.      I think William really loves Emerald, does he? William loves Emerald in his own twisted way. He had evolved since his days as a human. I believe he thought he loved Polly Milford, Elnora and now Emerald but William is damaged from the love he feels he never received from his mother.

9.      Can William actually be faithful to Emerald? He had never been faithful to anyone. At this juncture William is loyal and faithful to CT. They share a vampire blood brother bond and they are closer to each other than they are to any woman.

10.  Is Emerald the key to William having a baby? I’m sorry to say that Emerald is not the key to William having a baby. At the end of book three we learned that William actually has a blood human/vampire son named Prince. This revelation may or may not stop his quest to procreate through scientific means.

11.  What’s up with the DNA questions when William and his doctor are trying to make a baby? As it stands two vampires cannot make a baby. A vampire man and human woman cannot make a baby. Vampire woman are in a state of suspense so there eggs cannot be fertilized by the human or vampire man. William has yet to realize that he has not exhausted all his options when it comes to procreation.

12.   Will you show more in-depth intimate scenes between William and Emerald and their growing their relationship and attachment to one another? Yes but since William has a new relationship on the horizon with his grown vampire son Prince. The next book will explore William’s ability to be a father. He made Cotton a vampire and views her as a daughter but he has to share her with John. That has always left a bad taste in his mouth. William has always forged a strange relationship with the strega Mia. In the next book there will be a lot of William's antics because there are a lot of unanswered questions where he is concerned. He still has yet to capture his enemy Legentino. Plus he is now the Vampire King of America. His plate is full for the next book.

Thanks Kim Curry for your interview questions. I will try to get the fourth book of the FIRST BLOOD NOVELS out by June 2014. Look for updates at my blog and on KrystellLake.com.

WHAT IF THE FIRST BLOOD NOVELS WERE MADE INTO A MOVIE?

WHAT IF THE FIRST BLOOD NOVELS WERE MADE INTO A MOVIE?

I often wonder what it would feel like to have my First Blood Novels made in movies. I would be over the moon. Although this is only a dream, I love to dream and I have envisioned the actors that I would love to play the characters in my vampire series. I know some people think vampires are so last year but I love vamps. Yeah I love zombies too but vampires have been around forever. The weird thing about writing novels is sometimes the initial actors you had in mind when writing can sometimes change. There was only one actress that remained constant in my mind while writing book one through book three of the First Blood Novels. The first book started with the main character Emerald Adams. After seeing the movie Cloverfield, I instantly saw Canadian actress Jessica Lucas as Emerald. Jessica doesn’t have green eyes but that’s what contact lenses are for.

 

Then there are the beautiful blue eyed blonde brothers, John Adams (the golden boy) and William Adams (the conqueror). I always saw Paul Walker as John but William has changed a few times over the course of the series but then by chance I saw a few episodes of One Tree Hill and I fell in love with Chad Michael Murray. I wrote this blog entry before the death of Paul Walker. Since he was the only personal I viewed as John Adams it was strange to hear of his death. It was like my character died.

 

 

Since my vampires never age it’s hard to find actors that can look young over the duration of my books. I’m sure I’ll have to pick younger actors in a few years. Didn’t realize it would be sooner than I thought with the death of Paul. Maybe John Adams can be Alex Pettyfer and Colton Haynes can be William Adams. It’s a thought. I cannot imagine replacing Paul Walker.  

                                

Now for the Adams children, Elliot, Cottonella and James. I saw Nicole Lyn in the movie Feasts of All Saints and thought see was perfect for Cotton. Then there was the handsome and extremely beautiful Elliot. No doubt I saw Zac Efron. He is just so pretty it’s ridiculous so that was a no brainer. Zac Efron’s co-star in High School Musical is who I saw as James, the one child of Emerald and John that couldn’t pass for white.

Here are a few more key characters as I saw them in the series. First the two alluring vampires in the woods that turned the brothers into vampires, Rosario Dawnson as Simonetta and Kate Mara as Taddea.

Lance Gross as CT/Cutter, the artist and William’s best friend and vampire blood brother.

 Ke Ke Palmer as Stephie Adams Elliot’s mistress.  

Cynthia Addae Robinson as Kattie/Katalena Smada, vampire attorney.

Nick Denbeigh as Revelus the Vietnam vet vampire.

Selena Gomez as Rosa Marino the Catholic schoolgirl.

Lyndsey Fonseca as Paris, Stephie’s daughter.

Kevin Zegers as London, Elliot’s son.

Jesse Williams as Princeton Smada. Kat and William’s son.

 

 

 

 

 

NEW DEADIES COVERS

NEW DEADIES COVERS

 

Guess who's back on the blog? My last blog was in January. I need to blog more often. I've been busy writing. I'm working on REBIRTH, the third book of the First Blood Novels. This was the first month that I checked my Amazon/Kindle eBook sales and I hadn't sold one book. The first five days and no sales. I was in a panic. Correction, I am in a panic. What to do? What to do? What to do? Although I'm a writer I am also an avid reader. After some internet research I found some common words of wisdom from the self published experts.The eBook gurus say if you have good reviews (that's me) but your books aren't selling you need to:

 

1. Lower you eBook or paperback book price.

2. Edit your book to remove errors and typos.

3. Redo your book cover image.

4. Change your tags. Some readers may not be able to find your books in searches.

 

First my eBook prices are already low. I learned a long time ago that cheaper is better. People like to get a deal. It may be taboo to some writers but I offer one book for free on Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, Apple ibookstore Scribd and Diesel. It was a no brainer. Deadies: Run For Your Life had been bootlegged by so many different sites that offered it for free that I kind of had no choice. Why pay for it when you can find it free in a random internet search. At first I was pissed. How dare they hijack my book. But after awhile I was like if you can't beat them, join them. I am proud to say Deadies: Run For Your Life has been downloaded for free over 3,000 times. Huh, if only they were actual sales.

 

Point number two, editing. I am not an editor. I have tried to proofread my books. Believe me I have read my books over and over again. For some reason I can not find all the typos and grammatical mistakes. I even give highlighters to friends to help me out and as a group we still can't find all the mistakes. When I start raking in the big bucks I would definitely hire a real editor. But if you look back at the beginning of this blog you'll see I'm not in the big leagues just yet. (No sales in five days.)

 

I'm not an expert on tags so I have to look into that. So I'm left with one option, change the cover image on my some of my books.  All my original book covers were made with Paint. I just learned to maneuver around the Gimp software. Gimp is hard and difficult. Thank you for YouTube. I am no expert at cover design. Maybe one day I can pay someone to do it. I came up with the three eBook covers displayed above. When I asked my friends and family which were better the old or the new. Half said they liked the original covers and the other half liked the new covers. So that was no help at all. So I decided to give the new covers a thirty day trial period on Amazon.com and Kindle to see if they generate more sales. If not I will just revert back to the old book covers. I have my fingers crossed.

 

I did notice I have a new 5 star review on Amazon.com. That makes me feel better. Even if my book covers suck my writing doesn't. I'm a newbie so I guess I'm allowed a few mistakes.





NEW YEAR HAPPY!!!

NEW YEAR HAPPY!!!

It’s a New Year so now we can all turn our noses up at people and say “that was so last year”. I plan on saying that to everyone I see on January 1, 2013. Obviously I think I’m funny. I’m not going to lie. Last year was terrible for me. There were only two good things that happen to me. First good thing, I became an aunt. My little brother who is no longer little because he’s in his 30’s had a son with his wife. So now I’m an aunt. Maybe no big deal for some but I only have one sibling so it was a big deal for me. The other good thing that happened was I self-published some books. My novels aren’t a runaway success but I sell a few here and there. For some reason I believe 2013 will be the year that I break out of my book selling slump and sell more books. My most popular book was limited in its distribution and that maybe that is the reason why even though it sold it wasn’t a blockbuster success. The series I’m referring to is the zombie series Deadies. It was only limited to eBook format on Amazon. Just two months ago I released it in paperback on Amazon. As soon as the exclusivity rights expire I will offer it on other online eBook retailers.


Now for my New Year’s resolutions:

1. I will exercise on a regular basis (Is video game dancing considered exercise?)

2. I will write 3-5 more novels (Deadies 4, Rebirth, ?????)

3. I will write a young adult novel (I have an idea for a teen Paranormal Fantasy)

4. I will go back to being a vegetarian (Whole Foods here I come! I love overpriced organic food.)

5. I will write more than I surf the internet (stop checking TMZ, Googling myself, checking Facebook and Twitter)

6. I will take more pictures (With my cell phone, there are weird things out there that should be captured on film)

7. I will try to proofread my novels better (Editing is a second job)

8. I will take more vacations (Mexico, Florida, etc.)

9. I will go to more concerts (more theater, more comedy shows and the ballet)

10. I will get establish a sleep pattern.

This morning I woke up with a bad cold. I felt like crap all day long. I can tell there will be no writing for me today. It’s a chore to write this blog with tissue plugged in one of my nostrils. It is 10:51 pm as I type this. I am trying desperately to stay awake. I can’t wait until the New Year begins. I so look forward to it. I can’t wait to see what the New Year brings. The world didn’t end as the Mayan calendar predicted. Which is good for me and you too I would assume. But there is still the possibility of a zombie apocalypse. So let’s be on the lookout for that. I’m exhausted and this cold is kicking my butt so before I go HAPPY NEW YEAR!