Guest post & Giveaway: Water's Blood by Elaine Calloway

UFI welcomes Elaine Calloway Author of Water's Blood. Thanks for Joining us!!

The Setting for Water’s Blood - Ins and Outs of New Orleans  

By Elaine Calloway

When I first began to draft the Elemental Clan Series, I immediately knew the Water Elemental story would need to be set in New Orleans. For one, the Crescent City makes an ideal backdrop for any paranormal tale. But growing up there and experiencing my share of hurricanes, I’m more than familiar with the powerful force Water can be.   

Setting Brooke and Alex’s story in my hometown was a given, but New Orleans is more than the tourist highlights or what people hear about--Bourbon Street, the Quarter, a swamp tour to see alligators. Those things only skim the surface of a beautiful city with many faces.

Like an intricate tapestry, New Orleans has many unique pieces that weave together to make a whole. The Victorian Uptown homes with oval glass doors and ornate trim; the eclectic shops and eateries in the Garden District; the Lake Front and its green rolling levees; the cemetery district with crypts above ground. 

I chose one of my favorite areas, Mid-City, to set Water’s Blood. Cemeteries and neighborhoods are adjacent to one another, a factoid I incorporated into the plot. Every street is shaded by a canopy of ancient live oaks draped in Spanish moss. The shotgun homes appear small from the street, but extend back for a city block, with all rooms connected from a main hallway that stretches from the front door to the back door. Mid-City was the ideal spot for Brooke, Alex, and Ella.

Cemetery Photo:

Mid-City neighborhood: 

Mid-City shotgun house:

For the antagonist Fallen Angels, I picked the French Quarter because of the abundance of black wrought iron in the architecture. The Quarter also contains Bourbon Street, long known for its decadent ways and excess living. The setting seemed ideal, and this was a way to incorporate natural architecture trends into the story.

Readers have mentioned that the streets of New Orleans come alive in Water’s Blood. My hope is that, even if you have never experienced the Crescent City, that you get a taste for her culture and beauty when you read Water’s Blood.

To connect with Elaine Calloway online or learn more about the Elemental Clan series, visit her on the Web at www.elainecalloway.com.

 

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Elaine Calloway is originally from New Orleans and can still do a decent Cajun accent upon request. She is currently writing the Elemental Clan Series, a series of paranormal tales set in iconic cities such as New Orleans. Book One, WATER’S BLOOD, is available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.

Book Two, RAGING FIRE, will be released summer 2013.

Find Elaine and her books

Website / Twitter / Goodreads

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Water's Blood
The Elemental Clan #1 

Amazon  BarnesNoble  Smashwords

 Nature’s Elementals—Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water—have lived for countless millennia. Disguised as humans, they are charged with one mission: protect the innocent from fallen angel clans, who reap human souls and force them to do their bidding.

Brooke, a Water Elemental stationed in New Orleans, broke the rules once—she mated with a human. For her indiscretion, she is forbidden to share a life with her loved ones: NOPD officer Alex and their half-breed daughter, Ella.

Now Ella is about to turn sixteen, and the local clan of fallen angels is determined to snare her soul by Halloween.

Brooke broke the rules once by allowing love to interfere with her mission. Now she and Alex must put consequences aside to break the rules again—if they wish to save their daughter’s soul.

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