Guest Blog: Jude Magdalyn Series by L.M. Pruitt

The Art of Letting Go 

When I first made the decision to seriously perused writing as a career, I was determined to create a character I would want to hang out with—someone who would, in real life, be a friend. The end result was Jude Magdalyn, in all her snarky and contradictory glory. Over the last five years, four/five books, and roughly 300,000 words (give or take), I’ve gotten to know her fairly well.

She’s not perfect. Not even close. People tend to either love or hate her, with very few people falling in between. I can understand why. She’s sarcastic to the point of bitchiness. She can be whiny, sometimes with little or no provocation. Her sense of humor can sometimes be more than a little dry and flat. And like every other human, she makes mistakes—small ones, big ones, huge ones.

As I said, she’s far from perfect.

But she’s loyal, sometimes to the point of foolishness. She has an enormous heart and an even more enormous capacity to love. She’s able to forgive, even when it’s not in her best interest. And she’s willing to admit she’s wrong, even if doing so makes her look weak.

Again, I’ve gotten to know her pretty well—maybe too well.

As I mentioned earlier, Jude is more than a little contradictory. Knowing her so well makes it more than a little difficult to write about her. She doesn’t want to share her secrets any longer.

I’ve tried to force the issue. The result has been shorter and shorter books.

So, as much as Jude Magdalyn will always be my first writing love—it’s time to let her go.

This doesn’t mean I’ll never write another word about her. It just means I’ll treasure each one I do write, even if I’m cursing a blue streak at the same time.

It’s been said the mark of a good friendship is the ability to go long periods of time without talking and still being able to pick up right where you left off.

So when I say goodbye to Jude, I know it’s not forever—it just for now. And the next time we speak will be just as awesome as the first.
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Shades of Vengeance
Jude Magdalyn #5
Amazon

In moments of pain, we seek revenge.--Ami Ayalon

My home is compromised.

My children are gone.

My husband is dead

Every inch of my life is in ruins.

The only thing I have left is vengeance.

And no matter what it takes--no matter what took must be used--no matter the cost--I will have it. 

Excerpt:

“This life isn’t salvation, Jude.” St. Germaine leaned closer, lowering his voice. “Look at Williams. He is gnawing on your wrist like some sort of savage animal, doing his very best to drain you dry.” He glanced over my shoulder, his features hardening. “He is going to kill you if something isn’t done very soon.”

“And Theo is going to die if you keep standing there, trying to talk me out of this decision.” I finally took that deep breath the Comte had recommended and pulled out the big guns. “You promised Madame Henries. You promised me. Please, please, please do this.”

The Comte stared at me for so long I began to wonder if he’d turned to stone. Finally, he sighed, stepping back and raking a hand through his hair, disheveling the carefully coifed locks. “Fine. Fine. Danie, go to my wine cellar, it’s directly off the kitchen. Bring back two—no, three bottles.”

“Do you really think you should be drinking right before you do something this major?” Lies didn’t sound confrontational or condemning. If anything, she sounded curious. “I’m assuming this is going to be more than a little taxing, otherwise everybody would do it, so wouldn’t you want to have a clear head?”

“My head is quite clear, child.” St. Germaine snorted, somehow managing to make the rude nose sound ridiculously elegant. “Because the process is, as you said, taxing, I’m going to need more than a little bit of sustenance to get through this evening. The wine is fortified with blood.” He shot me a disgruntled look. “Is nobody teaching the children their history these days?”

“I’ll make sure to integrate you into my daughters’ education.” I shifted my gaze to Williams, watching him suckle on my wrist like a baby at a breast—one more thing Hart and Elizabeth had taken away from me. I’d be damned if I let them take away the person I’d spent my entire life waiting for. “Williams, can you hear me?”

He didn’t answer.

I took a deep breath and dug my nails in to his cheek.

He hissed and jerked away.

I bit back a scream as I felt my wrist rip open, blood spurting high in the air. “Oh, fuck. Someone go get Bridget, now. Hurry, hurry, hurry.”

“I’m sorry.” Williams’ voice sounded rusty from disuse but I was still able to detect a note of repentance. “I’m sorry, the hunger was just too much. I tried, truly, but--.”

“You can apologize for your lapse in mental judgment later.” St. Germaine once again sounded bored and urbane and I turned just in time to watch him perch on the edge of the bed. He glanced over at me, his face shifting in to concerned lines. “I must ask again. Are you certain--?”

“Do it.” I flinched when someone pressed a bandage to my gushing wrist but didn’t break eye contact with the Comte. I slipped my hand in to Theo’s, squeezing it tight. “Save him, please.”

St. Germaine sighed. Bent over Theo. And sank his fangs into Theo’s neck.

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Shades of Loss
Jude Magdalyn #4
Amazon

We have to distrust each other. It is our only defense against betrayal. Tennessee Williams

Fact--Hart is back from the not-quite-dead.
Fact--His ultimate goal is my death.
Fact--He'll use anything--and anyone--to help him reach that goal.

The only way to save myself--my family--the entire Covenant--is to find the answer to one simple question.

Who is the traitor?

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Shades of Blood
Jude Magdalyn #3
Amazon

If it's not one thing, it's another.

Felipe, one of New Orleans's most infamous--and crazy--vampires is back in town. And to say he's unhappy is an understatement.

Duprees and Williams have to track down Felipe, fast, before he claims any more victims. If that means making a deal with the Devil--otherwise known as St. Germaine--and using an untrained dhampir, so be it.

If that wasn't enough, I've also got rebellious teenagers, feuding couples, and a suddenly full social calendar.

The more things change....

Excerpt:

“I’m going to kill her.” I didn’t throw the phone across the room like I wanted to, but instead, set it down gently on the coffee table. I took a deep breath and held it for a long moment before releasing it. “I’ll just have to owe Williams another favor.”

“That would put you at owing him three times, which is three times too many.” Theo slid the phone out of my reach. I’d already thrown two phones this month, so I didn’t begrudge him the action. “What exactly did Danie do this time?”

It’d been almost a month since Williams had shown up in the foyer and left his niece—Hart’s daughter—in my care. Not that I really wanted her here or that she wanted to be here. Things were just getting back to normal after the terror of Halloween, after darting around the city trying to find Hart’s other psychopathic

brother. Having Hart’s daughter under my roof made me more than a little uneasy, even though he was still at the bottom of the Mississippi.

I’d argued with Williams. Danie had argued with Williams. Even Mickeal, Williams’s second-in-command and currently stationed at the Crossroads, had argued with Williams. He refused to budge. And my conscience wouldn’t let me throw her out without a definite place to go.

So Danie stayed. And did her best to make all our lives a living hell.

“Shoplifting. Again.” I drummed my fingers over my stomach, then stopped when one of the bumps kicked a little. Theo and I still called them the bumps, even though it was starting to look like I’d swallowed a small beach ball. At the rate I was going, I’d be as big as a cow by the time I delivered in May. “Down at that tourist shop.”

“Which one? There’s only half a million or so.” Theo made a little circle motion with his finger and I gave him my back. I always seemed to have a knot between my shoulder blades these days. Whether it was from Danie or from the bumps, I couldn’t begin to guess.

“Voodoo Blues. The owner recognized her, so instead of calling the police, he let her go and called me. I’ll send Elizabeth down tomorrow to take care of it.”

“Have you ever thought about letting her get picked up by the police? Seeing if having the law come down on her would actually make her see how stupid she’s being?” Theo pressed a kiss against my bare shoulder. I shrugged half-heartedly, tapping my fingers on my knee.

“Maybe it would work. Or maybe she’d go nuts on them and then we’d have a serious problem.” Restless now, I stood up to pace in front of the fireplace. It was just now ten p.m. and most of the house had been up long enough to start getting into trouble. Any minute now, someone was going to knock on the parlor door and tell me they needed help with something.

I wasn’t psychic. It had happened often enough that it was a given.

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Shades of Desire 
Jude Magdalyn #2
Amazon

All I wanted was a little peace and quiet.

Instead, I've got dead Covenant members and a steady stream of letters from the new guy in town. His beverage of choice? A 2002 Merlot, with a shot or two of powerful virgin blood.

On top of that, I'm breaking in a new police liaison, failing at playing matchmaker, and fighting nausea like it's a full time job.

Did I forget to mention that I've also got enough girls living at the Crossroads to start my own boarding school?

Peace and quiet? Out the window.

--Jude Magdalyn Henries

Excerpt:

“If someone doesn’t get me a lemon in the next five minutes, everyone will suffer. A lot.”

“Jude, I love you. Which is why I can say you’re being just a little overdramatic.” One look at my face and Theo changed his tune. “But then again, you could say pregnancy is dramatic and you’re just getting into the groove.”

“Nice save.” I tried to sit up again. Halfway through the upward movement greasy waves of nausea rolled over me and I eased back down onto the pillow. Strands of black hair clung to my sweaty face and I closed my eyes, exhaling slowly. “Not as nice as that lemon would be right now, but nice.”

“Elizabeth will be here in a moment. No doubt she’ll have a lemon. And tea. And toast.” Theo turned over to face me, laying one hand over my still mostly flat stomach. If you looked close, you could see the smallest of bumps.

I know, because I checked. Every other day or so.

If anybody told me three months ago, that the week before Halloween, I’d be lying in bed with a man who absolutely adored me—even the crazy parts—I’d have asked them what the hell they were smoking. If they’d thrown in being pregnant, I would have punched them in their jaw. Then gone to the store and bought a dozen pregnancy tests and prayed for them all to be negative.

But that was before the Covenant.

In two weeks, I’d gone from being an orphan raised by nuns, to the latest in a long line of only daughters. Women charged with the protection and well-being of hundreds of people with unique powers. Some made flame burn for hours, while others called the wind to knock you flat on your ass. They were a group of people who came together over two-hundred years ago, bound by a prophecy. One with no past, lost in the present, will bring in the future, through gifts of both this world and the next.

And lucky me, I’d passed the job interview.

I’d sent Hart to a muddy, watery grave-literally. Unless something went crazy wrong, he’d stay under the Mississippi until the Final Judgment. Williams ruled the vampires of the city now and kept his distance as much as possible.

And I, Jude Magdalyn Henries, led the Covenant. Maybe I wasn’t terrific at it. But Gillian would be proud.

All things considered, I think I came out with a pretty good deal.

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Shades of Gray 
Jude Magdalyn #1
Amazon

Jude Magdalyn Henries lives what many would call an unconventional life. Orphaned at birth, raised by nuns, a teenage runaway living on the streets... she now earns a living at odd jobs, including one as a fake tarot card reader. Very little about Jude's life appears normal, by any scale. When she accepts a gig to do a private reading, unconventional takes on an entirely new meaning.

Life as she knows it ends when she's thrust into a world she never knew existed-one filled with magic, vampires, and her beloved New Orleans on the verge of an underground war.

To make matters worse, she's got two men in her life vying for attention, Williams and Theo. Both call to a different part of her, but one scares her just a little bit. Can she step up to the challenges set before her and make the right choices for the "greater"greater good"?

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L.M. Pruitt has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember. A native of Florida with a love of New Orleans, she has the uncanny ability to find humor in most things and would probably kill a plastic plant. She knows this because she's killed bamboo. Twice.  She is the author of the Winged series, the Plaisir Coupable series, Jude Magdalyn series, the Moon Rising series, and Taken: A Frankie Post Novel.

Find L.M. Pruitt and her books

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