Guest Blog & Giveaway: Forsaken by the Others by Jess Haines

UFI welcomes Jess Haines Author of The Truth About Vampires. Thanks for Joining us!!

Stop 10: Necromancers, Zombies and Vampires—Oh, My!

By Jess Haines
 
Hello there!  Jess Haines here.  I’m the author of the H&W Investigations series—urban fantasy novels about Shiarra Waynest, a human private investigator in an alternate, present-day New York. Somehow she keeps getting pulled into supernatural troubles way above her pay grade…
 
In the latest installment, Shiarra runs into zombies and gets to meet a necromancer for the first time. My research took me into some dark and scary places, from the mind of Aleister Crowley, to the depths of African mythology on bokor (sorcerers), to the horror-touched hilarity of movies like Zombieland. 
 
Romero movies are great, but when you think about the necromantic rites that supposedly bring back the dead, like the Vodou (Haitian) practice of using a powder called coup poudre and a jar to capture the soul of the recently deceased person they want to raise, things can get pretty morbid—and fascinating. For example, I’ve seen a picture of Papa Mondy Jean, the Vodou practitioner from Port-au-Prince, supposedly channeling spirits of the dead. Along with an unhealthy obsession with the “real life haunting” videos on the dark side of YouTube (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EkxpKConPk), I do like to study the various mythologies surrounding raising and communicating with the dead.
 
In my books, the vampires and zombies and necromancer may be fairly simple in nature, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t couched them in a bit of real-life mythology. While I won’t be taking Zulu shaman Credo Mutwa’s take on zombies anytime soon (created by tearing out the eyes and tongue of a corpse, among other not-so-delightful actions that I’ll leave to your imagination or Google-fu), it helps to know the origin of my monsters so that I can develop my own lore with a taste of reality.
 
For example, while my vampires are autonomous and in charge of their own destinies, save for that they answer to and can have bonds of blood to their sires or other vampires whose blood they consume, the zombies are traditional slaves. In this case, to the whims of a necromancer. The necromancer may have a touch of Crowley’s “do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law” philosophy, but his methods are more fantastical than that of the Bantu, Haitian, or Romeran.
 
Whether your vampires are caused by rabid bats, your zombies by magic dust, or your necromancer just raises dead threads (link: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThreadNecromancer), there are so many wonderful and terrible versions of these monsters out there that you may never lack for reading material—even if you only enjoy the fictitious versions.
 
For the next stop on the blog tour, be sure to visit the official FORSAKEN BY THE OTHERS blog tour calendar (link: http://jesshaines.com/blog/?p=2210)!

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The author has over 7 years freelance experience in technical writing, editing and screenplays.  More recently, this repertoire has expanded to include short stories and a series of urban fantasy novels in progress.

See the sidebar for a list of Jess Haines interviews, guest blogs, giveaways, and more!

Find Jess and her books

Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook

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Forsaken by the Others
H & W Investigations #5

 The Others–vampires, werewolves, things that go chomp in the night–don’t just live in nightmares anymore. They’ve joined with he mortal world. And for private investigator Shiarra Waynest, that means mayhem…

Have a one night stand with a vampire, and you can end up paying for it for eternity. P.I. Shiarra Waynest, an expert on the Others, knows that better than most. Yet here she is, waking up beside charismatic vamp Alec Royce with an aching head…and neck. Luckily, Shia has the perfect excuse for getting out of town–namely, a couple of irate East Coast werewolf packs who’d like to turn her into a chew toy.

On Royce’s suggestion, Shia temporarily relocates to Los Angeles. But something is rotten–literally–in the state of California, where local vampires are being attacked by zombies. Who could be powerful enough to control them–and reckless enough to target the immortal? Following the trail will lead Shia to a terrifying truth, and to an ancient enemy with a personal grudge…

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New Release: 6/16-6/22

Tue June 18

Defy the Dark by Saundra Mitchell

Intuition by C.J. Omololu

On Pins and Needles (Sierra Fox, #3) by Yolanda Sfetsos

Rapture’s Edge (Night Prowler, #3) by J.T. Geissinger

The Reluctant Reaper by Gina X. Grant

Rogue Touch by Christine Woodward

Sea Change by S.M. Wheeler

Solstice by P.J. Hoover

Star Cursed (The Cahill Witch Chronicles, #2) by Jessica Spotswood

Happy Reading!

Guest Blog: Sentinels of New Orleans Series by Suzanne Johnson

UFI welcomes Suzanne Johnson Author of The Sentinels of New Orleans Series. Thanks for Joining us!!
 

Five Prete Species to Avoid in New Orleans

People in New Orleans say Hurricane Katrina changed everything. They don’t know the half of it.

In the post-Katrina city, as we went through the slow, painful process of rebuilding, we knew we could never regain the lives lost, the homes and livelihoods destroyed, or the loss of a naïve belief that we were somehow charmed and invincible. Now we know better. It can all be gone in a capricious gust of wind or a foundation built on unstable soil.

What we didn’t know about were the other breaches—the failure of the metaphysical levees between our world and the preternatural world known as the Beyond. We didn’t know that the wizards who maintain the borders between worlds were in a crisis of their own, or that pretes would come wandering into the modern city to live and create mischief among us.

Most of the prete-control jobs fall to DJ and her partner Alex Warin. And now that the borders have dropped permanently, they stay pretty busy. But DJ took a few minutes out between weregator wrangling and goblin grabs to talk about the five prete species you might want to avoid next time you’re visiting the Big Easy.

The Historical Undead. That handsome guy in period clothing you see striding down Royal Street? He’s probably not an actor on his way to lead a French Quarter tour pretending to be the notorious early 19^th-century French pirate Jean Lafitte. Because in the “new” New Orleans, if a person was famous enough in human life, he or she lives forever in the Beyond, fueled by the magic of human memory. So yeah, it’s the real pirate Lafitte, looking as alive as you or me. You also might run into other famous New Orleanians: DJ has hired Louis Armstrong as her spy; summoned up voodoo goddess Marie Laveau to pump her for info; had to turn Truman Capote and William Faulkner into cats; and she and Captain Lafitte have a….complicated relationship.

Merfolk. Mermen and merwomen (they no longer wish to be called “maids”) are not the exotic stuff of legend. They are aquatic shapeshifters descended from the French-speaking Acadians driven out of Canada by the British in the 1700s. Modern folk call them Cajuns. Most of the merfolk, who live in clans, work in the fishing industry in South Louisiana, which is sort of cannibalistic if you think about it too hard. They’re also prone to producing twins and triplets, are a tad on the grumpy side, but on the whole are an honorable people. Mostly. Usually.

Loup-Garou. No ordinary werewolves are the Loup-Garou, who are the lone rogues of the werewolf world. They don’t respect authority; they don’t travel in packs. They don’t recognize an alpha, because they’re all alpha. Humans turned Loup-Garou tend to have very poor self-control and often have to be killed by the wizards’ enforcers.

Elves. DJ wanted to include the elves, even though her exposure to them has been limited so far. See, she’d gone on a dinner date with the pirate Jean Lafitte into 1850 New Orleans and…oh, never mind. It’s a long, ugly story. Take DJ’s word for it: elves are Bad News. Did I mention DJ has elves in her family tree and can do some of their magic? They do not like this.

Vampires. The vamps haven’t made a big foray into New Orleans yet, but it’s only a matter of time. One of the vampire Regents, Etienne Boulard, recently opened a classy French Quarter night spot called L’Amour Sauvage, and runs a nighttime tour business, Tour Blood, that bills itself as “New Orleans’ Only Authentic Vampire Tours.” DJ went on one of the tours, just to check it out. It made her feel like a dinner entrée.

So there you have it! Which prete group would you most want to meet—or to avoid? Leave a comment to win your choice of Royal Street or River Road, or a signed cover flat for the upcoming paperback release (June 25) of River Road!

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Suzanne Johnson writes urban fantasy and paranormal romance from Auburn, Alabama, after a career in educational publishing that has spanned five states and six universities.  She grew up halfway between the Bear Bryant Museum and Elvis' birthplace and lived in New Orleans for fifteen years, so she has a highly refined sense of the absurd and an ingrained love of SEC football and fried gator on a stick.

Find Suzanne and her books

Website / Twitter / Facebook

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Royal Street
Sentinels of New Orleans #1

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 As the junior wizard sentinel for New Orleans, Drusilla Jaco’s job involves a lot more potion-mixing and pixie-retrieval than sniffing out supernatural bad guys like rogue vampires and lethal were-creatures. DJ's boss and mentor, Gerald St. Simon, is the wizard tasked with protecting the city from anyone or anything that might slip over from the preternatural beyond.

Then Hurricane Katrina hammers New Orleans’ fragile levees, unleashing more than just dangerous flood waters.

While winds howled and Lake Pontchartrain surged, the borders between the modern city and the Otherworld crumbled. Now, the undead and the restless are roaming the Big Easy, and a serial killer with ties to voodoo is murdering the soldiers sent to help the city recover.

To make it worse, Gerry has gone missing, the wizards’ Elders have assigned a grenade-toting assassin as DJ’s new partner, and undead pirate Jean Lafitte wants to make her walk his plank. The search for Gerry and for the serial killer turns personal when DJ learns the hard way that loyalty requires sacrifice, allies come from the unlikeliest places, and duty mixed with love creates one bitter gumbo

 River Road
Sentinels of New Orleans #2

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Book Depository  Indiebound

Hurricane Katrina is long gone, but the preternatural storm rages on in New Orleans. New species from the Beyond moved into Louisiana after the hurricane destroyed the borders between worlds, and it falls to wizard sentinel Drusilla Jaco and her partner, Alex Warin, to keep the preternaturals peaceful and the humans unaware. But a war is brewing between two clans of Cajun merpeople in Plaquemines Parish, and down in the swamp, DJ learns, there’s more stirring than angry mermen and the threat of a were-gator.

Wizards are dying, and something—or someone—from the Beyond is poisoning the waters of the mighty Mississippi, threatening the humans who live and work along the river. DJ and Alex must figure out what unearthly source is contaminating the water and who—or what—is killing the wizards. Is it a malcontented merman, the naughty nymph, or some other critter altogether? After all, DJ’s undead suitor, the pirate Jean Lafitte, knows his way around a body or two.

It’s anything but smooth sailing on the bayou as the Sentinels of New Orleans series continues.

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