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Preparing to Write PNR: My Vampire Romance Binge

After publishing historical romance for just over a year, gaining enough of a foothold to quit the day job and fulfill a life-long dream of becoming a romance author, I woke one morning with a thought:

~a blood feud seven-hundred years in the making~

Let me backup. I’d not read paranormal romance before. As a historical romance girl, I spent much of my time reading about ballrooms across English and kilted Scottish Highlanders. But since I’d recently branched out to contemporary romance thanks to my girl Maria Luis who writes damn good books, my mind was a bit more open than usual for genres other than histrom or fantasy.

So after an epic True Blood (twice) and Vampire Diaries binge, with thoughts of of vampires swirling in my head, I had the idea of two warring families– one English and one Scottish– who later become vampires and continue to fued through the centuries. I was curious, then, about vampire mythology from the 13th century, the setting of my Border Series and a natural origin for my two non-existent vampires. Surprised to learn much of what we “know” about vampires originated from 19th and 20th century literature, I began to re-imagine how a story about two enemy vampires from the middle ages would be different than most.

By now, I also began to research the PNR market. Was it feasible to cross genres? Do historical readers read paranormal? The answers should have sent me running for the hills. Essentially, I’d be starting over. But the story idea stuck, the families beginning to take shape in my mind. What if they came to New Orleans, the original setting of Bloodwite, to fight over one girl? The love triangle idea was later scrapped, as was the setting. (Enter Stone Haven, Pennsylvania.) But the project was now full force ahead which meant I needed to get some reading under my belt.

Spending the summer exploring vampire romance novels, some better than others, I began to get a clearer sense of the genre and how it differed from the TV shows I’d spent the last year binging. Here are my three favorites:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read the origin story to this new vampire romance series, ‘The Healer’s Curse’ FREE now.

 

Which vampire romance novels should I add to my TBR list?

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