Tracey (who has a very cool name, by the
way) has posted a number of posts about positive thinking and happiness
recently, which got me thinking about vampires and their mental well being.
Vampires have a tough row to hoe, really. I explained how difficult it can be for them
when I stopped at Kathryn Wallis’ blog (http://bit.ly/ReWJu0)
earlier in my blog tour, when I was also explaining how The Unspoken Ones in my
vampire romance series, Blood Stone, found it easier to withdraw from society
and the world at large after a millenia or two of passing through history,
rather than trying to adapt and change any more. Once they had withdrawn, they developed very
strange behaviours and attitudes, off in their isolation.
One character in the second novel of the
series, which is also called Blood Stone,
that is to be released tomorrow (!) is Nial. Nial is so old he also qualifies for the
status of Unspoken One…but he isn’t one.
How did he managed to avoid that awful abyss? How did he stay happy for over a
millenia?
There’s a clue in the first book, Blood Knot, when the woman that would
become his wife quizzes him on truth telling.
Winter can adjust other people’s biologies by touching them, and she
attempts to “read” Nial by touch:
---
For the tiniest
fraction of a second, Nathanial hesitated. Then he lifted his hand out to her.
He had a big hand, to match his height and frame. But unlike Sebastian, he did
not have the long, sensitive fingers. His were strong, the palm square. There
were calluses below the fingers. Winter touched them.
“From my sword,”
Nathanial said.
“But…that must
have been years ago.”
“Centuries,
actually. Our physiologies do not change, Winter.” His gaze was steady, defying
her to be appalled or horrified.
She covered his
hand with both of hers and edged her senses inside him. It was the same
deadness she remembered from her incursion inside Sebastian. But it wasn’t all
black and dead and darkness. There was life of a sort. Just not life as she
understood it. The heart was there, capable of beating. Blood, and veins and
arteries. All the organs were where they should be. They were all dormant,
ready to function as needed.
“Do you like
football, Nathanial?”
“NFL? Bores me
silly,” he told her. His body remained still. Silent.
“What do you like?”
“Sports are vague
posturing of people who have forgotten why they do what they are doing. Did you
know that most team sports were originally conducted to prepare men for war?”
He shook his head. “I find them vapid and shallow.”
She smiled. “Well,
I guess I asked for your true opinion.”
Nathanial smiled.
“You did.”
“Very well. What
do you like that isn’t sports? What gets you excited? Apart from sex?” she
added hastily.
The gleam in his eyes
told her the final proviso had been just in time. He considered for a moment.
“There is no one thing that I consistently turn to. But there are many things
that move me. I find them every day. You just have to be open to seeing them
and they come to you.”
“I don’t
understand,” Winter confessed.
“The modern
philosophers and cultural psychologists of this day and age advise everyone
that they should have a hobby that they’re passionate about, to give them an
interest in life. That’s what you’re trying to ask me about now. Truth is,
Winter, I ran out of time and patience for maintaining interests decades ago.
Now, I just follow life. There’s always something new to learn and life always
gives me something beautiful to appreciate. Something to get excited about.” He
nodded towards the window. “Like your hair outlined by the sunset a moment ago.
They were the perfect compliment.”
And she felt his
heart shift just a little.
“Have you ever
stopped to truly smell the bergamot in a pot of fresh Earl Grey tea, Winter?”
he asked. “I’ve forgotten what it tastes like now, but the smell is divine.”
Blood stirred and
flowed, pushed by his heart.
“I like studying
the stars, because they’re older than me, and they make me feel very small,
humble and insignificant. They haven’t changed in all the years I’ve looked up
at them, despite the massive changes I’ve seen on Earth. I find that
astonishing and comforting at the same time.”
Again, the small
flutter of his heart beating.
“Every day there
are small things. A kitten asleep in a plant pot. The sun rising over the snow
and turning it pink. Hoar frosts still take my breath away with their beauty
despite the hundreds I have seen. The kindness of the stranger who pays for the
next person’s drinks at the coffee shop. The rudeness of tourists in Jasper
during the summer season. The unconscious beauty of young people who don’t
realize they have everything ahead of them and are enjoying their every moment
now, just as they should.
“And then
sometimes I am rewarded by meeting someone like you, Winter, who stirs me so
strongly I am forced to hide my reactions with professional techniques.”
And his heart
squeezed. Hard. It began to beat with a normal systolic pulse.
[Extract from Blood Knot – copyright © Tracy
Cooper-Posey 2010]
---
When the Unspoken Ones become a more active
force in Blood Stone, Nial has to
explain himself and his great age and happy outlook yet again. This time, his answer is a little less
patient and a lot less complicated:
__
“I was born in the
year five hundred and fifty-nine in what is now called northern Italy. I’ll
save you some mental gymnastics. That was one thousand, four hundred and
fifty-three years ago. But I think of myself as…” He shrugged. “In my thirties.”
Roman was scowling
again and Garret recognized the expression as the one he used when he was
thinking hard and disagreeing with the stated opinion.
“Euphrasia didn’t
think of herself as thirty,” Garrett guessed.
Roman just scowled
harder.
“The unspoken ones
aren’t some sort of exclusive club to which you get invited by brown-nosing and
paying membership dues,” Nial told them. “There isn’t an arbitrary age cut-off
that says ‘at this point you become an unspoken one.’ Euphrasia simply didn’t
want to be a part of modern life. She hated it. You spent a week on her island,
Roman, so you tell me – what did it make you think of?”
Roman shrugged, still
glowering. “Constantinople,
like when I was a child. But simpler. Peaceful.”
“That was her version
of ancient Athens,” Nial
told him. “A far more comfortable and insulated one. She arranged it so she
didn’t have to adapt anymore. She could just go on as she was, unchanging and
uninterrupted.”
“But you didn’t
choose that way,” Roman pointed out. “When every other vampire as old or older
than you did choose it…or died. As far as I know you’re the oldest of the blood
who still actively passes. Why didn’t you retire to coddle your worn psyche
like the others?”
Nial shrugged. “I
don’t know. Because I’m stubborn? Because something interesting came along just
at the right time? Because I’ve been terribly lucky, all my long, long life.
Who does know? I don’t look back, Roman. Well, not that often and I try not to
linger on the unpleasantness, of which there’s been far too much. But I can
tell you that I did think about chopping myself off from the world more than
once. There is definite appeal to not having to go through the tiresome routine
of change, over and over. But change is what makes life so damned interesting, too.
And I can tell you when I stopped considering the idea altogether, when it
became an absolute impossibility for me.”
“When you made
Sebastian,” Garrett answered.
Nial glanced at him
and smiled. “Of course, you would have that figured.”
Roman sat back in the
sofa again. He almost threw himself back, as if he was frustrated, or made
angry by the answer, but didn’t dare show it. “Is that why you defied the
edicts and kept Sebastian with you all those years?”
Nial’s smile didn’t
fade. “I didn’t keep Sebastian with
me. He stayed because he wanted to. He still does. But in the way you mean, he
kept me alive, yes.”
[Extract from Blood Stone– copyright © Tracy
Cooper-Posey 2012]
__
These are the moments I thought of when I
was reading Tracey’s posts about happiness and positive thinking. Nial has some pretty definite ideas about
what keeps him centred and moving forward through his many days and nights:
- Love
- Focus
on the positive stuff
- Find
pleasure each day, even in the smallest of things
- Gratitude
It seems to me that’s a pretty good recipe
for humans, too, wouldn’t you say?
____________
Blood Stone
is my 44th title and my ninth indie book.
Nial orders Calum Garrett to get close to
Hollywood producer Kate Lindenstream.
Garrett reluctantly complies for he has held himself apart from humans
for centuries. Kate doesn’t fall into
Garrett’s arms, either. She already has
someone for that. Roman Xerus -- whom
Kate knows as Adrian -- and Garrett go way back to the sixteenth century
Scottish highlands, but they parted bitterly
two hundred years ago.
With Roman’s support, Kate battles Garrett
in wills and business as he methodically forces himself into her life. However,
on the closed-in movie set in the Californian desert, Garrett’s calm, orderly
world crumbles for Garrett is drawn to Kate.
He has begins to experience real, human
feelings.
Kate doesn’t cooperate in the chess game
Nial orchestrates, despite being unaware of the strategies swirling around her
film set. Demanding and expecting only
the best for her movie, Kate’s agenda forces Roman and Garrett to work together
to protect her and keep the humans around her ignorant of the Pro Libertatus,
the anonymous and all-powerful vampire group who nearly killed Nial, Sebastian
and Winter, and shield Kate from the excesses of the League for Humanity. But could Roman really be with the Pro
Libertatus?
There’s hidden intentions everywhere, and centuries
of repressed feelings, along with at least two different groups that mean them
harm. Then there’s the rumours that Kate
has found the mythical Blood Stone, the key to unlocking vampire history and
lifting their curse. Who is
Kate, really? Because once Garrett begins to notice, things about Kate
don’t quite add up, either...
___
An
Excerpt From: BLOOD STONE
Copyright © TRACY
COOPER-POSEY, 2012
All Rights Reserved.
Nial clapped his
shoulder and stepped back to lean against the counter again. “Kate slapping you
down is a good sign,” he said, smoothly changing the subject. “It confirms she
has the backbone we’ll need. She really is perfect for this. I’m more curious
about how Roman came into her life. It’s interesting timing.”
Garrett frowned. “The
only people who knew in advance about the plans for Kate are us three...and I
presume your—Winter.”
Sebastian grinned but
didn’t comment about Garrett’s change of name for their wife.
Nial crossed his
arms. “Then Roman has to be there for his own reasons—or for Pro Libertatis
reasons.”
“What possible
reasons would the Pro Libertatis have for seeking her out, before we give them
one?” Sebastian said.
“None,” Garrett said
flatly. “Kate Lindenstream is exactly what she seems to be. A Hollywood
producer/director who makes successful big budget action adventure movies, and
has a growing amount of political power in the industry because of it. She has
a lot of friends in high places, and probably has a number of skeletons in her
closet, just like all the power players do. She can do interesting things with
money. If she wasn’t so wrapped up in La-la land, I would have coaxed her over
to one of my Boston corporations a year ago and put her in charge of finance.”
Nial lifted a brow.
“You did your homework.”
“I’m not stupid,
Nathanial,” Garrett shot back. “This woman has a tested IQ of 160. She would
have spotted holes in a cover story from ten miles away. The approach had to be
flawless and long term.”
“And now that you’ve
met her in person, what is your reading?” Nial asked.
“She has an
entrepreneurial mind. She thinks like a man — probably a result of fighting it
out in the industry she’s in, and surviving. She likes to have fun and explore
with big toys. That’s why she does all those hands-on research trips to wild
corners of the globe and lives rough and hard for six weeks in the Gobi Desert
or the Atlas Mountains while she digs up some interesting trinket or another
for her next movie.” Garrett grimaced. “She also doesn’t mind slapping down men
every now and again to prove her point. She has mental balls.”
Sebastian laughed
softly. “I like her already.”
Nial was frowning.
“These research trips of hers. That’s one of the reasons we focused on her,
Garrett. The last trip she did...”
Garrett shrugged.
“She’s in pre-production for some biopic about a warrior emperor. Murad. She
did all the research a year or so ago.”
Nial nodded.
“Somewhere in southern Turkey.”
Garrett felt the jolt
almost down to his toes. “Çayönü,” he breathed. “Near Diyarbakir.”
Sebastian moved
around the counter and came up next to Garrett’s side. He was taller than
Garrett remembered, and looked Garrett in the eye. “Murad was an Ottoman
emperor, wasn’t he?”
Garrett nodded.
Nial straightened up
from his slouch against the counter. “Southern Turkey was all part of the
Byzantine empire...and the Ottoman, too. It can’t be a coincidence.”
“Roman was born an
Ottoman. He’s probably heard about Kate’s research,” Garrett said.
Nial crossed his arms
again. “You have to find out, Garrett. Roman is a wildcard we need to
neutralize if this game is to play the way we want it to.”
Garrett grimaced. “In
three hundred years, I never could tame Roman in the slightest. The best I
managed was to walk away and not look back.”
Sebastian’s smile was
grim. “You can’t walk away this time, my friend. Your stakes are not the only
ones on the table anymore.”
Garrett nearly opened
his mouth to ask who else had a stake in the game beside him. Then he clamped
his jaw closed, his heart pounding, as he realized the answer for himself.
Everyone’s future
rode on the outcome of this. Human and
vampire. Merely the future of mankind.
BLOOD STONE is the second book in the Blood
Stone series
BLOOD STONE is the sequel to BLOOD KNOT.
It is a Plus-sized Novel.
WARNING:
This book contains two hot, sexy alpha heroes, frequent, explicit and frank sex
scenes and sexual language.
It includes heart-stopping sexual scenes between the aforementioned sexy
heroes, menage scenes, anal sex and the use of sex toys. Don't
proceed beyond this point if hot love scenes offend you.
No vampires were harmed in the making of this novel.
___
Blood Stone
is the second book in my best selling vampire romance series. It will be on sale on September 14, if not a
bit before then.
The good
news? The first book in the series, Blood Knot, is my #1 best seller, was
the Winner of the Coffee
Time Reviewer’s Recommended Award, was listed as one
of Goodread’s “Most
Drool-worthy Covers“, nominated for Erotic Vampire Book of the
Year by The
Romance Reviews, and received a CAPA Nomination for Best
Paranormal Book of the Year by The Romance Studio,
December, 2011, among many glowing and rave reviews. If you’re curious about Blood Knot, you can read more here:
http://bit.ly/g9pSw5.
The
really good news? On the 14th,
when Blood Stone is released, Blood Knot drops down to $0.00 for three
days of free downloading at Amazon.
And
bookmark Blood Stone on my website,
so you can jump to the Amazon link the day it goes live: http://bit.ly/TrCuWv
Tracy Cooper-Posey writes romantic
suspense, hot erotic paranormal and urban fantasy romances. She has published
over 40 novels since 1999, been nominated for 5 CAPAs including Favourite
Author, and won the Emma Darcy Award.
She turned to indie publishing in 2011. Her
indie titles have been nominated three times for Book Of The Year. She has been a national magazine editor and
for a decade she taught romance writing at Grant MacEwan University.
She is addicted to Irish Breakfast tea and
chocolate, sometimes taken together. In
her spare time she enjoys sewing, history, Sherlock Holmes, science fiction and
ignoring her treadmill. An Australian, she lives in Edmonton, Canada with her
husband, a professional wrestler, where she moved in 1996 after meeting him
on-line.
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