Owltastic Promotions: VBT: Redemption Interview + Giveaway

Redemption by Susannah Sandlin
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Pages: 356
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Blurb: Following a worldwide pandemic whose vaccine left human blood deadly to vampires, the vampire community is on the verge of starvation and panic. Some have fanned into rural areas, where the vaccine was less prevalent, and are taking unsuspecting humans as blood slaves. Others are simply starving, which for a vampire is worse than death—a raging hunger in a creature too weak to feed.

Immune to these struggles—at first—is Penton, a tiny community in rural Chambers County, Alabama, an abandoned cotton mill town that has been repopulated by charismatic vampire Aidan Murphy, his scathe of 50 vampires, and their willingly bonded humans. Aidan has recruited his people carefully, believing in a peaceful community where the humans are respected and the vampires retain a bit of their humanity.

But an unresolved family feud and the paranoia of the Vampire Tribunal descend on Penton in the form of Aidan’s brother, Owen Murphy. Owen has been issued a death warrant that can only be commuted if he destroys Penton—and Aidan, against whom he’s held a grudge since both were turned vampire in 17th-century Ireland. Owen begins a systematic attack on the town, first killing its doctor, then attacking one of Aidan’s own human familiars

To protect his people, Aidan is forced to go against his principles and kidnap an unvaccinated human doctor—and finds himself falling in love for the first time since the death of his wife in Ireland centuries ago.

Dr. Krystal Harris, forced into a world she never knew existed, must face up to her own abusive past to learn if the feelings she’s developing for her kidnapper are real—or just a warped, supernatural kind of Stockholm Syndrome in which she’s allowing herself to become a victim yet again.

How did you come up with the idea of Redemption? A couple of years ago, I had been writing urban fantasy for a while (under another name) and wanted to try my hand at a true paranormal romance. I’ve always loved vampires. I also wanted to experiment with writing a story that had multiple points of view. At that time, the H1N1 Virus (“swine flu”) was making the rounds, and doctors were having trouble getting the vaccines developed for it. I ended up getting the H1N1 virus myself, and started thinking about pandemics and vaccines and how a change in human blood chemistry could really create a problem for vampires if the change was something that made human blood poisonous to them. Yeah, I probably had a very high fever at the time!

What is your ideal writing environment? Ideally, I’m in my home office with my trusty laptop, a Diet Coke, and iTunes cranked up to whatever playlist I’ve created for what I’m writing. I will turn the music off while I’m actually writing, but it’s always one between writing sprints or while I’m revising or editing. I can write anywhere, though—I’ve been known to scribble ideas or bits of dialog on the backs of envelopes in the middle of Walmart. I learned to write in a newspaper newsroom with lots of noise around me, so I’m good at shutting everything out.

Do you write while you listen to music? Music is really important to my writing process. I do a playlist for each writing projects, for different characters. I listen to it constantly while I’m working on a project—in the car, while I’m at my day job (where my coworkers probably think my earbuds are surgically attached). That being said, during the actual first draft writing, I have to turn the music off or I end up singing instead of writing.

If you could have lunch with any author, who would it be and why? Oh…I should probably say someone lofty like William Faulker if we could pick dead authors, or at least Stephen King for a live author. But really? I’d like to have lunch with Rick Bragg. He’s a brilliant Southern memoirist, and I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him a few times. He’s the funniest man I’ve ever met. So I know I’d enjoy myself, and maybe I could get him to read one of my books.

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors? This always makes me sound like a boot camp leader, but it’s the best advice I have: Decide how badly you want a writing career, and what you’re willing to sacrifice for it. Decide if you want to get published or if you want to just be published. Because getting published is hard, hard work, and staying published is even harder. My house is a wreck, I work all the freaking time, my friends rarely see me, and that’s the truth of it. And, so far, it’s been worth every minute!

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Susannah Sandlin is the author of paranormal romance set in the Deep South, where there are always things that go bump in the night! A journalist by day, Susannah grew up in Alabama reading the gothic novels of Susan Howatch, and always fancied herself living in Cornwall (although she’s never actually been there). Details, details. She also is a fan of Stephen King. The combination of Howatch and King probably explains a lot. Currently a resident of Auburn, Alabama, Susannah has also lived in Illinois, Texas, California, and Louisiana. Her novel Redemption won the paranormal romance category in the 2011 Chicago North RWA Fire and Ice contest, and is the first of three in a series that debuts this year.

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