As I promised last week, here are the videos I did in a recent chat with Goodreads. In them, I answer these reader questions:
“After you’re done with Cat and Bones and Vlad and Leila, will you continue to write about the Night Huntress World?”
“Has Maximus been cut off from Vlad’s line and is there any chance he can redeem himself to Vlad and Leila?”
“NH will be over soon (I am extremely sad about that). How do you feel about that and are you ending the series with a bang?”
“Are any of the characters in your books like yourself?”
“Do you listen to music when you write? Do you have a certain album that helps the writing process along?”
“How did you start? I mean, were you rejected by any agents?”
“Will we ever meet Timothy? (Where is he now? Etc?)”
“You’ve got such a fresh point of view on Dracula, and I love it! What made you think of this version of the Dark Prince?”
“I am very interested to know if we will have more interaction with the Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau?”
“What gives with Don? He’s still secretive, even as a ghost.”
“I have a serious love/hate feeling about Vlad. During the writing process do you ever stop and think, ‘Wow, this guy can be a real jerk!’?”
“Could you please tell me when Cat And Bones book #7, which I believe is called Up From The Grave, will be available for pre-ordering?”
“Will you ever write a book about Ian?”
If any of these were questions you were wondering about, listen to my answers below :). I answered them in the order that they appear here, and my apologies for how my voice doesn’t always match the movements of my mouth. The screen would freeze for a couple seconds and that messed things up a bit.
Direct link here.
Direct link here.
Direct link here.
If none of those were questions you were wondering about, here’s something that may interest you – a small scene snippet from Up from the Grave, Cat and Bones #7. Warning: If you haven’t read my story in The Bite Before Christmas anthology, there is a major spoiler about Bones and Ian at the bottom of this. Aside from that, I’ve kept it spoiler-free by replacing some words with “redacted.”
***
The RV smelled like an Italian restaurant that had been overrun by stoners. Needless to say, I didn’t want to speak to my uncle at the moment, so if Don had any intentions of traveling to [redacted], he was doing it by ley line. We had enough garlic and weed to hold off an ethereal army.
Tyler also wasn’t going with us to investigate [redacted]. The medium stated that he and Dexter were sitting this one out – a wise choice. It also gave me a trusted person to leave Helsing with. My cat had probably run through eight of his nine lives from the other battles he’d unwittingly been a part of. I wasn’t about to drag him along on what might turn out to be our most dangerous one ever.
We didn’t go straight from New Orleans to Charlottesville, though. We stopped by Savannah, Georgia first. Knowing the person we were picking up, I expected the address he gave us to end in either a grand house or a strip club, but we pulled up to a modest townhouse near Forsythe Park instead.
“The Nav system must’ve gotten lost,” I muttered.
Then the door opened, dispelling that notion. A tall, auburn haired vampire sauntered out, pausing to blow a kiss at the disheveled-looking blonde who lingered in the doorway despite only wearing a towel.
“Have that spatula ready when I return,” Ian sang out to her.
“I don’t even want to know what that means,” were my first words when he climbed into the RV.
Ian clucked his tongue as he settled into the chair behind us.
“You don’t already? Shame on you, Crispin. Married how long and you haven’t spanked your wife with a metal spatula yet?”
I’d gotten used to Ian’s casual assumption that everyone was as perverted as he was, so I didn’t miss a beat.
“We prefer blender beaters for our kitchen utensil kink,” I said with a straight face.
Bones hid his smile behind his hand, but Ian looked intrigued.
“I haven’t tried that…oh, you’re lying, aren’t you?”
“Ya think?” I asked with a snort.
Ian gave a sigh of exaggerated patience and glanced at Bones.
“Being related to her through you is a real trial.”
This time, Bones didn’t attempt to conceal his grin. “That’s why you can pick your friends but not your family, cousin.”
An emotion flashed across Ian’s face before he covered it with his usual I’m-a-pain-in-the-ass-and-proud-of-it smirk. If it were anyone else, I’d swear it was childlike joy at hearing Bones call him “cousin.” Recent events had revealed their long-lost human connection, making Ian both Bones’s vampire sire and his only living blood relative.
That meant I was never getting rid of him. Then again, considering what my blood relatives had done, Ian was almost a saint by comparison.
“You didn’t say much when you rang me, so what’s the crisis you need my help with this time?” Ian drawled, sounding bored.
***
When is this book due!!! I can’t wait. Absolutely love Ian; gimme more. Please tell me he has a more substantial role in this book. 🙂
Charlottesville? As in Va?That would be so awesome ’cause I live there and all 🙂
Oh, I love the little bit you gave to us from Up from the Grave! You’re such a talented writer! Thank you!
I want a Ian book!
Always thought him and Veritas could work together! ^^
OMG! Finally I know they’re cousins.
My English – or the very intricated events – did not allow me to understand how they were related.
THANK YOU!!!
XD
I am really looking forward to reading this!!!!
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, write about Ian!!!
Please tell me you’re not mating him and Veritas… I dont really like her…………………………..
XD
And if Ian’s partner could be brazilian… oh my heart!
XD
I am waiting with bated breath for this one. OMG! to tie me over till then, I think I will start reading from book 1,.. again.
Most favorite series. I love Cat & Bones and the gang. Ian is even starting to grow on me. I love this series and its spin-off series also. I can’t wait for this book. Thanks Jeaniene, you are the best.
is there a place i can read the answers? i am unable to read your lips to understand. i am deaf.
Hi Heather, I don’t remember what I said word-for-word in the videos, but I wrote out the answers for you below.
1. Tiff asked, “After you’re done with Cat and Bones and Vlad and Leila, will you continue to write about the Night Huntress World?”
Probably, but I don’t know which character I’d pick to write about yet. Usually whoever I can’t get out of my head is the character that gets their story told, but I don’t know who that will be by the time I’m done with the other books.
2. Stacy asked, “Has Maximus been cut off from Vlad’s line and is there any chance he can redeem himself to Vlad and Leila?”
I hope so. Maximus is a decent guy who made a mistake, and I hope he can find a way to redeem himself in the final book.
3. C.C. asked, “NH will be over soon (I am extremely sad about that). How do you feel about that and are you ending the series with a bang?”
I’ve had the ending in my head for so long that I’m excited to finally share it with readers. Plus, Cat and Bones deserve their happily ever after considering everything I’ve put them through.
4. Kiwi asked, “Are any of the characters in your books like yourself?”
The closest one would be Noah, a side character in One Foot in the Grave. Noah’s a quiet guy who likes animals and mundane things like watching movies and ordering in dinner. Replace the gender with female and that’s me to a T.
5. Amy asked, “Do you listen to music when you write? Do you have a certain album that helps the writing process along?”
I listen to a select group of songs with every book. You can find them listed on my website blog if you enter the word “playlist” on the search engine.
6. Francesca asked, “How did you start? I mean, were you rejected by any agency?”
I was rejected by over fifty agents and publishers before I sold Halfway to the Grave.
7. Lisa asked, “Will we ever meet Timothy? (Where is he now? Etc?)”
I know where Timothy is and what he’s been doing. All I can say is that he’s still alive and he has a good reason for not letting Bones, Spade, and Ian know about that. One day I hope to incorporate what I know about Timothy into a book or a novella, which is why I’m not saying more now.
8. Candace said, “You’ve got such a fresh point of view on Dracula, and I love it! What made you think of this version of the Dark Prince?”
I relied heavily on the Russian and Romanian historical accounts of Vlad the Impaler, which painted him as no more brutal than other rulers in his day and as a staunch nationalist who saved his country from invasion. That version meshed very closely with the Vlad that I had in my head.
9. Sin asked, “I am very interested to know if we will have more interaction with the Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau?”
Yes, Marie will show up again in Up From The Grave. She’s such an interesting character that I love bringing her out in the stories.
10. Antoinette asked, “What gives with Don? He’s still secretive, even as a ghost.”
The reason behind Don’s secretiveness will be revealed in Up From The Grave, and it’s a terrible secret he’s been hiding from Cat for a long time.
11. Coreena said, “I have a serious love/hate feeling about Vlad. During the writing process do you ever stop and think, “Wow, this guy can be a real jerk!”?”
Yes, I thought this many times while writing about Vlad, lol, but his background made it impossible to write him any other way. He comes from a brutal time and had horrible things happen to him that shaped him into the man he is. There is more to him than his ruthlessness, though, and I tried to show that in Twice Tempted.
12. La Shonda asked, “Could you please tell me when Cat And Bones book #7, which I believe is called Up From The Grave, will be available for pre-ordering?
My publisher tells me that the pre-order link(s) should be available in May.
13. MANY of you asked, “Will you ever write a book about Ian?”
Maybe. After the events in Home for the Holidays (my novella in The Bite Before Christmas anthology) Ian is starting to move in a direction where he could grow into hero material – or anti-hero, anyway. However, he’s not there yet, so nothing definite about a book unless/until he is. Ian as a hero/anti-hero would still be Ian, though, just as Vlad is still Vlad although now he and Leila are involved. It would take a very strong woman to handle Ian. Fortunately, I do have someone in mind, though I’m not saying who aside from assuring people that it is not Justina.
Thank you so much! I can not wait for the next Cat and Bones to come out.
I also loved Vlad and Leila’s second book, I wish it did not have to take a whole year to get the last.
Thank you for being such a great writer!
hey jeaniene! i absolutely love your books. love bones and vlad and ian. will the book after up from the grave i.e the 8th book be the last in the NH series?
Thank you!!!! I CANNOT WAIT!!!! 😀
How can we get this series made into some movies( because we’d need more than one).? Can we do a letter campaign ? And to who can we write to, to make this happen?
I love your books so much i have been following your books since the beginning you are by far my favorite author i love every single one of them I always look forward to your book releases I think it would be amazing to make a tv show of your books but i dont think anyone would be able to do your charcters justice
I hope Ian gets into a hero material and that you write about him too.. everyone has an other face that they hide.. even Vlad does.. so Ian,aside from being a total jerk might also have an other side that he doesn’t wanna show..so if you have plans of writing about him, guess it would be very interesting to know how his life turns out.
I’ve been dying to hear all these vampires voices and accents… I listened to the sample in the audiobooks but the accent the narrator used for Bone,as an example, was so far away from what’s in my head it really bothered me. How do you hear them?