BLOOD DIVIDED

Here's the history of this gem. 

Blood Divided was written in 1990.  It passed through most all the NY Publishing houses, and through the hands of two agents.  I got a lot of wonderful feedback from editor's concerning it.  But the disheartening thing was, nobody could pigeon-hole it into a "slot" and so it was passed up time and time again.  One of the recurring comments was "It is too historical for our horror line."  I couldn't understand their reasoning.  What are vampires, if not historical? But the information editors shared with my agents at the time was enough inspiration for me to keep this manuscript hidden away in my closet.

I dug it out recently and cleaned it up and submitted it to Evening Post Books as they were looking for local authors, and I also worked there.  They accepted it and paid me 1/2 the advance, signed a contract, and then sat on it.  Up until last January 10 (2011) I heard nothing but wonderful things from the publisher and editor that were working on it.  I was even asked to start thinking of cover designs for it, and promotional info.  And then something happened and suddenly out of the blue they deemed it to be "unpublishable".  I'm still at a loss as to what happened.  I suspect they didn't want to spend the money on the project as the newspaper business is in the toilet right now (Evening Post Books is a subsidary of Evening Post Publisher, the Charleston South Carolina newspaper.).  I was forced to seek legal council, which really hit my wallet hard.  But I was glad I did as my lawyer told me that if at all possible to get out of the contract because it was horrible (all one-sided to the publisher's advantage).  When I met with the publisher I let him tell me that he didn't want to publish it, and I was fine with that.  He broke the contract, but I still had to pay the advance back (and that REALLY sank my bank account, I'm broke as hell now).  But I walked away feeling good because I was going to be true to my book and get it out there my way, come hell or high water.

So here we are today.  The book has been edited once and is now being proof-read and will have one more copy-edit and then it will be released as Book Two of my Charleston Vampire Chronicles. 

The title reveals basically what's going on in this book.  I don't want to give too much away, but the main character has a lot of learning to do and a lot of self discovery to undergo.  The book begins in 1674 and ends present day.  This isn't a teenaged angst-ridden vampire story, it's one that is character driven and full of memorable characters and wonderful history.  It's been a long time coming and I can't wait to get it out there for readers like you to enjoy.