Interview & Giveaway: The Half-Breed Vampire by Theresa Meyers

What’s up my lovelies? I have another amazing author here for you!

Today on the blog, we have the multi-talented Theresa Meyers. Ms. Meyers has a new release out entitled The Half-Breed Vampire via Harlequin. It just released on February 21^st. Both the cover and the prestige of Harlequin totally sucked me in. And luckily, I was granted a copy of the book for review. You are sure to see the review up within a few days. But until then, here is a little about Ms. Meyers.

**THERESA  MEYERS**

**BIOGRAPHY**

(Here is a portion of Ms. Meyers bio taken from her website. You can view the rest by clicking here.)

To say I lead a double life is putting it mildly. Everything about me could be a contradiction. 

City girl and country girl: I was the city girl who grew up in a small town, literally. We moved from San Jose, California, where my biggest kick was shopping with my friends and ice-skating at the indoor rink when I was 13, to a 75-acre sheep ranch on the edge of the small town of Sutherlin, Oregon, which had a smaller population for the entire town than the congregation at my church in the Bay area. My high school graduating class was under 100 people.

The writer who was journalist, publicist and novelist: I never intended to either write books or be in public relations, they both sort of happen as an extension of my love of writing. My experience in the publishing industry is varied. I started out writing on the school newspaper in junior high, more as a dare by my boyfriend when I wanted to prove that anything he could do, I could do just as well. From the moment I saw my first article in print, I was hooked. My first short story, “My Mother Unusual in a Normal Sort of Way” was published by Merlin’s Pen in 1987. I wrote for the paper all through high school and into college. Then I worked at a daily newspaper where I became the “messenger of death” from the day editor to the night editor . . .and I was too afraid that the cliché kill the messenger might turn into a reality, so I quit, got married to my high school sweetheart at 19 and started college, focusing on mass communications.

I began dabbling with a story in my head, but even after paying for a Writers Digest Course, didn’t manage to finish it and stuck it away. I started work in public relations for a big corporation and then for the largest agency in Arizona. Meanwhile the writing bug wouldn’t shut up. I joined Romance Writers of America in 1993, took out the story that wouldn’t leave me alone, and decided to finish it. Along the way I quit working at the agency because of my daughter’s birth and started magazine freelancing to help make ends meet. Since then, I’ve kept writing more stories.

From writer to publicist and back again: So how exactly did I go from being a writer to a publicist and back again? I was writing on my books and doing pr on the side for restaurants, small businesses, hotels and the like. A dear friend, (Cherry Adair, love her books) asked me to do some publicity work on her upcoming book and I agreed – but told her, I don’t publicize books. From that one incident, a new business was created. It morphed into Blue Moon Communications, a public relations firm focused on promoting fiction authors, which is best know for getting their clients selected as two of the seven picks of the Kelly Ripa Book Club on LIVE! With Regis and Kelly. (You can find me at my day job at www.bluemooncommunications.com.) Now I work two jobs, publicity and writing the books, well, three if you count being a mom.

Like I said, a life full of contradictions, but hey I’m a Gemini, which pretty well sums it all up.

WOAH! I have a lot in common with Ms. Meyers! *nods* And, yes, being a mom ABSOLUTELY counts as a job! So how about we find out a bit more about Ms. Meyers? Yes? Right. Thought you’d say so.

**INTERVIEW**

Tell us a little about your current release The Half-Breed Vampire.

It’s the story of a vampire who thinks he knows precisely who he is until a mortal law enforcement officer asks for his help and during the course of their investigation they end up uncovering his past, which rips apart everything they both thought they knew about their worlds. Oh, and I got to mix my vampires and werewolves for the first time in the same character!

Here’s the bit from the back cover:

Ignorant of his true heritage, half-breed Slade Donovan is fated to feel like an outsider among his clan. Until a mysterious woman arrives with the ability to unlock his secrets—and make him crave a future he never believed he could have….

As a game warden, Raina Ravenwing has only one mission in the Cascade Mountains: to hunt down a pack of rare wolves that is terrorizing her tribe. Her instant attraction to Slade is a distraction the beautiful wolf whisperer can’t afford, unless she agrees to let him help her. Yet working so closely together only intensifies their passion…even as the unfolding truth of Slade’s identity threatens everything Raina holds sacred.

Sounds steamy! What about Slade and Raina made you want to put them together?

They’re complete opposites, but perfect for one another. Slade was a street kid, who has a deep distrust of law enforcement and a vampire, who has a great distain for Werewolves. Raina is a Game Warden (which in Washington means she’s also a state police officer) and she’s also member of a tribe that has kind of ancestor worship relationship with the wolves, so she has a deeper connection to them than most as her tribe’s Wolf Whisperer-aka, their physical link to reach the ancestors. Both of them are alike in that they both love motorcycles, they are both deeply linked to their communities, and they both think they are right the majority of the time.

Doesn’t sound like they could be any more opposite than they are. Should make for some nice conflict within the story. What is your favorite thing about this book?

I just adored the cover…it’s the best one Harlequin has ever given me. I’m considering blowing it up poster size just so I can look at the hero. LOL. But seriously, Slade is just one of those heroes you just love. He’s bad boy, a bit snarky, but underneath there’s a really wounded soul and a heart of gold, wrapped up in a sexy as hell package of vampire with this wild streak of werewolf. How could I not like him?

Snark you say? Snark equals win as far as I am concerned. And the cover is pretty fantastic! *nods* This book is part of the Harlequin Nocturne line. Do you have other books that go along with it?  

Yes, they are all part of the Sons of Midnight miniseries for Nocturne. All of them are individual stories set in the same world, but there’s some connection between them so if you read one you’ll notice characters from another. They are, The Truth About Vampires, The Vampire Who Loved Me, The Half-Breed Vampire and coming out next year Her Big, Bad Wolf. Do you have to read them in order? No. Do you get a little something extra if you do? Yes. But I try to make each and every story a complete, engaging read.

Yay! The readers love to hear that a book they enjoy has even more to offer as part of a series! You also write Steampunk. What made you want to write in different genres and do you have a preference for one over the other?

When I started writing romances I was writing straight historical romances. I had all kinds of ideas for them, but it was when the historical romance market was just beginning to tank. I originally had the ideas for my paranormal hunting brothers in the wild weird west back in 1996, but back then you couldn’t get anyone to look at something like that. It had too much sci-fi fantasy to fit into the romance genre and too much romance to be taken seriously in the sci-fi fantasy publishing world. Frankly, I love writing both of them and my other dark fae fantasy series for Entangled because all the worlds are so different. Steampunk just happens to be my favorite of the moment because it combines both historical and paranormal elements for me, so I get to do a lot more. Besides, have you ever seen a steampunk costuming? It’s just fun.

I have seen Steampunk costumes. They are fabulous! When did you begin your journey as an author and what pulled you in the direction of writing?

I started telling stories long before I could write. I’m dyslexic, so both reading and writing were torture for me before about sixth grade, but I loved to have my mother read to me. She’d set up a tape recorder and let me tell my own stories and then draw the pictures that went with them. It wasn’t until junior high that I got a first taste of writing for an audience with the school paper. After that I was kind of hooked. I thought I wanted to be a newspaper reporter, but then I got a fiction idea in my junior year of high school that wouldn’t let go. I started writing on my first novel at 17 and I’ve been plugging away at it ever since. I think my journey took longer than most because it was always something I did for myself on the side. My “real” job was public relations. It wasn’t until I decided that I wanted to switch and making writing my “real” job, that things really started to happen, and even that took ten years, two agents and several books.

Sounds like a familiar tale. I never used to realize that books don’t just happen. They are a process that oftentimes takes a very long time to see through to fruition. Any special quirks or habits when writing?

I always create a soundtrack to each story when I write and I listen to it in the same order every time. For The Half-Breed Vampire, the song Monster by Lady Gaga was played a lot! I also tend to pick a certain scent of candle that I’ll burn only while I’m writing on that story. Scent is a powerful memory trigger.

I don’t know how authors write with music. I get it. It just seems like it would be distracting. But I have heard more and more that soundtracks play a large part in the writing process. Any advice you’d like to share for aspiring writers?

Sit down and write. A lot of people say, oh, I’ll write when I have more time. Guess what, been there, done that. You never get more time. Either you are going to sit and write that one sentence, one paragraph or one page a day or you aren’t. If you truly want to be a writer, stop waiting. Make it happen now in whatever little bits you can in your life.

Great advice! I hear that “excuse” a lot as well. Don’t wait! Make like Nike and Just. Do. It! What is one thing you know now that you wish you had known when you first started writing?

How to structure a plot using a plot board. It would have made getting all the details floating around in my head so much easier to track so I wouldn’t miss anything.

Interesting. I have often wondered how authors keep everything straight; especially with multiple books! Any upcoming projects you would like to tell us about?

Thanks for asking! Actually, in April my next steampunk romance, The Slayer, will be out from Kensington. I’ll also have three contemporary romances coming out from Entangled over the summer and a novella in the Holiday with a Vampire anthology out from Harlequin Nocturne at the end of the year. Things are busy!

Fabulous! We lurve to hear about upcoming projects! Busy authors mean more books for us to enjoy! *nods* And congratulations on the upcoming release! How do you keep in contact with your readers (FB, Twitter, etc.)?

I’m usually on Twitter for a bit every morning and while I have a Facebook page, I’m not there nearly as often, perhaps a few times a week. But I always try to respond to reader emails through my website or to people who want to chat on Twitter. Also blogging with the other Lolitas of Steamed..

Twitter

Website

FaceBook

Steamed

Do you have any other hobbies or interests besides writing?

Oh yeah! I’m a bit of a tea addict. I try to have tea with my other non-writing mommy friends once a week to keep my sanity especially when I’m writing back to back to back for months on end. This year alone I’ll write at least six complete books. We usually all bring something to contribute to lunch and it’s two hours that makes my week.

Mmmm … tea! Hot or cold, I love it! Tell us one thing that readers wouldn’t know about you.

I had all my wisdom teeth taken out when I was 16. Truly miserable. They even had to drill holes in my jaw bones to extract them.

Good lawd! Thanks for the bad memories. My teeth literally hurt now. I think I was about 16 too and I got dry socket. That was craptastic! *shudders* If you could travel back in time, where would you go and who would you meet?

I think it would have been a blast to meet Queen Victoria. I think she was an incredibly strong woman and to have seen her at the height of her influence and ask her how she would like to have seen the world change would have been fascinating.

Interesting choice! What is your favorite holiday?

Oh please, Halloween of course!

*snort* Favorite place you have ever visited?

 I still love the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. Went there several times as a kid and it never fails to completely suck me in. I have a secret dream (okay, perhaps not so secret now) of someday doing a steampunk book signing event there!

Ha! I was there a long time ago! Maybe I can find a picture and post it. Do tell if that dreams comes true. My parents live in Lodi still. I would totally visit them and go to the signing! 

 Ha! Found it! And that is only the front of it! That place is crazy huge, like WOAH!

Opposites: 1 thing that never fails to make you happy and one thing that never fails to make you see red..

Listening to my kids laugh never fails to make me happy. Having someone talk to me like I’m stupid always makes me see red.

Oh heck yes! I totally agree with both! Long hair or short hair on a guy?

Short.

Do you have any hidden talents?

I’m a certified open water scuba diver. I’ve sewn clothes since I was eight. I bake a mean apple pie, make blackberry wine and enjoy painting. Does that count?

Oh NOOOEEESSS!!! I am deathly afraid of the ocean! Bad snorkel memory, and totally afraid of seaweed touching me, and sharks! ACK! But good for you! *grimaces* Sewing rocks! I love to cross-stitch also! Can’t paint worth a lick, but I can bake, bake, bake! So, yes! They absolutely count! Caffeine or Decaf?

Caffeine, yeah baby! I need my morning tea.

Almond Joy or Mounds?

Seriously, if it’s covered in chocolate who cares?

*snort* For serious, Yo! Do you have any phobias or fears?

I HATE HEIGHTS! Seriously, I live in the Seattle area, and I WILL NOT go up into the Space Needle despite much teasing by my family.

Heights seems to be a very common fear. Interesting. Tell us one random piece of information that you could have lived your whole life without ever knowing?

That there’s a sheath cleaning product for horses called Excalibur. Had to do promotions for it when I worked in the PR department at Farnam Companies, which is kind of the Proctor & Gamble of the animal industry. And if you don’t know what a sheath is, let’s just say it’s for boy horses only.

ROFLMAO! Too funny! I worked in a veterinary hospital for six years and the vet had been a large animal vet prior to starting his small animal practice. Oh the stories he had to share!  How much fun was that interview? So hows about I tell you all about the book now? Yes? Sound like a plan? Okay then. Here you go.

**The Half-Breed Vampire**

 

Purchase your own copy here!

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**EXCERPT**

Total bliss only lasted four hours.

Hey, Donovan. You got a visitor. The sound of his commander, Achilles Stefano's voice echoed in his head, waking him from a dead sleep and leaving his ears ringing.

Slade grimaced, turned over in his tangled sheets. Talk about lousy timing. Can it wait?

No. Get your ass in here.

What vampire on earth would want to speak to him at this ungodly hour? Either something was wrong, or was going to be. Slade grumbled. He grappled the sides of his sleeping spot, a double-wide grave-sized hole carved out of the gray bedrock, the black satin sheets pooling around his hips as he sat up.

He phased himself a fresh-showered look and clean fatigues so he'd at least look presentable, then focused pulling his energy together at his core, visualizing the security room inside the clan headquarters, so he could transport.

An image of pale green smooth walls and military issue furniture circa 1950 filled his mind, accented by the musty smell that pervaded the room despite the heat thrown off by the banks of flat-screen computers. A pull, centered at his navel yanked him by the balls inside out as he transported from his position in the Cascade Mountains to the complex system of passages and rooms fifty feet below the asphalt streets and buildings of Seattle.

The minute his particles knit back together he could see exactly why the hour was so damn late, or rather so damn early. His visitor wasn't a vampire. It was the woman from the woods, only now she was in full uniform for a state police officer - a pair of olive green pants, a short-sleeved khaki shirt with matching olive green breast pocket flaps and epaulets, a standard issue gun belt, ugly black shoes, and her glorious ebony hair pulled back in a no-nonsense bun at her nape. Damn. Double Damn. The cop.

Before being brought into the clan, he'd had his share of run-ins with the law and still felt uncomfortable around cops. Even pretty, strawberry-scented ones. He glanced at Achilles. His commander was one-hundred-percent pure golden Spartan warrior, but his modern military-short hair cut was starting to grow out. His hard jaw didn't flex in a smile, but the wicked twinkle in his unnaturally green eyes said he knew something about this woman Slade didn't.

Slade shifted, crossing his arms over his chest, forcing himself not to wince at the sharp sting in his ribs that were still a little tender. "Can I help you?"

She extended a slender hand. Her nails were short and mostly clean, only a few had fine traces of dirt underneath.

"I'm Raina Ravenwing, Mr. Blackwolf." She said smoothly, extending her hand. There was no sign of recognition in her dark brown eyes. "Fish and Wildlife Officer with the state wildlife department." She clarified, just in case the emblem on her sleeve didn't do the job.

He stared at her hand but didn't take it, and she let it drop. "Sorry, wrong guy. Last name's Donovan. If that's it, I'm out of here." He turned on his heel, giving her his back as he headed for the door.

"So you go by your mother's maiden name?"

That stopped him cold. His mother's maiden name? He didn't know whose name it was, let alone why he'd used it for as long as he could remember. The only glimpse of his mother - at least he thought it was her - were distorted slow-motion images he saw in his daymares.

Dark hair, wide brown-sugar eyes. A wide-generous mouth, which smiled one moment and screamed the next. A wash of red blood and the howl of wolves.

To think Officer Raina Ravenwing knew something about him that he didn't even know about himself rankled. He turned slowly, facing her once more. "Couldn't tell you. Don't know."

The petite woman widened her stance, pulled her shoulders back and stiffened her spine. "Well, Mr. Donovan, I've been told you're a wolf expert of sorts." Her gaze flicked to Achilles briefly, disbelief evident in the firm set of her generous mouth.

The dark hairs prickled all along Slade's arm. Somehow, gut deep, he knew she wasn't here to talk about just wolves. "I guess."

"Don't let him fool you Officer Ravenwing. There's not another vampire who can track better than Donovan." It was true. Slade's senses were more finely tuned than most of the other vamps in the clan. That's why he'd been tapped to be in the security detail by the commander himself. While his technical specialty was explosives, tracking came in a close second. Very close.

She stuck her chin out a bit, almost daring him. "What do you know about unusually large wolves in our area?"

Slade brushed at the slowly healing cut at his scalp line. Good. She didn't remember a thing. Weres weren't something you talked about in polite vampire society, let alone with mortals. They were less than mortal. A cruel joke of the gods. A cross between an unpredictable animal and an unsympathetic mortal.

"Why?"

"There've been reports of some rather unusual wolves causing trouble in the edges of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area. The people are getting lathered up about it and ready to go on a wolf hunt."

"So let them."

Her eyes narrowed. She crossed her arms over her chest, making her B-cup breasts jut out enticingly. At least he thought they were B-cups. They might be just a shade larger, but he wouldn't be able to tell unless he got his hands on them.

Whoa. Where had that come from? Slade flexed his fingers, reigning in his wayward thoughts. She wasn't even his type. Of course, who the hell did he think he was kidding? Female was his type. It was police officer that wasn't.

"My job as a Game Warden, Mr. Donovan, is to protect these animals and enforce the laws in this state. The fact that they've returned at all and may be migrants from the reestablished packs in Idaho or Montana is significant enough. They're an important part of our ecosystem and until I find out who or what is really behind these attacks, I'm doing my best not to let anyone near those wolves."

The scrape on his scalp was beginning to itch like holy hell and he wasn't really interested in her long-winded eco lecture. "Lady, the wolves aren't in any danger. If you want my advice, you'd do better to worry about keeping people away from them."

"It's Officer Ravenwing, Mr. Donovan, and that's about what I expected from a vampire." She said the last word with such distain that Slade could smell the sulfur of it like rotten eggs tainting the air.

Achilles stepped closer placing a huge hand on her delicate shoulder. "Officer Ravenwing, Donovan will be happy to help you with whatever you need to bring your investigation to a close."

Slade glared at his commander. What the hell? I don't want to be anywhere near her.

Achilles glanced back at him, his words echoing loud and clear in Slade's head. She's part of the mortals' law enforcers, so we will cooperate fully. We don't need them digging up problems with the Wenatchee Were Pack to put at our door. You'll help her or you'll be pulling day shift for the next decade. Do I make myself clear?

Yes.

Yes, what?

Yes, sir.

Achilles gave the game warden a nod, and she relaxed. "If you'll excuse me, Officer Ravenwing, I have another pressing matter." He grasped her free hand and lightly brushed the back of it with a brief kiss. "I'll leave you to fill Donovan in on how you want this handled."

She gave Achilles a generous smile that pissed off Slade even more.

She blushed slightly. "Thanks for your help."

Achilles vanished in a swirl of dark particles as he transported from the room leaving Slade alone with the cop.

He glared at Officer nature girl. Just because he had to help her didn't mean he had to like it. "What do you need?"

"I need your help tracking one of them down so I can find out if they've established a new pack from the groups further east, or if they are a new breed or rare mutation. And find out what's really going on with this rash of incidents."

Damn. Double Damn. Sure, waltz in on the Were territory and give them a 'hey, whatz up?' Why didn't she just ask him to go stake his balls to the ground and sunbathe nude? That would be less painful. Well, maybe. "So you want me to go on a nature hike with you?"

Raina restrained herself from making a smart-ass comeback. If nothing else she was a professional. She would have preferred to have Achilles go with her. At least he could be trusted and had some respect for her badge. With Donovan it was a whole other matter.

Everything about him shouted 'danger', from the rumble of his deep voice and dark good looks to his tiger-like topaz eyes. But it was his broad shoulders encased in black tight black t-shirt and military cut camo fatigues and wide jaw bisected by a devil-may-care dent in his chin that made him appear intriguing, which were an even greater danger to any female in sight. That was, if he'd been her type. Which he wasn't.

Something at the edge of her mind nagged her. She'd seen him before. He'd done something horrible. But no matter how hard she concentrated it floated in her memory just out of reach.

"It's a bit more complicated than that. There's an investigation currently underway. I need to track one down and put a locator on it."

He glanced away, sending not so subtle uninterested signals her way. "I'm sorry am I boring you, Mr. Donovan?"

He shook his head. "Locator. Please continue."

Raina was slightly surprised he had actually been listening. "I need to know if there's only one, or if there are more and if so, what the pack's territory is so I can advise the state game department of potential impact on the local farmers and the game in the area."

She didn't like the way he narrowed his eyes. The air around him swirled with a potent mixture of testosterone and wild side that were too intense to be comfortable. While his commander was at least polite, Slade Blackwolf, or Donovan, or whatever he wanted to call himself, was barely civilized.

He reeked of bad boy, something she'd tried scrupulously to avoid since graduating the police academy. If she got close enough she could probably smell motorcycle fumes and leather on him if she tried. But she had no intention of getting that close, now or ever. Getting mixed up with a bad boy was career suicide for a cop, especially a young female cop, no matter what department she worked in.

This was business, plain and simple. Being a game warden offered her an opportunity to help out her tribe in a practical way instead of all the hocus-pocus they kept insisting she was somehow tied to as part of their hopelessly outdated beliefs.

From what she'd been able to discover he was her best chance at finding the elusive wolves. So far everything else she'd tried had gotten her squat. And if things went on much longer it wouldn't be just the state she'd have to deal with, the Feds would get involved since her investigation was criss-crossing areas of the Wenatchee National Forest. She needed to find those wolves. Now.

"Sounds like a lost cause. Can't prove something's perfectly harmless when it's not."

Raina didn't like his belligerent attitude any more than his bad-boy demeanor. "Look, if you aren't capable of helping me-"

Between one breath and the next she found herself wedged up against the wall. A hard male body too dangerously close to her own in front and the rough edges of a cold brick wall digging into her back. Power, like smoke billowing from a forest fire, rolled off of him in waves. He pinned her, his arms on either side, a lethal look in his golden eyes that was mesmerizing like a wild animal's. She'd never been this close to an actual vampire before and it scared the hell out of her.

With an audible flick his sharp fangs appeared out of the gums just above his very normal looking teeth. His voice came out low, almost a growl. "I'm perfectly capable of doing anything you could possibly need done, Officer Ravenwing. But let's get one thing straight. You came to me. You need me. So if I tell you to jump when we're out there bushwhacking, you don't ask why, you just jump. I don't want have to explain to my commander why I came back with a dead game warden. Are we clear?"

Rania managed to gather enough moisture in her dry mouth to swallow, but words were beyond her. All she could manage was a nod, her heart pounding so hard her pulse throbbed in her fingers and toes.

All the resolve she'd made to keep good and gone from bad boys of any kind began to dissolve, running like heated honey through her veins. He was too close and it was too confining. She tried to push against him, her hands on his broad chest, and found herself falling forward and stumbling.

He'd dissolved beneath her touch into nothing but smoke, then reappeared on the other side of the room, in less time than it had taken her to blink. His large hand was where hers had been a moment before, his eyes darker than before.

His voice came out almost a growl. "Next time you touch me, it had better be because you want to."

Holy Cow! What a fantastic excerpt! You want this book. You know you do! Be sure to order your copy, or add it to your TBR list!

So, what did you think of the interview? Do you have questions for Ms. Meyers? Have you read the book and want to add anything? Go ahead and hit us up with whatever is on your mind. And here is a question from Ms. Meyers for you to answer:

**QUESTION**

What makes vampires or werewolves (or characters that are both!) appealing to you?

And don’t forget to enter for your chance at a fabulous giveaway opportunity! FIVE winners will be chosen! Simply fill out the rafflecopter form below! Until next time …

HAPPY READING!

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