Thursday, September 15, 2011

Meet Me in St. Louis!

On October 8th, my first joint venture with co-author S.L. Danielson will be released by Silver Publishing. It's entitled My Fair Vampire, and I'd like to tell you a bit about it, introduce you to the characters. If we're lucky, we might talk them into coming by the blog one day before the book releases!   Check out this awesome cover by the talented and gracious Reese Dante!






My Fair Vampire is an historical novel. It takes place in 1904, during the Louisiana Exposition, more commonly known as the St. Louis World's Fair. Here's our blurb:


In 1904, the world’s spotlight shone brightly on St. Louis, Missouri—gateway to the West and host of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Visitors came from all points of the globe to wonder, to gape, to taste, to explore and to enjoy the marvels which the World’s Fair had to offer. An ambitious young reporter from Utah, William Deming, sees his chance to not only visit the fair, but make a name for himself by reporting on its goings on. He takes a room in a boarding house, close to the Fair itself. What he doesn’t count on is meeting Misha—a young and handsome Russian, whose aunt owns the boarding house.

Misha is something William has never encountered before—a vampire! As if that isn’t enough to accept, when a man is discovered murdered at the Fair, William has to wonder if his Misha is involved. Especially as there seems to have been a connection between the vampire and the victim. Will an old flame cause new problems for William and Misha? Will they find love at the World’s Fair? Or will theirs be doomed to be a fatal attraction?



The bulk of the action in the book takes place either at the World's Fair or at the boarding house that is owned by Misha's aunt, where the young reporter, William Deming, is staying for the duration of his assignment at the Fair. The house is situated right on Lindell, within walking distance of the fairgrounds.

It helps that both SL and I live in the St. Louis area, and that we have access to these places. Although the boardinghouse itself is fictional, the place where the fair was held very much exists, although most of the buildings are long gone, only designed to be temporary. One - the Fine Arts Building - was built more securely, as it housed a lot of expensive artwork, and became our very own St. Louis Art Museum, a very wonderful place to spend time. I've spent a lot of time there and will again.

Standing outside the museum, you can look down Art Hill to the Grand Basin, and just imagine what it must have been like - brightly lit, crowded with eager, excited fairgoers. It must have been very exciting to be there. There is a small prologue at the beginning of the book which covers the Fair's origins and how it came to be. The Olympics were held here that same year.

William sees the Fair as his big journalistic break and he's determined to shine and be noticed by his editor! He doesn't figure on meeting anyone, much less the handsome reclusive Russian, who quickly fascinates him and mystifies him both.  Let me show you the inspirations for our fellows:

This is William Deming:  









And this is Misha Rumiantseva.  Yeah, that's a mouthful lol  


















A man is found murdered at the Fair, and everyone blames Misha for it. Can William prove his lover's    innocence? If he's innocent? Find out when you meet them at the Fair.


Want to know more about my co-author/friend/bff/sister SL Danielson? Check out her blog, The Adventures of Author S.L. Danielson!

We've written another book, the first in a series we call The Mark of Love. The first book, Finding His Mark, has been subbed, we're waiting to hear now yea or nay. The second book is done, and we're working on the third. We like to call this our Cracker series, about two teenagers in rural Georgia. More about that later.

Come and meet us in St. Louis, return with us to the World's Fair, for romance, mystery, intrigue, and above all - love! You'll be glad you did!

Until next time, take care!

♥ Julie



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