A Drop of Red

Christine — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 03:33:54 +0000

Chris Marie Green brings us the fourth book in the Vampire Babylon series A Drop of Red. Dawn, Kiko and Frank are back again this time they are in London England, on the trail of the next vampire underground, and to find out why some girls have been disappearing. Dawn is still struggling with her new life and how it has changed. Their Boss is actually two beings in one Costin who is a soul traveler, Costin needed a healthy host to survive. His arrangement with Jonah had gone awry when Dawn decided to save Costin’s life and trap him in Jonah’s body. Costin is in a constant struggle with Jonah to keep him at bay. This is something else Dawn must struggle with since she made him this way, since it was the only way she could save him was to turn him and when she killed Benedict it changed her back to almost human again. Costin brings in a new person to the team as sort of a replacement to Bresei, who is now one of their spirit friends due to an accident in the previous underground hunt. Dawn doesn’t know quite what to think, but Kiko doesn’t like her at all and perceives her as a threat to him & his job since she is a psychic as well. Although her field of expertise is tailored to hearing, and sensing spirits, and Kiko’s is seeing visions through touch of objects or people. Through Kiko’s vision and some of the sounds that Natalia was hearing they are led through a few interviews to an all girl school. They get a tour of the school by pretending they are scouting schools for their sister for when they move to England from the United States. They bring the friends with them to keep an eye out for vampires or a possible underground entrance. The friends’ find four vampire girls and Kiko doesn’t get a reading off of the ones he bumps into as they are walking down the hall. They planned a reconnaissance mission for that same night to the school. Frank, would scout ahead using his vamp senses for danger and any underground openings, Dawn & Kiko would bring up the rear, and Natalia would stay behind monitoring with Costin since she had not been trained in combat fully yet. Costin has them start at a vacant building as an easy access point to the campus. Frank clears the building first while they have the friends keeping an eye on the girls; which are napping in a common room. The team started moving slowly up the tree line when they were notified that Della had gone to her room to get a book. Della looked out the window which was cracked sniffed and then opened the window sniffed again and looked directly in the team’s direction which was over 800ft away. The other girls joined her in the room she was gesturing and pointing in the team’s direction with no lips moving denoting that they had telepathic abilities. The team started hearing dogs barking in the background when they did one of the friends told them that the needed to get back to the car as soon as possible that the dogs had been summoned. They didn’t get to get back to the car they made it back to the abandoned building and Breisi helped them to the roof letting them know that there were feral animals at the car. A friend then lets them know the girls have left the dorm room and that they couldn’t slow them down because. The girls stopped ten feet from the building and started questioning the team, Frank played it off as if he were the teams master and they were the servants. He was an American vampire looking for others of his kind. The girls still didn’t like them being there and there was a small argument among the girls and then one of the girls starts to change into something tailless sphinx cat-wolf like creature. Dawn mind pushed her and bound her hands above her head. Natalia broke the communication silence saying she heard the front door but it was shut but the house alarm was disarmed. This alarms Dawn thinking about Costin, and what could be going on now. Chris Marie Green will have you riveted to your chair with this book in the Vampire Babylon series. You won’t realize you have read as much as you have until the book is done. This was a great addition to the series and I cant wait for the next book in the series if there is going to be one.

Since this was written in March of 2009 Chris Marie Green has written and published, Deep In The Woods the 5th Book in the series. I am currently working on the review for it and it as this one was will be published at Night Owl Romance, under the name Zollyanna.

Changes to the Book Industry

Christine — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:53:37 +0000

The book industry has changed drastically over the years. Authors must now not only have print ads, they must have a presence on the web as well. Social networking is fast becoming the future for writers and publishers. Some authors also double up on their books as print and e-books for double the exposure.

Sites like Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, My Space and more are becoming new ways to get fans and, to communicate one on one with them. Blogs, online chat and forums are also integrated into the writer’s or publisher’s online web presence to help get them out there and seen so they can get more readers and generate more of a fan base for themselves. After all, fans equal revenue.

Reviewers also now review on the web as well as in print. You not only have the professional reviewers now like the New York Times Book Review, but you also have places like Night Owl Romance dot com that employ non-professional reviewers such as the stay-at-home mom that just loves to read or the casual reader. They don’t read and review for pay, but for the books that they receive.

Places like Night Owl Romance brings in authors the hundreds because the reviewers give heartfelt reviews, and because of the quality of the reviews. Authors love when their fans give them reviews, but it is online book retail places that allow people to give reviews that give reviewers a bad name. They at least should be looked over before the review is actually posted like a real actual review is.

Authors are reaching out to these reviewers, because this is a lot of their fan base as well. They keep up with them through their blogs, Facebook, Twitter, chats, forums and more. There are even authors that have had Book Flicks made which are similar to trailers of movies about the books just to grab the reader’s attention even more. These can be found all over the web on YouTube and reviewer websites.

But keep your eyes out because the next thing you know your authors are going to be doing something else amazing for you on the web.

Christine M Miller

A Drop of Red

Changes to the Book Industry