Monday, May 5, 2014

Guest Post: Author GEORGINA DERWENT (The Cavaliers Series)

Hi, my name’s Georgiana Derwent, author of the Cavaliers Series (Oxford Blood, Screaming Spires and Ivory Terrors). I’ve kindly been given the chance to write about a few different things today. I’ve been asked to talk about my interest in vampires, how I chose the setting and what’s next for my writing.
I’ve loved vampires since my early teens. I don’t like every vampire book, by any stretch of the imagination, but done well, there’s something both incredibly sexy and utterly fascinating about the idea of creatures who have lived for hundreds of years, and who have both astonishing powers and terrible limitations. I’m not normally a big fan of romance novels, but good vampire romance really captures my imagination. I think some of the interest also comes from the fact that I studied history and am fascinated by the past. It’d be so amazing to talk to someone who’d lived through things that happened centuries ago - and the conversation would be even better if they were super-attractive and charming!
I studied at Oxford myself, and like Harriet, I’m from a fairly normal background. I absolutely loved my three years there, but for the first few weeks, I found everything so strange - the traditions, the beautiful old buildings, the people who were different to anyone I’d ever met before - that if someone had told me that some of the students were vampires, I’d almost have believed them!
At the time I started Oxford Blood, there was lots of coverage in the British news about the BullingdonClub, a dining/drinking society for a handful of rich, male Oxford students, rather like the Cavaliers. There was a lot of controversy around the fact that the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and the Mayor of London had all been members, and some spectacular pictures of them all dressed up were released.
Somewhere along the line, my love of Oxford, my interest in vampires and all the stuff about theBullingdon Club came together in my mind. I sort of thought that if they were vampires with mind control powers, it would explain why they were able to run the country. And finally, I thought that everyone always tells you to write about what you know, and I definitely knew Oxford, and I had quite a good understanding of vampire mythology. And vampires at Oxford seemed a bit different.
The Cavaliers is definitely finished now. As anyone who has read it will understand, Ivory Terrors brings things to a firm conclusion. One of my pet hates is when authors drag series out, so I’m not going to make that mistake.
I’m getting married in August, so between now and then, I’m going to leave writing alone and concentrate on wedding planning. But once I’m back from my honeymoon, I’m planning to start a new project. I might wait until November, and then launch into it in style by writing 50 000 words forNaNoWriMo (which was how I started  Ivory Terrors). I haven’t decided exactly what the new book will be, though it’s definitely not going to involve vampires. Much as I love vampire novels, I feel like I want to do something different. I’ve got a few ideas. Two are sort of fantasy and the other is historical. I’m going to roughly plot them all out, then decide which will be the most fun to take forward.


BLURB
Tale of the Posh, the Privileged and the Paranormal...
The Cavaliers are the most elite society at Oxford University. Though its members are universally wealthy, charming and handsome, they have a darker side - they are deadly vampires who have been secretly running the country for the last four hundred years.
No one ever claimed that third year at Oxford University is easy, but Harriet French has more to worry about than just her final exams.
Richard, an ancient vampire with no love for Cavaliers or Roundheads, has dragged Harriet to his French fortress as part of his quest for revenge and power.  Can Harriet support Richard’s plot to kill Augustine? He may have the country in his thrall, but he’s still family. She has no such qualms about killing the Roundhead leader Fea and her twin henchmen, but is she willing to sacrifice herself to do it?
And then there’s George, once the archetypal Cavalier, who now seems to have betrayed both Harriet and the society. It’s hard to be sure about anyone’s true loyalties and harder still to know the right thing to do.
Ivory Terrors concludes the story told in Oxford Blood andScreaming Spires of Harriet French’s time at Oxford and her involvement with an elite vampire society.


BIO
Georgiana Derwent is the author of the Cavaliers Series: Oxford Blood, Screaming Spires, and Ivory Terrors. She lives in London with her fiancé, Freddie, who’d fit right in to the Cavaliers.  As you might have guessed from the books, she studied history at Oxford University, and is getting married there this summer.  
Apart from the English Civil War that inspired the Cavaliers Series,  her favourite periods are the Italian Renaissance, the Tudors, and the British Regency. Hopefully, she’ll get to write about one or all of the others soon.
Georgiana loves to read literary novels that don’t forget about plot, and fantasy, paranormal, and historical novels that don’t forget about prose. Her absolute favourite books tend to be those that blur the lines between the two.  She’s loved vampire novels since her teens, though the vampires have to be at least a bit bloodthirsty and fantastical.  If the plot of a paranormal romance would be basically the same with human characters, she’s generally not interested.
Georgiana is a qualified lawyer and currently works for the British Government. She loves her day job, but writing The Cavaliers makes a nice change of pace, even if it’s sometimes very difficult to find the time in-between running the country!
Georgiana also enjoys running, pilates, singing, and learning Italian. Oh, and this year, wedding planning. Lots and lots of frenzied wedding planning!
LINKS
WEBSITE/BLOG: www.georgianaderwent.com
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/TheCavaliersSeries
GOODREADS:https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6560692.Georgiana_Derwent
AMAZON.COM http://www.amazon.com/Georgiana-Derwent/e/B00A1PW962
AMAZON.CO.UK : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Georgiana-Derwent/e/B00A1PW962
SMASHWORDS:https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/GeorgianaDerwent
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/GianaDerwent

For blurbs and covers of the earlier books in the series, please visit the home page of my website where they should be easy to find (www.georgianaderwent.com) or contact me, and I’ll be happy to provide them.
If you’d like any other information for your post or a copy of Ivory Terrors, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

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