Friday Fun - Meet Author Michele Drier!

Please help me welcome the talented MICHELE DRIER! She's brought her latest release, SNAP. All you Paranormal lovers take notice! Here's a great new Vamp book ;)
You can learn more about Michele at her website
But come on back for a visit !

Thanks for being here today, Michele.

Hi Jennifer, thanks for having me as a guest today!  I’m particularly excited because the second in the Kandesky Vampire Chronicles, SNAP: New Talent, has just been published on Amazon!

Once upstairs, I didn’t shield much from Jean-Louis. 

I’d certainly had my share of affairs, short-time attractions and even a couple of long-term lovers, but I’d never known a man so attuned to my wants as he was.  He was the epitome of the Pointer Sisters’ “Slow Hands” and that played in my head for the next hour or so while we made languorous love.

                       From SNAP: New Talent, Book Two of the Kandesky Vampire Chronicles

Hard-driving media businesswoman Maximillia Gwenoch thought she’d found her perfect job when she took on SNAP’s managing editorship.  She had her eye on fame, fortune and Jimmy Choos.

What she got was an introduction to dishy and super-sexy Jean-Louis.  A co-worker.  A vampire.  And second-in-command of the powerful Kandesky Hungarian vampire family.

In both the first and second book of the Kandesky Vampire Chronicles, SNAP: The World Unfolds, and the new release, SNAP: New Talent, Maxie is torn between her need for her career and her love for Jean-Louis.  And Jean-Louis is edging ahead. After all, he’s had about 500 years to learn what women want—and to perfect his techniques.

Different Genres, Sexy Guys

I write in two different genres: paranormal romance and traditional mystery, and each genre has a love interest.  The guys are of a type I admire (oh, hell; prefer, if I could find ‘em), urbane, intelligent, witty, slightly wounded from previous entanglements but trying to get it right.  Sort of like a friend of mine who said, right before his fourth wedding, “I believe in marriage.  I’m going to keep doing it until I get it right” (I think he stopped at five).

Outside of nothing at all, I think the sexiest thing a man can wear is a black evening suit.  Maybe too much James Bond in my formative years?

Worldly Vamps

I suspect the reason the Kandesky vampires, and particularly Jean-Louis, are so worldly, rich, European, is that I couldn’t have my “regular” protagonist fall for someone violent.  If Maxie was going to fall in love with a vampire, said vampire needed to have traits that were familiar.  I read some vampire books and, even though I really like Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files, Charlaine Harris resonated with me.  After all, vampires were once human.  Why shouldn’t they behave in some human ways?  One reviewer called SNAP “Twilight for grownups.”  I like that!

And, most of all, why shouldn’t they have practiced and practiced at good sex?  Some of the Kandeskys have been married to each other for upwards of 500 years.  Try that if you think having sex in your 70s or 80s has lost its appeal!  Not to mention, they all suffer from some sort of arrested development, staying the same age as when they were turned (or as the Kandeskys say “became an acolyte”).   So Francois, in his early 20s, has the body and libido to match, even though he’s several hundred years old.  And Maxie is dying to find out if he’s hetro, gay or bi.  None of her business, she’s not interested, just pure nosiness.  He’s the Paris bureau chief for SNAP, the magazine, and has a certain swish.

Two Series

The SNAP Kandesky Vampire Chronicles are a true series.  Before I began writing the first one, I knew there were going to be four books, and now I’ve added two novellas, which will tell the back stories of the Kandesky leaders: Baron Stefan Kandesky and Penelope, and Jean-Louis and Magda.  Each book in the series stands alone, but together they tell the saga of the war with the Kandesky neighbors and rivals, the powerful Huszar vampire family.

My mysteries are a series, also, that follow newspaper editor Amy Hobbes as she uncovers murders beyond those her staff regularly writes about.  There is a stable cast of players, including Amy’s lover, Phillippe Etange, art critic for the San Francisco Times, but events are always changing in the world of daily news reporting.  Again, before I began writing, I had five books plotted out.

Both series are fun to write!  I lean on my background in print media for the canvas on which these stories—and love affairs—are painted, but don’t think that the real world of journalism is populated with such sexy creatures.  Journalists report on it, they don’t do it!

 With the stories in my head, and the lovers in my heart, my biggest challenge now is carving out the time to write so readers can have a seamless passage through the Chronicles.

Amazon links

 SNAP: New Talent http://amzn.to/IhkJtu

 SNAP: The World Unfolds http://amzn.to/u1Uo1n

Michele Drier was born in Santa Cruz and is a fifth generation Californian.  She’s lived and worked all over the state, calling both Southern and Northern California home.  During her career in journalism — as a reporter and editor at daily newspapers – she won awards for producing investigative series.

Her mystery Edited for Death, called “Riveting and much recommended” by the Midwest Book Review and a Memorable Book for 2011 on DorothyL, is available in paperback at Amazon and B&N.

Her paranormal romance series, SNAP: The Kandesky vampire chronicles, is available in ebook at Amazon.  The first book, SNAP: The World Unfolds, received a 4-star rating from the Paranormal Romance Guild.  The second book, SNAP: New Talent, is now published and also available from Amazon

Visit her website: www.micheledrier.com