Interview: Marie Treanor, author of "Blood on Silk"

Marie Treanor was born and raised in Scotland, but is now living in the UK. She has written many books in the romance genre, and her new novel "Blood on Silk" is now available. The book is the first in a planned trilogy focusing on vampires.

"sensual and thrilling, a wonderful combination of vampire myths old and new. Saloman and Elizabeth's relationship is both amazingly hot and terrifyingly complicated. Readers will fall instantly in love with the world that Marie Treanor has created. You cannot miss this novel!" is some of the praise the novel has already gotten.

I am waiting eagerly to get hold of my own copy, this looks like a real thrilling new series. To shorten the wait, I interviewed the author about the series and her other books. You can read about it here:

Welcome to my blog, Marie and thank you so much for doing this interview. Your new book, “Blood on Silk” has just been released. Can you tell us a little bit about this book?

Yes, I’d love to! It’s about a very ancient, very powerful vampire who was staked back in the 17th century, and is now accidentally awakened by Elizabeth Silk, a rather unworldly researcher. Elizabeth is making a promising academic career out of explaining away vampire legends, and now, suddenly, she’s faced with the reality of their existence, to say nothing of the wicked attraction she feels to Saloman, the vampire she’s awakened!

Saloman, however, wants revenge on those who betrayed him, and he wants to restore his power over vampires and humans. He needs the life-blood of his Awakener to achieve his full strength, so no matter how much she intrigues him, he determines to kill Elizabeth.

The book is the first in the trilogy “Awakened by blood”. How long have you worked on this series prior to the release of this first book?

I began it about a year ago, and now I’ve finished a rough first draft of the third book.

“Awakened by blood” is about vampires. Why do you think we mortals are so fascinated about these creatures of the night?

Very good question! I ask myself this a lot, and I think mainly we’re drawn to the sheer power of vampires, which can be either sexy or scary or, . There’s also the fact that they preferably, a combination of the two look a lot like humans and yet are very different. I think we like the possibility seeing their aloofness broken down, of catching glimpses of them behaving and feeling more like us, and yet knowing they still aren’t like us. And of course, they’re immortal. An existence without the inevitability of death is an attractive fantasy for mortals!

I really love the cover for “Blood on Silk”. Who has designed it?

Isn’t it beautiful? I love it too! It was designed by NAL artists – the designer is listed as Oceana Gottlieb, and the artist as Craig White.

You have written many books before, how many has it been, in total? And do you have any favorites among them?

Yikes, it seems to be 27, currently published, with another ebook to be released at the end of September . I should point out, though, that a lot of these are novellas and short stories. A couple are collections of stories originally published as individual novellas.

I think my favourite tends to be whatever I’m working on at the time! But I do have soft spots for various books for various reasons: Hunting Karoly, my first ever vampire story, because it was just such fun to write; Killing Joe, because it’s such a weird little tale! Loving the Wolf (now part of the City of the Damned Collection) my first werewolf and my first post-apocalyptic world; Ghost Unlaid because it was my first romance and I did love my ghostly hero; Magic Man because it obsessed me when I was writing it, and as my first effort at a futuristic world, it opened my imagination to wider possibilities. I also particularly enjoyed writing the ones with most humour in them – Ariadne’s Thread, Requiem for Rab and Hunting Karoly again.

Can you tell us a little bit about how your writing career got started? Did it take you long to get published the first time?

Actually, it happened surprisingly quickly! I’d always written stories, mostly for my own amusement, but once I’d decided to aim seriously at publication, my first romance, Ghost Unlaid, was accepted by the first publisher I sent it to. This was an epublisher who unfortunately went bankrupt a couple of years later, although I’m glad to say the book is now republished at The Wild Rose Press. I branched out with other epublishers, Changeling Press, Samhain Publishing and Ellora’s Cave, and eventually one of my books, The Devil and Via, caught the attention of a New York agent, who then sold the Awakened by Blood trilogy to NAL

You are a history graduate. Is there any specific area that you are more interested in and know more about than others?

Well, I studied both medieval and modern history, and I could never narrow down my interest to just one era! At university, it was probably the seventeenth century in Britain and Europe that intrigued me most, but since then I’ve been fascinated by very early medieval history and also the history of Hungary and Eastern Europe.

How is a normal writing day for you, and when and where do you write?

On a normal day I begin writing as soon as I’ve taken my daughter to school in the morning, and try to keep going with as few interruptions as possible until I have to pick her up again in the afternoon. Sometimes, if I’m in the middle of something, I try to do more, but it gets increasingly difficult as the house fills up with kids and phone calls and demands for juice/food/fun/friends/money!

What do you do if you need any inspiration during the writing process?

I try to leave it alone and do something else: walk on the beach to clear my head, or read a book, watch a film or listen to music that reminds me even indirectly of my story.

Do you have any favorite authors?

Oh yes – lots! Dorothy Dunnett, Georgette Heyer, Christopher Brookmyre, Ian Banks, Mary Stewart, Lyndsey Davis, Louis de Berniere, Audrey Niffenenger, Raymond Chandler… And lots of romance authors, too numerous to mention here!

What do you associate with Norway? Ever been here?

Vikings, fjords and pine trees. As you can probably guess, no I’ve never been to Norway. Obviously Scotland and Norway have a strong historical connection, which interests me, and I have been very struck by scenic pictures on television etc. For years my husband and I have talked about a cruise to see some of the beautiful Norwegian coast for ourselves. But somehow when we start thinking of holidays, our need for sun takes over and we end up heading south instead of north! One day, though…

Which books are you looking forward to read this autumn?

Whatever catches my eye at the time! But definitely "Blameless" by Gail Carriger, "Cross Your Heart" by Michele Bardsley and the first of Michele Lang’s Lady Lazarus series at Tor, which sounds absolutely fantastic.

And last: Is there anything you would like to say to all the book-readers out there?

Just thank you for reading the interview! And if you read Blood on Silk, I hope you enjoy it.

Thank you, Marie! I am personally checking my mailbox everyday to see if the book has arrived from the bookstore.

You can visit Marie on her website here and on Facebook here.
Here is a contest in the wake of the release

Here is a teaser for the story in the book, sounds great doesn't it?:

While researching vampire legends for her Ph.D. thesis, Elizabeth Silk learns about Saloman, a powerful vampire reportedly destroyed hundreds of years before. When she accidentally awakens him, she unleashes a strong, unscrupulous, and seductive vampire hell-bent on vengeance against those who tried to kill him. Despite her thesis topic, Elizabeth is woefully ignorant. The local vampire hunters teach her everything she needs to know, but they can't help with her out-of-control attraction for Saloman, who finds Elizabeth too intoxicating to kill. The passion between the two is elemental and erotic, but readers will have to wait for future installments to watch their relationship develop, as this volume is all setup with no story progression whatsoever.