Flying
Through Fire -
Today I have a treat for all of you readers. Nina Croft's publisher is holding Nina Croft month and Nina is visiting and answering some of my questions.
First can you tell me why Dark Desires is your favorite series? What made
you put the combination of a vampire and space travel together. Do you have an
idea for the next book in the Dark Desires series? I am counting on a next
book!!!!!
The Dark Desires series has always been my
favorite, because I allow absolutely anything to happen. These are the books I write for fun,
where anything goes, and it’s a challenge to myself to make it all just a
little bit believable.
Book 1, Break Out, actually came about because of another
book I wrote, The Descartes Legacy. A few years ago, my husband asked me at
breakfast one morning—why didn’t I write a ‘good’ book? He survived—just. And
it turns out that his idea of a good book is one without romance, aliens,
vampires…
The resulting (good) book was The Descartes
Legacy. I never did manage to cut out the romance, and there might have been
just the hint of an alien, but I did try, and it was an effort. Afterward, I
promised myself I could write a book with absolutely anything I wanted in it.
I couldn’t decide between my two favorite genres,
science fiction and paranormal. I’d been watching Firefly (and not for the
first time) and I’m also a huge Star Wars fan, so I decided I wanted to write a
space opera set around a thousand years in the future. As I was allowed
anything, it seemed eminently reasonable when the pilot of my space ship
decided he was vampire.
Ricardo Sanchez, vampire and space pirate, hero of
Break Out, is probably still my favorite character. I like to think of him as a
sort of Han Solo (I’ve been in love with Han since I first discovered what love
is) with fangs.
As the cast of my world grew, I populated it with
anything and everything. If I could come up with a valid reason why they might
be in my world, they were allowed to come along. The hero of book 2, Deadly
Pursuit, is a werewolf, there are also genetically modified beings, (Tannis,
the captain, is part human part snake) aliens, dragons, even the odd human or
two.
I pursued the themes that have always fascinated
me, immortality, telepathy, (the ruling class in my world are immortal beings
who can read minds) religion, time travel (I’m a huge Doctor Who fan), myths
and legends, and how they come into being.
With book 6, Flying Through Fire, the series story
arc comes to a sort of conclusion where threads have been tied off and everyone
has a happy ending…for now. But I don’t think stories ever really end, and the
crew of the Blood Hunter will no
doubt continue to wreak havoc across the universe.
I’m now in the process of deciding just where I
will take them next (or more likely where they will take me). At this moment, the
Blood Hunter is heading back to Earth
and back in time.
They could end up anywhere and anytime…
Blurb:
Thorne’s willpower has been honed over ten thousand years. He might want
Candy, but the last thing he needs is an
infatuation with a young, impetuous werewolf. Candy makes him lose control, and
that could have disastrous consequences. As the threat escalates and they become separated by time
and space, Candy must find a way back to him, because while Thorne alone has
the power to defeat the dragons, only together can they finally bring peace to
the universe.
Tagline: For ten thousand years he’s done his duty. Now he wants something for himself...
Review:
I really liked Thorn and Candy's story. They are both great characters who do not look like they are made for each other. Candy is so young and still has not made peace with the events around her. She still tries to control things and that shows who immature she is. Thorn, on the other hand, is very old and very in control. It was great watching him fight his attraction to Candy and how Candy could really push his buttons. There is a great danger in the story and it is in line with events in the previous books. I thought it was great how each of the main characters from previous books were smoothly blended into the story. Rico has always been my favorite character in the series (it turns out he is Nina's too) and here he plays an important part as he has his usual great lines that just add to the action. The blending of vampires, dragons, werewolves, hybrids, and regular humans make Dark Desires a unique series and Flying Through Fire a very enjoyable story. There is a great excerpt at the end of this post. Don't miss it.
Paragraph Teasers:
But most of all, she wanted someone to love her, and she knew exactly
who that someone was and had always been. There’d never been another choice for
her. Everyone needed someone for whom they were the most important being in the
whole universe. Someone they would kill for or die for.
Without that nothing
else mattered.
It all came back to Thorne.
Today I have a treat for all of you readers. Nina Croft's publisher is holding Nina Croft month and Nina is visiting and answering some of my questions.
First can you tell me why Dark Desires is your favorite series? What made
you put the combination of a vampire and space travel together. Do you have an
idea for the next book in the Dark Desires series? I am counting on a next
book!!!!!
The Dark Desires series has always been my
favorite, because I allow absolutely anything to happen. These are the books I write for fun,
where anything goes, and it’s a challenge to myself to make it all just a
little bit believable.
Book 1, Break Out, actually came about because of another
book I wrote, The Descartes Legacy. A few years ago, my husband asked me at
breakfast one morning—why didn’t I write a ‘good’ book? He survived—just. And
it turns out that his idea of a good book is one without romance, aliens,
vampires…
The resulting (good) book was The Descartes
Legacy. I never did manage to cut out the romance, and there might have been
just the hint of an alien, but I did try, and it was an effort. Afterward, I
promised myself I could write a book with absolutely anything I wanted in it.
I couldn’t decide between my two favorite genres,
science fiction and paranormal. I’d been watching Firefly (and not for the
first time) and I’m also a huge Star Wars fan, so I decided I wanted to write a
space opera set around a thousand years in the future. As I was allowed
anything, it seemed eminently reasonable when the pilot of my space ship
decided he was vampire.
Ricardo Sanchez, vampire and space pirate, hero of
Break Out, is probably still my favorite character. I like to think of him as a
sort of Han Solo (I’ve been in love with Han since I first discovered what love
is) with fangs.
As the cast of my world grew, I populated it with
anything and everything. If I could come up with a valid reason why they might
be in my world, they were allowed to come along. The hero of book 2, Deadly
Pursuit, is a werewolf, there are also genetically modified beings, (Tannis,
the captain, is part human part snake) aliens, dragons, even the odd human or
two.
I pursued the themes that have always fascinated
me, immortality, telepathy, (the ruling class in my world are immortal beings
who can read minds) religion, time travel (I’m a huge Doctor Who fan), myths
and legends, and how they come into being.
With book 6, Flying Through Fire, the series story
arc comes to a sort of conclusion where threads have been tied off and everyone
has a happy ending…for now. But I don’t think stories ever really end, and the
crew of the Blood Hunter will no
doubt continue to wreak havoc across the universe.
I’m now in the process of deciding just where I
will take them next (or more likely where they will take me). At this moment, the
Blood Hunter is heading back to Earth
and back in time.
They could end up anywhere and anytime…
Blurb:Review:
I really liked Thorn and Candy's story. They are both great characters who do not look like they are made for each other. Candy is so young and still has not made peace with the events around her. She still tries to control things and that shows who immature she is. Thorn, on the other hand, is very old and very in control. It was great watching him fight his attraction to Candy and how Candy could really push his buttons. There is a great danger in the story and it is in line with events in the previous books. I thought it was great how each of the main characters from previous books were smoothly blended into the story. Rico has always been my favorite character in the series (it turns out he is Nina's too) and here he plays an important part as he has his usual great lines that just add to the action. The blending of vampires, dragons, werewolves, hybrids, and regular humans make Dark Desires a unique series and Flying Through Fire a very enjoyable story. There is a great excerpt at the end of this post. Don't miss it.
Paragraph Teasers:
But most of all, she wanted someone to love her, and she knew exactly
who that someone was and had always been. There’d never been another choice for
her. Everyone needed someone for whom they were the most important being in the
whole universe. Someone they would kill for or die for.
Without that nothing
else mattered.
It all came back to Thorne.
Author/Book Info:
Growing up in the cold, wet, north of England, Nina Croft spent a lot of
time dreaming of faraway sunnier places and ponies. When she discovered both,
along with a whole load of other things, could be found between the covers of a
book, her life changed forever.
Web Presence
Author Website: www.ninacroft.com
Social Footprint
Author Twitter: https://twitter.com/Nina_Croft
Excerpt:
All at once, Candy was desperate to get down there, to hug her family
and apologize for being such a bitch.
But she couldn’t leave Thorne behind. Because she had an inkling that
the second she turned her back on him, he would vanish in a puff of smoke. Some
instinct warned her that if he went off on his own now, in the mood he was in,
she would never see him again. So he couldn’t be allowed to go.
“Your parents are here,” Thorne said.
“Yeah.” She cast him a sideways glance, but still no change.
“I suggest you go join them. You’ll be safe with them.”
At least he was thinking about her safety, so he hadn’t completely zoned
out. “You want to come and say hello?” It was a lame thing to say, but Thorne
and her father had become good friends in the time before her father was
captured.
“No.” When she didn’t move, his eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared.
The tips of his wings vibrated. It was the first sign of any emotion since he’d
discovered his people were dead. It gave her a flicker of hope that Thorne was
in there somewhere, if she could just find the way to drag him to the surface.
“Go, Candy.”
“I can’t leave you like this.”
He studied her for a moment. “I will forcibly eject you from this
shuttle if you do not leave. Now.”
She gnawed on her lower lip. The words had held no emotion, which made
them all the more powerful, and she had absolutely no doubt that he would do
what he threatened. She pushed herself slowly to her feet, but couldn’t make
herself walk away. “Please, Thorne, don’t leave me. I don’t want to be alone.”
“You’re not alone. You have your family, and the Blood Hunter will be here soon.”
“I don’t want them. I want you.”
“Well, you never did learn that you can’t always have everything you
want. Go.”
She wiped her hands down her thighs as she headed to the door. Thorne
flicked a switch on the console so that the outer door opened and the warm air
blew in, filled with the scent of pine and heat. Her mind worked furiously as
she walked very slowly. She peered back over her shoulder. Thorne wasn’t even
watching her; instead he was punching a flight plan into the console, already
planning his escape.
Goddammit. She wasn’t going to allow him to walk away.
At the doorway, she stumbled. As she righted herself, she drew her laser
pistol and whirled around. He was paying attention now. She lifted the pistol
in her hand. He rose to his feet.
Time seemed to slow. But she didn’t aim for him. Instead she focused her
pistol on the shuttle’s console, pressed the trigger, and blasted a hole
straight through it.
Thorne appeared shell-shocked, and she took advantage and blasted some
more. No way was this shuttle going anywhere anytime soon—or ever again,
probably. Her hand dropped to her side, and she switched her attention from the
blasted console to Thorne. Well, if nothing else, she’d got some emotion from
him. He radiated raw fury, his eyes glowing, his wings vibrating.
“Goddamned, undisciplined brat.”
She held her breath and waited for her head to explode.
When nothing happened, she spun around and ran.
All at once, Candy was desperate to get down there, to hug her family
and apologize for being such a bitch.
But she couldn’t leave Thorne behind. Because she had an inkling that
the second she turned her back on him, he would vanish in a puff of smoke. Some
instinct warned her that if he went off on his own now, in the mood he was in,
she would never see him again. So he couldn’t be allowed to go.
“Your parents are here,” Thorne said.
“Yeah.” She cast him a sideways glance, but still no change.
“I suggest you go join them. You’ll be safe with them.”
At least he was thinking about her safety, so he hadn’t completely zoned
out. “You want to come and say hello?” It was a lame thing to say, but Thorne
and her father had become good friends in the time before her father was
captured.
“No.” When she didn’t move, his eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared.
The tips of his wings vibrated. It was the first sign of any emotion since he’d
discovered his people were dead. It gave her a flicker of hope that Thorne was
in there somewhere, if she could just find the way to drag him to the surface.
“Go, Candy.”
“I can’t leave you like this.”
He studied her for a moment. “I will forcibly eject you from this
shuttle if you do not leave. Now.”
She gnawed on her lower lip. The words had held no emotion, which made
them all the more powerful, and she had absolutely no doubt that he would do
what he threatened. She pushed herself slowly to her feet, but couldn’t make
herself walk away. “Please, Thorne, don’t leave me. I don’t want to be alone.”
“You’re not alone. You have your family, and the Blood Hunter will be here soon.”
“I don’t want them. I want you.”
“Well, you never did learn that you can’t always have everything you
want. Go.”
She wiped her hands down her thighs as she headed to the door. Thorne
flicked a switch on the console so that the outer door opened and the warm air
blew in, filled with the scent of pine and heat. Her mind worked furiously as
she walked very slowly. She peered back over her shoulder. Thorne wasn’t even
watching her; instead he was punching a flight plan into the console, already
planning his escape.
Goddammit. She wasn’t going to allow him to walk away.
At the doorway, she stumbled. As she righted herself, she drew her laser
pistol and whirled around. He was paying attention now. She lifted the pistol
in her hand. He rose to his feet.
Time seemed to slow. But she didn’t aim for him. Instead she focused her
pistol on the shuttle’s console, pressed the trigger, and blasted a hole
straight through it.
Thorne appeared shell-shocked, and she took advantage and blasted some
more. No way was this shuttle going anywhere anytime soon—or ever again,
probably. Her hand dropped to her side, and she switched her attention from the
blasted console to Thorne. Well, if nothing else, she’d got some emotion from
him. He radiated raw fury, his eyes glowing, his wings vibrating.
“Goddamned, undisciplined brat.”
She held her breath and waited for her head to explode.
When nothing happened, she spun around and ran.
