What
Character Most Prompted You To Write "Blood and Whiskey" and Keeps
Your "Blood" Inspired?
How
one character, in particular, sets the tone for the blood- and romance-drenched
second book in The Cowboy and Vampire
Thriller Series.
Blood
and Whiskey is an opposites-attract love story. It’s
hard to get more opposite than the salt-of-the-earth cowboy, Tucker, who falls
irreversibly, hat over heels in love with Lizzie, the queen of the undead.
She’s nuts about him too, and she wasn’t always a vampire — when she met Tucker
she was a big city girl who thought the handsome, undereducated stranger would
make for a memorable drunken mistake.
A lot can change in a few
months. Now they’re pregnant, for starters.
The book captures the
magic and chaos of their very different worlds colliding in a love affair for
the ages. Like any new lovers, they have plenty of stuff to work through. She favors
martinis and piano bars; he likes camping. He flosses too loudly; she needs
human blood to survive. And that’s just the easy stuff. They are also being
pursued by vampire assassins, and the world of the night walkers is teetering
on the edge of civil war which could spell disaster for the human race. Plenty
of action, sizzling romance and dark humor swirl around them.
With all the chemistry and
passion and heartaches between them, it would be easy to assume Tucker or
Lizzie provided the impetus for Blood and
Whiskey. Easy, but not entirely correct. And no, it’s not Elita either, the
sexy two thousand year old vampire forever taking out her boredom on
unsuspecting victims in an orgy of blood and kinky sex. She demands attention, it’s
true, but the secret source of paranoid energy powering Blood and Whiskey comes courtesy of Lenny.
Lenny is Tucker’s best
friend and a way-off-the-grid survivalist. He once designed weapons for the
military, but exposure to hazardous chemicals and dark deeds in the name of
national security earned him a medical discharge.
Lenny has never met a
conspiracy theory he didn’t like, from Roswell to the JFK assassination, from
black helicopters to cattle mutilators. He lives in a bunker in LonePine with
his wife June surrounded by enough dried meals and stockpiled weapons to last
through any apocalypse. Little did he know it would spill out of a musty
coffin.
In The Cowboy and the Vampire, when the evil vampire hordes threaten
Lizzie’s life, Tucker turns to Lenny for help. With weapons Lenny designed and
some “wet work,” they survive the worst the undead could throw at them. In Blood and Whiskey, it’s Lenny who needs
help. His niece Rose, an orphan and runaway, is kidnapped from the streets of
Portland, Oregon, but not before she has time to make one panicked phone call
to her uncle.
Lenny calls in his favor
with Tucker and they drive to Portland, then on to a deranged meat packing
plant in Plush where Rose is being held.
Along the way, Lenny:
· uses
military grade amphetamines to try and stay awake — they seem to have the
opposite effect and Tucker has to do all of the driving
· admits
that his engine modifications allow his car, an old Pontiac LeMans, to run for
thousands of miles on a single tank, but worries that OPEC will kill him to suppress
the invention
· threatens
to “pop” an evil cowboy with a special deep sea diver’s knife designed to puff
a ball of compressed air into sharks
· acknowledges
that the U.S. government killed Michael Jackson with propofol
· admits
that he’s seen aliens
And that’s just in the
first third of the book. Things really heat up from there.
Lenny might not be one of
the star-crossed main characters, and he may not be sexy or plagued by world-shaking
issues of good and evil, but he knows the world “ain’t what it seems.” He
always knew an Illuminati was pulling the strings, he just didn’t know the
mysterious overlords were terminally allergic to sunlight.
While the love between
Tucker and Lizzie anchors The Cowboy and
Vampire Thriller Series, Lenny is the one who insisted this story to be
told. Because Lenny knows that reality — when you look it straight in the eye
and don’t flinch — is darker than we could ever dream and that humans are not
at the top of the food chain.
Book Synopsis
Wanted: Lizzie
Vaughan, Dead or Alive
Relationships are always hard, but for a broke cowboy and a newly turned Vampire, true love may be lethal.
After barely
surviving an undead apocalypse in The Cowboy and the Vampire, Tucker and Lizzie
hightail it back to quirky LonePine, Wyoming (population 438), to start a
family. But she’s got a growing thirst for blood and he’s realizing that
mortality ain’t all it’s cracked up to be when your girlfriend may live
forever. With a scheming Vampire nation hot on their boot heels and a price on
her head, how far will Lizzie and Tucker go to protect their unlikely love?
Blending evolution,
religion and an overly sensitive cow dog named Rex, Blood and Whiskey drags the
Vampire myth into the modern west, delivering double-barreled action,
heart-pounding passion and wicked humor.
Recommended 18+ only!
About the Books
Blood
and Whiskey (Pumpjack Press, May 2012), by Kathleen
McFall and Clark Hays, is the second book in the Cowboy and Vampire
Thriller Series. It’s a wickedly
funny tale of love, loyalty and sacrifice in the modern west.
Find
out more about The Cowboy and the Vampire Thriller Series:
@cowboyvamp
#bloodandwhiskey
Giveaway
Comment for a chance to win either a print or eBook copy of Blood and Whiskey.
Comment for a chance to win either a print or eBook copy of Blood and Whiskey.
About the Authors
Clark Hays grew up in Montana
in the shadow of the Tobacco Root Mountains. In addition to his fiction work,
he is a cowboy, a published poet and occasional food critic. Recently, he was
nominated for Pushcart Prize for short fiction and not so recently for a
Rhysling award for poetry. Clark brings a deep knowledge about the modern west,
weaponry, country music and existentialism to his writing.
Kathleen McFall grew up in
the heart of Washington, D.C. She worked as a petroleum geologist and, later,
as a journalist, and has published hundreds of articles about scientific
research, energy and natural resources. An interest in the overlap of science
and mysticism are an essential aspect of her fiction writing. She received an
Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship for fiction writing.
Visit McFall
and Hay’s Website at: http://pumpjackpress.com
Find the Books
“Blood and Whiskey”
A Cowboy and Vampire
Thriller
by Clark Hays and
Kathleen McFall
Publication date: May
1, 2012
Fiction, Trade
Paperback (362 pages) $14.95; e-book $4.99
Genre: Fiction/Paranormal/Mystery
Love the interview :). First book is on my Kindle, now have to go get Blood and Whiskey :) Congrats on the second installment :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Bk. Love to know what you think about both books!
ReplyDeleteMK, thanks so much for letting us spend time on your site sharing some good old fashioned back-country paranoia. It's not lost on us that with your Montana background, we share a love of the west!
ReplyDeleteGreat post, MK! I love your unique style of presenting books and authors. This one's a winner!!
ReplyDeleteDeborah/TheBookishDame
We certainly do share a love of the west! I must say--cowboys and vampires--very daring and creative. Great having you here with us today.
ReplyDelete