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lisacarlislebooks@gmail.com
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ABOUT
Lisa Carlisle loves to read and write stories with dark,
brooding, isolated characters (think Heathcliff, Dracula, Darth Vader, and
Severus Snape) and tough, independent, caring heroines. For much of her professional
career, she has written non-fiction, although she’s recently discovered writing
romance is much more fun. ;)
Life took a strange turn when she was younger and she ended
up enlisting in the Marines, serving in Parris Island, the California desert,
and Okinawa, Japan. Then she backpacked alone through Europe, and lived
in Paris, France for little while. These experiences have provided her enough
settings and characters for a lifetime of writing. Currently, she lives in New
England with my fantastic husband and kids.
UNDERGROUND ENCOUNTERS 4: BLOODLUST AND METAL
On the run from a master vampire, young vampire Layla Black
flees London to reinvent herself as the singer of an Eighties cover band in
Boston. Devon St. Clair is the bounty hunter hired to track her down. As a
shapeshifter with extraordinary skills, his reputation is known throughout the
supernatural world. Capturing Layla should be an easy gig that will net a nice
profit.
The situation doesn’t go as Devon plans. He wants Layla in
his bed, but shapeshifters and vampires don’t mix. They should hate each other,
but instead they’re keeping the sheets steamy. When circumstances force them on
the run together, their preconceived notions are challenged. If they can evade
those hunting them and convince his fellow shapeshifters to help her even
though she’s a vampire, they just might have a chance to explore where all that
hot, sweaty sex can take them.
EXCERPT
Devon
On the flight from London, I studied a road map to drive from Boston up to the nightclub Vamps where Bloodlust Diamond was playing. Vamps was hidden in the warehouse district in Caterina’s Cove, a little coastal village on the coast north of Boston. A brochure advertising condos described it as a quiet seaside setting, the perfect place to have access to the ocean without the typical tourist crowd that attacked most of the other beaches on the North Shore.
On the flight from London, I studied a road map to drive from Boston up to the nightclub Vamps where Bloodlust Diamond was playing. Vamps was hidden in the warehouse district in Caterina’s Cove, a little coastal village on the coast north of Boston. A brochure advertising condos described it as a quiet seaside setting, the perfect place to have access to the ocean without the typical tourist crowd that attacked most of the other beaches on the North Shore.
The brochure
conveniently left out how Cat’s Cove, as it was called, was also home to an
underground/Goth club that attracted “freaks and weirdoes” as one regular had
described it online. In my word-of-mouth research, I discovered it also
attracted a small, but growing crowd of supernatural beings. Rumor spread it
was once owned by a vampire. After an explosion took out a good chunk of the
club, it was bought and rebuilt by the current owner. Employees described him
as tall, dark and utterly mysterious; some speculated whether he is a vampire
as well.
Vampires. I hated
them. Always have. Cold, dead creatures stalking the Earth and sucking
sustenance out of humans.
Pathetic.
When I got the
call from a vampire named Stefano, one part of me cringed. I loathed dealing
with these blood-lusting walking corpses. Since this one was willing to pay a
large fee and it sounded like an easy gig, I swallowed my revulsion and took
the job. All I had to do was hunt down a female vampire who stole from him and
ran away. If he disposed of her, even better. One less vampire in the world.
After we landed in
the U.S. and waited at the long lines at Customs, I found the car rentals.
Earlier I had requested a black car with tinted windows and plenty of space in
the back seat and trunk, either which might serve as a temporary abode for Miss
Costa. Of course, I told the rental agent I had a lot of luggage. I smirked at
the visual of having that bloody vampire bound in the car. Then I drove north
to Cat’s Cove.
Stefano knew
better than to hire a human to find Layla. They relied on paper trails and
online transactions, both of which vampires kept to a minimum, especially
considering their extended life periods. He needed someone like me, with
abilities beyond a typical human’s. With those and the skills I’d learned in
the British military, I had established a lucrative career as a bounty hunter.
A job I enjoyed more than I like to admit.
Most of my targets
were scumbags. They deserved to be caught and brought to justice. Not all,
though. On a few occasions, I suspected the person whom I was hired to bring in
might be innocent. But I had to stay objective. It wasn’t my job to judge a
person’s guilt or innocence. It was my job to track them down and bring them to
whomever hired me. This time, it was the thieving little vampire, Layla Costa.
Tracking her down
wasn’t that difficult, but it did take longer than I had expected. I caught her
scent all over Stefano’s place. It was rather sweet, reminding me of herbs and
flowers, and not the smell of the dead I’d associated with most vampires. This
distinctive scent helped me track where she’d went next. With her photograph in
hand and scent imprinted in my mind, I asked about her at each location. One
location led me to another. And eventually I discovered that Layla Costa was
now portraying herself as Angelica Blackwell, a singer for a heavy metal cover
band called Bloodlust Diamond. She changed her appearance dramatically, but I
could still discern the same features.
She was quite
striking, I noted. Both as the dark-haired vampire Layla Costa and the wild
heavy metal singer with teased multi-colored hair Angelica.
What did her looks
matter, I corrected myself. She was just another job. I would simply grab her,
take her to Stefano and collect my money.
Layla
I teased my variegated
black and blonde hair to get into character for the show. After all these years
as a brunette, it was strange seeing myself with blonde. The hair stylist I
paid big money to “reinvent me” insisted this is the look to capture attention
as the new singer of an Eighties hair band.
“Heavy metal,” I’d
corrected.
He’d snickered.
“Okay, princess.”
What did he know
about music anyway?
He’d bleached one
side of my hair a platinum blonde and dyed the other side black. Then he added
a few streaks of black amid the blond and white amid the black.
If I turned one
way in the mirror, my reflection showed a raven-haired woman. When I turned the
other way, my reflection showed the blonde. Amazing how the hair color made me
look like two different women. Then I looked at my reflection dead on from the
front. Whoever was looking at me would focus on my wild hair, which commanded
attention, rather than my face. Money well spent. The better I disguised myself
as Angelica, rock singer, the less I resembled Layla Costa. Which would make it
harder for Stefano to find me.
I accentuated my
eyes with black eyeliner, extending them slightly beyond my lash line to give
me a cat’s eye style. Then I added two coats of black mascara. It was too easy
for features to wash out under the stage lights. With some blush and a dark
maroon lipstick, I made sure it wouldn’t happen tonight.
I put on red
stiletto boots over the tight black vinyl pants and readjusted my tank top in
the full-length mirror. Then I took a nip of the blood from my flask. Just a
little bit to take off the edge. Immediately after drinking blood, I felt
almost drunk so I tried not to overdo it before going onstage. But a little sip
was my ritual to fortify me for the energy I’d expend tonight.
“Here we go
again,” I said to my reflection. Then I drove to the rehearsal space to meet up
with the rest of Bloodlust Diamond, the band I’d joined six weeks ago. Their
lead singer had quit to enter drug and alcohol rehab. I was looking for a new
opportunity after running away from Stefano. What would be more fun than
reinventing myself as a sexy rock star for a fun metal band?
THE INSIDE SCOOP
Q. Do you work best on a deadline, or do you need
freedom from time constraints?
I work much better on a deadline.
Something about the pressure keeps me focused. It’s too easy to procrastinate
or rewrite without one. It’s one of the reasons I love National Novel Writing
Month in November.
Q. How do you know you’ve written a good book?
When I feel the emotions and
heartbreak of a character as if they are real people I know, that’s when I know
I’m on to something good. For instance, in Fiery Nights, I put my characters
through so much anguish that when I reread it, I was almost in tears going
through what they were experiencing. Then I thought, wait a minute, I’m the one
who wrote this—I know what’s going to happen!
Q. Are you a Swooper (write first, edit later,) a
Basher (edit each sentence as you go,) or both?
Funny, I’ve never heard these terms.
But I’m definitely a Swooper. My first drafts are filled with question marks,
nameless characters, and other notes to myself to take care of when I review
what I’ve written.
Q. What
is the one thing you must have to be able to write?
I like to have a drink nearby, even
if I’m too caught up in the story to take a sip. Tea or coffee in the morning
and wine or Amaretto in the evening are all good choices.
Q. What
are you currently working on? How is it different from other books you’ve
written?
I’m writing a quickie gargoyle
erotic romance for Ellora’s Cave right now. Quickies are 7-15k words so the
story has to be compact. I’m hoping I can keep it in the word count. It’s
tough, though—once I start writing, I discover more about my characters and
want to keep going.
Q. When
and where can readers look forward to seeing you this year?
I will be at Romanticon, Ellora’s
Cave’s conference in Romanticon this October. Plus, I’ll be presenting on a
panel there with other authors in the On the Hunt series (stories with bounty
hunters). It will be a blast and I can’t wait to go.
Q. How
do you feel about the term “Mommy Porn”?
I’m a mom and I write erotic
romance. It’s not porn, it’s romance. I write love stories between two
consensual adults. But I don’t think about the term too much. No point in
getting worked up over other people’s labels.
Q. Do
you prefer to write 1st or 3rd Person POV? Why?
I love first person. Almost every time,
I start a story in third and end up switching to first. Somewhere along the
line, I get so caught up in what my character is experiencing, I start to write
scenes through his or her eyes. But I’m trying to stay in third for the stories
I’m working on now because there are some stories where they work better.
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