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vampire

Three Little Words: A Series filled with Mythology and Lore

February 14, 2021 By Tina Glasneck

What a storm! An ice storm ripped through my area, and we were without power for a bit. But it gave me time to re-read Three Little Words.

The Order of the Dragon Series

The great thing about writing books is that I always have something to read. This weekend, I decided to dive back into my Order of the Dragon series. This fun urban fantasy series stars a novice vampire, who always seems to find herself in one pickle or another.

Each book in the series, of course, helps to take her along, and the reader discovers more about her and her new world, just as she does. As a woman in her mid to late thirties, well, she has a lot to say. Yes, the snark ensues, and her ghostly Gran and sister are their for the ride into the supernatural.

Yesterday, I decided to reread my book, Three Little Words.

Slow burn romance, Urban Fantasy action adventure, character and world growth!

Three Little Words!

OMG! Can I just say how much I loved this book (and not because I wrote it)? I totally loved how everything was tied up, but there is still so much happening in the world, and the slow burn romance between Leslie and Alistair!

I also can’t wait for the author (ahem, me), to reveal more about what is going on with Claudine!

So, I pulled out this excerpt for your reading pleasure.

Excerpt from Three Little Words

Let me set the scene. We are at Leslie’s birthday party, when sh*t is about to get real:

A deafening gust of wind whipped into the room like someone had opened a portal, genie’s bottle, heck, for all I knew it was a storm in a bottle unleashed.

       The laughter turned to screams as a piercing, maniacal cry moved into the space. “Summoned by thee, summoned three, destruction bringeth we.” Three apparitions whipped into the apartment. Their ragged black capes fluttered behind them, and with gnarled claws bearing silver blades on their fingertips, they moved outward and attacked. Some they held in a beam of light, as if sucking the life from them, while their victims remained standing, paralyzed. I watched one Rudy Rupert change—his face turned from healthy, blushing red, to white, to now gray. His cheeks slowly sank in.

       The room moved in slow motion. With all the power present, our will to survive should have sent us into overload. Instead, I turned and saw Alistair push forward ultra-slowly, knocking the old table over that took forever to crash onto the antique carpet.

       But they must have only been the appetizer to destruction. Then entered what must have been a man dressed up like a white rabbit. His costume was stained with dirt as if he’d crawled out of a grave. The stench of decomposition mixed with old blood. His neck hung at an odd angle. His abdomen exploded, and a blood-soaked goblin stepped out. The rabbit crashed to the floor, unmoving.

Covered in glopping goop, this goblin’s body was as slick as a dolphin’s. Every muscle and connecting tissue was visible, like a human body had been turned inside out. Hairless, his face was pulled tightly, his eyes wide apart, his teeth pointy and sharp. Just like the wraiths, his long fingers resembled talons with blades as nails.

       “I’ve come to grant you a new life, just as you wished,” he croaked.

       “I didn’t summon you.”

       “Are you afraid?” he reached out a talon. “I can show you the life you were always meant to have. Come join me, Leslie.”

       I willed magic to appear, a ball of something to throw to protect those I loved. I turned to see Claudine cowering in the corner, Gran slowly shifting to her pirate form, Alistair still trying to move, and Killian even in the middle of a wolf transformation.

       “Does your magic not work?” He clicked two of his fingernails together, and the blades sparked until his hand glowed orange.

       “Let me fix that!” He impaled me with his burning hand. I threw my head back, pain consuming me as though the fire peeled off one layer of skin at a time. He lifted me high, and I looked him in the unflinching eye.

       “And you are the one to save us? How, when you can’t save yourself?”

       I raised my hands, and they glowed white.

       “Yes, we shall break you, Leslie.”

       He then slammed me down.

       I opened my mouth, and a roar erupted. My body convulsed in pain. Stretching out, I wrapped my hands around his wrist and watched it burn. Absorbing the power around me, every fiber of my being lit up until all that could erupt was the pain, the hurt, and a light I couldn’t control.

       The building shook, the windows cracked.

       “Leslie,” I heard Alistair yell my name, “No.”

       But it was too late. I’d said those three little words and f*cked us all.

***

Inspiration

One reason I love this series is that it combines different mythologies (this book in the series includes a tokoloshe from Zuli/Xhosa mythology, dryads from Greek mythology, Wendigo from the First Nation Algonquin tribes), our legends (for this one it includes the famous Vlad the Impaler), and stays faithful to the idea of the supernatural world being diverse, hidden, and multifaceted.

I can let my imagination run free.

With the ice storm leaving the area, I hope this week to again be able to dive into the next book in the series, Four Times the Fight, and keep the magic coming!

Woot!

Of course, if you haven’t read Three Little Words, then grab it and discover the rest of the series thus far!

Filed Under: Blog, vampire, vampire, writing Tagged With: Dracula, good urban fantasy, legends, mythology, vampires

Glimpses of Inspiration: Russia

January 22, 2021 By Tina Glasneck

Oh wow, today is release day for New Year, New Boo, which includes the limited-time release of A Half-Cocked Vampire.

As we know, I love to pour stories and snippets into my stories that tell of actual events (be they personal or gathered from the 24-hour news cycle). Well, for this one, I reference my first trip abroad – to Russia.

Long before my love of Loki – Tom give me a call (LOL!) – I was a young religious girl with a traveling heart. Back then, I had a map with wooden toothpicks taped to all of the countries I wished to visit. 

You see, I always had a thing for people—learning about different cultures, languages, and history. Yet, as a kid, I didn’t necessarily grasp what all of it meant. I was very much inexperienced in traveling, and though I tried to prepare to learn about Russia before the trip, there was a lot left out of my training.

Back in 1995, Russia was still pretty much in a new situation politically. The USSR was no longer “a thing,” and the borders were open. As a youth, I traveled there and was awestruck at so much beauty and history.

While there, we traveled around the city and performed, working with a church associated with my then American Church. This included visits around the city, hospitals, and neighborhoods.

One of my favorite memories is that of a kind, older woman, grandmother type, who welcomed us all into her house for tea. She was gracious and delightful. We had a translator with us, and although my Russian accumulated to around ten words (including hello, goodbye, and ice cream), I found her to be quite kind.

Visiting Russia changed my paradigm. So much was so very different from what I knew: from the Russian mafia that was quite noticeable to the Orthodox Church reporters who actively reported on everything we did. Yet, some things crossed cultures easily. No matter where you go in the world, good ice cream can build bridges.

It’s been more than 20 years since the trip that started what I like to call my great metamorphosis (that’s still in process), but it’s remarkable how those small moments and people we meet along the way can help to change our perspectives.  

I often think about those people from long ago, and although they may never know, those amazing people I met then left a fingerprint on my life, for sure.

 All I can say is a simple, Спасибо (pronounced spaSEEbah)!

Buy New Year New Boo

Filed Under: Blog, new release, vampire, writing

New Release Alert — New Year, New Boo

January 21, 2021 By Tina Glasneck

I am happy to be part of this amazing new urban fantasy and paranormal romance anthology, which celebrates new beginnings.

For my contribution, I’ve included A Half-Cocked Vampire, starring the fabulous vampire seer, Leslie Love.

The early reviews are coming in, and readers seem to be enjoying this set, as well. Here is one that made my heart overflow with gladness:

“Half-cocked vampire by Tina Glasneck- The characters are compelling and honestly the final fight scene… I was entranced. It feels like it is part of a series and I might have more understanding if I was familiar with her books and based off this book I will be reading more of her work. Despite having not read any of her books, this author does a truly wonderful job of introducing a reader to a world that you know nothing about, in a way that wouldn’t be redundant for her loyal readers.” — Amazon Review

What is A Half-Cocked Vampire about?

Here is the blurb:

Baby witches are cursing the moon, large unexplained crystal monoliths are sprouting up around the world, and supernatural doom is on the horizon…

Could it be a worse time to make a delivery? Doubtful.

Leslie Love has received her first trainee assignment with the Order. As a new vampire and seer, she must deliver an appearance warrant. Which should be simple. But simple is like apple pie, and Leslie’s allergic to fruit.

A magnet for the weird, demons, and everything in paranormal tarnation, Leslie’s in trouble when the rogue vampire runs.

Things have gone worse than sideways, and now she must deal with rogue vampires and malevolent magic. Only the timely help from a death goddess can save the day.

But with a devil of a task and the world at stake, can Leslie rise to the challenge?

Grab your brooms, b’witches, we’re in for a rough ride.

2020 gave us tons of fiction fodder. I couldn’t help myself but to use some of it to create this installment in the Order of the Dragon series!

You can order your copy of New Year, New Boo (currently on sale for 99 cents) here. This set is widely available.

Filed Under: Blog, new release, vampire

Vlad the Impaler

October 26, 2020 By Tina Glasneck

In this series of vampires, why is it called the Order of the Dragon? The answer might surprise you, as it has true, historical ties to the most famous of vampires, Vlad the Impaler.

There has been much speculation about how somebody could combine dragons and vampires.

Well, what if I told you that Vlad the Impaler was born into the family of Dracul. Draco is the Latin word for Dragon. Vlad, who we later would call Dracula, followed in his father’s footsteps to enter the Order of the Dragon.

Since the Order of the Dragon is indeed older than Vlad, it made sense to keep much of that accuracy.  Vlad, the Impaler, did not create the Order but became a member of it.

The Order of the Dragon was the name of the historical Order created by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund to defend Christian Europe against the rising strength of the Ottoman Empire.

In my research, knowing the connection of vampire lore and combining that with the historical accuracy of the Order of the Dragon, it was a logical leap to fuse these two worlds.

Of course, Vlad’s full story has not yet been shared, although I introduce him as a main side character in Three Little Words. I expect to see a lot more of our fantastic Vlad the Impaler and more from legend and folklore as the series continues.

Fun Fact: Vlad (Vlad III) had two brothers. For a diplomatic negotiation, he traveled with his father to learn about such. However, soon after, things soured. Taken, he and his brother, Radu, were held hostage. However, still considered princes, they were educated in science, philosophy, and even the art of war.

While away, Vlad’s father was murdered and his brother buried alive. Vlad III would rise to capture, lose, and recapture his father’s seat, using insane practices, including impaling people.

The history with Vlad is rich with insanity. I can’t wait to bring some of it out in my Order of the Dragon series.

Learn more about the Order of the Dragon series, here!

Filed Under: Blog, Dragons, vampire

A Vampire Gives No Quarter

October 22, 2020 By Tina Glasneck

I’m excitedly counting down to the next Leslie the Vampire story—Leslie in Quarantine.

Let me give you the deets behind why I even wrote this.

A few months ago, at the beginning of the pandemic, people lost their ever-loving mind here in Virginia. 

I mean, shoppers started to hoard toilet paper and yeast worse than during Hurricane season. 

Fistfights broke out, and I can swear that I spent $50 on two packs of toilet paper (a huge markup from the regular cost, for sure).

I drove around like a madwoman trying to find T-P for the family of four. The ideas of using newspapers, napkins or paper towels were not options (besides, I didn’t want to clog up my pipes).

My thought was: if I can find toilet paper and keep life as normal as possible, we could survive whatever else might come our way.

After hours of searching, hunting it down on social media, following threads on where one might find toilet paper, I finally located the last two rolls that a poor stock boy was putting back on the shelf.

I celebrated with a selfie, put the toilet paper in the closet, and completely forgot about the story of success.

Until now.

One of the organizers from the Coastal Magic kindly asked what my character was up to during quarantine.

This is not a story I thought about lightly. The pandemic has hit us all so hard. 

My goal in writing this short was to pull from my humorous situation of searching for toilet paper and create Leslie’s world a bit more because, if you’re like me, you probably never thought about if vampires had to use the bathroom or not, too!

A Vampire Gives No Quarter releases on October 28th. This story, which is around 9,000 words, helps to highlight more of Leslie’s world, introduce a new character, and entertain you.

You can learn more and download your copy from your online bookstore here:

Please note, if you are a Nook Reader, due to the recent cyber-attack on Barnes and Noble, their site is down (and the preorder has not gone live there yet. 

You can, however, should you desire, directly download it from my store on Payhip, which links with Bookfunnel). 

The story is live now, on Payhip, as well.

Filed Under: Blog, new release, vampire, vampire Tagged With: Leslie, Order of the Dragon

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