Nicole and I took part in a broadcast of Francy and Friends tonight (link below–the Rikki Hollywood episode–there is a long silence after the opening song, so be warned. Our part of the show comes in at about 13:23, and again very briefly at 31:35), and were excited to talk about our new book The Order of the Blood.

I’ve done a lot of promoting, but not much talking about the book. As I’ve said the short story is that it is about vampires, politics, eugenics and hickies. I realized, talking about the book tonight, that when I was writing the main characters Gideon, Robin, and Ian, I was actually writing Heathcliff, Cathy, and Edgar. There is quite a lot of Wuthering Heights in the love story there. A very damaged, very powerful man, who loves a very damaged, very passionate woman, who is loved by a very sweet, very well-meaning man, who just doesn’t quite live up to the idol she’s made of the former.

Of course our book isn’t Wuthering Heights. That book had ghosts, not vampires, and our love story is only one plot point.

The love story–or love triangle–is born out of politics, and for me, was a question of: What would happen if people who would never otherwise have chosen one another, become “the last man/woman on earth” in their worlds? The horror story of the love triangle is born out of a desire for power. What would happen if you had the ability to bend your partner to your will, using them to carry out your plans, dismissing all concern about ethics or morals by saying it was for the greater good, with the knowledge that you could restore your partner to his or her former glory without them ever knowing the better? Or, what would happen if the man/woman you loved was facing such a situation–how could you help them? How could you save them?

This book explores those questions, and I think does it in an entertaining way.

Nicole mentioned, in our earlier interview, that Gideon was a lot of fun to write because everything he does makes some sort of sense. He has a full rationale. You may not agree with him at all, but you have to give him credit for believing it himself. He has figured out what he wants, and has an answer to every “why?” you might throw at him. What do you do with a leader like that? Who fulfills his own whims because he believes he knows what’s best? Gideon is a despot, no doubt.

I’ll write more about the book later. Meanwhile, you can hear me comparing the backstabbing our publisher, Nick Grabowsky, mentions to the Ides of March. Just click to listen to Francy’s show.