Happy Monday Everyone!!! Today we have Cat Adams (aka C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp) here to talk about one of their awesome series and it’s new 4th installment, released just a few days ago. Together these two authors have forged their writing talents since 1997 to create fantastic novels that have received countless awards. So let’s get started,...take it away Cat.

Meet The Blood Singer

Hi, all! Those Three Crazy Chicks invited us to drop by to talk about our current urban fantasy series, THE BLOOD SINGER. Book 4 in the series, THE ISIS COLLAR hits the shelf this month and we wanted anyone who hasn’t yet been introduced to our heroine, Celia Graves, to get to know her.

First, who is Celia Graves? Well, Celia is the oldest daughter of an alcoholic mother and a co-dependent grandmother. Her father ran out on them years ago because of Celia’s younger sister, Ivy, who was a necromancer. In Celia’s world, most people have some paranormal abilities—even if they’re minor. Ivy’s talent wasn’t minor. She could raise graveyards just by driving by in the car. It was too much for their father and he abandoned the family. Celia’s mother, Lana, didn’t take it well. She started to drink, but kept herself under control until Ivy and Celia were kidnapped by men who wanted to use Ivy’s talent to find hidden gold. Celia made it out alive. Ivy didn’t.

Celia’s gran took her in when Lana went off the deep end, and raised her to become a strong, relatively well-adjusted adult. Celia became a bodyguard in Los Angeles shortly after college, which gave her enough money and independence to allow her to get past her disfunctional family beginnings.

That’s where the story starts. In BLOOD SONG, you get to meet Celia, her friends and family as they were before the night Celia’s life changes forever. A routine job goes bad and she’s attacked by “bats.” In Celia’s world, vampires are feral animals—pack hunters who live in darkened alleys. She’s attacked and nearly killed.

But something happens during the attack and she doesn’t die. Instead, she’s partially turned. She becomes an Abomination . . . not completely vampire nor completely human. It’s a state that both sides fear. She has her soul and her mind plus is more powerful and with enhanced hearing and sight. But she can no longer eat food (and doesn’t dare drink blood!) and sunlight burns her skin badly. Humans consider her a loose cannon. She could go over the edge at any moment and become a full vampire. Vampires don’t trust her because she can be out in daylight and holy items don’t hurt her.

BLOOD SONG focuses on Celia finding the vampire who turned her before he can finish the job and make her a slave. She also has to find out who set her up to be in that alley. It seems there was more to the bodyguard job than simple routine. She also gets closer to her old flame, Bruno DeLuca, a mage who broke her heart in college. But years have passed and she wonders if she can turn back the clock to when she was happy.

Celia also discovers a part of her heritage she never knew about. It turns out her grandfather was a siren, those beings of the ocean who can influence men to do anything they want. Because of the vampire bite, her siren blood woke up and she was suddenly taken notice of—by siren royals who consider her both a threat to their throne and to their race. No Abomination has ever been allowed to live in the siren society. At the end of BLOOD SONG, Celia is informed she must show up on the Isle of Serenity, the home of the sirens, and defend her right to exist!

In SIREN SONG, Celia is forced to do just that, as well as solve a plot that takes her back to the day her sister Ivy was killed. Oh, did I mention that Ivy is a ghost? Ever since her death, she’s stayed around, near the big sister who tried to keep her safe. She also has to solve the murder of her best friend Vicki, who was killed in BLOOD SONG. Vicki was a powerful clairvoyant who mysteriously died in a secure facility meant to keep her safe. Celia is also being chased by a demon who is determined to drag her into his clutches—a demon tied to her by a death mark placed on her as a child. Who put the mark on her, and why? In this book, Celia also discovers that more than one man has his sights set on her . . . John Creede, the powerful owner of a rival security company. He’s more than willing to give Bruno a run for his money to win Celia.

Just when Celia thought she’d conquered her enemies, she discovers it’s only the beginning. DEMON SONG has Celia racing to help a friend-turned-enemy escape from the clutches of demons. Yes, she’s angry at Kevin, but wouldn’t let anyone be ripped to shreds by the denizens of hell. Unfortunately, the rescue begins a series of events that causes a dimensional barrier to be breached. Demons are flooding onto Earth and it will take all of Celia’s wiles, and the power of her friends and family, to stop the world from being destroyed. Talk about apocalypse! It’s all there in this book!

And now, it’s time for THE ISIS COLLAR. No demons this time. Celia hopes that door in her life is permanently closed (of course, you know it isn’t.) In this adventure, Celia is asked to help evacuate a grade school before a bomb explodes. She does, but not before she’s caught in the blast. Instead of healing quickly because of the vampire blood, she’s plagued by mysterious problems. A bad limp, horrible migraines and a bruise that keeps getting worse. What’s wrong with her? How about a magical zombie plague? Yep! Zombies and plague . . . two things that should never be said in the same sentence. Who’s behind the plague and why give it to little kids? How about a wicked witch? It’s a magical medical thriller, with plenty of action, romance, pathos and very cool stuff. Want to read a little more about the books? Visit our website, at http://www.catadams.net, click on “Books” and read a few chapters of each one of them!

But just for you, here’s a little sample of THE ISIS COLLAR that hasn’t appeared anywhere before!

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Security breach at my office. Believed to be the witch who set off the bomb. Bring illusion specialists. I think she’s still here. I’ll do my best to keep her inside.

I took a flash photo of the page with my phone while it was still shielded, made sure it was legible, and sent it to my FBI friend Rizzoli with a few quick clicks. Then I folded the paper before even Dawna could see it. I mouthed the word “Rizzoli” and her eyes widened. Then she nodded.

I pretended to ignore the chairs while keeping my peripheral vision firmly fixed on them and Minnie the cat. I examined the wallpaper, comparing it to the photo in my hand.

When Dawna returned, a shake of her head and a thumb's down with a frown made my pulse abruptly pound. There were too many chairs in the room. I knew it. My headache suddenly made itself known again. It had dulled from whatever magic John had used but now it was back in blinding glory. The intensity of the pain made me suck in my breath hard and fight to focus.

That was when Minnie hissed at the chairs and arched her back before racing out of the room. The pain faded under the rush of adrenaline, when I felt familiar magic brewing in the room. I didn’t hear even a whisper over the yelling in the conference room but I knew I didn’t have time to wait for Rizzoli and crew. The witch knew I knew and she would target me first. The fastest way to incapacitate the witch was to throw one of the charms at the chair she’d become. But if I picked the wrong chair and hit a cushion, it could easily bounce back and bind both me and Dawna.

There was another option. I was loathe to use it if I didn’t have to but it would certainly solve my current problem. I have knives that are so magically powerful they’re considered artifacts. It took Bruno five years to make them for me, bleeding himself every day to bind the magic. One of those knives had killed Lilith. Her evil had turned the metal permanently black. No witch, no matter how tough, could withstand it.

The problem was, I didn’t know which chair she was. I hated to waste the charms, but a combination strike might be my only option. I faked a pair of sneezes, which made my head throb again, and then snuffled. I reached into my pocket like I was going for a tissue and drew out the charms. I practice really hard so when I throw charms, they land where I expect them to.

I threw one charm with each hand, as fast as I could. They hit the floor in front of the left and right hand chairs.  Before I could think much about what I was doing, I pulled one of my knives from its sheath and tossed it; the blade flipped through the air before burying itself nearly to the hilt just above the ornately-carved rosewood leg of the corner chair.

A scream of pain and anger filled the room.  A flaming blast of magic hit me in the chest with frightening intensity and threw me backwards.  I landed in a heap at the bottom of the stairs. I only saw the woman’s platinum blonde hair as she shifted back to human form and plucked the glowing, white hot knife from her arm. Then she dropped it like it burned. It probably did. She was holding something in her other hand. It was thick and square but that’s all I could make out.

With a fast movement despite the pain, she jumped through the nearest window feet first, just like I had when I was saving Willow. The sound of shattering glass was like another scream. Then she was gone.

Well, so much for keeping her here. I had a feeling Rizzoli wasn’t going to be pleased with me.

I thought about chasing her, but frankly I wouldn’t be able to keep up with her, thanks to my worsening limp. I was abruptly tired beyond measure. I had about as much energy as I’d had the last time I’d had the flu. I just wanted to curl up under a blanket with a bowl of chicken noodle soup.  Sans noodles and chicken, of course.  John was right.  Something was really wrong with me.

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So now you’ve met Celia and heard a little about the books. You want to go right out and buy them, right? Well, you’re in luck! The first three books just happen to be on sale until the release of THE ISIS COLLAR! It’s a really good sale, too: only $2.99 for all ebook format downloads. Heck, that’s three for the price of one! And if you’re a print fanatic, they’re also on sale at Amazon on a 4-for-3 special. But lots of other retailers have them on sale too, go to our publisher’s website (http://us.macmillan.com/theisiscollar/CatAdams) , scroll all the way to the bottom and choose your favorite store.

Thanks for letting us drop by. Hope you enjoy our terrific world!

Our wonderful Ladies are giving away a signed copy of their yummy new release, THE ISIS COLLAR. To be entered in the random drawing just be a follower of the blog and leave a comment or question with your email address.