Nina Mason's THE QUEEN OF SWORDS Book Launch Blog Tour and Giveaway

 Author: Nina Mason

Publisher: Vamptasy Publishing

Heat level: Spicy

Formats: Kindle and paperback

Where to buy: Amazon

A paranormal tale of undying love.

The story of a love powerful enough to span centuries.

How can she be his soul mate if he doesn’t have a soul?

Blurb: When Graham Logan, a Scottish earl turned vampire by a dark wizard’s curse, draws the Queen of Swords, he knows he’s about to meet the love of his life. For the third time. But surrendering his heart will mean risking her life…or making her what he is. Neither of which his morals will permit him to do. Graham, who believes he lost his soul to the curse, rages at God: Why give her back only to take her again?
Cat Fingal, the third incarnation of Graham’s twin flame, won’t let him escape so easily. As soon as they meet, she feels she knows him and begins having past-life flashbacks. A white witch, she casts a spell to summon him, wanting answers and to fill the void she’s felt all her life.
Graham has other problems, too. Like the seductress who wants him for herself and the dark wizard who cursed him and killed his beloved the first two times.
Will he find a way to save her this time around? Or will she save him?

Excerpt:
Biting his lip, Graham turned the card of the here and now quickly. Seeing what he’d most feared tightened his chest. The central figure sat in profile upon a throne carved with angels and butterflies. She wore a white gown and a cloak decorated with clouds. More clouds gathered in the background, suggesting a storm was coming. The woman’s left hand reached out toward someone or something unseen in the distance. Her other hand gripped the up-thrust symbol of her suit.
The Queen of Swords.
He’d drawn the card only once before: the morning he’d met Catharine La Croix at a sidewalk cafe overlooking the Seine. To say her resemblance to Caitriona discomposed him was an understatement. He’d been floored by the likeness. He’d also been drawn to it like a sailor to a siren’s song. Unfortunately, he’d had no ship’s mast to rope himself to until the danger passed. Within a few weeks, they were deeply in love. He never suspected she might meet the same fate as her previous incarnation. Not until it was too late, anyway.
He’d done his best to protect her. After seeing Gerard Fitzgerald, the dark wizard who’d cursed him, on the street outside her apartment on Rue de Cherche Midi, he’d kept a watchful eye on her. Being as stubborn as before, she didn’t care for his vigil. One morning, she slipped out after he’d fallen asleep. He’d searched for her everywhere, out of his mind with worry. He’d had her blood, should have felt her, but he didn’t. That evening, he learned why.
Fitzgerald had done it. Of that, he was certain. He just didn’t know why. Now, it looked as if history was about to repeat. And what could he do about it except tear out his hair, beat his fists on the walls, and cry to heaven, “Why? Why give her back to me only to take her again?”
Grief closed around his throat like a strangler’s hands. Coughing to ease its grip, he overturned the card of his future. Surprise stung his heart when he saw The Fool. Squinting, he studied the image of a gaily-dressed youth whose open arms seemed to embrace the world. His right hand held a knapsack, his left, a single white rose. Nipping at his heels was a wee white dog. The Fool, fearing nothing, looked skyward with a dreamy expression as he strode toward the edge of a cliff.
Bewildered, he shook his head. What could it mean? The Fool stood on the threshold. He was the protagonist of the tarot, the archetypal hero embarking on his quest, the soul starting its journey toward atonement. The Fool, in other words, was the polar opposite of the hopeless, faithless tightrope walker Fitzgerald’s dark curse had turned him into over the past one hundred years.

Q&A with Nina: 

1. Tell us about your book, THE QUEEN OF SWORDS.

It’s a paranormal romance/urban fantasy set in modern-day England and Scotland with flashbacks to Edwardian Paris and Regency Scotland. The book tells the story of a bookish white witch named Cat Fingal who returns every hundred years to reunite with her earthbound soul mate, a Scottish earl turned vampire by a dark wizard’s curse. It’s the third time she’s returned to find Graham Logan, but she doesn’t remember, of course. When she meets him this time around, she begins to have past-life flashbacks. She knows they share some kind of connection and wants to know what it is—and what he is, but he avoids her, so she casts a summoning spell and refuses to release him until she’s got her answers. By the time she does, they’re bonded again and she tries once again to free him from his curse.

2. Could you tell us what your plans are for future installments for this series?

At this point, it’s not a series. It might turn into a series, however, at some point. My next book, The Knight of Wands (title for now) will launch a four-part series called The Knights of Avalon. That series tells of four Scots taken from battlefields at different points in history to serve as breeding drones to a dark faery queen. The first knight is Callum Lyon, who was court astrologer to King James IV. He was taken by the faeries after falling at Flodden Field. In the book, he meets a free-spirited English socialite named Vanessa Bentley and falls instantly in love with her. He spend the rest of the book trying to win her without exerting his possessive Leo inclinations.

3. What was your inspiration for this story?

To tell the truth, my inspiration was the Twilight phenomenon, but not in the way you might think. I read and liked the books, but was frustrated by two things: the vampire hero had lived for 100 years but had no part of and no thoughts on human history and the fact that vampires are the literal personification of carnal lust and sex outside marriage, yet the h/h didn’t have sex until they were married. I also was frustrated by the criticisms of Twilight I read on the internet by people who obviously knew nothing about the vampire literature genre. Vampires are inventions of the imagination and, therefore, can have any trope assigned by their author. Yes, even skin that sparkles in the sunshine.

4. Tell us about a typical writing day for you.

On a typical day (haven’t had one for a while what with editing and promoting the new book), I get up at seven, get my daughter off to school, and sit down to write. I break to make a sandwich around 11:30 and go back to writing until I can’t think straight. On a good day, it’s a joy. On a bad day, sheer torture.

5. When did you first know you wanted to become a writer and started writing?

I’ve always had a knack for writing, but didn’t pursue fiction writing with a passion until about six years ago. Unhappily, being an avid reader of novels did not make me a great writer of them. I have had to study the craft of fiction-writing and still feel I have a long way to go.

6. Not only do you write but you are also a communications consultant and home stager. Would you tell us about it?

Sure. First, let me start by explaining that I worked in college public affairs and media relations for almost 30 years. I left to take a job in a consulting firm and left that job to start my own business. I specialized in message framing for a select group of clients and when their funding dried up, I tried to find other ways to make money (also tried to find a job, but to no avail). My sister is a realtor and sent some staging work my way (I also have a knack for home decorating and worked briefly in that field once upon a time).

7. We understand you are a doll maker. What kind of dolls do you create? How did you get started?

From the time I was a little girl, I’ve drawn people and eventually took up oil painting. When I got married the second time and had my second daughter, I gave it up because the house was too small and oil painting and toddlers don’t mix. To fill the void, I started making dolls. I make historical dolls and figures for the most part. Some are cloth and some are armatured with sculpted clay faces, hands, etc. A couple of years ago, some of my sculpted dolls were featured in Art Doll Quarterly. The sculpted dolls are a ton of work. I loved making them, but couldn’t sell them for a price reflecting the amount of work that went into each, so I went back to making cloth dolls. I also make Scottish Highlander dolls, though they only started selling recently. The stock is low in my Etsy shop at the moment, because I’ve been too busy writing, editing, promoting, and making swag to work on dolls.

8. When you get to take a break and open a book that you want to read, what 3 authors are at the top of your list? What are you reading now?

I’m anxiously awaiting the new release by Diana Gabaldon and will also read the third installment of the trilogy by Deborah Harkness. Right now, I’m reading Jane Austen and the Archangel, something I downloaded on a 99 cent special. I love Jane Austen and have enjoyed some of the modern-day “sequels” to her book and I also love angels. So, the premise intrigued me. I figured it would either be really interesting or really awful. I’m happy to say that, so far, it’s been a delight.

9. Are there some “must have” items that you always like to have with you when you write, like a favorite beverage, or a side bowl of a certain snacks? 

Nope. Unless you count morning coffee and a Dr. Pepper with my lunch. Must haves for the desk include pen, paper, and index cards to jot down plot and character ideas.

10. Thanks for being here with us today Nina, one last question. Tell us three things about yourself that your fans don’t know yet.

I’m so poor right now I qualify for food stamps but can’t bring myself to apply for them (so please don’t pirate my book!)
I wear men’s underwear because I find them much more comfortable than women’s.
I research everything in my books like a madwoman and love doing it.

About Nina: Nina Mason is a hopeful romantic with strong affinities for history, mythology, and the metaphysical. She strives to write the same kind of books she loves to read: those that entertain, edify, educate, and enlighten. Three of her books will be published in 2014: The Queen of Swords, an urban fantasy/paranormal romance; The Knight of Wands, book one in the Knights of Avalon Series; and The Tin Man, a political thriller about the dangers posed by mediamonopolies. She is currently at work on Book Two of the Knights of Avalon series and is itching to get back to a book she started a while back about a merman who falls for an oil company spokeswoman after a phantom tanker capsizes on the coast of the Hebrides islands. When not writing, Nina works as a communications consultant, doll maker, and home stager. Born and raised in Southern California, she now lives in Woodstock, Georgia, with her husband, teenage daughter, two rescue cats, and a Westie named Robert.

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