It is one of our most popular dishes... Vampire! Victoria Danann has put her own special spin on this recipe. Time to take a bite!
The Better Than Sex, Looking for Love in Blood and Chocolate, Layer Cake
recipe by Victoria Danann
The Order of the Black Swan
Collected Tales: Books 1-3
Take... 1 devastatingly seductive six-hundred-year-old vampire
1 chestnut-haired beauty unaware of her fairytale power
Add... a missing person report
a psychic elf
and 5 gorgeous knights of The Order of the Black Swan
Fold in the vampire's history, heart racing suspense, and true love. Whip all ingredients to romantic tension then let it slow simmer until the mixture overheats and climaxes into the best HEA possible in this world or any other.
Set the table in an alternate dimension, in the world of an ancient secret society of vampire hunters and paranormal investigators. Make sure the linens are flame retardant.
Taste Test
BLACK SWAN FIELD TRAINING MANUAL Section I: Chapter 1,
#1 The plural of vampire is vampire.
When the initial rush of activity subsided, he had found himself all too often alone with his own thoughts; a condition that was tediously familiar since he had spent hundreds of years that way. Without the distraction of his friends' banter, since his proposed staff had left Edinburgh, he had begun to see his task not just as a job, but as a mission, one immersed in the duality of joy and gravity. Though, lately it seemed gravity was winning.
He had never considered himself to be impatient. Quite the contrary. Everything he had ever pursued in earnest, from painting to music to writing, had depended upon patience. But his awareness of the enormity of the burden he had accepted had grown over the past months and he had turned to brooding about the time that was passing.
Every day that nothing was accomplished was a day when more people had their humanity taken from them, another day when vampire remained imprisoned in bodies infected with the foulest disease imaginable, and, also, another day when people died.
The project was moving painfully slowly. Everyone who had originally been assigned to work with Baka was gone: married, retired, whatever. Everyone except Heaven - who had turned out to be anything but. If he was to be brutally honest with himself, he would have to admit that one of the main reasons for the slow progress was his distraction with his appointed assistant.
The large work space, intended for several people, held two people most of the time. He worked from early in the morning till late at night, challenging both the hours in the day and the fact that he was one excruciatingly short-handed task-force leader.
When Heaven was present, her moods ran the range of a shallow bell curve from disagreeable to surly to sullen. He admitted that he had provoked her on their first meeting, for reasons that were a mystery to him. Something about her had instantly put him on edge, made him feel anxious, and inclined to strike out.
Even though that feeling persisted, he had attempted to make amends so that they could work together amicably, but his attempts at accord had failed. Miserably so. She was prickly all the way to her luscious core, spurning every effort on his part to develop a rudimentary standard of civility. No matter how many times he tried.
He not only had to work with a person who detested his very presence, but, adding insult to injury, it seemed he couldn't shake an inexplicably strong attraction to her. He found himself staring at the curve of her cheek when her head was bowed over work. Or the shine of her chestnut hair when she walked in front of a window, right through a bank of sunrays. Or the way her lips pursed in silent protest and disdain whenever he gave her something to do.
It was damned aggravating to be held captive, figuratively, by a woman who detested him. To make matters worse, he seemed to have lost interest in pursuing other women, which really wasn't like him at all. After being freed of the vampire virus, he found himself in a world where sex was king. Women dressed provocatively. Women were provocative. And they were free to share sex if it suited them to do so, without needing permission outside their own conscience...
When the initial rush of activity subsided, he had found himself all too often alone with his own thoughts; a condition that was tediously familiar since he had spent hundreds of years that way. Without the distraction of his friends' banter, since his proposed staff had left Edinburgh, he had begun to see his task not just as a job, but as a mission, one immersed in the duality of joy and gravity. Though, lately it seemed gravity was winning.
He had never considered himself to be impatient. Quite the contrary. Everything he had ever pursued in earnest, from painting to music to writing, had depended upon patience. But his awareness of the enormity of the burden he had accepted had grown over the past months and he had turned to brooding about the time that was passing.
Every day that nothing was accomplished was a day when more people had their humanity taken from them, another day when vampire remained imprisoned in bodies infected with the foulest disease imaginable, and, also, another day when people died.
The project was moving painfully slowly. Everyone who had originally been assigned to work with Baka was gone: married, retired, whatever. Everyone except Heaven - who had turned out to be anything but. If he was to be brutally honest with himself, he would have to admit that one of the main reasons for the slow progress was his distraction with his appointed assistant.
The large work space, intended for several people, held two people most of the time. He worked from early in the morning till late at night, challenging both the hours in the day and the fact that he was one excruciatingly short-handed task-force leader.
When Heaven was present, her moods ran the range of a shallow bell curve from disagreeable to surly to sullen. He admitted that he had provoked her on their first meeting, for reasons that were a mystery to him. Something about her had instantly put him on edge, made him feel anxious, and inclined to strike out.
Even though that feeling persisted, he had attempted to make amends so that they could work together amicably, but his attempts at accord had failed. Miserably so. She was prickly all the way to her luscious core, spurning every effort on his part to develop a rudimentary standard of civility. No matter how many times he tried.
He not only had to work with a person who detested his very presence, but, adding insult to injury, it seemed he couldn't shake an inexplicably strong attraction to her. He found himself staring at the curve of her cheek when her head was bowed over work. Or the shine of her chestnut hair when she walked in front of a window, right through a bank of sunrays. Or the way her lips pursed in silent protest and disdain whenever he gave her something to do.
It was damned aggravating to be held captive, figuratively, by a woman who detested him. To make matters worse, he seemed to have lost interest in pursuing other women, which really wasn't like him at all. After being freed of the vampire virus, he found himself in a world where sex was king. Women dressed provocatively. Women were provocative. And they were free to share sex if it suited them to do so, without needing permission outside their own conscience...
The Order of the Black Swan
COLLECTED TALES Books 1-3
Released February 14, 2013 These are single titles presented in a bundle, the first three installments of the serial saga presented in anthology form. There is no new content.
Discover a world of adult fantasy where modern day knights of a secret society interact with an alien, a witch, a demon, a psychic, a berserker, a most unusual vampire, werewolves, elves, and fae. Fairytales intersect adventure, romance, and emotion proving that true love can find you in the strangest places, even when you're least expecting it, even when you're far, far from home.
Included are:
Book 1, My Familiar Stranger: Romancing the Vampire Hunters. (Nominated for best paranormal romance of 2012 by the Reviewers' Choice Awards.)
Book 2, The Witch's Dream: A Love Letter to Paranormal Romance
Book 3, A Summoner's Tale: The Vampire's Confessor.
Erotic Quotient: 18+ Some steamy scenes. No BDSM. No menage.Purchase from:
Amazon / B&N / Smashwords
She owns 7th House Publishing and contributes to its enterprises. In addition to art and writing, she plays Classic Rock music (keys, rhythm guitar, vocals) and manages one of Houston's premier party bands. Married. Four children.
02/26 - Alexx Mom Cat's Gateway Blog
03/01 - Curling Up with A Good Book
03/02 - I Smell Sheep
03/07 - Books-n-Kisses
03/09 - Phantasmic Reads
03/11 - Mad Hatter Reads
03/13 - United by Books
03/16 - The Jeep Diva
03/18 - Riverina Romantics
03/21 - The Reading Cafe
03/22 - Book Monster Reviews / Literal Addiction
COLLECTED TALES Books 1-3
Released February 14, 2013 These are single titles presented in a bundle, the first three installments of the serial saga presented in anthology form. There is no new content.
Discover a world of adult fantasy where modern day knights of a secret society interact with an alien, a witch, a demon, a psychic, a berserker, a most unusual vampire, werewolves, elves, and fae. Fairytales intersect adventure, romance, and emotion proving that true love can find you in the strangest places, even when you're least expecting it, even when you're far, far from home.
Included are:
Book 1, My Familiar Stranger: Romancing the Vampire Hunters. (Nominated for best paranormal romance of 2012 by the Reviewers' Choice Awards.)
Book 2, The Witch's Dream: A Love Letter to Paranormal Romance
Book 3, A Summoner's Tale: The Vampire's Confessor.
Erotic Quotient: 18+ Some steamy scenes. No BDSM. No menage.Purchase from:
Amazon / B&N / Smashwords
For the past fourteen years, Victoria has illustrated and authored Seasons of the Witch calendars and planners and written several non-fiction books on magickal arts. She lives in a town north of Houston known as The Woodlands even though the idea of the witch in the woods may be a cliché.
She owns 7th House Publishing and contributes to its enterprises. In addition to art and writing, she plays Classic Rock music (keys, rhythm guitar, vocals) and manages one of Houston's premier party bands. Married. Four children.
Victoria Danann's A SUMMONER'S TALE
Blog Tour Schedule
02/25 - Reading Between the Wines 02/26 - Alexx Mom Cat's Gateway Blog
03/01 - Curling Up with A Good Book
03/02 - I Smell Sheep
03/07 - Books-n-Kisses
03/09 - Phantasmic Reads
03/11 - Mad Hatter Reads
03/13 - United by Books
03/16 - The Jeep Diva
03/18 - Riverina Romantics
03/21 - The Reading Cafe
03/22 - Book Monster Reviews / Literal Addiction
GIVEAWAY
Victoria is giving away 7 copies of
The Order of the Black Swan
COLLECTED TALES, Books 1-3.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
a Rafflecopter giveaway
From reading the excerpt, it seems like a great read that I really looking forward to reading. (either by winning or just purchasing...)
ReplyDeleteDear Sharon -
ReplyDeleteThank you for featuring A Summoner's Tale on the diner menu today. The rereading of the recipe makes me want to go get a copy myself.
My best,
Victoria Danann, author of The Order of the Black Swan
Awesome book!!! (Enough said.) :}
ReplyDeleteI love your books <3
ReplyDeleteThank you Patricia and Magdalena.
ReplyDeleteWow, can you cook!!!! Loved the recipe and the excerpt!
ReplyDeleteI have all 3 books as ebooks and would love to own them as paper copies. There are special books that I like to show off on my bookcase and these are definitely worthy of that spot! Thank you so much for the giveaway!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the comment, Dani.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the review, Dawn. I just received the print copies of A Summoner's Tale yesterday. This is the first book done in regular size print. It's 430 pages. I love it so much that I'm going to upgrade the first two books to the same print font. My Familiar Stranger will probably end up being 500 pages. LOL. After I get those in, talk to me about your copies. As a hard working member of my Street Team, I think you should have them!
Why would I want to win this? Well, the excerpt is really good. I can imagine him being in that situation and how hard it would be for him.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
vsloboda(at)gmail(dot)com
Ms. Danann, you are quite a busy lady! My hat's off to you! I would love to win this set of collected tales because they sound like they would be good and I like checking out new authors.
ReplyDeleteSounds like something I would like to read because the excerpt is really excellent. sdylion(at)gmail(dot)com
ReplyDeleteI do love vampire stories. Loved the excerpt.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments about the Chapter 1 excerpt Mary, Sdylion, and Victoria (great name BTW).
ReplyDeletePriscilla - Gotta love a reader who gives new authors a chance. I know that without the open-minded, I would be sitting here with books no one had read.
What a great recipe! I definitely want to read more.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read any of your books yet, but WOW! after the recipe and that excerpt I definately want to now! Hmmmm now the ?? is NOOK or Kindle?!?!? LOL :)
ReplyDelete