Author: Randi Perrin
Title: Promises of Virtue
Series: Earthbound Angels, Book 2
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Release Date: February 4, 2017
Publisher: Hot Tree Publishing
Cover Designer: RMGraphX
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All that changes when she’s on vacation in Paris. First dates lead to second dates, which leads to a whole lot more than she ever bargained for—but she knows it's all over when she returns home. That’s okay with her.
Until it’s not.
When it’s no-strings-attached, what will Cheryl do when her heart gets tangled up?
I’ve heard it said that vampire romances are over.
Teenage, angsty vampires that sparkle in the sun, sure. Those can be so over, put a stake in their hearts, chop off their heads, throw water on them—whatever we can do to make them die a horrible, grisly vampire death.
No, seriously. Don’t. (Down vampire hunters, down.)
Judgments about the story, the characters, and writing (and believe me, I’ve heard it all) about Twilight, I think it ushered in the era of the paranormal romance.
It’s always been there. People have been writing about vampires (Anne Rice, anyone?), shifters, and other paranormal creatures forever. I think, though, we can actually thank Anne Rice and Stephenie
Meyer for making it more mainstream.
Mainstream does not equal bad or sell-out either.
It means making it more accessible to those who would normally look at a paranormal and toss it on the floor as if it were the devil itself.
Has paranormal peaked? I certainly hope not, considering I write it!
Peak or no, there will always be a place for it. (Hear me out.)
We, as a whole, turn to fiction as a means to escape. It’s the very reason we love books, movies, television shows—they transport us somewhere else, anywhere else. For a brief time, our problems are not our own and instead we’re taking that ride with Louis and Lestat, Edward and Bella, or heck, even my Sera and Cheryl.
Paranormal has the unique ability to take that entire escapism a step further. It’s fun to imagine a world where these things are possibilities, a world where magic, vampires, shifters, or angels exist. With all the problems facing the world today, who doesn’t want to escape into another world? I know that’s one of the reasons I like to write it so much. I like tiptoeing around this world I created where my characters can fly; can hold out her hand and take someone’s life; can touch a stranger with grace and change that person’s life forever.
Of all the paranormal creatures out there, why did I choose angels? I get this question. A lot.
Truth be told, I didn’t choose angels. Angels chose me. Virtue of Death was going to be contemporary. No, really. I decided to give her an angel wing back tattoo, and then I said, “Well, what if she really was an angel?” Thus, my entire outlook—on the book, on my career, on everything—changed. (For the better, I think.)
Is it a challenge? Absolutely. But I love it for several reasons.
One, it’s not common. Who wants to do something everyone else has done? I pride myself on walking to beat of my own drummer, out of rhythm though that may be.
Two, it was a challenge. It still is a challenge. Being one of the lesser used paranormal creatures, I had a little bit of leeway with the way I wanted to handle them. (Case in point: my angels don’t have feathers! I was adamant about that. My creatures, my rules.) But I also run into religion. A lot of it.
That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with religion. However, how much of it do I want to keep, and how much do I want to fictionalize? How do I write angels without any major religious overtones? (My answer: take everything you knew about angels and throw it out the window.)
In October, I was at a convention and people would pick up Virtue of Death, compliment the cover (as well they should, it’s gorgeous), and then ask what it was about. With each sentence in my elevator pitch they’d step farther and farther away, “she’s going to hell” painted on their face. (Sometimes I forget I live in the Bible belt. Oops.)
Three, why not?
My mom has read both Earthbound Angels books, and the first thing she said to me after reading Virtue of Death was “You’re going to pay for how you wrote Gabriel.”
*shrug*
I’m not scared.
After all. It’s just fiction. Just escapism, and we all need that. Probably even Gabriel.
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Earthbound Angels, Book 1
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Virtue of Death
Randi has spent her entire life writing in one form or another. In fact, if she wasn't writing, she'd likely go completely and utterly insane. Her husband has learned to recognize when the voices are talking in her head and she needs some quality time with an empty Word file (the key to a successful marriage with a writer).
She lives with her husband, daughter, and four-legged children—all of which think they are people too.
A pop culture junkie, she has been known to have entire conversations in movie quotes and/or song lyrics.
She lives with her husband, daughter, and four-legged children—all of which think they are people too.
A pop culture junkie, she has been known to have entire conversations in movie quotes and/or song lyrics.
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Thanks Bex and Books! :)
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