Arial will be awarding a $15 Amazon or Barnes & Noble Gift Card (winner's choice) to a randomly drawn commenter during this tour and her NBtM Tour. Also, at every stop a randomly drawn commenter will be awarded a 5-Star Short Story eBook, Romance Trading Card set & signed Bonded By Blood series post card. To be entered for a chance to win, leave a comment below, and to increase your chances of winning, visit other tour stops and leave comments there.
Bio:
Arial Burnz has been an avid reader of both paranormal and fantasy
fiction for over thirty years. With bedtime stories filled with unicorns,
hobbits, dragons and elves, she had no choice but to craft her own tales,
penning to life the many magical creatures roaming her mind and dreams. And
with a romantic husband who's taught her the meaning of true love, she's
helpless to weave romance into her tales. Now she shares them with the world. Arial
Burnz lives in Rancho Cucamonga, California, with her husband (a.k.a. her
romance novel hero)—who is also a descendent of Clan MacDougal—along with their
dog and two cats.
Driven by the desire to have the true love she's experienced in her
dreams, Monika Konrad uses her
magical skills to weave a love spell during the waxing of the moon. As if in
response, a strangely familiar and handsome Scotsman is looking to settle in
their village. But the werewolf stalking Monika has other ideas about who her
love interest should be.
Broderick
MacDougal is drawn to the powerful witch by a familiar force and he makes the
raven-haired wise woman his next pursuit to unravel this mystery of why she
reminds him so much of his late wife, Davina. However, there are other
supernatural forces surrounding her, exposing Rick to a darker side of this
deal he made for immortality...and this enchanting nymph may be his salvation.
Broderick's quest for answers causes a chain of events that starts a
witch hunt, dooming both him and Monika to the fiery stake of judgment. And
through these trials, they learn the Church has a new ally who is hunting down
the members of the Army of Light.
This venture into my Bonded By
Blood Vampire Chronicles started over twenty years ago when I wrote Midnight Conquest, Book 1. I created
Broderick MacDougal to be completely opposite of any other vampire I’d read
about at the time. He loves immortality, is a complete rogue and womanizer,
he’s six-foot-three, has flaming red hair and is a Scotsman through and
through.
Even today, most vampire stories are contemporary. There are very few set
in historical periods. Kate Pearce has her Tudor
Vampire Chronicles (Love them!) and a few books here and there have a
single story set in the past. Bonded By Blood starts in the early 1500s of
Scotland with Books 1 & 2. Each book thereafter is approximately 100 years
apart until we reach the 21st Century in Book 6. Makes researching
history a pain in the tushie, but makes for an interesting series.
Through the years, when I had to put my writing aside, I had jotted down
ideas for other vampire stories. But in 2006 when I took out Midnight Conquest to rework it,
Broderick MacDougal (the hero of my novel) told me all those other stories were
his and needed to be part of a series.
Midnight
Conquest was a romp into the traditions of vampires and their associations with
Gypsies and it’s the establishment of the overarching storyline for the series.
Broderick travels among the band of Gypsies, to hide his immortality, when he
meets Davina, the heroine. He’s a rogue and brute and is absolutely transformed
by her and her daughter, Cailin, a toddler. Both of them remind him why he
became immortal to begin with—for the sake of family. He sacrificed having his
own family to gain immortality (my vampires cannot have children) in order to
seek revenge for the slaughter of his brothers and their families.
I’d fallen in love with Cailin as a toddler, so I felt her story needed
to be told next, so I inserted Midnight
Captive. This story was never part of the original plan, but it allowed me
to build the rest of the foundation I was planning for the premise of the entire
series. Broderick has his own side story, where I explain my vampire lore in
more detail and reveal the prophecy only briefly mentioned in Book 1. During
this unveiling, Cailin and James are in their own whirlwind of an adventure
with Broderick’s age-old enemy, Angus Campbell. Plus we’ll get to see James and
Cailin have their love story.
Jump forward by almost a hundred years (1636), and we’re at the tail end
of the witch trials sweeping across Europe in Midnight Hunt. I wanted to add more creatures and lore to my
paranormal world, enriching the element of vampires, so this book has
werewolves and witches, and explains the reason why vampires and werewolves are
enemies.
Excerpt:
Since most of your visitors are probably not familiar with the series,
I’ll include an excerpt from Book 1, Midnight
Conquest. Keep in mind that my vampires can hear the thoughts of others and
feel their emotions. Additionally, they have a limited influence on a person’s
memories, implanting thoughts and transferring emotions. Davina and Broderick
initially meet at the beginning of the book when she is thirteen years old. The
Gypsies came to their village and Broderick read her fortune. She quickly
developed a girlish crush on him, but his kind image is what she held onto
through the years of her abusive marriage, which ended with the death of her
husband. Nine years later, after their first meeting, the Gypsies have returned
and Davina is now a woman grown. Broderick is once again, reading her palm,
while he is seeing images in her mind.
“I see
blossom oil in a glass vial.” His smile broadened. “Intimate places are touched
by this fragrance,” he whispered as he saw her touch the valley between her
breasts, the two sensitive skin patches behind her knees. Broderick opened his
eyes and breathed in deep through his nose. “A fragrance I smell coming from
you, lass.”
Fire
flew to her cheeks and warmth emanated from her.
He
settled his eyes upon her square neckline, where she had dabbed her rose oil,
to linger before they traveled up to her sapphire eyes. Without releasing her
gaze, he dipped the thumb of his free hand into a bowl of oil heated by a
candle.
She
tried to pull away once more, but he refused to let her go. “For what is the
oil used?” Her voice trembled in spite of her efforts to keep it steady.
“The oil
makes the lines upon your hand easier to read,” he explained, and he smoothed
the warmth over her palm, each stroke of his thumb slow and deliberate.
The
sound of Davina’s heartbeat quickened. Broderick sensed a hunger blossom inside
her, and her eyes roamed over his neck and shoulders. Those swirling emotions
diluted the last remnants of fear and became a mixture of curiosity and desire.
Davina struggled to maintain a slow even breath, fighting the urge to pant. She
wondered what his body pressed to hers would be like; feeling his weight upon
her and hearing him call her name, his voice thick with desire.
Even
with his eyes open, his mind flooded with her erotic images, which joined with
Broderick’s own recollection of his dream. He could taste her when he examined
her mouth; could feel her sliding down his shaft when his eyes traveled over
her curvy figure. Seeing the erotic images she entertained in her mind,
mimicking the dream, was his undoing.
With a
groan, he dashed around the table, and before she could gather her wits, he
pulled her to her feet, wrapping her in his embrace and crushing her arms
between them. Davina’s hands upon his chest spread warmth over his body. The
wild thumping of his heart beneath her palms matched her own heart’s cadence,
pounding in his ears. Davina stared up at him with parted lips, full and
tempting, begging to be tasted, and his mouth descended upon hers. With a
dexterity that surprised him, she dodged him.
“Stop!”
Amusement
played havoc with his features and he eased the tension of his embrace just
enough to allow Davina some breathing room. His voice purred, “Stop? You are
ripe and ready, lass. What say we indulge in each other in a more private
atmosphere?”
Davina
stepped out of his embrace and cracked her hand against his cheek.
“What
in—” Broderick’s brow scrunched in confusion, and then smoothed as he tipped
his head back and hearty laughter poured out of his mouth, his fists planted on
his hips. Oh, I like her!
She
stammered back, speechless, and her mouth fumbled with what to say. Before she
could begin her insults, Broderick snaked his arms around her again. Davina
struggled, pushing her fists against his broad chest still rumbling with his
laughter. After much effort she found her tongue. “Let me be, you— you—!”
“Brute?”
he supplied, unable to keep from chuckling at her passionate display. “Or am I
more appropriately a—”
“An
animal! That’s what you are!” She pushed against him with all her might. “Let
me—!”
He
hadn’t meant for her to fall. He just released her as she wanted and before he
could think to snatch her hand, the force of pushing against him landed her
right on her bottom.
Davina
sat on the ground, dumbfounded, staring up at him. His arms folded across his
chest, Broderick smiled down at her for a moment before stretching out a
helping hand. Davina refused to take the offered help and rose to her feet
unaided, dusting the dirt from her skirts and hands in furious gestures. His
continuing flutter of laughter deepened the furrow of her brow.
When she
faced him, they stared at each other in silence—his face sparkling with
amusement; hers twisted in agitation. The fires of her temper were so easy to
stoke, he couldn’t resist teasing her. He nodded toward the offering basket on
the table.
She
gawked for a moment then gasped. “How dare you ask for contributions when you
have done nothing but manhandle me!” Picking up the basket, she threw it at
him.
He
ducked with ease and chuckled. “Methinks if you had gone with me to more
private quarters, you would have been more charitable.”
Fury
trembled throughout Davina’s body and he knew she caught his twofold meaning.
With a huff, she stormed out of the tent.
Broderick is indeed a cad, but the beauty of this story is how Davina
doesn’t give him what he wants when he’s behaving so. What starts out as a
quest for information ends up being the chink in Broderick’s armor that he’s
built to protect his heart and turn to immortality in the first place. I hope
you enjoy his and Davina’s transformation in Midnight Conquest.
Midnight Eclipse is next in
line. Here’s the blurb:
Broderick
MacDougal follows the familiar yearning of his soul to the captain of a mercantile
vessel who is as seductive as a siren at sea–and she is just as deadly. The
world of the supernatural opens to Broderick when he is thrown into the midst
of an ancient war between shape-shifting pirates.
Born into a race of Norse werewolves, Celina Hunter and her brothers are the seeking
the coveted Lunar Eclipse Ring…the deadly mate to the Solar Eclipse Ring. Both
divine items created by the Norse Gods have the power to unite or destroy the
two werewolf clans. She knows all too well the dangers of trusting anyone other
than her two brothers. And yet the survival of her werewolf pack hinges on
trusting the strangely familiar Broderick MacDougal, a natural enemy of her
kind. Enemy or not, Celina slips under the spell of this vampire’s promises of
eternal love, gambling with all she holds dear.
Broderick and Celina are bound by a curse, but having
come this far through the centuries, Broderick is not about to risk his chance
at having his soul mate for eternity. The price, however, may be more than
Celina is willing to pay as there is more at stake than just her immortal soul.
I bring in the Norse pantheon with this book, showing that there are not
only other supernatural creatures in the world, but there are other theologies
that govern them. I hope to have Book 4 published in the Spring of 2014, but
we’ll have to see how things are going with our remodel and the selling of our
house. I’ll be taking a break from writing after I’m back from Jimmy Thomas’s Romance Novel Convention in Las Vegas
(August 7-11, 2013) and focusing on getting our house fixed up to sell or rent.
Then we hope to be moved out by Christmas. *crossing fingers* Lots of changes!
I’ve been penning tales since I was in second grade, but I hadn’t
considered myself officially a writer until my twenties, when I started writing
full-time and completed Midnight Conquest.
At the time, I’d had several newspaper and magazine articles published as well
as a few children’s magazine articles.
Yes, I am a full-time writer, cover designer and audio book recorder, and
I do it all from my home office. At present, my day consists of marketing,
marketing, marketing, writing, writing, and audio book recording. LOL
Occasionally I’ll design a cover or two for my publisher or do some freelance
graphics for authors, either book covers or web images (e.g., blog or website
headers, signature blocks, Twitter backgrounds, etc.). I’m usually at the
computer at 8 a.m. and I’m in bed somewhere between 12 a.m. and 2 a.m. On rare
occasions, I’ll be in bed by 10 or 11 p.m.
Not sure I really have a quirk. Years ago, I had to have my two-beer buzz
to feel motivated to write. Now I have to hunker down and focus because I have
too many ideas and I can only write one story at a time. I have something like
24+ stories outlined and ready to be written…no joke. I’ll never want for
ideas, that’s for certain. As a certified hypnotherapist, I learned that
writer’s block is caused by the conscious mind arguing with the subconscious
mind. All our story ideas come from the subconscious, so when we don’t let that
run free, it shuts down. Between knowing that and my husband helping me
brainstorm all my stories, I don’t ever have to worry about getting writer’s
block. Is that a quirk?
A veterinarian, until I discovered I was no good around needles. Then I
wanted to be in the military, which I did (six years in the USAF and a Desert
Storm Veteran). I eventually became a software instructor and was paid for
about fifteen years to write training manuals, so for almost twenty years now,
I’ve been a paid writer. Only as of 2011 have I been paid to write fiction. I
also was an editor for two years, but no time for that now. In between, I
dabbled in alternative medicines (e.g., herbal remedies, hypnotherapy and Reiki
healing), however, that wasn’t paying the bills as much as I enjoyed it. All
that experience, though, helps me be able craft realistic characters and I have
the skills to self-publish my novels with little to no money, so I’m in a great
place. I now have my dream job.
Over twenty years ago, I chose the name MacDougal for my main character.
At the time, I had been married to my first husband and living in Europe. My
now-husband and love of my life encouraged me to get my writing back out, and
it turns out his family are actually descendants
of Clan MacDougal. Meant to be? I think so!!
Thanks for the warning, Arial.
