Guest Post with Jenn Lyons

Today I'd like to welcome Jenn Lyons to the blog. Jenn recently released the second book in her series, Blood Sin. That cover is smokin' hot! You can find Blood Sin on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and at worldweaverpress.com. And without further ado, here is Jenn:

When the first book in this series, Blood Chimera, was released, I remember discussing how we’d
categorize these books, what we’d call them. Labels and all that. I had assumed the books would be called urban fantasies, because they conformed to the main tropes in all the basic ways.

Werewolves? Sure. Vampires? You betcha! Alien cybertech fairies? Uh…what? Million-year-old global dinosaur conspiracies? Wait…I don’t know... Extra-dimensional Cthulian angels? WHAT?

Okay, yes. I guess that is a little weird.

(Hey, I watched a lot of X-Files when I was younger.)

But no! my editor said. These are paranormal mysteries.

My editor is wise. She realized what I hadn’t quite put my finger on even though I wrote the books -- at heart, these stories are mysteries, whodunit tales, filled with greed, revenge, and harsh vigilante justice.  Grudges and feuds going back centuries shape current events as individuals with lifespans stretching back millennia don't overlook the opportunity to get a little sweet, sweet retribution against their enemies.

Once my editor pointed it out, I realized just how deeply I’d embedded this idea of mystery into the series (I know, I know, since I wrote it, surely I’d have gotten the idea prior to finishing several books, right? But no…) On it’s most basic level, the Blood Chimera series operates on a tenet of ambiguity, on the idea that no mythology or folklore in human history will ever be completely accurate. You can’t visit a bookstore, read up on a particular culture’s mythology, and expect to understand the supernatural beings that inspired those mythologies or religions in the Blood Chimera universe.

Balor was never going to be a monster who literally had one eye, one arm, and one leg, no more than the Furies would literally be born of the blood spilled from castrated Uranus. In both cases, however, there are figures who really exist who could be said to have inspired these tales. Sometimes, in fact, a single figure is responsible for multiple mythologies in multiple cultures, such as is the case with Raven, who (in the Blood Chimera series anyway) frolics at the core of myths involving the Norse god Loki (hey, come on, you knew Loki HAD to be maran, right?)

What I like best about this situation is it means that characters can be mistaken. People can believe something because it’s in their cultural background to do so, rather than because it is in fact the truth. Faith, belief, and superstition all have a place in this universe.

Everything is allowed. Nothing is forbidden. And most of all, nothing is what it seems.

***

Everything is permitted… and everyone has their price. Zander Sin is the bad boy of rock-n-roll, known for his wealth, his temper tantrums, and his love of hedonism, but to K&R expert and newly born maran vampire Jackson Pastor, Zander Sin is something else: murderer, monster, and kidnapper. After Zander’s Whore of Babylon tour comes to Los Angeles, Jackson also learns that Zander Sin has a grudge with Jackson’s family that goes way beyond money or power, and stretches all the way back to ancient Rome.

Zander may be on everyone’s hit list, human and supernatural alike, but when Jackson learns that Zander’s keeping his younger sister Monika prisoner, he finds himself face-to-face with the most objectionable of outcomes: being forced to help Zander Sin get what he wants. Even if it means Jackson may have to betray everyone he loves to do it.

***

Jenn Lyons lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband, three cats and a lot of opinions on anything from Sumerian creation myths to the correct way to make a martini. At various points in her life, she has wanted to be an archaeologist, anthropologist, architect, diamond cutter, fashion illustrator, graphic designer, or Batman. Turning from such obvious trades, she is now a video game producer by day, and spends her evenings writing science fiction and fantasy. When not writing, she can be found debating the Oxford comma and Joss Whedon’s oeuvre at various local coffee shops.

Introducing "Blood Chimera" by Jenn Lyons

I catch myself gushing often about my publisher, World Weaver Press, because they put out some really wonderful books. Their latest release is Blood Chimera by Jenn Lyons. The cover is just spot-on, and the blurb leaves me dying to read it. Speaking of blurbs...

Some ransoms aren’t meant to be paid. Kidnap and Ransom negotiation used to be straightforward. The bad guys kidnap someone, and K&R expert Jackson Pastor negotiates their release, skillfully traversing a maze of bloodthirsty monsters: criminals, terrorists, police, and especially the FBI. But that was before he met real bloodthirsty monsters.

When Jackson Pastor arrives in Los Angeles to help a new client recover his kidnapped wife, he finds himself dropped in the middle of a 500-year-old war between rival European and Mexican vampire clans, a conflict that threatens to escalate into a full-on public gang war. Worse, Jackson hasn’t been brought to Los Angeles to be a negotiator. His new boss wants to turn him into an assassin. With Jackson about to be caught in the middle of a clan war, his only hope of escape may lie with a secret FBI monster-hunting task-force led by a very dangerous, eccentric wizard. Which could be a problem, since Jackson’s a monster himself.

And here's a sample from Blood Chimera:

“How are you feeling, Mr. Pastor?”

I looked down at myself. I seemed to be hale and hearty enough, with all the right number of limbs in all the right places. My ribs didn’t ache when I breathed and my arm wasn’t swollen. I felt great, but I looked ready to play one of the walking dead. “Like I need a bath,” I told him. “And clothes would be nice.” There’s nothing quite like being naked and filthy in front of a lot of people who aren’t, to make you all self-conscious about it.

He nodded. “You’ve looked better.”

“Why do you have me in a cage?” I shook my head. “What happened?”

“I would think the reasons for the cage would be obvious. You don’t remember?”

“No, of course I don’t remember. I was Tez’s prisoner and then--” I looked over at the carcass in the corner. I swallowed. “Who did that?”

“You did.” Darius said as he took a swig of his beer. “You also wrecked one of my vans.” He pointed to an unmarked black van over in the garage area. The back doors were hanging awkwardly and the metal was twisted. Great gouges had been raked into the door and sides as if something had tried to smash its way out with some kind of very sharp ram.

I blinked at that. “That--that couldn’t have been me. I didn’t--”

“Oh, you very much did. We had a hell of a time getting you back here. We were lucky you were stunned by the explosions, and even luckier that we had tranq darts. That--” he pointed to the rotting, fly-infested pile of flesh using the long black feather. “--used to be a pair of goats. Juan thought you might revert if we fed you something. As it happens, he was right.”

I felt sick to my stomach, and, although I certainly wasn’t going to mention it to Darius, a bit peckish.

Goat wasn’t as filling as human.

***

Blood Chimera is available in trade paperback and ebook via Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Kobo.com, and other online retailers, and for wholesale through Ingram. You can also find Blood Chimera on Goodreads.

***

Jenn Lyons lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband, three cats and a lot of opinions on anything from Sumerian creation myths to the correct way to make a martini. At various points in her life, she has wanted to be an archaeologist, anthropologist, architect, diamond cutter, fashion illustrator, graphic designer, or Batman. Turning from such obvious trades, she is now a video game producer by day, and spends her evenings writing science fiction and fantasy. When not writing, she can be found debating the Oxford comma and Joss Whedon’s oeuvre at various local coffee shops.