Spotlight & Giveaway: When Life Gives You Vampires by Gloria Duke

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Gloria Duke to HJ!

Hi Gloria and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, When Life Gives You Vampires!

Hi!

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Curvy, twenty-five-year-old Lily Baines suddenly wakes up with fangs, a jones for A positive—and no recollection of how she got that way. Turns out, sexy four-hundred-year-old vampire Tristan Newberry accidentally turned her—and now, they’re both in big trouble. See, making a new vamp without permission is against Vampire Law—and punishable by death. Lily is absolutely furious with Tristan with getting her into this mess, but now she needs his help to survive. Literally. So, while they fight the old-world vampires—and fight their attraction for each other—Lily, as vampire, also has to fight her own deeply ingrained negative body image. Can she finally find a way to accept her body as it is now that it will never, ever change? And can she find her way to happily ever after with Tristan?

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

If you had asked me this at the beginning of my writing journey, I would have picked something funny. But now, I think my favorite line in the book is from the very end, when Lily and Tristan finally get together:

“And all at once, the body I’ve always thought was way too big seems much too small to contain my happiness.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• Not sure how “fun” it is, but this book is extremely personal for me. As someone who has struggled with negative body image, I really wanted to write about my journey to body acceptance—but I didn’t want to do it in a way that felt heavy or preachy. In Lily, a snarky but vulnerable (and hopefully lovable!) vampire, I found the perfect voice to tell that story.
• A lot of the action takes place in my old neighborhood in NYC.
• Some people write with music on. I write with the TV on, usually tuned to something that I’ve already seen with the sound down low, so it won’t be too distracting. I ended up writing a lot of When Life Gives You Vampires with Harry Potter marathons and Twilight marathons playing in the background…which could account for all the Twilight references.
• Like my heroine, Lily, I once worked as an overnight editor at a website.

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

Initially, Lily and Tristan are physically attracted to each other, but it’s much more than that. It’s really about them each, in a way, recognizing their equal. They’re both writers. They’re both smart and funny and extremely opinionated. They both think they’re always right. They’re really the perfect verbal sparring partners. And even though they often disagree—she’s a modern woman/vampire while he’s still caught up in the past—they absolutely love disagreeing with each other.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

Their first sex scene. Definitely their first sex scene.

It’s a scene where Lily is torn. She wants to be with Tristan, but she’s also very self-conscious about her body. I tried to be very real and raw with Lily’s feelings here, and in doing so, I had to get honest about some of my own body insecurities. Here’s an excerpt:

I stand before Tristan, naked from the waist up—save for an old stretched-out, nude-colored bra that does less than zero to enhance my bust. My belly and muffin tops are on full, unobstructed display.
Now, my desire for the vampire fights with my desire to shield my body from his view—and what I can’t help fearing will soon be the look of major disappointment in his eyes.
Impulsively, before he can see too much, I launch myself at him. Lips against lips. Chest against chest. Bare flesh against bare flesh.
Without missing a beat, Tristan eagerly explores my mouth with his tongue. His hand grazes the curvature of my hip and traces a tantalizing path up to my waist.
And I want to enjoy this, dammit. I want to enjoy being with Tristan. Only, as his fingers roam over my midsection, fresh thoughts of Raven Dupree invade my brain. And I start mentally comparing my body to hers all over again.
Tristan finds the fastenings at the back of my bra. But as he undoes the first hook and eye, I stiffen.
To his credit, he picks up on my reaction and stops. With his arms still encircling me, he breaks our kiss and pulls back a little to look me in the eye.
“Do you want this?”

Readers should read this book….

Because I hope it will make you laugh, make you think, and make you believe that EVERYONE is worthy of true love.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

Currently, I’m working on a second paranormal rom-com called Vampires Never Say Die. It takes place in the same paranormal universe as When Life Gives You Vampires, but in a different city (Los Angeles), with different characters. This one is an enemies-to-lovers story about a male vampire and a female vampire slayer, told from the slayer’s POV. It will be released in early 2024.

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: Paperback of When Life Gives You Vampires

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Excerpt from When Life Gives You Vampires:

Tristan tells me he’s parked in front of the building I exited, so we turn around and walk together back toward Cat’s.
Not wasting any time, I start in on my fact-finding mission. “So, what’s the real deal with sunlight?” I ask.
“Sunlight?”
“Vampires and sunlight,” I clarify. “Yes or no?”
He shakes his head. “Definitely no.”
So, not the answer I was hoping for.
“But…what about Forks?” I ask.
He looks at me curiously. “Forks are fine,” he says. “Spoons too. As long as they aren’t wooden and used to stake you through the heart.”
“No,” I say. “I mean Forks, Washington. Or other places where it’s cloudy. What’s the story with vampires and overcast days?”
Those blue eyes of his start to twinkle in amusement. “Lily,” he says. “Are you talking about Twilight?”
The question surprises me—until I remember that he’s a romance novelist. So, of course he’d know all about the popular franchise.
“Well, it’s not as if there’s a how-to manual on being a vampire that I can pick up at my neighborhood bookshop,” I say. “My resources are kind of limited. I’m doing the best I can here.”
Tristan stops walking, so I do the same. Then he fixes me with his gaze, a gaze full of concern and regret—and something else too. Something like what I saw when he looked at me on the train earlier tonight. And goddammit, even with everything this jugular-sucking jackass has done to me, I have the same reaction. I feel seen. Truly seen. It makes me light-headed and swoony and a little bit breathless.
“Make no mistake, Lily,” Tristan says. “Sunlight, even filtered through clouds, is absolutely lethal for vampires. So, unless you have a death wish, I recommend avoiding it at all costs.”
“Good to know,” I say.
“Glad to help.”
And because I don’t have a death wish, I break eye contact with him before my sex drive kicks into overdrive.
We start to walk again. A little slower this time. A little more in sync.
It takes me a moment to remember my next question.
“So, um…what about food?” I ask finally. “And drinks? Besides blood, I mean. Do vampires eat and drink?”
“We don’t require food or drink to survive,” he says with a shrug. “But it seems silly to deprive ourselves of life’s pleasures. Don’t you think?”
He smiles at me, and my mind involuntarily fills with a whole catalog of pleasures that have nothing to do with eating and drinking.
Jesus. Why does he have this effect on me?
I force my mind to refocus as we walk on.
“Okay, so, back there,” I say with a nod behind us, back toward the subway station. “You said you’ve been around for nearly four hundred years. So, how old were you when you became a vampire? Thirty? Thirty-five?”
“Twenty-three,” he replies.
I look at him doubtfully.
He shrugs again. “Life was a lot harder then. People looked older. Aged more quickly. But if I understand what you’re really asking,” he says, “rest assured. No matter how many centuries pass, you’ll still look as young and lovely as you do today.”
My heart stops—or it would if it were still able to beat.
Because even though I’d really like to air-drop his vampire ass onto a sun-drenched desert and watch from the safety of a daylight-proof helicopter while he burns or melts or evaporates or whatever, I can’t deny that a little thrill is rippling through my body right now at his compliment.
God, I hate Tristan Newberry. I really fucking do.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Book Info:

Bridget Jones for the vampire obsessed: fans of Olivia Dade, Tessa Bailey, and Julie Murphy will love to sink their teeth into this charming romantic comedy.

Single (plus size) vampire, desperately in search of a life.

Twenty-five year old Lily Baines is used to waking up hungover, overweight, and underemployed. Waking up with fangs? Not so much. But when a little light necking has more serious consequences than she ever imagined, Lily’s determined to get to the bottom of it, or die (again) trying.

Tristan hadn’t meant to turn Lily—it’s against vampire law—but now that she’s here, they need to team up to save both their hides. They strike an uneasy truce, fending off other vampires, Lily’s work-rival-turned-slayer, and her mother’s tone-deaf romance and fitness advice…all while Lily faces down her insecurities about the fact that she lives in a diet-obsessed world with a body that will never age, never die, and never change.

Falling for her maddeningly gorgeous sire? Easy. Surviving an ancient vampire Master determined to see her twice-dead? Piece of cake. But can Lily ever truly learn to love the woman she’ll be forever more?

Perfect for fans looking for:

a little Halloween spirit
body positive representation
enemies to lovers vibes
Book Links:  Amazon | B&N | iTunes | kobo |

Meet the Author:

Gloria Duke is a pen name for Gloria Ketterer, a WGA Award-winning radio writer, TV sitcom writer, and brand creative director. When Life Gives You Vampires is her first novel.
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