Marie Treanor: A Hero With Bite

The vampire Saloman, my hero, is evil. He kills without compunction; he drinks human blood; he wants to rule not just the vampire world, but humans too; and his first step in this takeover bid is to kill my nice but lonely heroine, Elizabeth.

What, you might ask, is heroic about any of that? Doesn’t he have any good points?

Well yes: he’s sexy. And he had charisma. He looks amazing, is awesomely strong and has a larger than life personality that both charms and overwhelms. Being several thousand years old, he’s had a lot of time to perfect his sexual technique. And he has a sense of humour.

What’s not to love?

Well, there’s all the other stuff about evil, blood drinking etc. Any nice heroine, however lonely, should be put off by all of that. And Elizabeth is repelled, to the extent that she plots to kill him - except when she’s with him and the sexy stuff seems more important.

In case you don’t know, I’m talking about my Awakened by Blood trilogy. The first two books, Blood on Silk and Blood Sin are already available, with the final part, Blood Eternal, scheduled for release in October. To explain a bit more, Elizabeth is an academic, researching vampire legends in Romania, when she accidentally awakens Saloman, who was betrayed and staked in the seventeenth century and is now released to extract revenge and assume world domination. To reach his full strength he needs the blood of his Awakener, Elizabeth.

I suppose it’s a bit risky to make a romance hero quite so wicked. But he’s a vampire, not a human with a dietary requirement, and I wanted him to exude that danger that so draws us to vampire stories. Saloman has it in spades, but also has enough appeal, enough mystery to keep Elizabeth guessing as to his true motives. She gets glimpses of his vulnerability and loneliness, odd moments of compassion and genuine emotion, and begins to think there is more to him – as indeed there is.

Not being human, Saloman doesn’t think like one. By his own lights, he isn’t evil. He merely has a plan and believes the end justifies the means. And under Elizabeth’s influence, his plans alter subtly. When it comes down to it, neither seems capable of killing the other. Although their ultimate aims are totally opposed, they become each other’s weakness as well as each other’s strength. The question becomes how will this affect the world?

Well, I’m not going to tell you that here – you’ll have to read the books :) . Instead, I have another question for you. How dangerous do you like your fictional heroes? And why do you suppose we love that danger so much when in real life, we’d run a mile? :) .

I’ll be happy to give away a copy of Blood on Silk or Blood Sin (winner’s choice) to one person who answers the questions or who makes some other comment.