In her third adventure, Carole Nelson Douglas's Delilah Street, Paranormal Investigator, is a busy woman, what with a full house of rogue supernaturals, a werewolf mobster wanting her to exorcise the ghost of the daughter he killed, and her partner in a coma following a brutal vampire interrogation. And the setting? Where else but post-apocalyptic 2013 Las Vegas....
'I loved reinventing "Sin City" from the Underworld up to emphasize the razor- thin line between life and living death when werewolf, vampire, and "Immortality" mobs collide,' says Nelson Douglas. 'I needed a fresh take on paranormals, so my FBI guy can dowse for the dead, Mexican drug lords smuggle illegal zombies, and classic Hollywood film noir characters appear as "celebrity" zombies. I became "the Urban Fantasy bartender" when my protagonist, Delilah Street, invented an Albino Vampire cocktail at the Inferno Hotel Bar, and each book continues the tradition. Brimstone Kiss, anyone?'
She says the popularity of vampires is due to the fact they have always been sex symbols. 'Bram Stoker's Dracula was a bloodsucking fiend, but his novel exposed the sexual thirsts of Victorian women under the guise of their victimization by this undeniable force. Later, Bela Lugosi's film Dracula, a seducer in white tie and tails, furthered the trend. Vampires are now the romantic, conflicted outsider, walking the tightwire between sex and death.'
Nelson Douglas' writing schedule has parallels with her days as a newspaper reporter, when she news-gathered in the mornings and wrote on deadline in the afternoons. Now mornings are spent reading the papers and going to the gym, then managing email and web matters, while the afternoons are devoted to writing. A cat-lover, she only leaves what she calls her 'quiet "catcave" to attend book conventions.
'My husband does the feeding, keeping me sane and pester-free, but I'm getting my first laptop so I can sometimes work next to my couch-potato cats. Some writers believe they have a literal muse. If so, mine must be feline: mysterious, sage, playful, and, like Midnight Louie, packing concealed shivs in a velvet glove.'
Liz Jensen is the author of six previous novels, including the acclaimed THE NINTH LIFE OF LOUIS DRAX, and ARK BABY, a New York Times Notable Book. Her work has been nominated three times for The Orange Prize and has been translated into more than 20 languages. THE RAPTURE is currently in development as a major motion picture.
