G. D. Ogan and his Contemporary Erotic Paranormal Vampire Romance Series; Immortal Relations. A Sweeping Epic of Love, Power and Blood.

Please welcome G.D. Ogan, author of the vampire series, Immortal Relations, to my blog.  With three books already released, including Immortal Relations Coming Out and Immortal Relations Love and War, G.D. takes time to tell us about his writing life and shares an excerpt from his first book in the series, Immortal Relations.

Q: Can you tell us a little about yourself?

A: I’m a retired Air Force Major. I have a pair of graduate degrees unfortunately not in English or Literature. I’m also retired from a second “calling” as a psychologist with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice where I evaluated inmates for various treatment programs and in another area of work actually wrote treatment programs for overcoming addictions. 

Q: Did you ever imagine yourself writing novels? 

 A: In my youth I wrote articles on various long distance running events I participated in. Then, in the military, I did a great deal of technical writing and wrote treatment materials in my various jobs in the Texas Prison System. I also wrote many articles and sent pictures on car shows I attended. But if you had told me I would someday write adult paranormal-romance novels I would have laughed. I didn't realize how encompassing the romance genre' was, or how extremely interesting most of the books were! I think men misunderstand what "romance" means, thinking it’s just a bunch of "mushy stuff." That is clearly the wrong “take” on such a diverse “genre.”

Q: You’ve released two books: "Immortal Relations" http://amzn.com/B006ZCBT6G and "Immortal Relations, Love and War" http://amzn.com/B00A4IEHL6 recently adding a third, “Immortal Relations Coming Out” http://amzn.com/B00G5BQS18 with all three available on Amazon, Kindle and B&N. Could you tell my readers what prompted you to write a series?
 
A: This is difficult. When I was little my mother said things that I didn't understand, things like "He is over there with that woman." At one point she even asked me what I would think if she divorced my father. I think all little boys are defensive of their mothers and I told her if he hurt her she should do so (at that age I clearly had no idea what divorce meant). As I grew I "forgot" all about that as they never divorced. Now that I look back on it, they probably stayed together "for the children" or in the case of our family "the child" since I had no siblings. Being young, I never thought it odd that they slept in separate rooms. 

A long time passed and I had retired from the Air Force and was working for the State of Texas about four and a half hours away from where they lived when I got the call that my father had died. Knowing my disabled mother needed care, I set in motion my retirement from my job in Huntsville, Texas and went to care for my mother who stated that she wished to remain in her home. I was the single care giver for her for the next five years. She had given me life and cared for me all those years, I felt honored that I could do something for her. 

After she passed away from Alzheimer's I had the daunting task of going through all the many, many large, government style file cabinets of my father’s that had papers back as far as the 1930s. When I finally got the last drawer cleaned out I had over 50 of the largest heavy duty trash bags full to overflowing. Looking into the last drawer I saw one small item. Yellow from age with coffee cup stains, an abandoned envelop was all that remained; grabbing it up, something inside “clicked.” Had I just thrown it in the trash, I might never have written a novel, let alone a series. But being curious, I opened the envelop finding a very old photograph of my father as a younger man standing in front of a strange looking building with a large clock face on the outside. I flipped the picture over and saw my father's handwriting, "Prague Czechoslovakia." I then looked closely and saw the feminine handwriting on the lower half of the photo which said, "I'll always be waiting here." 

Suddenly, like a bolt out of the blue, what my mother had said all those many years before came rushing back and the photo proved that my late father had had an affair while stationed in Czechoslovakia. This is what started me writing the novels and the photograph is shown on page two of "Immortal Relations"). My character travels to where "his" father had worked and had a tryst; there he meets a captivating lady. It doesn't take long before he realizes she isn't "normal," nor is love long in blooming between the two (and like they say, "love conquers all"). In the story my main character trades in his human life for that of a guardian vampire. 

Q: In what way is your vampire series different from other vampire stories? 

A:  These are not the "Bram Stoker" type of vampires, rather than attacking humans they are dedicated to protecting the innocent from the out of control type of vampires, human criminals and self-serving politicians seeking only continuation in power.

Q: That is a different concept. How do your vampires sustain their existence? Do they consume blood? If so, how to they get it?
 
A: The good vampires have corporations, one of which owns funeral homes. Under funerary law, the deceased's blood is drained (not by anything horrific but by professional means). . The blood is then mixed with a special anti-coagulant and quick frozen to be used by the good vampires. (I'm told this is a unique concept that I've added to the genre').

Q: The Twilight Series had her vampires hunt wildlife to get their blood. The Argeneau vampires of Lynsay Sands ran a blood bank, and those in Vampire Diaries combined killing humans, robbing blood-banks and hospitals as well as killing wildlife to survive. Are there any other unique aspects about your series?
 
A: In book one there is a good amount of "explicit togetherness" (sex) including the first known full vampire birth, followed by a human-vampire hybrid birth and there are multiple births of vampire in the second book. Also, there is "mind-meld" training involving tapping into the feelings and emotions between partners during sex and this can get rather "steamy." In book two, the explicit togetherness has already been established in book one, so it is less "in your face" in book two. There are multiple vampire births but that action is more discrete. Book three, "Immortal Relations Coming Out" has a shape shifter introduced who has a relationship starting with the human-vampire hybrid young lady.

Q: With so much sex in the series, do you feel readers will mistake it for erotica?

A:  My "Immortal Relations" was placed in the "Erotic/Erotica Section" by the local retail bookstore that carries it. I admit it does have, "explicit togetherness" (sex) including a ménage between the main male character and the two main female characters. However, these ladies are guardian vampires who have accepted the main male character into their "family," both having changed him into a vampire, at his request. 

My vampires don't harm humans or suffer the human hang-ups about sex so it’s more open and detailed in my first book http://amzn.com/B006ZCBT6G while my second book, "Immortal Relations, Love and War" http://amzn.com/B00A4IEHL6 has far less explicit sex (but still can upset the prudish). The first has been called non-stop action; however the second has far more action. Some may see book one as erotic, but it was not written to be that, rather it was to show that my vampires don't have the hang-ups that humans do about sex.

 There is an internal struggle going on within Gary, the recently turned male character who has to overcome his own reservations involving intimate relationships and all the training he gets called upon to help with.  If I were to compare it to any other author, I'd say it read a little like a Tom Clancy novel. The second book has the efforts of the vampires to stop a war between China and Russia before it goes nuclear, as well as overcoming evil terrorist and preventing ecological disasters. 

The third book in the series, "Immortal Relations, Coming Out" http://amzn.com/B00G5BQS18 is now available. The guardian vampires, having saved mankind from nuclear war, terrorist acts and ecological disasters, discuss "coming out" to the humans; however, it is decided that humans don't always respond logically when confronted with the unknown so the idea is partially shelved. But love is in the air as Gary's hybrid granddaughter meets a young, shape-shifter werewolf who helps the good vampires keep their secret. Washington's Marxist regime learns those who contributed to the defeat of Communist China's invasion of Siberia have set up a station in Southern Canada and attempts to destroy the group and its leader. 

Those evil efforts are thwarted and love between a Canadian Police Officer and one of Gary's full vampire daughters results in a wedding which thanks to the efforts of the President of the Russian Federation is held at the Hermitage in St Petersburg, the same venue where Gary and Maggie were married. Upon returning to Canada, the newlyweds decide upon a honeymoon trip to Las Vegas and there are animals that need help along the way there and back. A potential Extinction Level Event is discovered, yet the regime in Washington is unwilling to help so our guardian vampires call on other nations to get the job done. 

Q: Did you draw upon your military background in writing the series?

A: Definitely, in the first book, an evil vampire gang is thwarted in their attempted frontal assault on the guardian vampires' compound and a secondary attack on military units to gain "converts" and heavy weapons to use against the good vampires is foiled by Czech forces with the aid of our vampires. Then the guardian vampires gain the support of the British Army and Royal Marines to keep the evil vampires from capturing nuclear weapons, followed by Russian Federation troops crushing their attempt to steal biological weapons to be used to blackmail human governments into allowing the evil ones to feed unmolested. 

As you will see, I use the tactical and strategic knowledge gained during my military career in both books. The second picks up where the first leaves off by offering one of the heroes of the first book the chance to beat the cancer threatening his life by becoming a vampire himself.
  

Q: Do you use any “present day” threats or concerns within your series?

A: Absolutely. In the second book in the series, there is a terrorist attack that decapitates the leadership of the Russian Federation. Suddenly the human friend the guardians are offering their help to overcome his cancer is thrust into his county's leadership role. 

During an ensuing fight with the terrorists, he sees the benefits first hand in changing and accepts their offer of "conversion." However, timing is not always optimal and it quickly becomes apparent that rather than an isolated terrorist attack, what has happened was a prelude to an invasion of Siberia by Communist China seeking vast oil and mineral reserves as well as land for their burgeoning population. It takes all the skill and daring of our guardian vampires, aided by the newly converted President of Russia to keep the war from "going nuclear." Like they say, solve one problem and others will pop up and that is what happens when greedy, rogue OPEC ministers decide to use terrorists to stop the distribution of less expensive Russian Oil by setting off a low-yield dirty nuke to take out the pumping station and the oil fields themselves. 

After solving that problem, our guardian vampires decide to tackle two real-world threats, the failing cap over the Chernobyl Reactor, where they realize the side benefit of constructing a series of needed warrens for covens in a location no sane human would ever travel. Then the idea comes to Gary that they could safeguard humans from the (real-world) potential Extinction Level Event that the collapse of the reactor building at Fukushima, Japan has been called. With all the non-stop action it seems amazing that there could be the opportunity for additional full vampire offspring during this story but it does happen. 

Excerpt from Book One:

 The sky was starting to clear and looked as if the day would be clear and bright. At that time of morning, since it was Sunday, there were very few vehicles on  the road. My driver slowed to a stop and pointed out the Old Town Hall through his windshield. Then he said, "Hotel...very soon," and in seconds he had stopped his cab at the curb by  the hotel's front entrance. I got out with my bags and held out paper money and coins to pay for the trip. He took what he needed; I thanked him and waved as he drove off.

At the front desk, I arranged for a room and took the stairs to the third floor. I was still very early, but I wanted to start looking around, so I just dropped my bags by the bed, went back to the first floor and walked the short distance back to the Old Town Hall. The sidewalks were deserted; the only traffic I saw, as I walked, was a cab and an almost empty bus. Getting out my picture, I looked everywhere for other pedestrians, but it seemed too early, and I saw no one else anywhere in the area. I held the picture up high, walking around, and closely compared both the architecture and the angle from which the photograph had been taken. 

As I looked at the windows, I noted one that gave me a reflected view of the other side of the road. There, on the opposite side which had been empty only seconds ago, someone was suddenly standing; but I was sure there hadn't been anyone there a second before. Seeing her, dressed like a high fashion model, in a light blue, lacy, scalloped, and layered, yet shape-hugging haut-couture, dress, I gasped; My God she was stunningly beautiful! I'd seen pictures of "Hollywood starlets" and "super models" and I knew the Czechs had several of  these, such as the lovely Paulina Porizkova and Petra Nemcova, and I thought this had to be one of them. But just as suddenly as she appeared, she vanished! I thought she might have moved, and I'd missed it, so I turned to look and found myself starring into a pair of eyes with nearly black irises. 

Automatically, my head jerked back; the vision of loveliness I'd seen across the street was mere inches from me. She said, "Excuse me; I didn't mean to startle you!" Then she smiled the most brilliant smile I'd ever seen, my knees felt like rubber as I started to fall back, but her hand shot out, grabbing my arm to keep me upright. The power in her arm surprised me, and my heart raced, but I couldn't tell if it was from almost failing or the close proximity of such a beauty. After I felt like I could stand on my own, she introduced herself as Magdalena Dvora'k, saying she had seen me looking at a photograph and asked if I'd been to Prague before.

When I told her the picture was taken of my father standing near this building many years before, she asked to see it and I handed it to her. Without skipping a beat, she said "Doug Logan." If my legs had been rubber before, now they were Jelly! Dazed, I staggered back with her hand back on my arm, and I leaned against the wall of the building. Her gaze transfixed me as she looked deeply into my own brown eyes. It seemed as if she were God's own angel assigned to test and weigh my soul, but for how long I didn't know.

 Once I'd regained some composure I said, "How...how could you know my father's name?" 

FIND G.D. Ogan here:

blog site: http://immortalrelations.blogspot.com/ 

website on Amazon: http://amazon.com/author/guyogan 

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/guy-ogan/48/157/505/ 

Facebook: http://facebook.com/writervampire

Google+: http://plus.google.com/116481165364671791187/posts

Twitter: http://twitter.com/thecarphotoguy1 

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