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:
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