99 cents Sunday - Saturday I, BATHORY, QUEEN OF BLOOD

Countess Erzsebet Bathory was real. She is history's notorious 'Blood Countess.' A sexual sadist and mass murderer, she believed bathing in blood was the secret of eternal youth. She killed hundreds of serving girls in order to bathe in their blood, but she also enjoyed torturing them. She was a human monster of that there is no question. But what if she was turned into a vampire and thus became immortal? What then?

That is what this novel is about. Her creator and then lover, Anton, does just that. And so an immortal blood monster begins to stalk the world!

AN EXCERPT:

"For the first few years, my sole focus was on you. There was no one I wished to be with more. But then, in time, something began to happen, to take hold of me. My worst fear was realized, for now, after so many years, I once again wished to kill. Not for feeds either, but for pleasure. For torturous delight! All the old urges were returning and I found myself powerless to do anything about them. 

Once, when you left to visit Jacques, I gave in to those murderous desires! Your coven had followed him to Brussels so you left me in the care of Lucerne. “Take good care of her,” you told her, and she promised she would. How were you to know what would happen? When I told her how I longed to hunt for prey, she looked thrilled. 

She confessed she liked doing that although she had never done what I had. You see, Anton, I had told her who I’d been in life! You eventually found that out and nearly destroyed me for lying. But in time it became just one more lovers’ quarrel. I soon discovered something new. It was more fun acquiring prey myself. Nothing gave me more pleasure than getting my own victims! Sometimes I’d go to their homes and gain entrance by asking if I could come in. A lady in distress, they thought, poor gallant fools—and so they asked me in. 

In a matter of moments, they were drained. Once, Lucerne and I went through five adult males. Handsome they were, naked and drained..."

***

 5 stars! A blood-soaked rendition of the fictional life of a real-life multiple murderer, history's 'Countess Dracula'

5 stars! Vampires and blood baths!

Solid Gothic horror from Gill.

Amazon 

99 cents Nov 20-26

UPDATE ON NEW BOOK ABOUT THE BLOOD COUNTESS!

The darkest published fiction I have written is my Blackstone Vampires Series. I have often said I don't know where all the darkness came from, but it just poured out of me. After I wrote Justine: Into the Blood (first novel in my new series) I thought, 'well, I'll go a little lighter now.' But then I started to write a novel about Erzsebat Bathory, The Blood Countess.

Why'd I do that? I'm still not sure. I always say, we write what is in us to write. I think that's true. With Bathory, I found her the most puzzling. How could a woman do what she is purported to have done? Hundreds of torture killings, bathing in blood--perhaps there is an exaggeration but let's face it, any country that prohibits the name of a noble personage being SPOKEN for a century after her death, has to have some reason for doing that. Really.

She had children, they stood by her, from what I read. A son-in-law pleaded for her. She had to have been very complex at the very least. I don't think she was ever unaware of what she was doing. Nothing I have read suggested that.

She just had the power to do what she wished. A sadistic sexual murderer with unlimited power! That was her story. As I have said she is the same Bathory in my telling, albeit one that is more aware and conflicted. But the horror is there.

I began to think about all my published longer fiction and I realized, it's all very dark. As for the first series, each novel in The Blackstone Vampires is darker than the preceding one. I guess--it was a given for me to go on to a novel about Bathory.

There is a great deal of eroticism in the story. Eroticism and horror easily go together. They are two elements of a whole. There are relationships that have both present.

Power may be central to the equation. Unlimited power and a loyal lover can help a monster do anything. Her rages continue in my novel, they fuel the violence. Regret cannot be permitted to take over because the rage is too strong. Her realization of that is her curse. It's all pretty complex.

The book's release has been delayed because of my husband's sudden death in September. However, I am going through it now and will be sending it on to editing and then it will go in Creativia's line up. I'm glad about that. My husband liked the book and, as always, encouraged me. 

So just hang on a little longer. Bathory and her madness will be worth waiting for!