Erin Lindsey | The Bloodbound Series

We are pleased to welcome the talented Erin Lindsey (also writing as E.L Tettensor) to Fresh Fiction today to discuss the first novel in a new fantasy series, THE BLOODBOUND. Thank you for joining us, Erin! We hear you are on a quest to write the perfect summer vacation novel. Can you tell us what qualities you think this perfect novel should have, and how THE BLOODBOUND offers that?

When I’m on vacation, I want a book that’s going to entertain the hell out of
me. I want to enjoy the book. Breathless action, sexy romance, and heroes you
can root for. That doesn’t mean I want fluff – I still want to think, to worry
for the characters. I still want to cry. But I don’t want my poolside reading
material to leave a cold lump of lead in my belly. I’m on vacation, man. I’m
trying to have fun.

That’s what I was going for with THE BLOODBOUND, and I think the best way to get it is to focus on the characters. I wanted them to be flawed and believable, but also charismatic, so that you don’t just cheer for them, you inhabit them. You feel their pain, their fear, their desires. It’s meant to be escapism in the best sense, an experience that transports you, but doesn’t leave you feeling shit about the world. I think THE BLOODBOUND has a lot of raw human emotion in it, and readers can relate to that. It makes the action, the romance, more tangible. Plus, I had so much fun writing it, I feel like that has to come through. Lady Alix Black, protagonist of THE BLOODBOUND, is lethal, strong, and cunning, but she also has an emotional side. Would you talk a bit about how her relationships with the two important men in her life reveal both the hard and soft sides of her personality?

Alix can definitely be emotional – volatile, even – but I don’t necessarily
think of that being her soft side. Actually, she can be a real hardass when
she’s worked up, and you definitely see that in her relationships. There’s a
particularly difficult scene with Liam, her first love, where she basically
attacks him because she just doesn’t know any other way to cope with her guilt.
She’s hurting him and she knows it, so she gets defensive to the point where
she’s actually on the offence. It’s an emotional scene, because up to that
point, Liam has always been the one to draw out her soft side, to soothe her in
a way that nobody else can. But in this scene, we’re painfully reminded of the
power dynamics between them. Alix is firmly in the driver’s seat and she knows
it, and as a result she lets the hard side of her personality get away from her
a bit. And of course she regrets it later, bitterly.

With Erik, the roles are reversed. Not only is he the king, he’s also the most
polished, charismatic person Alix has ever met. She defers to him in a way that
she doesn’t with anyone else, and not just because he’s the king, but because
she admires him deeply. Being around Erik puts Alix back on her heels a bit, and
we see much more of her self-doubt. But at the same time, she’s also his
bodyguard, so it’s important that she conveys strength in front of him. She
needs to be professional, confident. She needs to inspire confidence in him. So
it’s tough for her for manage those competing dynamics, and she trips up every
now and then.

You also write fantasy mysteries as E.L. Tettensor. What is it like to balance these two sides of your writing career? In some ways, it’s a real challenge. The Lenoir mysteries are dark and cynical and centre around an anti-hero with a brutally frank inner monologue. Meanwhile, the Bloodbound series is full of high adventure and romance. They couldn’t be more different. Shifting gears between those two series can be a bit tricky.

On the other hand, I find it quite liberating. I get to indulge completely
different sides of my personality, completely different interests in terms of
storyline and characters. It’s difficult sometimes, but it’s a lot of fun.

You seem to have a passion for travel, and you have visited fifty countries on five continents. How does your travel impact the stories you create?

Travel influences my writing a lot. Any fantasy writer will tell you that
visiting castles and dungeons and wandering through the cramped, twisty streets
of an old European city helps feed the muse. You don’t just know what things
look like – you learn what they sound like, what they taste like. You know how
the cool, pitted iron of a cannon feels under your fingers. What it smells like
when you descend into a 600 year-old wine cellar. Adding those other senses to
your writing enriches things for the reader, makes the experience more whole and
authentic.

I think my experience has been a bit unconventional, though, in the sense that many of the places I’ve visited have been for work, and in my day job, that means some of the most remote corners of the earth. So there’s a lot of African influence in my writing. In the Lenoir series especially, but also in the Bloodbound series (though admittedly most of that comes up in Book 2, THE BLOODFORGED.) Since THE BLOODBOUND is the first in a new series, could you tell us what we can expect next and what else you might be working on? Next up for me is MASTER OF PLAGUES, the second installment of the Nicolas Lenoir series, which will be out in February. After that, THE BLOODFORGED. I’m just wrapping up that manuscript now. So a pretty packed schedule until at least 2016! It’s a nice place to be. Thanks again to Erin for being our guest! Readers, learn more about THE BLOODBOUND, available for purchase today.