Update: Rosemary Laurey

More years ago than she cares to remember, Rosemary Laurey left her native England to teach her way around the world. She didn't get very far. In Turkey she met the love of her life, a handsome US Air Force captain from South Carolina. Since then, she's raised three sons, taught regular and special education, worked as a tutor and educational assessor, moonlighted as a bookseller and somehow managed to get a master's degree in her spare time.

She now writes full time and shares an empty nest in German Village in Columbus, Ohio with her husband, George.

An Interview with Rosemary Laurey

PNR: WALK IN MOONLIGHT, the first book in your Vampires in Moonlight trilogy, was set in your native England. In your second book, RAPTURE IN MOONLIGHT, Kit and Dixie have moved to the U.S., to German Village, in Columbus, Ohio where you currently reside. Is it fun to set tales in familiar settings.

Rosemary L.: Yes! In fact I think I'd find difficulty in writng about an unfamiliar setting. Seems to me "setting" is far more than a geographic location, but also each place's distictive atmosphere and ambiance, and it's hard to get that from a book or video.

PNR: Your vampires are the type that need to walk on native soil to have maximum ability. Since Dixie is a fledgling, the move makes sense, however I find it somewhat amusing that they move to Ohio, rather than her native South Carolina, considering her reaction to being called a “Yank” in book one.

Rosemary L.: She learns to cope <g>. Also remember, as a fledging, Dixie can not go out in bright sunlight very much - a real problem if she were in SC not much of a problem in OH.

PNR: Very true and we do discover that vampire colonies are territorial. This is part of the reason that Kit’s good friend Justin Corvus is visiting with them, correct?

Rosemary L.: Yes, he comes to establish boundaries for Kit and Dixie's "territory". Or as Dixie sees it: Justin and Vlad divvy up HER country between them. It makes sense, but still irritates her.

PNR: Justin isn’t to thrilled to be going hat in hand to his old rival Vlad. There’s bad blood between the two of them? Give us a little background on Justin.

Rosemary L.: Justin was born in Roman Britain of a Roman father and a Iceni mother. As an adult, Justin returns to Britain as a regimental surgeon, he strikes up a friendship with Gwyltha - a druid priestess and healer. When he's killed during the ill-fated expedition of the Ninth Hispania, she turns him vampire. They have an 'on again, off again' relationship over the centuries until some time in the 1860s when Gwyltha forms a bond with Vlad Tepes on his well-documented visit to the UK. (Gwyltha's home territory is Yorkshire, and it so happens Vlad came to Whitby in the Demeter.)

PNR: Dixie has established a little shop called the Vampire Emporium, which sells vampire related curiosities. This is where Justin meets Stella Schwartz. How does Justin react to her?

Rosemary L.: He's bowled over on sight. -- I LOVE it when that happens, nothing is more fun than having a strong man come unraveled!

PNR: Tell us about Stella. How does she respond to Justin?

Rosemary L.: She's attracted, but doesn't have any time for the complications a man would add to her already overloaded life.

PNR: Stella has a child that needs stability in his life. How does this affect Stella and Justin’s relationship?

Rosemary L.: Well, any couple, mortal or vampire, trying to find time alone with a nine-year-old in the house has a bit of a challege on hand.

PNR: Agreed <g>. What is Sam’s reaction to Justin?

Rosemary L.: Leery and cautious at first. In fact he puts Justin through the equivalent of a schoolboy's inquisition, but later warms to Justin and opens up to him. This relationship develops further in MYSTERY IN MOONLIGHT. (note here: There are some interesting times ahead, especially when Sam hits the teenage years. Can't you just hear him: "other kid's Moms let them, it's only because you're a vampire" or "If I only had a mortal Mom, she'd let me!")

PNR: Oh yeah, and no use telling them not to wait up for him, either <g>. This book deals with gang violence, which frankly is a lot scarier than your vampires. In fact, Kit has taken it upon himself to rid the neighborhood of petty crime. Stella and her son live in a low income, high risk neighborhood. This becomes a problem. In defense of Stella, Justin, one of the colony’s founders breaks one of his own rules. Now he faces a Tribunal hearing. What does this mean to the couple?

Rosemary L.: The very real possibilty is Justin will be expelled from the vampire colony, forced into 'exile' so to speak, and as a result will have to survive without the networking and support of the colony. This would separate Justin and Stella. However, she is NOT the sort of woman to sit still and let that happen to the man she's committed herself to.

PNR: While Justin’s friends look for a way to get Justin off the hook, so the pair can be together, he is approached by Vlad, who needs to have his favor returned. He’s inherited a couple of ghouls he needs to pawn off on someone else. What is the story on these two females, and why is Vlad so eager to relinquish responsibility for them?

Rosemary L.: Vlad and the other vamps see the ghouls as helpless and in need of protection. Vlad's colony is all-male and in his opinion no place for a couple of defenseless females. He asks Kit and Dixie to take them under their wings, but as it turns out in MYSTERY IN MOONLIGHT, when Angela and Jane recover from the trauma of their violent creation (details in that book), they turn out to be neither helpless nor defenseless.

PNR: Surely not! What fun would that be? Now as vampires converge on Ohio for Justin’s hearing, Thomas Kydd, Kit’s contemporary and friend, arrives to lend a hand. This sets the stage for MYSTERY, which casts Kydd in the hero’s role. Tell us about Tom’s role in this story, a bit about his situation in MYSTERY IN MOONLIGHT. He becomes involved with one of the ghouls?

Rosemary L.: Tom falls hook line and sinker for Angela, she's very much attracted to him, but chafes at his 'protection' and is determined to find her past. Her stand is she can't and won't commit to him before she knows who she is... and in delving backwards, she encounters a particularly nasty individual (actually more than one).

PNR: What is the expected release date for MIM?

Rosemary L.: November 2003

PNR: Speaking of irons in the fire, I understand you will also be doing a duet novel, with a fellow Ohio vampire author, J. C. Wilder. To be published by LTDBooks, the title is PARADOX, and your story is about a dragon named Arragh. Tell us about FLY WITH A DRAGON.

Rosemary L.: I've always found it interesting to compare the difference between western and eastern dragon myths. On one hand, the ravagers and firebreathing destroyers and on the other, the givers of wisdom, benign, and protective of humans - and shapeshifters into the bargain.

Plus, so many western dragon stories involve the virgin tied or chained to the rocks or a tree, well, heck you've a bondage story there before you start :-). So, my poor Myfanwy is left for the dragon to carry off, and carry her off he does, to a fate soooo much better than death.

PNR: Last fall during a book signing where the authors were arranged by topic rather than alphabetically, readers discovered how convenient it could be to find
the type of books they liked all in one place. A germ of an idea formed among the autors of "vampire's row" to create a collective website where readers could find great vampire reads. The idea recently became reality. Tell us about The Vampire Vixens.

Rosemary L.: The Vampire Vixiens (www.vampire-vixens.com) is the collective home of six vampire writers, we have contests, news of coming and current releases, and an email loop.

PNR: What is next for Rosemary Laurey?

Rosemary L.: I've a short story (another dragon) in the works for LTD, and a novella for Ellora's Cave. After that, I'm thinking about what I want to do next. I have several ideas itching the back of my brain. Also there is a minor subplot in Mystery with Jane (the other ghoul) and a police detective that might want to get expanded...

Vampires in Ohio?

Justin Corvus, one-time regimental surgeon to the Ninth Roman Legion Hispania, present-day physician, and vampire, travels to Ohio to visit his fellow vampires Dixie LePage and Kit Marlowe -- and to negotiate with his old adversary, Vlad Tepes, to assure their safe territory.

While visiting German Village, Just meets Stella, a blue-collar, singel mother, who doesn't have a lot of time for men and even less for a rich, Brit doctor who (as she sees it) is going home soon and leaving her.

But neither Justin or Stella counted on the attraction between them, and nor could they forsee the act of violence that alters their lives forever, and puts Justin afoul of the vampire code he helped establish.

This title has been rereleased as "Love Me Forever" in the
2 in 1 novel:

KISS ME FOREVER /
LOVE ME FOREVER
(Forever series: Books 1 and 2)
Zebra Books
September 1, 2004
ISBN: 0821776614
352 pages

Also by Rosemary Laurey:

LTDBooks
A 2 in 1 collection
"Fly with a Dragon"
by Rosemary Laurey
"Heart of a Raven"
by J. C. Wilder
October 2002
ISBN: 1553165810

Featured in this Issue:

They're back! :
Amanda Ashley
Maggie Shayne
Updates:
Christine Feehan
Rosemary Laurey
Romance Interviews with:
Angelique Armae
Keri Arthur
Jennifer Dunne
Charlaine Harris
Katriena Knights
Jaye Roycraft
Susan Squires
Featured Website:
The Vampire Vixens