Novel-ties: Book Blitz Tour: House of Bloodstein

Hello again. I'm privileged to introduce a bit information on this book and was frankly more fascinated by the author's personal dossier than anything else. I do want to read this book, but my designated task involves Top Ten author facts and Character Casting, both of which I enjoyed.

Top Ten List

10: Ren was once engaged to a woman 25 years his elder.

9: Ren visited New York City and admired the World Trade Center towers just a month or so before the tragedy of 9/11.

8: The FBI once put a gun in Ren's face.

7: Bad hearts run in Ren's family. He's already outlived most of his paternal grandfathers, all of whom died in their 30's.

6: Ren's poor eyesight went undiagnosed until he was in the 3rd grade. Up until that point, he was considered "mentally challenged".

5: Ren broke his neck playing volleyball in college.

4: Ren often sleeps on the floor, finding it more comfortable than the bed.

3: Ren was once held at gunpoint and frisked by the guards of the Prince of Saudi Arabia.

2: Ren was introduced to his wife via Match Makers International.

1: In a vast extended family of exclusively brown-eyed people, Ren somehow managed to get blue eyes.

Character Casting

LORD KABYL OF BLANCHEFORT:

‘Kay’ is the eldest son of Lord Davage and Countess Sygillis of Blanchefort. Green-eyed, purple-haired, he is considered handsome like his father and beautiful like his mother. He is the next in line as lord of the House, and the de facto leader of ‘The Gang’ with his cousins Sarah and Phillip. Like his father, Kay has the Gift of Sight. His status as a ‘Shadow tech Male’ has altered his Sight, changing it to the ‘Dark Sight’, allowing him to see and interact with objects great distances away and into the past and future.

Not overly strong, Kay was never able to lift his father’s seventy-seven pound King CARG. He therefore forged a smaller CARG infused with Silver tech power that he named SAMMIDORAN, after his love. After a horrendous set of tribulations in the Temple of the Exploding Head, Kay recently married ‘Sam’ in a grand Vith ceremony. They are eager to bear children. Once Sam finishes her traditional Monama Jar, they will begin.

LADY SAMMIDORAN OF BLANCHEFORT:

An Anuian Monama of the Astralon tribe, Lady Sammidoran is the Ne-Countess of Blanchefort, wife of Lord Kabyl.

A Monama princess with prophetic powers, ‘Sam’ dreamed of her love, Kay, from the time she was a little girl, even before he was born. He came to her every night in her dreams, and she fell in love. Sam stared out her window into the fog and dreamed of the day she and Kay would be wed. She also knew that she would be turned into a Berserkacide one day by the horrid Horned God and would die by Kay’s hand. Planning for years, she devised a successful scheme to thwart death involving an ancient Machine of great power. Using the Machine, Sam was returned from the dead.

Sam is an Anuian Monama, very rare in the League these days. She is much bigger than a standard ‘Conox’ Monama; buxom, solid, standing about six feet tall. She is bone white with a massive head of black Monama hair that goes down to her ankles. Her eyes, like all Monamas, are completely black, including the eye whites. She is incredibly strong, much stronger than a standard Elder and fast as a deer. Her fingernails, hard as iron, can be deadly weapons, should she choose to make use of them. In an unusual role-reversal, Sam is the muscle of ‘The Gang’, while Kay is the swordsman/trickster. She is also extremely susceptible to the cold of the north. She must wear an arcane Silver tech medallion called ‘Snugs’ to protect her from the cold. Without the medallion she would quickly die.

Sam loves life at Castle Blanchefort and maintains a comically combative relationship with Kay’s cousin, Sarah, though Sam loves her as a sister. Sam tends to consider herself a Vith lady, casting aside her Monama roots. Using a power sander, she files her nails down every day to a Vith-like length, she also wonders if she should cut her gloriously long hair. Sam is working to finish her Jar, otherwise any male children she might have would die. As Monamas are extremely fecund, Sam wears a protective bolabung to prevent her from becoming pregnant until the jar is finished.

LADY SARAH OF BLANCHEFORT:

Lady Sarah is the eldest daughter of Lady Poe of Blanchefort and Lord Peter of Ruthven. She is the twin sister of Phillip of Blanchefort—she loves to tell people she’s ten minutes older than Phillip. A typical Blanchefort, Sarah is tall and slender with a head of Vith blue hair she doesn’t fuss with much; just pulled back into a simple ponytail with bangs is her typical style. Hating gowns, Sarah always wears ‘boy’s clothes’: boots, pants, a sturdy shirt and her trusty black duster, similar to the coat her father, Lord Peter, once wore during his pirating days. Her best friends are her brother, Phillip, and their cousin, Kay. They have been inseparable their whole lives. Their favorite hang-out is the Mystery Library, a well-organized space Sarah built on the 50^th floor of Xyotle Tower, full of books of ghost-stories, monsters, urban legends and various unsolved mysteries. She’s very organized and anal about things—would make a great librarian. Sarah has always hoped the three of them would remain together forever, best friends always. Maybe that’s why she disliked and mistrusted Kay’s love, Lady Sammidoran, so much in the beginning; she was afraid ‘Sam’ would break up the gang.

Unlike her cousin, Lady Kilos, Sarah’s never bothered with the Kanan social scene many ladies partake in. Sarah’s an adventurer at heart, bold and tenacious, always ready for a new mystery to tackle. Brash and opinionated, Sarah’s rough-and-ready personality can rub people the wrong way. Though it took her a long time to accept Lady Sammidoran, Sarah always admired Sam’s strength and now adores her as Kay’s wife and member of ‘The Gang’ though they tend to fight constantly.

LORD PHILLIP OF BLANCHEFORT:

The twin brother of Lady Sarah, Phillip is a study in contrast with her. While Sarah is loud and forceful and a bit impulsive, Phillip is quiet and cerebral, always taking things in and assessing the situation. Everything Phillip puts his mind to he does well. A brilliant pilot, Phillip learned to fly his father’s Goshawk ship at a very young age. His uncle, Captain Davage, has always hoped Phillip would join the Stellar Fleet as a helmsman.

Like his sister, though, Phillip loves to investigate mysteries and savor the thrill of an adventure, he’s just not as noisy about it, letting Sarah do all the talking. Like Sarah, he considers his cousin, Kay, his best friend.

A ruggedly handsome fellow, Phillip has always had many ladies hoping to court with him at a social level; however Phillip has always found the socialites of Kana too tame for his liking. He has a weakness for strong-willed, verbose, powerful women (those much like his sister in spirit.) On an adventure in the Xaphan city of Waam, Phillip met just such a woman: Thomasina, 19^th of Waam, a strong matriarch of the old House of Woolover, and fell in love, though he refused to admit it. Thomasina fell for him as well and, quite literally, chased him through the streets of Waam in an epic battle of wills, Phillip savoring the chase. Eventually, Phillip proclaimed his love for her. They agreed not to marry until Phillip finishes his schooling, Thomasina reluctantly remaining far away in Waam.

MAGISTRATE KILOS OF TUSCK

Growing up on wild Onaris near the city of Tusck, Kilos was the 11^th daughter of a very impoverished family. Growing into a tall, strong young woman, she married a childhood friend with a genius IQ.

Struggling to support themselves, “Ki” joined the Stellar Marines. She had a rough time of it; her temper getting the better of her again and again. She was selected from a work detail to infiltrate the Fleet Warbird Seeker and gather information on its captain, Lord Davage of Blanchefort. Upon meeting Captain Davage, Ki was enchanted and the two became fast friends. Ki sailed at Davage’s side for thirty years, becoming his first officer and eventually joining the Stellar Fleet.

When Captain Davage and his new countess, Sygillis, had children, Ki was a perfect mentor for them, watching them grow into young adulthood. One day, Ki would follow Davage’s son, Kay, into the darkness of the Temple of the Exploding Head.

Eventually, Ki would have a son of her own, Sebastian. She retired from the Fleet and was offered a job as the Magistrate of Blanchefort Village. She was given the key to Pendar Tower in the west end of Castle Blanchefort and moved in with her husband.

Her husband is a professor with a reputation for finding answers to difficult questions. She also has an ever-lasting Tweeter bird given to her by Lady Poe of Blanchefort twenty-years prior. With these resources available to her, Ki is known as a ‘Manhunter’, able to solve difficult cases.

KING

An adaptation of the tried-and-true Tweeter design, King is a Silver tech familiar created by Lady Poe of Blanchefort, the mother of Sarah/Phillip of Blanchefort. King has all of the directional and tracking abilities Tweeter has, with the added ability to attack and kill if need be. King can fly at rail-gun speeds, can carry impossibly heavy loads and can destroy Shadow tech with silvery light from his eyes. Ashamed of the potent killing-power of her creation, Lady Poe keeps all her Kings out in the Servants Graveyard, surrounded by protections. She also built into King a self-destruct mechanism—when his tasks are complete, King will be compelled to return to the graveyard and be reincorporated, thus ending his life.