Guest Post: The Trick to Writing a Vampire Romance (Blog Tour of Yesterday's Daughter by Sallie Lundy-Frommer)

Woohoo, my first blog tour. Okay, now that I got that out of the way, I want to introduce Sallie Lundy-Frommer, the author of Yesterday's Daughter, a paranormal romance. Tribute Books was kind enough to ask me to be a part of their mini blog tour, so I want to thank them and Sallie for letting me participate in this wonderful event.

The Book

Title: Yesterday's Daughter

Author: Sallie Lundy-Frommer

Publisher: CreateSpace (January 2011)

Pages: 250 (paperback)

Summary: An emotionally laden paranormal vampire romance novel woven with layers of betrayal, love and
loss.

Grace Stone, who later learns her true identity is Sapphira, is a loner who survives abuse in the foster care system after being abandoned as a child. A brilliant student, she escapes from her brutal foster parents as a teenager and creates a life for herself. But, her life is little more than existence; plagued with questions about what she really is, a family that she has never known and the never-ending need to keep her differences hidden.

She is alone and lonely, believing it will always remain so until Malachi appears in her life. Malachi, a Guardian of the vampire communities, has searched for his life mate, Sapphira, for decades. He refuses to cease searching for Sapphira even though she is believed dead by all. Conflict arises over the decades between Malachi and his family because of his refusals to accept another mate. But his very soul drives him on to continue his search, knowing that he could not exist if Sapphira were not in the world, somewhere.

The Author

I can’t remember a time when vampires have gotten more attention. With shows like True Blood, The Vampire Diaries and Being Human and popular books like the Twilight and Dark Series, it’s seems like they’re everywhere. Vampires have always been my favorite supernatural characters. But why? Why am I fascinated with these fantasy beings? Why are you? My interest drove me to write a book, Yesterday’s Daughter. But I could have written about anything, werewolves, cat people or some other paranormal beings, but I chose vampires. Why, I wrote about vampires? I’m not sure I can fully explain why. Maybe I chose vampires because they exude prowess and majesty. But, that would be an all too simple answer. And when I think about it, I know it’s not a complete answer. But it’s a start. What do you think? Why are so many people so interested in these mythical creatures.

As for me, I was born on a farm in the rural South to a family of migrant farm workers. At an early age,my family moved to the urban North-East. Now I live in the suburban North-East with my husband and a large assortment of plants. I hold bachelors and masters degrees in Human Resource Management and currently work in the health care industry.

Guest Post

The Trick to Writing a Vampire Romance

by Sallie Lundy-Frommer

I don’t know if there is a trick to writing vampire romance, if there’s a formula for producing a great vampire love story.  A writing teacher might say there are certain elements common to writing for this genre, an archetype.  Or, it might be said that there are expected plots for vampire romance stories:  vampire meets girl, vampire gets girl, vampire loses girl or some such.  Admittedly, in vampire romance the reader assumes there will be a fair amount of fang action, sex, whether gratuitous or not, blood, violence and the all-important pairing – the love interest.  

But if there is a trick, it’s great storytelling.  I think vampire romance, as with any good romance, requires a solid foundation.  The foundation for everything that comes, the action and suspense is the need for characters that readers will become emotionally invested in.  It’s incalculable, the importance of having at least one character that folks care about.  Stop and think for a minute.  If you’re like me, you can probably name a few books that you couldn’t finish because you didn’t like any of the characters and didn’t care what happened to them.     

In addition to emotionally attractive characters, a vampire romance needs a storyline that’s engaging, that has the reader impatient to turn the page, to see what will happen next.  And let’s not forget the benefits of a surprise or two to galvanize interest. 

I wrote Yesterday’s Daughter because I had to, the story just wanted out of me...:-)  I just wrote, oblivious to what might be expected, archetypes and bildungsroman’s or anything else.  I wrote just wanting to share a story that came to me in my dreams.  In the end, Yesterday’s Daughter is a story with vampires that’s full of romance. 

In my humble opinion, the trick (if that’s what you want to call it) for writing vampire romance is....write a compelling story with characters to which the audience will be drawn.     


I want to thank Sallie for writing a great guest post and Tribute Books for letting me participate in this mini blog tour. I had a blast.