Authors After Dark Spotlight: Colette L. Saucier

INTRODUCING COLETTE L. SAUCIER

SHORT BIO:

Colette L. Saucier is a bestselling and award-winning author in a variety of genres under multiple pseudonyms. Her novel Pulse and Prejudice, Book I: The Confession of Mr. Darcy, Vampire; the highly-acclaimed paranormal adaptation of the Jane Austen classic, was the 2013 Chatelaine Awards 1st Place Winner in Category, Romantic Fiction. An abridged version of The Proud and the Prejudiced: A Modern Twist on Pride and Prejudice was selected a 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Semi-finalist and Austensque Reviews’ Favorite Modern Adaptation under the title All My Tomorrows.

Colette’s latest release is the controversial erotic noir suspense, The Widow. She will be releasing Dearest Bloodiest Elizabeth, Book II: The Confession of Mr. Darcy, Vampire in eBook August, 2016, and print in October.

A writer, world-traveler, empty-nester, and a literature, history, wine & cheese lover; Colette lives in Southeast Louisiana with her historian husband and their dogs.

INTERVIEW

How many times have you been to Authors After Dark?

This will be my FIFTH time!  I am only sorry it is the last.

Will you be doing anything special for the final AAD?

In addition to the fabulous event and sitting on a couple of panels (one as my naughtier alter-ego), I will be launching my latest release at the conference – Book II: The Confession of Mr. Darcy, Vampire – Dearest Bloodiest Elizabeth.

And here, for the first time for our AAD readers, I am allowing a “sneak peek” at the cover even before the main reveal!

Where did the idea come from for the book?

This is the sequel to Book I: Pulse and Prejudice, the award-winning vampire adaptation of the Jane Austen classic. (If I may be allowed to brag a bit, this past April, Elle Magazine named it a “Most Creative Adaptation” of Pride and Prejudice.)

Dearest Bloodiest Elizabeth follows the just-wed Elizabeth and Vampire Darcy through the first two years of marriage, and we follow them from Regency England to Antebellum New Orleans.

What genre does your book fall under?

Paranormal Historical Romance 

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? 

Interview with the Vampire meets Gone With the Wind with a nod to Othello.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I should say years, as I actually began it in 2013; but other plot ideas kept jumping in my brain and interrupting!  While writing Dearest Bloodiest Elizabeth, I also published two novels under another name (and a sequel to one keep trying to infiltrate!), as well as two myself in the romantic suspense genre:  Alicia’s Possession and The Widow, the latter of which could also fall under crime noir.  (As a warning, both of these are far more erotic than my adaptations of Pride and Prejudice.)

Who or What inspired you to write this book?

Honestly, my daughter – who insisted I write the original vampire adaptation of Miss Austen’s classic – did not like how I ended Pulse and Prejudice! So I began writing a sequel to appease her. Then so many readers of the first novel began begging for a second, and I couldn’t disappoint them!

The plot itself has been influenced by Shakespeare, Margaret Mitchell, Joy Division, and my own warped imagination. 

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Whereas Pulse and Prejudice remained faithful to Austen's narrative, Dearest Bloodiest Elizabeth takes the Darcys in a much darker direction, and it is far more violent, bloodier, and sexier than its predecessor.  Although they are still recognizable as Darcy and Elizabeth, their personalities mature and evolve through their experiences. As Elizabeth says in Pride and Prejudice, "People themselves alter so much that there is something new to be observed in them forever."

Blurb:

In this lurid, lusty sequel to Pulse and Prejudice, death shadows the newlywed Darcys from Pemberley to the parlors of Regency London to the courtyards of Antebellum New Orleans.  As Elizabeth discovers the trials and travails of marriage to a vampire, can Darcy ever believe that she loves him as he is?  Or will his jealousy tear them apart?

Here is a short excerpt:

Crimson drops fell onto the white snow, staining it pink. Darcy had not intended this – to drink from his wife – when he claimed his prize of a kiss after catching her as they raced through the hedge maze at Pemberley. Elizabeth had actually done surprisingly well in evading him, considering his intuitive abilities; but, of course, he had caught her – laughing in his arms, eyes ablaze, cheeks chafed from the cold.

“And now my prize!”  As had so often occurred in the span of their brief marriage, his tender kiss had escalated quickly into fervent ardour.  The laughter then in her eyes, his wife had taken hold of the lapels of his greatcoat and, falling back onto the snow, pulled him down with her.  As their kisses had deepened, so, too, had his hunger and desire.  He pulled off his gloves and trailed his cold fingers down her face.  Untying her bonnet and unfastening her cape, he exposed her neck for his lips and his teeth.

She moaned softly as he drew the blood from her throat, sharing her warmth and her pulse, savouring the rich, metallic taste.  He pulled back to look at her, only then noticing that a few precious drops of lifeblood had escaped his embrace and fallen onto the snow.

“William,” she whispered in a half-plea, her hand running over the front of his trousers to convey her intent.

He gazed into her eyes.  “Should we not go in?  Are you not cold?

“Cover me to keep me warm.”  She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his mouth onto hers, sharing the taste of her blood as their tongues intertwined.

Darcy pulled at her skirts and brought the hem to her knees.  He reached his hand up between her cold thighs to the hot core that drew him in.  She gasped against his mouth as he touched her there, but he wasted little time in freeing himself from his trousers and thrusting deep within her.

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