Diary of the Undead With Guest Blogger: LeeAnn Sontheimer Murphy

Win a copy of Love Tattoo and Love Scars and meet paranormal author LeeAnn Sontheimer Murphy!


Here's what she had to say...


As a teen and into my twenties, I kept a diary, meticulously recording the events and emotions of my daily life. I wrote an entry almost every day without fail, some short, some long. I seldom get out those old diaries now but when I do, I am moved by the depth of some thoughts and appalled by the shallowness of others.

Although at the core of my being I remain the same individual that I have been since birth, shaped and formed by life events and experience, I am not the same girl or young woman who penned those diary entries.

Some of the constants, however, remain – as far back as the entries date; I aspired to become a writer and an author. That never changed. Neither did my interest in members of the opposite sex. Many entries deal with my crushes, my dates, my boyfriends of the past, my dreams and my disappointments in love.

During this June Diary Month, I’ve thought about the days when I chronicled my life and wondered just what my character, Cara Riley, might write if she kept a diary. Since she is the heroine for both Love Tattoo and the just released (June 22) Love Scars, its fun to get back into Cara’s head. Both novels are written in first-person anyway so making the leap to the pages of Cara’s diary was simple.


Dear Diary,

Becoming undead is very different than anything I ever imagined, not that I ever spent much time thinking about it back when I had a real life. I guess I never appreciate what life meant until I chose to give all that up for my sexy, wonderful Will. He made me think before he would transform me with that third love tattoo which was a good thing.

Nothing would have made me back out, not when I love this vampire, a man to me, more than I ever loved anyone or anything but an afternoon spent thinking about what I would give up was important.

That way he knows that I came to him of my own free will, nothing else. Even with the obstacles that we face and probably will face in the future, I want no other existence but this one.

What I had to do to keep my happily ever after may not have been the easiest thing but I did it and I even have the scars, love scars Will calls them, to show for my efforts. – Cara


Dear Diary,

I sometimes wonder what my family would think if they ever learn the truth, that I’m a vampire and that I must drink blood to survive. They adore Will and welcomed him into the family but I have to wonder if that would change if they learned he is one and that, at my request, he made me one too. I don’t know. I would like to believe that they wouldn’t care, that they would accept us for what we are and still give unconditional love but I don’t know.

Prejudice is an ugly word but I’m sure most people would have some heavy ones if they found out someone they know is undead and drinks blood. I still haven’t seen human beings work out the racial, religious, and gender prejudices yet so it would be too much to hope for that people could accept us as we are.

I hope that my family never learns the reality and yet sometimes I hope that they will. As they age and we don’t, there will be a lot of explaining to do or lies to tell and I just don’t know yet how I will handle that.

Hopefully, I’ll figure that out before the time comes. – Cara


I’ve never written a character diary during a work-in-progress but now I see that it could be a useful tool for understanding motivation, for finding a way to express what my characters feel.

This may be something I can use in the future and for now, it offers readers a little deeper peek into the mind of my Texas gal vamp, Cara Riley Brennan.


A Note from the Book Boost: This was a great exercise. Thanks for sharing your character and her diary entries with us. Please tell us more about your latest book.


Blurb:

After marrying her sexy undead husband Will Brennan, Cara Riley Brennan thought her happy ending would last forever but she soon learned that the course of true love doesn’t ever run quite that smooth. Just when she thought they were settling into eternal bliss, Sallie Hawkins, the woman who made Will into a vampire in the past, intrudes into their lives. She’s wicked, she’s jealous, and she won’t stop till either Will or Cara is dead.

Her psychic presence tortures them both in body and soul but when she arrives outside their home in the flesh things go from bad to worse. Cara and Will realize that confrontation is inevitable.
When the three meet for battle, they all may not survive and in the end, who lives and who dies is up to Cara who will do anything to keep her chance at a permanent happily ever after ending intact.


Excerpt:

When we were in Memphis, we prowled Beale Street and drank Walk Me Downs. We ate at Dyer’s and sometimes we rode the trolley in the moonlight. Once in awhile, we headed to Tunica and some nights, we just stayed home, happy with each other’s company. We had music, poetry, and we had each other. We didn’t need anything else.

Out on the road, we sailed over the highways like that ghostly galleon from The Highwayman poem and before dawn came, we ate steak and eggs over easy in some diner or a truck stop café. At home and away, we talked about everything and nothing. By the time that the heat of summer faded into the first frost, I would have sworn that there was nothing I did not know about Will Brennan or that he didn’t know about me.

Apparently, I was wrong.

Until that January dusk, I figured fairy tales always end happy and in my favorite Western movies, the hero rides off into the sunset with the gal riding behind him in the saddle. I had my Will Brennan and we had forever, all the time that exists. Until then, I always had to hurry, never had enough time. That changed when I did,

You see, the living always feel that breath of mortality against the back of their neck but when you are undead, you have all the days, the weeks, months, and years that there will be ahead so the need to hurry vanishes. If you know – barring any unexpected complication like some fool with a stake to drive into your heart – you live forever, you have all the time in the world held between your hands.

Want More LeeAnn?

Visit her website here: leeannwriter.weebly.com

Or her blog here:
http://leeannsontheimermurphywriterauthor.blogspot.com


Pick up your copy of her book today! Click here.

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