I don’t often host blog tours (hardly ever, actually) but this seemed so neat I wanted to share it with y’all. Youse guys. Yinz!
Anyway. Kim Harrison’s Hollows series is pretty familiar to readers of paranormal and urban fantasy romance, but now those same characters are making the jump to graphic novel format. Since I know many of you love graphic novels, especially those featuring strong women, I thought you might enjoy this sneak peak.
I have two pages of the novel below, and there’s more at other sites, as well, with links to come. Here’s pages 8 and 9 on “Blood Work,” coming 12 July (Amazon | BN).
Here’s what Kim Harrison has to say about the two pages we’re sneak-peaking here:
Blood Lust. Yeah, I Gots It.
I am a novelist at heart, but I jumped at the chance to script out a graphic novel based on my Hollows characters, wanting to stretch my writing skills and possibly reach a new audience. One of the difficulties I had anticipated very early on was how to visually show the emotion of blood lust. Most emotions translate easily to the visual page. We all know what anger or joy looks like. But blood lust? I was stumped. How could I show a rising, almost uncontrollable sexual desire mixed with the need to dominate? I couldn’t rely on my usual adjectives, and had to come up with something else.
Being able to visualize this was key to telling the reader what was going on in the mind of Ivy, my vampire being driven to distraction by thoughts of desire and betrayal. Without the visual clue of her state of mind, nothing would make sense. It was then I asked potential artists to show me how they would draw the emotion of blood lust as an extension of a person’s aura, able to touch, caress, or bite, the crux being that the stronger the emotion, the more definition the “hunger shadow” would have. You can see here what Pedro came up, his imagery pretty much cinching his involvement in the project. His rendition of blood lust was as complex and dangerous as the emotion itself, having all the facets of anger, lust, domination, and desire that I was looking for. It’s a peek into the character’s soul, and it’s beautiful.
You can read why I broke from traditional novels to script a graphic novel at Graphic Novel Reporter, why I chose to tell the story of how Rachel and Ivy met at Fantasy Book Critic, and how a card-carrying soloist becomes part of a team at Comics Beat.
There is also a kickin’ contest at Suvudu to win a pair of boots, if you’re so inclined to try to win things like really, really sharp boots.
I have here two signed copies of the Blood Work graphic novel, for your winning pleasure. Want one? Leave a comment with the graphic novel character you love most (or series, if there’s more than one character, which there usually is!) and I’ll pick two winners in 24 hours.
Standard disclaimers apply: I’m not being compensated for this giveaway. Your mileage may vary. Void where prohibited. Any resemblance to art projects near or far is strictly coincidental. No animals or magic markers were harmed in the making of this giveaway.
