The Family of BLOOD SIN, the Good, the Ugly, and the Foul-mouthed brat

By Jenn Lyons.

So here we are. Hopefully, if you’re reading this, it’s because you’ve read the first book in this series, Blood Chimera, and are eager to see what happens to Jackson Pastor and his friends next.

If you haven’t? You should! It’s a great book (yes, yes, I’m very much biased.)

In some ways, I think of Blood Sin as the second half of Blood Chimera. Certainly the second book takes place just a few weeks after the first: it's still autumn in the City of Angels, the Santa Ana winds are starting brush fires in the hills, and a reckoning (in the form of Cesario Meroni's rock star father) is descending on K&R expert turned fledgling vampire Jackson Pastor and his new partners at the FBI.

Of course, the two books are very different stories, with different villains, different plots and different resolutions, but originally, way back in the day (long before World Weaver Press ever saw a manuscript,) Zander Sin showed up in the first book and had a more direct hand in the battle against his centuries-old enemy Crazy Tez. None of the scenes ever quite meshed and I finally realized why: Zander was just too large to be restrained to the position of a secondary character. He needed, nay, demanded, his own novel (with himself on the cover no less!,) and like all things, Zander Sin (who in previous lives has been Sextus Tarquinius, Pope Alexander VI, Lord Byron, and Aleister Crowley) always gets what he wants. So he shows up in book two as a consequence of book one, to devastating effect.

I won't lie: I enjoyed writing that spoiled and thoroughly foul-mouthed brat. He does so revel in being a bastard.

Looking back on the book now, I can see that Blood Sin is very much a book about family, good and bad, from the sacrifices of parents and the bonds of siblings to the darkest crimes of incest and child abuse. At heart, it's also about the families ties we make, rather than the one's we're born with, and having the courage to put one's faith in those people rather than try to be a lone wolf in all circumstances. That last trial isn't going to be an easy one for Jackson to overcome: he's not very good at relying on others or believing that he might actually need to. He has spent most of his life thinking of himself as the person everyone else goes to for solutions. The reverse is uncomfortable ground.

Blood Sin is also my first chance to introduce readers to the broader grendel world, with particular emphasis on Megan's race and the secret goblin city of Merys Dwernu, a place where anything and everything is for sale and where you really shouldn't eat the food unless you've paid your bill in advance. (Rest assured there will be plenty more visits in upcoming books.)

And you know what comes next of course...? That's right -- writing the next book. Because if certain people have their way, it's going to be a bad time to live in Los Angeles.

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Jenn Lyons lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband, three cats and a lot of opinions on anything from Sumerian creation myths to the correct way to make a martini. At various points in her life, she has wanted to be an archaeologist, anthropologist, architect, diamond cutter, fashion illustrator, graphic designer, or Batman. Turning from such obvious trades, she is now a video game producer by day, and spends her evenings writing science fiction and fantasy. When not writing, she can be found debating the Oxford comma and Joss Whedon’s oeuvre at various local coffee shops.

The Blood Chimera series chronicles the experiences of a Kidnap & Ransom expert forced to deal with the realization that he's a member of a race of vampiric shapeshifters who secretly control society. She is currently working on the third book in the series.

Check her out at JennLyons.com

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