It’s a pleasure to welcome Tina Traverse into the spotlight today! Tina is the author of the novel, Destiny of the Vampire. And I do love vampires. Let’s find out more.

About Tina Traverse

Tina began to write at the age of 8 years old when she wrote my version of the bible story, “The Good Samaritan”. That inspired her to continue with the hobby that quickly became her passion.

This passionate affair continued for 30 years and there are no signs of it waning.

Tina says that she “will admit for a time when I was pregnant with my own first born son, Christian, it cooled, but never faded, I soon found out when the desire to write came calling once again when I needed to find a way to cope with heartbreaking news.
I always knew that there was something wrong with Christian from the moment he was born, I and the doctors, just could not put their finger on it. While physically, Christian thrived, mentally/emotionally not so well. His behaviours were a little disturbing. Finally after 9 years of pulling my hair out, and slipping into some pretty dark places myself, he was diagnosed with Autism. My method of coping was to write a story about his/our journey called Forever Christian.”

Please join me in finding out more about Tina!

Her passion was renewed and she ventured into the world of the supernatural, ghosts, witches, werewolves and her personal favourite, vampires.

“I enjoy all sorts of vampires and I admit I am fascinated with the modern romantic kind, aka the Cullen and the Salvatores of this world! However, I wanted to bring the vampires into the real world where they face real issues that we mortals struggle with. Thus began the weaving of tale of my first book, I am proud to say, published here on Amazon Kindle! Destiny of the Vampire has been born! It is my sincerest hope that I will be fortunate enough for this story to find its way into your hands and that you will enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed writing it for you.

I also hope that this could be the start of a wonderful audience/author relationship and that we can share many tales together.”

 

 About Destiny of the Vampire

 Some secrets never die. Hiding who you are can kill you.

Declan and Sebastian St. Clair set out on a fishing trip with their father, when an unforeseeable storm bears down on them, tossing their tiny boat far into the sea, sinking it. Declan and Sebastian are forced, helpless, as they watch their father swept under the waves.

Both brothers wash up on a deserted island, where for five months they work to survive and escape.

After a tragic accident, they perish, only to be reborn as immortal creatures of the night, hungry for human blood.

They are then forced to leave the island by their creator, where they enjoy their new immortal lives.

Until a mutual catastrophic event forces the brothers to succumb to all too human destructive methods to bury and numb out the pain of their dark secret.

 Now let’s shine the spotlight on Tina!

Maer:  Thanks for joining us to tell us about your new book, Tina!

Tina:  Thank you for having me.

Maer:  So let’s get right to it and find out about you and your novel. Where did the inspiration for your book come from?

Tina: Believe it or not it came from a phrase my favorite actor said during an interview. He was asked to describe in one line what his show was about. It was that description that sparked the idea for this book.

Maer:  It always fascinates me where authors get their ideas. What is a one line synopsis for your book?

Tina:  A tale of blood, lust and secrets.

Maer:  So, is this a stand-alone or can we look forward to more?

Tina:  Destiny of The Vampire is a part of a four part series. Part II will be available by the end of July (keeping my fingers crossed) and III and IV are in different stages of development.

Maer:  Which character other than your main charatcers is one of your favorites to write and why?

Tina:  Destiny of the Vampire has three main characters that I adore, but to pick another character other than Declan, Sebastian and Hope, would be hard. However, if I had to pick a supporting character it would have to be the witch I called Candy Apple. She did not appear much in the book but she was so fun to create because she was whimsical and fun with her bubbly personality and her obsession with pink. But in the end she proved to be a strong person who dug her pink stilettos into the sand and stood up to evil.

Maer:  She does sound fun! If you had to pick a color to describe your MC what would that be and why?

Tina:  May I choose three colors, I have three characters?

Maer:  Absolutely!

Tina:  Let’s see… For Declan I choose red because it symbolizes courage, confidence and vitality and Declan embodies all three. He is carrying around a dark secret that has been burdening him for over a century but he does it with courage, confidence and poise and lives his immortality to the fullest.

Sebastian is Declan’s younger brother and the color I would give him is white. White symbolizes purity and kindness and though Sebastian shares his brother’s burden weighed down by extreme guilt, his heart is pure and he is intensely loving and kind.

Hope is Sebastian’s epic love, the soul-mate that he was forced to separate from for over a century. They are unexpectedly reunited during Sebastian’s darkest days. I choose blue for Hope because blue symbolizes calm, inspiration and sincerity. Hope comes into Declan and Sebastian’s life when it is the darkest for them. In doing so, her sincere love for both brothers and enduring personality lifts their burden, healing them.

Maer:  Tina, who are your favorite authors to read?

Tina:  I love reading Dan Brown, L.J. Smith and a variety of indie authors.

Maer:  You mentioned other projects. Can you share some more about what you’re working on?

Tina:  I am currently in the final stages of Destiny of The Vampire II. It is in the hands of my critique partner and she is going through it with a fine tooth comb. Once I have it back from her I will then set to work in polishing the manuscript for publication.

Maer:  Awesome! What do you do when you’re not writing?

Tina:  I am a mother of two boys, ages 12 and 3 so my days are filled with them keeping me on my toes and every once in a while I get to go for walks by my lonesome or settle down with a good book.

Maer:  I can see where that would keep you busy, all right. What influenced you to write in your genre? Do you write in others?

Tina:  I never liked the idea of vampires and the supernatural, but when a friend of mine suggested that I should try reading this new vampire series called Twilight, I balked at first but eventually she wore me down into trying it out. Twilight lead me to The Vampire Diaries and other vampire books and I became addicted. I wonder if there is a Vampire Anonymous group out there…

I write paranormal but all my stories seem to center around the same theme, drama.

I wrote one non-fiction piece about my son who was diagnosed with autism, Forever, Christian.

Maer:  What music, if any, do you like to listen to while writing?

Tina:  No, I do not listen to music, I find it too distracting.

Maer:  Thanks so very much for giving us a look behind the scenes of your novel, Tina.

 

To find out more about Tina, be sure to check out her links:

Tina on Twitter

Destiny of the Vampire on Facebook

You can get your own copy of Destiny of the Vampire at Amazon and at Smashwords.