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How do multiple author series find their way to the book shelves? Please welcome my friend Jade Lee who's got all the answers! She's sharing about her involvement in the Crimson City phenomenon and the possibility of a second round of those inventive paranormals. My blog is yours, Jade.
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CRIMSON & STEAM!Some years ago, I was at an RT convention when my editor invited to be part of an exciting new series called Crimson City. Due to a last minute problem, Love Spell and series creator Liz Maverick needed someone to write book 5 Seduced By Crimson very fast. Fast meant in about 2 months and since speed has always been one of my strengths, they invited me in. I took about one second to decide, but because I wanted to appear less-than-anxious, I delayed answering for at least 10 seconds. That was as long as I could hold out. Then I came home from conference and told my kids they could go to whatever summer camps they wanted, but they had to go. Fortunately, they were at the right age to want to spend all their time at volleyball camp, horseback riding camp, swim camp, and get-me-away-from-my-lame-parents camp. To this day, I don’t know if I made a profit on this book or not. My children took me to the cleaners that summer, but on the upside, I got to write for Crimson City!
The world is rather simple and yet so rich with intrigue and romance that I was stunned by Liz’s ingenuity. Vampires live in wealthy high rises, werewolves haunt the subway tunnels, and humans live in the middle trying to stay safe against the paranormals. All this happens in Los Angeles that has been nicknamed Crimson City because of the race riots (and I don’t mean riots based on skin color). In an attempt to balance the power against the paranormals, humans have two projects going on. The first is a cyborg project that creates half human, half machine mechs. The second is to open a dimensional gate to a demon world that decides to invade. Oops. Silly humans! Oh yeah, and I got to create human magic-user Druids. I needed an infusion of greenery into urbanized Los Angeles.
OMG what fun this was! Especially since book 5 was the demon invasion! All Earth species came together to fight off mega bad demons! The series was an instant hit, put me and Marjorie Liu on the USA Today list, and brought me some friends for life!
You’re probably wondering why I’m talking about this. After all, the primary series came out in 2006 with an anthology in 2007. Old news, right? Nope! Liz is reviving the series with a new book out this month! Crimson Steam is an origins story that talks about how the paranormals were created about a century ago. There are elements of steam punk, hence the name, and the possibility of a second Crimson City series. I, of course, am thrilled, thrilled, thrilled about this possibility!
So...any thoughts readers? Who here has read the series? Who wants a second series of books? Raise your hand...er...I mean, leave a comment, and I’ll give a free Shards of Crimson (anthology) to a lucky someone!
