Welcome to Day 5 of Revenants Week! Most of you (okay all of you) chose Vincent over Hank on Day 2 of Revenants Week. So now that you’re dating a revenant, what can you expect?

The following interview is from a Valentine’s Blog Event that I was asked to do for Read Me Bookmark Me Love Me. See if Vincent would live up to your expectations as your Undead Boyfriend, and tell me if you would respond to the questions the same way Kate did!

Valentine’s Day Interview with Kate and Vincent from DIE FOR ME

(Interviewers: Brodie and Lisa from Read Me Bookmark Me Love Me)

It’s day 4 of Revenant Week—a week to celebrate the U.S. release of the paperback version of DIE FOR ME! If you haven’t yet ordered your copy just click here to order on Amazon. And to thank you, just send me a scan or email of your receipt to katieloumercier@gmail.com and I will put your name in the hat to win a copy of the original Kate-in-a-Boat ARC!

Today I have something very special for you. JayJay of Revenants Central fansite asked me to choose photos of all of the characters in the DIE FOR ME trilogy, as well as doing a profile for each. Which was pretty easy, since I had a corkboard with a few photos and stats for everyone when I was writing Book 1!

JayJay has dedicated a page on the fansite to each of the characters, and today for the first time, you get to see them all together!

But before I show you, we’re going to play a game. I’m going to give you all of the photos randomly, and you have to guess which photo corresponds with which character. Click on the links below to see if you were right and to read more about each. And here we go…

And the characters are…

Kate Beaumont Mercier

Vincent Pierre Henri Delacroix

Jules Marchenoir

Ambrose Bates

Charles Aurelien Lorieux

Charlotte Violaine Lorieux

Georgia Frances Mercier

Lucien Philippe Henri Poitevin

So what do you think? Do the photos match at all with the images you had in your mind? If not, send me a link to a photo you think better represents the character. I can’t wait to hear/see your feedback!

Welcome to Day 3 of Revenant Week—a week to celebrate the U.S. release of the paperback version of DIE FOR ME!

Why order the paperback version? Because it comes with EXTRAS!!!

• author’s letter about Paris
• author’s letter about revenants
• Kate’s tips to belle living (10 favorite places to kiss in Paris; 10 etiquette tips for Paris)
• DIE FOR ME discussion guide
• Teaser for UNTIL I DIE (chapter 1)

(See the “extras inside” in the bottom corner!)

I hope you have as much fun reading these extras as I did writing them! Just click here for Amazon or here for IndieBound to order.

SO TODAY…I thought I’d tell you why my protagonist, Kate, is as she is. Because our Kate is kick-ass. In Book 1 of the DIE FOR ME trilogy, you see the seeds of her kick-assness. In Book 2, she is not only taking kick-ass lessons from Gaspard, but is becoming a stronger person after the devastation of her parents’ death. And in Book 3…*falls over* Kate might just reach her potential as queen of kick-ass.

It was important to have a kick-ass protag in the DIE FOR ME trilogy because someone with a doormat personality would never fall in love with a revenant. But I actually came to the realization that I wanted to write a kick-ass character about six months before I came up with the concept for DIE FOR ME. And it was because of something not-very-nice that happened to me.

I was in Paris, walking back late at night from a friend’s birthday party. There were a couple of girls walking in front of me as well as a guy in his early-20s wearing a hoodie and short cropped hair who skated past in the other direction. I took a left down a dark deserted road, at the end of which was my hotel.

And then it happened.

A large hand firmly grabbed my crotch from behind (no, not my butt – my crotch)—by reaching between my legs and almost scooping me up off the ground mid-step. It lasted a second, and then it was over. I stopped dead in my tracks and watched the same guy on roller skates who I had seen minutes before move at top speed away from me. He had targeted me and come back to grab me.

“Oh my [bleeping bleep]!” The expletives poured automatically from my mouth. My French disappeared as I began yelling at him, “Stop! Stop!” and then seeing a woman my age turn onto the street, I switched to French. “Stop that man! He groped me!” Frightened, she stared at the ground and speed-walked past me.

I began running towards the receding figure of my aggressor. He turned left onto another road. I realized that I would never catch him, and that the handful of people now walking up the street towards me probably hadn’t even seen the lightening-fast crotch-grabber pass them. I was defenseless. Except for my words. An ear-melting concoction of curse words flew like stones from my mouth towards the man’s back. As the foreign words reached him I saw his figure stiffen in surprise, but then he hunched back over and skated faster.

I got back to my hotel room and cried. And couldn’t stop crying. I told myself that it wasn’t that bad—it’s not like I had been raped. But something had happened to me that was violent and that was against my will, and it shook me badly.

It was the loss of power—the loss of control over my own body—that was most disturbing. As far as I’m concerned, my crotch is sacred. Only a select few people had ever had access to that part of my anatomy before, and I had certainly not selected the skating groper to be one of the chosen few. He had taken something that was mine alone to bestow.

Feeling violated and powerless, I wrote down what happened. And then I decided to re-write it in an alternate “Heeled Avenger” version, where the crotch-grabbing offender didn’t win – I did. And this is what I wrote:

“Take 2 of Crotch-Grabbing Skater vs. Amy

Cue the music: something with a pounding beat and scary lyrics like late ’90s Prodigy. Spotlights are strategically placed along rue de la Folie Regnault.

And….roll.

Here comes Amy rounding the corner of the street, long strides matching the beat of the music. Her heels have metamorphosed from 3-inch Liz Claiborne block-heels to 4-inch Prada stilettos. The light flashes off their dangerous-looking soles. Our heroine looks the same, except that underneath her jacket, her arm fat has mysteriously disappeared and has been replaced by toughly toned biceps.

The music gets louder, and the beat raises the viewer’s anticipation that something bad is going to happen.

This time Amy senses someone coming up behind her, and slides her compact out of her purse, flicking it open and lifting it up to her eyes as if to powder her nose. In its mirror, she sees the man speeding up behind her, getting ready to pass her on the right. He lowers his left hand in a cupping position and, as he nears her, begins to bend over. At the last second, she steps adroitly to the left, making a graceful kicking motion with her right foot as she does.

The man flies through the air and lands on his chin with a crash. He sprawls helplessly on the sidewalk as Amy walks up to him. The music pauses as she approaches, looks down at him, and says, “Ooh. That looks like it hurt.”

As she effortlessly steps over his splayed body, we see a close-up of his left hand, which is still in its cupped-and-ready position. In slow-motion we see Amy’s stiletto heel coming down heavily upon it, and hear the sickening crunch of bone. As the man screams in pain, the music picks back up at the beat it left off on.

Amy, our  hero, continues striding towards the hotel, and the camera smoothly zooms in to her mouth, which slowly spreads into a confidently sardonic smile.”

Believe it or not, after writing this scary/violent scene, I actually felt much better. Changing my role in the story from victim to victor made me feel more in control. And that made me realize the power the written word actually has – that sometimes the pen is mightier than the sword.

Not to underplay the power of shopping therapy: the next morning I went out and spent a fortune on a dress that made me feel like a superhero.

And six months later, I created Kate.

Welcome to Day 2 of Revenant Week—a week to celebrate the U.S. release of the paperback version of DIE FOR ME!

Now you can carry Paris and the kindred with you EVERYWHERE YOU GO without giving yourself hardback book weight-induced back injuries. 🙂 (And the paperback is SO CHEAP, how can you pass it up?) Just click here for Amazon or here for IndieBound to order.

Okay, enough of my sales pitch. Let’s get on to the topic of today, which is: WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A ZOMBIE AND A REVENANT?

Let’s just have a quick look at our subjects to clarify things. Here are your two potential undead boyfriends:

Undead Boyfriend #1: On the one hand you’ve got this handsome guy. For ease of comparison, let’s call him Hank.

Undead Boyfriend #2: On the other hand, you’ve got Vincent (or, the four images of Vincent that my readers voted looked most like him in their minds):

Pick the Vincent image you like best and keep it in your head as you answer the following questions:

1. Between Hank and Vincent, who would you rather kiss?

(Hint: one would probably chew off your lips. The other: “Our lips brushed, and I felt like a chord had been struck inside me, and my body was humming with a pure musical note.” DIE FOR ME, chapter 17.)

2. Between Hank and Vincent, who do you think smells better?

(Hint: One smells of rotting flesh. The other: “He smelled like oak and grass and wood fires. He smelled like memories. Like years and years of memories.” DIE FOR ME, Chapter Eight)

3. If you got hungry, what would your Undead Boyfriend most likely offer you?

Option 1: A fresh scoop of brains as an appetizer.

Option 2: A tray filled with “thinly sliced charcuterie, saucissons, cheeses, baguettes, and five or six different kinds of olives. There was bottled water, juice, and a pot of tea. Exotic fruits were piled in a bowl, and tiny macaroons in different colors were stacked in a pyramid on a high-stemmed cake plate.” DIE FOR ME, chapter 29.

4. What would a walk around Paris with your Undead Boyfriend be like?

Option 1: Being chased, screaming, by a guy whose drips ooze as he lumbers after you.

Option 2: “Vincent took my hand and laced his fingers through mine, sending little shock waves through my heart.” DIE FOR ME, chapter 16

5. What would a love letter from your Undead Boyfriend most likely look like?

Hank’s letter:

Uuuuuunnnggggghhh.

Vincent’s letter:

Kate,

I’m not always the best at expressing myself to you, so I’m taking advantage of the fact that I will be completely unresponsive when you read this, and therefore incapable of messing things up.

I want to thank you for giving me a chance. When I first saw you, I knew I had found something incredible. And since then all I’ve wanted was to be with you as much as possible.

When I thought I had lost you, I was torn between wanting you back and wanting the best for you—wanting you to be happy. Seeing you so miserable during the weeks we were apart gave me the courage to fight for us . . . to find a way for things to work. And seeing you happy again in the days we’ve been back together makes me think I did the right thing.

I can’t promise you an ordinary experience, Kate. I wish I could transform myself into a normal man and be there for you, always, without the trauma that defines my life as “the walking dead.” Since that isn’t possible, I can only reassure you that I will do everything in my power to make it up to you. To give you more than a normal boyfriend could. I have no idea what that will mean, exactly, but I’m looking forward to finding out. With you.

Thank you for being here, my beauty. Mon ange. My Kate.
Yours utterly,
Vincent

(DIE FOR ME, Chapter 33)

Um, yeah.

I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of leaning toward Undead Boyfriend #2. But if you’re feeling all hot and heavy about Hank, I would suggest that revenants and DIE FOR ME are not for you. You’d probably feel much more swoony with a zombie and a copy of THE LIVING DEAD 2.

*****

DIE FOR ME in paperback can be purchased here at Amazon or here at IndieBound. And, just to say thank you, if you send me a scan/email of your receipt to katieloumercier@gmail.com before April 10, I’ll put your name in the hat to win a signed original KATE-IN-A-BOAT ARC! (This contest is U.S. only, which is where this paperback version is for sale!)

Do you know why today’s so special?

Because it’s “WALK WITH REVENANTS” day! As many of you know, that’s how I sign all D4M swag, but today you can really do it. Today, April 3, is

DIE FOR ME’s paperback birthday!!!

As of today, you can pop Paris into your book bag and carry Kate, Vincent, and the rest of the D4M kindred with you WHEREVER YOU GO. 🙂

It is oh-so-easily orderable from:

Amazon: here
or
IndieBound: here

And, just to say thank you, if you send me a scan/email of your receipt to katieloumercier@gmail.com before April 10, I’ll put your name in the hat to win a signed original KATE-IN-A-BOAT ARC! (This contest is U.S. only, which is where this paperback version is for sale!)

Happy birthday Kate, Vincent, Jules, Ambrose, Charlotte, Charles, Gaspard, Ambrose, Georgia, Papy, Mamie, Jeanne, Genevieve… (not Lucien.)

Check back all week for special revenant-related blog posts celebrating

DIE FOR ME’s paperback release!