Vampires and Werewolves can be cute, cuddly and comical!
Email: ashlynchase@gmail.com
URL: www.ashlynchase.com
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Raymond, NH – Ashlyn Chase finds the fun in writing Vampires, Witches and Werewolves, oh my!
This Halloween, if you enjoy the holiday but don’t appreciate being scared to pieces, you might look into a new type of book that’s gaining popularity. “Paranormal chick-lit” is the term used by Mary Janice Davidson, who has been credited with originating the genre.
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Ashlyn Chase decided to try her hand at it and hit it big. The romance genre is 55 percent of the paperback market and women really want authors to turn up the heat these days. Chase believes, “The world needs more laughter and love and paranormal stories are the ultimate escapism.”
When asked how she finds the funny in dark characters like vampires and werewolves, Chase says, “I never overlook the obvious.” Let’s take a moment to embrace the clichés. Think about Vampires. What does everyone know about vampires? A) They have fangs and drink blood, usually by puncturing the victim’s carotid artery. B) They’re nocturnal and both silver and sunlight burns them. Chase takes that myth a step farther and has them “drop dead” when the sun rises, wherever they happen to be. How about Shapeshifters? A) If they shift while fully dressed, their clothes won’t fit their new shape. B) When they shift back, they’ll be naked. Both vampires and werewolves are super strong and have superior senses. What about ghosts? Ghosts are disembodied. They can see the physical world, but unless there’s a medium handy or they’ve learned some kind of telepathy, their influence is limited. Chase gives her ghosts someone to communicate with and sometimes telekinesis (the ability to move objects, mentally.)
In Chase’s new series, Strange Neighbors, her snarky ghost has an opinion on everything. He likes to scare off potential renters by making things move on their own. Also during the series her vampire breaks his fang on a rapper’s neck bling. Now where does a vampire find a dentist and how funny would it be to give him a lisp if he can’t retract his fangs? By deciding the bling was a knock-off, i.e. gold over silver, she made it happen. Her shapeshifting falcon is only half shifter so he doesn’t have good control and accidentally shifts under stress. Naturally, he gets stuck in his sweater and can’t shift back before being discovered. The witches? Well, they’re mainly human, but when one of them is Southern and has a butt-load of colorful expressions, imagine how her spells can backfire. “I’m not afraid to embarrass my characters,” Chase says. “It’s hilarious because it’s not happening to us. We’re a little warped that way.”
Strange Neighbors is garnering a lot of positive attention. Publisher’s Weekly wrote such a glowing review it caught the eye of a Hollywood Producer, who is considering the series! Book one in the series has been contracted for a Thai translation and her publisher is negotiating a Chinese translation now.
These books are geared toward women, although recent polls show that more and more romance readers are men. Because the hero in Strange Neighbors is a major league baseball pitcher, her series has mass appeal.
Her next book signings are Oct 1st 1 p.m. at the Peabody, MA, Barnes and Noble, and on Oct 8 at noon she’ll be signing the series at The Official Witch Shoppe on Pickering Wharf in Salem, MA.
Laurie Cabot is an actual character in book three, The Vampire Next Door.
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