About The Author:
Caroline Barnard-Smith has been writing stories since she was five years old. Having graduated from the University of Portsmouth with a bachelor’s degree in English Literature, she now lives in Devon, England with her husband and baby daughter where she writes about ruthless vampires, lovelorn zombies and heinous blood cults.
Her short stories have been published in numerous small press magazines, including Ballista, Hungur and Night to Dawn, and on the web at Dark Fire Fiction.
Caroline’s debut dark fantasy novel, Dunraven Road, was published by Immanion Press in June 2009. For various exciting reasons she’s since turned her hand to indie publishing. Jinn Nation is her first full-length independently published novel.
When she’s not writing, Caroline is busy running her handmade craft business, CazzCraft, selling both online and at craft fairs (Source: Author).
Find Caroline Barnard-Smith on the Web:
Guest Post:
My first novel was terrible. It was fairly short at only 60, 000 words long (practically a novella), and included every fantasy character I could think of. Fairies rubbed elbows with witches and wizards and an underground bar (literally under the ground) served beer to gargoyles and elves. I was only 20 when I wrote it so at the time I thought I’d created a masterpiece and was dismayed to find that none of the agents or publishers I sent it to wanted to buy it. Well, that’s not strictly true. I did have one publisher display interest, making my little heart stop in my chest when I received their letter stating that they wanted to publish my book. Tragically, my joy was cut short in the very next paragraph as they announced they needed two thousand pounds to put towards ‘publication costs’. Two thousand pounds? I was a university student who could barely find the rent every month, where was I going to find two thousand pounds? Yes, I was the victim of a vanity press scam. No writer should ever have to pay a publisher to see their work in print; money flows to you, not the other way around. I did learn a valuable lesson though – never trust the adverts asking for authors to send in their work in the back of magazines.
I kept going, even after this little fiasco, because I’ve always wanted to write. My very first literary effort was a short (very short, about half a page of A4, in fact) story plagiarised from the movie Grease, thumped out on my mum’s old typewriter. Thankfully, I’ve since learned to create my own stories and to stop stealing ideas from major motion pictures. I think I was first inspired to write while watching my mum. She’s always wanted to be a published writer and when I was very young, she wrote children’s stories. Myself and my sister were the perfect test audience for her creations. I thought her stories were brilliant, particularly the ones about a kindly grandmother who cooked up spells with her granddaughter and took her on flying lessons, but the publishers she sent them to weren’t so keen. I believe it was their loss but I like to think that for my mum, knowing I managed to get my own books into print is almost as good. I loved all types of fantasy stories when I was a child and I know that’s also had a big impact on my work. I started with Grimm’s Fairy Tales and branched out from there, devouring anything by Enid Blyton or Roald Dahl. Later on it was Ursula Le Guin, Terry Pratchett and Tolkien. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin is still one of my favourite novels.
Even though I was an epic fantasy fan when I was young my new novel, Jinn Nation, couldn’t be more different. It’s a dark fantasy about the vampire Dylan and the mysterious woman he meets at a jinn bar in the middle of the Arizona desert. Christa seems fragile and childlike, but her unique gifts of telepathy and telekinesis mean that she’s not afraid of anyone, not even hungry jinn intent on ripping apart every human they come across. Intrigued by each other, Dylan and Christa set out on a Bonnie-and-Clyde-esque road trip across the United States of America, little knowing that the rising tide of jinn will soon shatter their plans.
After my first novel, Dunraven Road, was released I was criticised for the lack of strong female characters; so when I came to write Jinn Nation I was determined that my heroine would kick some serious butt. Christa doesn’t look strong or even particularly confident, but she won’t let anyone walk on her, especially Dylan. When I first imagined Dylan I set out to create a vampire who didn’t apologise for the lives he took. Dylan enjoys his afterlife and he has large appetites, for women, alcohol and luxury as well as for blood. He’s a true vampire in every sense of the word but he’s also a kind of anti-hero, loyal to his friends and willing to fight to save the world from a maniacal jinn goddess intent on turning the human race into cattle. I sincerely hope that readers enjoy him as much as I did.
You can currently buy Jinn Nation for your Kindle or other e-reader for the very special price of $0.99 / £0.95!
Jinn Nation:
Title: Jinn NationAuthor: Caroline Barnard-SmithPublisher: Self-PublishedPublication Date: June 28th, 2011
Once, the vampire Dylan had feared nothing and no one. He'd rampaged throughout the world on a seemingly never ending quest to fill his eternal years with the finest, most outrageous extravagances; with exquisite, soft-limbed young women and copious amounts of rich, vibrating blood. But life, however full of joy, inevitably changes.
Finding himself alone for the first time in his long unlife, Dylan turns to the preternatural race of savage creatures called the jinn - a path that inevitably leads him to Christa, a strangely childlike woman with the power to control minds and read thoughts. Mutually intrigued by each other, they set out on a blood-soaked road trip that crosses the United States and the Atlantic Ocean, finally leading them beyond the world itself to the mysterious fae kingdoms of the Inbetween (Source: Author).
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Happy reading until next time!
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