Virtual Book Tour + #Giveaway: Day Unto Night by TammyJo Eckhart @thetammyjo @GoddessFish

 

Day Unto Night

by TammyJo Eckhart

GENRE: Vampire

BLURB:

A Sumerian child named Ningai survives the murder of her entire family and cries out to her people’s gods, who answer her prayer in an unexpected way. Now, as the first of the Akhkharu, the living dead, Ningai embarks on a journey across the millennia to rebuild what she lost. The best of her offspring must maintain some shred of goodness to prove worthy to their Child-Mother while fighting the deadly impulses of their kind. Join their journeys across time in a series of interconnected stories from the earliest cities to a brutal future where humans are mere pawns in the hands of near gods. Like all of us, Ningai and the best of her children will stop at nothing to protect her family. Can they succeed before they lose what’s left of their humanity, or will all of humanity become enslaved to the Akhkharu forever?

Excerpt:

Jack sat up on the roof of what had once been the Library of Congress, looking out toward the ocean, which he could not see, even with his improved eyesight.  A century ago, he may have been dismo, thinking about the waves, his board, and the feeling of it all, but now he couldn’t even clearly remember what “dismo” meant.  Only a deep, tiny twinge flickered through his heart when he reached up to caress his buzzed blond hair that resembled his master’s own haircut.  He’d changed his hairstyle within a few decades of his transformation into wardum, not because Cornelius had commanded it, as he doubted the Akhkharu even noticed his hair, but because he’d caught the looks and comments other vampires and their servants had been giving him as he’d circulated within the dark venues of the Night Kingdom.

No, there wasn’t much left of surfer dude Jack anymore.

He’d been replaced with someone more focused on the almighty texts that they protected and censored below.  Jack glanced down and saw the flicker of light, so he stood, then bounded down the roof and the side of the building to meet his contact below.

No, Jack wasn’t just some vampire’s obedient slave, at least not in these moments.

Interview with TammyJo Eckhart

What made you want to become a writer?

I have been telling stories and writing for as long as I can remember. In the scrapbook my mother kept for me, you can find stories as early as kindergarten from me. My mother was a writer, though she was never traditionally published. Being a writer seemed natural to me. I figured I’d be a college professor or a psychologist as a career, because I knew most authors can’t make enough to live on. Now I write full time, though only because my family supports me and I have a quarter-time job that makes it possible. Here’s hoping this book helps find me a wider audience.

What inspired you to write Day Unto Night?

I’ve always loved vampires, ever since I was a child. At the same time, I’m a very picky fan of vampires. While I give it all a try, I don’t love the angst or the whininess of some vampires that have become popular over the decades. An outright monster, though, is also unappealing. I wanted to do something unique, so I looked farther and farther back in time and discovered a potential vampire-like entity that the ancient Sumerians mentioned, though not much information is given. That allowed me freedom to expand and develop a new mythos while meeting some current expectations for what vampires are and can do.

Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in Day Unto Night?

This is a big challenge, so I will try not to bore you all or give you too much detail. Unlike most of my work, where I keep it to one or two viewpoint characters, Day Unto Night is a “fix-up,” where the novel is told through a series of interconnected short stories preceded by, interwoven with, and followed by a single story.

The two characters I might consider the most important ones are Ningai/Charity and Jon. Ningai/Charity is the mother of all vampires (called Akhkharu) and is a child in an ancient city in Sumer. Her entire existence has been an attempt to recreate a family to replace the one that was ripped from her. I needed Ningai to be both mystically and psychologically consistent; she is a child through and through, which adds to her utter creepiness.

Jon is the blood-bound slave (wardum) who serves her and helps her finally achieve her goal. He constantly struggles with the fact that he is bound to a child in a world run by and ruined by creatures whose power he can never hope to match. He is at war with himself because of the intensity of the blood bond and his role as a parent to the most powerful of these monsters.

I want every reader to both feel empathy for and be terrified by these two characters as well as the six other pairs that populate the book.

You know I think we all have a favorite author. Who is your favorite author and why?

Hands down, Octavia Butler is my favorite author. She had foresight about our government, religion, gender, race, and ethnic relationships. She had hope about far distant futures and alien encounters that didn’t pretend things would go well for humanity or that it would all be horrific. She had grand ideas that span several genres. I cried when she died; she is the only author I have ever cried about when they passed on. I didn’t cry for her but for me, for us, because we lost her vision and her talent. If I can write and imagine a tenth as well as she could, I would consider myself blessed.

Can you tell us a little bit about your next books or what you have planned for the future?

I have the first four books in a series called Almost Partners contracted for, and the first one is due in the editor’s hands at the end of this month. It is a mixture of social science fiction and reverse harem. Think old-fashioned feminist science fiction that’s been updated with dark romance edginess. Ultimately, I see this series as my life’s work. I currently have at least ten books in various stages of preparation, from sketches to final drafts. The first four are fully drafted. The first three have been through a group of four beta readers who signed on to help me with the project years ago. I hope the first book and the three after that sell so well that I can just keep exploring that future I’ve created. Of course, if Day Unto Night does really well, I have a follow-up book partly written for that, too, which would go into more depth about one of the couples in the book.

What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

There are two things that I enjoyed most about writing this book. The first was pulling every story together into the greater tale, planting the seeds of everything so that as you read you ask questions that are later answered. Perhaps you are even inspired to go back and read it again. That took planning; I have pages and pages of notes and outlines.

I also loved reading the chapters as individual stories to audiences at conventions and seeing the looks on the audience’s faces as they went through a range of emotions. I’d ask questions and answer them; I used that feedback to help edit the pieces. I feel that made the final book better. I’ve done readings online; it isn’t the same, but I do them.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

TammyJo Eckhart, PhD, is the published author of science fiction, fantasy, contemporary, horror, and historical fiction. Her non-fiction works covering subjects ranging from history to alternative sexuality to relationship advice and the challenges of trauma recovery. She holds a PhD in Ancient History with doctoral minors in Gender & Sexuality and Folklore.  Her blog, The Chocolate Cult, has been the go-to guide for chocolate lovers since 2009. She loves visiting conventions as well as organizations to read, sell books, or share her experiences and insights on various topics in the form of lectures or workshops.

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Buy Link:

Amazon

Giveaway:

$25 Amazon/BN GC

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