Blood
Diva
by VM
Gautier
Genre: Urban
Fantasy
Number of pages:
435
Word Count: 121,000
Book
Description:
The 19th
century's most infamous party-girl is undead and on the loose in the Big Apple.
When 23 year-old
Parisian courtesan, Marie Duplessis succumbed to consumption in 1847, Charles
Dickens showed up for the funeral and reported the city mourned as though Joan
of Arc had fallen. Marie was not only a celebrity in in her own right, but her
list of lovers included Franz Liszt – the first international music superstar,
and Alexandre Dumas fils, son of the creator of The Three Musketeers. Dumas
fils wrote the novel The Lady of the Camellias based on their time together.
The book became a play, and the play became the opera La Traviata. Later came
the film versions, and the legend never died.
But what if when
offered the chance for eternal life and youth, Marie grabbed it, even when the
price was the regular death of mortals at her lovely hand?
Today, Marie
wonders if perhaps nearly two centuries of murder, mayhem, and debauchery is
enough, especially when she falls hard for a rising star she believes may be
the reincarnation of the only man she ever truly loved. But is it too late for
her to change? Can a soul be redeemed like a diamond necklace in hock? And even
if it can, have men evolved since the 1800′s? Or does a girl’s past still mark
her?
Blood
Diva is a sometimes humorous, often dark and erotic look at sex, celebrity,
love, death, destiny, and the arts of both self-invention and seduction. It’s a
story that asks a simple question – Can a one hundred ninety year-old
demimondaine find happiness in 21st century Brooklyn without regular infusions
of fresh blood?
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GUEST POST
As long as their have been storytellers, artists and musicians, there have been muses to fire up their imaginations. The ancient Greek muses were goddesses, daughters of Zeus (the most powerful of the Greek pantheon) and Mnemosyne (memory personified). Artists of all kinds would pray for their guidance and blessings.
Marie was born Alphonsine Plessis in a village in Normandy, France in 1824. Her father was a drunk and a brute. Her mother fled for her life, leaving Alphonsine and her sister behind. By the time she reached puberty, her father was selling her favors. At fourteen she arrived in Paris – alone and barely literate. She worked for a short time as a laundress, but soon found an easier way of life – first as a streetwalker and then as a courtesan catering to an ever wealthier clientele.
Men saw something in her that went beyond her delicate child-like beauty. She was witty and a quick study. Her early sponsors paid for her to have lessons in music and dance. Her home became a gathering place where writers, artists, aristocrats, and politicians might mingle though no respectable ladies ever crossed the threshold. Franz Liszt, the first international music “superstar” whose popularity inspired the phrase “Lisztomania” was one of the great loves of her life. Their time together was short, but he described her later as “the most absolute incarnation of Woman who has ever existed.” Before that, when she was still a teenager, she and Alexander Dumas fils, the son of the author of The Three Musketeers, had had a passionate affair. The younger Dumas' had not yet begun his literary career when they met, and while his father supported him, he was neither wealthy nor established. Things ended. He didn't want to be a kept woman's kept man.
She died a few weeks after her twenty-third birthday of tuberculosis, then called “consumption.” It was shortly after her death that Dumas fils published his novel, The Lady of the Camellias, which everyone took to be a thinly disguised account of their time together. Of course it was a hit. While the respectable ladies couldn't be seen talking to her, they could (behind closed doors) read the novel for a peek into the boudoir of the notorious mademoiselle.
Dumas turned the novel into a play. In both the play and the novel he softened Marie up a bit. In both versions, the doomed heroine, now called Marguerite Gautier, is willing to give up her livelihood for the love of Armand Duval (who shares Dumas' initials). but when even that isn't enough, she ends things with her her lover so that her scandalous past doesn't stand in his way. In the play, he makes it back to her on her deathbed and she dies in his arms. The play became an international hit and star-vehicle for the most famous actresses of the time, Sarah Bernhardt and Elenora Duse. It also became the basis for Giuseppe Verdi's opera, La Traviata, which is still performed today.
As anyone who has seen and heard La Traviata can attest, it's more than just a tragic love story. It's the tragic love story. Violetta (as the heroine is now called) is not simply a beautiful young woman who happens to be dying, she is youth and beauty personified. The pure love of Alfredo (as her lover is now named) purifies and redeems her, but still she dies.
The muse visited me often and her influence was strong. I soon realized that the plot of my novel would have a lot in common with my favorite opera. There would still be a worldly young woman a lot like Violetta. She's still meet a handsome, more innocent young man, a lot like Alfredo. The passion they'd have for each other would transform them. Only the impediment to true love would be different. Instead of mortality and coughing up blood, my heroine is an immortal who drains it from others. As Marie might have put it, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
The Muse Behind Blood Diva
As long as their have been storytellers, artists and musicians, there have been muses to fire up their imaginations. The ancient Greek muses were goddesses, daughters of Zeus (the most powerful of the Greek pantheon) and Mnemosyne (memory personified). Artists of all kinds would pray for their guidance and blessings.
Long after the old gods became myths, the idea of the muse lived on, usually as a beautiful woman – real or imaginary – who could inspire painters, writers, and composers. Such a woman was Marie Duplessis, the real-life basis for the main character in my novel Blood Diva.
Marie was born Alphonsine Plessis in a village in Normandy, France in 1824. Her father was a drunk and a brute. Her mother fled for her life, leaving Alphonsine and her sister behind. By the time she reached puberty, her father was selling her favors. At fourteen she arrived in Paris – alone and barely literate. She worked for a short time as a laundress, but soon found an easier way of life – first as a streetwalker and then as a courtesan catering to an ever wealthier clientele.
Men saw something in her that went beyond her delicate child-like beauty. She was witty and a quick study. Her early sponsors paid for her to have lessons in music and dance. Her home became a gathering place where writers, artists, aristocrats, and politicians might mingle though no respectable ladies ever crossed the threshold. Franz Liszt, the first international music “superstar” whose popularity inspired the phrase “Lisztomania” was one of the great loves of her life. Their time together was short, but he described her later as “the most absolute incarnation of Woman who has ever existed.” Before that, when she was still a teenager, she and Alexander Dumas fils, the son of the author of The Three Musketeers, had had a passionate affair. The younger Dumas' had not yet begun his literary career when they met, and while his father supported him, he was neither wealthy nor established. Things ended. He didn't want to be a kept woman's kept man.
She died a few weeks after her twenty-third birthday of tuberculosis, then called “consumption.” It was shortly after her death that Dumas fils published his novel, The Lady of the Camellias, which everyone took to be a thinly disguised account of their time together. Of course it was a hit. While the respectable ladies couldn't be seen talking to her, they could (behind closed doors) read the novel for a peek into the boudoir of the notorious mademoiselle.
Dumas turned the novel into a play. In both the play and the novel he softened Marie up a bit. In both versions, the doomed heroine, now called Marguerite Gautier, is willing to give up her livelihood for the love of Armand Duval (who shares Dumas' initials). but when even that isn't enough, she ends things with her her lover so that her scandalous past doesn't stand in his way. In the play, he makes it back to her on her deathbed and she dies in his arms. The play became an international hit and star-vehicle for the most famous actresses of the time, Sarah Bernhardt and Elenora Duse. It also became the basis for Giuseppe Verdi's opera, La Traviata, which is still performed today. 
As anyone who has seen and heard La Traviata can attest, it's more than just a tragic love story. It's the tragic love story. Violetta (as the heroine is now called) is not simply a beautiful young woman who happens to be dying, she is youth and beauty personified. The pure love of Alfredo (as her lover is now named) purifies and redeems her, but still she dies.
One has to wonder, what the real Marie Duplessis would have made of her posthumous fame? One thing both Verdi and Dumas caught was her wit and sense of irony. How would she have reacted to her character's redemption and sacrifice? Would she have been annoyed at Alexandre's exploitation of her? Would she have found it funny that a man who did not want to be supported by her prostitution, wound up making a career out of their association?
It was those questions that inspired me to imagine Marie Duplessis alive in the 21st century. Where would she live? How would she earn a living? And how does she even wind up here? Does she get scooped up by a time-traveling opera fan? That seemed unlikely. Vampirism was the more obvious choice.
Poor Marie! As a courtesan there were doors she couldn't go through. It's the same for vampires.
The muse visited me often and her influence was strong. I soon realized that the plot of my novel would have a lot in common with my favorite opera. There would still be a worldly young woman a lot like Violetta. She's still meet a handsome, more innocent young man, a lot like Alfredo. The passion they'd have for each other would transform them. Only the impediment to true love would be different. Instead of mortality and coughing up blood, my heroine is an immortal who drains it from others. As Marie might have put it, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
About the Author
VM Gautier is a
pseudonym. This is not VM's first book, but it is VM's first book with fangs.
VM is no one you've heard of and is not trying to fool anyone. All will
probably be revealed soon, but meantime VM is enjoying the masquerade.
We are never
more ourselves than when we wear a disguise.
Author Links:
***GIVEAWAY***
5 signed paperbacks (to US ONLY)
2 Gorgeous Blood Diva mugs (US only)
3 Amazon Gift Certificates for $3.99
Blog Tour Organised by:
What a creepy title and cover!
ReplyDeleteDid you mean creepy as a good thing or a bad thing? Given it has vampires do you think it's intentionally creepy or accidentally creepy?
DeleteThank you for the chance to win!!
ReplyDeleteI like that you were able to use such an old story and recreate it and turn it into your own masterpiece!
ReplyDeleteThanks -- especially for calling it a masterpiece! And thanks to CBY Bookclub for allowing me to guest post.
DeleteThanks for the chance.
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say, thank you to my blog tour hosts at CBY Bookclub and to everyone whose commented, tweeted, etc. It's been tons of fun. There are still a few more hours to enter the raffle, so please take advantage.
ReplyDelete