Thursday, June 11, 2009

Norm Applegate and Blood Bar



Today's guest blogger is Norm Applegate, author of Blood Bar.

Norman Applegate is an author and consultant, with a growing body of work to his credit. Born in Glasgow Scotland, growing up in Toronto Canada and now residing in Florida with his wife Cheryl, Norm Applegate works and travels for an international consulting company, then occasionally scares the “heck” out of his family with his thoughts and writings.

His early years in Toronto were filled with aspirations of the late 60’s hippie music scene, and as a drummer in numerous bands led to a short lived career playing the bars and clubs in the Toronto area. The band Photograph, signed to a recording studio, made some noise on the coast to coast CBC radio show, the Entertainers, and after the legal issues strangled them into submission, they went their separate ways. The life of drugs, sex and rock and roll were over, sad but true.

His first novel, Into the Basement, a raw dark thriller introduced us to his unlikely heroine Kim Bennett and is scheduled for a movie release in 2009 with Triad Studios. The cast for the movie includes Courtney Gains, Naama Kates, Jonathan Breck, Two Foot Fred, Nicola Fiore, Jamie McCall, and a seasoned crew of horror and TV actors.

His follow up novel, Into the Spell, continued with Kim Bennett and the dark world of hypnosis, the paranormal and murder. Early 2008, Norm released a short story called “Jumpers”, with a Twilight Zone feel to it in the horror anthology “From the Shadows”.

Currently Mr. Applegate is a resident of Sarasota Florida, where he is working as a principle for the movie Into the Basement, a new horror thriller, and a sequel to Blood Bar.

For more information about Norman and his upcoming projects go to www.normanapplegate.com.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Vampires don’t exist...yet, on the brownstone back alley side streets of New York, a vampire dies. Desperate, his lover turns to Kim Bennett, author Norm Applegate’s quintessential heroine whose passion for S&M led to celebrity status as a hell-and-back murder mystery sleuth who’s been there, done that, and then some. This time, Kim finds herself caught between a secret vampire society’s attempts to locate The Black Testament (a sacred document written by Jack the Ripper), the modern-day vampire hunters bent on their destruction, and a white knuckled journey of self-discovery that catapults her into the bowels of hell and the arms of the ultimate vampire.......courtesy of The Haven, New York’s ultimate BLOOD BAR.

Norm is going to share a bit about Blood Bar with us today. Here's hoping even this brief mention doesn't give you nightmares!

You’re becoming a vampire, that was the premise to my recent novel Blood Bar with former S&M dominatrix Kim Bennett, a hell-and-back murder mystery sleuth who’s been there, done that, and then some.

With vampires we expect murder, erotic romance and adventure. To deliver that, we need a sensual male or female lover, Blood Bar delivers both. For adventure, Kim is placed in a murder, a search for the Black Testament a secret document written by Jack the Ripper which exposes the genealogy of the modern day vampire, and along the way some crazy distractions.

In creating dynamics with characters I look for opposites or at least something unexpected. In Blood Bar, I’ve placed a North American Indian Detective, Cheyenne Billings Montana, a vampire hunter who bonds with Kim, but is chasing the vampire she falls in love with Nicolai Avelli, a handsome Italian.

Adding to the cast, we have Erin Roberts, who like her father, never smiled a day in her life except when she was killing someone, and she is killing vampires.

For gore, we have vampire, Holger the beast Weinmar, who had the reputation of a primal animal, evil and aggressive, who would tear people and animals apart just for the pleasure of feeding violently.

To make the vampire killing somewhat different this is a paragraph from the novel.

Nicolai witnessed the removal of seventy-two choice chunks of fingers, toes, arms and legs, spread from largest to smallest on a white linen table like meat in a butcher shop, as the Beast meticulously went to work on the poor soul. The blade thick with yellow stringy fat carved through the soft flesh to the white of the bone leaving behind a mass of quivering wet carcass that heaved with each breath it took. Slice seventy-three was the delicate removal of the larynx, and with a suction sound it popped out releasing a gush of red spray and a hissing whisper of air.

The humorous part, all my characters are composites of friends and family, and when you study people, look deep, we’re all a little strange.

All the best,
Norm Applegate
May 2009
www.normanapplegate.com

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