Author: catstark

I have a favorite line of the trilogy. Well, probably more than one, but this one keeps coming back to me. It’s from the first book:

“The din tore down the beach like a great beast in heat.”

This happens when Natalia lets out a frustrated scream when she realized she wants to sleep with Vincent. I wanted the noise she made to resemble a beast, hence that word in the sentence. There is another, hidden, indication of that as well. “Din”. Great word. Older word we don’t use too much in English (American English anyway) that means noise.

I didn’t want to use noise though, as that was not quite right. I can remember if I used a thesaurus for the word, of if I remembered it from various books and poems I’ve read.

At any rate, I decided to use “din” as it reminded me of another word: djinn. Also spelled jinn. And bastardized into genie.

The image of Natalia releasing a frustrated scream in the form of a large genie like cloud that escaped down the moon lit beach hit me hard. It was, for me, perfect.

I love that line.

Describing furniture is not always my forte. But when I get an idea in my head on what a room should look like, I run with it.

From Inside the Grey House:

Lilly sensed the human’s need for silence, and simply led the way. They were halfway to Vincent’s room and Natalia was doing splendidly. By the time they reached Vincent’s rooms, the human was walking with her head held high.

The sitting room they walked into was furnished with antique furniture. There were two leather couches, a large wooden desk and several glass cases filled with artwork and artifacts from all over the world. All the furniture was stained a dark red and had clawed feet. Lilly admired everything as she led Natalia through the room. Natalia didn’t seem to notice anything but the way ahead. Looking around too much made her slightly dizzy.

I like describing women’s clothing, as they can be so much more varied then men’s. I have used the internet to find interesting dresses, but I also use my own imagination, and, on occasion, my own wardrobe for the main woman’s clothing in my works.

From Inside the Grey House:

“Soon. She was at one of Anthony’s safe houses, waiting for instructions.” He heard the laughter again, and felt his body reacting. He craned his neck, trying to catch a glimpse. He stood taller as the crowd parted and revealed Natalia. The night improved tenfold.

Natalia’s dark hair, which was tied up in a French twist, sparkled in the light. The hairdo revealed her long neck in all its beauty. Her dress was black velvet with a silver vines and flowers climbing around it. The dress tied around her neck, confidently revealing her bite mark riddled shoulders and muscular arms. Her silver necklace was just under the string tie, almost hidden by the velvet. The dress was so short: it barely hid her ass. She was holding a black and silver rose, twirling it slightly in her hand. Her shoes, stiletto heels, matched the silver of the dress. He caught her eye and she smiled. She was almost to him. He started breathing, trying to stay in control of himself. As his eyes raked her body his only thought was to wonder where she had gotten the dress.

Vincent is not what you call “good”. He lives by his own rules and is not above killing, imprisoning and torturing people that get in his way, or harm hi m or his people. Therefore the antagonists had to be worse.

From Inside the Grey House:

“Those Edwin doesn’t trust are ordered to sleep at his house. If we don’t show up before sunrise, he sends people after us. Thugs he’s hired to keep us in line.” Janice looked distraught. “I was late once, traffic was bad. As I drove up, six people were getting onto motorcycles. When I got out of my car and went inside, they followed me until they saw I was going to Edwin.”

“I tried to get out once.” Kari waited until Vincent looked her way. “I told Edwin I wanted to go find some new challenges. I told him I would be back in a week. He said I could go, as long as I took an escort. To hide what I was doing, I went to Los Angeles. He had me take two of his thugs. They were with me everywhere I went. Edwin may not appear to be that bad, but he’s worse than you know.”

Vincent stared Kari down. “Edwin is a monster. Nothing about him surprises me.”

In the “Contagion”, the rpg this book is based off of, there are Slayers and there are the monsters. I created a subclass of Slayers for my world. They are the vampire hunters, do not have the same ability as Slayers and are not treated very kindly by some of the Slayers. Dean is one of those people.

From Inside the Grey House:

He gave her a sad look and she saw how much he wanted her to understand. Natalia frowned but let down her guard and listened. “When Judith and I found out you were with the Hellspawn, she wanted to kill you. I stopped her from killing you, but she still shot you. I hated her for that. I ran away for a while, thinking I needed to be a warrior for the Slayers.” His look grew even more depressed. “I was really mad at you for allowing Judith and the others to die, but then after a while realized I was madder because you had escaped, and I didn’t.”

Her thoughts stilled. “What are you saying, Dean?”

The Grey House Trilogy is based on an RPG my friend Travis Legge created. This means that every once in a while, something is mentioned in the book that isn’t really explored. Those are bits and pieces of the game world showing up in the book. If you like roll playing table top games, you should give it a try.

From Inside the Grey House:

“Whenever a Slayer is found on the streets or in a park, the body disappears, and a secret organization takes over the investigation.” She slammed her hand on the steering wheel. They were at a red light and Natalia felt each second that passed as a knife in her mind. How the hell had she missed this? “If we can get him away from her, bring him back to his apartment and kill him there, the Slayers will take care of their own and no one outside of the Slayers will know about it.” Charlie repositioned himself

Vincent trusts some of his people explicitly. So much so, that if one gives an order he listens. This happens with very few of his people.

From Inside the Grey House:

Vincent fumed as the intercom buzzed from the security room. Mierka had gone there after greeting her man.

“Stairs. Now.”  It was an order.

Vincent, not waiting for more instructions, raced out the door Anthony held open. Anthony followed, wondering what the problem was. When he saw the healer holding Natalia, he felt his skin crawl. He tucked away his distrust of the woman to serve his leader in any way he needed.

Vincent sat on the stairs and carefully took Natalia from Lilly’s arms. “What happened?”

“She fainted. Happens when you think you can do more than your body is ready for.”

He placed a soft kiss on Natalia’s brow. “I thought you were supposed to heal her.”

“And I did. The poison has been removed and her wounds are gone. But that’s all I can do for her, sir. Anything beyond that needs to heal over time.”

Vincent gave the healer a hard look. “Such as?”

The thought of a woman fighting in stilettos, or really any tall heels, was a real turn on for me. Until someone brought reality into the situation. When I first wrote this scene, it turned out well for Natalia. In the final edition, it does not.

From Inside the Grey House:

Fighting in a gown was hard, but she found that if she wore a dress with slits up the sides, it gave her more room to move. She hadn’t figured out how to keep steady on her heels, though. Natalia liked wearing heels and did so whenever she and Vincent went out. She sometimes wore heels around the house, just to drive him crazy. Moving slowly and seductively on heels and trying to walk as a warrior in them were two entirely different creatures. She felt like a child trying out heels for the first time. The sharp thin heels would be great to use as weapons, though. Now, as she was facing down a practice threat, she wasn’t too sure. She circled slowly using every other part of her body to intimidate, knowing that at some point the terrified vampire would strike.

And then he did.

I don’t want to say too much about this scene, as saying to much would reveal what happened before. Therefore, enjoy!

From Inside the Grey House:

He slipped his fingers out of her to hold her closer. “There is something I wish to discuss with you, Natalia.”

“Anything. Just make it fast.” She gave him a seductive look. “There are other, more pleasant things I want to do.”

His hand traveled up to her head to tangle in her soft, luxurious hair. “When did they become our men, Natalia?”

His words caught her by surprise. She thought back to the night’s event, remembering what she said and why. The look of surprise vanished, and she raised her head high, giving him a proud look. “I’ve spent the past five years fighting with these people, learning from them, talking to them, and living with them. The creatures I see the most are the ones that live in your household.”

The Grey House Trilogy takes place in the San Francisco Bay Area. Natalia’s house in San Francisco, is actually where some friends of mine had a house, and is right around the corner from the apartment I grew up in. Here, Vincent and Joseph discuss Edwin, and his desire to be in charge.

From Inside the Grey House:

The agitated vampire shook his head. “No.” He paused in thought. “Edwin enjoys pretending to be Captain because it means no one can touch him, but he’s been Acting Captain for almost five years. I have to wonder how long a vampire like him can stand only being the Acting Captain. There are limits to what he can do. There are still too many in the Bay Area who won’t listen to him. It may be that he wants to show his power, show that he has power. We need to be there.”

“Of course, we do.” The tone in his voice made Vincent look up hard.

“What does this have to do with you testing Natalia today?” He looked as if he didn’t want to know the answer.

“We’ll need her.”

“Out of the question.”