IMHO welcomes Kim Lenox!

IMHO is pleased to kick off our March gift basket giveaway full of historical romances autographed by their authors with today's lovely and talented (and genuinely nice) guest host, historical paranormal author Kim Lenox . Our theme for this month is the “Story Behind the Story.”

Kim writes heroes worth waiting (forever) for. Her Shadow Guards series features immortal heroes who have existed from the beginning of time and lived a thousand “lives” already — and the women who can make time stand still for them. Her richly detailed Victorian-set romances feature elements of “steampunk” (which she explains is “a sort of a funky re-imagined Victorian era, with a high emphasis on quirk and gadgets” ala H. G. Wells or THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN).

NIGHT FALLS DARKLY, her debut novel, has been nominated by Romantic Times Booklover’s Magazine for Best First Historical Romance of 2008-2009 and was a featured alternate selection with both the Doubleday Book Club and Rhapsody Book Clubs. Kim will put an autographed copy of Night Falls Darkly AND an ARC (advance reader copy) of her second novel, So Still the Night, into the “I LOVE ME SOME HISTORICALS” basket. Her third book in the Shadow Guard series will be released in 2010.

IMHO: Welcome, Kim. So tell us, what’s the “story behind the story”?

KL: Thanks, TJ. Hello all! Well as TJ mentioned, I’m Kim Lenox, and I write historical paranormal romance. That’s a mouthful, isn’t it? Try saying it fast, five times in a row.

The title of my debut release with Signet Eclipse is NIGHT FALLS DARKLY, and my upcoming May release is titled SO STILL THE NIGHT. The titles convey what you’ll find between the covers of my books. The stories run a bit dark, and have common themes. As a reader, you’ll be introduced to my immortal Shadow Guards, who hunt down the most evil and most morally deteriorated of society’s mortal souls. There are murders—true to life, historical murders. There are cameos by famous personages like Queen Victoria and Bram Stoker. There’s fog and “spooky”! Best of all, each of the books follow unlikely, against-all-odds love stories.

Both novels are set in 1880s Victorian London, which was an amazing kaleidoscope of industry, wealth, color and opulence. On the opposite end of life’s spectrum, the city was also a place of crime, unimaginable poverty and misery. I’ve always been fascinated by the contrast of light and dark, by the beautiful superficiality of status and wealth—and what lies beneath. I wanted to create characters that could maneuver in both of those worlds, characters who could take my reader from the well-lit and luxuriously appointed drawing rooms of Mayfair, into the darker paths and dangerous alleyways of the East End. I needed strong characters. Brave characters. Characters who could face the darkness they would find in those streets, and the evil that to this day defies rational explanation. Specifically, Jack the Ripper (NIGHT FALLS DARKLY) and the Thames Torso Murderer (SO STILL THE NIGHT).

Why would I even want to go down those dark roads? Those who know me will tell you I’m no morbid soul. But still…I was drawn to that shadowy place.

The “why” question is an easy one to answer. It’s because I believe, wholeheartedly, in redemption and in the Happily Ever After. No, not for Jack—for him, I wanted justice. But where does light shine most brightly? Most brilliantly? In the dark.

It’s in the worst of circumstances where true heroes are revealed. And that’s why you’ll find me, most happily, writing in the dark.

IMHO: Thanks, Kim, for telling us the story behind the story. Fascinating stuff! And, dear readers, be sure to leave a message for Kim. Do you like going dark places in your books (as long as you get a Happily Ever After)? Let Kim know for a chance to be entered into our contest this month for the "I LOVE ME SOME HISTORICALS" gift basket giveaway.

TJB