I might agonize over plot and grow impatient with setting, but I could spend hours of every day getting to know the men and women I create. And I do! Deep POV introspection is my “drug” of choice. The problem, of course, is that every book comes to a close and new books begin. New characters must be brought to life and old ones put on a shelf. There’s joy in getting to the HEA of each and every story, but there’s also sadness when you realize that you won’t be spending the next day with the hero, heroine…and villain…you’ve grown to love.

Speaking of villains…

When I wrote my vampire romance, HUNGER, a certain vampire villain threatened to steal the show. I’m grinning as I type this remembering how hard it was to rein him in and keep him out of the spotlight. You see, Dillon was made for the spotlight.

“Dillon would have been a time traveler’s erotic dream. He had the lean, leather-draped grace of a ’60’s punk-rock star. He had the whisky-kissed Texas drawl of a wild-west cowboy. He was James Dean’s rebel. He was Jim Morrison’s poet. He was Bon Jovi’s gunslinger all mixed with the angry lost boy of Sid Vicious. But none of those icons held a candle to him because they hadn’t been backed by the power and immortality of vampirism.”

Oh, yeah, Dillon was not an easy character to leave behind.  In fact, leaving him behind was impossible.  Sure, I told myself he was irredemable.  I told myself he couldn’t be the hero of his own book because I could never bare to de-fang him enough for the romance market. I told myself to forget him.  LOL.  Let’s just say, Dillon was having none of that!

Eventually I had to sit down and begin his story knowing he would take me to places that traditional romance writers didn’t usually go, knowing that I would have to create a heroine for him that would love him in spite of and maybe even because of his wicked nature.  Oh, how I loved the character of Jade when she came to me!  Because she needed Dillon to be exactly what he was…a decadent vampire who will never be perfectly behaved, but who will always be perfect…just as he is.

UNFORGIVEN is not a typical romance, but it is all Dillon.  I didn’t rein him in this time around, not for a second.  I hope you’ll enjoy his love story even if vampire love is a little bit different than your ordinary affair.

To learn more about Unforgiven and all of Barbara’s books visit www.barbarajhancock.com

To see the book trailer for Unforgiven visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9UPaMS8pL8