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I have been nominated by action/sci-fi/horror screenwriter Eric Ian Steele from Manchester, England to join the “Meet My Main Characters” blog tour. Today I will be telling you a little about the protagonist of my vampire thriller series The Matriarch.

What is the name of your main character?

Her name is Janiss Annette Connelly, formerly a college senior with one semester to go before she would begin student teaching, marry, have children, and live happily ever after…all of which changes after running afoul of a vampire named Ian Chrisman.

When and where is the story set?

It is set in and around Glenville, West Virginia and at my alma mater, Glenville State College. The story takes place in modern-day, but the roots of the story are steeped in the local ghost story of Sis Linn, a woman who was brutally murdered a century before and was interred in the old city cemetery on the actual college campus. Her murder was never solved, setting up the gray area in history where the story takes place.

What should we know about the main character?

Janiss is a strong-willed and caring young woman who spends her free time visiting retirees at a local rest home. Her boyfriend Daniel is noncommittal about his relationship with her; being so close to graduation and with their entire lives ahead of them, she is determined to put him on the spot over their Thanksgiving break from school while spending the week together at her late grandparents’ farmhouse. Full disclosure: this is NOT a romance novel.

What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?

Janiss is unaware that the woman in charge of the rest home she visits is not what she seems and is decades older than she looks. While Janiss fears for the lives and treatment of her elderly friends at the home, she isn’t aware that an old enemy of the administrator has been lured back to central West Virginia and decides to announce his arrival by making Janiss his victim. After her encounter with Ian, Janiss’s life as she knew it is over and everyone she cares about is in mortal danger.

What is the personal goal of the character?

Not being the kind of person who gives up when all seems hopeless, Janiss makes the best of her situation. Fully aware that her own life and future has been irrevocably destroyed, she becomes determined to risk everything she has left to ensure no one else will ever have to suffer the same way again.

When can we expect the book to be published?

The Matriarch and its sequel The Matriarch: Guardians have already been published and are available now on Amazon. There are two additional books planned in the series to complete the tetralogy.

My nomination for two more writers for the blog tour?

I’m calling out Dan Dillard and Frank Larnerd to make a spectacle of themselves and the main character of their choice. Good luck, gentlemen!