Jack runs afoul of a half-crazed, self-styled Van Helsing and his hapless assistant, not a big problem for a street-wise gumshoe, but things take a deadly turn when someone starts shooting. Jack may be bulletproof, but his friends are not.

Elrod: While Bloodlist was making the rounds at various publishers I began the next book, continuing Jack’s adventures as he clashes with a team of inept vampire hunters. The idea of a couple of guys with just enough knowledge to be dangerous going after Jack seemed like a fun way to stand the old vampire hunter story on its head.  They think they are saving humanity from Jack, but have no understanding they are playing way out of their league.  Fortunately for them, Jack has a good sense of humor.  Until things get out of hand---but that's a plot spoiler I won't give away for those who have not yet read it!

I was told by several published writers not to sit on my hands while trying to sell the first novel, but stay busy at the typewriter.  

Yes---I wrote the first THREE novels on a typewriter. 

Before that, the first drafts were written on a clipboard using reams of notebook paper.  I still have the originals around here someplace. 

In the meantime I was getting better at the craft, but still learning as a writer. You never stop learning or trying to make your writing better. When you take it for granted, or think you know everything, you’ve turned into a hack and the readers can tell.

I was up late a lot of nights on this one. When I got the call from Ace Publishing, Lifeblood was all finished and boxed and my third book was a third of the way along.  Ace wanted to see them both!

Elrod: With a six-book contract signed, I had to deliver! I finished Bloodcircle a little faster than I wanted, but got it in. 

THEN I got back the copy-edited MS for Lifeblood. Horrors! It was awful! It seems in the 1-year gap between the writing and the turn-in I’d improved a lot at the craft and now looked on Lifeblood as a very rough draft. 

I knew I could make it so much better, but had only two weeks before it was due to return to my editor.  Not knowing any better I REWROTE the WHOLE book, Lifeblood, in TWO weeks.  (Have I mentioned it was on a MANUAL typewriter enough yet?) 

Bloodcircle also needed a complete rewrite. She asked if I planned to do that, and if so, do it before turning it in. So I did!  (On a manual typewriter.  Again.  Whew!)  Looking back, I'm not sure how I did it, but, hey---it sure beat out using a quill pen!

Bloodcircle is my tribute to the TV Gothic soap, Dark Shadows. I adored that show, still do. This book is full of little in-jokes and many of the characters are named after or look like characters and actors from the show. 

Vampire Jonathan Barrett’s name was inspired by star Jonathan Frid and my good bud from college, author Julie Barrett. Instead of the "Blue Whale" it was "The Harpoon," and there’s a "Chief Curtis" in honor of producer Dan Curtis. Without that show, none of my vampire books would have happened. The character of Barnabas showed me that vampires can be good guys, too!

I had a great moment happen to me because of this book.  At a convention I talked with an uberfan of Dark Shadows who just never got into reading, actively avoiding it.  I can't imagine life without reading, but with TV & vid games it's possible!  She was, however, very intrigued that I'd worked in the Dark Shadow references and decided to buy a copy.  A year goes by and she came up to me at the next convention with a bag full of my books plus a lot more besides.  It seems she got so hooked on the story, that she HAD to have more, and before she knew it she developed a terrific and quite incurable book addiction.  I was absolutely delighted to be part of that!

When a young and promising artist is murdered, Jack is drawn into the middle of the life and death high-dollar stakes of the art world, with its big egos and clever forgeries. 

Elrod: When I got to Art in the Blood, I thought I was flat out of writing ideas, but only because I was tired from the tight deadline of the previous book.

During this period I was wholly consumed by a Brit series created by Terry Nation, (inventor of the Daleks from another fav, Dr. Who). The series was Blakes 7, and I was writing stories about the characters for my own amusement. Those were ever so much more interesting to me than my proper work, until it was suggested that I simply combine the two. So it came about that most of the lead guest characters in this novel were "played" in "Elrod's Theater of the Mind" by the actors from B7.

When I write, I run a "film" of the action in my head. I have all of Hollywood to choose from and it helps me to get a better handle on the characters. Dropping the B7 cast in to play different roles was absolute fun!  But don't go thinking that Alex Adrian was Avon.  Nope.  I just thought about how actor Paul Darrow might play the part, ditto for the rest of them!

My editor and I had our first clash on this one. I got copies of the cover flats in one Friday and loved the art. The 3 hours later—after Ace’s offices had closed for the weekend I realized they’d changed the title to "Blood-Art," which I thought was completely horrible—totally ruinous, a disaster…you get the idea. I was so spitting mad Krakatoa going off was no more than a polite burp by comparison. To top it, I was on another tight deadline and needed that weekend to work—but I was NOT in the mood. GRRRR, snarl, snort.

My agent at that time was of no help, and talked about done-deals, which I wasn’t buying. Since I was too steamed to work, I read. I read all of Lois McMaster Bujold’s Miles Vorkosigan books over again that weekend. Their theme is an imperfect hero overcoming all odds to win, and she does a bang up job of the writing. Come Monday I was so psyched I was ready to take on Ace and all its relatives. Having this disaster happen late on a Friday was a blessing; it gave me time to think out and prepare my very solid reasons to change the title back.

My editor said no and hung onto that. The other titles were one-word titles and so the rest should be the same. It didn’t matter that it was a Sherlock Holmes quote and so forth. We finally reached an agreement: I would make the remaining titles multi-word, and pay a small fee to have the type changed. I had a check in the mail that afternoon and wired a bouquet of flowers to my editor as a thank you gift.

It was a good thing I pressed it—Art in the Blood was the only book in the series to be optioned that year by Poland. They liked the Sherlock Holmes connection!

There’s a gang war brewing and Jack has his hands full trying to keep the body count down and prevent a hit on his partner.

Elrod: There was a 3 year gap between book 6 and Chill in the Blood, which was originally called Dark Hearts. My editor thought it sounded too much like an anthology and suggested I call it "Cold Blood" so as to have "blood" in the title, it being a continuation of the previous novel. Well, I didn’t want the ghost of Truman Capote (author of "In Cold Blood") coming in the night to bludgeon me with his typewriter, so I came up with the current title.

In that 3 year period I’d edited an anthology (Time of the Vampires) written 5 novels, the Jonathan Barrett series, and a work-for-hire called I, Strahd that eventually hit the Locus bestseller lists for a time, which was very nice. 

But I had to get back the voice for Jack. Three years is an awful long time to be away from a close friend. I had a couple bad minutes when I thought I couldn’t, but as soon as I sat down and began, there he was comfortably parked in my head again, his feet up on the desk, dictating to me just as strongly as ever!

Jack’s club is doing a booming business, but with an unexpected clientele of gangsters. They’ve declared his place neutral territory to talk business, but not all of them have heard of the rules, especially the volatile and vicious Hog Bristow, who wants Gordy's territory.  On top of this comes a sly society blackmailer with a taste of kidnapping who has discovered Jack's secret.