One Year Later - Alex Bledsoe

 

Alex Bledsoe is the author of the intriguingly-named The Sword-Edged Blonde, an "Eddie LaCrosse Mystery," which is also a fantasy. Night Shade Books released it as a hardcover last year. I've neglected Alex terribly here, doing little other than showcase his book when it released. However, his book always did seem interesting to me because it blends my two favorite genres. My interest unfortunately got buried under the avalanche of review copies that I received about this time last year. So when it came time to do a One Year Later post, I thought of Alex and his novel. Here is his update.

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Thanks for inviting me to give a quick update, Tia. The Sword Edged Blonde came out in the fall of 2007 and received the kind of great reviews I never realistically expect to get again. It was an idea that took a long time to find its voice, and I began to worry that maybe it was just too off-kilter (Sam Spade with a sword??) for the reading public. Thankfully that hasn't been the case, and I've heard from readers all over who "got" it and said some very nice things about it (my favorite so far is the young blogger who said the hero, Eddie LaCrosse, was "pretty cool for an old guy"). It will be available in both paperback and audiobook in the summer of 2009, prior to the hardcover release of the second Eddie LaCrosse novel Burn Me Deadly in the fall. Currently, my Western short story "Draw Down" can be found in The Pagan Anthology of Short Fiction. And in the spring of 2009, my 70s vampire novel Blood Groove will be released. It's about an Old World European vampire who's staked in 1915 Wales, and awakens in 1975 Memphis. Add to all that the birth of my second son, and it's been quite a year. Thanks again for plugging The Sword-Edged Blonde, and for the chance to give your readers an update.

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You're welcome, Alex, and it sounds like you've had a great year.


Additional note: when I showcased Alex's novel last year (here's the link, but I warn you--my showcases then left much to be desired), I had the following observation, "His website contains descriptions of five other unpublished novels! Now that's tenacity!" If memory serves, Blood Groove was one of those at-the-time unpublished novels. Glad to see it found a home. If you browse his website among all his fiction projects (labeled "THE WORLDS"), you will find a plethora of free stories set in Alex's various fantasy settings.

If you have any questions for Alex, be sure to ask them in the comments. He has promised to stop by once or twice to answer comments.