Soul Screamer (Rachel Vincent) Blog Tour!

Rachel Vincent’s hotly anticipated Soul Screamers series will be hitting UK shores in early January. The first book in the series, My Soul to Take, is being published by an exciting new book imprint, MIRA Ink - and today I have with me a guest post from Rachel about the research she did on banshees for this exciting new series:

I did a lot of research into what I could find of the original Irish bean sidhe lore, and similar Scottish and Manx folklore, and I used most of what I found in the books, in one way or another. Kaylee’s last name, Cavanaugh, for example, comes from the Kavanaugh family, one of the five great families whose deaths are said to be mourned by the bean sidhe in Ireland.

Honestly, though, I wound up with more questions than answers after reading the folklore. But in fiction, that’s a good thing. Unanswered questions are an opportunity for me to make things up and expand upon what I found. Which is where most of the worldbuilding in the Soul Screamers series comes from.

I made up answers for why bean sidhe wail, what their wail is actually doing, why there’s no male of the species (in my world, there is!), how they inherit their abilities, and how being saddled with abilities like Kaylee’s can shape a girl’s adolescence.

Why do I think bean sidhes are cooler than other creatures, like vampires? Well, I don’t know that I think any one creature is cooler than any other. (Except for reapers. I think my reapers are pretty cool.) But for me, the advantage bean sidhes have over your typical vampires and werewolves is they’re largely unknown. You go into a vampire book knowing what to expect. Biting. Drinking blood. Lots of night-dates. And probably an older (waaaay older) man. But most people go into the Soul Screamers books not knowing what to expect. And in case you’re one of those, here’s a hint:

Mysterious deaths. Scary abilities. Kissing. Evil soul-stealing hellions. Sarcastic reapers. Kissing. Netherworld addictive substances. Lies and secrets. Kissing. Insanity. Things crawling through the shadows. And did I mention the kissing? ;)

Thanks Rachel! :)

Rachel Vincent is a New York times best selling author. The Soul Screamers series is her first series for teenagers. Rachel is also the author of the successful Shifters series about a pride of werecats which are written for adults. Rachel lives in Texas with her husband who she met when she worked in Subway. When she’s not writing paranormal fiction Rachel spends time catching up on her favourite TV shows, she is addicted to Dexter and True Blood! For more info visit www.rachelvincent.com