Jessica Day George

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As debutantes in 1890s New York City, cousins Dacia and Lou know little about their Romanian relationships, the mysterious Florescus. Now, turning seventeen, the girls must travel to Romania to meet their cousins and their tyrannical grandmother and learn their family secrets, secrets spoken in whispers. . . known only as the claw, the wing, and the smoke.

But as dangerous as those secrets may be, even more dangerous is the centuries-old bond between the Florescus and Dracula’s royal family. It seems the time has come for Dacia and Lou to give up their life in New York society and take their place among the loyal servants of the Draculas, a heritage more treacherous than the girls could ever have imagined. Do they have the courage to break the shackles of their upbringing and chart the course of their own destiny?

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why I wrote it

It’s an interesting story, really.

I was watching a terrible movie based on a really funny book. The book is set in the United States and is about a family of werewolves who run a bed and breakfast. The film was set in Romania and was about a family of werewolves who run an absinthe factory. there was absolutely no reason for the change, and I kept yelling at the screen (I was at home, alone, not yelling in a movie theater) that they were wasting the stage. there were a number of beautiful shots of bucharest and the romanian countryside, and there was no reason for them to be there. i started to tell myself, if i was going to set a story in romania, i would use the setting better. . . and I had an idea. an idea about a teenage girl from america, who goes to romania to meet her long lost cousins. I originally planned it to be a modern story, and it would all be emails, texts, and journal entries from a cousin in romania, back to her best friend, an american cousin, in new york. I was telling this idea to my friend Amy Finnegan (the same Amy Finnegan who helped me put the kisses on Dragon Spear!) and she said, you know what would be even crazier? what if it had been a hundred years ago and these were decent young ladies? Can you imagine the surprise when they discover that their family has magical powers?

eureka!

we had both been reading anna godberson’s deluxe series and i couldn’t get the idea out of my head. It would be strange enough to travel from New York haute couture to Romania, as a young debutante circa 1890. But imagine “having a rough time” and discovering that it’s part of a legacy of magic that involves unpleasantly transforming into a wild animal. I started doing some research, and the idea really started to take root when I realized that Bucharest in the late 1800s was not an uncivilized backwater, but rather one of Europe’s crown jewels. the orient express stopped there. wealthy Parisians vacationed there. I had no idea! My husband, long-suffering webmaster Mikey, agreed to forego our planned vacation to Iceland that year (2010) so we could go on a private guided tour and see all the sights and do all the research. It was amazing, and writing this book was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had!

inside joke

Uncle Horia is named after our tour guide, Horia Matei, from Adventure Transylvania. I highly recommend adventure transilvania and horia, if you are thinking of traveling to romania!

The scene where Dacia realizes that the only one of her busty aunts has stuffed her dress was the first thing that came to mind when I started thinking about this book. the book went through many editions but i always kept that scene because it was the first thing that popped into my head (originally though it was a modern scene where she emails lou about her push up bra his aunt stuffed with kleenex), and it’s just funny to me.

Romanian photos

jessica posted some of the photos from her trip to romania that inspired the blood silver locations.

buy the book

king’s english bookstore in salt lake city, utah, sells signed copies of jessica’s books. You can also have Jessica personalize them and send them directly to you. please contact king english for more details.

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Jessica Day George

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