Today we are excited to welcome RHANI D’CHAE as the Rave Review Book Club Spotlight member. She’s written an exciting new mystery series beginning with, Shadow of the Drill which tells the story of…
A brutal experience transforms an unproven young tough into a ruthless killing machine. For 15 years he waited, building his body into an unstoppable weapon so that vengeance would be had through the strength of his will and the power of his hands.
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We are thrilled that she agreed to share some of her thoughts in a guest post.
Getting The “Thirst”
About 30 years ago, I had a conversation with one of my heathen kids, Timothy. Timothy was a huge fan of all things Anne Rice and a lover of vampires in general.
This was back in the late eighties, and AIDS was a concern from coast to coast. In the early days, there was no treatment, and certainly no cure. To be infected was to be given a death sentence, and though there was always talk of someday finding a cure, that day seemed unlikely as the number of deaths continued to rise.
Timothy and I were chatting about the Anne Rice book that he was reading, and he asked me what I thought would happen if a gay vampire drank the blood of a person with AIDS. I said I wasn’t sure, and we chatted about it for a few minutes before returning to Anne Rice. But the idea stuck in my head, and a few days later I went to my word processor.
Soliloquy of the Damned was a short story about a gay vampire who was worried about drinking infected blood. In my story, the result you of doing so was unending sickness that left a vampire facing centuries of half-life and longing for the true death.
I was pleased with the story when it was done, but it was received with skepticism by those who read it. The line of thought was that since a vampire was undead, he couldn’t possibly be susceptible to illness or disease. I grudgingly agreed, and put Soliloquy on the shelf.
Fast forward to 2013. HBO’s vampire series True Blood is in its sixth season, and Hepatitis V is responsible for an increasing number of vampire casualties.
This was what I’d been waiting for! Thanks to True Blood, the idea of a vampire being susceptible to a virus was no longer ridiculous. But while Hep V had been created specifically to kill vampires and was therefore fatal, the AIDS virus was natural, and would not lead to death.
So I dusted off Soliloquy, gave it a bit of a rewrite, and changed the name to A Perilous Thirst. When I put it on Amazon, I wasn’t sure how it would be received. It’s very different from my full-length novel, Shadow of the Drill, and I was afraid that the people who liked that book would be disappointed by this one. Aside from that, it’s a different kind of story in general. There is none of the throat biting, bloodsucking stuff that is usually present in a vampire story. But I put it out there and hoped that it would be accepted.
And it was! I have been shocked, and totally thrilled, by the positive response that it has received so far. I plan to write a sequel, and if that is successful, I may give my vampire his own novel.
Timothy was a heavy smoker for decades, and lung disease took him on May 25, 2014 at the too-young age of 50. Thirst would never have been written without him, and I know he would have been so excited to see how far it’s come since that long-ago conversation. I think he would have seen much of himself in my vampire, though any resemblance was not intentional. But his was an indomitable, creative spirit that could find a way around almost any obstacle, and that part of him does live on in the pages of Thirst.
What a great story! And, the fact that Rhani persisted even when her first story was rejected tells us a lot about this author. 
Rhani D’Chae is a visually impaired writer, reader, and lover of cats. She is currently working on the second book in the Drill series, about an unrepentant enforcer and the violent life that he leads.
Follow her on Twitter @rhanidchae and Facebook at https://goo.gl/UvY4YY and also take a look at her website to learn more about her and her books. Website – rhanidchae.com.
As for me, I’m excited to learn of a new mystery series and can’t wait to start the first one.
A great start to an awesome SA Month!! Thanks so much for hosting, Joan, and kicking this blog tour off. 🙂
Good luck on your tour!
Mar, thank you so much for stopping by today. I greatly appreciate that you took the time to do so.
Congratulations on your “SPOTLIGHT” Author seat in the RRBC House, Rhani. A most deserving honour, indeed! Having read “Shadow of the Drill’, I can heartily recommend this as a well-written and highly entertaining read. Have a great month, Rhani! Thanks for hosting, Joan!
Hi John,
Thanks for stopping by and for supporting Rhani with her tour. Her books sound delightful and all the comments make me want to rush out and read them!
Thank you, John. *Hugs* I’m so glad you stopped by on this first day of my tour.
Joan, thank you for hosting the first stop on my tour. Thirst is important to me because of the connection to Timothy, so I’m glad for the opportunity to tell a bit of the backstory. ?
So glad to meet you Rhani and to share your beautiful story about Thirst. I’m sure your tour will be a great success and I wish you all the best! Joan
Thank you so much.
Hi Rhani, Great blog! I read your two books , and they were both so well written, and great stories. I wish you a very successful tour. 😀 Thank you Joan for hosting her. 🙂
Hey Joy,
Thanks for stopping by. And what a nice thing to say about Rhani’s books. I know her tour will be a great success.
Joy, thank you. I’m so glad you like my stuff. Thanks for stopping by to help me launch this tour. ?
Thank you, Joan for hosting this awesome author! Rhani, best of luck on this tour! You know I”m a fan.
Thank you, Kan, for stopping by and helping to get this tour off to a great start. ?
Rhani, I’m so sorry to hear that Timothy passed away at the young age of 50, but how wonderful that his vision helped build A Perilous Thirst.
Wishing you the best on your tour and thanks to Joan for hosting!
Hello Mae,
Thanks for stopping by and for supporting Rhani. It was fun to host her today with the great recognition as the Spotlight RRBC author!
Mae, thank you for finding the time to drop by. I like to think that a part of Timothy lives on somewhere in the pages of Thirst. He was such a huge part of my life, and I was blessed to have him for the time that I did.
Way to go on dusting off that vampire book, Rhani! Congratulations on your tour.
Hi Flossie. There was a heck of a lot of dust on Thirst after thirty years! Lol But I’m glad I decided to revive it. Thanks so much for stopping by to kick off my tour. ?
Rhani what an interesting story. The things that lead us to write stories are sometimes very remarkable. Yours is a new twist on an old story which was the title of my review. So different from the average vampire story and the way you bring the reader into the main character is a study in writing that captures the reader’s full attention and deserves to be explored for future writers.
Congratulations to you, Rhani D’Chae, on all your works! Its so nice to meet you Joan Curtis and we thank you for supporting Rhani today.
Hi Shirley,
Thanks for stopping by and what a wonderful comment for Rhani. I know she will be quite pleased.
Shirley, thank you so much for your incredibly kind words. You have become such a positive presence in my life, and I’m so very glad I got the chance to meet you through #RRBC. *Hugs*
Interesting concept to have something like AIDS weaken a vampire when so many other vamp stories expound upon how strong and unbeatable they are. Good job.
Hi Rebecca. Thank you for takig the time to stop by. Timothy had a very creative mind and saw things where other people didn’t. I certainly would never have come up with that concept on my own, but once he mentioned it, I knew it had to be a story. But I wanted it to be different than what people were reading, which is why I wrote it as I did. ?
Hi my friend, hoping you are enjoying your spotlight–you deserve it!!! Best of luck thoughout your tour!!
Hi Micki. Thanks for checking out my first stop. This tour has been a lot of fun, and I’m so glad you have found the time to pop in along the way. ?
Thanks for hosting Rhani, Joan. It’s great to see her here!
You’re welcome, Kevin. Thanks for stopping by.
Hi Kevin. Thanks for checking out the first stop. Thirst is very dear to me, & I appreciate that you took the time to read about it.
It’s definitely on my TBR. Rhani’s writing draws the reader right in.
Flossie, thanks for stopping by, & for adding Thirst to your TBR. It’s a different kind of story, but I think it’s fun. ?
My sincerest apologies for being so late to your marvelous first day on the Tour, Rhani! I relocated to a very small country town on February 27th, and was promised the internet would be connected within 5 days. 18 days later and finally it is done. I have had the great pleasure of reading and reviewing both “Shadow of The Drill” and “A Perilous Thirst” and found them both remarkably well written and absolutely enthralling. I was featured as a Spotlight Author last month and the experience was amazing. Thanks, Joan for a great host post! I know Rhani will shine!
Better late than never, Suzanne. I know Rhani will love seeing you here and reading your nice comment. She’s enjoying the launch of a very fun tour.
Great book from a talented author! Congratulations to Rhani!