Hook Us entry 2014

Dr. Robert Julcre prefers to think of his wayfarer, scholarly life as normal, rather than a cover. It is convenient being a Romance Languages researcher with "ins" to certain Orders' protected knowledge and treasures. Publicly, Dr. Julcre is a poet, and a reluctant celebrity. Secretly, he serves a powerful agency, casually referenced as, The Consulate. Fortune tellers warn that Death follows Consul Julcre, but he insists, the movements of Death are his to trace. His newest assistant from the Consulate, Xavier Enbrus, prays their trust can build quickly, and that together, they can thwart Death's savage servants, the Dracul. In Dracul Seekers, vampire hunger has less to do with draining blood in the classic act. Instead victimization is based in the taking of life force and human status. Therefore, Dracul, members of an informed and trained vampire society, feed off unattained desires.

Dracul Seekers also presents a hero who is deaf, and utilizing sign language to communicate. The energy of those hands in motion flows like added stage lights upon his face. This novel has a companion collection of poetry. The poems are part of Julcre's revelation. The poem themes include: losing hearing, family, childhood devotion, and the depth of desire framed by solitude. Robert is always observing, whether he is picking out the monsters among men, or watching over the safety of female patrons exiting a gym at dusk. Robert Julcre can demand attention with just a gesture.

While teaching the finer points of being an overseer, Xavier accepts, in stride, brusque commands from Robert: Focus here. The heart of what drives Dr. Julcre is unknown, at first, to his assistant. He witnesses the doctor's Theophilos nature, his devout demeanor upon access to holy places. Overseeing this mysterious master of language and other arts coping with advancing deafness, Xavier can imagine Robert's options -- knowing his own difficult life reversal, and given his affinity for a nearly cloistered life. Neither man's duty is blind servitude to their masters, but Mister Enbrus trusts intuition telling him there is greater history to the life of Robert Julcre.

Robert barely masks a primal anger with his devotion to hunting the Dracul. Robert is confident, fearless, particularly pitted one-on-one against a foe. He knows ancient spells and his skills can both lead and lure those with evil or violent intent. Were it not for the Consulate de Judgment directing him, vendetta might lead him astray. When hunted by the creatures in New York, he assesses most as easily charmed and removed, but his superiors are quick to threaten rescuing the new assistant from Dr. Julcre's righteous "corruption." Should the Dracul threat grow in strength in California, both might need rescue from worse.

Dracul Seekers is a 50,000 word urban fantasy, which plays at the fringes of Universal Pictures' classic cinematic monsters, and recasts the intellectual lead of Dan Brown's DA VINCI CODE with George Clooney. This is contemporary and tense drama, it will appeal to fans of Jim Butcher and Toni Morrison. The author of Dracul Seekers admits to being hard-wired to an earlier time, a Romantic. But this novel is postmodern. The poetry companion adds romantic depth, drawing the reader into a little of the private discourse of the main character.

Thank you for your consideration.

Jillian Cosmos is a licensed spiritual practitioner and has over thirteen years experience dedicated to writing. This, her first novel, takes readers through folklore-fed labyrinths of knowledge, shocking encounters, unanticipated sacrifice, and leads to a discovery of the power within. Targeted to a young adult to adult audience, the book touches both Urban Fantasy and Apocalyptic Fiction.

Ms. Cosmos' writing style has developed from study of metaphysics and prominent American, British and Irish literary authors of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Readers have praised the evocative, poetically-fed imagery found in samples of her prose.