Welcome to Kim Lennox's guest blog

Kim Lenox is the author of Signet Eclipse’s exciting new Shadow Guard series. The first novel in the series, NIGHT FALLS DARKLY, was nominated by Romantic Times Magazine for Best First Historical of 2008. The second book, SO STILL THE NIGHT, which releases today, not only garnered a May Top Pick designation from Romanctic Times, but its hero, Mark, received a coveted K.I.S.S. Hero award (which means he’s super yummy!).

Real People as Characters
I’m a history junkie. I loved my history classes in school, and enjoy reading about past events and time periods. So when I wrote the proposal for my first book in the Shadow Guard Series, NIGHT FALLS DARKLY, and made my villain the infamous Jack the Ripper, it seemed natural to people the book with other real personages from history. So I gave cameos in the book to Bram Stoker, Queen Victoria and Chief Inspector Abberline, as well as a number of named suspects in the Ripper investigation.
The second book in the series releases this week. In SO STILL THE NIGHT, in which my
Shadow Guards must face the Thames Torso Murderer (highly fictionalized by me to be the jilted bride of Jack the Ripper) readers will mingle with … oh, wait. I guess I shouldn’t blab everything, should I?
Cameos are a lot of fun! I’ve enjoyed researching the people and putting a face and voice to them.
But why did I choose to use the real victims of these crimes as characters in my books? I received that question from a reader this week. Thank you reader!
I could easily have made up some pretend victims. But many times when people hear I’ve got Jack the Ripper in NIGHT FALLS DARKLY, they respond, “Cool!” After researching Jack the Ripper, I found him to be completely NOT cool. He was a monster in every sense of the word. Yet his name and his crimes seem to carry a certain allure. Probably because his story—even in Victorian times—was sensationalized and sexualized.

Prime example here! The women he murdered were real people, not Victorian Pamela Andersons. They were prostitutes, forced by poverty and life’s unfortunate circumstances into a dangerous way of life. Most were middle aged with health problems and likely wearing everything they owned at the time they were killed. There’s nothing sexy about the way they lived, or the way they died. I thought it was important to offer readers a realistic glimpse of the women so they could feel invested in the Shadow Guard’s battle against a very real evil, and want justice for the victims just like I did while researching and writing the story. Likewise in SO STILL THE NIGHT.
I hope you’ll enjoy reading about all my characters, those who are completely fictional, as well as those who are based on real people in history.
Kim Lenox lives in Texas, and is currently working on the third book In the Shadow Guard series, to be titled DARKER THAN NIGHT. She loves to hear from readers! You can visit her at www.kimlenox.com