Lillian Holmes &
The Leaping Man
By Ciar Cullen
Excerpt:
Lillian Holmes & the Leaping Man
Blurb:
At the
cusp of the twentieth century, an heiress turned detective enters a world of
deception and danger and must learn to trust her nemesis with both her life and
her love.
Tormented by a
tragic past, Miss Lillian Holmes nonetheless found the strength to go on, to
become the greatest female detective of her time. To make her uncle proud. Except…he
was not truly her uncle. Sherlock was a fictional character, and Lil was less a
true detective than a sheltered twenty-six year old heiress with taste for
mystery…and morphine. But then she saw him. Leaping from her neighbor’s
second-story window, a beautiful stranger. With the recent murders plaguing
Baltimore, here was a chance to reveal the truth.
Except, the Leaping Man was far more than he seemed. A wanton creature of darkness, an entry point to a realm of deception and evil, and to a Truth she had waited countless years to uncover, he would threaten far more than Lillian’s life. He would take both her heart and soul. And she would rejoice in it.
Cian Cullen – Lillian
Holmes and the Leaping Man
Lillian Holmes Takes the Myers/Briggs Personality Test
I had my heroine take a personality test, although she
really thinks that sort of thing is nonsense and not provable. But I wanted to
see how well I understand her. Lillian Holmes will face many, many trials in
upcoming books, and it’s important for me to understand who she is, at a very
basic psychological level. Honestly, I was relieved that we don’t have the same
“type,” as I’m an INFJ – Introverted Intuitive Feeling Judging - (a lot of
writers are), and she’s an INTJ. T is for Thinking. So, she pretty much comes
up the way I’d envision her hero, Sherlock Holmes would—introverted (not shy),
meticulous, and above all, favoring reason.
Except she does have a soft heart, but her depression gets in the way
sometimes. I was not surprised to see
that Lil shares her type with Fitzwilliam Darcy.
To outsiders, INTJs may appear to project an aura of
"definiteness," of self-confidence. This self-confidence is sometimes
mistaken for simple arrogance, like Darcy. Personal relationships, particularly
romantic ones, can be the INTJ's Achilles heel. (Oh, Lil, is anyone good enough for you? How could you have fallen in
love with your nemesis? And can’t you see that he’s taken with you as well?)
Many INTJs do not readily grasp the social rituals; for
instance, they tend to have little patience and less understanding of such
things as small talk and flirtation (which most types consider half the fun of
a relationship). That is one reason why Lillian Holmes (and Mr. Darcy) loathes
balls and the like. What to say? Why
would one waste one’s time on small talk? Where is the fun in small talk?
Depth! Give me an intellectual equal, she cries.
To complicate matters, INTJs are usually extremely private
people and can often be naturally impassive as well, which makes them easy to
misread and misunderstand. Perhaps the most fundamental problem, however, is
that INTJs really want people to make sense.
Poor Lil, who makes sense? Certainly
not a brooding vampire in love.
What is your personality type? Do you identify strongly with
any fictional characters? What is their type? You might not be so surprised to
find that you share a type. If you’ve never taken Myers/Briggs, it’s quite fast
and fun, and can be taken here: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp A lot of psychology types hates these
tests, so this is for fun. I hope you like my heroine as much as I do. And I
know some of you will identify with her. That makes me happy. But I’m an INFJ,
and we tend to want others to be happy.
Cian Cullen – Lillian
Holmes and the Leaping Man
Lillian Holmes Takes the Myers/Briggs Personality Test
I had my heroine take a personality test, although she
really thinks that sort of thing is nonsense and not provable. But I wanted to
see how well I understand her. Lillian Holmes will face many, many trials in
upcoming books, and it’s important for me to understand who she is, at a very
basic psychological level. Honestly, I was relieved that we don’t have the same
“type,” as I’m an INFJ – Introverted Intuitive Feeling Judging - (a lot of
writers are), and she’s an INTJ. T is for Thinking. So, she pretty much comes
up the way I’d envision her hero, Sherlock Holmes would—introverted (not shy),
meticulous, and above all, favoring reason.
Except she does have a soft heart, but her depression gets in the way
sometimes. I was not surprised to see
that Lil shares her type with Fitzwilliam Darcy.
To outsiders, INTJs may appear to project an aura of
"definiteness," of self-confidence. This self-confidence is sometimes
mistaken for simple arrogance, like Darcy. Personal relationships, particularly
romantic ones, can be the INTJ's Achilles heel. (Oh, Lil, is anyone good enough for you? How could you have fallen in
love with your nemesis? And can’t you see that he’s taken with you as well?)
Many INTJs do not readily grasp the social rituals; for
instance, they tend to have little patience and less understanding of such
things as small talk and flirtation (which most types consider half the fun of
a relationship). That is one reason why Lillian Holmes (and Mr. Darcy) loathes
balls and the like. What to say? Why
would one waste one’s time on small talk? Where is the fun in small talk?
Depth! Give me an intellectual equal, she cries.
To complicate matters, INTJs are usually extremely private
people and can often be naturally impassive as well, which makes them easy to
misread and misunderstand. Perhaps the most fundamental problem, however, is
that INTJs really want people to make sense.
Poor Lil, who makes sense? Certainly
not a brooding vampire in love.
What is your personality type? Do you identify strongly with
any fictional characters? What is their type? You might not be so surprised to
find that you share a type. If you’ve never taken Myers/Briggs, it’s quite fast
and fun, and can be taken here: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp A lot of psychology types hates these
tests, so this is for fun. I hope you like my heroine as much as I do. And I
know some of you will identify with her. That makes me happy. But I’m an INFJ,
and we tend to want others to be happy.
About Ciar Cullen
Ciar (KEE-er) Cullen hails from Baltimore, Maryland. She started her academic life as a theater major, but when she learned she couldn’t act her way out of a paper bag she turned to archaeology, another love. She earned her degree at Indiana University, summered on digs in Greece and England, landed a gig in New Jersey, and eventually went into nonfiction publishing. Her third career is as a bureaucrat at a university. She is married to a photographer and has two cats. Eventually she hopes to retire to a small cabin, with the same husband and more cats. Ciar is not one of those authors who dreamt of writing since childhood. She took up virtual pen on a dare in mid-life and forgot to stop. She loves reading just about anything, but especially nonfiction. Some of her favorite novelists are Mark Twain, E.L. Doctorow, Roger Zelazney, and yes, Nora Roberts. When she¹s not reading or writing, she loves to knit, to study all things Major League Baseball, and to jog.
- Website: www.ciarcullen.com
- Blog: www.ciarcullen.wordpress.com
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/ciar.cullen
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/Ciar_Cullen
Tour Giveaway
Ciar and her publisher, Boroughs Publishing Group, will be awarding a
10-book subscription to their Lunchbox Romance line, which will include The Shopgirl and the Vampire,
Ciar’s precursor to Lillian Holmes and the Leaping Man.
Tour-Wide Raffle Code:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
My Review:
Ciar Cullen' Lillian Holmes and The Leaping Man, is set in olde London, with the charm of the era entwined in a vampire story with a little steam punk.
The MC, Lillian Holmes, is a little different and definitely not the typical lady of the time period. She is the last surviving heiress of her family and lives in a fantasy of her own making, and has difficulty distinguishing reality from her hallucinations.
She discovers a man leaping from her neighbour's high set window in the middle of the night and is swept into a world quite different from the everyday.
The Leaping Man is an entertaining read, as Ciar takes her readers into the early Twentieth Century, where science, machine and man began to entwine.
Ciar has captured the era magnificently, in her descriptive text and style. The voice of this time period is brought to life through the language and mannerisms of the main character, Lillian Holme's.
I really enjoyed this take on Vampires, and even though I do not habitually read books set in this time period, Ciar captured my imagination with the storyline, the settings and the characters. I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a good vampire read and to readers who enjoy steam punk and the bygone reader. I look forward to reading Ciar's second book in this series.
My Review:
Ciar Cullen' Lillian Holmes and The Leaping Man, is set in olde London, with the charm of the era entwined in a vampire story with a little steam punk.
The MC, Lillian Holmes, is a little different and definitely not the typical lady of the time period. She is the last surviving heiress of her family and lives in a fantasy of her own making, and has difficulty distinguishing reality from her hallucinations.
She discovers a man leaping from her neighbour's high set window in the middle of the night and is swept into a world quite different from the everyday.
The Leaping Man is an entertaining read, as Ciar takes her readers into the early Twentieth Century, where science, machine and man began to entwine.
Ciar has captured the era magnificently, in her descriptive text and style. The voice of this time period is brought to life through the language and mannerisms of the main character, Lillian Holme's.
I really enjoyed this take on Vampires, and even though I do not habitually read books set in this time period, Ciar captured my imagination with the storyline, the settings and the characters. I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a good vampire read and to readers who enjoy steam punk and the bygone reader. I look forward to reading Ciar's second book in this series.
