Highly recommended, THE IMMORTAL CONQUISTADOR delivers the fascinating backstory to Carrie Vaughn’s beloved vampire Rick

Carrie Vaughn’s THE IMMORTAL CONQUISTADOR continues to light up the internet.

Cover art by Rebecca Harp
Design by Elizabeth Story

Genine Tyson at TOR.COM recommends the book.

THE IMMORTAL CONQUISTADOR is Carrie Vaughn’s fan service for one of the most beloved yet mysterious characters of her popular Kitty Norville Series, Ricardo De Avila, otherwise known as Rick. The novella serves as the fascinating backstory of this character and answers a lot of questions both readers and Kitty herself have about this enigmatic vampire

IN MY HUMBLE OPINION wants more stories featuring Rick.

THE IMMORTAL CONQUISTADOR takes us back to the world of werewolf Kitty Norville and her favorite vampire.  Rick is an unusual vampire and through a series of vignettes we find out why he is the way he is and it only makes us love him more. This book looks like it is the beginning of a spin-off series and I’ve got my fingers crossed that it is so.

Photo by Helen Sittig

For FEMALE FIRST, Vaughn offers “Seven things I had to research to make my story come alive“.

Rick started out as a supporting character in my Kitty Norville urban fantasy series – a standoffish vampire who is still happy to help when he’s needed. He quickly grew into so much more, mostly due to a couple of throwaway lines I used to quickly fill in his backstory. See what I mean about not coming up with these ideas on purpose? One line in one novel and suddenly I’m developing an entire 500 year backstory for this one character.

It’s a pretty good backstory, and I’m excited for people to read it. Here are seven things I had to research to make Rick’s story come alive.

1. Coronado’s search for the Cities of Gold in sixteenth century colonial Mexico. This was the throwaway line that started it all, when Rick reveals his age by stating that he was part of Coronado’s expedition in 1540. To figure out the details of Rick’s history, I had to learn a whole lot about the conquistadors and colonial Mexico.

Vaughn is interviewed on the podcasts THE WORLDSHAPERS and NBN.