Tag Archives: Demons

[Review] Demon’s Embrace by Scarlett J Rose

28 Thursday May 2015

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Demon’s Embrace: Book one of the Redemption of the Fallen

By Scarlett J Rose

Published by: Far Horizons Publishing

This book kicks off with a dramatic concept. The end of the world is not just nigh, it has already happened. Armageddon, the battle between Heaven and Hell, has occurred and in the final stages both God and Lucifer vanished leaving their armies trapped on earth and entirely without purpose.

Enter our hero, Evie MacIntyre, whose job it is to find work for the dispossessed and bereft former denizens of the higher (and lower) realms in a world where demons walking the street is a every day occurrence. A series of ugly encounters with Marius, one of her clients, a demon who thinks humans like her are just playthings to be used and abused as he wills, sees Evie saved by Decimus – a demon who has slightly more honourable ideas about what he wants to do with Eve and who becomes our hot love interest.

What follows is a strange mix of erotica and urban fantasy which does not really seem to decide fully on what it wants to be. The development of Evie’s relationship with Decimus is definitely along the lines of an erotica with decidedly BDSM tones. His tastes, while more vanilla than Marius’s fantasies of Evie as a very Gor like slave, still carry the forceful and domineering traits that make such alpha male characters so popular in romance and he is certainly not averse to the use of bondage and blindfolds. Sex scenes are described in exquisite detail with no risk of fading to soft candlelight and there is no doubt that the author intends to arouse the reader with her writing.

However, overlaid on this is a good urban fantasy tale that explores the changes brought to the world by the presence of Angels and Demons. Such things as the existence of an agency that specifically works to integrate demons into human society being a rather neat example. The plot follows Marius’s attempts to claim Lucifer’s throne at the expense of the people of earth and Decimus and Evie’s attempts to stay under the radar as they carry out their love affair but of course ending up dragged straight into things. The supernatural elements are nicely underplayed – neither the demons nor the angels are woefully overpowered – and the changes wrought on earth seem appropriate to the events that have occurred. Overall a decent Urban Fantasy novella.

The main issue comes in the fact that the story seems torn between its two halves. Some UF fans may be put off by too much erotica and erotica fans may be alienated by not quite enough sex. Though, having said that, the style is very similar to other self published UF such as Dianna Hardy’s Witching Pen series (which has the angel as the BDSM dominant rather than a demon) so maybe there is more of an audience out there for this than I think. Still, for my personal preference, I would have liked to have seen more of the world building and plot development showcased and hope that this will be possible in future instalments.

Another, relatively minor issue comes in an aspect of the formatting. There is a tendency for some phrases in the text to be bolded and in a slightly larger font than the rest. I am guessing this is in order to provide emphasis and give tone, especially to dialogue, but in practise I am not sure it works and can in fact be distracting, especially when there are pages that are mostly dialogue. It is also not really necessary as the tone is quite well portrayed by other means. I suspect that this is a case where the writer needs to trust her audience to understand what she is saying.

Minor issues aside, I found this to be an entertaining read with some very interesting ideas which I look forward to seeing developed in future instalments of the series. Recommended if you like your demons kinkily dark and your angels a bit grubby.

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D.A Lascelles is the author of Lurking Miscellany, Transitions (Mundania Press) and Gods of the Sea (Pulp Empires). He lives in Manchester UK. You can sometimes see him writing about Zombie porn on https://lurkingmusings.wordpress.com/ but he mostly blogs about books, vampires, science fiction and Terry Pratchett. He is inordinately proud of the fact that one of his Pratchett articles was referenced on the French version of the author’s Wikipedia page.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DaLascelles

Twitter: @areteus

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Slayers LRP Photoshoot

25 Friday Jul 2014

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Two Slayers…

Those who follow this blog will be aware that I occasionally collaborate with Quattrofoto on photoshoots in roles varying from creative genius* to lightstand/dogsbody/maker of tea. In fact, some of my previous blog posts on these shoots have been among the most popular on this blog along with the UK Avengers concept I posted once as a joke. I can only assume that lots of genuine photographers have been searching for useful tips on how to do complicated lighting set ups or edit fantasy scenes into the backdrops using photoshop and are instead finding my rather less then technical witterings.

Those who are looking at these posts in the hope of such technical stuff, I can only apologise and suggest you ask any questions in a comment (I will pass on such questions to Ste the photographer) or visit his Flickr site where he occasionally posts technical details on shots.

Note that yet again, like previous posts on this, the photos shown here are my efforts not those of the professional photographer. You can see his on his Flickr account. In addition, most of these were taken using my mobile phone rather than my DSLR Mainly because the light conditions were not right for my DSLR to play ball.

This shoot was one that deviated from our previous theme, which had been variations on a theme of fantasy – trying to show standard stereotypes in a new light. For this shoot the aim was more modern. There is a new LRP game being planned called Slayers LRP which riffs off Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So our aim for this shoot was to get lots of photos of female vampire hunters, vicious looking vampires, demons and stuffy old Watchers.

We convened at the photographer’s house where he had managed to set up a makeshift studio in one of the larger rooms. The space here was noticeably less than we were used to in the studio, which meant we were limited in scope – mostly shots of single figures and we were told most likely only upper body. This was why we actually failed to consider appropriate shoes or boots for many of the characters we were taking shots of, we genuinely did not think they would be seen on camera! This is why you may see some shots of a tweed clad Watcher wearing a pair of sandals (though personally I am claiming eccentricity for why I was wearing those as that character).

There were other concerns. Would the backdrop placed over the window be enough to sufficiently block out all the light? Would there be enough room for models, photographer and light rig? Would there be enough food for all the models we had dragged from far distant parts of the country?

The answers to those questions were Yes, Yes and definitely Yes. Seriously, we had a proper Green room style hospitality area set up, far better than anything we ever had at the studio (or the woodland, where the refreshments were coffee and all the acorns we could eat 🙂 )

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Our werewolves are feistier and cuter than Oz ever was

Our werewolves are feistier and cuter than Oz ever was

We progressed through the day very quickly, getting through several very intense sessions with different models in different costumes. This was our fourth go at this sort of thing and using more or less the same team of models and support people that had been used on previous shoots – including the talented make up skills of Jessica Newey. This meant that we were much better organised and were able to prep one model while another was being shot, allowing for a much more efficient

The studio set up showing improvised wind effects

The studio set up showing improvised wind effects

turnaround. We were also more au fait with what was and was not likely to be possible meaning that the ideas people spent less time frothing about things that could not possibly ever work and more time considering practical solutions to problems and ideas that would work.

We got through a Van Helsing style Vampire Hunter, a goth Vampire, two different styles of Slayer (though there was some debate as which one was the ‘evil’ Faith style Slayer and which was the ‘nice’ Buffy style, the consensus was neither), two different varieties of Watcher (modern with a tablet computer and traditional in tweed with an old book), a sinister ‘Man in Black’, two styles of witch (a good and an evil one) and two very different styles of Demon (a serious, scary demon with horns and a more ‘slacker surf dude’ style who seemed to be doing a modelling shoot for Cheese flavoured corn snacks) and a werewolf. These shots are already appearing on the Flickr account and will continue to be updated for at least a few weeks ahead.

It was another tiring day but definitely a fun one with a lot achieved. The shots that have already been produced are awesome and there are many more to come…

*Ok, maybe not creative genius. More ‘person who comes up with wildly impossible ideas that sound cool in my head but are actually bloody hard to set up in a practical sense’. It is a complicated brief… I am usually better at holding lightstands (or on this shoot, reflective dishes that shine in the face of pretty girls to better highlight her features – something called the Clamshell technique) or making tea. I am really good at making tea…

[Vampire Month] Beginnings by Neelima Vinod

27 Wednesday Mar 2013

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Today, for our final Vampire Month guest, we have Neelima Vinod who has written a short fiction piece covering how she came to be inspired by a particular South Asian version of the Vampire myth – the Yakshi.

I shall turn it over to her now:

Thank you David for having me here!

Beginnings

I like to go out sometimes and sit beside the pond. There I watch the black fish nibble at my feet and the coconut trees reflect themselves. It is at times like these that I compose a poem or contemplate a character that made its way out of a book into my heart. I’m usually left alone at times like these but today I hear a woman hum as she comes toward me and sits with me by the lichened steps.yakshi

“Can I join you?” she says. She is playful and I a woman, unafraid of another.

“Desperate?” I ask her because I know at once who she is. She is alarmingly beautiful, a siren from Greek myth or an apsara. I think her eyes are made of precious stones and her hair of the ocean. She is what we call in these parts, a yakshi. “No men to pick on these days?”

She looks away from me, perhaps at the faraway worlds she is supposed to inhabit. Perhaps she looks at the humid landscape before her as I do. It is hard to say.

“What do you think?” she asks me. “You should know as you have heard about the tree spirit that I am falling on men and enveloping them. Not many have survived after I’ve entered their lives.”

She is as beautiful as folklore makes her out to be.When I grew up, there were witches and wizards; there were elves, goblins and gnomes. Being from the subcontinent, my world is populated by additional figures of interest-apsaras(dancing goddesses), asuras( demons) and devas(gods). Then there is folklore- where the yakshi comes in.

                       

“Tell me about them.” I ask her quietly, as the green pond spreads through the horizon of my eyes and the blue sky above refuses to bleed in the heat.

“The men?”she asks. If she were a contemporary woman, she would have blown out smoke from a cigarette as she spoke. Her movements are so of the now but she looks centuries ago, in her white sari and gold chains. I nod.

“So many. Some of them had never been loved, imagine that, grown men who have only dreamt of being touched. Some of them were rogues who did not know what touch meant, their fingers were meant to tear, but the world is made of so many kinds.”

“Why do you tell me all this?” I ask. “Perhaps I must rush back to my quiet sanctuary and disappear into a book. Maybe all this heat is getting to me.

“You asked me, didn’t you? I’m defined as so many things. Noone seems to get it right. Yes I’m a bit of a vampire.” She bears her pearly white fangs at me. Then as though she showed me a trifle, she lifts the hem of her sari and shows me her feet a foot above the ground.” Yes I hover” and then as she turns around, I stop her.

Her eyes are hollow when she speaks. “They say I lure them from the palm tree.”

“Don’t you?”

“I follow their smell and feel their skin. They leave a trail. They think they are safe and can just be. Unlike” she looks at me with her searching eyes, “women like you who have to think twice about wherever you’re at.”

“I know all about your sort, sometimes spirit, sometimes venomous. You kill. ” I say pretending not to like her motives, ignoring her conspiratorial friendship.

“They kill me many times before I kill them.” she says. “ Though they do not live to tell the tale.” She wraps the edge of her sari around her fingers. We say nothing and the world around us disappears for the night.

When she is gone like a shimmering sunset ended, she leaves me alone with far too many questions about how lust has been demonized in the subcontinent. How the consequences of it could lead to a smashed skull and a heap of bones and hair, or simply put how it could lead to being ostracized forever.

I walk back to my sanity. There are some poems to write and maybe a story about a yakshi.

Bio: Neelima writes fiction and blogs poetry @ neelthemuse.wordpress.com. She’s written a book with a paranormal twist which will be coming out soon.

The Next Big Thing

22 Thursday Nov 2012

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So, I got tagged in this meme thing by Melinda Dozier (you should totally go and check out her site…) the point of which is to answer questions about your work in progress.

Here are the rules:
1) Answer the questions.
2) Tag 5 other
writers, providing the links.
3) Let the writer’s know you tagged them.

What is the working title of Your Book?

Gods of the Deep is the current working title, which is a step up from ‘Un-named sequel’ which was its previous working title. It was chosen to fit in with the previous published story which was Gods of the Sea.


Where did the idea come from for the book?

The idea for Gods of the Sea came from a LRP game I used to play (now long defunct). I decided I wanted to tell the origin story of how two of the characters met so one Christmas I got out my laptop and tapped out a few thousand words and sent it to a publisher who I knew were looking for ‘pirate stories’. It got picked up and published in the Pirates and Swashbucklers anthology. No one was more surprised at this than me.

Then, earlier this year, the publisher contacted me and as a result of that discussion the concept of ‘Gods of the Deep’ was produced – an anthology of short stories set in the same world as Gods of the Sea, including both a reprint of Gods of the Sea and some form of sequel. Again, I was surprised.

 

What genre does your book fall under?
It’s mainly fantasy with some pulp elements. And Pirates, Because you’ve got to have pirates…

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie?

Many years before I’d even considered writing Gods of the Sea, one of the organisers of the LRP game told me that they believed Professor Everyn Crowe should be played by Christopher Ecclestone. Not sure I quite agree with that assessment but I am hard pressed to find an appropriate alternative. Someone like David Tennant would be good too but I am not sure if that is not just me showing my Doctor Who geekery. Of course there is also the fact that any casting choice may have to take into account Everyn’s foreign nature as he is supposed to  have a ‘Mediterranean’ look but that has never stopped Hollywood in the past before.

Captain Rachel Drake obviously has to be played by a strong, British woman. Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery (Lady Mary Crawley) is a possibility but there are a few other actors who would be excellent in that role. I think there may, however, be a general call for ‘anyone other than Keira Knightly’ which I agree with…

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I am still writing it so no idea. Am hoping to get it finished soon, though. It is my Nano project and completion of it is the target I have set myself for this month. However, Nano style writing is different to how I usually do things. The concept of splurging words onto the page in order to acheive a word count target and worrying about the editing later is alien to me. I prefer a slower method with less faff afterwards. However, slower methods do not let you reach deadlines so easily.

Gods of the Sea was written in a number of days, however. And not whole days, either. A few hours each day in between doing other things. Possibly the fastest I have ever written anything intended for publication that actually got published.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

 One of my crit partners did say that Gods of the Sea read a little like a Michael Moorcock story and I have been strongly influenced in the past by his work, specifically the Elric novels. So I suppose you could say that the closest comparison to Gods of the Deep would be a Michael Moorcock story in style if not in the features of the story. The fact that Gods of the Sea and Gods of the Deep are shorter fiction (Gods of the Sea is a short, Gods of the Deep a novella) which have a direct continuity with each other also fits the pattern of early Moorcock, where one novel was comprised of several shorter stories that directly followed on from each other.

Who or What inspired you to write this book?

The main inspiration for the story came from the LRP game, Adventures in the Arcroc, which I played many many years ago. The Arcroc was the name of a fantasy world with a technology level roughly somewhere between 1600’s and 1800’s. It’s not particularly precise in its historical comparison because there are elements from all over history thrown in there, but the history is also an inspiration as are stories of swashbucklers and pirates and adventures at sea – anything from Sinbad to Hornblower and Pirates of the Carribean.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? How about a teaser?

There are demons… and a scene I love where Everyn runs to Rachel’s rescue, thinking he is the only one who can save her from assasination, only to find when he gets there that she has quite happily rescued herself and is now being rather suave about it in an ‘injury? What injury? Oh this? Just a scratch…’ sort of way.

“But…” he stammered. “The demon…” He waved the horse statue in the air in front of his face. “I’m here to… banish it.”

“Banish it?” She smiled as she checked the length of the blade for nicks and scratches. “No need, everything is under control.”

“But, the only way you could have banished that demon was to have empowered a suitable vessel with the correct incantations and blessings and trapped its incorporeal essence therein…”

“Not the only way, no.” As the dressing on her wound was completed, she stood and tested her weight on the leg, wincing slightly as she did so.

“Well, no, you could have physically ablated its physical form using brute force but generally such creatures are immune to most forms of weapon. Many can only be harmed by a blessed weapon or something composed of an alloy with a significant quantity of silver.”

“Hmmmmm, yes….” She held the sword up, letting the light fall on its shiny surface and reflecting on her face. “Silver alloys. I wonder where someone with my wealth could get hold of something like that?”

And so there you have it…. now to spread the infection…

I am tagging:

R.A Smith

Ninfa Hayes

Erica Hayes

Marie Roberts

And… YOU, Yes, you over there, the writer who is reading this. If you want to do the next big thing challenge, feel free to consider yourself tagged by me, just make sure you link back to me when you do…

[Vampire Month] Dianna Hardy Interview

20 Tuesday Mar 2012

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This week we take a close look at author (and Vampire poet) Dianna Hardy as she suffers the probing questions of the interview…

Dianna Hardy is a multi-genre author of paranormal things, dark things, poetic things, sexy things, taboo things, and sometimes funny things. Writes about witches, demons and angels. All info can be found on her website DiannaHardy.com

What is the earliest memory you have of writing? What did you write about?

I think the first “book” I ever wrote was Little Miss Rainbow, when I was around eight years old. I drew pictures in it and stapled it all together, but don’t ask me what the story was actually about because I have no idea – I can’t remember! Possibly something about how Little Miss Rainbow got her colours, or shares her colours to make people happy.

When did you decide to become a professional writer? Why did you take this step?

I thought I was going to be a professional writer at around sixteen and seventeen, when I was heavily into my poetry phase, and also writing a few short stories, some of which I managed to get published in small press magazines (before the days of eBooks!). Those ideas were quickly stifled by people that scoffed at the idea, and by a general disappointment in the education system at the time (I was doing my ‘A’ Levels). So I sort of brushed it aside for other stuff. More recently, it was giving birth – almost three years ago now – that had be going insane with boredom, and wondering what the hell I could do with myself. There’s something about being a mother that really asks you to tap into your creativity, and I refound my love of writing again. Only now, digital books exist and self-publishing is accessible. I never looked back.

What would you consider to be your greatest strength as a writer? What about your greatest weakness? How do you overcome this weakness?

Greatest strength: characterisation (that is, getting inside a character’s head).

Greatest weakness: procrastination. The solution? I have no idea I’ll let you know when I find it!

Tell us about the place where you live. Have you ever derived any inspiration from your home or from anywhere you have visited?

I am not inspired at all by where I live at the moment. I like countryside, or at least being within 20 minutes walking distance of a good country / woodland walk, and at the moment, I’m living in a town that’s sort of grey and a little urban, and … ugh … I’d love to move away. Countryside and natural things around me inspire me: rolling hills or mountains, trees, woodland, etc.

Which book, if any, would you consider to be your greatest influence and inspiration?

I do not even know where to begin with this question – there have been so many over the years. More recently, it was reading Heather Killough-Walden’s Big Bad Wolf series that inspired me to write paranormal romance, not least because that was a self-published series that hit the Kindle bestseller list (and has since then gone way beyond that). I loved her writing style and the story, and it motivated me to write my own paranormal romance series – The Witching Pen Novellas. (This one’s not about vampires.)

What drove you to write about Vampires?

Vampires have always been a huge love of mine. They’ve always represented a shadow to be embraced; monsters in which you can find beauty within ugliness. It was this concept that inspired me to write A Silver Kiss (Vampire Poetry). This is a gothic collection of dark, freestyle and rhyming poetry that studies the above idea of the shadows within human nature, using the vampire as a tool for that study.

I’m also a third way through a novel called Project Veil (working title), which is my own brand of vampire mythology. There’s no release date yet, but keep an eye out!

What do you think is the attraction for Vampire fiction? Why is it such a popular topic?

Everyone is looking to find beauty and acceptance within their darkness – that is what vampires represent, and that is why I feel they are popular.

In a fight between all the greatest Vampires of fiction, who do you think would come out on top?

Oh God, I don’t know! Probably Spike from Buffy, because he handles his torture with tongue-in-cheek humour and is forever the optimist. That smacks of ‘winner’ to me.

What about in some other contest such as sexiness or dress sense? Who would win that one?

Eric Northman for sexiness (when he’s being a bad boy, not when he’s being a drooling romantic).

How well do you think your character would fare against the winner(s) of the above?

Oh, my main guy in the upcoming Project Veil would win hands down. Even I’m drooling over him, and I wonder if that’s the real reason why I had to stop writing the novel for a bit 😉

Tell us the basic premise behind your latest novel.

 I can’t really talk about Project Veil yet, as it’s so new and still being written and plotted out. But I can talk a little about The Witching Pen Novellas and its spin-off novel The Last Angel. I touch – just touch – on vampires in the third book of the series, The Demon Bride, and they’ll be mentioned again in The Last Angel, although vampires will not play an active part. They are intertwined with my mythology involving ‘bloodthirsty angels’. From this mythology, comes the book Project Veil. So although there will be no direct link between my current series and Project Veil, there will be that mythological tie that is touched on in The Demon Bride and The Last Angel.

 Current info can be found here: http://www.thewitchingpen.co.uk and anything about Project Veil will be updated on my main website, or my Facebook Page.

 

[Vampire Month] Ninfa Hayes Interview

13 Tuesday Mar 2012

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Our second Vampire Writer is Ninfa Hayes, author of Bites, a collection of two novellettes. In this post she faces the indepth Vampire interview. Later in the week, she will tell us all about her muse…

Ninfa lives in Manchester, UK with husband Gareth, daughter Cassandra and two gorgeous kitties, Jemima and Shelley.

Originally from Italy, she’s half Spanish, half Italian and British by choice and marriage.

She loves books and is a total bookaholic! Reading and writing have always been a big part of her life and for this she thanks both her parents for passing down the literary gene and the passion for a good story.

Ninfa is big on Networking and co-runs an array of Facebook pages and blogs about books and all things supernatural. She also reviews books for the Facebook “Bookaholics Book Club” on a regular basis.

In this spirit, she’s also training her daughter in these dark arts and plans on making her a huge geek, whether she likes it or not!

If you’d like to find out more about Ninfa and her stories, you can check out her Facebook author page, Ninfa Hayes.

What is the earliest memory you have of writing? What did you write about?

I think I was about 10 or 11. Age is blurry but the memory is very vivid. I can still see myself in my bedroom, pen in hand and a notebook, writing a story based on Greek mythology about a young man that falls in love with the Moon. He’s cursed by Aphrodite because he’s a poet and writes of the beauty of Artemis disregarding the Goddess of Love and Beauty in favour of the cold and unattainable Huntress. He dies, wasting away, dreaming of night skies and endless moonlight.

Yeah…I seemed to have a flair for the tragic even at that time, lol.

When did you decide to become a professional writer? Why did you take this step?

I’ve always written throughout my life, and never finished anything. Then 3 years ago I became pregnant and went on maternity leave. For the first time in like over 10 years I was at home, with nothing more to do then complain about my increasing discomfort, and then after the birth of my beautiful daughter, complain about the lack of sleep and endless days spent in front of the TV watching crap daytime programs. I needed something to do, so I started writing again. This time it seemed with more purpose and a clear focus that I had lacked in the past.

Short stories started flowing and I had increasingly encouraging comments from friends and fellow writers.

Then last year it all finally clicked together. I had a good idea for a book comprising 2 short novelettes and pitched it to a friend, fellow author and publisher.

She jumped on the wagon and gave me her trust and support, as well as her invaluable experience and insight into the writing and publishing business (I’m looking at you Miss Dianna Hardy!).

Writing is all I’ve ever wanted to do and I wanted to be able to share it with people around the world as well as my loved ones and that’s what pushed me into taking the final step in becoming a published author. Add to that a whole lot of luck and here I am today, weeks away from publishing my first book!

What would you consider to be your greatest strength as a writer? What about your greatest weakness? How do you overcome this weakness?

Now there’s a question…lol. Greatest strength I think it’s my bottomless pit of ideas. There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t think of a new concept or story that would be great to develop. I’m also my worst critic which technically is both a strength and a weakness I guess, and I will go over and over a story punching holes in the plot and challenging the vision and the characters until I’m am absolutely, 100% happy with the whole concept, rhythm and feel of the story.

Unfortunately I seem to get distracted by ideas easily, so I’m a very slow and erratic writer. I’ll go days without writing a word, mulling the story over in my head, then sit down and write 3000 words in 2 hours when the story is ready to flow. I’ve tried to overcome this but for now it’s an insurmountable weakness. If anyone has any suggestions feel free to comment, I’d much appreciate it 😉

Tell us about the place where you live. Have you ever derived any inspiration from your home or from anywhere you have visited?

 Oh Manchester, thy name is love in my heart!

There’s a strange connection I’ve always had to my adopted home-town, Manchester. From the first time I set foot here, it was love at first sight. I moved in 1999, at the dawn of the year 2000 and I’ve never looked back.

There are many places that inspire me in this great city, and I’ve met all sorts of characters in my 13 years of Mancunian residence, providing endless forage for the creative mind.

Currently I have 2 full novel projects that are set in Manchester and that I’m hoping to publish in the next couple of years.

I don’t know what it is about this city that speaks to me, but if you, like me, believe in past lives, then let’s just say that I’ve come back home and the happiness this brings me it’s a constant source of inspiration.

Manchester has always been a centre of creativity and magic, just look at the incredible music bands, writers and artists in general that were born here. Add to that a thriving Pagan community and this is pretty much the only place to be for me 😉

Which book, if any, would you consider to be your greatest influence and inspiration?

Ouch, another difficult question…I believe there are far too many books that have contributed in making me the person, and the writer I am today, although there is one author in particular that opened the doors for my love of Fantasy, and that is Marion Zimmer Bradley.

Before I read “The Mists of Avalon” I had no idea what an incredible wealth of Fantasy books there was out there. “The Mists of Avalon” was my initiation into a whole new world, or should I say, into many worlds. I avidly read that and any other Marion Zimmer Bradley book I could get my hands on back in Italy, where I’m from originally, and then it was all down hill from there, lol.

What drove you to write about Vampires?

Writing about Vampires was never a conscious decision for me, it kinda just happened. It all started with “Last of the Blood”, the first Novellette in my upcoming book “Bites”. It was originally supposed to be a short story but the characters just kept coming back for more.

I suppose I wanted to give my own take on this very much explored topic. There are all sorts of Vampire Books, Short stories, Novellas, Fan Fics etc. out there and many original takes on this supernatural creature. Some are dark, some light hearted and others outright scary.

I grew up reading Bram Stocker’s classic “Dracula” and Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles and I suppose those were my main influences in the Vampire genre.

I loved the romantic and tortured aspects of some of Anne Rice’s characters, but also the lingering horror of Stocker’s portrayal of Count Dracula.

I think with the YA market taking over in terms of Vampire stories, I just wanted to re-explore those more classic aspects of the Vamp figure and mix them up my own way.

What do you think is the attraction for Vampire fiction? Why is it such a popular topic?

I think it’s just such a versatile creature to write and it has touched people’s imagination all over the world for far more centuries than we realize. The first mention of “blood sucking/energy sucking” monsters goes back to Mesopotamian times. Ancient Greeks and Romans had the notion of “demons” and other creatures that fed off human and animal blood also, although the actual term “Vampire” didn’t come into play until around the 1800s.

There’s an aura of romance and danger that surround this haunted creature. It can be portrayed in so many different ways, from the tortured soul to the monstrous, heartless demon. You can write of Vampires in Romance, Horror, Crime and Action books, both for Adults and Younger readers.

Vampires are the monsters hiding in the night, out there. It is a creature that right now could be lurking outside your door. It’s believable because it’s part of our subconscious fear of the dark and of our own desires and at the same time it embodies the sensual and tantalizing aspects of that unknown and forbidden darkness.

In a fight between all the greatest Vampires of fiction, who do you think would come out on top?

Okay, now I have a “Celebrity Vamp Death Match” scene playing up in my head, lol.

Count Vlad would probably quickly go down, overpowered by the younger breed of Vamps poor thing.

My first response to this question was Lestat De Lioncourt, if taken out of the second and third books of the Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles, since after that he goes a little wimpy for my taste. If we are talking Vamps in a more vast meaning (including characters with Vampire blood or that are of a Vamp theme variation), then I’d say Rosemarie Hathaway would pretty much kick ass (Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead) followed closely by Dimitri Belikov from the same series.

What about in some other contest such as sexiness or dress sense? Who would win that one?

Oh Gods! Give me Count Dracula’s portrayal by Gary Oldman any day and I’ll show you a sexy Vamp! And yeah, that includes gorgeous dress style.

How well do you think your character would fare against the winner(s) of the above?

Well, let’s just say it is in Damon’s nature (“Last of the Blood” Novellette) to wait patiently on the side line. I don’t think he’d openly engage in a fight with the winners, he’d just follow his survival instincts and possibly hide until the others have destroyed each other, then end up being the last one standing, lol.

He is also sort of “swoon worthy” though cause he’s very pretty, lol, so maybe he could come in the top 10 of the Sexy Vamps list. I’ll let the readers decide on that one…

Vamp characters from my second Novellette, “Demonica”, would probably be more “fighty” types, especially Malcolm, though he’s a bit of a villain so I’m not sure I’d actually want him to win Xp (Yes, I have preferences between my own characters…I’m a bad creator…).

Tell us the basic premise behind your latest novel.

“Bites” is a Dark Fantasy anthology containing two Novelettes (counting around 15k words each) that share the common theme of Vampires.

“Last of the Blood” is Damon’s story as he struggles to come to terms with his Vampire nature and faces heartbreak and difficult choices in his desperate quest to belong.

“Demonica” is my own fantastic take on the origin of Demons (including Vampires) and it takes inspiration from different mythologies. It’s sort of a Dark Fantasy creation tale and includes Angels, Demons and the birth of other Supernatural creatures, all seen through the eyes of Irina, a girl with a strange allure and a mysterious destiny.

There’s a little bit of everything in these two stories: love, loss, a little romance, elements of the macabre and hopefully some memorable characters and an enjoyable plot…or at least that is the hope 🙂