Meet Angela Lockwood, our first Vampire month victim for this year. She will be interviewed in the next post and will provide a guest post later in the week.
Here you can find details of all Angela’s publications and her bio and other links.
Language in the Blood
Until the outbreak of the First World War, young Cameron Blair would have liked nothing better than to stay in Edinburgh and marry his childhood sweetheart. As the call to arms goes out, Cameron and his pals sign up to fight for their country. They are soon delivered into the nightmare of war, and there Cameron more than meets his maker. The story follows Cameron as he comes to terms with his new ‘life’, from his first days as a hapless vampire in war-torn France to the glamorous modern day setting of the Côte d’Azur. Along the way, he develops a distinctive taste for the finer things in life: jewels, yachts, small dogs and champagne-infused human…
Language in the Blood is FREE via the following sites:
Amazon worldwide: myBook.to/LanguageintheBlood
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/583826
Nook books: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/language-in-the-blood-angela-lockwood/1122788669?ean=2940152402995
Ibooks: https://itunes.apple.com/fr/book/language-in-the-blood/id1048212406?l=en&mt=11
Blood Ties (Language in the Blood book 2)
After meeting his maker on the battlefields of the First World War, Cameron Blair has spent almost 
a century coming to terms with his new vampire identity. Along with a taste for human blood and lapdogs, he has acquired the linguistic skills of his victims and learned to survive in the shady underbellies of Europe’s great cities. The end of Language in the Blood sees Cameron facing a dilemma when blame for one of his kills gets laid at his best friend George’s feet. Cameron discovers a deeply buried vestige of humanity and surrenders to the French authorities – a decision he soon regrets as it becomes clear they don’t have quite the same heroic role for a vampire agent in mind that his own vivid imagination does. Locked up, his needs denied, misunderstood and plagued by an unhealthy obsession with his friend’s daughter, the bored vampire edges close to insanity. Before long, Cameron starts plotting his escape.
Amazon worldwide: http://www.hyperurl.co/u6nkfg
The best thing about writing is connecting with other writers who have taken the independent publishing route. Their advice and the shared experiences have been invaluable. Being a member of the Independent Author Support and Discussion group (IADS) has spurred me to write several short stories and I’m proud to be part of several anthologies: Holes, You’re not Alone and (with my friend Elspeth Morrison) Something Short. The last two were published for charity.
Something Short
Amazon universal link: mybook.to/SomthingShort
You’re not Alone
Holes
Amazon author page: Author.to/authorpage
Blog: http://languageintheblood.blogspot.fr/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CruftsloverAkaCameronBlair/?ref=hl
Twitter: @LitBCameronB
Webpage: http://www.cruftslover.adzl.com/
The Bio
Angela Lockwood-van der Klauw was born in the Netherlands. She learned her trade as a jeweller and gemmologist at the Vakschool Schoonhoven before moving to Edinburgh as an apprentice jeweller. There she met and later married her husband Adam. Angela ran her own jeweller’s shop in Edinburgh for ten years before she and her husband moved to the south of France in 2011. Like her vampire character Cameron, Angela prefers the climate there, but often thinks about the town she left behind and its people. Cameron’s story was born in the spring of 2013, a very wet spring during which Angela found herself climbing the walls, frustrated that she couldn’t go out and have her usual long walks along the seafront. Seeing his wife’s frustration, Adam suggested ‘Why don’t you write a book?’ Angela thought about it for a few days, then switched on her laptop and started writing Language in the Blood. Blood Ties is the second book in the series and Angela has also published a collection of short stories Something Short with her friend, Elspeth Morrison.
Hardinge deftly presents both the setting and the plot in a skilful manner, peeling back layers of world building and mystery in a way which has the reader slowly become aware of what is going on. This approach maintains the mystery as subtle clues you did not consider relevant slot into place and trigger small ‘ah ha’ moments at intervals. The setting starts out with a Downton Abby feel, all stiff gentlemen and upper middle class pomposity overlaid with a quaint olde worlde children’s book vibe, but soon develops hints of a world beneath that which is related more to Neil Gaiman’s Coraline – a dark, fey world of hidden evil and whimsy. The characters are also mostly well drawn and some, particularly Sebastian’s fiancée Violet and the Tailor Mr. Grace, are striking in their presence – the bold and adventurous, jazz loving Flapper with the hidden sorrow and the quirky, friendly tailor with a sinister undertone. You come to care for Triss and the other characters, though Triss in her early appearances seems selfish and whiny she soon gains a backbone that turns her in to a true hero.