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Vampire Feast

Tonight is the premiere of Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2. It’s the end of an era. I’m no expert on Twilight. To be honest, they’re a bit young for me. I sing all due praises for Stephenie Meyer though. She’s done an amazing job bringing the genre to a whole new audience. But for me, Edward’s just too safe.

I love that about this genre – that there’s so much variety across authors, books, film and TV. Just because you’re a vampire fan doesn’t mean you’re going to fall in love with every set of male fangs that cross the page or smiles seductively on screen. But what’s the fun in getting too analytical about it? I say let’s have some simple Friday night indulgence instead.

So, in the build up to the release of Blood Shadows, and to get us into the ‘Kane’ zone (11 days to go!), I thought I’d share my favourite mad, bad and dangerous-to-know vampire characters with you (when I say characters, I mean ‘characters’ – but yes, it does help that they look like that too). As far as tainted, tortured and intense go, here are my top four fanged boys from film and TV…

Oh, and you might want to pull up a chair, maybe make yourself a coffee and lock yourself in a nice quiet dark room – and you’ll need the sound turned up if you want to enjoy the full effect of the footage!

(WARNING – some people might be offended by the content that follows)

 

Coming in at a very admirable fourth place:

Michael (The Lost Boys)

My first vampire crush, so I had to include him! In fact I have a crush on this entire film, so went with the slightly longer video footage than planned (4 mins). If you don’t know which one Michael is (shame on you!), I’ll leave you to work it out.

Just losing out on second place but still taking the enviable third place:

Damon (TVD)

Another 4 minute clip, but what true Damon fan is going to complain? Okay, it’s a little over indulgent, but you don’t have to watch it all… (yeah, right…)

In second place:

Deacon (Blade)

Oh, yes. That’s all I’ll say – yes. Less than two minutes of footage, but an utterly perfect two minutes all the same.

In the very well-deserved first place:

Mitchell (Being Human UK)

My absolute favourite vampire of all times. It helps that he’s played by the utterly hypnotic Aidan Turner (have you ever heard that guy speak? Sheesh…) As far as mad, bad and dangerous-to-know goes, well, you’ve got to love him. Just under three minutes in total… I might need to replay.

Thanks for indulging with me. If you’ve got a favourite vampire of your own, I’d love to hear who! It’s always fun to compare notes on my favourite topic. If not, I’ll just keep watching these clips over and over and over again. I won’t feel lonely. Not at all.

xxx

Vampires, Blackthorn and Blood Splatters (aka another day at the office)

Thank you SO much to everyone who shared my Monday excitement with the cover reveal of Blood Shadows. I’m so pleased you thought it was worth the wait. The cover designer really is one of the best in the business and he’s done an outstanding job capturing Blood Shadows let alone the whole theme of Blackthorn. I think it represents urban vampire paranormal romance at its best – but then I am very biased!

Thanks too for all your messages and emails about this new site – I’m thrilled you’re as pleased with it as me. Some of your feedback was very touching, some set me off into giggles – so thanks for sharing your thoughts with me.

As you can see, Bookouture have worked extremely hard in the background assisting with getting this site set up and I think they’ve done a fantastic job both in the selection of the overall design and images, let alone the behind-the-scenes functionality. The latter I’m getting my head around slowly – but remember this is coming from someone who nearly had a breakdown trying to operate Twitter only a year ago, so I’m making progress!

I had lots of involvement in the decision making but there’s nothing like seeing it all come together. The first time I saw this site completed, I may as well have been led into an adventure park. I kept clicking on everything and discovering where things were and what had been added. I absolutely love the sliders. If you go to ‘Books’ and watch the motion slider there, you’ll see the tag lines appear from Blood Shadows. I’m such a big kid – I love all that kind of stuff. Then if you go onto the ‘About Blackthorn’ you’ll see a large version of the crest. Oh, how I love that crest! And has anyone spotted the blood splatter favicon in the address bar? (Though in my lack of technical know-how, I nicknamed it the favabean – you know, as in with a nice Chianti? *Bows to groans*) I love that little feature, but I did say I was a big kid – oh, and a huge fan of Dexter.

Those who were familiar with my old website will know there are other new features too. ‘About Blackthorn’ is where I’ll share background information on the concept behind the series and all the unfamiliar terms I introduce in the books, so hopefully you’ll find it interesting. There’s also a ‘Press’ section now so you’ll know what’s being shared globally about me as an author and the Blackthorn series.

I have new link buttons. There’s a Pinterest one where I’ll be uploading some new images in due course. If there are any boards you’d like to see, do let me know. And I’m finally on Facebook. Soon I’ll be posting regular updates on there, including letting you know when the Blood Shadows trailer will be aired… oh, it’s good!!

For someone who was petrified of social media only a matter of months ago, I’m really beginning to get into this. It’s such an important part of my new job (yes, I can officially say that now), and it’s made all the more fun by you joining in with me. Thanks for being there!

If you want to make sure you don’t miss anything that happens here, then please do subscribe by email and you’ll get notifications every time something new appears. Alternatively, just come and visit when you have a few spare minutes. And please always feel free to email.

I’ll be back with a post on Friday getting right back into the heart of paranormal romance. Do come and visit, especially if you’d like to talk dark and brooding vampires with me…

More Blackthorn Excitement

Thank you to everyone who has shared their support since my announcement on Tuesday. There have been over a thousand views of the press release so far and even features in the Bookseller, Book Brunch and Book2Book. Some fantastic interview spots are also being arranged that I’m really looking forwards to.

But as if I haven’t had enough excitement the last couple of days, my publisher has also sent me the final version of my Blood Shadows book cover! And well, wow. Just wow. That’s been the extent of my descriptive vocabulary since seeing it: Wow. I’ve printed it out on A4 card and it’s currently sat next to me on my desk. I’ve spent all day gazing (and swooning) at it at intervals, reassuring myself it’s real.

Unfortunately I can’t share it with you yet. The reveal is going to happen once my new website is up and running. But read on because I’ll direct you towards some hints shortly!

I mentioned in the last blog post how excited I was to be signed by Bookouture and my book cover is the perfect example of why. Every part of it is bespoke and has been designed specifically with my books and brand in mind.

I had one of those clichéd jaw-dropping moments when I was told who was taking on the Blackthorn project. This designer has worked on covers for bestselling international authors and is very selective. I was beyond fortunate that Blackthorn sparked their imagination enough for them to say yes.

I was even more overwhelmed to find out that ‘project’ meant just that – it wasn’t only about the book cover, there was to be a Blackthorn crest, typography, backdrops, adverts… all things you’ll see on my website in due course. And everything you are going to see will be completely unique. Even the ‘models’ were handpicked and photographed specifically for this book.

It wasn’t just that the designer was fantastic, I was also thrilled to be invited to be a part of it by sharing my vision. I signed up to Pinterest and had fun trying to find images to represent Blackthorn as well as my characters. Finding Blackthorn images was fairly straightforward, finding my characters – not so easy. The challenge with the latter was that I don’t get character inspiration from people I see. And it wasn’t just about finding physical likenesses, I felt it just as important to find the appropriate characteristics such as the look in someone’s eye, their stance or their mood.

So although I can’t show you my cover yet (sorry), if it helps, you can always check out where I’ve been hiding on Pinterest to get some indication of my vision of Blackthorn as well as Blood Shadows’ Kane and Caitlin (Caleb and Leila from Blood Roses are also there – TVD Damon fans be warned!). I’ve also got a personal likes page so feel free to take a look at that too. This is just the start – there will certainly be a lot more coming onto Pinterest soon!

I am absolutely ecstatic about the end result. Aside from the quality and creativity, it’s so perfectly ‘paranormal romance’ with that dark, sophisticated edge I wanted to represent my stories. I could not have envisaged anything better. I welled up when I saw it all displayed out in front of me because I guess part of me still can’t quite believe this is actually happening. The most amazing thing of all is that, as I look at my cover now, I don’t feel like strangers are staring back at me. That’s my Kane and Caitlin there, so close to what I had in my head that it’s spooky.

I can’t wait for you to meet them.

xxx