Welcome to my new series of posts aimed at avid fans of Blackthorn who want a little extra insight.

Being Different

Some readers and reviewers have already picked up on and commented on the social and political underpinnings of Blackthorn and have quite rightly made comparisons with some aspects of our own culture. There is most definitely a theme in my Blackthorn series that deals with prejudice and stereotyping and, not least, the judgments and assumptions we make about others. After all, the creation of Blackthorn was triggered by one simple thought – segregation.

Avid followers will already know I was inspired to create Blackthorn when I got lost in a city I’d only lived in for a matter of weeks. Finding myself alone at night in a run-down, isolated area with reinforced doors, boarded-up windows and an eerie sense of disquiet evoked all sorts of possibilities on that frightening walk home.

By this point, I’d already been writing paranormal romance for about five years – random, handwritten stories that piled up under my bed. After that night, a world started to form and, with it, a structure. And, as barricaded societies were forged, forbidden romances based on that conflict became inevitable (more of that in another post).

There’s nothing like segregation to bring out the raw instincts intrinsic to our nature. Humankind needs to control threats to its wellbeing or, more relevantly, what it perceives to be a threat. It is inherent to our survival. If that threat cannot be destroyed, at the very least it needs to be contained or monitored. Our very existence is structured on this principle. Even basic things such as locking our front door and checking over our shoulder on a dark night is evidence enough that, by nature, we don’t trust our own kind, let alone those we deem ‘different’. And if those outsiders are a potential threat against those we love? There’s no greater catalyst to intensify and justify that instinct ready to erupt inside us.

So what if vampires (as well as other third species) came out into the open? What if they did so claiming they weren’t a threat at all? That they were subject to centuries of misunderstandings fuelled by rumour and media? If instead of hiding, they wanted to become an active part of our society? What would the powers-that-be do? More to the point, would you give them a fair shot at proving themselves? Would you agree to one living next to you or your family? (Kane fans need not respond to that one!) Doubtful. Even the empathetic humanitarians amongst us would probably have alarm bells ringing. Accept them maybe, but at arm’s length surely?

Thus segregation would be put in place – at least in the first instance until more could be learned. This is even more likely if the powers-that-be hear of whispers that the third species coming out was, in fact, due to an ulterior motive. With that in the mix, those walls are going to be reinforced.

And so the Blackthorn district was created – a neglected and rotten core in a human-controlled locale from which there is no escape (you can learn more about the structure of the locale by checking out ‘About Blackthorn’ in the tab bar). I wanted a world that was dark, unfair and oppressive to maximise the conflict, enhanced by borders that, for some, could never be crossed. A locale not only prejudiced against the third species, but some humans too. No one has a right to equality in the newly structured locales – everyone has to earn it. An equality that, if the powers-that-be continuously alter the goalposts, will never be achieved by some.

In that respect, the Blackthorn series is about vampires as the underdog. I wanted the so-called predator controlled by the prey. Whether the predator will succeed in living up to its name, whether it’ll overcome its oppression, is one of the core questions of the stories. As to whether it even deserves to, whether the powers-that-be are actually right and justified in their approach, well, that’s wide-open at the moment.

But before I delve a little deeper into the human-orienated Global Council’s regulations, I’ll tell you about the principles they base those regulations on. I’ll be back with Beneath Blackthorn #3 on Friday, where I’ll share what is meant by ‘third species’ and why I’ve given them all ‘shadows’.

From The Inside Out

The most exciting aspect of writing fantasy is artistic license. There is no right or wrong, only what those before you have created. If you love fantasy, you’ve probably already got that switch in your brain that is willing to accept that, when it comes to fiction, anything is possible. And, if you’re anything like me, you like your writers to create a few new slants and concepts here and there to keep the subject fresh.

I always wanted Blackthorn to be an intricately built, complex world that included my own creations. I’ve lived with it a long time now. Avid followers will know it’s been sixteen years, in fact. That’s sixteen years scribbling away in the background creating things just as I wanted them, without subjecting them to scrutiny or reviews or trends. Soon, various stories became a series as I interwove naturally occurring threads that increasingly bound these standalone romances together towards an eventual conclusion.

Both of these elements – creating an unfamiliar world and developing a series – became a challenge when I needed to switch Blackthorn from being my stories to being suitable for an audience. For the first time, I had to think how I developed my world and its characters for my reader, especially with a lot to reveal, whilst avoiding painful info dumps that come hand-in-hand with having fantastical elements and concepts. And how, when I already have the bigger picture in front of me, to choose what to reveal where, when and how. It takes faith on the part of my reader that they’ll find out what they need to know when they need to know, and it takes patience on the part of me, as the author, not to spill too much too soon. It’s a very delicate balancing act.

But I know there are some readers already itching to know more – sneaky peeks into how I created the world of Blackthorn and why I have done things the way I have. So, for avid fans of Blackthorn who want that little something extra, I decided to slot in this series of posts between now and the launch of Blood Roses.

Do you need to read all these posts to enjoy the books? Are they an essential guide? No. The heart of Blackthorn is not fantasy, it is romance. Take the backdrop and subplots away, my intention from the very beginning has always been to create dark and intense, sometimes claustrophobic, character-driven romances about two individuals colliding and how they get through the conflict inherent between them. Even the series element comes out of the impact their love is going to have on the other relationships and subsequently how all the romances are going to meld to eventually shape the fate of Blackthorn. The love developing between the central characters will always be at the core, and everything you need to understand that will be right there on the page.

Instead these posts are an addition as you await my next release and I work on book 3, which I can reveal is called Blood Torn (do let me know what you think!). No other spoilers yet!!

So, if you’d like to know why Blackthorn vampires don’t ‘turn’ humans, why they bite with incisors and not canines, why I refer to them as the ‘third species’ and what the underlying themes in the series are, please come and visit every Tuesday and Friday – what triggered the creation of this series is up next.

I hope you enjoy!

xxx