It's been a while coming, so why not do it in October: the spookiest month of all? I'm overjoyed to reveal that the Tragic Silence series has been relaunched with brand new cover artworks, interior formatting, and a video trailer! I've been working on this secretly behind the scenes since spring, and I'm so happy to finally reveal them! Scroll down to see the four new covers (click on each one for more info) and to watch the new trailer, featuring The Unquiet Grave by the immensely-talented Arianna Deligianni. Fun fact: the moon on each cover is in a different phase to represent the chronological order of the series, beginning with a crescent in Sepia and Silver and gradually growing to full in Darkest Dreams. Special thanks to all the book bloggers, authors, readers and bookstagrammers who assisted in the cover reveals today, and to Arianna for kindly allowing use of her music in the trailer. To celebrate, you can get Sepia and Silver FREE in e-book for a limited time! Click here to grab your copy!
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Step into a Crimean Bloodbath... The new Darkest Dreams episode has dropped! Upon the Heights of Alma had its general release today and this is one I've been particularly excited to reveal. I'm no stranger to writing historical fiction, but this is the first thing I've created which takes place during a well-documented historical event. And even though the event in question happened over 160 years ago, I felt obligated to get as many of my facts straight as possible and remember that real people fought and died in this battle. With that being said, I've had to take some creative liberties for story purposes and the fact that I only had a few thousand words to work with, but I'd like to think I succeeded in portraying a small section of the Battle of the Alma. Some descriptions were even lifted, word for word, from contemporary Victorian accounts of soldiers who survived the war. As with all the Darkest Dreams episodes, Upon the Heights of Alma can be read independently, but I'd also like to provide a little background on this story for anyone who's interested. As I mentioned, it takes place during the first major battle of the Crimean War at the Alma River. This was a war which occurred in 1853-1856 between Russia and an alliance consisting of the United Kingdom, France, Sardinia and the Ottoman Empire. It was also one of the first conflicts where rifles were widely used, but was terribly bloody (1,650,000 total casualties) and the British troops in particular were fraught with military and logistical blunders. I think it's a conflict which has fallen out of memory for many people nowadays - it happened so long ago and was soon overshadowed by the World Wars less than a hundred years later. If anyone remembers anything about it, it will likely be the work of Florence Nightingale and the Charge of the Light Brigade which was later immortalised by Tennyson. That infamous charge actually came at the Battle of Balaklava, which took place just a month after the Battle of the Alma. The Crimean War has remained in my consciousness for a while, however - not just because I find the entire Victorian period fascinating, but because one of my own ancestors fought in it. The character of Norman Calvin is actually based on the information that my family has about him. He fought at the Alma, but upon returning to England, was forced into the workhouse in Liverpool since veterans were poorly looked after. However, ten years later, he had a house with staff, a family, and ran a successful business. As far as I know, though, he didn't have a son who would grow up to become one of the most dangerous vampires in Hungary... You can read Upon the Heights of Alma for FREE by clicking the button! I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge The Crimean War: A History by Orlando Figes, as well as britishbattles.com and historynet.com for their extensive accounts of the Battle of the Alma, which proved invaluable in creating this story. I also wish to acknowledge the 19th century song The Heights of Alma, written following the Allied victory, which provided both the title of the story and its closing lines. Upon the Heights of Alma is part of the Darkest Dreams e-periodical: a collection of short stories released every quarter and connecting the three Tragic Silence novels.
You can read the stories a week before their general releases by signing up for my newsletter, or a month before their general releases by becoming my patron on Patreon. Dare you awaken to Darkest Dreams? The second instalment of the Darkest Dreams e-periodical, Gift of the Dark, has been unleashed upon the world. And... oh boy, was this a tough one! Not in that the story fought me or was a pain to create, but just because of how dark it is! It's probably the most disturbing thing I've ever written, with a protagonist who's utterly despicable. Set in the late 1700s, this one is chronologically the earliest of the Tragic Silence timeline. It connects The Libelle Papers and Sepia and Silver, and lays the foundation for the Bernstein family legacy which influences the entire series. The framework of the plot is very loosely inspired by something I studied at university. My course was in animal behaviour, but I also had to take a module to help me understand ethical arguments, philosophy, what constitutes intelligent thought and the ability to feel pain, etc. And that meant looking into the history and ethics of early scientific method. While no animals are featured in Gift of the Dark, they unfortunately were in the real Scientific Revolution. One of the major schools of thought came from the French philosopher Rene Descartes, who coined a phrase I'm pretty sure you're familiar with: "Cogito ergo sum." "I think, therefore, I am." But Descartes also came up with the idea that humans were divinely different from animals, and everything animals did was essentially the workings of a machine. Animals ate, slept, mated and vocalised not because they were conscious, but because it was what they had to do to ensure their own survival and nothing more. In short, they had no souls. As a result, this provided early scientists the justification for performing experiments on animals, often while they were still alive and without any kind of anaesthetic. And it was just as horrible as you'd think. While I was repulsed by some of the stuff I learned, I can't deny the impact this time period and its mentality left on me. I found myself thinking about it a lot when I was writing The Libelle Papers in 2013, and it did eventually work its way briefly into the story. But that was from a modern viewpoint which knew how barbaric it all was. This time, with Gift of the Dark, we're in the thick of the Scientific Revolution, when such practises were deemed not only necessary, but ethically sound. So switch out the animals with the study of vampirism. Now imagine what you could get away with if your laboratory was beneath the streets and never saw the light of day... You can read Gift of the Dark for FREE by clicking the button!
But maybe don't read it after sunset. Just saying... The bat is on its way to being reborn. Three years after the Tragic Silence series ended, I'm jumping back into my nocturnal world of vampires. Not with any new novels, but that doesn't mean there's nothing left to write. Far from it. In fact, I've been thinking about it since before I even finished the final book. But I had my reasons for not returning to the series sooner, which I'll explain at the end of this post. I'm very excited to announce that the Tragic Silence series will be continuing, in the form of a periodical collection of brand new short stories. And the best part is that I'm going to make them exclusively available for FREE on my website! The thing I love about this series is how it's essentially comprised of standalone novels. You can read them in any order, or independently of the others, and still get a complete story out of it. But if you read them all, you see the larger tale which lies over everything, linking them together. It's woven like a spider web across the lives of three different women in different time periods and locations: Bianka Farkas, Hanna Bernstein and Eva Kalvin. Between the strands are others: major events we've only heard about in passing, or characters we've only seen through the eyes of the main protagonists. These hidden stories have been whispering in my ear for a while, and deep down, I knew it wasn't over. I just hadn't come out and said it. In a similar vein (if you'll excuse the pun), you don't need to have necessarily read any of the novels to appreciate the short stories, but if you have, certain elements will make much more sense. Where Night is Blind The first story, Where Night is Blind, will shine a light on the Liderc, who appears in Tragic Silence and Sepia and Silver. I knew I had to start this new journey with him: my favourite villain I've created to date, and one of only a few of my own characters who legitimately gives me the creeps. But villains are not born. In more ways than one, they are made. And yes, that title is a Phantom of the Opera reference - any fans of the series will know why! Where Night is Blind will be released for FREE on Tuesday 10th March: World Vampire Day. I didn't even know that was a thing until recently. I'm not sure if I'm more surprised it exists or disgusted at my own ignorance! The dark truth which stopped the series... (Beware of Tragic Silence spoilers from this point) When I finished Sepia and Silver in 2016, I already had a couple of the short stories in the early planning stages, including When Night is Blind. As a result, a key event from the series was at the forefront of my mind: the bond between Bianka and her late best friend Lucy. However, mere months after I typed the last word, my own best friend was tragically lost. While there was obviously no vampires or kidnappings involved, it was equally sudden and equally traumatic. In a heartbeat, life had imitated art too closely and too deeply. I couldn't even bear to look at Tragic Silence again, and wondered if I ever would. But now the time has come and I finally feel able to bring the final chapters into the world. I know Katie - my very own Lucy - would have approved. She loved vampires as much as I do. And the first book, way back in 2013, was originally dedicated to her, after all. And so the shadows descend. Are you ready to enter the night with me once more? If you want to read the short stories before anyone else, I'll be sharing them in the Batty Brigade newsletter ahead of their official release dates, sometimes by a week or more! To get the early scoop, just sign up!
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