Hot Calender Reads: November

It's 2014 and we're celebrating with an awesome fantasy themed calendar. This calendar is for the background on your computer and you can get this month's image below.

Each month will feature a different book or series, so if you want to challenge yourself, try reading each book or series that is featured before each month is over. The series for November is the Evolutionary War series by Thomas Winship. He will be giving away a set of Vaempires eBooks. Be sure to enter the Rafflecopter below!

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New Release!

Roadside Assistance (Short Story)

For Hannah, a long trip home seems a small price to pay for a little peace ... until her journey takes a turn for the worse. Now, injured and alone, she must test the limits of her courage, endurance, and love.

Amazon

Vaempires: Revolution (The Evolutionary War-Book 1)

It is the morning of Princess Cassandra's sixteenth birthday. Everyone's attention is focused on the heir to the vampire throne. World leaders, the rich and famous, and VIPs from every corner of the globe have gathered in the nation's capital to celebrate the momentous event.

Cassandra's boyfriend, Daniel, is late for the party. He's still outside the city when all hell breaks loose. What he believes is an act of terrorism proves to be a full-fledged revolution. Væmpires--former vampires who mutated into warm-blooded creatures with an insatiable hunger for cold blood--have launched coordinated attacks across the globe, with three goals: the eradication of humanity, the enslavement of vampires, and the ascension of væmpires as the dominant species on the planet.

The vampire and human leaders are killed. Cassandra is missing. Daniel is the acting king. Desperate to find the princess, Daniel and his friends fight their way across the besieged city. With the hopes of the free world resting on the shoulders of four vampire teenagers, væmpires unleash their secret weapons: a new breed of væmpire that is far deadlier than any ever seen before.

What can four teens do against an enemy that can shape-shift, fly, and walk through walls?

Amazon | Other Formats

Vaempires: White Christmas (The Evolutionary War-Book 0)

It's almost Christmas. With the global holiday days away, the people of the world should be turning their attention toward celebrating peace and goodwill, but tension between humans, vampires, and væmpires is at an all-time high. Desperate for solutions, King Brant schedules a secret summit deep in North America's Northern Forest. Along with Queen Anne, Princess Cassandra, Daniel's family, and the human president and First Lady, the vampire leader seeks to reaffirm the ties between humans and vampires, while brainstorming ways to respond to the growing hostility among væmpires.

Meanwhile, Daniel and Cassie's relationship is at an all-time low. The princess is still reeling from her breakup with Vielyn, and Daniel doesn't know what he should or shouldn't do to help. Little does he know that the summit will be flooded with surprises--guests, allegations, accusations, proposals, and even Christmas Eve revelations--but not all of the surprises will be pleasant.

Amazon | Other Formats

Vaempires: Zombie Rising (The Evolutionary War-Book 2)

The tale of the Evolutionary War resumes in Væmpires: Zombie Rising.

Væmpires have taken control of twelve major cities. Their leader, Vielyn, seeks the atomic weapons that will bring the rest of the world to its knees.

Vampire forces are reeling. As Linq and Ray race to the royal estate to rendezvous with Cassandra and Daniel, the princess is captured and Daniel falls.

With the fate of world shifting to their teenage shoulders, Linq and Ray must deal with tremendous losses while battling a most unexpected—and undeadly—new foe.

Amazon | Other Formats

Vaempires (The Evolutionary War-Book 3)

Coming Soon!

2015

Author Bio:

Thomas Winship lives in New York. He currently serves as MBA Director for a private liberal arts college in southern New York, where he also teaches courses in English Composition, Communications, and Business. Prior to this, he spent fifteen years working for a global pharmaceutical company, specializing in organizational development, talent management, and training.

Tom writes in his spare time. His first novel, Temporary Insanity, was a 2008 finalist in a national contest but failed to garner industry attention. Væmpires: Revolution, his second novel (first in the Væmpires series) and Væmpires: White Christmas were published in 2011. His latest work, Væmpires: Zombie Rising, was published in late 2012.

He is an avid collector of books, comic books, music, and movies. His interests are diverse: on any given day, Tom is likely to be found watching a horror movie, attending a hard rock concert, or enjoying a Broadway show.

He is currently working on the next installment of the "Væmpires" series.

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Fangs of the Hellhound

Tales of creepy black dogs, known as hellhounds, have been told across the world and throughout the centuries. The most famous is Cerberus of Greek mythology. This monstrous three headed dog guarded the gates of the Greek Underworld.  He kept the ghosts from escaping their afterlife.  Besides the three head, Cerberus supposedly possessed a serpent’s tale, a mane of snakes, and lion’s claws. He also had the duty of keeping intruders out of the Underworld, but he didn’t do as well as that. Maybe it was his weakness for honey cakes. The Sybil threw a drugged honey cake to him that put him asleep and allowed Aeneus to pass into the Underworld and speak with the ghost of his father.

In Norse mythology Garmr is the hellhound guardian of Helheim (Underworld) and Hel’s pet. It had four eyes and a chest dripping with blood. It could also be appeased by cakes by those who had given bread to the poor. (Seeing a pattern here?) Garmr’s howling signals Ragnarok and it will join with the giants against the gods. Tyr will kill it but will die to the wounds Garmr inflicts.

There is also another type of hellhound referred to as black dogs, who appear all over the British Isles. They are ghostly with glowing eyes, sometimes red, green, or yellow. They are rumored to be associated with the devil, which is probably where the term hellhound comes from. The appearance of the black dog is associated with death.  One of the most famous is the Black Shuck. This creature is known to haunt the coast of East Anglia. It loves to roam graveyards, crossroads, and dark forests. However, it’s what it did at one church in Suffolk that makes this dog famous.  With a clap of thunder it burst through the doors of the church, ran through the body of the church, and killed a man and a boy. It caused the church’s steeple to collapse through the roof of the church (That’s probably what killed the man and boy). It left scorch marks on the door when it left.

The Cŵn Annwn come from Welsh myth. Their name means the “hounds of Annwn” which is the otherworld. They are associated with the Wild Hunt and, supposedly, their growling is loudest when they are the farthest away. As the come closer it grows softer. Creepy, huh? People view them as a death portent as well.

So, most hellhounds are associated with death and/or hell. In A Prescription for Delirium, my hell hounds are werewolves possessed by demons. So, they actually are from hell. There are many more stories of different types of black dogs. You should really check them out.

Do you like reading about the supernatural? Get A Prescription for Delirium for jusr $0.99 today and tomorrow (Thursday and Friday) on Amazon.

Where do demons come from?

Cultures throughout the ages have had their versions of demons. In most, demons are the personification of evil, pain, and suffering. They exploit weakness already in man and are said to have many powers that can torment or can allure men.

Ancient Akkadian texts alluded that evil spirits were sent by evil gods. In Persia, the prophet Zoroaster preached about the doctrine of evil. The world was split between an ultimate Good, named Ormazd, and an ultimate evil, Ahriman. Ahriman had 6 archdemons, known as Daevas, to fight Ormazd’s 6 archangels. And, of course, they controlled countless numbers of lower demons.

The Hebrews attributed the “false gods” of other religions to being demons. One particular favorite was Moloch, the devourer of children. Tales said that his follower would place their children on his burning idol and sacrifice them for protection, health, and long life. (Note: I think he will be used in a future book. *Rubs hands together with an evil laugh.*)

The term demon actually came from the Greek term daimon, which means spirit or lesser deity. Many of the spirits resided in the Greek Underworld, a place so frightening to man that they would not even speak the name of Hades, the god of the Underworld. The Romans did what they always did and added the Greek pantheon to their own. So the daimons became daemons.

When Christianity rose, it was in Rome. They incorporated other religions into their own to gain converts. Except, like the Hebrews (since Christianity started as an offshoot of the Hebrew religion), a lot of the deities became demons, especially the darker or “evil” gods. Now, we have a whole hierarchy of demons in hell associated with the Christian religion.

This is just touching the surface. You can find variations of demons in India, Africa, the middle East, Japan, and China. All come with their own special mythos. I guess, all around the world, we have something to name our fears after. Be sure to check out A Prescription for Delirium for some of the demons found in lore.

*This is a repost from my blog tour. The original post is found on Happy Tails and Tales.

Lusting for Bloodsuckers

So, this is actually inspired by several conversations with some awesome people on Twitter. It started as a question from @inkmuse about whether vampire fiction was over filled and should be laid to rest. Also, how we could revive it? This sparked a lot of opinions. My favorite was between @TheRaymondMRose, @peterdawes,  @ondinal_songs and myself. This got me thinking of vampire psychology and modern fiction.

Years ago, we had some decent vampire fiction. Anne Rice and even Laurell K. Hamilton's first few books were great reads. They let you view some vampire psychology and see how manipulative they can be. Then came Stephanie Meyer. I know, she's on everyone's lips. You either love her books or wish to throw them into the pit of fiery forgetfulness. Why is there so much hate? Well, I'm not going into all the reasons, and there are enough to make a mountain. Her books inspired a flood of vampire romance fiction. Along with the vampires came the werecreatures, the fairies, and *shudder* the demons.There is a big problem here.

These monsters are supposed to represent our darkest fears and emotions. Right now, I'm just going to stick with the undead. Vampires, at best, would be sociopaths bordering on psychopaths. Yes, there are perhaps some that would want to be good but their trying to to do so should be an enormous struggle. And what they consider good to them may not be good to others. Evil and good are relative, depending on your moral compass. A vampire who only hunts criminals is still killing and eating people.

This leads into the whole relationship thing. Sure, I can see the whole dark fantasy, bad boy thing, but these are creatures that want to eat us. We are food and pets to them. Would you want to date a cow? I know, cows can't hold an intelligent conversation. Then again, if you were centuries old, how intelligent would you view a 17 year old? The main point is that these are not healthy relationships. They will end badly. I'm not talking about crying into you half gallon of ice cream bad. More like, closed casket funeral.

So, what about you? Do you enjoy the undead romances? Or would you like to see more stories about the dark side of vampires again?