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Showing posts with label #paranormal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #paranormal. Show all posts

Saturday, October 19, 2019

A 5-STAR tale just in time for the creepy holiday season!


Ever since her father was diagnosed with cancer three years ago, 17 y. o. Marisa has had nightmares about the disease taking the form of a vampire, slowly killing him. She can no longer stand movies or books involving even ‘good guy’ vampires, much less any of the old horror movies she used to watch with him. She even stopped hanging out with her best friend Lisa who got into Goth clothing and make-up, even though Lisa has been trying to be there for her this whole time.

But all that is about to change with the arrival of young and handsome Nathan, a family friend Lisa grew up calling Uncle. Not only does his arrival set both girl’s hearts beating, but it gives them a chance to renew the friendship both have sorely missed.

However, there’s more to Nathan than Marisa realizes. Lisa knows he is a vampyre-like being, the very thing Marisa detests. Yet he may also be the only hope for Marisa’s father, as well as the entire town. For unknown to all, a truly horrific being from the Para-Earth where Nathan was originally “altered” has entered their reality. And now he is the only one who can stop it.

Available now in paperback and ALL e-book platforms:

Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MDO8SLO/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Nook:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-vampyre-blogs-allan-krummenacker/1124855249?ean=2940153799605

AmazonUK:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01MDO8SLO

AmazonCA:

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01MDO8SLO

Smashwords:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/647499

Kobo:

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-vampyre-blogs-coming-home

****NOTE: Coming Soon in audiobook form too****

Sunday, September 8, 2019

New Beginnings For "The Vampyre Blogs" Side of Our Para-Earths Series...

Okay folks, Nathan here to tell you all about some new beginnings for me and my friends... oh and our authors too.

I know things have been on the quiet side over here for a while now, but a lot has been going on behind the scenes. As you all know, Allan and Helen have been experimenting with audio for some time now. But after a lot of discussions and even more rehearsals and test-runs they've decided Allan will be the one to who will be bringing all our stories to audiobooks. This project has involved a huge learning curve for Allan which has taken up a great deal of his time, hence things being quiet over here.  Allan's a bit of a perfectionist and has been going to great lengths to find voices for everyone who will be appearing in the audios. But it seems he's nailed everyone down starting with me, who's voice you heard in "Wolves and the Northern Lights" (which was shared in the last entry). If you missed it, here's the link again so you can hear what I'll be sounding like:



He's already finalized different voices for Otto, Brian, Richard (Low-Man), Dr. Jack, Lisa, Marisa, Isabella, and the rest of the cast from both "The Vampyre Blogs - Coming Home" and "The Vampyre Blogs - One Day At A Time". Now begins the full-scale effort to bring all of us to life in audio. Mind you, Allan's been going through one heck of a learning curve and is currently sharing all he learned over on our sister blog "The Musings of Two Creative Minds" where he and Helen talk about the writing and creative process. If you're interested in seeing what he's shared so far here are the first three installments:




NOTE: This particular series of blog entries about doing audio is still ongoing and more installments are on the way. So if you find yourself really enjoying those first three entries you might want to sign-up to be notified by e-mail when a new entry gets posted.

Now, besides working on bringing us all to life in audio, Allan has also been working on a collaborative story that does not involve the Para-Earth Series, with an old high school friend Mr. Richard Caminiti. 


The two have just about finished the first draft of a five-year book called "The Pass" which also involves vampires, also set in the 1860's but on the west coast. And the vampires involved are not like me or your traditional European types like Count Dracula. No, their characters are dealing with Chiangshi, vampires from China, more commonly known as the Hopping Vampire. And boy have Allan and Richard got some surprising twists and turns waiting for you all. It's taken them this long to do write the story for several reasons:

      1 - They've been writing long-distance. Richard is on the east coast in North Carolina and Allan is on the west coast in California.
      2 - They've been doing a lot of Skyping over the past 5 years to brainstorm ideas, as well as give each other input on new directions the story kept taking.
     3 - Life got in the way a lot. For instance, Allan was still attending college full-time when they started and both have had health issues to contend with. Plus, Allan and Helen had to move twice during this period.
      4 - Allan was working with Helen on me and my friends and our stories.
    5 - Helen started a new solo-writing project called the "Forever Detective Series". (Don't panic, she's not abandoning us or Allan, she's still working on us with him). But Allan's been helping her with that series as well, doing book covers and acting as her sounding board for ideas. But this too has taken up a fair amount of time and energies for both him and her.


And speaking of the Forever Detective Series, Helen's first book came out just a couple of months ago and is available on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords and many other outlets in both paperback and e-book form. The story involves a 1940's detective getting hired by Interpol to help locate some stolen Russian art. As the story progresses our hero Raphael Jones will find himself discovering that magic and the supernatural do exist and his world will never be the same again. If you'd like to learn more here's a little book trailer Allan and Helen put together (which also took up a fair amount of time and experience on the old learning curve). You'll also find links to the various book sites to get your own copy of this brilliant new series, which Helen will be adding a second book to in late November/early December of this year. So please check it out, she's done a brilliant job with blending 1940's Film Noir with the Supernatural:



So as you can see, Allan and Helen have been QUITE busy ever since this year began. Which is why they haven't been doing nearly as much updates here as they really would have liked to do. But that doesn't mean they've been neglecting me or my friends. Stories have been quietly under way this whole time. A whole second anthology has been taking shape, again with stories from this blog as well as brand new untold tales. 

Furthermore, Allan and Helen have been working on "The Door" which involves my old flame Police Sergeant Veronica Ross, her new fiancee Alex Hill (the lucky dog), my old friend Jason Cloudfoot's niece Julie (who I helped rescue from a snowstorm when she was only 9 years old), and a few other people of my acquaintance. Why I'm bringing this book up is because I will be making several appearances in flashbacks, as well as me, Lisa and Marisa actually showing up at the end of that upcoming novel which will launch a whole new direction in the Para-Earth Series. For that point will actually bring all of us and the characters from "The Bridge", "The Ship" and "The Vampyre Blogs - One Day At A Time" into a full-blown crossover as we take on the most haunted house in America, the legendary Harlequin House. It is within the walls of that terrifying place where people say "The only ones who walk those halls are the dead..."

At the same time, Allan and Helen have already gotten me and my friends' next full-length novel "The Vampyre Blogs - Family Ties" already under way as well. 

But first, my friends and I need to be re-introduced to a whole new set of readers. A little while back, Allan explained that after talking with readers that "The Vampyre Blogs - Coming Home" would be more at home under the YA (Young Adult) label since most of the story is told from Lisa and Marisa's point of view. So, he's been very busy working on making that happen as well. Including,  going as far as creating a whole new cover for the book featuring the girls.


He and Helen have also created a new backcover as well...

Ever since her father was diagnosed with cancer three years ago, Marisa has had nightmares about the disease taking the form of a vampire, slowly killing him. She can no longer stand movies or books involving even ‘good guy’ vampires, much less any of the old horror movies she used to watch with him. She even stopped hanging out with her best friend Lisa who got into Goth clothing and make-up, even though Lisa has been trying to be there for her this whole time.

But all that is about to change with the arrival of young and handsome Nathan, a family friend Lisa grew up calling Uncle. Not only does his arrival set both girl’s hearts beating, but it gives them a chance to renew the friendship both have sorely missed.  

However, there’s more to Nathan than Marisa realizes. Lisa knows he is a vampyre-like being, the very thing Marisa detests. Yet he may also be the only hope for Marisa’s father, as well as the entire town. For unknown to all, a truly horrific being from the Para-Earth where Nathan was originally “altered” has entered their reality. And now he is the only one who can stop it. 

The re-release of the book will be taking place in just a few weeks on October 1st. And this time we will be available everywhere, not just on Amazon (although you'll still be able to find us there as well). Though we do ask all of you to please help spread the word. We're very excited to meet new readers and continue our adventures because there are a LOT of  them to come.

So that about brings you all up to speed. Clearly, there's been a lot going on behind the scenes that Allan and Helen have not been talking about. But, as you can see, time has not been a luxury for them, which is why I felt it necessary to tell you myself. 

Thanks again for all your patience and stay tuned, because as I already said, there is a lot more coming. Allan will be sharing some more samples of his audio work with you all and if everything goes well the first audiobook(s) will be out in time for this Christmas so stay tuned. We're all very excited for you to hear from us personally as our adventures continue.

Until the next time I hijack this blog, take care. 

Yours Respectfully,

Nathaniel Eoghan Steward



Sunday, September 2, 2018

Things I Learned Writing An Anthology - Part I

Last night Helen and I finished the final story for our upcoming anthology.

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     Thank you!  Thank you!  You're all being too kind.  But today's post is not to talk about the anthology itself, as much as what went into making it.  How did it differ from writing full-length novels?  Was it easier?  Was it harder? What was the process like?  Where did we get all the stories for it, etc.?

      Well, for starters, coming up with a decent number of stories was and wasn't hard really.  Helen had been writing stories long before e-books and well before I tried my hand at penning a tale.  I can easily say I learned so much from her earlier attempts at getting published, and let me tell you she got damn close to seeing some of her work in print.  But, that's a tale for another entry.

      What I want to say is that I learned a lot about what to expect when I decided to try  going the traditional published route.  Although in my case, I started shortly after the birth of e-publishing and after 2-3 years of trying to get an agent to represent and hearing over and over again "You've got something here, but you crossed several genres and I wouldn't know what publishing house to try and sell it to."  

      You see, at that time (and this still seems to hold true today) publishers don't like to take risks on unknown authors or mixed genres. They want a straight up "Mystery", "Thriller", "Horror", "Science Fiction", etc.  They're not keen on trying to sell a book that crosses multiple genres like the Para-Earth Series which we classify as "Paranormal/Sci-Fi".
  

      Now some of you may be pointing out that they do it more often these days, but most of those authors are well-known like Stephen King, Dean Koontz, J. K. Rowling, etc. who all have proven sales track records.  

       Anyway, getting back to how our upcoming anthology came to be a reality
.  
      During that 2-3 years I tried to get published the traditional way, more stories were taking shape.  New characters and ideas were forming.  One of them was vampire I called Nathan Eoghan (pronounced Ewan) Steward.  I swore I'd never do a vampire character, unless I could introduce new angle or angles to the character.  Yet I still wanted to keep a lot of the traditional trademark strengths and weaknesses people have come and know and recognize.

      By this time, I had already been blogging for several years and had learned from other writers the concept of giving sneak peeks into upcoming works, and even sharing short stories.  This is done to introduce characters and concepts to prospective readers and build a demand for them.  So, after creating a vampire character that would fit nicely into our paranormal/sci-fi concept, I began doing short stories with Nathan over on a new blog called "The Vampyre Blogs - Private Edition".    Over the course of 3 years we had a number of tales about Nathan and introduced a number of his friends who appeared with him in "The Vampyre Blogs - Coming Home".  And we're still making new stories.  And that presented a problem, how many people want to wade through 4-5 years of blog posts to read all those stories?  Furthermore, most of those tales are rough 1st drafts and it shows.

      During this time, I noticed some of my fellow authors who had created short stories on their blogs were bundling them into anthologies and that got us thinking.  With all the stories we'd already created, why couldn't we create an anthology centered around all those stories on the blog?  While it sounded nice and easy, it also didn't feel completely right to me.  While having all those earlier stories put into a more convenient format, shouldn't we give the readers more?  Shouldn't there be new never before seen stories in the collection?  Furthermore, should the stories not be just about Nathan but his friends, and even characters from our first two novels "The Bridge" and "The Ship"? 


    This led to Helen coming up with the idea of recycling some of her earlier works which were firmly established in the realm of the macabre.  With a little reworking and adding scenes, she felt a number of those pieces could easily fit in with our Para-Earth Series, while also giving those unread tales a chance to finally see the light of day.  

      *Now I want to pause and say one thing.  Remember how I told you all, many posts ago, never to toss out your unfinished works, or fragments because you never knew when they might fit into some new idea/concept?  This is a perfect example of why you do that.  You just never know when that day might come.*

      So right there, we had some brand new stories to slip into the anthology.  But we didn't stop there, we went ahead and created several more brand new stories just for the collection itself.  The result?  One third of the tales appearing in this anthology are completely brand new.
  
     Plus, we also added an afterthought following each story, sharing some of the who, what, where, and how each tale came into existence.  We thought it only right to share some of what the writing process can be like and hopefully inspire others to take that next step in whatever creative endeavors they are involved in.  

     Now, seeing how long this entry is getting and knowing there's still a lot more to share, I'm going to end this one here.  I know I covered a lot of background areas today and haven't really gotten to more of the technical and details of actually what went into the building of the anthology.  But rest assured that will be covered in the next installment. 

      Until then take care and keep writing everyone.

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Now On Kindle Unlimited...

"The Vampyre Blogs - Coming Home"

is available now for "FREE" 

only on Kindle Unlimited

What reviewers have been saying:


“Pick this up if you like vampires!”

"Nathan is a fascinating take on the immortal vampire. His family and friends are as dysfunctional as any modern group..."

"Such a different approach to the "birth" so to speak and the para earths are fascinating!"

"Love this series..."

Start reading today by clicking the link below:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MDO8SLO/ref=series_dp_rw_ca_3