For Stefan Székely it is a fate worse than death: To be dead yet stuck with his dead parents. After 13 years Stefan can endure it no longer. He wants a castle of his own.
First he must visit his family’s bank in Budapest. But with endless strife across Europe, Stefan hardly recognizes Budapest, capital of the new Hungarian Federation. Nevertheless, he embarks on his reign as a vampire playboy – until he gets a stern warning from the local vampire gang.
Will Stefan fight for his right to party like it’s 2027? Or will an encounter with a stranger change everything? As clashes between vampire gangs and State Security escalate, Stefan discovers he might be the key to changing the fate of Europe forever. If he can survive three bloody nights in Budapest.
For Stefan Székely it is a fate worse than death: To be a vampire yet stuck with his vampire parents. After 13 years Stefan can endure it no more. He wants a castle of his own. But first he must visit his family’s bank in Budapest.
With endless strife rumbling across Europe, Stefan hardly recognizes Budapest, now capital of the Hungarian Federation. The world has changed. Nevertheless, he embarks on the reign of terror he always denied himself, living the vampire playboy lifestyle. Until he gets a stern warning from the local vampire gang. He is not welcome – unless he plays by their rules.
Should Stefan fight for his right to party like it’s 2027? Or will an unexpected encounter with a stranger change everything? As clashes between vampire gangs and State Security escalate, Stefan realizes he just might be the key to changing the fate of Europe forever! . . . If he can survive three bloody nights in Budapest.
Budapest at sunrise
In 2014 my medically accurate vampire novel A DRY PATCH OF SKIN came out to a couple rave reviews. My main purpose then was to counter the hysteria of the Twilight experience with some medical research crossed with an understanding of established legends. I wanted to tell a realistic vampire tale. I even set the story in my own city and the action in the story followed the actual days and months I was writing the story. The story and my writing of the story ended the same week. Of course, I revised and edited after that.
Then I thought . . . what might possibly happen next? So I chose a gap of, say, 13 years (the number seems significant in horror stories). Now, where did I leave my protagonist? How is he doing? What could have happened since the end of the first book? What has changed in the world during these 13 years? How would what’s different in the world affect his own corner of the world? How would he cope with these changes?
As I started on another vampire story I quickly realized that I had to also write essentially a science-fiction story. A futuristic story. If I were setting the story 13 years after the end of the previous novel, then this sequel would be set in 2027. And it would be somewhere in Europe, which is where our hero was at the end of the first book.
What do I know of 2027? Not much. Like many science fictioneers writing about the future, I took the present circumstances, the way things are now (good and bad), and extrapolated how they might progress. Remember that novel by George Orwell, 1984? It was published in 1948 just as fears of a Communist takeover gripped Europe. It was supposed to be a warning. Orwell imagined how the concerns of his present might play out in the future.
With the current strife in Europe, mass immigration, refugees coming to Europe from the Middle East and Africa, the increase in crime, warfare between left and right political groups, I could see all these happenings extending, continuing and growing through the following decade. The moral question that arises is whether an author should follow his/her own beliefs; that is, how the world should be, a Utopian view – or choose a path of development which would be the best setting for the story, however the society might become – or try to take an honest look at current events and let things fall where they might, for good or ill.
I chose both. If I have to make a choice, I will lean toward what makes a good story over what my own beliefs might be. For the sake of this story and for the way I think society will continue to progress/digress or develop or evolve over the next 10 years, I’m letting the European conflicts play out in the sequel: my now less-medically accurate vampire novel, titled SUNRISE.
In this sequel, the new Hungarian Federationis a strictly run Euro-centrist society. The State Security apparatus runs a tidy ship and getting in is very problematic. Staying in if you are a “diseased” resident such as a vampire is dangerous. However, our hero, Stefan Székely, is already within the boundaries of the Hungarian Federation at his family’s estate in the former Croatia; therefore, I, the author, must deal with the vagaries of that location. It was not an unpleasant effort. I love to travel vicariously.
Needless to say, our hero has difficulties – or there wouldn’t be a story. Yet as I charged through the final chapters and then undertook the revision stage, the look and feel, the horrors, and the dystopian ambiance seemed right. Will Stefan escape from the repressive Hungarian Federation? Or will powers greater than himself and the vampire gangs of Budapest have the final say?
In SUNRISE the world gets darker before the light shines again. Book 3, to be titled SUNSET, picks up the story even further into the future. By then, we are in full-fledged Dystopia territory. But, hey! I’m sure everything will work out just fine…if you transform into a vampire in time.
A Simpler Guide to Online Security for Everyone is available as Kindle, ePub and Paperback versions. Now free as an ebook at Amazon, Apple and Kobo among other good ebook stores.
Are you worried about online security but don’t know where to start? Do you have a Google account and want to make it more secure? Do you want to protect your emails from opportunist hackers? Then this guide is for you!
What you will find in A Simpler Guide to Online Security for Everyone:
Learn why online security is so important; protect yourself from identity thieves, fraudsters, hackers and scammers
Choose and change your passwords
What is and how to Setup 2-step verification
Add recovery information so you don’t lose access to your Google account
What to do if you find you have been hacked
How to protect your account while away from home and much more…
Your email is one of the most important tools available on the internet. It represents communication, community, business and just keeping in contact. It is also a big threat to your online safety. You don’t need to be a cyber expert to protect your identity online. Protecting your email is one of the best things you can do. This books shows you why it is important to protect it and more importantly how to secure your Google email. If skilled hackers want to get into an account they will always find a way but for the vast majority of users, following these tips will protect you.
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Deeds done in the heat of battle cast long shadows.
The most famous man in the history of the Temple, retired Commander John Farmer, has left the militia behind. War looms and John must answer the call to serve, but his terrible secret could destroy everything. A broken mage trying to rebuild his shattered life, he must somehow regain his abilities, or everyone and everything he loves will be lost.
John must face the crimes of the past to become the hero he never was.
Purchase The Wayward Son on Amazon for $2.99 Kindle and $13.99 paperbook
The thrilling conclusion to the epic fantasy series, TOWER OF BONES
A grieving man whose life has gone to hell in his absence,
A son whose action sealed his father’s fate,
A crippled warrior facing his future,
A broken soldier seeking redemption for an unspeakable crime…
Driven by prophecies and racing against time, four mages sacrifice everything in a final bid to save their world from the Children of the Bull God. Can Edwin Farmer set aside his worries and raise the new shield before Lourdan and the Legions of Tauron arrive to conquer Braden?
The Gods are at War, and Neveyah is the Battlefield.
Simon, Fey and Rebecca. An ordinary family trying to cope after the death of the girls’ mother. One day, Rebecca ‘gives’ her imaginary friend, Nathaniel, to her Simon, telling her father he can keep Nathaniel ‘forever’…
Then the phone appears. Then the lies begin. And the pain. And the faces in the photographs…
Simon asks Rebecca who Nathaniel really is. She tells him he prefers to be known by his nickname, ‘Mr. Boogie’…
–
Specially commissioned by Universal for the release of the movie sequel ‘Sinister 2‘, Suffer the Little Children is “genuinely terrifying!”
All the best stories begin that way. Once upon a time, Jack climbed a beanstalk. Cinderella did go to the ball.
Once upon a time, his parents died.
When your parents are killed in front of you on the one day of the year when all crime is legal, what do you do?
You prepare for next year. You prepare for payback…
–
Specially commissioned by NBC Universal for the release of the film The Purge: Anarchy, Mr. Composure is “simply superb” with the best plot twist ever!”
What if you could steal the final moments from the dying? What if you had the darkest secret, but couldn’t think what it might be? What if you entered the forest in the deep of the night. Who is the melting man? And are your neighbours really whom they appear to be?
So many questions.
To find the answers, you must enter a darker place. Thirteen stories. Thirteen poems. Thirteen more doorways.
Darker Places is the follow up to the acclaimed Dark Places and can be found on Amazon and Smashwords.
Dead, dead, dead. Say it enough times and it becomes just another word.
What would you do? Could you kill a killer? Does the death of one appease the deaths of a hundred? What about that hundred against a thousand?
What if you had no choice?
Meet Sin. No, not that sort of sin, but Sin, crazy as a loon (you ask Sister Moon), and proud of it. Sin locks himself away in an asylum and, every so often, gets violent. That’s only so they’ll give him those nice drugs, though. The ones that help him forget.
It’s a pity they don’t work.
Sin, you see, has a serious problem. Well, it’s not so much his problem, as ours – yours, mine and everyone else’s. People die around Sin. He doesn’t like it and there’s nothing he can do about it. But someone else knows, and Sin has to stop them… and himself…
Flip and catch…
Find the ‘dark, disturbing and amazing’ #1 Psychological Horror Sin on Amazon and in audiobook form, narrated by Grammy nominated R.D. Watson on Audible or iTunes.
When the handwritten letter from Japan arrives, Benjamin cannot help but flash back five years. He was in Hawaii when he met Hanako, a Japanese stewardess. But Addy, Benjamin’s wife of three years, knows what the letter really means: a love child was born.
Now Benjamin must save a child he has never met, learn the truth behind Hanako’s death, and risk his marriage and his career to do the right thing. But venturing into the lonely woods of northern Ishikawa throws him into an ancient world of strict customs and tight-lipped villagers.
AIKO is a romance and a mystery, spun as a modern version of Madame Butterfly.
Forbidden Road takes up Edwin’s story six years later. When four mages are sent into the shadowed lands claimed by the mad priest of the Bull God, who will return unscathed? Sorrow, peril, and magic await in the Valley of Mal Evol.
They’ve changed history, but not even an Interdimensional Voyager can stop a comet!
Set-d’Elous (a.k.a. Sebastian Talbot) lies paralyzed, tormented by the evil Empress—his wife. Meanwhile, the other Voyagers were blown far and wide by the terrorists’ bomb. Tammy and Chuck awaken on Earth, unable to explain where they’ve been. Chucker, lost in the jungle, discovers his assassination team shot the wrong man.
Chucker must track down his mentor Set-d’Elous and free him from captivity, then search for his parents. Back on Ghoupallesz, a violent new cult has arisen, warning of destruction, led by the disfigured Michael, former IRS Service Center playboy.
Legend tells of a cleansing comet. Fortunately, Jinetta-d’Elous (a.k.a. Gina Parton, Interdimensional Voyager) comes forward to drive industry ahead from airships to interstellar spacecraft. But will they make it in time? Or will petty differences and ancient grievances get in the way for survival of the few lucky ones?
THE DREAM LAND Trilogy concludes with an epic crash of parallel timelines and a comet that will test even the hardiest of Interdimensional Voyagers!
So you’ve conquered a new world…. Now to change their history!
Sebastian Talbot (a.k.a. Set-d’Elous, legendary warrior) has exiled himself to a desolate island, content to laze away the days writing his memoir. Until the emissary from Queen Tammy arrives with a mission he cannot refuse. Tammy, the IRS clerk he took to Ghoupallesz, wants him to go fetch her son who she left on Earth.
That mission raises questions for Sebastian: If he can go back and forth through these interdimensional doorways and arrive in a different time period, perhaps he can prevent the big war he fought through, the war that destroyed his family as well as millions of others. Then, while on patrol duty in his “next” life, he comes upon a young poetess he knows will become the rebel leader who helps overthrow the monarchy and initiates the wars. What would you do?
THE DREAM LAND Trilogy continues in Book II with parallel timelines, world domination and global destruction, and as always the crazy minutiæ of heroic minds daring to play God without a rule book.
Íris is a refugee from an abusive youth in Iceland, further abused on the streets of Toronto – until she sees Art as an escape. With a scholarship, she drifts from depression to nightmare to Wiccan rituals to the next exhibit. There’s a lot she must forget to succeed in a life she refuses to take responsibility for.
Eric is settling in at Fairmont College, starting a new life after betrayal and heartbreak. Divorced and hitting forty, he has a lot to prove – to his father, his colleagues, and mostly to himself. The last thing he needs is a distraction – and there’s nothing more distracting than Iris.
A Beautiful Chill is a contemporary novel set in the duplicitous world of academic rules and artistic license.
[These two characters appear again in Stephen Swartz’s contemporary novel A Girl Called Wolf.]
Before Edwin Farmer and the Tower of Bones, there was Wynn Farmer, the legendary smith and lightning mage. This is his story.
Charged by the goddess Aeos, Wynn and his companions face a gauntlet of jagged peaks and deadly traps. Danger, mystery, and dark prophecy—who will fall and who will survive?
The Gods are at war, and Neveyah is the battlefield.
Do you want a better way to organize and manage your social relationship? Do you want to keep in touch from friends and family all over the world in one video call? Are you interested in meeting people across the web with similar interests? Then this guide is for you!
This is an introduction to using Google’s social network, Google+. Packed full of tips and information, this guide will help you to:
Learn why Google+ is the best social network
Set-up a new Google+ account
Learn about Hangouts, the best and easiest way to meet your friends and family face to face online with video Hangouts. Up to 10 people at a time!
Have better privacy than on Facebook or Twitter
Post, comment, ‘like’ and share
Discover like-minded communities, Google+
is the best social network for photographers!
Understand and use the settings
Easily control who can see your stuff
And much more…
This is a step-by-step guide that will show you how to navigate the sometimes confusing set
of features in Google+
Contents of A Simpler Guide to Google+
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Opening an Account
Chapter 3 Your Google+ Homepage – an Overview
Chapter 4 Security
Chapter 5 Your Profile
Chapter 6 Hangouts
Chapter 7 Circles
Chapter 8 Being Social: Liking, Commenting and Sharing
Chapter 9 Managing Your Posts
Chapter 10 Notifications
Chapter 11 Searching on Google+
Chapter 12 Settings
Chapter 13 Privacy
Chapter 14 Google+ App on Your Android Phone
Chapter 15 Advanced Features – Google+ Extensions for the Chrome Browser
Chapter 16 Google+ Posting Cheat Sheet
Glossary
Index
Tired of Facebook, do you want to find an alternative with clear privacy settings? Try Google+!
Deeds done in the heat of battle cast long shadows.
The thrilling conclusion to the epic fantasy series, TOWER OF BONES
