SUNRISE (Book II in the Stefan Szekely Trilogy)

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.

The sequel to A DRY PATCH of SKIN (2014) continues the trials and tribulations of Stefan Székely, Vampire.

Sunrise, sequel to A Dry Patch of Skin, launches!

SUNRISE …the end of the workday for vampires…

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 Orwell1984? 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 Federation is 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.

Men Reading Women

With the passing of fantasy author  Ursula K. Le Guin, it seems a good time to reflect on the women authors of my life, especially in science-fiction and fantasy where the percentage has been more skewed.

When I was a young reader, science-fiction got my attention. Imagining other worlds, traveling in space, or dealing with futuristic possibilities was my thing. I started at a young age reading such sci-fi authors as Ben Bova and Robert Silverberg. Also an author named Andre Norton. Mostly these were short stories, often in an anthology edited by Silverberg. One day, though, I was surprised to learn that one of my favorite authors was a woman. I thought Andre was a boy’s name! It made me think.

Boys tend to want to read stories of other boys or men doing things, heroic things. At that age I honestly didn’t care what the girls did in stories. It was just that male authors tended to write about men doing manly things (I’m generalizing, of course), so I had no reason to try female authors. I also did not have much knowledge then of how difficult it was for female authors especially in the genre of science fiction and fantasy; I just wanted a good story. My mother pushed A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle on me, telling me it was a good story, but as a young boy I was not so interested in reading a story about a girl!

Gradually, I grew up. Focusing deliberately on a wider range of fiction, literary and decidedly non-SF works, many of them were written by women. I enjoyed them: I got to experience life as a female character, got to understand the issues they dealt with, and perhaps gained from perspective I did not previously know. It was educational. Whether or not the authors were women still did not matter to me as a reader more than what the story itself was. Marion Zimmer Bradley’s books about Authorian legend interested me, not because of the author but because of the Arthur. Nancy Kress and her sci-fi and books on writing mentored me for a time, as well.

Classic women authors starting with Mary Shelley and continuing through the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen entered my experience in college by making me play along as the man in the pages of their books. I could empathize, to a point, with the women in the novels. That experience helped develop the Romantic qualities which have eventually ruined me. I can’t confidently say, just from reading, that I now “get it” or that I understand all the characters endured and could cheer as they rose up and took whatever position they deemed in the story to be a success. Yet my empathy continued to grow.

In grad school, read Francine Prose and Annie Proulx, partly to see a view of life which I could not see without the lens of a woman author writing about a woman protagonist. A couple years ago I read a teenage romance series by Stephanie Perkins, not for the thrills of young love and relationship conundrums but to understand how a young girl thinks and acts. I used what I learned from those books for my own novel which featured a young girl. More than research, I deliberately tried to learn to see what I could not with my own experiential eyes. And then a film on cable TV one night prompted me to check out Margaret Atwood’s novels, starting with The Handmaid’s Tale. Now, of course, it has returned in a new series.

Having a daughter further instilled in me the urge to seek women authors for her to read. The Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer became a milestone in my daughter’s life. Inspired, she even wrote fan fiction herself. No matter what word or label you may apply to me and my experience with women authors, I want the best for my daughter, and for her to understand other women’s lives and times, struggles and triumphs.

More recently, as I worked on my own epic fantasy involving dragons, I returned to the novels of Anne McCaffrey. While her dragons and their world are remarkably different from the ones I was writing about, I very much appreciated the craft, the imagination, the pure exhilaration of the world she invented in Pern.  Then the sci-fi/dystopian trilogy by Marie Lu caught my attention as something my daughter might like to read…but I read it first. Before reading these authors, Marian Perera, a fellow newbie, came out with Before the Storm, which wonderfully taught me how women think and act in sci-fi romance. It was liberating as I was composing my own sci-fi trilogy.

Now Ursula has passed on, never to write another novel. Yet we remain blessed to always have the products of her mind, the outpouring of words that frame and construct and fulfill our own hopes and aspirations for years past and years to come…for the world of make-believe is our world, today’s world, in disguise.

 

EPIC FANTASY *With Dragons

An Epic Fantasy* like no other!
(*with dragons)
Epic Fantasy *With Dragons
Master Dragonslayer Corlan Tang is the best in the business!
So it is little surprise that jealous Guild rivals conspired to have the sniveling Prince to banish him from the city.
Sent out into the Valley of Death – and stuck with a runaway boy from the palace kitchen – Corlan decides on a plan. He will head to the far end of the valley where he’s heard a vast marsh provides nesting grounds for the dragon horde. There he will smash their eggs and lance the younglings, destroying dragons once and for all! Then he can return as a conquering hero!
However, like any foolhardy quest, there are constant dangers and seductive detours along the way – as well as unsettling encounters with new allies, fiends, and traitors. A quest changes a man, Corlan realizes, and he finally must reconcile the dark secrets from his past.
Despite every distraction, Corlan must succeed, if only for his own stubborn sense of justice, but also so he might return home again. To achieve his goal, he must push himself onward, use his wits and guile, demonstrate his daring-do, and employ all the will and strength he can muster – for surely the gods have assigned him their harshest tests in this twisted new world, harshly cleaved from fire and quake. After all, the fate of the world rests in our hero’s hands.

[Read more about the creation of this epic work on the author’s blog.]

World of Neveyah (Book 2.5): The Wayward Son, a companion book to Forbidden Road

The Wayward Son Front Cover Cathedral Ruins 2 copyDeeds 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

World of Neveyah (Book 3): Valley of Sorrows

VOS Final Front CoverThe 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.

Valley of Sorrows  at Amazon for $2.99 ebook

 

Suffer the Little Children by Shaun Allan

Suffer the Little Children CoverSimon, 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!

Read it on Amazon!

Mr. Composure by Shaun Allan

Mr. Composure“Once upon a time…”

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!”

Meet Mr. Composure on Amazon and Smashwords.

Darker Places by Shaun Allan

Darker Places CoverWhat 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.

Sin by Shaun Allan

Sin CoverDead, 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.

Read more from Shaun at his website, on Facebook or at his blog. Sin also has his own blog, his ‘Diary of a Madman‘.

World of Neveyah (Book 2): Forbidden Road

Forbidden Road cover 415 x 640 pxForbidden 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.

FORBIDDEN ROAD (AMAZON US) $2.99 KINDLE/$17.99 PAPERBACK

FORBIDDEN ROAD (BARNES AND NOBLE US) $2.99 NOOK/$17.99 PAPERBACK

Darkness Rising (Book 5: Broken) (Prism)

darkness rising 5Beneath the veneer, beneath the beauty, there is always the coldness of stone.’

Tragedy has torn apart Emelia and her companions, a terrible betrayal instigated by the Darkmaster, Vildor. A devastated Jem struggles to control the fearful power of the crystals, becoming distant from his closest friends. Hunor and Orla are tested by a secret from the past, a revelation that will change everything between them. In the Dead City, Emelia begins a search for her past, a journey that will plunge her deeper into the darkness of Vildor and his twisted schemes.
Desperate to seek aid in their battle against Vildor, the companions travel north to Belgo, capital of North Artoria. But everything is not what it seems in the palace, and danger lurks in every shadow, whether cast by friend or foe. Separated and alone, can Emelia, Jem and Hunor hope to prevail? Or will the evils of the present and the past overcome them at last?

Darkness Rising 5 – Broken is the fifth in the epic fantasy series that reviewers are calling ‘epic and spellbinding.’ It is a must read for fantasy fans the world over.

Darkness Rising (Book 4 – Loss) (Prism)

darkness rising 4Bravery is measured in moments.

In the lands of Nurolia the evils of the past are returning to torment the present. Emelia and her companions traverse the arid desert of Pyrios seeking the red crystal. Its power resides in the grasp of the dreaded Red Emperor, who enslaves the warrior race of Incandians. Time slips away as Vildor, Lord of the Ghasts, begins his dreaded plan and as Emelia’s sanity starts to crumble.

Far to the north, in the hills of Artoria, Aldred Enfarson holds onto life by a thread. His friends flee towards the walled city of Keresh, a dark army on their heels. Yet when the opportunity to save Aldred’s life presents itself, they unleash a force every bit as terrible as Vildor. The Cabal, creators of the Prisms of Power, seek to return to the world—and Aldred may become the key.

The forces of darkness are rising—and tragedy awaits even the most heroic.

Darkness Rising- Loss is the fourth book in the original epic fantasy series that reviewers are describing as ‘epic and spellbinding.’ It is a must read for fantasy fans the world over.

About the series…

“Totally gripping… I was completely absorbed and loved reading every minute of it.”
“Each page is a new rush of tension, mystery, and adrenaline.”
“Richly imagined, well written and thoroughly absorbing.”

Darkness Rising (Book 3: Secrets) (Prism)

darkness rising 3“Embrace the darkness, welcome the fury, savour the anger…”

After their escape from Goldoria, Emelia and her companions begin their journey into the swamps of Ssinthor. A land ravaged by ancient sorcery, it is a place of secrets and danger. Deep in the mists an insane lizardman sorcerer wields the green crystal to devastating effect. As darkness threatens to tear them apart they must somehow challenge the awesome power working against them.

Far to the west Aldred and his new comrades travel to Artoria on a mission to save his cursed father. A chance encounter with a seer throws them into an impetuous diversion deep into the Emerald Mountains, where a terrible foe awaits.

Hidden in the secret recesses of a ruined fort a crystal of blackest sorcery awaits its former master, Vildor, Lord of the Ghasts. And the time has come for him to reclaim its power.

Darkness Rising- Secrets is the third book in the original epic fantasy series that reviewers are describing as ‘epic and spellbinding.’ It is a must read for fantasy fans the world over.

About the series…

“Ross M. Kitson has built a complex and convincing world here. Frankly, I wouldn’t recommend just picking up just the first book, or even the first two books. Get all three, because you’ll be chain-reading them.” D Brzeski (British Fantasy Society)

“Totally gripping… I was completely absorbed and loved reading every minute of it.” Amazon review

“Each page is a new rush of tension, mystery, and adrenaline.” Amazon review

Darkness Rising (Book 1: Chained) (Prism)

darkness rising 1_Emelia dreams of escape from her life of servitude. She dreams of magical powers; she dreams of dark things. When tragedy awakens the sorcery within her she embarks upon an epic journey in the company of two charming thieves.

In the Dead City an ancient evil awakens. The Lord of the Ghasts covets a magical Prism, the clues to which lie with Emelia. And when he begins to share her dreams, surely it is only a matter of time until she succumbs to his power?

Darkness Rising Book One – Chained is the first book in an exciting new epic fantasy series combining traditional heroic fantasy plotlines with modern dialogue and thrilling characters. Book One is the first half of Prism Volume 1, previously available as a single volume and now presented in two books with additional material and sample bonus chapters.

Crown Phoenix [Book 4]: South Sea Bubble | Steampunk adventure

4 CP South Sea coverTHE SOUTH SEAS BUBBLE, book IV of the Crown Phoenix Series

An Edwardian hospital hides many secrets:

A mysterious patient lurks in the cellar…

A secret passage leads to danger…

Coded messages reveal new riddles…

Visions of danger haunt the people of Grimstead Manor…

 

Girls Can’t Be Knights by Lee French

Girls can't be Knights_Portland has a ghost problem.

Sixteen-year-old Claire wants her father back. His death left her only memories and an empty locket. After six difficult years in foster care, her vocabulary no longer includes “hope” and “trust”.

Everything changes when Justin rides his magical horse into her path and takes her under his wing. Like the rest of the elite men who serve as Spirit Knights, he hunts restless ghosts that devour the living.

When an evil spirit threatens Claire’s life, she’ll need Justin’s help to survive. And how could she bear the Knights’ mark on her soul? Everybody knows Girls Can’t Be Knights.

World of Neveyah [prequel]: Mountains of the Moon

MOTM Front Cover Final 6-18-2015Before 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.

Purchase Mountains of the Moon at Barnes and Noble: Nook book $2.99, paperbook $17.99

Purchase Mountains of the Moon at Amazon: Kindle book $2.99, paperbook $17.99

 

 

Hunted Heart | Adult Fantasy

HuntedHeart cover final bit smallerWhen Tali is hired to cut out the heart of Prince Kas, the huntress can’t refuse. Tali realizes there is no escape from the dark magic of the queen’s mirror, even though her own feelings for the prince are far too complex to understand.

As they try to run from their shared destiny, Tali and Kas have to rely on their wits and each other as hunter becomes prey and hearts are won and lost.

A genderbent Snow White for adults (18+ only.) All royalties go to Save the Children.

 

Available on Amazon and  Goodreads.

HUW THE BARD

HTB New Front CoverHUW THE BARD, by Connie J. Jasperson, published March 28, 2014

(new release)(mature readers)

Genre: Fantasy, alternate history

Synopsis:

The youngest master in the Bards Guild, eighteen-year-old Huw Owyn is at the top of his craft. The Spring Conclave is underway, and Huw is late to the ceremonies. While he lingers with his lady, the Bard’s Guild is attacked. Seeking to become the heir of most powerful man in the valley, Earl Rann Dwyn hangs the Guild Master, Huw’s father. His thugs torch the hall with everyone still inside, burning a quarter of the city with it.

Smuggled out of the burning city in a reeking ale barrel, Huw is a wanted man. Starving, reduced to begging and worse, he must somehow make his way north to safety. It’s a 200-league walk, as the crow flies, to the one place he might have a friend, though the path Huw must take is anything but straight.

Murder and the taint of treason – a lot can happen to a man on journey like that.

Amazon Buy Links:

http://bit.ly/HuwTheBard_US

http://bit.ly/HuwTheBard_UK

 

Author Website Address:

http://conniejjasperson.wordpress.com