Today we are joined by UK paranormal romance author, Felicity Heaton :) Give her a warm welcome!

Firstly, I want to say a huge thanks for having me here today to talk about my books. I’m going to be talking about my favourite paranormal species—vampires—and how I choose to write these wonderful dark and deadly immortals.

I should introduce myself first though. I’m a paranormal romance author and I’ve been writing since 2005, and turned indie in 2006. In that time I have written over forty stories under the names Felicity Heaton and F E Heaton. Most of my stories are released under my full name, but I write the Vampires Realm series as F E Heaton. My paranormal romances are usually focused on vampires and werewolves, but I do also write other shape-shifters like black panthers, and also demons and witches, and a whole bunch of sexy angels. 

I love writing vampires. Out of all the paranormal creatures in the genre, I adore them most of all and always have done since I was very young. I’m talking single digits young here. You could say I grew up on vampires, and they were the first paranormal species that I wrote when I finally shifted into writing paranormal romance.

It’s more than the explosive and seductive mix of mystery and deadliness that draws me to these immortal creatures more than any other. It’s how flexible the myth behind them is and how you can take them and really make them your own if you put a little effort and time into it. I write many different sorts of vampires in my stories. Whenever I write a vampire, I tweak something about the species to make them stand out from my other ones.

At the moment, I have two sets of vampires emerging in my writing. I have the undead turned variety that I write in my popular Vampires Realm series and the living born variety that I write in my Vampire Venators series, some of my stand alone stories, and my upcoming Vampire Erotic Theatre series that will come out in 2012. The living vampire is something I’m still exploring and playing with, and it’s refreshing to look at vampires in a new light.

As an author, it’s very appealing to me to write something fresh and new with each series or stand alone novel. A new approach to an old species and myth. I think as a reader, it’s more enjoyable to venture into a world where the creatures that turn out the same in so many books have a new edge to them too. I couldn’t imagine how boring it would be if we had to keep reading about the same breed of vampires over and over again. All it takes is a little effort on the part of the author to bring their vampires to life and make them unique and stand out from the others.

As I said, I write what I think of as two breeds of vampires at the moment, but even those vary from series to series, or from one stand alone novel to the next. I am yet to write two vampires that are the same unless they’re in the same series.

They have similarities, a foundation that I use with all my vampires because it really works for me, and that’s usually the vampires’ attitudes and the use of a societal structure. I don’t write cute, non-blood-drinking, goody two-shoes vampires that sparkle and flounce around moaning about life as a vampire or seeking redemption. I write my vampires dark and deadly, killers who like their blood fresh from the vein and who, most of the time, aren’t particularly interested in playing nice with humans. I like to write a more traditional type of vampire, and it seems readers share my passion for them too.

Sure, I do toy with the tradition a little. I choose to use pieces of it and ignore others, or tweak things to make them stand out. Sometimes my vampires have powers and sometimes they only have the usual heightened abilities. Sometimes my vampires can procreate and live and age at a rate slower than a human, and sometimes my vampires are the dead returned to life through a change in their DNA brought about by the consumption of vampire blood before death.

In my Vampires Realm series, the vampires are all undead. Vampires can create other vampires by killing humans when they have vampire blood in their bodies. They rely on heightened abilities and the power of living in bloodlines to keep them safe. Some vampires have special abilities but they are rare in the Vampires Realm world, and most of the abilities aren’t the sort they can use against each other in fights. Most of the vampires are very dispassionate towards humans and have chosen to forget their human lives. They suffer the usual issues of a traditional vampire too. Holy wood burns like crazy, sunlight can cause combustion, and fire is deadly, and a stake through the heart will kill them, but only if it is holy wood. Decapitation is also best avoided. They’re very dark and deadly, and very unapologetic about it. They live in a complex society with rules and a peacekeeping force that keeps them in line, and are often at war with each other as well as with werewolves and vampire hunters. The whole series is focused on this society and their struggle against each other, the laws, and the growing threat of the vampire hunters. It’s very dark but packed with action and emotion too. There’s plenty of forbidden love in this series, or love against the odds, and I think that is part of its appeal.

In my Vampire Venators series, the vampires are alive. They procreate and live in families, and have special talents that they can use in battle. They age at a rate slower than a human does and have heightened abilities. The vampire breed in this series is different in that there are tiers of vampires. The strongest are the pureblood Noble families, who rule the others, and they can withstand sunlight even close to the height of noon. Their power and strength is far superior to those of the Lesser Noble families, who in turn are much more powerful than the vampires referred to as Commoners. The society in this series is very complex, as well as the stories. There are many other demon species involved in the series and a governing group of demons known as the Sovereignty, who bestow powers on selected demons so they can uphold the laws of their species, as well as there being our dimension and the demon dimension, two separate worlds bridged by the plane on which the Sovereignty lives. In this series, I chose to have it so a single bite from a vampire can infect a human and begin their slow transition into a vampire. I wanted it to stand out from my other series. Death isn’t necessary. If the human dies, then they don’t transform into a vampire. I think in essence, that makes these vampires more like killers than those in my Vampires Realm series, as those can bite without turning the human and can let them live. If these vampires want blood direct from a host, then they have to kill them otherwise they’ll turn.

I do write other vampires who are alive too. My upcoming release on October 22nd, Heart of Darkness, features a complex vampire society ruled by a monarchy. The vampires are again all the product of procreation. In this breed of vampire, a vampire’s bite will only kill a human and so would vampire blood if they were to drink it. The vampires don’t have special powers, only heightened abilities, and they live in secret from the humans and are striving to achieve their humanity. In Heart of Darkness, the vampires are very different from what I’ve written before. They were originally little more than beasts, demonic creatures with a mindless thirst for blood and violence. Over millennia, they discovered the path to achieving some sense of humanity and now cling fiercely to the rules set out by their monarchy so they remain relatively human. They limit their kills and work as families, each vampire within the family only having to kill once or twice a year. If they kill too much, or take pleasure in it as their ancestors did, then they risk awakening the black abyss within their hearts again and corrupting their soul. Because of that, they cherish their humanity and rarely kill. They are more a danger to themselves than humans, and humans are by far a bigger danger to them.

Heart of Darkness is by no means a light romance though. With the hero battling corruption as he fights to avenge his sister’s murder by wiping out every member of the hunter’s bloodline, it’s a very dark romance full of emotion, drama, and action. It’s as intense as all of my novels and heart wrenching too, the story of a prince on the edge of destroying himself and the woman who could become his only hope for salvation.

I often think about my different breeds of vampire and I think what links them all is the sense of society in the worlds I create. I love to build a real societal structure in my vampire romance novels, setting out hierarchies and dreaming up how their lives would be, what rules would govern them, and detailing it all out to give readers who pick up my books a real rounded experience and a world that is believable and described in a way they can imagine in their minds. I think details are important. It’s the little things that bring a world to life after all.

I hope that this post has given you all insight into the sorts of vampires that I write. If you would like to get a better feel for them through reading samples of the books or reading about the series, then head over to my website http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk or check out my blog http://www.indieparanormalromancebooks.com

Thank you for having me here today and reading my post. Please feel free to leave any comments or questions you might have and I’ll answer them for you!

Here’s a little bit about some of the books/series I mentioned:

Vampires Realm series
Behind the veil of night on the streets of Europe, roam creatures who have the dark gift of immortality, demons who can turn your blood cold and witches so powerful they hold the fate of the planet in their hands. No mortal stands a chance against the preternatural creatures whose world they share – the seven pure vampire bloodlines of Europe. What happens in their lives shakes our own, sending tremors down to the underworld and making heaven itself tremble.

The tales of the seven are told in epic stories of forbidden love and violent war, of deadly experiments and saving the world, and of sacrifice and bravery that knows no bounds.

Prepare yourself for dark paranormal romances that will have you on the edge of your seat… for fiction you can sink your teeth into… for strong, sexy heroes and stronger, sexier heroines… prepare yourself for Vampires Realm.

Find out more about the series: http://www.vampiresrealm.com

Vampire Venators series
Enter a dark world where humans live alongside nine species of demon without knowing it and a mysterious circle of ancient beings called the Sovereignty battles to protect mankind. For each of the nine species, Venators are chosen, hunters who are given the power of the Sovereignty and fight in their stead to defeat those in their species who seek to harm humans and demons alike. It is a world of vampires, werewolves, therianthropes, angels and other demons, each with their own distinct society and world they desire to protect–a world they desire to keep separate and hidden from ours.

Find out more about the series: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebookseries.php?series=Vampire%20Venators

Heart of Darkness
A vampire prince on a four hundred year old mission to avenge his murdered sister…

Aleksandr Nemov won’t stop until the last of the vampire hunter’s progeny is wiped from the Earth. Each kill has stolen a piece of his humanity, pushing him towards the black abyss all vampires hold within their hearts. Now he is teetering on the edge, close to devolving into a beast, and time is running out as he tracks the last hunter to Prague. There he finds a beautiful woman who could be his one chance for salvation, but is it already too late for him?

A vampire guard who will do whatever it takes to protect those she loves…

Elise is dedicated to her duty. It’s the only thing she has left. All that changes when she meets Aleksandr in Prague and her master grants him permission to stay at her bloodline’s mansion. She knows all about Aleksandr but none of it prepares her for how she feels when the legendary prince’s hunt becomes one for her heart. Elise battles him with all of her strength but can she stop herself from falling for the handsome hunter? When he reveals the depth of the corruption in his soul, will she have the strength to face the pain in her past and do whatever it takes to save him?

Available October 22nd 2011
Find out more at: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk

Biography

Felicity Heaton is a romance author writing as both Felicity Heaton and F E Heaton. She is passionate about penning paranormal tales full of vampires, witches, werewolves, angels and shape-shifters, and has been interested in all things preternatural and fantastical since she was just a child. Her other passion is science-fiction and she likes nothing more than to immerse herself in a whole new universe and the amazing species therein. She used to while away days at school and college dreaming of vampires, werewolves and witches, or being lost in space, and used to while away evenings watching movies about them or reading gothic horror stories, science-fiction and romances.

Having tried her hand at various romance genres, it was only natural for her to turn her focus back to the paranormal, fantasy and science-fiction worlds she enjoys so much. She loves to write seductive, sexy and strong vampires, werewolves, witches, angels and alien species. The worlds she often dreams up for them are vicious, dark and dangerous, reflecting aspects of the heroines and heroes, but her characters also love deeply, laugh, cry and feel every emotion as keenly as anyone does. She makes no excuses for the darkness surrounding them, especially the paranormal creatures, and says that this is their world. She’s just honoured to write down their adventures.

If you want to know more about me, or want to get in touch, you can find me at the following places:

My website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk
My blog: http://www.indieparanormalromancebooks.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/feheaton
Twitter: http://twitter.com/felicityheaton
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/felicityheaton

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Teresa

Teresa (nom de plume: Torrance Sené) is a self-proclaimed geek, a Janeite, a lover of werewolves and bad-ass angels, an aspiring novelist and an avid book reader who freelances as a web designer. You can follow her on Twitter at @eireannoir.

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