Happy 1st Bookversary to The Recruit, book 1 in The Faction series. I love my vampire world, and I’ve been spending a bit of time lately thinking up the drama for the third book in this trilogy (The Journey).
Anyway, to celebrate this bookversary, I’m giving away two sets of ebook copies of both The Recruit and The Choice. Enter below via Rafflecopter!
The Faction series features a vampire world unlike any you’ve read before (well, unlike any I’ve read before, anyway). Sure, once turned they rely on blood to survive, but they don’t suddenly morph into violent creatures of the night. The Recruit introduces us to Albert, a two-thousand-year-old faction leader, and Phillip/Neil, a brand new recruit saved from an early death, and follows their fledgeling blood-mate relationship through Neil’s early missteps. In The Choice, Neil’s aforementioned misstep comes back to haunt them and steps must be taken to ensure the secrecy of their existence. Concerns for his bloodmate affect Albert’s decisions in this thrilling sequel. In The Journey we will pick up the story some years in the future. Human technology and upcoming identification procedures will make it virtually impossible for the vampires to remain safely on earth. This story will take us through their final preparations as they strive to make an interstellar journey to a new home, where they will be safe and free at last.
Here’s a short snippet from Chapter 2. This scene is told from Phillip’s 3rd-person POV. Albert is the first speaker:
“You accept what you just witnessed at face value?”
Phillip pursed his lips a moment before replying. “Okay. Yes. Obviously, there’s something superhuman about you.” Or he wasn’t human at all. An alien maybe?
“That’s one way to put it,” Albert said. “I was once fully human, but now…no, not quite human anymore.”
Phillip sat still as he digested that comment. Albert had “once” been human. He’d also approached Phillip—seemingly sought him out—and he’d said, “I think we can help each other.”
Was there more than one logical deduction to make here? “Please.” Phillip swallowed as a shiver of hope drifted over his skin. “I need you to spell out what you meant—earlier. Before your demonstration.”
Albert smiled. It was the smile of a man who sensed he had his fish on the hook. “About helping each other?”
Phillip nodded.
“You don’t need to die yet. I’ve been walking this earth for more than two thousand years.” Albert spoke calmly as Phillip froze in place, clenching his hands at his belly.
Two thousand years? And he wanted to make a deal with
Phillip?Did Phillip want to? What was in it for him? Everlasting life, apparently. But would it be an existence he wanted? “Who are you? You’re immortal. But how?”
“Immortal in the sense that I, and others like me, won’t appear to become older beyond our age at the time of transition. Nor will we die of natural causes. We can be killed, though. You’ve witnessed my self-healing abilities, but anything that would instantly kill a human will kill me…us, too.”
“So, if I agreed, this cancer would disappear just like that?” Phillip snapped his fingers.
“Like all of our ‘supernatural’ capabilities, self-healing improves over time. As a new convert, you won’t immediately feel better. It’ll take about a day for you to feel one hundred percent.”
That was hardly a deterrent, but Albert was obviously holding back. What facilitated this “transition”? “You still haven’t answered the question. Who are your people?”
Albert hesitated for a moment before replying. “The word you’re searching for is ‘vampire.’”
Phillip burst out laughing. He didn’t know what the hell he’d been thinking Albert’s answer would be, but the existence of some kind of magical immortality potion was difficult enough to believe without throwing in something that absurd.
EDITED TO ADD: The winners have been sent copies of the books in various formats via email. If you are one of the listed winners and have not received the books, please check your spam/junk folder, and if it’s not there, contact me, and I’ll resend. Thanks to all who played along!
Happy Bookversary! 🎉❤🎉
‘The Faction series features a vampire world unlike any you’ve read before (well, unlike any I’ve read before, anyway).’
I couldn’t agree more…I was left with a lasting impression of the most refreshing & original Vampire story I’d read in many a moon. The last paragraph of your snippet encapsulates this a treat. 😁 I love characters and was entranced from the first page…but quite how you managed to cram such a rich wealth of world building into those that followed seems less feasible than blood quaffing to me😮💞
Thank you so much! 🌺💖
…how you managed to cram such a rich wealth of world building into those that followed seems less feasible than blood quaffing to me — Ha! Blame/credit the development editor at Loose ID to whom I was assigned when I first submitted Cultivating Love to them many years ago. They saw potential, but it needed a lot of work. Anyway, my biggest takeaway from working with her was that every scene/line/word matters and should forward the story in some way. Maybe I’ve taken it to an extreme, but I find it almost impossible to create filler scenes that’ll expand the word count without adding to the story progression, so the results tend to be fairly tight.
It’s one of the many reasons I admire your writing so much. You may have followed her advice but you’ve used to it conjure sentences that seep a world of words – as opposed to seeming sparse -which is a loaves & fishes feat I can only wonder at. 😯😍 p.s….How I adore Joe & Ed…they’re one of my very favourite couples 🌺💞
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Thank you so much! 😘
🥰 aw, you’re welcome 🥰💋
yummy! I love vampire stories!
Thank you! 💖
Happy bookiversary!! And I can’t wait for The Journey! Sounds awesome! 🙂
Thank you! 💖 I’m still pondering what the drama will be.