Demons With A Difference Guest Blog with Felicity Heaton

Demons with a difference

Hello everyone, my name is Felicity Heaton and I’m a paranormal romance writer and author of several series including Vampires Realm (written as F E Heaton), Vampire Venators, and the Her Angel series. I also write the Shadow and Light Trilogy and I’m here today to talk about the first book in that series.

Ascension is the story of Lealandra, a witch on the verge of her ascension, a time when her magic will mature, gaining her incredible power if she can survive the process and the dark force that is out to kill her. Her only hope is to turn to Taig, her half-demon ex-lover, for assistance in defeating the man after her and surviving her ascension, but Taig isn’t about to offer up his services as a demon hunter without her paying a price she isn’t sure she can afford. Taig wants one thing in exchange—he wants her.

Taig is a half-demon with some serious issues about his lineage, but that isn’t why he’s a demon with a difference. There’s a trend at the moment for demons of all shapes and sizes to be rather handsome even when they’re showing their dark side. I’m talking about vampires who don’t kill or drink blood, werewolves that are cute enough to pet in their animal form, and demons who don’t really get ugly in the way we were always told demons are.

I always like to write demons with a difference, and with a lot of darkness in them. It’s part of their appeal if you ask me and I don’t think it’s something an author should shy away from. Readers and reviewers often hone in on how I can make a vampire utterly evil, a merciless killer, and yet still make them fall in love with him, or how my werewolves are vicious and beastly, yet they’re so full of feeling and are beautiful creatures.

With Ascension and the Shadow and Light Trilogy, I wanted to do the same thing with demons. Taig is as handsome as they come when he’s in human form, but he has good reason for wanting to keep his demonic appearance a secret from Lealandra. He’s not gorgeous as a demon. He’s dark, scaly, has wings like a dragon, and horns. He’s so far from the pretty human skin he normally wears that he fears Lealandra could never love a monster like him. While his appearance is one hundred percent demonic, complete with sharp teeth and claws, I never let his personality wander too far away. Even when he’s in demon form, you can still see traits of his human side in him—the way he protects Lealandra, how he fights for her, his tenderness towards her—it’s all there even when he’s scaly and scary. I think it’s important that demons look like demons when they go bad-ass and that vampires bite people without remorse and act true to the myths we know about them.

In capturing this darkness and bringing it to light in the story, readers can see just how dark and deadly these creatures are, and that adds a new level to them, another dimension about them that fascinates. It’s equally as important to balance the darkness though and I tend to do that through the depth of emotion in the character, a very human side that has fears and doubts, and is just as vulnerable as a mortal in affairs of the heart. It’s this side that I term the light in them that readers connect to most but without their struggle against their darkness, or their acceptance of what they are and their nature, I think they would be less appealing and less interesting.

Some of the best stories I’ve read have had true darkness in their heroes, a sense that they might turn at any moment and that they’re extremely powerful men, but also a sense that they have one weakness—their heroines—and that they’ll do anything for the women in their black hearts.

I believe that it’s the sense of danger, the darkness, and how powerful they are in combination with the idea that for all their growl and bite there’s one person who has absolute power over them and for whom they would do anything, would turn themselves inside out and expose all their vulnerabilities, one person who could halt their darkest rage with only a light caress, that makes this sort of hero appeal to women everywhere.

And makes us all wish we were that heroine in that novel, commanding that dark hero with nothing more than a glance or a brush of our fingers across their cheek.

Taig is that sort of man, a beast who thirsts for violence, and who has this dark side that is deadly, but who Lealandra can soothe with only a smile. In fact, all of my heroes are like that, dark gorgeous men who live for their heroine and would die for her.

So if you’re looking for a little monster in your man, then look no further. Head on over to my website and check out the excerpt of Ascension, or some of my other 30 stories: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk

Ascension is available now in e-book format direct from my site, on Amazon Kindle, and other retailers, and is available in paperback from Amazon.com

Ascension

Felicity Heaton

A witch on the verge of achieving phenomenal power, Lealandra must turn to her half-breed demon ex-lover Taig for protection from the dark force that is after her and also from her own magic.

With her Counter-Balance dead and her coven against her, Taig’s blood and power is the only thing that can help her control her magic and survive the ascension and gain the strength to defeat her enemy.

Old feelings come flooding back as Taig allows her into his world and Lealandra finds herself fighting not only for survival but to win his broken heart again and heal the pain in their past. Can he forgive her for walking out on him all those years ago and will he ever believe her when she tells him that he’s not a monster but the man that she loves?

Read the excerpt or find out where to buy: 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