Guest Blog and Giveaway with Felicity Heaton

Heart of Darkness – Creating the world

It’s great to be back here at Fangtastic Books for the Heart of Darkness leg of my Paranormal Pandemonium 2011 Blog Tour.

Today I’m going to be sharing a little about the world of Heart of Darkness but first I’ll introduce myself. I write various paranormal romances as Felicity Heaton and my Vampires Realm series as F E Heaton. My paranormal romances are usually focused on vampires and werewolves, but I do also write demons and witches, and of course there’s my series about angels too. I’ve been writing original fiction since 2005, and have been an indie author since 2006, and in that time I have written and released over forty stories.

Heart of Darkness is a long vampire romance novel packed with action, passion and emotion. It’s my second stand alone vampire romance of the year, the first being Love Immortal, and like that book writing it involved a lot of world building.

All authors have parts of writing that they are truly passionate about. World building is one of my passions. I can’t write a book without sitting down and considering all the intricacies of the world that I will be writing about. With Heart of Darkness, I had to consider all kinds of things in order to make the book believable. The vampires in the book live unknown amongst us. Only the vampire hunters know of their existence and they are locked in a timeless battle with them.

One of the first things I considered was vampire society in the novel. Taking a close look at the society and building something detailed and realistic is one of my favourite things to do in a paranormal romance. The vampires in this world live in a monarchical society. The Nemov bloodline led the vampire species in evolving from mindless bloodthirsty demons to something near human. Because of that, I decided they would be viewed as the ruling family of the vampires. They are royalty and are treated as such, and continue to preach pacifism to their people, teaching them to limit their kills in order to retain their humanity.

The rest of the vampires live as bloodlines in different cities across Europe and each uses means to protect themselves from detection by humans. The bloodline in Heart of Darkness, the Cerny, keeps itself hidden in plain sight by posing as a military academy and pays the city of Prague a large donation each year, buying their privacy. Many bloodlines choose this route as it allows their guards to scout the cities in groups without drawing attention.

Within each bloodline there is a hierarchy, and the position of a vampire within it is more often than not decided by the family they were born to within the bloodline. All bloodlines need a leader and that position is chosen by election, and a leader has their aides, the vampires who help run the business affairs of the family and keep them safe from discovery by humans. Below those elite vampires, there are high ranking vampires who enjoy life to the full and do as they please. They concentrate on socialising with other vampires and are often born of powerful families within the bloodline. Beneath them are the ranks of the guards, the soldiers responsible for protecting their bloodline. Guards often come from the same family lines, with generations of them working for the bloodline at the same time. The lowest ranking members of the bloodline are the servants.

The heroine in Heart of Darkness, Elise, is a guard. She comes from a family of guards and was born to the former commander of the Cerny bloodline in Prague. Because she’s a guard, she hasn’t been taught things like the ladies of the house learn, such as dancing and socialising. She has spent her years learning how to fight, kill and protect. She’s a strong vampire who does her best and her duty is very dear to her.

The hero in Heart of Darkness is the former heir prince of the Nemov bloodline, Aleksandr. He renounced his title four centuries ago when vampire hunters killed his defenceless sister and vowed to hunt her murderer and his family line to extinction. Because he has spent four centuries killing hunters, he is slowly losing his humanity and his fight against the darkness within his heart.

When their paths cross in Prague, Elise’s presence causes the darkness within Aleksandr to recede quicker than it has in years and he knows that she might be his one hope for salvation. First he has to win her and Elise isn’t going down without a fight.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post about Heart of Darkness and your glimpse into the world of the vampires in the story. Don’t forget to follow me on my Heart of Darkness section of my Paranormal Pandemonium 2011 Blog Tour too. I have some great posts about the book, more fantastic excerpts, and giveaways galore. Find out more at http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/paranormal-pandemonium-blog-tour.php


Heart of Darkness is currently available in e-book from my website, Amazon Kindle Stores, All Romance eBooks, and Smashwords. It will soon be available from Barnes & Noble, Apple iBookstore, Kobo Books and Sony. It will also soon be available in paperback from Amazon websites, Barnes and Noble, and other retailers.


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?

Read an excerpt at my website:

http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Heart%20of%20Darkness

Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Heart%20of%20Darkness
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005WK6E58/
All Romance eBooks: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-heartofdarkness-620972-139.html
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/97624
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005WK6E58/
Amazon Kindle France: http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B005WK6E58/



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.

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

Felicity is giving away a Heart of Darkness swag pack that includes signed book cover postcards, bookmarks, trading cards for Heart of Darkness and her other books.

Giveaway is open to international shipping

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