Friday, February 14, 2014

Valentine’s Day and Vampires with Charles O'Keefe


Valentine’s Day and Vampires


Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Roxanne asked me to do a post for today as part of my blog tour (she’s excellent by the way, if you’re an author and would like to do a blog tour check her out here). So like lots of people I’m in a relationship (married for almost 10 years now) and we celebrate Valentine’s day. 

Sure I’ve heard the usual things, it’s a commercialized day (what holiday/event isn’t now?), you should be romantic all the time, you should say you love your significant other all the time and so on. 

Come on though, it’s just a fun day where you get to eat chocolate (or whatever you prefer), go out to dinner and hopefully have sex afterwards. 

When you think about it though a lot of the things we do is a little gruesome/weird. We give flowers that we know will die, we give candy in the shape of a heart and then open it up to eat heart shaped candy. We give cards that say something like, “I love you with all my heart” or “my heart belongs only to you”. When you think about it’s all kind of strange, the hearts on candies, boxes and cards doesn’t look anything like a real heart. Furthermore what does it mean? The heart is what keeps us alive sure but it has nothing to do with emotions or love. 

You could say I love you with all my brain but then you’d have to have brain shape candy (and I’d be writing about zombies instead!) so that doesn’t work. In fact the largest organ we have is out skin, it makes up anywhere from six to ten percent of our body weight. Try giving a card with a big picture of skin on it; I don’t think that would go over well (unless perhaps you’re dating a cannibal ;)

The real history of the day (and actual Saint Valentine’s) is so muddled and lost to time that now we’re just celebrating a notion invented by Chaucer in the 18th century (and even that we’ve gotten wrong is he meant May 3rd and not February 14th). Whether it’s an excuse or not it’s fun to celebrate a day wrapped up with the idea of love (though it certainly has less appeal if you’re by yourself) and I enjoy most of it (just don’t wait to get a card the day of, that can be rough!). 



So to finally come to my point, what would a vampire do on Valentine’s day? Since I’m a vampire author (you can check out my series here) I will provide my insight. I think a vampire would take his companion out for dinner but maybe not to a restaurant (there’s plenty of tasty people walking around everywhere after all!), give them a heart shaped vial of blood (always nice for a snack later). Then if they’re in the mood  have sex covered in the blood of their latest victims, what could be more romantic than that?


Have a great valentine’s day everyone, eat chocolates, buy a card and flowers, have a yummy meal and maybe buy a vampire book or two.


And if you're in the mood for more Vampires and Valentines be sure to check out  the Vampire Valentine Issue of Bewitching Book Tours Magazine






The Newfoundland Vampire
Book II: Killer on the Road
Charles O’Keefe

Genre: Horror / Paranormal / Romance / Vampire

Publisher: Penumbra Publishing
Date of Publication: August 31, 2013

ISBN-10: 1938758293
ISBN-13: 978-1938758294
ASIN: B00EWTYM3G

Number of pages: 193
Word Count: 74,020

Cover Artist: Nils Dannemann


Amazon UK    BN

Book Description:

Joseph O’Reily is still adjusting to the lifestyle and the dangers that come with being a new vampire. He and Cassandra recently fought to the death with Cassandra’s estranged husband John Snow, and now Joseph has experienced his first ménage a trios, as only a vampire can. As if all of this was not complicated enough, he and Cassandra have been tasked with hunting down and killing a rogue vampire, Donald Rathmore.

Another of John Snow’s creations, Donald is an evil misogynistic killer in his own right. Donald has no interest in avenging his creator’s death, but killing Cassandra is at the top of his list.

While Donald continues his murderous spree, Joseph and Cassandra always seem to be one step behind him. The chase is further complicated as they encounter other vampires and learn more about the mysterious nature of the Vampire Council and the coming war between good and evil.

Joseph is only now beginning to trust Cassandra, and this trust will be shaken when he discovers she has even more secrets than he imagined. Her idea of justice and morality is at complete odds with his own. Despite all his powers and growing skill, Joseph is tested physically as a vampire and emotionally by Cassandra. This time the answers and challenges may be too much for the young vampire to handle.



The Newfoundland Vampire
Book One
Charles O’Keefe

Genre: Horror/Paranormal/Vampire

Publisher: Penumbra Publishing

ISBN: 978-1935563853
ASIN: B007TRWUCS

Number of pages: 224
Word Count: 86,737


Amazon UK          Chapters

Book Description:

Like every other geek alive, Newfoundland native Joseph O’Reily secretly wants to be a superhero. At thirteen he fantasized about being a vampire, and ten years later he’s still fantasizing – but mostly about a beautiful redheaded woman who has eyes only for him. The one thing different about Joseph’s adult fantasy is that, amazingly, it comes true one night when he goes to a local university pub. Cassandra Snow, literally the woman of his dreams, invites him to her place for an evening of personal pleasure. Of course he’s not going to say no. But when strange things start happening afterward, Joseph quickly learns that not all dreams should come true.

About the Author:

Charles O’Keefe lives in the beautiful province of Newfoundland, Canada, with his wife and two feline ‘children,’ Jude and Esther.

He works in IT support and enjoys many hobbies and activities that include writing, reading, watching fantasy/science-fiction movies and television shows, gaming, poker, walking, Pilates, and of course fantasizing about vampires.

To find out more about Charles, go to Twitter and Facebook or visit his web site. http://www.charlesokeefe.com/









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