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Beneath Blackthorn #4

Welcome to my series of posts aimed at avid fans of Blackthorn who want a little extra insight.

With the existence of vampires being recorded as far back at the 6th century BC, what is known about them varies from country to country and culture to culture. Most of what we now understand stems from 18th century Eastern Europe, the influences of Christianity and the success of vampire literature and films of the 19th and 20th century. There is no right and wrong when it comes to what vampires can and can’t do. There is just one rule – they survive by feeding on the blood of the living.

Look into the mythology of vampires and you will find reams and reams of information to support or dispute various claims regarding vampiric abilities. Throw the influences of literature and films into the mix and it all becomes incredibly complex. As a writer of fantasy, I can be selective about which aspects of mythology I want to apply. I can also create my own rules. What my vampires can and can’t do is as much about characterisation and plot as fitting in logically into the Blackthorn world I’ve created.

So, let’s start with…

WHAT BLACKTHORN VAMPIRES CAN’T DO.

They can’t live forever.

In case you missed it in the last post, Blackthorn vampires are not immortal. They are not the result of some evil spirit animating their undead body. They haven’t sold their soul in return for eternal life. They are a species in their own right.

They can’t shape-shift or change their features.

Blackthorn vampires can’t morph into another creature any more than their human counterparts can. They don’t change their features either. Eyes suddenly turning black or red, facial features becoming disfigured, or ears and nails elongating when they are harmed, angry or hungry is one way to represent the demon ‘outing’ during moments of stress. It gets used a lot on TV shows and films not only for that reason, but because visually it’s more interesting and generates more scares. With nothing to ‘out’ from my vampires, they stay looking the same aside from a few subtle differences. The ‘fangs’ I’ll be dealing with in another post.

They can’t be warded off by holy symbols.

Being warded off by holy symbols, primarily crosses or holy water, was established by the Christian Church to support their theory of the evilness of vampires. Again, mine don’t have any demonic association, hence no recoiling.

They can’t display superhuman abilities.

If Blackthorn vampires were a breed of supercreatures, then the tension in my stories wouldn’t exist. Introduce a few thousand super-vamps globally and it wouldn’t take too long for them to take over the world. They’re definitely more physically adept than us (more on that in Friday’s post), but not to the extent they can leap entire buildings, fly, knock through walls or bend steel. What would be the point of front doors, let alone border control?

They can’t read minds.

Vampires have been associated with hypnotic stares or an ability to compel as a way of controlling their victims. How sexy it is for a vampire to control another into doing what they want – especially in a romantic relationship – is down to personal preference. Personally, I think it’s much more powerful if an individual’s actions are generated out of free choice. What’s wrong with old-fashioned charm and a little bit of clever psychology? Hence no siring in Blackthorn! And if my vampires are psychic, where’s the tension? Most conflict in relationships arises out of trying to guess each other’s feelings, motivations or perspectives. It’s no fun if one side has all the answers.

They can’t develop disease, get drunk or be affected by smoking.

My vampires aren’t infallible but they can tolerant things our more vulnerable human bodies can’t. They can drink copious amounts of alcohol and smoke without any health or side effects because, basically, their resilience and self-healing abilities are more proficient. It’s one of the reasons the Global Council think it’s acceptable to leave vampires to cope in the pollution-riddled Blackthorn (whilst making the most of a few experiments here and there…).

However…

They can’t tolerate silver, garlic or hemlock.

A vampire’s allergy to silver is hugely debated. Some say it was borrowed from lycan lore. Some say silver is a repellant because of its holy connotations – one legend claiming that vampires originated with Judas Iscariot and that silver was cursed when he betrayed Jesus with 30 pieces of it. Others say it’s down to the mysticism surrounding silver’s lunar associations. According to Greek mythology, Goddess Artemis had cursed the first vampire on earth that whenever it touched silver, the skin burned. It also has a paralyzing effect. Whichever, silver upsets my vampires’ internal balance. And it hurts. They also hate hemlock. Hemlock is a genuine poisonous herb that causes paralysis (it was allegedly used to kill Socrates the philosopher) – hence why Caitlin laces her gun with it in Blood Shadows. Blackthorn vampires are allergic to garlic because the allicin compound it contains thins their blood to the extent of making them bleed internally and externally. It also gives them symptoms of low blood pressure. Very unpleasant.

They can’t turn you.

As Kane said in his interview on GraveTells: “…we sure as hell don’t turn you as your religious leaders would like you to believe, anymore than drinking cow’s blood would have you grow hooves and chew the cud.” They can’t turn people because they don’t carry a virus and, as stated at the beginning of the post, are not part of a transmittable evil lineage. Once a vampire, always a vampire. Once human, always a human.

I’ll be back on Friday with what Blackthorn vampires can do.

Beneath Blackthorn #3

Welcome to my series of posts aimed at avid fans of Blackthorn who want a little extra insight.

The Third Species and their Shadows

For thousands of years, even before the term ‘vampire’ was known, blood-consuming supernatural beings have appeared in every culture around the world. Apart from rare occasions when they’ve been constituted as deities, they have almost always been associated with evil origins. This was further enforced by the introduction of Christian ideologies, with vampires not only deemed as a risk to our physical self but our spiritual self too.

The most popular belief is that vampires were once human before being transformed into the undead. Whether reanimated by an evil spirit upon death or willingly having sacrificed their soul in place of immortality, whether bitten by a vampire or having consumed the blood of one, in each circumstance the human’s soul is lost and their links with the afterlife subsequently severed.

Those beliefs don’t apply in Blackthorn. Blackthorn vampires aren’t immortal. They’re not humans reanimated or contaminated and they’re most certainly not the undead because Blackthorn vampires were never human at all. They didn’t swap their souls for immortality because they never had a soul to swap. Instead, vampires and other third species (e.g. lycans) have ‘shadows’ in place of souls. They are born that way and are subsequently a species in their own right.

This doesn’t mean they’re exempt from the judgement of human ideals, concepts and beliefs though. Blackthorn is based in an alternative reality but the humans that oversee it are still governed by the same historical and religious influences as us, right up to the point the third species outed themselves.

And it is the human-orientated Global Council (responsible for the political and social set-up since the third species came out into the open) that use evidence of this absence of a soul, and the presence of a shadow in its place, to define the third species.

The Global Council reinforces the theory that the soul is a pliable facet responsive to redemption, unique to the human condition and tightly associated with the afterlife. Humans are consequently defined as the ‘first’ species in the hierarchy of morality because, with the most to lose, they have profound reasons to govern their actions.

Any species whose actions do not need to be restrained by conscience, that are not subject to judgement and who, by the soul’s very absence, are excluded from redemption, are subsequently a lesser species morally. Until they prove otherwise, those with shadows instead of souls are hence categorized as the ‘third species’.

With this theory behind the Global Council’s propaganda, reinforced by the physical risks the third species pose because of their predatory instincts, the decisions to ‘cage’ the third species is upheld.

But do the Global Council really believe in the divisive connotations it enforces, or is it just another excuse to retain the upper hand? Is the melting pot it has created within Blackthorn intentionally so? And is the very ‘darkness’ implied by the existence of shadows within the third species a darkness at all?

I’ll be back with more vampire mythology next week, when I’ll be sharing some more traditional beliefs and the origins behind them – and how I’ve applied (or not applied) these to Blackthorn vampires.

Blood Roses For You!

Blood Roses, the second book in my Blackthorn series, isn’t available yet but I’m excited to tell you the first three chapters are now live! So, if you’re ready for your next Blackthorn instalment, grab yourself a drink, maybe some solitude and click here.

You’ll be meeting Caleb and Leila – the next couple whose romance is going to be integral to the future of Blackthorn. Vampires and serryns are a deadly mix at the best of times but, as I peel away Caleb and Leila’s layers through the story, you’ll start to see just how much of a lethal combination these two are.

But enough from me – as always, I love to know what you think. Please do get in touch if you have any comments to share.

I’ll be back here later with my third ‘Beneath Blackthorn’ post.

Have wonderful weekend!

Blood Roses Press Release

I’m super-excited to reveal the press release for Blood Roses, book two in my Blackthorn paranormal romance series! HUGE thanks to the blogs that reviewed book one, Blood Shadows, and for providing such fantastic quotes.

 

Blood Roses by Lindsay J Pryor Press Release

 

And if you’d like a taste of what’s to come, the first 3 chapters of Blood Roses will be available for you to read HERE on Friday! Darker, more intense and introducing a vampire with an attitude to rival Kane’s, I’m hoping Blood Roses will be another enjoyable step into Blackthorn for you.

 

Blood Roses FULL Cover Reveal

Last Wednesday was the cover reveal for my upcoming release, the second book in the Blackthorn series, Blood Roses. I was thrilled with how much you loved it and, thanks to your sharing and support, it got almost 2,500 views on Facebook alone. Thank you to EVERYONE who made that happen.

I promised you a full cover reveal was coming soon and here it is! For those who will be buying the ebook only, it’s a great way to get a sneaky peek at what the POD version will look like.

BLOOD ROSES full cover final

I avoided commenting too much last week, but needless to say I’m overjoyed with what the super-talented Mr Henry Steadman triumphed with again. I think he has captured the mood of the book perfectly – not least how much darker it’s going to be. Leila is so close to the images I provided on my Pinterest board that it’s uncanny. I think the cover is unique enough to make it stand out as a separate story from Blood Shadows, whilst maintaining the common threads that identify it as part of the Blackthorn series. As you would have guessed, I can’t wait to add this to the collection on my study wall!

And there’s more to come…

Although there are still a few weeks before the 26th April, there are plenty more teasers on the way including the new-look Bites that you were a part of selecting. I’m also going to be writing weekly blog posts in the lead up to the release to share more insight into why and how I created the world of Blackthorn. Hopefully they’ll make interesting reading for avid Blackthorn fans or anyone interested in some of the origins of vampire mythology as we know it today. But if you have any questions of your own, always feel free to get in touch!

xxx

Blood Roses cover reveal

We’re very excited to finally reveal the Blood Roses cover… we hope you like!  We’d love it if you could help us share the cover via Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and any other way you can think of – your help is much appreciated.

And the release date for Blood Roses?  26th April 2013…

The Blood Roses cover was designed and photographed (with three separate photoshoots!) by the uber-talented cover supremo Henry Steadman.

BLOOD-ROSES-book-cover-design-Blackthorn-book-2

Want a taste of what’s to come in Blood Roses?  Here’s a short introduction…

“She was supposed to kill vampires, not save them.  Those were the rules.  That was the lore.”

A rare and powerful witch whose blood is lethal to vampires, Leila has always viewed her serryn abilities as a curse.  After seeing her mother slaughtered as a child, Leila longs for a safe, quiet life.

That wish is shattered by Caleb Dehain – a vampire with a dark past and a darker heart.  The most feared serryn hunter of his generation, Caleb now needs the help of one of the witches he despises to save his dying brother.

A serryn who has no reason to help him.  Except that he has her sister.

Caleb and Leila are each other’s worst nightmare – but the slow-burning spark of attraction between them is undeniable.  Will Leila’s blood be his damnation?  Or could her kiss be his salvation?

 

 

Blood Roses Cover Update!

How excited am I? If you missed me mention it on Facebook and Twitter, TOMORROW is the day you’ll get to see the cover reveal for Blood Roses – the second book in my Blackthorn paranormal romance series. Not just that, but you’ll ALSO find out the date for its release in April!

The cover will be revealed here as well on some fantastic blogs stepping in to help spread the word. So a massive thanks from me to Fiction Vixen, GraveTells and Paranormal Book Club for their support. There could be a couple more too!

To give you a few teasers, yes, it has been designed by the superb Henry Steadman, the same cover designer who did Blood Shadows and, yet again, I’m absolutely thrilled with the result. I’ve already warned you that the second book is darker – and expect to see that reflected in the cover. It’s perfect for the story. No, you won’t get to meet Caleb yet, but you will. Soon.

I can’t wait to find out what you think!

xxx

Kane Malloy’s on GraveTells!

It’s up! Not long ago, I let you know that my anti-hero of Blood Shadows, Kane Malloy, was going to be interviewed on the fab paranormal website, GraveTells. Rather than me ask him questions, I opened up them up to you – and you didn’t let me down (thank you!).

So if you’d like to see what the elusive vampire had to say for himself, you can head on over to GraveTells now. He was actually rather cooperative and revealing for a change – well, revealing for Kane at least! I think we caught him on a good day, either that or he’s developing a soft spot for his admirers. 😉

You can also check out GraveTells’ amazing review of Blood Shadows itself: “….intense and dark, unlike any other vampire novel I’ve ever read…Blood Shadows honestly blew me away….a GraveTells Must Read!” Was I thrilled? You betcha!

 

Screen Capture

 

And for those awaiting news on Blood Roses, I’ll hopefully have something to tell you about the cover reveal shortly. If you follow me on Facebook, you’ll know my line-edits arrived a couple of days ago so I’m currently reviewing those and then Blood Roses will be with the copy-editor. The weeks are ticking away – not long now!

xxx

The Winning Bite!

Last month, I was very excited to reveal the new style ‘Blackthorn Bites’ for Blood Shadows. I was even more thrilled with your response!

As you know, Bookouture and I had a purpose. Alongside our favourites from the series launch, we put these new Bites on their own Pinterest board and asked you to vote on your favourites. The ones with the most votes would help decide the Bites direction for the next book in the Blackthorn series, Blood Roses.

Huge thanks to everyone who participated by visiting Pinterest to vote, comment and repin your favourites, as well as all your likes on Facebook.

We had a clear winner and I’m super-pleased with the result…

Blood Shadows Vampire Paranormal Romance book

Simple yet striking with the background words taken directly from your reviews to date, this was undoubtedly one of my favourites too. Needless to say, I cannot wait to see what Bookouture come up with based on this!

And as it’s only two months until the release of Blood Roses, keep your eyes open for a few teasers coming very soon. 😉

xxx

Blood Roses – It’s Getting Darker

I promised yesterday that I’d give a few hints of what’s to come in Blood Roses. So for those of you who are struggling in anticipation, here are five things you can expect that might tide you over for now…

Expect new characters…

Blood Shadows was Kane and Caitlin’s story. Blood Roses is not a continuation of that, though they do get a mention. Don’t worry – they will be back! But Blood Roses is Caleb and Leila’s story. Feel free to check on the ‘Books’ tab on this site if you’d like to know more about what lies ahead for them.

Expect to see more of Blackthorn…

Each book in the series will reveal more about Blackthorn. In Blood Roses, you’ll learn more of what life is like in the district as well as aspects of how it is run and controlled. You’ll visit parts you haven’t been before.

Expect more revelations about the prophecies…

The prophecies were mentioned in Blood Shadows but not elaborated upon. That’s because it’s Caleb and Leila’s role to reveal much, much more. Expect to come away with a much clearer idea of what’s in store.

Expect a few more pieces to start to fit together…

One thing you’ll come to see in the Blackthorn series is how the characters’ stories are going to intertwine. For those who remember Blood Roses from New Voices, you might have already started to piece a couple of things together at the end of Blood Shadows. You certainly would have picked up on a familiar name fleetingly mentioned. Yes, expect to meet one rather significant member of the vampires’ Higher Order.

Expect it to be darker…

I have been told I skirted close to the edge at times with Kane, well expect more of the same with Caleb – and more often. The intentions are darker, the sexiness is darker and so is the mood. I was once told Caleb was irredeemable. None of my vampire heroes are irredeemable – I just like a challenge. But yes, he is incredibly bad… this is Blackthorn, after all.

I’ll be back with more hints in due course!

xxx