Poison Blood, Book 1: Revelation

I do like to surprise people, and sometimes the best way to do that is to sneak up on them.  When they least expect it.  Like publishing my first paranormal romance novel this month – Poison Blood, Book 1: Revelation.  It was never a secret that I was hoping to release the first instalment of the Poison Blood series by the end of this year, but I brought forward the release date because I really want to know what people think about it.  Especially since my debut novel Chasing Pavements is a contemporary romance and therefore at the other end of the reading spectrum.

The Poison Blood series revolves around Ellie, a newborn vampire who is clearly not what she seems.  The first few sentences she said to me actually form the beginning of the blurb of Book 1:

"I don't know what blood tastes like to a human.  I'd never even licked a tiny drop of it from a pricked finger, let alone suck on a bleeding cut.  The shedding of blood, my own, or anyone else's, always made me scream or panic in fear and revulsion.  
Now it's my only food source."

Elisia Dalton, more commonly known as Ellie, is not a typical teenaged vampire.  She still has her humanity and conscience.  Her human memories and growing pains.  

And the same distaste for blood.

Still reeling from the secrets she uncovered before she was turned into a vampire by the mysterious immortal Christian, Ellie is also finding it hard to come to terms with what she has become.  And the revelations keep coming.

Book 1 of the Poison Blood series reveals why Ellie is not like others of her kind.

So why follow-up Chasing Pavements with a vampire romance?  Well, why not?  If we enjoy reading an eclectic mix of books, I see no harm in exploring different genres when we write, provided we apply the same level of dedication, effort and enthusiasm for each story.  As authors, we should do that for every book we write.

Growing up, my favourite genre to read was paranormal/fantasy and I was a huge fan of TV shows such as Charmed and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Unfortunately, like so many others I knew, I stopped reading when I was at college and Uni.  Upon rediscovering my love for books, I found myself reading contemporary fiction, crime, comedy/satire; the only fantasy novels I’d read in recent years were the Twilight and Harry Potter books.  These I loved so much that I wanted to write for this genre, particularly about vampires.

I considered the idea of writing a series of short stories about vampires living on the London Underground.  These characters wouldn’t necessarily be friends or hang out together, but have their own tale to tell.  One of the characters I thought up was Ellie.  However, I didn’t start writing anything until Ellie started talking me through her life one Sunday morning.  This was a few days after I listened to the band Linkin Park for the first time in years so I think it was their songs that triggered the instinct to write Ellie’s story.  Music has that effect on me!

Quickly, it became clear that Ellie’s story wasn’t as short and sweet as I initially planned.  She had a lot more potential than I expected, which was great, though it meant I had to put my Vampires on the Underground collection on the backburner.  It also became apparent that Ellie’s story lent itself well to a book series, rather than one big book, and so it was I began my first paranormal romance series.

Poison Blood, Book 1: Revelation is currently free to download from Smashwords for most e-book reading devices, including Kindle, Nook, Kobo and iPad/iPhone/iPod.  The book is also free at Apple iBookstore (US) and Apple iBookstore (UK), as well as Diesel.  I hope it goes down well and look forward to hearing your thoughts.