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ANGELS AND THRILLS – Under the Limelight Interview ThrillWriting

This week, VAMPIRE HUNTRESS: REBEL ANGELS VOLUME ONE will be released on pre-order and paperback.

I’ve been chatting to FIONA QUINN, USA Bestselling Author who interviewed me at THRILLWRITING.

I have a mage, a rebel angel, and a witch. It’s an epic war between the vampires and the angels.

Fiona asked me: what writing techniques do you use to captivate your readers?

Propulsion, motivation, and immersion. 

  • Propulsion is the driving sense every scene leads onto the next.
  • Motivation is the gold to creating an anti-hero.
  • Immersion the sense you’re living through the same adventure as the characters.

In REBEL ANGELS, Violet is an epic anti-heroine, just as my vampire Light is an anti-hero. So, we discussed why I love anti-heroes!

I’d find myself in plays watching the bad guy and wondering why I was drawn to their reactions and not the standard hero? Then I read Anne Rice as a teenager and wondered why Lestat was so charismatic. It’s because Anne Rice is writing someone who knows they’re a monster but wants to be something more: she’s pulling off the trick of creating sympathy for the monster.

Read the full article here.

REBEL ANGELS coming soon…

 

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3 of the Most Addictive Vampire Series…Ever!

I write addictive vampire series, with snarky angels, epic battles, and secret worlds hidden beneath our own.

REBEL VAMPIRES is out now.

In May, VAMPIRE HUNTRESS, Book One in my new series, REBEL ANGELS is released.

So, here are three of the Most Addictive Vampire Series…Ever!

  1. The Southern Vampire Mysteries (also known as True Blood from the epic TV series): Charlaine Harris. Sookie Stackhouse is a complex and strong female lead who can read minds. Bill? He’s the discriminated against vampire. And that’s only the beginning…
  2. The Night Huntress series: Jeaniene Frost. Half-vampire Cat is captured by Bones, a vampire bounty hunter. Together they search for her father, battle against killers, and become a Spike and Buffy style partnership.
  3. The Vampire Chronicles: Anne Rice. I love this series. As a teenager, it drove me to learn how to write with such dangerous immediacy. Thrilling, and powerful, this series gives the monsters their own voice and makes you love the devil.

What vampire series are you addicted to?

Escape into Blood Life now.

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FANTASY GIVEAWAY – 5 Reasons Game of Thrones Is Addictive

I love Game of Thrones, both the books and the TV show. As a fantasy writer myself, I was keen to sponsor this EPIC Game of Thrones Giveaway with 16 prizes.

Prizes include a Game of Thrones board game, sculpture, bookmark, and the leather bound boxed set.

You can enter here for the chance to win.

So, why is Game of Thrones such an awesome show?

Here are 5 Reasons Game of Thrones Is Addictive:

  1. The world’s immersive. Brilliantly constructed and visually stunning.
  2. The compelling characters. But more than this – there’s no one main character. At the start, you think it’s Ned. Then Danerys, Jon or Tyrion. But there’s no single lead.
  3. Main characters die. A lot. I won’t do spoilers, but it’s shocking. The plot itself is epic, with enough twists to keep you guessing.
  4. No one’s truly good…or bad. I write anti-heroes, so this is why I love Game of Thrones. The morality is grey, which means you never know how someone will act or what secret will be uncovered.
  5. It’s an engrossing story of extremes. Honour and betrayal, revenge and loyalty, cruelty and compassion… As well as the contrast between human politics, love affairs, and murders and fantastical white walkers, dark magic and dragons.

The result? An epic show with a core of humanity.

Why do you find Game of Thrones addictive?

When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground

~ Cersei Lannister

Enter the Giveaway here.

Good Luck!

Rosemary A Johns is the International Bestselling and Award-winning Author of REBEL VAMPIRES. Dive into her addictive fantasy series here today.

Rebel Vampires fantasy book series - Rosemary A Johns

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REMEMBRANCE DAY – Heroes and Writing

Yesterday was Remembrance Sunday. My grandad and great-grandads, like most people’s, fought in the First and Second World Wars.

Looking through their medals as a kid is a memory that’s stuck with me.

BLOOD GODS is my latest novella, which is released in February in the COUNTING STARS box set. Set in the REBEL VAMPIRES world, it was inspired by a poppy. The symbol of remembrance, heroism and sacrifice. It commemorates the war dead.

How do you become a hero? What’s true sacrifice? And what does it mean to be human, even if humans sometimes act like the monsters? 

 

These are all the core ideas that inspire and drive me. I’m excited to tell you more when the box set’s released…

I remember sitting turning over the paper poppy each year and wondering what it meant. Then studying the First World War and seeing those scarlet fields. And at least partly understanding.

When people ask where inspiration comes from for my books, the honest answer is: life. Sometimes, the spark has been there from childhood.

Old medals and paper poppies. Or the heroes still fighting.

 

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5 OF THE BEST VAMPIRE BOOKS FOR HALLOWEEN

 

As Halloween is nearly here – this year I’ll be appearing at the All Hallows Eve Book Party at 5 – 6 p.m. EDT, whilst dressed as a sexy vampire for my own house party – I’m recommending the best dark vampire books.

Vampire fiction is the perfect Halloween reading: just the right dash of fear and thrills.

Here are Five of the Best Vampire Books for Halloween:

5. Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist. Isolation and childhood friendship in this dark fantasy fairy tale. A human boy and a girl vampire battle against their cruel lives together.

4. Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K Hamilton. Anita Blake is a vampire hunter and a necromancer, in a fantasy world where vampires and werewolves are there to be assassinated or loved.

3. Blood Shackles by Rosemary A Johns. A dark fantasy in which a vampire is hunted by humans, and bought by his enemy’s daughter. In this world, the vampires are the slaves and the humans are the masters.

2. Anno Dracula by Kim Newman. A fantasy alternative universe, in which the vampires conquered England and now hold the power. Uses real historical characters, mixed in with the fictional.

1.Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. Narrated by a telepathic waitress in Louisiana in a time when vampires are – supposedly – living peacefully with humans after the invention of the synthetic ‘Tru Blood’.

What’s your favourite vampire book?

Happy Halloween reading!

Escape into Blood Life in the spellbinding REBEL VAMPIRES series…

 

 

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Announcing New Space Opera Anthology – 42 and Beyond

Fantasy Rebel announces that award-winning author Rosemary A Johns (author of the #1 Amazon bestselling series REBEL VAMPIRES) will be contributing a story to the EPIC new space opera anthology 42 AND BEYOND.

Space operas are adventure science-fiction stories set in space. Expect battles, romance and danger.

Coming 2018…

 

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BLOOD SHACKLES RECEIVES HONORABLE MENTION – Readers’ Favorite Book Awards, 2017

BLOOD SHACKLES - REBEL VAMPIRESToday I discovered that the second book in the REBEL VAMPIRES series, BLOOD SHACKLES, has received HONORABLE MENTION in the 2017 Readers’ Favorite International Book Awards.

This is especially important to me because it’s a book about FREEDOM, which took the idea of slavery and twisted expectations. Here the vampires are the slaves, the humans the masters. The woman is the mistress, rather than the man.

Slavery isn’t an easy topic to discuss, and taking our perspectives of vampires and turning it into a metaphor. The First Lifers think they’re superior and treat the Blood Lifers like they’re objects. – Readers’ Favorite 5*

Hunted by humans, Light’s bought by his enemy’s daughter.

Light’s caught between breaking under the cruel training, or battling to hold onto the rebel inside. If he can remember the vampire he once was, he can fight to uncover the conspiracy behind the slave ring and free his family.

But to do this, he must face his worst terrors…

Blood Shackles is tragic, triumphant, addictive, and somehow hopeful. I was so engrossed in Light’s story that I didn’t notice my Kindle was dying.

The Gold Award winner was Eric. J. Gates’ OUTSOURCED. A thriller that’s a mix of quantum mechanics and the supernatural.

BLOOD SHACKLES is Light’s Slave Journal. It’s also his journey of discovery. When a man’s broken from predator to prey, how do you find yourself again? How can save your family and the world, if you can’t save yourself?

Johns succeeded in creating a world, characters, and a story that pulled me in until I had to finish reading it. I had to know what was going to happen to Light, Hartford, Donovan, and Grayse. This is a novel everyone should read, along with Blood Dragons.

Learn more here.

 

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END OF SUMMER 0.99 SALE AND BOOK REVIEW – ‘A Paranormal Version of The Notebook’

Blood Dragons - Rosemary A Johns

As we come to the end of summer – a wet but humid one where I live – BLOOD DRAGONS is on 0.99 sale to celebrate before the return to school rush.

This week BLOOD DRAGONS was reviewed by the prestigious YA BOOK CENTRAL.

Totally pulls off different. The reader falls in love with Light. A paranormal version of The Notebook. You will feel a bit heartbroken throughout, you will have emotional stakes in the action scenes, and you will feel uplifted by the end.

Like novels, every review, newspaper, magazine or blog has its own review style.

Light is an edgy and outspoken vampire with a wry sense of humor.

Blood Dragons Rosemary A Johns

YA Book Central grades in a range of categories (which it then discusses), including character, plot and world building. BLOOD DRAGONS scored 5* in each category.

There are many intricacies in the paranormal world-building; Vampire powers, history, culture, and biochemistry.

Blood Dragons - Rebel Vampires series by Rosemary A Johns

What I love about the review, however, is the in depth way it discusses the book: insightful and passionate. There’s enough mystery and debate for a book club to run with – or to excite a reader without giving away spoilers.

This is not your typical paranormal story.

Dive into Blood Life for only 0.99 until September 1st HERE. 

rebel vampires vampire series - Blood Dragons

 

 

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ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY – Light’s Birthday!

‘What’s this, then?’ Light swaggers to the table, swiping his finger through the cream.

I smile. ‘It’s your birthday cake. Do you like the fangs?’

Light raises his eyebrow, as he slowly sucks the cream from his finger. ‘Couldn’t find any with cute vampires and bat wings?’

‘That’s sarcasm, right?’ I push him down into a chair.

‘Oi, mind the leathers.’ Light tilts his nut. ‘What’s all this in aid of then, luv?’

‘One year ago Blood Dragons was published. Rebel Vampires has been all around the world for a year: Blood Shackles and Blood Renegades too. Books, rock anthems, Rebel Gear clothes and accessories, and jewelry… It’s been a whirlwind.’

‘Whirlwind? We’re celebrating my election to Blood Life? Near death? Enslavement? Trial as a traitor..?’

‘Love. Heroic battles. Rebel Age!’

‘Enough said,’ Light grins, his fangs shooting out, as he bounces up, ‘let’s kick off this party. Where’s the Guinness?’

I grab a cold bottle of Guinness from underneath the table and pass it to Light; his eyes gleam. ‘Happy birthday, Light!’

~ Rosemary

 

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