Vamps and angels, mixin' it up a bit

No, I do not have a release every week, but lately it seems like it, doesn't it?  :-)  "Halo Hunter" is out today as an electronic download at eHarlequin.com, Amazon, or any of your favorite online retailers.

I love doing the Nocturne Bites, which are 10k word stories, usually set in the same world as my Nocturnes (in this case it's the Of Angels and Demons series).  These quick little stories are a chance to explore a secondary character featured in a longer book, that I didn't really want to write a full story for.  In ANGEL SLAYER the heroine meets a halo hunter, Michael Donovan.  The guy is mysterious cool, and he hunts for halos for a living.  Angel halos.  Yep, the real deal that fell away from the angel when it decided to Fall to earth.

Funny thing about those divine halos, no one would recognize one as something that belongs to a heavenly being.  Actually, they look like a rinky-dink Hasbro toy, made of dull metal and flexible, and often they can be found in ragged old boxes of junk at garage sales.  People don't know what they are.  They are rumored to give hope to the mortal who holds one.  But the real power is only realized when its original owner (the angel) holds it.  That angel can then wield the halo as a weapon (these fallen angels are the bad guys, remember) or if placed above their head, they can claim their earthbound soul and become human.  Not a lot of Fallen go for the claiming the mortal soul thing.  Why would they when they possess untold power in angelic form?  Though, a few desire their souls so they can live with the mortal women they love.

Michael Donovan collects the halos.  Yet now, he's an urgent reason to find as many as he can.  You see, vampires are using halos to lure the Fallen with hopes they'll mate with the Muses.  It's sneaky and downright nasty, on the vampires' part.  So Michael is going to do everything he can to keep the halos out of vampire hands.

Who's the heroine of the story?  Erm, she's a vampire.     :-)

You can read the prologue and first chapter at my website!  I hope you enjoy the story!
Michele

Of Angels and Demons

Right now you can find my latest in stores, ANGEL SLAYER.  It's the beginning of a trilogy featuring angels, demons, and vampires...oh my!  

When I started doing research for this series I tracked down a copy of the Book of Enoch (written by Enoch, Noah's great grandfather, which is not recognized by Christians and Jews as scripture and ruled apocrypha).  It is the story of Enoch's visit to heaven, guided by an angel, and he was shown around, introduced to the various tiers of angels, and generally, earned a darn good tale to tell.  I've used a lot of that mythology as a basis for this series.

I love that my Fallen ones are not necessarily the good guys.  They, the angels, looked upon mortal women and wanted to Fall so they could basically sex them up and party all night with them.  Of course, when a Fallen gets together with a mortal woman (I call the chosen mortal woman a Muse in my stories) she gets pregnant, and the resulting baby is a Nephilim.  And let me tell you, you don't want to mess with a Nephilim.  They are actually mentioned in the Bible, and nothing good is said about them.  They are giants with carnivorous appetites.  So you can see why it would be a good thing for me to keep the Fallen away from the Muses.

Enter the Sinistari demons, who were forged specifically to slay the nasty Fallen (yep, the demons are, mostly, good guys in this series).  And what about the vampires?  Well, they are without doubt, the real bad guys of the series.  If you've read my stuff, you know my vampires run in tribes, and the Anakim tribe of vampires in this story descended from the Nephilim, and at this point in time, are incredibly weak and can't even walk in sunlight.  They need a Nephilim to strengthen their bloodline.

Do you see where all this is headed?  Rumors of an apocalypse are mentioned.  Yep, it's going to be a lot of fun, filled with action and adventure, a touch of horror, and even some divine revelations.

The next books in the series are FALLEN (Feb '11) and ASHES OF ANGELS (tba).  To read the prologue and first chapter of ANGEL SLAYER stop by my website!  And if we haven't already given away a ton of books this week here at Riding, I'm going to toss in 3 more copies of ANGEL SLAYER to send to 3 lucky winners.

So, it's all about angels, demons, and vampires in the paranormal genre right now.  Do you think vampires have had their heyday?  Think it's time for the angels to rise as the new stars?  Or are you just glad for the awesome variety the genre offers?  Or maybe you're sick of it all and want to see more 'normal' books on the romance shelves?

Michele