Guest post and contest with Felicity Heaton

Today we are all being treated to an inside look at how indie author Felicity Heaton has created her own unique vampires. She's also giving away some really cool signed book swag including: cover postcards, bookmarks and trading cards for Heart of Darkness and other books.This contest is open internationally!!! I will draw a winner next week. Please include an email if one isn't in your profile. So leave a comment for your chance to win!

Firstly, I would like to say a huge thanks for having me here as part of the Heart of Darkness leg of my
Paranormal Pandemonium 2011 Blog Tour.

Before I start talking more about the vampire species in the book, I’ll introduce myself. I’m a paranormal
romance author and I’ve been writing since 2005, and turned indie in 2006. In that time I have written
over forty stories under the names Felicity Heaton and F E Heaton. Most of my stories are released
under my full name, but I write the Vampires Realm series as F E Heaton. My paranormal romances
are usually focused on vampires and werewolves, but I do also write other shape-shifters like black
panthers, and also demons and witches, and a whole bunch of sexy angels.

Whenever I write vampires, I like to change a few things about them to make them unique. I prefer to
write vampires that stand apart from other vampires and are a little different. All of my vampires are
very dark and deadly, drinking blood fresh from the vein and generally treating humans as an inferior
species that they care little about except for when they’re hungry. Of course, there’s always room for
those vampires to have a change of opinion by falling for a human, but that’s a different story.

When I was creating the world of Heart of Darkness, I spent a lot of time thinking about the vampires.
The vampires in the world continue their species through procreation, live in smaller family units with
their bloodlines, are unknown to us, and breathe and have heartbeats. Although, their hearts do beat
at a much slower pace than ours, which is why they age more slowly than we do. During their first two
decades they age at a rate the same as a human. Once mature, they age far slower, so by the time they
look thirty-five to our eyes, they are really around eight hundred years old. They live exclusively on
blood and can’t go out into direct sunlight, can be killed by all the usual methods and can be poisoned
by certain toxins and also silver. They can touch silver but when it comes into contact with a cut it harms
them. They can’t turn humans. Their bite only brings death. They are also a completely separate species
to us.

Millennia ago, the vampires were little more than demons, beasts who were slaves to their bloodlust
and driven by instinct, mindless and violent. Animals. Over the passing centuries, they found a way to
evolve into something more human by limiting their kills. The vampire bloodline that discovered this
method of achieving humanity and raising themselves up from beasts to powerful creatures became the
royal family. The Nemov bloodline.

Vampires in the world of Heart of Darkness now live in a modern age where each individual in a
bloodline need only kill once or twice a year to provide blood for the entire family, thus not endangering
their precarious humanity. The Nemov line preaches pacifism, leading by example, warning not to fall
prey to their baser instincts that crave killing and feasting on the blood of their victims.

What would happen to a vampire if they ignored the rules? That’s the question posed in Heart of
Darkness.

Aleksandr Nemov, the hero and former heir prince of vampire society, has been tracking and killing
vampire hunters for four centuries. He’s on a mission to avenge his murdered younger sister by wiping
out her killer’s progeny and hunting his line to extinction. Four hundred years of killing has taken its
toll on him. Little by little his humanity has faded and his soul has become corrupted, weak against the
black abyss that lives in the hearts of all vampires—the beast within. That darkness has grown stronger

with each kill, destroying him from the inside out, extinguishing his emotions and allowing his darker
instincts to seize control at times. The extent of the damage is evident in his eyes when he reveals his
true appearance. Normally vampires have red eyes, clear of imperfections. Aleksandr’s are speared with
black, leaving only a small amount of crimson behind. In short, he is devolving, becoming the beast that
vampires once were.

If Aleksandr turns into a beast, what would vampire society do to protect itself?

They would hunt him down and slaughter him, as they do all vampires who devolve. Aleksandr knows
that but he also knows that his battle against the darkness within him is one he is slowly losing.

Is there a way to come back from the darkness?

Some vampires believe that a feral demonic vampire can come back given time away from killing, just as
their ancestors did. Others believe there is no return if a vampire succumbs completely to the darkness.
The easiest method of saving yourself is to recognise the corruption in your soul and find a way to tame
the dark need to hunt and kill, slowly regaining your humanity.

That isn’t a choice that Aleksandr has. He’s so close to the edge that the next kill could push him over
it and there is one final vampire hunter he must face before his vendetta is over. Torn between fear of
becoming a beast and his deep need to avenge his sister at any cost, it is obvious which he will choose.
The only thing that stops him from racing to his death is a female vampire guard that he meets. Elise has
a mesmerising effect on Aleksandr, one that lures him into switching his hunt to one for her while he
awaits the vampire hunter in Prague. When he’s struggling against the darkness, just a glance into her
eyes can chase the shadows back and bring light into his heart. Through Elise, Aleksandr discovers a new
method of restoring some of his humanity—love.

But the final question is whether that love will be powerful enough to stop his descent into the madness
of bloodlust when his faces the final hunter and the end of his mission?

Well, you’ll have to venture into the world of Heart of Darkness to seek the answer to that question.

I hope you all enjoyed this introduction to the breed of vampires in Heart of Darkness. If you would like
to find out more about the book, please read on for the blurb and where the book is available.

Heart of Darkness is currently available in e-book from my website, Amazon Kindle Stores, Apple
iBookstores, Barnes and Noble Nook Store, Sony Reader Store, All Romance eBooks, and Smashwords. It
will soon be available from Kobo Books. It is also available in paperback at amazon.com and will soon be
available at other Amazon stores worldwide and Barnes & Noble.

I have a limited time fantastic offer on Heart of Darkness. If you purchase the book before December
10th and contact me, I’ll send you free Heart of Darkness romance trading cards. You can find out all
about it at my blog: http://www.indieparanormalromancebooks.com/2011/11/get-your-hands-on- heart-of-darkness.html

Heart of Darkness
A vampire prince on a four hundred year old mission to avenge his murdered sister...

Aleksandr Nemov won’t stop until the last of the vampire hunter’s progeny is wiped from the Earth.
Each kill has stolen a piece of his humanity, pushing him towards the black abyss all vampires hold
within their hearts. Now he is teetering on the edge, close to devolving into a beast, and time is running
out as he tracks the last hunter to Prague. There he finds a beautiful woman who could be his one
chance for salvation, but is it already too late for him?

A vampire guard who will do whatever it takes to protect those she loves...

Elise is dedicated to her duty. It’s the only thing she has left. All that changes when she meets Aleksandr
in Prague and her master grants him permission to stay at her bloodline’s mansion. She knows all about
Aleksandr but none of it prepares her for how she feels when the legendary prince’s hunt becomes
one for her heart. Elise battles him with all of her strength but can she stop herself from falling for the
handsome hunter? When he reveals the depth of the corruption in his soul, will she have the strength to
face the pain in her past and do whatever it takes to save him?

Read an excerpt at my website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php? title=Heart%20of%20Darkness

Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1466452897/

Biography:
Felicity Heaton is a romance author writing as both Felicity Heaton and F E Heaton. She is passionate
about penning paranormal tales full of vampires, witches, werewolves, angels and shape-shifters,
and has been interested in all things preternatural and fantastical since she was just a child. Her other
passion is science-fiction and she likes nothing more than to immerse herself in a whole new universe
and the amazing species therein. She used to while away days at school and college dreaming of
vampires, werewolves and witches, or being lost in space, and used to while away evenings watching
movies about them or reading gothic horror stories, science-fiction and romances.

Having tried her hand at various romance genres, it was only natural for her to turn her focus back to
the paranormal, fantasy and science-fiction worlds she enjoys so much. She loves to write seductive,
sexy and strong vampires, werewolves, witches, angels and alien species. The worlds she often dreams
up for them are vicious, dark and dangerous, reflecting aspects of the heroines and heroes, but her characters also love deeply, laugh, cry and feel every emotion as keenly as anyone does. She makes no excuses for the darkness surrounding them, especially the paranormal creatures, and says that this is their world. She’s just honoured to write down their adventures.

If you want to know more about me, or want to get in touch, you can find me at the following places:
My website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk
My blog: http://www.indieparanormalromancebooks.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/feheaton
Twitter: http://twitter.com/felicityheaton
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/felicityheaton