Halloween Special with Tony Paul

The Halloween Weekend is not over yet! It is the Day of the Dead today and so Amberkatze's Book Blog is continuing the weekend Halloween Special with a third guest.

Tony Paul's vampire novel Shadow Lord placed third in the erotic paranormal division of the Maryland Romance Writers' annual "Reveal your Inner Vixen" contest. The author is not a big name in the Paranormal genre (yet) but I hope you will all Tony a big welcome!

Enjoy Tony's guest blog and don't forget to enter the contest below!

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Author Tony Paul Guest Blogs

When I decided to specialise in writing vampire stories, I wished to write something different. After all that omniscient but anonymous “they” say vampire stories are becoming passe so one must write something different, something to catch the imagination, n'est-ce pas? With that in mind, I turned my attention from les vampires of the Old World and concentrated on those in the New. It appears almost all cultures have stories of bloodsucking creatures of the night, beings who for one reason or another have offended their various deities and are therefore accursed. So what were the Native Americans' spin on this legend? I decided to concentrate on the natives of Central America, specifically the Maya—and what I found was something of a surprise.

To the Maya, the vampire, wasn't a cursed creature but simply another of their gods, several gods in fact. First and foremost was the God of Death, called by various names of Yum Cimil, Cizin, and Au Puch. He is depicted in the colours of death, his face the pale grey of a corpse, large black and yellow spots representing decomposition on chin, cheeks, and forehead. His jewelry is the haute couture of the supernatural world; around his neck, he wears a collar made of human bones. Yum Cimil's companion in the Underworld is Cama-Zotz, the demon bat, also known as Ikal Ahau, a gigantic bat who eats raw human flesh. There is also a god called Zotzilaha, depicted as a tall man with the wings, head, and fangs of a vampire bat. Zotzilaha supposedly has power over the living and was offered the sacrifice of human life.

Okay, fairly interesting, but also pretty gruesome (tres horrible, if the truth be known!) and I had already decided my story wasn't going to be a horror story per se but also an adventure, with as little bloodshed as possible. No human sacrifices allowed! Therefore, Yum Cimil was more or less out as the hero of my story, but he could still play a major part. I decided he would be the father of my protagonist, Semris, and Semris would be the latest in a long line of demons ruling a long-lost tribe of Maya who had hidden themselves away in the jungles of the Yucatan when their brethren packed up and disappeared, thus becoming one of History's enigmas. The demons' ascent into the human world would be brought about by the eruption of a volcano, which would also cause a drastic reduction in the Mayan population; as these supernaturals reign over their mortal subjects, they find themselves losing their immortality and gradually becoming human. And then, as usual, civilisation raises its ugly head. The Outside World intrudes into their peaceful kingdom when a greedy paleontologist invades the city and steald its most prized possession--the Emperor himself.

So far, so good. The Emperor, this demon on his way to becoming human, is kidnapped and taken far away from his home. He's befriended by one of the expedition's members, a sympathetic Grad student. It's the relationship between these two men--separated by millennia but joined by their unexpected friendship--that makes up the majority of the story. Oh, there's a love story, don't doubt it--as well as a love triangle--but it's the interaction between Tucker and Semris, and their attempts to learn about and accept each other which eventually changes both their lives, gaining one immortality and the other humanity, as well as affecting their loved ones and their people forever.

I think it worked out rather well. I hope my readers will agree.



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Contest Time!

The winner of this contest will get to choose one book either by Julie Kenner, Terri Garey or Stacia Kane! The book you choose must already be available to buy and this is international.

All you have to do to enter this contest is check around Amberkatze's Book Blog and write a comment on one of the many book reviews. Then add a comment here saying which book/post you commented on.

No Comment = No entry!

The usual rules apply!

Earn another entry for each place you link this contest on the net. Make sure you add links here for me to confirm your entries!

You can also earn extra entries by emailing your friends about the contest. Just make sure you send a copy of your email or receipt to me at Amberkatzes_book_blog at gmx dot net.

I can offer more prizes if my Amazon Associates account gets more money!! So please make sure you order at Amazon.com through the links around the site and help keep the contest coming! (although right now the account is empty....)




The contest will stay open until Sunday 8th of November 2009 4pm CET and the winner will be picked by a randomizer. Entrants should check back to see if they have won. I do not hunt down winners and will pick new winners for any prizes not claimed within 7 days.

If you are claiming a prize, have emailed me and have not heard back before the 7 day limit is up then post a comment here on the blog. Your email may get sucked into my spam filter.