Silver Blood now available in hardcover and on Kindle

The seventh Vance Silver book is now available on Amazon. This one took longer to get out than many of my books. I sat on the finished book for several months before sending it to my editor. It has some world-changing moments.

I pulled in a couple characters from other books for a few scenes and because I love the Angel and Malak characters enough that I couldn’t let them exist only in a stand alone novel. These characters deserve their own book but I don’t know how to write from their unique perceptions.

Anyone looking for a good binge read should certainly pick up the Vance Silver series. Book Seven is probably not the last book, even if the ending seems more final than others. To me, Book 5: Bound Blood Eternal was going to be the last book, but then I had more stories to tell about Vance, so the series is on-going.

Each book is a stand-alone story. This isn’t one story over several books like a trilogy. The series is seven stories featuring the same characters. Of course there is some character growth through the series, but each book won’t leave you wondering how the plot will wrap up.

I know there are still some dangling minor character sub-plots across the series, but I think of these as more cameos and easter-eggs than vital to the stories I am telling. I wrap those up when the time is right to wrap those up. The Fiona Malady storylines are an example of this.

Go, get a copy, and enjoy the lastest entry in the Vance Silver, Vampire, Hunter, Series.

movie review: Violent Night

https://www.violentnightmovie.com/

I am reviewing this per it’s genre, gratuitous violent comedy. This movie contains violence and gore.

“It’s Christmas Magic, I don’t fully understand it.” and variations of that quote are spoken often by David Harbour’s Santa Claus. It’s a remarkable summary of the movie.

First off, the characters are not terribly complex. We get the estranged couple with their young daughter, the motley crew of mercenaries, the overbearing billionaire grandmother who requires her children to dote and pander, and the wannabe social media persona in the form of the other grandkid. The only characters that really matter are Santa Claus, the young daughter and her parents and the grandmother.

The bad guys led by John Leguizamo’s Scrooge have the typical assortment of character tropes in the hacker girl, the knives woman, the gentleman crook, the psycho and the turncoat. Add in an indeterminate number of goons and we have a target rich environment for our action hero: Santa.

The movie starts with a sad, but slightly uplifting moment quickly dashed by bit of comic regurgitation just to remind us what kind of movie we’re watching. Then we spend some time getting to know the characters. Everything is well foreshadowed.

Aside from the expected battles between Santa and the bad guys, we get a few moments of Home-Alonesque booby-trap antics. The daughter had watched Home Alone the day of the events of the movie. The main difference between our protagonist and Kevin’s devices are the sprays and puddles of blood. Nothing out-of-the ordinary for the genre and just the right amount of gratuitous viscera.

There is a scene with plenty of amusingly presented violence that features far more bad guys getting their asses handed to them than we knew were present. I think we see 15 bad guys prior to the most violent streak in the movie, but there are probably 30-40 getting more comeuppance than a lump of coal from Santa in that one particular scene.

The movie has enough heart to make it an instant Christmas Classic. There, I said it. The movie had my eyes welling up multiple times.

The humorous violence and gore will probably keep it off the Hallmark Channel. The humor is well timed and well entwined with the violence.

They make enough use of the Santa magic to separate this film from any random action hero Christmas movie. The Christmas catch phrases were almost all included in the trailer, but worth seeing in context.

In order, I would say this is a Christmas Movie, a funny move, and a violent movie. Funny comes ahead of violence because the violence is rarely present without the humor but there are plenty of other humorous moments that don’t include violence.

Overall, five out of five stars. If you can stomach a few moments of gore and a graphic moment of finger torture, I highly recommend this movie this Christmas and every Christmas.

Lite Nite Bites: San Francisco now in print and on Amazon Kindle.

Though still on Vella, the story is complete so it made sense to take the episodic story and publish it as a novel . Adults only, like the other book in the Lite Nite Bites series, LNB: SF is vamperotica.

The cover features Kayleigh, one of the non-vampire characters who works as a bartender at Unicorn Flati, a late night basement club in San Francisco. There, she crosses paths with several of the cities vampires.

This is not a book for children or people who think love should only be between people of opposite binary genders.

New Story on Kindle Vella

Lite Nite Bites: San Francisco is now available on Kindle Vella.

Vampiric lust. Blood and Sex. The vampires of San Francisco are taking sides in a slow coup. A group of vampires with old-school values are trying to usurp the power of the beautiful and potent Queen Honey. Seditious seductions, wanton hunts for sustenance and pleasure, and a lust elemental keep the blood flowing to all the right places. Twenty Chapters told through ten point-of-view characters detail a plot of intrigue and moments of passion.

It’s a bad practice to release adult-oriented material under the same pen name as my non-adult-oriented stories. It’s probably even worse that these erotic stories take place in the same universe as The Blooddaughter Trilogy and the Vance Silver series. And there are crossover characters. As a rule, I don’t use main characters* from my non-erotica in my erotica.

I don’t really know much about Kindle Vella, but it’s a new way to release stories that might be popular and it might not. I don’t know. But I only have to keep my story exclusive there for 30 days. After July 15, Lite Nite Bites: San Francisco will be available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited and Paperback.

In my mind my main characters are: Shauna, Laura, Elsa, Katina, Karina, Vance/Nate, Daiyu, Dirk, Azure, Lanie, Artemis, Xenia, and Elena.

Some characters that have occurred in both the erotica and non-erotica stories are Paco, Kricket, Honey, Therese, and Catalina. Chrissy gets mentioned, but not always by name.

Factoid: When I wrote Lite Nite Bites: San Francisco, I built 26 quick character outlines, giving each a name starting with a different letter of the alphabet. Catalina, Honey and Therese are included in those 26. If you don’t recognize those names, they are from the The Black Dragon: Daiyu Long, Vampire, Hunter, which is also available on Vella, but won’t be in Kindle or Paperback until I get ten more chapters written, which would finish that story.

Back to those 26 characters. There are more characters than 26, but not all the characters have names. I tried very hard to stick to only naming 26 characters. Then I discovered a need for one more. So, there are 27 named characters. Daiyu is mentioned, but not by that name. Chrissy is discussed but never named.

Phezian, who created the Vella cover art, created portraits of these 27 characters on Deviant Art. Warning: Phezian’s art is not suitable for work, which is why there isn’t a link here. Search for Phezian on deviantart.com if you are curious and/or interested.

And Finally, here is the art for the paperback cover (created by me) also NSFW: https://www.deviantart.com/pantros/art/Lite-Nite-Bites-San-Francisco-919395913

Blood of the Elementals out May 1st. Pre-order now.

The sixth Vance Silver, vampire, hunter book is available to buy now in hardcover and can be pre-ordered for the Kindle release May 1st. I think Hardcover copies are backlogged about four weeks. You can order it now, but the Kindle version will be in your hands sooner.

The character on the cover is Xenia, the Artemis thinblood. She is newish to the Vance Silver series but a major character in Elena the Hunted. I have no plans to revisit Elena with a second book about her, but I wanted to keep Xenia active in The World of the Blooddaughter. She was mentioned in Vance Silver, book 5, but she’s a major character in book 6.

Top Ten Vampires from the world of the Blooddaughter

These are my favorite characters from the world that started with The Blooddaughter Trilogy, continued in the Vance Silver, Vampire, Hunter series and The True Tales of Elizabeth Bathory, Vampire, and also includes: Elena the Hunted, Lite Nite Bites, and Evelyn: Love Fiend in Training. This post is spoiler light, but there are a few minor spoilers. I apologize in advance for the crappy artwork, which I did myself.

1) Daiyu Long “Dai”

Bloodmother: Thalia, Twenty-Third Blood, Born: 1872, Vampire since 1906

Daiyu is just over a century old and grew up as a Chinese girl in late nineteenth century San Francisco. Her father raised her to be self-sufficient, bucking the culture and traditions. He came to America because it was the Land of Opportunity and he wanted to make sure his child grasped that opportunity with both hands. During her thirty-three years of human life, she didn’t let anything get in the way of her ambition. When she became a vampire during the 1906 earthquake, she became even more determined. No one got in her way twice.

Settling in Los Angeles she dominated the city’s vampire world. As an investment banking consultant, she takes money seriously. If money were power, she’d be the most powerful woman in California. She drives a black 1957 Ferrari 250 GT California, although she admits that the car has been repaired so many times that it only has a handful of original parts. It’s better to drive than to park it in a garage and admire it.

A monster by human and vampire standards, she may have killed more vampires in her century as a vampire than any other being in history. A rough translation of her name would be: The Black Dragon.

First Appearance: Nine Princes of Blood

2) Azure

Bloodfather: Vance, Twenty Fifth Blood, Born 1990, Pet from 2013, Vampire/Celestial since 2016

Born as a water elemental, a human with a magical affinity and the ability to control water, Azure was dragged into the vampire world initially as a vampire’s pet. Through a series of heroic and ill-planned events, Azure became a vampire and a celestial in the same moment. Possessing three supernatural magicks, Azure is a rarity in the world. Being part celestial makes her unique. She is soul bound to her bloodfather, and though normally celestials are forbidden from killing mortals, they may do so to protect their own lives. More than once, Azure has had to act as her bloodfather’s guardian angel–sometimes using lethal force to do so.

First Appearance: Blood Huntress

3) Elizabeth Bathory. aka “Elsa”

Bloodfather: Vlad, Sixteenth Blood, Born 1560, Vampire since 1614

The legendary Blood Countess sometimes puts a little effort into denying the rumors of her depravity. She will point out that all of the monstrous acts she is accused of occured during her life as a human. Elsa does not put value on human life, but no longer kills wantonly. Elsa is accustomed to the fineries of life and has gone to great efforts to ensure she remains wealthy enough to guarantee her standard of living. She overachieved on that front and has amassed incredible wealth. Because of her love for Elena, she tries to be ‘good’. She doesn’t always succeed. She believes she has atoned for the many people she killed by saving a life for each life she took.

First Appearance: Second Blood

4) Elena

Bloodmother: Elsa, Seventeenth Blood, Born 1599, Pet from 1616, Vampire since 1750

Like Azure, Elena started life as an elemental, though she never knew it when she was human. Her element was charisma. Her charm is probably what caused Elizabeth Bathory to spare her life and become romantically involved. As Elsa’s pet, Elena tamed the Blood Countess’ sadism. When it came time to make Elena into a vampire, things didn’t go as planned. Like Azure, Elena became a tri-elem possessing earth, charisma, and vampiric powers. As a tri-elem the supernatural community decided she was too powerful–too much of a threat–to be allowed to live. To ensure Elena had the strength to live, Elizabeth Bathory used a secret and forbidden ritual to add electrical and water elements to Elena’s powers. As a penta elemental, Elena became godlike in her abilities. Lucky for the world, Elena is pure of heart and unwavering in her principle of never killing anyone. Considers Elsa to be the love of her life

First Appearance: Elena the Hunted

5) Angel/Sera

Bloodfather: Osiris, Born 2495 BCE, Made in 2483 BCE Continued to age to Adulthood after being made.

Born in Egypt in the age of the Pyramids, her big secret is that her twin Sera is actually Angel in another body. She has a single consciousness spanning multiple bodies. Angel has a single mind and is aware and in control of multiple bodies at the same time. Her purple eyes indicate she might hold an even deeper secret.

First Appearance: Evelyn: Love Fiend in Training

6) Chrissy

Bloodmother: Kricket, Twenty Second Blood, Born 1901, Pet from 1919, Vampire since 1921

At almost a century and a half, Chrissy has seen dark things in her life. But, to those who meet her, she seems like a very exuberant party-girl with a body with such exaggerated hourglass proportions that it cannot possibly be natural. It’s not. Vampires can get aesthetic surgery too, but the process is a little different. Incredibly intelligent and driven, Chrissy parties hard in the public eye, but she’s also a neurosurgeon specializing in traumatic brain injury. The trick is to drink enough blood before the surgery, so the hunger pangs don’t interrupt her focus.

First Appearance: Lite Nite Bites

7) Vance Silver

Bloodmother: Dai, Twenty Fourth Blood, Born 1989, Vampire since 2014

A trained vampire hunter, Vance considered himself a holy soldier on the side of good. And then he died. When he came back as a vampire, he had to redefine what being good meant. Occasionally he realizes he can never be truly a champion of good, but he tries to make sure his evil deeds, like accidentally killing his prey, are overbalanced by the number of lives he saves by enforcing the laws of both the human world and the vampire world. In less than a decade as a vampire, his morality has earned him recognition from vampires who believe it’s more important to coexist with humanity than treat them as nothing more than food and entertainment.

First Appearance: Nine Princes of Blood

8) Hells

Bloodfather: Hasan. Twenty Third Blood. Born 1220BCE vampire 1194 BCE.

Helen Vasilissa Sparti was kidnapped in her twenties as a mortal but rescued by Angel and taken to Egypt where she became a vampire. Once the Trojan War ended she returned home to Sparta with her friend, Angel. For three milennia the they have been inseperable. She lives in a quiet vampire community that is small enough to function as a true democracy. But, she knows she’s the leader among them, the queen. Hells is patient and political but she is old and strong and will use her physical prowess if negotiantions don’t work

First Appearance: Evelyn: Love Fiend in Training

9) Shauna McAllister

Bloodfather: James, Second Blood, Born 1989, Vampire since 2012

The eponymous Blooddaughter, Shauna is less a story-maker and more the lynchpin connecting the stories of the original vampires with the story of Elizabeth Bathory. A vampire-fiction fan, Shauna successfully, if inadvertently, tracked down actual vampires and managed to become one. Shauna is young but powerful. She’s also idyllic and naive. The combination of prowess, naivete and idealism may or may not be good for the rest of the vampires of the world. Considers Elsa to be her best friend.

First Appearance: Second Blood

10) Artemis

Bloodfather: Kais, Sixth Blood, Born 6239 BCE, Vampire since 6210 BCE.

Goddess of the hunt, Artemis earned her place in mythology by hunting in the moonlight. An ancient vampire over eight millennia old, Artemis sometimes has trouble caring about humanity. She takes the secrecy of vampires seriously and enjoys the opportunity to hunt those who threaten the secret. Artemis participated in a ritual to hide her vampirism from magical detection but at the cost that each generation of her line can only have one vampire at a time. The myth that she hunts men who see her naked is completely true.

First Appearance: Blood Huntress

Wil’s Amazon Author Page

This post, all words and images, are copyright (c)William Ogden.

Vance Silver – rename and Hardcover collection

Because googling Nate Silver comes up with some real person before it comes up with my fictional vampire, I changed the name of the vampire from Nate to Vance. So, all of the early books are still available on kindle, only with the first name changed. The paperbacks are temporarily unavailable. However, for dead-serious collectors, I have republished the first five Vance Silver, Vampire, Hunter novels in one tremendously oversized hardcover book.

The size of a 1990 laptop computer, this book has more words than fit on a floppy disk from that era. (I don’t know that’s actually true, but it’s fun to say.) Anyway, if you are dead-serious about my vampire books and need something heavy to keep your bedside table from floating away, get the Vance Silver hardcover book containing books 1 through 5 of the Vance Silver, Vampire, Hunter series.

In other news, the sixth Vance Silver book is currently in it’s second draft.

Blooddaughter Hardcover

My Bookshelf

Recently I had the opportunity to publish my books in hardcover through Amazon.

I selected two of my books to try this with. The first was Evelyn: Love Fiend in Training. It’s a short book and was a relatively inexpensive experiment. I got the book a few days after ordering it and it came out great. The cover art is imprinted on the hard cover, so no dust cover is involved. I should mention here that I had to redo the cover art because the manufacturing process for hardcover requires a little more border space.

Once I determined the process was worthwhile, I cleaned up The Blooddaughter Trilogy and republished the three-novel set as a single hardcover book. Of course, this meant I had to redo the cover for The Blooddaughter Trilogy as well. My artistic skills improve with time, at least I think so. It makes me look forward to the excuse to make new cover art.

New PNR Release – Evelyn: Love Fiend in Training.

This 35000 word novella is one of my forays into vampire erotica. I know my ‘about’ says I don’t write this stuff, but I’ve changed since I wrote that ‘about.’ I blame the muse that showed up in my brain sometime around Sept. 3, 2020. I’ve had a few stories that blurted out in one sitting. This was too long for that, but every waking hour where I wasn’t at sleep or at work, I was working on this. I published it on Sept 18, 2020. Though I didn’t hire my usual editor, I was very thorough in my editing. This went through four drafts in that time, even changing the protagonist’s name in the fourth draft. Prior to that the main character was named ‘Clara’ but I have a character named ‘Sera’ as well and Sera’s name was chosen for it’s meaning and Clara’s name wasn’t as important. Evelyn is a name chosen for a reason. I think this is the best story I’ve written to date in terms of how well everything works to fill in the plot and the characters. It absolutely had to be erotica. It’s the nature of the characters and the story and it couldn’t be told without the sex. If I’d left the naughty bits out, you’d notice something was missing. In my other novels I have a lot of great characters. Elsa got me to write five books about her. Nate will eventually have even more. But as great as Elsa and Nate are as characters, my current favorite character is in this book.