Book Decription: It is the morning of Princess Cassandra’s sixteenth birthday. Everyone’s attention is focused on the heir to the vampire throne. World leaders, the rich and famous, and VIPs from every corner of the globe have gathered in the nation’s capital to celebrate the momentous event. Cassandra’s boyfriend, Daniel, is late for the party. He’s still outside the city when all hell breaks loose. What he believes is an act of terrorism proves to be a full-fledged revolution. Væmpires—former vampires who mutated into warm-blooded creatures with an insatiable hunger for cold blood—have launched coordinated attacks across the globe, with three goals: the eradication of humanity, the enslavement of vampires, and the ascension of væmpires as the dominant species on the planet. The vampire and human leaders are killed. Cassandra is missing. Daniel is the acting king. Desperate to find the princess, Daniel and his friends fight their way across the besieged city. With the hopes of the free world resting on the shoulders of four vampire teenagers, væmpires unleash their secret weapons: a new breed of væmpire that is far deadlier than any ever seen before. What can four teens do against an enemy that can shape-shift, fly, and walk through walls?
Thomas Winship was born in Middletown, NY (USA) and still resides in Orange County. He holds an MBA in Management from St. Thomas Aquinas College, where he serves as an adjunct professor of courses in English Composition, Communications, and Business. He also spent fifteen years working for a global pharmaceutical company, specializing in organizational development, talent management, and training. Tom writes in his spare time. His first novel, a mystery/legal thriller entitled Temporary Insanity (a.k.a. Case Closed), was a 2008 finalist in a national contest but failed to garner industry attention. His second novel, Væmpires: Revolution, was published in October and a follow-up novella, Væmpires: White Christmas, was published in December. He is an avid collector of books, comic books, music, and movies. His interests are diverse: on any given day, Tom is likely to be found watching a horror movie, attending a hard rock concert, or enjoying a Broadway show. He is currently working on the next installment of the “Væmpires” series, which is scheduled for a 2012 release.
The World of Væmpires
Hello everyone. I’m
Thomas Winship, author of Væmpires:
Revolution and Væmpires: White
Christmas. Both books are part of a new, ongoing vampire series that
explores the question: what if vampires
evolved?
I’m so excited to be today’s guest blogger at Tana Rae Reads! In
fact, since this is one of the earliest blogs of my Dark Mind Book Tour,
I thought it would be the perfect time to cast aside my typical, thinly-veiled
attempts to plug Væmpires—within a semi-creative
framework, of course—and let loose with a shameless, no-holds-barred,
thousand-plus word advertisement for Væmpires!
Plus,
I’d wager that few, if any, of you have ever heard of Væmpires.
I’d
ask for a show of hands to prove my point, but that would be: a) foolish, since
I have no way of seeing you; b) unproductive, because my mind is made up, and
once my mind is made up about something, getting me to change it is like trying
to get me to ask for directions; and c) disastrous, because my fragile psyche
is barely holding on as is, and the last thing I need is further proof of my literary
anonymity.
With
that said, let me guide the conversation back to safer ground—my world of
væmpires.
The
story of væmpires (pronounced “vempires”) takes place several thousand years in
the future. Sometime in the late twenty-ninth or early thirtieth centuries,
humans triggered WWIII. The resultant nuclear winter lasted for hundreds of
years and wiped out the vast majority of the population. Water levels rose. The
face of the world changed.
When
the world recovered from the Great Devastation (as it’s called), the Atlantic
Ocean was gone, creating one immense continent surrounded by water. Antarctica
and Australia were uninhabited. The few island groups that existed were in
constant danger of being swallowed by the remaining oceans, so efforts to
inhabit them were quickly abandoned. The peoples of earth spread throughout the
continent and grew roots. The calendar was reset at 1 AD (After Devastation).
The
new world recovered at an exponential rate. Scientific and medical advancements
eradicated most sickness and disease. In less than a thousand years, the human
population soared to an estimated thirty or forty billion people.
But
the geography wasn’t the only thing that had changed. Vampires, beautiful
beings with an inescapable need for human blood, crawled out of the radioactive
miasma to settle in dark places. For years, they hid by day and hunted by
night, feeding at the fringes of civilization.
NOTE: My vampires have some similarities to
“traditional” vampires in that they are undead creatures with enhanced
abilities and senses, they require human blood for sustenance, and sunlight
kills them. However, they differ from traditional vampires in that their
origins appear to be related to radiation, new vampires are born (not made),
and they age naturally (although they are immortal).
The
discovery of vampires, delayed yet inevitable, sparked the H-V (Human-Vampire)
Wars. For hundreds of years, neither side gained a decided advantage—vampires
were physically superior, but were greatly outnumbered and had difficulty
reproducing.
In
1000 AD, the creation of synth-blood (synthetic human blood) changed the world
once again. Vampires were no longer slaves to their hunger [they were no longer
susceptible to the effects of sunlight, as well] and humans no longer needed to
fear their genetically-superior brethren. Vampires emerged from the shadows and
the underworld, cautiously at first, but with increasing enthusiasm as humans
welcomed them with open arms.
Understanding
that their time as the dominant species was ending, human leaders suggested a
series of agreements designed to broker a lasting peace between the two races.
Earth was rechristened Tarados (Earth Two) and carved into seven
provinces—North & South America, North & South Atlantica, North &
South Africa, and Aurasia. Four provinces were placed under vampire rule, a
bold concession that nevertheless ushered in a true golden age of peace and
prosperity.
The
first væmpires appeared around 1500 AD. The creatures—warm-blooded with a
hunger for cold vampire blood—were quickly dismissed as anomalies; poor,
unfortunate victims of some horrible new mutagen or, perhaps, lingering atomic
contamination. As the situation not only persisted, but grew, world leaders
stubbornly refused to acknowledge that any problem existed.
Eventually,
the truth became clear: væmpires were former vampires. And each væmpire was a
bigger, stronger, faster version of its former self—with a second thumb on each
hand and an altered physical appearance, to boot.
No
one could determine why the mutations occurred or how to avoid them. There was
no rhyme or reason as to who morphed—male or female, old or young, from one end
of the world to another—no vampire was safe. New synth-blood variants failed to
quell væmpire hunger.
Væmpires themselves decided upon the term “væmpire,”
because the extra “e” represented the something extra that made them different from vampires. Their
population grew to a point where they demanded rights and representation on a
par with humans and vampires. Instead, their leaders were summarily ignored,
discredited, or otherwise rendered impotent. Væmpire gangs formed, menacing
neighborhoods in major cities.
The
gangs became increasingly violent as diplomatic endeavors proved ineffective. It didn’t take long for væmpires to decide that they weren’t just
different from vampires, but that they were, in fact, superior to them. Arguing
that the “e” represented evolution, væmpire
radicals called for radical change. With all three races at odds,
the largest gangs evolved into terrorist cells intent on fulfilling a new
agenda: the eradication of humanity; the enslavement of vampires; and the
ascension of væmpires as the new world leaders.
This
is where Væmpires: Revolution
begins.
Væmpires: Revolution
It is the morning of Princess Cassandra’s sixteenth birthday. Everyone’s
attention is focused on the heir to the vampire throne. World leaders, the rich
and famous, and VIPs from every corner of the globe have gathered in the
nation’s capital to celebrate the momentous event.
Cassandra’s boyfriend, Daniel, is late for the party. He’s still outside
the city when all hell breaks loose. What he believes is an act of terrorism
proves to be a full-fledged revolution. Væmpires have launched coordinated
attacks across the globe.
The vampire and human leaders are killed. Cassandra is missing. Daniel is
the acting king. Desperate to find the princess, Daniel and his friends fight
their way across the besieged city. With the hopes of the free world resting on
the shoulders of four vampire teenagers, væmpires unleash their secret weapons:
a new breed of væmpire that is far deadlier than any ever seen before.
What can four teens do against an enemy that
can shape-shift, fly, and walk through walls?
Væmpires: White
Christmas is set six months prior to the
events described above, but was designed to be read after Væmpires: Revolution.
Væmpires: White
Christmas
It’s almost Christmas. With the global holiday days away, the people of
the world should be turning their attention toward celebrating peace and
goodwill, but tension between humans, vampires, and væmpires is at an all-time
high. Desperate for solutions, King Brant schedules a secret summit deep in
North America’s Northern Forest. Along with Queen Anne, Princess Cassandra,
Daniel’s family, and the human president and First Lady, the vampire leader
seeks to reaffirm the ties between humans and vampires, while brainstorming
ways to respond to the growing hostility among væmpires.
Meanwhile, Daniel and Cassie’s relationship is at an all-time low. The
princess is still reeling from her breakup with Vielyn, and Daniel doesn’t know
what he should or shouldn’t do to help. Little does he know that the summit
will be flooded with surprises—guests, allegations, accusations, proposals, and
even Christmas Eve revelations—but not all of the surprises will be pleasant.
So, there you have it—the Væmpires
saga in a one-thousand-word nutshell. It’s an urban fantasy/dystopian series,
combining fantasy, sci-fi, horror, action, and romance in bite-sized chunks for
your enjoyment. There’s even a guest appearance by zombies!
I’d like to thank all of you
for stopping in and offer a very special “thank you” to Tana for hosting my Dark Mind Book Tour and for inviting me to be a
guest blogger at Tana Rae Reads. I hope you enjoyed my guest blog. I’d love to
hear what you think of it. Please comment here, but also feel free to stop by
my website and reach out. Additionally, I’d love to hear from you if you check
out Vaempires.
Below
are links where you can find me.
Take
care,
Thomas
Winship
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thank you so much for hosting my Book Tour today, Tana! I'll stop by throughout the day to respond to any comments aimed my way.
ReplyDeleteYou don?t need to to aloof at work. You will be able to have interaction with some other people from many parts on the planet.
ReplyDeleteMBA Colleges in Australia
Not only did you make an awesome review, you also made sure that your readers are entertained as well with the help of the videos you have posted here.
ReplyDeleteenglish composition