I was excited when Russell and Eddy first approached me to work on Strange, Dead Love. For the past couple of years, I have attended several romance writing workshops to learn more about the genre from an author’s perspective. Several of the sessions were dedicated to paranormal romance and we often took a lit crit approach to the genre by pulling out contemporary examples: Laurell K. Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, Anne Rice, Yasmine Galenorn, Patricia Briggs, etc. The subject was something I knew a lot about and, as a Vampire: the Requiem player and author of Scenes of the Embrace, I was happy I could contribute to help other players dive into this genre.

“No God commands me, yet I answer to a higher law than yours. My heart does not beat, yet it still feels. Only her word rules me, and only her smile warms my blood.” – J. Carlton, Nosferatu Harpy of Baltimore

Strange, Dead Love is a new supplement for White Wolf’s Vampire: the Requiem RPG. It is guide to the themes and props of paranormal romance, custom-fit for the World of Darkness, specifically Vampire: the Requiem. This book features a collection of world shards, ready-made chronicles with their own plot hooks and rules. As well as advice for storytelling romance, including guidance on games for two.

Strange, Dead Love is now available in Print and PDF formats at DriveThruRPG.com.

Flames Rising is pleased to present you with a special interview, just in time for Sweetest Day! Earlier, we asked you to help us come up with interview questions for White Wolf Publishing developers Russell Bailey and Eddy Webb. We’re happy to share their responses as they dive into your burning questions about Strange, Dead Love, the new paranormal romance sourcebook for Vampire: the Requiem that debuts in early December. Thanks to everyone who commented and shared their thoughts on this sourcebook. The questions below were pulled from your feedback!

Earlier, White Wolf publishing announced an upcoming paranormal romance sourcebook for Vampire: the Requiem entitled “Strange, Dead Love.”

Developers Russell Bailey and Eddy Webb guided a trio of writers on the project. Jess Hartley, Filamena Hill and Monica Valentinelli lent their expertise and their voices to dive into the steamier side of Requiem where vampires and mortals fall hopelessly in love and lust.

In honor of this sexy new book, FlamesRising.com wants Russell Bailey and Eddy Webb to spill all the supplement’s dirty secrets. We think you do, too. That’s why we need your help.

Find out more by clicking through to the rest of the post.

NIGHT VEIL is the second book in the Indigo Court series by NYT best-selling author Yasmine Galenorn. It follows the story of Cicely Waters who found herself inexplicably drawn to Grieve, a Fae Prince, then torn from his side. This story is the second in the series and may not be as powerful if you haven’t read the first book, so please keep that in mind when you’re reading this review and you’re worried about spoilers. My review of NIGHT MYST was published during our Vampire Week, and we do have a NIGHT VEIL excerpt you can read at your leisure.

One of the reasons why I like this series, is because Galenorn presents the darker side of magic, vampires, Fae and other creatures. This is not the happy-go-lucky world where everyone winds up together.

Shadow Chase is an urban fantasy novel written by Seressia Glass. While this book follows the events of Shadow Blade in the author’s series, I felt the story — which dives deep into Egyptian mythology — stands on its own.

Glass writes believable characters that we can all relate to by focusing on their internal struggles. I really liked reading about the emotional impact of the “things gone wrong.” When someone dies? We feel it. When Kira, the main character, makes a mistake? We experience her guilt. By focusing on what makes these characters human, in spite of their supernatural powers, I feel the author takes some risks because we don’t always see the “cost” of magic in our world. However, these risks are what makes the story and its characters more believable, because those emotions help us identify with them — regardless of their ethnic or cultural background.

Kira Solomon is a Shadowchaser. Although she’s human, she serves the Light and dispatches the Fallen. Although a lot of the worldbuilding was inspired by Egyptian mythology, the battle between good and evil takes center stage.

FlamesRising.com is pleased to present you with an excerpt from Night Veil, the second novel in the new Indigo Court series written by Yasmine Galenorn. This dark fantasy story debuts on Tuesday, July 5th. In this preview, you’ll read a brief introduction to the world and a part of the first chapter.

Night Veil: The Beginning

Myst led her people into the shadows and ice, and there they hid, sheltered in the depths of lore. The Vampiric Fae were pariah, kept a dirty secret, shamefully debasing the entire realm of Faerie. And so in furtive silence, the Host fed and drank deep and did rend the flesh of its victims and feast. But their thirst was unquenchable, and it was then that Myst discovered one of their newfound powers: Members of the Indigo Court could drink from the souls of the magic-born…

The Golden Key is a dark fantasy epic romance that was written as a three-way collaboration between Melanie Rawn, Jennifer Roberson and Kate Elliot. The book, which clocks in at eight hundred and eighty-nine pages, spans hundreds of years in a duchy called “Tira Virte.” The sequel, dubbed The Diviner, is due out this August.

I called The Golden Key an epic romance, but I feel that might be a little misleading. So, before I go any further, let me explain why I put it into that category. At the heart of this novel, is the tortured relationship between two characters: Sario Grijalva and the cousin he adores, Saavedra. He loves her; she does not love him. Well, at least not in that way. She does love and care for him, but her heart belongs to someone else. The passion Saavedra feels for (and shares with) Alejandro becomes the catalyst for Sario’s demise. In many ways, Sario has tortured himself for a love that may (or may not) never be consummated.

It isn’t often that I pick up a book (this one purchased with my own cashy money) where it’s got so much going on, I’m not sure how to start a review. Stacia Kane’s Unholy Ghosts is like that. This isn’t just a ghost story — though it works admirably (and scarily) well in that area. It’s not just postapocalyptic, though again, the brave new (scary) world that Stacia imagines is an amazing one. And though it’s not really a private investigator story, it’s got a lot of similarities to that genre, as the main character goes about solving a mystery and, eventually, confronting a threat that could destroy the world as she knows it. So it’s got epic scope, but the characters aren’t your typical heroes — in fact, they’ve got more in common with your typical villains, and that’s one of the areas where Stacia really succeeds: making characters you don’t really want to trust, but can’t help but like. Or, at the very least, sympathize with.

Kelly Meding, I have a bone to pick with you. After introducing a seriously awesome minor character in Three Days To Dead, you neglected to include even one scene with Smedge the Bridge Troll in the sequel. Sure, you gave us a seriously hot shape-shifting osprey who can go into angel mode with Phin. You introduced us to a sweet-yet-strong kestrel shifter, who alternates between protected and protector in Aurora. You brought in the mysterious shifter lawyer with a talent for vague clues with Michael Jenner. So, one could say that the new awesome outweighs the old awesome.

But I miss Smedge. I just want that out there.

Not long ago, I signed up for a very cool program with Simon & Schuster called “galley grab,” which allows participants to read e-book galleys in full for a limited amount of time. I’ve loaded up several titles on my nook and am trying to get through them before my time runs out!

One of my first priorities on the list was A Brush of Darkness by Allison Pang, which I’d seen previews for over at Pocket After Dark. There are all sorts of marketing sayings about how many times you have to see something before it sticks, or if you touch something some large number of times, you’ll buy it.

When Evy Stone wakes up in a morgue in a different body than the one she remembers, with no memory of the few previous days, she knows she’s in for a hell of a time. What she does remember is this: her teammates from her bounty hunting career were murdered, the were-people with whom she took asylum were slaughtered by her former bosses, and the only person she thought she could trust was her handler. She has to make contact, convince him that she’s still Evy (despite the new body), and avoid being entangled in the life of the girl who used to live in this frame. Not to mention, as she discovers more about the reasons she ended up in a new body, saving the world. All in a three day time frame. But hey, she’s been through worse. Probably.

You’re all familiar with zombie celebutante Amanda Feral from my reviews of Happy Hour of the Damned, Road Trip of the Living Dead, and Battle of the Network Zombies. Hopefully you’re also familiar with her from reading about her adventures themselves. But what you may not know is that Mark Henry, whose name is on the cover of these novels, is actually the ghost writer for the real Amanda Feral. The snarky socialite is also an author in her own right, and her first e-book, Stocking Full of Coal, just released on December 16th. I had the chance to chat with Amanda before her premiere to get the skinny on where she’s at now (but not who she’s eating).

FlamesRising.com is pleased to present you with a look at how romance and zombies go together from paranormal romance author Lori Devoti.

This past year, Lori released Zombie Moon, which was published by Silhouette Nocturne. How do these unlikely elements go together? Read Lori’s thoughts and find out! If you enjoy reading paranormal romance, be sure to enter our contest for a free novel from this talented author, too.

Novelist Ashley J. Barnard has a new novel called Shadow Fox from Champagne Books. In this design essay she tells us about that initial fear of releasing her work to friends and family.

How a Nice, Shy Girl Passes Off Dark Fantasy to Her Family

One of my older sisters recently compared me to Giselle from the movie Enchanted. It’s a fair comparison; I sing when I clean the house, I love animals, I’m a hopeless romantic and I have a bright and sunny disposition. I want everyone to love me so it’s shocking to me when I annoy someone. The biggest difference between Giselle and me is that Giselle doesn’t write dark contemporary fantasy with heroin use, violence, occasional S&M and a liberal sprinkling of the F-bomb throughout. And if she did write it, she’d probably use a pen name and would die before letting anyone read it.

FlamesRising.com is pleased to present you with a guest post about writing and inspiration from New York Times bestselling author Yasmine Galenorn. At the end of the post, Yasmine is offering a chance for you to win a copy of BONE MAGIC from her Otherworld urban fantasy series. Be sure to check out our excerpt of BONE MAGIC, too!

When I think about what influences my writing, first I have to go back to childhood. I had a very rough childhood—there was no Brady Bunch like life for me when I was little. Besides problems with my stepfather, we lived in a house that was creepy as hell with a lot of black widows in it, and I’m convinced it was haunted. I was psychic even as a child and that sure didn’t help. So horror plays into my books, always, in muted tones and shades of gray.

Another equinox is here, and life’s getting more tumultuous for the D’Artigo sisters. Smoky, the dragon of Camille’s dreams, must choose between his family and her. Plus, the sisters can’t locate the new demon general in town. And Camille’s summoned to Otherworld, thinking she’ll reunite with her long-lost soul mate Trillian. But once there, she must undergo a drastic ritual that will forever change her and those she loves.

Flames Rising is pleased to present you with an excerpt from the first chapter of BONE MAGIC, which was written by Yasmine Galenorn.

FlamesRising.com is pleased to present you with an exclusive look at the writing process behind author Meagan Hatfield’s SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE. Here, Meagan talks about her path to publishing and offers some insight on her writing process.

As the release day for Shadow of the Vampire inches closer and I chat with more interviewers and newspaper editors, I have realized the one question I dread the most, is unfortunately the most commonly re-occurring one… “What is your writing process?”

Now it seems like such an easy question on the surface. However, it can also be a fully loaded one. It’s like everyone thinks that since you are a “published author” you must have some cookie cutter, fail-proof way to write a book that will not only be stellar in quality, one that will sell and will be a procedure others can follow like an outline and use to create their own books. Um, I hate to burst that preconceived bubble, but…POP! There it goes!

The truth is, there is no one true way to write a book.

DEMON INSIDE is a dark paranormal romance novel by author Stacia Kane about a character named Megan Chase who has somehow found herself in charge of a group of demons. The sequel to PERSONAL DEMONS, this particular story focuses on Megan’s struggles with her new “responsibility” and what she must do in wake of her knowledge of the dark things — namely demons — that exist in this world. Megan’s guide to this world is her sexy lover Greyson Dante, who is literally too hot to handle at times.

I feel that this particular story fits squarely in the paranormal romance genre, because there is a heavy emphasis on the sexy relationship between Megan and Greyson.

As the sixth book in the Otherworld series, Demon Mistress offers a blend of new characters and plot twists that are built the foundation of what Galenorn has written throughout her books. Demon Mistress is told from the point-of-view of Menolly, a half-vampire/half-fae woman who is part of the D’Artigo sisters. Who are the D’Artigo sisters?

Menolly, Camille, and Delilah are the D’Artigo Sisters—half-human, half-Faerie operatives for the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. Their latest assignment is to root out the secret society responsible for unleashing chaos magic against the city—and to stop a demon from devouring Delilah’s soul. –SOURCE: Amazon.com Description of Demon Mistress