Dark Angels Revealed: from Dark Rouges to Dark Romantics by Angela Grace is a fan guide for lovers of the “dark angel genre”. The book highlights forty of the most popular dark angels from books, movies and TV shows. Here’s the book cover copy:

The Ultimate Fan Guide to Dark Angels!

Dark Angels have a way of capturing the popular imagination. From Lestat of The Vampire Chronicles to Edward Cullen of the Twilight series to Count Dracula of Bram Stoker’s classic novel, fans are enraptured by heaven’s mysterious and misunderstood outcasts. Now comes the ultimate fan guide for lovers of the dark angel genre. Dark Angels Revealed dives into the lives of the most popular dark angels from novels, movies, and television including:

— The Cullen family from Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series

— Acheron of the best-selling Dark Hunter series

— Bill Compton of the hit television series True Blood

— Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

— Jean Claude from the acclaimed Anita Blake Vampire Hunter novels
Each entry is a revealing look into a dark angel’s strengths, weaknesses, and special powers. Even the most diehard fan will glean new insight into each character’s psyche, gifts, and personal demons. Brimming with photographs, key lines and scenes, and little known facts and trivia, this is the definitive insider’s guide to these incredible creatures.

This book’s identity and target audience is a hard one to figure out. Certainly, vampires have enjoyed a lot of recent popularity in movies and television as evidenced by the Twilight series books and movies and HBO’s hit show True Blood based on Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse novels. The favorite characters that everyone seems to be lusting for, trend towards the newer younger and hipper vampires which are absolutely included here. It’s a bit puzzling though, to see entries that younger fans of the genre may have never heard of such as Barnabas Collins from Dark Shadows (which ended before most readers were born) and Julian Luna from the short-lived Kindred series. In my view, the book is intended to appeal to nearly everyone while it’s likely to appeal only to a very small audience. Readers who want more details, trivia and images of Eric Northman will probably have zero interest in Count Orloff or Elizabeth Bathory. Speaking from personal experience, I rarely buy a book that I’ll only want to read one or two chapters.

As the title describes, the featured characters are not all vampires but are “heaven’s mysterious and misunderstood outcasts”. This results in an eclectic mix that is a less than cohesive collection. As for the “dark angel” genre, I’m not convinced that it really exists but who knows, maybe it will be the next big thing. I’ve been unable to find a definition other than the one provided by the author. I suppose she could be credited with defining it by publishing this book. I can’t say that I’d recommend this book because I don’t know who it’s target audience is.

Release Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN-10: 1592334571

Post from: Vampire Genre

Dark Angels Revealed by Angela Grace

Ok so yes, more chapters of Stephenie Meyer books have been leaked on to the net (again). Man this woman must be a publisher’s worst nightmare. The purpose of having a book deal with a publisher is so that they can make money from publishing the books, and likewise the author, I would have thought, but Ms Meyer seems to lose control of her content a trifle easily IMHO and surely must by now be being severely reprimanded by her publisher. This is an even worse disaster than the “early sale” and consequent scanning/distributing of that book she wrote to wind up the Twilight story. Yes I know the name of the book but I really can’t bear to type its name again *shudder*

Frankly when I saw the first few lines on the internet (who didnt let’s face it?) that was enough to put me off reading the blasted thing right then. At least she owns up to bad writing in this blog post:

I’d rather my fans not read this version of Midnight Sun. It was only an incomplete draft; the writing is messy and flawed and full of mistakes

Erm… ok, yes incomplete draft, that must be it. Well enjoy Twilighters, as she has made the draft available on her site (as of August 28) for all and sundry. Perhaps it will inspired would-be authors when they see what a first draft looks like from such a well known author as Stephenie Meyer. Personally I can’t be bothered reading any more of this tosh at the moment.

Bitten And Smitten
Readers Crave Stephenie Meyer’s ‘Twilight’ Tales of Vampire Love
By Laura Yao
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 1, 2008; Page C01

This is all sounding a little too familiar. Here’s how the story goes:

A mother with no writing experience is struck by inspiration. She sits down one morning and starts to jot down a story. She creates characters and sketches out a whole world for them, full of magic and danger and dramatic rescues. Her characters are almost ordinary, which is their charm, except for the fact that they are [fill in the blank: wizards or vampires]. She sends the story to a publisher, not expecting much in the way of a reply, but soon finds herself writing a successful multi-book series and earning millions of dollars.

Yes, the creation of Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight Saga” series, and its subsequent arc toward fame, recall J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” success story to no small extent. Tonight, “Breaking Dawn,” the fourth and final book in Meyer’s series, will be released at midnight, with a first printing of 3.2 million copies. There are already nearly 10 million of her books in print. There are hundreds of fan sites dotting the Internet. At Borders bookstores across the country tonight, release parties for “Breaking Dawn” promise the same costumed fans, trivia contests and debates that a year ago heralded the release of the last Harry Potter book. The “Twilight” movie hits theaters in December. And Meyer’s books are also thick as doorstops.

If you haven’t heard yet, “Twilight” and its sequels are — wait for it — vampire romance novels for teenagers. But the series is only nominally about suave, bloodsucking representatives of the undead. After all, Meyer is a devout Mormon from Phoenix, and her books are squeaky clean.

Meyer’s vampires don’t hail from Anne Rice’s world of darkness; the Cullen family of the “Twilight” series comprises seven vampires who exercise great self-control by not drinking human blood, because it’s immoral. They rely on the less nutritious, less delicious blood of animals; Edward has a predilection for mountain lions, while his brother Emmett prefers grizzly bears.

So in Meyer’s books, nobody sucks anybody’s neck, let alone gets stabbed through the heart with a wooden stake. And while they’re first and foremost romance novels, nobody has premarital sex.

Instead, in a departure from the more action-packed halls of Hogwarts, discussions of feelings and emotions and such fill Meyer’s tomes. Ick. “Twilight” is written from the perspective of Bella Swan, a high-schooler who is in love with classmate Edward Cullen, a 107-year-old vampire; Meyer lingers for pages at a time on their exchanged looks, passionate declarations and innocent touches. They can’t be together that way because he might kill her by accident, but she loves him unequivocally, even though he’s a monster, and he loves her back, even though she’s klutzy. The adolescent yearning is palpable.

This could explain why “Twilight’s” readership is predominantly female.

“It’s much more of a girl’s book — it appeals to a female readership in the same way Jane Austen does,” says Amy Clarke, who teaches an undergraduate Harry Potter course at the University of California at Davis. “I’m not putting it in the same class of literature, but it has a lot of similarities.”

Clarke says her two teenage sons, both of whom read the Harry Potter series several times, refuse to read the “Twilight” books. “They gag when we go by the movie poster,” she says. (Megan Tingley, Meyer’s publisher and the senior vice president of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, says she’s noticed more boys reading the books and showing up at Meyer’s events. “Girls are making their boyfriends read it,” she explains.)

Fans insist that “Twilight” defies classification, that it’s not a girl book or a boy book, not a vampire thriller or a romance story. Elysa Montfort, a 21-year-old student at St. Mary’s College of Maryland who started the fan site Twilight Source, has read Anne Rice’s novels and says “Twilight” is nothing like them. And her Twilight Source co-founder, Laura Thompson, a 19-year-old student at McDaniel College in Maryland, says simply, “I don’t keep romance novels on my shelves.” Both love the books for the richness of the characters, and for Meyer’s suspense-filled storytelling.

Tingley says she wouldn’t have published the book had it really been a vampire romance. “I don’t publish genre fiction,” she says. But when she read the manuscript in 2003, “I had such a strong response to it that I knew other people who wouldn’t identify themselves as vampire or romance fans would feel the same way I did.”

The themes in the books, in Tingley’s view, are ageless. At its core, the story is about choice. The Cullens choose not to prey on humans; Bella must choose whether to become immortal. Though the “Twilight” series is marketed in the industry’s young-adult category (age 12 to 18), Meyer tackles issues of identity and relationships in a way that appeals to 50-year-olds and 10-year-olds alike.

But while moms approve of its message of abstinence and acceptance — “Twilight” makes the reading list of almost every mother-daughter book club out there — is the story as empowering as it seems?

The biggest question, which “Breaking Dawn” will finally put to rest, is whether Bella will become a vampire and marry Edward. “Do we really want our daughters reading books about a girl like Bella who is always needing to be saved, who is willing to give up her mortality for a boy?” Clarke says. Bella is initially fascinated by Edward because he, like all vampires, is beautiful, godlike in appearance. She needs constant assurance from him that he really does like her, that she is special.

Girl power it isn’t. But the series has become a worldwide phenomenon; the rights for “Twilight,” the first book, have been sold in 37 countries. The first printing for “Twilight” was 75,000 copies, small potatoes compared with “Breaking Dawn’s” first run. When Montfort tried to reserve an advance copy at Borders, she was told that she might not be able to get it at midnight because demand has been so high.

Tonight, at the witching hour (vampiring hour?), fans will converge inside Borders stores for their coveted copies. They will stay up all night to read them. And they will discover, finally, whether it’s better to be beautiful, strong and immortal, or to be just plain ordinary.

Here are my thoughts on what the options are:

1. It’s a pretty good fanfic

2. It’s a fake produced to deceive fans

3. It’s real but it’s been released as first 14 chapters only as a PR stunt to whet more appetites and generate more sales

4. It’s real.

If it’s Option 4 then it’s a ‘real’ worry because the story so far is so far fetched that I can’t type WTF enough times to cover it.

Guess we’ll find out tomorrow for sure.

Spoilers abound below and you have no one to blame but yourself for looking.

[spoiler] testing the spoiler haha, you looked!

Is it real or is it fake?  If it’s fanfic, then it’s not bad… but if it’s the real thing…

[/spoiler]

BTW fangurls, not interested in your comments about well anything really unless you can be civilised, so don’t waste our time and yours.

What do you mean, you haven't bought it yet! Click here now and get it ordered!

For those of you who just can’t wait for next week’s release of Breaking Dawn, here’s a little taste of what might be…

Click here to read all of Breaking Dawn – The Spoof, Part 1

Here’s a sample of what it contains:

Chapter 5: Waterworks
Bella does nothing but cry, wail, moan and question the point of her existence without Edward. This goes on for about 34 pages.

*snort*  Sounds about right hehe

ok one more, and then you have to go read it all – and in order!

Chapter 2: Hoops
Jacob, still heartbroken over Bella, is licking his wounds, both literally and figuratively, in Canada. After listening to nothing but The Cure and watching Lifetime original programming for six straight days, he concocts one last, desperate plan to win Bella’s affection. Because there are only two things to do on The Rez – namely werewolf stuff and playing basketball – Jacob has developed a killer jump shot over the years. He has also continued his abnormal growth spurt by adding another several inches to his height and now stands an impressive 6 foot 11. With his superhuman athleticism, gigantic height and deadly three-point range, Jacob decides to return to La Push and try out for the high school basketball team. Since he could not win Bella by being a caring, fun-loving, selfless, supportive friend, Jacob decides to get his girl the time-tested way – by becoming a self-absorbed, shallow high school athlete!

]]> http://www.vampiretwilight.com/2008/07/29/breaking-dawn-spoof-lol/feed/ 0 http://www.vampiretwilight.com/2008/07/28/breaking-dawn-big-ole-spoiler-not/ http://www.vampiretwilight.com/2008/07/28/breaking-dawn-big-ole-spoiler-not/#comments Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:56:45 +0000 CME http://www.vampiretwilight.com/?p=46 Continue reading →]]>

click here to order Breaking Dawn from Amazon.com

EW.com have released what they claim to be a big spoiler for Breaking Dawn. You can read the full story here Remember if you don’t want to know don’t read!

Spoiler below:

[spoiler] Bella and Edward get married apparently quite early on in the book [/spoiler]

Remember this is one big romance, even though it spans across four books, so if you know anything about the romance formula, you will not be surprised by how it ends for the romantic hero and heroine.

Wolfsbane and Mistletoe

Ok so it’s not exactly about vampires but for once we are making an exception because some of these authors do write about vampires… just not in this book.

Published in October 2008 and just in time for Christmas orders, we have Wolfsbane and Mistletoe

New York Times bestselling authors Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs, Keri Arthur, and Carrie Vaughn—along with eleven other masters of the genre—offer all-new stories on werewolves and the holidays, a fresh variation on the concept that worked so well with birthdays and vampires in Many Bloody Returns.

The holidays can bring out the beast in anyone. They are particularly hard for lycanthropes. Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner have harvested the scariest, funniest and saddest werewolf tales by an outstanding pack of authors, best read by the light of a full moon with a silver bullet close at hand.

Whether wolfing down a holiday feast (use your imagination) or craving some hair of the dog on New Year’s morning, the werewolves in these frighteningly original stories will surprise, delight, amuse, and scare the pants off readers who love a little wolfsbane with their mistletoe.

Published 7th October 2008

Here’s a complete list of authors included:

Charlaine Harris, Toni L.P. Kelner, Patricia Briggs, Keri Arthur, Carrie Vaughn, Donna Andrews, Dana Cameron, Karen Chance, Alan Gordon, Simon Green, JA Konrath, Nancy Pickard, Dana Stabenow, Rob Thurman and Kat Richardson.

Personally I’m looking forward to the Simon R Green* story and we’ll see about the rest. Some of these anthologies are just not that good, let’s face it, so until I’ve read it, let’s just leave it there shall we.

*Simon advised he had sold this short story almost a year ago so just shows how long these things take sometimes!

click here to order yourself a copy of Up In Smoke by Katie MacAlister

Katie is giving away a free ARC (advanced reader’s copy) of forthcoming release Up In Smoke (the second silver dragon book).  Contest runs from 2nd July – 2nd August 2008.
How to enter: E-mail to katie@katiemacalister.com with “contest” in the subject line and include the following information:

1. Your name and e-mail address
2. A statement of which hero (mortal or immortal) from one of my books is your favorite, and why you should have exclusive dibs on him over all the other readers who probably wouldn’t kick him out of their respective beds. Your statement can be as short or long as you desire, will not be judged on either grammar or spelling, but the more inventive your reasoning is, the more likely you’ll make Katie giggle. And giggling is good.

You have until midnight 2nd August 2008.  There are ten ARCs to be won and winners will be drawn by 5th August.  You gotta be in it to win it as my mum says!

PS if you are not lucky enough to win a free ARC, why not order a copy for yourself using the above link.  Go on, you know you want to!

Tru Blood - available in a flavour to suit everyone

I’m a big fan of the Southern Vampire Mysteries or Sookie Stackhouse series (or whatever they are calling themselves these days) by friend of the site, Charlaine Harris. The books feature a telepathic waitress living in Bon Temps Louisiana after she meets her first vampire – Vampire Bill. Vampires have come out of the coffin, thanks mainly to the development of a new synthetic blood, and are living among us.

The show is scheduled to premiere on September 7th, 2008 on HBO, but it seems that not one but two versions of the pilot episode have been “unofficially” leaked – or should that be “officially” leaked? Anyhoo, here are a couple of links that will enable you to watch the second, and more complete, version of the pilot below.

and

*neither of these are hosted on this site*

Starring Anna Paquin as Sookie and Stephen Moyer as Bill.  Anna looks good as Sookie, if perhaps a little too much like a retarded cheerleader, and Stephen Moyer IMHO is perfectly cast as Bill!  You can also check Stephen out in a short-lived British vampire series called Ultraviolet, which unfortunately only ran for six episodes, but was bloody (no pun intended) brilliant.

So there are things I don’t like about it, but it has a lot of good points so I’ll willing to keep an open mind until I see more of it.  BTW none of the good points include Tara 1 or Tara 2, both are really obnoxious!

Pay very close attention to the scene where Sookie swings the chain to see who just might be arriving in Bon Temps a little earlier than expected!