Lillith Black's Blog

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As a writer, I, obviously, write. But I also read, voraciously so. I loved reading since I was really little. First, there were fairy tales (Andersen, Grimm, Perrault, folk tales from around the world: Russian, African, Moldavian, Mongolian). Then there were sci-fi books galore: Bradbury, Asimov, Lem, Strugatsky, Bulychev, Verne, Yefremov, Dick, H.G. Wells (time travel and space travel were my favorites).

And then there was paranormal. A land where fairy tales mixed in with science fiction, with some flair of romance. This is where I found the fiction I read now and where I write as well.

I have been on a real vampire kick ever since Bram Stoker’s
Dracula and the Interview with the Vampire kicked things off on the big screen.
The idea of an immortal being and with it a promise of love that can last
forever had me hooked, it’s desires, torment, the decisions of what is right
and what is wrong when the lifetime you have can last indefinitely.

I have been reading vampire novels ever since. And I know I’m
not the only one captivated by these dark and mysterious creatures of the
night.

Here are some of the vampire novels (and series) that I have
read and enjoyed in the last several years.

My Blood Approves (Amanda Hocking)



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One of the first indie vampire books gone huge, My Blood Approves is a story of Alice, an ordinary girl finding herself in a very unordinary situation. Her life is saved by a vampire and suddenly she finds herself spending every evening in a company of a loving family, mother, father and two brothers, only every single one of them is a blood-thirsty vampire.

What even better is that the brother of the vampire who saved her hates her guts, yet she feels uncontrollably drawn to him, as if her own blood pulls them together. This book is the first in the series and I recommend you get them all.

A Shade of Vampire (Bella Forrest)



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A birthday girl turned revolutionary in a vampire world, A Shade of Vampire is a book one is a huge, ever-growing vampire book series by Bella Forrest. The series has now moved past book 80, each 5 or so books covering a different group in the same world. Book one begins this universe of stories with Sofia who is kidnapped on her birthday and taken to a hidden vampire island, The Shade, where she is turned into a human slave to serve every wish of a vampire prince. As dismal as her prospect might look, Sofia is not about staying quiet. From a human slave, one of many, she becomes the changer of things on the Island, a place that has been keeping its dark secrets for centuries.

The Vampire Diaries (L. J. Smith)



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Book series turned 8-season TV series, The Vampire Diaries follows the life of Elena Gilbert, a girl from the high society of Mystic Falls who is used to getting things her way. With her parents’ recent death, her life is nothing but normal, but when two vampire brothers move back into town, things in Elena’s life change to never be the same. The Awakening is the first book in the series and I gobbled it up and the rest of the books in the series.

The Forever Girl (Rebecca Hamilton)



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Sophia’s ancestor was a witch tried in Salem Witch Trials and her mom died during an exorcism. She would brush it all off if not for incessant static noise in her head that started on the day of her mother’s death and won’t go away. To rid herself of it, she holds a Wiccan ritual, which begins a chain of events attracting witches, vampires and other creatures into her life. The only person she can rely on to survive is not even human, but he is all she got. Him, and her family book of spells. This book is one of two in the series, and I really loved reading it. In fact, I have re-read it a few times since I discovered it.

Twilight (Stephenie Meyer)



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Ok, ok, I know. Recommending Twilight is like recommending Bram Stoker’s Dracula or Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire – everyone knows about it, seen the movies based on it, got over it. Still, and you can judge me all you want, the Twilight series has its place in my heart. The story of a teenage love, of Bella, moving from one parent to another and finding herself in a midst of life and death situations she could never see coming, when everything in her life is changing while one thing remains, immovably so, the same: vampire Edward and his love for her. I read the books before the movies came out and, after seeing the movies, was truly inspired to write my own stories.

Dead Until Dark (Charlaine Harris)



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My current read, book one of Sookie Stackhouse series, famously turned into HBO show True Blood. I’ve watched the show when it was on but never got around to reading the books. So, here I am, reading and thoroughly enjoying book 1, Dead Until Dark. We meet Sookie Stackhouse, a small-town waitress who has a “disability” as she calls it – she can read the minds of everyone around her. That is until Bill Compton shows up at her bar. He is tall, dark and handsome and when she is around him, she can’t hear a thing, what a relief. He is also dead, or should I say, undead? Bill is a vampire, the first vampire she has ever met. He is a vampire in a world where vampires are officially accepted by the government but regularly distrusted and hunted by regular folk. As Sookie’s and Bill’s relationship blossoms, everything else around them gets more complicated. I love the way Charlaine writes, so light and breezy and witty, but also impactful and to the point. I have gobbled up half the book already and have books 2-5 waiting to be read as well. I’ll update you on the series as I go through it.

So now that I have shared with you my top favorite vampire novels, in the comments below share with me your own favorite books about dark, mysterious and brooding vampires.

An inspiration for a story can come from anywhere, and often it happens in the most random ways.

Case in point. I wasn’t planning in writing the book I am working on right now. I didn’t have any ideas in the pipeline and was going about my very busy and stressful daily life, when my oldest daughter uttered one since word, a name, which sent my imagination into frenzy, whipping up the story that I just had to write out.

Here is how it went down. My daughter was talking about one of her friends and mentioned her name, Amaris. “Oooh,” I thought, “This is really cool-sounding name. I should write a book where the main character is Amaris.” Let me point out, at that moment I had no idea what the book would be about, but the name got me really intrigued.

Since I’ve never heard name Amaris before, I decided to look up what it meant when I got home. When the wonderful world of the internets told me that Amaris meant ‘child of the Moon’, the goosebumps ran down my arms. I couldn’t believe it. It was just TOO good.

See, I’m a little obsessed with the Moon (if you don’t believe me, check out my Moon board on Pinterest). The Moon plays a significant role in my stories (in the Sleepwalker Chronicles the main character sleep walks during the full moon and the Blood Moon is a pretty big event causing all kinds of trouble). In my work-in-progress vampire novel, Love Me or Bite Me, a full Moon is front and center in a very important ceremony (let’s not spill any more beans here).

So, you can only imagine how excited I was to find out that the name of my main character had such a meaning behind it. I got even more excited when I found out that in Latin this name means ‘you are loved’. Those two things made me feel like, if I didn’t sit down to write, my head would explode! In my mind the initial idea was this: Amaris was a descendent of the Goddess of the Moon and she felt unloved, her main desire in life was to feel loved and wanted.

As I’m sure all of us at some point in life, I, too, felt unloved when I was younger and people that I fell for didn’t return the sentiment. That feeling was one of the worst feelings for me, and so, an idea of my heroine feeling unloved and yearning for affection resonated deeply with me.

I opened a blank text document and began to write like a mad woman. I wrote daily, never skipping a beat and wrote 65,000 words in a month. That was the fastest I’ve ever written, the words were pouring out of me. Every new paragraph I wrote inspired next one, every chapter finished made me want to see what will happen next.

Using the meaning for the name Amaris as a base, I have researched further on other names associated with the word ‘moon’ and those findings inspired other characters and places. One of the locations in the book, the beautiful city of Quito, Ecuador, was inspired by the fact that it is the closest to the Moon place on the entire Earth. My research of Quito inspired other details and turns of events. Btw, look up Quito online, what an amazing, gorgeous city it is, and it is now on my bucket list of places to travel.

So, as you can see, you never know where the inspiration will come from, you just have to catch it when it arrives.

What are the ways you get inspired?

Don’t let the inspiration hold you back.

Often, when we sit down to write, we don’t feel “inspired”. We are tired, reeling from stress from our regular day jobs and the last thing we want to do is open a page and be honest with ourselves. So we pretend that the issue here is a lack of inspiration, rather than our own fear of showing the world our insides.

We are afraid that once we put it on paper (real or otherwise), we will be vulnerable and the world will have a weapon against us. What we need to realize is that we are not alone in this. We need to realize that by being vulnerable we will find like-minded people that are looking for us to connect.

Once we write our souls out, the world might have a weapon against us, yes, but we will also have a protection in a form of a support, love, friendship of people that are not afraid to show the world what makes them tick, what helps them go on every day, what lights up or darkens their day.

Don’t be afraid to write. You will discover things inside of yourself you never knew where there. You will discover people who will appreciate you for who you are, real you, and help you be courageous every day.

Don’t let the inspiration hold you back. Don’t be afraid to write. The world is waiting for what you’ve got.

Ever stopped to think of all the random things that inspire you to write?

I can immediately think of a few that are common for many of us:

Music – soft quiet one for those love scenes, heavy-metal for those action scenes
Weather – for some it’s rain, while others get excited by a bright sunshine
A good book – the feelings it stirs up and how it moves us
A movie – same as a book but with sound and visual elements added

But there are other, more subtle reasons that inspire us to write which we don’t realize at times, that come with being human and living among people:

A story we heard while in line at the supermarket
A wrinkly hand of the mother that reminds us that the time together is limited
Sickness of the family pet that brings everyone together
A promise you made to a loved one
A promise you made to yourself
Legacy you want to leave your children
Curiosity and wonder
A desire to make someone’s life better

The reasons go on and on as are the books that were inspired by them.

What are the things that inspire You?

Recently I took on an Instagram challenge and one of the daily themes was an Author Bucket List. I had a bucket list of that type before, but it’s been forever since I had a look at it so I decided to write it again and see if I made any progress on the items I wanted.

I realized that I didn’t care for some items anymore, so I took them out, keeping the ones that still spoke to me. If I get any more cool ideas for the list, I will tack them on here in the future.

For now, here is my Author Bucket List…

My Author Bucket List:

Write a novel – Done! Published December 20th, 2014! First draft of two others completed, one is in rewrites
Become part of a writing group – 2011 and 2012
Take a writing class – 2011, 2012
Get novel professionally edited – Oct-Nov 2014
Publish a novel – Done! December 20th, 2014
Start a blog – 2013
Start a newsletter – 2014
Write a short story – 2014
Publish a short story – Oct 2014
Enter a writing contest – 2014 and was accepted into NaNoWriMo LA anthology
Win a writing contest
Complete NaNoWriMo
Join Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal chapter of Romance Writers Of America
Attend RWA conference
Meet my readers at one of the ‘Cons or a book festival, sign and sell my book – YEAH, Done! WonderCon 2015, thank you Emery!
Write four books a year – fantasy, writing, tech tips for writers
Write a book of short stories
Self-publish a book of short stories
Get published in a magazine
Guest post for a blog – 2014, on KaylaDawnThomas.com
Attend writers conference – 2013, 2014 and 2017
Meet someone in the writing industry that you admiire – 2017, Met Mark Lefebvre of Kobo Writing</>
Join writer’s society – 2013, GLAWS
Go on a writing retreat
Open a writer-friendly coffee shop with comfy seats and free wi-fi
Be a full time writer

 

They say if you dream it and write it down, it will happen. I’ll be hard at work to make it happen.

 

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!

 Just some of the awesome people in amazing costumes I met at the WonderCon 2015 this past weekend.

IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!

I was at the event for all 3 days. I walked all over the place, saw some amazing and creative costumes and met a lot of really cool people.

I spent about 3 hours each day at our booth #903 (Greater Los Angeles Writers Society) meeting readers and writers, talking about their awesome costumes and all the fun they were having at WonderCon, swapping stories and getting to know each other.

I shared the story of my YA novel Sleepwalker Chronicles: The Awakening with my new friends and loved the feedback I received. It was a first big outing for my “baby”. After all, it has been barely over 3 months as I have released my book.

I had a ton of fun and am so coming back next year! I’m already getting ideas on a costume (or two) that I will bring with me. So far I am definitely considering steampunk-themed dress and Raven’s costume (she is my favorite!).

This year I dressed up as my other favorite kick-ass lady, Trinity from “Matrix”. By chance, I ran into the rest of the Matrix gang in the hallways of the Convention Center and we snapped this pic together:

Maybe I will see you there!

XOXO

I don’t know about you, but I am super excited and even freaking out a bit!

Less than a week left till WonderCon 2015! And that means less than a week till I get to meet my existing and new fans, get a chance to introduce Sleepwalker Chronicles to more readers and maybe even participate in a masquerade!

WonderCon is taking place in the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA, just next door to Disneyland and is a “younger sister” to ComicCon of San Diego. WonderCon gathers about 35K-50K visitors every year. These are fans of comics and pop culture, science fiction and motion pictures. At the convention you can find book authors selling and signing books, comic book artists selling artwork, celebrities signing autographed pictures, fans dressed in some crazy themed costumes roaming the halls, panels being held for various shows and movies.

I will be at the WonderCon as a fan and as an author. You can find me and my book at the booth #903 (Greater Los Angeles Writers Society) for at least an hour every day, so stop by and and say hi.

See you there!

 

It’s time to PARTY! It’s time to CELEBRATE!!!

Sleepwalker Chronicles: The Awakening, the first book in the trilogy, is LIVE on Amazon!

Labor of love, many sleepless hours, writing, editing, editing, beta-reading, editing, editing, editing some more (you get the picture) is here at last. The e-book version is available starting now with the paperback version slated to come out in mid-January.

Thank you to all who helped along the way and supported me, thank you to all who followed me and witnessed my journey, it wouldn’t be the same without you! THANK YOU!!!

To celebrate the occasion, we are having a Facebook Official Book Release Party on Saturday, December 20th from 1 to 5pm PST, come on over to play games, win prizes and have an awesome time!!! See you there!

This day has finally come… After two years of labor, Sleepwalker Chronicles has a release date!

Sleepwalker Chronicles

Hear ye, hear ye!!! The e-book version of the long-awaited Sleepwalker Chronicles: The Awakening is slated for release on Saturday, December 20th!!!! WOOOO-HOOOOO!!!

The book will be released exclusively on Amazon in an e-book format with the paperback following shortly (look out for an announcement in January, or sign up for the Latest and Greatest Newsletter).

To celebrate such an exciting day, a party will be taking place on Facebook and Goodreads on the release day. The links to the party will be posted here, so come back and check soon.

For more information on the book, please visit SleepwalkerChronicles.com