C.V. Hunt's Blog, page 25

Book Review: Isaac by P.H. Dillard

[image error]
[image error] 4 out of 5
Should an angel kill an innocent human, he or she is castout of Heaven forever and forced to roam the Earth as a vampire. Isaac is onesuch creature, and the most powerful of his kind. Aside from thefar-from-angelic life he now has to deal with, and the sudden return of his ex-loverAshara, he is also handed the burden of saving the world. When a rebel group ofvampires concocts a scheme to free the angel Lucifer from Hell, so they can getback into Heaven, it is up to Isaac to stop them. If he can't, does he havewhat it takes to kill the devil? 
http://ph-dillard.blogspot.com/

REVIEW:
There is an ancient myth about the how Satan, Satan-Sataniel,Samael, Iblis, Morning Star, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Belial, or just theplain old Devil came into existence. Satan-Sataniel was determined to build athrone high above the clouds, and god found this to resemble his own powers, sohe cast Satan out along with his followers, and god cursed them to continuallyfly above the abyss. Along with this story, in the book of Enoch, god sentangels to earth to help mankind. While the angels were there, they werecorrupted by the men of clay, and god cast many of these angels out of heaven.Some of them were damned to walk the earth, and others were cast into theabyss.
P.H. Dillard took inspiration from these stories when hewrote Isaac. In Dillard's book, Isaac was the second angel god created, justafter Morning Star. For an eternity, Issac and Lucy (Morning Star) were theonly two angels, and the love that grew between them was like no other.
Over time, god created a league of angels with the purposeto help mankind. Since man is born into sin - and sin is in his blood - angleswhere sent to earth to filter the evil from humans - by drinking it. Yes, youread that right, angels drink blood.
God only bestowed on them one rule: never kill a human. Ifan angel were to kill a human – regardless if by accident – they would be castout of heaven, and force to roam the earth with an insatiable hunger. Theywould become vampires, lose their celestial powers, and be unable to contact orcommunicate with other angels.   
Some of these fallen have seemed to accepted their new fate,other are desperately trying to find a way for god to forgive them, and thenthere is coven that believes that they have a loophole that will allow themback in. This loophole could prove to be disastrous for heaven, earth, theabyss, and Isaac.
I thought the pacing of Isaac was fast, but it fit thestory, which is action-packed from beginning to end. I only wished the storywas longer, and it ended with what made me think there may be more. Overall Ithink P.H. Dillard did a fine job of taking this legend and making it his own. 

If you have trouble viewing this post, please visit www.authorcvhunt.com for the original. This site feeds to several others. <A HREF="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_... Widgets</A>

Book Review: Vaempires: Revolution: The Evolutionary War by Thomas Winship

[image error]
[image error] 5 out of 5
In the future, humans trigger a nuclear winter that lastsfor hundreds of years. Water levels rise. The shape of the world changes. Whenthe world recovers, vampires emerge from the darkness. For a millennium, humansand vampires fight for supremacy... until synthetic human blood is created,ushering in a period of peace and prosperity. 


And the world changes yet again. Vampires begin morphing into væmpires,warm-blooded creatures with an insatiable hunger for cold vampire blood. Thereis no rhyme or reason as to who morphs--male or female, old or young, from oneend of the world to another--no vampire is safe. And no human is safe, either,because these væmpires aren't interested in coexistence. They want threethings: the eradication of humanity, the enslavement of vampires, and theirascension as the dominant species on the planet. 
It is the morning of Princess Cassandra's sixteenth birthday. With the world'sattention focused on the heir to the vampire throne, væmpires revolt. In theirinitial attack, they kill the vampire and human leaders and take over thecapital. As Cassandra, her boyfriend, Daniel, and the rest of the world fightfor survival, væmpires unleash their secret weapons.

http://www.vaempires.com/

REVIEW:
With a strange twist, and a creative imagination, ThomasWinship has taken the vampire and turned it into his own creature.
The story starts with an action sequence and is nonstopaction through the rest of the book. Væmpires opens with a war being waged onthe capital of what is left of the world. Daniel, a fifteen year-old vampire,and the son of the captain of the guard, finds himself amongst a battle for hislife against an even more terrifying group of vampires referred to as væmpires.With most of the royal family dead, he must try to rescue one of the few survivorsof the family – Princess Cassandra.
Væmpires used to be regular vampires, but evolution has puta change to that. These vampires are warm-blooded, their hearts beat, they arestronger, have grown an extra set of thumbs, and their humanity is slowlyslipping back to an animal instinct of survival. They have been shunned by thehumans and vampire race. Vielyn, a former vampire, and former friend of theroyal family states it best:
FROM THE BOOK:"Vampires – our formerpeople – rejected us. The world at large ignored us. The medical communityfailed us. The government abandoned us. What else was left but to forge our ownpath?"
Vampires are able to survive on a synthetic blood, and havegain a peaceful resolution with humans. The synth-blood allows them to walk inthe daylight, and it quenches there never ending thirst for human blood. But væmpiresare unable to produce the synthetic dead blood of a vampire, and with thefeeling of being dejected by their own people, and uprising has been boilingbelow the surface.
Now the hunters have become the hunted, and vampires arediscovering that væmpires are more powerful that what they appear.
Væmpires was extremely original and inventive. It took anapocalyptic world, added vampires, some X-men-like mutants, and added somefuturist sci-fi elements. I know there are a lot of people that still liketheir old-school vampires, with the sunlight and holy relics, but I certainly likingthese new and improved vampires that have been emerging. It's time for thevampire to evolve into something more terrifying, and I can't wait to see thesequel to this book.

If you have trouble viewing this post, please visit www.authorcvhunt.com for the original. This site feeds to several others. <A HREF="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_... Widgets</A>

Goodreads Giveaway of Danse Macabre!

In order to get the word out that I have released another book I'm having another Goodreads giveaway. If you're a Goodreads member head on over to their site and get entered. You have until February 29, good luck. .goodreadsGiveawayWidget { color: #555; font-family: georgia, serif; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; background: white; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget img { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0 !important; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget a { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0; color: #660; text-decoration: none; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:visted { color: #660; text-decoration: none; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:hover { color: #660; text-decoration: underline !important; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget p { margin: 0 0 .5em !important; padding: 0; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink { display: block; width: 150px; margin: 10px auto 0 !important; padding: 0px 5px !important; text-align: center; line-height: 1.8em; color: #222; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; border: 1px solid #6A6454; -moz-border-radius: 5px; -webkit-border-radius: 5px; font-family:arial,verdana,helvetica,sans-serif; background-image:url(http://goodreads.com/images/layout/gr... background-repeat: repeat-x; background-color:#BBB596; outline: 0; white-space: nowrap; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink:hover { background-image:url(http://goodreads.com/images/layout/gr... color: black; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; }
Goodreads Book Giveaway Danse Macabre by C.V. Hunt Giveaway ends February 29, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter to win
If you have trouble viewing this post, please visit www.authorcvhunt.com for the original. This site feeds to several others.

Book Review: 33 A.D. by David McAfee

[image error]
The vampires ofthe era have long sought to gain a foothold into Israel, but the faith of thelocal Jewish population has held them in check for centuries. 

When one of their own betrays them to follow a strange young rabbi fromGalilee, the elders of the vampire race send Theron, a nine hundred year oldassassin, to kill them both. 

The rabbi's name is Jesus. Killing him should be easy.
http://mcafeeland.wordpress.com/

REVIEW:
33 A.D. was oneof the most creative and well researched books that I have read in a long time.The book is based in the timeline that the title states, with the back drop ofJerusalem, in the days leading up to Christ's crucifixion.   The Counsel ofThirteen is a small underground government invented and ruled by vampires. Theyhave long wanted a stake in Jerusalem, but there is a young rabbi that isteaching the Jewish population about love and forgiveness.
Theron, anine-hundred year old vampire, and the Lead Enforcer working for the counsel,has been sent to stop the spread of rabbi's sermons, and to dispose of arenegade vampire that has chosen to side with the proclaimed 'son of god'.Failure is not an option if you are part of the Bachiyr race (the term used forvampire), and it is punishable by death or a fate worse yet. The Bachiyr thatcannot stand the tests of the counsel are left wondering the world as afestering corpse that serves as slaves to the vampire race.
The vampires inthis book are powerful and ruthless – exactly how I like them. They feed off ofhumans to survive, but there is only one small problem, people who have faithin god seem to have a strange glowing ward that surrounds them. The essence thatshines from these people proves to be a problem for the vampires. The closerthe vampire comes to a person that is protected by their faith in god, the weakerthey become, and they are unable to feed from the faithful.
The human rabbinamed Jesus of Nazareth would be an easy kill, if Theron could get close to him.
FROM THE BOOK:It was not unheard of, of course, for ahuman to possess such a strong faith as to ward off one of his kind, but it wasrare. Theron had been surprised to see the strong glow around Jesus, who'd beenonly the third such person the vampire had encountered in his nine centuries.
In a strangetwist of events, and a monumental amount of 'what ifs', the author wove a greatweb of lies, murder, deceit and conspiracy among the vampire race and Christ'scrucifixion.  I look forward to read the sequel61 A.D. Well done David McAfee.



<A HREF="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_... Widgets</A>If you have trouble viewing this post, please visit www.authorcvhunt.com for the original. This site feeds to several others.

What I've learned in 2011, and the release of Danse Macabre!

Today is the official release of Danse Macabre, and itstumbled out of the gate around midnight. As I start writing this, it is 5:00pm here, and the book has only made it through Smashwords and Kindle so far. Iwill post the link for them, and those for the paperback when it is available,on the preview page at the bottom. This is a zombie novella, and it was just aside project that I was working on. Here is the book cover blurb:
Spencer Mason hasdiscovered a secret spell that will raise the dead, and as a funeral homedirector, there is no short supply of bodies. As Spencer builds a legion ofundead soldiers, he plans to get revenge for the torment he endured during hischildhood years - until Raven Anderson moves into town.
Blind since birth,Raven struggles to adapt with her new surroundings after the death of hermother. She finds a sympathetic shoulder to lean on when she meets Spencer, andthe two find out that they have a lot in common.
Raven senses thatSpencer is troubled by something that he isn't sharing, but the thing thattortures Spencer the most is something Raven cannot see.
Since today is the first day of the year - and I don'treally post much about myself - I figured that I would do a short year inreview. I never make a resolution because I don't like to break promises, and Iwould hate to disappoint myself by not holding true to my own word. Instead Istarted thinking back to one year ago. What I was doing, dreaming, and hoping,and then about everything that I've learned since then.
One year ago I was anxiously waiting for my final editedversion of Endlessly to come back fromthe editor. I had a slightly elevated hope that it would do decently wellonline. Don't get me wrong, at no point did I ever imagine, or hope, that I wouldbecome rich with this book, or series. I've read a lot of books, I know whatsells big, and Endlessly was not them.
Endlessly wasabout trying. Even though there are people that hate it, at least I tried, andthat is a lot more than most people can say. It may not be grand, or the nextgreatest novel, but I put my heart out there on display, and smiled when peoplestabbed it and called it crap. Why? Because that's what authors do. We slave,stress, worry, lose sleep, get frustrated, and spend months of our free timebuilding something for people to enjoy. Then someone comes along and tells us itsgarbage, and we smile, nod, and say thank you for your feedback. Or at leastthat is what an author should do. Some take it personal and attack the negativereviewer, which is a bunch of bull, not everyone has the same opinion, and Iwould hate to live in a world where everyone did.
Through this process I learned a lot. Things like grammar, punctuation,and sentence structure… all the things that I should have paid attention to inhigh school. But there was more than what I thought, like: formatting,cover design, pitches, marketing, cover letters, and constant rejection fromagents and publishers. It's enough to squash your self-esteem, and itmakes you question whether it's really all worth the effort.
I moved forward, even with all the negativity, and publishedLegacy. This time it moved a littleeasier because I knew what to expect. I took everything that I had learned, used it, plus I learned more about grammar. Reviewers were gentler, but I knowthat is to be expected. Let's face it; if you don't like a book, you sure ashell aren't going to read the sequel to it. I learned some more about repeatcustomers and their expectations, and still disappointed a few readers.
Then I joined The LL Book Review. Having written twobooks at this time, I knew what it was like to try and get your name out there. I have this weird thing about doing things for other people that I wouldlike done for me. (They call it The Golden Rule I hear.) I call it karma. When I was starting out, Ijust wanted someone to read my book and leave a review, and this is was the LLdoes. So after Legacy, I started writing reviews while I continued with my ownwriting venture.
Phantom was upnext, and at this point, people are constantly asking when it's going to be available.(Late February 2012) Phantom was thefirst book that I wrote that I actually felt confident with the way that itturned out. I know that any editor that would look at it would say that it wascrap, and it really needed to be cleaned up, but knowing how the firstdraft of Endlessly looked compared toPhantom, I was happy with all theprogress that I had made as a writer.
While Phantom wasoff in the hands of the editor, I started fiddling around with Danse Macabre. (And now we come fullcircle.) I never meant for it to be anything really serious, and wasn't evensure if I was going to publish it. I've spoken with other authors since becoming a reviewer at the LL, and I have started growing a small network of contacts.I asked one author if he would be interested in critiquing Danse Macabre, and he accepted. We had a huge meeting of the minds,and I can't begin to tell you how much we learned from each other. I had totake notes to remember it all, and since then, I have begun keeping a smallnotebook with the things that I learn about grammar on my desk, along with mygrammar book, dictionary, and TheElements Of Style.  
One year. It just amazes me how much I've learned in one year.I can't claim that I know everything about writing, and I still have a bumpyroad ahead if I continue to write, but I'm learning. And as long as you are open tosuggestions, and willing to learn from your mistakes, you won't go insane.
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again andexpecting different results." - Albert Einstein


If you have trouble viewing this post, please visit www.authorcvhunt.com for the original. This site feeds to several others.

Book Review: Creepers by Bryan Dunn

[image error]
[image error] 4 out of 5
Think Tremors when a zany group of characters struggle tosave their home after a genetically altered creeper vine invades a small deserttown with an insatiable thirst… and a taste for human blood.

Doc Fletcher, an eccentric biologist in the remote Mojave Desert, has finallycreated the ultimate drought-tolerant plant: a genetically engineered creepervine. It's destined to change the world, but not according to Doc's plans.Instead, this vine has a mind of its own. Mayhem ensues as the residents ofFurnace Valley (pop. 16), along with campers at the nearby hot springs, run fortheir lives – led by wannabe date rancher Sam Rainsford and the nerdy yetgorgeous botanist Laura Beecham, who has come to the desert for a reunion withthe father she has never known…

http://www.bryandunnbooks.com/

REVIEW:
Creepers hasall the makings of a B-side horror movie within its pages. There are strangemonsters, a colorful cast of characters, and the right combination of horrorand humor to keep you interested and turning the pages.
Furnace Valley isn't everyone's first choice when it comesto living the good life, but most of the residents have found their ownparticular way of dealing with it. Doc Fletcher invested his money into a homebecause of the seclusion, and the ability to work on his genetically engineeredplants. Sam Rainsford wants to grow seedless dates on his farm, and of course, everysmall town has a store and gas station that has to be manned.
Doc Fletcher is striving to engineer a ground cover that isdrought resistant. It would be a plant that would work as a creeping groundcover in the desert, with the intentions of eventually reworking the soil intosomething that could hold vegetation. It looks good on paper, but what happensif you can't stop the plant from taking over everything?
Laura Beecham - a botanist - only came to Furnace Valley toreunite with her father, Doc Fletcher. When she arrives she is greeted with theplant that her father engineered, and its unquenchable thirst.
The creeper plant has been altered to aggressively seek outa source of water, and the plant doesn't discriminate as to where that watercomes from. Did you know that up to 60% of the human body is made of water?
Bryan Dunn has done a great job in inventive horror, and Iwould recommend this to anyone that is looking for an action-packed off-beathorror story.

If you have trouble viewing this post, please visit www.authorcvhunt.com for the original. This site feeds to several others.
<A HREF="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_... Widgets</A>

The first chapter of Phantom is available!

[image error]


For those of you that have been following the Endlessly series, the first chapter of Phantom is now up in the preview section of my site. I will warn you again. If you haven't read the other two books, I would advise that you don't read it, as it may contain spoilers. It can be viewed here: http://www.authorcvhunt.com/p/phantom.html I'm still shooting for a publication date no later than the end of February.

[image error]




Also, by the end of the week, I should have the first chapter for Danse Macabre on my site as a preview. If all goes well, it should be available for purchase in paperback or as an eBook, no later than next week.









If you have trouble viewing this post, please visit www.authorcvhunt.com for the original. This site feeds to several others.

Book Review: The Kure by Jaye Frances

[image error] [image error] 5 out of 5Forbidden by law and denounced as an abomination by the church, the Kure has been hidden for centuries... John Tyler has never met Sarah Sheridan. But he knows he must find her, and somehow convince her that she is the key to unlocking the power of an ancient ritual that will rid his body of a rare and ravaging disease. But as cure quickly becomes curse, John realizes the ritual is more than a faded promise scrawled on a page of crumbling paper, and he discovers, too late, that the unholy text has unleashed a dark power that is driving him to consider the unthinkable. Ultimately, John must choose between his desperate need to arrest the plague that is destroying his body, and the virtue of the woman he loves, knowing the wrong decision could cost him his life.

http://www.jayefrances.com/


REVIEW:
John Tyler is twenty-three years old. His father died in 1865, and his mother died while giving birth to him. He has inherited the family farm, and the eligible ladies in town are waiting for him to take a wife. John hasn't given much thought to starting a family, but all of that is about to change.
John is woken by a horrible twisting pain in his gut; a pain that he believes will eventually go away. Upon inspecting himself he finds that the skin below the belt is bruised and spreading. Barely able to take the pain any more, John makes his way into town to see the local doctor. 
The doctor's diagnosis is grim, but he believes that he can help John by performing a bloodletting. Yes ladies and gentlemen, the doctor would like to set leeches on John's manhood to draw the poison from his body. John's natural reaction is terror at the thought, and he has heard whisperings among the elders of other cures. Defiant against the thought of a bloodletting, after having witness people die from the procedure, John forces the doctor to reveal to him alternative remedies. 
What the doctor shows him is a book of ancient spells, which are so immoral in ingredients, that it has been ban by law and the church. The spell and the requirement are thought to be so immoral that it could destroy the person's soul that is being cured, and the people involved. But next to the bloodletting, John is willing to take the risk at first.
FROM THE BOOK:He offered no final muster of resistance, no new wave of strength. He was finished. The cure had become a curse, and it owned him. It was as much a part of him as an arm or leg. In the end, he knew he could only puppet the dark master's wish.
John set out to find the one ingredient that is essentially crucial to the ritual – a virgin on her eighteenth birthday. He struggles with the morality of the situation, for his soul, and the soul of the girl that he seeks. 
I'm usually able to calculate how much I like a book by how long it takes me to read it, and in this case it only took me a day because I couldn't but it down. Jaye Frances wrote a very compelling story that kept me glued to the pages. She laid a great foundation for a series as there will be a sequel call The Karetakers, and I am really looking forward to it.  
If you have trouble viewing this post, please visit www.authorcvhunt.com for the original. This site feeds to several others.

Book Review: Vaempires: White Christmas by Thomas Winship

[image error]
[image error] 5 out of 5
It's almost Christmas. Withthe global holiday days away, the people of the world should be turning theirattention toward celebrating peace and goodwill, but tension between humans,vampires, and væmpires is at an all-time high. Desperate for solutions, KingBrant schedules a secret summit deep in North America's Northern Forest. Alongwith Queen Anne, Princess Cassandra, Daniel's family, and the human presidentand First Lady, the vampire leader seeks to reaffirm the ties between humansand vampires, while brainstorming ways to respond to the growing hostilityamong væmpires.
Meanwhile, Daniel and Cassie's relationship is at an all-time low. The princess is still reeling fromher breakup with Vielyn, and Daniel doesn't know what he should or shouldn't doto help. Little does he know that the summit will be flooded withsurprises—guests, allegations, accusations, proposals, and even Christmas Everevelations—but not all of the surprises will be pleasant.
www.vaempires.com
REVIEW:
While mostChristmas stories warm us with goodwill and peace, Væmpires: White Christmashighlights the turmoil between the races of humans, vampires and the everdefiant væmpires. The second book in the Væmpire series is the prelude to thehostile takeover of the world by the væmpire race.
Christmas isnear and all of the race's hierarchies are vacationing together in the NorthernForest for a secret meeting. While the væmpire race does not have a leader – asthey are still considered vampires – a councilman, Donrel, which has evolvedinto a væmpire, has taken it upon himself to crash the holiday. 
Donrel appearsat the summit with a request to represent the væmpires with accusations thatthey are being purposely ostracized. There have been rumors that a scientist,which has been working on a form of synthetic vampire blood for the væmpires toconsume, is going to make an appearance. Donrel is admitted into theproceedings and the party with the intentions of keeping the peace that seemsto be falling apart rapidly.
Cassie is stillconfused over her breakup with Vielyn after he mutated into a væmpire, althoughshe never had a deep affection for him. Donrel claims that she only broke offher relationship with Vielyn because of his affliction, and the tensiontightens.
The book is agreat addition to this series and it shows us the growing threat that led tothe war in Revolution. It gives us in depths look at the political powerstruggle leading up to the fallout that we witness in the first book.
But it gives usmore than that – Daniel and Cassie. Amongst the bickering of the politicalforces, we are given Daniel's ever growing affection for Cassie. WhiteChristmas takes us back the first threads of Daniel's love for Cassie as hestruggles with how, and whether, to tell her how he feels.
Thomas Winshiphas me hooked. With every new invention of the vampire there is a great book behindit, and I'm looking to see what Væmpire series has to bring.


If you have trouble viewing this post, please visit www.authorcvhunt.com for the original. This site feeds to several others. <A HREF="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_... Widgets</A>

My holiday gift to you.

The holidays are here, and I wanted to give you a gift. 
In case you haven't seen my posts, Endlessly is now a free download. You can get it in whatever format you need at www.smashwords.com. I'm still working to make it free on Amazon, and you can help by telling them about the lower price. You can find all the links at the bottom of the preview page. 
With the holiday upon us, and Phantom only a few months away, I have lowered the price of Legacy to $0.99. This is not a holiday special, but a permanent price change, just like Endlessly. I hope that this will give people a chance to read both books before Phantom is available.
You may have read a previous post about some love poetry that I wrote. I don't claim to be a poet. It's just something that I do to pass time, and clear my head, when I'm writing. I submitted four poems for a love poetry anthology, and one was accepted. I can't post the winning poem as part of the publishing agreement on my end, but I can give you one that was turned away. The poem that was accepted was in tanka form, which is a type of Japanese poem, and you can read more about them HERE. The following poem is free form, and the basic description of free form is: anything goes. There is no rhyme or reason in a free form poem. Enjoy!

Countdownto Collision by C.V. Hunt


Your skin blazes with the spectrum;
it's embedded withuntouching light.
I long for you to shed before me,
your beauty that ishidden.


Eyes of the scorching sun,
blasphemous to lookupon them,
Iwill forever wait for them to meet mine.
I am humbled in your presence.


Magnetic fields as we pass,
drawing us to oneanother,
oneday our paths will cross again.
My heart beats for the collision. 



If you have trouble viewing this post, please visit www.authorcvhunt.com for the original. This site feeds to several others.