Coffee Chat with Author Simon OKill & Release Preview

I'm welcoming Simon OKill to the Coffee Chat today to talk about his upcoming paranormal release. Of course, he'll have to answer a few questions first. :) How do you take your coffee, Simon?

SIMON:  I take it orally, just kidding. I’ll have it black with a tot of whisky to cool it down. You do have whisky? 

Ally: I have Baileys. Will that do? While I'm getting our drinks fixed just right, tell our readers about your background.

BIO:
I live with my wife, Shirlee Anne and our cat, in a pretty coastal town in South Wales, UK. We both love Stephen King and had read many of his books and enjoyed their transition to the screen. Due to our love of books, my wife and I dabbled in writing for some years as a hobby. We were approached by a film company to write a paranormal TV series. We struggled most nights and all through weekends to come up with 22 episodes only for the company to go bust. Then after an accident at work, I was forced into early retirement due to disability. I used my newfound skills as a writer to help with my depression. We decided to use our TV series episodes as templates for film scripts and novels. My writing became more serious as certain A-list actors expressed interest in my scripts and my debut novel Nobody Loves a Bigfoot Like a Bigfoot Babe was accepted by Christopher Matthews Publishing after so many British publishers turned it down.
Ally:  I've placed a list of your writings at the end of this article. So, now tell us something about you that isn't in your bio.

SIMON:  I sleep on the left side of the bed and eat my peanuts chilled with a glass of red wine.

Ally:  I've heard of crackers in bed, but wine and peanuts is a new one. Oh, you didn't meant at the same time...or did you?
Let's get serious and talk about writing. What was your writer's journey to publication?

SIMON:  Long before I bumped into you lovely guys on ASMSG (an online authors' group), I was floundering like a fish out of water. Rejections were arriving thick and fast. Agents even refused to answer my requests. Actors said yes to my screenplays but even that was not enough to get attention. What to do?  With so many scripts gathering edust on my hard drive I thought, what the hell, let’s convert them to novels. And 7 frustrating years later a publisher in America – Christopher Matthew Publishing picked up our first novel – Nobody Loves a Bigfoot Like a Bigfoot Babe. Now I have self published Luna Sanguis a vampire romance set in Paris 1925. Due out 15th July.
 
Ally:  What do you do when you're not writing? Do you have a hobby? 

SIMON:  When I have the time, Ally, I search for fossils on our local Jurassic beach in S Wales with my wife. We have a fine collection of ammonites.

Ally:  Let's try some Quick Answer Questions: 
    a. favorite tv show: - Dexter 
    b. how many hours of sleep do you require? – sleep? Vampires don’t sleep. 
    c. Which comes first: characters, plot or setting? – my characters are the plot. 
    d. Do your vampires sparkle? – most certainly not – they are dark, nasty and totally ruthless as they are addicted to
        Eternal. 
    e. one item on your bucket list: - Take my wife to Paris. 

Ally:  One last question before we get to your new book. What makes your vampire series stand out from the others?

SIMON:  The Luna Series shows what happens as a vampire changes from human to the beautiful undead, how her life is linked to the cycle of an Eternal Moon – an actual rare occurrence, and also delves inside her mind as the powerful vampire personality takes control over the weaker human one. Oh and explains our more violent history as a slideshow.

Ally: Okay, you have my attention. Tell us more.
BOOK BLURB:

Paris 1925. 
A young woman is nearing her Eternal Vampire state as her birthday approaches. She is held captive by the hybrid vampire she created and slowly drained of her pure blood to keep his addiction in check. She outwits him and escapes to a chateau in the hope of reaching maturity. But he follows her unmistakable scent and massacres all that dare protect his supply of Eternal blood.
She awakens in a tiny room trapped and defenseless with amnesia, but something deep in her subconscious yearns to be set free by the next full moon – the date of her Eternal Birthday.
Her true self, Eternal, emerges in brief flashes of awareness to protect her from the horrors of this terrifying prison. Desperate, she forges an alliance with her true love, a gorgeous young doctor treating her.  
But her nemesis is out there somewhere, relishing the hunt for her blood – and nothing will stop him from becoming Eternal. 

SYNOPSIS:

Luna Sanguis is set in Paris and the French countryside June 1925. 
Delicate Rose is a young woman nearing her Eternal Vampire state as her 19th birthday approaches. She was born on June 6th, 1906 at precisely 6am during the zenith of the Eternal Moon. And in 4 days time the Eternal Moon shall shine once more to bring forth Eternal, a vampire so powerful, nothing can stop her. But, she is held captive by the brutal hybrid vampire, Lucien. He is a Suckling due to his heightened addiction to an Eternal’s blood and only by taking all her blood after the eternal making will he be set free. 
     All his young life Lucien has enjoyed inflicting pain on his Delicate Rose. It’s his way of showing his twisted love for her. He really can’t help himself for on the night he read his vampire’s bible - Dracula, Lucien became possessed by the devious demon, The Count, hiding amongst the book’s pages. And The Count needs to become Eternal so he may cause chaos and destruction.
     With just 36 hours to go, Delicate Rose escapes her garret prison in Paris. Now the blood hunt is on. The Count Lucien and his two other Suckling Vampires track down her unmistakable scent, but each time she escapes with the help of a stranger who will become her true love. 
     The Count leaves a trail of corpses as his rage boils over. Where is his Delicate Rose? Having slaughtered all her friends at a chateau, his former home of all places, Lucien is left confused. He can no longer sense her fear. She has vanished. 
     Eternal wakes up in a tiny prison-style room with no name, no memory at all. Something stirs in her subconscious. Something otherworldly yearns to be set free by the next full moon – the date of her Eternal Birthday, just 24 hours away. Can she survive long enough for the final transformation? Her only hope is Edouard, her designated true love and psychiatrist treating her. But the more memories that surface the stronger Eternal becomes and yet she must depend on her true love for her very existence for out there somewhere, He is relishing the hunt for her blood – and nothing will stop him from becoming Eternal. 

                              Look for Luna Sanguis at book sellers on July 15th!


You can contact the author through the following links:
http://facebook.com/simondokillwriter
http://twitter.com/simonokill
https://www.amazon.com/author/simondokillwriter
http://goodreads.com/tassyoneill
http://tassyoneill.wix.com/the-phantom-bigfoot

Other works by Simon OKill:

Luna Aeturnus is the sequel to Luna Sanguis and will be ready for release this Autumn.

Bigfoot Episode 2 - It's a secret!

SS-steppenwolf is a supernatural retelling of WWII involving the Occult Warfare department run by Himmler. Think Indiana Jones searching for a werewolf.

Scripts: 

‘Flip Side’ is one of my most exciting screenplays to date with its unusual slant on a supernatural gangster story that encompasses music and dynamic dance sequences to portray the action. The script has been optioned by Tasha Bertram of Brodie Films and Stuart St Paul has come on board to direct and co produce this fascinating piece of work. 

‘Nightmare Circus’ is a supernatural revenge mystery script set in the Australian outback. 

‘Dark House’ is set in Massachusetts, US, where a lonely female artist must overcome her agoraphobia to escape from three kidnappers holed up in a house haunted by a witch finder’s hanging tree. 

‘Circus of Blood’ is a horror script set in Rome AD79 where two citizens go on a dangerous quest to kill a brutal serial killer. Their adventures end in Pompeii.

‘Hunter’s Moon’ is a contemporary supernatural western script set on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall.

"The Last Warlord" is set during WWII and tells of Major Stewart of MI6 who must find the Nazi’s secret Atlantis base in Antarctica or the entire world will be doomed

      Thanks, Simon, for visiting the blog today. Good luck with your release on July 15!

                        Thanks to our readers for joining us! Please come back soon!