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Hello to readers of this blog, I’m G.D. Ogan and I have a three book Paranormal-Romance Series in addition to my topic on a writers personal creativity versus an editor’s expectations.
Topic: Must the premise of a writer’s story “conform” to the expectations of an editor?
My feelings are that writers shouldn’t be bound by the expectations of others including all powerful editors. While true that finding a publishing house willing to “step outside the box” and publish stories that go against the norms of a specific genre’ has in the past been a seemingly insurmountable task, if we allow anyone to dictate what we write we will be untrue to ourselves and therefore negatively impact our creativity. As I see it, this is one of the great benefits in Indie publishing, that WE are responsible for saying what will and won’t be in our stories. My own experience with an editor trying to force me to NOT publish my first novel may be instructive. An editor had read my first novel prior to publication and said it violated the genre’ and therefore I couldn’t publish it. The specifics of his concern were that my novel contained vampires who, having been turned against their will, refused to abase themselves by becoming blood-thirsty attackers of innocent humans like the evil vampires who had changed them. That such a thing as “good vampires” violated the genre’! Clearly he had never read or seen the Twilight Series. He also said he had never heard of vampires being “intimate” with each other. Again Twilight among other novels had already had that as part of their stories. To make a long story short, rather than change my story to align itself with the editors narrow views of vampirism, I Indie published my “Immortal Relations” series of novels through Amazon’s Create Space Program and I’m glad I did. What follows is information about the first book in the series as well as where to find it along with the others currently available in print and digitally.
The Blurb (from the back cover of “Immortal Relations”):
When Gary Logan discovers an old black-and-white photograph of his father in Prague with a woman's handwriting on the back, he flies there to investigate where his father had worked, only to meet and fall in love with a beautiful lady who he believes to be a vampire. In love with her, Gary is initiated into her coven of guardian vampires, beginning an extraordinary journey of epic proportions.
Exciting, erotic, and full of heart-stopping action, Ogan's debut novel turns human-vampire lore on its head, creating a symbiotic relationship between the two species that deepens emotional connections to astonishing effect. But a coven of evil vampires bent on destroying the guardian vampires and feeding on the humans at will have other plans. Adam (Gary’s son) assists Czech military in almost wiping out the evil coven, beginning the ever-increasing relationship between vampires and humans. Gary and Adam then save Great Britain from nuclear theft and attack. Then when their nemesis make one last-ditch effort in Russia to bring all the peaceful societies down, Gary, Adam, and their coven must save the human species before their enemy's plans can come to fruition.
Probing the grey areas inherent in sexuality, family, and legend, Ogan weaves an amazing tale that examines the very nature of existence. An unrelenting thrill-ride of passion and action, Immortal Relations will leave you breathlessly awaiting the series' second and third installments, Immortal Relations, Love and War, and Immortal Relations Coming Out.
Excerpt: (about a true monster – even when “human”) GRAPHIC VIOLENCE
In "Immortal Relations" ex-Spetsnas (Soviet Special Forces) Lt. Semenov, now a vampire, has replaced the previous leader of the evil vampire gang. Semenov, a psychotic killer even while human, seeks to steal old Soviet Era weapons of mass destruction with which to destroy the guardian vampires and hold human societies ransom and force their governments to allow his vampires to feed at will.
Representatives of the guardian vampires seek assistance from the head of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to destroy Semenov’s gang. Reserve Major Zikoff, Semenov’s former commander, has been called in to brief General Kolukov head of Russian Forces about Semenov: "...the man was a stone-cold killer, delighting in murdering women and children. Semenov bragged that he had more blood on his hands than the rest of the Spetsnas Group combined. Semenov would actually hold up his hands to show how he had torn up the bodies of his victims. The only reason he wasn't court martialed for his heinous crimes was that Soviet leaders were desperate the world press not learn of atrocities routinely done in Afghanistan and Semenov did get results. When the intelligence troops heard of a village cooperating with the rebels, Semenov would attack it with MI-24s then land and butcher everyone. Men, women, children, sheep, goats, dogs, he killed everything...then he would burn anything left standing, leaving his "calling card" to serve as a warning!"
General Kolukov, who had gotten in Zikoff's face, looked a little ill, then quietly asked, "What was Semenov's calling card?"
Zikoff was sweating profusely now, "Semenov cut off their..."
"STOP!" the General yelled. "I want to hear nothing more of this beast Semenov! If I had been his commanding officer, I would have dragged him into the middle of the compound and shot him myself. What barbarian allowed him to continue in the Army?"
Zikoff looked like he was about to have a heart attack, so the General calmly asked, "Did you tell the headquarters about his atrocities?"
Now, eyes filled with tears, Major Zikoff said, "Repeatedly, it is why I asked to give up my scheduled promotion to higher rank and be placed into the Reserves. I no longer felt I could be a party to his crimes and couldn't get the headquarters to stop him. I had told them that I believed Semenov to be criminally insane and that he should be sent to an asylum for treatment and to safeguard society."
The General then patted Major Zikoff on the shoulders saying, "You did your best, and you couldn't have done more without the backing of the headquarters."
Major Zikoff broke down sobbing and sat down in a chair with his head between his knees. Through his sobs, he said, "So many women and children, so much unnecessary death...we had become worse than barbarians. I couldn't do that anymore...I could never do that anymore."
Everyone in the room had tears just listening to what had once been a great soldier, who had seen too much, done too much, and who seemed no longer alive, but looking out from the bottom of his own private Hell. No one approached him so Adam (none in the room knew Adam was a vampire) went over, kneeled down to look him in the eyes, and while he spoke soothingly to Zikoff, mentally gave him permission to forgive himself and allow himself a peaceful life. Zikoff was then able to get up, saying to those in the room he was sorry, asking the General if he could be excused. General Kolukov said, “Yes Major, you’ve aided us immensely. You tried to do the right thing, go home and rest. No one is ever going to bother you about this again…EVER!”
Kolukov had placed Zikoff under his own protection. Once the major was gone, with fire in his eyes, the General said, “I want this bastard Semenov ‘terminated with extreme prejudice!’ I don’t want even a piece of bone remaining; I want him utterly and completely destroyed!”
Adam knew that, as a vampire, Semenov had super-human strength and was a trained Spetsnas killer, but Adam wondered if the General couldn’t have prevailed against Semenov in hand-to-hand combat at that moment. He had never seen such deadly anger in a human before.
General Kolukov spun aground to his Chief of Air Staff and said, “If it takes nuclear weapons, I will get the President’s permission, I want these infiltrators utterly destroyed.”
Buy Links: Book #1, “Immortal Relations” http://amazon.com/dp/B006ZCBT6G Book #2, “Immortal Relations, Love and War” http://amazon.com/dp/B00A4IEHL6 Book #3 “Immortal Relations Coming
out”http://amazon.com/dp/G5BQS18
As an incentive to read about the books, one lucky reader of this Blog will win a free digital copy of his or her choice of the three. Just follow the guidance provided by the Blog Director on how to enter.
