In Darkness We Must Abide is the epic saga of one young woman caught in the dangerous world of the creatures of the night.
Already living in the shadows due to her albinism, Vanora is just a little girl when her older brother inadvertently unleashes a terrible evil from the family crypt that changes their lives forever.
As she grows up in a world where beautiful deadly beings hunt by night, one captures her eye and her heart. Yet, can she trust the mysterious Armando? For there is a powerful entity plotting to claim her when she reaches adulthood in order to fulfill an ancient prophecy, and her enemy has enveloped her in a web of deceit, casting doubt on all she believes to be true. Soon, she will have to fight not only to save those she loves, but also for her very soul.
Rhiannon Frater delivers a chilling adventure once again with this multi-part epic serial with a dynamic cast, old school vampires, bloody action, a smoldering forbidden love, and a terrifying villain set against the backdrop of a modern day vampire war.
This paperback includes all five episodes of the first season of the serial.
The Origin of a Supernatural Serial
Guest Post by Rhiannon Frater
At the end of last year, I stumbled across an old manuscript lurking in the badlands of
my hard drive. I was shocked to unearth the story, having forgotten I had it converted
to Word years ago from my old word processing format. For years I had considered
it trunked and lost somewhere in the storage in the garage. Opening the file, I
rediscovered a story I had sank most of my heart and soul into a very long time ago
when I was just starting to write horror novels.
In Darkness We Must Abide was my first full-length original work. I spent hours at
my old typewriter creating the first draft of the manuscript. Later, I bought a word
processor and retyped the entire manuscript, saving it onto floppy discs. Yes, this was a
long time ago!
As I read over my old work, I realized several things. One, I still absolutely loved the
two primary leads, Armando and Vanora; and two, the story was solid, but needed some
revision. I was very young when I wrote the story, inexperienced in life, love, and long
lasting relationships, and this clearly showed. Also, I was under immense pressure from
people in my life to write something “nice and normal,” so I struggled quite a bit with
certain themes in the story. Reading over the manuscript, I saw exactly the changes
I needed to implement to make it a stronger, vibrant read. I set it aside, considering
reworking it into a trilogy at a later date.
At the beginning of this year, I began toying with the idea of doing a serial.
As The
World Dies was originally written as an online serial, and I’d missed the immediate
feedback that came with the release of each new part. I had an idea for a whole new
fresh work, but was intimidating by having to fit it into my already overloaded writing
schedule. Then I saw an article about taking an old manuscript and converting it into a
serial. Instantaneously, I knew that In Darkness We Must Abide was the perfect story
to be converted into a serial. It was already divided into three distinct parts and it was
huge! In fact, one of the reasons I couldn’t sell the book in its old form was that it was
one massive book that far exceeded the word count limits of most publishers.
I instantly divided the first third of the story into the five episodes that make up season
one. Extremely nervous, I started the revision process with the intention of each part
reading like a television show in the reader’s mind. I was shocked at how easily the story
fell into an episodic format, but was thrilled at the same time. Also, the voices of the
characters readily reawakened in my mind, much to my relief.
In my youth, I had made several big mistakes. When a test reader had an adverse
reaction to my lead character being an albino, I altered her appearance. I even changed
her name to something I thought sounded fancier. When I started revising, the first
thing I did was give Vanora her name back and restore her albinism. I had robbed my
lead character of an important part of not only her physical appearance, but her life
experience as an albino. I also embraced all the themes I had skirted around in the
earlier drafts, out of fear of criticism.
Side note: Humorously, I spent a lot of time trying to avoid overt sexual themes out of
fear of offending my mother. This is the same woman who would later call me up to
tell me how much she loved the sex scenes in Pretty When She Dies because they were
“hot.”
When I finally sent the first episode off to my beta readers, I was terrified. How would
they react to a gothic horror novel I had conceived so long ago? When the rave reviews
started flowing in, I was so relieved. My story had officially risen from the grave.
Since the release of the first episode of
In Darkness We Must Abide, I’ve been having a
great time discussing the story with readers. A serial feels much different from a trilogy
or series because the installments come out much quicker and there is less waiting for
the readers. As a writer, it’s a challenge to give the readers something they can enjoy
in small increments, but also instills in them the desire to read the next episode. The
immediate feedback is also a great way for me to gage what is working, and what’s not.
Though the fan reaction will not affect the overall story arc, to some degree it does affect
the presentation of it. Because of the mad love for Armando, I have expanded his role
significantly in the first season.
I have enjoyed my serial experience so much. I’m already anticipating doing one next
year! This time it will be a whole new writing project, but it was definitely worthwhile
digging up In Darkness We Must Abide and sharing it with my readership.
Author Bio: Rhiannon Frater
Rhiannon Frater is the award-winning author of over a dozen books, including the
As the World Dies zombie trilogy (Tor) , as well as independent works such as
The Last Bastion of the Living (declared the #1 Zombie Release of 2012 by Explorations Fantasy Blog and the #1 Zombie Novel of the Decade by B&N Book Blog), and other horror novels. Her next novel for Tor,
Dead Spots, will be published in 2014. She was born and raised a Texan and presently lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and furry children (a.k.a pets). She loves scary movies, sci-fi and horror shows, playing video games, cooking, dying her hair weird colors, and shopping for Betsey Johnson purses and shoes.
Giveaway
This giveaway is open to US/CAN residents only.
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