Description:
Winner of the Compulsion Reads Quality Book Endorsement
Taralie Severin and her three sisters are a powerful coven of modern-day witches who banish mythical creatures in between classes and shifts at the police station. But when Taralie is kidnapped by vampires and converted into the undead, her sisters are ordered to execute her for crimes against the Milunfran order. Refusing, the sisters become fugitives from both their kind and vampires alike.
Ignorant and hunted, Taralie becomes entangled with unlikely allies, a band of vampires in hiding from the ruling vamperic government. With this new addition to their coven Taralie must balance duty with desire while learning not everything is as it seems, their enemies are worse than she knows, and she could be on the verge of ending a thousand-year-old civil war.
Abomination
Taralie Severin and her sisters have secured a non-aggression pact with the rulers of the vampire world, the Noricum. Having relocated to Cannon Beach, Oregon, Alexander prepares to marry his beloved Tara. But when an encounter with average vampires goes wrong, the Severin coven’s fragile amnesty with the Noricum is destroyed. With the supremacy of their rule challenged, the Noricum set out to restore the balance of power, leaving the Severin family two choices – die on their feet, or live on their knees.
Rubicon
Hidden away on a Caribbean island, Tara's body survived abomination while her mind did not. Strangled from within by Verus's accumulated memories, the eldest Severin sister struggles under the weight of so many conciseness inside her mind. But the Noricum are not idle, nor are they forgiving. Enraged by Tara's murdering of their princess, they hunt the Severins relentlessly. After turning a powerful halfling and declaring open war, the Severin coven must choose between defending the Milunfran witches protecting humanity or their own extinction.
GUEST POST
How I Came to Write The Discord Trilogy
One day I was avoiding writing a college paper. While perusing the Apple trailers site, I saw a movie preview that interested me. I called my sister.
“Hey, have you ever heard of a movie called Twilight?”
Her reply was sharp and sudden. “Don’t do it, Lauren!”
I had no idea what I’d stumbled upon to cause such a visceral reaction.
“What is it?”
My twin sister replies, “You know that book Cass (another sister) was talking about where people should have more important things to decide than if Bella chooses the werewolf or the vampire? That’s the book she was talking about.”
I only vaguely remembered that comment, it was months ago. Despite her pleadings, I went and saw the movie. I didn’t understand what the big deal was. The new day-walker and amplified ability mythology interested me, but I didn’t read fiction at that time. I thought it a waste when there was so much news, philosophy, and research to learn about.
But, I was curious as to what appealed to such a large audience. I mean, it was being put in the same sentence as Harry Potter and even I as a recluse had heard of that.
I stumbled onto FanFiction with a misguided Google search.
Many of you have heard Fifty Shades of Grey started as a Twilight FanFiction and you’d be correct. I started reading different FanFiction stories and was amazed at the intensity of them. About half of them played in the Twilight universe, the others were either cannon divergent (applied some rules of the Meyer universe). The others were “all human” meaning just what is says, no vamps.
For months I was on the “CrackFic”. Human, vampire, different points of view… everything worth reading. I’m a speed reader and retain a ridiculous amount of what I read. Then a thought entered my head – could I write a fanfic?
You get the idea.
So I write my first book. It took six months. Personally, I would have done it differently but thought I should keep an “all human fanfic” book as close to Meyer character cannon as I could. When I typed “The End” I kinda bawled. I didn’t have friends everyone could see and the ones I did have just died with those final words. The characters in my head went silent. I was bereft.
I lasted all of four days before posting my book under a pen name.
Against all expectations, I started getting reviews. Through those reviews I got to relive the characters through the reader’s eyes. Even so, the void was still painfully empty so I did the only thing I knew. I wrote another book.
I couldn’t stop.
Another six months passed before the second book was finished and once again, I bathed in the critique and excitement of reader’s reviews. The third book was coming along well when “it” happened. My twin started talking about writing a fanfic book (I’d gotten her into fanfic in a very roundabout way). I started giving pointers on story outlining, flushing out chapters and content when she asked me…
“How do you know so much about this?”
Honestly, I just couldn’t think of a lie fast enough.
“I may or may not have written two books. I may or may not be on my third.”
Pandora’s box had been opened, I couldn’t take it back. She followed me around for hours looking like the kitten off a pet adoption commercial, begging me for a copy. At first I resisted her whimpering, her desperate pleas to read my books. I told her she would hate them, that she would think less of me. Her begging only increased.
Finally I gave in.
For hours she sat at the computer spontaneously laughing. I’d call out from across her house, “What part are you on?”
She’d reply and I’d go back to pacing the floor like an expectant father.
By three in the morning I couldn’t keep my eyes open. When I woke up at nine am, she was in the same place with a half empty glass of water and a cereal stained bowl, still reading.
She loved it, and wanted to collaborate on something new. I broke away from FanFic and moved into original cannon, my own universe. I’ll always be grateful for the training wheels FanFic gave me, but I wanted more dynamic supporting characters, richer history, and suspense. The epic urban saga created from that tapestry fills a void FanFic never could. Yes, I just used those two words together and here’s why.
My fourth, fifth, and sixth books are what we’re talking about today. The Discord Trilogy is complete as well as an Easter egg of short stories from other character points of view, compiled into a novella. If you’re looking for similar series, look up Dune, Charmed, Hunger Games, and X-men movie type science fiction. I promise Rubicon (Book III) doesn't suck like X-Men The Last Stand did.
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I'm Lauren Hodge, a chemist turned author with three children, a lot of friends no one else can see, and a swearing habit. Writing is something I stumbled into on accident. I was reading fiction for the first time as an adult and wondered if I could do it. It never crossed my mind to publish until my twin got a hold of my manuscripts and pressured me into it like the cool drug seeking kid from the After School Specials.
Because of that, my books are different. I don't write because I have a story to tell. I write because there is a story inside my head and it's merely using my fingers to get out. I enjoy writing protagonists that are flawed and enemies that aren't. Not everyone is all good or all bad and I love the philosophical process of defining that grey area.
There are two parts of communication. What is articulated and what is received for only the latter can compel action. You, the reader, are more important than me, the author. I relish understanding what you receive from my articulation. To help with that, I have editors - lots and lots of editors. Editors are the heroes authors need, but not the heroes they deserve. As an author, I strive every day to be worthy of professional editors.
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