Seventh Star Press is proud to announce Elizabeth Donald as the latest addition to our author family with a new compendium containing her highly-acclaimed Nocturnal Urges novels! Featuring brand new cover art by A. Christopher Drown, the release is set for late March and will bring Elizabeth’s popular series back into eBook and print editions for fans worldwide!
“We are thrilled to have Elizabeth join the Seventh Star Press family as we move into a new and exciting phase at the press,” commented Seventh Star Press representative Stephen Zimmer. “She is one of the most well-loved authors on the convention circuit, by both readers and peers alike. Her exceptional talents as a writer are well-established. We couldn’t be more excited to have this great series and world-class author find a home with us.”
The forthcoming release will contain the novels Nocturnal Urges, A More Perfect Union, and Abaddon, the original three installments in the Nocturnal Urges series. The series features an alternate version of present-day Memphis in which vampires walk among us, but are not treated as our equals. They work the night shift, the jobs no one else wants, and they’re not too happy about it. Meanwhile, humans take advantage of the pleasures vampires can provide, but call them friends? Lovers? The gap between human and vampire stretches wide as death rises in the streets of Memphis.
Synopsis of the three novels included in this compendium:
Nocturnal Urges: It’s the most popular club in the Memphis nightlife. Part legal bordello, part feeding ground for the city’s vampires, Nocturnal Urges offers pleasure and pain in one sweet kiss. It’s the ultimate addiction: both drug and sex at once. For the vampires, it’s the only way to survive in a world where the creatures of the night are a dark underclass, ignored until the humans need another fix.
Into this world comes Isabel Nelson, a young woman seeking only a night’s pleasure. But after Isabel’s lover takes her to try the bite, she cannot stop thinking about Ryan, the dark vampire with whom she shared her lifeblood – and who is now suspected of murder. Isabel falls into a world where passion and love are miles apart, where life and unlike have little meaning… and someone is hunting in the shadows.
A More Perfect Union: Samantha Crews has lived a long time in the shadows of Memphis, working at Nocturnal Urges and hiding from the vampires that darken her past.
Det. Anne Freitas is stuck with a new partner, a young woman with a chip on her shoulder. Now they’re assigned to investigate a series of threats against congressional candidate Robert Carton, for whom Samantha volunteers.
But Samantha is falling for Danny Carton, the candidate’s son – an idealist who wants to make life better for humans and vampires alike. But there’s a lot Danny doesn’t know about Samantha.
He doesn’t know she’s a vampire.
He doesn’t know she works at Nocturnal Urges.
He doesn’t know his own father is one of her clients.
And he doesn’t know what’s stalking her…
Abaddon: Abbadon. The Lady Zorathenne requests the honor of your presence at a celebration. A toast, if you will. Followed by a feast.
Beneath the dark Memphis streets, something is stirring. Filled with ancient fury. Seeking revenge on the ones who live above. A revenge born in fire.
The fires are ranging in Memphis and no one is safe. Ryan and Samantha must descend into darkness beyond their imagining to find answers to the mysteries of the past, as Detectives Freitas and Parker seek the truth about the present.
And the return of an old foe could make the future a dark place indeed… save for the flames of Abaddon.
About Elizbeth Donald:
Elizabeth Donald is a writer fond of things that go chomp in the night.
A writer since her Mother’s Day essay won a newspaper contest in the 1980s, Elizabeth’s Nocturnal Urges vampire series first hit bookstores in 2004-7. It won the Darrell Award twice and was a finalist for the Prism Award and other honors. Next came the Blackfire zombie series, which began with The Cold Ones in 2008. It sold out its print run in 48 hours, and its sequel Blackfire soon followed from Sam’s Dot Publishing.
Elizabeth’s work includes a number of novels, novellas, short stories and essays that have appeared in a variety of publications. One story, “Wonderland,” won the Darrell Award in 2006 and was included in her short-story collection, Setting Suns. In 2013, Elizabeth launched her photography site, selling nature and art photography online and featured in various art shows and events. Her 2013 Kickstarter project brought in nearly four times its goal, funding a national book tour and her newest novella, Gethsemane.
Upcoming projects include the relaunch of the Nocturnal Urges series with Seventh Star Press, to be released in March 2015. Her new short story collection, Moonlight Sonata, will be released in 2015 from New Babel Books. Other projects on their way include Banshee’s Run, a science fiction adventure novel.
By day, Elizabeth is a newspaper reporter in the St. Louis region. She is the president of the St. Louis Society of Professional Journalists and a member of SPJ’s national ethics commission, part of the team that rewrote the ethics code adopted by hundreds of news organizations worldwide in 2014. She is also a freelance editor working with small presses and beginning writers, and writes CultureGeek, a pop-culture review column. She is the founder of the Literary Underworld, an author cooperative helping small-press writers and independent presses promote and sell their work throughout the country.
Elizabeth is married to author Jim D. Gillentine, has a teenage son who is wholly unimpressed with her work, and they all live in Illinois in a haunted house. In her spare time, she… has no spare time.
Find out more about Elizabeth and her work at elizabethdonald.com!
Here’s what some reviewers have had to say about the Nocturnal Urges series…
“Gripping and raw with intense emotion and great characters… This vampire world and its characters are created so realistically you almost expect to hear about them on the evening news, and not be able to sleep afterwards.” — Coffee Time Romance
“ An old-fashioned whodunit with the violence we’ve come to expect in any vampire novel; a love affair against the odds; and a vampire with a tortured past… definitely a keeper!” — Vampire Book Club
“One can never fully prepare for the onslaught of a Donald novel. I should have known that… The tension increases throughout, making it impossible to set aside this book until reaching the last page.” — Author Kit Tunstall
“Not a romance by any means… a story of loss and revenge. A story of love and a hate that has lasted for a hundred years and that will not be denied. It is a story of fire. The fire of the human and the vampire hearts… A storytelling ability to rival that of Stephen King.” — Enchanting Reviews
“The unexpected way this story evolves is magnificent. If you, like me, are enamored with vampires, then this is the book for you.” — Coffee Time Romance
“Elizabeth Donald once again takes readers on a remarkable ride through the shadowy world of vampires, while exploring some of the darker sides of humanity… This is a beautifully-written book with an enormous amount of depth and detail that really bring Ms. Donald’s vampires to life.” — JERR magazine
“Funny, scary, passionate and quirky… worth the price of admission!” — Ecataromance.com
“Enthralling and dark with danger, suspense and sex, Nocturnal Urges is a must-read for vampire fans.” — Romance Reviews Today