Vampires: They’re so 2009. Right? With about fifty million books and movies and television shows about them already out there, who on Earth would want to write more?

Call me a glutton for punishment.

I didn’t sit down and say to myself “I’m going to write a vampire series! Let’s cash in!” I originally started my Shadow World series in 1999, but back then I was only 22; I was terrified of the ordeal I knew was waiting. Everyone said fiction’s impossible to break into - even in ’99! I was afraid of the disappointment, so I shifted my focus to nonfiction. As it turns out that was a great idea; I used my writing to help my spiritual community and by the time I was ready to return to my first love, fiction, I had grown a lot as a writer and could create something much, much better.

Something changed in 2008. I wish I could say what, specifically - I think it might have been that I was so, so tired of all the mopey, self-loathing vampires that were filling up page and screen. I wanted to see vampires who had completely accepted what they were and had created their own world just at the edge of ours. I didn’t really care how original or not my own work was - my first impulse, whenever I want to see something, is to write it myself. I had no idea I would be approached by Ace for a two-book contract before the first book had even cooled on the printer.

Enter the Shadow World series. In Austin, Texas, a young woman is losing her mind; she’s an uncontrolled empath, able to feel and manipulate the emotions of others, and it’s driving her over the edge. After a horrific attack she stumbles headlong into the darkness: into a war between old school vampires who want to kill humans, and the current ruler of the Southern United States, Prime David Solomon, who has outlawed killing entirely.

The world is divided into territories and there are 27 Primes, each chosen by a mysterious supernatural system whose origin was forgotten millennia ago. Each Prime can have one Consort. David, a computer geek and warrior with a love of ice cream, programming, and Joss Whedon, has used technology to revolutionize how the vampires of his territory live and hunt, and it’s upsetting the old guard. When his Queen comes along in the person of a certain psychic musician, things get even worse, for Miranda won’t sit idly by as women are expected to in the Council; she owns her power as well as her skyrocketing music career. Miranda’s dramatic arrival in David’s life is the first domino to fall…and soon the whole world will change.

Now in its third book, with at least two more to come from Ace Urban Fantasy, the Shadow Worldseries is Miranda and David’s story, as well as the story of how the world changes when a handful of powerful vampires who refuse to live in the past any longer come face to face with the ancient origins of their kind. In this world political alliances are constantly shifting, romantic relationships always evolving, and new threats arise from every dark corner.

The first two books of the series, QUEEN OF SHADOWS and SHADOWFLAME, are already on shelves at your local bookstore. SHADOW'S FALL, the third, will be released at the end of March. To learn more about the series, check out my website: www.diannesylvan.com.

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