Note: we are using Romance and Horror (capitalised) to refer to the fiction genres, not lowercase as in romantic love or horror as a concept.

What defines “horror” or “scary” is incredibly subjective and nuanced. Unfortunately, these terms have become interchangeable and therefore it’s resulted in it being a very problematic topic. One person may hate spiders, whilst others are fine with them. One might hate claustrophobic spaces, whilst others won’t bat an eye. One might have a fear of ghosts, whilst others would welcome them in for a chat. You get the idea.

Horror elements in Conclave

There are violent scenes in A Conclave of Crimson (this is a trilogy about vampires who kill, after all), but there are many other elements of quiet horror. Horror that speaks to the human experience. Fear of abandonment. Fear of change. Fear of the unknown. For some neurodivergent people, which are represented in our books, fear of one’s routines and comforts being disrupted or eradicated. The horror of grief. The horror of losing everything that comforts you. The horror of the vampire’s eternal existence. The horror of making oneself vulnerable. Of finding what you want and not being able to have it.

Horror comes in many flavours, and indeed, there is not one singular definition for that word: it can be interpreted a million different ways by a million different readers.

But one crucial point to keep in mind, in this particular discussion, is that we’re talking about Romance as it fits under its parent genre of Horror.

1. Horror has zero rules. Anything goes. It’s a huge umbrella: it can be ghost stories or vampires or slashers or very extreme violence.

2. Romance has only one rule, and it cannot be ignored: it must have a happy ending. This is absolutely non-negotiable. Full stop.

So how can those two seemingly-opposite concepts work together?

Horror Romance.

Generations of readers have devoured Romance, and it’s currently the highest-grossing genre across all fiction genres. Why is that? Is the audience full of sappy, soft-hearted softies who only want to read heart-eyed books with long-haired lotharios and corset-busting damsels on the cover? Ahem. Romance is an umbrella term, and those who don’t read in this genre are quick to judge it, usually for these reasons:

• They picture massive shelves of secondhand pocket-sized romance novels they used to see in secondhand bookshops

• Fabio and bodice-ripping covers (not to mention, 100% hetero rep)

• Danielle Steele and Barbara Cartland (#iykyk)

• Hallmark movies

• This isn’t romance, it was devastating (but did it have a HFN/HEA? Life can be devastating, but in Romance, you’re safe. If you haven’t landed softly and breathed…it isn’t a Romance. FWIW: Wuthering Heights is not a Romance. It’s Gothic Horror: and a love story. Not all love stories have a happy ending. There’s a difference.)

The same can be said for Horror as a spectrum genre, which is also quickly judged:

• This book calls itself horror but wasn’t scary at all.

• This isn’t horror. (Again… the term is horror is very subjective)

• Oh, I don’t like being scared, I wouldn’t read that

• I hate horror, I would never read a horror book or watch a horror movie

• This left me feeling bleak and gave me nightmares

• The assumption that horror=gore/slasher

But: the elephant in the room is that Romance is largely written — and consumed — by women. What’s that smell? Ah, yes. Misogyny. There’s an underlying current behind the criticism of Romance, and that is that it’s for women, and somehow frivolous or less-than.

The recent phenomenon that is the Canadian television series Heated Rivalry blew the lid off of Romance. All of a sudden, people who would never have touched Romance (let alone anything sport-based) with a barge pole are changing their tunes: especially men. The difference here is that the show is based on a queer Romance book series. And the tragic underbelly of this is that many queer people were hesitant at first, because so much queer literature (and film) falls under the bury your gays banner.

Which brings us back to the all-important label (even though we actually despise labels: in this case, it’s crucial).

If a book (or media) purposefully defines itself as Romance: it must have a happy ending (HEA)...or at least a happy-for-now (HFN). Again, non-negotiable. Full stop.

The sheer volume of shooketh queer people who dipped their toes into Heated Rivalry is evidence. So many were like...WHAT?!? They....they didn’t die? Or get separated?

No! Because that is precisely what Romance delivers.

It promises a soft place to land.

It’s a guarantee.

Some have criticised Romance as spoilery. Why make the effort if you know they’re going to end up together?

Well...no one said getting there would be easy. No one said there wouldn’t be challenges and heartbreak along the way. But it’s the cushion, the payoff, that makes Romance readers strap themselves in and willingly have their hearts dug out with a spoon.

When readers are invested in a Romance, they feel everything the characters go through. And they keep reading, because of The Guarantee.

Not all Romance is like this: some are sweet and soft and cosy and low-stakes/angst. Others are heart-wrenching and might leave you shivering in a corner with one hell of a book hangover.

But wholesale dismissing Romance as a genre is not a flex.

At the end of the day, it’s about the human experience. We all have love stories: and even this has range. Human relationships are very messy. We won’t go into detail, because it’s obvious. Love is messy, even when it seems simple. It isn’t always easy to live and love with another person, and Romance provides that. It doesn’t even have to be romantic. Or sexual. Romance often gives us a behind-the-scenes glimpse into other people’s complicated lives. There might even be people who have never wished for love or romance in their own lives, even though they still like to read about it.

We see you.

Full disclosure: One half of Nicoverley (spoiler alert: it’s Nicole 🤭) didn’t even realise they had written a romance novel: Beguiled by Night. Nicole wrote it as a horror novel. About bloodthirsty vampires. When reviews began to come in, and people were describing it as Romance, Nicole had an OMFG moment. Beguiled by Night was written as a standalone. But guess what: it has a HEA. Beguiled turned into a duology, which wasn’t planned. And the irony is that the HEA in Beguiled has now been redefined as a HFN (happy for now).

Nicole didn’t set out to write a Romance: that was never an intention, and they didn’t even know about That Rule. But the sequel, Citizens of Shadow, definitely has an HEA. Except...

Even Citizens now has assumed the title of HFN. We didn’t know that our tiny little acorn of a novelette, Crimson is the Night, would have such a seismic effect on us. That one-sitting story turned into a whole other beast, with so much upheaval. It’s so much a part of life: a simple meeting can shake the stars from the sky.

Crimson is the Night, which briefly united our vampire worlds, eventually became A Conclave of Crimson: A Queer Vampire Romance Trilogy. It was a massive undertaking for two indie authors to blend our vampire canons (The Gabriel Davenport series and the Beguiled by Night duology). If you read them all, you’ll understand why. But it’s important for us to note that A Conclave of Crimson can be read as a standalone trilogy. With loads of back catalogue if you fall in love.

Neither of us ever set out to write Romance. We thought of ourselves as horror/fantasy writers.

An important distinction here, though, is that we are both dyed-in-the-wool characters-first authors. We let them lead. And with Conclave, they led us directly into Gothic Horror Romance.

Why do we use Gothic to describe Conclave?

When we describe A Conclave of Crimson as Gothic, we’re using it in the sense of Modern Gothic:

• A structure that is also a character: Vauquelin’s sprawling Parisian manor house, where most of the story unfolds

• A secret room where time stands still

• Heavy emphasis on atmosphere

• A slowly amplifying sense of unease for the reader

In our trilogy, we combine Gothic with horror and romance. Fear and arousal? What a deadly cocktail 😏

Romance is having a moment, thanks to Heated Rivalry. But for us, as literary authors, we have to acknowledge that it was always there at the core of our collective works. Because we write about people. And you can’t extract love and attraction from the human experience. Even if it’s only aesthetic. Even if it’s only for companionship, or for human connection. Even if a certain type of love one of the characters never believed they would know, or thought that they were broken because they didn’t feel it.

So we come to you to say that we are firm believers in Horror Romance, and we believe it’s crucial to keep the words separate. Not a portmanteau, such as Horroromance or Romantasy. The word Romance, as a genre label, carries a heavy weight on its shoulders. Blending it into another word takes away that all-important definition, that promise. Because Romance, as a standalone word, implies a guarantee. That despite all the horror and distress, you can be sure that your heart will land softly. That your suffering, along with that of the characters, will be soothed. And that you can cry happy tears instead of rocking in a corner.

We’re here to say that we deliver Gothic, character-driven, heart-wrenching stories: but we will never kill our darlings. Because… Romance. With a capital R.

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If you love a chonky read (all 1226 pages of it!) and want to immerse yourself in the nocturnal lives and loves of our beautiful queer vampires, click here to download now. Also available to read on KU.

Seven vampires. One gathering. Immortal lives changed forever. We give you A Conclave of Crimson: A Queer Vampire Romance. The Complete Trilogy.

For readers who adore character driven horror romance (it's horror for people who think they don't like horror) - vampires - luscious, gothic prose - cinematic details and settings. Vampire romance, reinvented.

xx

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This is a high heat, character driven romance but consent is at the forefront of each encounter. There's intense rivalry and so much yearning and desire that it's easy to go in willingly realising your heart may be ripped out, but you'll always have a soft space to land.

Our beautiful gothic horror romance is waiting for you - it's a vampire love story, reinvented. And unapologetically queer🌈

Welcome to the HEA club, vampire style!

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Enjoy!

It’s that time of year, when we’re all panicking to meet our end-of-year reading challenge on Goodreads! If you’ve found yourself a bit short, we have a lovely little one-sitting read for you. Clocking in at just under 50 print pages, and an average 35-minute reading time, Crimson is the Night is a novelette joining the worlds of the Gabriel Davenport series and the Beguiled by Night series. Spanning one evening in which the French vampire, Vauquelin, travels to the U.K. to meet Clove and his Bloody Little Prophets (Gabriel, Moth, and Teal). A handful of hours together shatters their world views and sets them all on a path they never expected.

A beautiful short read about the importance of open minds and understanding—and how the sometimes brutal honesty of youth can alter even a most hardened vampire’s heart.

I adored every dark word. Lee’s and Eigener’s worlds came together beautifully in this shared story. If two authors were ever meant to craft a novel together, it’s these two. — Sarina Langer, author of Brightened Shadows and Darkened Light

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Happy reading!

xx

But this story was not finished with us: the characters demanded more, and we are, above all, storytellers, so we continued. We began writing it in longhand at the bar in L’Hotel in Paris in September 2023, and finished it on 12 July, 2025 on two separate continents, working on other projects alongside it.

We wrote it. We love it. But we’re hiding it.

There are dozens of reasons why a book fails to find its audience but this story isn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, a failure. We are immensely proud of A Conclave of Crimson: A Queer Vampire Romance, of its themes and messages, especially in today’s intolerant world.

Not everything needs to be sold for cash. In this hustle era, where nearly everything is monetised, sometimes people forget to create just for the pure joy of creation… and for us, that’s what writing this series has been: a pure joy.

The decision to not publish was one we agonised over for months, and in the end, we made the difficult choice that the rest of it will belong just to us and our heart readers.

If you’re one of our core readers who adored the series and want more, we’ll be in touch once Book Four is edited and polished, although that may be some time as we juggle other projects.

Books One-Three are still available to read. If you haven’t visited our queer vampire world, the stories await you: and the trilogy is a complete story, even without Book Four 🖤❤️🤍

BUY/EXPLORE THE BOOKS

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Indie authors have limited means for getting our books out into the world. You may not be able to find us on every major retailer, but we’re delighted to have an alternative to Amazon for those who would like a physical copy.

Furthermore, we’d like to say that human hands and minds are behind all our words.

Happy Indie Day!

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Character Art

Ever since we began writing Conclave, we dreamed of having character art, and that dream finally came true. We are delighted to share a glimpse of our boys 💖 Huge thanks to the ultra talented, Julien Roux (@noenwritesitdown) for bringing Gabriel and Moth, and Éric and Teal to life. Just look at them! 🥹

Book Soundtracks

We have soundtracks for all three volumes of A Conclave of Crimson: A Queer Vampire Romance. An eclectic mix of ancient and modern, much like our vampires. Just click on the link below to listen.

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We hope you enjoy these special additions to help you immerse yourself into our lush, Gothic vampire multiverse. We’d love to know what you think…please leave us a comment below!

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We've talked about this story for so long now, and the journey towards all three books has been fraught with not just holes but figurative landmines. We could probably write a companion novel on just this! Our vampires’ tale won’t be for everyone, but our early reviews have been incredible.

After thousands of words penned in our vampire multiverse, it’s hard to conjure the right ones to express our deep appreciation. For those of you who pre-ordered or who have liked, commented, and shared our posts, our heartfelt thanks and immense gratitude. It takes a village, and ours is small and mighty. Today the Conclave of Crimson Trilogy is finally no longer ours but yours, dear reader.

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We hope you love it. We hope those who need it feel seen.

You can easily see that even though they are all vampires, they still hold on to a human part deep inside of them and the authors are amazing in making the reader empathise with supernatural creatures dealing with every day life and challenges.

It is comforting, a light in the dark that screams that you’re not alone, that there’s happiness after the struggle and that not all things are meant to be, nor meant to be happy endings. It is a reminder that we are one even when alone and that we are an even stronger unit when surrounded by love.

Love is powerful, a force that defies time and mortality and fate. It comes in many shapes and when we least expect it. And more importantly, it’s always within ourselves, even during the darkest of the nights.

—Samantha Di Prizito (Goodreads)

The characters and themes explored are etched upon our hearts. Seven vampires. One gathering. Immortal lives changed forever. We give you A Conclave of Crimson: A Queer Vampire Romance. For readers who adore character driven horror romance (it’s horror for people who think they don't like horror) - vampires - luscious, gothic prose - cinematic details and settings.

Vampire romance, reinvented.

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GRAB THE DEAL

Our beautiful gothic horror romance is waiting for you. A character-driven, heart-wrecking story set in an ancient Parisian manor house - it's vampire romance, reinvented. And unapologetically queer🌈

Book three available to pre-order.

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And then there were three…

After three years and over 1,100 pages, countless hours spent writing, editing, and editing again, we proudly offer the last instalment in our vampire multiverse: A Conclave of Crimson Book Three: A Queer Vampire Romance. This has been a true labour of love. We hope our passion for this story and its message will wind its way around your heart as it has ours.

Vampire romance, reinvented.

On sale 7 March, 2025.♰

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Book Three of A Conclave of Crimson: A Queer Vampire Romance picks up where Book Two ends and brings the events of a gathering of vampires to a dramatic conclusion.

Teal and Éric have exactly what they fought for — a chance at life together. But all hard-won conflicts come with a cost, especially of the heart, and the fallout has left Teal separated from his brothers, Gabriel and Moth, now back in the inhospitable fortress called Gehenna.

Éric, though head over heels in love with Teal, the ethereal young vampire with witch blood in his veins, has his own trauma — how to navigate the dynamics of his rapidly evolved relationship with Vauquelin, now their romantic ties have been severed: and they all live under the same roof.

But the boys are not the only ones trying to come to terms with the new normal that has ripped them apart. Clove must make a crucial decision. There’s a question he will pose to Vauquelin…the answer to which would rock the core of the vampire world.

A Conclave of Crimson: Book One is a Gothic, queer, horror romance with strong, dark academia vibes: the third volume of a trilogy uniting two, literary vampire worlds (Gabriel Davenport and Beguiled by Night) into a multiverse, but can be read as a standalone. There’s more if you want it…

For fans of The Night Circus, Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, and The Song of Achilles, A Conclave of Crimson offers a unique character driven exploration of love, jealousy, and the dark magnetism of immortal desire.

Have you noticed/been curious about why our release dates are always on the seventh? The number 7 is crucial in this story:

♰ 7 March 2024
♰ 7 September 2024
♰ 7 March 2025

Seven vampires…Les Sept…

Thank you to all our readers who have been with us throughout this journey, and to those we have yet to meet!

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Do you have a favourite book genre, or do you read across many? For authors, choosing a single genre to market their book is, as the title suggests, a minefield. Maybe you write crime fiction, but there’s a romantic angle…or you write sci-fi with a side of horror. When you’re a cross-genre author, there are no tidy little categories to file your book under. And then we come to Conclave, which has all of the above genres. So it’s no wonder that we’re facing huge challenges finding the audience for these books.

Nowadays, it seems to be acceptable for publishers to use genres as marketing buzzwords — which places actual genre-labelling in a precarious position and makes it even harder for readers to know what they’re getting: which can be very disappointing for them. So that’s why we wrote this post, to point out exactly what readers can find in this trilogy:

literary horror | dark academia | queer fiction | gothic fiction | dark fantasy | horror romance | character driven narrative

Does this sound like the story for you?

YES! GIVE IT TO ME NOW!

We’ve been struggling to find our readership, but we know you’re out there! We wrack our brains over it regularly. Is it too horrific for romance fans? Too sensual for horror fans? Too literary for all? Does the character driven narrative put people off? Or perhaps the omniscient point-of-view*?

*Omniscient point of view is a narrative perspective where the narrator is god-like, all-knowing: and can access every aspect of the story, including the thoughts, feelings, and actions of all the characters. The narrator is often dispassionate and unbiased, and can switch between characters’ perspectives to provide the reader with a broader picture of the story. This is a deliberate stylistic choice and is much different than what’s commonly called “head hopping.”

If you could spare a moment to vote in our poll, you’d be helping us so much.

If you can’t choose just one, please comment below! We love talking about genres and would love to hear your thoughts.

And if the multiple genres of A Conclave of Crimson appeal to you, we hope you’ll join us. Come meet our beautifully complicated vampires.

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What price are you willing to pay for love?

In the ancient, shadowed corners of Paris, seven vampires unpack a multitude of shocking revelations. Each carries the weight of their own burdens and desires and finds their worldview shattered as their relationships evolve in unexpected ways.

Persistent doubts and intense jealousy coil through their interactions, and a warring sense of responsibility between duty and desire challenges long-held beliefs. Despite the chaos, they forge tenuous connections.

But one earth-shattering night changes everything — and leaves a bloodstained mark that renders it impossible to return to their previous way of life.

As two young vampires claim their rightful places together, love and horror intertwine as passion pushes them to the brink of an abyss that threatens to destroy everything they hold close.

In this dark, emotional, queer romance, vampires confront their innermost fears and desires. A harsh lesson is delivered. Love — no matter how fierce — comes with a steep price.

With opulent, descriptive detail A Conclave of Crimson Book Two: A Queer Vampire Romance delves further into the themes of first love, complicated relationships, and the relentless search for identity and belonging as it unites two vampire worlds into one captivating multiverse.

We are absolutely thrilled to announce the release of Book Two in our vampire trilogy. We’ve poured our hearts into crafting a tale that dives deeper into the complex lives of our beloved characters. This book is a love letter to them, and to you, our readers. We’ve been eagerly anticipating the moment we could share this next volume with you, filled with darker secrets, more intense romance, and twists that we hope will captivate you as much as they did us during its creation.

We are so grateful for your continued support—it means the world to us, and we can’t wait to hear what you think!

As a thank you for reading this far and staying with us, you are the first to hear that the final book in the trilogy will be released in Spring 2025…so you won’t have to wait too long to find out what fate has in store for our vampires.

A Conclave of Crimson: A Queer Vampire Romance Books One and Two are available in paperback, hardcover, and eBook. You can also read on Kindle Unlimited.

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Happy reading!

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An invitation for you to meet our unforgettable vampires — and to add them to your spooky, autumn reading list.

Unveil the secrets of A Conclave of Crimson, an essential read for lovers of dark romance and queer vampire books. Set in the hauntingly beautiful city of Paris, this literary horror novel intertwines the passion of MLM romance with the eerie allure of vampires. Perfect for readers seeking a unique LGBTQ+ horror romance experience. Intrigued?

You can learn more about the books here: thevampire.org/conclave-multiverse

Drop us a comment if you downloaded Conclave so we can say thank you!

Happy reading 🖤!

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Real humans + real ideas + real equipment = pure magic. Prove us wrong 🫠

We can’t stop the progression of technology… but we can always be present and support the human effort.

We’d like to credit for inspiring us to create a human intelligence badge of our own. Every single step of this book was created by human hands.

Human (vampire?) inspiration. Human writers, keying words in word by bloody word, human photographers, human creative directors, human boys striving to create the perfect hands for our covers.

We invite you to explore our vampire multiverse.

Come burn with us.

GET BOOK ONE/PREORDER BOOK TWO

Leave a comment and let us know what you think 🖤 — and you can preorder now. Book Two emerges from the shadows on 7 September 2024.

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About the book:

What price are you willing to pay for love?

In the ancient, shadowed corners of Paris, seven vampires unpack a multitude of shocking revelations. Each carries the weight of their own burdens and desires and finds their worldview shattered as their relationships evolve in unexpected ways.

Persistent doubts and intense jealousy coil through their interactions, and a warring sense of responsibility between duty and desire challenges long-held beliefs. Despite the chaos, they forge tenuous connections. 

But one earth-shattering night changes everything — and leaves a bloodstained mark that renders it impossible to return to their previous way of life.

As two young vampires claim their rightful places together, love and horror intertwine as passion pushes them to the brink of an abyss that threatens to destroy everything they hold close.

In this dark, emotional, queer romance, vampires confront their innermost fears and desires. A harsh lesson is delivered. Love — no matter how fierce — comes with a steep price. 

With opulent, descriptive detail A Conclave of Crimson: A Queer Vampire Romance, Book Two delves further into the themes of first love, complicated relationships, and the relentless search for identity and belonging as it unites two vampire worlds into one captivating multiverse.

IMMERSE YOURSELF IN CONCLAVE

As always, we are so grateful for your support of our work. As indie authors, word-of-mouth remains our most valuable marketing tool: so thank you for helping us shout about our dark vampire romance.

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Though we had spent countless hours on Skype, editing and writing and designing together. We were, at that point, two best friends who had never met in person but had somehow managed to marry two completely separate vampire series into one unforgettable multiverse.

So, one year ago, we were absolutely giddy about our impending adventure: one week in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds, Beverley’s stomping grounds — and one week in Paris.

Here we are at those famous church doors…St. Edwards Church at Stow-on-the-Wold (said to be the inspiration for Tolkien’s Doors of Durin from The Fellowship of the Ring). We visited a lot of graveyards, went to many churches where we had the entire space to ourselves, and touched every yew tree we encountered.

After a beautiful week in the U.K., we headed off to France via the Eurotunnel: destination, Paris. To walk in the footsteps of our vampires, and to carry their words with us wherever we went. We saw their shadows each night we walked the cobblestoned streets.

And, sometimes, we even saw them in the daylight:

We took Conclave to Père Lachaise cemetery, where we spent an entire day: we left briefly to cross the street for a jambon beurre and a choux à la crème, and brought our lunch back to eat quietly amongst the dead. We loved it.

So now we find ourselves deep in edits once again, preparing for the release of Book Two. Sadly, we won’t be able to gather for the announcement of the next instalment: but we’re always together in spirit.

Since the first volume of Conclave is out in the world, we are very excited to announce that it will be going on a Bookstagram tour with Pride Book Tours! Signups are open now at the previous link. The tour is open from 24 June-7 July. Signups will cut off soon, so act quickly. Ebooks will be provided.

We’re so excited to partner with the team at Pride Book Tours, and we’re especially thrilled that Conclave, our queer vampire romance, will be making the rounds during Pride Month.

Curiously enough, Conclave is going out the same weeks as C. Travis Rice’s tour for his new romance novel. You might also also know C. Travis Rice as the son of Anne Rice. We can’t help but appreciate this, as Anne is our patron saint. For us to be on the same roster as Christopher Rice feels like a good omen: as this is our first ever book tour.

If you haven’t yet read Conclave and are curious, this is a wonderful opportunity to both support our book and the important work that Pride Book Tours is doing: spreading the word about queer literature, and helping to get it into the hands of readers who need it most.

Interested in joining the tour? Click here to sign up.

SIGN UP HERE

As always, we thank you for reading our posts…and we hope you’ll join us in our deliciously dark vampire world.

We all know it’s better to try before you buy… be it cake, coffee, or vampire books! If you’d like to sample Conclave, click the link below: the first chapter is on us! Enjoy.

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⸻

ABOUT A CONCLAVE OF CRIMSON

⸻

What do you do when love threatens to destroy?

Seven vampires gather under the roof of Vauquelin’s palatial dwelling in the heart of Paris. A meeting to gain an understanding of each other, to grow closer — a meeting of masters and vampire youth, an education perhaps for them all.

But nothing can prepare them for the events that follow. It is not any outside influence that threatens to tear them apart, but a fierce, kindling flame within: a flame that may burn it all down to the ground.

Loves that were once thought infallible and truths once steadfast come crumbling down in this dark horror romance where immortal souls question everything they once held as true.

With opulent, descriptive detail and an off-the-charts spice level, these vampires will take you on a journey where high passions and high heat lead to even higher stakes.

A Conclave of Crimson: Book One is the first volume of a trilogy uniting two vampire worlds (Gabriel Davenport and Beguiled by Night) into a multiverse, but can be read as a standalone.

An emotional, dark vampire romance about conflict, jealousy, and the power of true love.

Note: This book is not YA and is intended for mature audiences.

⸻

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In 2021, we were invited for a Nightworms interview about our respective vampire books: The Gabriel Davenport Series (Beverley) and Beguiled by Night (Nicole). We had each read one another’s books: in fact, this is how we became friends. A beautiful friendship, borne out of a mutual love of vampires ❤️‍🔥

A question emerged while we were preparing for the interview: ‘what would happen if our vampires met?’ It seemed such an innocent idea at the time, and we had a bit of a laugh about that… but neither of us could stop thinking about that concept.

BEVERLEY: So we began with an idea that Vauquelin could travel to England to meet Clove and the Bloody Little Prophets at Gehenna. I wrote the first part and sent it over to Nicole — and the whole thing snowballed quickly into the tiny little gateway to our multiverse, Crimson is the Night.

But our vampires very swiftly began to prod us as they had much more to say. We were both working on other books at the time, The Sum of Your Flesh (Beverley) and Citizens of Shadow (Nicole) and we decided that after we’d completed the first drafts of those we’d reward ourselves with a little fun by delving into our multiverse again.

NICOLE: It was a beautiful thing, because it never would have worked had our vampires been so different from one another. There are differences, yes… but both of us are so heavily influenced by Anne Rice and her canonical vampires.

BEVERLEY: And any differences that did come up we quickly realised we could explain by unique vampire bloodlines.

NICOLE: It became clear to us at once that it wasn’t feasible to write this by switching off parts as we did with Crimson is the Night. With seven characters (two new ones showed up after Crimson!), it just couldn’t work. So we turned to Google Docs. 

We never outline our work, and all our stories are character-driven. Google Docs allowed us to write in live time, and both of us would be in the doc, watching words appear. It was call-and-response, and we had to think on our feet because one or other of the characters would say or do something that completely blindsided us. It was a magical way to write, but one that requires a gargantuan level of trust. You have to let ego and perfection go out the window, and allow your writing partner see what you write as you write it, warts and all. My god, we had some hilarious typos!

Because this was just for fun, and we never meant to publish it, we let the characters drive. We agreed to not hold anything back. And boy… did they deliver 🥵. We left loads of comments in the margins as we were writing. It was so much fun! We would also keep in touch via chat, so we have records of our conversations and reactions as we wrote.

Beverley, remember at some point I said, ‘OH… we’re going there, are we?’

BEVERLEY: *coughs* I certainly do. Looking at you, Gabe and Moth 😏. And from then on, the heat level spiralled. But we never meant for this to be spicy, we simply followed their lead. 

NICOLE: Exactly that. In our previous vampire books, there was some spice (quite a bit more in Beguiled and Citizens), but nothing like this. It was so much fun… and we discovered that we are really good at writing spicy scenes.

BEVERLEY: And the character arcs in this part are sensational. Every time we sat down to write, which was basically any time we could glean to be together, considering that we’re eight hours apart, time zone wise, the story took us to places we never ever imagined. We’ve never heard of anyone else writing like this. It was pure alchemy.

Our comments in Google Docs were almost as entertaining as the story unfolding — What are these two doing?! Remember that, Nicole?

NICOLE: Oh my god, YES. That was such a huge turning point in the book, and when we finished that chapter we were a bit gobsmacked. Neither of us ever expected [spoiler redacted] what happened to happen. 

BEVERLEY: Even now I’m still shellshocked over that occurrence!

NICOLE: I don’t think we’ll ever get over that! But wasn’t that kind of when we started saying… wait a minute… maybe we should publish this?

BEVERLEY: It was. But that was a terrifying prospect, given the material. It sounded very much like us, writing wise, but with the dial turned up to maximum.

NICOLE: As it progressed, it became clear that we had some queer/diverse voices that needed to be heard: that there was something to this story that we could not, in good conscience, keep to ourselves. We agonised over it so much…

BEVERLEY: The words were coming so quickly we could barely get them down. We passed the 70k mark after a couple of weeks. 100k. 200k. And they still weren’t finished. Sometimes we’d be writing long after midnight just to placate these seven voices who didn’t care that we were mortals and needed sleep. Finally, 3 months to the day after starting, we wrote the final scene. 324k. A trilogy. And then we slept.

NICOLE: In the final throes, we were on our knees. Neither of us had ever written so much in such a short time frame. But as we were progressing with the story, we started having problems with Google Docs. It would stutter and freeze on us, and sometimes we’d have to come in behind each other and clean up, just to get the words down. Then, one night, I panicked… you were asleep, Beverley, remember? As I was editing my parts, I got an ominous error message from Google Docs:

I was effectively locked out of the document. My heart dropped to my toes. Ironically, I had to Google what to do about this. Turns out: we broke Google Docs. We had exceeded their character limit. In case you’re curious, it’s 1.02 million characters. We went past that! Whilst I was having a coronary over in the U.S., I had to make an executive decision (again, the inherent trust thing between two writers) — I had to duplicate the doc and split it into two parts. We lost our original comments in Part One (but we have them preserved). And that was heartbreaking… because we ended up with two halves, and to us, it was one book. It will always be one book, no matter how many volumes we end up with.

BEVERLEY: But we survived (with probably more grey hair) and after Nicole had worked her magic on formatting, we did order an omnibus of our hefty baby, with its temporary cover, just so we had it. This is classified as a lethal weapon 😏

NICOLE: So you can see why we had to split it into 3 books 😏

BEVERLEY: There’s so much more we could share about our journey with Conclave, but as this is getting to be a little lengthy we’ll wrap this up. If you’d like to know more, drop us a line and we’ll create another Substack newsletter. This is an incredibly unique story with an equally unique creation process. And we’d love for you to read it and to fall in love with our vampires 🫠. Come sit with us.

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