SHANE KP O’NEILL – THE DRACULA CHRONICLES.
Once
read, never forgotten.
EXPERIENCE
THE ULTIMATE BATTLE OF GOOD VERSUS EVIL. THE BATTLE FOR SOULS HAS BEGUN.
The
Dracula Chronicles is a new and exciting series adding a fresh dimension to the
Dracula legend, which combines the real historical Vlad Dracula with a new and
different version of Dracula the vampire. The series has been released in two
arcs, one that follows Dracula the man and the other following Dracula the
vampire. It is written in a style that is both literary and cinematic, that
places you there in the thick of the action always.
The
books are historical novels of Gothic horror; religious corruption; political
intrigue; tragedy; war; dark paranormal fantasy; and deep romance. The premise is
built around Creation and the divide in Heaven that results from Lucifer's
jealousy of the creation of man. This leads to the First Great War of the
Angels and Lucifer's eventual expulsion from Heaven with all those who sided
with him. The annihilation of the angels continues, but rather than destroy
Lucifer, God agrees to a truce. By its terms, Lucifer can contest the soul of
every living being as long as he does not interfere with their free will.
Should he control more souls than God at any time, he can ascend again to
Heaven and cast God and the angels out. He would then have a free hand to
destroy all mankind.
Lucifer
turns man against God with ease. God responds by sending his prophets one after
another to bring man back to the path of righteousness. It seems to be merely
delaying the inevitable and in one last effort to thwart Lucifer, God sends his
son made man. In giving his life on the Cross, Jesus wipes away man's sins.
This leaves Lucifer back to where he was at the beginning and means he has to
start again. The Catholic Church is born on that fateful day in Jerusalem as
Christ's church on the earth. Lucifer then believes if he can destroy this
great icon of God, he can turn man against God once more. He searches for over a
millennium for the one who can lead his assault on God. The Crusades give him
renewed hope, and he is sure the conflict between Christian and Moslem will
provide the one he seeks. When this does not materialise, he turns his
attention to the Balkan region where this conflict is renewed with Ottoman
expansion into eastern Europe. He finally identifies the second son of Vlad Dracul
as the one he can manipulate into achieving his ends. God has prepared for this
event, and in the very moment that Vlad Dracula draws his first breath, so does
another child sired by Dracul, though born to a gypsy woman. This child,
Andrei, is blessed by the angels and bestowed with great powers as a balance to
the evil about to be unleashed upon the world.
THE VLAD DRACULA ARC.
The
Vlad Dracula arc.. Books #1 to #5. Set in the 15th Century Balkans, this arc
brings to life in its entirety the world in which the real historical Vlad
Dracula lived. It follows his loves; his triumphs; his many great tragedies;
the betrayals he endures; and his great struggle to survive his many perils and
secure the autonomy of his sovereign nation, Wallachia, which is sandwiched
between the mighty Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. The books introduce
you to all the great players of the period, their political machinations, and
their great conflicts set within the battle between Christianity and Islam.
They follow Lucifer and his schemes to manipulate the young Vlad Dracula into
seeing through his great plan. Replete with references that are Biblical and
drawn from the writings of the Kabbalah, The Dracula Chronicles also introduce
a new vision of Hell and take you on a journey you will never forget.
THE BOUND BY BLOOD ARC.
The
Bound By Blood arc.. Books #6 to #10. This arc begins with Dracula’s last great
battle at Snagov in 1476. Despite winning yet another great victory, his
enemies mortally wound him with arrows. He orders his men to take him to the
chapel at the nearby monastery so he can die on holy ground. To his great
chagrin, it is Lucifer who comes to claim his soul. The Dark One speaks of his
great vision, and of how he has chosen Dracula as his instrument to bring down
the Catholic Church. He bites into Dracula’s neck and then gives him his own
blood to drink. In doing so, he creates a monster, superhuman and immortal, who
can live through the ages and help him win the battle for souls.
Into
the 16th Century, wherever the Catholic Church is harmed or loses its
influence, Dracula is there behind the scenes to propagate it all. He involves
himself with Machiavelli; Martin Luther; in the Italian wars between France and
Spain; the Borgias; Henry VIII and the Tudor dynasty; and many more.
At
the same time his brother, Andrei, takes up the fight against him and arms the
Church with the knowledge of how to counter him. In resurrecting Dracula’s
legitimate brother, Radu, from the dead so as to exact retribution against him,
Dracula and Lucifer have unleashed a powerful enemy who has joined the battle
against them.
PREQUEL – THE LAMB OF GOD.
This
is a prequel to For Whom The Bell Tolls and the entire The Dracula Chronicles
series. It offers a taste of what is to come, giving the background of the
concept, the Crucifixion, and the night of the births of Vlad and Andrei.
If
you subscribe to my blog, link below, I will send you a free download of this
prequel. You can also hear an audio version, narrated by myself, on my website
and on my YouTube channel.
BOOK #1 – FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS.
“A war rages on around us every day. The struggle to
save all mankind. The ultimate evil.”
All
is well in Heaven until God creates man. Lucifer’s jealousy leads to the First
Great War of the Angels. Hundreds of thousands of years on, the feud simmers
beneath the surface. It plots the course of history as we know it today. Both
sides manipulate the major players through the centuries to seek an advantage
over the other.
The
battle for souls has raged since the truce that followed the First Great War.
God has struck the ultimate blow and sacrifice to gain the advantage, and
defeat Lucifer. As Lucifer stands at the foot of the Cross that drains the last
ounce of life from Christ and eradicates man's sins, he realises that his work
must begin anew.
In
time, he comes to understand that his only chance to win this battle will be to
destroy the institution of the Catholic Church to turn man against God. He
searches for more than a millennium for the candidate to see his plan through
to an end, and finally discovers the one that can cast that final blow.
On
a cold night in December, 1431 in Sighisoara, an old gypsy woman delivers a
prophecy to the great Vlad Dracul. She tells him he is about to sire two sons,
one an angel and the other a devil.
He
returns to his fortress just as his wife bears him a son, whom he names Vlad.
In the very same moment across the country on the border between Transylvania
and Hungary, a gypsy girl gives birth to another son, Andrei. The die is cast.
The twin souls are born. The young Vlad Dracula becomes the instrument of the
forces of Darkness. To balance this, the baby Andrei is blessed by the angels
and bestowed with awesome powers.
This
is their story.
AMAZON REVIEWS – FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS.
“I never thought a man could be capable of writing with
such sensitivity and emotion.”
"Beautifully written with great story lines,
the author does not hold back in his descriptions of many brutal acts of
violence (save for a very long and tastefully done sex scene)."
"The relationships between father and son, the
son and his captors and the individual characterisations are way beyond what a
fantasy/paranormal book might offer. The writing is of literary class."
"FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS differs from Shane
K.P. O’Neill’s BOUND BY BLOOD sagas in that it takes place years prior to
Dracula’s vampiric existence, but this in no way diminishes the power and
intensity of its read. Events unfold with the depth of a historical epic."
BOOK #2 – THE PATH TO DECAY. (Release date March 20, 2014).
“The path we walk, is the path to decay. The only
way to live, is to die.”
The
great Vlad Dracul is dead, fallen in battle, and his throne gone. His son, the
young Vlad Dracula, is consumed with grief and a need for revenge. All alone in
the world, he keeps his promise and returns to Anatolia. There, he takes a
commission in the Ottoman army. On the fields outside Kosovo Polje in Serbia,
he is handed his first opportunity to strike back against the men who killed
his father.
He
has grown into the ultimate fighting machine, and is feared by one and all.
This path to decay, as described by his father, is the one he chooses to
follow. Lucifer guides and watches over Dracula, but also deepens his hold over
him. As time passes, though, his enemies build in every quarter, and they
strive to bring him down.
With
nowhere left to turn, how will Dracula avenge his family? How can he hope to
win back his throne? As he faces one tragedy after another, these events mould
him into the man who will be spoken of for centuries to come. A man who lets
nothing stand in his way in his pursuit for revenge, and the throne that was
his father’s.
PREQUEL – BIRTH OF THE MONSTER.
This
is the prequel to Bound By Blood, and the vampire arc. It takes you to
Dracula’s last triumph on the battlefield, and his last moments as a mortal
man. While he lies dying in the chapel of the monastery at Snagov, Lucifer
comes to claim his soul. The Dark One speaks of his vision in destroying the
Catholic Church in his quest to win the battle for souls, and creates Dracula
the vampire.
BOOK #6 – BOUND BY BLOOD.
A
new edition of this and the next book is currently with my copy editors, and
will be released and re-launched with new covers in the summer.
“A war rages on around us every day. The struggle to
save all mankind. The ultimate evil.”
As
his moment of death looms Dracula suffers the ultimate betrayal. The champion
of the Catholic faith in Eastern Europe realises it is Lucifer who is coming to
claim him. However, Lucifer does not want his soul.
Instead
he bites into Dracula’s neck and then offers his own blood to drink. Dracula
suffers his mortal death, but he re-awakens. Immortalised with Lucifer’s blood
coursing through his veins, the two are bound by blood for eternity. Lucifer
has groomed him for this day and lays out the task before him.
Dracula
is to destroy the institution of that which he has championed for so long. By
bringing down the Catholic Church he can undo the Crucifixion and turn man
against God once more. If he succeeds then Lucifer will ascend again to Heaven
and signal the end for all mankind.
AMAZON
REVIEWS - BOUND BY BLOOD.
“This
story is a powerful and sweeping epic. The language, the settings, the
characters...they all exude Classic.”
“If
you are looking for a vampire novel that is rich in detail, with historical
facts, legends and folklore weaved in and splashes of gore and a bit of
romance, this is for you.”
“This
book will stimulate your imagination as it entertains you. Bound By Blood is
among the best vampire novels I have read.”
THE AUTHOR.
The author developed a fascination with Dracula
from an early age. Like many others he was enthralled by Christopher Lee's
portrayal of him on the big screen. It was in his late teens that he discovered
Dracula the man and the love affair began from there. An avid lover of history,
he studied the period in which the real historical Vlad Dracula lived, 15th
Century Balkan, for many years. It followed from there then that with his love of
writing he would always choose Dracula as his subject. He built a concept and premise where he could
accommodate both Dracula the vampire and Dracula the man.
Away from writing, the author has a wide range
of interests. He reads a lot of books from a wide variety of authors, though
his main interest lies in the horror genre.
His love of books is matched only by his love of the countryside and of
course, his family. As an added note, he
has lived and travelled all over the world. He has a love for all things
historical, with a particular fascination for medieval Europe.
Anywhere he travels, he likes to search out locations with an historical
interest and will always hunt for the ruins of an old castle before heading to
the beach.
Stalk Shane here:
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@ShaneKPONeill
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Isle of the Dead – In 1945, Boris Karloff appeared in one of twovampire films he ever made. This black and white classic, based onGreek folklore and growing fear in the face of death, is many ways more about fear of the undead than the vampires themselves. During one of the many horrible yet relatively small Balkans of the early XXth century, a Greek general and a collection of others find themselves trapped on an island due to plague. In an almost Agatha Christie-like setup, superstitions bubble to the surface and gothic tropes we all recognize become reality, at least in some people’s minds.
Strigoi – Somewhat curiously (or not) we rarely see vampire movies from Romania, the land where the real Vlad the Impaler lived. Here is an exception, a clever dark comedy based not upon the image from Hollywood but actual folklore–where a vampire is a peasant, with neither priest nor scholar about the undead are anywhere to be seen, where the reaction to an actual strigoi is openly mediocre, even stupid.;
ets Scare Jessica to Death – Again, a film that tosses away what we expect we know about vampires, and in fact gives us a tiny existential crisis to boot! Jessica, an artist moving to a farm in rural America to get away from the hustle of the city, has had a nervous breakdown. She’s been delusional, but does that mean the stranger she and her husband meet is not an undead girl haunting the lake where she drowned? We may never know. But we feel exactly what Jessica endures, putting us through an emotional wringer.
ets Scare Jessica to Death – Again, a film that tosses away what we expect we know about vampires, and in fact gives us a tiny existential crisis to boot! Jessica, an artist moving to a farm in rural America to get away from the hustle of the city, has had a nervous breakdown. She’s been delusional, but does that mean the stranger she and her husband meet is not an undead girl haunting the lake where she drowned? We may never know. But we feel exactly what Jessica endures, putting us through an emotional wringer.
Suck – This Canadian comedy about a fourth-rate band achieving stardom once a member is bitten and transformed into a walking, talking, singing and bass-playing incarnation of dark glamor never got much distribution. But the performances are spot-on, and the humor sickly fun if not broad a la the Scary Movies franchise or anything at all with Adam Sandler.
Vampyr – Many consider Nosferatu the first great vampire movie. Less known alas is the flick widely regarded as the second, at least among film experts. Carl Dryer’s almost silent masterpiece is a surreal step into a world where shadows really do go commit mischief on their own, where dreams bleed into reality, and where the corrupt influence of a vampire lingers on the edge of conscious awareness–and even noticing the creature is perilous.
Bled – So many vampire films aim for being “high concept” (Dracula’s untold origin! An apocalyptic war between living and undead), here’s a flick deserving credit for focusing on an individual tale of temptation. Shot on a tiny budget with no stars, it succeeds in creating a very disturbing story about genuine horror, even to the point where sexual desire becomes grotesque and deadly ( a trope most vampire filmmakers dabble with at most, rather than dive into).
Lust for Dracula – The title, the stars, even the production company (Seduction Studios) leads one to expect nothing more than lesbian softcore with a vampire twist. Nor would anyone end up mistaken on that front. But the sheer surreal nature of the film shows the writer/director was aiming for something much more than titillation. He wants to disturb as much as excite, to amuse as well as horrify. Truth to tell, in many ways he succeeds!
