Guest Post with Author Hanna Peach and Giveaway

Today I would like to welcome author Hanna Peach to RFTC. Hanna is here to talk a bit about her book, Angelfire. Please give Hanna a warm welcome.

A writer of fantastical things, especially stories with fangs, magic or wings.

I want to tell you tales that will rip away the glamour from your life, keep you running and fighting and gasping long past the devil’s hour and maybe, just maybe, reality will look a little bit different when you return.

Sit with me around this witchlight. Let me tell you a story.

Places to find Hanna:

| Site | Facebook |

A sixth sense for suspense: Lessons from a Master

It may seem strange that a writer would take inspiration from a film director. Or maybe not… film directors and writers both deal with images. But one gives you those images on the screen, the other must be conjured in your mind through words.

M. Night Shyamalan is a film director who has earned the reputation for his suspense movies and ‘twist’ endings, most famously the movie The Sixth Sense. I thought that he might know a thing or two about suspense…

I read in an interview that the BBC did with Shyamalan, he said about creating fear that, “I like to do very gentle things… rather than blood on the walls”.

What Shyamalan does is subtle. He insinuates and teases. He rarely shows you the monster directly but he gives you glimpses, hints. He doesn’t rely on gratuitous violence to invoke emotion in the audience but rather he allows you imagine what is about to happen.

I think this works so well because, as humans, we tend to over-imagine. Left to our own devices we can scare ourselves more by what we don’t see rather than what is shown to us. Who has never allowed the shadows across the room to frighten them when home alone on a Friday night? Or backed out of a darkened room even though it is empty? Or imagined the tapping of a tree-branch on your window a waiting, watching killer?

I have tried to use these philosophies in my writing when I write suspenseful scenes. You know what’s coming. Sometimes you may know that little bit more than the hero/heroine does. But you can’t stop it. You can only follow along as the scene pulls towards the inevitable.

I hope I have translated this well enough. I leave you with this excerpt from Angelfire…

A slow crawling smile is stretching across Michael’s cold carved face. The smile chills Mayrekk more than the hate in his eyes.

“Are you going to disappoint me Mayrekk?”

“I hope not Elder.”

“Good. Tell me... where has she gone?”

“She?”

“Alyxandria.”

“Is Alyx missin’?”

“Don’t play games with me.”

“Honestly Elder, I don’t know where Alyx is.”

Michael considers Mayrekk for one long excruciating moment. Michael takes one precise step towards him.

“We have something in common you and I.” With a flick of a wrist Michael now holds a kris in his right hand.

“Elder?”

“I also fancy myself a kind of scientist.” Michael waves the kris to indicate the devices about the room. “Oh yes, a scientist.” Michael brings the kris up in front of him and fingers the point with his other hand. “Did you know that the average adult human body holds around five liters of blood?”

Mayrekk shakes his head and shuffles back as Michael continues his languid approach towards him.

“This means that we also hold five liters of blood in our bodies.”

“Interestin’ fact that.” Mayrekk knows his voice is shaking. But he has to stay strong. Everything depends on him staying strong. Stay strong. For her.
“Do you know,” Michael says, stroking the gleaming blade of his kris with one finger, “how much blood you would have to lose before you died, Mayrekk?”

“No, Elder.”

“Of course your body goes through many painful stages before death from blood loss.”

Mayrekk swallows hard as he hits the bench behind him. Nowhere left to go.

“We are lucky aren’t we Mayrekk.” Michael takes another step, the gap between then closing.

“Sir?”

“We are lucky in that we, unlike mortals, heal very quickly from most wounds.”

“Lucky that.”

“So for someone, like you for example,” Michael smiles, “to sustain such a significant blood loss you would have to be cut many, many times, wouldn’t you say?”

“Aye.” Mayrekk’s voice quivers. But he will not break down. He can’t break down. Everything depends on this.

“Mark my words Mayrekk, before I am through with you, you will tell me what you know.”

Michael closes the gap between them.

An army of angels walk among us. They have kept us safe and ignorant, so far.

Earthbound for centuries and ruled by the Elders, they have established hidden cities, a society and The Code: obey your Elders, kill all demons, eliminate Rogue-angels, protect the mortals, remain hidden. Their warriors are the ungifted earthborn angels armed with blades and the ‘borrowed magics’ of distilled angel-blood tattoos.

Alyxandria is a young warrior with a fondness for customized knives and illegal night-races. If only she could overcome the taint of her parents who abandoned her to become Rogues.

When Alyx saves Israel, a gifted mortal with a past, she is forbidden to see him again. But she can’t help herself, drawn to him through their Guardian-bond, an ancient and long-forgotten bond; if he dies, she dies.

An encounter with a handsome Rogue leaves Alyx questioning all she has been taught to believe. Alyx begins to dig into the Elders’ secrets. Two thousand years of secrets that begin with the death of the Archangel Raphael. She is not prepared when she uncovers an Elder’s dark plan.

Somewhere on earth is a key to unlock hell. Somewhere on earth are pieces of an amulet that controls Lucifer and his army. Somehow Israel is the link and now both sides are after him. Who can Alyx trust when Good and Evil is no longer clear?

The war for earth begins.

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