The Dark Gift miniseries

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Flame is scarred from a past filled with lies, deceptions, and heartbreak. He is not guilty of what his brothers believe, but Blaze is the only one who knows the truth. He was betrayed by the king he had served. The girls he gave the dark gift to had been innocent. When he finds his Valkyrie, beaten, raped, broken, and fading after having been forced to accept the dark gift without her consent, Flame vows that he will do anything to save her. The light seems gone from both her and the world she finds herself in. Little does Flame know that for her to have the light again, he will sacrifice his honor, his integrity, and his life after breaking every law he can manage to break and even demand absolution for crimes he never committed. Many men say they will die for the love of their life. Flame somehow needs to do it four damn times, find a way to fix not only her broken magic, but fix her broken spirit as well, and then figure out how to live for her! All men wish to love a vampire, but Flame burns in his soul for one who holds the fire and has been granted the dark gift of an immortal vampire princess. 
Draoithe: The Dark Gift the short read miniseries is not available in its entirety from Amazon and FREE to read with Kindle Unlimited! Part 1 is only $.99. Grab your copy and step into the dream today.

Behind the Scenes

When I wrote The Dark Gift in 2017, the story poured out onto the page. It was Nightshade's story. A lot of it gets told from Flame's perspective, but it is essentially her story. His story is larger and if you love his character, keep reading the saga because more of his past will be revealed later.  While the this miniseries is really all about Nightshade, Flame makes this one great. Alpha males go after what they truly desire hard. They refuse to give up, give in, or give over. The win is all there is and the drive to achieve it is in their souls. It is that kind of man that a broken vampire needs. Only, Flame has to do all of that as a broken man. The HEA in this one is really good.

Most of the stories in the Draoithe series are adult fantasy. They have elements of paranormal romance and are told from the perspective of different characters, but are not pure romances. A Pack Forms is more of the true traditional paranormal romance with the fantasy elements as is The Dark Gift. 
If you have been following my authorwalk, then it may have become apparent a ways back that I have no formal training to write. I do have college degrees, but they are not in literature, creative writing, or English. I knew nothing of the writing, publishing, or book marketing industries when I began writing in 2016. (I still might not know very much, Lol.) I just needed a creative outlet as the career I once loved became progressively more prescripted. 
I do not write to the trends nor am I trying to be politically correct. I don't even consider those things as I am writing. I am sure that my stories follow some serious fantasy tropes, but I don't worry about that either. I wish only to tell a good story. The scenes that I see in my mind are what I write. I try to describe them as accurately as I can so that hopefully others will see a similar scene on the 'mental movie' as the one that I saw. 
I don't even write the story in order. I write the scenes as I 'view' them, then later I put them into the order that it feels as if they should be told in. That is why the calendars below are so overloaded. I am constantly needing to review what others are doing and ensure that the story does not have a character in two places at the same time. Why so complicated? I dunno.

On the Social Media Front

I have been running an interesting story campaign on Facebook and Instagram recently. I am not sure how effective it is at helping me sell the books, but it has been fun. The storyboard tiles that I had to craft in order to make the story board preview videos that I post on YouTube (that stranger than fiction get more views on Pinterest) gave me the idea. I have been posting the tiles, excerpts, and imagery from the different miniseries to my Facebook and Instagram stories hoping for that same wider exposure that I get on Pinterest. I think the real deal has to be a scripted plan. I am simply playing with it, but I am theorizing that if I got serious and crafted the right tiles and images and posted regularly, say every two hours, I would reach more people and maybe sell a few more books. I might try it with Twitter a couple of days and see how it goes then move that strategy to Instagram's feed. But seriously, I have crafted a lot of quote tiles and excerpt graphics for all of my stories. Even if they do nothing but help gain exposure for the stories, they would be worth it. I just need them to be more widely available. Still, adding booklinks in book and reader groups on Facebook has proven to be the very best unpaid for promotion to date. Facebook ads are still the best paid for advertising that I have done to date as well. 

I have to run ad get busy publishing. I hope you enjoy The Dark Gift. It is still one of my favorite stories in the Draoithe saga. Part 8 in the miniseries will have you on the edge of the seat. If you read, please remember to be kind and leave your reviews. There is few better ways to tell an author that you want them to keep writing than an honest short review. Plus, it helps other readers decide if they want to read a book by a new author. None of us want to take a huge risk with our hard earned money. 
Be Careful!
Happy reading,
​Ophelia Kee