Welcome to the first day of #OctoberFrights! Be sure to check out the group giveaway and the giveaway at the end of this post.
Synopsis -
BE CAREFUL
WHAT YOU WISH FOR
Satori, an
adept Chaos Magician, casts a spell to try and win back his lost love, Star.
Lilith, mother of demons, has other ideas. Summoned by Satori's magic, she
makes it her mission to manipulate and separate the doomed lovers.
Satori
knows he and Star are meant to be together. He battles demons, travels worlds
and even transcends death for her but, however much she begs, he can't grant
her the freedom she craves.
The
Starblood Trilogy is a tale of sorcery, demonology, murder, sexual obsession
and Gothic subculture. In the words of Jef Rouner (Houston Press) “You don't
read [Carmilla Voiez's] books. You survive them.” and Starblood may be the most
brutal female-centred horror of them all. Winner of numerous indie awards, The
Starblood Trilogy is being adapted into a series of graphic novels with art by
Anna Dmitrieva.
"Carmilla Voiez is more
of a singer than a writer. She tells her compelling story in a hypnotic,
distinctive voice that brings her eerie world vividly to life." Graham
Masterton.
About
the villain -
Lilith, my female antagonist, is
definitely a villain, although some have claimed she’s a feminist hero. She is
a survivor of assault, but her extreme strength and power have warped her
perspective of fairness and cruelty. While her end goal is not evil, her acts
certainly are. Lilith frequently inverts the sexual stereotypes, and can do so
because she is a supernatural creature.
An
interview with Lilith -
Carmilla –
Thank you for joining me today, Lilith. I hope your journey from Binah was
pleasant. My first question, if you’ll forgive my impertinence goddess, is why,
when you are all powerful you chose to meddle in the affairs of the two humans
– Star and Satori?
Lilith –
I’m delighted to be here, and thank you for the delicious cup of coffee. It
will be a shame when the Earth’s reserves of coffee beans run out. If you want
to know about Star and Satori the first thing you need to understand is that
eternity can bore a person after a while. Distractions keep us young. It’s
unlikely I would have met the couple had it not been for the lonely soul,
Freya, who was determined to engage my services. That said Fate has a way of
bringing people together and even without the young sorceress’s summoning
perhaps I would have arrived by some other route. Satori annoyed me. I must be honest
and admit most human males do. I have not had positive experiences with many of
them. But something stayed my hand and instead of crushing the vermin I watched
him instead. In retrospect, I believe a greater power was at work. Satori had a
role in events to come, but at the time I didn’t understand my decision, and
wondered whether I was simply being fickle. In many ways Star and Satori
reminded me of the first humans I met – Adam and Eve. Satori was just as
determined to assert his dominance and will over his mate as Adam had been.
Part of me wanted to free Star from the start, but another part wanted to
punish her for being weak.
Carmilla –
Do you still believe Star is weak?
Lilith –
Her metal is strengthened at times of extreme pressure, as it was when I
tortured her, but she wasn’t strong enough to survive, was she?
Carmilla –
You mentioned Freya. Can you tell me more about your relationship with her?
Lilith –
Freya is a classic case of the imprisoned maiden gone bad. She fascinates me.
Her obsession with her brother rivaled Samael’s obsession with me. All these
humans seem to think about is sex, don’t you agree? Look at them all – Star,
Satori, Freya, Paul and Raven – the were all driven by their desire to get off with
each other. I barely had to manipulate them at all. They would have been
perfectly capable of destroying themselves without my intervention.
Carmilla –
The boys you killed in the woods, did you suspect their motives when they
offered you a lift, and if so why did you go with them?
Lilith –
Really, Carmilla, victim-blaming? That’s beneath you, don’t you think? If I
hadn’t gone with them they would have found someone else, someone less able to
defend themselves. I am a survivor, and yes my trauma has no doubt increased my
rage. Who wouldn’t be angry after having their agency taken from them? I
suspected the boys’ motives. I knew I had the strength to survive their
intentions and I took the opportunity to teach them a lesson; just like I did
with that sleaze-bag who pursued me through the abandoned industrial estate. I
hope the lesson is heard far and wide – Men beware. If you are looking for a
victim you may well get more than you bargained for. Women’s rage is a powerful
force.
Carmilla –
That’s very relevant to what’s happening today – with the Kavanaugh protests.
Have you been following the news?
Lilith –
It has been relevant from day one. Yes, I’ve watched those pathetic men with
their hair pieces, smiles as fake as their tans, and hands forever down their
pants or grabbing some poor woman’s, what do they call it, pussy. It’s because
they are afraid of women. They are so desperate to keep their power that they
will crush, in any way they can, all resistance. Fear of sexual assault, and
the shame it inspires, is an effective weapon for them. But if the women shed
their shame and overcome their fear, they can change the world. I’d like to say
that’s what’s happening now, but waves like this rise and fall. Time will tell
whether women are ready to say “no more” and overthrow their oppressors.
Carmilla –
Thank you, Lilith. Is there anything else you want to say before you head home?
I know you have lots of new souls to make bodies for.
Lilith –
I’ll repeat what I told Star, when I thought the truth might save her. Every
day I make flesh for new spirits, some are male and some are female. The
spirits within both are infinite until I make that arbitrary choice as to how
to shape their flesh. Each is limited by their new shell. Their bodies separate
them from each other, organising the spirits into logical patterns which
conform, with varying success, to the rules which cage them. Rules such as you
can no longer fly; you can no longer expand into your environment; you can no
longer merge completely and seamlessly with another; one day you will die and
your spirit will return to the source. These are the rules of being bound into
flesh and they are the same for male and female forms. Everything you have been
taught since you were pushed from your screaming mother, other than these rules,
is bullshit. These new limits humans have imposed upon themselves, and each
other, are not real. They hold no profound truth about yourself or the human
condition. You are neither inferior nor superior to the billions of other
spirits caged in flesh that roam the earth.
Author
bio -
Carmilla Voiez is a proudly bisexual and mildly autistic introvert who
finds writing much easier than verbal communication. A life long Goth, living
with two kids, two cats and a poet by the sea. She is passionate about horror,
the alt scene, intersectional feminism, art, nature and animals. When not
writing, she gets paid to hang out in a stately home and entertain tourists.
Carmilla grew up on a varied diet of horror. Her earliest influences
as a teenage reader were Graham Masterton, Brian Lumley and Clive Barker mixed
with the romance of Hammer Horror and the visceral violence of the first wave
of video nasties. Fascinated by the Goth aesthetic and enchanted by threnodies
of eighties Goth and post-punk music she evolved into the creature of darkness
we find today.
Her books are both extraordinarily personal and universally
challenging. As Jef Withonef of Houston Press once said - "You do not read
her books, you survive them."
Carmilla has self published "The Starblood Trilogy",
"Starblood the graphic novel", “Psychonaut the graphic novel”,
"The Ballerina and the Revolutionary", a short story collection
"Broken Mirror and Other Morbid Tales" and "The Erotic Tales of
Carmilla Voiez". Stitched Smile released the FSG anthology "Slice
Girls" late 2016, “Zombie Punks Fuck Off”, is being released by Clash
Books and Weird Punk Books this month (October 2018) and includes Carmilla’s
short story set in London, “Eat the Rich”, and “Another Beautiful Nightmare” is
out February 2019 and includes her short story “Demons are a Girl’s Best
Friend.”
She is currently writing the fourth book in the Starblood series,
“Ribbons”. In exciting news,
Vamptasy Publishing have picked up
the entire series, so each of the stories will be released individually for
Kindle. The final date for buying the trilogy as one volume for Kindle will be
November 1st. Starblood will be released in December. The trilogy
will still be available in one volume as a paperback after this date.
Carmilla also edits
for self-publishing authors and is releasing a series of articles entitled “A
Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Novel” on her blog at www.carmillavoiez.com
