Two sisters. Two destinies. One terrifying fate. ➱ Two Sisters an Urban Fantasy Action Thriller by Mark Wooden Book Tour with Guest Post and giveaway

 

 

A mortal woman's search for her mother's murderer drags her into an action-packed thriller revealing a secret, millennium-long war between supernatural creatures. 

Two Sisters

Assassin’s Absolution Trilogy, Song 1

by Mark Wooden

Genre: Urban Fantasy Action

Two sisters. Two destinies. One terrifying fate.

When Safia Edris' surrogate mother is murdered on the night of the new millennium, the only clue is an eighteenth-century painting of two mysterious sisters.

But the painting has disappeared.

To uncover the truth of her mother's death, Safia must find the painting and the answers that lie within. But her pursuit leads her into a conflict with supernatural creatures that manipulate the mortal world from the shadows.

Safia finds help in Adriana Dupré, a former member of a cult of vampire assassins. However, Adriana has an agenda that conflicts with Safia's goal.

Ultimately, Safia and Adriana must solve the real mystery... Who are the two sisters?

Fans of Anne Rice's “Vampire Chronicles,” William Peter Blatty's “The Exorcist,” and Ian Fleming's James Bond will love this thrilling adventure. If you enjoyed the intrigue, horror, and action of these classics, then you won't want to miss "Two Sisters," the first story in the “Assassin’s Absolution” trilogy of the “Shadowdance” action/ urban fantasy saga.

Buy it now and be the first to enjoy this intriguing, horrifying, and thrilling action/ urban fantasy saga!

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Am I too late? Adriana thought as she raced her BMW motorcycle across the southbound lower deck of the Fort Duquesne Bridge. Her destination, the Gateway Towers condominiums just off Point State Park, stood ahead. Despite the fireworks, she could see the muzzle flash outside the corner condominium on the top floor.

Her mercenary contacts had told her the Daughters of Lilith were on the warpath this night. They performed each of their many kills in their bloody signature. Adriana knew their signature; as a former Daughter, she’d left targets displayed in that fashion more times than she could count.

Adriana considered the weapon used by the would-be assassin. The Daughters’ signature kills required a taste of the target’s blood. The killer would have to get inside and find their prey among the many injured by the gunfire. Adriana would at least arrive in time to avenge the man the Daughters had attacked.

Glancing back at the building and the shooter, Adriana got a surprise. A white flame burst from the condominium, sending the assassin flying away from the building.

Slamming her brakes, Adriana pulled over to the shoulder on the Pittsburgh Point side of the bridge. Looking back at Gateway Towers, she saw the ethereal flame dissipate. The woman—Daughters of Lilith were exclusively female—remained attached to her rappelling line.

As Adriana watched, the assassin must have eased the tension on the rappelling device attached to the line. She slid down nearly twenty stories as the line swung her back toward the building. The assassin eventually slammed into the building some ten stories above the ground.

Better to hit the building than take another blast from the Knight of Vyntari sorcerer in the penthouse.

The assassin detached from her line and plummeted the remaining thirty-six meters to the ground. A mortal assassin would never survive the fall without incapacitating injury or death.

But this was a Daughter of Lilith. She would take the injury and walk away after a time.

The sorcerer had earned himself and Adriana a reprieve, but she still had to hurry.

Looking ahead, Adriana saw the interstate would take her in a roundabout way to the condominiums. A faster route would require Adriana to drop down to a road beneath her, then to a road beneath that so she could drive through Point State Park and toward Gateway Towers. Add the complication that dropping to the first road would put her into oncoming traffic.

But how would she even drop down with the bridge’s meter-high concrete barrier designed to prevent such a feat?

Luckily for her, another unfortunate motorist had dislodged a section of that barrier. A hastily installed, now rusted steel barricade stood in its place.

Adriana swung her bike around and drove into oncoming southbound traffic. Traffic was light and manageable, thanks to most people being off the roads celebrating the new millennium. That did not avoid a barrage of horns and profanity along the way, both barely audible over the booming fireworks.

Halfway back to the city, Adriana spun her bike around again, leaving burnt rubber on the bridge. She accelerated quickly, weaving through cars as required, aiming the motorcycle for the steel section of the barricade. Upon reaching the steel, Adriana shifted her weight, pulling the front of her bike up so the front wheel left the ground. The bike’s underside broke through the rusted steel. The back wheel caught air as the bike sailed down and landed on a lower street section.

Immediately, horns assaulted Adriana as northbound traffic rushed at her. Pressing forward, she deftly dodged one car, then another. She’d have to overcome another concrete barrier to get to the park. Unfortunately, she didn’t see any section of the barrier under construction.

She spotted a Lamborghini Diablo approaching in the lane closest to the barrier. The car’s driver furiously honked their horn. Adriana steered onto the line dividing the outer and center lanes so the vehicle would pass her without incident.

Adriana’s brows furrowed.

If she failed to time her next move exactly—

Meters before the Diablo and motorcycle were to pass one another, Adriana jerked her bike into a head-on course with the sports car. She got close enough to see the yuppie behind the wheel screaming in fear, a woman with too much makeup screaming in the passenger seat next to him.

Adriana drove her motorcycle over the sports car using the Diablo’s low-angled hood and windshield as a ramp. The makeshift ramp placed her over the barrier and into the air. She smashed hard on the road below but endured the force of impact to remain on the bike. She brought the machine to a screeching halt.

Adriana scanned for the assassin but saw only the empty rappel line swaying in the breeze. She engaged the bike’s engine and raced down the stretch of road leading through the park and to Gateway Towers. Once near where the assassin fell, Adriana leaped from her ride before it stopped. The motorcycle fell on its side, sliding over the grass.

The assassin had fled.

The fall would generate an injury; the assassin would bleed, if not worse.

Adriana knew the Daughter assassin could channel the magic within her blood to repair any wound.

It’s what vampires did.

Can you, for those who don’t know you already, tell something about yourself and how you became an author?

 

Well, hello! I’m writer Mark Wooden!

 

I’m a video engineer for corporate events and concerts by trade, but I am a writer at heart, and whenever I can, I write. As a wee lad, I wanted to be a movie director like my favs: Francis Coppola, Alfred Hitchcock, and George Lucas.

 

To direct, I had to have stories to tell. That led me to write screenplays. In addition to the heroic trio of directors, comic book writers Chris Claremont, Larry Hama, and Frank Miller have influenced my storytelling style. I also draw inspiration from Clive Barker’s Books of Blood, the early Laurell K. Hamilton Anita Blake vampire hunter books, and action movies, primarily the James Bond series.

 

Eventually, I realized I didn’t have the money to produce my movies or the artistic skill to draw a comic book. A friend suggested I write a novel. That way, I can do what I want with no budgetary limits. I converted a screenplay into a novel; thus, the “Shadowdance” action urban fantasy saga was born!

 

Do you feel switching from a director to a writer was the right decision?

 

Don’t get it twisted; if the chance to direct comes up, I will take it. I’m working with a friend to produce a movie he’s directing. Once that’s over, I hope to get my horror movie in the queue. I have already directed a short horror film, Where the Heart Bleeds. At the Spooky Empire Convention in Tampa, I showed horror icon and personal favorite Clive Barker my monster, and he loved it. (Where the Heart Bleeds is on YouTube, by the way. Shameless plug, I know.)

 

But, for the time being, I’m going to keep writing. I have stories to tell, and a lack of a budget, cast, or crew won’t shackle me. It will be my story even when I direct, so I’ll still be writing.

 

Tell us something exciting that’s happened to you!

 

Besides the Clive Barker moment? This one was another celebrity moment when I toured with Jimmy Buffett. I moved to do something during the show, and someone blocked my path. I was going to yell at them, but when I looked up, I saw Indiana Han Solo Deckard Jones standing there with a Corona in hand. He apologized for being in the way, stepped back, and let me do my thing.

 

You label Two Sisters as an action urban fantasy. Care to elaborate?

 

I like the concept of urban fantasy, but I could never get into the first-person narration, nor the need to have the trope of the love triangle between the protagonist and two supernatural lovers. Instead, I made a third-person story that plays like a superhero comic book, with preternatural powers standing in for superpowers and none of that “will they or won’t they” stuff.

 

But for folks who need their social interactions, I have plenty of familial drama and tension between the various organizations and supernatural creatures in the secret war that is the Shadowdance.

 

Give us a brief rundown of your book, Two Sisters.

 

The murder of Safia’s mother connects to the disappearance of an enigmatic 18th-century painting of two sisters. Falling into an uneasy alliance with the vampire assassin named Adriana plunges Safia into the Shadowdance, a secret war between supernatural creatures. To find her mother’s murderer and survive the war, Safia and Adriana must solve the mystery: who are the two sisters?

 

How did you come up with the concept and characters for Two Sisters?

 

This one came from an incident in middle school. I had a photo of me as a younger child. Two bullies scribbled all over the picture. Now, back then, there weren’t digital copies. You lose the picture; it’s gone forever. That crushed little old Mark.

 

Years later, as I crafted the “Shadowdance” action urban fantasy saga, I developed the concept, “What if a vampire sought a painting that reminded them of their childhood, only to find it defaced, a metaphor for the destruction their existence as a vampire has left in her wake?” The rest of the story developed around that central conceit.

 

Thinking about your book, what kind of research did you do before you began writing?

 

When I start a book, I usually already have a rough idea of the story I want to tell, the protagonist, and the antagonist. My first research project is diving into the backstories of the characters.

 

For Two Sisters, my character Safia is an art historian and the assistant director at the Louvre. To get into her headspace, I researched art history, specifically the Romantic period. I also learned about the Louvre, its collection, and its layout. Because the story also deals with art forgery, I got a book on how forgers operate, the art community’s reaction to it, and preventive measures.

 

Now, please don’t ask me to give a lecture on any of that stuff. I suck at retaining said info. That’s why I took copious notes in One Note to draw on the info when needed. The idea is to give that aura of authenticity so the character(s) can look like the experts they are, and the audience can experience a world unfamiliar to them.

 

Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in Two Sisters?

 

I mentioned Safia. She’s the heart of the story and the audience’s way into the world of the Shadowdance. Whereas Safia will use her mind and empathy to solve a problem, Adriana comes at the problem like a wrecking ball for the forces of order. The two must learn from one another to work through the mystery of the Two Sisters painting.

 

Every great protagonist deserves a great antagonist. Two Sisters gives us two. First up is Fatale, leader of a cult of female vampire assassins. She’s hellbent on avenging her cult against Adriana, who has spent decades wiping them out. Fatale is as chaotic and childish as Adriana is ordered and mature.

 

Kara, Fatale’s second, does her mistress’s bidding but has a secret agenda that threatens to fracture the Shadowdance’s delicate balance.

  

Do you have any “side stories” about the characters?

 

Boy, do I! Safia grew so much that she’s getting a story within the second novel, By Virtue, Fall. Many of the elements I introduce in Two Sisters — the assassin cult and the warrior sorcerers called the Knights of Vyntari — will expand through new characters in other stories.

 

I aim to create a mosaic world of main stories told in trilogies, and side stories told through free eBook short stories or individual novels. You don’t have to read everything to know what’s happening, but if you want to immerse yourself in an action-urban fantasy world, I want to give you all the world-building I can. You can thank those nineteen-eighties comic books for that.

 

What can we expect from you in the future?

 

Two Sisters is out now, exclusively on Amazon. Later in the year, I’ll open that up to other booksellers. The sequel, By Virtue, Fall, will drop in the Winter of 2024. The last book in the trilogy, For Her Sins, drops in Winter 2025.

 

I also have it in me to write a series of short stories based on the concept of a sorority that’s a training ground for assassins. Somewhere in there, I’ll get back to writing some Star Wars and comic book fanfiction. I do that as a palate cleanser to beat back writer’s block.

 

Convince us why you feel Two Sisters is a must-read.

 

Genre mashups are always great fun. Just look at Blade and Brotherhood of the Wolf. For Two Sisters, I’m mashing the terror of The Exorcist with the intrigue of The Vampire Chronicles and then wrapping them both in the action of a James Bond movie.

 

With heartfelt characters, exotic locales, and immersive supernatural lore, horror, mystery, and action readers can lose themselves for a few hours in the world of the Shadowdance saga via Two Sisters!

"Two Sisters" author Mark Wooden was a quarterfinalist in the 2017 ScreenCraft Cinematic Short Story Contest for "Fall to Grace," a short story from his "Shadowdance" urban fantasy saga.

The monster in his short horror film, "Where the Heart Bleeds," earned the approval of horror maestro Clive Barker. Mark is also a member of the Horror Writer's Association.

Mark's command of the horror genre combines with his love of James Bond-style action to create stories that explore loyalty, manipulation, revenge, and redemption.

His day job involves setting up video equipment for concerts and corporate events. Ask him about when he worked for Jimmy Buffett and literally ran into Harrison Ford.

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