DONNYBROOK-Bridgetown Mail journalist Nina Smith is about to launch her latest novel.
Smith has branched out from the thriller genre to create the epic fantasy series Shadow, featuring fairies, vampires and muses.
Book One: Bloody Fairies is set in the bubble world Shadow, an isolated world where fairies, vampires, muses and pixies must all overcome millennia of mistrust to unite and face a tyrant.
The series centres around Hippy Ishtar, a young and naive Bloody fairy who defies her tribe and runs off with the Muse King in search of an artefact needed to save her tribe.
Smith said the idea for the Shadow series came to her a few years ago when she was in Perth.
"I started imagining what it would be like if weird creatures started walking around this ordinary space and imagining where they would come from," she said.
Shadow is connected with our world, but things people imagine on earth come true in Shadow, while the muses inspire human creativity.
Smith has been writing books her entire life but this is the first time she has branched out into fantasy.
"Its a dark comic fantasy with fairies, vampires, ancient treasures it has thriller and suspense and a little bit of romance," Smith said.
"Hippy is first enthralled by the Muse King but then finds herself drawn to a fairy sworn to defeat him."
Unlike Twilight, where vampires are nice and "sparkle", the vampires in Shadow are meant to be scary.
"They are six foot tall, they are the age old enemy of fairies," Smith said.
"The favourite pastime of fairies is to throw fairy dust on vampires and make them sparkle before they die."
Ms Smith designed the book cover herself, with friends posing as Hippy Ishtar and the Muse King.
"We did a photo shoot in Balingup and had a lot of fun, then I spent three or four weeks coming up with the cover," Smith said.
Smith hopes the next book in the nine-part series will be out early next year.
A book launch will be held this Saturday at Whitespace Art Gallery in Mullalyup.
There will be belly dancing to entertain the crowds and people are invited to dress up in the theme, which is vampires and fairies.
Copies of the book will also be available to buy and have signed.
Bloody Fairies is also available to buy on Amazon as Kindle or paperback, look out for copies locally soon.
