# WATCHERS: a historical vampire trilogy



## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

The Watchers Trilogy

The old wall is a border: England and Scotland, South and North, light and darkness.

It is 1745, and the long-awaited night as come. The Bloodking calls his army to battle, and armed with the powers of the undead and the damned, he will bring them South to claim his birthright: The throne of Britain.

Only the old Watchers on the wall stand in his way. They, their swords, and their faith. But too much time has passed and the Watch has grown slack and ill-prepared for the coming war. Only Martin and Sean have seen the horrors that lie ahead for humankind. Only they have the power to stop it.

Now, two young officers of the Watch have a duty to perform:

Stop the Bloodking.

Or die trying.

"...horrifying Highland vampires from the bloodline of the diabolical Stuarts. This first novel...offers excitement that never slackens." ~ Margaret L. Carter, author of the Eppie Award-winning vampire novel Dark Changeling

"...superb story. Thoroughly enjoyable from the first word to the last. William Meikle has a wonderfully unique style..." -- The Eternal Night Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror

"Breathtaking, Scary and Original. A must read. An impressive blend of horror, history and imagination." ~Dave Dreher, Horror News Network

"I was captivated from the very first scene...Very well written." ~ Patricia Altner, author of Vampire Readings: An Annotated Bibliography (Scarecrow Press, 199

"I'm always impressed when anyone can add a new twist to the venerable vampire canon. Hugely enjoyable fun to read." ~ Joe Gordon, The Alien Online

"It is refreshing to read a story where the triumph of good over evil is far from definite..." ~ The Eternal Night Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror

"Meikle blends reality and fantasy so well that the reader believes that it could have happened." ~ Kelly Rothenberg, author of Hitler in Progress

"Meikle...can grace the page with words of beauty whilst twisting a nightmare into grotesque shapes before your eyes." ~ Len Maynard and Mick Sims, author of The Secret Geography of Nightmare and Incantations


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Willie--

Congratulations on your book!

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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

The book is my retelling of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion in Britain. Bonnie Prince Charlie, and all his highland army, are Vampires and are heading south to claim the British throne. The "Watchers" of the title are the guards of the old Roman wall built by Hadrian, now reinforced to keep the vamps out. It is constantly patrolled by officers of the Watch, two of whom become the main protagonists of the series. I got the idea on a walk along what is left of the wall, and by the time I'd had finished my walk and had a few beers the first part of the trilogy was fully formed in my head. Think "ZULU" or "Last of the Mohicans" with vamps and you'll get a feel of what I was trying to do.

I was dealing with a retelling of the Bonnie Prince Charlie story, where romantic myths have subsumed the harsh reality of a coup gone badly wrong. I needed to strip all the romance out of the Highlanders and build them up from the bottom. Making them a shambling army of vamps and mindless drones seemed an obvious place to start. The Watchers series is a swashbuckler, but there is little lace and finery. What I do have is blood and thunder, death and glory in big scale battles and small scale heartbreak. I love it.


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## velicion (Sep 22, 2010)

When did you write this Willie?


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

velicion said:


> When did you write this Willie?


Between 1999 and 2001... the books have been out for a while in print. I remember that most of it was written on a PSION organiser while traveling around Scotland for work.

Originally it was sold to BARCLAY BOOKS, the people who originally published ISLAND LIFE, and it was supposed to be the follow up to that one. But the company went spectacularly tits-up leaving me high and dry.

Black Death Books then picked up the slack, and published it as, firstly, three separate books, then one Omnibus edition. Now we have the three new shiny ebooks coming.

My dream is to see Tim Burton make the movie... well, a boy can dream, can't he?


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Looking in on Jon Merz today to discuss this book and vampires http://jonfmerz.net/2011/01/10/guest-post-willie-meikle/


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## dixiehellcat (Jan 23, 2011)

Oooh, this sounds good. (goes to investigate further)


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## dixiehellcat (Jan 23, 2011)

Okay, I started reading Coming of the King last night, and before I went to bed I had to go to Amazon and get the other 2.  Very good stuff. And the


Spoiler



Holy Blood Holy Grail angle? LOL! I should have seen that coming when I was reading the teaser for one of the others (Culloden, I think?) and saw Roslin mentioned. Priceless!



Taking my Kindle on a work trip tomorrow and looking forward to some down time to devour more. You are one good writer, sir! (applauds)


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

dixiehellcat said:


> Okay, I started reading Coming of the King last night, and before I went to bed I had to go to Amazon and get the other 2.  Very good stuff. And the
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...


Thank you... and it was written before


Spoiler



Dan Brown's


 take on the story, so I WIN!


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Excerpt:

XCERPT
_______


They were a rag-tag bunch for an army. From his vantage point Sean saw kilted Scotsmen, the red-tunics of those who had once been in the English army, the tattered woollen overgarments of farm workers and, down there, just beginning to climb, the recently animated bodies of fellow officers of the watch killed in the last attack. They made up little more than a screaming, disorganised, mob; men, women and older children all united in just one common cause - to get over the wall and feed.

He aimed the nozzle of the bellows down at them and pressed the handles together. The stench of garlic suddenly filled his nose and brought tears to his eyes. As the water hit the attackers they fell back, hissing and mewling, leaving long trails of greasy marks as they slid back to the earth. Screams rent the air, inhuman screeches of pain. Some of them, only their heads touched by the liquid, kept trying to climb until being hosed down further. And still the throng pressed forward, walking over the bodies of the fallen. And everywhere that water touched it brought boiling lesions to the skin and fresh screams in the air.

"This is no way for a man to fight." The Warden shouted, and Sean had to agree with him, but anything that killed the Others so efficiently was welcome at a time like this.

He saw that the Warden was managing to pump nearly double the volume of water that he was capable of; the huge muscles of his shoulders and arms bunched and knotted tight under his overshirt. The Others had fallen in their scores below him and he was now beginning to create an empty buffer zone. However the enemy were getting smarter, and more of them were moving in Sean's direction, where the flow of the killing liquid was less.

"Close up," Sean shouted, and the Warden moved nearer. Sean kept pumping water down over the wall, and further along he could see another doing the same, and the Others kept coming, and they kept dying. The smell that came off the hissing, bubbling bodies stung his eyes and threaten to make him gag as it hit the back of his throat, but he kept pumping.

"Check the barrels," he shouted at the Warden. "We can't let them run dry."

"Too late," the big man replied. There was a sucking sound as his pump brought up air. He dropped the bellows.

"To me," the big man shouted. "More water. More garlic." At the same time Sean's bellows began to wheeze.

He turned, and saw a convoy of children labouring with buckets and gourds, heading for the wall, but it would be long seconds before they would be able to replenish his weapon.

One final squeeze left barely a dribble coming from the spout. Sean dropped the bellows and unsheathed his sword as the black swarm began to slowly make their way up the wall over their twice dead.


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

If anyone would like to review my historical vampire book WATCHERS: THE COMING OF THE KING, drop me a line at [email protected] - I have it in mobi, kindle or pdf


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

New offer : Get a free .mobi or .epub download of book 1 of my historical vampire series WATCHERS: THE COMING OF THE KING.

http://www.facebook.com/williammeikle?sk=app_169836446397977


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

I'm still giving away a free .mobi or .epub download of the 1st book of my Scottish historical vampire trilogy.

WATCHERS: THE COMING OF THE KING can be had for free at my Facebook page here:

http://www.facebook.com/williammeikle?sk=app_169836446397977

Please "like" the page if you drop by.

Willie


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

This is the kind of response I like:



> "I have missed train stops and got home late. I was caught TWICE reading it while someone was talking to me, my mother hung up on me in slight anger. I can't put it down and I am only half way through. Interruptions are killing me! LOVE IT"


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Sample from Watchers: The Coming of the King » http://www.scribd.com/doc/69021975


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Free download of Watchers: The Coming of the King for all subscribers to my newsletter » http://williammeikle.com/mailman/listinfo/newsletter_williammeikle.com


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

KHP Publishers have made this free today and tomorrow for Halloween

WATCHERS: THE COMING OF THE KING
@ .COM http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004HO5UNC
@ .co.uk http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004HO5UNC


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

The audio book of this is now available. WATCHERS: THE COMING OF KING from Crossroads Press at Audible.

http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B00AAI754G&qid=1353512691&sr=1-1


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

The 3 Watchers books will soon be amalgamated into one omnibus edition.

Here's a sneak preview of the cover...


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## geoffthomas (Feb 27, 2009)

All three covers have been great and this omnibus cover is too.


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

At 2500 followers on FB, I'll give away 5 free ebooks of WATCHERS: THE COMING OF THE KING. So please share this message.

( 65 to go )

https://www.facebook.com/williammeikle


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Prize draw - win an ebook of my Scottish historical vampire trilogy WATCHERS at the link

http://www.williammeikle.com/whyvampires.html


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Prize draw - win an ebook of my Scottish historical vampire trilogy WATCHERS at the link. Only 4 days left to enter.

http://www.williammeikle.com/whyvampires.html


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

After last month's successful prize draw giveaway, I'm doing it again. Here's another chance to win an ebook of my WATCHERS Scottish vampire trilogy --> http://www.williammeikle.com/whyvampires.html


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

The giveaway is still going strong - 3 days left for another chance to win an ebook of my Scottish historical vampire trilogy WATCHERS --> http://www.williammeikle.com/whyvampires.html


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Taken this off the market - I've sold it to a new publisher for a forthcoming hardcover, paperback and ebook edition, coming in 2016....


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

New editions, new covers!


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

The Omnibus edition has gone live... cover art again by the great Wayne Miller


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

The 1st book in the trilogy, THE COMING OF THE KING, is currently free on Kindle.


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

The 1st book of my Scottish historical vampire trilogy is currently free


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

The 1st book of my Scottish historical vampire trilogy is now on permafree


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

My WATCHERS series was going along, selling nicely, then two 1 star reviews stopped the first one dead. If any of my readers have read it and would like to leave a review to push these ones down the page a bit, I'd be very, very grateful. And, in the meantime, Gryphonwood Press have made the 1st book in the series free to try to get interest back, so feel free to download it... it's got Bonnie Prince Charlie, a vampire Highland army, swashbuckling, bawdy songs and huge battle scenes on a fortified Hadrian's Wall, What's not to like?


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

My WATCHERS series was going along, selling nicely, then two 1 star reviews stopped the first one dead. If any of my readers have read it and would like to leave a review to push these ones down the page a bit, I'd be very, very grateful. And, in the meantime, Gryphonwood Press have made the 1st book in the series free to try to get interest back, so feel free to download it... it's got Bonnie Prince Charlie, a vampire Highland army, swashbuckling, bawdy songs and huge battle scenes on a fortified Hadrian's Wall, What's not to like?


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

WATCHERS Book 1, THE COMING OF THE KING, is permafree, and wide, so free on all retailers.

No excuse not to get it now


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Got accused of ripping off G R R Martin, and GOT, the TV show specifically for my WATCHERS trilogy. I pointed them to the earliest reviews on Amazon, in early 2003, and the fact I wrote the bloody thing in 1999-2001, and the fact I'm writing about a real bloody wall on the Scotland / England border.


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Book 1: THE COMING OF THE KING is now part of my freebie starter library for newsletter subscribers, alongside the Midnight Eye novella DEAL OR NO DEAL? and a newsletter exclusive creature feature story collection, BUG-EYED MONSTERS

http://www.williammeikle.com/newsletter.html


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