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Vega – The Vampire King – republished

Mark Hastings books , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Get your copy of the new republished, hardback, version of my book ‘Vega – The Vampire King’!

Originally published in 2021, ‘Vega – The Vampire King’ is the backstory of Vega, “The Vampire King”, who was first introduced in my book ‘The Wolf in You’, and essentially tells the tale of his origin story: where he came from, who he was, what he has had to live through, and how he ultimately became the leader of all the vampires on Earth.

Within ‘Vega – The Vampire King’, you discover that Vega has been who and what he is for a long time, and over the centuries he has encountered several other supernatural individuals – including some characters who I have written about and who have connections to other characters within my other books, namely: Olivia Hunter.

‘Vega – The Vampire King’ is a prequel, a sequel, as well as somewhat of a parallel story to the events my book ‘The Wolf in You’ and gives Vega’s perspective on his relationship and his love of Olivia Hunter – what lead him to her, what he did to protect her, and how and why he fell in love with her.

‘Vega – The Vampire King’ is essential reading if you have read my book ‘The Wolf and The Vampire’ and you want to learn more about someone who is not like any other vampire you may have read about or heard of before – because, even to those who may have heard of him, Vega, in many ways, is an enigma and a mystery, as are the best and the most interesting of characters.

You can get your copy of the new hardcover version of ‘Vega – The Vampire King’, featuring a brand new cover artwork, on Amazon now!

My Poem “Homme en Noir”

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , 
Everyone repeats themselves…
everyone sometimes wears
the same things over and over again -
even heroes…
everyone has secrets…
everyone makes the same mistakes
over and over again…
everyone is different,
and yet unavoidably human…
everyone lies; everyone has goods days;
everyone has bad days;
everyone gets to a point
when all they want is a quiet life…
everyone sometimes gets ahead of themselves…
everyone sometimes slips back into old habits…
everyone sometimes flies high…
everyone sometimes falls deep…
everyone needs air to breathe…
everyone can sometimes feel
suffocated by the same old routines…
everyone has a destiny, a purpose, an identity,
a life that can never be lost -
even those of us who might have forgotten
that long ago we were told by someone
that some day we will be somebody
who will make a difference…
everyone who goes to war
returns changed by what they have experienced -
and the first enemy of every battle
that has to be fought and overcome
is always the fear of the one who is fighting…
everyone who has searched for the truth
about something or someone
knows how it feels to be given an answer;
everyone who has investigated a mystery
about why something happened
knows that when light is shined upon darkness
details emerge from the shadows;
everyone who has taken a leap in their life
in which they had no idea
what the outcome would be
knows that a sacrifice is sometimes asked to be made
so that the righteousness of their actions
can be rewarded by those
who are willing to do the right thing
for a greater good…
everyone is someone…
everyone has a future, as well as past -
even someone who spends their time
doing good for others, without asking
for anything back:
someone who has been through so much,
and who identifies themselves first and foremost
as a messenger of truth, justice, peace, and love,
who is only ever witnessed in passing
as a mysterious man in black.

The Dreamer and The Dream – republished

Mark Hastings books, Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , ,

My fourth book, and my fourth poetry collection, ‘The Dreamer and The Dream’, is once again available to buy from Amazon in its new hardcover edition.

Originally published in 2015, my book ‘The Dreamer and The Dream’, contains some of my favourite poems that I have written – poems that tell you so much about what matters to me on a personal level, what drives me every day, why I am a poet, and also allowing me to express my feelings for those who mean the most to me, and who inspire me every second of every day.

‘The Dreamer and The Dream’, and its poems within, is the book, and the poetry of mine, that I have shared with more people than all others, because there is so much to discover about me within, as well as so much that I wanted to say. It’s also the book that, when I wrote and I published the poems within, made me realise who I was and who I always wanted to be: a poetry, a writer, not to mention a storyteller.

Get your copy of ‘The Dreamer and The Dream’ from Amazon now and here! 😊

The Eternal Boy – republished

Mark Hastings books, Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Get your copy of the republished version (hardcover version) of my third book, and my third poetry collection, ‘The Eternal Boy’, which was originally published in 2015.

‘The Eternal Boy’ symbolises another step upon my journey as a poet, as a writer, and as an author – as well as me attempting to capture the change and the evolution in myself that I felt I was going through at the time, and also my exploration of some of the many states that we all sometimes have to live through at different and varied stages in our lives.

There are poems within ‘The Eternal Boy’ that I think about all the time, and which I think perfectly capture who I am and who I always want to be.

Get the new hardcover version of ‘The Eternal Boy’ here!

-Mark

My Poem “Return to the Beginning”

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 
Life can sometimes be
like being on a fairground ride,
like being on a rollercoaster -
because so much of our time
is spent doing the same things
in a repeating cycle;
however, no matter how much nostalgia
we feel for a time, or for a place, in the past,
if and when we attempt to go backwards
and in reverse then we may only find
heartbreak waiting for us -
especially when we realise that
we can only stay where we used to be
for a short time before returning
to the present, to the now, to who we are,
to the knowledge of what happened, what changed,
and who we have lost along the way.

Returning to the past can be difficult;
returning to the past can be challenging;
returning to the past can be painful;
returning to what was can sometimes
shine a light upon what was pushed
into the shadows of your mind for a reason
that you may have forgotten about;
returning to the path of memory lane
can make you realise where, when, why,
and how things changed for the best,
as well as for the worse.

Life can sometimes feel like a constant uphill struggle;
life can sometimes feel like a Summer’s kiss;
life can sometimes feel like a fever dream;
life can sometimes feel like something is happening
that you can’t control or understand,
but you have to make the best of it;
life can sometimes feel like a constant
storm of emotions and feelings
that you have to overcome;
life can sometimes feel like
it has been a long time coming
since things were simple and made sense.

Returning to the origins of a story;
returning to the muse of inspiration;
returning to the flash that started
the tidal wave of creativity;
returning to the source of rejuvenation;
returning to that which opened doors to other places,
which lead to meeting other people,
in sometimes new, interesting, and unexpected ways,
can remind us of why we are all, mostly,
hopeful of a better world,
and optimistic of what possibilities
the future of tomorrow might bring;
however, though it is nice to find things
and to see things that we haven’t
seen in some time,
and though it is initially good to see
people we may not have been
in the presence of for sometime,
there is always a cost to be paid,
to be taken, and to be made,
if you ever want, if you ever need,
or if you ever feel like you must go back
and return to the beginning.

The Sound of Mark – Republished

Mark Hastings books, Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Get your copy of the republished version of my 2014 poetry collection, The Sound of Mark, in hardback from Amazon.

The Sound of Mark was the second book, and the second collection of my poetry, that I was lucky to get published, and the poems within symbolise a time when I reached a crossroads in my life – and some of the poems I wrote at that time are still some of my favourite poems that I have written.

The Sound of Mark – as well as the poems within – is a book that I have wanted to return to and revitalise since it was first published in paperback and as an ebook back in 2014, which is why I am so thrilled to be able to republish it in its new hardcover version.

The Sound of Mark is available to buy in hardback from Amazon now, and right here!

-Mark

My Poem “Mockingbird”

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , ,

We all learn by doing…
We all repeat, emulate, and mimic others –
especially when we are young
and still learning how to use
the gifts that we were born with
to get through life…
we are all different and we are meant to be individuals,
but when we are young we are told
to “act normal” and to “fit in”;
however, the older you get, the more you see,
and the more people that you meet,
you come to realise that no one
is like anybody else –
no matter how hard they might try to be
and no matter how much they try to convince
themselves and those around them…
now more than ever, especially online
and behind the mask of their avatars,
some people always try to act
and communicate as if they are somebody else –
some people act nice and speak
as if they have nothing to hide,
but in secret even the quietest
and the seemingly most innocent
can be as loud as a banshee when it comes
to their own personal opinions
because they are the ones
with the most concerning problems…
some people are not always as they seem,
because everyone has an alter ego –
a side of their personality that rarely gets to be seen
because they would not conform
to the picture that other people might have of them
if they were asked to describe them,
and then there are those who are so damaged
from a personal trauma that they have learned
to survive by acting on instinct
and attempting to make others
feel like they are in control
when they are the ones attempting
to manipulate things from the shadows
as if controlling a puppet on a string…
we all learn in different ways,
at different times, and at different speeds,
what we need to know and what we need to do
to make the best of the situations
we all find ourselves in –
some that we never thought we would
ever find ourselves in;
but that is the power that each of us possesses
and that is the ability that we all have need to use
throughout our lives when we have to go with the flow,
to think on our feet,
to become someone and something else,
and use a technique that some actors have been using as means to achieve the desired effect of
transforming into a character
by making the same choices for themselves
as the persona that they wish to effortlessly portray –
in the same way that other songs and sounds
can easily be imitated and incorporated
into the call of a mockingbird.

Poet of the Sphere – Republished

Mark Hastings books, Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Please allow me to reintroduce you to my first poetry collection, Poet of the Sphere.

Poet of the Sphere was first published in 2012 – and not only was it the first poetry collection I got published, it was also the first book I got published.

Poet of the Sphere, as well as the poems within, are where my path as a published author began and it will always mean a lot to me. No matter how many books I have published, and no matter how many books I will publish in the future, Poet of the Sphere will always be my first and it will always be special to me. And now everyone can purchase a brand new Hardback version from Amazon: here!

Happy reading! 😊

-Mark

Vega – The Vampire King: Halloween Reading

Mark Hastings books, me , , , , , , , , , , ,

Watch me read an excerpt from my 2021 book ‘VEGA – The Vampire King’ on YouTube especially for Halloween.

My Poem “A Poem For The End of The World”

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , 
There have always been times
in the history of humanity
when people have had to look at themselves,
when people have had to look at their surroundings,
and when people have had to look
at the faces of their loved ones,
and wondered whether this would be the day:
whether this would be when the world
would come to an end…
there have been times when nature
has taken humanity to a point
where and when the outcome of
what was about to happen was not guaranteed,
where and when no matter what protection
we think we have against an imminent threat
we know that the possibility of surviving
what is going to take place is not a given…
there have been devastating asteroid impacts
that have led to the extinction of entire species;
there have been epic storms that have caused
massive amounts of destruction and death;
there have been numerous instances when
attacks have occurred which have lead to fatalities
that could not have been prevented
nor predicted by anyone…
there have always been dangerous times -
when the world around us has felt
as if it were teetering on a knife-edge -
when there are tensions between
powerful nations capable of wielding
arsenals that could lead to
mass casualties and worldwide annihilation…
there have always been times
when we have been told to prepare for the worst -
during times of war, or when there has been
an outbreak of a deadly disease;
and when there is such a time
when the odds of survival might seem insurmountable,
and when the situation unfolding
seems too grim to bear,
everyone around the world needs
something and someone to remind them
that no matter what happens in life,
and no matter what humanity
sometimes has to go through,
there will always be something and someone
that will make the difference
and guide your way through the world -
even if darkness seems to have descended over everything -
and every time you return to them
they give you a little bit of hope
that you are going to be alright
and eventually everything will pass;
and if the end does come,
and if you need something or someone
to hold your hand as you make your way
through an era of potential dystopia,
then think of me and keep a copy of this poem
with you to read whenever you need to be reminded
of the importance of the words of a poet
and you need a poem for the end of the world.