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A shuddering, thrilling urban fantasy series.
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The Reign of the Occult
The Occult Series Book 1
by Lauren Louise Hazel
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
The Reign of the
Occult is a shuddering, thrilling, urban fantasy for Young Adults. Filled with
hair raising chases through shadowy streets, frightening fights and
mind-blowing magic, it’s sure to keep many a different genre loving reader
happy.
The battle between the Underworld, full of darkness, and the Overworld, full of
light, has been evenly balanced for millennia. Caught between them is the
mortal world, where humans have become so afraid of a magic they cannot
understand or control that they allow the Occult to rule them. After the Occult
joins forces with the Underworld, the balance shifts and the Overworld is
decimated.
But still, in the mortal world, the magic won’t die. It appears when a
supernatural being and a human have a child, like Prue.
This is the first volume in an epic new fantasy series that spans the three
richly detailed worlds as Prue, her non-magical half-brother Everett, and all
Magic Users, fight to survive. They are being hunted by the Occult, who turn
the Magic Users they capture into tools to eliminate their own kind and,
eventually, to destroy all traces of magic.
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Chapter 1 – Run
“Prue!”
Everett gasped, unable to disguise the desperation in his voice. His legs were
aching, his lungs burning, and his heart was pounding erratically in his chest
– a reminder that, despite everything, he was still alive.
Maybe not for much longer.
He wheezed,
attempting to inhale more air, but from the weakness in his legs, he knew he
wouldn’t last much longer.
“Prue! Which
way?” he cried, casting a panicked glance at his sister. He imagined he could
hear them, the cocking of their guns, drawing near. Every flicker of movement
in the streetlight, every sound, felt magnified, as though even the shadows
were poised and ready to pounce.
“Both ways
are blocked,” Prue replied at last, her feet pounding the pavement beside Everett,
faltering only as they approached the junction. She frowned, eyelashes
fluttering, and clenched her fists, her nails leaving angry red indentations in
the palms of her hands. She was very pale.
“What are
you talking about?” Everett gasped, slowing to a canter.
“Nothing is certain.”
Everett,
while used to his sister’s cryptic remarks, was not in the mood for games. “That’s
not helping!” he cried, skidding to a halt as they reached the turning. He cast
a glance over his shoulder. “Are we going left, or right?”
Prue froze
and her eyes did too, as they often were when she saw things nobody else could.
“I told you,” she said, in a detached tone. “Both ways are blocked.”
Everett
cocked the gun he’d held loosely in his palm, trying to ignore the way it
slipped slightly in his grasp, dampened by his sweat-slick skin. “Does that
mean we’re dead either way?” he asked, with a carelessness he didn’t quite
feel. He checked his ammunition, if only to busy his shaking hands, knowing it
would probably make little difference in the end. Maths had never been his
strong point, but he knew one gun against hundreds were never favourable odds.
“They’re
coming,” Prue informed her brother, although she did not meet his eyes. She was
staring into the blackness at the other end of the street; Everett followed her
gaze, but as always, saw nothing.
“Where—?” he
began, before freezing. He couldn’t see, only hear, the rapid pounding of
footsteps along a cobbled street. Low at first, the sound was growing louder,
clear in the otherwise silent night. The hairs on the back of his neck were
standing up in warning. “Ok, you’re right,” he conceded, in a generous tone, “They’re
coming! No foresight needed for that. Which way do we go?”
Prue shook
her head, dark hair clinging to her bowed face, her eyes crunched in
concentration. She was covered in sweat.
“Wait— wait—”
Everett muttered, in a panicked breath, realising his sister was going to be of
no help. He could see them now, shadows moving in the darkness, emerging at the
end of the street. The Officers of the Occult. He shot three times in quick
succession – one, two, three – and something must have found its mark, from the
strangled cry of pain that followed. They were still alive, then. Good.
Everett had
only a moment to feel relief before the others swarmed. They were closing in on
them. Although in range, they had yet to fire a single shot; as he expected,
their aim was to capture, not to kill.
“Something
is changing,” Prue said from beside Everett. She clutched her head, fisting her
fingers into her hair, as though physically trying to remove something from her
mind. “Another factor is clouding things. His choices are unclear. He’s
conflicted already.”
“Prue!”
Everett cried, trying to pick something of use from her incoherent ramblings.
He pushed her sideways, behind the wall of a garden and out of sight – at least
for the moment. They were running out of time – the Officers would be upon them
in less than a minute, and then there would be no escape. “Pick a way! Which
way has more chance of survival?”
Prue gazed
up at the sky, but she was seeing nothing. “Left,” she replied at last, “Maybe
he will spare us.”
Without taking a second to contemplate what his
sister might mean, Everett grabbed her slippery hand and pulled, turning a
sharp left, the Officers of the Occult temporarily vanishing from view.
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The Queen of the Underworld
The Occult Series Book 2
The Queen of the
Underworld is the second novel in the award-winning The Occult Series
by Lauren Louise Hazel.
Following the fall of The Occult and its Head, Prue receives visions of The
Queen of the Underworld—a powerful Demon who was once overthrown by her allies
and exiled from her homeland—rising in its place.
Prue sees that the Queen is connected to Prue’s best friend, Lily. This leads
Prue and her half-brother, Everett, on their mission across worlds to destroy
the Queen and save their friend. But nothing is what it seems.
The Queen is ready and waiting for them—and she will stop at nothing to secure
her future and wipe out anyone who opposes her.
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As a kid, my dad would always take my sister and I to Waterstones. He always said that the only thing he would always buy us, would be books. While my sister was more interested in numbers, I was more interested in creative subjects. My mum bought me a first edition of Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, which would be worth a fortune if my cousin hadn’t torn out the front page. I’m still mad about it…
During school, my friends and I were obsessed with fantasy shows and novels, which has never faded. We used to have sleepovers, watch Buffy and Angel all night long. We also saw every Harry Potter in the cinema – at least a dozen times when they first came out and theorised about the ending of the books. I read the books so fast that I always knew the endings before everyone else, and everyone was mad when my sister told them that Dumbledore is murdered by Snape before anyone else got to it.
I started writing more seriously in 2010. During my first year at university, I had health issues and had to have an operation. In the following months of recovery, I was reading a lot and decided to write something. I was stuck indoors and so I wanted to do something more productive. I chose to start a fantasy novel, because that is what I loved. I had read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and I wanted to capture a modern world, but with a magical twist.
The Reign of the Occult was born. The first in The Occult Series, it’s a fast-paced urban fantasy. In the Mortal Realm, magic is outlawed and hunted by a mysterious and sinister organisation called The Occult. The protagonist is Prue, a girl who is cursed to see the future but never to change it. At the time, a female lead in a fantasy adventure was reasonably rare. The Hunger Games had just come out, which I loved, and the genre boomed following its release. Like me, a lot of writers followed suit and it’s much more mainstream now.
I took inspiration from Dante’s Inferno to create the 3 different worlds. I was studying history at university, so I’m really interested in myths and legends, and I included myths from all over the world to create the Demons in The Underworld and The Fae in The Overworld. The Occult in the Mortal Realm is grounded much more in reality – based on dictatorships I had studied, including The Third Reich. A big part of the story is the teenagers overcoming incredible odds to defeat evil. I absolutely love this theme in The Lord of the Rings, that you don’t need great power to overcome great evil.
The theme of teenagers fighting to reclaim their freedom and discover their own power, is present in all my stories. It’s something that comes from my own experiences, overcoming health issues and pushing through against the odds.
Following the original release of The Reign of the Occult, I was in a significant road accident, and I had ongoing injuries. I had to pause my plans to release the second book in the series, The Queen of the Underworld.
Since then, I’ve worked hard on my recovery. One, not to lose my day job. And two, to get The Queen of the Underworld completed. The editing was very difficult with my injuries, but I did not give up. I completed the edits and released the second book in 2024.
Now, I’m fighting fit and ready for my next series, The Tarot Series. The first novel is called The Book of Wands and it’s due for release in 2026. The protagonist, a girl named Olivia, inherits a Tarot Book following the death of her grandmother, which she claimed could predict Past, Present and Future… I picked a female protagonist, which I could relate most to, and had the Tarot Deck be passed down through the female line. I think it’s important for young women to understand and claim their own power.
Pieces I have removed from the main piece, placed here – keep these so that you can use in your newsletters and content marketing:
Her brother Everett is her protector – although he doesn’t possess any powers, he is street smart and savvy. The story is their journey through the 3 worlds – The Mortal Realm, The Underworld and The Overworld – fleeing from The Occult. My sister claims that Everett is based on my baby brother, Ben, but I did not realise that while I was writing it.
It took me about 8 years in total to finish The Reign of the Occult. I started working for a small company in HR, and eventually asked me to move over and build their security function from scratch. While personally I’m much more creative – interested in Art, History and English – my job is much more technical. I’m a Cyber Security Manager now in a role that is mostly dominated by men. It has been a successful career, and I’ve done the writing on the side. It was only during Covid, when I didn’t have to travel to work, that I had more time to work on the manuscript.
I finally decided I was going to finish a book if it killed me! Once I finished the first manuscript, and realised that I could finish one, the manuscripts that followed were much, much faster. In my mind, the writing has changed from a hobby to a job and now I treat it seriously. If it’s in my calendar, then I’ll do it.
Lauren Louise Hazel is a Cyber Security Manager by day and
writes YA fantasy by night. She has one annoying brother and younger sister. As
she was growing up, the only item her dad would buy her without demanding her
pocket money was books. He’s hoping the writing is successful so he can get a
Ferrari!
Some of Lauren’s favourite books and influences include the
classics – like Lord of the Rings and The Hunger Games – and anything by Haruki
Murakami and GRR Martin.
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