It's been twelve years in the making, but it is FINALLY here!
I am so excited to finally have the chance to share this world with you! I have loved vampires since I was a kid. And I know I'm not the only one. There are countless renditions of these mythical creatures, especially now-a-days, so what makes the vampires of Bloodlink so special? Well, it stems from its two major inspirations.
As mentioned before, I loved vampires, and really all things spooky, since I was a kid. In 2007, my mom got me an unbridged version of Dracula, which was small enough to take with me anywhere. I read it cover to cover and love it! Around that same time, the Twilight books were coming out. I heard about them from a friend and read books 1-3 in late 2008. I was enjoying them a quite lot, but then I went and saw the first movie and I read the last book. And something happened.
Not only was the ending of the 4th book anti-climax, but it really started to bother me how invulnerable the Twilight vampires were. Stephenie Meyer describes her vampires to have diamond-like skin, which is why they "sparkle" in the sunlight. And just like how only a diamond can cut a diamond, only a vampire can kill another vampire, unless you are a werewolf/changeling thing. Then that rule doesn't apply.
But that left humans at the bottom of the totem pole, with no way to protect themselves from these creatures that preyed on them. They had to complete rely on there being vampires good enough to defend them. Essentially, I started looking closer at the story's plot holes and short comings, and I begin to wonder 'what is my definition of a vampire?'
Meyer says that her first book was inspired by a dream she had where the girl who became known as Bella Swan learns that her boyfriend is a vampire when he shows her how his skin sparkles in the sunlight. My book was inspired by a dream in a similar way.
In late 2009, I had a dream where two people, a boy and a girl, where sitting on a group of rocks. Both of them were vampires. It was far past midnight and others in their vampire clan were roaming nearby, one of whom could not be trusted. The boy had been a vampire for quite some time and was explaining to the girl who'd been newly bitten what it means to be a vampire.
This began the drive into writing what would become Bloodlink, though the scene from the dream has morphed quite a bit since it came to me.
From there, I started doing research into vampire lore and realized that there wasn't a single definition. The western European vampires or Nosferatu are the ones most are familiar with today, but countries around the world have different kinds of vampires; some more beastly than others. So I changed tactics and asked "what is the definition of my vampire?' The answer came from an unusual source with an interesting twist.
I have had a lot of work done on my teeth and had to have my mouth numbed on one or the other. After one of these trips, I remember sitting in my grandma's house, waiting for the novacane to wear off (playing with the numb part of my lip as one does) when it hit me. Numbness comes from a restriction of blood flow to that area of the body. So wouldn't creatures that are dead or undead with no beating heart be numb to the touch? From there, my story started to spin. I was often remind of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, where Captain Barbossa tells Elizabeth Swan, "I feel nothin'. Not the wind on my face or the spray of the sea. Or the warmth of a woman's flesh", knowing my vampires would have the same experience. And how maddening it must be not to feel connected to anything. Not even to each other.
If you wish to see how they fare, I encourage you to read for yourself. Click the link below to find places to buy physical and digital copies of my book. And once you're done reading, come back for more behind-the-scenes content. Thanks for stopping by!