Teaser Tuesday... Kind Of
My current read for the moment is Dreamhunter by local author Elizabeth Knox. She is best known for her book The Vintner's Luck, which is being made into a movie by Niki Caro (Whale Rider) and stars Gaspard Ulliel and Keisha Castle-Hughes. But as I am only 11 pages in (having finished Graceling this afternoon) I don't really have much to share from the novel without potentially spoiling myself by opening up to the wrong page.
So instead my much longer teaser is from my own work, my first completed novel. Blood Bound is the story of Delia, a girl whose family-run hotel also caters to vampires - their response to youngest son, Charlie, being turned into a vampire while at college (a whole new reason why anonymous sex is bad. Vampirism: the new STD to worry about).
Just quick context: after attempt one to talk to narrator Delia, vampire Daniel tries again. Delia makes the mistake of suggesting they go outside to avoid her eavesdropping vampire brother. And Daniel's attempts to be the suave dashing romantic vampire (of which, only the "vampire" part is true) fail again.
Icon is vaguely relevant to scene - or at least the minutes prior to that image are.
The slightest of breezes blew past me and I finally gave into my urge to shiver. I folded my arms even more tightly inward, my hands moving higher up into my armpits, seeking as much warmth as possible.
“Over the years I forgot about the cold,” came Daniel's voice, and with a start I realized he was standing right behind me. “And the hot too, I suppose. At least in the respect of how it affects our whole bodies. We still know about it in some ways. Warm blood is still better than cold, and hot things still burn our skin. Like the sun, really. Extreme cold slows us down, but it is not lethal as it is to you.”
This was stuff I already knew from Charlie, though I didn't say so. If he wanted to talk, wanted someone to listen, then I was going to listen.
“The feeling of warm, living human skin... we come to appreciate it in a completely different way.” I felt his hand gently brush the curve of my shoulder and I shivered again. Only that time I couldn't blame it on the cold. “And not just the feel, but the sound. You probably know our hearts don't beat.” Of course. Everyone knew that about vampires, even if they only thought they were creatures of fiction. “I can hear yours from a distance, and it's so, so fast. You are not afraid of me, are you, dearest Delia?” I was, but not in the way I should have been. “And of course, there is the smell.” His voice was moving closer now. I trembled, but did not run. There was something about his voice that was almost hypnotic. “Your perfume... It's nice, but it just doesn't suit you.”
It was like my senses suddenly exploded all at once. I felt, rather than heard, his words near my ear. I saw, instead of felt, his lips brushing my neck. My mind somehow opened up and, even in the darkness that surrounded us, I saw us as we were then: me, stock still, white as a ghost with a look of panic frozen on my face. And then there was Daniel standing behind me, bent over slightly so he could bury his face in the crook of my neck. His hands were curved around my waist, resting on my stomach as he pulled me closer against him.
It was an extremely intimate position, and it could almost be mistaken for a lovers' embrace. But to anyone even remotely familiar with vampires - of reality or fiction, it didn't really matter - the truth of the image would have been instantly obvious. The vampire had caught his prey, and all that was needed to complete the scene was for him to extend his fangs and-
At that thought I let out a shriek and ripped myself from his grip. Daniel made no attempt to stop me and I stumbled out towards the parking lot and the darkness beyond.
And for a Twitter Tuesday, a brief summary of tweets about where I am in my current project Lionheart.
Start of the third chapter and my MC is dead. He is not having a good day. But don't worry. He gets better - it was only a flesh wound. Okay, lots of flesh wounds. But still.
So instead my much longer teaser is from my own work, my first completed novel. Blood Bound is the story of Delia, a girl whose family-run hotel also caters to vampires - their response to youngest son, Charlie, being turned into a vampire while at college (a whole new reason why anonymous sex is bad. Vampirism: the new STD to worry about).
Just quick context: after attempt one to talk to narrator Delia, vampire Daniel tries again. Delia makes the mistake of suggesting they go outside to avoid her eavesdropping vampire brother. And Daniel's attempts to be the suave dashing romantic vampire (of which, only the "vampire" part is true) fail again.
Icon is vaguely relevant to scene - or at least the minutes prior to that image are.
The slightest of breezes blew past me and I finally gave into my urge to shiver. I folded my arms even more tightly inward, my hands moving higher up into my armpits, seeking as much warmth as possible.
“Over the years I forgot about the cold,” came Daniel's voice, and with a start I realized he was standing right behind me. “And the hot too, I suppose. At least in the respect of how it affects our whole bodies. We still know about it in some ways. Warm blood is still better than cold, and hot things still burn our skin. Like the sun, really. Extreme cold slows us down, but it is not lethal as it is to you.”
This was stuff I already knew from Charlie, though I didn't say so. If he wanted to talk, wanted someone to listen, then I was going to listen.
“The feeling of warm, living human skin... we come to appreciate it in a completely different way.” I felt his hand gently brush the curve of my shoulder and I shivered again. Only that time I couldn't blame it on the cold. “And not just the feel, but the sound. You probably know our hearts don't beat.” Of course. Everyone knew that about vampires, even if they only thought they were creatures of fiction. “I can hear yours from a distance, and it's so, so fast. You are not afraid of me, are you, dearest Delia?” I was, but not in the way I should have been. “And of course, there is the smell.” His voice was moving closer now. I trembled, but did not run. There was something about his voice that was almost hypnotic. “Your perfume... It's nice, but it just doesn't suit you.”
It was like my senses suddenly exploded all at once. I felt, rather than heard, his words near my ear. I saw, instead of felt, his lips brushing my neck. My mind somehow opened up and, even in the darkness that surrounded us, I saw us as we were then: me, stock still, white as a ghost with a look of panic frozen on my face. And then there was Daniel standing behind me, bent over slightly so he could bury his face in the crook of my neck. His hands were curved around my waist, resting on my stomach as he pulled me closer against him.
It was an extremely intimate position, and it could almost be mistaken for a lovers' embrace. But to anyone even remotely familiar with vampires - of reality or fiction, it didn't really matter - the truth of the image would have been instantly obvious. The vampire had caught his prey, and all that was needed to complete the scene was for him to extend his fangs and-
At that thought I let out a shriek and ripped myself from his grip. Daniel made no attempt to stop me and I stumbled out towards the parking lot and the darkness beyond.
And for a Twitter Tuesday, a brief summary of tweets about where I am in my current project Lionheart.
Start of the third chapter and my MC is dead. He is not having a good day. But don't worry. He gets better - it was only a flesh wound. Okay, lots of flesh wounds. But still.