Mary’s Musings...about ONCE BITTEN by Stephen Leather

I received ONCE BITTEN book through AmazonEncore.  This is a new program whereby Amazon will use information such as customer reviews on Amazon.com to identify exceptional, overlooked books and authors with more potential than their sales may indicate. Amazon will then partner with the authors to re-introduce their books to readers through marketing support and distribution into multiple channels and formats, such as the Amazon.com Books Store, Amazon Kindle Store, Audible.com, and national and independent bookstores via third-party wholesalers.

The best part out of this experience was developing an eMail friendship with Stephen who is kind enough to answer some questions.

I am a believer of things we know and don't know, age has shown me that nothing is for certain and all pieces are moveable.  That is not to say I think vampires roam around us, but there are things we can't comprehend and have to accept.  My feelings with ONCE BITTEN was that you also believe in the unknown and that might inspire you - is that possible?  Do I believe in vampires?  On balance, probably not. Not the blood-sucking variety.  And I don't believe in werewolves.  But immortals, that's a whole different story and one that I wanted to explore in Once Bitten.  Aging and death is a function of DNA.  Assuming you don't get sick or have a fatal accident, your time of death is programmed by your DNA.  And it's scientifically possible for a mutation to occur that would stop the aging process.  In fact in a few generations I've no doubt that scientists will be able to tinker with our DNA to the extent that they could produce people who don't age in the same way as they do now.  So what if there were people who had mutated DNA that allowed them to effectively live forever?  Would they be happy? Would that be a good thing?  That's what I wanted to explore in the book, and I particularly wanted to explore it through the eyes of a character who is himself worried about death.

Yes, there are vampire references in Once Bitten, and Terry Ferriman would be regarded by many as a vampire, but these aren't the vampires of Twilight or even Dracula.  Mine are vampires that might, possibly, be with us now.

My first thought about the book was based on the cover and considered this might be a vampire book and was working on a Halloween tie in and really glad I did not.  This book really is not about vampires as much as it is flowing with the unknown.  But the cover fascinated me, do you have much input into that process?  I love the cover.  It's perfect.  Amazon came up with it and while they asked for my opinion every step of its production, it's still very much their idea and concept. I think my input was to suggest the blood on the girl's lips, but there was so much emailing back and forth I might be wrong. I love the cleaness of the face and the eyes, and the fact that you don't see her hair.  She's beautiful but she's hard, too. And the canine is sharp, not too long so that it looks silly, just sharp enough to let you know that she could bite and bite hard. And the pale blue background is perfect, you'd expect black or grey but the fact that it's blue makes it seem more real.

Amazon have been terrific through every step of the production of the book.  Once Bitten was a self-published eBook on Kindle for a year before Amazon took the book over, during which time I sold more than 85,000 copies.   I had assumed that over the year I had caught all the typos in it (I love it when readers get in touch to say that they have found a mistake because the beauty of eBooks is that I can change it and download a new version within minutes) but they used an amazing editor who really helped me improve the book and caught a lot of things that I had missed.  They are amazingly professional and I think they are going to become a huge force in the publishing world.

 

Having raised three boys I am all things Transformers, X Men, etc.  So I contemplate a great super power to have and I want to be Storm so that I can zap people that piss me off.  If you could have a super power what would you like it to be?  The problem with superpowers is that they always seem to come with a disadvantage. So invisibility would be great but you'd have to be naked to be invisible so that wouldn't be much fun.  Flying looks great but surely you'd get hurt if you landed badly.  Running super fast would be cool but surely you'd get tired just as fast and you'd wear out your joints really quickly.  Time travel would be great but what if you got stuck in the past and couldn't get back, or if you messed up the present really bad?  I guess the one power that I'd like to have is the power to read minds, and maybe control others, a bit like Professor X in the X-Men.  Except that controlling others probably leads to madness.  I am actually fairly good at reading peoples thoughts, or at least understanding why they do what they do.  That comes from being a writer. I've spent a quarter of a century getting inside the heads of characters and working out what motivates them and why, and I do think that I can apply that to the real world.  It's partly a matter of reading body language, which I'm quite good at, but it's more that as a writer I spend a lot of time thinking about why people do what they do.  Generally I do know what people are thinking - but I've not yet reached the stage where I can bend them to my will.   Look into my eyes, look into my eyes, buy Once Bitten, you know you want to!   See, it didn't work, did it?

I received a copy of ONCE BITTEN from AmazonEncore to be given away.  To be eligible to win please leave a comment on  “do you believe there is something out there you have to believe in regardless of convential thought?” then come back on Sunday – December 4^th to see if you have won.  Please remember if you do not come back, you will not know if you won, because I am going to need your address. 

As always I wish you happy reading, encourage you to celebrate your Little Victories, and come back to see what book I am reviewing and offering up for a giveaway.  Do not forget to cast your positive votes for me on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  Your vote matters!

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REVIEW from Mary Gramlich
"The Reading Reviewer"

ONCEBITTEN by Stephen Leather

11/11 – AmazonEncore – Mass Market Paperback, 300 pages

How much belief in something does it take to make it true?

Being a clinical psychologist for the LAPD, Dr. Jamie Beaverbrook has been involved in every unbelievable crime conceivable.  He has heard all manner of excuses, recommended treatment as deemed necessary, and helped prosecute those hiding behind the veil of insanity.  When Jamie encounters the bizarre crime Terri Ferriman has been accused of committing, he feels there may be no test created or appropriate line of treatment written to figure out what happened.

Terri claims innocence even though she was arrested standing over a savagely attacked man drained of all his blood.  The more Jamie tries to figure out motive for the crime and determine if Terri is guilty, innocent, or insane he is drawn into a web of seduction with her that crosses every professional line he vowed to uphold.  Her mysterious manner becomes intoxicating, her sense of darkness alluring, and while he fights it Jamie knows that she is taking him somewhere he should not go but so wants to be wherever she is hiding. 

Jamie is not listening to the signals going on in his head that tell him something is not right with this woman even though she passes all of his tests.  Her story may seem sincere but why do so many things not add up to fit her in this time, let alone century.  Jamie believes in science facts, not tales of smoke and mirrors.  Terri may have some power he is not aware of, and could she may truly be something he refuses to believe exists. 

When the alphabet soup of national security steps in Jamie knows, whatever he does from this moment on is life altering.  If Jamie crosses the line of being able to make factual decisions into those ruled by his heart he cannot step back without consequences.  In the end, Jamie takes the facts and feelings he has and comes to a realization that makes him decide how he wants to live with the truth.

This book is so both scary and fascinating giving readers so much more than you can possibly imagine coming from one book.  Read this book multiple times to allow yourself to understand everything that is going on and learn something new with each read.