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BLURB:
While
the public struggles to live side-by-side with vampires, medical student Brian
Preston has dedicated himself to their care and study by working in a
government-run clinic that monitors and feeds the resident vampire population.
He has learned to expect the unexpected in his job, but his life takes a
surprise turn late one night when a young, struggling vampire named Kyle
stumbles into his clinic and his heart.
As they draw closer, can Brian come to grips
with loving the elusive vampire, and can Kyle find the strength to share the
secret that can separate them forever?
Bleeding
Heart is the story of love, blood, political intrigue and the secrets that can
spell the difference between life and death.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPTS:
“It’s the husband,”
Erica says, jabbing a finger at her iPad. “It’s always the husband.”
“Oh, come on,” Brian
replies, laughing at her insistence. “He’s such a nice guy.”
“That is exactly why it’s him,” she counters, tossing up a
hand in frustration at his apparent inability to see what is so very obvious to
her. “Besides, he slept with her sister.”
“Before they were dating; that doesn’t even count, and it
doesn’t make him a murderer. Geez.”
“Lunch at the taco truck says it’s the husband.”
“I see your angle,” Brian replies, smirking. “You’ve got a
deal.” He taps the iPad, pausing the television show they’ve been watching. “We
should keep an eye on the door.”
She brushes back her glossy black hair. Her almond-shaped
eyes and petite frame show a weariness that matches his own. “It’s been a long
week. Besides, it’s just past four-thirty; the rush is over.”
Can’t deny that, Brian thinks, and thank goodness. They’d
had no less than six unidentifieds, and one volatile who’d done serious damage
to the counter and the security doors before the police had arrived with their
chemical spray and herded the poor guy off into custody.
Working the graveyard shift at a blood service center in
downtown Chicago, Illinois is a job that could never be called boring. It’s not
that the vampires can’t go out during the day—the fact that they can is one of
the reasons they’ve been able to hide for as long as they have—but that they
are stronger at night. They tend to handle their business and socializing
between dusk and dawn and getting free blood at the center is often the first
stop for many of them.
Coming on later in the evening means that Brian usually sees
the more mature vampires—those who can wait, those who prefer to avoid the
younger crowd that shows up as soon as the sun goes down. The downside to this
is that he also sees, at times, the unpredictable ones—the ones who aren’t
regulars, the ones who wander in at all hours of the night. Between he and
Erica, they have plenty of crazy stories to tell.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How do you come up with a title?
I know that a lot of authors begin with titles, but I end with them—I
almost never have a title in mind when I start writing a story. To me, a title is vitally important, both in
the choosing as an author and in the result for the reader. A title can be such a huge part of the
reading experience. I will typically
write a story first, and then take the title from the text itself—either a
phrase or a phrase inspired by something central to the story. I try to make it both compelling and relevant
to the story. I want it to inspire
confidence as well as interest in my readers.
Selecting a title, for me, is like waiting to name a child until it's
old enough to show you its personality—naming that way can be powerful, under
the right circumstances.
Which character caused you the most difficulty to write?
Brian, actually, which is interesting to me because his POV is half
the story. He is so very delightfully
human—he cares, so much, and in a lot of ways he is very innocent. He believes in medicine, compassion, and the
system, and then he actually falls for one of the vampires that he is taking
care of, and is forced to see a whole other side of the world that they live
in, the world that they share, a world that he thought he fully
understood. Kyle's world is not his
world. Brian is an optimist and an
idealist and a romantic, and I am definitely not, so his POV required stepping
outside of my personal experiences and letting him grow on his own.
When do you do your best writing… morning, afternoon, evening, night?
I have always been a consummate night owl. Both as a kid and an adult, I could easily
sleep through the day and live my life at night. Something just happens to me around 10 PM,
creative insight, communion with whatever characters are in my head at the
time, a second wind that screams at me to engage, to write, to do. (Feel free
to insert a vampire joke here!)
Do you plan your stories and, if so, to what extent?
Absolutely. Stories, for me,
are like storyboards in my head—except I usually only have a beginning, an end,
and milestones (the most pivotal scenes) when I start, and everything else is
fuzzy. I begin with a premise that I
find compelling and strong, something that I think might make an impact,
whether it's a new fantasy/sci-fi setting, or a combination of fantasy/sci-fi
elements that I have never seen before.
I let my characters grow out of that, usually in an attempt to pair up
two beings who can teach each other something or take each other
somewhere. After that I figure out where
I want them to go, both together and individually, and I set my ending. Endings are subject to shift but usually not
change entirely. With that done, I
figure out what must happen to get my characters from beginning to end in a
realistic, interesting, and sexy way.
Pacing is everything to me. I
want people to travel with my characters as they would travel through the same
life experience. I want them to believe
in the emotional progression, and feel every moment, every decision, every
touch, every discovery. Those are the
pivotal scenes. Once I have all three of
these elements, the rest of the story tends to flesh itself out for me, and
it's just a matter of taking the time to do it justice.
How many stories do you work on at any one time?
I prefer to focus on one story at a time, if possible, but sometimes
having two going at once can be very helpful.
If one story is drastically different than the other, it can provide a
refuge from the other story that is giving me trouble. Especially if the character's voices are
nothing like each other. I can easily
juggle two separate worlds in my head, and switching often jogs my creativity
for the one that I'm not writing at that moment. Sometimes it comes down to wanting to
"spend time" with one set of characters that you miss, because you've
spent a lot of time with another set, and both sets give you something that you
have fallen in love with—they're just different!
Is there anything you’d like to tell? Maybe something in the works you
would like to promote? Feel free!
Well, Bleeding Heart is certainly not the end of Brian and Kyle's
story, that's for certain! Our boys are
entering a world in which they are new players—and uninitiated ones, at that. Elisa and Clara have been in business a long
time, and are far more invested/involved in the politics of vampire-human
relations than even Brian and Kyle realize at the end of Bleeding Heart. The boys' journey into the underground of
their society has only just begun. They
have a lot to offer Elisa and Clara—but do they know what they're getting
themselves into?
What was your favorite character to write, and why?
Elisa was by far my favorite.
She has a back story that is only partially told in Bleeding Heart, but
the readers get a good sense of the depths that lie there. She had a rough childhood, growing up as a
lesbian in a time and place that wasn't too thrilled with that. We never find out how she became a vampire,
but it's clear that it wasn't a happy situation. Her relationship with Clara, at the start,
was by no means easy. They struggled to
escape their small town and small-minded families, and then struggled to
succeed even when they made it to a big city—but Elisa gets them there. Her drive and take no prisoners attitude were
a pleasure to write. I like that she
works for what she wants and believes in and doesn't compromise. She has no trouble telling it like it
is. She's an unstoppable advocate and
businesswoman, but she also believes in pleasure and enjoying life—what's one
without the other?
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
Reading and writing have always gone hand and hand for me. Books were magic to me from the start. I have a very distinct memory of being a
little girl and trying very hard to learn how to read—I struggled, always a
year or so behind other kids. But one day
I was sitting there with a book in my hands, and I remember with complete
clarity the moment that the words went clear on the page and I understood what
they meant. I remember running to my
parents, shouting that I could do it, I could read, and from then on the house
was full of whatever book that I wanted.
I remember thinking about how amazing all of these books were—worlds
unto themselves, and all I had to do to get there was open them. That's when I realized I wanted to be a
writer...I knew that if I could immerse myself in these amazing worlds, I could
create them, too, which was a whole new kind of power.
What part of the writing process do you dread?
The blank document, just before the first sentence is written.
If we could see your writing space, what would we see?
An eight year old $15 desk, held together by Gorilla glue and hope.
A lot of your writing contains non-human elements. What draws you to
that?
What would the world be like, if we had another species living
alongside of us that was enough like us to communicate in our language, and yet
at the same time be able to observe us as something Other? What would it be like if we were to fall in
love or form a friendship or a bond with someone of this species? How would our lives change if we could have
their point of view of the world we shared, of us, on a daily, intimate
basis? Nothing would be the same for us
ever again—we would forever have that new perspective of ourselves through
them, and we would see things differently, maybe even act differently, maybe
even over time become something completely new.
This is why I'm always fascinated by stories where humans and non-humans
meet and interact and care about one another—it's easy to write stories about
those two groups fighting each other.
But what happens when they matter to one another? What choices do they make? Do they pick sides? Do they have to? How do they move forward?
You’re marooned on a small island with one person and one item of your
choice—who is that person and what item do you have?
My husband (without whom I would become impossibly lost, even on an
island), and the Lord of the Rings trilogy (because it is sacred to me,
and I could never live happily without it).
What's your guilty pleasure?
There is no such thing as a guilty pleasure!
What is your idea of how to spend romantic time with your significant
other?
My husband and I are gamers, so probably an evening spent playing our
favorite MMORPG!
What is your favorite meal?
A medium-rare steak and as much Diet Coke as I'm allowed to have.
Name three things that would surprise your fans to know about you?
I'm pansexual. I have a degree
in Anthropology. I've never dyed my
hair.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
A veteran
writer of fan fiction known as MissBeizy to her online readers, Melissa Graves’
stories have thousands of followers. At age 13, she wrote her first work of
fan-based fiction, and by age 16, had met her future husband in an online
vampire fiction chat room. A fan of science fiction/fantasy, she has a degree
in anthropology and a passion for good chocolate, amateur erotica and fan
worlds that celebrate diversity. She is mother to two cats.
Follow
Melissa Graves and learn more about her work at http://msmelissagraves.com/
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