I was so excited when I finished reading New Blood: Vampire in the City–Book One! I just had to ask the author, Donna Ansari, if she would do an interview with me. And she said yes!
Even better! Each week this month, I will have something new about this series! So stay tuned.
First I want to tell you about the story.
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Great job with the cover art Donna. This face is now Emma for me. And the graveyard looks familiar. I recall a certain something that happened there:)
Now for my thoughts and ramblins.
Her night starts normally enough. Emma spends the evening at work. Her job at the advertising agency is not like they portray on TV. Most of the work is tedious and time-consuming. Then along comes the night supervisor, dropping on her desk a rush job which keeps her late.
Staying late to finish it is why Emma winds up in the wrong place at the wrong time, or is it? Well, that is for later.
Exiting the subway, Emma is only a block away from her house when she sees them. Two young men are assaulting another man.Before she can stop it, her scream slips out and their attention turns to her.
She can see one is holding what looks like a knife and the other a stick. Huh? As they rush her, she realizes she is mistaken, the knife is actually a metal cross. Screaming still seems like a good idea, but just seems to spur them on.
She manages to get her can of Mace out and let’s go into the eyes of one of her attackers, while the other one just places the cross on her skin. What’s up with that? She keeps screaming and they run off. A quick glance at the victim reveals he is none the worse for wear. She takes a long look, thinking “He’s beautiful.” He assures her he is fine and after she accepts his thanks, Emma scoots towards the safety of home, ready for this night to be over.
The whole encounter leaves her feeling strange. What did the boy with the stick mean when he yelled”Looks like we’re going to dust two blood suckers tonight!?” And why was it so hard to walk away from the stranger afterwards?
What Emma doesn’t realize is, that night set something in motion. Her next encounter with the stranger is not by chance. And when Emma wakes up at his place, feeling great, wearing someone elses pajamas, with no idea how she got there, she is none to happy.
“You had better tell me exactly what happened, bub, because the last thing I remember, I was crossing Queens Boulevard…”
Emma’s life is changed in an instant and it will take all of the courage and take-charge attitude she has to get her through the rough times ahead.
And I do mean rough. Emma gets out of one situation and ends up in another and another…. It is amazing she is still walking around.
She has some new friends, strange friends, and gets a roommate, which really complicates things. How do you hide the fact you are now a vampire from your roommate and best friend? This leads to some sticky and funny situations.
Check out this scene where Emma and Alex are looking up how to kill a vampire on the computer.
I turned back to the computer, where I did a search for :”anatomical position of the heart.” A few minutes of searching and we found out that the heart is two inches to the left of the sternum, between the fourth and fifth ribs.
“Great,” I said. “Now how are we supposed to practice this?”
Alex started unbuttoning his shirt and I reflexively turned away…
“What are you doing?”
“I thought you could practice on me using the blunt end of the stake, and it’s easier to see where the ribs are without my shirt on.”
Still flustered, I said, “I guess you should lie down for this.” I stood up and went back into the living room, where I had left the stake. While I was doing that, Alex completely removed his shirt and laid down on the couch.
I hadn’t really gotten a good look at his naked chest in adequate lighting before. Now that I had the chance, and was technically supposed to be studying it anyway, I gave it a good long look. His muscles had good definition without being beefy. You could see the indentations where his ribs were, but just barely. His chest was mostly hairless, except for a small tuft between his nipples. Looking farther down, I saw that he also had a slim, vertical strip of hair from his navel to the top of his pants.
“If you’re confused, count,” he said, unexpectedly.
Alex must have seen the confused expression on my face, because he looked highly amused and said, “I mean, you should count my ribs.”
“Right,” I said, desperately trying to concentrate on the task at hand. I held the stake in my left hand and used my right index finger to trace down from his collarbone, feeling for ribs. “One…two…three…four…here.”
“That’s too far over. Remember the website we looked at? Go a little more towards the center.”
I slowly moved my finger over a few inches. “How hard do I have to push it in?”
“As long as you aim between the ribs, you shouldn’t have to push that hard. But the main thing is that you will want to do it very quickly, so you don’t give them the chance to wake up before you finish.”
I definitely did not want that to happen.
“Also, I think sitting on his crotch may wake him up,” Alex added.
Did I forget to mention there is some fun, sexual situations in New Blood. They are more hints than explicit, but still sexy.
Lots and lots of surprises, plenty of schtick, and,yes, some romance and sexual encounters, New Blood delivers.
I had a great time following Emma, reading about how she juggles all of the new complications in her life, or is it un-life? You will too.
Like the supernatural? Vamps and other such characters? You’ll enjoy New Blood. Plenty of strange for everyone.
I loved this book and highly recommend it!
And now I want you to meet Donna.
I am a big believer in outlines, so it’s rare for me to write anything at the spur of the moment, although it does occasionally happen as the story is coming to a conclusion. But part of my writing process is to come up with backgrounds for all the characters, even ancillary ones.
The DeLorean from Back to the Future so I could time travel! Seriously, I live in NYC, so driving is the least effective means of going from place to place.
