from MADNESS by Catherine Winters
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Midnight Hunt Scavenger Hunt – Piece #5
Thank you Catherine for hosting me on your site! I’m honored to be here today and I’m so grateful for your awesome participation!! *Virtual hugs!* 😉
What is the Scavenger Hunt?
For those of you just joining the scavenger hunt, I’m Arial Burnz, author of the Bonded By Blood Vampire Chronicles and I’m doing something a little different than your typical cover reveal. We’re on a Scavenger Hunt! In short, I’ve split my new book cover for MIDNIGHT HUNT into fifteen puzzle pieces and scattered them across the Internet. From June 17th through July 1st, one piece a day will be revealed on a blog, website or one of my internet hangouts (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc.).
Gather the codes from all the pieces and send them in to me at the end of the hunt and you’ll be entered into the drawing for Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift cards, a signed paperback copy of my new release MIDNIGHT HUNT, as well as some signed Romance Trading Cards and other swag (Total Approximate Retail Value of All Prizes: $65). Please click here for the details and my contact information, and here for Official Rules.
Today’s Puzzle Piece
Catherine is doing the honor of revealing the fifth piece of the puzzle. *drum roll* Tah-dah! Continue reading
Bloodlines
Bloodline: All of the vampires descended, through Deliberate Transformation, from a specific Spontaneous Transformation.
“You’ve noticed that the vampires here all have slightly different abilities?”
I shook my head. “Except Mircalla. She can do some freaky shit.”
“Yes, well. Vampirism didn’t spring up from one isolated source. We all evolved slightly differently in different places, and there are different abilities and characteristics associated with each of these Lines.”
-Josephine and Grant – Black, Chapter 12
Catherine’s Vampires
I suppose, before I get too far into this project, that I should clarify something about the vampires I am discussing. I’ve already discussed Catherine’s writing process in a previous post. So given the way she writes I can’t definitively discuss all of her vampires unless she stops writing (and we don’t want that, do we?). So what I am talking about in these posts are the European-style vampires that appear in Black.
The vampires from China are mentioned once in Black, and (just as a nasty little tease), I know Josephine briefly interacts with a group of Asian vampires in Red (the as-yet-unpublished sequel to Black). This group has not been fleshed out yet, but Catherine has hinted that these vampires are not the same as the vampires I’m currently exploring. How different will they be, I don’t know. But if and when we get to them, I’m sure I’ll be comparing the two groups.
Deliberate Transformation
Deliberate Transformation: The process of a human becoming a vampire with the aid of a vampire.
The process of Deliberate Transformation varies by line and is never guaranteed to work. Some people just do not survive the conversion process. Hale and hardy or feeble and frail does not necessarily make the difference. It’s just one of those weird things that may have to do with how much the person wants to live, how pure their soul is, or how many Twinkies they ate.
Nescience
As promised in Spontaneous Transformations, this post will explore my theories about why vampires know so little about the process.
Spontaneous Transformations are very rare, and it seems that one has not happened in a very long time. The most recent being some 2000 years ago to my best knowledge, and as far as anyone knows, none of them are still alive. This leaves no direct source of information about the events surrounding their transformations. And of course, “out of sight, out of mind” probably applies here too.
Catherine’s Rumors
I thought I should give a little explanation of the statement I made in Webmaster Specials about things being based on “Catherine’s facts and rumors”, specifically the “rumors”. It has to do with her writing process. She doesn’t plan things out in advance, but rather writes as her characters tell her what they are doing. So she doesn’t always know things for certain, as some authors might. I call these not yet solidified facts “rumors” because they may turn out to be true or false as the stories unfold.
Spontaneous Transformation
Spontaneous Transformation: The process of a human becoming a vampire without the aid of a vampire. Sometimes called Original Transformation.
Note: The more common Deliberate Transformation will be discussed in a later post.
Here’s the interesting part, these transformation terms are mine. Vampires don’t have names for these things, they apparently don’t think about them too hard. In fact, most vampires have never met an “original” vampire, or even know who was the first of any line. The only vampire still in existence known to have been transformed by an original is Augustus. And by “known”, I mean most vampires consider this information a myth. I’m not sure if Augustus even knows with certainty that he was sired by an original.
In BLACK and white
Ask David
If you’ve never been there, you should take a look at the book promotion and review site, Ask David. It’s a hot spot for indie authors – who can submit their books for promotion free of charge – and if you’re looking for something new, you can find hidden treasures there. Ask David only accepts original content from reviewers and authors. So not only do you get new reviews, but you also get new information from the author. The author may write up a different blurb for the book, talk about what inspired her to write it, or give you some other interesting tidbit related to the book. So why not go explore and see what you can find? And if you happen to find a book you’ve read, please give it an honest review, the author will thank you (even if it’s just in her head).
PS: Don’t forget to check out the Ask David page for BLACK.