Look At A Book: Twisted Bloodlines

This week, I’m going to take some time to highlight my only vampire-related book (at the moment) and one of my first novels. The first draft was written, as with many of my books, during NaNoWriMo, and it’s one of my books that I’ve got a second edition planned for, so make sure to watch out for that in the future! This is another book which is print-exclusive for now, but when I release the second edition I’ll make sure to make a free eBook edition available as well. However, right now, let’s get into Twisted Bloodlines!

Twisted BloodlinesThe Essentials

The line between death and madness grows thin.

Genre: Supernatural Fiction

Age Range: Young Adult

Length: Novel

Main Character: Kassidy, she/her

Themes: Death, Supernatural, Madness, Vampires, Morality

Excerpt

Moonlight, softer and sweeter than any sunlight I’d ever felt, carefully brushed against my eyelids, as feeling seemed to return to me, acting as if it had never left. The cool embrace of a pillow, the hug of a blanket, and I knew I was dead. I had to be. There was nothing like this in my life – there was no shelter, or bed to go to every night. This was the end – the afterlife. I had finally arrived.

“-but we don’t know if it worked, Seb, that’s the thing. She could lie there all night and not tell us, or we could be staring at a half-born corpse.” These words weren’t so faint as the last – the last. Memories came vividly, bitter and strong, filling my mind with images that I never wanted to see again. Her eyes, putridly animalistic, as she leapt to the kill, and every single clawing attack, every scrape, every… the last bite, the shredding of skin, as I became a meal for a monster. Whatever she was, at least she couldn’t follow me here. This was a haven, free from monsters and nightmares – this was my final resting place, and rest had never felt so- “We could try for the defence instinct, see if that kicks in, but I wouldn’t feel right about it – not with Teddy out. He seemed attached to her, y’know.”

“That’s not surprising.” Authoritative, but not the authority which ended my nightmarish last moments of living. In any case, it didn’t sound threatening, but ‘defence instinct’ sure did, and I wasn’t hanging around for the consequences of that. It didn’t make sense, but maybe the afterlife was a strange and nonsensical place; I would know nothing until I opened my eyes.

Sometimes, I wish I’d never opened my eyes. A part of me wishes that I had stayed blind to everything, watching little red strings of fate twist and turn behind my eyes, and rested eternally. But hindsight never does me any good, so I went ahead and opened them, expecting… I don’t know what I was expecting. Clouds, maybe. Certainly some kind of whiteness, although that’s probably just childish. Saying that, clouds sound childish now as well, so maybe all of my half-ideas were stupid. It doesn’t matter, really, but I did have some sort of thought about what I was going to see when I opened my eyes, and whatever it turned out to be, it wasn’t what I saw.

Blood. Dark splatters, red, everywhere. Walls, floor, even… people. They weren’t angels. They couldn’t be. Two of them, lounged in ratty armchairs drawn close to me, both looking at each other, still talking, but the words refused to register in my mind. Their clothes – normal, city clothes, hoodies and jackets, jeans, trainers and boots – were drenched in blood, as if they’d just… as if they were… 

The Background

As I’ve mentioned, Twisted Bloodlines was written during NaNoWriMo, which is always a really productive month for me. I think it was probably heavily inspired by my love for Dracula and vampire fiction in general, and the name ‘Kassidy’ for the main character came from one of my closest friends in college, Kassidy, who is also the person who the Cats Collection is dedicated to, which is quite nice. The second edition is longer (80k rather than 50k) but keeps the same main storyline, just refined and adjusted to make for a better overall narrative, in my opinion.

Is It Right For You?

Twisted Bloodlines isn’t really a romance, as I know a lot of supernatural fiction can be, but it’s definitely an action-filled book with a lot of contemplative moments as well. I think I’ve really gone with the idea that being a vampire or becoming a vampire can be a horrific experience which leaves you wondering what life truly means when someone can be both dead and alive at the same time, in a way, and then stuck in that form for… well, the rest of eternity, really. I also love the atmosphere of having a modern world with fantastical elements like vampires, so if you like books like that, you might like Twisted Bloodlines!

Like with Our Paused World, although there’s only a print edition available, it is quite cheap on Amazon, so consider giving it a go!

Twisted Bloodlines can be purchased here, if you’d like to support me!

(You can also tip me on my Ko-Fi page if you’d like to help out more directly!)