Today, I'm featuring author RP Channing and his novel Blood of My Blood through an excerpt and short author interview.
The book definitely looks interesting and I absolutely love the cover – which we cover in the interview ;)
Book: Blood of My Blood
Author: RP Channing
Genres: Young
Adult Romance, Paranormal Romance, High School, Vampires, Demons, Witches, Dark
Fantasy, Horror
Publication date: 26 November, 2015
Book length: 243 pages + beautiful
photographs
Blurb:
~ Kira Sutherland ~
After a near fatal accident (and getting
cheated on by her 'boyfriend'), and beating up the lead cheerleader (with whom
the boyfriend cheated...), and being
labeled as having 'issues' in her school because she, uhm, sees ghosts, Kira is left with two choices:
1. Continue her 'therapy' (where she's told
the ghost is a hallucination and also gets her legs ogled too often...)
Or
2. Go to Starkfield Academy, a boarding school for "Crazies and Convicts"
(as the social media sites call them.)
She chooses the latter...
~ Cory Rand ~
Cory Rand has not had an easy life. His
mother died in a car accident when he was twelve, and so did his mother's best
friend...sort of. You see, Janice made a promise to take care of Cory just
before she died, and so she lingers. Undead. A ghost that watches out for him.
Brought up in an abusive home, Cory quickly
falls into a life of disreputable behavior. After his third offense (which was
prompted by a girl, as usual - he has a weakness) he's left with two choices:
1. Be tried as an adult and share a cell
with a guy named Bubba (he thinks...)
Or
2. Go to Starkfield Academy, which Cory is pretty sure is run by vampires.
But, hey, at least he'll get an education.
He chooses the latter...
It's at Starkfield that Kira meets Cory Rand, a boy with an insatiable Rage
who sees ghosts, too. As well as other things, other things from his past,
things that confuse him, things like fire and witches and demons.
Things he's always ignored.
Until now.
Add the book on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28002124-thirst?ac=1&from_search=1
Excerpt from Blood of My
Blood by RP Channing
-1-
The Puppy Eyes
My life was perfect.
I had the perfect shoes and the perfect friends and I lived in the
perfect house. My nails were perfect and my hair was perfect (except on
Sundays, it was always windy on Sundays) and I had the perfect clothes. My lips
were a perfect red and my hair perfectly straight. My eyeshadow was perfect, my
hips were...okay, and my waist...well...also okay. Nothing was wrong in
my life.
But then there was Jack.
Jack was a problem.
He needed to go. I mean, when you’re dead, you’re dead! I had told him this endlessly. Somehow, Jack didn’t get it. I
mean, I felt sorry for the guy. Sure. Being stuck between this life and the
next. But just because I found him, does that mean I needed to keep him?
I think not!
Sadly, when Jack got that look in his eyes, that weary, almost teary (if
his tear-ducts worked) look, I melted. I just couldn’t send him away. Not even
Jack knew where he would go after he died.
Would he, like, die? As in —
dead, nada, kaput, finito, gone, no
more? Bye bye, sayonara, ciao, hasta la vista baby and all that?
I couldn’t have that on my conscience. No way.
I lay on my bed, wondering what to do about him. “Jaaaaaaack,” I
hollered.
“Jaaaaaaack!”
Still no answer.
“Jack!”
Jack...materialized.
His eyes rolled down to the ground. He was making those puppy eyes
again. “Jack, I told you not to do that. I told you not to play on my
sympathies.”
His puppy eyes became worse.
His skin was gray and, well, dead.
“Oh, brother,” I said. “I have to do something about you. If mom finds
out I have another ‘imaginary friend’ — at my age — well, I’d die of
embarrassment. But, like, really die.
Not like you.” I wondered about this. Would
I die? Was Jack a freak accident, or did all people live on like him? Think of the cemeteries...
The idea excited me somewhat.
“What would you have me do, Miss
Kira?”
“Knock off the Miss Kira crap. I told you it’s just Kira.”
“Yes, Miss Kira.”
The dead. There’s just no reasoning.
“Fine, Miss Kira it is then.” Rover barked like a lunatic in the garden.
No one else might be able to see Jack, but I was sure my dog could.
“I have to do something about
this,” I mumbled.
-2-
The Rat
Mike knocked on the door before I had time to leave the house. Mike was
the guy I thought (at the time) was perfect.
“Who is it?”
“It’s me, baby.”
Baby, urgh — I wasn’t his baby.
I dated Mike because he was the quarterback, because girls are supposed to like the quarterback,
because it’s just so darn perfect to
be seen with the quarterback, like we’re brainwashed into thinking these things
from the first romantic doll set mom buys us.
This was my previous life.
“Mike.”
“Uh-huh. Gonna let me in?”
So you can
try rub me up and then complain when I don’t let you? This, dear
reader, was the big problem with Mike. The second we first kissed, his hand
went way too far south for me to be
comfortable — and I pulled back.
Mike suddenly wasn’t so perfect.
“Uhm, I was just on my way out,” I said.
“Kira? C’mon, open the door.” He sounded upset. “Is there someone in
there with you?”
Boys. As if.
I didn’t know much about love (nothing,
actually) but I knew this wasn’t it.
“Uhm, now’s not the time, Mike.”
“C’mon, Kira, what’s going on?” He banged harder.
When in doubt...lie. I opened the door a crack. “There’s a dead rat in
the house, Mike. Been here for days. I gotta go get some detergent and stuff to
handle the stench.”
Mike stepped back. He peered through the crack of the door.
“It’s really bad,” I said.
“I’ll drive you.”
“I’m afraid the smell” — I stuck my armpit to my nose — “has found its
way all over me. I’ll drive myself.”
“O — okay. Fine.” And then he grinned like he wanted something. “Later?
My place?”
Urgh. “Uhm,
sure...er...later. Not sure when though.”
“Six.”
I fought the urge to roll my eyes. According to girls at school, he was
apparently so damn good looking — theoretically. But for me personally, he did
nothing. Moved nothing. Twisted nothing.
“Look, I gotta go, Mike. I gotta — ”
“Kira.” His eyes grew stern. “You’ve been avoiding me...”
Bingo! Well done contestant number one! And what have you won? A brain!
I tilted my head. “Mike, look, this...rat — I need to deal with it. We’ll talk later, okay? Bye.” I
closed the door, not waiting for an answer, and peered out the peep hole. Mike
hung around for a second, shoulders wide and eyes glaring straight at me
through the door. Could he see me? Did he know I was looking at him?
He kicked something off the ground, and I had the distinct impression he
mouthed the word Bitch before
leaving. But I wasn’t sure...
-3-
The Mack
“Roll down the window, Jack.” Jack was recently dead, so he still had a smell about him. (Which only I could smell...)
I had purposely skipped breakfast. Maybe Jack would help me lose weight.
I was (still am) a little wide, although it had never stopped guys flirting
with me. I know how to dress.
But I could be skinnier.
Lucy Rogers was skinny. All bones and no boobs.
Charlene Carverton was a babe. Cheerleader. Big chest (which she pushed
out generously with a push-up — if only guys knew). Toned thighs. Charlene only
dated college boys (back then), which I still think is pretty gross for a girl
her age.
“He’s not for you,” Jack said
out the blue.
“Hmm?”
“This...Mike — he’s wrong for you, Miss Kira.” For
all Jack’s faults (mainly, being dead),
he has a good heart. Factually, probably it’s why I kept him around at first.
“You think I don’t know that?”
“Then why don’t you dump him?”
I braked at a stop sign. Looked left and right. “Because I’d look like
an idiot. I flirted with him and showed interest, and one kiss later I can’t
stand the sight of him.”
“So dump him.”
“It’s not that simple. Kids at school — they can be vicious. I have to
let it fade slowly. If I drop the bomb on him, I’ll never hear the end of it
through senior year.”
“And you care?”
Yes, I did. Forget Guantanamo, schools are rough. “You don’t understand, Jack. Maybe school was different in
your day. But in mine, well, we walk through metal detectors.”
“Schools weren’t too different in
my day.” I noted the sadness in his voice.
“You okay?”
“I’m dead.”
Right. “You
miss...your life?”
Jack shrugged. “I like being with
you, Miss Kira. And I don’t remember much of my life. I think I’m in limbo.”
“Limbo?”
“Yes, like I have some unfinished
business. If only I could remember...what...it is...” He scratched his
head.
“Any ideas?”
“Well, it can’t be love. If it
were love, I’d be a vampire. That’s who teenage girls fall in love with these
days.”
“A vampire? That’s just what I need — two undead beings stalking me.”
“I feel I have something to do
around you, Miss Kira. I don’t know what, but something. Something important.”
I looked over at him. “Me?”
I was still looking at him when I missed the stop sign.
The Mack truck drove straight into us.
Nadaness
In Motion's author interview about the book
Q: Is this a standalone novel or the
first in a series? If it were a series, how many parts are you planning for it?
RP Channing: This
is a standalone. There is room for more in the story but I haven't decided if I
will continue it, or if I'll release a different story altogether next.
I hate dragging
things out in my tales. Right now, the story is concluded, but there is space
for more. I'll see how it goes and make a call sometime later.
Q: If the novel is about Kira and
Cory, why does the cover feature only one of them?
RP: Well, cover
design is a tricky business. LOL. Kira also had black hair throughout the
novel...but a brunette didn't go well with the background and so, at the last
minute, she became a redhead. Also, Kira's story is the main aspect of the
book, so she gets to be up front in lights J
Q: What is your favourite
thing/aspect about your two main characters?
RP: Kira is
extremely powerful, only she doesn't know it. She grows throughout the story
and becomes something magnificent towards the end.
Cory has a dark
part to him which even he doesn't understand. It's really what brings him and
Kira together in the first place.
Buy
Links for Blood of My Blood:
Author
Bio
R P Channing started writing three years
ago, but never published anything even after churning out over a million words
of fiction. Thirst: Blood of my Blood
is the first book he dared to publish. When asked why, he said, “Because it’s
the first thing I wrote that my wife actually enjoyed reading.” When not
hammering away (most literally) at his keyboard, he can be found buried in a
book, reading anything from romance to horror to young adult to non-fiction to
comedy.
$20 Amazon Gift Voucher Giveaway
At the back of the book there is a giveaway link. Once the book hits fifty reviews on Amazon, one of those reviewers will win a US$20 Amazon Gift Voucher!
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