It’s an honor and a thrill to restart my blog series “Author’s Own Words” with a review of BITE SOMEBODY and an interview with its author, Sara Dobie Bauer! Enjoy!
There are those who lament how vampires have lost their fangs. They’ve become too hipster, too urban, too hair salon (first Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire series, later Twilight). There have been those who have returned their fangs and hit hard with the monstrous vampire stories (Del Toro’s/Hogan’s The Strain, Scott Nicholson’s They Hunger). With Bite Somebody, Sara Dobie Bauer achieves a great read featuring both aesthetics—the whimsical fun of a paranormal romance combined with the bloody battles previous relationships can bring back from the dead.
Heroine Celia Merkin is a “young” vampire (recently turned) who appears trapped in a humdrum un-life. She carries on in the trappings of a young human’s routine in south Florida, works at a gas station, lives by the ocean, swims away her loneliness, yet pines for something more. Enter Ian Hasselback, a flirty ex-surf star with an underlying strength of soul who becomes her new next-door neighbor and crush. The first portion of the book combines the growth of their budding attraction with Celia’s experiencing what it’s really like to be a vampire. The author draws a character who possesses humorous self-awareness of all the vampire lore that has come before her. An obsession with eighties movies and old books brings out the differences that the Bite Somebody vamp discovers about her state (e.g., mirrors work, but sunlight’s a no-go). Thanks to the advice of two other important vampires in her un-life—therapist Rayna Savage and her retro-fabulous and sardonic friend Imogene, Celia manages to get her vampire-self together enough to finally determine she must give Ian her first bite.
What makes Bite Somebody such a worthy read is how Bauer’s fast-running river of prose manages to weave and bend, joke and thrill, without injuring the reader’s willingness to ride. It doesn’t pull the reader into the under-toe of vampire bathos, nor does it bang on the rocks of shallowness. Instead it relies on a wonderfully understated sense of place—Admiral Key, described with lean yet poetic scenes of rain swept roads, churning oceanscapes, upscale boutiques, and sultry dive bars. Its other strength is its characters. One the one hand, Celia and her friends are every bit paranormal romance mainstays—the light-hearted and comedic gals one might expect—yet there is an underlying struggle with sadness about the obstacles to personal growth and relationships symbolized by the state of being undead that, because it is not overwrought, remains relatable. The erotic scenes also share a sort of understated beauty that doesn’t let everything spill all at once, so to speak. Because of this, when the climax does heat up, the prize is worth the wait. The violent scenes are like this as well. When Celia’s ex-boyfriend and wanna-be vampire master shows up and threatens to interfere with all the good things she’s built with Ian, we enter into an almost early-Tarantinoesque beachside battle that does not pull punches, or, of course, fangs. For anyone looking for a fresh take on the vampire myth and isn’t afraid of a freshly styled love story letting a little blood into the bargain, Bite Somebody is well worth the read.
As an extra treat, the author has agreed to add an interview to our review. We thank Sara for taking the time to chat about her first novel and all she’s been up to since.
What made you choose vampires instead of another classic monster, like say, a werewolf or ghosts?
Vampires are sexy. Ever since Brad Pitt embodied Anne Rice’s Louis, I’ve been mad for bloodsuckers. I’ve read all the books, seen all the movies. I’ve written plenty of erotic vampire stories (Bite Somebody being mildest of the bunch). True, you’ve got your 30 Days of Night monsters that aren’t sexy at all, but mostly, vampires have this romantic power over us. They’re sensual and seductive and have this ageless beauty thing going on. And, okay, maybe I’m sort of a biter myself. My husband has yet to complain about me chewing on his shoulder.
Your novel has a very strong sense of place. It made me want to visit not just Admiral Key, but your version of Admiral Key. It seemed to describe the landscape with a certain intimacy and somewhat stormy poetry—was there any particular inspiration for this?
Admiral Key is pretty much directly based on Longboat Key, Florida: a strange, beachy place I’ve been visiting since I was a kid. Only once I became old enough to drink did I realize the full potential of the island. Longboat is chill to the max. It’s not Spring Break crazy. It’s filled with a bunch of vagabond beach bums and travelers like me who are there to sit around, drink, and howl at the full moon.
The Drift Inn (a popular watering hole in Bite Somebody) is a real place, as is the bartender “Angry Santa.” At the Drift, you can still smoke inside, and at thirty-five, I’m always the youngest patron. It’s like going back in time. Most nights, I half expect the ghost of Ernest Hemingway to be walking around.
The author with the real-life inspiration
for the “Angry Santa” character
I would call your prose lean rather than lush, and yet still very vivid. The erotic scenes start out with a certain minimalism, then build up and become wilder and more detailed. Was this on purpose?
Bite Somebody is Celia’s story, and at the beginning, Celia knows nothing about intimacy or sex. We’re learning with her, experiencing with her, so yes, the minimalism was intentional. The first time Ian gives her an orgasm is an amalgam of feelings and images but no coherent picture, because Celia has no idea what magic he’s working. Of course, her first orgasm does end with rather hilarious results. (Most surreal thing ever: having my mom’s best friend call me and say, “The finger,” and just start laughing. Somehow, it escaped my brain that real adults I knew were going to be reading my books.) The further Celia gets in her relationship with Ian, the more in-focus the sex scenes become because she eventually learns what to do—with great success, I might add.
I hear you’re turning Bite Somebody into a screenplay–how’s that going? Any thoughts on which actors would be right to “wear the fangs”, so to speak?
The first draft of the Bite Somebody screenplay is finished and out with first readers, which is terrifying considering a screenplay was totally new territory for me. True, I did my homework. I read the right books and did a detailed storyboard. Still, it’s terrifying to try and condense a full novel into 120 pages and little more than dialogue. We’ll see what the first readers say.
The fantasy movie cast is getting tough at this point, considering my favorite people have “aged out.” Celia and Ian are in their early twenties, so whereas I initially dreamt of Felicia Day and Benedict Cumberbatch, well … I guess, as of now, I lean toward Saoirse Ronan and Timothee Chalamet, but they’re not exactly right either. Tough to say. Guess I’ll leave the casting to Hollywood.
Bite Somebody is your first novel, however, you’ve penned several since. Would you like to tell us a bit about your new works?
Thanks to the overwhelming support and enthusiasm of my publisher (World Weaver Press), Bite Somebody Else came out last summer. Whereas Bite Somebody was Celia’s love story, Bite Somebody Else belongs to snarky sidekick, Imogene. Who would Imogene fall in love with? Well, an uptight, 350-year-old British vampire obviously.
I’m currently just finishing the release of the three-part Enchanted Series from Pen and Kink Publishing—a romantic Southern gothic trilogy about witches in Charleston. This summer, NineStar Press will release my Escape Trilogy about (surprise!) a gay male vampire who saves a handsome sailor from drowning and pretty much falls immediately in love.
It’s funny (no pun intended), but although I’ve written some comedic short stories, Bite Somebody is and possibly always will be the funniest series I’ve written. With my love for horror movies and Halloween, I can be so dark sometimes, but even my dark stuff has levity and humor. I can’t pass up the opportunity for a good laugh.
Sara Dobie Bauer is a bestselling, award-winning author, model, and mental health advocate with a creative writing degree from Ohio University. Her short story, “Don’t Ball the Boss,” inspired by her shameless crush on Benedict Cumberbatch, was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She lives with her hottie husband and two precious pups in Northeast Ohio, although she’d really like to live in a Tim Burton film. She is author of the paranormal rom-com Bite Somebody from World Weaver Press, among other ridiculously entertaining things. Learn more at http://SaraDobieBauer.com.
Carl R. Moore is the author of Slash of Crimson and Other Tales (Seventh Star Press), as well as the series interview/review series Authors Own Words which appears on the Seventh Star Press blog, as well as his own blog, The Crimes of Heaven and Hell. He lives in upstate New York with his wife Sarah and two daughters, Maddy and Izzy. His fiction has appeared in Thuglit, Macabre Cadaver, and numerous other magazines and anthologies. When he’s not writing or working the night shift, he enjoys listening to heavy metal, playing guitar, and walking miles through the woods.