Playing Catch Up! Vampire Kisses by Ellen Schreiber

Playing Catch Up has really been helping me through my ever growing TBR list. I'd like to welcome all other blogs to participate too! If you do, be sure to post your links in the comments section. I'd love to see your Playing Catch Up Reviews, and I'm sure others would too!! *wink*

Want to know more about Playing Catch Up? I'll tell you all about it here!

Vampire Kisses (Vampire Kisses #1) by Ellen Schreiber
Genre: Young Adult (Paranormal Romance)
Date Published:  August 1, 2003
Publisher: HarperTeen

A new guy in town.

Rumours of vampires.

Dangerous first love.

This is where it all begins.

Raven lives in Dullsville, where nothing ever happens. Until now... The mansion on the top of Benson Hill has been empty and boarded up for years. But a new family has moved in. A family that never ventures out during the day. Who are these creepy people -- especially the handsome, dark, and elusive Alexander Sterling? Or rather, what are they? Could the town gossip actually be true? Are they vampires? Raven, who secretly covets a vampire kiss, both at the risk of her own mortality and Alexander's loving trust, is dying to uncover the truth. 

Vampire Kisses is the first book in the Vampire Kisses Series by Ellen Schreiber. Raven is very serious about being a goth girl. She obsesses really. And, she seems so much younger than 16. Especially compared to Alexander. I get why she's attracted to him, he's her dream come true. His attraction to her doesn't make much sense to me though. I think their maturity levels are at completely different points. Raven is very repetitive in her thoughts and speech, but she has her good points to. She stands up for herself and others. I enjoyed her sense of humor. The story had a silliness to it, and overall, it did keep my attention.

Before I took pen to paper, I was an actress. I attended a local university majoring in theatre and spent a summer in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts where I learned about the Old Bard from amazingly talented teachers.

When I returned from London, I relocated to Chicago where I lived for five years. There, I graduated from the Second City Training Center and performed improv, Shakespeare, comedies and dramas--I even sang and danced on a cruise boat--without falling in Lake Michigan! A classmate of mine from Second City and I created and performed a two woman show for a year before I braved it alone doing stand-up comedy. It was during this time I began to write an adult novel about a rock star--I had always enjoyed writing...

Fast forward a couple of years along with a move home where I was performing stand-up at comedy clubs in the area. On a plane to LA to decide my fate-- to move to LA or not to move to LA that is the question, my big bro, Mark, coincidentally with the same last name as mine (author of PRINCES IN EXILE, DREAMS OF THE SOLO TRAPEZE and STARCROSSED) handed me a young adult book he found at the library he thought Id like to read during the flight.

As I read the book, I thought, I can do this!

I returned from LA, and instead of moving there, I wrote my story about the rock star as a young adult novel and called it JOHNNY LIGHTNING.

Mark, my writing mentor, edited JL for me. He was kind enough to send the manuscript to his publisher in Belgium--Facet--and they published it! In Dutch!

I was on a new life path!

I joined a writer’s organization (SCBWI) hoping I could get group insurance and in the back of their monthly mag they posted important publishing news. A fabulous editor named Katherine Tegen was joining HarperCollins and for a short time would be accepting “unsolicited manuscripts.” This means non-agented material. Since I didn’t have an agent at the time, this was big news.

I sent her Teenage Mermaid.

I few months later, I got the letter of a lifetime! I still have it framed on my wall. In 2001 Katherine Tegen at HarperCollins made me an offer I couldn’t refuse! Not only was HarperCollins going to publish TEENAGE MERMAID, but it was in a language I could read and book stores I could walk into!

I showed her my other books and HarperCollins also bought VAMPIRE KISSES and COMEDY GIRL. Katherine’s first year’s listing had already been filled so I was going on the 2003 releases. I had to wait two long years until they came out!

Talk about patience! But it was worth every minute I waited. :)

After Vampire Kisses was published, Katherine asked me for a sequel, and there begins the evolution of the series. I have her, my brother Mark, my parents, and of course all the fangtastic readers to thank for that!

Then in 2006 or 2007, Tokyopop and HarperCollins approached me about making a Vampire Kisses manga. I was escatic! Raven and Alexander came to life in three volumes and at least eight foreign editions. I loved reading manga and it was a dream come true to be creating one!

When I'm not writing about the love affair between vampire obsessed, goth girl Raven and her favorite mysterious dark-eyed hottie, Alexander Sterling, I enjoy working on my other novels, shopping for Hello Kitty items on Ebay and attempting to gain control of the remote from my husband. :)

To learn more about Ellen Schreiber and her books, visit her website.You can also find her on Goodreads, Facebook, and Twitter.