Loading ...Daily Book Chat and Contest - Staked by J.F. Lewis
PLEASE NOTE: this contest is over but feel free to chat about the books anytime. Join us at today’s book chat here: http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=13298
Hello Readers!
First thing is first, the Bag O’ Swag winner from yesterday’s chat is Julie Sw! Julie please email me at racoo.smith at gmail.com (no spaces) with your name and address so we can send your prizes out. 
Welcome to our Monday Book Chat. So, let’s talk about books!
Today’s book discussion will be about the book Staked
Read the review of the book here: http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=11275
Today’s discussion questions:
1.) How do you like Eric as a main character?
2.) The author employs a lot of humor in the book, which helps to lighten the atmosphere of Void City. Do you like this approach?
3.) Who are some of your favorite secondary characters?
Note: If you are going to post major spoiler, be sure to post this first in your comment. Do this
****SPOILER*****
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Just copy and paste that. LOL
That way others can avoid them if they want. This is called Spoiler vision.
Contest: One lucky winner will win a bag of author swag, open to readers worldwide. All you need to do to enter is.
1. Comment and chat here today AND leave at least one comment or question on the book title we are discussing. Even if you haven’t read it. You could ask what makes the characters so compelling to others, or have them convince you to buy the book. LOL Just because you haven’t read it doesn’t mean you can’t chat with us. 
2. Attend and comment at the Interview with author Melissa de la Cruz today at noon.
3. RSVP, Attend and comment at the Interview with author Caridad Piñeiro at BBB here: http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=13162
4. Enter the Win a Kindle 2 contest here: http://www.noobie.com/kindle-giveaway?ref=813331493
5. Invite a bunch of your friends to come and chat with us today! Here’s the direct link so they won’t get lost.
http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=13259
Buy your own copy of Staked
Books in the Void City series in the order they should be read:
Staked
ReVamped
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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I have not read this book, I did read your review and find now I will put it on my TBR list. How did you come up with this slant on vampires? I have done all the rest but invite friends.
1. I actually hadn’t even heard of this book, but after reading the review I’m intrigued. I always am interested in new takes on vampires. How does everyone like it? Why should it go to the top of my to buy list?
2. RSVP’d and will attend
3.done
4.done
Amanda, Eric has some very interesting characteristics, as does the setting, Void City. When reading the book, you may find yourself slightly horrified on one page, and on the next laughing out loud.
This is the first time I’ve heard of this book and the review does a good job in pulling me in. I may pick it up one of these days
2. Done and will attend later
3. Done
I have not read this book yet, but it sounds interesting…and different because most books I’ve read has a women narrative and is the being character. Will definitely be adding this to my TBR pile also
2. attended and comment at Melissa De La cruz’s event.
3. Rsvped
4. Entered in the Kindle contest.
Good afernoon,
I have not read this book yet it is on my TBR list. Can Not wait!
2. Done
3 RSVPed #14
5 Done
Thanks, Ida
Wow, I didn’t know you guys were doing this. How cool!
Lisa, here is an overly long answer to your question about my take on vampires:
I was reading a book in the genre “which shall remain nameless” one I’d really enjoyed the first time through, but when I went back to read it a few years later, one of the character’s tended to whine so much that I threw the book across the room. I was left thinking… What was this guy whining about? He was uber cool, powerful, and immortal…. and to be honest being a vampire wasn’t really all that unpleasant in that particular author’s universe. In mine, I decided being a vampire should (pardon the pun) suck.
So I thought… what makes a vampire a vampire?
First: Blood. Being a vampire revolves around blood right? Then why be squeamish about it? I needed to take that further. Could a vampire taste? Why would they? If vampires can’t taste anything except blood, how would that affect them? Would they be repulsed by the idea of food? Maybe, but it seemed more fun to have them drawn in by it, to have solid food, the act of watching someone eat it, become a voyeuristic thrill… in short, food porn. Pleasure tinged with regret and embarrassment. I pictured vampires salivating at the thought of a nice juicy steak, then I stopped again. Could vampires salivate? If everything about being a vampire centered on the blood, then it would make sense that a vampire had no fluids other than blood coursing through him… or her. Being a vampire needed to be viscerally unpleasant, a high price to pay.
The implications cascaded their way down through the book. I wanted to take away the typical easy outs. Vampires would all have souls; there could be no getting off easy on that one. Just because people become undead doesn’t mean they instantly stop being who they were alive. There was no room in Staked for any demon that made vampires start drinking people to live… it had to be mere survival instinct, the same kind of instinct that might cause perfectly normal people to consider each other as food sources say… when a plane crashes in the snow covered mountains.
I had a hard time with the weaknesses until I realized those needed to change as well. The sun, holy water, a stake through the heart… oh sure, those all needed to be huge inconveniences, but for my vampires the biggest weaknesses need to be their own human foibles and character flaws magnified by their immortality. Over time, they wouldn’t become less than themselves. Instead they ran the risk of becoming unbridled caricatures of who they used to be. How fun is it that? Immortal blood junkies frozen like the addicts they were at the emotional maturity level they’d reached before becoming “addicted.”
That decision led to another one. Vampirism needed to be a very personal hell for the newly dead, so that how powerful they became was a variable. Being turned would be the ultimate Rorschach test. The strength of the newly dead’s core personality would determine which level of the vampire feudal system they landed on: Drone (Peasant), Soldier (Knight), Master (Lord), or Vlad (King).
Of course, another piece of the puzzle to keep things fun and entertaining, so my protagonist (or co-tagonist once my secondary point of view became stronger) had to be a person who could pay that price and not whine. He needed to know that he was a monster and yet still be a basically good guy at heart… a vampire John McClane, if you will, willing to get beat up, knocked down, and ground through dirt, but still come up swinging with a mouthful of witty reparte. He couldn’t be a young twenty-something either. My protagonist needed to have lived a while. That had to be one of his defining traits. He wouldn’t identify with the pretty young things that were young and immortal forever. By the time he was turned, Eric would have lived through World War II and Korea – an itinerant undead member of the greatest generation.
Not that it didn’t go wrong a few times. Okay. LOTS of times. Getting Eric right was the hardest part by far. I shudder to think of one or two real crapfests I came up with… say the version where Eric owned a Opera house (Phantom of the Opera much?) or the version where his language wound up sparkly clean as if he’d been attacked by the lady from the Orbit Gum commercials working in tandem with insane ADR (automated dialogue replacement) technicians. And let’s all agree not to mention the tommy-Gun-Toting-Eric. (“I need your blood, see, and I’m gonna take it. Yeah. See? Yeah.”) Pardon me while I shudder.
Lastly, of course, the more visceral approach to vampires affected the setting – Void City. It became a place where the general populace couldn’t know about vampires, but where the local government knew and made vampires, oni, and other assorted supernatural ghoulies foot the bill for any cover-ups that the Void City Police Department (VCPD) and the Mage Guild had to employ. Essentially, I wanted a setting in which my vampires could be super powerful, but still have to pay parking tickets and worry about the electric bill.
Hopefully it worked.
Hi Jeremy! This is Carol, your D*C moderator. Thanks so much for stopping by!
Hi, Carol!
Haven’t had a chance to read it yet but it is in my must read pile.
Julie S.
2 done
3 done
4 done
Julie S.
I really love this book. I like Eric he is such a strong character in the book. I started reading and I just couldn’t put it down. I am waiting on the follow up to these books. I love Talbot just the fact that he turns into this huge cat. Also I love his mate if thats what you want to call her she is definitely giving him a run for his money.
I was brought in to the whole vampire genre by my wife. As we were strolling through a Barnes and Nobel one night, I found myself looking for something to read that had vampires in it, but wasn’t the “warm and fluffy” stuff my wife can’t seem to get enough of. Lo and behold, I picked up a copy of Staked, and after reading the back cover, was instantly hooked! A vampire with memory problems? How different from warm and fluffy could you get? I went home that night and read the whole book. I couldn’t put it down! I am a sucker for a really good story, and this did not disappoint me in any way, shape, or form. Eric is truly a vampire with a noble heart, a true hopeless romantic stuck forever to want what he can’t have. My favorite secondary character, is Mags. Who hasn’t sometime in their life wished to be able to use magic? Great job, Jeremy! Can’t wait for number three!
Thanks, guys!
And wow, a vote for Magbidion?
Cool. He’s a character I enjoy writing, but always feel like I wind up shorting on page count. He gets a little more face time in book four (which I’m currently writing), but… I don’t know. Maybe I owe him a short story in the future. Come to think of it, I may owe Talbot one as well. At least Talbot gets a few chapters from his POV in Crossed.
Hi Everyone,
I haven’t read this book yet, but after reading the reviews and what J.F. wrote, I definitely have to have it. I love to read about vampires, and I think its great when a author puts a different spin on it..
Happy Reading
2.Attended the interview and chat with Melissa De La Cruz
3.RSVP’d for chat with Caridad Pineiro
4.Entered Kindle contes
5.Invited my FB friends http://www.facebook.com/tawania
Love, love, love this book. Was a definate thrill ride with lots of humor from the main character that left me excited to see what else the Author could conjure up. The second book Revamped is also a great read. If you have not read this book please pick it up, I loved it.
2.)will do shortly
3.) RSVPed
4.) Did it!
5.) will shortly!
What is in store for Eric and crew in the new year, Jeremy???
*Note to all. Jeremy is the male version of Sherrilyn Kenyon when it comes to remember faces after meeting them only once!*
1. Eric is a fabulous character even if he has a serious case of ADHD (he’s like a goldfish that forgets life as he knew it after 30 seconds of living it), anger management, and other personality quirks (not to forget the serious case of sarcasm that makes women love to hate him). makes him just that much more loveable… or ‘human’ as the case may be.
2. of course i think it’s a a necessity for humor in a book, it’s absolutly amazing when you can laugh out loud while sitting and reading. which obviously happened while reading both books actually.
3. Greta. most people think ‘blonde bomb-shell’ technically they’d be right, for all counts. she’s A. blonde, B. freaking a ticking timebomb, and C. (sadly) a shell of a twisted little girl inside a big girls body (hense Amazon, fighter, etc)
1. I think Staked and Revamped look really good. I need to read these.
2. Attended
3. RSVPed
4. Entered
Hi,
What’s your favorite kind of music?
Entering Melissa De La Cruz contest.
Entered the Kindle Contest
*curses* cannot beieve i forgot Talbot. he does need more face time in the books. but i do adore him. and his mother.
Hi
1.Have not read the book can you convince me to Buy this book?
2.Doing tonight
3.I Did
4.Have Done
5.Will Try
From Stacey S
sasluvbooks@yahoo.com
You are a new author to me. Great interview. Looking forward to reading it.
2.Done
3.Done
4.Done
Hi J.F.!
1. I love having humor in the books I read its one of the things I like about reading.
Is this book in a series?
2. Attended
3. RSVP’d
4. Entered
5. Posted on myspace: myspace.com/tonis_place36
Posted on facebook: profile.to/tonispringsteed
I have not read these - honestly, they are completely new to me. For those that have read them - what about it draws you in? Characterization? The dialogue? I’m curious.
What is it about the characters you like so much? If you had to pick music to fit the feel/theme of the books — what would it be??
2. RSVP’d & Attended the Melissa de la Cruz Interview.
3. RSVP’d & plan to attend.
4. Have not entered the Kindle contest yet.
5. Posted link on Twitter!
I havent had teh chance to read it or anything a ne wto me author and someone who doesnt buy a whole lot of vamp books i do most of my paranormal reading from the libarary but as a new buyer im interested in this new slantofvampires i was courious to know what are some peoples take on the growing ppularity in the new vamp trend
i attended the chat and already enter for the kindle
and i rsvped
#1.
Wow we have the funniest personification of a Vampire character that I have ever had the pleasure to read about on the table for discussion today. I read all the comments so far and have become a new fan of J.F. Lewis, will find out how many books in this series to buy that are already in print and get to the onsite book seller ASAP. (If I win a copy would be nice to have signed book from the author also….)
I read the review and also the author comments on here and cannot wait to get reading.
#2 Missed out on…
#3 RSVP’d
#4 Done
#5 Posted link on my blog at:http://jacaburintexas.blogspot.com/2009/11/daily-book-chat-and-contest-staked-by.html
Posted link on Twitter Profile at: http://twitter.com/jacabur1
Posted on Facebook Profile at: http://www.facebook.com/jacabur?ref=profile
Jackie B Central Texas
After reading your interview and “your take” on vampires, I immediately added your books to my must read pile. I was totally fascinated by “what makes a vampire a vampire?” Can’t wait to get my hands on these books.
1, 2, 3, 4 done!
If it’s a book, I’m gonna read it!
I’m curious, what makes your vamps different from all the other vamps out there? Oh, and 1-4? Done!
Wow! They sound awesome! I will definitely be checking this series out!
1. haven’t read it yet!
maybe cirque du freak as the title the next time? 
2. will attend.
3. RSVPed.
This is one of the books that started me out on my addiction to urban/paranormal fantasy. The action just keeps coming, the humor is fantastic, and he keeps you guessing enough so you can’t put the book down.
But how in the world did you come up with what happens when a vampire is turned, the bathroom scene?
Yipe! I stepped away for a bit and look at all the questions, not to mention the nice comments.
Lets’ see:
What kind of music do I like?
It’s kind of mixed bag really. I listen to a lot of Heavy Metal, but mainly the progressive rock folks: Iron Maiden, Kamelot, Dream Theater, Metallica, Aryeon, Edguy, and Nightwish. Then again there is plenty of They Might Be Giants, Sting, David Bowie, and Information Society… along with Danny Kaye, Frank Sinatra, and welll… showtunes on my iPod. I’m a big nut for musicals, too.
What’s up for Eric and the gang in the new year?
Good question. If you find out, please let me know.
Seriously, though… I can tell you what’s up in Crossed, the next book. Without being too spoilerrific, I can say there’s a wedding involved, Eric’s sire shows up, Greta gets some POV facetime, and we meet Talbot’s mom. In book four… well, maybe it’s too soon to talk about book four.
Is this book part of a series?
Yes.
1. Staked (out now)
2. ReVamped (out now)
3. Crossed (coming soon)
4. TBA (I’m writing it now)
I hope I didn’t overlook any of the questions, but if I did please feel free to point it out and I’ll do my best to stop back by and answer.
Thanks again for all the nice comments and to those who haven’t read the books yet, I hope you enjoy them!
Best,
Jeremy
The cover of this looks spicy! I have not read this book yet, but if anyone has, what would you compare it to? I am always on the lookout for new authors!
going to event
rsvpd
I haven’t read this book yet, but after reading all the great reviews I’m definately going to being checking it out!
2.Going to attend
3.RSVP’d
4.Entered
Hi J. F., I haven’t read these two books, but they are on my TBR list and I will buy them as soon as I can. I was wondering what made you pick Void City for the name of the town? How soon will it be before Crossed comes out on print?
3. RSVP’d Caridad Pineiro
4. Entered Kindle 2 contest
1.Hi all, I haven’t read the book but I like the cover and I like to read vampire stuff (especially when there’s humor too) so I look forward to reading Staked.
2. Attending and commented at the Interview with author Melissa de la Cruz
4. Entered the Win a Kindle 2 contest here
3.I also RSVP’d and will attend Interview with author Caridad Piñeiro at BBB
I like humor in darkness. I have not read these books, but thanks for visiting, J.F.! Jean-Claude likes to watch Anita eat because he can’t have solid food. Pretty young things have their own place.
Heehee… Tommy guns.
2 Heading over right after this
3 RSVPd
4 done
The bathroom scene? I think I should deny all knowledge of that sequence and pretend I didn’t write it.
You know, my wife tried to make me take that scene out and IIRC it did get cut a little. If you look at it, as written, it really isn’t all that gross. Or rather, the words on the page aren’t very graphic. But I’m constantly surprised by readers who think it had more detail than it did. But to answer your question, once I made the decision that blood would replace all of a vampire’s fluids, the rest… flowed naturally.
*cough* *cough*
How did I pick the name Void City?
I liked the idea of Eric wearing a t-shirt that had “Welcome to the Void” printed on it. In the process of explaining why he would wear such a t-shirt, the Void City Music Festival occurred to me and well… voila. As it so happens, Welcome to the Void was the original title of the first book.
A release date for Crossed?
I know the folks at Pocket are planning on releasing the mass market of ReVamped before releasing Crossed, but I don’t have an exact date for either. It’s coming though. Promise.
this book sounds great i am going to check it when get to the book store!!!
=)
I haven’t read this book, but I tend to like books with humour to offset the seriousness of the plot, or anything scary.
2 and 3 - RSVPed and will be there
I haven’t read these. They sound good. So I’m going to read the rest of the comments to see why I should buy these.
2,3,4, done
HeidiS
First off….i’m an UF junkie. So when i found this book it was like finding an awesome prize in my crackerjack box. I read both books in 2 days and love them. Eric is the bad boy you can’t have and the writing style kept me hooked.
Void city really came to life in my mind…dark and creepy. The city itself is it’s own character in the books. Eric and Greta are my two favorite charaters …any dialog with them makes me laugh and i love their relationship.
The biggest surprise was Tab… she seemed at first like the lame fangbanger we see in most books….but she changes and grows into her own and i loved reading it happen.
I hope JF doesn’t stop writing and keeps it raw and dirty …the series is fantastic and i want more
They’re awesome books. You MUST read Staked before ReVamped; otherwise you won’t get what’s happening. But it’s so worth it!
I opened Staked for the first time over a year ago. After reading barely two pages, I wanted desperately to steal the library copy so I’d own it =RIGHT THEN=. I didn’t even want to wait for my paycheck so I could buy one. [I didn't steal it, but that brightened Jeremy's day when I told him.] I got to read ReVamped early, and the =spoiler spoiler= is awesome! The interplay between the characters is even better than before.
Humor, check. Great lines, check. Keeps you turning pages — check!
Best of all? Staked does not read like an author’s first book.
So… if you haven’t read anything by Jeremy yet, go over to IGMS and try out his Haley story. I bet you’ll like it.
http://sideshowfreaks.blogspot.com/2009/09/for-want-of-chocolate-by-jf-lewis-igms.html
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