Quotes from The Ravening Series

Been reading The Ravening Series again by Erica Stevens.  Cannot wait for the third book to come out!  Be looking for it!!

"The girls at school had called him the black devil due to his cold demeanor, midnight hair and onyx eyes.  I had never given much thought to the nickname, I'd thought it was silly and that they were absurd for saying it.  Standing in his presence now though I completely understood it, and couldn't shake it from my mind." 
-Ravenous (Book 1)

"There was no way to become used to this.  To become accustomed to the lack of noise in a world that had once been alive and thriving with it.  To do so would mean that I was ok with the reason behind the quiet.  And I was not, nor would I ever be, ok with the death and mayhem that the aliens had unleashed upon us.  Never be ok with the horror, terror, and loss that had unfolded because of them."                -Taken Over (Book 2)

Surprise Interview....and the author is.....

And the surprise email interview is with.....Erica Stevens!  Here is what she had to say!

How long have you been writing?

  

  -I wrote my first book when I was nine but I was always writing stories before then. I even wrote plays for my friends and I to act out. I loved it, they probably hated me for it, but they were good sports.

 Do you feel like your personal experiences in the past (childhood and adulthood) have had an impact on your writing?

 -Absolutely. I loved my childhood, you couldn't keep me inside. My friends and I were always coming up with new ways to keep ourselves entertained whether it was imaginary worlds, sports, games or building forts and exploring the woods. It gave me an opportunity to let imagination run free. I've moved around since my teens and have had some really interesting and not so common jobs. I've been fortunate enough to make some really good friends and meet some really interesting people. Some of them share traits with more than a few of my characters!

 What was your main reason behind becoming an Indie author?

  -I tried the traditional publishing route for years. I kept querying agents and getting rejected. My husband urged me to try self-publishing and one day I finally listened. I took books from three series I had been working on and put them on Amazon before I could chicken out. Looking back, I wish I hadn't done all three at once, but I was just hoping someone would read it and like something. I didn't have an editor at the time, but thankfully Leslie has found me since! She's edited everything new I've released and is working on editing the stories I had first put out. I'm hoping to have them all edited and re-released eventually.  

 Do you feel like you have achieved your childhood dream of being a writer?

  

  -Yes. Writing was the only thing I ever I wanted to do. It's a part of me and I love it so much. I bounced through college majors because everything interested me, but I always knew I just wanted to find something that would give me the opportunity to write.

What/who is your biggest inspiration?

  -That is a good question. For writers it would have to be Dean Koontz, J.K. Rowling, James Rollins and Stephen King. I love the way they can keep me on the edge of my seat throughout most of the story. In my life, it would have to be my parents. They're both unbelievably strong people and have worked incredibly hard their entire lives. They never let anyone, or anything, hold them back.

The books that I have read so far (the captive series and the ravening series) both have a continuing theme in them that two people/beings who should hate each other end up falling in love.  Is there a particular message that you are trying to relay to your readers?

  -I really just like to put people into already difficult situations and then give them something even more

difficult to have to deal with. However, I do believe that love isn't a choice and that it is worth fighting for.

 As a writer, what do you do to keep from “burning out”?

  

  -I work on a different book. If I get stuck somewhere I don't stress about it, I start a new book or go to a different book I was already having trouble with. I find it gives me a new perspective and I'm able to figure out what was bothering me. It also helps to keep me from getting frustrated, and gives me an opportunity to start one of the many stories I have running through my head or written in my notebook. I also allow my husband to drag me away once in awhile, though sometimes I'm still clutching my laptop!

What advice would you give to aspiring authors out there?

  

  -Don't ever give up and don't be afraid to try something new even if it might scare you.

                                               Don't forget to check out Erica's blog:

                                                http://ericasteven.blogspot.com/

The Ravening Series (Book 1 Ravenous and Book 2 Taken Over) by Erica Stevens

Was there anyone else like me?  Was I the only one?  And why was I still able to move while they couldn't?  What the hell had happened to them, would it happen to me?


   It was on this day that the world had changed for Bethany.  While she had been doing some shopping for her mother, everyone in town had suddenly frozen where they were.  Everyone except for her.  It was creepy, to say the least.  She felt like the eyes of the frozen were on her every move that she made, even though she knew better.  While getting out of the shop she runs into Cade, a former friend to her brother, Aiden.  They have a difficult time escaping town as they are being hunted by awful creatures: aliens.  They had came to Earth a year ago saying they wanted peace.  Bethany had never believed them and now she knew she was right not to.  Some of  the aliens "pets" were going through the streets clearing them of the bodies of the frozen and sucking the blood right out of them.
   Somehow Cade and Bethany escape back to her house to see if any of her family has not been frozen.  When she gets home, she finds her mother frozen, but not her sister, Abby.  As they are being attacked again, her brother Aiden and boyfriend, Bret, come to the rescue.  They all manage to escape into the forest with a girl from school, Jenna.
   Their lives are constantly in danger as they try to find a way to wake up those that are frozen, and realize that they cannot.  This small group of survivors fights tooth and nail to survive these monsters invading Earth.  And the real aliens have not been seen, that they know of.  They had only heard rumors of what they looked like.  And as if life is not hard enough for Bethany, she betrays Bret with Cade, who she had started having some very serious feelings and emotions about.  She felt very much like she belonged with him.
   In the end, they had to get off of the island of Manhattan and away from the beasts hunting them.  The only way was for them to scuba dive across the water and hope they were not seen.  These aliens could do terrible things to a person....and Cade gets taken...alive.

   Normally I don't do more than one book in one review, but the second was so good I decided to do them both.  I was hooked to the end.
 
   Book two begins with a very broken and hardened Bethany, trying to keep it together.  She cannot allow
herself to break down in front of anyone besides Cade, and he's gone.  But every time she sleeps, she dreams of him, longs for him.  No one around her understands the depths of her feelings for him.  As he was being taken, he had told her he loved her, and she loved him too, but had not had the time to tell him.  Now, she only wanted blood, and revenge.  But she still had hope that he just might be alive.
   Training keeps Bethany's mind off of the pain.  And Dr. Bishop, who thinks that her blood might have answers that no one else's might.  After all, she was the only one who's blood was not type O that had not been frozen.
   Now that Cade was gone, Bret was still hoping that at some point Bethany would come back to him.  He was a great guy, but Bethany just didn't love him that way.  She never had, no matter how hard she had tried.  Then there was Jenna, who, in the first book, had been at odds with Bethany.  But now they were beginning to become friends.
   The aliens have begun to really show the survivors what they can do, as they are trapped again and almost do not make it out alive.  Their bloodshed is relentless, and Bethany is wounded.  They were out on a mission to go to a hospital for supplies for the doctor, and out looking for Jenna's relatives at the same time, when they were attacked.  The aliens have adapted and could take on the form of humans, especially innocent children, to lure in the survivors.  The hospital is a disaster when they reach it.  They have to dig through blood, dirt and debris to find the things they need.  And Bethany has to see something that will haunt her for a long time to come.
   Out of the blue, Cade shows back up in the middle of the woods while Bethany is out alone.  She can't believe her eyes, but it's him, unharmed.  He won't talk to her about what happened when he was taken and she senses a darkness in him that she doesn't understand.  It's not until she is attacked by a straggler that joins the group, that she understands where the darkness is coming from.  The straggler was one of the aliens that no one had seen.  At least they thought they had never seen one, until Bethany finds out that Cade is one of them too.  Can she still love him, and forgive him for what he is about to tell her about her own self?

"Ever since the moment I saw you Bethany, I knew.  I'd never had emotions before then, never experienced feelings; my kind doesn't have those things.  It's not supposed to happen to us.  Ever.  I was supposed to be too young to have felt the hunger, The Calling, when we first met.  It wasn't supposed to happen for another ten years.  The Calling is what we call the desire we acquire to touch and taste a soul.  When it happens, we feel as if the soul is calling to us, beckoning us to feed from it, to savor it, and gain strength from what it has to offer."

"You made me this way Bethany, you created me.  You turned me into something that I was never supposed to be."

   Like I said, I was hooked on these two books!  You never know if the second book will be as good as the first one,  but this one was its equal, if not better.  So many things are explained in this book about Bethany and definitely about Cade.  Their relationship takes a right turn into the beyond when he reveals things about himself and things about her that she didn't even know (and definitely didn't want to hear).  After hating these monsters so very much for taking her mother and making her life hell, it turns out she has fallen in love with one.  How messed up is that?  Not only is that messed up, but these aliens traveling around destroying worlds sound a whole lot like vampires to me.  They are crazy fast, strong, and like blood.  It's like a new and different form of vampire.  And it makes things even more exciting!  I am wondering if there will be another book, because this is definitely not the end of the war for Earth.  It's true what they say:  It's never over until it's over.

"They've known all along humans would be their biggest fight." 
 


*images via Erica Stevens
*quotes via Erica Stevens