MMM: Tessa Gratton

Nick is a city boy angry at being forced to move back to the nowhere town of Yaleylah, Missouri where he grew up. He can’t help remembering his mom and the blood magic she practiced – memories he’s tried for five years to escape. Silla, though, doesn’t want to forget; her parents’ apparent murder-suicide left her numb and needing answers. When a book of magic spells in her dad’s handwriting appears on her doorstep, she sees her chance to unravel the mystery of their deaths. Together they plunge into the world of dark magic, but when a hundred-year-old blood witch comes hunting for the bones of Silla’s parents and the spell book, Nick and Silla will have to let go of everything they believe about who they are, the nature of life and death, and the deadly secrets that hide in blood. Published on May 24, 2011 - today!

Guest Post by Tessa Gratton, author of Blood Magic

I’ve heard from some early readers of BLOOD MAGIC that it’s a little bit scary. I didn’t intend for it to be horror… but it does have the word “blood” in the title, takes place largely in a cemetery, and there are witches, body-snatchers and… yeah. Ok. I can see how it’s scary.Whenever a reader tells me Blood Magic kept them awake at night because they couldn’t put it down or because it was just plain scary I think about the first time I read JURASSIC PARK by Michael Crichton.

I was ten years old, and grabbed my parents’ copy because they loved it, and hey – dinosaurs! I started it in bed, when the house was dark except for my bedside lamp. From what I remember, the prologue takes place in Costa Rica, and has images of tiny little dino-monsters sneaking into a baby’s cradle. Little footprints. Very creepy. Then you’re at a hospital, where a private chopper brings a man to a little run-down hospital with huge gashes all over his body, like he’s been mauled. He murmurs “raptor… raptor” over and over again, and once he’s gone (dead I think) the doctor looks the word up. I so very clearly remember the end of that chapter, because it was the translation:

“Raptor: bird of prey."

I shivered in my bed, and at that exact moment there was a soft scratch at my closed bedroom door. Pretty sure I screamed. It was only my cat, but I couldn’t put the book down. After reading a little bit longer in bed, shivering, I decided to go get in a warm bathtub. It was bright and safe in the bathroom, and best of all, warm. No dinosaurs could sneak up on me in there! I very distinctly remember staying up all night long reading that entire book – to the point where when the water got cold, I drained it and refilled it with hot water again. Over and over. I’m not sure how I made it through school the next day.

But I’ll always remember that night, and that book, for being the first time I was so scared and excited by a book I couldn’t even imagine putting it down. I can only hope that BLOOD MAGIC has such an effect on readers! Thanks for having me!

Thank you, Tessa! Best of luck on your release!

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