Ray Abreu is a gay New Yorker who's looking for Mr. Right. Unfortunately, he's just found Mr. Wrong—Mr. Dead Wrong.
New York writer Ray Abreu could deal with getting fired from his job. He could even accept the fact that after looking longer than he was willing to admit, he still hadn't found Mr. Right. But Ray could not accept being linked to a series of gruesome murders in the Big Apple. Ray knew facts about the murders that only the killer could know—the details they hide from the public in newspaper accounts. Ray had no idea why the killer was using him, or how. It seemed too awfully similar to the horror movies he'd loved as a child. Except this time the horror was closing in on him. There's a handsome detective on the case who might be playing for Ray's team. But will Ray live long enough to find out?
From the Publisher
KISS KILL: A Vampire's Tale takes the reader on a fascinating journey from the slave ships of the 1600s to the plantations of colonial Virginia, a summe camp in the Adirondack mountains of New York, and finally to modern-day New York, as Ray Abreu tries to deal with an ancient horror that apparently has unfinished business with him. It's a new twist on an old horror tale, sexy and smart.
Author Michael Karol describes the writing of the book, his first novel, which actually began as two novellas!
When I came up with the idea for Kiss Me, Kill Me in 1989, I had no idea it would take me 14 years to publish it. I knew it would be hard to write; I'd only written short stories and magazine articles to that point, and this was a novel. But it came out of such frustration from the gay dating scene in New York at the time — and a specific, scary incident that happened to me — that the need to write it was strong. Still, except for one scene, nothing else had even been thought about, much less written. I had no plot. No characters. I just knew I wanted to write a novel about the gay life (my gay life) in Manhattan, and make it a revenge/horror story with lots of graphic sex and violence — a literal horror story, drawing from one of my favorite movie genres: vampirism.
The 1990s passed; work, traveling, and life in general got in the way. Every once in a while I'd come back to Kiss Me, Kill Me, but I wasn't inspired. I can't write unless I'm passionate about the subject. The passion had yet to hit me. In 2000, my dearest friend, the late Craig Hamrick, urged me to start writing a book about Lucille Ball (one of my major obsessions; see my other books listed here) while we were both working at a dot-com that had yet to take off. Sitting there in a cubicle doing nothing all day was soul-crushing — but the pay was excellent! — and Craig suggested I write the book in an encyclopedic format. It might be easier to organize that way.
In 2001, I published the first edition of Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia, and that seemed to open up the creative floodgates in me. I went back to Kiss Me, Kill Me and finished it within six months. Craig contributed his own atmospheric, gothic photos to the novella. He had taken many, because his obsession was the classic, campy soap opera horror kitsch-fest, Dark Shadows.
My novel turned out shorter than I expected (it was a novella, but at least I'd finished it, and created fictional characters that lived and breathed on the written page) and I published it in 2003. It sold around 500 copies, but it was such a thrill to finally have it done and in print. (And it was nominated for a Queer Horror Award.)
I published several more books, all non-fiction, either about Lucy or classic TV, or both. But I felt the story of my Kiss Me, Kill Me hero, Ray, wasn't finished, and when I showed Craig, one of the best editors I've ever known, another manuscript called Sleeps Well With Others, about my sexual awakening and escapades over eight seasons at summer camp, he pointed out that it was good as far as it went, but that it was basically a series of sexual experiences with no overall theme tying them together. Craig suggested that adding a vampire element would make it spicier and more interesting. I immediately hit on the idea of rewriting Sleeps Well With Others as a prequel to Kiss Me, Kill Me; thus, it would be Ray's experiences at camp, not mine — and in addition, one of the main characters from Kiss Me, Kill Me (one of the, er, not-living characters) — would be present, watching Ray as he grew up, protecting him when necessary, and having a major ulterior motive for doing so...that would become evident in Kiss Me, Kill Me.
I published Sleeps Well With Others several years later, and though it didn't sell even as well as Kiss Me, Kill Me, there was a sense of completion, which was a positive thing. Until...I noticed within the past two years that vampires were everywhere in the media, and thought it might be fun to combine the two novellas into one longer novel, and — okay, most importantly — hitch my star to the current undead craze. Hence, KISS KILL: A Vampire's Tale (top left), published in late 2009. The books' text remained basically the same, but I had to re-edit for continuity, and reshape both tales so that one followed logically from the other. You can still find Craig's photos in the original edition of Kiss Me, Kill Me, still available on some web sites.
Excerpt
Buddy had only made one mistake: he went to Kempner’s one last time on his own to get some new comics Pop had promised would be in before the end of the summer. He wanted to surprise Mikey by sending them to him at home. He almost didn’t see the young man standing in the corner, staring at him.
“Whoa, you startled me,” Buddy said, when he caught the intense green eyes boring into his own. The figure stepped forward. He was just a bit older than Buddy—maybe. It was hard to tell. But dressed very nicely, as if he were headed out for a night on the town. Buddy found he couldn’t make out the teen’s features or any details of his dress. They seemed to shift and change just as they were coming into focus. For some reason, this did not bother Buddy.
This, of course, was one of its tricks.
“Camp over?” the boy asked Buddy. His voice was strangely soothing.
“Yes,” Buddy said, hooked and not even knowing it.
“Why don’t you put those down and come with me?”
Buddy dropped the comics onto the floor. “Yes, I think I will,” he said, and even his own voice seemed to be coming from far away, like the bottom of a deep well.
Buddy’s absence wasn’t noticed until a day later. The young man had a propensity for taking off to Lake George on a moment’s notice. Invariably, he was found sleeping it off in a cheap motel. Terry, one of the camp owners, knew all too well what Buddy had been up to on those excursions, but he was much loved by the campers, and there
had been no complaints against him all summer, so he’d let Buddy have his fun.
But Buddy wasn’t in Lake George this time. This time, he’d entered a region of the Adirondacks unknown to most people—one from which he’d never return.
Professional Reviews
Eternal Love
Michael Karol gives new meaning to the concept of eternal love. Take this book to the beach, to bed, on a plane, or read it aloud to your mate or date. It's a sexy, well constructed page-turner.
Prowling...and other past times
A fun and easy read, with a touch of history. If you are seeking your "FOREVER GUY", this book might give you some second thoughts about how long "forever" really is. Plenty of vampiric punch and erotic imagery. Jake and Todd are hotties I'd like to meet. Wow!
