Behind-the-Scenes Science in ACQUAINTED WITH THE NIGHT For the last thirty-three years, the dinner table conversations in our house has centered around cloning, stem cells, MRSA, and H1N1—that’s what happens when a nurse marries a doctor, and their son becomes a biochemist. When we’re around our medical friends, the talk often turns to the future of science—and also the history of diseases. For a writer, this is great fodder for a paranormal novel. When I began writing ACQUAINTED WITH THE NIGHT, I wanted to honor the immortals’ mythology, but I also wanted to give it a twist. Like most predators, the vampires in AWTN have a biological edge. They are physically attractive. Their brains are more developed than a human’s—some are quite gifted with telepathy. They are physically superior. They run faster, never become ill, and heal at an extraordinary rate. But my main character was an ex-historian, presently working as a London tour guide. She wouldn’t know a test tube from a turnip. Luckily, Jude Barrett walked into the book and told me to stop fretting. Not only was he a biochemist, he’d worked at a pharmaceutical company in Yorkshire, conducting research on mice, and he’d discovered something extraordinary….