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Can you tell readers a little bit about
yourself and what inspired to write in this particular genre?
First,
I just want to thank you so much for having me here again, Roxanne! :) I
publish traditionally and independently; have been for quite a few years now :)
. I’m also a cover artist for Damnation Books, LLC as well as independent authors, and
Editor/Publisher of award-winning Dark Gothic Resurrected Magazine.
I love photographing nature in her more ‘atmospheric’ conditions, or anything
else that has an eerie or gothic appeal. I’ve always been inspired by anything
that is *not* mundane or contemporary. There’s so much more to what we simply
see, and I’m always the one to investigate, lol. My insanely, creative and
creepy side makes it hard for me to write anything non-paranormal, lol.
What is it about the paranormal, in particular
vampires (or insert the paranormal creature featured in your book here instead),
that fascinates you so much?
I
think the majority of us are drawn to the mysterious and the unknown. Vampires
may be deemed fiction, but the ‘idea’ originated from somewhere, and isn’t most fiction derived from a bit of fact?
*grin* Their immortality, persuasiveness, a domineering presence that demands
respect (or at least your utmost attention), secretiveness, and that sensual
allure… there’s many factors to these creatures of the night that makes us
wonder ‘why’ and ‘can I get some of that?’ LOL!
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Please tell us about your latest release.
In
“Diary of a Vampire Stripper” a young
woman named Audra pretty much forces herself to audition as a stripper in hopes
that it will earn her some fast cash to pay her rent and bills. She feels a bit
awkward about stooping to such a level, but ‘you gotta do what you gotta do’.
She winds up being hired, and not too long afterward, a certain gentleman
frequents the club whom she’s immediately smitten with. Once they get to know each
other better and he invites her to his beach house for a weekend, it’s all
downhill from there when she discovers he has turned her into a vampire. Now
she’s stuck having to deal with this new situation, plus work her new lifestyle into the one she already has, with
darkly comical results.
Do you have a formula for developing
characters? Like do you create a character sketch or list of attributes before
you start writing or do you just let the character develop as you write?
Luckily,
I don’t have to flesh them out often. They already come to me, even with their
names! I already know their personalities, quirks, likes and dislikes, how old
they are, their physical traits…it’s very interesting. I think Mel Brooks said
it best in this quote: "Every human
being has hundreds of separate people living under his skin. The talent of a
writer is his ability to give them their separate names, identities,
personalities and have them relate to other characters living with him."
What is your favorite scene from the book?
Could you share a little bit of it, without spoilers of course?
Actually,
I have two! One is when she gives Paul (who later became her boyfriend) a
private strip tease for the first time. The gaseous events that happened
immediately afterward had Audra nearly running and screaming down the hallway
where she works. Another one is definitely when poor Audra wakes up to find
herself in a hospital morgue, then figuring out how to escape without drawing
attention herself.
With the book being part of a series, are
there any character or story arcs, that readers jumping in somewhere other than
the first book, need to be aware of? Can these books be read as stand alones?
To
be on the safe side, readers would probably have to start from the beginning to
find out how and why certain things have happened to the characters, which
continues more in-depth in the second part. Part two to DoaVS will pick up
exactly where the first one leaves off.
Do you ever suffer from writer’s block? How
do you deal with it?
When
my muse decides to take a vacay, I simply do something else. I have other
creative projects I’m working on at any given point in time, so I don’t really
freak-out if a block happens. I have these ‘waves’ in which certain things will
come into effect---when one wave ebbs, a new wave for something else follows.
Do you have any weird writing quirks or
rituals?
Other
than having a cup of coffee in the morning to kick-start my brain or a glass of
wine in the afternoon or evening to help loosen my muse up a bit, that’s
probably about it, lol. I LOVE cloudy, rainy days for writing. Everything is so
dead quiet, and I feel more rejuvenated during a rainstorm.
Other than writing, what are some of your
interests, hobbies or passions in life?
I
love photographing nature, cemeteries, and anything else that catches my eye.
I’m a stickler for carrying a camera with me. My last project involved
compiling a photobook of scenes I’ve
captured over the last 4 years, titled “Terra Mysteria: A look at life in a Darker
Aesthetic”. I’m also that dorky person you’ll see raiding Halloween
stores the moment they start
appearing, lol. My Etsy shop, Mistress
Rae’s Decadent Designs keeps me tons busy too. Going to horror
conventions/alternative special events and raiding flea markets/thrift stores
for anything I can upcycle or improve on are some of my other guilty pleasures,
lol.
What can readers expect next from you?
I’m definitely working on the second part to DoaVS as we
speak. I have another novel plus a second collection of short stories in the
works too; hopefully some of them will be out by the end of the year or early
2013.
Where
can readers find you on the web?
http://bloodtouch.webs.com
(my author website)
I’m also at LinkdIn and BranchOut, and you can also find
me at Youtube under Cinsearae and CinsearaeS.
Would
you like to leave readers with a little teaser or excerpt from the book?
Absolutely!
I awoke in a cold,
hard, metallic, oblong compartment of some sort. It was completely silent ---
and felt very claustrophobic.
Why was I covered
with a sheet?!
I tried sitting up,
quickly banging my head on metal. Ow.
Raising my arms to
rip the sheet down from my head, I noticed there were only inches between
myself and this… box I was in.
W… T… F.
I looked down,
unable to see anything but pitch blackness. I could tell I wasn’t in a coffin,
but after watching too much C.S.I. in the past, I deduced I was in a hospital
morgue.
Good grief.
How I got here was
the biggest question on my mind, not to mention how I’d get the heck out of
here undetected.
So, if I was on a
metal slab, then these things slid outward. Pressing my hands against the sides
of my icy, metal cubicle, I pushed myself forward, my feet hitting the square
door before popping it open.
Light! And no one
tending to the place, thank God --- could you imagine me literally scaring the
piss out of whoever happened to be down here? I kept guiding myself forward
until I was able to sit up, and swung my legs over the slab. I jumped down,
realizing I was buck-naked, and wrapped the sheet tight around me. I looked at
my left wrist and noticed my ID tag. I guess using toe tags was out of fashion
nowadays?
I snatched it off, reading the info on it -- Name of Deceased:
Claudia, last name unknown. Age: 27. Sex: F. Race: H. Weight: 185. Height:
5’7”. Date of Death: 2-18-11. Place Of Death: Commercial Residence. Cause Of
Death: unknown. The Funeral Director and Physician spots were left blank, but
in the comments section were the words, “Call Joshua” and two phone numbers. I
balled it up, about to chuck it in the nearest trashcan, but held onto it. No
sense in leaving evidence behind. I looked around. Okay, I was wearing clothes
before I wound up here, so where would they keep the possessions of the
deceased?
On the opposite
side of the room, I spotted what looked like small filing cabinets. Each had a
number on them. I put two-and-two together and looked at my case number on the
tag, matching it with a cabinet. I snatched my stuff out, which was placed in a
clear, drawstring bag.
Okay. Next thing
was to get the hell out of this hospital. I thought of putting my clothes back
on, then paused. I was one of the ‘dearly departed’, so no need to draw
attention to myself by walking out in the outfit I was brought dead in. What I
really needed was a hospital gown, but I frowned at the notion of putting on
one of those cheap, ass-exposing pieces of material. But hell, it would look
way less suspicious than wearing an entire sheet.
Passing by an
unlocked medical supply closet --boy, were the Fates in my favor that
evening!-- I found pair of typical, pale green, sterile-colored scrubs, a
surgical mask, and a hair cover. I dressed in the closet, leaving the sheet
there, then made my way to an elevator and pushed the ‘ground level’ button.
The doors opened,
and I poked my head out. No one around. Good. This would be a piece of cake… as
soon as I found the main doors.
I felt like a mouse
in a disinfected maze, passing by one orderly and a nurse in my travels. Was
that the front desk I saw up ahead?
The woman there
didn’t even look at me; she was busy playing some kind of online game on her
computer. Wow. Glancing through the windows, I noticed the sun had just set.
The hospital seemed pretty low-key at the moment.
“No one sees me… no
one sees me…” I kept chanting to myself. The main doors were getting closer as
I maintained my not-too-suspicious fast pace.
My hands were on
the doors, and then I was free. I’m sure there were cameras around outside, but
I kept on walking until I was completely out of sight of the building, then ran
like hell to the nearest bus stop. Fortunately, one was just rolling up. As I
hopped on, I was glad I was wearing scrubs instead of a gown ---it would have
caused too many whispers on the bus. I probably wouldn’t have made it out of
the hospital in the first place. Besides, folks who worked in those places
often wore their scrubs home, anyway. The only thing that looked odd was the
clear bag of my possessions. Some folks looked at the bag, then to me, then
looked away. I wondered what kind of stories they were assuming in their minds.
This was one time I was grateful for their ‘don’t know and don’t care’
attitudes. If there was one thing you could count on was their craven,
disassociated nature. There were the elite few who actually gave a damn, don’t
get me wrong, but they were rare. For the random, typical person, forget it.
(Yay for humans! Can you hear me giving a raspberry right about now?)
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