Kristin: Thanks again for having me for a virtual visit again Cate! Not much has changed in little ole me since we last chatted, just getting my Christmas shopping done early, keeping up the house, watching some Joy of Painting in addition to all the ongoing fiction and non fiction!
Cate: Wish I were so organized! lol Tell us about Fate and Fangs and where it's available.
Kristin: The first 3 books in the Fate and Fangs series are available now at Muse It Up Publishing, along with Kindle and plenty of other e sellers and all your preferred ebook formats. Tale 4 Debauchery: Victoria’s Burning just came out this weekend! We’re halfway through the series now I suppose. If you liked the Love, wanted the Punishment, faced the Struggle, and now are living it up with the Debauchery- beware! We still have Lust, Humanity, and Resurrection to survive! I’ve been virtually everywhere- literally- in support of each book and have received many compliments on the varying themes in the series. Some like the historical paranormal romance elements, others like the full out horror. I’m so, so pleased that Muse took a chance on our dark and dirty ideals. Even with our final 2 books coming out in early 2012, the year might seem quiet after all this whirlwind!
Cate: Very cool. Please tantalize us with a story blurb or excerpt.
Kristin: Here’s the blurb for Book 4 followed by a bit of sardonic humor and thick headed trouble from Victoria, the unfortunate star of Debauchery!
In Professor Welshire’s fourth Fate and Fangs chronicle, Victoria uses the fallout from the American Civil War to her advantage-or so the beautiful but deadly blockade-runner hopes. After all her using, abusing, and feedings, Victoria’s slaves finally take matters into their own hands, forcing Antonio’s daughter to face her own mortality.
I felt an immense, seething, scathing pain above my left eye. Blood screamed over my vision and I tasted my own flavor as it trickled into my mouth. Yes, blood didn’t show on my black gown, but that wasn’t the point. I backed away and covered my face. I dare admit it, but I must confess I think I was stunned, even shocked. As I stumbled backward to the steps, the heathens moved forward. I think they chanted at me, me! At first they slinked together, in time with their black friends. Then they screamed and charged forth. I moved so slow! In the confusion, I couldn’t even levitate, and I tripped again on the damn hoop. I slipped and tumbled end over end down the staircase. Everything hurt as I bumped each and every friggin’ step. I felt trapped, suffocating as my petticoats wrapped around my head. I skidded and rolled down the treads and smacked flat on the landing.
Ouch.
Cate: Wonderful! Can you tell us why we're going to love your hero?
Kristin: I don’t know that everyone is going to like Victoria in Debauchery. She is Antonio’s spoiled ne’er do well daughter in The Vampire Family- our first book in this universe now in paperback with Eternal Press- and her mayhem continues here for Fate and Fangs. She’s twisted and love to hate worthy, vulgar and rude. We want to see her get her vampire dues and yet, we as normal good and honest people, hope she will learn the err of her ways. You want to root and hope things turn out right, but some vampires like being vampires and like to be bad. We get more of Victoria’s trouble too in Tale 6 Humanity. By contrast, Book 5 Lust focuses on her melancholy brother James, one of those tormented by his longevity. The opposites of the two tales is, however, what I love. I so delight in the examination of the ills of vampires, darkness and the possibility of goodness and light. It isn’t all high school and glitter!
Kristin: I don’t know that everyone is going to like Victoria in Debauchery. She is Antonio’s spoiled ne’er do well daughter in The Vampire Family- our first book in this universe now in paperback with Eternal Press- and her mayhem continues here for Fate and Fangs. She’s twisted and love to hate worthy, vulgar and rude. We want to see her get her vampire dues and yet, we as normal good and honest people, hope she will learn the err of her ways. You want to root and hope things turn out right, but some vampires like being vampires and like to be bad. We get more of Victoria’s trouble too in Tale 6 Humanity. By contrast, Book 5 Lust focuses on her melancholy brother James, one of those tormented by his longevity. The opposites of the two tales is, however, what I love. I so delight in the examination of the ills of vampires, darkness and the possibility of goodness and light. It isn’t all high school and glitter!
Cate: Victoria sounds like a perfect villain. Tease us with one little thing about your fictional world that makes it different from others.
Kristin: They’re family! Holy water can’t save these vampires from each other! Now everyone uses the word ‘family’ in place of coven, but the Welshire vampires really are an ancient family- with a few enemies and adopted fledglings over the centuries. You’d think in a thousand years or so, they might be able to escape each other, but their blood ties run doubly deep and cause twice as many problems. Can one born of evil ever be good? After eons of torture, can one change her ways? How can you get out of the family business when it’s about making vampires? Dallas, vampire style!
Kristin: They’re family! Holy water can’t save these vampires from each other! Now everyone uses the word ‘family’ in place of coven, but the Welshire vampires really are an ancient family- with a few enemies and adopted fledglings over the centuries. You’d think in a thousand years or so, they might be able to escape each other, but their blood ties run doubly deep and cause twice as many problems. Can one born of evil ever be good? After eons of torture, can one change her ways? How can you get out of the family business when it’s about making vampires? Dallas, vampire style!
Cate: Love it. What's next for you?
Kristin: Next year I think I might find time to breath between releasing Fate and Fangs and finishing Requiem for the Vampire Family, the next full length sequel in the universe. And non fiction, too, always the non fiction, print, online, anywhere, everywhere! I’ve enjoyed stepping away from the horror to edit with Leigh Wood, another NJ native and EP author, too. I have to alternate to keep myself fresh. Years ago, you had to expert in genre and that was that. I like playing with the paranormal genres and moving within horrors. You rest on one tale while you work on another and a piece you need for one can inspire the other. I thought I was out there, but Leigh’s kinky fantasy Horns of Myleness was a real eye opener in how far you can push the erotica and twists. I never would have thought to use unicorns in that manner!
Kristin: Next year I think I might find time to breath between releasing Fate and Fangs and finishing Requiem for the Vampire Family, the next full length sequel in the universe. And non fiction, too, always the non fiction, print, online, anywhere, everywhere! I’ve enjoyed stepping away from the horror to edit with Leigh Wood, another NJ native and EP author, too. I have to alternate to keep myself fresh. Years ago, you had to expert in genre and that was that. I like playing with the paranormal genres and moving within horrors. You rest on one tale while you work on another and a piece you need for one can inspire the other. I thought I was out there, but Leigh’s kinky fantasy Horns of Myleness was a real eye opener in how far you can push the erotica and twists. I never would have thought to use unicorns in that manner!
Cate: What inspired you to draft your first story?
Kristin: I’ve gotten this vampire reputation over the years, but when I started The Vampire Family back in ’99, there wasn’t that much vampire fiction about- the big names like Rice and Hamilton, that was about it. I enjoy reading vamp mythology and folklore and ended up writing what I wanted to read. In many ways I inspire myself first and foremost. Not as a boast, but when you have these things in your head you have to get them out. When you have a story to tell, you rip it out on the page, getting it out there. When the miracle of finishing hits you and it was a dang good ride in getting there- then you sit back and think this was such a joy and that others may want to read what you wrote. The notion of telepathically telling a story well told to someone reading across time and space inspires me every time.
Kristin: I’ve gotten this vampire reputation over the years, but when I started The Vampire Family back in ’99, there wasn’t that much vampire fiction about- the big names like Rice and Hamilton, that was about it. I enjoy reading vamp mythology and folklore and ended up writing what I wanted to read. In many ways I inspire myself first and foremost. Not as a boast, but when you have these things in your head you have to get them out. When you have a story to tell, you rip it out on the page, getting it out there. When the miracle of finishing hits you and it was a dang good ride in getting there- then you sit back and think this was such a joy and that others may want to read what you wrote. The notion of telepathically telling a story well told to someone reading across time and space inspires me every time.
Cate: Do you have a writing routine?
Kristin: Do you know today an aspiring writer came up to me after a seminar and ask me the same thing- and strangely, I had no instant answer. I have my quirks I suppose- sitting on my exercise ball for one, but I can’t think of anything that really factors into the writing process. Maybe something is on the television, maybe there’s music playing. Sometimes I eat or have tea, other times I have to set alarms on my phone to go off so I’ll know to stop and get food. I like particular spots to settle in and work over night, but mostly my ticks are about relaxation I think. I don’t have to do word exercises or superstitions or anything- which is strange, because I do warm up or get very superstition over sports!
Cate: Where can readers find you on the web?
Kristin: Oh boy! My review blog, I Think therefore I Review, has also been on a scary and mayhem diet since we last spoke- taking the spirit from the vampire underbelly I suppose! The Halloween counter widgeton the blog has reset itself for 10-31-12!
Kristin: Do you know today an aspiring writer came up to me after a seminar and ask me the same thing- and strangely, I had no instant answer. I have my quirks I suppose- sitting on my exercise ball for one, but I can’t think of anything that really factors into the writing process. Maybe something is on the television, maybe there’s music playing. Sometimes I eat or have tea, other times I have to set alarms on my phone to go off so I’ll know to stop and get food. I like particular spots to settle in and work over night, but mostly my ticks are about relaxation I think. I don’t have to do word exercises or superstitions or anything- which is strange, because I do warm up or get very superstition over sports!
Cate: Where can readers find you on the web?
Kristin: Oh boy! My review blog, I Think therefore I Review, has also been on a scary and mayhem diet since we last spoke- taking the spirit from the vampire underbelly I suppose! The Halloween counter widgeton the blog has reset itself for 10-31-12!
Cate: Yikes, very scary, lol. Is there anything you’d like to ask our readers?
Kristin: “What’s happen’, Hot Stuff?”
Cate: Readers, Kristin is giving away an ebook of Book 4 to a random commenter... so start commenting. She'll pick a winner on next weekend and announce the winner here.
Thanks so much for being my guest Kristin! Best of luck with all your projects.
