Cate: Please welcome Kelly to my special Halloween party! Kelly,
please tell us a little bit about yourself.
Kelly: Hello. Kelly here. I live in the Rocky Mountain West, along with
more animals than people. I’m a vampire fan from way back—old Bela Lugosi movies,
Anne Rice, and Dark Shadows when it was
a soap opera!
Cate: What do you love most about Halloween?
Kelly: For years we had a big Halloween party. The best part was
turning the barn into a haunted house.
Cate: Do you have a favorite memory of a Halloween past?
Kelly: The looks on the kids’ faces the first time they saw “witch’s
brew,” dry ice in the punch bowl.
Cate: Have you ever had an unusual experience you couldn’t explain?
Kelly: My old house had a rumor that someone had committed suicide in the
attic. At night, sometimes it sounds like someone is walking around up
there—creepy.
Cate: I am loving that so many people had weird experiences! What frightens you the most?
Kelly: From a Halloween standpoint, zombies bother me. I value my
brain!
Cate: Ever gone on a ghost tour? Or ghost hunting on your own?
Kelly: No ghost tour—would love to go on one of the New Orleans tours
some day. Never been ghost hunting—just seeing those reality TV shows is close
enough for me.
Cate: Any favorite Halloween recipes you’d care to share?
Kelly: Not a true recipe—a craft.
Mini pumpkins (the little orange gourds). Paint in metallic colors,
decorate with colored metallic wire tentacles. Glue jiggly eyes on as desired.
They make great centerpieces. Great to do at a party with kids and send home.
Cate: Tell us about your latest release, and where readers can find it
online.
Kelly: My latest release is Into the Red. It’s the story of a doctor
who is a vampire, and his unexpected love interest. Lots of bad guys and
intrigue, and my own take on how vampires came to be. You can find it at:
Cate: Care to share a blurb or excerpt?
Kelly: Here's the blurb:
Human blood is an illicit and highly addictive drug--if you're a
vampire. Known as Red, its side effects are insanity, and eventual death. A
group of Red-addicted vampires known as Poisoners are killing women as part of
an extortion plot involving a lost ancient vampiric tome, and they’re leaving a
trail of bodies in their wake. The discovery of each new victim risks exposure
of the entire vampire race to humans. Then one victim survives…
Dr. Evan Nichols, oncologist and vampire, lives a monk-like existence,
by his own choice, focusing on patient care and research to benefit his vampire
brethren. It’s been twenty-five years since his world turned upside down—the
night he lost his fiancee and discovered his hidden vampire heritage. Now his
government has ordered him to take a mate—or they’ll choose one for him. It’s a
horrible prospect, and one that might push him over the edge—until Fate throws
him together with a human female.
Wary of relationships, Tara West has poured her energies into work and
inventing cutting edge climbing equipment. She doesn’t like the gorgeous Dr.
Nichols, yet finds herself unaccountably drawn to him.
When a crazed vampire attacks and poisons Tara, Evan rescues her. With
time running out, he has to create an antidote to the poison before he loses
his chance at love.
In order to make the vaccine which might cure her, he has to find the
bastards who poisoned her and take their venom—before they die of their
addiction. If he doesn’t reach them in time, saving her will be impossible.
Thus the journey begins—into the Red!
Cate: What inspired you to write about the theme?
Kelly: Working in the medical field, it occurred to me vampires could
exist as an evolutionary offshoot of the human race—perfectly reasonable. The
beginnings of a story came to me about a physician specializing in blood
diseases who also happened to be a vampire, and had ambivalence about his
situation. The vampires would live among humans. I wanted a way to survive that
didn’t involve biting humans; in fact, I wanted humans to be off limits. The
world built itself off these concepts.
Cate: Anything else you’d like to share?
Kelly: I’d love to do a sequel—lots of notes for the individual stories
of other characters in the book.
Cate: Kelly has a giveaway! Woo hoo!
Kelly: Leave a comment with your email on this blog post. I’ll be
choosing a random commenter to win an e-copy of Into the Red.
