Author Interview: Kristin Miller

Happy Thursday, everyone! Hope you all are having a great week. Today we have an interview with paranormal romance and romantic suspense author, Kristin Miller, about her recently released novel, Intervamption. If you missed my review of Intervamption yesterday, you can find it here: Intervamption Review. Enjoy the interview!

Welcome to Nocturnal Readings, Kristin! Let's go ahead and get started.

Intervamption is your first published paranormal romance, how did it feel to find out it would be published?

~When my agent called, she said, “Avon has made an offer on Intervamption.” My heart stopped. I remember not talking much during the rest of our conversation—which is highly abnormal for me. I was too stunned for words. Excitement hit after awhile, but the first emotion to strike me was definitely shock. I was all smiles from there on out.

Dark Tide Rising, your romantic suspense novel, was released before Intervamption. Which were you more excited about: the very first or the first project with a major publishing house?

~Asking that question is like asking which child I like best! I like them both equally, for entirely different reasons. (Isn’t that the kosher answer?) Dark Tide Rising was the first “baby” I saw in print, and with that came all kinds of tingles and chills and jumping up and down. With Intervamption, I felt a ton of pressure, but in a productive, “I’m gonna kick this book’s ass” kind of way. I worked harder and longer to make Intervamption the story it is, and because of that, I think it’s very special. I’m proud of both books.

What was your inspiration and how long did it take you to write Intervamption?

~I was actually knee deep in Dark Tide Rising when the inspiration for Intervamption hit me. The History Channel blared over the television while I typed away, and I heard “Behold! I send you out as sheep amidst the wolves!” I stopped typing. Watched the program for a bit, without really watching. I thought it would be a really cool twist to have a shapeshifter shift into a vampire to penetrate their haven during war times. I didn’t think it’d been done before and knew immediately it’d be the type of book I’d love to read. Voila! Intervamption was born.

Intervamption is set in a world where vampires have their own established, secret society and are at odds with another underground supernatural community, the Therians. What made you decide on this sort of world-building? Did you always want the supernatural world to be secret, or did you consider making the human world aware of it within the novel?

~I wanted there to be conflict between my two paranormal races. Therians—shapeshifters—needed to be in a position of dominance over the vampires. They needed to police their drinking. There needed to be tension and prejudice coming from both parties. Although I knew I wanted to include all of the above, there had to be a reason for all that. Didn’t take long for the reason to hit me: humans would freak if they knew paranormal creatures lurked in dark alleys, drinking their blood! Look how many horror movies depict vampires as evil, undead creatures! My vampires aren’t evil or undead. They’re simply born with a tweaked genetic make-up and transition into vampires during puberty. Therians wouldn’t want vampires catching the attention of humans (or mundanes, as I call them in Intervamption), because once they realized paranormal creatures existed, nothing would prevent them from turning their prejudices on therians next. Nope, better to keep mundanes in the dark. Better to enforce strict vampire “no drinking” laws.

And it makes for a fun read, don’t you think?

Tell us a little about your main characters. Who did you create first?

~Slade. I definitely created Slade first. He’s my kick-ass shapeshifting assassin, who’s brash and possessive in all the right ways. He’s charged with being the first of his race to shift into a non-compatible form—a vampire—and penetrate a haven to make his final mark and earn back his high-ranking status.

But he didn’t expect chemistry to spark between him and his Newborn Induction Representative, Dylan.

Dylan is the owner of ReVamp, a vampire rehabilitation center, whose sole purpose in life is proving once and for all that vampires aren’t the leeches therians have painted them to be. Something is tainting the blood supply in Crimson Bay, causing vampires to act out on the streets. Dylan is dead-set on finding out what the hell is going on.

They can’t deny the connection between them, but neither can they ignore the gap separating their species.

Which characters were the hardest/easiest to write and why?

~Villains are always the easiest for me to write. (That doesn’t make me inherently evil, does it? Ha!) There are a couple hard core villains in Intervamption, though I won’t go into too much detail—wouldn’t want to give anything away. Let’s just say alliances shift and things aren’t always what they appear. Dylan was probably the hardest for me to write because I felt like I had to get her “just right”. She has a tireless work ethic, yet she has to make time for love. Balancing those two aspects of her life was a bit tricky.

What was the biggest challenge for you in writing Intervamption?

~Breaking prejudices between characters. The two species I created had been battling for centuries. When I first shoved Slade and Dylan together, Slade hated everything about vampires. The transition from hate to like to acceptance and, eventually, love was a process that had to be massaged along. That was the by far the biggest challenge.

If you could tell us one fun fact about any of your characters, who and what would it be?

~Savage, San Francisco haven’s leader (or Primus, as I call him), is named after Savage from Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Around the same time I started writing Intervamption, I received an autographed copy of The Art of Seeing by Aldous Huxley, from my mother and father-in law. Although I’d never read that particular book, I loved Brave New World and thought Savage would be a perfect name for my villain.

~Side note: There’s also a ton of biblical names used in the Vampires of Crimson Bay Series: Eve, Moses, David, Amon, Abram, and Hiram, to name a few.

Can you tell us about what you’re currently working on?

~I’m currently working on Vampires of Crimson Bay #3 as well as a paranormal novella with fantasy elements. The novella is set in a different, yet equally complex world. Vampires of Crimson Bay #2 will be released from Avon Impulse December 6^th, 2011.

Without giving too much away, what’s your favorite scene in the novel? How did you feel when you completed that scene?

~My favorite scene is the climax. I was so “into character” when I wrote it, I remember hunching over my computer, typing with my head cocked to the side…like I was leaning down over the scope of a rifle. Husband kept asking what the hell I was doing. “I’m writing!” I told him, and went back to sniping. That’s all I’m going to say. :evil grin:

What’s your favorite line from the story?

~Oh, there’s a ton of them! If I had to pick, I suppose it would be one of the snippets of Crimson Bay current event info placed at the beginning of each chapter. My personal favorite is:

“Celeste Bloodslinger, star of the reality show iSuck, went in for dental reconstructive necrosurgery this weekend. This is rumored to be the star’s one-hundredth necroadjustment.” –Vampertainment Tonight.

I had so much fun writing those tidbits! I hope you enjoy them too!

         

If you could go back to when you were first writing this novel, what advice would you give yourself?

~Make a list of characters, traits, and motivations before you start. Things get complicated when you create a series. Worlds are thick and heavy, with tons of confusing layers. The only notes I had were stacks of Post-its with POV designations, so I always knew when it was high time to switch things up.  

           

Which authors have most influenced your writing?

~Dean Koontz and John Saul. Their writing is dark and spooky and tension riddled. Growing up, it’s all I ever read. That aspect has seriously impacted how I write my own novels.

Favorite book?

~Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier, the only book I’ve read more than once. A dark murder mystery. A fledgling romance .Who could ask for more?

Favorite author?

~There’s too many to list! How about two authors I’ve read recently and absolutely loved: Monica McCarty and Stacia Kane.

What are you currently reading?

~Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and Heart of the Dragon by Gena Showalter. For some ridiculous reason, I thought I’d read all three at the same time. (So not like me!)

Favorite Intervamption character and why?

~Meridian. She’s the goddess, oracle, or prophet figure in the book. In my eyes, she’s a kooky cross between the Oracle from The Matrix and Judge Judy. She talks in code, is much smarter than she looks and has an odd fascination with porcelain cats. Who wouldn’t love a character like that?!?

And just for fun: Intervamption is the first in the Vampires of Crimson Bay Series, give us a small teaser for book two.

~On the run from hungry vampires with his lover under arm, madly possessive RUAN has one thing in mind: keep the dirty fangs of his khissmates off the neck of his one true love—a human with mouth watering blood. The fact that from the moment he invited EVE into his bed, he’s been having eerily real nightmares about violently screwing her, then killing her? Yeah, that part wasn’t fitting too well into his carefully concocted plan to keep her safe.

Eve, a tantalizing biblical studies teacher at Crimson Bay University, has no idea her life is in jeopardy. Ironically, living with the knowledge of paranormal beings and sharing a bed with one of the most cryptic vampires on the planet was not what had her protectively grasping her throat at night. It was the mention of her name in the ancient scrolls; the scrolls written by vampire elders, revealing what’s in store for the end of times…and her spilled blood.

SAVAGE, a villainous vampire-therian hybrid, has a simple plan: kill Eve, drain her dry, thus binding the death shades (dark spirits of vampire elders) to him.

Determined not to let the evil sucker execute his plan by harnessing the dark energy of the elders and killing everyone they’ve come to love, Ruan and Eve set upon a course to stop the future dictated in the scrolls from coming true. It doesn’t take long however, before Ruan realizes that breaking Eve’s heart and erasing himself from her life might be the only way to save her. If only the pull to her wasn't so strong...

Thanks again, Kristin, for stopping by! We're glad to have you any time!

~Thanks for having me on Nocturnal Readings, Kaitlyn! I loved answering all your questions and hope you’ll have me back soon!

For more information on Kristin and her work, or how where you can purchase a copy of her novel, you can find her at the following places:

Website: www.kristinmiller.net

Twitter: @km_miller

Publisher Website for paperback & e-book: www.avonimpulse.com