Interview With Abaddon Books Author – Rebecca Levene

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Over at Abaddon/Solaris Books, they’re releasing some great new books, especially some wonderfully dark fantasy. I’m going to be doing some interviews with a few of the authors there so I hope you’ll take the time to check out their work.

First up, Rebecca Levene, who’s book Cold Warriors is being released in May 2010.

————

To start, can you tell me a little about yourself.

As a friend of mine once said, I want to be known for my work, not my face – like an arsonist. I don’t really know what to tell you. I grew up in rural Suffolk – used to milk the goats when I was a kid – and for obvious reasons escaped as soon as possible and have been living in London ever since. Other than that, it’s just been a life, filled with the kind of stuff lives are filled with. So instead, here are three random facts about me:

a) My dad made some of the costumes for Lawrence of Arabia.
b) I worked on mainland China’s first soap opera – which was originally intended to feature a eunuch travelling back through time to recover his lost genitalia.
c) I once accidentally started a religion.

How long have you been writing and how did you get to this point in your career?

Like most writers, I imagine, I’ve been doing it since I was a kid – I used to distract myself from my carsickness on long journeys by making up stories in my head, and some of those characters have been living in there ever since.

I’ve been writing professionally for around twelve years now. I’m not quite sure what stage you’d call this in my career – the ‘not struggling quite as badly as before but still not always making ends meet’ stage? Anyway, I got here by writing whatever someone would pay me to write – that included a beginner’s guide to poker and a novelisation of a video game. People can be snobby about that kind of work-for-hire stuff, but it’s how I learnt my craft.

Your new novel is called Cold Warriors. Tell me what inspired or drove you to write this book?

Cold Warriors‘ initial inspiration was probably John Le Carre. I read The Spy Who Came In From The Cold when I was quite young, and it made a huge impression on me, the page-turning action combined with the aching melancholy. I also loved fantasy books, and a combination of the two seemed like the best thing ever to me then – and still does.

Other than that, I think it was the usual: I wanted to write something I would have enjoyed reading in that magical, voracious, book-consuming period of my youth when I truly could get lost in a work of fiction in a way that’s frustratingly elusive now.

I have a keen interest in dark and paranormal fantasy. Tell me how you would classify this book and what’s dark about it?

I’ve always described the book as a supernatural thriller – it’s about a British spy agency seeking out occult means to defend the nation. I guess the darkness comes from my interest in the terrible things people can do, and what motivates them to do them. I’m not just talking about the big, ending-the-world stuff, although that too, but also the smaller cruelties even good people are capable of.

Often there are characters in a book that we just love, but what character of yours would you completely despise if you were to meet them in real life? Why?

Hmm… I usually have a sneaking fondness for even the worst of my characters, but – without giving too much away – there’s someone in this book who’s committed a crime I find utterly unforgivable. I think readers will know who I’m talking about when they get there.

There’s a Richard Prior routine – this is relevant, honest – in which he talks about spending time in prison to research Stir Crazy. When he first gets there, he looks at all the inmates and thinks what a terrible waste it is to lock them up. And then two hours later he’s thinking, thank god these maniacs are in jail – let’s throw away the key. I worked in Brixton Prison for a while, and that really is the mental process I went through about the inmates. You start off feeling sorry for them, and then they scare the shit out of you, and you finally end up feeling sorry for them again – because many of them are victims – but also hoping very hard you’ll never meet them in the outside world.

I think that’s how I feel about my villains. They can be charming or funny or pitiful, but they really do need to be stopped.

Sometimes we have to be ruthless in writing/editing. We cut scenes, eliminate characters or even kill them off. Tell me what was the hardest of these in this book.

Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever cut a scene I truly mourned – I trained as a sub-editor in magazines and that’s made me pretty brutal with material that’s surplus to requirements, even my own. There is a decision I made about one of my characters in this book which was very hard. I hadn’t planned to do it in my original synopsis, but when it came to the moment I realised it had to happen.

This blog is called Random Musings, so give me a random quote from the book – something that you’re particularly fond of.

Hmm… How about:

“He was huge, a beached white whale in this shallow pool, roll after roll of fat leaving the greying head on top looking too small, like a deformity.”

What can we expect from you next? Is the next book in the series already written?

The next book is written and out this summer, possibly as early as July. It’s called Ghost Dance. I did actually take a year to write it, not 2 months – my editor held off until he could publish the first two close together, to get some momentum going for the series. I’m also working with a friend on a non-fiction book about the videogame industry that I’m very excited about, but I shouldn’t say more till I know whether it’s been commissioned.

Where can we find you on the internet? Blog? Twitter? Web site? Book trailer?

I’m afraid you can’t – I really know I should do some of those, but I’m terrible about keeping that kind of thing going. Like most writers (well, I tell myself it’s like most writers) I’m horrifically lazy. Writing is my job and I write what I have to, but the thought of producing a word more than that makes my heart sink.

You could check out the Abaddon website, though. And my friends’ wonderful site refers to me now and again.

Any final comments or thoughts you’d like to convey that you haven’t covered?

Nope – I think your questions have pretty much done the job. Thanks for taking the time to come up with them!

—————

I really like the insight you have into the criminal mind. There is understanding and empathy, yet revulsion. I can’t wait to read this. Thank you, Rebecca, I really appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions. Looking forward to the May release of Cold Warriors!

Random Musings: Interview With Apex Book Company Author – Maurice Broaddus

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Over at Apex Book Company, they’re releasing some great new books, especially some wonderfully dark fantasy. I’m going to be doing some interviews with a few of the authors there so I hope you’ll take the time to check out their work. Last week I interviewed Sara M. Harvey. Today, we have Maurice Broaddus.

————

To start, can you tell me a little about yourself.

I’m just me. Father of two (rambunctious boys), husband of one. Full time writer, sometime editor. All around bon vivant and mischievous imp.

How long have you been writing and how did you get to this point in your career?

Been writing as long as I can remember. In second grade, my teacher didn’t know what to do with me. She had an overloaded class and I could be a handful since I was easily bored. So she put my desk in a corner, gave me a stack of paper and just told me to “create”. I guess I’ve been doing that ever since.

I started to seriously begin pursuing being published in 1999, when my story Soul Food was published in a little known magazine called Hoodz. I started my blog in 2004, had a column in a local paper, and had a few dozen short stories published. All of which brings me to now.

You have two new works out, a novel and an anthology, King Maker and Dark Faith, respectively. Tell me what inspired you to write the one and edit/compile the other?

Oddly enough in both cases, my faith. I was working with a homeless teen ministry called Outreach Inc. After talking to many of the kids, I got this sense that they couldn’t think of themselves with a future. It was difficult for them to conceptualize of survival further out than a week. So I began writing a story, more as a lark, imagining some of them as knights and princesses of the streets. Eventually, it led to King Maker.

Dark Faith sprang from my eponymous conference, MoCon. Originally we wanted to produce an anthology which was a tribute to it and its guests. The premise was any of the themes of some of our MoCon panels: spirituality, race, sex, art. The prospect of writing stories revolving around the idea of faith caused us to be hit with a lot of submissions and the anthology grew into something more. So we have science fiction, horror, and fantasy writers all playing with the idea of faith from various perspectives.

I have a keen interest in dark fantasy. Tell me how you would classify both of these books and what’s dark about them? In particular, tell me more about what you are trying to explore in the “dark side of faith” with the anthology.

King Maker is urban fantasy, after all, it’s the re-telling of the legend of King Arthur except playing out in our modern, inner city streets. I’ve had many folks come up to me and tell me “I couldn’t read your other stuff because you’re a horror writer. King Maker sounds like something I can read.” I guess they forget that I *do* have a horror writing background. So there is definitely some dark scenes. It really isn’t too different than the kind of horror I typically write, as I like exploring the dark side of humanity and the evil that people do to one another. This is no bunnies and rainbows version of King Arthur.

In Dark Faith, I wanted artists to engage the idea of faith and let it take them wherever the stories take them. Some stories are dark (like Douglass F. Warrick’s Zen and the Art of Gordon Dratch’s Damnation) and some are a little lighter (like Jay Lake’s Mother Urban’s Booke of Dayes or Kyle S. Johnson’s Go Tell It on the Mountain).

Which was harder to edit: the anthology or your own novel? Can you explain?

Yes. I should probably mention that King Maker is book one in a trilogy called The Knights of Breton Court. Book Two is King’s Justice and Book Three is King’s War. I was editing Dark Faith while writing King’s Justice, as both projects were due at the same time. Once it became evident that I was going to be deluged with submissions, I brought in co-editor supreme, Jerry L. Gordon. He made it his mission to keep my anthology plate as clean as possible and give me room to write book two. We made a great team as we both had similar tastes and ways of working.

In many ways, editing was easier. It’s not really a chore to take breaks from writing to “have” to read stories from Catherynne M. Valente, Alethea Kontis, Kelli Owen-Dunlap, and Brian Keene, if you know what I mean. It was also a HUGE learning experience. I think every writer needs to have to deal with a slush pile and see the submission process from the other side.

This blog is called Random Musings, so give me a random quote from the books – something that you’re particularly fond of.

So I whisper his name. And he tells me to call him Jeezy. “Seriously, man. Everybody does.” (From Kyle S. Johnson’s

Go Tell It on the Mountain)

What can we expect from you next?

King Maker hits the U.S. shores in August. King’s Justice around December. In between, I have stories coming out in the following anthologies: Dark Future, Dead West, and Ancient Shadows.

Where can we find you on the internet? Blog? Twitter? Web site? Book trailer?

Oh, you can’t avoid me on the interwebz. I blog at my web site, I tweet endless gibberish about my life, and you can find me on Facebook.

Any final comments or thoughts you’d like to convey that you haven’t covered?

Buy my books because I speak of the pompetous of love.

—————

And I thought I was busy! Wow! Thank you, Maurice, I really appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions. Best of luck and looking forward to reading both of these works.

Interview With Apex Book Company Author – Maurice Broaddus

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Over at Apex Book Company, they’re releasing some great new books, especially some wonderfully dark fantasy. I’m going to be doing some interviews with a few of the authors there so I hope you’ll take the time to check out their work. Last week I interviewed Sara M. Harvey. Today, we have Maurice Broaddus.

————

To start, can you tell me a little about yourself.

I’m just me. Father of two (rambunctious boys), husband of one. Full time writer, sometime editor. All around bon vivant and mischievous imp.

How long have you been writing and how did you get to this point in your career?

Been writing as long as I can remember. In second grade, my teacher didn’t know what to do with me. She had an overloaded class and I could be a handful since I was easily bored. So she put my desk in a corner, gave me a stack of paper and just told me to “create”. I guess I’ve been doing that ever since.

I started to seriously begin pursuing being published in 1999, when my story Soul Food was published in a little known magazine called Hoodz. I started my blog in 2004, had a column in a local paper, and had a few dozen short stories published. All of which brings me to now.

You have two new works out, a novel and an anthology, King Maker and Dark Faith, respectively. Tell me what inspired you to write the one and edit/compile the other?

Oddly enough in both cases, my faith. I was working with a homeless teen ministry called Outreach Inc. After talking to many of the kids, I got this sense that they couldn’t think of themselves with a future. It was difficult for them to conceptualize of survival further out than a week. So I began writing a story, more as a lark, imagining some of them as knights and princesses of the streets. Eventually, it led to King Maker.

Dark Faith sprang from my eponymous conference, MoCon. Originally we wanted to produce an anthology which was a tribute to it and its guests. The premise was any of the themes of some of our MoCon panels: spirituality, race, sex, art. The prospect of writing stories revolving around the idea of faith caused us to be hit with a lot of submissions and the anthology grew into something more. So we have science fiction, horror, and fantasy writers all playing with the idea of faith from various perspectives.

I have a keen interest in dark fantasy. Tell me how you would classify both of these books and what’s dark about them? In particular, tell me more about what you are trying to explore in the “dark side of faith” with the anthology.

King Maker is urban fantasy, after all, it’s the re-telling of the legend of King Arthur except playing out in our modern, inner city streets. I’ve had many folks come up to me and tell me “I couldn’t read your other stuff because you’re a horror writer. King Maker sounds like something I can read.” I guess they forget that I *do* have a horror writing background. So there is definitely some dark scenes. It really isn’t too different than the kind of horror I typically write, as I like exploring the dark side of humanity and the evil that people do to one another. This is no bunnies and rainbows version of King Arthur.

In Dark Faith, I wanted artists to engage the idea of faith and let it take them wherever the stories take them. Some stories are dark (like Douglass F. Warrick’s Zen and the Art of Gordon Dratch’s Damnation) and some are a little lighter (like Jay Lake’s Mother Urban’s Booke of Dayes or Kyle S. Johnson’s Go Tell It on the Mountain).

Which was harder to edit: the anthology or your own novel? Can you explain?

Yes. I should probably mention that King Maker is book one in a trilogy called The Knights of Breton Court. Book Two is King’s Justice and Book Three is King’s War. I was editing Dark Faith while writing King’s Justice, as both projects were due at the same time. Once it became evident that I was going to be deluged with submissions, I brought in co-editor supreme, Jerry L. Gordon. He made it his mission to keep my anthology plate as clean as possible and give me room to write book two. We made a great team as we both had similar tastes and ways of working.

In many ways, editing was easier. It’s not really a chore to take breaks from writing to “have” to read stories from Catherynne M. Valente, Alethea Kontis, Kelli Owen-Dunlap, and Brian Keene, if you know what I mean. It was also a HUGE learning experience. I think every writer needs to have to deal with a slush pile and see the submission process from the other side.

This blog is called Random Musings, so give me a random quote from the books – something that you’re particularly fond of.

So I whisper his name. And he tells me to call him Jeezy. “Seriously, man. Everybody does.”
(From Kyle S. Johnson’s

Go Tell It on the Mountain)

What can we expect from you next?

King Maker hits the U.S. shores in August. King’s Justice around December. In between, I have stories coming out in the following anthologies: Dark Future, Dead West, and Ancient Shadows.

Where can we find you on the internet? Blog? Twitter? Web site? Book trailer?

Oh, you can’t avoid me on the interwebz. I blog at my web site, I tweet endless gibberish about my life, and you can find me on Facebook.

Any final comments or thoughts you’d like to convey that you haven’t covered?

Buy my books because I speak of the pompetous of love.

—————

And I thought I was busy! Wow! Thank you, Maurice, I really appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions. Best of luck and looking forward to reading both of these works.

Poll Results: What Impacts Your Book Buying Choices

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Well, the results are in (see below). I’ll blog about this more later.

What are the three most important factors in buying a book?

  • Genre/Subject (58%, 157 Votes)
  • Description/Synopsis (53%, 144 Votes)
  • Price (39%, 107 Votes)
  • Author (39%, 107 Votes)
  • Recommendation from others (30%, 80 Votes)
  • Reading Sample (26%, 71 Votes)
  • Peer Reviews (20%, 53 Votes)
  • Cover (15%, 40 Votes)
  • Professional Reviews (7%, 20 Votes)
  • Publisher (1%, 4 Votes)

Total Voters: 271

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Random Musings: Author Interviews/Reviews

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I’ve had a couple of interviews lately. Feel free to check them out. Nikola’s Book Blog – where I’m giving away 5 free ebooks! Curling Up By The Fire Also, some great reviews at the following sites: The 24/7 Mom Gnostalgia Ebook Alchemy Amazon Smashwords Goodreads And I have some interviews lined up with authors from Apex Book Company and Solaris/Abaddon Books. There’s some really great dark fantasy coming from these publishing houses, so check back for more! Oh, and if you’re a paranormal/fantasy author (particularly dark paranormal/fantasy) looking to do an interview, feel free to drop me a line! I’d be more than happy to host an interview here.

Author Interviews/Reviews

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I’ve had a couple of interviews lately. Feel free to check them out.

Authors by Authors
Nikola’s Book Blog – where I’m giving away 5 free ebooks!
Curling Up By The Fire

Also, some great reviews at the following sites:

And I have some interviews lined up with authors from Apex Book Company and Solaris/Abaddon Books. There’s some really great dark fantasy coming from these publishing houses, so check back for more!

Oh, and if you’re a paranormal/fantasy author (particularly dark paranormal/fantasy) looking to do an interview, feel free to drop me a line! I’d be more than happy to host an interview here.

Random Musings: Interview With Apex Book Company Author – Sara M. Harvey

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Over at Apex Book Company, they’re releasing some great new books, especially some wonderfully dark fantasy. I’m going to be doing some interviews with a few of the authors there so I hope you’ll take the time to check out their work. ———— First up: Sara M. Harvey, author of The Labyrinth of the Dead, which is now available for pre-order! To start, can you tell me a little about yourself. My day job is as an instructor of fashion design and fashion history at the International Academy of Design and Technology. I have a master’s degree in costume history from New York University and I’ve worked for the costume shops of Walt Disney World and the Renaissance Pleasure Faires of California and Wisconsin. I am a native Californian and a huge hockey nut (a loud and proud Nashville Predators fan, also known to root for the San Jose Sharks and occasionally the Pittsburgh Penguins). Here in Nashville, I live in an older neighborhood that is chock-full of delicious ethnic diversity (mmmm authentic tacos for $1 down the street and a wonderful coffee shop on the next block!) with my husband and three dogs: two of which were strays that adopted us from the neighborhood, the other was one we actually went out and got from a shelter. (For anyone who cares: Guinevere the border collie/blue heeler mix, Eowyn the basenji/yellow lab mix, Javert the german shepherd/hound? mix.) I do a lot of writing, reading, cooking, and gardening. Life is good. ^_^
How long have you been writing and how did you get to this point in your career? I started writing about age 10 or 11 and have just been at it since then. I wrote my first complete novel, A Year and a Day, in 2003 and sold it in 2006. Since then there have been a lot of non-fiction costume history textbooks, a few short stories, and the novella trilogy for Apex Book Company. I have a another novel out for consideration right now and one that I am in the middle of. How did I get here? A metric buttload of tenacity and no shortage of charm and luck. Your new novel is called The Labyrinth of the Dead, the second in a series. Tell me what inspired or drove you to write this series? I had this crazy dream, years ago, about these young people in a magical boarding school where a murder has taken place and the ensuing witch-hunt (pun sort-of intended!) puts most of the teachers and some of the students in peril at the hands of a treacherous betrayer, sort of a very dark version of Harry Potter but years before the books existed. I wrote a little snippet of what would become The Convent of the Pure, the first book in the trilogy. The second books came out of the plot that grew way too big for a single 35,000 word novella. I would love to put out a larger volume of the whole trilogy collected into a single book, or even expand each novella into its own full novel. That would be great fun. I have a keen interest in dark and paranormal fantasy. Tell me how you would classify this series and what’s dark about it? Classify? Bah, I can’t hit the broad side of a genre barn! Jason Sizemore, my editor, refers to it as Paranormal Steampunk: there are angels and demons and magic and ghosts and a deep, abiding sense of spirituality. And there is betrayal and true love and life and death and heartbreak. There’s a lot of dark elements in Labyrinth, especially seeing as how it takes place in the underworld and puts the heroine at the mercy of a demon queen and her creepy constructs that do her will, which is to consume souls. So yes: dark, paranormal, fantastical, Steampunk. All of the above. Often there are characters in a book that we just love, but what character of yours would you completely despise if you were to meet them in real life? Why? It’s too easy to say that I’d hate Nigel, the villain in Convent but he’s so oily and cunning that he’d fascinate me more than disgust me. In Labyrinth, I have to say I probably like Lahash, the demon general, the least. He’s just a bastard, plain and simple and not in a cool, curmudgeonly way, and has a tendency to follow the person with the biggest gun rather than have any sense of loyalty or decency. Sometimes we have to be ruthless in writing/editing. We cut scenes, eliminate characters or even kill them off. Tell me what was the hardest of these in this book. The middle of this book got rewritten about three times. The start of it got rewritten about four times. And the end, at least twice. So lots got cut and lots got rearranged. And although it hurt at the time, they made for a really kick-ass book at the end. In terms of killing characters, actually, the body count in the short story we put out to promote Convent, called “A Prelude to Penemue,” had a pretty high body count including a character that was the first piece of fan art ever done for the series. She’s in the story for a few hundred words but she stole everyone’s hearts and her fate really sucked. But fret not, fans, when writing about ghosts and the undead, no one is ever written out of the series for good! This blog is called Random Musings, so give me a random quote from the book – something that you’re particularly fond of. This is Portia talking to Belial, the Demon Queen of the Underworld: “I had no idea who you were until a moment ago. You aren’t Lilith, for crying out loud. Your name was never taught to me in Penemue, where we were schooled on all of the important demons and fallen angels. But yet you think so much of yourself.” “I have been compared to Satan!” “Really? So have I. Ask my mother.” What can we expect from you next? Next? So many things! I have a short story out in the Dark Futures anthology coming this summer from Dark Quest Books and edited by our fearless leader over at Apex, Jason Sizemore. There is also a short story of mine in the Trafficking in Magic anthology out from Drollerie Press also this year, in the autumn. I have a stack of story requests through which I am currently working. Even though I started with short stories as a teenager, I have evolved into a novelist and short work is a real challenge for me, but I never shy away from a challenge so keep your eyes open for more short work from me! Based on what I read, there seems to be a queer element to this series.
Tell me about that. Well, Portia had been basically hashed out and then when I placed her into the world of the town of Penemue in the first book, I stumbled across the love of her life and it turned out they were both women. I think it was as much of a surprise to me as it was to Portia who had never given love much thought until a certain redhead came into her life. The strength of their love never ceases to surprise and amaze. And, to me, that is the important part, not their genders. Although my very first review called the book “fluffy, lesbian erotica” which still boggles my mind. Ah well, the book has found a lot of traction in all corners of the world and with all sorts of people, which pleases me greatly. Where can we find you on the internet? Blog? Twitter? Web site? Book trailer? I am all over the internet! My website is www.saramharvey.com. I blog both at LiveJournal under the username of Saraphina_Marie and at Charmed and Dangerous. I tweet also under the username of Saraphina_Marie . Labyrinth doesn’t have a book trailer yet, but check out the amazing one made by the one and only Catherynne Valente and featuring the awesome music by Abney Park. Any final comments or thoughts you’d like to convey that you haven’t covered? Buy my books? Oh, and also books with my short stories in them! And lastly, come see me at a convention near you, I love to meet new people! ——— Thank you, Sara, I really appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions. Sounds like you have a lot going on and lots to look forward to. I wish you the best of fortune with it all!

Interview With Apex Book Company Author – Sara M. Harvey

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Over at Apex Book Company, they’re releasing some great new books, especially some wonderfully dark fantasy. I’m going to be doing some interviews with a few of the authors there so I hope you’ll take the time to check out their work.

————

First up: Sara M. Harvey, author of The Labyrinth of the Dead, which is now available for pre-order!

To start, can you tell me a little about yourself.

My day job is as an instructor of fashion design and fashion history at the International Academy of Design and Technology. I have a master’s degree in costume history from New York University and I’ve worked for the costume shops of Walt Disney World and the Renaissance Pleasure Faires of California and Wisconsin. I am a native Californian and a huge hockey nut (a loud and proud Nashville Predators fan, also known to root for the San Jose Sharks and occasionally the Pittsburgh Penguins). Here in Nashville, I live in an older neighborhood that is chock-full of delicious ethnic diversity (mmmm authentic tacos for $1 down the street and a wonderful coffee shop on the next block!) with my husband and three dogs: two of which were strays that adopted us from the neighborhood, the other was one we actually went out and got from a shelter. (For anyone who cares: Guinevere the border collie/blue heeler mix, Eowyn the basenji/yellow lab mix, Javert the german shepherd/hound? mix.)

I do a lot of writing, reading, cooking, and gardening.

Life is good. ^_^

How long have you been writing and how did you get to this point in your career?

I started writing about age 10 or 11 and have just been at it since then. I wrote my first complete novel, A Year and a Day, in 2003 and sold it in 2006. Since then there have been a lot of non-fiction costume history textbooks, a few short stories, and the novella trilogy for Apex Book Company. I have a another novel out for consideration right now and one that I am in the middle of.

How did I get here? A metric buttload of tenacity and no shortage of charm and luck.

Your new novel is called The Labyrinth of the Dead, the second in a series. Tell me what inspired or drove you to write this series?

I had this crazy dream, years ago, about these young people in a magical boarding school where a murder has taken place and the ensuing witch-hunt (pun sort-of intended!) puts most of the teachers and some of the students in peril at the hands of a treacherous betrayer, sort of a very dark version of Harry Potter but years before the books existed. I wrote a little snippet of what would become The Convent of the Pure, the first book in the trilogy. The second books came out of the plot that grew way too big for a single 35,000 word novella. I would love to put out a larger volume of the whole trilogy collected into a single book, or even expand each novella into its own full novel. That would be great fun.

I have a keen interest in dark and paranormal fantasy. Tell me how you would classify this series and what’s dark about it?

Classify? Bah, I can’t hit the broad side of a genre barn! Jason Sizemore, my editor, refers to it as Paranormal Steampunk: there are angels and demons and magic and ghosts and a deep, abiding sense of spirituality. And there is betrayal and true love and life and death and heartbreak.

There’s a lot of dark elements in Labyrinth, especially seeing as how it takes place in the underworld and puts the heroine at the mercy of a demon queen and her creepy constructs that do her will, which is to consume souls. So yes: dark, paranormal, fantastical, Steampunk. All of the above.

Often there are characters in a book that we just love, but what character of yours would you completely despise if you were to meet them in real life? Why?

It’s too easy to say that I’d hate Nigel, the villain in Convent but he’s so oily and cunning that he’d fascinate me more than disgust me. In Labyrinth, I have to say I probably like Lahash, the demon general, the least. He’s just a bastard, plain and simple and not in a cool, curmudgeonly way, and has a tendency to follow the person with the biggest gun rather than have any sense of loyalty or decency.

Sometimes we have to be ruthless in writing/editing. We cut scenes, eliminate characters or even kill them off. Tell me what was the hardest of these in this book.

The middle of this book got rewritten about three times. The start of it got rewritten about four times. And the end, at least twice. So lots got cut and lots got rearranged. And although it hurt at the time, they made for a really kick-ass book at the end.

In terms of killing characters, actually, the body count in the short story we put out to promote Convent, called “A Prelude to Penemue,” had a pretty high body count including a character that was the first piece of fan art ever done for the series. She’s in the story for a few hundred words but she stole everyone’s hearts and her fate really sucked. But fret not, fans, when writing about ghosts and the undead, no one is ever written out of the series for good!

This blog is called Random Musings, so give me a random quote from the book – something that you’re particularly fond of.

This is Portia talking to Belial, the Demon Queen of the Underworld:

“I had no idea who you were until a moment ago. You aren’t Lilith, for crying out loud. Your name was never taught to me in Penemue, where we were schooled on all of the important demons and fallen angels. But yet you think so much of yourself.”
“I have been compared to Satan!”
“Really? So have I. Ask my mother.”

What can we expect from you next?

Next? So many things! I have a short story out in the Dark Futures anthology coming this summer from Dark Quest Books and edited by our fearless leader over at Apex, Jason Sizemore. There is also a short story of mine in the Trafficking in Magic anthology out from Drollerie Press also this year, in the autumn.

I have a stack of story requests through which I am currently working. Even though I started with short stories as a teenager, I have evolved into a novelist and short work is a real challenge for me, but I never shy away from a challenge so keep your eyes open for more short work from me!

Based on what I read, there seems to be a queer element to this series.
Tell me about that.

Well, Portia had been basically hashed out and then when I placed her into the world of the town of Penemue in the first book, I stumbled across the love of her life and it turned out they were both women. I think it was as much of a surprise to me as it was to Portia who had never given love much thought until a certain redhead came into her life.

The strength of their love never ceases to surprise and amaze. And, to me, that is the important part, not their genders. Although my very first review called the book “fluffy, lesbian erotica” which still boggles my mind. Ah well, the book has found a lot of traction in all corners of the world and with all sorts of people, which pleases me greatly.

Where can we find you on the internet? Blog? Twitter? Web site? Book trailer?

I am all over the internet! My website is www.saramharvey.com. I blog both at LiveJournal under the username of Saraphina_Marie and at Charmed and Dangerous. I tweet also under the username of Saraphina_Marie
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Labyrinth doesn’t have a book trailer yet, but check out the amazing one made by the one and only Catherynne Valente and featuring the awesome music by Abney Park.

Any final comments or thoughts you’d like to convey that you haven’t covered?

Buy my books? Oh, and also books with my short stories in them!

And lastly, come see me at a convention near you, I love to meet new people!

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Thank you, Sara, I really appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions. Sounds like you have a lot going on and lots to look forward to. I wish you the best of fortune with it all!