My Vampire Summer Blog Tour: Author Interview

Hello book fanatics!!  Today I am joined by the lovely Elle Casey for an author interview as a part of this fabulous tour to promote her upcoming book, My Vampire Summer.  I hope you stick around because I also have an excerpt and giveaway!!  Enjoy!!! :)

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~The Book~

 

My Vampire Summer, a novella, the first novella in a series of four ... Reserved bookworm Iona Candella and her best friend, wildchild Cheri Blake, are spending the summer before college in a small medieval town in France. Iona plans to spend the time reading 100 books on her Kindle and Cheri plans to spend it interfering in Iona's book reading/hibernation plan and finding gorgeous French boyfriends to help them pass the time instead. Both of them get more than they bargained for or even imagined. Ancient curses, haunted castle ruins, crypts protected by supernatural serpents. My Vampire Summer is a veritable YA Fantasy banquet, all in a novella-sized package.

Goodreads / Amazon

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~Author Interview~

1. Could you tell us a bit about yourself?  

I've been writing all my life, but published my first fiction novel in January 2012.  To date, I've published a 4-book series title War of the Fae (YA Fantasy), Wrecked (YA Action/Adventure), and My Vampire Summer, a novella (YA Fantasy).  I'm also an attorney, a university professor, a wife and mother.  I am American but have lived in southern France for the past two years with my husband, three kids, and dog.  I love to read, write, travel, sing, dance, cook, eat, hike, embarrass my children, and hang out with family and friends. 



2. Why did you become a writer?  

I became a writer because I love to think up fantastic stories and share my crazy imagination with others who appreciate it.  Plus, writing is just fun for me, so to be able to do what I love and get paid for it is a dream come true. It's really not a job so much as it's an obsession.
Who were your biggest influences?  That's hard to say because I've read and enjoyed so, so many books.  In the fantasy genre, I'd say authors like Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman when they were writing together had a big impact on me.  And JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings were of course great.  I loved the Narnia books as a kid and lots of others in the same vein.  I've also read plenty of Stephen King and many romances.  As an adult I've enjoyed the Sookie Stackhouse novels (since way back), the Mercy Thompson series, the Twilight series, and many more too numerous to mention.  I have a bad habit of forgetting books after I read them; then I re-buy them and about two pages in, say, "Hey!  This sounds familiar!"  Duh.  I like to support indie authors, so I have a crowd-sourced reading list dedicated to them on my site here:  http://ellecasey.com/more-about-indie-authors/indie-authors-reading-list/

3. Where and how did you get the idea for My Vampire Summer?  

Living in that town where the story is set gave me the inspiration.  All of the things I mention in the book related to the setting are true, including the "thing in the church" which I won't elaborate on because it's a spoiler!  I will post pictures of it on my website soon.  www.ElleCasey.com <http://www.ellecasey.com/> , for those of you who doubt me.  The second I saw it, I knew there was a supernatural story behind it.  I just knew it.

4. Any special talents (besides writing)?

Ha, I wish I could include all kinds of things here, but alas, I have few talents.  I wish I could draw or paint, but I can't - all my drawings look like a four-year-old was set loose with a pencil and too much caffeine.  I wish I could speak ten languages, but don't - I struggle with French and provide much entertainment for my friends and neighbors as a result.  I try to sew but I can't ever get my *expletive withheld* sewing machine to work right (it's probably me).  I do however cook pretty well.  And I've been told I'm funny.

5. Do you have a special place you like to write?

An apartment in Paris owned by a friend of mine.  It's quiet and cut off from the Internet, so that makes it easy to focus on my work.  Plus my friend spoils me while I'm there, so it's an added bonus.  That's not to say that my regular writing spot isn't awesome too.  When I write at home in my tiny corner office in my bedroom, my husband delivers meals to my desk and manages the crew so I can focus.  I use headphones tuned into simplynoise.com <http://simplynoise.com/>  which plays white noise in my ears, making it possible to drown out the sounds of three kids, a dog, the phone, and all the activity a house of our size has.  The only difference is that I have Internet at home and am easily distracted by it.

6. What is the craziest thing you've ever done while researching a book?

I feel boring when I think about my answer to this question.  Most of my research is done online, and the only location I've visited for research is Sommières, the French town were My Vampire Summer takes place.  I did go into the church and think very hard about opening the "thing in the church", but chickened out.  Probably a good thing since I probably would have been either arrested or turned into a vampire.  Twenty years ago, I would have done it.  Now, the idea of being in the clink and away from my computer where I write my books, not an option.

7. What's your favorite movie?

I have a top ten of sorts, and it's tough for me to pick #1.  Up there near the top are:  Pretty Woman, Men in Black, any John Hughes movie from the 80s, Dumb and Dumber, Galaxy Quest ... as you can see, I'm a sucker for romance and stupid or goofy humor.

8. Favorite food?

Is it terrible to say "all food"?  Seriously, I have a problem.  I love food too much.  Right now I'm eating a lot of salads with Roquette lettuce, a very peppery, almost garlicky flavor to it, with this great dressing made of lemon juice, olive oil (locally produced), salt (also locally produced from The Camargue), and pepper and then all kinds of things added like boiled egg (French hens!) or chicken or smoked duck, red bell peppers, cucumber, coeur de boeuf tomatoes, goat cheese, a few croutons ...  okay, I have to stop now.  I'm getting hungry.  My favorite dessert is banana cobbler with streusel on top.  I'll send you the recipe if you want.  :)

9. Favorite season?

The spot between Spring and Summer - flowers, temperature about 73 degrees Fahrenheit, cool nights, long days.

10. Is there another book in the works?  If so, what can we expect?

Yes.  Many.  I just finished War of the Fae, book 4.  That's the end of that series.  BUT, I am starting another series that's separate but also has many of the same characters from War of the Fae coming back, called "Clash of the Otherworlds".  I'm also doing at least one more installment of the Vampire Seasons series (My Vampire Summer is the first book in that series).  I also have a sequel for Wrecked planned for the end of the year.  And last, but not least, this summer I'll be writing a 3-book post-apocalyptic series, tentatively titled "Apocalypsis".  I am a very busy girl!  Like I mentioned before, writing is an obsession for me, so I put out about 1.2 books a month.  So, to answer your question, you can expect a lot of books, a lot of fantasy and adventure, and hopefully, my books in paperback beginning this summer as well.

**  Thank you so much for having me on your blog.  Come on over to mine for a visit sometime ... www.ElleCasey.com <http://www.ellecasey.com/> .  I love getting comments and emails.  Reader feedback is my drug!