What inspired you to reinvent traditional vampire mythology and depict them as a civilized community coexisting harmoniously with humans?

I was always fascinated with vampires and stories about vampires since I was a young teenager, exploring the fascinating fictional worlds. Everyone knows the story of the legendary count Dracula, and most of the people curious about vampire lore have definitely seen the silent German movie from the 1920’s titled The Nosferatu. Initially, vampires were seen as predators, who hunted for human blood, and they did not look appealing in any way. I think that my interest in vampires came form reading Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles and seeing a movie Interview With The Vampire based on her first book. Anne Rice made them beautiful and enchanting, seductive and powerful, and humans are naturally drawn to things that represent longevity, power and inhuman strength. Inspired by such knowledge, I wanted to create my own vampire story and give my vampires an aura of mystery, since they had to hide in plain sight in order to survive and do what vampires do. In my universe, vampires are beautiful but not all of them are nice. Just like humans they have their flaws, their desires and their dreams.

Could you share more about your process of creating such a diverse ensemble of characters and how you intertwined their stories with the main narrative?

“Before the Dawn” is a vampire story, but unlike my previous vampire story “Beyond Sunlight,” this one deals with vampire-human relationship on a whole new level. Because most of the vampire stories are focused on adult main characters, I thought about changing it and making it more interesting by approaching the plotline form another angle. I thought, why not make a young teenage romance between human and a vampire? This certainly has nothing to do with the vampire novel series Twilight and movies based on them. My main protagonists are young teenagers, but one of them is a human and another is a vampire. The story of Frank and Cindy is indeed a love story that is unique, because their characters are so different. I designed Frank Sunborn’s character as a regular young boy of thirteen, who is an explorer of places and senses. Cindy Condor is vampire who hides tremendous power behind her facade as a beautiful and seemingly vulnerable girl the same age as Frank. They are both creatures of different worlds and sometimes the opposites do attract in strange and fascinating ways. The other characters, who come form different backgrounds as both humans and vampires serve as an important background to a story focused on the unique relationship between Frank and Cindy.

How did you approach crafting the vibrant backdrop of New York City, and why did you choose this setting for your narrative?

I live in New York City for more than thirty years. It is a very interesting place, where many races and cultures are blended into a very interesting social and political nexus. New York, the city of the Big Apple, is known as the City That Never Sleeps. It was natural for me to choose this backdrop, because I am very familiar with the details of the city life. Humans are migrant creatures, and they move around and seek places that are comfortable for them to stay. Vampires in my story are also moving around, exploring the world of humans and seek places where they can feel safe and hide their mysterious nature. It is also easy to get lost in a big city like New York if you want to stay away form social life. But vampires, just like humans in my story are actively participating in social life of the big city, seeking new blood donors, associates and simply friends on whom they could rely on. In many vampire stories, big cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Paris, London serve as a fascinating and necessary background to enhance the story’s social dynamic and spice it up with interesting and unusual situations.

Given the complexity of themes such as betrayal, trust, friendship, and companionship explored in the book, what do you hope readers will take away from these aspects of the narrative?

I think that writers by their nature should first entertain and second educate their readers about what they know. Our human world is complex enough, but in fictional stories about beings that do not exist, we secretly wish that they did exist among us. It is human nature to seek out magic realism, mysticism and occult to make their lives more interesting and fulfilling. In human world, complex relationships are inevitable. When it comes to the social interactions between humans and vampires, well, this is a whole new ballgame. I wanted to show parallel worlds that exit on the same plain and interact out of necessity for companionship, love and human blood, that allows vampires to maintain their power and immortality. Some humans, would naturally be deeply drawn into the vampire world, attracted to it by promises of eternal life and superhuman abilities. Of course, nothing in this world comes free of charge, and there are consequences for the choices we make. In my story, vampires are also answerable for their decisions, and just like humans, in spite of their great lifespan, they can make mistakes. I hope that the readers would take something from my novel, such as living by the rules that keep you safe, while allowing you to explore the world in the most unusual ways. My vampires look and act like humans, but they are very different from us biologically as well as psychologically. Their enormous lifespan offers them a great learning experience about the human world they live in. It is truly the world they cannot do without.

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