Fatal Infatuation follows a young college girl who becomes involved with a centuries-old vampire on a mission to teach other vampires how to live in peace with humans. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

A few things came together to bring ALMOST HUMAN to life. I’ve always been interested in bats. Vampire bats have an anticoagulant in their saliva called “draculin” (named after Count Dracula!) that keeps blood from clotting. I had the idea that such a thing would be useful for vampires as well. It would also be useful if they had something to keep the victim calm, like a drug.

I always wondered about a vampire’s ability to put victims in thrall. In old movies, vampires are always able to hypnotize people, and it’s never really explained. People are just ‘under their power’. I always wondered – why? How does it work? I put those questions together with the anticoagulant/drug idea, and took it further. What if vampires could inject their victims with venom – like a snake? Only the venom would not be deadly poison, but a combination of drugs that kept blood from clotting, kept the victim calm and even willing, and also could mark territory for the vampire – leaving a mark that other vampires could see. The vampire could then use the existence of this ‘drug’ in their victim’s system, to put them in thrall as well.

The idea of venomous vampires seemed so logical to me, that I assumed for sure that someone else had done it already. I began searching my library for a book like that, so I could read it! This was probably in the early 90’s and there weren’t very many vampire books in my library at that time. I never found what I was looking for, and I filed the idea away. It never occurred to me to write it myself, LOL.

In the late 80’s, I had discovered Anne Rice’s vampire chronicles and absolutely loved them. That was the first time I read something from the vampire’s point of view. The way that she captured emotions and described surroundings was mesmerizing to me, and I really connected with her story. I’m also a huge fan of the T.V. series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. Joss Whedon is a genius! That said – towards the end of the show, I started disliking some decisions the writers made. I understood their vision, but I also saw missed opportunities. I would have done things differently.

That started me thinking of my own storylines and my own characters, incorporating my venomous vampire idea. None of this was written down, just daydreamed during housework. Then one day I realized that a lot of the ideas I had were really good, and it depressed me to think that it would all just be forgotten. So, I sat down one night at the computer, to write out a few things so I wouldn’t forget, and could look back at them one day. The scenes just came pouring out and before I knew it, I’d been up writing almost the whole night! That’s when I realized that I had a real story to tell, and wanted to write it all out from beginning to end.

As for the characters: Felicity is a girl much like myself at that age, and Cain… well, I knew that I wanted him to be much different from other vampires I had seen, kinder, with a vision for change from prevalent depictions. (This was in 2003 before many other modern vampire books had come out). I was the lead vocalist for my church choir at the time, and during church services I couldn’t help but wonder how a person of Christian faith would deal with becoming a vampire. In literature, I think vampires especially are a wonderful metaphor for exploring topics such as faith, addiction, abuse, ethics and prejudice, among other things. Vampires embody the persona of anyone who has ever felt outcast, alone and unable, unwilling or undeserving to find love. I think that is a basic element of why we connect with them on some level, and that is how my ALMOST HUMAN vampires were created.

I felt this novel’s supporting characters were intriguing and well developed. Who was your favorite character to write for?

Thank you! I can’t say that I have a favorite character to write, because I really am all of the characters in this book! Each of these characters has been taken from the seed of something within myself. I’ve been lucky enough in my life never to have been sexually abused or addicted to drugs, but everything that goes into making up the personalities for my characters, how they feel and react to things, has come from some little grain of dealing with something in my own life – magnified. At some point in my life, I have totally identified with and “been” these people. Even if it didn’t outwardly show, this is how I felt and wanted to react. Writing through my characters is extremely cathartic for me. If I could not emotionally live through what they go through, and transcribe it to the page, I don’t think the writing would resonate very strongly with readers. That close relationship between an author’s feelings and the writing is what gives a story life.

I wondered a little at first, whether I would be able to write a believable ‘guy’, but when you come down to it, we are all just people. I take care to really examine the guy’s motives throughout each scene, and to try and observe and notice things the way I think a man would. It’s actually rather fun writing for my guys, Cain and Ben, and stepping into the male perspective. Cain is extremely dear to my heart, as is Ben, stubborn and headstrong as he may be, (my husband is basically a combination of the two, LOL) but as far as being the most fun to write…

I have to choose the supporting ladies…Alyson & Sindy. Those girls are very different, but such a blast! They are willful, daring, strong women, who sometimes act in ways I wish I could, but never would. Let’s face it, Sindy is often an evil bitch, and while many love to hate her, she is a lot of fun to write! Alyson is so sassy and impossible to ignore that she basically took over and demanded to have the spotlight in the 2nd trilogy! Good characters are like that – you can outline and plot your story but when the character hits the page, sometimes they are just going to do what they want and as the author, I need to be true to them and adjust the story to fit their needs. It’s much more fun when they take on a life of their own!

The cover for this book is interesting. How did you create the cover for Fatal Infatuation?

Thank you, I do all of my own cover art. I’ve always been artistic and enjoy trying to convey the feeling of the story through the artwork when I’m not writing. While there are romantic elements in the story, it is not what I would consider a typical paranormal romance, so I really did not want a half-naked man on the cover (nice as that might be to look at 😉 ) While Felicity is quiet and shy at first, the women in this story are all very strong in their own ways and I think they deserve the spotlight on my covers. While I do have male readers who love the books, as a woman, I feel that the romantic male leads are best left to description and imagination.

The model for Felicity is also a talented photographer (Natalie Paquette-Cruz) who lives near me in upstate NY and has given permission for me to use her photos of herself. I added the bite on her throat to show readers what to expect – since the word vampire is not in the title. Fatal Infatuation also has a zombie silhouette hidden in the background because there are a few in the story and I thought readers should be forewarned…

I try to find backgrounds for my covers that depict the feeling I want to invoke and accurately portray the settings. All of my books take place in New York – upstate and further into the series on Long Island – I have lived in both places. On the Fatal Infatuation cover I love the way the top of the tree echoes the same way Felicity is bending and arching her neck (the zombie is also posed similarly). Also, I think color is a wonderful identifier. My series is being written as a succession of trilogies. The first trilogy of books are all red, the second trilogy is purple, the third is blue and the fourth (and final) will be green.

Can you tell us what the second book will be about and when it will be available for fans to purchase?

Novel #2, Lost Reflections continues the story from book 1, picking up right where we left off. These books are not stand-alone and you need the complete trilogy to get the full story. In book 2 we learn a lot more about Cain’s past. Although his origin story is told through recalled flashbacks, it is woven in amongst the progression of the modern storyline as well. Cain became a vampire in 1692, and a lot of research went into weaving his fictional existence to fit into true history. Before becoming an author, I was a school librarian, so I enjoy getting sucked down a research rabbit-hole now and then. As the series continues, the cast becomes a lot more diverse, and I have learned a lot about different cultures, events, and random facts in order to write it. While my story is paranormal in nature, I think those elements are much more believable when surrounded by reality as much as possible, so readers can be truly immersed in the story as though it could really be happening. So, when reading book 2, Lost Reflections, you will find most of the details in Cain’s fictional story to be true – right down to the ship that brought him to America, its name, captain, and cargo! Most readers probably don’t notice these details, or realize the research involved, but I think it’s worth the effort on my part.

This is the blurb for Lost Reflections:

Felicity has helped her friends to escape the venomous vixen Sindy, but cannot divine the motives of Cain, the vampire who captured first her gratitude, and then her heart. She finds the historical tale of Cain’s past enthralling and frightening. Now she must determine whether the addictive venom in Cain’s kiss is clouding her judgment, and if his thirst for her blood is a driving force too strong for their love to conquer. It’s difficult to contemplate such questions while under the attack of a vengeful vampire and his zombie slaves. Felicity’s heart has already been lost to Cain; will she lose her life as well?

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