Interview With Jeaniene Frost

I was going to wait a lil' bit before I posted this interview, but I asked myself why wait if you can do it now? So here we go...

Jeaniene Frost is one of my , and other thousands of people, favorite authors. She writes The Night Huntress Series and The Night Huntress World. I love her first series, and can't wait for the second one to hit the book shelves.

Let the fun begin.

First off, a little summary of The Night Huntress Series and Night Huntress World:

The Night Huntress series features half-vampire Cat Crawfield and Master vampire Bones as the main characters. When readers first meet Cat, she’s determined to kill as many vampires as she can in revenge for her undead father assaulting her mother. After Cat is captured by Bones and forced to work with him, she realizes that most of what she’s believed about vampires – and her other nature – isn’t true. Cat also finds out that more than vampires go bump in the night, and that evil isn’t limited to creatures without a heartbeat. When Cat’s relationship with Bones heats up, so does the danger surrounding them, plunging Cat further into the undead world than she ever thought she’d go.

Night Huntress World books are spin-offs from the Night Huntress series featuring side characters as the main characters. FIRST DROP OF CRIMSON, Night Huntress World book one, features Spade (a.k.a. Charles) as the hero and Denise as the heroine. ETERNAL KISS OF DARKNESS, Night Huntress World book two, features Mencheres as the hero and a new character Kira as the heroine. Both books will stand-alone novels, not the start of a new series, and will be set in current times with their storylines running parallel to the Night Huntress series.

Have you always known you wanted to be a writer?

I knew since twelve that I wanted to write a book, because that’s when I really fell in love with reading. But I never thought I’d be able to make a career out of it. I just wanted to write as an outlet for all the stories I had swirling around in my head. Since I’m a classic procrastinator, however, it took me until I was almost thirty to quit talking about writing a book and actually do it. I was halfway through writing a truly awful time travel romance when I got the idea for the Night Huntress books, so I stopped working on the Awful Time Travel novel to start what was to become HALFWAY TO THE GRAVE.

Why enter the Supernatural realm? What attracts you about the supernatural?

I’ve been a fan of the supernatural since I was a child sneaking to watch horror movies. The “what if” factor of the paranormal is fascinating, terrifying, and exciting to me. There’s so much room for larger-than-life heroes, heroines, and villains when you take out the restrictions that apply to “normal” life and introduce supernatural elements. Plus, I’ve been a vampire fan since I first saw Dracula – and wanted him to win over VanHelsing ;-).

When you aren't writing, what do you do in your spare time?

Spare time? What’s that? *wink* Kidding aside, I try to read as much as I can, because with deadlines, my reading time has been cut down a lot. When not reading, my husband and I like to watch movies (usually with a paranormal slant!), go out to dinner, take walks with the dog, or hang out with our families. Yes, sounds very tame, but it’s my characters who like to live on the edge, not me.

Who/what do you consider to be your influence?

As I said earlier, I’ve been a fan of horror movies since I was way too young to watch them. Most of them were paranormal horror movies, so I’m sure that had a big influence on me. I’ve also been a romance reader since age twelve, so that’s had a big influence on me too. Writers who inspired me when I was first psyching myself up to jump into the publishing world were Laurell K Hamilton (first writer I’d read who had vampires as heroes, not just villains!), Diana Gabaldon (Claire’s humor and wit really sparkled), Dean Koontz (his books blend elements of horror, mystery, romance, and the paranormal - all while managing to still be character-driven) and M.M. Kaye, because The Far Pavilions pulled me so deeply into the story that I almost cried when it was over.

How did you derive the idea for your Night Huntress Series?

I came up with the idea from a dream. In my dream, I saw a man and a woman arguing. Somehow I knew the woman was a half-vampire, the man was a full vampire, and they were arguing because he was angry that she'd left him. The story of who they were, and what led up to that point in their lives, evolved and became HALFWAY TO THE GRAVE, but I hadn’t even scratched the surface when I finished that book. In fact, the argument I'd glimpsed in my dream takes place in the second book in the series, ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE. By the time I was done writing that, I had ideas for the third and fourth books, too.

Do you have favorite characters? If so, why? I love Bones, Cat, Dracula, and Spade.

I’m fickle, because my favorite characters tend to be whoever I’m writing at the moment. Cat and Bones will always have a special place in my heart, because they were my first heroine/hero. However, I’ve emotionally cheated on them, lol. I developed a huge crush on Spade while writing FIRST DROP OF CRIMSON, and Denise also really shined in that story. She’s far stronger and more complicated that I realized when I was writing her as a side character.

Vlad’s character was a complete surprise to me, because when I started writing the series, I resolved never to add Dracula to it. Then in AT GRAVE’S END, Vlad showed up, fully formed in my mind, derisive of his fictional representation, and far too fun to delete because of my former resolution. When writing ETERNAL KISS OF DARKNESS I got very attached to Mencheres, who also surprised me with his many complex layers, his dry wit, and his amazing powers. Kira, the heroine of that novel, started out as someone I *thought* I’d had pegged in the outline stage and then turned every assumption I’d had of her on its head, stymieing my progress until I wrote her the right way. I also have a lot of fun writing Ian, Annette, and yes, even Justina, because they’re sometimes despicable, sometimes honorable, and frequently outrageous.

See? Told you I was fickle!

When did you decide that you were going to do another series from The Night Huntress? Why?

I’ve had the plot ideas about Spade, Denise, and Mencheres swirling in my mind for a long time. About a year before HALFWAY TO THE GRAVE even hit the shelves, I told my editor I wanted to write a book featuring Spade as the hero because I knew exactly who he'd end up with and that she'd meet Denise in my second Cat and Bones book (which my editor hadn’t even read at the time). Then I told her I had even more ideas about Mencheres, who also hadn’t shown up in the series at this point. My editor very gently pointed out that first we'd have to see how this series sold before we could see about doing spin-offs on it. Publishing is a business, so if the Night Huntress series flopped, my odds of readers being interested in spin-offs featuring side characters from it (or my publisher buying those books) were extremely low.

After my first two Night Huntress novels came out and did better than expected, I had my agent approach my editor with proposals for those spin-off books. My editor bought both of them, to my delight. The timing was perfect, because the plotline in the Night Huntress series had progressed to where the first spin off book, FIRST DROP OF CRIMSON, would fit exactly into the events after DESTINED FOR AN EARLY GRAVE (even though Spade and Denise’s story can still easily be read by people who've never picked up a Cat and Bones book). Then ETERNAL KISS OF DARKNESS picks up right after that and segues perfectly into Cat and Bones’s next adventures. Without reader enthusiasm for the Night Huntress series, I wouldn’t have gotten to write the books I’d spent years thinking about, so I can’t express how thrilled I am about that.

How did you come up with Bones? Do you know that almost every female that reads your books is instantly in love with him? (love the British accent).

Hey, I adore him, too! And it’s no accident that Bones is English - I’ve loved that accent since I was a teen. As I mentioned before, Bones showed up in my head as a stubborn, lethal, sexy Master vampire who was very in love with Cat. So right away, I knew what he was, but I didn’t know how he’d gotten to be that way. Finding out the “why’s” became the starting point for his history, and his character – and the story - grew from there.

Where you thinking of Spike from Buffy when you created Bones?

No, but if Bones reminds readers of Spike, I don’t have a problem with that. I’ve had readers say Bones reminds them of Eric from the Sookie Stackhouse series, Jean-Claude from LKH’s series, Lestat from Anne Rice’s series, Legolas from Lord of the Rings, Marcus from Blade the TV series, Acheron from the Dark Hunter series, Spike from Buffy, Edward from the Twilight series…the list goes on. With how Bones changes his hair color from book to book, I expect he’ll remind readers of even more fictional characters in the future, too. Whatever makes readers happy while they’re reading is fine by me.

When writing about Bones’s appearance, I was thinking of Viggo Mortensen’s cheekbones,

Billy Idol’s bleached hair (yes, that SO dates me, I know!),

and Bruce Campbell’s dark eyebrows,

...all mixed with a body that came straight from my naughty imagination. The English accent resulted from my long-time love of them (I blame my teenage crush on Billy Idol, but really, is there anyone who doesn’t like English accents?). Then Bones’s swagger, attitude, and biting wit were combinations of things that cracked me up, plus hints of John Cusack in Grosse Point Blank and the “hail to the king, baby!” arrogant hilarity from (again) Bruce Campbell in Army of Darkness, all mixed with how his character appeared in my head. So in many ways, Bones is a stir-fry of a lot of different people and things simmered together with my own twisted imagination.

If your book/books were turned into a movie, who would you like to play the main characters?

I really don’t know. I have yet to see an actor who makes me think “he could be Bones!” Cat might be easier. I’ve said before I thought if Scarlett Johansson dyed her hair red, she’d be a good representative of Cat.

Or Emily Blunt, also assuming her hair was dyed red. Bones…there’s a reason he’s fictional. In real life, most men just don’t look as amazing as he does in my mind =].

And finally, could you give us a glimpse into First Drops of Crimson?

Sure! When Denise is forced by a demon shapeshifter to locate a relative who backed out of a dark deal, she turns to Master vampire Spade for help. Spade swore he'd never fall for a human again, but as they scour the undead world together, his desire for Denise becomes too great to resist. But once the true depth of the demon’s hold over Denise is revealed, even Spade’s power might not be enough to save her.

Back cover description, teaser page, first chapter, and book trailer for FIRST DROP OF CRIMSON can all be found here. Book releases February 9th.

I love this interview! When FDOC come's out I'm going to be at border's front step screaming 'My precious O.o'.

Now in honor of this interview, and the release of First Drops of Crimson, whoever comments on this post will be entered on a special giveaway. You will be able to choose one of Jeaniene Frost's books, which are:

• Halfway to the Grave, Night Huntress Series book 1.
• One Foot in the Grave, Night Huntress Series book 2.
• At Grave's End, Night Huntress Series book 3.
• Destined for an Early Grave, Night Huntress Series book 4.
• First Drops of Crimson, Night Huntress World book 1.

If you want to be entered leave a comment that is regarding the interview, the novels, the author, additional information perhaps, etc. Please don't just leave 'Enter me!' Because it won't be accepted xD

Also leave your name and email address. If you don't feel comfortable leaving your email address email me at bloodybookaholic (at) hotmail (dot) com

The giveaway will end on February 14 at 11:59. Have a nice day!

**Contest Closed Thank you for the support!