Tuesday, October 11, 2016

SPOTLIGHT - Life as a Teenage Vampire by Amanda Meuwissen

Life as a Teenage Vampire
by Amanda Meuwissen
Date of Publication: October 3rd 2016
Cover Artist: Alexandra Ishchenko
Genre: YA M/M Paranormal Romance

BLURB
Emery Mavus just wants to survive his senior year of high school.

Becoming a vampire complicates things. So does a bizarre mentor, a group of vampire hunters, and an unexpected, new attraction for his openly gay best friend, Connor.

An occasional uncontrollable hunger for blood might be the least of his worries.
Buy Link: Amazon

“Mr. Leonard—”
“Hush, Emery.”
I made to push him away, but in that same moment, the fear that had crept under my skin feeling like it might burst out my pores, lessened. Everything about Mr. Leonard seemed different. He didn’t move. His expression didn’t change. It was the air around him, the atoms buzzing, something intangible that shifted. His eyes were mesmerizing, and as I returned his stare, all the anxiety in my stomach washed away. I felt warm, but not uncomfortably so, more like I was snuggling up for an afternoon nap.
My hand dropped.
“I am so sorry, Emery. I have no other choice.”
I didn’t see him move. He was there, standing in front of me, and then he wasn’t. Instead, the curve of his shoulder was in front of my face, and a sharp pain in my neck tore the air from my lungs, like he’d struck me with a knife or a needle. But the pain faded almost instantly, and the tight pressure felt almost soothing.
I sagged against the wall, seeing only the dark blue of Mr. Leonard’s shoulder, the hazy background of the sofa and fireplace fading in color until there was nothing but calming darkness.
Buy Link: Amazon

MY INTERVIEW WITH AMANDA MEUWISSEN
How would you describe you style of writing to someone that has never read your work?
Like the experience of reading a screenplay, where it’s very dialogue heavy and character driven, with moments of impactful visuals and action that make you feel like you can see it all unfolding before your eyes.

What mindset or routine do you feel the need to set when preparing to write (in general whether you are working on a project or just free writing)?
Routine is surprisingly important, because we tend to function off of conditioned responses. If I’m at home, I have to go upstairs to the office and have complete silence in order to feel like I’ll get work done. Best is if I have all night to write, but at least an hour. I like having all of my real work finished before I start writing, nothing else to do but maybe chill on the couch watching something with my husband afterward, so there are no real life distractions.

Do you take your character prep to heart? Do you nurture the growth of each character all the way through to the page? Do you people watch to help with development? Or do you build upon your character during story creation?
To allow the plot to flow naturally, I have to have the depth of the character, from voice to look to mannerisms down ahead of time. Sometimes, at the start, they might surprise me with nervous ticks, or details about them, but once that’s revealed, it has to stay constant. I have to know my characters inside out before I can write them. Before the plot unfolds, I should be able to answer any question about my characters with as much confidence as I would about myself.

Have you found yourself bonding with any particular character? If so which one(s)?
Connor. Emery is the more or less hero of the story, but it’s really shared between him and Connor, and if I’m being honest, Connor steals the show. He’s a loveable geek with the misfortune of having fallen for his best friend, certain it’ll never work out. He’s loud and awkward and a fearless friend, which I think a lot of people will connect with and enjoy about his character. The fact that he makes his own prosthetics for his missing left arm in his garage, only makes him cooler.

Do you have a character that you have been working on that you can't wait to put to paper?
Possibly one of my oldest and dearest characters – Valykrie. I wrote his story as a screenplay in college, and have always wanted to write it as prose, get it published with my other titles, but haven’t. It would allow me to get to my sci-fi roots a bit more, after doing so much paranormal/urban fantasy. He’s half synthetic DNA, struggling to find his place in a world that hates him. I’ll finish telling his story someday.

Have you ever felt that there was something inside of you that you couldn't control? If so what? If no what spurs you to reach for the unexperienced?
As far as the urge to write? Absolutely. I go a little mad when I don’t get enough time to write after a few days. But more so than that, I also struggle with my emotions and pushing past times of depression where writing can often be a beacon of hope. It’s one of the reasons I so look forward to the book after this one, which I am still in the process of editing, because it delves very deeply into discussions of manic-depression, suicide, and the healing process.
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Author Info

Amanda has a Bachelor of Arts in a personally designed major from St. Olaf College in Creative Writing, and has been posting content online for many years, including maintaining the blog for the digital marketing company Outsell. She spent a summer writing screenplay script coverages for a company in L.A., and is an avid consumer of fiction through film, prose, and video games. Amanda lives in Minneapolis, MN, with her husband, John, and their cats, Helga and Sasha (no connection to the incubus of the same name).
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