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.
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“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.
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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.
Author Links:
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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