Interveiw with Theresa Meyers

I’d like to welcome our guest today, Theresa Meyers. It’s a pleasure having you come back to visit us at Much Cheaper Than Therapy, where chocolate is plentiful and advice is free. So grab some chocolate and a lounge chair. Your therapy session has begun.

I’m thrilled to be back! Chocolate is one of my favorite things and you seem to always have so much of it lying around here!

I understand you have a new release out called The Vampire Who Loved Me. Can you tell us a little bit about your fabulous new book?

Sure! It’s the story of two very different people who go from sworn enemies to forbidden lovers. Dr. Rebecca Chamberlin hated nothing more than the vampires who had turned her loved ones into creatures of the night…until she became one herself. Now her experimental vaccine has become more urgent than ever, and has made her the target of vampire security chief Achilles Stefanos. Built like a Greek god with golden hair and an irresistible allure, Achilles awakened part of her the way no mortal man had before. Beck could no more deny her craving for him than she could the hated bloodlust in her veins. But when her vaccine fell into the wrong hands, Beck has a difficult choice to make—one that challenged everything she’d always believed…..

The Vampire Who Loved Me is a very interesting title. How did you arrive at that name?

Would you laugh too hard if I told you it came from a long holiday weekend spent watching a James Bond marathon? I think other titles that came from that were The Vampire with the Golden Fang, From My Vampire With Love, Being Vampire is Not Enough and Vampires are Forever. I’m still working on those books! LOL. The title seemed to fit the story for me. Dr. Rebecca Chamberlin was actually out to create a vaccine that would allow people to change back into their human form if they’d been accidentally exposed to the vampire virus in the blood supply and been turned into vampires unwillingly. She actually has a strong personal distaste for vampires, but when testing for the vaccine goes horribly wrong, and she begins to turn into one herself, she’s assigned the Cascade Clan’s security leader, Achilles Stefanos, as her mentor. What neither of them understand until further into the story is that the imprint forming between them is centuries old. Achilles has loved her before, and that makes what has to happen now, and the fact that Rebecca wants to stay human, even more torturous for him. Because of their shared past, he is the Vampire who loved her.

What made you decide to write in this genre?

Actually I’d have to blame that on my mom. She was always doing things to bolster our sense of the magical in the everyday. For instance, when I was about six she read me the story of the Shoemaker and the Elves. Just about the time she finished reading she acted like she heard something outside my bedroom window and told me to listen. I could hear little tiny voices talking. The next morning I woke up to find my room was clean. My mother suggested that perhaps it was the elves that lived in the big stump in the back yard and that I should bake them some cookies or make them something to wear as a thank you (which of course, I did with her help). I didn’t find out until I was in my twenties that she’d put a tape recorder under my bedroom window with a long gap of silence at the beginning of the tape so she’d have time to finish reading the story.

As I’ve gotten older, I still tend to see the world through that lavender colored lens where there is magical in everyday things, whether it’s the changing of the seasons or the opening of flowers or the frogs announcing at night that spring is coming. I try to be sensitive to my sixth sense and feel things just as much as I hear, see, taste, touch or smell them. I guess in many ways paranormal is my kind of normal.

Where did you get your idea for this particular book?

For me the story of The Vampire Who Loved Me was just an natural extension of what started in the first book in the Sons of Midnight mini-series, The Truth About Vampires. In The Truth About Vampires, humans learn that vampires are real and have been living among us. In The Vampire Who Loved Me, we see the backlash to that sudden knowledge.

What are your favorite paranormal research books or sites, and why?

Actually some of my most favorite research books have nothing to do with paranormal things, so much as history. To date the two I’ve used the most have been The MacMillian Illustrated Encyclopedia of Myths & Legends and D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths. I feel that one important element in this series is looking at how history repeats itself and finding ways to bring those threads into the story of my couple falling in love and the obstacles they face.

Which character did you like writing about the most, and why?

Achilles of course! He was just so magnetic from the first moment he stepped onto the page as a secondary character in The Truth About Vampires that he practically demanded his own book. He’s a Spartan warrior who became a vampire through the original ancient cult in the ancient world. The problem is while he’s a warrior and a vampire, he’s also a Halfling. He bonded with his mentor, which in my vampire world means more than an emotional attachment. A bonded pair share not only each other’s powers, but each other’s pain and a love that lasts past death and can be reborn again. But his mentor, Ione, was killed during the Inquisition, which left him tortured and unable to truly feel emotions. Without the clan, he’d go insane. He tries so hard to joke around and tease feelings out of other people because he can’t experience those emotions himself.

He’s the ultimate tortured hero, who sees his past repeating itself as is terrified of it. I found the song “Wake Me Up Inside” from Evanescence perfectly described him and I ended up playing it over and over again as I wrote scenes in Achilles’ point of view.

Tell us about how you develop your characters. Do you create character sheets, do interviews, that sort of thing? How does your research and/or world affect your character development?

I do all kinds of strange things to find out more about my characters. The first thing I do is “run the numbers” on a character’s name using numerology to quickly nail down what truly drives the person, what they think about themselves and how others perceive this person. Then I move on to taking the numbers I get from that and pair them up with character archetypes found in The Complete Writer’s Guide to Heroes & Heroines. If I get stuck from there sometimes I’ll do interviews just to uncover something more about the character and understand why he or she is motivated to make the choices they do. Sometimes my research will impact my character’s background or their dialog, but it rarely changes who they are, how they see life and how other people react to them.

How do you go about building your world if you use one? Do you use maps, charts or drawings?

For more complex worlds, I’ll develop a map for myself. For most of the work I do I use contemporary maps because the stories, while paranormal, are still set in real places that already have maps of them! Sometimes I’ll use a book I have that has historical maps, especially if I’m writing steampunk with a European setting and I want to know what countries were where during a specific decade. Since the Victorian era spanned from the 1830s to the 1900s, an awful lot changed! To keep my vampire world straight I have a continuing series notebook where I add factual information as it appears in the stories (such as which emotions correlate with which scents since my vampires can smell those things.)

Do you have any authors that inspired you?

I really enjoy reading paranormal and action adventure as much as I love writing it. Give me a book by James Rollins, Yasmin Galenorn, Cherry Adair, Jessica Andersen, Kim Harrison, Alyson Noel, and I’m a happy camper.

What do you feel is the most effective promotion you have done for your book?

Good question. For now the most effective thing has been blog tours with Bewitching Book Tours. They’ve been fantastic about get a schedule put together and keeping me on task. I also spend time just chatting with folks on Twitter a lot, and while I have a Facebook author page, I only go on once a week or so. I find giving classes is also something I really enjoy and helps give readers an incentive to want to purchase the books because they have a great time.

What do we have to look forward next?

My next book out in Oct. will be a novella called Shadowlander, from Entangled Publishing. It’s the start of a new urban fantasy romance world featuring dark fae that takes four sisters who can see the fae and get drawn into their world to save each other and mankind.

Then in November, my first steampunk romance The Hunter, will be released from Zebra. The Legend Chronicles series features three brothers, named after their father’s favorite guns, Winchester, Remington and Colt, who fight supernaturals, kind of like if you plunked down the Winchester brothers from the television show Supernatural in the West and gave them some really cool steampunk inventions for fighting. It’s part Indiana Jones, part Wild Wild West, and part Supernatural.

After that will come the third book for the Sons of Midnight series for Harlequin, The Half-Breed Vampire, that’ll be out in spring 2012. It’ll be a slight expansion of the current world because we get to see how the Cascade vampire clan clashes with the Wenatchee Were pack when a vampire isn’t everything he seems.

Also coming out in spring 2012 will be The Slayer, the second book in my steampunk Legend Chronicles series, featuring the oldest brother Winchester and his efforts to steal back the second piece of the Book of Legend with the help of a vampire Contessa.

In late 2012 there will also be the release of the first full-length novel for the Shadow Sisters series, Shadow Hunter, as well as the next Sons of Midnight book for Nocturne.

It’s going to be busy, but you’ll have lots to read between these three different series!

Thanks, Theresa!

Thanks so much for inviting me over for chocolate! By the way, are you going to finish that? (no. Here you go! KW)

To celebrate her book release, Theresa is offering a free copy of The Vampire Who Loved Me to one lucky commenter on today's blog. (please check the blog Monday night to see if you won. Chances of winning determined by the number of entries.)

She will be around all day today. I'm sure some of you have questions or comments for her, so please ask away...

A professional writer since 1993, Theresa Meyers started her career in newspapers, moving on to freelancing for national magazines. Eventually she delved into the world of corporate and agency public relations for more than fifteen years landing coverage for her clients in places such as the “Wall Street Journal”, “Good Morning America” and “LIVE! With Regis and Kelly”. She launched her own public relations agency focused on the publishing industry in 2001, and eventually transition from full time publicist to full time multi-published fiction author herself, writing paranormal romances for Harlequin Nocturne, Steampunks for Kensington’s Zebra line and urban fantasy for Entangled Publishing.

Check out author’s website at www.theresameyers.com

or find her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Theresa_Meyers

Buy http://www.eharlequin.com/storeitem.html?iid=23780&cid=2577

And the winner is......

Congratulations Crystal GB. You're the winner of Theresa's book. Please contact Kim at kwatters21 (at) hotmail.com (no spaces) to claim your prize. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.

Interview with Theresa Meyers

I’d like to welcome our guest today, Theresa Meyers. It’s a pleasure having you come visit us at Much Cheaper Than Therapy, where chocolate is plentiful and advice is free. So grab some chocolate and a lounge chair. Your therapy session has begun.

Thanks for the invitation!

You're welcome!

I understand you have a new release out called The Truth About Vampires. Can you tell us a little bit about your fabulous new book?

Of course! The best thing I can do is share the backcover copy with you. All her life Seattle reporter Kristin Reed sought her breakout story. She never thought she’d find it in the crimson nightclub lair of a real life creature of the night. Kristin never believed vampires existed—until with dark brooding eyes and a decadent chocolate scent, Dmitri Dionotte called out to her.

Dmitri and his clan’s true nature was cloaked in secrecy until a warring vampire order threatened their existence. Kristin was just the woman he needed. She couldn’t resist their story…or Dmitri. Her blood pulsed hot and furious when he touched her, and with his kiss, all logic fled. But each night she spent with her vampire lover brought her closer to death and destruction. A death not even an immortal could triumph over.

The Truth About Vampires is a very interesting title. How did you arrive at that name?

Well, to be perfectly honest, it was partly because my editor at Harlequin wanted titles that had the word vampire in them. The original working title for the book was Unveiling of the Damned which went with the short novella I’d done a few years earlier called Salvation of the Damned (which is actually in print for the first time in the back of this book as kind of a little extra for readers). I came up with a whole list of potential titles, most of them riffing off of James Bond movies (which is why the next one out in June is called The Vampire Who Loved Me) but when I really analyzed what the story was about it came down to the revealing of vampires to humanity and realizing that they aren’t as different from us as we think. My reporter heroine is out to get the truth. And besides, who doesn’t want to know the truth about vampires (well, my version of it anyway!)?

What made you decide to write in this genre?

I’ve always been fascinated by the paranormal in real life. My mother was an alternative type of person and we grew up believing in things like elves. Of course it helped that she actually stuck a tape recorder under my bedroom window with their little voices talking while she was reading me a bedtime story. I didn’t find out about that until I was an adult, so for the longest time the belief in something other than what we can see was firmly grounded in my world. I’ve always been into fairies, ghosts and tend to be more nature-based in my philosophies of life. It took just a shove to the edge of dark, and the offer of a book contract, to get me more involved in writing vampires, weres, demons and dark angels.

Where did you get your idea for this particular book?

Part of it came from my experiences in the newsroom early in my writing career. It’s tough enough to be taken seriously as a reporter when you work in a newsroom full of guys. It’s even harder when what you want to write about is something everyone else thinks is a joke. That’s where the start of Kristin came from. For Dmitri, it was a little tougher. I wanted a conflicted vampire. Someone who didn’t ever intend to be a vampire, but got turned and is still an honorable enough guy that he’ll do the right thing no matter what. I also wanted my vampire world to be a little bit different because I knew I’d be writing several stories in this world, so while some of the cultural ideals we have about vampires appear in the story, if it could be explained with some other biological rational, that’s what I did. I also organized my vampire culture into clans, similar to the Scottish clans I did so much research for when I was writing historicals. This includes the border reivers. This story is only the first in a new mini-series, The Sons of Midnight, that I’m working on for Harlequin Nocturne.

What are your favorite paranormal research books or sites, and why?

I poke around the Internet but a lot of what comes out in the stories has more of a biological bent to it so I’m just as likely to go digging through an old copy of a college biology or chemistry book as I am to look up old city maps. Some of what I do use in developing the series comes from encyclopedias dedicated to ancient myth and legend from cultures around the world. I like to try and create my stories with a thread to reality woven through it.

Which character did you like writing about the most, and why?

I’m always a sucker for my own heroes. From the moment Dmitri popped into my head I really liked him. He’s the strong-silent type of alpha who horribly conflicted but doing his best to protect and serve those around him. You see Dmitri never wanted to be a vampire. In fact, when he was human, he was a priest in the time of Chaucer, helping the church to hunt down vampires. But he got seduced and changed—and he’s vowed never to turn another person. His actions always speaker louder than his words. His first instinct is to protect those around him regardless of the cost to him personally. Plus he smells like chocolate and is Italian. I mean, who wouldn’t want a guy like that?

Tell us about how you develop your characters. Do you create character sheets, do interviews, that sort of thing? How does your research and/or world affect your character development?

I’m afraid that’s a little strange too! Usually I’ll start off with a character’s name and “run the numbers on them” as my mother called it. Basically it’s using numerology to find out the characteristics of an individual based on his or her name. It gives me a really rough starting point to know the character’s deepest motivation, how they see themselves and how others see them. Sometimes I’ll look up a more common name in You Are Your First Name. Then, using the number from the character names I’ll look up the certain characteristics I’ve matched those numbers to in the book The Complete Writer’s Guide to Heroes & Heroines, Sixteen Master Archetypes which gives me an additional layering to the character. Finally I find out when their birthday is and use Linda Goodman’s Love Signs to see how two people in a relationship with similar astrological signs would behave. If I’m still stuck on a character, I’ll go back to my early journalism training and interview him or her. For my vampires, I keep a running list of characteristics so no two are exactly alike.

How do you go about building your world if you use one? Do you use maps, charts or drawings?

I have a list of attributes for my world I’m continuously adding to. I’ve got not only the words I’ve used to create certain things, but the society structure, any rules or laws they live by, the scents that accompany certain emotions that they can smell as vampires. Basically just stuff so I’m consistent in my stories set in this world. In my vampire mythology vampirism is caused by a virus. Some of the stories revolve around human’s reaction to this knowledge and their efforts to stop the spread of the virus and reverse it.

Do you have any authors that inspired you?

There are lots of authors I love to read, but to be perfectly honest I didn’t read ANY vampire fiction at all until after I started writing it. Not even Twilight. I’d read the Harry Potter series, and Eragon, loved television shows like X-Files, Dark Angel and Supernatural.

What do you feel is the most effective promotion you have done for your book?

Probably running a blog tour through Bewitching Book Tours. They’ve been fantastic in getting the word out to people who love paranormal romance. Of course twittering about vampires doesn’t hurt either. But the single best thing? Getting out and talking to people-always having bookmarks on hand-even in the grocery store and when checking out at Costco.

What do we have to look forward next?

Right now I’m working on more stories set in this same vampire world. I’ve got three more Nocturnes, The Vampire Who Loved Me out in June 2011 and The Vampire Half-Breed along with one yet to be titled out in 2012. They all take place in the same world of the Cascade Clan, in the Seattle area and make use of the well-known Seattle Underground as the home base for these vampires. I’ve also got the first in a steampunk romance trilogy, The Legend Chronicles, coming out in Nov. 2011, titled The Hunter. It’s a set of stories that revolves around three brothers who are supernatural hunters in the Wild Weird West and named after their father’s favorite guns—Winchester, Remington and Colt. The best way I can describe the series is if you took the television show Supernatural and mashed it with Wild Wild West. There’s all kinds of adventure and inventions (including the hero’s clockwork horse, a Sting Shooter, etc.) mixed with mad scientists, demons, vampires and all kinds of mayhem. The first book is about the baby brother, Colt, who gets saddled with a succubus in his search for his father’s portion of a compendium of all Hunter knowledge, The Book of Legend, on a mission to protect the world.

Thanks, Theresa!

To celebrate her book release, Theresa is offering a free copy of her book, The Truth About Vampires, to one lucky commenter on today's blog. (please check the blog Monday night to see if you won. Chances of winning determined by the number of entries.)

Theresa is at a convention today but will try and sneak away to answer some questions. I'm sure some of you have some questions or comments for her, so please ask away...

A former book publicist, an American Title II finalist, and now a full-time writer, Theresa has seen multiple facets of the industry on her path to becoming a multi-published romance author. She currently writes for Harlequin Nocturne and Kensington Books. Visit her online at www.theresameyers.com,

on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TheresaMeyersAuthor,

or find her twittering at www.twitter.com/Theresa_Meyers

Check out author’s website at www.theresameyers.com

Buy The Truth About Vampires from eharlequin at http://www.eharlequin.com/storeitem.html?iid=23240&cid=2577.

Interview with Theresa Meyers

I’d like to welcome our guest today, Theresa Meyers. It’s a pleasure having you come visit us at Much Cheaper Than Therapy, where chocolate is plentiful and advice is free. So grab some chocolate and a lounge chair. Your therapy session has begun.

Thanks for the invitation!

I understand you have a new release out called A Vampire’s Mistress. Can you tell us a little bit about your fabulous new book?

The blurb says it best.

Six years ago Gabriel Forrester gave his life--literally--for Marina DeMornay, choosing to become a vampire to be with her. Then Marina was compelled to become mistress to a vampire prince...and Gabriel disappeared when she needed him the most.

But when Marina's consort is killed and she's captured, Gabriel is sent by the Vampire High Council to rescue her...and they become bound together even more strongly than before. With their enemies still on the loose, can Marina and Gabriel put the past behind them long enough to save both vampires and humanity from their enemies and reclaim the passion they once shared?

A Vampire’s Mistress is a very interesting title. How did you arrive at that name?

I’m almost embarrassed to tell you. The Nocturne authors have their own website www.nocturnauthors.net and we occasionally chat with each other online. At one point we were talking about how our editors were asking for titles with the actual word vampire in them and how we could go about making them more interesting. Someone brought up using more “Harlequin inspired” titles and we started throwing out ideas to the tune of the Vampire Cowboy Billionare’s Mistress’ Secret Baby. I decided on A Vampire’s Mistress because my heroine is the consort of a vampire prince, against her wishes and the hero in a way saves her from that. Based on this, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the next story I’m working on at the moment is currently titled The Vampire Half-Breed.

What made you decide to write in this genre?

I’ve always been fascinated by the paranormal in real life. My mother was an alternative type of person and we grew up believing in things like elves. Of course it helped that she actually stuck a tape recorder under my bedroom window with their little voices talking while she was reading me a bedtime story. I didn’t find out about that until I was an adult, so for the longest time the belief in something other than what we can see was firmly grounded in my world. I’ve always been into fairies, ghosts and tend to be more nature-based in my philosophies of life. It took just a shove to the edge of dark, and the offer of a book contract, to get me more involved in writing vampires, weres, demons and dark angels.

Where did you get your idea for this particular book?

The idea for A Vampire’s Mistress actually happened back in 2005 when I traveled from Seattle to Sicily to visit family. As part of our tour of the island we scoured the steps of Tourmina, we trekked to see the amazing mosaics in the historic ruins of the Roman Villa del Casale, a summer getaway from the third to fourth century B.C. We took a tour of the Duomo in Palermo, and we traveled through the famed catacombs that lie beneath the Capuchin Monastery filled with mummies and the remains from as far back as the 1600’s.

Now you might think a catacomb full of thousands of bodies is creepy. You’d be right. It is. But it’s also fascinating enough to make it a prime tourist destination. There’s a section filled with virgins clothed in their unused wedding finery of various centuries. More macabre is the children’s section, and in particular a little girl so well preserved she looks like a baby doll, down to her fine eyelashes and the pink satin bow in her brown curls. There are skeletons in frock coats and gloves and monks in cassocks. All in all hardly a place where you’d think to set a romance.

But my writer’s brain found it all so fascinating I couldn’t help but think of what would happen if you were being chased through the catacombs. Who would be chasing you and why? And that’s how A Vampire’s Mistress started.

Do you have any favorite paranormal research books or sites, and why?

Not really. I poke around the Internet but a lot of what comes out in the stories has more of a biological bent to it so I’m just as likely to go digging through an old copy of a college biology or chemistry book as I am to look up old city maps.

Which character did you like writing about the most, and why?

I’m always a sucker for my own heroes. From the moment Gabriel popped into my head I really liked him. He’s the strong-silent type of alpha who thinks a lot and is loyal to a fault. His actions always speaker louder than his words. His first instinct is to protect those around him regardless of the cost to him personally. Plus he was willing to give up everything, literally even his own life, just for the chance to be with Marina. I mean, who wouldn’t want a guy like that?

Tell us about how you develop your characters. Do you create character sheets, do interviews, that sort of thing? How does your research and/or world affect your character development?

I’m afraid that’s a little strange too! Usually I’ll start off with a character’s name and “run the numbers on them” as my mother called it. Basically it’s using numerology to find out the characteristics of an individual based on his or her name. It gives me a really rough starting point to know the character’s deepest motivation, how they see themselves and how others see them. Sometimes I’ll look up a more common name in You Are Your First Name. Then, using the number from the character names I’ll look up the certain characteristics I’ve matched those numbers to in the book The Complete Writer’s Guide to Heroes & Heroines, Sixteen Master Archetypes which gives me an additional layering to the character. Finally I find out when their birthday is and use Linda Goodman’s Love Signs to see how two people in a relationship with similar astrological signs would behave. If I’m still stuck on a character, I’ll go back to my early journalism training and interview him or her. For my vampires, I keep a running list of characteristics so no two are exactly alike.

How do you go about building your world if you use one? Do you use maps, charts or drawings?

I have a list of attributes for my world I’m continuously adding to. I’ve got not only the words I’ve used to create certain things, but the society structure, any rules or laws they live by, the scents that accompany certain emotions that they can smell. Basically just stuff so I’m consistent in my stories set in this world. In my vampire mythology vampirism is caused by a virus. Some of the stories revolve around human’s reaction to this knowledge and their efforts to stop the spread of the virus and reverse it.

Do you have any authors that inspired you?

There are lots of authors I love to read, but to be perfectly honest I didn’t read ANY vampire fiction at all until after I started writing it. Not even Twilight. I’d read the Harry Potter series, and Eragon, loved television shows like X-Files, Dark Angel and Supernatural.

What do you feel is the most effective promotion you have done for your book?

Because it’s a novella, an a e-book, probably being part of the Silhouette Nocturne Authors blog and the Paranormal Romance Blog that’s run by Harlequin has been the biggest help to date. Of course twittering about vampires and catacombs doesn’t hurt either.

What do we have to look forward next?

Right now I’m working on more stories set in this same vampire world. I’ve got two Nocturnes, The Truth About Vampires, out March 2011 and The Vampire Who Loved Me out in June 2011. Both take place in the Cascade Clan, in the Seattle area and make use of the well-known Seattle Underground as the home base for these vampires.

Thanks, Theresa!

To celebrate her book release, Theresa is offering a free copy of her book, A Vampire’s Mistress, to one lucky commenter on today's blog. (please check the blog Monday night to see who won. Chances of winning determined by the number of entries.)

She will be around all day today. I'm sure some of you have questions or comments for her, so please ask away...

A former book publicist, an American Title II finalist, and now a full-time writer, Theresa has seen multiple facets of the industry on her path to becoming a multi-published romance author. She currently writes for Harlequin Nocturne and Diversion Books.

Visit her online at Facebook at Theresa Meyers, author or find her twittering at www.twitter.com/Theresa_Meyers

Check out author’s website at www.theresameyers.com

Buy A Vampire’s Mistress from eharlequin at www.bit.ly/AVampireMiss.