IndieView with Michele Drier, author of SNAP: The World Unfolds

I struggled initially because I didn’t want my vampires to just be do-nothing killers.  To make them interesting, I had to have them evolving, not just violent, static figures.

Michele Drier 30 June 2012

The Back Flap

 

SNAP, a multinational celeb TV show and magazine, is the holy grail for Maxie Gwenoch. When she snags the job as managing editor, she’s looking for fame, fortune and Jimmy Choos. What she finds is a media empire owned by Baron Kandesky and his family. A family of vampires. They’re European, urbane, wealthy and mesmerizing. And when she meets Jean-Louis, vampire and co-worker, she’s a goner.

The Kandesky vampire family rose in Hungary centuries ago. They gave up violence and killing to make a killing on the world’s commodities markets and with that beginning they built SNAP, an international celebrity multimedia empire. Now cultured…and having found food substitutes for killing…they’ve cornered the world market for celebrity and gossip journalism.

They haven’t fully left the past behind. Their Hungarian neighbors and rival vampire clan, the Huszars are starting to ramp up attacks, maybe looking to start a war to take over all the Kandeskys have built.

Maxie believes she’s found her ultimate career. She doesn’t realize that she’s found a family feud like none other, a centuries-old rivalry between vampire families, with her as the linchpin. Bells ring with Jean-Louis, but she doesn’t realize they’re alarm sirens until she learns that Jean-Louis is second in command of the Kandeskys…but by then it’s too late.

About the book

What is the book about?

This is the first in the Kandesky Vampire Chronicles, following a career-climbing managing editor for an international, multimedia celebrity gossip company.  After she takes the job, she discovers that the company is family-owned, by a family of Hungarian vampires.

When did you start writing the book?

I started writing this in January 2011

 How long did it take you to write it?

This book took about six months

 Where did you get the idea from?

I’d just sold my mystery to a small press and my daughter and son-in-law said “write a vampire book.” I said “Why”.  They said, “Go look at the space mysteries take up in a bookstore.  Then look at the paranormal.  Then choose.”  I read some Charlaine Harris, some Kelley Armstrong, but still didn’t have a context until my daughter said “Look at celebrities.  They only come out at night, they all wear huge dark glasses.  They all get driven around in limos with tinted windows.  They could all be vampires.” Voila, celebrity journalism.

Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?

I struggled initially because I didn’t want my vampires to just be do-nothing killers.  To make them interesting, I had to have them evolving, not just violent, static figures. It took some rewrites before I could place their business in contemporary LA, the celebrity capital.

What came easily?

Developing the luxe lifestyle that the Kandeskys live.  Not only do they make pots of money on their current business ventures, the shining star of which is SNAP, but they’re more than 500 years old and have never paid death duties or estate taxes.  They’re uber-wealthy and I’m not, by a long shot, but it’s easy to imagine living that!

Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?

The characters in the Kandesky Vampire Chronicles are all completely fictitious.  Rats. I’ve modeled characters in my mysteries, though, after people I know.

 We all know how important it is for writers to read. Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write and, if so, how have they influenced you?

A lot of British writers. Doris Lessing, John Fowles, Margaret Drabble, David Lodge.  They have an ease and facility with the language that I wish I had, and they have a wonderfully wry view of the world and sense of humor. I can’t think I’d ever come close, but it pushes me to stretch.

 Do you have a target reader?

Yes, a woman between 30 and ? years of age who wants to be entertained and to have her world expand.  I don’t write teen angst and drama.  I don’t find conversations about who did what to whom, or why is this happening to me, interesting.  That said, my protagonist, Maxie, goes through a lot of soul-searching about going into a relationship with a 500-year-old vampire who’s prettier than her, speaks more languages than she can count and has roughly the financial clout of Bill Gates.  When she begins asking questions, she learns from them and her change is internal.

About Writing

Do you have a writing process? If so can you please describe it?

I’m a pantser, I write by the seat of my pants.  I start a book with chapter one and it ends when it ends.  Actually, I have the story plotted out in my head before I start to write.  I always know how it will end, but I don’t always know which route it will take.  My characters are always throwing me curves.

Do you outline? If so, do you do so extensively or just Chapter headings and a couple of sentences?

No, I really don’t outline.  I do reread the last five pages or so to get in the last scene before I start for the day, though.

Do you edit as you go or wait until you’ve finished?

I do some basic copy editing as I go. I’m the world’s worst typist, and slow to boot.  After about 20,000 words, I read it in its entirety and then plug plot holes I’ve found, move scenes around for smoother transitions, and pull out general dreck and wordiness.

Did you hire a professional editor?

I have a professional.  I don’t pay her, though.  She’s the Executive Editor for a chain of small papers and I’ve know her for…well, all of my professional life.

Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what gets the fingers tapping?

No.  I’ve always preferred silence when I’m working.  I adore classical music, but it’s never background for me.  Also, I spent too many years as the city and metro editor of newspapers and had a police scanner 10 feet away.  The silence now lets me focus on my characters’ voices.

About Publishing

Did you submit your work to Agents?

Yes, I’ve submitted work to agents.  They’ve all said “You have talent, but this isn’t what we’re looking for right now.” So I stopped.

What made you decide to go Indie? Was it a particular event or a gradual process?

It was my last rejection from an agent, hah! Honestly, it was a process.  I belong to several writing groups and loops, Sisters in Crime, Indie Romance Writers, and reading posts over the last couple of years about indie publishing made sense.  With my mystery, I’m doing all the marketing and all the sales and not getting paid anything to speak of.  I retained the e-rights for the book and since I indie published it in February I’ve sold more than 1,000 copies.  Plus, I’ve had three of my books in the Select free program and had more than 40,000 downloads.  That means that 40,000 people around the world have seen my name and have one of my books on their Kindle.  That doesn’t mean they’ve read any, or liked any, but somewhere, somehow, at least one of those 40,000 will like my book and talk to his or her friends about it.

Did you get your book cover professionally done or did it you do it yourself?

Oh, professionally done!  I have ideas of what I want my covers to look like, but absolutely no ability to get them there.  Also, I want covers that will stand out from the crowd.  In the genre of romance, even paranormal, beefcake wins, hands down.  And though my mystery is a traditional, it’s not really cozy.  It’s set against actions in World War II, art thefts, and a Jewish Nazi hunter.

Do you have a marketing plan for the book or are you just winging it?

A little of both, I guess.  I have a website (needs work!), a Facebook page, an email list, I’m on Twitter and I write four or five guests blogs or interviews each month.  A couple of other writers and I are in the process and talking about how we can hire a part-time college student to help with social media and do research for reviews or blog possibilities.

Any advice that you would like to give to other newbies considering becoming Indie authors?

First, don’t be afraid of it.  More and more solid, best-selling authors are turning to it as a way to control their own business.  There’re volumes of information out there now about do’s, don’t’s, and how’s. Take advantage of the wisdom of those who’ve gone before you.

While you’re at it, STUDY marketing plans and chose strategies that will work for you.

And, most of all, MAKE SURE that your book is the best!  Find a critique group, join a group with similar interests and do manuscript swaps, find beta readers you can trust (not necessarily ones who like you).  Then know that this is the best written, the best edited, the best formatted, the best designed cover you can produce.  You don’t have to spend a bundle of money, but you do have to do your homework.

About You

Where did you grow up?

Whew, all overCalifornia.  I’m a fifth generation California and was born in Santa Cruz, spent childhood in the Bay Area and the Sierra Nevada near Yosemite, went to high school and college in the far north (Humboldt County) lived in the desert region for 10 years (Riverside).  For ease, I tell people I’m from the Bay Area because I’ve lived and/or worked there much of my life.

Where do you live now?

I’ve lived in the Central Valleyfor the last couple of decades.

What would you like readers to know about you?

Hmmmm…I love snarky humor, I’m a crossword puzzle fanatic, exercise is not MY friend and I love curiosity and learning new stuff.  We’re not talking quantum physics, although I wish I could understand them, but just general information about how the world is put together.  How plate tectonics and seafloor up thrusts work, did the Neanderthals really die out, what ever happened to the zloty?  If I had it to do over, I’d pick some really rich people as parents and become an archeologist.  Shoot, if I could scrape together enough money, I’d pay to be a grunt with some university’s summer dig.

What are you working on now?

I’ve just finished the first novella in the Kandesky Vampire Chronicles back story, Plague: A Love Story.  The second one, Danube: A Tale of Murder will be out by the end of the summer and I’ve begun Labeled for Death, the second in the mystery series.  I’m planning to have that out before Christmas.

End of Interview:

For more, visit Michele’s website.

You can get your copy of SNAP: The World Unfolds from Amazon US or Amazon UK.