Welcome
to IAB. I'm so glad you could stop in today to chat. May I offer you
a beverage?
Zombie
Blast – feeling a bit undead after last night
Now
that we are settled in, let's get to know you better. In case you missed Stavros when he stopped in with Vampire News Network...;)
BK:
Looking out the nearest window, describe the scene you see.
Parking
lot of Extended Stay America hotel in Indianapolis. I’m at Days of
the Dead – making fangs and pimpin’ books and art.
BK:
Tell us about your office. Is it a mess like mine, or is everything
in its place?
I
keep it fairly organized. Things have their place, but I’ve got
piles of stuff that need organizing and attention, and my desk is
covered in sticky notes.
BK:
What is a must-have, such as coffee or a favorite pen, that you need
to write?
Tea.
I’m barely human without it. So, it’s become a part of the
ritual now. As I write I read everything aloud, for flow and syntax,
so a constant glass of hot tea in the colder months and iced tea
during the hotter months really helps keeps my voice sharp.
BK:
Do you like to write in silence, or do you need music or background
noise?
Unfortunately,
I have to write in silence. But the odd thing is that while I’m
writing it’s not silent. I hear the character’s conversations,
their inner monologues, the crunch of asphalt under the soles of
their shoes, their breathing; if they drive the rev and roar of the
car, tires screeching around a bend, etc. It is all very active and
exciting.
BK:
Tell us a bit about your hero/heroine, and their development.
The
main heroine in the One Blood Series, or rather, anti-hero, is Lin –
Linnet Pevensey. She’s the predominant vampire character within
Blood Junky and Love in Vein. Though the books span her entire life,
when we are introduced to her she is in a transitional place. Not
necessarily dark, but definitely unhappy and looking for change.
She’s plagued by memories from a horrific sandstorm that raged on
May 9th
& 10th,
1934, and the massacre of an entire farming village at the hands of
the vampires that she was traveling with. Out of sheer survival she
partook in the slaughter at the end of it, as the winds were dying.
So, she’s been living with that guilt, as well as other deaths on
her conscious.
Vampires
in their society of covens do not need to hunt humans to feed or to
kill. There are safe houses in most cities and they can easily order
blood and have it delivered, much how we order pizza – either in
packets for cold storage or from Sanglants, blood lenders, basically
blood whores. The Service provides for their nocturnal needs, and if
a vamp wants the thrill of a hunt or something with an edge, they can
order a Game. In a game, the events are acted out through scenario
and role play, much the same way that a prostitute will put on a show
or character for their John. Though instead of the final pay off
being sex, in a game from The Service the final pay off is the
transfer of blood, the feeding. Vampires also have willing consorts.
So, murdering a group of people is not necessarily a part of the
norm. This is not to say that it doesn’t happen. A predator
mentality is still a predator mentality. And given enough time
anything can happen to anyone, despite the best laid plans and
intentions of any given social structure.
So
when we meet Lin she is feeling that pull to return to New Mexico, to
the site of the massacre, as she has been doing since the 50’s
every decade or so. Before she started returning to the scene of the
crime, Lin hooked up with a young vampire, simply named, Z. Z is a
hellcat. She’s a murdering bastard – takes whatever she wants
when she wants it and doesn’t think twice. Lin is a product of
highborn Eighteenth Century renaissance. She came into being a Child
of Evensong after years as a consort to the Vam Pŷr, Dominique
De’Paul, who was crucial in creating the Vampire Council and The
Service. Lin grew up with a different outlook and a moral center,
even though she’s abandoned it during her time with Z to deal with
the baggage from the 1934 massacre. She’s dealing with her ghosts,
looking for redemption. And like most of us, she doesn’t know what
to do in order to get it. Every time she tries to do the right thing
something happens. In my stories, Karma is in full effect. So the
sins of the past do come back and take their toll.
In
Dead Girl: A Romantic Zombie Tale of Revenge, Jamie Lund wakes up
dead and once she comes to that grim understanding, she sets off to
find the man that murdered her. She’s decaying through the entire
book.
So,
in each of my novels my characters – whether they are the main or
supporting cast – are dealing with things. They have to be, each
and every single one of them, I write high, intense drama.
BK:
As a writer myself, I'm always curious how other writers get through
stumble blocks. When you find a story not flowing, or a character
trying to fight you, how do you correct it?
I
don’t really have any of those issues. My process is about the
surrendering of ego. I also trust my process and trust that the
story came to me because I was the one meant to birth it. I
understand that there is a gestation period, that things flare up and
cool off – a natural ebb and flow. I’ve learned to appreciate
those times and nest the story, prepare, you could say, to give
birth. So when I write, I simply try to be the best medium for the
story to flow through – the best tool. I screw it up when I start
putting my likes, dislikes, and ideas into the mix. The story needs
to be its own thing, and I respect that. Now, that doesn’t mean
that I don’t lead it sometimes. I do. Though, ultimately, I am in
service to tale. It is about the story and not me at all.
BK:
Using the letters of your first name as an acronym, describe your
books..
S
– Sexy, Sultry, Sordid Stories
T
– Told through intense passion and
A
– Ardor that paint
V
– Vivid and Vivacious images within one’s own
R
– Roaming mind; so Rich and captivating that Reader’s become
O
– Obsessed to where they can’t stop the tale and wind up
S
– Spending Several Sleepless night’s turning page after page
after page!
BK:
How did your writing journey begin?
I
wrote my first poem when I was suspended from seventh grade, raking
the yard as punishment. And the yard was deep set in a forest and
had a baseball sized clearing. It took days.
BK:
Using the letters from the word, Summer, how would friends and family
describe you?
Dear
God, I have no idea. But they might call me a broke work-a-holic.
BK:
What is the craziest thing you've ever written about, whether it got
published or not?
In
Love in Vein, Lin’s psyche fractures and she starts having
conversations with the ghost of a dead vampire. That’s pretty
nuts. The vampire even appears to her in the condition as she had
died, beheaded. So, it gets crazy fairly quickly. Besides that,
I’ve written some wild off the wall, fly by the seat of your pants
poetry – introspective cosmic surfer ramblings channeled through
the left tit of Monty Python’s John Cleese while holding a cheese
grater and Halibut.
BK:
Tell us one thing you've done in life, that readers would be most
surprised to know.
I
was living in Pennsylvania for nine months during the early nineties
and was a carpet installer at the time. Work was slow and my roommate
and I got the wild idea to start photocopying money with my color
copier. He also started watching To Live And Die in LA on an
infinity loop throughout the whole thing too. Which was kind of
creepy and weird after awhile. We eventually bagged up all the
Monopoly-looking money in a garbage bag with other house trash and
our other roommate dumped it in a dumpster behind her work. It just
so happened that a homeless man was living in that particular
dumpster and found the copies.
As
it was told to me, from the officer that called me up once I had
returned to Maryland, a homeless man got caught while trying to pass
off the photocopied, phony money, and they were tracking down all the
leads. I told him all I knew, and at the time, he said that they
weren’t going to prosecute and that he’d “get back” to me.
Two weeks later, he called me up and asked if I wouldn’t mind
driving the 2.5 hours up to Harrisburg. PA so that he could arrest
me. I drove up there, was printed, booked, and photographed, and
then drove home. During court, the Judge yelled at the prosecuting
officer for wasting government funds. I got a year’s worth of
parole visits and slapped with a federal criminal rap. I’m working
on a true-to-life based comedy screenplay about it all. That was
nuts.
BK:
What can we expect from you in the future?
Hopefully,
more books. I love writing and I get amazing reviews, and people
seem to dig what I’m doing when I talk with them at shows. Though,
having the time to write is more of an economic thing than a creative
thing. In order to have the time to write, I have to afford it. So
right now I’m working on that, trying to get my small –
incredibly small, independent press and fang-making business – off
the ground. If someone buys a book from me using Amazon, I
potentially have the awesome wonder of earning a total of .50 for all
of my years and decades of hard work, per book. Seriously. So,
getting people interested in buying from me direct through Crazy Duck
Press.com is proving challenging. With Amazon being the greedy
bastards that they are, I’m not living a writer’s dream anytime
soon. Though, I hate to admit it, it is getting in the way of me
cranking out more books. I seem to have some kind of invisible
force-field surrounding all online sales for me. So, I’m trying to
leap over that or tear it down by pushing it out there. I truly only
make book sales one person at a time at live events. That’s
arduous. Cool, that I get to meet so many wonderful fans, but
ardous. So…what’s the future looking like…Monster.com. But
then again… the feature film project for Love in Vein, could get
fully funded and then it’s off the rails. The LIV film project is
moving forward, and it’s looking good, but it’s taking its sweet
ole time. Now, having said that, I have to give props to CA, who is
doing a great job producing, she did just hire a casting director and
line producer, so…who knows. ; ]
This
or That...
Coke
or Pepsi? Tea.
Night
Owl or Early Bird? Both. Sleep is over-rated and I’ll get enuff
once I’m dead.
Fantasy
or Mystery? I like my mysteries to be fantastical and all of my
fantasies have a ‘lil bit of mystery.
Pen/Paper
or Computer? All. Even crayon. Whatever gets it out and down.
Pizza
or Burger? The Pizza Burger is an amazing thing at 3a.m. with a
Guiness.
Rock
or Country? METAL!
Chocolate
or Vanilla? Swirl.
Beach
or Mountains? Oooooh? That is incredibly hard. I have lived near or
on both, and each offer something for the soul. So…I’m gonna
fall back and punt this one, and say….outer space.
Thank
you so much for having us as one of your stops today. It has been
great getting to know more about you and your books, and hope you
will come back when the next release is out (*hinthint*)
Thank
you, BK. It was an honor and a pleasure! V””V
Wishing
you much success!
BK
Walker
Dead
Girl: A Romantic Zombie Tale of Revenge
Written by Stavros
Illustrated by Charles Hearn
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Publisher: Crazy Duck Press (CDP)
Date of Publication: August 2011
ISBN: 9780982812198
Number of pages: 266
Cover Artist and Illustrator: Charles
Hearn
Book Description:
“…Death
was a dream of sleep where the eternally dying dream the sleep of
death. The undeniable evidence in the stillness of her being,
the stark paleness of her complexion, and the lack of blood pooling
from her cuts after climbing through the window whispered dark truths
in her ears. Rigor Mortis. There was nothing familiar to
Jamie about her skin. Time and time again, she found herself
asking what had happened, only to arrive at the hard won conclusion
that she, Jamie Lund, wasn’t alive anymore. Somehow in the
foolhardy night, she’d been a dumb girl. She’d gotten
herself killed…”
From
the mind of Stavros, the critically acclaimed author of Blood Junky,
comes a new twisted tale of horror and adventure. An average
girl, living in the city is murdered. Nothing new, right?
It happens every day. Just another statistic. That
is…until she woke up dead.
Trapped
within her own decaying shell, the dead girl struggles to piece
together the awful events of her untimely death and hunt down the man
responsible. Armed only with a kiss from an ancient Egyptian
God, a pockmarked memory, her ex-boyfriend, and a murder of crows
Jamie Lund comes face to face with something more terrifying and real
than mere death…she suffers the agony of being undead!
With
twelve black & white illustrations and a full colored cover from
tattoo artist, Charles Hearn, this sardonic tale comes alive like no
other zombie story, popping from the page with stunning, unnatural
brilliance. Dead Girl: A Romantic Zombie Tale of Revenge will
keep the reader on the edge of their seat suspended in this unique
supernatural thriller.
Praise for Dead Girl: A
Romantic Zombie Tale of Revenge…
“A Bittersweet punch with a suspenseful plot and somber romance,
showing us the vulnerable perspective of death from the other side.
Definitely, not to be missed!” -Tara Lindsey Hall; Writer/Editor
“I couldn’t put it down. I loved
it. You are a great writer. Can’t wait to read the next one.”
-Bethany Tanner-Evanko, a Facebook Post
“Just
wanted you to know…I was about to wrap Dead Girl in festive
Christmas paper but decided to read the first page...now I'm on page
88 and I'm keeping the book...and I'm not going to bed anytime soon.”
-Sabrina Buckman, a Facebook Post on Dec 21, 2011
“WOW! Holy shit…Thank you for
this. Thank you for bringing forth a story that more than restores
my faith in a type that has gnawed at my entrails for over a decade.
It was different, it was refreshing, it was a damn awesome break from
the “same old, same old” crap this genre is filled with. It’s
so hard to find an original zombie tale any more. And even harder to
find someone who can make an old story their own in some personal
way. But this? Definitely not the same old crap.”
-C. Dulaney, author of the Roads Less
Traveled series
“OMZG! (Oh My Zombie Goodness) I
absolutely Loved this book. Dead Girl is not the conventional zombie
book, but a great one! It’s a book of mystery and revenge with
Egyptian influence felt within the pages. Plus the actual attention
to detail of rigor mortis and decomposition of the body is spot on
and a great additive to the book. I love this book and highly
recommend it to anyone who loves a good revenge tale. Plus I
couldn't put the book down!”
-Sunshine Rose, Chicago, ILL. April
2013
About
the Author- Stavros:
Notorious
Poet. Fool. Born in Washington DC. Stavros was a
writer and editor for The Independent
Underground Magazine. Raised
in Southern Maryland, he fled the Chesapeake Bay to the wilds of the
New Mexican desert. He is a single father of two, whose poetic
works have been published in several online and print publications,
including Central Avenue, The Sword That Cuts Through Stone, Poets
Against The War, Conceptions Southwest, The Mynd, Imagine: Creative
Arts Journal, and Bartleby, where he won a specialty award for his
poem, Blackbird.
In
1999, he won an Official Selection into the Writer’s on the Edge
Festival for his play, The Redline.
In 2001, he created the Poetry
Television Project for public
cable access in Albuquerque, NM. All eight volumes of Ptv’s
ground-breaking show were broadcast to over 100,000 viewers on a
network of regional PAC channels throughout the Southwest and
Baltimore. He helped to launch Unpublished
Magazine, sponsored the monthly
poetry series, The Word Café,
in the Duke city, and produced a political compilation, Poetic
Democracy. In 2007, he
released the award-winning documentary film, Committing
Poetry in Times of War.
In
2010, he launched the production management company, Organic
Ghetto, and released its first
imprint, Crazy
Duck Press, with his first
novel, Blood
Junky. Blood
Junky received exceptional praise and review, even being called
"one of the best vampire novels ever written," by Living
Dead Media. The following year he helped to launch BioGamer
Girl, undertook a bigger East coast
tour where he began selling his original photographic art, and
released two new novels through Crazy Duck Press. Dead
Girl: A Romantic Zombie Tale of Revenge features
a stunning full-color cover and twelve black and white illustrations
from tattoo artist, Charles
Hearn. Blood Junky’s
sequel, Love
in Vein,
cemented the One Blood series with its continuation of the story,
garnering such review as to claim that the book and the series is
"comparable with, and at times surpasses, the 'Vampire
Chronicles' by Anne Rice."
In
2012, Stavros joined forces with the Vampire Professor, Bertena
Varney, M.A.M.Ed, to co-create
the nonfiction annual anthology, Vampire
News, and officially became a
Fangsmith with the creation of Organic Ghetto's second imprint, Kaos
Kustom Fangs. He rounded
out the year by writing and editing screenplays for the One Blood
Transmedia Project, recording Dead Girl as an audio book, and
undertaking his biggest national marketing campaign, The
Book & Fang Tour.
In
2013, he and the Vampire Professor released the second volume
of Vampire
News: The (not so) End Times Edition and
is currently working on writing and growing his imprints.
Stavros is also a musician who has scored commercials, film shorts,
documentaries, and television programs.
Stavros FB Page:
Author Blog:
Kaos Kustom Fangs:
Dead Girl CDP Page:
Dead Girl FB Page:
CDP eShop:
CDP Twitter:
Stavros Twitter
