Bitter Blood: Blog Tour + Interview

For years, the human and vampire residents of Morganville, Texas, have managed to co-exist in peace. But now that the threat to the vampires has been defeated, the human residents are learning that the gravest danger they face is the enemy within…
Thanks to the eradication of the parasitic creatures known as the draug, the vampires of Morganville have been freed of their usual constraints. With the vampires indulging their every whim, the town’s human population is determined to hold on to their lives by taking up arms. But college student Claire Danvers isn’t about to take sides, considering she has ties to both the humans and the vampires. 
To make matters worse, a television show comes to Morganville looking for ghosts, just as vampire and human politics collide. Now, Claire and her friends have to figure out how to keep the peace without ending up on the nightly news… or worse.

Interview with Rachel Caine

I’ve never read a series with as many books as the Morganville Vampires series and still enjoyed every book. I usually give up three or four books in. Morganville Vampires still seems so fresh? How do you do it?

I’m flattered! Well … I start off every book by asking myself “What is the craziest thing that can happen?” And normally I reject anything that involves giant rats, aliens, and Easter Island, and whatever’s left I stare at for a while and see what train of thought it leads me on. It’s not the crazy idea itself, it’s what it sparks. For instance, I knew when I set Morganville in a dry, deserted area of Texas that I would need to explain why vampires would choose to settle there. Then I started doing stream-of-consciousness babbling about the sun, the desert, the cactus, the lack of water, and I knew then that what they were afraid of was … something in the water. Then I just had to set about to find what it was.

I guess it’s really an elaborate version of the crazy babbling we all did as little kids to explain why our dolls were wearing toilet paper tubes. Wait, was that just me?

  

With the release of Bitter Blood we have the Morganville Mayoral Elections. Can you tell us a bit more about this? What are you most looking forward to in this campaign?

I’m looking forward to seeing some bare-knuckles, down and dirty political infighting. I mean, surely there’s nothing so scary as Monica Morrell bent on capturing a position of power! We’re having great fun with the website (http://www.morganvillevampire.com) which has been turned into our election center – there will be candidate videos, endorsements, and (maybe best of all) attack ads!

You have a number of other novels published for adults. All your series are within the urban fantasy and paranormal realm. What draws you to these genres?

I rarely write something without a paranormal element of some kind, even though I love mystery and suspense … I think adding a paranormal element allows people to step outside of real life just enough to get a different angle on it, which can be very freeing. As an example – the first incarnation of Ill Wind, my first Weather Warden novel, was very much grounded in the real world, although it featured some epic storms … the main character was battling cancer and running out of time. Unfortunately, the market didn’t really like the idea of a funny, active character battling cancer, so I by shifting the disease to a paranormal Demon Mark, I was able to do an end run around peoples’ expectations and tell the story I wanted to tell.

(And then I added sentient weather and genies, because.)

Speaking of your other books… how do you find the time to do all that you do? Do you have a specific writing routine? I cannot even imagine writing one book much less as many as you’ve written! 

I do have routines, and they are, of necessity, kind of brutal. I find that I do my best, most productive work early in the morning before my conscious mind starts screwing around with my creativity, and because I had to do it while working full time, I developed a 5 am writing habit. Which is horrible, yes, but sadly, also it works. So I have continued it even after leaving the day job, and expanded the hours … now, I write typically from about 5:30 am to noon, then have the afternoon off, then do business, social networking, web updates, etc. at night. And Twitter all the time, because it’s easy.

But I find it’s really helpful to find the sweet, sweet creative golden hours of your day, and try to devote to them completely. It’s the most effective and efficient way.

Is it difficult to switch from writing a book in one of your series to writing a book in another? Do you work on books from different series simultaneously?  

Ideally I try to only work on one book at a time, but in practical terms, it’s impossible … when I’m on first draft of one book, I’m generally also writing an outline for the next book, and doing edits on the previous book, and proofs on the book before that, and promotion for yet another. So there’s a great deal of flexibility necessary because I write four books a year, and there’s always a continuum of work to be done.

When writing the Morganville Vampire books is there a character that is easier or harder to write than the others? Are there certain types of scenes you look forward to or struggle writing? 

Myrnin is always super fun to write, and super easy – because it’s easy to be crazy. It’s great to ignore all the rules and conventions that bind the other characters up, which is sometimes what slows things down.

As a general rule of thumb, it’s always harder to write nice characters than not-so-nice ones, for the same reasons. Your villains are bent on breaking the rules, and have no regard for consequences … and your heroes have to play within those boundaries. It can be more difficult to find the keys to motivating and making those hero-driven scenes exciting sometimes … but it’s well worth the effort, because when it works, it really works.

If you could travel in to any book or series where would you want to visit?

Oh, I would so love to visit Harry Dresden’s Chicago … as full of crazy, dangerous stuff as it is, it would be worth it!

Do you have any book or movie recommendations for fans of the Morganville Vampire series?

Lots! Books … there’s the obvious: Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy series, PC and Kristen Cast’s House of Night series, Heather Brewer’s Vladimir Tod Chronicles, but try Holly Black’s Curse Workers series, Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl’s Beautiful Creatures series, Sarah Rees Brennan’s Unspoken, Jackie Kessler’s Apocalypse books. Just to name a few. (Seriously, check out the Smart Chicks Kick It Tour authors, they’re all amazing.)

Movies: well, I think there are some underrated/cult movies out there that would appeal to readers of the Morganville series, like Near Dark and Lost Boys … and of course some everybody would already know (and has probably watched) like Hunger Games. I’m really looking forward to the Mortal Instruments and Beautiful Creatures movies, too!

And lastly, I’m always interested to know… read any good books lately?

ALWAYS. I thought Sarah Rees Brennan’s Unspoken was super, and I adored Kami Garcia’s upcoming book Unbreakable too. Check out Melissa Marr’s Carnival of Souls, too! And if you haven’t read Darynda Jones’s urban fantasy, run to a bookshelf and grab it!

I am so grateful to you for the chance to be here and talk about the books … thanks so much for the support! And remember: vote!

Thanks Rachel! I am so jealous that you’ve read Unbreakable! I adored Unspoken and Carnival of Souls too 🙂

Morganville Mayoral Elections 

•  Videos must be 30 seconds or less
• You can make an endorsement video for any character from the book about why they should be mayor
•  Videos must not contain copyrighted material such as TV, film, images or music from other sources
• No language you wouldn’t hear unbleeped on network TV

They will post the winning videos on the Morganville Vampire site, and winners will receive a prize package that includes: A signed copy of BITTER BLOOD, a Morganville Coffee Mug, an election t-shirt, and a tote bag.

To check out the first 3 videos/endorsement ads for each candidate (more to come soon!), check out: http://www.morganvillevampire.com.

DON’T FORGET TO PLACE YOUR VOTES!

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