Sara Humphreys -Interview and Giveaway with the Author

Tall, Dark and Vampire is the latest release from the amazing author Sara Humphreys. To celebrate the release The Reading Cafe is offering up an interview with the author and a giveaway.

TRC: Hi Sara and welcome to The Reading Café. Congratulations on the August 6, 2013 release TALL, DARK and VAMPIRE.

We would like to start with some background information. Would you please tell us something about yourself?

FOLLOW Sara: Website / Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads

Sara: Thanks for having me here today! I’m a mom of four boys and married to my college sweetheart. We live just outside of NYC and I feel quite fortunate to be able to work form home. It’s given me much more time to spend with my boys. Life is good.

TRC: You are the President of Taney Speaker Training. Would you please tell us about this organization?

Sara: Sure thing. For the past ten years I’ve worked as a public speaker and speaker trainer. Taney Speaker Training specializes in public speaking, leadership and communication skills trainings but have recently expanded our business to include branding coaching for authors. We deliver our programs nationwide and people can find out more on our website.

TRC: TALL, DARK and VAMPIRE is the first release (August 2013) in your new Dead in the City series. Would you please tell us something about the premise?

Click HERE for our review of TALL, DARK and VAMPIRE.

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Sara: Think of it as Sex in the City meets True Blood. I love NYC and it’s the perfect place for vampires to blend in and live their lives undisturbed. I also wanted to explore the idea of an all female vampire coven. Olivia Hollingsworth is the head of the coven but runs it more like a family than a police state. She’s a three hundred year old celibate vamp with a weakness for a hot pair of shoes. She runs a nightclub called The Coven that she and her vamps run out of an old church in Greenwich Village. Olivia just wants to run her club and her coven undisturbed but when her customers start to turn up dead–her life gets more complicated and to make matters worse, the cop who shows up to investigate is a dead-ringer for her long lost lover from her human life.

TRC: How many stories do you have planned for the series and will all of the previous storyline characters have a role in future novels?

Sara: There will be five Dead in the City novels with each of the women in the coven getting their own Happily Ever After. This band of vamps will be there throughout the series–sometimes causing their fair share of trouble.

TRC: If you could virtually cast the leading characters of Tall, Dark and Vampire –Doug Paxton and Olivia Hollingsworth-which models or actors would be suit your ideal image?

Sara: I’d say Christina Hendricks and Chris Pine. They’d make a great pair and fit the physical description perfectly. Christina has the moxie to play Olivia and Chris has the wit.

TRC: Would you please tell us the premise behind the AMOVEO legend?

Sara: The Amoveo are a secret society of dream-walking, telepathic, shapeshfiter that are comprised of ten different animal clans. Lion, panther, tiger, cheetah, bear, wolf, fox, coyote, eagle and falcon. They have one pre-destined mate and if they don’t find their mate by the age of thirty, they begin to lose their powers and will ultimately die. They can only have children with their mate, which makes their race quite fragile. If you kill one Amoveo, their mate will die and you wipe out the possibility of offspring. Until recently, they thought their mate could only be another Amoveo, but the discovery of human/Amoveo hybrids changes the game. It quickly become evident that not all Amoveo are in favor of this and theses Purist Amoveo make it glaringly clear that they’ll do anything to keep their race pure.

TRC: Undone is your fourth installment (May 2013) in the Amoveo series. Would you please tell us something about the premise?

Sara: UNDONE features Marianna Coltari, a pureblood Amoveo from the Bear Clan, and Pete Castro, a human who knows about the Amoveo and works for Marianna’s brother Dante. The Amoveo are embroiled in a nasty civil war between Purists, who want to keep the race pure, and Loyalists, who are accepting of human/Amoveo hybrids. Marianna has refused to publicly declare a side and is partying in NYC at a vampire nightclub. Her brother, Dante, assigns Pete to be Marianna’s bodyguard and driver because Pureblood Amoveo women have started to go missing. They allow Marianna to believe that Pete doesn’t know about the Amoveo–that way she’ll behave herself and won’t use her powers. Pete takes on the job but struggles with his growing attraction to Marianna, believing she could never be his. When more women start to vanish and the Purist leader sets his sights on Marianna–Pete takes things into his own hands.

TRC: How many books do you have planned for the series?

Sara: The fifth book, UNCLAIMED, will be out in December and there will be a novella, UNBOUND, in 2014. I have at least two more books planned beyond that but I don’t have release dates yet.

TRC: ASMODEUS (Demon of Lust Part 1-June 2013)) is the first installment in your new serialized novel. Would you please tell us something about the series?

Sara: When Kai Kelly inherits her estranged grandfather’s estate in Bliss, Idaho, life becomes anything but blissful. The discovery of a beautiful, but unusual, ring in the attic leads to much more than she bargained for. Kai may not realize what she has in her possession, but the boys in Hell sure got the message.

Lucifer and the six other princes of Hell existed for several millenniums believing that the Ring of Solomon, an object with the power to control demons, had been destroyed. However, the moment Kai slips the ring on her finger, the tremor of its power ripples through the underworld.

Knowing the ring’s existence could mean the destruction of all demons, Lucifer sends his six princes to earth in search of the ring and its bearer. There’s one catch; a demon can’t take the ring from its owner. It must be given willingly or they have to be dead.

Asmodeus, the Demon of Lust, is happy to have another opportunity to visit the mortal world and dally with a human female…or twelve. However when he arrives on earth, he realizes Lucifer has made all the demons mortal in an effort to keep them motivated, focused on their mission and immune from the powers of the ring.
When Asmodeus meets Kai along a deserted section of highway in Magic Valley, it’s more than the ring she wears that catches his eye. He plans to woo the ring out from under her but before long, the lines between lust and love blur.

When the other members of the brotherhood realize Asmodeus has found the ring, they descend on Bliss, determined to get the ring from Kai at any cost.
When Asmodeus is faced with choosing between the brotherhood and his one true love, he realizes the battle for Hell is nothing compared to the battle for her heart.

TRC: What do you believe is the push behind the ‘serialized novel’? Why do you think it works for some novels and not others?

Sara: I came up with the plan to serialize this book because I wanted to give my readers something in between full-lenght novels. I’m also contracted for seven more books with my publisher, so I can’t take on writing another full novel but I knew I could do it in sections. So I figured I’d give it a shot.

TRC: When writing a storyline, do the characters direct the writing or do you direct the characters?

Sara: I have an idea of where I’m going but the characters drive the ship. When things aren’t flowing, I know I’m not doing what I should be. When I listen to them, then it all works out.

TRC: What challenges or difficulties have you encountered as a writer?

Sara: Time management. My boys are all home for the summer which has made for a challenging work situation. I want to spend time with them and make sure they have a fun summer, but I still have deadlines to meet. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to September and getting back into a routine.

TRC: Many authors bounce ideas and information with other authors or friends and family. With whom do you bounce ideas?

Sara: My husband. The poor man has to listen to all of my crazy ideas but lucky for me, he’s supportive of my career.

TRC: How do you keep the plot unpredictable without sacrificing content and believability?

Sara:  To be honest..I don’t know. I just go where it takes me and then after the first draft is done, I go back and make sure there aren’t any plot holes.

TRC: How do you handle the pressures and anxiety of deadlines while still having time to raise a family?

Sara: Some days better than others. Luckily my husband is really supportive of what I do and my boys are old enough to understand that sometimes Mom has got to work. I’ll be honest, there are days when I break down in tears because I’m so overwhelmed but it’s those moments that I call my sisters or my mom. I don’t know what I’d do without them.

TRC: What are your thoughts on book reviews-good or bad?

Sara: No one likes reading a bad review of their work. It sucks but it’s a reality of the business. I don’t mind if someone says they just didn’t connect with it or it wasn’t for them. What I do take issue with are the unnecessarily cruel reviews people post–the ones that take aim at an author personally. It’s just not cool. It’s not okay to use the anonymity of the internet to eviscerate another person. It’s cowardly.

TRC: On what are you currently working?

Sara: I’m writing Vampire Trouble–the second Dead in the City book. It’s due in about six weeks so I’m under the gun.

TRC: Would you like to add anything else?

Sara: Thank you. Thank you to bloggers like you, to my readers and my street team gals. I don’t know where I’d be without them.

LIGHTNING ROUND

Favorite Food
Mom’s Tuna Casserole

Favorite Dessert
Brownie with vanilla ice cream

Favorite TV Show
True Blood

Last Movie You Saw
Zombieland

Dark or Milk Chocolate
Milk

Favorite Flower
Gerbera Daisies

Last Vacation Destination
New Orleans

Sara: By the way, I’m having a Twitter Party on August 6th from 7pm-8:30pm EST to celebrate the release of TALL, DARK, AND VAMPIRE. To join the party simply follow @authorsara and use #nycvamps in all your tweets. Prizes include a Nook HD, signed books and more. All the details are on my website. http://novelromance.net/twitter-party-for-tall-dark-vampire

TRC: Thank you Sara for taking the time to answer our questions. Congratulations on a very prolific year of new releases. We wish you all the best.

Sourcebooks and Sara are offering a copy of paper copy of TALL, DARK and VAMPIRE to one lucky reader at The Reading Cafe.

1. Please registers using the log-in at the top of the page (side bar) or by using one of the social log-ins.

2. If you are using a social log-in, please post your email address with your comment.

3. Giveaway runs from August 4 to August 8, 2013

4. Giveaway is open to USA and CANADA only.