The time it was about Velvet

Posted May 8, 2015 by Stacee in Blog Tours, Giveaways, Interviews | 1 Comment

When I saw the synopsis for Velvet, I was instantly smitten.  I was really excited to read the book and it didn’t disappoint.  I basically hounded Molly at Macmillan to be a part of the blog tour because I needed to flail all over Temple {more than I already had}.

velvet

Thankfully, Temple is a bunch of fun.  Before you see that in her interview questions, let’s check out the book!

11First rule of dealing with hot vampire bodyguards? Don’t fall in love.

After losing both her parents before age seventeen, aspiring designer Caitlin Holte feels like her whole world has been turned upside down, and that was before the terrifying encounter with a supernatural force. Then, she learns that her hot bad-boy neighbor, Adrian—who might have just saved her life—is actually a half-demon vampire.

Suddenly Caitlin is stuck with a vampire bodyguard who feels that the best way to protect her is to become her pretend boyfriend. Trouble is, Caitlin is starting to fall in love for real, while Adrian can never love a human. Caitlin trusts Adrian to keep her safe from his demon father, but will he be able to protect her heart?

Sounds good, right?

right

1. Where did the idea for Velvet come from? 

From years of reading vampire novels and having the insatiable urge to write a book where the vampires weren’t dead (or undead).  Because that never made sense to me.  Movement requires energy, energy requires a power system, humans have the cardiovascular system, so if you don’t have a heartbeat, YOU CAN’T MOVE.  I mean yeah, magic and stuff, but come on!  I suspend my disbelief only so much.

2. Why do you love Caitlin and Adrian and why should readers root for them?

I love Caitlin and Adrian because they’re both complicated individuals who are struggling to grow up and deal with both incredibly ordinary life things and incredibly bizarre supernatural events.  They make mistakes, they hurt each other, but they are trying.  They’re fighters, even if they don’t exactly know how to fight yet.

3. What makes a good villain and how did you incorporate that in Velvet?

Oh man, making a three-dimensional, full-motivated, satisfying villain is one of the major goals of my writing career.  I’ve heard it said that a story is only as good as its villain, which might be an overstatement, but generally true.  Great drama occurs when a protagonist has an equal but opposite force to contend with.  For me, that equal but opposite force was tricky because I knew I wanted the villain to remain a looming, but mostly invisible threat.  In a way, the true antagonist of the story is Caitlin.  Caitlin is fighting her demons (pardon the pun) in an effort to see herself as a hero rather than a victim.  This is a huge struggle for her, and creates much of the interpersonal and romantic tension in the book.

4. Without spoilers, were there any scenes that had to be cut that you wish could have stayed? 

Hmm…I don’t think so.  We rearranged a few things and cut the timeline by about half, but we didn’t really chop whole story sections.  While a lot of the actual writing changed (sentence structure, flow, etc), most of the original story stayed remarkably intact through the editing process.  In fact, I think we added more than we cut.

5. Describe Velvet in 5 words.

Banter. Science. Smooches. Obscure Hangman.

Speed {ish} round

1. You get the call/email/letter that says you’re being published for the first time.  Describe the next 5 minutes.

Utter joy paired with a repeated inner monologue of “Am I in a fugue state? I think I’m in a fugue state. I’m probably fugueing hard right now.”

2. What three things would you take to a desert island?

I only need two things: a TARDIS, and a doctor.

3. You can only read one book for the rest of your life. What is it?

WHAT KIND OF SICK, TWISTED QUESTION IS THIS?

4. Who are your favorite swoony boys?

The bad ones. I’m such a sucker for bad boys, especially the ones with a tortured nugget of goodness buried deep under their gruff, bearded souls. The Beast, from Beauty and the Beast, Jax Teller from Sons of Anarchy, Brad Pitt in just about anything, Damon from Vampire Diaries, etc.

5. What is the one thing about publishing you wish someone would have told you?

How much of a business it is.  Yes, it’s a dream come true, but it’s also a business like any other.  Your publisher is going to make business decisions, retailers and distributors and bookstores are going to make business decisions, and just because you’re a writer and used to making writing decisions doesn’t mean you’re exempt from needing to be educated and counseled and prepared to make business decisions.  I actually used to get paralyzed when confronted with professional choices.  When I was facing an ethical business choice a few years ago, I was stressing out hardcore and losing sleep and feeling sick to my stomach about what to do.  It didn’t seem like there was a “right” choice, no matter what I did.  Then my mom told me just about the best piece of advice I’ve ever heard, which is mainly that throughout our lives we will be asked over and over again to make decisions without enough information.  And our responsibility as professionals, as adults, is to choose wisely based on the information we do have, not the information we don’t.  In other words, you can’t run your life or your career on “what ifs.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

templeTemple West, debut author of the YA paranormal romance Velvet, is as nerdy in real life as she is on the Twitter. Armed with a very shiny English degree, she spent four months in Oxford holed up at the Radcliffe Camera amongst the hush of ancient books and the rich musk of academia.

Returning to Los Angeles, she acquired a concurrent degree in film, mostly as an excuse to write essays about The Princess Bride and Hook. She can sew (poorly), drive stick (please fasten your seatbelt), and mostly lift her feet off the ground while stuttering into first gear on a very small motorcycle. She currently lives in Seattle and is the proud mother to a one-year-old laptop and a vintage Remington typewriter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Huge thanks to Macmillan for the invite and to Temple for taking the time.  Make sure you’re checking out Temple’s website, following her on Twitter or Tumblr and adding Velvet to your TBR shelf on Goodreads.

Be sure to check out the other tour stops for additional goodies.

Now, haven’t had a chance to get your hands on a copy of Velvet? Well, Swoon Reads is so nicely offering up a copy! Giveaway is US/Canada only, book will be coming from the Swoon Reads, and additional rules are here.

**Good Luck!!**

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tags: , , , , , ,


One response to “The time it was about Velvet

  1. This book sounds good giirrlll. And the author sounds super duper nice. I always love to hear about where they came from and how they got their ideas. Etc. ;) I’m usually not into the vampire thing which is why I didn’t get into The Vampire Diaries (yes, I’m probably like the only person) tee hee

Leave a Reply

(Enter your URL then click here to include a link to one of your blog posts.)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.