Author Interview and Giveaway: Rachel Vincent

Author bio and photograph courtesy of her website.

Okay, so...I completely screwed up on Friday.  This interview was supposed to go up then, but my computer crashed and...well, it didn't get posted.  I apologize.  So...in apology I'm giving away a book.  A REALLY, really good book.

Okay, without further ado I'm pleased--THRILLED really--to present Rachel Vincent.  Author of The Soul Screamers Series from Harlequin Teen.

Rachel Vincent is the author of the Shifters series, about a werecat named Faythe Sanders, who is learning to define her own role in her family and fighting to claim a place in her Pride.
Rachel’s young adult urban fantasy series, Soul Screamers, is about a teenage bean sidhe (banshee) trying to balance a normal high school experience with the terrifying, hidden world she’s just discovered. My Soul To Take and My Soul To Save are available now. Look for My Soul To Keep on June 1, 2010.

A resident of San Antonio, Rachel Vincent has a BA in English and an overactive imagination, and consistently finds the latter to be more practical. She shares her office with two black cats (Kaci and Nyx) and her # 1 fan. Rachel is older than she looks—seriously—and younger than she feels, but remains convinced that for every day she spends writing, one more day will be added to her lifespan.

1.    Where did the idea for the Soul Screamers books come from?

From a lot of brainstorming, sifting through folklore for something that seemed to want to be written.

2.   Why bean sidhes?

Because I haven’t read much about them in urban fantasy, and there was little enough explained in the original lore to leave plenty of room for me to establish some pretty cool world building.

3.   When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

I don’t know that I ever really had that epiphany. I just kind of always wanted to write. I started when I was five. ;)

4.   Why did you first start writing Young Adult books when you had a successful career writing adult books?

Because writing for teenagers lets me re-experience a time of my life when everything that happened seemed so vital and important. There were so many firsts, and the whole world was in front of me. That lends an excitement and enthusiasm to everything. Also…it’s fun. ;)

5.    Why did you opt not to use a pen name when you started writing Young Adult?

I decided to use the same name because there’s decent crossover potential for adults who read my Shifters series.

6.   Do you find it hard to write both young adult and adult books? 

Writing is hard. Period. It’s more work than I could ever explain, and none of it is mindless. You have to concentrate and be thoroughly focused on every single step of the process. None of that changes depending on genre or target audience.

7.   Can you tell us how long it takes for you to write a book and what your work schedule is while writing?

Unfortunately, that’s not a simple question to answer. I write full time, and I’m always working on a minimum of three books at a time, in various stages of the process.

For rough drafts, I try to write a chapter every day. But that schedule has to have a lot of flexibility, because at this point (releasing 3-4 novels per year, plus short fiction), revisions and edits are always landing on my desk in the middle of a rough draft, and they’re always needed ASAP. So…it’s kind of chaotic. A lot of late nights and very long days.

8.   What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

The most surprising thing I learned was that I could write a book at all. ;)

9.   As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?

As a child, I never gave it much thought. But by high school, I wanted to be an English teacher or a journalist.

10.  Which of your books is your favorite?

Whichever I’ve written most recently.

11.  Which of your characters is your favorite?

I have several favorites. Jace and Ethan, from the Shifters series. Sabine and Tod from the Soul Screamers books. But that’s assuming that I love Faythe and Kaylee, my viewpoint characters, the most. Which I do.

12.  Do you read reviews of your books? If so, do you pay any attention to them, or let them influence your writing?

Yes, I read reviews. I can’t help it. When I was starting out, a few years ago, negative reviews just killed me. But since then, I’ve come to realize a couple of things that help me deal with them. Here they are:

A.   No one book can please everyone. It’s not possible. What one person loves, another will hate, and vice versa.

B.   It’s really hard to take a negative review seriously if it’s poorly written, misspells the names of the characters, novel, or author, or references events that never happened in the book. All of which I’ve seen in reviews of my own books.

C.   It’s impossible to take a review seriously when it contains criticism of the author, rather than of his/her book, or when the reviewer is obviously using his/her reviews as a forum to express personal views, pet peeves, or prejudices which may have nothing to do with the text itself.

Beyond that, someone wise once told me that, regarding reviews, you’re never as bad as the negative reviews say you are, and you’re never as good as the glowing reviews say you are. Remember that, and you’ll be fine. ;)

13.  Which question are you most sick of answering in interviews?

“Tell us a little about yourself.” That, and, “Where do you get your ideas.” Oh, and “Tell us a little about your book.”

The reason I’m kinda sick of those questions is that the first and last are answered on my website FAQ page, and ad naseum on my blog. And the second one is impossible to answer. Ideas come from everywhere and from nowhere.

However, I answer those questions over and over because I know how hard it can be to come up with original questions for an author who’s done fifty interviews in the last month. ;)

           Ha!  No kidding!  Not to mention I was a nervous wreck writing these questions!  So I appreciate you taking the time!  :D (And I think I over did the exclamation points : ) )

And our most important question, if you were trapped on a deserted island which author would you most like to be trapped with? 

None. I’d want to be trapped with a survivalist. ;)

And here's the first book in the series--not to mention the book I'm giving away--My Soul To Take.

SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH KAYLEE CAVANAUGH...

She doesn't see dead people, but...

She senses when someone near her is about to die. And when that happens, a force beyond her control compels her to scream bloody murder. Literally.

Kaylee just wants to enjoy having caught the attention of the hottest guy in school. But a normal date is hard to come by when Nash seems to know more about the need to scream than she does. And when classmates start dropping dead for no apparent reason, only Kaylee knows who'll be next...

 So, now onto the contest details.

All you have to do is comment below and tell me a secret. 

Since Kaylee, the heroine of the book,  is hiding a secret, I think it's only fair we share ours.  Don't ya think?  ;) I'll give extra points for tweeting/blogging about this contest.  And another for tweeting/blogging about our #givebooks campaign (just make sure to use the #givebooks hashtag).  When you comment, let me know how many points you've got, then I'll randomly pick a winner from the top points people.  Make sense?  I hope so.  LOL.