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Saturday, January 21, 2012

Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit Starring: LUCIENNE DIVER

About Fangtastic:
What do you wear to face down a cadre of killer kids? 
Gina Covello would rather be working on her manicure than missions for the Feds’ paranormal unit to which she’s been recruited.  That changes when a group of killer kids takes out a family in the sunshine state and disappearances begin to plague the lifestylers who only play at the kind of existence our fanged fashionista leads.  She and her crew are sent undercover into the vampire clubs…which turn out to be run by real vampires.  While Gina’s BFF Marcy hangs with the steampunk-styled Burgess Brigade that spawned the killer kids, Gina herself is supposed to get in good with the fanged fiends behind the scenes, even to the point of playing double-agent, offering to hand over her powerful boyfriend Bobby.  Her playacting threatens to become a bit too real when she discovers things about her spy handlers that make her wonder whether she’s truly on the right side of the battle between Feds and fangs.

Our Interview:

1)      How much time do you spend on marketing your book? Is there one specific type of marketing that you find works best for you?

I’m lucky I eek out time to write.  So this year I delegated a bit…in as much as I hired More Than Publicity to do a music video for the Vamped series and an original song, which fans can download for free from my website I blog, tweet, Facebook, and run contests, like the one I’m doing now with a Kindle giveaway, but I’m really not certain what time of marketing is most effective.  The biggest seller of books is word of mouth, and that’s all up to the fans!

 2)      How do you come up with the names of your characters?

Some introduce themselves . It was that way with my heroine, Gina.  She was just…who she was.  I couldn’t imagine her being anyone else.  Other names I have to think about.  They really have to feel right for the characters.  I have to think about what each name suggests to me and is likely to suggest to the reader.

3)      Have you ever based one of your characters on someone you know? If so, did that person find out? How did they react?

Usually my characters are a hodgepodge of people I’ve known.  Every once in awhile, a person gets a more direct cameo, though usually they know about it, like my friend the gothic magician who appears as…a gothic magician in the fourth book, Fangtabulous (forthcoming January 2013).  I’m always asked if I’ve ever put myself in a book, and I have in a way.  Much like Alfred Hitchcock does in his movies (not that I’m in any way comparing myself with one of my idols), I have a walk on in Vamped

4)      Would you ever try writing in another genre?

I’ve already begun the Latter-Day Olympians urban fantasy series, which is geared more for adults than teens.  Bad Blood is the first book (already in digital, print May 1st); I’m at work now on the sequel, Crazy in the Blood.

5)   Who is (or who are) the Young Adult author that turns you into a fangirl?

I’d be a blithering idiot over Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games) and Rick Riordan (the Percy Jackson series).

6)  Do you prefer reading on an ereader or book in hand?

I have a first generation Kindle.  I think I owned it for an entire year before I ever turned it on.  I love physical books.  LOVE them.  The feel, the smell, the covers, the collectability.  However, we’ve long since run out of room for them.  I still buy hardcopies of my favorites (and for my son), but I have to admit that it’s far easier to store e-books and they don’t collect the dust.

About the Author:

Lucienne Diver is the author of the popular Vamped series of young adult novels (think Clueless meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer).  School Library Journal calls the first book, “a lighthearted, action-packed, vampire romance story following in the vein of Julie Kenner’s “Good Ghouls” (Berkley), Marlene Perez’s “Dead” (Harcourt), and Rachel Caine’s “The Morganville Vampires” (Signet) series.” VOYA has suggested that the books “will attract even reluctant readers.”

Her short stories have been included in the Strip-Mauled and Fangs for the Mammaries anthologies edited by Esther Friesner (Baen Books), and one of her essays appears in the anthology Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories (HarperTeen). 


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