What's the story behind the story? What inspired you to write this book?
There are a few here.
Being a paranormal romance writer with my witch series, I’ve always wanted to write a vampire novel. One of my favorite book series of all time is Twilight by Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. I wanted to work on something with vampires, but write at a unique angle. My book deals with vampires as if they have a disability. Imperfect.
Vampire romances also fulfill lustful desires. Their “hunger” is a sexual energy. I wanted to tap into that energy in my writing. It’s why, I think, paranormal romance has been so popular over the years, ever since Twilight.
Other reasons go deeper. I’m totally fascinated by what drives artists to create “art”. I wanted to come up with a novel imagining my MC, Eva Rogers, as a lover of art who interviews artists. I modeled the artists she meets after real artists I’ve admired. Eva meets a singer (David, her main love interest), a painter, a sculptor, a movie director and a writer. So, the whole deep stuff here is about diving into what makes their art “art”.
A final reason is I wanted to write a book about life and death. “Della Vita” is Italian and means “of life.” So the title translated into English is “Vampire of life”. The book is about our animalistic nature, our feral and base monster-selves, and how we attempt to transform our base-self into something beautiful.
What's your favorite genre to read? Is it the same as your favorite genre to write?
Same as what I write. Romance, paranormal and fantasy.
What scene in your book was your favorite to write?
This is tough to say without giving things away. I loved writing the scenes about my star artists. These artists are eclectic and strange, really a study by me on their eccentric psychologies. That was so much fun. It gave Caitlin Kelly, my narrator for the audiobook version, the difficult job of acting them out with differing accents and distinctive personalities. Not to mention accents: my painter was Spanish, my sculptor was German. (Caitlin did amazing, as usual).
Outside of these interviews, there are scenes where Evita fights being “sick” with her “disability” and hunger for blood. Sometimes these mix with her hunger for David. The romance scenes get hot. But, it’s not just the sexual attraction. Every time David suffered, Evita was there to pick him up. The same goes the other way around. They’re both there for each other in all their suffering in this novel. I find that really beautiful and I really loved that. That’s love.
Do you have any quirky writing habits? (lucky mugs, cats on laps, etc.)
Always on my laptop. Frequently with coffee/nitro brews. Sometimes at home in the dark.
Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?
Live. Viva. Vita. Enjoy and live. Work hard. But take breaks to look around once in a while.
If you could choose one thing for readers to remember after reading your book, what would it be?
What is art? You.
