Today the Vampire Interrogator entertains Lucy Felthouse with fiendish conundra about her writing, her life and whether her character could defeat Lestat.
What is the earliest memory you have of writing? What did you write about?
As a child I was an avid reader, and was often described as always having my nose in a book. This translated through to a love of writing. When I learned to write, I then started making up stories and putting them down in notebooks. It was so long ago that I literally can’t remember what I wrote about, but given one of my most read authors was Enid Blyton, it was probably along the lines of fairies, imps and magic. I really wish I had those notebooks now—I think it’d be both fascinating and cringe-worthy to see what I wrote about.
When did you decide to become a professional writer? Why did you take this step?
I didn’t really decide. It just kind of happened. I first wrote an erotic story on a dare, and discovered I enjoyed it. A couple more naughty stories down the line and I plucked up the courage to submit one to a magazine. It was accepted—and they paid me! From then, I was hooked.
What would you consider to be your greatest strength as a writer? What about your greatest weakness? How do you overcome this weakness?
My greatest strength is probably producing nice, clean manuscripts for my various editors. My greatest weakness is getting distracted. I find it incredibly difficult to work if there’s noise around me. So when I seriously need to knuckle down, I close the curtains, put in earplugs and shut out the world.
Tell us about the place where you live. Have you ever derived any inspiration from your home or from anywhere you have visited?
Not specifically where I live. Nothing exciting ever happens around here. Or certainly nothing worth writing about. As for places I visit, a huge yes! Places I’ve visited are probably some of my biggest influences. I’ve written about places I visit on day trips, or weekends or longer holidays. The Peak District, London, Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, New York City… the list goes on, and on…
Which book, if any, would you consider to be your greatest influence and inspiration?
I wouldn’t say a specific book has ever influenced me. I just write whatever comes into my head. In terms of inspiration, again, I haven’t been inspired by particular books—more inspired when reading awesome books to create my own and hope that people read them and enjoy them.
What drove you to write about Vampires?
I’ve long been a fan of paranormal books and films, so it was a natural topic for me to tackle.
What do you think is the attraction for Vampire fiction? Why is it such a popular topic?
I suspect escapism is a big part of it. Stories might be set in a recognisable world, but at the same time, when you’re talking about supernatural creatures, it’s completely different to real life, so there’s a level of disconnect from reality.
In a fight between all the greatest Vampires of fiction, who do you think would come out on top?
Hmm… I think it’s a toss-up between Dracula and Lestat.
What about in some other contest such as sexiness or dress sense? Who would win that one?
For both sexiness and dress sense, it’d be Lestat.
How well do you think one of your characters would fare against the winner(s) of the above?
Terribly. He’s Lestat, after all!
Tell us the basic premise behind your latest novel.
My latest release is novella length, and isn’t a paranormal story. I write a huge variety of stuff. Paranormal is just part of it 😉
So my latest book, A Different Kind of Cosplay is an erotic romance novella based on a guy trying to do something special for his girlfriend’s birthday. She’s incredibly difficult to buy for, so he ends up coming up with something pretty wacky. I don’t want to say too much more and give the game away, but let’s just say the title is a pretty big hint.
Bio:
Lucy Felthouse is the award-winning author of erotic romance novels Stately Pleasures (named in the top 5 of Cliterati.co.uk’s 100 Modern Erotic Classics That You’ve Never Heard Of, and an Amazon bestseller), Eyes Wide Open (winner of the Love Romances Café’s Best Ménage Book 2015 award, and an Amazon bestseller) and The Persecution of the Wolves. Including novels, short stories and novellas, she has over 150 publications to her name. She owns Erotica For All, and is one eighth of The Brit Babes. Find out more about her writing at http://lucyfelthouse.co.uk, or on Twitter or Facebook. Sign up for automatic updates on Amazon or BookBub. You can also subscribe to her monthly newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/gMQb9
http://lucyfelthouse.co.uk/published-works/a-different-kind-of-cosplay/
