Today’s victim for the Vampire Month interrogation chair is Lynda Bester. She lives in Florida, South Africa and is the author of Total Surrender and apparently has a lot of other books in the pipeline covering a range of genres. Check out her webpage on lyndabester.co.za.

1) What is the earliest memory you have of writing? What did you write about?

I was no spring chicken. I was in grade 12, so 17or so and lamenting the fact that I always did so badly in English. Then one day it occurred to me that considering how many books I read that surely I should be able to write. And as they say, the rest is history.

2) When did you decide to become a professional writer? Why did you take this step?

Total Surrender was my first book, and it was published September 2012, so last year.

3) What would you consider to be your greatest strength as a writer? What about your greatest weakness? How do you overcome this weakness?

I think my greatest strength is I write with humour. No matter how hard I try to make my characters serious, I don’t always
succeed. Although let me add, the one time I set out to right a really humorous book, my character was so, so serious that I didn’t know what to do with him.

My greatest weakness…mmm….well, I have been told I must show instead of tell, and as soon as I figure out how THAT works, I will attempt to correct it.

4) Tell us about the place where you live. Have you ever derived any inspiration from your home or from anywhere you have visited?

I live in South Africa, on the West Rand in Florida – yes there is one in South Africa as well! –  South Africa is really beautiful, but so far I have not incorporated it into any of my books. I am planning to write an ‘end of the world book’ that will hinge nearly completely on my neighbourhood and surrounding areas.

5) Which book, if any, would you consider to be your greatest influence and inspiration?

I love books. Ever since my teacher in primary school (grade 5 or so) advised me to read more because it would improve my spelling (I still cannot spell to save my life!) I began to devour books. I actually don’t remember much about my high school and would probably walk right past someone who sat next to me in class and not remember them because my head was always in a book. But it was when I read Christine Feehan’s Dark Prince that I was exposed to a world that totally captivated me.

6) What drove you to write about Vampires?

Well as I said, I was totally inspired and set out to read as many vampire books as I could. But there came a day – at the time a very sad day – when I had nothing to read (sacrilege!), so I decided, why not write my own vampire book. And there you have it. The H’lix and Gorr vampires were born.

7) What do you think is the attraction for Vampire fiction? Why is it such a popular topic?
I think it is all the possibilities that it offers. There is the hot sexy men. The beautiful sultry women. Eternal life and
the selling point for me? Not having to cook or go grocery shopping again. (I am talking about the blood only vamps. Oooh, maybe I can come up with a name for them? You know, like vegetarians have? Or is there already a name for that, besides vampire I mean? What about haemotarian? Or Haemovore? Is that already taken? If not I call COPYWRITE!) Sorry, sometimes I ramble on. (Oh! Just
thought of another one! Bloody guts! Or should that be bloody gutses? Huh? Huh? What do you think? Yes? No? You can vote on it!)

8) In a fight between all the greatest Vampires of fiction, who do you think would come out on top?

Dracula. Cause he is the original (I think) so he has all the moves. Unless Jackie Chang had to be turned, then all bets are off. OR Chuck Norris. Wait, he won’t even have to be turned.

9) What about in some other contest such as sexiness or dress sense? Who would win that one?

Well my vamps are quite hot. But um let’s see…I think J R Wards

Vamps are quite sizzling in the dress department and out of it if you know what I mean. But then again, there is a lot to be said for the elegance of the vampires of old. I like leather and exposed flesh and sweaty…so either one I suppose. But I think the Black Dagger Brotherhood.2

10) How well do you think one of your characters would fare against the winner(s) of the above?
I think Devlin would stomp anyone of them if they threatened Sable. But other than that he would just smirk at them and walk
away.

11) Tell us the basic premise behind your latest novel.

If my mean my latest, latest novel, well then that is about mermaids. It should be on Amazon as we speak. Mermaid’s Cove. Sorry vampire fans!! But I do have a number of vampire books in the pipeline, including the really serious vamp one and book 2 and 3 and 4 etc of the Surrender Series. Dark Surrender should be out by June 2013. But to get back to my latest novel, it hinges around a piece of land that the mer-people desperately need to keep safe, so to ‘protect’ it from the greedy humans, they have drawn up a contract with the land owners, that basically states that the land can never be sold etc. but the current land owner, knows nothing about the contract because his parents were killed before he could be told.