I have a question about the Free Gifts thing. If it's at random does that mean you just look at the members list and pick randomly?

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http://www.bookrix.com/_ebook-kristina-m-peaine-beyond-the-cellar-door/

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Today we have indie author nafaeria24 here. She is the author of the famous young adult, Vampire Queen Series. This series has been a hit on Bookrix as well as Wattpad and recently decided to republish her books which will be available on her site. Interviewing has been a delight for I am also a fan of her work and I as well as her readers are intrigued to get to know the face behind these amazing books!

What inspired you to write?
I started writing as a way to deal with life. School wasn’t a great space for me growing up, I was bullied by students simply because I wasn’t wired the way they were. I wasn’t into the latest music or fashion trends like they were. I grew up reading. Books were important to me so because of it I was labeled an outsider. I relied on writing to literally keep me sane. In the beginning writing was just a way to cope with everything but soon after writing became a way of life, almost like breathing. The more I wrote the more everything seemed to make sense to me. It was like writing unlocked the secrets of the universe for me. Writing out what I thought or felt made dealing with everything else much more easy for me. It was like I could look at the situation and break it down to its rawest form. So after I stop over thinking and over analyzing every little detail the words just came to me.

I like to think of myself as a hopeless romantic and so I started writing about love, but not the Hollywood version of love but real honest to God love. You know sometimes you don’t get the happy ending and even if you do the road to that ending is treacherous. After a few love stories my mom gave me permission to read Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I had to be around nine or ten at the time. I absolutely fell in love with it then I got this idea to mash my two favorite topics, the supernatural and romance, together and from that moment on I’ve been writing about it ever since.

What genre do you normally write in? Also, is there a genre you've always wanted to write in, but don't feel you could pull it off?
I would have to say the genre I use is a mixture of everything. I think a good story has the best parts of every genre in it. I want to take the reader on a journey. For drama I want the readers to bond with the characters and feel like they’ve known them for years. I want the readers to instantly get what’s going on inside the character’s heads and know the flaws they contain. Then I shift gears to a bit of comedy. I think making a person laugh is important so I like to insert bits of comedic relief when the situation calls for it.

As for horror I try to use the environment as much as possible. Dark alleys aren’t there just for decoration. Also I use character backgrounds. Yeah the character may look like roses and sunshine on the outside but it’s not until you venture a bit further do you really see the horror inside a person. I like to sprinkle action accordingly. You don’t want it to be all action because then the story won’t make any sense and it goes nowhere. We need drama, comedy and horror to build to the action or at least that’s how I see it.

Do you ever base your characters on people you know?
Surprisingly no, I like to think of myself as being mentally unstable. The difference between being mentally unstable and crazy is being mentally unstable you know something is wrong with you and you embrace it. Being crazy you have no idea you’re nuts. That being said I think my mental instability has allowed me to be very creative with characters. I like to base characters on different facets of my personality and when I create them I don’t just create names for them. I literally give them life history. Not only do I create a background for them I have to have a face with the name and background. So I do searches for pictures until I find just the right face that matches what I need. The only things I borrow from people I know are their names. The more unique the name the better.

What advice would you give to someone who was just starting off in writing?
Write what you know. Write about what you love. Write about what makes you happy. Don’t change what you love to please other people. Yeah you want them to like your work but ultimately you are writing for yourself. When outsiders get and understand the vision you’ve created you get a bubbly euphoric feeling. It’s not from people liking your work but from others understand where you are coming from. If you’re tired of writing about what you know research. RESEARCH!!! Don’t start writing about Paris unless you’ve put in the time to learn about Paris . You can have the best story idea in the world but it won’t mean a thing if you can’t back it up with facts. Make the reader believe your words.

How did you come up with the title's?
Honestly I have no idea. I would love to say I have some super creative process I use but I don’t. I base my titles off of the general subject of the stories I write. I try not to be too obvious to give away the plot but not so obscure that it leaves the reader scratching their heads. Usually when I choose a title for a book I stick with it.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
I think the message I want to get out there is… don’t underestimate the power you hold. We are a lot stronger than we realize. Family first, second and last. Believe in the possibility of the unknown.

What is your favorite book to write and why?
My favorite book to write is… the underdog champion. The one people didn’t see coming. The one that knocks you flat on your back and leaves you wanting to know what’s gonna happen next. The kind of book where the reader thinks they know where the story is going only to have the story flip inside out, upside down and played in reverse.

If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
Stephanie Meyer. There are so many rules nowadays making it harder and harder to be and write the way you want. Reading the Twilight Saga really opened my eyes because it was the first time for me I found an author who really understood being unconventional. I consider Bella to fall in the category of the mentally unstable. She knows she’s not wrapped too tight but she’s okay with it. You don’t find many characters that are willing to showcase their worse attributes to the world. Many editors and publishers tell you that you have to make your characters likable and relatable but when you read these books they aren’t relatable. Stephanie Meyer to me made me more comfortable with showing off my weirdness. I’ve officially raised my freak flag and I’m proud to let it fly.

Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?
When I decided to start writing the Vampire Queen Chronicles full time I kind of fell off the reading wagon. I can say that a few of my favorite authors include but are not limited to Stephanie Meyers, P.C. Cast, Alyxandra Harvey, Catherine Coulter, Amanda Quick, Anne Rice and literally so many more.

Can you share a little of your current work with us?
Currently I’m working on Zaholin’s Solstice: The Year of Revenge and a new story called The Unexpected Love. The first title is the fifth book of the Vampire Queen Chronicle series. The second title is from my Rainbow Love series featuring LGBT themed stories. I decided to write LGBT themed stories because I have a lot of LGBT friends. After I’ve finished with the Vampire Queen Chronicles I’ll be focusing my time on the Rainbow Love series and my new upcoming series called the Reaper Chronicles.

Have you had to kill off some characters? If so has it been difficult parting with them?
You would think killing off a piece of yourself would be hard but it wasn’t… surprisingly it’s very easy. My characters don’t really die. They merely vacation. Depending on the mood or situation of the book they may or may not come back.

If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?
No. I like to write it the way it I see it in my mind. The way I perceive it is how I want to write it.

What were the challenges (research, literary, psychological, and logistical) in bringing it to life?
The first challenge was time. I work full time so finding time to write is my main concern. At first I was only able to write on the weekend because that’s when I’m off. Now I just take my laptop with me everywhere and write when I get a break. My second challenge was making the supernatural aspects of the story sound more authentic and scientifically sound. Sometimes authors created fantasy worlds where unbelievable things are able to happen. I think they get so caught up in the possibility of creation they lose sight of making the unbelievable realistic.

No matter how far-fetched a concept is you try not to contradict yourself. You don’t want to state one truth only to have it disproved by another truth. When creating lore for my fantasy worlds I try to blend the supernatural and the scientific world together. I want the reader to think ‘Oh wow… that could happen in real life.’ Not have the reader feel like you were just writing any old thing to take up space on the page. My third challenge would be writing itself. I write the way I hear the conversation in my head. Just because I love writing and reading don’t assume that my work is flawless. I’m not a stickler for sentence structures, punctuation marks and etc.

This question was posed by a fellow author and I loved it so much I decided to throw it into the mix. Oh no! One of your characters has escaped. Luckily, I have caught them! I will interrogate them with the help of a lie detector. Welcome! Take a seat, make yourself comfortable. You will be returning to your book once this is over.

What's your name?
Well to be honest that’s kind of a complicated question. The human name I was given at the time of my second birth is Corriander Felicia Brennaur. The name I was giving during my first birth is Corriand Feldaria Kistarrian. Despite all that I rather you call me Corrie.

Where are you from?
I was born in Atlanta, Georgia the second time but originally I’m from a country called DaSekiana. It’s now known as Canada. I lived there with my mother as an infant before she took my soul and hid it in space and time to keep me safe.

What is your role in the book?
I exist in the Vampire Queen Chronicles as the female protagonist. I am the fifth generation of the Kistarrian household a well-known and prominent family in the supernatural world. My lineage boost some pretty awesome achievements but also some dark failures. I was born destined to take the separate supernatural bloodlines (Vampire, Wiccan, Were, Elf, Faery and Wizard) and united them as one. Each member of my family represents one of the five elements. I was born into the element spirit. Spirit has the ability to bind the other elements together. Think of me as the glue keeping everyone as one big happy family. It’s my job to make sure that the new donning age of supernatural’s come to be and prevent forces of evil from destroying the world as we know it.

Tell us why we would enjoy reading your books?
You aren’t ever giving the same thing twice. There is something new in each book, something you didn’t know before. Each book raises the bar each time making you the reader wonder can it get any better than this. There are surprises and pitfalls at every turn. The relationship dynamics between the characters is something you could very well identify with. Even though the story and plot deals with the supernatural you never forget that the creatures within all that started out as humans.

Links for books and/or sites
I don’t have any of the Vampire Queen Chronicle books up for viewing because they are being edited but I do have three of the Rainbow Love stories up on Wattpad. If you want to check them out look me up at http://www.wattpad.com/user/nafaeria24.

Oh Noooo....The Bus Is Right On Time.-Mr. Bill (The Clay Man)

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