Kelley Armstrong

Thanks for inviting me. Sorry I got lost mid-month there for a while! I'll definitely be stopping by again.

I don't. I have characters that, under certain moods/circumstances, I prefer to write about, and ones that are easier to write about, but not actually a favourite. Elena's easiest because I've done her the most. Eve's toughest, because I've done her much less and she's furthest from my own personality...but she's lots of fun!

I've managed to avoid this, but it's been a battle There were a couple of times with the early books when the publishers came close to going their separate ways with titles, but I argued strongly for not doing that--for the very reason you mentioned. With a global book-buying market, I know I'd get readers buying what they thought was a new book, only to discover it's an old one with a different name.

Different publishers. I'm with Bantam in the US and Little, Brown in the UK. Authors often sell world rights, meaning one company edits, designs and distributes the books in all major English-speaking markets. Others split them up. This is how my agent prefers it, and it's worked well for me. I also have a Canadian publisher (Random House) but they use the same covers because they're under the same umbrella company as Bantam. Confusing, I know. What it means for me is that each publisher can tailor their promotion, book design etc to suit their particular market. In North America, paranormal suspense/romance is hot, so my books have half-naked women and pentacles on them In the UK, fantasy sold better--though paranormals are now increasing in popularity--so my covers are more fantasy-like.

Seems my "forum tracking" stopped working. Sorry it took a while to respond! Moving to the non-supernatural was...interesting. Before Bitten came out, at least half my pre-published work was non-supernatural, but in the years following, the only other piece I did was a mystery short story for an anthology put together by Karin Slaughter. As that might suggest, mystery/crime is my second genre love. When I switch to the crime novels, it's a refreshing change of pace, which I really need to keep up my interest level. I write one of these, and by the time I'm done, I'm excited about getting back to the Otherworld. With the crime, it's nice to follow set rules in a "normal" world (I need to research everything and keep it real) With the Otherworld, it's nice to be able to make my own rules A good balance!

She's been mentioned when people are thinking who'd work as Elena and I agree she's closer to the look. And, like Elena, she's Canadian, which is always a plus with me

Sorry I'm late with this! I was off promoting for the weekend and I'm just catching up now. I have no say in the American covers. I see it when it's done Canada usually uses the US covers, but if they do their own (as with Bitten/Stolen) they let me see and comment. When they redid Stolen, they had a woman's face with blood on her lips. I commented that it suggested a vampire, and they agreed and changed it. I do have input into the UK covers. Someone outside the publisher connected me with the artist (Dominic Harman). When he's ready to do a cover, he asks me for suggestions and sends me samples, which is very cool. Just saw the proposed cover art for book 8 (Personal Demon) and it's very, very good

I'm happy to be here! And I'm happy Kell persuaded you to give the books a try. They can be a tough sell. As soon as someone says "werewolves" people get a distinct impression of what they are about...and usually run the other way

Well, that's probably easier for him than it is for me, because when I walk into a store, I never know where I'll find my books I've seen them in fiction, fantasy, horror, romance and mystery. If they shelve all the paranormal in one section, though, I'm usually followed by Keri Arthur, whom I have met and chatted with--lovely lady, great books I take constructive criticism very well. I know I'm far from perfect and I want to improve. Reviews sometimes have constructive criticism--the kind that says "this worked and this didn't" and I can learn from that. But just as often they have the type of witty/snarky criticism that's intended to entertain readers, not help authors improve, which is fine because that's really who reviews are for--readers. So there are some I read and some I stay away from The best source of my criticism is editors, writing group members and readers.

Hard to say because I don't picture actors when I create my characters. There's an online graphic novella slowly unfolding on my site right now and conveying my images of the characters to the artist was tough--I kept sending her actor pictures saying, "he looks kind of like this, but the nose is more xx and the chin is more yy and the eyes are more zz" Drove her nuts, I'm sure When Bitten was in development (it no longer is) Angelina Jolie was signed to play my werewolf lead Elena. While she doesn't physically resemble Elena--a "tie her hair back with an elastic band" blonde with a boyish, athletic build--Jolie seemed to be genuinely interested the part, and that's more important to me than matching the description. Interest in the role and the ability to project the character's personality would be my main critieria...not that I'd have any say in choosing actors, should any of my films head for the big screen

My favourite would have to be the werewolves. I wrote about them first because I was most interested in them, and only moved away because I was afraid, by book 5 or so, I'd lose that interest! It would be fun to explore other "were-animals" but I was afraid it would become just as repetitious as doing non-stop werewolves, so I decided to stick with just the one type for now. No secret information? Damn I call myself a reluctant skeptic. I'm absolutely fascinated by the paranormal and the possibility of its existence, but whenever I see "proof," I can always come up with other explanations. Maybe that makes me a good person to write about a world where no one believes supernaturals exist, and explain away anything they see

I'm fine, thanks! Honestly, "where do you find your inspiration" is always a tough question to answer. The simple response is that I'm inspired to create my own stories, which is I think is the motivation for most writers. I started reading early and wanted to write my own stories, and I've been doing it ever since. It's become part of my life--and one of my favourite parts--so while I might not be as motivated by "wanting to create my own stories" these days, I couldn't really even say what inspires me to sit down and write--only that I love doing it, the way others love to play the piano or paint.

For choosing what "races," I'd include, I just went with the ones I was most interested in. Vampires almost got left out because I really didn't feel I could add to the vampire myth, but I was persuaded to include them. Shamans I did include, then didn't find a lot of use for...as readers may have noticed. Most of my rules decisions were based on boring practicality and realism. For example, with werewolves, if you needed a silver bullet to kill them, the logical part of me says "okay, so if they get flattened by a transport truck, do they just crawl away to heal? Wouldn't someone notice?" Or with the vampires, having them only out at night made things very inconvenient when I needed them working with other races--are the meetings only at night? can they only help at night? There is mythology with vampires who have no reaction to daylight, so I used that. In other cases, it was "which part of the legend interests me most or could provide the best plots." Now Wraith I might get away with as a name. I recently tried to run a "get your name in the Otherworld" contest, only to discover that because I'd be running it from Canada, I hit all kinds of legal hurdles.

Hi, Kell! I've been writing for as long as I can remember. I started reading at a young age, and quickly wanted to tell my own stories. It wasn't until my early twenties, though, that I moved beyond "writing for fun" and starting taking courses, joining writing groups, etc, trying to improve in hopes of someday getting published. I'm not sure I still feel like a real author I've always felt like a writer. To me, author means "professional." I am (well, in the strictest sense of the word ) I write full-time. But when I dreamed of getting published, I dreamed of someday getting a book or two out, maybe writing part-time. Being able to do it full-time seemed too lofty a goal. So I guess I still struggle with accepting that I've "made it." I'm wary of getting comfortable with it, which can be a good thing in that it keeps me striving to improve and try new things, stretching myself as a writer.