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Featured Author - Raven Hart


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Raven Hart



Website

 

Reviews:

The Vampire's Seduction

The Vampire's Secret

 

Interview

Competition

 

Although Raven isn't that well known, I'm a big fan of her vampire books, and a few others on here have read and enjoyed. They couldn't really be classed as horror, but they certainly don't fit into 'chick lit' or 'paranormal romance'. To me, they seem to slip into a genre all by themselves...

 

Maybe Raven can explain how she classifies the books.. she'll be with us for the month, answering questions, and sharing a little about her books.

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Thank you, Michelle! And happy birthday! Everyone join in in singing Michelle the virtual birthday song--"Happy birthday to you. . . "

 

I wanted to say a brief hello for now. I'll be holding forth about this and that as the month goes on. Feel free to ask me any questions you wish!

 

Love,

Raven

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Hi Raven,

 

I read alot of vampire books but the question I wanted to ask is how do you react to feedback from your readers? If, for example, they say they don't like something one of your characters is doing or they think you could improve your books by doing something? Would you take on board what they've said or would you carry on doing it?

 

Cheers,

 

Wraith.

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Hi Raven. I'm another fan of all things vampiric and my question relates to the mythos behind vampires. Just about every book that features vampires has a different set of "rules" - how did you go about deciding which ones would apply to your vampires and which ones would be dismissed?

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Great question, Wraith. I take readers' views very seriously and I treat them similar to the way I'd treat a critiquer's comments. If only one person told me they hated something in the book, I might not make a change. If two readers told me they hated something, I'd consider changing it. If several readers told me they hated something I would probably change it.

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Michelle, it's hard to say how to categorize the books. I thought of the first book as horror. But as the series has continued, it's turned more into romantic paranormal. I do think it's a bit scarier than a lot of the other romantic paranormals out there, though.

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Great question, Wraith. I take readers' views very seriously and I treat them similar to the way I'd treat a critiquer's comments. If only one person told me they hated something in the book, I might not make a change. If two readers told me they hated something, I'd consider changing it. If several readers told me they hated something I would probably change it.

 

Thanks for your answer. My main reason for asking was some vampire authors seem to take everything to heart. Anne Rice had her famous rant on Amazon because someone gave her a negative review and my favourite author Laurell K Hamilton basicly said the opposite of what you just said.

 

Thanks, W :)

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Kell, I found creating the "rules" for the RH books VERY challenging. You want to give your vamps certain powers, but they can't be powerful enough to be able to zap all their enemies, or you won't be able to put the vamps in jeopardy.

 

Other than that, what you can do with your vamps is pretty unlimited. You're pretty much free to do what you want as long as you remain consistent and remember to actually follow your own rules. That's actually harder than it sounds. I can't ever remember if my vampires breath or have heartbeats! :)

 

I really like traditional vamps, so I borrowed from existing lore from everybody from Bram Stoker to Anne Rice. That is, they can't see their reflections, have to be invited in, that sort of thing. I was also a big Buffy fan and would love to eventually have a whole variety of demons like Joss Whedon did.

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Wraith, what did LKH say? I'm a big fan of hers too. I've liked all of her books. I've tried to read them in order and I'm now on Narcissus in Chains. I've read the first two or three fairy books and I like those too. I have heard readers of hers complain that her books now seem to be one big sex scene. But most of her readers must really like how the books are going because she sells tons of them. I don't know how she does it. I find writing about sex really difficult, but she seems to always figure out fresh ways to write about sex.

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She wrote something on her blog in reply to someone moaning in her chatroom and some emails she'd been sent Dear Negative Reader. I find it quite annoying that she says I'm not a proper fan because I don't like the sex scenes.

 

The thing is I love her earlier books but I find it hard to read some of the 85 page long sex scenes in her newer ones.

 

As Anita once said "I don't date vampires, I kill them" now she doesn't kill anything or date, just does the wild thing.

 

Would you say LKH inspired you?

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Thanks for sending the link to LKH's post. I found it highly interesting. As far as whether she inspired me, I think that her earlier books did, yes. I just can't believe the action and the pacing of those books. You were always so breathless because jeopardy was coming at Anita from all sides. She'd be fighting off three or four enemies and you'd realize she'd been up for 72 hours straight or something and it actually make me exhausted because I identified with her so much. I liked the characters, dialog, the world she created, all of it. I haven't gotten yet to the later books that some people are objecting to. But I really like the ones I've read so far.

 

Anne Rice has influenced me a lot too. Bram Stoker still holds up amazingly well also. I really like scary horror, but when I sit down to write, I seem to come up with more humor than horror.:)

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To be honest I much prefer funny horror and characters like Anita. In my experience humour in a tough situation is one of the best coping methods.

 

Thanks for answering the questions. I'll actually read one of your books tomorrow :smile2: and have more Q's

 

W :)

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Hi Raven. I'm reading the book that you sent me at the moment. I was hoping to finish it, but my time has been taken up the last 2 weeks by setting my new baby into the house. I'm now managing to read some each day.

 

The first question I thought of is similar to Michelle's. Where did your inspiration for the book come from, in particular, although vampires are probably expected to be male, is there anything in particular that inspired you to write male characters as the main ones?

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Michelle and Icecream,

The orignial idea for the two male characters and the series came from my writing partner for the first two books, who died suddenly of an annyeurism about a year ago, a couple of months before the first book came out. We had belonged to the same writers' club for years and knew that I liked vampires--Buffy, Anne Rice, that sort of thing. She asked if I would be interested in writing a vampire series with her and of course I said yes.

 

She said that she had this idea about two male vampires in Savannah who needed each other to survive but didn't necessarily get along all that well. One was a rich, society guy and the other a southern-fried good-old-boy. She asked me which one I wanted to write and I picked the working class boy. And from then we were off and running.

 

Gin also wanted to have some kind of lore where sex between male and female vampires had some consequences when it came to vampiric power. So we worked it out to where females draw power from males during the act.

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Sorry for the tardiness of my reply, Michelle. I'm not getting all the emails that alert me to posts.

 

I tought up the irrregulars because I love quirky secondary characters and because I thought Jack needed some good-old-boy buddies to interact with. They can also serve as informants and can participate in plot lines. Jerry, one of the nonhumans, as a bigger role in book 3 as a matter of fact. I think you'll enjoy that. I did anyway. :-)

 

I really like Huey, and he was a total afterthought. If you've read the advance chapter for "The Vampire's Secret" that's printed in the back of "The Vampire's Seduction" you already know that he might not be really and truly dead. What happened to him in book 2 was a total surprise to me that happened as I was writing that very scene. I then used him in what I think is an entertaining way in book 3.

 

If the series goes on long enough, I plan to use the other irregulars more, and add one or two along the way.

 

For those who have read book 1 (and/or had an advance look at book 2) what do you think of the irregulars?

 

susan

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I LOVED what happened to Huey in book 2.. the humour was great, and just typical of the sort of thing that happens to Jack.

 

I think once you start dealing with the likes of vampires, it makes sense to have characters such as shape shifters etc.. it's certainly done well in other books. It also offers a slight break from the vamps. I have a personal fondness for Daylaud and Reyha.. their love and loyalty is so strong.

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Obviously the amount of sex in a book is a very personal preference of the reader.. was it something you and your partner sat and discussed before you started, or did it just develop along with the books?

 

Then, on a different subject, are the books set near where you live? if so, do you find it easier to write about areas you know?

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Micelle, I knew there would be sex in the books, but I didn't know HOW much until my writing partner started sending me her scenes to read and I knew I had to keep up. :-) It mostly just developed.

 

Savannah is not all that near where I live. (4 hours or so) I wish I could go there more. If any of you in the UK get the chance to visit the southern U.S. I encourage you to come to Savannah. It's absolutely beautiful. The flowers alone are worth the trip in the spring. I have a trip scheduled for Savannah in June and I'm going to take a lanternlight tour of Bonaventure cemetery near where Jack lives. I've explored the beautiful forest cemetery on my own, but have never had a guided tour and never at night!

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Hi Raven,

 

First of all, I would like to say I recently won a signed copy of The Vampire's Seduction on this forum and am currently enjoying it very much. So, thank you for the opportunity of reading your book.

 

My question is do you have a plan for the series? Do you already know how it will end, if it will end at all? Do you write knowing you have to lead the story to a certain event? I was just interested to know if you have a plan, or is it developing as you write each book.

 

Thank you for taking the time to come here and answer our questions.

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Hi! I'm glad you like the book. You pose an excellent question. It's something I'm always curious about when I read books by others. In a very high-level way, I know what's going to happen. For me the answer is a little of both. In other words, I know the "big" events in the book and I fill in the smaller events, feelings and reactions of the characters, as I go along. The more I get to know my characters and what makes them tick, the easier it gets in a way. I do with with an outline, but it evolves constantly. I tweak it so much I have it up on my screen the whole time I'm writing on a chapter. I just got a wide-screen monitor to make this easier.

 

As far as the series as a whole is concerned, of course the success (or lack there of) of the books will determine how many there will be. I don't have the series planned too far in advance. I have only some ideas that I think would be shocking/entertaining/pleasing to the reader that I will narrow down and select from if I get the opportunity to write more books.

 

In the meantime I will let the "big" ideas ferment (fester?) in my mind until I get a green light.

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