Q+A with Nessie Strange
EJ: When did you begin writing?
Nessie: I started writing at a very young age—I can remember coming up with stories when I was in grade school and receiving praise for my imagination. Having always been an avid reader, I guess it felt natural for me to want to craft my own stories. It wasn’t until my early twenties, however, when I finished my first novel, that I thought of trying to publish my work.
EJ: What brought you to the paranormal genre?
Nessie: I could probably blame my family for that, haha. I can remember my dad watching horror movies and those monster movies from the 1950’s when I was a kid. He also had lots of Stephen King books on the shelf. That being said, I’ve always been interested in things that stretch the imagination, and I think paranormal fits that bill. Quite simply, I write things I would like to read, and I love reading about real world situations that have a touch of the magical or the unknown. With writing fiction you can make anything happen, while you must also make it appear believable enough that a reader will buy into it. Vampires, zombies, werewolves, dragons—it doesn’t really matter what the creature is—our job as writers is to bring them to life. That can be a huge challenge, especially when you want to bring something unique to the table. So much has already been done. How do we as writers make it new? How do we keep it interesting? It’s almost like solving a puzzle.
EJ: If you could be any paranormal or have any one supernatural talent, what would it be? Why?
Nessie: I think shape-shifting would be pretty cool, especially if you could change into whatever you wanted. The possibilities are really endless. I think it would give a whole new perspective on life.
EJ: Tell us why readers will enjoy your new release.
Nessie: I hope that readers will appreciate that it’s unique. Living Dead Girl is unusual in that it’s not your typical urban fantasy, and it doesn’t follow any genre conventions. Actually, the paranormal aspect doesn’t come into play until the mid-point of the book. I really wrestled with that when I was writing it, the fear that UF fans would get impatient, but it was the way I envisioned the story and I told it the way it needed to be told. My hope is that UF fans will come into it with an open mind and see it for what it is—Jen’s story. That, and it’s a slightly different take on zombies than we’re used to seeing, as there’s no virus and no dystopian setting.
EJ: If your book(s) were being made into a movie, who would you cast for the leading roles? Why?
Nessie: I’ve been asked this before, and to be honest, I have no idea! I’m so picky about so many little things, and I can’t say that there are any specific actors or actresses that make me say OMG IT MUST BE YOU. I think if it was ever made into a movie, I’d be more concerned that the actors or actresses were able to capture the essence of the characters themselves.
Living Dead Girl by Nessie Strange
Jen MacLellan has hit a dead end…
Jen knows tattooed, blue-haired Jack Norris is trouble the minute he opens his front door. And being a mortician in the avante garde East Side of Providence, Jen has seen a lot. Jack has recruited Jen’s teenage brother Drew to play drums for his less-than-respectable punk band, and Jen has no choice but to follow their gigs to keep her little brother out of trouble. But when Drew goes missing, she finds herself in the awkward position of asking for Jack’s help. Shocked that he agrees, Jen decides she may have misjudged him. Worse, she might even like him.
But when Jen is brutally attacked, she awakens in the hospital where a Sid Vicious look-alike greets her with the news: she’s dead, and he’s the reaper assigned to take her away. Yeah, not so much. Refusing to leave, Jen’s spirit watches helplessly as her loved ones suffer, powerless to ease her family’s grief or prevent the police from accusing Jack of her murder. Desperate to help them, Jen convinces the reaper to bring her back. But reanimating corpses isn’t as easy as it looks, and neither is finding a killer before it’s too late…
Release Date: January 17, 2014
Add to Goodreads.
Thank you Nessie for joining us here today at From the Shadows!
To learn more about Nessie Strange and her books, please visit her Goodreads page.
I love your blog. There are so many awesome recommendations for me to check! I love it.
ReplyDelete