Q+A with Michele Drier
EJ: When did you begin writing?
Michele: I’m not even sure. I’ve always loved to read and during my career as a journalist, had bits, scraps, notes and a partial manuscript in my desk drawer. About 35 years ago I entered a partial in the Jackson-Phelan Young California Writer contest. It was a story of growing up surrounded by aging ladies and learning to find one’s self in the world.
I didn’t win anything because that was the year that Anne Rice won for Interview with the Vampire. At the time, I didn’t realize it was karma, a weird seismic alignment, some kind of strange fate. And no, I didn’t start writing paranormal until 2011.
EJ: What brought you to the paranormal genre?
Michele: My daughter and son-in-law. I was happy because I’d just contracted for my first book, a traditional mystery. Like almost every writer, I had a file folder full of rejections from agents and publishers and the contract from the small press was validation that I wasn’t the crazy cat lady down the block!
After jumping up and down and shouting for a few hours, I called my daughter and her husband. He said, “Why don’t you write a vampire novel? Nobody reads mysteries.”
He was wrong about mysteries, but right about vampires. Once I began the stories of the Kandesky vampires, I was hooked.
The Kandeskys are a 500-year-old group of vampires from Hungary who slowly added members as they amassed a fortune in business and trade. They accumulated wealth until today, in the 21st century, they own SNAP, a multinational conglomerate built on celebrity gossip. There are nightly TV shows in North America, South America and all over Europe and a weekly magazine published in twenty languages.
Kandesky Holdings own other businesses as well, but SNAP provides the bulk of their income, now putting them among the richest in the Western world.
They’re urbane, sexy, work hard and play hard and I’m excited to get up in the morning and join them in their world. It’s a whole lot more fun than doing laundry and mopping floors and feeding the cat!
EJ: If you could be any paranormal or have any one supernatural talent, what would it be? Why?
Michele: That’s difficult. All paranormals have assets and drawbacks. I think I’d like to be a vampire because I’d heal faster, never gain weight and be around for a long time to find out what happens! Then again, living for centuries could get tiring.
EJ: Tell us why readers will enjoy your new release.
Michele: My newest release, SNAP: White Nights, introduces a new couple, Jazz and Nik, and helps Maxie make a decision. Maxie is a regular, the Managing Editor of SNAP magazines. She falls for Jean-Louis, the art director who is also second-in-command of the Kandesky family of vampires. He wants to marry her and turn her, but she can’t give up sunshine, the beach and good food.
In SNAP: White Nights, Jean-Louis and Nik, the third-in-command of the family, finally lure the last of their rival family, the Huszars, to death and Maxie finds peace. But the heat’s increasing for Nik and Jazz, the woman who took over Maxie’s job at SNAP when Maxie moved to Europe to be with Jean-Louis.
Will Maxie agree to marry Jean-Louis and be turned to a vampire? Will Jazz give up her Southern California life and sunlight to stay with Nik, a vampire and arms dealer who spends his time in the shadowy black and grey markets of weapons trading?
Fans and reviewers have called SNAP: White Nights, Book Seven of The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles, the best of the series so far.
EJ: If your book(s) were being made into a movie, who would you cast for the leading roles? Why?
Michele: Ian Somerhalder as Jean-Louis
Amy Adams as Maxie
Valorie Curry as Jazz
Paul Wesley as Nik
The Kandeskys are beautiful, mesmerizing creatures, most of whom were turned in their late twenties and early thirties. They’re grown-ups who have seen centuries of history and learned to grow and adapt with the times.
The actors should be mature enough to carry that sense of history, but the women, who are regulars and professionals, need to still have some naiveté when they run into vampires and danger.
SNAP: White Nights (The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles #7) by Michele Drier.
Nik, the third-in-command of the Hungarian Kandesky vampire family, has been handling the family's interests in Czech munition factories for upwards of four hundred years. He's been a contented bachelor, throwing himself into business until Jazz strolls into his life. Jazz is Maxie Gwenoch's successor as the managing editor for SNAP, the international celeb gossip magazine, another Kandesky company. Maxie, Nik, Jazz and Jean-Louis, the Kandesky second-in-command, are headed to Moscow to assess the business potential for a SNAP Russian bureau, until an old enemy shows up. Set against the tensions between Ukraine and Russia, the short Russian nights teach Maxie to cherish her time with Jean-Louis while Jazz faces her own questions about loving a vampire.
Release date: March 17, 2014
Genre: Paranormal Romance
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Thank you Michele for joining us here today at From the Shadows!
To learn more about Michele Drier and her books, please visit her website.
Thanks so much for talking with me today, E.J. It's been a pleasure!
ReplyDeleteThe pleasure was all mine! :)
DeleteEnjoyed this interview. Clearly you were meant to write about vampires, Michele, since you're so good at it!
ReplyDeleteI love Michele's books. They have just gotten better and better. I expect All That Jazz to be even better than White Nights. Thanks for bringing this author and her Kandesky Vampires to the attention of readers.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Debera, Michele's Kandesky Vampire series has improved to the point where I am a total fan of her good vamps and can't wait find out if Maxie and Jean-Louis wed and Maxie changes. I'm also holding my breath to see how Jazz and Nik work out their differences...love is definitely in the air with both those couples!
ReplyDeleteFollowing the Kandesky clan is like having a history lesson with a twist come alive off the page--and in a much more thrilling way than back in high school!
ReplyDeleteFollowing Anne Rice was a good thing, and has turned into a fabulous series of the Kandesky clan. Being a vampire who never gained weight would be something that I could aspire to. Never aging? Not bad either. Going to take your books with me on a cruise next year. Being Hungarian, you write dear to my heart!
ReplyDeleteThanks all! I really appreciate the caring and support...and the Kandeskys will continue.
ReplyDeleteLove the Kandeskys. It so fun to see the Old world adapt and succeed in the new. It's s refreshing change from the typical vampire falls for normal story. Plus you start to really care about the success of SNAP.
ReplyDelete