Author Interview with Tate Hallaway (Includes Contest)

There are an amazing amount of new releases this week that I have on pre-order. The newest book from my author guest this week is just one of them.

Tate Hallaway is well know for her Paranormal series about Garnet Lacey but now she is making her self known as a Paranormal YA author with her Vampire Princess of St. Paul series. I really enjoyed the first book ALMOST TO DIE FOR and can't wait to see what happens next in Book two. ALMOST FINAL CURTAIN is due out this week and I am looking forward to catching up with Anastasija Parker.

Want to know more? Read the interview and get to know the author and her books! Enjoy!

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Amber - Welcome to Amberkatze's Book Blog! It is great to have you here as a guest! Could you start things off by telling us a little about your Vampire Princess series?

Tate - The main character, Ana Parker, is sixteen, living in St. Paul, Minnesota, and is just your average dhamyr – half-witch, half-vampire. Unfortunately for Ana, vampires and witches are at war.

Amber - The second book Almost Final Curtain is due out soon. What is Ana going to get up to now that she knows she is a half-vampire- half-witch?

Tate - Try out for the school play…. And save the universe, of course!

Here’s what the back cover copy says: Ever since high school student Anastasija Parker discovered she was vampire royalty, her life has been sort of crazy. The half-vampire- half-witch just wants some normalcy, and trying out for the spring musical seems like the perfect fix.

But when the ancient talisman that stands between vampire freedom and slavery to witches is stolen, Ana has to skip rehearsal and track down the dangerous artifact before someone uses it to make this year's curtain call her last...

Amber - How are you enjoying the YA pace? Do you find yourself writing too 'adult' sometimes?

Tate - I was going to say that I wasn’t sure there really is such a thing for YA anymore, but then I remembered the argument my editor and I got into over a scene that was eventually removed from ALMOST TO DIE FOR. Originally, I’d written in a funny scene where, during a make-out session with Nikolai, Ana’s fangs start to drop. She runs off to the bathroom. Nik thinks she’s looking for condoms in her purse. She’s trying to make her fangs retract and the whole thing is sort of a sweet-humorous comedy of misunderstandings. My editor thought that, even though Nik is a college student in this era of hook-ups and they don’t end up in bed, the scene was moving too fast and was too… adult, I guess.

Amber - Do you have any Younger Adults in your life who help you keep the series sounding and feeling young? Or are you in touch with your inner teen?

Tate - I have some friends who have teenage kids, and I partially based Ana on their daughter Maggie, who was a theatre geek, smart and funny. So, whenever I have a question about what Ana might like in terms of music or whatever, I text Maggie (who lives in Colorado.) But, I was also a theatre geek in high school, so I use a lot of my own memories of what live was like. I kept an extensive daily journal all though my high school years, and when I feel brave and am looking for inspiration I dig those out and thumb through them. But, they’re awfully embarrassing!

Amber - Will there be more books in the series? Are you working on anything else?

Tate - I’m currently working on the third book in the Ana series. Having been burned by series suddenly ending, I’ve been planning Ana as a series of series instead of “never ending.” So, the third book will be the last in the “vampire princess of St. Paul” trilogy, but I have plans, if the publisher is amenable, for another set of three which would be the “vampire queen of St. Paul” series. I figure I continue up from there to vampire empress, and maybe even vampire Goddess! J

Amber - How long on average does it take you to write a book? Do you have a process you follow? or do you just start at page one and see what happens?

Tate – Oh, I have to have a beginning, middle and end figured out for each book as part of the contractual process. I’m always working off an outline that my editor has approved before I start writing the first word. Think of it as their guarantee that I won’t get stuck in the middle, not knowing what’s supposed to happen next. J

It takes me anywhere between six and eight months to write a book. That’s also predetermined by the contract though.

Amber - How much say do you have in the book publishing process? Eg. Do you get to pick the cover? Pick the title?

Tate - I always pick the title. Sometimes the publisher will tell me to come up with a better one, but I’ve always been able to find one they like eventually. As for the cover, that’s entirely done by committee. I send along ideas, character sketches, and my preferences to my editor, who takes them to the meeting, but I’m otherwise not present and they have the final say. I see the cover once it’s been bought and paid for, so I can’t even request a change if I’m not fond of it.

Amber - What paranormal creatures are you dying to fit into a story but you haven't managed to fit in yet?

Tate – Honestly, I hadn’t considered expanding the universe beyond witches and vampires. They keep Ana plenty busy, but I’ve got a new adult book that’s coming out in which I’ll have all sorts of different creatures, including a pixie, a golem, a computer wizard (in the magical sense as well as a hacker-type) and…erm, cows. It takes place in South Dakota and will be called PRECINCT 13.

Amber - What are you listening, reading and watching lately? Is there anything you would like to recommend to us?

Tate – I’m currently reading some military SF that I’m not sure your readers will enjoy, but the last awesome YA book I read was GRACELING by Kristin Cashore. On my TBR pile is a book recommended to me by fellow writer Naomi Kritzer called THE AMULET OF SAMARKAND by Jonathan Stroud.

Amber - I recently got a Kindle and now I read almost everything on it. Do you have an e-reader yourself? What are your views on E-books?

Tate - I don’t have an e-reader yet, unless you count my partner’s iTouch. We’re seriously looking into the Color Nook, though, and I expect we’ll have one by Christmas this year, if not sooner. I think e-books are cool. I’m not one of those authors who worries that e-books are the doom and gloom of the publishing industry. Personally, I remember when people ran around screaming that MTV was going to spell the end of radio. I still listen to the radio and MTV doesn’t show music videos any more. What I think that shows is that there’s room for all sorts of book/reading technology to co-exist with hardcopy, traditional book publishing too. Things are changing, but then, they always do.

Amber - If you could visit any famous person, alive or dead, who would you visit? and why?

Tate - My son suggests Rick Riordan, who wrote the Percy Jackson series as well as the new Egyptian series that starts with RED PYRAMID. I think we could have a lovely chat over dinner about Greek myths and creating fun characters.

Amber - Thank you for visiting Amberkatze's Book Blog again!



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Contest Time

I am giving away a copy of the first book in the Vampire Princess of St. Paul series, Almost to Die for.

How To Enter

Let us know how many books do you read a year?

(Thanks to Tore for the question! You get an enter entry!)

No answer = No Entry


Earn more entries for each link you place about this contest on the net. You can post on Facebook, Twitter & MySpace but make sure you add links here for me to confirm your entries! However please do not make individual postings for each entry. Please post all your entries in one post.

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The contest will stay open until Sunday 8th of May 2011 4pm CET and the winner will be picked by a randomizer. Entrants should check back to see if they have won. I do not hunt down winners and will pick new winners for any prizes not claimed within 7 days.