Stacey Voss
The Title of Your Work or Group:
The And Blood Series (Thunder and Blood – April 2009, Madness and Blood – May 2016)
Where are you from?
I’m from Thunder Bay, Ontario. Most people don’t know where that is. We’re in Canada and about six hours north of Minneapolis.
In what genre do you write?
I write New Adult Paranormal Fantasy.
.In your own words, what is your book about? If you were not the author and trying to explain this awesome book you just read to a friend, what would you say about it?
Thunder and Blood is a trans-dimensional vampire novel. Two sisters from our own world are transported to a parallel Earth where vampires are real and took over the planet in the 1500’s. They are separated almost immediately and they not only have to fight to reunite, but also have to somehow struggle to accept what has happened to them. The entire society is different—blood is currency and regions are controlled by vicious Vampire Lords.
What is your writing style? Do you follow all guides and rules? Synopsis, outline etc. or do you just sit down at the computer and type to see what happens.
When I write, I generally just start. Writing Thunder and Blood was a much different experience from writing Madness and Blood. I wrote Thunder and Blood during the 30-day Nanowrimo challenge in 2007. Madness and Blood I started writing in 2009, but stopped when I got pregnant. I had promised my readers the sequel in May 2010 and, ironically, that’s when my son was born. My life was taken up by baby stuff for the most part of the next year, and then I wrote periodically over the next few years while helping other authors to publish. I finally finished writing Madness and Blood on Feb. 1st. Luckily I had most of the last bit plotted out. The last 15,000 worlds just flew out.
Have you ever written anything and thought; " The world has got to see this!" ?
I’m not sure if I ever felt that the world had to see something I wrote. I have felt that certain people would like it, but I’ve never been so confident that I felt the world had to see it.
Do you have an editor and Cover Designer or do you do this yourself?
I have both an editor and a cover designer. Right now, both books are going through both processes. I’m pretty confident that Thunder and Blood won’t require more than a few typo corrections, but I have a new editor and want to make sure she knows the back story before moving on to Madness and Blood. I figure that I might as well rebrand the entire series before the new book comes out and this is a chance to fix any old mistakes.
My cover designer is awesome. She’s come up with a whole bunch of concepts and now we’re just fine tuning and making final decisions. If you like, you can weigh in on which cover you prefer in the comments. We’ll have a big cover reveal in a few weeks.
Who is your favorite author. Not just someone that you read allot. I wanna know whose book you read that made you suddenly know that if you didn't do this for the rest of your life then you would never be happy.
I really don’t have one favorite author. I have several at any one time. I knew I wanted to be a writer when I was five. I think my main author at that time was Roald Dahl. My grade one teacher freaked out when she asked me to go down to the library to grab the copy of James and the Giant Peach that I’d read. I came back with the novel, rather than the picture book. I also read a lot of Beverly Cleary.
Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
The hardest thing for me is sitting down and letting the words come out. The stories bubble in my mind, but I have a hard time sitting still enough to focus on the story and only the story. Just while writing this post, I’ve been watching Netflix and posting on Twitter and Facebook. ADD much? Oh yeah.
Do you write your characters or do they write themselves through you?
Once I do sit down and start, though, the characters do start to write themselves. I tend to get consumed by the story once I’ve made the commitment to sit down and write. It’s great once I reach that point because the story just flows. If I get stuck on anything, I either take a bath in the dark or sit in the sauna and just let my mind wander and wait for the characters to tell me what happens next.
Do you ever write yourself into the characters?
I have to admit that one of my main characters is a little like me. Sarah is more who I was in my early 20s. Starting with her made it easier for me to get into the heads of my other characters.
Is writing your full time job or are you "Keeping your day job"? So to speak.
I’ve had some health issues in the last year, so I don’t have a full-time, out-of-the-house job. Rather than saying that writing is my full-time job (although by the end of the month it might very well be) I tend to say that taking care of my family is my full-time job.
If you could go back in time and meet one famous person or legend in history, who would it be?
If I could go back in time to meet one legend, it would be Leonardo Da Vinci. He was such a fascinating guy and worked in an enormously diverse range of fields.
There are millions of new books released every year. What in your mind makes yours stand out from all those millions in your genre?
I think the world I’ve created is different. This is a world mired in the middle ages and where vampires rule the world, rather than living in fear of humans who hunt them. I always wondered why, if they have such amazing advantages, they would allow the humans to control them.
In the world of Indie, marketing is very difficult, especially if you don't have the funds to pay for it. Have you found a great free way to market your work that you think other Indies will benefit from?
Marketing in the Indie Publishing world is constantly changing. I’m constantly adjusting my marketing strategy. I read hundreds of articles a week, trying to catch a hint of what I could do differently from everyone else. I go on Twitter and I scroll through hundreds of book links a day. I don’t think that’s a good way to reach out to the readers. I do post my link once or twice a day, but I actually post during the quiet times, so that there’s a better chance of someone seeing my link. I do try to make sure that my social media platforms are all conveying the same brand.
Links to Follow Stacey's work:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StaceyJVoss/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/StaceyJVoss
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/StaceyJVoss/
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