A Vampire's Deadly Delight

Thanks very much, Lynn, for the opportunity to connect with your readers. Hmmm… Is that Tyrell I see over there? He is SO pretty…

Tell the readers a little about yourself.

I was born on the cusp of Aries and Taurus, which I think has given me an ‘all or nothing’ take on life. I’ve always lived near the ocean, but I really don’t like to swim. I love to sing the blues almost as much as I love to sing Gregorian chant. I’m getting mellower as I get older, but I’m still never quite sure which version of Liv is going to show up.

That might be why I created a main character who has an alter-ego. In A Vampire’s Deadly Delight, Kristen’s a bookstore owner who turns into Jai when she smells vampire. Jai is gorgeous and deadly, everything Kristen isn’t, and they both have a whole lot of fun until they meet the one vampire Jai can’t kill.

As an author, do you take time to read? If so, what do you like to read and who is/are your favorite author/s?

As an author, I HAVE TO take time to read. The best way of learning to write is by reading other people’s work. I love Ursula le Guin and Octavia Butler and Virginia Woolf. For more current writers I’m a huge Charlaine Harris fan, and I think Janet Evanovich rocks. The list goes on and on…Neil Gaiman and A. Lee Martinez and Christopher Moore and Jim Butcher and…

If I had to identify a unifying theme, I’d say I like writers who are generally upbeat, and it’s even better if they write about vampires. If I want drama, I’ll go to work.

How do you stay motivated when the Muse is uncooperative?

I’m the cantor for the Saturday evening Vigil Mass at my church, which means that every week I have to come up with some meditative, prayerful music, regardless of the fact that I might have spent the day screaming on a kid’s soccer field or had a tough night at work the night before and I’d rather stay in bed. Mass happens, whether or not I feel like it. I try to bring that same attitude to my writing. It happens, at least a little bit every day, whether or not I’m really in the mood.

If you could go anywhere in the world on a romantic getaway, what would you do and where would you go?

I’d go to the Inn at Langley, on Whidbey Island in Washington state. My husband and I stayed there one night last summer, almost by accident, and it redefined what luxury meant to me. If I had more money than God (more money than sense?) I’d stay there for a week, and we’d walk on the beach and watch the sun set and read the paper over coffee in the morning and eat in their mind-blowingly awesome restaurant. 

What is the hardest thing for you to write?

Lynn thinks she knows the answer to this one. She thinks I’m going to say “sex”. Hmmm. Not quite. I have more trouble writing a convincing fight scene. There are a couple in my novella A Vampire’s Deadly Delight and, while in the end they worked, I had to spend a lot of time figuring out who stabbed what and where the blood went and so forth.

If you could live the life of one of your characters who would you be?

That’s a hard one. I’m kinda mean to my characters. Maybe Mack, the actress in The Santa Drag, because her boyfriend Joe was so hot.

What do you like to write about the most? The least?

I like to write stories where magic is a part of life, where the good guys win and there’s a happy ending. I absolutely love it when my characters say something funny or there’s a plot twist that makes me laugh. And I’m too old to write about stuff I don’t like, so there’s no answer to the second half of the question.

What one piece of advice would you give to an aspiring writer?

BICHOK. That’s butt in chair, hands on keys, right? Reading will help you a lot, talking to other writers helps some, and thinking about it helps a little, but the only way to get better as a writer is to write. 

The tag line on my blog is ‘Indulge Your Inner Romantic.’ What do you do to indulge?

This may clash with your red wine and chocolate color scheme, but I’m all about the pizza and beer, with maybe a side of rock and roll. My husband plays in two bands, so for me the perfect night out involves thin crust cheese pizza, some kind of amber ale, and one of his bands on stage.

An ordinary bookstore owner and a gorgeous instrument of vampire destruction share a secret that could kill them both. What will each of them give, and give up, to survive?

Oops. This one was a just little more than I could
handle...

I wasn’t alone. Vampire. Raw. Maybe a wild one. I looked
up, nerves tingling because of the quick change to Kristen and
back again. Saw him standing at one end of the alley, head
turned to the side. Shakespeare’s profile, with the firm brow
and the long straight nose. Streetlights glistened on his curls.
Very close, but not Shakespeare.

“I could tear your head off and let your blood mix with
the bile and garbage and mud.” His voice was Shakespeare’s,
too, but not quite. He moved enough to show the silhouette of
the sword he was carrying.

I stood straighter, opened my arms a little. “Bring it.”

“Bitch.” He came at me too fast to see and smacked me
across the face. My head hit the dumpster with a ringing crash.
I landed on one knee, grateful I was in boots. Upright, Mr.
Sticky and I had a chance. If he got me on the ground, I was
done.

His shadow towered over me. “The moon’s light begs
mercy. She tells me to save you now that we might savor you
together.”

“So much like him, but not Shakespeare.”

“Not Chaucer or Oscar Wilde, either, though they were
both good men. I am Sir Hugh Robartes. You are nothing.
You are dirt. You are dead.”

“You’re John’s brother.”

“Don’t say that name.”

His fist found my face again, knocking me back into the
brick. I felt Mr. Sticky fly off into the shadows—then I was
out.

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Liv Rancourt is a writer of speculative fiction and romance. She lives in Seattle with her husband, two teenagers, two cats and one wayward puppy. Writing stories that have happy endings is a good way to balance her work in the neonatal intensive care unit, and she is thrilled to be publishing her first novella with Black Opal Books. Liv can be found on-line at her website (www.livrancourt.com), her blog (www.liv-rancourt.blogspot.com), on Facebook (www.facebook.com/liv.rancourt), or on Twitter (www.twitter.com/LivRancourt).