Annabell: As you’ve been sure to guess
from the name of our site, we are HUGE book loving nerds! *hehe* What defines
you as a nerd?
S.W. Vaughn: Well, I can tell the difference between
Star Wars and Star Trek! :-) Ever since being a nerd became cool, a lot of
self-proclaimed nerds and/or geeks seem to have trouble with that . . . and for
the record, I like Star Trek more.
But for serious
nerd cred, I have actually read the Lord of the Rings trilogy (not just watched
the movies), and The Hobbit. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve read the
Dragonlance Chronicles and love Raistlin Majere. I’ve also taken a definite
side in the eternal Terry Pratchett vs. Douglas Adams war—Sir Pratchett FTW!
I’m not a tech
whiz, but I know my way around a computer and have a favorite operating system
(Windows XP), browser (Firefox—though I also have Chrome and Safari installed),
and media player (VLC). I can code enough HTML to post things online that are
fancier looking than plain text, with live links and everything. And I have
excellent Google-fu.
Nerds rock!
Annabell: You are a MASSIVE lover of
coffee! What are your five top flavored coffee drinks? Do you like eating coffee
flavored ice cream?
S.W. Vaughn: LOL Yes, coffee and I have an unnatural
love affair. Hazelnut coffee is my absolute favorite, especially from Dunkin
Donuts. The next four down would probably be Rainforest Crunch (brazil nut,
macadamia, vanilla, and almond), Caramel Vanilla, Mocha Brownie Fudge (yes,
that’s really a coffee flavor!), and Toasted Almond.
And I adore
coffee-flavored ice cream, especially with chocolate Magic Shell on it.
Annabell: You name spray painting as one
of your favorite hobbies. How did you become interested in spray painting?
S.W. Vaughn: I am sadly lacking in artistic ability.
But a few years ago, when I had a separate room with a door as my office for
the first time ever, I wanted to decorate and make it my own. The walls were already
three different shades of blue, and my husband (who is an excellent artist)
happened to have a collection of small cans of spray paint. I was also
attempting to learn how to speak and write Japanese—so I decided to practice by
spraying kanji symbols on my office walls.
It’s been my
preferred method of artistic expression since, because I don’t have to care how
messy it looks. It’s supposed to look
like that!
Annabell: Did you decide to use the initials
of your name as your author name instead of your full-length name so readers
don't judge the dark stories you write based on your gender?
S.W. Vaughn: Very perceptive! Yes, that’s exactly why
I decided on initials. I do think there’s still a perception that women write happy-ever-after
stories and men write dark stories, and while the bias is often unconscious, it
does exist to some extent. In fact, I’ve had quite a few reviews where readers
refer to me as “he” or “him,” and have received a few emails addressed to “Mr.
Vaughn” – so I know the assumption is out there. I don’t mind, though. :-)
When people are
reading my stories, I don’t want them to have to think about the person who
wrote them. I don’t want anything to get in the way of the story.
Annabell: You also write stories in the
erotica, sweet romance, and paranormal genres. What attracted you to these
genres?
S.W. Vaughn: I actually started out writing romance,
because I am a closet romantic—for some reason, I struggle to talk or act
romantically, but I thought I could write about it. My early efforts were
terrible (the first two books I wrote will never see the light of day), and
then I started writing the House Phoenix
series, and for a while I was all about thrillers. But after I’d improved my
writing craft, I gave romance a try again and didn’t suck at writing it quite
so much.
I got interested
in paranormal / urban fantasy because I love the idea of magic and
more-than-humans existing in the real world. My approach to writing paranormal
is that people are people, even if the people are angels or demons or Fae or
djinn (I’ve written about all of those)—they just have more awesome problems.
Annabell: Broken Angel deals with five underground fight club houses— Ulysses, Dionysus, Pandora, Prometheus,
and Orion—names which originate from Greek mythology. What inspired the use of
Greek names?
S.W. Vaughn: When I was naming the Houses, I wanted
to use something familiar, but not cliché. I wanted to avoid expected names
like the Bloody Skulls or Fists of Fury—and that’s also why I called them
Houses instead of gangs.
I decided on
Greek mythology because there were so many names there to choose from. This
also let me match the names with the styles and personalities of the House
leaders. As for why the series is called House Phoenix . . . well, folks will
just have to read Broken Angel to
find out, because that’s a HUGE spoiler. :-)
Annabell: How did you choose the
character names in Broken Angel? Did
the meanings behind the names help inspire the characters at all?
S.W. Vaughn: Well, for Gabriel, I already knew that
he would eventually be called Angel when I started writing the book. It’s the
only time I’ve ever come up with the last sentence of a book first! So I
decided that he should have an angel name. And since I’ve always loved the
angel Gabriel (especially as played by Christopher Walken in The Prophecy), Gabriel it was.
For Marcus
Slade, I wanted a name that sounded kind of sophisticated and upper-class, but
also cold. Jenner’s real name is very long and difficult to spell, and
constructed with a traditional East Indian naming convention (specifically
Bengali, because I love the sound of that language), but his family name can be
corrupted to Jenner.
And I didn’t
mean to have a doctor that everyone calls Doc (I know how original!). That’s
just the personality he ended up with—so it’s all Doc’s fault. However, he was
influenced by Kiefer Sutherland’s character in Young Guns 2 and Val Kilmer’s Doc Holliday in Tombstone.
Annabell: In Broken Angel, Gabriel is in search of his sister. What was it about
the relationship between a brother and sister that made you want to build a
plot around it?
S.W. Vaughn: Personal experience. My family’s really
close, and I am the oldest of four. I have two sisters and one brother—we’re
all spaced out around two years apart. They were my best friends growing up,
and they’re still my best friends today (outside of my husband and son). And
I’d die for any of them.
Just don’t tell
them that, or they might test me on it. ;-)
Annabell: If you could join one of the
fight club houses in Broken Angel,
which one would you choose and why?
S.W. Vaughn: I’d have to say Pandora. I’ve had a
longtime fascination with and respect for traditional Japanese culture,
especially the ways of the samurai. The concepts of honor and discipline are
important to me, and I love that the Japanese emphasize them.
Also, they walk
around barefoot in the house all the time—and I hate wearing socks.
Annabell: Who was your hardest character
to write in Broken Angel and why? Who
did you bond with right from the beginning?
S.W. Vaughn: Jenner was probably the hardest in the
beginning. There’s a fine line between “awesomely evil” (like Severus Snape) and
“so horrible that everyone wishes you would die” (like Dolores Umbridge), and I
had to make sure that he never crossed that line. He did get easier as the
series went on and I got to know him.
It was easy to
love Gabriel from the start. He’s always felt like an old friend, the kind of
guy you could meet up with at Denny’s and sit there talking until the sun came
up. Some of the things I had to do to him in the service of making a good story
broke my heart.
Annabell: If you could create a
soundtrack for Broken Angel, what are
some songs you would want included?
S.W. Vaughn: I actually made a playlist for this
book—I make playlists for all my books, because I’m a dork like that. :-) This
one included:
Megadeth –
“Crush ‘Em”
Breaking
Benjamin – “Cold”
Nirvana – “Heart
Shaped Box”
Seether feat.
Amy Lee – “Broken”
Coolio – “Gangster’s
Paradise”
Disturbed –
“Down with the Sickness”
Maroon 5 –
“Harder to Breathe”
Linkin Park –
“In the End”
Thanks so much
for having me over, Annabell—this was the funnest interview ever!
Annabell: BIG thank you to author S.W.
Vaughn for stopping by and giving us an inside behind the scenes look into her
book Broken Angel!
Get a FREE copy of Broken Angel on Amazon! Will only be available for free from March 5-March 9, 2013!
Get a FREE copy of Broken Angel on Amazon! Will only be available for free from March 5-March 9, 2013!
Be sure to stop by tomorrow to check out S.W. Vaughn's guest post on writing dark themes!
Thank you, Annabell! I'll be around, if anyone has questions. :-)
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