Welcome Kristin Battstella

For the readers out there who might not know about you or your work, can you please tell them a little about yourself.

I’m a homemaker and housewife who just happens to do my vacuuming from dusk till dawn.  I love to write and enjoy exploring the mirrors and twisted with genre fiction, horror, and fantasy.  Simple, but true.

How long have you been writing? What got you in to writing?
I started writing woefully bad stuff as a kid- I couldn’t keep track of all the stories I was telling, so I began to write them down. I think I got the idea because I saw a tv show where somebody wants to be a writer.  Either that or that Stephen J. Cannell tag at the end of the show sold me. Back then there was still some of that fake glamour about being an author- the dark room with the typewriter, literally banging out vast manuscripts. I suppose my professional writing experience began with my first contests and rejection letter experiences in high school.  My first ebook was published in 2004, and I began my local newspaper gig then as well.

Where do you get your ideas for your stories, characters?
Fantastical notions can come from just about anywhere if you know how to look, listen, remember the inspiration.  Sometimes something will come clearly out of the blue, other times its dreams, or a little voice just as I’m falling asleep.  I have to keep a note book and a flashlight by the bed!  Sometimes I’ll think about stories or characters for years, letting them foil in my head before putting them down.  Other times I have to get my basic outline or idea on paper so it can get shoved away into my ideas binder.  It’s essential to record any of these gems and bits, you never know how you many use them.

Are you a by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of writer, or do you have to use an outline to put your collective thoughts into some semblance of common sense?
It depends.  When the bunnies take you on the roll, you better dang forget the pants seat and just go with it!  However, for full revision and editing and composing, it is important to at least have some side journal or outline.  Let the characters go where they may take you, but perhaps have a basic idea of what is on track, what is not.  Write down if someone’s eyes were blue on one page, then brown on another.  Common sense and order is important, but not if it stifles the creativity, which is the entire point of the exercise.  Get it out on the page first, let it all go, you can always trim and revise and be proper later as your finesse for submittal.

Tell us all about your latest or upcoming release. What inspired it?
Fate and Fangs: Tales from the Vampire Family is my ongoing series happening now with Muse It Up Publishing.  We began in August with Love: Ann and the Viking, followed by Punishment: Lilith’s Trials in September.  Struggle: Elizabeth in America just came out this month, with Book 4 Debauchery: Victoria’s Burning to follow for Thanksgiving.  Whew!  This series takes of where my 2008 Eternal Press release The Vampire Family left off.  Before the next full length sequel, I wanted to spend time with these personal character vignettes- novellas themed on certain positive and negative carnal aspects.  I think in all the guts and glory vampire action that’s hip today, we need to remember the truths of why we like the undead in the first place.  Those ideas of why immortality can be great- but the heavy price it costs.  The examination of why we takes the path we take for good or ill.  In Struggle, Elizabeth tries to escape her seemingly set in stone vampire ways, but is forced to confront her dark ways thanks to a chance encounter with Rain, a Kiowa warrior. 

If you had super powers, what would they be? Why?
Hmm, I don’t know that I’d want super powers.  I like just being me, for better or worse.  I suppose if I had to choose, I’d like to heal.  I know I certainly need more energy and no pain at the end of the day!  But I’d like to be able to help people not just mend on the outside, but the inside, too.  In my own weird way, I hope that there’s some of that magical value in fiction, a telepathic, person to person, soul to soul connection between the author as I type to the reader as she reads.  It’s divine!

What genre haven’t you tried yet but want to in the future?
I’ve tried straight mystery but I don’t really think I’ve very good at it.  I’ve not written true young adult fiction, but I don’t really want to either.  I’m not interested in the troubles of youth and experience right now- though perhaps I would be, you never know.  Honestly, I don’t know that there isn’t a genre a haven’t tried.  It used to be that an author had to have a niche and stay in on arena, but I like trying any and all forms of writing, fiction, non fiction, genre, poetry, short prose, long form.  Of course, even if I intend something as straight drama, I always end up adding some sort of fantastic element to it.  Can’t help myself!  And I suppose every writer ought to have aspirations to turn her work into the best screenplay ever! But I’ve got so much to get out there, who knows when I’ll get to the grandeur.

What is one thing readers might be surprised to know about you?

Hmm…I’d like to think I’m just full of surprises, but I suppose I’m rather boring.  I was thinking that I should reiterate that I’m not really a vampire as some thing and my house isn’t really that gothic and broodingly done up, but its Halloween, so yeah, there’s a lot of bloody clings decorations in the bathroom. I’d like to go back to school and be a minister.  Lots of people seemed surprised to here that if they’ve read my fiction.  It could happen!

If we asked your muse to describe you in three words, what do you think they might say?

Strangely, I have no control over what my muse says. Authors will know what I mean!  I suppose ‘out there, fearless, wacky’.  I go to some strange places in my composition and pull out all the stops when I get there.  Afterwards, part of we is shocked and inevitably says, ‘I can’t believe I did that!’ Then another part says, ‘This is good stuff!’ and prevents me from using the delete key.

What authors can be found in your library of books?

Well, I have a lot of books, currently overflowing into the Dining Room, in fact.  I’m old school.  I’ve got an entire shelf for Tolkien material, Asimov, Dickens, Anne Rice, CS Forester- love love Hornblower and I’m currently reading Sharpe.  Truly, there isn’t anything I won’t give a try.  Biblical, non fiction, I am on Goodreads and started to catalog it all, but yeah, then I really wouldn’t get any writing done!

Have any guilty pleasures you want to share with us?

Ew, I can think of a lot I won’t share!  Currently, I suppose one is Dark Shadows, but I was watching She-Ra and Jem, too.  Mostly shows and movies and actors I suppose, or Spumoni ice cream.  And pizza when I’m not supposed to be eating carbs.

Is there anything you’re currently working on that you can give us a taste of?

Well, there’s always more in The Vampire Family universe.  If this last big book gets split in two, that would be 10 in the collection.  That’s a lot of past and present blood and family drama!  I was editing a big book with my neighbor and fellow EPer Leigh Wood.  Hard core erotica is not normally my tastes, but this Horns of Myleness was quite something to work with- unicorns and magic in an adult fantasy.  It felt very realistic, with medieval and classical touches in the world building and a juicy love triangle with some mystical twists.  I’ll be glad to see when it’s completely done and with a publisher.  Since it’s quite, uh, X, I’ll just plug for http://leighwood.blogspot.com.  There’s some heavy excerpts thered!

When creating your characters, do you have models in mind or are they totally fictional?

I always try to create a character initially as its own or have an idea who it is in my mind before I try and attach a true face.  Honestly, outside of something unique, physical details and characteristics are usually the last thing I work on- again confirming if someone has blonde hair or black the whole was through a piece.  I like to get the tone or some dialogue, an idea of the character’s person themselves as the core.  But at some point I do create a goofy picture folder perhaps of artwork that brings the character to mind or music.  For ladies, it’s their fashions, the stores they might shop at, hairstyles.  As the last resort, I think every writer imagines who would play their characters if their book were a movie, but I try to do that as late into revision as possible, as a final way to add definition.  I don’t like to base a character entirely on someone else, where’s the fun in that?

If you could be an immortal, what would you want to be? Why?
I really wouldn’t want to be immortal if no one else I loved was going to be, and really, all the pop culture immortals always have some sort of hang up.  Highlanders have to chop off heads, vamps drink blood, even super strong and long lived werewolves must dine out three nights a month.  It’d be nice if modern science came up with a nice way to extend life expectancy, but I’m sure there’s some mad laboratory experiments with that too.  I’d rather just be healthy and extend the life I have as long as possible and live it to the fullest.  Sometimes that’s easier than done, but people today are becoming super centurions living over not just 100, but 110, even to 120.  It could happen! I’d like to at least see Haley’s Comet again.

What is the hardest/the easiest part of writing for you?

The easiest part is probably the zest you get when the idea first comes.  It’s so great and it’s all right there, all you have to do is get it on the page! Yeah, sure!  The worst part is when you are in the middle and something isn’t going quite right and you think its all for naught.  Or when you’re getting one rejection after another and then it really was all a waste!  But then you get another brief easy at the joy of publication, if only to face the worst in the editing process!  Truly, the entire process from genesis to publication is a complete roller coaster of pain and joy, but it is worth every bit of it!  I don’t like JFK much, but what is that quote about choosing to do something not because it is easy but because it is hard?  It’s all the more thrilling because writing a book is such a tough thing to accomplish.  That’s why you have to do it first and foremost for yourself, not because you want to famous or successful or because That’s why you have to do it first and foremost for yourself and no one else.

Are you in control of your characters or do they control you?

Either or.  When a character goes his own way, you have to follow it.  What’s the harm in letting them roam? You can always edit letter, but why stifle when they can run  you to somewhere great? We like to think we are in control, but we aren’t.  Characters are often like totally separate entities, friends you know so well and miss when they are gone.  It’s sounds crazy but that is the point of creative art, to let these vestiges run wild on the safety of lined paper and computer screens.

Please tell us where we can find you on the web.

In any dark recess of the internet really! Except Twitter of course

http://vampfam.blogspot.com

http://jsnouff.com/kristin

http://kristin724.livejournal.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Vampire-Family/157922293588

http://www.myspace.com/kristinbattestella

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kristinbattestella/

http://www.facebook.com/kristin.battestella

Thanks for popping by and I wish you continued success in your writing career.

Thank you for having me Dawn!  Great questions!

Fate and Fangs: Tales from the Vampire Family Book 3 Struggle: Elizabeth in America

Seeking solace and solitude from her unhappy home life as the unloved wife of Antonio, Elizabeth travels to colonial America in Professor James’ third account.  On the outskirts of the white man’s civilization, Elizabeth meets Rain, a young Kiowa warrior on a vision quest.  Will his lack of fear, search for answers, and gripping hothouse experience help her face those very vampire truths she sought to escape?

“The Spirit is both man and animal. You are both woman and the wolf, unsure of the light and the dark.”

 “Do you not fear the wolf?

“It is you who fears the wolf.  The woman is the light and the wolf is the darkness.  We will release the wolf and free The Spirit.”

Oddly enough, I found there was a logic to his beliefs.  Did the people here discover some sort of balance between nature and civilization, good and evil?  If I didn’t know better, I might think he spoke of a vampire already! Was there another here like our kind?  I wouldn’t put it past our maker Mestiphles or his henchwoman Lilith to feast upon these people.

“How can the Spirit release the wolf?” 

“My forefather told of my coming in the great storm at the big river’s crossing. He said I would live long, see many moons, but never grow old. So I wait for her.  The Spirit will answer all.”

https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore2/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=218&category_id=119&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1