Part II Interview with Fiona Paul and International Giveaway of Venom

Welcome back to Part II of Fiona's awesome interview!

Blurb about Fiona:  Fiona Paul lives in St. Louis, Missouri where she's managed to persuade prestigious universities to award her degrees in psychology and nursing. Between her studies, she traveled around five continents and spent time living in Thailand and South Korea (which is probably why she finds the idea of wearing shoes in the house a little weird.)

In addition to writing, Fiona is somewhat obsessive about coffee, music, and adventure sports. Her future goals include swimming with great white sharks and writing a whole truckload of novels, not necessarily in that order.

Part II of Author Interview.

1. I will likely be in the minority, but I loved Luca, the "boring" fiance. Which character was the most fun to write and why? Which was the most unexpected character that surprised you?

So far I've found that all the people who prefer Luca seem to be in stable, functional relationships. Just an observation :) Personally, I tend to always date Falcos and I don't see that changing anytime soon. I honestly enjoyed writing Falco the most because we have similar sarcastic no-nonsense personalities and I could really let parts of myself come out through him. In a sense there are pieces of me in all of the characters, but I feel the closest to Falco and it was fun to craft his exasperating but charming persona. I don't think any of the characters surprised me much. I generally have a really good idea of who everyone is and what's going to happen before I start to write.

2. What was it like working with a book development team to get your book ready?

It was amazing and educational and really hard at times. I feel incredibly fortunate to have been nutured and mentored by multiple awesome industry professionals whose number one goal was to help me produce the best book possible. However, writing a book gets harder each time you introduce an additional person into the process. I had essentially three editors, and we came to Venom with differing styles and ideas. Melding multiple creative visions to produce a product everyone loved was tough, but we did it! When I look back, I wish I had handled some things a little better, but the process helped me grow as a writer and a person, and I am very grateful to have had the opportunity.

3. Do you have any words of advice for aspiring writers who feel disheartened seeing all the good books out there already?

Um...why would seeing good books be disheartening? No books--now that would be disheartening. Lots of books and a booming YA industry means opportunities galore. As a member of the Apocalypsies debut group, I can tell you over 165 kid-lit writers became first-time authors in 2012. And that doesn't count indie published books which are enjoying quite a Renaissance. (Do I get extra points for using the word Renaissance??) I know that sometimes it feels like every idea has been done, but a great story is a great story. Consider the movies Resident Evil, 28 Days Later, I am Legend, Night of the Living Dead, Shaun of the Dead, and Zombieland. All zombie movies, yes? But all different and fantastic. At a conference, a smart person once said: "There are only two plots: a man goes on a trip and a stranger comes to town." And then another smart person said: "and that's really only one plot from two different points of view." Don't get me wrong, a super-creative, high-concept, never-been-done-before story is a beautiful thing. But you're not guaranteed success if you have one or doomed if you don't. 

4. What do you have on the horizon? And can you tell us a little about the next entry in this series without giving too much away?

I want to finish grad school and kayak the Baja peninsula during whale migration season :) As far as writing goes, I am about half done drafting the third book in the Secrets of the Eternal Rose trilogy, after which I have some contemporary stuff coming out under another name. Then hopefully there will be more books. *crosses fingers* I am just trying to really enjoy the ride as everything unfolds for Venom. I'm really lucky to be where I am and I cannot thank readers enough. You guys rock for actually buying books when there is endless TV you can watch for free. One exciting thing: I get to go on tour with several other Penguin Breathless Reads authors next February so check my blog for upcoming tour dates. *rockstar moment*

As far as Venom #2 AKA Belladonna is concerned, readers will get to see more of both Falco and Luca, those Book of the Eternal Rose quotes will make more sense, and Team Cass will descend on the city of Florence to learn more about the mysterious Order of the Eternal Rose. Also, Belladonna is my favorite book of the trilogy (am I allowed to have a favorite? I say that I am) and it definitely does not suffer from middle-book syndrome.

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Venom (Secrets of the Eternal Rose)

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