An Interview with
Devyn Quinn
|
CK2S Kwips and Kritiques would like to welcome Devyn Quinn this month! Devyn has graciously accepted our invitation to chat with her about her brand new Aphrodisia release, Flesh and the Devil, out this month, April 2007. Welcome Devyn! 1. After a lot of hard work and a long journey (which I’ve followed from day one) to get there, you finally saw the release of your first large press paperback release with Flesh and the Devil. So tell me, how does it feel to know you finally made it in the “big leagues?” DQ: Truthfully? It’s scary as hell! I never ever thought that I would ever publish in New York. It seemed more a fond fantasy than any kind of reality I could ever hope to achieve. I still pinch myself. 2. Congratulations on the release of Flesh and the Devil! Can you tell our visitors a little bit about the book? DQ: Flesh and the Devil is a reworking of a shorter novella previously published through an e-book publisher. Since my editor wanted it worked into a full length title, I had to throw out a lot of the old story and start over from page one.
The blurb on the back of the book says it all: 3. Flesh and the Devil had a different premise with Líadán being a high class call girl/vampiress and Brendan the cop set to arrest her. Where did you get the idea for this story? DQ: Uh, I am not exactly sure. I was reading a biography on Greta Garbo and one of her movies had the title. I thought that would make a cool vampire story and suddenly it fell into place. 4. Auguste in Flesh and the Devil is so viciously evil. How hard was it to write such a horrible character? DQ: Oh, not hard at all for my evil little brain to swing into action. I love to write villains. They are so fun. 5. Do you have any plans to revisit the world of this novel? DQ: I’m thinking about a story for Brenden’s sister, Dani. Seems to me that a stripper/witch should have her own story. 6. How long have you been writing? Have you always written gothic/erotica? DQ: I’ve been writing off and on for 19 years. I’ve always written gothic. It seems to be the slant of my mind. The erotic part came later. I initially didn’t write anything but lightly sensual in my stories. Then I began to realize that spicing up the sex could really ratchet up the tension in my stories, so it naturally turned into to goth-erotica, LOL. 7. In The Price of Eternity and The Keeper of Eternity, Morgan Saint-Evanston is a rather dark character at times, although you redeem him overall. What inspired you to write about such a tortured hero? DQ: The original inspiration came from the death of a favorite soap opera character when I was about 13. I was devastated that my favorite hero was killed off. In my teenaged mind there had to be a way to resurrect him. Through the years, the character lost its fan-fic side and began to seriously develop into a creation all his own. I say all “his” own as Morgan seemed to have created himself out of a long gestation of ideas. He just appeared one day in my mind, fully formed and ready to be his own disagreeable (but sexy) self. 8. The character of Xavier D'Shagre sent chills up my spine! What are some of the influences on your writing that have helped you develop such wickedly evil characters like Xavier? DQ: All I have to do is think of someone doing something wicked to little children or little animals and all my anger comes out. I have a vicious mind and a slant for revenge, and when I think of what I’d like to do to the nasty people of the world, my own little mind cranks into action, LOL. 9. I can't say enough about how multidimensional your characters are, but your world building is also phenomenal. Scyld is a fascinating, although sometimes rather scary, world. Which do you start with when you first begin planning a story- the characters or the world? DQ: The characters came first. I initially didn’t conceive of Morgan as being a multi-dimensional being until later drafts of the first book. I also didn’t know he had a twin. Then that piece of information was imparted to me, forcing a total rewrite of the original book. 10. You currently have three releases scheduled for 2008. How’s it feel to know how much is coming up? Are you feeling the pressure of the multiple deadlines or taking it all in stride? DQ: I take it all in total panic. Just thinking about it sends me into spasms of writer’s block. I am convinced I am a no good hack and can’t write a word for months. As the days tick by, I somehow manage to pull it all together and get something on paper. Sometimes I am surprised they still want to publish it! 11. Your next book from Aphrodisia, Sins of the Flesh, is due out in October of this year. I know this was originally a novella you’ve expanded into a full length novel. How hard was it to add so much to the story? DQ: It was hard, hard, hard. Unlike Flesh and the Devil, which I tossed completely and began over from page one, the former Before Night Falls had a plotline the editor liked and wanted to use. So I had to add to what was already there. Damn hard to make the new material mesh with the old. I still have to do that again with Sins of the Night, but once that one is off my desk, I will never try to make a short novella a long novel. It is easier to start from scratch. 12. What inspired you to write in the first place? Does the same thing inspire all your stories? DQ: I can’t draw. I can’t sing. I can’t dance. I can’t play a musical instrument. What a boring lump of coal, LOL. Words seem to be the only thing I have a talent for, so I decided I’d have to do my creative work stringing sentences together. 13. This is one of my favorite “signature” questions to ask in an interview. If you had to write a short paragraph about your writing to convince readers to give your books a shot, what would you tell them? DQ: This author tries really hard and will have to slash her wrists if you won’t give her books a try. 14. How much advance plotting goes into your writing process? Do you plan everything out ahead of the time or do you just start writing and see where your characters lead you? DQ: Aw, eek. I’m so busted. Um, most of it is made up as I go along. The other ten percent is plotted. Somehow it all seems to come together. 15. You don’t have a lot on your website about Devyn the person as opposed to Devyn the author. So what “deep dark secret” can you tell us that we may not know? DQ: Devyn the person struggles with depression and writer’s block on a regular basis, feels like a totally incompetent clod and often wishes she was someone important, rather than someone ordinary who cleans house, works, scoops an awful lot of cat poo and sometimes dabbles as a writer of dark erotica. 16. How do you celebrate the completion of a novel. Do you have anything special you do or do you just move right on to the next project? DQ: I cry in relief that something’s finished and drink a whole bottle of wine. 17. Under a normal routine, how long does it take from the moment you write the first word to writing “the end” for a particular novel? DQ: My record of finishing a novel beginning to end is 7 weeks. I piddled months away with writer’s block and couldn’t get the plot or characters to do any work for me. Nothing I did was working and my deadline was ticking up. Finally in panic, I sat down and wrote. Don’t know what, I just wrote. Didn’t print it, didn’t proof it. Just wrote the damn thing. When I sent it in to my editor, I was convinced she’d think I was the biggest idiot on the face of the earth. A heroine with cutting issues? Check. A hero modeled after a Persian cat? Check. An alien species of vampire? Check. I wasn’t sure it would work, but somehow it all came together. The book’s, tentatively titled Embracing Midnight, is scheduled for Dec 08. 18. If you had to name one particular characteristic of your writing as a “trademark,” what would you say? DQ: My editor calls me fiendish, so I’ll stick with that. Seems to work. 19. So can you give us any teasers or hints about projects you are presently working on? DQ: I am working on a novella for the Eros Island anthology, called Thunderstruck. It’s a twist on myths. Mine is Pygmalion, only this time a female sculptor wishes her sculpture of Herakles to life. Then I need to finish Sins of the Night and then skip off to Woman in the Box, a BDSM story for a still untitled antho. So, yes, a lot of summer deadlines ahead. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to chat with me about your novel, Devyn! I am already eagerly anticipating your next book. Do you have anything you’d like to say in closing? DQ: Thanks for the interview, Kelley. I’d love to invite everyone to drop by my website and say hello! Read reviews of Devyn's books (click on book cover):
Interviewed by Kelley and Debbie |
