Author Interview: Kimberly Pauley

I'm back with another author interview! It's been awhile, eh? No worries, I have three more coming up! (But I have to start producing questions because I'm way behind.)

Do you recognize this face? No? She is known as the YA Books Goddess of Young Adult Books Central and is the author of Sucks to Be Me! She agrees for a quick interview with me. And I have to say the last question she answered caught me off-guard. Who would've known! If you would like to know more about Kimberly, please check her out at http://kimberlypauley.com/.

This question must be asked fairly frequently, but for those of us who don't know, what inspired you to write Sucks to Be Me?

The first paragraph or so came to me one night while I was lying in bed brainstorming and it all just kind of flowed from there. I really wanted to take the “normal” vampire story and turn it on its fanged head.

If you are in Mina’s situation, would you choose to become a vampire? Why or why not?

If I were in her exact situation, I think I’d choose to become a vampire because of the family situation. Family is forever.

Becoming a vampire means you must fake your death as you no longer will be human and no one must find out. How would you prefer to “die”?

Hmmmmmmm. That’s a good question. Logically, you should pick something unobtrusive and non-suspicious, but if we’re just playing…then, how about something spectacular? Like a tragic cave diving accident or drowning while trying to swim the English Channel?

New life as a vampire requires you to change your identity and live far away from home. If you could choose, what would you change your name to and where in the world would you move to?

Another interesting question. How about Nadia for a first name? I’ve always liked that name. Last name…um, no real preference, honestly. And Italy. Anywhere in Italy would be just perfect.

What would you enjoy and dislike most about being a vampire?

I’d enjoy being able to know what will happen in the future (not in advance or anything like that, but just being able to be “alive” for so long and being able to experience years and years of history…being able to live through it all). The worst thing would be the whole blood thing. And after awhile, I imagine all the people you’ve loved and lost (by them dying and you not dying) would really be terrible too.

What would you miss most about your old human life that you have left behind? And not miss?

Sleep. I’m a big fan of sleep. I would not miss gaining weight and being unfit though!

Now moving away from the vampire questions, did you always wanted to be an author? If you were not one and could work in any other field, what would it be?

Pretty much. I always wrote as a teen. I kept a notebook with me all the time. If I could be anything else, maybe I’d be a musician, except I wouldn’t want the fame part really. That’s one nice thing about being an author…unless you’re really, really big, no one recognizes you.

Before Sucks to Be Me went on paper (or computer), were you planning on writing a different type story (considering that this is your debut)? If so, what was it going to be? Why did you change your mind?

I was actually working on two different novels at the time. One was a traditional fantasy with a male main character and the other was a middle grade novel featuring fairies and a precocious girl named Abigail. I still may finish those. At the time, I wound up going with Sucks to Be Me because it seemed like it would have the most marketing potential and it was a lot of fun to write. Of course, I had no idea at the time that the whole vampire craze was going to happen. Who knew!

What genres/storylines are you planning on touching in the future?

I imagine I’ll do some more fantasy (non vampire-related) and also some “general fiction” (i.e. no supernatural or fantastical elements). But most likely everything will have a sense of humor about it. I tend to write “funny.” (Ha, probably in more ways than one).

I know that you are currently working on the sequel to Sucks to Be Me. Can you give us a summary on what we will be expecting? And are you working on any other projects at the moment?

Well, I can say that Mina’s old nemesis Raven will be back and we’ll find out what happened to her. And boy, is she not happy with Mina! And Mina will also find out that transitioning from human to vampire isn’t easy-peasy.

Other than that, I’m kind of working on a book proposal at my editor’s request about a kind of snarky girl with some real conflicts in her life…not that they aren’t somewhat funny! Can’t really say any more about that one yet.

To wrap up this interview, please give us a fun fact about yourself that not many know of!

Let’s see…something fun that not many know of…well, I’m half-Chinese. I like to say it’s my short half (I’m only 4’ 10” tall). I’m actually the shortest person in my family, including the ones that are full Chinese. Well, except for my baby Max, but I’m sure he’ll be taller than me someday!