Meet Us At The Crossroads Tour Day 10: Lucienne Diver

1. What inspired you to write Gina 's character?

Gina didn’t start out as a heroine. In fact, she was originally inspired by the big-haired girl from high school with the reputation who used to torment my sister. I never know exactly what pops an idea into my head, but one day, out of the blue, I was inspired to torment her back (fictionally, of course) with an eternity of bad hair days. Not only would being vamped and having to dig her own way out of the grave wreak havoc on her manicure, but centuries without tanning options or a reflection with which to check her hair and make-up would be her own personal version of hell. I wrote a short story called “Unlife Style.” I sent it to my writer’s group. They insisted it wanted to be a novel. Thing is, they were right. I guess if you walk around in someone else’s very stylish shoes for a bit, you get to know them—why they are as they appear and who they really are underneath. They grow on you…like a fungus. Gina was just that way. Once I knew who she really was (no longer that girl from high school, but now a persona in her own right), I had to find a way to bring her out. It’s only through adversity that we really discover ourselves and what we’re made of. Death…or unlife, anyway…was like that for Gina.


2. What was the first book you read that made you fall in love with reading (past or present writer)?

It was The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I was in and out of the hospital all the time as a kid (severe asthmatic, much like a certain minor character in Vamped). For whatever reason, up until fourth grade, I’d start and stop books, not really feeling compelled to finish. But that year, I was laid up in the hospital, again, and my mother brought The Secret Garden to read to me when she came to visit. She left the book behind when she went home, and I couldn’t stand to wait for the next installment. I had to pick it up and keep reading. I don’t think I put it down again until I hit “The End.” It was all over after that. I’d read two or three books a day. My parents practically had to push me out of the house to insist that I play with other kids. Those in the books were just so interesting.


3. What paranormal author are you currently addicted to?

There’s no way I can pin it down to just one! I work with so many incredibly talented people, that I’d have to list them all. In YA: Rachel Caine, Chloe Neill, Rosemary Clement-Moore. In fantasy: Carol Berg, David B. Coe, Lynn Flewelling, Sarah A. Hoyt, etc. In paranormal romance: Susan Krinard, Marjorie M. Liu, Patti O’Shea, Vickie Taylor, Doranna Durgin, Laurie Brown…. In urban fantasy: Faith Hunter, Diana Pharaoh Francis, DD Barant, S.L. Wright…. I could go on and on!


4. What band or artist currently tops your play list?

It changes depending on my mood. A shuffle of my tunes will find The Indigo Girls, U2, Train, Lisa Loeb, Matchbox Twenty, The Barenaked Ladies, Melissa Etheridge, Jim Croce, Maroon 5, Jason Mraz, Squeeze, Pink, Cheryl Crow, Norah Jones…. Again, the list is nearly endless!


5. Do you have any projects you are currently working on that you are able to share? And can you give us a little teaser?

Next summer, Samhain will release an urban fantasy of mine that got awfully close at the NY houses, but just didn’t quite fit in. I’m really looking forward to it! Here’s a teaser from the opening of the novel, tentatively entitled Bad Blood:

“Stake-out: a mind-numbing, bladder-busting exercise distinguishable from stalking by the ID you’re able to flash when the police come tap-tap-tapping at your Camaro door.”
-Tori Karacis, Karacis Investigations

I needed a shrink and a ladies room — not necessarily in that order.

(Note: the quotes come at the beginning of each chapter, either from Tori herself or from someone else in her incredibly crazy family…. You’ll have to read the book to see what distinguishes their particular band of crazy .)





HOW THE TOUR WORKS:

Each day of The Crossroads Tour, a new research question will be revealed on The Crossroad Blog Tour main page, and each day the answer to that question will be found within one of the 16 different blog posts by Crossroads Tour authors. Your job is to get the question, read the blog posts, and collect all 16 answers by the end of the tour, on Halloween.