I’d like to extend a very special welcome to my guest, Marie Treanor! Today, August 28, is the publication date of her awesome new book, Serafina and Silent Vampire (check out my review for the details of the awesomeness). Congratulations, Marie!

And without further ado, let’s hear it from Marie…

Marlene: Please tell us a little bit about yourself! What do you do when you’re not writing?

Marie: Hello! Well, I’m Scottish; I live on the east coast of Scotland with my husband of more than twenty years and my three kids, and I write mostly paranormal romance. Hmm, there isn’t actually a lot of time when I’m not writing, but in the odd moments I like to read, watch films, tv, or just spend time with my family and friends. Oh and I like to travel when I can, see new places and people.

Marlene: Most of your books deal with some aspect of the paranormal. What draws you to the eerie side of romance?

Marie: I think it’s the elements of danger which work so well with romance, together with the fact that you can just follow where your imagination takes you, without paying too much attention to what’s rationally and physically possible. The challenge is making it believable to readers!

Marlene: In Serafina and the Silent Vampire, you’ve created a universe where all the vampires are supposed to be telepathic but otherwise non-speaking. It’s a fantastic twist on the usual vampire trope, but what inspired you to make your vampires silent?

Marie: I wanted them to be cut off from humanity and just plain different to humanity and this helped to isolate them, and yet provide them with a means of communication among themselves that wasn’t open to humans – or at least to most humans! And then I found it was so much fun to see how Blair got around the challenges of getting by in the human world, and I did enjoy the comic value of the scenes where he talked telepathically to Sera and she answered aloud in front of her companions.

Marlene: We’ve all heard the joke that sharks don’t bite lawyers out of professional courtesy, but what gave you the brilliant idea for blood-sucking bankers who really sucked blood?

Marie: 🙂 It just struck me that controlling the money would be best way to control the world in this day and age. And then, of course, bankers were coming in for a bit of a bad press round about the time I was thinking about and writing this story, so I ran with it.

Marlene: What’s your favorite scene from the book?

Marie: Oh dear, I don’t know! I had so much fun writing the whole thing that it’s hard to narrow down. I do like the opening scene where Sera’s so pissed off at Blair for supposedly muscling in on her scam; and I liked the scene where she met Phil for the first time. And just after the first sex scene, although I don’t really want to spoil the story by saying why 🙂

Marlene: Who first introduced you to the love of reading?

Marie: My parents. There were always loads of books in our house, and my parents were always reading.  At first it was self defence to read a book of my own, but I quickly became even more engrossed than they were. 🙂

Marlene: Who influenced your decision to become a writer?

Marie: I think that was largely just me, although I have to allow a friend of my husband’s some credit! I always wrote stories, ever since early childhood, and had a vague idea that one day I would become a professional writer. Of course real life, study and steady jobs got in the way for a while. And then one day while I was complaining (again) about a job I hated, my husband’s friend said dismissively, “Pig it out and write your novel in holidays and quiet periods.” Which, when he didn’t even know that I wrote at all, was pretty stunning advice! It made me sit up, and I began to follow it in a much more focused sort of way.

Marlene: What book do you recommend everyone should read and why?

Marie: Just one book? Yikes. Maybe Catch-22 by Joseph Heller? It’s so deep and thought-provoking and yet you can just read it and love it for the laughs alone 🙂

Marlene: Would you like to tell us a little bit about your upcoming projects? There are going to be more stories about Seraphina’s, aren’t there?  (The ending certainly left me wanting more…)

Marie: Well that’s good to hear – thank you! Yes, I’m planning at least two more books set in Serafina’s, the first of which I’m writing just now. Then I have the start of another new series, The Gifted, beginning in November with Smoke and Mirrors, all about a mysterious criminal with the dubious gift of fire-starting. And my other on-going series is Blood Hunters, a sequel series to the Awakened by Blood vampire romance trilogy. The first of those, Blood Guilt, came out earlier in the summer, and the second, Blood of Angels, should be released in January 2013.

Marlene: Now can you tell us 3 reasons why people should read your books?

Marie: Hmmm….

1. Well, you can escape through my books to intense worlds of fantasy,  roller coasters of emotion and steamy romance!
2. I like to think my characters are a little bit different, and they might make you laugh sometimes because I do like them to have a sense of humour, however black.
3. And, er, I need the money 🙂

Marlene: Morning person or night owl?

Marie: These days, providing I have coffee on tap, I’m a morning person. I used to be much more of a night owl but having kids seemed to change that. Now my teenage sons are the night owls and I’m tucked up in bed before eleven if I can get away with it!