RACHEL: I have to start out by saying I love, love, love Cat and Bones. Their chemistry is amazing. They butt heads and don’t always agree, but they still make things work, in spite of the enormous odds against them. How do you keep their relationship so fresh? So hot?

JEANIENE: I have a lot of fun writing their dynamic together. I don’t know really how else to describe it. There’s a certain click when I write a scene with Cat and Bones that I don’t always feel when I write a scene without Bones (the book is told in first person through Cat’s point of view, so there are no scenes without her).

RACHEL: How many books do you have planned in this series?

JEANIENE: I’d love to do eight books with Cat and Bones. As of now, my publisher has bought five. If I get to do more, I’ll be thrilled. If I don’t, I’ll still be forever grateful for the chance to have five books in which to tell their story.

RACHEL: We meet Cat’s father in One Foot in the Grave and the end of the book seems to imply that her parents’ part in the story will be more prominent in the next installment. Do you already know where you’re going with that plotline, or do the details just crop up when you need them?

JEANIENE: Cat’s father, Max, has his path set. He’s truly a vile character, and he has no intention of going quietly into that goodnight. Readers will see more of him in book three, AT GRAVE’S END.

As far as Cat’s mother Justina, I think readers will be surprised with what happens with her in book three. I’ve gotten a lot of letters about Justina that read (paraphrase of) “I hate her! Kill her!” lol, but without venturing into spoiler territory, there is more to Justina than what books one and two have shown.

RACHEL: Speaking of plots, do you outline or do any other kind of plotting in advance of the rough draft?

JEANIENE: I usually do a very sparse outline, then move on from that. But now I’m starting to learn how to make my outlines a little more detailed. I sometimes don’t see the forest for the trees as an author, and while I can’t say I’d make an outline ironclad, where I wouldn’t deviate from it if an idea struck me, more detail does help keep from meandering in plotless directions J.

RACHEL: I loved the ending of One Foot in the Grave, specifically regarding the path the love story has taken, and I can’t wait to see how you handle this new element in future books. Did you struggle with the decision to draw Cat and Bones down such an irreversible route, or did you know all along that that’s where you were headed.

JEANIENE: Ah, but no route is TRULY irreversible, is it? *wink*. It was always the way ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE was supposed to end, even from its first draft (and damn, you don’t know how rare it is for me to have something make it into the final copy from a first draft). It highlights a very basic question for Cat: what are you willing to sacrifice for love? And she answers that.

RACHEL: How many drafts of a novel do you typically write before turning the book in? Or is it different for every story?

JEANIENE: See, this question works well with my comment above about first drafts!. It does differ from book to book. HALFWAY TO THE GRAVE was the very first novel I ever wrote, so as you can imagine, my first draft of it sucked (and not in a fun vampire way ;). I really don’t know how many times I rewrote that from its initial version to the one you see on the shelves. Ten, at least, I would think.

ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE took less drafts – yeah for learning! – but it still was probably about five drafts from its initial version to what you read in the printed copy. Now, book three, AT GRAVE’S END, has been a real test of endurance for me. There is very little left in it from its initial draft – maybe twenty percent, at best. I’m working on my fourth revision of it now, and it may not be my last version of it.

RACHEL: What does your future release schedule look like? How long will we have to wait for the next book?

JEANIENE: I have a story in the upcoming WEDDINGS FROM HELL anthology that releases May 28th. *grin* Assuming I whip book three of the Night Huntress series into shape by my deadline, AT GRAVE’S END will be out Jan 09. Cross your fingers for me J.

RACHEL: What made you decide to write about vampires? Do you have plans to add any other creatures to the world of your work, or will you be sticking with vamps and ghouls exclusively? Why?

JEANIENE: Vampires have been my favorite creature since forever. They seemed so much more fun than other traditional movie monsters to me as a kid, and my parents were left wondering why I kept rooting for the “bad” guy when it came to vampire movies, lol. Plus, writing them gave me a chance to play with the vampire myth as far as their weaknesses. My vampires can only be killed by silver through the heart, for example, not wood, and they can walk in daylight just like everyone else. Garlic, sunlight, crosses, wooden stakes…all that doesn’t hurt them, but has been deliberately planted as a red herring to throw humans off from what really works.

Ghouls were a creature that I dreamed about even before the dream that inspired HALFWAY TO THE GRAVE, so I was glad to find a supernatural society for them to exist in when I started writing my book. Sure, ghouls have been around for a long time in folklore, but I didn’t see mine as being similar to how they’re traditionally portrayed. They aren’t shuffling, decaying figures who’d gnaw on your arm as you tried to run away screaming. They behave a lot like shifters, actually, in that they look as normal as the next person, but they eat raw meat with the occasional other, OTHER white meat thrown in *cough, human, cough*.

I also have ghosts in the Night Huntress series, and I have plans to do a little more with them. Plus, there are elements of magic that I’m going to introduce in the series as well. If there’s black magic being practiced in today’s world, how much more would, say, a vampire in my world, who’s lived hundreds of years and already has supernatural powers, be able to wield it?


RACHEL: Wow, that is an amazing love scene! You know which one I’m talking about. ;-) I read it in the airport and nearly missed my boarding call. Are you ever pressured one way or another about the sexual content of your books? Does anyone ever say “This is too much?” or “This is not enough?”

JEANIENE: I have to admit – if you would have missed your plane reading that scene, I would have felt so proud as an author, lol.

I haven’t felt any pressure to write sex scenes a certain way, and so far, I haven’t been told to by my editor or agent to make them more graphic or less graphic. I write sex scenes as I imagine they’d unfold if I were a fly on the wall in my character’s bedroom - or wherever the action’s taking place, which isn’t always the bedroom ;). My natural style for all scenes – sex, conflict, fighting, etc. – is to spell out what my character’s thinking, feeling, and experiencing. I don’t pull back from those descriptions just because it’s a sex scene. Sure, I get a little red in the face afterward sometimes, especially since I know my friends/family are going to read it, but I refuse to let that thought in my head when I’m writing. When I write a sex scene, I don’t think of anyone but the two people in it. To do otherwise would be to filter it through MY morals / comfort level, and my characters aren’t me, so my preferences don’t belong there.

RACHEL: You have some incredible fight scenes, particularly the last one in One Foot in the Grave. Cat is truly overwhelmed. She’s smaller, weaker, and slower than her opponent. A true underdog. Or rather, an underCat. ;-) How do you approach writing scenes like that? How do you keep Cat coming out on top without making her look unrealistically powerful, or too good to be true?

JEANIENE: First, underCat – ha! Okay, with that out of my system…again, I approach fight scenes in a similar way as sex scenes: what’s Cat seeing, feeling, experiencing, hearing? If she’s injured, how is that affecting her stance as she fights someone? Does she have blood in her eyes and can’t see very well? Is she hyped up on vampire juice, and so now has a sense of smell? These are all things I ask myself as I write a fight scene, and then I try to incorporate them into the mix.

In the scene at the end of ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE, Cat is outclassed against her opponent. She knows he can kick her ass all over the place, so she tries to use something other than strength versus strength when she fights him. It’s a David and Goliath sort of scene, and I tried to show it that way.

As far as Cat being victorious without being invincible, that’s something I struggle with as an author. Sometimes it’s a matter of the strength of her opponents. Cat’s never beaten Bones in a fight, for example, but put her against a few younger, lesser-trained vampires, and she can mop the floor with them by herself. It also depends on what book she’s in. In HALFWAY TO THE GRAVE, Cat’s just learning to really fight under Bones’s teaching, so she can’t take on some of the older Master vamps alone yet. In ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE, she’s older, tougher, but pretty reckless in the beginning, and lucked out by winning some battles she might have been better off leaving alone.

RACHEL: And finally, is there anything you want readers to know about One Foot in the Grave, or your series in general, or about you and your writing?

JEANIENE: Expect action, humor, passion, love, betrayal, and sometimes darkness in the Night Huntress series. The average person can’t go through life without those things happening to them, so my series won’t, either. But with my series, it’s balancing all that and a bunch of fangs, too J.