An Awesome Author: Kimberly Pauley

I am pleased to say that this segment of An Awesome Author is an exclusive interview with Kimberly Pauley. Kimberly Pauley is the fantastic author of a new vampire themed book, Sucks To Be Me: The All-True Confessions of Mina Hamilton Teen Vampire (maybe). Which is a hilarious story about a girl who has to decide to 'turn' (become a vampire), just like her parents, or to stay human. Which turns out to be a very difficult choice when she finds out if she turns she won't be able to see her best friend ever again and that if she stays a human she might end up loosing her family. Sucks To Be Me arrives in bookstores on August 26th.

My Review of Sucks To Be Me

Kimberly Pauley's Website
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How did you come up with the idea for writing a book on a girl with vampire parents and the whole idea of her having to decide to become a vampire or not?
I was lying awake one night thinking about how most vampire novels all seem to kind of have a similar plot (keep in mind that this was back in 2005) where the vampires are evil and everything is really serious and creepy. I thought it would be fun to turn all of that on it’s head and do something funny and silly instead. And I thought it would be even more fun, given how most teens feel about their parents, if they were the “boring” vampires.

Why did you choose to write about Vampires?

I wouldn’t say I actually chose to write about them in a way…I actually have lots of little ideas at night and I usually just jot them down and forget about them until later. But once I started writing, Mina just kind of took over and the story kept going. I actually put aside some other books I was working on because her voice was so strong in my head.

Which character in the book do you have most in common with?
I’d probably say Serena, other than that I never tried the Goth thing. And I do actually like Siouxsie and the Banshees. And I’m way shorter. And I’ve got a bit of Uncle Mortie’s sense of humor…but I don’t want to have a whole lot in common with him, so I’m gonna go with Serena. Hey, wait, maybe George! I like George a lot. Can you tell I’ve never thought about this before? Okay, I’m going to go with George. Even though he is a guy.

If you had to decide to become a vampire like your parent or stay human, what would you choose?
If the loved ones in my life were vampires already, I think I’d turn too (assuming they are vampires like I wrote about in Sucks to Be Me where they can go outside during the day…I’m a bit of a night owl, but I’d hate to be melted down to a puddle just by stepping out into the sun.) It would definitely be important to me to have my family with me. What’s the good of living forever if you’re all alone?

Why did you choose to write a Young Adult book?
Mostly because I love YA literature. It’s awesome stuff. Some of the best books out there today are written for teens and tweens.

Are you going to write any more books?
I’m working on a sequel to Sucks To Be Me now and I’ve got a number of other partly completely projects. Not sure at this point what will make it to print, but I’ll definitely write more books!

[If so] will they be as humorous as Sucks To Be Me?
I tend to write “funny” when I write for teens & tweens, so I can pretty much say “Yes!” or “Heck, yeah!” It’s like I can’t help it, honestly. I’ve tried to write serious sometimes, but it usually winds up switching itself to funny no matter what I do. That’s not a bad thing though…I like a good laugh.

What advice can you give young readers on writing a humorous novel?
Make yourself laugh. Or, at the very least, giggle. If you don’t think it is funny, no one else will either. And, especially with dialog, try reading it out loud.

Is there anything you would like to add?
Just that I’d like to thank everyone that has read the book so far (and all the people that will read it too) – without readers there’d be no authors and without authors this world would be a boring place. Readers rock!