
Today I’ve invited Susan Stec, author of Day-Tripper, a Dark and Deadly novella, volume 2, to be my guest again. Don't forget to enter her giveaway for a chance to win a free ebook copy of Day-Tripper. Welcome back, Susan!
Who is your all-time favorite writer, and why?
First let me thank you for having me, Audra. I always enjoy being a guest on your blog.
There are so many, but if I have to pick one author it would be Stephen King. His works are original, diverse, and always hold my attention. I love to start a book and have it stay in my mind during the day, making me eager to get back to it. His books do that. Just finished Doctor Sleep. OMG!
How do you get in the mood to write a grizzly crime story?
Research is a big part of writing, especially a crime or horror story.
I only began to delve into dark horror/crime writing in the last year or two. The rest of my work has been humor with criminal plots, but never scary-grizzly, and always funny. A couple of years ago I was gifted a historical fiction about a notorious serial killer from the 1500's. The woman intrigued me so much that she consumed my dream-world for months before spurring a more horrific story than I normally write. I started researching psychopathic behavioral patterns, and the childhoods of some of the most infamous serial killers of my time. I soon found my dreams deep in a character of my creation, the fifteen year old deaf girl in Mirror, Mirror; the first novella in the Dark and Deadly series.
A story comes to me first in a dream, or a thought, and if it grabs me and holds on tight, I have to write it. Viola Fisher, my Day-Tripper, stepped into my dreams even before I finished Mirror, Mirror.
What gave you the idea for a psychotic senior citizen as a protagonist?
My mother. LOLOLOL Okay, so for the record, my mother was NEVER a psychotic murderer, but she was a zany, fun, and terribly amusing senior citizen. So I used some of her botched lyrics in Viola's songs, her off the wall comments, quirky actions, and some of her memory hiccups. A few trips to bingo with my mother gave me my nursing home characters.
Tell us about Day Tripper in 25 words or less.
Here is Day-Tripper's back cover blurb:
A demented mind? Or a mind with dementia?
Viola Fisher may be in her eighties, look a bit zany, and pop out with an amusing rendition of a favorite song in the middle of a sentence. But tread lightly, because if you happen to resemble the antagonist in her last murder mystery or television show, or sound like a suspect in a recent news article, you may end up her next victim.
THIS or THAT?
This
Janet Evanovich or Agatha Christie?
Evanovich
Monk or Psych?
Monk
Murder by Poison or by Weapon?
Weapon
Silence of the Lambs or Psycho?
Oh, hard one, sheesh.....um, Silence of the Lambs.
Where can we learn more about your books?
More about me, my characters, and my books: http://thegratefulundead.blogspot.com/
My Amazon page: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=susan+stec&x=14&y=15
Connect with me on: https://www.facebook.com/GratefulUndead www.goodreads.com/author/show/4556170.Susan_Stec https://plus.google.com/100832701976536983931/posts?hl=en http://pinterest.com/stecsusan/
Twitter: @Suesan0814