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In book one,THEY'RE SO VEIN, the women in the Stech family went from dentures to fangs, Depends to thongs, Dr.
Scholl's® to stilettos, and bumbled their way into an undead lifetime of Critter Control
when one of them inadvertently turned a raccoon into a vampoon.
GATOR BAITIN' (book 2) begins as the team is dispatched to destroy a vamp-gator wreaking havoc at Gatorland in Orlando, only to get sidetracked by a serial killer investigation, a vamp-bull at a rodeo in Kissimmee, and a colorful demon named Rafael. Between bronco busting, dragon riding, Jesus-freak chasing, gator hunting, demon summoning and dead bodies popping up everywhere, Susan's finding it hard to fit in a little romp time.
In BLOOD, SWEAT, AND DEMON TEARS (book 3) Susan's sister is in one hell of a mess (literally); confined to servitude
with the demon, Rafael.When Rafael gifts JoAnn with an Earth-to-Abyss
cellphone so she can
communicate with her sister, Susan soon finds out that JoAnn
has gone from servitude to concubine, and no longer wishes to come home.
Only problem is that
JoAnn really loves her new cell phone and the frequent
calls--time really moves like Hell in the Abyss--are driving Marcus and Susan batty!
In their attempt to retrieve JoAnn, THE GRATEFUL UNDEAD team ultimately finds
themselves knee-deep in vamp critters, demons, rogues, and a host of new and
colorful characters, when the mission takes them from their home in Florida to
the streets of New
Orleans.
ABOUT THE
AUTHOR
One's real
life is so often the life that one does not lead~~Oscar Wilde
I've always
been weird, even as a child might've been influenced by all those fairies and
trolls living in and around the streams behind Grandma's house. Today I live
with my husband and three King Charles Spaniels on 50 acres of woods, fields,
and streams in upper Michigan.
ABOUT THE SERIES
What was your inspiration for "The Grateful Undead?"
I
started to have this crazy dream every night: Sexy vamp guywaltzes through the
French doors of my bedroom balcony, and after an erotically charged interlude
(see chapter twenty-eight in book one, They're So Vein), he fangs me,
which just happens to clock me back about 30 years. That's when the crazy-as-hell,
non-estrogen producing women in my family burst into my dream asking for a piece of
the action. I laughed myself awake and then got out a pad and a pen. After
I cut the girls loose in my world there was no dragging them back out again!
My dreams became filled with fanged fiascos and they mentally pushed me
toward the computer
every morning, fighting for top billing.
Can
you describe your main character, Susan, and how her personality leads
her into trouble?
Susan has major control issues and she's very bossy. She's
4'11", has
curly red hair, green eyes, and dresses in grubby jeans or
cargo shorts,
t-shirts and her Doc Martins, which drives her younger
sister, JoAnn, nuts. But then again, JoAnn irons her underwear. Susan hates relationships because they only lead to more laundry and sharing the television remote control. Am I
ashamed of Susan? Nah, I'm very proud of her crude, sarcastic wit. I take full
credit for each and every one of her unseemly qualities—taught her everything
she knows. (Thanks, Mom)
The
Stechs have an interesting family dynamic. Can you tell us a little about
how they interact?
They interact like the women in my real family. The
characters in my book are spontaneous, edgy, and verbally animated; nothing is sacred,
no holds are barred. Unlike my real family, they all live under one roof
which would be like being trapped in a hive with five slightly off kilter
queens, and one tiptoeing through the poppy fields on the edge of a town called
Dementia. In the Stech household the outrageously candid conversations and animated
debates never die.
Your book is filled with comedy. Do you plan for funny moments, or do
they come naturally?
I can never plan anything that spews from my character's
mouths, or their
actions and reactions to different situations. However,
every family gathering was fodder filed away for the pages of a book. All I do is
stick my characters in a situation and they write the outcome. I never know
what's coming next. I start out with a plot which changes often, and I usually
toss the first and only outline in the trash by chapter five, but I always have
an ending. I just type and laugh along with them until we get
there.
Can
you tell us a little about the differences between the main Vampire men in
this book?
Marcus is patient,
sexy, loveable, wise, and brainlessly in love with Susan.
Although she is attracted to him, Susan fights that
attraction with every
forward step they take. Marcus is the head of the council
and the founder of BAMVC. He starts out a little proper in book one, a bit more
down to earth in book two, and amusingly part of Susan's life by book
three.
Dorius—the bastard—is
in charge of the rogue hunters at BAMVC and is everything the women hate in a man;
controlling, arrogant, borderline narcissistic, and so totally in control of all of
them for the infractions they committed in book 1. But he does squirm
when the women verbally gang up on him, not to mention when they refuse to
be all that HE thinks they can be. For Dorius it's always about appearances
and maintaining the
stature expected of immortal beings that are highest on the
food chain.
Christopher plays a
key role in all three books and adds a lot of humor to the pages, especially in book two and three
where he becomes a permeate fixture in the Stech household. He is a
one-hundred-and-five year old
immortal in the body of a six year old with curly blond
hair, blue eyes and a cherub face. He's intelligent, complex, a prankster, and
vindictive when it
comes to Dorius. Christopher's character surprises me
constantly as I write, always challenging, always amusing. However, most of the
time Susan's character would like to hold Christopher's head in the toilet until
the bubbles stop.
Do
you have any interesting rituals or habits when you write?
I
have to listen to 70's-80's music while writing, mostly rock, the louder the better, and
I have to start each chapter with a line from a song. I do remove them
before publishing, though.
Can
you tell us about the next book in this series?
COFFIN FIT is vanity reaching around and biting the Stech women in the ass. JoAnn's demon ex puts
a spell on the girls—they start aging and reverting to the cloak and dagger
vamps of old times. Holy water, crosses and sunlight fry their rapidly
sagging asses, and the biggest travesty is they can't see their images! Oh, and
one of JoAnn's little vamp critters finds its way to Italy. Is Dorius
pissed? You bet.
My books:
Connect with me:
Just the titles of these books caught my attention the first time I spotted them. I love Susan's style and irreverent humor. If you want a good laugh mixed with weird romance and some intrigue, you have to grab these. You will never go back and never be sorry. One of my favorite contemporary authors, Susan Stec can feed your hunger for the totally absurd.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Janet Taylor-Perry. It's all about the humor. Thank you for your support, Apryl.
ReplyDeleteYou know how much I love Granny!
ReplyDeletei've always been curious about this series and the only thing that stopped me so far is that I don't usually like the humourous vampire books. Still, I do like the sound of the plot so I'll probably pick it up at some point!
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