Introducing the author of, Waking Up Dead, Margo Bond Collins!
Where are you from?
I
grew up in a small college town in Texas—the home of the only place one could
get a degree in rodeo!
What inspired you to write your first
book?
I’ve
been writing for as long as I can remember. But about ten years ago, a friend
suggested I join in National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo.org). Until then, I
had always written short stories. That year, I finished the first draft of what
would eventually become Legally Undead—it
will be my second published novel, but it’s the first one I wrote. My first
published novel, Waking Up Dead, was
inspired by a single moment when I lived in Alabama for a few years. I remember
driving to work one morning and seeing just a wisp of fog move across the
statue in the middle of the town square. The statue was of some Civil War
figure, and I remember thinking that it looked oddly ghostly. In between
teaching classes that day (I’m a college professor in my other life), I started
writing Callie’s story.
Do you write full-time or part-time? How
do you balance your writing life with your family/work life?
I
don’t so much balance as juggle. In my other life, I’m a college professor; I
teach English courses online and write academic articles. Plus my husband and I
have a three-year-old daughter. There’s never enough time in the day!
How did you come up with the title?
My
grandmother used to say it: “Someday you’re going to wake up dead, and then
you’ll be sorry.” It always made me laugh.
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
I
didn’t realize until after I had finished writing Waking Up Dead that it was so very much about the continuing
effects of racism in our world. The Deep South setting made that issue easy to
address, but it’s certainly not an issue that is limited to the South. I don’t
know if there’s a take-away “message,” precisely, but I do hope the book
reminds readers that we’re all just people.
Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
In
Waking Up Dead, the character of
Maw-Maw is actually largely based on a combination of my own grandmother and
great-grandmother--the only real difference is that they were white and from
Texas rather than black and from Alabama. Otherwise, she talks like them and
acts like them. It's my great-grandmother's voice I hear in my head when I
write her dialogue, my grandmother's movements I see when I picture her walking
around. Physically, I imagine her looking a bit like Ruby Dee in the television
movie version of The Stand. But her
attitude? That's straight from my own family!
What books have most influenced your
life most?
Ha! Never ask an English professor to discuss books
unless you want the multi-paragraph answer! Like most novelists, I am a
voracious reader in my field, which means that I read all kinds of urban
fantasy and paranormal fiction. But in addition to being an urban fantasy
writer, I have Ph.D. in eighteenth-century British literature. This means that
any time anyone wants to talk books, I have more than my share to say!
In early British literature, I love the classics—but
especially the stories with heroes and monsters: Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight, The Knight’s Tale.
I love Shakespeare’s plays, but my favorites to teach are Hamlet and A Midsummer
Night’s Dream because each is such a great example of its genre. Hamlet’s tragedy seems virtually unavoidable,
and Midsummer’s comedy hits all the
high (and low!) points.
In my own sub-specialty of eighteenth-century
British literature, I love the early novels written by some of the first women
to make a living writing in England, such as Aphra Behn, Eliza Haywood, and
Delarivier Manley. Behn’s 1688 novel Oroonoko
tells the story of a king who became a slave and found the woman he loved in
the process, only to kill her and their unborn child to save them from slavery.
In Haywood’s Fantomina (1724), a young
noblewoman sets off on a sexual adventure full of disguises and intrigue. And
in Manley’s The Wife’s Resentment
(1720), a young woman takes revenge against her unfaithful husband with a
gruesome murder. These early novels influenced later gothic tales, with
virtuous damsels in distress and monstrous villains out to destroy them.
I think these various loves in more traditional
literature—monsters, heroes, strong women, and gothic settings—are all parts of
what have influenced my love of urban fantasy and horror. I love seeing many of
the same tropes and ideas in more recent publications that influenced earlier
works, as well.
What book are you reading now?
I just, moments ago, finished re-reading Sunshine by Robin McKinley. I re-read
this book about once every twelve to eighteen months. McKinley does a beautiful
job of setting up a world that is almost, but not exactly, like our own. The
eponymous protagonist almost seems to ramble sometimes, but the voice is
perfectly her own and the things she reveals about herself are beautifully
woven back into the plot. Also, the vampires are creepy as all get-out!
Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?
Always. I recently read Bonnie Milani’s Home World and loved it. Amanda
Bonilla’s books are new to me, and I’m thrilled to have found them! And in no
particular order, I adore the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs; The
Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead; the Kate Daniels Magic series by Ilona
Andrews; the Stray series by Rachel Vincent; Kitty the Werewolf series by
Carrie Vaughn; The Spider’s Web series by Jennifer Estep.
What are your current projects?
As
an academic, I write articles about television and movies, so I often have
something running in the background. I tend to incorporate the things I love
into my writing life, so I’ve written articles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse, The Walking Dead, Supernatural,
The Vampire Diaries. Pretty much anything with a supernatural slant. I’m
also currently working on sequels to Waking
Up Dead and Legally Undead and
I’m writing a paranormal romance novel.
I’m also editing collections of academic essays on Farscape, Teen Wolf, and The
Vampire Diaries.
Name one entity that you feel supported
you outside of family members.
The
Taylors—a group of friends from college (many years ago now!) who have become
like extended family. My heroine is named Callie Taylor in honor of them.
If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?
Always.
The best thing I ever learned to do as a writer was to decide that I was done
with a project—because I could tweak it for the rest of eternity!
Can you share a little of your current work with us?
Here’s
an excerpt from Waking Up Dead:
When
I died, I expected to go to heaven.
Okay.
Maybe hell. It’s not like I was perfect or anything. But I was sort of hoping
for heaven.
Instead,
I went to Alabama.
Yeah.
I know. It’s weird.
I
died in Dallas, my hometown. I was killed, actually. Murdered. I’ll spare you
the gruesome details. I don’t like to remember them myself. Some jerk with a
knife--and probably a Bad-Mommy complex. Believe me, if I knew where he was,
I’d go haunt his ass.
At
any rate, by the time death came, I was ready for it--ready to stop hurting,
ready to let go. I didn’t even fight it.
And
then I woke up dead in Alabama. Talk about pissed off.
You
know, even reincarnation would have been fine with me--I could have started
over, clean slate and all that. Human, cow, bug. Whatever. But no. I ended up
haunting someplace I’d never even been.
That’s
not the way it’s supposed to work, right? Ghosts are supposed to be the
tortured spirits of those who cannot let go of their earthly existence. If they
could be convinced to follow the light, they’d leave behind said earthly
existence and quit scaring the bejesus out of the poor folks who run across
them. That’s what all those “ghost hunter” shows on television tell us.
Let
me tell you something. The living don’t know jack about the dead.
Not
this dead chick, anyway.
Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
I
get stuck, like everyone. I hit writer’s block sometimes. But when that
happens, I usually switch over to another project or go for a walk. But I
loathe editing and revising. I know it must be done, but I hate it with a fiery
passion.
Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?
Unfair
question! I have lots (see my multi-paragraph answer about books, above). That
said, here are some of my current favorites: Neil Gaiman, Charles Stross, China
Mieville, Holly Black, Mark Danielewski, Ann Aguirre.
Neil Gaiman is wonderful! I'll have to check out the others.
Who designed the covers?
Kelly
Abell designed the cover of Waking Up
Dead, though I had more input than I think is usual.
What was the hardest part of writing your book?
Figuring
out the plot. About halfway through I figured out that I was going to need to
solve the mystery before the characters did! So at that point I decided where I
was headed, generally—but the characters took me where I needed to go.
Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?
As I was writing Waking Up Dead, I had to find out when
the thousand-dollar bill was discontinued. It was last printed in 1946 and
totally discontinued in 1969.
Do you have any advice for other writers?
The
very best advice I ever got was just this: keep writing new things. Always have
a work in progress. Finish writing a piece, do a quick edit, and submit it
somewhere for publication. Then move on to the next project. Don’t wait to hear
back—that way lies madness! If it’s rejected (and often it will be; that’s the
nature of writing for publication), don’t let it get you down. Just send it out
again and go back to your work in progress.
What do you think about e-publishing versus technical publishing?
I
think they both have their place. I am a fan of ebooks; I like being able to
carry hundreds of books around in my phone. But I fear that 300 years from now,
many of those books will be lost because the technology will have changed too
much for people to read them. So I think we should keep them both alive as print
forms.
If you could live anywhere, where would
it be?
I’ve
lived many places that interest me: New York City, New Orleans, Los Angeles. I
am glad to be back home in Texas, though I love to travel often.
If you could have any super power, what
would it be?
Slowing
down time so I could get more done!
Excellent answer! Thanks for joining us, Margo! -K.N. Lee
About
the Author:
Margo Bond Collins lives in Texas with her husband, their
daughter, several spoiled cats, and a ridiculous turtle. She teaches
college-level English courses online, though writing fiction is her first love.
She enjoys reading urban fantasy and paranormal fiction of any genre and spends
most of her free time daydreaming about vampires, ghosts, zombies, werewolves,
and other monsters. Waking Up Dead is
her first published novel. Her second novel, Legally Undead, is an urban fantasy, forthcoming in 2014 from World
Weaver Press.
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Connect with Margo
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/margobondcollins
Email:
MargoBondCollins@gmail.com
Website:
http://www.MargoBondCollins.com
Goodreads
Author Page: http://www.goodreads.com/vampirarchy
Facebook
Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/MargoBondCollins
Facebook
Novel Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Waking-Up-Dead/502076076537575
Pinterest:
http://www.pinterest.com/mbondcollins/
Be
sure to add Waking Up Dead to your
Goodreads bookshelves: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18428064-waking-up-dead
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Book Trailers:
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