Author Interview Emily Guido

Today I'd like to welcome Emily Guido. I had the pleasure recently of reviewing her first book Charmeine for this blog. She is an indie author to watch and Indie publishing is really taking off this year. Emily is an example of gold to be mined in these independent ventures.

Hi Emily and welcome to the blog.

Tell us a little about yourself.
First thank you and I’m humbled by your introduction. I am a very new paranormal romance author. I work full time at a College in Campus Life and enrolled in MBA School full time also. I am very busy but still have all the regular things that we all need to get done to live like cleaning, cooking, laundry and taking care of my family! It is a very hectic life but I have been going to school full time and working full time for a while now. You have to be very proactive and make a lot of lists!

I was surprised to hear you wrote this book in only a matter of weeks! 100,000 words in a week sounds like some sort of record! Was this a long time brewing for you? Is this actually your first novel or just the first you chose to publish? What compelled you to start writing at this juncture of your career?
I was not a writer. I always loved English and American Literature along with Paranormal Novels of which I love vampire stories. I always got A’s on all my college papers. I have been a creative person all my life. I sing, play violin and on rare occasions act in local theatre musicals. But to say I was writer, no. I have never done anything over 20 page papers for my college classes and those are mostly in Business Administration.
I was really surprised to learn that it is unusual not to write like that. I guess because I didn’t know any better, it was not unusual to me. I had this movie playing in my head for a couple weeks and told myself, ‘Emily just sit and write it out.’ A weird experience is all I can say about it because I felt like I had seen a movie and told to write a witness deposition of it. I was not taking any breaks or even thinking about what I was writing. The words were dripping off my fingers onto the keyboard. It was the week before Thanksgiving and I was off work that week. A very good thing because I stayed up for 48 hours straight writing, and I didn’t stop until I had the novel at some point of completion. When I was making a much needed cup of coffee one morning, I asked my husband how many words qualify as a novel. He took a look on the web and said, “Oh Emily, you have a novel there.” Then I went through Charmeine for a couple more weeks doing re-writes staying up late at night because I was back to work, and ended up with 130,000 plus.
What’s unbelievable is that I could still write like that today. I still have the movie in my head and literally it is screaming to come out. I wrote the second novel, Ransom in “The Light-Bearer Series” in a few weeks because at the time, I was working and starting to promote Charmeine. Promotion takes a heck of a lot of time! And without someone helping you keep this straight or that straight, you have to be super organized because things can get very hard to handle pretty fast!

Angels and vampires are an unusual combination, almost like the yin and yang, the dark to the light. I'd expected some cliché material but was pleasantly surprised by unusual twists and turns. We've got mystery and action adventure, romance and history all in a paranormal setting. Where did you get the inspiration for this book?
I love how you put that question because it is true… “unusual twists and turns” is very right.
Putting the issue of paranormal aside, I had this story in my head of two people who were very ill-fated and star-crossed. Two people who were just so totally different that it was a struggle for them to be with each other. Their natural instincts were to be repellent of each other. However, because they were such polar opposites, there was a very strong magnetic pull. You know, two magnets that are different will come together if they reach the axis of their poles, and then it is like a white heat explosion when they collide together. That is exactly how Charmeine and Tabbruis are in my head. However, Tabbruis and Charmeine are flawed people who make mistakes, who are impetuous, imperfect and like us all… unsure of their futures needing reassurance in their new found love. Especially with Tabbruis, he’s a special kind of damaged… not like the normal characters in love stories, he’s an introspective man and his thoughts just scream superiority but he is nothing but. A wall of ice surrounds his heart; nothing has penetrated it until he sees ‘the face.’
Now adding the paranormal, my favorite creatures are vampires and what could be so different than an angel? However, I never use the word vampire in my novels. There is vampire lore to be true to when you write about vampires. I didn’t want to be dragged down by that lore; I wanted a fresh clean slate to write upon. “The Light-Bearer Series” story is about blood-hunters which are different but not totally dissimilar from vampire aggregations and connotations.
The inspiration I guess was the movie that kept playing in my head. I don’t know how I got it or what put it there but it’s there like a vengeance just waiting for me to get enough time to get all the novels out!

This is the first book in the Light-Bearers series you're planning. Your next book is coming out in June. Any juicy titbits you can share with us?
My first book, Charmeine was put on in January 2012 and I will be releasing Ransom in late May 2012. I will have to say that the rollercoaster takes some really wild twists and turns for Tabbruis and Charmeine questioning their love and fidelity on both sides.

Premier Snippet of Ransom
The Second Novel in “The Light-Bearer Series”

The Visitors
It was about 3:00 a.m. when the perimeter alarms went off. Tabbruis and Charmeine awoke with a start! Tabbruis used his blood-hunter senses to make sure everyone in the Castle was okay. Charmeine looked at him with trepidation. Tabbruis got out of bed, turned on the lights, dressed and was on his cell with Dmitri just as Charmeine was able to roll herself out bed. He handed Charmeine a sweater and yoga pants saying, “We need to get to Dmitri’s study. All the surveillance equipment is there.” Charmeine said, “You can go ahead,” while she slipped on her pants. Tabbruis shook his head and said, “No, I will go with you,” and kissed her on her head.

Charmeine slipped on her sweater and Tabbruis said, “I do not want you walking down the staircases by yourself.” Charmeine slipped on her tennis shoes and rolled her eyes.
With no more talking they half jogged as fast as possible Charmeine could go. Everyone in the Castle had stirred and went out to the landing heading for Dmitri’s study. Dmitri, Neal and Thomas came running past them heading toward the study. When the family arrived at Dmitri’s study, the men in security were giving Dmitri, Neal, and Thomas a report. Dmitri threw a telepathic look at Tabbruis not looking at Charmeine. Shane and Sandra came around to the Intel Satellite computer and started punching in codes.
Dmitri said, “Everyone, it was a minor problem with an alarm. Please go back to bed. We will look into it in the morning. I will have the men check it out.”
In a commanding voice, Charmeine said, “Dmitri, look me in the eye and tell me what the Hell is going on?”
Dmitri looked down but anywhere and said, “Everything is fine my dear Charmeine, please you and your little one need rest. I will personally check out the problem and make sure it is fixed.”
Charmeine said with agitation, “Well, you said the truth that you ‘will personally check out the problem’. However, I know everything is not fine! I want to know what happening right now!”
Dmitri looked at Neal, Tabbruis, Thomas and Shane. With a huge sigh, “Charmeine, I am afraid there are several blood-hunters coming toward the ‘Castle Charmeine’.”
Shane said, “Mom, they have appeared via the northeast corridor.”
Sandra said, “It doesn’t appear that they are on attack, because they would be travelling faster. Nevertheless, we need to get ourselves ready for a fight just in case.”
Charmeine grabbed her belly and said, “Holy shit! Damn it to Hell!”

How many books are planned for this series? What's next on your horizon?
I am hoping the third novel Conundrum will come out in the summer 2012. Then the FINAL big book will be coming out after that I don’t know… but it would be fitting to have it come out the same time the first one was created like right before Thanksgiving or in the end of the year 2012. I was telling someone that the fourth novel will end the series. I said I would never write another book in the “The Light-Bearer Series,” after the fourth novel and would write something else and she said, “Never say, never… Emily.”
I do have an idea for another series but like a jealous husband, this movie or idea if you will say, for the “The Light-Bearer Series” wants my full attention until it is out on my laptop.
 
Who are your writing influences? Who do you like to read? What are you currently reading?
I love American and English Literature like Jane Austen, Dylan Thomas, Stoker, Hawthorne, and Shelley. However, I love modern authors like Angelou, Faulkner, Rice, Gabaldon and FE Heaton. I love some of the new authors I have had a chance to read lately, especially the ones I have met on Goodreads in the ARR group. They are so incredibly talented. I know that a lot of people are against the ebook, self-publishing craze. However, the wonderful talent that is out there is something to be recognized and cultivated. Just because authors do not have a publisher, doesn’t mean they are not good. I like the fact that the new indie authors are so unique and raw; it’s really a breath of fresh air. However, I can see the other side too. More established authors do not like these unpolished and sometimes very unprofessional representations of the written word. Nevertheless, good is good and bad is bad. Time will certainly tell i the work is good enough to stand the rigors of this business. Plus I really love the concept of other older authors helping the newer authors along. I was about to give up on Charmeine, and I wrote to an author that I loved and adored. I never thought she would answer me back, but she did in a few hours! She wrote a very long email to me. She gave me some really great advice. I still keep up with her on Facebook to this day. She was and is awesome to a no one like me! Such a wonderful example of mentoring and paying it forward! I owe her my greatest heartfelt gratitude.

It sounds like right now you're fitting writing into a busy schedule. Where do you see yourself in five years? Do you hope to be writing full time?
I would LOVE to write full time. However, I am a realist. I know that I as I do have many scenes, scenarios, ideas and movies in my head to write down. I have to eat, pay bills, keep the household running and be a responsible member of the community. So, to make a living writing would be a dream for me, I know I probably be working and paying off my school loans just like I had planned to. However, I have my lucky penny in my wallet with me to pay the helmsman if my boat ever comes into shore!

Emily's website is at http://emilyguido.com/ for anyone wishing to know more about this author. If you haven't read Charmeine there's lots of sneak peeks into it to entice you into reading the whole book.